The valleys which lie between them necessarily confine the wandering savage to an eastward or westward course, and the slope of the land westward invites him to that direction rather than to the east. And further, at a certain point in these westward passages, as he approaches the meridian of the Sea of Aral, he finds the mountain-ranges cease, and he has the permission, if he will, to stretch away to the north or to the south. Moreover, his course is naturally to the west, from the nature of the case, if he moves at all, for the East is his native home.

There, in the most northerly of these ranges is a lofty mountain, which some geographers have identified with the classical Imaus; it is called by the Saracens Caf, by the Turks Altai; sometimes too it has the name of the Girdle of the Earth, from the huge appearance of the chain to which it belongs, sometimes of the Golden Mountain, from the gold, as well as other metals, with which its sides abound. It is said to be at an equal distance of 2,000 miles from the Caspian, the Frozen Sea, the North Pacific Ocean, and the Bay of Bengal ; and, being in situation the furthest withdrawn from West and South, it is in fact the high metropolis of the vast Tartar country, which it overlooks, and has sent forth, in the course of ages, innumerable populations into the illimitable and mysterious regions around it, regions protected by their inland character both from the observation and the civilizing influence of foreign nations.

To eat bread in the sweat of his brow is the original punishment of mankind; the indolence of the savage shrinks from the obligation, and looks out for methods of escaping it. Com, wine, and oil have no charms for him at such a price; he Gibbon.

turns to the brute animals which are his aboriginal companions, the horse, the cow, and the sheep; he prefers fd'be a grazier than to till the ground. He feeds his horses, flocks, and herds on its spontaneous vegetation, and then in turn he feeds himself on their flesh. He remains on one spot while the natural crop yields them sustenance; when it is exhausted, he migrates to another. He adopts, what is called, the life of a nomad.

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