Manner of writing was very like the Chaldean, meaning apparently the
Syriac (ante, p. 29). But he points out that they had no resemblance to
Jews, and no knowledge of the law.
Edrisi relates how the Khalif Wathek sent one Salem the Dragoman to
explore the Rampart of Gog and Magog. His route lay by Tiflis, the Alan
country, and that of the Bashkirds, to the far north or north-east, and
back by Samarkand. But the report of what he saw is pure fable.
In 1857, Dr. Bellew seems to have found the ancient belief in the legend
still held by Afghan gentlemen at Kandahar.
At Gelath in Imeretia there still exists one valve of a large iron gate,
traditionally said to be the relic of a pair brought as a trophy from
Derbend by David, King of Georgia, called the Restorer (1089-1130). M.
Brosset, however, has shown it to be the gate of Ganja, carried off in
1139.
(Bayer in Comment. Petropol. I. 401 seqq.; Pseudo-Callisth. by
Mueller, p. 138; Gott. Viterb. in Pistorii Nidani Script. Germ. II.
228; Alexandriade, pp. 310-311; Pereg. IV. p. 118; Acad. des Insc.
Divers Savans, II. 483; Edrisi, II. 416-420, etc.)
NOTE 4. - The box-wood of the Abkhasian forests was so abundant, and formed
so important an article of Genoese trade, as to give the name of Chao de
Bux (Cavo di Bussi) to the bay of Bambor, N.W. of Sukum Kala', where the
traffic was carried on.
