OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 59 



constituted. In other words, tlia Uf^-rian and Turk nations detach thtmiselvcs, 

 through their system of relationship, from the Turanian family, and stand indepen- 

 dent. Such a result was not to have been expected. Their system of consanguin- 

 ity is not classificatory, but descriptive. If any inference can be drawn from the 

 joint possession of such a system it would be that these nations are nearer akin to 

 the Aryan and Semitic nations than they are to the Turanian ; and that the blood 

 of the Finn, the Magyar, and the Turk, if traced back to its sources, will be found 

 to revert to the common stream from which issued the Semitic and Aryan currents 

 before it can approach the still older Turanian channel. 



The Ugrian and Turk nations represented in the Table are few in number. A 

 much larger number is fairly necessary to substantiate the claims of these nations 

 to the rank of a family ; but nevertheless, the indications revealed in their system 

 of relationship are unmistakable. It will be quite satisfactory to leave the final 

 recognition of the Uralian family dependent upon the concurrence of the unrepre- 

 sented nations in the possession of the same system of consanguinity. For the 

 present it will suffice to present the system as it now exists in some of the branches 

 of the proposed family as a justification of their removal from the Turanian con- 

 nection. 



The term Uralian, which is suggested for this family, has some advantages of a 

 positive character. Ugrian and Turkic have definite significations in ethnology ; 

 and INIongolian, which was formerly applied to both, as well as to other and more 

 Eastern nations, includes stocks not represented in the Table, whose system of rela- 

 tionship when procured may be variant. Uralian has been used in various connec- 

 tions, but without becoming limited to any exclusive use. The Ural chain of 

 mountains traverses the areas of the Ugrian and Turk nations, and with it tlicy 

 have been territorially associated from time immemorial. Uralian, therefore, as an 

 unappropriated term, is not only free from objection, but there are general reasons 

 commending it to acceptance. 



I. Ugrian Nations. 1. Finn. 2. Esthonian. 3. Magyar. 



Under the general name of Ugrians are now included the Laps, Samoyeds, Yenis- 

 cians, and Yukahiri ; the several subdivisions of the Permians, and of the Finns of 

 the Baltic and the Volga ; and the Voguls, Ostiaks, and Magyars.^ They hold the 

 chief part of the polar area both of Europe and Asia, and spreading southward 

 through several parallels of latitude, they are confronted on the south by the Sla- 

 vonic and Turk nations. The Ugrians are believed to be older occupants of North- 

 eastern Europe than the Slavonians,^ and stand to this area in the same relation 

 that the Celts do to Western Europe. The southern portion of their area lies 

 between that of the Turk stock on the east, and the Slavonic on the west, by 

 both of whom it has been encroached upon and reduced from century to century. 

 It seems probable that they have been forced northward to the Arctic region from 

 a much lower primitive area ; and that they have become a polar people from neces- 

 sity rather than choice. They are still a numerous, and, in many respects, an 



• For the systematic classification of these nations, see Latham's Descriptive Etlinology, I, 461. 

 " Latham's Native Races of the Russiaa Empire, p. 5. 



