PENZA. 409 



1875. The kindred Voguls have nearly all been driven across the Urals into 

 Siberia. 



The 128,000 Tepyaks of the Western Ural slopes are also descended from fugitives 

 formerly dwelling along the Middle Volga. The name is said to mean " Colonists," 

 or " New Comers." All are Mohammedans, and of mixed blood, whom it will be 

 best to group with the other Tatarised peoples now settled amongst the dominant 

 Bashkirs. 



Although claiming descent from the Nogai Tatars, and now speaking a 

 language allied to that of the Kazan Tatars, the Bashkirs themselves are supposed to 

 have been originally Ugrian Finns, like the Magyars. Nevertheless the Kirghiz 

 call them Ostyaks, regarding them as the kinsmen of those Siberian tribes, modified 

 by Tatar elements. The highland Bashkirs, probably the least mixed, have a 

 small, but relatively very broad head, and some amongst them are very tall and 

 robust, with regular features, strikingly like the Transylvanian Szekely. During 

 the Hungarian war of 1849 the Ural Cossacks, at first sight of the Magyars, 

 unanimously pronounced them to be Bashkirs, and persisted in so designating them 

 throughout the campaign. Most have flat features, slightly snub nose, small eyes, 

 scant beard, mdd and good-natured expression. They are, in fact, extremely kind 

 and hospitable to strangers, and though slow, are careful workers. Like the Tatars, 

 they purchase their wives, and for a whole year the bride is forbidden to address 

 her father or mother-in-law.* 



Towns. 



Below Nij ni- Novgorod the chief affluent of the Volga is the Sura, which in 

 its winding course traverses from north to south the country of the Mordvinians and 

 Chuvashes. Penza, the largest town in its basin, and capital of the government of 

 like name, was founded in the beginning of the seventeenth century for the 

 reduction of the Finnish tribes. But its strategical position at the confluence of 

 the Penza and Sura, here navigable, also presented many commercial advantages, 

 thanks to which the place has flourished. 



The region stretching north of the Volga, between the rivers Unja and Kama, 

 is mostly under timber, and hence is known as the " Woodlands." The peasantry 

 of many villages pass the winter in these forests, hewing wood and preparing the 

 bark of the linden-tree, which serves to make mats, baskets, and those boots known 

 us hq)ti, so generally worn by the peasantry throughout Great Russia. The linden- 

 wood itself is used chiefly to make images and the so-called " Cheremissian " 

 chairs. One of the chief depots of this, as well as of some other industries, is Lifihovo, 



* Non-Slav races of the Middle Volga and Kama basins, classed according to religions : — 



Christian. Moslem and Pagan. 



Votyaks 213,678 37,555 



Permians . . . . . . . 68,763 — 



Mordvinians . ' 687,988 1,563 



Chuvashes 552,045 14,928 



Cheremissians 201,585 67,048 



Kazan Tatars, Meshtcheryaks, Tepyaks . 122,538 970,649 



Bashkirs 827 999,818 



