TURKISH POSSESSIONS.

Turkey rules over Asia Minor, Palestine, Syria and Arabia, and, of course, the great mass of the people are Mohammedans and the most sacred cities of their religion are found in Arabia. Yet in Asia Minor are to be found large communities of the Armenians and Nestorians clinging to the faith their fathers held long before the birth of Mohammed, and in Syria are the Druses, Nusaereyeb, Maronites, and Syrians or Jacobites, all holding a mixture of paganism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. A large number of Jews have settled in Jerusalem and in other portions of Palestine and are. growing in numbers and influence.

RUSSIAN POSSESSIONS.

Russia has in Asia an area of 6,548,600 square miles and a population of 15,865,740. Of the latter 4,093,535 are in Siberia; 5,237,354 in Turkestan and other Central Asia Provinces; 6,534,853 in Caucasia. The population of Siberia is composed of various tribes and races. More than half are Russians or their descendants who have been sent from Europe into exile. Among the native tribes are the Samoyedes, Ostiaks, Kirghiez, Buriats, Tunguses and Tachooktchis. The Greek religion is dominant, although among the natives are many who cling to the old heathenish beliefs and practices. The Tartars in the Central Provinces are Mohammedans. The inhabitants of Caucasia hold to a religion that is an off-shoot of Mohammedanism, but corrupted from many sources. The religion of the Greek Church is steadily gaining ground among them.

BRITISH POSSESSIONS.

Great Britain has in Asia, Aden, the Keeling Islands, Kurea Murea Islands, the islands of Ceylon, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Labuan, Perim, the Straits Settlements, North Borneo, and India, with an area of 1,845,365 square miles and a population in 1881 of 261,225,095. Aden is an important coaling station on the Arabian

coast on the highway to India. The settlement includes the island Perim at the entrance to the Red Sea. It has an area of 66 square miles and a population of 34,

711.

Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea, abcut 50 miles from the coast of Asia Minor, It has an area of 3,584 square miles, and a population of 186,173, of whom one-fourth are Mohammedan and the rest mainly belong to the Greek Church.

Hong Kong is an island situated off the south-eastern coast of China, at the mouth of the Canton river, about 40 miles east of Macao. It has a length of about II miles, a breadth of from 2 to 5 miles and an area of 29 square miles. It had a population in 1881 of 160,402. It was ceded by China to Great Britain in 1841, and the opposite peninsula of Kowloon was ceded to Great Britain in 1861, and now forms a part of Hong Kong.

Straits Settlements comprise Singapore, Penang, Malacca, and Cocos Islands. Under the heading of Penang are included Penang Island, Province Wellesley, and the Dindings. These all have a population of 423,384, of which 174,392 are Malays, 174,327 are Chinese, and 30,985 are natives of India. In addition the native States of Perak, Selangor and Sungei Ujong on the coast of the continent are under British protection. Singapore is an island about 27 miles long by 14 miles wide, the seat of government being at the town of Singapore. Penang is an island with an area of 107 square miles. Malacca and Province Wellesley are strips of territory on the mainland.

Ceylon is an island 266 miles in length, 140 in width, and with an area of 25,365 square miles. It had a population in 1881 of 2,761,396. The estimated population on December 31, 1885, was 2.798,026. The census of 1881 gave 17,866 Eurasians; 1,846,614 Singhalese; 687,248 Tamils; 184,542 Moormen (descendants of Arabs); 8,895 Malays; 2,228 Veddahs; 7,489 others. Of the

Europeans 4,074 were British. The principal religious creeds were returned as follows: Buddhists, 1,698,070; Hindus, 493,630; Mohammedans, 197,775; Christians, 147,977.

India, including all of Burma, which now belongs to it, had a population in 1881 of 256,982,495 which has now probably increased to over 260,000,000. For further information we refer to GOSPEL IN ALL LANDS for last month.

BELUCHISTAN.

Beluchistan has an area of about 160,000 square miles and a population estimated at 2,700,000. The inhabitants consist of two great varieties, the Belooches and the Barahooes. They are probably of a mixed Tartar and Persian descent. They are Mohammedans of the Sunnee sect. Polygamy is allowed. Their women enjoy a share of freedom. They are said to be hospitable. The government is under various heads, of which the Khan of Kelat is leader in time of war, and a kind of feudal chief in peace.

AFGHANISTAN.

Afghanistan has an estimated population of 4,901,000, about two-thirds of whom are Afghans, and the others are divided into Pathans and a number of other smaller tribes. The settled Afghans form the core of the nation and the main part of the army. Nearly all own the land on which they live. As a race they are handsome and athletic. The woman have fair complexions of the Jewish cast. In religion they are Mohammedans. Persian is the vernacular of a large part of the non-Afghan population, and is familiar to all educated Afghans, but the proper language of the Afghans is Pushtu.

AMEER OF BOKHARA.

AMEER OF AFGHANISTAN.

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Abdul Rahman Khan, the present Ameer or ruler of Afghanistan, was proclaimed Ameer September 22, 1880. He is a grandson of Dost Mahomed. A correspondent of a Paris paper describes him as follows: "Each day with him has its appointed work. Two days a week. are devoted to his correspondence, Monday for that with the upper country (Herat, Candahar, etc.), Thursday for that with the lower country (Cabul, Peshawur and India). On Tuesday he holds his military durbar and receives the officers of the garrison, all of whom dine with him. It is also the day of private reception, or Diwan-i-Hass. On Wednesday and Saturday he administers justice and admits the public to his presence, even to the last beggar. This is called the Diwani-Am. Friday is treated as Sunday is in London—all the bazaars, shops, and the palace itself are closed, the mosques alone remaining open. Sunday is devoted to the Ameer's private affairs. The two most important days are those of the Diwan-i-Am, for the Ameer is above all a dispenser of justice. He dispenses it with his hand on the hilt of his sword. Highway robbers are brought before him and he hears the charge. Then he says one of two things-"Bekoushid," and they cut their throats, or "Gagara kounid," and they lead them off to be hanged If an article is lost on the road no one is allowed to pick it up. If any one does so his hand is cut off. The Ameer has only one wife, Bibi Malika, or the Queen, but he has 101 concubines, called kaniz. By the Queen he has no children (they died), but he has five by four of the kaniz. The eldest, Habibullah, is sixteen years of age, and in default of a legitimate successor is the heir apparent. He was recently married to the daughter of Mahomed Ameen, Brigadier of Cabul, an officer despite his high title possessing no authority."

SIAM.

Siam has an area of about 250,000 square miles and a population of about 6,000,000, of whom 2,000,coo are Siamese; 1,000,000 Chinese; 2,000,000 Laotians; 1,000,000 Malays. Each of the 41 provinces is administered by a governor while there are several tributary districts administered by their own princes. The legislative power is exercised by the king in conjunction with a council of ministers. The present king Chulalonkorn I. was born September 21, 1853, and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, October 1, 1868. The prevailing religion is Buddhism.

PERSIA.

Persia has an area of 628,000 square miles, and a population in 1881 of 7,653,6co. Of these there were 6,860,600 belonging to the Shiah Mohammedan faith, 700,000 to the Sunnis Mohammedan faith; 8,500 Parsis; 19,000 Jews; 43,000 Armenians, and 23,000 Nestorians; the Europeans number about. 400. The Shah or king is Nasr-ed-din. He was born in 1831 and succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, September 10, 1848. "All the laws are based on the precepts of the Koran, and though the power of the Shah is absolute, it is only in so far as it is not opposed to the accepted doctrines of the Mohammedan religion as laid down in the sacred book of the Prophet, his oral commentaries and sayings, and the interpretation of the same by his successors and the high priesthood."

KOREA.

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and recent statistics report a population of 10,528,937The capital, Seoul, has about 250,000 inhabitants. The Chinese system of writing is used. The language is intermediate between Mongolo. Tartar and Japanese. The present king, named Li-Hi in Chinese, was born in 1852, and succeeded to the throne in 1864, but did not ascend the throne until 1873. He has evidenced a patriotic and a progressive spirit. The State religion resembles that of China. Buddhism and the Laotse doctrine prevail among the people, while Confucianism. is common among the upper classes.

JAPAN.

Japan has an area of 148,456 square miles, and a population in 1885 of 37,868,987. The religion of nearly the whole of the lower classes is Buddhism, with about one-fifth adherents of Shintoism. The system of government is that of absolute monarchy. The power of the Mikado or Emperor is absolute and unlimited in legislative, executive and judicial matters. The present Mikado is Mutsuhito, born November 3, 1852, and succeeded his father in 1867. He has promised that the first National Assembly shall meet in 1890, and is educating his people for it. (For further information" respecting Japan see GOSPEL IN ALL LANDS for June.)

CHINA.

north-west, Tibet and East Turkestan in the west. The island of Formosa, belonging to China, has an area of 14,978 square miles. The bulk of the people of China are Buddhists, but there are many adherents of Confucianism and Taoism. The present Emperor, Tsait'ien, was born in 1871 and succeeded to the throne January 22, 1875. He is surnamed Kwangsu and is the ninth Emperor of China of the Tartar dynasty of Ts'ing. (For further information see GOSPEL IN ALL LANDS for July.)

The Koords of Asia Minor.

BY REV. EDWARD RIGGS.

The traveler in Eastern Asia Minor will frequently meet, and soon learn to recognize, the swarthy features, lithe, erect figure and fantastic costumes of the Koords. The question then arises, "Who and what are these strange people"? Though nominally Mohammedans, they are not Turks. Though a subject race, they are wild and free as the mountain breeze. Though proverbially the robbers of the region they frequent, they are yet generous, hospitable and gallant. To the ethnologist they have been a sore trouble, for it seems as difficult to trace their origin or their history as it is for the Turkish governors to collect from them the traditional taxes. In a country where traveling facilities are poor, and hence interchange of ideas is sluggish, and where religious distinctions and social prejudices are strong, especially those between an oppressive ruling race and the vengeful and unwilling subject races, it is natural to find each class and race tenaciously retaining the distinctive peculiarities transmitted to them from their ancestors. Thus we find the Koords, though under different governments and scattered over wide extents of country, still much alike in character, and constantly manifesting their striking national characteristics. Not only so, but it would seem that the lapse of a score of centuries has been unable to effect any great change in these tenacious traits. When the younger Cyrus left his ten thousand Greek mercenaries to work their perilous retreat through a hostile country, toward the Black Sea, they were obliged to pass through the rocky uplands occupied by this ancient race, and the faithful historian, Xenophon, has accurately depicted them very much as they are found. by the traveler of to-day. He calls them the "Korduchi," and the modern guide-book to Asia Minor will do well to make some extracts from the fourth book of the Anabasis.

It is difficult to ascertain the number of these people, but they are estimated to be over three millions. Their proper country lies partly in Turkey, and partly over the boundary, in Persia; but they are scattered also in clans and groups all through Armenia and Asia Minor. Theoretically they are subject to the Turks and Persians, but they are a sturdy, liberty-loving race, and their mountain fastnesses afford them retreats from which no organized army has ever succeeded in completely dislodging them.

Among themselves there are many distinctions of tribes and clan, and many local differences of habit and administration; but through them all runs a sort of social line, dividing them into two distinct classes corresponding somewhat to patrician and plebeian, or to aristocracy and commonality. Between these two classes there are marked differences of character and habit, and sometimes their jealousies have plunged them into fratricidal feuds.

Their language also shows many varieties of dialect, but is, in the main, one and peculiar. In its original stock it shows no affinity to any other known language, though its long-continued contact with the Persian tongue has resulted in its absorbing some elements from that. They possess no distinct alphabet, but for their few rude purposes they have used the Arabic, and sometimes the Armenian letters. By these means they have developed and preserved a very meager literature, consisting of a few songs, patriotic or erotic, and a few religious theses, which add but little to the mass of human learning.

The character of these wild mountaineers is a curious study. They may be considered as typical of a class of simple, vigorous, semi-savage peoples, somewhat resembling our North American aborigines, though perhaps more like the romantic ideal depicted by Cooper and others than the baser character which a closer acquaintance with the Indian has taught us is really his. The Koords are, for the most part, nomadic in their habits, raising cattle, and following their flocks and herds from one quickly exhausted pasturage to another. This occupation often brings them into conflict with the more permanent inhabitants, and they are sometimes called the Arabs of the North, their hand being against every one, and every one's hand being against them.

Their wildness and simplicity are manifested in their dress. Extravagantly fond of gay colors, they make a very picturesque appearance. Bright-striped girdle, stuck full of dirks and pistols, richly wrought leggings, flowing sleeves, and above all an elaborate turban, formed of endless involutions of glittering silk or woolen stuff, with a profusion of long fringes dangling down over face and neck, combine to make the well-to-do Koord the dream of the artist and the envy of the poorer clansman, who cannot afford such finery, but succeeds in making a striking imitation with inferior material. Mounted on his spirited, lithe horse, which is also gayly caparisoned with colors and pendants, this dashing guerilla, with his long lance poised, or in later times, a long, slender rifle in its place, looks indeed a veritable lord of the highlands. Is it surprising, then, that they have a well-earned reputation as robbers? All their circumstances tend to make highway robbery a very natural and apparently trivial affair, and instances are not wanting of the exhibition of that spirit of gallantry toward the poor and weak, in connection with such adventures, which forms the basis of many a romantic tale.