ZIRYANIANS. 853 



or CbûdcSj as the Russians call them. The name of iheir predecessors is associated 

 amongst tliem with that of the maleficent aerial and underground spirits. The 

 Samoyeds themselves are fated suddenly to disappear " below the earth " like the 

 Chudes. In their play the Russian children repeat a now meaningless rhyme, but 

 which was formerly only too significant: "Come, seek the Samoyed ; come, 

 mark the Samoyed ; the Samoyed we'll find, and cut him in two." 



Those who formerly dwelt on the shores of Lake Onega and the east side of the 

 White Sea were long ago exterminated by the Novgorod and Muscovite Russians, 

 and even in their present domain all the valuable lands are gradually passing into the 

 hands of the Ziryanians and Slavs, notwithstanding the law of 1835 limiting the 

 Russian farms to 160 acres per family, and prohibiting all further encroachments 

 on the Samoyed territory. The whole race, now confined to the three districts of 

 Kanin, Timan, and Bolshaya Zemlya, is said to be reduced in Europe to somewhat 

 over 5,000, and whilst the birth rate diminishes, the mortality continues to increase. 



The Ziryanians, another Ural-Altaic people, though quite distinct from the 

 Finns, have vied with the Russians in depriving the Samoyeds of their reindeer 

 herds, and in plundering their chums, or tents. Of these ancient aboriginal races 

 one has thus become enslaved, while the other has taken rank with the traders 

 and rulers of the land. Settled exclusively along the navigable rivers, and on the 

 portages between the Petchora, Mezen, and Upper Dvina basins, the Ziryanians have 

 from time immemorial been engaged in trade, and they have now monopolized a 

 large portion of the commerce of North Russia not only with the adjacent 

 provinces, but even with England and Norway. Their packmen and agents visit 

 all the fairs from Archangel to Moscow and Nijni-Novgorod, where they dispose 

 of their furs, horns, and fish in exchange for many domestic comforts. 



From the end of the fourteenth century this commercial nation has ceased to 

 worship sun, fire, water, trees, and " the old woman of gold." Bishop Stephen 

 hewed down their " oracular birch," and taught them some Christian prayers, 

 besides the use of a peculiar alphabet, the letters of which have not all yet been 

 explained, but which has long been superseded by the Russian. The only visible 

 traces of the old worship are the animal sacrifices still made in front of the 

 churches. In other respects the Ziryanians have been largely Russified, and are 

 gradually becoming assimilated to the ruling race, whose language they under- 

 stand, and whose songs they sing even when the sense is unintelligible to them. 



The pure Ziryanians were recently estimated at 30,000, although in 1874 Popov 

 reckoned 91,000 in the provinces of Vologda and Archangel alone. But there is 

 no doubt that they are still numerous, and that many passing for Russians are 

 really Ziryanians. Many even claim the honour of descending from the Novgorod 

 colonists of the twelfth to the fifteenth century, although this colonisation was 

 crossed by that of the Suzdalians, following the valley of the Sheksna, and 

 penetrating across the portages into the Dvina basin. Some old Volkhov families 

 on the banks of the Dvina and Petchora have hitherto kept aloof from all inter- 

 mixture, still exercising a sort of patriarchal authority over the inhabitants of the 

 surrounding districts. 



