Kundrof Tatar, AstrakhanFIG.107.—Kundrof Tatar (Turkoman) of Astrakhan, with cap.(Phot. Sommier.)
FIG.107.—Kundrof Tatar (Turkoman) of Astrakhan, with cap.(Phot. Sommier.)
Tatar, with Skull-capFIG.108.—The same in profile, with skull-cap,which is never removed, worn under the cap.(Phot. Sommier.)
FIG.108.—The same in profile, with skull-cap,which is never removed, worn under the cap.(Phot. Sommier.)
C. CAUCASIAN PEOPLES.[391]
All who have seen the ethnographical maps of the Caucasus must have been struck by the motley appearance which they present; fifty various tribes may in fact be counted in this isthmus, the area of which is less than that of Spain. I shall speak here only oftheCaucasians properly so called—that is to say, of the peoples who dwell only in the Caucasus, putting on one side all others (Iranians, Europeans, Turks, Mongols, Semites, etc.) who have overflowed into this country from the adjacent regions.
TheCaucasiansare sub-divided into four linguistic or ethnic groups: the Cherkess (on the north-west of the Caucasian range), the Lesgian Chechen (on the north-east of the range), the Kartvels or Georgians (on the south-west of the range), and the Ossets (in the centre of the range on both slopes). The last, by their language, are the nearest to the Iranians and the Armenians, but the three other groups form a perfect linguistic unit. The dialects which they speak preserve the impress of a common origin and form a family apart which has nothing in common with any other.
TheCherkessorCircassians, until the middle of this century, inhabited all the western part of Ciscaucasia; but, since the conquest of their country by the Russians, they have emigrateden masseinto the Ottoman empire. At the present day there are only a few remnants of them in the Caucasus. Principal tribes,Abkhazians,AdighéorCherkess(Circassians) properly so called,Kabards of the plain,Abadzeh,Chapsugh, etc.
TheChechen-Lesgiansare divided, as the name implies, into two groups: the Chechen (with theIngushes, theKists, etc.) of the upper basin of the Terek, who have long been considered as a population apart (Figs.110and111), and theLesgiansof Daghestan. These last are sub-divided into five great sections, according to their dialects: (1) TheAvars-Andi, with theDido, whose language tends to preponderate owing to the historic part played by the tribe of the Avars, to which belonged the famous Shamil, the hero of the Caucasus, whose memory still lives. (2) TheDarghain the centre ofDaghestan, the best known tribe of which is that of the Kubachi, living in little houses piled one above the other on the sides of the mountains. (3) TheKurinesof the Samur basin, with theTsakhurs(Tabassaurans, etc.). (4) TheLaksorKazi-Kumyks, with which are connected lesser known tribes, like theAgul, theBudukh, and theKhinalugh, whoselanguage is distinct from all the other dialects of Daghestan. (5) TheUdes, an ancient Christian tribe converted to Islamism, of which there remain but 750 individuals still acquainted with their mother-tongue (district of Nukha, province of Elisabetpol).
Georgian Imer of KutaisFIG.109.—Georgian Imer of Kutais.(Phot. from Coll. of Author.)
FIG.109.—Georgian Imer of Kutais.(Phot. from Coll. of Author.)
TheKartvels,KarthliorGeorgians, who alone of the Caucasians possess a special mode of writing, and a literature, are divided into three linguistic sections: (1)Gruzin, which comprises theGeorgians properly so calledof the plains of the province of Tiflis,Georgians of the mountains(Khevsurs,Pshavs, andToushs, 21,300 in all), and theImers(Fig.109) with theGurians. (2) TheMingreliansection of peopleliving more to the west, composed of theMingreliansof the Kutais country and theLazesof the Batum circle. (3) TheSwansection, comprising the tribe ofSwanetor Swanetians, driven back into the unhealthy regions of the province of Kutais, where the race degenerates; cretins and those afflicted with goitre form a third part of the population.
Chechen of DaghestanFIG.110.—Chechen of Daghestan.(Phot. Chantre.)
FIG.110.—Chechen of Daghestan.(Phot. Chantre.)
TheOssets, while speaking a language which (in theDigoriandialect) is nearly allied to Iranian, have nevertheless much in common with the other Caucasians, from whom they are distinguished perhaps by the frequent occurrence of fair hair (10 per cent.) and light eyes (29 per cent.); more frequent than among all the other Caucasian peoples, the Imers, the Lesgi-Dido, and the Chechen excepted. But figures are still too inadequate in regard to the number of subjects with dark hair and eyes (51 and 53 per cent.) to enable us to affirm, as all authors from Am. Marcellinus to our own days have done, that the Ossets are a people of fairrace. They are above the average in stature (1 m. 68), and sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 82.6).
Chechen, Profile ViewFIG.111.—Same as Fig.110, seen in profile.(Phot. Chantre.)
FIG.111.—Same as Fig.110, seen in profile.(Phot. Chantre.)
As to the somatic characters of the other Caucasians, we know little of those of the Cherkess (sub-brachycephalic, of medium height), but we are better informed in regard to the Lesgians and the Kartvel. The contrast between the two groups is striking. The Lesgians are very brachycephalic (seeAppendix II.), especially the tribes of the east; their stature is fairly high. To these characters are united others which, in their totality, produce the most singular effect; the prominent nose, straight or curved, recalls the Semites, while the projecting cheek-bones, broad face, and angles of the lower jaw directed outward, suggest the Mongols; lastly, the whole aspect becomes still more odd, owing to the light-grey or greenish eyes, and fair or chestnut hair, so common among the Lesgians (Figs.110and111).
Quite different are the characters of the Kartvel. In the firstplace, they form a less homogeneous group; we must distinguish in it between the eastern and the western Georgians. The former (Gruzins) are true brachycephals, though in a lesser degree than the Lesgians, while the latter (Mingrelians, Imers) are distinguished from all the other Caucasians by the elongated form of the head (seeAppendix II.). The stature varies in harmony with the cranial forms; the Kartvel tribes with rounded heads have the shortest stature, and the dolichocephalic tribes the highest; light hair is less common in the two groups than among the Lesgians, but we find among the Georgians in general a great number of subjects in whom the iris has a particular yellow colour, a grey or greenish yellow. The Gruzins have a rather rounded face and broad nose, while the Imers have an elongated visage, thin nose, tight lips, pointed chin (Fig.109); their physiognomy reminds one of a goat’s head, according to Pantiukhof, who considers the Imers to be the purest representatives of the primitive Kartvels.[392]
RACES AND PEOPLES OF ASIA.
ANCIENTINHABITANTS OFASIA.—Prehistoric times—Pithecanthropus erectus(Dub.)—Ages of stone and metals.—PRESENTINHABITANTS OFASIA.—Races of Asia—I.Peoples of Northern Asia—Yeniseian, Palæasiatic and Tunguse groups.—II.Peoples of Central Asia—Turkish, Mongolian, and Thibetan groups—Peoples of the south-west of Thibet and of South China (Lolo, Miao-tsé, Lu-tsé, etc.).—III.Peoples of Eastern Asia—Chinese, Coreans, and Japanese.—IV.Peoples of Indo-China—Aborigines, Mois, Kuis, Siam, Naga, etc.—More recent mixed populations: Annamese, Cambodians, Thai, etc.—V.Peoples of India—Castes—Dravidians and Kolarians—Indo-Aryans and unclassified populations—VI.Peoples of Anterior Asia—Iranians and Semites.
Prehistoric Times.—It is a common practice to call Asia, or at least certain regions of Asia, “the cradle of mankind,” the “officina gentium.” The migrations and invasions of the Asiatic peoples into Europe, which took place from the most remote times, gave birth, naturally enough, to this idea among the western peoples (p.317et seq.). However, no serious data authorise us to say that the first man was born rather in Asia than Europe. Nowhere do we find there any traces of tertiary man.[393]Eugène Dubois discovered, it is true, quite close to theAsiatic continent in the very uppermost tertiary beds (upper pliocene) of the Island of Java, the bones of a being which he considers as intermediate between man and the anthropoid apes, and which he has calledPithecanthropus erectus(Figs.112and113). But Java belongs to-day as much to the Oceanian world as to Asia, and the Pithecanthropus is not altogether a man, either according to his discoverer or many other authorities. Some regard this being simply as a gigantic gibbon, while others (myself among the number) hold that he is a being more closely related to man than to the anthropoid apes, or even a man of a race inferior to all existing ones. If this last hypothesis be correct we must admit the existence of tertiary man in Asia, since it is highly probable that even at the end of the tertiary period the islands of Sumatra andJava were connected with the great continent by the Malay peninsula.[394]
Skull of Pithecanthropus ErectusFIG.112.—Skull of thePithecanthropus erectus, Dub. The calvaria(a) and the teeth (b,c)are designed by P. Moutet after the castsand photographs of E. Dubois. The reconstruction of the restis madeafter Dubois and Manouvrier.
FIG.112.—Skull of thePithecanthropus erectus, Dub. The calvaria(a) and the teeth (b,c)are designed by P. Moutet after the castsand photographs of E. Dubois. The reconstruction of the restis madeafter Dubois and Manouvrier.
As to quaternary man, if no bones have yet been found, tools absolutely similar to those of Europe have been noted almost everywhere in Asia; in Siberia, around Lake Baikal (Tchersky and Poliakof), and near to Tomsk in the loess, beside a dismembered and calcined skeleton of a mammoth, the remains of a pantagruelic repast of quaternary Siberians (Kuznétzof); in Japan, in the ancient province of Jenchiou, now Osaka, the Ivate and Miaghi province, northern Nippon (S. Fuse), western Nippon (Vidal) in the country of Rikuzen, now in the province of Etzigo or Teshigo (Inuzuka); then in anterior Asia, in the grottos at the mouth of the Nahr-el-Kelb, near Beirut (Lortet); at Hannauch to the east of Tyre (Lortet and Pelagaud), in Galilee (Cazalis of Fondouce and Moretain), in Phœnicia (Zumoffen), etc.[395]In India, attention has been drawn to several palæolithic stations in the midst of the ancient alluvia of the rivers Nerbadda, Krishna, and Godaveri (Wynn); in certain places there quartzite implements were associated with the bones of extinct animals (Equus nomadicus,Hippopotamus palæindicus) or animals which have since emigrated into other regions (Bos palæindicus, etc.). Single tools have been found in the beds of laterite near Madras, in Scinde, at Banda, in the central provinces (Rivett-Carnac), in the south-east of Bengal.[396]
Skull of Pithecanthropus ErectusFIG.113.—Calvaria ofPithecanthropus, seenfrom above.(Phot. Dubois.)
FIG.113.—Calvaria ofPithecanthropus, seenfrom above.(Phot. Dubois.)
Monuments and objects of thepolished stoneandbronzeperiods, often confounded in Asia, have been found almost everywhere. They are connected with peoples who presented at that remote date great differences in their civilisation and probably in their physical type. The excavations of Schliemann at Hissarlik (Asia Minor) have brought to light a civilisation which appears to correspond with the end of the stone age and the beginning of the bronze epoch (2,500 yearsB.C.?). Prehistoric objects in polished stone and bronze have been found at other points of Asia Minor (A. Martin), in Lycaonia (Spiegelthal), in the Sinai peninsula (Bauermann and Richard), on the shores of Lake Issik-koul (Russian Turkestan). Southern Siberia, the Kirghiz steppes, north and north-western Mongolia are covered with stone circles (Kereksur), barrows, tumuli, menhirs (Kishachilo) of every form, with burial-places in which are found objects in wood, bone, bronze, copper, iron (Radloff, Potanin, Klementz). The skulls which have been taken from some of these burial-places, in the upper valley of the Yenisei, are dolichocephalic; the plaster mortuary masksfound in the same region by Adrianof present a type somewhat European.[397]
Polished Stone Axe, CambodiaFIG.114.—Polished stone axefound in Cambodia. Prehistorictype peculiar to Indo-China.
FIG.114.—Polished stone axefound in Cambodia. Prehistorictype peculiar to Indo-China.
It must not be forgotten that many of these monuments date from the historic epoch and belong, as proved by the runiform inscriptions of Mongolia discovered by Yadrintsef and deciphered by Thomson, to the seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian era.[398]
The kitchen-middens of Omori, near Tokio, and of several other localities in Japan examined by Morse, Milne, and Tsuboi, afford evidence of the existence in this country of a fairly civilised race which was acquainted with pottery, but employed only bone and partly polished stone implements. The excavations of ancient underground dwellings in the islands of Yezo (Morse, Tsuboi) and Saghalien (Poliakoff) lead us to believe that this race extended much farther to the north. It is possible that it was related to the men whose polished flint implements have been found in Siberia in the valley of the Tunka, in that of the Patcha, one of the tributaries of the river Amur (Uvarof), and in the shell-heaps of the Pacific coast near Vladivostok (Margaritof).[399]Polished stone hatchetshave been found in the north-east of China in the vicinity of tumuli resembling the American “mounds” (Williamson); others have been picked up in the Yunnan (Sladen), and in Burma (Theobald); Moura, Jammes, and Morel exhumed in Cambodia, between Lake Tonlé-Sap and the Mekong, side by side with objects of bronze, several polished stone implements of a peculiar type (Fig.114), a kind of square-tongued axe (shouldered celt), which has since been found again in several other places in Indo-China as far as the upper Laos (Lefèvre-Pontalis) and Burma.[400]In the district of Somron-Sen (Cambodia), previously explored by Jammes, as well as in the neighbourhood of Saigon, Corre discovered similar implements close to shell-heaps containing, besides pottery and stone tools, human bones, but no skulls.
Lastly, in India, the “cromlechs,” “mounds,” and finds of stone objects similar to those which are found in Europe, may be counted in hundreds. It is certain that the stone “circles” of the central provinces and the “Kouroumbarings” of Southern India date from a period anterior to the Aryan immigration. As in Europe, so in Asia the age of metals borders very closely on the historic period of which theChinese annals have preserved for us a record. The monuments of Chaldea, Assyria, Asia Minor, India, and Cambodia, also reveal ethnographical facts of great interest (see, for instance, note2, p.419).
It is impossible in the present state of our knowledge to draw up a complete table of themigrationswhich have taken place on the Asiatic continent inhistorictimes. I shall mention those in connection with some peoples whose history is partially known (Chinese, Turks, Mongols, Thai).
So also, in the present state of anthropological knowledge, we can only discern in the midst of the numerous Asiatic populations, in a quite general way, the elements furnished by the following eleven races:—Five races peculiar to Asia (Dravidian,Assyroid,Indo-Afghan,Ainu,Mongolian), and six races which are also met with in other parts of the world:Negrito,Indonesian,Arab,Ugrian,Turkish, andEskimo(leaving out of account the Assyroid and Indo-Afghan races, which are found again among the Jews and the European Gypsies). I have already given (p.285et seq.) the principal characters of these races; it only remains to say a few words as to their geographical distribution in Asia.
TheEskimorace is quartered in the north-east of the continent; that of theAinusin Saghalien, Yezo, and perhaps in northern Japan; while theUgrianrace is represented by itsYeniseianvariant. TheMongolianrace (with its two secondary races,northernandsouthern) is found almost all over Asia. TheTurkishrace is limited more particularly to the inland regions of Central Asia. TheIndonesiansare numerous in Indo-China, and in the islands from Japan to the Asiatic Archipelago, while theDravidiansandIndo-Afghansabound in India. The latter are also met with in anterior Asia, side by side with theAssyroidsandArabs. Some representatives of theNegritorace inhabit the Malay peninsula and the Andaman Islands; the elements of this race are also found among the inhabitants of Indo-China and perhaps India.
As to existing populations of the Asiatic continent, I shall rapidly pass them in review, grouping them, according to geographical region, under six heads: peoples of Northern Asia; of Central Asia; of Eastern Asia; of Indo-China; of India; and lastly, of Anterior or Western Asia.
I. NORTHERNASIA, consisting almost exclusively of Siberia, a cold country covered with dense virgin forests (taïga) or marshy, frozen plains (tundra), harbours, in addition to Russian or Chinese colonists, only a few somewhat wretched tribes, mainly hunters, but depending partly on fishing and hoe-culture.
We may group them thus:—(1) tribes of Western Siberia, having some affinities with the Samoyeds and the eastern Finns, which I shall callYeniseiansorTubas; (2) peoples of the extreme north-east of the Asiatic continent, whom Schrenck[401]describes asPalæasiatics; (3) the Tunguses of Eastern Siberia and Manchuria.
1.YeniseiansorTubas.—Besides theSamoyeds of Asia, who differ from their kinsfolk in Europe only by their more Mongoloid features, theYeniseianscomprise two distinct groups of populations. In the first place the so-calledOstiaks of the Yenisei, on the right bank of this river (between Yeniseisk and Touroukhansk), probable descendants of theKien-Kouenand theTing-lingof the Chinese annals. It is a tribe in process of extinction, whose language differs from the Samoyed tongue and the Finnish dialects properly so called (Castren). Then come the tribes who formerly formed the Tuba nation, mentioned until the seventh centuryA.D.by the name ofTupoby the Chinese annalists; they inhabited the basin of the upper Yenisei, the Altai region, and north-western Mongolia, and bore the local names ofMatores,Arines,Kottes,Assan,Tuba, etc.
These peoples have disappeared as linguistic units,[402]buttheir physical type, some of their characteristic manners, as well as a few words of their language, are preserved among certain populations speaking a Turkish dialect. The Russians call these populations “Tatars”; they might more suitably be called by the name ofAltaians. This ethnic group, whose physical type has been altered by intermixtures with peoples of Turkish or Mongolian race, comprises the “Tatars” ofAbakan, that is to say,Katchines,Koibals(eight hundred individuals),Sagai, andKizils; the “Tatars” ofAltaiand those ofChulim, among whom must be noted the “Tatars of the black forests” (Chernievyié Tataryin Russian), called “Tubas” by their neighbours. The latter are mesocephalic, of medium height; they have abandoned little by little the hunting state, and become primitive cultivators of the soil; they break up the ground with the hoe, which was used by them until not very long ago to dig up edible roots, and they cut their corn with hunting-knives.[403]The Soiots or Soyons of North-western Mongolia, who call themselvesTubas, are probably the descendants of the ancient Uigurs (Turkish nation) commingled with aboriginal Yeniseians of this country and partly Mongolised about the seventeenth century.
Tunguse Hunter, SiberiaFIG.115.—Tunguse hunter (Siberia) with ski and staff.(Phot. Shimkiévich.)
FIG.115.—Tunguse hunter (Siberia) with ski and staff.(Phot. Shimkiévich.)
2. ThePalæasiaticgroup should comprise, according to Schrenck, all the ancient peoples of Asia driven back at the present day towards the north-eastern extremity of the Continent. The more important of these peoples are the following:—TheChuchi(orChukchi), numbering about 8000, are the most typical representatives of the group; they inhabit the north-east of Siberia, and the occupation of some is the breeding of reindeer, and fishing of others; however, the distinction between the nomadic and fishing Chukchi is both of an economic and ethnic order.[404]TheKoriaksdwell to the south of the Chukchi, as far as Kamtchatka; they bear a close resemblance to them and speak the same language. TheEskimo of Asia, Namuollo, orYu-Iteformerly occupied the coast of the Chukchi country, as shown by their ancient habitations excavated by Wrangel and Nordenskiold. At the present day they are not found except in isolated camps on the coast and in the islands of the Behring Sea. They differ but very little from the Eskimo of Alaska; their ornaments, however, recall rather those of the Aleuts. TheKamtchadalsof the centre and west of Kamtchatka differ from the peoples just mentioned. They number 4,250 at the present day, and are becoming Russianised very rapidly. They have completely given up their language, which has no relation to any linguistic family now known, and they speak a very corrupt form of Russian. Nominally orthodox Christians, they are at bottom animists, and the anthropomorphic element, often under obscene forms, occupies a large place in their myths and legends. They are fishers and hunters.
Tunguse, Full FaceFIG.116.—Same subject as Fig.115, full face.(Phot. Shimkiévich.)
FIG.116.—Same subject as Fig.115, full face.(Phot. Shimkiévich.)
TheYukaghirsare the last remnants of a somewhat powerful people who formerly occupied all that part of Siberia situated to the east of the Lena, and who were composed of several tribes:Omoks,Anauls,Cheliags, etc.[405]It was believed until the last few years that even the Yukaghirs had disappeared, but quite recently Iokhelson[406]ascertained that there are at least 700 individuals, and that their language, which has no affinities with any of the Uralo-Altaic dialects, is spoken by a certain number of Tunguse-Lamuts (see p.373), their neighbours. On the other hand, the Yukaghirs of Verkhoiansk, have adopted the Lamut dialect, and those of thebanks of the Iana the Yakut tongue. By several peculiar manners and customs (classificatory system of relationship, pictography, etc.) they approach very closely certain North American Indians. Physically they resemble the Tunguse-Lamuts, though more brachycephalic and somewhat less dark-haired as a rule.
Ainu with Crown of ShavingsFIG.117.—Ainu of Yezo (Japan) with crown of shavings.(Phot. lent by Collignon.)
FIG.117.—Ainu of Yezo (Japan) with crown of shavings.(Phot. lent by Collignon.)
The Ainus (Figs.49and117), who are classed among the Palæasiatics, inhabit the north and east parts of the island of Yezo, the south of Saghalien, and the three most southern islands of the Kuriles. They form a group by themselves, different from all the other peoples of Asia. Their elongated heads (ceph. index on the liv. sub. 77.8), their prominent supraciliary ridges, the development of the pilous system, the form of the nose, give to them some resemblance to the Russians, the Todas, and the Australians; but other characters(coloration of the skin, prominent cheek-bones, short stature, frequent occurrence of theos japonicum, etc.) distinguish them from these peoples and afford grounds for classing them as a separate race (seeChap. VIII.). According to Japanese historians, the Ainus orAsuma Yebissuoccupied the whole of Nippon from the seventh centuryB.C.until the second century of the Christian era. In the seventh centuryA.D.they still occupied all that portion of this island situated to the north of the 38th degree of north latitude, and even in the ninth century the chronicles speak of the incursions of these “barbarians.” Thus the Ainu element enters very largely into the composition of one of the types of the Japanese people, not only at Yezo but in the north of Nippon (province of Aomori), where several Ainu words still survive in current speech. In the Kurile islands the Ainus are intermixed with the Kamtchadals and the Aleuts introduced by the Russo-American Company about the middle of the present century.
It is calculated that there are about 18,500 Ainus (of whom 1,300 are in the island of Saghalien) at the present time; their number at Yezo has remained stationary for several years. The dress of the Ainus is a sort of greatcoat with broad sleeves, fastened with a girdle so that the right lappel covers the left lappel as among Turkish peoples, and contrary to the way it is done among the Chinese and Mongols. The chief occupation of the Ainus is hunting and fishing; they engage but little in agriculture. Their religion is pure animism; the wordKamui, which means spirit (like theKamiof the Japanese Shintoists), also serves to indicate everything incomprehensible, in the same way as the word “shif,” the literal meaning of which is “animal” (may this be a word corresponding to totem?).
The Ainus, like most Asiatic peoples, such as the Giliaks, Tunguses, etc., have a special veneration for the bear; they organise festivals in its honour, during which a bear is killed, after having received the homage of manyinaou(staffs decorated with shavings).
The Ainu language is agglutinative, and has no analogy with any known language.[407]
The Giliaks, who inhabit the north of Saghalien, and the mainland to the north of the mouth of the Amur, suggest by their traits sometimes the Ainus, sometimes the Tunguses, but they are brachycephalic. They are a people of fishers, living on the banks of rivers and the sea, in the winter in huts half buried in the ground, in the summer in little houses on piles. The Giliaks are readily disposed to trade, and are distinguished by their taste for ornaments. Their number hardly exceeds 5000 individuals.[408]
TheTunguses, while speaking a particular language, exhibit the Mongol type, softened by intermixtures with the primitive inhabitants (Palæasiatics?) of their territory, which extends from the Arctic Ocean to the 40th degree of north latitude, and from the Yenisei to the Pacific Ocean. Their number can hardly exceed 50,000 individuals over this immense stretch of country. They are divided intosouthernandnorthernTunguses andmaritimeTunguses orLamuts. The river Amur forms the approximate boundary between the first two sections of Tunguses. TheLamutsoccupy the shores of the sea of Okhotsk, the north-west of Kamtchatka, and extend more to the west to the river Iana. TheNorthern Tungusesare split up into several tribes, of which the following are the principal, going from east to west:—TheOlchasorMangoon, at the mouth of the Amur; their congeners theOroks, in the north of the island of Saghalien; theOrochons, of a very pure Tunguse type; theManegres(Fig.43), and the “Olennyié”Tunguses, or theTunguses with reindeer(Figs.115and116). As to thesouthern Tunguses, they comprise theGoldesof the lower Amur and Ussuri, of a very pure type, and having a fairly well developed ornamental art; theOrochesof the coast; and lastly theSolon-Daurs, very much intermixed with the Mongols, of which colonies exist in the Kuldja.
TheManchus, reduced to a small number, belong by their dialect as well as by their physical type to the Tunguse group. They are being absorbed more and more by the Chinese, and hardly form a tenth part of the population of the country which bears their name (Pozdniéef). It is probable that theNiu-chiorYu-chiof Shan-alin and Sien-pi on the northern border of Corea, mentioned in the Chinese annals, were Tunguse tribes.
The type which predominates among the Tunguses represents the secondary race called North Mongolian and characterised by mesocephaly or a slight sub-dolichocephaly, and by a rather elongated face. The stature varies; the Orochons are of average stature and the Manchus very tall, etc.[409]
II. PEOPLES OFCENTRALASIA.—The immense central Asiatic region, whose waters have no outlet towards the sea, is formed principally of denuded table-lands (Thibet) or of plains, sometimes grassy, sometimes desert (Mongolia, Turkestan). It is inhabited for the most part by populations which may be grouped from the linguistic point of view under three heads, Turks, Mongols, Thibetans.[410]
The peoples speaking the differentTurkishdialects who are calledTurco-TatarsorTuraniansare scattered over an immense area comprising half of Asia and a large portion of Eastern Europe, from the Arctic Ocean (Yakuts) to Kuen-lun (Polus) and Ispahan (Turkomans of Persia), from the banks of the Kolima and the Hoang-ho (Yegurs) to Central Russia (Tatars of Kasimov) and Macedonia (Osmanli Turks). All these peoples may be gathered together into three great groups: eastern, central, and western.[411]
Theeastern groupcomprises the Yakuts, who have preserved in its purity the ancient Turco-Uigurian language, but who in type, manners, and customs show the influence of contiguity with the Palæasiatics; then the various tribes of non-Yeniseian “Tatars” (see p.366) of Siberia, like the Altaians (calledKalmuks of Altai, although they have nothing in common with the true Kalmuks), nomads who have recently adopted settled habits, like theTeleuts(orKara-Kalmuks), likewise nomads, or theTatars of Siberia, divided, according to their habitat, intoTatars of the Baraba steppes,Tatars of Irtish, ofTobol, etc.[412]
To this group must be added theTaranchiand other “Turks” of East Turkestan, as well as the Polus of the northern slope of the Kuen-lun, more or less mingled with Indo-Afghan elements; theYegursof the province of Kan-su in China, etc.[413]
Thecentral groupcomprises, in the first place, theKirghiz-Kazakof the plains between the Irtish and the Caspian, with theKara-Kirghizof the Tian-chan mountains, typical nomads who under a Mussulman veneer have preserved many ancient Turkish animist customs;[414]then theUzbegsandSartes, villagers or citizens, more or less mingled with Iranian elements, of Russian Turkestan; and finally theTatars of the Volga, orof European Russia. Among these last, the so-calledKazan Tatars, descendants of the Kipchaks, must be specially mentioned. Arriving on the banks of the Volga in the thirteenth century, they intermingled there with the Bulgarians. They differ from theAstrakhan Tatars(Figs.107and108), descendants of the Turco-Mongols of the Gold horde, mixed with the Khazars, as well as from the Nogai of the Crimea,[415]representatives of whom we find also in the Caucasus, near Astrakhan, and in Lithuania, where, while remaining Mussulmans, they have adopted the language and the garb of Poles. With this group we must connect theBashkir-Mesthcheriaks, a tribe intermixed with Turkish, Mongol, and Ugrian elements; and their congeners theShuvashes, as well as theKumyks, theKarachai, theKabards, orTatars of the Caucasus mountains, distinct from the trueKabards.
Thewestern groupis composed ofTurkomansof Persia (Khojars,Afshars) and Russian (Turkmen) or Afghan Turkestan (Jemshids, etc.), ofAderbaijani, Turkish-speaking Iraniansof the Caucasus and Persia, and lastly theOsmanli Turks. Included under this name are subjects of the Sultan speaking the Turkish language and professing Islamism. We must distinguish among them the settled Osmanli, much intermixed, and the nomadic tribes (Turkomans,Yuruks, etc.), who exhibit several characteristics of the Turkish race.
TheTurkish race, so far as can be gathered from recent anthropological works, is preserved in a comparatively pure state among the Turks of the central group, but in the eastern group it has been profoundly modified in consequence of intermixtures with the Mongolian, Tunguse, and Ugrian races; as also in the western group, in which we have to take into account elements of the Assyroid, Indo-Afghan, and Arab races, and certain European races (Adriatic chiefly). The Turkish race may be thus described: Stature, above the average (1 m. 67–1 m. 68); head, hyper-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub., 85 to 87), elongated oval face, non-Mongoloid eyes, but often with the external fold of eyelid (p.78); the pilous system moderately developed; broad cheek-bones, thick lips; straight, somewhat prominent nose; tendency to obesity.[416]
The Turks are essentially nomadic, and when they change their mode of life it is rather towards the chase, commerce, or trade that their efforts are directed; the true cultivators of the soil (Taranchi, Sartes, Osmanli, Volga Tatars) are Turks already powerfully affected by intermixtures. The Turkish tent is the most highly finished of transportable habitations (p.164–166). Meat and milk products form the staple foods, as they do among all nomads. With the exception of the Christian Chuvashes and the Shaman Yakuts, all the Turks are Mussulmans; but often they are only nominally such, at bottom remaining Shamans. The veneer of Islamism becomes thinner and thinner among the Turkish peoples as we go from west to east. The Osmanlis, the most fanatical of all the Turks, are the most mixed as regards type, language, manners, and customs. It is perhaps to this mixed origin that they owe the relative stability of the state which they have founded, for no nomadic Turkish tribe has been able to create a political organism of long duration, and the vast empires of the Hiungnu, the Uigurs, the Kipchaks, have had only an ephemeral existence.
2. TheMongols[417]form an ethnic group more homogeneous as regards manners and customs and physical type than the Turks. Their name is chiefly known on account of the great empire founded by Genghis Khan, but it must be observed that the nomadic hordes united into a single body, and led to victory by this conqueror, were only very partially composed of Mongols, other nomadic peoples, and especially Turks, formed more than half of them. Hence the practice among Europeans, as among the Chinese,—a practice which is kept up to the present time,—of giving the name of one of the Turkish tribes, Ta-ta or Tatar, transformed intoTartar, to the Mongols, and extending it to many of the Mongoloid peoples, like the Tunguses for example.
Three principal divisions are recognised in this group: Western Mongols or Kalmuks, the Eastern Mongols, and the Buriats.[418]TheWestern Mongols, who style themselvesEleuts, and whom the neighbouring peoples callKalmuks, are scattered, owing to wars and migrations, over the immense tract lying between Siberia and Lassa, from the banks of the Hoang-ho to those of the Manich (a tributary of the Don). The more compact groups are found in European Russia (Kalmuks of Astrakhan, Figs.20and44, and the Caucasus); in Dzungaria (theTorgoots) and north-western Mongolia, between Altai and Thian-Shan; lastly, in Alashan and farther to the west in the Chinese province of Kuku-Nor and northern Thibet. They number about a million.
TheEastern Mongolsoccupy almost the whole of the region known by the name of Mongolia properly so called. In the south of this country they are broken up into a multitude of tribes (Tumets,ShakarsorTsakhar, etc.); while in the north they form a single nation, that of theKhalkhas, which has still preserved, in spite of its submission to China, some traces of its ancient political organisation. The Khalkhas number about 200,000, and the southern Mongols 500,000.
TheBuriatsform a population sprung from the Khalkhas, intermixed at several points with various Siberian elements, Tunguse, Yakut, Russian; they occupy the steppes and forests of the province of Irkutsk, but their central seat is Transbaikal, whence they spread out even into Mongolia, into the valleys of the Orkhon and the Argun. They number about 250,000.
The type of theMongolian raceis very strongly marked among most of the Kalmuks and Khalkhas; it is less distinct among the Buriats, etc. It may thus be described: Nearly average stature (1 m. 63–64); head, sub-brachycephalic (ceph. ind. on the liv. sub. 83); black straight hair, pilous system little developed; the skin of a pale-yellow or brownish hue, prominent cheek-bones, thin straight flattened nose, Mongoloid eyes (p.77), etc.
With the exception of some Buriat tribes the Mongols are typical nomadic shepherds. Their live-stock, camels, sheep, and horses supply them not only with food, the raw materialfor the manufacture of tents and garments, but also means of transport and fuel (camel excrement or dried dung). Unlike the nomadic Turks, who are fond of fighting, the Mongols of the present day are gentle and peaceable folk. Can this be the effect of the influence of Lama-Buddhism, which they all profess except a few small Buriat tribes, who have remained Shamans? We are inclined to believe this when we consider the important part which this religion plays in the daily life of the Mongols.
3.Thibetans.[419]—We may include under this name the non-Mongolian populations of Thibet and the surrounding countries, known by the name ofBod, orThibetans properly so calledin southern Thibet, by the name ofTangutsin the Chinese province of Kuku-Nor, ofSi-fanin western Sechuen, by that ofLadakiandChampain eastern Cashmere (province of Leh), ofGurong,Limbu,MangarandMurmiin Nepal, ofLepchasorRongsin Sikkin, ofBhutaniin Bhotan, etc. TheAbors,Mishmee, etc., of the Himalayan country who dominate Assam are also included among the Thibetans, but they approach the Indonesians in type. It is the same with theGarroand their neighbours on the east, theKhasiaorDjainthia, whose language, however, differs from the Thibetan.[420]
Most Thibetans are cultivators of the soil or shepherds, pillagers in case of need, and fervent votaries of numerous Lamaite-Buddhist sects, of which that of the Geluk-pa (yellow caps) represents the ruling church. Its chief, the Dalai-Lama, residing at Lassa, is at the same time the sovereign of Thibet.
From the somatological point of view the Thibetans exhibit certain sufficiently marked variations. The Bothia are below the average stature (1 m. 62 or1 m. 63); the Lepchas are short (1 m. 57); and the Thibetans of Nepal vary as regards average stature from1 m. 59 (Mangars) to1 m. 67 (Murmis). The head is mesocephalic (ceph. ind. 80.7 on the liv. sub.), but sub-dolichocephalic or sub-brachycephalic forms are frequently met with. As a general rule, side by side with the Mongoloid type may be seen among the Thibetans, singly or united, the traits of another type, a somewhat slender figure, thin, prominent, often aquiline nose, straight eyes with undrooping eyelids, long and sometimes wavy hair, reminding one, in short, of the Gypsy type.[421]This type, moreover, is found beyond Thibet. TheLo-loorNésus, as they call themselves, of western Sechuen and the north-east of Yunnan, with whom we must connect theKoloorGolykof the country of Amdo (east of Thibet), perhaps represent it in its purest form, if the portrait of them drawn by Thorel is correct. With slight figure, brownish complexion, they have a straight profile, oval face, high forehead, straight and arched nose, thick beard even on the sides of the face and always frizzy or wavy hair.[422]Their language, however, fixed by a hieroglyphic mode of writing, appears to belong to the Burmese family.[423]The Lo-lo not under Chinese rule are of a gay disposition; they love dancing and singing. Woman is held among them in great respect; there are some tribes even whose chiefs belong to the weaker sex.
We must connect with the Lo-lo a multitude of other tribes, less pure in type: the variousMiao-tsé, mountaineers of the southern part of the province of Hunnan, of Kwei-chow, ofthe northern part of the Kwang-si, the north-west district of Kwang-tung, more or less intermixed with the Chinese; theLissusof the Lu-tse-Kiang (Upper Salwen) and the Lantsan-Kiang (Upper Mekong), near to the new boundary of China and British India; theMossoorNashisof the district of Li-Kiang to the east of the Lissus, related to the latter and having an iconomatic writing; lastly, theLu-tseorKew-tse, who call themselvesMelamsorAnoogs, to the west of the Lissus and separated by an inhabited tract from theMishmee, theSarongand other Thibeto-Indonesian tribes. The language of the Lu-tse differs from that of any of the neighbouring peoples, and their physical type places them between the Lissus and the Indonesians, such as the Naga for example; they are short (1 m. 56 according to Roux), but strong and vigorous; their hair is frizzy.[424]TheMu-tsementioned by Terrien de Lacouperie, theLawaorDoesdescribed by Holt Hallet, theMuzoursof T. de Lacouperie or theMusosof Archer, theKas-Khuisof Garnier, scattered between the Mekong and the Salwen from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth degree of north latitude, are probably akin to the Lo-lo and the Mossos.[425]
III. POPULATIONS OFEASTERNASIA.—The far east of Asia is inhabited by three nations of mixed origin: Chinese, Coreans, Japanese.
1. TheChineseform by themselves alone more than the third, if not the half of the population of Asia. They occupy in a solid mass the whole of China properly so called, andstretch in isolated groups far beyond the political limits of the “eighteen provinces.” Manchuria, Southern Mongolia, Dzungaria, a portion of Eastern Turkestan and Thibet have been invaded by Chinese colonists; and outside of the Empire it is estimated there are not less than three millions of “Celestials” who have emigrated to Indo-China, Malaysia, the two Americas, and even to the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Africa.
The Chinese people have sprung from manifold intermixtures, and indeed there are several types to discover in this nation, the anthropological study of which is scarcely more than outlined; as it is, however, according to historical data we may presume that five or six various elements enter into its composition.
We know from the books of Shu-King that the primitive country of the Chinese was the north of the present province of Kan-su. Thence the agricultural colonists moved (about the year 2200B.C., according to a doubtful chronology) into the fertile valley of the Houng-ho and its tributary the Wei or Hwei. Little by little, the Chinese colonists spread along other valleys, but it took them centuries to conquer the aboriginal tribes (theDjoong, theMan, thePa, theMiao-tse). Again in the seventh centuryB.C.(when exact chronology commences) the territory occupied by the Chinese scarcely extended beyond the valley of the lower Yang-tsi on the south and that of the Pei-ho on the north, and comprised within these limits several aboriginal tribes like theHoai, of the valley of the same name, or theLaiof the Shantung peninsula, who maintained their independence. However that may be, the Chinese succeeded, little by little, in driving back the first occupiers of the soil into the mountains of the west and south, where they are still found under the names ofMan-tse,Miao-tse,I-gen,Mans,Thos, etc.[426]