a country like ours, where the
pursuits of men are so infinitely diversified, the descendants of
different families become mingled together in the most promiscuous
manner. The son of a farmer in one state goes off, as soon as he is of
age, to some other state, to find a place among merchants or
manufacturers, because he wishes to be a merchant or a manufacturer
himself, while his father supplies his place on the farm perhaps by
hiring a man who likes farming, and has come hundreds of miles in
search of work. Thus the descendants of one American grandfather and
grandmother will be found, after a lapse of a few years, scattered in
every direction all over the land, and, indeed, sometimes all over the
world.

It is the diversity of pursuits which prevails in such a country as
ours, taken in connection with the diversity of capacity and of taste
in different individuals, that produces this dispersion.

Among a people devoted wholly to pastoral pursuits, all this is
different. The young men, as they grow up, can have generally no
inducement to leave their homes. They continue to live with their
parents and relatives, sharing the care of the flocks and herds, and
making common cause with them in every thing that is of common
interest. It is thus that those great family groups are formed which
exist in all pastoral countries under the name of tribes or clans, and
form the constituent elements of the whole social and political
organization of the people.

In case of general war, each tribe of the Monguls furnished, of
course, a certain quota of armed men, in proportion to its numbers and
strength. These men always went to war, as has already been said, on
horseback, and the spectacle which these troops presented in galloping
in squadrons over the plains was sometimes very imposing. The shock of
the onset when they charged in this way upon the enemy was tremendous.
They were armed with bows and arrows, and also with sabres. As they
approached the enemy, they discharged first a shower of arrows upon
him, while they were in the act of advancing at the top of their
speed. Then, dropping their bows by their side, they would draw their
sabres, and be ready, as soon as the horses fell upon the enemy, to
cut down all opposed to them with the most furious and deadly blows.

If they were repulsed, and compelled by a superior force to retreat,
they would gallop at full speed over the plains, turning at the same
time in their saddles,