vi THE ARYAN QUESTION. 3H 



which had reached them by way of commerce; the 

 Ostiaks and the Tartars of Tom, alone, extracted 

 their iron from the ore. It was not until the in- 

 vaders reached the Lena, in the far east, that they 

 met with skilful smiths among the Jakuts,* who 

 manufactured knives, axes, lances, battle-axes, and 

 leather jerkins studded with iron; and among the 

 Tunguses and Lamuts, who had learned from the 

 Jakuts. 



But there is an older chapter of Siberian his- 

 tory which was closed in the seventeenth century, 

 as that of the people of the pile-dwellings of Swit- 

 zerland had ended when the Eomans entered Hel- 

 vetia. Multitudes of sepulchral tumuli, termed 

 like those of European Eussia, " kurgans," are 

 scattered over the north Asiatic plains, and are 

 especially agglomerated about the upper waters of 

 the Jenisei. Some are modern, while others, ex- 

 tremely ancient, are attributed to a quasi-mythical 

 people, the Tschudes. These Tschudish kurgans 

 abound in copper and gold articles of use and lux- 

 ury, but contain neither bronze nor iron. The 

 Tschudes procured their copper and their gold 

 from the metalliferous rocks of the Ural and the 

 Altai; and their old shafts, adits, and rubbish heaps 



* Andree, Die Metalle bei den Naturvolkern (p. 114). 

 It is interesting to note that the Jakuts have always been 

 pastoral nomads, formerly shepherds, now horse-breeders, 

 and that they continue to work their iron in the primi- 

 tive fashion; as the argument that metallurgic skill im- 

 plies settled agricultural life not unfrequently makes its 

 appearance. 



