280 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



nated : they may apply generally to the Mongolic resi- 

 dents, though it is evident that the last mentioned 

 refers to a dark race, perhaps the swarthy Kalmucks. 

 It was from this region that Genghiz Khan and his 

 clan first commenced their conquests, which, in Octai's 

 reign, were divided into several dominions.* It is, 

 however, a remarkable circumstance, that, excepting 

 in the ruling families, the unceasing importations of 

 Caucasian female slaves, victims of inroads, which for 

 a succession of ages swept the populations of Southern 

 Asia, and the whole of North-western Europe, indepen- 

 dent of similar devastations perpetrated by Mongolic 



* These conquerors all sprung, directly or indirectly, 

 from the Niron Cayut, chief family of the Niron tribe of 

 iron miners, smelters, and forging smiths, or Arkenikom, 

 residing in the sacred district of Kobdo, N.E. of Irmingtan 

 Peak, part of Altain Niro, situated on the edge of the 

 Shamoo, or Gobi desert, and not far west from Karakorum, 

 once the capital of Genghiz Khan. From this point the 

 waters flow, by the river Selinga, into Lake Baikal, and 

 thence finally by the Yenisei into the Polar Sea. It was 

 here Pisouka Bahauder, eighth in descent from a child of 

 light (Nourayon), laid the foundation of the empire which 

 Genghiz formed. But it must be remarked, that the an- 

 cestral names of the family do not indicate so much a 

 Mongolic as a Caucasian Finnic origin. Probably the 

 mining mountaineers were still of the Yuchi stock, and, as 

 usual elsewhere, soon became the master tribe over tlie in- 

 vaders. In these mountains are probably the oldest mines 

 in the world. Here the Pipilicas (gold finding ants) of 

 Hindoo lore, may have been Hyperborean Fins (the Berg- 

 men and dwarfs of every legend), and their dragon guar- 

 dians Caucasian Fins, such as the Niron, who seem at all 

 times to have recognized a dragon for their national 

 standard. 



