proth, comprehends the Inguschi, and the Tschetschenghi
or Taschi ; the latter being to the southward, nearer to
Georgia. The Inguschi are termed by Giildenstedt Kisti.
3. The Eastern Caucasians, or the'Lesghi, are the inhabitants
of the eastern region of Caucasus, which is termed
Lesghistan. They are divided by Giildenstedt into seven
tribes or nations, one of which is the Avares, supposed to
be the remains of the people once so formidable under that
name.”#
The languages of these nations of Mount Caucasus have
hitherto been considered as entirely distinct from each other,
and it has been supposed that the tribes thus distinguished
by their dialects, belong to separate families of men. But
the comparative vocabularies collected by Klaproth sufficiently
prove, that although the differences are gréât,^there
is nevertheless that species of affinity between them which
evinces a common origin at some very distant era. A very
Temarkable circumstance in the history of their language
is the affinity which they display, as Klaproth has observed,-
in a multitude of words, to the dialects of northern Asia,
particularly those of the Tschudish or Finnish nations, and
of the tribes of Samoiedes.
* Reineggs, ubi supra. Mithridates, 1, page 447.
CHAPTER XVI.
niSTORY OF THE NATIONS OF GREAT TARTARY.
S ection 1 ^^GrenSrai ISurpegf—^jPhysical Geography ~ and
' Boundaries of High Asia.
^ F rom the age of Tschingghis-KhakaR, when the formid-
a^ll^name of the Tartars was first heard in Europe, Great
Tartary has been the designation given to all that vast region,
wbence^e'armies of the Mongolian conqueror issued, and
from which* many barbarous hordes, both before and since
the^lime of Tsciingghis, have poured themselves down over
the civilised parts of Asia, and even of Europe! This
name, in a geographical sense, has never been appropriated
to any particular tract: Its/meaning is vague and undefined.
I shall make iB of it, after the example of a celebrated
modern writer,* as the most convenient expression to denote
the whole of that great region in Asiajwhich lies to the
northward of all the anciently civilised countries of the
East, namely, the empires of Assyria, Persia, India, and
China. Great Tartary may be considered dpj the widest
sense as reaching from the Uralian Mountains to the Sea of
China and Japan, and as bounded towards the south by a
line which commences with Mount Caucasus, and is continued
by the Himalayan mountains or by the northern limits
of Persia and India. Towards the north it has no certain
limitation, and some writers understand Great Tartary as
comprehending Siberia and the lowlands approaching the
* M. Abel-Rémusat.