JAPETIC STOCK. 



235 



battle, which almost extirpated the nation of the Geougen, established in 

 Tartary the new and more powerful empire of the Turks. They 

 reigned over the north, but they confessed the vanity of their conquest, 

 by their faithful attachment to the mountain of their fathers. The royal 

 encampment seldom lost sight of Mount Altai, from whence the river 

 Irtish descends, to water the rich pastures of the Calmucs." 



The conquests of the Turks were rapid and extensive ; till, at 

 length, A. D. 1453, the Byzantine empire yielded to the Ottoman,* 

 Constantinople fell, and the victorious crescent glittered on the dome of 

 St. Sophia. 



From this account, we should be led to conclude that the tribe, or 

 people, from whom the modern Turks are descended, were of mixed 

 blood, Tartars and Mongol es ; to which latter the Huns certainly 

 belonged a conclusion warranted by the records, as far as they can be 

 obtained, of their earliest history. How far the characters of the Mongole 

 type were discernible in the tribes which first spread over Asia Minor, 



Modern Ottoman. 



it is impossible to say ; but, after their national consolidation, their 

 intermixture with the Mingrelians, Georgians, and Circassians, as well 



* The founder of the Ottoman dynasty was Thaman, or Athman, whose Turkish name has become 

 modified into the appellation of the Caliph Othman : he was the son of Orthrogul, a soldier of Aladin. 

 The father of Orthrogul, Soliman Shah, was drowned, in attempting to cross the Euphrates. 



