Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/255

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COLONIZATION AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION
203

hunting. In the tract of country east of the Urals on the Konda and Sosva rivers there is also another tribe of people called the Voguls, very similar in type to the two former and living under much the same conditions.

The third group of Tartarized Finns present with certain modifications features and habits similar to those of the Northern Siberian Finns. As I have indicated elsewhere, along the Mongolian frontier, especially in the Altai plateaus, there are natives comprehensively known as the Altai Tartars or the Altaians. They are probably the rehcs of the oldest Finnish races, which have retreated hither from the lower forest and the black earth steppes for centuries past, taking refuge from the invasion of Cossack and Turk. In comparatively recent times, however, they have become mixed, and they now present certain linguistic and physical characteristics which show distinct traces of Turkish influence. In the Yenisei Government of Central Siberia these Tartarized Finns are represented by the Chulim and Abakansk Tartars, inhabiting the country south of the railway and along the banks of the rivers of those names. The Soiots of the Upper Yenisei along the Mongolian frontier are also closely related to them. Similar tribes are also found in the Tomsk Government in the northern Altai district. In the high plateaus of the Central and Southern Altai, where the Obi River takes its rise, the true Altaian type is seen, containing several subdivisions, of which the principal are the Telengets and the Teluts. They are semi-nomadic, living with their flocks in felt tents during the summer and in hexagonal wooden huts in the winter. They are becoming