Chapter VI: Part I: The Primary Varieties of the Human Species (3)

The Mongol religion is Buddhist; yet their alphabet is not of either Chinese or Indian origin. The earliest Mongol conquerors understood the value of literature, and soon after the death of Zingiz-Khan the language was reduced to writing; the alphabet, which was subsequently extended to the language of the Mantshu nation, having been adopted from that of the Uighur Turks. Amongst the Uighur Turks it was introduced by the Nestorian Christians, an influence of which the importance in these parts has yet to be duly appreciated. As such, its original source is the Syriac. Of the Syriac alphabets it is most like the Palmyrene.

THE TONGUS BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.

_Distribution._--East and west, from the sea of Okhotsk, and
the peninsula of Kamskatka to the Yenisey. North and South
(South-East), from the coast of the Icy Sea, between the
Yenisey and Lena, to the Yellow Sea. Conterminous with the
Samöeids, Ostiaks, Yakuts, Turks, Mongols, Chinese, Koreans,
Aino, Koriaks, and Yukahiri.

_Political relations._--Subject to _a_, China, _b_, Russia.

_Religion._--Buddhism, Imperfect Christianity, Paganism.

_Particular divisions._--The Tshapojirs on the Lena, the Lamuts
on the Sea of Okhotsk, the Mantshu rulers of China.

_Dialects known by vocabularies._--_a_, Western--Yeniseian,
Tshapojirs, Mangaseiesk, Orotong; _b_, Southern--Nerchinsk,
Barguzin, Upper Angara, Yakutsk; _c_, Eastern--Okhotsk, Lamut;
_d_, The Mantshu. Add to these the Niuji, an ancient dialect
known from a Chinese vocabulary, and closely allied to the
Mantshu.

_Alphabet._--Mongolian; applied to the Mantshu dialect only.

_General name._--None. Some particular tribes call themselves
_beye_=_men_; some, _donki_=_people_.

Called by the Ostiaks, Kellem.
" " Chinese, Tung-chu.
" " Mantshu, Orotuhong.
" " Mongols, Kham-noyon.

_Authority._--Klaproth's _Asia Polyglotta_ and _Sprachatlas_.

A more northern position, a greater range of climate, an approach in some cases to the hunter and fisher, rather than to the pastoral states, a more partial abandonment of the original Shamanistic Paganism, and a later literature are the chief points which differentiate the Tungús tribes from the Mongol. Add to this, that the influence of the Tungús upon the history of the world is limited to the conquest of China by the present Mantshu dynasty. In other matters--indeed in these--the difference between the two branches is a difference of _degree_ rather than of _kind_. I limit my remarks upon the Tungús tribes--whose civilization is represented by that of the Mantshus--for the sake of leaving time and space for a more important branch of the Turanian stock--the Turk.

Some of the Tungús tribes--_e.g._ the Tshapojirs--tattoo their faces.

THE TURK BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.

_Distribution._--1. As a _continuous_ population--East and
west--from the neighbourhood of the lake Baikal, 110° E. L.
to the eastern boundaries of the Greek and Slavonic countries
of Europe, about 21° E. L. North and south; from the northern
frontiers of Tibet, and Persia, about 34° N. L., to the country
north of Tobolsk about 59° N. L.

2. As an _isolated_ population--Along the lower course of the
Lena, and the shores of the White Sea, chiefly within the
Arctic Circle. These are the Yakut Turks. They are wholly
disconnected from the other Turkish tribes; and surrounded by
Tungús and Yukahiri tribes.

3. As portions of a _mixed_ population--In China?, Tibet?,
Mongolia?, Persia, Armenia, the Caucasian countries, Syria,
Ægypt, Barbary, Greece, Albania, and the Slavonic portion of
Turkey in Europe. Turk blood in most of the royal families of
the East.

_Religion._--Preeminently, though not exclusively, Mahometan;
generally of the Sunnite doctrine. Shamanism amongst the
Yakuts. Buddhism amongst the Turks of the Chinese Empire,
Christianity amongst those of Siberia.

_Language._--Spoken with remarkable uniformity over the whole
area; so much so that the Yakut of the Icy Sea is said to
be intelligible to the Turks of Central Asia, and even of
Constantinople.

_Physical Conformation._--In some cases almost identical with
that of the Mongolians, in others almost European. Generally
speaking, it partakes of the character of the non-Turkish
natives of the numerous countries with which the Turk area is
in contact.

In Turkey, Ægypt, and the Persian frontier much intermixture.

As the Mongol character departs, the face becomes oval rather
than square, the features prominent rather than flat, the beard
develops itself, and the complexion becomes brunette rather
than swarthy.

_Conterminous._--1. Beginning at the most north-eastern point,
and going round from north to south--with the Tungús. 2.
Mongols 3. Tibetans. 4. Iranians (_i. e._ Persian tribes, and
tribes allied to them). 5. Armenians. 6. Dioscurians (_i. e._
the tribes of Caucasus). 7. Arabians. 8. Greeks. 9. Slavonians.
10. Finns. 11. Yeniseians. 12. Samöeids.

_Chief particular Divisions_--taking the round as before--

1. _Uighurs._---On the Mongol frontier. Belonging to China.
The Uighurs were the first Turks that used an alphabet. Little
known.

2. _Turks of the Sandy Desert._--Conterminous with Mongolia and
Tibet. _Do. Do._

3. _Turks of Khoten, Kashgar, and Yarkend. Do. Do._

4. _Kirghis._--Independent Tartary. The Kirghis form a portion
of the population of the highest table-land in Asia--perhaps in
the world--Pamer, and the source of the Oxus.

5. _Uzbeks._--The Turks of Bokhara.

6. _Turkomans._--The Persian frontier of Independent Tartary
from Balk to the Caspian. Pastoral robbers.

7. _Ottoman or Osmanli._--The Turks of the Turkish Empire.

8. _Nogays._--The Turks of the parts between the Black Sea and
the Caspian, north of Caucasus.

9. _Turks of the Russian Empire._--Bashkirs(?), Teptyars,
Baraba, &c. With all these, although the language is Turk,
there is good reason to believe that the original substratum is
Finn. With the Bashkirs this is generally considered to be the
case.

10. _The isolated Yakuts of the Lena._

Such is the great Turk area, the extent of which is, in itself, an ethnological study; equally remarkable for its positive and its negative peculiarities.

Laying aside the Yakuts as isolated, and the Turks of Asia-Minor and Thrace as recent settlers, we have in Turkish Asia an enormous steppe, mountains of all but first-rate magnitude, the head-waters of many rivers, but the embouchures of none, a salt-water lake but no communication with the ocean. Yet, given the central point of a large continent, this is what we expect _à priori_. If any influence that shall affect the fate of the world at large is to be developed in such an area, it must, surely, be an influence strongly and typically contrasted with the influence which such relations of land and water as the Mediterranean supplies to Greece, and in a less degree to every country that abuts on it, are calculated to develop. The dispersion of the Turkish race is essentially the dispersion of a race over a _continent_. I do not know who first used the illustration, but the manner in which Othman's all-conquering host was arrested by the Hellespont, has been well compared to the check that a running brook puts to the Scotch witches and wizards. What Leander and Lord Byron swam across, the conqueror of Asia was checked by.

The relations to the pole on one side and the equator on the other, are remarkably parallel between the two great conquering nations of the world--the Turks of Asia, and the Goths of Europe. The latitudes 47--55 enclose, the nations who, on the one side, displaced the aborigines of Asia Minor and Thrace, on the other, those of Keltic Britain and of North America.

One condition necessary for a race that thus spread themselves abroad, occurs in a remarkable degree with the Turk. In the Yakut country we find the most intense cold known in Asia; in Pamer, the greatest elevation above the sea-level; in the south of Ægypt, an intertropical degree of heat. Yet, in all these countries we find the Turk. In their physiognomy the Turks have in many instances departed from the Mongol type; and, hence, the agreement between the two cognate families is less manifest in their physical conformation than in their languages. The nature and extent of this deviation is well worth more investigation than it has met with; and next in importance to the fact itself, is the reason that may be assigned for it.

Whether it may be from the Osmanli Turk of Constantinople, with his un-Mongolian length of beard, his regularly formed eye, and his other European points of physiognomy, being the standard by which we measure the other divisions of the family, or whether we have unnecessarily restricted the term Mongol to the inhabitants of Mongolia, it is certain that a great majority of travellers are in the habit of describing a Mongol cast of countenance when found in a Turk, as an exceptional phenomenon; just as if the Turk had one character and the Mongol another, and as if a deviation either way was an anomaly.

Now, the notice of all differences, however small, between the tribes of the Turk, and those of any other division of the human kind, is so far from being exceptionable, that it is particularly desirable.

Neither is the assumption of the Turk in his most European form as a standard of comparison, rather than that of the more Mongoliform Turks, objectionable. One writer is as fully at liberty to treat all deviations from the type of a Constantinopolitan Osmanli as anomalous, as another is to apply a Mongol standard. Provided that facts are accumulated, ethnology is the gainer.

It is only when the idea of the Turk type being one thing, and the Mongol another, has so far taken possession of a writer, as to make him overvalue the import of such differences, that evil arises. Then a fact which should even be expected _à priori_, becomes an anomaly; and the assumption of some extraordinary cause--generally the mixture of race--is _assumed_. I say _assumed_, because in many cases it is taken for granted, simply and solely because it will explain the phenomena. Where this is not the fact, where there are _other_ grounds for believing that intermixture has occurred, it is not only legitimate, but it is necessary to admit it.

RULE.--_Intermixture of race solely for the sake of accounting for varieties of physical conformation is not to be assumed, except in extreme cases._

Practically I consider that the Mongoliform physiognomy is the rule with the Turk rather than the exception, and that the Turk of Turkey exhibits the exceptional character of his family. Both these facts are what we should expect. Ethnological affinity, as proved by language, exists in a very close degree between the Turks and the Mongolians. Common conditions of climate exist also. Either implies similarity of physical conformation. On the other hand, where the Turk is _least_ like the Mongol, we _know_ that intermixture has taken place; intermixture like that of the Circassian and Georgian blood in Europe, and that of the Persian in Asia. Hence, if I allowed myself to assume at all, I would assume an intermixture to account for the _difference_ between the Turk and Mongol--not to account for the similarity.

_Extract from Burnes's description of the Uzbek chief of Kunduz._--"Moorad Beg is about fifty years of age, his stature is tall, and his features are those of a genuine Uzbek; his eyes are small to a deformity; his forehead broad and frowning; and his whole cast of countenance most repulsive."--Vol. ii. 358.

_Extract from Khamikoff respecting the Uzbeks of Bokhara._--"The exterior of the Uzbeks reminds us strongly of the Moghul race, except that they have larger eyes and are somewhat handsomer; they are generally middle-sized men; the colour of their beards varies between a shade of red and dark auburn, whilst few are found with black hair."--_Translation by the Baron de Bode._

Statements of this kind might be multiplied, particularly in respect to the Uzbeks.

_Descent of certain portions of the Turk Branch--Epoch of its present extension._--The Turk Branch of the Turanian stock introduces a series of ethnological questions, which have, as yet, presented themselves only in a rudimentary form. Few of the tribes hitherto described, were known to the ancients sufficiently to make the question _of descent_ between the present nations and their real or supposed representatives in classical antiquity, a matter of _much_--although, of course, it is always of _some_--importance. With the Turk nations it is otherwise: a large, perhaps a _very_ large, portion of the ancient Scythia must have been Turk; and, if so, it is amongst the Turks that we must look for some of the widest and fiercest of ancient conquerors.

At what time did the present enormous diffusion of Turk tribes take place? The answer to this question is the answer to many others. By knowing this we know also the probable ethnological position of such famous peoples as the Kimmerii, Sakæ, Massagetæ, Alans, Avars, Huns, Nephthalites, Bulgarians, and others--peoples whereof the records are written in the annals not only of Rome and Greece, but of Lydia, Media, and Assyria.

At what epoch did the diffusion of the Turk tribes take place? If at a period anterior to history, their frontier must have been the same in the time of Herodotus as at present; and, consequently, their geographical relations to Persia and Europe, the same.

At what time, then, did it take place? For two areas the question is answered at once; for European Turkey and for Asia Minor it has certainly taken place within the historical period. With these two exceptions, I believe, that, at the beginning of the historical period, the great Turk area was much the same as at present; less, perhaps, by a degree or two, on this frontier or that; but still essentially the same in _kind_. By _in kind_ I mean _ethnographically_, _i. e._ that (subject to the aforesaid exceptions) the Turk tribes were conterminous with _the same non-Turk tribes as at present_. Let us apply this view in detail.

_Siberian Frontier._--From Kasan to the Lake Baikal, the frontier is Finnish, Yeniseian, and Samöeid. I admit that the southern limits of all these families are likely to have been curtailed;--indeed I would argue that such has been the case. This, however, is a mere difference of _degree_.

There is no proof of any nations other than those belonging to the Finn, Yeniseian, and Samöeid divisions having ever been in contact with the Northern Turks, and _vice versâ_.

_Mongolian and Tibetan frontier._--There is not the shadow of historical evidence, nor even a tradition, which should induce us to believe that these two nations were ever less conterminous with each other, and with the Turk, than they are at present.

_Persian frontier._--Reasons for supposing that tribes other than those of the Turk division ravaged Persia as early as the time of Cyrus, would lie in the incompatibility of any accounts of such invaders with the known facts concerning the Turks. I am not aware, however, that any such incompatibility exists. The names are different. No Sakæ or Massagetæ are known, under such denominations, as Turk tribes. Yet this scarcely constitutes even the shadow of an objection; since native names, and names by which tribes are known to nations other than their own, oftener differ than coincide.

_The Caucasian frontier--the frontier of the Don._--Here the reasoning becomes more difficult. An invasion of Persia along the frontier from Bokhara to the Caspian, is an invasion which no existing nation could claim, except the Turk; since it is a rule in ethnological reasoning _to consider every nation as indigenous to the country where it is first found, unless reason be shown to the contrary_.

For the parts, however, between the Volga, Caucasus, and the Don (or even Dnieper), there is no such present unity of nation as between the Caspian and Bokhara; and an invasion that burst upon Persia from the north-west, or upon Greece from the north-east, might well be claimed for no less than four great ethnological sections.--1. The Turk. 2. The Slavonic. 3. The Circassian. 4. The Hungarian.

I will apply general principles to get at the different probabilities here involved.

1. The nation that invades _both_ Persia and Europe is most probably the nation most intermediate to the two. This is in favour of the Cimmerians having come from the present country of the Nogays, rather than from the Ukraine, or from the Bashkir country, _i.e._, in favour of their being Turk rather than Slavonic or Hungarian.

2. A nation that, within the historical period, has always encroached upon others is more likely to be the invader, in a given instance, than a nation which has not been known so to be in the habit of extending itself. This is in favour of the Cimmerians having been Turks from the Nogay country, rather than Circassians.

This is the geographical view. Another method is to take the names of certain invading tribes mentioned in history, and to consider how far they belong to the Turk division, or are to be distributed elsewhere. Here the ethnological method is to begin with the most recent:--

_Uzi, Petchenekhi, and Komani of the later Byzantine Empire, Turk._--From A.D. 1050 to about 1500.--It is believed that the term _Cumani_ is only a fresh name for the Uzi (Οὐζοι), who disappear from history as the Cumani appear. There is the special evidence of the Empress Anna Comnena that the Cumani and the Petchenekhi spoke the same language. Their first attack upon the Slavonian tribes was A.D. 1058; and the name by which the Slavonians speak of them is _Polowci_=_inhabitants of the plains_. This the Germans, in speaking of them, _translate_; so that they call the Cumani _Falawa_, _Valui_, _Valwen_. Hence comes the present name of one of the Cumanian European localities--_Volhynia_.

There are three districts in Europe where the descent is, in part, Cumanian but the language not Cumanian.

1. Volhynia.

2. Between the Dnieper and Volga.--Here Cumani were found by Carpin and Rubriquis.

3. Hungary.--The proof of the Cumanian habitation of part of Hungary, is a matter of some literary interest. The last Cumanian[22] who knew even a few words of his original tongue, was an old man of Karczag, named Varro, who died A.D. 1770; and an incomplete _Paternoster_, preserved by Dugorics and Thunmann, is all that remains of _this_ dialect. Of the Cumanian of Asia, we have a remarkable vocabulary, from a MS. belonging to the library of the celebrated Petrarch. This is the Turk of the parts between the Caspian and Aral.

_The Avars._--A.D. 465 to about 900. In A.D. 465, the Saraguri,[23] the Onoguri, and the Urugi sent an embassy to Constantinople, to complain of the inroads of the Avars. We may guess beforehand the locality, and we may guess beforehand the cause. In the countries between the Mæotis and the Caspian, the Sabiri are pressed upon by the Abares, the Abares being pressed upon by some tribe from behind, and the _primum mobile_ being probably in the centre of Asia. Such is the general history of these movements. We then learn from Gibbon,[24] how, in A.D. 558, these Avars themselves appear as suppliants to the Alani, requesting their good services at the Byzantine Court; and we learn, also, how they afterwards appeared before Justinian, more as sturdy beggars than as suppliants, requesting aid against the Turks; and how that monarch played fast and loose between the runaway slaves and the indignant masters. He turned them upon his enemies in the west; the Slavonians, and the Germans. And these they overran until checked on the Elbe, by a bloody victory gained over them by Sigisbert. The next victory, however, was the Avars', and peace followed. But the Avars remained like locusts in the land. This they had exhausted, or helped to exhaust; when either the intrigues of the King of the Lombards, or the pressure of famine, induced them to agree with Sigisbert upon the terms of their departure. These were a supply of meal and meat for their expedition. To the King of the Lombards, Alboin, whom they then turned eastwards to join, they proffered their assistance against the Gepidæ, on condition of Pannonia, if evacuated, being ceded to them. The destruction of the Gepidæ of Pannonia was followed by the bright period of Avar history, the reign of Baian. The pride of this barbarian inflamed the anger of the Emperor Maurice, who broke his power by the arms of his general Priscus,--broke, but not annihilated. On the 29th of June, A.D. 626, thirty thousand of the vanguard of the Avars insulted the patricians of Constantinople under their own walls, strong in their own barbarian valour, and strong in an even-handed alliance, against the common enemy, with the great king, Chosroes, then at war with Heraclius. "You see," was his answer to the _standing_ patricians, "the proofs of my perfect union with the great king; and his lieutenant is ready to send into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors. Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate ransom; your wealth and your city are the only presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourself, I shall permit you to depart, each with an under-garment, and a shirt, and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage through his lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or a fugitive, has left Constantinople to its fate; nor can you escape the arms of the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into air like birds, or unless like fishes you could dive into the waves."

Fortunately for the empire of the east the crown was worn by Heraclius; and in the eleventh hour, the Avars and the Persians were repulsed. The next century was a century of internal quarrels, whilst their enemies--and this means every tribe of European origin--became stronger. The baptism of one of the Avar kings, took place in A.D. 795; the conquest of Hungary by Charlemagne the year following. What the great German left half done, the Slavonians of the parts around consummated,--and when the first Russian historian composed the annals of his nation, the expression, _they have been cut off, son and father, like the Avars_, was the bye-word most expressive of utter annihilation.

Now the whole history of the Avars, as well as their locality and alliances, is Turk; and their ruler is regularly spoken of as the _Khaghan_, or _Khan_, of the Avars.

The Turk affinity of the Avars has never been doubted.

_The Alani._--The locality, the history, and all _à priori_ evidence make the Alans Turkish;--two facts only, that I know of, militate, even in the smallest way, against their being so.

1. The well-known alliance between the Alani and Vandals; a fact of value only in the eyes of him who believes that none but ethnologically related tribes enter into offensive and defensive alliances.

2. The accredited identity between the Alani and the Oseti of Caucasus; a tribe undoubtedly _not_ Turkish. Let us analyze the grounds of this belief. The Oseti name themselves _Irôn_, but are named by the Turks and Georgians, _Osi_; by the Russians, _Yassy_; by the Arabians, _As_. This is the first fact.

The second is a pair of quotations from Carpin and Barbaro:--

_a._ Alains ou Asses.--_Carpin._

_b._ La _Alania_ è derivata da populo delli _Alani_, liquali nella lor lingua si chiamano _As_.--_Barbaro._

Now the most that this proves is, that the same name which the Alans gave to themselves, the Georgians, &c. gave to the _Irôn_; a fact which is by no means conclusive. On the other hand, it shows that the two indigenous names, _As_ and _Irôn_, were different. This subject will be noticed again when speaking of the Oseti. At present it is not unnecessary to add, that the name _Uz_ (Οὐζ) has already been mentioned as a name of a tribe in this locality; and that, possibly, it may=_As_. If so, the _Alans_, _Uzi_, and _Cumani_, are the same people at different times. Nothing is more likely than this, especially as we know that _Alani_ was not a native name, and have good reasons for thinking the same of the term _Cumani_.

Again, the Oseti, a limited mountain tribe of the Middle Caucasus, with all its supposed affinities in Media and Persia--since the same writers who identify the Alans with Oseti, identify the Oseti with the Medes--could never have passed as Scythians. Now the Alans did so pass, as is shown by a remarkable passage in Lucian:--"so said Makentæs, being the same in dress and the same in language as the Alani (ὁμόσκευος καὶ ὁμόγλωττος τοῖς Ἀλανοῖς ὤν); since these things are common to the Alani and the Skythæ; except that the Alani are not altogether so long-haired as the Skythæ. In this respect, however, Makentæs was like a Skythian, inasmuch as he had shaved himself to the extent to which an Alan head of hair falls short of a Skythian one."[25]

_The Khazars and Huns._--The evidence derived from the use of the term _Khaghan_, or _Khan_, so diagnostic of the Turk and Mongol families, is wanting in respect to the Huns of Attila. Neither he nor his brother is anywhere so designated.

On the other hand, it is erroneous to suppose that the Huns of Attila are the only Huns of history. The Byzantine historians--even writers who say little or nothing about Attila,--deal with the name Hun, as a well-known and recognised geographical or ethnological term, applied to the tribes between the Don and Volga. Hence they speak of sections of the Hun nation.

The most satisfactory of these is the identification of the _Akatir_ with the Huns--Ἀκατίροις Οὔννοις--Priscus.

Now the _Akatir_ are, undoubtedly, the _Khazars_, since the intermediate form Ἀκαζίροι occurs; the Greek form of _Khazars_ being Χάζαροι.

Hence, the reasoning runs thus--that the Huns of Attila were what the Huns of Priscus were;--that one of these Hun tribes was the Khazar tribe. What were the Khazars? The Khazars were _Turks from the East_. Τούρκοι ἀπὸ τῆς ἑώας, οὓς Χαζάρας ὀνομάζουσι, Theophanes, the first author who names them, denoting them thus. In respect to their history, the Khazars appear as the Avars wane in importance. It was by an alliance with the Khazars, indeed, that Heraclius, as stated above, freed himself from those formidable enemies. From A.D. 626, until the tenth century, the Khazars and Petchinakhi (Πατζινακῖται) are the most formidable enemies to the Goths of the Crimea, and to the Russians of the Dnieper.

If these affiliations be correct, the Turks are one of the oldest material influences that have acted on the history of the world, as well as one of the greatest; the Turk division being the probable ethnological position for the Massagetæ, Sakæ, Cimmerii, Alani, Huns, and Avars, and other less important conquerors. To distribute the still older tribes of Scythia is a matter of _minute_ ethnology, for which the present work will not allow room. The usual notices, however, of the Turk nations, taken from the Chinese records, should not be omitted.

_The Hiong-nou._--Under this name a conquering nation, conterminous with China, and against which the Chinese wall had been built, appears in the annals of the dynasty of Han; between B.C. 163 and A.D. 196. These are the Hiong-nou of De Guignes and Gibbon.

_The Hiun-yu._--Under the dynasty of Shang, which is supposed to have reigned from B.C. 1766 to B.C. 1234, Klaproth finds notice of a people thus denominated. He considers that they were ancestors of the Hiong-nou.

I give these two names for what they have been believed by better judges than myself to denote--not for what I believe myself. The only fact which to me seems incontestible is that, at an early period in the Chinese history, a non-Chinese nation was known under the name of _Hiong-nu_.

If these be the Huns of the Classics, the evidence as to their being Turk rather than Hungarian, is nearly conclusive; the Turk division being the only one which is, at one and the same time, conterminous with Europe, and almost conterminous with China.

Moreover, if the Hiong-nou be the Huns, we may infer that the name _Hun_ was a native name, in the way that _Deutsche_ is the native name of what we call the _Ger__mans_; since it is not likely that the Greeks and Chinese would use the same appellation, unless it were also the indigenous appellation of the people to which it was applied.[26]

_The Thú-kiú._--These are the proper Turks of the Altai mountains under a Chinese name. They are mentioned as being powerful about A.D. 545.

1. If the word _Thú-kiú_ be the Chinese form of _Turk_, we learn that the name was native.

2. If the Hiong-nu and Thú-kiú be the same people, we fix the former as Turk rather than aught else.

Now, both these suppositions are highly probable. Several Thú-kiú glosses have been collected by Klaproth from Chinese writings, and they are all Turk, more especially the Turk of Central Asia; whilst, on the other hand, the Chinese writer, Ma-túan-in, derives the Thiú-kiú from the Hiong-nou.

Such of my readers as know that Niebuhr considered the Huns to be Mongols, and that Humboldt insists upon their Finnic origin will excuse the length to which these remarks on their ethnographical position have been extended.

_Additions to the Turk area made within the historical period._--This means Asia Minor (Anatolia), and Turkey in Europe; additions of a true ethnological character; additions whereby the Turk division came in contact with other divisions of our species wholly new, _e.g._, the Greek, the Arabian, and the Armenian. The points to be considered are--the direction, the date, the rate, the completeness or incompleteness of the ethnological change effected.

_a._ _The direction._--From south-east toward north-west; _i.e._, from Persia; and the parts south of the Caspian and Caucasus, rather than from the parts between the northern Caspian and the Black Sea; so as to be a prolongation of the Turcoman and Uzbek frontier, rather than of the Nogay.

_b._ _Date._--From A.D. 1038 to A.D. 1063, the reign of Togrul Beg, grandson of Seljuk; a Turk of either Turcomania or Bokhara--The Arabian kingdom of Persia is now disorganized; chiefly by Turks, who have raised themselves from the governors of provinces to the founders of empires, _e.g._, Mahmúd of Ghizni. The power of the Kalif of Bagdad, at best but nominal, is reduced still more by Togrul. The Seljukian Turks (or rather Turkomans), are the sultans of Persia, now become a consolidated empire.

Togrul's successor conquers Armenia and Georgia. Here, however, the ethnological effects of the Turk were, and have continued to be, limited.

About the same time the _Arabian_ princes of Aleppo and Damascus are expelled. Here, also, the ethnological effects were, and have been, limited.

A.D. 1074. Now began the conquest of Asia Minor by Seljukian Turks, a conquest by which one ethnological division of the human species has been replaced by another. It ended in the establishment of the kingdom of _Roum_; won from the degenerate Romans of Constantinople.

In its due turn the kingdom of Roum breaks up; partly from internal disorganization, partly from attacks from without, the chief of these being those under the leaders of the house of Zingiz. There was also a partial re-conquest by the Romans. Hence in A.D. 1229 there is room for the ambition of Othman. Othman and his successors reconsolidate the kingdom of Roum, Anatolia, or Asia Minor, now Turk.

In A.D. 1360 the Turks of Asia begin to become the Turks of Europe under Amurath I.; during whose reign Anatolia was a great centre of conquest, of which the Asiatic extension was limited by the parallel centre of conquest--Bokhara under Tamerlane. On the side of Europe, however, all was free. A.D. 1453, is the date of the taking of Constantinople. Since then the Turk area in Europe has been formed.

_Rate, completeness or incompleteness of the ethnological change effected._--These two questions are connected. We can scarcely tell how long it took to transform the non-Turk countries like Asia Minor and Thrace, into the Turk countries of Roum, unless we also know how far the transformation is real or apparent. Now upon this point we want information. No man can say how many ethnological elements other than Turk may be present amongst the Anatolian and Rumelian speakers of the Ottoman language. Still the conquest of the two areas is spread over a period of not less than three hundred and seventy nine years; beginning with the invasion of Asia Minor, by Togrul's successor, and ending with the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II.

_Turk elements of intermixture in families other than the Turk._--These must be noticed briefly. The facts connected with the question falling under the three following heads:--

1. _Turk blood in the ruling families of the East._--The Ghiznivide and Seljukian dynasties of Persia, the Uzbek rulers of Bokhara, the Pasha of Ægypt, the Great Mogul, &c.

2. _Turks living in separate communities in countries beyond the Turk area._--Turks of Persia, Armenia, Bokhara, &c.

3. _Localities where the Turkish language has been spoken and become extinct._--Parts of Hungary, for which see the notice of the _Cumani_. Other localities, of which by far the most important is Bulgaria. At present the Bulgarian language is Slavonic; and, such being the case, the _primâ facie_ evidence is in favour of the people being Slavonic also. Reasons, however, for the contrary will be found in the notice of the Slavonians.

By adding, to all this, the statement that at least one nation, the Bashkirs, although speaking Turk, are supposed to be Finnic, and, by recollecting at the same time, the great extent of Turk conquests, like some of those of Tamerlane, less permanent than those enumerated, as well as the effects of the trade in female slaves (preeminently supported by Turk nations), we may arrive at a valuation of the importance of the Turk family as a physical influence in the way of intermixture.

_The influences of the Turk family have been material rather than moral._--No portion of the Turk division has ever passed for one of the preeminently intellectual sections of mankind. The steady monotheism, however, of the Koran, they have taken up so generally, that Turk and Mahometan are almost as synonymous as Arab and Mahometan. Their literature is founded on that of Persia. No great idea has ever originated from them, and none but those of the simpler and more straightforward kind been adopted. At the same time the Syriac alphabet of the Nestorian Christians was introduced amongst the Uighur Turks, earlier than in any other quarter equally remote; and fragmentary forms of ancient Turk poetry, anterior to the influences of the Persian, and Arabic, are to be found in Von Hammer.

The verbal truthfulness of the Turk has been praised by most who have had the means of observation. Lying is the vice of the weak; and no nations have so little been slaves, and so much been masters, as the Turk.

_The Yakuts._--The isolated Turks, or Yakuts, still stand over for notice. Their centre is the river Lena, whereon they extend at least as far southward as the Aldan. Eastward they are found on the[27] Kolyma, and westward as far as the Yenisey. Here the Yakut tribe is that of the Dolganen, an outlying portion of the section first noticed by Von Middendorf.[28]

That the Yakut are Turk, is placed beyond reasonable doubt; although the only test has been that of language. Respecting this the two most extreme statements which I have met with are the following:--

1st. That it is intelligible at Constantinople.

2nd. That not less than one-third of the words (and some of them the names of very simple ideas) are other than Turk.[29]

The truth will probably be known when the recent researches of Von Middendorf are published. In either case, however, the language is Turk.

With the evidence of language, the evidence of physical confirmation is said to disagree. The Yakuts are essentially Mongolian in physiognomy. The value of the fact must be determined by what has been already said upon the subject.

The locality of the Yakuts is remarkable. It is that of a weak section of the human race, pressed into an inhospitable climate by a stronger one. Yet the Turks have ever been the people to displace others, rather than to be displaced themselves. On the other hand, the traditions of the country speak expressly to a southern origin.

In respect to the social development of the Yakut, Von Middendorf's distinctions are the most suggestive as well as the most critical. The southernmost Yakuts have the horse, the middlemost the rein-deer, the northernmost the dog. The manners of the southern ones are best known; and these are essentially pastoral. Besides the breeding of herds of horses, the Russian fur-trade has developed an industrial form of the hunter-state; so that, amongst the Yakuts, property accumulates, and we have a higher civilization than will be found elsewhere in the same latitude; Finland and Norway alone being excepted.

Other circumstances make the Yakuts an ethnological study. They are not only Turks who are not Mahometan, but their Christianity is still imperfect: hence they represent the Shamanism of the Turk before he became Moslemized. The details of the Yakut creed, sufficiently numerous to form, along with those of the still pagan Ugrians and Samöeids, an elaborate picture of an old religion, which, in its _essential_ characters, was common to all the families of High Asia and Siberia, may be best found in Ermann.[30] The simple fact of its representing an early religion, is all that can here be noticed.

THE UGRIAN BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.

1. _Present distribution--continuous._--West and East--From
Norway to the Yenisey. North and South (South-East)--From the
North Cape to the Russian governments of Simbirsk, Saratof, and
Astrakhan. The Volga south of its confluence with the Kama.

2. _Isolated portion._--Hungary.

3. _Ancient distribution._--Further southwards along the whole
frontier, _i.e._, in Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia. The
Eastward extension probably less than at present.

4. As portions of a _mixed_ population beyond their proper
area--In Sweden and Norway.

_Religion._--Lutheranism, Romanism, Greek Church, Imperfect
Christianity, Shamanism.

_Physical conformation._--Chief departure from the Mongol type,
the frequency of blue eyes, and light (red) hair.

_Conterminous with._--1. Goths of the Scandinavian group in
Norway and Sweden; 2. Slavonians in Russia; 3. Lithuanians in
Esthonia; 4, 5, 6. Turks, Yeniseians, and Tungús in Siberia.
In Europe, in contact with the North Sea. East of Archangel,
separated therefrom by the Samöeids.

_Divisions._--1. Trans-Uralian Ugrians.--Between the Ural Mountains and
the Yenisey. _Voguls_ and _Ostiaks_.

2. Permian Finns.--_Permians_, _Siranians_, _Votiaks_.

3. Finns of the Volga.--_Morduins_, _Tcheremiss_, _Tshuvatsh_.

4. Finlanders of Finland.

5. Esthonians of Esthonia.

6. Laplanders of Sweden and Finmark.

7. Majiars of Hungary.

1.

THE VOGULS.

_Locality._--The northern part of the Uralian range, and the
country to the east as far as the Irtish, and Tobol, and as far
north as the Soswa a feeder of the Obi. Tradition says that
they extended as far westward as the Dwina. Probability that
they extended further south.

_Name._--The Voguls call themselves and the Ostiaks Mansi. They
are called by the Siranians Yograyess, and Vagol.

_Conterminous with._--The Siranians on the west, the Obi
Ostiaks on the east, the Bashkirs on the south.

_Dialects._--The northern Vogul of the Sosva, the southern of
the Tura, a tributary of the Tobol.

_Population._--According to Schubert, one hundred thousand.

_Religion._--Shamanism, or imperfect Christianity.

_Physical appearance._--Stature small, complexion light, face
broad and round, beard scanty, hair long, black, or brown,
sometimes red. The Kalmuk (_i.e._ Mongolian) character of the
Vogul physiognomy is noticed by Pallas.

The Voguls are very nearly on the low level of a tribe of fishers and hunters. Except towards the south, where they are partially Russianized, and where they have also partially adopted the manners of the Bashkirs, there is but little pasturage, and no agriculture. The horse is not in use amongst them--the rein-deer being the nearest approach to a domestic animal. Their tribute is paid in its skins.

THE OSTIAKS.

_Locality._--Valley of the Obi--Eastwards to the Yenisey.

_Name._--Russian, probably originally Bashkir. The native
name--Kondycho, Tyakum, or Asyakh. Called by the Samöeids,
Thahe; by the Voguls, Mansi.

_Conterminous with._--The Voguls on the west, the Samöeids
on the north, the Barabinsky and other Turkish tribes, and
(probably) with the Yeniseians on the south.

_Numbers._--About one hundred thousand.

_Dialects._--Numerous.--The Southern mixed with the Vogul, the
Northern with the Samöeid.

_Physical appearance._--Stature short, bones small, muscular
strength little; face flat, hair red, or reddish.

_Religion._--Shamanism in the north, imperfect Christianity in
the south.

The Ostiaks are almost wholly a nation of fishers.

That their limits originally extended farther south than at present is highly probable. A tradition concerning their migration from the _west_ will be noticed in the section upon the Samöeids.

Notwithstanding the close affinity between the Ostiaks and the Voguls, the two nations were, at the time of the Russian conquest, in continual warfare against each other: the Ostiaks being under the government of petty hereditary chiefs.

In the pagan parts of the Ostiak country polygamy is the custom.

2.

THE PERMIANS.

_Locality._--The government of Perm; of which they form less
than a quarter, the rest being Russians or Russianized Finns.

_Name._---Russian, probably taken from the Scandinavian term
Bjarma. The native term is Komi-uter, or Komi-murt.

_Population._--According to Schubert, about thirty-five
thousand.

THE SIRANIANS.

_Locality._--North of the Permians, about the head-waters of
the R. Kama, and R. Vytchegda, a feeder of the Dwina.

_Native name._--Same as the Permian.

_Population._--According to Schubert, thirty thousand.

_Dialects._--Four. The Siranian, itself, however, is rather a
dialect of the Permian than a substantive language.

THE VOTIAKS.

_Locality._--The R. Viatka.

Called by the Russians, Viatka.
" " Turk tribes, Ari.
" " themselves, Udy or Udmart
" " the Tcheremiss, Oda.

_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Probably some remains of
Shamanism.

Of all the Finnic tribes the Votiaks are the most like the Finlanders of Finland; indeed Müller states that there is a tradition among them to the effect that their original country was Finland, and that they are immigrants from thence.

On the other hand, the extent to which they differ from their south-western neighbours, the Tcheremiss, is said to be remarkable.

In respect to the physical conformation of the Votiaks, the evidence of Ermann is favorable, that of Pallas less so. The latter describes them as slight and undersized: the former as strongly built. In no Finnic tribe--perhaps in no other tribe in the world,--is fiery red hair so common as amongst the Votiaks.

They are an _agricultural_ population, not fishers and hunters.

They are also, most probably, an unmixed population; since none of their neighbours live so exclusively to themselves, (_i.e._ not in mixed villages, half Russian, or half Bashkir,) as the Votiaks.

The government under petty chiefs, or the heads of tribes, still continues; and it is a privilege of the Votiaks to elect their own village judges or arbiters.

Their population seems on the increase. At the end of the last century it was forty thousand: in 1837 it was one hundred thousand.

3.

THE TCHEREMISS.

_Locality._--The left bank of the Middle Volga; fewer on the
right. Governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov. Recently,
settlements in the Government of Astrakan, Conterminous with
the Votiaks.

_Name._--Russian. Native name, _Mari_=_men_.

_Numbers._--According to Schubert, two hundred thousand.

_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Greek Church.

_Physical appearance._--Stature, middle; hair, light; beard,
scanty; face, flat.

_Habitations._--Small villages, smaller than those of the
Votiaks, and Tchuvatch. Habits, agricultural; lately nomadic.

THE MORDUINS.

_Locality._--The most South-Western of the Finnic tribes, on
the right-bank of the Volga, between the R. Sura and R. Oka.

_Name._--Native.

_Divisions._--The Morduins of the Oka, are called Ersad;
the Morduins of the Sura, Mokshad. A third division, called
Karatai, inhabits the neighbourhood of Kasan.

_Numbers._--In 1837, ninety-two thousand.

_Dialects._--Two or more--the Ersad and the Mokshad.

_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity; Greek Church; Shamanism.

_Physical appearance._--Hair, brown and straight; beard, thin.
More Slavonic than any other Finnic tribe. The Ersad oftener
red-haired than the Mokshad.

THE TCHUVATCH.

_Locality._--Right bank of the Volga, opposite the Tcheremiss,
in the neighbourhood of Kasan, in the Government of Simbirsk
and Saratov. Recent settlements in the Government of Astrakan.

_Native Name._--Vereyal, and Khirdiyal, and Vyress:

Called by the Russians, Vyress.
" " Tcheremiss, Kurk-Mari=hill men.
" " Morduins, Wjedke.

_Numbers._--According to Schubert, three hundred and seventy
thousand.

_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Greek Church. Remains of
Shamanism.

_Physical Appearance._--Height, middle; complexion, light;
face, flat; beard, thin; hair, _black, and somewhat curled_;
eyes, grey; eyelids, narrow.

_Habitations._--Like those of the Turk tribes in their
neighbourhood.

_Dialects._--Two: _a._ of the Vereyal of the Gornaya; _b._ of
the Khirdiyal of the Lugovaya.

4.

FINLANDERS OF FINLAND.

_Localities._--Finland; settlers in Sweden and Norway.

_Native Name._--Suomolaiset.

_Swedish._--Finn.

_Norwegian._--Qwæn.

_Dialects._--_a._ Finlandic Proper; _b._ Savolax, spoken in
Savolax, and Carelia.

_Religion._--Lutheranism.

_Finnish words._--Kanguri=_weaver_, seppa=_smith_,
wapa=_freeman_, orya, palvelya=_slave_, myyda, ostaa=_buy
and sell_, yuoma=_ale_, kalya=_beer_, kandele,
youhe-kandele=_musical instruments_, keria=_book_,
raamattu=_writing_.

ENGLISH. FINLANDIC. SWEDISH.

_King_, Kunengas, Konung.

_Prince_, Ruhtinas, Thruhtin.

_Judge_, Duomari, Dömare.

_Cheese_, Yuusto, Ost.

_Wine_, Saxan wiina,[31] Viin.[31]

_Rye_, Ruis, Rug.

_Oats_, Havra, Haver.

Two lists, one of Finlandic, and one of Swedish, words have been placed at the head of the present section, for the sake of serving as an introduction to some of the questions contained in it. They are all taken from Rühs' work on _Finland and its inhabitants_, where the analysis of the language serves instead of historical testimony. By observing what terms are native, and what are Swedish, we separate the early native civilization of Finland, from the civilization introduced from Sweden. Thus, on looking over the preceding glosses, we find that the only terms applicable to a social or political constitution, are those for _slave_ and _freeman_; _king_, _ruler_, _judge_, &c., being expressed by Swedish words. So also with the industrial trades; _weaving_ was Finnic from the beginning, and so was _smith's-work_; but the _carpenter_, the _builder_, the _ship-builder_, are importations, and so on. There are native terms for _buying and selling_, for _ale and beer_, and for more than two musical instruments; but there are no native terms for _wine_, and none for _dancing_.

For the _metals_, and _agriculture_, the terms are _almost_ always native. _Cheese_, however, on the one side, and _gold_, _tin_, and _lead_, on the other, have Swedish names. So have _oats_ and _rye_.

Music, and songs, and a mythology belonged to the early Finlanders; the second being always accompanied by the first, and the three illustrating each other.

The great foreign influence that has affected the Finlanders of Finland, is the Swedish, and this may be considered to have been in steady and continuous operation, from the reign of Eric the Holy, in the A.D. 1156. This king, bent upon conquest and conversion, landed in South Finland, and founded what was then a new mission or colony, in the present province of Nyland (Newland). From this point, the power of Sweden gradually spread towards the inner portions of the country; northwards and eastwards: not unopposed, but opposed ineffectually, by the heathens of Tawastaland and Carelia.

5.

ESTHONIAN FINS.

_Locality._--South of the Baltic, in Esthonia, Livonia, and
part of Courland. Conterminous with the Russians, and the
Courland Lithuanians.

_Dialects._--Two: the common Esthonian, and the Esthonian of
Dorpat.

_Native Name._--_Rahwas_; of the country _Marahwas_.

6.

THE LAPLANDERS.

_Habits._--Nomadic.

_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity of the Greek Church with
the Russian; imperfect Protestantism with the Swedish and
Norwegian Laplanders.

_Native Name._--Same, Sabome.

7.

HUNGARIANS.

_Locality._--Hungary; mixed with German, Slavonic, and
Wallachian tribes.

_Native Name._--Majiar.

The Majiars are Ugrian, the country from which they descended being that of the Bashkirs, conterminous with the southern limits of the present Ugrian area, of which it was once a part. The date of their migration is about A.D. 900.

From extending _farther_ than Hungary they were prevented by the two great victories of Henry the Fowler in 935 A.D.

Those who would connect the present Hungarians with the Huns of Attila, must also make the Huns Ugrian; since no fact is more undeniable than the Ugrian character of the Majiars. The reasons against this have been given already. They are, undoubtedly, scanty. Still they preponderate over those of the other view; which consist only in inferences from the term _Hungary_.

Lest these be over-rated, two facts should be remembered:--

1st.--That the name is Russian and _not_ native.

2nd.--That the -_n_- is no original part of the word; the older Slavonic forms being _Ugri_, _Uhri_, and only in the later dialects, _Ungri_.

The Majiars must necessarily be a very mixed race; their country having been that of the old Pannonian population (probably Slavonic); of the Romans of both the eastern and western empire; of the Goths, the Huns, the Avars, the Gepidæ, and the Comanians.

This is what history suggests. To have _assumed_ an intermixture, for the sake of accounting for the physical and moral difference between such extreme Ugrian forms as the Majiar and Laplander, would have been illegitimate.

In reality, however, the difference between the Majiar and Lap, is less remarkable than that between the Lap and Finlander; since, in this latter case, the contrast is _nearly_ as great, whilst the climatologic conditions are less dissimilar.

The Majiar is the only member of the Ugrian family, which has effected, within the historical period, a permanent conquest over any portion of the _Iapetidæ_.

The Ugrians supply a good example of what may be called _a receding frontier_. Their area has at one time been greater than at present. Southwards and westwards it was once prolonged. Hence, the Ugrian has been displaced, or encroached upon by others. It is well to note this. It is better still to take it in conjunction (or contrast) with the Turk area. There the _frontier has encroached_. At an earlier period it was less extensive than at present.

In one quarter, perhaps in others, the Ugrian frontier has encroached, _i.e._ on that of the Majiars.

In one quarter, perhaps in others, the Turk frontier has receded, _i.e._ the Comani have become either extinct or a mixed breed in Hungary.

Nevertheless, as a rule, the Turks frontier has encroached; the Ugrian receded. The practical application of this distinction is wide. When we know whether a given family habitually extends, or habitually contracts its area, we know what will be the probable distribution of the unfixed ancient tribes on the frontier.

In the critical ethnology of the classical writers many problems must be worked in this way; the inferences in the two alternatives being diametrically the reverse of each other.

1. In a people with an habitually encroaching frontier, no tribe described by earlier writers as lying _beyond_ its present geographical area, is to be considered as having formed part of it (_i.e._ the family with an encroaching frontier).

2. In a people with an habitually receding frontier, many tribes described by earlier writers as lying beyond its present geographical area may (and often must) be considered as so doing.

Hence, in the present pair of instances, many localities once other than Turk are now Turk;[32] whilst, on the other hand, many localities once Ugrian are now other than Ugrian.[33]

What, then, was the maximum extension southward of the Ugrian area before its frontier receded under the triple encroachments of the Turks of Russian Asia, the Russians of Russia, and the Norwegians and Swedes of Scandinavia? Possibly over the whole Scandinavian peninsula, possibly as far as the lower Don, Volga, and Dnieper. These, however, are geographical frontiers; frontiers less important, and less capable of solution than the ethnological ones. Were the Ugrians ever conterminous with other divisions of the human race than those which they come in contact with at present? There is no evidence that they were.

What ancient nations were Ugrian? Omitting, for the present, the tribes of Scythia, we may answer that the following were certainly so.

1. The _Æstii_.--Modern Esthonians.

2. The _Finni_ and _Skrithifinni_.

3. The _Sitones_.--The Ugrians of the Baltic were known to the classical writers through the Germans. The names prove this. The _Æstii_ were the people _east_ of those who described them. The term _Finn_ is known to no Ugrian, but to their Gothic neighbours only. The notice of Tacitus as to the Sitones is similarly capable of explanation.

The Finland word _kainu_=_a low country_. A portion of the Finlanders call themselves _Kainulainen_ (_Singular_), _Kainulaiset_ (_plural_).

Now this sectional name in Finland is the general name in Scandinavia; so that the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians call the Finlanders _Kwæn_. In Scandinavian, however, _Qvinde_=_women_. Hence, Tacitus was persuaded by his direct or indirect German informants that the Sitones were subject to female government.--"_Suionibus Sitonum gentes continuantur. Cætera similes, uno differunt, quod fœmina dominatur._"[34] Lest any doubt should remain as to Tacitus having been told of a country of women, I may add that--

_a._ Alfred[35] speaks of a _Cvenaland_=_land of Kwæns_.

_b._ The Norse[35] Sagas of a _Kænugard_=_home of Kwæns_.

_c._ Adam[35] of Bremen of _terra fœminarum_, and _Amazons_.

The first two facts prove the name, the second the false interpretation of it.

Far more full, however, than the classical writers are the old Norse Sagas in respect to the Ugrians. Of these the Beormas, or Permians, were wealthy and commercial; men sometimes to be dealt with, sometimes to be robbed. The Laps, on the other hand, were feared as magicians, or as men skilled in metallurgy; and, according to those who have studied the philosophy of mythologies, they have supplied many supernatural elements in the way of dwarfs and goblins.

In the ethnology of Scandinavia--in the skilful and industrious hands of Retzius, Eschricht, Nilson, Kaiser, and others--Ugrian archæology, and Ugrian craniology, are preeminently prominent. The numerous barrows of Scandinavia are attentively studied; and observation has shown that the older the tomb, and the greater the proportion of instruments found within it _not_ made of iron (but of greater antiquity than the art of forging that metal) the less dolikhokephalic, and the more brakhykephalic, (or Ugrian,) is the skull. Hence comes the inference that the southward extension of barrows, containing remains of the sort in question, is a measure of the southward extension of the Ugrian family.

Two other matters are of importance in Ugrian ethnology--the remains of their ancient Shamanism, and the Finland _Runot_.