The Natural History of the Varieties of Man

by R. G. Latham

Physical appearance.—Stature, middle; hair, light; beard, scanty; face, flat.

Habitations.—Small villages, smaller than those of the Votiaks, and Tchuvatch. Habits, agricultural; lately nomadic.

THE MORDUINS.

Locality.—The most South-Western of the Finnic tribes, on the right-bank of the Volga, between the R. Sura and R. Oka.

Name.—Native.

Divisions.—The Morduins of the Oka, are called Ersad; the Morduins of the Sura, Mokshad. A third division, called Karatai, inhabits the neighbourhood of Kasan.

Numbers.—In 1837, ninety-two thousand.

Dialects.—Two or more—the Ersad and the Mokshad.

Religion.—Imperfect Christianity; Greek Church; Shamanism.

Physical appearance.—Hair, brown and straight; beard, thin. More Slavonic than any other Finnic tribe. The Ersad oftener red-haired than the Mokshad.