THE INFLUENCE OF THE EAST ON EUROPEAN HISTORY 47 
for the most part what is called steppe land, a land of grassy plains 
intersected by rivers, a land especially suited for pasture. It is not 
all of the same quality and in some of the districts of Asia the grass 
is very thin, and the encampments of the inhabitants must be 
repeatedly changed. The district from the Black Sea to Mongolia 
is inhabited for the most part by nomads 7.e. wandering tribes: 
there are very few large towns and the inhabitants have a hereditary 
dislike to permanent settlements. The habits and sports of nomads 
in peace are in many respects the habits of a people engaged in war— 
constant breaking up and change of encampment, directing their 
march to distant places over a roadless steppe, foraging, the orderly 
arrangement of the animals in camp at night. Their vision is 
excellent, they see very long distances and find their way to remote 
places with ease. From their earliest youth they are accustomed to 
riding, and they may be said to live on horseback. They are 
accustomed to live a very simple life and can sustain themselves for 
days independent of the tribe. In early times when the sword, bow 
and arrows were the chief weapons of offence, they constituted a body 
of men ready at once for war and in these times they were repeatedly 
at war with each other, but their battles never seem to have been of 
a decisive kind and the reason is not far to seek. When a whole 
nation lives on horseback and has no towns, they suffer no great loss 
in a defeat: they have the means of retreat and a conflict witha 
more powerful tribe simply means that the weaker tribes has 
perpetually to retreat and find a safer encampment. When these 
tribes have been united under one ruler they have formed a powerful 
army, an army consisting entirely of cavalry and therefore of great 
mobility—an army of mounted horsemen on a vast scale. 
There have been several occasions in the world’s history when 
these tribes have been under the control of one man, the great Khan, 
who has been filled with the ambition to be the Lord of the world, 
and the consequences both in Europe and Asia have been terrible. 
The operations of these vast and rapidly moving armies have been 
compared to the most destructive of natural operations 7.¢., the 
eruption of a volcano, a great earthquake shock, a great inundation 
or a destructive whirlwind. The extraordinary thing about these 
people is that they have left hardly any written history of their deeds 
behind them. If you wish to find their history you must seek it in 
the history of the peoples with whom they have come in conflict, and 
the histories of these people bear witness to their own disasters. 
