II.
TURANIAN STOCK.
_Physical conformation._--Mongol.
_Languages._--Not monosyllabic.
_Distribution._--Continental.
_Area._--From Kamskatka to Norway, and from the Arctic Ocean to the frontiers of Tibet and Persia--nearly but not wholly continuous.
_Countries included._--The northern parts of the Chinese empire, greater part of Siberia, Mongolia, Tartary, Eastern Turkestan, Asia Minor, Turkey, Hungary, Finland, Esthonia, Lapland.
DIVISIONS.
1. THE MONGOLIAN BRANCH. 2. THE TUNGUSIAN BRANCH. 3. THE TURK BRANCH. 4. THE UGRIAN BRANCH.
The reader is now asked to prepare himself for the transition from languages of a monosyllabic type, to languages other than monosyllabic; and from aptotic tongues to tongues where the inflections are numerous.
He is also asked to prepare himself for a transition, in the way of physical conformation, from a structure _approaching_ the Mongol type, to one essentially and typically Mongol.
In the former case the change is greater than in the latter.
Why is this? Why do not the changes go _pari passu_, so that the two tests should coincide, and so that it should be a matter of indifference which of the two we started with?
We get at the answer to this by remembering that _physical changes and philological changes, may go on at different rates_.
A thousand years may pass over two nations undoubtedly of the same origin; and which were, at the beginning of those thousand years, of the same complexion, form, and language.
At the end of those thousand years there shall be a difference. With one the language shall have changed rapidly, the physical structure slowly.
With the other the physical conformation shall have been modified by a quick succession of external influences, whilst the language shall have stayed as it was.
_With an assumed or proved original identity on each side, the difference in the rate of action on the part of the different influences, is the key to all discrepancies between the two tests. The language may remain_ in statu quo, _whilst the hair, complexion, and bones change; or the hair, complexion, and osteology may remain_ in statu quo, _whilst the language changes_.
Apparently this leaves matters in an unsatisfactory condition; in a way which allows the ethnologist any amount of assumption he chooses. Apparently it does so; but it does so in appearance only. In reality we have ways and means of determining which of the two changes is the likelier.
We know what modifies _form_. Change of latitude, climate, sea-level, conditions of subsistence, conditions of clothing, &c., do this; all (or nearly all) such changes being physical.
We know, too, (though in a less degree) what modifies _language_. New wants gratified by objects with new names, new ideas requiring new terms, increased intercourse between man and man, tribe and tribe, nation and nation, &c. do this; all (or _nearly_ all) such changes being of a moral nature.
Hence in some cases we can ascertain upon which of the two elements of our classification, the physical or the moral, the greatest amount of influences has been at work.
It is necessary to remark upon these points because it is only _physically_ that the tribes of the present division are nearest akin to those of the previous ones. Had similarity of language been the test, a different and a more distant class of nations would have formed the subject of the present section.
THE MONGOLIAN BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
_Distribution._--High Asia. East and West, from the Altai Mountains to the Wall of China; North and South, from the Tungús boundary to Tibet; conterminous with the Turks, southern Samöeids, Tungús, Chinese, and Tibetans.--The Volga, by migration.
_Political Relations._--Subject to, _a._ China; _b._ Russia.
_Religion._ Chiefly Buddhism.
_Particular Divisions._ Mongols Proper, Buriats, Olot of Dzungaria; the Kalmuks of Russia; the Eimak of Persia.
MONGOLIANS.
_Localities._--1. Buriats. Parts about the lake Baikal, chiefly in the Russian territory, conterminous with the Samöeids, and Manchus.
2. Olot, Dzungarian, or Kalmuk Mongolians. _a._ The most western of the family, conterminous with the Turks of Yarkend, and Independent Tartary. _b._ Kalmuks of the tribes Dürbet and Torgod, who in 1662 crossed the Yaik, and settled on the Volga. The majority of them returned to Mongolia in 1770. These belonged to the Olots.
3. Mongolians Proper, of the Desert of Shamo, and the Kalkas. Conterminous with China.
4. Eimaks, Northern Persia; isolated tribes.
The extent to which the Mongolian physiognomy is the type and sample of one of the most remarkable divisions of the human race, is one of the facts which gives this division prominence.
The extent to which its tribes are the type and sample of a pastoral and nomadic race, is another.
Their part in the history of the world is a third. This alone will be enlarged upon. The two other points are merely indicated.
The great part played by the Mongolians, as devastating conquerors, begins and ends with Zingiz-Khan and his immediate successors. It _begins_ with him; because although fragmentary and obscure notices of their Mongolian neighbours are said to be found in the Chinese annals, it is only in the thirteenth century that we find definite and cotemporaneous historical evidence. It _ends_ with his successors in the fourth or fifth generation, notwithstanding the appearance which it takes of being continued further; inasmuch as the conquests of Tamerlane are Turk rather than Mongolian, and the Great Mogul empire of India was Turk rather than Mongolian also.
To this confusion between the share taken by the two great pastoral nations of Central Asia, in spilling the blood of their kind, and in devastating the world, the indefinite use of the term _Tartar_ has done much to contribute. Few writers when they heard of _Tartar_ victories, asked whether the particular warriors were akin to the Mongolians who conquered China under Kublai-Khan, or to the Turks, who terrified Europe under Suliman. Yet such is the difference between these two divisions of the great Turanian stock. For the sake of avoiding any such further ambiguities, I have forbidden myself the use of the word _Tartar_ from this time forwards, throughout the present work.
Other probable reasons for the confusion are of a _real_ character. I believe that, in some cases, the soldiers were Turk, whilst the captains were Mongolian; and that, sometimes, descent from the high blood of Zingiz-Khan was claimed by Turk chieftains of another stock and pedigree. At any rate, the careful examiner of any history of this people--excepting for the times of Zingiz-Khan, and his immediate successors--will find it very difficult to disengage the Mongolian exploits from the Turk; and will, probably after some trouble, come to the conclusion that the greater share belongs to the latter.
I shall let an eye-witness, Marco Polo, describe the Mongols of the fourteenth century, in the third generation from Zingiz-Khan, and before they had taken up the Buddhist religion of their conquered subjects.
1. Translation by Marsden,--Chapters XLV-XLVIII.
"It has been an invariable custom, that all the grand _kans_, and chiefs of the race of _Chingis-kan_, should be carried for interment to a certain lofty mountain, named _Altai_; and in whatever place they may happen to die, although it should be at the distance of a hundred days' journey, they are, nevertheless, conveyed thither. It is likewise the custom, during the progress of removing the bodies of these princes, for those who form the escort to sacrifice such persons as they chance to meet on the road, saying to them, 'Depart for the next world, and there attend upon your deceased master!' being impressed with the belief that all whom they thus slay do actually become his servants in the next life. They do the same also with respect to horses, killing the best of the stud, in order that he may have the use of them. When the corpse of _Mongù_ was transported to this mountain, the horsemen who accompanied it, having this blind and horrible persuasion, slew upwards of ten thousand persons who fell in their way.
"The _Tartars_ never remain fixed, but, as the winter approaches, remove to the plains of a warmer region, in order to find sufficient pasture for their cattle; and in summer they frequent cold situations in the mountains, where there is water and verdure, and their cattle are free from the annoyance of horse-flies and other biting insects. During two or three months they progressively ascend higher ground, and seek fresh pasture; the grass not being adequate in any one place to feed the multitudes of which their herds and flocks consist. Their huts or tents are formed of rods covered with felt, and being exactly round, and nicely put together, they can gather them into one bundle, and make them up as packages, which they carry along with them in their migrations, upon a sort of car with four wheels. When they have occasion to set them up again, they always make the entrance front to the south. Besides these cars, they have a superior kind of vehicle, upon two wheels, covered likewise with felt, and so effectually as to protect those within it from wet, during a whole day of rain. These are drawn by oxen and camels, and serve to convey their wives and children, their utensils, and such provisions as they require. The women it is who attend to their trading concerns, who buy and sell, and provide every thing necessary for their husbands and their families; the time of the men being entirely devoted to the employment of hunting and hawking, and matters that relate to the military life. They have the best falcons in the world, and also the best dogs. They subsist entirely upon flesh and milk, eating the produce of their sport, and a certain small animal, not unlike a rabbit, called by our people _Pharaoh's mice_, which, during the summer season, are found in great abundance in the plains. But they likewise eat flesh of every description, horses, camels, and even dogs, provided they are fat. They drink mares' milk, which they prepare in such a manner that it has the qualities and flavour of white wine. They term it in their language _kemurs_.
"Their women are not excelled in the world for chastity and decency of conduct, nor for love and duty to their husbands. Infidelity to the marriage bed is regarded by them as a vice not merely dishonourable, but of the most infamous nature; whilst on the other hand it is admirable to observe the loyalty of the husbands towards their wives, amongst whom, although there are perhaps ten or twenty, there prevails a degree of quiet and union that is highly laudable. No offensive language is ever heard, their attention being fully occupied with their traffic (as already mentioned), and their several domestic employments, such as the provision of necessary food for the family, the management of the servants, and the care of the children, which are amongst them a common concern. And the more praiseworthy are the virtues of modesty and chastity in their wives, because the men are allowed the indulgence of taking as many as they choose. Their expense to the husband is not great, and on the other hand the benefit he derives from their trading, and from the occupations in which they are constantly engaged, is considerable; on which account it is, that when he receives a young woman in marriage, he pays a dower to her parent. The wife who is the first espoused has the privilege of superior attention, and is held to be the most legitimate, which extends also to the children borne by her. In consequence of this unlimited number of wives, the offspring is more numerous than amongst any other people. Upon the death of the father, the son may take to himself the wives he leaves behind, with the exception of his own mother. They cannot take their sisters to wife, but upon the death of their brothers they can marry their sisters-in-law. Every marriage is solemnized with great ceremony.
"The doctrine and faith of the Tartars are these. They believe in a Deity whose nature is sublime and heavenly. To him they burn incense in censers, and offer up prayers for the enjoyment of intellectual and bodily health. They worship another likewise, named _Natigay_, whose image, covered with felt or other cloth, every individual preserves in his house. To this deity they associate a wife and children, placing the former on his left side, and the latter before him, in a posture of reverential salutation. Him they consider as the divinity who presides over their terrestrial concerns, protects their children, and guards their cattle and their grain. They show him great respect, and at their meals they never omit to take a fat morsel of the flesh, and with it to grease the mouth of the idol, and at the same time the mouths of its wife and children. They then throw out of the door some of the liquor in which the meat has been dressed, as an offering to the other spirits. This being done, they consider that their deity and his family have had their proper share, and proceed to eat and drink without further ceremony. The rich amongst these people dress in cloth of gold and silks, with skins of the sable, the ermin, and other animals. All their accoutrements are of an expensive kind.
"Their arms are bows, iron maces, and in some instances spears; but the first is the weapon at which they are the most expert, being accustomed from children to employ it in their sports. They wear defensive armour made of the thick hides of buffaloes and other beasts, dried by the fire, and thus rendered extremely hard and strong. They are brave in battle, almost to desperation, setting little value upon their lives, and exposing themselves without hesitation to all manner of danger. Their disposition is cruel. They are capable of supporting every kind of privation; and, when there is a necessity for it, can live for a month on the milk of their mares, and upon such wild animals as they may chance to catch. Their horses are fed upon grass alone, and do not require barley or other grain. The men are habituated to remain on horseback during two days and two nights without dismounting, sleeping in that situation whilst their horses graze. No people upon earth can surpass them in fortitude under difficulties, nor show greater patience under wants of every kind. They are perfectly obedient to their chiefs, and are maintained at small expense. From these qualities, so essential to the formation of soldiers, it is that they are fitted to subdue the world, as, in fact, they have done in regard to a considerable portion of it.
"When one of the great Tartar chiefs proceeds on an expedition, he puts himself at the head of an army of a hundred thousand horse, and organises them in the following manner:--He appoints an officer to the command of every ten men, and others to command a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand men respectively. Thus, ten of the officers commanding ten men take their orders from him who commands a hundred; of these, each ten from him who commands a thousand; and each ten of these latter from him who commands ten thousand. By this arrangement, each officer has only to attend to the management of ten men, or ten bodies of men; and when the commander of these hundred thousand men has occasion to make a detachment for any particular service, he issues his orders to the commanders of ten thousand to furnish him with a thousand men each; and these, in like manner, to the commanders of a thousand, who give their orders to those commanding a hundred, until the order reaches those commanding ten, by whom the number required is immediately supplied to their superior officers. A hundred men are in this manner delivered to every officer commanding a thousand, and a thousand men to every officer commanding ten thousand. The drafting takes place without delay, and all are implicitly obedient to their respective superiors. Every company of a hundred men is denominated a _tuc_, and ten of these constitute a _toman_.
"When the army proceeds on service, a body of men is sent two days' march in advance, and parties are stationed upon each flank and in the rear, in order to prevent its being attacked by surprise. When the service is distant, they carry but little with them, and that, chiefly, what is requisite for their encampment, and utensils for cooking. They subsist for the most part upon milk, as has been said. Each man has, on an average, eighteen horses and mares, and when that which they ride is fatigued, they change it for another. They are provided with small tents made of felt, under which they shelter themselves against rain. Should circumstances render it necessary, in the execution of a duty that requires dispatch, they can march for ten days together without dressing victuals: during which time they subsist upon the blood drawn from their horses, each man opening a vein and drinking from his own cattle. They make provision also of milk, thickened and dried to the state of a hard paste (or curd), which is prepared in the following manner. They boil the milk, and skimming off the rich or creamy part, as it rises to the top, put it into a separate vessel, as butter; for so long as that remains in the milk, it will not become hard. The latter is then exposed to the sun until it dries. Upon going on service, they carry with them about ten pounds for each man, and of this, half a pound is put, every morning, into a leathern bottle or small _outre_, with as much water as is thought necessary. By their motion in riding, the contents are violently shaken, and a thin porridge is produced, upon which they make their dinner.
"When these Tartars come to engage in battle, they never mix with the enemy, but keep hovering about him, discharging their arrows first from one side and then from the other, occasionally pretending to fly, and during their flight, shooting arrows backwards at their pursuers, killing men and horses, as if they were combating face to face. In this sort of warfare the adversary imagines he has gained a victory, when in fact he has lost the battle; for the _Tartars_, observing the mischief they have done him, wheel about, and renewing the fight, overpower his remaining troops, and make them prisoners in spite of their utmost exertions.
"Their horses are so well broken-in to quick changes of movement, that upon the signal given they instantly turn in every direction; and by these rapid manœuvres many victories have been obtained. All that has been here related is spoken of the original manners of the _Tartar_ chiefs; but at the present day they are much corrupted. Those who dwell at _Ukaka_, forsaking their own laws, have adopted the customs of the people who worship idols, and those who inhabit the eastern provinces have adopted the manners of the _Saracens_."
It may now be well to examine the term _conquerors of the world_, and to limit it. By following Gibbon,[21] we may ascertain what the true Mongolians _did_ conquer, and what they _did_ not.
_Death of Zingiz-Khan_, A.D. 1227.--The work done by the great founder of the Mongolian empire, was, in the first instance, the consolidation of separate, and previously disunited, tribes. As a conqueror, he rather overran countries and showed the ease with which victories might be gained than established permanent empires. In this way he ravaged and subdued:--
1. _Northern China._--The _southern_ empire was first subdued by his grandson.
2. _Bokhara, Persia, Kharizmia (the parts between Balk and the Caspian)._--I think it likely that, considering the great number of Turkish tribes that lay between Mongolia and Persia, the natural hostility they bore to the last-named country, and the easy terms on which they offered their swords and valour, there was a considerable Turk element in the Mongolian army of Persia. Still, I have nothing beyond the mere probability to allege.
The greatest and widest conquests were effected in the generation after Zingis: by the nephews of his sons, _i.e._, Zingis's grandsons.
_Southern China._--Conquered, and permanently conquered, by Kublai-Khan. The effect of China upon its subjugators was that which the Romans attributed to the conquest of Greece upon themselves. The victors were moulded to the fashion of the vanquished. The religion, the dress, and the luxury of China, were adopted by the Mongolians even during the lifetime of Kublai-Khan; to whom Korea, Anam, Pegu, Tibet, and Bengal were tributary.
_Persia._--By Persia, is meant the half-restored empire of the Kalifs, so that it includes the whole country from Bokhara to Arabia, from Samarcand to Bagdad. Holagou is the grandson identified with this series of conquests; which embrace Syria, Asia Minor, and Armenia, and do _not_ embrace Ægypt. There the Mongolian was met and repulsed by the Mameluke.
_Siberia._--Compared with the foregoing one, this was an ignoble conquest. Still it was made; and in 1242, the Samöeids were tributary to the Mongolians.
_Tartary, Russia, Poland, Hungary._--The extreme point westward reached in this, the most distant of the invasions and conducted by Batoum, was Silesia. Here also I imagine that some portion of the interjacent Turks easily lent their help to the conqueror, and joined with him against such common enemies as the Slavonians. Still I have no historic evidence to this effect.
To conclude--one hundred and forty years after the death of Zingis, a revolt of the Chinese expelled the Mongolian dynasty. Previous to this, the conquerors of Tartary, Russia, Bokhara, and Persia had become Tartars, Russians, Bokharians, and Persians; in other words they had renounced or forgotten their original ancestors of Mongolia.
The Mongol religion is Buddhist; yet their alphabet is not of either Chinese or Indian origin. The earliest Mongol conquerors understood the value of literature, and soon after the death of Zingiz-Khan the language was reduced to writing; the alphabet, which was subsequently extended to the language of the Mantshu nation, having been adopted from that of the Uighur Turks. Amongst the Uighur Turks it was introduced by the Nestorian Christians, an influence of which the importance in these parts has yet to be duly appreciated. As such, its original source is the Syriac. Of the Syriac alphabets it is most like the Palmyrene.
THE TONGUS BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
_Distribution._--East and west, from the sea of Okhotsk, and the peninsula of Kamskatka to the Yenisey. North and South (South-East), from the coast of the Icy Sea, between the Yenisey and Lena, to the Yellow Sea. Conterminous with the Samöeids, Ostiaks, Yakuts, Turks, Mongols, Chinese, Koreans, Aino, Koriaks, and Yukahiri.
_Political relations._--Subject to _a_, China, _b_, Russia.
_Religion._--Buddhism, Imperfect Christianity, Paganism.
_Particular divisions._--The Tshapojirs on the Lena, the Lamuts on the Sea of Okhotsk, the Mantshu rulers of China.
_Dialects known by vocabularies._--_a_, Western--Yeniseian, Tshapojirs, Mangaseiesk, Orotong; _b_, Southern--Nerchinsk, Barguzin, Upper Angara, Yakutsk; _c_, Eastern--Okhotsk, Lamut; _d_, The Mantshu. Add to these the Niuji, an ancient dialect known from a Chinese vocabulary, and closely allied to the Mantshu.
_Alphabet._--Mongolian; applied to the Mantshu dialect only.
_General name._--None. Some particular tribes call themselves _beye_=_men_; some, _donki_=_people_.
Called by the Ostiaks, Kellem. " " Chinese, Tung-chu. " " Mantshu, Orotuhong. " " Mongols, Kham-noyon.
_Authority._--Klaproth's _Asia Polyglotta_ and _Sprachatlas_.
A more northern position, a greater range of climate, an approach in some cases to the hunter and fisher, rather than to the pastoral states, a more partial abandonment of the original Shamanistic Paganism, and a later literature are the chief points which differentiate the Tungús tribes from the Mongol. Add to this, that the influence of the Tungús upon the history of the world is limited to the conquest of China by the present Mantshu dynasty. In other matters--indeed in these--the difference between the two branches is a difference of _degree_ rather than of _kind_. I limit my remarks upon the Tungús tribes--whose civilization is represented by that of the Mantshus--for the sake of leaving time and space for a more important branch of the Turanian stock--the Turk.
Some of the Tungús tribes--_e.g._ the Tshapojirs--tattoo their faces.
THE TURK BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
_Distribution._--1. As a _continuous_ population--East and west--from the neighbourhood of the lake Baikal, 110° E. L. to the eastern boundaries of the Greek and Slavonic countries of Europe, about 21° E. L. North and south; from the northern frontiers of Tibet, and Persia, about 34° N. L., to the country north of Tobolsk about 59° N. L.
2. As an _isolated_ population--Along the lower course of the Lena, and the shores of the White Sea, chiefly within the Arctic Circle. These are the Yakut Turks. They are wholly disconnected from the other Turkish tribes; and surrounded by Tungús and Yukahiri tribes.
3. As portions of a _mixed_ population--In China?, Tibet?, Mongolia?, Persia, Armenia, the Caucasian countries, Syria, Ægypt, Barbary, Greece, Albania, and the Slavonic portion of Turkey in Europe. Turk blood in most of the royal families of the East.
_Religion._--Preeminently, though not exclusively, Mahometan; generally of the Sunnite doctrine. Shamanism amongst the Yakuts. Buddhism amongst the Turks of the Chinese Empire, Christianity amongst those of Siberia.
_Language._--Spoken with remarkable uniformity over the whole area; so much so that the Yakut of the Icy Sea is said to be intelligible to the Turks of Central Asia, and even of Constantinople.
_Physical Conformation._--In some cases almost identical with that of the Mongolians, in others almost European. Generally speaking, it partakes of the character of the non-Turkish natives of the numerous countries with which the Turk area is in contact.
In Turkey, Ægypt, and the Persian frontier much intermixture.
As the Mongol character departs, the face becomes oval rather than square, the features prominent rather than flat, the beard develops itself, and the complexion becomes brunette rather than swarthy.
_Conterminous._--1. Beginning at the most north-eastern point, and going round from north to south--with the Tungús. 2. Mongols 3. Tibetans. 4. Iranians (_i. e._ Persian tribes, and tribes allied to them). 5. Armenians. 6. Dioscurians (_i. e._ the tribes of Caucasus). 7. Arabians. 8. Greeks. 9. Slavonians. 10. Finns. 11. Yeniseians. 12. Samöeids.
_Chief particular Divisions_--taking the round as before--
1. _Uighurs._---On the Mongol frontier. Belonging to China. The Uighurs were the first Turks that used an alphabet. Little known.
2. _Turks of the Sandy Desert._--Conterminous with Mongolia and Tibet. _Do. Do._
3. _Turks of Khoten, Kashgar, and Yarkend. Do. Do._
4. _Kirghis._--Independent Tartary. The Kirghis form a portion of the population of the highest table-land in Asia--perhaps in the world--Pamer, and the source of the Oxus.
5. _Uzbeks._--The Turks of Bokhara.
6. _Turkomans._--The Persian frontier of Independent Tartary from Balk to the Caspian. Pastoral robbers.
7. _Ottoman or Osmanli._--The Turks of the Turkish Empire.
8. _Nogays._--The Turks of the parts between the Black Sea and the Caspian, north of Caucasus.
9. _Turks of the Russian Empire._--Bashkirs(?), Teptyars, Baraba, &c. With all these, although the language is Turk, there is good reason to believe that the original substratum is Finn. With the Bashkirs this is generally considered to be the case.
10. _The isolated Yakuts of the Lena._
Such is the great Turk area, the extent of which is, in itself, an ethnological study; equally remarkable for its positive and its negative peculiarities.
Laying aside the Yakuts as isolated, and the Turks of Asia-Minor and Thrace as recent settlers, we have in Turkish Asia an enormous steppe, mountains of all but first-rate magnitude, the head-waters of many rivers, but the embouchures of none, a salt-water lake but no communication with the ocean. Yet, given the central point of a large continent, this is what we expect _à priori_. If any influence that shall affect the fate of the world at large is to be developed in such an area, it must, surely, be an influence strongly and typically contrasted with the influence which such relations of land and water as the Mediterranean supplies to Greece, and in a less degree to every country that abuts on it, are calculated to develop. The dispersion of the Turkish race is essentially the dispersion of a race over a _continent_. I do not know who first used the illustration, but the manner in which Othman's all-conquering host was arrested by the Hellespont, has been well compared to the check that a running brook puts to the Scotch witches and wizards. What Leander and Lord Byron swam across, the conqueror of Asia was checked by.
The relations to the pole on one side and the equator on the other, are remarkably parallel between the two great conquering nations of the world--the Turks of Asia, and the Goths of Europe. The latitudes 47--55 enclose, the nations who, on the one side, displaced the aborigines of Asia Minor and Thrace, on the other, those of Keltic Britain and of North America.
One condition necessary for a race that thus spread themselves abroad, occurs in a remarkable degree with the Turk. In the Yakut country we find the most intense cold known in Asia; in Pamer, the greatest elevation above the sea-level; in the south of Ægypt, an intertropical degree of heat. Yet, in all these countries we find the Turk. In their physiognomy the Turks have in many instances departed from the Mongol type; and, hence, the agreement between the two cognate families is less manifest in their physical conformation than in their languages. The nature and extent of this deviation is well worth more investigation than it has met with; and next in importance to the fact itself, is the reason that may be assigned for it.
Whether it may be from the Osmanli Turk of Constantinople, with his un-Mongolian length of beard, his regularly formed eye, and his other European points of physiognomy, being the standard by which we measure the other divisions of the family, or whether we have unnecessarily restricted the term Mongol to the inhabitants of Mongolia, it is certain that a great majority of travellers are in the habit of describing a Mongol cast of countenance when found in a Turk, as an exceptional phenomenon; just as if the Turk had one character and the Mongol another, and as if a deviation either way was an anomaly.
Now, the notice of all differences, however small, between the tribes of the Turk, and those of any other division of the human kind, is so far from being exceptionable, that it is particularly desirable.
Neither is the assumption of the Turk in his most European form as a standard of comparison, rather than that of the more Mongoliform Turks, objectionable. One writer is as fully at liberty to treat all deviations from the type of a Constantinopolitan Osmanli as anomalous, as another is to apply a Mongol standard. Provided that facts are accumulated, ethnology is the gainer.
It is only when the idea of the Turk type being one thing, and the Mongol another, has so far taken possession of a writer, as to make him overvalue the import of such differences, that evil arises. Then a fact which should even be expected _à priori_, becomes an anomaly; and the assumption of some extraordinary cause--generally the mixture of race--is _assumed_. I say _assumed_, because in many cases it is taken for granted, simply and solely because it will explain the phenomena. Where this is not the fact, where there are _other_ grounds for believing that intermixture has occurred, it is not only legitimate, but it is necessary to admit it.
RULE.--_Intermixture of race solely for the sake of accounting for varieties of physical conformation is not to be assumed, except in extreme cases._
Practically I consider that the Mongoliform physiognomy is the rule with the Turk rather than the exception, and that the Turk of Turkey exhibits the exceptional character of his family. Both these facts are what we should expect. Ethnological affinity, as proved by language, exists in a very close degree between the Turks and the Mongolians. Common conditions of climate exist also. Either implies similarity of physical conformation. On the other hand, where the Turk is _least_ like the Mongol, we _know_ that intermixture has taken place; intermixture like that of the Circassian and Georgian blood in Europe, and that of the Persian in Asia. Hence, if I allowed myself to assume at all, I would assume an intermixture to account for the _difference_ between the Turk and Mongol--not to account for the similarity.
_Extract from Burnes's description of the Uzbek chief of Kunduz._--"Moorad Beg is about fifty years of age, his stature is tall, and his features are those of a genuine Uzbek; his eyes are small to a deformity; his forehead broad and frowning; and his whole cast of countenance most repulsive."--Vol. ii. 358.
_Extract from Khamikoff respecting the Uzbeks of Bokhara._--"The exterior of the Uzbeks reminds us strongly of the Moghul race, except that they have larger eyes and are somewhat handsomer; they are generally middle-sized men; the colour of their beards varies between a shade of red and dark auburn, whilst few are found with black hair."--_Translation by the Baron de Bode._
Statements of this kind might be multiplied, particularly in respect to the Uzbeks.
_Descent of certain portions of the Turk Branch--Epoch of its present extension._--The Turk Branch of the Turanian stock introduces a series of ethnological questions, which have, as yet, presented themselves only in a rudimentary form. Few of the tribes hitherto described, were known to the ancients sufficiently to make the question _of descent_ between the present nations and their real or supposed representatives in classical antiquity, a matter of _much_--although, of course, it is always of _some_--importance. With the Turk nations it is otherwise: a large, perhaps a _very_ large, portion of the ancient Scythia must have been Turk; and, if so, it is amongst the Turks that we must look for some of the widest and fiercest of ancient conquerors.
At what time did the present enormous diffusion of Turk tribes take place? The answer to this question is the answer to many others. By knowing this we know also the probable ethnological position of such famous peoples as the Kimmerii, Sakæ, Massagetæ, Alans, Avars, Huns, Nephthalites, Bulgarians, and others--peoples whereof the records are written in the annals not only of Rome and Greece, but of Lydia, Media, and Assyria.
At what epoch did the diffusion of the Turk tribes take place? If at a period anterior to history, their frontier must have been the same in the time of Herodotus as at present; and, consequently, their geographical relations to Persia and Europe, the same.
At what time, then, did it take place? For two areas the question is answered at once; for European Turkey and for Asia Minor it has certainly taken place within the historical period. With these two exceptions, I believe, that, at the beginning of the historical period, the great Turk area was much the same as at present; less, perhaps, by a degree or two, on this frontier or that; but still essentially the same in _kind_. By _in kind_ I mean _ethnographically_, _i. e._ that (subject to the aforesaid exceptions) the Turk tribes were conterminous with _the same non-Turk tribes as at present_. Let us apply this view in detail.
_Siberian Frontier._--From Kasan to the Lake Baikal, the frontier is Finnish, Yeniseian, and Samöeid. I admit that the southern limits of all these families are likely to have been curtailed;--indeed I would argue that such has been the case. This, however, is a mere difference of _degree_.
There is no proof of any nations other than those belonging to the Finn, Yeniseian, and Samöeid divisions having ever been in contact with the Northern Turks, and _vice versâ_.
_Mongolian and Tibetan frontier._--There is not the shadow of historical evidence, nor even a tradition, which should induce us to believe that these two nations were ever less conterminous with each other, and with the Turk, than they are at present.
_Persian frontier._--Reasons for supposing that tribes other than those of the Turk division ravaged Persia as early as the time of Cyrus, would lie in the incompatibility of any accounts of such invaders with the known facts concerning the Turks. I am not aware, however, that any such incompatibility exists. The names are different. No Sakæ or Massagetæ are known, under such denominations, as Turk tribes. Yet this scarcely constitutes even the shadow of an objection; since native names, and names by which tribes are known to nations other than their own, oftener differ than coincide.
_The Caucasian frontier--the frontier of the Don._--Here the reasoning becomes more difficult. An invasion of Persia along the frontier from Bokhara to the Caspian, is an invasion which no existing nation could claim, except the Turk; since it is a rule in ethnological reasoning _to consider every nation as indigenous to the country where it is first found, unless reason be shown to the contrary_.
For the parts, however, between the Volga, Caucasus, and the Don (or even Dnieper), there is no such present unity of nation as between the Caspian and Bokhara; and an invasion that burst upon Persia from the north-west, or upon Greece from the north-east, might well be claimed for no less than four great ethnological sections.--1. The Turk. 2. The Slavonic. 3. The Circassian. 4. The Hungarian.
I will apply general principles to get at the different probabilities here involved.
1. The nation that invades _both_ Persia and Europe is most probably the nation most intermediate to the two. This is in favour of the Cimmerians having come from the present country of the Nogays, rather than from the Ukraine, or from the Bashkir country, _i.e._, in favour of their being Turk rather than Slavonic or Hungarian.
2. A nation that, within the historical period, has always encroached upon others is more likely to be the invader, in a given instance, than a nation which has not been known so to be in the habit of extending itself. This is in favour of the Cimmerians having been Turks from the Nogay country, rather than Circassians.
This is the geographical view. Another method is to take the names of certain invading tribes mentioned in history, and to consider how far they belong to the Turk division, or are to be distributed elsewhere. Here the ethnological method is to begin with the most recent:--
_Uzi, Petchenekhi, and Komani of the later Byzantine Empire, Turk._--From A.D. 1050 to about 1500.--It is believed that the term _Cumani_ is only a fresh name for the Uzi (Οὐζοι), who disappear from history as the Cumani appear. There is the special evidence of the Empress Anna Comnena that the Cumani and the Petchenekhi spoke the same language. Their first attack upon the Slavonian tribes was A.D. 1058; and the name by which the Slavonians speak of them is _Polowci_=_inhabitants of the plains_. This the Germans, in speaking of them, _translate_; so that they call the Cumani _Falawa_, _Valui_, _Valwen_. Hence comes the present name of one of the Cumanian European localities--_Volhynia_.
There are three districts in Europe where the descent is, in part, Cumanian but the language not Cumanian.
1. Volhynia.
2. Between the Dnieper and Volga.--Here Cumani were found by Carpin and Rubriquis.
3. Hungary.--The proof of the Cumanian habitation of part of Hungary, is a matter of some literary interest. The last Cumanian[22] who knew even a few words of his original tongue, was an old man of Karczag, named Varro, who died A.D. 1770; and an incomplete _Paternoster_, preserved by Dugorics and Thunmann, is all that remains of _this_ dialect. Of the Cumanian of Asia, we have a remarkable vocabulary, from a MS. belonging to the library of the celebrated Petrarch. This is the Turk of the parts between the Caspian and Aral.
_The Avars._--A.D. 465 to about 900. In A.D. 465, the Saraguri,[23] the Onoguri, and the Urugi sent an embassy to Constantinople, to complain of the inroads of the Avars. We may guess beforehand the locality, and we may guess beforehand the cause. In the countries between the Mæotis and the Caspian, the Sabiri are pressed upon by the Abares, the Abares being pressed upon by some tribe from behind, and the _primum mobile_ being probably in the centre of Asia. Such is the general history of these movements. We then learn from Gibbon,[24] how, in A.D. 558, these Avars themselves appear as suppliants to the Alani, requesting their good services at the Byzantine Court; and we learn, also, how they afterwards appeared before Justinian, more as sturdy beggars than as suppliants, requesting aid against the Turks; and how that monarch played fast and loose between the runaway slaves and the indignant masters. He turned them upon his enemies in the west; the Slavonians, and the Germans. And these they overran until checked on the Elbe, by a bloody victory gained over them by Sigisbert. The next victory, however, was the Avars', and peace followed. But the Avars remained like locusts in the land. This they had exhausted, or helped to exhaust; when either the intrigues of the King of the Lombards, or the pressure of famine, induced them to agree with Sigisbert upon the terms of their departure. These were a supply of meal and meat for their expedition. To the King of the Lombards, Alboin, whom they then turned eastwards to join, they proffered their assistance against the Gepidæ, on condition of Pannonia, if evacuated, being ceded to them. The destruction of the Gepidæ of Pannonia was followed by the bright period of Avar history, the reign of Baian. The pride of this barbarian inflamed the anger of the Emperor Maurice, who broke his power by the arms of his general Priscus,--broke, but not annihilated. On the 29th of June, A.D. 626, thirty thousand of the vanguard of the Avars insulted the patricians of Constantinople under their own walls, strong in their own barbarian valour, and strong in an even-handed alliance, against the common enemy, with the great king, Chosroes, then at war with Heraclius. "You see," was his answer to the _standing_ patricians, "the proofs of my perfect union with the great king; and his lieutenant is ready to send into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors. Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate ransom; your wealth and your city are the only presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourself, I shall permit you to depart, each with an under-garment, and a shirt, and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage through his lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or a fugitive, has left Constantinople to its fate; nor can you escape the arms of the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into air like birds, or unless like fishes you could dive into the waves."
Fortunately for the empire of the east the crown was worn by Heraclius; and in the eleventh hour, the Avars and the Persians were repulsed. The next century was a century of internal quarrels, whilst their enemies--and this means every tribe of European origin--became stronger. The baptism of one of the Avar kings, took place in A.D. 795; the conquest of Hungary by Charlemagne the year following. What the great German left half done, the Slavonians of the parts around consummated,--and when the first Russian historian composed the annals of his nation, the expression, _they have been cut off, son and father, like the Avars_, was the bye-word most expressive of utter annihilation.
Now the whole history of the Avars, as well as their locality and alliances, is Turk; and their ruler is regularly spoken of as the _Khaghan_, or _Khan_, of the Avars.
The Turk affinity of the Avars has never been doubted.
_The Alani._--The locality, the history, and all _à priori_ evidence make the Alans Turkish;--two facts only, that I know of, militate, even in the smallest way, against their being so.
1. The well-known alliance between the Alani and Vandals; a fact of value only in the eyes of him who believes that none but ethnologically related tribes enter into offensive and defensive alliances.
2. The accredited identity between the Alani and the Oseti of Caucasus; a tribe undoubtedly _not_ Turkish. Let us analyze the grounds of this belief. The Oseti name themselves _Irôn_, but are named by the Turks and Georgians, _Osi_; by the Russians, _Yassy_; by the Arabians, _As_. This is the first fact.
The second is a pair of quotations from Carpin and Barbaro:--
_a._ Alains ou Asses.--_Carpin._
_b._ La _Alania_ è derivata da populo delli _Alani_, liquali nella lor lingua si chiamano _As_.--_Barbaro._
Now the most that this proves is, that the same name which the Alans gave to themselves, the Georgians, &c. gave to the _Irôn_; a fact which is by no means conclusive. On the other hand, it shows that the two indigenous names, _As_ and _Irôn_, were different. This subject will be noticed again when speaking of the Oseti. At present it is not unnecessary to add, that the name _Uz_ (Οὐζ) has already been mentioned as a name of a tribe in this locality; and that, possibly, it may=_As_. If so, the _Alans_, _Uzi_, and _Cumani_, are the same people at different times. Nothing is more likely than this, especially as we know that _Alani_ was not a native name, and have good reasons for thinking the same of the term _Cumani_.
Again, the Oseti, a limited mountain tribe of the Middle Caucasus, with all its supposed affinities in Media and Persia--since the same writers who identify the Alans with Oseti, identify the Oseti with the Medes--could never have passed as Scythians. Now the Alans did so pass, as is shown by a remarkable passage in Lucian:--"so said Makentæs, being the same in dress and the same in language as the Alani (ὁμόσκευος καὶ ὁμόγλωττος τοῖς Ἀλανοῖς ὤν); since these things are common to the Alani and the Skythæ; except that the Alani are not altogether so long-haired as the Skythæ. In this respect, however, Makentæs was like a Skythian, inasmuch as he had shaved himself to the extent to which an Alan head of hair falls short of a Skythian one."[25]
_The Khazars and Huns._--The evidence derived from the use of the term _Khaghan_, or _Khan_, so diagnostic of the Turk and Mongol families, is wanting in respect to the Huns of Attila. Neither he nor his brother is anywhere so designated.
On the other hand, it is erroneous to suppose that the Huns of Attila are the only Huns of history. The Byzantine historians--even writers who say little or nothing about Attila,--deal with the name Hun, as a well-known and recognised geographical or ethnological term, applied to the tribes between the Don and Volga. Hence they speak of sections of the Hun nation.
The most satisfactory of these is the identification of the _Akatir_ with the Huns--Ἀκατίροις Οὔννοις--Priscus.
Now the _Akatir_ are, undoubtedly, the _Khazars_, since the intermediate form Ἀκαζίροι occurs; the Greek form of _Khazars_ being Χάζαροι.
Hence, the reasoning runs thus--that the Huns of Attila were what the Huns of Priscus were;--that one of these Hun tribes was the Khazar tribe. What were the Khazars? The Khazars were _Turks from the East_. Τούρκοι ἀπὸ τῆς ἑώας, οὓς Χαζάρας ὀνομάζουσι, Theophanes, the first author who names them, denoting them thus. In respect to their history, the Khazars appear as the Avars wane in importance. It was by an alliance with the Khazars, indeed, that Heraclius, as stated above, freed himself from those formidable enemies. From A.D. 626, until the tenth century, the Khazars and Petchinakhi (Πατζινακῖται) are the most formidable enemies to the Goths of the Crimea, and to the Russians of the Dnieper.
If these affiliations be correct, the Turks are one of the oldest material influences that have acted on the history of the world, as well as one of the greatest; the Turk division being the probable ethnological position for the Massagetæ, Sakæ, Cimmerii, Alani, Huns, and Avars, and other less important conquerors. To distribute the still older tribes of Scythia is a matter of _minute_ ethnology, for which the present work will not allow room. The usual notices, however, of the Turk nations, taken from the Chinese records, should not be omitted.
_The Hiong-nou._--Under this name a conquering nation, conterminous with China, and against which the Chinese wall had been built, appears in the annals of the dynasty of Han; between B.C. 163 and A.D. 196. These are the Hiong-nou of De Guignes and Gibbon.
_The Hiun-yu._--Under the dynasty of Shang, which is supposed to have reigned from B.C. 1766 to B.C. 1234, Klaproth finds notice of a people thus denominated. He considers that they were ancestors of the Hiong-nou.
I give these two names for what they have been believed by better judges than myself to denote--not for what I believe myself. The only fact which to me seems incontestible is that, at an early period in the Chinese history, a non-Chinese nation was known under the name of _Hiong-nu_.
If these be the Huns of the Classics, the evidence as to their being Turk rather than Hungarian, is nearly conclusive; the Turk division being the only one which is, at one and the same time, conterminous with Europe, and almost conterminous with China.
Moreover, if the Hiong-nou be the Huns, we may infer that the name _Hun_ was a native name, in the way that _Deutsche_ is the native name of what we call the _Ger__mans_; since it is not likely that the Greeks and Chinese would use the same appellation, unless it were also the indigenous appellation of the people to which it was applied.[26]
_The Thú-kiú._--These are the proper Turks of the Altai mountains under a Chinese name. They are mentioned as being powerful about A.D. 545.
1. If the word _Thú-kiú_ be the Chinese form of _Turk_, we learn that the name was native.
2. If the Hiong-nu and Thú-kiú be the same people, we fix the former as Turk rather than aught else.
Now, both these suppositions are highly probable. Several Thú-kiú glosses have been collected by Klaproth from Chinese writings, and they are all Turk, more especially the Turk of Central Asia; whilst, on the other hand, the Chinese writer, Ma-túan-in, derives the Thiú-kiú from the Hiong-nou.
Such of my readers as know that Niebuhr considered the Huns to be Mongols, and that Humboldt insists upon their Finnic origin will excuse the length to which these remarks on their ethnographical position have been extended.
_Additions to the Turk area made within the historical period._--This means Asia Minor (Anatolia), and Turkey in Europe; additions of a true ethnological character; additions whereby the Turk division came in contact with other divisions of our species wholly new, _e.g._, the Greek, the Arabian, and the Armenian. The points to be considered are--the direction, the date, the rate, the completeness or incompleteness of the ethnological change effected.
_a._ _The direction._--From south-east toward north-west; _i.e._, from Persia; and the parts south of the Caspian and Caucasus, rather than from the parts between the northern Caspian and the Black Sea; so as to be a prolongation of the Turcoman and Uzbek frontier, rather than of the Nogay.
_b._ _Date._--From A.D. 1038 to A.D. 1063, the reign of Togrul Beg, grandson of Seljuk; a Turk of either Turcomania or Bokhara--The Arabian kingdom of Persia is now disorganized; chiefly by Turks, who have raised themselves from the governors of provinces to the founders of empires, _e.g._, Mahmúd of Ghizni. The power of the Kalif of Bagdad, at best but nominal, is reduced still more by Togrul. The Seljukian Turks (or rather Turkomans), are the sultans of Persia, now become a consolidated empire.
Togrul's successor conquers Armenia and Georgia. Here, however, the ethnological effects of the Turk were, and have continued to be, limited.
About the same time the _Arabian_ princes of Aleppo and Damascus are expelled. Here, also, the ethnological effects were, and have been, limited.
A.D. 1074. Now began the conquest of Asia Minor by Seljukian Turks, a conquest by which one ethnological division of the human species has been replaced by another. It ended in the establishment of the kingdom of _Roum_; won from the degenerate Romans of Constantinople.
In its due turn the kingdom of Roum breaks up; partly from internal disorganization, partly from attacks from without, the chief of these being those under the leaders of the house of Zingiz. There was also a partial re-conquest by the Romans. Hence in A.D. 1229 there is room for the ambition of Othman. Othman and his successors reconsolidate the kingdom of Roum, Anatolia, or Asia Minor, now Turk.
In A.D. 1360 the Turks of Asia begin to become the Turks of Europe under Amurath I.; during whose reign Anatolia was a great centre of conquest, of which the Asiatic extension was limited by the parallel centre of conquest--Bokhara under Tamerlane. On the side of Europe, however, all was free. A.D. 1453, is the date of the taking of Constantinople. Since then the Turk area in Europe has been formed.
_Rate, completeness or incompleteness of the ethnological change effected._--These two questions are connected. We can scarcely tell how long it took to transform the non-Turk countries like Asia Minor and Thrace, into the Turk countries of Roum, unless we also know how far the transformation is real or apparent. Now upon this point we want information. No man can say how many ethnological elements other than Turk may be present amongst the Anatolian and Rumelian speakers of the Ottoman language. Still the conquest of the two areas is spread over a period of not less than three hundred and seventy nine years; beginning with the invasion of Asia Minor, by Togrul's successor, and ending with the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II.
_Turk elements of intermixture in families other than the Turk._--These must be noticed briefly. The facts connected with the question falling under the three following heads:--
1. _Turk blood in the ruling families of the East._--The Ghiznivide and Seljukian dynasties of Persia, the Uzbek rulers of Bokhara, the Pasha of Ægypt, the Great Mogul, &c.
2. _Turks living in separate communities in countries beyond the Turk area._--Turks of Persia, Armenia, Bokhara, &c.
3. _Localities where the Turkish language has been spoken and become extinct._--Parts of Hungary, for which see the notice of the _Cumani_. Other localities, of which by far the most important is Bulgaria. At present the Bulgarian language is Slavonic; and, such being the case, the _primâ facie_ evidence is in favour of the people being Slavonic also. Reasons, however, for the contrary will be found in the notice of the Slavonians.
By adding, to all this, the statement that at least one nation, the Bashkirs, although speaking Turk, are supposed to be Finnic, and, by recollecting at the same time, the great extent of Turk conquests, like some of those of Tamerlane, less permanent than those enumerated, as well as the effects of the trade in female slaves (preeminently supported by Turk nations), we may arrive at a valuation of the importance of the Turk family as a physical influence in the way of intermixture.
_The influences of the Turk family have been material rather than moral._--No portion of the Turk division has ever passed for one of the preeminently intellectual sections of mankind. The steady monotheism, however, of the Koran, they have taken up so generally, that Turk and Mahometan are almost as synonymous as Arab and Mahometan. Their literature is founded on that of Persia. No great idea has ever originated from them, and none but those of the simpler and more straightforward kind been adopted. At the same time the Syriac alphabet of the Nestorian Christians was introduced amongst the Uighur Turks, earlier than in any other quarter equally remote; and fragmentary forms of ancient Turk poetry, anterior to the influences of the Persian, and Arabic, are to be found in Von Hammer.
The verbal truthfulness of the Turk has been praised by most who have had the means of observation. Lying is the vice of the weak; and no nations have so little been slaves, and so much been masters, as the Turk.
_The Yakuts._--The isolated Turks, or Yakuts, still stand over for notice. Their centre is the river Lena, whereon they extend at least as far southward as the Aldan. Eastward they are found on the[27] Kolyma, and westward as far as the Yenisey. Here the Yakut tribe is that of the Dolganen, an outlying portion of the section first noticed by Von Middendorf.[28]
That the Yakut are Turk, is placed beyond reasonable doubt; although the only test has been that of language. Respecting this the two most extreme statements which I have met with are the following:--
1st. That it is intelligible at Constantinople.
2nd. That not less than one-third of the words (and some of them the names of very simple ideas) are other than Turk.[29]
The truth will probably be known when the recent researches of Von Middendorf are published. In either case, however, the language is Turk.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
With the evidence of language, the evidence of physical confirmation is said to disagree. The Yakuts are essentially Mongolian in physiognomy. The value of the fact must be determined by what has been already said upon the subject.
The locality of the Yakuts is remarkable. It is that of a weak section of the human race, pressed into an inhospitable climate by a stronger one. Yet the Turks have ever been the people to displace others, rather than to be displaced themselves. On the other hand, the traditions of the country speak expressly to a southern origin.
In respect to the social development of the Yakut, Von Middendorf's distinctions are the most suggestive as well as the most critical. The southernmost Yakuts have the horse, the middlemost the rein-deer, the northernmost the dog. The manners of the southern ones are best known; and these are essentially pastoral. Besides the breeding of herds of horses, the Russian fur-trade has developed an industrial form of the hunter-state; so that, amongst the Yakuts, property accumulates, and we have a higher civilization than will be found elsewhere in the same latitude; Finland and Norway alone being excepted.
Other circumstances make the Yakuts an ethnological study. They are not only Turks who are not Mahometan, but their Christianity is still imperfect: hence they represent the Shamanism of the Turk before he became Moslemized. The details of the Yakut creed, sufficiently numerous to form, along with those of the still pagan Ugrians and Samöeids, an elaborate picture of an old religion, which, in its _essential_ characters, was common to all the families of High Asia and Siberia, may be best found in Ermann.[30] The simple fact of its representing an early religion, is all that can here be noticed.
THE UGRIAN BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
1. _Present distribution--continuous._--West and East--From Norway to the Yenisey. North and South (South-East)--From the North Cape to the Russian governments of Simbirsk, Saratof, and Astrakhan. The Volga south of its confluence with the Kama.
2. _Isolated portion._--Hungary.
3. _Ancient distribution._--Further southwards along the whole frontier, _i.e._, in Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia. The Eastward extension probably less than at present.
4. As portions of a _mixed_ population beyond their proper area--In Sweden and Norway.
_Religion._--Lutheranism, Romanism, Greek Church, Imperfect Christianity, Shamanism.
_Physical conformation._--Chief departure from the Mongol type, the frequency of blue eyes, and light (red) hair.
_Conterminous with._--1. Goths of the Scandinavian group in Norway and Sweden; 2. Slavonians in Russia; 3. Lithuanians in Esthonia; 4, 5, 6. Turks, Yeniseians, and Tungús in Siberia. In Europe, in contact with the North Sea. East of Archangel, separated therefrom by the Samöeids.
_Divisions._--1. Trans-Uralian Ugrians.--Between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisey. _Voguls_ and _Ostiaks_.
2. Permian Finns.--_Permians_, _Siranians_, _Votiaks_.
3. Finns of the Volga.--_Morduins_, _Tcheremiss_, _Tshuvatsh_.
4. Finlanders of Finland.
5. Esthonians of Esthonia.
6. Laplanders of Sweden and Finmark.
7. Majiars of Hungary.
1.
THE VOGULS.
_Locality._--The northern part of the Uralian range, and the country to the east as far as the Irtish, and Tobol, and as far north as the Soswa a feeder of the Obi. Tradition says that they extended as far westward as the Dwina. Probability that they extended further south.
_Name._--The Voguls call themselves and the Ostiaks Mansi. They are called by the Siranians Yograyess, and Vagol.
_Conterminous with._--The Siranians on the west, the Obi Ostiaks on the east, the Bashkirs on the south.
_Dialects._--The northern Vogul of the Sosva, the southern of the Tura, a tributary of the Tobol.
_Population._--According to Schubert, one hundred thousand.
_Religion._--Shamanism, or imperfect Christianity.
_Physical appearance._--Stature small, complexion light, face broad and round, beard scanty, hair long, black, or brown, sometimes red. The Kalmuk (_i.e._ Mongolian) character of the Vogul physiognomy is noticed by Pallas.
The Voguls are very nearly on the low level of a tribe of fishers and hunters. Except towards the south, where they are partially Russianized, and where they have also partially adopted the manners of the Bashkirs, there is but little pasturage, and no agriculture. The horse is not in use amongst them--the rein-deer being the nearest approach to a domestic animal. Their tribute is paid in its skins.
THE OSTIAKS.
_Locality._--Valley of the Obi--Eastwards to the Yenisey.
_Name._--Russian, probably originally Bashkir. The native name--Kondycho, Tyakum, or Asyakh. Called by the Samöeids, Thahe; by the Voguls, Mansi.
_Conterminous with._--The Voguls on the west, the Samöeids on the north, the Barabinsky and other Turkish tribes, and (probably) with the Yeniseians on the south.
_Numbers._--About one hundred thousand.
_Dialects._--Numerous.--The Southern mixed with the Vogul, the Northern with the Samöeid.
_Physical appearance._--Stature short, bones small, muscular strength little; face flat, hair red, or reddish.
_Religion._--Shamanism in the north, imperfect Christianity in the south.
The Ostiaks are almost wholly a nation of fishers.
That their limits originally extended farther south than at present is highly probable. A tradition concerning their migration from the _west_ will be noticed in the section upon the Samöeids.
Notwithstanding the close affinity between the Ostiaks and the Voguls, the two nations were, at the time of the Russian conquest, in continual warfare against each other: the Ostiaks being under the government of petty hereditary chiefs.
In the pagan parts of the Ostiak country polygamy is the custom.
2.
THE PERMIANS.
_Locality._--The government of Perm; of which they form less than a quarter, the rest being Russians or Russianized Finns.
_Name._---Russian, probably taken from the Scandinavian term Bjarma. The native term is Komi-uter, or Komi-murt.
_Population._--According to Schubert, about thirty-five thousand.
THE SIRANIANS.
_Locality._--North of the Permians, about the head-waters of the R. Kama, and R. Vytchegda, a feeder of the Dwina.
_Native name._--Same as the Permian.
_Population._--According to Schubert, thirty thousand.
_Dialects._--Four. The Siranian, itself, however, is rather a dialect of the Permian than a substantive language.
THE VOTIAKS.
_Locality._--The R. Viatka.
Called by the Russians, Viatka. " " Turk tribes, Ari. " " themselves, Udy or Udmart " " the Tcheremiss, Oda.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Probably some remains of Shamanism.
Of all the Finnic tribes the Votiaks are the most like the Finlanders of Finland; indeed Müller states that there is a tradition among them to the effect that their original country was Finland, and that they are immigrants from thence.
On the other hand, the extent to which they differ from their south-western neighbours, the Tcheremiss, is said to be remarkable.
In respect to the physical conformation of the Votiaks, the evidence of Ermann is favorable, that of Pallas less so. The latter describes them as slight and undersized: the former as strongly built. In no Finnic tribe--perhaps in no other tribe in the world,--is fiery red hair so common as amongst the Votiaks.
They are an _agricultural_ population, not fishers and hunters.
They are also, most probably, an unmixed population; since none of their neighbours live so exclusively to themselves, (_i.e._ not in mixed villages, half Russian, or half Bashkir,) as the Votiaks.
The government under petty chiefs, or the heads of tribes, still continues; and it is a privilege of the Votiaks to elect their own village judges or arbiters.
Their population seems on the increase. At the end of the last century it was forty thousand: in 1837 it was one hundred thousand.
3.
THE TCHEREMISS.
_Locality._--The left bank of the Middle Volga; fewer on the right. Governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov. Recently, settlements in the Government of Astrakan, Conterminous with the Votiaks.
_Name._--Russian. Native name, _Mari_=_men_.
_Numbers._--According to Schubert, two hundred thousand.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Greek Church.
_Physical appearance._--Stature, middle; hair, light; beard, scanty; face, flat.
_Habitations._--Small villages, smaller than those of the Votiaks, and Tchuvatch. Habits, agricultural; lately nomadic.
THE MORDUINS.
_Locality._--The most South-Western of the Finnic tribes, on the right-bank of the Volga, between the R. Sura and R. Oka.
_Name._--Native.
_Divisions._--The Morduins of the Oka, are called Ersad; the Morduins of the Sura, Mokshad. A third division, called Karatai, inhabits the neighbourhood of Kasan.
_Numbers._--In 1837, ninety-two thousand.
_Dialects._--Two or more--the Ersad and the Mokshad.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity; Greek Church; Shamanism.
_Physical appearance._--Hair, brown and straight; beard, thin. More Slavonic than any other Finnic tribe. The Ersad oftener red-haired than the Mokshad.
THE TCHUVATCH.
_Locality._--Right bank of the Volga, opposite the Tcheremiss, in the neighbourhood of Kasan, in the Government of Simbirsk and Saratov. Recent settlements in the Government of Astrakan.
_Native Name._--Vereyal, and Khirdiyal, and Vyress:
Called by the Russians, Vyress. " " Tcheremiss, Kurk-Mari=hill men. " " Morduins, Wjedke.
_Numbers._--According to Schubert, three hundred and seventy thousand.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Greek Church. Remains of Shamanism.
_Physical Appearance._--Height, middle; complexion, light; face, flat; beard, thin; hair, _black, and somewhat curled_; eyes, grey; eyelids, narrow.
_Habitations._--Like those of the Turk tribes in their neighbourhood.
_Dialects._--Two: _a._ of the Vereyal of the Gornaya; _b._ of the Khirdiyal of the Lugovaya.
4.
FINLANDERS OF FINLAND.
_Localities._--Finland; settlers in Sweden and Norway.
_Native Name._--Suomolaiset.
_Swedish._--Finn.
_Norwegian._--Qwæn.
_Dialects._--_a._ Finlandic Proper; _b._ Savolax, spoken in Savolax, and Carelia.
_Religion._--Lutheranism.
_Finnish words._--Kanguri=_weaver_, seppa=_smith_, wapa=_freeman_, orya, palvelya=_slave_, myyda, ostaa=_buy and sell_, yuoma=_ale_, kalya=_beer_, kandele, youhe-kandele=_musical instruments_, keria=_book_, raamattu=_writing_.
ENGLISH. FINLANDIC. SWEDISH.
_King_, Kunengas, Konung.
_Prince_, Ruhtinas, Thruhtin.
_Judge_, Duomari, Dömare.
_Cheese_, Yuusto, Ost.
_Wine_, Saxan wiina,[31] Viin.[31]
_Rye_, Ruis, Rug.
_Oats_, Havra, Haver.
Two lists, one of Finlandic, and one of Swedish, words have been placed at the head of the present section, for the sake of serving as an introduction to some of the questions contained in it. They are all taken from Rühs' work on _Finland and its inhabitants_, where the analysis of the language serves instead of historical testimony. By observing what terms are native, and what are Swedish, we separate the early native civilization of Finland, from the civilization introduced from Sweden. Thus, on looking over the preceding glosses, we find that the only terms applicable to a social or political constitution, are those for _slave_ and _freeman_; _king_, _ruler_, _judge_, &c., being expressed by Swedish words. So also with the industrial trades; _weaving_ was Finnic from the beginning, and so was _smith's-work_; but the _carpenter_, the _builder_, the _ship-builder_, are importations, and so on. There are native terms for _buying and selling_, for _ale and beer_, and for more than two musical instruments; but there are no native terms for _wine_, and none for _dancing_.
For the _metals_, and _agriculture_, the terms are _almost_ always native. _Cheese_, however, on the one side, and _gold_, _tin_, and _lead_, on the other, have Swedish names. So have _oats_ and _rye_.
Music, and songs, and a mythology belonged to the early Finlanders; the second being always accompanied by the first, and the three illustrating each other.
The great foreign influence that has affected the Finlanders of Finland, is the Swedish, and this may be considered to have been in steady and continuous operation, from the reign of Eric the Holy, in the A.D. 1156. This king, bent upon conquest and conversion, landed in South Finland, and founded what was then a new mission or colony, in the present province of Nyland (Newland). From this point, the power of Sweden gradually spread towards the inner portions of the country; northwards and eastwards: not unopposed, but opposed ineffectually, by the heathens of Tawastaland and Carelia.
5.
ESTHONIAN FINS.
_Locality._--South of the Baltic, in Esthonia, Livonia, and part of Courland. Conterminous with the Russians, and the Courland Lithuanians.
_Dialects._--Two: the common Esthonian, and the Esthonian of Dorpat.
_Native Name._--_Rahwas_; of the country _Marahwas_.
6.
THE LAPLANDERS.
_Habits._--Nomadic.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity of the Greek Church with the Russian; imperfect Protestantism with the Swedish and Norwegian Laplanders.
_Native Name._--Same, Sabome.
7.
HUNGARIANS.
_Locality._--Hungary; mixed with German, Slavonic, and Wallachian tribes.
_Native Name._--Majiar.
The Majiars are Ugrian, the country from which they descended being that of the Bashkirs, conterminous with the southern limits of the present Ugrian area, of which it was once a part. The date of their migration is about A.D. 900.
From extending _farther_ than Hungary they were prevented by the two great victories of Henry the Fowler in 935 A.D.
Those who would connect the present Hungarians with the Huns of Attila, must also make the Huns Ugrian; since no fact is more undeniable than the Ugrian character of the Majiars. The reasons against this have been given already. They are, undoubtedly, scanty. Still they preponderate over those of the other view; which consist only in inferences from the term _Hungary_.
Lest these be over-rated, two facts should be remembered:--
1st.--That the name is Russian and _not_ native.
2nd.--That the -_n_- is no original part of the word; the older Slavonic forms being _Ugri_, _Uhri_, and only in the later dialects, _Ungri_.
The Majiars must necessarily be a very mixed race; their country having been that of the old Pannonian population (probably Slavonic); of the Romans of both the eastern and western empire; of the Goths, the Huns, the Avars, the Gepidæ, and the Comanians.
This is what history suggests. To have _assumed_ an intermixture, for the sake of accounting for the physical and moral difference between such extreme Ugrian forms as the Majiar and Laplander, would have been illegitimate.
In reality, however, the difference between the Majiar and Lap, is less remarkable than that between the Lap and Finlander; since, in this latter case, the contrast is _nearly_ as great, whilst the climatologic conditions are less dissimilar.
The Majiar is the only member of the Ugrian family, which has effected, within the historical period, a permanent conquest over any portion of the _Iapetidæ_.
The Ugrians supply a good example of what may be called _a receding frontier_. Their area has at one time been greater than at present. Southwards and westwards it was once prolonged. Hence, the Ugrian has been displaced, or encroached upon by others. It is well to note this. It is better still to take it in conjunction (or contrast) with the Turk area. There the _frontier has encroached_. At an earlier period it was less extensive than at present.
In one quarter, perhaps in others, the Ugrian frontier has encroached, _i.e._ on that of the Majiars.
In one quarter, perhaps in others, the Turk frontier has receded, _i.e._ the Comani have become either extinct or a mixed breed in Hungary.
Nevertheless, as a rule, the Turks frontier has encroached; the Ugrian receded. The practical application of this distinction is wide. When we know whether a given family habitually extends, or habitually contracts its area, we know what will be the probable distribution of the unfixed ancient tribes on the frontier.
In the critical ethnology of the classical writers many problems must be worked in this way; the inferences in the two alternatives being diametrically the reverse of each other.
1. In a people with an habitually encroaching frontier, no tribe described by earlier writers as lying _beyond_ its present geographical area, is to be considered as having formed part of it (_i.e._ the family with an encroaching frontier).
2. In a people with an habitually receding frontier, many tribes described by earlier writers as lying beyond its present geographical area may (and often must) be considered as so doing.
Hence, in the present pair of instances, many localities once other than Turk are now Turk;[32] whilst, on the other hand, many localities once Ugrian are now other than Ugrian.[33]
What, then, was the maximum extension southward of the Ugrian area before its frontier receded under the triple encroachments of the Turks of Russian Asia, the Russians of Russia, and the Norwegians and Swedes of Scandinavia? Possibly over the whole Scandinavian peninsula, possibly as far as the lower Don, Volga, and Dnieper. These, however, are geographical frontiers; frontiers less important, and less capable of solution than the ethnological ones. Were the Ugrians ever conterminous with other divisions of the human race than those which they come in contact with at present? There is no evidence that they were.
What ancient nations were Ugrian? Omitting, for the present, the tribes of Scythia, we may answer that the following were certainly so.
1. The _Æstii_.--Modern Esthonians.
2. The _Finni_ and _Skrithifinni_.
3. The _Sitones_.--The Ugrians of the Baltic were known to the classical writers through the Germans. The names prove this. The _Æstii_ were the people _east_ of those who described them. The term _Finn_ is known to no Ugrian, but to their Gothic neighbours only. The notice of Tacitus as to the Sitones is similarly capable of explanation.
The Finland word _kainu_=_a low country_. A portion of the Finlanders call themselves _Kainulainen_ (_Singular_), _Kainulaiset_ (_plural_).
Now this sectional name in Finland is the general name in Scandinavia; so that the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians call the Finlanders _Kwæn_. In Scandinavian, however, _Qvinde_=_women_. Hence, Tacitus was persuaded by his direct or indirect German informants that the Sitones were subject to female government.--"_Suionibus Sitonum gentes continuantur. Cætera similes, uno differunt, quod fœmina dominatur._"[34] Lest any doubt should remain as to Tacitus having been told of a country of women, I may add that--
_a._ Alfred[35] speaks of a _Cvenaland_=_land of Kwæns_.
_b._ The Norse[35] Sagas of a _Kænugard_=_home of Kwæns_.
_c._ Adam[35] of Bremen of _terra fœminarum_, and _Amazons_.
The first two facts prove the name, the second the false interpretation of it.
Far more full, however, than the classical writers are the old Norse Sagas in respect to the Ugrians. Of these the Beormas, or Permians, were wealthy and commercial; men sometimes to be dealt with, sometimes to be robbed. The Laps, on the other hand, were feared as magicians, or as men skilled in metallurgy; and, according to those who have studied the philosophy of mythologies, they have supplied many supernatural elements in the way of dwarfs and goblins.
In the ethnology of Scandinavia--in the skilful and industrious hands of Retzius, Eschricht, Nilson, Kaiser, and others--Ugrian archæology, and Ugrian craniology, are preeminently prominent. The numerous barrows of Scandinavia are attentively studied; and observation has shown that the older the tomb, and the greater the proportion of instruments found within it _not_ made of iron (but of greater antiquity than the art of forging that metal) the less dolikhokephalic, and the more brakhykephalic, (or Ugrian,) is the skull. Hence comes the inference that the southward extension of barrows, containing remains of the sort in question, is a measure of the southward extension of the Ugrian family.
Two other matters are of importance in Ugrian ethnology--the remains of their ancient Shamanism, and the Finland _Runot_.
In respect to the former, the Ugrians are the first people wherein we find the original Paganism in more tribes than one; so that it can be studied in its minute differences, as well as in its general character. Its essential identity, however, is remarkable. The Supreme Deity is Yumel, Yubmel, Yumala, or some slightly modified name; and that from the Morduin country to Lapland. Except this notice of the extent to which similarity of creed, as well as similarity of language, connects the Ugrians, no further remarks will be made at present.
The _Runot_ is the name for the popular poems of Finlanders. In few nations are they more numerous. In none more carefully collected. I believe that the chief one partakes of the nature of an epic, and relates the wars between the Laps and Finlanders. Others are short, lyrical, and adapted to music. The term _Runot_ (the plural form) is suspiciously similar to the Scandinavian word, _Runa_, with a not dissimilar meaning (_furrow_, _carving_, _letter_, _spell_, _verse_, _poem_). Finland archæologists, however, repudiate this, and claim it as an indigenous word, on the strength of certain derivative forms, like _runionecka_=_poet_. This is not conclusive. Nor is it necessary for the main fact, which is the existence of a home-grown poetical literature of more than average merit, and implying musical taste for the Finlandic portion of the Ugrian branch--of the Turanian group--of the Altaic Mongolidæ.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] In Greek, _Rhæmata_=words.
[10] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
[11] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. vi. part 2.
[12] Prichard, vol. iv.
[13] "The Chinese as they are," p. 319.
[14] Prichard, vol. iv.
[15] Prichard, vol. iv.
[16] Buchanan, Asiatic Researches.
[17] Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. iv. part 2.
[18] Such are the primitive habits, still in use from the Konki to the Monash and which are most worthy of study and record, as being primitive and as being common to two people, the Bodo and Dhimál, though abandoned by the Kámrúpian and most numerous branch of the Bodo.
[19] Ai or Aya is the goddess Kámákyá of Kanirup, _vis genetrix naturæ_, typed by the Bhaga or Yoni.
[20] _Dhámi_, in Bodo. _Dom_, in other allied dialects.
[21] Decline and Fall, vol. viii.
[22] Klaproth, Memoires relatifs à l'Asie, iii.
[23] Zeuss, v. _Avari_.
[24] Decline and Fall, vol. v.
[25] Lucian, Toxaris 31. From Zeuss, v. _Alani_.
[26] 1. The determination of the language to which the name of any nation mentioned in history belongs is of primary importance. Perhaps there is not one fourth of the tribes described by writers, either ancient or modern, whereof the name is native; _e.g._, the terms _Welsh_ and _German_ are unknown in _Wales_ and _Germany_; whilst an Englishman is a _Saxon_ in the Principality and in Ireland. For ascertaining whether a name be native or not the two following rules are useful.
_Rule 1._ When two different nations speak of a third by the same name the _primâ facie_ evidence is _in favour_ of that name being the native one.
_Rule 2._ When one nation speaks of two others under the same name, the _primâ facie_ evidence is _against_ that name being the native one.
Thus, according to Rule 1, if a Chinese and a Greek each call a tribe which invades their country, _Hun_, it is nearly certain that the invading tribe called itself _Hun_ also. Of course, in cases, where the two nations using the common term might have borrowed it one of another, or from a third language, the probabilities are modified. Still the general rule holds good.
The second rule may be illustrated by the term _Welsh_. It is given by the nations of the Gothic stock to the Cambrians of Wales, the Italians of Italy, and the Wallachians of Wallachia. We _know_ that with none of these it is native. I consider, however, that, given the geographical position of Germany, Wales, Italy, and Wallachia, the same might have been _inferred_.
[27] Wrangell, from Prichard, vol. iv.
[28] Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1846.
[29] Ermann, from Prichard, vol. iv.
[30] Reise um der Erde.
[31] _Saxon (German) wine._
[32] Asia Minor and Thrace.
[33] Many parts of Russia.
[34] Germania, 45.
[35] Zeuss, _v._ _Finni_, and p. 157.
B.
DIOSCURIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
The term Dioscurian is taken from the ancient sea-port Dioscurias. Here it was that the chief commerce between the Greeks and Romans, and the natives of the Caucasian range took place. According to Pliny,[36] it was carried on by one hundred and thirty interpreters, so numerous were the languages. Without raising the number thus high, the great multiplicity of mutually unintelligible tongues is still one of the characteristics of the parts in question. And this fact has determined the application of the term. To have used the word _Caucasian_ would have been correct, but inconvenient. It is already _mis_-applied in another sense, _i.e._, for the sake of denoting the so-called Caucasian race, consisting, or said to consist, of Jews, Greeks, Circassians, Scotchmen, ancient Romans, and other heterogeneous elements. In this sense it has been used in more than one celebrated work of fiction. In such, and in such only, it is otherwise than out of place.
DIOSCURIAN NATIONS AND TRIBES.
_Physical Conformation._--Modified Mongol.
_Languages._--Paurosyllabic,[37] agglutinate; of all the tongues _not_ Seriform, the nearest approaching to an aptotic state.
_Area._--The range of Mount Caucasus.
_Chief Divisions._--1. The Georgians. 2. The Lesgians. 3. The Mizjeji. 4. The Irôn. 5. The Circassians.
In few, perhaps, in no part of the present volume, am I on more debateable ground than the present. So long has the term Caucasian been considered to denote a type of physical conformation closely akin to that of the Iapetidæ, (_i.e._, preeminently European,) that to place the Georgians and Circassians in the midst of the Mongolidæ, is a paradox. Again, the popular notions founded upon the physical beauty of the tribes under notice, are against such a juxtaposition; the typical Mongolians, in this respect, having never been mentioned by either poet or painter in the language of praise.
Lastly, it so happens that some of the latest researches in comparative philology have been undertaken with the special object of making the philological position of the Dioscurians coincide with their anatomical one, _i.e._, of proving that the languages of the Georgians and the Irôn are to be connected with that of the Greeks and Latins, just as was the case with their skeletons.
For the sake of laying before the reader the amount of fact and argument, in contradistinction to the amount of mere opinion, that is opposed by the position here assumed for the Dioscurians, I will analyse the grounds for the current belief under two heads:--
1. _The connexion of the Dioscurian nations with those of Europe, as determined by the evidence of Physical Conformation._--The really scientific portion of these anatomical reasons consists in a single fact; which was as follows.--Blumenbach had a solitary Georgian skull; and that solitary Georgian skull was the finest in his collection: that of a Greek being the next. Hence it was taken as the type of the skull of the more organized divisions of our species. More than this, it gave its name to the type, and introduced the term _Caucasian_. Never has a single head done more harm to science than was done in the way of posthumous mischief, by the head of this well-shaped female from Georgia. I do not say that it was not a fair sample of all Georgian skulls. It might or might not be. I only lay before critics the amount of induction that they have gone upon.
2. _The connexion of the Dioscurian nations with those of Europe as determined by the evidence of language._--Here I can only give a sample of the philology which would connect the Georgian with the Indo-European tongues. It consists in the proof that the Georgian numerals are the same as the Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Gothic, Slavonic, and Lithuanic.
English. Georgian. Mingrelian.[38] Suanic.[38] Lazic.[38]
_One_ erthi arthi es`gu ar. _Two_ ori shiri jeru dzur. _Three_ sami sumi semi dshumi. _Four_ othchi otchi wors`tcho atch. _Five_ chuthi chuthi wochus`i chut. _Six_ ekhwssi apchs'ui usgwa as`. _Seven_ s'widi 'sqwithi is`gwit s`kit. _Eight_ rwa ruo ara ovro. _Nine_ zehru c`choro c`chara c`choro. _Ten_ athi withi je`st wit.
One=_Es`gu_, Suanic=_êka_, Sanskrit; _jek_, Persian, the ἑκα- in ἑκά-τερος, and ἕκ-αστος, Greek.
One=_erthi_, Georgian; _arthi_, Mingrelian; _ar_, Lazic. Here the forms are different from the Suanic _esg`u_, and have a different origin. _Esgu_ is a true cardinal, just as _one_ is a true cardinal. The Georgian, Mingrelian, and Suanic forms, are not originally cardinal, but derivative from the ordinal, just as would be the case in English, if, instead of saying _one_, _two_, &c., we said, _first_, _second_, &c. Now the root of the ordinal cardinal of the Georgian, Mingrelian, and Lazic _ar_, is the πρ- in the Greek, πρῶ-τος, the _p-r-_ in the Lithuanic _pir-mas_, the _fr-_ in the Mœso-Gothic, _fr-ums_, and the _pr-_ in the Sanskrit _pr-atamas_; the initial _p_ having been lost, just as the initial _s_ in the Sanskrit _sru_,=to _flow_, is lost in the Greek ῥέω, and the Latin _ruo_. Hence, _arti_=, by _rati_ metathesis, just as the Lithuanic _pirmas_=the Latin _primus_. The _t_ is the τ of πρῶ-τ-ος.
Two=_Ori_, Georgian; _dva_, Sanskrit; δι-, Greek; _duo_, Latin, &c.
_Three_=_sami_, Georgian; _dschumi_, Lazic; _tre_, Sanskrit; τρία, Greek; _tres_, Latin; _three_, English, &c. Here _t_ becomes _s_, _r_ is ejected, and _m_ is added, upon the assumption of _reflected ordinal_.[39]
_Four_=_wors`tcho_, Suanic. A transposition of _tchowors_=the Sanskrit _ćatvâras_.--Here, remember the Gothic and Welsh forms, _fidvôr_, and _pedwar_, respectively.
_Five_=_wochus`i_, Suanic. The _wo-_ of this form is the _pa-_ of the Sanskrit _pa-nća_, whilst the _-chu-_ is the _ća_ of the same word. The _-t-_ is the _t_ of the Slavonic forms, _fya-tj_=five; _ses-tj_=six; _devja-ti_=nine, and _desja-ti_=ten.
_Six_=_ekhwssi_, Georgian=_sas_, Sanskrit; _csvas_, Zend; _achses_, Trôn.
_Seven_=_swidi_, Georgian. A transposition of _siwdi_=_supta_, Sanskrit; _septem_, Latin; ἕπτα, Greek, &c. It is stated of the numbers _six_ and _seven_ that "their Indo-European origin is preeminently capable of proof."
_Eight_=_rwa_, _ruo_, &c.=_as`ta_, Sanskrit. Here the _s_ is lost, as in Hindostani, and Bengali, _ât`_, and _ât_; _t_ becomes _d_; and _d_ is changed to _r_.
The numeral _nine_ is let alone.
_Ten_=_jest_, Suanic=_das`a_, Sanskrit.
I do not say that there may not be letter-changes which make all this feasible. There may or may not be. I only lay before critics, the amount of change assumed.
In 1845, I announced, at the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, that the closest philological affinity of the Dioscurian languages was with the Aptotic ones. This I had brought myself to believe from a comparison of the _words_ only. Soon afterwards, Mr. Norriss, of the Asiatic Society, instead of expressing surprise at my doctrine, said that, upon _grammatical_ grounds, he held the same opinion.
How far these views are founded on fact, may be seen from the forthcoming samples of two Dioscurian grammars, and of a short Dioscurian vocabulary, compared with those of the Seriform tongues. The two together form but a small fraction of the evidence that can be adduced. It is as much, however, as is admissible in a work like the present.
Physiological objections, based upon the symmetry of shape, and delicacy of complexion, on the part of the Georgians and Circassians, I am, at present, unable to meet. I can only indicate our want of osteological data, and remind my reader of the peculiar climatologic conditions of the Caucasian range; which is at once temperate, mountainous, wooded, and in the neighbourhood of the sea--in other words, the reverse of all Mongol areas hitherto enumerated. Perhaps, too, I may limit the extent of such objections _as a matter of fact_. It is only amongst the chiefs where the personal beauty of the male portion of the population is at all remarkable. The tillers of the soil are, comparatively speaking, coarse and unshapely.
GEORGIANS.
_Divisions._--1. Eastern Georgians. 2. Western Georgians. 3. South-western Georgians. 4. Northern Georgians.
EASTERN GEORGIANS.
_Locality._--The head-waters of the Kur.
_Name._--Cartulinian, from the Province called Carthueli, the ancient Iberia. The Cartulinian dialect is the Georgian of Teflis, and the Georgian of the Georgian literature.
_Alphabet._--Peculiar. Probably derived from the Armenian.
WESTERN GEORGIANS.
_Localities._--Guriel, Imeretia, and Mingrelia, _i.e._, the valley of Phasis.
_Name._--Mingrelian.
_Language._--More like the Lazic than it is to either the Cartulinian or the Suanic.
SOUTH-WESTERN GEORGIANS.
_Locality._--Lazistan.
_Geographical Limits._--From the promontory of Kyemer-Burnu, east of Rizeh, east of Trebizond to the mouth of the Tchorok, south of Batoum. Not further than the Tchorok inland.
_Political Relations._--Subject to Turkey.
_Religion._--Mahometan; converted about 1580, A.D. Previously (at least in the reign of Justinian) Christians of the Greek Church.
_Alphabet._--Arabic. Native literature none or scanty. Sub-dialects numerous, according to Rosen one for almost every valley. Greek words intermixed; some, probably, of considerable antiquity.
NORTHERN GEORGIANS.
_Locality._--The head-waters of the Tzchenistoquali, or Lasch-churi; the Hippus of the ancients.
_Name._--Suanic.
_Conterminous with_ the Northern Mingrelian dialects of the Georgian, and the Absné dialect of the Circassian. Less like any of the other Georgian dialects than they are to each other. The Suanians call--
Themselves, _S`wan_. The Caratschai Turks, _Ows_. The Absné, _Mibchaz_. The Irôn, _Sawi-ar_. The East Georgians, _M`karts_. The West Georgians, _Mimrel_. The Mingrelians, _Mumgrel_.
_Descent._--As the Georgians may reasonably be considered to be the aborigines of the locality which they, at present, inhabit, they come before us as an ancient people. The Greek poet, who first sung of the Argonauts, knew, at least, enough of Colchis to make it a local habitation for his heroine--though that was not knowing much. The earliest navigator of the Euxine knew more; for, possibly, at a period anterior to the colonization of Asia Minor, he knew it as a real land. The Ægyptians, at the time of Herodotus, knew enough of it to claim it as a conquest of the great Sesostris. With this claim the question of _purity_ of the Georgian race commences.
Two separate and definite immigrations have been supposed to have introduced into Colchis new ethnological elements.
1. _The settlement from Ægypt under the reign of the Great Sesostris._
In §§ 103-105, of his Second Book, Herodotus writes thus:--Sesostris "overturned both the Scythians and the Thracians; and here, in my mind, the Ægyptian army reached its furthest point. Thus far the pillars in question appear; beyond, there are none. From these parts he turned back, and when he came to the river Phasis, I am unable to say truly, which of two things occurred; whether the King himself, having separated a portion of his army, left it as a settlement in the country, or whether some of his soldiers, harassed by their wanderings, stayed behind on that river. For the Colchians are evidently Ægyptians. I say this, having observed it myself, before I heard from any one else. And, whilst I was considering it, I asked both; and the Colchians remembered the Ægyptians better than Ægyptians the Colchians. The Ægyptians said, that they thought that the Colchians were from the army of Sesostris. This is what I guessed myself, from the fact of their being both black-skinned and curly-haired. This, however, goes for nothing. Others are so also. The main reason is that the Colchians, the Ægyptians, and the Æthiopians are the only men who originally practised circumcision: since the Phœnicians and the Syrians of Palestine confess that they learned it of the Ægyptians; whilst the Syrians about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, and the Macrones, who are their neighbours, say that they learned it recently, from the Colchians. Come, now, I must mention another fact concerning the Colchians, wherein they resemble the Ægyptians. They and the Ægyptians are the only ones who work flax in the same way. And the whole manner of life and language are mutually alike. The flax from Colchis is called by the Greeks, _Sardonicon_: that from Ægypt, _Ægyptian_."
As no external evidence will make it probable that the Georgians, _as a nation_, are of Ægyptian origin, and as, on the other hand, Herodotus speaks from personal observation, the exact truth is not easily attainable. Probably, there was an Ægyptian colony on the Black Sea. Possibly--though not probably--the Colchians were not Dioscurian aborigines, but immigrants.
2. _The Orpelian settlement from China._--In the thirteenth century, according to those who are most willing to allow a comparatively high antiquity to Armenian literature, a work was composed in Armenian, by Stephen, Archbishop of Siounia. In this, it is stated that a noble family, called _Ouhrbélêan_, or Orpelian, entered Georgia, settled on the frontiers of Orpeth, and became the founders of one of the great families of Georgia; to which family the historian himself belonged. Finally, it is added, that this family came from _Djenasdan_ or _China_. This is probably a mere tradition; one which, even if true, would denote an immigration wholly unconnected with the real ante-historical relations between Caucasus and the Seriform area.
The _true_ elements of intermixture with the Georgian family have been Greek, Persian, Armenian, Turk, and Russian; as may be collected from the history of the country. The amount of Lesgian, Irôn, Mizjeji, and Circassian blood is uncertain.
The safest view to be taken of the history of Georgian civilization is to remember that, different as may be the languages of Georgia and Armenia, the political history and the local relations are alike, and have generally been so. The Christianity of Georgia was from Armenia; so was its literature; so also its alphabet--although in their present rounded form its letters are very unlike the square and angular characters of Armenia.
THE LESGIANS.
_Locality._--Eastern Caucasus, or Daghestan.
_Name._--No native _general_ name. Called by the Circassians Hhannoatshe; by the Tshetshentsh, Suéli.
_Dialects._--1. Avar, spoken by the tribe who call themselves Marulan,=mountaineers, from Marul=mountain. Falling into the Anzukh, Tshari, Andi, Kabutsh, Dido(?), Unso(?) sub-dialects. 2. Kasikumuk. 3. Akush--sub-dialect Kubitsh. 4. Kura of South Daghestan.
THE MIZJEJI.
_Locality._--West and north-west of the Lesgians.
_Name._--Not native.
_Divisions._--1. Galgai, Halha, or Ingúsh. 2. Kharabulakh or Arshte. 3. Tshetshentsh. 4. Tushi.
THE IRÔN.
_Locality._--Central Caucasus; conterminous with the Mizjeji on the East, the Georgians on the south, the Circassians on the north, and Imeretia on the west.
_Name._--Called by themselves Irôn, by the Georgians, Osi (Plural Oseti).
As the single skull of the Georgian female did all the mischief in the physiological ethnography of Caucasus, an Irôn vocabulary has been the prime source of error in the way of its philology. Klaproth considered that the number of words common to the Irôn[40] and Persian languages was sufficient to place the former amongst the Indo-European languages. More than this, there were historical grounds for believing that the Irôn was the ancient language of Media[41]--also of the Alani of the later Roman empire. No man believed all this more than the present writer until the appearance of Rosen's sketch of the Irôn (_Ossetic_) grammar. He now believes that the Irôn is more Chinese than Indo-European.
Assuming, however, that Klaproth's position is correct, it follows that as the Georgian is undoubtedly akin to the Irôn, it may be Indo-European also. This is the view taken by Professor Bopp, from whose work, in favour of this position of the Georgian, the criticism relating to the numerals was taken. The method is as exceptionable as the result. If the Georgian be Indo-European, the Chinese is Indo-European also; and if the vaunted laws concerning the permutation and transition of letters lead to such philological leger-de-main as is to be found in more than one work of the German school, our scholarship is taking a retrograde direction.
However, the character of the Irôn grammar is as follows:--
The declension of nouns is simple; being limited to two numbers and four cases. Herein the inflection expressive of number can be separated from the inflection expressive of case--as _fid_-i=_of a father_, _fid-t`_-i=_of fathers_. Furthermore, the sign of case _follows_ that of number. Such is the structure of case and number in Irôn, and such the _sequence_ of the respective inflections expressive of each.
_Singular._ _Plural._
_Nom._ fid[42] fid-t`-a _Gen._ fid-i fid-t`-i _Dat._ fid-én fid-t`-am _Abl._ fid-éi fid-t`-éi.
_Nom._ moi[43] moi-t`a _Gen._ moi-i moi-t`i _Dat._ moi-én moi-t-am _Abl._ moi-éi moi-t`-éi.
The comparative degree is formed by the addition of -_dar_; as _chorz_=_good_, _chorz-dar_=_better_. This has an Indo-European look. Compare it with the -τερ of the Greek comparatives. No superlative inflection.
The true personal pronouns (_i. e._, those of the two first persons) are as follows;--
A.
1. _Az_=_I_. Defective in the oblique cases.
2. _Man_, or _ma_--Defective in the nominative singular.
A.
_Sing._ _Plural._ _Nom._ ---- mach _Gen._ man-i mach-i _Dat._ man-an mach-én _Accus._ man mach _Abl._ man-éi mach-éi.
B.
_Nom._ di si-mach _Gen._ daw-i[44] si-mach-i _Dat._ daw-on si-mach-én _Accus._ daw si-mach _Abl._ da-wéi si-mach-éi.
The signs of the persons are considered to be eminently Indo-Germanic. They are _-in_, _-is_, _-i_; _-am_, _-ut`_, _-inc`_; _e. g._
Qus-_in_ = aud-_io_ Qus-_am_ = aud-_imus_ Qus-_is_ = aud-_is_ Qus-_ut`_ = aud-_itis_ Qus-_i_ = aud-_it_ Qus-_inc`_ = aud-_iunt_.
I am as little prepared to deny as to affirm the likeness.
The addition of the sound of _t_ _helps_ to form the Irôn preterite. I say _helps_, because if we compare the form _s-ko_-t-_on_=_I made_, with the root _kan_, or the form _fé-qus_-t-_on_=_I heard_, with the root _qus_, we see, at once, that the addition of _t_ is only a _part_ of an inflection. Nevertheless, I am as little prepared to deny as to affirm its identity with the Persian _d_.
Beyond this, the tenses become complicated; and that because they are evidently formed by the agglutination of separate words; the so-called imperfect being undoubtedly formed by affixing the preterite form of the word _to make_; thus used as an auxiliary. The perfect and future seem similarly formed, from the auxiliary=_be_.
This may be collected from the following paradigms.
1.
Root, _u_, &c., = _be_. (_Auxiliar._) _Plural_--_Present_, st-am, st-ut, i-st-i = _sumus_, _estis_, _sunt_. _Singular_--_Preterite_, u-t-an, u-t-as, u-d-i = _fui_, _fuisti_, _fuit_. _Singular_--_Future_, u-gín-an, u-gín-as, u-gén-i = _ero_, _eris_, _erit_. _Imperative_ fau = _esto_.
2.
_Root_, k'an = _make_. (_Auxiliar._) _Preterite_, = s-k`o-t-on,[45] s-k`o-t-ai, s-k`o-t-a = _feci_, _fecisti_, _fecit_.
3.
_Root_, kus = _hear_.
INDICATIVE.
_Sing._ _Plural._
_Present_, 1. Qus-_in_ Qus-_am_. 2. Qus-_is_ Qus-_ut`_ 3. Qus-_i_ Qus-_inc`_.
INDICATIVE.
_Sing._ _Plural._
_Imperfect_, 1. Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_on_ Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_am_ 2. Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_ai_ Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_at`_ 3. Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_a_ Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_oi_
_Perfect_, 1. fé-_qus_-t-_on_ fé-_qus_-t-_am_ 2. fé-_qus_-t-_ai_ fé-_qus_-t-_at`_ 3. fé-_qus_-t-_a_ fé-_qus_-t-_oi_
_Future_, 1. bai-_qus_-_g'in_-_an_ bai-_qus_-_g'i_-_stam_ 2. bai-_qus_-_g'in_-_as_ bai-_qus_-_g'i_-_stut`_ 3. bai-_qus_-_g'én_-_i_ bai-_qus_-_g'i_-_sti_
CONJUNCTIVE.
_Present_, 1. qus-_on_ qus-_am_ 2. qus-_ai_ qus-_at`_ 3. qus-_ai_ qus-_oi_
_Imperfect_, 1. qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_on_ qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_am_ 2. qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_ai_ qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_at`_ 3. qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_a_ qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_oi_
IMPERATIVE.
1. ---- bai-_qus_-_am_ 2. bai-_qus_ bai-_qus_-_ut`_ 3. bai-_qus_-_a_ bai-_qus_-_oi_
INFINITIVE, qus-_in_.
_Participles_, Qus-_ag_, qus-_gond_, qus-_in_-_ag_.
It may safely be said, that no Dioscurian language is _more_ Indo-European than the Irôn.
CIRCASSIANS.
_Locality._--West Caucasus.
_Divisions._--1. True Circassians, calling themselves _Adigé_. 2. Absné.
_Sub-divisions_ of the Absné. 1. Absné. 2. Tepanta (or Altekesek).
It may safely be said that no Dioscurian language is _less_ Indo-European than the Circassian. Such being the case, its grammar forms a proper complement to that of the Irôn.
In respect to its sounds, it has the credit, even in Caucasus, of being the most harsh and disagreeable language of the Caucasian area; consonants being accumulated, and hiatus being frequent.
The declensional inflections are preeminently scanty. In English substantives there is a sign for the possessive case, and for none other. In Absné there is not even this--_ab_=_father_, _ácĕ_=_horse_; _ab ácĕ_=_father's horse_, (verbally, _father horse_). In expressions like these, position does the work of an inflection.
Judging from Rosen's example, the use of prepositions is as limited as that of inflections, _sara s-ab ácĕ ist`ap I my-father horse give_, or _giving am_; _abna amus`w izbit_=_wood bear see-did_=_I saw a bear in the wood_; _awinĕ wi as`wkĕ_=(in) _house two doors_; _ácĕ sis`lit_=(on) _horse mount-I-did_.
Hence declension begins with the formation of the plural number. This consists in the addition of the syllable _k`wa_.
_Acĕ_ = _horse_; _ácĕ-k`wa_ = _horses_. _Atsla_ = _tree_; _atsla-k`wa_ = _trees_. _Awinĕ_ = _house_; _awinĕ-k`wa_ = _houses_.
In the pronouns there is as little inflection as in the substantives and adjectives, _i. e._ there are no forms corresponding to _mihi_, _nobis_, &c.
1. When the pronoun signifies possession, it takes an inseparable form, is incorporated with the substantive that agrees with it, and is _s-_ for the first, _w-_ for the second, and _i-_ for the third person singular. Then for the plural it is _h-_ for the first person, _s`-_ for the second, _r-_ for the third: _ab_=father;
_S-ab_ = _my father_; _h-ab_ = _our father_. _W-ab_ = _thy father_; _s`-ab_ = _your father_. _T-ab_ = _his (her) father_; _r-ab_ = _their father_.
2. When the pronoun is governed by a verb, it is inseparable also; and similarly incorporated.
3. Hence, the only inseparable form of the personal pronoun is, when it governs the verb. In this case the forms are:
_Sa-ra_ = I _Ha-ra_ = we _Wa-ra_ = thou _S`a-ra_ = ye _Ui_ = he _U-bart`_ = they.
In _sa-ra_, _wa-ra_, _ha-ra_, _s`a-ra_, the _-ra_ is non-radical. The word _u-bart`_ is a compound.
The ordinal=first is _achani_. This seems formed from _aka_=one.
The ordinal=second is _agi_. This seems unconnected with the word _wi-_=_two_; just as in English, _second_ has no etymological connection with _two_.
The remaining ordinals are formed regularly, by prefixing to the radical part of their respective cardinals, _-a_, and affixing _-nto_.
_Cardinals._ _Ordinals._
3, Chi-_ba_[46] A-chi-_nto_ 4, P`s`i-_ba_ A-p`s`i-_nto_ 5, Chu-_ba_ A-chu-_nto_ 6, F-_ba_ F-_into_ 7, Bis`-_ba_ Bs-_into_ 8, Aa-_ba_ A-a-_nto_ 9, S`-_ba_ S`b-_into_ 10, S`wa-_ba_ Sw-_ento_.
In the Absné verbs the distinction of time is the only distinction denoted by any approach to the character of an inflection; and here the change has so thoroughly the appearance of having been effected by the addition of some separate and independent words, that it is doubtful whether any of the following forms can be considered as true inflections. They are _compounds_; _i. e._ forms like _can't_, _won't_, _I'll_ (=_I will_), rather than forms like _speaks_, _spoke_, τέ-τυφ-α, &c.
_Root_, C'wisl = _ride_ (equit-o).
1. _Present_, C'wis`l-_ap_ = I _ride_[47] (equit-o). 2. _Present_, C'wis`l-_oit_ = _I am riding_. _Imperfect_, C'wis`l-_an_ = _equitabam_. _Perfect_, C'wis`l-_it_ = _equitavi_. _Plusquamperfect_, C'wis`l-_chén_ = _equitaveram_. _Future_, C'wis`l-_as˙t_ = _equitabo_.
The person and number is shown by the pronoun. And here must be noticed a complication. The pronoun appears in two forms:--
1st. In full, _sara_, _wara_, &c.
2nd. As an inseparable prefix; the radical letter being prefixed and incorporated with the verb. It cannot, however, be said that this is a true inflection.
1.
_Sing._ 1. _sara s-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _I ride_ 2. _wara u-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _thou ridest_ 3. _ui i-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _he rides_.
2.
_Plur._ 1. _hara ha-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _we ride_ 2. _s`ara s`-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _ye ride_ 3. _ubart r-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _they ride_.
_Original area._--The northward extension of the present Circassian area is limited by the Russians and the Nogay Turks. Now, as each of these areas has _encroached_, it is reasonable to believe that, at an earlier period, Circassian tribes may have extended further northward than at present. At the same time we must be careful not to carry them too far; otherwise we infringe the area of the Scythians, Sarmatians, and other nations of antiquity; who, whatever else they were, were not very likely to have been Circassian. Some point between the Cuban and the Don is the likeliest limit for the most northern Circassians. The old line of frontier on the Caucasian side is incapable of determination.
Amongst the ancestors of the present Circassians are, most probably, the Zychi (Achæi), Abasgi, Heniochi, Cercetæ, Makropogones, Sindians, &c.
* * * * *
The question as to the original population of the country which now separates the nearest point of the Dioscurian area from the Seriform, will be considered in the section upon the distribution of the Iranian portion of the Indo-European division of the Iapetidæ. The following is a selection of words common to the Dioscurian and Aptotic languages:--
[48]·_English_, sky ·Circassian, _whapeh_, _wuafe_ ·Aka, _aupa_ ·Khamti, _fa_
_English_, sky ·Absné, _kaukh_ Altekesek, _hak_ ·Akush, _kaka_ ·Burmese, _kydukkhe_
_English_, sky ·Tshetshentsh, _tulak_ ·Koreng, _talo_ ·Khoibú, _thullung_
_English_, sun Georgian, _mse_ Mingrelian, _bsha_ Suanic, _mizh_ ·Kuanchua, _zhi_ Sianlo, _suu_
·_English_, fire ·Absné, _mza_ Circassian, _mafa_ ·Khamti, _fai_ Siam, _fai_ Aka, _umma_ Abor, _eme_ Burmese, _mi_ Karyen, _me_ Manipur, _mai_ Songphu, _mai_ Kapwi, &c., _mai_
·_English_, day ·Tshetshentsh, _dini_ Ingúsh, _den_ Kasikumuk, _kini_ ·Koreng, _nin_ Jili, _tana_ Singpho, _sini_
_English_, day ·Andi, _thyal_ ·Garo, _salo_
_English_, moon Georgian, _twai_=_month_ Suanic, _twai_ ·Moitay, _ta_
·_English_, star ·Kasikumuk, _zuka_ ·Garo, _asake_ Jili, _sakan_ Singpho, _sagan_
·_English_, hill ·Kasikumuk, _suntu_ ·Chinese, _shan_
·_English_, earth ·Absné, _tshullah_ Altekesek, _tzula_ ·Kapwi, _talai_ Khoibú, _thalai_
_English_, earth ·Andi, _zkhur_ ·Mishimi, _tari_
_English_, earth ·Dido, _tshedo_ ·Koreng, _kadi_
·_English_, snow ·Lesgian, _asu_ Circassian, _uas_ Abassian, _asse_ ·Chinese, _siwe_
·_English_, salt ·Lesgian (3), _zam_ ·Chinese, _yan_
_English_, salt ·Kabutsh, _tshea_ Dido, _zio_ Kasikumuk, _psu_ Akush, _dze_ ·Tibetan, _tsha_
_English_, dust ·Tshetshentsh, _tshen_ ·Chinese, _tshin_
·_English_, sand ·Avar, _tshimig_ ·Tibetan, _bydzoma_ ·Circassian, _pshakhoh_ ·Chinese, _sha_
·_English_, leaf ·Tshetshentsh, _ga_ Ingúsh, _ga_ ·Chinese, _ye_
·_English_, tree ·Mizjeji (3), _che_ Circassian, _dzeg_ ·Chinese, _shu_
·_English_, stone ·Andi, _hinzo_ ·Siamese, _hin_
_English_, sea Georgian, _sgwa_ Chinese, _shuy_=_water_ Tibetan, _çi_=_do_. Món, _zhe_=_do_. Ava, _te_=_do_. (5)
·_English_, river ·Anzukh, _or kyare_ Avar, _hor_, _khor_ ·Champhung, _urai_
_English_, river ·Abassian, _aji_ ·Tibetan, _tshavo_.
_English_, river ·Altekesek, _sedu_ Absné, _dzedu_ ·Songphu, _duidai_
·_English_, water ·Avar, _htlem_, _htli_ Anzukh, _htlim_ Tshari, _khim_ Kabutsh, _htli_ Andi, _ht`len_ Dido, _tli_
_English_, water Kasikumuk, _sin_ Akush, _shen_ Kubitsh, _tzun_, _sin_ ·Singpho, _ntsin_ Jili, _mchin_ Mainpur, _ising_
_English_, water ·Absné, _dzeh_ ·Songphu, _dui_ Kapwi, _tui_ Tankhul, _tu_
_English_, water ·Mizjeji (3), _chi_ ·Garo, _chi_
·_English_, rain ·Andi, _za_ Ingúsh, _du_ Abassian, _kua_ ·Chinese, _yu_
·_English_, summer ·Tushi, _chko_ Mizjeji, _achke_ Chinese, _chia_
·_English_, winter ·Anzukh, _tlin_ Andi, _klinu_ Kasikumuk, _kintul_ Akush, _chani_ Absné, _gene_ ·Tibetan, _r gun_ Chinese, _tung_
·_English_, cow ·Circassian, _bsa_ ·Tibetan, _r shu_
·_English_, dog ·Avar, _choi_ Andi, _choi_ Dido, _gwai_ Kubitsh, _koy_ Circassian, _khhah_ ·Chinese, _keu_ Tibetan, _kyi_
·_English_, horse ·Lesgian (5), _tshu_ Circassian, _tshe_, _shu_ ·Tibetan, _r dda_
·_English_, bird ·Avar, _hedo_ ·Tankhul, _ata_
_English_, bird ·Andi, _purtie_ ·Abor, _pettang_ Aka, _put'ah_
·_English_, fish ·Avar (3), _tshua_ Circassian, _bbzheh_ ·Khamti, _pa_ Siamese, _pla_ Aka, _ngay_ Abor, _engo_ Burmese, _nga_ Karyen, _nga_ Singpho, _nga_ Songphu, _kha_ Mishimi, _ta_ Maram, _khai_ Luhuppa, _khai_ Tankhul, _khi_ Anam, _khi_
·_English_, flesh ·Kabutsh, _kho_ Abassian, _zheh_ ·Chinese, _shou_ Tibetan, _zhsha_
·_English_, egg. ·Tshetshentsh, _khua_ ·Khamti, _khai_ ·Siamese, _khai_
_English_, egg ·Kabutsh, _tshemuza_ ·Mishimi, _mtiumaie_
_English_, egg ·Akush, _dukhi_ ·Garo, _to`ka_
·_English_, son ·Mizjeji (3), _ua_, _woe_ ·Tibetan, _bu_
·_English_, hair ·Kasikumuk, _tshara_ ·Jili, _kara_ ·Singpho, _kara_
_English_, hair ·Avar, _sab_ Anzukh, _sab_ Tshari, _sab_ ·Burmese, _shaben_ Manipur, _sam_ Songpho (6), _sam_
_English_, hair ·Tshetshentsh, _kazeresh_ ·Karyen, _khosu_ ·Tankhul, _kosen_
_English_, head Georgian, _tawi_ Lazic, _ti_ Tuanic, _tchum_ Chinese, _teu_, _seu_ Anam, _tu d`u_ Ava, _kang_ (5)
_English_, head Andi, _mier_, _maær_ Assam, _mur_
_English_, head Absné, _kah_, _aka_ Altekesek, _zeka_ Karien, _kho_ Manipur, _kok_ Tankhul, _akao_
·_English_, mouth ·Lesgian, _kall_ ·Chinese, _keu_ Anamese, _kau_ Tibetan, _ka_
_English_, mouth ·Tushi, _bak_ ·Teina, _pak_
_English_, mouth ·Georgian, _piri_ Mingrelian, _pidehi_ Tuanic, _pil_ ·Ava, _parat_ (4)
_English_, mouth ·Kubitsh, _mole_ ·Khoibú, _mur_ Maring, _mur_
_English_, mouth ·Andi, _kol_, _tkol_ Lesgian (3), _kaal_ ·Manipur, _chil_
·_English_, eye ·Andi, _puni_ ·Chinese, _yan_
·_English_, ear ·Avar, _een_, _ain_, _en_ Anzukh, _in_ Tshari, _een_, _ein_ Andi, _hanka_, _andika_ ·Burmese, _na_ Karien, _naku_ Singpho, _na_ Songphu, _anhukon_ Kapwi, _kana_ Koreng, _kon_ Maram, _inkon_ Champhung, _khunu_ Luhuppa, _khana_ Tankhul, _akhana_ Khoibú, _khana_
·_English_, tooth ·Lesgian (3), _sibi_ Avar, _zavi_ Circassian, _dzeh_ ·Tibetan, _so_ Chinese, _tshi_
·_English_, tongue ·Circassian, _bbse_ Absné, _ibs_ ·Tibetan, _rdzhe_ Chinese, _shi_
·_English_, foot ·Kasikumuk, _dzhan_ ·Khamti, _tin_
_English_, foot ·Mizjeji (3), _kog_, _koeg_ ·Manipur, _khong_ Tankhul, _akho_
_English_, foot ·Andi, _tsheka_ Kubitsh, _tag_ Jili, _takkhyai_ Garo, _jachok_
_English_, foot Georgian, _pechi_ Maplu, _pokâ_=_leg_
_English_, finger Mingrelian, _kiti_ Moitay, _khoit_=_hand_ Play, _kozu_=_do_.
_English_, hand ·Georgian, _chéli_ Lazic, _ieh_ Mingrelian, _ché_ Suanic, _shi_ ·Chinese, _sheu_
_English_, hand ·Andi, _katshu_ Kabutsh, _koda_ ·Khoibú, _khut_ Manipur, _khut_
·_English_, blood ·Absné, _tsha_, _sha_ Tshetshentsh, _zi_ Ingúsh, _zi_ ·Singpho, _sai_ Songpho, _zyai_ Kapwi, _the_ Maram, _azyi_ Champhung, _azi_ Luhuppa, _ashi_ Tankhul, _asu_
_English_, blood ·Dido, _é_ ·Manipur, _i_ Khoibú, _hi_ Maring, _hi_ ·Mizjeji (3), _zi_
_English_, blood Tshetshentsh, _yioh_ Circassian, _tlih_ Chinese, _chiue_
_English_, skin ·_English_, skin ·Circassian, _ſteh_ ·Chinese, _pi`_
_English_, skin ·Dido, _bik_ ·Tibetan, _shbagsbba_
·_English_, bone ·Tshetshentsh, _dyackt_ Ingúsh, _tekhh_ Akush, _likka_ Tshari, _rekka_ ·Khamti, _nuk_ Siamese, _kraduk_
_English_, great ·Georgian, _didi_ Mingrelian, _didi_ ·Canton, _ta_ Kuanchua, _ta_, _da_ Tonkin, _drai_ Cochin-chinese, _dai_ Tibetan, _çe_ Ava, _kyi_ (5) Play, _du_ Teina, _to_
_English_, bad Mingrelian, _moglach_ Suanic, _choya_ ·Chinese, _go gok_ Môn, _kah_ Ava, _makaung_ (4) ---- _gye_ (2)
·_English_, warm ·Ingúsh, _tau_ ·Tibetan, _dzho_
·_English_, blue ·Mizjeji (3), _siene_ ·Chinese, _zing_ Tibetan, _swongbba_
·_English_, yellow ·Circassian, _khozh_ Abassian, _kha_ ·Chinese, _chuang_
·_English_, green ·Avar, _ursheria_ Anzukh, _ordjin_ Ingúsh, _send_ ·Tibetan, _shjanggu_
_English_, below Georgian, _kwewrt_, _kwerno_ Ava, _haukma_ (3) Yo, _auk_ Passuko, _hoko_ Kolaun, _akoa_
·_English_, one ·Lesgian, _zo_ Akush, _za_ Andi, _sew_ Dido, _zis_ Kasikumuk, _zabá_ Mizjeji (3), _tza_ Abassian, _seka_ ·Tibetan, _dzig_
_English_, three ·Georgian, _sami_ Lazic, _jum_ Mingrelian, _sami_ Suanic, _semi_ ·Canton Chinese, _sam_ Kuanchua, _san_ Tonkin, _tam_ Tibetan, _sum_ Môn, _sum_ Ava (4), _thaum_ Siam (6), _sam_
_English_, four ·Abassian, _pshi-ba_ ·Tibetan, _bshi_ Chinese, _szu_
_English_, five Georgian, _chuthi_ Lazic, _chut_ Mingrelian, _chuthi_ Suanic, _wochu´si_ Ava, _yadu_ (4)
·_English_, six ·Tshetshentsh, _yatsh_ Ingúsh, _yatsh_ Tushi, _itsh_ ·Tibetan, _dzhug_.
·_English_, nine ·Circassian, _bgu_ ·Tibetan, _rgu_ Chinese, _kieu_
·_English_, ten ·Circassian, _pshe_ Abassian, _zheba_ ·Tibetan, _bdzhu_ Chinese, _shi_
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 52.
[37] From _pauros_=_few_, and _syllabæ_=_syllable_.
[38] Dialects of the Georgian.
[39] It is a general accredited fact, that in some cardinals we have the sign of the ordinal. Thus the _-m_ in _dece-m_, as compared with δέκα, is reasonably supposed to be the _-m-_ in _deci-m-us_.
[40] Quoted under the name _Ossetic_.
[41] Asia Polyglotta, vox, _Osseti_.
[42] Fid=_father_.
[43] Moi=_husband_.
[44] _Or_ dachi.
[45] Or fa-ko-t-on, &c.
[46] Non-radical.
[47] Or, _am in the habit of riding_.
[48] The different dots denote the different classes of languages--the first the English, the second the Dioscurian, the third the Aptotic dialects.