^* That is, the South African War of 1899–1902. [A. M.]

 

^* The Mordva (or Mordvinian) and Tchouvash tribes are of Finnish origin, and inhabit chiefly the governments of the Middle Volga. [A. M.]

 

^* Pollice verso (‘thumb down’) was the sign given in the Roman amphitheatres by the spectators who wished a defeated gladiator to be slain. [A. M.]

 

^* The word government is frequently used in an indefinite sense as almost equivalent to management or direction; but in the sense in which the word is used in the present article, the characteristic feature of a Government is that it claims a moral right to inflict physical penalties, and by its decree to make murder a good action. [A. M.]

 

^* Boris Godunof, brother-in-law of the weak Tsar Fyodor Ivanovitch, succeeded in becoming Tsar, and reigned in Moscow from 1598 to 1605. [A. M.]

^† Gregory Otrepyef was a pretender who, passing himself off as Dimitry, son of Ivan the Terrible, reigned in Moscow in 1605 and 1606. [A. M.]

^‡ Pougatchef was the leader of a most formidable insurrection in 1773–75, and was executed in Moscow in 1775. [A. M.]

 

^* The Circassians, when surrounded, used to tie themselves together leg to leg, that none might escape, but all die fighting. Instances of this kind occurred when their country was being annexed by Russia. [A. M.]