little dinner on the previous night, I prepared to do justice to the breakfast which my butler had brought me from the

mess.

I was just beginning, when in dashed Skeffy, in boots and breeches, fresh from his morning ride. "Holloa, old chap! How are you this morning? You can't be very bad, if you're going to eat all that. There's plenty for two, and, as I've lots to tell you, I will stay and breakfast with you."

"You can't do better, Skeffy. Help yourself, and open your budget of news.' "Well, the news is the best anyway, and will improve your appetite. I've just come from the race-course. There was a meeting of the stewards this morning about the race for the maharajah's cup. It seems that it was suspected something was shady about that horse Songster, and his history was inquired into, and they have the best evidence that he is five years old instead of being four as he was entered, so he carried four pound too little in the race. Of course he has been disqualified, so your horse won after all. I congratulate you on winning the cup and taking all the money out of the lotteries."

What a reprieve! I felt as if I had been relieved from an oppressive and inordinate weight that had loaded me for the last two days. Skeffy's rather homely and matterof-fact countenance seemed surrounded with a halo of light, and I blessed the stewards for their prompt and energetic action. If only the disasters of the regimental ball could also be reversed, there would be no happier captain of hussars in her Majesty's service.

"One peon brought chit for master," and Ramasawmy handed me a note, on whose envelope was a cipher that I knew well. I opened it.

"DEAR CAPTAIN WILMOT, I was so sorry to hear of your accident last night, and hope you will soon get over it. It may help your recovery to tell you that I have just been riding with Kitty Clover, and we had a long talk about you. I was able to explain a misunderstanding that seems to have occurred at your ball, and, if you call, I think she will be glad to see you. You have my best wishes. Yours very sincerely,

"CLARA FORTESCUE."

From The Asiatic Quarterly Review. RUSSIA AND NORTHERN ASIA.

BY A. VAMBERY.

IN speaking of northern Asia, or Siberia, as it is termed by the Russians, we must understand that we are treating of a vast continent and conglomeration of countries of nearly five million square miles, of a portion of the globe most diversely constituted, and subjected to various and extreme climatic conditions. Ice-bound regions and perilous Tundras alternate under changing skies with flowering meadows and the verdant steppe; man, too, like nature, exhibits variety, and bears the stamp of races the most diverse; the transitions which his historic past has undergone are scarcely suspected, but the firmly established circumstance that the Voguls and Ostyaks, who now live in the far north, are in close philological connection with the Magyars settled on the Danube and Theiss, south of the Carpathians, alone suffices to astonish us, and to create an interest in the wanderings, history, and past experiences of the present dwellers in northern Asia. Another bond of kinship, a chain of loose and single links, and often severed by the storms and rav ages of time, connects these very north Asiatics with the Finus of north-eastern Europe; and if, at the same time, it is taken into consideration that records of relationship exist between the present inhabitants of Siberia's remotest regions and the western half of Asia, it will become the more evident that the ethnical kaleidoscope of the north of Asia contains riddles the most obscure. In most countries of the Old World the historical era reaches back to centuries before Christ; but here the dim light of historical remembrance has only arisen in modern times, and in the pitch-dark past we seek vainly for light-shedding stars to guide us. Conjectures only and vague surmises are at our command. We may presume that the country of the Uigurs, which extended from the north-west of China far into the north to the banks of the Ob and Yenissei, may also have sent a few rays of culture to those distant climes, for the Russian name Ugor or Ugr is really derived from Uigur; but what may have been the precise influence of the Uigurs' rule on the Finnish-Ugrian and Turko-Tartar race elements can hardly be determined. No more light is thrown on the subject by the mention, in Chinese annals, of the departure of the Hiungnu (Huns) towards the

were forced to leave the territory in proportion as Russian immigration increased. The chase did not even yield sufficient return for satisfying the taxes that had to be paid in valuable furs; the breeding of cattle decreased; and though, perhaps, the Russian government only intended to squeeze out the very utmost from the people, yet physical degeneration and a fearful diminution of the population gradually set in. Several tribes, as the Omoks, Kotts, Khoidans, Shelags, Anjuits, Mators, Assans, Arinzes, and others, have completely disappeared (Petri, 106); and how terrible was the effect of this war of extermination on the other tribes found scattered here and there may best be gathered from the following statistical figures. In the year 1744 there were 20,000 Kamchadalians of both sexes; in 1823, 2.760; and in 1850, only 1,951. In the district of Berezow there were, in 1816, 21,000 natives; in 1828, only 19,652; that is, a decrease of 1,349 in twelve years. In the circuit of Tomsk and the district of Narym, 10,135 natives of both sexes were counted in 1816; in 1832, only 9,724. In twenty-two volosts of the circuit Kusnetzk, there were, in the year 1827, 5,160 natives; in the year 1832, 4,399, a diminution of 761. The farther north we proceed the more dreadful is the decrease of population among the natives. Several tribes, like the Voguls and Koibals, are quite on the point of total extinction. The Hungarian traveller, Reguly, for instance, estimates the number of Voguls in the year 1845 at 20,000; whilst according to Professor Ahlquist their number in the year 1858 hardly amounted to 6,500 souls; and quite recently even this remnant is said to have decreased, as Rittich gives their number as 4,527 only. It is indeed to be feared that the sad event of the last of the Tasmanians will find a repetition in many a part of northern Asia.

The indisputable fact regarding the decrease of the indigenous population of northern Asia, cannot be explained by any absorption into the ruling race.

In the Russian population of Siberia, which at present amounts to two-thirds of the whole population, only a very small percentage of indigenous element can be found absorbed. The increase of the Russian element was chiefly due to voluntary or compulsory immigration; and the natives simply perished, the victims of an overwhelming majority of invaders, of economic conditions, and insufficient foresight on the part of the government.

We fully approve of the warm patriotism

and true love of mankind shown by individual Russian travellers and scholars, whose noble and humane efforts are in the direction of improving the condition of the natives, who are suffering under the cruel! errors and shortcomings of Russian administration defects which have been so well exposed by Shashkow, Ssokolow,, Polyakow, and especially Yadrinzow Much misery might be mitigated, much misfortune perhaps partly averted; but at present, remembering the similar cases in America and Australia, it seems certain that a complete cure of the evil- that is, a state leading to independent national development, evolving out of itself its own civilization - could never be effected, and would ever remain merely a desideratum of the philanthropist. A cultural transformation on a national basis is only possible with a people whose state of civilization, evolved from or attached to its moral and physical peculiarities, can form a suitable stepping-stone towards the desired change. The justice of this statement is very apparent in the instances of Turkey, India, and Japan; but with a people of the lowest state of culture, under the influence of Shamanism, as is the case with the natives of northern Asia, such a transformation is quite impossible.

We generally find the opinion prevailing that Russia, by means of regulating the ratio of taxation, by energetic sanitary measures, and by encouraging settled in contradistinction to nomadic life, might have improved the economic condition of the indigenous population, and could thereby have opened to them the portals of foreign civilization; but in holding this view, it is forgotten that in Asia, more than anywhere else, religion is all-powerful, and is the sole agent through which social changes can be effected.

With regard to this point, Russia was brought face to face with a most difficult problem. It had to enter the lists against two powerful Asiatic religions, namely, Islam and Buddhism - two civilizing agents that are exactly suited to the Asiatic taste and cast of mind, and much more directly reach the goal than Christianity, even than Russian Christianity, which, in spite of its many Asiatic features, still appears to the true Asiatic a foreign and unpalatable production. Knowing this, and fully aware of the bearing and difficulty of the question, the Russian government made an attempt in the last century to aid the propagation of Islam, by paying mollas and ordering mosques to be built. This arrangement failed in its object, because,

instead of producing the advantages of a vehicle or a stepping-stone towards a further object, or, to be quite clear, instead of forming a suitable Moslem foundation for the future Christian Church, Islam only, as such, was strengthened, and in Islam a force inimical to Western civilization. Thus we find, that whilst, before Russian immigration, Muhammadanism, at the banks of the Tobol, had only just effected an entrance, Russian supremacy very materially aided the spread of this religion. The Tatars of the Baraba Steppe entered the fold of Islam in 1745; that is, one and a half century after this region had came under Russian influence. Of the 142,191 aborigines of the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk, 47,320 are Muhammadans. Adding to these the 788,000 Siberian Kirgises, also adherents of Islam, we see that the Moslem religion can here register one of its greatest conquests (Petri, 139). With regard to Buddhism the case is similar.

In the year 1741 the majority of Burjates in eastern Siberia were Shamanists, and the Buddhists only had two Dzazanes and 150 Lamas; in 1845 there were 85.060 Buddhists and 3,546 Lamas; in 1848, 125,000 Buddhists and 4,546 Lamas; and at present the Burjates are nearly all Buddhists, and Shamanism is quite in the minority. Of the population of 2,792,365 inhabitants of the governments Tobolsk and Tomsk under Irkutsk, there are, at the present day, only 143,262 heathens, or adherents of Shamanism.

In the eighteenth century the task of converting the indigenous population straightway to Christianity was begun, and in modern times it is continued with still greater energy; but whether, under the existing circumstances, the results will correspond to the expectations of the Russian government is very doubtful. All possible ways and means were tried to induce people to accept Christianity; force, promises, and every kind of allurement were used; and when it became apparent that the teaching of Christ in the Russian idiom did not find favor, the experiment was made whether it would be more acceptable in the language of the natives. The Altaic mission thereupon began to study the Altaic language, and produced a very good primer of that language in Russian; but in spite of prodigious patience, labor, and sacrifice, the results hitherto achieved are of the most modest kind. According to the report of this mission, consisting of twelve missionaries and twenty-two ecclesiastics, nearly

five thousand Teleuts, Shors, Forest-Tartars, etc., have entered the fold of the Greek Church during the last fifty years. The Christianity of these people, however, must not be too closely inquired into. Their apostasy from the ancient creed of their forefathers separates these neophytes from all intercourse with their own kin; and the new mode of life naturally arising from the new doctrine only too often renders their condition one of misery and poverty; they belong neither to one party nor to the other, and in the absence of a basis of belief they generally perish.

A modern Russian traveller writes about the five thousand Ostyaks whom the Siberian archbishop Philoteus is said to have baptized in the year 1712, that they are only nominal Christians; the holy pictures in their possession are kept under a bench in some distant corner of their huts; it is only on the arrival of a priest that they are taken from their hiding-place. Rittich is quite right in his assertion that Christianity there is merely like a light covering of moss, hiding the marsh of Shamanism. The converts of other tribes are not very different; those who without forethought have embraced the new religion declare their repentance afterwards. The way a Tshuktsh expressed himself on the point to a missionary is very characteristic: "When I was young the Russians were very friendly to me, and I allowed myself to be baptized; but now I look with different eyes on the past. I look on it with the eyes of an old man, and I ask what baptism has brought us? The people have become poor, their flocks have decreased; the reindeer perish, and so do the men themselves; old men are hardly to be found, and many have died not as men die. No, let me meet death my own way, and die like a man" (Petri, 149).

Conversion to Christianity, therefore, is not by any means a prevention against the gradual extinction of north Asiatics. The nature of the Slavic educational system is equally unable to afford a remedy.

The opinion advocated by Russian travellers and scholars now is, that success can only be achieved by a process of "russification," or absorptio of the indigenous into the Russian national element; it is this process of absorption, they say, which, continued through ages, has given Russia its numerical greatness. From the eighth to the twelfth century the FinnUgrians - descended from the race of the Rus of Arab geographers - formed the important Slavic empire in the east of