It is a singular fact, which, however, may perhaps admit of explanation, that nearly all the true Mongol peoples have been Buddhists since the spread of Sakya-Muni's teachings throughout Central Asia, while their Turki kinsmen are zealous followers of the Prophet. Thus is seen, for instance, the strange spectacle of two Mongolic groups, the Kirghiz of the Turki branch and the Kalmuks of the West Mongol branch, encamped side by side on the Lower Volga plains, the former all under the banner of the Crescent, the latter devout worshippers of all the incarnations of Buddha. But analogous phenomena occur amongst the European peoples, the Teutons being mainly Protestants, those of neo-Latin speech mainly Roman Catholics, and the Easterns Orthodox. From all this, however, nothing more can be inferred than that the religions are partly a question of geography, partly determined by racial temperament and political conditions; while the religious sentiment, being universal, is above all local or ethnical considerations. Under the first term of the expression _Mongolo-Turki_ (p. 256) are comprised, besides the Mongols proper, nearly all those branches of the division which lie to the east and north-east of Mongolia, and are in most respects more closely allied with the Mongol than with the Turki section. Such are the _Tunguses_, with the kindred _Manchus_, _Golds_, _Orochons_, _Lamuts_, and others of the Amur basin, the Upper Lena head-streams, the eastern affluents of the Yenisei, and the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk; the _Gilyaks_ about the Amur estuary and in the northern parts of Sakhalin; the _Kamchadales_ in South Kamchatka; in the extreme north-east the _Koryaks_, _Chukchis_, and _Yukaghirs_; lastly the _Koreans_, _Japanese_, and _Liu-Kiu (Lu-Chu) Islanders_. To the Mongol section thus belong nearly all the peoples lying between the Yenisei and the Pacific (including most of the adjacent archipelagos), and between the Great Wall and the Arctic Ocean. The only two exceptions are the _Yakuts_ of the middle and Lower Lena and neighbouring Arctic rivers, who are of Turki stock; and the _Ainus_ of Yezo, South Sakhalin, and some of the Kurile Islands, who belong to the Caucasic division.