RUSSIA. 
able on the face of the globe, extending from Danish Lap- 
land and the western frontiers of Norway, along the Frozen 
Ocean to the Ural, and southward as far as the Dwina and 
Yaik. Nestor and the other Russian historians distinguish it 
hy the name of Tchudes, and this is in fact a more appro¬ 
priate appellation for the whole of that great family of which 
the Fins form but a part. In Ingria there are to be found 
Fins, who still call themselves Tchudes, and have a peculiar 
language and costume. Their name, given to them by the 
Scandinavians, has a reference to the country which they 
occupy; the word fume or fenne (the same as our English 
fen) signifying marsh. 
Inhabiting the most dreary, rugged, and barren portion 
of Europe, the Fins had, in ancient, times but little intercourse 
with other nations, who felt no desire to make themselves 
acquainted with countries so poor and so remote. The his¬ 
tory of these people is therefore extremely obscure; they 
were too ignorant to have historians, and all that they knew 
of their origin was confined to a few vague traditions. 
Divided into numerous tribes, they had probably but little 
connexion with each other. Some of these tribes were re¬ 
duced by the Tartars; others were obliged to submit to the 
Russian dominion, when the tzars extended their conquests 
northward, and it is only since that period that they have 
been known to the moderns. 
It must not, however, be imagined that the ancients had 
no knowledge of the Fins; the conquests of Caesar in Gaul, 
and those of the emperors in Germany, opened the north of 
Europe to the Romans. Tacitus, in his account of the in¬ 
habitants of Gennany, has given us some particulars of the 
miserable state of the Fins. On comparing this part of his 
admirable picture with the details which occupy the pages 
of modern travellers, the reader will perceive that the Fins 
have not, in the last eighteen centuries, made any great 
progress in civilization. 
“ The Fins,” says the Roman historian, “ are exceedingly 
savage and disgustingly wretched. They have neither arms, 
horses, nor houses: subsisting on grass, clothing themselves 
in skins, and lying upon the ground. Their only hope is in 
hunting, and their arrows are pointed with bone, for want of 
iron. They are accompanied in the chase by the women, 
who demand their share of the spoil. Their children have 
no other shelter from the inclemency of the air and the 
attacks of wild beasts than cabins composed of the branches 
of trees: this is the only receptacle for both young and old. 
They prefer this kind of life to cultivating the earth, building 
houses, and harassing themselves and others with the vicis¬ 
situdes of hope and fear. Having nothing to dread either 
from men or gods, they have arrived at the point which 
it is most difficult to attain—they have nothing even to wish 
for.” They remain the same as Tacitus describes them, mere 
hunters and fishers. 
The Tartars of the Russian empire, to whom our attention 
must be confined, inhabit the governments of Casan, Oren¬ 
burg and Tobolsk, the north coasts of the Caspian and Black 
Seas, the northern part of Mount Caucasus, and lastly the 
immense steppes, or deserts, situated between the rivers Ural 
and Yenisei. They have a particular constitution, which 
secures to them the privilege of choosing chiefs to govern 
them from among their nobility. They formerly paid to the 
Russian government the tribute imposed by their ancient 
khans, but they are now taxed the same as Russian pea¬ 
sants. 
Simplicity, frugality, and economy, are predominant 
virtues among these originally pastoral and roving people. 
An erratic life is what they prefer; but they begin to be 
habituated to towns and to sedentary occupations. The 
ancient Tartars were always on horseback, and their nobility 
followed no other profession than that of arms. This fond¬ 
ness fpr a military life is but repressed by circumstances, not 
extinguished. They are as ferocious in war, as they are 
gentle and kind at home. An enemy is treated by the 
Tartars with the utmost inhumanity, but the stranger who 
seeks an asylum beneath their roof is cherished as a member 
Vol. XXII. No. 1517. 
489 
of the family, and they frequently kill a mare for an enter¬ 
tainment on occasion of his coming. 
Their disposition is grave, serious, and phlegmatic. Like 
all the nations of the East, they consider rest as their chief 
happiness, and spend whole hours together sitting cross- 
legged, and doing nothing but smoking their pipes. 
The Turukish or Turkish language is common among all 
the Tartars. Such of them as are Mahometans not only 
speak, but also write it with Arabic letters. They employ 
the Arabic language in their prayers, and in all religious 
exercises, though it is understood by very few even of 
their priests. They are less fanatic than the Turks; and 
their attachment to the doctrine of fatalism produces in 
them a patient resignation under misfortunes, and an apathy 
which frequently prevents them from shunning calamities. 
They have a mufti, or supreme head of their religion—a dig¬ 
nity created for them by the empress Catharine. This mufti 
resides in the government of the Kaucasus; he has under 
him three agoutis, or elders, residing at Casan, Tobolsk, and 
Astracan, and all the mollas, or priests. 
The pagan Tartars are rude and ignorant; they have 
neither schools nor writing; hence, their language is become 
so corrupt, that the Mahometan Tartars can scarcely under¬ 
stand them. 
The Tartar has frequently been confounded witli the 
Mongol. This is a great mistake. The Mongol is ugly and 
deformed, whereas the Tartar is well-shaped, has handsome 
features, and an European face, but a sallow complexion. 
The Baschkirs only merit to be called ugly. These Tartars 
inhabit the province of Ufa, in the government of the same 
name, and the province of Ekatherinenburg, in the govern¬ 
ment of Permia. Their ugliness has even been somewhat exag¬ 
gerated ; they have, it is true, small eyes, a flat nose, and long 
ears; yet there is not a Baschkir who resembles the hideous 
portrait that we find of them in Lavater’s work. With the 
exception of bow legs and thighs, they are well proportioned 
and robust. Their character is none of the best: they are 
hard-hearted, and suspicious. Their neighbours, the Kirg- 
hises, call them istaki, or the dirty; and they completely 
justify this epithet. 
These people are not absolute rovers as formerly, but yet 
they do not lead a stationary life. They have two kinds of 
habitations, one for summer, and the other for winter: the 
former is a tent of felt or birch bark, in the shape of a trun¬ 
cated cone; in the winter-hut there is but one apartment. 
Hamlets containing twenty such habitations are to be met 
with; but in summer it is rare to find more than twenty 
families in one place. 
Pastoral pursuits are still their favourite occupation, 
though they have been compelled to cultivate the ground. 
With the Baschkirs the horse is an indispensable animal; they 
are scarcely ever on foot. Their food chiefly consists of 
horse-flesh and mare’s milk. The hide of the horse serves 
them for clothing, and with his hair they make ropes. They 
drink to intoxication of kumiss, and so general is this prac¬ 
tice, that, as we are assured, in the evenings of summer not 
one sober man is to be found among them. Some of the 
Baschkirs keep camels. If they were to cultivate the naturally 
fertile soil of their country, they might live very comfortably; 
to induce them to do so, the government annually distributes 
fine scarlet dresses among the best husbandmen; but they 
cannot yet be prevailed upon to addict themselves to agricul¬ 
ture. They might also derive considerable profit from the 
mines which they possess; but in general, when any hamlet 
discovers a vein or mine, the right of w-orking it for sixty 
years is made over to some Russian speculator. In the 
government of Permia, however, there are Baschkirs who 
work the mines themselves, and sell the ore to Russian 
foundries. 
The Baschkirs, like the Tchuwasches, Tchermisses, and 
Mestsheraiks, keep a great quantity of bees. Besides the 
swarms which they have at home, some of them have several 
hundred, nay even a thousand swarms of wild bees in the 
woods. 
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