m the Volga to Kashgar, and longitudinally
from the Persian frontier, the Hindu Kush and the Northern Himalaya, to
a line drawn east and west through the middle of Siberia, belong to the
Tartar group; whereas those further eastward, occupying Mongolia and
Manchuria, are Mongol in the stricter sense of the term.

A very little experience enables the traveller to distinguish between
the two. Both of them have the well-known characteristics of the
Northern Asiatic--the broad flat face, yellow skin, small, obliquely set
eyes, high cheekbones, thin, straggling beard; but these traits are more
strongly marked, more exaggerated, if we may use such an expression,
in the Mongol than in the Tartar. Thus the Mongol is, according to our
conceptions, by far the uglier of the two, and the man of Tartar
race, when seen beside him, appears almost European by comparison. The
distinction is confirmed by a study of their languages. All the Tartar
languages are closely allied, so that a person of average linguistic
talent who has mastered one of them, whether it be the rude Turki of
Central Asia or the highly polished Turkish of Stambul, can easily
acquire any of the others; whereas even an extensive acquaintance with
the Tartar dialects will be of no practical use to him in learning a
language of the Mongol group. In their religions likewise the two races
differ. The Mongols are as a rule Shamanists or Buddhists, while the
Tartars are Mahometans. Some of the Mongol invaders, it is true, adopted
Mahometanism from the conquered Tartar tribes, and by this change of
religion, which led naturally to intermarriage, their descendants became
gradually blended with the older population; but the broad line of
distinction was not permanently effaced.

It is often supposed, even by people who profess to be acquainted with
Russian history, that Mongols and Tartars alike first came westward to
the frontiers of Europe with Genghis Khan. This is true of the Mongols,
but so far as the Tartars are concerned it is an entire mistake. From
time immemorial the Tartar tribes roamed over these territories. Like
the Russians, they were conquered by the Mongol invaders and had long to
pay tribute, and when the Mongol empire crumbled to pieces by internal
dissensions and finally disappeared before the victorious advance of the
Russians, the Tartars reappeared from the confusion without having lost,
notwithstanding an intermixture doubtless of Mongol blood, their
o