Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/799

MONGOLIA. 721 MONGOLIA. barter, furs, woolen stiiH's, .skins, sheep, camels, horses, etc.. being exchanged for salt, timber, tea, silk, cottons, sugar candy, etc. Brick tea is the chief medium of exchange. A very extensive and important (ransit trade pas.ses through Mongolia from I'ekiiig. through Kalganand L'rga to Kiakhta in Siberia, tea being the chief c(immodit3' from China. This gives con- siderable employment to several of the tribes as conductors of the caravans, particularly the Su- nids. who occupy the central portion of the Gobi, and thousands of camels are employed. Roads — i.e. well-beaten track.s — abound, and run in all di- rections, except in the sandy parts, and there are usually two or more to every important ])lace, camels going one way and ox-carts another, de- pending on the pasturage and the water. There are few cities or towns, the Mongols being for the most part tent-dwellers who usually camp on one spot all winter, but move occasionally during summer to some suitable pasturage with- in their own tribal limits. Population axd Government. The country is ruled as a military colony by the Li Fan Yuen, or 'Colonial Department,' at Peking. The popu- lation has been estimated at from 2,000.000 to 5,000.000. The latter number seems excessive, but probably includes the inhabitants of Sun- garia and Koko-nor. as well as the very large number of Chinese who have taken up their abode here as merchants and farmers. The Mongols are divided into aimaks or tribes, each governed by its own chieftain, and subdivided for military purposes into Koshun, or 'banners.' The north- ern half of the country is occupied ( 1 ) by four khanates (eighty-three banners) — Dzassaktu, Sain-noin. Tsushctu, and Tsetsen — each governed by a ]u-ince claiming descent from Genghis Khan, controlled by two JIanehu residents, whose seat is at Urga, the capital. The four khanates are composed entirely of Khalkhas. the most powerful of all the tribes. (2) By Kobdo and I'lianghai. dependencies of Uliassutai, ruled by their own chieftains, and a Chinese Amban or Minister Resident at L'liassutai. The rest of the country - — known as Inner Mongolia — is occupied by twenty-four aimaks or tribes, each with its own hereditary chieftain, the whole divided into forty- nine banners, forming six corps. The most im- portant of these are the Kortchin, on the Man- churian border, who joined the ilanchus in the conquest of China, and the Ordos within the great bend of the Yellow River. The Chakhars I and Bargou are not included in the jurisdiction I of Mongolia; their pasture lands are now in- tcluded williin the Province of Pe-chi-li. They are governed by a Tu-tung, or lieutenant-general, who resides at Kalgan. Similarly the Tumets north of Shan-si are included in that province, and are (with the Ordos) controlled by a gen- Icral residing at Kwei-hwa-ch'ing. The people jpay no taxes to China ; only a cattle tax to the Iprinces, who pay a certain nominal Iribute to [the Emperor of China, whom they acknowledge las paramount, agreeing to have no relations [■with any foreign power. The princes furnish Icertain military contingents when needed, and Jare required to visit Peking at stated periods. fTheir military forces consist entirely of cavalry. Rei.ioion. Buddhism was introduced by Kub- Jlai Khan, and the Mongols are now strongly de- |"Voted to Lamaism (q.v.). Several males of each IdEamily become lamas or priests, and in this they are encouraged by the Chinese Government. There are numerous great lamaseries in Mongolia — e.g. in the vicinity of .leliol (q.v.) — and tem- ples are fouiul well seatteied over the country. The spiritual head of .Mongolian Buddhism is the Kutuhlu, or Living Buddha — next in impor- tance to the (Jrand Lama of Tibet — who resides at Urga. Social Life. The Mongols are a cheerful, good-natured, and hospitable people. They live in tents {i/urts) of a very close-grained dark fabric, lined with felt, with a hole in the roof for escaping smoke, its occupants squatting on the felt-covered door, supporting their back.s against the boxes and chests which line the 'wall.' There is no furniture beyond small tables. Though Buddhists, they are not aver.se to flesh- eating; but few except princes and nobles, or specially wealthy persons, can afford such a luxury. Their ordinary food consists of prepara- tions of milk and millet, buckwheat Hour, oat- meal, and the like. Mutton, however, is kept in the houses of the well-to-do for festive occa- sionSj for the entertainment of guests, or to be used when prescribed medically. E.xcept among princes and the agricultural Jlongols bordering on China, chopsticks are not used — the fingers or a spoon sullice. ^'omen are not secluded as in China, and in their marriage customs a sem- blance of the primitive fashion of wiving by 'capture' is retained. Language. Mongolian is an agglutinative language, belonging to the Ural-Altaic family. It is closely allied to the Manchu. and in its grammatical procedures it greatly resembles Korean. Throughovit Mongolia proper it is free from dialectal differences, but slight dif- ferences exist in Kalmuck (as in Sungaria) and among the Buriatic Mongols of Siberia. It was reduced to writing in the time of Genghis Khan, the alphabet then introduced being bor- rowed from that of the Uighur Turks of Kasli- gar, who had at an earlier period borrowed theirs from the old Sj'riae which had been intro- duced by the Nestorian missionaries. It consists of seventeen consonants, seven vowels, and five diphthongs. These are grouped on the left of a vertical stem forming syllables which are ar- ranged in columns read downward and from left to right. As in Korean, case is indicated by appended particles; the plural is formed by separable alfi-xes; there is no grammatical gen- der; there are no relatives, and very few true conjunctions ; the verb is very elaborate, the ad- jective uninflected ; prepositions become post-posi- tions, the governed word jirecedes that which governs it; and. as in China, the book language differs somewhat from the spoken. The litera- ture is not extensive. It comprises Buddhist scriptures and some translations from the CJIii- nese: some folklore and fairv tales, and the great history of the Eastern Mongols, written in the seventeenth century by Sanang Setsen. Botli the Old and New Testaments were done into Mon- golian by Stallybrass and Swan in 18.'5fi-46. History. Little is known of the origin and earl,v history of the Mongols. They are referred to in the history of the T'ang dvnasty (seventh centurv). but the.v begin to find a place in world history only in the appearance of Temu-jin, later known as Gencrhis Khan (q.v.). the leader of a great wave of bloodshed and conquest which overspread Asia and struck terror into Europe.