268 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



species of indigenous silk-worms, which they still pos- 

 sess, and from their produce the name Serica was de- 

 rived, as well as Seres, without reference to the origin 

 of the nation that then had rule. There can be little 

 doubt, but that they were Caucasian Scythians of re- 

 mote times, since the name of the Tokhari has been 

 read phonetically among the vanquished tribes repre- 

 sented on Egyptian temples, where the conquests of a 

 Thothmes or Remses are depicted, and the population 

 of those high lands is not even now Mongolic. What 

 the earlier Greeks related of the Seres, who were re- 

 ported to be satyrs, eighteen cubits in height, suffi- 

 ciently proves they knew the name only in connection 

 with some colossal statues of Indian or of Bactrian 

 divinities. 



The Chinese, in their earliest records, seem to deno- 

 minate the whole beardless stock Le Min, or black 

 haired people, according to the old classical comment 

 on the Yaou Tan, in order to distinguish them from 

 the foreign races, which are designated as invariably 

 red or fair haired ; that is, Yuchi. 



The Mongolic type is, in truth, unknown to ancient 

 history in the shape of organized nations ; but isolated 

 tribes have penetrated westward at early periods, more 

 or less mixed up with that subtypical stock which 

 formed the Finnic or Ouralian nations, whose presence 

 in Europe we shall shortly mention. Those among 

 them which are least mixed by Caucasian iiiterunion, 

 certainly still retain the characteristics evidently be- 

 longing to the most pure and ancient Hyperborean 



