eluding the Hindoos,, reach from - the Indus to Mount
Atlas and the Western Ocean,- the term Indo-Atlantic will
designate therd accurately from' their geographical position.
The name of Turanian, but for die error of modéra writers who
have confounded the real Scythians with the Goths and the
Slavonians and even with the Celts, might be interchanged
with Scythian.
In some of the remarks introduced into this section I have
anticipated what properly belongs to ethnographical research,
and which therefore might have been reserved, for afutur e
part of my work.; but it was necessary to premise these obser-
vations, as an apology for the introduction of new terms that
were wanting for my present purpose.
Indo-Atlantie, or Iranian Nations.
From the mountains of Himalaya to die jjjadian- Ocean,
including "the whole of Ilindoostan and the Deccan, as well as
Persia and Arabia, and from the Ganges in- the east to .'/the
bordera of the Atlantic, comprising the north of Africa and the
whole ,of Europe, a similar configuration of body prevails
among all the inhabitants, with some few exceptions. Ofthis
th e Greeks seem to afford the most perfect model, in which,
however, they scarcely exceed the type displayed as belonging
to the ancient Persians by the sculptures of Persepolis.
Complexion does not enter among the characters of this type,
jsince it is of all shades, from the white and florid colour of the
northern Europeans, to the je t black of many tribes in Lybia,
and southward of Mount Atlas. In many races, as we shall
hereafter prove, the type has degenerated. The ancient Celts
appear, for example, to have had by no means the same deve-
lopeinent of the head as the Greeks, and the Indians display
some differences in the configuration of the skull ; bu t for the
-consideration of these differences a proper place will present
itself in aT future section. I shall now proceed to the nations
of Northern Asia.
O f the Turanian Nations.
I shall make no attempt to enumerate, on the present occa
sion, all the raefes of men who partake of that configuration
of body which characterises the whole class of tribes comprised
under'the term Turanian. ^ The proper place for this
enumeration-will occur in a ;succeeding volume. I shall now
describe only two of the most remarkable faces belonging to
this division, and differing, mos^^videlyfresm eUch' other, namely,.
themdmadic Kalmukswho wander over the great? Steppes
oG central ’Asia‘S aid'-the Esquimaux' omith^ ’ ^horek pfjltbe
Polar Sea,- orSakmgsfche coasts*both o f Asia and'America. For
an account: of the KalmukS, I shall abstract some particulars
from Professor Pallas’s admirable, portrait of that- people, in
his memoir on the Mongolian nations:
Pallas has observed th at it i» fealsy to distinguish by the
features of the countenance - the principal Asiatic, nations,,
when their stock-.fs? not MendedJby,frequent intermarriages;
b u t among these races that there is none in which thi^distinc-
tion is so strongly characterised as it is among thfe Mongo|es i
“ If we abstract the circumstance of colour,”„says Pallas^. “ a
Mongole bears less resemblance to other faces? ®f men than a
Negro bears to an European. The particular conformation of
the racuis' mo&t remarkable in the .shape .of the skull .prevalent
among the KalmukS ;-b u tth e Mongoles proper and the
Bouriaets bear to the tribe last mentioned so great-a* rescan
blauce, as well in their physical as in their moral and social
characteristics, that what can be predicated of one^peOple is
applicable to the rest.
, “ The Kalmuks-are generally of middle stature: few are tall,
and many are below the standard: the women especially are
small. They are all well made, and I do not fi remember to
have seen one deformed person among them. The ?only fault,
in shape, which is frequent among them;-; consists in an outward
bending of their arms and legs, reSGltihg from the practice
of causing children to rest always in their cradles on a
kind of saddle, and from the habit • of riding ■ on horseback
continually almost as early as they are able to walk.. The