ORDER BIMANA. 101 



still wandering shepherds perpetually traversing 

 the great desert. Thrice did these nations, under 

 iUtila, under Gengis, and under Tamerlane, spread 

 far and wide the terror of their name. The Chinese 

 belong to this variety, and are thought to have been 

 the most early civilized, not only of this race, but 

 of all the nations of the world. The Japanese and 

 the Coreans, and almost all the hordes which extend 

 to the north-east of Siberia, under the dominion of 

 Russia, are in a great measure to be ranked under 

 this division of mankind. "With the exception of a 

 few Chinese literati, the Mongolian nations are 

 universally addicted to the different sects of the 

 superstition of Fo. 



The origin of this mighty race seems to have been 

 in the mountains of Altai, as that of ours was in the 

 Caucasian. We cannot however trace the course 

 and propagation of the branches of the one so well 

 as those of the other. The history of these shepherd 

 nations is as fugitive as their establishments. The 

 records of the Chinese, confined to their own em- 

 pire, throw but little light on the traditions of their 

 neighbours ; nor can the affinities of languages so 

 little known lend much assistance to our researches, 

 or direct our steps in this labyrinth of obscurity. 



The languages of the north of the peninsula beyond 

 the Ganges, and also that of Thibet, bear some resem- 

 blance to the Chinese, at least in their monosyllabic 

 structure, and the people who speak them are not 

 without traits of personal similarity to the other 

 Mongole nations, But the south of this peninsula 



