.- 



ASIA. 



Negro slaves are dispersed over Persia, Arabia, and Hindustan, but 

 they are few in number. Abyssinian* indeed from time to time 

 entiled Ada in crowds ; they came however not as a nation, but as 

 ""in in the service of Arab emirs, or of Indian rajas ; 



descendants like those of the Portuguese have entirely 

 merged in the native population. America at all events has not much 

 increased the population of Asia : the Tshuktahes on the moat north- 

 eastern peninsula of Asia, who belong to the family of the Esquimaux, 

 as the affinity of their language induces us to suppose, have perhaps 

 not passed the sea into Asia, but are rather aborigines of Asia. 



Thus we find Asia, like all other large divisions of the earth at the 

 present day, inhabited by aborigines and foreigners tho two great 

 divisions of mankind in an historical point of view. Asia has been 

 the principal country from which emigration has spread, so far as the 

 history of man is known; it has been the parent of nations who 

 have left ita bosom to form in other countries a new character of 

 social life. 



If we consider the inhabitants of Asia according to the physical 

 division of three principal races, the white (or Caucasian), the yellow 

 (or Mongolian), and the black (or Ethiopian) ; and three intermediate 

 races, namely, the dark-brown (or Malay), the negro-like (or Papuas, 

 also called Austral negroes), and the copper-coloured (or American), 

 we find that the greatest number of these races, and of those nations 

 which connect them, are dispersed over the surface of this continent. 

 They cannot always be exactly distinguished by the form of the nkull, 

 the hair, or the complexion of their skin. The three principal races 

 border on one another in the elevated valleys of Central Asia, where 

 the skulls of the Cashmerians show their Caucasian origin ; whilst 

 those of the Bhota, or inhabitants of Bhotan and Tibet, are Mougolie ; 

 and between them the skull of the negro is found, if it be true 

 according to the observations of Traill, that the nearly extinct slave- 

 tribe of the Doms in the valleys of Kumaon belongs to the dark- 

 coloured and woolloy-haired race of the negroes. But perhaps these 

 Doms are only the most northern representatives of the Austral 

 negroes, which are dispersed through the peninsula beyond the Ganges 

 and the Sunda Islands, as well as in the adjacent islands of Australia 

 as far as New Guinea, and which since they have become known have 

 been constantly called Papuas. By Cuvier they are enumerated among 

 those tribes which have separated from the true negroes. The Malay 

 race in their neighbourhood inhabits the island of Sumatra and the 

 ]i-uinsula of Malacca. All the races enumerated are found in Asia 

 except the copper-coloured races of America ; the Caucasian prevails 

 from the centre of the continent toward the west and north-west, 

 and the Mongolian likewise from the centre toward the east and 

 north-east. 



We shall not pursue further that division of the nations of Asia 

 which is derived from the history and the genealogy of the different 

 tribes, nor that which depends on their physical character, but rather 

 follow that which results from the spoken languages. But we must 

 also observe that these three points do not always exactly c< 

 and that many difficulties are still to be solved by further investigation. 

 Still we think that the division which rests on" the internal structure 

 of the languages is, as far as tho investigation <>f this matter has been 

 carried, the most certain and the safest, and that tho nearer or remoter 

 kindred which exists between different nations may in some measure 

 be indicated by it Adopting therefore the division of nations accord- 

 ing to their language*, the following groups may be enumerated in 

 Asia. 



The first in the order of historical importance is the Semitic nations. 

 These are the Syrians and the Chaldeans, or the ancient Aramicans ; 

 tb Phoenician* though the number of the pure add unmixed t 

 belonging to this people may be very small, and probably Htill exist in 

 ..nci.-nt country, especially near tho Libanns ; the Jews, who 

 from Palestine have been dispersed over all Asia as far as the coast of 

 MaUbar ami tli- northern pi-ovine,* ,,f china; the Arabs, who arc 

 the most numerous of thin nice and leas mixed with n, and 



are dispersed through all Western Asia as far as the mouths of the 

 Indus and the source* of the Oxos. 



Modern philological research has demonstrate! that the languages 

 spoken by the aborigines of the countries on the Ganges and the Indus, 

 of llin'lu i.in, of Persia, and farther to the north-west by the nations 

 i one. as the Slaves, and those of German origin in the went and 

 centre of Europe, dinplay a great affinity in the grammatical t r 

 M well as in the roots of numerous words. To this group belong the 

 inhabitants of India, who speak the n . .-eta nr languages 



derived from or connected with- the S-i- -lis remark 



also to the nations of Iran, as the I' 



Belooches, Gipsies, and ign many < 



have been mixed with other nati ' Arabic 



origin. Besides these tv 



the Atais) in '".wiis, and some i- h origin 



King Asia, as well as the greatest Dumber of the inhabitants of 



Th* * rm *"^ B " W>rr Wong to this group -itc a separate 



the researched on the grammatical structure of ' ' 

 bare not yet been carried fur enough to determine this point with any 

 ' certainty. From the mountainous table-land 

 they have been dispersed through the 



ASIA. 



southern countries of Asia as far as China, and may in this respect 

 be compared with the Arabs. The latter indeed are also met with 

 in Africa, but the Armenians are found in Europe even as far as 

 the middle course of the Danube River, but everywhere only as pacific 



settlers. 



The Georgians form a separate group, inhabiting the Caucasian 

 isthmus between Mount Caucasus ncr Kur. Besides the 



proper Georgians in Imeritia three branches belong to it, the Mingrc- 

 iian.s, Suanes, and the Lazes : the hitter occupy the eastern shores of 

 the Block Sea, and are the descendants of the ancient Colchi Different 

 from them are the nations which inhabit the Caucasus as aborigines, 

 and not as an adventitious people. They are divided into three prin- 

 cipal tribes the eastern Caucasians, or Lesghiens ; the middle Cauca- 

 sians, or Mitadjakb.es (also called Chekhes) ; and the western Caucasians, 

 or the Circassians and Abasais, all of which are again divided into 

 different smaller tribes, B.I is usual among mountaineers. 



The Turkish nations form one of the most extensive groups. The 

 greatest number of them occupy Central Asia, beginning on the east 

 with tli I of Gobi and the countries about the lake of Lob, 



and extending to the west through Turkistan, where they are called 

 Eastern Turks. Farther to the west in the lowland about the lake of 

 Aral they receive the name of Turkomans, and still farther in Asia 

 Minor and in the Ottoman empire of Europe they are named Turks 

 or Usmanlis. These nations may be considered as the principal stock 

 of this great division, but its branches extend to the north and to the 

 south between other nations of Mougolie or Persian origin, an 

 manifoldly interwoven and mixed with them ; and although the 

 physical structure of their body sometimes may display the 

 remarkable differences, these nations from Peking to Constantinople 

 speak dialects (called by us the Turk-Tartarian dialects) which are 

 understood by all of them. The Turkomans or Truchmein 

 nation divided into innumerable tribes, form the principal stock of the 

 inhabitants of northern Persia on the west side of the ( 

 in Shirwan, Asia Minor, Khiva, and Bokhara, where a tribe of the 

 eastern Turks, who are the original inhabitants of the centre of the 

 table-land of Eastern Asia (in Khotan, Yarkond, Turfan, Koch 

 under the name of the Uzbeks, have obtained tho dominion of Turk- 

 istan and Bokhara. The Kirghiz were formerly under the i:; ; 

 Eastern Kerkis (Kazak or Hakas), the neighbours of the Mongo! 

 inhabited the upper course of the Yenesei and tin- 

 but they have been obliged to emigrate toward the west, 

 occupy at present as pastoral tribes the steppes which have re. 

 from them the name of the ' Steppes of the Great, Middle, and Little 

 Kirghiz Tribes.' The Bashkires are settled in the southern branches 

 of the Ural Mountains. Besides these many ot I 

 which commonly are called Turkish Tartarian, or Tartarian .Si 

 or only Tartarian tribes, speak Turkish dialect*, though some of them 

 have been mixed with Mongolic tribe*. ' < may be enume- 



rated the Nogoi on the banks of the Kuban and Kuma mar Mount 

 Caucasus, who partly occupy also the Crimea in : he Kurnuks 



in tho same count i ar the lake of Aral; many 



tribes commonly called Tartars settled in Siberia between Tobolsk 

 ami YI the Barabmcea, wandering about on tin steppe of 



Baraba ; the Kusnes, on the river Tom ; tin Ivatshin/es, Beltyres, and 

 Biruses, in the mountain of S.-i\.in*k ami the banks of the I 

 Yenesei; the Teleutes, about the lake of Tclet/koi ; and lastly tin- 

 Yakntes, who form the extreme link of the Turkish nations toward 

 the no-th-east, and occupy the banks of the middle course of the 

 river Lena about Yakutzk, and even extend to the mouth of that 



The nations of Samoiedic origin occupy t it countries 



distant from one another. The son- ion inhabits the banks 



of tho t'pper Yenesei and the mountain .. wlu-re tin 



nants of the I 



in that country of which they were tin- ihey are .1 



tato four tribes the Uriankhai torSoy.t ofth, 

 bales, and the Karakashes. The nortli 



along the Polar Sea to the north .if the Lower Tnn^u-ka. and extends 

 from the mouth !' tin- 

 west to ! even in Knrope 

 as far as the White Sea ; so 1 1 1 



le*, are separated from the other above-named branch 

 their family > and the Yeneseians who inhabit the 



country lying between t 1 



Tin- Yeneseians are an isolated and small tribe whose abode is con- 



in it* middle course between 



Abakansk an :d who formerly neighbours 



mountains of Sayansk and of the Altai 



range, ' I to emigrate toward the north 



neighbourhood began to press 



upon '' iperior force an event, which deems to have been 



n in tho countries in the north and north-west 

 of Asia. 



as of Finnic origin belong less to 



"Mi the western d :" the Ural 



tin valley of t! 1-ra as far as Lapland. 



Two tribes of thi* origin are found in .-\ -ia, the Vi.^ule.- .-n 

 Ostiakca of the Oby Bjver, who may be comprehended under the 



