Buryat

Buryat, a large Mongol people of South Siberia, of whom there are eleven main divisions, four E. and seven W. of Lake Baikal, their whole domain extending from the head-streams of the Tunguska to the confluence of the Shilka and Argun. They call themselves Hunn, i.e. "men," and are traditionally a branch of the Kalmucks (West Mongolians), but since the twelfth century settled in their present homes. Those of the Irkutsk are still Shamanists, the rest Buddhists; their speech is a Mongolian dialect, of which G. Balinth has published a grammar and vocabulary (Pesth, 1877). All are stock breeders. They are diminishing in numbers, having fallen from 224,000 in 1860 to 210,000 in 1880.