18 THE MIGRATIONS OF MAN. 
might say that his main route has been generally in a south- 
western direction. Certain Malays reached even to Madagascar 
some three or four hundred years ago, and their descendants are 
the Hovas, the aristocracy of Imerina.* There are strong, 
steady winds during part of the year (January, February) from 
Japan to the Philippines. On the Asiatic Continent, China has 
generally been invaded from the northern corner. The great 
Wall stands across a regular highway, by which over and over 
again Mongols, Tartars, and Mandchus have come down to 
conquer and overwhelm the rulers of China. The effect of 
these invasions from the north and the surplus population of 
China itself has affected even Tonkin, Burma, and the Malay 
Peninsula, for Mongolian tribes have traversed the difficult moun- 
tain passes and invaded their north-eastern frontier.t Not only 
so, but Tibet, “the mysterious,’’ has been invaded from China.t 
Thus from Tibet and Malaya the lines lead northward through 
China to the great Wall. But a very marked highway, of which 
we have historical records to a very distant period, is the line of 
the Siberian Railway. This runs from the Caspian in a general 
easterly direction; roughly it traverses good steppes or more or 
less fertile land, and lies between the forests of Northern Siberia 
and the deserts and mountainous country, which forms an effect- 
ive northern barrier to Tibet. Along the line of advance of 
Russia, in the recent Japanese war, there have passed continual 
waves of wandering and savage herdsmen. Sometimes they 
reached Mandchuria, and there formed great populations. 
Sometimes they swerved northwards, so forcing other peoples 
towards Behring’s Straits. Movements of this kind, no doubt, 
led to the discovery of America by Eskimo and Red Indian. 
Sometimes these invasions turned south before reaching Mand- 
churia, and, beating down all Chinese defences, spent and lost 
themselves in its hundreds of millions of coolies. 
So far then from New Zealand, from Tierra del Fuego and 
from Tibet the roads of man’s travel unite near Harbin and turn 
westward to the Caspian Sea. The story of British India is far 
* Grandidier L’Origine des Malgaches. 
+ Skeat and Blagden Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, and Sir W. 
Hood Treacher J. Soc. Arts, 22nd March, 1907. 
{ Sir Thos. Holdich Tibet the Mysterious. 
