_Languages._--With amalgamate inflections, or else anaptotic; rarely agglutinate, never aptotic. _Distribution._--Europe. _Influence on the history of the world._--Greater than that of either the Mongolidæ or the Atlantidæ. Moral as well as material. These characters have been framed to meet the typical, sub-typical, and _quasi_-transitional, but not the true transitional forms. The reason of this is clear. Where the transition is _real_, and where the affiliation in the way of descent coincides with similarity of conformation, the tribe thus situated belong to _two_ divisions, rather than to any single one. MONGOLIDÆ. DIVISIONS. A.--THE ALTAIC MONGOLIDÆ. B.--THE DIOSCURIAN MONGOLIDÆ. C.--THE OCEANIC MONGOLIDÆ. D.--THE HYPERBOREAN MONGOLIDÆ. E.--THE PENINSULAR MONGOLIDÆ. F.--THE AMERICAN MONGOLIDÆ. G.--THE INDIAN MONGOLIDÆ. A. ALTAIC MONGOLIDÆ. The term Altaic is taken from the Altai mountains in Central Asia, these being a convenient geographical centre for the different nations and tribes comprised in this division. It contains the following sub-divisions:-- 1. The Seriform Stock. 2. The Turanian Stock. I. _SERIFORM STOCK._ _Physical conformation._--Mongol. _Languages._--Either wholly aptotic, or with only the rudiments of an inflection. _Area._--China, Tibet, and the Indo-Chinese, or Transgangetic, Peninsula, as far as Malaya; the Himalayan, and parts of the sub-Himalayan, range of mountains. _Chief Divisions._--1. The Chinese. 2. The Tibetans. 3. The Anamese. 4. The Siamese. 5. The Kambojians. 6. The Burmese. 7. The Môn. 8. Numerous unplaced tribes. I have begun with the nations and tribes represented by the Chinese, Tibetans, and Indo-Chinese, on the strength of the primitive condition of their languages. This represents the earliest known stage of human speech; by which I mean, not that it was spoken earlier than the other tongues of the world, but only that it has changed, or grown, more slowly. I should also add, that over and above the fact of these languages being destitute of true inflection, the separate words generally consist of only a single syllable. Hence the class has been called _monosyllabic_. This latter character, however, has no _essential_ connection with the aptotic form. A language of dissyllables or trisyllables may, for any thing known to the contrary, be as destitute of inflections as a monosyllabic one. Still, it must be admitted that no such tongue has yet been discovered. THE CHINESE. _Locality._--China; bounded by the countries of the Koreans, Mantshu, Mongolians, Tibetans, and the hill tribes of the Transgangetic Peninsula and Assam. _Religion._--Modified Buddhism, or the religion of Fo. _Mode of Writing._--Rhæmatographic, _i.e._ the written signs represent whole _words_;[9] not merely the parts of words, single articulate sounds or syllables.