THE HUMAN SPECIES. 209 



The Gobi or Shamoo region is a true Shinar or Djeen, a 

 series of sandy deserts, intersected, at great distances, by moun- 

 tain ridges, and not unfrequently by rivers ending in lakes, 

 which all naturally tend to separate small populations, and to 

 keep them isolated so long as numbers do not compel the 

 inmates to seek for more abundant subsistence. This state of 

 being urges Man equally to a shepherd's life and to a begin- 

 ning of agricultural industry. Around this space can be traced 

 several high mountain systems, bearing the names of God, of 

 Heaven, and of Snow (purity) ; for these are often expressed 

 by the same words, such as Himaleh, Thianchan, Bog, &c, 

 and mythical traditions, without geographical localities, where 

 Pagan nations, at various times, centred the habitations of their 

 gods, or progenitors, in spaces of eternal snow, such as Mount 

 Mem, Kaf, or the oldest Olympus, find here in Bogtag, Hima- 

 vali, and the peak of Himavahn, real geographical positions. 

 It is there we find the Chumutaru peak of snow; and Somero 

 purbut, created by Mahadeo, for his retreat and throne, when, 

 like another Jupiter, he fled from Ravan ; the Hindoo diluvian 

 Titan is clearly the snowy group at the sources of the Ganges. 

 In this high region are the local sites commemorative of tradi- 

 tions more than once repeated, at successive more distant 

 stages, in proportion as the earliest nations moved further from 

 their original common centre, or mythical tales spread onwards 

 with time. There is Naubundana, — perhaps Dhawalaghiri, 

 — where the patriarch god himself, in the form of Kapila, con- 

 ducted the ark, and secured it to the rock, according to Hindoo 

 lore ; and, on the north, where the Tahtar legend places 

 Nataghi, the boatman god of the mountain, with his family, in 

 one of the peaks of Altai ; for it is not a fact which always 

 marks a pagan source, as has been remarked, when Man's 

 existence is made to commence after the diluvian cataclysis. 

 There is constantly a record of antecedent existence, though 

 not a history, among early nations. It is variously told, but 

 18* 



