. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across into Eastern and WesternTurkestan, the former lying partly in the Chinese Empire, and the latter covering the vast plain of the Caspian and Aral seas. The population isvariously estimated at from eight to twelv^e millions. Russia has absorbednearly all of Western Turkestan, and the Russian officials think they haveat least eight millions of people in their new possessions. The tribes and provinces are divided and subdivided so that they are
. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across into Eastern and WesternTurkestan, the former lying partly in the Chinese Empire, and the latter covering the vast plain of the Caspian and Aral seas. The population isvariously estimated at from eight to twelv^e millions. Russia has absorbednearly all of Western Turkestan, and the Russian officials think they haveat least eight millions of people in their new possessions. The tribes and provinces are divided and subdivided so that they arenot easy to name. Western Turkestan was formerly known as Indepen- COUNTRIES OF CENTRAL ASIA. 449 dent Tartary, and comprises tlie Turcoman steppes, the khanates of Khiva,Bokhara, Samarcand, and Kokan, togetlier with Balkh and some smallerprovinces which are in dispute between Russia and Afghanistan. Thesedisputes have led to quarrels between Russia and England, and quite like-ly will lead to war at no distant day. The people dwelling in Turkestan are mainly of the Turkish race;their language is Turkish, and the country was the seat of the race that. AN OZBEK HEAD. spread its boundaries by a career of conquests, which did not stop until itentered Europe and pressed as far Mestward as the walls of Vienna. Brief-ly we may say the inhabitants of Turkestan are Ozbeks or Uzbeks (the 29 450 THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE RUSSL\N EMPIRE. dominant race), Turcomans, Kirgliese, Karakalpaks, Tajiks, Persians, Kip-chaks, and a few Arabs, Hindoos, and Jews. The Ozbeks are tlie most civ-ilized people of tlie country, and are mainly settled in the cities and towns;they fill most of the official positions, and their leading families can tracetheir descent for centuries. The Persians are mostly descended fromthose who have been stolen by the Turcomans and sold into slavery, andthe Arabs, Hindoos, and Jews may be regarded as wanderers who havebeen drawn there by business or accident. I have already t
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