The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

ZIRYANIANS. 853or Ch tides, as the Russians call them. The name of their predecessors is associatedamongst them with that of the maleficent aerial and underground spirits. TheSamoyeds themselves are fated suddenly to disappear " below the earth " like theChudes.In their play the Russian children repeat a now meaningless rhyme, butwhich was formerly only too significant :" Come, seek the Sanioyed ; come,mark the Samoyed ;the Sarnoyed we'll find, and cut him in two."Those who formerly dwelt on the shores of Lake Onega and the east side of theWhite 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 thehands of the Ziryanians and Slavs, notwithstanding the law of 1835 limiting theRussian farmsto 160 acres per family, and prohibiting all further encroaebmentson the Samoyed territory. The whole race, now confined to the three districts ofKaniu, Timan, and Bolshaya Zemlya, is said to be reduced in Europe to somewhatover 5,000, and whilst the birth rate diminishes, the mortality continues to increase.The Ziryanians, another Ural-Altaic people, though quite distinct from theFinns, have vied with the Russians in depriving the Samoyeds of their reindeerherds, and in plundering their c/iiims, or tents. Of these ancient aboriginal racesone has thus become enslaved, while the other has taken rank with the tradersand rulers of the land.Settled exclusively along the navigable rivers, and on theportages between the Petchora, Mezen, and Upper Dvina basins, the Ziryanians havefrom time immemorial been engaged in trade, and they have now monopolized alarge portion of the commerce of North Russia not only with the adjacentprovinces, but even with England and Norway.Their packmen and agents visitall the fairs from Archangel to Moscow and Nijni-Novgorod, where they disposeof their furs, horns, and fish in exchange for man}' domestic comforts.From the end of the fourteenth century this commercial nation has ceased toworship sun, fire, water, trees, and " the old woman of gold." Bishop Stephenhewed 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the use of a peculiar alphabet, the letters of which have not all yet beenexplained, but which has long been superseded by the Russian. The only visibletraces of the old worship are the animal sacrifices still made in front of thechurches. In other respects the Ziryanians have been largely Russified, and aregradually becoming assimilated to the ruling race, whose language they understand,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 Popovreckoned 91,000 in the provinces of Vologda and Archangel alone. But there isno doubt that they are still numerous, and that many passing for Russians arereally Ziryanians. Many even claim the honour of descending from the Novgorodcolonists of the twelfth to the fifteenth century, although this colonisation wascrossed by that of the Suzdalians, following the valley of the Sheksna, andpenetrating across the portages into the Dvina basin.Some old Volkhov familieson the banks of the Dvina and Petchora have hitherto kept aloof from all intermixture,still exercising a sort of patriarchal authority over the inhabitants of thesurrouncliu"* districts.