Photo and copyright by Underwood & Underwood 



KIRGHIZ wome;n and GIRI.S : wiiSTiSRN sibi;ria 



- Russia has a wonderful list of races and peoples within its confines — Slavs, Lithuanians, 

 Iranians, Latins, Teutons, Finns, Turks, Tatars, Mongolians, Georgians, and Circassians — 

 and the most of these races are divided again into from two to a dozen different peoples. 

 Four million Tatars, a million and a half of Bashkirs, nearly five million Turkomans, and 

 a million and a half of Georgians indicate something of the vastness of the Babel of modern 

 Russia. The Slavs, of course, vastly predominate, with approximately two-thirds of the 

 population. The Kirghiz are closely related by ties of blood to the Mongolians, and by ties 

 of speech to the Tatars. They have preserved to this da}^ the features of the former and 

 the tongue of the latter. Those who live in the upland region trace their descent back to a 

 legendery king, Kirghiz, sprung from Oghuz-Khan, ninth in descent from Japheth. 



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