Considering first the peoples of the Northern Mongolian
division, we find in the typical Manchurian what is perhaps the nearest
among modern people to the original race. Spreading northward and westward
from the middle Asiatic plains, this great wave has produced the nomadic
tribes of Siberia, like the Chukchi, the Buryats, and the Yukaghir. The
present inhabitants of Turkestan connect those forms which have remained
near the original home with the races of Mongolian origin that live
farther to the westward, like the Turks of Asia. But the Mongolian tide
originally swept much farther to the west, although it was driven back
later by conquering Caucasian peoples; and it has left behind such
remnants as the Finlander and the Laplander, the Bulgar, and the Magyar.
It is evident that these western branches of the Mongol stock are not at
all pure in their racial characteristics, for they clearly show the
effects of a mixture with alien European peoples. To assign them to the
Northern Mongol division means only that their dominant characteristics
are mainly those of Mongolian nature. We have referred the Russians to the
middle Caucasian division even though the Slav or Tartar infusion is very
great, but it does not dominate over the Caucasian peculiarities as it
does in the case of the peoples we have mentioned.
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