Note 3 — Chapter V · FROM TIUMEN TO TOBOLSK.

Mr. Wahl, in his “Land of the Czar,” which contains much valuable ethnographical information, gives the number of the Siberian Tatars of the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk at 40,000. Dr. Latham also, in his “Native Races of the Russian Empire,” traces their affinities with many peoples both in Europe and Asia, all of whom he classifies under the general name of Turks, and points out that the area covered by the Turkish stock is perhaps larger than that of any other race in the world. The general name of Turks includes the Tatars of Kasan, of Siberia, the Caucasus, and several other places; also the Kirghese, Yakutes, and many smaller tribes, some of which will hereafter be referred to under the respective provinces which they inhabit. The Turkish stock are, as to their religion, Christians, Pagans, and Mohammedans: Christians where they have been won over by the Russians to the Greek Church; Pagans where they have not been reached even by Mohammedanism, but have remained in the darkness of aboriginal Shamanism, as is still the case with a few of the Yakute Turks; and Mohammedans, which is the case for the most part with those of the country through which we passed.