_The Primary Varieties of the Human Species._
I. MONGOLIDÆ.
II. ATLANTIDÆ.
III. IAPETIDÆ.
The questions connected with the Natural History of the Human Species
are so thoroughly questions of descent, affiliation, or pedigree, that
I have no hesitation in putting the names of the primary divisions in
the form of Greek patronymics; the supposed ancestor (or _eponymus_)
being, of course, no real individual, but an ethnological fiction.
To have used, instead, the words _stock_, _race_, _tribe_, or even the
more scientific terms--_order_, _class_, _sub-order_, preceded by an
adjective, and to have spoken of the _Mongolian stock_, _race_, _tribe_
or _order_, &c., would, apparently, have been the correcter method.
It is not, however, so convenient. Every word of the sort in question
is either required for the expression of the minor divisions, or is
objectionable on other grounds.
I am also aware that this use of the forms in _-idæ_ to express the
divisions of a _species_, rather than those of an _order_, is at
variance with the nomenclature of the zoologists. Still, the terms are
less embarrassed with inconveniences than any I have hit upon.
I. MONGOLIDÆ.--Face broad and flat from either the development
of the zygomata, or that of the parietal bones; often from
the depression of the nasal bones. Frontal profile retiring,
or depressed, rarely approaching the perpendicular. Maxillary
profile, moderately prognathic or projecting, rarely
orthognathic. Eyes often oblique. Skin rarely a true white;
rarely a jet black. Irides generally dark. Hair straight, and
lank, and black; rarely light-coloured; sometimes curly, rarely
woolly.
_Languages._--Aptotic, and agglutinate; rarely with a truly
amalgamate inflection.
_Distribution._--Asia, Polynesia, America.
_Influence upon the history of the world._--Material rather
than moral.
II. ATLANTIDÆ.--Maxillary profile projecting, nasal generally
flat, frontal retiring, cranium dolikhokephalic, the parietal
diameter being generally narrow. Eyes rarely oblique. Skin
often jet-black, very rarely approaching a pure white.
Hair crisp, woolly, rarely straight, still more rarely
light-coloured.
_Languages._--With an agglutinate, rarely an amalgamate
inflection.
_Distribution._--Africa.
_Influence on the history of the world._--Inconsiderable.
III. IAPETIDÆ.--Maxillary profile but little projecting, nasal
often prominent, frontal sometimes nearly vertical. Face rarely
very flat, moderately broad. Skull generally dolikhokephalic.
Eyes rarely oblique. Skin white, or brunette. Hair never
woolly, often light-coloured. Irides black, blue, grey.
_Languages._--With amalgamate inflections, or else anaptotic;
rarely agglutinate, never aptotic.
_Distribution._--Europe.
_Influence on the history of the world._--Greater than that
of either the Mongolidæ or the Atlantidæ. Moral as well as
material.
These characters have been framed to meet the typical, sub-typical,
and _quasi_-transitional, but not the true transitional forms. The
reason of this is clear. Where the transition is _real_, and where
the affiliation in the way of descent coincides with similarity of
conformation, the tribe thus situated belong to _two_ divisions, rather
than to any single one.
MONGOLIDÆ.
DIVISIONS.
A.--THE ALTAIC MONGOLIDÆ.
B.--THE DIOSCURIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
C.--THE OCEANIC MONGOLIDÆ.
D.--THE HYPERBOREAN MONGOLIDÆ.
E.--THE PENINSULAR MONGOLIDÆ.
F.--THE AMERICAN MONGOLIDÆ.
G.--THE INDIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
A.
ALTAIC MONGOLIDÆ.
The term Altaic is taken from the Altai mountains in Central Asia,
these being a convenient geographical centre for the different nations
and tribes comprised in this division. It contains the following
sub-divisions:--
1. The Seriform Stock.
2. The Turanian Stock.
I.
_SERIFORM STOCK._
_Physical conformation._--Mongol.
_Languages._--Either wholly aptotic, or with only the rudiments
of an inflection.
_Area._--China, Tibet, and the Indo-Chinese, or Transgangetic,
Peninsula, as far as Malaya; the Himalayan, and parts of the
sub-Himalayan, range of mountains.
_Chief Divisions._--1. The Chinese. 2. The Tibetans. 3. The
Anamese. 4. The Siamese. 5. The Kambojians. 6. The Burmese. 7.
The Môn. 8. Numerous unplaced tribes.
I have begun with the nations and tribes represented by the Chinese,
Tibetans, and Indo-Chinese, on the strength of the primitive condition
of their languages. This represents the earliest known stage of
human speech; by which I mean, not that it was spoken earlier than
the other tongues of the world, but only that it has changed, or
grown, more slowly. I should also add, that over and above the fact
of these languages being destitute of true inflection, the separate
words generally consist of only a single syllable. Hence the class
has been called _monosyllabic_. This latter character, however,
has no _essential_ connection with the aptotic form. A language of
dissyllables or trisyllables may, for any thing known to the contrary,
be as destitute of inflections as a monosyllabic one. Still, it must be
admitted that no such tongue has yet been discovered.
THE CHINESE.
_Locality._--China; bounded by the countries of the Koreans,
Mantshu, Mongolians, Tibetans, and the hill tribes of the
Transgangetic Peninsula and Assam.
_Religion._--Modified Buddhism, or the religion of Fo.
_Mode of Writing._--Rhæmatographic, _i.e._ the written signs
represent whole _words_;[9] not merely the parts of words,
single articulate sounds or syllables.
_Physical Conformation._--Mongoliform. According to Prichard
the maxillary profile projects. According to Retzius, the
maxillary profile projects, and the cranial development is
elongated, or occipito-frontal. That the jaw, in some degree,
projects, and that the forehead also retires, is shown by a
remark of Tradescant Lay's,--_e.g._: that the Chinese profile
slopes upwards from the chin to the beginning of the hairy
scalp.
No country in the world of equal magnitude with China has so
homogeneous or so dense a population. From the ocean to Tibet, from
Korea to Cochin-China, the language is one, and the physiognomy is
one; and it is only when we reach the mountain-ridges of the west and
south, that we find, in the ruder and more imperfectly civilized tribes
that inhabit them, any material variation from the general uniformity
of the most populous empire in the world. This is the case whatever be
the test that is applied. The language varies from the refined speech
of the Mandarins to the comparative rudeness of certain provincial
dialects; the complexion and contour of the face vary also; and the
civilization is less characteristic in some districts than in others;
but all these deviations lie within narrow limits.
In China, the steppe-land of High Asia slopes downwards to the North
Pacific. Hence we have a sea-board of average proportion as compared
with the inland area. It faces, however, one ocean only; and that the
Pacific. Of this no island larger than Hainan is inhabited by a Chinese
population; Formosa _not_ being Chinese. No mountain-ranges are of
sufficient magnitude to be compared with the systems of Tibet or those
of the Transgangetic Peninsula. Still, there are three well-marked
watersheds--that of the Hoang-ho on the north, that of the Canton River
on the south, and that of Kiang-Ku between them: and there are the
fertile alluvial valleys corresponding.
Upon the whole the physical geography of China is that of an
agricultural and industrial population. This the Chinese are to a
preeminent degree: and when we come to the Malay Archipelago we shall
find that they are also traders. I am much more inclined to measure
their civilization by this test, than by their pretensions to an
indigenous literature of an almost unfathomable antiquity; a point
which will be noticed in the sequel.
In physical conformation the Chinese have a yellow-brown complexion,
a broad face, and a scanty beard, lank black hair, dark irides, and a
stature below that of the European. This is what we expect, as part
and parcel of the common Mongol characteristics. Harshness of feature
they have in a less degree than the true Mongolians; a tendency to
obesity in a greater. In this respect, they have been called _Mongols
softened down_. This is what they really are. One point of physiognomy,
however, is more peculiarly Chinese than aught else,--viz. the linear
character, and oblique direction of the opening of the eyes. This is
_narrow_, so that little of the eye is seen. It is also drawn upwards
at its outer angle, and so becomes oblique in its position. Sometimes
in addition to this the upper eyelid hangs heavy and tumid over the
eyeball; and sometimes the skin forms a crescentic fold between the
inner angle of the eye and the nose; as may be seen in individuals out
of China, and which is not uncommon in England.
Now the peculiarity that I have just attempted to describe, is one
of the minute points of difference between the Chinese and several
other Mongol nations. The _oblique eye_ will often be noticed in the
following pages; sometimes from the fact of its presence, sometimes
from that of its absence. It is not exclusively Chinese: but it is
found in its most marked form in China.
THE TIBETANS.
_Localities._--Tibet, Bután, Ladakh, Bultistan, or Little Tibet.
_Political relations._--Tibet, subject to China, Ladakh a part
of the Sikh empire, Bultistan and Bután, independent.
_Divisions._--1. The Bhot of Tibet. 2. The Bhután Tibetans. 3.
The Ladakh Tibetans. 4. The Bulti.
_Conterminous._--Taking the family altogether, with the
Chinese, Mongolians, Turks, Northern tribes and nations of
Hindostan, North-Western tribes of the Burmese empire, and
certain tribes akin to the Persians.
_Religion._--Chiefly Buddhism. Brahminism on the Indian
frontier. Shia Mahometanism in Little Tibet.
_Language._--Dialects, in some cases, perhaps, independent
languages, of the Tibetan.
_Alphabet._--Derived from the Pali of India.
_Physical appearance._--Mongol.
1.--_The Bhot._--These are the inhabitants of Tibet Proper, and Tangut.
They are all Buddhists in the more exaggerated form; and it is in the
Tibetan monasteries where the greatest abundance of Buddhist literature
is to be found. This is almost wholly religious, and in a great
measure a translation from either the Sanskrit or the Pali. The first
century after Christ is generally considered as the epoch at which the
religion was introduced into Tibet: and this epoch is a likely one.
2.--_The Tibetans of Bután._--Although Buddhists, the Tibetans of Bután
have been modified by Hindu influences. Their government is that of a
Rajah, and many of their outlying tribes are extended to the south of
the Himalayan range.
3.--_Ladakh Tibetans._--With the exception of the southern frontier
of Bután, Ladakh is the portion of the Tibetan area which is best
known, and where the proper Tibetan type is most subjected to foreign
influences. Although the religion be the religion of Buddha, there was
a short interval of Mahometanism. Originally dependent upon the Guru
Lama of Hlassa, Ladakh subsequently became one of the extreme points of
the Chinese empire, retaining its own princes. In the reign, however,
of Aurungzeb, it was overrun by the Turks. These, however, Aurungzeb
expelled at the request of the fugitive Rajah, who promised to become
Mahometan in return; and kept his promise. It was broken, however, by
his successor, so that the religion of Mahomet was professed for a
time only. It was, however, tolerated afterwards. The last conquest
of Ladakh was by the Sikhs under Runjeet Singh; and it now follows
the fortunes of the Sikh dynasty. This has opened a door to the
Indians of the Punjâb. To these elements of intermixture may be added,
the presence of numerous settlers from Cashmir. Lastly, there is a
settlement of Shia Mahometans from Little Tibet.
4.--_The Bulti of Bultistan, or Little Tibet._--The most differential
characteristic of the Bulti Tibetans, is that they are no Buddhists,
but Mahometans, of the Shia persuasion, their conversion having
come from Persia. It has been already stated that the Bulti enjoy a
political independence.
_Kunawer._(?) I have not examined how far the Kunawer tribes, located
where the Sutlege breaks through the Himalayas, deserve to be classed
as a separate division. At all events their language is monosyllabic
(probably closely allied to the Ladakh), as may be seen in the
Theburskud, Milchan, and Súmchú vocabularies of Gerard.[10]
_The Polyandria of Tibet._--The current doctrine respecting the
so-called Polyandria of Tibet, is that it is the common polygamy of the
east reversed; _i.e._, that one woman marries several husbands, who may
all be alive _at the same time_.
What is most certain upon this obscure point is that the surviving
brother inherits the wife of the one that died.
It is not so certain, although highly probably, that the wife is the
property of two or more brothers _at the same time_.
At any rate the marriage, if so it may be called, is confined to
the circle of the brothers-in-law. Perhaps the truth is that every
brother-in-law is a husband.
THE ANAMESE.
_Locality._--Tunkín and Cochin-China.
_Conterminous_ with the Chinese; and, except so far as they are
partially separated by mountain-tribes, with the Kambojians and
Siamese.
_Religion._--Buddhism.
_Language._--Different from, but allied to, the Chinese.
_Physical Appearance._--Like that of the Chinese, except that
the average height is somewhat less. Upper extremities long,
lower, short and stout. Form of the skull more globular than
square. Eyelids less turned than that of the Chinese. Mouth
large; lips prominent, but not thick; moustache more abundant
than beard; beard scanty, though encouraged. Colour more yellow
than either brown or blackish. Clothing abundant.--_Finlayson
from Prichard._
THE SIAMESE.
_Locality._--From the Gulf of Siam and the neck of the
Malayan Peninsula to the frontiers of China. Part of Assam.
Conterminous on the east, except so far as they are separated
by mountain tribes, with the Anamese, and Kambojians; on the
west, subject to the same limitation, with the Môn of Pegu, and
the tribes of the Burmese empire. On the south with the Malays
of the Malayan Peninsula.
_Synonym._--T'hay, the native name.
_Religion._--Buddhist.
_Alphabets._--Of Indian origin, rounded forms of the Pali.
_Chief Divisions._--Laos, Shyán, (Ahom?) Khamti.
_Physical Appearance._--Average height of twenty men, taken
indiscriminately, five feet three inches, the tallest being
five feet eight inches, the shortest, five feet two inches.
Limbs and trunk robust. Complexion, light brown, lighter than
the Malay, darker than the Chinese. Hair, black, lank, coarse
and abundant. Hairy scalp descends low. Nose small, but not
flattened; nostrils divergent. Sclerotica yellowish. Outer
angles of the eye turned upwards. Cheek-bones broad and high.
Lower jaw square, so as to look as if the parotid gland were
swollen.--_Crawford and Finlayson from Prichard._
In the history of the Siamese Tribes, the conquest of Assam is,
perhaps, the most important event; and this is connected with their
wide distribution.
In the lower part of the valley of Assam the language is Bengali, or
nearly so; but only in the lower part. The upper half is peopled by
different small mountain tribes, one of which is the Khamti.
_The Khamti._--In the North Eastern corner of Assam, the Khamti are
conterminous with the Singpho, Mishimi, and Miri, and are traditionally
reported to have emigrated from the head-waters of the Irawaddi. In
physical appearance they are middle-sized, more resembling the Chinese
than any tribe on the frontier. Perhaps, a shade darker in complexion.
Their alphabet is Siamese; and their language, far north as it is
spoken, when compared with the Siamese of Bankok, closely resembles
that dialect. In Brown's[11] Vocabularies the proportion of words,
similar or identical, in Khamti and Siamese, is 92 _per cent._
Still it is by no means certain that the Khamti represent the original
conquerors. These were Ahoms; their alphabet was _Ahom_, and the
language _Ahom_. The Ahom, however, was Siamese; and probably the
Khamti was a dialect of it.
The Ahom literature, preserved in the books of the Assam priesthood,
is said to be remarkable for the negative fact of there being in it
no traces of the Hindu religion--either Buddhist or Brahminical. This
speaks much either in favour of the antiquity of the conquest, or for
the recent date of the Hindu influence.
In A.D. 1695, the Brahminical religion was established in Assam: how
much earlier is uncertain.
THE KAMBOJIANS.
_Locality._--Lower course of the Mekhong river. East of the
Siamese, west of the Anamese, except so for as they may be
separated by isolated mountain tribes, conterminous with these
nations.
Our knowledge respecting the Kambojians is not sufficiently definite
to enable us to say how far they differ, or how far they agree with
certain tribes of the interior, which have been described separately.
In Prichard I find that they were supposed by the Portuguese to have
been derived from a warlike nation of the interior, called _Kho_, or
_Gueo_; who are still represented as painting and tattooing their
bodies.
Now these Kho, or Gueo, are probably the _Ka_ described along with the
_Chong_, as a separate people. If so we are enabled to dispose of three
unplaced tribes; since, by Crawfurd's Ka and Chong vocabularies we can
connect, perhaps identify, them with the Kambojians.
ENGLISH. KA. CHONG. KAMBOJIAN.
_Sun_ tangi tańgi tangai.
_Moon_ kot kang ke.
_Stone_ tamoe tamok tamo.
_Water_ dak tak tak.
_River_ dak-tani talle tanle.
_Fire_ un pleu plung.
_Fish_ tre mel trai.
_One_ moe moe moe.
_Two_ bar bar pir.
_Three_ peh peh bai.
_Four_ puan pon buan.
_Five_ chang pram pram.
Most of the Ka, and Chong words which are not Kambojian are either
Anamitic or Môn.
Furthermore, in Crawfurd's Embassy to Siam, a vocabulary representing a
fourth Kambojian dialect is given; the Khomen.
THE BURMESE.
_Locality._--Valley of the Irawaddi. Conterminous, save so far
as interrupted by mountain-tribes, with Assam, China, Siam, and
Pegu.
_Divisions._--1. The Myamma, or Burmese of Ava. 2. The
Rhukheng, or people of Arakan.
_Religion._--Buddhist.
_Alphabet._--Of Indian origin, a rounded form of the Pali.
_Physical appearance._--More beard, more prominent features,
and darker complexions than the Siamese, Anamese, and Chinese.
Beard also more abundant. The darkness of complexion increasing
towards the confines of Bengal.
THE MÔN.
_Locality._--The Delta of the Irawaddi; Pegu.
_Alphabet._--Burmese.
The notices hitherto given have applied only to the great _political_
divisions of the variety speaking monosyllabic languages; and have
referred to nations of a known and similar degree of civilization. It
would be an error, however, to suppose that they supply a complete
enumeration. Hardly an empire mentioned will not exhibit some instance
of a new series of phenomena standing over for investigation. The
Chinese, the Burmese, and the Siamese, represent merely the dominant
tribes of their several areas; those whereof the civilization and
territorial power have given their possessors a certain degree of
prominence in the history of the world. The intermixed tribes,
sometimes imperfectly subdued, always imperfectly civilized, inhabiting
barren tracts or mountain fastnesses, have a value in ethnology which
they cannot command in history. In these we see the original substratum
of the different national characters, as it may be supposed to have
shown itself, before it was modified by foreign influences. In a more
advanced stage of our knowledge, these tribes will probably be brought
under one of the sub-divisions already noticed. At present, even when
in some cases they may be so placed, it is best to take them in detail;
premising that, the list does not pretend to be exhaustive, that, from
the fluctuations of the geographical nomenclature, the same tribe
may be mentioned twice over, and, lastly, that partly from imperfect
knowledge, and partly from changes of locality, arising from migrations
of the tribes themselves, the geographical position is, in many cases,
difficult to fix.
The notice, however, of the minor representatives, real or supposed, of
the great division of the human race speaking monosyllabic languages
now commences.
THE SI-FAN.
The word[12] _Si_ means _west_, whilst _Fan_ means _stranger_;
so that _Si-fan_ means _western strangers_. The term means
one or more of the wilder tribes on the Tibetan or Mongolian
frontier.
Nothing is less likely than that the _Si-fan_ should differ
in _kind_ from the Chinese--unless it be that they are Turk,
Mongol, or Tibetan.
THE MIAOU-TSE.
These are the so-called _aborigines_ of China. It were, perhaps, more
accurate to call them the Chinese in their most aboriginal form. The
term means _children of the soil_. Their localities are the mountains
of Southern and Central China. They seem to consist of a number of
tribes rather than to constitute any particular people; so that it
is possible that many varieties of the primitive Chinese may be
comprised under the general appellation. Those of _Ping-sha-hwang_ are
divided into the _white_ and _black_ Miaou-tse; from the difference of
their complexion. Both the Abbé Gosier and Tradescant Lay[13] speak
to their indomitable courage, and to their spirit of independence,
their subjection being still imperfect. Their weapons are the bow and
cross-bow. Their employment agriculture. The following is an account of
their religious rites from the author last named.
"_Religious Rites._--When a man among the _Miaou-tse_ who inhabit
the _Ping-sha-shih_ hills, marries, he sticks five small flags into
a bundle of grass fastened together by about seven different bands.
Before this strange pageant he kneels, while the rest of his friends
fold their arms and bow; after this they make merry with music and
dancing. At the death of father or mother, the eldest son remains at
home for forty-nine days without washing his face; when this period
has been completed, he sacrifices to a divinity which is called
_Fang-kwei_, and seems to correspond in office with Mercury, who,
according to the views of ancient mythology, conducted the spirits
of the dead to the abodes of happiness. If the eldest son be poor,
and cannot afford to lose the labour of so long a time, the grandson
or some other descendant performs this duty in his stead. Among the
mountaineers styled the _Hea-king_, when a man is sick, his friends
offer the head of a tiger to the prince of divinities. The head is
placed upon a charger, with a sword; three incense-sticks and two
candles behind it, and three cups of wine in front. Before this curious
oblation the worshippers fold their hands, or cross their arms and bow
themselves. Another tribe, when they would propitiate the good-will
of the powers which influence the weather, appoint ten companies of
young men and women, who, after dressing themselves in robes made of
felt, and binding their loins with an embroidered girdle, dance and
play the organ with every suitable demonstration of joy and festivity.
This gay ceremony is kept up for three days and three nights, at the
end of which they sacrifice an ox, to obtain, says the Chinese writer,
a plentiful year. A father among the same people, when his son is ten
months old, offers a white tiger, and accompanies the oblation with
such rites of merriment as his circumstances can afford. At this time
a name is given to the child. This reminds us of a modern christening,
when the solemnities of religion are straightway followed by the
mirth, good cheer, and gaieties of a festival. When a tribe called the
_Chung-king_ mourn for their dead, they kill an ox, and place the head
and feet upon an altar, with basins filled with food, lighted candles,
and cups of wine by way of drink-offering. The altar resembles a table,
and explains a phrase used in Isaiah, "Ye have prepared a table for
that number." The bridal ceremonies with another tribe are attended by
the sacrifice of a dog, at which the relatives of husband and wife are
present.
"A people called the _Western Miaou-tse_, in the middle of autumn
offer a sacrifice to the great ancestor or founder of their race. For
this purpose, they select a male ox or buffalo which is well covered
with hair, and has its horns quite perfect; that is, in other words,
an animal without blemish. To put it in good condition, they feed it
with grass and water till the rice or corn is ripe, when the animal is
fat. They then distil a certain quantity of spirit from the grain, and
slay the ox. Being thus provided for a feast, they invite all their
relatives, who come and carouse with them amidst plays, singing, and
the loud challenges of jolly companions. In the first-fruits which
the Chinese present at the close of harvest, we have a representative
of Cain's offering; but in the ceremony just described, there are
some traces of that which Abel brought to the altar. The aboriginal
Chinese retain the rite, but the object worshipped is disguised under
an equivocal name,--equivocal, because the Creator has a claim to the
title of original ancestor by way of eminence, as well as the common
parent of mankind. When the mind of man was darkened, he confounded
Adam with his Maker, and worshipped the creature instead of the
Creator, who is blessed for ever.
"With the _White Miaou-tse_, a rite is observed somewhat in character
like the last, but for a different purpose. These select an ox
well-proportioned and carrying a perfect pair of horns. This animal
they feed carefully to prepare it for sacrifice. Each cantonment keeps
an ox in this way in readiness to be offered to the great ancestor,
whenever, in any of their contests, victory shall declare in their
favour. After the sacrifice has been performed by the master of the
sacrifice, or priest, the relatives of the sacrificer join in a regular
festivity of singing and drinking. A tribe commended for the purity
of their disposition and their obedience to the magistrate, at the
death of a person collect a large quantity of fuel together, and, I
suppose, make a great burning for him. When a man is about to marry
among a particular race of mountaineers, he allows two of his teeth to
be knocked out with a hammer and hard chisel, to avert the mischiefs
of matrimony. These, too, cut off the forelocks and spread the hair
behind; they also, like the Chinese, bestow some attention upon the
beauty of their eyebrows."
THE LOLOS.
Probably these belong more to Siam[14] than to China. _Mutatis
mutandis_, they are on the southern frontier what the Si-fan
are on the west.
They are so far civilized as to have taken their religion
(Buddhism), and an alphabet from Ava or Pegu.
THE QUANTO.
The Quanto inhabit[14] the range of mountains between Anam
and China. They represent the original civilization, or want
of civilization, of Cochin-China and Tonkin,--_i.e._ of
Cochin-China and Tonkin before the influence of China.
They are in possession of an alphabet.
THE TSHAMPA.
Inhabitants of the southernmost[14] coast of Cochin-China.
Their language, of which I have not seen a specimen, is said
to differ from both the Chinese and the Kambojian. They are
a civilized people, and were so in the time of Marco Polo.
According to Crawfurd, their civilization was, to a certain
extent, due to Indian influences. At present there is a Malay
settlement on their coast.
THE MOY.
The southern part of the mountains which form the watershed
between Cochin-China and Kambojia is the residence of the Moy.
According to Chapman, they are eminently dark-complexioned;
an observation which will be found in the sequel to apply
to several other of the minor tribes of the division in
question.[14]
_Sub-divisions of the Laos branch of the Siamese._--As laid down in the
maps, the Laos fill up the whole area between China on the north, Siam
on the south, Cochin-China and Kambojia on the east, and Ava on the
west; of this area, however, little is known in detail.
One of the divisions of the Laos is called _Lau[14]-pang-dun_, or the
_Black_ Laos, from the darkness of their complexion.
Tribes, too, called _Pa-y_ and _Pa-pe_,[15] are said to be Laos.
Lastly, the relations between the true Laos, and the Ahom, Khamti, and
Shyán, have yet to be made out in a satisfactory manner.
KARIEN.
_Distribution._--Irregular; from the eleventh to the
twenty-third degree of north latitude; from the Mergui Province
in Tenasserim to the borders of China, between the Burmese on
the west and the Siamese on the east. On the river Salwin, are
the so-called _Red Karien_.
_Name._--Burmese. Called _Kadun_ in Pegu.
The Kariens, unless they are Siamese, have next to that nation the
greatest extension, north and south. Ground down by the oppression
of the Burmese, they are, with the exception of the _red_ Kariens,
who still preserve an imperfect independence, a decreasing race. Of
their language we have specimens[16] in more than one dialect, viz.,
the Passuko, Maplu, and Play. They are agricultural tribes, clearing
the land for the cultivation of rice, and then leaving it to migrate
elsewhere.--_Arva in annos mutant, et superest ager._
SILONG.
_Locality._--Islands of the Mergui Archipelago.
_Numbers._--Said to be about one thousand.
_Language_.--Said to be peculiar.
_Authority._--Dr. Helfer's Third Report on the Tenasserim
Provinces.--_Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol.
viii.
The details now forthcoming apply to the districts lying north of a
line drawn from the southernmost point of Arakan to the Irawaddi; and
they comprise the eastern extensions of the Arakan tribes, the parts
about Manipur, and the complex, but important line of frontier between
the Indo-Chinese kingdoms, and the Indian portions of Bengal and Assam.
The first tribes that will be noticed are those which are most closely
related to the inhabitants of Arakan.
NAGAS.
_Locality._--South-east Assam, in the north-eastern portion
of the mountain range between Assam and the Burmese empire.
Conterminous with the Singpho on the north-east.
KUKI.
_Locality._--Mountains of Tipperah, Sylhet and Chittagong. A
south-western prolongation of the Nagas.
_Synonyms._--Lunctas, Koung-thias.(?)
KHUMIA (CHOOMEEAS).
_Locality._--The same mountains as the Kuki, only on a lower
level. The word means _villagers_, _Khúm_=_village_.
The Naga, Kuki, and Khumia, are tribes of one family. Their
ethnographical position is certain. They have long been known to be
part of Rhukheng division of the Burmese tribes, speaking the same
language with the inhabitants of Arakan, and connecting themselves with
that people in their traditions respecting their own origin.
I may also add that the similarity of manners between them and the Garo
is very manifest.
KHYEN.
_Locality._--The Yuma mountains between Ava and Arakan.
Independent Pagans.
_Name._--Burmese. Native name Koloun. Buchanan, in _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. v.
_Authority._--Lieutenant Trant in Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi.
The faces of the Khyen women are tattooed. That the following reason,
however, for the practice is valid, is more than I will venture to
vouch.
One of the forms of tribute to one of the conquerors of the Khyens, was
the payment of a certain number of the most beautiful women of the
country. In order to do away with the danger to which their unmutilated
charms exposed them, the whole generation tattooed themselves; and
their descendants have done so since.
MANIPUR.
_Synonyms._--Kathi or Kassay, Moitay.
_Locality._--Bounded on the east by the right branch of the
Irawaddi, on the north and west by the Naga and Kachari
countries, on the south by the Khyen.
An idea of the extent to which the language, for these parts varies
within a small geographical area, may be collected from Captain
Gordon's notices of the dialects spoken in the neighbourhood of Manipur.
Besides the Manipur proper, the following eleven dialects are
illustrated by his vocabularies,[17] and are said to be spoken within
the limits of a very inconsiderable circle, of which Manipur is the
centre.
1. The Songpú. The most western. Per-centage of Manipur words, 21.
_Brown._
2. The Kapwi. A very small tribe. _Ditto_, 41. _Brown._
3. The Koreng. _Ditto_, 18. _Brown._
4. The Maram. _Ditto_, 25. _Brown._
5. The Champhung. Thirty or forty families. _Ditto_, 28. _Brown._
6. The Luhuppa. _Ditto_, 31. _Brown._
7. The North Tankhul. _Ditto_, 28. _Brown._ }
} Said to be
8. The Central Tankhul. _Ditto_, 35. _Brown._ } mutually
} unintelligible.
9. The South Tankhul. _Ditto_, 33. _Brown._ }
10. The Khoibú. Per-centage of Manipur words, 40. _Brown._
11. The Maring. _Ditto_, 50. _Brown._
KYO.
_Locality._--Arakan, banks of the river Koladyng. A single
village.
_Religion._--Worship of Nats (_Spirits_).
_Physical Appearance._--Contrasted with that of their
neighbours, being so dark as to suggest the idea that they are
of Bengal origin. No traditions, however, to that effect.
_Language._--Monosyllabic, as ascertained by two
vocabularies.--Lieut. Phayre's _Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, and_ Lieut. Latter, _ditto_.
KACHARI.
_Locality._--Between the Kasia county, with which it is
conterminous on the east, and Manipur.
KASIA.
_Locality._--Southern border of Lower Assam. Conterminous with
the Kachari on the east and the Garo on the west.
A better knowledge of the wild tribes in these parts than we possess,
will, probably, enable us to ascertain the nature of the most primitive
Indo-Chinese religion. It seems in these parts to be the worship of
_Nats_ or spirits.
In the Kasia country the occurrence of erect pillars, evidently objects
of mysterious respect, if not of adoration, is frequent. These are
explained by similar ones in the Khyen district. They are depicted by
Lieutenant Latter--_accurate magis quam verecunde_--and are lingams.
Stout legs, thick lips, and angular eyes, are marked characters in the
Kasia conformation. They burn their dead. Their ceremonies are few or
none. Like the Garo, they drink no milk. Like the Garo, also, they are
said to have no beast of burden. Like many of the tribes around them
they chew pawn; and like many of the tribes around them they obtain,
for drink, a liquor fermented from millet. Millet or rice are the usual
sources for the stimulant beverages of this section of the Seriform
tribes; and, it may be added, that the art of distillation as well
as of simple fermentation is widely spread. I am not aware that the
former is practised by the present tribe; it is common, however, in the
Sub-Himalayan range.--Lieutenant Yule, _Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal_, xiii. 3.
SINGPHO.
_Locality._--A tract of about one thousand four hundred square
miles in the north-eastern corner of Assam. Conterminous with
the Khamtis and Mishimis on the north. Bounded on the south and
east by the Patkoe range; which divides Assam from the Burmese
empire.
_Population._--Calculated in 1838 at six thousand.
_Government._--Clans under chiefs called Gaums.
_Religion._--Imperfect Buddhism. Worship of dead chieftains.
_Alphabet._--Shyán or Ahom.
_Physical Appearance._--Body long, legs short, complexion tawny.
JILI.
_Locality._--The Burmese side of the Patkoe range. Conterminous
with the Singpho, by whom they have been nearly extinguished.
_Language._--Seven-tenths of the Jili vocabulary is Singpho.
MISHIMI.
_Locality._--North-east extremity of Assam. Conterminous
with the Khamti on the south, and the Abors on the west.
Mountaineers. Tibet on the north.
_Mishimi Tribes._--The Chool Kutta=crop-haired, the Meahu, the
Tairi, or Digaru. According to Brown, the Maí Mishimi, the
Taron Mishimi, and the Maiye or Meme Mishimi.
_Probable Population._--Four hundred and sixty.
_Physical Appearance._--Stature short. Limbs small, but active,
and well-knit.
The Mishimi country produces, and the Mishimi collect, a poison called
the Bikh Mishimi. This is used both for the purposes of hunting and
of war. So poisonous is it that a single wound is said to kill an
elephant. The flesh, however, of the animal so killed is eaten with
impunity.
BOR ABORS.
_Locality._--The loftiest portion of the mountains to the north
of Assam.
ABORS.
_Locality._--The lower range of the mountains inhabited by the
Bor Abors.
MIRI.
_Locality._--The foot of the Abor and Bor Abor range. Speaking
generally, the Bor Abors, Abors, and Miri are conterminous with
the Khamti, and Mishimi on the north-east.
DUFLA.
_Locality._--South-west of the Abors, on the same mountain
range. No less than one hundred and eighty petty chiefs are
said to rule over the numerous disunited Dufla tribes of the
Char Dwán; and this is only one of their localities.
AKA.
_Locality._--The south-western prolongation of the range
inhabited by the Abors and Dufla. Conterminous with the latter.
_Language._--Half the words in an Aka and Abor vocabulary are
alike.
MUTTUCK.
_Locality._--North-east Assam, south of the Burramputer.
Conterminous with the Singhu, Khamti, and Miri.
_Synonym._--Muamaria, or Moa Mareya.
_Religion._--Imperfect Brahmanism.
The Muttuck persecution is one of the most important facts in the
history of Assam. Prior to the Ahom invasion, said to have taken place
1224, A. D., the Muttucks had been converted to Hinduism; but to a
form of it which denied the divinity of Durga, and would not admit the
worship of her image. A violent persecution on this account, between
A.D. 1714 and 1744, brought about a resistance which did much to weaken
and disorganise the Assam empire.
GARO.
_Locality._--The Garo hills, at the south-western entrance of
the valley of Assam.
No tribe hitherto mentioned is of the ethnographical importance of the
Garo.
If we call them _Indian_, they are the most northern tribe that has
been described as having _Negro_ elements in their physiognomy.
If we call them Tibetan, or Burmese, they are equally remarkable for
this peculiarity.
Taking their physical appearance as a test, it is the Garo that
seem the likeliest to exhibit a transition between the type already
illustrated, and the type of the aborigines of Hindostan, _supposing
such a transition to exist_.
Taking their language into consideration, something of the same
intermediate character is, perhaps, to be found. It has been referred
to each class; by some to the monosyllabic tongues of Tibet, or the
Burmese empire; by others to the Indian group of dialects and languages.
The first description of the Garo is to be found in the Asiatic
Researches. Here it is where they are described as approaching the
Negro type. Endued with great physical strength, at least as compared
with the Bengali, they are pagans and savages: their manners, as stated
above, agreeing in many points with those of the Kukis.
It is, however, by their language that their ethnographical position
will best be determined.
The present writer, who had not then seen Mr. Brown's Vocabularies,
placed this, in 1844, in the Tibetan division; being satisfied of its
monosyllabic character.
Mr. Brown's Vocabularies confirm this view (so far as it goes) of the
monosyllabic character of the Garo; and I think that the following
table--Mr. Brown's also--shewing the per-centage of words in any two
languages, does the same.
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| |K |S |A'|A'|M |B |K |S |J |G |M |S |
| |h |i |k |b |i |u |a |i |i |á |a |o |
| |a |a |á |o |s |r |r |n |l |r |n |n |
| |m |m | |r |h |m |e |g |í |o |i |g |
| |t |e | | |i |e |n |p | | |p |p |
| |í |s | | |m |s | |h | | |u |ú |
| | |e | | |í |e | |o | | |r | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |í | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Khamti | |92| 1| 1| 5| 8| 8| 3|10| 3| 3| 1|
|Siamese |92| | 0| 0| 3| 6| 8| 3|10| 1| 3| 1|
|A'bor | 1| 0| |47|20|17|12|15|15| 5|11| 3|
|A'ká | 1| 0|47| |20|11|10|18|11| 6|15| 6|
|Mishimi | 5| 3|20|20| |10|10|10|13|10|11| 0|
|Burmese | 8| 6|17|11|10| |23|23|26|12|16| 8|
|Karien | 8| 8|12|10|10|23| |17|21| 8|15|10|
|Singpho | 3| 3|15|18|10|23|17| |70|16|25|10|
|Jili |10|10|15|11|13|26|21|70| |22|16|10|
|Garo | 3| 1| 5| 6|10|12| 8|16|22| |10| 5|
|Manipurí | 3| 3|11|15|11|16|15|25|16|10| |21|
|Songpú | 1| 1| 3| 6| 0| 8|10|10|10| 5|21| |
|Kapwi | 0| 0|10|11|11|20|15|18|21| 6|41|35|
|Koreng | 1| 1| 3| 5| 0| 6| 8|11|13| 5|18|50|
|Maram | 0| 0| 8| 8| 3|11|12|11|11| 8|25|53|
|Champhung | 0| 0| 8| 6| 5|11| 4|13|11| 5|28|20|
|Luhuppa | 0| 0| 8| 8| 6|11|12|15|18| 8|31|23|
|N. Tángkhul| 0| 0| 5| 8| 8|10| 8|13|20|13|28|15|
|C. Tángkhul| 0| 0| 6| 8| 6|13|12|25|20|11|35|15|
|S. Tángkhul| 0| 0|10|10|13|13|12|13|13| 5|33|13|
|Khoibú | 0| 0| 8|10|10|16|10|20|20| 5|40| 8|
|Maring | 0| 0|10|18| 8|16|15|18|20| 5|50|15|
|Anamese | 5| 5| 0| 0| 1| 1| 2| 5| 3| 3| 6| 6|
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| |K |K |M |C |L |N.|C.|S.|K |M |A |
| |a |o |a |h |u | | | |h |a |n |
| |p |r |r |a |h |T |T |T |o |r |a |
| |w |e |á |m |u |á |á |á |i |i |m |
| |í |n |m |p |p |n |n |n |b |n |e |
| | |g | |h |p |g |g |g |ú |g |s |
| | | | |u |a |k |k |k | | |e |
| | | | |n | |h |h |h | | | |
| | | | |g | |u |u |u | | | |
| | | | | | |l |l |l | | | |
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Khamti | 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 5|
|Siamese | 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 5|
|A'bor |10| 3| 8| 8| 8| 5| 6|10| 8|10| 0|
|A'ká |11| 5| 8| 6| 8| 8| 8|10|10|18| 0|
|Mishimi |11| 0| 3| 5| 6| 8| 6|13|10| 8| 1|
|Burmese |20| 6|11|11|11|10|13|13|16|16| 1|
|Karien |15| 8|12| 4|12| 8|12|12|10|15| 2|
|Singpho |18|11|11|13|15|13|25|13|20|18| 5|
|Jili |21|13|11|11|18|20|20|13|20|20| 3|
|Garo | 6| 5| 8| 5| 8|13|11| 5| 5| 5| 3|
|Manipurí |41|18|25|28|31|28|35|33|40|50| 6|
|Songpú |35|50|53|20|23|15|15|13| 8|15| 6|
|Kapwi | |30|33|20|35|30|40|45|38|40| 5|
|Koreng |30| |41|18|21|20|20|--|10|15| 3|
|Maram |33|41| |21|28|25|20|16|23|26| 3|
|Champhung |20|18|21| |40|20|20|16|15|25| 3|
|Luhuppa |35|21|28|40| |63|55|36|33|40| 5|
|N. Tángkhul|30|20|25|20|63| |85|30|31|31| 3|
|C. Tángkhul|40|20|20|20|55|85| |41|45|41| 1|
|S. Tángkhul|45|11|16|16|36|30|41| |43|43| 5|
|Khoibú |38|10|23|15|33|31|45|43| |78| 3|
|Maring |40|15|26|25|40|31|41|43|78| | 3|
|Anamese | 5| 3| 3| 3| 5| 3| 1| 5| 3| 3| |
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
In the face of this, however, the author writes that it "would be
difficult to decide from the specimens before us, whether it is to be
ranked with the monosyllabic or polysyllabic languages. It probably
belongs to the latter."
Again--Mr. Hodgson connects the Garos with the _Bodo_, not, indeed,
as a sub-division of that group, but as a class with a common origin;
adding, that fifteen out of sixty words in Brown's Vocabulary are the
same in Garo and Bodo.
This involves the position of the Garo with that of the Bodo; whilst,
in respect to the Bodo, it is convenient to consider them along with
the _Dhimál_.
We are now in that part of the Indian side of the Himalayan range,
which lies between Assam on the east, and Sikkim on the west, and
which is bounded on the north by Bhután. This is the area where the
aboriginal Indian and the Tibetan most intermix.
DHIMÁL.
_Locality._--Mixed with the Bodo, in their most westerly
locality, _i.e._ between the Konki and Dhorla.
_Numbers._--According to Mr. Hodgson, about 15,000.
_Authority._---Hodgson's _Dissertation on the Kocch, Bodo, and
Dhimál._
BODO.
_Locality._--The forest belt (not the mountains) in a circle
round the Valley of Assam, from Tipperah S. E. to Morung, N.W.
Mixed, in their most westerly localities with the Dhimál.
_Synonym._--Mécch.
_Name._--Native; the Mécch call themselves Bodo, and so do the
Kachari.
_Authority._--Same as for the Dhimál.
The Bodo are the rudest division of the present group whereof we
possess anything like a sufficient amount of detailed information; Mr.
Hodgson's Dissertation being, perhaps, the best ethnological monograph
existing. Hence, it is in the Bodo nation that, in the present state
of our knowledge, we must study the general phenomena of the wilder
Seriform tribes.
In respect to their social development the Bodo are good examples of
a very peculiar form. They are tillers of the soil, and (as such)
agriculturists rather than hunters, fishers, or feeders of flocks and
herds. But their agriculture is imperfect, and quasi-nomadic; since
they are not fixed but erratic or migratory cultivators. They have
no name for a village, no sheep, no oxen, no _fixed_ property in the
soil. Like the ancient Germans, _arva in annos mutant, et superest
ager_. They clear a jungle, crop it as long as it will yield an average
produce, and then remove themselves elsewhere.
"They never cultivate the same field beyond the second year, or remain
in the same village beyond the fourth to sixth year. After the lapse
of four or five years, they frequently return to their old fields, and
resume their cultivation, if in the interim the jungle has grown well,
and they have not been anticipated by others, for there is no pretence
of appropriation other than possessory, and if, therefore, another
party have preceded them, or, if the slow growth of the jungle give no
sufficient promise of a good stratum of ashes for the land when cleared
by fire, they move on to another site new or old. If old, they resume
the identical fields they tilled before, but never the old houses
or site of the old village, that being deemed unlucky. In general,
however, they prefer new land to old, and having still abundance of
unbroken forest around them, they are in constant movement, more
especially as, should they find a new spot prove unfertile, they decamp
after the first harvest is got in."[18]
It is a fact of some importance that erratic agriculture, a rare and
exceptional form of industrial development, is probably more general
among the Seriform tribes than elsewhere. It has already been stated to
be the habit of the Karien, and there is little doubt as to its being
far more general than it has hitherto been described to be. Contrast
with this imperfect form of agricultural industry the cultivation of
the soil in China. The Bodo villages are small communities of from ten
to forty huts. The head of these communities is called the Grá. It is
the Grá who is responsible to the foreign government (British, Tibetan,
or Nepalese), for the order of the community, and for the payment
of its tribute. In cases of perplexity the Grás of three or four
neighbouring communities meet in deliberation. Offenders against the
customs of the community may be admonished, fined, or excommunicated.
This last term suggests a new series of ideas. The Bodo religious
ordinances are apparently very simple; so that they form a remarkable
contrast with the numerous details of Hinduism. The birth, the
weaning, and the naming of children are all unattended with ceremonies
requiring the presence of a priest. At funerals and marriages, however,
the priest presides. This he does, not so much as a minister to the
essential ceremony, as for the sake of the feast that accompanies
it. No Bodo or Dhimál will touch flesh which has not been offered to
the gods: and this offering a priest must make. Such being the case,
notwithstanding the statement of Mr. Hodgson, who describes in somewhat
flattering terms the negative merits of the simple Bodo creed, and
who especially affirms that the priesthood is no hereditary office, I
cannot but suspect that the influence of the spiritual power is greater
than he admits. If not, the Bodo must have but few meals of meat.
Marriage is a contract rather than a rite. Polygamy or concubinage is
rare: the adoption of children common. All the sons inherit equally;
daughters not at all. A Bodo can only marry to one of his own people.
Divorce, though practicable and easy, is rare; the wife and daughter
have their due influence. No infanticide, no suttí. Children are
named as soon as the mother comes abroad, which is generally four or
five days after her confinement. The idea that the delivery involves
a temporal impurity is recognised; so that all births (and deaths
also) necessitate a temporary segregation and certain purificatory
forms. The one, however, is short, and the other simple. The infant
"is named immediately after birth, or as soon as the mother comes
abroad, which is always four or five days after delivery. There are no
family names, or names derived from the gods. Most Bodo and Dhimáls
bear meaningless designations, or any passing event of the moment may
suggest a significant term: thus a Bhótia chief arrives at the village,
and the child is called Jinkhap; or a hill peasant arrives, and it is
named Góngar, after the titular or general designation of the Bhótias.
Children are not weaned so long as their mother can suckle them, which
is always from two to three years--sometimes more--and two children,
the last and penultimate, are occasionally seen at the breast together.
The delayed period of weaning will account in part for the limited
fecundity of the women. When a Bodo or Dhimál comes of age, the event
is not solemnized by any rite or social usage whatever. Marriage takes
place at maturity, the male being usually from twenty to twenty-five
years of age, and the female, from fifteen to twenty. Courtship is not
sanctioned: the parents or friends negotiate the wedlock."
In this the commercial element is predominant. A price--_Jan_--must
be paid by the bridegroom elect for the intended bride. If the former
have "no means of discharging this sum, he must go to the house of his
father-in-law elect and there literally earn his wife by the sweat
of his brow, labouring, _more Judaico_, upon mere diet for a term of
years, varying from two as an average to five and even seven as the
extreme period. This custom is named Gabóï by the Bodo--Ghárjyá by the
Dhimáls."
When the preliminaries have been arranged, the bridegroom proceeds to
the house of the bride, in procession with his friends. Two females
attend him. The business of these is "to put red lead or oil on the
bride elect's head, when the procession has reached her home. There
a refection is prepared, after partaking of which, the procession
returns, conducting the bride elect to the house of the groom's
parents. So far the same rite is common to the Bodo and Dhimál--the
rest is peculiar to each. Among the Dhimáls, the Déóshi now proceeds
to propitiate the gods by offerings. Dáta and Bídata who preside over
wedlock are invoked, and betel-leaf and red lead are presented to
them. The bride and groom elect are next placed side by side, and each
furnished with five pauns, with which they are required to feed each
other, while the parents of the groom cover them with a sheet, upon
which the Déóshi, by sprinkling holy water sanctifies and completes
the nuptials. Among the Bodo the bride elect is anointed at her own
home with oil; the elders _or_ the Déóshi perform the sacred part of
the ceremony, which consists in the sacrifice of a cock and a hen, in
the respective names of the groom and bride, to the sun: and next,
the groom, rising, makes salutation to the bride's parents, and the
bride, similarly, attests her future duty of reverence and obedience
towards her husband's parents; when the nuptials are complete. A feast
follows both with Bodo and Dhimáls, but is less costly among the
former than among the latter--as is said, because the higher price
paid for his wife by the Bodo incapacitates him for giving so costly
an entertainment. The marriage feast of the Dhimáls is alleged to cost
thirty or forty rupees sometimes, the festivities being prolonged
through two and even three days; whereas four to six--rarely ten rupees
suffice for the nuptial banquet of a Bodo.
"The Bodo and Dhimáls both alike bury the dead, immediately after
decease, with simple but decent reverence, though no fixed burial
ground nor artificial tomb is in use to mark the last resting place of
those most dear in life, because the migratory habits of the people
would render such usages nugatory. The family and friends form a
funeral procession, which bears the dead in silence to the grave. The
body being interred, a few stones are piled loosely upon the grave
to prevent disturbance by jackals and ratels, rather than to mark
the spot, and some food and drink are laid upon the grave; when the
ceremony is suspended, and the party disperses. Friends are purified by
mere ablution in the next stream and at once resume their usual cares.
The family are unclean for three days, after which, besides bathing and
shaving, they need to be sprinkled with holy water by their elders or
priest. They are then restored to purity and forthwith proceed to make
preparations for a funeral banquet, by the sacrifice of a hog to Mainou
or Timáng, of a cock to Báthó or Pochima, according to the nation. When
the feast has been got ready and the friends are assembled, before
sitting down they all repair, once again, to the grave, when the
nearest of kin to the deceased, taking an individual's usual portion of
food and drink, solemnly presents them to the dead with these words,
'Take and eat: heretofore you have eaten and drunk with us; you can do
so no more; you were one of us; you can be so no longer: we come no
more to you: come you not to us.' And thereupon the whole party break
and cast on the grave a bracelet of thread priorly attached, to this
end, to the wrist of each of them. Next the party proceed to the river
and bathe, and having thus lustrated themselves, they repair to the
banquet, and eat, drink, and make merry as though they were never to
die! A funeral costs the Dhimáls from four to eight rupees--something
more to the Bodo, who practise more formality on the occasion, and to
whom is peculiar the singular leave-taking of the dead just described."
The details relating to the priesthood, and to the festivals of the
Bodo tribes, will best indicate the nature of their religion. The
list of the Bodo gods is very nearly the list of the Bodo _rivers_.
Báthó, however, the chief god, is no river but a _plant_; one of the
Euphorbeace. Mainon is Báthó's wife. All diseases are referred to
preternatural influence. Oaths and ordeals are very general.
_Rites and ceremonies._--The rites of the Bodo and Dhimál religions
are entirely similar and "consist of offerings, sacrifices, and
prayers. The prayers are few and simple, when stript of their mummery;
and necessarily so, being committed solely to the memories of a
non-hereditary and very trivially instructed and mutable priesthood.
They consist of invocations of protection for the people and their
crops and domestic animals; of deprecations of wrath when sickness,
murrain, drought, blight, or the ravages of wild animals, prevail; and
thanksgivings when the crops are safely housed, or recent troubles
are passed. The offerings consist of milk, honey, parched rice, eggs,
flowers, fruits, and red lead or cochineal: the sacrifices of hogs,
goats, fowls, ducks, and pigeons--most commonly hogs and fowls.
Sacrifices are deemed more worthy than offerings, so that all the
higher deities, without reference to their supposed benevolence or
malevolence of nature, receive sacrifices--all the lesser deities,
offerings only. Libations of fermented liquor always accompany
sacrifice--_because_, to confess the whole truth, sacrifice and
feast are commutable words, and feasts need to be crowned by copious
potations! Malevolence appears to be attributed to very few of the
gods, though of course all will resent neglect; but, in general, their
natures are deemed benevolent; and hence the absence of all savage
or cruel rites. All diseases, however, are ascribed to supernatural
agency. The sick man is supposed to be possessed by one of the deities,
who racks him with pains, as a punishment for impiety or neglect of the
god in question. Hence, not the mediciner, but the exorcist is summoned
to the sick man's aid. The exorcist is called, both by the Bodo and
Dhimáls, Ojhá, and he operates as follows. Thirteen leaves, each with
a few grains of rice upon it, are placed by the exorcist in a segment
of a circle before him to represent the deities. The Ojhá, squatting
on his hams before the leaves causes a pendulum attached to his thumb
by a string to vibrate before them, repeating invocations the while.
The god who has possessed the sick man, is indicated by the exclusive
vibration of the pendulum towards his representative leaf, which is
then taken apart, and the god in question is asked, what sacrifice he
requires? a buffalo, a hog, a fowl, or a duck to spare the sufferer.
He answers (the Ojhá best knows how!) a hog; and it is forthwith vowed
by the sick man and promised by the exorcist, but only paid when the
former has recovered. On recovery the animal is sacrificed, and its
blood offered to the offended deity. I witnessed the ceremony myself
among the Dhimáls, on which occasion the thirteen deities invoked were
Pochima or Waráng, Timai or Béráng, Lákhim, Konoksiri, Ménchi, Chímá,
Danto, Chádúng, Aphóï, Biphóï, Andhéman (Aphún), Tátopátia (Báphún),
and Shúti. A Bodo exorcist would proceed precisely in the same manner,
the only difference in the ceremony being the invocation of the Bodo
gods instead of the Dhimál ones.
"The _great festivals_ of the year are three or four. The first is
held in December-January, when the cotton crop is ready. It is called
Shúrkhar by the Bodo, Haréjata by the Dhimáls. The second is held in
February-March. It is named Wágalénó by the Bodo, who alone observe
it. The Bodo name for the third, which is celebrated in July-August,
when the rice comes into ear, is Phúlthépno. The Dhimáls call it Gávi
púja. The fourth great festival is held in October, and is named Ai
húnó by the Bodo--Pochima páká by the Dhimáls. The first three of these
festivals are consecrated to the elemental gods and to the interests of
agriculture. They are celebrated abroad, not at home (generally on the
banks of a river), whence attendance on them is called Hagrou húdong
or madai húdong, "going forth to worship" in contradistinction to the
style of the fourth great festival, which is devoted to the household
gods and is celebrated at home. The Wágalénó, or bamboo festival of
the Bodo, I witnessed in the spring of this year, and will describe it
as a sample of the whole. Proceeding from Siligori to Pankhabárí with
Dr. Campbell, we came upon a party of Bodo in the bed of the river,
within the Saul forest, or rather, were drawn off the road by the noise
they made. It was a sort of chorus of a few syllables, solemnly and
musically incanted, which, on reaching the spot was found to be uttered
by thirteen Bodo men, who were drawn up in a circle facing inwards, and
each carrying a lofty bamboo pole decked with several tiers of wearing
apparel and crowned with a Chour or yak's tail. Within the circle were
three men, one of whom with an instrument like this [Illustration: (
| | )] in his hands danced to the music, waving his weapon downwards
on one side and so over the head, and then downwards on the other side
and again over the head. He moved round the margin of the circle in
the centre of which stood two others, one a Déóshi or priest, and the
other an attendant or servitor called Phantwál. The priest, clothed in
red cotton but not tonsured or otherwise distinguished from the rest
of the party, muttered an invocation, whereof the burden or chorus was
taken up by the thirteen forming the ring above noticed. The servitor
had a water-pot in one hand and a brush in the other, and from time to
time, as the rite proceeded, this person moved out of the circle to
sprinkle with the holy water another actor in this strange ceremony
and a principal one too. This is the Déódá, or the possessed, who
when filled with the god answers by inspiration to the questions of
the priests as to the prospects of the coming season. When we first
discerned him, he was sitting on the ground panting, and rolling his
eyes so significantly that I at once conjectured his function. Shortly
afterwards, the rite still proceeding, the Déódá got up, entered the
circle and commenced dancing with the rest, but more wildly. He held a
short staff in his hand, with which, from time to time, he struck the
bedizened poles, one by one, and lowering it as he struck. The chief
dancer with the odd-shaped instrument waxed more and more vehement in
his dance; the inspired grew more and more maniacal; the music more and
more rapid; the incantation more and more solemn and earnest; till at
last, amid a general lowering of the heads of the decked bamboo poles,
so that they met and formed a canopy over him, the Déódá went off in
an affected fit, and the ceremony closed without any revelation--a
circumstance which must be ascribed to the presence of the sceptical
strangers; for it is faith alone that worketh miracles and only among
and for the faithful. This ceremony is performed annually by the Rajah
of Sikim's orders, or rather with his sanction of the usages of his
subjects; is addressed to the sun, the moon, the elemental gods, and,
above all, to the rivers; and is designed to ensure health and plenty
in the coming year, as well as to ascertain, beforehand, its promise
or prospect through the revelations of the Déódá. With regard to the
festival sacred to the national or homebred (noöni) gods, called
Aihuno[19] by the Bodo, and Pochima páká by the Dhimáls, it is to be
observed that the rite, like the separate class of deities adored
thereby, is more distinctively Bodo than Dhimál. With both people the
pre-eminence of water among the elements is conspicuous; but whereas
the river gods of the Dhimáls have nearly absorbed all the rest,
elementary or other, the household gods of the Bodo stand conspicuously
distinguished from the fluviatile deities. The Pochima and Timáng
of the Dhimáls are one or both rivers: the Bátho and Mainang of the
Bodo are neither of them rivers, and their interparietal rites are as
clearly distinguished from the rites performed abroad to the fluviatile
and other elemental gods. However, the rites of Báthó and Mainou are
_participated_ by deities of elementary and watery nature, and, on the
other hand, the Dhimáls assert that Pochima and Timai have a twofold
character, one of river gods (Dhorla and Tishta), and one of supreme
gods; and they that are adored, separately, in these two characters,
the Pochima páká, or home-rite of October, being appropriated to them
in the latter capacity of that of supreme gods. I have not witnessed
the Pochima páká, and therefore speak with hesitation. The Ai húnó
is performed as follows. The friends and family being assembled,
including as many persons as the master of the house can afford to
feast, the Déóshi or priest enters the enclosure or yard of the house,
in the centre of which is invariably planted a Sij or Euphorbia, as
the representative of Bátho who is the family as well as national god
of the Bodo. The Báthó, thus represented, the Déóshi offers prayers,
and sacrifices a cock. He then proceeds into the house, adores Mainou,
and sacrifices to her a hog. Next, the priest, the family, and all the
friends proceed to some convenient and pleasant spot in the vicinity,
previously selected, and at which a little temporary shed has been
erected as an altar, and there, with due ceremonies, another hog is
sacrificed to Agráng, a he-goat to Manásho and to Búli, and a fowl,
duck, or pigeon (black, red, or white, according to the special and
well known taste of each god) to each of the remaining nine of the
Noöni madai. The blood of the sacrifice belongs to the gods--the flesh
to his worshippers, and these now hold a high feast, at which beer
and tobacco are freely used to animate the joyous conclave, but not
spirits, nor opium, nor hemp. The goddess Mainou is represented in
the interior of each house, by a bamboo post, about three feet high,
fixed in the ground, and surmounted by a small earthen cup filled with
rice. Before this symbol is the great annual sacrifice of the hog above
noted, performed; and before this, the females of the family _once a
month_, make offerings of eggs. For the males, due attention to the
four annual festivals is deemed sufficient in prosperous and healthful
seasons. But sickness or scarcity always begets special rites and
ceremonies, suited to the circumstances of the calamity, and addressed
more particularly to the elemental gods, if the calamity be drought,
or blight, or devastations of wild animals--to the household gods, if
it be sickness. Hunters, likewise, and fishers, when they go forth
to the chase, sacrifice a fowl to the Sylvan gods, to promote their
success; and lastly, those who have a petition to prefer to their
superiors, conceive that a similar propitiation of Jishim and Mishim,
or of the Chiris, will tend to the fulfilment of their requests. And
this, I think, is nearly the whole amount of rites and ceremonies,
which their religion prescribes to the Bodo and Dhimáls. And anxious as
I am fully to illustrate the topic, I will not try the patience of my
readers by describing all that variety of black victims and white, of
red victims and blue, which each particular deity is alleged to prefer;
first, because the subject is intrinsically trifling; and second
because the diverse statements of my informants lead me to suspect,
that the matter is optional or discretionary with each individual
priest prescribing these minutiæ. I have mentioned the rude symbols
proper to Báthó and Mainou. None of the other gods seem to have any
at all, though a low line of kneaded clay attached to the Thalí that
surrounds the sacred Euphorbia in the yards of the Bodo is said to
stand for the rest of the divinities who, as I have already said, are
wont to be worshipped collectively rather than individually; and thus
the sun, the moon, and the earth, though adored by Bodo and by Dhimál,
have no separate rites, but are included in those appropriated to the
elemental gods. Witchcraft is universally dreaded by both Bodo and
Dhimál. The names of the craft and of its professors, male and female,
will be found in the vocabulary. Witches (Dain and Mháï) are supposed
to owe their noxious power to their own wicked studies, _or_ to the
aid of preternatural beings. When any person is afflicted, the elders
assemble and summon three Ojhás or exorcists, with whose aid and that
of a cane freely used, the elders endeavour to extort from the witch
a confession of the fact and the motives. By dint of questioning and
of beating, the witch is generally brought to confession, when he or
she is asked to remove the spell, and to heal the sufferer, means of
propitiating preternatural allies (if their agency be alleged) being
at the same time tendered to the witch, who is, however, forthwith
expelled the district, and put across the next river, with the
concurrence of the local authorities. No other sorcery or black art
save that of witches is known; nor palmistry, augury, astrology, nor,
in a word, any other supposed command of the future than that described
in the 'Wa galéno' as the attribute (for the nonce) of the Déódá or
vates. The evil eye causes some alarm to Bodo and to Dhimál who call
it mogon nángo and mí nójó respectively, and who cautiously avoid
the evil-eyed person, but cannot eject him from the community. The
influence of the evil eye is sought to be neutralised by offerings of
parched millet and eggs to Khoja Kajah and Mansha Rajah--Dii minores
who find no place in my catalogue, ample as it is. Moïsh madai, I am
told, likewise claims a place in the Bodo Pantheon, and a distinguished
place, too, as the protector of this forest-dwelling people from beasts
of prey, and especially the tiger.
"_Priesthood._--The priesthood of the Bodo and Dhimáls is entirely
the same, even to the nomenclature, which with both people expresses
the three sorts of clergy by the terms Déóshi, Dhámi and Ojhá. The
Dhámi (seniores priores!) is the district priest. The Déóshi the
village priest; and the Ojhá the village exorcist. The Déóshi has
under him one servitor called Phantwál. There is a Déóshi in nearly
every village. Over a small circle of villages one Dhámi presides and
possesses a vaguely defined but universally recognised control over
the Déóshis of his district. The general constitutions and functions
of the clerical body have already been fully explained. Priests are
subject to no peculiar restraints, nor marked by any external sign
of diverse dress or other. The connexion between pastor and flock
is full of liberty for the latter, who collectively can eject their
priest if they disapprove him, or individually can desert him for
another if they please. He marries and cultivates like his flock, and
all that he can claim from them for his services is, first, a share
of every animal sacrificed by him, and second, three days' help from
each of his flock (the grown males) per annum, towards the clearing
and cultivation of the land, he holds on the same terms with them, and
which have already been explained. Whoever thinks fit to learn the
forms of offering, sacrifice, and accompanying invocation, can be a
priest; and if he get tired of the profession, he can throw it up when
he will. Ojhás stand not on the same footing with Dhámis and Déóshis:
they are remunerated solely by fees; but into either office--priests or
exorcists--the form of induction is similar, consisting merely of an
introduction by the priests or exorcists of the neophyte to the gods,
the first time he officiates. One Dhámi and two Déóshis usually induct
a Déóshi--three Ojhás, an Ojhá; and the formula is literally that of an
introduction--'this is so and so, who proposes, O ye gods! to dedicate
himself to your service: mark how he performs the rites, and, if
correctly, accept them at his hands.'"
These remarks will conclude with the notice of an ethnological question
of primary importance, but not yet laid before the reader, viz.:
the extent to which certain varieties of the human species can live
and thrive in localities which are either deleterious or deadly to
others. Some rough facts of the kind in question are generally known;
such, for instance, as the tolerance on the part of the Negro of the
heat and malaria of the tropical climates. A similar tolerance of
climatologic influences otherwise deleterious is shewn by the Bodo, and
its allied tribes. According to Mr. Hodgson, none but themselves can
live in their own localities; since "the Saul forest everywhere, but
especially to the east of the Kósi, is malarious to an extent which no
human beings can endure, save the remarkable races, which for ages have
made it their dwelling-place. To all others, European or native, it is
deadly from April to November. Yet the Dhimál, the Bodo, the Kíchak,
the Tharú, the Dénwár, not only live but thrive in it, exhibiting no
symptoms whatever of that dreadful stricken aspect of countenance and
form which marks the victim of malaria."
The converse of this position, or the incapacity of the Bodo, &c.,
for living elsewhere, is also mentioned by Mr. Hodgson, but with an
expression of doubt as to its accuracy. "The Bodo and Dhimáls, whom I
communicated with, alleged that they cannot endure the climate of the
open plains, where the heat gives them fevers. This is a mere excuse
for their known aversion to quit the forest; for their eastern brethren
dwell and till like natives in the open plains of Assam, just as the
Kóls of south Bihár (Dhángars) do now in every part of the plains of
Bihár and Bengal, in various sites abroad, and lastly in the lofty
sub-Himálayas."
The Bodo tribes will again be brought prominently forward when the
ethnology of the peninsula of India is discussed.
THE TRIBES OF SIKKIM AND NEPAL SPEAKING MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES.
Each of these countries, although south of the Himalayas, and although
to a great extent Hindu in religion, government, and language, must
be looked upon as countries of which the aboriginal population is
an extension of that of Tibet. The tribes of Sikkim and Nepal are
Cis-Himalayan Tibetans; the word Tibetan being used in its general
sense.
1. _The Magars._--Imperfectly Braminical in their religion, with a
separate monosyllabic language, and remains of their old Paganism.
Their priests were called _Damis_.[20]
2. _The Gurungs._--Adherents to Buddhism. Inhabitants of the same
localities with the Magars; only higher in the mountains.
3. _The Jariyas._--Indianized.
4. _The Newars._--Probably the oldest inhabitants of Nepal. Adherents
to Buddhism; alphabet derived from the Devanagari.
5. _The Murmis._--Buddhist. Language like, but different from, that of
the Newars.
6. _The Kirata._--Eastern Nepal; Buddhist.
7. _Limbu._--Same localities as the Kirata: differing in language.
8. _The Lepchas._--Inhabitants of Sikkim. Have a tradition that they
lately migrated from Tibet, crossing the mountains; also that they then
had a native alphabet, since lost.
CHÉPÁNG.
_Locality._--Forests of Nepaul, _west_ of the Great Valley.
_Tribes._--Chépáng, Kusunda, and Haiyu.
_Vocabularies._--One only known, _i.e._ that of the Chépáng.
_Authority._--B. H. Hodgson, _Journal of the Asiatic Society_,
Dec. 1848, No. CXCVIII.
Respecting the, ethnology of these tribes (or rather of the Chépáng,
the one best known), Mr. Hodgson's observations are as follows:--
1. That their form and colour is the form and colour of the aborigines
of India.
2. That their language is closely allied to the language of Bhután.
The Garo, the Bodo, the Dhimál, and Chépáng, will come under
consideration again; these being the tribes which will supply the chief
facts connected with the question as to the affinity or non-affinity
between the great Tibetan and Indian families. At present it is
sufficient to draw attention to the state of opinion upon this point.
With few exceptions amongst the English (Dr. Bird and Mr. Hodgson being
the most decided), both philologists and physiologists consider the
line of demarcation to be an exceedingly broad one.
_Tribes supposed to be essentially monosyllabic, although speaking a
language admitted to be Indian._--These are the Assamese of the _Lower_
part of the valley, and the Raibansi Kooch.
1. _Assam._--That the languages of _Upper_ Assam are those of a variety
of rude tribes, speaking a monosyllabic tongue, has already been seen.
The Lower Assam language is Bengali. Were the Bengali the aborigines
of Lower Assam? I believe that no one holds this doctrine. Is the
present language that of Bengalis, who have displaced an aboriginal
monosyllabic population? Perhaps. Or has an original monosyllabic
population adopted the Bengali? No person is better capable of forming
an opinion on this point than Mr. Hodgson; and his opinion is for the
last of these views.
2. _The converted Kooch._--Residents, in contact with the Bodo and
Dhimál, of the Sub-Himalayan range, between the north-west corner
of Assam and Sikkim. The higher class of the converted Kooch are
Brahminists: the lower Mahometans. Both call themselves _Raibansi_. The
notice of the Kooch kingdom of Hájo, explains this term.
Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Hájo founded a Kooch
empire, which extended beyond the limits of the Assam valley, into
Morung and Bengal. His daughter, for he left no sons, was married
to a Bodo chief, the Bodos being Pagans. These two divisions of the
aborigines held their own against the Moslem and Hindus equally; but
only for a while. Visva Sinh, the conqueror's grandson, became a
convert to Hinduism, the majority of his subjects to the religion of
Mahomet; renouncing, at the same time, their original name. A portion,
however, remained unconverted, and remain so; and these agree with the
Bodo in appearance, manners, and customs, and are said to do so in
language also.
If so, and if the Raibansi Kooch be so closely allied to them as they
are described to be, they must, although speaking a dialect closely
allied to the Assam Bengali, be monosyllabic in origin.
The whole details, however, of the Kooch may be found in Mr. Hodgson's
Dissertation.
* * * * *
The Chinese civilization must be taken as the measure of the moral
development of the monosyllabic nations; a form to which the
_non_-culture of the tribes represented by the Bodo and Garo, stands
in prominent contrast. I do not think it necessary to tell the reader
what Chinese civilization _is_. It is sufficiently known in itself;
its affinity with that of the Indo-Chinese nations is known also; and
equally well-known is its distinct character, as compared with the
other civilizations of the world--Asiatic as well as European.
A point of more ethnographical importance, is the question as to its
antiquity; since this involves the higher question still--as to the
extent to which it is a self-developed phenomenon, or one effected by
influences from without. I am prepared to admit without much criticism,
the statements of travellers as to the possession, on the part of
the Chinese, of several of the most important arts and discoveries
belonging to the civilization of Europe--of the art of printing, of
paper-money, of a certain amount of astronomical knowledge, of the
mariner's compass, and even of gunpowder. There is no reason why the
Chinese, _when once civilized_, should not have worked out an average
amount of discovery in the way of detail. The point upon which I
doubt is the _antiquity_ of that civilization, and still more the
self-evolution of it; a necessary consequence of such antiquity.
Within the historical period, three civilizing influences have, at
different times, been introduced into China, and each has had time to
do its work in.
I begin with the latest, the European.
1. _The Portuguese, Dutch, English, and American._--This may be
disposed of briefly. It has not changed the Chinese cultivation in
anything essential.
2. _The Nestorian Christians._--Date between 600 and 1200 A.D. The
_extent_ of the influence of these early missionaries will be examined
in the section upon the Syrians. It is the second of the great external
civilizing influences that have acted upon China. Without carrying my
scepticism so far as to limit the antiquity of the Chinese history to
the epoch of the Nestorians, I cannot but put a high importance on the
introduction of Syrian literature, Syrian theology, and Syrian science.
3. _The Buddhism of India._--This is generally believed to have been
introduced into China in the first century after Christ. I have
not seen the translation of the Annals of the Han Dynasty by the
Archimandrite Hyacinth; so that I cannot say at what period they
profess to represent cotemporary events. Whatever, however, that period
may be, it is the extreme date of Chinese history: now this cannot be
earlier than B.C. 200; that being the epoch when the Han dynasty began
to reign.
Viewed in respect to our reasons for concluding that such or such a
fact took place, there are five grounds of belief:--
1. _Historical grounds._--Here the facts are believed on _testimony_;
the testimony of men who had means of knowing them. That such witnesses
should have lived at the time when the facts in question took place, is
the great and essential condition of their credibility.
2. _The belief ex necessitate._--A fact which, at the time of its first
announcement could only have been known from having been witnessed by a
cotemporary, but which at some later period is shown from other facts
to have been real, is to be admitted unreservedly; the evidence in its
favour being of the highest kind. Of this sort are such astronomical
facts as, in the present state of our knowledge, can be ascertained
independently of experience, but which, when first notified, could only
have been ascertained _by_ experience.
3. _Traditional Grounds._--Here the _immediate_ authority to the person
who is informed of a real or supposed fact, is some one who had not the
possibility of knowing the facts in question from being contemporary
with them; but who heard it from some one who was so contemporary--or
else heard it from some one who heard it from some one, &c., _ad
infinitum_. Here the statements are possible or impossible, probable
or improbable. If possible, they _may_ be true; if probable, they are
likely to be so. In neither case, however, are they historical facts;
that is, there is no _testimony_ founded upon a knowledge of the event.
4. _The true elements in unreasonable traditions._--A series of
necessary and connected antecedents to a given effect, inductively
obtained is an ethnological ground of belief, or an ethnological fact;
and it is based on inductive reasoning. A series of unnecessary and
unconnected antecedents, derived from the _imagination_, is a false
ground of belief, and in most cases this takes the form of mythological
tradition. It does not, however, necessarily follow, that, because
a body of tradition may, on the whole, be unreasonable, or even
impossible, it is therefore wholly deficient in grounds of belief. The
doctrine _ex nihilo nihil_ may here apply. It may fairly be argued,
that, absolute invention is so difficult, that in all error there
is some truth. Granted. It may, then, be argued, that a criticism
analytical enough to evolve the residuum is a scientific (or literary)
possibility. Granted. But who is the critic? I fear that his appearance
is _optandum magis quam sperandum_.
5. _The inductive method consists in the assumption of certain causes
as the necessary antecedents of a known event_; and they are good or
bad according to their scientific or unscientific character. To take as
the first fact in the history of Greece, the existence of a poem like
the Iliad in the ninth century B.C., to ascertain the state of society
that it implies, and to appreciate the civilization involved therein,
is an ethnological argument; whilst, to assume a certain amount of time
for such to have grown up in, is an argument from effect to cause,
and is good or bad, according as it assumes no more than is absolutely
necessary.
Now, if we ask upon which of these five principles we believe in the
antiquity of the Chinese civilization, it will certainly not be the
first.
I am not prepared to wholly exclude the second; indeed, I have not the
means of forming an independent one on the subject. At the same time
I know that, in respect to the Chinese astronomical calculations many
good judges are incredulous, and many of those who are not so are at
variance in their opinions.
The third is essentially admissible for a limited period only.
The fifth remains open for consideration.
In the application of what may be called the _doctrine of necessary
antecedents_, I believe, for my own part, that we must take the China
as described by Marco Polo in the fifteenth century; and if we put the
development there exhibited on a level with that of the China of the
present century, we are giving to the advocate of antiquity full as
much, perhaps more, than he can fairly demand. I submit that the time
necessary for the growth of such a phenomenon need not exceed a few
centuries.
The residuum, then, of truth that is capable of being evolved out of
unreasonable tradition, is all that the present writer can leave to the
advocates of a Chinese antiquity. He would willingly, however, find
that their astronomy and history will bear a more severe criticism than
he imagines they are likely to do.
At present, he believes that whatever is older than their religion,
is _reasonable_ tradition for a limited period (say a century), and
unreasonable tradition beyond it.
In confining the growth of Chinese civilization to the last eighteen
hundred years, and in expressing my dissent from the doctrine that
it was an indigenous, self-developed phenomenon, I by no means
underrate the import of certain undoubted facts. The archæology of
their alphabet is too little known to enable us to connect it with
any foreign one; as well as too scanty to exhibit its evolution as a
home growth. Still it is a remarkable phenomenon. Still more so is the
phenomenon of their government and political organization. To deny to
China a great influence upon the history of the world, simply because
its civilization has been confined to its own immediate sphere, and
its movements have been limited to the pale of its own dominions, is
erroneous. China alone is a great section of the world. Hence the
circle, though limited, is large; and the simple, single fact of so
much sameness over so large a country, is a great one. How is this
to be accounted for? Was the original area occupied by the first
possessors of China so great, whilst the changes that have set in since
the time of possession have been so small? or has the uniformity been
purchased by the assimilation of a multiplicity of small and distinct
tribes? Or has it been by their annihilation?
Whatever may be the answer to these questions supplied by future
researches, the Chinese are one of the great historical influences,
and, if we contrast the peaceful habits of an agricultural population
with the unsettled condition of a nation of nomads, and the security of
a large consolidated government with the slave-dealing warfares that
exist between thickly congregated petty tribes, we must allow that
influence to have been a beneficial one.
II.
TURANIAN STOCK.
_Physical conformation._--Mongol.
_Languages._--Not monosyllabic.
_Distribution._--Continental.
_Area._--From Kamskatka to Norway, and from the Arctic Ocean
to the frontiers of Tibet and Persia--nearly but not wholly
continuous.
_Countries included._--The northern parts of the Chinese
empire, greater part of Siberia, Mongolia, Tartary, Eastern
Turkestan, Asia Minor, Turkey, Hungary, Finland, Esthonia,
Lapland.
DIVISIONS.
1. THE MONGOLIAN BRANCH.
2. THE TUNGUSIAN BRANCH.
3. THE TURK BRANCH.
4. THE UGRIAN BRANCH.
The reader is now asked to prepare himself for the transition from
languages of a monosyllabic type, to languages other than monosyllabic;
and from aptotic tongues to tongues where the inflections are numerous.
He is also asked to prepare himself for a transition, in the way of
physical conformation, from a structure _approaching_ the Mongol type,
to one essentially and typically Mongol.
In the former case the change is greater than in the latter.
Why is this? Why do not the changes go _pari passu_, so that the
two tests should coincide, and so that it should be a matter of
indifference which of the two we started with?
We get at the answer to this by remembering that _physical changes and
philological changes, may go on at different rates_.
A thousand years may pass over two nations undoubtedly of the same
origin; and which were, at the beginning of those thousand years, of
the same complexion, form, and language.
At the end of those thousand years there shall be a difference. With
one the language shall have changed rapidly, the physical structure
slowly.
With the other the physical conformation shall have been modified by a
quick succession of external influences, whilst the language shall have
stayed as it was.
_With an assumed or proved original identity on each side, the
difference in the rate of action on the part of the different
influences, is the key to all discrepancies between the two tests. The
language may remain_ in statu quo, _whilst the hair, complexion, and
bones change; or the hair, complexion, and osteology may remain_ in
statu quo, _whilst the language changes_.
Apparently this leaves matters in an unsatisfactory condition; in a
way which allows the ethnologist any amount of assumption he chooses.
Apparently it does so; but it does so in appearance only. In reality
we have ways and means of determining which of the two changes is the
likelier.
We know what modifies _form_. Change of latitude, climate, sea-level,
conditions of subsistence, conditions of clothing, &c., do this; all
(or nearly all) such changes being physical.
We know, too, (though in a less degree) what modifies _language_. New
wants gratified by objects with new names, new ideas requiring new
terms, increased intercourse between man and man, tribe and tribe,
nation and nation, &c. do this; all (or _nearly_ all) such changes
being of a moral nature.
Hence in some cases we can ascertain upon which of the two elements of
our classification, the physical or the moral, the greatest amount of
influences has been at work.
It is necessary to remark upon these points because it is only
_physically_ that the tribes of the present division are nearest akin
to those of the previous ones. Had similarity of language been the
test, a different and a more distant class of nations would have formed
the subject of the present section.
THE MONGOLIAN BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
_Distribution._--High Asia. East and West, from the Altai
Mountains to the Wall of China; North and South, from the
Tungús boundary to Tibet; conterminous with the Turks, southern
Samöeids, Tungús, Chinese, and Tibetans.--The Volga, by
migration.
_Political Relations._--Subject to, _a._ China; _b._ Russia.
_Religion._ Chiefly Buddhism.
_Particular Divisions._ Mongols Proper, Buriats, Olot of
Dzungaria; the Kalmuks of Russia; the Eimak of Persia.
MONGOLIANS.
_Localities._--1. Buriats. Parts about the lake Baikal, chiefly
in the Russian territory, conterminous with the Samöeids, and
Manchus.
2. Olot, Dzungarian, or Kalmuk Mongolians. _a._ The most
western of the family, conterminous with the Turks of Yarkend,
and Independent Tartary. _b._ Kalmuks of the tribes Dürbet
and Torgod, who in 1662 crossed the Yaik, and settled on the
Volga. The majority of them returned to Mongolia in 1770. These
belonged to the Olots.
3. Mongolians Proper, of the Desert of Shamo, and the Kalkas.
Conterminous with China.
4. Eimaks, Northern Persia; isolated tribes.
The extent to which the Mongolian physiognomy is the type and sample of
one of the most remarkable divisions of the human race, is one of the
facts which gives this division prominence.
The extent to which its tribes are the type and sample of a pastoral
and nomadic race, is another.
Their part in the history of the world is a third. This alone will be
enlarged upon. The two other points are merely indicated.
The great part played by the Mongolians, as devastating conquerors,
begins and ends with Zingiz-Khan and his immediate successors. It
_begins_ with him; because although fragmentary and obscure notices
of their Mongolian neighbours are said to be found in the Chinese
annals, it is only in the thirteenth century that we find definite and
cotemporaneous historical evidence. It _ends_ with his successors in
the fourth or fifth generation, notwithstanding the appearance which
it takes of being continued further; inasmuch as the conquests of
Tamerlane are Turk rather than Mongolian, and the Great Mogul empire of
India was Turk rather than Mongolian also.
To this confusion between the share taken by the two great pastoral
nations of Central Asia, in spilling the blood of their kind, and in
devastating the world, the indefinite use of the term _Tartar_ has done
much to contribute. Few writers when they heard of _Tartar_ victories,
asked whether the particular warriors were akin to the Mongolians who
conquered China under Kublai-Khan, or to the Turks, who terrified
Europe under Suliman. Yet such is the difference between these two
divisions of the great Turanian stock. For the sake of avoiding any
such further ambiguities, I have forbidden myself the use of the word
_Tartar_ from this time forwards, throughout the present work.
Other probable reasons for the confusion are of a _real_ character.
I believe that, in some cases, the soldiers were Turk, whilst the
captains were Mongolian; and that, sometimes, descent from the high
blood of Zingiz-Khan was claimed by Turk chieftains of another stock
and pedigree. At any rate, the careful examiner of any history of this
people--excepting for the times of Zingiz-Khan, and his immediate
successors--will find it very difficult to disengage the Mongolian
exploits from the Turk; and will, probably after some trouble, come to
the conclusion that the greater share belongs to the latter.
I shall let an eye-witness, Marco Polo, describe the Mongols of the
fourteenth century, in the third generation from Zingiz-Khan, and
before they had taken up the Buddhist religion of their conquered
subjects.
1. Translation by Marsden,--Chapters XLV-XLVIII.
"It has been an invariable custom, that all the grand _kans_, and
chiefs of the race of _Chingis-kan_, should be carried for interment to
a certain lofty mountain, named _Altai_; and in whatever place they may
happen to die, although it should be at the distance of a hundred days'
journey, they are, nevertheless, conveyed thither. It is likewise the
custom, during the progress of removing the bodies of these princes,
for those who form the escort to sacrifice such persons as they chance
to meet on the road, saying to them, 'Depart for the next world, and
there attend upon your deceased master!' being impressed with the
belief that all whom they thus slay do actually become his servants in
the next life. They do the same also with respect to horses, killing
the best of the stud, in order that he may have the use of them. When
the corpse of _Mongù_ was transported to this mountain, the horsemen
who accompanied it, having this blind and horrible persuasion, slew
upwards of ten thousand persons who fell in their way.
"The _Tartars_ never remain fixed, but, as the winter approaches,
remove to the plains of a warmer region, in order to find sufficient
pasture for their cattle; and in summer they frequent cold situations
in the mountains, where there is water and verdure, and their cattle
are free from the annoyance of horse-flies and other biting insects.
During two or three months they progressively ascend higher ground,
and seek fresh pasture; the grass not being adequate in any one place
to feed the multitudes of which their herds and flocks consist. Their
huts or tents are formed of rods covered with felt, and being exactly
round, and nicely put together, they can gather them into one bundle,
and make them up as packages, which they carry along with them in
their migrations, upon a sort of car with four wheels. When they have
occasion to set them up again, they always make the entrance front to
the south. Besides these cars, they have a superior kind of vehicle,
upon two wheels, covered likewise with felt, and so effectually as
to protect those within it from wet, during a whole day of rain.
These are drawn by oxen and camels, and serve to convey their wives
and children, their utensils, and such provisions as they require.
The women it is who attend to their trading concerns, who buy and
sell, and provide every thing necessary for their husbands and their
families; the time of the men being entirely devoted to the employment
of hunting and hawking, and matters that relate to the military life.
They have the best falcons in the world, and also the best dogs. They
subsist entirely upon flesh and milk, eating the produce of their
sport, and a certain small animal, not unlike a rabbit, called by our
people _Pharaoh's mice_, which, during the summer season, are found in
great abundance in the plains. But they likewise eat flesh of every
description, horses, camels, and even dogs, provided they are fat.
They drink mares' milk, which they prepare in such a manner that it has
the qualities and flavour of white wine. They term it in their language
_kemurs_.
"Their women are not excelled in the world for chastity and decency of
conduct, nor for love and duty to their husbands. Infidelity to the
marriage bed is regarded by them as a vice not merely dishonourable,
but of the most infamous nature; whilst on the other hand it is
admirable to observe the loyalty of the husbands towards their wives,
amongst whom, although there are perhaps ten or twenty, there prevails
a degree of quiet and union that is highly laudable. No offensive
language is ever heard, their attention being fully occupied with their
traffic (as already mentioned), and their several domestic employments,
such as the provision of necessary food for the family, the management
of the servants, and the care of the children, which are amongst them
a common concern. And the more praiseworthy are the virtues of modesty
and chastity in their wives, because the men are allowed the indulgence
of taking as many as they choose. Their expense to the husband is not
great, and on the other hand the benefit he derives from their trading,
and from the occupations in which they are constantly engaged, is
considerable; on which account it is, that when he receives a young
woman in marriage, he pays a dower to her parent. The wife who is the
first espoused has the privilege of superior attention, and is held to
be the most legitimate, which extends also to the children borne by
her. In consequence of this unlimited number of wives, the offspring
is more numerous than amongst any other people. Upon the death of
the father, the son may take to himself the wives he leaves behind,
with the exception of his own mother. They cannot take their sisters
to wife, but upon the death of their brothers they can marry their
sisters-in-law. Every marriage is solemnized with great ceremony.
"The doctrine and faith of the Tartars are these. They believe in a
Deity whose nature is sublime and heavenly. To him they burn incense
in censers, and offer up prayers for the enjoyment of intellectual and
bodily health. They worship another likewise, named _Natigay_, whose
image, covered with felt or other cloth, every individual preserves in
his house. To this deity they associate a wife and children, placing
the former on his left side, and the latter before him, in a posture of
reverential salutation. Him they consider as the divinity who presides
over their terrestrial concerns, protects their children, and guards
their cattle and their grain. They show him great respect, and at their
meals they never omit to take a fat morsel of the flesh, and with it
to grease the mouth of the idol, and at the same time the mouths of
its wife and children. They then throw out of the door some of the
liquor in which the meat has been dressed, as an offering to the other
spirits. This being done, they consider that their deity and his family
have had their proper share, and proceed to eat and drink without
further ceremony. The rich amongst these people dress in cloth of gold
and silks, with skins of the sable, the ermin, and other animals. All
their accoutrements are of an expensive kind.
"Their arms are bows, iron maces, and in some instances spears; but the
first is the weapon at which they are the most expert, being accustomed
from children to employ it in their sports. They wear defensive armour
made of the thick hides of buffaloes and other beasts, dried by the
fire, and thus rendered extremely hard and strong. They are brave in
battle, almost to desperation, setting little value upon their lives,
and exposing themselves without hesitation to all manner of danger.
Their disposition is cruel. They are capable of supporting every kind
of privation; and, when there is a necessity for it, can live for a
month on the milk of their mares, and upon such wild animals as they
may chance to catch. Their horses are fed upon grass alone, and do not
require barley or other grain. The men are habituated to remain on
horseback during two days and two nights without dismounting, sleeping
in that situation whilst their horses graze. No people upon earth can
surpass them in fortitude under difficulties, nor show greater patience
under wants of every kind. They are perfectly obedient to their chiefs,
and are maintained at small expense. From these qualities, so essential
to the formation of soldiers, it is that they are fitted to subdue the
world, as, in fact, they have done in regard to a considerable portion
of it.
"When one of the great Tartar chiefs proceeds on an expedition, he
puts himself at the head of an army of a hundred thousand horse, and
organises them in the following manner:--He appoints an officer to the
command of every ten men, and others to command a hundred, a thousand,
and ten thousand men respectively. Thus, ten of the officers commanding
ten men take their orders from him who commands a hundred; of these,
each ten from him who commands a thousand; and each ten of these latter
from him who commands ten thousand. By this arrangement, each officer
has only to attend to the management of ten men, or ten bodies of men;
and when the commander of these hundred thousand men has occasion to
make a detachment for any particular service, he issues his orders to
the commanders of ten thousand to furnish him with a thousand men each;
and these, in like manner, to the commanders of a thousand, who give
their orders to those commanding a hundred, until the order reaches
those commanding ten, by whom the number required is immediately
supplied to their superior officers. A hundred men are in this manner
delivered to every officer commanding a thousand, and a thousand men to
every officer commanding ten thousand. The drafting takes place without
delay, and all are implicitly obedient to their respective superiors.
Every company of a hundred men is denominated a _tuc_, and ten of these
constitute a _toman_.
"When the army proceeds on service, a body of men is sent two days'
march in advance, and parties are stationed upon each flank and in the
rear, in order to prevent its being attacked by surprise. When the
service is distant, they carry but little with them, and that, chiefly,
what is requisite for their encampment, and utensils for cooking. They
subsist for the most part upon milk, as has been said. Each man has,
on an average, eighteen horses and mares, and when that which they
ride is fatigued, they change it for another. They are provided with
small tents made of felt, under which they shelter themselves against
rain. Should circumstances render it necessary, in the execution of
a duty that requires dispatch, they can march for ten days together
without dressing victuals: during which time they subsist upon the
blood drawn from their horses, each man opening a vein and drinking
from his own cattle. They make provision also of milk, thickened and
dried to the state of a hard paste (or curd), which is prepared in the
following manner. They boil the milk, and skimming off the rich or
creamy part, as it rises to the top, put it into a separate vessel, as
butter; for so long as that remains in the milk, it will not become
hard. The latter is then exposed to the sun until it dries. Upon going
on service, they carry with them about ten pounds for each man, and
of this, half a pound is put, every morning, into a leathern bottle
or small _outre_, with as much water as is thought necessary. By
their motion in riding, the contents are violently shaken, and a thin
porridge is produced, upon which they make their dinner.
"When these Tartars come to engage in battle, they never mix with the
enemy, but keep hovering about him, discharging their arrows first
from one side and then from the other, occasionally pretending to fly,
and during their flight, shooting arrows backwards at their pursuers,
killing men and horses, as if they were combating face to face. In this
sort of warfare the adversary imagines he has gained a victory, when in
fact he has lost the battle; for the _Tartars_, observing the mischief
they have done him, wheel about, and renewing the fight, overpower his
remaining troops, and make them prisoners in spite of their utmost
exertions.
"Their horses are so well broken-in to quick changes of movement, that
upon the signal given they instantly turn in every direction; and by
these rapid manœuvres many victories have been obtained. All that has
been here related is spoken of the original manners of the _Tartar_
chiefs; but at the present day they are much corrupted. Those who dwell
at _Ukaka_, forsaking their own laws, have adopted the customs of the
people who worship idols, and those who inhabit the eastern provinces
have adopted the manners of the _Saracens_."
It may now be well to examine the term _conquerors of the world_, and
to limit it. By following Gibbon,[21] we may ascertain what the true
Mongolians _did_ conquer, and what they _did_ not.
_Death of Zingiz-Khan_, A.D. 1227.--The work done by the great founder
of the Mongolian empire, was, in the first instance, the consolidation
of separate, and previously disunited, tribes. As a conqueror, he
rather overran countries and showed the ease with which victories might
be gained than established permanent empires. In this way he ravaged
and subdued:--
1. _Northern China._--The _southern_ empire was first subdued by his
grandson.
2. _Bokhara, Persia, Kharizmia (the parts between Balk and the
Caspian)._--I think it likely that, considering the great number of
Turkish tribes that lay between Mongolia and Persia, the natural
hostility they bore to the last-named country, and the easy terms on
which they offered their swords and valour, there was a considerable
Turk element in the Mongolian army of Persia. Still, I have nothing
beyond the mere probability to allege.
The greatest and widest conquests were effected in the generation after
Zingis: by the nephews of his sons, _i.e._, Zingis's grandsons.
_Southern China._--Conquered, and permanently conquered, by
Kublai-Khan. The effect of China upon its subjugators was that which
the Romans attributed to the conquest of Greece upon themselves. The
victors were moulded to the fashion of the vanquished. The religion,
the dress, and the luxury of China, were adopted by the Mongolians even
during the lifetime of Kublai-Khan; to whom Korea, Anam, Pegu, Tibet,
and Bengal were tributary.
_Persia._--By Persia, is meant the half-restored empire of the Kalifs,
so that it includes the whole country from Bokhara to Arabia, from
Samarcand to Bagdad. Holagou is the grandson identified with this
series of conquests; which embrace Syria, Asia Minor, and Armenia, and
do _not_ embrace Ægypt. There the Mongolian was met and repulsed by the
Mameluke.
_Siberia._--Compared with the foregoing one, this was an ignoble
conquest. Still it was made; and in 1242, the Samöeids were tributary
to the Mongolians.
_Tartary, Russia, Poland, Hungary._--The extreme point westward reached
in this, the most distant of the invasions and conducted by Batoum,
was Silesia. Here also I imagine that some portion of the interjacent
Turks easily lent their help to the conqueror, and joined with him
against such common enemies as the Slavonians. Still I have no historic
evidence to this effect.
To conclude--one hundred and forty years after the death of Zingis,
a revolt of the Chinese expelled the Mongolian dynasty. Previous to
this, the conquerors of Tartary, Russia, Bokhara, and Persia had become
Tartars, Russians, Bokharians, and Persians; in other words they had
renounced or forgotten their original ancestors of Mongolia.
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.