JAPETIC STOCK. 



231 



ship was expressed in vows and sacrifices. The Sclavonians disdained 

 to obey a despot, a prince, or even a magistrate ; but their experience 

 was too narrow, and their passions too headstrong, to compose a system 

 of equal law, or general defence. Some voluntary respect was yielded 

 to age and valour ; but each tribe, or village, existed as a separate 

 republic ; and all must be persuaded, where none could be com- 

 pelled. They fought on foot, almost naked, and, except an unwieldy 

 shield, without any defensive armour : their weapons of offence were, a 

 bow, a quiver of small poisoned arrows, and a long rope, which they 

 dexterously threw from a distance, and entangled their enemy in a 

 running noose.* In the field, the Sclavonian infantry were dangerous, 

 from their speed, agility, and hardiness : they swam, they dived, they 

 remained under water, drawing their breath through a hollow cane ; and 

 a river or lake was often the scene of their unsuspected ambuscade. 

 Such were the ancient Sclavonians, from which the mass of the popula- 

 tion of Russia (in Europe) and Poland has descended. 



TARTARIC BRANCH. Under the Tartaric section of the Japetic stock 

 are included the Turkomanic hordes and Kirguises, in the wilds border- 

 ing the east of the Caspian Sea, and surrounding the Sea of Aral, ex- 

 tending from the north of Persia to the mountain chain (the Algydim 

 Schamo Mountains, lat. 50 north), and thence stretching eastward, 

 through Longaria, between the Little Altai Mountains and the Great 

 Altaic chain, which latter forms the northern boundary of the Great 

 Desert of Gobi. To the same section, also, the Turks are assigned, by 



186 



187 



Skull of Don Cossack. 

 Skull of Kirguise. 



most writers ; but this nation will be mentioned hereafter. The Cos- 

 sack tribes of the Don and Volga seem also to form an offset of the 



This instrument, the lasso of the South American Spaniards, is still employed in the Pampas. 



