“the nomads in question were white, thank heaven”

Unknown Date

Dear Dave:

I noticed that in one of your letters you recommended that I bring “enough changes of clothes to go a couple of weeks between washings”. Am I to conclude from this that you actually wash and change your clothes? I’m supprised at you, sir! as Martin Ricardo said to Ms. Jones. I never wash my clothes except when I have to go to town, and when I get back here I get right back into the same old filthy rags, which I wear until they rot off my body. I am following a highly respectable example. I quote Otto J. Jaenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns (1973), pp. 259–260:

[Quoting the Roman historian Ammianns Marcellinus:]

“‘When they [the Huns] once put their neck into a faded tunic, it is not taken off or changed until by long wear and tear it has been reduced to rags and fallen from them bit by bit.’

“Ammianus cannot be blamed for taking the aversion of the Huns to washing their clothes for just another mark of their beastliness. Ibn Fadlan, a keen observer and ever ready to ask questions, noticed the same unclean habit among the Oguz without suspecting that it might have religious significance. The object of the Turkish and Mongol custom was to avoid offense to the water spirits. It probably was the same with the Huns, and it presumably corresponded happily with their natural inclinations. Priscus noticed as remarkable that Attila’s dress was clean. The ‘Massagetae’- Huns were as dirty as the Sclaveni.”

I suspect that the “Sclaveni” may be the ancient Slavs. It behooves us to be true to our racial antecedents and wash no more than is absolutely necessary to avoid being persecuted by the Public Health Dept.

Sep 2, 1986

Dear Dave:

I don’t know whether or not you find this kind of thing interesting, but in case you do, I’ll tell you about the fact that — leaving aside the probability of some Polish broade having been raped when the Tartars invaded that area — it is not unlikely that we have in our veins some few drops of Central Asian nomads. You neadn’t go to the mirror and anxiously searching your face to assure yourself that there is no hint of yellow in your complexion, cause the nomads in question were white, thank heaven.

We tend to think of all steppe nomads as Montolian types, but actually in ancient times the nomads of the westernly parts of Asian steppe were white. According to Herodotus, some of the tribes were blond. Later, the Tartars and suchlike mongoloid nomads pushed westward and absurbed those of the earlier nomads who did not move out to escape them. Among these earlier nomads of Western Central Asia were the Samiratians. I had previously encountered references to them in various books, but recently I came across an interesting by by one Professor Sulimirski, The Sarmatians, which supplies a great deal of information about them. The following information comes largely from this book, but also from other things I’ve read.

The Sarmatians were not a single tribe or nation, but an ethnic group — loosely related tribes spread over a large area. Some of them, apparently, were of the dark-complected Mediterranean physical type, while other groups were of a more northern racial type, since they had hair “incling to blond” according to one ancient writer. Like other Central Asian peoples they were horse-riding nomads who subsisted largely on the milk and meat of their livestock, though some groups praticed agriculture to a certain extent. Like other pastoral nomads, they were warlike, and, if my memory serves, one of the gods or idols that hey wershipped consisted of a naked sword stuck in the ground. Unfortunately, their society had a rigid caste system. Their language was an Iranian — and therefore Indo-European — dialect.

The Sarmatians apparently were the first “knights” — they wore armor and charged with lances, like the knights of the middle ages. Their armor, which covered practically their whole body was either of hardened leather, or of metal disks sewn onto leather, giving a scale-like effect. One ancient writer speaks of the Sarmatians being unable to rise when once they have fallen, because of the weight of their armor. Apparently they were quite formidable: Tacitus says that "hardly any line of battle can stand against them". This is impressive, since the Roman infantry were the best soldiers of their time. Of course, the Sarmatians never posed a serious threat to the Roman Empire, because they lacked the discipline and organization of the Romans; and also I imagine their heavy cavalry was only effective on open ground, where they could maneuver. I forget to mention that the Sarmations existed during the last few centuries B.C. and the first few centuries A.D.

L. Sprague De Camp (The Ancient engineers) credits the Sarmatians with the invention of the stirrup, which would have an important factor in their effectiveness as heavy cavalry.

Later, when the more eastern nomad groups pushed westward many of the Sarmation groups were forced out and moved into Europe — those who stayed behind were absorbed by the mongolian nomads. Groups of Sarmatians and/or Alans{1} fanned out all over Europe, some getting as far west as Spain, France, and England. Apparently a considerable segment of them ended up in Poland and made a significant contribution to the racial and cultural composition of that country.

According to Suliminski, there is a long-standing Polish tradition that the country is of Sarmation origin. Moreover, certain symbols that were used in Polish heraldry up to the early 20^th century were direct descendants of ancient Sarmation religions or magical symbols!

{1} Some hold that the Alans were a distinct people from the Sarmatioans, though closely related. Others, including Sulimirski, consider the Alans to have been one of the divisions of the Sarmatians.