"My minutes are counted, I am dying, not paying you back in any way for your innumerable marks of kindness to me, and nevertheless I wish to ask yet another favor of you: be a father to my new-born daughter! It is my firm and irrevocable wish that my true and ever-faithful Samson shall stay by her and bring her up in none but my own dear religion; when, however, you are tired of her, simply send them to Mokde to my son Timitch, and even if he be no longer living, I am fully convinced that the excellent daughter of my loving husband will always find protectors and friends among the good and kindly inhabitants of Mokde." With these serene words she breathed her last breath. The tremendous fury and utter despair of the Sultan went beyond any description. The court body-doctor and the arifa (i.e., the lady who administrates the harem) were hung without delay, but Samson and his sweet little pupil were given very fine and expensive apartments with magnificent board.

Every ten days the old man was obliged to bring little Tousholi to the Sultan, who having tenderly caressed her and given riches to the faithful servant, let them retire, giving the strictest orders that those who surrounded them should never hinder, trouble, or disturb them in any way. Thus three long years easily went by. The childish features of the face of Tousholi now acquired a most striking resemblance with the marvellously beautiful features of her late mother. The courtiers began to notice repeatedly that the Sultan after a time had fallen in love with her, was earnestly reflecting about something and frequently sighing. Thus the visits, which used to last but a few minutes, now became very long indeed, while little Tousholi, with her childish caresses, gained the affection of the Sultan more and more. Immediately two parties sprang up: the first, wishing to make Tousholi their excellent instrument in order to get the upper hand and overrule the Sultan, and thus naturally, constantly and unceasingly chanting her praises and flattering her to the skies; the second, which had resolved to make her perish and from this reason never letting one occasion go by without trying to snap at her and pull her down from her exalted position.

During the fearful struggle of these two desperate parties, Tousholi's childhood went by and she was already a grown-up maiden, when the kind-hearted Sultan died. His successor by chance belonged to the dangerous and inimical party, and so the sharp and careful Samson began to energetically demand to be allowed to go away to Mokde. The permission to start for the home journey was given with great joy and satisfaction, and very soon they had already arrived at Mokde. Here there was no difficulty in finding out Timitch. He was known by young and old alike. The old servant silently took from Tousholi's baggage that precious girdle with the kindjall, which he had handed to her mother just a few hours before her untimely death and pa.s.sed it to Timitch, drawing his attention to a splendid all-sparkling round tablet. On it were inscribed the dear names of his glorious parents.

"This is the remarkable girdle which was always around the waist of my all-beloved mother!" cried out the youth.

"Well, say now I prythee where is she staying? How can I possibly reward thee--oh, thou grand old man? Art thou sent by her?"

"I verily came to this memorable village by her sacred will,"

reverently answered Samson. "While dying she ordered me to lead thy sister to thee and hand her over to thy mighty care and protection."

"What, my sister? Well, well, is it possible that not all sisters and brothers perished together with their splendid father?"

Saying this he closely looked at the young girl and was evidently struck and impressed by her perfectly unusual beauty.

"The resemblance with your mother ought to be sufficient to convince you of the truth of my words."

Afterwards innumerable questions and answers were mutually exchanged. The old man and Tousholi settled down in the house of Timitch and Samson heartily rejoiced, seeing soon how the youngsters became friends. But nevertheless there was nothing to rejoice about! The twenty-year-old Timitch, fiery, not given to reflections, unaccustomed to restrain himself in any way, was entertaining such intentions as would make Samson's hair stand on end if he thoroughly understood their meaning. What is there strange in the fact that the twelve-year-old Tousholi was unable to guess at the thoughts of her brother and firmly trusted him in everything with all her simple childish sincerity of soul. The pa.s.sionate attraction of Timitch grew not with days, but with hours, and once during a promenade, without being at all disturbed by the presence of grave old Samson, he actually went as far as to tell her of his peculiar intentions.

Samson, astonished and disapproving the plan, threw himself in between the young people and was stupefied when seeing a dagger pointed towards him, but the terrified Tousholi speedily hid herself near a precipice. Seeing the immediate danger, the dying faithful Samson cursed the wicked and lawless boy, and lo! suddenly a great wonder took place.

Timitch was transformed into a wind and began to crazily blow and whistle over the precipice, but the submissive and ever loyal servant was turned into a gigantic rose bush, in the midst of which a rose of unusual size was growing and constantly blooming. By the will of G.o.d, angels with marvellous, all-glorious singing slowly let themselves down into the precipice, majestically lifted out from it the magnificent body of Tousholi and carefully placed it in the very centre of the superb rose, the all-fragrant leaves of which gradually closed up and thus buried inside of them the deceased. Attracted by the all-glorious angelic singing, the faithful inhabitants of Mokde ran together in crowds to the rose and many of them clearly saw how the angels gracefully interred Tousholi in the rose. But Timitch could by no means quiet down; with anger and greatest pa.s.sion he threw himself upon the rose bush and wished to break it down, but the more he shook the lovely branches, the closer and firmer did they stick to the rose and the better did they defend her from his unjustified attacks and depredations. When, however, he finally succeeded in carrying off the tender, tender leaves of the rose, Tousholi was no more to be seen, for her body had completely evaporated in the marvellous fragrance.

The religious inhabitants of Mokde enclosed the beloved holy rose with a very ma.s.sive stone wall, called this spot Tousholi, and yearly when the first beautiful rose came out they celebrated a fete, which has quite a character of its own and is popularly known as "the tribute of roses."

The ceremony consists of the following points: Every young girl gathers a tremendous full bunch of rose leaves and standing one behind the other, they await the exit of the very oldest man in the village. He comes out, dressed in a white suit and bearing in his hand a white flag, the point of which is richly decorated with roses and covered with sweet little bells, while at the end a large wax candle burns. Putting himself at the head of the procession, the old man gives a solemn signal and the procession duly and martially directs itself towards Tousholi; behind it at a considerable distance followed young people, leading sheep and bringing along with them the customary offerings, i.e., horns, b.a.l.l.s, hatchets, silks, etc. The procession winds around Tousholi three times with beautiful singing in which is described in detail all that we have mentioned above--then the girls in their turn enter through the great fence and put down in a certain place their splendid fragrant offerings, softly adding:

"Saint Tousholi, help and a.s.sist me! Holy Samson, shield and protect me from the cursed Timitch and all of that kind!"

On the top of a pretty mound, formed by the magnificent rose leaves, the old man solemnly fixes his standard, saying: "Saint Tousholi, make me wise, Holy Samson, help me to guard and defend all these tender maids from the cursed and all-hated Timitch and all those who follow his wicked example!"

After this earnest speech the old man sits down at the foot of the graceful flag, while at his own feet the young girls settle down. Then the young people enter the enclosure and kneeling on one knee p.r.o.nounce a most reverential greeting discourse to the hermit and the maidens and then they turn about and face an opposite corner, where they curse Timitch who hath wickedly cast a dark shadow over their beloved aule; afterwards they cut up the sheep and gayly feast with all those present. When I was but a very small boy I happened to be in this place and was favored with seeing with my own eyes one or two roses inside the enclosure, which it appears is existing even in our advanced and enlightened days. These roses are really unusually large in size, but nevertheless neither a grown-up girl nor even a new-born youngster can possibly find place inside the flower. I understand that at that time they used to say with regret, that the fete of "the tribute of roses" did not repeat itself yearly! Thus little by little ancient customs disappear and antique amus.e.m.e.nts are superseded by new ones, which are not always successfully chosen; only grim Timitch never changes, for he is quite as restless now as ever before, here moves and weeps like a child, there makes a row, yes rebels like a robber and lawlessly destroys whole buildings. His dislike for roses never ceases, and as soon as he sees a sweet little flower he immediately begins to blow around it with impatience and anger until he hath scattered the beautifully fragrant leaves far and wide over the country. Now the story of Tousholi is already forgotten, but her name, among the Chechenzes, is given to all such interesting places, where they go to make sacrifices and fervently pray.

VIII. THE LOT OF THE HOLY VIRGIN

A TRADITION

When, by the special wish of the Lord, the apostles drew lots to decide who was to go out into foreign lands and preach the gospel of Christ, the enlightenment of Georgia fell to the share of the Holy Virgin. The Lord appearing to her exclaimed: "My mother, taking into account thy desires, I have come to the conclusion that this nation is more worthy than all others to have a place in the list of heavenly joys and blessings. Send thou then into this fine country, which hath fallen to thy lot, Andrew the First and hand him thy picture, which, from being placed against thee, represents thine holy face!" Then the Most Holy Mother of G.o.d announced to the apostle: "My dear pupil Andrew, I am very much grieved by the fact that the faith of the name of my son is not being preached nor advanced in the country, whose enlightenment hath fallen to my lot. When, however, I desired to start out for the journey my son and my G.o.d appeared to me and ordered that I should send to my separate province with thee my image and His, so that I should be the real cause of the conversion of these people and be their everlasting and ever tender helper and protector." "Most holy one, yes, let at all times the will of thy G.o.dly son and thine be carried out and fulfilled to the satisfaction of all the world." Then the most Holy Virgin washed her face and having pressed it well against a platter, she left on it her reproduction with her predicted son in her arms. Having handed the image to Saint Andrew, she said: "Yes, may the mercifulness and the overwhelming help of Him who was born of me be with thee everywhere where thou choosest to go. I myself will invisibly help to increase the complete success of thy preaching tour and my province of future enlightenment will always remain under my constant, nay, never ceasing care and protection." The holy apostle, having thereupon fallen at the feet of the most Holy Virgin, thanked her with tears in his eyes and joy in his heart, went to preach the faith at Trebizond, taking along with him Simon the Canonite. But here they did not remain long and continued their journey to Edjis. Seeing the perfect craziness of those stupid inhabitants, who were more like entirely senseless animals, the apostle directed himself towards Georgia, and arriving in Great Adtchara, began his holy work; for even here the inhabitants did not profess the faith of the only true and real G.o.d and committed deeds which were so shameful that it is unsuitable even to refer to them in any imaginable way. They showered many indignant insults upon the apostle, who simply and most patiently bore them all with the help of G.o.d and by being occupied in constant prayer before the image of the most Holy Virgin--and lo! the Lord fulfilled the ardent desire of his heart and brought the inhabitants upon the righteous way, but on the spot where the reproduction of the mother of our G.o.d was standing, there appeared an abundant and truly splendid fountain flowing to this day, and in which the saintly apostle baptized the inhabitants, who had gathered there from all the surrounding towns and villages.

He blessed and ordained the deacons and priests, explained to them in detail the holy principles of the faith as well as the church laws and successfully constructed there a church in honor of the Holy Virgin Mary. When, however, he wished to leave, the adoring people stopped him with the following remarkable words: "If thou art actually going away, leave us at least the image of the Mother of our G.o.d as a place of refuge and protection in case of trouble and need." Then the Saint ordered made a platter of just the same size as the image and put them together.

Immediately the reproduction was transferred to the new slab without any injury to the former image. Immediately afterwards, the apostle handed the newly made image to the inhabitants, who, having received it with joy, placed it with great honors in their fine church, where it hath remained to the present day. Then they said good-bye to the splendid apostle, thanking him for his many good deeds, kissing him with true love and affection, and with him they sent one of the newly converted by the name of Matata. Going through the valley of Kkeniss-Tskall he led Saint Andrew up to the summit of a mountain, on which the Saint formally erected a cross in honor of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ and that was the reason why this exceptionally favored mountain began to be universally called "Rouiss-Djouar," which means, "the iron cross."

After that they went down into the valley of Odzrche and soon reached the frontiers of Samtske, where they took up their headquarters in the village of Mount Zaden. Seeing that the inhabitants over there bowed down to and wickedly worshipped idols, they sincerely prayed to the image, which had triumphantly accompanied them everywhere and instantly all idols fell and were broken to pieces. Then they continued their route to Astbour, which was formerly called Tchoukall-tchett (the river of lilies) in Armenian and really lies just opposite Sakrisse, and arranging themselves, they settled down to rest near an idolatrous temple, nowadays Dzvel-Eklesia. At that time this country was administrated by a widow by the name of Samsgvari, which means "frontier," who had but one son and he too had just died among the depressed and mourning subjects of his mother. That same night from the guarding fortress a powerful light was seen over that spot where the image of the Mother of our G.o.d was placed, and at sunrise people were immediately sent to find out who was there and what their business was. Returning to the city, the envoys announced to Samsgvari, that it was the light from the reproduction of some wonderful Virgin, whom two foreigners had evidently brought with them; that they knelt and prayed before this strange image and that they preached the faith of a new G.o.d, who could make the dead rise.

The widow immediately sent for the saints and questioned Andrew: "Who are thou, whence didst thou come and what in the world is the new faith about which thou speakest so much, for verily I say unto you, up to this time nothing approaching it in the very least has ever been heard of?"

"I arrived from Jerusalem," energetically answered the apostle, "and am the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, who doth make the dead rise again. I preach about Him as about G.o.d and the King of all kings. Know ye then that He who believeth in Him and lets himself be baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost will receive all he asketh for with true faith and will be healed of every illness." Upon hearing these sounding words, Samsgvari fell at his feet with tears in her eyes and cried out:

"Oh, have thou pity for my widowhood and terrible unhappiness and with the strength of thy G.o.d bring back my only son to life. I will duly carry out and fulfill to general satisfaction everything that thou commandest me to do, without uttering the slightest objection, only in order that I may behold again my dear son alive, for he is the only descendant of our great family, for I have really no other children."

"Well, if thou believest in Jesus Christ, the Son of G.o.d, the only true G.o.d, He will certainly give thee all that thou dost ask of Him with faith." Then the widow with tears of joy said to the Saint: "O servant of the only real and true G.o.d, I do sincerely believe in Jesus Christ, of whom thou preachest and whose holy name thou announcest to the world at large. I, however, beg thee to increase my strength of belief in Him, the Saviour of the world." Having heard these sincere words with pleasure, the apostle chased away the musicians and the curious, leaving only Samsgvari and her relations, and taking the image of the most Holy Virgin, he placed it on the corpse of the little child and falling on the ground he began to pray, the tears abundantly streaming down the fine features of his fervent face, and with many sighs he stretched out his arms towards the image and then rose, took the little boy by the hand, and truly! the boy seemed to awake as though from sweet slumber, and Saint Andrew handed him over to his mother.

All those present were silent--so struck were they with surprise, while the widow, seeing her beloved son restored to life, was filled with utmost joy, jumped up and threw herself at the feet of the Saint, gratefully thanking him and covering his knees with tears. She, with all her heart, believed in the Lord Jesus and was baptized with her son and all his household. Afterwards she sent out her servants to all the Samtsetskian mtavares with official letters, containing the following pa.s.sages:

"I, Samsgvari, the widow of your kristav, do joyfully announce to you, my brethren, a most happy event for all nations, for there arrived from a strange land, a man who preacheth the faith of a new G.o.d, the reproduction of whom made my blessed son arise from the dead; hasten ye therefore, so that we may choose the only true and sincere faith and decide whom it becomes us to obey and adore." Having heard of this wonder, the Meskhians rushed in from every spot of the monarchy in such numberless crowds that they actually filled the whole valley of Sakriss, and they all stared with perfect astonishment at the risen son of Samsgvari. But the sacrificers of Artemis and Apollo, the temple of which was situated in that part of the country, firmly resolved to oppose themselves to the Saint and cried out:

"Artemis and Apollo are great G.o.ds," and after them many of the people shouted the same, while others nevertheless exclaimed: "We must all necessarily submit before such an unusual wonder!" Rebelling and quarrelling in every way began to make itself felt. In the end it was decided to open the gates of the temple, to solemnly place the holy image between the idols, to set up proclamations on both sides of the gates, place guardians and pa.s.s the night in religious prayers. "Pray all you want to your false G.o.ds," said the faithful followers of Him whose religion conquereth all others, "we, however, will pray to our only real and true G.o.d, the Lord Jesus Christ, and at sunrise we shall see: if your G.o.ds get the upper hand and are victorious, we will follow your example. If, however, they are defeated by our G.o.d, then let all present give praises unto Him the Only one."

Having carried out everything according to the agreement, at very sunrise they opened the doors of the temple and beheld the idols, fallen and broken to pieces in the dust, while the image of the Mother of our G.o.d was surrounded with glitter and light like the sun. Then they understood the importance of the new religion and the whole nation unanimously exclaimed: "Great is the G.o.d of Christians, preached about by the holy apostle Andrew," but the sacrificers begged the Saint to forgive them their sin of unbelief, and all having a.s.sured him of their repentance, were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and loudly sang praises unto G.o.d, who had safely saved them from the deadly grasp of the merciless devil.

Then Saint Andrew made up his mind to go into other wild countries and preach the principles of the New Testament, but the widow and the nation implored him not to go away from them until he had successfully taught them all the laws of the faith. Every single day the nation gathered in tremendous crowds and the apostle carefully explained to them the rules and details of the religion and all the necessary church rules, consecrated for their service a bishop, many priests and deacons and again started for his great and dangerous mission. Samsgvari and the nation renewed their ardent entreaties, but the Saint tenderly replied to them:

"My dear children, do not lead me into temptation, for my duty calls me and prescribes to me to render also other cities and villages happy." "Well, if thou must absolutely abandon us," they mournfully answered, "so leave us at least the image of the most Holy Virgin to strengthen our never-ceasing confidence in the new faith and as a means of mutual protection." "This image," said Saint Andrew, "formed itself from simply being touched by the body of the Mother of our G.o.d," and he went on explaining to them how by the extreme condescension of the Lord the apostles drew lots to find out where each one should go to preach and that Samtsketia fell to the share of the Virgin Mary. He joyfully related how instead of herself she had sent her portrait into the provinces belonging to her sphere of enlightenment as a means of confirmation and protection to the true believers and promised that she would always be with them in spirit and soul now, henceforth and evermore. Messkhi and Samsgvari, having found out that they were under the spiritual regency of the Heavenly Tsaritsa, were filled with indescribable joy, but the desire to be able to possess her image made them still more radiant.

With tears of emotion in their eyes they solemnly placed it in a small church, which had been speedily constructed and consecrated in the name of the Holy Atskourian Virgin. Nowadays they usually call this church "Dzvelle-Ekletsia," that is "ancient church," as the present edifice is built of stones which had served to construct the first church and stands on exactly the same spot. Then Saint Andrew went to preach the Holy Gospel in Nigalia, Djavakhetia, Artakanna and Kola, where he remained very long, enlightening the depraved unbelievers. From there he directed himself to Klardjetta, then to the land of Parthia, Armenia, and for the fete of Easter safely arrived at Jerusalem.

When, however, Tsar Aderke discovered that the Kartlians and Messkhians had finally abandoned the faith of their forefathers, he sent several kristaves to them, who by force officially obliged many to return to a regime of darkness and falseness. Nevertheless some true and faithful followers succeeded in concealing images and crosses and loudly praised G.o.d that the apostle was no longer in their presence. The Tsar, however, grew very angry against the kristave of Klardjette for his not having held up the Saint, who, pa.s.sing Easter Day together with the remaining apostles, again bravely started on a large preaching tour in Georgia. Crossing the lands lying near Fao as the Choroke, he thoroughly inspected the villages, preaching everywhere and to everyone the Holy Gospel of Christ, and soon reached Svanetia.

Here at that time a woman reigned, who accepted the apostle's saintly blessing with false and pretended good feelings. Matata with the remaining pupils stayed in these domains, but Saint Andrew and Saint Simon went farther to Ossetia, where they got to the town of Posstaph.o.r.e and from there they soon successfully arrived at the Bosphorus, where with the almighty and conquering help of G.o.d they were favored with the gift of being able to accomplish many wonders, and converted to the only real and true faith and baptized tremendous numbers of people. Afterwards they went back to Abkhazetia and farther to the city of Seba.s.st, the present Tikkoum, where many more unbelievers were also converted to the religion of Christ. Here Saint Andrew left Simon the Canaanite with several good pupils and continued his route to Djivetta, peopled by a wild vile nation, filled to overflowing with disgraceful sinfulness, love of cruelty and without any religious feeling whatever. They actually did not want to listen to him and unanimously made up their minds to kill him, but lo! the Lord protected his faithful servant, ordering him to instantly depart from the wretched creatures. But this nation remained in unbelief to this day. The tomb of Simon the Canaanite is in Nikopsia, between Abkhezethe and Djikerk, on the frontier of Greece. Having confirmed the Abkhazians and Megroes in the new faith, Saint Andrew left entirely for Skythia. Soon afterwards Tsar Aderke died and the kingdom of Georgia was divided among his two sons Bartomme and Kartamme.

During their rigid administration in the year 70 A. D., a rumor began to gain ground that the inhabitants, who were under the supreme authority of Rome, absolutely refused to submit themselves to the Emperor Vespasian and energetically rebelled. The Emperor ordered his son Fitt to persuade the Jews to quiet down, but they did not cease to make a fearful row and locked themselves up with their army in Jerusalem. Then the Romans surrounded this town and began to mercilessly besiege it. The besieged were suffering from terrible hunger and diseases and the nation from despair began a terrific civil war. In a short time there perished such a quant.i.ty of Hebrews, that they threw one hundred thousand corpses out of the town; besides that the streets and houses were filled to overflowing with dead people. In the end the Romans made their way to Jerusalem, ruined it completely and destroyed the temple, so that according to the holy words of the Saviour, not one stone remained on top of another.

Ever since then the Jews have overrun every part of the world and no longer have any own fatherland. Many of them arrived at Mtzkhet and settled down with their compatriots, among whom were also the sons of Varrava, delivered by the Hebrews instead of Jesus Christ, when they were invited to let one of their prisoners free. During the reign of the grandsons of Bartome and Kartaume the kings Azork and Armazeli, the latter found out about the existence in his monarchy of the miloti of the prophet Ilia and instantly gave orders to look for it among the Jews, but the Lord did not allow this extreme treasure to fall into the hands of the ruthless pagans, his searchings finally turned out to be vain attempts and to all questions the Hebrews simply answered that it was concealed in the earth near a magnificent cedar, which had grown over the tomb of Sidonia. Consequently Saint Nina more than once commanded Abiatkar to question his father where it indeed was situated, but the old man every time gave one and the same answer:

"The spot, where is hidden this holy garment, about which in its time the true believers will sing praises unto G.o.d, is like the place on which Jacob beheld the staircase leading up to Heaven."

This was the only occasion when they seriously disturbed the Hebrews, all the remaining time, however, before and afterwards, they constantly received and treated them exactly according to the rules of true Eastern hospitality and made them feel quite at home in their new fatherland. In the year one hundred and eighty-six A.D., Revv ascended the Georgian throne. The word "reva" signifies "conqueror," but the nation gave this serene sovereign a designation still more suited to him and still more honorable, for they rightly named him "the just sovereign," for his very first great public act was the repression of privateering and robbing in the army and the prohibition to bring children to be offered to the G.o.ds.

Although Revv the Just was himself an idolator, yet he did have some kind of a vague idea of the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, highly esteemed His true followers and even strictly forbade to chase the Christians, who had held their own in small numbers among the worthy descendants of the most enlightened apostles. These little marks of attention were sufficient to support Christianity, which stood high in the eyes of many men in the country. From this bright moment onwards the number of Christians began undoubtedly to increase, although of course slowly, but every year so that by the arrival of Saint Nina they were already forming a considerable and by no means to be despised cla.s.s.

IX. THE COMET

A LEGEND