536 HRDLICKA— THE PEOPLING OF ASIA. 



These mongoloid populations comprise collectively considerably 

 more than one half of the total population of the Asiatic continent, 

 and if we can trace their derivation we shall have solved a very 

 important part of the problem of the peopling of Asia. 



The first question that obtrudes itself on this attempt is whether 

 or not these mongoloid peoples were really the first inhabitants of 

 the countries which they occupy today. To this it may be answered 

 that there is no valid evidence whatsoever to the contrary. The 

 various branches of the mongoloids are^ it may be safe to assume, 

 not of equal antiquity; there are older and younger branches of 

 the stock; but outside of some marginal or recent mixtures none of 

 these peoples show any evidence of having fused with any geolog- 

 ically more ancient or racially different man in the regions which 

 they hold as their own. Added to this we have the corroborative 

 evidence of a total lack so far of substantiated remains of early man 

 in these territories. It is true that relatively small parts of Asia 

 have as yet been thoroughly explored ; but the archeological and 

 related explorations by the Russians, Japanese and others represent 

 already a large amount of labor with completely negative results 

 so far as the presence of early man is concerned in the lands oc- 

 cupied by the mongoloid people. A few isolated supposedly " pal- 

 eolithic" implements and a problematical piece of a sacrum, believed 

 to be ancient by a few of the Japanese, are insufficient to sway the 

 balance. The natives, particularly in China, have long been in the 

 habit of collecting and selling everything in the way of old and odd 

 objects, including stone implements, and examples of the latter 

 may not seldom be found — at times nicely mounted — in the markets 

 of the Chinese cities; but they have never brought, so far as could 

 be learned by interested foreigners, any implements or objects that 

 could be identified as geologically ancient or pre-mongoloid, nor 

 have any other indications of pre-neolithic sites been anywhere 

 discovered in these countries. There is, therefore, to this day no 

 evidence of any earlier man in all this vast mongoloid region, which 

 comprises over four fifths of Asia, or the whole territory to the east 

 of the Urals and the Caspian and to the north of the Himalayas, be- 

 sides the great islands. 



Where did these mongoloid peoples come from to their present 



