HtB fcTHNOliOOY OF SOUTH EASTERN ASIA. 



29 



prejudices.* But thrre are no barriers between man ami his 

 fellows which time does not remove. Between civilised tribes, 

 and between a civilised and rude tribe, the process proceeds with 

 most activity. t 



Along the whole boundary between the Turanian awL other 

 races it appears to me that a change from mixture oi' blood "is tak- 

 ing place and has always been proceeding. If a partially changed 

 family fiT- tnbe becomes comparatively secluded the change is ar- 

 rested, and the variety becomes permanent. The Osmanli, the lower 

 Himalayan and Vindvan tribes, the more ancient Ultraindian and 

 theAsianesian lank-haired tribes appear to be far more illustrative of 



• The influence rf. relifji'""* prolifbiilon^ hn-, been trreatly exaggerated. The 

 Old Testament sufficiently proves how little the Jaws of u nation may be a true 

 reflection of its practice. Indeed it is often the reverse. The more severe and 

 reiterated the penalty, the greater prevalence has the crime. 



t U is not sufficiently considered that the adventurers ofcivilised races, whether 

 military, religious or commercial, do not at first, and in many cases never, earrv 

 their country women with them. The effects oi" this are well illustrated by the 

 physiological changes that have been affecied by Mahomedan udventurcrs in India, 

 by Hindu adventurers in Nepau! and in Java, and hy Arabs in many parts of the 

 Indian Archipelago. Where the ruder race considers itself as honoured by having 

 the blood ofite eiiihVd visitors in its veins, there has never been any backwardness 

 in the latter to gratify it. It must also be recollected that amongst ronat of 

 tite ruder, and many of the civilised, races of Eastern Asia, women are under no 

 moral or legal restraint, until they are married, and that in some, the visitor 

 participates in all the privileges of his host. A conquering or more powerful race 

 that comes In contact with subject or weaker triiww, is seldom scrupulous. A large 

 number of the women of the latter pass from their own communities into 

 those of the former. Where the subdued people sir-- helot ised, or staves are procured 

 from the independent native tribes of the district, a large portion of the more 

 powerful race Jead a Hie exempt from toll and have many female slaves. Where 

 the conquerors bring their own women, the latter delight to be itiirrounded by 

 female slaves and retainers of the native tribes, and the consequences are Inevitable. 

 It sometimes ul<o happens that the women of the region are more ut tractive than 

 their own. In such a case tiie influence of the native tribes on the physiognomy 

 oi* the exotic race must be unusually rapid. To this more than to any other cause 

 I should he inclined to attribute the change that appears to have taken place In 

 the western Turks since they came in contact, with ine lrai dan races. The time 

 they have been located in Europe and western Asia appears to be lar too short to 

 have admitted of climate and mode of living producing the change, even if they 

 alone are capable of doing So. The. Mongol and Manehu exhibit a very slight 

 climatic change in Um eomparai i vely mild climate of China. In the perpetual 

 summnr of the eastern islands, in many parts of which htfle exertion is required 

 to procure subsistence, the Mongol features are preserved. Th« influence of a 

 more refined and luxurious life is great, but amongst the Turks the mas-*, of the 

 people do not. lead such a life. This influence too may often be unduly exaggerated 

 above the sexual one. The probability must always be that most ol the foreign 

 women imported into the royut and nohle families as slaves or otherwise will be 

 amongst the handsomest. I twill be so with the women received by (hern from the 

 lower ebvsea of their own communities, whether of their own or of mixed race. 

 In nil applications of these views the relative numbers of the foreign and native 

 races is an essential element. The Chinese must assimilate the Manehus, Mongols, 

 and Koreans at the Hoes of contact, because the mass of population is far greater 

 on their side than on the Tartarian. So the great populations of India. Persia and 

 Europe munt tend gradually to assimilate the Tartarian races. The pressure of 

 population may incessantly cause the more adventurous Iranian spirits to pas* 

 into the Tartarian lands. The Tartarian tribes can only advance to be absorbed. 

 Wherever civilisation advances population necessarily increases, and turns the 

 ethnic scale more and more against the less cultured and sparser aatiouj. 



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