leads us certainly to Mount Ararat in. Armenia for the resting
place of the ark, but that isffarirom Caucasus.,
From the use of the terms Caucasian and Mongolian races,
a common notion has. arisen that there are fwo separate human
families, one of which, came into existence on Caucasus,
and the other in Mongolia, and that they gave origin respectively
to the nations of Europe and of northern Asia. As this opinion
is altogether groundless, it will be right to -avoid the
terms which appear to give it sanction. I shall ^distinguish
the two* .classes of nations already mentioned, as great departments
of the human family, differing physically, and inhabiting
from remote ages different geographical^ positions, bu t
without building any hypothesis as to • their origih,%or. assuming
any affinity between the nations belonging to each
class, anterior to the origin of languages and the early glimmerings
of the light of history. In describing, however, the
physical characters of these nations, it'will.he^necessary to
adopt_.some epithet, which may comprise all the different
branches of each department when they are to h e spoken .of
collectively. To attain this end, I shall hava-reeo#rs(e . to.va
quarter from whence no similar misconception is/likely.-to;
arise.-
In the ancient mythical traditions and poetical history, of
the East, two classes of nations are distinguished from each
other, as contrasted in character, and as engaged th.e
earliest times in “perpetual enmities. Turan and Iran, coinciding
with the northern and the southern regions.alcove
defined, are the countries where they have always rdwelt,
and where these: nations carry on still the same conflicts
which their forefathers waged in the days of Feridtin and
Afrasiab;*! The more compendious accounts p feastern affairs
collected by the Greeks are sufficient to identify these nations
with the Scythians and with the Medo-Persians, whose
mutual invasions were" briefly recorded by Herodotus, and by
Trpgus Pompeius, and who disputed between them for ages
the sovereignty of Upper Asia. The Scythians were the
nations of the north, beyond Mount Imaus, of whom some
branches at an earlier period had reached the neighbourhood
ofCólchis. There is’jteàfefâ&h, tts* Niebuhr has in the
notices left by Hippocratesp<ff'-their physical traits to identify
them with the^elh^ 'of1 nations whom I shall comprise under
tHe‘ indefinite and Ihëtefére Moré ^bonv’enient designation of
Turanian. That'h^lû^wiH|^lfvé 'fherpûtp'ose of'a général
appellatiôh'foyt'Mi^Hh^PÆês" ‘ofr'inéç* who' inhabit the^reginn
northward of the Oxus- 'and Imai'is^ro r the line before
•described1 ;'’%n<3? < who display m'oré or less, and in mere or
'ffev^r^óf theiffktibeS; the samd‘’ physical character with the
Mongöle's ‘and Kalmuks, yet can ’fôÿno'hneans he Identified or
connected ‘with?thempby any prhi#of-national affinity. For
the mote Southerly nations, resembling th e ancient Persians in
physical c h a r a c t e r , t h e fêâtfiïèspef 'tkat^.bëdplèï’p'ourtrayed
on thé shulpiuréè of Istakhar or Pet^epbus -^ufficlèritly5,testify,
we ‘ffiay:adopt f,the term draniah{,às-,adistinctivé epithet.
Late researches^ confirming the speculations of 'Sir William
J orieSThaVê^èbown it t<y be extremely probâble'dhat the régiön
ófiLPhpier Asia, termed Iran, was Hhé primitive sèat'iofr those
families of natibhswho hâve most extensively spread the same
type df feathres’. In the borders of these countries; we find
on Otte feme the-Semitic nations, the Indians the other, the
Armenians and the different branched of the Ind-oOEuropeân
fâniilÿ ektëndîng’ toward’&'bhe west. To' the la tte r the fêrin
#âpètie Ms beenajiprop'riàtëâfry'Schlbtzer, while M. Bory de
St. Vincent has’ëhöfe'en to de#tgtMte the whole1 dates' of' races
Who bëa'r the Same 'Style ef\ features aS the Japetic specieS
of mankind, deriving however the patronymic'* hot from
Japhet, but from Iapetus. We should not ‘g o 1 Beyond the
bounds of very probable conjfectiire’if* we were to assume that
Iran was the centre whence all the' tribe's lof people having this
same!physieal character originally were dispersed. Y et it must
beadhiitted that thete are some nations imthfe catalogué of
whose Origin from thig quarter we could find no- pvoôf except
physical réseïnblance ; and as we have determined to assumé -
nothing of that kind, unless when supported'by historical
proofs, the- nations‘whom I term Iranian can only receive
that epithet in a mbré général sfen’sé.7 1 shall therefore,
usé it oMy -as synonymous and (^o^ktensivb with another name
of less ambiguous meaning. As the races to be described, in