MONGOLE STOCK. 271 



under Attila (in the fifth century), a true Mongole tribe, whose original 

 country was an extensive barren tract, north of the great wall of China ; 

 and who, antecedently to the time of Valens, when they threatened the 

 Roman Empire, had been formidable to that of China. (See M. de Guignes, 

 for the original history of the ancient Hiong-Nou, or Huns.) 



In the thirteenth century, Zingis Khan, whose ancestors had been 

 tributary to the Chinese Emperors, with 700,000 Mongoles and Tar- 

 tars, spread the terror of his name through China, Persia, Hindostan, 

 and Europe. The destruction of independent Tartary was his last 

 achievement on record. By Tamerlane (in the fourteenth century),* 

 Hindostan was subdued; and the conquest of Persia was accomplished 

 by Holagou Khan, the grandson of Zingis, and the brother and general 

 of the two successive emperors, Mangou and Cublai. In all ages the 

 Mongole tribes have been renowned for their valour, and dreaded for 

 their ferocity : skilful as horsemen, and dexterous in the management ol 

 the lance and the bow; rapid in advance, sudden in retreat at once 

 daring and patient they spread terror and desolation around them ; and 

 even the Gothic nations succumbed, for a season, beneath their resistless 

 impetuosity. The terror they inspired led to the belief that they were 

 the offspring of witches and infernal spirits ; and their shrill voice, un- 

 couth figure, and strange gestures, countenanced the superstition. They 

 were compared to the misshapen figures, called Termini, which were 

 often placed on the bridges of antiquity. Distinguished from the rest 

 of the human species by their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small 

 black eyes deeply buried in their heads, their countenance was deemed 

 hideous ; and, as they were almost destitute of beard, " they never 

 enjoyed either the manly graces of youth, or the venerable aspect of 

 age." The portrait which Jornandes, a Gothic historian, draws of Attila, 

 is applicable to a Calmuc of the present day : a large head, a swarthy 

 complexion, small deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of 

 a beard, broad shoulders, a short square body of nervous strength, though 

 of a disproportioned form. Essentially similar is the account given by 

 Pallas, of the Calmucs : he observes, that they are generally of moderate 

 stature ; few being tall, and many below the medium standard : instances 

 of deformity are very rare among them ; but most exhibit an outward 

 bending of their arms and legs, which results from the practice of causing 

 them, when children, to rest in their cradles on a kind of saddle, and also 

 from their habit of riding on horseback continually, almost as early as they 

 are able to walk. Their neck is generally short ; their limbs are thin and 

 lean : even the principal and more opulent men among them are seldom 

 corpulent, a circumstance in which they differ from many of the Kirguise 



* Tamerlane was not of the house of Zingis, except, perhaps, remotely by the female side. 



