tic history they have been distributed still more widely. Considerable confusion has been occasioned by the incorrect application of the term Tartars to the Turkish race, an appellation which is now too well settled to admit of change. It appears to have been originally applied by Asiatic writers to the Mongol race, and when the Turkish tribes were subdued by them, the name passed from the princes, who were Mongols, to their subjects. "Remusat, who, with Klaproth, had determined the original identity of the Mongols and Tartars, proposed to confine the latter appellation to the former race. But in the utter commixture of the northern tribes, to use Tartar as a generic name, would lead but to further confusion."* The Tartars, as the term is now understood, belong to the Caucasian family, and in their physical characteristics they are distinguished by an oval head, a fresh, white complexion, and great beauty and symmetry of countenance.† The Mongol physiognomy is widely different, and is nearly allied to the American; the complexion is described by most physiologists as of an olive or yellow color, but as will be seen, there are some tribes in Siberia of a regular copper color. Commencing on the western shore of Behring's straits, we find the Tchutski, who are divided into two classes, the Sedentary and the Wandering. They may be clearly identified with the American family, as well by their language‡ as by their manners, customs and appearance, and it is thought they are of American origin. They speak the same language, * Travels by Rose, Ehrenburgh and Von Humboldt, in For. Quar. Rev., No. 40. † Tooke, vol. i. p. 280; vol. ii. p. 44. ‡ Arch. Am., vol. ii. p. 10. Cochrane's Pedestrian Tour, pp. 203, 198, 274. however, as the Koriacks, or Korciki, a tribe in their vicinity. The resemblance in their customs to those of the Americans is not peculiar to this nation, but is common to many others of Siberia, and no argument therefore in favor of their American origin can be drawn from that circumstance.* "From what I have seen of the Koriacks," says Cochrane, "I have no doubt of their being of the same tribe as the Tchutski; they have the same features, manners and customs, and the same language." According to a Russian author of great authority, "the language of the Tchutski is derived from that of the Koreki, and differs from it in dialect only ;"+"they agree in most of their customs and habits with the Kamtschatdales," and "the Tchutski should be accounted a race of the Koreki.” The Koriacks are also divided into two tribes; the wandering family are of smaller stature. They are described as having long black hair, small eyes, a short nose, and large mouth. Strahlenburgh says that they have no beards, but only a few loose hairs scattered over their chins. "The Lutorzi," he adds, (the Tchutski ?) "who live eastward of the former, and towards the coast of the main ocean, were as to shape, customs and language, the very same with the Koraiki, except that they made their habitations under ground." "They are beardless like the Laplanders, Samoides and Ostiacs; for in the first place they have naturally very little hair about the mouth, and what little they have, they pluck out, as do also the Yakuti, Tungusi and Kalmucks.”§ *See Plescheef, pp. 49, 52. Sauer's Expedition, pp. 254, 257, 322. Pennant, vol. i. p. 264. Ledyard, 246. ↑ Krasheninicoff's Hist. Kamtschatka, trans. by Grieve, p. 47. ‡ Ibid. p. 222. § Strahlenburgh, appendix, pp. 458, 396. The Kamtschatdales are swarthy, of a small stature, have straight black hair, high cheek bones, oblique eyes and scanty beard. It has been supposed of this people, as well as of the Tchutski, that they were of American origin; an idea which Captain Cochrane pronounces ridiculous.* The Yakuts are of a low stature, with long black hair, but little beard, and "their complexion is a light copper-color."+ The Mantchoos belong to the Tongoo, or Tungusi race, and resemble them in appearance and features; and the latter, besides the oblique eye, black hair and slender beard of the Mongols, are described as "copper-colored.”§ The Burretti, the Calmucks, and the Mongols near Bogdo, are all described as of a complexion varying from a yellow or swarthy hue to a brownish red or copper-color, with small beards, black hair, and oblique eyes.|| The Chinese, Japanese, Siamese and other inhabitants of Indo-China, all present the same general physical type, modified in various degrees, but conforming in a great measure to the characters of the Mongols; and the same race appears to have penetrated into Thibet, Bootan, and Nepaul. The close analogy which exists between the Mongol and American families, notwithstanding certain diversities which have been observed, cannot be better illustrated than by the testimony of * Pedestrian Journey, pp. 293, 294. Coxe's Russ. Disc., p. 197. § Cochrane, p. 140, 141. Ledyard, p. 243. p. 54. † Ibid. p. 327. Plescheef, p. 67. Tooke, vol. ii. p. 282. Cochrane, p. 95. Crawfurd's Siam, vol. ii. p. 3. Cuvier, Règne Animal, vol. i. travellers, and of those who have had personal opportunities for direct comparison. "There is a great resemblance in feature," says Mr. Andrews, "between these Indians along the banks of the Rio Chico in South America, and some of the people I have seen in the east, especially the mixed breed of Chinese and Malay in Java. The high cheek bone, sharp angular eyes, and small beards, agree."* "I shall only remark further," observes Mr. Bell, “that from all the accounts I have heard and read, of the natives of Canada, there is no nation in the world which they so much resemble as the Tongoos."+ "The American race," says Humboldt, "has a striking resemblance to the Mongol nations, which include those formerly called Huns, Kulans, and Kalmucks." "The Viceroy of Brazil retains a dozen of the native Indians in his service, as rowers of his barge. We observed the Tartar or Chinese features, particularly the eye, strongly marked in the countenances of these Indians. The copper tinge was rather deeper than the darkest of the Chinese, but their beards, being mostly confined to the upper lip, and the point of the chin, together with their strong black hair, bore a very near resemblance.”f Chinese colonists have been imported into Brazil, and afford a valuable opportunity of contrasting their appearance with the native Americans. "The physiognomy of the Chinese colon * Andrews' Travels in S. Am., p. 76. † Bell's Journey, p. 176. Barrow's Travels, p. 30. ists," say Spix and Martius, "was particularly interesting to us, and was in the sequel still more so, because we thought we could perceive in them, the fundamental lines which are remarked in the Indians. The figure of the Chinese is indeed rather more slender, the forehead broader, the lips thinner and more alike, and the features in general more delicate and mild, than those of the American who lives in the woods; yet the small, not oblong, but roundish, angular, rather pointed head, the broad crown, the prominent sinus frontales, the low forehead, the pointed and projecting cheek bones, the oblique position of the small narrow eyes, the blunt, proportionally small, broad flat nose, the thinness of the hair on the chin, and the other parts of the body, the long smooth black hair of the head, the yellowish or bright reddish tint of the skin, are all characteristics common to the physiognomy of both races. The mistrustful, cunning, and, as it is said, often thievish character, and the expression of a mean way of thinking, and mechanical disposition appear in both, in the same manner. In comparing the Mongol physiognomy with the American, the observer has opportunity enough to find traces of the series of developments, through which the eastern Asiatic had to pass, under the influence of the climate, in order to be transformed into an American. In these anthropological investigations we arrive at the remarkable result, that certain characteristics, which constitute the principal difference of the races, do not easily pass into others, whereas, those which depend only upon more or less, gradually vanish or degenerate, through a series of different gradations."* * Travels in Brazil, vol. i. p. 277. |