LESGHIANS, leilgi-anz, or LESGMAN-TCHE TCIIEN. A group of peoples of the Caucasus, comprising the eastern division of Lesghians proper, the more central Tchetchenzes. and some other peoples, whose exact relations are still some what in doubt. The Lesghians, who mainly in habit Daghestan (sometimes called Lesghistan), and who number about half a million, comprise the Avars, Burins, and other tribes. The Tche tchenzes comprise the Tehetehenzes proper, the Karabulaks, Tushes, etc. The Georgian name for the Tchetchenzes is Kists. They call them selves Naktchuoi. Keane (1896) considers that some of the languages of this region of the Cau casus, as the Ude, Kubachi, Audi, etc.. "must for the present be regarded as so many stock languages," while according to Uslar some of the languages of Southern Daghestan are prac tically 'inflectional.' Shamyl, whose capture by the Russians in 1359 ended a thirty years' heroic struggle for Lesghian independence, was an Avar. The Lesghian group includes many of the wilder and more independent tribes of the Caucasus.
Their physical features, too, are less prepossess ing than those of the Georgians, Cireassians, etc. The Lesghians (particularly the eastern tribes) are very brachycephalie, with a fairly high stature. The face sometimes suggests Mongolian admixture, the nose Semitic. Light-gray eyes and fair hair are rather common among them. Some authorities (MUller,1379 ; Brinton. 1390) classify the Lesghians and Kists (Tchetchenzes) as two different groups. Anthropological and ethno logical information about the Lesghians will be found in the following works: Wagner, Schaniy/ (Leipzig. 1854) ; id., Die l'idker des Kankasus and ihre Freiheitskompfe gegen die Russen (Ber lin, 1355) ; Cunninghame, Eastern Caucasus (London, 1872) ; Rittich, Die Ethnographic Russlands (Gotha, 1873) ; Erekert, Der Kau kasus and seine Volker (Leipzig. 1885) Chantre, Recherches anthropologiques dans le ('aueosc (Lyon, l8S5-37) ; Hutchinson, Living Races of Mankind (London, 1901).