The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

410 RUSSIA IN EUROPE.on the right bank of the Volga, nearly facing the monastery of St. Macarius andthe junction of the Kerjenetz. On the banks of this river formerly stood a numberof skits, or convents of the Popovtzi ; but in 1855 most of the inmates were eitherdispersed or "converted " to the Orthodox faith.In this region the most reveredspot is Lake Svetloie, the " Bright," rather over 2 miles in circumference, and lyingto the west of Vorkresenskoi'e, on the Vetluga. The waters of this lake are popularlysupposed to cover a city (Great Kitej), which God caused to disappear at the timeof the Tatar irruption to save it from being sacked, the inhabitants continuing tolive below the surface. People of strong belief can even still see the houses andturrets through the clear waters, just as" On Lough Neagh's banks as the fisherman straysWhen the clear cold eve's declining,He sees the round towers of other daysIn the wave beneath him sinning."The Orthodox are firmly convinced that the Cheremissians still continue to pursuetheir ordinary vocations in the place, which is consequently much frequented bypilgrims. Other practices recall another Western legend, that of Lady Godiva,only still rehearsed on a large scale and in a very realistic form.The chief city of this region is Kazan, the famous capital of the Tatar Khans, atthe north-east extremity of Muscovy proper, here limited by the great bend of theVolga. As the great entrepot between Europe and Asia, it succeeded to the city ofBolgar, which was even more conveniently situated below the junction of the Volgaand Kama. Kazan is first mentioned in Russian annals in the year 1376.Removed in the fifteenth century from an older site 30 miles higher up on theKazanka, it now stands about 3 miles from the left bank of the Volga, whose waters,however, reach it only during the floods, at other times communicating with itthrough the Kazanka.The main thoroughfare follows the crest of the hills, whoseslopes are covered with houses grotiped round the kreml. Of this old citadelnothing remains except two stone towers dating from the time of Ivan IV. Theonly other ancient structure in the place is the four-storied red-brick tower ofSumbek, and even this seems posterior to the fall of the Khans in 1552. TheMoslem Tatars, who still form one-tenth of the population, have a great venerationfor this building, in which is supposed to be buried one of their saints, fromwhose skull flows a perennial stream of water. The central quarters have beenexclusively inhabited by Russians since the expulsion of the Tatars at the end ofthe sixteenth century, when their mosques were also burnt.The University, founded in 1804, has a library, an observatory, an anatomicallecture hall, a chemical laboratory, and a remarkable collection of Volga fishes.*Here is also a Tatar printing establishment, and since 1867 the " Confraternity ofSt. Guriy " has issued numerous manuals and religious works in the various Tatar,Finn, and TJgrian dialects. The ecclesiastical academy, dating from 1846, nowcontains the library of the Solovki convent, with some unique documents for the* University of Kazan (1878) :—Professors, 87 ;students, 572 ; library, 78,000 volumes, 12,000pamphlets, 800 manuscripts ;budget, 333,000 roubles.