310 THE ARYAN QUESTION vi 



tin show that they had commercial intercourse 

 with somewhat distant regions. The amber, 

 however, takes us no further than the Baltic ; and 

 it is now known that jade is to be had within the 

 boundaries of Europe, while tin lay no further off 

 than north Italy. An argument in favour of 

 oriental influence has been based upon the 

 characters of certain of the cultivated plants and 

 domesticated animals. But even that argument 

 does not necessarily take us beyond the limits of 

 south-eastern Europe ; and it needs reconsidera- 

 tion in view of the changes of physical geography 

 and of climate to which I have drawn attention. 



In connection with this question there is another 

 important series of facts to be taken into con- 

 sideration. When, in the seventeenth century, 

 the Russians advanced beyond the Ural and began 

 to occupy Siberia, they found that the majority of 

 the natives used implements of stone and bone.. 

 Only a few possessed tools or weapons of iron, 

 which had reached them by way of commerce ; 

 the Ostiaks and the Tartars of Tom, alone, ex- 

 tracted their iron from the ore. It was not until 

 the invaders reached the Lena, in the far east, 

 that they met with skilful smiths among the 

 Jakuts, 1 who manufactured knives, axes, lances, 

 battle-axes, and leather jerkins studded with iron ; 



1 Andree, Die Metalle bei den Naturvolkcrn (p. 114). It is 

 interesting to note that the Jakuts have always been yiastoral 

 nomads, formerly shepherds, now horse-breeders, and that they 



