ing to different methods of culture and inflection. If is? not
like that confusion and breaking down of the grammatical
structure of languages which we discover as a constant
result of the^termixture iof different nations.*
In the manner of building and in sense* other arts, M.
Erin an was struck with a certain resemblance of the
Yakütes to the Ostiaks of the Obi. They hate a taste for
poetry and romance and practice a sort of domestic music.
In many of these arts and customs they display a resem“
blanco to the older inhabitants of Northern Europe, and
Asia. Everything indicates that they are not of recent
migration into the north-eastern parts of Siberia.
All writers who describe the Yakütes agree in the observation,
that their features bear a considerables sresemn
blance to the Mongolian, and hence has probably ; arisen
the notion, contradicted by the history of their manners
and language, that they are allied to that people in
descent.f “ Their complexion is a light copper colour:
they are generally of low stature, with more regular and,
pleasing countenances than thé Tungusians.”$. 'They are,
generally, a hardy and vigorous, race;. their stature is
very different; the affluent, wha-live on the7south side
of the Virchoganski chain are stout men, from five feet
ten to six feet four inches high. The indigent inhabitants
of the more northern parts are below thee mid die size,
evidently stunted by the badness of food and severity o f
climate.”^ ^
Blumenbach has described, in his second decade of
* The differences, for example, between the Yakuty and the Oujgour Turkish
is rather analogous to the difference between the Welch and Irish,'or that
between the German and Scandinavian, thantö the difference between . Anglo-
Saxon and English, or that between Latin and French or Italian. The former
are the results o f change by regular developement, the latter of conquest and
mixture of races.
t Klaproth says of the Yakütes, B Ihre Gesichts-bildung zeigt eine starke
Mischung mit Mongolen an, obgleich die Sprache nur wenig Mongolisches auf-
genommen hat.”—As. Polyglott. 281.
t Captain Cochrane’s Pedestrian Journey.
§ Sauer’s Account of Billing’s Voyage.
skulls, the cranium of a Yaküte in his collection, which he
obtained’frfflh Kratzsbh*, a surveyor attached to' the Russian
army. Hbikyspthat itPgiheral configuration very nearly
resembles.that of a Kalmuk skull represented in the for-
mervdecade, and*É*ffitfen' as a characteristic specimen of the
Mèiïgolian variétyf' The^sha^^of the^ Yakute skull is
nearly' square. Th<|f©rbits are remarkably* large, and
separated from éhch other b ^ h vë¥y ëMettèive cribriform
bone; the glabella; very full and projecting; ythe nasal
bones narrowed and^aV thé ’üp|ier part running: together
in a sharp polht; thë’b o i ^ ^ the1 vértei^on both sides
rising into prominences: ‘ The ^suifor^s1' of h;tle bones of the
face,' tfie '‘maxillary, malar, and nhsaf llohes ate 'obiiterated,
probably the effect of old age.
This descriptief‘bf the- c$hnium! ihdic'ates tfa t the Ya-
kutès approximate in the s h a p ^ f their fcknlls tó the Mo#
Ralmnks. fin'd this is' '.Confirmed by -.Cfmelin’s
üccóürft o f two individuals óf the'same race* seen’ by him
at Tofidsk. Though young persons they had t h | |S i i t tA ,
o f KalÉuks*strongly marked^ 1 they had round%Ce’s;'with
flat if©f#*afid"harrow' eyfes and black hair.^ 'Erman Ijpfj
that:the Yakütès reminded him of thé Weltern Tartars, by
their 'yellowish _complè‘xk>h,~-gelbliche H a u t f a r b e the
sharp féatfirëkof theif counteiitóicéfe, which were yet expressive'
rather of pleasing indoleh.ee and ^^ffl-natu^^than of
thought or passion,-and by the pitchy blacknéSs1 of thefr
: hair, by the men worn short' and dropped. The Yakutb
females sëemëa more lively and ^poTtife; than their husbands:
they are often finely formed, have regnlajjfeatures
with fie^y black eyes; but this applies to them whén young,
for, like the women of the Tartars, the Yaküte females' have
rather lean than Ml cöuHtenanCeè, which soon become
defaced with wrinkles. ■
The Yakütes appear to furnish one instance out of many
in which races of Turkish descent display that type/of
features which has been thought characteristic of the
* In der Gestalt des Gesichts gleichen die Jakuten den Kalmucken. “ Sie
haben namlioh eipe platte Nase, kleine Augen und ein fast rundes Angesicht.”
J. G. Gmelin’s Reise. Allegem. Hist, der Reisen., Bd. 19, s. 99.
VOL. IV. ’ | | I