judge of their
character by their unprepossessing appearance. They are by no means so
unhuman as they look. Men who have lived among them have assured me that
they are decidedly intelligent, especially in all matters relating to
cattle, and that they are--though somewhat addicted to cattle-lifting
and other primitive customs not tolerated in the more advanced stages
of civilisation--by no means wanting in some of the better qualities of
human nature.

Formerly there was a fourth pastoral tribe in this region--the Nogai
Tartars. They occupied the plains to the north of the Sea of Azof, but
they are no longer to be found there. Shortly after the Crimean war
they emigrated to Turkey, and their lands are now occupied by Russian,
German, Bulgarian, and Montenegrin colonists.

Among the pastoral tribes of this region the Kalmyks are recent
intruders. They first appeared in the seventeenth century, and were long
formidable on account of their great numbers and compact organisation;
but in 1771 the majority of them suddenly struck their tents and
retreated to their old home in the north of the Celestial Empire. Those
who remained were easily pacified, and have long since lost, under the
influence of unbroken peace and a strong Russian administration, their
old warlike spirit. Their latest military exploits were performed during
the last years of the Napoleonic wars, and were not of a very serious
kind; a troop of them accompanied the Russian army, and astonished
Western Europe by their uncouth features, their strange costume, and
their primitive accoutrements, among which their curious bows and arrows
figured conspicuously.

The other pastoral tribes which I have mentioned--Bashkirs, Kirghiz, and
Nogai Tartars--are the last remnants of the famous marauders who from
time immemorial down to a comparatively recent period held the vast
plains of Southern Russia. The long struggle between them and the
agricultural colonists from the northwest, closely resembling the long
struggle between the Red-skins and the white settlers on the prairies of
North America, forms an important page of Russian history.

For centuries the warlike nomads stoutly resisted all encroachments on
their pasture-grounds, and considered cattle-lifting, kidnapping, and
pillage as a legitimate and honorable occupation. "Their raids," says an
old Byzantine writer, "are as flashes of lightning, and their retreat is
at once heavy and light--heavy from booty and