a people that inhabit the Russian province of Orenburg in Asia, on the south side of the river Ural. These Cossacks are descended from those of the Don: they are a very valiant race. They profess the Greek religion; but there is a kind of dissenters from the established religion, whom the Russians called Rokolniki, or Separatists, and who style themselves Staroveri, or Old Believers. They confi- der the service of the established church as profane and factious, and have their own priests and ceremonies.

The Uralian Cossacks are all enthusiastic for the ancient ritual, and prize their beards almost equal to their lives. A Russian officer having ordered a number of Cossack recruits to be publicly shaved in the town of Yarik, in 1771, this wanton insult excited an insurrection, which was suppressed for a time; but, in 1773, that daring impostor, Pugatchef, having assumed the name and person of Peter III., appeared among them, and taking advantage of this circumstance, and of their religious prejudices, roused them once more into open rebellion. This being at last effectually suppressed by the defeat and execution of the impostor (See Suworow, Suppl.), in order to extinguish all remembrance of this rebellion, the river Yaik was called Urak; the Yaik Cossacks were denominated Uralian Cossacks; and the town of Yaik, Uralia. The Uralian Cossacks enjoy the right of fishing on the coast of the Caspian Sea, for 47 miles on each side of the river Ural. Their principal fishery is for sturgeon and beluga, whose roe supplies large quantities of caviar; and the fish, which are chiefly salted and dried, afford a considerable article of consumption in the Russian empire. In consequence of these fisheries, these Cossacks are very rich.