THE YELLOW KACES. 511 



much more mixed, and it is only from the countries whence they drew 

 their historic origin that we can learn something of their character. 

 With Baron de Bode and Colonel Dukousset we have visited them south 

 of the Caspian Sea, under the name of Yamouds, Goklanes, etc., in the 

 Caucasus under the name of Abreks, and we have been able to ascer- 

 tain that the few practical observations made among these tribes 

 coincide very exactly with those suggested by the Yakuts, their north- 

 ern near relatives. In examining the skulls of tbe Turkomans, it 

 becomes, however, necessary to bear in mind that certain of their tribes, 

 and especially the Kurds and the Bakhtyaris have a peculiar custom; 

 they deform the head by exaggerating the parietooccipital flattening 

 which is common to all Turks, a kind of natural curtailment, which 

 almost constantly presses the top of tike skull into a point behind. 



This very habitual and very visible distinctive feature at once enables 

 us to establish between the Turks and the Mongolians an immediately 

 perceptible difference. There exists a second that is still more striking, 

 and which, combined with the first, gives to the skull capsule of the 

 Turk, whether he be a Yakut or a Turkoman, a cuboid aspect. This is 

 the tendency of the head to develop upward, consequently just in the 

 opposite sense to the vertical flattening of the Mongolian. 



The Turk's head is, therefore, both taller and shorter; it is also a 

 little less large in proportion, and the cephalic index is only subbrachy- 

 cephalous. The face, adapting itself as is natural to the skull, which 

 is thus slightly curtailed, is less open; on the other hand, the nasal 

 skeleton is even more pronounced in the Turk than in the Mongolian, 

 and you have been able to notice in some Ansariehs, for example, truly 

 amazing instances of large noses. 



Before leaving the Turkish branch, we had to examine long lines of 

 types lying intermediate between the Turks and the Mongolians, such 

 as the Uzbeks, the Kirghiz, the Bashkirs, the Nogais; between the 

 Turks and the Finns, such as those extremely mixed subjects of the gov- 

 ernments of eastern Eussia, whom the reports of travelers erroneously 

 designate without distinction as Tartars; finally, between the Turks and 

 the Caucasians, the Slavs, the Greeks, even the Arabs, the Osmanlis of 

 Constantinople, Kourouglis of Algiers, etc. We proceeded from one 

 race to the other by insensible transitions, and we were thus able to 

 appreciate the extreme difficulty which continually confronts us in sepa- 

 rating scientifically the yellow men from the white men. We should 

 meet with the same embarrassment if we went farther north in the course 

 of similar inquiries. The lowlands of western Siberia are in the higher 

 northern latitudes overrun by races like the Samoyedes, Kanirs, and 

 others, among whom the individual varieties are really very extensive, 

 and lead, almost without a break, from the Mongolian to the Lapp. 

 Elsewhere in the same zones intermediate types produce other almost 

 imperceptible transitions from the Lapp to the Finn, and from the Finn 

 to the Slav. We are thus able to establish unbroken lines of observation 



