)eertain Classes in Ethnology'.^ 339 



and although they might not have been so had we been wit- 

 nesses to that earlier condition of things when one variety gra- 

 duated into another and the integrity of the chain of likeness 

 was intact. This explains the term subjectivity. A group is 

 sharply defined simply because we know it in its state of defini- 

 tude ; a state of definitude which has been brought about by 

 displacement and obliteration of transitional forms. 



The geographical distribution of the different ethnological 

 divisions supplies a full and sufficient confirmation of this view. 

 I say " full and sufficient/'' because it cannot be said that all our 

 groups are subjective^ all brought about by displacement and 

 obliteration. Some are due to simple isolation ; and this is the 

 reason why the question was simplified by the omission of all 

 the insular populations. As a general rule, however, the more 

 definite the class , the greater the displacement', displacement 

 which we sometimes know to have taken place on historical evi- 

 dence, and displacement which we sometimes have to infer. In 

 thus inferring it, the language is the chief test. The greater 

 the area over which it is spoken with but little or no variation 

 of dialect, the more recent the extension of the population that 

 speak it. Such, at least, is the />rma/«cie view. ■ ^'^'''■ 



A brief sketch of the chief details that thus verify ^e^p<da^1^!06 

 of the text is all that can now be given. ^*''< ' b)(.«r)b -xi ioki 



1. The populations of South-eastern Asia, Mongol in' phy- 

 siognomy and monosyllabic in speech, have always been con- 

 sidered to form a large and natural, though not always a pri- 

 mary, group. Two-thirds of its area, and the whole of its 

 frontier north of the Himalayas, is formed by the Chinese and 

 Tibetans alone. These differ considerably from each other, but 

 more from the Turks, Mongols, and Tongusians around. In 

 the mountainous parts of the Assam frontier and the Burmese 

 empire, each valley has its separate dialect. Yet these graduate 

 into each other. 



2. Central Asia and Siberia are occupied by four great groups, 

 the populations allied to the Turk, the populations allied to the 

 Mongol, the populations allied to the Mantshu, and the popula- 

 tions allied to the Finns. These are pretty definitely distinguished 

 from each other, as well as from the Chinese and Tibetans. 

 Each covers a vast area, an area, which, either from history or 

 inference, we are certain is far wider at present than it was ori- 

 ginally. They have encroached on each, and on the populations 

 around, till they meet with families equally encroaching in the 

 direction of China and Tibet. This it is that makes the families 

 which are called Turanian and Monosyllabic natural groups. 

 They are cut off, more or less, from each other and from other 

 populations by the displacement of groups originally more or 



Phil. Mag. S. 4. Vol. 5. No. 33. May 1853. Z 



