ccessible parts of Asia was clouded by ignorance, or perplexed by
fiction. But those inaccessible regions are the ancient residence of
a powerful and civilized nation, [22] which ascends, by a probable
tradition, above forty centuries; [23] and which is able to verify
a series of near two thousand years, by the perpetual testimony of
accurate and contemporary historians. [24] The annals of China [25]
illustrate the state and revolutions of the pastoral tribes, which
may still be distinguished by the vague appellation of Scythians, or
Tartars; the vassals, the enemies, and sometimes the conquerors, of a
great empire; whose policy has uniformly opposed the blind and impetuous
valor of the Barbarians of the North. From the mouth of the Danube to
the Sea of Japan, the whole longitude of Scythia is about one hundred
and ten degrees, which, in that parallel, are equal to more than five
thousand miles. The latitude of these extensive deserts cannot be so
easily, or so accurately, measured; but, from the fortieth degree, which
touches the wall of China, we may securely advance above a thousand
miles to the northward, till our progress is stopped by the excessive
cold of Siberia. In that dreary climate, instead of the animated picture
of a Tartar camp, the smoke that issues from the earth, or rather from
the snow, betrays the subterraneous dwellings of the Tongouses, and the
Samoides: the want of horses and oxen is imperfectly supplied by the
use of reindeer, and of large dogs; and the conquerors of the earth
insensibly degenerate into a race of deformed and diminutive savages,
who tremble at the sound of arms. [26]

[Footnote 16: Abulghasi Khan, in the two first parts of his Genealogical
History, relates the miserable tales and traditions of the Uzbek Tartars
concerning the times which preceded the reign of Zingis. * Note: The
differences between the various pastoral tribes and nations comprehended
by the ancients under the vague name of Scythians, and by Gibbon under
inst of Tartars, have received some, and still, perhaps, may receive
more, light from the comparisons of their dialects and languages by
modern scholars.--M]

[Footnote 17: In the thirteenth book of the Iliad, Jupiter turns away
his eyes from the bloody fields of Troy, to the plains of Thrace and
Scythia. He would not, by changing the prospect, behold a more peaceful
or innocent scene.]

[Footnote 18: Thucydides, l. ii. c. 97.]

[Footnote 19: See the fourth bo