The Ostiaks are almost wholly a nation of fishers.
That their limits originally extended farther south than at present is highly probable. A tradition concerning their migration from the west will be noticed in the section upon the Samöeids.
Notwithstanding the close affinity between the Ostiaks and the Voguls, the two nations were, at the time of the Russian conquest, in continual warfare against each other: the Ostiaks being under the government of petty hereditary chiefs.
In the pagan parts of the Ostiak country polygamy is the custom.
2.
THE PERMIANS.
Locality.—The government of Perm; of which they form less than a quarter, the rest being Russians or Russianized Finns.
Name.—-Russian, probably taken from the Scandinavian term Bjarma. The native term is Komi-uter, or Komi-murt.
Population.—According to Schubert, about thirty-five thousand.
THE SIRANIANS.
Locality.—North of the Permians, about the head-waters of the R. Kama, and R. Vytchegda, a feeder of the Dwina.