fons which render it probable that they are all the work of one and the fame nation, however oppofite a judgment thofe may pafs who have beftowed on them only a curfory at. tention. Every thing that relates to the customs of the various fecie. ties mankind have formed, is a pro. per fubject of refeach to the inqui. fitive mind. The repofitories of the dead have in all ages been objects of regard; at firit as honourable tef. timonies of human fentiment; and in aftertimes as a ground of invef. tigation into the manners and opi. nions of men. There is no nation fo favage but has a reverence for mi. litary prowefs, or beneficent difpo. fitions for the man that is virtuous or heroic. Ideas of excellence may be various in various nations; but ex. cellency, according to that idea,will meet with renown. The honours that are paid to fuch as excel will be ever in fome degree characteristic of the people that beftowed them, and muft be confidered as popular tel. timonies to prevailing opinions.

It is doubtless natural enough for the hafty traveller to pafs over thefe, as matters of but fmall attraction; and had not the barbarons plunder. ers of the deferts beheld them as ob. jects of depredation, they would have ftill been unexplored It was from predatory views that they were firft dug open, and fome curious perfons have fince examined them with va. rious degrees of attention.

Of these Ruffian and Siberian fe. pulchres fome are perfect tumuli, raifed to an enormous height; while others are almoft level with the ground. Some of them are encom. paffed with a fquare wall of large quarry ftones placed in an erect po. fition; others are covered only with

a fmall heap of ftones, or they are tumuli adorned with ftones at top. Some are mured with brick within, and vaulted over; others are no more than pits, or common graves. In fome the earth is excavated several fathoms deep; others, and eipe. cially thofe which are topped by a lofty tumulus, are only dug of a fuf. ficient depth for covering the car. cafe.

What chiefly excites our afto. nithmentis, that fome of these fhould be furmounted by the large quarry ftones before mentioned: for in all the neighbouring country there is not a rock to be seen. They muft therefore have been tranfported thi ther from immenfe diftances, by the moft furprising efforts of labour; especially as the inhabitants of thefe parts have no idea of a machine ade. quate to the purpose in the most diftant degree.

Thefe fepulchres are difcovered only in plain and extenfive deferts, formerly the abode of a nation which feems to have fubfifted by patiurage and the produce of the chace. On fome fepulchral ftones figures of various forms are engraved, fuch as rude and midhapen outlines of the human face, croffes of different an. gies, and other reprefentations, which in all probability had never any meaning. But infcriptions, in any known or unknown languages or letters, have never hitherto been found upon them. And yet infcrip、 tions are to be met with on fingle ftones and ftatues in the defert, on this fide the river Yenifei, such as no one has ever been able to explain.

The foregoing are the feveral cha racteristics of the exterior form of thefe fepulchral monuments. For

pointing

pointing out their difference with in, the following remarks will amply fuffice.

In many of these fepulchres the bones of men, and frequently of horses, are found, and in a condition that rinders it probable the bodies were not burnt before they were in humed. Other bones fhew clearly that they have been previously burnt; becaufe a part of them is unconfumed, and because they lie in a difordered manner, and fome of them are wanting Urns, in which other nations of antiquity have deposited the afhes of their dead, are never met with here. But fometimes what remained of the bodies after the combuftion, and even whole carcafes, are found wrapped up in thin plates of gold. Many dead bodies are frequently feen depofited together in one tomb; a certain indication that either a battle had been fought in the neighbourhood of the place, or that fome families buried their relations in an hereditary tomb.

Skeletons of horfes are often found in thefe abodes of the dead. From whence we may infer, that the fame fuperftitiousopinionswhich ftill prevail among fome nations of the Eaft were likewife held by this ancient people. It is received as an article of faith by many tribes, that departed fouls continue the fame kind of life they followed while inhabitants of this material world; and Mohammed's doctrine of his paradife feems to be established on the fame belief. Men of quality therefore want their horfes, and their favourite wives, and the fervants that attended them in their terre. trial life. In conformity to this opinion, the women of India throw themfelves into the flames upon the body of their deceafed fpoufe; and

a fimilar cuftom was prevalent a mong the Yakutes, when they were firft fubje&ted o the Ruffian empire. The fervants that had been faithful to their matter were fain at his grave during the interment, and then buried with him. Nor was there any means of abrogating this cruel cuftom, but by punishing the guilty as wilful murderers. In con. fequence of the fame notion, the dead bodies were ornamented for denoting their quality in the future life.

In the tomb of the defunct were depofited his fword, and other implements of war; and to perfons of both fexes were given the uten fils and neceffaries that might be requite for the continuation of their exiftence.

No race of creatures in the hu. man form can be fo totally ftupid as to believe that thefe uten fils could be of any ufe to the dead bodies, fince they are affured that these re. main in the grave. When there. fore they adhere to thefe fuperfti. tious practices, it is the fouls of the wives, the horses, the fervants, and the utenfils (for, according to thefe pitilofophers, every production of nature and art is animated with a living foul) which they confecrate to the fpirits of their departed friends. This tenet, which was held by the moft remote antiquity, muft have been common likewife to the pople by whom thefe fepulchres were formed. For no other hypothes can account for the re. lics of gold and filver they general. ly contais; and of which many articles are carefully preferved in the Mufeum of the Imperial Aca. demy of St. Peteriburg, for the in fpection of the curious.

Some of hele fepulchres are rich; but in others, here as well as in

other

other districts, nothing of value is to be found. In the monuments abounding in the precious metals were without doubt depofited perfonages of rank; and we may prefume that, wherever these are frequently found, there anciently dwelt a wealthy nation. Nothing was added to the body in the graves of the poor; and we may thence infer that, when we find all the fepulchres in one diftri&t deftitute of any valuables, it was a poor people who there interred their dead.

The richest fepulchres are difcovered on the banks of the Volga, the Tobol, the Irtish, and the Ob. The tombs in the deferts on the river Yenifei are likewife not without relics of value; but thofe beyond the Baikal fea are the poorest of all. To account for this difference, we are by no means obliged to admit that thefe countries were inhabited by different nations. The most certain confequence to be drawn from it is, that fome nation inhabited these parts, which, at fucceffive periods, was in different conditions; poor in its commencement, but advancing afterwards from poverty to affluence. This inference is warranted by the hiftory of all ages.

There is a very remarkable circumftance obfervable in fome of the tombs on the upper part of the Yenifei, which forms an exception to the general rule of other fepulchres. Inftead of ornaments and utenfils of gold and filver found in other tombs, you meet here only with copper utenfils. Even fuch inftruments as would have been better wrought of iron, are here found all of copper, as knives, darts, and daggers. The nation therefore, whofe dead are here inhumed, feems to have been

unacquainted with the ufe of iron; and thefe tombs muft accordingly be more ancient than the others. Hence the travellers who found thefe relics conjectured that thofe regions must contain fome rich copper mines. And in this they were not miftaken; for the Sayane mountains abound in copper, and the mines have been worked by the ancient inhabitants of the country. In a large open defert on the river Abakan are likewife found mines of that metal; and if they yield not fo much at prefent as they formerly did, nothing is neceffary but induftry and attention for finding other places more abundant in mines. From the name of the Altaian mountains, a fimilar conjecture has been formed. Alta, in the language of the Mongoles and Kalmucs, fignifies gold; and this conjecture is now brought to perfect certainty by the difcovery of the mines of Kolyvan.

Hiftory has tranfmitted down to us no certain accounts of the nation whofe dead are here depofited, and who made ufe of copper utenfils and weapens inftead of iron. But, whoever they were, it is probable that the infcriptions in the unknown language, difcovered in thefe regions, were composed and written by that people. Perhaps it was the Uigures or Igureans, from whom the great founder of the Mongol monarchy firft received letters and the art of writing; for the nation was not inftructed in that art till the time of this conqueror. The Igureans muft certainly have been an ancient and a polished nation, if they invented a particular mode of writing, which had nothing in common with that of any other people. Such are these infcriptions.

But

But, if we prefume that Tfchingis ufed this manner of writing, his fucceffors must have changed it for another; fince the prefent Mongole writing evidently difcovers its Syrian origin. Yet even this language may be called the Igurean; becaufe certain miffionaries of the Neftorian fect lived among the Igureans, and communicated their manner of writing to the Mongoles. The word Uigur or Uegur, in the Mongole language, generally denotes a foreigner.

With greater certainty we may affirm, that the ancient fepulchres in Siberia and Ruffia are the work of the Tartars who lived in the reign of Tfchingis and his firft fucceffors. This hero founded his monarchy in the beginning of the thirteenth century. The Mongoles and Tartars united under his fceptre were at that time a poor people, wandering in the defarts of the rivers Selenga, Orchon, and Onon, and fometimes ftraying as far as the Baikal fea. This laft circumftance obviously affords us a reafon, why thefe tombs contain fo few valuable relics; and the fact is corroborated by hiftory, which likewife in its turn receives light from it. By the fame means as we are enabled to account for the poverty of the tombs about Selenginik and Nertfchinfk, we are capacitated alfo to afcertain whence the Tartars got these riches that are found in the other fepulchres.

In the year 1281 Tfchingis, began the conqueft of China, which was finished fo fuccefsfully by his nephew Koblai; in whofe perfon began a new dynafty, known in the history of that empire by the name of Juen, which continued uninterruptedly to the year 1369.

The Tartars foon made themselves rich in China; but, not contented with their wealth, they traversed almost all Afia, and a confiderable part of Europe; increafing their riches in proportion as they proceeded in their conquefts. In the year 1224 they firft invaded Ruffia, and fought that fignal battle on the river Kalka. From 1237 to 1240

they fubdued the whole country. Notwithstanding they were divided under different chieftains and into different parties, and those who over-run Afia had nothing in common with the conquerors of Europe but the name, they had however a general head of the family, who had been acknowledged by their forefathers. To the main camp of that chieftain was therefore brought much of the riches carried off from the conquered countries. I think it highly probable that this main camp was, in the thirteenth century, in fome parts of the defart on the Irtish; and that the Tartars, divided into different hordes, inhabited all the regions between the Yaik and the Ob. In that century the miffionaries from Rome, Carpin, Rubru quis, and others, vifited thefe countries. The last river they mention in their voyages is the Yaik; had they crotted the Irtish, they would not certainly have omitted to take notice of it. But, as they fay nothing of that river, we may thence infer that the camp of the Khans, to whom they were delegated, was on this fide of the river Irtith.

We know that European goldfmiths refided among the Tartars, and worked for them. Rubruquis mentions a Frenchman, Guilleaume, who he fays made very curi