316

PRIMARY DIVISIONS OF THE EASTERN RACES.

range both of vegetation and animal life. As domestic animals, there was the elephant in the intertropical jungles of Siam, and the yak on the snowy Alps of Tibet. There was rice, as a cereal, and millet, as a cereal. In China there were the tea-tree and the silk-worm. A remark or two on the phenomena of speech will now lead us to the next group.

The relations of time and place, in the languages of the previous group, have been expressed by separate words placed in juxtaposition, but not incorporated, with each other. But what if such words, originally distinct, unite? In such a case we have the beginning of a system of inflection. The structure of languages in this stage of development is said to be agglutinate. Here one word is incorporated with another; at the same time the fusion of the two is sufficiently incomplete for the original and independent character of the annexed word to show itself.

GROUP II.-TURANIANS.-Physiognomy: Mongol.-Language: Agglutinate.-Area : Mongolia, Mantshuria (the parts north of Pekin-the valley of the River Amur, Selinga, or Saghalin), Siberia, Independent Tartary, Chinese Tartary, Turkistan, Anatolia, Roumelia (or Turkey in Europe), parts of Bokhara, Persia, Armenia, Syria, the Crimea; Lapland, Finland, Esthonia, Livonia, the Russian governments of Archangel, Olonetz, Novogorod, St. Petersburg, Tver, Yaroslav, Vologda, Permia, Viatka, Kazan, Simbirsk, Saratov, Astrakhan, Caucasus, Nizhninovogorod, Penza, Tambov-Hungary-the Kurile Isles, Japan, Kamskatka.

Primary Divisions.-1. The Mongolian stock. 2. The Tungusian stock. 3. The Turk stock. 4. The Ugrian stock. 5. The Peninsular stock.

These five divisions constitute the great Turanian class, which some call Scythian. The proposed name is Persian. Much as the Greeks and Romans called all nations except themselves barbarians, the ancient Persian, designated by the name Turan all those parts of Central and Northern Asia from which so many wild and formidable enemies were in the habit of descending upon the south. The ancestors of the Turks, Mongols and Ugrians, were assuredly among them.

The Mongolians.-Bounded by Tibet, China, the Mantshu country, Siberia, Independent Tartary, and Chinese Tartary, lies, in the centre of Asia, the country of the Mongols, or Mongolians Proper, the Mongols, or Mongolians, in the limited and special sense of the word.

Kiatka, their frontier town, on the boundaries of Russia and China, lies more than 2400 feet above the sea-level-without being situated on a mountain. This, as Mr. St.. John remarks in his paper on the Mongols, is higher than "the towns of the Hartz, or the Swiss Alps; and there is a continual rise to Urga." In fact, Mongolia is the most elevated part of the great Asiatic steppe-the watershed to two systems of rivers, the rivers that, like the Yenesy and the Lena, fall into the Arctic Sea, and the rivers that, like the Hoang-ho, the Menam, and the Mekhong, fall into the China Sea. Mongolia is the widest watershed in the world-extreme in climate, bare in surface. And the Mongolians are the most nomadic of populations. The horse, the sheep, and the small black buffalo of the steppes are their domestic animals; their home, the tent; their food, milk more than flesh, and flesh more than corn.

We are prepared for the physiognomy of the Mongolians-for his flat face and broad skull, and for the oblique eye; for exaggerations of the Chinese types. The current power of the term Mongolian, in its wider and more general sense, implies this. Add "Journal of the Ethnological Society," vol. i.

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to this, that the nation lives almost on horseback, and has the legs short, the feet small, the calves undeveloped, and the knees bent out; with thick thighs, small waists, and long vigorous arms. The statement, that the breadth between the eyes is that of a man' hand, is an exaggeration; so is the statement that a ruler laid across the two cheekbones would pass over the depressed nose without touching it. The nasal bones are certainly but little elevated; but in the case of the eyes the distance is apparent rather than real. The inner margin of the orbits, the eye itself, are not inordinately separated from each other. It is the crescentic fold at the inner angle of the eye, covering as it does the lacrymal gland, that gives the breadth. The insertion of the teeth is oblique; the upper maxillary bone massive; the zygomas curved outwards. It is this outward curve of the zygomas that makes faces fiat; and the size of the maxillary that gives them roundness and fulness in the middle parts. If the lower jaw also be massive, the face is round or square; but it is often pointed, and so the face gets compared to the lower half of a lozenge.

This physiognomy is uniform throughout Mongolia, and the habits of the Mongolian are uniform also.

The great conqueror, Zingiz-Khan, was a Mongolian. He is generally spoken of as a Tartar, but Mongolian is the better term. Zingiz-Khan was a Mongolian and not a Turk. Tamerlane was a Turk and not a Mongolian. China was conquered by the Mongols rather than by the Turks; India by the Turks rather than the Mongols. Yet India is the empire of the Great Mogul, and both conquests are called Tartar conquests. Under Zengiz-Khan and his immediate successor, all the parts between the China Sea and the frontier of Bavaria were overrun by Mongols.

At present, the Mongolians are quiet, peaceable Buddhists-no conquerors at all, but rather monkish-minded men, subject to China- a few to Russia. Such being the case, it is difficult to realize a notion as to what they were when Europe trembled at their name. The notices of the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, who visited the court or camp of the grandson of Zengiz-Khan, best help us here.

"The Tartars,"

In their nomadic habits they were much the same then as now. so writes Marco Polo, meaning by Tartars the Mongolians, "never remain fixed, but as the winter approaches remove to the plains of a warmer region, in order to find sufficient pasture for their cattle; and in summer they frequent cold situations in the mountains, where there is water and verdure, and their cattle are free from the annoyance of horse-flies and other biting insects. During two or three months they progressively ascend higher ground, and seek fresh pasture; the grass not being adequate in any one place to feed the multitudes of which their herds and flocks consist. Their huts or tents are formed of rods covered with felt, and being exactly round, and nicely put together, they can gather them into one bundle, and make them up as packages, which they carry along with them in their migrations, upon a sort of car with four wheels. When they have occasion to set them up again, they always make the entrance front to the south. Besides these cars, they have a superior kind of vehicle, upon two wheels, covered likewise with felt, and so effectually as to protect those within it from wet, during a whole day of rain. These are drawn by oxen and camels, and serve to convey their wives and children, their utensils, and such provisions as they require. The women attend to their trading concerns, buy and sell, and provide everything necessary for their nusbands and their families; the time of the men being entirely devoted to the employment of hunting and hawking, and matters that relate to military life. They have the best falcons in the world, and also the best dogs.

318

MANNERS AND HABITS OF THE MONGOLIANS.

They subsist entirely upon flesh and milk, eating the produce of their sport, and a certain small animal, not unlike a rabbit, called by our people Pharaoh's mice, which, during the summer season, are found in great abundance in the plains. But they likewise eat flesh of every description, horses, camels, and even dogs, provided they are fat. They drink mares' milk, which they prepare in such a manner that it has the qualities and flavour of white wine." This is much similar to what takes place at present.

They were polygamists, and that of a peculiar kind. "The men are allowed the indulgence of taking as many wives as they choose. Their expense to the husband is not great, and on the other hand the benefit he derives from their trading, and from the occupations in which they are constantly engaged, is considerable; on which account it is, that when he receives a young woman in marriage, he pays a dower to her parent. The wife who is the first espoused has the privilege of superior attention, and is held to be the most legitimate, which extends also to the children borne by her. In consequence of this unlimited number of wives, the offspring is more numerous than amongst any other people. Upon the death of the father, the son may take to himself the wives he leaves behind, with the exception of his own mother. They cannot take their sisters to wife; but upon the death of their brothers they can marry their sisters-in-law. Every marriage is solemnized with great ceremony."

More valuable are the scanty notices of their original Pagan creed, now displaced by Buddhism. "They believe in a Deity whose nature is sublime and heavenly. To him they burn incense in censers, and offer up prayers for the enjoyment of intellectual and bodily health. They worship another likewise, named Natigay, whose image, covered with felt or other cloth, every individual preserves in his house. To this deity they associate a wife and children, placing the former on his left side, and the latter before him, in a posture of reverential salutation. Him they consider as the divinity who presides over their terrestrial concerns, protects their children, and guards their cattle and their grain. They show him great respect; and at their meals they never omit to take a fat morsel of the flesh, and with it to grease the mouth of the idol, and at the same time the mouths of its wife and children. They then throw out of the door some of the liquor in which the meat has been dressed, as an offering to the other spirits. This being done, they consider that their deity and his family have had their proper share, and proceed to eat and drink without further ceremony. The rich amongst these people dress in cloth of gold and silks, with skins of the sable, the ermine, and other animals. All their accoutrements are of an expensive kind."

Barbarous in their funeral ceremonies, they made it an "invariable custom that all the grand kans, and chiefs of the race of Chingis-kan, should be carried for interment to a certain lofty mountain, named Altai; and in whatever place they may happen to die, although it should be at the distance of a hundred days' journey, they are, nevertheless, conveyed thither. It is likewise the custom, during the progress of removing the bodies of these princes, for those who form the escort to sacrifice such persons as they chance to meet on the road, saying to them, 'Depart for the next world, and there attend upon your deceased master!' being impressed with the belief that all whom they thus slay do actually become his servants in the next life. They do the same also with respect to horses, killing the best of the stud, in order that he may have the use of them. When the corpse of Mongù was transported to this mountain, the horsemen who accompanied it, having this blind and horrible persuasion, slew upwards of ten thousand persons who fell in their way."

The organization of a people of conquerors always commands attention; and Marco

SYSTEM OF WAR AMONG THE MONGOLIANS.

319

Polo's narrative supplies information on this point :-"When one of the great Tartar chiefs proceeds on an expedition, he puts himself at the head of an army of a hundred thousand horse, and organizes them in the following manner :-He appoints an officer to the command of every ten men, and others to command a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand men respectively. Thus ten of the officers commanding ten men take their orders from him who commands a hundred; of these, each ten from him who commands a thousand; and each ten of these latter from him who commands ten thousand. By this arrangement, each officer has only to attend to the management of ten men, or ten bodies of men; and when the commander of these hundred thousand men has occasion to make a detachment for any particular service, he issues his orders to the commanders of ten thousand to furnish him with a thousand men each; and these, in the like manner, to the commanders of a thousand, who give their orders to those commanding a hundred, until the order reaches those commanding ten, by whom the number required is immediately supplied to their superior officers. A hundred men are in this manner delivered to every officer commanding a thousand, and a thousand men to every officer commanding ten thousand. The drafting takes place without delay, and all are implicitly obedient to their respective superiors. Every company of a hundred men is denominated a tuc, and ten of these constitute a toman.

"When the army proceeds on service, a body of men is sent two days' march in advance, and parties are stationed upon each flank and in the rear, in order to prevent its being attacked by surprise. When the service is distant, they carry but little with them, and that, chiefly, what is requisite for their encampment, and utensils for cooking. They subsist for the most part upon milk, as has been said. Each man has, on an average, eighteen horses and mares, and when that which they ride is fatigued, they change it for another. They are provided with small tents made of felt, under which they shelter themselves against rain. Should circumstances render it necessary, in the execution of a duty that requires dispatch, they can march for ten days together without dressing victuals: during which time they subsist upon the blood drawn from their horses, each man opening a vein and drinking from his own cattle. They make provision also of milk, thickened and dried to the state of a hard paste (or curd), which is called kumis."

The Mongolians are related, on the one hand, to the Turk, on the other to the Tungusian stocks-to the Turks on the west, to the Tungusians on the north and east. The first in order of notice will be

The Tungusians.-The Russian government of Irkutsk is the great centre of this stock, but they also extend beyond it. There are Tungusians as far west as the river Yenisey, and Tungusians as far east as the sea of Okotsk. There are Tungusians at the neck of the peninsula of Kamskatka, and Tungusians all along the northern frontier of China. Indeed, the Chinese and Tungusian boundaries touch each other; the Chinese being the population that encroaches. We find this if we read about the parts north of the Great Wall, or if we study the geography of the great river Amur, or Selinga. Different maps give us different names. The older are Tungusian, the newer Chinese. In several, the nomenclature is bilingual. There is the original Tungusian name for a place, and there is the Chinese synonym or translation of it. So that, in respect to industry, commercial enterprize, and the other means by which, during a time of peace, one nation encroaches on another, the Chinese may reasonably be supposed to have the advantage. He helps to civilize the Tungusian. This is what the Greek did with the Roman. The Roman, nevertheless, was the lord and master, the

conqueror in the time of war. And so it is here. The last of the so-called Tartar dynasties that conquered China, the dynasty that, at the present moment, rules the Celestial Empire, the dynasty attacked by the present rebels, is a Tungusian dynasty.

Speaking specifically, the present ruling dynasty is Mantshu; but the Mantshu is only one division amongst many. The generic name for the class to which it belongs is Tungusian. It is scarcely a native term-not at least as a collective designation. Some of the particular tribes call themselves beye (men); some donki (people); but a collective generic name for the whole is wanting. Tongusian, however, has arisen out of the word donki, which, when adopted by the Chinese, becomes Tung-chu.

Some of the Tungusians are subject to Russia, some to China; if, indeed, we may call any members of the stock to which the ruling dynasty belongs by the name of subject. The Daourian division lies on the frontier of the two empires.

The name implies this. Daouria means a boundary, border, or march; so that the Daourian Tungusians are the marchmen or borderers of the Russo-Chinese border. Their creed, for the most part, coincides with their political distribution. In China they are Buddhists, like the Mongols; in Russia, imperfect (very imperfect) Christians of the Greek Church, and Shamanist Pagans. More of this latter creed survives amongst the Tungusians than amongst the Mongols. No wonder. The Tungusians lie furthest north; so that civilizing influences from the south reached them last. Their alphabet came from the Mongols, as that of the Mongols did from the Uighur Turks, and that of the Uighur Turks from the Syrian Christians. It is only the Mantshu dialect to which this alphabet has been extended. The rest are unwritten. They

are numerous.

Some of the Tungusians tattoo their faces. Some occupy an area north of the range of the horse, and within that of the rein-deer. This gives us a division into the Reindeer-tribes and the Horse-tribes. Lastly, the Tungusians of the extreme north drive dogs instead of deer-so that there is a third division founded upon the use of the three different domestic animals. The coldest parts of all Asia lie within the Tungusian area; and in the Tungusian area the hardiest trees disappear soonest. All beyond the tree-line the line of the birch and willow-is tundra; a name implying the absence of trees, along with the preponderance of black bog and moor and cold swamp over the arid levels of the steppe. The steppe is bare and dry; the tundra bare and water-logged.

As compared with the nations to the north of them, the Tungusians seem to have been conquerors and intruders.

In more than one place they seem to have pressed forwards between populations originally continuous. Thus some of the populations of the Obi and Yenesey are more closely connected with the tribes of the Indijerka and Kolyma than they are with the interjacent Tungusians of the parts between the Yenesey and the Lena. This looks as if the direction of the Tungusians had been from south to north, probably from the south-east.

The history of the Tungusians begins but late, inasmuch as they lay beyond the pale of Greek, Roman, and Arab intercourse. The Turks came in contact with western nations first; the Mongols next; the Tungusians last. The Chinese histories mention an important tribe called Niuju, which was certainly Tungusian, probably Mantshu. But, even in Chinese history, they play a less prominent part than the Mongols.

The following names, common in maps and travels, are the names of different divisions of the Tungusians-Mantshu, Daourians, Tshapojirs, Lamuts.