THE MONGOL RACE. 43 



They build no towns, neither do they cultivate 

 the ground, except for the purpose of raising a 

 grain called millet. They live in tents covered 

 with the skins of animals. Their chief food is 

 horses' or camels' flesh, which they often eat raw, 

 and their usual drink is camels' milk. Their prin- 

 cipal wealth consists in horses, in the management 

 and care of which great part of their time is em- 

 ployed. They practice robbery as a profession, 

 and think it neither criminal nor dishonourable, 

 provided that it be exercised on people of a dif- 

 ferent tribe. Some of the Tartars are Mohamedans ; 

 some are followers of a mock deity called the 

 Grand Lama, who is worshipped as a divinity; 

 while others of these wandering tribes appear to 

 have scarcely any religious ideas beyond a ge- 

 neral belief in a Supreme Being. 



In the Mongol race are included the natives of 

 China and Japan. The features and the general 

 cast of countenance of these people show that 

 they are of Tartar origin ; whilst the difference in 

 their manners, customs, and habits of life, is the 

 effect of a certain degree of civilization and of the 

 moral influence of political institutions. 



Travellers are of opinion, that not only the 

 Tartars, the Chinese, and the Japanese, but all the 

 inhabitants of India beyond the river Ganges, have 

 one common origin, and belong to the same race. 

 The natives of the South Sea Islands and of the 

 great continent of New Holland are of Malay 

 origin. Those who live in the hottest of those 



