i., p. 239, 400; 'Examen
Critique de l'Histoire de la Geogr.', th. ii., p. 320. A distinguished
philologist, Professor Buschmann, calls attention to the circumstance that
the poet Firdousi, in his half-mythical prefatory remarks in the
'Schahnameh', mentions "a fortress of the Alani" on the sea-shore, in which
Selm took refuge, this prince being the eldest son of the King Feridun, who
in all probability lived two hundred years before Cyrus. The Kirghis of the
Scythian steppe were originally a Finnish tribe; their three hordes probably
constitute in the present day the most numerous nomadic nation, and their
tribe dwelt, in the sixteenth century, in the same steppe in which I have
myself seen them. The Byzantine Menander (p. 380-382, ed. Nieb.) expressly
states that the Chacan of the Turks (Thu-Khiu), in 569, made a present of a
Kirghis slave to Zemarchus, the embassador of ustinish II.; he terms her a
[Greek word]; and we find in Abulgasi ('Historia Mongolorum et Tatarorum')
that the Kirghis are called Kirkiz. Similarity of manners, where the nature
of the country determines the principal characteristics, is a very uncertain
evidence of identity of race. The life of the steppes produces among the
Turks (Ti Tukiu), the Baschkirs (Fins), the Kirghis, the Torgodi and
Dsungari (Mongolians), the same habits of nomadic life, and the same use of
felt tents, carried on wagons and pitched among herds of cattle.
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