clans some of the most barbarous nations i the world,
spread through the inclement regions of Eastern Siberia
towards the shores ' of the Frozen Ocean andvthose of the
Sea of Okhotsk. The province óf - Liao-toùng, situated t®
the northward of the Hoang-hai or Yellow Sea, between the
peninsula of Korea and the northern Chinese province óf
Pe-cha-li, has been from the- most remote ages the theatre
of wars between the Chinese and tribes termed ip^the
annals of that people Toung-hou or Toung-hous. It was in
that country that | the prince who raised the Mand-söï
dynasty laid the foundation of his power by the re-union
of sixty petty tribes, whose assemblage constituted the
nation of Mandshoos. Tribes who wander over the countries
to-fche northward and north-eastward of- Liao-toung
are comprehended under the same name, which in this
province had its origin. But towards the northwe&tj-and
a& far as the Black River or Amur; peopleÿ'of the salnea
race bear the particular names of.-Seion and Bahour ; these
are the Toung-hous subject to the Mandshurian Empire :
beyond those rivers hordes of the same kindred ?aeknow-
ledge the yoke of Russia.* They are scattered;through
the countries lying to the eastward of Lake Baikal, where
they are distinguished by the name'ofhEwenki.f Thencë?,
the Tungusian countiyj extends along the. northern -shore
of the Black River as far as the Sea of Okhotsk. The Tungusian
tribes spread upon the coast of that sea are termed
Lamoots, from Lamu, in the Mandshurian dialect Namou,
which means the Sea. Tungusian hordes are found without
any particular name along the-Aldan, as far as the country
of the Yakutes on the Lena, and on the two rivers termed
* Abel-Rémusat, Récherches sur les Langues Tartares.
t Abel-Rémusat, ubi supra.
J The country to the eastward of Lake Baikal is called by the Russians
Daouria, a word derived from Tougrounvwhich signifies jS limits” or boundaries.
Bargoutchia Tougroum is the “ boundary land of the Bargoutcheswhich is the
epithet of the Mongolian natives of this region, consisting of four tribes, namely,
th e . Couris, the Goulaches, the Bouriates, and the Tournâtes. | They are the
most remote of the Mongolian race. Beyond them towards the north were the
sylvan tribes called Boulgatchines, Carmoutchines, and Ourianguites. These
last are of the Tungusian stock;'
from them ^T,ouug<$uska, flowing through a vast region to
#te*'east of the Yenisei ;and falling into its channel. That
river->seem^to%C the ancient boundary of their race, for
to the westward of -it we find the country inhabited by
Ostiaks towards the north;, and towards the south by races
akin tnthe v ' 5 ***
- The languages fef»fe»^by*.titbte8,.<)f the Tungusian race
are divided into six branches : the principal of these are,
t^-the dialect of the Mandshoos : this has long been written
.iialphatetic characters ; ^tus known grammatically to Eu-
|te>pean 'scholars, the othfeis. -.only by vocabularies. 2 , the
dialects* ofiAhe Southern Tungusians, spoken through the
countries ,near Nertschinsk and Bargousinsk, within the
Russian frontier to .the. eastward of Lake Baikal, and by
tribes on the ¥pper Angara, near Irkutsk, to the eastward
ofc t f e same lake. 4 , the j northern .and eastern dialects
fgpbken hear Yakoutsk, near Okhotsk, and by the tribes
termed Lamoots near the ocean, and by those called Tscha-
pogirs further westward. Lastly, two dialects prevalent
' aniiinfHbe H Tungusian tribes who inhabit «the country on
the- Yenisei and the neighbourhood of Mangaseisk. A
comparison of these; dialects spoken in countries very
distant from each other displays analogies so extensive
and .so clearly marked, that no . doubt remains as to their
. original identity and the descent of all the Tungusian
tribes from a common ancestry.
The Tungusians have no national records reaching hack
to a remote period, but information has been collected
from the Chinese historians, from which it appears that
Eastern Tartary has been inhabited from early times by
people of the same race. The relations of language and
other tokens of affinity afford data which enable us with
satisfactory evidence to carry back the history of the
Tungusian race into ages long preceding the origin of the
Mand-shfi dynasty, and even anterior to the first appearance
, of the Mongolians among the warlike nations of Tartary.
It was shown by Yisdelou, whose opinion was confirmed
- by Abel-R6musat and by Klaproth, and has been regarded