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The name "Cossack," or "Kazak," as the Russians spell it, is of Tartar origin, meaning originally vagabond, and then a partisan or guerilla; but the people themselves are chiefly a Russian race. The male Cossacks from eighteen to twenty are in the military service within the district; then, after a year of rest, they are liable to service outside the boundaries of their district for nominally fifteen years, though they are always sent home again long before the expiration of that period. Every Cossack is supposed to be in the army, though exceptions are made in favor of a father who has three sons in the service, or in case of one out of four brothers. In time of war all can be called upon. The actual number of the Ural Cossacks in service is estimated at over 10,000, though really not more than 3,000 actually serve at one time. It has long been the practice of the richer Cossacks to hire the poorer to take their places in the ranks, three hundred rubles being paid for two years' service in Turkistan. The abolition of this custom by the new military law was the cause of the disorders in September, 1874.
The Cossacks form an almost ideal community. The land belongs to the whole army collectively, and each member has the right to till the ground, to cut hay, or to pasture his cattle where he pleases, provided, of course, he does not infringe on the rights of others, as settled by custom. Even the fishery in the Ural and in the sea is common property. The days of fishing are regulated ; and though all are ready, none dares cast a net or throw a harpoon before the cannon signal has been given by the "Ataman," under penalty of confiscation of all his fishing implements. The "golden bottom" of the Ural was once the main source of wealth to the Cossacks; but owing to the rapid and careless extermination of the forests above Orenburg, the river is drying up, and filling with shoals, and the fish seem to be seeking some other locality. Yet even now the produce of caviare, isinglass, salted sturgeons, and beluga is very great. By this commercial system the spread of wealth is much more even and regular than elsewhere, and there are no rich and no poor, or at least only in a comparative sense; for a poor man there is one who has nothing more than what is indispensable, i.e., his house, horse, and cattle. This system, however, in a country so limited in its capacities as the Ural region, will, with all its merits, Mr. Schuyler thinks, be found inadequate to a rapidly growing population.
The Cossacks are almost entirely dissenters, chiefly "old believers," though apparently without the bigotry and religious hatred which characterize Russian dissent in general. In 1862, out of a population of over 70,000, there were only sixty-two who belonged to the orthodox Russian church, and these were chiefly Russian officials in the towns. It is further worthy of note that in 1859, the last year for which statistics have been published, thirty-eight out of eighty crimes were committed by orthodox and only ten by dissenters, the remainder being by Jews, Mohammedans, etc. The whole orthodox population at this time was eighty-nine.
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An Uzbek
Vambery - England in the Orient
Foreign retirees in Manchuria
First Japanese Buddhist Temple in America
An early traveler in Egypt
Waiting in Ulaan Baatar
Central Asia after the battle at Penjdeh
Underground City near Bokhara
Japanese priest crosses desert to Tibet
Central Asia
Central Asia
Bokhara
