KIRGHIS, or KIRGRIS-KAISAKI, or COSSACKS of THE STEPPES, a people spread over the immense territory bounded by the. Volga, desert of Obshtehei (in 55° n. lat.), the Irtish, Chinese Turkistan, Ala-Tan mountains, the Sir-Daria, and Aral find Caspian seas. A few tribes of Kalmucks also live within these boundaries. Over this vast tract reigns a dismal monotony; the country has scarcely any important elevation or depres sion, no river of consequence runs through it, no great forest breaks the uniformity of the scene: it is a vast steppe, containing 850,000 sq.m., sterile, stony, and streamless. and covered with rank herbage of 5 ft. high. It abounds in lakes and marshes. the water of which is generally brackish and unserviceable, and in the southern portion lies the Kara-Kuin, an extensive salt desert.‘—The Kirghla area race, and'speak the dialect of the Uzbeks, from whom they profess to be descended. They have, from time immemorial, been divided into the Great, Middle, and Little Hordes. The first of these wanders in the s.w. portion of the Russian steppe, partly in the Rus sian possessions n. of the Ala-Tau and Khokan, and partly in the territory of China. They are subject to the rulers within whose bounds they dwell. • The Middle Horde possesses the territory (called the country of the Siberian EiryNees) between the Ishim, litish, lake Balkhash, Khokan, and the territory of the Little Horde; and also a great portion of the Russian province of Semipalatinsk. Russia has gradually absorbed them,
the result being finally achieved by the victory over Khiva in 1873, and the formation of the new province of .Amu Dana. The Little horde (now more numerous than the other two together) ranges over the country bounded by the Ural, Tobol, Siberian Kirghis, and Turkistan. Like the Middle Horde, they are claimed as subjects of the czar, though completely independent. This horde is partly agricultural, partly nomad. A small off shoot of the Little Horde has, since 1801, wandered between the Volga and the Ural river, and used to be under rule of the governor of Astrakhan. S. of lake Issikul is a wild mountain tribe called the Dileo-AUmennaja, the only tribe which calls itself Kirghis, They are called by their neighborS Kara-Kirghis or Black Kirghis, and are of Mancishfir stock. All of them are now subject to Russia. Their collective numbers are estimated at upwards of lf million of souls, more thou half of whom belong to the Little Horde.