IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The heart of a continent : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
118 THE HEART OF A CONTINENT. [CHAP. V.
In fact, afterwards, in the bazaar at Hami, I could easily distinguish a Kashgari from an inhabitant of the eastern end of Turkestan.
As I proceeded westward I noticed a gradual, scarcely perceptible change from the round of a Mongolian type to a
sharper and yet more sharp type of feature. Whether this is accidental, or whether it is brought about by the commingling
of separate races, I know not ; but I think I am not wrong in stating that the further east one goes, the rounder and broader are the faces of the inhabitants, and the further west one goes the longer and narrower they become.
This may perhaps be accounted for in this way. As is well known, Mongolia was formerly occupied to a large extent by Turks (Uigars), but these were driven out by the Mongols, who finally, under Chingiz-Khan and his successors, overspread the whole of Turkestan and the countries to the west. Manchuria,
however, the original home of the Tartars, was never inhabited by Turks ; and in Eastern Mongolia we see the truest type
of Tartar feature. In Western Mongolia the features are
somewhat (though not very much) longer and narrower. In the eastern part of Turkestan there is a decided change towards the Turanian type, but still the round, broad Tartar
features are very prominent ; and then as we proceed westward, and get further away from Mongolia into the lands where the Mongols, or Moghuls, as they are also called, and Turks have lived together, and are now merged into one race, we notice that their faces become gradually longer and narrower ; and further west still, among some of the inhabitants of Afghan Turkestan, numbers of whom may be seen in Kashgar and Yarkand, we see that the Tartar or Mongol type of feature is. almost entirely lost.
Here at Morgai, too, I saw the Turki women. Very different they were from the doll-like Chinese women, with painted faces, waddling about on contorted feet ; from the sturdy, bustling
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