The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

SIMBIRSK—SAMAEA. 417enthusiasm incompatible with their allegiance to the Czar, who, by confirming theappointment of the Great Lama, becomes himself the real vicar of Buddha on earth.On the other hand, their manner of life separates the nomad Buddhists fromthe settled Christians by a broad barrier, which it will take long to remove.Far more numerous are the Kirghiz, although the bulk of the nation isstill in Asia. Those living in Europe between the Volga and Ural Rivers form,so to say, merely the extreme van of their tribes, constituting a simple divisionof the Kichik-dyus, or " Little Horde," and sometimes known as the Bukeyevskayatribe, from Sultan Bukey, who received permission in 1801 to occupy thesandy plains of Bin after their abandonment by the Kalmuks. In 1875 theirnumbers were variously estimated at from 163,000 to 186,000.The Kirghiz are of Tatar stock, and although still Mohammedans, theprocess of " Russification " has already begun to make itself felt at several points.Too numerous for their relatively limited territory, thousands of them havebecome agriculturists, at least for a part of the year, while others seek employmentamongst the Russians as shepherds, harvest-men, or gold washers.Thus removedfrom their tents, they soon learn Russian, even adopt the dress of their masters,and allow their children to be brought up with them. On the other hand, theUral Cossacks (Bashkirs) readily adopt the ways of the Kirghiz, and it oftenbecomes difficult to say to which race the nomads belong.met dressed like Kirghiz, and speaking Turki better than Russian.Cossacks are frequentlyTowns of the Lower Volga.Large towns, nearly all of recent date, and destined, some of them, sooner orlater to become important European centres, have sprung up along the banksof the Lower Volga. Simbirsk, the northernmost, and probably the Simbir ofthe Tatar annals, is now the capital of a government. It occupies a remarkableposition at a point overlooking the Volga and the Sviyaga, which here flow forabout 250 miles parallel, but in opposite directions. At Simbirsk the level ofthe Sviyaga is about 140 feet higher than that of the Volga, and nothing wouldbe easier than to precipitate it in a series of rapids across the interveningpliocene deposits to the lower stream. The fortress of Simbirsk arrested, in1670, the victorious advance of Stephen Razin at the head of the revolted j>easantryand Don Cossacks. Simbirsk is the birthplace of Karamzin.Samara, also a provincial capital, is conveniently situated at the extremityof the great " loop " of the Volga, at the junction of the important river Samara,and at the natural converging point of the great highways. While most of theother towns lie on the left, Samara has been attracted to the right bank of themain stream by the advantages offered by this confluence. It is a half-finishedplace, consisting mainly of wooden houses, with vast waste spaces on either sideof its dusty thoroughfares. Mention occurs of Samara for the first time at theend of the sixteenth century, but during the following century it possessed greatstrategic importance as a Russian bulwark against the steppe nomads. At