BUDINI  , an

ancient nation in the N.E. of the Scythia (q.v.) of Herodotus (iv . 21, to8, 109), probably on the middle course of the Volga about Samara . They#re described as light-eyed and red-haired, and lived by hunting in their thick forests . They were probably Finns of the branch now represented by the Votiaks and Permiaks, forced northwards by later immigrants . In their country was a wooden city inhabited by a distinct race, the Geloni, who seem to have spoken an Indo-European tongue . Later writers add nothing to our knowledge, and are chiefly interested in the tarandus, an animal which dwelt in the woods of the Budini and seems to have been the reindeer (Aristotle ap . Aelian, Hist . Anim. xv . 33) . (E . H .