Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/14

 K A R K A R the buildings in the town. About 2000 of the Jews are what are known as Krimtchaks, or sometimes as Cou- stantinopolitan Jews. From the ordinary &quot;rabbinical Jews&quot; of Russia they differ by wearing the Tartar costume ani by the use of the Tartar tongue, instead of the German jargon. They are engaged in making leather, ; Tartar knives, Tartar embroidery, and similar articles. The population of Karasu-Bazar is given by the St Petersburg Calendar for 1874 as 14,397. Round about the town , lie cemeteries of unusual extent. By Thnnman and others Karasu-Ba?ar has been identified with | the Greek town of Mauron-Kastron, but Professor Brulm thinks { that, as there has never apparently been any fortress at Karasu-Bazar, the site of the &quot;Black Castle&quot; is more probably at Hangup-Kale. The caves of Akkaya, however, give evidence of early occupation of the spot. When in 1736 Khan Feta Ghirei was driven by the Russians from Bakhchisarai he settled at Karasu-Bazar, but next year the town was captured, plundered, and burned by General Douglas. 1 n 1784 it was the temporary seat of the Russian adminis tration of the Crimea. KARATCHEFF, a tjwn of Russia, in the government of Orel, nsar the rivjr Snezheti, 59 miles north-west from Orel on the railway to Smolensk. The population is given in ths St Petersburg Calendar for 1874 at 10,023. A yearly fair is held in the adjoining village of Berezhka, and a good trade is carried on in agricultural produce, as well as in the oil, wax candles, ropas, fcc., furnished by the local industry. Karatcheff is mentioned as early as 1146. In the 17th century it was one of the frontier or &quot; watch &quot; towns of Russia towards the Crimea, and sent out its scouts as far as Kursk. About half the inhabitants perished of the plague in 1654. Only since 1778 has the town been at the head of a district in Orel ; it formerly belonged to the governments of Kieff (1708) and Bielgorod (1732). KARATEGIN&quot;, a country of Central Asia, now subject to Bokhara, consisting of a highland district between the Hissar and the Darwaz chains. It is bounded on the N. by the Russian province of Ferghana (Khokand), on the E. by j Ivishgar, on the S. by independent Darwaz, and on the W. by Htssar and other Bokharian provinces. The plateau is traversed by the Surkhab or Kyzyl Su, a right-hand tribu tary of tlie Oxus, which rises in the Alai mountains, and for the first 132 miles of its course &quot;runs through gorges of extreme wildness.&quot; Below the hamlet of Khantia-hota (according to Abrunof), the valley widens considerably, and at Sar-i-pul, the only point where it is crossed by a bridge, the river has a eleptb of 7 feet. With the neigh bouring lands Karategin has no communication except during summer, that is, from May to September. The winter climate is extremely severe even in the more popu lous districts ; the snow begins to fall in October, and it is May before it disappears. During the warmer months, how ever, the mountain sides are richly clothed with the foliage of maple, mountain ash, apple, pear, and walnut trees ; the orchards furnish, not only apples and pears, but poaches, cherries, mulberries, and apricots ; and the farmers grow so ] much corn that the surplus is a regular article of export to the neighbouring states. Every householder lias a portion of the soil which he can call his own; but if he leave it fallow for more than three years in succession, he runs the risk of having it confiscated by the Government. Some proprietors possess as much as from 300 to 500 acres, and keep from ten to twelve yoke of work oxen and from six to twelve labourers. The necessity of storing fodder to last for five months tends to keep low the number of domestic cattle. Both cattle and horses are of a small and hardy breed. The wild animals bears, wolves, foxes, jackals, lynxes, martens, otters, &c. are of no small economic im portance; but tlie hunters and trappers are obliged to sell their pelts to the Government at half the market price. Rough woollen cloth and mohair are woven by the natives during their long winter; and they make excellent fire- arms and other weapons. Trade is still carried on by barter, there being neither coinage nor fixed market-place in the country. Foreign wares iron, cotton, silk, combs, mirrors, soap, &c. are introduced by merchants from Kashgar and Hissar, who receive in exchange mainly cattle, hides, and skins. Gold, how r ever, is found in various places, more particularly at Saryrn Saly (according to Abramof) ; and there are salt-pits in the mountains near Langar-slia. The chief town, Harm or Gharm, is a place of some eight hundred houses (Arandarenko says three hundred and forty) situated on a hill on the right bank of the Surkhab. With the exception of about five thousand tents of nomadizing Kirghiz, the inhabitants of Kara tegin are understood to be Galtchas by some identified with, by others distinguished from the Tadjiks. They speak a Persian dialect and profess the Mohammedan faith. Schuyler, who met with some of them at Khokand, de scribes the Karateginese as swarthy, thickset, good-natured fellows, who, gathered in a circle, would after prayers and supper tell tale after tale and legend after legend till they dropped off to sleep. It is calculated that the settled popu lation of Karategin may amount to about 382,000 souls, the number of households being 36,672, distributed among four hundred settlements. Karategin has hardly been touched by European exploration (the first expedition was that of Oshanin in 1878) ; and of its his tory almost nothing is knovn. The native princes or shahs, who claimed to be descended from Alexander the Great, were till 1868 practically independent, and kept up a considerable degree of state. Their allegiance was indeed claimed in an ineffective way by Khokand, but eventually Bokhara took advantage of intestine feuds to secure their real submission. Some geographers (Kiepert, for example) have been disposed to recognize in Karategin the 1 araetaceni of Alexander s historians, and Colonel Yule has con- jecturally identified it with the Ilolumo (Garma ?) of Hwen Tsang. See Abramof in Journ. Roy. Gcogr. Soc., 1871 ; Arandarenko s paper in the Russische Jlcvuc, epitomized in Das Ausland, 1878; and letters from Oshanin in Globus, 1878. See also Colonel Yule s essay prefixed to Wood s Journey to the Source of (he Hirer Oxus, 1S72. KARAULI, or KEROWLY, a native state in Rajputana, India, lying between 26 3 and 26 49 N. lat., and between 76 35 and 77 26 E. long. It is entirely surrounded by neighbouring states, and lias an area of about 1260 miles, and an estimated population of 140,000. Almost the entire territory is composed of hills and broken ground, but there are no lofty peaks, the highest having an elevation of less than 1400 feet above sea-level. The Chambal river flows along the south-east boundary of the state. Iron ore and building stone comprise the mineral resources of Karauli. The prevailing agricultural products are bcijra and jodr, which form the staple food of the people. The only manufactures consist of a little weaving, dyeing, wood-turning, and stone-cutting. The principal imports are piece goods, salt, sugar, cotton, buf faloes, and bullocks ; the exports rice and goats. The Bnilirnans form the most numerous class of the population. The Minas, who come next, make up the bulk of the culti vating class. The Rajputs, although numerically few, con stitute the most important section. These belong almost entirely to the Jadu clan ; they make good soldiers, but are indifferent agriculturists. The feudal aristocracy of the state consists entirely of Jadu thakurs connected with the ruling house. They pay a tribute in lieu of constant military service, but in case of emergency or on occasions of state display they are bound to attend on the chief with their retainers. The maharaja is the head of the clan, which claims descent from Krishna. KARAULI, or KEROWLY, the capital of the above state, is situated in 26 30 N. lat. and 77 4 E. long. The town, which is fortified, is surrounded by a wall of sand stone, and is also protected on the north and east by deep