Thus this highly gifted people are being assimilated to the western world in their social and religious, as well as their political institutions. Their intellectual powers, already tested in the fields of war, science, diplomacy, and self-government, are certainly superior to those of all other Asiatic peoples, and this is perhaps the best guarantee for the stability of the stupendous transformation that a single generation has witnessed from an exaggerated form of medieval feudalism to a political and social system in harmony with the most advanced phases of modern thought. The system has doubtless not yet penetrated to the lower strata, especially amongst the rural populations. But their natural receptivity, combined with a singular freedom from "insular prejudice," must ensure the ultimate acceptance of the new order by all classes of the community. FOOTNOTES: [569] As fully explained in _Eth._ p. 303. [570] Mark Aurel Stein, _Sand-buried Cities of Khotan_, 1903, and _Geog. Journ._, July, Sept. 1909. [571] R. Pumpelly, _Explorations in Turkestan_, 1905, and _Explorations in Turkestan; Expedition of 1904_, 1908. [572] Sven Hedin, _Scientific Results of a Journey in Central Asia_, 1899-1902, 1906, and _Geog. Journ._, April, 1909. [573] Douglas Carruthers, _Unknown Mongolia_, 1913 (with bibliography). [574] Ellsworth Huntington, _The Pulse of Asia_, 1910. [575] "The Asiatic Background," _Cambridge Medieval History_, Vol. I. 1911. [576] _Memoires de la Delegation en Perse; Recherches archeologiques_ (from 1899). [577] _Sand-buried Cities of Khotan_, 1903. [578] "Ueber Alte Grabstaetten in Sibirien und der Mongolei," in _Mitt. d. Anthrop. Ges._, Vienna, 1895, XXV. 9. [579] Th. Volkov, in _L'Anthropologie_, 1896, p. 82. [580] Too much stress must not, however, be laid upon the theory of gradual desiccation as a factor in depopulation. There are many causes such as earthquake, water-spouts, shifting of currents, neglect of irrigation and, above all, the work of enemies to account for the sand-buried ruins of populous cities in Central Asia. See T. Peisker, "The Asiatic Background," _Cambridge Medieval History_, Vol. I. 1911, p. 326. [581] _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ 1895, p. 318 sq. [582] Cf. _Archaeologia Cambrensis_, 6th Ser. XIV. Part 1, 1914, p. 131, and _Zeitschr. f. Ethnol._ 1910, p. 601. [583] "Zur Praehistorik Japans," _Globus_, 1896, No. 10. [584] The best account of the archaeology of Japan will be found in _Prehistoric Japan_, by N. G. Munro, 1912. [585] _Die Bronzezeit Finnlands_, Helsingfors, 1897. [586] "Akkadian," first applied by Rawlinson to the non-Semitic texts found at Nineveh, is still often used by English writers in place of the more correct _Sumerian_, the Akkadians being now shown to be Semitic immigrants into Northern Babylonia (p. 264). [587] Cf. L. W. King, _History of Sumer and Akkad_, 1910, pp. 5, 6. [588] _Ueber die Summerische Sprache_, Paper read at the Russian Archaeological Congress, Riga, 1896.