See Smirinov, Mordres et Tcheremisses (Paris, 1895); J. Abercromby, Pre- and Proto-historic Finns (London, 1898).
CHERIBON, a residency of the island of Java, Dutch East Indies, bounded S. and W. by the Preanger regencies, N.W. by Krawang, N. by the Java Sea, and E. by the residencies of Tegal and Banyumas. Pop. (1897) 1,577,521, including 867 Europeans, 21,108 Chinese, and 2016 Arabs and other Asiatic foreigners. The natives consist of Middle Javanese in the north and Sundanese in the south. Cheribon has been for many centuries the centre of Islamism in western Java, and is also the seat of a fanatical Mahommedan sect controlled from Mecca. The native population is on the whole orderly and prosperous. The northern half of the residency is flat and marshy in places, especially in the north-western corner, while the southern half is mountainous. In the middle stands the huge volcano Cherimai, clad with virgin forest and coffee plantations, and surrounded at its foot by rice fields. South-south-west of Cherimai on the Preanger border is the Sawal volcano, at whose foot is the beautiful Penjalu lake. Sulphur and salt springs occur on the slopes of Cherimai, and near Palimanan there is a cavernous hole called Guwagalang (or Payagalang), which exhales carbonic acid gas, and is considered holy by the natives and guarded by priests. There is a similar hole in the Preanger. The principal products of cultivation are sugar, coffee, rice and also tea and pulse (rachang), the plantations being for the most part owned by Europeans. The chief towns are Cheribon, a seaport and capital of the residency, the seaport of Indramaya, Palimanan, Majalengka, Kuningan and Chiamis. Cheribon has a good open roadstead. The town is very old and irregularly built, and the climate is unhealthy; nevertheless it has a lively export trade in sugar and coffee and is a regular port of call. In 1908 the two descendants of the old sultans of Cheribon still resided there in their respective Kratons or palaces, and each received an annual income of over £1500 for the loss of his privileges. A country residence belonging to one of the sultans is situated close to Cheribon and is much visited on account of its fantastic architecture. Indramaya was a considerable trading place in the days of the early Portuguese and Dutch traders. Kuningan is famous for a breed of small but strong horses.
CHERKASY (Polish, Czerkasy), a town of Russia, in the government of Kiev, 96 m. S.E. of Kiev, on the right bank of the Dnieper. Pop. (1883) 15,740; (1897) 26,619. The inhabitants (Little Russians) are mostly employed in agriculture and gardening; but sugar and tobacco are manufactured and spirits distilled. Cherkasy was an important town of the Ukraine in the 15th century, and remained so, under Polish rule, until the revolt of the Cossack hetman Chmielnicki (1648). It was annexed by Russia in 1795.
CHERNIGOV, a government of Little Russia, on the left bank of the Dnieper, bounded by the governments of Mogilev and Smolensk on the N., Orel and Kursk on the E., Poltava on the S., and Kiev and Minsk on the W. Area, 20,233 sq. m. Its surface is an undulating plain, 650 to 750 ft. high in the north and 370 to 600 ft. in the south, deeply grooved by ravines and the valleys of the rivers. In the north, beyond the Desna river, about one-third of the area is under forest (rapidly disappearing), and marshes occur along the courses of the rivers; while to the south of the Desna the soil is dry and sometimes sandy, and gradually it assumes the characters of a steppe-land as one proceeds southward. The government is drained by the Dnieper, which forms its western boundary for 180 m., and by its tributary the Desna. The latter, which flows through Chernigov for nearly 350 m., is navigable, and timber is brought down its tributaries. The climate is much colder in the wooded tracts of the north than in the south; the average yearly temperature at the city of Chernigov is 44.4° F. (January, 23°; July 68.5°).
The population reached 1,996,250 in 1883, 2,316,818 in 1897, and 2,746,300 (estimate) in 1906. It is chiefly Little Russian (85.6%); but Great Russians (6.1%), mostly Raskolniks, i.e. nonconformists, and White Russians (5.6%) inhabit the northern districts. There are, besides, some Germans, as well as Greeks, at Nyezhin. Agriculture is the principal occupation; in the north, however, many of the inhabitants are engaged in the timber trade, and in the production of tar, pitch, wooden wares, leather goods and so forth. Cattle-breeding is carried on in the central districts. Beet is extensively cultivated. The cultivation of tobacco is increasing. Hemp is widely grown in the north, and the milder climate of the south encourages gardening. Bee-keeping is extensively carried on by the Raskolniks. Limestone, grindstones, china-clay and building-stone are quarried. Manufactures have begun to develop rapidly of late, the most important being sugar-works, distilleries, cloth-mills and glass-works. The government is divided into fifteen districts, their chief towns being Chernigov (q.v.), Borzna (pop. 12,458 in 1897), Glukhov (14,856), Gorodnya (4197), Konotop (23,083), Kozelets (5160), Krolevets (10,375), Mglin (7631), Novgorod-Syeversk (9185), Novozybkov (15,480), Nyezhin (32,481), Oster (5384), Sosnitsa (2507), Starodub (12,451) and Surazh (4004).
CHERNIGOV, a town of Russia, capital of the above government, on the right bank of the Desna, nearly half a mile from the river, 141 m. by rail N.E. of Kiev on a branch line. Pop. (1897) 27,006. It is an archiepiscopal see and possesses a cathedral of the 11th century. In 907 the city is mentioned in the treaty of Oleg as next in importance to Kiev, and in the 11th century it became the capital of the principality of Syeversk and an important commercial city. The Mongol invasion put an end to its prosperity in 1239. Lithuania annexed it in the 14th century, but it was soon seized by Poland, which held it until the 17th century. In 1686 it was definitely annexed to Russia.