After excluding the Votiaks and thus limiting the southern range of the Syraniens, we have a large space to fill up, and we may confidently fill it up with the Cheremisses who, I believe, once peopled all the country watered by the Lower and Middle Kama and Viatka, and the greater part of the governments of Kazan, Veatka, Perm and Ufa. I may mention that Pallas tells us that Veatka is probably a Cheremiss

name.

Nestor puts the Cheremisses in contact with Meshkeriaks, the Mordvins, and the Muromas. Let us now say a few words about these tribes.

The Meshkeriaks are now Turks, but they have been so only a comparatively short time. In Nestor's time they were undoubtedly Ugrians. Their change of language took place, there can be little doubt, at the time of their great migration. When this took place is not known exactly; Muller says they still lived in their old quarters on the outer Oka (where they were placed by Nestor) at the end of the fifteenth century. They have since moved to the Southern Urals among the Bashkirs, and have adopted their language and many of their customs. The original home of the Meshkeriaks, from which they in fact took their name, is the district of Meshtchera which stretches from Moskchansk Sura as far west as the river Oka. (Muller" Ugrische Volkstamm," i, 160 and ii, 281).

We may without much doubt name the Volga and its tributary the Mologa as the southern boundary of the Vesses in the time of Nestor. With their focus and centre at the Bielo Ozero, they probably extended from the Ladoga Sea across the country past the Vosche Sea, (which may derive its name from them) until they overlapped with the Cheremisses.

South of the Volga, which from Kasan to the town of Mologa runs for 12 degrees from west to east, the Ugrian tribes are connected together by having the common name of Mari or Mere in various modified forms. They have also a community of dialects and customs, which favours the opinion that they are closely connected. Since the days of Nestor, this Ugrian area has naturally been much circumscribed and has been largely invaded by the Slaves.

In Nestor's day a Ugrian race occupied the environs of the seas or lakes of Rostof and of Kleszczin, to which he gives the name of Mera. The name occurs as early as Jornandes among the tribes conquered by Hermanric, he calls them Merens. Adam of Bremen calls them Mirr. No Ugrians remain in this neighbourhood now. We have no means at hand for testing how far their habitat extended, we only know that Sjogren, a great authority, in his "Essay on the Syraniens,"

page 303, has collected a number of nanies which are found in the governments of Moscow and Turr, which are of undoubted Ugrian etymology, such as Moskova, Protova, Wasusa, Schoscha, Bolwa, Schaua, Obscha, and others, which prove that a Ugrian population once occupied this area, how lately may perhaps be guessed from the fact that the reported founder of Moscow of the Slaves lived in the 12th century. (vide id. 303.) If there were Ugrians there at that date, they were probably a branch of the Mera.

Let us proceed. Nestor says that on the Oka where it falls into the Volga were the Muromas. Ma is the Ugrian appellation for country, as in Baraba properly Barama Suommeuma, etc. If we detach this particle we have the name Muro left, which is the same as Mari and Mera. The town of Muroma on the Oka still preserves for us a trace of this people, otherwise they also have given way to the encroaching Slaves and have disappeared. Close to them he places the Cheremisses and the Mordvins. Let us now turn to the latter. Their name otherwise written Mordia-aither contains the root Mari or that of Murd, as in Komi Murt, etc., both meaning near. Jornandes names the Mordens among the tribes subdued by Hermanric, the great Gothic king. Constantine Porphyrogenitus mentions the land of Mordia as being ten days' journey from Patzinacia and one from Russia. Carpino calls them Morduins, and Marco Polo Mordui.

The Mordvins are divided into two main sections which are of old date. They are the Mokshads and the Ertsas. The Dominican traveller, William of Ruysbrok, tells us that on crossing the Don he met with the tribe Moxel, rich in swine, honey, and wax, as well as in furs and falcons, and more to the east with the Merdas or Merduas. Moxel and Merdas are undoubtedly the later Moksha and Ertsa. Jehosaphat Barbaro, in describing the Mordvins, refers to them as Moxier. The Ertsas are mentioned, eo nomine, by Ebn Haukel the Arab geographer, who tells us they lived west of the Bulgarians. Their king resided at Ertsa (probably the modern Arsama). He says he had not seen any stranger who had been among them, as they killed all whom they caught in their country. They descend the Itil (i.e.) the Volga, with their merchandise, but give no information about their country. It is from Ertsa that we get sable and black fox skins, and also lead. D'Ohsson, "Les Peuples du Caucase," 84). It will be noted that Ruysbrok calls them Merda; now there is a tribe mentioned by the Arabs, which has been a puzzle, so far as I know, to all inquirers. Their name is generally written Bertas or Burtas, but Von Hammer says it ought to be spelt Merdas or Murdas.

(See Von Hammer's "Hist. of the Golden Horde.") I have no doubt this is the same name as that given by Ruysbrok. It will seem that their description is in fact that of the Ertzas. According to the Arabs, they lived on the lower Volga, and they were agriculturists and lived in scattered wooden houses. It was from their country, which stretched for a distance of fifteen days' journey, that came those furs of black and red fox so renowned under the name Burtas sien. Those of the black fox cost a hundred dinars each, and were held more precious than sable, martin, and in fact all other kinds of furs, and were used only by princes who ostentatiously displayed mantles, caftans, and caps, made of the black fox of the Burtasses (Masoudi, and Ebn Haukal, quoted by d'Ohsson, "Les Peuples du Caucase," 73. Their language differed from that of the Khazars, Russians, and Bulgars (id. 79).

We will now turn to the modern account of the two divisions of the Mordvins, which is contained in Pallas' "Travels," i, 104. He says the Mordvans of Schadin, many of those inhabiting the villages near the Moksha, and the upper countries of the Sura, as well as those living on the banks of that river, are of a different tribe from those who live on the Piana, and in the government of Nijni Novogorod. They gave themselves the name of Moksha, which in their language is the common name of all the Mordvins. They call the others Ersad or Erdsad, who do not repudiate the name. There are only a few Ersanian villages in the country inhabited by the Mokshas; but the two are found mixed, and often in the same village, on the banks of the Volga, the Soka, the Cheremschan, and in the districts near the governments of Kazan and Orenburgh. These are, however, probably recent colonies. Even there, however, the two tribes have preserved their idiosyncracies. The tradition among the Mokshas is that they formerly inhabited the banks of the Mokshas and its tributaries, and that their villages extended to the Oka, that they were then governed by their own petty princes or elders. They differ from the Ersaniens chiefly in the pronunciation of their words, in certain peculiar customs, and in the dress of their women. These are enumerated by Pallas; he goes on to say that red and blonde shades of hair are less common among them than among the Ersaniens.

I have now surveyed the various Ugrian tribes who lived either in or on the borders of Great Bulgaria. They have probably been there from a very early date long before the arrival · of any Bulgarians proper there. To this arrival we must now

turn.

I have said that it was apparently the invasion of the Kazars that drove the Eastern Bulgarians towards the Kama, where

they founded the city of Bulghar. There the Arab writers of the ninth century found them, and it is from them that we derive most of our information about them; especially are we indebted to Ibn Fozlan, who made a journey from Baghdad to Bolghar in 921 A.D., and whose narrative has been given by M. Fræhin, in the first volume of the sixth series of the "Memoirs of the St. Petersburgh Academy."

Bulghar is not large, says the author, translated by Ouseley as Ibn Haukal. Its population and that of the neighbouring town of Suwar does not reach ten thousand souls. Its houses are made of wood, but are only inhabited in winter. In summer the Bulgars live camped out in the fields in tents. (The custom still prevails among the Volga Ugrians).

The cold there is very great, and snow is on the ground all the year round. Kazvin says that the Bulgars support cold better than all other men; this is attributed to the food they eat, namely, honey and the flesh of beavers. The longest day there is twenty hours long, also the longest night. Ibn Haukal says "that the night is so short in winter, that before a man can walk two parasangs, daylight is back again, and that the days are so short that a Mussulman can barely say four Namazs before they are over." Some of the Bulgars are Christians and others Mahometans, and the latter have many mosques at Bulghar, and a grand mosque at Suwar. (Ibn Haukal). The king of the Bulgars is a Mussulman. He embraced Islamism during the khaliphate of El Moctedia-b-Illahi.

Some say he took this resolution in consequence of a dream (Maçudi). Cazvini, citing the lost chronicle of the cadhi El Bulgari, says that the king was persuaded to do it by a Mahometan saint. When the latter arrived at Bolghar, the king and queen were dangerously ill. He promised that they should be restored if they were converted. Having recovered, they performed their vows, and a portion of their subjects followed their example. This conversion so irritated the king of the Khazars, that he marched with a large force against Bulgaria. When the armies were in presence of one another, the Mahomedan saint told the Bulgarian warriors to have courage, and to charge the enemy with the cries of Allahu Ekber! Allahu Ekber! (God alone is great) which they did, and defeated the enemy. Shortly after, the king of the Khazars proposed peace, and said he had seen giants mounted on grey horses, fighting on the side of the Bulgarians. "These were the troops of God," said the saint. They say this saint was called Bela, and that from him the Bulgarians received their name.

Whatever credit this tale may deserve, we are on safer ground when we relate from Ibn Fozlan how the king of the Bulgarians

named Alman, the son of Shilki Balthear, wrote to the kaliph, praying him to send him people who could teach him the faith, others to build him mosques and a fortress where he could take refuge when his territory was invaded. The khaliph willingly despatched one of his officers named Ahmed Ibn Fozlan, who set out in June 921. He shall tell his own story: "We had arrived at about twenty-four hours' journey from the king of the Slaves (sic), when he sent four of his vassals, his brothers and sons to meet us. They brought us bread, meat and millet, and then sped us on our way; when we arrived within two parasangs of the king, he came out to meet us; he alighted and bowed his head to the ground thanking and praising God. When he had distributed the silver coin he had in his sleeve among us, he ordered some tents to be pitched where we were to live. It was Sunday, the 12th Muharrem (ie., the first month of the year), 310, when we arrived, (i. e., the 10th May, A.D. 922). The journey from Dschordschaina (i. e., Urjendy or Khiva), the capital of Khuarezm, took us seventy days. We remained in the jurts fitted up for us until the middle of the week, while he summoned the grandees of the country to hear the khaliph's letter read. On the Saturday we spread out the two coverlets we had brought with us, put a beautiful saddle on the king's horse, robed him in a black garment, and put a turban of the same colour on his head. (Black was the costume worn by the family of the Abbasida). I then pulled out the khaliph's letter. The king, although a very corpulent man, read it standing, and did the same with the letter of the vizier Hamid-benel-Abbas. Whereupon his followers scattered silver among us. We then brought out the remaining presents and presented them to his grandees, and also gave his wife, who sat as is customary beside him, a dress of honour.

"He then took us into his jurt, where he sat alone on a high seat covered with Greek cloth of gold. The princes sat on his right, and his children in front of him. We took our seats on his left. At his command a table, on which was some roast meat, was put before him. He cut off a slice and ate it, then a second, then a third. The fourth he handed to myself, before whom there was immediately brought a lesser table. For it is the custom that no one should hold out his hand to eat, until the king hands him something, upon which a waiter brings him a table. A portion of food was thus handed in turn to the princes who sat on his right, to whom was brought a table, and then to the guests in the order of their rank, until each person had a table before him. After the meal each one took home with him what remained on his table; but before we rose to depart, mead, called El-sidshu, was handed round to us.