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PLATE XXXI.
A BARABINZIAN WOMAN.
T h e countrj, in which the Barabinzi live, is of considerable extent,
and forms part of Siberia; it is extremely flat, and contains a great
number of rivers and large lakes. They give it the name of Baraba,
or the Desert of the Barabinzi, though those people inhabit a greater
extent than v\-hat properly comes under that name. They have
been in possession of that part of the country, which lies between
the rivers Obe and Irtish, for time immemorial. There is a great
deal of the Tartar character in the external appearance of the
Barabinzi ; but many of them also seem to have been originally
connected with the Kalmuks, whom they very much resemble in their
flat countenances, small and narrow eyes, large ears, and black hair.
All the inhabitants of Baraba are remarkable, not only for great
feebleness of passion and want of animation, but also for a natural
imbecility of intellect, and universal -indifference; they are scarcely
susceptible even of any sexual affection : yet, m ith all this, they are
honest, prudent, and sober. They are in general extremely ignorant,
and very poor. Their employment consists chiefly in attending on
their cattle, and in fishing on their rivers and lakes; they sometimes
hunt in the winter, but they are unskih'ul in the nse of the bow.
They have their winter villages, and their suiimier tents, and ¡)ossess
many of the customs of the Bashkirs and Mcstscherakians, who inhabit
some of the same districts. Both the men and w omen of c\-ery age
are very much addicted to smoking, and are rarely without a pipe in
their mouths. Their tobacco comes from China, and is called shar,
with which they mix an equal quantity of the shavings of the fresh
wood of the birch-tree. Their dress will be described in the next Plate,
Inch is a portrait of one of their young unmarried women.
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