for the same word, and whether they denoted one people or two. We may be satisfied that the two forms, as also the Mo-al of some of the earlier transliterators from the Chinese, are intended for one and the same.[1]
With the name of the land it was somewhat different. The Mongols themselves have perhaps never had a general name for the whole of the countries inhabited by their tribes—that is, for the region known to Europeans as 'Mongolia' in its most extended sense. At the time of Chingiz Khan, probably whatever country was vaguely regarded by Turki and Persian writers as being in the original occupation of the Mongols, or Moghuls, was called simply Moghulistan; but later, when a specific region, bordering on some of the most advanced and thickly peopled countries of the Turks and Tájiks, became the home of Mongol tribesmen, who made their presence felt in a manner none too agreeable, they absorbed the attention of their neighbours and came to be spoken of as the Moghuls in a special sense, and their land as Moghulistan. The rest of the race fell out of sight: their territory was far away and probably seldom heard of, while taking into consideration the loose ideas prevalent among Asiatics on such subjects, it is not in the least unlikely that the smaller, but better known, region, should have acquired for itself the name which, by strict right, should have been applied to the whole.
That the original population of this smaller region was composed of various nations, previous to its becoming the home of Mongol tribesmen, we have seen already. Abul Gházi tells us that it was inhabited by many tribes—some that were of Mongol race and others that were not—and D'Ohsson and Howorth amply demonstrate the same thing. It contained Uighurs, who were a tribe of Turki descent; Kara Khitai, whose origin was chiefly Manchu (and therefore of a Tungusic root), though probably much mixed with Mongol blood; also Naimans and Karluks, and perhaps some original Kirghiz, all of Turki ancestry; and, moreover, there were Kalmáks, who must be regarded as a branch of the Mongol race.[2] But when, during
- ↑ At the present day, it takes a sharp ear to distinguish the exact pronunciation, when the word is spoken by a true Mongol—as, for instance, a Khalka or a Chakhar. It sounds as often Mo-ghol or Mo-ol as Mongol; and sometimes even Monghol. But always with the vowel sound of o, and never that of ú. The latter vowel is, no doubt, a foreign introduction.
- ↑ The name Kalmák is a difficulty. It is unknown among the so-called Kalmáks, who treat it as a term of opprobrium, and it has been suspected to
