The Siberian Overland Route from Peking to Petersburg,: Through the Deserts and Steppes of Mongolia, Tartary, &c.Michie, Alexander
History
The Siberian Overland Route from Peking to Petersburg,: Through the Deserts and Steppes of Mongolia, Tartary, &c.
Michie, Alexander
China -- Description and travel; Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel
To the casual observer, at least, the Mongols do not present the
same individual differences as their neighbours, the Chinese. In
complexion they are nearly all alike, although the skin seems to
get darker as the face becomes wrinkled with age, which might seem
to favour the idea that the brownish skin of the Mongols is due
as much to their habits as to their descent, or the effects of
climate. But the causes which influence colour are very obscure.
In Siberia, where Sclavonic races have been settled for nearly two
centuries, living side by side with Mongol tribes, and exposed to
the same climatic influences, these show no signs of variation from
the complexion of their ancestors, as it is exhibited by their
European representatives. Again, the Portuguese settlers in Macao,
who degenerate very rapidly, become in two or three generations much
darker in the skin than the native Chinese. It is not the smoky
atmosphere of their tents that darkens the skin of the Mongols, for
in that case, the women, who are more exposed to it, would be darker
than the men, the reverse of which is the case. A comparison with
the Japanese again would seem to show that exposure exercises at the
most an insignificant effect in darkening the skin. The Japanese
live much within doors, and are careful to protect themselves from
the sun when they stir abroad by means of broad-brimmed hats and
umbrellas. Great differences of complexion exist among them, whether
regarded as individuals or classes; but it is safe to say they are
on the whole quite as dark as the Mongols. The contrast between
men and women is singularly marked, the women having fair clear
complexions, often rosy. Yet the Japanese women are a good deal out
of doors, and are fairer skinned than the Chinese women, who are
only blanched by confinement to the house and exclusion from light
and air.
The Mongols, although deficient in muscular energy, and
incapacitated for sustained activity, are nevertheless gifted with
great powers of endurance. I have already noticed their capacity
for enduring prolonged fasts, and their ability to go several days
and nights without sleep, with equal impunity. The sudden and
important changes to which their climate is subject, are also borne
without any great suffering. From a hot summer, they are plunged,
with but slight gradations, into an extremely rigorous winter, when
the temperature falls very low, and is accompanied by keen cutting
winds, that sweep over the steppes with merciless fury, and from
which they have no better protection than their tents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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