A PRIMEVAL MOTHER TONGUE 



name Turk for the whole group of peoples of 

 which the Ottomans are the most conspicuous. 

 Our school atlases already have " Turkistan " 

 instead of the old-fashioned " Independent 

 Tartary." 



The Mongolian race comprises the yellow 

 tribes of central Asia, from whom came Jinghis 

 Khan, Timur, and the whole line of Mogul 

 sovereigns of India ; and also the Tungusians, 

 or Mandshus, who for the last two centuries 

 have ruled over China. The Chinese them- 

 selves, as well as the Japanese, must also be 

 considered as branches of the Mongolian race. 

 On the other hand, the Samoyeds of northern 

 Siberia seem to be allied to our Eskimos, but 

 not very obviously to the Mongolians. 



The race divisions of the northern half of 

 Asia are thus clear enough. First, we have the 

 Finno-Tatars, or Finno-Turks, belonging to 

 the dark-haired portion of the great white race ; 

 secondly, we have the Mongolians ; thirdly, the 

 arctic Samoyeds. But the languages spoken by 

 these peoples cannot be classified in any such 

 simple way. The languages of the Finns and 

 Turks carry us back to two mother tongues, 

 and these are possibly reducible to one. It is 

 otherwise when we come to Mongolian speech. 

 On the one hand, the Mongolian dialects of 

 central Asia are strikingly similar in structure 

 to the Tungusian languages, and also to the 



