180 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



cleanliness. Their originally Finnisli stock is strongly intermixed with 

 Turkish, Mongolian, and Russian blood, and the Turkish language has 

 become their idiom. The Bashkirs of the province of Orenburg are 

 warlike, rapacious, and rude in their manners. They rear cattle and bees, 

 and are hunters and agriculturists, their herds being, however, their prin- 

 cipal means of support. They raise little grain, and eat but little bread. 

 Instead of paying tribute, they render Cossack service to the Russian 

 government, and are usually added in small numbers to the Cossack regi- 

 ments. They are mostly wealthy, and many of them very rich in 

 cattle. Their limbs are strong, their hair never fair, their eyes always 

 small. 



The Turkomans {pi. 10, Jig. 23) are the Turkish tribes that rove about 

 with their herds in a portion of Northern Persia, w^est of the Caspian Sea, in 

 Armenia, Southern Georgia, Shirwan, and Daghestan, and constitute the 

 principal part of the population of these countries. It is difficult to determine 

 their origin. They are Turkish tribes which, in the twelfth and thirteenth 

 centuries, came over the Dshihun, or Oxus, to Khorasan, and from that place 

 spread over Northern Persia, and, more westwardly, over Syria and Asia 

 Minor ; although they themselves contend that the source from which they 

 are derived is at the north-eastern end of the Caspian Sea. The Persian 

 word " Turkman" is said to signify " Turk-like," as the Persians hold that the 

 Turcomans are descended of those Turks who in Khorasan had married wo- 

 men of that place. As, however, the portion of the nation wdiich did not come 

 to Persia, and remained behind on the Dshihun, also call themselves by that 

 name, the Persian explanation cannot be very correct. According to Burns, 

 " Turkuman" signifies " a wanderer," and " Turk-man" " I am a Turk." The 

 Turkomans of the desert of Khiva are usually denominated " Truch- 

 menes" by the Russians, and are at present chiefly under the govern- 

 ment of the Usbeck Khans of Khiva, Khokan, and Bucharia, or, ac- 

 cording to their own version of the thing, their allies and guests. The tribe 

 most worthy of note is the race of Salyr, and after it that of Ata, who assert 

 that they are descended directly from the Caliph Osman. The Turcomans 

 have neither the firmness of character nor the love of justice that so greatly 

 distinguish the Caucasian nations. " They are," says Murawiew, " a nation 

 of beggars, who, in spite of their nomadic habits, have no idea of hospitality ; 

 having no desire but for money, they will lend themselves to any baseness 

 for lucre. Obedience is, as it were, a word unknown to them : they will, 

 however, yield obedience to any one among themselves who proves himself 

 more cunning and more enterprising than the rest, without questioning his 

 authority. They are perfectly harmless to travellers, even though they 

 be unprotected or unarmed. They will even bear with a great deal, 

 showing a complete indifference to harsh language and even to blows. 

 Ideas such as the state and its welfare, personal or public disgrace, and 

 the like, are entirely beyond their comprehension." They are an eques- 

 trian nation, and of the Mohammedan religion, following the doctrines of 

 Omar. 



The North and East Siberian inhabitants of Russia comprise the 

 352 



