886 NATURAL HXBTOBY OF 



may be considered to have formed the ancient Persians, and 

 with the fair-haired on the north, produced the handsome tribes 

 of the earliest Goths; for immediately towards the west the line 

 of migration through Cabul is found interrupted by invaders 

 from both sides, and history is full of the contests which very 

 different nations have maintained in that region. There are 

 even now found, upon this line, remaining tribes of Persians, 

 Usbeks, Toorkees, Mokrees, Reekas, Kalmucks, Arabs, Kir- 

 guise, Hindoos, Punjaubees, Cashmerians and Lesghis, which 

 last are among those most nearly allied to the primeval stock; 

 for, after traversing the space disturbed by migrating collisions, 

 chiefly Turkoman, we find these and the Circassians, Abas- 

 sians, Georgians, Albanians, &rc, likewise refugees, in the 

 highest glens of the Caspian Caucasus; and, in remote a^es, 

 there is no doubt that some of them once extended along the 

 southern coast of the Caspian and Georgia, onwards to the 

 Borysthenes, and through Asia Minor to the mountains of 

 Thessaly and Greece. 



THE CIRCASSIAN AND GEORGIAN TRIBES OF THE CASPIAN 



CAUCASUS. 



While others, coming more from the north, with, as it 

 appears, a portion of Finnic blood in their veins, held posses- 

 sion of the plains on the Kouban and the Don* these extended 

 westward, in the Crimea, and along the shores of the Euxine, 

 until they were in part swept onwards, and partly driven back 

 to take shelter in the fastnesses they now hold. The Don 

 Cossacks are of the same stem, for although all the tribes are, 

 in various proportions, of mixed origin, the typical form is 

 always evident. 



* Although the banks of the Borysthenes are known to have been suc- 

 cessively inhabited by Alans, Goths, Geti, Cumans, Polowtses, and Rox- 

 olani, the antiquities known to have been the work of Circassians are still 

 found scattered through the country. 



