ETHNOLOGY, BETC., OF CHINA. 199 
IT cannot suppose for a moment, though Mongolian types were 
found in Mesopotamia, as were found the Hyksos in Egypt, that the 
Scythians were Mongols. I think there is every authority for be- 
lieving that they were originally a mixed race, probably a pure 
Aryan race, but that they became intermixed with the Shemites, 
and the Mongolian race was produced, and that very probably 
they branched off into different tribes, some of which were savage 
and some civilised; but the Aryans, from whom they sprang, must, 
if Karl Blind is right, have had qualities which we do not find, as a 
rule, in the Mongolian races. There is one little remark about 
the Seres or Sechuen. I think we may trace the origin of that 
word to a simple derivation; we know that Syr means yellow, 
there is the river called the Syr river, and I think the Chinese are 
ealled Seres because they are a yellow race, from that simple word 
Syr. With these remarks I beg to conclude. 
Mr. W. Grirrith remarked upon the great interest attaching to 
the questions taken up by the author of the paper. 
Rev. F. A. Watxker, D.D., F.L.S.—I should lke to ask the 
author if he attributes the similarity of customs between the 
Chinese and the Egyptians, page 174, to the fact that Mongolian 
rulers held sway, in a part of one dynasty, over Egypt. I 
remember when the Rev. H. G. Tomkins gave his interesting 
lecture on Keypt and Assyria, and the different races that have from 
time to time inhabited those countries, there was a very Mongolian 
look in one of the kings of Egypt shown. There is not a doubt 
with regard to all these customs that they did exist in ancient 
Egypt. Every one of those which Dr. Gordon has mentioned, I 
think, is abundantly illustrated in the peculiar monuments and 
sculptures, which have come down to our time, from Egypt. With 
regard to agriculture being held in repute by the Chinese and 
ancient Heyptians, you see many representations of them cutting 
the corn with the sickle; and in regard to hieroglyphic and sym- 
bolic writing, the signs of the zodiac are cut on the roof of the 
chapel of Denderah, only they substituted a Scarabzeus for the 
Crab. You see Cyan ‘represented in a very uncomfortable position 
round three sides of a square, where the priests gave bread to the 
people on New Year’s Day. You see over and over again these 
matters recorded on Egyptian monuments; but I should like to 
know through whose influence it was, whether it was through the 
influence of Mongolian rulers that the similarity of custom of those 
two great nations was brought about. 
