POLAR REGIONS. 



Polar 

 Regions. 



Asiatic 



arctic 



tribes. 



The Teutones, another Asiatic tribe, the affinity of 

 whose language with the Persic and Sanscrit has been 

 proved by Dr. A. Murray, seem to have advanced from 

 about the Lake of Aral, and passed directly westward, 

 through the hostile tribes of Sauromatae and Celtae ; 

 and, long before the Romans had subjugated Italy, the 

 Teutones had established themselves on the Rhine, and 

 sought the alliance of the Celtic inhabitants of Gaul. 



About 300 years before Christ, the Teutones had ex- 

 pelled the Finni from the greatest part of Scandinavia. 

 The descendants of these conquerors formed the Gothic 

 tribes, who burst with irresistible fury on the Roman 

 empire, and finally extinguished it in the west of Eu- 

 rope. The Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes, are the 

 descendants of the Scandinavian Teutones, and speak 

 kindred dialects of that extensive language, which 

 was carried into Iceland about the year 874, and about 

 a century afterwards even into Greenland. From these 

 extreme limits, traces of this tongue may be found 

 even to the confines of China.* 



The Finni were not exterminated by the Teutones. 

 Many of them were found intermixed with the Ger- 

 man colonists in the reign of Justinian I. ; and they 

 always occupied the northern parts of Scandinavia, 

 and the shores of the White Sea ; where one of their 

 tribes, t,he Piarmi, or Biarmi, attained to consider- 

 able wealth and civilization. The modern people of 

 Finland seem to be their descendants. Permia, accor- 

 ding to Torfseus, was invaded by two captains of Ha- 

 con, king of Norway, in 1224. They are stated to have 

 conquered the country, after making terrible slaughter 

 of its Pagan inhabitants. The Laplanders are said to 

 have a common origin with the Finns, but are very dif- 

 ferent in point of civilization. The former are a race 

 of industrious agriculturists; the latter of indolent 

 nomadic tribes, who depend for subsistence on a pre- 

 carious supply of fish from their rivers, and the produce 

 of their flocks of rein deer. In them, the marks of 

 their race are therefore most distinct. They are of 

 ' short stature, with black, coarse, straight hair, eyes 

 transversely narrow, with black irides ; large heads, 

 and high cheek bones. Yet Von Buch assures us, that 

 some of them have true Turkish physiognomies. Their 

 language has considerable affinity to the Turkish +, 

 and differs more from the dialect of Finnish spoken at 

 Abo than the Swedish does from the German :. The 

 language of the Finns is that of many small Russian 

 tribes, such as the Madernes, the Tschermissi, Syriaenes, 

 and Votiacks ; and may be traced from the shores of 

 the Frozen Ocean to the range of Caucasus, and the 

 banks of the river Anabara, in longitude 110 east. 



Along the northern coasts of Europe, from the east- 

 ern shores of the White Sea to the longitude of the 

 Ural Mountains, we find a scattered race, known by 

 the name of Samoides. They are a more barbarous 

 people than the Laplanders ; yet their manners and 

 language show them to be of Finnish extraction. They 

 use the rein deer to draw their sledges ; but do not 

 milk them. They feed on all kinds of quadrupeds, 

 and on fish. Their manners are brutal and filthy; 

 being far beneath the Laplander in the arts of life. 

 They became subject to Russia about 1525. The Sa- 

 moides are not confined to Europe, but are also spread 

 over a wide extent of the shores of the north of Asia. 



II. Asiatic Arctic Tribes. The Samoides must be a 

 pretty numerous race; for they are found in this 

 quarter of the globe as low as latitude 65, dispersed 



among other tribes ; and swarm in the vast promontory Polar 

 between the Yenissey and the Anabara, which stretch- 

 es up to lat. 75. They are even found dispersed be- 

 yond this river, almost to the Lower Lena. The Asia- 

 tic Samoides were not conquered by Russia vntil about 

 a century after their European brethren. The follow- 

 ing petty tribes belong to the same stock. 

 The Kobiats, on the Yenissey ; 

 The Loyotes, and Mutores, on the Sayane Mountains. 

 The Tubinzes, on the left bank of the Yenissey. 

 The Kamatschinizes, around the sources of the river? 

 Kana and Mana. 



The Yurates, or Yurikes, between the Oby and 

 Yenissey. 



The Karagasses, in the Udinskoy circle . 

 The Samoides call themselves only Nenetsch, people, 

 or Chosovo, men. The origin of their usual appellation 

 is unknown. 



Somewhat to the south of the Samoides, we find the 

 Ostiaks ; who, though not numerous, are composed ot 

 two distinct people. The Ostiaks of the Narym, or 

 Morases, who occupy the district between the Oby and 

 Narym, the Ket, and the Tom. These appear to be 

 of Finnish extraction ; but the Ostiaks of the Yenissey 

 are said to speak a different language from any other 

 tribe in Siberia. This last people are nomadic, dwell 

 on the Lower Yenissey, intermingled with Samoides, 

 and are not numerous. 



To the eastward of the tribes already mentioned are 

 found the Yakuts, a people of Mongolian descent, who 

 were driven by the southern Monguls and Buraets to 

 the inhospitable regions of the north ; and are now 

 found in the government of Irkutsk, along the Lena, 

 quite to the Frozen Ocean. They are a superior race to 

 those Asiatics already enumerated. They speak a 

 dialect of the tongue of the Monguls, and have their 

 physiognomy. They have a short stature, flat visage, 

 small oblique eyes, thick lips, a swarthy skin, and 

 scanty beard. When conquered by the Russians in 

 1620, they mustered 40,000 fighting men, and have 

 since increased. 



Of the same Mongolian stock are the Tungusi, who 

 have the religion, language, and manners of theMand- 

 shurs. These two nations, with their brethren the 

 Monguls of central Asia, are the descendants of the 

 people who, under the denomination of Tartars, have 

 at different times spread desolation over the fairest 

 kingdoms of Asia, from the confines of Europe to the 

 extremities of China, and the plains of India. 



The Tungusi are a numerous but widely scattered 

 nomadic people, who reach from the Yenissey on tl>e 

 west, to the river Amur and the Eastern Ocean ; and 

 are found from lat. 53 to 65, and even to the borders 

 of the Icy Sea. They are called Lamuts on the East- 

 ern Ocean ; but their own appellation is (Evces, or men. 

 They made a brave and long resistance to the Russians, 

 and were but imperfectly subdued about 1650. Their 

 wandering life renders it impossible to ascertain their 

 real numbers; but, in 1766, 12,000 males were com- 

 puted among those most easily reached ; a number 

 probably far below the male population of the different 

 tribes. Of all the Asiatic inhabitants of the Arctic 

 regions, the Tungusi are the most civilized ; and they 

 .have freely admitted various tribes of Samoides, 

 Ostiaks. and Yakuts, to inhabit their wide domains. 



The Yukaghires occupy parts of the territory north 

 of the Yakuts, on the Frozen Ocean, from the Yana to 



* The people of this race are distinguished by large limbs, fair complexions, and flaxen hair. 

 f Murray. \ Von Bucli's Tra,v<ils t -f. 245. Tooks's Vie& oftlie Russian Empire , 



o 



