328 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



their conquest Toorkistan. It is to the Finnic tribes, first pro- 

 pelled across the Jaxartes by these conquerors, that the dynasty 

 or the rulers named Afrasiab, so celebrated in Persian tales, 

 are to be referred, when the names of Iran and Aniran first 

 began to be distinctive of Persia and Bokhara, while the adja- 

 cent states, more anciently called Bactria, retained the name of 

 the capital, Bactra, only in the writings of the west ; for Finnic 

 Toorkees had called it Zarias, probably Serai, and at one time 

 it bore the name of Bykum. Afrasiab, whose race was fair- 

 haired, proves that the stock was not so much Turkish as Fin- 

 nic ; and the same inference applies to Salser and to Ros- 

 tum ; consequently, that the ruling clan of Cabulistan was for a 

 period of northern race. 



Of the Torkee branch the Hiong-nu, according to Abel 

 Remusat, is the most ancient recorded in history. It once 

 inhabited Mongolia proper, and possessed a vast empire, which 

 flourished about three centuries before the Christian era; and 

 the dissolution of this state was the chief cause of that succes- 

 sion of barbarian invasions, which, like rolling waves, inces- 

 santly poured upon the west during several centuries, driving 

 intermediate nations before them, or breaking through discom- 

 fited tribes, which, in order to escape, made the most destruc- 

 tive inroads themselves ; often at war with each other, the em- 

 pire passing to a different tribe, or with the Huns, and other 

 more strictly Finns, who in turn held temporary dominion. 

 The Thou Kioei, or Altaic Turks, according to Byzantine his- 

 torians, formed, in 552, a vast empire, which soon reached from 

 the Caspian to China, and broke up in 703. It was Dzabul, 

 their Kan-Khan, who received the ambassador Zemarkh, sent 

 by Justin II., in 569, when another embassy from the emperor 

 of the west was already returning. 



The Tchy-le or Thiele, a numerous nation, resided, in the 

 sixth century, to the east of Lake Balkach, under the names 

 of Kaoutche and Hoei-he, and from 7S8 that of Hoei-hou 

 r epresent the same people. The Tchy-le, according to Klap- 



