on the Shores of the 'Erni" Sea, ofUral, whether in the environs of the Balkash and Alatan, there is little difference to be found in the dialects spoken by them.
The Kirghiz between the Ural and Lake Balkash, including the Buriat, are, of all Turks, most nearly allied to the Mongols. The great Kirghiz steppe is the eastern portion of a belt of low-lying country which stretches from Europe into Asia, along the frontier of southern Siberia, and is divided by the upheaved chain of the Ural moun tains, which run in a north and south line. The Kirghiz hordes occupy the low plain which, com mencing from the north-eastern shores of the Caspian, and continuing along the Eruba steppe, passes across the country north of Lake Ural, directly to the eastern end of the Balkash. They also inhabit the banks of the middle and lower courses of the Syr-i-Darya (Jaxartes), as well as the Kizzel Koom (red sand) deserts, which are localities taken .possession of by them in more recent times.
Tungus are widely distributed ; there are Tun gus in China and on the Frozen Ocean. Manchu, who conquered China in A.D. 1644, and founded a dynasty, belonged to the Tungus. The Tsha podgir occupy between the Yenisei and Tunguska. Mongol and Tungus are few in number, and many of the tribes are dying out. Since the 8th century, the Chinese have known the Mongol as the Mung-kii, but they applied to them the nick name of Tata. This is the origin of the term Tartar, Tatar, or Tahtah, a designation used at the present day as vaguely as Scythia was by the Greeks. By a dialectal change in the Persian language, Mongol becomes Moghul, a term applied to emperors of India, successors of Baber, though Baber was not a Mongol, but a Turk, who wrote and spoke Jaghtai Turki.
The Hazara spoke the language of the Mongol so late as the time of the Baber. The two hordes of the eastern Mongol inhabit the eastern half of Gobi. The Mongols sometimes bury their dead ; often they leave them exposed in their coffins, or cover them with stones, paying regard to the sign under which the deceased was born, his age, the day and hour of his death, which determine the mode in which he is to be interred. For this purpose they consult some books, which are ex plained to them by the Lamas. Sometimes they burn the corpse, or leave it exposed to the birds and wild beasts. Children who die suddenly are
left by their parents on the road.
Kalmuk call themselves Olot, the peculiar people.' They have four hordes,—the Zungar, the Turget, the Khoshod, and the Turbet. They also call themselves Durban-Oirad, the four allies. The meaning of the term Kalmuk is uncertain. The Turget tribe of the Kalmuk, feeling oppressed by the continually increasing power of the Zungar, emigrated to Russia in A.D. 1636, and were granted pasturage on both banks of the Lower Volga by the Czar Michael Feodorovitch. After the de struction of the Zungar power by the Chinese in 1756, in the reign of the Emperor Tsian Lung, the remnants of the Kalmuks rejoined their com patriots in Hussia ; but on the 5th January 1770, the great portion of .the tribe, 150,000 souls of them, in 30,000 kibitkas, set 'out from the Lower Volga to return to China. They were beset on their route by the Kirghiz Kazak, by the Cossacks of the Ural, and by the Burnt or Black Kirghiz; and by other Turk tribes ; but 70,000 of the emi grants eventually reached their•ancient pasturages, —about half the number of those who started from the Lower Volga.
At the present day, from 80,000 to 100,000 Kalmuk, following the Buddhist religion, are found in the Government of Astracan.
The Kalmuk in Bokhara are descendants of followers of Chengiz Khan, and of stragglers left by the Turget Kalmuk in 1771, in their migration from the Volga to Eastern Turkestan. The latter speak their own language.
Kazak. — The territory occupied by this race extends from the Caspian to the rivers Ural, Tobal, and Irtish, and the Altai mountains on one side, and to the Tian Shan and Hindu Kush and the Amu on the other. Their numbers are computed at 400,000 families, or between 2 to 2:4 millions of souls, viz. the Great Horde, 75,000 families; Middle Horde, 165,000; and Little Horde, 160,000. At present the Middle Horde is more in contact with Russia, and is the most civilised, and three divisions roam within Russian territory. They have Mongol features, with black hair ; are strong, healthy, and well made ; slow, heavy, and ill-favoured. They are morose, vindictive, and revengeful ; passionate, but not brave, greedy and avaricious; . but are attached to their country, are grateful for kind ness, and respect the aged.