_Distribution._--High Asia. East and West, from the Altai Mountains to the Wall of China; North and South, from the Tungús boundary to Tibet; conterminous with the Turks, southern Samöeids, Tungús, Chinese, and Tibetans.--The Volga, by migration. _Political Relations._--Subject to, _a._ China; _b._ Russia. _Religion._ Chiefly Buddhism. _Particular Divisions._ Mongols Proper, Buriats, Olot of Dzungaria; the Kalmuks of Russia; the Eimak of Persia. MONGOLIANS. _Localities._--1. Buriats. Parts about the lake Baikal, chiefly in the Russian territory, conterminous with the Samöeids, and Manchus. 2. Olot, Dzungarian, or Kalmuk Mongolians. _a._ The most western of the family, conterminous with the Turks of Yarkend, and Independent Tartary. _b._ Kalmuks of the tribes Dürbet and Torgod, who in 1662 crossed the Yaik, and settled on the Volga. The majority of them returned to Mongolia in 1770. These belonged to the Olots. 3. Mongolians Proper, of the Desert of Shamo, and the Kalkas. Conterminous with China. 4. Eimaks, Northern Persia; isolated tribes. The extent to which the Mongolian physiognomy is the type and sample of one of the most remarkable divisions of the human race, is one of the facts which gives this division prominence. The extent to which its tribes are the type and sample of a pastoral and nomadic race, is another. Their part in the history of the world is a third. This alone will be enlarged upon. The two other points are merely indicated. The great part played by the Mongolians, as devastating conquerors, begins and ends with Zingiz-Khan and his immediate successors. It _begins_ with him; because although fragmentary and obscure notices of their Mongolian neighbours are said to be found in the Chinese annals, it is only in the thirteenth century that we find definite and cotemporaneous historical evidence. It _ends_ with his successors in the fourth or fifth generation, notwithstanding the appearance which it takes of being continued further; inasmuch as the conquests of Tamerlane are Turk rather than Mongolian, and the Great Mogul empire of India was Turk rather than Mongolian also. To this confusion between the share taken by the two great pastoral nations of Central Asia, in spilling the blood of their kind, and in devastating the world, the indefinite use of the term _Tartar_ has done much to contribute. Few writers when they heard of _Tartar_ victories, asked whether the particular warriors were akin to the Mongolians who conquered China under Kublai-Khan, or to the Turks, who terrified Europe under Suliman. Yet such is the difference between these two divisions of the great Turanian stock. For the sake of avoiding any such further ambiguities, I have forbidden myself the use of the word _Tartar_ from this time forwards, throughout the present work.