Minns describes the Sarmatians as nomads of the Caspian steppes who wore armor like the Hiung-nu. About 325 B. C. there was a decline of the Scyths and they appear. During the second and third centuries A. D. was the time when they spread over the vast regions from Hungary to the Caspian. Minns, however, is firm in the belief that they were Iranians [Nordics], like the Alans, Ossetes, Jasy, etc. In the second half of the fourth century B. C. they were still east of the Don or just crossing; for the next century and a half we have very scanty knowledge of what was happening in the steppes. Procopius, III, II, also makes them Goths. (See the note to p. 66 : 16.) Feist, 5, p. 391, quotes Tacitus as to their being horse-loving nomads of south Russia. See also D’Arbois de Jubainville, 4, t. I, and Gibbon, chaps. XVIII, XXV, etc., for further discussions. 144 : 11 _seq._ See the authorities quoted, in Ripley, pp. 361–362. The Bashkirs, however, are partly Finn, partly Tatar as well. 144 : 26–145: 1. Ripley, pp. 416 _seq._ and 434. 145 : 3. Ripley, p. 434. 145 : 7. Freeman, 1, pp. 113–115; Haddon, 3, p. 45. 145 : 10. Ripley, p. 421. These are the Volga Finns. Old Bulgaria, according to Pruner-Bey, 2, t. I, pp. 399–433, P. F. Kanitz and others, seems to have been between the Ural mountains and the Volga. The old Bulgarians were a Finnic tribe (just which is a matter of much dispute). They crossed the Danube toward the end of the seventh century. See Freeman, 1, pp. 17, 155. 145 : 11 _seq._ Ripley, p. 426, based on Bassanovič, p. 30. 145 : 16. Ripley, p. 421. 145 : 19. Of the numerous tribes who, since the Christian Era, have entered Europe and Anatolia from western Asia some were undoubtedly pure Mongoloids, like the Huns of Attila, or the hordes of Genghis Khan. Others were probably under Mongoloid leaders, and included a large proportion of West Asiatic Alpines (_i. e._, Turcomans), while still others may have been substantially Alpines. The Mongols in their sweep into Europe would naturally gather up and carry with them many of the tribes of western Asia, or perhaps more often would drive the latter ahead of them. 146 : 3 _seq._ Ripley, p. 139; Taylor, 1, p. 119; Peake, 2, p. 162. 146 : 8. Ripley, p. 136. These primitive nests occur also in Norway. 146 : 12. See the note to p. 131 : 26. 146 : 19–147 : 6. See pp. 122 and 138 of this book.