l6 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 69 



of Russian origin ; but being always settled on the outskirts of the 

 advancing empire and continuously in struggle or contact with the 

 Turkish and Tartaric hordes, their blood has received in the course 

 of time more or less admixture. Some of the Cossacks now are 

 recruited in the main from non-Russians. 



The fighting Cossacks as far as traceable originated during the 

 fourteenth or fifteenth century from among the Russian refugees 

 before the invading Tartars. They settled on certain islands in the 

 Dnieper River, were hunters, fishermen, and Tartar fighters, and 

 gradually developed into a. strong, bold, and resistant group, loving 

 the hard frontier life with its liberties and dangers. Similar bodies 

 developed all along the border of the steppes and became the terror 

 of the Tartars and Turks, though frequently also a trouble to the 

 Poles and even Russians. Their military value was, however, gen- 

 erally recognized in time and led to the regulation and extension of 

 the Cossack system over southern Russia, Caucasus, Central Asia, 

 and Siberia, until the Cossack became the regular forerunner, scout, 

 and protector of the Russian armies and Russian colonies from the 

 Danube to the Pacific Ocean. 



There exist to-day about twelve subdivisions of the Cossacks, the 

 best known of which are those of the Don, Orenburg, Ural, and 

 Siberia. Their free institutions, interesting customs, and especially 

 their exploits in the conquest of Siberia, the Napoleonic invasion, 

 etc., made their name justly famous. 



The Poles. — The Poles, the old " Lekhi " and " Poliane;" are Slavs 

 derived in prehistoric times, like the Russians, Czechs, etc,, from the 

 common autochthonous Slav nucleus north of the Carpathians. They 

 are admixed somewhat with the Russians and to some extent also 

 with the Lithuanians ; slightly, perhaps, also with nordic and other 

 elements. At the commencement of the war they numbered in 

 European and Asiatic Russia approximately eleven millions, almost 

 nine-tenths of which were in Russian Poland. 1 Notwithstanding 

 their thousand years of agitated history, they are still a " young " 

 stock, full of energy, ability and spirits, and as prolific as the 

 Russians. 



The Lithuanians. — The Lithuanian territory lay originally along 

 the Baltic, between the Visla (Vistula) and Dvina, and at the time of 

 their maximum power their influence reached from the Gulf of 

 Riga to Ukraina. They extend at present from Poland and east 

 Prussia to near Riga. 



1 Those of Austrian-Poland counted in 1914 approximately 4,500,000; those 

 of German-Poland approximately 4,000,000. 



