They  appear  at  an  early  date  upon  the  head-waters
of  the  great  river  of  Eastern  Asia,  fighting  their
way  down  into  the  valley  and  fertile  plains,  im-
pelled possibly  by  the  Aryans,  who  seem  to  have
invaded  the  Turanian  home-land.  The  Chinese  are
Turanians.  Not  only  do  they  possess  all  the  physi-
cal characteristics  of  the  Yellow  race,  but  the
language  itself   seems  to  bear  all  the  marks  of  an

^•NoTE. — The  writer  draws  many  of  his  facts  from  the  History  of
China,  by  R.  K.  Douglass,  Boston,  1885,  and  once  for  all  makes  his
acknowledgment.
58


The  Yellow  Races,  59

Ural-Altaic  origin.  These  Yellow  invaders  of  China
brought  with  them  the  culture  which  their  race  at
that  time  possessed.
3.  The  culture  of  the  primitive  Chinese  has  been
identified  with  that  of  the  Turanian  population  of
ancient  Chaldea.  Everything  seems  to  indicate  that
this  culture  **  was  imported  into  the  country  and  not
arrived  at  within  its  borders.'*  Thus  these  immi-
grants brought  with  them  a  knowledge  of  agricul-
ture carried  on  by  means  of  artificial  irrigation,  just
as  it  was  in  Babylonia.  They  brought  with  them  a
knowledge,  not  only  of  the  arts  that  minister  to  the
wants  and  comforts  of  primitive  man,  but  of  astron-
omy and  of  writing.  The  oldest  forms  of  many  of
their  characters  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  the
cuneiform  symbols  used  in  Chaldea.  Chinese  tradi-
tion attributes  the  invention  of  these
civilising  influences  to  Emperor  Nak-kon-^i^|"^®J*^***
ti,  who  is,  no  doubt,  identical  with  the
Susanian  deity,  Nakhunte.*  It  is  probable  that  the
ancient  Chinese  and  the  Turanian  Chaldeans,  leaving
their  Altai  home-land  about  the  same  time,  bore
with  them  the  culture  of  the  race.  Nakhunte  may
have  been  some  renowned  chieftain,  who  had  made
himself  famous  in  the  common  fatherland.
