inctions of rank may have been introduced, by the unequal
distribution of pastoral wealth, they mutually respect themselves, and
each other, as the descendants of the first founder of the tribe. The
custom, which still prevails, of adopting the bravest and most faithful
of the captives, may countenance the very probable suspicion, that this
extensive consanguinity is, in a great measure, legal and fictitious.
But the useful prejudice, which has obtained the sanction of time and
opinion, produces the effects of truth; the haughty Barbarians yield a
cheerful and voluntary obedience to the head of their blood; and their
chief, or mursa, as the representative of their great father, exercises
the authority of a judge in peace, and of a leader in war. In the
original state of the pastoral world, each of the mursas (if we may
continue to use a modern appellation) acted as the independent chief
of a large and separate family; and the limits of their peculiar
territories were gradually fixed by superior force, or mutual consent.
But the constant operation of various and permanent causes contributed
to unite the vagrant Hords into national communities, under the command
of a supreme head. The weak were desirous of support, and the strong
were ambitious of dominion; the power, which is the result of union,
oppressed and collected the divided force of the adjacent tribes;
and, as the vanquished were freely admitted to share the advantages of
victory, the most valiant chiefs hastened to range themselves and their
followers under the formidable standard of a confederate nation. The
most successful of the Tartar princes assumed the military command, to
which he was entitled by the superiority, either of merit or of power.
He was raised to the throne by the acclamations of his equals; and the
title of Khan expresses, in the language of the North of Asia, the full
extent of the regal dignity. The right of hereditary succession was long
confined to the blood of the founder of the monarchy; and at this moment
all the Khans, who reign from Crimea to the wall of China, are the
lineal descendants of the renowned Zingis. [13] But, as it is the
indispensable duty of a Tartar sovereign to lead his warlike subjects
into the field, the claims of an infant are often disregarded; and some
royal kinsman, distinguished by his age and valor, is intrusted with the
sword and sceptre of his predecessor. Two distinct and regular taxes are
levied on the trib