Note 493 — Chapter VI

The etymology of Tartars from Tartarus is ascribed to the piety of Saint Louis in Prichard's Physical History, vol. iv. p. 278; but I think that I have met with it before his time, though I cannot now recover the passage. The earliest instance I remember is in 1241, when the saint was twenty-six years old. See a letter from the emperor Frederick, in Matthæi Paris Historia Major, p. 497: ‘Pervenissent dicti Tartari (imo Tartarei),’ &c; and on the expression of Louis, see p. 496: ‘Quos vocamus Tartaros ad suas Tartareas sedes.’ Since the thirteenth century, the subject has attracted the attention of English divines; and the celebrated theologian Whiston mentions ‘my last famous discovery, or rather my revival of Dr. Giles Fletcher's famous discovery, that the Tartars are no other than the ten tribes of Israel, which have been so long sought for in vain.’ Memoirs of the Life and Writings of William Whiston, p. 575. Compare, on the opinions held respecting the Tartars, Journal Asiatique, Ie série, vol. vi. p. 374, Paris, 1825.