618 REPORT— 1882. 



pallinp;. In medieval times the marches of the A.rabs and the Saracens, in modern 

 times the expeditions of Napoleon, have dazzled Asia or Europe. These were 

 hardly, however, equal to the distant conquests of Alexander the Great in ancient 

 times. But even the wars of Alexander were perhaps surpassed by the ravao;e3 of 

 Chinghiz Khan and the Tartars of our plateau. The countries of China, India, 

 Afghanistan, Bactria, Persia, the Aral-Caspian basin, Siberia, Asia Minor, Russia, 

 were overrun within a hundred j'ears by Chinghiz Khan, his lieutenants, and his 

 immediate descendants. Thus, through the hordes of our plateau there was estab- 

 lished a dominion stretching from Cape Comorin, near the equator, to the Arctic 

 Ocean, and from the Pacific shores to the banks of the Vistula in Poland. The 

 latest historian of the Mongols considers that nothing but the unexpected death of 

 the Tartar sovereign, and the poUtical combinations arising in consequence within 

 this very plateau of ours, prevented the Tartar invasion from spreading even to 

 "Western Europe. Though it is often held that these terrific events have been over- 

 ruled by Providence for the progress of mankind, still at the time they caused what 

 Gibbon truly calls a shipwreck of nations. Notwithstanding this, the Tartars 

 won, in a certain sense, an unparalleled success, which is attributable to the 

 geographical circumstances of our plateau. 



The influence of the precipices, the forests, the prairies, the wild sports, in 

 forming the national character is so obvious that it need not be specified. We 

 readily understand how the sturdy mountaineer, the daring hunter, the practised 

 archer, becomes the able soldier. In Mongolia, however, the local speciality was 

 this, that the practically boundless extent of the pasturage and the nutritious rich- 

 ness of its quality, induced the ]Deople to maintain countless horses, cows, bufl'aloes, 

 sheep, goats, and camels, neglecting the tillage of the soil, never building houses, 

 but living in tents made of warm felt, accumulating a rude wealth, still ro\'ing 

 and roaming about at some seasons incessantly from one encampment or one 

 grazing-ground to another, dragging with them their families and their efiects 

 by means of the pack animals and the roomy waggons drawn by many oxen yoked 

 abreast. Thus was a truly nomadic existence practised on the largest scale ever 

 known. Mongol armies, better drilled, armed, accoutred, and equipped than any 

 forces then known in the civilised world, would emerge from our plateau into the 

 inhabited plains around, and would observe houses and towns for the first time. It 

 is even alleged that some of them had never seen cultivated ci'ops before. 



In this state of existence the temptations to depredation of all sorts were 

 excessive, and the danger from the climate, the savagery of nature, and the wild 

 beasts, was always imminent. Consequently the Mongols were obliged to hold 

 themselves together by the cohesion of families, clans, and tribes. Thus by the 

 force of circumstances a social organisation was established which proved the foun- 

 dation of a military discipline suitable to the genius of the people, almost self-acting, 

 and unfailing even in the remotest expeditions. The horses, too, upon which the 

 Mongol warriors mainly depended, naturally fell into the training ; being always 

 turned out to graze in herds, they habitually kept together, and the field manoeuvres 

 fixed habits which had been already acquired. It used to be remarked that a line 

 of Mongol cavalry was Uke a rope or a chain, perfectly flexible but never parted. 



The Mongolian food included little of cereals or vegetables, but consisted mainly 

 of cheese and meat. For stimulating drink there was the fermented mare's milk. 

 The name ' koumis ' or ' prepared milk,' apparently much esteemed medically now- 

 a-days, is a Mongolian word. Manifestly, men thus nurtured coidd live in the 

 saddle day and night, carrying with them their sustenance in the smallest compass, 

 and scarcely halting to eat or drink. Thus the hardihood evinced on protracted 

 marches, which would otherwise be incredible, can be accounted for. 



It is probable that this diet while sustaining vivacity produced also a violence 

 of disposition. CertaLaly, ruthlessness, cruelty, indifference to suffering characterised 

 the Mongols and marred the eflect of their grand qualities. Massacres, holocausts, 

 conflagrations marked their warlike operations. Even famines and epidemics have 

 hardly done more for depopulation than the Mongol conquests. A Mongolian 

 chief would say that the keenest enjoyment in life was to stamp upon a beaten 

 enemy, to seize his family, and despoU his encampment. 



