THE TURKISH FAMILY. 43 



in India, of which Delhi was the capitol. The Mogul empire was invaded by 

 the Persians in ITSS, and has since declined into total insignificance; the nominal 

 Great Mogul being at this time a mere stipendiary of the British East India 

 Company.* 



9. THE TURKISH FAMILY. 



The primitive Turks appear to have been a Mongol nation ; but their rapid 

 conquest of some of the fairest portions of the Caucasian region, and their early 

 amalgamation with the Circassians, Georgians, Greeks, and Arabs, has totally 

 changed their physical character, and rendered them a handsome people.f 



The modern Turks are of a middling stature, with an athletic form and well 

 proportioned limbs : the head is round, the eyes dark and animated, and the whole 

 face expressive and intelligent ; while the short nose and open nostrils are indica- 

 tive of Mongol extraction. In manner they are proverbially courteous and 

 taciturn ; but their true character is marked by violence of passion, cruelty and 

 vindictiveness. Intelligent, and ready in the acquisition of every species of 

 knowledge, they would soon assume an elevated literary rank were it not for the 

 trammels of superstition and fatalism. 



According to Ritter, the Turks, under the name of Hiong-nu, had their 

 primitive seats in the north of China, where they formed two kingdoms in the 

 first century, disappeared from history in the fourth, recovered their power in the 

 fifth, and were subsequently merged (together with the Tartars, who, as we have 

 seen, were also Mongols,) in the armies of Genghiz Khan. The Turks, at a later 

 period, separated from their Mongol masters, and established themselves in Persia, 

 whence passing into Asia Minor they made repeated attacks on the Greek empire, 

 which they finally subverted in the middle of the fifteenth century. The powerful 



* In India there remain some traces of the ancient Mongols, who have probably occupied 

 their present seats from immemorial time. Such are the Bheels and Gooand tribes of Guzerat and 

 other parts of western India, who appear to be branches of the same great family " which pervades 

 all the mountainous centre of India, the Gaels of the east, who have probably at some period been 

 driven from all these Avildernesses by the tribes possessing the Brahminical faith.^' In the same 

 group may be placed the Puharrees, also of central India, the Cohatars in the southern peninsula, and 

 the Jauts in the west. The latter retain the warlike and pastoral habits of the ancient Scythians. 

 Heber, Narrative, &c., I, p. 194. Jim, eel. 



t This fact has led some writers to class the Turks with the Caucasians, and to doubt the Mongol 

 origin of the parent stock; an objection that may be met by a fact from Professor Pallas, who says that 

 even the mixed blood of the repulsive-looking Calmucks and Russians produces beautiful children. 



