time to time increasing beyond the means of subsistence
within their own abodes, poured themselves down in countless
swarms upon the lower regions of Asia and even of
Europe, and effected, or gave occasion to, some of the
most remarkable revolutions recorded in the history of
the world. The earliest of these inroads that is still
remembered in history, but probably by many, not the
first, was when the Scythians from beyond the Araxes
invaded Media before the eclipse of Thales. The conquest
of the Greek empire in Bactria and India by the Turushkas
followed after a considerable interval. The extensive power
of the Chinese dynasties of Han and Thang, which is. said
to have reached the borders of the Caspian, probably
restrained these movements for some centuries* but the
dispersion of the Iliong-nu, recorded in the annals of the
Han, gave rise to the descent of the Ilunns, who precipitated
themselves upon the Gothic domain of Hermanrich, and
gave occasion to the ultimate overthrow of the Roman
empire. From the borders of China came,; as it would
appear, the tribe which under Attila advanced into the heart
of France. Hordes of the same race had destroyed the
armies of Chosroes and prepared the way for the conquest
of Persia by the Moslims. The fury of the .Arabs repelled
for two centuries the Turkish invaders of Iran, bu tithe
followers of Togrul-Beg and Seljuk and Mahmoud of
Ghazni, of Tschingghis, ofTimfir and Othman, at length
overwhelmed the chaliphat and the empires ’ of China
and Hindustan, and lineal descendants of the shepherds
of High Asia sit on the thrones of Persia and of the
Great Constantine, and, though but nominally and without
power, on that which Baber and Aurungzebe filled with
barbaric splendour and magnificence.
The inroads of nomadic nations from High Asia known to
history were probably not the. earliest of such migrations.
We shall find reason to believe that in far more remote
periods colonies from these countries made their way into
distant parts of the earth, and that some nations are descended
from them, who, with a change of abode, have
changed their habits, and have become civilised and populous.'
The:-first, as far as we can. conjecture, in respect
to the timerof their descent, were the Finnish and Ugrian
tribes, iphOMiappeaEi have come down from the Altaic
border of High Asia towards the north-west;.in which direction
they advanced to the Uralian Mountains. There they
established, themselves,^and that mountain-chain, with its
valliesi and pasture lands, became to them a new country,
whence they sent out colonies om every* side, as we have
seen when tracing the history ofdhe Iotuns o f the North.
The.earliest of .these coteniesr had spread themselves into
Europe and had Mccupied*;the countries, reaching, along
the chain'©f Waldaa.to the Balticjand to. Scandinavia before
the Germanic on the.s.old Pruthenian or the Slavic race
advanced from the .south #t© become their hereditary
enemies-; and eventual lords. In the long warfares, between
these.hFinno-Ugrians and the, Indo-European raees, one
tribe alone of the.;; former, namely: the Magyars, were
ablest.© conquer their Slavic enemies, the .Slovaks of Pan-
noniar and establish a. permanent; state .in the midst of
Europe^? The perpetuity oh tbeir name and of their national
existence^ is probably* due to theiteearlyi«inversion tq
Christianity and civilisation. _ -
- The deseent-of- tribes belonging to this, »family of; nations
from Higk Am a is not .historically recorded, neither does'it
rest on mere conjecture. It is known by affinity q£ language;
We. shall • see proof that the- dialects of all these
nations^-and-those* ofrKhe principal nomadic races still
remaining in High Asia, belong to one.family of languages.
The next great division ^of the Siberian nations, who,
under the name of Samoiedes, “ Salmon-eaters, given
to them by the Russians, are better known than by their
national appellation of Khasova, and who. occupy the shores
of the Frozen Ocean, from tkemeighbourhood of Archangel
in Europe to the mouth of the remote Yenisei, are proved
to have descended from High; Asia by the fact, now well
known, that tribes of the same race still occupy a considerable
part of the northern Altaic border. Their original
country appear* to. be the pasture grounds surrounding the
Lake of Oubsa. I