r the time of the great prototype of his class, the
Patriarch Abraham.

CHAPTER II.

THE MONGULS.

Monguls.--Origin of the name.--A Mongul family.--Their
occupations.--Animals of the Monguls.--Their towns and villages.--Mode
of building their tents.--Bad fuel.--Comfortless homes.--Movable
houses built at last.--The painting.--Account of a large movable
house.--The traveling chests.--Necessity of such an arrangement.--Houses
in the towns.--Roads over the plains.--Tribes and families.--Influence
of diversity of pursuits.--Tribes and clans.--Mode of making
war.--Horsemen.--The bow and arrow.--The flying horseman.--Nature
of the bow and arrow.--Superiority of fire-arms.--Sources of
information.--Gog and Magog.--Salam.--Adventures of Salam and
his party.--The wonderful mountain.--Great bolts and bars.--The
prisoners.--Travelers' tales.--Progress of intelligence.

Three thousand years is a period of time long enough to produce great
changes, and in the course of that time a great many different nations
and congeries of nations were formed in the regions of Central Asia.
The term Tartars has been employed generically to denote almost the
whole race. The Monguls are a portion of this people, who are said to
derive their name from Mongol Khan, one of their earliest and most
powerful chieftains. The descendants of this khan called themselves by
his name, just as the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob called
themselves Israelites, or children of Israel, from the name Israel,
which was one of the designations of the great patriarch from whose
twelve sons the twelve tribes of the Jews descended. The country
inhabited by the Monguls was called Mongolia.

To obtain a clear conception of a single Mongul family, you must
imagine, first, a rather small, short, thick-set man, with long black
hair, a flat face, and a dark olive complexion. His wife, if her face
were not so flat and her nose so broad, would be quite a brilliant
little beauty, her eyes are so black and sparkling. The children have
much the appearance of young Indians as they run shouting among the
cattle on the hill-sides, or, if young, playing half-naked about the
door of the hut, their long black hair streaming in the wind.

Like all the rest of the inhabitants of Central Asia, these people
depended almost entirely for their subsistence on the products of
their flocks and herds. Of course, their great occupation consisted in
watching their animals whil