THE NORTHERN MONGOLS
Domain of the Mongolo-Turki Section--Early Contact with Caucasic
Peoples--Primitive Man in Siberia--and Mongolia--Early Man in Korea
and Japan--in Finland and East Europe--Early Man in Babylonia--The
Sumerians--The Akkadians--Babylonian Chronology--Elamite
Origins--Historical Records--Babylonian Religion--Social
System--General Culture--The Mongols Proper--Physical Type--Ethnical
and Administrative Divisions--Buddhism--The Tunguses--Cradle and
Type--Mental Characters--Shamanism--The Manchus--Origins and Early
Records--Type--The Dauri--Mongolo-Turki Speech--Language and Racial
Characters--Mongol and Manchu Script--The Yukaghirs--A Primitive
Writing System--Chukchis and Koryaks--Chukchi and Eskimo
Relations--Type and Social State--Koryaks and Kamchadales--The
Gilyaks--The Koreans--Ethnical Elements--Korean Origins and
Records--Religion--The Korean Script--The Japanese--Origins--
Constituent Elements--The Japanese Type--Japanese and Liu-Kiu
Islanders--Their Languages and Religions--Cult of the Dead--
Shintoism and Buddhism.
CONSPECTUS.
#Present Range.# _The Northern Hemisphere from Japan to Lapland, and
from the Arctic Ocean to the Great Wall and Tibet_; _Aralo-Caspian
Basin_; _Parts of Irania_; _Asia Minor_; _Parts of East Russia, Balkan
Peninsula, and Lower Danube_.
#Hair#, _generally the same as South Mongol, but in Mongolo-Caucasic
transitional groups brown, chestnut, and even towy or light flaxen, also
wavy and ringletty_; _beard mostly absent except amongst the Western
Turks and some Koreans_.
#Colour#, _light or dirty yellowish amongst all true Mongols and
Siberians_; _very variable (white, sallow, swarthy) in the transitional
groups (Finns, Lapps, Magyars, Bulgars, Western Turks), and many Manchus
and Koreans_; _in Japan the unexposed parts of the body also white_.
#Skull#, _highly brachycephalic in the true Mongol(80 to 85)_; _variable
(sub-brachy and sub-dolicho) in most transitional groups and even some
Siberians (Ostyaks and Voguls 77)_. #Jaws#, #cheek-bones#, #nose#, _and_
#eyes# _much the same as in South Mongols_; _but nose often large and
straight, and eyes straight, greyish, or even blue in Finns, Manchus,
Koreans, and some other Mongolo-Caucasians_.
#Stature#, _usually short (below 1.68 m., 5 ft. 6 in.), but many Manchus
and Koreans tall, 1.728 m. to 1.778 m. (5 ft. 8 or 10 in.)_. #Lips#,
#arms#, #legs#, _and_ #feet#, _usually the same as South Mongols_; _but
Japanese legs disproportionately short_.
#Temperament#, _of all true Mongols and many Mongoloids, dull, reserved,
somewhat sullen and apathetic_; _but in some groups (Finns, Japanese)
active and energetic_; _nearly all brave, warlike, even fierce, and
capable of great atrocities, though not normally cruel_; _within the
historic period the character has almost everywhere undergone a marked
change from a rude and ferocious to a milder and more humane
disposition_; _ethical tone higher than South Mongol, with more
developed sense of right and wrong_.
#Speech#, _very uniform_; _apparently only one stock language_
(#Finno-Tatar# _or_ #Ural-Altaic Family#), _a highly typical
agglutinating form with no prefixes, but numerous postfixes attached
loosely to an unchangeable root, by which their vowels are modified in
accordance with subtle laws of vocalic harmony_; _the chief members of
the family (Finnish, Magyar, Turkish, Mongol, and especially Korean and
Japanese) diverge greatly from the common prototype_.
#Religion#, _originally spirit-worship through a mediator_ (Shaman),
_perhaps everywhere, and still exclusively prevalent amongst Siberian
and all other uncivilised groups_; _all Mongols proper, Manchus, and
Koreans nominal Buddhists_; _all Turki peoples Moslem_; _Japanese
Buddhists and Shintoists_; _Finns, Lapps, Bulgars, Magyars, and some
Siberians real or nominal Christians_.
#Culture#, _rude and barbaric rather than savage amongst the Siberian
aborigines, who are nearly all nomadic hunters and fishers with
half-wild reindeer herds but scarcely any industries_; _the Mongols
proper, Kirghiz, Uzbegs and Turkomans semi-nomadic pastors_; _the
Anatolian and Balkan Turks, Manchus, and Koreans settled agriculturists,
with scarcely any arts or letters and no science_; _Japanese, Finns,
Bulgars and Magyars civilised up to, and in some respects beyond the
European average (Magyar and Finnish literature, Japanese art)_.
#Mongol Proper.# _Sharra (Eastern), Kalmak (Western), Buryat (Siberian)
Mongol._
#Tungus.# _Tungus proper, Manchu, Gold, Oroch, Lamut._
#Korean#; #Japanese# _and_ #Liu-Kiu#.
#Turki.# _Yakut; Kirghiz; Uzbeg; Taranchi; Kara-Kalpak; Nogai; Turkoman;
Anatolian; Osmanli._
#Finno-Ugrian.# _Baltic Finn; Lapp; Samoyed; Cheremiss; Votyak; Vogul;
Ostyak; Bulgar; Magyar._
#East Siberian.# _Yukaghir; Chukchi; Koryak; Kamchadale; Gilyak._
* * * * *
By "Northern Mongols" are here to be understood all those branches of
the Mongol Division of mankind which are usually comprised under the
collective geographical expression _Ural-Altaic_, to which corresponds
the ethnical designation _Mongolo-Tatar_, or more properly
_Mongolo-Turki_[569]. Their domain is roughly separated from that of the
Southern Mongols (Chap. VI.) by the Great Wall and the Kuen-lun range,
beyond which it spreads out westwards over most of Western Asia, and a
considerable part of North Europe, with many scattered groups in Central
and South Russia, the Balkan Peninsula, and the Middle Danube basin. In
the extreme north their territory stretches from the shores of the
Pacific with Japan and parts of Sakhalin continually westwards across
Korea, Siberia, Central and North Russia to Finland and Lapland. But its
southern limits can be indicated only approximately by a line drawn from
the Kuen-lun range westwards along the northern escarpments of the
Iranian plateau, and round the southern shores of the Caspian to the
Mediterranean. This line, however, must be drawn in such a way as to
include Afghan Turkestan, much of the North Persian and Caucasian
steppes, and nearly the whole of Asia Minor, while excluding Armenia,
Kurdestan, and Syria.
Nor is it to be supposed that even within these limits the North Mongol
territory is everywhere continuous. In East Europe especially, where
they are for the most part comparatively recent intruders, the Mongols
are found only in isolated and vanishing groups in the Lower and Middle
Volga basin, the Crimea, and the North Caucasian steppe, and in more
compact bodies in Rumelia, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Throughout all these
districts, however, the process of absorption or assimilation to the
normal European physical type is so far completed that many of the Nogai
and other Russian "Tartars," as they are called, the Volga and Baltic
Finns, the Magyars, and Osmanli Turks, would scarcely be recognised as
members of the North Mongol family but for their common Finno-Turki
speech, and the historic evidence by which their original connection
with this division is established beyond all question.
In Central Asia also (North Irania, the Aralo-Caspian and Tarim basins)
the Mongols have been in close contact with Caucasic peoples probably
since the New Stone Age, and here intermediate types have been
developed, by which an almost unbroken transition has been brought about
between the yellow and the white races.
During recent years much light has been shed on the physiographical
conditions of Central Asia in early times. Stein's[570] explorations in
1900-1 and 1906-8 in Chinese Turkestan, the Pumpelly Expeditions[571] in
1903 and 1904 in Russian Turkestan, the travels of Sven Hedin[572] in
1899-1902, and 1906-8, of Carruthers[573] in N.W. Mongolia, and the
researches of Ellsworth Huntington[574] (a member of the first Pumpelly
Expedition) in 1905-7 all bear testimony to the variation in climate
which the districts of Central Asia have undergone since glacial times.
There has been a general trend towards arid conditions, alternating with
periods of greater humidity, when tracts, now deserted, were capable of
maintaining a dense population. Abundant evidence of man's occupation
has been found in delta oases formed by snow-fed mountain streams, or on
the banks of vanished rivers, where now-a-days all is desolation,
though, as T. Peisker[575] points out, climate was not the sole or even
the main factor in many areas. In some places, as at Merv, the earliest
occupation was only a few centuries before the Christian era, but at
Anau near Askhabad some 300 miles east of the Caspian, explored by the
Pumpelly Expedition, the earliest strata contained remains of Stone Age
culture. The North Kurgan or tumulus, rising some 40 or 50 feet above
the plain, showed a definite stratification of structures in sun-dried
bricks, raised by successive generations of occupants. H. Schmidt, who
was in charge of the excavations, was able to collect a valuable series
of potsherds, showing a gradual evolution in form, technique and
ornamentation, from the earliest to the latest periods. One point of
great significance for establishing cultural if not physical
relationships in this obscure region is the resemblance between the
geometrical designs on pots of the early period and similar pottery
found by MM. Gautier and Lampre[576] at Mussian, and by M. J. de
Morgan[576] at Susa, while clay figurines from the South Kurgan (copper
culture) are clearly of Babylonian type, the influence of which is seen
much later in terra-cotta figurines discovered by Stein[577] at Yotkan.
With the progress of archaeological research, it becomes daily more
evident that the whole of the North Mongol domain, from Finland to
Japan, has passed through the Stone and Metal Ages, like most other
habitable parts of the globe. During his wanderings in Siberia and
Mongolia in the early nineties, Hans Leder[578] came upon countless
prehistoric stations, kurgans (barrows), stone circles, and many
megalithic monuments of various types. In West Siberia the barrows,
which consist solely of earth without any stone-work, are by the present
inhabitants called _Chudskiye Kurgani_, "Chudish Graves," and, as in
North Russia, this term "Chude" is ascribed to a now vanished unknown
race which formerly inhabited the land. To them, as to the "Toltecs" in
Central America, all ancient monuments are credited, and while some
regard them as prehistoric Finns, others identify them with the historic
Scythians, the Scythians of Herodotus.
There are reasons, however, for thinking that the Chudes may represent
an earlier race, the men of the Stone Age, who, migrating from north
Europe eastwards, had reached the Tom valley (which drains to the Obi)
before the extinction of the mammoth, and later spread over the whole of
northern Asia, leaving everywhere evidence of their presence in the
megalithic monuments now being daily brought to light in East Siberia,
Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. This view receives support from the
characters of two skulls found in 1895 by A. P. Mostitz in one of the
five prehistoric stations on the left bank of the Sava affluent of the
Selenga river, near Ust-Kiakta in Trans-Baikalia. They differ markedly
from the normal Buryat (Siberian Mongol) type, recalling rather the
long-shaped skulls of the South Russian kurgans, with cephalic indices
73.2 and 73.5, as measured by M. J. D. Talko-Hryncewicz[579]. Thus, in
the very heart of the Mongol domain, the characteristically round-headed
race would appear to have been preceded, as in Europe, by a long-headed
type.
In East Siberia, and especially in the Lake Baikal region, Leder found
extensive tracts strewn with kurgans, many of which have already been
explored, and their contents deposited in the Irkutsk museum. Amongst
these are great numbers of stone implements, and objects made of bone
and mammoth tusks, besides carefully worked copper ware, betraying
technical skill and some artistic taste in the designs. In
Trans-Baikalia, still farther east, with the kurgans are associated the
so-called _Kameni Babi_, "Stone Women," monoliths rough-hewn in the form
of human figures. Many of these monoliths bear inscriptions, which,
however, appear to be of recent date (mostly Buddhist prayers and
formularies), and are not to be confounded with the much older rock
inscriptions deciphered by W. Thomsen through the Turki language.
Continuing his investigations in Mongolia proper, Leder here also
discovered earthen kurgans, which, however, differed from those of
Siberia by being for the most part surmounted either with circular or
rectangular stone structures, or else with monoliths. They are called
_Kueruektsur_ by the present inhabitants, who hold them in great awe, and
never venture to touch them. Unfortunately strangers also are unable to
examine their contents, all disturbance of the ground with spade or
shovel being forbidden under pain of death by the Chinese officials, for
fear of awakening the evil spirits, now slumbering peacefully below the
surface. The Siberian burial mounds have yielded no bronze, a fact which
indicates considerable antiquity, although no date can be set for its
introduction into these regions. Better evidence of antiquity is found
in the climatic changes resulting in recent desiccation, which must
have taken place here as elsewhere, for the burials bear witness to the
existence of a denser population than could be supported at the present
time[580].
Such an antiquity is indeed required to explain the spread of neolithic
remains to the Pacific seaboard, and especially to Korea and Japan. In
Korea W. Gowland examined a dolmen 30 miles from Seul, which he
describes and figures[581], and which is remarkable especially for the
disproportionate size of the capstone, a huge undressed megalith 14-1/2
by over 13 feet. He refers to four or five others, all in the northern
part of the peninsula, and regards them as "intermediate in form between
a cist and a dolmen." But he thinks it probable that they were never
covered by mounds, but always stood as monuments above ground, in this
respect differing from the Japanese, the majority of which are all
buried in tumuli. In some of their features these present a curious
resemblance to the Brittany structures, but no stone implements appear
to have been found in any of the burial mounds, and the Japanese
chambered tombs, according to Hamada, Professor of Archaeology in Kyoto
University, are usually attributed to the Iron Age (fifth to seventh
centuries A.D.[582]).
In many districts Japan contains memorials of a remote past--shell
mounds, cave-dwellings, and in Yezo certain pits, which are not occupied
by the present Ainu population, but are by them attributed to the
_Koro-pok-guru_, "People of the Hollows," who occupied the land before
their arrival, and lived in huts built over these pits. Similar remains
on an islet near Nemuro on the north-east coast of Yezo are said by the
Japanese to have belonged to the _Kobito_, a dwarfish race exterminated
by the Ainu, hence apparently identical with the Koro-pok-guru. They are
associated by John Milne with some primitive peoples of the Kurile
Islands, Sakhalin, and Kamchatka, who, like the Eskimo of the American
coast, had extended formerly much farther south than at present.
In a kitchen-midden, 330 by 200 feet, near Shiidzuka in the province of
Ibaraki, the Japanese antiquaries S. Yagi and M. Shinomura[583] have
found numerous objects belonging to the Stone Age of Japan. Amongst them
were flint implements, worked bones, ashes, pottery, and a whole series
of clay figures of human beings. The finders suggest that these remains
may have belonged to a homogeneous race of the Stone Period, who,
however, were not the ancestors of the Ainu--hitherto generally regarded
as the first inhabitants of Japan. In the national records vague
reference is made to other aborigines, such as the "Long Legs," and the
"Eight Wild Tribes," described as the enemies of the first Japanese
settlers in Kiu-shiu, and reduced by Jimmu Tenno, the semi-mythical
founder of the present dynasty; the _Ebisu_, who are probably to be
identified with the Ainu; and the _Seki-Manzi_, "Stone-Men," also
located in the southern island of Kiu-shiu. The last-mentioned, of whom,
however, little further is known, seem to have some claim to be
associated with the above described remains of early man in Japan[584].
In the extreme west the present Mongol peoples, being quite recent
intruders, can in no way be connected with the abundant prehistoric
relics daily brought to light in that region (South Russia, the Balkan
Peninsula, Hungary). The same remark applies even to Finland itself,
which was at one time supposed to be the cradle of the Finnish people,
but is now shown to have been first occupied by Germanic tribes. From an
exhaustive study of the bronze-yielding tumuli A. Hackman[585] concludes
that the population of the Bronze Period was Teutonic, and in this he
agrees both with Montelius and with W. Thomsen. The latter holds on
linguistic grounds that at the beginning of the new era the Finns still
dwelt east of the Gulf of Finland, whence they moved west in later
times.
It is unfortunate that, owing probably to the character of the country,
remains of the Stone Age in Babylonia are wanting so that no comparison
can yet be made with the neolithic cultures of Egypt and the Aegean. The
constant floods to which Babylonia was ever subject swept away all
traces of early occupations until the advent of the Sumerians, who built
their cities on artificial mounds. The question of Akkado-Sumerian[586]
origins is by no means clear, for many important cities are unexplored
and even unidentified, but the general trend of recent opinion may be
noted. The linguistic problem is peculiarly complicated by the fact that
almost all the Sumerian texts show evidence of Semitic influence, and
consist to a great extent of religious hymns and incantations which
often appear to be merely translations of Semitic ideas turned by
Semitic priests into the formal religious Sumerian language. J. Halevy,
indeed, followed by others, regarded Sumerian as no true language, but
merely a priestly system of cryptography[587], based on Semitic. As
regards linguistic affinities, K. A. Hermann[588] endeavoured to
establish a connection between the early texts and Ural-Altaic, more
especially with Ugro-Finnish. A more recent suggestion that the language
is of Indo-European origin and structure rests on equally slight
resemblances. The comparison with Chinese has already been noticed. J.
D. Prince[589] utters a word of caution against comparing ancient texts
with idioms of more recent peoples of Western Asia, in spite of many
tempting resemblances, and claims that until further light has been shed
on the problem Sumerian should be regarded as standing quite alone, "a
prehistoric philological remnant."
E. Meyer[590] claims for the Sumerians not only linguistic but also
physical isolation. The Sumerian type as represented on the monuments
shows a narrow pointed nose, with straight bridge and small nostrils,
cheeks and lips not fleshy, like the Semites, with prominent
cheek-bones, small mouth, narrow lips finely curved, the lower jaw very
short, with angular sharply projecting chin, oblique Mongolian eyes, low
forehead, usually sloping away directly from the root of the nose. In
fact the nose has almost the appearance of a bird's beak, projecting far
in advance of mouth and chin, while the forehead almost disappears. The
hair and beard are closely shaven. The Sumerians were undoubtedly a
warlike people, fighting not like the Semites in loosely extended battle
array, but in close phalanx, their large shields protecting their bodies
from neck to feet, forming a rampart beyond which projected the inclined
spears of the foremost rank. Battle axe and javelin were also used.
Helmets protected head and neck. Besides lance or spear the royal
leaders carried a curved throwing weapon, formed of three strands bound
together at intervals with thongs of leather or bands of metal; this
seems to have developed later into a sign of authority and hence into a
sceptre. The bow, the typical weapon of the Semites and the mountainous
people to the east, was unrepresented. The gods carried clubs with stone
heads. It is important to notice that, in direct contrast to the
Sumerians themselves, their gods had abundant hair on their heads,
carefully curled and dressed, and a long curly beard on the chin, though
cheeks and lips were closely shaven; these fashions recall those of the
Semites. Thus, although the general view is to regard the Sumerians as
the autochthones and the Semites as the later intruders in Babylonia,
the Semitic character of the Sumerian gods points to an opposite
conclusion. But the time has not yet come for any definite conclusion to
be reached. All that can be said is that according to our present
knowledge the assumption that the earliest population was Sumerian and
that the Semites were the conquering intruders is only slightly more
probable than the reverse[591].
Recent archaeological discoveries make Sumerian origins a little
clearer. Explorations in Central Asia (as mentioned above p. 257) show
that districts once well watered, and capable of supporting a large
population, have been subject to periods of excessive drought, and this
no doubt is the prime cause of the racial unrest which has ever been
characteristic of the dwellers in these regions. A cycle of drought may
well have prompted the Sumerian migration of the fourth millennium B.C.,
as it is shown to have prompted the later invasions of the last two
thousand years[592]. Although there is no evidence to connect the
original home of the Sumerians with any of the oases yet excavated in
Central Asia, yet signs of cultural contact are not wanting, and it may
safely be inferred that their civilisation was evolved in some region to
the east of the Euphrates valley before their entrance into
Babylonia[593].
Since Semitic influence was first felt in the north of Babylonia, at
Akkad, it is assumed that the immigration was from the north-west from
Arabia by way of the Syrian coastlands, and in this case also the
impulse may have been the occurrence of an arid period in the centre of
the Arabian continent. The Semites are found not as barbarian invaders,
but as a highly cultivated people. They absorbed several cultural
elements of the Sumerians, notably their script, and were profoundly
influenced by Sumerian religion. The Akkadians are represented with
elaborately curled hair and beard, and hence, in contradistinction to
the shaven Sumerians, are referred to as "the black-headed ones." Their
chief weapon was the bow, but they had also lances and battle axes. As
among the Sumerians the sign of kingship was a boomerang-like
sceptre[594]. Except for Babylon and Sippar, which throw little light on
the early periods, no systematic excavation has been undertaken in
northern Babylonia, and the site of Akkad is still unidentified.
The chronology of this early age of Babylonia is much disputed. The very
high dates of 5000 or 6000 B.C. formerly assigned by many writers to the
earliest remains of the Sumerians and the Babylonian Semites, depended
to a great extent on the statement of Nabonidus (556 B.C.) that 3200
years separated his own age from that of Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon of
Agade; for to Sargon, on this statement alone, a date of 3800 has
usually been assigned[595]. This date presents many difficulties,
leaving many centuries unrepresented by any royal names or records. Even
the suggested emendation of the text reducing the estimate by a thousand
years is not generally acceptable. Most authorities hesitate to date any
Babylonian records before 3000 B.C.[596] and agree that the time has not
arrived for fixing any definite dates for the early period.
Despite the legendary matter associated with his memory,
Shar-Gani-sharri, commonly called Sargon of Akkad, about 2500 B.C.
(Meyer), 2650 B.C. (King), was beyond question a historical person
though it seems that there has been some confusion with Sharru-gi, or
Sharrukin, also called Sargon, earliest king of Kish[597]. Tradition
records how his mother, a royal princess, concealed his birth by placing
him in a rush basket closed with bitumen and sending him adrift on the
stream, from which he was rescued by Akki the water-carrier, who brought
him up as his own child. The incident, about which there is nothing
miraculous, presents a curious parallel to, if it be not the source of,
similar tales related of Moses, Cyrus, and other ancient leaders of men.
Sargon also tells us that he ruled from his capital, Agade, for 45 years
over Upper and Lower Mesopotamia, governed the black-headed ones, as the
Akkads are constantly called, rode in bronze chariots over rugged lands,
and made expeditions thrice to the sea-coast. The expeditions are
confirmed by inscriptions from Syria, though the cylinder of his son,
Naram-Sin, found by Cesnola in Cyprus, is now regarded as of later
date[598]. As they also penetrated to Sinai their influence appears to
have extended over the whole of Syria and North Arabia. They erected
great structures at Nippur, which was at that time so ancient that
Naram-Sin's huge brick platform stood on a mass 30 feet thick of the
accumulated debris of earlier buildings. Among the most interesting of
recent discoveries at Nippur are pre-Semitic tablets containing accounts
similar to those recorded in the book of Genesis, from which in some
cases the latter have clearly been derived. The "Deluge Fragment"
published in 1910 relates the warning given by the god Ea to
Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, and the directions for building a ship
by means of which he and his family may escape, together with the beasts
of the field and the birds of heaven[599]. A still later discovery
agrees more closely with the Bible version, giving the name of the one
pious man as Tagtog, Semitic Nuhu, and assigning nine months as the
period of the duration of the flood. The same tablet also contains an
account of the Fall of Man; but it is Noah, not Adam, who is tempted
and falls, and the forbidden fruit is cassia[600].
Sennacherib's grandson, Ashurbanipal, who belongs to the late Assyrian
empire when the centre of power had been shifted from Babylonia to
Nineveh, has left recorded on his brick tablets how he overran Elam and
destroyed its capital, Susa (645 B.C.). He states that from this place
he brought back the effigy of the goddess, Nana, which had been carried
away from her temple at Erech by an Elamite king by whom Akkad had been
conquered 1635 years before, _i.e._ 2280 B.C. Over Akkad Elam ruled 300
years, and it was a king of this dynasty, Khudur-Lagamar, who has been
identified by T. G. Pinches with the "Chedorlaomer, king of Elam" routed
by Abraham (Gen. xiv. 14-17)[601]. Thus is explained the presence of
Elamites at this time so far west as Syria, their own seat being amid
the Kurdish mountains in the Upper Tigris basin.
The Elamites do not appear to have been of the same stock as the
Sumerians. They are described as peaceful, industrious, and skilful
husbandmen, with a surprising knowledge of irrigating processes. The
non-Semitic language shows possible connections with Mitanni[602]. Yet
the type would appear to be on the whole rather Semitic, judging at
least from the large arched nose and thick beard of the Susian god,
Ramman, brought by Ashurbanipal out of Elam, and figured in Layard's
_Monuments of Nineveh_, 1st Series, Plate 65. This, however, may be
explained by the fact that the Elamites were subdued at an early date by
intruding Semites, although they afterwards shook off the yoke and
became strong enough to conquer Mesopotamia and extend their expeditions
to Syria and the Jordan. The capital of Elam was the renowned city of
Susa (Shushan, whence Susiana, the modern Khuzistan). Recent
excavations show that the settlement dates from neolithic times[603].
Even after the capture of Susa by Ashurbanipal, Elam again rose to great
power under Cyrus the Great, who, however, was no Persian adventurer, as
stated by Herodotus, but the legitimate Elamite ruler, as inscribed on
his cylinder and tablet now in the British Museum:--"Cyrus, the great
king, the king of Babylon, the king of Sumir and Akkad, the king of the
four zones, the son of Kambyses, the great king, the king of Elam, the
grandson of Cyrus the great king," who by the favour of Merodach has
overcome the black-headed people (_i.e._ the Akkads) and at last entered
Babylon in peace. On an earlier cylinder Nabonidus, last king of
Babylon, tells us how this same Cyrus subdued the Medes--here called
_Mandas_, "Barbarians"--and captured their king Astyages and his capital
Ekbatana. But although Cyrus, hitherto supposed to be a Persian and a
Zoroastrian monotheist, here appears as an Elamite and a polytheist, "it
is pretty certain that although descended from Elamite kings, these were
[at that time] kings of Persian race, who, after the destruction of the
old [Elamite] monarchy by Ashurbanipal, had established a new dynasty at
the city of Susa. Cyrus always traces his descent from Achaemenes, the
chief of the leading Persian clan of Pasargadae[604]." Hence although
wrong in speaking of Cyrus as an adventurer, Herodotus rightly calls him
a Persian, and at this late date Elam itself may well have been already
Aryanised in speech[605], while still retaining its old Sumerian
religion. The Babylonian pantheon survived, in fact, till the time of
Darius Hystaspes, who introduced Zoroastrianism with its supreme gods,
Ahura-Mazda, creator of all good, and Ahriman, author of all evil.
It is now possible to gain some idea of the gradual growth of the city
states of Babylonia. Beginning with a mere collection of rude reed huts,
these were succeeded by structures of sun-dried bricks, built in a group
for mutual protection, probably around a centre of a local god, and
surrounded by a wall. The land around the settlement was irrigated by
canals, and here the corn and vegetables were grown and the flocks and
herds were tended for the maintenance of the population. The central
figure was always the god, who occasionally gave his name to the site,
and who was the owner of all the land, the inhabitants being merely his
tenants who owed him rent for their estates. It was the god who waged
wars with the neighbours, and with whom treaties were made. The treaty
between Lagash and Umma fixing the limitations of their boundaries, a
constant matter of dispute, was made by Ningirsu, god of Lagash, and the
city god of Umma, under the arbitration of Enlil, the chief of the gods,
whose central shrine was at Nippur.
With the growth of the cities disputes of territory were sure to arise,
and either by conquest or amalgamation, cities became absorbed into
states. The problem then was the adjustment of the various city gods,
each reigning supreme in his own city, but taking a higher or lower
place in the Babylonian pantheon. When one city gained a supremacy over
all its neighbours, its governor might assume the title of king. But the
king was merely the _patesi_, the steward of the city god. Even when the
supremacy was sufficiently permanent for the establishment of a dynasty,
this was a dynasty of the city rather than of a family, for the
successive kings were not necessarily of the same family[606].
Among the city gods who developed into powerful deities were Anu of Uruk
(Erech), Enlil of Nippur and Ea of Eridu (originally a sea-port). These
became the supreme triad, Anu ruling over the heavens, enthroned on the
northern pole, as king and father of the gods; Enlil, the Semitic Bel,
god of earth, lord of the lands, formerly chief of all the gods; and Ea,
god of the water-depths, whose son was ultimately to eclipse his father
as Marduk of Babylon. A second triad is composed of the local deities
who developed into Sin, the moon-god of Ur, Shamash the sun-god of
Larsa, and the famous Ishtar, the great mother, goddess of love and
queen of heaven. The realm of the dead was a dark place under the earth,
where the dead lived as shadows, eating the dust of the earth. Their lot
depended partly on their earlier lives, and partly on the devotion of
their surviving relatives. Although their dead kings were deified there
seems to be no evidence for a belief in a general resurrection or in the
transmigration of souls. The hymns and prayers to the gods however show
a very high religious level in spite of the important part played by
soothsaying and exorcism, relics of earlier culture. The permanence of
these may be partly ascribed to the essentially theocratic character of
Babylonian government. The king was merely the agent of the god, whose
desires were interpreted by the priestly soothsayers and exorcists, and
no action could be undertaken in worldly or in religious concerns
without their superintendence. The kings occasionally attempted to free
themselves from the power of the priests, but the attempt was always
vain. The power of the priests had often a sound economic basis, for the
temples of the great cities were centres of vast wealth and of
far-reaching trade, as is proved by the discovery of the commercial
contracts stored in the temple archives[607].
How the family expands through the clan and tribe into the nation, is
clearly seen in the Babylonian social system, in which the inhabitants
of each city were still "divided into clans, all of whose members
claimed to be descended from a common ancestor who had flourished at a
more or less remote period. The members of each clan were by no means
all in the same social position, some having gone down in the world,
others having raised themselves; and amongst them we find many different
callings--from agricultural labourers to scribes, and from merchants to
artisans. No natural tie existed among the majority of these members
except the remembrance of their common origin, perhaps also a common
religion, and eventual rights of succession or claims upon what belonged
to each one individually[608]." The god or goddess, it is suggested, who
watched over each man, and of whom each was the son, was originally the
god or goddess of the clan (its totem). So also in Egypt, the members of
the community were all supposed to come of the same stock (_pait_), and
to belong to the same family (_paitu_), whose chiefs (_ropaitu_) were
the guardians of the family, several groups of such families being under
a _ropaitu-ha_, or head chief[609].
Amongst the local institutions, it is startling to find a fully
developed ground-landlord system, though not quite so bad as that still
patiently endured in England, already flourishing ages ago in Babylonia.
"The cost of repairs fell usually on the lessee, who was also allowed to
build on the land he had leased, in which case it was declared free of
all charges for a period of about ten years; but the house and, as a
rule, all he had built, then reverted to the landlord[610]."
In many other respects great progress had been made, and it is the
belief of von Ihring[611], Hommel[612] and others that from Babylonia
was first diffused a knowledge of letters, astronomy, agriculture,
navigation, architecture, and other arts, to the Nile valley, and mainly
through Egypt to the Western World, and through Irania to China and
India. In this generalisation there is probably a large measure of
truth, although it will be seen farther on that the Asiatic origin of
Egyptian culture is still far from being proved[613].
One element the two peoples certainly had in common--a highly developed
agricultural system, which formed the foundation of their greatness, and
was maintained in a rainless climate by a stupendous system of
irrigation works. Such works were carried out on a prodigious scale by
the ancient Babylonians six or eight thousand years ago. The plains of
the Lower Euphrates and Tigris, since rendered desolate under Turkish
misrule, are intersected by the remains of an intricate network of
canalisation covering all the space between the two rivers, and are
strewn with the ruins of many great cities, whose inhabitants, numbering
scores of thousands, were supported by the produce of a highly
cultivated region, which is now an arid waste varied only by crumbling
mounds, stagnant waters, and the camping-grounds of a few Arab
tent-dwellers.
* * * * *
Those who attach weight to distinctive racial qualities have always
found a difficulty in attributing this wonderful civilisation to the
same Mongolic people, who in their own homes have scarcely anywhere
advanced beyond the hunting, fishing, or pastoral states. But it has
always to be remembered that man, like all other zoological forms,
necessarily reflects the character of his environment. The Mongols might
in time become agriculturalists in the alluvial Mesopotamian lands,
though the kindred people who give their name to the whole ethnical
division and present its physical characters in an exaggerated form,
ever remain tented nomads on the dry Central Asiatic steppe, which
yields little but herbage, and is suitable for tillage only in a few
more favoured districts. Here the typical Mongols, cut off from the
arable lands of South Siberia by the Tian-shan and Altai ranges, and to
some extent denied access to the rich fluvial valleys of the Middle
Kingdom by the barrier of the Great Wall, have for ages led a pastoral
life in the inhabitable tracts and oases of the Gobi wilderness and the
Ordos region within the great bend of the Hoang-ho. During the historic
period these natural and artificial ramparts have been several times
surmounted by fierce Mongol hordes, pouring like irresistible
flood-waters over the whole of China and many parts of Siberia, and
extending their predatory or conquering expeditions across the more open
northern plains westwards nearly to the shores of the Atlantic. But such
devastating torrents, which at intervals convulsed and caused
dislocations amongst half the settled populations of the globe, had
little effect on the tribal groups that remained behind. These continued
and continue to occupy the original camping-grounds, as changeless and
uniform in their physical appearance, mental characters, and social
usages as the Arab bedouins and all other inhabitants of monotonous
undiversified steppe lands.
De Ujfalvy's suggestion that the typical Mongols of the plains, with
whom we are now dealing, were originally a long-headed race, can
scarcely be taken seriously. At present and, in fact, throughout
historic times, all true Mongol peoples are and have been distinguished
by a high degree of brachycephaly, with cephalic index generally from 87
upwards, and it may be remembered that the highest known index of any
undeformed skull was that of Huxley's Mongol (98.21). But, as already
noticed, those recovered from prehistoric, or neolithic kurgans, are
found to be dolichocephalous like those of palaeolithic and early
neolithic man in Europe.
Taken in connection with the numerous prehistoric remains above recorded
from all parts of Central Asia and Siberia, this fact may perhaps help
to bring de Ujfalvy's view into harmony with the actual conditions.
Everything will be explained by assuming that the proto-Mongolic tribes,
spreading from the Tibetan plateau over the plains now bearing their
name, found that region already occupied by the long-headed Caucasic
peoples of the Stone Ages, whom they either exterminated or drove north
to the Altai uplands, and east to Manchuria and Korea, where a strong
Caucasic strain still persists. De Ujfalvy's long-heads would thus be,
not the proto-Mongols who were always round-headed, but the long-headed
neolithic pre-Mongol race expelled by them from Mongolia who may
provisionally be termed proto-Nordics.
That this region has been their true home since the first migrations
from the south there can be no doubt. Here land and people stand in the
closest relation one to the other; here every conspicuous physical
feature recalls some popular memory; every rugged crest is associated
with the name of some national hero, every lake or stream is still
worshipped or held in awe as a local deity, or else the abode of the
ancestral shades. Here also the Mongols proper form two main divisions,
_Sharra_ in the east and _Kalmuk_ in the west, while a third group, the
somewhat mixed _Buryats_, have long been settled in the Siberian
provinces of Irkutsk and Trans-Baikalia. Under the Chinese semi-military
administration all except the Buryats, who are Russian subjects, are
constituted since the seventeenth century in 41 _Aimaks_ (large tribal
groups or principalities with hereditary khans) and 226 _Koshungs_,
"Banners," that is, smaller groups whose chiefs are dependent on the
khans of their respective Aimaks, who are themselves directly
responsible to the imperial government. Subjoined is a table of these
administrative divisions, which present a curious but effective
combination of the tribal and political systems, analogous to the
arrangement in Pondoland and some other districts in Cape Colony, where
the hereditary tribal chief assumes the functions of a responsible
British magistrate.
Tribal or Territorial Aimaks Koshungs
Divisions (Principalities) (Banners)
Khalkas 4 86
Inner Mongolia with Ordos 25 51
Chakars 1 8
Ala-Shan 1 3
Koko-nor and Tsaidam 5 29
Sungaria 4 32
Uriankhai 1 17
-- ---
41 226
Since their organisation in Aimaks and Koshungs, the Mongols have ceased
to be a terror to the surrounding peoples. The incessant struggles
between these tented warriors and the peaceful Chinese populations,
which began long before the dawn of history, were brought to a close
with the overthrow of the Sungarian power in the eighteenth century,
when their political cohesion was broken, and the whole nation reduced
to a state of abject helplessness, from which they cannot now hope to
recover. The arm of Chinese rule could be replaced only by the firmer
grip of the northern autocrat, whose shadow already lies athwart the
Gobi wilderness.
Thus the only escape from the crushing monotony of a purely pastoral
life, no longer relieved by intervals of warlike or predatory
expeditions, lies in a survival of the old Shamanist superstitions, or a
further development of the degrading Tibetan lamaism represented at Urga
by the _Kutukhtu_, an incarnation of the Buddha only less revered than
the Dalai Lama himself[614]. Besides this High Priest at Urga, there are
over a hundred smaller incarnations--_Gigens_, as they are called--and
these saintly beings possess unlimited means of plundering their
votaries. The smallest favour, the touch of their garments, a pious
ejaculation or blessing, is regarded as a priceless spiritual gift, and
must be paid for with costly offerings. Even the dead do not escape
these exactions. However disposed of, whether buried or cremated, like
the khans and lamas, or exposed to beasts and birds of prey, as is the
fate of the common folk, "masses," which also command a high price, have
to be said for forty days to relieve their souls from the torments of
the Buddhist purgatory.
It is a singular fact, which, however, may perhaps admit of explanation,
that nearly all the true Mongol peoples have been Buddhists since the
spread of Sakya-Muni's teachings throughout Central Asia, while their
Turki kinsmen are zealous followers of the Prophet. Thus is seen, for
instance, the strange spectacle of two Mongolic groups, the Kirghiz of
the Turki branch and the Kalmuks of the West Mongol branch, encamped
side by side on the Lower Volga plains, the former all under the banner
of the Crescent, the latter devout worshippers of all the incarnations
of Buddha. But analogous phenomena occur amongst the European peoples,
the Teutons being mainly Protestants, those of neo-Latin speech mainly
Roman Catholics, and the Easterns Orthodox. From all this, however,
nothing more can be inferred than that the religions are partly a
question of geography, partly determined by racial temperament and
political conditions; while the religious sentiment, being universal, is
above all local or ethnical considerations.
Under the first term of the expression _Mongolo-Turki_ (p. 256) are
comprised, besides the Mongols proper, nearly all those branches of the
division which lie to the east and north-east of Mongolia, and are in
most respects more closely allied with the Mongol than with the Turki
section. Such are the _Tunguses_, with the kindred _Manchus_, _Golds_,
_Orochons_, _Lamuts_, and others of the Amur basin, the Upper Lena
head-streams, the eastern affluents of the Yenisei, and the shores of
the Sea of Okhotsk; the _Gilyaks_ about the Amur estuary and in the
northern parts of Sakhalin; the _Kamchadales_ in South Kamchatka; in the
extreme north-east the _Koryaks_, _Chukchis_, and _Yukaghirs_; lastly
the _Koreans_, _Japanese_, and _Liu-Kiu (Lu-Chu) Islanders_. To the
Mongol section thus belong nearly all the peoples lying between the
Yenisei and the Pacific (including most of the adjacent archipelagos),
and between the Great Wall and the Arctic Ocean. The only two exceptions
are the _Yakuts_ of the middle and Lower Lena and neighbouring Arctic
rivers, who are of Turki stock; and the _Ainus_ of Yezo, South Sakhalin,
and some of the Kurile Islands, who belong to the Caucasic division.
M. A. Czaplicka proposes a useful classification of the various peoples
of Siberia, usually grouped on account of linguistic affinities as
Ural-Altaians, and as "no other part of the world presents a racial
problem of such complexity and in regard to no other part of the world's
inhabitants have ethnologists of the last hundred years put forward such
widely differing hypotheses of their origin[615]," her tabulation may
serve to clear the way. She divides the whole area[616] into
_Palaeo-Siberians_, representing the most ancient stock of dwellers in
Siberia, and _Neo-Siberians_, comprising the various tribes of Central
Asiatic origin who are sufficiently differentiated from the kindred
peoples of their earlier homes as to deserve a generic name of their
own. The Palaeo-Siberians thus include the _Chukchi_, _Koryak_,
_Kamchadale_, _Ainu_, _Gilyak_, _Eskimo_, _Aleut_, _Yukaghir_,
_Chuvanzy_ and _Ostyak_ of Yenisei. The Neo-Siberians include the Finnic
Tribes (Ugrian _Ostyak_, and _Vogul_), Samoyedic Tribes, Turkic Tribes
(_Yakut_ and Turko-Tatars of Tobolsk and Tomsk Governments), Mongolic
Tribes (Western Mongols or _Kalmuk_, Eastern Mongols, and _Buryat_), and
Tungusic Tribes (_Tungus_, _Chapogir_, _Gold_, _Lamut_, _Manchu_,
_Manyarg_, _Oroch_, _Orochon_ ("Reindeer Tungus"), _Oroke_).
A striking illustration of the general statement that the various
cultural states are a question not of race, but of environment, is
afforded by the varying social conditions of the widespread Tungus
family, who are fishers on the Arctic coast, hunters in the East
Siberian woodlands, and for the most part sedentary tillers of the soil
and townspeople in the rich alluvial valleys of the Amur and its
southern affluents. The Russians, from whom we get the term Tungus[617],
recognise these various pursuits, and speak of _Horse_, _Cattle_,
_Reindeer_, _Dog_, _Steppe_, and _Forest_ Tunguses, besides the settled
farmers and stock-breeders of the Amur. Their original home appears to
have been the Shan-alin uplands, where they dwelt with the kindred
_Niu-chi_ (Manchus) till the thirteenth century, when the disturbances
brought about by the wars and conquests of Jenghiz-Khan drove them to
their present seat in East Siberia. The type, although essentially
Mongolic in the somewhat flat features, very prominent cheek-bones,
slant eyes, long lank hair, yellowish brown colour and low stature,
seems to show admixture with a higher race in the shapely frame, the
nimble, active figure, and quick, intelligent expression, and especially
in the variable skull. While generally round (indices 80 deg. to 84 deg.), the
head is sometimes flat on the top, like that of the true Mongol,
sometimes high and short, which, as Hamy tells us, is specially
characteristic of the Turki race[618].
All observers speak in enthusiastic language of the temperament and
moral qualities of the Tunguses, and particularly of those groups that
roam the forests about the Tunguska tributaries of the Yenisei, which
take their name from these daring hunters and trappers. "Full of
animation and natural impulse, always cheerful even in the deepest
misery, holding themselves and others in like respect, of gentle manners
and poetic speech, obliging without servility, unaffectedly proud,
scorning falsehood, and indifferent to suffering and death, the Tunguses
are unquestionably an heroic people[619]."
A few have been brought within the pale of the Orthodox Church, and in
the extreme south some are classed as Buddhists. But the great bulk of
the Tungus nation are still Shamanists. Indeed the very word _Shaman_ is
of Tungus origin, though current also amongst the Buryats and Yakuts. It
is often taken to be the equivalent of priest; but in point of fact it
represents a stage in the development of natural religion which has
scarcely yet reached the sacerdotal state. "Although in many cases the
shamans act as priests, and take part in popular and family festivals,
prayers, and sacrifices, their chief importance is based on the
performance of duties which distinguish them sharply from ordinary
priests[620]." Their functions are threefold, those of the medicine-man
(the leech, or healer by supernatural means); of the soothsayer (the
prophet through communion with the invisible world); and of the priest,
especially in his capacity as exorcist, and in his general power to
influence, control, or even coerce the good and evil spirits on behalf
of their votaries. But as all spirits are, or were originally,
identified with the souls of the departed, it follows that in its
ultimate analysis Shamanism resolves itself into a form of
ancestry-worship.
The system, of which there are many phases reflecting the different
cultural states of its adherents, still prevails amongst all the
Siberian aborigines[621], and generally amongst all the uncivilised
Ural-Altaic populations, so that here again the religions strictly
reflect the social condition of the peoples. Thus the somewhat cultured
Finns, Turks, Mongols, and Manchus are all either Christians,
Muhammadans, or Buddhists; while the uncultured but closely related
Samoyeds, Ostyaks, Orochons, Tunguses, Golds, Gilyaks, Koryaks, and
Chukchi, are almost without exception Shamanists.
The shamans do not appear to constitute a special caste or sacerdotal
order, like the hierarchies of the Christian Churches. Some are
hereditary, some elected by popular vote, so to say. They may be either
men, or women (_shamanka_), married or single; and if "rank" is spoken
of, it simply means greater or less proficiency in the performance of
the duties imposed on them. Everything thus depends on their personal
merits, which naturally gives rise to much jealousy between the members
of the craft. Thus amongst the "whites" and the "blacks," that is, those
whose dealings are with the good and the bad spirits respectively, there
is in some districts a standing feud, often resulting in fierce
encounters and bloodshed. The Buryats tell how the two factions throw
axes at each other at great distances, the struggle usually ending in
the death of one of the combatants. The blacks, who serve the evil
spirits, bringing only disease, death, or ill-luck, and even killing
people by eating up their souls, are of course the least popular, but
also the most dreaded. Many are credited with extraordinary and even
miraculous powers, and there can be no doubt that they often act up to
their reputation by performing almost incredible conjuring tricks in
order to impose on the credulity of the ignorant, or outbid their rivals
for the public favour. Old Richard Johnson of Chancelour's expedition to
Muscovy records how he saw a Samoyed shaman stab himself with a sword,
then make the sword red hot and thrust it through his body, so that the
point protruded at the back, and Johnson was able to touch it with his
finger. They then bound the wizard tight with a reindeer-rope, and went
through some performances curiously like those of the Davenport brothers
and other modern conjurers[622].
To the much-discussed question whether the shamans are impostors, the
best answer has perhaps been given by Castren, who, speaking of the same
Samoyed magicians, remarks that if they were merely cheats, we should
have to suppose that they did not share the religious beliefs of their
fellow-tribesmen, but were a sort of rationalists far in advance of the
times. Hence it would seem much more probable that they deceived both
themselves and others[623], while no doubt many bolster up a waning
reputation by playing the mountebank where there is no danger of
detection.
"Shamanism amongst the Siberian peoples," concludes our Russian
authority, "is at the present time in a moribund condition; it must die
out with those beliefs among which alone such phenomena can arise and
flourish. Buddhism on the one hand, and Muhammadanism on the other, not
to mention Christianity, are rapidly destroying the old ideas of the
tribes among whom the shamans performed. Especially has the more ancient
Black Faith suffered from the Yellow Faith preached by the lamas. But
the shamans, with their dark mysterious rites, have made a good struggle
for life, and are still frequently found among the native Christians and
Muhammadans. The mullahs and lamas have even been obliged to become
shamans to a great extent, and many Siberian tribes, who are nominally
Christians, believe in shamans, and have recourse to them."
Of all members of the Tungusic family the Manchus alone can be called a
historical people. If they were really descended from the _Khitans_ of
the Sungari valley, then their authentic records will date from the
tenth century A.D., when these renowned warriors, after overthrowing the
Pu-hai (925), founded the Liao dynasty and reduced a great part of North
China and surrounding lands. The Khitans, from whom China was known to
Marco Polo as _Khitai_ (Cathay), as it still is to the Russians, were
conquered in 1125 by the _Niu-chi_ (_Yu-chi, Nu-chin_) of the Shan-alin
uplands, reputed cradle of the Manchu race. These Niu-chi, direct
ancestors of the Manchus, founded (1115) the State known as that of the
"Golden Tartars," from _Kin_, "gold," the title adopted by their chief
Aguta, "because iron (in reference to the _Liao_, 'Iron' dynasty) may
rust, but gold remains ever pure and bright." The Kins, however,
retained their brightness only a little over a century, having been
eclipsed by Jenghiz-Khan in 1234. But about the middle of the fourteenth
century the Niu-chi again rose to power under Aishiu-Gioro, who,
although of miraculous birth and surrounded by other legendary matter,
appears to have been a historical person. He may be regarded as the true
founder of the Manchu dynasty, for it was in his time that this name
came into general use. Sing-tsu, one of his descendants, constructed the
palisade, a feeble imitation of the Great Wall, sections of which still
exist. Thai-tsu, a still more famous member of the family, greatly
extended the Manchu Kingdom (1580-1626), and it was his son Tai-dsung
who first assumed the imperial dignity under the title of Tai-Tsing.
After his death, the Ming dynasty having been overthrown by a rebel
chief, the Manchus were invited by the imperialists to aid in restoring
order, entered Peking in triumph, and, finding that the last of the
Mings had committed suicide, placed Tai-dsung's nephew on the throne,
thus founding the Manchu dynasty (1644) which lasted down to 1912.
Such has been the contribution of the Manchu people to history; their
contributions to arts, letters, science, in a word, to the general
progress of mankind, have been _nil_. They found the Middle Kingdom,
after ages of a sluggish growth, in a state of absolute stagnation, and
there they have left it. On the other hand their assumption of the
imperial administration brought about their own ruin, their effacement,
and almost their very extinction as a separate nationality[624].
Manchuria, like Mongolia, is organised in a number of half military,
half civil divisions, the so-called _Paki_, or "Eight Banners," and the
constant demand made on these reserves, to support the dynasty and
supply trustworthy garrisons for all the strongholds of the empire, has
drawn off the best blood of the people, in fact sapped its vitality at
the fountain-head. Then the rich arable tracts thus depleted were
gradually occupied by agricultural settlers from the south, with the
result that the Manchu race has nearly disappeared. From the ethnical
standpoint the whole region beyond the Great Wall as far north as the
Amur has practically become an integral part of China, and from the
political standpoint since 1898 an integral part of the Russian empire.
Towards the middle of the nineteenth century the Eight Banners numbered
scarcely more than a quarter of a million, and about that time the Abbe
Huc declared that "the Manchu nationality is destroyed beyond recovery.
At present we shall look in vain for a single town or a single village
throughout Manchuria which is not exclusively inhabited by Chinese. The
local colour has been completely effaced, and except a few nomad groups
nobody speaks Manchu[625]."
Similar testimony is afforded by later observers, and Henry Lansdell,
amongst others, remarks that "the Manchu, during the two centuries they
have reigned in China, may be said to have been working out their own
annihilation. Their manners, language, their very country has become
Chinese, and some maintain that the Manchu proper are now extinct[626]."
But the type, so far from being extinct, may be said to have received a
considerable expansion, especially amongst the populations of north-east
China. The taller stature and greatly superior physical appearance of
the inhabitants of Tien-tsin and surrounding districts[627] over those
of the southern provinces (Fokien, Kwang-tung), who are the chief
representatives of the Chinese race abroad, seem best explained by
continual crossings with the neighbouring Manchu people, at least since
the twelfth century, if not earlier.
Closely related to the Manchus (of the same stock says Sir H. H.
Howorth, the distinction being purely political) are the _Dauri_, who
give their name to the extensive Daur plateau, and formerly occupied
both sides of the Upper Amur. Daur is, in fact, the name applied by the
Buryats to all the Tungus peoples of the Amur basin. The Dauri proper,
who are now perhaps the best representatives of the original Manchu
type, would seem to have intermingled at a remote time with the
long-headed pre-Mongol populations of Central Asia. They are "taller and
stronger than the Oronchons [Tungus groups lower down the Amur]; the
countenance is oval and more intellectual, and the cheeks are less
broad. The nose is rather prominent, and the eyebrows straight. The skin
is tawny, and the hair brown[628]." Most of these characters are such as
we should expect to find in a people of mixed Mongolo-Caucasic descent,
the latter element being derived from the long-headed race who had
already reached the present Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, and the adjacent
islands during neolithic times. Thus may be explained the tall stature,
somewhat regular features, brown hair, light eyes, and even florid
complexion so often observed amongst the present inhabitants of
Manchuria, Korea, and parts of North China.
But no admixture, except of Chinese literary terms, is seen in the
Manchu language, which, like Mongolic, is a typical member of the
agglutinating Ural-Altaic family. Despite great differences, lexical,
phonetic, and even structural, all the members of this widespread order
of speech have in common a number of fundamental features, which justify
the assumption that all spring from an original stock language, which
has long been extinct, and the germs of which were perhaps first
developed on the Tibetan plateau. The essential characters of the system
are:--(1) a "root" or notional term, generally a closed syllable,
nominal or verbal, with a vowel or diphthong, strong or weak (hard or
soft) according to the meaning of the term, hence incapable of change;
(2) a number of particles or relational terms somewhat loosely postfixed
to the root, but incorporated with it by the principle of (3) vowel
harmony, a kind of vocal concordance, in virtue of which the vowels of
all the postfixes must harmonise with the unchangeable vowel of the
root. If this is strong all the following vowels of the combination, no
matter what its length, must be strong; if weak they must conform in the
same way. With nominal roots the postfixes are necessarily limited to
the expression of a few simple relations; but with verbal roots they are
in principle unlimited, so that the multifarious relations of the verb
to its subject and object are all incorporated in the verbal compound
itself, which may thus run at times to inordinate lengths. Hence we have
the expression "incorporating," commonly applied to this agglutinating
system, which sometimes goes so far as to embody the notions of
causality, possibility, passivity, negation, intensity, condition, and
so on, besides the direct pronominal objects, in one interminable
conglomerate, which is then treated as a simple verb, and run through
all the secondary changes of number, person, tense, and mood. The result
is an endless number of theoretically possible verbal forms, which,
although in practice naturally limited to the ordinary requirements of
speech, are far too numerous to allow of a complete verbal paradigm
being constructed of any fully developed member of the Ural-Altaic
group, such, for instance, as Yakut, Tungus, Turki, Mordvinian, Finnish,
or Magyar.
In this system the vowels are classed as strong or hard (_a, o, u_),
weak or soft (the same _umlauted_: _ae_, _oe_, _ue_), and neutral
(generally _e_, _i_), these last being so called because they occur
indifferently with the two other classes. Thus, if the determining root
vowel is _a_ (strong), that of the postfixes may be either _a_ (strong),
_e_ or _i_ (neutral); if _ae_ (weak), that of the postfixes may be either
_ae_ (weak), or _e_ or _i_ as before. The postfixes themselves no doubt
were originally notional terms worn down in form and meaning, so as to
express mere abstract relation, as in the Magyar _vel_ = with, from
_veli_ = companion. Tacked on to the root _fa_ = tree, this will give
the ablative case, first unharmonised, _fa-vel_, then harmonised,
_fa-val_ = tree-with, with a tree. In the early Magyar texts of the
twelfth century inharmonic compounds, such as _halal-nek_, later
_halak-nak_ = at death, are numerous, from which it has been inferred
that the principle of vowel harmony is not an original feature of the
Ural-Altaic languages, but a later development, due in fact to phonetic
decay, and still scarcely known in some members of the group, such as
Votyak and Highland Cheremissian (Volga Finn). But M. Lucien Adam holds
that these idioms have lost the principle through foreign (Russian)
influence, and that the few traces still perceptible are survivals from
a time when all the Ural-Altaic tongues were subject to progressive
vowel harmony[629].
But however this be, Dean Byrne is disposed to regard the alternating
energetic utterance of the hard, and indolent utterance of the soft
vowel series, as an expression of the alternating active and lethargic
temperament of the race, such alternations being themselves due to the
climatic conditions of their environment. "Certainly the life of the
great nomadic races involves a twofold experience of this kind, as they
must during their abundant summer provide for their rigorous winter,
when little can be done. Their character, too, involves a striking
combination of intermittent indolence and energy; and it is very
remarkable that this distinction of roots is peculiar to the languages
spoken originally where this great distinction of seasons exists. The
fact that the distinction [between hard and soft] is imparted to all the
suffixes of a root proves that the radical characteristic which it
expresses is thought with these; and consequently that the radical idea
is retained in the consciousness while these are added to it[630]."
This is a highly characteristic instance of the methods followed by Dean
Byrne in his ingenious but hopeless attempt to explain the subtle
structure of speech by the still more subtle temperament of the speaker,
taken in connection with the alternating nature of the climate. The
feature in question cannot be due to such alternation of mood and
climate, because it is persistent throughout all seasons, while the hard
and soft elements occur simultaneously, one might say, promiscuously, in
conversation under all mental states of those conversing.
The true explanation is given by Schleicher, who points out that
progressive vocal assimilation is the necessary result of agglutination,
which by this means binds together the idea and its relations in their
outward expression, just as they are already inseparately associated in
the mind of the speaker. Hence it is that such assonance is not confined
to the Ural-Altaic group, analogous processes occurring at certain
stages of their growth in all forms of speech, as in Wolof, Zulu-Xosa,
Celtic (expressed by the formula of Irish grammarians: "broad to broad,
slender to slender"), and even in Latin, as in such vocalic concordance
as: _annus, perennis_; _ars, iners_; _lego, diligo_. In these examples
the root vowel is influenced by that of the prefix, while in the
Mongolo-Turki family the root vowel, coming first, is unchangeable, but,
as explained, influences the vowels of the postfixes, the phonetic
principle being the same in both systems.
Both Mongol and Manchu are cultivated languages employing modified forms
of the Uiguric (Turki) script, which is based on the Syriac introduced
by the Christian (Nestorian) missionaries in the seventh century. It was
first adopted by the Mongols about 1280, and perfected by the scribe
Tsorji Osir under Jenezek Khan (1307-1311). The letters, connected
together by continuous strokes, and slightly modified, as in Syriac,
according to their position at the beginning, middle, or end of the
word, are disposed in vertical columns from left to right, an
arrangement due no doubt to Chinese influence. This is the more probable
since the Manchus, before the introduction of the Mongol system in the
sixteenth century, employed the Chinese characters ever since the time
of the Kin dynasty.
None of the other Tungusic or north-east Siberian peoples possess any
writing system except the Yukaghirs of the Yasachnaya affluent of the
Kolymariver, who were visited in 1892 by the Russian traveller, S.
Shargorodsky. From his report[631], it appears that this symbolic
writing is carved with a sharp knife out of soft fresh birch-bark, these
simple materials sufficing to describe the tracks followed on hunting
and fishing expeditions, as well as the sentiments of the young women in
their correspondence with their sweethearts. Specimens are given of
these curious documents, some of which are touching and even pathetic.
"Thou goest hence, and I bide alone, for thy sake still to weep and
moan," writes one disconsolate maid to her parting lover. Another with a
touch of jealousy: "Thou goest forth thy Russian flame to seek, who
stands 'twixt thee and me, thy heart from me apart to keep. In a new
home joy wilt thou find, while I must ever grieve, as thee I bear in
mind, though another yet there be who loveth me." Or again: "Each youth
his mate doth find; my fate alone it is of him to dream, who to another
wedded is, and I must fain contented be, if only he forget not me." And
with a note of wail: "Thou hast gone hence, and of late it seems this
place for me is desolate; and I too forth must fare, that so the
memories old I may forget, and from the pangs thus flee of those bright
days, which here I once enjoyed with thee."
Details of domestic life may even be given, and one accomplished maiden
is able to make a record in her note-book of the combs, shawls, needles,
thimble, cake of soap, lollipops, skeins of wool, and other sundries,
which she has received from a Yakut packman, in exchange for some
clothes she has made him. Without illustrations no description of the
process would be intelligible. Indeed it would seem these primitive
documents are not always understood by the young folks themselves. They
gather at times in groups to watch the process of composition by some
expert damsel, the village "notary," and much merriment, we are told, is
caused by the blunders of those who fail to read the text aright.
It is not stated whether the system is current amongst the other
Yukaghir tribes, who dwell on the banks of the Indigirka, Yana,
Kerkodona, and neighbouring districts. They thus skirt the Frozen Ocean
from near the Lena delta to and beyond the Kolyma, and are conterminous
landwards with the Yakuts on the south-west and the Chukchi on the
north-east. With the Chukchi, the Koryaks, the Kamchadales, and the
Gilyaks they form a separate branch of the Mongolic division sometimes
grouped together as "Hyperboreans," but distinguished from other
Ural-Altaic peoples perhaps strictly on linguistic grounds. Although now
reduced to scarcely 1500, the Yukaghirs were formerly a numerous people,
and the popular saying that their hearths on the banks of the Kolyma at
one time outnumbered the stars in the sky seems a reminiscence of more
prosperous days. But great inroads have been made by epidemics, tribal
wars, the excessive use of coarse Ukraine tobacco and of bad spirits,
indulged in even by the women and children. "A Yukaghir, it is said,
never intoxicates himself alone, but calls upon his family to share the
drink, even children in arms being supplied with a portion[632]." Their
language, which A. Schiefner regards as radically distinct from all
others[633], is disappearing even more rapidly than the people
themselves, if it be not already quite extinct. In the eighties it was
spoken only by about a dozen old persons, its place being taken almost
everywhere by the Turki dialect of the Yakuts[634].
There appears to be a curious interchange of tribal names between the
Chukchi and their Koryak neighbours, the term _Koryak_ being the Chukchi
_Khorana_, "Reindeer," while the Koryaks are said to call themselves
_Chauchau_, whence some derive the word _Chukchi_. Hooper, however,
tells us that the proper form of Chukchi is _Tuski_, "Brothers," or
"Confederates[635]," and in any case the point is of little consequence,
as Dittmar is probably right in regarding both groups as closely
related, and sprung originally from one stock[636]. Jointly they occupy
the north-east extremity of the continent between the Kolyma and Bering
Strait, together with the northern parts of Kamchatka; the Chukchi lying
to the north, the Koryaks to the south, mainly round about the
north-eastern inlets of the Sea of Okhotsk. Reasons have already been
advanced for supposing that the Chukchi were a Tungus people who came
originally from the Amur basin. In their arctic homes they appear to
have waged long wars with the Onkilon (Ang-kali) aborigines, gradually
merging with the survivors and also mingling both with the Koryaks and
Chuklukmiut Eskimo settled on the Asiatic side of Bering Strait.
But their relations to all these peoples are involved in great
obscurity, and while some connect them with the Itelmes of
Kamchatka[637], by others they have been affiliated to the Eskimo, owing
to the Eskimo dialect said to be spoken by them. But this "dialect" is
only a trading jargon, a sort of "pidgin Eskimo" current all round the
coast, and consisting of Chukchi, Innuit, Koryak, English, and even
Hawaii elements, mingled together in varying proportions. The true
Chukchi language, of which Nordenskioeld collected 1000 words, is quite
distinct from Eskimo, and probably akin to Koryak[638], and the Swedish
explorer aptly remarks that "this race, settled on the primeval route
between the Old and New World, bears an unmistakable stamp of the
Mongols of Asia and the Eskimo and Indians of America." He was much
struck by the great resemblance of the Chukchi weapons and household
utensils to those of the Greenland Eskimo, while Signe Rink shows that
even popular legends have been diffused amongst the populations on both
sides of Bering Strait[639]. Such common elements, however, prove little
for racial affinity, which seems excluded by the extremely round shape
of the Chukchi skull, as compared with the long-headed Eskimo. But the
type varies considerably both amongst the so-called "Fishing Chukchi,"
who occupy permanent stations along the seaboard, and the "Reindeer
Chukchi," who roam the inland districts, shifting their camping-grounds
with the seasons. There are no hereditary chiefs, and little deference
is paid to the authority even of the owner of the largest reindeer
herds, on whom the Russians have conferred the title of _Jerema_,
regarding him as the head of the Chukchi nation, and holding him
responsible for the good conduct of his rude subjects. Although nominal
Christians, they continue to sacrifice animals to the spirits of the
rivers and mountains, and also to practise Shamanist rites. They believe
in an after-life, but only for those who die a violent death. Hence the
resignation and even alacrity with which the hopelessly infirm and the
aged submit, when the time comes, to be dispatched by their kinsfolk, in
accordance with the tribal custom of _kamitok_, which still survives in
full vigour amongst the Chukchi, as amongst the Sumatran Battas, and may
be traced in many other parts of the world.
"The doomed one," writes Harry de Windt, "takes a lively interest in the
proceedings, and often assists in the preparation for his own death. The
execution is always preceded by a feast, where seal and walrus meat are
greedily devoured, and whisky consumed till all are intoxicated. A
spontaneous burst of singing and the muffled roll of walrus-hide drums
then herald the fatal moment. At a given signal a ring is formed by the
relations and friends, the entire settlement looking on from the
background. The executioner (usually the victim's son or brother) then
steps forward, and placing his right foot behind the back of the
condemned, slowly strangles him to death with a walrus-thong. A kamitok
took place during the latter part of our stay[640]."
This custom of "voluntary death" is sometimes due to sorrow at the death
of a near relative, a quarrel at home, or merely weariness of life, and
Bogoras thinks that the custom of killing old people does not exist as
such, but is voluntarily chosen in preference to the hard life of an
invalid[641].
Most recent observers have come to look upon the Chukchi and _Koryaks_
as essentially one and the same people, the chief difference being that
the latter are if possible even more degraded than their northern
neighbours[642]. Like them they are classed as sedentary fisherfolk or
nomad reindeer-owners, the latter, who call themselves Tumugulu,
"Wanderers," roaming chiefly between Ghiyiginsk Bay and the Anadyr
river. Through them the Chukchi merge gradually in the _Itelmes_, who
are better known as Kamchadales, from the Kamchatka river, where they
are now chiefly concentrated. Most of the Itelmes are already Russified
in speech and--outwardly at least--in religion; but they still secretly
immolate a dog now and then, to propitiate the malevolent beings who
throw obstacles in the way of their hunting and fishing expeditions. Yet
their very existence depends on their canine associates, who are of a
stout, almost wolfish breed, inured to hunger and hardships, and
excellent for sledge work.
Somewhat distinct both from all these Hyperboreans and from their
neighbours, the Orochons, Golds, Manegrs and other Tungus peoples, are
the _Gilyaks_, formerly widespread, but now confined to the Amur delta
and the northern parts of Sakhalin[643]. Some observers have connected
them with the Ainu and the Korean aborigines, while A. Anuchin detects
two types--a Mongoloid with sparse beard, high cheek-bones, and flat
face, and a Caucasic with bushy beard and more regular features[644].
The latter traits have been attributed to Russian mixture, but, as
conjectured by H. von Siebold, are more probably due to a fundamental
connection with their Ainu neighbours[645].
Mentally the Gilyaks take a low position--H. Lansdell thought the lowest
of any people he had met in Siberia[646]. Despite the zeal of the
Russian missionaries, and the inducements to join the fold, they remain
obdurate Shamanists, and even fatalists, so that "if one falls into the
water the others will not help him out, on the plea that they would thus
be opposing a higher power, who wills that he should perish.... The soul
of the Gilyak is supposed to pass at death into his favourite dog, which
is accordingly fed with choice food; and when the spirit has been prayed
by the shamans out of the dog, the animal is sacrificed on his master's
grave. The soul is then represented as passing underground, lighted and
guided by its own sun and moon, and continuing to lead there, in its
spiritual abode, the same manner of life and pursuits as in the
flesh[647]."
A speciality of the Gilyaks, as well as of their Gold neighbours, is the
fish-skin costume, made from the skins of two kinds of salmon, and from
this all these aborigines are known to the Chinese as _Yupitatse_,
"Fish-skin-clad-People." "They strip it off with great dexterity, and by
beating with a mallet remove the scales, and so render it supple.
Clothes thus made are waterproof. I saw a travelling-bag, and even the
sail of a boat, made of this material[648]."
Like the Ainu, the Gilyaks may be called bear-worshippers. At least this
animal is supposed to be one of their chief gods, although they ensnare
him in winter, keep him in confinement, and when well fattened tear him
to pieces, devouring his mangled remains with much feasting and
jubilation.
Since the opening up of Korea, some fresh light has been thrown upon the
origins and ethnical relations of its present inhabitants. In his
monograph on the Yellow Races[649] Hamy had included them in the Mongol
division, but not without reserve, adding that "while some might be
taken for Tibetans, others look like an Oceanic cross; hence the
contradictory reports and theories of modern travellers." Since then the
study of some skulls forwarded to Paris has enabled him to clear up some
of the confusion, which is obviously due to interminglings of different
elements dating from remote (neolithic) times. On the data supplied by
these skulls Hamy classes the Koreans in three groups:--1. The natives
of the northern provinces (Ping-ngan-tao and Hienking-tao), strikingly
like their Mongol [Tungus] neighbours; 2. Those of the southern
provinces (Klingchang-tao and Thsiusan-lo-tao), descendants of the
ancient Chinhans and Pien-hans, showing Japanese affinities; 3. Those of
the inner provinces (Hoanghae-tao and Ching-tsing-tao), who present a
transitional form between the northerns and southerns, both in their
physical type and geographical position[650].
Caucasic features--light eyes, large nose, hair often brown, full beard,
fair and even white skin, tall stature--are conspicuous, especially
amongst the upper classes and many of the southern Koreans[651]. They
are thus shown to be a mixed race, the Mongol element dominating in the
north, as might be expected, and the Caucasic in the south.
These conclusions seem to be confirmed by what is known of the early
movements, migrations, and displacements of the populations in
north-east Asia about the dawn of history. In these vicissitudes the
Koreans, as they are now called[652], appear to have first taken part in
the twelfth century B.C., when the peninsula was already occupied, as it
still is, by Mongols, the _Sien-pi_, in the north, and in the south by
several branches of the _Hans_ (_San-San_), of whom it is recorded that
they spoke a language unintelligible to the Sien-pi, and resembled the
Japanese in appearance, manners, and customs. From this it may be
inferred that the Hans were the true aborigines, probably direct
descendants of the Caucasic peoples of the New Stone Age, while the
Sien-pi were Mongolic (Tungusic) intruders from the present Manchuria.
For some time these Sien-pi played a leading part in the political
convulsions prior and subsequent to the erection of the Great Wall by
Shih Hwang Ti, founder of the Tsin dynasty (221-209 B.C.)[653]. Soon
after the completion of this barrier, the _Hiung-nu_, no longer able to
scour the fertile plains of the Middle Kingdom, turned their arms
against the neighbouring _Yue-chi_, whom they drove westwards to the
Sungarian valleys. Here they were soon displaced by the _Usuns_
(_Wusun_), a fair, blue-eyed people of unknown origin, who have been
called "Aryans," and even "Teutons," and whom Ch. de Ujfalvy identifies
with the tall long-headed western blonds (de Lapouge's _Homo
Europaeus_), mixed with brown round-headed hordes of white
complexion[654]. Accepting this view, we may go further, and identify
the Usuns, as well as the other white peoples of the early Chinese
records, with the already described Central Asiatic Caucasians of the
Stone Ages, whose osseous remains we now possess, and who come to the
surface in the very first Chinese documents dealing with the turbulent
populations beyond the Great Wall. The white element, with all the
correlated characters, existed beyond all question, for it is
continuously referred to in those documents. How is its presence in East
Central Asia, including Manchuria and Korea, to be explained? Only on
two assumptions--_proto-historic_ migrations from the Far West, barred
by the proto-historic migrations from the Far East, as largely
determined by the erection of the Great Wall; or _pre-historic_
(neolithic) migrations, also from the Far West, but barred by no serious
obstacle, because antecedent to the arrival of the proto-Mongolic tribes
from the Tibetan plateau. The true solution of the endless ethnical
complications in the extreme East, as in the Oceanic world, will still
be found in the now-demonstrated presence of a Caucasic element
antecedent to the Mongol in those regions.
When the Hiung-nu[655] power was weakened by their westerly migrations
to Sungaria and south-west Siberia (Upper Irtysh and Lake Balkash
depression), and broken into two sections during their wars with the two
Han dynasties (201 B.C.-220 A.D.), the Korean Sien-pi became the
dominant nation north of the Great Wall. After destroying the last
vestiges of the unstable Hiung-nu empire, and driving the Mongolo-Turki
hordes still westwards, the Yuan-yuans, most powerful of all the Sien-pi
tribes, remained masters of East Central Asia for about 400 years and
then disappeared from history[656]. At least after the sixth century
A.D. no further mention is made of the Sien-pi principalities either in
Manchuria or in Korea. Here, however, they appear still to form a
dominant element in the northern (Mongol) provinces, calling themselves
Ghirin (Khirin), from the Khirin (Sungari) valley of the Amur, where
they once held sway.
Since those days Korea has been alternately a vassal State and a
province of the Middle Kingdom, with interludes of Japanese ascendancy,
interrupted only by the four centuries of Korai ascendancy (934-1368).
This was the most brilliant epoch in the national records, when Korea
was rather the ally than the vassal of China, and when trade, industry,
and the arts, especially porcelain and bronze work, flourished in the
land. But by centuries of subsequent misrule, a people endowed with
excellent natural qualities have been reduced to the lowest state of
degradation. Before the reforms introduced by the political events of
1895-96, "the country was eaten up by officialism. It is not only that
abuses without number prevailed, but the whole system of government was
an abuse, a sea of corruption, without a bottom or a shore, an engine of
robbery, crushing the life out of all industry[657]." But an improvement
was speedily remarked. "The air of the men has undergone a subtle and
real change, and the women, though they nominally keep up their habits
by seclusion, have lost the hang-dog air which distinguished them at
home. The alacrity of movement is a change also, and has replaced the
conceited swing of the _yang-ban_ [nobles] and the heartless lounge of
the peasant." This improvement was merely temporary. The last years of
the century were marked by the waning of Japanese influence, due to
Russian intrigues, the restoration of absolute monarchy together with
its worst abuses, the abandonment of reforms and a retrograde movement
throughout the kingdom. The successes of Japan in 1904-5 resulted in the
restoration of her ascendancy, culminating in 1910 in the cession of
sovereignty by the emperor of Korea to the emperor of Japan.
The religious sentiment is perhaps less developed than among any other
Asiatic people. Buddhism, introduced about 380 A.D., never took root,
and while the _literati_ are satisfied with the moral precepts of
Confucius, the rest have not progressed beyond the nature-worship which
was the ancient religion of the land. Every mountain, pass, ford or even
eddy of a river has a spirit to whom offerings are made. Honour is also
paid to ancestors, both royal and domestic, at their temples or altars,
and chapels are built and dedicated to men who have specially
distinguished themselves in loyalty, virtue or lofty teaching.
Philologists now recognise some affinity between the Korean and
Japanese languages, both of which appear to be remotely connected with
the Ural-Altaic family. The Koreans possess a true alphabet of 28
letters, which, however, is not a local invention, as is sometimes
asserted. It appears to have been introduced by the Buddhist monks about
or before the tenth century, and to be based on some cursive form of the
Indian (Devanagari) system[658], although scarcely any resemblance can
now be traced between the two alphabets. This script is little used
except by the lower classes and the women, the _literati_ preferring to
write either in Chinese, or else in the so-called _nido_, that is, an
adaptation of the Chinese symbols to the phonetic expression of the
Korean syllables. The _nido_ is exactly analogous to the Japanese
_Katakana_ script, in which modified forms of Chinese ideographs are
used phonetically to express 47 syllables (the so-called _I-ro-fa_
syllabary), raised to 73 by the _nigori_ and _maru_ diacritical marks.
The present population of Japan, according to E. Baelz, shows the
following types. The first and most important is the Manchu-Korean type,
characteristic of North China and Korea, and most frequent among the
upper classes in Japan. The stature is conspicuously tall, the effect
being heightened by slender and elegant figure. The face is long, with
more or less oblique eyes but no marked prominence of the cheek-bones.
The nose is aquiline, the chin slightly receding. With this type is
associated a narrow chest, giving an air of elegance rather than of
muscularity, an effect which is enhanced by the extremely delicate hands
with long slender fingers. The second type is the Mongol, and presents a
distinct contrast, with strong and squarely built figure, broad face,
prominent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, flat nose and wide mouth. This type
is not common in the Japanese Islands. The third type, more conspicuous
than either of the preceding, is the Malay. The stature is small, with
well-knit frame, and broad, well-developed chest. The face is generally
round, the nose short, jaws and chin frequently projecting. None of
these three types represents the aboriginal race of Japan, for there
seems to be no doubt that the Ainu, who now survive in parts of the
northern island of Yezo, occupied a greater area in earlier times and to
them the prehistoric shell-mounds and other remains are usually
attributed[659]. The Ainu are thickly and strongly built, but differ
from all other Oriental types in the hairiness of face and body. The
head is long, with a cephalic index of 77.8. Face and nose are broad,
and the eyes are horizontal, not oblique, lacking the Mongolian fold.
It is generally assumed that this population represents the easterly
migration of that long-headed type which can be traced across the
continents of Europe and Asia in the Stone Age, and that their entrance
into the islands was effected at a time when the channel separating them
from the mainland was neither so wide nor so deep as at the present
time. Later Manchu-Korean invaders from the West, Mongols from the
South, and Malays from the East pressed the aborigines further and
further north, to Yezo, Sakhalin and the Kuriles. But it is possible
that the Ainu were not the earliest inhabitants of Japan, for they
themselves bear witness to predecessors, the _Koro-pok-guru_, mentioned
above (p. 260). Neither is the assumption of kinship between the Ainu
and prehistoric populations of Western Europe accepted without demur.
Deniker, while acknowledging the resemblance to certain European types,
classes the Ainu as a separate race, the _Palaeasiatics_. For while in
head-length, prominent superciliary ridges, hairiness and the form of
the nose they may be compared to Russians, Todas, and Australians, their
skin colour, prominent cheek-bones, and other somatic features make any
close affinity impossible[660].
In spite of these various ingredients the Japanese people may be
regarded as fairly homogeneous. Apart from some tall and robust persons
amongst the upper classes, and athletes, acrobats, and wrestlers, the
general impression that the Japanese are a short finely moulded race is
fully borne out by the now regularly recorded military measurements of
recruits, showing for height an average of 1.585 m. (5 ft. 2-1/2 in.) to
1.639 m. (5 ft. 4-1/2 in.), for chest 33 in., and disproportionately
short legs. Other distinctive characters, all tending to stamp a certain
individuality on the people, taken as a whole and irrespective of local
peculiarities, are a flat forehead, great distance between the eyebrows,
a very small nose with raised nostrils, no glabella, no perceptible
nasal root[661]; an active, wiry figure; the exposed skin less yellow
than the Chinese, and rather inclining to a light fawn, but the covered
parts very light, some say even white; the eyes also less oblique, and
all other characteristically Mongol features generally softened, except
the black lank hair, which in transverse section is perhaps even rounder
than that of most other Mongol peoples[662].
With this it will be instructive to compare F. H. H. Guillemard's
graphic account of the Liu-Kiu islanders, whose Koreo-Japanese
affinities are now placed beyond all doubt: "They are a short race,
probably even shorter than the Japanese, but much better proportioned,
being without the long bodies and short legs of the latter people, and
having as a rule extremely well-developed chests. The colour of the skin
varies of course with the social position of the individual. Those who
work in the fields, clad only in a waist-cloth, are nearly as dark as a
Malay, but the upper classes are much fairer, and are at the same time
devoid of any of the yellow tint of the Chinaman. To the latter race
indeed they cannot be said to bear any resemblance, and though the type
is much closer to the Japanese, it is nevertheless very distinct.... In
Liu-Kiu the Japanese and natives were easily recognised by us from the
first, and must therefore be possessed of very considerable differences.
The Liu-Kiuan has the face less flattened, the eyes are more deeply set,
and the nose more prominent at its origin. The forehead is high and the
cheek-bones somewhat less marked than in the Japanese; the eyebrows are
arched and thick, and the eyelashes long. The expression is gentle and
pleasing, though somewhat sad, and is apparently a true index of their
character[663]."
This description is not accepted without some reserve by Chamberlain,
who in fact holds that "the physical type of the Luchuans resembles that
of the Japanese almost to identity[664]." In explanation however of the
singularly mild, inoffensive, and "even timid disposition" of the
Liu-Kiuans, this observer suggests "the probable absence of any
admixture of Malay blood in the race[665]." But everybody admits a
Malay element in Japan. It would therefore appear that Guillemard must
be right, and that, as even shown by all good photographs, differences
do exist, due in fact to the presence of this very Malay strain in the
Japanese race.
Elsewhere[666] Chamberlain has given us a scholarly account of the
Liu-Kiu language, which is not merely a "sister," as he says, but
obviously an _elder_ sister, more archaic in structure and partly in its
phonetics, than the oldest known form of Japanese. In the verb, for
instance, Japanese retains only one past tense of the indicative, with
but one grammatical form, whereas Liu-Kiuan preserves the three original
past tenses, each of which possesses a five-fold inflection. All these
racial, linguistic, and even mental resemblances, such as the
fundamental similarity of many of their customs and ways of thought, he
would explain with much probability by the routes followed by the first
emigrants from the mainland. While the great bulk spread east and north
over the great archipelago, everywhere "driving the aborigines before
them," a smaller stream may have trended southward to the little
southern group, whose islets stretch like stepping-stones the whole way
from Japan to Great Liu-Kiu[667].
Amongst the common mental traits, mention is made of the Shinto
religion, "the simplest and most rustic form" of which still survives in
Liu-Kiu. Here, as in Japan, it was originally a rude system of
nature-worship, the normal development of which was arrested by Chinese
and Buddhist influences. Later it became associated with spirit-worship,
the spirits being at first the souls of the dead, and although there is
at present no cult of the dead, in the strict sense of the expression,
the Liu-Kiu islanders probably pay more respect to the departed than any
other people in the world.
In Japan, Shintoism, as reformed in recent times, has become much more a
political institution than a religious system. The _Kami-no-michi_, that
is, the Japanese form of the Chinese _Shin-to_, "way of the Gods," or
"spirits," is not merely the national faith, but is inseparably bound up
with the interests of the reigning dynasty, holding the Mikado to be the
direct descendant of the Sun-goddess Hence its three cardinal precepts
now are:--1. Honour the _Kami_ (spirits), of whom the emperor is the
chief representative on earth; 2. Revere him as thy sovereign; 3. Obey
the will of his Court, and that is the whole duty of man. There is no
moral code, and loyal expositors have declared that the Mikado's will is
the only test of right and wrong.
But apart from this political exegesis, Shintoism in its higher form may
be called a cultured deism, in its lower a "blind obedience to
governmental and priestly dictates[668]." There are dim notions about a
supreme creator, immortality, and even rewards and penalties in the
after-life. Some also talk vaguely, as a pantheist might, of a sublime
being or essence pervading all nature, too vast and ethereal to be
personified or addressed in prayer, identified with the _tenka_,
"heavens," from which all things emanate, to which all return. Yet,
although a personal deity seems thus excluded, there are Shinto temples,
apparently for the worship of the heavenly bodies and powers of nature,
conceived as self-existing personalities--the so-called _Kami_,
"spirits," "gods," of which there are "eight millions," that is, they
are countless.
One cannot but suspect that some of these notions have been grafted on
the old national faith by Buddhism, which was introduced about 550 A.D.
and for a time had great vogue. It was encouraged especially by the
Shoguns, or military usurpers of the Mikado's[669] functions, obviously
as a set-off against the Shinto theocracy. During their tenure of power
(1192-1868 A.D.) the land was covered with Buddhist shrines and temples,
some of vast size and quaint design, filled with hideous idols, huge
bells, and colossal statues of Buddha.
But with the fall of the Shogun the little prestige still enjoyed by
Buddhism came to an end, and the temples, spoiled of their treasures,
have more than ever become the resort of pleasure-seekers rather than of
pious worshippers. "To all the larger temples are attached regular
spectacles, playhouses, panoramas, besides lotteries, games of various
sorts, including the famous 'fan-throwing,' and shooting-galleries,
where the bow and arrow and the blow-pipe take the place of the rifle.
The accumulated treasures of the priests have been confiscated, the
monks driven from their monasteries, and many of these buildings
converted into profane uses. Countless temple bells have already found
their way to America, or have been sold for old metal[670]."
Besides these forms of belief, there is a third religious, or rather
philosophic system, the so-called _Siza_, based on the ethical teachings
of Confucius, a sort of refined materialism, such as underlies the whole
religious thought of the nation. Siza, always confined to the
_literati_, has in recent years found a formidable rival in the "English
Philosophy," represented by such writers as Buckle, Mill, Herbert
Spencer, Darwin, and Huxley, most of whose works have already been
translated into Japanese.
Thus this highly gifted people are being assimilated to the western
world in their social and religious, as well as their political
institutions. Their intellectual powers, already tested in the fields of
war, science, diplomacy, and self-government, are certainly superior to
those of all other Asiatic peoples, and this is perhaps the best
guarantee for the stability of the stupendous transformation that a
single generation has witnessed from an exaggerated form of medieval
feudalism to a political and social system in harmony with the most
advanced phases of modern thought. The system has doubtless not yet
penetrated to the lower strata, especially amongst the rural
populations. But their natural receptivity, combined with a singular
freedom from "insular prejudice," must ensure the ultimate acceptance of
the new order by all classes of the community.
FOOTNOTES:
[569] As fully explained in _Eth._ p. 303.
[570] Mark Aurel Stein, _Sand-buried Cities of Khotan_, 1903, and _Geog.
Journ._, July, Sept. 1909.
[571] R. Pumpelly, _Explorations in Turkestan_, 1905, and _Explorations
in Turkestan; Expedition of 1904_, 1908.
[572] Sven Hedin, _Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia_,
1899-1902, 1906, and _Geog. Journ._, April, 1909.
[573] Douglas Carruthers, _Unknown Mongolia_, 1913 (with bibliography).
[574] Ellsworth Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_, 1910.
[575] "The Asiatic Background," _Cambridge Medieval History_, Vol. I.
1911.
[576] _Memoires de la Delegation en Perse; Recherches archeologiques_
(from 1899).
[577] _Sand-buried Cities of Khotan_, 1903.
[578] "Ueber Alte Grabstaetten in Sibirien und der Mongolei," in _Mitt.
d. Anthrop. Ges._, Vienna, 1895, XXV. 9.
[579] Th. Volkov, in _L'Anthropologie_, 1896, p. 82.
[580] Too much stress must not, however, be laid upon the theory of
gradual desiccation as a factor in depopulation. There are many causes
such as earthquake, water-spouts, shifting of currents, neglect of
irrigation and, above all, the work of enemies to account for the
sand-buried ruins of populous cities in Central Asia. See T. Peisker,
"The Asiatic Background," _Cambridge Medieval History_, Vol. I. 1911, p.
326.
[581] _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1895, p. 318 sq.
[582] Cf. _Archaeologia Cambrensis_, 6th Ser. XIV. Part 1, 1914, p. 131,
and _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ 1910, p. 601.
[583] "Zur Praehistorik Japans," _Globus_, 1896, No. 10.
[584] The best account of the archaeology of Japan will be found in
_Prehistoric Japan_, by N. G. Munro, 1912.
[585] _Die Bronzezeit Finnlands_, Helsingfors, 1897.
[586] "Akkadian," first applied by Rawlinson to the non-Semitic texts
found at Nineveh, is still often used by English writers in place of the
more correct _Sumerian_, the Akkadians being now shown to be Semitic
immigrants into Northern Babylonia (p. 264).
[587] Cf. L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, pp. 5, 6.
[588] _Ueber die Summerische Sprache_, Paper read at the Russian
Archaeological Congress, Riga, 1896.
[589] "Sumer and Sumerian," _Ency. Brit._ 1911, with references.
[590] _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 2nd ed. 1909, p. 404.
[591] E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 2nd ed. 1909, p. 406.
L. W. King (_History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910) discusses Meyer's
arguments and points out that the earliest Sumerian gods appear to be
free from Semitic influence (p. 51). He is inclined, however, to regard
the Sumerians as displacing an earlier Semitic people (Hutchinson's
_History of the Nations_, 1914, pp. 221 and 229).
[592] Ellsworth Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_, 1910, p. 382.
[593] L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, p. 357.
[594] E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 2nd ed. 1909, p. 463.
[595] L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, p. 61, and the
article, "Chronology. Babylonia and Assyria," _Ency. Brit._ 1911. Cf.
also E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 2nd ed. 1909, Sec.Sec. 329
and 383.
[596] The cylinder-seals and tablets of Fara, excavated by Koldewey,
Andrae and Noeldeke in 1902-3 may go back to 3400 B.C. Cf. L. W. King,
_loc. cit._ p. 65.
[597] C. H. W. Johns, _Ancient Babylonia_, 1913, regards Sharrukin as
"Sargon of Akkad," p. 39.
[598] L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, pp. 234, 343,
where the seal is referred to a period not much earlier than the First
Dynasty of Babylon.
[599] H. V. Hilprecht, _The Babylonian Expedition of the University of
Pennsylvania_, Series D, Vol. v. 1. 1910.
[600] See _The Times_, June 24, 1914.
[601] "Babylonia and Elam Four Thousand Years Ago," in _Knowledge_, May
1, 1896, p. 116 sq. and elsewhere.
[602] The term "Elam" is said to have the same meaning as "Akkad"
(_i.e._ Highland) in contradistinction to "Sumer" (Lowland). It should
be noted that neither Akkad nor Sumer occurs in the oldest texts, where
Akkad is called _Kish_ from the name of its capital, and Sumer _Kiengi_
(_Kengi_), probably a general name meaning "the land." Kish has been
identified with the Kush of Gen. x., one of the best abused words in
Palethnology. For this identification, however, there is some ground,
seeing that Kush is mentioned in the closest connection with "Babel, and
Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar" (Mesopotamia) _v._
10.
[603] J. de Morgan, _Memoires de la Delegation en Perse_, 1899-1906.
[604] S. Laing, _Human Origins_, p. 74.
[605] And it has remained so ever since, the present Lur and Bakhtiari
inhabitants of Susiana speaking, not the standard Neo-Persian, but
dialects of the ruder Kurdish branch of the Iranian family, as if they
had been Aryanised from Media, the capital of which was Ekbatana. We
have here, perhaps, a clue to the origin of the Medes themselves, who
were certainly the above-mentioned Mandas of Nabonidus, their capital
being also the same Ekbatana. Now Sayce (_Academy_, Sept. 7, 1895, p.
189) identified the Kimmerians with these Manda nomads, whose king
Tukdamme (Tugdamme) was the Lygdanis of Strabo (I. 3, 16), who led a
horde of Kimmerians into Lydia and captured Sardis. We know from
Esarhaddon's inscriptions that by the Assyrians these Kimmerians were
called Manda, their prince Teupsa (Teispe) being described as "of the
people of the Manda." An oracle given to Esar-haddon begins: "The
Kimmerian in the mountains has set fire in the land of Ellip," _i.e._
the land where Ekbatana was afterwards founded, which is now shown to
have already been occupied by the Kimmerian or Manda hordes. It follows
that Kimmerians, Mandas, Medes with their modern Kurd and Bakhtiari
representatives, were all one people, who were almost certainly of Aryan
speech, if not actually of proto-Aryan stock. "The Kurds are the
descendants of Aryan invaders and have maintained their type and their
language for more than 3300 years," F. v. Luschan, "The Early
Inhabitants of Western Asia," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLI. 1911, p.
230. For a classification of Kurds see Mark Sykes, "The Kurdish Tribes
of the Ottoman Empire," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XXXVIII. 1908, p.
451. Cf. also D. G. Hogarth, _The Nearer East_, 1902.
[606] C. H. W. Johns, _Ancient Babylonia_, 1913, p. 27.
[607] Cf. H. Zimmern, article "Babylonians and Assyrians," _Ency.
Religion and Ethics_, 1909.
[608] G. Maspero, _Dawn of Civilisation_, p. 733.
[609] _Ibid._ p. 71.
[610] _Ibid._ p. 752.
[611] _Vorgeschichte_, etc., Book II. _passim_.
[612] _Geschichte Babyloniens u. Assyriens._
[613] G. Maspero, _The Struggle of the Nations, Egypt, Syria and
Assyria_, 1910.
[614] It is noteworthy that _Dalai_, "Ocean," is itself a Mongol word,
though _Lama_, "Priest," is Tibetan. The explanation is that in the
thirteenth century a local incarnation of Buddha was raised by the then
dominant Mongols to the first rank, and this title of _Dalai Lama_, the
"Ocean Priest," _i.e._ the Priest of fathomless wisdom, was bestowed on
one of his successors in the sixteenth century, and still retained by
the High Pontiff at Lhasa.
[615] _Aboriginal Siberia_, 1914, p. 13.
[616] _Loc. cit._ pp. 18-21.
[617] Either from the Chinese _Tunghu_, "Eastern Barbarians," or from
the Turki _Tinghiz_, as in Isaac Massa: _per interpretes se Tingoesi
vocari dixerunt_ (_Descriptio_, etc., Amsterdam, 1612). But there is no
collective national name, and at present they call themselves _Don-ki_,
_Boia_, _Boie_, etc., terms all meaning "Men," "People." In the Chinese
records they are referred to under the name of _I-lu_ so early as 263
A.D., when they dwelt in the forest region between the Upper Temen and
Yalu rivers on the one hand and the Pacific Ocean on the other, and paid
tribute in kind--sable furs, bows, and stone arrow-heads. Arrows and
stone arrow-heads were also the tribute paid to the emperors of the
Shang dynasty (1766-1154 B.C.) by the _Su-shen_, who dwelt north of the
Liao-tung peninsula, so that we have here official proof of a Stone Age
of long duration in Manchuria. Later, the Chinese chronicles mention the
_U-ki_ or _Mo-ho_, a warlike people of the Sungari valley and
surrounding uplands, who in the 7th century founded the kingdom of
_Pu-ha[=i]_, overthrown in 925 by the Khitans of the Lower Sungari below
its Noni confluence, who were themselves Tunguses and according to some
Chinese authorities the direct ancestors of the Manchus.
[618] "C'est la tendance de la tete a se developper en hauteur, juste en
sens inverse de l'aplatissement vertical du Mongol. La tete du Turc est
donc a la fois plus haute et plus courte" (_L'Anthropologie_, VI. 3, p.
8).
[619] Reclus, VI.; Eng. ed. p. 360.
[620] V. M. Mikhailovskii, _Shamanism in Siberia and European Russia_,
translated by Oliver Wardrop, _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1895, p. 91.
[621] M. A. Czaplicka, _Aboriginal Siberia_, 1914. Part III. discusses
Shamanism, pp. 166-255.
[622] Hakluyt, 1809 ed., I. p. 317 sq.
[623] Quoted by Mikhailovskii, p. 144.
[624] Cf. H. A. Giles, _China and the Manchus_, 1912.
[625] _Souvenirs d'un voyage dans la Tartarie_, 1853, I. 162.
[626] _Through Siberia_, 1882, Vol. II. p. 172.
[627] European visitors often notice with surprise the fine physique of
these natives, many of whom average nearly six feet in height. But there
is an extraordinary disparity between the two sexes, perhaps greater
than in any other country. The much smaller stature and feebler
constitution of the women is no doubt due to the detestable custom of
crippling the feet in childhood, thereby depriving them of natural
exercise during the period of growth. It may be noted that the
anti-foot-bandaging movement is making progress throughout China, the
object being to abolish the cruel practice by making the _kin lien_
("golden lilies") unfashionable, and the _ti mien_, the "heavenly
feet,"--_i.e._ the natural--popular in their stead.
[628] H. Lansdell, _Through Siberia_, 1882, II. p. 172.
[629] _De l'Harmonie des Voyelles dans les Langues Uralo-Altaiques_,
1874, p. 67 sq.
[630] _General Principles of the Structure of Language_, 1885, Vol. I.
p. 357. The evidence here chiefly relied upon is that afforded by the
Yakutic, a pure Turki idiom, which is spoken in the region of extremest
heat and cold (Middle and Lower Lena basin), and in which the principle
of progressive assonance attains its greatest development.
[631] Explained and illustrated by General Krahmer in _Globus_, 1896, p.
208 sq.
[632] H. Lansdell, _Through Siberia_, 1882, I. p. 299.
[633] "Ueber die Sprache der Jukagiren," in _Melanges Asiatiques_, 1859,
III. p. 595 sq.
[634] W. I. Jochelson recently discovered two independent Yukaghir
dialects. "Essay on the Grammar of the Yukaghir Language," _Annals N. Y.
Ac. Sc._ 1905; _The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus._ _Memoir of
the Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, Vol. IX. 1910. For the Koryak see
his monograph in the same series, Vol. VI. 1905-8.
[635] _Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski._
[636] "Ueber die Koriaken u. ihnen nahe verwandten Tchouktchen," _in
Bul. Acad. Sc._, St Petersburg, XII. p. 99.
[637] Peschel, _Races of Man_, p. 391, who says the Chukchi are "as
closely related to the Itelmes in speech as are Spaniards to
Portuguese."
[638] _Petermann's Mitt._ Vol. 25, 1879, p. 138.
[639] "The Girl and the Dogs, an Eskimo Folk-tale," _Amer.
Anthropologist_, June 1898, p. 181 sq.
[640] _Through the Gold Fields of Alaska to Bering Strait_, 1898.
[641] Cf. W. Bogoras, _The Chukchee, Memoir of the Jesup North Pacific
Expedition_, Vol. VII. 1904-10
[642] This, however, applies only to the fishing Koryaks, for G. Kennan
speaks highly of the domestic virtues, hospitality, and other good
qualities of the nomad groups (_Tent Life in Siberia_, 1871).
[643] See L. Sternberg, _The Tribes of the Amur River, Memoirs of the
Jesup North Pacific Expedition_, Vol. IV. 1900.
[644] _Mem. Imp. Soc. Nat. Sc._ XX. Supplement, Moscow, 1877.
[645] "Scheinen grosse Aenlichkeit in Sprache, Gesichtsbildung und
Sitten mit den Aino zu haben" (_Ueber die Aino_, Berlin, 1881, p. 12).
[646] _Through Siberia_, 1882, II. p. 227.
[647] _Ibid._ p. 235.
[648] _Ibid._ p. 221.
[649] _L'Anthropologie_, VI. No. 3.
[650] _Bul. du Museum d'Hist. Nat._ 1896, No. 4. All the skulls were
brachy or sub-brachy, varying from 81 to 83.8 and 84.8. The author
remarks generally that "photographes et cranes different, du tout au
tout, des choses similaires venues jusqu'a present de Mongolie et de
Chine, et font plutot penser au Japon, a Formose, et d'une maniere plus
generale a ce vaste ensemble de peuples maritimes que Lesson designait
jadis sous le nom de 'Mongols-pelasgiens,'" p. 3.
[651] On this juxtaposition of the yellow and blond types in Korea V. de
Saint-Martin's language is highly significative: "Cette dualite de type,
un type tout a fait caucasique a cote du type mongol, est un fait commun
a toute la ceinture d'iles qui couvre les cotes orientales de l'Asie,
depuis les Kouriles jusqu'a Formose, et meme jusqu'a la zone orientale
de l'Indo-Chine" (_Art. Coree_, p. 800).
[652] From _Korai_, in Japanese _Kome_ (Chinese _Kaoli_), name of a
petty state, which enjoyed political predominance in the peninsula for
about 500 years (tenth to fourteenth century A.D.). An older designation
still in official use is _Tsio-sien_, that is, the Chinese _Chao-sien_,
"Bright Dawn" (Klaproth, _Asia Polyglotta_, p. 334 sq.).
[653] This stupendous work, on which about 1,000,000 hands are said to
have been engaged for five years, possesses great ethnical as well as
political importance. Running for over 1500 miles across hills, valleys,
and rivers along the northern frontier of China proper, it long arrested
the southern movements of the restless Mongolo-Turki hordes, and thus
gave a westerly direction to their incursions many centuries before the
great invasions of Jenghiz-Khan and his successors. It is strange to
reflect that the ethnological relations were thus profoundly disturbed
throughout the eastern hemisphere by the work of a ruthless despot who
reigned only twelve years, and in that time waged war against all the
best traditions of the empire, destroying the books of Confucius and the
other sages, and burying alive 460 men of letters for their efforts to
rescue those writings from total extinction.
[654] _Les Aryens au Nord et au Sud de l'Hindou-Kouch_, 1896, p. 25.
This writer does not think that the Usuns should be identified with the
tall race of horse-like face, large nose, and deep-set eyes mentioned in
the early Chinese records, because no reference is made to "blue eyes,"
which would not have been omitted had they existed. But, if I remember,
"green eyes" are spoken of, and we know that none of the early writers
use colour terms with strict accuracy.
[655] I have not thought it desirable to touch on the interminable
controversy respecting the ethnical relations of the Hiung-nu, regarding
them, not as a distinct ethnical group, but like the Huns, their later
western representatives, as a heterogeneous collection of Mongol,
Tungus, Turki, and perhaps even Finnish hordes under a Mongol military
caste. At the same time I have little doubt that Mongolo-Tungus elements
greatly predominated in the eastern regions (Mongolia proper, Manchuria)
both amongst the Hiung-nu and their Yuan-yuan (Sien-pi) successors, and
that all the founders of the first great empires prior to that of the
Turki Assena in the Altai region (sixth century A.D.) were full-blood
Mongols, as indeed recognised by Jenghiz-Khan himself. For the
migrations of these and neighbouring peoples, consult A. C. Haddon, _The
Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, pp. 16 and 28.
[656] On the authority of the Wei-Shu documents contained in the
Wei-Ch[=i], E. H. Parker gives (in the _China Review_ and _A Thousand
Years of the Tartars_, Shanghai, 1895) the dates 386-556 A.D. as the
period covered by the "Sien-pi Tartar dynasty of Wei." This is not to be
confused with the Chinese dynasty of Wei (224-264, or according to Kwong
Ki-Chiu 234-274 A.D.). The term "Tartar" (Ta-Ta), it may be explained,
is used by Parker, as well as by the Chinese historians generally, in a
somewhat wide sense, so as to include all the nomad populations north of
the Great Wall, whether of Tungus (Manchu), Mongol, or even Turki stock.
The original tribes bearing the name were Mongols, and Jenghiz-Khan
himself was a Tata on his mother's side.
[657] Mrs Bishop, _Korea and Her Neighbours_, 1898.
[658] T. de Lacouperie says on "a Tibeto-Indian base" (_Beginnings of
Writing in Central and Eastern Asia_, 1894, p. 148); and E. H. Parker:
"It is demonstrable that the Korean letters are an adaptation from the
Sanskrit," _i.e._ the Devanagari (_Academy_, Dec. 21, 1895, p. 550).
[659] See p. 261. Also Koganei, "Ueber die Urbewohner von Japan," _Mitt.
d. Deutsch. Gesell. f. Natur- u. Voelkerkunde Ostasiens_, IX. 3, 1903,
containing an exhaustive review of recent literature, and N. G. Munro,
_Prehistoric Japan_, 1912.
[660] J. Deniker, _Races of Man_, 1900, pp. 371-2. See also J.
Batchelor, _The Ainu of Japan_, 1892, and the article "Ainus" in _Ency.
of Religion and Ethics_, 1908.
[661] G. Baudens, _Bul. Soc. Geogr._ X. p. 419.
[662] See especially E. Baelz, "Die koerperlichen Eigenschaften der
Japaner," in _Mitt. der Deutsch. Gesell. f. Natur- u. Voelkerkunde
Ostasiens_, 28 and 32.
[663] _Cruise of the Marchesa_, 1886, I. p. 36.
[664] _Geogr. Journ._ 1895, II. p. 318.
[665] _Geogr. Journ._ 1895, II. p. 460.
[666] _Journ. Anthrop. Soc._ 1897, p. 47 sq.
[667] _Ibid._ p. 58.
[668] Ripley and Dana, _Amer. Cyc._ IX. 538.
[669] _Shogun_ from _Sho_ = general, and _gun_ = army, hence
Commander-in-chief; _Mikado_ from _mi_ = sublime, and _kado_ = gate,
with which cf. the "Sublime Porte" (J. J. Rein, _Japan nach Reisen u.
Studien,_ 1881, I. p. 245). But Mikado has become somewhat antiquated,
being now generally replaced by the title _Kotei,_ "Emperor."
[670] Keane's _Asia_, I. p. 487.