is the name of a people inhabiting Eastern Russia. They form a subdivision of the Bulgaric or Volgaic family of the Finnic branch of the Suranian, Uralo-Altaic, or Mongolian races, and are related to the Tcheremisses and Tchuvashes. Their number has been estimated at 400,000, and their territory lies principally between the rivers Oka and Volga, in the Russian governments of Nishni No-vgorod, Tambov, Pensa, Simbrisk, and Saratov, extending also into Samara and Astrachan. Dialectically they may be subdivided into Mokzhas, chiefly dwelling on the banks of the Sura and Mokzha, and Ersas, occupying the shores of the Oka.