MONGOLS, the name of a numerous and widely spread branch of the human family— the second in the classification of Blumenbach, and corresponding in almost every respect with the branch designated as Turanian by more recent etlindogists. See TURANIAN'S. Under the designation of Mongols are included not only the Mongols proper, but the Chinese and Indo-Chinese, Thibetans, Tartars of all kinds, Burmese, Siamese, Japanese, Esquimaux, Samoieds, Finns, Lapps, Turks, and even Magyars. Collectively, they are the great nomadic. people of the earth, as distinguished from the Aryans, Semites, and Hamites; and are the same who, in remote antiquity, founded what is called the "Median empire" in lower Chaidea, an empire, according to Rawlinson, that flourished and fell between about 2453 and 2234 B.C. ; that is, before Nineveh became known as a great city. Thus early did some of these nomadic tribes, forsaking their original pas toral habits, assume the character of a nation. Another great offshoot from this stock founded an empire in China, the earliest date of which it is impossible to trace, but which certainly had reached a state of high civilization at least 2000 years B.C. In early Greek history they figure as, Scythians, and in late Roman. as Huns, carrying terror and desolation over the civilized world. In the middle ages they appear as Mon gols, Tartars, and Turks. In the beginning of the 13th c., Genghis-khan (q.v.), origi nally the chief of a small Mongol horde, conquered almost the whole of central and eastern Asia. His sons and grandsons were equally successful, and in 1240-41, the Mongol empire extended from the sea-board of China to the frontiers of Germany and Poland, including Russia and Hungaria, and the whole of Asia, with the exception of Asia Minor, Arabia, India, and the Indo-Chinese states, and northern Siberia. This vast empire soon broke up into a number of independent kingdoms, from one of which, Turkistan, arose another tide of Mongol invasion under the guidance of Timour or Tamer lane, who, in the latter part of the 14th c., reduced Turkistan, Persia, Hindustan, Asia Minor, and Georgia under his sway, and broke, for a time, the Turkish power. On the death of his son Shah Rokh, the Mongol empire was subdivided, and finally absorbed by the Persians and lisbek.s, but an offshoot of Timour's family founded, in
the 16th c., the great Mogul empire of Delhi. After the decline of Timour's empire the Turkish branch maintained the glory of the race, and spread terror to the very heart of western Europe. In the 9th c. the Magyars, a tribe of Ugrians, also of Mongol extrac tion, under their leader Arpad, established themselyes in Hungary, where, in process of time, they became converted to Christianity, and founded a kingdom famous in Euro pean history. .See TURKS and HUNGARY.
The physical characteristics of the Mongols in their primitive state are thus described by Dr. Latham in his Descriptive Ethnology: "The face of the Mongolian is broad and flat. This is because the cheek-bones stand out laterally, and the nasal bones are depressed. The cheek-bones stand out laterally. They are not merely projecting, for this they might be without giving much breadth to the face, inasmuch as they might stand forward The distance between the eyes is great, the eyes themselves being oblique, and their carunculse being concealed. The eyebrows form a low and imper fect arch, black and scanty. The iris is dark, the cornea yellow. The complexion is tawny, the stature low. The ears are large, standing out from the head; the lips thick and fleshy rather than thin, the teeth somewhat oblique in their insertion, the fore head low and flat, and the hair lank and thin." Of course, such a description as this cannot be understood as applying to the more civilized nations of :Mongol origin, such as the Turks and Magyars, especially the latter, who in physical appearance differ but little, if at all, from other European nations.
In religion, the Mongols are, for the most part, Buddhists. There are among them, however, according to the different countries in which they reside, various other relig ions, as Confucianism, Taouism, fire-worship, paganism of different kinds, Mohammed anism, and Christianity: Tbe'Mongol languagesoyhich.are.v.s y autnerotts, are described by Dr Latham as being "aptotic and agglutinate, rarely with true amalgamate tion." In 1859, according to an estimate formed by prof. Dieterici, the Mongols of all kinds amounted in number to as many as 528,000,000, or about half of the human race.