OS'TIAKS. A name which scents to have been applied at first to the primitive Finnic peoples of the middle upland valleys by the Russians and afterwards extended to trans Fralian tribes as far as the Yenisei. The ety mology of the name is uncertain, and its ethnolog ical value has been different with different writers and at different periods. According to Sommier, the Ostiaks of the Obi are short in stat ure. spare in form as contrasted with the rohuster or even fat Samoyeds, with brachyrephalic head form and a considerable percentage of dolieho cephaly. Their skin is quite white; the hair and eyes are brown. The Ostiaks are reported to be a disappearing people. their only resources being hunting and fishing. The Ostiaks of the region of the Narym. etc., are merely Samoyeds. The mass of the Ostiaks dwell between Obdorsk and Surgut—the Tas Ostiaks beyond Sur7ut are of mixed race. The and Ostiaks of the eastern slope of the Urals, who both call them selves Manzi, are very closely related by lan guage. mythological ideas. and social institutions.
Some intermixture with the Russian immigrants into Western Siberia has taken place. Consult: Seebohm, Siberia in Asia (London. IS92) ; Pat kanoff, Die Irtyseh-Ost faker rind ihre Yolks porsie (Saint Petersburg, 1897) ; Abereromby, and Proto-Ilistorie Finns. both East ern and Western (London, 189)3) ; Martin, Si biriea (Stockholm, 1897).
(Lat., doorkeeper, sexton). The name of the lowest of the four minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church. In this definite sense, the earliest mention known of it occurs in a letter of Pope Cornelius of the year 251; it seems to have been included with the other minor orders by his predecessor, Pope Fabian (336 251 ). Dv the end of the sixth century the ordi nation of this othee was symbolized by the bishop delivering to the candidate the keys of the church with the words, "So net as one that must give account to God for the which these keys guard." The duties attached to the office are those which are now performed by the sacristan (q.v.).