abode of nations who are some of the most remarkable as
to their physical constitution.
The great nomadic nations of Scythia or Great Tartary
display a most singular and :deeply-im p ressed character,
by which they are not less distinguished from the* people
of Europe and the Western and Lower regions of Asia,
than even those tribes who exist under the tropical sun
of Africa or amid the virgin ’forests of the Western Continent.
The history of these nations of 'Central ; Asia,
will form the subject of the present chapter.
Of all the races in Asia, supposed with a greater or less
degree of evidence to have belonged originally to- th|f
great Central Upland, there are five tribes of people who'
still Inhabit countries within its extent. Of these. I shall
exclude two from consideration in the "present chapter.
The Samoiedes or Sbiots or Uriang-chai, of the mprihern
border of Altai, will be described in a succeeding ioh&pter,
as they form a race distinct from all the other inhabitants*
The Indo-Tartar and Bhotiyah races, who have been already
described, make a like division. The three^iices | who
remain for consideration in the present chapter belong to
the.Turkish, the Mongolian, and the Tungusian families.
These three nations of Great Tartary, the-Turkisl| the
Moghul or Mongolian, and the Tungusian, called by Jh e
Chinese Mand-shh or Mandshurian, are distinguished from
each other by speaking different idioms, though perhaps of
cognate origin, but bear a mutual resemblance in their
physical and moral characters and manner of life. They
are pastoral nations, possessing herds of cattle and of
horses, with which they have been accustomed to wander
over their vast plains. They have handed down, from immemorial
times, the simple arts which belong . to the
nonaadic state; and with pastoral habits they have combined
the pursuits of war, and on various occasions have poured
themselves down in irresistible hordes on the surrounding
countries inhabited by agricultural and civilised nations.
The result' of these invasions has been in various ages the
establishment of new. dynasties in the subdued regions.
China has been governed in earlier as well as in later periods
NOMADIC .RACES.
by hordes of various races who have issued from the deserts
0f Tartary. The Mongoles gave sovereigns to that empire
in the middle ages as well as to India, Persia, and Tur-
kistan. Tribes of Tungusian origin are supposed to have
preceded the Mongolians by many centuries, and people ot
the. same race still domineer over the native Chinese.
Extensive regions in Western Asia and in Europe have
submitted more permanently fe> the dominion of the Turks.
Of the three nations above mentioned tlie Tungusians are
situated furthest towards the East. They occupy all the
country to the northward of China, between the Sea ot
Japan and the long chain of the Siolki Hills. Under the
name of Tungusians they are spread through vast spaces
in the empire of Russia to the eastward of lake Baikal,
and along the hanks of the Amdr: ,to the Aldan Mountains
and the-Sea of- Okhotsk, and westwards the middle course
of the tfiver Yenisei. To the | westward of the Tungusians,
and in great part subjected to’ their dominion, are
the Mongoles, who reach from the limits of China on the
east to the meridian of Lob-n6 r and the region of Khamd
and Ttirfan, and from-Tibfet northward toitbe chain of Altai
or of Sayan and the Baikal Lake. They thuf occupy the
mosk eleyatedregioh of tbo biflh plain of pastern Asia. The
Turkish nations are to;the westward of the Mongoles: to the
south'they reach to th e Mus-tagh, the Bolor Mountains or
the Belht-tagh, and to the Hindd-Khdh. Originating, as it
would appear, from the remote north-east, they obtained
for themselves a new country in Turkistan and to the northward
of the Oxus, which has been the. centre of their later
migrations into Europe and Southern and Western Asia.
S ection HI.—0 / the sources of information on the history
of the Nations of Great Tartary.
The nomadic nations of Tartary have long practised the art
of writing. The Mongolians and the Mandshurians have
acquired the knowledge of letters since the timcofTsching-
ghis-Khan, but the Ouigours, an Eastern Turkish tribe
VOL. IV.