File:Odd people. Being a popular description of singular races of man (1861) (14768724905).jpg

Identifier: oddpeoplebeingpo02reid (find matches)
Title: Odd people. Being a popular description of singular races of man
Year: 1861 (1860s)
Authors: Reid, Mayne, 1818-1883
Subjects: Ethnology Primitive societies
Publisher: Boston, Ticknor and Fields
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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wandering life.It is not the only quarter of the globe where this kindof people are found: as there are many nomade nationsin Africa, especially in the northern division of it; andif we take the Indian race into consideration, we findthat both the North and South American continentshave their tribes of wandering people. It is in Asia,nevertheless, that we find this unsettled mode of lifecarried out to its greatest extent, — it is there that wefind those great pastoral tribes, — or hordes, as theyhave been termed, — who at different historical periodshave not only increased to the numerical strength oflarge nationalities, but have also been powerful enoughto overrun adjacent empires, pushing their conquestseven into Europe itself. Such were the invasions of theMongols under Zenghis Khan, the Tartars under Ti-mour, and the Turks, whose degenerate descendantsnow so feebly hold the vast territory won by theirwandering ancestors. The pastoral life, indeed, has its charms, that render
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THE TURCOMANS. 219 it attractive to the natural disposition of man, and wher-ever the opportunity offers of following it, this life willbe preferred to any other. It affords to man an abun-dant supply of all his most prominent wants, withoutrequiring from him any very severe exertion, either ofmind or body ; and, considering the natural indolence ofAsiatic people, it is not to be wondered at that so manyof them betake themselves to this mode of existence.Their country, moreover, is peculiarly favorable to thedevelopment of a pastoral race. Perhaps not one thirdof the surface of the Asiatic continent is adapted toagriculture. At least one half of it is occupied by tree-less, waterless plains, many of which have all the char-acters of a desert, where an agricultural people couldnot exist, or, at all events, where their labor wouldbe rewarded by only the most scant and precariousreturns. Even a pastoral people in these regions would findbut a sorry subsistence, were they confined to one

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