332 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



Inner Horde whose joint domain extends from Lake Balkhash 

 round the north side of the Caspian down to' the Lower Volga 1 . 

 All accepted the teachings of Islam many centuries ago, but their 

 Muhammadanism' 2 is of a somewhat negative character, without 

 mosques, mollahs, or fanaticism, and in practice not greatly to be 

 distinguished from the old Siberian Shamanism. Kumiss, fer- 

 mented mare's milk, their universal drink, as amongst the ancient 

 Scythians, plays a large part in the life of these hospitable steppe 

 nomads. 



One of the lasting results of Castren's labours has been to 

 place beyond reasonable doubt the Altai origin of 



The Finns. 



the Finnish peoples". Their cradle may now be lo- 

 calized with some confidence about the headwaters of the Yenisei, 

 in proximity to that of their Turki kinsmen. Here is the seat of 

 the Soyotes and of the closely allied Koibals, Kamassintzi, Matores, 

 Karagasses and others, who occupy a considerable territory along 

 both slopes of the Sayan range, and may be regarded as the 

 primitive stock of the widely diffused Finnish race. Some of 

 these groups have intermingled with the neighbouring Turki 

 peoples, and even speak Turki dialects. But the original Finnish 



1 On the obscure relations of these Hordes to the Kara-Kirghiz and prehis- 

 toric Usuns some light has been thrown by the investigations of N. A. Aristov, 

 a summary of whose conclusions is given by Dr A. Ivanovski in Centralblatt 

 fiir Anthropologie etc., 1896, p. 47. 



- Although officially returned as Muhammadans of the Sunni sect, Levchine 

 tells us that it is hard to say whether they are Moslem, Pagan (Shamanists), or 

 Manichean, this last because they believe God has made good angels called 

 Mankir and bad angels called Nankir. Two of these spirits sit invisibly on 

 the shoulders of every person from his birth, the good on the right, the bad on 

 the left, each noting his actions in their respective books, and balancing 

 accounts at his death. It is interesting to compare these ideas with those of 

 the Uzbeg prince who explained to Mr Lansdell that at the resurrection, the 

 earth being flat, the dead grow out of it like grass; then God divides the good 

 from the bad, sending these below and those above. In heaven nobody dies, 

 and every wish is gratified ; even the wicked creditor may seek out his debtor, 

 and in lieu of the money owing may take over the equivalent in his good deeds, 

 if there be any, and thus be saved (Through Central Asia, 1887, p. 438). 



3 See especially his Reiseberichte it. Brief e atis den Jahren 1845-49, ? 4 O1 

 sq. ; and Versucheinei Koibalischen u. Karagassischen Sprachlehre, 1858, vol. i. 

 passim. 



