Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎507r] (138/238)

China, the Avars, and the Franks. 351
and in Sogdo-Turkish, seems to point to some radical
divergency between the two Hiung-nu-descended nations.
There are points in their social life which also appear to
differentiate the Geougen from the Hiung-nu and Turks.
Not only is kumiss, or mares’ milk, not once mentioned in
their history, but the Geougen are particularly said to have
ridden cows as well as horses—not bulls or bullocks, but
actually cows and heifers. There are numerous evidences
that they were dirtier, stupider, and less inclined to engage
in hand-to-hand conflict than any other earlier or later
Tartars of their political pretensions. The King of the
Ytieh-pan, when on his way to pay them a visit of courtesy,
turned back in disgust at their gross and filthy habits. It
also comes out quite clearly that (however much Tunguz
there may have been mixed up with a basis of Turkish in the
Geougen rulers’ composition) the most eastern Tartars, or
Mongol-Manchus, when in possession of Chinese territory,
have always possessed a greater genius for organization and
discipline than have the western Tartars, or Turks, when in
the same predicament. The true position of the Geougen,
both ethically and topically, between these two main
Tartar divisions points to their having been what we
loosely call Mongols :—indeed, one of their Khans was
called Nogai : but to this day it does not appear clearly
what unmistakable features distinguish the average Mongol
from the average Sien-pi on the one hand, or from the
average Turk on the other. I take it the three stand very
much in the same mixed inter-relation as did the Gothic,
Scandinavian, and Teutonic elements. Moreover, we must
assume that the Mongol tribes, like the Turkish tribes,
existed for many generations before the word “ Mongol ”
gained national weight, as with the word “Turk” seven
centuries before it.
The Geougen had no political influence south of the great
road which leads from Si-an Fu to Kashgar; in other
words, they never penetrated for more than a few days at
a time south of the Great Wall. On one occasion only