tionally. The Merkits were not indigenous to the country
near Baikal, but belonged originally,--according to a division set forth
in the Mongol text of the _Yuan ch'ao pi shi_,--to the category of tribes
_living in yurts_, i.e. nomad tribes, or tribes of the desert. Meanwhile
we find in the same biography of Chingis Khan, mention of a people called
Barhun, which belonged to the category of tribes _living in the forests_;
and we have therefore reason to suppose that the Barhuns were the
aborigines of Barhu. After the time of Chingis Khan, this ethnographic
name disappears from Chinese history; it appears again in the middle of
the 16th century. The author of the _Yyu_ (1543-1544), in enumerating the
tribes inhabiting Mongolia and the adjacent countries, mentions the Barhu,
as a strong tribe, able to supply up to several tens of thousands (?) of
warriors, armed with steel swords; but the country inhabited by them is
not indicated. The Mongols, it is added, call them Black Ta-tze (Khara
Mongols, i.e. 'Lower Mongols').

"At the close of the 17th century, the Barhus are found inhabiting the
western slopes of the interior Hing'an, as well as between Lake Kulon and
River Khalkha, and dependent on a prince of eastern Khalkhas, Doro beile.
(Manchu title.)

"At the time of Galdan Khan's invasion, a part of them fled to Siberia
with the eastern Khalkhas, but afterwards they returned. [_Mung ku yew mu
ki_ and _Lung sha ki lio_.] After their rebellion in 1696, quelled by a
Manchu General, they were included with other petty tribes (regarding
which few researches have been made) in the category _butkha_, or hunters,
and received a military organisation. They are divided into Old and New
Barhu, according to the time when they were brought under Manchu rule. The
Barhus belong to the Mongolian, not to the Tungusian race; they are
sometimes considered even to have been in relationship with the Khalkhas.
(_He lung kiang wai ki_ and _Lung sha ki lio_.)

"This is all the substantial information we possess on the Barhu. Is there
an affinity to be found between the modern Barhus and the Barhuns of
Chingis Khan's biography?--and is it to be supposed, that in the course of
time, they spread from Lake Baikal to the Hing'an range? Or is it more
correct to consider them a branch of the Mongol race indigenous to the
Hing'an Mountains, and which received the general archaic name of Bargu,
which might have pointed out the physical character of the c