[655] I have not thought it desirable to touch on the interminable controversy respecting the ethnical relations of the Hiung-nu, regarding them, not as a distinct ethnical group, but like the Huns, their later western representatives, as a heterogeneous collection of Mongol, Tungus, Turki, and perhaps even Finnish hordes under a Mongol military caste. At the same time I have little doubt that Mongolo-Tungus elements greatly predominated in the eastern regions (Mongolia proper, Manchuria) both amongst the Hiung-nu and their Yuan-yuan (Sien-pi) successors, and that all the founders of the first great empires prior to that of the Turki Assena in the Altai region (sixth century A.D.) were full-blood Mongols, as indeed recognised by Jenghiz-Khan himself. For the migrations of these and neighbouring peoples, consult A. C. Haddon, _The Wanderings of Peoples_, 1911, pp. 16 and 28. [656] On the authority of the Wei-Shu documents contained in the Wei-Ch[=i], E. H. Parker gives (in the _China Review_ and _A Thousand Years of the Tartars_, Shanghai, 1895) the dates 386-556 A.D. as the period covered by the "Sien-pi Tartar dynasty of Wei." This is not to be confused with the Chinese dynasty of Wei (224-264, or according to Kwong Ki-Chiu 234-274 A.D.). The term "Tartar" (Ta-Ta), it may be explained, is used by Parker, as well as by the Chinese historians generally, in a somewhat wide sense, so as to include all the nomad populations north of the Great Wall, whether of Tungus (Manchu), Mongol, or even Turki stock. The original tribes bearing the name were Mongols, and Jenghiz-Khan himself was a Tata on his mother's side. [657] Mrs Bishop, _Korea and Her Neighbours_, 1898. [658] T. de Lacouperie says on "a Tibeto-Indian base" (_Beginnings of Writing in Central and Eastern Asia_, 1894, p. 148); and E. H. Parker: "It is demonstrable that the Korean letters are an adaptation from the Sanskrit," _i.e._ the Devanagari (_Academy_, Dec. 21, 1895, p. 550). [659] See p. 261. Also Koganei, "Ueber die Urbewohner von Japan," _Mitt. d. Deutsch. Gesell. f. Natur- u. Voelkerkunde Ostasiens_, IX. 3, 1903, containing an exhaustive review of recent literature, and N. G. Munro, _Prehistoric Japan_, 1912. [660] J. Deniker, _Races of Man_, 1900, pp. 371-2. See also J. Batchelor, _The Ainu of Japan_, 1892, and the article "Ainus" in _Ency. of Religion and Ethics_, 1908. [661] G. Baudens, _Bul. Soc. Geogr._ X. p. 419. [662] See especially E. Baelz, "Die koerperlichen Eigenschaften der Japaner," in _Mitt. der Deutsch. Gesell. f. Natur- u. Voelkerkunde Ostasiens_, 28 and 32. [663] _Cruise of the Marchesa_, 1886, I. p. 36. [664] _Geogr. Journ._ 1895, II. p. 318. [665] _Geogr. Journ._ 1895, II. p. 460. [666] _Journ. Anthrop. Soc._ 1897, p. 47 sq. [667] _Ibid._ p. 58. [668] Ripley and Dana, _Amer. Cyc._ IX. 538.