In the southern provinces of the United States, as far BOOK as the Mississippi, there is an immediate affinity between LXXV. the idioms of the Choktaws and of the Chickasaws, which have likewise some appearance of being connected with that of the Cherokees. The Creeks or Muskohges, and the Katahbas, have borrowed words from them. Farther to the north, the once powerful tribe of the Six Nations speaks one single language, which, amongst others, forms the dialects of the Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagoes, Cayugas, Tuscaroras, Cochnewagoes, Wyandotes, and Oneidas. The numerous Nadowassians have a separate idiom. The dialects of the Chippaway language are common to the Penobscots, the Mahicannis, the Minsis, the Narragansets, Natixes, Algonquins, and Knistenaux. The Miamis, with whom Charlevoix* classes the Illinois, also borrow from them some words and forms. Lastly, on the confines of the Knistenaux, in the most remote part of the north, the Esquimaux are met with, whose idiom extends from Greenland to Oonalaska. Even the language of the Aleutian 3. In the islands appears to possess an intimate resemblance with the dialects of the Esquimaux, in like manner as these do to the Samoid and Ostiac. In the midst of this belt of polar nations—resembling each other in language as well as in complexion and form-we find the inhabitants of the coasts of America, at Behring's Straits, constituting, with the Tchouktches in Asia, an isolated family, which is distinguished by a particular idiom, and a more imposing figure, and, in all probability, originating from the new continent. Arctic re gions. this multi This great number of idioms proves that a considerable Cause of portion of the American tribes have long existed in that savage solitude in which they are still plunged. The family, or tribe, that wanders in the forests, engaged in the chase, and always armed against other families, or other tribes, whom they are afraid of encountering, necessarily invent words of command, and rallying ex+ Cook's Second Voyage, IV. History of his Voyage, VI. 278. plicity of idioms. BOOK pressions, in fact, cant terms of war, which serve alike LXXV. to guard them from sudden surprise and from treachery. Peculiar genius of can languages. Thus, the Menomenes, a tribe of higher Louisiana, speak so singular a language, that no white has ever been able to learn it. All of them, however, understand the Algonquin, and make use of it in their negociations.* On the other hand, some of the American languages the Ameri- present so artificial and ingenious a composition, that one feels irresistibly disposed to ascribe the invention. of them to some ancient civilized nation. I do not mean nations civilized to the modern scale, but such as the Greeks were in the time of Homer; having their moral ideas developed, their sentiments elevated, and their imagination vivid and cultivated; in short, who had sufficient leisure to yield themselves up to meditation, and to form abstract ideas. General It is on the formation of the verb, that the inventors of affinity of the conjuthe American languages have principally exercised their gations. genius. In almost all the idioms, the conjugation of this part of speech tends to mark, by particular inflexions, the affinity between the subject and the action, or between the subject and the things by which it is surrounded, or more generally speaking, the circumstances in which it is placed. It is thus that all the persons of the verbs are susceptible of assuming particular forms, for the purpose of rendering the accusatives pronominal, which then may be attached to them as an accessary idea; not only in the languages of Quichua and of Chili, which totally differ from one another, but also in the Mexican, the Cora, Totonaca, Natiquam, Chippaway Delawarian, and the Greenland. This astonishing uniformity in so singular a method of forming the conjugations, from one end of America to the other, greatly favours the supposition of a primitive people, the common parent of the indigenous American nations. Nevertheless, when we call to mind that nearly similar forms exist in the language of Congo, and in the *Pike, vol. I. p. 210. Basque, which, in other respects, have no affinity what- BOOK ever, either with one another or with the American LXXV. idioms, we are compelled to look for the origin of these analogies in the general nature of the human mind. Still other grammatical refinements complete the astonishment which is excited by the languages of America. culiarities In the different forms of the idioms of Greenland, Brazil, Other peand the Betoi, the conjugation is changed when they speak in the connegatively; the sign of negation being interpolated in the jugations. Moscan and the Aruwague, just as it is in the Turkish language. In all the American languages, the possessive pronouns are formed of sounds annexed to the substantives, either at the commencement or the termination; and differ from the personal pronouns. The Guarani, Brazilian, Chiquitou, Quichua, Tagalian, and Mantchoo language, have a pronoun plural of the first person, we, excluding the third person to whom the conversation is directed, and another which comprehends this third person in the discourse. The Tamanacan idiom is distinguished from the other branches of the same language, by an extraordinary copiousness in the indicative forms of the tense. In the same idiom, and in those of the Guaicures and of the Huazteques, just as in the Hungarian, the neuter verbs have particular inflexions. In the Aruwaque and Abipon idioms, as well as in the Basque and Phoenician languages, all the persons of the verb, with the exception of the third, are marked by pronouns being permanently prefixed to them. The Betoi idiom is distinguished by terminations of this kind, expressed by os, which are wanting in all the other languages of America. If the history of American languages lead us only to vague conjecture, will the traditions, the monuments, the manners, and the customs of that country, furnish us with more satisfactory information? * Vater, p. 210. BOOK When the Europeans made the conquest of the New LXXV. World, its civilization was concentrated in some parts of the great chain of plateaus and of mountains. The American Anahuac contained the despotic state of Mexico or Ancient monu Tenochtitlan, with its temples bathed in human blood; ments. and Tlascala, inhabited by a race of people not less super stitious. The Zaques, a species of pontiff-kings, governed from the interior of the city of Condinamarca, the mountains of Terra-Firma, while the children of the Sun reigned over the valleys of Quito and Cuzco. Between these limits, the traveller still meets with the numerous ruins of palaces and temples, of baths and houses of public entertainment.* Among these monuments, the Teocalli of the Mexicans, alone indicate an Asiatic origin. They consist of pyramids, surrounded by others of a smaller size, called Cho-Madon and Cho-Dagon, in the empire of the Brahmins, and Pkah-Ton, in the kingdom of Siam. Other monuments, however, speak a language which, to us, is altogether unintelligible. The figures, in all probability hieroglyphical, of animals and instruments, engraved in rocks of syenite, in the vicinity of Cassiquiary; the camps, or square forts, discovered on the banks of the Ohio, furnish us with no evidence whatever. The learned of Europe have never heard any thing more respecting the inscription in Tartar characters, said to have been discovered in Canada, and sent to the Count Maurepas.† Other monuments of a still more doubtful nature are mentioned. The paintings of the Toulteques, for example, the ancient conquerors of Mexico, clearly indicated, say they, the passage of a great arm of the sea,-an assertion which, now that the documents have disappeared, is calculated to inspire us with very little confidence.‡ As to the Mexican paintings that are still met with, they pos A. de Humboldt, Vues et Monumens des Cordillières. + A. de Humboldt, Ansichten, p. 79. Botturini, Idea d'una Storia di Messico, quoted by M. Vater. sess so vague and uncertain a character, that it would be BOOK rash to consider them in the light of historical monuments. LXXV. toms. Manners and customs depend too intimately on the ge- Manners neral qualities of the human mind, and on circumstances and custhat are alike common to many nations, for us to adopt them as the basis of historical bypothesis. People that subsist by the chase and by fishing, must necessarily have the same manner of living. Although the Tonguts eat their meat raw, and merely dried in the smoke; although they take a pride in puncturing the cheeks of their children with lines and figures of a blue or black colour; although they can detect the traces of their game on the smallest tuft of bent grass ;-these, after all, are merely the characteristic features of every nation that is born and educated under the same circumstances. It is, doubtless, a little remarkable, that the Tongusian and American women, should equally have the custom of laying their infants naked in a heap of rotten wood reduced to powder.* The same wants, nevertheless, and the same local circumstances, will explain even this resemblance. It is also worthy of remark, that, like the Americans, the ancient Scythians were in the habit of scalping their enemies; that is to say, of carrying away the skin with the hair from the upper part of the head; although, no doubt, ferocity of disposition may have every where excited mankind to the same excesses. A certain number of more important analogies Analogy connects the religious and astronomical system of the Mex-religious icans and the Peruvians with those of Asia. In the calen- systems. dar of the Azteques, as well as in that of the Calmucs and Tartars, the months are designated by the names of animals. The four great feasts of the Peruvians coincide with those of the Chinese. The Incas, like the Emperors of China, cultivate a certain extent of ground with their own band. The hieroglyphics and little cords in use amongst the ancient Chinese, recal in a striking manner * Georgi, peuples de la Russie, p. 324. Long's Travels in Canada, p. 54. of their |