276 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



sian islands, with an additional element of an Arabian, 

 and later still, of an European amalgamation. 



On the north of China, whence the civilized and 

 sedentary southern people have originally emanated, 

 we find the nomad nations still tending their herds ; 

 consequently these are the real typical Hyperboreans ; 

 and, accordingly, they possess the distinctive characters 

 belonging to their origin, in the maximum of develop- 

 ment: the Manchures, or Tungusian stem, Mongols, 

 Bashkirs, Kalmucks, Kirguise, Nogai, Usbeks; Tur- 

 comans being more mixed; and all in general mis- 

 named Tahtars ; for that term designates, originally, a 

 mere tribe of vanquished inhabitants, who were made 

 tributaries by the earlier Mongolian invaders on the 

 south of Lake Baikal, and in process of time it was 

 extended to other nations of dependent states further 

 to the west. The Mongols and Manchures, in gra- 

 duated proportions, are at present the stall-fed masters 

 of China, and nearly form the whole real military 

 force of the empire, consisting entirely of cavalry, pro- 

 bably less than 250,000 strong, covering the inert 

 mass of 300,000,000 subjects, with the aid of 800,000 

 policemen, denominated infantry, and an enormous 

 crowd of civilians and satellites, all intended for inter- 

 nal rule, and incapable of external vigour. 



They are, to all appearance, the first who came from 

 the remote north-east, after the Japanese and Chinese. 

 Of the Turkish stems, some have acquired a Caucasian 

 form of head, such as the Osmanlis and the so-called 

 Russian Tahtars, residing in towns ; but the nomadic 



