Chapter VII. On The Origin Of The American Tribes.

Appendix A. Analytical Comparison Of Some Of The Most Important Words In

The African Languages With The Analogous Words In The Languages Of Asia,

Europe, And America.

Appendix B. Containing (Arranged According To The Tribes And Regions Of

Africa) The African Words Compared In Appendix A, With The Corresponding

Terms In The Languages Of Asia, Europe, And America.

Footnotes

DEDICATION.

TO

LADY HALL OF LLANOVER.

MY LADY,

This volume has been published in consequence of the following opinion

expressed by Dr. PRICHARD on an Essay written by the Author for a National

Society, in whose proceedings your Ladyship takes a lively interest:

“This Essay contains very valuable matter, which I trust we shall

hereafter see in print.”

Notwithstanding the deference which I consider due to the sentiments of so

eminent an authority, had I committed to the press, without revision, the

hastily-written Essay to which he was thus pleased to refer, I might have

conformed to the letter, but I should have violated the spirit of this

very flattering recommendation. Instead of so doing, I have availed myself

of such intervals of leisure as I have been able to command from more

imperative engagements in maturing the conclusions embodied in the present

volume, of which only a very trifling portion consists of the Essay in

which it originated.

Independent of the numerous claims to the respect and esteem of your

countrymen, which your Ladyship has earned by the warm attachment you have

ever evinced for the literature and institutions and for the welfare of

the Cymry, there is no other person to whom I could, with equal justice,

have dedicated a volume which has been written in accordance with your

Ladyship’s suggestion and request. For the same reason, in inscribing

these pages to your Ladyship, I have the satisfaction of feeling that they

will be received not only with the indulgence required by all works which

are the fruit of intervals of professional leisure—but also with that

patriotic sympathy which you never fail to extend to all investigations

prompted by national feelings and directed to subjects of national

interest.

I have the honour to remain,

Your Ladyship’s

Very faithful and obedient servant,

THE AUTHOR.

INTRODUCTION. ON THE CONNEXION OF THE CONCLUSIONS OF THIS WORK WITH

HISTORY, SACRED AND PROFANE, AND WITH THE RESULTS OF SCIENCE.

_Interpretation of the Passage commented on by Grotius. Mr. Lyell’s

Geological Proofs of the Recent Origin of Man. Grounds of Adelung’s

Opinion that Central Asia was the Birthplace of the Human Race. Its

Central Position and High Elevation. Its Climate. It is the native Country

of Domestic Animals. This View consistent with the Scriptural Narrative,

and supported by ancient Indian Accounts. __“__Ararat__”__ of Scripture

not in Armenia. Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic Languages. Dr. Prichard on

the Origin of different Races. The Dispersion of Mankind probably very

rapid. Routes of Diffusion. Basques and Celts. Connexion of the Welsh with

Negro Dialects. The Peopling of Islands. The Unity of the Human Species

deduced from the Uniformity of the Moral, Mental, and Social Features of

civilized and uncivilized Races. Egyptians and Negroes. Ancient Gauls and

Modern French. Tendencies to Progression among Races yet uncivilized. The

N. A. Indian Tribe the Mandans. Imperfection of Modern Civilization. The

Siege of Genoa. The Hottentot Race._

In commenting on a celebrated passage of Scripture, Grotius has adopted,

with regard to the primitive language of mankind, the conclusion expressed

on the title-page.

“That Language the Hebrews say is the same as theirs—the Syrians say it is

the same as theirs. It may be asserted, with more truth, that the

Primitive Language is not extant in a pure state anywhere, but that its

_remains exist in all languages_!”

Of the conclusion thus expressed by this celebrated writer—a conclusion

dictated by the intuitive sagacity of a great mind—the facts developed in

the following pages will be shown to be confirmatory. All existing

languages, when viewed separately, are _fragmentary and irregular_. But

when a wide and extensive comparison is instituted, the “disjecta membra”

are found to reunite, and the irregularities to disappear!

Assuming the various languages of the Globe to have been derived from one

Original Speech, it will be established that the formation of numerous

distinct languages from that one Primitive Tongue admits of a complete

explanation, by means of causes of which the agency can be traced within

the range of the Historical era. The influence of those causes will be

shown within a limited period of time to have produced dialects which

display—not a _destruction_—but a _dispersion_ of the elements of the

Parent languages from which _they are known to have arisen_. In other

words, these dialects manifest the _same relative features_ as are

exhibited by those languages which were formed _anterior to the period of

History_. The only distinction is, that in the latter case the differences

are more numerous and extensive—a result which is obviously a necessary

consequence of a longer period of time.

Agreeably to an interpretation which has received very high sanction, the

event described in the passage referred to in the title-page cannot be

pronounced to have had any considerable share in the production of Human

Languages, for, according to eminent authorities,(1) the changes thereby

caused probably consisted in mere Dialectic differences, not materially

affecting the Words or Structure of Language. Moreover (it is inferred)

the influence of that event did not extend to the whole Human Race, but

merely to that small portion of it who were the ancestors of the Semetic

or Syro-Phœnician nations.

In these pages are embodied proofs, from Language, of the two following

propositions:—1. That the various nations of our Globe are descended from

one Parent Tribe. 2. That the introduction of the Human Species into the

system to which it belongs, cannot be referred to an epoch more ancient

than the era indicated as the date of that event by our received systems

of chronology.

These propositions, of which the Philological evidence is developed in

this volume, are supported not only by the testimony of History, Sacred

and Profane, but also by the highest Scientific authorities.

In Cuvier’s theory of the Earth the date of the origin of our species is

discussed, not only on Geological but also on Historical grounds, in a

disquisition embracing an immense mass of learning on the subject of the

supposed antiquity of the Chinese, Egyptians, and other nations who have

laid claim to a very remote origin. These pretensions are rejected, and

the date usually assigned to the origin of Man is adopted in this

celebrated work.

The same views have been expressed by Mr. Lyell; views which he espouses,

not merely as the result of his own reasonings, but of the prevalent

conclusions of the highest geological authorities.

“I need not dwell,” he observes, “on the proofs of the low antiquity of

our species, for it is not controverted by any experienced geologist;

indeed the real difficulty consists in tracing back the signs of man’s

existence on the earth to that comparatively modern period when species,

now his contemporaries, began to predominate. If there be a difference of

opinion respecting the occurrence in certain deposits of the Remains of

Man, and his works, it is always in reference to strata confessedly of the

most modern order, and it is never pretended that our race co-existed with

assemblages of Animals and Plants, of which all or even a great part of

the species are extinct. From the concurrent testimony of history and

tradition we learn that parts of Europe now the most fertile, and most

completely subjected to the dominion of Man, were, less than three

thousand years ago, covered with forests, and the abode of wild beasts.

The archives of nature are in accordance with historical records, and when

we lay bare the most superficial covering of peat we sometimes find

therein the canoes of the savage, together with huge antlers of the wild

stag, or horns of the wild bull. In caves now open to the day, in various

parts of Europe, the bones of large beasts of prey occur in abundance, and

they indicate that at periods comparatively modern in the history of the

globe the ascendancy of man, if he existed at all, had scarcely been felt

by the brutes.”(2)

(See an analogous argument of Berkeley for the Recent Origin of Man,

quoted with approbation by Mr. Lyell, vol. iii. p. 203.)

In what part of the Globe was the Human species first introduced? On this

interesting question various opinions have existed, and very opposite

theories have been propounded. Sir Humphry Davy(3) surmised that this

locality must have been somewhere in or near the Tropics, in a climate

suited to the tender childhood of the Race. Sir William Jones fixed upon

Persia or Iran.(4) Adelung has concluded in favour of a contiguous

locality; viz., the regions of the Indus, the borders of Cashmire and

Tibet. It may be observed also that his grounds, in some respects,

coincide with those adopted by Sir William Jones, who, after alluding to

the extensive and, as he conceives, fundamental differences between the

Languages of—1, The Persians and Indians, Romans and Greeks, &c.; 2, The

Jews, Arabs, &c.; 3, The people of China and Japan; and 4, The

Tartars—nations whom, nevertheless, he conceives to have descended from

one pair—observes, “If, then, you consider the seats of all the migrating

nations as points in a surrounding figure, you will perceive that the

several rays, diverging from _Iran_, may be drawn to them without any

intersection; but this will not happen, if you assume as a centre,

_Arabia_ or _Egypt_; _India_, _Tartary_, or _China_: it follows that

_Iran_, or _Persia_ (I contend for the _meaning, not the name_,) was the

central country which we sought.”

Adelung’s(5) Dissertation on this subject, which, as he states, contains

“the only hypothesis in which he has permitted himself to indulge,” is

characterized by profound reasoning and graceful illustration. Considering

their variety and extent, his proofs seem to be conclusive, especially

when dissociated from the opinion which was entertained both by himself

and Sir William Jones, viz., that the languages of the nations forming the

diverging radii of migration are fundamentally different. Of these

languages the original unity will be apparent, from the facts embodied in

this work. Adelung’s grounds for selecting the Central Asiatic regions of

Cashmire and Tibet are—1. Their Geographical position and high elevation,

and the direction of their mountains and rivers, which render these

countries a natural source for the diffusion of Population over the Globe.

2. Their Climate and Natural productions. 3. The Ancient Indian accounts

which are corroborated by the Scriptural narrative. 4. In these regions is

the line which separates from other Asiatic races the nations who exhibit

the Mongol or Tartar Physiognomy. 5. The same line separates the

Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic Languages. 6. The Astronomical reasonings of

Bailly.

1. Geographically.

Central Asia forms a natural centre for the diffusion of population over

the Globe, as will appear from the following passages from an authority by

whom Adelung’s views have been adopted:(6)

“Asia, exhibiting such characteristics in its outline, is no less

remarkable for the form of its surface, on which the climate, and

consequently the vegetation and animal kingdom, of its different parts

must chiefly depend. In examining the other divisions of the globe, we

find that Australia exhibits level and comparatively low countries without

many high mountain-ranges, as far as we yet know. Africa is divided into

two nearly equal parts, the southern of which forms an almost uniform

table-land, whilst the northern, with the exception of the Atlas region,

may be considered as a lowland. Europe contains plains of small extent

lying between dispersed mountain-groups and ridges; but these plains are

not confined to any particular parts. In America the highest land lies on

one side, occupying its western coast from the extreme north to the south;

it forms the most extensive system of mountain-chains on the globe, which

inclose within their arms elevated plateaus, but of comparatively small

extent. _Asia exhibits different features. The whole mass of the interior

continent rises to a considerable __ elevation above the sea, and this

elevated mass, of which the high table-lands occupy by far the greatest

extent, is not placed at one of the extremities of the whole mass, but

occupies its centre._

“From these table-lands, which occupy the centre of Asia, the surface

descends in gradual and diversified terraces and slopes to the lowlands

which surround them.”

After stating that these table-lands consist of two terraces, (viz. an

Eastern system, composed of Tibet and the Great Desert, called Gobi, and a

Western terrace, including Iran or Persia,) which unite where the ranges

of the Himalaya, Hindu-Kuh, Thsungling, and Belur Tagh meet, the same

writer thus alludes to the regions which form the point of junction:

“Such a juxta-position of all the great features which nature exhibits on

the surface of the globe, on such a colossal scale, and in so limited a

space, makes this one of the most remarkable spots on the face of our

planet. This maximum of the contrasts of natural features, placed in the

centre of the continent, is the principal characteristic which

distinguishes Asia. By drawing a circle with a radius of a few hundred

miles round this common centre, we comprehend in it the countries of

Cashmere, Sogdiana, and Cabulistan, the ancient empires of Bactria, Delhi,

and Samarcand, the cold table-lands of Tibet, of Khotan, and of Kashgar,

up to the ancient Seres and Paropamisadæ.”

Further, the same writer, after describing the immense variety of climate

that occurs within this limited space, adds:

“From the extremity of these table-lands, especially on the _south-east

and north-east, south-west and north-west_, there issue several separate

mountain-chains, not connected with one another, but which form more or

less a part of the table-lands themselves.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

“_The valleys, which are produced by this indentation on the borders of

the table-lands, offer peculiar advantages for the progress of

civilization._ For, as we have already observed, the highland of Asia does

not sink on _one side only_, but on _all sides_ and towards every point of

the compass; it also sinks towards _different_ oceans, which are separated

from the highland by extensive plains, varying greatly in magnitude and

form. This circumstance, added to the valleys formed by the indentations

in the exterior margins of the highlands, has given rise to numerous and

most extensive _river systems_, which, descending through the intervening

terraces, direct their winding course _towards the north, south, west, and

east_, and thus give to _the distant internal countries of this continent

the advantage of an easy communication with the ocean_.”

2. The Climate and Natural productions of Cashmire and Tibet.

Influenced solely by its high elevation, De Pauw, Zimmerman, and Pallas

concluded that Central Asia must have been the birthplace of the human

race. To this conclusion the rigorous climate of those parts of it which

were best known to them appeared to present an insuperable objection. But

as Adelung observes, those regions of Central Asia which border upon the

Indus have been shown by the accounts of travellers to fulfil all the

requisite conditions in this respect. Had these celebrated writers been

possessed of the information these accounts contain, they might have

discovered in Cashmire a suitable locality for the first abode of man, in

Tibet a fitting school of discipline to prepare him for the various climes

and countries he was destined to inhabit!

CASHMIRE. Adelung’s description of this enchanting country calls to mind

in many of its features the “Happy Valley” in Rasselas!

The faculties with which man has been endowed enable him to contend with

the most unfavorable climes: but not until these faculties have been

ripened by Time and experience! At his first creation he required an abode

where nature’s free bounty would supply all his wants; in fine he needed,

with reference even to his mere physical necessities, a Paradise! To this

appellation no country in Asia can assert a better claim than the lovely

land of Cashmire, which is, in fact, a mere Valley, separated by

inaccessible mountains from India, Persia, and Tibet! Owing to its high

elevation, the heat of the South is tempered into a perpetual Spring, and

nature here puts forth all her powers to bring all her works, Plants,

Animals, and Man, to the highest state of perfection! Cashmire is a region

of fruitful hills, countless fountains and streams, which unite in the

River Behut, that, like the Pison of Paradise, “compasseth the whole

land!”

Bernier found here all Asiatic and European fruits in perfection. The

Pisang, undoubtedly the same tree as the fig tree of the Book of

Genesis,(7) grows no where so large or so beautiful as in Cashmire!

Even the men of this country are distinguished among Asiatics by superior

natural endowments, mental and physical. They have none of the Tartar

physiognomy, but exhibit the finest features of the European race; while

in genius and intelligence they surpass most other Oriental nations!

Cashmire was at one time governed by kings of its own; it was afterwards

subject to the Moguls of India, who ruled it with gentleness on account of

its beauty! On their downfall it fell under the sway of the rude Affghans.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

TIBET. This contiguous country unites within itself the temperatures and

products of the most opposite of those climes in which man was intended to

dwell, combining mountains crowned with perpetual snow and icebergs, with

valleys in which never-ending Summer blooms. Tibet also presents, in a

native or indigenous state, the various Plants and Animals which have been

domesticated by Man! Here are found in a wild state the Vine, the

Rice-plant, the Pea, the Ox, the Horse, the Ass, the Sheep, the Goat, the

Camel, the Pig, the Cat, and even the Reindeer, “his only friend and

companion in the polar wastes.”(8)

3. The Scriptural and Indian Accounts.

It is extremely remarkable that the Indian accounts, of which the

antiquity is believed to be equal to that of the Scriptural narrative,

(see p. 132,) actually fix the first abode of Man on Mount Meru, on the

borders of Tibet and Cashmire! Blended though they are with fable, it is

impossible to see how we can refuse to attach some weight to these

venerable remains, harmonising, so completely as they do, with the

conclusions formed on other grounds by some of the greatest men of modern

times, as regards the date and the locality of the first introduction of

our species; for if, on the one hand, the received date of the origin of

the human race be authentic according to the views of Cuvier, and if, on

the other, the date of the Indian Vedas be such as accords with the

opinions of Sir William Jones and other eminent authorities, the

intervening period must have been too brief to efface a traditionary

reminiscence of the early history of our species, (see p. 132.) The

correspondence of the Indian with the Scriptural narrative is in many

features very extraordinary. We have a similar account of the creation of

the world, of the early history of man, of a primitive state of virtue and

happiness, of the fall of man, of a tree of life and death.(9) We have

also a Serpent that poisons the water, which is the source of life!

Adelung notices a feature in which the locality fixed upon as the

birthplace of man by the Indian traditions corresponds with the Paradise

of Scripture. From Mount Meru spring four Rivers, the Ganges, the

Buramputur, the Indus, and another stream that flows into Tibet. “Now

Michaelis,” he observes, “translates Genesis, ii. 10, ‘Four rivers flowed

out of Eden, and they _separated continually more and more widely from

each other_!’ ”

Cashmire is considered by the Hindoos in the light of a Holy Land, the

cradle of their race, their civilization, and their religion!

The Scriptural narrative, in describing the Creation of our species, does

not define the first abode of man any further than by fixing it in “the

East,” (Genesis, ii. 8,) an expression corroborative, as Adelung observes,

of the Indian traditions, for in the time of Moses this expression was

applicable to the regions of the Indus. On the other hand, the common

interpretation of Genesis, viii. 4, which assumes that Ararat in Armenia

was the centre of diffusion of population after the Flood, is

irreconcilable with those accounts, this locality being not to the East

but to the North of all the Syro-Phœnician or Scriptural regions. But

according to Bohlen,(10) the impression that Ararat in this verse means

the mountain of that name in Armenia, which is inaccessible, crowned with

perpetual snow,(11) and _anciently had a different name_, is erroneous.

Ararat, he observes, does not mean a mountain but a country in this verse

and elsewhere in Scripture. Thus the sons of Sennacherib escaped into the

land of Ararat, (II. Kings, xix. 37,) and the Prophet Jeremiah calls upon

the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz to rise up together with the

Medes against Babylon, (Jerem. li, 27-8) Ararat in these passages, it may

be suggested, may naturally be interpreted to apply generally to the

kingdoms and regions of the unexplored(12) table-land of Central Asia,

which commences on the Persian borders, immediately to the East of

Assyria. Moreover the supposition that the Ararat of Scripture was in

Armenia may be regarded as irreconcilable with another important passage,

Gen., xi. 2, which distinctly implies that the emigrants who reached the

plain of Shinar, and who, it may be inferred, were the first colonists of

South Western Asia, had journeyed thither from some region far to the

“East” of all the Semetic countries, of which Shinar or Mesopotamia forms

the Eastern border!

It is remarkable that the expressions of this passage—“And it came to

pass, as they journeyed from _the East_, that they found a plain in the

land of Shinar; and they dwelt there”—harmonise in the most perfect manner

not only with the Indian remains, but also with the passages first

referred to from the Scriptural narrative itself with respect to the first

abode of the human race, for it will be seen by the map that 1, Cashmire

lies in _a direct line_ to “the East” of Shinar or Mesopotamia! 2, The

whole intervening territory is occupied by the Central-Asiatic table-land

of Persia or Iran, which, as previously noticed, forms one _continual

descent_ from its highest elevation on the borders of Cashmire to its

termination near the plain of Shinar! Ar-ar-at may reasonably be inferred

to be nothing else than a term commonly applied in the East to “a country

of lofty mountains,” (see p. 83,) an expression highly appropriate to the

Persian table-land both at its centre, and at its junction with the

Semetic regions, near the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates! (See

Ritter.)

4. Physiognomy.

As before observed, in these regions are found in juxtaposition nations

which exhibit the very opposite Physiological characteristics of the

Mongol and Western Asiatic races. The people of Tibet display the former,

those of Cashmire the latter.

5. Philology.

Here the Monosyllabic and Polysyllabic languages branch off from a common

centre. The former begin in Tibet, the latter in Cashmire.

The Monosyllabic languages which prevail in Tibet, China, Ava, Pegu, Siam,

Tonquin, and Cochin China, countries which contain a population of 180

millions, betray all the rudeness of human speech in its infancy. They

have no compound words and no grammar. “The same sound,” says Adelung,

“which means _Joy_, means also _Joyful_ and _To rejoice_ through all

persons, numbers, and tenses!”

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

“They form their plural like a child, either by repetition, as

‘_Tree-tree_’ (i.e. ‘Trees’), or by means of an additional word, as

‘_Tree-many! Tree-other!_’ When the great grown-up child is heard

stammering ‘_Be Heaven, I Other,_(13) _Father which_,’ who but another

child like him can guess that this means ‘_Our Father which art in

Heaven!_’ ”

The imperfection of the Monosyllabic languages does not arise solely from

their consisting of Monosyllables, but from the want of the more refined

grammatical forms which are found in all other Tongues, even those of the

wildest American Tribes. No nation, however uncivilized, that had once

acquired a knowledge of these would ever fall back “to the speech of

childhood!” Hence Adelung infers that the Chinese, &c. must have been

completely separated at an early period from the other races of men. But

it will be asked, Why is it that the Chinese have remained stationary in

this respect, while nations far inferior to them in every other point of

view have surpassed them in this one instance? There is, I conceive, no

other mode of solving this problem than by regarding these opposite

results in the light of vestiges, belonging to an early stage of society,

of the same variableness and inequality in the efforts of the human mind,

which are observable in the inventions of modern times! That this question

admits of no other solution will be manifest from Chapter VI, in which it

is shown that the Chinese is not fundamentally different from the tongues

of Europe and Western Asia, but the _same language in a different stage of

its growth_!

6. The Astronomical Theory of Bailly.

Bailly’s theory is that the various nations of the ancient world were

descendants of emigrants from a primæval community superior to them in

knowledge and civilization, of which he places the locality in Central

Asia. His views are founded on the fact that there existed a knowledge of

the results of some of the most recondite Scientific principles among the

Persians, Chaldeans, &c., (nations who were certainly unacquainted with

the principles themselves,) as, for example, of the moon’s course, of the

Solar year, of the Zodiac, of the Planets, of the retrogression of the

fixed Stars &c. Some of Bailly’s opinions have been impugned in Cuvier’s

Theory of the Earth.

The question whether the different branches of the Human Race are

descended from one Stock, has been discussed on Physiological grounds by

Dr. Prichard,(14) in a work equally remarkable for profound Philosophical

and extensive Literary research. After detailing a variety of facts with

respect to the distribution of Plants and Animals, he thus expresses his

conclusion: “The inference to be collected from the facts at present

known, seems to be as follows. The various tribes of organized beings,

were originally placed by the Creator in certain regions, for which they

are by their nature peculiarly adapted. Each species had only one

beginning in a single stock; probably a single pair, as Linnæus supposed,

was first called into being in a particular spot, and their progeny left

to disperse themselves to as great a distance as the locomotive powers,

bestowed on each species, or its capability of bearing changes of climate

and other physical circumstances may have enabled it to wander.”

According to this writer the varieties of colour, feature, &c. displayed

by different races of Men, are the results partly of climate and other

external agencies, and partly also of a natural tendency to the

manifestation of varieties which may be viewed in the light of a

characteristic quality of the Species. Of these propositions the numerous

and diversified facts collected by Dr. Prichard appear to furnish

perfectly conclusive evidence. Thus he has shown that the characteristic

physiognomy of the Negro is found to occur and disappear by nice

gradations in strict accordance with the differences of climate throughout

the African Continent.

The tendency to variety is very manifest, even from facts under our daily

observation. Individuals are common among European nations, who exhibit

some one or more of the traits of the Negro, as, for example, his woolly

hair, thick lips, &c. Among the Negro races have been born individuals of

a perfectly white colour. Many of these specimens, according to Dr.

Prichard, were not Albinos or diseased persons, but indisputable examples

of his principle.

It is probable that in the infancy of the race, this extraordinary

tendency may have served the important purpose of accelerating those

physiological changes by which the constitution of Man was adapted to the

different climates of the Globe, while, in subsequent ages, climate which

determines the physiology of the majority, may be said thereby to

neutralize the influence of these exceptions. Diversities of complexion,

&c. occur in our own and in neighbouring countries within a very limited

area. Thus the dark hair and features of the ancient Silures which were

ascribed by the Romans to a Spanish origin, are still observable among

their posterity, characteristics of which, I conceive, a satisfactory

explanation may be found in the warm and equable temperature of the

Southern counties of Wales, caused by the peculiar distribution of land

and water.(15) In these countries many productions, both animal and

vegetable, flourish, which are rarely found further North. The Nightingale

is common, and the Vine is cultivated frequently. The contrast between the

temperature of the coasts of South Wales and that of North Wales has not

escaped the attention of the Welsh Bards. Davyth ap Gwilym, a Bard of the

fourteenth Century, in a Poem of great beauty, in which he describes

himself as writing from the land of “wild,” Gwynedh (North Wales), calls

upon the Summer and the Sun to visit with their choicest blessings the

genial region of “Morganwg,” (Glamorganshire,) of which he was a native,

and alludes to its warm climate and its Vineyards, which seem to have been

a conspicuous feature! For some very valuable illustrations of the same

principle, I may refer to the account given by the Rev. Thomas Price in

his Tour in Brittany, published in the Cambrian Quarterly Magazine, of the

varieties of complexion and stature observable in Upper and Lower

Brittany.(16)

From the facts collected by Dr. Prichard, it appears to follow very

distinctly, not only that Human Physiology is extremely mutable, but also

that the transitions do not occupy a very long interval of time. Thus Jews

are resident in the African Kingdom of Kongo, whose complexions are as

black as those of the native Negro population. Again on the borders of

Negro-land, different sections of the same tribe, speaking the same

language, are, in many instances, found variously approaching to or

diverging from the Negro standard of colour and physiognomy, according to

the latitude or elevation, or other physical features of their respective

locations; instances in which the separation—and therefore the

physiological differences—must have been recent—for languages change too

rapidly to preserve the features of identity or even of a close affinity

for a period of long duration! The descendants of the Arabs who overran

the North of Africa in comparatively modern times furnish another example;

they do not differ in physiognomy from the Berbers, the original

inhabitants of the same regions.

From these and similar facts it must be inferred—not only that the

existing varieties of Human Physiology form no objection to the opinion

that the different populations of the Globe are descended from one

stock—the same facts lead also to the conclusion, that—with relation to

the earliest eras in the History of our species—Physiological

peculiarities must be entirely rejected as evidence, either of a specific

connexion or of a specific difference between individual races of men, a

principle admitting of many highly interesting applications, of which an

example will now be offered.

By what road did the first Colonists of Europe reach their final

destination? Adelung has inferred that Europe was peopled exclusively from

the Steppes of Northern Asia. But for this opinion, it does not seem that

any valid reason can be assigned. If we assume Central Asia to have been

the focus of migration, it will be observed that there are three routes by

which the forefathers of the European nations may have arrived in their

final abodes, viz. 1, The Steppes of Northern Asia; 2, Asia Minor and the

Hellespont; and 3, The Isthmus of Suez, the North of Africa, and the

Straits of Gibraltar. For concluding that either of these three routes was

used, to the exclusion of the other two, it would not be easy to point out

any strong argument based on Geographical grounds. Now if the third was

employed at all it may be inferred that some of the European nations may

be even more nearly allied to those of Africa than they are to the Asiatic

populations. To this conclusion, however, a formidable objection occurs in

the strikingly contrasted Physiology of Africa and Europe, for—even though

it should be conceded that these opposite features do not serve to prove

an aboriginal difference of race—the question still arises whether they do

not, nevertheless, furnish evidence that the nations of these two

continents are more remotely related than any other branches of the Human

Family; whether they do not point to the inference that the inhabitants of

the South and West of Asia—who certainly occupy an intermediate place

Physiologically—must not also be regarded as forming a connecting link

between those of Europe and Africa in a Genealogical and Historical sense?

To these inquiries it will be obvious that the facts just adverted to

furnish a very distinct answer, for from those facts it directly

follows—not only that climate and other existing causes are sufficient to

account for the different Physical peculiarities of the inhabitants of

Africa and Europe—but it also follows from the same evidence, that a

period of time far short of that during which the European and African

nations are known to have occupied their present abodes, would have

sufficed to superinduce the opposite characteristics they now display!

Perhaps it may be inferred, though probably the subject does not admit of

a precise conclusion on this head, that in a suitable climate the lapse of

500 or 600 years might be more than adequate to engraft on the physiognomy

of Southern Asia all the distinctive peculiarities of the Negro. That

these peculiarities had been fully developed in an early era of the

History of the World, is manifest from the Egyptian Paintings, in many of

which we have individuals of this ill-fated race very vividly depicted,

appearing sometimes as tributaries, and on other occasions as captives,

leashed together like hounds!

Infirm health, and final extirpation, have often attended colonies from

the North of Europe settled in tropical climes, incidents that seem to

have had great weight with Dr. Prichard himself, as constituting an

objection to his views. To this objection, however—independent of the

numerous facts of an opposite nature—the following consideration, I

conceive, suggests a satisfactory answer. Nature may have provided for

gradual transitions of climate such as must have been encountered by a

population progressively diffused over the Globe; and that she has done so

appears to be distinctly established. But it does not follow that she has

made any provision for abrupt changes. These are probably a violation of

her dictates, and may have the same tendency to produce disease and death

as we know to be incident to sudden and extensive variations of

temperature in the same climate and country.

The foregoing deductions will be found to have a highly interesting

application in relation to the origin of two ancient European races, the

Basques and the Celts. If Physiological grounds are dismissed from our

consideration, it will probably be found that the balance of evidence is

in favour of the conclusion that these races have sprung, not from Asiatic

colonists, but from emigrants from the coasts of the continent of Africa!

This conclusion is strongly favoured by the geographical position in which

we find these races placed at the dawn of History. In the earliest ages

the Celts and Basques were in possession of all the most western countries

of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula, the South of France, and the North of

Italy, were divided between them; the remainder of France, the whole of

Belgium, Switzerland, and the British Isles, were held by the Celts, while

of Sicily and Italy the Basques appear to have been the first inhabitants.

(See Dr. Prichard’s Works.) Now in connexion with these facts two

considerations deserve to be noticed, which, by a reference to the map

will be seen to acquire especial force. 1. It will be observed that the

original regions of the Celts and Basques are more closely contiguous to

Africa than the Eastern countries of Europe are; both Spain, and Sicily

(which may be considered a part of Italy,) approaching at certain points

very closely to the African coast. 2. If we assume Central Asia to have

been the original focus of migration—it will be evident—that nomade septs

issuing thence through the Syro-Phœnician countries, and along the North

of Africa—would have found a shorter route to the Italian and to the

Spanish Peninsulas—than those emigrants who may be supposed to have passed

over the Hellespont, or through Northern Asia! Further it may be added,

that the regions originally held by the Basques and Celts are precisely

those which would have been occupied by the descendants of Colonists who

had arrived in Europe from the South-west of Africa if opposed—as we may

infer them to have been—by rival Septs impeding their progress towards the

East. To the East of the Basque and Celtic regions we find the rest of

Europe possessed by the Teutons or Germans, the Finns, the Sclavonians,

and the Greeks, nations all located in countries closely contiguous to

Asia, to the inhabitants of which continent the evidence of language

indisputably proves them all to have been closely related.(17) That these

nations were also the primitive inhabitants of the territories which they

still occupy has been pointed out by Dr. Prichard.

The conclusion above suggested appears to be supported by the evidence of

history. With respect to the Basques, or Iberians, Dr. Prichard has

referred to the testimony of classical authorities, which distinctly

confirms the opinion that they were an African race. But with regard to

the Celts, the same learned writer assumes that they must originally have

come from the East. It is remarkable, however, that this conclusion is

directly at variance with the current opinions of the Ancients, to which

he has referred in the following passage:

“The earlier history of the Celtic people is a subject of great interest,

but of difficult investigation. Were they the aborigines of Gaul or

Germany? According to all the testimony of history, or rather of ancient

tradition collected by the writers of the Roman Empire, the _migrations of

the Gauls were_ always _from West to East_; the Celtic nations in _Germany

as well as in Italy_ and in _the East_, were supposed to have been

colonies _from Gaul_, and the Celtæ have been considered as the immemorial

inhabitants of _Western Europe_!” (Ethnography of the Celtic Race, in

Prichard on Man.)

In assuming that the Celts migrated to Europe direct from Asia, Dr.

Prichard’s views were very naturally influenced by the valuable evidence

he has himself adduced of the connexion of the Celtic dialects with the

Sanscrit, &c. This evidence, however, has been shown (see p. 19) to be

quite consistent with the conclusion suggested above, viz. that the Celts

may have sprung from emigrants who penetrated into Spain from the opposite

coast of Africa.

The interesting researches of Humboldt, which have served by the evidence

of local names to show that the language of the ancient Iberians was the

same as the Basque, have also established, by means of the same evidence,

that the Peninsula of Spain, at the time of its subjugation by the Romans,

was divided in a very irregular manner between Basque and Celtic tribes.

“The Celts,” observes Dr. Prichard, “possessed a considerable part of

Spain, comprehending not only the central provinces, but also extensive

territories in both of the western corners of the Peninsula, where a

population either wholly or partly of Celtic descent remained at the

period of the Roman Conquest.” The remainder of Spain was held by Basques

or by Celt-Iberian tribes, a mixture of both races.

This singular intermingling of the Basques and Celts in the Spanish

Peninsula has been a source of many conflicting opinions among the

learned, on the question which of these two races were the first

inhabitants, and which were the invaders of Spain? The enigma, I conceive,

will be most satisfactorily solved by the rejection of the opinion that

that country was in the first instance wholly occupied by either! Both may

have arrived almost simultaneously, too weak in numbers wholly to engross

the new territory on which they thus entered. Each may have thrown out

into the most distant provinces weak colonies, consisting of a few nomade

families, which afterwards became the foci of powerful Septs. This

explanation completely harmonises with the instructive facts which have

been developed relative to the North American Indian Tribes, who are still

in the “hunter state,” as the first colonists of Europe must have been.

The languages of a great portion of the North American Indian Tribes have

been shown to consist of mere dialects of a few Parent Tongues. But the

Septs thus proved to be nearly related are not always contiguous, but

often separated by tribes speaking dialects of a different class, a

necessary consequence of the roving habits and the imperfect occupation of

territory incident to the “hunter state.” An interesting example of the

influence of the causes which lead to these results occurs in Mr. Catlin’s

allusion to a North American Indian Tribe, the Assinneboins, of whom he

says: “The Assinneboins are a part of the Dahcotas, or Sioux, undoubtedly;

for their personal appearance, as well as their language, is very similar.

“At what time, or in what manner, these two parts of a nation got strayed

away from each other is a mystery; yet such cases have often occurred, of

which I shall say more in future. Large parties who are straying off in

pursuit of game, or in the occupation of war, are oftentimes intercepted

by their enemy, and being prevented from returning, are run off to a

distant region, where they take up their residence and establish

themselves as a nation.” (Catlin on the North American Indians, p. 53.)

The evidence furnished by their languages is not unfavorable to the

supposition that the Basques and Celts may have been of African origin.

Though by Humboldt, and some other eminent writers, the Basque has been

regarded as distinct from other languages, the examples which occur at the

close of this Introduction must, I conceive, serve to remove all doubt as

to the identity of the Basques or Iberians with the other branches of the

Human Race. Of these examples grammatical differences cannot serve to

diminish the force. (See p. 89 and the chapter on the Chinese Language.)

The Basque also shows some traces of a peculiar connexion with the African

tongues. Thus its numerals are nearly identical with those of the North

African nations, and the formative particle Er is used for similar

purposes in the Basque and Egyptian, and in both is placed before the

word, a characteristic which distinguishes the African from the European

languages. (See p. 142.) Thus we have Juan, “To go,” Er-uan, “To cause to

go,” (_Basque._) Ouini, “Light,” Er-ouini, “To cause Light,” or “To

enlighten,” (_Egyptian._) Instances of words formed in the same manner,

which are common to the Egyptian and the Celtic, will be found at p. 38,

Appendix A.

A striking example of the connexion of the Celtic languages with those of

Africa occurs in the region where the respective Physiological

peculiarities of North Africa and Negro-land meet. In the vicinity of the

river Senegal the line of separation may be said to divide the Iolofs, a

Negro nation, from the Fulahs and Phellatahs, whose physical

characteristics are of an intermediate nature. Now it is remarkable, that

by comparing and as it were uniting the dialects of the Iolofs, the

Fulahs, and the Phellatahs, some of the most common Welsh words are

obtained essentially unchanged, as in Le oure, “The Moon,” (_Fulahs_,)

Gour, and Gourgne, “A Man,” (_Iolofs_,) Gourko, “A Man,” (_Phellatahs_,)

Loho, “The Hand,” (_Iolofs_,) Bourou, “Bread,” (_Iolofs_,) Bouron,

“Bread,” (_Fulahs_.)

Consistently with the principles on which the origin of languages is

hereafter explained in this work, I cannot suggest that these

coincidences, striking as they are, afford any proof of a specific

connexion between the Celtic and African races. But they tend to prove,

nevertheless, that language furnishes no positive ground for inferring

that the Celts are more nearly allied to the Asiatic than they are to the

African races. Hence, since the evidence of Physiology on this subject is

also of a negative character, it may be affirmed, with regard both to this

race and the Basques, that the opinion that they are of Asiatic

descent—opposed as it is by the evidence of history in one, if not in both

cases—and by the inferences which Geographical considerations, in both

instances, appear to suggest—requires reconsideration.

In this place I may observe, that in the course of the following inquiries

it will be found true as a general principle, that in direct proportion as

the proofs of the General Unity of the different races of the Globe are

observed to become more distinct, the evidence which has frequently been

relied upon as demonstrative of a specific connexion between particular

races will also be observed to become more doubtful, for both the

affinities and differences which exist between the languages of

contiguous—and those of the most distant—nations, are for the most part so

nearly alike in character, and so nearly equal in degree, as to favour the

inference that the dispersion of the Human Race must have been exceedingly

rapid, and that many ancient nations, such as the Basques and Celts, who

in subsequent times were found closely contiguous, must, in the first eras

of the world, have been isolated from each other by incessant war and

nomade habits, almost as early as the most distant nations were! It is

certain that the language of the Welsh does not present either to the

Basque or to the Teutonic—dialects of nations located contiguously to

their Celtic forefathers—examples of affinity more striking than those

just adverted to. Nor are the examples above noticed of the connexion

between the Welsh and the African dialects by any means more remarkable

than the instances of resemblance between the former tongue and the

dialect of the Mandans, a North American Indian Tribe, which have been

pointed out by Mr. Catlin! In both cases the same observation applies—an

observation based on a principle that will be more fully understood

hereafter—viz., that these coincidences are unequivocal proofs of a

generic, but not of that kind of specific relation, which implies that

these nations were at one time united more intimately than the other

families of mankind.

Various miscellaneous considerations connected with the primitive

migrations of mankind may now he adverted to.

Neither the extent nor the physical features of our Globe are such as

imply that the spread of population over its surface must necessarily have

been the work of many ages. To traverse the habitable earth from the

Southern extremity of Africa to the North of Asia, and thence to the

extreme Southern point of the American continent, is a task which would

require only a small fraction of one man’s life! And in the first ages of

the Race, Man was probably a Nomade, a Wanderer! It may be inferred,

therefore, that in the early ages of the world the diffusion of population

was very rapid in the warmer latitudes, while towards the North it was

obstructed rather by climate than by any other cause. As population became

more dense in the more favoured regions, weaker tribes, it may be

surmised, were gradually driven into the steppes of Asia and the wilds of

Siberia, whence they may be supposed to have penetrated into Europe on the

one hand, and across Behring’s Straits into America on the other. With the

exception of America, all the great Continents are connected together by

districts easily traversed by Man; and Behring’s Strait, which is

interposed between America and the North-east of Asia, might be passed in

the canoes of some of the most barbarous tribes with which we are

acquainted.

The peopling of Islands is a subject that has been discussed very

satisfactorily by Dr. Prichard, and after him by Mr. Lyell. Their

conclusion is, that the occasional drifting of canoes by storms and

currents, is sufficient to account for the existence of Human population

in the most remote islands, as is proved by facts related by Kotzebue and

others. Several reasons have however been suggested in the following

pages, for the conclusion that Australia is a recently peopled country.

The geographical distribution of the various languages of the globe seems

to render Adelung’s arguments for regarding Central Asia as the

birth-place of our species eminently convincing. The languages of China

and the South-east of Asia are either Monosyllabic, or Tongues that

partake of that character; Languages having the same features are spoken

through the long chain of islands in the Pacific as far as New Zealand.

All the other Tongues of the Globe are Polysyllabic. Now if the

birth-place of Man and the focus of migration was in Central Asia, on the

borders of Cashmire and Tibet, this division of Languages would

necessarily have followed, for it will be observed that Tibet, which is

the source of the rivers of the regions to the South-east, would in that

case have given inhabitants to the countries of South-eastern Asia,

countries which are isolated from all others, for not only are they cut

off from Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, by the system of Table-lands

and its Mountains, they are also separated from Northern Asia and

therefore from America by the Great Desert of Gobi or Shamo. To the

Steppes of Northern Asia, and consequently to America as well as to Europe

and Africa, the territory of Persia or Iran, which, as has been seen,

forms the opposite slope of the system of Table-lands, is the natural

route.

The relations which the Parsian, the Pehlwi, and the Zend, the ancient

dialects of Persia, bear to those of the surrounding countries, seem to be

in a highly interesting manner confirmatory of Adelung’s views. The

Parsian, which was spoken in the South of Persia in the provinces near to

India, approaches so closely to the Sanscrit, the ancient language of that

country, that Sir William Jones considered the Parsian to have been the

parent of the Sanscrit. The Pehlwi, the language of the Parthians who

occupied the centre of Persia, a territory that adjoins the Semetic

countries, appears very decidedly to be a connecting link between the

Semetic languages on the one hand and the Parsian and Zend and the

Indo-European tongues, viewed as a class, on the other. The Zend, the

dialect of ancient Media, or North Persia, is supposed to be closely

allied to the Armenian. The Parsian, Pehlwi, and Zend, respectively

bearing these relations to the languages of the neighbouring countries,

are closely connected as sister dialects among themselves. These facts

tend to show—from the summit of the Western Table-land viewed as a centre,

through Persia viewed as a medium—a radiation of language from which a

radiation of population may reasonably be presumed.

The species of affinity which the ancient Persian dialects display to the

languages of the adjoining countries appears to point very distinctly to

another highly important conclusion in relation to the early history of

mankind, viz., that the diffusion of population over Persia and the

contiguous countries must have been a comparatively recent event with

reference to the earliest specimens of the Persian and Semetic dialects,

&c. After the lapse of a long interval the languages even of contiguous

countries lose the traces of original unity. But with regard to modern

dialects it can be distinctly shown that those of intermediate districts

are connecting links between those of the extremities. Thus the Savoyard

connects the French and Italian dialects of the Latin, and those of the

North of England are intermediate between the modern English and the

Lowland Scotch; Du Ponceau has made a similar remark with regard to the

North American Indian dialects spoken by kindred tribes. Septs placed in

the centre continue to maintain a certain degree of intercourse with all

the tribes by which they are surrounded, a consideration which will

account for these results, which probably cannot, in many cases, be

referred to different degrees of Genealogical affinity.

One of the most striking indications of the Original Unity of the

different Races of Men is derivable from the uniformity of the Moral,

Mental, and Social Features they display.

Though the mind in early infancy may be destitute of positive ideas, it

seems to be evident, nevertheless, that our Species has been gifted with

Intellectual Faculties, and with Moral Sentiments and Sympathies, which

are in the strictest sense innate.(18) Of this conclusion a striking

confirmation is derivable, from the extraordinary sameness which, on a

close examination, will be found to prevail in the characters, sentiments,

and sympathies of the various branches of the Human Species. Of this truth

a few examples will now be noticed.

The Negro tribes of Africa have frequently been supposed to belong to an

inferior race of Men, an opinion founded—partly on an inadequate

conception of the progressive character of the Human species—partly on

ignorance of the progress which many Negro nations have actually made. On

the one hand it would be difficult to show that the rudest of the African

tribes are in a more barbarous condition than the ancestors of some of the

most civilized European nations once were! On the other hand, the proofs

of a capacity for social improvement are as unequivocal in the former case

as they are in the latter! Large and important nations, as for example the

Mandingoes and the Iolofs, are found in the interior of Africa, professing

the Mahomedan religion, and as far advanced in the virtues and refinements

of civilization, as any other nations who are followers of the same creed.

In many of these nations the Men are distinguished by a grave and

reflective character, and the women are remarkable for their exemplary

discharge of the duties of domestic life. Sections of the Negro race have

also been converted to Christianity, including many individuals who have

been distinguished not only by a steady conformity to its precepts, but by

the zeal and success with which they have fulfilled the high duties of

Missionaries among their countrymen, and by the composition of Theological

treatises of no inconsiderable merit! (See Dr. Prichard on Man.)

It has been already observed that the physiognomy of the Egyptians

approaches closely to that of the Negro race, of which it may be regarded

as a modification. It has also been pointed out in another part of this

work, that the evidence of language favours the inference that Egypt was

the source of the various African populations. The discoveries of our

age—while they have rendered indisputable the extraordinary arts, high

civilization, and vast political power of ancient Egypt—have also served

to disclose, in the portraits of individuals of that country, forms of

grace and elegance, that serve to link together by the ties of a close and

pathetic association, the infancy with the later ages of the world! To

adopt the expression of Schlegel, (See Schlegel’s Translation of Dr.

Prichard’s Work on Eg. Mythol.,) the physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians

is that of a “very noble race” of men. But it differs very widely from the

characteristics of the European nations; in the dignified features of the

men, and also in the lineaments of female beauty, the approach to the

Negro Physiognomy is often very conspicuous!

I may instance the countenance of the Sphynx as affording a specimen of

the species of approximation to the Negro Physiognomy which is observable

in ancient Egyptian remains!

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

One of the most forcible examples of the susceptibility to

civilization(19) of nations once very barbarous may be found in a

comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French. When

Hannibal invaded Italy he confined his ravages to the possessions of the

Romans and spared those of the Gauls; a partial distinction which won the

favour of this simple people, who flocked in great numbers to his

standard. The Gauls who were in his army at the battle of Cannæ are

described as a fierce people, naked from the waist, carrying large round

shields, with swords of an enormous size blunted at the point. Yet there

cannot be a doubt that the French, one of the most refined and

distinguished of modern nations, are lineally descended from this

primitive race! (See p. 64.) The true answer to the reveries of Pinkerton,

with respect to the imputed incapacity of the Celts, is to be found in the

literature and science of the French, in whom, owing to the great extent

of their country, the original Celtic blood is most probably less

unmingled than it is in the Irish, the Welsh, or the Highland Scotch!

A comparison of the character of the ancient Gauls and modern French

involves also an instructive example of the mode in which the tendency to

progression in the Human species is often united with a stability of

national character in some features that forms a singular contrast to that

tendency. In comparing Cæsar’s Commentaries on his Wars in Gaul with the

volumes of General Napier, we are struck, in almost every page, with

proofs of a coincidence of mental features so minute, that but for the

opposite accompaniments on the one hand, of a primitive, and on the other

of a modern age, we might imagine we had before us, in these relations,

two narratives referring to the same wars, the same sieges, and the same

men! The mind is perplexed to conceive how a nation that has existed in

conditions so contrasted, as regards Civilization, could have continued

thus uniform in its social and moral features!

Striking as these and other proofs which may be adduced of the uniformity

of character which has often been maintained by the same nation in

different stages of society undoubtedly are, they must cease to excite

surprise—though they may be said to acquire even a higher interest—when

viewed through the medium of the closely analogous results which will be

found to flow from a comparison with the civilized nations of Europe of

contemporaneous Tribes still existing in the “Hunter State.”

The natives of Australia have generally been thought to occupy the lowest

place in the social scale. But from Col. Grey’s valuable work it may be

inferred that in their devices for catching game and other arts belonging

to their rude state, they give proofs of the same intelligence and

acuteness as are evinced by other races of men. They have also Songs of

War and Love which they sing in tunes most barbarous and discordant. The

more refined lays of the European excite mimicry and laughter. But, adds

Col. Grey, “Some of the natives are not insensible to the charms of our

music. Warrup, a native youth, who lived with me for several months as a

servant, once accompanied me to an amateur theatre at Perth, and when the

actors came forward and sang ‘God save the Queen,’ _he burst into tears_.

He _certainly could not have comprehended the words of the song, and,

therefore, must have been affected by the Music alone_.”

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

“Nothing can awaken in the breast more melancholy feelings than the

funeral chants of these people. They are sung by a whole chorus of females

of all ages, and the effect produced upon the bystanders by this wild

music is indescribable.”

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Many of the Australian words given by Colonel Grey will readily be

recognized among the terms collected from the languages of the other Four

Continents in Appendix A; as for example: Nganga, Ngon-ge, Tin-dee,

Tiendee, “The Sun” and “The Stars.” (See App. A, p. 26.) Yanna, “To go,”

and Tjênna, Tinna, “The Foot.” (74.) Tullun, Tdallung, Tadlanga, “The

Tongue.” (72.) Nago, “To see.” (42, 43.) Mena, “The Eye.” (14.) Poou,

Puiyu, Poito, Booyoo, “Smoke,” and Bobun, “To blow.” (21.)

In the construction of their canoes, the inhabitants of some of the most

barbarous islands of the Pacific, exhibit an originality and a variety of

conception of precisely the same nature as is displayed in those

mechanical inventions by which the sum of European civilization is

progressively extended!

But in relation to the subject more immediately under examination, far the

most valuable and instructive information occurs in Mr. Catlin’s account

of his residence among the North American Indian Tribes, a work, admirable

alike as a living picture of Indian manners and sentiments, and also as an

earnest and simple minded, and for that reason an eminently touching and

eloquent appeal, on behalf of one of the noblest, though one of the most

unfortunate families of the Human Race!

“I have roamed about from time to time during seven or eight years,” says

the writer, “visiting and associating with some three or four hundred

thousand of these people, under an almost infinite variety of

circumstances; and from the very many and decidedly voluntary acts of

their hospitality and kindness, I feel bound to pronounce them, by nature,

a kind and hospitable people. I have been welcomed generally in their

country, and treated to the best that they could give me, without any

charges made for my board; they have often escorted me through their

enemies’ country at some hazard to their own lives, and aided me in

passing mountains and rivers with my awkward baggage; and under all these

circumstances of exposure, no Indian ever betrayed me, struck me a blow,

or stole from me a shilling’s worth of my property that I am aware of.

“This is saying a great deal (and proving it too, if the reader will

believe me,) in favour of the virtues of these people; when it is borne in

mind, as it should be, that there is no law in the land to punish for

theft, that locks and keys are not known in their country, that the

commandments have never been divulged amongst them, nor can any human

retribution fall upon the head of a thief, save the disgrace which

attaches as a stigma to his character in the eyes of the people around

him.

“And thus in these little communities, strange as it may seem, in the

absence of all systems of jurisprudence, I have often beheld peace and

happiness, and quiet, reigning supreme, for which even kings and emperors

might envy them. I have seen rights and virtue protected, and wrongs

redressed; and I have seen conjugal, filial and paternal affection, in the

simplicity and contentedness of nature. I have unavoidably formed warm and

enduring attachments to some of these men, which I do not wish to forget,

who have brought me near to their hearts, and in our final separation have

embraced me in their arms, and commended me and my affairs to the keeping

of the Great Spirit.”

Among those tribes which have been placed in contact with the Whites,

individuals, generally Chiefs, have acquired all the advantages of a

European education, to which in most of these instances are united,

dignified and gentlemanlike feelings and manners, qualities which seem to

belong to the native American character. Some tribes have been nearly

extipated by the use of fermented liquors. But some sections of the Indian

population have been converted to Christianity, and adopted the habit of

total abstinence; others have become industrious cultivators of the soil.

Where this race has rejected the benefits of civilization, it seems almost

invariably to have arisen from the prejudices naturally excited in their

minds by the vices of the worst part of the white population, and the

calamities which they have caused by the introduction of ardent spirits!

Even those excellent men who have devoted their lives to the religious

instruction of the Indians, and by whose efforts it may be inferred that

some Tribes have been saved from extinction, have too often found in these

prejudices, an obstacle which might perhaps be removed were the

missionaries generally to commence by offering to teach some of the

simplest arts of civilized life—information of which the benefits would be

immediately appreciated—as a means of paving the way for obtaining that

confidence which, as religious instructors, they require.

The life of constant war and peril to which the Indians are exposed is

incompatible with _actual_ Social advancement. But proofs of a spontaneous

_tendency_ to civilization may be gleaned, as I conceive, from the grace

and tastefulness of their dresses—the beautiful lodges many of the Tribes

build—and other indications, &c. But of this truth, a still more decisive

example occurs, as I venture to think, in the account given by Mr. Catlin

of a very interesting tribe, the Mandans, whom, from the evidence of

language already noticed and other considerations, he has conjectured to

be descendants of Madoc’s Colony, and whose personal character and

appearance he thus describes:

“The Mandans are certainly a very interesting and pleasing people in their

personal appearance and manners; differing in many respects, both in

_looks_ and customs, from all other _tribes which I have ever seen_. They

are not a warlike people, for they seldom, if ever, carry war into their

enemies’ country; but when invaded, show their valour and courage to be

equal to that of any people on earth. Being a small tribe, and unable to

contend on the wide prairies with the Sioux and other roaming tribes, who

are ten times more numerous, they have very judiciously _located

themselves in a permanent village, which is strongly_ fortified, and

ensures their preservation. By this means they have _advanced further in

the arts of manufacture, and have supplied their lodges more abundantly

with the comforts and even luxuries of life than any Indian nation I know

of. The consequence of this is that the tribe have taken many steps ahead

of other tribes in manners and refinements_ (if I may be allowed to use

the word refinement to Indian life); and are, therefore, familiarly (and

correctly) denominated by the Traders and others, who have been amongst

them, the ‘polite and friendly Mandans.’

“There is certainly great justice in the remark, and so forcibly have I

been struck with the peculiar _ease and elegance_ of this people, together

with the _diversity of complexions_, the various colours of their hair and

eyes, the singularity of their language, and their peculiar and

unaccountable customs, that I am fully convinced that they have sprung

from some other origin than that of the other North American tribes, or

that they are an amalgam of natives with some civilized race.

“Here arises a question of very great interest and importance for

discussion; and after further familiarity with their character, customs,

and traditions, if I forget not, I will eventually give it further

consideration. Suffice it then for the present, that their _personal

appearance_ alone, independent of their modes and customs, pronounces them

at once as more or less than savage.

“A stranger in the Mandan village is first struck with the _different

shades of complexion_ and colours of hair which he sees in a crowd, and is

at once almost disposed to exclaim that ‘_these are not Indians!_’

“There are a great many of these people whose complexions appear as _light

as half-breeds_; and amongst the women particularly, there are many whose

_skins are almost white, with the most pleasing symmetry and proportion of

features; with hazel, with gray, and with blue eyes; with mildness and

sweetness of expression, and excessive modesty of demeanour, which render

them exceedingly pleasing and beautiful_!”

It has been shown in another part of this work that the language of the

Mandans does not prove them to be connected with the Welsh, and that their

dialect is of the same character as that of other Indian tribes. Further,

did space allow, I might produce some evidence that the Mandans are allied

in blood to their hereditary foes, the fierce and warlike Sioux! The

phenomena noticed by Mr. Catlin must be explained therefore by the aid of

different principles than those to which he has referred.(20)

I conceive then that these various peculiarities of colour, personal

appearance, and of manners and social habits, which he noticed amongst the

Mandans, may all be viewed as effects of one simple cause, viz. their

“judiciously selected location” in “a permanent village,” involving

protection from exposure to the seasons on the one hand, and the

abandonment of nomade habits on the other. To the former, the changes of

complexion—to the latter, the social advances—of the Mandan Tribe may be

ascribed!

There are numerous other data in Mr. Catlin’s work which seem to afford

illustrations of the mutability of Human Physiology. The Indians who live

among the Whites he describes as “Pale” Red. May not the change implied in

this expression be referred to an abandonment of their original life of

activity and exposure on the wild Prairie, quite as much as to misfortune

or a mixture of European blood? The variety of Physiognomy among the

different tribes, as shown by his admirable portraits of Chiefs, &c., is

very extraordinary. Some of these countenances are ugly and

unprepossessing; but in others the finest European features occur! The

traits exhibited by these portraits are contrary to the inference which

Humboldt’s description might suggest, viz., that all the N. A. Indian

Tribes resemble the Mongol Race in features as well as in the colour of

their skin and the absence of beard.

The Indian shows no want of acuteness in detecting the characteristic

vices, whether real or imaginary, of the civilized world.

“On one occasion, when I had interrogated a Sioux chief, on the Upper

Missouri, about their government, their punishments, and tortures of

prisoners, for which I had freely condemned them for the cruelty of

practice, he took occasion, when I had got through, to ask me some

questions relative to modes in the civilized world. He told me he had

often heard that white people hung their criminals by the neck and choked

them to death like dogs, and those their own people; to which I answered

‘Yes.’ He then told me he had learned that they shut each other up in

prisons, where they keep them a great part of their lives because they

can’t pay money! I replied in the affirmative to this, which occasioned

great surprise and excessive laughter even amongst the women! He told me

that he had been to our Fort at Council Bluffs, where we had a great many

warriors and braves, and he saw three of them taken out on the prairies

and tied to a post and whipped almost to death; and he had been told that

they submit to all this to get a little money!

“He put to me a chapter of other questions as to the trespasses (of the

Whites) on their lands, their continual corruption of the morals of their

women, and digging open the Indian’s graves to get their bones, &c. To all

of which I was compelled to reply in the affirmative, and quite glad to

close my note book, and quietly to escape from the throng that had

collected around me, and saying (though to myself and silently), that

these and a hundred others are vices that belong to the civilized world,

and are practised upon (but certainly in no instance reciprocated by) ‘the

cruel and relentless’ savage!”

It is probable that the finer features of the North American Indian

character may be ascribed in a great measure to the elevated nature of

their religious belief, which indisputably appears to be quite free from

the loathsome and debasing idolatry of the Hindoos and other pagan nations

of the Old World.

“I fearlessly assert to the world (and I defy contradiction), that the

North American Indian is everywhere in his native state a highly moral and

religious being, endowed by his Maker with an intuitive knowledge of some

great Author of his being and the universe, in dread of whose displeasure

he constantly lives, with the apprehension before him of a future state,

where he expects to be rewarded or punished according to the merits he has

gained or forfeited in this world.”

In their native state, in regions remote from the Whites, the Indians are

well clothed and fed, cleanly in their habits, cheerful, and healthy. The

opposite qualities have been considered to be characteristic of the race,

in consequence of the unhappy condition of most of those Tribes who are

found among or near the settlements of the Whites, a condition ascribable

to the use of ardent spirits, the destruction of the game on which they

originally subsisted, and the fraudulent manner in which they have often

been deprived of their lands!

“From what I have seen of these people I feel authorized to say, that

there is nothing very strange or unaccountable in their character; but

that it is a simple one, and easy to be understood if the right means be

taken to familiarize ourselves with it. Although it has dark spots, yet

there is much in it to be applauded, and much to recommend it to the

admiration of the enlightened world. And I trust that the reader who looks

through these volumes with care, will be disposed to join me in the

conclusion, that the North American Indian in his native state is an

honest, hospitable, faithful, brave, warlike, cruel, revengeful,

relentless, yet honorable, contemplative, and religious being.”

The tortures practised by the Indians on their prisoners of war are, it

seems, inflicted only on a portion of their captives by way of reprisal.

The prisoners are for the most part adopted into the conquering tribe. The

men are married to the wives of those who have fallen in battle; and those

outrages on the weaker sex which have disgraced the armies of civilized

Europe are unknown in the annals of Indian warfare!

The Indian is reckless of life, and the female sex among these tribes is

consigned to a life of servitude. But it must be asked, is the morality of

European nations uniformly founded on an earnest regard for the claims of

humanity—on a tender respect for the rights and for the sufferings of the

weak and defenceless! This is a momentous question, to which an answer at

once humiliating and complete may be drawn from one single historical

incident described in the following touching passage!

After noticing the defective state of the European law of nations in

certain respects, the author from whose work the following narrative has

been derived, thus proceeds: “The other case in which it seems to me that

the law of nations should either be amended, or declared more clearly and

enforced in practice, is that of the blockade of towns not defended by

their inhabitants, in order to force their surrender by starvation. And

here let us try to realize to ourselves what such a blockade is. We need

not, unhappily, draw a fancied picture; history, and no remote history

either, will supply us with the facts. Some of you, I doubt not, remember

Genoa; you have seen that queenly city, with its streets of palaces rising

tier above tier from the water, girdling with the long lines of its bright

white houses the vast sweep of its harbour, the mouth of which is marked

by a huge natural mole of rock, crowned by its magnificent

lighthouse-tower. You remember how its white houses rose out of a mass of

fig, and olive, and orange trees, the glory of its old patrician luxury;

you may have observed the mountains behind the town, spotted at intervals

by small circular low towers, one of which is distinctly conspicuous where

the ridge of the hills rises to its summit and hides from view all the

country behind it. Those towers are the forts of the famous lines; which,

curiously resembling in shape the later Syracusan walls inclosing

Epipolæ;, converge inland from the eastern and western extremities of the

city, looking down the western line of the valley of Pulcevera, the

eastern on that of the Bisagno, till they meet as I have said on the

summit of the mountains, where the hills cease to rise from the sea and

become more or less of a table-land, running off towards the interior at

the distance, as well as I remember, of between two and three miles from

the outside of the city. Thus a very large open space is inclosed within

the lines, and Genoa is capable therefore of becoming a vast entrenched

camp, holding not so much a garrison as an army. In the autumn of 1799,

the Austrians had driven the French out of Lombardy and Piedmont; their

last victory of Fossano or Genola, had won the fortress of Coni or Cuneo

close under the Alps, and at the very extremity of the plain of the Po.

The French clung to Italy only by their hold of the Riviera of Genoa, the

narrow strip of coast between the Apennines and the sea, which extends

from the frontiers of France almost to the mouth of the Arno. Hither the

remains of the French force were collected, commanded by General Massena,

and the point of chief importance to his defence was the city of Genoa.

“Napoleon had just returned from Egypt, and was become First Consul; but

he could not be expected to take the field till the following spring, and

till then Massena was hopeless of relief from without, everything was to

depend upon his own pertinacity. The strength of his army made it

impossible to force it in such a position as Genoa; but its very numbers,

added to the population of the city, held out to the enemy a hope of

reducing it by famine; and as Genoa derives most of its supplies by sea,

Lord Keith, the British naval Commander in Chief in the Mediterranean,

lent the assistance of his naval force to the Austrians, and by the

vigilance of his cruizers, the whole coasting trade right and left was

effectually cut off. It is not at once that the inhabitants of a great

city, accustomed to the daily sight of well-stored shops and an abundant

market, begin to realize the idea of scarcity; or that the wealthy classes

of society, who have never known any other state than one of abundance and

luxury, begin seriously to conceive of famine. But the shops were emptied,

and the storehouses began to be drawn upon; and no fresh supply or hope of

supply appeared. Winter passed away, and Spring returned, so early and so

beautiful on that garden-like coast, sheltered as it is from the north

winds by its belt of mountains, and open to the full rays of the Southern

Sun. Spring returned, and clothed the hill sides within the lines with its

fresh verdure. But that verdure was no more the delight of the careless

eye of luxury, refreshing the citizens by its loveliness and softness when

they rode or walked up thither from the city to enjoy the surpassing

beauty of the prospect! The green hill sides were now visited for a very

different object; ladies of the highest rank might be seen cutting up

every plant which it was possible to turn to food, and bearing home the

common weeds of our road sides as a most precious treasure! The French

general pitied the distress of the people; but the lives and the strength

of his garrison seemed to him more important than the lives of the

Genoese, and such provisions as remained were reserved in the first place

for the French army. Scarcity became utter want, and want became famine!

In the most gorgeous palaces of that gorgeous city, no less than in the

humblest tenements of the poor, death was busy; not the momentary death of

battle or massacre, nor the speedy death of pestilence, but the lingering

and most miserable death of famine! Infants died before their parents’

eyes, husbands and wives lay down to expire together! A man whom I saw at

Genoa in 1825 told me that his father and two of his brothers had been

starved to death in this fatal siege. So it went on, till in the month of

June, when Napoleon had already descended from the Alps into the plain of

Lombardy, the misery became unendurable, and Massena surrendered. But

before he did so, twenty thousand innocent persons, old and young, women

and children, had died by the most horrible of deaths which humanity can

endure! Other horrors which occurred besides during the blockade I pass

over; the agonizing death of twenty thousand innocent and helpless persons

requires nothing to be added to it!

“Now is it right that such a tragedy as this should take place, and that

the laws of war should be supposed to justify the authors of it? Conceive

having been a naval officer in Lord Keith’s squadron at that time, and

being employed in stopping the food which was being brought for the relief

of such misery! For the thing was done deliberately; the helplessness of

the Genoese was known, their distress was known; it was known that they

could not force Massena to surrender; it was known that they were dying

daily by hundreds; yet week after week, and month after month, did the

British ships of war keep their iron watch along all the coast: no vessel

nor boat laden with any article of provision could escape their vigilance!

One cannot but be thankful that Nelson was spared from commanding at this

horrible blockade of Genoa!

“Now on which side the law of Nations should throw the guilt of most

atrocious murder is of little comparative consequence or whether it should

attach to both sides equally: but that the deliberate starving to death of

twenty thousand helpless persons should be regarded as a crime in one or

in both of the parties concerned in it seems to me self-evident! The

simplest course would seem to be that all non-combatants should be allowed

to go out of a blockaded town, and that the general who should refuse to

let them pass should be regarded in the same light as one who were to

murder his prisoners or who were in the habit of butchering women and

children.”

It is not intended to be suggested that the morality of the more virtuous

and religious members of civilized communities is not superior to that of

uncivilized races. But that such superiority can be claimed by the mass of

the inhabitants of Europe is a proposition of which the evidence must be

allowed to be doubtful as regards some—must be allowed, alas! to fail

altogether as regards many—of those virtues of which our nature is

capable!

Yet, notwithstanding many melancholy facts that seem to be repugnant to

such a conclusion, there exist satisfactory grounds for inferring that

civilization has a direct tendency to promote the moral improvement of the

Human Race, and that our species is probably destined even in this state

of existence, to a course not only of social, but also of a moral

progression! Of this truth distinct indications may be recognized in the

altered sentiments of European nations on many momentous subjects, as

evinced in the increasing aversion to wars of aggression—in the general

condemnation of the principle—and the extensive abolition of the

practice—of slavery, and in the rapid growth of an earnest sympathy, at

once generous and humane, with the claims and the sufferings of the more

unprotected branches of mankind! Of the practical results of these changes

in the moral sentiments of Society—of which Christianity, which teaches

that all men are of one blood and of one family, has been the primary

source—and of which the English nation—influenced by the example of a few

men of extraordinary piety, wisdom, and humanity, to whom it gave birth in

the last generation, have been the most conspicuous instruments—one

example may be appropriately introduced in this place.

“The original proprietors of this fine soil, (the neighbourhood of the

Cape of Good Hope,) the poor Hottentots, the fabricated tales of whose

filthiness are known to every schoolboy, and have made them proverbial in

every nation of Europe, are probably the simplest and most inoffensive of

the human race. By open robbery and murder, and by a cruel and persevering

system of oppression on the part of the Dutch colonists, they have been

reduced to not much more than 15,000 souls. Under the protection of the

British government, by the careful instruction of the missionaries, and

their increased importance in the colony as labourers since the abolition

of the slave trade, their number is now considerably on the increase;

General Craig, after the capture of the Cape, brought forward,

experimentally, the physical and moral qualities of this most injured and

degraded people, by forming them into a military corps, which, in point of

discipline, obedience, instruction and cleanliness, were not at all behind

European troops. The truth is that the filthy appearance of the Hottentot

was never from choice, but necessity. The anxiety which he now shows to

get quit of his sheep-skin clothing for cotton, linen, or woollen, and to

keep his person clean, proves that he is far more sensible than the ‘Boor’

to the comforts of civilized life. ‘Whosoever,’ says the excellent Mr.

Latrobe, the father of the Moravians in this country, ‘charges the

Hottentots with being inferior to other people of the same class as to

education and the means of improvement, knows nothing about them. They are

in general more sensible, and possess better judgment than most Europeans,

equally destitute of the means of instruction.’ At Bavians Kloof, or the

Monkey’s Ravine, which General Jansens altered into Gandenthal, or the

Valley of Grace, 130 miles E. by N. of Cape Town, is an establishment of

these poor despised people under the care of missionaries, founded in

1737. It consists of a beautiful village containing 1400 Hottentot

inhabitants. Every cottage has a garden, a few of the poor class still

wear sheep skins, and their children go naked, but far the greater part of

them make a point of providing themselves with jackets and trousers, and

other articles of European dress which they already wear on Sundays. Both

before and after meals they sing grace in the sweetest tones imaginable.

The place externally, appears a little Paradise, and let it be remembered

it is only one of a great number of these missionary stations. The

Hottentots are of a deep brown or yellow brown colour, their eyes are pure

white, their head is small; the face very wide above, ends in a point;

their cheek-bones are prominent, their eyes sunk, the nose flat, the lips

thick, the teeth white, and the hand and foot rather small. They are well

made and tall, their hair is black, either curled or woolly, and they have

little or no beard. Barrow and Grandprè conceive them to be of a Chinese

origin, they call themselves Gkhui-gkhui, pronounced with a click of the

tongue or throat, and say they do not come from the interior, but from

over the Sea! The Hottentots are divided into several Tribes.”(21)

The nature of their language shows very clearly that the Hottentots are

not closely connected by descent with the Chinese; the tradition that they

came originally from a country beyond the sea might apply to the island of

Madagascar where a dialect kindred to theirs is spoken. There seems

however every reason for concluding, agreeably to Dr. Prichard’s views,

that the Hottentots are descendants of Colonists impelled by the ordinary

causes of migration from the North and Middle of Africa, who, as they

finally occupied the farthest extremity, were probably the earliest

inhabitants of that Continent. The evidence of language serves in a very

striking manner to confirm this conclusion. For proofs of the connexion of

the Hottentot dialects with the Egyptian and with the Negro languages, see

Appendix A. The Hottentot dialects abound also in words unequivocally

identical with the corresponding terms in ancient European and Asiatic

languages, as for instance Imine, “A Day,” and Ki, “The Earth,” with the

Greek. Surrie, Sore, “The Sun”, with the Sanscrit “Surya.” Mamma, “A

Mother,” with the Latin, &c. Bo Aboob, “A Father,” with “Abba,” Hebrew.

Tamma, “The Tongue.” (See p. 15, &c. &c.) Coincidences of this nature are

proofs of that species of generic connexion with all the other races of

mankind which might be expected as a consequence of a separation that,

judging from the Geographical position of the Hottentot tribes, we may

suppose to have occurred in the earliest ages of the world.

Proofs of the Identity of the Basque with other Languages.

The following specimens of the Basque, which have been introduced in

illustration of the previous statement, at p. XXXV, include nearly all

those words which are in most common use (with the exception of that class

of Words which is noticed in Appendix A). By referring to the passages in

this work, noticed below, the identity of the Basque words with those of

other nations will be readily seen.

“A Father.” Aita (_Basque_,) Atta (_Gothic_), p. 52, Eiōth

(_Egyptian_,)—“A Mother.” A.m.a. (_Basque_,) A.m. (_Hebrew_), see p. 106.

“Earth.” Erria (_Basque_), Erde (_German_), A.r.ts (_Hebrew_.)

“Water.” Ura (_Basque_), Ur (_Siberians_), see p. 84.

“A Stream.” Ibaya (_Basque_), see p. 71.

“Dog.” Potzoa (_Basque_), Psit (_Bohemian_), Pesia (_Russian_.)

Ora (_Basque_), Ouhor (_Egyptian_.)

“Cat.” Catua (_Basque_), see p. 122.

“Ox.” Idia (_Basque_), Ei di on (_Welsh_.)

“Cow.” Bihia (_Basque_), Bee ouch (_Welsh_.)

“Bull.” Cecena (_Basque_), Uxen, Ukshhan (_Sanscrit_), Ox, Oxen

(_English_.)

“Goat.” A qu erra (_Basque_), see p. 122.

“A Lamb.” A-churria, p. 121, Umerria (_Basque_), A.m.r (_Chaldæ_.)

“Swine.” Charria Cherria (_Basque_), Xoir-os (_Greek_), see p. 122.

“A Bear.” Artsa (_Basque_), Arth (_Welsh_), Arcturus (_Latin_), Arktos

(_Greek_.)

The identity of the following words with equivalent terms in the English,

&c. will be obvious.

“Bread of Maize.” Artoa (_Basque_), Artos “Bread; Food” (_Greek_.)

“An Arrow.” Istoa (_Basque_), Ios Oistos (_Greek_.)

“A Raven; Black.” Balcha Belcha (_Basque_.)

“End.” Ondoa (_Basque_.)

“To Go.” Gan (_Basque_), Gang (_Lowland Scotch_), Gehen (_German_.)

“To Sell.” Saldu (_Basque_.)

“Zeal.” Kharra (_Basque_), C’H.r.a (_Chaldoe_), C’H.r.e (_Hebrew_.)

“Morning.” Bora (_Welsh_), Biar (_Basque_.)

“To shine very brightly.” B.c.r (_Arabic_.)

PLAN OF THIS INVESTIGATION. LORD BACON’S PRINCIPLES APPLICABLE TO

INQUIRIES INTO THE ORIGIN AND CHANGES OF HUMAN LANGUAGES.

The fanciful theories in which even some of the most distinguished writers

have deemed themselves at liberty to indulge, when they have entered upon

the field of Philological research, have naturally tended to create, among

men of calm and dispassionate minds, a general distrust in the results of

all inquiries into the origin and early history of human languages. But it

must be obvious that the errors into which the first inquirers on this—as

on every other—subject have been betrayed is not a fair test of the

attention due to Philological investigations. In this, as in every branch

of human knowledge, the authenticity of the results must be tested solely

with reference to the principles appealed to, and the weight, amount, and

consistency of the evidence adduced. In this, as in every other branch of

knowledge, the value of those results must depend solely on the interest

and importance of the truths which such results may involve.

In the following pages are developed proofs of two leading propositions,

viz.:

1. That the languages of the continents of Asia, Europe, Africa,

and America, were originally the same.

2. That the differences which exist between the individual

languages of those continents may be explained consistently with

the proofs of original unity, by causes still in operation.

In this place, the principles appealed to in elucidation of these

propositions may be explained with advantage.

1. As regards the proofs adduced of the original unity of the

languages of the four continents.

These proofs are in no instance founded upon speculation or surmise. They

consist in every instance, either of a comparison of terms absolutely

identical in sound and sense, or of terms, of which the mutual connexion

is equally certain, in accordance with those principles, with respect to

which philosophical writers on language are agreed. Terms belonging to two

different continents have been compared in those instances only, in which

the affinities are of the same nature, as those which have been shown to

be characteristic of words belonging to different dialects of the same

language, in the writings of Court Ghebelin, Horne Tooke, Adam Smith,

Dugald Stewart, Humboldt, and Du Ponceau. These great writers do not

belong to the class of Philological speculators, but to that of

authorities on the origin and mutations of human tongues.

Hence it follows that the leading doctrine laid down by Lord Bacon as

applicable to the investigations of Physical science applies equally in

this instance to the researches of the Philologist; I allude to the

following fundamental maxim: Experience is the only legitimate guide to

_Truth_; hence an accurate investigation of those facts which are _within_

the limits of our historical knowledge, forms the only admissible basis of

deduction, with respect to those facts which are _beyond_ the range of our

actual experience.

2. Not less applicable is the same maxim in elucidation of the

second proposition, viz.: “That the differences which exist

between individual languages may be explained, consistently with

the proofs of original unity, by causes still in operation.”

This principle may be applied in the following manner:

There are certain languages of which the original unity can be proved,

either by the extrinsic evidence of history, or by the gradual

approximation they display as we ascend from modern to earlier epochs, and

compare modern with _ancient_ specimens. We can show, by means of the like

evidence, the progressive changes they have undergone, and the nature of

the existing differences which have been the result of those changes.

There is another class of languages which came into existence during

periods with regard to which we do _not_ possess the light of history; and

the only source from which we can draw our conclusions, with respect to

the relations that originally existed between them, is the internal

evidence afforded by the composition and structure of those languages

themselves. History being silent, this is the only clue by which we can

determine whether they were originally distinct, or derived from a common

source.

But by what rules are we to be guided in the deductions we may form from

the mere texture of dialects of the second class?

The answer is, that the rules to be pursued in forming our

conclusions, with respect to the original relations of those

languages which _can not_ be historically traced to their source,

must be drawn from the experience furnished by that class of

languages of which the transitions _can_ be traced by means of the

independent evidence of history.

It will be shown that the _existing_ relations between these two different

classes of languages _are_, and therefore we may infer that the _original_

relations _were_, the same.

By the adoption of these principles of investigation as regards both: 1,

The Resemblances, and also 2, The Differences, which Human Tongues

display, the great maxim of Lord Bacon’s philosophy will become

legitimately applicable to language, and the researches of the Philologist

may be directed by the same criteria, and his conclusions vindicated by

the same tests as those which apply to the investigations of the inquirer

into Physical phenomena.

It is upon these principles that I propose to conduct the inquiry of which

the results are embodied in these pages.

CHAPTER I. ON THE EVIDENCE FURNISHED BY A COMPARISON OF THEIR LANGUAGES OF

THE ORIGINAL UNITY OF THE VARIOUS NATIONS OF THE CONTINENTS OF ASIA,

EUROPE, AFRICA, AND AMERICA.

Absolute Identity of the Languages of the Four Continents when

compared collectively.

Illustrations from the Names of the Gods of Egypt, Greece, Italy,

and India, showing the Origin of Idolatry.

North American Indian Names for “The Great Spirit.”

The proposition which forms the subject of this Chapter will be supported

through the course of this work by the progressive development of a series

of various but mutually connected proofs, which—both by their individual

force, and by their harmonious combination,—will be found to be

conclusive.

But of these proofs there is only one branch which admits of being

conveniently adverted to in this place. I allude to the evidence collected

in Appendix A, in the form of a “Comparison of the most Common Terms in

the African, Asiatic, European and American languages.” This comparison,

though composing only a part of the proofs adduced, will be found to

involve in itself evidence sufficient to establish the suggested

conclusion, Moreover, the evidence therein embodied,—though copious in

details, and strictly conforming to the principles laid down by

philosophical writers on language, is simple in its nature and results,

which may readily be appreciated by inquirers totally unaccustomed to

philological investigations. For these reasons, the comparison instituted

in Appendix A forms an appropriate subject of examination at the

commencement of this work.

Here, however, it must be premised that it will be impossible, without a

complete perusal, to form a correct appreciation either of the facts or of

the consequences developed in that Appendix. The explanations I shall

present in this place must be viewed, therefore, in the light of a general

and imperfect outline only. These explanations will be directed to—

I. The Nature,

II. The Results of the Comparison contained in Appendix A.

I. _Of the Nature of the Comparison in Appendix A._

The languages of Africa have been chosen as the basis or _subject_ of

comparison with which the languages of the other three continents have

been collated.

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This arrangement has been dictated by a consideration of the comparatively

slight attention which has hitherto been paid to the languages of the

Central and Southern Regions of Africa; and also by the peculiar

physiology of the Negro and Hottentot tribes, which has induced some

physiologists to refer the origin of these tribes to Races totally

distinct from the other Families of mankind.

The extensive researches of Dr. Prichard have satisfactorily shown that

the peculiarities of the Negroes and Hottentots are not permanent nor

abruptly marked, but local and evanescent, and that they melt away by nice

shades of gradation, corresponding with the minute progressive transitions

of climate that are traceable through the various regions of the African

continent. Hence the _possibility_ of the identity of the Negro and

Hottentot Tribes with the inhabitants of the other three great continents

may be clearly inferred. But no evidence has yet been produced calculated

to establish this conclusion as a positive truth. This desideratum the aid

of philology will be found satisfactorily to supply.

In the North of Africa the physiological difficulties which are

encountered in the Middle and South do not exist to the same extent in any

instance, and in most instances they can scarcely be said to exist at all.

The Berbers—the original population of Morocco and the adjoining

countries, the lineal descendants of the ancient Numidians—approach very

closely to the Spanish population of the opposite coasts of the

Mediterranean; and the Egyptians in the north-east of Africa are much more

alike to the contiguous Asiatic nations than they are to the Negro Tribes.

Hence it follows that the theory that the Negroes and Southern Africans

are distinct Races of men, may be as decisively tested by a comparison of

their languages with those of the Northern Africans, as by collating them

with the languages of the other continents of the globe.

The mode of comparison adopted in Appendix A, has been dictated by these

considerations. Accordingly, I have therein separated the languages of

Africa into three divisions, those of: 1, North Africa; 2, Negro-land; 3,

South Africa; allotting a separate column to each division; while on the

opposite page a separate column is devoted to each of the continents of

Asia, Europe, and America. This comparison will serve at once to show the

general connexion of the African languages with those of Asia, Europe, and

America, and at the same time to demonstrate another proposition of nearly

equal interest, viz. the close mutual affinity of the languages of

Northern, Tropical, and Southern Africa.

With respect to the particular words selected for comparison, I have

chosen the names for the following objects: “Fire, Sun, Day, Eye,(22)

Moon, Heaven, a Human Being, Man and Woman.” (Homo, Vir, Fœmina, _Latin_.)

The most important parts of the Human Frame, (viz. “The Hand, Arm, Foot,

Leg, Ear, Tongue, Head.”) “Water.”

These terms comprise nearly all the specimens of the languages of Africa,

which have been collected in “the Mithridates,” of Adelung and Vater. The

objects to which these terms have been applied are comparatively few. But

for reasons about to be explained, the evidence which may be deduced from

the terms themselves is neither scanty nor imperfect, but, on the

contrary, very extensive and complete.

The African names for the above-mentioned objects analysed in Appendix A,

amount to about 700. The corresponding and analogous terms introduced from

the other three Continents are about treble that number.

In determining the mutual relations of different languages, it is

obviously not necessary to compare the whole of their component parts. All

that is required is a comparison of such portions of each as may be justly

viewed in the light of a satisfactory test. That the selected specimens of

the languages of Africa are sufficiently _numerous_ for this end is plain.

It only remains to be shown that their _nature_ is such as to render them

eminently suitable and conclusive.

Now it will be clear from the following considerations, that these

specimens are peculiarly calculated to serve as a decisive test of the

general composition and structure of languages.

Terms for the Objects above enumerated will be found to include the

greatest portion of the primary elements of all languages.(23)

This proposition may be placed in the clearest light by means even of

comparatively modern languages, for both modern and ancient tongues will

be found principally to consist of the following elements:

1. The nouns above mentioned. Such nouns are in fact the names of the most

familiar and conspicuous objects; of those objects which are common to all

ages and countries.

Verbs descriptive of the functions of such objects.

2. Names of Animals and Birds.

3. Names of Rivers, the Ocean, Hills, and Mountains.

4. Words expressive of Mental Qualities and Emotions.

5. Pronouns and other Conventional Grammatical Forms.

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1. Now, with the exception of the second, all these five classes of words

may be shown to be mere modifications of those of the 1st class.

2. Moreover, as regards even the Second Class, names of Animals and Birds,

terms of this description are also in a great number, perhaps in the

majority of instances compounds chiefly consisting of terms of the First

Class, viz., of the words for the “Members of the Body,” for “Water,

Fire,” &c., as in “Red-_breast_,” “_Water-wag_ tail” (_English_).

Sgyvarn-og “a Hare,” from Sgyvarn “an Ear” (_Welsh_).

There are, it is true, some terms of this class of a more primitive

origin, as they plainly consist of imitations of the characteristic cry or

note of the Animal or Bird named, as for example “Cuck-oo” (_English_);

“U-lu-la” (_Swedish_), “U-lu-l-aka” (_Sanscrit_), “An Owl.” But then it is

plain that words of this kind are for the most part confined in their

application to the objects designated and do not enter largely into the

composition of languages.

3. Words for “Rivers” and “The Ocean” consist of terms for “Water.”

For example: “The Esk” is from Eask (_Irish_), and Esseg (_Dongolan, North

Africa_), “Water.” “The Usk” or “Ou-isg,” as the word is pronounced by the

Welsh, from Uisge, “Water” (_Irish_), connected with Eask (_Irish_). “The

Ayr” is identical with A.r. “A River,” also “To flow” (_Hebrew_), “The

Yarrow” with Iaro (_Egyptian_), and the Hebrew words Ee.a.ou.r Ee.a.r

(modifications of A.r, _Hebrew_). Some able Celtic scholars have attempted

to explain the origin of such names as “Ayr and Yarrow,” which are very

common as names of rivers in Celtic countries, by means of a Celtic term

which means “Gentle,” an explanation very inapplicable in many instances.

The error of these writers arises from the assumption they are prone to

adopt, that the Celtic is an unchanged language, the truth being that the

changes which it can be shown to have undergone in more recent times, form

a distinct ground for the conclusion that, long prior to the earliest

period to which our most ancient Celtic specimens can be referred, the

Celts must have lost many words which their forefathers brought with them

from the East.

In the names above noticed, not only the general features, but the finer

shades of inflection of the Oriental words reappear.

Numerous examples may be pointed out, of words applied in some languages

to “Water” generally, appropriated exclusively, in others to the “Sea or

Ocean.” Thus we have Shui in Chinese, and Su in _Turkish_, “Water.” In the

_German_ See, the _Anglo Saxon_ Seo Sae, the _English_ “Sea,” and in other

analogous terms to be met with in all the Gothic tongues, we recognize the

same term as a word for a “Lake,” or for “The Sea.” Adelung has pointed

out the resemblance which in some other instances the Turkish bears to the

German. The ancestors of the Turks and Germans, it may be observed, are

both traceable to contiguous regions of Northern Asia, the great “High

Road of Nations” from China to Europe.

Again, in various dialects of the North American Indians we meet with

Oghnacauno, Oneekanoosh, &c. “Water.” In Latin and Greek we find the same

term “Ocean-os, Ocean-oio”, &c., applied exclusively to “The Ocean.” (See

for other examples Appendix A, p. 77.)

Words for Mountains and Hills are almost universally identical with words

for “The Head, The Back, The Breast,” &c. Thus even in the English, in

which the first meanings of words are often lost, we have “Ridge” (A Back

and A Hill), “Head-land,” “_Saddle-back_” (the name of a mountain.) In the

Principality of Wales, in which a less changed and a less conventional

language prevails, the common names for hills, “Cevn, Pen, Vron,” &c., are

words for “The Back, The Head, The Breast,” &c., appropriated according to

the particular _shapes_ of the hills. The same words, as will appear

hereafter, were used as names of mountains in ancient Gaul and Spain, &c.

Jugum, “_A Yoke_ and A Hill,” (_Latin_,) Cadair Idris, “The chair of

Idris,” A Fabulous Giant and Astronomer, (_Welsh_,) are instances of

metaphors of a different kind. But generally names of hills are traceable

as above described, and are therefore mere forms of terms belonging to the

first class.

4. That terms of this Class, viz.: Words descriptive of the Operations and

Emotions of the Mind, consist of metaphors derived from words originally

appropriated to physical objects and agencies, has been indisputably

proved by the celebrated French writer, Court Ghebelin, and by Horne

Tooke, whose researches were applied to the analysis of the English

language only. Words appropriated to the members of the Human Frame and

their Functions, and other terms of the First CIass, are the chief sources

of these metaphorical terms.

This philological maxim was supposed by some of the most eminent of those

writers by whom it was established, to furnish an argument in favour of

the doctrines of Materialism, as when, for example, the English word

“Spirit” was derived from the Latin word for “Breath,” Spiritus. But the

premises do not appear to furnish any solid support to the inferences they

were thought to favour. The same Consciousness which in this case, and in

other similar instances, perceives an analogy, perceives also that the

connexion is one of analogy only. The true explanation of the relations

which exist between these two classes of words may, I conceive, be derived

from the consideration, that though Man is endowed with moral and

intellectual, as well as with perceptive, faculties,—inasmuch as the

perceptive powers are earliest exercised,—the language of his higher

sentiments consists of metaphors thence borrowed. “The Hand,” in like

manner, as may be inferred from several examples which occur in the course

of this work, has, in many instances, metaphorically given names to some

of the less conspicuous bodily organs of perception. At the same time, the

soundness of the philological principle developed by Ghebelin and Horne

Tooke can not reasonably be disputed. In these pages will be found

numerous illustrations of its truth. Moreover it will appear that this

principle forms the basis of some of the most convincing proofs—that

languages afford—of the common origin of nations very remotely situated

from each other, as of the Welsh and English, for example, with the

Hebrew, and other ancient Syro-Phœnician nations.

5. As regards Pronouns and other Grammatical Forms.

Pronouns enter very largely into the composition of languages, not merely

in a separate form, but also as the source from which the most striking

peculiarities of other parts of grammar have been derived. It has been

shown by Dr. Prichard that the various inflections which distinguish the

different persons of the Verb in the Latin and Sanscrit, and other

highly-complicated languages of the same class, are identical with

pronouns.

In the works of Horne Tooke and others it has been abundantly shown that

Pronouns are merely Nouns, viz. Names of the Human Species, “Man, Woman,”

&c. In other words they belong to a section of the terms of the First

Class.

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Hence it will be manifest that an analysis, completely embracing numerous

specimens of nouns of the First Class, virtually embraces also numerous

specimens of words of the Four other Classes, which, together with the

First, compose the principal elements of Human Language. For it must be

observed that—

Though the African nouns belonging to the First Class form the

only basis or subject of inquiry, the inquiry itself will be found

to embrace an extended comparison of those nouns with the kindred

terms of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Classes, which are

discoverable in the languages of the other three continents.

Finally, a principle must here be stated and applied, which will be more

fully illustrated hereafter.

The names of Objects can be shown in a great variety of instances

to be identical with Verbs or terms descriptive of some dominant

or conspicuous quality which those Objects display.

This remark applies even to the terms for the Members of the Human Frame,

and other Objects of which the names are included in the First Class of

Words,—as appears by abundant illustrations in works of authority and

research confined to an investigation of the European languages. But the

same truth may be much more clearly and unequivocally demonstrated even by

the most cursory examination of more ancient and therefore more primitive

tongues, such as the Hebrew and the Sanscrit. The application of this

principle will be found to unfold a wide range of facts serving to connect

the languages of Africa with those of the other Continents; the same

terms, which present themselves as Nouns or Conventional names in the

languages of Africa, occurring in a great variety of examples in those of

the other continents, unaltered or very slightly changed in sound,

fulfilling the functions of the corresponding _descriptive_ terms or

verbs. Here it may be remarked that the descriptive or metaphorical

character, which originally belonged to nouns, and the various modes in

which the same objects are susceptible of description, may be viewed as

the source of these numerous names for the same objects. But this is a

subject which will be more fully discussed in a subsequent part of this

work.

The following examples will serve to illustrate at once the principle last

stated, and also another principle before suggested, viz. that “The

Hand”(24) and its perceptions have metaphorically given names in many

instances—not only to the faculties of the Mind,—but also to the other

perceptive organs and their functions. For further illustrations, see

Appendix A, p. 65, and the subsequent pages.

Tom, (_Heb._) “To try,” “To try an experiment,” “To perceive.”

Tom, “The Hand,” (_Mexico_.)

Tedembeton, “The Hand,” (_Nubia_.)

Thumb (_Eng._), Daum, (_Ger._)

Teim-law, “To Feel,” (_Welsh_.)

“To taste,” “To eat.” Tamma, “The Tongue,” (_Hottentots_.)

“Mental Taste,” “Discernment,” “Judgment.” Tami-as, “A Judge,” (_Greek_.)

Doom, Doomsday, (_English_.)

G.sh. (_Heb._), “To feel for.” Guess, (_Eng_.) See below,

K.s.m, (_Heb._)

G.sh.sh. (_Heb._), “To feel for repeatedly,” Gus-to, “To taste, To

listen,” (_Latin_.)

“To grope for,” Kchesi, “The Hand,” (_Finland_.)

Keez, “The Hand,” (_Hungarian_.)

K.s.m. (_Heb._), “To guess hidden things.” “To divine,” “To foretel.”

Keisio, “To seek, To attempt, Endeavour,” (_Welsh_.)

These examples instructively display the manner in which the Hebrew, which

is a language of high antiquity, combines within itself a variety of

meanings, which are found only partially preserved in more modern

languages. This venerable tongue may be said in these, as in numerous

other instances, to confirm, by means of its own intrinsic resources, the

results which are deducible from a wide comparison of other languages of

which our specimens are more modern.

II. _Of the Results of the Comparison, contained in Appendix A._

When the languages of Africa are compared collectively with those of the

other three Continents, it will be found:

1. That the names of the most Common Objects, occurring in the various

dialects of Africa, may be detected, and as it were _restored_, in the

same or in kindred senses in each of the other three Continents, when all

or a considerable portion of their languages are examined.

2. The exceptions to this principle are so insignificant, that the rule,

viewed in the light of a philological maxim, may be regarded as universal,

especially when it is borne in mind that the specimens we possess of the

various languages of Mankind are undoubtedly incomplete.

3. A further remarkable truth is established by Appendix A, viz.:

The resemblances which the African languages display to those of Asia,

&c., are as close as those which the Asiatic languages exhibit among

themselves; and they are as close as those which the languages termed

Indo-European mutually display.

4. What has been stated in the previous explanation of Result 3 applies to

the languages of the continent of America as well as to those of Africa.

5. Not only the same words but the same minute transitions which words

undergo may be recognized in the Four Continents, and the steps of

transition are much more completely traceable when the various Continents

form the subject of comparison than when the investigation is confined to

one Continent. Compare, for example, (See Appendix A, p. 13,) Ano, “A Day”

(_Caraibs_); Antu, Antú, “The Sun, A Day” (_Araucan, South America_);

Antu, Andru, “A Day” (_Madagascar, South Africa_); Indra, The Indian “God

of Day” (_Sanscrit, Asia_); Inti, Indi, “The Sun” (_South America_).

6. It will be seen that in this instance, and in numerous other examples,

finer shades of transition are restored by means of a comparison including

the Four Continents.

7. As regards the Continent of Africa, by this comparison all its

synonymes of the class selected for analysis have, with a few trifling

exceptions, been exhausted. As regards the other three Continents, so

large a portion, probably the great majority, of these synonymes have been

introduced from every region of those continents, that the evidence thus

obtained, combined as it is with a complete investigation of the African

terms, may be considered as equally conclusive with the proofs which would

have been furnished by an exhaustion of the synonymes of all the four

continents.

The examination of synonymous terms is the principle which has been

pursued by Humboldt, in his work on “The Basque,” and by Du Ponceau in his

Treatise on the “Algonquyn Dialects of the North American Indians.” It is

the most satisfactory mode of investigating languages, because it involves

an explanation of the differences as well as of the resemblances they

mutually display.

8. Hence it follows that when all the dialects of each continent are thus

compared in the aggregate with those of each of the other three, the very

same language is reproduced by the reunion of the “_disjecta membra_.”

With reference more especially to the third and fourth results above

stated, I may here advert to the researches of two philologists of the

highest eminence, whose conclusions will not, in the present state of

philological knowledge, be disputed,—the German writer Klaproth, and Dr.

Prichard: the former has treated of the proofs of affinity observable

among the Asiatic languages; the latter has discussed the proofs of mutual

resemblance displayed by certain languages usually classed under the term

“Indo-European.”

The affinities which present themselves among the different languages of

the single continent of Asia, in the following examples, have been

selected as evidence of the original connexion of those languages by

Klaproth.

WORDS FOR “THE SUN.”

_Asia._—Chor Churr (_Ossetian._)

Chor Chorschid (_Persian._)

Chorschid (_Pehlwi_), Huere (_Zend._)(25)

_America._—Coaracy, Curasi, Quarassi (_Brazil._)

_Africa._—Koara (_Bosjesmans._)

_South Africa._—Giro (_Kanga, Negro-land._)

Though the Zend, Pehlwi, and Persian are three kindred dialects of Persia,

it will be observed that the Pehlwi and Persian words in this example,

although clearly allied to the corresponding Zend word (_Huere_), resemble

that word less than they do the American and African terms. On the other

hand, the next example presents to us American and African words perfectly

identical with this term (Huere).

WORDS FOR “THE SUN” AND “DAY.”

_Asia._—Huere, “The Sun,” (_Zend._)

_S. America._—Huarassi, “The Sun” and “Day,” (_Omaguans._)

_Africa._—Hor, Horus, i.e. “The God of Day,” (_Egypt._)

Huer, “Day,” (_Iolofs, Negro-land._)

_Asia._—Eiere,(26) “Day,” (_Zend._)

_Africa._—Iirri, “The Sun,” (_Wawu_, _Negro-land._)

The connexion between the previous words for the Sun and the first of the

two following classes of terms for the Moon will be manifest. The origin

of the relation which is universally traceable between the names of the

two great Heavenly Luminaries will be found fully discussed in Appendix A.

WORDS FOR “THE MOON.”

_Asia._—“Wiri Yere Irri” (_Samoied_), Wurra (_Sumbava Island._)(27)

_Africa, Negro-land._—“Uhaaire Verr” (_Iolofs._)

_Asia._—“Sāra” (_Syrian_), “Sāra” (_Mongol and Calmuck._)

_Africa, Negro-land._—“Assara” (_Gold Coast._)

Dr. Prichard has clearly proved the connexion of the Welsh and other

Celtic dialects with the Sanscrit and other “Indo-European” tongues, a

class in which he considers that the Celtic dialects ought therefore to be

included. The Welsh and Sanscrit words which occur in Appendix A, p. 11,

have already been compared by him in his work on the Celtic Languages. The

mutual connexion of these words is clear. But it will be equally manifest

that the African terms which occur in the same passage, Appendix A, p. 11,

are quite as nearly allied to the Welsh words as are the Sanscrit terms

with which those words have been collated by Dr. Prichard. In some

instances they are even more so. Compare, for example, “Lloer,” The Moon,

(_Welsh_,) with the African word “Leoure,” The Moon, (from the dialect of

the “_Fulahs_.”)

An examination of the names of some of the principal gods of Egypt,

Greece, Italy, and India, by means of a comparison of the languages of all

the Four Continents, will be found in a very striking manner to illustrate

at once the foregoing philological results, and also the origin of those

names, and of the systems of Idolatry to which they belonged.

HOR. Hor-us, “The God of Day,” (_Egypt_,) already explained.

INDRA, The Indian “God of Day,” previously explained.

SURYA, The Indian “God of the Sun.” His Orb personified, (_Sanscrit_.)

OSIRA OSIRI, and SERAP-IS OR SOROP-IS, (believed to have been the same as

Osiri,) “Gods of the Sun,” (_Egypt._)

The same change of inflection which is observable when “Surya and Osira”

are compared with Sero-p-is, occurs in the following:

Surie, Sorrie, Sorré, Sore, “The Sun,” (_Hottentots_.)

Sor o h-b, “The Sun,” (_Corona Hottentots_.)

The same change occurs also in the following:

Z.e.r, “To shine brightly,” Sh. r.-ph, “To burn,” Sh.r-ph eem, “Seraphs,”

(_Hebrew_.)

AUROR-A, “The Goddess of The Dawn,” (_Latin_.)

A.ou.r, “Light, Day-light,” (_Hebrew_.)

Waōūr, “The Dawn,” (_Welsh_.)

Or, “Day,” Ar-pi, “The Sun,” (_Armenian_.)

Wurabe, “Day,” (_Nubia_.)

Ē-o-us, One of the Horses of the Sun, Ēō-s (Eō, EōA, Accusative,) “The

Sun, The Dawn, The Goddess” “of The Dawn,” (_Greek_.)

Eo o hu, Haou, “Day,” (_Egypt._) Uwya Ou, “The Sun,” (_Negroes_.) Huieiou,

“The Sun,” (_Caraibs, South America_.) A u-ō, “To shine,” (_Greek_.)

NET-PHE, “The Goddess of the Heaven or Firmament,” (_Egypt._)

Neth-phe Ne-phe ou, “The Heavens or Heaven,” (_Egypt._)

Nev, “Heaven,” (_Welsh_.) Nebo, “Heaven,” (_Selaronian_.)

ĒRĒ and AĒR (Greek), “The Goddess of The Heaven or Atmosphere,” “Juno.”

Iru, “Heaven,” (_Negroes_,) Awyr, “The Sky,” (_Welsh_,) Aër, (_Latin_),

“Air,” (_English_.)

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JUNO (_Latin_), the same as the last. She was also regarded as “The Mother

of the Gods.” (See this name explained by means of Sanscrit and Negro

words combined, Appendix A, p. 62.)

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KHEM, A God of “The Sun,” (_Egypt_.)

K au m-et, “The Sun,” K au m-ei, “The Moon,” (_Greenland_.)

C’h.m.n.-ee.n, “Sun Images,” (_Hebrew_.)

C’h.m, “Hot, Heat,” (_Hebrew_.)

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Ee ph-aist-os (_Greek_), “Vulcan,” “The God of Fire.”

Aifi, “Fire,” (_Sumbava_,) Fi (_Japan_), and Fei (_Siam_), “Fire,” Epee,

“Fire,” (_Katabans, North America_,) Peez Pioe, “Fire,” (_Moxians, South

America_,) Ee.ph.c’h, and Ph.ou.c’h, “To blow upon,” “Kindle,” “Inflame,”

(_Hebrew_.)

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PHOI-B-OS (_Greek_), “The God of the Sun, Phœbus.”

“This word (‘Phoibos’) expresses the brightness and splendour of that

luminary.” (Lempriere.)

Pha-ō, “To Shine,” (_Greek_.)

Ee.ph.ō, “To shine forth,” (_Hebrew_,) “Brightness, Splendour,” (_Chald._)

Ee.ph.ph.e, “Very Beautiful,” (_Hebrew_.)

Phōs, “Light,” (_Greek_.)

Fosseye, “The Sun,” (_“__Sereres__”__ Negroes._)

Phōs, “A Star,” (_Japan_.)

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The foregoing are merely examples of the mode in which the names of the

Heathen Deities are susceptible of explanation, by means of a general

comparison of languages. In the course of this work, the names of nearly

all the principal Gods of Egypt, Greece, Italy, and India, will be

explained in the same manner.

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The North American Indians are not Idolaters. They worship a “Great” and

“Good Spirit.” They also believe in an “Evil Spirit.”

A large class of Indian dialects have been analysed by Du Ponceau, a

writer whose high philosophical reputation, great candour, and perfect

knowledge of the dialects he examined, render his researches eminently

deserving of attention. In early youth he was secretary to Court Ghebelin.

But though a native of France, he passed the principal part of his life in

the United States, in the employment of the Government of that country.

His essay on the “Algonquyn Dialects of North America,” was elicited from

him at a very advanced period of life by a prize offered in Paris, for

which he was the successful competitor. By means of his familiar

acquaintance with the languages of the Indian Tribes, it is related that

he proved a person, whose narrative at one time excited considerable

interest both in this country and in France to be an impostor; Hunter, the

author of a work professing to give an authentic account of his captivity

among the Indian Tribes. In his treatise on those languages, though for

the most part he declines to generalize and professes to wish rather to

furnish data for others, Du Ponceau expresses himself nevertheless,

decidedly adverse to the views of those writers who conceive the Indian

Tribes to be descendants of colonists from the Asiatic continent. The

Indians and their languages he views as indigenous products of the

American soil. After alluding in general terms of respect to the memory of

that celebrated writer, he assails with national vivacity Grotius’s

conclusion with respect to the primitive language, which forms the motto

of this work, quoting from Dante a passage in which it is intimated that

the primitive language of Man must have perished at the “General Deluge!”

More ample proofs of the connexion of the dialects examined by Du Ponceau

with those of the Old World, occur hereafter. In this place I must confine

myself to one remarkable example.

With reference to the names given by the Indians to the great object of

their worship, Du Ponceau states the result of his analysis to be that the

names of the Supreme Being in all the Indian dialects he has explored,

primarily mean “a Spirit.” But there is one instance, he adds, in which he

has not been able to verify this conclusion, viz. in that of the dialect

of the Abenaki tribe. It is true, he remarks, that “Father Raffles” had

made a statement tending to show that in this instance there was no

exception to the general rule he (Du Ponceau) had adopted, for, according

to Father Raffles, in the dialect of the Abenaki the name of the Supreme

Being was Ke tsi Niou esk ou, and these words K etsi “_Ni ou eskou_,” mean

the Great “_Spirit_ or Genius;” while the name of the Evil Being was Matsi

“_Nioueskou_,” and these terms mean the Evil “Spirit or Genius.”

But Du Ponceau intimates that he has not been able by means of his own

researches to satisfy himself of the accuracy of Father Raffles’s

statement, as to the origin of these words, and he adds, “I do not know

whence this word ‘Ni oueskou’ comes.” (“Je ne sais pas d’où vient ce mot

Nioueskou.”)

Among the specimens he has published of words used in the Iroquois

dialects, a class of Indian languages which he has not minutely analysed,

Du Ponceau gives _“__N’ iou__”_ as the name of “the Deity.”

Now the following comparison exhibits the remarkable fact that these words

“_N’iou_” and “Nioueskou” may be distinctly and extensively recognized in

the languages of the old world, in the very sense which, according to

Father Raffles, was the primitive meaning of “Nioueskou” among the Abenaki

tribe of Indians, viz., in that of “_a Spirit or Genius_.” They also

reappear in physical meanings, which, according to Horne Tooke’s

principles, may, à priori, be pronounced to be philologically analogous.

The resemblance of the Indian terms to the European and Asiatic words is

as close as the resemblance which exists between such words of the two

latter classes as belong to the same languages or to the same group of

languages. The variation of inflection between N’ioh and Niou-es kou, may

also be restored; compare No- (the root or unchangeable part of “Noos,”)

with “No-os Nous,” “The Mind,” (in the nominative case, _Greek_.) Compare

also “Nose,” (_English_,) with “Nas-ika,” (_Sanscrit_.)

_Hebrew, Indo-European, and American Words applied to the Physical

Senses._

Hebrew. Ind.-Europ. & American.

N.sh.-b, N.sh.-ph, “To blow.” Nos (_Sclavonic_), Nase, &c.

(_German and other Gothic

tongues_), Nas-ika (_San._)

N.sh.-m, “To breathe out,” Nas-us, Nas-um (_Latin._) “The

N.sh.-m.e, “The Breath,” “Man Nose,” (_English._)

as a Breathing Animal”.(28)

N.ph.sh, “Breath.”

Ee-n.sh.ou.ph, “A species of

Water-fowl remarkable for its

Hard Breathing.”

_Applied to Mental and Physical Objects._

N.sh.-m.e “Breath,” (as above) No-os, Nou-s, (No.e.No), “The

“Life,” “Soul,” “Spirit.” Mind,” (_Greek._)

N’ioh.Nioues-kou, “The Genius,

Spirit, God,” (_North American

Indian Dialects_, as above.)

N.ph.sh. “Breath,” “Life,” N.ph.sh, or Nouvis, “Full of

“Mind,” “A Person or Man,” _Life_ or _Spirits_,”

N.ph.sh-ce, The Pronoun “I.” (_Welsh._)

These examples may be concluded with a very remarkable instance of an

important word which occurs in every one of the three great divisions of

the globe, except America, and is met with in every one of the three

regions of Africa.

WORDS FOR “BREAD.”

_Asia_.—Buro (_Savu Isle, a Malay dialect_.)

_Africa_.—Bouron (_Fulahs, North Africa_.)

Bourou (_Iolofs, Negro-land_.)

Bra Bre (_Hottentots, South Africa_.)

_Europe_.—Bara (_Welsh_.) Bro (_Norwegian_.) Bread (_English_.) Brod or

Brot (_German_.)

The source of these words seems to be, B.r.e, B.r.ou.th, “Food,”

(_Hebrew_.) In the same language, Lc’h.m, “Bread,” primarily means “Food,

To feed.”

Combined with the phenomenon of the absolute identity of the united

elements of the languages of the Four Continents, we encounter a wide, and

in many instances a total difference, when two individual languages are

compared. And this is true not merely of two languages taken from

different continents, but it is true also of languages spoken even in

contiguous regions of the same continent.

How then are these singular features of general unity combined with

individual diversity to be reconciled? Of this problem the investigation

will be found in the following pages.

CHAPTER II. ON THE DIFFERENCES WHICH DISTINGUISH INDIVIDUAL LANGUAGES OF

THE FOUR CONTINENTS.

SECTION I.

These differences may be explained by Causes now in Operation. The

principal causes are, The abandonment by different branches of the same

race:

1, Of different Synonymes;

2, Of different meanings of the same Synonyme.

This Section may be considered as confined to an affirmation of the

propositions above stated.

SECTION II.

_On the Differences between the Celtic and Gothic Classes of

Languages. The Celtic and Gothic differ almost totally in the most

Common Words. Celtic and Gothic words identical with Persian

Synonymes._

The Celtic and Gothic Races form the population of North-western and

Central Europe.

In those early ages in which the Celtic tribes first came into collision

with the Roman legionaries, the Celtic language and race occupied a wide

section of Europe, including the British islands, France, the Rhine, the

whole of Switzerland, a portion of South-western Germany, and the North of

Italy. The Celts were also in possession of some of the fairest regions of

the Spanish Peninsula, a country which they shared with Iberian tribes,

the ancestors of the Basque nation, of which a remnant still preserves

among the fastnesses of the Pyrenean mountains the language, character,

and institutions of their warlike forefathers. The existence in those ages

of a Celtic population, occupying territories thus extensive, and the

identity of their languages with the living tongues still spoken by the

Welsh and other Celtic nations, have been placed beyond all doubt by the

luminous investigations of Dr. Prichard and Humboldt.

In the present day, the Gothic nations and languages extend over a large

section of the area of Europe, including the greatest portion(29) of

Germany, the whole of Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, the German Cantons of

Switzerland, and the British Isles, with the exception of those districts

in which dialects of the Celtic are spoken.

Of the common origin of the Celtic and Gothic tongues we possess no direct

historical proof, for the sources of these languages reach far higher than

the records of history. Nor, as I conceive, is it possible, from a

comparison of these languages themselves, to elicit a satisfactory

demonstration of their original identity. Instances of partial

resemblances may no doubt be pointed out; but it will be found

nevertheless that in the most common corresponding terms, the Celtic and

Gothic differ almost totally.

The only satisfactory mode of proving the common origin of the Celtic and

Gothic seems to be by means of the affinity to the languages of India,

Persia, &c., which are displayed by both, even in those very features in

which they differ most widely from each other. The following are examples

of the union, in the form of Synonymes in the Persian, of corresponding

terms, in which the Celtic and Gothic differ totally from each other.

Persian. Welsh. English.

Made, a maid, a Maid. Mädchen,

female. _Germ._

Geneez, a girl. Geneth.

D.ch.t.r., a girl, a Daughter. Töchter,

daughter. _Germ._

Chonahr, a sister. Idem.

Ch.d. a God. God.

B.r.ee, God. Beree or Peree, to

create, (spelt

Peri.) Beri|adur,

Creator. B.r.a. Heb.

Id.

Pechegan, infants. Bechgyn.

Juvan, young. Ieuange. Juvenile, from

_Lat._

Braud.|r. Braud (Brathair, Brother.

_Irish._)

Mam, mother. Mam.

M.d.r. mother. Mother.

P.d.r. father. Pater, _Lat._;

Fader, _Ang.-Sax._

Latin. Greek.

Aud.|n. the ear. Aud|io, I hear.

Koush, the ear. A|kous|o, I will

hear. Akoustics,

_Eng._

F.m. the mouth. (Fhuaim, a voice, Feem|ee, I speak.

_Irish._) Fama,

Fame, _Latin_.

The Persian grammar also combines many European languages:

Persian. Welsh. English. Latin. German.

Men, I. My. Mine. Meus. Mein.

Tou, thou. Thou. Tu. Du.

Av, he, Idem,

she, or spelt Ev.

it.

A een, Hyn.; Hon.

this.

Bod|n|, to Bod.

be; (n.

infinitive

affix.)

Am, I am. Idem. (Eim|i,

_Greek_.)

This tense is very like Latin:

Shou, be thou.

Shou d (sit), let him be.

Shou eem (simus), let us be.

Shou eet (sitis), be ye.

Shou nd, let them be.(30)

SECTION III.

_On the Changes which have taken place in the English Language.

Effect of the Norman Conquest, as a Cause of these Changes

exaggerated. Dr. Johnson’s Opinion. Sir Walter Scott’s. Speech of

__“__Wamba__”__ in Ivanhoe. Some of the most important Changes

have occurred since the time of Chaucer. The modern English, the

Provincial Dialects of Lancashire and other English Counties, and

the Lowland Scotch, different Fragments of the Anglo-Saxon. The

Provincial English Auxiliary Verb, __“__I Bin,__”__ &c._

That extensive changes have taken place in many Human languages, within a

comparatively limited period, is a truth of which the proofs are alike

abundant and indisputable. The various dialects that sprang from the Latin

after the downfall of the Roman Empire, the emanation of numerous dialects

in the Scandinavian Kingdoms from one ancient tongue, “The Danska Tunge”

or “Norse,” and finally the successive phases of transition through which

the English language itself has passed since the period of the Norman

conquest, conspire, with other examples of the same kind, at once to

establish the occurrence of such changes, and to exhibit in a striking

point of view their extraordinary variety and extent.

In order to account for differences, so characteristic and apparently so

fundamental, as many of the languages which are the offspring of these

changes display, it has generally been deemed necessary to ascribe them to

the agency of a _violent disturbing cause_. Hence the origin of an opinion

that may be regarded as the prevalent one, viz. that these varieties of

dialect have been mainly produced by the influence of Foreign invasions

and conquests, and the consequent admixture of the Languages of the

dominant, with those of vanquished, nations.

The grounds of this conclusion may be appropriately tested—and its

fallacy, as I conceive, satisfactorily established—in one single instance,

which I have been naturally led to select as involving considerations of

peculiar interest to English readers. I allude to the influence which the

Norman conquest of England is supposed to have exercised, in the

production of those peculiar features, which distinguish the modern

language of England from the original Anglo-Saxon tongue.

The share which the Norman conquest may have had in the formation of those

peculiarities may be best determined by investigating 1st the immediate,

and 2d the remote, consequences of that event.

On the subject of the immediate effects of the Norman conquest, it is

highly interesting to observe that Dr. Johnson thus expresses himself in

the following remarkable passage:

“About the year 1150 the Saxon began to take a form in which the beginning

of the present English may be plainly discovered; this change seems not to

have been the effect of the Norman conquest, for very _few French words_

are found to have been introduced in the first Hundred years after it; the

language must, therefore, have been altered by _causes like those which,

notwithstanding the care of writers and societies instituted to obviate

them, are even now daily making innovations in every living language_. I

have exhibited a specimen of the language of this age from the year 1135

to 1140 of the Saxon Chronicle, of which the latter part was apparently

written near the time to which it relates.”(31)

Yet Professor Rask of Copenhagen, a writer of great learning and ability,

in alluding to the changes that occurred at this period, attempts to

account for them by vaguely attributing them to an infusion of the speech

of the “old northern settlers,” (in other words—the Danes,) and to the

ascendancy of the Norman French as a court language.(32) But the facts are

singularly at variance with his conclusions! The sway of the Danish kings

had produced, as he admits, no material alteration in the English

language, even during its continuance; and how then could it have done so

a century after its termination? Nor can the ascendancy of the Norman

Court be accepted as a satisfactory explanation of these results, since

the changes to be accounted for did not consist in the adoption of Norman

words, but in an internal change in the structure and inflections of the

original Anglo-Saxon itself, unattended by the introduction of any Foreign

admixture.

It is obvious, then, that the conclusion of Professor Rask cannot be

regarded as a deduction naturally suggested by the phenomena, with which

he was so profoundly conversant, but must be viewed rather as a result of

the influence which the popular and generally received opinions on the

subject, must have exercised upon his mind. Highly instructive is it to

mark in this instance an example of the extent to which even erudite and

admirable philologists have frequently been betrayed into inconsistency

and error, by the supposed necessity of referring the revolutions which

languages have undergone, to some abrupt and violent social revolution,

with which, being connected in the order of events, they are also and not

unnaturally conceived to be equally connected by the relation of cause and

effect!

It may be assumed therefore, agreeably to the views of Dr. Johnson, that

the Norman conquest had no _immediate_ effect on the language of the

Anglo-Saxons. It remains then to inquire in what manner the influence of

that event was felt at a more distant period, viz.: about a century

afterwards, during the reigns of John and Richard Cœur de Lion, the period

during which the intermingling of the Norman and Saxon races and tongues

is believed to have been consummated. During this period also, we possess

the guidance of a great master, who has embodied all the philosophy of

this subject in a few pathetic words which he has put into the mouth of a

jester.(33)

“Truly,” said Wamba, without stirring from the spot, “I have consulted my

legs upon this matter, and they are altogether of opinion, that to carry

my gay garments through these sloughs would be an act of unfriendship to

my sovereign person and royal wardrobe; wherefore Gurth, I advise thee to

call off Fangs, and leave the herd to their destiny, which, whether they

meet with bands of travelling soldiers, or of outlaws, or of wandering

pilgrims, can be little else than to be converted into Normans before

morning to thy no small ease and comfort.”

“The swine turned Normans to my comfort,” quoth Gurth; “expound that to

me, Wamba, for my brain is too dull, and my mind too vexed, to read

riddles.”

“Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on their four

legs?” demanded Wamba.

“Swine, fool, swine,” said the herd; “every fool knows that.”

“And swine is good Saxon,” said the Jester; “but how call you the sow when

she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and hung by the heels, like a

traitor?”

“Pork,” answered the swineherd.

“I am very glad every fool knows that too,” said Wamba, “and Pork, I

think, is good Norman-French; and so when the brute lives, and is in the

charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman,

and is called Pork, when she is carried to the Castle-hall to feast among

the nobles. What dost thou think of this, friend Gurth, ha?”

“It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got into thy fool’s

pate!”