132 



ORDER BIMANA.— GENUS HOMO. 



Russian Empire, though ultimately subdued by its power. In this 

 subdivision we may place those Ancient Scythians, who at a remote 

 period made irruptions into Upper Asia ; and the Parthians, who 

 subverted the Asiatic dominion of the Greeks and Romans. Owing 

 to the conquests of the Mongolians, numerous alliances have been 

 contracted with that race, and many evident traces of Mongolian 

 blood may be recognised, especially among the inhabitants of Lesser 

 Tartary. 



I. Othmanicus. — Ottoman Turks. 



Syn. Les Tuacs Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. S'i. 



Race Turul'E (in part). — Desmoul. Tab. 

 Icon. Blumenb. Dec. Cran. I. t. 2 (Skull of a Turk). 



The origin of that tribe of Scythians, who, in modern times, have ob- 

 tained so much celebrity under Othman and his successors, is involved 

 in considerable obscurity. From time immemorial they appear to have 

 wandered in the plains near the Southern bank of the Oxus, until the 

 feebleness of their neighbours induced them to desolate with their in- 

 roads the fertile territories of Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.' 

 Their language bears at the present day no inconsiderable afBnitj' to the 

 dialects of Tartary, though mixed with many Persian and Arabic words, 

 derived from an intercourse with the nations whom their valour had 

 subdued. 



Possessed of a noble but harsh physiognomy, the features of the Otto- 

 man Turks nearly approximate to those of a European. Being rather 

 tall, robust, and well-made, with tawnj' complexions, and black or dark- 

 brown hair, it is with some difficulty that we can trace any resemblance 

 to those Mongolian races, with whom their own historians, and some 

 other continental writers, would confound them. A large and flowing 

 dress, thick rolls of turban upon the head, and long mustachios, im- 

 part an imposing aspect to a deportment of no ordinary gravity.* 

 Polygamy forms the luxury of the wealthy, but the poorer Mussulman is 

 glad to escape from the trouble and extravagance of an extensive Harani. 

 Indolent, proud, and ignorant, the Turks are averse to business, and 

 passionately devoted to the immoderate use of coffee, opium, and to- 

 bacco. Their customs and manners, their religious bigotry, the feeble- 

 ness of their political institutions, and the steadiness with which they 

 have opposed all attempts to improve their condition, mark them out as 

 Scythians in the strictest sense of the term. 



Syn. 



2. FiNNicus Finns. 



Race Finnoise. — Malte-Brun, Geog. Univ Desmoul. Tab. 



The Finnic or Tchonde nations, surrounded by races of different 

 extraction, may be recognised by their language, customs, and physiog- 

 nomy. The Finlanders, Biarmians, Ehstes, Livonians, Wotiaks, Wo- 

 guls, Tchouvashes, Tcheremisses, and Ostiaks, tribes of the Russian 

 Empire ; the Magyars, Ougres, Ungres, or Hungarians, who form a 

 large portion of the pop\dation of modern Hungary ; and the Laplanders, 

 may be included with propriety in this subdivision. 



The Finnic races, widely dispersed throughout the provinces of Russia, 

 are marked by a sallow complexion, prominent cheek bones, red or yel- 

 low hair, a large occipital region, and scanty beard. In the Russian lan- 

 guage they are termed Tchoudes, which signifies strangers. A few relics 

 of the mythology and history of these obscure nations are preserved in 

 the Saga of Saint Olaf, and in some Scandinavian and Russian monu- 

 ments. 



The Finns are possessed of a literature and mythology peculiar to them- 

 selves. The Finnic language is understood by their neighbours the 

 Ehstes or Esthonians, who still retain under all the degradation of slavery 

 the vellow hair and other characteristic features of their race. Their 

 poetry is metrical and full of alliteration. The Wotiaks are a weak and 

 ugly race, mostly with red or yellow hair and scanty beard. The religi- 

 ous notions of these tribes are peculiar; and the wicked, after death, are 

 placed for ever in cauldrons of burning pitch, while the Tchouvashes 

 change them into skeletons, which roam eternally in a frozen desert. The 

 Ostiaks pay a peculiar veneration to the Great Bear, and swear allegi- 



ance to every new Russian Czar upon a skin of that animal, or upon an 

 axe with which a bear has been killed. 



The Hunns or Magyars, though of Finnic origin, are connected with 

 those tribes of Tartars, who, under the name of Turks, devastated Europe 

 during the middle ages. The Hungarian peasant in general is of a robust 

 and energetic constitution, but of moderate stature, and still retains many 

 of bis Tartar habits. The modern traveller may recognise in his pecu- 

 liar costume many points of resemblance to that of most nomadic Scy- 

 thians of Central Asia. 



The remarkable affinity of the Hungarian language to that of the Lap- 

 landers led Sainovicz to consider them as identical ;3 and M. Klaproth 

 has proved the intimate relation of the former to that of the Ostiaks.* 



The Laplanders belong unquestionably to the Finnic or Tchoude race. 

 They are of small stature, with dark brown complexion, black hair, high 

 cheek bones, broad face, and pointed chins. The men are thickly set 

 and active, their beards scanty ; the women are robust, and produce with 

 slight inconvenience. Naturally of a roaming disposition, the Laplanders 

 reside in tents made of cloth or the skin of the Rein-deer ; and seldom 

 remain for any considerable time in the same locality. From time im- 

 memorial they have been maintained by numerous herds of Rein-deer, 

 which almost compose their entire means of sustenance. Polytheism, 

 wherein every object in Nature is changed into a Deity, and a universal 

 idolatry, in which the elements are typified, form the bases of their reli- 

 gious opinions. Their superstition is extreme, and many tribes, who 

 even profess Christianity, still preserve their ancient idols, their magical 

 drums, and certain knots with which they allay the frequent storms of 

 those desolate regions. 



3. Tartarus. — T.artars. 



Syn. Les Peoples Tartares Cuv. Reg Anim. I. 82. 



Race Turque (in part) Desmoul. Tab. 



Icon. Blumenb. Dec. Cran. IL t. 12. (Skull of a Tartar of Kasan.) 



The Tartar, Tatar, or Turkish nations of Central Asia, who are pro- 

 bably identical with the Asiatic Scythians of the Ancient Greeks, must 

 be carefully distinguished from the Mongolians. Their European cast of 

 countenance, though tending slightly towards a yellow, their long beards, 

 curly hair, and slender figures, mark them out as belonging to the White 

 races. The Moor is not more different from the Negro, than the real 

 Tartar from the genuine Mongolian. 



The pastoral life has been in all ages the favorite mode of existense 

 of the Tartar races, who roam undisturbed, over the extensive plains 

 between the Beloor mountains, and the basins of Lake Aral and the 

 Caspian Seas. With extensive herds of cattle, with a numerous body 

 of horse, which the Tartar can manage with skill, and those habits of 

 continual motion which are essential to the practice of successful war, 

 the tribes of the Scythians have always been prepared to advance upon 

 unknown countries, wherever they expected to find a powerless enemy 

 or a plentiful subsistence. Led by their Khans, the Tartars are well 

 known at various periods of history as having acted an important part in 

 several mixed emigrations of Tartar and Mongolian nations. On these 

 occasions, both were included under one common appellation, and they 

 may be recognised at one period as the Euthalites, Nephthalites, or While 

 Hunns; at another, as the Turks of Transoxiana; again as the Hunns 

 of Attila ; as the Abares in the sixth century ; and finally, under Chingis 

 Klian and Timoorlane they assisted in devastating Persia, India, and 

 Western Asia, for more than two centuries ; while the most fertile coun- 

 tries of Europe have been struck with terror at the approach of these 

 martial shepherds.' 



Their invincible courage, overwhelming numbers, and rapid conquests, 

 have given a military aspect to the pastoral mode of life, which our poets 

 are in the habit of adorning with the attributes of peace and innocence. 

 The flocks and herds which accompany the Tartar during his inroads 

 supply him with milk and flesh, and he feeds indiscriminately on animals 

 which have died by accident or disease. Horse-flesh is particularly 

 esteemed as an article of food, but the animals themselves are in general 

 too valuable to be used for this purpose except on an emergency. The 

 ignorance of these nations is extreme, and it is seldom that even a Tartar 

 Khan can either read or write. 



At the conclusion of this enumeration of the Caucasian races, but without referring them to any particular section, we shall place the Zigeunes, Zin- 

 gani, Tchinganes, Atchingans or Gypsies, who appear to have wandered from time immemorial in most parts of Europe, but especially in Turkey, 



' Von Hammer, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, V. Band. 



^ Lady Mary Montague's Letters, Volney's Voyage en Syrie, Olivier's Voyages, and Malte-Brun, Geog. Univ. 

 3 Sainovicz, Demonstratio Idioma Hungarorum et Laponum idem esse, Copenhagen, 1770. 

 * Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta. 



5 Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. 26, 34, and 64) describes with elegance and fidelity the manners of the pastoral nations, the conquests of Attila 

 and bis Hunns, and the devastations of the united bands of Mongolians and Tartars in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 



