The total trade passing through Kuwēt in 1904-1905 was valued at £160,000. The imports include arms and ammunition, piece goods, rice, coffee, sugar, &c.; and the exports, horses, pearls, dates, wool, &c. The steamers of the British India Steamship Company call fortnightly.
(R. A. W.)
KUZNETSK, two towns of Russia. (1) A town in the government of Saratov, 74 m. by rail east of Penza. It has grown rapidly since the development of the railway system in the Volga basin. It has manufactures of agricultural machinery and hardware, in a number of small factories and workshops, besides tanneries, rope-works, boot and shoe making in houses, and there is considerable trade in sheepskins, grain, salt and wooden goods exported to the treeless regions of south-east Russia. Pop. (1897), 21,740. (2) A town in West Siberia, in the government of Tomsk, 150 m. E.N.E. of Barnaul, on the Upper Tom river, at the head of navigation. It has trade in grain, cattle, furs, cedarwood, nuts, wax, honey and tallow, and is the centre of a coal-mining district. Pop. (1897), 3141.
KVASS, or Kwass (a Russian word for “leaven”), one of the national alcoholic drinks of Russia, and popular also in eastern Europe. It is made, by a simultaneous acid and alcoholic fermentation, of wheat, rye, barley and buckwheat meal or of rye-bread, with the addition of sugar or fruit. It has been a universal drink in Russia since the 16th century. Though in the large towns it is made commercially, elsewhere it is frequently an article of domestic production. Kvass is of very low alcoholic content (0.7 to 2.2%). There are, beside the ordinary kind, superior forms of the drink, such as apple or raspberry kvass.
KWAKIUTL, a tribe of North-American Indians of Wakashan stock. They number about 2000. Formerly the term was used of the one tribe in the north-east of Vancouver, but now it is the collective name for a group of Wakashan peoples. The Kwakiutl Indians are remarkable for their conservatism in all matters and specially their adherence to the custom of Potlatch, which it is sometimes suggested originated with them. Tribal government is in the hands of secret societies. There are three social ranks, hereditary chiefs, middle and third estates, most of the latter being slaves or their descendants. Entry to the societies is forbidden the latter, and can only be obtained by the former after torture and fasting. The hamatsa or cannibal society is only open to those who have been members of a lower society for eight years.