The account we have given of our journey on the banks of the Volga, and the steppes of the Caspian, will have afforded the reader an idea of the strange and striking habits of the nomade hordes that wander with their flocks over those vast deserts, and worship their Llamite deities with all the pomp and fervour of the nations of Thibet. Our historical and political sketch will serve as a complement to those primary notions. It is by no means our intention, however, to give a complete history of the Kalmucks; such a work would be too extensive, and would require too long and arduous researches to be compressed within our limits. At present we shall only cast a rapid glance over the past history of the great Mongol families; we shall dwell principally upon their actual condition, and then comparing our own observations with the statements of preceding writers, we shall try to cast some new light on the history of the Asiatic races that occupy the south of Russia.
Pallas and B. Bergmann, the only travellers who have taken pains to investigate the history of the Kalmucks in the government of Astrakhan, have left us some valuable details respecting their manners and customs, and their religion. But Pallas travelled in 1769, and circumstances have greatly changed since his day. B. Bergmann visited the Kalmucks in the early part of this century, and it is to be regretted that his work, which contains such important information respecting the languages and the religious books of the Mongols, takes no notice whatever of any matter connected with their political administration and organisation.
It is not surprising that so little is yet known of the Kalmuck hordes, for excursions through the remote Steppes of the Caspian Sea present difficulties and hardships which few travellers can withstand. One must unquestionably be impelled by a strong motive, to traverse those immense plains which are almost everywhere destitute of fresh water, where one often marches 100 leagues without seeing a trace of human life, and where the soil, bare of vegetation, offers no other variety than sands and brackish lakes. Yet in order to form an exact idea of the inhabitants of these deserts, of their character, and ways of life, it is necessary to dwell beneath their tents. It is in the vicinity of Sarepta that the traveller arriving from the north meets the first Kalmuck kibitkas. The camps then stretch away across the Manitch and the Kouma towards the foot of the great Caucasian chain. We have explored all that extent of country, have visited the remotest parts of the steppes, and seen the Kalmucks in an advanced social stage at Prince Tumene's, and in a primitive condition beneath their tents. It is thus we have been enabled to collect our information respecting the history and present condition of this unique people of Europe.
According to the unanimous opinion of all historians, the regions adjoining the Altai mountains, and especially those south of that great chain, appear to have been from time immemorial the cradle and domain of the Mongol tribes. At first divided into two branches, always at war with each other, the Mongols were at last united into one great nation under the celebrated Genghis Khan, and thus was laid the basis of that formidable power which was to invade almost the whole of eastern Europe. But after the death of Genghis Khan, the old discord broke out with renewed violence, and only ended with the mutual destruction of the two great Mongol tribes. The Mongols proper were forced to submit to the Chinese, whom they had formerly vanquished, and the four nations that formed the Doerboen OEroet, scattered themselves over all the north of Asia. The Koites, after long wars, spread over Mongolia and Thibet; the Touemmoites or Toummouts settled along the great wall of China, where they remain to this day; the Bourga Burates, who already in the time of Genghis Khan inhabited the mountains adjacent to Lake Barkal, are now beneath the Russian sceptre; the Eleuthes, the last of the four, are better known in Europe and Western Asia under the appellation of Kalmucks.
According to ancient national traditions, the greater part of the Eleuthes made an expedition westward, and were lost in the Caucasus, long before the time of Genghis Khan. It is to that epoch that some historians refer the origin of the word Kalmuck, which they derive from kalimak, severed, left behind, and they suppose this designation was applied to all those Eleuthes who did not accompany their brethren westward. According to Bergmann, kalimak signifies likewise unbeliever, and this name may very naturally have been given by the people of Asia who adhered to the primitive religion, to the Eleuthes, when they had become converts to Buddhism. We leave to competent judges the task of deciding which is the more rational or probable explanation.