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Title: The Natural History of the Varieties of Man
Author: Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Language: English
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THE
NATURAL HISTORY
OF
THE VARIETIES OF MAN.
THE
NATURAL HISTORY
OF
THE VARIETIES OF MAN.
BY
ROBERT GORDON LATHAM, M.D., F.R.S.,
LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
ONE OF THE VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON;
CORRESPONDING MEMBER TO THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY,
NEW YORK, ETC.
LONDON:
JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.
M.D.CCCL.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY and HENRY FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
TO
EDWIN NORRIS, ESQ.,
OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,
TO WHOSE VALUABLE INFORMATION AND SUGGESTIONS
MANY OF THE STATEMENTS AND OPINIONS OF THE PRESENT VOLUME
OWE THEIR ORIGIN,
~The following Pages are Inscribed~,
BY HIS FRIEND,
THE AUTHOR.
London, July 25th, 1850.
PREFACE.
If the simple excellence of a book were a sufficient reason for making
it the only one belonging to the sciences which it professed to
illustrate, few writers would be desirous of attempting a systematic
work upon the Natural History of their species, after the admirable
Physical History of Mankind, by the late and lamented Dr. Prichard,--a
work which even those who are most willing to defer to the supposed
superior attainments of Continental scholars, are not afraid to place
on an unapproached eminence in respect to both our own and other
countries. The fact of its being the production of one who was at
one and the same time a physiologist amongst physiologists, and a
scholar amongst scholars, would have made it this; since the grand
ethnological _desideratum_ required at the time of its publication, was
a work which, by combining the historical, the philological, and the
anatomical methods, should command the attention of the naturalist, as
well as of the scholar. Still it was a work of a rising rather than of
a stationary science; and the very stimulus which it supplied, created
and diffused a spirit of investigation, which--as the author himself
would, above all men, have desired--rendered subsequent investigations
likely to modify the preceding ones. A subject that a single book,
however encyclopædic, can represent, is scarcely a subject worth taking
up in earnest.
Besides this, there are two other reasons of a more special and
particular nature for the present addition to the literature of
Ethnology.
I. For each of the great sections of our species, the accumulation of
facts, even in the eleventh hour, has out-run the anticipations of
the most impatient; indeed so rapidly did it take place during the
latter part of Dr. Prichard's own lifetime, that the learning which he
displays in his latest edition, is, in its way, as admirable as the
bold originality exhibited in the first sketch of his system, published
as early as 1821; rather in the shape of a university thesis than of a
full and complete production. Thus--
For Asia, there are the contributions of Rosen to the philology of
Caucasus; without which (especially the grammatical sketch of the
Circassian dialects) the present writer would have considered his
evidence as disproportionate to his theory. Then, although matters
of Archæology rather than of proper Ethnography, come in brilliant
succession, the labours of Botta, Layard, and Rawlinson, on Assyrian
antiquity, to which may be added the bold yet cautious criticism and
varied observations of Hodgson, illustrating the obscure Ethnology
of the Sub-Himalayan Indians, and preeminently confirmatory of the
views of General Briggs and others as to the real affinities of the
mysterious hill-tribes of Hindostan. Add to these much new matter in
respect to the Indo-Chinese frontiers of China, Siam, and the Burmese
Empire; and add to this the result of the labours of Fellowes, Sharpe,
and Forbes, upon the monuments and language of Asia Minor. I do not
say that any notable proportion of these latter investigations have
been incorporated in the present work; their proper place being in a
larger and more discursive work. Nevertheless, they have helped to
determine those results to the general truth of which the present
writer commits himself.
Africa has had a bright light thrown over more than one of its darkest
portions by Krapff for the eastern coast, by Dr. Beke for Abyssinia,
by the Tutsheks for the Gallas and Tumalis, by the publications of
the Ethnological Society of Paris, and the researches of the American
and English Missionaries for many other of its ill-understood and
diversified populations, especially those to the south and west.
The copious extract from Mr. Jukes's Voyage of the _Fly_, show at once
how much has been added; yet, at the same time, how much remains to be
learned in respect to our knowledge of New Guinea; whilst the energy of
the Rajah Brooke has converted Borneo, from a _terra incognita_, into
one of the clear points of the ethnological world.
In _South_ America, although many of the details of Sir Robert
Schomburgk were laid before the world previous to the publication of
the fifth volume of the Physical History, many of them, though now
published, were at that time still in manuscript.
The great field, however, has been the _northern_ half of the New
World; and the researches which have illustrated this have illustrated
Polynesia and Africa as well. What may be called the _personal_ history
of the United States Exploring Expedition, was published in 1845. The
greatest mass, however, of philological _data_ ever accumulated by a
single enquirer--the contents of Mr. Hale's work on the philology
of the voyage--is recent. The areas which this illustrates are the
Oregon territory and California; and the proper complements to it are
Pickering's work on the Races of Man, the Smithsonian Contributions
to Knowledge, and the last work of the venerable Gallatin on the
Semi-civilized nations of America.
Surely these are elements pregnant with modifying doctrines!
II. For each of the great sections of our species, the present
classification presents some differences, which if true, are important.
Whether such novelties (so to say) are of a value at all proportionate
to that of the fresh _data_, is a matter for the reader rather than
the writer to determine--the latter is satisfied with indicating
them. The extension of the Seriform group, so as to include the
Caucasian Georgians and Circassians on the one side, and the Indians
of Hindostan on the other; the generalization of the term Oceanic so
as to include the Australians and Papuans--the definitude given to
the Micronesian origin of the Polynesians--the new distribution of
the Siberian Samöeids, Yeniseians, and Yukahiri--the formation of
the class of Peninsular Mongolidæ, so as to affiliate the Americans
(previously recognised as fundamentally of one and the same stock) with
the north-eastern Asiatics--the sequences in the way of transition from
the Semitic Arab to the Negro--the displacement of the Celtic nations,
and the geographical extension given to the original Slavonians, are
points for which the present writer is responsible; not, however,
without previous minute investigation. The proofs thereof lie in tables
of vocabularies, analyses of grammars, and ethnological reasonings,
far too elaborate to be fit for aught else than a series of special
monographs; not for a general view of the human species, as classified
according to its varieties.
This _classification_ is the _chief_ end of his work; and, more than
anything else, it is this attempt at classification which has given
a subordinate position to certain other departments of his subject.
Where such is not the case, one of three reasons stands in its place
to account for the matters enlarged upon, apparently at the expense of
others.
1. The novelty of the information acquired.
2. The extent to which the subject has been previously either
overlooked or thrown in the back-ground.
3. And, finally (though perhaps the plea is scarcely a legitimate one),
the degree of attention which has been paid to the particular question
by its expositor.
LONDON, _July 25th, 1850_.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
_Notice of the chief works either used as authorities, and not
particularly quoted, or else illustrative of certain portions of the
subject._
Arnold.--History of Rome--Early Italian nations.
Adelung (Vater).--The Mithridates--Generally.
Baer's Beyträge, &c.--For Russian America.
Bartlett.--Report upon the present state of Ethnology. New York.
Beke.--Papers in the Transactions of the Philological and
Geographical Societies--Abyssinia.
Bopp.--Vergleichende Grammatik, &c., other works.
Brooke (Keppell and Marryat).--Borneo.
Brown.--Papers in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,
iv. 2.--The tribes about Manipur.
Balbi.--Atlas Ethnologique.
Bunsen.--Ægypt's Place in Universal History.
Catlin.--American Indians.
Crawford's.--Embassy to Ava, and Papers read before the
Ethnological Society and the British Association for the
Advancement of Science.
Dennis.--Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria.
D'Orbigny.--Homme Americain--South America. The chief authority.
Ellis.--History of Madagascar.
Ermann.--Reise in Siberian.
Fellowes, Sir C.--Travels in Lycia.
Forbes (and Spratt's), Professor E.--Ditto.
Gaimard (and Quoy).--Zoology of the Voyage de l'Astrolabe--The
Papuas, Micronesians, &c.
Gallatin.--Papers in the Archæologia Americana, and the
Transactions of the Ethnological Society, New York.
Grimm.--Deutsche Grammatik, Deutsche Sprache, &c.
Grote.--History of Greece--Pelasgians and other early nations.
Hodgson.--On the Kocch, Bodo, and Dhimál. Papers in the
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal--Indispensable
for the Sub-Himalayan Indians.
Hales.--Philology of the United States Exploring
Expedition--Oregon, California, Polynesia, Australia, Africa.
Humboldt, A.--Personal Narrative--Indians of the Orinoco.
Humboldt, W.--Über die Kawisprachi--Java, and the influence of
the Indian upon the Malay stock, &c.
Jukes.--Voyage of the Fly--- New Guinea.
Kemble.--The Anglo-Saxons in England.
Krapff.--MS. vocabularies of the Pocomo and other languages of
Eastern Africa.
Klaproth.--Asia Polyglotta, Sprachatlas, &c.--The chief
authorities for Caucasus and Siberia.
Lesson.--Mammologie.--Classification of Man as a Mammal.
Zoology of the Uranie and Physicienne--Micronesia, &c.
Leyden.--Asiatic Researches--For the Indo-Chinese Languages.
Layard.--Antiquities of Assyria.
Müller.--Die Ugrischen Völker--The Ugrian Mongolidæ.
Marsden's Sumatra.
Mallat.--Description des Isles Philippines.
Morton.--Crania Americana, Crania Ægyptiaca, &c.
Newbold.--Malacca Settlements.
Niebuhr.--Roman History--Ancient Nations of Italy, Etruscans,
Pelasgi.
Newman (Francis).--Berber Grammar. Paper in the Philological
Transactions. Hebrew Monarchy.
Prichard.--Physical History of Mankind. Eastern origin of the
Celtic Nations.
Prescott.--History of Mexico, Peru.
Pickering.--The Races of Men. See Hales and Wilkes.
Quoy (and Gaimard).--Zoology of the Astrolabe--Papuans and
Micronesians.
Retzius.--Papers in the Literary Transactions of Stockholm.
Rosen.--On the Languages of Caucasus.
Rühs.--Finnland und seine Einwohner.
Raffles.--- History of Java.
Renouard.--Abstract of Spix and Martius on the Indians of
Brazil. Transactions of the Royal Geographical Society.
Rüppell.--Reise in Kordofan.
Schomburgk, Sir R.--Transactions of the Geographical,
Ethnological and Philological Societies--British Guiana.
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge.--(Squier and
Davis.)--North American Archæology.
Scouler, Dr.--Papers in the Transactions of the Geographical
and Ethnological Societies.--Oregon and the Hudson's Bay
Territory.
Stockfleth.--Om Finnerne--Om Quänerne.--The Laplanders, and
Finlanders of Scandinavia.
Sharpe.--History of Ægypt.
Sharpe (Dan.).--On the Lycian Inscriptions--Transactions of the
Philological Society.
Spratt (and Forbes).--Travels in Lycia.
Transactions of the Ethnological Societies of
London--Paris--New York.
Wilson, H. H.--Ariana Antiqua, &c.
Wilkes.--United States Exploring Expedition.
Zeuss.--Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme.
EXPLANATION OF PLATES.
FIG. PAGE
1. A Yakut. From Von Middendorf (_Travels in Siberia_) 1
2. Skull of an Eskimo. From Prichard's Physical History of
Mankind 5
3. Skull of one of Napoleon's Guards killed at Waterloo. _Ibid._ 5
4. Skull of a Creole Negro. _Ibid._ 6
5. A Yakut Female. From Von Middendorf 94
6, 7. Papuan skulls. From the Voyage sur L'Uranie et La
Physicienne 213
8. A Native of Van Diemen's Land. Drawn by Campbell De
Morgan, Esq., from a cast belonging to the Ethnological
Society 245
9. Samöeid Man. From Von Middendorf 268
10. Ground-plan of embankments in Ohio. From the Smithsonian
Contributions to Knowledge 360
11. Ground-plan, &c., in Wisconsin. _Ibid._ 361
12. Antiquities from the Tumali of the Valley of the Mississippi.
_Ibid._ 362
13. Casa Grande. From a Treatise of Mr. Squier's upon the
Ethnology of California and New Mexico 388
14. A Patagonian Female. From a Treatise of Professor Retzius
on the Patagonians 417
15. Fac-simile of a Vei MS., in the possession of the Royal
Geographical Society, taken by E. Norriss, Esq., F.A.S. 474
16. Arrow-headed Persian character. From Rawlinson. Transactions
of Asiatic Society 522
17. Tuarick Alphabet. From Richardson 523
18. Specimen of the Cherokee syllabic alphabet. From a Cherokee
Newspaper 524
19. Sub-Himalayan Indians. From Hodgson's Kocch, Bodo, and
Dhimál 548
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Explanation of Terms 1
Terms descriptive of differences in the way of physical conformation 2
_Typical, sub-typical, transitional, quasi-transitional_ 7
Terms descriptive of differences in the way of language 9
Terms descriptive of differences in social civilization 12
The primary varieties of the human race 13
PART I.
MONGOLIDÆ 15-462
A.
ALTAIC MONGOLIDÆ 15-106
_Seriform Altaic Mongolidæ_ 15-60
Chinese 16
Tibetans 18
Anamese 20
Siamese 21
Kambojians 22
Burmese 23
Môn 23
Si-Fan 24
Miaou-tse 25
Lolos, &c. 25-34
Garo 34
Brown's Tables 36
Dhimál and Bodo 37-53
Tribes of Sikkim and Nepaul 53
Antiquity of the Chinese civilization--how far indisputable 55-60
_Turanian Altaic Mongolidæ_ 61-106
Mongolians 63-73
Tungús 74
Turks 75-95
Ugrians 95-106
Voguls 96
Permians 97
Tcheremiss 99
Finlanders 99
Esthonians 101
Laplanders 101
Hungarians 101
B.
DIOSCURIAN MONGOLIDÆ 107-128
Georgians 112
Lesgians, Mizjeji, Irôn 115
Ossetic grammar 116
Circassians 119
Circassian grammar 120
Table of comparison between the Dioscurian and
Seriform languages 123
C.
OCEANIC MONGOLIDÆ 129-264
_Amphinesians_ 133-210
_Protonesians_ 133-183
Malacca 133
Sumatra 137
Mythology of the Battas 143
Malay characteristics 147
Java 152
The Teng'ger Mountaineers 153
Bali, &c. 158
Languages between Sumbawa and Australia 158
Timor 160
Timor Laut 161
The Serwatty and Ki Islands 161
The Arru Isles 162
Borneo 163-169
Celebes 169
Bugis constitution 170
The Moluccas, &c. 175
The Philippines 176
Philippine Blacks 177
---- languages 178
Extent of Hindu influences 178
Remains of original mythology 179
Formosa 182
_Polynesians_ 183-210
_Micronesians_ 186-191
Lord North's Island 186
Sonsoral, The Pelews 187
The Mariannes 188
Carolines 189
Isles of Brown, &c. 190
_Proper Polynesians_ 191-210
The mythology 191-195
Navigators' Isles 195
Tonga group _ibid._
Tahitian group 196
Easter Island 197
The Marquesas 198
Sandwich Islands 198
New Zealand, &c. 203
Tikopia 204
Questions connected with the Ethnology of Polynesia 205-210
_Kelænonesians_ 210-264
_Papuan Branch_ 211-229
Waigiú 212
New Guinea 213
Vanikoro, &c. 222
Erromango 224
Tanna, Annatom 225
New Caledonia _ibid._
The Fiji Islanders 226
_Australian Branch_ 229-246
Australians 229-245
Tasmanians 244
Andaman Islanders 246
Nicobarians 247
Origin of the Kelænonesians 250
---- Polynesians 253
Ceremonial Language 262
D.
HYPERBOREAN MONGOLIDÆ 265-272
Samöeids 266
Yeniseians 268
Yukahiri 269
Table of languages 270-272
E.
PENINSULAR MONGOLIDÆ 273-286
Koreans 275
Japanese 277
Aino 281
Koriaks 283
Kamskadales 285
F.
AMERICAN MONGOLIDÆ 287-460
Eskimo 288
Kolúch 294
Doubtful Kolúches 297
The Nehanni 298
Haidah, &c. 300
Nutkans 301
Athabaskans 302-310
Chippewyans, &c. 303
Hare Indians _ibid._
Dog-ribs _ibid._
Carriers 304
Sikani 306
Southern Athabaskans 308
Table of languages 308-310
Tsihaili 310-316
The Salish 311
Kútanis 316
Chinúks 317-323
The Lingua Franca 321
Sahaptin, &c. 323-328
Algonkins 328
Bethuck 330
Shyennes _ibid._
Blackfoots 332
Iroquois _ibid._
Sioux 333
Catawba, Woccoon 334
Extinct tribes _ibid._
Cherokees 337
Choctahs _ibid._
Uché, Coosadas, Alibamons 338
Caddos _ibid._
Value of Classes 339
The Natchez 340
Taensas, &c. 341
Ahnenin, Arrapahoes 344
Riccarees and Pawnees _ibid._
The Paduca areas 345
Wihinast 346
Shoshonis, Cumanches 347
Apaches 348
Texian tribes 349-351
The unity or non-unity of the American populations 352-380
Opinions 352
Vater's remark 354
_Polysynthetic._--Philological paradox 356
Grounds for disconnecting the Eskimo 357
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Peruvians _ibid._
Archæology of the Valley of the Mississippi 359-362
American characteristics 363
---- languages 365-380
Tables for simple comparison 366
---- ---- indirect 371
Paucity of general terms 375
Numerals 376
Verb-substantive 378
Negative points of agreement _ibid._
Positive 379
The Californias 380-395
Description of a Casa Grande 388
Pimos Indians 390
Coco-Maricopas 394
New Mexico 395-398
Tarahumara 398
Casa Grande 399
Tepeguana, &c. 400
Otomi 403-408
Supposed monosyllabic character of the language 404
Tables 405
Mexico 408
The Maya 410
Indians of the Isthmus 411
---- ---- ---- Andes (western) 412-414
Moluché, Puelché, Huilliché 415
Conventional ethnological centre 418
Charruas 420
Indians of Moxos 424
---- ---- Chiquitos 425
---- ---- Chaco 428
---- ---- Brazil (_not_ Guarani) 429
Warows 438
Tarumas 439
Wapityan, &c. _ibid._
Atures 440
Maypure 441
Achagua, Yarura, Ottomacas 442
Chiricoas _ibid._
Guarani 443
Caribs 445
Their supposed North American origin 447
Indians of the Eastern Andes 448
Yuracares _ibid._
Apolistas _ibid._
Northern Indians of the Eastern Andes 450
Reasons for not separating the Eskimo from the other
Americans 452
Reasons for not separating the Peruvians, &c. 454
Classification of D'Orbigny 459
G.
INDIAN MONGOLIDÆ. 461-468
Tamulians 462
Pulindas 463
Rajmahali 464
Brahúi _ibid._
Indo-Gangetic Indians 465
Purbutti 466
Cashmirian 467
Cingalese 468
Maldivians _ibid._
ATLANTIDÆ 469
A.
NEGRO ATLANTIDÆ 471
Woloffs 473
Sereres _ibid._
Serawolli _ibid._
Mandingos _ibid._
The Vei alphabet 474
Felúps, &c. 475
Fantí, &c. 476
The Ghá _ibid._
Whidah, Maha, Benin tribes 477
Grebo, &c. 478
The Yarriba 479
The Tapua _ibid._
Haussa _ibid._
Fulahs 480
Cumbri _ibid._
Sungai 481
Kissour _ibid._
Bornú, &c. _ibid._
Begharmi _ibid._
Mandara _ibid._
Mobba 483
Furians _ibid._
Koldagi _ibid._
Shilluk, &c. _ibid._
Qamamyl 484
Dallas, &c. _ibid._
Tibboo 485
Gongas _ibid._
B.
KAFFRE ATLANTIDÆ 487-494
Peculiarities of Kaffre language 487
Western Kaffres 489
Southern Kaffres 490
Eastern Kaffres _ibid._
Kazumbi, Mazenas, &c. 491
Pocomo, Wanika, Wakamba, &c. 492
C.
HOTTENTOT ATLANTIDÆ 495-498
Hottentots 496
Saabs 497
Dammaras _ibid._
Overlapped peripheries 498
D.
NILOTIC ATLANTIDÆ 499-506
Gallas 499
Agows and Falasha 500
Nubians _ibid._
Bishari 501
The M'Kuafi, &c. _ibid._
E.
AMAZIRGH ATLANTIDÆ 507, 508
F.
ÆGYPTIAN ATLANTIDÆ 509, 510
G.
SEMITIC ATLANTIDÆ 511
Syrians _ibid._
Syriac literary influence 512
Assyrians _ibid._
Babylonians _ibid._
Beni Terah 513
Edomites 514
Beni Israel _ibid._
Samaritans _ibid._
Jews _ibid._
Arabs 515
Æthiopians 517
Canaanites, &c. 518
Malagasi 519
Question to the single origin of alphabetical writing 520
On the accumulation of certain climatologic influences 524
IAPETIDÆ 527
A.
OCCIDENTAL IAPETIDÆ 528
Kelts _ibid._
B.
INDO-GERMANIC IAPETIDÆ 531
_European Class_ 531-543
Goths 531-535
Teutons 532-534
Mœso-Goths _ibid._
High Germans 533
Franks _ibid._
Low Germans 534
Batavians _ibid._
Saxons _ibid._
Frisians _ibid._
Scandinavians _ibid._
Sarmatians 535-541
Lithuanians 536
Slavonians 538
Russians _ibid._
Servians _ibid._
Illyrians 539
Bohemians (T`sheks) _ibid._
Poles _ibid._
Serbs _ibid._
Slavonians of the Germanic frontier _ibid._
Mediterranean Indo-Germans 541
Hellenic branch _ibid._
Italian branch 542
_Iranian class_ 543
The Sanskrit language _ibid._
Population of Persia 546
Siaposh 547
Lughmani _ibid._
Dardoh _ibid._
Wokhan _ibid._
* * * * *
Armenians 549
Iberians 550
Finnic hypothesis 552
Albanians _ibid._
* * * * *
Pelasgi 553
Etruscans 554
Populations of Asia Minor 555
Hybridism _ibid._
PART II.
Apophthegms on the nature of the Science of Ethnology 559-566
NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
INTRODUCTION.
Previous to entering upon the details connected with the varieties,
and affinities of the human species, it is advisable to explain the
meaning and full import of certain terms that are likely to be of
frequent occurrence. It is only, however, so far as an _explanation_
is required, that any remarks will be made. The questions themselves,
although necessary and preliminary, are well capable of being isolated
from the properly descriptive portions of the subject, and of forming
separate sections of ethnological science; a separation which is fully
justified by their great range and extent.
A. _Terms descriptive of differences in the way of physical
conformation._--If we were to take three individual specimens of
the human species, which should exhibit three of the most important
differences, they would, I think, be--1. A Mongolian, or a Tungús, from
Central or Siberian Asia; 2, a Negro from the Delta of the Niger; and
3, a European from France, Germany, or England. At the first view the
Negro would seem the most unlike of the three; and, perhaps, he would
do so after a minute and careful scrutiny. Still, the characteristic
and differential features of the Asiatic would be of a very remarkable
kind. In the _general_ profile, in the form of the eye, in the front
view of the face, he would differ from both. In the colour of his skin,
in the character of his hair, and in the _lower_ part of his profile,
he would differ from the Negro. In the _upper_ portion of the profile,
and in the outline of the _head_, he would differ from the European.
The Mongolian's, or Tungusian's, face would be broad and flat, with the
cheek-bones prominent. The breadth of the head from side to side would
be nearly equal to its length from the forehead to the occiput; the
nose would be flat, and, almost certainly, neither arched nor aquiline;
the eyes would be drawn upwards at their outer angle, the skin would
be of a yellowish-brown, the hair straight, the beard scanty, and the
stature undersized.
The Negro, besides his black complexion and crisp hair, would exhibit
a greater depth of head measuring from before backwards, and the upper
jaw would be much more projecting. Possibly it might be so prominent
as to give the head the appearance of being placed _behind_ the face
rather than _above_ it.
The European would be characterized by negative rather than positive
qualities. His face would be less broad, and his head would have
greater depth in proportion to its breadth than would be the case with
the Mongol. As compared with the African he would differ most in the
parts between the nose and chin. The mouth of the Negro, instead of
lying _under_ the nose and forehead, projects forwards, in a slightly
elongated shape, so as, in extreme cases, to be a _muzzle_ rather than
a mouth; the effect of which, as already stated, is to throw the upper
part of the face and head _behind_ the jaw. In the European profile,
on the other hand, the general direction is vertical. The upper jaw
does not _project_, and the forehead does not _retire_; so that the
forehead, nose, and mouth are, comparatively speaking, nearly in the
same line.
Now these distinctions we find in looking at the face only; those of
the Mongolian being best shown in a front view, those of the Negro
and European in profile. They are also those that would be drawn by a
painter or a sculptor; _i.e._ such as we can detect by merely examining
the outline and surface of the head and face. They are _external_.
Differences in the colour of the eyes and the form of the limbs might
also be easily discovered.
Important as these are, they are not the points which the ethnologist
most looks to. Although the colour of the skin and eyes and the texture
of the hair may be determined by external influences, the real reasons
for the differences of _outline_ lie in the differences of the skull
and the bony parts of the face: and as, in addition to this, the skull
is the receptacle of the brain, and the brain is the organ wherein the
human species most differs from others, anatomists have long been in
the habit of determining the different varieties of the human race, by
the difference in the conformation of their skulls. With this view, the
particular bones of most importance are the following:--
_The Frontal bone, forming the forehead._--The more the frontal bone
retires, the lower is the forehead, and the more prominent the face.
The more it is vertical or arched, the more the brain seems to be
in superposition _over_ the face; rather than lying _behind_ it. By
drawing one line from the opening of the ear to the base of the nose,
by drawing a second from the most prominent part of the forehead to the
insertion of the teeth, and by measuring the inner angle at which these
two lines bisect each other, we have the famous facial angle of Camper;
in other words, we have a measure for the extent to which a forehead is
retreating or vertical.
_The Occipital bone._--This forms the back of the head. The distance
between the frontal and occipital bones is the occipito-frontal
diameter. It constitutes the _length_ or _depth_ of the head, in
contradistinction to its _breadth_.
_The Parietal bones, forming the sides of the skull._--The distance
between the two parietal bones is the parietal diameter. It constitutes
the _breadth_ of the skull, in contradistinction to its _length_ or
_depth_. The ratio between these two diameters has been most studied by
Professor Retzius, of Stockholm. Nations where the development is in
the occipito-frontal diameter are called _dolikhokephalic_.[1] Nations
where it is in the _parietal_ diameter are called _brakhykephalic_.[2]
_The Zygoma._--Formed by the union of two processes, one from the
malar, and one from the temporal bone, and enclosing a space, within
which the muscles pass from the temporal bone to the lower jaw. It
constitutes the ridge that can be felt through the skin, between the
cheek-bone and the ear. When the zygomatic space is large, the arch of
the zygoma itself projects laterally outwards.
_The Malar bones, i.e. the cheek-bones._--It is unnecessary to say
that the prominence of the cheek-bone affects the physiognomy.
When, over and above this prominence, the zygoma has a lateral and
outward development, the breadth of the face becomes remarkably and
characteristically broad and flat. It is upon the effect of a great
zygomatic development on the form of the skull that Prichard has
founded one of his primary divisions.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
Distance between the zygomata gives breadth to the _face_. Distance
between the parietal bones, to the _head_.
_The Nasal bones._--The flatter the nasal bones the flatter the
nose. They are generally flat in tribes of Central Asia and Africa;
prominent, or saddle-shaped, in those of Europe.
_The Upper Maxillary bone._--In this are inserted the teeth of the
upper jaw. In the European it is nearly perpendicular. In the Negro
it projects forwards; hence, in the European, the insertion of the
teeth is _perpendicular_, in the African _oblique_. The effect of a
projecting maxilla is a character upon which Prichard has founded
one of his primary divisions. When the insertion of the teeth is
perpendicular, or nearly perpendicular to the base of the nose, the
skull is _orthognathic_;[3] when projecting forwards, _prognathic_.[4]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.]
Upon these distinctions are founded the following forthcoming terms:
occipito-frontal diameter, parietal diameter, occipito-frontal[5]
profile, frontal profile, nasal profile, maxillary profile, zygomatic
development.
Next to the head, the bony structure of the pelvis has drawn most
attention; the importance thus given being natural and reasonable. The
form of the pelvis determines the erect posture of man. These, however,
and other numerous minor details will be noticed as occasion requires.
Notwithstanding the anatomical character of the principles upon
which the varieties of the Human Species have been arranged,
the terms denoting the chief divisions have not been given upon
anatomical grounds. Hence we do not talk of the _zygomatic_ or the
_occipito-frontal_ tribes, but of the _Negro_, or the _Mongolian_, &c.
In other words, the term is taken from that particular variety which
has the most characteristic conformation.
How many of such terms are necessary is a disputed point; the number of
the primary divisions being undetermined. My own opinion is in favour
of it being limited to _three_,--the Mongolian, the African, and the
European. To these, many would add a fourth, and fifth, the Malay and
American; whilst others would raise the Australian and Hottentot (and
many other) conformations into separate and primary types. As terms,
these will be retained. Their value, however, as the names of groups
and divisions, will be subordinate to that of the three great types
first named; a circumstance which brings us to the terms, _typical_,
_sub-typical_, _transitional_ and _quasi-transitional_.
A Malay and an American, although different, agree between themselves
much more than either of them would with a Negro. Furthermore, each of
them differs from the Mongolian and Chinese; less, however, than from
the African and European.
Now, so far as this difference is concerned, the terms _typical_ and
_sub-typical_, in their usual sense, are sufficient; the Mongolian
being the _type_ of the variety which he represents, whilst the Malay
and American each illustrate a _sub-typical_ modification.
But this is not all. In departing from one type, an individual, a
tribe, or a nation may approach another. This is the case when the
hair of the African becomes straight, his complexion brunette, and
his lips thin. It is also the case when a Mongol becomes light-haired
or blue-eyed. In each of these changes the effect is the same. The
original conformation has become Europeanized. Hence we have--
1st. _Simple sub-typical deviation._--This occurs in the Eskimo. His
face is broader than that of the Mongolian; but, as this increased
breadth merely makes him somewhat unlike the natives of Central Asia,
without approximating him to the African or European, the deviation is
_simple_.
2nd. _Deviation with Transition._--The Finlander has a Mongoliform
skull, but (very often) blue eyes and light hair; so that he agrees
with the European where he differs with the Kalmuk. This is deviation
and something more. It is deviation accompanied with the phenomenon of
a transition in form.
Transitions in form, however, are of two kinds--_a._ those in which
descent plays a part; _b._ those in which causes other than descent
play a part.
_a._ The light-haired Finlander is probably one of three things--
1. The descendant of Mongolians passing into Europeans.
2. The descendant of Europeans passing into Mongolians.
3. The descendant of the common stock from which the Europeans on one
side, and Mongolians on the other, originated. In all these cases his
differential characters are accounted for by the doctrine of _descent_.
_b._ Contrast, however, the case of an Australian Black. He has Mongol
characters and he has Negro characters; so that, looking to his _form_
only, he presents the phenomenon of transition; yet he is in none of
the predicaments of the Finlander, since few ethnologists believe that,
_in the way of descent_, he has any but the most indirect relationship
to the African.
Hence, _transitional forms_ are of two kinds, the first indicates
descent, affiliation, and historical connexion; the second, the effect
of common climatologic, alimentary, or social influences. This last
will be called _quasi-transitional_.
B. _Terms descriptive of differences in the way of language._--At the
present moment, there are three methods by which the relation between
the different words that constitute sentences is indicated:--1. The
method of which the Chinese is a sample; 2. The method of which the
Greek and Latin are samples; 3. The method of which the English is a
sample.
In the way of illustration, though not in the way of history, it is
best to take the second first.
1. _The Classical method._--In a word like _homin-em_, there are two
parts, _homin-_, radical; _-em_, inflectional. In the word _te-tig-i_,
there are the same. The power of these parts is clear. The _tig-_ and
_homin-_ denote the simple _action_, or the simple _object_. The _te-_
denotes the time in which it takes place; the _-i_ the agent. In the
proposition _te-tig-i homin-em_, the _-em_ denotes the _relation_
between the object (_the man touched_) and the action (_of touching_).
_Logically_, there are two ideas, _e.g._, that of the action or
object, and that of the superadded conditions in respect to time,
agency, and relation. In Latin and Greek, as in many other languages,
these superadded conditions are expressed by altering the form of the
original word. Sometimes this is done by the addition of some sound
or sounds, sometimes by simple change--(_a_,) _homin-is_, _homin-em_;
(_b_,) _speak_, _spoke_. Now this method of expressing the relation
between the different words of a proposition by changes in the form
of the words themselves is called the method of _inflection_, and
languages which adopt it are called _inflectional_.
2. _The English method._--The English language possesses inflections.
Words like _father-s_, _touch-ed_, _spoke_, are instances of it.
Nevertheless it has such important non-inflectional methods, that it
may fairly be put in contrast with the Latin and Greek. Where a Roman
said _te-tig-i_, we say _I have touched_, or _I touched_; using _I_, a
separate word, instead of the incorporated syllable _-i_. Where a Roman
said _patr-i_, we say _to father_; where a Roman said _tang-am_, we say
_I will_ (or _shall_) _touch_. In other words, we make auxiliary verbs
and prepositions do the work of inflections, expressive of case and
tense.
3. _The Chinese method._--The Chinese method agrees with the English
in expressing the different conditions and relations of actions and
objects by separate words rather than by inflections; and it carries
this principle so far as to have even a less amount of inflection;
according to some writers, none at all. Wherein, then, does it differ?
Even thus. The English is non-inflectional because it has lost
inflections which it once possessed. The Chinese is non-inflectional
because inflections have never been developed. This involves a great
difference between the nature of the words which, in the two languages
(English and Chinese) do the work of the Greek and Latin inflections.
In English they are, generally speaking, so abstract, as to have a
meaning only when in the context with other words. In Chinese they are
often the names of objects and actions, _i.e._ nouns and verbs. If,
instead of saying, _I go_ to _London_, _figs come_ from _Turkey_, _the
sun shines_ through _the air_, we said, _I go_, end _London_, _figs
come_, origin _Turkey_, _the sun shines_, passage _air_, we should
discourse after the manner of the Chinese.
But what if the inflectional parts of inflected words (nouns and verbs)
were once separate words, which have since been incorporated with the
radical term? In such a case, the difference between languages of the
Chinese, and languages of the classical type would be a difference
of degree only. Nay more, in languages like the Chinese the separate
words most in use to express relation may become adjuncts or annexes.
In this case, inflection is developed out of mere juxtaposition, and
composition. Is this a hypothesis or a real fact? It is thus much of a
fact. The numerous inflectional languages fall into two classes. In one
the inflections have no appearance of having been separate words. In
the other their origin as separate words is demonstrable.
The nomenclature arising from these distinctions, and requiring notice
in the present preliminary remarks, is as follows:--
1. _Languages of the Chinese type._--Aptotic.[6]
2. _Inflection which can generally be shown to have arisen out of the
juxtaposition and composition of different words._--Agglutinate.--Here
the incorporation has not been sufficiently complete to wholly disguise
the originally independent and separate character of the inflectional
addition.
3. _Inflection, wherein the existence of the inflectional elements as
separate and independent words cannot be shown._--Amalgamate.--Here the
speculator is at liberty to argue from the analogy of the agglutinate
inflections, and to suppose that, owing to a greater amount of euphonic
influences, the incorporation is more perfect.
4. _Languages of the English type._--Anaptotic.[7]
_c._ _Terms descriptive of differences in social cultivation._
1. _The hunter state._--The full import of this term, which always
implies a low degree of civilization, is to be inferred from the extent
to which it indicates migratory habits, precariousness of subsistence,
and imperfect property in the soil. Changing the land for the sea, the
fisher state is essentially the same.
2. _The pastoral state._--Precariousness of subsistence less than in
the hunter state. Migratory habits, in many cases, much the same.
Higher in the scale of civilization; since the breeding of animals
gives moveable property. Property in the soil improved but still
imperfect.
3. _The agricultural state._--Migratory habits rare. Precariousness
of food but slight. Property in the soil--except in the cases of
migratory[8] cultivation--perfect.
4, 5. _Material and moral influences in the history of the world._--The
first term means changes effected by physical force only; the second,
the influences of religion, literature, science, and political and
social morality.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] From _dolikhos_=_long_, and _kefalæ_=_head_.
[2] From _brakhys_=_short_, and _kefalæ_=_head_.
[3] From _orthos_=_upright_, and _gnathos_=_jaw_.
[4] From _pro_=_forwards_, and _gnathos_=_jaw_.
[5] The outline of the hairy scalp.
[6] From _a=not_, and _ptosis=a case_.
[7] From _ana=back_, and _ptosis=a case_. Falling back from inflection.
[8] As that of some of the sub-Himalayan and Indo-Chinese tribes.
PART I.
_The Primary Varieties of the Human Species._
I. MONGOLIDÆ.
II. ATLANTIDÆ.
III. IAPETIDÆ.
The questions connected with the Natural History of the Human Species
are so thoroughly questions of descent, affiliation, or pedigree, that
I have no hesitation in putting the names of the primary divisions in
the form of Greek patronymics; the supposed ancestor (or _eponymus_)
being, of course, no real individual, but an ethnological fiction.
To have used, instead, the words _stock_, _race_, _tribe_, or even the
more scientific terms--_order_, _class_, _sub-order_, preceded by an
adjective, and to have spoken of the _Mongolian stock_, _race_, _tribe_
or _order_, &c., would, apparently, have been the correcter method.
It is not, however, so convenient. Every word of the sort in question
is either required for the expression of the minor divisions, or is
objectionable on other grounds.
I am also aware that this use of the forms in _-idæ_ to express the
divisions of a _species_, rather than those of an _order_, is at
variance with the nomenclature of the zoologists. Still, the terms are
less embarrassed with inconveniences than any I have hit upon.
I. MONGOLIDÆ.--Face broad and flat from either the development
of the zygomata, or that of the parietal bones; often from
the depression of the nasal bones. Frontal profile retiring,
or depressed, rarely approaching the perpendicular. Maxillary
profile, moderately prognathic or projecting, rarely
orthognathic. Eyes often oblique. Skin rarely a true white;
rarely a jet black. Irides generally dark. Hair straight, and
lank, and black; rarely light-coloured; sometimes curly, rarely
woolly.
_Languages._--Aptotic, and agglutinate; rarely with a truly
amalgamate inflection.
_Distribution._--Asia, Polynesia, America.
_Influence upon the history of the world._--Material rather
than moral.
II. ATLANTIDÆ.--Maxillary profile projecting, nasal generally
flat, frontal retiring, cranium dolikhokephalic, the parietal
diameter being generally narrow. Eyes rarely oblique. Skin
often jet-black, very rarely approaching a pure white.
Hair crisp, woolly, rarely straight, still more rarely
light-coloured.
_Languages._--With an agglutinate, rarely an amalgamate
inflection.
_Distribution._--Africa.
_Influence on the history of the world._--Inconsiderable.
III. IAPETIDÆ.--Maxillary profile but little projecting, nasal
often prominent, frontal sometimes nearly vertical. Face rarely
very flat, moderately broad. Skull generally dolikhokephalic.
Eyes rarely oblique. Skin white, or brunette. Hair never
woolly, often light-coloured. Irides black, blue, grey.
_Languages._--With amalgamate inflections, or else anaptotic;
rarely agglutinate, never aptotic.
_Distribution._--Europe.
_Influence on the history of the world._--Greater than that
of either the Mongolidæ or the Atlantidæ. Moral as well as
material.
These characters have been framed to meet the typical, sub-typical,
and _quasi_-transitional, but not the true transitional forms. The
reason of this is clear. Where the transition is _real_, and where
the affiliation in the way of descent coincides with similarity of
conformation, the tribe thus situated belong to _two_ divisions, rather
than to any single one.
MONGOLIDÆ.
DIVISIONS.
A.--THE ALTAIC MONGOLIDÆ.
B.--THE DIOSCURIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
C.--THE OCEANIC MONGOLIDÆ.
D.--THE HYPERBOREAN MONGOLIDÆ.
E.--THE PENINSULAR MONGOLIDÆ.
F.--THE AMERICAN MONGOLIDÆ.
G.--THE INDIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
A.
ALTAIC MONGOLIDÆ.
The term Altaic is taken from the Altai mountains in Central Asia,
these being a convenient geographical centre for the different nations
and tribes comprised in this division. It contains the following
sub-divisions:--
1. The Seriform Stock.
2. The Turanian Stock.
I.
_SERIFORM STOCK._
_Physical conformation._--Mongol.
_Languages._--Either wholly aptotic, or with only the rudiments
of an inflection.
_Area._--China, Tibet, and the Indo-Chinese, or Transgangetic,
Peninsula, as far as Malaya; the Himalayan, and parts of the
sub-Himalayan, range of mountains.
_Chief Divisions._--1. The Chinese. 2. The Tibetans. 3. The
Anamese. 4. The Siamese. 5. The Kambojians. 6. The Burmese. 7.
The Môn. 8. Numerous unplaced tribes.
I have begun with the nations and tribes represented by the Chinese,
Tibetans, and Indo-Chinese, on the strength of the primitive condition
of their languages. This represents the earliest known stage of
human speech; by which I mean, not that it was spoken earlier than
the other tongues of the world, but only that it has changed, or
grown, more slowly. I should also add, that over and above the fact
of these languages being destitute of true inflection, the separate
words generally consist of only a single syllable. Hence the class
has been called _monosyllabic_. This latter character, however,
has no _essential_ connection with the aptotic form. A language of
dissyllables or trisyllables may, for any thing known to the contrary,
be as destitute of inflections as a monosyllabic one. Still, it must be
admitted that no such tongue has yet been discovered.
THE CHINESE.
_Locality._--China; bounded by the countries of the Koreans,
Mantshu, Mongolians, Tibetans, and the hill tribes of the
Transgangetic Peninsula and Assam.
_Religion._--Modified Buddhism, or the religion of Fo.
_Mode of Writing._--Rhæmatographic, _i.e._ the written signs
represent whole _words_;[9] not merely the parts of words,
single articulate sounds or syllables.
_Physical Conformation._--Mongoliform. According to Prichard
the maxillary profile projects. According to Retzius, the
maxillary profile projects, and the cranial development is
elongated, or occipito-frontal. That the jaw, in some degree,
projects, and that the forehead also retires, is shown by a
remark of Tradescant Lay's,--_e.g._: that the Chinese profile
slopes upwards from the chin to the beginning of the hairy
scalp.
No country in the world of equal magnitude with China has so
homogeneous or so dense a population. From the ocean to Tibet, from
Korea to Cochin-China, the language is one, and the physiognomy is
one; and it is only when we reach the mountain-ridges of the west and
south, that we find, in the ruder and more imperfectly civilized tribes
that inhabit them, any material variation from the general uniformity
of the most populous empire in the world. This is the case whatever be
the test that is applied. The language varies from the refined speech
of the Mandarins to the comparative rudeness of certain provincial
dialects; the complexion and contour of the face vary also; and the
civilization is less characteristic in some districts than in others;
but all these deviations lie within narrow limits.
In China, the steppe-land of High Asia slopes downwards to the North
Pacific. Hence we have a sea-board of average proportion as compared
with the inland area. It faces, however, one ocean only; and that the
Pacific. Of this no island larger than Hainan is inhabited by a Chinese
population; Formosa _not_ being Chinese. No mountain-ranges are of
sufficient magnitude to be compared with the systems of Tibet or those
of the Transgangetic Peninsula. Still, there are three well-marked
watersheds--that of the Hoang-ho on the north, that of the Canton River
on the south, and that of Kiang-Ku between them: and there are the
fertile alluvial valleys corresponding.
Upon the whole the physical geography of China is that of an
agricultural and industrial population. This the Chinese are to a
preeminent degree: and when we come to the Malay Archipelago we shall
find that they are also traders. I am much more inclined to measure
their civilization by this test, than by their pretensions to an
indigenous literature of an almost unfathomable antiquity; a point
which will be noticed in the sequel.
In physical conformation the Chinese have a yellow-brown complexion,
a broad face, and a scanty beard, lank black hair, dark irides, and a
stature below that of the European. This is what we expect, as part
and parcel of the common Mongol characteristics. Harshness of feature
they have in a less degree than the true Mongolians; a tendency to
obesity in a greater. In this respect, they have been called _Mongols
softened down_. This is what they really are. One point of physiognomy,
however, is more peculiarly Chinese than aught else,--viz. the linear
character, and oblique direction of the opening of the eyes. This is
_narrow_, so that little of the eye is seen. It is also drawn upwards
at its outer angle, and so becomes oblique in its position. Sometimes
in addition to this the upper eyelid hangs heavy and tumid over the
eyeball; and sometimes the skin forms a crescentic fold between the
inner angle of the eye and the nose; as may be seen in individuals out
of China, and which is not uncommon in England.
Now the peculiarity that I have just attempted to describe, is one
of the minute points of difference between the Chinese and several
other Mongol nations. The _oblique eye_ will often be noticed in the
following pages; sometimes from the fact of its presence, sometimes
from that of its absence. It is not exclusively Chinese: but it is
found in its most marked form in China.
THE TIBETANS.
_Localities._--Tibet, Bután, Ladakh, Bultistan, or Little Tibet.
_Political relations._--Tibet, subject to China, Ladakh a part
of the Sikh empire, Bultistan and Bután, independent.
_Divisions._--1. The Bhot of Tibet. 2. The Bhután Tibetans. 3.
The Ladakh Tibetans. 4. The Bulti.
_Conterminous._--Taking the family altogether, with the
Chinese, Mongolians, Turks, Northern tribes and nations of
Hindostan, North-Western tribes of the Burmese empire, and
certain tribes akin to the Persians.
_Religion._--Chiefly Buddhism. Brahminism on the Indian
frontier. Shia Mahometanism in Little Tibet.
_Language._--Dialects, in some cases, perhaps, independent
languages, of the Tibetan.
_Alphabet._--Derived from the Pali of India.
_Physical appearance._--Mongol.
1.--_The Bhot._--These are the inhabitants of Tibet Proper, and Tangut.
They are all Buddhists in the more exaggerated form; and it is in the
Tibetan monasteries where the greatest abundance of Buddhist literature
is to be found. This is almost wholly religious, and in a great
measure a translation from either the Sanskrit or the Pali. The first
century after Christ is generally considered as the epoch at which the
religion was introduced into Tibet: and this epoch is a likely one.
2.--_The Tibetans of Bután._--Although Buddhists, the Tibetans of Bután
have been modified by Hindu influences. Their government is that of a
Rajah, and many of their outlying tribes are extended to the south of
the Himalayan range.
3.--_Ladakh Tibetans._--With the exception of the southern frontier
of Bután, Ladakh is the portion of the Tibetan area which is best
known, and where the proper Tibetan type is most subjected to foreign
influences. Although the religion be the religion of Buddha, there was
a short interval of Mahometanism. Originally dependent upon the Guru
Lama of Hlassa, Ladakh subsequently became one of the extreme points of
the Chinese empire, retaining its own princes. In the reign, however,
of Aurungzeb, it was overrun by the Turks. These, however, Aurungzeb
expelled at the request of the fugitive Rajah, who promised to become
Mahometan in return; and kept his promise. It was broken, however, by
his successor, so that the religion of Mahomet was professed for a
time only. It was, however, tolerated afterwards. The last conquest
of Ladakh was by the Sikhs under Runjeet Singh; and it now follows
the fortunes of the Sikh dynasty. This has opened a door to the
Indians of the Punjâb. To these elements of intermixture may be added,
the presence of numerous settlers from Cashmir. Lastly, there is a
settlement of Shia Mahometans from Little Tibet.
4.--_The Bulti of Bultistan, or Little Tibet._--The most differential
characteristic of the Bulti Tibetans, is that they are no Buddhists,
but Mahometans, of the Shia persuasion, their conversion having
come from Persia. It has been already stated that the Bulti enjoy a
political independence.
_Kunawer._(?) I have not examined how far the Kunawer tribes, located
where the Sutlege breaks through the Himalayas, deserve to be classed
as a separate division. At all events their language is monosyllabic
(probably closely allied to the Ladakh), as may be seen in the
Theburskud, Milchan, and Súmchú vocabularies of Gerard.[10]
_The Polyandria of Tibet._--The current doctrine respecting the
so-called Polyandria of Tibet, is that it is the common polygamy of the
east reversed; _i.e._, that one woman marries several husbands, who may
all be alive _at the same time_.
What is most certain upon this obscure point is that the surviving
brother inherits the wife of the one that died.
It is not so certain, although highly probably, that the wife is the
property of two or more brothers _at the same time_.
At any rate the marriage, if so it may be called, is confined to
the circle of the brothers-in-law. Perhaps the truth is that every
brother-in-law is a husband.
THE ANAMESE.
_Locality._--Tunkín and Cochin-China.
_Conterminous_ with the Chinese; and, except so far as they are
partially separated by mountain-tribes, with the Kambojians and
Siamese.
_Religion._--Buddhism.
_Language._--Different from, but allied to, the Chinese.
_Physical Appearance._--Like that of the Chinese, except that
the average height is somewhat less. Upper extremities long,
lower, short and stout. Form of the skull more globular than
square. Eyelids less turned than that of the Chinese. Mouth
large; lips prominent, but not thick; moustache more abundant
than beard; beard scanty, though encouraged. Colour more yellow
than either brown or blackish. Clothing abundant.--_Finlayson
from Prichard._
THE SIAMESE.
_Locality._--From the Gulf of Siam and the neck of the
Malayan Peninsula to the frontiers of China. Part of Assam.
Conterminous on the east, except so far as they are separated
by mountain tribes, with the Anamese, and Kambojians; on the
west, subject to the same limitation, with the Môn of Pegu, and
the tribes of the Burmese empire. On the south with the Malays
of the Malayan Peninsula.
_Synonym._--T'hay, the native name.
_Religion._--Buddhist.
_Alphabets._--Of Indian origin, rounded forms of the Pali.
_Chief Divisions._--Laos, Shyán, (Ahom?) Khamti.
_Physical Appearance._--Average height of twenty men, taken
indiscriminately, five feet three inches, the tallest being
five feet eight inches, the shortest, five feet two inches.
Limbs and trunk robust. Complexion, light brown, lighter than
the Malay, darker than the Chinese. Hair, black, lank, coarse
and abundant. Hairy scalp descends low. Nose small, but not
flattened; nostrils divergent. Sclerotica yellowish. Outer
angles of the eye turned upwards. Cheek-bones broad and high.
Lower jaw square, so as to look as if the parotid gland were
swollen.--_Crawford and Finlayson from Prichard._
In the history of the Siamese Tribes, the conquest of Assam is,
perhaps, the most important event; and this is connected with their
wide distribution.
In the lower part of the valley of Assam the language is Bengali, or
nearly so; but only in the lower part. The upper half is peopled by
different small mountain tribes, one of which is the Khamti.
_The Khamti._--In the North Eastern corner of Assam, the Khamti are
conterminous with the Singpho, Mishimi, and Miri, and are traditionally
reported to have emigrated from the head-waters of the Irawaddi. In
physical appearance they are middle-sized, more resembling the Chinese
than any tribe on the frontier. Perhaps, a shade darker in complexion.
Their alphabet is Siamese; and their language, far north as it is
spoken, when compared with the Siamese of Bankok, closely resembles
that dialect. In Brown's[11] Vocabularies the proportion of words,
similar or identical, in Khamti and Siamese, is 92 _per cent._
Still it is by no means certain that the Khamti represent the original
conquerors. These were Ahoms; their alphabet was _Ahom_, and the
language _Ahom_. The Ahom, however, was Siamese; and probably the
Khamti was a dialect of it.
The Ahom literature, preserved in the books of the Assam priesthood,
is said to be remarkable for the negative fact of there being in it
no traces of the Hindu religion--either Buddhist or Brahminical. This
speaks much either in favour of the antiquity of the conquest, or for
the recent date of the Hindu influence.
In A.D. 1695, the Brahminical religion was established in Assam: how
much earlier is uncertain.
THE KAMBOJIANS.
_Locality._--Lower course of the Mekhong river. East of the
Siamese, west of the Anamese, except so for as they may be
separated by isolated mountain tribes, conterminous with these
nations.
Our knowledge respecting the Kambojians is not sufficiently definite
to enable us to say how far they differ, or how far they agree with
certain tribes of the interior, which have been described separately.
In Prichard I find that they were supposed by the Portuguese to have
been derived from a warlike nation of the interior, called _Kho_, or
_Gueo_; who are still represented as painting and tattooing their
bodies.
Now these Kho, or Gueo, are probably the _Ka_ described along with the
_Chong_, as a separate people. If so we are enabled to dispose of three
unplaced tribes; since, by Crawfurd's Ka and Chong vocabularies we can
connect, perhaps identify, them with the Kambojians.
ENGLISH. KA. CHONG. KAMBOJIAN.
_Sun_ tangi tańgi tangai.
_Moon_ kot kang ke.
_Stone_ tamoe tamok tamo.
_Water_ dak tak tak.
_River_ dak-tani talle tanle.
_Fire_ un pleu plung.
_Fish_ tre mel trai.
_One_ moe moe moe.
_Two_ bar bar pir.
_Three_ peh peh bai.
_Four_ puan pon buan.
_Five_ chang pram pram.
Most of the Ka, and Chong words which are not Kambojian are either
Anamitic or Môn.
Furthermore, in Crawfurd's Embassy to Siam, a vocabulary representing a
fourth Kambojian dialect is given; the Khomen.
THE BURMESE.
_Locality._--Valley of the Irawaddi. Conterminous, save so far
as interrupted by mountain-tribes, with Assam, China, Siam, and
Pegu.
_Divisions._--1. The Myamma, or Burmese of Ava. 2. The
Rhukheng, or people of Arakan.
_Religion._--Buddhist.
_Alphabet._--Of Indian origin, a rounded form of the Pali.
_Physical appearance._--More beard, more prominent features,
and darker complexions than the Siamese, Anamese, and Chinese.
Beard also more abundant. The darkness of complexion increasing
towards the confines of Bengal.
THE MÔN.
_Locality._--The Delta of the Irawaddi; Pegu.
_Alphabet._--Burmese.
The notices hitherto given have applied only to the great _political_
divisions of the variety speaking monosyllabic languages; and have
referred to nations of a known and similar degree of civilization. It
would be an error, however, to suppose that they supply a complete
enumeration. Hardly an empire mentioned will not exhibit some instance
of a new series of phenomena standing over for investigation. The
Chinese, the Burmese, and the Siamese, represent merely the dominant
tribes of their several areas; those whereof the civilization and
territorial power have given their possessors a certain degree of
prominence in the history of the world. The intermixed tribes,
sometimes imperfectly subdued, always imperfectly civilized, inhabiting
barren tracts or mountain fastnesses, have a value in ethnology which
they cannot command in history. In these we see the original substratum
of the different national characters, as it may be supposed to have
shown itself, before it was modified by foreign influences. In a more
advanced stage of our knowledge, these tribes will probably be brought
under one of the sub-divisions already noticed. At present, even when
in some cases they may be so placed, it is best to take them in detail;
premising that, the list does not pretend to be exhaustive, that, from
the fluctuations of the geographical nomenclature, the same tribe
may be mentioned twice over, and, lastly, that partly from imperfect
knowledge, and partly from changes of locality, arising from migrations
of the tribes themselves, the geographical position is, in many cases,
difficult to fix.
The notice, however, of the minor representatives, real or supposed, of
the great division of the human race speaking monosyllabic languages
now commences.
THE SI-FAN.
The word[12] _Si_ means _west_, whilst _Fan_ means _stranger_;
so that _Si-fan_ means _western strangers_. The term means
one or more of the wilder tribes on the Tibetan or Mongolian
frontier.
Nothing is less likely than that the _Si-fan_ should differ
in _kind_ from the Chinese--unless it be that they are Turk,
Mongol, or Tibetan.
THE MIAOU-TSE.
These are the so-called _aborigines_ of China. It were, perhaps, more
accurate to call them the Chinese in their most aboriginal form. The
term means _children of the soil_. Their localities are the mountains
of Southern and Central China. They seem to consist of a number of
tribes rather than to constitute any particular people; so that it
is possible that many varieties of the primitive Chinese may be
comprised under the general appellation. Those of _Ping-sha-hwang_ are
divided into the _white_ and _black_ Miaou-tse; from the difference of
their complexion. Both the Abbé Gosier and Tradescant Lay[13] speak
to their indomitable courage, and to their spirit of independence,
their subjection being still imperfect. Their weapons are the bow and
cross-bow. Their employment agriculture. The following is an account of
their religious rites from the author last named.
"_Religious Rites._--When a man among the _Miaou-tse_ who inhabit
the _Ping-sha-shih_ hills, marries, he sticks five small flags into
a bundle of grass fastened together by about seven different bands.
Before this strange pageant he kneels, while the rest of his friends
fold their arms and bow; after this they make merry with music and
dancing. At the death of father or mother, the eldest son remains at
home for forty-nine days without washing his face; when this period
has been completed, he sacrifices to a divinity which is called
_Fang-kwei_, and seems to correspond in office with Mercury, who,
according to the views of ancient mythology, conducted the spirits
of the dead to the abodes of happiness. If the eldest son be poor,
and cannot afford to lose the labour of so long a time, the grandson
or some other descendant performs this duty in his stead. Among the
mountaineers styled the _Hea-king_, when a man is sick, his friends
offer the head of a tiger to the prince of divinities. The head is
placed upon a charger, with a sword; three incense-sticks and two
candles behind it, and three cups of wine in front. Before this curious
oblation the worshippers fold their hands, or cross their arms and bow
themselves. Another tribe, when they would propitiate the good-will
of the powers which influence the weather, appoint ten companies of
young men and women, who, after dressing themselves in robes made of
felt, and binding their loins with an embroidered girdle, dance and
play the organ with every suitable demonstration of joy and festivity.
This gay ceremony is kept up for three days and three nights, at the
end of which they sacrifice an ox, to obtain, says the Chinese writer,
a plentiful year. A father among the same people, when his son is ten
months old, offers a white tiger, and accompanies the oblation with
such rites of merriment as his circumstances can afford. At this time
a name is given to the child. This reminds us of a modern christening,
when the solemnities of religion are straightway followed by the
mirth, good cheer, and gaieties of a festival. When a tribe called the
_Chung-king_ mourn for their dead, they kill an ox, and place the head
and feet upon an altar, with basins filled with food, lighted candles,
and cups of wine by way of drink-offering. The altar resembles a table,
and explains a phrase used in Isaiah, "Ye have prepared a table for
that number." The bridal ceremonies with another tribe are attended by
the sacrifice of a dog, at which the relatives of husband and wife are
present.
"A people called the _Western Miaou-tse_, in the middle of autumn
offer a sacrifice to the great ancestor or founder of their race. For
this purpose, they select a male ox or buffalo which is well covered
with hair, and has its horns quite perfect; that is, in other words,
an animal without blemish. To put it in good condition, they feed it
with grass and water till the rice or corn is ripe, when the animal is
fat. They then distil a certain quantity of spirit from the grain, and
slay the ox. Being thus provided for a feast, they invite all their
relatives, who come and carouse with them amidst plays, singing, and
the loud challenges of jolly companions. In the first-fruits which
the Chinese present at the close of harvest, we have a representative
of Cain's offering; but in the ceremony just described, there are
some traces of that which Abel brought to the altar. The aboriginal
Chinese retain the rite, but the object worshipped is disguised under
an equivocal name,--equivocal, because the Creator has a claim to the
title of original ancestor by way of eminence, as well as the common
parent of mankind. When the mind of man was darkened, he confounded
Adam with his Maker, and worshipped the creature instead of the
Creator, who is blessed for ever.
"With the _White Miaou-tse_, a rite is observed somewhat in character
like the last, but for a different purpose. These select an ox
well-proportioned and carrying a perfect pair of horns. This animal
they feed carefully to prepare it for sacrifice. Each cantonment keeps
an ox in this way in readiness to be offered to the great ancestor,
whenever, in any of their contests, victory shall declare in their
favour. After the sacrifice has been performed by the master of the
sacrifice, or priest, the relatives of the sacrificer join in a regular
festivity of singing and drinking. A tribe commended for the purity
of their disposition and their obedience to the magistrate, at the
death of a person collect a large quantity of fuel together, and, I
suppose, make a great burning for him. When a man is about to marry
among a particular race of mountaineers, he allows two of his teeth to
be knocked out with a hammer and hard chisel, to avert the mischiefs
of matrimony. These, too, cut off the forelocks and spread the hair
behind; they also, like the Chinese, bestow some attention upon the
beauty of their eyebrows."
THE LOLOS.
Probably these belong more to Siam[14] than to China. _Mutatis
mutandis_, they are on the southern frontier what the Si-fan
are on the west.
They are so far civilized as to have taken their religion
(Buddhism), and an alphabet from Ava or Pegu.
THE QUANTO.
The Quanto inhabit[14] the range of mountains between Anam
and China. They represent the original civilization, or want
of civilization, of Cochin-China and Tonkin,--_i.e._ of
Cochin-China and Tonkin before the influence of China.
They are in possession of an alphabet.
THE TSHAMPA.
Inhabitants of the southernmost[14] coast of Cochin-China.
Their language, of which I have not seen a specimen, is said
to differ from both the Chinese and the Kambojian. They are
a civilized people, and were so in the time of Marco Polo.
According to Crawfurd, their civilization was, to a certain
extent, due to Indian influences. At present there is a Malay
settlement on their coast.
THE MOY.
The southern part of the mountains which form the watershed
between Cochin-China and Kambojia is the residence of the Moy.
According to Chapman, they are eminently dark-complexioned;
an observation which will be found in the sequel to apply
to several other of the minor tribes of the division in
question.[14]
_Sub-divisions of the Laos branch of the Siamese._--As laid down in the
maps, the Laos fill up the whole area between China on the north, Siam
on the south, Cochin-China and Kambojia on the east, and Ava on the
west; of this area, however, little is known in detail.
One of the divisions of the Laos is called _Lau[14]-pang-dun_, or the
_Black_ Laos, from the darkness of their complexion.
Tribes, too, called _Pa-y_ and _Pa-pe_,[15] are said to be Laos.
Lastly, the relations between the true Laos, and the Ahom, Khamti, and
Shyán, have yet to be made out in a satisfactory manner.
KARIEN.
_Distribution._--Irregular; from the eleventh to the
twenty-third degree of north latitude; from the Mergui Province
in Tenasserim to the borders of China, between the Burmese on
the west and the Siamese on the east. On the river Salwin, are
the so-called _Red Karien_.
_Name._--Burmese. Called _Kadun_ in Pegu.
The Kariens, unless they are Siamese, have next to that nation the
greatest extension, north and south. Ground down by the oppression
of the Burmese, they are, with the exception of the _red_ Kariens,
who still preserve an imperfect independence, a decreasing race. Of
their language we have specimens[16] in more than one dialect, viz.,
the Passuko, Maplu, and Play. They are agricultural tribes, clearing
the land for the cultivation of rice, and then leaving it to migrate
elsewhere.--_Arva in annos mutant, et superest ager._
SILONG.
_Locality._--Islands of the Mergui Archipelago.
_Numbers._--Said to be about one thousand.
_Language_.--Said to be peculiar.
_Authority._--Dr. Helfer's Third Report on the Tenasserim
Provinces.--_Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol.
viii.
The details now forthcoming apply to the districts lying north of a
line drawn from the southernmost point of Arakan to the Irawaddi; and
they comprise the eastern extensions of the Arakan tribes, the parts
about Manipur, and the complex, but important line of frontier between
the Indo-Chinese kingdoms, and the Indian portions of Bengal and Assam.
The first tribes that will be noticed are those which are most closely
related to the inhabitants of Arakan.
NAGAS.
_Locality._--South-east Assam, in the north-eastern portion
of the mountain range between Assam and the Burmese empire.
Conterminous with the Singpho on the north-east.
KUKI.
_Locality._--Mountains of Tipperah, Sylhet and Chittagong. A
south-western prolongation of the Nagas.
_Synonyms._--Lunctas, Koung-thias.(?)
KHUMIA (CHOOMEEAS).
_Locality._--The same mountains as the Kuki, only on a lower
level. The word means _villagers_, _Khúm_=_village_.
The Naga, Kuki, and Khumia, are tribes of one family. Their
ethnographical position is certain. They have long been known to be
part of Rhukheng division of the Burmese tribes, speaking the same
language with the inhabitants of Arakan, and connecting themselves with
that people in their traditions respecting their own origin.
I may also add that the similarity of manners between them and the Garo
is very manifest.
KHYEN.
_Locality._--The Yuma mountains between Ava and Arakan.
Independent Pagans.
_Name._--Burmese. Native name Koloun. Buchanan, in _Asiatic
Researches_, vol. v.
_Authority._--Lieutenant Trant in Asiatic Researches, vol. xvi.
The faces of the Khyen women are tattooed. That the following reason,
however, for the practice is valid, is more than I will venture to
vouch.
One of the forms of tribute to one of the conquerors of the Khyens, was
the payment of a certain number of the most beautiful women of the
country. In order to do away with the danger to which their unmutilated
charms exposed them, the whole generation tattooed themselves; and
their descendants have done so since.
MANIPUR.
_Synonyms._--Kathi or Kassay, Moitay.
_Locality._--Bounded on the east by the right branch of the
Irawaddi, on the north and west by the Naga and Kachari
countries, on the south by the Khyen.
An idea of the extent to which the language, for these parts varies
within a small geographical area, may be collected from Captain
Gordon's notices of the dialects spoken in the neighbourhood of Manipur.
Besides the Manipur proper, the following eleven dialects are
illustrated by his vocabularies,[17] and are said to be spoken within
the limits of a very inconsiderable circle, of which Manipur is the
centre.
1. The Songpú. The most western. Per-centage of Manipur words, 21.
_Brown._
2. The Kapwi. A very small tribe. _Ditto_, 41. _Brown._
3. The Koreng. _Ditto_, 18. _Brown._
4. The Maram. _Ditto_, 25. _Brown._
5. The Champhung. Thirty or forty families. _Ditto_, 28. _Brown._
6. The Luhuppa. _Ditto_, 31. _Brown._
7. The North Tankhul. _Ditto_, 28. _Brown._ }
} Said to be
8. The Central Tankhul. _Ditto_, 35. _Brown._ } mutually
} unintelligible.
9. The South Tankhul. _Ditto_, 33. _Brown._ }
10. The Khoibú. Per-centage of Manipur words, 40. _Brown._
11. The Maring. _Ditto_, 50. _Brown._
KYO.
_Locality._--Arakan, banks of the river Koladyng. A single
village.
_Religion._--Worship of Nats (_Spirits_).
_Physical Appearance._--Contrasted with that of their
neighbours, being so dark as to suggest the idea that they are
of Bengal origin. No traditions, however, to that effect.
_Language._--Monosyllabic, as ascertained by two
vocabularies.--Lieut. Phayre's _Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal, and_ Lieut. Latter, _ditto_.
KACHARI.
_Locality._--Between the Kasia county, with which it is
conterminous on the east, and Manipur.
KASIA.
_Locality._--Southern border of Lower Assam. Conterminous with
the Kachari on the east and the Garo on the west.
A better knowledge of the wild tribes in these parts than we possess,
will, probably, enable us to ascertain the nature of the most primitive
Indo-Chinese religion. It seems in these parts to be the worship of
_Nats_ or spirits.
In the Kasia country the occurrence of erect pillars, evidently objects
of mysterious respect, if not of adoration, is frequent. These are
explained by similar ones in the Khyen district. They are depicted by
Lieutenant Latter--_accurate magis quam verecunde_--and are lingams.
Stout legs, thick lips, and angular eyes, are marked characters in the
Kasia conformation. They burn their dead. Their ceremonies are few or
none. Like the Garo, they drink no milk. Like the Garo, also, they are
said to have no beast of burden. Like many of the tribes around them
they chew pawn; and like many of the tribes around them they obtain,
for drink, a liquor fermented from millet. Millet or rice are the usual
sources for the stimulant beverages of this section of the Seriform
tribes; and, it may be added, that the art of distillation as well
as of simple fermentation is widely spread. I am not aware that the
former is practised by the present tribe; it is common, however, in the
Sub-Himalayan range.--Lieutenant Yule, _Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal_, xiii. 3.
SINGPHO.
_Locality._--A tract of about one thousand four hundred square
miles in the north-eastern corner of Assam. Conterminous with
the Khamtis and Mishimis on the north. Bounded on the south and
east by the Patkoe range; which divides Assam from the Burmese
empire.
_Population._--Calculated in 1838 at six thousand.
_Government._--Clans under chiefs called Gaums.
_Religion._--Imperfect Buddhism. Worship of dead chieftains.
_Alphabet._--Shyán or Ahom.
_Physical Appearance._--Body long, legs short, complexion tawny.
JILI.
_Locality._--The Burmese side of the Patkoe range. Conterminous
with the Singpho, by whom they have been nearly extinguished.
_Language._--Seven-tenths of the Jili vocabulary is Singpho.
MISHIMI.
_Locality._--North-east extremity of Assam. Conterminous
with the Khamti on the south, and the Abors on the west.
Mountaineers. Tibet on the north.
_Mishimi Tribes._--The Chool Kutta=crop-haired, the Meahu, the
Tairi, or Digaru. According to Brown, the Maí Mishimi, the
Taron Mishimi, and the Maiye or Meme Mishimi.
_Probable Population._--Four hundred and sixty.
_Physical Appearance._--Stature short. Limbs small, but active,
and well-knit.
The Mishimi country produces, and the Mishimi collect, a poison called
the Bikh Mishimi. This is used both for the purposes of hunting and
of war. So poisonous is it that a single wound is said to kill an
elephant. The flesh, however, of the animal so killed is eaten with
impunity.
BOR ABORS.
_Locality._--The loftiest portion of the mountains to the north
of Assam.
ABORS.
_Locality._--The lower range of the mountains inhabited by the
Bor Abors.
MIRI.
_Locality._--The foot of the Abor and Bor Abor range. Speaking
generally, the Bor Abors, Abors, and Miri are conterminous with
the Khamti, and Mishimi on the north-east.
DUFLA.
_Locality._--South-west of the Abors, on the same mountain
range. No less than one hundred and eighty petty chiefs are
said to rule over the numerous disunited Dufla tribes of the
Char Dwán; and this is only one of their localities.
AKA.
_Locality._--The south-western prolongation of the range
inhabited by the Abors and Dufla. Conterminous with the latter.
_Language._--Half the words in an Aka and Abor vocabulary are
alike.
MUTTUCK.
_Locality._--North-east Assam, south of the Burramputer.
Conterminous with the Singhu, Khamti, and Miri.
_Synonym._--Muamaria, or Moa Mareya.
_Religion._--Imperfect Brahmanism.
The Muttuck persecution is one of the most important facts in the
history of Assam. Prior to the Ahom invasion, said to have taken place
1224, A. D., the Muttucks had been converted to Hinduism; but to a
form of it which denied the divinity of Durga, and would not admit the
worship of her image. A violent persecution on this account, between
A.D. 1714 and 1744, brought about a resistance which did much to weaken
and disorganise the Assam empire.
GARO.
_Locality._--The Garo hills, at the south-western entrance of
the valley of Assam.
No tribe hitherto mentioned is of the ethnographical importance of the
Garo.
If we call them _Indian_, they are the most northern tribe that has
been described as having _Negro_ elements in their physiognomy.
If we call them Tibetan, or Burmese, they are equally remarkable for
this peculiarity.
Taking their physical appearance as a test, it is the Garo that
seem the likeliest to exhibit a transition between the type already
illustrated, and the type of the aborigines of Hindostan, _supposing
such a transition to exist_.
Taking their language into consideration, something of the same
intermediate character is, perhaps, to be found. It has been referred
to each class; by some to the monosyllabic tongues of Tibet, or the
Burmese empire; by others to the Indian group of dialects and languages.
The first description of the Garo is to be found in the Asiatic
Researches. Here it is where they are described as approaching the
Negro type. Endued with great physical strength, at least as compared
with the Bengali, they are pagans and savages: their manners, as stated
above, agreeing in many points with those of the Kukis.
It is, however, by their language that their ethnographical position
will best be determined.
The present writer, who had not then seen Mr. Brown's Vocabularies,
placed this, in 1844, in the Tibetan division; being satisfied of its
monosyllabic character.
Mr. Brown's Vocabularies confirm this view (so far as it goes) of the
monosyllabic character of the Garo; and I think that the following
table--Mr. Brown's also--shewing the per-centage of words in any two
languages, does the same.
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| |K |S |A'|A'|M |B |K |S |J |G |M |S |
| |h |i |k |b |i |u |a |i |i |á |a |o |
| |a |a |á |o |s |r |r |n |l |r |n |n |
| |m |m | |r |h |m |e |g |í |o |i |g |
| |t |e | | |i |e |n |p | | |p |p |
| |í |s | | |m |s | |h | | |u |ú |
| | |e | | |í |e | |o | | |r | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |í | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Khamti | |92| 1| 1| 5| 8| 8| 3|10| 3| 3| 1|
|Siamese |92| | 0| 0| 3| 6| 8| 3|10| 1| 3| 1|
|A'bor | 1| 0| |47|20|17|12|15|15| 5|11| 3|
|A'ká | 1| 0|47| |20|11|10|18|11| 6|15| 6|
|Mishimi | 5| 3|20|20| |10|10|10|13|10|11| 0|
|Burmese | 8| 6|17|11|10| |23|23|26|12|16| 8|
|Karien | 8| 8|12|10|10|23| |17|21| 8|15|10|
|Singpho | 3| 3|15|18|10|23|17| |70|16|25|10|
|Jili |10|10|15|11|13|26|21|70| |22|16|10|
|Garo | 3| 1| 5| 6|10|12| 8|16|22| |10| 5|
|Manipurí | 3| 3|11|15|11|16|15|25|16|10| |21|
|Songpú | 1| 1| 3| 6| 0| 8|10|10|10| 5|21| |
|Kapwi | 0| 0|10|11|11|20|15|18|21| 6|41|35|
|Koreng | 1| 1| 3| 5| 0| 6| 8|11|13| 5|18|50|
|Maram | 0| 0| 8| 8| 3|11|12|11|11| 8|25|53|
|Champhung | 0| 0| 8| 6| 5|11| 4|13|11| 5|28|20|
|Luhuppa | 0| 0| 8| 8| 6|11|12|15|18| 8|31|23|
|N. Tángkhul| 0| 0| 5| 8| 8|10| 8|13|20|13|28|15|
|C. Tángkhul| 0| 0| 6| 8| 6|13|12|25|20|11|35|15|
|S. Tángkhul| 0| 0|10|10|13|13|12|13|13| 5|33|13|
|Khoibú | 0| 0| 8|10|10|16|10|20|20| 5|40| 8|
|Maring | 0| 0|10|18| 8|16|15|18|20| 5|50|15|
|Anamese | 5| 5| 0| 0| 1| 1| 2| 5| 3| 3| 6| 6|
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| |K |K |M |C |L |N.|C.|S.|K |M |A |
| |a |o |a |h |u | | | |h |a |n |
| |p |r |r |a |h |T |T |T |o |r |a |
| |w |e |á |m |u |á |á |á |i |i |m |
| |í |n |m |p |p |n |n |n |b |n |e |
| | |g | |h |p |g |g |g |ú |g |s |
| | | | |u |a |k |k |k | | |e |
| | | | |n | |h |h |h | | | |
| | | | |g | |u |u |u | | | |
| | | | | | |l |l |l | | | |
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Khamti | 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 5|
|Siamese | 0| 1| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 5|
|A'bor |10| 3| 8| 8| 8| 5| 6|10| 8|10| 0|
|A'ká |11| 5| 8| 6| 8| 8| 8|10|10|18| 0|
|Mishimi |11| 0| 3| 5| 6| 8| 6|13|10| 8| 1|
|Burmese |20| 6|11|11|11|10|13|13|16|16| 1|
|Karien |15| 8|12| 4|12| 8|12|12|10|15| 2|
|Singpho |18|11|11|13|15|13|25|13|20|18| 5|
|Jili |21|13|11|11|18|20|20|13|20|20| 3|
|Garo | 6| 5| 8| 5| 8|13|11| 5| 5| 5| 3|
|Manipurí |41|18|25|28|31|28|35|33|40|50| 6|
|Songpú |35|50|53|20|23|15|15|13| 8|15| 6|
|Kapwi | |30|33|20|35|30|40|45|38|40| 5|
|Koreng |30| |41|18|21|20|20|--|10|15| 3|
|Maram |33|41| |21|28|25|20|16|23|26| 3|
|Champhung |20|18|21| |40|20|20|16|15|25| 3|
|Luhuppa |35|21|28|40| |63|55|36|33|40| 5|
|N. Tángkhul|30|20|25|20|63| |85|30|31|31| 3|
|C. Tángkhul|40|20|20|20|55|85| |41|45|41| 1|
|S. Tángkhul|45|11|16|16|36|30|41| |43|43| 5|
|Khoibú |38|10|23|15|33|31|45|43| |78| 3|
|Maring |40|15|26|25|40|31|41|43|78| | 3|
|Anamese | 5| 3| 3| 3| 5| 3| 1| 5| 3| 3| |
+-----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
In the face of this, however, the author writes that it "would be
difficult to decide from the specimens before us, whether it is to be
ranked with the monosyllabic or polysyllabic languages. It probably
belongs to the latter."
Again--Mr. Hodgson connects the Garos with the _Bodo_, not, indeed,
as a sub-division of that group, but as a class with a common origin;
adding, that fifteen out of sixty words in Brown's Vocabulary are the
same in Garo and Bodo.
This involves the position of the Garo with that of the Bodo; whilst,
in respect to the Bodo, it is convenient to consider them along with
the _Dhimál_.
We are now in that part of the Indian side of the Himalayan range,
which lies between Assam on the east, and Sikkim on the west, and
which is bounded on the north by Bhután. This is the area where the
aboriginal Indian and the Tibetan most intermix.
DHIMÁL.
_Locality._--Mixed with the Bodo, in their most westerly
locality, _i.e._ between the Konki and Dhorla.
_Numbers._--According to Mr. Hodgson, about 15,000.
_Authority._---Hodgson's _Dissertation on the Kocch, Bodo, and
Dhimál._
BODO.
_Locality._--The forest belt (not the mountains) in a circle
round the Valley of Assam, from Tipperah S. E. to Morung, N.W.
Mixed, in their most westerly localities with the Dhimál.
_Synonym._--Mécch.
_Name._--Native; the Mécch call themselves Bodo, and so do the
Kachari.
_Authority._--Same as for the Dhimál.
The Bodo are the rudest division of the present group whereof we
possess anything like a sufficient amount of detailed information; Mr.
Hodgson's Dissertation being, perhaps, the best ethnological monograph
existing. Hence, it is in the Bodo nation that, in the present state
of our knowledge, we must study the general phenomena of the wilder
Seriform tribes.
In respect to their social development the Bodo are good examples of
a very peculiar form. They are tillers of the soil, and (as such)
agriculturists rather than hunters, fishers, or feeders of flocks and
herds. But their agriculture is imperfect, and quasi-nomadic; since
they are not fixed but erratic or migratory cultivators. They have
no name for a village, no sheep, no oxen, no _fixed_ property in the
soil. Like the ancient Germans, _arva in annos mutant, et superest
ager_. They clear a jungle, crop it as long as it will yield an average
produce, and then remove themselves elsewhere.
"They never cultivate the same field beyond the second year, or remain
in the same village beyond the fourth to sixth year. After the lapse
of four or five years, they frequently return to their old fields, and
resume their cultivation, if in the interim the jungle has grown well,
and they have not been anticipated by others, for there is no pretence
of appropriation other than possessory, and if, therefore, another
party have preceded them, or, if the slow growth of the jungle give no
sufficient promise of a good stratum of ashes for the land when cleared
by fire, they move on to another site new or old. If old, they resume
the identical fields they tilled before, but never the old houses
or site of the old village, that being deemed unlucky. In general,
however, they prefer new land to old, and having still abundance of
unbroken forest around them, they are in constant movement, more
especially as, should they find a new spot prove unfertile, they decamp
after the first harvest is got in."[18]
It is a fact of some importance that erratic agriculture, a rare and
exceptional form of industrial development, is probably more general
among the Seriform tribes than elsewhere. It has already been stated to
be the habit of the Karien, and there is little doubt as to its being
far more general than it has hitherto been described to be. Contrast
with this imperfect form of agricultural industry the cultivation of
the soil in China. The Bodo villages are small communities of from ten
to forty huts. The head of these communities is called the Grá. It is
the Grá who is responsible to the foreign government (British, Tibetan,
or Nepalese), for the order of the community, and for the payment
of its tribute. In cases of perplexity the Grás of three or four
neighbouring communities meet in deliberation. Offenders against the
customs of the community may be admonished, fined, or excommunicated.
This last term suggests a new series of ideas. The Bodo religious
ordinances are apparently very simple; so that they form a remarkable
contrast with the numerous details of Hinduism. The birth, the
weaning, and the naming of children are all unattended with ceremonies
requiring the presence of a priest. At funerals and marriages, however,
the priest presides. This he does, not so much as a minister to the
essential ceremony, as for the sake of the feast that accompanies
it. No Bodo or Dhimál will touch flesh which has not been offered to
the gods: and this offering a priest must make. Such being the case,
notwithstanding the statement of Mr. Hodgson, who describes in somewhat
flattering terms the negative merits of the simple Bodo creed, and
who especially affirms that the priesthood is no hereditary office, I
cannot but suspect that the influence of the spiritual power is greater
than he admits. If not, the Bodo must have but few meals of meat.
Marriage is a contract rather than a rite. Polygamy or concubinage is
rare: the adoption of children common. All the sons inherit equally;
daughters not at all. A Bodo can only marry to one of his own people.
Divorce, though practicable and easy, is rare; the wife and daughter
have their due influence. No infanticide, no suttí. Children are
named as soon as the mother comes abroad, which is generally four or
five days after her confinement. The idea that the delivery involves
a temporal impurity is recognised; so that all births (and deaths
also) necessitate a temporary segregation and certain purificatory
forms. The one, however, is short, and the other simple. The infant
"is named immediately after birth, or as soon as the mother comes
abroad, which is always four or five days after delivery. There are no
family names, or names derived from the gods. Most Bodo and Dhimáls
bear meaningless designations, or any passing event of the moment may
suggest a significant term: thus a Bhótia chief arrives at the village,
and the child is called Jinkhap; or a hill peasant arrives, and it is
named Góngar, after the titular or general designation of the Bhótias.
Children are not weaned so long as their mother can suckle them, which
is always from two to three years--sometimes more--and two children,
the last and penultimate, are occasionally seen at the breast together.
The delayed period of weaning will account in part for the limited
fecundity of the women. When a Bodo or Dhimál comes of age, the event
is not solemnized by any rite or social usage whatever. Marriage takes
place at maturity, the male being usually from twenty to twenty-five
years of age, and the female, from fifteen to twenty. Courtship is not
sanctioned: the parents or friends negotiate the wedlock."
In this the commercial element is predominant. A price--_Jan_--must
be paid by the bridegroom elect for the intended bride. If the former
have "no means of discharging this sum, he must go to the house of his
father-in-law elect and there literally earn his wife by the sweat
of his brow, labouring, _more Judaico_, upon mere diet for a term of
years, varying from two as an average to five and even seven as the
extreme period. This custom is named Gabóï by the Bodo--Ghárjyá by the
Dhimáls."
When the preliminaries have been arranged, the bridegroom proceeds to
the house of the bride, in procession with his friends. Two females
attend him. The business of these is "to put red lead or oil on the
bride elect's head, when the procession has reached her home. There
a refection is prepared, after partaking of which, the procession
returns, conducting the bride elect to the house of the groom's
parents. So far the same rite is common to the Bodo and Dhimál--the
rest is peculiar to each. Among the Dhimáls, the Déóshi now proceeds
to propitiate the gods by offerings. Dáta and Bídata who preside over
wedlock are invoked, and betel-leaf and red lead are presented to
them. The bride and groom elect are next placed side by side, and each
furnished with five pauns, with which they are required to feed each
other, while the parents of the groom cover them with a sheet, upon
which the Déóshi, by sprinkling holy water sanctifies and completes
the nuptials. Among the Bodo the bride elect is anointed at her own
home with oil; the elders _or_ the Déóshi perform the sacred part of
the ceremony, which consists in the sacrifice of a cock and a hen, in
the respective names of the groom and bride, to the sun: and next,
the groom, rising, makes salutation to the bride's parents, and the
bride, similarly, attests her future duty of reverence and obedience
towards her husband's parents; when the nuptials are complete. A feast
follows both with Bodo and Dhimáls, but is less costly among the
former than among the latter--as is said, because the higher price
paid for his wife by the Bodo incapacitates him for giving so costly
an entertainment. The marriage feast of the Dhimáls is alleged to cost
thirty or forty rupees sometimes, the festivities being prolonged
through two and even three days; whereas four to six--rarely ten rupees
suffice for the nuptial banquet of a Bodo.
"The Bodo and Dhimáls both alike bury the dead, immediately after
decease, with simple but decent reverence, though no fixed burial
ground nor artificial tomb is in use to mark the last resting place of
those most dear in life, because the migratory habits of the people
would render such usages nugatory. The family and friends form a
funeral procession, which bears the dead in silence to the grave. The
body being interred, a few stones are piled loosely upon the grave
to prevent disturbance by jackals and ratels, rather than to mark
the spot, and some food and drink are laid upon the grave; when the
ceremony is suspended, and the party disperses. Friends are purified by
mere ablution in the next stream and at once resume their usual cares.
The family are unclean for three days, after which, besides bathing and
shaving, they need to be sprinkled with holy water by their elders or
priest. They are then restored to purity and forthwith proceed to make
preparations for a funeral banquet, by the sacrifice of a hog to Mainou
or Timáng, of a cock to Báthó or Pochima, according to the nation. When
the feast has been got ready and the friends are assembled, before
sitting down they all repair, once again, to the grave, when the
nearest of kin to the deceased, taking an individual's usual portion of
food and drink, solemnly presents them to the dead with these words,
'Take and eat: heretofore you have eaten and drunk with us; you can do
so no more; you were one of us; you can be so no longer: we come no
more to you: come you not to us.' And thereupon the whole party break
and cast on the grave a bracelet of thread priorly attached, to this
end, to the wrist of each of them. Next the party proceed to the river
and bathe, and having thus lustrated themselves, they repair to the
banquet, and eat, drink, and make merry as though they were never to
die! A funeral costs the Dhimáls from four to eight rupees--something
more to the Bodo, who practise more formality on the occasion, and to
whom is peculiar the singular leave-taking of the dead just described."
The details relating to the priesthood, and to the festivals of the
Bodo tribes, will best indicate the nature of their religion. The
list of the Bodo gods is very nearly the list of the Bodo _rivers_.
Báthó, however, the chief god, is no river but a _plant_; one of the
Euphorbeace. Mainon is Báthó's wife. All diseases are referred to
preternatural influence. Oaths and ordeals are very general.
_Rites and ceremonies._--The rites of the Bodo and Dhimál religions
are entirely similar and "consist of offerings, sacrifices, and
prayers. The prayers are few and simple, when stript of their mummery;
and necessarily so, being committed solely to the memories of a
non-hereditary and very trivially instructed and mutable priesthood.
They consist of invocations of protection for the people and their
crops and domestic animals; of deprecations of wrath when sickness,
murrain, drought, blight, or the ravages of wild animals, prevail; and
thanksgivings when the crops are safely housed, or recent troubles
are passed. The offerings consist of milk, honey, parched rice, eggs,
flowers, fruits, and red lead or cochineal: the sacrifices of hogs,
goats, fowls, ducks, and pigeons--most commonly hogs and fowls.
Sacrifices are deemed more worthy than offerings, so that all the
higher deities, without reference to their supposed benevolence or
malevolence of nature, receive sacrifices--all the lesser deities,
offerings only. Libations of fermented liquor always accompany
sacrifice--_because_, to confess the whole truth, sacrifice and
feast are commutable words, and feasts need to be crowned by copious
potations! Malevolence appears to be attributed to very few of the
gods, though of course all will resent neglect; but, in general, their
natures are deemed benevolent; and hence the absence of all savage
or cruel rites. All diseases, however, are ascribed to supernatural
agency. The sick man is supposed to be possessed by one of the deities,
who racks him with pains, as a punishment for impiety or neglect of the
god in question. Hence, not the mediciner, but the exorcist is summoned
to the sick man's aid. The exorcist is called, both by the Bodo and
Dhimáls, Ojhá, and he operates as follows. Thirteen leaves, each with
a few grains of rice upon it, are placed by the exorcist in a segment
of a circle before him to represent the deities. The Ojhá, squatting
on his hams before the leaves causes a pendulum attached to his thumb
by a string to vibrate before them, repeating invocations the while.
The god who has possessed the sick man, is indicated by the exclusive
vibration of the pendulum towards his representative leaf, which is
then taken apart, and the god in question is asked, what sacrifice he
requires? a buffalo, a hog, a fowl, or a duck to spare the sufferer.
He answers (the Ojhá best knows how!) a hog; and it is forthwith vowed
by the sick man and promised by the exorcist, but only paid when the
former has recovered. On recovery the animal is sacrificed, and its
blood offered to the offended deity. I witnessed the ceremony myself
among the Dhimáls, on which occasion the thirteen deities invoked were
Pochima or Waráng, Timai or Béráng, Lákhim, Konoksiri, Ménchi, Chímá,
Danto, Chádúng, Aphóï, Biphóï, Andhéman (Aphún), Tátopátia (Báphún),
and Shúti. A Bodo exorcist would proceed precisely in the same manner,
the only difference in the ceremony being the invocation of the Bodo
gods instead of the Dhimál ones.
"The _great festivals_ of the year are three or four. The first is
held in December-January, when the cotton crop is ready. It is called
Shúrkhar by the Bodo, Haréjata by the Dhimáls. The second is held in
February-March. It is named Wágalénó by the Bodo, who alone observe
it. The Bodo name for the third, which is celebrated in July-August,
when the rice comes into ear, is Phúlthépno. The Dhimáls call it Gávi
púja. The fourth great festival is held in October, and is named Ai
húnó by the Bodo--Pochima páká by the Dhimáls. The first three of these
festivals are consecrated to the elemental gods and to the interests of
agriculture. They are celebrated abroad, not at home (generally on the
banks of a river), whence attendance on them is called Hagrou húdong
or madai húdong, "going forth to worship" in contradistinction to the
style of the fourth great festival, which is devoted to the household
gods and is celebrated at home. The Wágalénó, or bamboo festival of
the Bodo, I witnessed in the spring of this year, and will describe it
as a sample of the whole. Proceeding from Siligori to Pankhabárí with
Dr. Campbell, we came upon a party of Bodo in the bed of the river,
within the Saul forest, or rather, were drawn off the road by the noise
they made. It was a sort of chorus of a few syllables, solemnly and
musically incanted, which, on reaching the spot was found to be uttered
by thirteen Bodo men, who were drawn up in a circle facing inwards, and
each carrying a lofty bamboo pole decked with several tiers of wearing
apparel and crowned with a Chour or yak's tail. Within the circle were
three men, one of whom with an instrument like this [Illustration: (
| | )] in his hands danced to the music, waving his weapon downwards
on one side and so over the head, and then downwards on the other side
and again over the head. He moved round the margin of the circle in
the centre of which stood two others, one a Déóshi or priest, and the
other an attendant or servitor called Phantwál. The priest, clothed in
red cotton but not tonsured or otherwise distinguished from the rest
of the party, muttered an invocation, whereof the burden or chorus was
taken up by the thirteen forming the ring above noticed. The servitor
had a water-pot in one hand and a brush in the other, and from time to
time, as the rite proceeded, this person moved out of the circle to
sprinkle with the holy water another actor in this strange ceremony
and a principal one too. This is the Déódá, or the possessed, who
when filled with the god answers by inspiration to the questions of
the priests as to the prospects of the coming season. When we first
discerned him, he was sitting on the ground panting, and rolling his
eyes so significantly that I at once conjectured his function. Shortly
afterwards, the rite still proceeding, the Déódá got up, entered the
circle and commenced dancing with the rest, but more wildly. He held a
short staff in his hand, with which, from time to time, he struck the
bedizened poles, one by one, and lowering it as he struck. The chief
dancer with the odd-shaped instrument waxed more and more vehement in
his dance; the inspired grew more and more maniacal; the music more and
more rapid; the incantation more and more solemn and earnest; till at
last, amid a general lowering of the heads of the decked bamboo poles,
so that they met and formed a canopy over him, the Déódá went off in
an affected fit, and the ceremony closed without any revelation--a
circumstance which must be ascribed to the presence of the sceptical
strangers; for it is faith alone that worketh miracles and only among
and for the faithful. This ceremony is performed annually by the Rajah
of Sikim's orders, or rather with his sanction of the usages of his
subjects; is addressed to the sun, the moon, the elemental gods, and,
above all, to the rivers; and is designed to ensure health and plenty
in the coming year, as well as to ascertain, beforehand, its promise
or prospect through the revelations of the Déódá. With regard to the
festival sacred to the national or homebred (noöni) gods, called
Aihuno[19] by the Bodo, and Pochima páká by the Dhimáls, it is to be
observed that the rite, like the separate class of deities adored
thereby, is more distinctively Bodo than Dhimál. With both people the
pre-eminence of water among the elements is conspicuous; but whereas
the river gods of the Dhimáls have nearly absorbed all the rest,
elementary or other, the household gods of the Bodo stand conspicuously
distinguished from the fluviatile deities. The Pochima and Timáng
of the Dhimáls are one or both rivers: the Bátho and Mainang of the
Bodo are neither of them rivers, and their interparietal rites are as
clearly distinguished from the rites performed abroad to the fluviatile
and other elemental gods. However, the rites of Báthó and Mainou are
_participated_ by deities of elementary and watery nature, and, on the
other hand, the Dhimáls assert that Pochima and Timai have a twofold
character, one of river gods (Dhorla and Tishta), and one of supreme
gods; and they that are adored, separately, in these two characters,
the Pochima páká, or home-rite of October, being appropriated to them
in the latter capacity of that of supreme gods. I have not witnessed
the Pochima páká, and therefore speak with hesitation. The Ai húnó
is performed as follows. The friends and family being assembled,
including as many persons as the master of the house can afford to
feast, the Déóshi or priest enters the enclosure or yard of the house,
in the centre of which is invariably planted a Sij or Euphorbia, as
the representative of Bátho who is the family as well as national god
of the Bodo. The Báthó, thus represented, the Déóshi offers prayers,
and sacrifices a cock. He then proceeds into the house, adores Mainou,
and sacrifices to her a hog. Next, the priest, the family, and all the
friends proceed to some convenient and pleasant spot in the vicinity,
previously selected, and at which a little temporary shed has been
erected as an altar, and there, with due ceremonies, another hog is
sacrificed to Agráng, a he-goat to Manásho and to Búli, and a fowl,
duck, or pigeon (black, red, or white, according to the special and
well known taste of each god) to each of the remaining nine of the
Noöni madai. The blood of the sacrifice belongs to the gods--the flesh
to his worshippers, and these now hold a high feast, at which beer
and tobacco are freely used to animate the joyous conclave, but not
spirits, nor opium, nor hemp. The goddess Mainou is represented in
the interior of each house, by a bamboo post, about three feet high,
fixed in the ground, and surmounted by a small earthen cup filled with
rice. Before this symbol is the great annual sacrifice of the hog above
noted, performed; and before this, the females of the family _once a
month_, make offerings of eggs. For the males, due attention to the
four annual festivals is deemed sufficient in prosperous and healthful
seasons. But sickness or scarcity always begets special rites and
ceremonies, suited to the circumstances of the calamity, and addressed
more particularly to the elemental gods, if the calamity be drought,
or blight, or devastations of wild animals--to the household gods, if
it be sickness. Hunters, likewise, and fishers, when they go forth
to the chase, sacrifice a fowl to the Sylvan gods, to promote their
success; and lastly, those who have a petition to prefer to their
superiors, conceive that a similar propitiation of Jishim and Mishim,
or of the Chiris, will tend to the fulfilment of their requests. And
this, I think, is nearly the whole amount of rites and ceremonies,
which their religion prescribes to the Bodo and Dhimáls. And anxious as
I am fully to illustrate the topic, I will not try the patience of my
readers by describing all that variety of black victims and white, of
red victims and blue, which each particular deity is alleged to prefer;
first, because the subject is intrinsically trifling; and second
because the diverse statements of my informants lead me to suspect,
that the matter is optional or discretionary with each individual
priest prescribing these minutiæ. I have mentioned the rude symbols
proper to Báthó and Mainou. None of the other gods seem to have any
at all, though a low line of kneaded clay attached to the Thalí that
surrounds the sacred Euphorbia in the yards of the Bodo is said to
stand for the rest of the divinities who, as I have already said, are
wont to be worshipped collectively rather than individually; and thus
the sun, the moon, and the earth, though adored by Bodo and by Dhimál,
have no separate rites, but are included in those appropriated to the
elemental gods. Witchcraft is universally dreaded by both Bodo and
Dhimál. The names of the craft and of its professors, male and female,
will be found in the vocabulary. Witches (Dain and Mháï) are supposed
to owe their noxious power to their own wicked studies, _or_ to the
aid of preternatural beings. When any person is afflicted, the elders
assemble and summon three Ojhás or exorcists, with whose aid and that
of a cane freely used, the elders endeavour to extort from the witch
a confession of the fact and the motives. By dint of questioning and
of beating, the witch is generally brought to confession, when he or
she is asked to remove the spell, and to heal the sufferer, means of
propitiating preternatural allies (if their agency be alleged) being
at the same time tendered to the witch, who is, however, forthwith
expelled the district, and put across the next river, with the
concurrence of the local authorities. No other sorcery or black art
save that of witches is known; nor palmistry, augury, astrology, nor,
in a word, any other supposed command of the future than that described
in the 'Wa galéno' as the attribute (for the nonce) of the Déódá or
vates. The evil eye causes some alarm to Bodo and to Dhimál who call
it mogon nángo and mí nójó respectively, and who cautiously avoid
the evil-eyed person, but cannot eject him from the community. The
influence of the evil eye is sought to be neutralised by offerings of
parched millet and eggs to Khoja Kajah and Mansha Rajah--Dii minores
who find no place in my catalogue, ample as it is. Moïsh madai, I am
told, likewise claims a place in the Bodo Pantheon, and a distinguished
place, too, as the protector of this forest-dwelling people from beasts
of prey, and especially the tiger.
"_Priesthood._--The priesthood of the Bodo and Dhimáls is entirely
the same, even to the nomenclature, which with both people expresses
the three sorts of clergy by the terms Déóshi, Dhámi and Ojhá. The
Dhámi (seniores priores!) is the district priest. The Déóshi the
village priest; and the Ojhá the village exorcist. The Déóshi has
under him one servitor called Phantwál. There is a Déóshi in nearly
every village. Over a small circle of villages one Dhámi presides and
possesses a vaguely defined but universally recognised control over
the Déóshis of his district. The general constitutions and functions
of the clerical body have already been fully explained. Priests are
subject to no peculiar restraints, nor marked by any external sign
of diverse dress or other. The connexion between pastor and flock
is full of liberty for the latter, who collectively can eject their
priest if they disapprove him, or individually can desert him for
another if they please. He marries and cultivates like his flock, and
all that he can claim from them for his services is, first, a share
of every animal sacrificed by him, and second, three days' help from
each of his flock (the grown males) per annum, towards the clearing
and cultivation of the land, he holds on the same terms with them, and
which have already been explained. Whoever thinks fit to learn the
forms of offering, sacrifice, and accompanying invocation, can be a
priest; and if he get tired of the profession, he can throw it up when
he will. Ojhás stand not on the same footing with Dhámis and Déóshis:
they are remunerated solely by fees; but into either office--priests or
exorcists--the form of induction is similar, consisting merely of an
introduction by the priests or exorcists of the neophyte to the gods,
the first time he officiates. One Dhámi and two Déóshis usually induct
a Déóshi--three Ojhás, an Ojhá; and the formula is literally that of an
introduction--'this is so and so, who proposes, O ye gods! to dedicate
himself to your service: mark how he performs the rites, and, if
correctly, accept them at his hands.'"
These remarks will conclude with the notice of an ethnological question
of primary importance, but not yet laid before the reader, viz.:
the extent to which certain varieties of the human species can live
and thrive in localities which are either deleterious or deadly to
others. Some rough facts of the kind in question are generally known;
such, for instance, as the tolerance on the part of the Negro of the
heat and malaria of the tropical climates. A similar tolerance of
climatologic influences otherwise deleterious is shewn by the Bodo, and
its allied tribes. According to Mr. Hodgson, none but themselves can
live in their own localities; since "the Saul forest everywhere, but
especially to the east of the Kósi, is malarious to an extent which no
human beings can endure, save the remarkable races, which for ages have
made it their dwelling-place. To all others, European or native, it is
deadly from April to November. Yet the Dhimál, the Bodo, the Kíchak,
the Tharú, the Dénwár, not only live but thrive in it, exhibiting no
symptoms whatever of that dreadful stricken aspect of countenance and
form which marks the victim of malaria."
The converse of this position, or the incapacity of the Bodo, &c.,
for living elsewhere, is also mentioned by Mr. Hodgson, but with an
expression of doubt as to its accuracy. "The Bodo and Dhimáls, whom I
communicated with, alleged that they cannot endure the climate of the
open plains, where the heat gives them fevers. This is a mere excuse
for their known aversion to quit the forest; for their eastern brethren
dwell and till like natives in the open plains of Assam, just as the
Kóls of south Bihár (Dhángars) do now in every part of the plains of
Bihár and Bengal, in various sites abroad, and lastly in the lofty
sub-Himálayas."
The Bodo tribes will again be brought prominently forward when the
ethnology of the peninsula of India is discussed.
THE TRIBES OF SIKKIM AND NEPAL SPEAKING MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES.
Each of these countries, although south of the Himalayas, and although
to a great extent Hindu in religion, government, and language, must
be looked upon as countries of which the aboriginal population is
an extension of that of Tibet. The tribes of Sikkim and Nepal are
Cis-Himalayan Tibetans; the word Tibetan being used in its general
sense.
1. _The Magars._--Imperfectly Braminical in their religion, with a
separate monosyllabic language, and remains of their old Paganism.
Their priests were called _Damis_.[20]
2. _The Gurungs._--Adherents to Buddhism. Inhabitants of the same
localities with the Magars; only higher in the mountains.
3. _The Jariyas._--Indianized.
4. _The Newars._--Probably the oldest inhabitants of Nepal. Adherents
to Buddhism; alphabet derived from the Devanagari.
5. _The Murmis._--Buddhist. Language like, but different from, that of
the Newars.
6. _The Kirata._--Eastern Nepal; Buddhist.
7. _Limbu._--Same localities as the Kirata: differing in language.
8. _The Lepchas._--Inhabitants of Sikkim. Have a tradition that they
lately migrated from Tibet, crossing the mountains; also that they then
had a native alphabet, since lost.
CHÉPÁNG.
_Locality._--Forests of Nepaul, _west_ of the Great Valley.
_Tribes._--Chépáng, Kusunda, and Haiyu.
_Vocabularies._--One only known, _i.e._ that of the Chépáng.
_Authority._--B. H. Hodgson, _Journal of the Asiatic Society_,
Dec. 1848, No. CXCVIII.
Respecting the, ethnology of these tribes (or rather of the Chépáng,
the one best known), Mr. Hodgson's observations are as follows:--
1. That their form and colour is the form and colour of the aborigines
of India.
2. That their language is closely allied to the language of Bhután.
The Garo, the Bodo, the Dhimál, and Chépáng, will come under
consideration again; these being the tribes which will supply the chief
facts connected with the question as to the affinity or non-affinity
between the great Tibetan and Indian families. At present it is
sufficient to draw attention to the state of opinion upon this point.
With few exceptions amongst the English (Dr. Bird and Mr. Hodgson being
the most decided), both philologists and physiologists consider the
line of demarcation to be an exceedingly broad one.
_Tribes supposed to be essentially monosyllabic, although speaking a
language admitted to be Indian._--These are the Assamese of the _Lower_
part of the valley, and the Raibansi Kooch.
1. _Assam._--That the languages of _Upper_ Assam are those of a variety
of rude tribes, speaking a monosyllabic tongue, has already been seen.
The Lower Assam language is Bengali. Were the Bengali the aborigines
of Lower Assam? I believe that no one holds this doctrine. Is the
present language that of Bengalis, who have displaced an aboriginal
monosyllabic population? Perhaps. Or has an original monosyllabic
population adopted the Bengali? No person is better capable of forming
an opinion on this point than Mr. Hodgson; and his opinion is for the
last of these views.
2. _The converted Kooch._--Residents, in contact with the Bodo and
Dhimál, of the Sub-Himalayan range, between the north-west corner
of Assam and Sikkim. The higher class of the converted Kooch are
Brahminists: the lower Mahometans. Both call themselves _Raibansi_. The
notice of the Kooch kingdom of Hájo, explains this term.
Towards the close of the fifteenth century, Hájo founded a Kooch
empire, which extended beyond the limits of the Assam valley, into
Morung and Bengal. His daughter, for he left no sons, was married
to a Bodo chief, the Bodos being Pagans. These two divisions of the
aborigines held their own against the Moslem and Hindus equally; but
only for a while. Visva Sinh, the conqueror's grandson, became a
convert to Hinduism, the majority of his subjects to the religion of
Mahomet; renouncing, at the same time, their original name. A portion,
however, remained unconverted, and remain so; and these agree with the
Bodo in appearance, manners, and customs, and are said to do so in
language also.
If so, and if the Raibansi Kooch be so closely allied to them as they
are described to be, they must, although speaking a dialect closely
allied to the Assam Bengali, be monosyllabic in origin.
The whole details, however, of the Kooch may be found in Mr. Hodgson's
Dissertation.
* * * * *
The Chinese civilization must be taken as the measure of the moral
development of the monosyllabic nations; a form to which the
_non_-culture of the tribes represented by the Bodo and Garo, stands
in prominent contrast. I do not think it necessary to tell the reader
what Chinese civilization _is_. It is sufficiently known in itself;
its affinity with that of the Indo-Chinese nations is known also; and
equally well-known is its distinct character, as compared with the
other civilizations of the world--Asiatic as well as European.
A point of more ethnographical importance, is the question as to its
antiquity; since this involves the higher question still--as to the
extent to which it is a self-developed phenomenon, or one effected by
influences from without. I am prepared to admit without much criticism,
the statements of travellers as to the possession, on the part of
the Chinese, of several of the most important arts and discoveries
belonging to the civilization of Europe--of the art of printing, of
paper-money, of a certain amount of astronomical knowledge, of the
mariner's compass, and even of gunpowder. There is no reason why the
Chinese, _when once civilized_, should not have worked out an average
amount of discovery in the way of detail. The point upon which I
doubt is the _antiquity_ of that civilization, and still more the
self-evolution of it; a necessary consequence of such antiquity.
Within the historical period, three civilizing influences have, at
different times, been introduced into China, and each has had time to
do its work in.
I begin with the latest, the European.
1. _The Portuguese, Dutch, English, and American._--This may be
disposed of briefly. It has not changed the Chinese cultivation in
anything essential.
2. _The Nestorian Christians._--Date between 600 and 1200 A.D. The
_extent_ of the influence of these early missionaries will be examined
in the section upon the Syrians. It is the second of the great external
civilizing influences that have acted upon China. Without carrying my
scepticism so far as to limit the antiquity of the Chinese history to
the epoch of the Nestorians, I cannot but put a high importance on the
introduction of Syrian literature, Syrian theology, and Syrian science.
3. _The Buddhism of India._--This is generally believed to have been
introduced into China in the first century after Christ. I have
not seen the translation of the Annals of the Han Dynasty by the
Archimandrite Hyacinth; so that I cannot say at what period they
profess to represent cotemporary events. Whatever, however, that period
may be, it is the extreme date of Chinese history: now this cannot be
earlier than B.C. 200; that being the epoch when the Han dynasty began
to reign.
Viewed in respect to our reasons for concluding that such or such a
fact took place, there are five grounds of belief:--
1. _Historical grounds._--Here the facts are believed on _testimony_;
the testimony of men who had means of knowing them. That such witnesses
should have lived at the time when the facts in question took place, is
the great and essential condition of their credibility.
2. _The belief ex necessitate._--A fact which, at the time of its first
announcement could only have been known from having been witnessed by a
cotemporary, but which at some later period is shown from other facts
to have been real, is to be admitted unreservedly; the evidence in its
favour being of the highest kind. Of this sort are such astronomical
facts as, in the present state of our knowledge, can be ascertained
independently of experience, but which, when first notified, could only
have been ascertained _by_ experience.
3. _Traditional Grounds._--Here the _immediate_ authority to the person
who is informed of a real or supposed fact, is some one who had not the
possibility of knowing the facts in question from being contemporary
with them; but who heard it from some one who was so contemporary--or
else heard it from some one who heard it from some one, &c., _ad
infinitum_. Here the statements are possible or impossible, probable
or improbable. If possible, they _may_ be true; if probable, they are
likely to be so. In neither case, however, are they historical facts;
that is, there is no _testimony_ founded upon a knowledge of the event.
4. _The true elements in unreasonable traditions._--A series of
necessary and connected antecedents to a given effect, inductively
obtained is an ethnological ground of belief, or an ethnological fact;
and it is based on inductive reasoning. A series of unnecessary and
unconnected antecedents, derived from the _imagination_, is a false
ground of belief, and in most cases this takes the form of mythological
tradition. It does not, however, necessarily follow, that, because
a body of tradition may, on the whole, be unreasonable, or even
impossible, it is therefore wholly deficient in grounds of belief. The
doctrine _ex nihilo nihil_ may here apply. It may fairly be argued,
that, absolute invention is so difficult, that in all error there
is some truth. Granted. It may, then, be argued, that a criticism
analytical enough to evolve the residuum is a scientific (or literary)
possibility. Granted. But who is the critic? I fear that his appearance
is _optandum magis quam sperandum_.
5. _The inductive method consists in the assumption of certain causes
as the necessary antecedents of a known event_; and they are good or
bad according to their scientific or unscientific character. To take as
the first fact in the history of Greece, the existence of a poem like
the Iliad in the ninth century B.C., to ascertain the state of society
that it implies, and to appreciate the civilization involved therein,
is an ethnological argument; whilst, to assume a certain amount of time
for such to have grown up in, is an argument from effect to cause,
and is good or bad, according as it assumes no more than is absolutely
necessary.
Now, if we ask upon which of these five principles we believe in the
antiquity of the Chinese civilization, it will certainly not be the
first.
I am not prepared to wholly exclude the second; indeed, I have not the
means of forming an independent one on the subject. At the same time
I know that, in respect to the Chinese astronomical calculations many
good judges are incredulous, and many of those who are not so are at
variance in their opinions.
The third is essentially admissible for a limited period only.
The fifth remains open for consideration.
In the application of what may be called the _doctrine of necessary
antecedents_, I believe, for my own part, that we must take the China
as described by Marco Polo in the fifteenth century; and if we put the
development there exhibited on a level with that of the China of the
present century, we are giving to the advocate of antiquity full as
much, perhaps more, than he can fairly demand. I submit that the time
necessary for the growth of such a phenomenon need not exceed a few
centuries.
The residuum, then, of truth that is capable of being evolved out of
unreasonable tradition, is all that the present writer can leave to the
advocates of a Chinese antiquity. He would willingly, however, find
that their astronomy and history will bear a more severe criticism than
he imagines they are likely to do.
At present, he believes that whatever is older than their religion,
is _reasonable_ tradition for a limited period (say a century), and
unreasonable tradition beyond it.
In confining the growth of Chinese civilization to the last eighteen
hundred years, and in expressing my dissent from the doctrine that
it was an indigenous, self-developed phenomenon, I by no means
underrate the import of certain undoubted facts. The archæology of
their alphabet is too little known to enable us to connect it with
any foreign one; as well as too scanty to exhibit its evolution as a
home growth. Still it is a remarkable phenomenon. Still more so is the
phenomenon of their government and political organization. To deny to
China a great influence upon the history of the world, simply because
its civilization has been confined to its own immediate sphere, and
its movements have been limited to the pale of its own dominions, is
erroneous. China alone is a great section of the world. Hence the
circle, though limited, is large; and the simple, single fact of so
much sameness over so large a country, is a great one. How is this
to be accounted for? Was the original area occupied by the first
possessors of China so great, whilst the changes that have set in since
the time of possession have been so small? or has the uniformity been
purchased by the assimilation of a multiplicity of small and distinct
tribes? Or has it been by their annihilation?
Whatever may be the answer to these questions supplied by future
researches, the Chinese are one of the great historical influences,
and, if we contrast the peaceful habits of an agricultural population
with the unsettled condition of a nation of nomads, and the security of
a large consolidated government with the slave-dealing warfares that
exist between thickly congregated petty tribes, we must allow that
influence to have been a beneficial one.
II.
TURANIAN STOCK.
_Physical conformation._--Mongol.
_Languages._--Not monosyllabic.
_Distribution._--Continental.
_Area._--From Kamskatka to Norway, and from the Arctic Ocean
to the frontiers of Tibet and Persia--nearly but not wholly
continuous.
_Countries included._--The northern parts of the Chinese
empire, greater part of Siberia, Mongolia, Tartary, Eastern
Turkestan, Asia Minor, Turkey, Hungary, Finland, Esthonia,
Lapland.
DIVISIONS.
1. THE MONGOLIAN BRANCH.
2. THE TUNGUSIAN BRANCH.
3. THE TURK BRANCH.
4. THE UGRIAN BRANCH.
The reader is now asked to prepare himself for the transition from
languages of a monosyllabic type, to languages other than monosyllabic;
and from aptotic tongues to tongues where the inflections are numerous.
He is also asked to prepare himself for a transition, in the way of
physical conformation, from a structure _approaching_ the Mongol type,
to one essentially and typically Mongol.
In the former case the change is greater than in the latter.
Why is this? Why do not the changes go _pari passu_, so that the
two tests should coincide, and so that it should be a matter of
indifference which of the two we started with?
We get at the answer to this by remembering that _physical changes and
philological changes, may go on at different rates_.
A thousand years may pass over two nations undoubtedly of the same
origin; and which were, at the beginning of those thousand years, of
the same complexion, form, and language.
At the end of those thousand years there shall be a difference. With
one the language shall have changed rapidly, the physical structure
slowly.
With the other the physical conformation shall have been modified by a
quick succession of external influences, whilst the language shall have
stayed as it was.
_With an assumed or proved original identity on each side, the
difference in the rate of action on the part of the different
influences, is the key to all discrepancies between the two tests. The
language may remain_ in statu quo, _whilst the hair, complexion, and
bones change; or the hair, complexion, and osteology may remain_ in
statu quo, _whilst the language changes_.
Apparently this leaves matters in an unsatisfactory condition; in a
way which allows the ethnologist any amount of assumption he chooses.
Apparently it does so; but it does so in appearance only. In reality
we have ways and means of determining which of the two changes is the
likelier.
We know what modifies _form_. Change of latitude, climate, sea-level,
conditions of subsistence, conditions of clothing, &c., do this; all
(or nearly all) such changes being physical.
We know, too, (though in a less degree) what modifies _language_. New
wants gratified by objects with new names, new ideas requiring new
terms, increased intercourse between man and man, tribe and tribe,
nation and nation, &c. do this; all (or _nearly_ all) such changes
being of a moral nature.
Hence in some cases we can ascertain upon which of the two elements of
our classification, the physical or the moral, the greatest amount of
influences has been at work.
It is necessary to remark upon these points because it is only
_physically_ that the tribes of the present division are nearest akin
to those of the previous ones. Had similarity of language been the
test, a different and a more distant class of nations would have formed
the subject of the present section.
THE MONGOLIAN BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
_Distribution._--High Asia. East and West, from the Altai
Mountains to the Wall of China; North and South, from the
Tungús boundary to Tibet; conterminous with the Turks, southern
Samöeids, Tungús, Chinese, and Tibetans.--The Volga, by
migration.
_Political Relations._--Subject to, _a._ China; _b._ Russia.
_Religion._ Chiefly Buddhism.
_Particular Divisions._ Mongols Proper, Buriats, Olot of
Dzungaria; the Kalmuks of Russia; the Eimak of Persia.
MONGOLIANS.
_Localities._--1. Buriats. Parts about the lake Baikal, chiefly
in the Russian territory, conterminous with the Samöeids, and
Manchus.
2. Olot, Dzungarian, or Kalmuk Mongolians. _a._ The most
western of the family, conterminous with the Turks of Yarkend,
and Independent Tartary. _b._ Kalmuks of the tribes Dürbet
and Torgod, who in 1662 crossed the Yaik, and settled on the
Volga. The majority of them returned to Mongolia in 1770. These
belonged to the Olots.
3. Mongolians Proper, of the Desert of Shamo, and the Kalkas.
Conterminous with China.
4. Eimaks, Northern Persia; isolated tribes.
The extent to which the Mongolian physiognomy is the type and sample of
one of the most remarkable divisions of the human race, is one of the
facts which gives this division prominence.
The extent to which its tribes are the type and sample of a pastoral
and nomadic race, is another.
Their part in the history of the world is a third. This alone will be
enlarged upon. The two other points are merely indicated.
The great part played by the Mongolians, as devastating conquerors,
begins and ends with Zingiz-Khan and his immediate successors. It
_begins_ with him; because although fragmentary and obscure notices
of their Mongolian neighbours are said to be found in the Chinese
annals, it is only in the thirteenth century that we find definite and
cotemporaneous historical evidence. It _ends_ with his successors in
the fourth or fifth generation, notwithstanding the appearance which
it takes of being continued further; inasmuch as the conquests of
Tamerlane are Turk rather than Mongolian, and the Great Mogul empire of
India was Turk rather than Mongolian also.
To this confusion between the share taken by the two great pastoral
nations of Central Asia, in spilling the blood of their kind, and in
devastating the world, the indefinite use of the term _Tartar_ has done
much to contribute. Few writers when they heard of _Tartar_ victories,
asked whether the particular warriors were akin to the Mongolians who
conquered China under Kublai-Khan, or to the Turks, who terrified
Europe under Suliman. Yet such is the difference between these two
divisions of the great Turanian stock. For the sake of avoiding any
such further ambiguities, I have forbidden myself the use of the word
_Tartar_ from this time forwards, throughout the present work.
Other probable reasons for the confusion are of a _real_ character.
I believe that, in some cases, the soldiers were Turk, whilst the
captains were Mongolian; and that, sometimes, descent from the high
blood of Zingiz-Khan was claimed by Turk chieftains of another stock
and pedigree. At any rate, the careful examiner of any history of this
people--excepting for the times of Zingiz-Khan, and his immediate
successors--will find it very difficult to disengage the Mongolian
exploits from the Turk; and will, probably after some trouble, come to
the conclusion that the greater share belongs to the latter.
I shall let an eye-witness, Marco Polo, describe the Mongols of the
fourteenth century, in the third generation from Zingiz-Khan, and
before they had taken up the Buddhist religion of their conquered
subjects.
1. Translation by Marsden,--Chapters XLV-XLVIII.
"It has been an invariable custom, that all the grand _kans_, and
chiefs of the race of _Chingis-kan_, should be carried for interment to
a certain lofty mountain, named _Altai_; and in whatever place they may
happen to die, although it should be at the distance of a hundred days'
journey, they are, nevertheless, conveyed thither. It is likewise the
custom, during the progress of removing the bodies of these princes,
for those who form the escort to sacrifice such persons as they chance
to meet on the road, saying to them, 'Depart for the next world, and
there attend upon your deceased master!' being impressed with the
belief that all whom they thus slay do actually become his servants in
the next life. They do the same also with respect to horses, killing
the best of the stud, in order that he may have the use of them. When
the corpse of _Mongù_ was transported to this mountain, the horsemen
who accompanied it, having this blind and horrible persuasion, slew
upwards of ten thousand persons who fell in their way.
"The _Tartars_ never remain fixed, but, as the winter approaches,
remove to the plains of a warmer region, in order to find sufficient
pasture for their cattle; and in summer they frequent cold situations
in the mountains, where there is water and verdure, and their cattle
are free from the annoyance of horse-flies and other biting insects.
During two or three months they progressively ascend higher ground,
and seek fresh pasture; the grass not being adequate in any one place
to feed the multitudes of which their herds and flocks consist. Their
huts or tents are formed of rods covered with felt, and being exactly
round, and nicely put together, they can gather them into one bundle,
and make them up as packages, which they carry along with them in
their migrations, upon a sort of car with four wheels. When they have
occasion to set them up again, they always make the entrance front to
the south. Besides these cars, they have a superior kind of vehicle,
upon two wheels, covered likewise with felt, and so effectually as
to protect those within it from wet, during a whole day of rain.
These are drawn by oxen and camels, and serve to convey their wives
and children, their utensils, and such provisions as they require.
The women it is who attend to their trading concerns, who buy and
sell, and provide every thing necessary for their husbands and their
families; the time of the men being entirely devoted to the employment
of hunting and hawking, and matters that relate to the military life.
They have the best falcons in the world, and also the best dogs. They
subsist entirely upon flesh and milk, eating the produce of their
sport, and a certain small animal, not unlike a rabbit, called by our
people _Pharaoh's mice_, which, during the summer season, are found in
great abundance in the plains. But they likewise eat flesh of every
description, horses, camels, and even dogs, provided they are fat.
They drink mares' milk, which they prepare in such a manner that it has
the qualities and flavour of white wine. They term it in their language
_kemurs_.
"Their women are not excelled in the world for chastity and decency of
conduct, nor for love and duty to their husbands. Infidelity to the
marriage bed is regarded by them as a vice not merely dishonourable,
but of the most infamous nature; whilst on the other hand it is
admirable to observe the loyalty of the husbands towards their wives,
amongst whom, although there are perhaps ten or twenty, there prevails
a degree of quiet and union that is highly laudable. No offensive
language is ever heard, their attention being fully occupied with their
traffic (as already mentioned), and their several domestic employments,
such as the provision of necessary food for the family, the management
of the servants, and the care of the children, which are amongst them
a common concern. And the more praiseworthy are the virtues of modesty
and chastity in their wives, because the men are allowed the indulgence
of taking as many as they choose. Their expense to the husband is not
great, and on the other hand the benefit he derives from their trading,
and from the occupations in which they are constantly engaged, is
considerable; on which account it is, that when he receives a young
woman in marriage, he pays a dower to her parent. The wife who is the
first espoused has the privilege of superior attention, and is held to
be the most legitimate, which extends also to the children borne by
her. In consequence of this unlimited number of wives, the offspring
is more numerous than amongst any other people. Upon the death of
the father, the son may take to himself the wives he leaves behind,
with the exception of his own mother. They cannot take their sisters
to wife, but upon the death of their brothers they can marry their
sisters-in-law. Every marriage is solemnized with great ceremony.
"The doctrine and faith of the Tartars are these. They believe in a
Deity whose nature is sublime and heavenly. To him they burn incense
in censers, and offer up prayers for the enjoyment of intellectual and
bodily health. They worship another likewise, named _Natigay_, whose
image, covered with felt or other cloth, every individual preserves in
his house. To this deity they associate a wife and children, placing
the former on his left side, and the latter before him, in a posture of
reverential salutation. Him they consider as the divinity who presides
over their terrestrial concerns, protects their children, and guards
their cattle and their grain. They show him great respect, and at their
meals they never omit to take a fat morsel of the flesh, and with it
to grease the mouth of the idol, and at the same time the mouths of
its wife and children. They then throw out of the door some of the
liquor in which the meat has been dressed, as an offering to the other
spirits. This being done, they consider that their deity and his family
have had their proper share, and proceed to eat and drink without
further ceremony. The rich amongst these people dress in cloth of gold
and silks, with skins of the sable, the ermin, and other animals. All
their accoutrements are of an expensive kind.
"Their arms are bows, iron maces, and in some instances spears; but the
first is the weapon at which they are the most expert, being accustomed
from children to employ it in their sports. They wear defensive armour
made of the thick hides of buffaloes and other beasts, dried by the
fire, and thus rendered extremely hard and strong. They are brave in
battle, almost to desperation, setting little value upon their lives,
and exposing themselves without hesitation to all manner of danger.
Their disposition is cruel. They are capable of supporting every kind
of privation; and, when there is a necessity for it, can live for a
month on the milk of their mares, and upon such wild animals as they
may chance to catch. Their horses are fed upon grass alone, and do not
require barley or other grain. The men are habituated to remain on
horseback during two days and two nights without dismounting, sleeping
in that situation whilst their horses graze. No people upon earth can
surpass them in fortitude under difficulties, nor show greater patience
under wants of every kind. They are perfectly obedient to their chiefs,
and are maintained at small expense. From these qualities, so essential
to the formation of soldiers, it is that they are fitted to subdue the
world, as, in fact, they have done in regard to a considerable portion
of it.
"When one of the great Tartar chiefs proceeds on an expedition, he
puts himself at the head of an army of a hundred thousand horse, and
organises them in the following manner:--He appoints an officer to the
command of every ten men, and others to command a hundred, a thousand,
and ten thousand men respectively. Thus, ten of the officers commanding
ten men take their orders from him who commands a hundred; of these,
each ten from him who commands a thousand; and each ten of these latter
from him who commands ten thousand. By this arrangement, each officer
has only to attend to the management of ten men, or ten bodies of men;
and when the commander of these hundred thousand men has occasion to
make a detachment for any particular service, he issues his orders to
the commanders of ten thousand to furnish him with a thousand men each;
and these, in like manner, to the commanders of a thousand, who give
their orders to those commanding a hundred, until the order reaches
those commanding ten, by whom the number required is immediately
supplied to their superior officers. A hundred men are in this manner
delivered to every officer commanding a thousand, and a thousand men to
every officer commanding ten thousand. The drafting takes place without
delay, and all are implicitly obedient to their respective superiors.
Every company of a hundred men is denominated a _tuc_, and ten of these
constitute a _toman_.
"When the army proceeds on service, a body of men is sent two days'
march in advance, and parties are stationed upon each flank and in the
rear, in order to prevent its being attacked by surprise. When the
service is distant, they carry but little with them, and that, chiefly,
what is requisite for their encampment, and utensils for cooking. They
subsist for the most part upon milk, as has been said. Each man has,
on an average, eighteen horses and mares, and when that which they
ride is fatigued, they change it for another. They are provided with
small tents made of felt, under which they shelter themselves against
rain. Should circumstances render it necessary, in the execution of
a duty that requires dispatch, they can march for ten days together
without dressing victuals: during which time they subsist upon the
blood drawn from their horses, each man opening a vein and drinking
from his own cattle. They make provision also of milk, thickened and
dried to the state of a hard paste (or curd), which is prepared in the
following manner. They boil the milk, and skimming off the rich or
creamy part, as it rises to the top, put it into a separate vessel, as
butter; for so long as that remains in the milk, it will not become
hard. The latter is then exposed to the sun until it dries. Upon going
on service, they carry with them about ten pounds for each man, and
of this, half a pound is put, every morning, into a leathern bottle
or small _outre_, with as much water as is thought necessary. By
their motion in riding, the contents are violently shaken, and a thin
porridge is produced, upon which they make their dinner.
"When these Tartars come to engage in battle, they never mix with the
enemy, but keep hovering about him, discharging their arrows first
from one side and then from the other, occasionally pretending to fly,
and during their flight, shooting arrows backwards at their pursuers,
killing men and horses, as if they were combating face to face. In this
sort of warfare the adversary imagines he has gained a victory, when in
fact he has lost the battle; for the _Tartars_, observing the mischief
they have done him, wheel about, and renewing the fight, overpower his
remaining troops, and make them prisoners in spite of their utmost
exertions.
"Their horses are so well broken-in to quick changes of movement, that
upon the signal given they instantly turn in every direction; and by
these rapid manœuvres many victories have been obtained. All that has
been here related is spoken of the original manners of the _Tartar_
chiefs; but at the present day they are much corrupted. Those who dwell
at _Ukaka_, forsaking their own laws, have adopted the customs of the
people who worship idols, and those who inhabit the eastern provinces
have adopted the manners of the _Saracens_."
It may now be well to examine the term _conquerors of the world_, and
to limit it. By following Gibbon,[21] we may ascertain what the true
Mongolians _did_ conquer, and what they _did_ not.
_Death of Zingiz-Khan_, A.D. 1227.--The work done by the great founder
of the Mongolian empire, was, in the first instance, the consolidation
of separate, and previously disunited, tribes. As a conqueror, he
rather overran countries and showed the ease with which victories might
be gained than established permanent empires. In this way he ravaged
and subdued:--
1. _Northern China._--The _southern_ empire was first subdued by his
grandson.
2. _Bokhara, Persia, Kharizmia (the parts between Balk and the
Caspian)._--I think it likely that, considering the great number of
Turkish tribes that lay between Mongolia and Persia, the natural
hostility they bore to the last-named country, and the easy terms on
which they offered their swords and valour, there was a considerable
Turk element in the Mongolian army of Persia. Still, I have nothing
beyond the mere probability to allege.
The greatest and widest conquests were effected in the generation after
Zingis: by the nephews of his sons, _i.e._, Zingis's grandsons.
_Southern China._--Conquered, and permanently conquered, by
Kublai-Khan. The effect of China upon its subjugators was that which
the Romans attributed to the conquest of Greece upon themselves. The
victors were moulded to the fashion of the vanquished. The religion,
the dress, and the luxury of China, were adopted by the Mongolians even
during the lifetime of Kublai-Khan; to whom Korea, Anam, Pegu, Tibet,
and Bengal were tributary.
_Persia._--By Persia, is meant the half-restored empire of the Kalifs,
so that it includes the whole country from Bokhara to Arabia, from
Samarcand to Bagdad. Holagou is the grandson identified with this
series of conquests; which embrace Syria, Asia Minor, and Armenia, and
do _not_ embrace Ægypt. There the Mongolian was met and repulsed by the
Mameluke.
_Siberia._--Compared with the foregoing one, this was an ignoble
conquest. Still it was made; and in 1242, the Samöeids were tributary
to the Mongolians.
_Tartary, Russia, Poland, Hungary._--The extreme point westward reached
in this, the most distant of the invasions and conducted by Batoum,
was Silesia. Here also I imagine that some portion of the interjacent
Turks easily lent their help to the conqueror, and joined with him
against such common enemies as the Slavonians. Still I have no historic
evidence to this effect.
To conclude--one hundred and forty years after the death of Zingis,
a revolt of the Chinese expelled the Mongolian dynasty. Previous to
this, the conquerors of Tartary, Russia, Bokhara, and Persia had become
Tartars, Russians, Bokharians, and Persians; in other words they had
renounced or forgotten their original ancestors of Mongolia.
The Mongol religion is Buddhist; yet their alphabet is not of either
Chinese or Indian origin. The earliest Mongol conquerors understood
the value of literature, and soon after the death of Zingiz-Khan the
language was reduced to writing; the alphabet, which was subsequently
extended to the language of the Mantshu nation, having been adopted
from that of the Uighur Turks. Amongst the Uighur Turks it was
introduced by the Nestorian Christians, an influence of which the
importance in these parts has yet to be duly appreciated. As such, its
original source is the Syriac. Of the Syriac alphabets it is most like
the Palmyrene.
THE TONGUS BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
_Distribution._--East and west, from the sea of Okhotsk, and
the peninsula of Kamskatka to the Yenisey. North and South
(South-East), from the coast of the Icy Sea, between the
Yenisey and Lena, to the Yellow Sea. Conterminous with the
Samöeids, Ostiaks, Yakuts, Turks, Mongols, Chinese, Koreans,
Aino, Koriaks, and Yukahiri.
_Political relations._--Subject to _a_, China, _b_, Russia.
_Religion._--Buddhism, Imperfect Christianity, Paganism.
_Particular divisions._--The Tshapojirs on the Lena, the Lamuts
on the Sea of Okhotsk, the Mantshu rulers of China.
_Dialects known by vocabularies._--_a_, Western--Yeniseian,
Tshapojirs, Mangaseiesk, Orotong; _b_, Southern--Nerchinsk,
Barguzin, Upper Angara, Yakutsk; _c_, Eastern--Okhotsk, Lamut;
_d_, The Mantshu. Add to these the Niuji, an ancient dialect
known from a Chinese vocabulary, and closely allied to the
Mantshu.
_Alphabet._--Mongolian; applied to the Mantshu dialect only.
_General name._--None. Some particular tribes call themselves
_beye_=_men_; some, _donki_=_people_.
Called by the Ostiaks, Kellem.
" " Chinese, Tung-chu.
" " Mantshu, Orotuhong.
" " Mongols, Kham-noyon.
_Authority._--Klaproth's _Asia Polyglotta_ and _Sprachatlas_.
A more northern position, a greater range of climate, an approach
in some cases to the hunter and fisher, rather than to the pastoral
states, a more partial abandonment of the original Shamanistic
Paganism, and a later literature are the chief points which
differentiate the Tungús tribes from the Mongol. Add to this, that
the influence of the Tungús upon the history of the world is limited
to the conquest of China by the present Mantshu dynasty. In other
matters--indeed in these--the difference between the two branches is a
difference of _degree_ rather than of _kind_. I limit my remarks upon
the Tungús tribes--whose civilization is represented by that of the
Mantshus--for the sake of leaving time and space for a more important
branch of the Turanian stock--the Turk.
Some of the Tungús tribes--_e.g._ the Tshapojirs--tattoo their faces.
THE TURK BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
_Distribution._--1. As a _continuous_ population--East and
west--from the neighbourhood of the lake Baikal, 110° E. L.
to the eastern boundaries of the Greek and Slavonic countries
of Europe, about 21° E. L. North and south; from the northern
frontiers of Tibet, and Persia, about 34° N. L., to the country
north of Tobolsk about 59° N. L.
2. As an _isolated_ population--Along the lower course of the
Lena, and the shores of the White Sea, chiefly within the
Arctic Circle. These are the Yakut Turks. They are wholly
disconnected from the other Turkish tribes; and surrounded by
Tungús and Yukahiri tribes.
3. As portions of a _mixed_ population--In China?, Tibet?,
Mongolia?, Persia, Armenia, the Caucasian countries, Syria,
Ægypt, Barbary, Greece, Albania, and the Slavonic portion of
Turkey in Europe. Turk blood in most of the royal families of
the East.
_Religion._--Preeminently, though not exclusively, Mahometan;
generally of the Sunnite doctrine. Shamanism amongst the
Yakuts. Buddhism amongst the Turks of the Chinese Empire,
Christianity amongst those of Siberia.
_Language._--Spoken with remarkable uniformity over the whole
area; so much so that the Yakut of the Icy Sea is said to
be intelligible to the Turks of Central Asia, and even of
Constantinople.
_Physical Conformation._--In some cases almost identical with
that of the Mongolians, in others almost European. Generally
speaking, it partakes of the character of the non-Turkish
natives of the numerous countries with which the Turk area is
in contact.
In Turkey, Ægypt, and the Persian frontier much intermixture.
As the Mongol character departs, the face becomes oval rather
than square, the features prominent rather than flat, the beard
develops itself, and the complexion becomes brunette rather
than swarthy.
_Conterminous._--1. Beginning at the most north-eastern point,
and going round from north to south--with the Tungús. 2.
Mongols 3. Tibetans. 4. Iranians (_i. e._ Persian tribes, and
tribes allied to them). 5. Armenians. 6. Dioscurians (_i. e._
the tribes of Caucasus). 7. Arabians. 8. Greeks. 9. Slavonians.
10. Finns. 11. Yeniseians. 12. Samöeids.
_Chief particular Divisions_--taking the round as before--
1. _Uighurs._---On the Mongol frontier. Belonging to China.
The Uighurs were the first Turks that used an alphabet. Little
known.
2. _Turks of the Sandy Desert._--Conterminous with Mongolia and
Tibet. _Do. Do._
3. _Turks of Khoten, Kashgar, and Yarkend. Do. Do._
4. _Kirghis._--Independent Tartary. The Kirghis form a portion
of the population of the highest table-land in Asia--perhaps in
the world--Pamer, and the source of the Oxus.
5. _Uzbeks._--The Turks of Bokhara.
6. _Turkomans._--The Persian frontier of Independent Tartary
from Balk to the Caspian. Pastoral robbers.
7. _Ottoman or Osmanli._--The Turks of the Turkish Empire.
8. _Nogays._--The Turks of the parts between the Black Sea and
the Caspian, north of Caucasus.
9. _Turks of the Russian Empire._--Bashkirs(?), Teptyars,
Baraba, &c. With all these, although the language is Turk,
there is good reason to believe that the original substratum is
Finn. With the Bashkirs this is generally considered to be the
case.
10. _The isolated Yakuts of the Lena._
Such is the great Turk area, the extent of which is, in itself, an
ethnological study; equally remarkable for its positive and its
negative peculiarities.
Laying aside the Yakuts as isolated, and the Turks of Asia-Minor
and Thrace as recent settlers, we have in Turkish Asia an enormous
steppe, mountains of all but first-rate magnitude, the head-waters of
many rivers, but the embouchures of none, a salt-water lake but no
communication with the ocean. Yet, given the central point of a large
continent, this is what we expect _à priori_. If any influence that
shall affect the fate of the world at large is to be developed in
such an area, it must, surely, be an influence strongly and typically
contrasted with the influence which such relations of land and water
as the Mediterranean supplies to Greece, and in a less degree to every
country that abuts on it, are calculated to develop. The dispersion
of the Turkish race is essentially the dispersion of a race over a
_continent_. I do not know who first used the illustration, but the
manner in which Othman's all-conquering host was arrested by the
Hellespont, has been well compared to the check that a running brook
puts to the Scotch witches and wizards. What Leander and Lord Byron
swam across, the conqueror of Asia was checked by.
The relations to the pole on one side and the equator on the other, are
remarkably parallel between the two great conquering nations of the
world--the Turks of Asia, and the Goths of Europe. The latitudes 47--55
enclose, the nations who, on the one side, displaced the aborigines of
Asia Minor and Thrace, on the other, those of Keltic Britain and of
North America.
One condition necessary for a race that thus spread themselves abroad,
occurs in a remarkable degree with the Turk. In the Yakut country
we find the most intense cold known in Asia; in Pamer, the greatest
elevation above the sea-level; in the south of Ægypt, an intertropical
degree of heat. Yet, in all these countries we find the Turk. In
their physiognomy the Turks have in many instances departed from
the Mongol type; and, hence, the agreement between the two cognate
families is less manifest in their physical conformation than in their
languages. The nature and extent of this deviation is well worth more
investigation than it has met with; and next in importance to the fact
itself, is the reason that may be assigned for it.
Whether it may be from the Osmanli Turk of Constantinople, with his
un-Mongolian length of beard, his regularly formed eye, and his other
European points of physiognomy, being the standard by which we measure
the other divisions of the family, or whether we have unnecessarily
restricted the term Mongol to the inhabitants of Mongolia, it is
certain that a great majority of travellers are in the habit of
describing a Mongol cast of countenance when found in a Turk, as an
exceptional phenomenon; just as if the Turk had one character and the
Mongol another, and as if a deviation either way was an anomaly.
Now, the notice of all differences, however small, between the tribes
of the Turk, and those of any other division of the human kind, is so
far from being exceptionable, that it is particularly desirable.
Neither is the assumption of the Turk in his most European form as
a standard of comparison, rather than that of the more Mongoliform
Turks, objectionable. One writer is as fully at liberty to treat all
deviations from the type of a Constantinopolitan Osmanli as anomalous,
as another is to apply a Mongol standard. Provided that facts are
accumulated, ethnology is the gainer.
It is only when the idea of the Turk type being one thing, and the
Mongol another, has so far taken possession of a writer, as to make
him overvalue the import of such differences, that evil arises. Then a
fact which should even be expected _à priori_, becomes an anomaly; and
the assumption of some extraordinary cause--generally the mixture of
race--is _assumed_. I say _assumed_, because in many cases it is taken
for granted, simply and solely because it will explain the phenomena.
Where this is not the fact, where there are _other_ grounds for
believing that intermixture has occurred, it is not only legitimate,
but it is necessary to admit it.
RULE.--_Intermixture of race solely for the sake of accounting for
varieties of physical conformation is not to be assumed, except in
extreme cases._
Practically I consider that the Mongoliform physiognomy is the rule
with the Turk rather than the exception, and that the Turk of Turkey
exhibits the exceptional character of his family. Both these facts are
what we should expect. Ethnological affinity, as proved by language,
exists in a very close degree between the Turks and the Mongolians.
Common conditions of climate exist also. Either implies similarity of
physical conformation. On the other hand, where the Turk is _least_
like the Mongol, we _know_ that intermixture has taken place;
intermixture like that of the Circassian and Georgian blood in Europe,
and that of the Persian in Asia. Hence, if I allowed myself to assume
at all, I would assume an intermixture to account for the _difference_
between the Turk and Mongol--not to account for the similarity.
_Extract from Burnes's description of the Uzbek chief of
Kunduz._--"Moorad Beg is about fifty years of age, his stature is tall,
and his features are those of a genuine Uzbek; his eyes are small to
a deformity; his forehead broad and frowning; and his whole cast of
countenance most repulsive."--Vol. ii. 358.
_Extract from Khamikoff respecting the Uzbeks of Bokhara._--"The
exterior of the Uzbeks reminds us strongly of the Moghul race, except
that they have larger eyes and are somewhat handsomer; they are
generally middle-sized men; the colour of their beards varies between
a shade of red and dark auburn, whilst few are found with black
hair."--_Translation by the Baron de Bode._
Statements of this kind might be multiplied, particularly in respect to
the Uzbeks.
_Descent of certain portions of the Turk Branch--Epoch of its present
extension._--The Turk Branch of the Turanian stock introduces a series
of ethnological questions, which have, as yet, presented themselves
only in a rudimentary form. Few of the tribes hitherto described, were
known to the ancients sufficiently to make the question _of descent_
between the present nations and their real or supposed representatives
in classical antiquity, a matter of _much_--although, of course, it is
always of _some_--importance. With the Turk nations it is otherwise: a
large, perhaps a _very_ large, portion of the ancient Scythia must have
been Turk; and, if so, it is amongst the Turks that we must look for
some of the widest and fiercest of ancient conquerors.
At what time did the present enormous diffusion of Turk tribes take
place? The answer to this question is the answer to many others. By
knowing this we know also the probable ethnological position of such
famous peoples as the Kimmerii, Sakæ, Massagetæ, Alans, Avars, Huns,
Nephthalites, Bulgarians, and others--peoples whereof the records are
written in the annals not only of Rome and Greece, but of Lydia, Media,
and Assyria.
At what epoch did the diffusion of the Turk tribes take place? If
at a period anterior to history, their frontier must have been the
same in the time of Herodotus as at present; and, consequently, their
geographical relations to Persia and Europe, the same.
At what time, then, did it take place? For two areas the question
is answered at once; for European Turkey and for Asia Minor it has
certainly taken place within the historical period. With these two
exceptions, I believe, that, at the beginning of the historical period,
the great Turk area was much the same as at present; less, perhaps, by
a degree or two, on this frontier or that; but still essentially the
same in _kind_. By _in kind_ I mean _ethnographically_, _i. e._ that
(subject to the aforesaid exceptions) the Turk tribes were conterminous
with _the same non-Turk tribes as at present_. Let us apply this view
in detail.
_Siberian Frontier._--From Kasan to the Lake Baikal, the frontier is
Finnish, Yeniseian, and Samöeid. I admit that the southern limits of
all these families are likely to have been curtailed;--indeed I would
argue that such has been the case. This, however, is a mere difference
of _degree_.
There is no proof of any nations other than those belonging to the
Finn, Yeniseian, and Samöeid divisions having ever been in contact with
the Northern Turks, and _vice versâ_.
_Mongolian and Tibetan frontier._--There is not the shadow of
historical evidence, nor even a tradition, which should induce us to
believe that these two nations were ever less conterminous with each
other, and with the Turk, than they are at present.
_Persian frontier._--Reasons for supposing that tribes other than those
of the Turk division ravaged Persia as early as the time of Cyrus,
would lie in the incompatibility of any accounts of such invaders with
the known facts concerning the Turks. I am not aware, however, that
any such incompatibility exists. The names are different. No Sakæ or
Massagetæ are known, under such denominations, as Turk tribes. Yet this
scarcely constitutes even the shadow of an objection; since native
names, and names by which tribes are known to nations other than their
own, oftener differ than coincide.
_The Caucasian frontier--the frontier of the Don._--Here the reasoning
becomes more difficult. An invasion of Persia along the frontier from
Bokhara to the Caspian, is an invasion which no existing nation could
claim, except the Turk; since it is a rule in ethnological reasoning
_to consider every nation as indigenous to the country where it is
first found, unless reason be shown to the contrary_.
For the parts, however, between the Volga, Caucasus, and the Don (or
even Dnieper), there is no such present unity of nation as between the
Caspian and Bokhara; and an invasion that burst upon Persia from the
north-west, or upon Greece from the north-east, might well be claimed
for no less than four great ethnological sections.--1. The Turk. 2. The
Slavonic. 3. The Circassian. 4. The Hungarian.
I will apply general principles to get at the different probabilities
here involved.
1. The nation that invades _both_ Persia and Europe is most probably
the nation most intermediate to the two. This is in favour of the
Cimmerians having come from the present country of the Nogays, rather
than from the Ukraine, or from the Bashkir country, _i.e._, in favour
of their being Turk rather than Slavonic or Hungarian.
2. A nation that, within the historical period, has always encroached
upon others is more likely to be the invader, in a given instance, than
a nation which has not been known so to be in the habit of extending
itself. This is in favour of the Cimmerians having been Turks from the
Nogay country, rather than Circassians.
This is the geographical view. Another method is to take the names of
certain invading tribes mentioned in history, and to consider how far
they belong to the Turk division, or are to be distributed elsewhere.
Here the ethnological method is to begin with the most recent:--
_Uzi, Petchenekhi, and Komani of the later Byzantine Empire,
Turk._--From A.D. 1050 to about 1500.--It is believed that the term
_Cumani_ is only a fresh name for the Uzi (Οὐζοι), who disappear
from history as the Cumani appear. There is the special evidence of
the Empress Anna Comnena that the Cumani and the Petchenekhi spoke
the same language. Their first attack upon the Slavonian tribes was
A.D. 1058; and the name by which the Slavonians speak of them is
_Polowci_=_inhabitants of the plains_. This the Germans, in speaking
of them, _translate_; so that they call the Cumani _Falawa_, _Valui_,
_Valwen_. Hence comes the present name of one of the Cumanian European
localities--_Volhynia_.
There are three districts in Europe where the descent is, in part,
Cumanian but the language not Cumanian.
1. Volhynia.
2. Between the Dnieper and Volga.--Here Cumani were found by Carpin and
Rubriquis.
3. Hungary.--The proof of the Cumanian habitation of part of Hungary,
is a matter of some literary interest. The last Cumanian[22] who knew
even a few words of his original tongue, was an old man of Karczag,
named Varro, who died A.D. 1770; and an incomplete _Paternoster_,
preserved by Dugorics and Thunmann, is all that remains of _this_
dialect. Of the Cumanian of Asia, we have a remarkable vocabulary, from
a MS. belonging to the library of the celebrated Petrarch. This is the
Turk of the parts between the Caspian and Aral.
_The Avars._--A.D. 465 to about 900. In A.D. 465, the Saraguri,[23] the
Onoguri, and the Urugi sent an embassy to Constantinople, to complain
of the inroads of the Avars. We may guess beforehand the locality,
and we may guess beforehand the cause. In the countries between the
Mæotis and the Caspian, the Sabiri are pressed upon by the Abares, the
Abares being pressed upon by some tribe from behind, and the _primum
mobile_ being probably in the centre of Asia. Such is the general
history of these movements. We then learn from Gibbon,[24] how, in
A.D. 558, these Avars themselves appear as suppliants to the Alani,
requesting their good services at the Byzantine Court; and we learn,
also, how they afterwards appeared before Justinian, more as sturdy
beggars than as suppliants, requesting aid against the Turks; and how
that monarch played fast and loose between the runaway slaves and the
indignant masters. He turned them upon his enemies in the west; the
Slavonians, and the Germans. And these they overran until checked on
the Elbe, by a bloody victory gained over them by Sigisbert. The next
victory, however, was the Avars', and peace followed. But the Avars
remained like locusts in the land. This they had exhausted, or helped
to exhaust; when either the intrigues of the King of the Lombards, or
the pressure of famine, induced them to agree with Sigisbert upon the
terms of their departure. These were a supply of meal and meat for
their expedition. To the King of the Lombards, Alboin, whom they then
turned eastwards to join, they proffered their assistance against the
Gepidæ, on condition of Pannonia, if evacuated, being ceded to them.
The destruction of the Gepidæ of Pannonia was followed by the bright
period of Avar history, the reign of Baian. The pride of this barbarian
inflamed the anger of the Emperor Maurice, who broke his power by
the arms of his general Priscus,--broke, but not annihilated. On the
29th of June, A.D. 626, thirty thousand of the vanguard of the Avars
insulted the patricians of Constantinople under their own walls, strong
in their own barbarian valour, and strong in an even-handed alliance,
against the common enemy, with the great king, Chosroes, then at war
with Heraclius. "You see," was his answer to the _standing_ patricians,
"the proofs of my perfect union with the great king; and his lieutenant
is ready to send into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors.
Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate
ransom; your wealth and your city are the only presents worthy of my
acceptance. For yourself, I shall permit you to depart, each with an
under-garment, and a shirt, and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbar will
not refuse a passage through his lines. Your absent prince, even now a
captive or a fugitive, has left Constantinople to its fate; nor can you
escape the arms of the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into
air like birds, or unless like fishes you could dive into the waves."
Fortunately for the empire of the east the crown was worn by Heraclius;
and in the eleventh hour, the Avars and the Persians were repulsed.
The next century was a century of internal quarrels, whilst their
enemies--and this means every tribe of European origin--became
stronger. The baptism of one of the Avar kings, took place in A.D.
795; the conquest of Hungary by Charlemagne the year following. What
the great German left half done, the Slavonians of the parts around
consummated,--and when the first Russian historian composed the annals
of his nation, the expression, _they have been cut off, son and father,
like the Avars_, was the bye-word most expressive of utter annihilation.
Now the whole history of the Avars, as well as their locality and
alliances, is Turk; and their ruler is regularly spoken of as the
_Khaghan_, or _Khan_, of the Avars.
The Turk affinity of the Avars has never been doubted.
_The Alani._--The locality, the history, and all _à priori_ evidence
make the Alans Turkish;--two facts only, that I know of, militate, even
in the smallest way, against their being so.
1. The well-known alliance between the Alani and Vandals; a fact of
value only in the eyes of him who believes that none but ethnologically
related tribes enter into offensive and defensive alliances.
2. The accredited identity between the Alani and the Oseti of Caucasus;
a tribe undoubtedly _not_ Turkish. Let us analyze the grounds of this
belief. The Oseti name themselves _Irôn_, but are named by the Turks
and Georgians, _Osi_; by the Russians, _Yassy_; by the Arabians, _As_.
This is the first fact.
The second is a pair of quotations from Carpin and Barbaro:--
_a._ Alains ou Asses.--_Carpin._
_b._ La _Alania_ è derivata da populo delli _Alani_, liquali nella lor
lingua si chiamano _As_.--_Barbaro._
Now the most that this proves is, that the same name which the Alans
gave to themselves, the Georgians, &c. gave to the _Irôn_; a fact
which is by no means conclusive. On the other hand, it shows that the
two indigenous names, _As_ and _Irôn_, were different. This subject
will be noticed again when speaking of the Oseti. At present it is
not unnecessary to add, that the name _Uz_ (Οὐζ) has already been
mentioned as a name of a tribe in this locality; and that, possibly, it
may=_As_. If so, the _Alans_, _Uzi_, and _Cumani_, are the same people
at different times. Nothing is more likely than this, especially as
we know that _Alani_ was not a native name, and have good reasons for
thinking the same of the term _Cumani_.
Again, the Oseti, a limited mountain tribe of the Middle Caucasus,
with all its supposed affinities in Media and Persia--since the same
writers who identify the Alans with Oseti, identify the Oseti with
the Medes--could never have passed as Scythians. Now the Alans did
so pass, as is shown by a remarkable passage in Lucian:--"so said
Makentæs, being the same in dress and the same in language as the
Alani (ὁμόσκευος καὶ ὁμόγλωττος τοῖς Ἀλανοῖς ὤν); since these things
are common to the Alani and the Skythæ; except that the Alani are not
altogether so long-haired as the Skythæ. In this respect, however,
Makentæs was like a Skythian, inasmuch as he had shaved himself to the
extent to which an Alan head of hair falls short of a Skythian one."[25]
_The Khazars and Huns._--The evidence derived from the use of the term
_Khaghan_, or _Khan_, so diagnostic of the Turk and Mongol families, is
wanting in respect to the Huns of Attila. Neither he nor his brother is
anywhere so designated.
On the other hand, it is erroneous to suppose that the Huns of Attila
are the only Huns of history. The Byzantine historians--even writers
who say little or nothing about Attila,--deal with the name Hun, as a
well-known and recognised geographical or ethnological term, applied to
the tribes between the Don and Volga. Hence they speak of sections of
the Hun nation.
The most satisfactory of these is the identification of the _Akatir_
with the Huns--Ἀκατίροις Οὔννοις--Priscus.
Now the _Akatir_ are, undoubtedly, the _Khazars_, since the
intermediate form Ἀκαζίροι occurs; the Greek form of _Khazars_ being
Χάζαροι.
Hence, the reasoning runs thus--that the Huns of Attila were what the
Huns of Priscus were;--that one of these Hun tribes was the Khazar
tribe. What were the Khazars? The Khazars were _Turks from the East_.
Τούρκοι ἀπὸ τῆς ἑώας, οὓς Χαζάρας ὀνομάζουσι, Theophanes, the first
author who names them, denoting them thus. In respect to their history,
the Khazars appear as the Avars wane in importance. It was by an
alliance with the Khazars, indeed, that Heraclius, as stated above,
freed himself from those formidable enemies. From A.D. 626, until the
tenth century, the Khazars and Petchinakhi (Πατζινακῖται) are the most
formidable enemies to the Goths of the Crimea, and to the Russians of
the Dnieper.
If these affiliations be correct, the Turks are one of the oldest
material influences that have acted on the history of the world, as
well as one of the greatest; the Turk division being the probable
ethnological position for the Massagetæ, Sakæ, Cimmerii, Alani, Huns,
and Avars, and other less important conquerors. To distribute the still
older tribes of Scythia is a matter of _minute_ ethnology, for which
the present work will not allow room. The usual notices, however, of
the Turk nations, taken from the Chinese records, should not be omitted.
_The Hiong-nou._--Under this name a conquering nation, conterminous
with China, and against which the Chinese wall had been built, appears
in the annals of the dynasty of Han; between B.C. 163 and A.D. 196.
These are the Hiong-nou of De Guignes and Gibbon.
_The Hiun-yu._--Under the dynasty of Shang, which is supposed to
have reigned from B.C. 1766 to B.C. 1234, Klaproth finds notice of a
people thus denominated. He considers that they were ancestors of the
Hiong-nou.
I give these two names for what they have been believed by better
judges than myself to denote--not for what I believe myself. The only
fact which to me seems incontestible is that, at an early period in
the Chinese history, a non-Chinese nation was known under the name of
_Hiong-nu_.
If these be the Huns of the Classics, the evidence as to their being
Turk rather than Hungarian, is nearly conclusive; the Turk division
being the only one which is, at one and the same time, conterminous
with Europe, and almost conterminous with China.
Moreover, if the Hiong-nou be the Huns, we may infer that the name
_Hun_ was a native name, in the way that _Deutsche_ is the native name
of what we call the _Ger__mans_; since it is not likely that the
Greeks and Chinese would use the same appellation, unless it were also
the indigenous appellation of the people to which it was applied.[26]
_The Thú-kiú._--These are the proper Turks of the Altai mountains under
a Chinese name. They are mentioned as being powerful about A.D. 545.
1. If the word _Thú-kiú_ be the Chinese form of _Turk_, we learn that
the name was native.
2. If the Hiong-nu and Thú-kiú be the same people, we fix the former as
Turk rather than aught else.
Now, both these suppositions are highly probable. Several Thú-kiú
glosses have been collected by Klaproth from Chinese writings, and they
are all Turk, more especially the Turk of Central Asia; whilst, on the
other hand, the Chinese writer, Ma-túan-in, derives the Thiú-kiú from
the Hiong-nou.
Such of my readers as know that Niebuhr considered the Huns to be
Mongols, and that Humboldt insists upon their Finnic origin will excuse
the length to which these remarks on their ethnographical position have
been extended.
_Additions to the Turk area made within the historical period._--This
means Asia Minor (Anatolia), and Turkey in Europe; additions of a
true ethnological character; additions whereby the Turk division
came in contact with other divisions of our species wholly new,
_e.g._, the Greek, the Arabian, and the Armenian. The points to be
considered are--the direction, the date, the rate, the completeness or
incompleteness of the ethnological change effected.
_a._ _The direction._--From south-east toward north-west; _i.e._, from
Persia; and the parts south of the Caspian and Caucasus, rather than
from the parts between the northern Caspian and the Black Sea; so as to
be a prolongation of the Turcoman and Uzbek frontier, rather than of
the Nogay.
_b._ _Date._--From A.D. 1038 to A.D. 1063, the reign of Togrul Beg,
grandson of Seljuk; a Turk of either Turcomania or Bokhara--The Arabian
kingdom of Persia is now disorganized; chiefly by Turks, who have
raised themselves from the governors of provinces to the founders of
empires, _e.g._, Mahmúd of Ghizni. The power of the Kalif of Bagdad,
at best but nominal, is reduced still more by Togrul. The Seljukian
Turks (or rather Turkomans), are the sultans of Persia, now become a
consolidated empire.
Togrul's successor conquers Armenia and Georgia. Here, however, the
ethnological effects of the Turk were, and have continued to be,
limited.
About the same time the _Arabian_ princes of Aleppo and Damascus are
expelled. Here, also, the ethnological effects were, and have been,
limited.
A.D. 1074. Now began the conquest of Asia Minor by Seljukian Turks, a
conquest by which one ethnological division of the human species has
been replaced by another. It ended in the establishment of the kingdom
of _Roum_; won from the degenerate Romans of Constantinople.
In its due turn the kingdom of Roum breaks up; partly from internal
disorganization, partly from attacks from without, the chief of these
being those under the leaders of the house of Zingiz. There was also
a partial re-conquest by the Romans. Hence in A.D. 1229 there is room
for the ambition of Othman. Othman and his successors reconsolidate the
kingdom of Roum, Anatolia, or Asia Minor, now Turk.
In A.D. 1360 the Turks of Asia begin to become the Turks of Europe
under Amurath I.; during whose reign Anatolia was a great centre of
conquest, of which the Asiatic extension was limited by the parallel
centre of conquest--Bokhara under Tamerlane. On the side of Europe,
however, all was free. A.D. 1453, is the date of the taking of
Constantinople. Since then the Turk area in Europe has been formed.
_Rate, completeness or incompleteness of the ethnological change
effected._--These two questions are connected. We can scarcely tell
how long it took to transform the non-Turk countries like Asia Minor
and Thrace, into the Turk countries of Roum, unless we also know how
far the transformation is real or apparent. Now upon this point we
want information. No man can say how many ethnological elements other
than Turk may be present amongst the Anatolian and Rumelian speakers
of the Ottoman language. Still the conquest of the two areas is spread
over a period of not less than three hundred and seventy nine years;
beginning with the invasion of Asia Minor, by Togrul's successor, and
ending with the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II.
_Turk elements of intermixture in families other than the Turk._--These
must be noticed briefly. The facts connected with the question falling
under the three following heads:--
1. _Turk blood in the ruling families of the East._--The Ghiznivide and
Seljukian dynasties of Persia, the Uzbek rulers of Bokhara, the Pasha
of Ægypt, the Great Mogul, &c.
2. _Turks living in separate communities in countries beyond the Turk
area._--Turks of Persia, Armenia, Bokhara, &c.
3. _Localities where the Turkish language has been spoken and become
extinct._--Parts of Hungary, for which see the notice of the _Cumani_.
Other localities, of which by far the most important is Bulgaria. At
present the Bulgarian language is Slavonic; and, such being the case,
the _primâ facie_ evidence is in favour of the people being Slavonic
also. Reasons, however, for the contrary will be found in the notice of
the Slavonians.
By adding, to all this, the statement that at least one nation, the
Bashkirs, although speaking Turk, are supposed to be Finnic, and, by
recollecting at the same time, the great extent of Turk conquests,
like some of those of Tamerlane, less permanent than those enumerated,
as well as the effects of the trade in female slaves (preeminently
supported by Turk nations), we may arrive at a valuation of the
importance of the Turk family as a physical influence in the way of
intermixture.
_The influences of the Turk family have been material rather than
moral._--No portion of the Turk division has ever passed for one
of the preeminently intellectual sections of mankind. The steady
monotheism, however, of the Koran, they have taken up so generally,
that Turk and Mahometan are almost as synonymous as Arab and Mahometan.
Their literature is founded on that of Persia. No great idea has ever
originated from them, and none but those of the simpler and more
straightforward kind been adopted. At the same time the Syriac alphabet
of the Nestorian Christians was introduced amongst the Uighur Turks,
earlier than in any other quarter equally remote; and fragmentary forms
of ancient Turk poetry, anterior to the influences of the Persian, and
Arabic, are to be found in Von Hammer.
The verbal truthfulness of the Turk has been praised by most who have
had the means of observation. Lying is the vice of the weak; and no
nations have so little been slaves, and so much been masters, as the
Turk.
_The Yakuts._--The isolated Turks, or Yakuts, still stand over for
notice. Their centre is the river Lena, whereon they extend at least as
far southward as the Aldan. Eastward they are found on the[27] Kolyma,
and westward as far as the Yenisey. Here the Yakut tribe is that of
the Dolganen, an outlying portion of the section first noticed by Von
Middendorf.[28]
That the Yakut are Turk, is placed beyond reasonable doubt; although
the only test has been that of language. Respecting this the two most
extreme statements which I have met with are the following:--
1st. That it is intelligible at Constantinople.
2nd. That not less than one-third of the words (and some of them the
names of very simple ideas) are other than Turk.[29]
The truth will probably be known when the recent researches of Von
Middendorf are published. In either case, however, the language is Turk.
[Illustration: Fig. 5.]
With the evidence of language, the evidence of physical confirmation is
said to disagree. The Yakuts are essentially Mongolian in physiognomy.
The value of the fact must be determined by what has been already said
upon the subject.
The locality of the Yakuts is remarkable. It is that of a weak section
of the human race, pressed into an inhospitable climate by a stronger
one. Yet the Turks have ever been the people to displace others, rather
than to be displaced themselves. On the other hand, the traditions of
the country speak expressly to a southern origin.
In respect to the social development of the Yakut, Von Middendorf's
distinctions are the most suggestive as well as the most critical. The
southernmost Yakuts have the horse, the middlemost the rein-deer, the
northernmost the dog. The manners of the southern ones are best known;
and these are essentially pastoral. Besides the breeding of herds of
horses, the Russian fur-trade has developed an industrial form of the
hunter-state; so that, amongst the Yakuts, property accumulates, and
we have a higher civilization than will be found elsewhere in the same
latitude; Finland and Norway alone being excepted.
Other circumstances make the Yakuts an ethnological study. They are
not only Turks who are not Mahometan, but their Christianity is still
imperfect: hence they represent the Shamanism of the Turk before
he became Moslemized. The details of the Yakut creed, sufficiently
numerous to form, along with those of the still pagan Ugrians and
Samöeids, an elaborate picture of an old religion, which, in its
_essential_ characters, was common to all the families of High Asia
and Siberia, may be best found in Ermann.[30] The simple fact of its
representing an early religion, is all that can here be noticed.
THE UGRIAN BRANCH OF THE TURANIAN STOCK.
1. _Present distribution--continuous._--West and East--From
Norway to the Yenisey. North and South (South-East)--From the
North Cape to the Russian governments of Simbirsk, Saratof, and
Astrakhan. The Volga south of its confluence with the Kama.
2. _Isolated portion._--Hungary.
3. _Ancient distribution._--Further southwards along the whole
frontier, _i.e._, in Scandinavia, Russia, and Siberia. The
Eastward extension probably less than at present.
4. As portions of a _mixed_ population beyond their proper
area--In Sweden and Norway.
_Religion._--Lutheranism, Romanism, Greek Church, Imperfect
Christianity, Shamanism.
_Physical conformation._--Chief departure from the Mongol type,
the frequency of blue eyes, and light (red) hair.
_Conterminous with._--1. Goths of the Scandinavian group in
Norway and Sweden; 2. Slavonians in Russia; 3. Lithuanians in
Esthonia; 4, 5, 6. Turks, Yeniseians, and Tungús in Siberia.
In Europe, in contact with the North Sea. East of Archangel,
separated therefrom by the Samöeids.
_Divisions._--1. Trans-Uralian Ugrians.--Between the Ural Mountains and
the Yenisey. _Voguls_ and _Ostiaks_.
2. Permian Finns.--_Permians_, _Siranians_, _Votiaks_.
3. Finns of the Volga.--_Morduins_, _Tcheremiss_, _Tshuvatsh_.
4. Finlanders of Finland.
5. Esthonians of Esthonia.
6. Laplanders of Sweden and Finmark.
7. Majiars of Hungary.
1.
THE VOGULS.
_Locality._--The northern part of the Uralian range, and the
country to the east as far as the Irtish, and Tobol, and as far
north as the Soswa a feeder of the Obi. Tradition says that
they extended as far westward as the Dwina. Probability that
they extended further south.
_Name._--The Voguls call themselves and the Ostiaks Mansi. They
are called by the Siranians Yograyess, and Vagol.
_Conterminous with._--The Siranians on the west, the Obi
Ostiaks on the east, the Bashkirs on the south.
_Dialects._--The northern Vogul of the Sosva, the southern of
the Tura, a tributary of the Tobol.
_Population._--According to Schubert, one hundred thousand.
_Religion._--Shamanism, or imperfect Christianity.
_Physical appearance._--Stature small, complexion light, face
broad and round, beard scanty, hair long, black, or brown,
sometimes red. The Kalmuk (_i.e._ Mongolian) character of the
Vogul physiognomy is noticed by Pallas.
The Voguls are very nearly on the low level of a tribe of fishers
and hunters. Except towards the south, where they are partially
Russianized, and where they have also partially adopted the manners
of the Bashkirs, there is but little pasturage, and no agriculture.
The horse is not in use amongst them--the rein-deer being the nearest
approach to a domestic animal. Their tribute is paid in its skins.
THE OSTIAKS.
_Locality._--Valley of the Obi--Eastwards to the Yenisey.
_Name._--Russian, probably originally Bashkir. The native
name--Kondycho, Tyakum, or Asyakh. Called by the Samöeids,
Thahe; by the Voguls, Mansi.
_Conterminous with._--The Voguls on the west, the Samöeids
on the north, the Barabinsky and other Turkish tribes, and
(probably) with the Yeniseians on the south.
_Numbers._--About one hundred thousand.
_Dialects._--Numerous.--The Southern mixed with the Vogul, the
Northern with the Samöeid.
_Physical appearance._--Stature short, bones small, muscular
strength little; face flat, hair red, or reddish.
_Religion._--Shamanism in the north, imperfect Christianity in
the south.
The Ostiaks are almost wholly a nation of fishers.
That their limits originally extended farther south than at present is
highly probable. A tradition concerning their migration from the _west_
will be noticed in the section upon the Samöeids.
Notwithstanding the close affinity between the Ostiaks and the Voguls,
the two nations were, at the time of the Russian conquest, in continual
warfare against each other: the Ostiaks being under the government of
petty hereditary chiefs.
In the pagan parts of the Ostiak country polygamy is the custom.
2.
THE PERMIANS.
_Locality._--The government of Perm; of which they form less
than a quarter, the rest being Russians or Russianized Finns.
_Name._---Russian, probably taken from the Scandinavian term
Bjarma. The native term is Komi-uter, or Komi-murt.
_Population._--According to Schubert, about thirty-five
thousand.
THE SIRANIANS.
_Locality._--North of the Permians, about the head-waters of
the R. Kama, and R. Vytchegda, a feeder of the Dwina.
_Native name._--Same as the Permian.
_Population._--According to Schubert, thirty thousand.
_Dialects._--Four. The Siranian, itself, however, is rather a
dialect of the Permian than a substantive language.
THE VOTIAKS.
_Locality._--The R. Viatka.
Called by the Russians, Viatka.
" " Turk tribes, Ari.
" " themselves, Udy or Udmart
" " the Tcheremiss, Oda.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Probably some remains of
Shamanism.
Of all the Finnic tribes the Votiaks are the most like the Finlanders
of Finland; indeed Müller states that there is a tradition among them
to the effect that their original country was Finland, and that they
are immigrants from thence.
On the other hand, the extent to which they differ from their
south-western neighbours, the Tcheremiss, is said to be remarkable.
In respect to the physical conformation of the Votiaks, the evidence of
Ermann is favorable, that of Pallas less so. The latter describes them
as slight and undersized: the former as strongly built. In no Finnic
tribe--perhaps in no other tribe in the world,--is fiery red hair so
common as amongst the Votiaks.
They are an _agricultural_ population, not fishers and hunters.
They are also, most probably, an unmixed population; since none of
their neighbours live so exclusively to themselves, (_i.e._ not in
mixed villages, half Russian, or half Bashkir,) as the Votiaks.
The government under petty chiefs, or the heads of tribes, still
continues; and it is a privilege of the Votiaks to elect their own
village judges or arbiters.
Their population seems on the increase. At the end of the last century
it was forty thousand: in 1837 it was one hundred thousand.
3.
THE TCHEREMISS.
_Locality._--The left bank of the Middle Volga; fewer on the
right. Governments of Kasan, Simbirsk, and Saratov. Recently,
settlements in the Government of Astrakan, Conterminous with
the Votiaks.
_Name._--Russian. Native name, _Mari_=_men_.
_Numbers._--According to Schubert, two hundred thousand.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Greek Church.
_Physical appearance._--Stature, middle; hair, light; beard,
scanty; face, flat.
_Habitations._--Small villages, smaller than those of the
Votiaks, and Tchuvatch. Habits, agricultural; lately nomadic.
THE MORDUINS.
_Locality._--The most South-Western of the Finnic tribes, on
the right-bank of the Volga, between the R. Sura and R. Oka.
_Name._--Native.
_Divisions._--The Morduins of the Oka, are called Ersad;
the Morduins of the Sura, Mokshad. A third division, called
Karatai, inhabits the neighbourhood of Kasan.
_Numbers._--In 1837, ninety-two thousand.
_Dialects._--Two or more--the Ersad and the Mokshad.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity; Greek Church; Shamanism.
_Physical appearance._--Hair, brown and straight; beard, thin.
More Slavonic than any other Finnic tribe. The Ersad oftener
red-haired than the Mokshad.
THE TCHUVATCH.
_Locality._--Right bank of the Volga, opposite the Tcheremiss,
in the neighbourhood of Kasan, in the Government of Simbirsk
and Saratov. Recent settlements in the Government of Astrakan.
_Native Name._--Vereyal, and Khirdiyal, and Vyress:
Called by the Russians, Vyress.
" " Tcheremiss, Kurk-Mari=hill men.
" " Morduins, Wjedke.
_Numbers._--According to Schubert, three hundred and seventy
thousand.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity. Greek Church. Remains of
Shamanism.
_Physical Appearance._--Height, middle; complexion, light;
face, flat; beard, thin; hair, _black, and somewhat curled_;
eyes, grey; eyelids, narrow.
_Habitations._--Like those of the Turk tribes in their
neighbourhood.
_Dialects._--Two: _a._ of the Vereyal of the Gornaya; _b._ of
the Khirdiyal of the Lugovaya.
4.
FINLANDERS OF FINLAND.
_Localities._--Finland; settlers in Sweden and Norway.
_Native Name._--Suomolaiset.
_Swedish._--Finn.
_Norwegian._--Qwæn.
_Dialects._--_a._ Finlandic Proper; _b._ Savolax, spoken in
Savolax, and Carelia.
_Religion._--Lutheranism.
_Finnish words._--Kanguri=_weaver_, seppa=_smith_,
wapa=_freeman_, orya, palvelya=_slave_, myyda, ostaa=_buy
and sell_, yuoma=_ale_, kalya=_beer_, kandele,
youhe-kandele=_musical instruments_, keria=_book_,
raamattu=_writing_.
ENGLISH. FINLANDIC. SWEDISH.
_King_, Kunengas, Konung.
_Prince_, Ruhtinas, Thruhtin.
_Judge_, Duomari, Dömare.
_Cheese_, Yuusto, Ost.
_Wine_, Saxan wiina,[31] Viin.[31]
_Rye_, Ruis, Rug.
_Oats_, Havra, Haver.
Two lists, one of Finlandic, and one of Swedish, words have been
placed at the head of the present section, for the sake of serving as
an introduction to some of the questions contained in it. They are
all taken from Rühs' work on _Finland and its inhabitants_, where the
analysis of the language serves instead of historical testimony. By
observing what terms are native, and what are Swedish, we separate the
early native civilization of Finland, from the civilization introduced
from Sweden. Thus, on looking over the preceding glosses, we find
that the only terms applicable to a social or political constitution,
are those for _slave_ and _freeman_; _king_, _ruler_, _judge_, &c.,
being expressed by Swedish words. So also with the industrial trades;
_weaving_ was Finnic from the beginning, and so was _smith's-work_; but
the _carpenter_, the _builder_, the _ship-builder_, are importations,
and so on. There are native terms for _buying and selling_, for _ale
and beer_, and for more than two musical instruments; but there are no
native terms for _wine_, and none for _dancing_.
For the _metals_, and _agriculture_, the terms are _almost_ always
native. _Cheese_, however, on the one side, and _gold_, _tin_, and
_lead_, on the other, have Swedish names. So have _oats_ and _rye_.
Music, and songs, and a mythology belonged to the early Finlanders;
the second being always accompanied by the first, and the three
illustrating each other.
The great foreign influence that has affected the Finlanders of
Finland, is the Swedish, and this may be considered to have been in
steady and continuous operation, from the reign of Eric the Holy, in
the A.D. 1156. This king, bent upon conquest and conversion, landed in
South Finland, and founded what was then a new mission or colony, in
the present province of Nyland (Newland). From this point, the power
of Sweden gradually spread towards the inner portions of the country;
northwards and eastwards: not unopposed, but opposed ineffectually, by
the heathens of Tawastaland and Carelia.
5.
ESTHONIAN FINS.
_Locality._--South of the Baltic, in Esthonia, Livonia, and
part of Courland. Conterminous with the Russians, and the
Courland Lithuanians.
_Dialects._--Two: the common Esthonian, and the Esthonian of
Dorpat.
_Native Name._--_Rahwas_; of the country _Marahwas_.
6.
THE LAPLANDERS.
_Habits._--Nomadic.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity of the Greek Church with
the Russian; imperfect Protestantism with the Swedish and
Norwegian Laplanders.
_Native Name._--Same, Sabome.
7.
HUNGARIANS.
_Locality._--Hungary; mixed with German, Slavonic, and
Wallachian tribes.
_Native Name._--Majiar.
The Majiars are Ugrian, the country from which they descended being
that of the Bashkirs, conterminous with the southern limits of the
present Ugrian area, of which it was once a part. The date of their
migration is about A.D. 900.
From extending _farther_ than Hungary they were prevented by the two
great victories of Henry the Fowler in 935 A.D.
Those who would connect the present Hungarians with the Huns of Attila,
must also make the Huns Ugrian; since no fact is more undeniable than
the Ugrian character of the Majiars. The reasons against this have been
given already. They are, undoubtedly, scanty. Still they preponderate
over those of the other view; which consist only in inferences from the
term _Hungary_.
Lest these be over-rated, two facts should be remembered:--
1st.--That the name is Russian and _not_ native.
2nd.--That the -_n_- is no original part of the word; the older
Slavonic forms being _Ugri_, _Uhri_, and only in the later dialects,
_Ungri_.
The Majiars must necessarily be a very mixed race; their country having
been that of the old Pannonian population (probably Slavonic); of the
Romans of both the eastern and western empire; of the Goths, the Huns,
the Avars, the Gepidæ, and the Comanians.
This is what history suggests. To have _assumed_ an intermixture, for
the sake of accounting for the physical and moral difference between
such extreme Ugrian forms as the Majiar and Laplander, would have been
illegitimate.
In reality, however, the difference between the Majiar and Lap, is less
remarkable than that between the Lap and Finlander; since, in this
latter case, the contrast is _nearly_ as great, whilst the climatologic
conditions are less dissimilar.
The Majiar is the only member of the Ugrian family, which has effected,
within the historical period, a permanent conquest over any portion of
the _Iapetidæ_.
The Ugrians supply a good example of what may be called _a receding
frontier_. Their area has at one time been greater than at present.
Southwards and westwards it was once prolonged. Hence, the Ugrian has
been displaced, or encroached upon by others. It is well to note this.
It is better still to take it in conjunction (or contrast) with the
Turk area. There the _frontier has encroached_. At an earlier period it
was less extensive than at present.
In one quarter, perhaps in others, the Ugrian frontier has encroached,
_i.e._ on that of the Majiars.
In one quarter, perhaps in others, the Turk frontier has receded,
_i.e._ the Comani have become either extinct or a mixed breed in
Hungary.
Nevertheless, as a rule, the Turks frontier has encroached; the Ugrian
receded. The practical application of this distinction is wide. When we
know whether a given family habitually extends, or habitually contracts
its area, we know what will be the probable distribution of the unfixed
ancient tribes on the frontier.
In the critical ethnology of the classical writers many problems must
be worked in this way; the inferences in the two alternatives being
diametrically the reverse of each other.
1. In a people with an habitually encroaching frontier, no tribe
described by earlier writers as lying _beyond_ its present geographical
area, is to be considered as having formed part of it (_i.e._ the
family with an encroaching frontier).
2. In a people with an habitually receding frontier, many tribes
described by earlier writers as lying beyond its present geographical
area may (and often must) be considered as so doing.
Hence, in the present pair of instances, many localities once other
than Turk are now Turk;[32] whilst, on the other hand, many localities
once Ugrian are now other than Ugrian.[33]
What, then, was the maximum extension southward of the Ugrian area
before its frontier receded under the triple encroachments of the
Turks of Russian Asia, the Russians of Russia, and the Norwegians and
Swedes of Scandinavia? Possibly over the whole Scandinavian peninsula,
possibly as far as the lower Don, Volga, and Dnieper. These, however,
are geographical frontiers; frontiers less important, and less
capable of solution than the ethnological ones. Were the Ugrians ever
conterminous with other divisions of the human race than those which
they come in contact with at present? There is no evidence that they
were.
What ancient nations were Ugrian? Omitting, for the present, the tribes
of Scythia, we may answer that the following were certainly so.
1. The _Æstii_.--Modern Esthonians.
2. The _Finni_ and _Skrithifinni_.
3. The _Sitones_.--The Ugrians of the Baltic were known to the
classical writers through the Germans. The names prove this. The
_Æstii_ were the people _east_ of those who described them. The term
_Finn_ is known to no Ugrian, but to their Gothic neighbours only. The
notice of Tacitus as to the Sitones is similarly capable of explanation.
The Finland word _kainu_=_a low country_. A portion of the Finlanders
call themselves _Kainulainen_ (_Singular_), _Kainulaiset_ (_plural_).
Now this sectional name in Finland is the general name in Scandinavia;
so that the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians call the Finlanders
_Kwæn_. In Scandinavian, however, _Qvinde_=_women_. Hence, Tacitus
was persuaded by his direct or indirect German informants that the
Sitones were subject to female government.--"_Suionibus Sitonum
gentes continuantur. Cætera similes, uno differunt, quod fœmina
dominatur._"[34] Lest any doubt should remain as to Tacitus having been
told of a country of women, I may add that--
_a._ Alfred[35] speaks of a _Cvenaland_=_land of Kwæns_.
_b._ The Norse[35] Sagas of a _Kænugard_=_home of Kwæns_.
_c._ Adam[35] of Bremen of _terra fœminarum_, and _Amazons_.
The first two facts prove the name, the second the false interpretation
of it.
Far more full, however, than the classical writers are the old Norse
Sagas in respect to the Ugrians. Of these the Beormas, or Permians,
were wealthy and commercial; men sometimes to be dealt with, sometimes
to be robbed. The Laps, on the other hand, were feared as magicians, or
as men skilled in metallurgy; and, according to those who have studied
the philosophy of mythologies, they have supplied many supernatural
elements in the way of dwarfs and goblins.
In the ethnology of Scandinavia--in the skilful and industrious hands
of Retzius, Eschricht, Nilson, Kaiser, and others--Ugrian archæology,
and Ugrian craniology, are preeminently prominent. The numerous barrows
of Scandinavia are attentively studied; and observation has shown that
the older the tomb, and the greater the proportion of instruments
found within it _not_ made of iron (but of greater antiquity than the
art of forging that metal) the less dolikhokephalic, and the more
brakhykephalic, (or Ugrian,) is the skull. Hence comes the inference
that the southward extension of barrows, containing remains of the
sort in question, is a measure of the southward extension of the Ugrian
family.
Two other matters are of importance in Ugrian ethnology--the remains of
their ancient Shamanism, and the Finland _Runot_.
In respect to the former, the Ugrians are the first people wherein we
find the original Paganism in more tribes than one; so that it can be
studied in its minute differences, as well as in its general character.
Its essential identity, however, is remarkable. The Supreme Deity is
Yumel, Yubmel, Yumala, or some slightly modified name; and that from
the Morduin country to Lapland. Except this notice of the extent to
which similarity of creed, as well as similarity of language, connects
the Ugrians, no further remarks will be made at present.
The _Runot_ is the name for the popular poems of Finlanders. In few
nations are they more numerous. In none more carefully collected. I
believe that the chief one partakes of the nature of an epic, and
relates the wars between the Laps and Finlanders. Others are short,
lyrical, and adapted to music. The term _Runot_ (the plural form) is
suspiciously similar to the Scandinavian word, _Runa_, with a not
dissimilar meaning (_furrow_, _carving_, _letter_, _spell_, _verse_,
_poem_). Finland archæologists, however, repudiate this, and claim it
as an indigenous word, on the strength of certain derivative forms,
like _runionecka_=_poet_. This is not conclusive. Nor is it necessary
for the main fact, which is the existence of a home-grown poetical
literature of more than average merit, and implying musical taste for
the Finlandic portion of the Ugrian branch--of the Turanian group--of
the Altaic Mongolidæ.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] In Greek, _Rhæmata_=words.
[10] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
[11] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. vi. part 2.
[12] Prichard, vol. iv.
[13] "The Chinese as they are," p. 319.
[14] Prichard, vol. iv.
[15] Prichard, vol. iv.
[16] Buchanan, Asiatic Researches.
[17] Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. iv. part 2.
[18] Such are the primitive habits, still in use from the Konki to
the Monash and which are most worthy of study and record, as being
primitive and as being common to two people, the Bodo and Dhimál,
though abandoned by the Kámrúpian and most numerous branch of the Bodo.
[19] Ai or Aya is the goddess Kámákyá of Kanirup, _vis genetrix
naturæ_, typed by the Bhaga or Yoni.
[20] _Dhámi_, in Bodo. _Dom_, in other allied dialects.
[21] Decline and Fall, vol. viii.
[22] Klaproth, Memoires relatifs à l'Asie, iii.
[23] Zeuss, v. _Avari_.
[24] Decline and Fall, vol. v.
[25] Lucian, Toxaris 31. From Zeuss, v. _Alani_.
[26] 1. The determination of the language to which the name of any
nation mentioned in history belongs is of primary importance. Perhaps
there is not one fourth of the tribes described by writers, either
ancient or modern, whereof the name is native; _e.g._, the terms
_Welsh_ and _German_ are unknown in _Wales_ and _Germany_; whilst
an Englishman is a _Saxon_ in the Principality and in Ireland. For
ascertaining whether a name be native or not the two following rules
are useful.
_Rule 1._ When two different nations speak of a third by the same name
the _primâ facie_ evidence is _in favour_ of that name being the native
one.
_Rule 2._ When one nation speaks of two others under the same name, the
_primâ facie_ evidence is _against_ that name being the native one.
Thus, according to Rule 1, if a Chinese and a Greek each call a tribe
which invades their country, _Hun_, it is nearly certain that the
invading tribe called itself _Hun_ also. Of course, in cases, where
the two nations using the common term might have borrowed it one of
another, or from a third language, the probabilities are modified.
Still the general rule holds good.
The second rule may be illustrated by the term _Welsh_. It is given by
the nations of the Gothic stock to the Cambrians of Wales, the Italians
of Italy, and the Wallachians of Wallachia. We _know_ that with none of
these it is native. I consider, however, that, given the geographical
position of Germany, Wales, Italy, and Wallachia, the same might have
been _inferred_.
[27] Wrangell, from Prichard, vol. iv.
[28] Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, 1846.
[29] Ermann, from Prichard, vol. iv.
[30] Reise um der Erde.
[31] _Saxon (German) wine._
[32] Asia Minor and Thrace.
[33] Many parts of Russia.
[34] Germania, 45.
[35] Zeuss, _v._ _Finni_, and p. 157.
B.
DIOSCURIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
The term Dioscurian is taken from the ancient sea-port Dioscurias.
Here it was that the chief commerce between the Greeks and Romans, and
the natives of the Caucasian range took place. According to Pliny,[36]
it was carried on by one hundred and thirty interpreters, so numerous
were the languages. Without raising the number thus high, the great
multiplicity of mutually unintelligible tongues is still one of the
characteristics of the parts in question. And this fact has determined
the application of the term. To have used the word _Caucasian_ would
have been correct, but inconvenient. It is already _mis_-applied in
another sense, _i.e._, for the sake of denoting the so-called Caucasian
race, consisting, or said to consist, of Jews, Greeks, Circassians,
Scotchmen, ancient Romans, and other heterogeneous elements. In this
sense it has been used in more than one celebrated work of fiction. In
such, and in such only, it is otherwise than out of place.
DIOSCURIAN NATIONS AND TRIBES.
_Physical Conformation._--Modified Mongol.
_Languages._--Paurosyllabic,[37] agglutinate; of all the
tongues _not_ Seriform, the nearest approaching to an aptotic
state.
_Area._--The range of Mount Caucasus.
_Chief Divisions._--1. The Georgians. 2. The Lesgians. 3. The
Mizjeji. 4. The Irôn. 5. The Circassians.
In few, perhaps, in no part of the present volume, am I on more
debateable ground than the present. So long has the term Caucasian been
considered to denote a type of physical conformation closely akin to
that of the Iapetidæ, (_i.e._, preeminently European,) that to place
the Georgians and Circassians in the midst of the Mongolidæ, is a
paradox. Again, the popular notions founded upon the physical beauty of
the tribes under notice, are against such a juxtaposition; the typical
Mongolians, in this respect, having never been mentioned by either poet
or painter in the language of praise.
Lastly, it so happens that some of the latest researches in comparative
philology have been undertaken with the special object of making the
philological position of the Dioscurians coincide with their anatomical
one, _i.e._, of proving that the languages of the Georgians and the
Irôn are to be connected with that of the Greeks and Latins, just as
was the case with their skeletons.
For the sake of laying before the reader the amount of fact and
argument, in contradistinction to the amount of mere opinion, that
is opposed by the position here assumed for the Dioscurians, I will
analyse the grounds for the current belief under two heads:--
1. _The connexion of the Dioscurian nations with those of Europe, as
determined by the evidence of Physical Conformation._--The really
scientific portion of these anatomical reasons consists in a single
fact; which was as follows.--Blumenbach had a solitary Georgian skull;
and that solitary Georgian skull was the finest in his collection: that
of a Greek being the next. Hence it was taken as the type of the skull
of the more organized divisions of our species. More than this, it
gave its name to the type, and introduced the term _Caucasian_. Never
has a single head done more harm to science than was done in the way
of posthumous mischief, by the head of this well-shaped female from
Georgia. I do not say that it was not a fair sample of all Georgian
skulls. It might or might not be. I only lay before critics the amount
of induction that they have gone upon.
2. _The connexion of the Dioscurian nations with those of Europe as
determined by the evidence of language._--Here I can only give a
sample of the philology which would connect the Georgian with the
Indo-European tongues. It consists in the proof that the Georgian
numerals are the same as the Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Gothic, Slavonic,
and Lithuanic.
English. Georgian. Mingrelian.[38] Suanic.[38] Lazic.[38]
_One_ erthi arthi es`gu ar.
_Two_ ori shiri jeru dzur.
_Three_ sami sumi semi dshumi.
_Four_ othchi otchi wors`tcho atch.
_Five_ chuthi chuthi wochus`i chut.
_Six_ ekhwssi apchs'ui usgwa as`.
_Seven_ s'widi 'sqwithi is`gwit s`kit.
_Eight_ rwa ruo ara ovro.
_Nine_ zehru c`choro c`chara c`choro.
_Ten_ athi withi je`st wit.
One=_Es`gu_, Suanic=_êka_, Sanskrit; _jek_, Persian, the ἑκα- in
ἑκά-τερος, and ἕκ-αστος, Greek.
One=_erthi_, Georgian; _arthi_, Mingrelian; _ar_, Lazic. Here the forms
are different from the Suanic _esg`u_, and have a different origin.
_Esgu_ is a true cardinal, just as _one_ is a true cardinal. The
Georgian, Mingrelian, and Suanic forms, are not originally cardinal,
but derivative from the ordinal, just as would be the case in English,
if, instead of saying _one_, _two_, &c., we said, _first_, _second_,
&c. Now the root of the ordinal cardinal of the Georgian, Mingrelian,
and Lazic _ar_, is the πρ- in the Greek, πρῶ-τος, the _p-r-_ in the
Lithuanic _pir-mas_, the _fr-_ in the Mœso-Gothic, _fr-ums_, and the
_pr-_ in the Sanskrit _pr-atamas_; the initial _p_ having been lost,
just as the initial _s_ in the Sanskrit _sru_,=to _flow_, is lost
in the Greek ῥέω, and the Latin _ruo_. Hence, _arti_=, by _rati_
metathesis, just as the Lithuanic _pirmas_=the Latin _primus_. The _t_
is the τ of πρῶ-τ-ος.
Two=_Ori_, Georgian; _dva_, Sanskrit; δι-, Greek; _duo_, Latin, &c.
_Three_=_sami_, Georgian; _dschumi_, Lazic; _tre_, Sanskrit; τρία,
Greek; _tres_, Latin; _three_, English, &c. Here _t_ becomes _s_,
_r_ is ejected, and _m_ is added, upon the assumption of _reflected
ordinal_.[39]
_Four_=_wors`tcho_, Suanic. A transposition of _tchowors_=the Sanskrit
_ćatvâras_.--Here, remember the Gothic and Welsh forms, _fidvôr_, and
_pedwar_, respectively.
_Five_=_wochus`i_, Suanic. The _wo-_ of this form is the _pa-_ of the
Sanskrit _pa-nća_, whilst the _-chu-_ is the _ća_ of the same word. The
_-t-_ is the _t_ of the Slavonic forms, _fya-tj_=five; _ses-tj_=six;
_devja-ti_=nine, and _desja-ti_=ten.
_Six_=_ekhwssi_, Georgian=_sas_, Sanskrit; _csvas_, Zend; _achses_,
Trôn.
_Seven_=_swidi_, Georgian. A transposition of _siwdi_=_supta_,
Sanskrit; _septem_, Latin; ἕπτα, Greek, &c. It is stated of the numbers
_six_ and _seven_ that "their Indo-European origin is preeminently
capable of proof."
_Eight_=_rwa_, _ruo_, &c.=_as`ta_, Sanskrit. Here the _s_ is lost, as
in Hindostani, and Bengali, _ât`_, and _ât_; _t_ becomes _d_; and _d_
is changed to _r_.
The numeral _nine_ is let alone.
_Ten_=_jest_, Suanic=_das`a_, Sanskrit.
I do not say that there may not be letter-changes which make all this
feasible. There may or may not be. I only lay before critics, the
amount of change assumed.
In 1845, I announced, at the meeting of the British Association for
the Advancement of Science, that the closest philological affinity
of the Dioscurian languages was with the Aptotic ones. This I had
brought myself to believe from a comparison of the _words_ only. Soon
afterwards, Mr. Norriss, of the Asiatic Society, instead of expressing
surprise at my doctrine, said that, upon _grammatical_ grounds, he held
the same opinion.
How far these views are founded on fact, may be seen from the
forthcoming samples of two Dioscurian grammars, and of a short
Dioscurian vocabulary, compared with those of the Seriform tongues.
The two together form but a small fraction of the evidence that can be
adduced. It is as much, however, as is admissible in a work like the
present.
Physiological objections, based upon the symmetry of shape, and
delicacy of complexion, on the part of the Georgians and Circassians,
I am, at present, unable to meet. I can only indicate our want of
osteological data, and remind my reader of the peculiar climatologic
conditions of the Caucasian range; which is at once temperate,
mountainous, wooded, and in the neighbourhood of the sea--in other
words, the reverse of all Mongol areas hitherto enumerated. Perhaps,
too, I may limit the extent of such objections _as a matter of fact_.
It is only amongst the chiefs where the personal beauty of the male
portion of the population is at all remarkable. The tillers of the soil
are, comparatively speaking, coarse and unshapely.
GEORGIANS.
_Divisions._--1. Eastern Georgians. 2. Western Georgians. 3.
South-western Georgians. 4. Northern Georgians.
EASTERN GEORGIANS.
_Locality._--The head-waters of the Kur.
_Name._--Cartulinian, from the Province called Carthueli, the
ancient Iberia. The Cartulinian dialect is the Georgian of
Teflis, and the Georgian of the Georgian literature.
_Alphabet._--Peculiar. Probably derived from the Armenian.
WESTERN GEORGIANS.
_Localities._--Guriel, Imeretia, and Mingrelia, _i.e._, the
valley of Phasis.
_Name._--Mingrelian.
_Language._--More like the Lazic than it is to either the
Cartulinian or the Suanic.
SOUTH-WESTERN GEORGIANS.
_Locality._--Lazistan.
_Geographical Limits._--From the promontory of Kyemer-Burnu,
east of Rizeh, east of Trebizond to the mouth of the Tchorok,
south of Batoum. Not further than the Tchorok inland.
_Political Relations._--Subject to Turkey.
_Religion._--Mahometan; converted about 1580, A.D. Previously
(at least in the reign of Justinian) Christians of the Greek
Church.
_Alphabet._--Arabic. Native literature none or scanty.
Sub-dialects numerous, according to Rosen one for almost every
valley. Greek words intermixed; some, probably, of considerable
antiquity.
NORTHERN GEORGIANS.
_Locality._--The head-waters of the Tzchenistoquali, or
Lasch-churi; the Hippus of the ancients.
_Name._--Suanic.
_Conterminous with_ the Northern Mingrelian dialects of the
Georgian, and the Absné dialect of the Circassian. Less like
any of the other Georgian dialects than they are to each other.
The Suanians call--
Themselves, _S`wan_.
The Caratschai Turks, _Ows_.
The Absné, _Mibchaz_.
The Irôn, _Sawi-ar_.
The East Georgians, _M`karts_.
The West Georgians, _Mimrel_.
The Mingrelians, _Mumgrel_.
_Descent._--As the Georgians may reasonably be considered to be the
aborigines of the locality which they, at present, inhabit, they come
before us as an ancient people. The Greek poet, who first sung of
the Argonauts, knew, at least, enough of Colchis to make it a local
habitation for his heroine--though that was not knowing much. The
earliest navigator of the Euxine knew more; for, possibly, at a period
anterior to the colonization of Asia Minor, he knew it as a real land.
The Ægyptians, at the time of Herodotus, knew enough of it to claim it
as a conquest of the great Sesostris. With this claim the question of
_purity_ of the Georgian race commences.
Two separate and definite immigrations have been supposed to have
introduced into Colchis new ethnological elements.
1. _The settlement from Ægypt under the reign of the Great Sesostris._
In §§ 103-105, of his Second Book, Herodotus writes thus:--Sesostris
"overturned both the Scythians and the Thracians; and here, in my
mind, the Ægyptian army reached its furthest point. Thus far the
pillars in question appear; beyond, there are none. From these parts
he turned back, and when he came to the river Phasis, I am unable to
say truly, which of two things occurred; whether the King himself,
having separated a portion of his army, left it as a settlement in the
country, or whether some of his soldiers, harassed by their wanderings,
stayed behind on that river. For the Colchians are evidently Ægyptians.
I say this, having observed it myself, before I heard from any one
else. And, whilst I was considering it, I asked both; and the Colchians
remembered the Ægyptians better than Ægyptians the Colchians. The
Ægyptians said, that they thought that the Colchians were from the army
of Sesostris. This is what I guessed myself, from the fact of their
being both black-skinned and curly-haired. This, however, goes for
nothing. Others are so also. The main reason is that the Colchians, the
Ægyptians, and the Æthiopians are the only men who originally practised
circumcision: since the Phœnicians and the Syrians of Palestine confess
that they learned it of the Ægyptians; whilst the Syrians about the
rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, and the Macrones, who are their
neighbours, say that they learned it recently, from the Colchians.
Come, now, I must mention another fact concerning the Colchians,
wherein they resemble the Ægyptians. They and the Ægyptians are the
only ones who work flax in the same way. And the whole manner of life
and language are mutually alike. The flax from Colchis is called by the
Greeks, _Sardonicon_: that from Ægypt, _Ægyptian_."
As no external evidence will make it probable that the Georgians,
_as a nation_, are of Ægyptian origin, and as, on the other hand,
Herodotus speaks from personal observation, the exact truth is not
easily attainable. Probably, there was an Ægyptian colony on the Black
Sea. Possibly--though not probably--the Colchians were not Dioscurian
aborigines, but immigrants.
2. _The Orpelian settlement from China._--In the thirteenth century,
according to those who are most willing to allow a comparatively high
antiquity to Armenian literature, a work was composed in Armenian, by
Stephen, Archbishop of Siounia. In this, it is stated that a noble
family, called _Ouhrbélêan_, or Orpelian, entered Georgia, settled
on the frontiers of Orpeth, and became the founders of one of the
great families of Georgia; to which family the historian himself
belonged. Finally, it is added, that this family came from _Djenasdan_
or _China_. This is probably a mere tradition; one which, even if
true, would denote an immigration wholly unconnected with the real
ante-historical relations between Caucasus and the Seriform area.
The _true_ elements of intermixture with the Georgian family have been
Greek, Persian, Armenian, Turk, and Russian; as may be collected from
the history of the country. The amount of Lesgian, Irôn, Mizjeji, and
Circassian blood is uncertain.
The safest view to be taken of the history of Georgian civilization
is to remember that, different as may be the languages of Georgia and
Armenia, the political history and the local relations are alike, and
have generally been so. The Christianity of Georgia was from Armenia;
so was its literature; so also its alphabet--although in their present
rounded form its letters are very unlike the square and angular
characters of Armenia.
THE LESGIANS.
_Locality._--Eastern Caucasus, or Daghestan.
_Name._--No native _general_ name. Called by the Circassians
Hhannoatshe; by the Tshetshentsh, Suéli.
_Dialects._--1. Avar, spoken by the tribe who call themselves
Marulan,=mountaineers, from Marul=mountain. Falling into the
Anzukh, Tshari, Andi, Kabutsh, Dido(?), Unso(?) sub-dialects.
2. Kasikumuk. 3. Akush--sub-dialect Kubitsh. 4. Kura of South
Daghestan.
THE MIZJEJI.
_Locality._--West and north-west of the Lesgians.
_Name._--Not native.
_Divisions._--1. Galgai, Halha, or Ingúsh. 2. Kharabulakh or
Arshte. 3. Tshetshentsh. 4. Tushi.
THE IRÔN.
_Locality._--Central Caucasus; conterminous with the Mizjeji on
the East, the Georgians on the south, the Circassians on the
north, and Imeretia on the west.
_Name._--Called by themselves Irôn, by the Georgians, Osi
(Plural Oseti).
As the single skull of the Georgian female did all the mischief in
the physiological ethnography of Caucasus, an Irôn vocabulary has
been the prime source of error in the way of its philology. Klaproth
considered that the number of words common to the Irôn[40] and Persian
languages was sufficient to place the former amongst the Indo-European
languages. More than this, there were historical grounds for believing
that the Irôn was the ancient language of Media[41]--also of the
Alani of the later Roman empire. No man believed all this more than
the present writer until the appearance of Rosen's sketch of the Irôn
(_Ossetic_) grammar. He now believes that the Irôn is more Chinese than
Indo-European.
Assuming, however, that Klaproth's position is correct, it follows
that as the Georgian is undoubtedly akin to the Irôn, it may be
Indo-European also. This is the view taken by Professor Bopp, from
whose work, in favour of this position of the Georgian, the criticism
relating to the numerals was taken. The method is as exceptionable
as the result. If the Georgian be Indo-European, the Chinese is
Indo-European also; and if the vaunted laws concerning the permutation
and transition of letters lead to such philological leger-de-main as is
to be found in more than one work of the German school, our scholarship
is taking a retrograde direction.
However, the character of the Irôn grammar is as follows:--
The declension of nouns is simple; being limited to two numbers and
four cases. Herein the inflection expressive of number can be separated
from the inflection expressive of case--as _fid_-i=_of a father_,
_fid-t`_-i=_of fathers_. Furthermore, the sign of case _follows_ that
of number. Such is the structure of case and number in Irôn, and such
the _sequence_ of the respective inflections expressive of each.
_Singular._ _Plural._
_Nom._ fid[42] fid-t`-a
_Gen._ fid-i fid-t`-i
_Dat._ fid-én fid-t`-am
_Abl._ fid-éi fid-t`-éi.
_Nom._ moi[43] moi-t`a
_Gen._ moi-i moi-t`i
_Dat._ moi-én moi-t-am
_Abl._ moi-éi moi-t`-éi.
The comparative degree is formed by the addition of -_dar_; as
_chorz_=_good_, _chorz-dar_=_better_. This has an Indo-European look.
Compare it with the -τερ of the Greek comparatives. No superlative
inflection.
The true personal pronouns (_i. e._, those of the two first persons)
are as follows;--
A.
1. _Az_=_I_. Defective in the oblique cases.
2. _Man_, or _ma_--Defective in the nominative singular.
A.
_Sing._ _Plural._
_Nom._ ---- mach
_Gen._ man-i mach-i
_Dat._ man-an mach-én
_Accus._ man mach
_Abl._ man-éi mach-éi.
B.
_Nom._ di si-mach
_Gen._ daw-i[44] si-mach-i
_Dat._ daw-on si-mach-én
_Accus._ daw si-mach
_Abl._ da-wéi si-mach-éi.
The signs of the persons are considered to be eminently Indo-Germanic.
They are _-in_, _-is_, _-i_; _-am_, _-ut`_, _-inc`_; _e. g._
Qus-_in_ = aud-_io_ Qus-_am_ = aud-_imus_
Qus-_is_ = aud-_is_ Qus-_ut`_ = aud-_itis_
Qus-_i_ = aud-_it_ Qus-_inc`_ = aud-_iunt_.
I am as little prepared to deny as to affirm the likeness.
The addition of the sound of _t_ _helps_ to form the Irôn preterite.
I say _helps_, because if we compare the form _s-ko_-t-_on_=_I made_,
with the root _kan_, or the form _fé-qus_-t-_on_=_I heard_, with the
root _qus_, we see, at once, that the addition of _t_ is only a _part_
of an inflection. Nevertheless, I am as little prepared to deny as to
affirm its identity with the Persian _d_.
Beyond this, the tenses become complicated; and that because they are
evidently formed by the agglutination of separate words; the so-called
imperfect being undoubtedly formed by affixing the preterite form of
the word _to make_; thus used as an auxiliary. The perfect and future
seem similarly formed, from the auxiliary=_be_.
This may be collected from the following paradigms.
1.
Root, _u_, &c., = _be_. (_Auxiliar._)
_Plural_--_Present_, st-am, st-ut, i-st-i = _sumus_, _estis_, _sunt_.
_Singular_--_Preterite_, u-t-an, u-t-as, u-d-i = _fui_,
_fuisti_, _fuit_.
_Singular_--_Future_, u-gín-an, u-gín-as, u-gén-i = _ero_,
_eris_, _erit_.
_Imperative_ fau = _esto_.
2.
_Root_, k'an = _make_. (_Auxiliar._)
_Preterite_, = s-k`o-t-on,[45] s-k`o-t-ai, s-k`o-t-a = _feci_,
_fecisti_, _fecit_.
3.
_Root_, kus = _hear_.
INDICATIVE.
_Sing._ _Plural._
_Present_, 1. Qus-_in_ Qus-_am_.
2. Qus-_is_ Qus-_ut`_
3. Qus-_i_ Qus-_inc`_.
INDICATIVE.
_Sing._ _Plural._
_Imperfect_, 1. Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_on_ Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_am_
2. Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_ai_ Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_at`_
3. Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_a_ Qus-_ga_-_k`o_-t-_oi_
_Perfect_, 1. fé-_qus_-t-_on_ fé-_qus_-t-_am_
2. fé-_qus_-t-_ai_ fé-_qus_-t-_at`_
3. fé-_qus_-t-_a_ fé-_qus_-t-_oi_
_Future_, 1. bai-_qus_-_g'in_-_an_ bai-_qus_-_g'i_-_stam_
2. bai-_qus_-_g'in_-_as_ bai-_qus_-_g'i_-_stut`_
3. bai-_qus_-_g'én_-_i_ bai-_qus_-_g'i_-_sti_
CONJUNCTIVE.
_Present_, 1. qus-_on_ qus-_am_
2. qus-_ai_ qus-_at`_
3. qus-_ai_ qus-_oi_
_Imperfect_, 1. qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_on_ qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_am_
2. qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_ai_ qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_at`_
3. qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_a_ qus-_ga_-_k`an_-_oi_
IMPERATIVE.
1. ---- bai-_qus_-_am_
2. bai-_qus_ bai-_qus_-_ut`_
3. bai-_qus_-_a_ bai-_qus_-_oi_
INFINITIVE, qus-_in_.
_Participles_, Qus-_ag_, qus-_gond_, qus-_in_-_ag_.
It may safely be said, that no Dioscurian language is _more_
Indo-European than the Irôn.
CIRCASSIANS.
_Locality._--West Caucasus.
_Divisions._--1. True Circassians, calling themselves _Adigé_.
2. Absné.
_Sub-divisions_ of the Absné. 1. Absné. 2. Tepanta (or
Altekesek).
It may safely be said that no Dioscurian language is _less_
Indo-European than the Circassian. Such being the case, its grammar
forms a proper complement to that of the Irôn.
In respect to its sounds, it has the credit, even in Caucasus, of
being the most harsh and disagreeable language of the Caucasian area;
consonants being accumulated, and hiatus being frequent.
The declensional inflections are preeminently scanty. In English
substantives there is a sign for the possessive case, and for none
other. In Absné there is not even this--_ab_=_father_, _ácĕ_=_horse_;
_ab ácĕ_=_father's horse_, (verbally, _father horse_). In expressions
like these, position does the work of an inflection.
Judging from Rosen's example, the use of prepositions is as limited as
that of inflections, _sara s-ab ácĕ ist`ap I my-father horse give_, or
_giving am_; _abna amus`w izbit_=_wood bear see-did_=_I saw a bear in
the wood_; _awinĕ wi as`wkĕ_=(in) _house two doors_; _ácĕ sis`lit_=(on)
_horse mount-I-did_.
Hence declension begins with the formation of the plural number. This
consists in the addition of the syllable _k`wa_.
_Acĕ_ = _horse_; _ácĕ-k`wa_ = _horses_.
_Atsla_ = _tree_; _atsla-k`wa_ = _trees_.
_Awinĕ_ = _house_; _awinĕ-k`wa_ = _houses_.
In the pronouns there is as little inflection as in the substantives
and adjectives, _i. e._ there are no forms corresponding to _mihi_,
_nobis_, &c.
1. When the pronoun signifies possession, it takes an inseparable
form, is incorporated with the substantive that agrees with it, and is
_s-_ for the first, _w-_ for the second, and _i-_ for the third person
singular. Then for the plural it is _h-_ for the first person, _s`-_
for the second, _r-_ for the third: _ab_=father;
_S-ab_ = _my father_; _h-ab_ = _our father_.
_W-ab_ = _thy father_; _s`-ab_ = _your father_.
_T-ab_ = _his (her) father_; _r-ab_ = _their father_.
2. When the pronoun is governed by a verb, it is inseparable also; and
similarly incorporated.
3. Hence, the only inseparable form of the personal pronoun is, when it
governs the verb. In this case the forms are:
_Sa-ra_ = I _Ha-ra_ = we
_Wa-ra_ = thou _S`a-ra_ = ye
_Ui_ = he _U-bart`_ = they.
In _sa-ra_, _wa-ra_, _ha-ra_, _s`a-ra_, the _-ra_ is non-radical. The
word _u-bart`_ is a compound.
The ordinal=first is _achani_. This seems formed from _aka_=one.
The ordinal=second is _agi_. This seems unconnected with the word
_wi-_=_two_; just as in English, _second_ has no etymological
connection with _two_.
The remaining ordinals are formed regularly, by prefixing to the
radical part of their respective cardinals, _-a_, and affixing _-nto_.
_Cardinals._ _Ordinals._
3, Chi-_ba_[46] A-chi-_nto_
4, P`s`i-_ba_ A-p`s`i-_nto_
5, Chu-_ba_ A-chu-_nto_
6, F-_ba_ F-_into_
7, Bis`-_ba_ Bs-_into_
8, Aa-_ba_ A-a-_nto_
9, S`-_ba_ S`b-_into_
10, S`wa-_ba_ Sw-_ento_.
In the Absné verbs the distinction of time is the only distinction
denoted by any approach to the character of an inflection; and here
the change has so thoroughly the appearance of having been effected
by the addition of some separate and independent words, that it is
doubtful whether any of the following forms can be considered as true
inflections. They are _compounds_; _i. e._ forms like _can't_, _won't_,
_I'll_ (=_I will_), rather than forms like _speaks_, _spoke_, τέ-τυφ-α,
&c.
_Root_, C'wisl = _ride_ (equit-o).
1. _Present_, C'wis`l-_ap_ = I _ride_[47] (equit-o).
2. _Present_, C'wis`l-_oit_ = _I am riding_.
_Imperfect_, C'wis`l-_an_ = _equitabam_.
_Perfect_, C'wis`l-_it_ = _equitavi_.
_Plusquamperfect_, C'wis`l-_chén_ = _equitaveram_.
_Future_, C'wis`l-_as˙t_ = _equitabo_.
The person and number is shown by the pronoun. And here must be noticed
a complication. The pronoun appears in two forms:--
1st. In full, _sara_, _wara_, &c.
2nd. As an inseparable prefix; the radical letter being prefixed and
incorporated with the verb. It cannot, however, be said that this is a
true inflection.
1.
_Sing._ 1. _sara s-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _I ride_
2. _wara u-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _thou ridest_
3. _ui i-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _he rides_.
2.
_Plur._ 1. _hara ha-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _we ride_
2. _s`ara s`-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _ye ride_
3. _ubart r-c'_wisl-_oit_ = _they ride_.
_Original area._--The northward extension of the present Circassian
area is limited by the Russians and the Nogay Turks. Now, as each of
these areas has _encroached_, it is reasonable to believe that, at an
earlier period, Circassian tribes may have extended further northward
than at present. At the same time we must be careful not to carry them
too far; otherwise we infringe the area of the Scythians, Sarmatians,
and other nations of antiquity; who, whatever else they were, were
not very likely to have been Circassian. Some point between the Cuban
and the Don is the likeliest limit for the most northern Circassians.
The old line of frontier on the Caucasian side is incapable of
determination.
Amongst the ancestors of the present Circassians are, most probably,
the Zychi (Achæi), Abasgi, Heniochi, Cercetæ, Makropogones, Sindians,
&c.
* * * * *
The question as to the original population of the country which now
separates the nearest point of the Dioscurian area from the Seriform,
will be considered in the section upon the distribution of the Iranian
portion of the Indo-European division of the Iapetidæ. The following is
a selection of words common to the Dioscurian and Aptotic languages:--
[48]·_English_, sky
·Circassian, _whapeh_, _wuafe_
·Aka, _aupa_
·Khamti, _fa_
_English_, sky
·Absné, _kaukh_
Altekesek, _hak_
·Akush, _kaka_
·Burmese, _kydukkhe_
_English_, sky
·Tshetshentsh, _tulak_
·Koreng, _talo_
·Khoibú, _thullung_
_English_, sun
Georgian, _mse_
Mingrelian, _bsha_
Suanic, _mizh_
·Kuanchua, _zhi_
Sianlo, _suu_
·_English_, fire
·Absné, _mza_
Circassian, _mafa_
·Khamti, _fai_
Siam, _fai_
Aka, _umma_
Abor, _eme_
Burmese, _mi_
Karyen, _me_
Manipur, _mai_
Songphu, _mai_
Kapwi, &c., _mai_
·_English_, day
·Tshetshentsh, _dini_
Ingúsh, _den_
Kasikumuk, _kini_
·Koreng, _nin_
Jili, _tana_
Singpho, _sini_
_English_, day
·Andi, _thyal_
·Garo, _salo_
_English_, moon
Georgian, _twai_=_month_
Suanic, _twai_
·Moitay, _ta_
·_English_, star
·Kasikumuk, _zuka_
·Garo, _asake_
Jili, _sakan_
Singpho, _sagan_
·_English_, hill
·Kasikumuk, _suntu_
·Chinese, _shan_
·_English_, earth
·Absné, _tshullah_
Altekesek, _tzula_
·Kapwi, _talai_
Khoibú, _thalai_
_English_, earth
·Andi, _zkhur_
·Mishimi, _tari_
_English_, earth
·Dido, _tshedo_
·Koreng, _kadi_
·_English_, snow
·Lesgian, _asu_
Circassian, _uas_
Abassian, _asse_
·Chinese, _siwe_
·_English_, salt
·Lesgian (3), _zam_
·Chinese, _yan_
_English_, salt
·Kabutsh, _tshea_
Dido, _zio_
Kasikumuk, _psu_
Akush, _dze_
·Tibetan, _tsha_
_English_, dust
·Tshetshentsh, _tshen_
·Chinese, _tshin_
·_English_, sand
·Avar, _tshimig_
·Tibetan, _bydzoma_
·Circassian, _pshakhoh_
·Chinese, _sha_
·_English_, leaf
·Tshetshentsh, _ga_
Ingúsh, _ga_
·Chinese, _ye_
·_English_, tree
·Mizjeji (3), _che_
Circassian, _dzeg_
·Chinese, _shu_
·_English_, stone
·Andi, _hinzo_
·Siamese, _hin_
_English_, sea
Georgian, _sgwa_
Chinese, _shuy_=_water_
Tibetan, _çi_=_do_.
Món, _zhe_=_do_.
Ava, _te_=_do_. (5)
·_English_, river
·Anzukh, _or kyare_
Avar, _hor_, _khor_
·Champhung, _urai_
_English_, river
·Abassian, _aji_
·Tibetan, _tshavo_.
_English_, river
·Altekesek, _sedu_
Absné, _dzedu_
·Songphu, _duidai_
·_English_, water
·Avar, _htlem_, _htli_
Anzukh, _htlim_
Tshari, _khim_
Kabutsh, _htli_
Andi, _ht`len_
Dido, _tli_
_English_, water
Kasikumuk, _sin_
Akush, _shen_
Kubitsh, _tzun_, _sin_
·Singpho, _ntsin_
Jili, _mchin_
Mainpur, _ising_
_English_, water
·Absné, _dzeh_
·Songphu, _dui_
Kapwi, _tui_
Tankhul, _tu_
_English_, water
·Mizjeji (3), _chi_
·Garo, _chi_
·_English_, rain
·Andi, _za_
Ingúsh, _du_
Abassian, _kua_
·Chinese, _yu_
·_English_, summer
·Tushi, _chko_
Mizjeji, _achke_
Chinese, _chia_
·_English_, winter
·Anzukh, _tlin_
Andi, _klinu_
Kasikumuk, _kintul_
Akush, _chani_
Absné, _gene_
·Tibetan, _r gun_
Chinese, _tung_
·_English_, cow
·Circassian, _bsa_
·Tibetan, _r shu_
·_English_, dog
·Avar, _choi_
Andi, _choi_
Dido, _gwai_
Kubitsh, _koy_
Circassian, _khhah_
·Chinese, _keu_
Tibetan, _kyi_
·_English_, horse
·Lesgian (5), _tshu_
Circassian, _tshe_, _shu_
·Tibetan, _r dda_
·_English_, bird
·Avar, _hedo_
·Tankhul, _ata_
_English_, bird
·Andi, _purtie_
·Abor, _pettang_
Aka, _put'ah_
·_English_, fish
·Avar (3), _tshua_
Circassian, _bbzheh_
·Khamti, _pa_
Siamese, _pla_
Aka, _ngay_
Abor, _engo_
Burmese, _nga_
Karyen, _nga_
Singpho, _nga_
Songphu, _kha_
Mishimi, _ta_
Maram, _khai_
Luhuppa, _khai_
Tankhul, _khi_
Anam, _khi_
·_English_, flesh
·Kabutsh, _kho_
Abassian, _zheh_
·Chinese, _shou_
Tibetan, _zhsha_
·_English_, egg.
·Tshetshentsh, _khua_
·Khamti, _khai_
·Siamese, _khai_
_English_, egg
·Kabutsh, _tshemuza_
·Mishimi, _mtiumaie_
_English_, egg
·Akush, _dukhi_
·Garo, _to`ka_
·_English_, son
·Mizjeji (3), _ua_, _woe_
·Tibetan, _bu_
·_English_, hair
·Kasikumuk, _tshara_
·Jili, _kara_
·Singpho, _kara_
_English_, hair
·Avar, _sab_
Anzukh, _sab_
Tshari, _sab_
·Burmese, _shaben_
Manipur, _sam_
Songpho (6), _sam_
_English_, hair
·Tshetshentsh, _kazeresh_
·Karyen, _khosu_
·Tankhul, _kosen_
_English_, head
Georgian, _tawi_
Lazic, _ti_
Tuanic, _tchum_
Chinese, _teu_, _seu_
Anam, _tu d`u_
Ava, _kang_ (5)
_English_, head
Andi, _mier_, _maær_
Assam, _mur_
_English_, head
Absné, _kah_, _aka_
Altekesek, _zeka_
Karien, _kho_
Manipur, _kok_
Tankhul, _akao_
·_English_, mouth
·Lesgian, _kall_
·Chinese, _keu_
Anamese, _kau_
Tibetan, _ka_
_English_, mouth
·Tushi, _bak_
·Teina, _pak_
_English_, mouth
·Georgian, _piri_
Mingrelian, _pidehi_
Tuanic, _pil_
·Ava, _parat_ (4)
_English_, mouth
·Kubitsh, _mole_
·Khoibú, _mur_
Maring, _mur_
_English_, mouth
·Andi, _kol_, _tkol_
Lesgian (3), _kaal_
·Manipur, _chil_
·_English_, eye
·Andi, _puni_
·Chinese, _yan_
·_English_, ear
·Avar, _een_, _ain_, _en_
Anzukh, _in_
Tshari, _een_, _ein_
Andi, _hanka_, _andika_
·Burmese, _na_
Karien, _naku_
Singpho, _na_
Songphu, _anhukon_
Kapwi, _kana_
Koreng, _kon_
Maram, _inkon_
Champhung, _khunu_
Luhuppa, _khana_
Tankhul, _akhana_
Khoibú, _khana_
·_English_, tooth
·Lesgian (3), _sibi_
Avar, _zavi_
Circassian, _dzeh_
·Tibetan, _so_
Chinese, _tshi_
·_English_, tongue
·Circassian, _bbse_
Absné, _ibs_
·Tibetan, _rdzhe_
Chinese, _shi_
·_English_, foot
·Kasikumuk, _dzhan_
·Khamti, _tin_
_English_, foot
·Mizjeji (3), _kog_, _koeg_
·Manipur, _khong_
Tankhul, _akho_
_English_, foot
·Andi, _tsheka_
Kubitsh, _tag_
Jili, _takkhyai_
Garo, _jachok_
_English_, foot
Georgian, _pechi_
Maplu, _pokâ_=_leg_
_English_, finger
Mingrelian, _kiti_
Moitay, _khoit_=_hand_
Play, _kozu_=_do_.
_English_, hand
·Georgian, _chéli_
Lazic, _ieh_
Mingrelian, _ché_
Suanic, _shi_
·Chinese, _sheu_
_English_, hand
·Andi, _katshu_
Kabutsh, _koda_
·Khoibú, _khut_
Manipur, _khut_
·_English_, blood
·Absné, _tsha_, _sha_
Tshetshentsh, _zi_
Ingúsh, _zi_
·Singpho, _sai_
Songpho, _zyai_
Kapwi, _the_
Maram, _azyi_
Champhung, _azi_
Luhuppa, _ashi_
Tankhul, _asu_
_English_, blood
·Dido, _é_
·Manipur, _i_
Khoibú, _hi_
Maring, _hi_
·Mizjeji (3), _zi_
_English_, blood
Tshetshentsh, _yioh_
Circassian, _tlih_
Chinese, _chiue_
_English_, skin
·_English_, skin
·Circassian, _ſteh_
·Chinese, _pi`_
_English_, skin
·Dido, _bik_
·Tibetan, _shbagsbba_
·_English_, bone
·Tshetshentsh, _dyackt_
Ingúsh, _tekhh_
Akush, _likka_
Tshari, _rekka_
·Khamti, _nuk_
Siamese, _kraduk_
_English_, great
·Georgian, _didi_
Mingrelian, _didi_
·Canton, _ta_
Kuanchua, _ta_, _da_
Tonkin, _drai_
Cochin-chinese, _dai_
Tibetan, _çe_
Ava, _kyi_ (5)
Play, _du_
Teina, _to_
_English_, bad
Mingrelian, _moglach_
Suanic, _choya_
·Chinese, _go gok_
Môn, _kah_
Ava, _makaung_ (4)
---- _gye_ (2)
·_English_, warm
·Ingúsh, _tau_
·Tibetan, _dzho_
·_English_, blue
·Mizjeji (3), _siene_
·Chinese, _zing_
Tibetan, _swongbba_
·_English_, yellow
·Circassian, _khozh_
Abassian, _kha_
·Chinese, _chuang_
·_English_, green
·Avar, _ursheria_
Anzukh, _ordjin_
Ingúsh, _send_
·Tibetan, _shjanggu_
_English_, below
Georgian, _kwewrt_, _kwerno_
Ava, _haukma_ (3)
Yo, _auk_
Passuko, _hoko_
Kolaun, _akoa_
·_English_, one
·Lesgian, _zo_
Akush, _za_
Andi, _sew_
Dido, _zis_
Kasikumuk, _zabá_
Mizjeji (3), _tza_
Abassian, _seka_
·Tibetan, _dzig_
_English_, three
·Georgian, _sami_
Lazic, _jum_
Mingrelian, _sami_
Suanic, _semi_
·Canton Chinese, _sam_
Kuanchua, _san_
Tonkin, _tam_
Tibetan, _sum_
Môn, _sum_
Ava (4), _thaum_
Siam (6), _sam_
_English_, four
·Abassian, _pshi-ba_
·Tibetan, _bshi_
Chinese, _szu_
_English_, five
Georgian, _chuthi_
Lazic, _chut_
Mingrelian, _chuthi_
Suanic, _wochu´si_
Ava, _yadu_ (4)
·_English_, six
·Tshetshentsh, _yatsh_
Ingúsh, _yatsh_
Tushi, _itsh_
·Tibetan, _dzhug_.
·_English_, nine
·Circassian, _bgu_
·Tibetan, _rgu_
Chinese, _kieu_
·_English_, ten
·Circassian, _pshe_
Abassian, _zheba_
·Tibetan, _bdzhu_
Chinese, _shi_
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 52.
[37] From _pauros_=_few_, and _syllabæ_=_syllable_.
[38] Dialects of the Georgian.
[39] It is a general accredited fact, that in some cardinals we have
the sign of the ordinal. Thus the _-m_ in _dece-m_, as compared with
δέκα, is reasonably supposed to be the _-m-_ in _deci-m-us_.
[40] Quoted under the name _Ossetic_.
[41] Asia Polyglotta, vox, _Osseti_.
[42] Fid=_father_.
[43] Moi=_husband_.
[44] _Or_ dachi.
[45] Or fa-ko-t-on, &c.
[46] Non-radical.
[47] Or, _am in the habit of riding_.
[48] The different dots denote the different classes of languages--the
first the English, the second the Dioscurian, the third the Aptotic
dialects.
C.
THE OCEANIC MONGOLIDÆ.
The epithet _Oceanic_ is applied to this group because, with
the exception of the Peninsula of Malacca, the tribes belonging
to it are the inhabitants of _islands_ exclusively.
DIVISIONS.
1. THE AMPHINESIAN[49] STOCK.
2. THE KELÆNONESIAN[49] STOCK.
The ocean is the highway between tribe and tribe, or nation and
nation, just in proportion as there is the skill, the experience,
the courage and the necessary equipment for using it. As long as the
mariner's compass was undiscovered the New World was isolated from
the Old. To the Turk on the Hellespont, in the deficiency of even the
rudest elements of water-transport, the narrow stream was an obstacle.
Hence the unscientific character of all _a priori_ generalizations
respecting the influence of land or water as the means of national
intercommunication, or as elements of ethnographical dispersions. The
desert, the prairie, or the ocean, are boundaries that limit, or paths
that extend, the diffusion of tribes and nations, just in proportion as
there is the camel, the horse, or the ship to make them available.
How nations may effect an extension over continuous tracts of land,
has been seen in the examination of the Great Turk area; how nations
may effect an extension where the land is disconnected, and where
the ocean alone is the means of communication, will be seen in the
examination of the great Oceanic area. These two forms of extension
stand in strong contrast to one another.
The best way to appreciate the magnitude of the great Oceanic area, is
to state that with the exception of the Mauritius, the Isle of Bourbon,
Ceylon, the Seychelles, the Maldives, and the Laccadives in the Indian
Ocean, and the Japanese empire with the islands to the north thereof,
in the Chinese Sea, every inhabited spot of land in the Indian and
Pacific Oceans is inhabited by tribes of one and the same race.
Or taking the localities more in detail, we may say that from
Madagascar, on the west, to Easter Island, half way between Asia and
America, and from Formosa to the north, to New Zealand southwards, in
the great islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and New Guinea, in the almost
continental extent of Australia, in groups like the Philippines and the
Moluccas, and in scattered clusters like the Mariannes or the other
islands of the South Sea, the race is one and the same--and that race
_Oceanic_.
Add to all this, that those tribes which are found so widely spread
over the face of the ocean, are so spread almost _exclusively_. They
are not only _everywhere in the islands_, but they are well-nigh
_nowhere on the continent_. In the Peninsula of Malacca, and on no
other part of the main land of Asia, is an Oceanic tribe to be detected.
In an ethnographical distribution such as this, so remarkable for
both its negative and positive phænomena, there is ample ground for
speculation; and of this there has been abundance. I prefer, however,
at present, to suggest a distinction between the Oceanic area of
dispersion and the Turk.
In respect to the former, the _later_ the date we assign to it the more
explicable are the phænomena; in other words, the more advanced the art
of navigation the easier the extension from island to island.
The converse is the case with the latter. The earlier a land migration
takes place, the less is the resistance of the nations around it, and,
consequently, the greater the facilities of its propagation.
_Divisions of the Oceanic Mongolidæ._--I think that if we base our
primary divisions of the great Oceanic stock upon difference of
physical form, they will not be more than _two_; although, by raising
the value of certain sub-divisions, the number may be raised to three,
four, five, or six.
Now as the value of the members of the Oceanic groups is a point upon
which there is a variety of opinion, and as the opinion of the present
writer as to its unity as a whole, is at variance with the systems of
ethnologists, with whom he is diffident of disagreeing, it will be well
to take more than usual pains to give prominence to the leading facts
upon which the current opinions are based; and for the sake of fuller
illustration to carry the reader over the subject by two ways.
_A._ One class of the Oceanic islanders is yellow, olive, brunette,
or brown, rather than black, with long black and straight hair; and
when any member of this division is compared with a native of the
continental portions of the world, it is generally with the Mongol.
_B._ Another class of the Oceanic islanders is black rather than
yellow, olive, brunette, or brown; and when any member of this division
is compared with a native of the continental portions of the world,
it is generally with the Negro. As to the hair of this latter group,
it is always long, sometimes strong and straight; but, in other
cases, crisp, curly, frizzy, or even woolly. Upon these differences,
especially that of the hair, we shall see, in the sequel, that
sub-divisional groups have been formed.
The social, moral, and intellectual difference between these two
classes, in their typical form, is, certainly, not _less_ than the
physical--probably more. The _continuous_ geographical area is,--for
the black division, New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania, New Ireland, and
the islands between it and New Caledonia. For the brown division, all
the rest of the Oceanic area,--Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the Moluccas, the
Philippines, the South Sea Islands, the Carolines, &c.
Now this is one way of viewing the subject, and it is the way which
gives us the contrast in the most marked manner; the typical instances
of each group being put forward.
But another point of view limits the breadth of difference.
It may have been noticed by the reader, that in speaking of the area
occupied by the black and brown nations respectively, I used the word
_continuous_. This was done for the sake of preparing the way for a new
series of facts. In many of the countries proper and peculiar to the
brown or straight-haired occupants, there are to be found, side by side
with them, darker complexioned fellow-inhabitants; blackish and black
tribes; tribes with crisp hair; tribes with woolly hair; and tribes
with hair and hue of every intermediate variety. Furthermore, wherever
the two varieties come in contact, the black and blackish tribes are
the lower in civilization; generally inhabiting the more inaccessible
parts of their respective countries, and, in the eyes of even cautious
theorists, wearing the appearance of being aboriginal.
1. _Names._--For the lighter-complexioned, straighter-haired
type--_Malay_.
2. For the type that partakes of the character of the African Negro
inhabiting New Guinea, Australia, and what may be called the continuous
localities for the unmixed Black--_Negrito_.
3. The tribes with any or all of the Negrito characters, dwelling side
by side with Malays in Malay localities, or in localities disconnected
with the true Negrito area--_the Blacks of the Malayan area_.
I.
_AMPHINESIANS._
_Physical Conformation._--Modified Mongolian. Complexion,
different shades of brown or olive; rarely black. Hair black,
and straight; rarely woolly; oftener (but not often) wavy and
curling. Stature from about five feet three, to, perhaps, five
feet ten.
_Languages._--Generally admitted to contain a certain
proportion of Malay words.
_Area._--The Malayan Peninsula, the Indian Archipelago,
Polynesia, Madagascar. (?)
_Chief Divisions._--1. The Protonesians. 2. The Polynesians. 3.
The Malegasi.(?)
_PROTONESIAN BRANCH._
_Physical Conformation._--Colour---different shades of
brown and yellow. Face, flat; nose, short; eyes and hair,
black and straight; beard, scanty; stature, short. Frontal
profile, retiring; maxillary, prognathic; occipito-frontal,
brackykephalic; orbits, angular.
_Area._--Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Timor, Borneo,
Celebes, the Moluccas, the Philippines, &c.
_Distribution._--With the exception of the Malayan Peninsula,
insular. Islands, large as well as small.
_Religion._--Paganism, Hinduism, and Mahometanism.
_Social and Physical Development._--Maritime, commercial, and
piratical; imperfect agriculture; never nomadic; partially
industrial. Foreign Influences--Arabic and Hindu.
_MALACCA._
_Locality._--The extremity of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula.
_Population._--Mahometan Malays; Blacks of the Malay area;
tribes of intermediate character, both physically and morally.
_Dates (real or supposed)._--The foundation of Singhapura
(Sincapore) 1160 A.D. The foundation of Malacca, 1252 or 1260
A.D. The introduction of Mahometanism, 1276 A.D.
_Alphabet._--Arabic. Limited to the Mahometan Malays.
Respecting the Peninsula of Malacca, the most important point is the
fact of its being the only continental occupation of any Malay nation.
This so naturally suggests the notion of it also being the original
country of the numerous and widely-dispersed Malay tribes, that any
refinement upon the current doctrine seems, at the first view, out
of place. Nevertheless, there is so much room for the question as to
whether Sumatra was peopled from Malacca, or Malacca from Sumatra, the
island from the peninsula, or the peninsula from the island, that the
claims for Malacca to be considered as the birthplace of the Malays
will stand over until the details of Sumatra have been considered.
Whatever, however, may be the case with the antiquity of the people,
the language of the peninsula is the standard Malay. According to
Leyden, it is spoken in the greatest purity in the states of Kedah,
Perak, Salangore, Killung, Johore, Iringano, and Pahang. At Patani
it becomes conterminous with the Siamese. The alphabet is Arabic:
the literary influences are Arabic also; and the highest degree of
antiquity that can be assigned to any proper Malay work is the epoch
of the introduction of Mahometanism, _i.e._ the thirteenth century. In
stating this, I by no means imply that any extant is thus old: I only
imply that none is likely to be older.
The proper Malays themselves, however, are not only a new people in the
peninsula, but they consider themselves as such. All the inhabitants
older than themselves they call _Orang Benua_, or _men of the soil_.
I will first give the names of the particular tribes, and afterwards
introduce the more general terms expressive of the class; premising
that, as a general rule, the _Orang Benua_ population live apart from
the Malays, are found more in the interior than on the coast, are
darker complexioned, and are wilder in their manners.
_Halas._--Tattooed, inhabiting the interior of Perak.
_Jokong, Belandas, Besisik._--Somewhat shorter than the Malays,
although like them. Hair black, often with a rusty tinge; sometimes
lank, generally matted and curly, but not woolly. Eye brighter and
more active than that of the Malay, with the internal angle but little
depressed. Forehead low, not receding. Beard scanty. Legs sturdy. Chest
broad. Nostrils diverging.
The Benuas are divided into tribes, each under an elder, called
_Batin_, there being under each Batin two subordinates, a Jennang and a
Jurokra. The punishments are bloody, murder being punished by drowning,
impaling, and exposure to the sun; adultery also being punishable,
under certain circumstances, with death.
In the inheritance of property the custom of primogeniture prevails.
The sun, moon, and stars receive much of their regard; perhaps
worship. The two superior spirits of whom they have the most definite
conceptions, are named Dewas and Bilun.
A spirit has his abode in the loftiest mountains. The priests, whose
power is proportionate to the superstition of the natives, are called
Poyangs. The soul of a Poyang after death is believed to enter into
the body of a tiger. They are adepts in the magic arts of Besawye,
Chinderwye, and Tuju; this last enables them to kill their enemies by
the force of spells, however distant. The Besawye consists in burning
incense, muttering spells, and invoking, by night, the spirit of the
mountains.
Their food is the product of the hunt, not of agriculture.
_Udai._--The inhabitants of the forests of the _northern_ part of the
peninsula.
_Semang._--The same. Complexion dark; hair curly and matted, but not
frizzled. This is what Mr. Newbold relates; premising that he had no
opportunity of personally judging. Mr. Anderson and Sir S. Raffles
describe this darkness of complexion in stronger terms.
The Semang of Quedah has the woolly hair, protuberant belly, thick
lips, black skin, flat nose, and receding forehead of the Papuan.
The Semang of Perak is somewhat less rude, and speaks a different
dialect.
More than one Malay informed Mr. Newbold that the Semangs were
essentially the same as the Jokong; having the same hair, but a
somewhat blacker skin.
They live in rude moveable huts, constructed of leaves and branches,
scantily clothed, and fed from the produce of the chase, at which they
are expert. Their government is that of chiefs or elders. The Malays
accuse them of only interring the head, and of eating the rest of the
body, in cases of death.
They dip their weapons in blood when ratifying a solemn oath.
White is the favourite; perhaps, the holy colour.
They are fond of music, and have two native instruments--one like a
violin, one like a flute.
They use the sumpitan, having three modes of preparing the poison.
Their dead are _buried_, sometimes in a sitting posture; generally with
their arrows, sumpitan, and their most familiar utensils in the same
grave.
The remaining aborigines belong to the southern parts of the peninsula.
_Rayet Laut_, or _Orang Akkye_.--Differing from the tribes last
described, only in so far as they are residents of the sea-coast, not
of the interior.
SUMATRA.
The divisions political rather than ethnological--the most
important being the kingdom of Atchin, the Batta country, the
kingdom of Menangkabaw, Rejang, Lampong, and Palembang.
ATCHIN.
_Locality._--The Northern or North-Western parts of Sumatra;
conterminal with the Batta country.
_Religion._--Mahometan.
_Alphabet._--Arabic.
The Atchin stand apart from the other Sumatrans, from the extent
to which the Arabs have modified them. The Atchin kingdom, which
was powerful when first visited by the Portuguese, was of Arabic
foundation, and it was through Atchin that the Mahometanism of the
Mahometan Malays was propagated.
THE BATTAS.
_Locality._--South of the Atchin country, and nearly covering
the northern third of Sumatra. Conterminous with the Atchin and
Menangkabaw.
_Religion._--Mahometan.
_Alphabet._--Of Indian origin.
The Battas are somewhat shorter and fairer, than the other Sumatrans;
polygamists; writing, according to Leyden, from the bottom of the page
to the top; accredited cannibals.
MENANGKABAW.
_Locality._--The centre of Sumatra; the kingdom being at one
time extended over almost the whole island.
_Religion._--Mahometan.
_Alphabet._--Arabic.
_Language._--Malay of Malacca, or nearly so.
In its widest extent, the kingdom of Menangkabaw is a political rather
than an ethnographical division. To make it ethnographical, it must be
limited. In this sense it is conterminous with Atchin and the Battas on
the north, extended from east to west, across the whole island in (at
least) some portions of it, in others, probably interrupted in certain
mountain localities of the centre, and probably interrupted between the
river Jambi and Palembang.
Politically speaking, the minor kingdoms of Indrapura, Anak-sungei,
Siak, and Passamang, have grown out of the breaking up of the great
Menangkabaw kingdom. At present, its pure and almost typical Malayan
character--at least as far as resemblance in language to the Malay of
Malacca is concerned--is all that will be noticed.
REJANG.--LAMPONG.
_Locality._--South Sumatra; conterminal with the Menangkabaw
country and Palembang.
_Alphabets._--Of Indian origin.
Of all the Sumatrans, writes Marsden, the Lampongs have the strongest
resemblance to the Chinese, particularly in the roundness of the face,
and the form of the eye. They are the fairest people on the island,
and the women are the tallest and best looking; they are also the most
licentious. The Mahometanism of the Lampongs is imperfect; much of the
old superstition remaining.
_The native Sumatran alphabets._--The alphabets of the Batta, Rejang,
and Lampong tribes, are generally called _native_, although really of
Indian origin. It can scarcely be said that they embody a literature;
still their existence is an important fact. A Sumatran manuscript
is made of the inner bark of a tree, prepared and made smooth, and
cut into long strips of several feet in length. These are folded up
afterwards so as to be square, when each square answers to the page of
a book. For commoner purposes the outer rind of the bamboo is scratched
with a style; often in a remarkably neat manner. The lines run from
left to right, like the lines of the Hindus, and unlike those of the
Arabs.
The preparation of the bark is to shave it smooth and thin, and then
rub it over with rice-water.
The style is used for scratching bamboos. The pen is used for the more
important writings on bark; this is a delicate twig, or the middle of
some leaf. The ink is the root of the dammar pine, mixed with the juice
of the sugar cane.
PALEMBANG.
_Locality._--North of Lampong, on the eastern side of the
island.
_Religion._--Mahometan.
_Political relations._--Subject to Java; and in a great degree,
a Javanese settlement.
The central parts of Sumatra are little known; the mountain chain,
however, that runs from north to south in (about) 2° south latitude,
has been visited by two Englishmen, Mr. C. Campbell and Lieutenant
Dane. Their observations, which are to be found in Marsden's
Sumatra,[50] apply to three elevated valleys--the Korinchi country,
Serampei, and Sungei Tenang. I find in them no traces of any tribe
different from those already mentioned in any important circumstance.
Just south of Sungei Tenang, and east of the Rejang country is Labun,
a mountain district; whilst north of Palembang, and south of the River
Jambi, on the eastern coast, is a flat country covered with wood
and but thinly inhabited. Now, for those who look for the wildest
varieties of the Sumatran tribes, these are the most likely localities.
Accordingly, when Marsden made his inquiries as to the aborigines of
the island, he heard of the Orang Gugu, and the Orang[51] Kubu.
Of these the Orang Gugu, from the parts about Labun, are the wildest
and scarcest, being described as having their bodies covered with hair,
and as being more _orang utan_ than human beings.
The Orang Kubu are said to be pretty numerous, belonging to the other
district; _i.e._ the parts between the Jambi and Palembang. The worst
that is said of these is, that they have a peculiar and unintelligible
language, and that they feed indifferently on elephants, rhinoceroses,
snakes, and monkeys.
A few small islands on the further side of Sumatra require notice.
_Enganho Island._--Natives described by Mr. Miller, in 1771, A.D., as
taller and fairer than the Malays.
_Poggi Islanders, or people of Si Porah and Si Biru._--The manners of
these people are those of the Battas, except that they are more rude;
and that their custom of disposing of the dead is different. The Poggi
Islanders deposit the corpse on a sort of stage in a place appropriated
for the purpose, and strewing a few leaves over it, leave it to decay.
Tattooing is common.
_The Pulo Batu, or Nias Islanders._--These are lighter in complexion
and smaller in stature than the Malays. The custom of stretching the
ears so as even to flap upon the shoulders, is general here. Every
district, and there are upwards of fifty of them, is at war with its
neighbour, and the export of slaves is the consequence.
_Orang Maruwi._--The small islands of Pulo Nako, close upon the
western side of Nias, also Pulo Babi, and Pulo Baniak.--These are
merely noticed for the sake of saying that their dialect is said to
be unintelligible to the Nias and Poggi people, and that a minute
distinction between them has been recognized.
We may now consider some of the moral attributes of the Malay race;
and in doing this there is no better a division of the different forms
of their civilization than the one indicated and illustrated by Dr.
Prichard. The two areas which we have just considered--the peninsula of
Malacca, and the Island of Sumatra--have sufficiently shown that there
are, _at least_, two degrees in the civilization of their occupants.
The civilization of the kingdom of Atchin, and of the proper Mahometan
Malays in general, is a _derived_ civilization, introduced by the
conquerors, the traders, or the missionaries of Mahometan Arabia; in
which we have a literature consisting, to a great extent, of annals, an
Arabic alphabet, and no very prominent traces of any original paganism.
At any rate we have Mahometan culture as the result of Mahometan
influence, the propagators having been Arabs.
The civilization of the Jokong, and of tribes still wilder, like those
of Korinchi country, and other mountaineer districts both of the
Peninsula and Sumatra, is the primitive civilization--such as it is--of
the unmodified Malays. Without saying, that it is nowhere tinctured by
Mahometan elements, it is still an indigenous, and an inferior culture.
Hence, even without reckoning the Samangs as Malay, we have two types
of moral character, and two types of social development--the Jokong
type, or the type of the unmodified Malay, and the proper Malay type of
the Mahometans of Malacca, Menangkabaw and Atchin.
But these two types are not the only ones. Savage as are the Battas,
and nearly as they approach in this respect to the unmodified Malays,
they exhibit signs of a second influence. Notwithstanding their
imperfect Mahometanism, the influence alluded to is not Arabic. The
same influence appears in the Rejang and Lampong Sumatrans as well. I
allude to their alphabets. These are _Indian_ in origin.
For Sumatra, then, and Malacca, we have in different degrees of
development--
1st. The original Malay civilization, if so it can be called.
2nd. The same as modified by Indian influences.
3rd. The same as modified by Arabic influences, engrafted, in some
cases, perhaps, on the original Malay rudeness; but more frequently
upon an Indian modification of it.
This order is chronological; _i.e._ the primitive stage was (of course)
earlier than the Indian, and the Indian earlier than the Arabic.
Another principle of arrangement is the relation which the three
developments bear to each other. In Malacca and Sumatra the Indian
development is the most insignificant, the Mahometan the most important.
To observe how far the ratio between these types varies in different
portions of the Malay area, is one of the chief points in our future
investigations.
Dr. Prichard would study the three forms of Malay development in
Sumatra, in Java, and in the Philippines. In Sumatra for the Mahometan
aspect, in Java for the Indian, and in the Philippines for the
phenomena of indigenous growth and progress. In the main, this view is
a right one. A Philippine language, of all the Malay language, is the
richest in inflections, perhaps also in vocables; and the Philippine
civilization, as found by the first Spanish missionaries, was on a
level with that of any other non-Mahometan or non-Indianized tribe. It
was also essentially Malay. Marsden remarks upon the great similarity
between the few facts known of the early Philippine Mythology and that
of the Battas. So that thus far the Philippines are Malay; and Malay in
its most _developed_ form; also in its more _indigenous_ form. Still
they are not wholly Malay; at least their development is not wholly
independent of extraneous influences. Though there is little about them
Mahometan, their alphabet is _Indian_ in origin.
Borneo, perhaps, is the most unmodified Malay island of the Archipelago.
Hence, such remarks as require to be made upon the moral
characteristics of the Malays in general, as well as the necessary
notices of their manners and customs, must be taken from these two
islands, as they are supplied by them respectively.
_The primitive mythology of the Battas._--One of the few and
fragmentary accounts which we possess of any of the primitive creeds,
is the following one of the Batta theology:--
"The inhabitants of this country have many fabulous stories, which
shall be briefly mentioned. They acknowledge three deities as rulers
of the world, who are respectively named, _Batara-guru_, _Sori-pada,_
and _Mangalla-bulang_. The first," say they, "bears rule in heaven,
is the Father of all mankind, and partly, under the following
circumstances, Creator of the earth; which from the beginning of time
had been supported on the head of _Naga-padoha_; but growing weary at
length, he shook his head, which occasioned the earth to sink, and
nothing remained in the world excepting water. They do not pretend
to a knowledge of the creation of this original earth and water; but
say that at the period when the latter covered every thing, the chief
deity, _Batara-guru_, had a daughter named _Puti-orla-bulan_, who
requested permission to descend to these lower regions, and accordingly
came down on a white owl, accompanied by a dog; but not being able,
by reason of the waters, to continue there, her father let fall from
heaven a lofty mountain, named _Bakarra_, now situated in the _Batta_
country, as a dwelling for his child; and from this mountain all other
land gradually proceeded. The Earth was once more supported on the
three horns of _Naga-padoha_; and that he might never again suffer it
to fall off, _Batara-guru_ sent his son, named, _Layanglayangmandi_
(literally "the dipping swallow"), to bind him hand and foot. But
to his occasionally shaking his head they ascribe the effect of
earthquakes. _Puti-orla-bulan_ had afterwards, during her residence on
earth, three sons and three daughters, from whom sprang the whole human
race.
"The second of their deities has the rule of the air, betwixt earth and
heaven; and the third that of the earth; but these two are considered
as subordinate to the first. Besides these, they have as many inferior
deities as there are sensible objects on earth, or circumstances in
human society; of which some preside over the sea, others over rivers,
over woods, over war, and the like. They believe, likewise, in four
evil spirits, dwelling in four separate mountains; and whatever ill
befalls them they attribute to the agency of one of these demons. On
such occasions they apply to one of their cunning men, who has recourse
to his art; and by cutting a lemon ascertains which of these has been
the author of the mischief, and by what means the evil spirit may be
propitiated; which always proves to be the sacrificing a buffalo, hog,
goat, or whatever animal the wizard happens on that day to be most
inclined to eat. When the address is made to any of the superior and
beneficent deities for assistance, and the priest directs an offering
of a horse, cow, dog, hog, or fowl, care must be taken that the animal
to be sacrificed is entirely white.
"They have also a vague and confused idea of the immortality of the
human soul, and of a future state of happiness or misery. They say that
the soul of a dying person makes its escape through the nostrils, and
is borne away by the wind; to heaven, if of a person who has led a good
life; but if of an evil-doer, to a great cauldron, where it shall be
exposed to fire until such time as _Batara-guru_ shall judge it to have
suffered punishment proportioned to its sins; and feeling compassion
shall take it to himself in heaven: that finally the time shall come
when the chains and bands of _Naga-padoha_ shall be worn away, and he
shall once more allow the earth to sink; that the sun will be then
no more than a cubit's distance from it, and that the souls of those
who, having lived well, shall remain alive at the last day, shall in
like manner go to heaven, and those of the wicked be consigned to the
before-mentioned cauldron, intensely heated by the near approach of the
sun's rays, to be there tormented by a minister of _Batara-guru_, named
_Suraya-guru_, until, having expiated their offences, they shall be
thought worthy of reception into the heavenly regions."[52]
_Cannibalism._--Of all the tribes of the old world those of the Oceanic
stock have most generally, and, I fear, most justly, been accused
of cannibalism. For the sake, however, of giving the full benefit
of any modified form of this horrible habit to nations that have
been improperly charged with feeding on the flesh and blood of their
fellow-creatures, it must be remembered that the simple fact of human
flesh being tasted, does not constitute cannibalism--_i.e._, habitual
cannibalism. It has been tasted by savage tribes under three different
influences.
1. As a mark of honour--Sir Walter Raleigh writes of the Arawaks, that
this was showing posthumous respect.
2. Don Ruy de Guzman, writes of the Charruas, that they were not
cannibals; and what Don Ruy de Guzman states has not been definitely
contradicted. Nevertheless, it has not been denied that after their
discoverer and enemy, Solis, had been killed in war, his body was
tasted, if not eaten. This, however, was exceptional; and was done, not
for the gratification of appetite, but in the way of revenge. Charles
II. disinterred the judges of his father on the same principle; that
is, he did a thing against his own nature and against the usage of his
compatriots, under a violent stimulus.
3. Human flesh is eaten, as _food_, in some cases under incipient
famine only; in others, from absolute appetite, and with other food to
choose from. This last is true cannibalism.
Of cannibalism so gratuitous as to come under the last of these
categories, I know of no authentic cases: that is, I know of no case
where the victim has been other than a captured enemy; but then I
believe that the feast is one of the _certaminis gaudia_.
The evidence is, in my mind, in favour of the Battas of Sumatra being
cannibals in the most gratuitous form in which the custom exists.
_Head-hunting_.--No trophy is more honourable, either among the Battas
of Sumatra, or the Dyaks of Borneo, than a human head; the head of a
conquered enemy. These are preserved in the houses as tokens; so that
the number of skulls is a measure of the prowess of the possessor.
In tribes, where this feeling becomes morbid, no young man can marry
before he has presented his future bride with a human head, cut off by
himself. Hence, for a marriage to take place, an enemy must be either
found or made. To this subject I shall return when treating of Borneo.
_Running-a-muck._--A Malay (and with the exception of the old Berserks,
of the heroic ages of Scandinavia, I know of no one else with whom the
same is said to occur in an equal degree) is capable of so far working
himself into fury, of so far yielding to some spontaneous impulse,
or of so far exciting himself by stimulants, as to become totally
regardless of what danger he exposes himself to. Hence, he rushes
forth as an infuriated animal, and attacks all who fall in his way,
until having expended his morbid fury he falls down exhausted. This is
called _running-a-muck_. It is evidently, if real, a temporary form of
maniacal excitement; but probably, so much under the control of the
will, if strongly exerted, as to be capable of being either checked or
guarded against; a so-called _uncontrollable impulse_, to which, if men
yield in England, they are either hanged or locked up.
_Gambling._--This habit, or rather passion, is shared by the Malays,
the Indians, the Chinese, and the Indo-Chinese; quail-fighting and
cock-fighting being the forms in which it shows itself. A Malay will
lose all his property on a favourite bird; and, having lost that, stake
his family; and after the loss of wife and children, his own personal
liberty: being prepared to serve as a slave in case of losing.
_Slavery_.--Although recognised by the Mahometan religion, and part and
parcel of a social system like that of even the most advanced Malays,
this, in its _worst_ forms, is less general than we are prepared to
expect. Where there are savage tribes in the inland parts of large
districts, and where there are small islands in the neighbourhood of
large ones, where--in other words--the normal condition of society is a
state of war, slavery exists, with a slave-trade superadded. In settled
islands, however, like Celebes and Java, it is generally from debt, and
the consequent forfeiture of personal liberty, that the supply arises.
As such it is limited both in degree and severity.
_Maritime Habits_.--Nothing would be expected, _a priori_, more
than that tribes like the Oceanic should be essentially nautical in
their habits. Their insular position,--their wide dispersion equally
indicate this. And such is the reality. With the exception of the
Negrito portion, all the Oceanic islanders in contact with the ocean,
are maritime in their tastes: many, indeed, of the Negritos are so.
None, however, are more so than the natives of the Indian Archipelago;
and, of these, the proper Malays are the most. The _Phœnicians of
the East_ is a term that has been applied to them; and it has been
applied justly. The primitive vessel is a _prahu_; a long canoe, rowed
sometimes by fifty rowers. In the pirate localities this takes the form
of junk with sails, netting, and brass guns. Of the piracy, however, of
the Indian Archipelago, more will be said hereafter.
_Narcotic stimulants and masticatories._--Chewing the betel-nut is
almost universal in some of the Malay countries; the use of opiates and
tobacco being also common.
The nut of the _Areca catechu_, is wrapped in the leaf of the _piper
betel_, the first being astringent, the second pungent. The addition
of lime completes the preparation. This stimulates the salivary glands,
tinges the saliva red, and discolours the teeth.
_Bodily disfigurations under the idea of ornament._--Of the well-known
stories of the little pinched-up feet of Chinese women I said nothing;
waiting until I came to a ruder stage of society, before I noticed any
of those numerous imaginary improvements upon the human form, which are
almost invariably found amongst the lower tribes of our species. The
Malay dress is becoming; but the Malay habit of permanently disfiguring
parts of the body under the idea of ornament, is of sufficient
prominence to take place amongst the characteristics of the branch.
_a._ _Tattooing._--This is sometimes limited, sometimes general:
sometimes over the whole body, sometimes confined to the arms only. In
Africa the patterns vary with the tribe. In certain Malay districts,
an approach to this distinction may be found; for instance, we hear
in Borneo of some tribes that always tattoo, of others that partially
tattoo, of others that do not tattoo at all. Nay more; the habit
of tattooing seems in some cases to go along with certain other
habits--by no means naturally connected with it. Thus certain of the
Borneo non-tattooed tribes never use the _Sumpitan_, or blowpipe;
whilst others are tattooed, and use it. So at least Sir J. Brooke was
informed; although I think the careful peruser of his journal will find
that the coincidence is not always complete.
_b._ _Depilation._--Malay, but continental as well.--Depilation is
effected either by quick-lime or tweezers. Generally, I believe, the
parts of the body which are meant to be kept smooth are rubbed with
quick-lime; and the isolated hairs that afterwards appear, are plucked
out carefully by tweezers in detail.
_c._ _Filing the teeth, dyeing the teeth._--A Malay habit. There are
not less than three varieties of this operation.
1. Sometimes the enamel, and no more, is filed off. This enables the
tooth to receive and retain its appropriate dye.
2. Sometimes the teeth are merely pointed.
3. Sometimes they are filed down to the gums. This is the case with
many of the Sumatran women of Lampong.[53]
It may be doubted whether this last be wholly due to the process of
filing down.
Dyeing may follow filing, or not, as the case may be.
In Sumatra, where a jetty blackness is aimed at, the empyreumatic oil
of the cocoa-nut is used. Even, however, if no dyeing follow, the
teeth will become black from the simple filing, if the chewing of the
betel-nut be habitual.
_d._ _Distension of the ears._--Many of the tribes that file their
teeth, also distend their ears. Both are Malay habits. In some parts
of Sumatra, when the child is young, the ear is bored, and rings are
put in. Here the process stops in England, and the civilized world. In
other parts, however, the rings are weighted, so as to pull down the
lobe; or ornaments, gradually increased in diameter, are inserted; so
that the perforation becomes enlarged.
Simple perforation may extend to a mere multiplication of the holes of
the ear. In Borneo, the Sakarran tribes wear more earrings than one,
and are distinguished accordingly; "when you meet a man with many rings
distrust him" being one of their cautions. Mr. Brooke met a Sakarran
with twelve rings in his ear.
_e._ _Growth of the nails._--In Borneo, the right thumb-nail is
encouraged to grow to a great length. So it is in parts of the
Philippines.
Such are some of the more prominent Malay customs, others will present
themselves, as other islands come under notice.
_Was Sumatra or Malacca the original country of the Malays?_--The
_primâ facie_ is in favour of the island having been peopled from the
continent.
The traditions, perhaps, indeed, the _histories_ of the Mahometan
Malays complicate this view. According to the earliest accounts,
Malacca and Singhapura were built by settlers from Menangkabaw. The
two commonest accounts of the Mahometan Malaccan settlement, although
disagreeing in certain details, agree in this. In _one_ sense then, at
least, Sumatra is probably the parent state: it is probably the quarter
from which the more civilized Malays of the coast invaded Malacca; and,
if so, is also the earlier civilized locality. But this may be the
case, without invalidating the _primâ facie_ evidence in favour of the
continent being the birthplace of the stock. The Malays of the Jokong
type have never been derived from Sumatra; on the contrary, it is very
probable that the earliest Sumatrans were offsets from Malacca.
At any rate, the Malaccan origin of the earlier Sumatrans, and the
Sumatran origin of the later Malaccans, are perfectly compatible
doctrines.
As to the presumed date of the Malaccan settlements, it has already
been placed in the thirteenth century. Whether this be an historical
fact or not, it is certain that when Marco Polo, anterior to any
Portuguese voyager, visited Sumatra, and described it under the name
of _Java Minor_, the kingdom of Atchin, at least, was powerful,
flourishing, and Mahometan.
JAVA.
_Languages._--1. Sunda, spoken by one tenth of the population,
and limited to the western side of the island.
2. Javan proper, falling into
_a._ The Archaic dialect.
_b._ The Court dialect.
_c._ The popular dialect.
Culture of Indian origin; which, after attaining its full
development, was replaced by Mahometanism, is the leading fact
in the ethnography of Java.
Or--changing the expression--of the three forms of development
the proper Malay, the Indian, and the Arabic, it is the
_second_ which is paramount in Java.
The details of its displacement by Mahometanism are historical
rather than ethnological. Neither are they well ascertained
even as historical facts. The date, however, is some part of
the fifteenth century.
So exclusively have the Indian elements of the Javanese history and
archæology riveted the attention of scholars, that the Mahometan
influence on one side, and the remains of the primitive Malay
development, have been thrown in the back ground.
The Indian elements still extant, are referable to the three following
heads. 1. Language. 2. Literature. 3. Art.
1. _Language._--Notice has been taken of the existence in Java of a
_court_ dialect, the _Bhasa Krama_ or _Bhasa Bhilem_. This, perhaps,
is a phenomenon more redolent of Hindostan, than of the proper Malay
kingdoms. The _Bhasa krama_, however, is by no means the preeminently
Indianized portion of the Javanese language. The _Archaic_ Javanese
is the famous _Kawi_ language. The Kawi language was described by Sir
Stamford Raffles as Sanskrit, that had taken a Javanese form in respect
to its grammar; and it is from the notices of Raffles and Crawford
that the details of the Kawi language were first made known. This
view has been reversed by Wilhelm von Humboldt. His great work on the
Kawi language supplies reasons for considering the Kawi, as ancient
Javanese, loaded with Sanskrit vocables.
2. _Literature._--The Kawi language, an Indianized archaic, or poetical
dialect, is the vehicle for that portion of the older Javanese
literature which is most based upon Sanskrit models. The great poem
in Kawi is the _Bhrata Yuddha_, an imitation of the Mahabharata. The
Javanese annals, whether in Kawi, or Javan, in all probability deserve
the low opinion that Mr. Crawford entertains of them; as there is no
department in literature where a Sanskrit model would be more out of
place, than for historical composition.
3. _Remains of ancient art._--Palaces, tombs, images of Hindu gods, are
all numerous in Java, and all evidence of a previous Hinduism. Some of
the inscriptions are not only Kawi, but Sanskrit.
To these may be added, the still living witnesses to the original Hindu
worship. The Bédui of Bantam, and the people of the Teng'ger mountains
still retain it, although in a corrupted form. Of the latter, the
following is a description taken from Sir S. Raffles' _History of Java_.
"To the eastward of _Surabáya_, and on the range of hills connected
with _Gúnung Dasar_, and lying partly in the district of _Pasúruan_,
and partly in that of _Probolingo_, known by the name of the _Teng'ger_
mountain, we find the remnant of a people still following the Hindu
worship, who merit attention, not only on account of their being (if
we except the _Bédui_ of _Bantam_) the sole depositaries of the rites
and doctrines of that religion existing at this day on Java, but as
exhibiting an interesting singularity and simplicity of character.
"These people occupy about forty villages, scattered along this range
of hills, in the neighbourhood of what is termed the Sandy Sea. The
site of their villages, as well as the construction of their houses,
is peculiar, and differ entirely from what is elsewhere observed on
Java. They are not shaded by trees but built on spacious open terraces,
rising one above the other, each house occupying a terrace, and being
in length from thirty to seventy, and even eighty feet. The door is
invariably in one corner, at the end of the building, opposite to
that in which the fire-place is built. The building appears to be
constructed with the ordinary roof, having along the front an enclosed
veranda or gallery, about eight feet broad. The fire-place is built of
brick, and is so highly venerated that it is considered a sacrilege for
any stranger to touch it. Across the upper part of the building rafters
are run, so as to form a kind of attic story, in which are deposited
the most valuable property and implements of husbandry.
"The head of the village takes the title of _Peting'gi_, as in the
low-lands, and is generally assisted by a _Kabâyan_, both elected by
the people from their own village. There are four priests who are
here termed _Dúkuns_ (a term elsewhere only applied to doctors and
midwives), having charge of the state records and the sacred books.
"These _Dúkuns_, who are in general intelligent men, can give no
account of the era when they were first established on these hills;
they can produce no traditional history of their origin, whence they
came, or who entrusted them with the sacred books, to the faith
contained in which they still adhere. These, they concur in stating,
were handed down to them by their fathers, to whose hereditary office
of preserving them they have succeeded. The sole duty required of
them is again to hand them down in safety to their children, and to
perform the _púja_ (praisegiving), according to the directions they
contain. These records consist of three compositions, written on
the _lontar_-leaf detailing the origin of the world, disclosing the
attributes of the Deity, and prescribing the forms of worship to be
observed on different occasions. When a woman is delivered of her first
child, the _Dúkun_ takes a leaf of the _alang_ grass, and scraping the
skin of the hands of the mother and her infant, as well as the ground,
pronounces a short benediction.
"When a marriage is agreed upon, the bride and bridegroom being brought
before the _Dúkun_ within the house, in the first place bow with
respect towards the south, then to the fire-place, then to the earth,
and lastly, on looking up to the upper story of the house where the
implements of husbandry are placed. The parties then, submissively
bowing to the _Dúkun_, he repeats a prayer, commencing with the words,
'_Hong! kendága Bráma ang'-gas siwang'ga ána ma siwáha sangyang g'ni
sira kang_,' &c.; while the bride washes the feet of the bridegroom. At
the conclusion of this ceremony, the friends and family of the parties
make presents to each of krises, buffaloes, implements of husbandry,
&c.; in return for which the bride and bridegroom respectfully present
them with betel-leaf.
"At the marriage-feast which ensues, the _Dúkun_ repeats two _púja_.
The marriage is not, however, consummated till the fifth day after
the above ceremony. This interval between the solemnities and the
consummation of marriage is termed by them _úndang mántu_; and is in
some cases still observed by the Javans in other parts of the island,
under the name, _únduh mántu_.
"At the interment of an inhabitant of _Teng'ger_ the corpse is lowered
into the grave with the head placed towards the south (contrary to
the direction observed by the Mahometans), and is guarded from the
immediate contact of the earth by a covering of bambus and planks.
When the grave is closed, two posts are planted over the body: one
erected perpendicularly on the breast, the other on the lower part of
the belly; and between them is placed a hollowed bambu in an inverted
position, into which, during seven successive days, they daily pour a
vessel of pure water, laying beside the bambu two dishes, also daily
replenished with eatables. At the expiration of the seventh day, the
feast of the dead is announced, and the relations and friends of the
deceased assemble to be present at the ceremony, and to partake of
entertainments conducted in the following manner:
"A figure of about half a cubit high, representing the human form,
made of leaves and ornamented with variegated flowers, is prepared
and placed in a conspicuous situation, supported round the body by
the clothes of the deceased. The _Dúkun_ then places in front of the
garland an incense-pot with burning ashes, together with a vessel
containing water, and repeats the two _púja_ to fire and water; the
former commencing with, '_Hong! Kendága Bráma gangsi wang'ga ya nama
siwáha_," &c.; the latter with, "_Hong! hong gang'ga máha tirta ráta
mejil saking háti_, &c.; burning _dúpa_, or incense, at stated periods
during the former; and occasionally sprinkling the water over the feast
during the repetition of the latter.
"The clothes of the deceased are then divided among the relatives
and friends; the garland is burned; another _púja_, commencing with,
"_Hong! áwigna mastúna ma sidam, hong! aráning_," &c., is repeated;
while the remains of the sacred water are sprinkled over the feast.
The parties now sit down to the enjoyment of it, invoking a blessing
from the Almighty on themselves, their houses, and their lands. No more
solemnities are observed till the expiration of a thousand days; when,
if the memory of the deceased is beloved and cherished, the ceremony
and feast are repeated; if otherwise, no further notice is taken of
him: and having thus obtained what the Romans call his _justa_, he is
allowed to be forgotten.
"Being questioned regarding the tenets of their religion, they replied
that they believed in a _Déwa_, who was all-powerful; that the name
by which the _Déwa_ was designated was _Búmi Trúka Sáng'yáng Dewáta
Bátur_, and that the particulars of their worship were contained in a
book called _Pángláwu_, which they presented to me.
"On being questioned regarding the _ádat_ against adultery, theft,
and other crimes, their reply was unanimous and ready--that crimes of
this kind were unknown to them, and that consequently no punishment
was fixed, either by law or custom; that if a man did wrong, the head
of the village chid him for it, the reproach of which was always
sufficient punishment for a man of _Teng'ger_. This account of their
moral character is fully confirmed by the Regents of the districts,
under whose authority they are placed, and also by the residents.
They, in fact, seem to be almost without crime, and are universally
peaceable, orderly, honest, industrious, and happy. They are
unacquainted with the vice of gambling and the use of opium.
"The aggregate population is about twelve hundred souls; and they
occupy, without exception, the most beautifully rich and romantic spots
on Java; a region in which the thermometer is frequently as low as
forty-two. The summits and slopes of the hills are covered with Alpine
firs, and plants common to an European climate flourish in luxuriance.
"Their language does not differ much from the Javan of the present day,
though more gutturally pronounced. Upon a comparison of about a hundred
words with the Javan vernacular two only were found to differ. They
do not marry or intermix with the people of the low-lands, priding
themselves on their independence and purity in this respect."
BALI.
As in Java, the people of Bali took a civilization from India. Unlike
the Javanese, they have retained it to the present day.
SUMBAWA, ENDÉ, OMBAY.
At Bali and Java, the type is unequivocally Malay. At Timor it is Malay
also, but altered. The Timorians are considerably darker than the
Javanese; their features are coarser, their lips are sometimes thick,
and their hair often frizzy. In the islands between, occur numerous
transitional forms; both in feature and language.
In respect to this last, the islands at the head of this section afford
three remarkable vocabularies. 1. The Timbora, from a district of
Sumbawa; 2. The Mangarei, from a part of Endé, or Floris; 3. The Ombay,
from the island so called; the inhabitants of which are described by
Arago as black cannibals with flattened noses and thickened lips.
In each of these vocabularies, Malay words form the greater proportion.
In each of them, however, are also found Australian vocables.
The following, from the three _very short_ vocabularies of these three
languages, are what I published in the Appendix to Mr. Jukes' Voyage of
the _Fly_.
1. Arm=_ibarana_, Ombay; _porene_, Pine Gorine dialect of Australia.
2. Hand=_ouine_, Ombay; _hingue_, New Caledonia.
3. Nose=_imouni_, Ombay; _maninya_, _mandeg_, _mandeinne_, New
Caledonia; _mena_, Van Diemen's Land, western dialect: _mini_,
Mangarei: _meoun_, _muidge_, _mugui_, Macquarie Harbour.
4. Head=_imocila_, Ombay; _moos_ (= hair), Darnley Island; _moochi_ (=
hair), Massied; _immoos_ (= beard), Darnley Islands; _eeta moochi_, (=
beard) Massied.
5. Knee=_icici-bouka_, Ombay; _bowka_, _boulkay_ (= forefinger),
Darnley Islands.
6. Leg=_iraka_, Ombay; _horag-nata_, Jhongworong dialect of the
Australian.
7. Bosom=_ami_, Ombay; _naem_, Darnley Island.
8. Thigh=_itena_, Ombay; _tinna-mook_ (= foot), Wioutro dialect of
Australian. The root, _tin_, is very general throughout Australia in
the sense of _foot_.
9. Belly=_te-kap-ana_, Ombay; _coopoi_ (= navel), Darnley Island.
10. Stars=_ipi-berre_, Mangarei; _bering_, _birrong_, Sydney.
11. Hand=_tanaraga_, Mangarei; _taintu_, Timbora; _tamira_, Sydney.
12. Head=_jahé_, Mangarei; _chow_, King George's Sound.
13. Stars=_kingkong_, Timbora; _chindy_, King George's Sound, Australia.
14. Moon=_mang'ong_, Timbora; _meuc_, King George's Sound.
15. Sun=_ingkong_, Timbora; _coing_, Sydney.
16. Blood=_kero_, Timbora; _gnoorong_, Cowagary dialect of Australia.
17. Head=_kokore_, Timbora; _gogorrah_, Cowagary.
18. Fish=_appi_, Mangarei; _wapi_, Darnley Island.
It is considered, that this list, short as it, is calculated to
contract the broad line of demarcation, implied in the following
extract from Marsden:--
"We have rarely met with any Negrito language, in which many corrupt
Polynesian words might not be detected. In those of New Holland or
Australia, such a mixture is not found. Among them no foreign terms
that connect them with the languages, even of other _Papua_ or Negrito
countries, can be discovered; with regard to the physical qualities of
the natives, it is nearly superfluous to state, that they are Negritos
of the most decided class."
TIMOR.
The multiplicity of languages, or dialects, spoken on the island
Timor, has been noticed by most voyagers. Some have put the mutually
unintelligible forms of speech as high as thirty. Unfortunately the
details of this variety are not known. Such Timor vocabularies as
we possess, represent the language of Koepang; the locality where
the contact with the trading world both of the East and West, is
greatest, _i.e._, with the Dutch and with the Malays. This makes the
language Malay--though less Malay than the Malay of Sumatra, Celebes,
and Borneo; the points wherein it differs being, frequently, points
wherein it agrees with the Bima, Savu, and Endé, and other intermediate
islands. Nevertheless, it is highly probable that the Timor of
Koepang no more exactly represents the languages of some of the
wilder mountaineers of the interior, than the Malay of Kedah exactly
represents the languages of the Samang or Jokong.
When the wilder inhabitants are represented at all, they are
represented as approaching the character of the Negro.
On the other hand some are fairer than the generality. Both these
are phenomena that we have either seen before, or shall see in the
sequel--in the Samang of Malacca, and the Dyaks of Borneo, as well as
in Durville's Arafuras of Celebes.
In one particular village, near the north-eastern extremity, Mr. Earle
found red hair, a specimen of which was in the possession of Dr.
Prichard. In noting this, we must also note the habit of colouring the
hair, which will be shown in the sequel to be a Papua custom.
Curly hair also was met with by the same observer; and so was coarse
bushy hair; those tribes where it was found being the tribes that
suffered from the oppression of the others, and which supplied them
with slaves.
TIMOR LAUT.
From an English sailor who lived sometime in Timor Laut as a prisoner
and a slave, I had the opportunity of collecting a few facts concerning
Timor Laut, or _Timor of the Sea_. The numerals, which was all he knew
of the language, were Malay. The people he described as dark, but not
so dark as some of the slaves, whom they were in the habit of either
purchasing or stealing. He knew of no second race, nor of any second
language in the island.
THE SERWATTY AND KI ISLANDS.
For the Serwatty and Ki Islands, the best, indeed, nearly the only
information, is to be collected from the voyage of the _Durga_, and
from subsequent observations by Mr. Earle, the translator of the
Voyage, and himself an independent investigator. Here, with one
exception, the personal appearance was that of the Javanese and Bugis.
The language throughout, which was particularly investigated, is
Oceanic, _i.e._, approaching the Malay or the Polynesian. The Kissa
dialect, the one best known in detail, exhibited some letter-changes,
which will be found frequent in the Polynesian, viz., _h_ for _s_, _k_
for _t_, _w_ for _b_, along with the ejection of the final _ng_.
ENGLISH. KISSA. BUGIS.
_Stone_ wahku bahtu.
_Heavy_ werek beret.
_Heart_ akin ati.
_Dead_ maki mati.
_Slave_ ahka ata.
_Yam_ ubi uwi.
_Feather_ huhu bulu.
_Milk_ huhu susu.
_Hard_ kereh keres.[54]
MOA.
Moa is one of the Serwatty group; and it forms the exception just
noticed. In Moa, and in Moa alone, did Mr. Earle find the coarse bushy
hair, the dark complexion, and the muddy sclerotica that suggested the
idea of a Papua[55] intermixture. The Moa people are oppressed and
kidnapped by the natives of the neighbouring island of Letti.
Subsequent enquiry showed that they had migrated from the south side of
Timor.
THE ARRU ISLES.
Like the last, the Arru Isles are known to us, from the voyage of the
_Durga_, and Mr. Earle's notices. He especially excepts them from
the category of the Ki and Serwatty groups. In the Arru Islands, he
recognised Papua characters, and refers them to Papua intermixture. In
the southern part of the group this is most conspicuous.
Timor, and the Arru Islands bring us to Australia, and New Guinea,
parts of Kelænonesia, or true Negrito areas. How far the transition
from the Oceanic tribes of the Protonesian to the Oceanic tribes of the
Negrito type, both in the way of language and physical conformation,
is abrupt or gradual, is to be studied in the islands last enumerated.
At present we will return to Java, and follow the Malay population in a
different direction, _i.e._ from south to north, rather than from east
to west.
BORNEO.
Of all the portions of the Indian Archipelago, the vast island of
Borneo, the greatest in the world after Australia, and lying under the
Equator, presents us with the Malay development on the largest scale.
In the exceeding paucity of the elements of Indian culture it stands in
remarkable opposition to Java, and even to Celebes and the Philippines,
whilst the Mahometan influences are extended but little beyond the
large towns and the coast. Hence the central parts are Malay in the
most unmodified form; even as the Batta districts of Sumatra are Malay.
Our knowledge, however, has by no means been proportionate to the
number and variety of facts capable of being elicited. Indeed, with the
exception of New Guinea, Central Africa, and parts of South America,
Borneo has been, to the ethnologist, the darkest area in the world.
That there were Mahometan Malays in the towns, that there were pirates
on the coast, and that there were _Dyaks_ in the interior has, until
lately, been the sum of our information. As far as it goes this is
true. In addition, however, there has been (and continues to be) a
belief in the existence of _Blacks_ in the more inaccessible parts of
the mountains, especially the Kenebalow range.
As to the vocabularies, scanty as they were (and are), they have
always been sufficient to prove a Malay origin, for such tribes as
they represented. Whether, however, the population was homogeneous
throughout, or whether there was a second (so-called) race, analogous
to the Samangs of Malacca was uncertain.
The publication of the observations of the Rajah of Sarawak, and of his
visitors, has dispelled much darkness. Still the light is imperfect;
or, rather, it is partial. What we now know we know in detail, and
on authoritative evidence; our knowledge being, chiefly, for the
north-western coast, from Pontianak, on the Equator, to the parts round
the Kenebalow mountain on the northern extremity of the island.
I shall just give so much of Sir J. Brooke's observations as bear upon
those points wherein the ethnology of Borneo either explains or differs
from that of Sumatra.
The Borneo equivalents to the Battas of Sumatra are the Dyaks; a term
applied by the Mahometan Malays to the non-Mahometan portion of the
population. The utter absence of an alphabet is the first point of
distinction. The _comparative_ absence of a Hindoo mythology is the
second. Fragmentary and distorted as is the Hindu Pantheon in Sumatra,
it has had still less influence in Borneo. However, it exists in
the terms _Jowata_ and _Battara_ (at least), and in certain _real_
elements of the Dyak creed as well. These names are connected with the
cosmogony--when Jowata took the earth in both hands, and the right
handful became man, the left, woman. Below the earth is Sabyan; where
the houses are fitted up with moskito curtains, and where there are
other creature-comforts besides. Euhemeristic elements are superadded.
The memory of great chieftains is held in superstitious reverence;
Beadum being one of them. Numerous details in the way of superstitions,
regarding charms and omens, and the ceremonies attendant upon births,
deaths, and marriages, fill up the picture of the paganism of Borneo.
I am not aware, however, that any of them, curious as they are, are of
sufficient importance to indicate either new ethnological affinities in
respect to the tribes that adopt them, or to induce us to refine upon
old ones. Indeed, the customs, as between tribe and tribe, are far from
being uniform; as, for instance, in regard to the burial of the dead.
Some burn the corpse, but without any ceremonies. Others place it in
a light coffin, suspended on the bough of a tree, and so leave it. In
some cases the forms are few or none. In others they are preeminently
elaborate.
As a mark of distinction between different tribes, two customs take a
prominent place: the habit of tattooing, and the use of the sumpitan.
The first is either general, or limited to certain parts of the body.
In some tribes it is not adopted at all.
The second is a pipe, about five feet long; with an arrow made of wood;
thin, light, sharp-pointed, and dipped in the poison of the upas-tree.
As this is fugacious, the points are generally dipped afresh when
wanted. At least five arrows can be discharged in the time required for
loading and firing a musket. For about twenty yards the aim is so true,
that no two arrows shot at the same mark will be above an inch or two
apart. The utmost range is one hundred yards. The poison is virulent,
but not deadly.
In many cases the use of the sumpitan (which is by no means universal)
and the habit of tattooing go together.
Numerous other _differentiæ_, equally important (or unimportant), may
be collected from any of the recent works on Borneo.
_Head-hunting._--This is one of the Malay habits, which is better
studied in Borneo than elsewhere. The earliest writers describe the
Dyaks as being cannibals, and something more; as being hunters of their
kind, not merely for the sake of an unnatural feast, but simply for
the sake of collecting heads as articles of _virtù_. Something of this
sort, in the way of gratuitous bloodshed, we have seen in Sumatra, and
something of the sort we shall find in the Philippines, and (I fear)
elsewhere also.
In Borneo it is one of the essential elements of courtship. Before a
youth can marry he must lay at the feet of his bride elect, the head
of some one belonging to another tribe, killed by himself. According,
then, to theory, every marriage involves a murder. I believe, however,
that the practice is less general than the theory demands. Still a
morbid passion for the possession of human heads is a trait of the Dyak
character. Skulls are the commonest ornaments of a Dyak house, and the
possession of them the best _primâ facie_ evidence of manly courage.
There is, then, a continual cause of bloodshed on land, and there is
piracy by sea; the northern parts of Borneo, and the Sulu Archipelago,
being the chief seats of the latter. Indeed the corsairs that give a
dangerous character to the Indian Archipelago are almost all from these
parts.
These two forms of warfare, the chronic state of hostility for the
parts inland, and the system of robbery on the high seas, supply some
of the elements of an explanation of the system just noticed; to which
may be added the division of the population into a multiplicity of
distinct tribes. Still, it is so good a rule to receive with scepticism
all accounts that violate the common feelings of human nature, that I
allow myself to believe that causes, as yet imperfectly understood,
modify and diminish a practice so horrible as the one in question.
That it should be so general as the theory demands is incompatible
with the proportions between the male and female population, which are
much the same in Borneo as elsewhere. So it is, also, with the express
statement of Sir J. Brooke, who says, that the passion for heads has
much diminished amongst certain of the Sarawak tribes. In one case,
an offer of some was refused; the reason alleged being that it would
revive fresh sorrows. The parties who thus declined, gave a favourable
account of some of the customs by which the horrors of a Dyak war were
abated:--
"If one tribe claimed a debt of another, it was always demanded, and
the claim discussed. If payment was refused, the claimants departed,
telling the others to listen to their birds, as they might expect an
attack. Even after this, it was often the case, that a tribe friendly
to each mediated between them, and endeavoured to make a settlement of
their contending claims. If they failed, the tribes were then at war.
Recently, however, Parimban has attacked without due notice, and often
by treachery, and the Sow Dyaks, as well as the Singè, practise the
same treachery. The old custom likewise was, that no house should be
set on fire, no paddy destroyed, and that _a naked woman_ could not be
killed, nor a woman with child. These laudable and praiseworthy customs
have fallen into disuse, yet they give a pleasing picture of Dyak
character, and relieve, by a touch of humanity, the otherwise barbarous
nature of their warfare.
"_Babukid, bubukkid, or mode of defiance._--I have before mentioned
this practice of defiance, and I since find it is appealed to as a
final judgment in disputes about property, and usually occurs in
families when the right to land and fruit-trees comes to be discussed.
Each party then sallies forth in search of _a head_; if one only
succeed, his claim is acknowledged; if both succeed, the property
continues common to both. It is on these occasions that the Dyaks are
dangerous; and perhaps an European, whose inheritance depended on the
issue, would not be very scrupulous as to the means of success. It must
be understood, however, that the individuals do not go alone, but a
party accompanies each, or they may send a party without being present.
The loss of life is not heavy from this cause, and it is chiefly
resorted to by the Singè and Sows, and is about as rational as our
trials by combat."
This babukid must be a check of a permanent sort.
_Houses._--With certain of the Dyak tribes the houses are not huts, nor
yet mere dwelling-houses of ordinary dimensions. They hold from one
hundred to two hundred persons each; and are raised above the ground on
piles. This form of domestic architecture is important in itself; and
it is also important, because it appears again in New Guinea, and has
already been found in Java.
The conclusion which we come to from our present _data_ in respect to
Borneo is, that the whole population is Malay, in the way that the
Sumatran population is Malay; _i.e._ within comparatively narrow limits.
_a._ There is no tribe so different from the Mahometan Malays as the
Samang are from the Malays of Malacca.
_b._ Still less is there any representative of a lower form of
humanity; such as the fabulous Orang Gugu and Orang Cúbu of Sumatra are
said to be; although, as in Sumatra, there are reports of the kind.
The tribes described by Mr. Brooke are chiefly the Lundu, Sakarran, the
Sarebas, the Suntah, Sow, Sibnow, Meri, Millanow, and Kayan; also the
Bajow, or Sea-Gipsies, who live as wanderers (pilots or pirates, as the
case may be) on the ocean, and are found on Borneo, the Sulu islands,
Celebes, and elsewhere.
The vocabularies given by Sir J. Brooke are--1. the Suntah; 2. Sow; 3.
Sibnow; 4. Sakarran; 5. Meri; 6. Millanow; 7. Malo; 8. Kayan. These
last are extended very nearly to the centre of the island.
In the way of intermixture, the nations that are most in contact with
the Borneans, especially the Mahometan Malays, are the Arabs and
Chinese.
CELEBES.
_Languages or dialects._--_a._ The Bugis.[56] _b._ The
Macassar. _c._ The Mandhar. _d._ The Harafura of Durville (Qu.
the Turaja of Crawfurd and Raffles).
_Alphabet of the Bugis._--Like, but probably formed
independently of the Tagala alphabet of the Philippines;
Sanskrit in origin.
Although the Mandhar and Macassar languages, or dialects, are less
developed as the instruments of literature than the Bugis, and although
the area over which they are spoken is less, whilst their commercial
importance is inconsiderable, there is no reason to believe that they
represent a civilization different in _kind_ from that of the Bugis.
This is not the case with the fourth dialect. I have called it the
Harafura of Durville, because the only vocabulary known to me has
been collected by that voyager. It is Malay, as truly as the Dyak of
Borneo is Malay; whilst those who speak it, although called Harafuras,
are Dyaks in frame and complexion. They were seen by Durville; and
especially described as being fairer in complexion than the other
inhabitants of the island. I have little doubt but that the Harafuras
of Durville are the Turajas of Crawfurd and Raffles.
The Bugis, however, represent the learning, and the commercial activity
of Celebes.
At present they are Mahometans. In A.D. 1504, when they were visited by
the Portuguese, they were beginning to be so; their missionaries being
the Mahometans of Sumatra and Malacca, and the religion, which was
displaced, being Hinduism.
How far this came direct from India, or how far it came by way of Java,
is uncertain. The results were the same for the two islands--in kind,
but not in degree. An alphabet, and a literature, indicative of Indian
influence, are common to both Java and Celebes. In the first island,
however, they are the more developed. Inscriptions have hitherto been
found in Java alone. The remains of temples have been attributed to
Celebes, but they have not been described, and they have not been seen
by Europeans.
The safe inference is, that the Hindu civilization extended itself
somewhat later to Celebes than it did to Java; and that it took root
less generally.
The Bugis are essentially maritime and commercial; and their name in
the latter department is a good one; they being active, enterprising,
and men who consider themselves bound by what they say.
_Bugis approach to a constitutional government._--I am following,
implicitly, both the facts and the deductions of Sir J. Brooke, who
writes from personal knowledge of the island of Celebes, which he
visited from his Rajahship of Sarawak, in giving prominence to what may
be considered the nearest approach to a _constitution_, that is to be
found in any Malay area.
One of the kingdoms into which the southern limb of Celebes is divided
is the kingdom of Wajo. Beginning with the lowest ranks, the so-called
constitution of Wajo is as follows:--
_Servitude._--This is of a mild form, and of the domestic kind.
Although so extensive in respect to its _numerical_ dimensions, as for
one freeman to have, sometimes, upwards of fifty slaves, an export
or import trade is unknown. Debt creates the usual supply; since by
incurring an amount which he cannot discharge by means of his property,
the debtor forfeits his personal freedom. As this forfeiture extends to
his family, bondsmanship becomes hereditary.
_Freeman not of noble birth._--The lowest sort of political power
exercised by a _freeman not of noble birth_, seems to be the power of
holding meetings, where opinions may be stated, but where resolutions
can not be passed. The practical bearing of this seems to be, that
the higher magistrates have a means of knowing the feelings of the
population at large upon any particular measure. Such meetings are
convened by the special representatives of the people, _i.e._ of the
not _noble_ portion of the state--the _Pangawas_.
_The Pangawas._--These are rude analogues of the _tribunes_ of the
Roman constitution. They are elected by the people. They, alone, can
convene certain councils. They have a _veto_ upon the appointment of
the _aru matoah_, or sovereign magistrate. The details as to the state
of the towns and villages, and the number of the population is in their
hands. No summons to military service is valid without their consent.
The number of pangawas is three.
_The Council of Forty._--A council of forty arangs, or nobles of
inferior rank, is appealed to in cases of importance and difficulty by
the--
_Six hereditary Rajahs._--Of these, three are civil, and three
military. With these rests the election of the--
_Aru Matoah_, or chief magistrate.
Reversing the view here taken, and looking at the Wajo constitution
from its highest elements downwards, the form becomes as follows:--
Aru Matoah.
The six Rajahs, of which the _Aru Beting_ is chief.
Council of Forty.
Three Pangawas.
General Council, or Meeting.
I must confess, that in the details both of the Wajo and Boni
Constitutions, as given by Sir J. Brooke, I find several difficulties
and inconsistencies. I presume, however, that each is accurate in the
main points, and also that it is (so to say) _more of a constitution_
than could easily be found in any Malay parts elsewhere.
The Boni Constitution, just mentioned, is that of another of the
Bugis kingdoms. It is the same in principle as that of Wajo, but less
attended to in practice.
I agree, too, in the comparison between these constitutions and those
forms of European feudalism wherein the right of free citizens first
began to be respected. I am also well prepared to believe that,
however much the _written_ constitution may have in it the elements of
self-developed political freedom, the _details_ of its working may be
unsatisfactory; as we are especially informed is the case. When I find
that each rajah is said to possess the power of life and death over his
retainers, I find a statement that requires much explanation before
it can be made compatible with the asserted freedom of the people at
large. So also I observe, that the office as _pangawa_ is, practically,
hereditary--a great limitation to a true tribunicial authority.
An element of confusion, rather than a restraint upon individual
freedom, is to be found in the principle upon which the _aru matoah_ is
elected. The six rajahs must be unanimous. Failing this, one of them,
the _aru beting_, with the support of the _pangawas_, and the council
of forty, may nominate. Furthermore, during the vacancy, the _aru
beting_ acts as the _locum tenens_, but only within certain limits. He
is no _aru matoah_ in the eyes of the other Bugis kingdoms, so that
he is no _aru matoah_ for any matters of what may be called _foreign
policy_.
As unanimity is rare, and as the _aru beting_ has an interest in
keeping the tenure of supreme power in abeyance, disputed elections
continually interfere with the peace of the Bugis states; from whence
it follows, as a necessary consequence, that the powers of the six
hereditary rajahs increase at the expense of the powers of the _aru
matoah_; a process by which the government becomes a close oligarchy,
rather than an elective monarchy.
As a foundation for a constitution like the preceding, tenacity of the
purity of blood must, necessarily, be a leading element. It exists in
Celebes to the fullest extent. Though men may marry in a caste below
the one they belong to, women are limited to their own. The practice
here is more equalizing than the rule.
In Bugis polygamy, separate wives have separate establishments, and
years may elapse without husband or wife having any communication with
one another. Still, unless a divorce--procurable on light grounds--be
effected, the marriage continues.
To the highest offices of the state, even to that of _aru matoah_,
women are eligible; so much so that, at the present moment, four out of
six of the hereditary rajahs are females.
* * * * *
"The strangest custom I have observed (_i.e._ among the Bugis) is, that
some men dress like women, and some women like men; not occasionally,
but all their lives, devoting themselves to the occupations and
pursuits of their adopted sex. In the case of males, it seems that
the parents of a boy, upon perceiving in him certain peculiarities of
habit and appearance, are induced thereby to present him to one of the
rajahs, by whom he is received. These youths acquire much influence
over their masters. It would appear, however, from all I could learn,
that the practice leads among the Bugis to none of those vices that
constitute the opprobrium of Western Europe."[57]
By allowing ourselves to argue from the sanctity attributed by
many ancient nations (_e.g._ the Greeks and Germans) to the female
character, and by comparing the form which this strange custom takes
in Borneo, where it is connected with the sacerdotal office, we arrive
at a plausible explanation. Among the Sea Dyaks "their doctor, or
magician, or both combined, is a man set apart for that office, who is
thereafter considered as a woman. _She_, or _he_ marries a husband,
adopts children, dresses as a female, and lives amongst the women,
performing the domestic duties peculiar to the sex. The principal
occupation is curing people by divers charms, driving away the devil
and evil spirits. It must be allowed that the whole constitution of
this office is an example of gross superstition; but the ceremonies
attendant on it are in themselves inoffensive. A branch of a tree is
fixed on the house; around it white cloth is wrapped; and near this
spot the spathe of the betel or areca tree is placed (the spathe being
indispensable); then the people assemble, and with unseemly noises
rattling shells and beating gongs proclaim their joy and satisfaction.
"The office itself is called 'Manang;' and no particular age is
specified, the 'Manang' being young or old, as chance may determine.
The present occupier of this important post became so when quite a
child, and he is now well stricken in years, and much respected by his
tribe."[58]
THE MOLUCCAS.
_First Group._--Ternati, Tidor, Mortay (or Morintay), Gilolo.
_Second Group._--Banda, and other small islands.
_Third Group._--Amboyna, Ceram, Buru, Saparua, &c.
The inhabitants of these groups, or clusters, fall under the three
heads which we are now prepared to expect.
1. _Mahometan Malays._--The influence of the Mahometan Malays had
organized rajahships in the Moluccas anterior to their discovery, A.D.
1521. Of these, the most important was that of Ternati; the territory
of which extends over Tidor, Gilolo, Mortay, and part of Celebes.
2. _A population of the character of the Bugis_, _i.e._ the population
of the Archipelago, as developed by the influence of the sea-coast and
the commerce that it evolved.
3. _A population of the interior of the Dyak_(?) _type._--Respecting
these last I have not the definite information I could wish for. Small
as are some of the islands--Amboyna and Tidor--tribes inferior and
subordinate to the natives of the coasts and town, have been ascribed
to the interior. Forrest states that these are Papua. This they are
likely enough to be. Still it would not be surprising if they were
light-coloured, and of the Dyak type.
Since the publication of Sir Stamford Raffles' tabulated vocabularies
for these parts, I have looked in vain for any vocabulary representing
a language other than the Malay. The Guebé vocabulary of Durville is
Malay, and the Amboyna and Ceram vocabularies of Roorda van Eysingen
are Malay.
The European influences have been Portuguese in the first instance.
Afterwards and, at present, Dutch. Chinese settlements also are
numerous.
Eastward of the Molucca Islands we come to New Guinea and the islands
in its immediate neighbourhood. These belong to another department of
the subject. The division at present to be noticed is the Philippine
portion of the Malay area. This lies northward to the parts already
described, and may have received its population by any one (or more
than one) of the following lines of connexion.
1. _The Long island of Palawan._--Luçon, Mindoro, Busvagaon, Calamian,
Palawan, Balabac, _North-western Borneo_.
2. _The Sulu Archipelago._--Mindanao, Basilian, the Sulus,
_North-eastern Borneo_.
3. _Sangir and the islands to the north and south of it_--Mindanao,
Serangani, Sangir, Siao, the Guning Tellu country in the _North-east of
Celebes_.
4. _Mindanao, Serangani Salibabo, Gilolo_: Gilolo being equidistant
between Celebes and Papua.
The first of these lines is the most probable.
PALAWAN.
Palawan, or Paragoa, is mentioned more from its prominence
as a continuity of Borneo than for the sake of description.
It is little known: partially under the Spaniards, partially
independent.
THE SÚLÚS.
These are also stepping-stones from Borneo. They are Malay; and
the headquarters of a Malay power; the most piratical of these
seas. The Sultan of Sulu is the terror of the Dyaks of Borneo.
He is also the sovereign of part of that island, of part of
Palawan, and of the Cayagan group. I only know the short Sulu
vocabulary of Rienzi.
THE PHILIPPINES.
_Divisions._--1. The southern island of Magindano, or Mindanao.
2. The northern island of Luçon, or Luçonia. 3. The Bissayan
Archipelago between the two. Of this last, the most important
islands are Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Panay, and the Isola de
Negros.
_Population._--Malay and Negrito.
Although at the present moment the aboriginal population of the
Philippines may be studied in detail, such detail will be avoided; and
no more than four leading points will be noticed.
1. _The Blacks of the Philippine group._--The existence of tribes
darker coloured than the generality, is one of the earliest of the
observations on these parts; and its confirmation one of the latest
facts in modern ethnology.
Beginning at the island of Mindanao, we find, in Mallat,[59] the names
of the following tribes--Dumagas, Malanaos, Manabos, and Tagabaloys.
These are not described in detail, but are said to belong to the same
type with the Negroes of the Bissayan Archipelago and Luçonia. They
constitute the still savage tribes of the forests and mountains.
In the Archipelago our knowledge becomes more distinct, though still
imperfect. The Blacks of Lasso were visited by Lafond Lurcy. They were
nearly naked, with hair like cotton, very slim, and very undersized.
Dr. Prichard makes these Negritos members of a group which he calls the
_puny Negroes of the Archipelago_.
What Lafond Lurcy writes coincides with the statements of Mallat; who
speaks of the Blacks of the type in question as being very Negro in
feature, with the nose _peu épaté_, and with the hair _crépu_.
The _Isola de Negros_ takes its name from the greater proportion of the
population being of this character, _i.e._ black, after the manner of
the African.
In Luçonia, however, a second type appears.
IGOROTS.
Taller than the southern Blacks; more copper-coloured than
black; eyes oblique; frontal sinuses much developed; hair
harsh, hard, lank, and bright-black. Painted; tattooed on their
hands with a figure like the sun.
BUSIKS.
More agricultural than the Igorots. Tattooed.
BUSAOS.
Milder in temper than the Igorots; tattooed on the arms only;
pierced and enlarged ears.
ITETEPANES.
Small, and short; black; flat-nosed; eyes less oblique than
those of the Igorots; hair straight.
All this verifies the statement of the Abbate Bernardo del Fuente,[60]
according to which there are two varieties of Philippine Blacks, one
with long, fine, and glossy, and one with crisped hair.
2. _The Philippine languages._--Of these the most important are the
Tagala, the Bissayan, the Pampango, the Iloco, and the Abac. Of the
Bissayan there are several dialects: the Mindanao, the Samar, the Iolo,
the Bohol. The structure of the Tagala has been particularly studied
by Humboldt. It represents the Malay in its most complex form; and is
essentially agglutinate in respect to its inflection.
All the numerous Philippine dialects and languages are fundamentally
Malay. Those of the Blacks are but little known. Still, as far as our
knowledge extends, the philological phenomenon is the same as with the
Samang of the Malayan Peninsula. The difference in language is less
than the difference of form and colour.
3. _The Extent of Hindu influences._--These are less in the Philippines
than in Celebes, and much less than in Java and Bali. Still the
Philippines have a native alphabet, and this native alphabet has the
same origin with the alphabets of Sumatra, Java, and Celebes; _viz._
the Hindu Devanagari.
4. _The remains of the original mythology._--I give what I know of this
in the following note from Marsden's Sumatra,[61] where it is inserted
from Thevenot, for the sake of illustrating that of Sumatra.
"The chief deity of the _Tagalas_ is called _Bathala mei Capal_, and
also _Dinata_; and their principal idolatry consists in adoring those
of their ancestors who signalised themselves for courage or abilities;
calling them _Humalagar_, i.e. _manes_. They make slaves of the people
who do not keep silence at the tombs of their ancestors. They have
great veneration for the crocodile, which they call _nono_, signifying
grandfather, and make offerings to it. Every old tree they look upon
as a superior being, and think it a crime to cut it down. They worship
also stones, rocks, and points of land, shooting arrows at these last
as they pass them. They have priests, who, at their sacrifices, make
many contortions and grimaces, as if possessed with a devil. The first
man and woman, they say, were produced from a bamboo, which burst in
the island of _Sumatra_; and they quarrelled about their marriage.
The people mark their bodies in various figures, and render them of
the colour of ashes; have large holes in their ears; blacken and file
their teeth, and make an opening, which they fill up with gold. They
used to write from top to bottom, till the Spaniards taught them to
write from left to right. Bamboos and palm-leaves serve them for paper.
They cover their houses with straw, leaves of trees, or bamboos split
in two, which serve for tiles. They hire people to sing and weep at
their funerals; burn _benzoin_; bury their dead on the third day in
strong coffins, and sometimes kill slaves to accompany their deceased
masters. They held the _caiman_, or alligator, in great reverence,
and when they saw him they called him _nono_, or grandfather, praying
with great tenderness that he would do them no harm; and, to this
end, offered him of whatever they had in their boats, throwing it
into the water. There was not an old tree to which they did not offer
divine worship, especially that called _balete_; and even at this time
they have some respect for them. Beside these they had certain idols
inherited from their ancestors, which the Tagalas called _anito_, and
the Bissayans, _divata_. Some of these were for the mountains and
plains, and they asked their leave when they would pass them. Others
for the corn-fields; and to these they recommend them, that they might
be fertile, placing meat and drink in the fields for the use of the
_anitos_. There was one of the sea, who had care of their fishing
and navigation; another of the house, whose favour they implored at
the birth of a child, and under whose protection they placed it.
They made _anitos_ also of their deceased ancestors, and to these
were their first invocations in all difficulties and dangers. They
reckoned amongst these beings all those who were killed by lightning
or alligators, or had any disastrous death, and believed that they
were carried up to the happy state, by the rainbow, which they call
_balan-gao_. In general, they endeavoured to attribute this kind of
divinity to their fathers, when they died in years; and the old men,
vain with this barbarous notion, affected in their sickness a gravity
and composure of mind, as they conceived, more than human, because
they thought themselves commencing _anitos_. They were to be interred
at places marked out by themselves, that they might be discovered at
a distance and worshipped. The missionaries have had great trouble
in demolishing their tombs and idols; but the Indians, inland, still
continue the custom of _pasing tubi sa nono_, or asking permission
of their dead ancestors, when they enter any wood, mountain, or
corn-field, for hunting or sowing; and if they omit this ceremony,
imagine their _nonos_ will punish them with bad fortune.
"Their notions of the creation of the world, and formation of mankind,
had something ridiculously extravagant. They believed that the world at
first consisted only of sky and water, and between these two, a glede;
which, weary with flying about, and finding no place to rest, set the
water at variance with the sky, which, in order to keep it in bounds,
and that it should not get uppermost, loaded the water with a number
of islands, in which the glede might settle and leave them at peace.
Mankind, they said, sprang out of a large cane with two joints, that,
floating about in the water, was at length thrown by the waves against
the feet of the glede, as it stood on shore, which opened it with its
bill, and the man came out of one joint, and the woman out of the
other. These were soon after married by consent of their god, _Bathala
Meycapal_, which caused the first trembling of the earth; and from
thence are descended the different nations of the world."
THE BABYANIS.
_Locality._--Due north of Luçon.
THE BASHIS.
_Locality._--Due north of the Babyanis.
I have no details respecting the Babyanis and the Bashis. They have
been noticed, however, as forming the tract from Luçon to--
FORMOSA.
_Name._--Chinese Taï-ouan, originally Toung-fan.
_Political Relations._--Western side, subject to China. Eastern
side independent.
_Languages._--Numerous dialects. The only known vocabulary,
Malay.
_Authority._--Klaproth. Description de Formose, Melanges
Asiatiques, p. 195.
The knowledge of the island of Formosa on the part of the Chinese
begins no earlier than the year 1430 A.D.; and its oldest name in
Chinese, _Toung-fan_, means _barbarians of the East_. The later name
means the _Bay of Heights_.
This term is explained by the geological structure of the island. It is
bisected from north to south by a line of mountains, upon which snow
lies during November and December. This range is a line of demarcation
in ethnology as well as politics. West of it we have the district that
pays tribute to the Chinese, and in which there is a standing Chinese
army, and a number of Chinese immigrants--chiefly employed in the rice
cultivation. In the mountains themselves, and to the east of them,
are the Aborigines. These are said to approach the Negro type, and to
differ from one another in language--a fact that we are now prepared to
expect rather than to discredit. Their arms are the dart and bow; and
their swiftness of foot is described by the Chinese as being equal to
that of the swiftest dogs.
They are Malayan in stock, and apparently but little mixed. The
Japanese, and the Lúchú on the northern part of the island, and the
Dutch on the present Chinese locality seem to have been their chief
visitors. Neither held their ground permanently.
That an island so near as Formosa should have been so long unknown to
the Chinese, surprises Klaproth; who reasonably thinks that it was
known at an earlier period, but known under a different name. The more
so, as the Pescadores islands, half-way between, are within sight of
the mainland.
It is safe to consider that the population of Formosa is a continuance
of the population of Luçon, and the Bashi islands. Of the island
Lang-khiao, at the southernmost end of Formosa, I find, in Klaproth, an
express statement that it is inhabited, and that its inhabitants are
great breeders of sheep.
Of the Pescadores the original population is unknown. From what I
collect from Klaproth, the natives were removed in 1387, A.D., by the
Chinese, and transplanted elsewhere. How far this was, partial or
complete, is uncertain. At present they are inhabited--probably by the
Chinese, who replaced the exiles of 1387.
* * * * *
There can be but little doubt that Formosa was peopled from the
northern part of Luçonia; in which case its inhabitants represent the
stock of the Igorots, Busiks, &c., as modified by a more northern
position, and by Chinese rather than Malay elements.
With Formosa we reach the northernmost limits of the Malays in this
direction. The Lúchú islands, north of Formosa, have their affinities
with Japan, and Japan has its affinities with the North and West,
rather than with the South and East.
THE POLYNESIANS.
_Area._--From the small islands to the west of the Pelews
to Easter Island, west and east. From the Mariannes and the
Sandwich Islands north, to New Zealand south.
_Physical Conformation._--Modified Protonesian. Stature,
perhaps, taller; tendency to corpulence more common; colour
oftener approaching that of the European; hair often waved or
curling; nose frequently aquiline.
_Nutrition._--But little azotized; saccharine and amylaceous.
_Aliment._--Preeminently vegetable, the coco-nut, the taro, the
banana. Fish.
_Negative Characters._--Little, or no, use of the bow and
arrow; considered to be a differential point between Polynesia
and Kelænonesia.
_Conditions of Social and Physical Development._--Absence of
large animals, either as beasts of burden or as food. Nearly
general absence of rice and pulse. Intercourse entirely by
means of canoes. Between Polynesia and Protonesia little or
none. Between the different portions of Polynesia limited or
partial. Malay and Hindu influences obscure. Present influences
European; of recent date.
_Religion._--Paganism, apparently indigenous. Uniform in its
general character over a great extent.
_Languages._--Allied to each other, and mutually intelligible
over large areas. Grammatical structure akin to the Tagala.
Malay words numerous and evident.
_Divisions._--1. Micronesian Branch. 2. Proper Polynesian
Branch.
Reasons will now be given for drawing a distinction between the
Micronesians and the Proper Polynesians, and also for taking the
Micronesians first in order. In the former I follow Prichard. In the
latter I believe my arrangement is singular.
1. MM. Dumont Durville and Lesson, to whose observations on this, as
in many other portions of oceanic ethnology, much of our information
is due, have agreed in disconnecting the natives of the Western
Oceanic Islands from those of the Eastern; insisting upon a difference
of language, and a difference in physical conformation. Nay more,
they would connect them with the Mongols of the Continent. To give
prominence to this difference of opinion on the part of judges so well
qualified as the two investigators in question, was Pilchard's reason
for thus separating the Archipelago of the Pacific into two sections.
For my own part I consider that the grounds of difference set forth
by MM. Lesson and Dumont Durville, although insufficient to establish
the double position of an _affinity_ with the Mongolians, and of a
_no_-affinity with the Polynesians, are sufficient to justify the
sub-division of the kind in question. The absence, in Micronesia,
of certain Polynesian customs, and the modified form of others are
additional reasons.
2. The reason for taking the Micronesian branch before the Proper
Polynesian, involves the following question--What was the line of
population by which the innumerable islands of the Pacific, from the
Pelews to Easter Island, and from the Sandwich Islands to New Zealand
became inhabited by tribes, different from, but still allied to, the
Protonesian Malays?--That line, whichever it be, where the continuity
of successive islands is the greatest, and, whereon the fewest
considerable interspaces of ocean are to be found.
This is the general answer, _à priori_; subject to modification from
the counterbalancing phenomena of winds, or currents unfavourable to
the supposed migration.
Now this answer, when applied to the geographical details regarding the
distribution of land and sea in the great Oceanic area, indicates the
following line--New Guinea, New Ireland, the New Hebrides, the Figis,
and the Tonga group, &c. From hence the Navigators' Isles, the Isles of
the Dangerous Archipelago, the Kingsmill, and other groups, carry the
frequently-diverging streams of population over the Caroline Islands,
the Ladrones, the Pelews, Easter Island, &c.
This view, however, so natural an inference from a mere land-and-sea
survey, is complicated by the ethnological position of the New Guinea,
New Ireland, and New Hebrides population. These are _not_ Protonesian,
and they are _not_ Polynesian. Lastly, they are _not_ intermediate
to the two. They _break_ rather than propagate the continuity of the
human stream; a continuity which exists geographically but fails
ethnologically.
The recognition of this conflict between the two probabilities, has
determined me to consider the Micronesian Archipelago, as that part of
Polynesia which is the part most likely to have been first peopled;
and hence comes a reason for taking it first in order.
THE MICRONESIAN BRANCH OF THE POLYNESIAN STOCK.
_Area._--The Pelew, Caroline, Marianne Islands. The Tarawan
group. As far south as about 7° S. L.
_Physical Conformation._--More Mongolian, in the limited sense
of the term, than the proper Polynesian. Varieties both of hair
and complexion.
_Language._--Dialects, probably, mutually intelligible.
Probably unintelligible to the Proper Polynesians.
_Political relations._--Partly independent; partly subject to
Spain.
_Religion._--Paganism and Romanism.
_European intermixture._--Chiefly Spanish.
_Negative characters._--Absence of the _tabu_ under the form in
which it appears in Polynesia. Use of the drink called _kava_
either restricted, or modified. Considered to be differential
points between Micronesia and Polynesia.
In these negative characters (of which, however, it is doubtful whether
the exact extent has been ascertained), superadded to the fact, of
the Micronesian dialects forming a separate language unintelligible
to the Polynesian, and to the difference--real or supposed--in their
physical appearance, lie good and sufficient reasons for considering
the Micronesians to form a separate division. To which may be added,
considerable differences in the way of creed and mythology.
LORD NORTH'S ISLAND.
_Locality._--Latitude 3° 2´ N. Longitude 131° 4´ E.
_Population._--About three or four hundred.
_Physical conformation._--Complexion, light copper, lighter
than that of the Malays or Pelew islanders. Face broad,
cheek-bones high, nose flattened.
_Pantheon._--Chief deity _Yaris_. Progenitor _Pita-kat_.
The account of Horace Holden,[62] an American sailor, who, with
eleven others, reached the island of Tobi, in a boat, and who was
detained there two years, is our only source of information for this
important locality--_the nearest point of contact between Polynesia and
Protonesia_.
No tribes have a harder struggle for existence. During the whole of
Holden's residence, only five turtle were taken; fish being also
scanty. Hence coco-nuts and the taro formed the chief food. It is
reasonable, as well as charitable, to refer the churlishness of their
tempers to this state of indigence. Perhaps, also, it is the reason why
the men, as compared with the women, take a fair share of the labour of
cultivation--a custom rare in other parts of Polynesia.
The effects of hunger in reducing the population are seconded by those
of war. And here, the only weapons are the spear and club--_no bows and
no arrows_.
The houses "are built of small trees and rods, and thatched with
leaves. They have two stories, a ground-floor, and a loft, which is
entered by a hole or scuttle through the horizontal partition or upper
floor.
"For ornament they sometimes wear in their ears, which are always
bored, a folded leaf; and round their necks a necklace made of the
shell of the coco-nut, and a small white sea-shell."
All this merely connects them with the Micronesians. The tradition
respecting _Pita-kat_ is more important. He "came many years ago from
the island of Ternati, and gave them their religion, and such simple
arts as they possessed."
SONSORAL.--JOHANNES ISLAND.
_Locality._--West of the Pelews. Nearest point to the
Philippines.
THE PELEW GROUP.
_Synonym._--Palaos.
_Chief Islands._--Corror, Babelthouap, Pelelion.
_Native quadrupeds._--Rats.
_Vegetable products._--Coco-nut, bread-fruit, yam, batata,
taro, ebony, sugarcane, orange, banana, bamboo, paper-mulberry.
Rice and pulse wanting.
The paucity of quadrupeds, and the abundance of tropical vegetables is
common to the Pelew Islands, and the whole of Polynesia. Hence, it is
mentioned once for all. The chief exception, however, is an important
one. The _hog_ will be found to be _partially_ distributed; and the
partial character of its distribution has been one of the instruments
of ethnological criticism (especially in the hands of the French
naturalists), by means of which the order of succession in which the
different islands have been peopled has been investigated.
CLUSTER OF GOULOU.[63]
_Direction._--North-east from the Pelews.
_Locality._--Between the Pelews and the--
CLUSTER OF YAP. OULUTHY OR EGOY ISLANDS. THE MARIANNES.
_Synonym._--Ladrones.
_Name of Natives._--Chamorros.
_Chief islands._--Guam, Rota, Tinian.
_Physical appearance of Natives._--Stature higher than that of
the other islanders, tendency to corpulence greater.
_Intermixture._--Considerable, _i.e._ with Polynesians,
Philippine islanders, Spaniards.
Rota and Tinian are remarkable for containing the remains of massive
stone buildings; the original use of which is wholly unknown to the
present natives. The same phenomenon will be repeated in Tonga-tabú and
Easter Island.
The Mariannes form the most northern portion of Micronesia. The
direction will now be due east from the cluster of Goulou; about
mid-way between the Pelews and Yap.
OULUTHY GROUP.
_Synonym._--Egoy Islands.
LAMOURSEK AND SATAWAL GROUPS.
_Direction._--West to east.
_Extent._--From 140° to 15° E. L. from Paris. Under 5° N. L.
_ Particular islands._--Lamoursek, Satawal, Faroilep (the most
northern), Aurupig (the most southern).
PROPER CAROLINE GROUP.
_Direction._--From the Lamoursek and Satawal group fifteen
degrees westward.
_Particular islands._--Hogoleu, Lougounor, Pounipet, Ualan.
A distinction which will often be applied in Polynesian ethnology may
now be made. It is the difference between the geological structure of
the different islands. Whether they are what is called _high_ or _low_
is important. In the high islands, where the structure is primitive,
metamorphic, or volcanic, the conditions for social development are
more favourable than in the low islands, of a coralline structure. In
these last the food is less abundant, the sun more scorching, and,
generally, the complexion of the inhabitants _darker_.
Again, the inhabitants of the low islands are generally at peace
amongst themselves: those of the high islands at war.
In the ethnology of the Paumoto Archipelago, this distinction will be
repeated. So it will elsewhere.
LOUGOUNOR.
_Synonym._--Lougoullos. Mortlock island.
_Physical conformation._--Stature, above the average; colour,
_chestnut_, lips thick, beard long but thin, hair black,
long, thick, slightly curling (_un peu crépu_), sometimes
frizzy--Lütke, from Prichard.
_Language._--Allied to, but different from, the Ualan.
POUNIPET.
_Structure._--Volcanic.
_Population._--About two thousand.
_Physical Appearance._--Face broad and flat, nose flat, lips
thick, hair crisp. Colour, between chesnut and olive. Height,
average.--Lütke from Prichard.
UALAN.
The chief island of the Central Caroline group, or of the Caroline
Islands in the more general sense of the term.
_Structure._--Volcanic.
_Physical conformation of the natives._--Stature average,
hair black, beard scanty, only in some cases thick, forehead
narrow, _eyes oblique_, nose somewhat flattened, face broad,
complexion clear yellow (citron), lightest in the case of the
chiefs.--_Lesson._
As the succession of islands now becomes less regular, and as the
interval of sea between Ualan and the Archipelagoes east of it is
considerable, it is necessary to consider the lines of passage between
the proper Carolines and the Ralik and Radak chains to the north-west.
These are two.
1. From Pounipet to the Isles of Brown; with Providence Isles half-way
between.
2. From Ualan to the Radak chain, or Mulgrave's Islands.
ISLES OF BROWN.--RALIK CHAIN.
_Synonym._--Marshall's Islands.
RADACK CHAIN.
_Synonym._--Mulgrave's Islands.
The Radack and Ralik people are dark.
The direction is now south, and south-west, to an Archipelago lying
under the Equator.
KINGSMILL'S GROUP. GILBERT ISLANDS. SCARBOROUGH ISLANDS.
_General name._--The Tarawan group.
_Latitude._--North and south of the Equator.
_Longitude._--Nearly that of the Fiji islands.
_Population._--Perhaps sixty thousand. In Drummond's Island six
thousand.
_Physical appearance._--Complexion dark copper. More
Protonesian than Polynesian. Cheek-bones projecting, nose
slightly aquiline. Average height five feet eight inches.
In Pitt Island, the most northern of the group, the natives are
lighter in colour than the other islanders, taller, stronger, and
better-limbed; with smooth bodies, oval faces, and regular and delicate
features.
THE PROPER POLYNESIAN BRANCH OF THE POLYNESIAN STOCK.
_Area._--The Navigators, Society, Friendly, and other groups
of the Pacific. The Marquesas; the Dangerous Archipelago;
Easter Island; the Sandwich Isles; New Zealand, &c. With the
exception of the Sandwich Isles and New Zealand, south and
east of Micronesia. Nearer to Kelænonesia than to any part of
Protonesia.
_Physical conformation._--Maximum and, perhaps, average stature
higher than in Micronesia. Aquiline nose commoner. Varieties
both of hair and complexion. The former wavy and curled as well
as straight; sometimes chestnut-coloured. Skin, often fairest
in the parts nearest the Equator; becoming darker as the
distance increases. Oftener, also, darker in the coralline than
in the volcanic islands.
Face oval. Ears generally large.
Zygomatic development moderate. Occipito-frontal profiles
truncated behind, elevated at the vertex.
Nostrils generally spreading.
_Language._--Dialects mutually intelligible; probably
unintelligible to the Micronesians.
_Political relations._--Wholly independent, colonized, or
protected.
_Religion._--Paganism, Romanism, Protestantism, Imperfect
Christianity.
_European intermixture._--Chiefly English, American, and French.
_Habits._--The superstition of the _tabu_; the use of _kava_ as
a drink. See the notice of Micronesia. Cannibalism, tattooing,
circumcision, more or less, common.
With the view of saving repetition, a notice of the Polynesian
mythology will precede the enumeration of the islands; for each and
all of these the creed being, in its general principles, as truly
one and the same as is the language, the same divinities appearing
with the same functions and under similar, or but slightly-changed,
denominations. Hence, sometimes the difference between two Pantheons
is merely verbal. Generally, however, it is real. Even then, however,
we find no new element; but one of two things. Either the same story
appears in a varied form; or else some portion of the mythology which
is but slightly prominent in one group of islands, takes unusual
importance in another; the fundamental identity of character being
manifest throughout.
Of the common elements of the general Polynesian creed the following
are the most important; those which are most special, and least general
or abstract, being taken first in order.
_The supernatural spirits that interfere directly with human
concerns._--Mischievous beings, imps or goblins, that play so prominent
a part in the superstitions of all countries, play a prominent part in
those of Polynesia. These may appear under any out of a multiplicity
of forms. There may be the spirit protective to a certain family; the
spirit protective to a certain pursuit; the god of the sailor, the
fisherman, or the tiller of the soil. Good they may do and mischief
they may do--either in a material or an immaterial form, in their own
shape or in the shape of sharks, lizards, storks, snipes, or any other
dumb animal. From a belief of this kind to the superstition of omens
is but a single step, so that rats that squeak, and comets that show
their beards, and noses that sneeze, and birds that fly the wrong way,
all become the expositors from Powers beyond those of mortality. Then
the rock, and glen, and above all the volcano and earthquake, become
palpable objects to be connected with a presiding divinity.
To these and to the like of these all the islanders look. Some look
beyond them.
_Múoi_ (_Mawi_) is more man than God; the supporter, or rather the
support, of the earth. This lies on the gigantic extension of his
body; and earthquakes result from its movements. Where he is either
more or less than the comparatively passive substructure of all things
material, he is a wise wizard who foretells events; or else the maker
rather than foundation-stone of the world. Just as Tangaloa did in the
other parts of Polynesia, Mawi did in New Zealand. What this was will
be soon seen.
_The Cosmogony._--The Polynesian world--how much beyond it is
uncertain--was fished up from sea by Tangaloa; Tahiti was the first
part that appeared. Just as its rocks showed above water, the line
broke. However, the rock in which the hook stuck can still be seen in
the island of Hoonga; and the family of Tuitonga, until very lately,
were in possession of the hook. There was enough land, however, to be
worth filling with human beings and human food. And this was done by
Tangaloa.[64]
Such is the Tonga account. In New Zealand, as already stated, the
artificer is changed; and Mawi does the work of Tangaloa. In Tahiti,
and Samoa, the workman is the same, but the work different. The
Tahitian Tangaloa formed the ocean from the sweat of his brow--so hard
did he work in making the land. The Samoan sent down his daughter Tali,
in the shape of a snipe, to survey the world below. As she saw nothing
but sea, her father rolled down a stone which became one island, and
another which became a second, and so on. The first growth of such
islands were wild vines. These were pulled out of the ground, and
heaped up to rot, so that worms were produced. Out of these worms grew
men and women.
_The Happy Island._--In an island like their own, only more beautiful,
live the higher gods, and the souls of chiefs, kings, and councillors.
In Tonga this island is Bolotoo. It was once visited; but those who
visited it died, having breathed its air.
_The residents and visitors of the Happy Island._--First amongst these
are the gods themselves and their servants; not, however, Mawi--
The souls of the chiefs after death--
The souls of the councillors after death--
_Caste-system._--The list of the inhabitants of Bolotoo stops at a
certain line of nobility. The people are the servants of the chiefs,
and the servants of the chiefs have no share of enjoyment after death.
At this point, the mythology and the social constitution of the
Polynesians act and react upon each other. Those who have no political
rights in life, have no existence after death (or _vice versâ_); and
the result is a system half caste, and half feudalism.
Whether the king or priest be paramount, depends upon their respective
individual characters. There is room for the subtle brain as well
as for the strong hand. So it is, as between king and chief. The
vassalage is perfect or imperfect according to the strength of the
parties. Whatever, however, may be the relative position of the king,
the priest, or the chiefs, the people are sure of their thraldom; a
thraldom to their _immediate_ superior, the chief.
Add to these elements of social subordination and insubordination,
the existence of tribes and the influence of descent. A family may be
descended from some god that took an earthly island for his residence.
This will give it a precedence even over the kings.
From the feeling of pedigree, and from the belief that the nobler
families become spirits after death, we have the belief in ghosts,
and the reverence for the dead. Whoever studies the details of the
Polynesian creeds and traditions will find abundant instances of this;
and in such detail they should be studied. To exhibit them (as has
just been attempted) in a _general_ point of view, can only be done
by applying terms adapted to a different system, and, as such, only
partially appropriate. It can only be done at the sacrifice of those
special elements which give life and individuality to a description.
Such, however, as it is, the previous sketch is the only one that
could be admitted into a work like the present.
* * * * *
Beginning with the fourteenth degree S. L., the distribution of the
Polynesian islands runs off in three different directions.
1. From west to east; _i.e._ from the Navigators' Islands to Easter
Island.
2. North-east; to the Sandwich Islands in 20° N. L.
3. South-west; to New Zealand in 35° S. L.
NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS.
_Synonym._--Archipelago of Samoa.
_Islands._--Opoun, Leone, Sanfoue, Maouna, Oiolava, Pola.
_Complexion._--Dark bronze.
_Numbers._--According to Captain Wilkes, 56,000: of which
14,850 are Christians. Majority of the remainder attending the
missionary schools.
_Pantheon._--Tangaloa-lagi, Tamafaiga, Sinleo, Onafanna,
Mafuie, Salefu, Merua Fuana, Tinitini, Lamanau, Tuli, &c.
_Real or supposed peculiarities._--Use of the bow; which is
used also in De Peyster's island. Rare elsewhere.
THE TONGA GROUP.
_Synonym._--The Hapai Islands; the Friendly Islands.
ISLANDS. POPULATION.
Eooa 200
Hapai 4,000
Vavao 4,000
Keppell's Islan 1,000
Boscawen's Islan 1,300
Tonga-tabú 8,000
______
Total 18,500
______
Said to be on the increase. Number of Christians, about 4,500.
_Pantheon._--Múoi.--The Hotooas, Táli-y-tobú, Higooléo,
Tooboo-toti, Alaivaloo, Ali-ali, Tangaloa--Tangaloa's sons,
Toobó, and Váca-ácow-ooli, &c. Bolotoo=the Happy Island.
Term for the Tonga chiefs--_Egi_.
" " councillors--_Mataboulai_.
" " king--_How_.
" " lower classes--_Mooa_.
" " lowest--_Tooa_.
_Real or supposed peculiarities._--Infant sacrifices; the
cutting off of a finger on the death of relatives; domestic
architecture on a scale approaching that of Borneo. Remains of
stone architecture; probably the tombs of the chiefs.
HERVEY ISLES.
_Names._--Rarotonga, Atiu; Mangaia, Aitutaki, Mauke, Mitiaro,
Manuai.
_Population._--About fourteen thousand; of which one-half
belongs to Rarotonga.
AUSTRAL ISLANDS.
_Names._--Rimatara, Rurutu, Tupuai, Raivavai.
_Population._--About one thousand. Decreasing.
RAPA.
_Locality._--South of any island yet named, and isolated.
THE TAHITIAN GROUP.
_Synonym._--The Society Islands.
_Islands._--Ulietea, Otahá, Bolabola, Huaheine, Tabai, Maurua.
_Pantheon._--The Tii Maaraauta=the spirit reaching toward the
land. The Tii Maaraatai=the spirit reaching toward the sea.
Eatooa=gods in general. Tii Hina, Taaroa (= Tangaloa). Maui
Raiatea (the analogue of Bolotoo).
Terms for the Tahiti chiefs--Eree, or Tiara.
" " councillors--Manahounis.
" " lower classes--Toutous.
PAUMOTU.
_Meaning._--Cloud of islands.
_Synonym._--The Low Islands. Dangerous Archipelago.
_Structure._--Generally coralline.
Particular islands and groups--
AURA.
_Locality._--S. L. 15° 40´ W. L. 146° 30´ The most savage of
all the islands of the Archipelago, and the one that has most
rarely been visited with impunity.
CHAIN ISLAND.
_Locality._--S. L. 17° 30´ W. L. 45° 30´ Described as being
like Aura, to Captain Fitzroy, by Mr. Middleton, who had passed
some time on the island. Cannibals. Conquerors of the rest of
the Archipelago, except Aura. The first ship they had manned by
a black crew.
GAMBIER ISLANDS.
_Names._--Mangareva, Akena, Akamaru, Tarawari, &c.
_Structure._--Volcanic.
_Population._--About two thousand.
PITCAIRN ISLAND.
_Locality._--South of the Gambier group.
DUCIE'S ISLAND.
_Locality._--West of the Gambier group.
There is a great difference in physical conformation between the
inhabitants of different members of the Paumotu group. Some are
well-made, nearly on a level with the measurements of European, and
with a "fine Asiatic countenance, with beards and mustaches, but no
whiskers--men who might pass for Moors."[65] Others approach the
character of the Negroes.
We know now the doctrine that this difference will engender; and we
know the exception that it will call for. More than one writer have
seen in Paumotu islanders specimens of a second race. More than one
have seen only the same race under different conditions.
Now, Captain Beechey has found that this difference in the inhabitants
coincides with the difference of the islands. The well-grown tribes of
the Polynesian type are the tribes of the volcanic Islands, Pitcairn's
and the Gambier group. The blacker variety is found on the low islands.
EASTER ISLAND.
_Synonym._--Teape.
_Locality_.--The most eastern island of Polynesia. Solitary.
In Easter Island there stood in the year 1722, and there stand now,
statues of colossal proportions, sometimes on the level ground,
sometimes on platforms of hewn stone, representing (or misrepresenting)
the upper half of the human figure, with enormous ears, shapen out of
lavas, some soft, and some too hard for any tool known to the present
natives, objects of wonder to them, but not objects of worship.
That they are not objects of worship is inferred from the extent
to which they are neglected. When fallen, or broken they are not
repaired; neither are they connected with the burial-places.
These seem to have an existence in another form, in that of cylindrical
heaps of stone; the meaning of which a native explained to M. de Langle
by laying himself down on the ground, and then lifting his hands
towards the sky.
The mystery of these statues is increased by a remark of Captain
Beechey's. He had seen the like of them elsewhere; but he had seen them
on uninhabited islands.
The eastern extremity of the Paumotu Archipelago points towards Easter
Island; the northern line is the nearest point to--
THE MARQUESAS.
_Names._--Hivaoa, Tahuata, Fatuhiva, Easter=the south-eastern
group. Nukahiva, Uahuka, Uapou=the north-western.
_Population._--Perhaps two thousand.
The natives of the Marquesas are considered as the handsomest men of
Polynesia.
The natives of the Marquesas are most at war with one another of all
the Polynesians. Their chief island is intersected by a mountain-ridge;
and the mountain-ridge (like most mountain-ridges) supplies a fierce
body of quarrellers.
The natives of the Marquesas speak a greater variety of dialects (or
sub-dialects) than the natives of any other group. This has engendered
the doctrine that they were colonized from more quarters than one.
Distant though it be the Nukahiva group is the nearest point to--
THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
_Names of islands according to the dialect or orthography
followed by Prichard._--Hawaii, Maui, Tahaurawe, Morokini,
Ranai, Morokai, Oahu, Tauai, Niihau, Taura.
_Names of the islands according to the dialect or orthography
followed by Simpson._--Hawaii, Mowee, Kakoolawe, Lanai,
Molokoi, Woahoo, Kanai, Niihau.
_Structure._--Volcanic.
_Physical appearance of the natives._--Height above the
average. Mouth square and heavy.
Extract from M. Chloris: "Les enfans, en venant au monde,
sont complêtement noirs; la jeune fille la plus jolie, et la
plus delicate, qui s'expose le moins à l'action de l'air et
du soleil, est noire; celles qui sont obligées de travailler
constamment à l'ardeur du soleil, sont presque de couleur
orangée." This orange tint is noticed by Mr. Simpson, who
describes the Hawaiians as intermediate to the black Negro and
the Red American--more, however, red than black.
The majority of the Polynesian islands present the phenomenon of an
imperfect and recent civilization engrafted upon a state of comparative
barbarism; and none more than the Hawaiian group. No area is, at once,
so European and so Polynesian. Neither in any area are the influences
more mixed. The population is mixed also. White and half-breeds
constitute a large and increasing proportion of the population; the
white being from England, from America, and from France.
This is the way in which the admixture of foreign blood takes place
within the island itself. But it is not the only way. The Sandwich
Islanders are themselves emigrants, and they are found upon the
opposite coast of America; thus giving admixture to the Californian and
Oregon Indians. They do the same in South America on the coast of Peru
and Ecuador.
It is this determination of the Sandwich Islands to America, that gives
us the phænomenon of the American and Oceanic admixture--a new and
imperfectly studied form of union.
This dispersion of the Sandwich Islanders tells a story on more matters
than one. It speaks to their enterprize, maritime capacity, and value
as industrial assistants. This is what they are at home, and this is
what they are abroad.
Since the discovery of the Sandwich Islands by Cook, the three great
influences that have been at work, are--
1. The wars, and policy of Kamehamehu.
2. Missionary influences.
3. Commercial and political influences.
1. At the accession of Kamehamehu, as now, the system of caste that
determines the social state of New Zealand, Tahiti, and other parts of
Polynesia, regulated that of the Sandwich group. The chiefs, however,
held but nominally under the sovereign. Each in his own island, was
practically an independent ruler. The wars of Kamehamehu coerced
the chiefs of the smaller islands, and left him the sovereign of a
consolidated empire. This he administered in the spirit of a Pagan, and
a conqueror. Of the god of the volcano and earthquake that had helped
him to his early victories, he lived and died the constant worshipper
and support.
By the further favour of the same, he hoped to reduce the Tahitian
group; an idea that raises his assemblage of canoes to the dignity of a
fleet. At any rate, the force for land, and the force for sea underwent
an incipient organization in the reign of Kamehamehu.
Then again, he was not only a great merchant, but the only great
merchant in his dominions. The chief export was the sandal-wood, which,
bearing a high price in the China market, and growing chiefly on the
more inaccessible mountains, could only be collected at the expense
of grinding labour, and fatal suffering as the portion of the helot
population. This decimated the islands as much, or even more, than his
wars.
At the death of Kamehamehu a weak tyranny succeeded a strong one.
The monopoly of the sandal-wood was divided between the chiefs; and
the multitude of masters increased the amount of suffering. I am
writing from what I find in Sir G. Simpson, and add that the extremes
of bloodshed and oppression brought with them their own remedy. The
coercion was too successful to leave an enemy to fight against; and the
sandal-wood became too nearly exhausted to command its previous price
of life and labour.
In 1819, the great father of his dynasty died; and his idols died with
him. Pagan as he was himself, his nation had outgrown Paganism; and
there was a _tabula rasa_ for any better creed.
2. With the reign of Liho-Liho began the influence of the
missionaries--American, English, and French; the American and English
with their respective forms of Protestantism, the French with Romanism.
I have no inclination to meddle with the distasteful details of these
mischievous contests. The ethnological result is the triple character
of the influence now in operation. In politics, Hawaii is independent;
independent and semi-constitutional; with its independence guaranteed
by England, America, and France. In religion it is Protestant--with
Romanism tolerated and something more; tolerated and making way amongst
the people.
3. The improvement of the agriculture of the Sandwich Islands is going
on steadily. Silk and sugar are beginning to be grown; and a healthier
trade is replacing the sandal-wood monopolies.
I have admitted the previous notice of the character of Hawaiian
civilization for the sake of comparing it with the present state and
actual prospects of the islands. Cook, when he visited them, put the
population at four hundred thousand--an exaggeration. Perhaps it came
to half as much. In 1832 and 1836, there were censuses; of which the
result was as follows:--
POPULATION.
NAME. AREA. 1832. 1836.
Hawaii 4,600 45,792 39,364
Mowee 620 35,062 24,199
Lanai 100 1,600 1,200
Molokoi 190 6,600 6,000
Kakoolawe 60 80 80
Woahoo 530 29,755 27,809
Kanai 500 10,977 8,934
Niihau 90 1,047 995
----- ------- -------
Whole group 6,090 130,313 108,579
------ ------- -------
This gives us a reduction; a reduction which has increased by 1840.
This, I suppose, is the one from which Prichard takes his numbers, for
two of the islands--
For Maui 18,000
--- Woahoo 20,000
Emigration will not account for this decrease. This we may see at
once, from the proportion in 1840--the figures and reasoning are Sir
G. Simpson's--in the single island of Kanai, between that part of the
population which was under, and that part which was above, eighteen
years of age.
1ST DISTRICT. 2ND. DO. 3RD DO. 4TH DO.
Under eighteen 706 309 372 685
Above eighteen 2,229 1,043 1,178 2,134
------ ------ ------ ------
Total 2,935 1,352 1,550 2,819
------ ------ ----- ------
"Here," Sir G. Simpson continues, "is an average of one person under
eighteen, to rather more than three persons above it--a state of
things which would carry depopulation written on its very face,
unless every creature, without exception, were to attain the good old
age of seventy-five." To this we add a remark upon the bearing of
the early period of marriages throughout Polynesia. Not _one_--but
_two_--generations are included in the population under eighteen
years; since before that time boys and girls have begun to have boys
and girls of their own.
This disproportion accounts for the decrease. But what accounts for the
disproportion?
In 1824, Mr. Stuart wrote that--"in those parts of the islands where
the influence of the mission had not extended, two-thirds of the
infants born perish by the hands of their own parents before attaining
the first or second year of their age."
In 1840, there were found in Kanai out of 5,541 adults, only
sixty-eight, and sixty-five women who had more than two children each,
and that with a bounty, in the shape of an exemption from certain
taxes, upon a number to that amount; whilst in Woahoo the births were
sixty-one, the deaths one hundred and thirty-two.
Distant though it be, the Tahitian group is the nearest point to--
NEW ZEALAND.
_Native name of northern island._--Ikana, Mawi.
_Native name of southern island._--Tavai, Punamu.
_Native name of the language._--Maori.
CHATHAM ISLAND.
_Locality._--Twelve degrees east of New Zealand.
_Appearance of the natives._--Colour dark; so much so as to be
called by the New Zealanders, _Blafello=Black-fellow_, a term
adopted from the English.
Such are the larger islands and archipelagoes of Polynesia. To these
must be added the following smaller groups.
UNION GROUP.
_Locality._--Five degrees due north of the Navigators' Islands.
_Names._--1. Bowditch Isle, or Fakaafo. 2. Duke of York's
Island, or Oatafu. 3. Duke of Clarence's Island, or Nukunono.
_Population._--About one thousand.
_Structure._--Coralline.
_Language._--Intelligible to the Samoans.
_Food._--Coco-nuts, pandanus-nuts, fish.
Although so near the Equator, the Fakaafo people are the fairest of the
Polynesians.
VAITUPU GROUP.
_Name._--1. De Peyster I., or Nukufetau.
2. Tracy's I., or Vaitupu.
3. Ellice's I., or Funafati.
_Language._--Intelligible to the Samoans.
_Real or supposed peculiarity._--The bow used in De Peyster's
Island. Except in the Navigators' Isles; rare elsewhere.
These islands have importance as connecting Northern Polynesia with
Southern Micronesia. The people are dark-coloured and bearded.
PENRHYNN ISLAND.
_Locality._--Midway between the Marquesas and Union Isles.
Inhabitants numerous as compared with the size of the island.
ROTUMA.
_Synonym._--Granville Island.
_Locality._--Lat. 12° 30´ N. Long. 177° 15´ E. Three hundred
miles from any other land.
COCO ISLAND.
TRAITOR'S ISLAND.
_Locality._--North of the Friendly Islands. Lat. 15° 50´ S.
Long. 174° W. _i.e._, between the Tonga and Samoan groups.
HORN ISLAND.
WALLIS ISLAND.
_Locality._--Between Rotuma and the Samoan Archipelago.
SAVAGE ISLAND.
_Locality._--Four degrees east of the Friendly group; _i.e._,
between the Tonga Isles and the Hervey and Austral groups.
TIKOPIA.
_Locality._---Lat. 12° 30´ S. Long. 169° E.
_Population._--About five hundred.
In Tikopia the locality is nearly Kelænonesian; whilst the physiognomy
and language are Amphinesian; and of the two Amphinesian branches, most
probably Polynesian.
On the other hand, they use the bow and arrow, and raise cicatrices by
burning--both of which habits are Kelænonesian.
FOTUNA.
_Synonym._--Erronan. A few miles east from Tanna, a
Kelænonesian Island.
IMMER.
_Synonym._--Muia. _Ditto._
The locality creates the interest for these two islets. They are not
only isolated from the other parts of Polynesia, but are portions of
another geographical area.
FREE-WILL ISLAND.
_Locality._--Fifty minutes north of line, to the west (or
north-west) of New Guinea.
_Natives._--Copper-coloured, with long black hair.--_Carteret
from Prichard._
The natives of Free-will Island require further description. It is
nearly certain that they are _Amphi_nesian--but whether Protonesian or
Micronesian is uncertain. Laying aside, for the present, Madagascar,
and the Fiji Islands, we shall find that the more important questions
connected with the ethnology of Polynesia are as follows--
1. The affinities with Protonesia.
2. The differences between Polynesia Proper and Micronesia.
3. The extent to which one of these last-named divisions is more
Protonesian than the other.
4. The details of the dispersion within the limits of a single
division; Micronesia or Polynesia, as the case may be.
5. The _general_ dispersion and distribution.
6. The inferences arising from the existence of the darker coloured,
and more Negrito-like population.
7. The date of the Polynesian dispersion.
1. _The affinities with Protonesia._--Much has to be done in this
department; especially in regard to the indication of similar habits
and customs; and in respect to the explanation of undoubted and
important points of difference. Indeed, at the present moment, the
proof of the Protonesian affinities with Polynesia is almost wholly
philological. Still, of its kind, it is satisfactory and scientific.
That isolated Malay words were to be found far beyond the proper
Malay area was known as early as the time of Reland. By Marsden,
Crawfurd, and others, the list was enlarged. The evidence, however,
that the grammatical structure of the South-Sea languages was equally
Protonesian with the vocabularies, forms the most valuable part of a
late publication--the posthumous dissertation of W. Von Humboldt on
the Kawi language of Java. In this the Tagala of the Philippines is
taken as the sample of a Protonesian grammar in its most elaborate and
complex form; a starting-point which explains the structure of the
Polynesian and Malagasi tongues in a manner far beyond any amount of
elucidation that could have been drawn from the comparatively simple
structure of the proper Malayan.
For all questions of this sort the great work just named is the
thesaurus and repository. It is also the thesaurus and repository
for all facts connected with the history of the Hindu influences on
Protonesia.
The other ethnological phænomena, _not_ philological, that naturally
belong to this part of the subject, will be noticed under the third
head.
2. _The differences between Polynesia and Micronesia._--Some of these
have been noticed. None, however, have been of equal importance with
the difference of language. The exact appreciation of their import is
difficult.
The fact of the bow and arrow being either not used at all, or used but
little (according to the American explorers in their _games_, but not
in their _wars_), must be taken as _relative_, rather than as a simple
_negative_, fact.
_a._ It is used in Kelænonesia.
_b._ The parts of Polynesia where it is used (Samoa, De Peyster's
Islands, and Tikopia) are the parts nearest to Kelænonesia.
The absence of the tabu in Micronesia is, probably, less of an
unqualified fact than it seems to be. In the Proper Polynesian form,
and with the Polynesian name, it has probably no existence. In more
than one Micronesian island, however, certain objects are held sacred,
certain objects are generally prohibited, and certain objects are
prohibited under certain conditions.
_The Polynesian custom of drinking kava not Micronesian._--What
applies to the tabu applies here. Kava, under the name of _kava_, and
prepared, as in Polynesia, from the fermentation of the _root_ of the
_piper methusticon_, is not drunk in Micronesia. _Shiaka_, however,
is a beverage at Ualan (and probably elsewhere); and _shiaka_ is a
fermentation of the leaves of the _piper methusticon_.
The _differentiæ_, then, between Polynesia Proper and Micronesia
are subject to criticism; so much so that instead of saying that a
Polynesian custom is wanting in Micronesia (or _vice versâ_), we should
rather say that the Polynesian habit takes a modified form. Above all,
the criticism applicable to all _negative_ statements is preeminently
applicable here.
Facts of the same sort with the _kava_, and _tabu_ observations, are to
be found in other matters, _e.g._ the Micronesian sails by the stars,
the Polynesian by the flight of birds. The Micronesian canoe is an
amphisbæna, _i.e._ it can be paddled either way, and it is generally
simple. The Polynesian, on the other hand, is often double, and almost
always an outrigger: so much so that the appearance of Cook's vessels,
on the discovery of Tahiti, was hailed by the natives as a fulfilment
of one of the prophecies of Mawi; which was to this effect:--That a
canoe such as never had been seen by any native before--a canoe without
out-riggers, should at some future time visit the island. Now so
impossible a thing was a canoe without out-riggers in the eyes of the
Tahitians, that the prophecy was laughed to scorn. So in order to gain
credence, Mawi launched his wooden dish upon the waters, which swam as
he said the strange canoe should swim. Afterwards, when Cook sailed
towards the islands, his ship was held to be the prophesied canoe; and
at the present moment English vessels have been called _Mawi's canoes_.
The sum, perhaps, of all the distinctions of the sort already
indicated, will give between Polynesia and Micronesia, the difference
between a Dutchman and an Englishman; certainly not less--probably
more. Probably more, because the very considerable difference in the
details of the two mythologies has yet to be added. A brief notice of
these may be found in Prichard's chapter on the Marianne Islanders;
and this reference is all that our space allows. That the difference,
however, of the superstitions is _not less_ (probably _greater_) than
the difference between the languages is a safe conclusion.
The differences in the general moral character of the two divisions lie
within a small compass. Coldness of manner in general, less tendency to
bloody warfare, less laxity amongst the female part of the population,
and less cannibalism, are points wherein the Micronesian character has
the advantage. The Micronesian domestic arts also, such as dyeing and
weaving, are in advance of the Polynesians.
3. _Distribution of Protonesian characteristics._--Which of the two
divisions has the most of these? This is partially answered by some of
the observations which have just preceded: two other facts answer it
more fully.
_a._ The opinions of MM. Durville and Lesson, as to the connexion
of the Micronesians with the Mongolians--without being evidence in
favour of the Micronesian branch being the more _Protonesian_, of
the two, this is, certainly, a fact in favour of its being the more
_continental_.
_b._ The opinion of Le Gobien, one of the early Missionaries, "that the
Caroline Islanders came from the Philippines."
4. _Details of the distribution within the limits of a single
division._--The question as to the particular part of Micronesia, or
the particular part of Polynesia, from which the rest of the respective
areas was peopled, is so much a part and parcel of the broader question
as to the origin of the population _en masse_, that it belongs, in its
entirety, to a latter stage of our inquiries. Still there are a few
facts which may be noticed at once; and these apply to Polynesia Proper.
Assuming as a postulate, that the direction of the line of population
is from east to west (or _vice versâ_), from north to south (or _vice
versâ_), &c., it is reasonable to suppose that each isle has been
peopled from the one nearest to it, and that _exclusively_. Hence
no second source of population is to be assumed _gratuitously_.
Upon reasonable grounds, however, it _may_ be assumed; _e.g._ in
the Marquesas, it is said, that the difference of dialects for the
different islands is scarcely consistent with a population from the
Paumoto group exclusively. So also, in the Sandwich Islands, although
Nukahiva is the _primâ facie_ source of the population, Tonga elements
occur in a degree beyond that in which they are found in Nukahiva
itself. Here, also, the inference of a second element is legitimate.
Missionaries and ethnologists, who have applied a sagacious criticism
to the problem of the _immediate_ population of Polynesia, have found
good reasons for believing that the _first archipelago of Polynesia
Proper_ that received a population from some other quarter, and which
transmitted it, in different streams elsewhere, was the _Samoan_ or
_Navigators'_ Islands. This opinion, the grounds of which may be found
in full in the ethnological portion of the United States Exploring
Expedition, is, probably, the right one; at any rate it is the proper
inference, from the facts known to the investigators.
The last three questions will be better considered after the notice of
the _Oceanic Negritos of the Kelænonesian area_.
_THE MALEGASI BRANCH_(?).
The consideration of the Malegasi Amphinesians is deferred
until we treat upon the ethnology of Africa.
II.
_THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK_.[66]
_Physical conformation._--Modified Amphinesian Negrito. Skin
rough and harsh, black rather than brown or olive. Hair crisp,
curly, frizzy, and woolly(?) rather than straight; black.
Stature from five feet, or under, to six(?).
_Languages._--Not generally admitted to contain a certain
proportion of Malay words--but really containing it.
_Distribution._--Wholly insular; islands often large.
_Area._--New Guinea, New Ireland, Solomon's Isles, Louisiade,
New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Australia, Tasmania.
_Aliment._--Mammalian fauna considerable. In parts, deficient
in ruminants and pachydermata.
_Religion._--Paganism.
_Social and physical development._--Maritime habits rare and
partial. Industrial arts limited. Foreign influences of all
sorts inconsiderable.
_Divisions._--1. The Papua Branch. 2. The Australian Branch. 3.
The Tasmanian Branch(?).
The first question which may present itself to the reader is one as to
the difference between the tribes that are now about to be described as
Kelænonesian, and those which have already been described as _Blacks
of the Malay area_. Both are really Negrito; and it has already been
stated that both may be called so. The answer is--that _Negrito_ is an
ethnological, _Kelænonesian_, a geographical term. The first denotes
black, or Black-like oceanic tribes _wherever found_; the latter
black or Black-like tribes when found in definite areas, wherein they
form the bulk of the population. Thus, in Amphinesia the Negrito is
exceptional, in Kelænonesia normal, and _vice versâ_.
THE PAPUA BRANCH OF THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK.
_Latitude._--Southern tropic.
_Area._--The islands off the north-west corner of New
Guinea(?), New Guinea, New Britannia, New Ireland, Admiralty
Isles, Louisiade, Solomon's Isles, Vanikoro(?), New Hebrides,
New Caledonia, The Fiji Archipelago(?).
_Direction._--South-east from New Guinea.
_Physical conformation._--Kelænonesians with crisp, curly,
frizzy, and woolly(?) rather than straight hair.
_Probable origin._--North-eastern Protonesia.
Whether we take the Protonesian islands in the line from Timor to
Moa, Sermatty, Timorlaut, the Keys, and the Arrus, or begin with the
Northern Moluccas, Gilolo, and Morty, we equally reach the great island
of New Guinea; and in each case the ethnological change coincides with
the geographical one.
THE ARRU ISLES.
_Extract from Mr. Earle._--"I do not here" (_i.e._, in the
Timor group), "include the Arru isles, for _there_ I have no
doubt a considerable mixture of Papuan will be found."
The probable source, however, of the Papuan population must be sought
for in the parts about Gilolo. Here the distinction between those
islands which constitute the more eastern and northern portions of
the Moluccas, and those which are considered to belong to New Guinea,
is difficult to be drawn. In Guebé, for instance, the natives are
described by M. Freycinet as having flat noses and projecting lips. To
this it may be added, that their colour is dark. On the other hand,
however, the facial angle is from ten to twelve degrees higher than
that of the Negrito of New Guinea. Mr. Crawford, who rarely either
overlooks or undervalues physical distinctions, adopts Freycinet's
notice as descriptive of a second variety of the true Malay type, and
suggests the likelihood of there being an intermediate race between the
lank and the woolly-haired families.
More immediately, however, in the neighbourhood of New Guinea, we have
the islands of Waigiú and Rawak. These are so thoroughly considered
by the French geographers as belonging to the Negrito area, that
they are called the _Isles des Papous_. With these, then, the proper
Kelænonesian or Negrito area begins.
WAIGIÚ AND RAWAK.
_Physical appearance._--According to M. Pellion, in
Freycinet--Forehead flat, facial angle 75°, mouth large, nose
flattened, beard scanty, lower extremities slender. Hair
frizzed and spread out.
According to MM. Quoi and Gaimard--Face broad, frontal and
occipital profile flat, vertex elevated, cheek-bones prominent,
temporal bones convex, the coronal suture farming a ridge.
Nasal bones broad and flat, and _alæ nasi_ spreading. Frontal
and maxillary sinuses largely developed. _Molar portion of the
alveolar arch thick._ Transverse diameter of the palate large;
anterior palatine foramen large.--_Voyage sur L'Uranie et La
Physicienne: Zoologie, par Quoy et Gaimard_.
Such are the details. An opinion, however, often gives a better notion
than a description; and it is the opinion of the French naturalists
that the islanders in question are a hybrid breed between the Papua and
Protonesian. This speaks to the intermediate character of the physical
appearance.
On the other hand, Mr. Earle, admitting both the difference and the
likeness, denies that intermixture is the cause of it; the _real and
undoubted_ hybrids (which he has seen and describes) being different
from the Papuas of the islands.
Under either case, however, we have the phænomenon of a transition in
form.
NEW GUINEA.
_Physical appearance of the natives of the north-west
extremity, i.e., from Waigiú to Dorey._--1st
Variety--Undersized, slender, with oval features, and skin more
brown than black, hair elaborately frizzed.
[Illustration: Fig. 6.]
[Illustration: Fig. 7.]
2nd Variety.--Form squat, faces square and angular, cheek-bones
prominent, lips thick, skin rough and black, hair simply tied
up.
_South-western coast._--Portions of the south-western coast of New
Guinea were visited by H.M.S. Fly, in 1842-1846, under Captain
Blackwood. The notices of Mr. Jukes upon the natives thus seen are
short, and chiefly limited to the points wherein they differed or
agreed with the islanders of Torres Straits--a portion of the human
species that has been described fully for the first time by that
writer. Tall and muscular, with the hair tied back behind, sometimes
with the head shaved, the skin dark brown or copper-coloured, with
ornaments like the people of Erroob, and without out-riggers to their
canoes, or with out-riggers on one side only, they spoke a language
different from that of the Torres Straits islanders.
In appearance, however, they agreed. Their huts were raised on piles,
of moderate dimension, and with small plots of imperfectly-cleared
ground around them. The coast was low, and intersected by numerous
freshwater channels; and the name given to the country by the
Erroobians was Dowdee.
In Darnley Island, a female from the Dowdee coast was seen and
described by Mr. Jukes, she was lighter coloured than the Erroobians,
being of a yellowish-brown; had the septum narium pierced, and was
tattooed, which the females of the island are not.
_Masseed._--The natives were "a well-made, fine-looking people, of a
different type from the Australians, with muscular limbs and frizzled
hair. They had the oval epaulet-like mark on the shoulders, but no
other scars. Their hair was dressed into long, narrow, pipe-like curls,
smeared with red ochre and grease, and they wore a band round the
forehead."--Vol. 1. p. 159.
_Murray Island._--Native name _maær_--Volcanic. Covered with
cocoa-nuts, and having a language almost identical with the Erroob.
_Darnley Island._--Native name, Erroob--Volcanic. The natives here
"were fine, active, well-made fellows, rather above the middle height,
of a dark brown or chocolate colour. They had frequently almost
handsome faces, aquiline noses, rather broad about the nostril,
well-shaped heads, and many had a singularly Jewish cast of features.
The hair was frizzled, and dressed into long, pipe-like ringlets,
smeared sometimes with red ochre, sometimes left of its natural black
colour; others had wigs not to be distinguished from the natural
hair, till closely examined. The septum narium was bored, but there
was seldom anything worn in it. Most of their ears were pierced all
round with small holes, in which pieces of grass were stuck, and in
many the lobe was torn and hanging down to the shoulder. Their only
scars were the faint oval marks on the shoulder. The hair of their
bodies and limbs grew in small tufts, giving the skin a slightly woolly
appearance. They were entirely naked, but frequently wore ornaments
made of mother-of-pearl shells, either circular or crescent-shaped,
hanging round their necks. Occasionally, also, we saw a part of a large
shell, apparently a cassis, cut into a projecting shield-shape, worn
in front of the groin. The women wore a petticoat round the waist,
reaching nearly to the knees, formed of strips of leaves sown on to
a girdle. These formed a very efficient covering, as one or two were
worn over each other. The grown-up woman's petticoat, or nessoor, was
formed, we afterwards found, of the inside part of the large leaves of
a bulbous-rooted plant, called by them teggaer, of which, each strip
was an inch broad. The girl's nessoor was made of much narrower strips
from the inside of the leaf of the plantain, which they call cabbow.
"The younger women were often gracefully formed, with pleasing
expressions of countenance, though not what we should consider handsome
features. The girls had their hair rather long, but the women had
almost all their hair cut short, with a bushy ridge over the top, to
which they, singularly enough, give the same name as to pieces of
tortoise-shell, namely, kaisu. Many of the elder women had their
heads shaved quite smoothly, and we never saw a woman wearing a wig,
or with the long ringlets of the men. At our first landing, all the
younger women and girls kept in the back-ground, or hid themselves in
the bush. On strolling to the back of the huts, we found a small native
path, along which we went a short distance till we came to a rude fence
in front of a plantain-ground, where the men objected to our going
further, and we heard the voices of the women among the trees beyond.
"There were four huts at this spot, all bee-hive shaped, sixteen feet
in diameter, and as much in height. They stood in small court-yards,
partially surrounded by fences formed of poles of bamboo, stuck upright
in the ground, close together, and connected by horizontal rails, to
which they were tied by withies. Inside the huts were small platforms
covered with mats, apparently bed-places; and over head were hung up
bows and arrows, clubs, calabashes, rolls of matting, and bundles
apparently containing bones, which they did not like our examining.
Outside the huts were one or two small open sheds, consisting merely of
a raised flat roof, to sit under in the shade, and a grove of very fine
cocoa-nut trees surrounded the houses."
The arms of the natives were the bow and arrow, and in holding the
former, especial care was taken that the part of the wood which was
uppermost as the tree grew, should be uppermost when used as a weapon.
Rough imitations of the human figure were common; but whether they
served as idols or not was uncertain. The use of tobacco was general.
The language was different from that of the Australians, and the
willingness of the people to communicate, greater, also. On the part
of the females, the reserve and decorum of manner formed a striking
contrast with the very different habits of the Polynesians.
_Turtle-backed Island._--Primitive--Cocoa-nut trees; no gum trees--"We
came one day on the first symptoms of cultivation of the ground we had
ever seen among the aborigines of this part of the world. This was a
little circular plot of ground, not more than four or five yards in
diameter; but it had evidently been dug, though in a rude manner, and
in it were set several young plantain-trees, one or two other plants,
and two trailing plants, somewhat like French beans in appearance,
which we afterwards found were a kind of yam. The huts on this island
had the appearance of a first attempt at a house, having side walls
about two feet high, and a gable-shaped roof rising four feet from
the ground. They were about ten feet long and six feet wide, made
principally of bamboo and thatched with grass and leaves."
_Mount Ernest._--Primitive--Cocoa-nuts--Captain Blackwood "landed
upon Mount Ernest (807 feet high), and found a group of huts much
superior to any we ever saw in Australia, a small grove of cocoa-nuts
and another of large bamboos. The natives did not show themselves till
after he left the island; and though he spent a night on it he did not
suspect their presence at the time. In the huts were found parcels of
human bones, ornamented with red ochre, a mask or hideous face made
of wood and ornamented with the feathers of some struthious bird, and
one or two bundles of small wooden tubes, eight inches long and half
an inch in diameter, the use of which we never could discover. The
feathers so abundantly used as ornaments on their canoes and other
articles by all these islanders, were at first taken by us for emu
feathers, as a matter of course, and supposed to be procured from the
mainland of Australia. I was afterwards, however, induced to doubt the
correctness of that supposition; and on comparing them (in company with
my friend Mr. George Bennett, of Sydney,) with the feathers of the emu,
in the Sydney Museum of Natural History, we found them to be totally
distinct from any emu feathers. They are probably, therefore, feathers
of the cassowary or some similar bird, and are derived from New Guinea
instead of Australia."
Of all the islands of Torres Straits, this is the one nearest to
Australia, whereof the population is apparently derived from New Guinea.
_Dalrymple Island._--Native name, Damood--"The huts were by far the
neatest and best erections of the kind we had yet seen. Each one
occupied a quadrangular space, six to eight feet wide, and from ten
to fifteen feet long. They had gable-shaped roofs, eight feet high in
the centre, and sloping on each side nearly to the ground. The frame
of the house was made of bamboo, and thickly covered or thatched with
grass and palm-leaves; the front and back walls were also made of small
bamboo sticks, upright and fastened close together, the front wall
having a small triangular opening for a door, over which hung loose
strips of palm leaf. The door looked into a little court-yard, of about
ten feet square, in front of the house, strongly fenced with stout
posts and stakes, interlaced with palm leaves and young bamboos, and
accessible only by a very narrow opening between two of the strongest
posts. In this court-yard was the cooking fire. The different huts and
fences were rather irregularly disposed, but placed closely together,
so as to leave only narrow winding passages between them. They occupied
a space fifty or sixty yards long by ten or fifteen broad. Behind them
was the open place of meeting, on the other side of which, against an
old tree was a semicircular pile or wall of dugongs' skulls about three
feet high, many of which were quite fresh, but others rotting with
age; in the middle of this was a conical heap of turtles' skulls in a
similar state. There must, altogether have been some hundreds of skulls
of each kind of animal.
"When they had conducted us into this open space, several of them
seated themselves on small well-made mats, like those used by the Malay
nations; and two or three went and brought a large roll of matting,
at least twelve feet by six, which they spread for us to sit down
on. These really well-made fabrics greatly surprised us after being
accustomed to the non-manufacturing Australians. They then brought us
young cocoa-nuts, tortoise-shell, and ornaments, and a great barter
commenced. They gave us cocoa-nut water without waiting to receive
anything for it, but for the other things they would only accept
tobacco and iron implements, paying no regard to our beads and gaudy
handkerchiefs. They brought us two small bananas or plaintains, but
we could not see the trees on which they grew. They suffered Captain
Blackwood and myself to stroll about the huts unattended, while they
bartered with the boat's crew. We found in the court-yard of one hut,
a ship's cabin-door, painted green, and not very old; in another a
quaker gun, set upright in the ground, and the men said they saw pieces
of 'Queen's line' among them. They had used pieces of iron hoops, and
a long iron spike, to open the cocoa-nuts, but these they might have
procured from passing vessels. The door and the wooden gun, however,
must have come from a wreck.
"At the south end of the huts we came to a building much superior
to, and differing from, any of the rest. It was like a Malay house
unfinished, or one of their own smaller huts raised on posts to a
height of six or seven feet. The point of the gable was at least
fifteen feet from the ground, the roof being supported at each end
by two stout posts about a yard apart, having their tops ornamented
by carved grotesque faces, painted red, white, and black, with much
carving and painting below. The lower part, or ground-floor, of
this building was open all round except at one end, where a broad,
rudely-constructed staircase led to a platform, from which went the
entrance to the upper story; this was floored with stout sticks, and
at this end covered with mats; this part was also partitioned off from
the other by a bamboo screen. Under the roof hung old cocoa-nuts, green
boughs, and other similar things, but nothing to give a decided clue to
the object of the building. Whether this was their temple, their place
for depositing the dead, or a chief's house, we could not make out.
We, however, saw no appearance of any chief, or of one man exercising
authority among them, neither could we discover any traces of religious
belief or observance.[67]
"We now struck off for a walk across the island, one of the natives
coming with us as a guide. Many narrow paths crossed in all directions,
among shrubs and bushes, some of which resembled laurels and myrtles,
in their leaves and modes of growth. Groves of lofty forest trees
occurred here and there, with matted creepers and thick jungle.
Several trailing briars, with thorns like the European bramble, were
observed; and in short, the whole vegetation had a totally different
aspect from that of Australia, and a much greater resemblance to that
of Europe or Asia."
These minutiæ, in the way of description of particular localities,
have a value for two reasons. In the first place they are the only
(or nearly the only) notices of the parts in question. In the next,
the parts themselves are important as belonging to the quarters where
Australia and New Guinea are nearest each other.
In the north of New Guinea, the fact that has most struck inquirers has
been the apparently peculiar style of the buildings. These are of vast
size, capable of containing whole families, and often raised on piles.
Hence, as long as the existence of similar erections in Borneo[68]
was unknown, this form of domestic architecture passed for one of
the characteristics of the Negritos in opposition to the Malays. At
present, its diagnostic value is considerably lowered.
Another industrial art exercised by the Kelænonesians, and (according
to most writers), not exercised by the _unmixed_ Amphinesians, is the
art of pottery. How far, however, it is general on the one side, or
non-existent on the other, remains for further investigations to prove.
The qualification denoted by the word _unmixed_, will be explained when
we come to the ethnology of the Fiji Islands.
NEW BRITAIN.
NEW IRELAND.
NEW HANOVER.
SANDWICH ISLE.
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS.
HERMIT ISLANDS.
These islands have been mentioned in detail for the sake of indicating
the probable line of population--first towards the east, and next
(backwards) to the north-west. Where any of the natives of these
islands differ from one another, or from the New Guinea people, it is
in having stronger limbs, lighter-coloured skins, hair more or less
woolly, and faces more or less angular. All the differences, however,
lie within a small compass. All the tribes, too, seem to agree in
chewing the betel-nut, going naked (or nearly naked), and painting
their bodies.
BOUKA.
BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND.
_Natives._--Heads large, faces flat, chin prominent, mouth
large, lips thin. Muscles well-marked.--_Labillardière._[69]
SOLOMON'S ISLANDS.
_Vocabulary._--From Port Praslin.--_Voyage de l'Astrolabe._
NITENDI, INDENDI, INDENNI.
_Name._--Native.
_Synonyms._--Santa Cruz, Egmont's Island.
_Direction._--Nearly due east (not south) of Christoval, the
most southern of the Solomon Isles.
VANIKORO.(?)[70]
_Description from Durville._--"We have already said that the
inhabitants of Vanikoro belong to the black race of the Great Ocean.
They may be considered as a variety of that race of blacker colour
than others, and of a conformation approaching more nearly to that of
proper Negroes. They are generally small and rather meagre. What is
most remarkable in their shape is an appearance of lateral compression
of the temples, produced by a very arched forward protuberance of the
middle part of the forehead. The hair does not advance low on the
forehead, and the care taken to throw it back renders all these parts
very visible. The cheek-bones being salient give the face a greater
developement than that of the cranium. Another character not less
remarkable is the small projection of the nasal bones, which gives
the nose an appearance of being flattened at its root, and to the
countenance a singular resemblance to that of the orang utang. Owing to
this the orbital arch, itself prominent, appears still more projecting.
The nostrils are wide, and are rendered still more so by the custom of
wearing a stick fixed transversely through the septum narium. The lower
jaw is not remarkable. The form of the forehead causes the facial angle
to be not particularly acute. The lobes of the ears are perforated by
a hole large enough to pass the hand through it. The eyes are large,
oval, and deeply set; the balls salient, round, and resembling in form
and colour those of the Negro. The lips are large, the chin small. The
lower extremities are in some instances very lean, but tolerably fleshy
in others. The calf is rather high, and the heel is in many individuals
remarkably projecting, a character not existing in the Polynesian
race to the same extent. This is another approximation to the Negro.
The hair is crisp, but although not cut, it never becomes bushed and
matted. They are nearly naked. The use of the betel-nut destroys their
teeth, and gives them a red tinge round the mouth. The women are
horribly ugly; the old men are bald."
The position of Nitendi and Vanikoro gives them interest.
_a._ Although not lying due south-east of the Solomon Isles, and due
north-east of the next Archipelago, they form the insular continuity
between the two groups.
_b._ Vanikoro is the Kelænonesian Island, which, by its vicinity,
gives to[71] Tikopia, which is Polynesian, its peculiarity of
distribution.
Lastly, although the fact be not ethnological, the Vanikoro cluster is
the locality where La Perouse perished.
THE NEW HEBRIDES.
Particular islands--
ISLE OF LEPERS.
_Synonym._--Australia del Espiritu Santo.
MALLICOLLO.
For each of these islands we have special evidence--that of
Bougainville and Cook--to the general Negrito character of the natives.
In the voyages of the latter the ill-favoured monkey-like appearance of
the Mallicollese is prominently mentioned.
API.
_Direction._--Continuation from Mallicollo to--
SANDWICH ISLE.
_Direction._--Continuation from Api to--
ERROMANGO.
_Erromango Native as described by Hales._--"He was about five feet
high, slender and long limbed. He had close woolly hair, and retreating
arched forehead, short and scanty eyebrows, and small snub-nose, thick
lips (especially the upper), a retreating chin, and that projection of
the jaws and lower part of the face, which is one of the distinctive
characteristics of the Negro race. His limbs and body were covered with
fine short hairs, made conspicuous by their light colour. On his left
side were many small round cicatrices burnt into the skin, which he
said was a mode of marking common amongst his people. Placed in a crowd
of African blacks, there was nothing about him by which he could have
been distinguished from the rest."--Vol. 6. p. 44.
TANNA.
A grammar of the Tanna language, the only one of the Papua division
that has ever been sufficiently known to Europeans, was seen by Dr.
Prichard--
"I have seen a grammar of the language of Tanna in manuscript, written
by the Rev. T. Heath, a missionary, who resided in that island. It is
much to be regretted that this work has not been published. From this
grammar it appears that the language of Tanna is entirely distinct in
character from the Polynesian. It abounds with inflections and has four
numbers, viz. singular, dual, trinal, there being a particular form in
the verb when three persons are spoken of, which is distinct from the
plural."
ANNATOM.
The direction of the Kelænonesian Islands now changes from south-east
to south-west.
THE LOYALTY ISLES.
NEW CALEDONIA.
With a general character like that of the islanders already mentioned,
Cook states that they are better-looking than the Tanna people, and
that they bury their dead like the Australians. La Billardière adds,
that they are like the Van Diemen's Land natives.
The whole of the Papua area will not have been exhausted until we
return to the parts described by Mr. Jukes, on the south-eastern side
of New Guinea. These lead, in the way of geographical continuity, to--
LOUISIADE.
Of this Island I have seen no definite account. Such notices, however,
as I have met with, make the population what we should expect it to
be--Papua-Kelænonesian.
THE FIJI (FEEJEE) ISLANDS.(?)
_Situation._--Eastward of the New Hebrides, the most eastern
part of Kelænonesia. Westward of the Tonga Isles, the most
western part of Polynesia.
The physical conformation of the Fiji natives is Negrito as well as
Polynesian.
The language of the Fiji natives is more Polynesian than Negrito.
The social institutions, manners, and customs of the Fiji natives are
partly Polynesian, partly Negrito, and partly neither one nor the other.
These statements, combined with their geographical position, give
importance and prominence to the Fiji group of islands. Fortunately our
information concerning them is not altogether disproportionate to the
difficulties that they introduce. The language has been investigated by
Mr. Norriss, whose trust-worthy opinion, adopted in the present work,
may be found, _in extenso_, in the 5th volume of Prichard.
The moral and physical features are exhibited in the following extract
from the American Exploring Expedition:--
"The Feejeeans are a people of the medium stature, with nearly as great
variety of figure as is found in nations of the _Caucasian_ race. The
chiefs are usually tall and well formed, owing probably to the care
taken of their nurture, and to the influence of blood. The common
people are somewhat inferior, yet there are fewer small and ungainly
figures among them than among the lower orders of Europeans. On the
other hand, the _Feejeeans_ contrast very unfavourably with their
neighbours of the _Polynesian_ stock. They lack the full rounded limbs
and swelling muscles which give such elegance to the forms of the
Friendly and Navigators Islanders. They are generally large-jointed,
and the calf is small in proportion to the thigh. The neck is also
too short for due proportion, and the whole figure wants elegance and
softness of outline. Their movements and attitudes are, consequently,
less easy and graceful than those of the _Polynesians_. They are,
nevertheless, a strong race; their war-clubs are ponderous, and are
wielded with great power, and they can carry very heavy burdens.
"The _Feejeean_ physiognomy differs from that of the _Polynesians_, not
so much in any particular feature, as in a general debasement of the
whole, and a decided approximation towards the forms characteristic
of the Negro race. The head is usually broad in the occipital region
(which they consider a great beauty), and narrows towards the top
and in front,--the forehead, though often of good height, appearing
compressed at the sides. The eyes are black and set rather deep, but
never obliquely. The nose is not large, and is generally a good deal
flattened; the nostrils are often larger laterally than forwards, and
the nose is then much depressed at the upper part between the eyes.
The mouth is wide, and the lips, particularly the upper one, thick.
The chin varies, but is most commonly short and broad. The jaws are
larger, and the lower part of the face far more prominent than in the
_Malay_ race. The cheek-bones, also, project forwards as in the Negro,
and not laterally, as in the _Mongol_ variety; notwithstanding which,
the narrowness of the forehead at the temples gives a greater width to
the face at the malar portion than elsewhere. The whole face is longer
and thinner than among the _Polynesians_. The hair is neither straight
nor woolly, but may be properly designated as frizzled. When allowed
to grow without interference, it appears in numerous spiral locks,
eight or ten inches in length, spreading out on all sides of the head.
Sometimes these curls are seen much longer, falling down to the middle
of the back. It is, however, very seldom allowed to grow naturally.
The young boys have it cut very close, and sometimes shaved to the
skin, like the _Tahitians_. In girls, before marriage, it is allowed
to grow long, and is coloured white by washing it with a solution of
lime, except a portion around the crown, which is plastered with a
black pigment. After marriage, it is either cut to the length of one or
two inches, or frizzled out like that of the men: in both cases it is
frequently soaked in colouring liquids, either red or black. The men in
general have their hair dressed so as to form an immense semiglobular
mass, covering the top, back, and sides of the head. The arrangement of
this chevelure is performed for the chiefs by professional barbers, and
is a work of great labour. Six hours are sometimes occupied in dressing
a head; and the process is repeated at intervals of two or three weeks.
It is probably to guard against disarranging this work that the piece
of bamboo which is placed under the neck in sleeping is employed,
instead of the ordinary pillow. For the same purpose the natives
usually wear, during the day, a _sala_ or _kerchief_, of very thin
gauze-like paper cloth, which is thrown over the hair and tied closely
around the head, so as to have very much the appearance of a turban.
"The colour of the _Feejeeans_ is a chocolate-brown, or a hue mid-way
between the jet-black of the Negro, and the brownish yellow of the
_Polynesian_. There are, however, two shades very distinctly marked,
like the blonde and brunette complexions in the white race; besides
all the intermediate gradations. In one of these shades the brown
predominates, and in the other the copper. They do not belong to
distinct castes or classes, but are found indiscriminately among all
ranks and in all tribes. The natives are aware of the distinction, and
call the lighter coloured people, _Viti ndamundamu_, "red _Feejeeans_;"
but they do not seem to regard it as anything which requires or admits
of explanation. These red-skinned natives must not be confounded with
the _Tonga-Viti_, or individuals of mixed _Tongan_ and _Feejeean_
blood, of whom there are many on some parts of the group."
Their ferocious and suspicious character is described in very
unfavourable terms; to which it may be added, that their cannibalism is
undoubted, and that they are skilful in the art of pottery--a fact of
which the import has already been noticed.
The problem that is suggested by the intermediate character of
the Fijis is manifest: it is the question as to whether we have
_intermixture_ or _transition_. Further notice, however, of this point,
will stand over until the next divisions have been disposed of.
THE AUSTRALIAN BRANCH OF THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK.
_Area._--Australia.
_Physical appearance._--Kelænonesians with hair generally straight, or
waved, sometimes frizzy.
_Fauna._--Absence of ruminants and pachydermata.
_Divisions._--1. Australians. 2. Tasmanians(?).
The differences between the different Australian languages have long
been known and definitely insisted upon.
Less marked differences in frame and physiognomy between the different
Australian tribes, have also been long known and definitely insisted
upon.
Differences of customs and manners have been similarly noticed and
considered. Notwithstanding all this, however, there is no opinion
more generally admitted than the fundamental unity of the Australian
population from Swan River to Botany Bay, from the Gulf of Carpentaria
to Bass's Straits. Captain Grey, Schurman, Teichelman, and all who
have devoted average attention to the language, have given their
evidence to this; and they have supplied facts of various kinds, of
their own collection, towards the proof of it. No man is less inclined
to disturb this view than the present writer. In the Fourth Number
of the Philological Transactions,[72] he enumerated the whole of the
vocabularies then known to him, and added some short lists of the words
wherein the more distant ones agreed with each other. Thus a scanty
vocabulary from the Gulf of Carpentaria, which had seventeen words
in common with one from Endeavour River, had three (perhaps four)
identical.
ENGLISH. CARPENTARIAN. ENDEAVOUR RIVER.
Eye _meal_ _meul_.
Hair _marra_ _morye_.
Fingers _mingel_ _mungal bah_.
As the Endeavour River was the nearest point to the Gulf of Carpentaria
from which we possessed a vocabulary, the circumstance that no more
than three words out of seventeen coincided, was a good measure of
the extent to which the Australian dialects exhibited the phænomenon
of _difference_. Still the likeness, as far as it went, was a fact
to be admitted on the other side. Now, if we go round the whole
coast of Australia, and compare the vocabulary from one point with
the vocabulary of the next known locality to it, we shall find that,
allowing for difference of distance, the similarity or dissimilarity
is, there or thereabouts, the similarity or dissimilarity between the
two vocabularies just mentioned, _i.e._, that the former is shown
by the identity between a few fundamental terms, the latter by a
discrepancy between the majority.
The comparison, however, of contiguous dialects--gives but one series
of facts. It merely shows that we can go all round the island, and
find that, of three dialects compared, the last shall have a partial
agreement with the second; by no means showing that such (or, indeed,
that any) similarity shall exist between the third and first.
Nevertheless, for philological reasoning, such a similarity as the last
is required. This we get at by two methods,--firstly, by comparing
the vocabularies of distant points; secondly, by taking one, or more,
particular vocabularies, and comparing them with some, or all, of the
others _en masse_. By each of these processes, applied to Australian
languages, we arrive at the same conclusion. The second will be
considered in the sequel. A simple instance of the first is, that out
of sixty words from Jervis's Bay, compared with sixty from Gulf St.
Vincent, the following coincide:
ENGLISH. JERVIS'S BAY. GULF ST. VINCENT.
Forehead _holo_ _ioullo_.
Man _mika_ _meio_.
Milk _awanham_ _ammenhalo_.
Tongue _talen_ _talein_.
Hand _maramale_ _malla_.
Nipple _amgnann_ _amma_.
Nails _berenou_ _pere_.
Premising now, that (as all the published grammars exhibit an
agglutinate structure) the evidence taken from the grammatical
character of the Australian languages is confirmatory rather than
derogatory to the evidence taken from the comparison of vocabularies,
we come to a fourth class of facts, viz., the extent to which two or
more Australian dialects agree or disagree with some third language
or class of languages; and as this involves the still more general
question of the _external_ relations of the Australian languages as a
class, its consideration will be deferred for the present. At present
it is sufficient to say that it is affirmative to a fundamental unity
of tongue.
The _kind_ of evidence from which we predicate this unity, is evidently
of a cumulative kind; and it is merely the statement of its being
of this sort that has been laid before the reader: the _details_
would require either a larger volume than the present, or a special
monograph. It may also be added, that as the Australian tribes differ
more from one another in language than in any other respect, it is
the philological portion of their ethnography that presents the most
difficulties.
In respect to their manners, morals, and social customs, the
similarity, lying less below the surface than it does with respect to
their languages, has drawn less attention on the part of investigators.
Still the way in which it shows itself is the same. Two neighbouring
tribes shall differ more than two distant ones: so that similar customs
shall re-appear in distant localities.
As to the physical conformation of the Australians, I believe that it
is so uniform throughout the island, that it has never been made the
basis of a division;--indeed I am inclined to believe that (like the
_dis_similarity of language) the _similarity_ of external appearance
has been over-rated; nevertheless, it is certain that there are
deviations from the general slim and underfed condition of the body;
and (what is of more importance), from the usual straight character of
the hair. Such is the case, according to Mr. Earle, with the trepang
fishers of Arnhem Bay who are bulky men, with broad chests, the lower
extremities being but indifferently formed, and the crooked shin being
common. Then as to the hair--with the Jaako, or Croker Island tribe,
it is coarse and bushy (the whiskers being thick, and curly) and so
short, crisp, and abundant about the breast and shoulders as to conceal
the skin; whereas on the other hand, the Oitbo, or Bidjenelumbo, have
straight silky hair, arched eyebrows, fair complexion, and occasionally
the oblique eye.
The lowest form of humanity has been sought for in Australia, whilst
the physical condition of the country and the absence of those animals
and herbs that supply human food, have made it a likely quarter
to exhibit it. Whether, however, so low a rank in scale of human
development be, upon the whole, a fact or exaggeration, it is certain
that, upon several points, there has been considerable overstatement.
One sample of this sort is the accredited opinion as to the absolute
incapacity of the Australian of forming even the rudest elements of a
mythology--an opinion which engenders the notion that their intellects
are too sluggish for even the evolution of a superstition.
That this was not the case was indicated some years back by Captain
Gray, and that there is _some_ exponent of the religious feeling in the
shape of a rude form of shamanism, has been shown in the account of the
American Exploring Expedition; where the first[73] published details of
the Australian mythology, if so it may be called, are to be found--"It
is not true, however, as has been frequently asserted, that the natives
have no idea of a Supreme Being, although they do not allow this idea
to influence their actions. The Wellington Tribes, at least, believe
in the existence of a Deity called _Baiamai_, who lives on an island
beyond the great sea to the East. His food is fish, which come up to
him from the water when he calls to them. Some of the natives consider
him the maker of all things, while others attribute the creation of
the world to his son _Burambin_. They say of him, that _Baiamai_ spoke,
and _Burambin_ came into existence. When the missionaries first came to
Wellington, the natives used to assemble once a year, in the month of
February, to dance and sing a song in honour of _Baiamai_. This song
was brought there from a distance by strange natives, who went about
teaching it. Those who refused to join in the ceremony were supposed
to incur the displeasure of the god. For the last three years the
custom has been discontinued. In the tribe on Hunter's River, there was
a native famous for the composition of these songs or hymns; which,
according to Mr. Threlkeld, were passed from tribe to tribe, to a great
distance, till many of the words became at last unintelligible to those
who sang them.
"_Dararwirgal_, a brother of _Baiamai_, lives in the far west. It was
he who lately sent the small-pox among the natives, for no better
reason than that he was vexed for want of a tomahawk. But now he is
supposed to have obtained one, and the disease will come no more. The
_Bálumbal_ are a sort of angels, who are said to be of a white colour,
and to live on a mountain at a great distance to the south-east:
their food is honey, and their employment is to do good 'like the
Missionaries.'
"It is possible that some of these stories owe their origin to
intercourse with the whites, though the great unwillingness which the
natives always evince to adopt any customs or opinions from them,
militates against such a supposition. But a being who is, beyond
question, entirely the creation of Australian imagination, is one who
is called in the Wellington dialect, _Wandong_; though the natives
have learned from the whites to apply to him the name of devil. He
is an object not of worship, but merely of superstitious dread.
They describe him as going about under the form of a black man of
superhuman stature and strength. He prowls at night through the woods
around the encampments of the natives, seeking to entrap some unwary
wanderer, whom he will seize upon; and, having dragged him to his fire,
will there roast and devour him. They attribute all their afflictions
to his malevolence. If they are ill, they say _Wandong_ has bitten
them. No one can see this being but the _núrjargir_, or conjurors, who
assert that they can kill him, but that he always returns to life. He
may, however, be frightened away by throwing fire at him (though this
statement seems inconsistent with that respecting his invisibility),
and no native will go out at night without a firebrand to protect him
from the demon.
"There is some difference in the accounts given of this character. By
the tribe of Hunter's River he is called _Koin_ or _Koen_. Sometimes,
when the Blacks are asleep, he makes his appearance, seizes upon one of
them and carries him off. The person seized endeavours in vain to cry
out, being almost strangled. At daylight, however, _Koin_ disappears,
and the man finds himself conveyed safely to his own fireside. From
this it would appear that the demon is here a sort of personification
of the nightmare,--a visitation to which the natives, from their habits
of gorging themselves to the utmost when they obtain a supply of food,
must be very subject.
"At the _Muruya_ River the devil is called _Túlugal_. He was described
to us, by a native, as a black man of great stature, grizzled with age,
who has very long legs, so that he soon overtakes a man; but very short
arms, which brings the contest nearer an equality. This goblin has a
wife who is much like himself; but still more feared, being of a cruel
disposition, with a cannibal appetite, especially for young children.
It would hardly be worth while to dwell upon these superstitions, but
that they seem to characterise so distinctly the people, at once timid,
ferocious, and stupid, who have invented them.
"Their opinions with regard to the soul vary: some assert that the
whole man dies at once, and nothing is left of him; others are of
opinion that his spirit still survives, but upon this earth, either
as a wandering ghost, or in a state of _metempsychosis_, animating a
bird or other inferior creature. But the most singular belief is one
which is found at both Port Stephens and Swan River, places separated
by the whole breadth of the Australian continent. This is, that white
people are merely blacks who have died, passed to a distant country,
and having there undergone a transformation, have returned to their
original homes. When the natives see a white man who strongly resembles
one of their deceased friends, they give him the name of the dead
person, and consider him to be actually the same being."
It is difficult to take an exact measure of the extent to which one
superstition is grosser than another;--hence, all that can be said
respecting the Pantheon, of which _Baiamai_ and _Wandong_ are portions,
is that it is as low in the scale of mythologies as any that has fallen
under the notice of the writer. Still, those of the Blacks of the
Malaccan Peninsula, of Madagascar, and of parts of Africa, are much on
the same level.
_No sound of_ s _in the Australian languages_.--The distribution of
the different elementary articulations over the different languages
of the earth, has not been sufficiently studied to enable us to
predicate anything concerning the absence or presence of particular
sounds, as a measure of the perfection or imperfection of human speech;
nevertheless, it is clear that the power of pronouncing a number of
elementary sounds sufficient to allow of that difference between
word and word, which is necessary for clear and precise language, is
one of the great conditions of articulate and distinct speech; and
hence, a language of which the elementary sounds are too few, or one
wherein the power of combining them to their full extent, is wanting,
is the exponent of a low degree of humanity. Still more so would one
be wherein a large proportion of the sounds is inarticulate--like the
sound of the letter _h_ in English, which is a mere breathing rather
than a true articulation. In respect to this latter class of facts,
the admission of inarticulate elements of speech, there are two only
in the whole range of language; one of which is so common as to occur
in almost all the dialects of the world, the other is so rare as to
be found in one class of tongues only. These are, the power of _h_ as
already stated, and the peculiar _click_ which will be noticed in the
languages of Southern Africa.
The inability to combine articulations, which, when taken singly, are
sufficiently easy of pronunciation, is another sign of deficiency of
power over language, as an instrument, or medium, and, in some form
or other, it is a common phænomenon; _e.g._, the sound of _s_, and
the sound of[74]_tsh_, are pronounceable enough when taken singly;
since we can say _shest_, and we can say _tshest_. The _combination_,
however, of _stsh_ is difficult--at least to English organs. There is
none such in our language; yet it is a favourite juxtaposition in the
Slavonic tongues. Again, to a person unused to comparative philology,
it may seem strange to be told that in the Finlandic dialects the
combination of any two consonants in the same syllable, is rare: and
that such words as _stab_, &c., in order to become pronounceable must
be converted into _setab_, or _estab_, &c. Yet this inability to
combine consonants with one another is, perhaps, the rule rather than
the exception in language.
Again, without admitting the notion of an aristocracy amongst the
elements of the alphabet, and calling sounds like _r_ and _s_ the
_noble_ letters, just as gold and silver are designated as the
_noble_ metals, we may ask whether their absence in some of the more
uncivilized languages, is not a fact of some import in the natural
history of Man. It seems so to the present writer.[75]
These episodical observations, however, form a long prelude to a very
simple fact, viz.: that, as far as we are enabled to make a negative
statement, the sound of _s_, wanting in many of the Polynesian
dialects, is wanting in all the Australian ones.
_Incomplete numeration of the Australians._--The import of an
Australian having no more than the three, four, or five first numerals,
and being thereby as unable to count the number of the fingers of his
hands, as that of the hair of his head, is less equivocal. It speaks,
at once, to a _minimum_ amount of intellectual power. Nevertheless,
the same inability occurs elsewhere; especially in certain languages
of South America. The only vocabulary of Australia, where the numerals
run beyond five, is that of King George's Sound, as given in Mitchell's
Australia.
The political constitution (if so it can be called) of the Australians
is preeminently simple, exhibiting a society of families rather than
of tribes; and one of the facts connected with the evidence in favour
of the unity of the Australian division of mankind is the remarkable
distribution of families bearing the same name. The principal of
these are the Ballaroke, the Tdondarup, the Ngotok, the Nagarnook,
the Nogonyuk, the Mongalung, and the Narrangar.[76] Now, persons
bearing one or the other of these names, may be found in parts of
the country five hundred miles apart. Nor does this appear to be the
effect of migration, since each tribe is limited by the jealousy of its
neighbours to its own hunting-ground, beyond which it seldom passes.
Polygamy, in Australia, is what we find and expect to find. The
practice of circumcision is what we find, perhaps, without expecting
it. The habit of the children taking the name of the mother, will
occur again in the south of India. The rule that a man cannot marry a
woman of his own family-name will also re-appear, and that amongst the
Indians of North America.
_The Kobong_[76]--"Each family among the Australians, adopts some
animal or plant, as a kind of badge or armorial emblem, or, as they
call it, its _kobong_. A certain mysterious connection exists between a
family and its kobong, so that a member of the family will not kill an
animal, or pluck any plant of the species to which his kobong belongs,
except under particular circumstances. This institution again, which
in some respect resembles the Polynesian _tabú_, though founded on a
different principle, has its counterpart in the customs of the native
Americans. Captain Gray observes, citing Mr. Gallatin, that among the
Hurons,[77] the first tribe is that of the bear; the two others, those
of the wolf and turtle. The Iroquois have the same divisions, and the
turtle family is divided into the great and little turtle. The Sioux
are named on a similar principle. According to Major Long, one part of
the superstition of these savages, consists in each man having some
totem, or favourite spirit, which he believes to watch over him. The
_totem_ assumes the shape of some beast, and therefore they never kill
or eat the animal whose form they suppose their totem to bear."
"_The ceremony of initiation._--When the boys arrive at the age of
puberty (or about fourteen), the elders of a tribe prepare to initiate
them into the duties and privileges of manhood. Suddenly, at night,
a dismal cry is heard in the woods, which the boys are told is the
_Bubu_ calling for them. Thereupon all the men of the tribe (or rather
of the neighbourhood) set off for some secluded spot previously fixed
upon, taking with them the youths who are to undergo the ceremony.
The exact nature of this is not known, except that it consists of
superstitious rites, of dances representing the various pursuits in
which men are engaged, of sham fights, and trials designed to prove
the self-possession, courage, and endurance of the neophytes. It is
certain, however, that there is some variation in the details of
the ceremony, in different places; for among the coast tribes, one
of these is the knocking out of an upper front tooth, which is not
done at Wellington, and farther in the interior. But the nature and
object of the institution appear to be everywhere the same. Its design
unquestionably is, to imprint upon the mind of the young man, the rules
by which his future life is to be regulated; and some of these are
so striking, and, under the circumstances, so admirable, that one is
inclined to ascribe them to some higher state of mental cultivation
than now prevails among the natives. Thus, the young men, from the time
they are initiated, till they are married, are forbidden to approach or
speak to a female. They must encamp at a distance from them at night,
and if they see one in the way, must make a long detour to avoid her.
Mr. Watson told me that he had often been put to great inconvenience in
travelling through the woods, with a young man for his guide, as such a
one could never be induced to approach an encampment where there were
any women. The moral intent of this regulation is evident.
"Another rule requires the young men to pay implicit obedience to their
elders. As there is no distinction of rank among them, it is evident
that some authority of this kind is required, to preserve the order and
harmony of social intercourse.
"A third regulation restricts the youth to certain articles of diet.
They are not allowed to eat fish, or eggs, or the _emu_, or any of the
finer kinds of opossum and kangaroo. In short, their fare is required
to be of the coarsest and most meagre description. As they grow older,
the restrictions are removed, one after another; but it is not till
they have passed the period of middle age that they are entirely
unrestrained in the choice of food. Whether one purpose of this law be
to accustom the young men to a hardy and simple style of living may be
doubted; but its prime object and its result certainly are to prevent
the young men from possessing themselves, by their superior strength
and agility, of all the more desirable articles of food, and leaving
only the refuse to the elders.
"2. The ceremony of marriage, which, among most nations, is considered
so important and interesting, is with this people one of the least
regarded. The woman is looked upon as an article of property, and is
sold or given away by her relatives without the slightest consideration
of her own pleasure. In some cases she is betrothed, or rather
promised, to her future husband in the childhood of both; and in this
case, as soon as they arrive at a proper age, the young man claims
and receives her. Some of them have four or five wives, and in such a
case, they will give one to a friend who may happen to be destitute.
Notwithstanding this apparent laxity, they are very jealous, and resent
any freedom taken with their wives. Most of their quarrels relate
to women. In some cases, the husband who suspects another native of
seducing his wife, either kills or severely injures one or both of
them. Sometimes the affair is taken up by the tribe, who inflict
punishment after their own fashion. The manner of this is another of
the singularities of their social system.
"3. When a native, for any transgression, incurs the displeasure of
his tribe, their custom obliges him to "stand punishment," as it is
called; that is, he stands with a shield, at a fair distance, while the
whole tribe, either simultaneously or in rapid succession, cast their
spears at him. Their expertness generally enables those who are exposed
to this trial to escape without serious injury, though instances
occasionally happen of a fatal result. There is a certain propriety
even in this extraordinary punishment, as it is very evident that the
accuracy and force with which the weapons are thrown will depend very
much upon the opinion entertained of the enormity of the offence.
"When the quarrel is between two persons only, and the tribe declines
to interfere, it is sometimes settled by a singular kind of _duello_.
The parties meet in presence of their kindred and friends, who form
a circle round them as witnesses and umpires. They stand up opposite
one another, armed each with a club about two feet long. The injured
person has the right of striking the first blow, to receive which
the other is obliged to extend his head forward, with the side turned
partially upwards. The blow is inflicted with a force commensurate with
the vindictive feeling of the avenger. A white man, with an ordinary
cranium, would be killed outright, but, owing to the great thickness
of their skulls, this seldom happens with the natives. The challenged
party now takes his turn to strike, and the other is obliged to place
himself in the same posture of convenience. In this way the combat is
continued, with alternate buffets, until one of them is stunned, or the
expiation is considered satisfactory.
"4. What are called wars among them may more properly be considered
duels (if this word may be so applied) between two parties of men.
One or more natives of a certain part of the country, considering
themselves aggrieved by the acts of others in another part, assemble
their neighbours to consult with them concerning the proper course
to be pursued. The general opinion having been declared for war,
a messenger or ambassador is sent to announce their intention to
the opposite party. These immediately assemble their friends and
neighbours, and all prepare for the approaching contest. In some cases,
the day is fixed by the messenger, in others not; but, at all events,
the time is well understood.
"The two armies (usually from fifty to two hundred each) meet, and
after a great deal of mutual vituperation, the combat commences. From
their singular dexterity in avoiding or parrying the missiles of their
adversaries, the engagement usually continues a long time without any
fatal result. When a man is killed (and sometimes before), a cessation
takes place; another scene of recrimination, abuse, and explanation
ensues, and the affair commonly terminates. All hostility is at an end,
and the two parties mix amicably together, bury the dead, and join in
a general dance.
"5. One cause of hostility among them, both public and private, is the
absurd idea which they entertain, that no person dies a natural death.
If a man perishes of disease, at a distance from his friends, his death
is supposed to have been caused by some sorcerer of another tribe,
whose life must be taken for satisfaction. If, on the other hand, he
dies among his kindred, the nearest relative is held responsible. A
native of the tribe at Hunter's River, who served me as a guide, had
not long before beaten his own mother nearly to death, in revenge for
the loss of his brother, who died while under her cure. This was not
because he had any suspicions of her conduct, but merely in obedience
to the requirements of a senseless custom."[78]
In the notice of the _physical appearance_ of the natives of Waigiú
and Rawack (p. 212), the statement that the _molar portion of the
alveolar arch is thick_, is printed in Italics. This was for the sake
of preparing the reader for an observation of Professor Owen's upon a
peculiarity of the structure of the teeth of the tribes in question.
_a._ In the second upper molar, the connate character of the lateral
fangs, which is common in Europeans, is extremely exceptional in
Australians.
_b._ In the third upper molar three separate and well-developed fangs,
exceptional with the European, are normal with the Australian.
THE TASMANIAN BRANCH OF THE KELÆNONESIAN STOCK.
_Area._--Van Dieman's Land.
_Physical appearance._--Negritos, with curly, frizzy, or woolly
hair; _i.e._, with the character of the Papua, but not within
the Papua geographical area.
The native population is nearly extinct; and but few specimens exist of
their language.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.]
It fell into, at least, four dialects--mutually unintelligible:
probably into more.
Writers who are not, otherwise, over-prone to exaggerate differences,
have separated the Tasmanians from the Australians; and this
arrangement is followed in the present work. The physical difference
is chiefly that of the hair. The language, as far as the imperfect
vocabularies have allowed me to examine it, has fewer affinities with
the southern dialects of Australia than even the known amount of
dissimilarity between fundamentally allied languages prepares us for.
Furthermore--it was my impression, that such philological affinities
as existed were with New Caledonia rather than Australia. If so, the
philology and the physical appearance go together; and the Tasmanian
population came _round_ Australia rather than _across_ it.
The present position, therefore, of the Tasmanians is provisional.
* * * * *
_Necdum finitus Orestes._--There are two other Negrito localities;
which, _geographically_ speaking, are scarcely Amphinesian, and not at
all Kelænonesian. From the latter area they lie wholly apart. With the
Protonesian portion of Amphinesia they are less disconnected; indeed
they seem, at first, to form a prolongation of the northern extremity
of Sumatra.
I allude to two groups in the portion of the Bay of Bengal, on the
Siamese side, almost parallel with the line of the continent, and
forming a series of stepping-stones from Cape Negrais, in the Môn
country, to the Malay island of Sumatra.
These are--1. The Andaman Islands. 2. The Nicobar Islands.
THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS.
_Native name of the inhabitants._--Mincopie.
_Nearest point of the Continent._--Cape Negrais.
_Language._--Apparently not monosyllabic. Not considered to be
Protonesian.
_Native Fauna._--Rats, hogs, dogs.
_Religion and habits._--Pagan cannibals.--_Lieutenant
Colebrook's Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv.
_Physical appearance._--Colour extremely dark, perhaps black.
Heads woolly, lips thick, noses flat. Stature small, limbs
ill-formed and slender, bellies prominent.
Little as the Andamans, from the ferocious character of the
inhabitants, are known, they are noticed by the Arabian travellers
of the twelfth century, and also by Marco Polo; the early accounts
being quite as unfavourable as the late ones. "Angaman is a very large
island, not governed by a king. The inhabitants are idolators, and
are a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and teeth
resembling those of the canine species. Their dispositions are cruel,
and every person, not being of their own nation, whom they can lay
hands on, they kill and eat."--_Marco Polo, Marsden's Translation_.
THE NICOBAR ISLANDS.
_Locality._--Between the Andamans and Sumatra.
_Nicobar._--Inhabitants copper-coloured, with oblique eyes, yellowish
sclerotica, small flat noses, large mouth, thick lips, and black
teeth; undersized. Hair strong and black; beard scanty. Ears large and
perforated. Occipito-frontal profile brakhykephalic, the hinder part of
the head being flat and compressed.
The Nicobars are the people who, from the year A.D. 1647, until a
recent period, had the credit of having tails, like those of cats,
which they moved in a similar manner. This arose from a mistake of
Keoping, a Swede, who mistook for a caudal appendance a stripe of cloth
hanging down behind. That there is no real prolongation of the _os
coccygis_ is expressly stated by Fontana. The people _now_ supposed to
present this anatomical peculiarity are a tribe from the interior of
Africa.
The evidence of Keoping as to the cannibalism of the Nicobarians is
more conclusive than his assertion as to their tails. Having "sent a
boat on shore with five men, who did not return at night, as expected,
the day following a larger boat was sent, well manned, in quest of
their companions, who, it was supposed, had been devoured by the
savages, their bones having been found strewed on the shore, the boat
taken to pieces, and the iron of it carried away."
Their huts are raised from the ground, and entered by a ladder;
inhabited by more families than one, and ornamented with boar-skulls.
Marriages are easily formed, and easily dissolved.[79] The dead are
buried; and for every person that dies a cocoa-nut tree is cut down;
and his name is never afterwards mentioned.
The changes of the moon are productive of their great festivities; and
it is by these only that they reckon; seven to each monsoon. At the
beginning of the north-east monsoon a brisk trade, carried on by means
of large canoes, begins with the other islands. The extent of this, and
the amount to which it has introduced European articles of commerce
is considerable; indeed, in the Carnicobar Island the Portuguese has
partially become a _lingua franca_.
The habit of artificially flattening the back of the head is of more
importance. It is a custom "to compress with their hands the occiput
of the new-born child, in order to render it flat. By this method the
hair remains close to the head; as nature intended it, and the upper
fore-teeth very prominent out of the mouth." This is, apparently, so
exclusively an American custom that its presence here is remarkable;
and it is equally remarkable that the only other approach to it, is to
be found in these parts. It is mentioned as being a practice of certain
Arakan tribes.
The most characteristic disease is the _Cochin-leg_, a form of
elephantiasis; arising, perhaps, from the extent to which their aliment
is either fish or pork, to the exclusion of other sorts of animal food.
Instances, too, of longevity, are said to be rare.
Malabar and Bengal settlers to a considerable extent make the
Nicobarians a _mixed_, rather than a pure population.
_Carnicobar._--Inhabitants well made, but undersized, with Malay
features.
_Chowry._[80]--South of Carnicobar. Trade between the Chowrians and
Carnicobarians; the former selling canoes, the latter cloth.
Nancowry is described by Marco Polo, as being under the government of
no king, the people being "little removed from the condition of brutes,
all of them both males and females going naked, without a covering to
any part of the body. They are idolators."[81]
One of the most remarkable of their customs is the way in which they
celebrate the anniversary of the burial of any near relation, when
"their houses are decorated with garlands of flowers, fruits, and
branches of trees. The people of each village assemble, dressed in
their best attire, at the principal house in the place, where they
spend the day in a convivial manner; the men, sitting apart from the
women, smoke tobacco and intoxicate themselves, while the latter are
nursing their children, and employed in preparations for the mournful
business of the night. At a certain hour of the afternoon, announced
by striking the coung, the women set up the most dismal howls and
lamentations, which they continue without intermission till about
sunset; when the whole party gets up, and walks in procession to the
burying-ground. Arrived at the place, they form a circle around one
of the graves, when the stake, planted exactly over the head of the
corpse, is pulled up. The woman who is nearest of kin to the deceased,
steps out from the crowd, digs up the skull, and draws it up with
her hands. At sight of the bones, her strength seems to fail her;
she shrieks, she sobs, and tears of anguish abundantly fall to the
mouldering object of her pious care. She clears it from the earth,
scrapes off the festering flesh, and laves it plentifully with the milk
of fresh coco-nuts, supplied by the bystanders; after which she rubs it
over with an infusion of saffron, and wraps it carefully in a piece of
new cloth. It is then deposited again in the earth, and covered up; the
stake is replanted, and hung with the various trappings and implements
belonging to the deceased. They proceed then to the other graves, and
the whole night is spent in repetitions of these dismal and disgustful
rites."[82]
* * * * *
By referring to p. 209, the reader will find that three questions
connected with the distribution of the Polynesians--and, through
them, with that of the Oceanic tribes, altogether stand over for
consideration; these being--
A. The general question, as to their origin and distribution in
respect to their connection with the Continent, and with each other.
B. The date of the migrations. C. The inferences to be drawn from the
existence of a darker-coloured population in areas more especially
belonging to the brown and olive-coloured tribes.
A. Connection with the Continent of (1) The Kelænonesians, (2) The
Polynesians.
1. A. _Of the Papua Kelænonesians._-The Papuans of New Guinea are, more
probably, a continuation of the population of the Eastern Moluccas
than aught else. This is what their geographical position indicates;
and (such being the case) it is the _primâ facie_ doctrine. At the
same time, they are a continuation of the black or black-like portion
of the Moluccan area, rather than of the Mahometan Malays. The chief
difference lies in the texture of the hair, a difference which has,
most likely, been over-rated.
B. _Of the Australian Kelænonesians._--The _a priori_ view as to
the source of the Australian population is complicated, as may be
understood by looking at the distance between Cape York and New Guinea
on one side, and that between Cape Van Dieman and Timor on the other.
The difference in breadth between the interspaces of ocean in these
two parts is nearly the same: that, however, of Torres Straits is
the smaller;--besides which, there is a numerous series of islands
which would serve as stepping-stones to emigrants from New Guinea;
assuming that to be the line. Now as it is a general rule to derive
the population of islands forming part of a series from the nearest
inhabited point between the area under consideration and the Continent,
_unless reasons can be shown to the contrary_, the apparent _primâ
facie_ view is in favour of the south of New Guinea having peopled
the north of Australia. Nevertheless, it not only is highly probable
that such is not the case, but it is by no means certain that, _all
conditions considered_, it is a correct view even _a priori_. In many
instances those reasons for believing that one particular island has
supplied a population to another, which are based on the principle
of simple contiguity, are modified by the relations of the supposed
_immediate_ source of population to the supposed _remote_ one; in
which case, although the land and sea conditions between the two last
links of the chain may be of the most favourable kind, those between
the last link but one and the first, may be the contrary. Thus, in the
case before us, the fact of Torres Straits being the narrowest portion
of Ocean between Australia and the inhabited land, on the side of the
continent next to it, _taken by itself_, constitutes a reason for
deriving the Australians from the Papuans. It is complicated, however,
by the circumstance of the line between New Guinea and the Continent
being by no means of the most direct and straightforward sort. Hence,
if there were any other point of inhabited land which should at one and
the same time be not much farther from some part of Australia than New
Guinea is from Cape York, and much nearer the _remote_ source (assumed
to be on the Continent) of the Australian population, such a locality
would divide with New Guinea the claims for having been the _immediate_
origin of the occupants of the great island in question; inasmuch as
the slight difference between the favourable conditions of one kind,
would counterbalance the preponderating conditions of another.
Now such a locality is really found in the case before us in the
relations already noticed between the north-east point of Timor and
Cape Van Diemen; so that, _upon the whole_, the _a priori_ views are
as much in favour of the Timor range of islands, being the connecting
link between Australia and the Continent, as they are in favour of New
Guinea being so.
The distinction just indicated is of more importance, as illustrative
of a general principle, than as a fact affecting the particular point
in question. The special facts of the case are, in the mind of the
present writer, in favour of Timor and _not New Guinea_, having been
the quarter from whence Australia was peopled, the particular part
of the Timorian stock being, of course, the darker, wilder, and,
apparently, more ancient tribes of the west and of the interior.
2. _Of the Polynesians._--In investigating the relations between
Polynesia and the Continent, with an exclusive view to the land-and-sea
conditions between the different portions of the connecting series
of islands, we should at once derive the population of the Eastern
Archipelagoes from the islands which lay nearest to them on the west,
and so proceed until we came to the Samoan Archipelago, to the Tonga
group, or to the Fijis. These we should connect with the New Hebrides,
or Solomon's Isles, and these last with New Guinea, the Moluccas, and
the Continent. We should then assume a spread of the population, as
far to the North and East as it had been found to occur westwards; and
so derive the Micronesians from the northern Polynesians. We should
not be afraid of even deriving the people of the Pelew Islands from
the same quarter; the similarity of language and habits having already
been recognised, and the distance between the Pelews and the nearest
portion of Protonesia being greater than (or at least as great as) any
interspace of ocean between Polynesia and the Continent. I say that
this is what we should do if we looked exclusively to the discovery of
that line of connexion where the land-and-sea conditions should be the
most favourable; in other words, where the interspaces of sea should
be the smallest. Nevertheless, in so doing we should, probably, commit
an error in our inference, and certainly violate a principle in our
method; a principle which has been suggested in a previous[83] part of
the present Volume, and which is founded upon the circumstance of the
population of the line of the Papuan Islands, being _not Amphinesian
but Negrito_: so that the ethnological continuity, and the geographical
continuity, disagree; a fact which throws us upon a line of greater
geographical, but of less ethnological complexity; and in favour of
which the probabilities arise out of a composition of the conflicting
difficulties. This is the line from either the Philippines, or the
northern Moluccas to the Pelews (_via_ Lord North's Isle, Sonsoral,
or Johannes I.), the cluster of Goulou, the cluster of Yap, the Egoy
Isles, the Lamoursek and Satawal groups; the Proper Caroline group, the
Chains of Ralik, and Radak, the Tarawan group, the Navigators' Isles or
Samoan Archipelago.
Now the Samoan Archipelago is very nearly the point from which we
should have derived the _proper_ Polynesian population, had we taken
the course of the Papuan islands; so that it constitutes a point
wherein the two lines meet. Hence, if upon historical, philological,
or any other points of external evidence, we gave a preference to
the Samoan Archipelago, over the Tonga group, as the source of the
population for other parts of Polynesia Proper, we should reduce the
_general_ question as to the original of South Pacific islanders to
that of the origin of the Samoans. This, however, is a matter of
detail, of less importance than the recognition of the necessity of
making the geographical continuity of the chain which connects the
Polynesians with the Continent, agree with the ethnological. This can
only be done by deriving the Polynesian population from Micronesia. In
this case the stream of migration goes _round_ the Kelænonesian area,
and not _across_ it.
The rule of taking, as lines of insular migration, those series where
the _maximum_ interspaces of ocean are the smallest, has already been
twice insisted on, and in both cases it has been qualified by the
indication of particular reasons, which might, in certain cases, lead
us to depart from it. These reasons have not been exhibited in detail.
Two sorts, however, of them have occurred, as it were spontaneously,
_i.e._, in the natural course of our investigations. These showed
themselves, first in the preference given to Timor over New Guinea,
as the origin of the Australian population; and next, in the case of
Polynesia, just discussed. A _third_ sort will now present itself,
_i.e._, _the effect of winds and currents_; since it is clear that it
is easier to pass over a large interspace of sea with wind and current
(one or both) in your favour, than over a small one with either one or
both against you.
_The prevailing winds in the Pacific are against a line of insular
migration, being from west to east, at all; since for three fourths of
the year they blow from America towards Amphinesia rather than from
Amphinesia to America._
_Valeat quantum._ All that can possibly be got would be a chance of
three to one in favour of an American origin for the Polynesians,
_provided that all other conditions were equal_. But this is not the
case; the _a priori_ probabilities are neutralized by a vast difference
in the maximum interspaces of ocean, and by the non-American character
of both Micronesia and Polynesia.
It is most likely, then, that Polynesia Proper was peopled from
Micronesia, and Micronesia from either the Philippines or the Moluccas.
C. The date of the migrations. This is either relative or absolute:
_relative_ when we ascertain whether one division of the Oceanic
populations migrated before or after another; _absolute_ when we fix
the chronological date of a migration. As a general rule the latter
is unattainable--Iceland and a few other areas, peopled within the
historical period, forming the exceptions.
Respecting, then, the absolute date of the Polynesian migration, there
is no reason why it should not be known _in particular islands_; for
instance, in the Dangerous Archipelago, where only a small proportion
of the clusters is peopled even at present, any given island may
receive a population so late as this, the eleventh hour of the
extension of the human species; yet it is evident that the knowledge
of such a migration would throw but little light upon the broader
question of the date of the Polynesian population _en masse_. Of this
it may safely be said, that no important group has received its first
occupants within the Polynesian _historical_ period. This, however, is
but a short one.
Will the longer range of the _traditionary_ period supply any such
information? I think not. Nevertheless it must be added, that in
Nukahiva pedigrees run up to the eighty-fifth generation, the founders
of them being connected with the first occupancy of the island. Even,
however, if we admit so long a genealogy as an historical fact, it only
gives the date for one particular island.
Proper _ethnological_ reasoning is, from its very nature, inapplicable
to the investigation of a definite epoch in chronology; since it only
begins where the evidence of testimony ends. Furthermore, it is only
approximate, since it simply calculates, by means of an imperfect
induction, the _minimum_ period required to account for differences;
and the _maximum_ period that will account for resemblances; _e.g._ for
the Polynesians to differ as they do from the Micronesian, a certain
time must have elapsed; and for them to differ no more than they do,
that time must have a limit.
Applied to the _relative_ date of the Oceanic migrations, ethnological
reasoning gives for even the most recent of them, a geological rather
than an historical epoch; and this is as much as it is safe to say. Its
other probable conclusions are more definite.
1. Occupancy had begun in Australia before migration across Torres
Strait had commenced in New Guinea.
2. Occupancy had begun in New Guinea before Polynesian migration had
commenced in Protonesia. The first of these facts we infer from the
physical differences between the Australian and the Papuan, taken with
the fact that it is scarcely likely that the Papuans of Torres Straits
would have failed in extending themselves to Australia had that island
been unoccupied.
The second is an inference from the diversion of the Protonesian
population from New Guinea to the Micronesian line, since the best
reason that can be assigned for the Protonesians not having taken
possession of the Papuan isles, is to be found in the assumption that
they were previously inhabited.
This brings us to the third question, as to the import of the darker
coloured populations in areas more especially belonging to the brown
and olive-coloured tribes.--I do not see how we can consider these as
aught else but the lighter-coloured populations in a ruder stage of
society; since unless we take this view we must look upon them as the
representatives of a separate section of the human kind; a supposition
against which there are the two following objections.
_a._ That the difficulties respecting the population of the Polynesian
area are just doubled by such an assumption; since instead of having
to account for the undoubted Polynesians alone (a matter quite
difficult enough of itself) we should then have to account for an
earlier migration of Negritos as well.
_b._ That if such a previous migration had taken place, we should
expect to find--considering the vast number of Polynesian islands--_at
least one_ island where the blacker race remained unmixed, and (as
such) speaking the original non-polynesian language, which is implied
in the assumed independence of origin; since it is exceedingly unlikely
that a second migration should have so nearly coincided with a former
one as to people and leave unpeopled exactly the same areas. Now out of
all the isles of the South Sea none presents the phenomenon of a pure
black population, as determined by the double test of colour and of
language.
On the other hand, it may be urged--_a._ That, although it may be
a matter of doubt with competent judges whether improved physical
and social conditions have so great an influence upon the colour of
the skin and the texture of the hair as is imagined by some extreme
thinkers on the point, it is generally admitted that they have _some_
influence.
_b._ That in some groups (and sometimes in particular islands) the
identity of the darker and lighter-coloured population is beyond a
doubt; coinciding, as it does, with such differences.
_c._ That transitional forms occur where it is wholly gratuitous to
assume the influence of intermixture.
With this opinion our view of the relations between the continuous
Kelænonesian areas and the areas of the mixed population would be as
follows:--
_a._ That at a period anterior to the development of the proper Malay
and Polynesian characters of the typical Protonesians, New Guinea
and Australia were peopled from the Moluccas and Timor respectively;
the immigrants having a type which might lose or gain Kelænonesian
characters according to circumstances.
_b._ That the conditions of Protonesia and Polynesia favoured the
change from dark to fair; those of New Guinea and Australia from fair
to dark.
I will now add a remark of Mr. Blaxland from Mr. Jukes's Voyage of the
_Fly_, which will further illustrate this position:--"The geographical
boundary of the Papuan islander is precisely coincident with that of
the north-west monsoon. This wind, from the months of November to March
inclusive, is the prevalent one over all the space extending from the
equator to 10° or 15° south latitude, and in longitude from Sumatra to
the Fejee Islands. It is sometimes experienced to the west of Sumatra
as far as the north of Madagascar, and it sometimes also extends
to the east of the Fejee Islands into the Pacific Ocean; but these
extensions are irregular, and its usual eastern boundary is precisely
that of the Papuan race before described. Mr. Blaxland deduces from
this fact, coupled with the little skill of that race in navigation,
the inference, that they have travelled from the west into the Pacific
Ocean, and extended their migration only as far as the monsoon allowed
them."[84]
This gives us the following theory:--
1. That Kelænonesia was peopled when navigation was so much in its
infancy as for the Protonesians to be limited in their migrations by
the north-west monsoon.
2. That Polynesia was peopled when it was sufficiently advanced for the
same people to be independent of it.
3. That the _differentiæ_ between the lighter and darker Protonesians
is referable to the influences of Asiatic civilization.
The observations of Mr. Blaxland, taken along with the colour of
the people, lead to the inference that the Fijis were peopled from
Kelænonesia. The language, however, is against this. The conflict of
difficulties is best reconciled by considering them a mixed race;
of which the older element belongs to the line of population which
supplied Kelænonesia with its inhabitants, the newer to the Polynesian
system.
If this view be unsatisfactory we must consider them as members of the
darker Polynesian population, with its differential characteristics
at their _maximum_--a view probable enough of itself, but rendered
suspicious by the fact of its occurring so precisely in the
neighbourhood of Kelænonesia.
That they form a true transition between the Kelænonesians and
Polynesians, _as a continuation_ of a line of population from the New
Hebrides to Polynesia, is of all views the most improbable.
In the opinion of the present writer, the Fiji Islands are the
localities where the stream of population which went _round_ New Guinea
met, and amalgamated with the extremity of the line that came _across_
that country; the antagonism between the evidence of the language,
the evidence of the physical conformation being the effect of the
intermixture.
Respecting the ethnological relations of the Andaman and Nicobarian
islanders, I am not prepared with an opinion.
* * * * *
The following facts connected with the Polynesian languages, are
laid before the reader, less for the sake of enlarging the list of
Polynesian peculiarities than as a preparation for certain philological
phænomena, which will occur in the ethnology of America, and with
the view of showing a process by which language, over and above the
changes which are brought about by _natural_ changes, may be modified
_artificially_--a point upon which we have few _data_, but plenty of
extreme opinions.
_Ceremonial language of parts of Polynesia._--The Samoans, ceremonious
to each other, are preeminently so towards their chiefs; one of their
methods of showing respect being to eschew certain words in common
use, when addressing a superior, and to substitute for them others,
which are considered more refined. Hence, a careful speaker will never
address a higher personage in the terms appropriate to an inferior one.
To a common man, on entering a house, the salutation is _ua mai=you
have come_.
To a householder, _ua alala mai_.
To a low chief, _ua malui mai_.
To a high chief, _ua susu mai_.
To the sovereign, _ua afio mai_.
In Tonga there are traces of a second order of ceremonial synonyms;
_i.e._ over and above those ordinarily in use, there is a series for
the particular _divine_ chief Tiutonga.[85]
CEREMONIAL. TIUTONGA. COMMON. ENGLISH.
Fofonga langi mata _face_.
Ilo taumafa kai _eat_.
Mamata taka tio _see_.
Ofai hala mate _dead_.
Tengitangi buluhi mahaki _sick_.
Toka tofa moe _sleep_.
In Tahitian, an excessively figurative manner of speech is said to
supersede the proper system of ceremonial synonyms, the _houses_ of the
chief being the _clouds of heaven_; his _canoe_, the _rainbow_; his
_voice_, the _thunder_, and so on.
The names too of the chiefs are almost always significant, and almost
always compound, and, in some cases, they run to a very considerable
length, as _Tai-ma-le-langi=sea and sky_; _Tau-i-te-ao-bu=suspended in
the blue heavens_; _Ta-lana-tupu-a-pai-ta-lani-nui=the sky increasing
and striking the great heaven_. Now the owners of any such names as
these are supposed to be complimented by the Tahitians ceasing to
employ, in the language of their daily intercourse, one, or more,
of the words which formed parts of them; so that, in the case of
_Tai-ma-le-langi_, the syllables _tai_, _mai_, _le_, or _langi_,
are lost to the common language, until the death of the chief, so
designated. After his decease, however, they return to the language. In
this way, between the voyages of Cook and Vancouver, no less than forty
or fifty words had been superseded by new ones: indeed, of the first
ten numerals, four are now different from what they were in Cook's time.
ORIGINAL FORM. PRESENT FORM.
2. Rua piti.
4. Ha maha.
5. Rima pae.
6. Ono fene.
_Note 1._--Since the notice of the Fiji Islands was written a youth of
that group--_i.e._ from the island of Lafu--has been brought over to
England by Mr. James Boyd, been presented at the Ethnological Society,
and is now in London. The most remarkable point is a reddish tinge,
clearly perceptible under a cross light, in his otherwise black and
frizzy hair. If I am right in referring this shade to the use of
alkaline washes used in youth for the purposes of whitening the hair,
it shows the unsafeness of talking about _naturally_ red hair for any
of Oceanic islands; since, in the case in question, it was upwards of
five years since any alkaline wash had been applied.
* * * * *
_Note 2._--In _p._ 184. I have overstated the extent to which the
notion that Polynesia Proper was peopled from Kelænonesia rather than
from Micronesia was _general_. Although not found (as far as I know) in
any of the systematic works on the subject of human migration, it is by
no means singular. It is the opinion of Mr. Norriss, and--subject to an
alternative--the recorded opinion of Mr. Jukes, who writes,--
"The Papuan race exclusively possesses the islands on the north-east
of Australia, namely, New Guinea with New Britain and New Ireland, the
Solomon Islands, the islands called Tierra Austral del Espiritu Santo,
and the New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. It extends also to the Feejee
Islands, where it is more or less mingled with the Polynesian race, and
where the language appears to be of Polynesian origin. It is probable
that from New Caledonia proceeded the colony, or whatever it was, that
reached Tasmania, and there mingled with the Australian race. To the
westward of New Guinea scattered tribes, apparently of Papuan race,
are said to occur in the interior of many islands as far west as that
called Endé Flores or Mangeray, and as far north as the Philippine
Islands. It has even been said that the Andaman Islands, in the Bay
of Bengal, are inhabited by a people much resembling the Papuans, and
I have been struck with the similarity of many of their customs to
those which are said to characterize some of the wild hill tribes in
the centre of India. I believe, however, that many of the stories of
tribes of people being found in the various parts of the Archipelago,
must be received with much caution, and that most of the wild people so
described will be found, like the Dyaks of Borneo, or the wild tribes
of the Malacca Peninsula, to be really of Polynesian race. A mingling
of the Papuan race with the Australian, probably takes place at the
present day in the neighbourhood of Torres Strait, but not, perhaps,
to so great an extent as might be expected, for I am inclined to think
that the Australians give way and retreat before the islanders. * * * *
Whatever may have been the origin of the Polynesians, it is certainly
most probable that their reason for going round these Papuan islands
(whether from the east or west), and not taking possession of them, was
the fact of their being previously inhabited by the Papuans."[86]
FOOTNOTES:
[49] Terms applied to geographical distribution rather than to physical
conformation; _Malay_ and _Negrito_ being terms expressive of physical
conformation rather than of geographical distribution.
[50] History of Sumatra, p. 383.
[51] History of Sumatra, p. 41.
[52] Marsden's, History of Sumatra.
[53] History of Sumatra, p. 53.
[54] Prichard, vol. v.
[55] A division of the Kelænonesians.
[56] The _g-_ pronounced as in _get_.
[57] Rajah Brooke's Journal, vol. i. p. 83.
[58] Brooke, vol. ii. p. 65.
[59] Description des Isles Philippines.
[60] From Prichard, vol. v. p. 220.
[61] Page 302, &c.
[62] United States' Exploring Expedition.
[63] According to the map and nomenclature of Dumont Durville.
[64] In Tahitian, Taaroa.
[65] Beechey.
[66] _Amphi-nesian_, from _amfi_=_around_, and _næsos_=_island_;
_Protonesian_, from _protos_=_first_; _Kelino-nesian_, from
_kelainos_=_black_. This last term is Prichard's. I am aware that all
these forms are, etymologically, incorrect. The first part is Greek,
the termination, _-an_, Latin; so that they are impossible words in
the language from which they are supposed to be taken. Still the forms
_Polynesian_ and _Peloponnesian_, establish a convenient, though
exceptionable, precedent.
[67] "This house resembled the smaller houses we afterwards saw in New
Guinea, and it may have been erected merely in imitation of those the
islanders have seen in that country. We afterwards saw, on Masseed, a
solitary house like those of Darnley and Murray Islands."
[68] See page 168.
[69] Prichard. Vol. v., p. 232.
[70] Denoting that by some writers the Vanikoro tribes have been placed
in another class. Their language has been considered as Polynesian
rather than Papua.
[71] See p. 204.
[72] February 10, 1843.
[73] Vol. vi. p. 110.
[74] As the _ch_ in _chest_.
[75] A work of Purkinje on the distribution of the sounds in different
languages, I know only from the reference to it in Müller's Physiology.
The beautiful application of this by Professor Graves, of Dublin, will
be noticed when speaking of the ethnology of Ireland.
[76] Captain Gray; from Prichard. Vol. v.
[77] _Qu?_--Delawares.
[78] United States' Exploring Expedition, vol. vi.
[79] Parum fecundæ mulieres; apud quas quinta Lucina rarissimum.
Viri inculpantur; quorum Venus plerumque præcox et effræna, ebrietas
perpetua.
[80] Zoffany; Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.
[81] Marsden's Translation, p. 619.
[82] Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 131.
[83] Page 185.
[84] Vol. ii. p. 251.
[85] See p. 193.
[86] Voyage of the _Fly_, p. 251.
D.
HYPERBOREAN MONGOLIDÆ.
We are now in Siberia rather than in Central Asia; along the courses
of large rivers rather than at their head-waters; and in a region of
_tundras_, or flat barren morasses, rather than on elevated steppes. We
are also in the country of the rein-deer and dog rather than the horse
and sheep. Fishing and fur-hunting, too, will form a portion of the
occupations of the Hyperborean Mongolidæ. These conditions, different
as they are in many respects from the general conditions of the Turk
and Mongolian Turanians, have still been met with before, _i.e._ with
the Northern Ugrians, the Northern Tungusians, and the Yakuts. One of
the nations about to be enumerated, occupies the most northern portion
of the inhabited world, _i.e._ the Samöeids of the Northern promontory
of Asia.
HYPERBOREAN NATIONS AND TRIBES.
_Physical conformation._--Undersized Mongols.
_Languages._---Agglutinate; neither monosyllabic nor
pauro-syllabic.
_Political relations._--Subject to either Russia or China.
_Religion._--Shamanism or imperfect Christianity.
_Distribution._--The coasts of the Arctic Ocean; the courses of
the Yenisey and Kolyma. Area _discontinuous_.
_Divisions._--1. The Samöeids, 2. The Yeniseians. 3. The
Yukahiri.
The discontinuity of the Hyperborean area is to the following extent:--
_a._ The Samöeid class falls into two divisions, a northern and a
southern; and these are separated from one another by Turk, Yeniseian,
and Ugrian tribes.
_b._ The Yeniseians are surrounded by Ugrians, Turks, and Tungusians,
with which they have less affinity than with the Samöeids, from whom
they are separated.
_c._ The most western Yukahiri are separated from the most eastern
Samöeids by Yakut Turks and Tungusians.
This discontinuity of area must be taken along with two other facts.
_a._ That the Hyperborean nations are nations of a _receding_ frontier.
_b._ That the Turks, Tungús, and (in relation to the Hyperborean), the
Ugrians, are nations of an _encroaching_ frontier. These give, as an
inference, the probability of the three separate divisions having once
been continuous; so that the original Hyperborean populations must be
considered to have been broken up, and partially superseded by the
Turks and Tungusians, and to exist, at present, only in the form of
fragments.
SAMÖEIDS.
_SOUTHERN DIVISION (SOIOT)._
_Localities._--_a._ The parts around Lake Ubsa, within the
limits of the Chinese Empire; the river Bashkus, which expands
into the Lake Altin, or Teleakoi, and becomes one of the
sources of the Obi.
_b._ Tunkinsk, on the south-west extremity of the Lake Baikal,
within the Russian territory.
_c._ Abakansk on the left branch of the Upper Yenisey. From
Abakansk, they moved eastwards in A.D. 1618.
_d._ The River Uda between the two branches of the Upper
Yenisey.
_Tribes._--_a._ Of the Lake Ubsa, the Uriangchai or Soiot.
_b._ Of the Uriangchai, the Bagari, the Matlar, the Tozhin, the
Ulek.
_c._ Of Abakansk; the Matorzi, or Motori, and Koibal. Probably
now extinct; since in 1722, only ten families of the Modori
remained. The Kamash.
_d._ Of the Uda; the Karakash.
_Conterminous_ with the Mongols, Tungusians, Yeniseians, and
Turks. Separated by the last two from the Northern Samöeids.
_Vocabularies._--Of the Motori, Koibal, and Kamash.
_NORTHERN DIVISION (KHASOVO)._
_Area._--From the Mezene, between the Petchora and Archangel,
and falling into the White Sea, to the Chatunga in 105° east
longitude, along the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and on the
lower courses of the Petchora, Obi, and Yenisey.
Southwards; on the Yenisey to Turokansk, on the Obi, as far as
Tomsk. This is their nearest point to the Southern Samöeids.
_Conterminous_ with the Yakuts and Tungusians(?) on the east,
the Yeniseians and Turks on the south, and the Ostiaks and
Russians on the west.
_Name._--Of the northern Samöeids on the River Tas, between the
Yenisey and the Obi, _Mokase_. Of those of the Lower Obi and
White Sea, _Khasovo_=_men_.
Some of the Samöeid tribes are improperly called Ostiaks.
Called by themselves _Nyenech_=_men_.
" ---- _Khasovo_=_men_.
" the Obi Ostiaks _Jergan-yach_.
" Tungusians _Dyândal_.
" Syranians _Yarang_.
" Woguls _Yorran-kum_.
" Russians _Samöeid_.
_Vocabularies._--1. From Pustoserk, at the mouth of the
Petchora. The north-westernmost locality.
2. From Obdorsk, at the mouth of the Obi.
3. From the River Tym, on the right side of the Obi.
4. From the River Ket, _ibid._
5. From Narym between the two.
6. From Pumpokolsk north of the Tym.
7. From Tomsk, the southernmost locality.
8. From the parts between the Obi and Yenisey, the Yurass, the
Tas, Mangaseia vocabularies.
9. From Turuchansk.
10. From the east of Turuchansk. The Karass vocabulary.
11. From the parts about the Chatunga. The Tawgi vocabulary.
These the most easterly specimens.
12. The Laak vocabulary.
Of all the tribes of Siberia the Samöeids are nearest to the Eskimo, or
Greenlanders, in their physical appearance. Varieties, however, have
been described; some tribes having been called _tall_, others _fair_.
The general character is that of the Laplander, and the Eskimo--the
other circumpolar divisions of the human species.[87]
The Koibals are in all probability the most advanced of the
Samöeids--being the owners of herds, flocks, horses, and camels(?).
[Illustration: Fig. 9.]
As early as A.D. 1096, the term _Samöeid_ appears in the Russian
chronicles, and it is to be found again in the Travels of Plan Carpin,
a hundred and fifty years later.
YENISEIANS.
_Locality._--Each side of Yenisey, limited by the Northern
Samöeids between Inbask and Turuchansk, and by the Southern
Samöeids and Turks, in the neighbourhood of Krasnoiarsk. On the
west are the south-eastern tribes of the northern Samöeids. On
the east Tungusians and Turks.
_Native name._--Könniyüng.
_Vocabularies._--1. Inbask. 2. Pumpokolsk. 3. Assan. 4. Kott.
5. Arinzi. 6. Denka.
YUKAHIRI.
_Native name._--Andon-Domni. Called by the Koræki
Atal=_spotted_, from wearing rein-deer skins.
_Locality._--Valley of the Kolyma, originally of the Yana and
Indijirka also.
_Particular tribes._--1. Tsheltiere, on the River Omolon.
2. Omoki, on the Atasey. 3-4. Tshuvantsi and Kudinski on
the Anisey. 5. Konghini, on the Kolyma. 6. Shelagi, on the
promontory of Shelagskoi Noss.
_Conterminous_ with the Yakut Turks, the Lamut Tungusians, and
the Koriaks.
The Yukahiri, although said to have been, even as late as the beginning
of the last century, a powerful people, are at present rapidly
diminishing. The Omoki and Shelagi are either extinct, or nearly so. So
also, most probably, are the Tseltiere, the Kudinski, and the Konghini.
Laying out of the account the influence of Russia, the northern Koriaks
on the east, the Yakuts on the west, and the Lamut Tungusians on the
south, have been the chief encroaching tribes.
The writer who has paid most attention to the language of these three
divisions of the Siberian population is Klaproth; who, I believe, was
also the first who separated the Yeniseians from the Ugrians. With
these they were confounded, from the fact of their being denominated
by the Russians, _Ostiaks_; a term, which from being already applied
to the Ugrians of the Obi, was equivocal. To obviate this ambiguity,
it was necessary to speak of two kinds of Ostiaks, those of the Obi,
and those of the Yenisey; and so the nomenclature became confused. All
this, however, is remedied by adhering to Klaproth's term _Yeniseian_.
And such is the present custom of philologists.
Respecting the extent to which the Yeniseian, the Samöeid, and
Yukahiri, are isolated languages; the classification of the present
writer is opposed to that of the Asia Polyglotta. Klaproth raises each
to the rank of a separate family, and neither admits any definite
relationship between the three, as compared with each other, nor yet
between any one of them and any of the neighbouring languages. Still he
indicates some important _general_ and _miscellaneous_ affinities; and
Prichard does the same. The following table helps to verify the present
classification.
A.
_The Yeniseian of the Asia Polyglotta, and the Yukahiri of the
Asia Polyglotta_.
_English_, beard
Inbask, _kulye_, _kulgung_
Pumpokolsk, _clépuk_
Assan, _culup_, _chulp_
Kott, _hulup_
Arinzi, _korolep_
Yukahiri, _bu-gylbe_
_English_, head
Inbask, _tshig_
Yukahiri, _yok_
_English_, mouth
Pumpokolsk, _khan_
Yukahiri, _anya_
_English_, nose
Inbask, _olgen_, _olen_
Pumpokolsk, _hang_
Assan, _ang_
Yukahiri, _yongul_, _iongioula_.
_English_, tongue
Assan, _alûp_
Kott, _alûp_
Arinzi, _alyap_
Yukahiri, _andzhub_
_English_, ear
Assan, _kologan_, _klokan_
Kott, _kalogan_
Yukahiri, _golondzhi_
_English_, man
Inbask, _çet_, _blet_
Pumpokolsk, _ilset_
Kott, _hatket_
Yukahiri, _yadu_
_English_, dog
Inbask, _tsip_, _tip_
Yukahiri, _tabaha_
_English_, thunder
Arinzi, _esbath-yantu_
Yukahiri, _yendu_
_English_, lightning
Inbask, _yakene-bok_
Yukahiri, _bug-onshe_
_English_, egg
Inbask, _onge_
Arinze, _ang_
Pumpokolsk, _tanyangeeg_
Yukahiri, _langdzhango_
_English_, leaf
Assan, _yepan_
Kott, _dipang_
Yukahiri, _yipan_
_English_, eat
Assan, _rayali_
Yukahiri, _lagul_
_English_, yellow
Kott, _shuiga_
Yukahiri, _tshakatonni_
_English_, moon
Pumpokolsk, _tui_
Arinzi, _shui_
Yukahiri, _kinin-shi_
B.
_The Yeniseian_ _of the Asia Polyglotta, and the Samöeid of the
Asia Polyglotta_.
_English_, arm
Arinzi, _khinang_
Mangaseia, _kannamunne_
_English_, finger
Inbask, _tokan_
Pumpokolsk, _tok_
Tawgi, _fyaaka_
Yurass, _tarka_
_English_, flesh
Arinzi, _is_
Assan, _iç_, _içi_
Pumpokolsk, _ziç_
Mangaseia, _osa_
Turuchansk, _odzha_
Narym, &c., _ueç_
Karass, _hueç_
_English_, fir-tree
Inbask, _ei_
Arinzi, _aya_
Obdorsk, _ye_
_English_, egg
Inbask, _ong_
Arinzi, _ang_
Pumpokolsk, _eg_
Tas, _iga_
_English_, egg
Assan, _shulei_
Kott, _shulei_
Motorian, _shlok_
_English_, tree
Assan, _atsh_
Kott, &c., _açshe_
Motorian, &c., _cha_
_English_, brother
Assan, _pobesh_
Koibal, _pabim_=_younger_
_English_, butter
Assan, &c., _kayak_
Motorian, _chayak_
_English_, moon
Assan, _shui_
Koibal, _kui_
_English_, sun
Assan, &c., _ega_
Motorian, _kaye_
_English_, stone
Inbask, _çijgs_, _tyes_
Pumpokolsk, _çys_, _kit_
Assan, _shish_
Kott, _shish_
Arinzi, _khes_
Motorian, _dagia_
_English_, summer
Assan, _shega_
Kott, _chushshega_
Arinzi, _shei_
Motor, _daghan_
Koibal, _taga_
_English_, they
Assan, _hatin_
Arinzi, _itang_
Motor, _tin_
_English_, woman
Inbask, _bgim_
Arinzi, _byk-hamalte_
Obdorsk, _pug-utsu_
Pustoserk, _pug-iça_
_English_, river
Denka, _chuge_
Pustoserk, _yaga_
_English_, great
Assan, _paça_
Arinzi, _birkha_
Pustoserk, _pirçe_
_English_, evening
Inbask, _bis_
Pumpokolsk, _biçidin_
Assan, _pidziga_
Yurass, _pausema_
Obdorsk, _paus-emya_
Pustoserk, _paus-emye_
_English_, hill
Inbask, &c., _chai_
Samöeid, _syeo_, _ko_
_English_, bed
Inbask, _chodzha_
Obdorsk, _choba_
Tawgi, _kufu_
_English_, birch-tree
Inbask, _uusya_
Assan, _uça_
Kott, _uça_
Pustoserk, _chu_
Tawgi, &c., _kuie_
Ket, _tiue_
_English_, leaf
Yeniseian, _yp-an_
Pumpokolsk, _efig_
Pustoserk, _wyba_
Obdorsk, _wiibe_
Yurass, _newe_
Tomsk, _tyaba_
Narym, _çabe_
Kamash, _dzhaba_
Nevertheless, the present class is provisional. All that is at present
asserted, is that the three divisions which it contains, are not
sufficiently distinct to be separated. Whether, however, the whole
section may not, hereafter, become a sub-division of either the
Turanian, or the Peninsular Mongolidæ, is doubtful. Most probably it
will.
FOOTNOTES:
[87] Mammarum summitates apud Samöeidas nigerrimæ. Sic apud authores
reperi; quos, suspicor, aut gravidas, aut viragines fusciores vidisse.
Idem de Lapponibus traditur. Præcox, quoque, pro borealibus, puellarum
Venus; catameniis ante duodecimum annum accedentibus.
E.
PENINSULAR MONGOLIDÆ.
This division comprises tribes which, I believe, have not hitherto
been thrown in the same class, tribes separated from each other by
considerable breaks in the geographical, and even in the ethnological
continuity. Some of these lie within the Arctic Circle; others as far
south as 26° north latitude. Not less distant are the two extremes of
their social development; one section of the group partaking of the
civilization of China, another exhibiting the rudeness of the Samöeid,
and Yeniseian.
PENINSULAR NATIONS AND TRIBES.
_Physical conformation._--Mongol.
_Languages._--Agglutinate. In some cases excessively
_poly_-syllabic.
_Area._--Islands and peninsulas of the north-eastern coast of
Asia.
_Divisions._--1. The Koreans. 2. The Japanese. 3. The Aino. 4.
The Koriaks. 5. The Kamskadales.
After indicating the points of difference, it is necessary to justify
the present classification by showing in what way the divisions of the
Peninsular Mongolidæ agree.
1. They agree in their land and water relations--being, as is expressed
by the epithet applied to them, the inhabitants of either _peninsulas_
or of islands that form an extension of them; a fact wherein we have,
to a certain extent, common conditions in the way of physical, and
common conditions in the way of social development.
2. They lie within a few degrees of the same _longitude_. This,
however, is a mere consequence of their position on the same side of
the same continent.
3. They are more maritime in locality than in habit; the Japanese being
the chief navigators of the group. Compared, however, with the Chinese
and Malays, the Japanese are but moderate navigators.
4. Although at present interrupted, there is good reason for believing
that the original area was continuous. The parts that are broken are
the tracts between Korea and the mouth of the Amur, and the south-west
coast of the sea of Okhotsk. Now this interval is filled up by the
Tungusian tribes; tribes whose area has certainly been an _encroaching_
one.
5. As compared with the Chinese, the Japanese and Korean languages are
_not_ monosyllabic.
6. As compared with the Yakut Turk, and the Lamut Tungusian, the
Kamskadale and Koriak are not Turanian.
7. What applies to the language of the Peninsular tribes applies to
their physical appearance also.
All this, however, may be the case without affording the least proof
of a true ethnological connection, _i.e._ of a connection in the way
of descent and affiliation; since even the similarity of physical
appearance, which, making allowance for differences of latitude and
civilization, is, from all accounts, very close, may merely be the
effect of common climatologic conditions, wholly independent of
relationship.
To prove this a fresh set of facts is required. Nor are they wanting.
1. The Peninsular languages have a general _glossarial_ connection
with each other; the _grammatical_ structure of only one of them (the
Japanese) being known.
2. The Peninsular languages have a general glossarial connection with a
third class.
In the opinion of the present writer the Peninsular languages agree
in the general fact of being more closely akin to those of _America_
than any other; and this, of itself, he considers to be a sufficient
reason for placing them in a separate division. It also, to a certain
extent, removes the evidence of their mutual affinity to another part
of the work, _i.e._ that which treats of the origin of the American
population; inasmuch as the same tables which connect the American
languages with the Peninsular ones, connect these last with each other.
In a series of monographs these proofs could have been given separate;
in a systematic work, however, it is necessary to economise space by
making the same lists prove two points at once. Hence, they will appear
in the sequel.
THE KOREANS.
_Locality._--The peninsula of Korea; in Chinese, Kao-li.
_Political relations._--Subject to China.
_Religion._--That of Fo, modified.
_Alphabet._--Not rhæmatographic.
_Chief foreign influences._--Chinese, Mantshu, and Japanese; in
the thirteenth century, Mongolian.
_Physical appearance._--"The Kooraïan is superior in stature
to the Japanese; yet his height seldom exceeds five-and-a-half
Parisian feet: he is of strong, vigorous make, his figure
well-proportioned, active, and full of life. The shape of his
features bears in general the impress of the Mongolian race:
the coarse broad countenance; the projecting cheek-bones; the
strong under-jaw; the nose depressed at the root or upper
part, and broadly-spread alæ; the large mouth, with broad
lips; the peculiar position of the eyes, apparently angular
in the direction of their opening; the rough, thick, black
hair of the head, often inclined to a red brown colour; thick
eyebrows; thin beard; with a reddish-yellow, wheat-coloured
(_weitzen-farbich_), or straw-coloured complexion, announce
him at once and at the first look, as an inhabitant of the
north-eastern parts of Asia. This type is common to most of the
Kooraïans observed by us, and they recognise it as that which
is most distinctive of their nation."--SIEBOLD.[88]
The political relations towards China, the great amount of Chinese
influences upon the civilization of Korea, and the physical likeness
between the Koreans and the Chinese have had, in many instances,
the effect of diverting the attention of ethnologists from the true
affinities of this division of the Peninsular Mongolidæ; and it
should be added that the last of the three facts just enumerated is a
legitimate ground for looking, in the first instance, to China.
It is one which the present writer has no wish to conceal. The
question, however, must be viewed in all its bearings; in which case
we meet with the important fact that the Korean language is anything
rather than monosyllabic. Siebold, as I learn from Prichard, thought
that he perceived some analogies between the Japanese, the Korean, and
the Aino. He might have done more. He might have been sure of their
existence--and that to an extent sufficient to throw the three tongues
in the same category.
According to Klaproth,[89] speaking on the authority of Chinese
writers, the present inhabitants of Korea represent the mixture of
two separate populations; the true aborigines being the Koreans of
the south, called by the Chinese, the _Sam Han_=_the three tribes of
Han_. The northern are a people who came originally from a country
lying to the northward of the Chinese province of Tshy-li, called by
the Chinese writers _Sian-pi_. Whether this mixture, supposing it to
be real, represents the juxtaposition of tribes, widely different or
different in little more than name, is uncertain. Prichard, however,
has truly remarked that the physical characters of both must have been
nearly alike, inasmuch as they were each within the region where the
Turanian type prevails. It may also be added that no traces of a second
philological element in the difference between the Northern and the
Southern Korean dialects have yet been pointed out. In a language,
however, so imperfectly understood, this is not saying much.
In regard to the physical difference between different Korean
individuals no such negative statement can be made. Dr. Siebold[90]
writes as follows:--"In the countenances of the Kooraïans we may
recognise the characteristics of two different races of people. The
nose pressed down near the inner angle of the orbit and expanding
itself into broad alæ; the eyes obliquely placed, with the inner
angles widely separated from each other; the greater projection of
the cheek-bones; are marks of the race first described. But when
the root of the nose is more raised and the nose more straight,
the configuration of the countenance approaches to the stamp of
the Caucasian type, and the form of the eyes is more like that of
Europeans; the cheek-bones, too, are less prominent, and the sharp
profile, which is wanting to the Mongolian race, now makes its
appearance. The more the countenance belongs to the former cast the
less beard does it display, whereas, in persons of a sharp profile,
the beard is often rather strong. The skull is in these instances less
compressed, the forehead, which elsewhere retreats, is straight, and
the whole aspect of the countenance displays a certain noble expression
which is looked for in vain in the rough traits of the Mongolian type."
As evidence, however, to the presence of a foreign element of the kind
implied in the Chinese account, this is imperfect--indeed I have no
reason to believe that it is meant to be such--since it is not said by
Dr. Siebold that this difference of feature coincides with the northern
and southern portions of the population.
THE JAPANESE.
_Localities._--From south to north--the Lú Chú Islands, Kiúsiú,
Sikoko, Nipon, the southern part of Jesso.
_Political relations._--Independent.
_Alphabet._--Not rhæmatographic.
_Religion._--_a._ Of Chinese origin--1. That of Fo, modified;
2. The philosophical system of Confucius, modified.
_b._ The original Paganism.
_Physical Appearance._--"The people of this nation are well
made, active, free, and easy in their motions, with stout
limbs, although their strength is not to be compared with
that of the northern inhabitants of Europe. The men are of
the middling size, and in general not very corpulent; yet I
have seen some that were fat. They are of a yellowish colour
all over, sometimes bordering on brown, and sometimes on
white. The lower class of people, who in summer, when at work,
lay bare the upper part of their bodies, are sun-burnt, and
consequently brown. Ladies of distinction, who seldom go out
in the open air without being covered, are perfectly white.
It is by their eyes that, like the Chinese, these people are
distinguishable. These organs have not that rotundity, which
those of other nations exhibit, but are oblong, small, and are
sunk deeper in the head, in consequence of which these people
have almost the appearance of being pink-eyed. Their eyes are
dark-brown, or rather black, and the eyelids form in the great
angle of the eye a deep furrow, which makes the Japanese look
as if they were sharp-sighted, and discriminates them from
other nations. The eyebrows are also placed somewhat higher.
Their heads are in general large, and their necks short; their
hair black, thick, and shining, from the use they make of
oils. Their noses, although not flat, are yet rather thick and
short."--THUNBERG.[91]
"The population of Fizen, as well as that of the whole island
of Kiúsiú, is divided between the dwellers on the coast,
and those of the interior and of the towns, who differ from
each other in their physical aspect, language, manners, and
character.
"The coasts, and the numberless islands which border on them,
are inhabited by fishers and seafaring people, men small
but vigorous, of a deeper colour than those of the other
classes. Their hair, more frequently black than of a red brown
colour,--_brun-rougeâtre_,†--is crisped in some individuals
who have also the facial angle strongly marked,--_très
prononcée_,--their lips puffed,--_enflées_,--the nose small,
slightly aquiline, and depressed at the root,--_renfoncée à la
racine_.
"Address, perseverance, boldness, a frankness which never
amounts to effrontery, a natural benevolence and a complaisance
which approaches to the abject; such are the characteristic
qualities of the sea-coast people.
"The natives of the interior of Kiúsiú, who devote themselves
chiefly to agriculture, are a larger race, and are
distinguishable by a broad and flattened countenance; by the
prominence of their cheek-bones, and the distance between
the inner canthi; by their broad and very flat nose, their
large mouth; by their hair, which is of a deep brown colour,
inclining to red-brown, _tirant sur le brun-rougeâtre_,--and by
the clearer colour of their skin. Among the cultivators, who
are perpetually exposed to the air and sun, the skin becomes
red: the women, who protect themselves from the influence of
the atmosphere, have generally a fine and white skin, and the
cheeks of the young girls display a blooming carnation.
"This agricultural race is laborious, sober, pious, cordial,
and consequently hospitable. The savage nature, tempered from
infancy by the constant observance of the forms of politeness
and the etiquette of the country, does not exclude a certain
nobility, and never degenerates into grossness as among the
peasantry of Europe. The husbandmen of Fizen are even too
ceremonious."--SIEBOLD.[92]
Of the nobles of Japan, Kæmpfer says, they "are somewhat more
majestic in their shape and countenance than the generality,
and are more like Europeans."[93]
The notices of tribes darker in colour than the dominant part of
the population, of which we have seen so much in the oceanic area,
re-appear in the history of Japan. They are stated to belong to either
the interior or to the southern portion of the empire. This, however,
may be the case without involving the necessity of assuming a second
source for the population; at the same time such a second source is no
ethnological improbability. The darker Amphinesians of Formosa, may
possibly have tended farther northward.
The Japanese Alphabet is of Chinese origin; changed from a
rhæmatographic to a syllabic form. Indeed the great civilizing
influence in Japan has been from China. This, according to the doubts
expressed in a previous[94] part of the present work, limits the
antiquity of the Japanese history, and the value of the Japanese
traditions.
The original paganism of Japan is probably to be studied in the Kurile
Islands. Siebold's notice of it (extracted from Prichard)[95], is as
follows:--
"The Kamis or gods of the original Japanese, were, according to a
collection of the national traditions, not eternal. The first five gods
originated at the separation of elements in which the world began:
they are the Amatsukami. A bud, similar to that of the _Asi_, the
_Erianthus Japonicus_, expanded itself between heaven and earth and
produced _Kuni-soko-tatsino-mi-koto_, or the 'Maker of the dry land,'
who governed the world, as yet unfashioned, during an immeasurable
space of time, which was more than a hundred thousand millions of
years. This kami had many successors whose reigns were nearly as long.
Their temples are still places of worship in Oomi and Ise, districts
of Japan. There were seven dynasties of celestial gods. The last,
Iza-na-gi, standing on a bridge that floated between heaven and earth,
said to his wife, Iza-na-mi, 'Come on; there must be some habitable
land: let us try to find it.' He dipped his pike, ornamented with
precious stones, into the surrounding waters and agitated the waves:
the drops which fell from his pike when he raised it thickened and
formed an island, named 'Ono-koro-sima.' On this island Iza-na-gi
and his wife descended, and made the other provinces of the Japanese
empire. From them descended the five dynasties or reigns of earthly
gods. From the last of these originated Zin-moo-teu-woo, the ruler
of men, who, as above mentioned, founded the empire of Japan, and
conquered the aboriginal tribes. From Zin-moo's reign is dated the
first year of the epoch of Japanese chronology, coinciding with the
seventh year of the Chinese emperor Hoéï-wâng, B. C. 660. Such is the
cosmogony of the Japanese. Their highest adoration is given to the
deity of the sun, offspring of Iza-na-gi and Iza-na-mi: to him are
subordinate all the genii or demons which govern the elements and all
the operations of nature, as well as the souls of men, who after death
go to the gods or to an infernal place of punishment, according to
their actions on earth. Sacred festivals are held at certain seasons
of the year and at changes of the moon. The whole number of kamis or
gods worshipped by the Japanese amounts to three thousand one hundred
and thirty-two. These gods are worshipped in different temples without
idols."
THE LÚ-CHÚ ISLANDS.
_Name._--Chinese, Lieou-Khieou. Native, Oghii.
_Religion._--Buddhism.
_Political relations._--Tribute paid both to China and Japan.
_Language._--Akin to the Japanese.
_Alphabets._--Chinese and Japanese.
_Physical appearance._--"Their hair, which is of a glossy
black, is shaved off the crown. Their beards and mustachios
are allowed to grow. They are rather low in stature, but
are well formed, and have an easy, graceful carriage. Their
colour is not good, some being very dark, and others nearly
white, but in most instances they are of a deep copper. This
is fully compensated by the sweetness and intelligence of
their countenance. Their eyes, which are black, have a placid
expression."[96]
THE AINO.
_Locality._--_a._ On the Continent.--1. The mouth of the Amur.
2. The southernmost extremity of Kamskatka. _b._ The Kurile
Islands, and the northern part of Jesso. _c._ The island, or
peninsula of Saghalin.
_Political relations._--Subject to China, Russia, and Japan.
_Religion._--Imperfect Buddhism. The doctrine of Siúdú.
Paganism.
_Physical appearance._--Skin darker than that of the Japanese,
but, probably (from the iris being lighter) this is through
being more exposed.
An Aino tribe occupying the banks of the Amur, and noticed by
Timkowski,[97] under the name of Kileng, or Kilerzi, is probably the
same with the Gilacken[98] of Von Middendorf. Of these the appearance
is varied, sometimes Japanese, sometimes Caucasian.
The moral character of the Aino has generally been described in highly
favourable terms. Their religion is probably allied to the original
paganism of Japan.
"The sun, the moon, the sea, and other striking objects of nature, are
the divinities of the Aino: they represent them under rude symbols and
offer sacrifices to them. The men of Karafto burn upon the shore the
heads of animals which they have caught, as a gift to the sea. Daily
the Aino addresses the following words to the divinity who protects
his cabin:--'We thank thee,[99] Kamoï, for having dwelt here in our
coast and watched for us,' and he repeats after the prayer, 'Kamoï ever
take care of us.' They believe likewise that there is a God of heaven
and of hell; this is the residence of Nitsul Kamoï. They have also
little wooden temples containing images of their idols carved in wood.
Yearly they have a festival termed Omsia, when all the family regale
themselves with _saké_ and bear's flesh. In their marriages the Aino
are careful to avoid too near relationship. In Karafto, the inhabitants
of the north take wives from the southern part. The chief of the
village confirms the marriage, which is concluded on the dowry or price
being paid to the father of the betrothed. The women are free, and in
Karafto rule their husbands.
"Before funerals the Aino puts on a new coat made of fine bark. The
Smerenkow burns the body and collects the ashes which are kept in a
little chapel, makes offerings to the presiding idol, and covers with
branches the spot where the body was consumed. They erect stakes in
honour of the defunct, from the wood of the house, which is always
pulled down. Bodies of the rich receive honours of a different kind:
they are embalmed, filled with odoriferous herbs, and dried during a
year, then placed in a sepulchre, where they are annually visited by
their relatives. Yet the Aino have no calendar and reckon time by the
fall of the leaf. They have neither letters nor money. They apply two
remedies in case of all sickness, a '_boletus laricis_' and the root
_ikeme_, supposed to be a sort of _asclepias_."[100]
Two statements have been made concerning the Aino, which are curious
if true.
1. That of all men they are the most covered with hair; even their
backs being covered with it. I am inclined to class this with the tails
of the Nicobar islanders.
2. That they ride upon bears; which the females suckle when young,
and so tame; a fact, when verified, of equal novelty in zoology and
ethnography.
The Peninsula of Sagalin, and the island of Jesso are the probable
lines by which Japan was peopled; at least so far as the simple
land-and-water conditions are concerned. And I know nothing that
counteracts them.
_The Kachhall._--This is a tribe mentioned by Von Middenorf as
inhabiting the south bank of the Amur. He knows it, however, only from
the description given by the Ainos. Their stature is short; the lower
extremities disproportionately so.
THE KORIAKS.
_Present area._--The parts between the Omolon, an eastern
branch of the Kolyma, the Arctic Ocean, Behring's Straits, and
the Gulf of Anadyr, except only a tract of coast in the two
latter localities, inhabited by the _Namollos_. Southwards, to
the middle of the Peninsula of Kamskatka, across the northern
portion of which it extends. The head of the Gulf of Penjinsk,
in the Sea of Okhotsk. Conterminous with the Yukahiri, Lamut
Tungusians, Kamskadales, and Namollos.
_Supposed ancient area._--As far west as the Kolyma, possibly
farther. Probably also farther south. On the other hand, _not_
so far east as at present; the Namollos being believed to have
extended so far as Shelagskoi Noss.
_Divisions._--_a._ Northern Koriaks, or Tshuktshi; _b._
Southern Koriaks, or Koræki. The two divisions separated by the
river Anadyr.
_Habits._--Nomadic. _Kora_, which is said to mean a rein-deer,
is held to be the root of the term Koræki, a name which, for
the southern Koriaks, is stated to be indigenous.
_Religion._--Shamanism. In some cases an imperfect Christianity.
_Political relations._--The Southern Koriaks tributary to
Russia; the Northern, (or Tshuktshi) independent.
_Physical appearance._--The Koræki are taller, and with eyes
less sunken, and noses less depressed than the Kamskadales;
differential points which are still more marked in the
Tshuktshi.
The southern Koriaks have probably encroached upon the Kamskadales,
and been encroached upon by the Lamut Tungusians. The Tshuktshi have,
in like manner, receded in one quarter and encroached in another.
Before the Russians they have retreated towards the east and north.
The Yukahiri tribes, however, they have displaced and, in some cases,
exterminated. They still hold their independence.
This, in some measure, accounts for our imperfect knowledge of them,
little being ascertained except their uncivilized, nomadic character,
their political independence, the Shamanistic nature of their religion,
and their general resemblance in respect to physical conformation to
the _American_ Indians.
Polygamy is general amongst them, and according to Von Matiushkin,
the chief authority upon the subject, the women, although certainly
slaves, are allowed more influence, and are subjected to less labour
than is the case amongst most other rude tribes. Deformed children are
destroyed, and so are those which, for other reasons, are likely to
become difficult to rear. So also are such aged and infirm persons, as
have become unfit for wear and tear of a nomadic life within the Arctic
circle.
So great is the influence of the Shamans, or so low is the value set
upon human life, that in 1814, after a terrible storm, followed by a
fatal epidemic, and by a murrain among the cattle, the result of a
general consultation having been, that one of the most respected of the
chiefs, named Kotshen, must be sacrificed, to appease the irritated
spirits, the sacrifice took place accordingly. In the first instance,
indeed, the commands of the Shamans were rejected. The plague, however,
continued, when Kotshen at last declared his willingness to submit. No
one, however, could be found to be his executioner; until his own son
plunged a knife in his heart, and gave his body to the Shamans.
The Tshuktshi habitations consist of an outer and larger tent, under
which are two or three smaller ones; these last being made of skins
stretched over laths, and so low, that the persons inside can only sit
upon the ground. It has no opening for air or light, and is entered by
an aperture barely large enough for the body of the owner. An earthen
vessel filled with train oil, and with a wick of moss, serves as a lamp
rather as a fire; and so close is the atmosphere, that the heat which
it affords is sufficient. Here the family sit, during the intense cold
of an Arctic winter, either wholly naked, or with the very scantiest
clothing.
They call themselves _Tshekto_=_people_. "They are distinguished from
the other Asiatic races, by their stature and physiognomy, which
appears to me to _resemble that of the Americans_,[101] but the
language is different."
THE KAMSKADALES.
_Locality._--The southern half (or third) of the Peninsula
of Kamskatka, with the exception of the extreme point of the
peninsula; which is inhabited by the Aino.
_Native name._--Itülmen.
_Dialects._--Four. That of Tigil, so much mixed with Koriak, as
to be sometimes quoted as the Koriak of Tigil.
_Physical appearance._--Undersized Mongols, with little beard,
sunken eyes and depressed noses.
The true Kamskadales are a nearly extinct race. Amongst the causes of
their rapid diminution a kind of death, rare amongst savage nations, is
enumerated--suicide.
"According to Steller, the Kamtschatkans have no idea of a Supreme
Being, but this must have been true only in some peculiar sense of
the expression, for he adds an account of their mythology, which in
part contradicts the above statement. They believe, as he says, in
the immortality of souls. All creatures, even to the smallest fly,
are destined, as they believe, to another eternal life under the
earth, where they are to meet with similar adventures to those of
their present state of existence, but never to suffer hunger. In that
world there is no punishment of crimes, which, in the opinion of the
Kamskadales, meet their chastisement in the present life, but the rich
are destined to become poor and the poor here are to be enriched. The
sky and stars existed before the earth, which was made by Katchu, or,
as others say, brought by Katchu and his sister Katligith with them
from heaven and fastened upon the sea. After Katchu had made the earth
he left heaven and came to dwell in Kamtschatka. He had a son, Tigil,
and a daughter, Sidanka, who married and became parents of offspring:
the latter clothed themselves with the leaves of trees and fed upon
the bark, for beasts were not yet made, and the gods knew not how to
catch fish. When Katchu went to drink, the hills and valleys were
formed under his feet, for the earth had till then been a flat surface.
Tigil finding his family increase invented nets and betook himself to
fishing. The Kamtschatkans have, like other pagans, images of their
gods."[102]
Now _Tigil_ is the name of the chief river of Kamskatka; the one which
divides the Kamskadales from the Korki; so that, in Tigil the god, we
have the _eponymus_ of what in the Bodo, as in many other countries
besides, is a common object of reverence.[103]
FOOTNOTES:
[88] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 522-3.
[89] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 497.
[90] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 526.
[91] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 521-2.
[92] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 527-8.
[93] Id. vol. iv. p. 528.
[94] See pp. 55-60.
[95] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 496.
[96] Captain Hall's Voyage to the Great Loo-choo Island, p.
71.--Prichard, vol. iv.
[97] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 451.
[98] Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science for 1846.
[99] _Kami_=_God_ in Japanese.
[100] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 455-6.
[101] Von Matiushkin.
[102] Prichard, vol. iv. p. 449-50.
[103] Apud hanc gentem agarici cujusdam succus potui, inter convivia
inservit. Ebrietatem inducit; quodque magis mirum est, urina ebriorum,
quæ ipsa ab aliis potatur, idem pollet. Neque vim amittit per tertiam
vel quartam vesicam transmissa.
F.
AMERICAN MONGOLIDÆ.
The phænomena which occur in Asiatic ethnology, in Caucasus and High
Asia, prepare us for those of the ethnology of America. In Asia we
found, on one side, the Turk tribes spread over a space nearly as large
as Europe, and that with but little variation--a typical instance of
what constitutes a large ethnological area. Then, on the other hand,
were the fastnesses of Caucasus, where we found, packed up within a
very limited area, a multiplicity of mutually unintelligible languages,
languages that were counted by the dozen and the score--the Circassian,
Georgian, Lesgian, Mizjeji, and their subordinate dialects. So that
within a small geographical range we had, in juxtaposition with each
other, the _maximum_ of extension and the _maximum_ of limitation.
Now this is what we shall find in America--large areas, like the Turk,
in contact with small ones, like the Ossetic.
But, in America, there are two points of difference--
1st. The multiplicity of languages within a limited area is the rule
rather than the exception.
2nd. There is not always so peculiar a class of physical conditions
as is to be found in the mountain fastnesses of Caucasus to account
for it; since in America we find steppes and prairies, like those of
Turkestan and Mongolia, inhabited by tribes as different from each
other as those of the most isolated and isolating mountain-valleys.
Furthermore--when the American languages differ from one another, they
differ in a manner to which Asia has supplied no parallel.
Also--when the American languages agree with one another, they agree in
a manner to which Asia has furnished no parallel. This, however, is at
present only indicated. Its explanation will find place when we have
treated of the Eskimo, Kolúch, and certain other families.
THE ESKIMO.
Unimportant as are the Eskimo in a political and historical view,
their peculiar geographical position gives them an importance in all
questions of ethnology: since one of the highest problems turns upon
the affinities of this family.
It has long been known that the nation which inhabits Greenland and
Labrador is the nation which inhabits the North-western parts of
Russian America as well. It is found on the American side of Behring's
Straits, and it is found on the Asiatic side also. So that the _Eskimo
is the only family common to the Old and New World_; an important fact
in itself, and one made more important still by the Eskimo localities
being the only localities where the two continents come into proximity.
Now, if these facts had stood alone, unmodified by any phænomena that
detracted from their significance, the peopling of America would have
been no more a mystery than the peopling of Europe. Such, however, is
not the case. They neither stand alone, nor stand unmodified.
The reasons that lie against what is, at the first blush, the common
sense answer to the question, _how was America peopled?_ are, chiefly,
as follows--
1. The distance of the north-eastern parts of Asia from any probable
centre of population--_cradle of the human race_--so-called. For these
parts to have been the passage, Kamskatka must have been full to
overflowing before the the Mississippi had been trodden by the foot of
a human being.
2. The physical differences between the Eskimo and the American Indian.
3. The difficulties presented by the Eskimo language.
It is only these two last reasons to which I attribute much validity.
The first of the three I put low in the way of an objection; _i. e._,
not much higher than I put the systems founded upon the Icelandic and
Welsh traditions, the drifting of Japanese junks, and the effects
of winds and currents upon Polynesian canoes. Without, at present,
doubting whether the occurrences here alluded to have happened
_since_ America was peopled by the present race, I limit myself to an
expression of dissent from the doctrine that by any such unsatisfactory
processes the _original_ population found its way: in other words, I
believe that our only choice lies between the doctrine that makes the
American nations to have originated from one or more separate pairs
of progenitors, and the doctrine that either Behring's Straits or the
line of Islands between Kamskatka and the Peninsula of Aliaska, was the
highway between the two worlds--from Asia to America, or _vice versâ_.
I say _vice versâ_, since it by no means follows that, because Asia
and America shall have been peopled by the same race, the original
of that race must, _necessarily_, have arisen in Asia; inasmuch as
the statement that _the descendants of the same pair peopled two
continents_, taken alone, proves nothing as to the particular continent
in which that pair first appeared. Against America, and in favour of
Asia being the birthplace of the Human Race--its unity being assumed--I
know many valid reasons; reasons valid enough and numerous enough to
have made the notion of _New_ World being the oldest of two a paradox.
Nevertheless, I know no absolutely conclusive ones.
Omitting, however, this question, the chief _primâ facie_ objections to
the view that America was peopled from North-eastern Asia, lie in the--
1. _Physical differences between the Eskimo and the American
Indian._--Stunted as he is in stature, the Eskimo is essentially a
Mongol in physiognomy. His nose is flattened, his cheek-bones project,
his eyes are often oblique, and his skin is more yellow and brown than
red or copper-coloured. On the other hand, in his most typical form,
the American Indian is _not_ Mongol in physiognomy. With the same black
straight hair, he has an aquiline nose, a prominent profile, and a skin
more red or copper-coloured than either yellow or brown. Putting this
along with other marked characteristics, moral as well as physical, it
is not surprising that the American should have been taken as the type
and sample of a variety in contrast with the Mongolian.
2. _Philological arguments._--Few languages, equally destitute of
literature, have been better or longer known than the Eskimo. For
this we have to thank the Danish missionaries of Greenland--Egede,
most especially. From the grammar of Fabricius, the Eskimo was soon
known to be a language of long compound words, and of regular, though
remarkable, inflections. It was known, too, to be very unlike the
better-known languages of Europe and Asia. Finally, it has been
admitted to be, in _respect to its grammatical structure at least_,
American.
So much for the ethnographical philology of the Eskimo language as
determined by its grammatical structure; upon which we may notice the
remarkable antagonism of the two tests. Physically, the Eskimo is a
Mongol and Asiatic. Philologically, he is American--at least in respect
to the principles upon which his speech is constructed.
And now we may examine the details of the geographical area occupied by
the Eskimo. Its direction is _double_.
From east to west (or _vice versâ_) it runs along the shores of the
Arctic Sea, in a line of irregular breadth; a line which is either
wholly continuous or else broken at one point only--a point which will
be noticed in the sequel. On the coast of the Atlantic the line widens,
and in Greenland it attains its maximum breadth.
From north to south it equally keeps the line of coast, extending to
irregular distances inland, but rarely very far.
However, between the direction in latitude, and the direction in
longitude, as this distribution of the Eskimo area may be called, there
is a difference which is a very important one. The Eskimos of the
Atlantic are not only easily distinguished from the tribes of American
aborigines which lie to the south or west of them, and with which they
come in contact, but they stand in strong contrast and opposition
to them--a contrast and opposition exhibited equally in appearance,
manners, language, and one which has had full justice done to it by
those who have written on the subject.
It is not so with the Eskimos of Russian America, and the parts that
look upon the Pacific. _These_ are so far from being separated by any
broad and trenchant line of demarcation from the proper Indians or
the so-called Red Race, that they pass gradually into it; and that
in respect to their habits, manner, and appearance, equally. So far
is this the case that he would be a bold man who should venture, in
speaking of the southern tribes of Russian America, to say _here the
Eskimo area ends, and here a different area begins_.
Whenever this has been done, it has been done on the strength of an
undue extension of the phenomena of the Eskimo area on the Atlantic; it
being supposed that as the Eskimo and Indians differ unequivocally on
one side of the continent, they must needs do so on the other also--a
natural, but a hasty and incorrect assumption.
Beginning with the Eskimo of the parts between Asia and America, the
first we meet with are--
_The Aleutians._--The inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands, properly
so-called (_i.e._, of Behring's and Copper Islands), of the
Rat-Islands, of the Andreanowsky Islands, of the Prebülowüni-Islands,
of Unalashka, and of Kadiak, are all Eskimo; a fact which numerous
vocabularies give us full means of ascertaining. In respect to the
difference of speech between particular islands, there is external
evidence that it is considerable. The people of Atcha have a difficulty
in understanding the Unalashkans, and _vice versâ_. Again, the
Kadiak vocabulary, as found in Lisiansky, differs very notably from
the Unalashkan of the same author; indeed, I doubt whether the two
languages are mutually intelligible.
_The Namollos._--These are the Asiatic Eskimo of the Continent. The
distribution is along the coast from Tshuktshi-Noss to the mouth of
the Anadyr; from each of which we have vocabularies in Klaproth's Asia
Polyglotta. In respect to their position in Asia, two views may be
taken.
1. That they are the aborigines of the country which they inhabit,
and, consequently, that they are an _older_ stock than those of
America.--This is favoured by the fact, that habitations of a Namollo
character have been found in the country of Tshuktshi, and even in that
of the Yukahiri.
2. That they are of comparatively recent date as Asiatics, and, as
such, but offsets from the parent stock in America.--This is favoured
by the similarity of language; since the differences between the
Namollo and the American Eskimo are not such as indicate a very long
separation.
_The Konægi._--Occupants of the Island of Kadiak, and of the Peninsula
of Aliaska.
_The Tshugatsi._--These are the natives of Prince William's Sound,
closely allied to the Kadiaks. According to tradition, they came from
the North.
This is the proper place for noticing an element in the traditions,
or rather in the mythology, of the Eskimo of these parts. All or most
of them agree in deriving their origin from one or two animals--the
_raven_ or _dog_. Now the Tshugatsi take their descent from the _dog_.
The name _Tshugatsi_ is so like that of the northern Koriaks
(Tshuktshi) that it is unlikely that both are native. In which quarter
it is applied correctly, is a point that some future investigator must
decide.
_The Kuskokwim._--Locality from Cape Rodney to the Peninsula of
Aliaska. Numbers, according to Baer, about 7,000.
Such is the direction of the Eskimos of the Asiatic side of America. It
is, however, inconvenient to say that they form the _eastern_ branch of
the stock, because, when we begin with the Atlantic side of America,
we find that they become _western_; indeed, they are either one or the
other, according to the point from which we begin to describe them.
We now take the other extremity of the Eskimo area, which is the
southernmost point of Greenland, Cape Farewell, within a few days' sail
of the European island of Iceland. Doing this, we move from east to
west, and determine where the two divisions meet.
_Greenlanders._--The language of the natives of Greenland, and those
of the coast of Labrador, is mutually intelligible; the similarity in
physical appearances and in manners being equally close.
_Proper Eskimo._--These are the inhabitants of the shores of Hudson's
Bay, and the coast of Labrador. Their dialect is understood at least
as far as the Mackenzie-river, in 137° W. L.; where Captain Franklin's
interpreter, who came from Hudson's Bay, found no difficulty in being
understood by the natives of the parts last mentioned. About three
degrees westward, however, the Eskimo of Greenland and Labrador comes
_to be understood with difficulty at first_. Here, then, it is, where
the two divisions of the Eskimo dialects meet.
THE KOLÚCH.
I adopt this term in deference to the usage of ethnologists, without
professing to give a value to it in the way of classification, since
I think it much more likely that the so-called Kolúch languages form
a sub-division of the Eskimo than a separate substantive class of
their own. _Geographically_, however, the term means the languages
spoken along the coast of the North-Pacific from Cook's Inlet to the
parts immediately north of Queen Charlotte's Islands; languages which
are distinguished from the Eskimo to the north, the Athabascan to
the east, and the Nas and Haidah to the south, and languages which
_politically_ belong to Russian America; since the Tungaas, which
is the southernmost (so-called) Kolúch dialect, is the most northern
with which the traders of the Hudson-Bay Company come in contact. The
extension towards the interior seems limited. The particular Kolúch
dialect best known is that of Sitka, which, in Lisiansky's Voyage, is
compared with the Kenay, Kadiak, and Unalashkan. Now it is a fact upon
which the present author lays considerable stress, that the affinities
between the Sitka and Kenay, which are _both_ considered as Kolúch, are
but little more numerous than those between the Sitka and Kadiak, the
Kenay and Unalashkan, &c., where only _one_ is considered as Kolúch.
The chief Kolúch dialects are as follows:--
_The Kenay of Cook's Inlet._--These are about 460 families strong. They
assert that they are derived from the hills of the interior, whence
they moved coastwards. In the way of mythology, they are descended from
the _raven_.
_The Atna of the Copper River._--Here the reader must be cautioned
against being misled by the name; as it will appear again, applied to
another division of Indians, the Atnas or Shushwap, who are a distinct
people from the Atnas of the Copper River. These last occupy the river
last-named; where they work in iron, as well as in copper, burn their
dead, and derive their descent from the _raven_.
_The Koltshani._--These are the Kolúches of the interior, falling
into two divisions; the language of one of which is intelligible to
the Atnas, and the Kenays equally. The more distant one is savage and
inhospitable, with the credit of indulging in cannibalism. The name
seems to belong to the Atna language; where _Koltshani_=_stranger_.
It also seems the word on which the scientific term, Kolúch, has been
founded.
_The Ugalents, or Ugalyakhmutsi._--About thirty-eight families.
Locality, King William's Sound, and the parts around Mount Elias.--The
Ugalyakhmutsi are conterminous with the Tshugatsi Eskimo, and as (on
the sea-coast at least) the Kenays lie to the north of these last,
there is a partial discontinuity of the Eskimo area. The difference
between the Ugalyakhmutsi, and the Eskimo tongues is exhibited in
the Mithridates. The present writer considers that it is exceedingly
over-rated. Indeed, from the first investigations which he made upon
the subject, where he compared the Ugalyakhmutsi of the Mithridates
with the Sitka, Kenay, Kadiak, and Unalashkan of Lisiansky, he was
inclined to place the Ugalents in the Eskimo class at once--_and
that in its more limited extent_. Nevertheless, the tables of Baer's
Beyträge sufficiently show that it has a closer resemblance to the
Atnah and Kolooch. At all events, its transitional character is
undoubted. In manners and appearance the Ugalentses are Kolúch, and in
their manner of life, migratory nomades and fishers.
_The Sitkans._--Of the Sitka dialect we have numerous vocabularies; one
by Cook, under the name of the Norfolk Sound language. The number who
speak this, is put by Mr. Green, an American missionary, at 6500.
_The Tungaas._--Of this we have only a short vocabulary of Mr. Tolmic,
which is stated by Dr. Scouler, to exhibit affinities with the Sitkan.
This is the case. Whether, however, these affinities with the languages
to the north of the Tungaas localities, are so much greater than
those with the tongues spoken southwards, as to justify us in drawing
a line between the true Kolúch dialects and those that will soon be
enumerated, has yet to be ascertained. Assuming, however, that this is
the case, and, again, insisting upon the conventional character of the
present class, and the transitional nature of the Kolúch languages, I
consider that the undoubted Kolúch dialects end in the neighbourhood of
Queen Charlotte's Islands.
Still there are tribes to the back of those on the coast which have yet
to be noticed:--
_The Inkhuluklait._--Dwelling on the river Chulitna, and allied to the--
_Magimut._--who are allied to the--
_Inkalit._--These, in one village alone, are 700 strong; their language
has been said to be a mixture of the Kenay, _Unalashkan_, and Atna. The
Inkalit are neighbours of the Kuskokwim, with whom they are continually
at war.
It is highly probable that the Inkalit language, when better known,
will present the same phenomenon of transition with the Ugalyakhmutsi.
DOUBTFUL KOLÚCHES.
1. THE DÍGOTHI(?)
_Synonym._--Loucheux.
_Locality._--The Peel River, a feeder of the M'Kenzie.
The ethnological position of the _Dígothi_, _Loucheux_, or _Squinters_,
is uncertain. Mr. Isbister, who in 1847 laid before the British
Association for the Advancement of Science a short notice of them,
stated that their language was soon learned by the Eskimo, and _vice
versâ_. It was also soon learned by the Chippewyans, and _vice versâ_.
This was _primâ facie_ evidence of its intermediate or transitional
character. More important, however, is the following short vocabulary;
which is Mr. Isbister's also. Here the closest affinities are with the
_Kenay_, itself a language of so doubtful a position, that although the
present writer considers it to be Kolúch, most others isolate it.
ENGLISH. LOUCHEUX. KENAY.
_White man_ Manah-gool-ait
_Indian_ Tenghie[104] teena=_man_.
_Eskimo_ nak-high "
_Wind_ etsee "
_Head wind_ newatsee "
_Fair wind_ jeatsee "
_Water_ tchon[105] thun-agalgus.
_Sun_ shethie channoo.
_Moon_ shet-sill tlakannoo.
_Stars_ kumshaet ssin.
_Meat_ beh kutskonna.
_Deer_ et-han "
_Head_ umitly aissagge.
_Arm_ tchiegen skona.
_Leg_ tsethan "
_Coat_ chiegee "
_Blanket_ tsthee "
_Knife_ tlay kissaki.
_Foot_ jetly "
_Yes_ eh "
_No_ illuck-wha "
_Far_ nee-jah "
_Near_ neak-wha "
_Strong_ nehaintah "
_Cold_ kateitlee ktckchuly.
_Long_ kawa "
_Enough_ ekcho, ekatarainyo "
_Eat_ beha "
_Drink_ chidet-leh "
_Come_ chatchoo "
_Go away_ eenio "
_I_ see su
_Thou_ nin nan.
_(My) father_ (se) tsay stukta.
_(My) son_ (se) jay _ssi_-ja.
_(My) daughter_ (se) zaa _ssx_-za.
_(My) wife_ (te) chiliquah "
_(My) brother-in-law_ sundayee "
In physical appearance the Dígothi are athletic fine-looking men,
considerably above the average stature, most of them above six feet
high, and well-proportioned. They have black hair, fine sparkling eyes,
moderately high cheek-bones, regular teeth, and a fair complexion.
Their countenances are handsome and expressive.
2. THE NEHANNI.(?)
_Extract from Mr. Isbister_.--These range the country between
the Russian settlements on the Stikine River and the Rocky
Mountains, where they are conterminous with the Carriers of
New Caledonia on the south, and the Daho-dinnies of M'Kenzie's
River on the west. They are a brave and warlike race; the
scourge and terror of the country round. It is a curious
circumstance, and not the less remarkable from the contrast
to the general rule in such cases, that this turbulent and
ungovernable horde were under the direction of a _woman_, who
ruled them, too, with a rod of iron, and was obeyed with a
readiness and unanimity truly marvellous. She was certainly a
remarkable character, and possessed of no ordinary share of
intelligence. From the fairness of her complexion and hair,
and the general cast of her features, she was believed to have
some European blood. Whether through her influence or not,
the condition of the females among the Nehannies stands much
higher than among the American Indians generally. The proper
locality of the Nehanni tribe is the vicinity of the sea-coast,
where they generally pass the summer. In the winter they range
the country in the interior for the purpose of bartering, or
plundering, furs from the inland tribes; acting as middlemen
between them and the Russian traders. They agree in general
character with the Koloochians, having light complexions, long
and lank hair, fine eyes and teeth, and many of them strong
beards and moustaches. They are not generally tall, but active
and vigorous, bold and treacherous in disposition; fond of
music and dancing, and ingenious and tasteful in their habits
and decorations. They subsist principally on salmon, and evince
a predilection for a fish diet, which indicates their maritime
origin. Like all the north-west tribes, they possess numerous
slaves; inhabitants, it is understood, of some of the numerous
islands which stud the coast, and either taken in war or bought
of the neighbouring tribes.[106]
The languages which now follow are known but imperfectly; so that the
classes which they form are all provisional, and of uncertain value. It
is certainly not safe to call them Kolúch, although they all contain a
notable per-centage of Kolúch words; nor yet is it advisable to throw
them all together as members of a separate division--equivalent to,
but distinct from, the Kolúch. For this, they are hardly sufficiently
like each other, and hardly sufficiently unlike those spoken to the
north of them. In other words we are now in one of those difficult
ethnological areas, where we have no broad and trenchant lines of
demarcation, but the phenomena of intermixture instead. This is the
coast and a little beyond the coast of the Pacific, where the common
climatologic conditions presented by a deeply-indented sea-board, make
this arrangement natural as well as convenient.
THE HAIDAH DIALECTS OR LANGUAGES.
_Locality._--Queen Charlotte's Islands, and the southern
extremity of the Prince of Wales's Archipelago.
_Spoken by._--_a_, the Skittegats; _b_, Massets; _c_,
Kumshahas; _d_, Kyganie.
CHEMMESYAN.
_Locality._--N.L. 55°, sea-coast and islands.
_Divisions._--1. Naaskok, inhabiting Observatory Inlet; 2.
Chemmesyan, in Dundas's Island, and Stephenson's Island; 3, 4,
Kitshatlah and Kethumish, in Princess Royal Islands.
BILLECHÚLA.
_Locality._--The mouth of the Salmon River.
In M'Kenzie's Travels we find a few words from a tribe on
the Salmon River. Their locality is called by M'Kenzie the
_Friendly Village_. By the aid of Mr. Tolmie's vocabularies we
can now place this hitherto unfixed dialect. It belongs to the
Billechoola tongue.
ENGLISH. FRIENDLY VILLAGE. BILLECHOOLA.
_Salmon_ zimilk shimilk.
_Dog_ watts watz.
_House_ zlaachle shmool.
_Bark mat_ yemnez "
_Cedar-bark blanket_ " tzummi.
_Beaver_ couloun couloun.
_Stone_ aichts quilstolomick.
_Water_ ulkan kullah.
_Mat_ gitscom stuchom.
_Bonnet_ ilcaette kayeete.
HAELTZUK AND HAILTSA.
_Locality._--Sea-coast from Hawkesbury Island to Broughton's
Archipelago; the northern part of Quadra's and Vancouver's
Island(?).
_Tribes._--Hyshalla, Hyhysh, Esleytuk, Weekenoch, Nalatsenoch,
Quagheuil, Tlatla-Shequilla, Lequeeltoch.
The language of Fitz-Hugh Sound, of which we find the numerals in the
Mithridates, seems to be Hailtsa. On the other hand, the termination,
_-scum_, reappears in the Blackfoot numerals.
ENGLISH. _Two_.
_F. Sound_ malscum.
_Haeltzuk_ malook.
English _three_.
_F. Sound_ utascum.
_Haeltzuk_ yootook.
English _four_.
_F. Sound_ moozcum.
_Haeltzuk_ moak.
_Billechoola_ moash.
English _five_.
_F. Sound_ thekaescum.
_Haeltzuk_ skeowk.
_Billechoola_ tzeiuch.
English _six_.
_F. Sound_ kitliscum.
_Haeltzuk_ katlowk.
English _seven_.
_F. Sound_ atloopooskum.
_Haeltzuk_ malthlowsk.
English _ten_.
_F. Sound_ nighioo.
_Haeltzuk_ aikas.
By Mr. Hales, the Hailtsa, of which he gives a vocabulary, differing in
some several points from the Haeltzuk (although the two words are most
likely the same), is placed, along with the Chemmesyan and Billechúla
in a single section, called the _Nas_ class of languages, and probably
this is the right view. The difficulty, however, in these parts is
not to connect one tongue with another, but to _dis_connect it from
others. The Hailtsa has certainly affinities with the Chemmesyan, &c.,
but whether these are greater than those with the Atna, Skittegat,
or Wakash tongue is doubtful. Probably, however, it is as Mr. Hales'
tables make it.
THE NÚTKANS.
_Localities._--_a._ The greater portion of Quadra and
Vancouver's Island; _b._ The parts about Cape Flattery, on the
continent.
_Divisions._--_a._ _Insular._ 1. The Naspatle; 2. Proper
Nutkans; 3. Tlaoquatsh; 4. Nittenat. _b._ _Continental._--1.
Klasset; 2. Klallems. _General name for the language_.--Wakash.
Such is the line of languages from Behring's Straits to the parts
opposite Quadra and Vancouver's Island, as they are spoken along the
sea-coast as far south as Frazer's River; concerning which it may
also be predicated that they are spoken along the sea-coast almost
exclusively--_i.e._ that none of them extends far inland.
Of those spoken inland, the distribution is very different. It is, at
first, over large areas.
THE ATHABASKANS.
The geographical distribution of the Athabaskans should be studied
along with that of the Eskimo; since, like this last, it has an
east-and-west, or (if the expression may be allowed) a horizontal
extension. It has, however, an extension from north to south, or what
may be called a _vertical_ one as well. As a general rule, the southern
limit of the Eskimo is the northern limit of the Athabaskan area.
ATHABASKANS.
_Area._--Discontinuous.
_Divisions._--Northern and southern.
NORTHERN ATHABASKANS.
_Conterminous_ with the Algonkins on the south-east, the
Shushwap on the south-west, the Kolúches and Hailtsa west, and
the Eskimos north.
_Area._--From Hudson's Bay to about 100 miles from the Pacific
in 50° 30´ N.L.; on the Misinissi (Churchill) Peace, Fish, and
M'Kenzie's Rivers; on the _Athabaska_, Slave and Bear Lakes; on
the northern portion of the Rocky Mountains, and on each side
of them.
_Political Relations._--Hudson's Bay Company--Russia(?).
_Divisions (according to Mr. Isbister)._--1. The Chippewyans
Proper. 2. The Beaver Indians. 3. The Daho-dinnis. 4. The
Strong Bows. 5. The Hare Indians. 6. The Dog-ribs. 7. The
Yellow Knives. 8. The Carriers.
_The Chippewyans Proper._--From Hudson's Bay to the Lake Athabaska;
speaking a harsh and meagre dialect, and calling themselves
_See-eessaw-dinneh_=_Rising Sun Men_. These were the first Athabaskans
known to Europeans. The name _Chippewyan_ is probably misapplied; at
any rate, the _See-eessaw-dinneh_ are a different people from the
Chippeways or Ojibbways. In even the early Chippewyan vocabularies of
Dobbs and M'Kenzie there is a sufficiency of Eskimo words to throw
suspicion over the current doctrine as to the great breadth of the line
of demarcation between the Athabaskans and Eskimos.
_The Beaver Indians._--The valley of the Peace River, from the Lake
Athabaska to the Rocky Mountains. Their dialect is the softest and most
copious of the Athabaskan tongues. It is also most mixed with words
from the Cree dialect of the Algonkin.
_The Daho-dinnis._--Called from their warlike disposition the Mauvais
Monde, and inhabiting the head-water of the Rivière-aux-liards.
_The Strong Bows._--Mountaineers of their upper part of the Rocky
Mountains; slightly differing in dialect from the Daho-dinnis, and
still more slightly from the--
_Hare_, or _Slave Indians_.--Occupants of the valley of the River
M'Kenzie, from Slave Lake to Great Bear Lake. These extend to the
Arctic Circle, and consequently, along with the Dog-ribs, are the most
northern of the Athabaskans. "Their condition is the most wretched and
deplorable that can be imagined. Cannibalism, almost justified by the
extreme necessity of the case, exists to a frightful extent. It is but
just, however, to say, that this practice is looked upon with horror
by the tribe generally; and many, rather than resort to this dreadful
expedient, put an end to their own lives. Instances have been known of
parents destroying their own families, and afterwards themselves, to
avoid this fatal alternative.
"They are almost entirely clothed in the skins of rabbits, tagged
together after the rudest fashion with the ends of sinew; hence the
name of _Hare Indians_ applied to the tribe. They have neither tents
nor huts of any kind, living all the year round in the open air. As
might be expected, they are a puny and stunted race, and are rapidly
decreasing in numbers, and must soon disappear altogether."
_The Dog-ribs._--Due-east of the Hare Indians.--"They live upon the
rein-deer, which frequent their lands in great numbers, following the
migrations of these animals as closely as if they formed part and
parcel of the herd. They are almost entirely independent of the whites,
and present a marked contrast with their neighbours of the Hare Tribe.
They are well-clothed in the skins of the rein-deer, and have all the
elements of comfort and Indian prosperity within their reach. They are
a healthy, vigorous, but not very active race, of a mild and peaceful
disposition, but very low in the mental scale, and apparently of very
inferior capacity. There is no reason to think that they are decreasing
in numbers. They receive the name of the Dog-ribs, from a tradition
that they are descended from the dog."
_The Yellow Knives._--Called also the Copper Indians, from occupying,
like the Dog-ribs, a portion of the river so called.
_The Carriers, Tahkali, or Taculli._--These occupy the greater portion
of New Caledonia, and, of all the Athabaskans, they are those that are
best known. They are divided into "eleven clans, or minor tribes, whose
names are, beginning at the south, as follows:--(1) the _Taūtin_, or
_Talkótin_; (2) the _Tsilkótin_, or _Chiltokin_; (3) the _Naskótin_;
(4) the _Thetliótin_; (5) the _Tsatsnótin_; (6) the _Nulaáutin_; (7)
the _Ntshaáutin_; (8) the _Natliáutin_; (9) the _Nikozliáutin_; (10)
the _Tatshiáutin_; and (11) the _Babine_ Indians. The number of persons
in these clans varies from fifty to three hundred. All speak the same
language, with some slight dialectical variations. The _Sikani_ (or
_Secunnie_) nation has a language radically the same, but with greater
difference of dialect, passing gradually into that of the _Beaver_ and
_Chippewyan_ Indians.
"The _Tahkali_, though a branch of the great _Chippewyan_ (or
_Athabascan_) stock, have several peculiarities in their customs and
character which distinguish them from other members of that family. In
personal appearance they resemble the tribes on the Upper Columbia,
though, on the whole, a better-looking race. They are rather tall, with
a tendency to grossness in their features and figures, particularly
among the women. They are somewhat lighter in complexion than the
tribes of the south.
"Like all Indians, who live principally upon fish, and who do not
acquire the habits of activity proper to the hunting tribes, they
are excessively indolent and filthy, and, as a natural concomitant,
base and depraved in character. They are fond of unctuous substances,
and drink immense quantities of oil, which they obtain from fish and
wild animals. They also besmear their bodies with grease and coloured
earths. They like their meat putrid, and often leave it until the
stench is, to any but themselves, insupportable. Salmon roes are
sometimes buried in the earth and left for two or three months to
putrefy, in which state they are esteemed a delicacy.
"The natives are prone to sensuality, and chastity among the women is
unknown. At the same time, they seem to be almost devoid of natural
affection. Children are considered by them a burden, and they often
use means to destroy them before birth. Their religious ideas are
very gross and confused. It is not known that they have any distinct
ideas of a God, or of the existence of the soul. They have priests,
or doctors, whose art consists in certain mummeries, intended for
incantations. When a corpse is burned, which is the ordinary mode
of disposing of the dead, the priest, with many gesticulations and
contortions, pretends to receive in his closed hands something, perhaps
the life of the deceased, which he communicates to some living person,
by throwing his hands towards him, and at the same time blowing upon
him. This person then takes the rank of the deceased, and assumes his
name in addition to his own. Of course the priest always understands to
whom this succession is properly due.
"If the deceased had a wife, she is all but burned alive with the
corpse, being compelled to lie upon it while the fire is lighted, and
remain thus till the heat becomes beyond endurance. In former times,
when she attempted to break away, she was pushed back into the flames
by the relations of her husband, and thus often severely injured. When
the corpse is consumed, she collects the ashes and deposits them in a
little basket, which she always carries about with her. At the same
time she becomes the servant and drudge of the relations of her late
husband, who exact of her the severest labour, and treat her with every
indignity. This lasts for two or three years, at the end of which
time a feast is made by all the kindred; and a broad post, fifteen or
twenty feet high, is set up, and covered on the sides with rude daubs,
representing figures of men and animals of various kinds. On the top is
a box in which the ashes of the dead are placed, and allowed to remain
until the post decays. After this ceremony the widow is released from
her state of servitude, and allowed to marry again. The Carriers are
not a warlike people, though they sometimes have quarrels with their
neighbours, particularly the tribes of the coast. But these are usually
appeased without much difficulty."[107]
_The Tsikanni_, or _Sikani_.--The evidence that these are Athabaskan is
taken exclusively from their language. In the United States Exploring
Expedition, the same sentence which speaks to the similarity of tongue,
speaks also to the difference of manners and customs.--
"The _Sikani_, though speaking a language of the same family, differ
widely from the _Tahkali_ in their character and customs. They live
a wandering life, and subsist by the chase. They are a brave, hardy,
and active people, cleanly in their persons and habits, and in general
agreeing nearly with the usual idea of an American Indian. They bury
their dead, and have none of the customs of the _Tahkali_ with respect
to them."
A tabulated vocabulary of Mr. Howse, publishing by the Philological
Society, is further evidence to the Athabaskan character of the
Tsikanni language.
_The Sussees_, or _Sarsees_.--On the head-waters of the Saskatchewan.
It is not certain that the previous list is exhaustive of the northern
Athabaskans. In Gallatin's enumeration we have, besides those
enumerated--
1. The Northern Indians on Hudson's Bay.--As these are mentioned in
addition to the Chippewyans Proper, it is fair to suppose that they
constitute a variety under that division.
2. The Birch-rind Indians, living near the Slave Lake, and probably
most closely akin to the Hare Indians.
3. The Thickwood Hunters.
4. The Sheep Indians.
5. The Brushwood Indians.
6. The Nauscud-dennies of M'Kenzie's River.
7. The Slaoucud-dennies of M'Kenzie's River.
8. The Naotetains to the west of Tacullis.
9. The Nagail, or Chin Indians; are probably Tacullis under another
name.
In the Athabaskan language, _dinne_=_man_; so that we now understand
the prevalence of that termination.
The _Chippewyans Proper_ are called Saweesaw-_dinneh_.
The _Birch-rind_ Indians are called Tan-_tsawhot-dinneh_.
The _Dog-ribs_ are called Thlingeha-_dinneh_.
On the other hand, the Thickwood, Sheep, and Brushwood Indians
are called Edch-_tawoot_, Ambah-_tawoot_, and Tsillaw-_awdoot_,
respectively; whilst the Hare Indians are called _Kancho_.
Lastly, it should be added that, although Mr. Isbister makes the
Nehannies Kolúch, Gallatin places them amongst the Athabaskans. A
vocabulary of their language would probably settle the point. Such,
however, is yet wanting.
SOUTHERN ATHABASKANS.
_Area._--A narrow strip at the mouth of the river Columbia, and
along the sea-coast to the river Umkwa.
_Divisions._--1. Kwalioqwa. 2. Tlatskanai. 3. Umkwa.
1. The Kwalioqwa, _north_ of the river Columbia, from which,
and from the Tlatskanai, they are separated by the Tshinúks.
Number, about 100.
2. The Tlatskanai, _south_ of the river Columbia, from which,
and from the Kwalioqwa, they are separated by the Tshinúks.
Number, about 100.
3. The Umkwa, occupying the upper part of the river so-called,
about lat. 43°. Number, about 400.
The first vocabulary of this section (one of the Umkwa language) was
collected by Mr. Tolmie. The notice, however, of its affinities with
the Tlatskanai and Kwalioqwa, and the more important discovery of
its Athabaskan character, is one of many valuable additions made to
Ethnographical Philology by Mr. Hales. I consider, for my own part,
that the following table[108] justifies his classification.
ENGLISH. CHIPPEWYAN. TLATSKANAI. UMKWA.
_Man_ dinnie khanane titsun.
_Woman_ chequois tse_u_keia ekhe.
_Father_ _yi_tah (_my_) mama stanli.
_Mother_ _yi_nah (_my_) naa _u_nla.
_Son_ _yi_ayay (_my_) sik_u_te-teints_u_ n_u_sla shashai.
_Daughter_ _yi_lengai (_my_) slk_u_-ts_u_kaisla éte.
_Head_ edthie _khu_st_u_ma s_u_gha.
_Hair_ thiegah _kho_ts_u_sea zugha.
_Ear_ " _kho_tskhe tshigha.
_Eye_ nackhay _kho_nakhai naghe.
_Nose_ " _kho_ints_u_s mintshesh.
_Mouth_ " _kho_kwaitshaále ta.
_Tongue_ edthu _kho_tshutkhltshikhltsaha lásom.
_Tooth_ goo (_pl_) _kho_tsiakatatkhltsin uo.
_Hand_ law _kho_láa _sh_láa.
_Fingers_ " _tkh_lakhakhatesa schlatsune.
_Feet_ cuh (_sing._) _kho_akhastls_u_kai shke.
_Blood_ dell tutkhl shtule.
_House_ cooen k_un_t_u_kh ma.
_Axe_ thylne katst_u_n sen_u_tl.
_Knife_ bess tekhe natlmi.
_Shoes_ kinchee ke khe.
_Sky_ " ià ishtshi.
_Sun_ sah ta_u_se sha.
_Moon_ sah ta_u_se ighaltshi.
_Star_ " " khatlatshe.
_Day_ " khautkhlkante shaitltiti.
_Night_ " kleak_u_t kh_u_tli.
_Fire_ counn tkhlkane khong.
_Water_ tone to tkho.
_Rain_ thinnelsee natkakh natkhlhika.
_Snow_ yath yakhs tatkhliyitkhl.
_Earth_ " neé nanee.
_River_ tesse taseke khanee.
_Stone_ thaih tshetse seh.
_Tree_ " t_u_k_u_n sintshunata.
_Meat_ bid ts_u_ts_u_n isung.
_Dog_ sliengh tkhlin tkhli.
_Beaver_ yah " sha.
_Bear_ yass t_u_ls_u_n_u_ shtetkhlshu
(black).
_Bird_ " tsheuse naake.
_Great_ unshaw wane mintshaghe.
_Cold_ edyah kwatsakh_u_towa skais.
_White_ " itesina hal_u_kai.
_Black_ dellzin tkhls_u_ne h_u_ldji.
_Red_ delicouse tkhltsohwe t_u_tkhl.
_I_ ne sik shi.
_Thou_ nee nann_u_k na.
_He_ " ian_u_k hatake.
_One_ slachy tkhlie aitkhla.
_Two_ naghur nat_u_ke nakh_u_k.
_Three_ taghy tage tak.
_Four_ dengky t_u_ntshe t_u_ntshik.
_Five_ sasoulachee ts_u_kwalae shwullak.
_Six_ alkitarhyy kw_u_stanahe w_u_sthane.
_Seven_ " shostshita hoitahi.
_Eight_ olkideinghy tshanivaha nakanti.
_Nine_ cakinahanothna tkhleweet aitkhlanti.
_Ten_ canothna kwunéshin kwuneza.
We now come to a series of languages which, like the Kolúch, and unlike
the Athabaskan and Eskimo, have no great extension from west to east,
and which are spoken on the _western_ side of Rocky Mountains only.
Hence we get a great geographical line of demarcation; whilst the
river systems with which we deal are those of Frazer's River and the
Columbia, rather than of the Peace, the M'Kenzie, the Saskatchewan, and
the Missinissi rivers.
West of the Rocky Mountains, the ethnological affinities run from north
to south (or _vertically_) until we reach the area of the great Paduca
family; one, in respect to its direction and distribution, of the most
remarkable in America.
The ethnology of the parts between the Pacific, the Rocky Mountains,
the Northern Athabaskan, and the Paduca area, is very nearly the
ethnology of Oregon. Here we find two great families; and by their
sides four or five isolated, or nearly isolated, languages, a
phenomenon for which we are now prepared.
The first of the great divisions is one that is conveniently called--
THE TSIHAILI.
_Synonym._--Tsihaili-Selish. _Hales._
_Area._--Discontinuous. Chiefly the lower part of Fraser's
River, and the parts between that and the Columbia.
_Divisions._--1. Tribes to the north of the Columbia,
continuous. 2. Tribes to the south of the Columbia, either
wholly or nearly isolated.
_Sub-divisions._--Value of the classification unascertained.
_a._ Continuous Tsihaili. 1. Shushwap. 2. Salish. 3.
Skitsuish. 4. Piskwaus. 5. Kawitchen. 6. Skwali. 7. Checheeli.
8. Kowelits. 9. Noosdalum.
_b._ Isolated, or nearly isolated, Tsihaili.--The Nsietshawus,
or Killamucks(?).
_Conterminous_, with the _a._ Hailtsa, _b._ Nass, _c._
Athabaskan Taculli and Tsikunni on the north; _d._ Kitunaha,
on the east; _e._ Sahaptin; _f._ Tshinúk on the south.
The isolated Tsihaili surrounded by Tshinúks, Tlatskanai
(discontinous Athabaskans) and Jakons.
The _Shushwap_, or _Atnahs_, are the northernmost of the Tsihaili,
and are conterminous with the Taculli. Their number, according to Mr.
Hales, is about 1200, increased from 400.
_The Salish._--The Salish language falls into three dialects; those of
_a_, the Kullelspelm or Ponderays (Pend' oreilles), _b_, the Spokan,
improperly called Flat-heads (since they have no such habit as the one
suggested by the name), and _c_, the Okanagan.
A fair sample of the Salish traditions is the following. A ceremony
called by them (the Salish) _Sumash_, "deserves notice for the
strangeness of the idea on which it is founded. They regard the
spirit of a man as distinct from the living principle, and hold that
it may be separated for a short time from the body without causing
death, or without the individual being conscious of the loss. It is
necessary, however, in order to prevent fatal consequences, that the
lost spirit should be found and restored as quickly as possible. The
conjuror, or medicineman, learns, in a dream, the name of the person
who has suffered this loss. Generally there are several at the same
time in this condition. He then informs the unhappy individuals, who
immediately employ him to recover their wandering souls. During the
next night they go about the village from one lodge to another singing
and dancing. Towards morning they enter a separate lodge, which is
closed up, so as to be perfectly dark; a small hole is then made in the
roof, through which the conjuror, with a bunch of feathers, brushes in
the spirits in the shape of small bits of bone, and similar substances,
which he receives on a piece of matting. A fire is then lighted, and
the conjuror proceeds to select out from the spirits such as belong
to persons already deceased, of which there are usually several;
and should one of them be assigned by mistake to a living person he
would instantly die. He next selects the particular spirit belonging
to each person, and causing all the men to sit down before him, he
takes the spirit of one (_i.e._, the splinter of bone, shell, or wood,
representing it), and placing it on the owner's head, pats it, with
many contortions and invocations, till it descends into the heart and
resumes its proper place. When all are thus restored the whole party
unite in making a contribution of food, out of which a public feast is
given, and the remainder becomes the perquisite of the conjuror.
"Like the _Sahaptin_, the _Salish_ have many childish traditions
connected with the most remarkable natural features of the country, in
which the prairie-wolf generally bears a conspicuous part. What could
have induced them to confer the honours of divinity upon this animal
cannot be imagined; they do not, however, regard the wolf as an object
of worship, but merely suppose that in former times it was endowed
with preternatural powers, which it exerted after a very whimsical and
capricious fashion. Thus, on one occasion, being desirous of a wife (a
common circumstance with him), the wolf, or the divinity so called,
visited a tribe on the Spokan River and demanded a young woman in
marriage. His request being granted, he promised that thereafter the
salmon should be abundant with them, and he created the rapids which
give them facilities for taking the fish. Proceeding further up, he
made of each tribe on his way the same request, attended with a like
result; at length he arrived at the territory of the Skitsuish (_Cœur
d'alène_); they refused to comply with his demand, and he therefore
called into existence the great falls of the Spokan, which prevent the
fish from ascending to their country."[109]
In the Salish tribes we have the best sample of a true _inland Oregon_
family, a section of the American Indians distinguished by certain
negative as well as positive characters which require notice.
_a._ As contrasted with the Indians to the north of them they have a
milder climate, are south of the true fur-bearing countries, and below
the line of the rein-deer.
_b._ From the islanders and coast tribes of the Pacific they are
distinguished by the necessary absence of maritime habits, and a diet
consisting to a great extent of sea fish.
_c._ To the families on the east of the Rocky Mountains they stand in
the remarkable opposition of being imperfect agriculturists rather
than hunters. In other words, in getting beyond the range of the Rocky
Mountains we get beyond the country of the prairie and the localities
of the buffalo; as a set-off to which, although the botany of the
Oregon is at present but imperfectly known, the whole district is
described as being preeminently productive of edible _roots_; not,
however, in respect to the number of individuals (for the land is
poor), but in respect to the variety of their species.
Oregon, then, at least in its central parts, is the area of an
undeveloped agriculture; and (probably like other tribes besides)
the Salish look to the returning seasons not, as in Siberia, Arctic
America, and the parts to the east of the Rocky Mountains, with a view
to the migrations of the buffalo and the rein-deer, but with respect
to the production of their successive vegetable esculents; added to
which their river-system gives them, in its season, a supply of fish.
Upon this point, even if external evidence were wanting, we might find
proof in the Salish names of the seasons (with which the Piskwaus
agree), a list which gives us in the months of the _camass-root_ and
the _exhausted salmon_ the extreme seasons of want and plenty.
MEANING IN
PISKWAUS. SALISH. ENGLISH. ENGLISH MONTH.
Skwusús Siistikwo ---- December and Jan.
Skiniramun Skwusus _cold_ January and Feb.
Skuputskiltin Skiniramun _a certain herb_ February & March.
Skasulku Skaputru _snow gone_ March and April.
Katsosumptun Spatlom _bitter-root_ April and May.
Stsaok Stagamawus _going to root-ground_ May and June.
Kupukkalotltin Ittlwa _camass-root_ June and July.
Silump Saanttllkwo _hot_ July and August.
Tshepomtum Silamp _gathering berries_ August and Sept.
Parpattllitlen Skilues _exhausted salmon_ September and Oct.
Skaai Skaai _dry_ October and Nov.
Siistkwu Keshmakwaln _snow_ November and Dec.
_The Piskwaus._--"On the main Columbia, between the Salish proper,
and the Wallawallahs below Fort Okanagan. A miserable, beggarly
people, great thieves. Their country very poor in game and
roots."--_Transactions of the American Ethnological Society_, p. 13.
_The Skitsuish._--_Cœur d'alène._--"About 400 souls live on the lake
of that name above the falls of the Spokan, have no salmon, raise
potatoes, and have a tendency to cultivate."--_Transactions of the
American Ethnological Society_, p. 13.
_The Kawichen_, _Skwali_, _Checheeli_, _Kowelits_, _Kwaintl_,
_Kwenawitl_ and _Núsdalum_.--The exact relations of these tribes
to each other, as well as their position in the Tsihaili family, is
unascertained.
Geographically they agree in forming the south-western division of the
stock, and in occupying the peninsula (or _acté_) between the mouth of
the Columbia, Puget's Sound, and Cape Flattery; where, in the latter
locality, they are in contact with the Wakash Klassets and Klallems,
and, in the former, with the Tshinúks.
Philologically the Atna, as tested by the first known vocabulary of the
language, a short one of M'Kenzie's, is closely allied to the Núsdalum.
But, then, on the other hand the Núsdalum, Kawichen and Skwali (or
Squallyarnish) are by no means so like each other as are the two
vocabularies first mentioned.
Again, Dr. Scouler gives reasons against disconnecting this branch of
the Tsihaili from the Wakash dialects of Quadra and Vancouver's Island,
with which he shows that they have at least the following words in
common.
ENGLISH. CHEKEELI. WAKASH.
_Plenty_ haya aya.
_No_ wake wik.
_Water_ chuck tchaak.
_Good_ closh hooleish.
_Bad_ peshak peishakeis.
_Man_ tillicham tchuckoop.
_Woman_ cloochamen tlootsemin.
_Child_ tanass tannassis.
_Now_ clahowiah tlahowieh.
_Come_ sacko tchooqua.
_Slave_ mischemas mischemas.
_What are you doing?_ ekta mammok akoots-ka-mamok.
_What are you saying?_ ekta-wawa au-kaak-wawa. .
_Let me see_ nannanitch nannanitch.
_Sun_ ootlach opeth.
_Sky_ saya sieya.
_Fruit_ camas chamas.
_To sell_ makok makok.
_Understand_ commatax commatax.
For the particular dialect spoken by another Tsihaili tribe, and placed
by Dr. Scouler in the present section, we have no vocabulary, viz.: the
Commagsheak in the northern part of the Gulf of Georgia.
ISOLATED (_or nearly Isolated_) TSIHAILI.(?)
_The Nsietshawuss._--Occupants of the sea-coasts to the south
of the Columbia. Numbers in 1840 about 700. Conterminous
with the Tshinúks, on the north, the Jakon on the south, and
the Tlatskanai on the east.--_Appearance and manners of the
Tshinúks._
_Synonym._--Killamuk.
The elements of doubt denoted by the note of interrogation(?) consist
in the discrepancy between the evidence of the Killamuk language, and
the evidence of the Killamuk physiognomy; the former being Tsihaili,
the latter Tshinúk. Hence, whilst Mr. Hales makes them the former, Dr.
Scouler classes them with the latter.
Now comes a small family, falling into no minor divisions, and spread
over an area of but third-rate magnitude.
THE KÚTANIS (KITUNAHA).
_Synonym._--Flat-bows.
_Locality._--Banks of the Kútani River, one of the feeders of
the Columbia.
_Conterminous._--with the Blackfoots, Ponderay, Salish,
Shushwap, and Carrier Athabaskans.
The Kútanis are described by Simpson as undersized, irregularly fed,
poor, and squalid; the women being plainer than the men. Irregularly
fed upon fish and venison, they dig up the kammas and mash it into a
pulp. This, in times of unusual scarcity, they flavour with a sort
of moss or lichen collected from the trees. On the other hand they
are sharp-sighted in making bargains, prudent enough to be the best
economisers in their district of the fur-animals, steady in their
fidelity to the whites, and so brave, under attacks, as to hold their
own against the powerful Blackfoots of the eastern side of the Rocky
Mountains.
According to Mr. Hales their numbers are about 400; they are great
hunters, furnishing much peltry, and in appearance and character
resembling the Indians east of the Rocky Mountains rather than those of
the Oregon.
These accounts agree; whilst the evidence of language as known from the
vocabularies of the American Exploring Expedition, and a MS. vocabulary
of Mr. Howse's disconnect them from the tribes around them.
In physical appearance they are _contrasted_ by Simpson with the Salish
Ponderays. These last struck him with the stateliness of their manners;
and so much did they show to advantage, that he considered them as the
finest-looking men he had seen, next to the Indians of the plains.
CHINÚKS (TSHINÚK).
_Locality._--Mouth of the Columbia.
_Divisions._--1. Chinúks Proper, on the southern bank of the
Columbia, at its mouth. 2. Klatsops, at Point Adams, south of
the Chinúks. 3. Kathlamut, on the south bank of the Columbia,
above the Chinúks. 4. Wakáikam. 5. Watlala, or Upper Chinúk,
farthest up the river. 6. Nihaloitih.
_Physical Appearance._--"The personal appearances of the
Chinook differs so much from that of the aboriginal tribes of
the United States, that it was difficult at first to recognise
the affinity. Taking them collectively, they are even inferior
in stature to the tribes of Interior Oregon; the general form
is shorter and more squat, and the face is rounder and broader
when viewed in front. Instances occurred of a fairness of
complexion, which I have not seen in other parts of aboriginal
America; and in young children, the colour was often not
strikingly deeper than among Europeans.
"The oblique eye I have scarcely noticed in other parts of
America; nor such frequent difficulty in distinguishing men
from women, whether in youth or age. The arched nose, was,
however, very prevalent among the Chinooks. The beard was
not always absolutely wanting, but it occasionally attained
the length of an inch or more. One man had both beard and
whiskers, quite thin, but full two inches long; and in other
respects he much resembled some representations I have seen
of the Esquimaux." * * * "The head is artificially flattened
in infancy; _but as the children grow up, the cranium tends
to resume its natural shape, so that the majority of grown
persons hardly manifest the existence of the practice._ One
effect, however, seemed to be permanently distinguishable, in
the unusual breadth of the face."--Pickering, p. 27.
We have already, in speaking of the Salish, met with the word
_Flat-head_, and, although in that particular case, it was misapplied,
it is still an important term in American ethnology, since more than
one family of American Indians has the practice of _artificially
flattening the head_. This we meet with, for the first time, amongst
the Tshinúks, the true _Flat-heads_ of those parts.
The process itself was witnessed by Pickering. In one of the stockaded
villages of the Chinúks, where the influence of the missionaries had
so far found its way as for some of the houses to stand in a small
cultivated enclosure, of about a quarter of an acre in size, an infant
was confined to a wooden receptacle, with a pad tightly bandaged over
the forehead and eyes, so that it was alike impossible for it to see or
move. He also observed that when the child was suspended according to
usage, the head was actually lower than the feet.
So much for the children. The adults improve upon Nature by piercing
the septum of the nose and putting a ring through it, by earrings, and
by painting the face--in default of paint, by smearing it with soot,
the marks being after a pattern. A black and dull red paint, with
which they ornament their canoes, hats, and masks, are aboriginal, the
others procured from traders. A sail, also, seen in one of the larger
boats was considered not native, but copied from the Russians. In other
respects the management of their canoes, as well as the construction,
was skilful; so were some of the contrivances both for fowling and
fishing. For the former purpose tall masts were set up to intercept by
means of connecting nets(?) the water-fowl at night. Sturgeon were
speared or noosed; the darts used for killing fish being double-headed.
The capture of whales, an exploit never attempted by even the most
enterprising of the Polynesians, is attempted by the Chinúks.
The art, however, of platting, or weaving, seems to be that wherein
the Chinúks have the best claim for excellence. Still it is doubtful
whether, in this respect, they are above the level of the American
tribes in general. The mats are made of the _scirpus lacustris_ placed
side by side, and strung at intervals. The wool of the mountain goat
is woven into blankets, marked, in the way of pattern, with angular
figures, coloured black and red. The former seem to be made by changing
the material, and substituting the black hair of the dog for that of
the goat.
Carving in claystone is another Chinúk art. So many, however, of the
specimens in museums are made in imitation of imported articles that
the original patterns, consisting generally in the representation of
grotesque imaginary quadrupeds, are nearly extinct.[110]
I shall close the account of the Tshinúks with a notice of the Lingua
Franca, taken from Mr. Hales, which is now in the actual process of
formation in the parts about the mouth of the Columbia. It first began
to be developed in the harbour of Nútka Sound; from the language of
which district a few words were adopted by the early English traders.
When the intercourse with the inhabitants of the Columbia began, these
Nútka words became transferred to the Chinúk country; and the three
languages which then contributed elements to the so-called _jargon_,
were the Nútka, the Chinúk, and the English. From the second of these
tongues were taken, besides certain substantives and adjectives, the
first ten numerals, the word for a hundred, twelve pronouns, and about
twenty adverbs and prepositions. Additions were also supplied from the
French of the Canadian _voyageurs_.
Some of the processes by which this medium of communication has
been formed deserve study; and they have been well exhibited in the
philological portion of the United States Exploring Expedition, the
source of the present information.
1. For a language to be spoken by three different nations it is
convenient to admit only such articulations as are common to the three
languages. An approach to this occurs here. The harsh Chinúk sounds are
modified. The French nasal is dropped. The English _tsh_ becomes _dzh_;
perhaps, in the mouth of a Frenchman, _zh_.
2. In names of objects common to both languages, the choice seems to be
determined by the hardness or easiness of the pronunciation. For _man_,
_sun_, _moon_, _stick_, _snow_, _warm_, &c., the terms are English;
although the equivalents were part and parcel of the Chinúk and Nútkan,
equally. They were, however, preeminently unpronounceable, being
_kottllelikum_, _ottllatl_, &c. On the other hand where the Indian
is moderately adapted to European organs terms from _both_ languages
become current, _e.g._
ENGLISH. JARGON.
Water _tsok_ and _wātā_
Cold _tsis_ " _kol_
Fire _olapitski_ " _paia_.
3. Grammar is, as we should expect it to be, at its _minimum_ amount.
_a._ _b._ There are no signs of either the possessive case or the
plural number. The former is determined by the construction only--_kata
nēm maika papa_=_what name thou father_=_wh(-at) is (the) name (of)
th(-y) father_. The latter is sometimes denoted by _haiu_=_many_.
_c._ In general the tense of verbs is to be discovered by the context.
When it is absolutely necessary to fix the time, certain adverbs are
resorted to; as, _now_, _formerly_, _tomorrow_. The future sense is
expressed by _tuké_=_wish_.
_d._ The notion of condition is expressed by the Chinúk
_klunas_=_perhaps_, or by the English _pos_=_suppose_. The only other
conjunction in the language is _pi_ =the French _puis_=_and_, _or_,
_then_, &c.
_e._ The substantive verb is generally (as in the normal state of the
Semitic languages) omitted--_maika pilton_ = _thou art foolish_.
The changes that European words undergo may be collected from the
following vocabulary.
WORDS OF ENGLISH ORIGIN.
Boston, American[111]
Bōt--boat.
Hakatshum--handkerchief.
Haus--house.
Klai--clay.
Klas--glass.
Kintshosh--Englishman.[112]
Kitl--kettle.
Kōl--coal.
Lēk--lake.
Lēsi--lazy.
Lûm--rum.
Oluman[113]--father.
Paia--fire.
Pilton[114]--foolish.
Pēpa--paper.
Pōs--suppose.
Shŭt--shirt.
Stutshin---sturgeon.
Tala--silver, dollar.
Tlai--cry.
Tshaket--jacket.
Tumola--tomorrow.
Wām--warm.
Wata--water.
Win--wind.
WORDS OF FRENCH ORIGIN.
Kapo--capot.
Kasét--casette.
Kuli--courir.
Labúsh--la bouche.
Lahásh--la hache.
Laklés--la graisse.
Lalán--la langue.
Lamestin--la médecine.
Lamontai--le montaigne.
Lasuai--la soie.
Latapl--la table.
Lawie--la vieille.
Lebiskwi--le biscuit.
Liman--la main.
Letan--les dents.
Loup-marin--loup marin[115].
Pasianks--Français.
Putāli--poudre.
Sawash[116]--Indian.
Shante--chanter.
Seápot--chapeau.
Siápul--ditto.
ONOMATOPŒIC WORDS.
Hehe--laugh.
Liplip--boil.
Tiktik--watch.
Ting-ting--bell.
Tum--heavy noise.
Tum-wata--cataract.
The power of combination is greatly developed. Almost every verb and
adjective may receive a modification in its meaning by the prefixion of
the word _mamúk_=_make_ or _cause_. Thus--
Tsháko[117] = come mamúk tsháko = bring.
Klátawa[117] = go " klátawa = send.
Kikwili[118] = below " kikwili = bury.
Pepa = paper " pepa = write.
That of composition is equally so; _e.g._ _ship-man_=_sailor_,
_ship-stik_=_spar_, _stik-skin_=_bark_, _sél-haus_ (sail-house) =
_tent_, &c.
"The place at which the _jargon_ is most in use is at Fort _Vancouver_.
At this establishment five languages are spoken by about five hundred
persons--namely, the _English_, the _Canadian French_, the _Tshinúk_,
the _Cree_ or _Knisteneau_, and the _Hawaiian_. The three former
are already accounted for; the _Cree_ is the language spoken in the
families of many officers and men belonging to the Hudson's Bay
Company, who have married half-breed wives at the posts east of the
Rocky Mountains. The _Hawaiian_ is in use among about a hundred natives
of the Sandwich Islands, who are employed as labourers about the fort.
Besides these five languages there are many others--the _Tsihailish_,
_Wallawalla_, _Kalapuya_, _Naskwali_, &c., which are daily heard from
natives who visit the fort for the purpose of trading. Among all
these individuals, there are very few who understand more than two
languages, and many who speak only their own. The general communication
is, therefore, maintained chiefly by means of the _jargon_, which may
be said to be the prevailing idiom. There are Canadians and half-breeds
married to Chinook women, who can only converse with their wives in
this speech; and it is the fact, strange as it may seem, that many
young children are growing up to whom this factitious language is
really the mother tongue, and who speak it with more readiness and
perfection than any other."
CATHLASCOU.
_Locality._--From the Falls of the Columbia to Wappatoo Island,
falling into a number of small tribes.
The third of the larger divisions of the Oregon Indians is that of the--
SAHAPTIN.
_Area._--The northern bank of the Columbia from the Tshinúk
country, at the mouth, to the junction of the river Lewis. The
valley of the river Lewis (or Snake River). As far east as the
Rocky Mountains.
_Conterminous_ with the Salish Tsihaili to the north, the
Upsaroka (Crows) to the east, the Paducas and Wailatpu to the
south, the Skwali Tsihaili and the Watlala Tshinúks to the west.
_Divisions._--1. Wallawallas, Kliketat. 2. Proper Sahaptin or
Nez-percés. 3. Pelús. 4. Yakemas. 5. Cayús(?).
_Numbers._--About 4000.
_Aliment._--Roots, salmon.
_Extract from Mr. Hales._--"Both the Sahaptin and Wallawallas
compress the head, but less than the tribes on the coast."
_The Kliketat_ are distinguished by having the lower part of the septum
of the nose cut away.[119]
The imperfect industry of the Sahaptin tribes is considered to be on a
higher level than that of either the Tshinúks or Tsihaili; so that, in
this respect, they stand the first of the Oregon aborigines.
The same applies to their susceptibility of religious influences. With
no family have the efforts of the missionaries been more successful
than with the Nez-percés.
In physical appearance they are more like the Indians to the east of
the Rocky Mountains, than any tribes hitherto described.
Lastly, the easternmost Sahaptin are on the limits of the buffalo area;
and as such are partially hunters, as well as common to the two sides
of the Rocky Mountains.
It is now convenient to return to the Pacific, and to follow from west
to east the tribes that lie south of the area already described.
THE YAKON.
_Locality._--A strip of sea-coast between the Nsietshawus
(Tsihaili) the Tlatskanai, the Kalapuya, the Umkwa, and the
Saintskla.
_Numbers._--About 700.
KALAPUYA.
_Locality._--Valley of the Upper Willamet.
_Conterminous_ with the Watlala Tshinúks, the Molele, the
Tlatskanai and Umkwa Athabaskans.
_Numbers._--About 500.
_Dialects._--1. Proper Kalapuya. 2. The Tuhwallatie or
Follatie. 3. Yamkallie of Mr. Tolmie.--How far are these the
same?
MOLELE.
_Locality._--Parts about Mount Hood and Mount Vancouver, south
of the Columbia.
_Conterminous_ with the Watlala Tshinúks, the Kalapuya, the
Cayús, and the Lutuami.
_Numbers._--"Reduced in 1841, by disease, to twenty souls.
Probably now extinct."--_Hales._
_Divisions._--1. Molele. 2. Cayús(?)
CAYÚS.(?)
_Locality._--South bank of the Columbia, between the Molele and
the Paduca Shoshonis.
_Numbers._--About 500 good warriors, with extensive pasturage
and large droves of horses, one chief having 2,000.--_Hales._
The note of interrogation denotes that the ethnological position of the
Cayús is ambiguous. Mr. Hales makes them Molele, Dr. Scouler, Sahaptin.
LUTUAMI.
_Synonym._--Tlamatl or Clamet.
_Locality._--Head-waters of the river Clamet, due south of
the Molele, and conterminous with the Umkwa on the west, the
Wihinast Shoshonis on the east, and the Palaiks and Shastis on
the south.
We are now approaching a series of tribes known by little more than
their names. Beginning at the sea-coast to the south of the strip
occupied by the Yakon, and in the immediate neighbourhood of the Umkwa
country, we find in proceeding from west to east--
THE SAINTSKLA.
_Locality._--South of the Yakon, between the Umkwa and the sea.
THE TOTOTUNE.
_Locality._--Sea-coast south of the Saintskla.
THE KILLIWASHAT.
_Locality._--Mouth of the Umkwa.
THE TSALEL.
_Locality._--Middle course of the Umkwa.
THE KAUS.
_Locality._--Between the river Umkwa and the river Clamet, or
(ethnologically) between the Killiwashat and the Lutuami.
SHASTI.
_Locality._--South-west of the Lutuami.
PALAIK.
_Locality._--South-east of the Lutuami, and conterminous with
the Shasti.
The list of the tribes and families of the Oregon territory, is now,
with one exception, complete, at least according to the present state
of our knowledge; whilst the section that still stands over for notice,
extends so far beyond it, and is in other respects so remarkable in its
distribution, that it forms an ethnological break.
Hence, although in a purely descriptive ethnography it would be
advisable to take the tribes of California in immediate succession to
those of Oregon, and those of Mexico next in order to the Californian,
the present arrangement will be different, and the transition will
be from the Oregon Indians to the Indians on the east of the Rocky
Mountains. This departure from the strict line of ethnological
continuity, is demanded in the present volume; because the question
as to the origin of the American population, being considered of so
much more importance than the mere description of different tribes,
the arrangement follows the order, in which the reader requires facts
as a basis for his reasoning, rather than the absolute sequence of
ethnological relationship. This accounts for certain departures, which
may possibly have been noticed, from the form and method of description
adopted in the ethnology of Asia; it also is a reason for sometimes
placing together groups on the score of _difference_ rather than
_likeness_. Such is the case here. The classes about to be noticed
follow those that have already been considered, not because they are
closely related, but because they present marks of disconnection which
are necessary to be known and appreciated previous to any argument upon
subjects like the unity or _non_-unity of the American population, or
its connexion or _non_-connexion with the population of the Old World.
In other words, as the nearest affinities of the Oregon tribes are with
the Californian, the present order of sequence is artificial rather
than natural.
As to the line itself which thus diverts our inquiries from the
true ethnological sequence, it is the area of a family already[120]
mentioned--the area of the _Paduca_ tribes. Of this the peculiarity is
as follows. It begins with the country of the Wihinast, is separated
from the Pacific by the comparatively small areas of the Wailatpu,
Molele, Kalapuya, and Yakon, and extends in a south-east direction as
far as the Gulf of Mexico. Hence, with the exception of a narrow tract
on the Lower Columbia, it runs from sea to sea; so separating all the
numerous sections of the Indians of the United States and Canada from
those of Spanish America, _i.e._ from those of Mexico wholly, and from
those of California partially.
This gives us a limit for the parts about to be noticed, which, roughly
speaking, constitute--
_Politically._--the United States and Canada--
_Physically._--the river-systems of the St. Lawrence, the Red River,
and the Mississippi, and also of those rivers which, like the Potomac,
fall into the Atlantic--
_Ethnologically._--the country included between the Eskimo, Athabaskan,
Kútani, Salish, Sahaptin, and Paduca areas.
Concerning this it may be said that the ocean on one side is hardly
a more definite boundary than the Rocky Mountains on the other, so
truly do they, as a physical division, coincide with the ethnological
one,--at least for the parts between the Athabaskans and Paducas.
The climate of the area may be measured by the fact of its containing
Florida on the South, and Labrador on the North, the coasts of the Gulf
of Mexico, and the coasts of Hudson's Bay.
The east-and-west conditions are less self-evident; the two most
important differences being that between the parts east, and that
between the parts west of the Mississippi. Speaking roughly, the former
is the country of the forest, the latter of the prairie; the former the
seat of an incomplete agriculture, the latter the range of the buffalo.
The divisions of the American population that occupy, or occupied,
this area, are of unascertained value; I shall give them, in the first
instance, nearly according to the classification and nomenclature of
Gallatin's standard dissertation in the Archæologia Americana. Some
of these will be large, some small; some like the Turk, some like the
Dioscurian; phænomena for which we are now prepared. The first in the
list, single handed, takes up more than half the whole area.
ALGONKINS.
_Synonyms._--Lenapian, Wapanachki=_men of the east_. This is
said by Heckewelder to have been their national and collective
name. Probably, however, it was so only for the tribes on the
Atlantic.
_Distribution._--East and west from the Rocky Mountains to
Newfoundland; north and south, from Labrador to the Carolinas.
Breadth greatest in its northern part, decreasing towards the
south.
_Area._--Newfoundland, part of Labrador, Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia, Upper and Lower Canada, New Brunswick, south-eastern
part of the Hudson's Bay territory, the boundary line between
British North America and the United States, the north-western
part of the Missouri territory, part of the Wisconsin
territory, parts of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New
York, &c., the New England States, Virginia, Kentucky(?), North
Carolina.
_Divisions._--_a._ Bethucks. _b._ Central Algonkins. _c._
Shiennes. _d._ Blackfoots. Classification provisional.
_a._ _Bethucks._--Locality Newfoundland. Probably extinct. Not
hitherto recognised as Algonkin.
_b._ _Central Algonkins._--1. _The Crees_, _Knisteneaux_,
_Klisteno_, or _Kilistheno_. Native name, _Nĕhethowuck_=_exact
people_. Situation, the river-system of the rivers Nelson,
Salmon, and Albany, falling into Hudson's Bay.
2. _Ojibways_, on the south and west sides of Lake Superior,
south of the Crees.
3. _Algonkins Proper._
4. _Nipissing._--Closely allied tribes on the sides of the Lake
of the Two Mountains, in the district of Montreal.
5. _Ottawas._--On the river Ottawa, in the islands of Lake
Superior. Northern part of Michigan, Closely allied to the
Proper Algonkins.
6. _Montagnards_, _Mountaineers._--The French name and its
translation, of the name of the tribes between Montreal and the
mouth of the St. Lawrence.
7. _Scoffis_--_Nascopies_.--The Algonkins of Labrador.
Conterminous with the Eskimo.
8. _Sheshatapoosh._--Ditto.
9. _Abenakis._--In the state of Maine, in the valley of the
Kennebec.
10. _Etchemin._---From whom the state of Maine, took its name.
A tribe of these occupy the valley of the St John's River, in
New Brunswick.
11. _Passamaquoddy._--Maine. A branch of the Etchemin.
12. _Micmacs._--New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, parts
of Labrador and Newfoundland.
13. _Penobscot._--Maine.
14. _Messisaugis._--North of Lake Ontario, at its junction with
the St. Lawrence.
15, 16. _Pequod and Mohicans._--Extinct. In 1674, in
Connecticut.
17. _Narraganset._--Extinct. In 1674, in Rhode Island.
18. _Massachusetts._--Extinct. In 1674, in the state so called.
19, 20, 21, 22, 23.--_The Pawkunnawkuts_ (_or Wampanoag_),
_the Pawtucket_, _the Pennakuk_, _the Nipmuk_, _the
Montaug_.--Extinct. In 1674, in Long Island. The language of
these Indians is represented by Jonathan Edwards' Grammar of
the Mohican, and by Eliot's translation of the Bible.
24. _Lenni-Lenapi or Delawares._--Three tribes, _a._ the Unami,
or Turtle. _b._ The Minsi or Wolf. _c._ The Unalachtigo, or
Turkey.
25. _The Monakans_(?)--Extinct. Virginia, one day's journey
beyond the Falls, at Richmond. People of the high country as
opposed to the Powhattans of the low--said to build stone
houses.
The Indians of Virginia, especially the Powhattans, will
be noticed in the sequel as affording a measure of the
civilization of the Algonkins.
26. _The Pamticoes_ (_Pamticoughs_).--South Carolina. This is
the southernmost limit of the Eastern Algonkins.
The list is now continued from the south-eastern boundary of
the Ojibways, and from the parts south of Lake Superior, and
west of Lake Michigan.
27. _The Menomeni._--Due south of Lake Superior, from which
they are separated by the Ojibways.
28, 29. The _Sauks_=_white-clay_ and the _Ottogami_=_foxes_.
These last are also called _Musqkuakuik_=_red-clay_.
30. _The Kickapoos._--Southern part of Illinois. Closely allied
to the Sauks and Foxes.
31. _The Potawotomi._--South of Lake Michigan.
32. _The Shawno._--The most south of the Western Algonkins,
being south of the Ohio, in the state of Kentucky. Now removed
to the west of the Mississippi, to a reserve immediately south
of that of the Delawares.
33, 34, 35, 36, 37.--Illinois Indians=the Miami, Piankeshaws,
Kaskkaias(?)[121], Cabokias, Tamaronas, Peorias, and Mitchigami.
_c._ _Shyennes._--Between the head-waters of the Yellow-stone
River and the River Platte. Conterminous with the Upsaroka,
Pawnees, and probably the northern Shoshonis. As such, isolated
from the other Algonkins.
_d._ _Blackfoot Algonkins._--Head-waters of the south branch
of the Saskatchewan, and extended as far west as the Rocky
Mountains, by which they are divided from the Kútanis. Bounded
on the north by the Athabaskans, the south by the Upsarokas
(Sioux), the east by the Ahnenin and Crees. The Blackfoots have
been but recently recognised as Algonkin.
The numerous details of this great division prevent anything beyond the
doubtful points of the classification being noticed. These apply to
three members of it, the Bethuck, the Shyennes, and the Blackfoots.
1. _The Bethuck._--The particular division to which the aborigines
of Newfoundland belonged, has been a matter of doubt; some writers
considering them to have been Eskimo, others to have been akin to the
Micmacs, who have now a partial footing in the island.
Reasons against either of these views are supplied by a hitherto
unpublished Bethuck vocabulary with which I have been kindly furnished
by my friend Dr. King, of the Ethnological Society. This makes them a
_separate section of the Algonkins_,[122] and such I believe them to
have been.
2. _The Shyennes._--It has been already stated that the present Shyenne
area is isolated. This had a tendency to mislead inquirers and to
originate the notion that the Shyennes were Sioux.
Again,--in a treaty between the United States and the Shyennes, in
1825, the names of the chiefs who signed are Sioux. This misled also.
Still, on the evidence of Mr. Kennet M'Kenzie, of the St. Louis Fur
Company, who informed Mr. Gallatin that "there was not at that time
any European interpreter for the Shyenne, that the treaty was carried
on through the medium of some Sioux, and that he had reason to believe
that the names subscribed to it were Sioux translations of those of
the Shyenne chiefs," their position was left as doubtful by that
philologist.
However, a vocabulary of Lieutenant Abert has since settled the matter,
"in which no affinity whatever is discovered with the Sioux. Although
from its nature it contains but a small number of primitive words,
or of those for which we have equivalents in other languages, there
are enough to establish the fact that the Shyennes are, like the
Black-feet, an Algonkin tribe. Out of forty-seven Shyenne words for
which we have equivalents in other languages, there are thirteen which
are indubitably Algonkin, and twenty-five which have affinities more
or less remote with some of the languages of that family. Of these
last I would have rejected more than one half had they stood alone,
but they corroborate, to some extent, the evidence afforded by the
words, the etymology of which is clear. The nine remaining words (out
of the forty-seven), which have no apparent affinity with the Algonkin,
are _hill_, _mountain_, _stone_, _little_, _white_, and the numerals
VI, VII, VIII, IX, on comparing the vocabulary with those of other
families, I could discover no other words which had any resemblance
but the following:--_little_=_nakee_, Shyenne, _okeye_, Wyandott;
_fire_=_sist_, Shyenne; _ojishta_, _ojista_, Seneca, Oneida."[123]
Furthermore, the evidence of Lewis and Clarke, confirmed by that of
M'Kenzie and Gallatin, shows that the separation of the Shyennes from
the other Algonkins, took place within the historical period. "They
were originally settled on a stream called Chayenne, or Cayenne, an
upper branch of the Red River of Lake Winnepeg, from which they were
driven away by the Sioux; an account which is confirmed by Alexander
M'Kenzie. They retreated west of the Missouri, below the river
Warreconne, where their ancient fortifications still existed in 1804.
Thence they were again compelled to retreat farther west, near the
Black Hills, on the head branches of the river which now bears their
name."[124]
That the evidence of the Shyenne numerals, the only part of Lieut.
Abert's vocabulary then known to him, made the Shyennes Algonkin,
was also stated by the present writer at the meeting of the British
Association, in 1847, at Oxford.--_Transactions of the Sections_, p.
123.
3. _The Blackfoots._--Until lately all that was known of the Blackfoot
language was from two short vocabularies, one of Humphreville's and one
of Mr. Catlin's.
The addition of a third in MS. has fixed the language as Algonkin; such
being the opinion formed independently by both Mr. Gallatin[125] and
the present writer, who was favoured by Dr. Prichard with the MS. It is
further confirmed by a tabulated vocabulary of Mr. Howse's, now in the
press.[126]
With the exception of the Shyennes, who seem to have moved within
the historical period, the Algonkin area is _continuous_; but though
_continuous_, it is not _uninterrupted_. The important class of the
Mohawk, or Iroquois, tribes, is different from the Algonkin. It lies
_within_ the Algonkin area, surrounded by Algonkins, but not itself
Algonkin.
THE IROQUOIS.
Measured by the extent of ground that it covers the Iroquois class
is of less importance than the Algonkin. Measured by its prominence
in history it is equal or greater. The _Five Nations_ were Iroquois.
The once formidable _Mohawks_ were Iroquois. Before the arrival of
the Europeans the Five Nations were dominant over their Algonkin
neighbours; and after the arrival of the Europeans the Iroquois
warriors were more feared than those of the Algonkins. At one time the
head of the Algonkin confederacy was an Iroquois chieftain.
It has been stated above that the Iroquois are, at present,
encompassed (or nearly encompassed) by Algonkins; so as to have become
isolate in respect to the other classes of Indians, and cut off from
contact with them. This, and more than this, is the case. Portions of
the Iroquois family are cut off from each other, so that in coming to
the details we shall expect to hear of the Northern division of the
Iroquois, and of the Southern division of the Iroquois. At present
it is sufficient to state that such a division exists, and that the
localities for the Northern Iroquois are the parts about Lake Huron;
for the Southern, North Carolina. In the latter locality alone are they
in contact with tribes other than the Algonkin.
_Area._--Discontinuous.
_Divisions._--_a._ Northern Iroquois. _b._ Southern Iroquois.
_Sub-divisions._--_a._ Northern Iroquois. 1. The Five
Nations=The Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagoes, the Senecas,
and the Cayugas. 2. The Confederacy (?) of the Hurons (or
Wyandots), the Erigas, the Andastes, and the Attiondarons, the
Tionontates, the Anies(?), &c.
_b._ Southern Iroquois.--The Tutelo, Nottoway, Meherrin, and
Tuscaroras.
_Localities._--_a._ For the Northern Iroquois the parts about
and between Lakes Huron, Ontario, and Erie. _b._ For the
Southern Iroquois.--North Carolina. Separation effected by
tribes of the Algonkin division, especially the Delawares.
The Iroquois and Algonkins exhibit in the most typical form the
characteristics of the North American Indians as exhibited in the
earliest descriptions, and are the two families upon which the current
notions respecting the physiognomy, habits, and moral and intellectual
powers of the so-called Red Race are chiefly founded.
THE SIOUX.
_Area._--Central North America, between the Mississippi and
the Rocky Mountains, east and west. Between Lake Winebago and
the Arkansas, north and south. The valley of the Missouri.
The water-system of Lake Winebago. One division east of the
Mississippi.
_Divisions._--1. Winnebagoes, Hochungohrah=_Trout Nation_.
2. Dakotas, Sioux, or Nadowessiou. 3. Assineboins, or Stone
Indians. 4. Upsaroka, or Crows. 5. Mandans. 6. Minetari. 7.
Osage.
_Sub-divisions._--_a._ Of the Dahcota--1. Yanktons. 2.
Yanktoanans(?) 3. Tetons. 4. Proper Sioux.
_b._ Of the Osage.--1. Konzas. 2. Missouris. 3. Ottos. 4.
Omahaws. 5. Puncas. 6. Ioways. 7. Quappas. 8. Osage Proper.
The Sioux is the third great division of the North American Indians,
and it is the division which comprises the tribes of the interior, of
the Far West in opposition to the sea-coast, of the prairie country in
opposition to the tracts that are or have been forest, and of the foot
of the Rocky Mountains. The country of the buffalo is shared between
them and the Western Algonkins.
Broadly speaking, we may say between these three nations the basins
of all the feeders of the Upper Mississippi are distributed: the
exceptions being insignificant. This they have and more; since the
Canadian population is, in great part, Algonkin.
The Sioux tribes are essentially inland or continental.
CATAWBA.
_Locality._--The Santee, or Catawba River, in North Carolina.
WOCCOON.
_Locality._--North Carolina. Extinct.
The Catawba and Woccoon languages, which are allied to each
other, probably represent those aboriginal languages of North
Carolina, which were _not_ of the Algonkin class.
Besides these, however, there occur the following names, concerning
which we only know that they belonged to North Carolina. The extent
to which they spoke mutually unintelligible dialects is uncertain. 1.
Cheraws; 2. Waterees; 3. Congarees; 4. Enoes;(?)[127] 5. Sewees; 6.
Santees; 7. Wyniaws; 8. Waxsaws; 9. Esaws; 10. Toteros; 11. Keyauwees;
12. Sissispahaws; 13. Machapanga; 14. Connamox; 15. Coramines; 16.
Chowans; 17. Wyanokes; 18. Sawara.
Add to these for South Carolina:--1. The Saluda; 2. Stonoes; 3.
Edistoes; 4. Westoes; 5. Yamassees.
This indicates a new branch of research, viz.: the ethnology of the
extinct tribes; and the extent to which it may be carried in the way
of _minute_ investigation is shown by the length of the list of the
divisions or sub-divisions of the population of the Carolinas alone. It
is nearly as long for the original colony of Virginia, where the first
settlers mention amongst others--
1. _Kecoughtans._--At the mouth of James River. A colony of this people
was transplanted by Powhattan in 1608 to the banks of the Montgomery.
2. _Paspaheghes._--James River, just above the Kecoughtans.
3. _Arrohatecks._--James River, just above the Paspaheghes.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8.--_Appamatucks_, _Quiyoughcohanocks_, _Warraskoyacks_,
_Nandsamunds_, _Chesapeaks_.--All on the south-east side of James
River. On York River we find the names of Youghtamund and Mattapament;
but whether these be the names of districts, or of tribes, is uncertain.
9. _The Bocootawwonaukes._--So called by the Powhattans, situated to
the north-east of the Falls, and said to smelt copper and other metals.
10, 11, 12.--_Indians of the Rappahannock._--In the high-country at its
head-waters the Mannahoacks, the Cuttatawoman(?), the Nandtaughtacund;
these last numbering 150 men.
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.--_Indians of the Potomack._--The
Wighcocomoco with 100 fighting men; the Cekakawwon with 30; the
Onawmament with 100; the Satawomeck with 160; the Taxenent with 40; the
Potapoco with 20; the Pamacoack with 60; the Moyoones with 100; and,
lastly, Nacothtank with 80.
22, 23, 24.--_Indians of the Pawtuxunt._--The Aquintanacsuck, the
Pawtuxunt, and Mattapament. Number of fighting men about 200.
Besides the following are mentioned as surrounding the Powhattan's
territories--
1. The _Chawonocks_, bounded on the north by
2. The _Mangoangs_.
3. The _Mannohocks_ conterminous with the Mannoacks.
4. The _Acquanachuk_.
5. The _Tockwoghs_.
6. The _Nuskarawaok_.
Of all these there is the special evidence of Strachey, from Captain
Smith, that none understand each other except by interpreters; an
observation which applies to the Monacans and Susquehannas as well.
Besides these names we collect from the map the additional ones of the
(1) _Massawomecks_, and (2) _Kuskarawaoks_.
Some of these spread northward, and represented part of the population
of the Northern States (which, however, was chiefly Minsi), just as
some of the Carolina tribes reached into Florida. Still, the great
number of sub-divisions, for comparatively small areas, constitutes
one of the difficulties of American ethnology. For none of these lost
families do we possess vocabularies; so that, although from external
evidence we are sometimes able to give them an ethnological position,
the evidence is not conclusive. That conclusive evidence is necessary,
and that we can by no means at once assume any given tribe to be
Algonkin, simply because it is within the Algonkin area, is well known
to every investigator for these parts.
Again, not only have whole tribes become extinct since the settlement
of Europeans, but at the very beginning of the American historical
period, tribes were found mutually exterminating each other. The
empire of Powhattan was founded upon the annihilation of some tribes,
and the incorporation of others. The Huron Iroquois were nearly
extinguished by the Five Nations. The Mandans, within the last
decennium, after being thinned and weakened by the small-pox, were,
as a separate tribe, destroyed by the Sioux, who incorporated with
themselves those who were not killed in the attack.
The Catawbas and Waxas are said to have flattened the head.
THE CHEROKEES.
_Locality._--Valley of the Tennessee River.
_Conterminous_ with the Southern Algonkins, the Southern
Iroquois, the Catawbas, and the Choctahs.
The Cherokee is one of the few so-called savage nations which is
_increasing_, and not _de_creasing, in numbers. It is, also, the most
industrial of all the American families; the Cherokee landholder
having, in some cases, as much as five hundred acres under tillage, and
possessing slaves as well. Lastly, a native Cherokee has reduced the
language to writing--the alphabet (which will be noticed in the sequel)
being syllabic.
THE CHOCTAHS.
_Area._--Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, parts of Louisiana,
Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
_Bounded_ by the Mississippi, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic,
the Catawba, the Cherokee, and the South Algonkin areas.
_Divisions._--_a._ Choctahs _b._ Muscogulges, Muskohges, or
Creeks.
_Sub-divisions._--_a._ Of the Choctahs, the Chikkasahs. _b._ Of
the Creeks, the Hitchittee and Seminoles.
The Choctahs flatten the head.
The Choctah civilization is partially industrial, differing but little
from that of the Cherokee.
The Choctah family has, probably, been a family of _encroaching_ area,
the population which it displaced being represented by--
THE UCHÉ.
_Locality._--The Coosa River.
_Synonym._--Probably the Apalaches of De Soto.
_Language._--as known from a single vocabulary, peculiar.
Also by--
THE COOSADA.
_Conterminous_ with the Uché, and said to speak a peculiar
language, but which is not known from any vocabulary.
Also by--
THE ALIBAMONS.
_Conterminous_ with the Uché, and said to speak a peculiar
language; but which is not known from any vocabulary.
We now see that a separate group of tribes or families, aboriginal to
Florida, but now replaced by Creeks, has existed within a recent period.
We also see that these groups may have been as many as three in number;
since it by no means follows that, because the Uché, Coosadas, and
Alibamons are different from the Choctahs, they must be allied to each
other.
Again,--one or more of the extinct tribes of South Carolina may have
been an element (and a fresh one too) in the population of Florida.
That such was the case with the Yamassis is almost certain, since they
were destroyed by the Seminoles during the last century.
Hence, when we hear that the Creek confederacy was formed upon either
the extermination or incorporation of fifteen families, we have a
measure of the multiform character of the ethnology of Florida and
Alabama.
CADDOS.
_Locality._--Between the rivers Mississippi and Sabine.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary. Not closely connected with
any other. Most like the Cherokee.
The provisional character of all these groups has been noticed. This
is so great that scarcely two inquirers would give the same answer to
the question, "What is the difference between a member of (say) the
Algonkin and one of (say) the Cherokee, Choctah, or Iroquois class?"
The most extreme opinions are, perhaps, those of Gallatin, as expressed
in the Synopsis, and the present writer. According to the former, the
Algonkin, Iroquois, Sioux, Catawba, Cherokee, Choctah, and Caddo, and
Uché languages differ from one another, as the English and Turkish,
or the Greek and Lapplandic, i.e. as languages reducible to no common
class, a view which makes divisions so large as the Algonkin, and so
small as the Uché, equally equivalent to the great class denominated
Indo-European--a doctrine by no means improbable in itself, since it
differs in degree rather than in kind, from the similar juxtaposition
of large and small, simple and sub-divided classes, which we find in
Europe; where the isolated Basque and Albanian are, in the present
state of our knowledge, co-extensive in the way of classification with
the wide and varied Indo-European, Semitic, and Ugrian groups.
The present writer allows a value, equal to that expressed by the term
_Indo-European_ to three groups only, the first of which contains the
Algonkin, which is apparently more different from the others than they
are from each other; the second, the Uché, which, although it has
several miscellaneous affinities, is not at present subordinated to any
other class; and the third, the remainder, _i.e._ the Iroquois, Sioux,
Catawba, Cherokee, Choctah, and Caddo, or (probably) the Iroquois,
Sioux, and Cherokee, as primary divisions, to the last of which the
Catawba, Choctah, and Caddo are subordinate. This is the very utmost
he would do, in the way of recognising differences. He will, however,
hereafter give reasons for doing less. At present the notification of
fresh divisions of the population is continued.
THE NATCHEZ.
_Locality._--Banks of the Mississippi, in the parts about the
present city of the same name. Extinct, or incorporated. The
last remnant of the Natchez occupied a small village on the
River Talipoosa, in Alabama.
_Language._--Known through a single vocabulary. Not closely
connected with any other; but with miscellaneous affinities.
Great prominence in Indian history has been given to the Natchez from
the destruction, at their hands, of the first French colony planted
within their territory, in 1729, followed by an almost exterminating
revenge on the part of the French, in the following year.
And great prominence is no more than is required for them in Indian
ethnology.
They flattened the head.--There is evidence to this in the account of
Du Pratz; and there is evidence to it in the fact of the disinterred
skulls from the Natchez area, examined by Morton, bearing marks of
compression. This, however, is what we have already seen, to the east
of them, _i.e._ amongst the Choctahs.
They practised human sacrifices on the death of their chief.
They not only worshipped the sun, but (like the ancient Romans) kept
burning an eternal fire.
Their religion so far acted upon their social or political
constitution, as to develop a sort of _caste_-system, the principal
chief being the _Great Sun_, and his children, _suns_; whilst the
portion of the tribe not supposed to be so descended, were destitute of
civil power.
Their nobility was transmitted through the _female_.
Such is a brief notice of the customs of the Natchez, which more or
less differentiate them from the neighbouring tribes, with which (the
Chetimachas excepted) they are said to have had but little intercourse.
Competent investigators consider that more than one of these
peculiarities point to a Mexican origin, a view which is considered
to be confirmed by the Natchez traditions doing the same; these being
to the effect that their nation migrated from Mexico at two different
periods.
TAENSAS (TENSAWS?).
_Locality._--Originally conterminous with the Natchez. If the
same as the _Tensaws_, they are, at present, on the _west_ of
the Mississippi. Special evidence to their temples being of the
same kind with those of the Natchez in A. D. 1682.--Gallatin's
Synopsis, p. 115.
PASCAGOULAS.
_Locality._--Red River of Louisiana; originally on the River
Pascagoula. If the same as the Bayagoulas, there is special
evidence to their worship of the sun and fire.--Gallatin's
Synopsis, p. 114.
COLAPISSAS.
_Locality._--In 1721 near the present site of New Orleans.
Extinct or incorporated.
BILUXI.
_Present locality._--Below Natchitoches. Originally east of the
Mississippi. Probably in the same class with the two preceding.
The notion that the Taensas, Pascagoulas, Colapissas, and Biluxi,
belong to the Natchez family, is favoured by certain facts and
traversed by none. This is not the case with--
THE CHETIMACHAS.
_Conterminous._--with the Natchez, from whom they differed in
language, and (probably) in customs as well, but with whom they
were united in the way of political confederation. Extinct or
incorporated.
_Language._--Known through a single vocabulary. Not closely
connected with any other, but with miscellaneous affinities.
Of two skulls exhumed from a cemetery within the Chetimacha area, and
examined by Morton, neither gives evidence of artificial compression.
HUMAS.
_Original locality._--East of the Mississippi, above
New Orleans, "of whom a few are said to remain below
Manchac, and others to be found in the vicinity of the
Attacapas."--Gallatin, p. 115.
TUNICAS.
_Original locality._--Opposite the mouth of the Red River.
_Present locality._--Avoyelle, on the Red River.
PACANAS.
_Present locality._--West of the Mississippi.
_Original locality._--West Florida.
There is the special evidence of Dr. Sibley, the chief authority for
the Indians west of the Mississippi, that the Humas, Tunicas, Biluxas,
and Pascagoulas, each speak (or spoke) a different language.
The tribes which now follow are considered by Dr. Sibley to
be _indigenous_ to the country west of the Mississippi; those
last-mentioned having moved thither from the present states of
Mississippi, Alabama, and West Florida, within the memory of man, or at
least within the period of authentic history.
They chiefly lie to the east of the River Sabine; (_i.e._ between that
river and the Mississippi), so as to belong to the original area of
the United States, rather than to Texas, a distinction of importance;
inasmuch as, whilst the ethnology of the parts which belonged to the
United States in A. D. 1836,[128] is, comparatively speaking, well
understood, that of Texas is still fragmentary and imperfect.
As far, however, as the Sabine, Dr. Sibley is the chief first-hand
authority.
NATCHITOCHES.
_Divisions._--1. Natchitoches. 2. Yatassis.
_Numbers._--In 1836, about 150, together.
_Language._--Stated by Dr. Sibley to be different from any
other.--Gallatin, p. 116.
ADAHI.
_Conterminous_ with the Natchitoches and Yatassis.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary. With no particular, but
with miscellaneous affinities.--Gallatin's Synopsis.
_Numbers._--In 1836, about fifty.
APELUSAS.
_Numbers._--In 1836, about 40. Said by Dr. Sibley to speak a
distinct language.
_Locality._--The district so called.
ATTACAPAS.
_Numbers._--In 1836, about 50. Said to have been cannibals and
flat-heads.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary. With no special but with
miscellaneous affinities.
_Divisions._--1, Attacapas; 2, Carankuas. At least this latter
tribe, according to Dr. Sibley, speaks the same language with
the Attacapas.--Gallatin, 116.
Now if the Karanchuhuas of Texas be the Carankua Attacapas, the
extension of that family is remarkable, since the locality of the
Karanchuhuas is sea-coast about Matagorda Bay. Again,--the Cokes are a
branch (extinct or nearly so) of the Karanchuhuas.
Having reached the River Sabine, we may look both west and east.
Eastward the question lies as to the extent to which the present
list has been exhaustive--if not of individual tribes, at least of
families and groups. Now the Creeks and Choctahs have been tribes of
an _encroaching_ area; whilst as special fact, we find that in A.D.
1763, the Colooses retreated before the Creeks: first to the extremity
of Florida, and afterwards to the Havannah. Upon good grounds, then,
it has been believed that the natives of Florida, anterior to the
spread of the Creeks, were other than Creek or Choctah. Into how many
divisions this Floridian population fell, and amongst what known
families (if any) it was divided, is unascertained. It might be one.
It might be distributable amongst many--Uché, Catawba, Natchez, &c. It
might, too, be represented by a wholly extinct family. Probably it was
Uché on the south-west, and Catawba on the north. The Yamassis may have
been the latter, the Colooses the former. Still the question is wholly
open.
Westward we come to Texas. Now the imperfect and fragmentary character
of our information makes the consideration of the Texian Indians (known
by little beyond their names) most conveniently follow the enumeration
of the tribes to the north and west of them--besides which, four
unplaced families have still to be enumerated as belonging to, and
interrupting the great Algonkin and Sioux areas.
THE AHNENIN.
_Synonym._--Arrapahoes(?)--Fall Indians, from their locality.
_Locality._--The Falls of the River Saskatchewan.
_Language._--Peculiar.
ARRAPAHOES.
A tribe of this name is placed in Mr. Catlin's map, in California, on
one of the eastern feeders of the Colorado, in the latitude of Santa Fé.
The Arrapahoes, again, according to Gallatin, are a detached tribe of
the Ahnenin, who have wandered as far south as the Platte and Arkansas
Rivers.
The identity, when ascertained, of name, is _primâ facie_ of this.
Still it is not much more. On the other hand the fact is by no means
improbable. A vocabulary of the southern Arrapahoes has yet to be
collected.
RICCAREES.
_Locality._--The Missouri, about 150 miles below the Mandans.
The Riccarees have been classed in the section next following. The
scanty vocabulary, however, of the two languages, by no means justifies
us in making this affinity a very close one. On the other hand, they
are kept distinct in the present work, provisionally.
PAWNEES (PANIS).
_Locality._---Valley of River Platte, extending as far west as
its sources, and as far south as the Arkansas.
_Divisions._--_a._ The Loup Pawnees. _b._ The Republican
Pawnees.
The Towiatch[129] of Texas are also called Pawnees; probably
improperly.
* * * * *
Conterminous with the Pawnees are the Paducas. Paduca is a name given
to a division of the Indians, but imperfectly known, and concerning
which the information found in Prichard seems to be chiefly from Pike.
It is the name given, collectively, to those tribes who, on the almost
unexplored parts about the head waters of the River Platte, succeed
the Sioux on the south, and the Pawnees on the west. That they are
conterminous with this last-named family is inferred from the name;
Paduca, being no native designation, but the one given by the Pawnees.
As great extension is now given to the tribes represented by those of
the parts in question, the word will be used as a general name of a
class.
The most important fact, however, connected with the Paducas, is their
distribution, or the configuration of the area which they occupy. The
inland projection of the Gulf of Mexico so narrows the southern part
of North America, that the phenomenon of a family extending, like the
Eskimo and Athabaskans, _across_ the continent, may now be expected.
Farthermore, a family thus spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
would be of greater ethnological significance than even the similarly
extended Athabaskans and Eskimo; since from its central position
(_central_ in respect to its north and south relations) it would
disconnect the northern and southern populations.
Still more remarkable would be the distribution if the parts thus
separated geographically, were also separated by marked contrasts in
the way of language, manners, or civilization.
Now all this is the case with the great Paduca area. Spreading from
the Pacific to the Atlantic, it has to the north developments like
those of the Oregon and the valley of the Mississippi: to the south
those of Mexico, Guatimala, and Yucatan.
The physical geography of the northern part of the Paduca area is
as remarkable as is its ethnology; since it is a table-land from
which four great rivers rise, to run their course in four opposite
directions. There, within a small distance of each other, are
the sources of the Saptin, a feeder of the Columbia running in a
_north_-westernly direction, of the Colorado running _south_-west, of
the Yellow-Stone branch of the Missouri, and of the Rio del Norte of
Texas. This latter running in an elevated narrow valley, from about 41°
N. L., through the whole of New Mexico, is preeminently the river of
the Cumanch tribes; tribes of which the exact east and west direction
is not ascertained, but of which the north and south area is one of the
longest in America.
PADUCAS.
_Direction of the Paduca area._--Oblique; _i.e._ from N.W. to
S.E., or _vice versâ_.
_Longitudinal Extension._--From the Pacific to the Gulf of
Mexico; from the water-system of the River Columbia to that of
the River Sabine; from north of 45° N.L. to south of 25° S.L.
_Conterminous._--_a._ On the north with the Tototune(?),
Shasti(?), Palaiks(?), Lutuami, Molele(?) Wailatpu, Sahaptins,
Sioux (chiefly Upsarokas), Pawnees, Sioux (chiefly Osages),
Towiach, and the _non_-Paduca Indians of Texas. _b._ On the
south, with the _non_-Paduca Indians of California and Mexico.
_Divisions._--Value undetermined.--Wihinast, Bonaks, Diggers,
Utahs, Sampiches, Shoshonis, Kiaways, Kaskaias(?), Keneways(?),
Bald-heads(?), Cumanches, Navahos, Apaches, Carisos.
_Wihinast._--Called by Mr. Hales, Western Shoshonis, and unequivocally
members of that division. Locality 45° N.L. 117° W.L., on the southern
bank of the Snake or Lewis River, and conterminous with the Wailatpu.
Of the Northern Paducas, these are the nearest to the Pacific, from
which they are separated by the Lutuami, Umkwa and Saintskla. The
evidence that the Wihinast are Shoshoni is derived from a vocabulary of
their language.--_Philology of the U.S.E.E._
_Bonaks._--Classed with the Shoshonis on the strength of external
evidence only.--Between them and the Wihinast.
_Diggers._--Classed with the Shoshonis on the strength of external
evidence only.--They are a poverty-stricken tribe of the Californian
Desert, who live by _digging_ for roots.
_Utahs._--Classed with the Shoshonis, &c.--Occupants of the parts about
the Utah Lake.
_Sampiches._--Classed with, &c.--South of the Utahs. Manner of life
like that of the Diggers.
_Shoshonis._--These are the Paducas which are at once the most northern
and the most eastern of the group. They also are remarkable for
occupying both sides of the Rocky Mountains, and are bounded on the
north by the Sahaptin, and on the east by the Sioux, west by the Bonaks
and Wihinast, and south by the Proper Paducas of Pike.
_Kiaways_, _Kaskaias_, _Keneways_, _Bald-heads_.--Of these I know
little, except that they seem to fill up the area between the Shoshonis
and the--
_Cumanches._--The chief Indians of Texas.--It is the ethnological
position of the Cumanches that determines the extent of the Paduca
group. That the Kiaways, &c., are Cumanche is believed on external
evidence, and on the _a priori_ probability. That the Cumanche are
Shoshoni is believed upon external evidence by those Americans who
have had means of forming an opinion, and also upon the evidence of a
short MS. vocabulary of the Cumanche, with which the present writer was
favoured by Mr. Bollaert, compared with an equally short one of the
Shoshoni in Gallatin's Synopsis. This was in 1844;[130] since which
time, although the _data_ for the Shoshoni have greatly increased,
those of the Cumanche are as imperfect as ever. Still the author
has but little doubt as to the truth of the opinion of the Shoshoni
affinity with the Cumanche, or (changing the expression) of the common
Paduca character of the two.
_Navahos._--Considered Paduca, because they are stated to be akin to
the--
_Apaches._--who are stated to be akin to the Cumanche, and who
are widely spread both westward and southward of the area of the
Proper Cumanche, between the River Puercos and the Rio Del Norte. In
Chihuahua, and Cohuahuila (especially in the Bolson de Mapimi), we find
tribes under the names of Apaches Farones, and Apaches Mescaleros,
extending--in their incursions at least--as far as the interior of
Durango. Of the Apaches, the--
_Carisos._--are said to be a branch.
Such are the members of the great Paduca family, to which it
is safest, in the present imperfect state of our knowledge, to
give an ethnological position, subject to correction from future
investigations; which, necessary in most departments of the science,
are preeminently necessary here.
How far the prominence thus given to a section of the American
population, which is generally disposed of in a short notice, is
necessary, is to be found in its geographical relations to Mexico
and California on the one hand, and to the Indians of Oregon and the
Mississippi on the other.
The Cumanches are the chief Indians of Texas; hence, from the north
and west of that state they form an ethnological boundary. The names
(all that the author can give) of the Texian tribes not already
included in the several extensions of the Cumanche, Pawnee, Sioux,
Cherokee, Choctah, Natchez, and other smaller families, are--
COSHATTAS.
Knowing of no vocabulary of the Coshatta language, I am unable to say
what it is or is not. The tribe is a member of the Creek confederacy.
It is not indigenous to its present locality, having immigrated
from the east of the Mississippi. In a notice of the earlier Creek
confederation we find mention of _Cussetahs_, and in connection with
the Alibamons, _Coosadas_ on the River _Coosa_. The former of these
facts suggests a Creek, the latter a Uché, affinity. Still, it gives
nothing more than a suggestion.
TOWIACHS.
_Divisions._--1. Towiach; 2. Tawakenoes; 3. Towecas(?); 4.
Wacos.
_Localities._--1. Of the Towiach,--two villages, Nitehata and
Towahach, on the Red River; 2. Of the Tawakenoes,--200 miles
of Nacogdoches, south of the Red River. Said by Dr. Sibley to
speak the same language as the Towiachs; 3, 4. The Towecas and
Wacos are in villages north of Red River.
The Towiachs of Texas are sometimes called Pawnees,[131] probably
improperly. Perhaps they form a branch of the Paducas rather than a
separate substantive family; since there is the express statement of
Kennedy, that the Texian _Towacanis_, or _Tahuacanos_, are Cumanche;
and that the Wacos on the upper River Brazos, are the same.
LIPANS (SIPANS).
_Locality._--Between the River Aransas and River Grande.
_Numbers._--In 1845 about 500.
ALICHE.
_Synonym._--Eyeish.
_Locality._--Near Nacogdoches. Name only known. Enumerated in
the Mithridates.
ACCOCESAWS.
_Locality._--West of the Red River, 200 miles from Nacogdoches.
Name only known. Enumerated in the Mithridates.
NAVAOSOS(?).
Of the Navaosos, I only know that they are said to be a branch of the
Lipans. If so, and if also they are _Navahos_, we are enabled to fix
the Lipans as Paduca. They are extinct in Texas.
MAYES.
_Locality._--St. Bernard's Bay. Name only known. Enumerated in
the Mithridates.
CANCES.
_Locality._--Ditto, ditto.
TONCAHUAS.
The Toncahuas, or Tonkeways, are mentioned by Kennedy as being, like
the Lipans, the hereditary enemies of the Cumanches, and as retreating
before them from the hunting grounds of the upper country.
On the other hand, I find that Mr. Bollaert makes them an offset of the
Cumanches. In 1845 they numbered about 300 souls.
TUHUKTUKIS (TAHOOKATUKES).
The Tuhuktukis are members of the Cherokee confederacy; within, but not
considered indigenous to, Texas.
UNATAQUAS.
_Synonym._--Anadarcos.
The Unataquas are members of the Cherokee confederacy; within, but not
indigenous to, Texas.
MASCOVIE.
IAWANIS (_Ionis_).
Each of these divisions (of which the value is unascertained) are
members of the Cherokee confederacy.
WICO(?)[132]
_Locality.-_-Head waters of the upper Red River, conterminous
with the Kioways and Cumanch.
AVOYELLES.
WASHITAS.
_Original Locality._--West of the Mississippi. Extinct or
incorporated.
KETCHIES.
XARAMENES.
CAICACHES.
Extinct.
BIDIAS.
_Locality._--Middle part of Trinity River. _Numbers._--In 1845,
ten families only.
A MS. of Mr. Bollaert's, and the work of Kennedy, on Texas, have been
the chief authorities for the previous. The notes of interrogation
show the extent to which it may be amended. _Data_ for doing this are
probably more abundant in America than here.
For the whole area between the three oceans--(Arctic, Pacific, and
Atlantic)--and the break formed by the Paducas, the chief groups have
now been enumerated--perhaps exhaustively, or nearly so.
Not, however, finally. Although the details of even the wider
groups have been so numerous as to make the present notice of them
_classificational_ rather than _descriptive_, there are still a certain
series of facts which, from having a significance beyond that of their
mere occurrence, require notice.
Whatever has an important bearing upon the following two great problems
comes under this category--
1. The unity or non-unity of the American populations, one amongst
another.
2. The unity or non-unity of the American populations as compared with
those of the Old World.
1. The unity or non-unity of the American populations one amongst
another--a short history of the different opinions upon this point will
give two things at once--_a_, the history itself, and, _b_, the chief
facts by which changes in it were brought about.
The broad differences between the American Indians, as a body, when
compared with even the most anomalous of the tribes of the Old World,
were such as would naturally engender on the part of the earliest
investigators--those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries--an
opinion in favour of a general fundamental unity amongst the several
sections of them. This was the effect of the natural tendency of the
human mind to connect with each other those things which disagree
with certain others rather than the result of any definite series of
comparisons. The Brazilian and the Mohawk equally agreed in disagreeing
with the Laplander, or Negro; and this common difference was enough to
bring them within the same class.
The observed facts which first had a tendency to disturb this notion,
were, most probably, those connected with the languages. These really
differ from each other to a very remarkable extent--an extent which to
any partial investigator seems unparalleled; but an extent which the
general philologist finds to be no greater than that which occurs in
Caucasus, in the Indo-Chinese frontier, and in many parts of Africa.
The phænomena, however, which the multiplicity of mutually
unintelligible tongues spoken within limited areas exhibited, were
first made known in the case of the languages of America; and, as
new facts, they were not likely to be undervalued. On the contrary,
another natural tendency of the human mind, viz., a readiness to
exaggerate difference in cases where similarity had been expected, was
allowed full play; and not only were the really remarkable phænomena of
philological diversity overstated, but the inferences from them rather
exceeded than fell short of their legitimate compass. A measure of the
extent to which this was carried may be collected from the following
extract from Prichard,--"We owe the earliest information respecting
the languages of America to the missionaries sent from time to time
by the kings of Spain at the instigation of the Pope, with the view
of converting the native inhabitants to the Christian religion. Many
of these persons devoted immense labour to the acquisition of the
idioms of various tribes, with the intention of qualifying themselves
for the effectual performance of their duties. They represent the
number of distinct languages spoken in the New World as very great.
Abbé Gilii, who wrote a history of the Orinoco and collected specimens
of the languages spoken in different districts with which he was
acquainted, says that if a catalogue were formed of all the idioms
of the continent, they would be found to be 'non molte moltissime,'
but 'infinite, innumerabili.' Abbé Clavigero declares that he had
cognisance of thirty-five different idioms spoken by races within the
jurisdiction of Mexico. Father Kircher, a celebrated philologer of his
time, after consulting the Jesuits assembled in Rome on the occasion
of a general congregation of the order in 1676, informs us that those
missionaries who had been in the New World supposed the number of
languages, of which they had some notices in South America, to be five
hundred. But the Abbé Royo, who had made diligent inquiries about the
language of Peru, where he had dwelt, asserts that the whole people
of America spoke not less than two thousand languages. The learned
Francisco Lopez, a native of South America, who had extensive knowledge
of that country as well as of the northern continent, a great part of
which was traversed by the Jesuits, thought it no rash assertion to say
that the idioms, 'notabilmente diversi,' of the whole country were not
less than fifteen hundred."
It is difficult to say what would have been the natural growth, in the
way of opinion from these strong (and not much overstated) phænomena,
as to the apparently radical differences between the languages in
question if they had come down to the present generation of scholars in
an unmodified and unqualified form. This, however, was not the case. A
most important disturbing element was soon indicated, which I follow
Prichard in ascribing to Vater.
It was this--viz.: that different as may be the languages of America
from each other, the discrepancy _extends to words or roots only, the
general internal or grammatical structure being the same for all_.
Of course this grammatical structure must, in and of itself, be stamped
with some very remarkable characteristics. It must differ from those
of the whole world. Its verbs must be different from other verbs, its
substantives other than the substantives of Europe, its adjectives
unlike the adjectives of Asia. It must be this, or something like
this--otherwise its identity of character goes for nothing; inasmuch
as a common grammatical structure in respect to common grammatical
elements is nothing more than what occurs all the world over.
At present it is enough to say, that such either was or appeared to be
the case. "In Greenland,"[133] writes Vater, "as well as in Peru, on
the Hudson river, in Massachusetts as well as in Mexico, and as far as
the banks of the Orinoco, languages are spoken, displaying forms more
artfully distinguished and more numerous than almost any other idioms
in the world possess." "When we consider these artfully and laboriously
contrived languages, which, though existing at points separated from
each other by so many hundreds of miles, have assumed a character
not less remarkably similar among themselves than different from the
principles of all other languages, it is certainly the most natural
conclusion that these common methods of construction have their origin
from a single point; that there has been one general source from which
the culture of languages in America has been diffused, and which has
been the common centre of its diversified idioms."
"In America," says Humboldt,[133] "from the country of the Eskimo
to the banks of the Oronoco, and again, from these torrid banks
to the frozen climate of the Straits of Magellan, mother-tongues,
entirely different with regard to their roots, have, if we may use the
expression, the same physiognomy. Striking analogies of grammatical
construction are acknowledged, not only in the more perfect languages,
as that of the Incas, the Aymara, the Guarani, the Mexican, and the
Cora, but also in languages extremely rude. Idioms, the roots of which
do not resemble each other more than the roots of the Sclavonian and
Biscayan, have those resemblances of internal mechanism which are found
in the Sanscrit, the Persian, the Greek, and the German languages.
Almost everywhere in the New World we recognise a multiplicity of
forms and tenses in the verb, an industrious artifice to indicate
beforehand, either by inflection of the personal pronouns which form
the terminations of the verb, or by an intercalated suffix, the nature
and the relation of its object and its subject, and to distinguish
whether the object be animate or inanimate, of the masculine or the
feminine gender, simple or complex in number. It is on account of this
general analogy of structure; it is because American languages, which
have no words in common, the Mexican for instance, and the Quichua,
resemble each other by their organisation, and form complete contrasts
with the languages of Latin Europe, that the Indians of the missions
familiarise themselves more easily with other American idioms than with
the language of the mistress country."
Lastly, definitude was given to these and similar somewhat too
general expressions as to the _difference_ in grammatical structure
on the part of the American languages from those of the Old World,
and their likeness to each other by the analytical investigations of
Du Ponceau,[134] whose term _polysynthetic_, as descriptive of the
_characteristic and peculiar complicated_ grammar of the American
idioms from Greenland to Cape Horn, has been generally received.
We now see in a general way (and this is as much as in a work like the
present can be shown), the meaning of a statement made in a former
page,[135] viz.: that "where the American languages differ from each
other they differ in a manner to which Asia supplies no parallel,"
whilst when they "agree with each they agree in a way to which Asia
supplies no parallel"--_i. e._, whilst they agree grammatically they
differ glossarially; so exhibiting what may be called a philological
paradox.
At present we are neither doubting the reality nor measuring the amount
of this paradox; we are only asking in which of two ways it has been
interpreted. What has been the effect of the antagonism between the
philologico-grammatical and the philologico-glossarial test? Which has
told most? the difference or the likeness? Has the first determined
investigators to separate what the latter unites, or has the latter
united what the former separates?
The answer to this is--that the likeness in the grammars has been
generally considered to over-ride the difference in the vocabularies;
so that the American languages are considered to supply an argument in
favour of the unity of the American population stronger than the one
which they suggest against it.
The evidence of language, then, is in favour of the unity of all the
American populations--the Eskimo _not_ excepted.
The evidence, however, of language, forms but a fraction of the
argument; indeed, it is only one part of the great division which
contains the _moral_ elements of ethnological difference or likeness
in opposition to the _physical_. The complementary question as to the
unity or non-unity of the general social or mental development of the
aboriginal American still stands over.
What are the facts which chiefly influence opinion here?
In which direction is their influence?
The facts are of two kinds--
1. Those which disconnect the Eskimo--
2. Those which disconnect the Mexicans and Peruvians from the other
Americans--the former on the strength of an inferior, the latter on the
score of a superior civilizational development. What is their value?
This will be best ascertained when _all_ the sections of the American
population involved in the question have been noticed. At present the
Eskimo only have been dealt with; the Mexicans and Peruvians still
remaining to be described. Enough, however, has been said to show
that the question has taken a complication; since the evidence of the
_non_-philological moral and mental phænomena is _against_ the unity of
the American population--the Mexicans and Peruvians on one side, and
the Eskimo on the other being isolated.
The evidence, however, of the moral and mental phænomena (philological
and _non_-philological combined), is but one division of the argument.
The complementary question as to the unity or non-unity of the physical
conformation of the aboriginal American still stands over. What are the
facts which chiefly influence opinion here?
_Mutatis mutandis_, the statements which have just been made may _very
nearly_ be made here. The test of physical conformation is considered
to exclude the Eskimo; and the test of physical conformation is
considered to exclude, if not the Mexican, at least the Peruvian.
* * * * *
Notwithstanding the convenience of deferring the more general
discussion of the question until the Peruvians--indeed, until the
whole of the American tribes have been considered--the present
is, nevertheless, a convenient time for taking in, by means of a
retrospect, some of the more material facts connected with the social
and civilizational capacity of the Indians which have last been
described--_i.e._ the _non_-Eskimo tribes of the parts between the
Rocky Mountains and the Paducas. This is to be measured by what is
called the Indian biography of their men of mark like Thyandeeeya
(Brandt), Tecumseh, or Powhattan, by the history of the Indian wars
and confederations, and, better still, by an exponent which, because
it has a special application upon the problems last indicated, will
find a place amongst our present investigations--their architectural
archæology.
The Trustees of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge have broken
ground with the publication of a careful, elaborate, and critical
description of the ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley, the
result of original surveys and explorations, by Mr. Squier and Dr.
Davis; and it is only the contemporary publication of the Ethnology and
Philology of the United States Exploring Expedition, that makes this
the _second_ of the great contributions to ethnological science, which
have been supplied by the same country within the same year.
And first, as to the area over which these remains are spread.--West of
the Rocky Mountains,[136] the most that has hitherto been found is a
few mounds, _tumuli_, or barrows. They will be called _mounds_. North,
too, of the Great Lakes, the remains are but few, and imperfectly
described. On Lake Pepin, on Lake Travers (in 46° N.L.), we find
notices of them; so we do for the Missouri, as much as 1000 miles
above its junction with the Mississippi. Eastward, they decrease as we
approach the Atlantic; _i.e._ on the Atlantic aspects of Pennsylvania,
New York, and Virginia, they become scarcer. They become scarce, too,
on the other side of the River Sabine; not that they are wanting in
Texas, but that they either fall off in number or change in character
as we approach Mexico.
The great centre of their development is the vast valley of the
Mississippi, and amongst the valleys of its feeders--that of the Ohio
preeminently. Here the accumulation is at its _maximum_. In Ross
country alone, 100 enclosures and 500 mounds have been noticed; whilst
the whole amount for the state of Ohio has been reckoned at 10,000 of
the former, and 1,000 or 1,500 of the latter.
[Illustration]
This indicates their locality and distribution. It has also indicated
their nature and character. Oftener earthworks than buildings of
stone, they are generally (but not exclusively) either raised mounds
or embankments forming enclosures,--mounds in some cases 70 feet in
height, and 1000 in circumference at the base, and embankments (with
ditches corresponding) enclosing spaces of 300 acres. Such are some of
the greatest measurements.
In form both the mound and embankment are very varied. The enclosure
may be a square, a circle, a parallelogram, an ellipse, a polygon, or
a wholly irregular outline, following the inequalities of the soil or
the configuration of the country in which it occurs. The ditch may be
either exterior or interior to it; the entrance simple or complex.
Sometimes the square and circle are combined; so that a round inclosure
leads into a quadrangle, or _vice versâ_. Sometimes a quadrangle is
enclosed with a square.
[Illustration]
The mounds are sometimes simple cones; sometimes (an important
difference) truncated pyramids; often simple slopes; often terraced.
More remarkable, however, than any others, is "a succession of remains,
entirely singular in their forms, and presenting but slight analogy to
any others of which we have an account, in any portion of the globe.
The larger proportion of these are structures of earth, bearing the
forms of beasts, birds, reptiles, and even of men; they are frequently
of gigantic dimensions, constituting huge _basso-relievos_ upon the
face of the country. They are very numerous, and in most cases occur in
long and apparently dependent ranges. In connection with them are found
many conical mounds and occasional short lines of embankment, in rare
instances forming enclosures."[137]
The reader anticipates the object for which these works were
undertaken--the purposes of war and the purposes of religion. This
is the most general way of stating it; those for the latter purposes
falling in the divisions of sepulchral and sacrificial.
[Illustration]
Besides the usual human remains which are found in the sepulchral
mounds, works in stone, earthenware, and metal are frequent; relics
which, taken along with the vast and numerous works which contain
them, give us the elements of the ante-historical civilization of the
northern section of the North American Indians.
The prevalence of works of a certain type varies with the area. The
animal bas-reliefs are chiefly characteristic of Wisconsin, the
truncated pyramids of the southern States, the simple mound and
enclosure of Ohio, and the midland parts.
It should now be added, that where a square is attempted, it is truly
rectangular, and that the circles are generally perfect; also that, in
several cases, either the sides or the entrances accurately coincide
with the east, west, north, and south points of the compass.
Other customs, such as the Indian council of war, the Indian calumet of
peace, the stoic fortitude of the Indian warrior, the patient bearing
of the Indian squaw, their scalpings during war, their probationary
tortures during peace, preeminently interesting objects of description,
have a subordinate value in ethnology. Value, however, they have. The
list of them is a long one, and out of it may be selected numerous
characteristics of a twofold import.
1. American, or general characteristics, viz.: those which (without
being universal) are general in the new world, whilst (without being
absolutely non-existent) they are rare in the old.
2. Sectional characteristics, or those which distinguish one American
tribe from another.
Of the first series, there are two divisions, the positive and the
negative. In respect to the positively characteristic practices of
America, the use of the scalping-knife is, perhaps, the most typical.
Horrible modes of mutilation are common in Asia and Africa (in Africa
most especially); but the exact method in question I have not found
except in America. Next to this, the habit of artificially flattening
the head deserves notice. It is not, however, wholly unknown in the old
world; since in Arakan we find traces of it.
The negative characteristics are, perhaps, more important than the
positive ones--preeminent amongst these being the utter absence (with
the exception of a partial approach to it in the care bestowed by
the Peruvians upon the llama and vicugna) of the true pastoral state
throughout the whole length and breadth of America. Agriculture there
is, and hunting there is,--the former developing an approach to an
industrial development, and the latter determining a semi-nomadic
form of life--but the absence of a true pastoral state wherein horses
are used for riding, oxen for draught, and cows, ewes, or mares, for
milking, is a remarkable negative characteristic which distinguishes
the aboriginal American from the Arctic Sea to Cape Horn.
That the appreciation of _differentiæ_ of this kind is wholly incapable
of being arrived at _à priori_, but that it must be the result of a
special induction by which we historically determine how one (or more)
of certain undoubtedly allied divisions of the human species may want
characteristics which occur in the others (and _vice versâ_) is a
truth which requires a fuller recognition than it has found; since it
is far easier for a writer to show in what customs two great sections
of a population differ from one another, than to ascertain what that
discrepancy imports. Whilst one, therefore, makes it a difference
_in kind_, another considers it as one _in degree only_. The present
writer, who _has_ bestowed some pains on the special question of
_valuation_ or _appreciation_, generally speaking puts them low.
As the criticism respecting the _general_ characteristics, has its
bearing upon the relations of the American aborigines to those of the
world at large, so that of the _sectional_ ones determines our views as
to their unity or non-unity among themselves. It is the same in both
cases. It is an easy matter to say that the Athabaskans (for instance)
burn their dead to ashes, whilst the Peruvians desiccate them into
mummies; that the Nehannis treat their women with respect, whilst
servitude, on the part of the female, is the rule elsewhere; or that
(enterprise and industry being exceptional phænomena in the western
hemisphere), the Waraws are navigators, and the Haidah islanders
tradesmen; and easier still is it to discover that in populations which
live on fishing, we miss certain elements of the social state of the
hunter or agriculturist. The real difficulty is to take the exact
measure of their value. Failing the _data_ for doing this, the parallel
statement of the points of agreement becomes a duty on the part of the
ethnologist.
Now, in this respect, the phenomenon which has been noticed in
Australia, reappears in America, viz.: a habit or custom, which shall
not be found in more than one or two tribes in the neighbourhood of
each other, shall appear, as if wholly independent of mutual imitation,
at some other (perhaps some distant) part of the island. Such, in
Australia, was the case of similar family names; and such in America is
the remarkable distribution of the habits of flattening the head, and
burying on elevated platforms; to say nothing of the two parallel forms
of semicivilization in Mexico and Peru, so concordant on the whole, yet
differing in so many details, and, evidently, separate and independent
developments rather than the results of an extension of either one or
the other as the original.
The same reasons which prevent us, in the present state of our
knowledge, from drawing any inferences into the higher problems of
ethnology from those manners and customs of the American Indians,
which in the mere way of simple description give so much interest to
the writings of the adventurous traveller, save us the necessity of
exhibiting them in detail. No such economy, however, of time and paper
is allowed in respect to a question which has already been more than
once alluded to, viz.: the peculiarities of the American languages;
peculiarities which are as remarkable in respect to the points
wherein they agree, as they are in respect to the points wherein they
differ--peculiarities, however, which, remarkable as they are, may
easily be over-rated.
No preliminary is more necessary for this question than the distinction
between _a_, the American languages as considered in respect to their
roots or words, and _b_, the American languages as considered in
respect to their grammatical structure. The clear perception of this is
required on the part of the reader. On the other hand, the writer must
remember that he is composing a work not on philology in general, but
only upon such points of that science as illustrate ethnography. Hence
the peculiarities of the American languages will not be considered in
full; but all that will be done with them will consist in the selection
of those phænomena which explain what has already been called the
philological paradox of the American grammars being alike, whilst the
American vocabularies differ.
1. And first in respect to the facts which account for the difference
between the vocabularies. Here arise two questions--the determination
of the extent to which such a difference really takes place, and the
reasons for its reaching that extent whatever it is ascertained to be.
What follows, is a table representing the degree in which languages
lying within so small a geographical area as the Uché, Natchez, and
Adahi, may differ in their vocabularies.
ENGLISH. UCHÉ. NATCHEZ. ADAHI.
Man cohwita tomkuhpena haasing.
Woman wauhnehung tahmahl quaechuke.
Father chitung abishnisha kewanick.
Mother kitchunghaing kwalneshoo amanie.
Son tesunung (my) akwalnesuta tallehennie.
Daughter teyunung (my) mahnoonoo quolasinic.
Head ptseotan tomne apoo tochake.
Hair ptsasong etene calatuck.
Ear cohchipah ipok calat.
Eye cohchee oktool analca.
Nose cohtemee shamats weecoocat.
Mouth teaishhee heche wacatcholak.
Tongue cootincah itsuk tenanat.
Tooth tekeing int awat (pl.)
Hand keanthah ispeshe secut
Feet tetethah hatpeshé (sing.) nocat (sing.)
Blood wace itsh pchack.
Sky houpoung nasookta ganick.
Sun ptso wah (fire) naleen.
Moon shafah kwasip nachaoat.
Star yung tookul otat.
Day uckkah wit nestach.
Night pahto toowa arestenet.
Fire yachtah wah nang.
Water tsach koon holcut.
Rain chaāh nasnayobik ganic.
Snow stahae kowa towat.
Earth ptsah wihih caput.
River tauh wōl gawichat.
Tree yah tshoo tanaek.
Meat colahntha wintsé hosing.
Bear ptsaka tso kohp solang.
Bird psenna shankolt washang.
Fish potshoo henn aesut.
White quecah hahap testaga.
Black ishpe tsokokop hatoua.
Red tshulhuh pahkop pechasat.
He coheetha akoonikia (this here) nassicon.
One sāh witahu nancas.
Two nowāh ahwetie nass.
Three nokah nayetie colle.
Four taltlah ganooetie tacache.
Five chwanhah shpedee seppacan.
Six chtoo lahono pacanancus.
Seven latchoo ukwoh pacaness.
Eight peefah upkutepish pacalcon.
Nine 'tah'thkah wedipkatepish sickinish.
Ten 'tthklahpee ōkwah neusne.
Furthermore, had the two other conterminous languages of the Attacapas
and the Chetimachas been added, the difference between the _five_ would
have been just the same as that between the _three_, _i. e._, they
would have all differed from each other, as much as the Natchez and
Uché, the Uché and Adahi, the Adahi and Natchez differ.
This is a fair measure of the _glossarial_ separation between
contiguous languages as determined by what may be called the _simple
comparison_ (_inspection_ or _collation_) of vocabularies; and it is
by no means strange that, such being the case, writers should have
regarded it with something approaching to surprise.
I am not aware that much has been done to bring down this feeling to a
reasonable limit; a result which might easily have been brought about
by one or both of the two following processes.
_a._ The value of the mere simple comparison of vocabularies may be
tested by seeing what would be the result of placing side by side
two languages known to be undoubtedly, but also known to be not very
closely, allied. Such, for instance, might be the German and Greek,
the Latin and Russian, the English and Lithuanic, all of which are
Indo-European, and all of which, when placed in simple juxtaposition,
by no means show themselves in any very palpable manner as such. This
may be seen from the following table, which is far from being the
first which the present writer has compiled; and that with the special
view of ascertaining by induction (and not _a priori_) the value of
comparisons of the kind in question.
ENGLISH. LATIN. CAYUSE. WILLAMET.
Man homo yúant atshánggo.
Woman mulier pintkhlkaiu pummaike.
Father _pater_ píntet sima.
Mother _mater_ penín sinni.
Son filius wái tawakhai.
Daughter filia wái tshitapinna.
Head _caput_ talsh tamutkhl.
Hair crinis tkhlokomot amutkhl.
Ear _auris_ taksh pokta.
Eye _oculus_ hăkamush kwalakkh.
Nose _nasus_ pitkhloken unan.
Mouth os sumkhaksh mandi.
Tongue _lingua_ push mamtshutkhl.
Tooth _dens_ tenif púti.
Hand manus epip tlakwa.
Fingers digiti épip alakwa.
Feet _pedes_ tish puüf.
Blood sanguis tiweush méënu.
House domus nisht hammeih (--fire.)
Axe securis yengthokinsh khueshtan.
Knife culter shekt hekemistāh.
Shoes calcei taitkhlo ulumóf.
Sky cœlum adjalawaia amiank.
Sun _sol_ huewish ampiun.
Moon _luna_ katkhltóp utap.
Star _stella_ tkhlitkhlish atuininank.
Day _dies_ eweiu umpium.
Night _nox_ ftalp atitshikim.
Fire ignis tetsh hamméih.
Water aqua iskkainish mampuka.
Rain pluvia tishtkitkhlmiting ukwíï.
Snow _nix_ poi nukpeik.
Earth terra lingsh hunkhalop.
River _rivus_ lushmi mantsal.
Stone lapis ápit andi.
Tree arbor lauik huntawatkhl.
Meat caro pithuli umhók.
Dog canis náapang mantal.
Beaver castor pieka akaipi.
Bear ursa limeaksh alotufan.
Bird avis tianiyiwa pōkalfuna.
Great magnus yaúmua pul.
Cold frigidus shunga pángkafiti.
White albus tkhlaktkhláko kommóu.
Black niger shkupshkúpu maieum.
Red ruber lakaitlakaitu tshal.
I _ego_ ining tshii.
Thou _tu_ niki máha.
He ille nip kak.
One _unus_ na wáän.
Two _duo_ leplin kéën.
Three _tres_ matnin upshín.
Four _quatuor_ piping táope.
Five _quinque_ táwit húwan.
Six _sex_ nóiná taf.
Seven _septem_ nóilip pshinimua.
Eight _octo_ nōimát kēëmúa.
Nine _novem_ tanáuiaishimshin wanwaha.
Ten _decem_ ningitelp tínifia.
Again--the process may be modified by taking two languages known to be
_closely_ allied, and asking how far a _simple_ comparison of their
vocabularies exhibits that alliance on the surface, _e.g._:--
ENGLISH. BEAVER INDIAN. CHIPPEWYAN.
One it la day ittla hē.
Two onk shay day nank hay.
Three ta day ta he.
Four dini day dunk he.
Five tlat zoon e de ay sa soot la he.
Six int zud ha l'goot ha hé.
Seven ta e wayt zay tluz ud dunk he.
Eight etzud een tay l'goot dung he.
Nine kala gay ne ad ay itla ud ha.
Ten kay nay day hona.
A man taz eu dinnay you.
A woman iay quay tzay quay.
A girl id az oo ed dinna gay.
A boy taz yuz é dinnay yoo azay
Interpreter nao day ay dinnay tee ghaltay.
Trader meeoo tay ma kad ray
Moose-deer tlay tchin tay tunnehee hee.
Rein-deer may tzee ed hun.
Beaver tza tza.
Dog tlee tlee.
Rabbit kagh kagh.
Bear zus zus.
Wolf tshee o nay noo nee yay.
Fox e yay thay nag hee dthay.
I hunt na o zed naz uz ay.
Thou huntest nodzed nan ul zay.
He hunts nazin zed nal zay.
We hunt naze zedeo na il zay.
Ye hunt nazin zedeo nal zin al day.
They hunt owadié tzed na hal zay.
I kill uz éay gha zil tir.
Thou killest uz éay ghan zil hil tir.
He kills ud zeay gha tla in il tir.
We kill uz ugho-ghay uzin tla in il dir.
Ye kill uz ugho ghay uzin zee ool dir.
They kill utza ghay agho tla in il tay.
I laugh utzay rad lotsh naz-lo.
Thou laughest utlint lotsh na-id-lo.
He laughs utroz lotsh nad-lo.
We laugh utlo wod lotshay tlo a-ee-el-tee.
Ye laugh tlodzud udzee tlo gha ee-ol-tee.
They laugh tlodzud udzee tlo-gha-ee-el-tee.
I trade mata oz lay naz nee.
Thou tradest mata an eelay na el nee.
He trades kita od eenla na el nee.
We trade mata ad oz id la na-da-ell nee.
Ye trade mata a la ozayo na ool nee.
They trade ma ta a leeay la eghon a el nee.
Now there is no doubt here as to the difference appearing to be
considerable. Yet the two languages--or, rather, dialects--are mutually
intelligible.
_b._ The method of _indirect_ comparison--although by some considered
illegitimate--supplies us with another means of checking the tendency
towards over-valuing glossarial differences as tested by simple
collation; since, a language of which the isolation goes beyond a
certain point must not only be unlike any single given language,
but unlike other languages altogether. Now, taking the Adahi as
an illustration, the following table shows its _miscellaneous_ or
_general_ affinities.
_English_, man
Adahi, _haasing_
Otto, _wahsheegae_
Onondago, _etschinak_
Abenaki, _seenanbe_=_vir_
" _arenanbe_=_homo_
_English_, woman
Adahi, _quaechuke_
Muskoge, _hoktie_
Choctah, _hottokohyo_
Osage, _wako_
Sack and Fox, _kwyokih_
Ilinois, _ickoe_
Nanticoke, _acquahique_
Delaware, _okhqueh_
Algonkin, &c., _squaw_
Taculli, _chaca_
_English_, girl
Adahi, _quoâtwistuck_
Chikkasaw, _take_
Choctah, _villa tak_
Caddo, _nuttaitesseh_
Oneida, _caidazai_
Micmac, _epidek_
English, _child_
Adahi, _tallahening_
" _tallahache_=_boy_
Omahaw, _shinga shinga_
Otto, _cheechinga_
Quappa, _shetyïnka_
_English_, father
Adahi, _kewanick_
Chetimacha, _kineghie_
Chikkasaw, _unky_
Choctah, _aunkke_
_English_, mother
Adahi, _amanie_
Caddo, _ehneh_
Sioux, _enah, eehong_
Tuscarora, _ena_
Wyandot, _aneheh_
Kenay, _anna_
Eskimo, _amama_
_English_, husband
Adahi, _hasekino_
Chetimacha, _hichehase_
Winebago, _eekunah_
Taculli, _eki_
Tchuktchi, _uika_
_English_, wife
Adahi, _quochekinok_
" _quaechuke_=_woman_
Tuscarora, _ekening_=_do_
Cherokee, _ageyung_=_woman_
Chetimacha, _hichekithia_
" _hichechase_=_man_
_English_, son
Adahi, _tallehennie_
Caddo, _hininshatrseh_
Omahaw, _eeingyai_
Minetare, _eejinggai_
Winebago, _eeneek_
Oneida, _yung_
_English_, brother
Adahi, _gasing_
Salish, _asintzah_
Ottawa, _sayin_=_elder_
Ojibbeway, _osy aiema_
_English_, head
Adahi, _tochake_
Caddo, _dachunkea_=_face_
" _dokundsa_
_English_, hair
Adahai, _calatuck_
Chippewyan, _thiegah_
Kenway, _szugo_
Miami, _keelingeh_=_face_
_English_, face
Adahi, _annack_
Chetimacha, _kaneketa_
Attacapa, _iune_
Eskimo, _keniak_
_English_, ear
Adahi, _calat_
Cherokee, _gule_
Passamaquoddy, _chalksee_
_English_, nose
Adahi, _wecoocat_
Montaug, _cochoy_
Micmac, _uchichun_
_English_, beard
Adahi, _tosocat_
Attacapa, _taesh_=_hair_
Natchez, _ptsasong_=_hair_
Chetimacha, _chattie_
_English_, arm
Adahi, _walcat_
Taculli, _olâ_
Chippewyan, _law_
_English_, nails
Adahi, _sicksapasca_
Catawba, _ecksapeeah_=_hand_
Natchez, _ispeshe_=_hand_
_English_, belly
Adahi, _noeyack_
Winebago, _neehahhah_
Eskimo, _neiyuk_
_English_, leg
Adahi, _ahasuck_=_leg_
Chetimacha, _sauknuthe_=_feet_
" _saukatie_=_toes_
" _sau_=_leg_
Osage, _sagaugh_
Yancton, _hoo_
Otto, _hoo_
Pawnee, _ashoo_=_foot_
Sioux, _see, seehah_=_do._
Nottoway, _saseeke_=_do._
Dacota, _seehukasa_=_toes_
Nottoway, _seeke_=_do._
_English_, mouth
Adahi, _wacatcholak_
Chetimacha, _cha_
Attacapa, _katt_
Caddo, _dunehwatcha_
Natchez, _heche_
Mohawk, _wachsacurlunt_
Seneca, _wachsagaint_
Sack and Fox, _wektoneh_
Mohican, _otoun_
_English_, tongue
Adahi, _tenanat_
Chetimacha, _huene_
Uché, _cootincah_
Choctah, _issoonlush_
Ojibbeway, _otainani_
Ottawa, _tenanian_
_English_, hand
Adahi, _secut_
" _sicksapasca_=_nails_
Choctah, _shukba_=_his arm_
Chikkasaw, _shukbah_=_do._
Muskoge, _sakpa_=_do._
Kenay, _skona_
Attacapa, _nishagg_=_fingers_
Omahaw, _shagai_
Osage, _shagah_
Mohawk, _shake_
Yancton, _shakai_=_nails_
Otto, _shagai=do._
_English_, blood
Adahi, _pchack_
Caddo, _baaho_
Passamaquoddy, _pocagun_
Abenaki, _bagakkaan_
Mohican, _pocaghkan_
Nanticoke, _puckeuckque_
Miami, _nihpeekanueh_
_English_, red
Adahi, _pechasat_
Natchez, _pahkop_
_English_, feet
Adahi, _nocat_
Micmac, _ukkuat_
Miami, _katah_
Taculli, _oca_
Chippewyan, _cuh_
Ilinois, _nickahta_=_leg_
Delaware, _wikhaat_=_do._
Massachusetts, _muhkout_=_do._
Ojibbeway, _okat_=_do._
_English_, bone
Adahi, _wahacut_
Otto, _wahoo_
Yancton, _hoo_
Dacota, _hoohoo_
Ojibbeway, _okun_
Miami, _kaanih_
Eskimo, _heownik_
" oaeeyak
_English_, house
Adahi, _coochut_
Natchez, _hahit_
Muskoge, _chookgaw_
Choctah, _chukka_
Catawba, _sook_
Taculli, _yock_
_English_, bread
Adahi, _okhapin_
Chetimacha, _heichepat chepa_
_English_, sky
Adahi, _ganick_
Seneca, _kiunyage_
_English_, summer
Adahi, _weetsuck_
Uché, _waitee_
_English_, fire
Adahi, _nang_
Caddo, _nako_
Eskimo, _ignuck_
" _eknok_
" annak
_English_, mountain
Adahi, tolola
Taculli, chell
_English_, stone, rock
Adahi, _ekseka_
Caddo, _seeeeko_
Natchez, _ohk_
_English_, maize
Adahi, _ocasuck_
Natchez, _hokko_
_English_, day
Adahi, _nestach_
Muskoge, _nittah_
Chikkasaw, _nittuck_
Choctah, _nittok_
_English_, autumn
Adahi, _hustalneetsuck_
Choctah, _hushtolape_
Chikkasaw, _hustillomona_
" _hustola_=_winter_
_English_, bird
Adahi, _washang_
Choctah, _hushe_
Sack and Fox, _wishkamon_
Shawnoe, _wiskiluthi_
_English_, goose
Adahi, _nickkuicka_
Chetimacha, _napiche_
Ilinois, _nicak_
Ojibbeway, _nickak_
Delaware, _kaak_
Shawnoe, _neeake_
_English_, duck
Adahi, _ahuck_
Eskimo, _ewuck_
_English_, fish
Adahi, _aesut_
Cherokee, _atsatih_
_English_, tree
Adahi, _tanaek_
Dacota, _tschang_
Ilinois, _toauane_
Miami, _tauaneh_=_wood_
_English_, grass
Adahi, _hasack_
Chikkasaw, _hasook_
Choctah, _hushehuck_
Uché, _yahsuh_=_leaf_
Chikkasaw, _hishe_=_do._
_English_, deer
Adahi, _wakhine_
Uché, _wayung_
_English_, squirrel
Adahi, _enack_
Sack and Fox, _aneekwah_
Nanticoke, _nowckkey_
Abenaki, _anikesses_
Knistenaux, _annickochas_
_English_, old
Adahi, _hansnaie_
Caddo, _hunaisteteh_
Nottoway, _onahahe_
_English_, good
Adahi, _awiste_
Dacota, _haywashta_
Yancton, _washtai_
_English_, I
Adahi, _nassicon_
Cherokee, _naski_
_English_, kill
Adahi, _yoeick_
Caddo, _yokay_
Catawba, _eekway_
_English_, two
Adahi, _nass_
Algonkin, &c., _nis, ness, nees_
Now the Adahi is so far from being a singular instance of an
American language having miscellaneous affinities that there are not
half-a-dozen vocabularies for either North or South America for which I
have not similar lists.[138]
Such is the imperfect sketch of my reasons for believing that any
statement which places the glossarial differences between the
American languages, as ascertained by the simple inspection of
their vocabularies, so high as to involve the idea of a unique and
unparalleled philological phænomenon is an _over_-statement.
In thus limiting the extent of a remarkable characteristic I am not
denying its existence. That the difference, even when cut down to
its proper dimensions, is still more considerable than the usual
investigations of philologists prepare them to expect, is shown by
the necessity (which I freely admit) of resorting in America to the
indirect method of comparison, where in many (perhaps most) other parts
of the world, simple collation would suffice.
Why is this? The following facts help us to an answer--fragmentary and
partial though it be.
_The paucity of general terms._--What shall we say to a language where
a term sufficiently _general_ to denote an oak-tree is exceptional;
a language where the _white-oak_ has one _specific_ name, the
_black-oak_ another, the _red-oak_ a third, and so? Yet such is the
ease with the Choctah;[139] where, _a fortiori_, the still more
_general_ name for _tree_ is more exceptional still. This is the case
with a noun.
Verbs, however, are equally _specialized_. Where we in England talk of
_fishing_, the Eskimo has a distinct name for every _mode of fishing_;
and this is only part and parcel of the system which "designates with
a peculiar name animals _of the same species_ according to their age,
sex, or form."
This is a character, which, though illustrated from two languages, is
common to all the American ones.
Now the more specific the name the less extensive its application,
and the less extensive its application the smaller the probability
of its appearing in more languages than one. No one would expect
the word _brother_ to occur in the Gaelic (_brathair_), and in the
Latin (_frater_), if Gaels, Englishmen, and Romans, without any name
for brother in general, had merely known an _elder brother_ by one
separate single name, and a _younger one_ by another, as is really the
fact in America. What we should look for in such a case would be the
equivalents to words like _cadet_, and these might differ in languages
otherwise allied.
Names, then, for common objects are often of so specific a kind in the
American languages, that they differ in cases where, if more general,
they would agree.
_The numerals._--Another class of words, which in many languages
agree, differs in the American, viz., that of the numerals. In the
Indo-European tongues these agree even where other words differ.[140]
The converse, however, takes place with the tongues in question.
Languages, alike in other points, shall count differently. Can this be
explained? I submit the following doctrine, based upon the difference
between absolute numerals like _two_ and _three_ (words which mean two
units, and three units exclusively and irrespectively), and concrete
numerals like _brace_ and _leash_.
Between these two classes of words there is the following difference.
Absolute numerals give no choice, concrete numerals do. Out of two
tribes, wherein the intelligence of each is so little capable of
generalization as not to have evolved abstract and absolute numerals
like those of the Indo-European nations (_one_, _two_, &c.), the only
way of counting is by the adoption of some material object in which the
_number_ of its parts is a striking characteristic; in which case there
is so much room for arbitrary selection that allied languages may take
up different words. It is not to be supposed that unless the English,
Greeks, Gaels, Slavonians, and the members of the Indo-European stock
in general, had broken off from the common stem at a period subsequent
to the evolution of absolute numerals that their names for the first
ten units would be so like as they are. On the contrary, there would
most certainly have been a difference; _two_ being expressed in one
quarter by a word like _brace_, in another by such a term as _couple_,
in a third by _pair_, and so on. Now this latitude exists and bears
fruit with the American languages. One takes the name for (say) _two_
from one natural dualism, another from another--one calls it by the
name for _a pair of hands_, another by that of _a pair of feet_, a
third by that of _a pair of shoes_, &c.
Names, then, for numerals in the American languages differ as much as
the natural objects from which they may be derived, the separation from
the parent-stock of the tongues in which they occur having taken place
before the evolution of fixed absolute and abstract terms.
_The verb-substantive._--In the Indo-European languages the
verb-substantive agrees even where other words differ; the English
_be_ is the Latin _fu-_; the German _ist_ is the Greek ἐστ-ι; the
English _am_ is the Latin _sum_, and the Greek εἰμι. This induces us,
in languages where there is no such agreement, to argue in favour of a
fundamental dissimilarity. And naturally. Tongues as far apart as the
English and Sanskrit _agree_, where tongues as close to each other as
the Adahi and Chetimacha _differ_. But to expect likeness on this point
simply because we find it in Europe and Asia, is to make bricks without
straw. In most of the American languages, an idea so abstract as that
conveyed by the verb-substantive has yet to be evolved; in other
words, there is no verb-substantive at all in the generality of them:
according to some writers, it is wanting in all.
Such are some of the facts and suggestions which help to account for
the glossarial difference between the American languages, a phænomenon
which, even though occasionally overstated, is still a reality to a
certain degree. I am fully aware that, at the first view, they seem to
prove too much; _i.e._ they seem, by accounting for the differences, to
admit them; just as, in common life, the person who excuses himself for
an imputed action, admits the truth of the imputation. How far this is
the true view will be seen after the notice of some of the antagonistic
phænomena of agreement in the way of grammatical structure.
_Negative points of agreement._--_Case-endings_, properly so called,
are either rare or wanting throughout the American tongues. Possession
is expressed by the pronouns; just as if we said, _father his_, or
_pater suus_ instead of _patri-s, ather-'s_. In like manner the
pronoun expresses the objective relation; _I strike him horse_=_ferio
equu-m_.
_Signs of number_, properly so called, are wanting. The general
American equivalent for such a form as the _-s_ in _patre-s_, or
_father-s_, is a word signifying _number_, as _father many_=_father-s_.
_Signs of gender_, properly so called, are wanting. This, however, is
no more than what occurs in the English adjective.
_Signs of the degrees of comparison_ are wanting. This, however, is no
more than what occurs in the French adjective.
Notwithstanding, however, this list of negations--a list capable of
being considerably increased--the American grammar is complex; a fact
which brings us to the positive characteristics of the language in
question. These, also, are very general.
_a._ _The distinction between animate and inanimate objects._--The
plural of the name of such an object as _a star_ is of one form;
the plural of the name of such an object as _a sheep_, another. In
some languages this distinction extends farther, and applies to the
_rational_ and _irrational_ divisions of the _animate_ class.
_b._ _The incorporation of the possessive pronoun._--Certain words like
_hand_, _father_, _son_, express, all the world over, objects which are
rarely mentioned except in relation to some other object to which they
belong--_a hand_, for instance, is _mine_, _thine_, _his_, and so is _a
father_, _a son_, _a wife_, &c. In other words there is almost always
a pronoun[141] attached to them. Now in the American languages this is
almost always incorporated with the substantive; so that an American
can only talk of _my father_, _thy father_, &c., being incapable of
using the substantive in a sense sufficiently abstract to dispense with
the pronoun.
_c_. The incorporation of the objective pronoun with the verb. The
Latin word _a-ma-nt_ contains, beside the part which represents the
action, a second element representing the _agent_. An American verb
would, besides this, contain an element representing the _object_, so
that what the Latin expressed by _amant illas_ (two words) would be
denoted in most Indian tongues by a single form. Now when we remember
that the name of the object is thus reduced to an inflection, and also
that the pronoun expressive of it, varies with the sex, we see how
American tongues may be both copious in the way of grammar and complex
as well. And such, notwithstanding many facts to the contrary, is
really the case.
_Inclusive and exclusive plurals._--A word like _we_ in English, is
a much more abstract word than it appears to be at first sight. What
should we say if instead thereof we only said _I+thou_, or _I+they_?
What if _both_ these expressions were used? In such a case we should
have two plurals one _exclusive_ of the person spoken to (_I+they_),
and one _inclusive_ of him (_I+thou_). Now the phænomenon of the
_exclusive_ and _inclusive_ plural is very general throughout the
aboriginal languages of America.
Such are the chief points wherein languages differ in respect to their
lexicons, and agree in respect to their grammars.[142]
* * * * *
The Californias, New Mexico, and the provinces of Sonora, Sinaloa,
Chihuahua, Cohuahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, and the northern part
of the Anahuac, will now conduct us to the centre of the Aztek
civilization--or semi-civilization of the city of Montezuma. And here
the enumeration of the divisions and sub-divisions of the population
must be almost exclusively geographical, _i.e._ we must take the
tribes as they come in their order on the map, and not in the order
wherein they are related to each other. The reason of this lies in the
unsatisfactory character of our knowledge. Preeminently scanty, it
is unsystematic as well. What follows then is but little better than
an undigested list of references, more than one of which may refer
to the same tribes under different names, and more than one of which
may be incorrect. Still it is a contribution towards a monograph,
the necessity of which gives it place in a systematic work, which it
would not have otherwise; and lest the value of such a monograph, if
properly drawn up, be undervalued, the reader is reminded that most of
the elements of our criticism in regard to the civilizational phænomena
presented by Mexico, Guatimala and Yucatan, depend upon the facts known
concerning the Californias and the parts to the south of them.
_New California._--_For the parts between the mouths of the rivers
Clamet (or Lutuami) and Sacramiento_.--Physical geography gives us for
these parts three divisions: _a_, the coast and western boundary of the
valley of the Sacramiento; _b_, the valley of the Sacramiento itself;
_c_, the eastern watershed of the Sacramiento.
_a._ For the coast we have a notice as to the miserable condition of
the natives about Trinity Bay in N. L. 41° with the special statement
that they file their teeth. Probably they constitute an extension of
the Southern Tototunes. On the other hand, the later writers have
remarked, that the boundary between the Oregon and California is not
only a political but an ethnological one as well; in other words, that
the physical appearance of the Indians changes as soon as the frontier
is passed. Except so far as there is a difference in the physical
geography, this coincidence is unlikely.
_b._ In respect, however, to the valley of the Sacramiento, such a
difference exists. The Desert of California, like that of the Sahara,
has its _oases_, and these are the valleys of its rivers. However
narrow these may be, the conditions of physical and social development
which they afford, are always improvements upon those of the desert
table-land. Here our only data are Mr. Dana's, which consist of--
1. A vocabulary of the occupants of the river about 250 miles from its
mouth, and 60 miles south of the Shasti, whom they resemble, being
a mirthful race, with no arms but bows and arrows, and with little
intercourse with foreigners.
2, 3, 4. Four vocabularies from the occupants of the river, about
100 miles to its mouth, _i.e._ of the Puzhune, Sekumne, and Tsamak
dialects. Allied to these and like them occupants of the western bank,
are the _Yasumnes_, the Nemshaw, the Kisky, the Yale_sumnes_, the Yuk,
and the Yukal.
5. A Talatui vocabulary. Captain Suter, a settler in these parts,
informed Mr. Dana, that the Talatui and the Indians just named,
resembled each other in every thing but language, and that the
Talatui was spoken by the following bands:--The Ochek_amnes_, the
Seroush_umnes_, the Chup_umnes_, the Omutch_umnes_, the Sec_umnes_(?),
the Walag_umnes_, the Cos_umnes_, the Solol_umnes_, the Tureal_emnes_,
the Sayway_menes_, the Nevich_umnes_, the Match_emnes_, the
Sagayay_umnes_, the Muthel_emnes_, and the Lopotal_emnes_. Probably the
Chochouyem tribe of the Mithridates belongs to this quarter. Probably,
also, the Youkiousme of Mofras(?)
6. A notice of Major Sand's, in Gallatin,[143] carries us over the
eastern watershed of the Sacramiento to one of the streams of the
great Californian Desert, which have no outlet to the ocean, called
Salmon-trout River. Here the chief sustenance is of a lower order
than that of tribes on the Sacramiento. With the latter it is nearly
exclusively acorns made into a not unpalatable bread; with the former
grass-hoppers or locusts dried and pounded, mixed with the meal of
grass-seeds, and baked.
_Parts about San Francisco._--_a_. A Youkiousme(?) Paternoster of
Mofras, seems to belong to the same division with--
_b._ A vocabulary of the language of San Rafael in the United States'
Exploring Expedition. If so, and if also the position of the Youkiousme
just suggested be correct, further information will bring the languages
enumerated by Dana, to the neighbourhood of San Francisco; for which
parts we also find in Mofras--
_c._ A _Tularena_ Paternoster.
_d._ A notice of a MS. _Tularena_ grammar by Arroyo.
_e._ _f._ The Santa Inez, and Santa Barbara, Paternosters of Mofras.
_g._ _h._ The Severnow and Bodega vocabularies (apparently representing
mutually unintelligible languages) of Baer's Beiträge.
Lastly, in the Mithridates[144] we find enumerated, as inhabitants
of these parts, the Matalan, the Salsen, and the Quirotes, followed
by the statement of Lasuen, that between San Francisco and San Diego
_seventeen_ languages are spoken, which cannot be considered as
dialects of a few mother-tongues. On the other hand, however, in
respect to the three sections just mentioned, Humboldt expressly states
that, whilst they are separated as peoples (Völkerschaften), their
speech is from a single source.
_Parts about Monterey._--The vocabularies of the Mithridates, taken
from the Voyage of the Sutil and Mexicana of--
_a._ The Eslen or Ecclemachs.
_b._ The Rumsen--East of the Eslen. To which add a notice of--
_c._ The Achastlier probably a section of the Rumsen, or _vice versâ_.
_Parts about N.L. 35°._--Vocabularies of the American Exploring
Expedition for--
_a._ La Soledad.
_b._ San Miguel, about fifty miles south-east of La Soledad.
_c._ The San Antonio of Dr. Coulter. Published in the paper of Dr.
Scouler's, already quoted.
_d._ The San Luis Obispo.--_Ditto._
_e._ The Santa Clara of the Mithridates.
_For the parts between N.L. 35° and N.L. 32-1/2°._--Here, as hitherto,
our knowledge is limited to the tribes on the coast.
_a._ The Santa Barbara, of Dr. Coulter.--Journal of Geographical
Society.
_b._ _c._ The San Juan Capistrano, the same as the Netela of the United
States' Exploring Expedition.
_d._ The San Gabriel of Dr. Coulter, the same as the Kij of the United
States' Exploring Expedition.
_e._ The San Diego of Dr. Coulter.
The SS. Gabriel and Juan Capistrano, are more closely allied than any
other two of Dr. Coulter's. Besides which there seems to be between
them, a regular letter-change of the _l_ and _r_. In San Juan
Capistrano, whilst but one word ends in _r_, _maharr=five_, several
end in _l_; as _shul=star_, _ul=arrow_, _nol=chief_, _amaigomal=boy_,
_shungal=woman_; whereas, the San Gabriel has no terminations in _l_,
but many in _r_, as _touarr=arrow_, _tomearr=chief_, _tokor=woman_, &c.
ENGLISH. SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO. SAN GABRIEL.
_Moon._ mioil. muarr.
_Water._ pal. paara.
_Earth._ ekhel. ungkhur.
_Salt._ engel. ungurr.
_Hot._ khalek. oro(?).
South of San Diego, the land narrows itself into the peninsula of Old
California. Here we have--
1. _The Cochimi._--If the area of the Cochimi dialects (of which there
are four, said to differ from each other as much as the Spanish and the
French) extend as far north as N.L. 33°, the San Diego vocabulary most
probably represents one of them.
2. _The Waikuru._--called also the _Monk_[145] or _Moqui_(?), and of
which the following dialects are enumerated--
_a._ The _Cora_(?)[145]. Extinct, or nearly so.
_b._ The Uchitee, or Utshi. Extinct.
_c._ The Aripe. Probably extinct.
_d._ The Layamon of Loretto, known to us by a vocabulary.
3. The Pericu.--Probably extinct. Spoken at the southern extremity of
the island from N.L. 24°, to Cape St. Lucas.
4(?). _The Ikas._--By the unknown author of the _"Nachrichten von der
Amerikanischen Halbinsel Kalifornien_" (Mannheim, 1773), who was a
Jesuit missionary in the Peninsula, the _Ikas_, a fourth family, is
enumerated amongst the Old Californians.
5(?). The _Picos_, too, or _Ficos_, of Bägert, may possibly represent a
separate family. More probably, however, they are _Ikas_, or sections
of some better known division of the Old Californian population.
If we now take a review of what has been investigated, it is only a
coast and a peninsula. What, however, is the state of the interior of
that great tract which, politically, lies between Mexico, the United
States, and the Pacific, and of which we have the ethnological limits
in the areas of the Tototune, the Shasti, the Palaiks, the Paducas, and
lastly the Indians of Sonora--for thus far south must we go before we
get clear of the _terra incognita_ of California?
I am better prepared with suggestions as to the method of investigating
these parts than with facts concerning them.
1. In the way of physical geography it is convenient to draw a
distinction. The great interior basin (or table-land) of California is
one division; the great triangular watershed between the rivers Gila
and Colorado another.
2. In the way of new facts we must expect the phænomena of _stone_
architecture, as manifested in the ruins of ancient buildings.
3. In the way of inference we must guard against over-valuing the
import of them. They are not upon light grounds to be considered as
the measures of a civilization so different from that of the tribes
hitherto enumerated, as to suggest the machinery of either unnecessary
migrations, or unascertained degradations or annihilations of race.
The difference between the great interior basin of California, and
the valleys of the rivers Gila and Colorado, with their feeders, is
that of a desert and the oases that lie within it. The tribes that
inhabit the former are under some of the most unfavourable conditions
for sustenance in the world. Some of them, such as those to the east
and north, are known to be the more miserable members of the Paduca
class. Those of the west are probably extensions of the imperfectly
known tribes of the coast, and their analogues in the way of physical
influences are to be sought for in Australia rather than in America.
It is not surprising that the water-system of two considerable rivers
should furnish strong elements of contrast to those which exist in
what is either a table-land or a basin, according as the attention of
the investigators is struck by its elevation above the sea, or by its
depressions forming salt-lakes--Dead Seas in the way of ethnology.
Nor yet is it surprising that such contrasts should have full justice
done them in description. Ruins in stone, too, in districts where the
most we expect is the embankment or tumulus, strike even the cautious
observer with surprise; and fragments of art, however imperfect, create
wonder when they represent an industry different from what is found
amongst the existing populations of their locality. Whatever may be the
exaggeration as to particular descriptions, however, the ethnological
deduction is well summed up in the following extract. In describing
the tribes of the Gila, the Colorado, and of New Mexico, Gallatin
writes, "At the time of the conquest of Mexico, by Cortes, there was
_northwardly_, at the distance of 800 or 1,000 miles, a collection of
Indian tribes, in a state of civilization, intermediary between that of
the Mexicans and the social state of any of the other aborigines."[146]
What was the civilization? what the tribes? It is best to express
both these facts in as general a way as possible. The _Casas Grandes_
represent the first. The _Pimos_ Indians the second.
_The Casa Grande_, or _Great House_.--On the south bank of the Gila,
in the midst of a large and beautiful plain, are the ruins of what was
called by its discoverers, Fathers Garcias and Font,[147] the _Casa
Grande_, a building 445 feet in length, and 270 feet in breadth, with
three stories and a terrace; the walls being built of clay, and a wall
interrupted with towers investing the principal edifice.
[Illustration: Fig. 13.]
Later descriptions of Casas Grandes, by eye-witnesses, are those of
Lieutenant Emory and Captain Johnston. That of the latter, of one on
the River Gila, is as follows:--
"Still passing plains which had once been occupied,[148] we saw to our
left the 'Casa de Montezuma.' I rode to it, and found the remains of
the walls of four buildings, and the piles of earth showing where many
others had been. One of the buildings was still quite complete, as a
ruin; the others had all crumbled, but a few pieces of broken wall
remaining. The large casa was fifty feet by forty, and had been four
stories high; but the floors and roof had long since been burnt out.
The charred ends of the cedar joists were still in the wall. I examined
them and found they had not been cut with a steel instrument. The
joists were round sticks about two feet in diameter. There were four
entrances--north, south, east, and west,--the doors about four feet by
two; the rooms as below, and had the same arrangement in each story.
There was no sign of a fire-place in the building. The lower story was
filled with rubbish, and above it was the open sky. The walls were four
feet thick at the bottom, and had a curved inclination inwards to the
top. The house was built of a sort of white earth and pebbles, probably
containing lime, which abounded on the ground adjacent. The walls had
been smoothed outside, and plastered inside; and the surface still
remained firm, although it was evident it had been exposed to great
heat from the fire. Some of the rooms did not open to all the rest,
but had a hole a foot in diameter to look through; in other places
were smaller holes. About two hundred yards from this building was a
mound, in a circle one hundred yards around the mound. The centre was a
hollow, twenty-five yards in diameter, with two ramps or slopes going
down to its bottom. It was probably a well, now partly filled up. A
similar one was seen near Mount Dallas.
"A few yards further, in the same direction, northward, was a terrace
one hundred yards by seventy, about five feet high. Upon this was a
pyramid about eight feet high, twenty-five yards square at the top.
From this, sitting on my horse, I could overlook the vast plain lying
north-east and west, on the left bank of the Gila. The ground in
view was about fifteen miles--all of which, it would seem, had been
irrigated by the waters of the Gila. I picked up a broken crystal
of quartz in one of these piles. Leaving the casa I turned towards
the Pimos, and travelling at random over the plain (now covered
with mezquite), the piles of earth and pottery showed for miles in
every direction. I also found the remains of a zequia (a canal for
irrigation) which followed the range of houses for miles. It had been
very large."
_The Pimos._--Without at present fixing their locality, it is
sufficient for the sake of showing the character of their civilization,
to make the following extracts, directly from Mr. Squier's paper on
New Mexico and California, but indirectly, or in the way of first-hand
evidence, from Lieutenant Emory:--
"At the settlement of the Pimos, we were at once impressed with the
beauty and order of the arrangements for irrigating and draining the
land. Corn, wheat, and cotton are the crops of this peaceful and
intelligent race of people. At the time of our visit, all the crops had
been gathered in, and the stubble showed that they had been luxuriant.
The cotton had been picked and stacked for drying in the sheds. The
fields are sub-divided by ridges of earth into rectangles of about
200 feet by 100, for the convenience of irrigation. The fences are of
sticks wattled with willow and mezquite, and in this particular give
an example of economy in agriculture worthy to be followed by the
Mexicans, who never use fences at all.
"The dress of the Pimos consists of a cotton _serape_, of native
manufacture, and a breech cloth. Their hair is worn long and clubbed
up behind. They have but few cattle, and these are used in tillage.
They possess a few horses and mules, which are prized very highly.
They were found very ready to barter, which they did with entire good
faith. Capt. Johnson relates that when his party first came to the
village they asked for bread, offering to pay for the same. The bread
was furnished by the Pimos, but they would receive no return, saying,
'Bread is to eat, not to sell; take what you want.'
"'Their houses,' says Lieut. Emory, 'were dome-shaped structures of
wicker-work, about six feet high, and from twenty to sixty feet in
diameter, thatched with straw or corn-stalks. In front is usually
a large arbour, on top of which is piled the cotton in the pod for
drying. In the houses were stored water-melons, pumpkins, beans, corn,
and wheat, the three articles last named usually in large baskets;
sometimes these baskets were covered with earth and placed on the tops
of the domes. A few chickens and dogs were seen, but no other domestic
animals except horses, mules, and oxen. Their implements of husbandry
were the axe (of steel, and obtained through the Mexicans), wooden
hoes, shovels, and harrows. The soil is so easily pulverized as to make
the plough unnecessary.'
"Among their manufactures is a substance which they call _pinole_. It
is the heart of Indian corn, baked, ground up, and mixed with sugar.
When dissolved in water it is very nutritious, and affords a delicious
beverage. Their molasses, put up in large jars, hermetically sealed, is
expressed from the fruit of the pitahaya.
"In manufacturing cotton they display much skill, although their looms
are of the simplest kind. 'A woman was seated on the ground under one
of the cotton sheds. Her left leg was turned under, and the sole of her
foot upwards. Between her large toe and the next was a spindle, about
eighteen inches long, with a single fly of four or six inches. Ever
and anon, she gave it a twist in a dexterous manner, and at its end
was drawn a coarse cotton thread. This was their spinning machine. Led
on by this primitive display, I asked for their loom, pointing first
to the thread, and then to the blanket girded about the woman's loins.
A fellow stretched in the dust, sunning himself, rose up leisurely,
and untied a bundle which I had supposed to be a bow and arrows. This
little package, with four stakes in the ground, was the loom. He
stretched his cloth and commenced the process of weaving.
"They had salt among them, which they obtained from the plains.
Wherever there are 'bottoms' which have no drainage, the salt
effloresces, and is skimmed from the surface of the earth. It was
brought to us both in the crystallized form, and in the form when first
collected, mixed with earth.
"The plain upon which the Pimos village stands, extends fifteen or
twenty miles in every direction, and is very rich and fertile. The bed
of the Gila, opposite the village, is said to be dry, the whole water
being drawn off by the _zequias_ of the Pimos for irrigating their
lands; but their ditches are larger than necessary for the purpose, and
the water which is not used returns to the river, with little apparent
diminution in its volume.
"It is scarcely to be doubted, that the Pimos are the Indians described
by Father Garcias and Pedro Font, as living on the south bank of the
Gila, in the vicinity of the Casas Grandes. They lived in two villages,
called Utuicut and Sutaquisau, and are described by these explorers
to have been peaceable and industrious cultivators of the soil. When
Father Font tried to persuade them of the advantages which would
result from the establishment of Christian missions, where an Indian
alcalde would govern with strict justice, a chief answered that this
was not necessary for them. 'For,' said he, 'we do not steal, we rarely
quarrel; why should we want an alcalde?'"[149]
This is enough for a characteristic; to which it should be added
that the area of the Casas Grandes, and that of the agricultural (or
semi-agricultural) industry of the Pimos and other tribes coincide.
So little, however, are these parts known, that our evidence comes
almost exclusively from two quarters--the early Spanish explorers of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the very recent American
surveyors, the circumnavigators (to use an expression of Gallatin's) of
the Californian Desert of the last decennium.
Some of the most western of the tribes that have any (though not
all) of the elements which make the Pimos the representatives of a
provisional ethnological division, are:--
1. _The Yumas._--These are placed near the junction of the rivers Gila
and Colorado, and although at enmity with, are stated to speak the same
language as, the--
2. _Coco-maricopas._--Except that the Coco-maricopas are the taller,
that their noses are more aquiline, that their intelligence is,
perhaps, superior, and _that their language is different_, they agree
in all respects with--
3. _The Pimos._--Both the Pimos[150] and the Coco-maricopas are on the
south bank of the River Gila, bounded on the south by Apaches. The
former are considered as aboriginal to their present locality. Not so,
however, the Coco-maricopas, whose immigrations are said to be recent,
and whose language is akin to the Californian of San Diego.
ENGLISH. COCO-MARICOPAS.[151] SAN DIEGO.
_Horse_ quactish ----
_Man_ apache epatch
_Woman_ seniact seen
_Child_ comerse jacuel
_Corn_ tarichte ----
_Water_ ha-ache kha.
_Fire_ house ----
_Foot_ ametche ----
_Hand_ issalis eshall.
_Eyes_ adoche ----
_One_ sandek siha.
_Two_ haveka khahuac.
_Three_ hamoka khamoc.
_Four_ champapa tchapap.
_Five_ sarap khetlacai.
_Six_ mohok khentchapai.
_Seven_ pakek ----
_Eight_ sapok tchapap-tchapap.
_Nine_ humcamoke sinhtchahoi.
_Ten_ shahoke namat.
4. _The Moqui_.--The peculiarities of the Moqui have had full
prominence given to them; being, though not the best authenticated,
some of the first described. No living writer seems to have seen them;
whilst the evidence of Mr. Gregg, and Lieutenant Emory, which in both
cases is especially stated to be founded on the communications of
others, simply places them in the same category with the tribes which
have preceded them. By more sanguine writers, however, they have had
attributed to them white skins, long beards, towns containing from
2000 to 3000 inhabitants, public squares, parallel streets, and stone
houses.
5. _Zuni._--East of the Moqui, in numbers from 1,000 to 1,500 souls,
and about 150 miles west of the Rio del Norte. Evidence modern. "They
profess the Catholic faith, cultivate the soil, have manufactures, and
possess considerable quantities of stock."--Gregg. "The Soones build
houses in the solid rock. Many of them are Albinos, the probable origin
of the report of a race of white Indians in this quarter. They resemble
the Pimos in habits."--_Lieut. Emory, from the communication of a
Coco-maricopas Indian._
The Zuni, or Soones, bring us out of California, and into New Mexico.
The character of the civilisation is, however, the same. So are the
difficulties of the ethnography.
Conterminous with the Zuni, and amongst the most western, though not
the most northern of the New Mexican aborigines, are--
6. _The Indians of the Rio San José._---This is a feeder of the River
Puerco, itself a westernly feeder of the upper part of the Rio del
Norte. Their villages are _seven in number_--1. _Cibólleta_,[152]
2. _Moquino_,[152] 3. Poquaté, 4. Covero, 5. Laguna, 6. Rito (now
deserted), and 7. Acomo.
7. _The Indians of the parts about Abo and Quarra._--South-east of the
Indians of the San José, and on the opposite bank of the Rio del Norte,
lie the _seven_ villages of 1. Chititi, 2. Tageque, 3. Torreon, 4.
Mansana, 5. Quarra (deserted, and with ruins), 6. Abo (the same), 7.
_Quivira_.[152] The ruins, both of Quarra and Abo, are of stone, with
foundations above 100 feet in length, and in the shape of _crosses_.
One of the easiest passages across the ridge that divides the prairie
country belonging to the water-system of the Mississippi is along the
stream on which Abo is situated.
North of these, and nearer the head-waters of the Rio del Norte (or Rio
Grande) come--
8. _Indians speaking the Piro language._--These are the Taos, Picuri,
and others.
9. _Indians who speak (or spoke) the Hemez_[153] (or _Yemez_)
_languages_.--The Pecos, Cienega, and others in the highlands east of
the Rio del Norte, and between that river and the River Pecos. These
were anciently known as Tagnos, whilst their language is said to be
that of the _Hemez_.[153]
Now the names _Taos_, _Tagnos_, _Tigue_, and _Tegua_, create a
difficulty. Gallatin remarks that the last two are forms of the same
words. I think so, too. But then I also think that _all_ four words
are the same, or, if not, that _Taos_ and _Tagnos_ are, at least, so.
If this be true, the Taos are made to speak the Piro language and the
Hemez as well. Nay more, a third language distinguished from both
(the Piro and Hemez) is mentioned, viz., the Tegua, spoken by a large
portion of the others, all of whom had, originally, this general name,
though some seem to have been distinguished as _Queres_, probably the
Quivix or Quirix of Castañeda.
Be this, however, as it may, the northernmost Indians of New Mexico
bring us in contact with a section of the Indians of the Mississippi
system already mentioned, the Arrapahos, whilst the southern are in
contact with the ill-ascertained tribes of Texas. In Texas, however,
we have traces of the Casas Grandes; in the high-land between New
Mexico and Texas we have the famous _Llano Estocado_. This means a
trail or line of road marked out by stakes placed in nearly a straight
line, and at intervals to indicate its course. Under the name of the
_Cross-Timbers_, this has attracted the notice of several travellers,
and has been especially described in a paper laid before the
Geographical Society, by Mr. Catlin.
The reason why certain names have been printed in italics, a fact
to which the reader's attention was directed by notes,[153] will now be
explained. They all agree in introducing complications in the ethnology
from the fact of their occurring elsewhere. Thus--
_a._ The term _Moqui_, as a synonym to _Waikuru_, appears as the name
of the _Monki_ of the Gila.
_b._ The name _Moquino_ does the same.
_c._ The _Cora_, of California, is the name of a language in New
Galicia.
_d._ The _Yemez_ of New Mexico reappears in California. And--
_e._ Lastly, the word _Cibólleta_, the name of a village on the Rio del
Norte, is inconveniently, like the term Cibola, expressly applied by
the early Spanish writers to a country on the Rio Colorado.
This last remark suggests a new train of facts, viz., the comparison
between the early Spanish and the recent American accounts. Upon
the whole they _agree_. At any rate, the former bear evidence that
the civilization--such as it is--which is under notice, is of home
growth, rather than European in its origin, a view that _cross-shaped_
ground-plans, as well as other circumstances, might suggest.
Finally, we find by comparing one account with another either real
additions to our divisions of the populations, or else new names. Such
are, probably, amongst others--
1. _The Nijoras._--Mentioned by Sedelmayer, in 1748, as occupying the
River Azule(?) a feeder of the River Gila.
2. _The Tompiras._--Mentioned by Benavides, Superior to the Franciscan
mission in New Mexico, in a work printed in 1630, and stated to amount
to 10,000 souls, in fifteen villages. Conterminous with the Taos and--
3. _The Pecos._--On the head-waters of the river so-named, inhabitants
to the amount of 2000, of a single village. This also is on the
authority of Benavides.
4. 5. 6. _The Xumana, Lana, and Zura._--Mentioned by Prichard, whose
list is taken from Hervas rather than from the Mithridates, as being
New-Mexican languages.
We are now free to return to the south of the Gila, or rather south of
the Pimos and Coco-maricopas of its southern bank.
Due south of these come an irregularly distributed branch of the
Paducas--the Apaches.
South of these, and engendering a complication which arises from the
name, come
_The Pima._--Of these we find, in the Mithridates,[154] notice of three
dialects or languages--_a._ The Pima Proper, _b._ the Opata, _c._ the
Eudeve. Said to be allied to--
THE TARAHUMARA.
_Locality._--New Biscay, Eastern part of Sinaloa, north part of
Durango, Chihuahua as far as 30° N.L., _i.e._ the upper portion
of the Sierra Madre, or the watershed to the western feeders
of the Rio Grande and River Yaqui, and others falling into the
Gulf of California.
Casas Grandes occur in the Tarahumara area. The following descriptions,
probably applying to the same building, certainly apply to a very
remarkable one.
"This edifice is constructed on the plan of those of New Mexico,
that is, consisting of three floors, with a terrace above them, and
without any entrance to the lower floor. The doorway is in the second
story, so that a scaling ladder is necessary; and the inhabitants of
New Mexico build in this manner, in order to be less exposed to the
attacks of their enemies. No doubt the Azteks had the same motives for
raising their edifices on this plan, as every mark of a fortress is to
be observed about it, being defended on one side by a lofty mountain,
and the rest of it being defended by a wall about seven feet thick,
the foundations of which are still existing. In this fortress there
are stones as large as a mill stone to be seen: the beams of the roof
are of pine, and well-finished. In the centre of this vast fabric is a
little mount, made on purpose, by what appears, to keep guard on, and
observe the enemy. There have been some ditches found in this place,
and a variety of domestic utensils, earth pans, pots, jars, and little
looking-glasses of _itztli_ (obsidian)."
"Casas Grandes is one of the few ruins existing in Mexico, the
original owners of which are said to have come from the north, and I,
therefore, determined to examine it. Only a portion of the external
walls is standing; the building is square, and of very considerable
extent; the sides stand accurately north and south, which gives reason
to suppose that the builders were not unversed in astronomy, having
determined so precisely the cardinal points. The roof has long lain in
the area of the building, and there are several excavations said to
have been made by the Apache Indians to discover earthenware jars,
and shells. A specimen of the jars I was fortunate enough to procure,
and it is in excellent preservation. There were also good specimens
of earthen images in the Ægyptian style, which are to me at least so
perfectly uninteresting, that I was at no pains to procure any of
them. The country here, for an extent of several leagues, is covered
with the ruins of buildings capable of containing a population of at
least 20,000 or 30,000 souls. Casas Grandes is, indeed, particularly
favourable for maintaining so many inhabitants. Situated by the side
of a large river which periodically inundates a great part of the
low surrounding lands, the verdure is perpetual. There are ruins
also of aqueducts, and, in short, every indication that its former
inhabitants were men who knew how to avail themselves of the advantages
of nature, and improve them by art; but who they were and what became
of them, it is impossible to tell. On the south bank of the Rio Gila
there is another specimen of these singular ruins; and it may be
observed, that wherever these traces are found, the surrounding country
invariably possesses great fertility of soil, and abundance of wood and
water."[155]
_The Papagos_, or _Papabi-cotam_.--These speak the same language as the
Pimas, by whom they are, nevertheless, despised.
_The Tahu, Pacasca, and Acasca._--Mentioned by Castelnada, writing
about A.D. 1560, as being spoken near the Culiacan.
TEPEGUANA.
_Locality._--The coast of Sinaloa, north of the Cora area.
_Dialects_(?)--Tepeguana, Topia (Tubar), _Acaxee_(?) Xixime,
Sicuraba, Hina, and Hiumi.
The Tubar occupied the head-waters of the River Sinaloa; as such they
were conterminous with the western Tarahumaras.
The Acaxee is, probably, the Acasca of Castelnada.
MAYA(?).[156]
_Locality._--Coast between the River Sinaloa and River Yaqui.
_Language._--Spoken by the natives of the River Yaqui,
Zuaque(?), and Maya.
_Guazave._--The Guazave language is mentioned as being that of the
coast of Sinaloa. Whether it was different from the Maya dialects is
doubtful.
The _Ahome_ was a dialect of the Guazave.
ZOE(?).
HUITCOLE(?).
Probably the same as the Huite, stated by Hervas to speak a
different language from the--
CORA.
_Locality._--Southern part of Sinaloa; _i.e._ the valley of the
Culiacan.
_Dialects._--Three.
The Cora and Tarahumara have each been recognized as presenting signs
of philological affinity with the Astek of Mexico.
PIRINDA.
TARASCA.
_Localities._--Mechoacan.
TOTONACA.
_Locality._--Parts about the present city of Vera Cruz.
Although lying nearly within the same latitude as Mexico, the Totonaca
area is that of the low coast, rather than of the lofty table-land,
consequently it is part of the _Sierra Calida_, with a tropical
climate, rather than of the _Sierra Templada_ or _Fria_, where the
elevation of the Anahuac mountain-range effects a change in the
physical conditions within the same latitude, which has doubtless been
a considerable ethnological influence.
The Huasteca, spoken between the Totonaca area and the Texian frontier,
in the parts about the present town of Tampico, has yet to be noticed.
It is, however, a language whereof the geographical and ethnological
positions are at variance; its affinities of the latter kind being
with a language spoken far south of it, and separated from it by the
Totonaca area.
Is the preceding list exhaustive, _i.e._ for the parts between Mexico
Proper and California, for Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Cohuahuila,
Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, and Durango? I am not able to say. The following
may be, _a._ the names of mere dialects; _b._ of separate substantive
languages; _c._ or, finally, synonyms for some tongue already noticed.
_The Guaima._--Mentioned by Prichard--whose list of the Mexican
languages is taken from Hervas, rather than the Mithridates--as being
spoken in Sinaloa.
_Pame._--Mentioned by Prichard, &c., as being spoken in Huastecapan,
or the country of the Huasteca language. If other than the latter, it
has a place in the present part of the work. If not, it comes, more
properly, amongst the Maya tongues.
_Matlazinga._--Mentioned by Prichard as being spoken in the valley of
Toluca in Mexico.
_Cuitlateca._--Mentioned by Prichard as being spoken in the diocese of
Mexico.
_The Mokorosi._--This term is noticed because I find, in Jülg, a
"Vocabolario de la Lengua Mocorosi. Mexico, 1599."
_The Capita._--This term is noticed because _an Arte de la Lengua
Capita_ (Mexico, 1737), is mentioned in Jülg, accompanied with the
notice that it represents a language (or dialect) of the north of
Mexico.
THE OTOMI.
_Localities._--N.E. parts of Mechoacan, Head-waters of the
River Santiago.
_Dialects._--1. Otomi Proper. 2. Mazahui.
Casas Grandes occur in all the parts lately enumerated.
A great complication in the philological ethnography, is introduced by
the Otomi dialects.
In a dissertation of Don Emmanuel Naxera's,[157] the author gives
reasons for considering the Otomi to be a remarkable exception to the
general character of the American languages. It is so far from being
_polysynthetic_ that it is _monosyllabic_. A fact like this was not
likely to be underrated. The vicinity of the Otomi area to the Aztek,
the semi-Asiatic character of the Mexican civilization, the analogies
between it and the Japanese, were all circumstances likely to bring the
populations of the Chinese type into the field of comparison. Hence the
Otomi, after being in the first place disconnected with the American
family of languages, ran the chance of being _specially, and to the
exclusion of the other tongues of the New World_, connected with the
Asiatic; and, herein, with those of the Seriform tribes and nations.
With his accustomed caution, Gallatin satisfies himself with saying
what others have thought upon the matter, more especially the author of
the dissertation in question; evidently, in his own mind, admitting no
more than an _analogy_, not an _affinity_, with the Chinese.
The present writer doubts much whether even the _facts_ of the case are
yet ascertained, much less the true appreciation of their import.
1. He thinks that it has yet to be determined whether the comparative
absence (if real) of inflections has arisen from the loss of forms
previously existing, or from the nondevelopment of them _in toto_.
In the latter case only the language would be in the predicament of
the Seriform tongues, or _aptotic_; whereas in the former its parallel
would be the English, an _anaptotic_ language.
2. He thinks that the whole aspect of the question might be materially
altered by changing the manner of putting it; _i.e._ by asking not
whether the Otomi differs from the other American languages in being
monosyllabic rather than polysynthetic, but by inquiring whether the
other American tongues may not agree with the Otomi in being more
monosyllabic than is generally supposed.
This latter point is one of great importance;--the fact of two such
extreme forms of language as the _monosyllabic_ and _polysynthetic_
meeting has been shown by Schoolcraft in his remarks upon the structure
of the Algonkin languages; the _à priori_ likelihood of such a
phænomenon being very great. The details of the transition itself,
however, we see but imperfectly. That they are to be found, however, in
the comparative philology of the Seriform tongues is undoubted. Here,
even the difference, so important in the American tongues, between
the animate and inanimate plural is foreshadowed; whilst the other
so-called peculiarity of the polysynthetic tongues--the incorporation
of the pronoun expressing the object with the verb, is only a fuller
development of the principle which gives us, in the common languages
of Europe, the reflective and middle forms. In the Icelandic _kallast_
(_=kalla sig=calls himself_, originally _kalla-sc_), the incorporation
of the name of the object is as truly a part of the grammar as it is in
any American tongue whatsoever.
Again, more than one philologist has suggested that many American
agglutinations are (like such forms as _je l'aime_, if written
_jelaime_), instances of what may be called a mere printer's
polysyntheticism, _i.e._ points of spelling rather than of real
language.
Such are fragments of the criticism which breaks down two classes of
differences at once; those between the Otomi and the other languages
of America, and those between the American and non-American tongues in
general.
On the other hand, it should be added that if, irrespective of
such criticism, the Otomi language be, in its vocables, wholly
_un_-American, the evidence in favour of its philological isolation is
just as good as if, over and above the fact of its being monosyllabic,
the transition from monosyllabicism to polysyntheticism were a
philological impossibility; still more so, if its affinities are with
any other language, _e.g._ the Chinese.
Now, upon this point I have made three series of comparisons.
1. The Otomi with the Seriform languages, _en masse_.
2. The same words from another American language (the Maya) with the
same Seriform languages.
3. The Otomi and a variety of other American languages.
Of these the first two are as follows:--
(1)
_English_, man
Otomi, _nanyehe_
Kuanchua, _nan_
Canton, _nam_
Tonkin, _nam_
_English_, woman
Otomi, _nitsu_
.... _nsu_
Kuanchua, _niu_
Canton, _niu_
Tonkin, _nu_
_English_, son
Otomi, _batsi_
.... _iso_
Kuanchua, _dsu_
Canton, _dzi_
Mian, _sa_
Maplu, _possa_
Play, _aposo_
.... _naputhæ_
Passuko, _posaho_
_English_, hand
Otomi, _ye_
Siuanlo, _he_
Cochin China, _ua_=_arm_
_English_, foot
Otomi, _gua_
Pey, _ha_=_leg_
Pape, _ha, ho_=_do._
Kuanchua, _kio_
Canton, _koh_
Moitay, _kcho_
_English_, bird
Otomi, _ttzintey_
Maya, _chechetch_
Tonkin, _tcheni_
Cochin China, _tching_
_English_, sun
Otomi, _hiadi_
Canton, _yat_
_English_, moon
Otomi, _rzana_
Siuanlo, _dzan_
Teina, _son_
_English_, star
Otomi, _tze_
Tonkin, _sao_
Cochin China, _sao_
Maplu, _shia_
Play, _shâ_
.... _sha_
Passuko, _za_
Colaun, _assa_
_English_, water
Otomi, _dehe_
Tibet, _tchi_
Mian, _zhe_
Maplu, _ti_
Colaun, _tui_
_English_, stone
Otomi, _do_
Cochin China, _ta_
Tibet, _rto_
_English_, rain
Otomi, _ye_
Chuanchua, _yu_
Canton, _yu_
Colaun, _yu_
_English_, fish
Otomi, _hua_
Chuanchua, _yu_
Canton, _yu_
Tonkin, _ka_
Cochin China, _ka_
Play, _ya_
Moan, _ka_
_English_, good
Otomi, _manho_
Teilung, _wanu_
_English_, bad
Otomi, _hing_
.... _hio_
Chuanchua, _o_
Tonkin, _hu_
Play, _gyia_
_English_, great
Otomi, _nah_
.... _nde_
.... _nohoc_
Chinese, _ta, da_
Anam, _dai_
Play, _do, uddo_
Pey, _nio_
_English_, small
Otomi, _ttygi_
Passuko, _tchcka_
_English_, eat
Otomi, _tze tza_
Chinese, _shi_
Tibet, _shie_
Mian, _tsha_
Myamma, _sa_
_English_, sleep
Otomi, _aha_
Chuanchua, _wo, uo_
(2)
_English_, son
Maya, _lakpal_
.... _palal_=_children_
Myamma, _lugala_
Teilung, _lukwun_
_English_, head
Maya, _pol_, _hool_
Kalaun, _mollu_
_English_, mouth
Maya, _chi_
Chuanchua, _keu_
Canton, _hou_
Tonkin, _kau_
Cochin China, _kau_
Tibet, _ka_
_English_, hand
Maya, _cab_
Huasteca, _cubac_
Maplu, _tchoobah_=_arm_
Play, _tchoobah_=_do._
Passuko, _tchoobawh_=_do._
_English_, foot
Maya, _uoc_, _oc_
Chuanchua, _kio_
Canton, _kon_
Moitay, _cho_
_English_, sun
Maya, _kin_
Colaun, _koni_
Moan, _knua_
Teiya, _kawan_
Teilung, _kangun_
Pey, _kanguan_
_English_, moon
Maya, _u_
Chuanchua, _yue_
_English_, star
Maya, _ek_
Mean, _kie_
Myamma, _kyi_
_English_, water
Maya, _ha_
Myamma, _ya_
_English_, rain
Maya, _chauc_
Maplu, _tchatchung_
Passuko, _tatchu_
_English_, small
Maya, _mehen_
Tonkin, _mon_
_English_, eat
Maya, _hanal_
Tonkin, _an_
Play, _ang_
_English_, bird
Maya, _chechitch_
Tonkin, _tchim_
_English_, fish
Maya, _ca_
Tonkin, _ka_
_English_, great
Maya, _noh_
Pey, _nio_
The third, so far from isolating the Otomi from the other languages
of America, exhibits more than an average number of miscellaneous
affinities, especially with the languages of California.
As to the Chinese and the other Seriform tongues, the question is not
_how like they are to the Otomi_, but _how much more like they are
to the Otomi than to the Maya_. And here the difference in favour of
the Otomi is even less than we expect; since (merely from the doctrine
of chances) two (or more) languages with short words will have a
greater number of similarities (real or accidental) than two (or more)
dissyllabic or polysyllabic languages.
So far, then, from isolating the Otomi as much as Naxera has done, I am
disinclined to adopt, to their full extent, the far more moderate views
of Molina and Gallatin; admitting at the same time that, of all the
tongues of the New World, its structure, from being either anaptotic or
imperfectly agglutinate, is the most remarkable.
The rude and imperfect civilization of the Otomis has often been
contrasted with the better developed character of the--
MEXICANS (ASTEK).
Strictly speaking, this is a geographical rather than an ethnological
term; perhaps it is more political than geographical. It means, as
nearly as can be, the kingdom of Montezuma, as it was found by the
Spanish conquerors of the fifteenth century. This seems, historically
speaking, to have consisted of several states, more or less
incorporated with that of the sovereign city; incorporated either in
the way of confederation, as was the case with Tescuco, or as subject
nations like the more distant dependencies. In the consolidation of
the Mexican empire, I see nothing that differs _in kind_, from the
confederacies of the Indians of the Algonkin, Sioux, and Cherokee
families, although _in degree_, it had attained a higher development
than has yet appeared; and I think that whoever will take the trouble
to compare Strachey's[158] account of Virginia, where the empire of
Powhattan had, at the time of the colonization, attained its height,
with Prescott's Mexico, will find reason for breaking down that
over-broad line of demarcation which is so frequently drawn between the
Mexicans and the other Americans.
I think, too, that the social peculiarities of the Mexicans of
Montezuma are not more remarkable than the external conditions of
climate, soil, and land-and-sea relations; for it must be remembered
that, as determining influences, towards the state in which they were
found by Cortez, we have--
1. The contiguity of two oceans.
2. The range of temperature arising from the differences of altitude
produced by the existence of great elevation, combined with an
intertropical latitude, and the consequent variety of products.
3. The absence of the conditions of a hunter-state; the range of the
buffalo not extending so far as the Anahuac.
4. The abundance of minerals.
Surely these are sufficient predisposing causes for a very considerable
amount of difference in the social and civilizational development.
South of Mexico we have several languages of a small and one of a large
area. The former are as follows:--
_Mixteca_--Spoken in Oaxaca.
_Zapoteca_--Ditto.
_Popoluca_--Ditto.
_Chiapa_--Spoken in Chiapa.
_Zoques_--Spoken on the sea-coast, about Tobasco.
_Tzendales_--Spoken from Comitan to Palenque.
_Lacandona_--Chiapa.
_Chonchona_--Ditto.
_Mazateca_--Ditto.
_The Mam_--Guatemala, in the province of Vera Paz.
The _Pochonchi_--_Chorti_--_Quiche_--Spoken in Guatemala. Allied
languages, or dialects.--Gallatin.
_Kachiquel_--Ibid.
_Sinca_--Guatemala, on the Pacific, from Escuintla to the Rio des
Esclavos.
_Utlateca_--Guatemala.
_Subtugil_--Ditto.
_Chorotega_--Nicaragua.
_Chontal_--Ditto.
_Orotina_--Ditto.
Respecting the locality of the last three languages there is, _at
least_, a tradition that, over and above the original population,
there was also, at the time of the conquest, a colony of _Mexicans_ in
Nicaragua. I say, _at least a tradition_, because it is stated that the
so-called Pipil Indians, on the coast of the Pacific, speak a Mexican
dialect, and also that the remains of Mexican art in Nicaragua are both
numerous and definite; in which case the evidence is improved: still it
is by no means conclusive.
Such are the minor groups, all of uncertain value, for central
America, _i.e._ for the parts between Mexico and the Isthmus, with two
exceptions.
THE MAYA.
_Divisions._--1. The Maya Proper. 2. The Huasteca.
_Localities._--1. The Maya Proper in Yucatan. 2. The Huasteca,
in the parts about Tampico.
_Area._--Discontinuous.
The discontinuity of the Maya area is effected by the interposition of
Totonaca and other languages; the discovery of the community of origin
between populations so different as those of Yucatan and country round
Tampico being one of the valuable notices of the Mithridates.
The value of the Maya-Huasteca (or Huasteca-Maya) group, is wholly
undetermined. Probably it should extend to the inclusion of the
Poconchi and several other tongues of Guatemala.
* * * * *
The further we approach the narrowest part of the Isthmus the
more fragmentary is our ethnology. It loses, however, none of its
importance, since it is by the way of the Isthmus that we find the most
direct geographical transition from North to South America.
And here the division must be made between--_a_, those Indians who seem
to have partaken of a civilization of the Mexican type,--and _b_, those
who do not.
The former alternative was probably the case (more or less) with all
the divisions already enumerated; the latter with the Indians of
Panama, the islands, and the Moskito Coast.
The following is a notice of a tribe on the sea-coast, at present
either extinct or incorporated with some other, but well known to the
old buccaneers. [159] "The next day we got ashore in one of them [the
islands] in hopes of getting some corn, but met with none but a few
poor wretches, who had been stripped of all by the privateers, who
also frequently made them their slaves; for they are very fit for that
purpose, being of a low stature but strong limbed; for the rest they
are of a dark olive colour, with round faces, black hair, and small
eyes of the same colour: with eyebrows hanging over their eyes, low
foreheads, short, thick, and flat noses, full lips, and short chins.
They have a peculiar fashion of cutting holes in the lips of the boys
whilst yet infants, which they keep open with small pegs till they
are fourteen or fifteen years of age; then they put in them something
resembling a long beard made of tortoise-shell. Both boys and girls
have holes bored in their ears, which by degrees they stretch to the
bigness of a crown-piece, and wear in them round and smooth pieces of
wood, so that their ears seem wood, unless only in a small skin. As
they have very little feet (notwithstanding they are bare-footed), so
the females take a great pride in their legs, which they tie very hard
from the ankle to the beginning of the calf with a piece of calico,
which renders their calfs very round and beautiful. They have no other
clothing but a clout about their middle."
The nearest remaining representatives of the aborigines thus described
are the--
MOSKITO INDIANS.
_Locality._--The Moskito Coast.
_Language._--Peculiar.
Like the Indians of the original territory of the United States and
Canada, the Europeans with which the Moskito Indians come in contact
are of English, rather than Spanish, extraction; besides which, there
is a considerable intermixture of Negro blood.
The language, for which we have a fair amount of data, has fewer
miscellaneous affinities than any hitherto examined. Still, this is
nothing more than what its geographical position leads us to expect.
The nearest languages of which we have specimens are those of Guatemala
on one side, and the northern part of South America on the other. For
the contiguous areas of Honduras, San Salvador, and Costa Rica we have
no specimens.
The Isthmus of Panama leads us from North to South America. Here the
first tribe of importance which presents itself is--
THE MUYSCA.
_Locality._--New Granada. Extinct.
_Language._--Peculiar; known, however, only from a few words
collected by the Abbate Gilii.--See _Mithridates_.
_Civilization._--The same (or nearly the same) with that of
Mexico and Peru.
1. Besides the Muysca, however, there were, most probably, two or three
mutually unintelligible languages spoken in the Isthmus of Darien, and
the following ten (all now extinct), in New Grenada. 1. The Agnala; 2.
the Caivana; 3. the Chimeca; 4. the Kurumene; 5. the Gorrane; 6. the
Guaraepoana; 7. the Guarica; 8. the Natagaima; 9. the Cueca; and 10.
the Chiaczake.--_Mithridates_.
We now follow the line of the Andes, omitting for the present the
consideration of their eastern declivity, and limiting ourselves to the
mountain-range itself and the narrow strip between it and the Pacific.
This brings us, probably, through the districts of the 1. Masteles;
2. Chorri; 3, Pichilumbuy; and, 4. Quillacingæ, to the country of the
ancient
QUIXOS (QUITOS).
_Locality._--Quito.
At the present moment, and even in the sixteenth century, the language
of Quito was the Quichua. It is considered, however, although I have
not investigated the evidence, that the aboriginal languages of
the country, spoken before the conquest of the Incas, belonged to
a different class of tongues; and that the Quiteno dialect of the
Peruvian is a recent introduction.
Be this as it may, the population which now comes next is--
THE QUICHUA.
_Locality._--From the Equator to 28° south latitude
_discontinuously_; the Quichua area being interrupted about 15°
south latitude by the Aymaras. Limited almost exclusively to
the plateau of the Andes and to its _western_ slope.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 934,707 pure, 458,572 mixed.
THE AYMARA.
_Locality._--From 15° to 20° south latitude. The parts around
the Lake Titicaca, and the ruins of Tiaguanaco. Conterminous
with and (almost?) surrounded by the Quichuas.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 372,397 pure, 188,237 mixed.
YUNGA.
_Locality._--The valley of Cincha, in the diocese of Truxillo.
Extinct.
_Synonym._(?)--Mochika. Perhaps the name for a separate dialect.
PUQUINA.
_Locality._--The diocese of La Paz. Extinct.
Probably these, with the Quixos, may represent the earlier population
of the Andes anterior to the spread of the Peruvian Incas of the
Quichua stock.
THE ATACAMAS.
_Locality._--The Provinces of Taracapa and Atacama.
Conterminous with the Aymaras, Quichuas; and Moluché.
_Synonyms._--Olipes, Llipi.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 7348 pure, 2170 mixed.
THE CHANGOS.
_Locality._--The Coast of Peru, from 22° to 24° south latitude,
conterminous with the Moluché.
_Numbers_, according to D'Orbigny, 1000.
Thus far we have followed the line of the Western Andes in the
direction from north to south, along a tract forming the narrow line
between the Cordilleras and the Pacific, a tract that, politically
and historically speaking, nearly coincides with the empire of the
_Peruvian Incas_, as it was found by the Spanish conquerors under
Pizarro. For the _history_ of this remarkable empire the reader is
referred to Prescott's History of Peru; the criticism that applies the
facts therein found, being, in a great degree, the criticism which
applies to similar civilization of Mexico.
In Chili we find the north-western branch of one of the great and
definite divisions of the South American population, which may be
called Chileno, Patagonian, Fuegian, Chileno-Patagonian, &c. as seems
most convenient; the main fact requisite to be remembered being, that
it comprises the population of three areas. 1. Chili; 2. Patagonia; 3.
Tierra del Fuego.
Although for this group of Indians we have no general and collective
names, the subordinate branches are conveniently denominated,
_Moluché_, _Puelché_, _Huilliché_.
MOLUCHÉ.
_Locality._--(roughly speaking)--Chili. The word
_Molu_=_Western,_. _Molu-che_=_Western People_.
_Synonym._--Chileno, Araucanian.
PUELCHÉ.
_Locality._--(roughly speaking)--south of the Chaco, and east
of the Andes, as far as the Atlantic. The parts east of Chili.
The word _Puel_=_Eastern_. _Puel-che_=_Eastern People_.
_Synonym._--Pampa Indians.
HUILLICHÉ.
_Locality._--Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
_Divisions._--_a._ Patagonians. _b._ Fuegians.
_Extracts respecting the physical appearance of the
Patagonians_:--
1. "One of them, who afterwards appeared to be chief, came
towards me; he was of gigantic stature, and seemed to realise
the tales of monsters in a human shape; he had the skin of some
wild beast thrown over his shoulders, as a Scotch Highlander
wears his plaid, and was painted so as to make the most hideous
appearance I ever beheld. Round one eye was a large circle of
white; a circle of black surrounded the other, and the rest
of his body was streaked with paint of different colours. I
did not measure him; but if I may judge of his height by the
proportion of his stature to my own, it could not be less than
seven feet."--_Byron_.
2. "They have a fine shape; among those whom we saw not one
was below five feet ten inches and a quarter (English), nor
above six feet two inches and a half in height. Their gigantic
appearance arises from their prodigiously broad shoulders, the
size of their heads, and the thickness of all their limbs. They
are robust and well fed; their nerves are braced, and their
muscles strong, and sufficiently hard, &c."--_Bougainville_.
3. "The medium height of the males of these southern tribes
is about five feet eleven inches. The women are not so tall,
but are in proportion broader and stouter: they are generally
plain-featured. The head is long, broad and flat, and the
forehead low, with the hair growing within an inch of the
eyebrows, which are bare; the eyes are often placed obliquely,
and have but little expression; the nose is generally rather
flat and turned up, but we noticed several with that feature
straight and sometimes aquiline; the mouth is wide, with
prominent lips, and the chin is rather large; the jaws are
broad, and give the face a square appearance; the neck is short
and thick; the shoulders are broad; the chest is broad and very
full; but the arm, particularly the forearm, is small, as are
also the foot and leg; the body long, large, and fat, but not
corpulent. Such was the appearance of those who came under my
observation."--_King_.
The previous extracts have been given because the great size of the
Patagonians has been noticed by most of the voyagers who have described
them--in some cases with considerable exaggeration. Illegitimate
inferences, moreover, have been drawn from their supposed contrast to
the Fuegians. These last, more undersized than over-sized, and ill-fed
fish-eaters, like the Eskimo and Hottentot, have been separated too
far from the populations nearest to them, and have been considered, by
even good writers, as sufficiently distinct from the Indians of the
Continent to form a separate division. Nay more, so much has been made
of their sallow complexion that, in some cases, the Fuegian has been
placed among the _Black_ sections of the human species, _i.e._ amongst
the Kelænonesians.
Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether the extreme sections of the group
in question exhibit greater contrasts in physical appearance than those
which the difference of their physical and social conditions would
lead us to expect; since the mountain range of the southern Andes,
the nomadic extension of the Pampas, and the insular localities of
the Chonos Archipelago, and the Tierra del Fuego, account for full
as much difference as we find--to say nothing of the difference of
latitude between Cape Horn and the Peruvian frontier of Chili, in
the way of climate. Add to this the opposition between the vicinity
of a semi-civilized kingdom like that of Peru on the north, and
the absolute isolation of the Tierra del Fuego on the south, as
influences which seriously affect the phænomena of the social and
civilizational developments. That the typical features of the so-called
copper-coloured Indian of America become lost as we approach Cape Horn,
is a fact of more importance than the height or size of individual
families. The Fuegian is Eskimo in appearance, and the Patagonian
approaches the Fuegian.
In Chili we find special notice of a preeminently light-haired and
blue-eyed population--the Boroanos.[160]
[Illustration: Fig. 14.]
Having now reached the _Ultima Thule_ of the New World we may look back
and ask how far the general phænomena and problems connected with the
ethnology of South, resemble those of North America: they do so in many
respects. There are the same physical divisions of elevated table-land,
of open pasture, of steppe, and of forest; the same low levels along
similar large rivers, and the same swamps on the sea-shore. And so it
is with the distribution of tribes and races. Large areas, like those
of the Algonkins and Iroquois, are conterminous with groups of unfixed
and almost isolated languages: so that what we have found in Mexico, as
opposed to Canada, we shall find in Central South America, as opposed
to Brazil and Peru.
Still there are important points of difference. South America, like
Africa, lies not only between the tropics, but under the equator. Like
Africa, too, only farther than Africa, it extends towards the Antarctic
Circle; so that hence we may call the natives of Tierra del Fuego
either the Eskimos of the south, or the Hottentots of the west.
In respect to the abundance and value of its ethnological materials,
South America, especially for its interior, is one of the dark spots
of the world--it is better known than Central Africa, and better known
than New Guinea: and saying this we have said all.
And here it may be well to indicate an ethnological _method_. In
Tierra del Fuego we have one of the six extreme points of population;
_i.e._ points from which no population has been supposed to have been
determined elsewhere; Easter Island, Van Dieman's Land, the Cape of
Good Hope, Lapland, and Ireland, being the other five. In working the
problem as to the original centre of population--the birthplace of the
human kind--it is these six points with which we should begin, and so
seek their point of convergence. This is of two kinds, _geographical_
and _philological_. The first is that part of the earth's surface
where the distance from each is equal (or where it nearest approaches
equality); the second, the locality of that language which has, at
one and the same time, the greatest likeness to the Teapi,[161] the
Tasmanian, the Fuegian, the Hottentot, the Lapponic, and the Gaelic.
Of course such centres would be conventional, and liable to the
influence of disturbing causes. Still they involve a principle that
is both safe and scientific; and, if the land were one vast circular
island, in the midst of the ocean, and the changes that affect language
had taken place at a uniform rate throughout the domain of speech, such
a state of things would supply a _conventional ethnological_ centre.
Such a conventional centre would be the mean point between the
_geographical_ and the _philological_ ones.
* * * * *
That the Chileno, Patagonian, and Fuegian populations are sections of
a single stock I have no doubt. Whether, however, this stock may not
contain other branches is uncertain.
* * * * *
There are three frontiers to the northern part of the area in
question--the western, the central, and the eastern. The western has
been already noticed: it is the country of the Changos, Atacamas, and
other portions of the old Peruvian empire. Nevertheless it is probable,
that the population may be Chileno, and still more likely that it may
be transitional to the Peruvian and Moluché groups.
The central division has yet to be studied in detail; since we have yet
to learn at what part of Central South America the Pampa population
changes for that of the Gran Chaco,[162] and of what nature this
change is. Nay, the Southern Indians of the Gran Chaco may, like the
southern members of the Peruvian empire, be either Patagonian (or
Pampa-Patagonian) or transitional.
The eastern portion of the division in question is the parts about the
mouth of the River Plata.
The population, which I suppose to have been conterminous with the
Patagonians (_i.e._ the Puelché portion of them) is that of--
THE CHARRUAS.
Of the language I have seen no vocabulary. In physical appearance the
Charruas approach the Patagonians; and equally akin are they to the
fiercer tribes of that division in their habits and characters.
The Charrua population--for we are now within the territory of the
Spanish Republic, and in areas where the displacement of the aborigines
has been the consequence of contact with the European--is known only in
fragments; whole sections of it being, at the present moment, either
extinct or incorporated. The original divisions, however, were as
follows:--
1. The Charruas Proper; 2. the Chayos; 3. the Chanás; 4. the Guenoas;
5. the Martedanes; 6. the Niboanes; 7. the Yaros; 8. the Minoanes;
9. the Caaiguas; 10. the Bagaez; 11. the Tapés. Of these the Chanás
and Niboanes inhabited, at the arrival of the Spaniards, the islands
of the Uruguay, at the junction of the Rio Negro. The Guenoas and
Martedanes connected themselves with the Portuguese of the Colonia del
Sacramiento, and were at enmity with the Yaros and Minoanes. The Chayos
are the first that disappear from history, probably from having become
amalgamated with the Yaros.
The Charruas proper, from the time of Solis to the year 1831, have
lived the life of a nation of warriors, with their hand against every
man, and every man's hand against them. Uninterrupted as was their
hostility to the Spaniards, it was equally so against the other
aborigines; so much so, that in no case do we find a common alliance
against the common enemy to have existed;--on the contrary, the
war against the Mamaluco, the Tupi, and the Arachanes, were wars of
extermination. And so was the war against the Spaniards; except that
the Spaniards were the exterminators. In 1831 the President of Uraguay,
Rivera, destroyed the Charruas root and branch; so that at the present
moment a few enslaved individuals are the only remains of that once
terrible nation.
From eighty to one hundred families lived under the direction of a
Tubicchó, or semi-hereditary chief, and when danger threatened, the
Tubicchós met and chose amongst themselves a leader. Whoever is chosen
commands the obedience of the rest--the election is half counsel, half
feast. Chicha is drunk; wounds are exhibited; exploits are recounted:
the most worthy is selected from his peers.
After this fires are lighted as beacons, and the warriors of tribes
meet from all parts. When they can make the attack, they do it by
night, and at the full-moon. How they treat their captives is a
matter upon which there is a conflict in the evidence. Ruy Diaz de
Guzman denies that they are cruel to their prisoners. I have no wish
to disturb Ruy Diaz de Guzman's evidence. Others, however, have
controverted it. Against the fact of their being cannibals there is
the same, and (perhaps) better testimony. Where they taste human flesh
at all, it is done in the spirit of vengeance, and not to satisfy
appetite. They tasted of the body of Solis; and they had good reason to
hate him.
Their chief ornaments are the tattoo and the feathers of the ostrich;
and the favourite colour for their incisions is blue.
Now I believe that this savage semi-heroic character of the Charruas
is a fair sample of the wilder and more unsubdued Indians of Chili,
Patagonia, and the Gran Chaco; also, that it is equally true of the
Araucanians as described by Ercilla, and the Pampa Indians of Sir E.
Head. And what is this but a repetition of the same features which we
see in the corresponding part of North America? Here, when we have got
beyond the tropics, we find the Algonkin, Sioux, and Iroquois warriors,
conterminous with, and (as the present writer believes) passing into
the feebler Eskimo--these latter bearing the same relation to their
southern neighbours as the Fuegians do to the northern ones.
Like the Paduca area for North America, the Pampas and the parts to the
north of them are preeminently the country of the horse--so that the
ethnology of Mongolia and Tartary partially reappears here.
* * * * *
In looking back to consider what parts of South America have been
described, we find that the long but narrow strip of the western coast
bounded by the Andes and the Pacific, has been nearly (perhaps wholly)
distributed between three stocks--the Muysca, the Peruvian, and the
Chileno-Patagonian. I say _perhaps wholly_, because the Atacamas and
Changos are probably referable to one of these two latter divisions.
Again--it is likely that future researches may throw these three great
groups into one; at least such is the inference to be drawn from a
comparison of the Patagonian and Peruvian languages.
To a certain extent, the southern part of the peninsula is disposed
of along with the western; since it is safe to say that as far as 30°
south latitude (perhaps farther) the Chileno-Patagonian stock, like
the Eskimo and Athabaskan, stretches _across_ the breadth as well as
_along_ the side of the continent.
The parts still standing over--two-thirds or more of the whole
peninsula--are those bounded by the ocean, the Andes, and 30° south
latitude.
Premising that of these three boundaries the last is artificial and
conventional, whilst the two former are natural, I shall take first in
order those areas which, being geographical or political rather than
ethnological, exhibit the phænomenon, so often met with already, of
numerous groups within narrow compasses. This being done, the remaining
part of the continent will exhibit the contrast of the wide extension
of single families.
* * * * *
For the miscellaneous and imperfectly described sections of the South
American population about to be noticed, the chain of the Andes,
in its extension from Panama to Cape Horn, and in its remarkable
parallelism to the coast of the Pacific, taken along with the three
great water-systems of the Orinoko, the Amazons, and the La Plata, is
the great geographical point of prominence.
Herefrom, about 20° south latitude, a western extension of mountains
and highlands separates the water-system of the Amazons on the North
from that of the Rio de la Plata on the South.
Distinguishing, then--
1. The Indians of the water-system of the Amazons, from--
2. The Indians of the water-system of the Plata, and both from--
3. The Indians of the water-system of the Orinoco--the first section of
the first division consists of the--
I.
INDIANS OF THE MISSIONS.
The distinction here is so far from being ethnological that it
is scarcely geographical. Political, however, as it is, it is
convenient--since the term itself indicates what we shall find, viz., a
more or less imperfect Christianity throughout.
A.
_Indians of the Mission of Moxos._
MOXOS.
_Localities._--_a._ Missions of Carmen de Moxos, Concepcion de
Moxos, San Joaquin de Moxos.
_b._ Loreto de Moxos, Trinidad, San Xavier, San Ignacio.
_c._ To the east of the Missions of Concepcion and Carmen, near
the river Guaporé.
_Divisions._--_a._ Muchojéonès.
_b._ Baurès.
_c._ Moxos Proper.
_Numbers._--
Muchojéonès of Carmen 230
Christian Baurès 4,178
Pagan Baurès 1,000
Moxos 8,212
------
Total 13,620
ITONAMA.
_Locality._--North-east of the province of Moxos. Missions of
Magdalena and San Ramon.
_Name._--Native.
_Numbers_ in 1830.--At Magdalena, 2,831, at San Ramon, 1,984.
Total, 4,815. All Christian.
_Conterminous_ with the _Iténès_, _Baurès_, _Canichanas_,
_Moxas_.
CANICHANA.
_Present locality._--The Mission of San Pedro.
_Name._--Native.
_Numbers_ in 1830, 1939. All Christian.
MOVIMA.
_Present locality._--Mission of Santa Anna.
_Original locality._--Banks of the Yacuma.
_Conterminous_ with the Moxos, Canichanas, and Cayuvavas.
_Name._--Native.
_Numbers_ in 1830, 1238. All Christian.
_Language._--Between the Movima and the Moxas the language is
the only important distinction.
CAYUVAVA.
_Present locality._--Mission of Exaltacion, at the northern
part of the river Mamoré. Originally conterminous with the
Movimas, Iténès, the Maropas, and Pacaguaras.
_Numbers_ in 1831, 2073. All Christian.
_Language._--Between the Cayuvava and the Moxas the language is
the only important difference.
ITÈ (ITÈNÉS).
_Locality._--The junction of the Iténès and Mamoré.
_Name._--Native.
_Probable number._--From 1,000 to 1,200.
PACAGUARA.
_Locality._--The junction of the Beni and Mamoré.
SAPIBOCONI.
_Locality._--The province of Moxos.
The Sapiboconi are mentioned by Hervas, and, from him, in the
Mithridates. They are not, however, mentioned by D'Orbigny, and are
probably extinct. Their language is evidently different from any known
tongue of either Moxos or Chiquitos; and judging from the comparison
of the Mithridates, consisting only of seven words, it seems to be
Quichuan rather than aught else.
ENGLISH. SAPIBOCONI. QUICHUA.
_Head_ emata matti
_Lightning_ ilapa illapo.
_Stone_ tumu rumi.
_Year_ mara mara.
B.
_Indians of the Mission of Chiquitos._
CHIQUITOS.
_Locality._--Centre of the Province of Chiquito.
_Name._--Spanish.
_Tribes_, both existing and extinct, numerous.
_Numbers_ in 1830, 14,925. All Christianized.
_Conterminous_ with the Samucos, Guanos, Guatos, Tobas,
Siriones, Guarayos, Saravecas, Otukés, Tapiis, Covarecas,
Paioconecas, Tapacuras.
SARAVÉCA.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santa Ana, and Casalvalco.
_Original locality._--North-eastern limits of the Chiquito
tribes.
_Numbers._--At Santa Ana, 250; at La Reduction de Casalvalco,
100. All Christianized.
Except by language, scarcely distinguishable from the Chiquitos.
OTUKÉS.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santo-Corazon.
_Original locality._--North-eastern parts of Chiquitos, on the
frontiers of Brazil.
_Numbers._--150. All Christians.
Except by language, scarcely distinguishable from the Chiquitos.
COVARECA.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santa Ana.
_Original locality._--The neighbourhood of the Saravecas and
Curuminacas.
_Numbers._--About 50.
_Language._--Extinct, or almost extinct. Out of a few words
collected by D'Orbigny, one-third Otuké.
CURUMINACA.
_Original locality._--North-east of the province of Chiquitos,
between the Saravecas and the Otukés.
_Present locality._--With Saravecas, at Santa Ana and
Casalvalco.
_Numbers._--100 at Santa Ana, 50 at Casalvalco. All Christian.
_Language._--Almost or wholly extinct. Out of a few words
collected by D'Orbigny, five out of fourteen resembled the
Otuké.
CURAVÉ.
_Present locality._--The Mission of Santa Corazon.
_Original locality._--The neighbourhood of the Saravecas and
Curuminacas.
_Numbers._--50.
_Language._--Extinct. Said to have been peculiar. If so, the
only important distinction between them and the other Chiquitos.
TAPII.
_Present locality._--The Mission of St. Jago de Chiquitos.
_Original locality._--The neighbourhood of the Otukés.
_Numbers._--50.
_Language._--Extinct. Said to have been peculiar. If so, the
only important distinction between them and the other Chiquitos.
CURUCANECA.
_Present locality._--Mission of San Rafael.
_Original locality._--That of the Saravecas, Otukés, &c.
_Numbers_ in 1832, about 50.
_Language._--Extinct. Said to have been peculiar. If so, the
only important distinction between them and the other Chiquitos.
CORABECA.
This nation was conducted by the Jesuits to the Mission of San Rafael;
its original locality having been to the south of that settlement,
on the borders of the Gran Chaco. Here they became unmanageable, and
escaped to the woods--it is supposed to those of their original home.
At present, the numbers were put by D'Orbigny's informants at 100:
their language being said to be peculiar.
PAIOCONECA.
_Present locality of the Christian Paioconecas._--The Mission
of Conception.
_Original locality._--The head-waters of the Rio Blanco
and Rio Verde; 16° south latitude, 63° west latitude from
Paris. Hither, it is supposed, some of the more intractable
Paioconecas of Concepcion have escaped.
_Conterminous_ with the Chiquitos, Saravecas, and the
Chapacuras of Moxos.
_Numbers_ of the Paioconecas of Concepcion, 360.
_Particular Tribe._--Paunacas, 250 in number.
SAMUCU.
_Localities._--South and south-east portions of the province of
Chiquitos, on the limits of the Gran Chaco.
_Conterminous_ with the Guanos, Guatos, Curaves, Xarayes,
Otukés, Saravecas, Curuminacas, Paunacas, and Paioconecas.
_Name._--That of a particular tribe extended to the whole
nation. Other Samucu tribes, still existing, are the Morotocos,
the Potureros, and the Guaranocos.
_Habitat._--Forests, subject to inundations, when they retire
to the hills.
The last three or four families have illustrated a common phænomenon in
the ethnology of these parts; indeed, of many other parts of America as
well, especially the United States.
It by no means follows that the existing locality of any section of
the aboriginal population is the real natural and original one. On
the contrary, wherever we find them Christianized, or semi-civilized,
the chance is in favour of their having been moved from the original
habitat to some so-called _Reserve_ or _Mission_, and _vice versâ_.
Now the Indians of the _Reserves_ and _Missions_ are almost always
modificated in character as well as frequently mixed in blood. On
the other hand, although less typical in the way of ethnological
characteristics they are the best known, on account of the greater
opportunities of intercourse; the laborious and successful Jesuit
Missionaries of Spanish America being the chief authorities.
II.
THE INDIANS OF THE CHACO.
Politically the Chaco, or Gran Chaco, is the tract nominally belonging
to the inland and northern republics of the so-called Argentine
Confederation, rather than to Bolivia; whilst geographically it is
the water-system of the Paraguay and Upper La Plata, rather than of
the Amazons. Ethnologically it is characterized by being the area
of a civilization, which even when compared with that of Moxos and
Chiquitos, is imperfect,--of a still more imperfect and partial
Christianity, and of tribes which are at once nomadic, warlike, and
independent; approaching, in their moral characters, the Charruas and
Patagonians rather than the Peruvian.
The Indians of this part are either equestrian and nomadic, or else
partially settled in villages; this latter being generally the case
where the forests are densest, and where the river-sides afford tracts
of alluvial (and often half inundated) soil. Our knowledge of them
is preeminently scanty; still such vocabularies as are known exhibit
miscellaneous affinities with the languages of other tribes of South
America in general.
THE ABIPONIANS.
_Divisions._--1. Abiponians Proper. 2. Mbocobis and Tobas. 3.
Lenguas. 4. Payaguas. 5. Mataguayos. 6. Mbayas.
_Sub-divisions._--Of the Mataguayos. The Chaès (Qu.? Guanas),
the Yoes, the Matacos, Begosos, Chunipis, and Oeolis.
_Localities._--_a._ Of the Abiponians, the central parts of
the Chaco, conterminous with _b_, the Mbocobis and Tobas
conterminous with the Araucanians of Chili. _c._ Of the
Lenguas, the central parts of the Chaco. _d._ Of the Payaguas,
the banks of the Paraguay as far as its junction with the
Parana, _e._ Of the Mataguayos, the parts between the Pilcomayo
and Vermejo. _f._ Of the Mbayas, the eastern shore of the
Paraguay.
_The Guayanas._--I am unable to say how far this is the same tribe as
the Chanès and Guanas.
_The Calchaquis._--In the time of Dobrizhofer, nearly extinct at
present, most likely wholly so.--Equestrian.
_Malbalaes, Mataras, Palomos, Mogosnas, Oregones, Aquilotes,
Churumates, Ojotades, Tanos, Quamalcas,_--probably extinct; at
least they are placed by Dobrizhofer in the same category with the
Calchaquis. Like the Calchaquis, also, they were equestrian.
_Natekebits._--Equestrian. Probably Abiponian.
_Amokebits._--Ditto.
_Yapetalecas._--Ditto.
Oekakakalots.--Ditto.
_The Lules._--Pedestrian; speaking the same language with
_The Vileles_ and--
_The Ysistines._--Pedestrian.
_The Tonocote._--Converted and partially settled in towns.
_The Homoampas_, the _Ocoles_, the _Pazaines_,--Christianized.
_The Caypotades_ and the _Ygaronos_, like the _Zamucus_, removed to the
Missions.
* * * * *
III.
BRAZILIAN TRIBES _NOT GUARANI_.
Explanatory of the words _not Guarani_, it is necessary to state that
in Brazil begins a distribution of nations and tribes which, tested
by the evidence of language, present the same phænomenon which is
exhibited by the Algonkins of North America, _i.e._ a single area
of language covering a vast space, in contrast with numerous areas
covering a small one; a phænomenon which will be repeated when we
reach Guiana and Essequibo. To clear, therefore, the ground, the
_non-Guarini_ Brazilians will be disposed of first.
THE BOTOCUDOS.
_Synonym._--Aimorés, Guaymarés.
_Native name._--Engcraecknung.
_Locality._--The Sierra dos Aimorés, between the rivers Pardo
and Doce, from 18° to 20° south latitude.
_Divisions._--1. The Gherens. 2. The Kinimures.
_Language._--Peculiar.
Inhabitants of shady forests, the Botocudos are light-coloured or
yellow-coloured cannibals, with oblique eyes.
THE CANARINS.
_Locality._--A small tribe very little known, between the river
Mucury and the river Caravellas, in the Comarca de Porto Seguro.
THE GOITACAS.
_Synonyms._--Goyatacaz, Waytaquases.
_Called by the Portuguese._--Coroados=tonsured. By the
Coropos--Chakwibu.
Divisions.--1. Coroados or Goïtacas Proper. 2. Puris. 3.
Goaïnases(?) 4. Cariyos(?).
_Sub-divisions._--Of the Goïtacas. _a._ Goitacamope. _b._
Goïtaca-asu. _c._ Goïtacá-Iacorito.
_Locality._--The rivers Macabé, Cabapuana, and Xopoti for the
Goïtacas. The upper part of the river Paraiba, and the interior
of the province of Esperito Santo for the Puris.
The evidence that the Goaïnases, inhabitants of subterranean caves, and
more incompletely known than the partially-civilized Goïtacas, belong
to this group is inconclusive. So is the evidence as to the Cariyos.
That the Puris speak a language closely akin to the Coroados may be
seen in the Atlas Ethnologique.
The unsubdued remnants of the Cariyos, "still wander about in small
bodies in the woods of Sierra dos Orgaos and in the meadows of the
province of San Paulo. Descendants of them, settled in villages, are
probably found in the Mission of Aldea da Escada, in the environs
of Macabé, Ilha Grande, and the islands of San Sebastian and San
Catharina."--_Von Martius._
THE MACHACARI-CAMACAN (_of Balbi_).
_Divisions._--1. The Machacari. 2. The Patacho. 3. The Camacan.
4. The Malali.
_Sub-divisions._--(?) _a._ Of the Machacari--the Machacari
Proper and the Macuari. _b._ Of the Camacan--the Camacan
Proper, the Menieng, and the Cutachós.
_Localities._--Of the Machacaris, the Rio Belmonte, formerly
the Rio Mucury.--Of the Macuani (Maconi), originally the woody
mountains on the boundaries of Minas Geraes, Porto Seguro, and
Bahia; at present, the neighbourhood of Caravellas.--Of the
Patacho, the river Mucury, and the head-waters of the rivers
Pardo and Contas.--Of the Camacan, Bahia, between the rivers de
Contas and Pardo.--Of the Menieng, a domiciled section of the
Camacan, the Villa de Belmonte.--Of the Malali, Minas Geraes,
on the Rio Senchy Pequeno, a northern tributary of the river
Doce.
_Synonyms_ of the Camacans--Mongoyós, Mongxocos, or Mangajas.
This is a class taken from the Atlas Ethnologique of Balbi, wherein
we find a short specimen of the language or dialect of each nation
enumerated as belonging to it.
Besides these, however, there is, in the same area, _i.e._ the parts
about the watershed of the rivers Doce, Pardo Da Contas, &c., on one
side, and that of the river San Francisco on the other.
THE COROPOS(?).
_Locality._--Living along with the Coroados, on the river
Xipoto.
_Language._--Placed by Balbi with the Coroados, by Spix and
Martius with the Macuani.
The discrepancy between the evidence of the two authors just named,
explains the note of interrogation, and induces me to leave the Coropos
as an unplaced tribe.
THE CHACRIABAS(?).
_Original locality._--The river Preto, in Pernambuco.
_Present locality._--In the district of Desemboque, in Goyaz.
_Numbers_ in 1830, about 800.
In the paper of Von Martius, the Chacriabas, although placed
geographically in the province of Goyaz, are stated to be, "_probably_
at first a part of the same nation with the Malali."
THE KIRIRI.
_Divisions._--1. Kiriri Proper. 2. Sabujah.
_Locality._--Formerly in the interior of the province of Bahia,
now _settled in_ villages in Caranqueyo, and Villa de Pedra
Branca.
THE CAPOJOS (CAPOXOS).
_Locality._--Mountains between Minas Geraes and Porto Seguro.
Migratory.
THE PANHAMI.
_Locality._--Head-waters of the river Mucury, on the Sierra das
Esmeraldas. Migratory.
THE CUMANACHÓS.
_Locality._--Conterminous with the Capojos.
THE CACHINESES.
_Locality._--Minas Geraes, on the Sierra Mantiquiera. Probably
either extinct or incorporated.
THE ARARIS.
_Locality._--Minas Geraes, on the river Preto. Probably either
extinct or incorporated.
THE CHUMETÓS.
THE PITTÁS.
_Locality._--Rio de Janeiro, at Valença. Present existence
doubtful.
THE VOTURONGS (VOTUROES).
THE TACTAYAS.
THE CAMEŚ.
_Locality._--The province of San Paolo. Probably conterminous
with the Charruas and the tribes of the Chaco.
The next area which will be noticed is the province of Goyaz, lying
to the west of the watershed which separates the system of the river
Tocantins from that of the river San Francisco, a tract watered by the
first-named of these two rivers, and also by the river Araguaya; its
southern part belonging to the system of the river Plata.
THE GÉS AND TIMBIRAS.
_Probable divisions._--1. The Gés Proper. 2. The Crans.
_Sub-divisions_, _a._ of the Gés.--The Norogua-Gés, the
Apina-Gés, the Canacata-Gés, the Mannacob-Gés, the Poncata-Gés,
the Pacacab-Gés, the Ao-Gés, the Cricata-Gés.
_b._ Of the Crans.--The Saccame-Crans, the Corrume-Crans,
the Crurecame-Crans, the Aponegi-Crans, the Poni-Crans, the
Purecame-Crans, the Paragramma-Crans, the Macame-Crans, the
Sape-Crans, and the Jocamè-Crans.
_Area._--Northern part of Goyaz, on each side of the river
Tocantins.
_Synonym._--Of the Crans.--Timbiras, Embiras, or Imbiras.
Other tribes of the province of Goyaz, wholly unknown in respect to
their ethnological affinities, are--
1. _The Goyaz(?)._--These gave the name to the province. Extinct, or
incorporated.
2. _The Anicun._--Extinct, or incorporated.
3. _The Cayapos(?)._--In 1830, about 800 in number, on the river
Grande, a feeder of the river Parana.
4. _The Bororos._--On the head-waters of the Araguya. Falling into two
divisions, the Coroados and the Barbadoes of the Portuguese.
5. _The Aroes._
6. _The Tapirakés._
7. _The Chimbiwás._
8. _The Guapindayás._
9. _The Javaés._--Extinct.
10. _The Chavantes._
11. _The Cherentes(?)_
12. _The Pochetys._--Cannibals.
13. _The Carayas(?)._
14. _The Cortys._
15. _The Tapacoas._
The watershed of the rivers San Francisco and Parahyba, comprising part
of the provinces of Piauhy, Maranham is the area of--1. The Acroas; 2.
the Masacaras; 3. the Jaicos; 4. the Pimenteiras (Pimento Indians, the
native name being unknown); 5. the Garanhuns; 6. the Ceococes; 7. the
Romaris; 8. the Acconans; 9. the Carapotos; 10. the Pannaty.
The whole ethnography here is most obscure. The Acroa, probably
represent a large class. In Martius's paper they fall into two
divisions, the Acroa-assu (Great), and the Acroa-ming (Little) Acroa.
Besides this, however, separate mention is made of the _Acrayás_, with
the remark that they are probably the same as the Acroa. If so, three
fresh tribes become Acroa; viz., the Aracujás, the Pontás, and the
Goghés--these being specially stated to be _Acrayá_.
Again, in the "Atlas Ethnologique" we have a _Ge_ or _Geic_ vocabulary.
It is marked, however, with a note of interrogation(?), which casts
a shade over the light it would otherwise give. As it is, however,
it has considerable affinity to the Timbiras, a fact which, perhaps,
identifies it with the Gés, though it complicates the ethnology still
more.
The table-land which contains the head-waters of the river Tabajos,
amid the primeval forests of the Mata Grosso, is the Campos dos
Parecis, or the Plain of the Parecis. This is a convenient centre for
the complicated ethnology of the area next in question, an area bounded
(there or thereabouts) by the rivers Amazons, Madera, and Xingu, with
the Tapajos in the middle of it.
_Southward and Westward._--Here the Brazilian populations come
in contact with those of Paraguay, the Chaco, and the Mission of
Chiquitos; so that probably the ethnology is, partially at least, the
same as for those areas.
Here, too, the list of tribes (all unfixed in respect to their
ethnology) is as follows:--1. The Caupeses; 2. the Pacalekes
(Flat-heads); 3. the Guaxis; 4. the Cabijis; 5. the Red Cabijis; 6.
the Ababas; 7. the Puchacas; 8. the Guajejus; 9. the Mequens; 10. the
Patitins; 11. the Aricorones; 12. the Lambys; 13. the Tumarares; 14.
the Coturiás; 15. the Pacas.
_Eastward and Northward._--1. The Maturares; 2. Mambares; 3. the
Uyapas; 4. the Mambriacas; 5. the Tamares; 6. the Sarumás; 7. the
Ubaivas; 8. the Jacuriunas; 9. the Juajajas; 10. the Bacuris; 11. the
Camarares; 12. the Quariteres; 13. the Baccahyris; 14. the Junienas;
15. the Cuchipos, probably extinct.
The Parecis formerly the predominant nation of the Mata Grosso is now
nearly extinct, and from want of _data_, its ethnological import is
undetermined. It is probable, however, that _at least_, the Cabijis,
the Mambares, and the Baccahirys, a tribe of Goyaz, are, or were,
Pareci.
The southern bank of the Amazons, including the _lower_ portions of
the rivers Tocantins, Xingu, and Tabajos, a line coinciding with the
northern boundary of the province of Para, is even more of a _terra
incognita_ than the Mata Grosso, the list of tribes whereof contain no
less than fifty-two names. Of these, but three will be noticed.
THE MUNDRUCUS.
_Locality._--Between the rivers Mauhé and the Tabajos.
_Synonym._--Paighize=Decapitators; so-called by their
neighbours.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary, with general, but without
particular, affinities.
THE MAUHÉS.
_Locality._--The rivers Mauhé and Furo Trana.
_Divisions._--_a._ The Tatus (=Armadillo Indians) _b._ The
Tasiwas. _c._ The Jurupari Pareira (Devil's Indians). _d._
The Mucuings (named from an insect). _e._ The Jubaras. _f._
The Writapwuas. _g._ The Guaribas (Roaring Ape Indians). _h._
The Inambus (from a bird so-called). _i._ The Jawareté (Ounce
Indians). _j._ The Saucanés. _k._ Pira-Pereiras (Fish Indians).
The Caribunas are placed by V. Martius in this list, with the remark
that they are probably Caribs. If so, the rest are, probably, Caribs
also.
The Caribunas are also said to be monorchides, but whether artificially
or naturally, is unexplained.
THE MURUS.
_Original locality._--The upper part of the river Madera.
_Present locality._--The lower part of ditto. Migratory.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary. With general, but without
particular affinities.
And now come the parts over which hangs a darker obscurity than
that which envelopes the ethnology of the rest of Brazil, viz. the
water-system of the river Negro, and that part of the Amazons which
lies east of the Madera. Geographically, this falls into three
divisions--
1. The parts between the Rivers Madera and Ucayale.
2. The parts north of the Amazons, and _west_ of the river Negro.
3. The parts north of the Amazons, and _east_ of the river Negro.
1. _The parts between the Rivers Madera and Ucayale._--Here the known
frontier westwards is that of the Quichua area.
_The Puru-Purus._--Not known in detail, but said to have pie-bald
skins. Settled on the Lower Puru.
_The Yameos._--Speaking a language which, from a Paternoster in Hervas,
seems to be peculiar. Inhabitants of the river Yavari, and conterminous
with a tribe which politically belongs to Peru, and which (perhaps)
brings the Brazilian tribes in contact with the Quichuan. This is--
_The Mainas._--Speaking a language which, from a Paternoster in Hervas,
seems to be peculiar.
_The Chimanos._--On the upper Yavari, speaking an apparently peculiar
language, but one with miscellaneous affinities.
Thirty-three other tribes are enumerated as inhabiting the area.
2. _The parts north of the river Amazons and west of the river
Negro._--Here the known frontier northwards is that of the tribes of
the water-system of the Orinoko, hereafter to be noticed.
For one of these, out of forty, we have a vocabulary of the
CORETU.
_Locality._--The Upper Apuré.
_Language._--With general, but without particular affinities.
The Yupuas, on the Totá, a feeder of the Apuré, are said, by V.
Martius, to be Coretu.
3. _The parts north of the river Amazons, and east of the river
Negro._--Here, as far as the politico-geographical division which
gives a boundary to the empire of Brazil is concerned, we have nothing
but the names of upwards of a dozen unknown tribes. By remembering,
however, that the eastern frontier of this area is British Guiana, and
by learning that some of the tribes are common to the two territories
we derive some light; since, for British Guiana, the researches of Sir
Robert Schomburgk have converted a (comparatively speaking) _terra
incognita_, into an area as well understood as some of the better known
parts of North America.
In British Guiana, the tribes not of Carib origin will be first
enumerated; since in British Guiana the words _not Carib_ have the same
import as the words _not Guarani_ have in Brazil. Like this last-named
language in South, and the Algonkin and others in North America, the
Carib is the _single language of a large area_, and like the Guarani
and Algonkin it, as such, stands in remarkable contrast with numerous
languages covering a small area which are spoken around it.
THE WAROWS.
_Locality._--Sea-coast to the north of the Pomeroon river,
mixed with the Arawaks.
Two points give prominence to the Warow tribe--the existence of a
decidedly maritime turn of mind, and the use of a language which
hitherto stands isolated. It has, however, numerous miscellaneous
affinities. A remarkable want of taste for the enlivening effects of
music has been attributed to many of the tribes of South America. Now,
whatever may be the case with those of Brazil, it is not so with the
Indians of Guiana. Not only does Sir R. Schomburgk especially notice
the music of the Carib Macusi, but that of other tribes as well;
amongst which are the Warow, who "possess several instruments, chiefly
flutes, made upon primitive principles; some of reeds or bamboo,
others of the thigh-bones of animals. The Warau Indians have, in large
settlements, the band-master, or hohohit, whose duty it is to train
his pupils to blow upon flutes made of reeds and bamboo, in which a
small reed, on the principle of the clarionet, is introduced, and,
according to the size of the opening, it causes a higher or deeper
sound, and this is in some instances powerfully increased by a hollow
bamboo, often five feet long, which is called wauawalli. These rude
musicians are taught, according as their band-master makes a sign, to
fall in with their instruments, and thus produce an effect similar
to the Russian horn-bands. The effect, chiefly at a short distance,
resembles strikingly that peculiar music of the Russians, and the
favourite melody of the Waraus has something musical in its composition
surpassing all others."
TARUMAS.[163]
_Locality._--Upper Essequibo.
_Numbers._--400.
_Measurements of a Taruma about fourteen years of
age._--Height, four feet eleven inches, three-tenths;
circumference of pelvis, two feet, ten inches; length of hand
six inches, six-tenths; breadth of hand, three inches.
_Notice of three Taruma Skulls, by Professor Owen._--"All
female; two have rather more prominent foreheads than the
Carib; in the third it curves backward in the same degree from
the interorbital prominence: the nasal bones are broader and
flatter, in other respects they closely agree with the Carib
skull: one of them, a young female about fourteen, presents an
abnormal elevation of the upper and right side of the frontal
bone."
WAPITYAN (WAPISIANA).[163]
_Locality._--The Savannahs of the Upper Rupununi, and the banks
of the Parima.
_Numbers._--About 400: reduced by small-pox.
_Sub-tribes._--_a._ Atorais and Dauris; nearly extinct. Number
100. Mixed. _b._ Amaripas; extinct.
_Notice of a Wapisiana Skull, by Professor Owen._--"The
Wapisiana skull presents the ovate form, but the occiput
is rather more prominent, and the prominent part more
circumscribed: the interorbital space is slightly depressed,
owing to the projection of the supraorbital ridges: the
forehead is a little more convex than in the Carib; but the
general resemblance is as close as that which usually obtains
between the skulls of two individuals of the same race."
MEASUREMENTS.
+-----------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
| Supposed age. | Twelve years.|Fifteen years.|Sixteen years.|
|-----------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------|
| |ft. in. 10th. | ft. in. 10th.| ft. in. 10th.|
|Height of figure | 4 8 5 | 4 6 0 | 5 1 1 |
|Circumference of pelvis| 2 6 7 | 2 8 0 | 2 11 5 |
|Length of hand | 0 6 7 | 0 6 0 | 0 6 6 |
|Breadth of ditto | 0 3 0 | 0 2 8 | 0 3 6 |
+-----------------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
I still postpone the notice of the Carib tribes. The western extremity,
however, of their area leads to the following geographical subsection,
viz. that of the Indians of the Upper and Middle Orinoco.
The most eastern of these are:
SALIVA.
_Divisions._--1. Saliva Proper. 2. Atures. 3. Quaquas
(Mapoye)(?). 4. Macos (Piaroas).
_Area._--The rivers Vichada, Guaiare, Meta, Ventuari, and other
feeders of the Orinoco.
The Maco (Piaroa) at the mission of Canichana, have unlearned their
vernacular language, and speak (or rather have been taught by the
Missionaries) the Maypure instead.
The Atures, now extinct, give their name to the Atures cataracts
of the Orinoco. It is also the Atures whose mode of sepulture and
burial-cavern is thus described by Humboldt:--"The most remote part of
the valley is covered by a thick forest. In this shady and solitary
spot, on the declivity of a steep mountain, the cavern of Ataruipé
opens itself. It is less a cavern than a jutting rock, in which the
waters have scooped a vast hollow; when, in the ancient revolutions of
our planet, they attained that height. We soon reckoned in this tomb of
a whole extinct tribe, nearly six hundred skeletons, well preserved,
and so regularly placed that it would have been difficult to make an
error in their number. Every skeleton reposes in a sort of basket made
of the petioles of the palm-tree. These baskets, which the natives call
_mapires_, have the form of a square bag; their sizes are proportioned
to the age of the dead; there are some for infants cut off the moment
of their birth: we saw them from ten inches to three feet long, the
skeletons in them being bent together. They are all ranged near each
other, and are so entire that not a rib or a phalanx is wanting. The
bones have been prepared in three different manners, either whitened
in the air and the sun, dyed red with arnotto, a colouring matter
extracted from the bixa orellana; or, like real mummies, varnished
with odoriferous resins, and enveloped in leaves of the heliconea, or
the plantain tree. The Indians related to us, that the fresh corpse is
placed in damp ground in order that the flesh remaining on the bones
may be scraped off with sharp stones. Several hordes in Guyana still
observe this custom. Earthen vases, half-baked, are found near the
_mapires_, or baskets: they appear to contain the bones of the same
family. The largest of these vases, or funeral urns, are three feet
high, and five feet and a half long. Their colour is greenish grey, and
their oval form is sufficiently pleasing to the eye. The handles are
made in the shape of crocodiles, or serpents; the edge is bordered with
meanders, labyrinths, and real _grecques_, in straight lines variously
combined."
The Saliva seems to have been a class whose area has been one of a
_receding frontier_. The Atures are extinct, and the last words of
the Ature language are said to have been heard, not from the lips
of a human remnant of the nation, but from a parrot. In respect to
their extension eastward, Raleigh enumerates among the inhabitants of
Trinidad the _Salivi_, a nation dwelling on the Continent also, and
that to the south of the Quaquas.
Then as to the western area:--on the Orinoko, above the mouth of
the Meta, Humboldt often heard of the Quaquas, and adds, that it is
asserted that the missionary Jesuits have found them as far as Popayan.
MAYPURE.
_Divisions._--1. Maypure Proper. 2. Cavri (Caveri, Cabre). 3.
Pareni. 4. Guipunavi (Poignavi). 4. Meppurys(?). 5. Avani. 6.
Chirupa.
_Area._--The banks of the rivers Orinoco (middle part),
Amazons, and Negro.
_Conterminous_ with the Caribs, Salivi, and other unplaced
tribes.
The mission of Maypure is the centre of the language.
It is spoken also at the mission of Atures, by tribes other than
Maypures, _i.e._ by the Maco (Piaroa), who are Saliva, and by the
Guahivi, belonging to a third division of the Orinoko Indians.
THE ACHAGUA.
_Locality._--The river Casanare, a feeder of the river Meta.
The relation of the Achagua to the Maypure, is undetermined.
That there are many words common to the two tongues is certain.
According, however, to Gumilla, this is only from intercourse and
intermixture.--_Mithridates._
Their habits, manners, and civilization are nearly those of the Saliva,
_i.e._ imperfectly agricultural.
THE YARURA.
_Divisions._--1. Yarura Proper. 2. Betoi. 3. Situfa. 4. Airico.
5. Ele. 6. Quaquaro(?)
_Area._--The water-system of the river Casanare.
_Native name._--Yupuin.
THE OTTOMACAS.
_Locality._--Middle Orinoco, at its junction with the river
Sinaruco.
_Dialects._--1. Ottomaco Proper. 2. Taparita.
The Ottomacas are that tribe of South American Indians who have so
often been described as _The Dirt-eaters_. They fill their stomachs
with an unctuous clay found in the alluvium of their district; and
this, irrespective of the plenty or scarcity of other provisions. The
accurate chemical composition of this clay has yet to be ascertained.
The current statement that it is so full of organic matter as to
partake of the nature of animal or vegetable food, is probably
unfounded.
THE CHIRICOAS.
_Divisions._--1. The Guahivi. 2. The Chiricoas.
_Locality._--Left bank of the Orinoco. South of the Saliva.
It is nearly certain that this list of families is anything but
exhaustive for the Middle and Upper Orinoco. Thus, partly from the
notices of the _Mithridates_, and partly from the maps of Humboldt, we
find the following additional names of tribes:
_Curacicanas._--River Ventuari.
_Javaranas._--Ditto.
_Daricavaris._--River Inirida; cannibals.
_Pucherinavis._--River Inirida; cannibals.
_Manitivitaris._--Ditto, ditto.
_Equinabis._--Between the Rivers Negro and Orinoco.
_Manivas._--Ibid.
_Cheruvichahena._--Ibid.
_Maquitares._--River Ventuari.
_Aberianas._--Ibid.
_Marepizanos._--River Negro.
_Guareken._--Removed to the mission of Maypures, and _now_ speaking the
Maypures language.
_The Massanau, the Kaju-Kussianu, the Assawanu, the Wagudu._--Described
by the Arawaks to Quandt, as residing far in the interior on the
Orinoco.
_The Sagidaqueres._--Perhaps Chiricoas.
_The Guaneros_, and the _Guama._--On the River Apuré. Fluviatile
manners. Said to have descended the stream.
The two great stocks of the eastern side of South America may now be
considered the Guarani, the great family of Brazil, and the Carib, the
great family of Guiana--the South American analogues of the Algonkin
and Sioux groups of the Northern continent.
THE GUARANI.
_Synonyms._--Tupi, Brazilian, Guarani-Brazilian, Tupi-Guarani.
_Area._--From the mouth of the river Plata, south-east, in
35° south latitude, to the river Napo, on the opposite side
of the continent, in 3° south latitude, north-west, in, or
over, the Empire of Brazil, and in the Republics of Buenos
Ayres(?), Entre Rios, Corrientes, Monte Video, Paraguay (the
chief locality of the true Guarani), Bolivia (in the province
of Santa Cruz), Guiana(?), Ecuador(?), Bolivia and Venezuela.
_Distribution._--Discontinuous.
_Divisions._--A. Tupi-Guaranis--
1. _Southern Guaranis._--In the southern provinces of Brazil,
and in the Republics of Buenos Ayres, Entre Rios, Corrientes,
Monte Video and Paraguay.
_a._ _The Pinarés_ (or _Pinarís_).--South of the sources of the
river Uraguay.
_b._ _The Patos._--Fishermen on the Laguna de los Patos.
_c._ _The Tapés_ (or _Tapis_).--Monte Video, and the Brazilian
province of Rio Grande del Sul.
_d._ _The Guïcanáns._--In the Campos de Vaccaria of the last-named
province.
_e._ _The Biturunas=Blackfaces_ or _Nightmen._--South of the river
Curubita.
_f._ _The Guaranis Proper._--Between the rivers Parana and Paraguay.
2. _Tupis_ (_Tupinambas_) or Brazilian Guarani.--Scattered along the
coast of Brazil from (there or thereabouts) 30° south latitude to the
mouth of the Amazons.
_a._ _The Tamoyas._--Formerly very numerous, on the bay of the Rio de
Janeiro, at present almost extinct.
_b._ _The Tupinakis._--Formerly in Porto Seguro and the Comarca dos
Ilheos, now occupying villages in Belmonte, Camamú, Valença, &c.
_c._ _The Tupinaes._--In Bahia.
_d._ _The Tupinambases._--Ditto.
_e._ _The Obacatuwaras_=_Good Woodsmen._--Islands of the river San
Francisco.
_f._ _The Potiwaras._--Parahyba and Maranham.
_g._ _The Cahatés._--Once numerous in Pernambuco, now either extinct
or incorporate. Falling into sub-divisions, viz., _the Guanacás_, _the
Yaguaranas_, _the Teremembes_, _the Kitarioris_, _the Viatanis_, _the
Cahy-cahys(?)_
_h._ _The Tupagaros_, (or _Tupiwaras_).--Para and the northern parts of
Maranham.
_i._ _The Guajojaras._--Head-waters of the river Mearim.
_j._ _The Manajós._--_Ibid._
3. _North-eastern Tupis._--In the Island of Marajó, and about the
junction of the rivers Amazons and Tocantins.
_a._ _The Taramambases._
_b._ _The Nhenga-hibas_, of Marajó Island.
_c._ _The Pacajases._
_d._ _The Apantos._
_e._ _The Mamayamases._
_f._ _The Anajases._
_g._ _The Guayanases_, or _Boatmen._
_h._ _The Tocantinos._
_i._ _The Cuchewaras_ (or _Tochi_).
_j._ _The Cambocas_ (or _Bocas_).
_k._ _The Cupewaras(?)_ (or _Ant-Indians_).
_l._ _The Yuruúnas(?)._
4. _The Guarani (or Tupi) of the river Tabajos._--
_a._ _The Apiacases._
_b._ _The Cahahivas._
5. Bolivian Tupi (or Guarani).--In the province of Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, and conterminous with the Indians of the Missions of Moxos and
Chiquitos, by which, as well as by the Indians of the Chaco, they are
isolated from the other Guaranis.
_a._ _The Chiriguanos._
_b._ _The Sirionos._
_c._ _The Guarayos._
B. Omaguas--
1. Of the rivers Napo and Putumayo, speaking the Yete, the Putumayo,
and the Zeokeyo dialects of the Sucumbia language.
2. Omaguas of the river Japura, or Omaguas Proper.
3. Omaguas to the west of the river Ucayale, and to the south of the
river Amazons, on the borders of Peru, speaking the Cocamello and Uebo
dialects of the Cocamo language.
The limits of the Omaguas are preeminently uncertain: so that it is
possible that in the foregoing notice I may, in carrying them so far as
the neighbourhood of Quito, have gone too far west. On the other hand,
good authorities have even extended their geographical area further
north, and their ethnological affinities to the Achagua. That they are
really connected with the Guarani is a well substantiated doctrine; at
least such is the evidence of the languages, although Vater objected to
it.
Whether, however, the Guarani descended from the Omaguas, of the
north and west, or the Omaguas from the Guarani of the south-east, is
uncertain. There are facts and opinions both ways.
Preeminently fluviatile (we can scarcely use the word _marine_) in
their habits, the Omaguas have been called the Phœnicians of the
western world; a fact which, perhaps, should be taken along with their
distribution on the coast, the Amazons, the Paraguay, and the Orinoco.
The Omaguas, and many others of the Guaranis, are Flat-heads.
THE CARIBS.
_Area._--From the mouth of the Amazons to parts about the Lake
Maracaybo; perhaps farther. The territories and republics
of Portuguese, French, Dutch, British and Spanish Guiana,
Venezuela. The Lesser Antilles.
_Divisions._--1. Caribeans Proper. 2. Tamanaks. 3. Arawaks.
_Sub-divisions of unascertained value._--Proceeding from south
to north or north-west--
1. Caribs of Portuguese Guiana, between the rivers Amazons and
Oyopok.
2. _Galibi_ of French Guiana. Language more Carib than either
Tamanak or Arawak.
3. _Arawaks._--Dutch and British Guiana.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.--_Accaways_,
_Waikas_, _Macusi_, _Zaparas_, _Arecunas_, _Soerikong_,
_Guinau_, _Wayamara_, _Makakwa_ (or _Maopetyan_), _Woyawai_,
_Maongkong_, _Pianoghotto_, _Drio_, _Zaramata_, _Tiverighotto_.
16. _Guayanos._--Spanish Guiana.
17. _Yaoi_--Aborigines of Trinidad.
18. _Pariagotos._--On the Gulf of Para.
19. _Cumanagotos._--Mission of Piritu, in Caraccas. Of this the
following are dialects--_a._ The Tomuzas. _b._ The Piritu. _c._
The Cocheyma. _d._ The Chacopatas. _e._ The Topocuares. This is
probably an approach to the--
20. _Chayma._--The highlands which, in the eastern part of
Cumana, form the northern watershed of the Orinoco. Tamanak
rather than Proper Carib. The fixation of the Chaymas as Carib,
is Humboldt's.
21. _Palenca._--Province of Barcelona.
22. _Guarive._--Ibid. Intermediate to the Carib Proper, and the
Tamanak.
23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32.--_The Pareche_,
_Uocheari_, _Uaracapaccili_, _Uaramucuru_, _Paiure_,
_Achericoto_, _Oje_, _Chirichiripi_, _Macchiritari_,
_Areveriani_.--Subsections of the Tamanak spoken to the south
of the Orinoco.
33.--_Caribs of the Lesser Antilles._--Extinct.
Like the Iroquois and Algonkins of North America, the Caribs were one
of the first tribes of _South_ America, which were known to Europeans;
so that it is they from whom the earliest and most current notions of
the intertropical American were taken.
That they were the aborigines to the Lesser Antilles is certain; and
it is nearly certain that, as a pure race, this section of them is
extinct; since the so-called black Caribs of St. Vincent, although
partially descended from the insular division of the class, are mixed
with Negro blood, and are not the aborigines of the island, but
immigrants from Barbadoes and elsewhere.
How far they extended further than the Lesser Antilles is doubtful.
Father Raymond, who, in considering the subject, during the existence
of the Caribs of the Islands, but subsequent to the expulsion of the
aborigines from Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and St. Domingo (_i.e._
early in the seventeenth century), remarks that an unequivocal remnant
(the only one) of those Indians who escaped from the massacres and
cruelties of the Spaniards, the refugee Indians of Curaçoa, had no
Carib words in their language.
Again, the same writer, on the authority of Mr. Brigstock, a gentleman
well versed in the Floridian and Virginian languages, attributes to the
whole stock a _North_ American origin; their progenitors, the Colfachi,
having availed themselves of a Mexican migration of the Appalachians to
take possession of a portion of Florida. Thence, after a time, a part
was ejected, and so found its way to both the Islands and the Southern
Continent. Upon the tradition itself I lay little stress. Upon the fact
of certain words being common to the Colfachi who remained in Florida,
and the true Caribs, I lay more. Probably, the existence of certain
points common to the two populations originated the tradition--the
connexion (if real) being different from what is described in the
legend.
It should be remembered that the series of islands from Trinidad to
Florida forms a second line of connexion between North and South
America.
That a nation so widely spread as the Caribs should have migrated from
North America as a body of fugitives, and that within the traditional
epoch, is improbable, the unlikelihood being increased by the number of
dialects into which the languages are divided. It is far more likely
that a part of them conquered their way from South to North. On their
own hemisphere they are preeminently the people of an encroaching area,
and the frontier-fights between the Caribs and the Caveri of the Middle
Orinoco are the analogues of the wars of the Iroquois and Algonkins in
Pennsylvania.
In the ethnography of Polynesia certain peculiar customs in respect to
the language of caste and ceremony were noted. The Carib has long been
known to exhibit a remarkable peculiarity in this respect. The current
statement is--that the women have one language and the men another;
so that while the husband talks (say) French, the wife answers in
English. The real fact is less extraordinary. Certain objects have two
names; one of which is applied by males, the other by females only.
Raymond says that the latter terms are Arawak, and that the Arawaks
were the older inhabitants of the islands, the men whereof were
exterminated and the women adopted as wives. No explanation is more
probable than this, and it is applicable in other parts of the world
besides America.[164]
That many of the Carib tribes are flat-headed, and that they are also
cannibals, is well known. A nation of women, however, forming a section
of their population, has yet to be discovered.
_Necdum finitus Orestes._--Vast as is the area already disposed of, the
whole of South America has not yet been exhausted. There are tracts
which have still to be filled up.
I. The _eastern_ slope of the Andes from about 17° south latitude
to the Equator.--It is only where the American continent begins to
contract in breadth (_i.e._ about 17° south latitude), that the
_western_ limits of any of the tribes already noticed, such as those
of the Missions and the Chaco, come in contact with the _eastern_
Peruvians of the Andes.
Beginning, then, with the parts north-east of Potosi, we have between
them and the parts east of Lima, as the most southern tribes, between
Cochabamba west, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, east--
THE YURACARES.
_Conterminous_ with the Quichua Peruvians, the isolated Guarani
(Chiriguanos and Sirionos), the Indians of the Mission of
Chiquitos, and the Mocéténès. From 17' to 16' south latitude.
_Name._--Quichua. _Yurak_=_white_+_kari_=_men_.
_Divisions._--1. Solostos on the east. 2. Mansinos on the
west. Other sections of them extinct, or incorporate, or else
mentioned under different names--_Oromos_, _Conis_, _Cuchis_,
_Enétés_.
_Synonym._--For the Solostos, _Mages_--so called by the people
of Santa-Cruz.
_Religion._--1. Of the Mansinos, Paganism. 2. Of the Solostos,
Christianity.
_Numbers in 1832._ 1. Mansinos, 1000. 2. Solostos, 337.
MOCÉTÉNÈS.
_Synonyms._--_Manaquiés_; so-called by the Yuracares.
_Chunchos_, by the Bolivian-Spaniards. Also, _Magdalenos_,
_Chimanisas_ (or _Chimanis_), _Muchanis_, _Tucupi_.
_Locality._--North of Cochabamba, on the head-waters of the
river Beni. From 16' to 15' south latitude.
_Conterminous_ with the Aymaras, Quichuas, Moxos Indians,
Yuracares, and Apolistas.
_Religion and numbers._--1. Christian, about 1600. 2. Pagan,
about 800.
_Language._--Different (according to D'Orbigny) from the
Yuracares.
TACANA.
_Synonyms or partial terms._--_Atenianos_, _Isiamas_,
_Cavinas_, _Toromonas_.--This last is the name of the still
savage tribes speaking the _Tacana_, which is the name of a
_language_ rather than of a section of population.
_Conterminous_ with the Aymaras, Mocéténès, Apolistas, Maropas,
and (to the north), the Huacanahuas and Suriguas.
_Numbers._--Of the Mission of Aten 2,033
---- Tsiamas 1,028
---- Cavinas 1,000
---- Tumapasa 1,170
---- San José 73
Pagans Toromonas 1,000
-----
Total 6,304
_Original locality._--The head-waters of the Beni, north of the
Tacanas.
_Present locality._--The Mission de Reyes, of Moxos.
_Language._--Not known from a vocabulary, but one which, to
D'Orbigny, seemed different from that of the Mocéténès.
APOLISTAS.
_Present locality._--Apolobamba, on the river Apolo. Probably
the _original_ locality also.
_Numbers and religion._--In 1832, A.D., 3,616 Christians,
_i.e._ 841 in Santa Cruz, and 2,775 in Apolobamba.
The Yuracares, Mocéténès, Tacana, Apolista and Maropa sections form
a division of the South American population characterised by the
remarkable fairness of its complexion, a fact indicated by the very
term _Yuracares_ = _white men_. D'Orbigny, who raises the section to a
class under the name of _Antisien_, and who is the writer to whom we
owe nearly all our information, makes this lightness of colour coincide
with the woody and shady character of the quarters inhabited; the
Maropas, who are in the most exposed countries, being also the darkest
in hue.
Northwards we have only the names of tribes to fill up the two
following vast geographical gaps, _i. e._
A. The water-system of the Upper Ucayale.
B. The Eastern Andes north of the Amazons. They are taken from the
_Mithridates_, the oldest authorities on these points being the best.
A. 1. The _Heresilocana_, allied to the _Orocotana_ and _Rocotane_(?).
2. The _Chiriba_, allied to the Chomana.
3. The tribes speaking the Caniscana language.
4. The _Mopeziana_.
5. The _Icabizizi_.
6, 7, 8, 9. The _Caisina_, _Capingel_, _Caliciono_, and _Ucoiño_.
10. The _Cavinæ_, who built stone houses.
11. The _Collæ_, makers of roads.
12. The _Carapuchos_, whose language was so guttural as to be the bark
of a dog rather than the speech of a man. Cannibals; as were also--
13. The _Casibos_.
14. The _Sipibos_.
15, 16, 17, 18, 19. The _Panos_, the _Piri_, the _Canibi_, the
_Campa_, the _Comavi_, who, in A.D. 1695, threw off the control of the
Missionaries.
20. The _Chipeos_, part of the Panos.
21, 22, 23, 24. The Cunivos, the Mananahuas, the Mochovos, the Remos.
25. The Chamicunos, speaking a language allied to that of the Chipeos
and Panos.
B. 1. _The Aguanos._
2. The _Xeberos_, of which the _a_, _Cutinanas_; _b_, the
_Paranapuras_; _c_, the _Chaybitas_; _d_, the _Muniches_(?), are
sections.
3. The _Andoas_.
4. The _Ayacore_.--Language peculiar.
5. The _Parana_.--Ditto.
6. The _Encapelladas_.--This is a Spanish name, applied as a collective
term to the following tribes of the Upper Napo.--_a_, the _Abicheres_;
_b_, the _Angateres_; _c_, the _Cunchies_; _d_, the _Ycahuates_; _e_,
the _Payaguas_.
The most eastern of these are probably Omagua.
II. French Guiana.--For French Guiana I find the following tribes, or
nations, in the _Atlas Ethnologique_, being unable to give them any
ethnological position:--
1. _Rocouyenne._--Nearly annihilated by--
2. The _Oampi_--The most numerous and powerful nation of French Guiana,
occupants of the Upper Oyapok.
3. _Emerillons._--A numerous and independent nation of French Guiana,
on the River Inini. Stature tall; language not known through any
vocabulary.--Balbi: _Atlas Ethnologique_, xxix.
* * * * *
The details of the ethnology of America having been thus imperfectly
exhibited, the first of the two questions indicated in pp. 351, 352,
still stands over for consideration.
A. The unity (or non-unity) of the American populations one amongst
another, and--
B. The (unity or non-unity) of the American populations as compared
with those of the Old World.
In p. 351, it is stated that the two (three?) sections of the American
aborigines which interfere with the belief that the American stock is
fundamentally _one_, are--
I. The Eskimo.
II. The Peruvians (and Mexicans).
I. Taking the Eskimo first, the evidence in favour of their isolation
is, _physical and moral_.
The latter I think is worth little except in the way of cumulative
evidence, _i. e._ when taken along with other facts of a more
definite and tangible sort. The Eskimo civilization (such as it is)
is _different_ from that of the other Americans; and how could it be
otherwise when we consider their Arctic _habitat_, their piscatory
habits, and the differences of their Fauna and Flora? It is not
_lower_; _i. e._ not lower than that of the ruder Indians; a point well
illustrated in Dr. King's paper[165] on the Industrial Arts of the
Eskimo.
The physical difference is of more importance.
And, first as to _stature_.--Instead of being shorter, the Eskimo are,
in reality, taller than half the tribes of South America.
Next, as to _colour_.--The Eskimo are _not_ copper-coloured. Neither
are the Americans in general. It is only those best known that are
typical of the so-called _Red_ race; there being but little of the
copper tinge when we get beyond the Algonkins and Iroquois.
Lastly, as to the conformation of the skull, a point where (with
great deference) I differ from the author of the excellent Crania
Americana.--The Americans are said to be _brakhy_-kephalic, the Eskimo
_dolikho_-kephalic. The American skull is of smaller, the Eskimo of
larger dimensions. I make no comment on the second of these opinions.
In respect to the first, I submit to the reader the following extracts
from Dr. Morton's own valuable tables, premising that, as a general
rule, the difference between the occipito-frontal and parietal
diameters of the Eskimo is _more_ than seven inches and a fraction as
compared with five inches and a fraction, and that of the other Indians
_less_ than seven and a fraction, as compared with five and a fraction.
Now, the following extract from Dr. Morton's tables shows the approach
to the dolikhokephalic character on the part of twenty-four American
specimens--
Long. diam. Parietal diam.
[166]E. 1. _Eskimo_ 5.7 5.4
2. " 7.3 5.5
3. " 7.5 5.1
4. _Eskimo_ 6.7 5.
A. 5. _Ojibbwa_ 7.3 5.8
6. " 7.2 5.5
7. _Potowatomi_ 7.8 5.7
8. _Sauk_ 7.5 5.9
9. _Missisaugi_ 7. 5.2
10. _Lenapé_ 7. 5.5
11. " 7.8 5.4
12. _Manta_(?) 7. 5.1
13. _Quinnipeak_(?) 7. 5.7
I. 14. _Iroquois_ 7.5 5.5
15. " 7.1 5.4
16. " 7.1 5.5
17. _Oneida_ 7.5 5.6
18. _Cayuga_ 7.8 5.1
S. 19. _Assineboin_ 7.6 5.8
20. _Minetari_ 7.3 4.4
21. _Mandan_ 7.1 5.4
22. " 7. 5.3
C. 23. _Choctah_ 7.2 5.
24. _Seminole_ 7.1 5.6
25. " 7.3 5.9
26. " 7. 5.5
27. " 7.3 5.6
28. " 7. 5.9
The language, as before stated, is admitted to be the American, in
respect to its grammatical structure, and can be shown to be so in
respect to its vocables.
II. The Peruvians.--Here the question is more complex, the argument
varying with the extent we give to the class represented by the
Peruvians, and according to the test we take, _i.e._ according as we
separate them from the other Americans on the score of a superior
civilization, or on the score of a different physical conformation.
_a._ When we separate the Peruvians from the other Americans, on the
score of a superior civilization, we generally take something more than
the Proper Peruvians, and include the Mexicans in the same category.
I do not trouble the reader with telling him what the Peruvio-Mexican
(or Mexico-Peruvian) civilization was; the excellent historical works
of Prescott show this. I only indicate two points:--
1. The probability of its being over-valued.
2. The fact of its superiority being a matter of _degree_ rather than
kind.
Phraseology misleads us. We find certain phænomena in the social and
political constitution both of Mexico and Peru which put us in mind of
certain European customs, _e.g._ (two amongst many) the dependence of
subordinate chiefs on a superior one, and the use of certain ceremonies
previous to the warrior's first achievements in war. How easy is it,
in such cases, to take a false impression if we illustrate the habits
in question by comparisons drawn from European feudalism and chivalry,
instead of from their truer analogues, the probationary tortures of
tribes like the Mandans, and the constitution of such an empire as
Powhattans in Virginia.
Again, phrases, like _picture-writing_, are only safe so long as we
compare them with their real equivalents; and these are not the painted
and sculptured walls of Ægypt, but the rude hide of the Pawni, whereon
he scratches or daubs a sketch of his exploits.
More exceptionable still is the term _hieroglyphics_;[167] of which
the following is said to be a specimen. The sign denoting _Cimatlan_,
the name of a place, was compounded of the symbol of _Cimatl_, a
_root_, and _tlan_, signifying _near_. Surely this is no example of
phonetic spelling. _C-i-m-a-tl-tl-a-n_, consists of eight elementary
articulate sounds. How then can two signs spell it phonetically: eight
are required to do it properly; and unless it can be shown that the
symbol=_cimatl_ be in the same category with the letter _x_ (_ks_), and
that it is a compendium for two or more (in this case eight) simple
single signs, the phonetic character either falls to the ground, or the
term changes its meaning. Again, the spelling is not even syllabic.
_Cim-atl-an_, consists of three syllables; which have only two signs to
express them.
The real spelling is neither more nor less than rhæmatographic, with
one sign for one word, and two signs for two; just as if in English we
spelt the word representing the idea of a _shore_ by one combination
of points and lines, that of a _ham_ by another, and that of the town
_Shore-ham_ by a combination of the two. Now no one would say that this
spelt _Sh-o-re-h-a-m_.
One more instance--since I am indicating rather than exhausting lines
of criticism--shall be taken from the account of a so-called remarkable
phænomenon in the arithmetic of the tribes akin to the Mexican.
Some of the rudest tribes of South America, like the generality
of the Australians, are unable to count beyond five. The Mexicans,
however, have a simple term for twenty. Nay more, for 400 and 8000,
they have simple terms also, _i.e._ for the first and second powers of
twenty; just as we have in the words _hundred_ and _thousand_, simple
undecompounded names for the first and second powers of ten. A great
contrast this! exhibiting multiplicational as well as mere numerational
arithmetic.
What else?--there is a Notation as well, and certain symbols stand for
20, 800, and 4000.
Gallatin observes, that the symbols thus standing for these numbers
also express words equivalent to _company_, _regiment_, and _army_,
in the military system, and, thence, he argues that the vigentesimal
system determined the organisation of the legions of Montezuma. I do
not say that such was not the case. I believe, however, that it is much
more likely that the organisation of the army determined the so-called
vigentesimal numeration, and that, just as the word for 20=_man_
(_i.e._ 10 fingers and 10 toes), so the word for 400 was the name of 20
companies of 20, and that for 8,000 the name for 20 regiments of 400.
If this be true, so far from the Mexican multiplying 20 by 20, he might
be unable to count to 45; having names for the higher numbers furnished
him by an accident, but without terms for the intermediate ones.
As for the agricultural condition of the Mexicans, contrasted, as
it may be, with the hunter-state of the Sioux and others, it is no
contrast, except in degree, with the habits of the _Diggers_ and other
tribes of California and Oregon, where game is scarce and esculent
roots abundant; and whilst the archæology of the Valley of the
Mississippi shows rudiments of their architecture, the more important
confederations, such as the Creek, are analogues of what may be
somewhat grandiloquently called their imperial organisation.
Then as to the Casas Grandes, surely these show Mexican architecture
beyond the area of Mexico (_i. e._ _Aztek_ Mexico). But what if they
also show the extent to which the Mexican civilisation extended
itself? In such a case they prove nothing as to the _independent_
civilisational development of the nation on the area where they occur.
But is this the _only_ inference that they suggest? No. It is not
even the most legitimate one. Casas Grandes, in localities a thousand
miles from Mexico, indicate, not that the Mexican influence was spread
so far beyond the Valley of Mexico, but that more nations than one
built with stone and brick. To assume colonisation from community of
characteristics is inadmissible.
I have now only to add, that if this sort of criticism--such as it
is--has not been shown to be applicable to the Mexican astronomy and
the Mexican chronology, it is only because the magnitude of the subject
excludes it from the present volume.
_b._ When we separate the Peruvians from the rest of the Americans, on
the score of a different physical conformation, we take something less
than the whole nation, _i. e._ only a particular section of it. How
this happens is explained by the following statements:--
1. In the parts about the Lake Titicaca, within the Aymara area, are
found, along with vast stone ruins and other remarkable relics of an
early age, several burial places of the ancient inhabitants; the skulls
of which are flattened in front, behind, or laterally, as the case may
be, with the suture of the cranium obliterated.
2. The present inhabitants of this area are _not_ in the habit of
flattening the skull.
3. The _old_ race of the flattened skulls is the race which appears
to have been the executors of the _oldest_ portion of the Peruvian
architectural antiquities, and as such, civilised or semi-civilised.
4. The _present_ Aymaras exhibit no traces of being the descendants of
a people more civilised than themselves.
These facts are generally admitted. It is also, perhaps, as generally
admitted that, taken by themselves, they are not sufficient to
disconnect what may be called the old Peruvians of Titicaca, from the
modern Aymaras; since civilisation may become retrograde, and the habit
of flattening skulls, like any other habit, may be abandoned.
But what if the flatness of the old Titicacan skulls be not artificial,
but _natural_? In this case the Aymaras are anything but the
descendants of the civilised flat-head ancestors in question, and the
ancient stock itself is extinct--extinct without congeners, and without
posterity.
This is no more than what follows from the position that the cranial
depression is _natural_. On the other hand, if artificial, it falls to
the ground.
Now, notwithstanding the very high authorities on the other side, I am
not prepared to admit the necessity of a skull having been flattened
_in utero_ and in the way of normal development, simply and solely
because the traces of artificial manipulation are not discoverable. All
that any facts of the kind prove, is that Art can imitate Nature most
skilfully.
The conclusive proof that the old Titicacans were naturally flat-headed
would be the not impossible discovery of a mummied _fœtus_, with a
facial angle preternaturally acute. Such, however, has yet to be
discovered. Till then the Aymaras, who can be proved by historical
evidence to have once flattened the forehead, must pass for the
descendants of the Titicacans.
* * * * *
What breaks down the distinctions between the Peruvian and Eskimo,
breaks down _à fortiori_ all those lesser ones by which the other
members of the American population have been separated from each other.
Still, as a sample of arrangement, and as a practical exhibition of the
differences in physical conformation which are found within the limits
of South America, I conclude the section upon the American Mongolidæ
with a view of D'Orbigny's classification of the Indians between the
Isthmus of Darien and Cape Horn; at the same time referring the reader
to his valuable monograph (_L'Homme Americain_).
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
Colour, yellow, brown, or copper-red; height, variable; hair, thick,
coarse, black, smooth, and long; beard, thin, coarse, black, never
wavy, late in making its appearance; chin, short; eyes, small,
deep-set; jaws, prominent; teeth, nearly vertical; eyebrows, prominent.
1. _Primary divisions, or races (so-called)_--
A. _Ando-Peruvian._--Colour, olive-brown; stature, low; forehead,
either depressed, or but slightly vaulted; eyes, horizontal, never
_bridés_ at their outer angle.
B. _Pampa._--Stature, often considerable; forehead, vaulted; eyes,
sometimes _bridés_ at the outer angle.
C. _Brazilio-Guarani._--Colour, yellowish; forehead, not retreating;
eyes, oblique.
A. _Ando-Peruvians_--
_a._ _Peruvian branch._--Colour, deep olive-brown; form, massive;
trunk, long in proportion to the limbs; forehead, retreating; nose,
aquiline; mouth, large; physiognomy, sombre.--Aymara and Quichua
Peruvians.
_b._ _Antisian branch._--Colour, varying from a deep olive to nearly
white; form, not massive; forehead, not retreating; physiognomy,
lively, mild.--Yuracares, Mocéténès, Tacanas, Maropas, and Apolistas.
_c._ _Araucanian branch._--Colour, light olive; form, massive; trunk,
somewhat disproportionately long; face, nearly circular; nose, short
and flat; lips, thin; physiognomy, sombre, cold.--Indians of Chili and
the Chonos Archipelago. The Fuegians.
B. _Pampas_--
_a._ _Pampa branch._--Colour, deep olive-brown, or _marron_; form,
Herculean; forehead, vaulted; face, large, flat, oblong; nose,
short; nostrils, large; mouth, wide; lips, large; eyes, horizontal;
physiognomy, cold, often savage.--Indians of the Chaco and Patagonia.
_b._ _Chiquito branch._--Colour, light olive; form, moderately
robust; mouth, moderate; lips, thin; features, delicate; physiognomy,
lively.--Indians of the Mission of Chiquitos.
_c._ _Moxos branch._--Form, robust; lips, thickish; eyes, not _bridés_;
physiognomy, mild.--The Indians of the Mission of Moxos.
C. _Brazilio-Guarani._--A simple branch.--Colour, yellowish, with
a slight tinge of red; form, massive; height, moderate; face,
circular; nose, short and straight; nostrils, narrow; mouth, moderate;
lips, thin; eyes, oblique; eyebrows, prominent; features, delicate
(_efféminés_); physiognomy mild.--Guarani, Caribs(?), and all the
unplaced tribes of Paraguay, Brazil, the Guianas, and Venezuela(?).
FOOTNOTES:
[104] The g is sounded hard.
[105] As the French _n_ in _bon_.
[106] Transactions of the British Association, &c., 1847, p. 121.
[107] United States Exploring Expedition.
[108] Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. ii. p.
105.
[109] United States Exploring Expedition--Ethnology, p. 298.
[110] Pickering--Races of Men.
[111] From the Capital of Massachusetts.
[112] _King George._
[113] _Old Man._
[114] The name of a European who went mad.
[115] The Seal.
[116] Savage.
[117] Nootkan words.
[118] Chinúk.
[119] Pickering, from notes of Messrs. Agate and Brackeridge.
[120] See p. 310.
[121] Marked(?) because we find Paduca Kaskaias.
[122] A table of the chief affinities between the Bethuck and the other
Algonkin languages (or dialects) has been published by the present
writer in the Proceedings of the Philological Society for 1850.
[123] Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. ii.
[124] Ibid.
[125] Transactions of American Ethnological Society. II., cxiii.
[126] Transactions of Philological Society, 1849 and 1850.
[127] Marked(?) because we find _Anies_ amongst the Iroquois (p. 333),
and _Inies_ amongst the Caddos.
[128] The date of Gallatin's Synopsis.
[129] See p. 349.
[130] Transactions of the Ethnological Society, vol. i. Transactions of
British Association for the advancement of Science.
[131] See p. 344.
[132] In Mr. Bollaert's list there only appears the name of Wacoes, who
are said to be a branch of the Cumanches.
[133] Extracted from Prichard, vol. v. p. 304.
[134] Transactions of the Literary and Historical Department of the
American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, vol. i.
[135] Pp. 287.
[136] "The only reference we have to the mounds of Oregon is contained
in a paragraph in the Narrative of the United States Exploring
Expedition, vol. iv. p. 313:--We soon reached the Bute Prairies,
which are extensive, and covered with tumuli, or small mounds, at
regular distances. As far as I can learn, there is no tradition among
the natives concerning them: they are conical mounds, thirty feet in
diameter, about six or seven feet above the level, _and many thousands
in number_. Being anxious to ascertain if they contained any relics, I
subsequently visited these prairies, and opened three of the mounds,
but found nothing in them but a pavement of round stones."
[137] Smithsonian Contributions, p. 2.
[138] Some of these have been published, _e.g._ in the Philological
Transactions.
[139] Gallatin, in American Ethnological Transactions, cxxxi.
[140] As may be seen in p. 370.
[141] We have just seen that this, in the American languages, is the
case even in words like _John's hand_, which would, there, be _John he
hand_.
[142] For further criticism see the remarks on the Otomi language.
[143] Transactions of American Ethnological Society, vol. ii. pp.
xxxviii. and li.
[144] Vol. iii. p. 3.
[145] The reasons for the italics and the(?) may be seen in p. 397.
[146] Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, vol. ii. p. 83.
[147] Prichard, vol. v. p. 423.
[148] New Mexico and California. By E. G. Squier, M.A.
[149] American Review, for November, 1848.
[150] See p. 390.
[151] From a short, but unique vocabulary of Lieutenant Emory's.
[152] The meaning of the Italics may be seen in p. 397.
[153] The meaning of the italics may be seen in p. 397.
[154] We have no vocabulary of the Pimos Indians of the Gila, north of
the Apaches.
[155] Travels in the Interior of Mexico, p. 465.
[156] See p. 410.
[157] Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1835.
[158] Published by the Hackluyt Society.
[159] Dampier's Voyages.
[160] See Prichard, vol. v., p. 479.
[161] Of Easter Island.
[162] See p. 428.
[163] Schomburgk, Transactions of the Ethnological Society.
[164] Perhaps in such terms as _Xanthus_=_Scamander_,
_Briareus_=_Ægcon_, we have the phænomenon of a second language.
[165] Ethnological Transactions, Vol. I.
[166] E.=Eskimo, A.=Algonkin, I.=Iroquois, S.=Sioux, C.=Cherokee.
[167] Of course, I mean _Phonetic_ hieroglyphics; since it is only
these that indicate a higher civilization than picture-writing.
G.
INDIAN MONGOLIDÆ.
The present notice of the Mongolidæ of Hindostan will contain
little beyond an enumeration of their chief divisions. The further
questions--too numerous, even in their proper place, to be considered
in detail--will be found in the ethnography of the Iapetidæ.
THE INDIAN STOCK.
_Area._--Hindustan, Cashmere, Ceylon, the Maldives and
Laccadives, part of Beloochistan.
_Conterminous_ with the Iapetidæ(?) of Beloochistan and Cabúl,
the Seriform tribes of Little Tibet and the Sub-Himalayan
countries of Bisahur, Nepaul, Sikkim, the Koch and Bodo
country, the Garo country, Assam, and Aracan.
_Political relations._--Chiefly either English or Independent.
Partially French, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese.
_Religions._--Brahminism, Buddism, with a variety of eclectic
and intermediate creeds, Parsi fireworship, Mahometanism, with
creeds intermediate to it and Brahminism or Buddhism, Paganism,
fragments or rudiments of Judaism and Christianity.
_Physical condition of country._--Chiefly intertropical, with
_a._ Fluviatile alluvia (deltas of the Indus and Ganges).
_b._ Mountain and forest ranges (the Ghants, &c.). _c._
Sandy steppes (Ajmeer and the Punjaub). _d._ Portions of the
Himalayan range (Cashmere).
_Social and civilizational influences._--_a._ Ante-Mahometan;
Persian, and Greek. _b._ Mahometan; Arabic, Persian, Turk,
Mongol. _c._ Recent; Portuguese, Dutch, French, Danish, British.
_Physical conformation._--The two extreme forms.--_a._ Colour
dark, or even black, skin coarse, nasal profile flattened,
cheek-bones prominent, lips thick, hair coarse and generally
straight, beard scanty, limbs oftener slender than massive,
stature oftener short than tall.
_b._ Colour brunette, sometimes of great clearness and
delicacy, skin delicate, nose aquiline, eyebrows arched
and delicate, frontal profile perpendicular, cranium
dolikhokephalic, zygomatic development moderate, lips thin,
stature sometimes tall, limbs often powerful, the whole body
being well-formed, even when not muscular, and the face oval,
with regular and expressive features.
_Habits._--Agricultural and industrial. More rarely pastoral.
Sometimes predatory.
_Nutrition._--Varied. Sometimes nearly wholly vegetable;
sometimes almost exclusively animal.
_Social constitution._--Castes; the higher the caste, the more
predominant the second type of physical conformation.
_Intermixture._--Arabs on the western, Malays, Indo-Chinese, on
the eastern coast. In earlier time, Turanian Turks, Mongols,
Scythians(?), Persians.
_Emigrant and Indians._--1. The Gypsies. 2. Hindu traders in
different parts of Asia.
_Frontier._--Partly _encroaching_ on that of the Sub-Himalayan
Seriform tribes (_i.e._, in Kumaon, Gurhwhal, and Bisahur),
partly _receding_, _i.e._ in Nepaul.
_Antiquities._--Rock temples, tombs, columns, coins,
inscriptions in the Pali. Ancient literature in the Sanskrit
language.
_Epochs._--1. Ante-historical Persian, _i.e._ the epoch of the
introduction of the languages represented by the Sanskrit,
and the germs of the Brahminical system. 2. Macedonian, from
the time of Alexander to the breaking-up of the Indo-Bactrian
kingdom. 3. Mahometan. 4. European.
_Alphabets._--1. With the letters more square than round,
manifestly derived from the Sanskrit. 2. With the letters
more round than square, derived from the Sanskrit, but not so
visibly as the former.
_Divisions._--1. The Tamul. 2. The Pulinda. 3. The Brahúi. 4.
The Indo-Gangetic. 5. The Purbutti. 6. The Cashmirian. 7. The
Cingalese. 8. The Maldivian.
THE TAMUL.
_Area._--Continuous. The Dekhan, from Cape Comorin to an
irregular line from Goa, west, to Chicacole, east.
_Physical appearance._--Chiefly referable to the first type.
Complexion oftener a black than a clear brunette; the latter,
however, the case with certain hill-tribes (the Tudahs of the
Nilgherries). A high stature and aquiline nose rarer than with
Indo-Gangetic tribes. Lips often thick. Skull probably more
dolikhokephalic than brakhykephalic. Maxillary profile often
prognathic. The general physiognomy exhibiting many points
common to the African.
_Religion._--Paganism, and in the cases of Brahminism, with a
considerable amount of the original Paganism intermixed.
_Language._--Containing Sanskrit words in proportion to the
_non_-Pagan character of the tribe by which it is spoken; in no
case, however, are they so numerous as to prevent the original
_non_-Sanskritic character of the language from being admitted.
_Alphabets._--Of the second class.
_Quasi-Pulinda[168] sections of the population._--Tudahs,
Buddugurs, Erulars, Curumbars, Cohatars.
_Languages._--_a._ _The Tamul Proper._--Falling into two
varieties, _a._ The High Tamul or Literary Dialect, and, _b._
The Low Tamul.
_Spoken._ From the parts about Pulicat to Cape Comorin, and as
far west as Coimbatoor, the south portion of Mysore.
_Conterminous_ with the Telinga (Teluga), Kanara, and Malayálam.
_b._ _Tbelinga_ (Telugu). _a._ High. _b._ Low.
_Spoken_, immediately to the north of the Tamul from Pulicat
to about 18° north latitude on the coast, and as far inland as
Bangalore south, and the head-waters of the river Tapti, north.
_Conterminous_ with the Udiya, the Mahratta, certain Pulinda
dialects(?), and the Kanara.
_c._ _Kanara_.--_a._ High, _b._ Low.
Central part of the Deccan from Beder, north, to the
lower-third of Mysore, south.
_Conterminous_ with the Mahratta, Telinga, certain Pulinda
dialects, the Udiya, the Telugu, the Kanarese, and the Tamul.
_d._ _Tulava._--A dialect of the Kanarese. Spoken on the
western coast between Goa and Mangalore, _i.e._ chiefly in the
province of Kanara.
_e._ _Malayálam._--South-west coast, from the limits of the
Kanara to Cape Comorin.
_f._ _Coorgi._--Spoken in Coorg. Unwritten.
_g._ _Tudah._--Mountaineers of the Nilgherri Hills. Unwritten.
The remarkable custom of polyandria,[169] which has been noticed as
one of the characters of the Seriform Tibetans, reappears among the
Tamuls of Malabar. "The marriages of the Nayrs" (the caste next in
dignity to the Brahmins), "so termed, are contracted when they are ten
years of age; but the husband never lives with his wife, who remains
in the home of her mother or brother, and is at liberty to choose any
lover of a rank equal to her own. Her children are not considered as
her husband's, nor do they inherit from him. Every man looks upon his
sister's children, who alone are connected with him by ties of blood,
as his heirs."--_Prichard_, iv. 161.
THE PULINDAS.
_Area._--Irregular, and in the present state of our knowledge,
discontinuous. Nearly encompassed by that of the Indo-Gangetic
Indians. Chiefly mountain-ranges.
_Physical appearance._--Exclusively of the first type,
approaching by an increased zygomatic development, with the
northern tribes, that of the Seriform Mongolidæ.
_Religion._--Absolute Paganism, or Paganism with the _minimum_
amount of Brahminical influences.
_Languages or dialects._--Numerous. All unwritten, and but
partially known. Even when mutually unintelligible, evidently
connected with each other. Evidently, also, connected with the
Tamuls. Proportion of Sanskrit at the _minimum_.
_Vocabularies._--1. Kol. 2. Larka-Kol. 3. Sontal. 4. Soar. 5.
Bhumij. 6. Mandala. 7. Rajmahal. 8. Goandi.
_Divisions._--A. Northern Pulindas. B. Eastern Pulindas. C.
Central Pulindas.
_Distribution._--A. The Ganges on the confines of Bahar and
Bengal, in the mountain-range between Baghulpur and Rajmahal.
B. Orissa, the Northern Circars, and the _Eastern_ part of
Gundwana--Kóls, Khonds, and Soárs.
C. _Western_ Gundwana--Goands.
RAJMAHALI.
_Locality._--Mountains in the neighbourhood of Rajmahal, on the
confines of Orissa and Bengal.
_Physical appearance._--Average height about five feet three
inches. "A flat nose seems the characteristic feature, but it
is not so flat as that of the Cafirs of Africa, nor are their
lips so thick, though generally thicker than the inhabitants
of the plain." "Fairer than the Bengalese; have broad faces,
small eyes, and flattish or rather turned-up noses; but the
Malay, or Chinese character of their features, from whom they
are said to be descended, is lost in a great degree on closer
inspection."--_Asiatic Researches._
_Pantheon._--Bedo Gossaik, Pow Gossaik, Davary Gossaik, Kali
Gossaik, &c.
The tables of Hodgson show the affinity of the Rajmahali with the Kol,
Bhumij, and the true Khond dialects of Orissa; as well as with the
Goandi of Central India.
THE BRAHÚI.
_Locality._--Beloochistan.
_Conterminous_ with the Indians of Scinde and the Balooches
(Biluchi) of Persia.
That the Brahúi numerals were liker those of Southern India than any
others, is indicated by Lassen. That the language, in general, is
Tamul, may be seen by a comparison of the vocabularies at large. To
this fact the Brahúi locality, so far west and north, gives great
importance. The date, however, of their occupancy still remains
unsettled. They may be recent settlers, or they may be aborigines, for
anything known from history.
THE INDO-GANGETIC INDIANS.
_Area._--The systems of the Indus, and of the Ganges, Northern
India. Continuous, but not uninterrupted; Pulinda populations
being interspersed.
_Physical appearance._--Often of the second type, and almost
exclusively supplying the standard specimens of it.
_Religion._--Brahminism, with a _minimum_ amount of Paganism,
Buddhism, Mahometanism. Sects, and intermediate creeds.
Parseeism.
_Language._--Non-Sanskritic in respect to its grammar, but so
full of Sanskrit vocables as to appear to be Sanskritic in
origin.
_Alphabets._--Of the first class.
_Quasi-Pulinda populations._--_a._ _Bhils._--In the wider parts
of the Vindhya chain, and northern part of the western Ghauts.
_Kulis._--South of the Bhils of the Ghauts.
_Ramusis_, _Berdars._--The Ghauts of the Mahratta country,
south of the Kulis.
_Waralis and Katodis._--The wilder part of the Concan.
_Languages._--1. _The Punjabi._--Conterminous with the Pushtú
of Affghanistan. Literature recent, and of Hindu origin. The
language of the Sikhs.
2. _The Multani_ (Ooch).--Moultan; no native literature.
3. _The Gipsy._--Considered here because, although spoken by
Indians who are spread over Europe and Asia in general, rather
than occupants of their natural soil, the Multan is the Indian
dialect to which it is most allied.
4. _The Sindi._--Locality Sinde; native literature little or
none.
5. _The Cutch._--Probably a dialect of the Sindi, or else of--
6. _The Gujerati._--Spoken in Gujerat. Native literature
considerable, especially in respect to writings on the Parsi
religion, of which Gujerat is the chief seat.
7. _Bikhaneer_ (Vikaneer).--Rajasthana.
8. _Odipoor._--Ditto.
9. _Jeypoor._--Ditto.
10. _Haroti._--Ditto.
11. _Mewar._--Ditto.
12. _Malwah._--The province so-called.
13. _Bundelcund._--Country round Allahabad.
14. _The Hindi._--Agra, Delhi, Oude, said to form the basis
of the Sub-Himalayan languages of Gurwhal, Sirmor, Kumaon,
Bisahur, and Nepaul(?).
15. _The Hindostani._--The Hindi proper converted by the
introduction of Persian and other words into a sort of lingua
Franca.
16. _The Maithili._--Spoken in South Bahar.
17. _The Bengali._--Bengal.
18. _The Assamese._--South-western part of Assam. Not the
indigenous language even to that district. Closely akin to the
Bengali, of which it is, perhaps, scarcely more than a dialect.
This and the Bengali are conterminous with the monosyllabic
languages of the eastern Sub-Himalayan range, and the northern
portion of the Transgangetic Peninsula.
19. _The Udiya._--Spoken in Cuttack and Orissa, as far south as
18° south latitude (there or thereabouts); conterminous with
the Bengali on the north.
The southern part of the Udiya area is irregularly bounded
by portions of the country belonging to the _first_ class,
and its western by portions belonging to the _second_ class
of Indian languages. As the Udiya is the most southern of the
Indian tongues belonging to the first division on the east,
the--
20. _Mahratta._--Is the most southern on the west side of the
Peninsula; bounded on the north by the Satpura Mountains, as
far as Nagpore; thence it follows the course of the Nagpore
river as far as its junction with the River Wurda. Westward,
the boundary between it and the Kanara (of the second division)
runs in an irregular line to Goa.
21. _The Concani._--The strip of coast between the western
Ghauts and the sea between Bombay north, and Goa south. The
district of Concana interrupting the area of the Mahratta
language, of which, perhaps, it is a dialect.
THE PURBUTTI(?) (MOUNTAINEERS).
_Distribution._--The Sub-Himalayan range between Cashmir west,
and the River Teesta on the borders of Sikkim, east.
_Area._--Kumaon, Gurwhal, Sirmor, part of Bisahur, Kulu,
Chambá, Mandi, Kangrah, Sukhet, Gulihur, Lahoul.
_Physical appearance._--Hindu, modified by either Seriform
intermixture or influences of climate and altitude, or both.
_Language._--Indo-Gangetic(?). In many cases a near approach
to the Hindi; in others, probably, to the Punjabi and the
Cashmirian.
_Religion._--Chiefly Brahminic.
_Divisions._--1. Central Purbutti, or Khasiyas, in Gurwhal and
Kumaon. 2. Eastern Purbutti, from Nepaul to the Bodo frontier;
few and equivocal. 3. Western Purbutti, in the parts between
the Sutlege and Cashmir.
The character of these populations is, as stated above, derived from
either the influences of a mountain climate, or from intermixture with
Seriform Tibetans, or both.
Admitting the latter as an important element, it then remains to be
considered which of the two stocks is the original one. Were the
sub-Himalayan terraces originally Seriform and afterwards peopled
by Indians, or was the population originally Pulinda, with which
was subsequently intermixed an Indo-Gangetic element. This is the
uncertainty which is denoted by the note of interrogation(?).
The question which it involves is by no means answered by saying that
the advent of the Brahminical Hindus of Gurwhal, Sirmor, and Kumaon,
as conquerors and colonists, is a matter of history. Even, then, the
nature of the primitive race remains uncertain, _i. e._ it is an open
question whether they were southern branches of the Seriform stock,
or northern Pulindas; to say nothing about the likelihood of their
being intermediate to the two, or different for different parts of the
frontier.
That they were Seriform is the likelier doctrine of the two. Still
when we see, on the eastern side of the peninsula, how nearly the
northern Pulindas of Rajmahal approach the southern Seriform Garos, the
difficulties of the question become apparent.
The division of the Purbuttis into three groups is natural. The
Khasiyas, in Kumaon and Gurwhal, are Indo-Gangetic Indians with the
_minimum_ of intermixture, it being stated that in those two countries
the aboriginal impure race is extinct. On the east the extreme tribes
are likely to pass into the Bodo and Dhimál, on the west into the
Cashmirian type.
Again, the political relations of the eastern Purbutti are with Nepaul.
Those of the west with Cashmir and the Punjâb.
As to the real phænomena of intermixture, they can only be ascertained
by a great increase of our information for the parts in question; since
they are preeminently irregular in their distribution, _e. g._ in
Konawer, where the language is Seriform, and the physiognomy Tibetan,
the religion is an imperfect Brahminism; whilst in Jobool (and probably
elsewhere) we find by the side of a Hindu language and physiognomy the
custom of Polyandria, common to both the Seriform Tibetans and the
Tamul Malabars.
THE CASHMIRIAN(?).
_Locality._--The Valley of Cashmir.
_Language._--Indo-Gangetic.
_Religion._--Mahometanism.
_Physical appearance._--Referable to the second type, with
clearness of complexion and regularity of features at its
maximum.
The note of interrogation denotes that the _non_-Indo-Gangetic element
of the Cashmirians is uncertain. It may be Tamul; it may be Seriform;
it may, on the other hand, belong to the class represented by the
Siaposh, and other Quasi-Iranian, or Iranian, populations.
THE CINGALESE.
_Locality._--Ceylon.
_Language._--So full of Sanskrit vocables as to be classed with
the Indo-Gangetic rather than with the Tamul tongues.
_Religion._--Buddhism rather than Brahminism. Paganism.
_Quasi-Pulinda population._--The Vaddahs.
THE MALDIVIAN(?).
_Localities._--The Maldive and Laccadive islands.
The note of interrogation indicates that the Maldivians are, perhaps,
a sub-division of the Cingalese rather than a separate substantive
section of the Indian Mongolidæ.
FOOTNOTES:
[168] For the meaning of this term, see the notice of _India_ under the
head of the _Iapetidæ._
[169] See p. 20.
ATLANTIDÆ.
DIVISIONS.
A.--THE NEGRO ATLANTIDÆ.
B.--THE KAFFRE ATLANTIDÆ.
C.--THE HOTTENTOT ATLANTIDÆ.
D.--THE NILOTIC ATLANTIDÆ.
E.--AMAZIRG--ATLANTIDÆ.
F.--THE ÆGYPTIAN ATLANTIDÆ.
G.--THE SEMITIC ATLANTIDÆ.
In respect to the general phænomena of ethnological distribution,
we are now fully prepared for all that will be presented in Africa.
Large areas covered by single nations, and small ones parcelled out
amongst many, are what we have already seen both in Asia and America.
The influences of a climate, at once tropical and continental, we
shall find at their _maximum_; those of extended river-systems, and of
mountain-ranges of the first magnitude, being less important. So also
is the influence of the ocean; the insular system of Africa being the
smallest in the world, and the African sea-board being the one least
indented.
From the greater heat of climate, the steppes of High Asia become sandy
deserts in Africa: whilst the central portion of the continent where
the highest table-land is to be expected, has yet to be explored.
Still the effect of a high level above the sea as manifested (for
instance) in Abyssinia, is to be taken into our consideration of the
physical conditions of Africa, _i.e._ as a condition that, to a certain
degree, in certain cases, counteracts the effects of excessive heat.
On the other hand, alluvial tracts, like the valleys of the Nile and
Niger are to be placed in the opposite scale, as assistant to the
influences of a tropical and equatorial sun.
The region, however, of the Atlantidæ is not Africa alone; it is Africa
and something else--Africa _plus_ the African side of Asia, _i.e._
Syria and Arabia; and here, in attending to the African character
of the latter of these two areas, we must not lose sight of their
physical relations to the sterile table-land of Persia, and the true
steppe-country of Turkestan and Mongolia; for such is the line of
continuity, in the way of steppes or desert, from Sahara to Siberia.
Strictly adhering to the order of the supposed affinities, it would be
proper to take the Atlantidæ of Asia first; in which case we should
begin with the Arab and Jew, and proceed with the Ægyptian, the Berber,
and Abyssinian, when the arrangement would be strictly natural.
Nevertheless, a different and more artificial arrangement will be
adopted here, and the portion of the Atlantidæ, which will be dealt
with first, will not be those who are most closely allied to the
Mongolidæ or the Iapetidæ, but those who least resemble either; in
other words, those who exhibit the Atlantidean type in its most
remarkable form. Hence, it is its typical character rather than its
affiliation and descent, which places the _Negro_ division at the head
of the Atlantidæ.
A.
NEGRO ATLANTIDÆ.
_Physical conformation._--Skin black, unctuous, and soft. Hair
woolly, lips thick, maxillary profile prognathic, frontal
retiring, nasal depressed.
_Distribution._--Low-lands, sea-coasts, and the delta and
courses of rivers, chiefly of the rivers Senegal, Gambia,
Niger, and Upper Nile. Nearly limited to the Tropic of Cancer.
_Area._--Western Africa from the Senegal to the Gaboon, Sudan.
The alluvial portions of the system of the Upper Nile.
_Divisions._--1. Western Negroes. 2. Central Negroes. 3.
Eastern Negroes.
No fact is more necessary to be remembered than the difference between
the Negro and African; a fact which is well verified by reference to
the map. Here the true Negro area, the area occupied by men of the
black skin, thick lip, depressed nose, and woolly hair, is exceedingly
small; as small in proportion to the rest of the continent as the area
of the district of the stunted Hyperboreans is in Asia, or that of
the Laps in Europe. Without going so far as to maintain that a dark
complexion is the exception rather than the rule in Africa, it may
safely be said that the hue of the Arab, the Indian, and the Australian
is the prevalent colour. To realize this we may ask, what are the
true Negro districts of Africa? and what those other than Negro? To
the latter belong the valleys of the Senegal, the Gambia, the Niger,
and the intermediate rivers of the coast, parts of Sudania, and parts
about Sennaar, Kordofan, and Darfúr; to the former, the whole coast of
the Mediterranean, the Desert, the whole of the Kaffre and Hottentot
areas south of the line, Abyssinia, and the middle and lower Nile. This
leaves but little for the typical Negroes. Such, however, as it is, it
will be dealt with--taking the Senegal as a starting-point.
Again, sub-typical deviations from the true Negro type will be found
within the group in question; since the Sudanian Blacks have the
characters of their class in a less degree than the more extreme
Negroes of the Niger and the Gambia.
Lastly; the class in question is not strictly ethnological, and that
for the following reasons:--It is based upon elements other than those
of affiliation and descent. Thus in respect to descent, the Negro of
Sennaar has his closest relations in the way of language, manners, and
blood, with the Africans of Kordofan, Abyssinia, and the parts about
his own country. Not so, however, his physical conformation. These are
with the Africans of Senegambia and Guinea; a fact brought about by the
common conditions of heat, moisture, and a low sea-level; conditions,
however, which render the group artificial and provisional rather than
natural and permanent. The same would be the case if we threw all the
mountaineers of Europe in one and the same class, irrespective of
their real ethnological differences, simply on the ground of their all
exhibiting certain common phænomena of colour, stature, and habits.
I repeat the statement, therefore, that the class of the Negro
Atlantidæ is only partially an ethnological one.
The chief area of the Negro is Western Africa, and the point at which
the notice of the Negro group most conveniently begins is the mouth
of the Senegal, the most northern locality of the _Western Negro
Atlantidæ_.
WESTERN NEGRO ATLANTIDÆ.
_Area._--The Lower Senegal and Gambia, the coast as far as the
Kong Mountains, the Lower Niger, and the coast south of that
river.
_Chief divisions._--1. The Woloffs. 2. The Sereres. 3.
The Serawolli. 4. The Mandingo. 5. The Sapi-Felúp. 6. The
Ibo-Ashantí.
Of these the most northern are--
THE WOLOFF (IOLOF, JOLOFF, OUOLOFF).
_Locality._--The Lower Senegal, _i.e._ Cayor on its north, and
the coast as far as Cape Verde on its south bank. Conterminous
with the Fulahs, Sereres, Serawolli, Mandingos, Berbers, and
Moors of the Western Sahara.
_Religion._--Feticism.
_Physical conformation._--Tall, well-made Negroes, with the
nasal profile less depressed, and the lips less prominent than
is the case with the more typical tribes.
THE SERERES.
_Locality._--Cape Verde, conterminous with and surrounded by
the Woloffs.
The Sereres are considered (and that upon fair grounds) to have been
the original inhabitants of a great part of the Woloff country.
Consequently, they are tribes of a receding area.
The affinities of the language are problematical; being with the Woloff
and the Fulah almost equally. It has also many words common to it and--
THE SERAWOLLI (SERACOLET).
_Locality._--Senegambia in the kingdoms of Galam, Kaarta, in
parts of the Bambarra country, and in parts of Ludamar, north
of the Senegal.
The affinities of the Serawolli language are, perhaps, most with the
Sereres, and, after that, with the Mandingo.
THE MANDINGO.
_Area._--North and south (south-east).--From the parts about
Cape Verde to Liberia; with an extension, inland, beyond Sego
and the Kong Mountains.
_Conterminous_ with the Woloff, Fulah, Sungai, Howssa, Grebo,
and Fantí areas.
_Divisions._--1. Mandingo Proper. 2. Mandingos of Bambouk. 3.
Bambarrans. 4. Yallonkas. 5. Susu. 6. Bullom. 7. Timmani. 8.
Kossa.(?) 9. Pessa. 10. Vei. 11. Mendi. 12. Kissi. 13. Sokko.
14. Sulimana. 15. Sangara. 16. Kooranko.
_Vocabularies._--For the first thirteen of the preceding
divisions.
_Physical conformation._--Hair, woolly; nose, depressed; lips,
thick; stature, high; skin, black, with a tinge of yellow;
sclerotica, tinged with yellow.
_Religion._--Mahometanism and Paganism.
_Alphabets._--1. The Arabic of the Mandingos Proper. 2. The Vei
(syllabic).
[Illustration: Fig. 15.]
This last deserves special notice. About the middle of January, 1849,
Lieutenant Forbes, Commander of H.M.S. Bonetta, inquired of the
missionaries of Sierra Leone, whether they had heard of a _written
language_ amongst the natives of those parts, since he himself
possessed a book in the language of the natives near Cape Mount. The
Rev. S. W. Koelle, a missionary of Sierra Leone, undertook a personal
investigation of the matter. He found that it was not only composed
within the memory of man, but that the composer was alive; a man
of the Vei country, named Doala Bukara. Doala Bukara, although an
imperfect Mahometan, had seen Arabic books, and, though no Christian,
an English Bible. The fact of these being _written_, haunted him in a
dream, wherein he was shown a series of letters adapted to his native
tongue--the Vei.
Nevertheless, the real alphabet was a joint production--_i.e._ of
Doala and others; since, in the morning, he could not remember the
signs shown him by night. Therefore, he and his friends put their
heads together, and coined new ones. The king of the country made its
introduction a matter of state, and built a large house in Dshondu,
as a day-school. But a war with the Guru people disturbed both the
learners and teachers, so that the latter removed to Bandakoro, where
all grown-up people, of both sexes, can now read and write.
The Vei alphabet is a syllabarium; of which the preceding was a
specimen.[170]
South of the Gambia, the Mandingo area, although extended so far in the
interior, does not quite reach the coast, so that the lower portions
of the rivers Caçamanca, Cacheo, Nunez, &c., are occupied by tribes
not as yet distinctly recognised to be Mandingo. Neither are they
as yet considered as allied either to the Woloff, or to each other.
Speaking languages, mutually unintelligible, they are typical Negroes
of the rudest and savagest kind; all being pagans. At Sierra Leone, the
Mandingo reappears on the coast, _i.e._ amongst the Bullom and Timmani
tribes.
SAPI-FELÚPS.
Of these the most northern are--
THE FELÚP.
_Locality._--The forests and low-lands at the mouth of the
Caçamanca.
_Language._--With miscellaneous, but without special affinities.
THE PAPEL.
_Locality._--River Cacheo, south of the Felúps.
_Language._--Said to be peculiar; the only vocabulary of it,
however, has been lost.
THE BISSAGO ISLANDERS.
_Locality._--The Bissago Isles. Probably the same stock as the
Papels.
THE BALANTES.
_Locality._--Isle of Bassi and the opposite coast South of the
Papels.
_Language._--Said to be peculiar, but not known from any
vocabulary.
THE IOLAS.
THE BASARES.
_Locality._--Between the Balantes and--
THE BAGNON.
_Locality._--The river Cacheo.
THE NALOO.
_Locality._--The Nunez.
THE SAPI.
_Locality._--Sea-coast in the neighbourhood of the Nunez.
BAGOES.
_Locality._--South of the Nalus, on the coast. Conterminous
with the Susu Bullom, and Timani Mandingos to which they
perhaps belong.
A convenient transition is now made to the area of--
THE IBO-ASHANTÍ.
Here come, first in order--
THE FANTÍ.
_Area._--The Gold-Coast, and the Ashantí country. From the
river Asinese, west, to the river Volta, east. Inland extension
uncertain. Continuous, but not uninterrupted.
_Conterminous_ with the Mandingo Súsús, and the Whidahs of
Dahomey.
Within the Fantí area are spoken several unclassed tongues, _i.e._
THE AKVAMBU(?)
THE ADAMPI(?)
and, more important than any, that of--
THE GHÁ.
_Synonym._--Acra or Inkra.
_Locality._--Cape Coast.
The Ghá are Negroes in appearance; speaking a language unintelligible
to the Fantí populations, but with undoubted general and miscellaneous
affinities. They have the appearance of being derived from some country
in the interior of Africa, a fact which Mr. Hanson--himself a native
preacher, who has studied the ethnology of his country with great
zeal--thinks can be verified by the comparison of an Acra vocabulary
with one from the parts near Timbuctú.
More important still, is the unequivocal occurrence of _numerous
well-marked Jewish characters_ in their religious and other ceremonies.
A paper of Mr. Hanson's[171] on this subject, leaves no doubt of the
_fact_. The interpretation, however, is more uncertain. The present
writer believes that such phænomena, _i.e._ points of similarity with
the Semitic nations, is the rule rather than the exception with the
African tribes--Negro and _non_-Negro; a fact which makes the Jews,
Arabs, and Syrians, African, rather than the Africans Semitic.
THE WHIDAH.
_Area._--Kingdom of Dahomey. From the river Volta to the river
Lagos.
_Physical conformation._--Typically Negro.
_Religion._--Feticism in its lowest form.
THE MAHA.
_Locality._--North of Dahomey, at the foot and on the sides of
the Kong Mountains.
THE BENIN TRIBES.
_Locality._--The sea-coast on the Bight of Benin. Conterminous
with the Whidah and Yarriba.
The peculiar distribution of the Mandingos must now be considered,
along with the configuration of the Guinea coast, and, the
imperfectly-known range of highlands, which, at irregular distances
from the ocean, runs nearly parallel with it; this range of highlands
being the assumed watersheds of the following rivers between Sierra
Leone and the western frontier of the Fantí country--the rivers Jong,
Gallinas, Cape Mount, St. Paul's, St. John's, Cestos, Lagos, Negros,
Costa. All these are inconsiderable, indicating that the elevations
in which they rise are near the coast. On the other hand, in Ashantí
and Dahomey, the rivers are of considerable magnitude, and indicate
that the mountain range in which they rise (the Kong mountains) is far
inland.
Now the low coast is the area of the following sections of a typically
Negro population.
THE GREBO.
_Synonym._--Cru, or Cruman.
_Locality._--The Grain Coast.
_Conterminous_ with the Vei, and other South-Mandingo dialects,
north; with the Avekvom, south.
_Religion._--Paganism.
_Physical conformation._--Typically Negro.
I am far from being sure that the Grebo is not a section of the
Mandingo class.
THE AVEKVOM.
_Synonym._--Quaqua.
_Locality._--Ivory Coast.
_Conterminous_ with the Grebo tribes, west, the Fantí, east,
and probably, certain Mandingo tribes of the Sokko section,
inland.
_Dialects._--1. Frisco. 2. Bassam. 3. Asini. 4. Apollonia.[172]
_Religion and appearance._--Pagan Negroes.
We now pass over the Fantí, Whidah, and Benin areas (already
considered) to the typical Negroes of the Delta of the Niger.
BONNY.
_Locality._--The river Bonny or New Calabar.
_Language._--Unintelligible to the natives of--
OLD CALABAR.
_Locality._--The Old Calabar river.
_Language._--Different from--
THE IBO.
_Area._--The Lower Niger, nearly as far as Funda.
_Conterminous_ with the Whidah(?), Benin(?), Bonny, Old
Calabar, Bimbia(?), Yarriba, and Tapua tribes.
ADIYAH.
_Locality._--Fernando Po.
_Language._--Not _identical_ with any tongue of the Continent;
though with miscellaneous affinities.
THE BIMBIA.
_Locality._--The Lower Cameroons.
In the Bimbia country the low coast is at its minimum breadth, the foot
of the Cameroons Mountain nearly reaching the sea.
CENTRAL NEGRO ATLANTIDÆ.
By following the course of the Niger, we are again brought in contact
with the Mandingo area, _i.e._ with the northern portion of it. Hence,
the populations which will now be noticed encompass and surround
the Mandingo nations, much as the Mandingo nations encompassed and
surrounded the Grebo and Avekvom tribes.
THE YARRIBA.
_Locality._--The right and left(?) bank (banks) of the Niger to
the back of the Ibo and Benin countries.
_Area._--Borgho, Wawa, Boussa, Yaouri.
_Religion._--Paganism.
_Physical conformation.--Sub_-typical Negroes.
_Habits._--Tattooed.
THE TAPUA.
_Synonym._--Nyffe.
_Locality._--The country between the rivers Niger, Makumnee,
and Coodoonia.
_Conterminous_ with the Ibo (south), the Yarriba (south-west),
the Fellatah country (east and north-west), the Haussa(?)
country, north.
_Religion._--Paganism. Nearly that of Yarriba.
_Physical conformation._--_Sub_-typical Negroes; with better
shapes and clearer skins than even the Yarribians.
HAUSSA (HOWSSA).
_Area._--Irregular, being deeply indented by that of the
Fellatahs.
_Conterminous_ with the Tapua(?), Yarriba, Fellatahs, Bornúi,
the Berber Tuaricks.
_Philological divisions._--Haussa Proper, Guberi, Kashna,
Mallowa(?), Quollaliffa(?), Kallaghi(?).
_Religion._--Mohametanism and Paganism.
_Physical appearance._--_Sub_-typical Negroes.
THE FULAHS.
_Area._--In the present state of our knowledge, discontinuous.
Encroaching.
_Divisions._--1. Senegambian Fulahs. 2. Fellatahs.
_Localities._--1. Of the Senegambian Fulahs. _a._ The northern
bank of the Senegal, about Lake Kayor, conterminous with the
Moors of the Sahara and Woloff. _b._ Fouta-Torra, south of the
Senegal, in the same longitude, probably conterminous with
the first locality; conterminous with the Woloff, Sereres,
Mandingos, and Serawollis. _c._ Bondou, west of Fouta-Torro
(with which it is probably conterminous), on the Rio Nerico.
_d._ Foota-jallo and Tembu, on the head-waters of the Rio
Grande, between the Nalus and the Susu and Solimana Mandingos.
How close these come to sea is uncertain. The Susu, although
said to be Fulah, are certainly Mandingo. _e._ Brooko and
Fuladu, between the great eastern feeders of the Senegal north
of Jallonka Mandingos. _f._ Wassela(?), south-east of Fuladu.
_g._ Massina, on the Niger, between Jenne and Timbuktú.
2. Of the Fellatahs--Cubbi, Ader, Guber; parts of Borgu,
Boussa, Kano, Zegzeg, as far as 10° north latitude, and 10°
east latitude, _i.e._ parts, probably, occupied by encroachment
on the Haussa, Yarriba, and Nufi areas.
_Religion._--Mahometanism, Paganism.
_Physical appearance._--_Sub_-typical Negroes.
The civilization of the Mahometan Fulahs is on the same level with that
of the most civilized (or Proper) Mandingos.
The departure from the Negro type is, in some instances, greater than
has been the case with any of the sub-typical Negroes enumerated; so
much so, that the Fulahs of the Gambia have been called the _red_
Fulahs.
Their extension over Howssa, the Yarribian and the Tapua countries, has
taken place within the historical period, under a leader named Danfodio.
Nevertheless, the exact original locality of the stock has yet to be
determined.
CUMBRI.
_Locality._--Forests, mountain fastnesses and swamps of Borgho,
Bowssa, Youri, and Wawa.
_Language._--Not known by a vocabulary, but said to differ from
that of the neighbouring tribes, Tapua and Yarriba.
_Physical conformation._--That of the Yarriba.
_Religion._--Pagan.
The Cumbri appear to be in the same relation to the Yarribeans and
Fellatahs that the Pulindas are to the Indo-Gangetic Indians, _i.e._
the representatives of a dispossessed population.
SUNGAI.
_Locality._--From the parts east of Sego (Sansangding) on the
Niger to the parts about Timbuctú. Probably in Timbuctú itself.
KISSÚR.
_Locality._--Parts about Timbuctú. Probably Timbuctú itself.
As the Sungai vocabulary of Hodgson represents a different language
from the Kissour of Caillié (both professing to represent the language
of Timbuctú) I leave the investigation for future inquiry.
BORNÚ.
_Locality._--Bornú, on the Lake Tshad.
_Divisions._--1. Bornúi, semi-civilised and Mahometan. 2. Bedi,
rude and Pagan.
_Physical conformation._--More truly Negro, and less
_sub_-typically Negro than any of the populations of the
interior already enumerated.
BIDDUMA.
_Locality._--Islands of Lake Tshad. Known by name only.
BEGHARMI.
_Locality._--The River Shary, South of Lake Tshad.
_Political relations._--Subject to Bornúi.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary, and different from both the
Bornúi and the--
MANDARA(?)
_Locality._--South and south-west of Begharmi.
_Language._--Known by a vocabulary, and different from both the
Begharmi and Bornúi.
_Extract from Denham and Clapperton._--"On penetrating a short
distance in this direction, with some people from Mandara, we
saw the inhabitants run up the mountains quite naked, with
ape-like agility. On another occasion, a company of savages
were sent from a Kerdy, or Pagan village, termed Musgow, as
a peace-offering, to deprecate the Sultan, who was on the
eve of making a kidnapping expedition into their country. On
entering his palace they threw themselves upon the ground,
pouring sand upon their heads, and uttering the most piteous
cries. On their heads, which were covered with long, woolly, or
rather bristly hair, coming quite over their eyes, they wore
a cap of the skin of a goat or some animal like a fox; round
their arms and in their ears were rings of what appeared to be
bone, and around the necks of each were from one to six strings
of the teeth of the enemies they had slain in battle; teeth
and pieces of bone were also pendent from the clotted locks
of their hair; their bodies were marked in different places
with red patches, and their teeth were stained of the same
colour. Their whole appearance is said to have been strikingly
wild and truly savage. Endeavours to set on foot intercourse
with them were in vain; they would hold no communication, but
having obtained leave, carried off the carcase of a horse to
the mountains, where the fires that blazed during the night,
and the savage yells which reached the valley, proved that they
were celebrating their brutal feast."
This, short as it is, is a notice which would apply to no Negro tribe
yet mentioned; indeed, there are many reasons for believing that south
of the Mandaras the type changes, and that the populations represented
by them are the almost unknown tribes of Central and Equatorial Africa.
At any rate, the Mandaras are the most southern tribes hitherto known
of the longitude of Bornú.
And now the comment upon the words _typical_, and _sub-typical_ Negroes
finds place. The two divisions coincide closely with the physical
character of the area to which each applies; the departure from the
true Negro features being greatest where the approach to a _high_-land
or a _table_-land is the closest; the Bornúi being, at one and the same
time, the most like the Negroes of the Coast, and the occupants of the
most notable basin of Central Africa, _i. e._ the basin of Lake Tshad.
Due east of Lake Tshad we have, according to a variety of imperfect
descriptions, a series of Negro districts; and here it must be admitted
that the coincidence between the Negro conformation and the existence
of fluviatile, lacustrine, or oceanic low-lands is not found to occur;
the greater part of the tract being, according to all accounts, a
table-land.
MOBBA.
_Locality._--East of Lake Tshad.
_Synonyms._--Called by the Arabs _Dar-Saleh_ and _Waday_;
Darfurians, _Bergú_.
_Religion._--Chiefly Mahometanism.
_Intermixture._--Arab.
FURIANS.[173]
_Locality._--Dar-Fúr.
_Religion._--Mahometanism.
_Intermixture._--Arab.
KOLDAGI.[173]
_Locality._--Kordofan.
EASTERN NEGRO ATLANTIDÆ.
South and east of the country of the Koldagi we come to the Negroes of
the White Nile (Bahr el Abiad); where the fluviatile character of the
soil and the physical appearance of the occupants coincide.
THE SHILLUK.[173]
THE DENKA.[173]
THE TUMALI.[173]
THE SHABÚN.[173]
_Locality._--South, or south-west, of the Koldagi.
THE FERTIT.[173]
_Locality._--South of the Shabún.
All these agree in being Pagan Negroes, south and south-west of Obeyd,
the capital of Kordofan.
They also agree in being slave countries, the markets they supply being
those of Ægypt.
Lastly, their languages have undoubted affinities with those of the
Nubian class, a fact which verifies the statement at the beginning
of the present section, _viz._ that the group of African Negroes was
artificial rather than natural, since tested by physical form, the
Denkas, &c., fall in the same class with the Ibos, &c., whereas their
real affiliation is with the Nubians.
Through the researches of Dr. L. Tutshek, one of these languages is
known grammatically, _i. e._ the Tumali; and it may be as well to
remark that it has (amongst others) as a _Semitic_ character, the
method of expressing grammatical relations by means of internal change
rather than by the addition of prefixes, postfixes, or inter-fixes, and
also that such changes (as in the Semitic tongues) fall upon the vowel
rather than the consonantal elements of the word.
More undoubted Negroes of the Nile are--
THE QÁMAMYL.
_Locality._--Fazoglo, or Fazoel, south of Sennaar.
_Language._--Peculiar, but with miscellaneous affinities.
THE DALLAS.
_Locality._--The Tacazze; called by Salt, the Shangalla
(Shankali) of the Tacazze.
_Language._--Peculiar, but with miscellaneous affinities.
THE DOBA.
I presume that these are the Dar-Mitchegan Shangallas of Salt, and the
Agaumider Shankalas of Beka. If so, they are occupants of the interior
of Abyssinia, and conterminous with the Agows of that country; their
language being peculiar, but with miscellaneous affinities.
And now follow two sections which I place amongst the Negroes
provisionally; the first because its characteristics, although
pretty well known, are aberrant; the second, because our information
concerning them is preeminently imperfect.
They are separated from one another by a large area, one being
north-west, the other south-east of Darfúr and Kordofan, and have
little in common except the uncertainty of their position.
THE TIBBOO(?).
_Area._--The Eastern Sahara; bounded by the Tuaricks, Ægypt,
Kanem (of which the ethnology is uncertain), Mobba, and the
Furian and Nubian tribes.
_Divisions._--1. Rechádeh, or Tibboos of the rocks, to the
southward and south-east of Fezzan. The towns of Abo and
Tibesty belong to them.
2. The Febabos, situated about ten days' journey towards the
south, south-west of Augelah.
3. The tribe of Borgou, placed further southward, nearly on the
parallel of the southern part of Fezzan.
4. The tribe of Arno.
5. The tribe of Bilma, which is the greatest tribe of the
Tibboo nation, and occupies the country between Fezzan and
Bomon.
6. Nomadic Tibboos, on the borders of the empire of Bornú.
_Physical appearance._--Lips, thick; hair, curly rather than
woolly; complexion, varied, from jet-black to a copper colour;
nose, in some tribes, flat, in others aquiline; frame, slender.
_Language._--With no special, but with numerous miscellaneous
affinities. Improperly considered to be Berber.--_From
Prichard_, vol. ii.
THE GONGAS(?).
_Present locality._--The valleys of the Rivers Abai and Godjeb.
_Original locality._--Enarea, and a large tract south of
Abyssinia.
_Area._--Discontinuous; the division being effected by the
invasion of Galla tribes.
_Dialects._--1. Kaffa. 2. Woratta. 3. Wolaitso, 4. Yangaro.
_Vocabularies._--Those of Dr. Beke, published in the
Transactions of the Philological Society.
The Gonga tribes are in the same relation to the Abyssinians as the
Mandara to the Bornúi, _i. e._ the occupants of the most southern part
of the geographical area known; the parts immediately beyond either
being _terræ incognitæ_.
If, however, the current notions respecting the geographical structure
of Central Africa be correct, and if the views here exhibited
respecting the coincidence between the Negro type in the way of
physical conformation and the geographical conditions of a fluviatile
low-land be well-founded, the tribes of the interior should depart
materially from the tribes already described; a probability which has
been indicated in the notices of the Mandara and Mobba Africans.
Nay more, inasmuch as the stock next in order of notice is a stock
with a preeminently encroaching frontier, it is probable that the
true affiliations of the southern Abyssinians may be lost through the
encroachments of the Gallas and Kaffres, and the consequent extinction
of the tribes representing them.
FOOTNOTES:
[170] For the meaning see Note at the end of the Volume.
[171] Read before the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, at Swansea, in 1848.
[172] American Journal of Oriental Literature.
[173] See Rüppell's Reise, &c., that author being the first to give the
true affinities of the Koldagi language, _i.e._ with the Nubian.
B.
KAFFRE ATLANTIDÆ.
The preliminary facts of most importance in the ethnology of the great
Kaffre area are two--connected with the language, and from their
combined effects giving it the appearance of differing in kind from any
other African tongue.
These two peculiarities, which are illustrated from Boyce's Kaffre, and
Archbell's Bechuana Grammars, are as follows:--
1. _The system of prefixes._--Every Kaffre noun is preceded by an
adventitious syllable, apparently destitute of any separate meaning;
just as if, in English, we said, instead of--
Father, _al_-father.[174]
Son, _el_-son.
Mother, _em_-mother.
So far is this principle carried that the words introduced by the
missionaries, from our own language, all become thus modified. Hence
_priest_ changes to _um-priest_; _pharisee_, _um-pharisee_. I imagine
that without this prefix the simple root would be as impossible a form
for a Kaffre or Bechuana as a word like ὀρνιθ- (_i. e._ a root without
any concomitant inflection) would be to a Greek. Nevertheless, the
Kaffre prefix is no sign of case or number.
In the following words the syllables in italics are the prefixes,
wholly independent in origin from the root, and wholly non-radical:--
ENGLISH. KAFFRE.
Person _um_tu.
Horse _i_hashe.
Chief _in_kosi.
Servant _isi_kaka.
Infant _u_sana.
River _um_lambo.
Face _u_buso.
Ford _ak_utya.
People _aba_ntu.
Words _ama_swe.
Cattle _ink_omo.
Trees _imi_ti.
2. _The euphonic or alliterational concord._--This is a point of Kaffre
syntax, and occurs when certain words come together; _e. g._ in the
case of a substantive governing another in the possessive case, or an
adjective agreeing with a substantive. In either of these cases the
_secondary word changes its initial sound into that of the primary one,
or into some sound allied to it_.
If in English we expressed the relation between the nominative and
possessive cases on the same principle that occurs in the Kaffre and
Bechuana, we should say instead of--
_M_an's dog--_d_an dog.
_S_un's beam--_b_un beam.
_F_ather's daughter--_d_ather daughter, &c.
It may easily be imagined that languages thus characterised, taken
along with undoubted points of physical difference, have supplied the
grounds for a somewhat broad line of demarcation between the Kaffre and
the other Africans. That such a line is natural, is certain; whether it
has not been made too broad, is another question.
KAFFRE NATIONS AND TRIBES.
_Physical conformation._--Modified Negro.
_Language._--Prefixional and alliterational.
_Area._--Western, Central(?), and Eastern Africa, from the
north of the Equator to the south of the Tropic of Capricorn.
_Chief divisions._--1. Western. 2. Southern Kaffres. 3. Eastern
Kaffres.
That there is no broad line between the Kaffre and _non_-Kaffre
Africans, on the western side of Africa at least, is shown by the
following populations; whereof both the languages, as known by
vocabularies, and the physical conformations are intermediate or
transitional.
1.
WESTERN KAFFRES.
Beginning with the parts south of the Bimbia area we have between the
river of that name and the Portuguese kingdom of Loango--
THE BATANGAS.
_Native name._--Bânâka.
_Locality._--Sea-coast of Western Africa 3° north latitude,
half way between the Camaroons and Gaboon.
_Physical appearance._--More Kaffre than Negro; skin more
copper-coloured than black; sclerotica clear.
THE PANWES.
_Locality._--Eastward to, and more in the interior than the
Batangas; from 3° north latitude to 3° south latitude, on the
Head-waters of the Gaboon.
THE MPOONGAS.
_Locality._--Mouth of the Gaboon.
Then follow the nations of--1. Loango; 2. Congo; 3. Angola; and 4.
Benguela; closely allied both in language and appearance, and nations
whose place in the Kaffre division has long been recognised.
That there is, however, considerable difference in respect to the
physical conformation of the different tribes, is certain; some
writers, reducing the native of Portuguese Africa to the Negro, others
to the proper Kaffrarian, or South Kaffre, type.
If the difference between these two extremes be rightly estimated by
the present writer, the former should prevail along the courses, the
latter on the watersheds of the rivers. His information, however, is
imperfect upon this point.
2.
SOUTHERN KAFFRES.
_Area._--The extra-tropical portion of South Africa, _minus_
the parts south, Walvisch Bay on the west, and the water-system
of the Orange River.--Encroaching.
_Chief divisions._--1. Amakosas, nearest the Cape. 2.
Bechuanas, north of the head-waters of the Orange River. 3.
Zulus, north of the Bechuanas, with an undetermined extent
inland. Numerous sub-divisions.
_Physical conformation._--Cranium, more vaulted and less
prognathic than the Negro; hair, tufted, and as such
approaching that of the Hottentot; zygomatic development,
outwards rather than downwards, so that the cheek-bones become
projecting, and the forehead and chin tapering; lips, generally
thick, and nasal profile less generally depressed than with the
Negro; colour, black, dark brown, clear brown; stature, tall.
_Habits._--Pastoral rather than agricultural.
_Religion._--Paganism.
_Customs._--Circumcision and tattooing.
_The Dammaras._--Are the Dammaras Kaffre? This will be noticed in p.
495.
The Kaffres of Lagoa Bay, darker and more Negro-like than the typical
Kaffres of Kaffraria, form the transition between the southern Kaffres
and the eastern divisions of the tribes of Inhambane, Sofala, and
Botonga, and the water-system of the river Yambezi. They are Negro
rather than Kaffrarian, their languages being but imperfectly known.
3.
EASTERN KAFFRES.
So are those of Mozambique and Zanzibar; chiefly represented by the
Makuas, the Monjous, and the tribes speaking the Suaheli language.
A vast accession to our philological data for these parts proves
incontestably the Kaffre structure of the languages of the coast from
the Cape of Good Hope to nearly 5° north latitude.
But the tribes of the unknown parts of Central Africa, south of the
equator, are also, probably, either wholly, or almost wholly, Kaffre.
It is this which has induced me to pass _sicco pede_ over the numerous
details of the Kaffres of the coast, so as to allow space for a short
notice of the newer additions to our knowledge of the inland Kaffres,
west and east.
_a._ _West._--_The Kazumbi_, said to live at such a distance from the
coast, as to be obliged to travel three or four moons, before they
reach any of the possessions of the Portuguese and to speak a language
which resembles, in many words (especially the numerals), the Congo.
This is probably the Cazambe of the maps, nearly in the centre of
Africa, in 13° south latitude.
_The Koniunki._[175]--From some captured Negroes examined by the Rev.
T. Arbousset, of the Paris Missionary Society, a few words have been
collected of the Koniunki language. They are apparently of the Kaffre
class.
_English_, eyes
Koniunki, _maro_
Kaffre, _amehlo_
Sechuana, _matlo_
Makua, _meto_
Monjou, _mezo_
Suaheli, _matsho_
_English_, water
Koniunki, _mose_
Kaffre, _amanzi_
Sechuana, _metse_
Delagoa Bay, _amate_
Makua, _amazi_
Monjou, _mizi_
_English_, tree
Koniunki, _mote_
Kaffre, _umti_
Sechuana, _sefate_
_English_, two
Koniunki, _mapele_
Kaffre, _amabini_
Sechuana, _maberi_
Delagoa Bay, _mabizi_
Suaheli, _mabizi_
_English_, three
Koniunki, _mataru_
Suaheli, _madato_
Kaffre, _amatatu_
Sechuana, _mararu_
Delagoa Bay, _mararu_
The locality of the Koniunkis was also said to be so far in the
interior, as for the gang to have been three or four months in reaching
the Mozambique coast.
This indicates that they were _east_ of the Kazumbi, whilst the
affinity of the language with the Bechuana gives them a southward
direction.
_The Mazenas_, mentioned along with the Koniunkis, as lying between
them and the Makuas.[176]
Hence, the Congo, the Kazumbi, Koniunki, and Mazena areas, probably,
carry us across the whole continent in (about) 13° south latitude;
whilst the likelihood of the southern Koniunki and northern Bechuanas
being conterminous, helps to fill up the void spaces north of the parts
about Litakú.
_b._ _East._--Parts about Mombaz, Formosa Bay, Lama, Patta, &c.
POCOMO.
_Locality._--River Pocomosi (Maro).
_Conterminous_ with the southernmost section of the Gallas.
WANIKA.
_Locality._--North and west of Mombaz.
The Mahometanism of the Wanikas, if it exist at all, is of the most
imperfect kind. They practise circumcision, it is true; but this is a
general African, quite as much as a particular Semitic, rite--"They
bury their dead, placing the head to the east; and it is customary,
after waiting ten days, to kill a bullock and make a feast, pouring
the blood upon the grave." The Wanika man seen by Pickering, "bore the
marks of a national designation; consisting of a single notch, filed
between the two upper front teeth, with numerous small scars on the
breast."
WAKAMBA.
_Synonym._--Merremengo.
_Locality._--Mixed with, and conterminous with the Wanika.
WATAITA(?).
_Locality._--Five days from the coast; conterminous with the
Wakamba.
TAVAITI(?).
_Locality._--Westward of the Wataita.
_Language._--Different from the Chaga and M'Kuafi. Probably
akin to the Wanika.
M'SIGUA.
_Locality._--Pungany River. Scattered among the Wanika.
M'SAMBARA.
_Language._--As known from a vocabulary of Krapf's, closely
akin to the Pocomo, Wakamba, Wanika, and M'Sigua.
This last sentence suggests the nature of our reasons for making
the tribes just enumerated Kaffre. The dialects of five of them are
known by specimens, collected by Krapf, and are very nearly Suaheli.
The evidence of the Kaffre origin of the Tavaiti and Wataita is less
conclusive.
_The M'Kuafi._--Are the M'Kuafi Kaffre? This question will be noticed
in p. 501.
* * * * *
It has been suggested that the import of the peculiarities in the
structure of the Kaffre languages may have been exaggerated; the effect
of such an over-valuation being to isolate the class beyond its proper
limit. The following facts are corrective to this view:--
1. The Woloff language is at least one other African tongue, which
exhibits the phænomenon of an _initial change_, a process allied to the
euphonic concord.
2. The Celtic tongues of Europe do the same.
3. Apparent instances of _prefixed_ syllables, occur in the Howssa,
Yarribean, and probably in other African languages.
Now there are many good reasons for believing that although the effect
of such and such-like processes is to give the languages in which they
occur a very remarkable _external_ appearance--an appearance which, if
we classed tongues and nations on the same principles upon which we
class minerals, _i.e._ irrespective of descent and affiliation, would
throw them into solitary and independent groups--they by no means
denote the necessity of any inordinately long period for the evolution.
All that they _do_ denote is the greater intensity of what may be
called the euphonic instinct, combined with a tendency to incorporate
elements which, elsewhere, would be kept separate.
A doctrine laid down by Mr. Hales in his Philology to the United States
Exploring Expedition, indicating a different classification from the
present, deserves notice.
That inquirer considers that the line of affinity runs west and
east, rather than north and south; so that the Kaffres of Inhambane,
Zanzibar, and Mozambique are more closely allied to those of Loango and
Angola than the Kosas, Bechuanas and Zulus of the Cape. The _published_
evidence of the proposition is certainly insufficient.
FOOTNOTES:
[174] These are not the _real_ Kaffre prefixes, being merely meant for
the sake of illustration, they are arbitrary syllables.
[175] Dr. Adamson's speech, at the Wesleyan Missionary Meeting, in
1846.--_Journal of the American Oriental Society_, vol. i. No. 4.
[176] Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. i. No. 4.
C.
HOTTENTOT ATLANTIDÆ.
The Hottentot stock has a better claim to be considered as forming a
second species of the genus _Homo_ than any other section of mankind.
It can be shown, however, that the language is no more different from
those of the world in general than they are from each other.
THE HOTTENTOT ATLANTIDÆ.
_Area._ The southern extremity of Africa. Encroached upon by
_a._ the Kaffres; _b._ the Dutch and English of the Cape.
_Divisions._ 1. The Hottentots. 2. The Saabs.
_Physical conformation._ Stature, low; limbs, slight; colour,
more brown or yellow than black (that of new-born children said
to be nearly white); cheek-bones, prominent; nasal profile,
depressed; hair, in tufts rather than equally distributed
over the head.--Thus described by Barrow: "It does not cover
the whole surface of the scalp, but grows in small tufts, at
certain distances from each other, and when clipped short, has
the appearance and feel of a hard shoe-brush, except that it
is curled and twisted into small, round lumps, about the size
of a marrow-fat pea. When suffered to grow, it hangs on the
neck in hard, twisted tassels, like a fringe."[177]--Eyes,
oblique; vision, acute; cranium, Mongoliform with wide orbits,
brakhykephalic, nasal profile extremely flat, broad at the
root; and the chin, long, forward, and thin.
Pelvis, with a _maximum_ difference in structure according
as it is male or female; that of the former being strong
and dense, that of the latter, light, and delicate. In
both cases a _minimum_ of diploe between the bony plates;
ossa ilii, vertical; sacrum, narrow; conjugate diameter,
short; neck of the thigh-bone, short, and with an oblique
direction.[178]--_Vrolik._--Oftener wedge-shaped or oblong,
than oval, round, or square.--_Weber._
Buttocks often steatomatous.[179]
_Physical condition of area._--Karroos, _i.e._ elevated
terraces and table-lands, with the soil dry, hard, clayey,
fissured, rarely moistened with rain, and chiefly productive of
the _succulent_ classes of the vegetable kingdom.
_Language._--Containing _two_ inarticulate elements, viz. _h_
(like other tongues), and a peculiar and characteristic _click_.
_Intermixture._--Dutch, the Griquas of the Orange River being a
mixed stock.
_Habits._--Pastoral and hunter state; the latter exhibiting
the lower forms of the type (_i.e._ the Saabs, or Bushmen,
once disconnected from the others, and considered as forming a
separate and more degraded class).
1.
HOTTENTOTS.
The _extinct_ sections of the Hottentot division are:--
1. Gunyeman, nearest the Cape.
2. Kokha_qua_, north of the Gunyeman.
3. Sussa_qua_, Saldanha Bay.
4. Odi_qua_.
5. Khirigri_quas_, on Elephants' River.
6. Koopmans.
7. Hessa_quas_.
8. Son_quas_, east of the Cape.
9. Dun_quas_.
10. Dama_quas_.
11. Guari_quas_.
12. Honteni_quas_.
13. Khantouers.
14. Heykoms, as far on the north-east as Natal. Now
replaced by Amakosah Kaffres.
_Extant._--1. Gona_quas_, south-east, on the Great Fish River. Probably
replaced by Amakosah Kaffres.
2. Kora_quas_ (Kora, Korana), north-east frontier, on the upper part of
the Orange River.--In the more favourable localities the Koraquas are
the tallest and best-looking men of the Hottentot stock. On the other
hand, the Koras of the Hartebeest River, who formerly possessed, but
have since lost their cattle, "exhibit the obvious process by which the
Bushmen race have been originally driven back from the pastoral state,
to that of the huntsman and robber."--_Thompson's Travels in Southern
Africa._--_Prichard_, vol. ii. p. 274.
3. Nama_quas_, separated from the Koranas by the Saabs. Occupants of
the lower part of the Orange River, _i. e._ Little Namaqualand to the
south, and Great Namaqualand to the north of its mouth.
2.
SAABS.
_Locality._--The country between the Roggeveld and the middle
portion of the Orange River; preeminently a _Karroo_.
_Habits._--Hunters.
_Language._--Wholly or nearly unintelligible to the other
Hottentots.
_Area._--Encroached upon the Koranas, who are their deadly
enemies, and continually at war with them.
Are the Dammaras Kaffre or Hottentot? This has already been asked.
On the authority of Mr. Barrow, Prichard corrects Vater and Maltebrun
for making the Dammaras Hottentot instead of Kaffre. The term, however,
is a geographical rather than an ethnological one, comprising the
tribes inhabiting those parts to the north and south of Waalvisch Bay,
which are marked in the maps as _sterile country_, and lying between
Benguela (where the languages belong to the Congo class of the Kaffre
languages), and Namaqualand, where the inhabitants are Hottentots.
Now, geographically speaking, the Dammaras fall into two divisions:
_a_,[180] the Dammaras of the Plains, or cattle Dammaras, and _b_,
the Hill Dammaras. These latter inhabit the parts to the north and
north-east of Namaqualand, and are Namaqua Hottentots. The former only
belong to the Kaffre division, and extend as far north as 17° south
latitude.
Forced downwards by the stronger tribes of the Kaffres, with their
periphery overlaid, the Hottentots probably represent a population
whose original area was extended much more towards the north--possibly
as far as the central range of mountains. Nay, more--fragments of the
stock may still, in central Africa, interrupt the Kaffre area, and form
future discoveries in ethnology.
This possible northward extension of the Hottentot area has a bearing
upon the questions connected with the population of Madagascar.
* * * * *
_Overlaying of the periphery of an ethnological area._--Let two
divisions of a certain class pass into each other by imperceptible
degrees, and let one of the _central_ portions of either class spread
itself at the expense of the parts belonging to its circumference.
The effect which follows is, that those portions of this area,
which represent the phænomena of transition, are overlaid, or
overlapped; and that instead of two populations coming into contact by
imperceptible degrees, they meet as separate classes, with as broad a
line of demarcation between their respective representatives at the
circumferences (peripheries) of their respective areas, as there was
between their central or typical portions.
North-western America illustrates this. The more southern Algonkins
have overlaid both the Algonkins of their own section, which approached
the Eskimo, and the Eskimo of the opposite section, which approached
the Algonkin. Hence the two populations meet as widely-separated, and
broadly distinguished varieties of mankind.
FOOTNOTES:
[177] Prichard, vol. ii. p. 278.
[178] Ibid. p. 332.
[179] Aliquando, apud hanc nationem, nympharum protuberantia
enormis--minime vero apud onmes--occurrit.
[180] Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. i. No. 4.
D.
NILOTIC ATLANTIDÆ.
This is a far less simple group than the last, and one which may,
probably, require the value of some of its divisions to be raised.
Besides which, it probably comprizes, if classed according to the
strict rules of ethnology, the _eastern Negroes_ of our first division.
Again, it passes into the Kaffre, Coptic, and Semitic groups by
imperceptible gradations. At the same time, as far as it goes, it is
ethnological, _i.e._ it embraces populations actually affiliated to
each other rather than populations exhibiting the common effects of
common social or climatological conditions.
NILOTIC NATIONS AND TRIBES.
_Physical conformation._--Modified Negro, in certain cases
approaching the Arab conformation.
_Area._--The water system of the Upper and Middle Nile.
_Chief divisions._--1. Gallas. 2. Agows. 3. Nubians. 4.
Bisharis(?).
As it is the southern portion of the Nilotic area, which is
conterminous with the northern Kaffre, the southern populations will be
noticed first.
THE GALLAS.
_Area._--Preeminently encroaching. From 4° to (there or
thereabouts) 16° north latitude. Irregular.
_Chief divisions._--1. Galla Proper, or Ilmorma--south and east
of Abyssinia.
2. Somauli--The parts between the Sea of Bab-el-Mandeb, the
Indian Ocean, and (there or thereabouts) 45° east latitude.
3. The Danakil, or Afer--The coast of the Red Sea from Adel to
Suakin.
_Religion._--Paganism, Mahometanism. According to Dr. Beke,
fragmentary Christianity among the Gallas.
_Habits._--Chiefly pastoral. Partially mercantile.
_Physical appearance._--Colour varying from a deep black to
a brownish-yellow. Stature, tall; bodies, spare, wiry, and
muscular; frontal profile vaulted; nose, often straight or even
arched; lips, moderate; hair, often hanging over the neck in
long twisted plaits.
It is the wilder tribes of the Ilmorma Gallas that have broken up the
kingdom, and disturbed the ethnology of Abyssinia, both in respect to
its Semitic populations, and the earlier and more aboriginal--
AGOWS.
_Divisions and localities._--1. Agows of Damot.
2. Agows of Lasta; Troglodyte Pagans.
3. Falasha--_a._ Lowlanders of Dembea. _b._ Highlanders of
Samien. _c._ Christianized Falashas (Kimmont) of the hill
country, north-east of Gondar.--_Bruce from Prichard_, vol. ii.
p. 135.
The fact that both the Galla and Agow languages pass through the
Amharic into the more typical Semitic tongues, and that the former
(over and above many undeniable points of affinity with the Coptic)
is quite as _sub_-Semitic as the Berber, is one of the many phænomena
which break down the broad line of demarcation that is so often drawn
between the Semitic and the African nations.
Again, the extent to which the Falashas exhibit a variety of customs
common to themselves and the Jews has long been recognized. It by no
means, however, follows that they are a result of Jewish influence. The
criticism that applied to the Ghás applies here. Many of the so-called
Jewish peculiarities are African as well--irrespective of intercourse,
and independent of imitation.
THE NUBIANS.
_Locality._--Valley of the Nile, Nubia, and Dongola.
_Dialects._--_a._ North Nubian, or Kensi. _b._ Middle Nubian,
or Nub. _c._ Dongolawi of Dongola.
_Synonym._--Barabbra, or Berber.
_Antiquities._--Monuments of _a._ an Ægyptian, in the Lower,
_b._ an Æthiopian type in the Upper Nubia.
_Political relations._--Subject to Ægypt.
_Intermixture._--Arab. Negro from slaves.
_Religion._--Paganism and Mahometanism.
_Habits._--Agricultural and trading.
_Physical appearance._--Eyes, deep set and sparkling; nose,
pointed; nostrils, large; mouth, wide; lips, moderate;
hair and beard, thin; body, slender; _colour, shining jet
black_.--_Denon._[181]
Hair, long, slightly crisp, not woolly. _Colour, intermediate
between the ebon-black of Sennaar Negroes, and the brown of
Ægyptians._[181]--_Costaz._
_Extract from Rüppell[181] as to the Dongolawi._--"An
attentive inquiry will enable us to distinguish amongst the
old national physiognomies, which their forefathers have
marked upon colossal statues, and the bas-reliefs of temples
and sepulchres, a long oval countenance, beautifully-curved
nose, somewhat rounded towards the top, proportionately thick
lips, but not protruding excessively, a retreating chin, scanty
beard, lively eyes, strongly frizzled but never woolly hair,
and remarkably beautiful figure, generally of middle size,
and a bronze colour, as the characteristics of the genuine
Dongolawi."
_Descent._--From the ancient Nobatæ.
The relation between the Nubian of Nubia, and the Koldagi language
of Kordofan, was first indicated by Rüppell, and has been generally
admitted.
On the other hand, the relations of the Koldagi not only to the Furians
of Darfúr, but to the more truly Negro Shilluks, &c., are equally
manifest.
From the Ægyptian, therefore, to the Eastern Negro, the transition is
through the Nubian.
BISHARI (BEJAS).
_Area._--The high country, and table-land between the Nile and
the Red Sea.
_Divisions._--1. Northern Bishari or Ababde, from the latitude
of Kosseir, north; to Deir, south.
2. Southern Bishari (=the Hadendoa, Hammadab, and other tribes)
from the Danakil, Æthiopic and portions of the Shankala area to
the Ababdes.
_Language._--With definite affinities with both the Nubian and
Coptic.
_Descent._--Probably from the ancient Blemmyes.
_Physical appearance._--Nearly that of Nubians.
_Habits._--Pastoral and wandering.
What are the M'Kuafi? This was asked in p. 493. The M'Kuafi west of
Mombaz, are conterminous with the Southern Gallas, and with the Kaffre
Wanika, &c.
From these last, however, the only known vocabulary of their language
disconnects them.
Hence they are at present unplaced; since they may be Kaffre,
Gallas, Gongas, or, finally, the representatives of a separate class
altogether. The only description is the following one of Pickering's:--
"The information respecting them was derived from young persons seen
at Zanzibar, where, according to the Arabs, slaves of this class were
formerly cheap, and much esteemed, but now bring high prices.
"A M'Kuafi girl stated, that she had been captured by the Mussai;
who killed her father and mother, and who sold her to the Chaga. She
was twenty-five days in reaching the coast. Formerly, her nation was
powerful above others, so that one woman with a stick would stop a
thousand persons from passing through the country unless a present was
first made; but her people are broken, and at present they would not
fight the M'Sigua.
"Her people do not cultivate the ground, and they eat only milk and
meat. Children, when hungry, help themselves by direct application
to the cow. Cattle are killed by piercing the spine; numbers of them
every day, until each family is supplied. The M'Kuafi have not fixed
meal times, but they eat whenever they feel inclined, inviting their
neighbours of the same village to partake with them. Each family has
its own cattle, which all go to pasture together, and outside the town
is a place to receive them at night. The men marry as many women as
they please; and each wife has a separate house. These habitations
are tents of bullock-skin, supported by poles set around. The men
decorate themselves with large beads, and their dress is made of
skin, and consists of a painted cincture full of openings and hanging
strips, and of a long cloak worn over one shoulder. Cloth, however,
now is brought by traders. The women, by way of ornament, coil brass
wire about the arm as far as the elbow. The beads and brass wire are
procured at Pemba, by selling ivory, obtained from elephants, some of
which are found dead, while others are purposely killed.
"The M'Kuafi do not bury, but they put their dead in the bush, for
the wild beasts to eat. The friends afterwards cry from ten to twenty
days, and then kill three bullocks and make a feast. The M'Kuafi have
neither prayers nor religion, but they eat and sleep. The name of their
deity is Angayai; and on some big days they take feathers and dance.
They have cows, goats, donkeys, sheep, and dogs; but neither cats, nor
horses. They take off the fleece of the sheep, and spin yarn, with
which they sew the skins together. They have gourd shells for holding
water, which are bought of the Chaga. They go out to fight with the
Mussai, frequently, sometimes every day; and they take cattle; they
fight, also, with the Wampugo, and the Wataita, but not with the Chaga.
The country of the M'Kuafi, consists of mountains and plains, and
produces some trees which supply tent-poles, but there are no fruits.
Persons while sleeping, are sometimes eaten by leopards.
"On another occasion, the same girl brought two of her companions, and
they sang together some simple and plaintive airs, such as are used
'in getting children to sleep.' Their dancing was not graceful, but
was somewhat violent and not altogether decent. Their language was
soft, and I heard terminal vowels only, the two syllables 'goonga,'
frequently recurring. I read to them some translations in the Galla;
but this proved to be a different language, and they did not recognise
a word. On being questioned on the subject, the first girl said, 'she
did not wish to return home, for her relations were all dead;' and some
tears followed the allusion to the subject. Beads being offered, she
preferred the red to the blue, according to the general taste in this
part of Africa. Of the other girls, one came from Kaputa, and the third
from Aseta.
"A fourth girl, whom I interrogated, was too young to give much
information, and she, besides, had not yet learned the Soahili
language. It appeared that she 'had been stolen by some Chaga;' that
she came from the vicinity of the Kilmungaro mountain (which is visible
from the sea), and that she understood the language of the other girls
when they were brought together.
"A highly intelligent lad, who had the lobe of one ear perforated,
stated, that the size of this opening, among the M'Kuafi, 'indicates
the rank of the individual, the king having one of very remarkable
dimensions.' With regard to his own history he stated, that, 'on the
occasion of an attack by some foreign tribe,' he, with other children,
hid themselves; but the circumstance had been observed at some distance
by some Wampugo, who came to the spot and carried them away. The towns
of the M'Kuafi are not fixed; but when the grass fails, a new one is
made in another place. The M'Kuafi ride donkeys; they eat beef and
sheep, and drink water and milk. It is customary, when a man kills a
bullock, to send a piece to the king, to give another on account of
circumcision, and then to call his friends to eat the remainder. There
are camelopards in the country; and poor people, who have no bullocks,
kill them for food, taking them in pitfalls, or sometimes with poison.
"The mode of circumcising differs from that prevailing among the
Moslim. The government likewise differs; and if one man kills another,
the price of blood is from ten to twenty bullocks.
"The M'Kuafi put on a cap of ostrich feathers when they go out to
fight. On a former occasion they beat the M'Sigua, taking all the
cattle, which they sold at Zanzibar. They fight with the Wakamba
towards sunrise; and they are so warlike that they would fight even
with their nearest relations. They sometimes go to the Monomoisy
country to fight and take property; but not into the country of the
Chaga, with whom they do not fight, unless meeting by accident. They
fight, however, with the Lupalaconga, who live on a mountain, and
speak the same language with the Chaga; and who, according to his
description, must be a Negro tribe.
"His people once went towards sunrise to fight with the Sikir-washi,
who are the nation called Galla at Zanzibar. They saw a large river
which 'came dry,' and men carrying large spears, who spoke a different
language from their own. They took all the cattle and donkeys, and the
fat-tailed sheep; but they disdained taking the horses, an animal they
had never before seen. The king of the Sikir-washi wears a large beard,
while the rest of the people shave: using for the purpose a sort of
small iron chisel; and these practices prevail equally with the M'Kuafi.
"When the lad was asked about the Mussai, he rejoined with some
emotion,--'They who break my country: he knew them well; they dwell
farther inland than the M'Kuafi.'
"He did not know how old he was, and asked, 'if any one could tell
him.' His people have no prayers: he could not speak lies. He did not
wish to return to his native-country--he had got no bullocks; he was
now a slave: no matter, he should soon die. He did not know where he
should go to after death. He had heard that God had made him, that was
all."
MUSSAI(?).
_Locality._--West of the M'Kuafi; to which tribes they are
allied. Probably M'Kuafi.
CHAGA(?).
_Locality._--South-west of the Wanika, on the upper part of the
Pungany River.
_Habits._--Circumcision. Probably M'Kuafi.
WAMPAGO(?).
_Locality._--On the Ruvu, a feeder of the Pungany, within half
a day's journey of the M'Kuafi country. Probably M'Kuafi.
M'KINDO(?).
_Locality._--Two days west of Quiloa. Probably M'Kuafi,
M'HIAO.
_Locality._--Uncertain. Most likely to the west of the M'Kindo.
Probably M'Kuafi.
The M'Hiao markings "vary in different individuals, but often consist
of raised sears or welts crossing each other, like stars. Many of the
females have the upper lip perforated."--_Pickering._
FOOTNOTES:
[181] Prichard, vol. ii. p. 174.
E.
THE AMAZIRGH ATLANTIDÆ.
The Amazirgh, a native name of one of the Cabyle tribes of Algiers, is
here used in a general sense, instead of the more usual term _Berber_;
a term which is nowhere recognized by any Amazirgh population, and
which, under a modified form, _is_ recognized by portions of the
_non_-Amazirgh Nubians.
AMAZIRGH NATIONS AND TRIBES.
_Physical conformation._--Sometimes a modification of the
Negro, sometimes of the Arab type.
_Languages._--With a vocabulary generally considered to be
peculiar, but with a grammatical structure considered to be (if
not absolutely Semitic) _sub_-Semitic.
_Distribution._--Speaking roughly, the whole north-western
quarter of Africa _plus_ a narrow strip along the Mediterranean
from about 15° east latitude to the confines of Ægypt.
_Descent._--From the ancient Gætulians, Numidians,
Mauritanians, and Cyrenæans.
_Area._--Encroached upon along the coast of the Mediterranean--
1. _In ancient times by_--_a._ Phœnicians. _b._ Greeks. _c._
Romans.
2. _In modern times by_--Mahometan Arabs.
_Physical conditions._--Occupants of--_a._ The mountain range
of Atlas. _b._ The Sahara. _c._ The Canary Isles.
_Chief Divisions._--1. Siwans, of the Oasis of Siwah, the
ancient Ammonium. 2. Cabyles, of the range of Atlas. 3.
Tuaricks, of the Sahara. 4. Guauches, of the Canary Islands.
These last either extinct or incorporated.
_Dialects as known from specimens._--1. Of Siwah. 2. Augila. 3.
Fezzan. 4. Ghadamis. 5. Algeria (numerous). 6. Morocco. 7. The
Sahara. 8. The Canaries.
_Alphabets._--1. Arabic. 2. Tuarick.
_Antiquities._--The Bilingual inscription, Carthaginian and
Berber(?) of Dugga, known as the Inscriptio Tuggensis.
The aboriginal character of the Amazirgh tribes, taken with the
likelihood of their representing the tributaries of Carthage, and
the subjects of Masinissa, Syphax, Juba, Jugurtha, and Bocchus, has
commanded the attention of scholars, and has led to important results.
That its grammatical structure is Semitic (or at least _sub_-Semitic)
has been shown by Mr. F. Newman, who has also shown that the Haussa
has Amazirgh elements. The fact, however, of its vocabulary having
fewer Semitic forms than its grammar has complicated the philology.
Nevertheless it _does_ contain numerous Semitic words; whilst its
isolation from the other tongues of Africa has been most gratuitous.
So far from such being the case, it supplies a long list of words with
miscellaneous affinities.[182]
With the Guanches of the Canaries we find the Ægyptian habit of
desiccating the bodies of the dead into mummies.
With the Tuaricks of Wadreag, Mr. Hodgson found hair so crisp and skin
so black, as to look like Negroes. There was, however, no suspicion of
Negro intermixture.
On the other band, so light-complexioned are the Amazirghs of the
ancient Mons Aurasius, that the hypothesis of an intermixture of
Vandalic blood from the subjects of Genseric has been entertained.
FOOTNOTES:
[182] Some of these have been collected by the present writer. See
Classical Museum, vol. i.
F.
ÆGYPTIAN ATLANTIDÆ.
By Ægyptian Atlantidæ are meant the _Old_ Ægyptians; the subjects of
the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies; and the modern Copts so far as they
are (what is rarely the case) of unmixed blood; the present dominant
population of Ægypt being Arab.
COPTS.
_Area._--The valley and delta of the Nile, from Essouan to the
Mediterranean.
_Physical conformation._--A. _Of the Old Ægyptians preserved as
mummies._--Hair, fine, and either waved or curly; skull, with
an upright frontal, and a moderately depressed nasal profile;
maxillary profile, moderately prognathic; teeth, much worn;
colour, undetermined. According to the testimony of ancient
writers and paintings, darker than that of the Greek, lighter
than that of the Nubian. Perhaps brown, with tinges of yellow
and red.
B. _Of the Modern Copts._--Hair, black and crisp, or curled;
cheek-bones, projecting; lips, thick; nose, somewhat depressed;
nostrils, wide; complexion, varied, from a yellowish to a dark
brown; eyes, oblique; frame, tall and fleshy; physiognomy,
heavy and inexpressive.
_Religion of the Modern Copts._--Christianity.
_Pantheon of the Ancient Ægyptians._--Osiris, Isis, Anubis,
Horus, Typhon, Phtha, Neith, &c.
_Language._--Coptic in three dialects. 1. The Memphitic, 2.
Sahitic. 3. Bashmuric.
_Alphabets._--1. Hieroglyphic, of unknown, 2. Coptic, of Greek
origin.
The researches of Benfey and others, have shown the extent to which the
Ægyptian language, those of Morton (in the Crania Ægyptiaca) the extent
to which the Ægyptian osteology is Semitic; indeed this side of the
question has gained quite as much admission as the evidence justifies.
The determination of what may be called the other aspect of the
Ægyptian language has been attempted with less success.
Klaproth compared it with the Caucasian languages: the evidence of
Herodotus as to the Ægyptian origin of the Colchians indicating this
relation.
The Chevalier Bunsen has connected it with the Indo-European; the early
development of Ægyptian civilization dicating this.
The real affinities are those which its geographical situation
indicates, _viz._ with the Berber, Nubian, and Galla tongues, and
through them with the African languages altogether,[183] Negro and
non-Negro.
FOOTNOTES:
[183] A short list of the words common to the Coptic and the African
tongues at large, may be found in the author's Report on Ethnographical
Philology.--_Transactions of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science_, 1847, p. 223.
G.
SEMITIC ATLANTIDÆ.
No error is greater than to imagine that connection with the Semitic is
synonymous with separation from the African stock, a remark which leads
us from the Copts to--
THE SEMITIC TRIBES AND NATIONS.
_Area._--Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia,
parts of Kurdistan.
_Physical conformation._--Light-complexioned Atlantidæ, with
dolikhokephalic capacious crania, straight or prominent nasal
and orthognathic maxillary profiles. Referable to three types.
1. The Arab. 2. The Jew. 3. The Kaldani.
_Influence on the History of the World._--Preeminently
moral--spiritually as well as intellectually. In the case of
the Arabs, material as well.
_Religion._--Preeminently monotheistic for the later part of
their history. For the earlier part, Paganism.
_Social and civilizational development._--Early, influential,
and probably as much self-developed as that of either the
Ægyptians or the Hellenic Iapetidæ.
_Alphabet._--With the exception of the Æthiopic, written from
right to left. The earliest in the world.
_Divisions._--More or less artificial.--Syrians, Assyrians,
Babylonians, Phœnicians, Beni Terah, Arabs, Æthiopians,
Solymi(?), Cappadocians(?), Elamites(?), Cyprians(?),
Philistines(?), Canaanites(?).
SYRIANS.
_Area._--Syria, Cœlosyria, part of Mesopotamia, the northern
and eastern frontier being undetermined.
_Divisions._--1. Syrians of Syria, either extinct or
incorporate.
2. Syrians of Mesopotamia, ditto.
3. Syrians of Kurdistan or Kaldani.
_Physical appearance of the Kaldani._--Mountaineers, with fair
complexions, grey eyes, and reddish beard.
_Religion of_--_a._ The ancient Syrians, chiefly Nestorian
Christianity. _b._ Of the Kaldani, the same.
_Pantheon of the Pagan Syrians._--Thammuz, Rimmon, &c.
_Languages._--1. Syriac of Syria. 2. Chaldee of Mesopotamia. 3.
Kaldani of Kurdistan.
The Syrian influence as an element of civilization has, probably, been
undervalued. It was through the Syriac that two contiguous nations
received much of their knowledge of what was to be learned from
Greece, the Armenian and the Arabian; the latter, whose civilizational
influence has been proportionately over-rated, being in many cases
translators of Syriac translations rather than students of the original
Greek.
More important still was the propagandism of the Nestorian Christians
in the direction of Central and Eastern Asia. Without hazarding an
opinion as to the extent to which their teaching may be the real
epoch of the civilization of the Chinese, the fact of the Uzbek Turk
alphabet, itself the prototype of the Manchu, being Syrian, is a
pregnant one. The alphabet of Palmyra is the alphabet of the wall of
China.
ASSYRIANS.
_Area._--Assyria, east of the Tigris.
_Language._--Known to be Semitic from the remains of it in the
Arrow-headed inscriptions of Nimrúd, Khorsabad, &c., deciphered
by Major Rawlinson.
_Original Pagan Pantheon._--Nisroc (Assarac), Belti, Bar, Ani,
Dagon, Bel, Nebo, &c.
BABYLONIANS.
So far as they were Semitic what applies to the Assyrians applies to
the Babylonians also; the differences between them being matters of
history and archæology rather than strict ethnology.
Among the first if not first builders of cities, among the first if
not the first organizers of empires, the inhabitants of both the Lower
Tigris and the Lower Euphrates, were one of the earliest influences
in civilization, much in the way of Art; more, however, in the way of
politics and commerce than either intellectually or morally. It is
not, however, for the sake of enlarging upon these points that the
notice of the Babylonians detains us.
Gesenius has given reasons for considering the Chaldees to have been
other than a _Semitic_ population: thus either disconnecting the
Babylonians from them, or else both from the Phœnicians and Hebrews.
Without giving an opinion on the fact, I satisfy myself with indicating
its bearings.
The Chaldees (Khasdim), if not Semitic, were either Persian Kurds
or Armenians, from the highlands of the Upper Tigris; and if so,
their language was Iranian, their religion Fire-worship, and their
affiliation with the Iapetidæ.
As far as we may venture to distribute the outward exponents of
civilizational development amongst the Semitic nations, the first
application of weights and measures seems to have been Babylonian, just
as the paramount achievement of alphabetic writing is apparently the
work of the--
PHŒNICIANS.
_Divisions._--_a._ Of Phœnicia (Tyre and Sidon). _b._ Africa
(Carthaginian), _c._ Spain.
_Language._--Closely akin to both the Syriac and the Hebrew.
Known only from inscriptions, and two scenes in the Pœnulus of
Plautus.
BENI TERAH (SONS OF TERAH).
I can think of no better collective name for that portion of the
Semitic nations which comprises not only the Jews, but those other
tribes which, allied in blood, though separated by belief, are
necessary to be noticed in order to give the more important Hebrew
nation its due position, than the one at the head of this section;
Terah, the father of Abraham, being the _eponymus_.
AMMONITES (BENI AMMON).
_Habits._--Agricultural.
_Locality._--East of the Israelites, on the north. Conterminous
with, and closely allied to--
THE MOABITES (BENI MOAB).
_Habits._---Pastoral.
_Locality._--East of the Israelites on the south.
_Chief deity._--Chemosh.
The Moabites and Ammonites were, probably, transitional between the
Hebrews and the Syrians; the next families being transitional between
the Hebrews and the Arabs.
ISHMAELITES (BENI ISHMAEL.)
_Locality._--Probably migratory tribes on the frontier of the
Desert.
EDOMITES.
_Area._--From the Dead to the Red Sea.
_Habits._--Partly pastoral, partly commercial and industrial.
BENI ISRAEL (HEBREWS, THE TWELVE TRIBES).
_Area._--Palestine.
_Divisions._--1. Samaritans (The Ten Tribes). 2. Jews (the
tribes of Judah and Benjamin).
SAMARITANS.
_Divisions._--1. Samaritans Proper. 2. Galileans.
_Canonical books._--The Pentateuch.
_Alphabet._--A nearer approach to the Phœnician than the
Jewish, and probably an older form.
_Æra._--National existence terminated A.D. 721. Since then
either extinct or incorporated. Equivocal remains in the
neighbourhood of Nablous.
JEWS.
_Æra._--National existence terminated, A.D. 89. Since then
dispersed, but not incorporated.
_Physical Conformation._--Differing from that of the Arab in
_a._ greater massiveness of frame; _b._ thicker lips; _c._ nose
more frequently aquiline; _d._ cranium of greater capacity.
_Intellectual culture._--Preeminently early, and preeminently
continuous, _i.e._ from the time of the Prophets to that of the
Rabbinical writers of the Middle Ages, and from these to the
present moment; in the latter case the medium generally being
languages other than the Hebrew, _i.e._ those of the respective
countries of the different writers.
_Moral influence._--1. As manifested by Jewish writers of
modern Europe, identified with that of the literature of the
particular country which produced it.
2. As manifested by the Rabbinical writers anterior to the
revival of literature, and subsequent to the dispersion,
limited, or nearly limited, to the Semitic nations.
3. As manifested in the evolution of monotheistic creeds
co-extensive with _a._ Judaism Proper. _b._ Christianity. _c._
Mahometanism.
ARABS.
_Physical conformation._--Face, oval; forehead, vaulted;
nose, straight or aquiline; lips, thin, even when thick not
projecting; hair, wavy or curled; complexion, various shades of
brown; limbs, spare.
With the Arab of Africa, the colour is sometimes nearly black,
the frame more massive, and limbs more fleshy than in the
Peninsula.
_Religion._--Originally Sabæanism; since the Hejirah,
Mahometanism.
_Alphabets._--1. That of the Koran, based on the Cufic forms of
the Syriac 2. That of the Himyarite inscriptions, akin to the
Æthiopic.
_Languages._--1. Arabic Proper.--A. Ancient--of the Koran. B.
Modern--of _a._ The greater part of the Arabian peninsula. _b._
Syria. _c._ Ægypt. _d._ Western Africa.
2. Himyaritic Arab.--_a._ Ancient--of the Himyaritic
Inscriptions. _b._ Modern=the Ekhili.
_Intellectual culture._--Later in origin than that of either
the Jews or Syrians. Less continuous than that of the former.
_Moral influence._--1. As manifested by the non-religious
portion of the Arabic literature, considerable in amount and
diffused in area.
2. As manifested in the propagation of a creed, co-extensive
with Mahometanism--the religion of many sections of the
Mongolidæ and Atlantidæ, but of none of the Iapetidæ.
The remarks upon the extent to which Syria has been one of the
intellectual influences of the world, anticipated the notice that would
otherwise have been required for Arabia.
The love of learning which appreciated, and the zeal which diffused
the valuable sections of Greek science and philosophy have taken the
garb of the power of originating; the extent to which this latter was
the case, even in the departments most generally admitted to have been
developed by Arabian cultivation, being by no means ascertained.
In the way of minute ethnology, the spread of the Arabs has engendered
numerous complications; though the facts of a nation speaking the
Arabic language, and exhibiting an Arabic physiognomy are _primâ
facie_ evidence of Arab extraction, they are anything but conclusive.
Thus, the extent to which the old Ægyptian stock may still survive
in Ægypt has been indicated in the notice of the Copts, although
the Coptic language has ceased to be spoken. Here, however, as the
physical appearance bore a marked difference, the recognition of a Copt
population was safe.
Perhaps the same might have been done in Syria, where there is special
testimony to the two separate ranges of Lebanon and the Amanus
retaining remnants of the original Syrian. I do not, however, know
the evidence on which the statements rest; indeed, in order to be
conclusive, it would require to be of a very peculiar kind.
_Physical form_ would not be likely to supply any evidence at all,
since no one can say how an Arab naturalized in Syria would differ from
an absolute Syrian.
_Language_, too, if only used as the language of religion, would be
inconclusive; since the Syriac being the tongue of the Nestorian
Christians, might be retained by even an Arab population, if previously
Christianized.
Again, the same intermixture which a certain amount of the Arab
stock has undergone in combining with Coptic, Syriac, and other
imperfectly-incorporated populations, occurs in the history of the
primitive, ante-Mahometan religion of Arabia. Without, at present,
being enabled to separate the Mahometan, Christian, and other elements
from the anomalous creeds of the Yezids, as described by Layard; of
the Mendajaha, of Chesney; and, perhaps, of the Druses, as well, it is
nearly certain that Sabæanism is the oldest element in them all. The
ground, however, here is full of ethnological problems.
The immigrant Arabs of Africa may be viewed under four aspects:--
1. _In respect to their geographical distribution._--_a._ Of Ægypt.
_b._ Nubia. _c._ Dongola. _d._ Mauritania. _e._ The Northern and Middle
Sahara. _f._ The Southern Sahara.
2. _In respect to their origin._--_a._ Arabs direct from Arabia. _b._
Arabs from tribes already occupants of Africa.
3. _In respect to their habits._--_a._ Beduins, or wandering, pastoral,
or predatory Arabs. _b._ Settled agricultural Arabs.
4. _In respect to the purity or intermixture of blood._--From what I
collect from Prichard, purity of blood is the rule rather than the
exception; the chief Africans by which it is crossed being those of the
Tuarick division of the Amazirgh. The Southern Sahara, to the north of
the Niger and the Sahara, and the ethnological frontier of the Woloff,
Mandingo, Fulah, Sungai, and Howssa Negroes form the great area of the
Arab and Tuarick intermixture.
ÆTHIOPIANS.
_Area._--Abyssinia.
_Physical condition of area._--An elevated table-land, or
system of terraces--disconnected from the other portions of the
Semitic area by the Red Sea (geographically), and by the Nubian
and Ægyptian areas (ethnologically).
_Division, Languages, and Religion._--1. Tigré, of the province
of Tigré, speaking a language generally admitted to be derived
from the Gheez or ancient Æthiopic. Christians.
2. Amharic Æthiopians of South-western Abyssinia, speaking
a language not generally admitted to be derived from the
Gheez, but still so like the Tigré as most probably to be so
descended. Christians.
3. The Gafat Æthiopians, Pagans, nearly displaced by the
Gallas, but whose language is considered to be allied to the
Amharic.
_Alphabet of the Christian Æthiopians._--Written from left to
right, not (like the Syriac, Hebrew, and Arabic) from right
to left. Closely allied to the Himyaritic Arabian of the
inscriptions.
_Antiquities._--Chiefly of the ancient Gheez capital, Axum.
The ethnology of the Semitic Abyssinians has the following
complications.
1. The Gheez language is too closely allied to the Arabic and Hebrew
to lead to the belief that it is aboriginal, _i. e_. other than of
comparatively recent introduction.
2. The Amharic, on the other hand, and, _à fortiori_, the Gafat, have
too many African elements to lead to the belief that the _first_
Semitic immigration was that which introduced the Tigré.
The hypothesis, which would reconcile these discrepancies, would be--
That the Gafat represented a _primary_, the Tigré a _secondary_
migration; and this is much the same view which was taken concerning
the relations between the island of Sumatra and the Peninsula of
Malacca. It is also one which arises from the circumstance of the
Isthmus of Suez being only one of the passages from Asia to Africa--the
Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb being the second.
Hence, the present classification is provisional, since if we admit
the Gafat to be primarily Semitic, the Tigré to represent a secondary
influx of population, and the Amharic to be fundamentally the same as
the Gafat, only containing a greater admixture of the Gheez, we have a
class into which other sections of the Abyssinian populations should
be admitted; _e.g._ the Agows, truly considered by Dr. Beke to be the
aborigines of Æthiopic Africa.
In order to exhibit in full the elements of the ethnology of the
Semitic class, notice must be taken of--
1. _The Hittites, Hivites_, &c.--The earlier inhabitants of Palestine,
Canaanitish idolaters, geographically, but not genealogically, Semitic.
2. _The Philistines._--Uncircumcised idolaters, of which a portion
remained unconquered at and beyond the date of the Jewish Captivity.
Language, probably unintelligible to the Hebrews; on the other hand,
they seem to have been closely related to the Phœnicians--facts not
easily reconciled.
3. _Solymi._--Cilicians. The question involved in the Semitic character
of the Solymi, is the difficult question as to the _north-western_
frontier of the Semitic area.
4. _Elamites._--These have the same import with the Solymi, _mutatis
mutandis_, _i.e._ in the consideration of the _south-eastern_ Semitic
frontier.
5. _Cyprians._--Almost certainly Semitic; probably Phœnician.
6. _Cappadocians._--Stated by Strabo to have been _white Syrians_.
Throughout the whole of the present volume the complex question of
_descent_, or the relation between the people of antiquity and the
modern populations of the same area is only _indicated_. Truly a part
of ethnology, it is the one most liable to extreme differences of
opinion, as well as the one which involves the most subtle and minute
criticism.
* * * * *
THE MALAGASI.
_Locality._--Madagascar.
_Physical Conformation._--Generally speaking, African rather
than Amphinesian; in some cases Amphinesian rather than African.
_Language._--Amphinesian rather than African.
_Religion._--Feticism.
_Name of one of the Malagasi Deities._--Vintana. Compare this
with the Australian _Wandong_.
The Malagasi have already been enumerated amongst the Oceanic
Mongolidæ. Why were they, then, only mentioned by name, and why do they
now find a place at the end of the Atlantidæ? The reason lies in the
antagonism between the evidence of their language and the evidence of
their physical conformation; the first pointing exclusively towards
Malacca, the latter partly towards Malacca and partly towards the
opposite coast of Africa. The phænomenon of intermixture is, in this
ease, so likely, that the doctrine that the Malagasi are Africans
speaking a Malay language, or, at least, that there is a strong
African intermixture, almost forces itself upon the investigator.
There is nothing, however, in what has hitherto been noticed
which induces me to admit any African element at all; since after
considerable reflection and hesitation I have come to the conclusion
that the differences in physical form, as described by many excellent
observers, are not greater than those which occur within the pale of
the Amphinesian populations themselves.
On the other hand it is difficult to imagine that the first human pair
who set foot in Madagascar, were from beyond India rather than from
the coasts of Mozambique, or Zanzibar. To which must be added the
tradition--perhaps we may say the existence--of the _Vazimbers_.
Drury writes that in his time the interior of the island was inhabited
by undersized Negroes, called _Verzimbers_.
Of these--as living occupants--no trace now remains. Instead thereof,
the Hovas of the Vazimber localities pay a superstitious reverence to
certain upright stones, the _graves of the Vazimbers_.
This, in my mind, points towards Africa as the birth place of the
Madagascar aborigines; and considering the degree to which the extent
of their extermination is evidence of physical inferiority, combined
with what has been said concerning the original northward extension
of the Hottentots, it is, on the whole, more probable that such
aborigines--provided they really existed at all--were of the stock
of the Koranas, or Gonaquas, rather than of the Koosas or Bechuanas,
_i.e._ Hottentot rather than Kaffre.
* * * * *
Are all the alphabets, that have ever been used, referable to one
single prototype, as their ultimate original, or has the process of
analysing a language into its elementary articulations, and expressing
these by symbols, been gone through more than once? The answer to this
is, partially a measure of the intellectual influence of the Semitic
nations. Great would be that influence, even if only the Greeks and
Romans had adopted the alphabet of the Phœnicians. How much greater if
the world at large had done so.
The doctrine of a single prototype is the most probable. For the
present alphabets of Europe the investigation is plain enough--indeed
they are all so undeniably of either Greek or Roman origin, that doubt
upon the matter is out of the question.
For others, however, the affiliation is less clear; and lest the extent
to which many of them differ from each other, as well as from their
assumed original, be over-valued, the following principles of criticism
are suggested.
1. That considering the undeniable differences in form, order, number,
and direction of writing between alphabets so undeniably connected as
(say) the Hebrew, and (say) the English, no objections to the doctrine
of a common origin is to be taken from mere points of dissimilarity in
any of the above-named characters.
2. That, considering the probability that such alphabets as the
Hieroglyphic and Arrow-headed are just as likely to be artificial
derivations from some simpler ones--either in way of cypher alphabets,
or in way that the illuminated letters of the Middle Ages differ from
common manuscript--no arguments in favour of their antiquity are to be
drawn from their undoubted peculiarity of structure.
3. That an alphabet, however much it may differ from others in the
arrangement of the lines and points which form its letters, is not
to be considered original if it has been framed within the literary
period, and with a knowledge of previous ones--the idea of the
analysis of a sentence into words, and of words into elementary
articulations, being the really great achievement in the invention of
an alphabet, and this, in such cases, not being original.
4. That the question of the affiliation or originality of alphabets be
considered not only with a view to the particular alphabet, but with
a due recognition of the fact that, taking the world at large, the
derivation of one alphabet from another, rather than the repetition
of the very remarkable process of the analysis of words, and the
symbolization of their articulate elements, is the _rule_, and that the
_apparent_ instances of the reverse are the exceptions.
With these, as preliminaries, we may enumerate the alphabets which most
put on the garb of original inventions, and most appear to invalidate
the doctrine that _alphabetic writing was but once, and once for all,
invented_.
1. 2. _The hieroglyphic and arrow-headed[184] modes of
writing_--Subject to Rule 2.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.]
3. _The Runes of the Gothic nations._--Deficient in proof of antiquity,
not remarkably unlike the older Greek characters, and not originating
in either an age or country where alphabets that might serve as models
were inaccessible.
[Illustration: Fig. 17.]
4. _The Irish Ogham._--Shown to be of a very limited antiquity--_See
two papers of Professor C. Graves on the subject._
5. 6. _Georgian and Armenian._--Not generally considered to be
derivations from the Syriac, only from the differences of their
characters; a ground of separation subject to the application of Rule 1.
7. _The alphabets of Southern India._--Subject to Rule 1;
8. _The alphabets of Northern India._--Subject to Rule 1; except so far
as they rest upon the two following assumptions:--1st, That portions of
the Hindu literature (the Vedas) are of an antiquity so remote as to be
previous to either the invention or the diffusion of the first Semitic
alphabet. 2d, That an Indian alphabet of equal antiquity, was necessary
to embody them.
Admitting the latter of these two assumptions, I agree with those who
doubt the first; and so far from inferring the existence of an ancient
alphabet from the Vedaic writings, am inclined to infer a recent date
for the Vedaic writings from the absence of an undeniably old and
original alphabet.
9. _The original alphabets of the Malays of Sumatra, Celebes, the
Philippines_, &c.--Subject to Rules 1 and 4.
10. _The Tuarick alphabet of Oudney and Richardson._--So deficient in
signs of antiquity as to come under Rule 3.[185]
11. 12. _The[186]Cherokee and Vei Alphabets._--Manifestly subject to
Rule 3.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.]
14. _The Chinese and its derivatives._--It is chiefly on the strength
of Rule 4, taken along with the general unsatisfactory character of the
evidence as to the antiquity of the Chinese civilization, that I allow
no greater claims to originality to this than to any of the preceding
alphabets.
Upon the whole, it may safely be said that no known alphabet, except
the Semitic, has any very strong claims to be considered as an original
and independent invention, by any one who admits the validity of the
four foregoing rules, and recognizes the full difficulty and complexity
of the notation of sounds addressed to the ear, by lines and points
addressed to the eye.
* * * * *
_The accumulation of climatologic influences, and the angle of the line
of migration._--Other conditions being equal, why do two tribes under
the same degree of latitude differ? _e.g._ Why are not all tribes under
the equator like the Negro of the Niger, and _vice versâ_?
Without venturing upon the enumeration of _all_ the elements of
this difference, I will indicate _one_, assuming only that the
climatological influences of a certain degree of latitude have _some_
effect, and that _some_ effect must be the result of the force in
question. I call it _the accumulation of climatologic influences_.
Let a certain locality under a given degree of latitude (say the
west-coast of Africa, under the equator) be peopled by a line of
population migrating from Denmark, under one supposition, and from
Bombay, under another, the line of migration being, for convenience
sake, supposed to be a straight one.
From Denmark, such a line, at its junction with the point in question
(say the mouth of the Gaboon River), would form with the equinoctial
line, and with each intermediate degree of latitude, a right one.
From Denmark, the angle would be, a very acute one.
Now, just as the angle formed by the line of latitude and the line of
migration is acute, the approach made by a moving population towards
any particular point under that line (of latitude) is gradual, and in
proportion as such an approach is gradual, the number of generations
over which a condition of climate, like that of the final point,
has been acting is increased; and in this way its influences become
_accumulated_.
Thus, assuming Bombay to be the original cradle of our species--
The Gaboon Negro is the descendant of ancestors who, before they
reached their present abode, had moved in a line lying almost wholly
within the tropics; whereas--
The American of Quito, is the descendant of ancestors who passed
through the tropics by the shortest cut (_i. e._ at nearly a right
angle with the equator), themselves descended from progenitors upon
whom the influences of the several North-American, Arctic, and Siberian
climates had been at work.
In the latter case how great have been the changes and how rapid
the transitions from the conditions of one latitude to another; how
different, too, the effects upon a series of generations moving along
a line a thousand miles long, from north to south, from those upon a
stream of population propagated along an equal distance east and west.
The former takes them through half the latitudes of the world. The
latter keeps them within a single zone--Arctic, Equatorial, or
temperate, as the case may be, the climatologic influences seconding,
instead of counteracting those of blood, and that in a ratio
progressing geometrically.
FOOTNOTES:
[184] For the meaning of this, see the note at the end of the volume.
[185] For the powers of this alphabet, see the note at the end of the
volume.
[186] For the meaning of this, see the note at the end of the volume.
IAPETIDÆ.
DIVISIONS.
A.--OCCIDENTAL IAPETIDÆ.
B.--INDO-GERMANIC IAPETIDÆ.
This is the section of our species which is the best known, and
which has been the earliest described. Preeminently lying within the
department of the historian and archæologist, the natural historical
questions connected with it, are those of the _minute_ rather than the
systematic ethnographist.
Thus--the information, which would be so valuable in Africa or America,
as to the _general_ relations of a particular population, is useless
here. All such facts are known; and in dealing with areas like Britain,
or Italy, we ask--not to what great primary class the Englishman or
the Italian belongs, but the subtler questions as to the _differentiæ_
of their mental and physical characteristics, or the amount of foreign
intermixture which in one case traverses the original Saxon, and in
the other the primitive Roman stock--each stock itself being a complex
product.
Ethnology of this sort has its proper exposition in a series of
monographs, rather than in a work like the present.
So thoroughly are the Iapetidæ, populations who have encroached upon
the frontiers of others rather than admitted encroachments on their
own, that, with the exception of the Arab dominion in Spain, which has
_not_, and the Turk and Majiar in Rumelia and Hungary, which _have_
lasted till our own times, there is no instance of their permanent
displacement by either Mongolidæ or Atlantidæ of any sort.
Within their own pale, the Celts were the encroaching family of the
oldest, the Romans of the next oldest, and the Anglo-Saxons and
Slavonians of the recent periods of history.
A.
OCCIDENTAL IAPETIDÆ.
_Languages._--Separated from the common mother-tongue
subsequent to the evolution of the persons of verbs, but
anterior to the evolution of the cases of nouns. Evidently
agglutinate.
Here, as with the Atlantidæ, we begin with an extreme, rather than a
transitional division of the stock.
CELTS (KELTS).
_Name._--Either native, Ligurian, or Iberian. In its limited
sense confined to the southern Gauls. Possibly to some of the
Iberians as well. At present, a _general_ term comprizing
populations very different from the original Keltæ (Κέλται).
And adopted by the Greeks rather than the Romans.
_Present area._--Brittany, Wales, the Highlands of Scotland,
the Isle of Man, Ireland.--In Brittany it is doubtful whether
the Keltic occupancy represent original distribution or
immigration.
_Original area._--_a._ _Undoubted._--The _present_ the
Scottish Low-lands, England, Gaul north of the Loire (there or
thereabouts), and parts of Switzerland.
_b._ _Probable._--Parts of Baden, and Bavaria, Northern Italy.
In this latter case it is doubtful whether the Keltic occupancy
represent original distribution or immigration.
_c._ _Accredited_ (either in way of original distribution or
migration).--The Tyrol (Taurisci), Illyria (Scordisci), Asia
Minor (the Galatians), Spain (the Celt-Iberians), Jutland
(Cimbri).
_Frontier._--Preeminently receding; the encroaching populations
being (1st) Roman, (2nd) Gothic.
_Conterminous with_--_a._ in the original area; Iberians,
Italians, German Goths. _b._ in the present; English Goths, and
French.
_Chief divisions._--1. Kelts of Gaul, falling into, _a._ The
proper Celtæ. _b._ The Belgæ. Extinct(?) or incorporate.
2. British Kelts, falling into, _a._ The Cambrians. _b._ The
Picts. The latter either extinct or incorporate.
3. Gaels. _a._ Scotch Gaels. _b._ Irish Gaels. _c._ Manxmen, or
Gaelic Kelts of the Isle of Man.
4. The Cisalpine Kelts of Northern Italy.
5. The Ligurians(?) extended from the Etruscan to the Iberian
frontier.
_Sub-divisions (more or less artificial) of the Cambrian
Kelts._--_a._ Cumbrians of the kingdom of Strath-Clyde. _b._
Cymry of North Wales. _c._ Cymry of South Wales. _d._ Cornish
Kelts.
_Philological Classification of the known Keltic languages._--
Keltic Stock.
|
-----------------------------------------
| |
Cambrian (British) Branch. Gaelic Branch.
| |
------------------------------- ------------------------------------
| | | |
Welsh. Cornish. Armorican. Scotch Gaelic. Irish Gaelic. Manx.
_Descent._--From the ancient tribes of Ireland, Scotland,
England, Gaul (north of the Loire, and west of the Rhine),
Helvetia, and the Agri Decumates(?). The Cimbri[187] and
Teutones.
_Physical conformation._--Preeminently (according to Retzius)
dolikhokephalic. Cheek-bones, prominent; complexion, referable
to--
_a._ _The Silurian type._--Eyes and hair, black; complexion,
dark, with a ruddy tinge; chiefly found in South Wales.
_b._ _The Hibernian type._--Eyes, grey; hair, yellowish, red,
or sandy; complexion, light.
_Pantheon._--Teutates, Taranis, Hesus, Belenus (Belis),
Abellio, Belatucadrus, Attis, Aufaniæ (Goddesses), Aventia,
Bacurdus, Camulus, Onuava, Ogmius, Nehalunnia, Dusius (the
Deuce), Salivæ (Sylphs)--_Mithridates_ vol. iii.
To this, add the phænomena involved in the system of _a._ The
Druids. _b._ The Bards. _c._ The monumental remains of the
character of Stonehenge=_Máenhír_=_long stones_.
_Antiquities._--Coins, images, tumuli, and their contents,
_Máenhír_.
_Habits._--In southern and central Gaul, and in southern and
central England, at least, agricultural and industrial. On the
coast, maritime.
_Probable line of population._--To Ireland from the nearest
part of Scotland, to Scotland from England, to England from the
parts about Calais and Dunkirk.
This last observation has been made in order to guard against any false
impression arising from the statement of Bede that the Scots came from
Ireland. The evidence of this is, at best, but a tradition, apparently
founded upon an inaccurate etymology. Even if true, it would apply only
to some secondary migration, and be subject to the criticism applied
to the relations between the Island of Sumatra, and the Peninsula of
Malacca, as Malay areas.
FOOTNOTES:
[187] Reasons in favour of the Cimbri and Teutones, being simply
Gauls of Gallia, have been published by the present writer in the
Transactions of the Philological Society.
B.
INDO-GERMANIC IAPETIDÆ.
_Languages._--Separated from the common mother-tongue
subsequent to the evolution of the cases of nouns. Less
evidently agglutinate than the Keltic.
The previous and the forthcoming groups are generally placed in one and
the same class--that class being called Indo-European. The material
fact of the Kelts having broken-off from the mother-stock at an
appreciably early stage in the evolution of the common language, has
led the present writer to refine upon the usual arrangement. To prove
that the Kelts and Goths are related, is a very different matter from
proving that their relationship is within a certain degree.
The Indo-Germanic Iapetidæ fall into two classes--
1. The European; 2. The Iranian Indo-Germans.
I.
EUROPEAN INDO-GERMANS.
Of this class the sub-divisions are three--1. The Gothic. 2. The
Sarmatian. 3. The Mediterranean Indo-Germans.
1.
GOTHS.
_Physical conformation._--_a._ Blue eyes, flaxen hair, ruddy
complexion, smooth skin, fleshy limbs.
_b._ Eyes, gray, dark, or hazel; hair, brown or black;
complexion, sallow or swarthy; bulk, varied.
_Area._--Preeminently encroaching.
_a._ _Original._--Western Germany, Denmark(?), southern part of
Scandinavia(?).
_b._ _Present._--Germany and Scandinavia in general,
Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, the
United States of America, Canada, Australia.
_Descent._--From the Germans of that part of the ancient
_Germania_ which lay (there or thereabouts) between the rivers
Rhine and Elbe.--Batavi, Chamavi, Caninifates, Frisii, Chauci,
Angrivarii, Bructeri, Catti, Cherusci, Fosi, Marcomanni, &c.
_Primary Divisions._--_a._ Teutons. _b._ Scandinavians.
_a._
TEUTONS.
_Area._--Germany.
_Language._--Without a middle (or passive voice) and with the
definite article separate from and preceding its noun.
_Primary divisions._--α. Mœso-Goths. β. High Germans, γ. Low
Germans.
α.
MŒSO-GOTHS.
_Original area._--The water-system of the Upper Danube,
probably parts of Bavaria and Thuringian Saxony.
_Area in the third and fourth centuries._--The Roman province
of Mœsia.
_Language._--Partially preserved in the Translation of the
Scriptures, by Ulphilas, in the reign of Valens.
_Divisions._--1. Ostrogoths (=_East_-Goths), of which the royal
line was that of the Amalungs. 2. Visi-Goths (=_West_-Goths);
of which the royal line was that of the Baltungs.
_Current names._--Probably not given till after the occupation
of the country by the Getæ.
_Native names._--Probably Grutungs and Tervings (Thuringians).
Reasons for believing that the so-called Goths of the Lower Danube were
_not_ indigenous to the country in which we find them in the reign of
Valens, that they were in no wise descendants of the Getæ, and that
they were not known by the name _Goth_ until they took possession of
the country of the Getæ, are given in the Transactions of the British
Association for 1849, and in The English Language of the present writer.
He now arrives at their probable home in Germany by the _method of
exclusion_, _i.e._ by determining what portions of Germany were most
certainly occupied by _non_-Mœso-Gothic populations.
These he places in the country, drained by the northern feeders of the
Upper Danube, believing that from this point the migration took place
by the waters of the Danube rather than by land.
The two following facts are the chief reasons for this latter view:--
1. Their subsequent maritime career on the Euxine.
2. Their _non_-occurrence at intermediate points.--The first place
whereat we hear of them is Marcianopolis, as far east as the vicinity
of the Euxine. From this they afterwards move westward, _i.e._ towards
Rome and Spain.
β.
HIGH GERMANS.
_Area._--Hesse and parts of Thuringia and Bavaria; conterminous
(though by frontiers hitherto imperfectly investigated) with
the Kelts of the Upper Rhine, the Slavonians of the Upper Elbe,
and the original area of the Mœso-Goths.
_Language._--Forming the plurals of nouns in _-n_ rather than
in _-s_, and those of verbs in _-n_, _-m_, or _-nt_, rather
than in _-th_ (_dh_).
_High Germans of the Roman period._--Alemanni, Suevi(?),
Burgundians(?).
The spread of the Teutonic populations, as contrasted with the
Keltic, Slavonic, and Roman, in general, combined with the numerous
displacements of particular portions of the German tribes themselves,
makes the question of _descent_ excessively complicated. Perhaps the
best present representatives of the High-Germanic division are the
modern--
HESSIANS.
_Locality._--Hesse, conterminous with the Franks, Saxons, and
Thuringians.
_Descent._--The Catti.
And after these the--
THURINGIANS.
_Area._--Bounded, east and west, by the rivers Werra and
Saal, the latter a Slavono-Germanic limit. In its southern
extension, probably, passing into some language representing
the Mœso-Gothic.
Conterminous with the Hessians on the west, either a nation, or a
confederacy, and transitional between the High and Low Germans; the--
FRANKS.
_Language._--More Dutch than Saxon or Frisian, and (perhaps)
more High German than Dutch.
_Area._--Indeterminate, but ethnologically bounded by those of
the Batavians, Old Saxons, and High Germans. _Encroaching_;
being that of the population which either displaced or
incorporated the Old and the Hanoverian Saxons, as well as the
greater part of the Slavonians of the Elbe.
_Descent._--Usipetes, Ripuarii, Sicambri.
γ.
LOW GERMANS.
_Languages._--With the plural forms generally ending in _-a_,
or _-s_ rather than _-n_.
_Area._--The Lower Rhine, Ems, Weser; the Elbe near its mouth.
_Divisions._--1. Batavians. 2. Saxons, 3. Frisians.
BATAVIANS.
_Locality._--Holland _minus_ Friesland.
_Language._--Low German, with the plurals ending in _-n_,
rather than _-s_, _-a_, or _-r_.
_Descent._--From the Batavi, Chamavi, Tubantes, Salii(?),
Caninifates.
SAXONS.
_Language._--Forming the infinitive mood in _-an_ (not in
_-a_), certain plurals in _-as_ (not in _-n_), and the plural
of the present tense in _-þ_ (not in _-n_, or _-a_).
_Divisions._--1. _Nordalbingians_ (=north of the Elbe) of
Holstein. Most probably Saxons. Extinct, or incorporated.
2. _Saxons of Hanover._--Extinct, or incorporated in Germany.
The Anglo-Saxons of England.
3. _Saxons of Osnaburg and Westphalia._--Extinct or
incorporated. Descendants of the Cherusci.
FRISIANS.
_Language._--Low German, with the infinitives ending in _-a_.
_Physical appearance._--Preeminently of the first type.
_Divisions and localities._--1. West Frisians, of Friesland
and Groningen; the latter speaking the Dutch of Holland.
Descendants of the Frisii.
2. East Frisians of East Friesland, Oldenburg, and Hanover.
_Language._--Except in Saterland, replaced by the German.
Descent from the Chauci.
3. North Frisians of Heligoland, and the parts about Husum and
Bredsted, in Sleswick.
The date of the occupancy of the North Frisians is uncertain. Probably,
they are emigrants from Hanoverian Friesland rather than aborigines.
The Frisian is the most unmixed, and typical portion of the Gothic
population. It is also transitional between the Teutons and the--
_b._
SCANDINAVIANS.
_Area._--Denmark and Scandinavia.
_Languages._--With a middle voice, and with the definite
article incorporated with, and appended to, its noun.
(Thus, whilst _sol_=_sun_ and _bord_=_table_, _hin_=_the_
for the masculine, and _hitt_=_the_ for the neuter gender,
_sol-en_=_the sun_, and _bord-et_=_the table_.)
_Divisions more or less artificial._--1. Icelander. 2. Feroe
Islanders. 3. Norwegians. 4. Swedes. 5. Danes.
What is the import of the differences just indicated between the
Scandinavian tongues and the Teutonic; are they of such slow growth
as to denote a very early separation of the Dane and Swede from the
Northern German, or might they be evolved in a comparatively short
space of time? The answer to this involves the question as to date of
the Scandinavian migration into the parts north of the Eyder.
My own opinion is that a common mother-tongue might, _within the space
of a few centuries_, develop itself into the languages represented by
the present Frisian on the South, and the Scandinavian dialects on the
North respectively. If so, the Gothic occupation of the Scandinavian
area need not amount to any very remote antiquity. Probably, I am
singular in this opinion. It will be noticed again within a few
pages.[188]
2.
SARMATIANS.
As this class comprises the Lithuanic as well as Slavonic members
of the so-called Indo-European class, the term _Sarmatian_ has been
preferred to either of the more sectional denominations.
_Physical conformation._--According to Retzius, brakhykephalic
rather than dolikhokephalic, Indo-Germans. In many cases
approaching the Turanian type.
_Intermixture._--Turanian, arising from the so-called Tartar
invasions. How far the Tartar intermixture coincides with the
brakhykephalic formation of the cranium requires investigation.
_Extent of area._--West and east from (about) 10° to (about)
40° west latitude. From (about) 40° north latitude to (about)
60° north latitude.
_Primary divisions._--1. Lithuanians. 2. Slavonians (Slaves).
The point most open to objection in the present section is extent, to
which the _original_ area of the Sarmatians is brought westwards.
_a._
LITHUANIANS.
_Philological Divisions._--1. _Prussian_ (or _Old_
Prussian).--Dialects of Samland, Nattangen, Tolkemir--Extinct,
and known only through a pater-noster and a vocabulary of
A.D. 1521, a catechism of A.D. 1545, and a pater-noster of
A.D. 1561. Spoken in West and East Prussia from (there or
thereabouts) the Vistula to the Pregel.
2. _Lithuanic._--Spoken from the Pregel to the frontier of
Courland.--Dialects of Insterburg and Nadrau in Prussia, and
the Shamaitic dialect in Polish Lithuania.
3. _Lettish._--Courland, Southern Livonia, parts of Wilna,
and Witepsk.--_Dialects_--numerous, _i.e._ for the parts
about Liebau (corrupt), Mittau (pure), Riga (pure), Dunaburg
(corrupt).
_Descent._--A. From nations of tribes of the Middle Ages--
_a._ The Galanditæ, Sudowitæ, Pomerani, Pogesani, Warmienses
(Hermini, Jarmenses), Nattangi, Barthi, Nadrovitæ, Sambitæ,
Scalovitæ.
_b._ Jaswingi, Pollexiani.
_c._ Lettones, Samogitæ, Semgalli, Carsowitæ.
_d._ Curi (Curanii), Lami (Lamonii), Lettgalli (Letti), Ydumei,
Selones,--_Zeuss_, pp. 674--683.
B. From the nations or tribes of classical antiquity.--The
Ὠστίωνες of Stephanus Byzantinus=the Ὠστίαιοι of Artemidorus=
the Κόσσινοι of Pytheas=the Gothones (Guttones) of Tacitus; the
Lemovii.
_Pantheon._--Perkunos, Potrimpos, Picollos.
_Native name of a certain section._--Guddon (=Guttones).
The main points connected with the Lithuanian branch of the Sarmatian
stock are the following:--
1. Of all the Iapetidæ they preserved their original paganism the
longest.
2. Of all the Iapetidæ they have had the least influence on the history
of mankind.
3. Of all the Iapetidæ they speak a language nearest in structure to
the Sanskrit. It is the latter fact which has given prominence to the
_Philological Divisions_ of so important a tongue.
Prominence, too, has been given to their relations in the way of
descent, since the denial of the existence of any nations, other
than Sarmatian, as occupants of the water-systems of either the
Vistula or the Oder, anterior to the tenth century, notwithstanding
the numerous statements as to the occurrence of Gothic tribes in the
present countries of Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Prussia, Courland, and
even Esthonia, is a point to which I have no hesitation in committing
myself; a series of papers upon the subject being in the course of
delivery and publication, for the Philological Society.
Furthermore, whoever will so far divest himself of his prepossessions
as to admit the possibility of the _Jute_ of _Jut_land, and the _Goth_
of _Goth_land being something other than _Gothic_ in the usual sense of
the term, will find that no provisional hypothesis will explain so many
of the difficulties created by the conflicting evidence involved in the
terms _Jute_, _Eote_, _Goth_, _Reid-Goth_, _Gaut_, &c., as that of an
_extension of the Lithuanian Vitæ, or Guttones, to the southern parts
of Sweden and to Jutland_.
I say, Lithuanian _Vitæ_ and _Guttones_, because whatever may be the
value of other supposed applications of the roots _Goth-_, _Jut-_, and
_Vit-_, the only families to which any of them have undeniably been
brought home as a native name are the Lithuanic.
Besides this, I am so far from attributing either an over-high
antiquity, or a preeminent independence of origin to the Scandinavian
mythology, that I see in the God _Ymer_, the Finnic _Yumala_, and in
the _Fiorgyn_, the Lithuanic _Perkunos_.
Lastly, the combination _k-l-m_ (as in Kalmar) is not the only
geographical root common to the two sides of the Baltic, Lithuanic and
Swedish.
Still, the hypothesis is, at present, little beyond a mere suggestion.
_b._
SLAVONIANS.
_Divisions._--A. _Extent._--Chiefly philological. α. Russians.
β. Servians, γ. Illyrians. δ. Tsheks. ε. Poles. ϛ. Serbs. ζ.
Polabi.
B. _Extinct or incorporate, but undoubtedly Slavonic._--The
Slavonians of Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Uckermark, Altmark,
Luneburg, Holstein, &c.
C.--_Extinct or incorporate, but not undoubted Slavonic._--The
following nations of antiquity.--1. Scoloti (Σκόλοτοι), Getæ,
Daci, Thracians, Pannonians, original inhabitants of Noricum
and Dalmatia, Crobyzi (whence _Chrobati_ and _Croatian_), &c.
_Descent._--_a._ From nations _and tribes mentioned by the
authors of Classical Antiquity._--Thracians (?), Getæ(?),
Daci(?), Pannonii(?), Iazyges, Limigantes, Quadi, Ligii
(Lekhs=Poles), Silingæ, Bastarnæ, Suardones, Rugii, Buri,
Sciri, Turcilingi, Venedæ, &c.
_b._ _From nations and tribes mentioned by Slavonic
authors._--Morawa (Moravians), Czeczi (Bohemians), Chorwati
bjelii (= White Croatians), Serb', Chorutane (Carantanians),
Ljachowe (Lekhs=Poles), Luticzi, Masowszane (Masovians),
Pomoranje (Pomeranians), Derewljane, Poloczane (probably
Lithuanians), Sjewera, Radimeczi, Wjaticzi.--_Zeuss._
_Earliest introduction of Christianity._--The eighth century.
_Pagan Pantheon._--_a._ _Of the Middle Age
writers._--Veli-bog=White God, Czerne-bog (Tshernibog)=Black
God, Perown, Sviatowit (Swantevit), Radegast, Vitislav,
Krasopani, Pogwist, Jessa, Laicon, Nia, Marzana, Zievonia,
Lelus, Potetus, Liadu, Djedijielia, Pogoda.
_b._ _Of the Classical writers._--Zamolxis, Gebeleixis(?).
α.
RUSSIANS.
_Original area._---Roughly speaking, the eastern part of the
water-system of the Dnieper.
_Conterminous with_--_a._ Lithuanians on the Middle Pripet,
and Upper Duna (_i.e._ in Mensk and Viteskp). _b._ Ugrians
along the Valdai range, and on the Oka. _c._ Ugrians, Turks, or
Caucasian, south-east.
_Dialects._--_a._ Russian Proper, _b._ Susdalian, spoken in
the government of Moscow. _c._ Olonetz. _d._ Malo-Russian
(Little Russian) of the Ukraine, probably passing into the _e._
Russniak of Bukowina, Lodomir, and Gallicia and _f._ the White
Russian of Volhynia.
_Alphabets._--Derived directly from the Old Slavonic,
indirectly from the Greek.
_Christianity._--Greek Church. Introduced between A.D. 980, and
A.D. 1015.
β.
SERVIANS.
_Divisions._--1. Servians of Servia, Slavonia, Transylvania,
and New Servia (a Russian colony on the Dnieper, settled
A.D. 1754).[189] 2. Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina
(Mahometans). 3. Dalmatians, Ragusans, and Montenegriners of
Monte Negro, conterminous with the Albanians.
_Alphabet._--Old Slavonic, of Cyrillus and Methodius for
Servia. Glagolitic for Dalmatia. Both of Greek origin.
_Christianity._--Greek Church. Introduced anterior to 800 A.D.
Old Slavonic, the church language.
γ.
ILLYRIANS.
_Divisions._--_a._ Croatian. _b._ Slovenzi of Carinthia,
Carniola, Steyermark, South-western Hungary.
_Alphabet._--Originally of Greek origin, or Glagolitic.
Replaced by the Roman.
_Christianity._--Originally of the Greek Church; replaced by
Romanism.
δ.
TSHEKS.
_Native name._--Tshekh (Czech)=_foremost_(?).
_Descent._--The Western _Daci_ (=_Czech_?).
_Divisions._--_a._ The Czesky Gazyk=Tshekh language of Bohemia.
_b._ The Morawsky Gazyk=Moravian language of Moravia. _c._
Slovac, Upper Hungary, _i.e._ the water-systems of the rivers
Waag and Gran.
_Alphabet._--Roman.
_Christianity._--Roman Catholic, introduced in the ninth
century.
ε.
POLES.
_Philological divisions._--1. Of Poland, Posen, and parts of
Lithuania and Gallicia.
2. _Kassubic._--_a._ Of West Prussia. _b._ Pomerania.
_Descent._--From the Lygii of Tacitus.
_Alphabets._--Roman.
_Christianity._--Roman Catholic and Protestant.
Native name of at least one tribe--_Lekh_, the term Pole, being
the geographical rather than ethnological, and=_level plains_.
ϛ.
SERBS.
_Localities and divisions._--_a._ The Sserske (a native name)
of Lower, _b._ The Srbie (do) of Upper, Lusatia.
_Partial descent._--The Silingi.
ζ
POLABIC SLAVONIANS.
The word _po_=_on_, and _Labe_=_Elbe_, so that the Polabic Slavonians
means the Slavonians on the Elbe. The importance of this section arises
from the fact that at the time of Charlemagne they were, with the
exception of the tract occupied by the Saxons of Holstein, and the
north-west part of Hanover, not only the occupants of Mecklenburg, and
the parts _east_ of that river, but of Lauenburg, Luneburg, Altmark,
and a vast section of Germany to the _west_ of it.
To suppose that the Slavonic frontier was not equally extended
westwards, in the eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second,
or first centuries, is, in the first instance, to admit the accuracy of
an author like Tacitus.
On the other hand, however, it involves the assumption of so vast an
amount of migration, displacement, and other unlikely ethnological
processes, that a writer who weighs conflicting probabilities is led
to the conclusion that a great historian is more likely to be wrong in
the ethnology of countries like Prussia and Poland--countries which
could be known to Tacitus only as the interior of Africa can be known
to Mr. Hallam or Macaulay--than that, between A.D. 100, and 900, a
whole Gothic population, extending from the Niemen to the Elbe, should
have been replaced by a Slavonic one, without leaving a single trace
of its existence in any intermediate locality; the same encroaching
Slavonians, when we first find them mentioned by cotemporary
historians, being themselves in a state of displacement by the same
previously-displaced Germans.
This, however, is but a very general and superficial view of the
difficulties that attend the belief that the Oder and Vistula were
originally German. Nevertheless, it is all that room can be found for
here.
As to the tribes themselves the chief were--
_The Wagrians._--Occupants of the country between the Trave and the
upper portion of the southern branch of the Eyder.
_The Polabi._--Conterminal with the Wagrians and the Saxons of
Sturmar, from whom they were separated by the river Bille.
_The Obodriti._--This is a generic rather than a specific term. It
means, however, the tribes between the Trave and the Warnow; chiefly
along the coast. Zeuss makes Schwerin their most inland locality.
_Varnahi._--This is the form which the name takes in Adam of Bremen. It
is also that of the Varni, Varini and Veruni of the classical writers;
as well as the Werini of the Introduction to the _Leges Anglorum et
Werinorum, hoc est Thuringorum_.
_Linones._--Luneburg. Language spoken during the last century. Known
through a pater-noster. Slavonic, modified by German.
Such are the chief western Slavonians of the time of Charlemagne. If
they were not also the western Slavonians of the first and second
centuries, they must have emigrated between the two periods;[190] "must
have done so, not in parts but for the whole frontier; must have, for
the first and last time, displaced a population which has ever been
the conqueror rather than the conquered; must have displaced it during
one of the strongest periods of its history; must have displaced
it everywhere, and wholly; and (what is stranger still) that not
permanently--since, from the time in question, these same Germans, who,
between A.D. 200 and A.D. 800, always retreated before the Slavonians,
have from A.D. 800 to A.D. 1800, always reversed the process, and
encroached upon their former dispossessors."
3.
MEDITERRANEAN INDO-GERMANS.
_Physical conformation._--Dolikhokephalic, high facial angle;
hair, eyes, and complexion, dark; frame, more slender than
bulky.
When we consider that the aborigines of Spain were Iberic, that they
probably extended as far as the Rhone, and that the ancient Ligurians
of the Gulf of Genoa are not absolutely known in respect to their
ethnological relations, the apparent impropriety of restricting the
term _Mediterranean_ to the classical nations of Greece and Italy
becomes diminished; to which it may be added that the undoubted
civilizational influence of the land-and-water conditions of these two
peninsulas requires some term to suggest it. The term, nevertheless, is
open to amendment.
So much of what belongs to Greece and Italy is historical, that the
brevity of the preceding and following notices may be excused.
MEDITERRANEAN FAMILIES AND NATIONS.
_Localities._--Greece and Italy.
_Area._--Discontinuous.
_Divisions._--1. The Hellenic branch. 2. The Italian (Ausonian)
branch.
_Historical Influence._--Preeminently moral. Material as well.
The discontinuity of the Greek and Italian areas is a difficulty which
requires more investigation than it has met with, and is a purely
ethnological question.
So is the archæological part of both the Greek and Roman ethnology,
_i.e._ the relations of the Hellenes and Latins to the early
inhabitants of their respective peninsulas.
So is the analysis of their present representatives, _e. g._ the
question as to the amount of Slavonic, Italian, or Albanian blood in
the modern Greek, or the determination of the Keltic, Roman, and Gothic
elements amongst the French.
Of the sub-divisions of the--
ITALIAN BRANCH
the following classification is, perhaps, the most convenient; to which
the previous arrangement of the ethnological elements into _a_, the
Original; _b_, the Roman; and _c_, the Superadded, gives precision.
1. _Italians._--_Original Elements_--_a_, Samnite, Etruscan, Keltic(?),
Ligurian, &c.; _b_, Roman of Rome; _c_, German.
2. _Hesperians. (Spanish and Portuguese)._--_a_, Iberian, Celtic(?);
_b_, Roman of the time of the second Punic war; _c_, Gothic, Arabian.
3. _French._--_a_, Celtic for the North, Iberian for the South; _b_,
Roman, chiefly from the time of Cæsar; _c_, German.
4. _Swiss of Graubündten._--_a_, Undetermined; _b_, Roman of an
uncertain, though probably late, period; _c_, German.
5. _Wallachians._--_a_, Undetermined; probably Slavonic; _b_, Roman of
the time of Trajan; _c_, Turk (Hun, Comanian, and Bulgarian), Slavonic,
German, Ottoman, Turk.
II.
IRANIAN INDO-GERMANS.
The whole of this class is hypothetical. Such as it is, however,
it comprises the populations of Kurdistan, Persia, Beloochistan,
Affghanistan, and Kafferistan.
In order to understand the complications which leave so large a section
of the human species in an unsatisfactory ethnological position, a
notice of the Sanskrit language, and of the _history of opinion_
concerning it, is necessary.
The language called Sanskrit has a grammar of the same copiousness
and complexity as the Greek, and a vocabulary which places it in the
Indo-European class of tongues.
It is the language of the religious and literary writings of the
_Brahminical_ Hindus; the Ramayana and Mahabharata (epic poems) being
referred by Sanskrit scholars to the second century B.C.
A more archaic form of it is the language of the Vedas, referred by
some Sanskrit scholars to 1400 B.C.
A form said to approach the archaic character of the Veda. Sanskrit
is the language of the arrow-headed inscriptions--so far as they are
Persian; the date of these being the reign of Darius.
A form (the Pali) _less_ archaic than the Sanskrit of the Mahabharata
has been found upon inscriptions of the æra of the Seleucidæ in
Babylon, and as such in records older than that of the Non-Vedaic
Sanskrit literature.
The same Pali is the language of the _Buddhist_ religion and literature
in India, in Ceylon, in the Trans-Gangetic Peninsula, in Tibet, and in
the Sub-Himalayan range.
The Zend, a form closely allied to the proper Sanskrit is the language
of the oldest Parsi religious books, the Zendavesta.
Lastly--The inscriptions upon the Indo-Bactrian coins of the successors
of Alexander are either Sanskrit or nearly Sanskrit.
It is convenient in speaking of these several forms of speech _as a
class_, to designate them by the term Iranian.
It is convenient, also, to indicate the extent to which the approach
made by the Persepolitan of a period so late as the reign of Darius,
to the Vedaic dialect, _said_ to be about one thousand years older,
subtracts from the value of a common argument in favour of the
antiquity of the Vedas, _viz._ the extent to which the language is more
archaic than the Sanskrit of the Epics.
It is well too, to indicate as a further disturbance to the current
opinions, the bearing of the _Pali_ character of the inscriptions;
whereby the _oldest_ records are embodied in the _newest_ form of
language.
All these, however, are subordinate questions; the main point being the
enumeration of the Iranian Indo-Germans.
The Iranian Indo-Germans are those nations and tribes, whatever
they may be, who are descended from the speakers of the Iranian
languages--be they Sanskrit Proper, the Sanskrit of the Vedas, Pali,
Zend, or Persepolitan; languages, which, it must be observed, are, in
the present state of our inquiry, _dead_ languages.
What, then, are these tribes and nations? The answer to this gives us
the Iranian Indo-Germans.
When the Sanskrit literature of India first commanded attention, the
answer to this question was--_all_ the nations of Hindostan.
The first researches (those of Ellis and others) upon the languages of
southern India showed that the Tamul tongues, at least, were not in
this category.
Further researches (those of Dr. Stevenson and others) gave reasons for
making the Mahratta language Tamul rather than Iranian--not that the
_vocabulary_ was not Sanskritic, but that the _grammar_ was such as
could never have been evolved out of the grammar of that tongue.
Prominence being thus given to the non-Sanskritic character of the
grammar of one Indo-Gangetic language, the undeniable fact of a vast
per-centage of the vocables being Sanskrit, fell in value, as a sign of
philological relation.
Thence came an application of the criticism which had unfixed the
Mahratta language to the other (apparently) more undoubtedly Iranian
dialects of Northern India--the Udiya, the Gujerati, the Hindi, and the
Bengali.
The present writer believes that it unfixes these also; an opinion
to which he has been led quite as much by what has been said by the
defenders as by what has been said by the impugners of their Sanskritic
origin. It is not likely any better case will be made out for this,
than the one contained in a very able Dissertation of Dr. Max
Müllers.[191] Yet it is so unsatisfactory, that it almost proves the
question the other way.
Now all this goes to show that Iranian Indo-Germans are not to be
looked for in India; except, of course, as a foreign element to the
originally Tamul population.
Whether they are to be looked for elsewhere, and (if anywhere) in what
quarters, follows the notice of the--
PERSIAN STOCK.
_Physical conformation._--Cranium, dolikhokephalic; complexion,
varied, fair with the mountaineer tribes, dark with those of
the sandy deserts of the south; features, sometimes regular
and delicate, sometimes bold and prominent; in the one case
approaching the character of the high-caste Indians, in the
other Semitic or sub-Semitic.
_Area._--Persia, Beloochistan, Affghanistan, Bokhara,
Kafferistan.
_Languages._--Undeniably Sanskrit in respect to a great per
centage of the vocables. _Not_ undeniably Sanskrit in respect
to their grammatical structure.
The last sentence contains the reason for the provisional character
of the present classification. The criticism, or rather scepticism,
which has been extended by others to the Indo-Gangetic languages of
Hindostan, is extended by the present writer to the Persian.
If so--the nation that is at one and the same time Asiatic and
Indo-Germanic, remains to be discovered; it being remembered that it
is only Indo-Germanic through its relations with the speakers of the
Sanskrit.
The divisions (more or less artificial) of the Persian family are--
1. _The Persians of Northern and Western Persia._--Mahometans.
Occupants of elevated plateaux, the alluvial banks of great rivers
being exceptional.
2. _The Kurds of Kurdistan._--Mountaineers. Mahometans.
3. _The Beluchi of Beloochistan._--Dark-complexioned, occupants of
sandy steppes.
4. _The Patans (Affghans)._--Physiognomy frequently Semitic or
sub-Semitic.
5. _The Tajiks of Bokhara._--Here the dominant population is that of
the Uzbek Tartars.
6. _The Siaposh._--Fair-complexioned; pagan mountaineers, speaking a
language with a great per centage of slightly-altered Sanskrit words.
I have no wish to undervalue the import of this last fact--a fact to
which great prominence has been given.
Unaccompanied, however, with any proof that the _grammar_ is
Sanskritic, it leaves the question but little altered.
Kafferistan the Siaposh locality, is (roughly speaking) the watershed
between the rivers Cabúl and Oxus. In these parts we find conterminous
with the Siaposh, and doubtless in the same category--
1. _The Lughmani._--Conterminous with the Affghans.
2. _The Dardoh._--Conterminous with the Cashmirians.
3. _The natives of Wokhan._--On the sources of the Oxus, conterminous
with the Turks of Pamer.
More desirous of directing attention to the numerous ethnological
difficulties which have arisen, and must yet arise from the adoption
of the current opinion respecting the relations between the undoubted
Indo-Germans of Europe, and the equivocal Indo-Germans of Asia
(meaning thereby a native and aboriginal population), I abstain from
any positive expression of opinion as to the quarter from which the
Sanskrit language originated. That the language which stands in the
same relation to it, as the Italian does to the Latin, has yet to be
discovered I firmly believe; to which I may add that, except in Asia
Minor or Europe, I do not know where to look for it.
* * * * *
In justice to the classification of the so-called Indian Mongolidæ,
I must here remark that the position of the Indo-Gangetic portion of
it as Tamulian by no means stands or falls with the relation of its
languages to the Sanskrit; since, even if an undeniably Sanskrit origin
were proved for them, the evidence of physical form would still justify
the inquirer in asking whether they might not still be Tamulians whose
language had been replaced by an imported one.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.]
* * * * *
[Illustration: Fig. 20.]
The term quasi-Pulinda now finds an explanation. The key to half the
complexities of the ethnology of Hindostan lies in the fact of the
Brahminical portion of the population being an invading one, whilst the
degree to which it altered the physical and moral character of those
who were invaded, has a great range of variation, from a general change
to an inappreciable modification.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.]
Now--where the invaded have been so little changed as to preserve
both their original habits and their original language, they are
full or true Pulindas; whilst, where they have lost their language,
but retained enough of their habits to show their probable Pulinda
relations, they are called _quasi_-Pulindas.
* * * * *
The "original[192] population of the country which now separates the
nearest point of the Dioscurian area from the Seriform" must, in its
earliest epoch, have been intermediate or transitional between the two
stocks. However, long before the dawn of history, this was displaced.
By what nations? Most probably, by one of the two following--The Turks,
by means of a southern, the Persians by means of a northern extension.
* * * * *
UNPLACED STOCKS.
In the present state of our knowledge it is safest to leave the
following stocks unplaced.
1.
ARMENIANS.
That the Armenian language has Indo-Germanic elements is undoubted.
Whether, however, they are sufficient to make it Indo-Germanic is
questionable.
Sub-Semitic in appearance, and conterminous with the Semitic area,
the Armenian has much in common with the tribes with which he is so
often and so naturally associated, the Dioscurian Georgians; and it
is through the Armenian that the transition from the Mongolidæ to the
Atlantidæ is most likely to be recognized.
2.
IBERIANS.
_Native Name._--Euscaldunac.
_Localities._--The provinces of Biscay and Navarre, in Spain;
the department of the Basses Pyrenees in France. Conterminous
with the _French and Spanish_.
Compared with the Spanish and Portuguese of the Peninsula, and (to a
certain extent) with the French of France, the Basque language has the
same relation as the Welsh has to the English. It is the remains of the
ancient language of the whole country.
Considering its mountain locality and its position at the north-western
extremity of the country, on the one hand, and the undeniably recent
origin of the present Spanish and Portuguese, on the other, this is no
more than is expected _à priori_.
Further proof, however, has been supplied by the researches of
ethnographical philologists, most especially by those of W. Humboldt.
In an elaborate essay, first published in Vater's Appendix to the
_Mithridates_, that writer analyzes the names of the ancient Spanish
rivers, mountains, and tribes, and shows that, whenever they have a
meaning at all, that meaning is to be found in the Basque.
He shows more, _viz._ that not only Spain and Portugal, but that the
Aquitanian province of Southern Gaul was Basque as well; in other
words, that the present language of Bilbao and Navarre was extended
southwards, and that of Les Basses Pyrenees northwards. Thus far the
views of Humboldt have been generally received.
The extension of the Basque to Sardinia and Corsica, to Sicily and part
of Italy, is more problematic. Nevertheless, it has been suggested;
and, _in the way of colonization_, although _not as an aboriginal
language_, it is probable.
A geographical extension, however, is not necessary to create an
interest in the Basque language. Its antiquity is that of the oldest
tongues of Europe. Before Rome, before Greece, before Tyre or Carthage
had been attracted by the mineral wealth of the far west, the
mother-tongue of the Basque was spoken on the Douro, the Tagus, the
Ebro, and the Guadalquiver. Afterwards it was the language of those who
defended Numantia and Saguntum; of those who dealt with the Greeks at
Emporiæ, and of those who bought and sold with the Phœnicians at Gades
and Tartessus. The Lusitani, the Turdetani, the indomitable Cantabri,
were Euskaldunac. It is better, however, when speaking of the Basque in
its oldest form to call it _Iberic_ or _Iberian_.
That the general ethnological relations of the Basque are undetermined
is denoted by the place it takes in the present volume. The principle,
however, which is most likely to determine it deserves to be noticed.
It arises out of a bold conception of (I believe) Arndt's, adopted in
its fullest extent by Rask, and, serving, at the present moment, as one
of the best _methods_ which honourably characterize the Scandinavian
school of ethnology.
Just as, in geology, the great primary strata underlie the more
recent super-imposed formations, so does an older and more primitive
population represent the original occupancy of Europe and Asia,
previous to the extension of newer, and (so to say) secondary--the
Indo-Germans.
And just as, in geology, the secondary and tertiary strata are not so
continuous but that the primary formations may, at intervals, show
themselves through them, so also do fragments of the primary population
still exist--discontinuous, indeed, but still capable of being
recognized.
With such a view--the earliest European population was once
comparatively homogeneous, from Lapland to Grenada, from Tornea to
Gibraltar. But it has been overlaid and displaced; the only remnants
extant being the Finns and Lapplanders, protected by their arctic
climate, the Basques by their Pyrenæan fastnesses, and, perhaps the
nation next in order of notice.
The Euskaldune is only one of the isolated languages of Europe. There
is another--the Albanian.
The notion that the Albanian is a mere mixture of Greek and Turkish,
has long been superseded by the conviction that, although mixed, it is
essentially a separate substantive language. The doctrine, also, that
it is of recent introduction into Europe has been similarly abandoned.
There is every reason for believing that, as Thunmann suggested, it
was, at dawn of history, spoken in the countries where it is spoken at
the present moment.
If so, it is easily identified with either the ancient Illyrian, or
the ancient Epirote; and, as it is by no means certain that these two
languages were essentially different, it is possible that the Albanian
may represent both. Hence, it would certainly be spoken by a portion
of the soldiers of Pyrrhus, and, most probably, by the whole army of
Teuta and Gentius. At present, however, it is enough to insist upon its
independent character as a separate substantive language.
ALBANIANS.
_Native Name._--Skipetar=Mountaineer.
_Turkish._--Arnaout.
_Locality._--The ancient Illyria and Epirus. Albanian settlers
in Greece, Turkey, and Calabria.
_Conterminous_ with the Greek, Turk, Slavonic, and Italian
languages; and containing numerous words borrowed from each of
them.
_Religion._--Imperfect Christianity and Mahometanism.
_Social Constitution._--Division and sub-division into tribes
and families.
EXTINCT STOCKS.
Is there reason to believe that any definite stock, or division of our
species has become either _wholly_ extinct, or so incorporated as to
be virtually beyond the recognition and analysis of the investigator?
With the vast majority of the _so-called extinct_ stocks this is not
the case--_e. g._ it is not the case with the old Gauls of Gallia; who,
though no longer extant, have extant congeners--the Welsh and Gaels.
To an extinction of this kind amongst the better-known historical
nations of Europe and Asia--for in America such extinction, or the
tendency towards it, is the normal condition of the majority of the
aboriginal populations--the nearest approach is to be found in the
history of--
1.
THE PELASGI.
_Æra._--In the time of Herodotus, known only in two--
_Localities._--Chreston and Plakiæ.
_Area._--As then known, discontinuous.
_Language._--Unintelligible to an Hellenic Greek.
I follow Mr. Grote, in his masterly separation of the wheat of
contemporary evidence from the chaff of tradition in respect to the
Pelasgi; but do not follow him in the inference from the dissimilarity
between their language and that of the Hellenes. The two sections might
still be as closely allied as the Greek and Roman. On the other hand,
the difference might be as great as that of the Hebrew and English.
The point of most importance is the nature of their two unconnected
points of occupancy at the time of Herodotus.
1. If these represented _parts of the original area_, the intermediate
portions whereof had been overlaid by a permanent invasion, the
evidence would be in favour of the Pelasgi having been in the same
category with the Thracians; and, as such, _perhaps_ Slavonic.
2. On the other hand--if they represented two separate _colonizations_
such a distribution would indicate an origin in _a._ Asia Minor; _b._
the Ægean Islands; or _c._ Continental Greece.
A sanguine scholar may, perhaps, hope that an investigation of the
present dialects of the two Herodotean localities may reward the minute
analyst with some Pelasgic glosses.--_Optandum magis quam sperandum._
2.
THE ETRUSCANS.
_Æra of their maximum development._--The earlier centuries of
the Roman Republic. Veii taken 360 A.U.C.
_Historical Influences._--Upon early Rome.
_Social Development._--Agricultural, architectural, religious,
commercial, artistic. Partially self-developed. Probably,
chiefly of Greek origin.
_Alphabet._--Derived from the Greek.
_Language._--Extant, only in hitherto untranslated (or
imperfectly translated) fragments. Considered, by Lipsius, as
Indo-Germanic.
The reason in favour of the descent of the Etruscans from the Rhætian
Alps has not been put, even by Niebuhr, so strongly as it might have
been.
What we find in Livy is something more than an _opinion_ to that
effect. It is an express statement that the Rhætian and Etrurian
languages were alike.
If so, we have a discontinuous area; an area which--considering that
the Cisalpine Kelts were preeminently the tribes of an encroaching
frontier--was, most likely, originally continuous.
I believe, then, that the Etrurians represented the _maximum_
civilization, and the Rhætian mountaineers the _maximum_ rudeness
of one and the same stock--a stock originally indigenous to
Northern Italy, but subsequently broken-up by Keltic and other
permanent invasions. Such, at least, is the ethnological view of the
question--based upon the general phænomena of ethnological distribution.
3.
POPULATIONS OF ASIA MINOR.
How numerous these may once have been is difficult to determine. Thus
much, however, may safely be assumed;--
1. That the languages represented by the western dialects of the
Georgian had _some_ extension beyond their present frontier--possibly
as far as Bithynia.
2. That the languages represented by the Lycian of the Lycian
inscriptions had _some_ extension beyond Lycia--possibly (though there
are several difficulties to be reconciled) as far as the Hellespont.
3. That on some portion of the coast, a language intelligible to some
portion of the Thracians on the one hand, and the Armenians on the
other, was spoken.
Such are a few of the details of an important section of our
subject.--They are given, however, more for illustrating the nature of
the difficult question of _Descent_ than for exhausting the subject.
The same applies to the complex subject of--
HYBRIDISM (EXTREME INTERMIXTURE).
Of this just enough will be said to illustrate the form which the
present classification of the primary divisions of mankind renders
necessary.
I.
IAPETIDÆ AND MONGOLIDÆ.
A. _Kelts with Mongolidæ._--The infusion of Keltic blood takes place
when the Welsh, Irish, or Scotch of England, like the--
B. _Goths with Mongolidæ_, come as 1. _English or Americans_, in
contact with--_a_, Chinese; _b_, Malays; _c_, Polynesians; _d_,
Australians; _e_, Eskimo; _f_, American Indians; _g_, East Indians.
2. _High-Germans with_--_a_, American Indians; _b_, Finns.
3. _Dutch with_--_a_, Chinese; _b_, Malays; _c_, East Indians; _d_,
South Americans (Guiana).
4. _Scandinavians with_--_a_, Eskimo; _b_, Ugrians.
C. _Slavonians with Mongolidæ_--chiefly Russians with--_a_, Siberians;
_b_, Eskimo; _c_, North-east Americans; _d_, Turanians; _e_,
Dioscurians.
D. _Mediterranean Indo-Germans with Mongolidæ_--chiefly with--
1. _French with_--_a_, North Americans; _b_, South Americans (Guiana).
2. _Spaniards with_--_a_, Malays (the Philippines); _b_, North
Americans (Mexico, &c.); _c_, South Americans (Peru, Buenos Ayres,
Guiana, Venezuela, &c.)
3. _Portuguese with_--_a_, Chinese; _b_, East Indians; _c_, Brazilian
Americans.
II.
IAPETIDÆ AND ATLANTIDÆ.
A. _Kelts with Atlantidæ._--Under the same conditions as English Goths.
B. _Goths with Atlantidæ._
1. English and Americans with Africans.
2. Dutch with Hottentots--_Griquas._
C. _Mediterranean Indo-Germans with Atlantidæ._ Spanish and Portuguese
with Africans.
III.
ATLANTIDÆ AND MONGOLIDÆ.
1. North American Negroes with Native Indians--_Zambos_.
2. South American Negroes with Native Indians--_Mamelucos_.
It is only when two extreme sections of two of the primary divisions
meet that there is true Hybridism. With intermediate and transitional
forms, such as the Arab and Indian, and others, there is merely--
SIMPLE INTERMIXTURE.
This is a point of minute ethnology. To take a few of the European
populations as instances, it attempts to determine the amount of
foreign elements in--
1. _The English._--These being Keltic, Roman, Danish, Anglo-Norman,
&c., anterior to, or engrafted on, a Saxon foundation.
2. _The French._--Foundation, Roman; other elements, Keltic, German, &c.
3. _The Spanish._--Foundation, Roman; other elements, Iberic, Goth,
Arab.
4. _The Germans._--Foundation, Gothic; other elements, Slavonic, Keltic.
5. _The Slavonians._--Non-Slavonic elements, Ugrian, Turk, Mongol,
Dioscurian, &c.
6. _The Hungarians._--Non-Majiar elements; Roman, Turk, Mongol,
Slavonic, German.
And so on throughout most countries of the world.
Intermediate between simple and extreme intermixture (or Hybridism),
but at points where it is difficult to draw a line of demarcation, are
such half-breeds as those of the Turk and Mongol, Turk and Persian,
Turk and Georgian, Persian and Georgian, &c.--the difference between
the parent stocks lying within a small compass.
FOOTNOTES:
[188] See p. 537.
[189] Mithridates. Vol. iii. p. 639.
[190] Philological Transactions, No. 93.
[191] Transactions of British Association for the Advancement of
Science, 1847.
[192] See page 123.
PART II.
GENERAL AND SPECIAL APOPHTHEGMS.
Although the enumeration, classification, and partial description
of the varieties of the human species form the basis of the natural
history of man, a short notice of the general character of the science
which investigates it is a proper adjunct to them. This will consist in
apophthegms, upon its nature, objects, and methods, so far as the last
have been evolved.
_General Apophthegms._
I.
The natural history of man is chiefly divided between two subjects,
anthropology and ethnology.
II.
Anthropology determines the relations of man to the other mammalia.
III.
Ethnology, the relations of the different varieties of mankind to each
other.
IV.
Anthropology is more immediately connected with zoology; differing from
it chiefly in the complexity of its problems, _e. g._ the appreciation
of the extent to which the moral characteristics of man complicate a
classification which, in the lower animals, is, to a great extent,
founded on physical criteria.
V.
Ethnology is more immediately connected with history; differing from it
chiefly in its object, its method, and its arena.
VI.
Whilst history represents the actions of men as determined by _moral_,
ethnology ascertains the effects of _physical_ influences.
VII.
History collects its facts from testimony, and ethnology does the same;
but ethnology deals with problems upon which history is silent, by
arguing backwards, from effect to cause.
VIII.
This throws the arena of the ethnologist into an earlier period of the
world's history than that of the proper historian.
IX.
It is the _method_ of arguing from effect to cause which gives
to ethnology its _scientific_, in opposition to its _literary_,
aspect; placing it, thereby, in the same category with geology, as a
palæontological science.[193] Hence it is the science of a method--a
method by which inference does the work of testimony. Furthermore,
ethnology is history in respect to its results; geology in respect
to its method. And in the same way that geology has its zoological,
physiological and such other aspects as constitute it a mixed science;
ethnology has them also.
X.
The simple record of facts constitutes ethno_graphy_, or _descriptive_
ethno_logy_.
XI.
The application of these to the investigation of unascertained
phænomena is _general_ ethnology, or (simply) ethnology.
XII.
The highest ethnological problems are those connected with, 1. the
unity; 2. the geographical origin; 3. the antiquity; and 4. the future
destination upon earth of man. It arrives at these by its own proper
and peculiar methods.
XIII.
_Ethnological classification_ deals with _connexion in the way
of descent and affiliation only_.--It has no such object as the
arrangement of individuals or classes according to any common physical
or moral characteristics, except so far as these indicate community of
origin.
XIV.
In the present condition of the science, the _appreciation_ of facts is
of equal importance with the _collection_ of them.
XV.
A fact may be appreciated either as a _characteristic_, or as an
_influence_.
XVI.
Facts used as _signs_ or _characteristics;_ and, as such, mostly
applied to the purposes of classification, are either physical or
moral--_physical_, as when we determine a class from colour of the
skin; _moral_, as when we determine one from the purity or impurity of
the habits.
XVII.
Moral characteristics are either philological (_i.e._ connected with
the language), or non-philological (_i.e._ not so connected).
XVIII.
As elements of classification, the _non_-philological moral characters
are of less value than the philological; since common conditions
develop common habits; whereas nothing but imitation determines the use
of similar combinations of articulate sounds in different languages.
XIX.
In the way, too, of physical characteristics, common conditions develop
common points of conformation. Hence, as elements of classification,
physical characters are of less value than the _philological_ moral
ones.
XX.
On the other hand--as measures of the effects of common influences,
physical structure and the _non_-philological moral elements are of
more value than the phænomena of language.
XXI.
Facts requiring appreciation as _influences_, like those requiring
appreciation as _signs_, are _moral_ as well as _physical_. Have moral
or physical causes most to do with premature nubility[194] and the want
of variety in the expression of individual countenances?
XXII.
_Unity of the human species._--A. _protoplast_ is an organised
individual, capable (either singly or as one of a pair) of propagating
individuals; itself having been propagated by no such previous
individual or pair.
XXIII.
The definition of the term species by means of the idea of descent
from a single protoplast, has the advantage of being permanent and
immutable; inasmuch as it is based upon a ground that no subsequent
change can set aside--
"----non tamen irritum
Diffinget, infectumque reddet
Quod fugiens semel hora vexit."
On the other hand the proof of the original descent is an inference
rather than a fact either ascertained or capable of being so.
XXIV.
The definition of the term _species_ upon the grounds of constancy of
characters, has the advantage of being founded upon a fact capable of
being ascertained. On the other hand, the induction which proves it may
disprove it also. The same applies to those definitions of the term
wherein the phænomena of hybridism play a part.
XXV.
The balance of inconveniences is, in the mind of the present writer in
favour of the idea of _descent_ determining the meaning of the word
species--for human natural history at least.
XXVI.
Hence--a _species_ is a class of individuals, each of which is
hypothetically considered to be the descendant of the same protoplast,
or of the same pair of protoplasts.
XXVII.
A multiplicity of protoplasts for a single species is a contradiction
in terms. If two or more such individuals (or pairs), as like as the
two _Dromios_, were the several protoplasts to several classes of
organised beings (the present members being as like each other as their
first ancestors were), the phænomenon would be the existence in Nature
of more than one undistinguishable species, not the existence of more
than one protoplast to a single species.
XXVIII.
A _variety_ is a class of individuals, each belonging to the same
species, but each differing from other individuals of the species in
points wherein they agree amongst each other.
XXIX.
A _race_ is a class of individuals concerning which there are doubts
as to whether they constitute a separate species, or a variety of a
recognised one. Hence, the term is _subjective_; _i. e._ it applies to
the _opinion of the investigator_ rather than to the _object of the
investigation_; so that its power is that of the symbol for an unknown
quantity in algebra. The present writer having, as yet, found no tribe
or family, for which a sufficient reason for raising it to a new
species has been adduced, has either not used the word _race_ at all,
or used it inadvertently. Its proper place is in _investigation_ not in
exposition.
XXX.
For an argument against the unity of the human species, drawn from the
analogy of the lower animals, to be valid, it must be taken from a
species co-extensive in its geographical distribution with man.
XXXI.
To be thus co-extensive, it must not only be spread over a large area,
but it must be spread _continuously_.
XXXII.
To be thus co-extensive, it must be found at equally high and low
sea-levels, as well as at equally distant degrees of latitude and
longitude.
XXXIII.
_Antiquity of the human species._--This problem is most likely to be
worked through the phænomena of language. When determined it will give
precision to the _recent period_ of the geologist, converting it from a
_relative_ into a conventionally _absolute_ epoch.
XXXIV.
The average rate at which languages change is capable of being
approximated.
XXXV.
The _maximum_ difference, at a given period, between two or more
languages is also capable of being approximated.
XXXVI.
The original unity of the species is a postulate.
XXXVII.
The _minimum_ amount of time necessary for the _maximum_ amount of
difference is the measure of the shortest admissible _recent period_.
XXXVIII.
The probable nature of the future changes in the relationship between
the different varieties of man is, certainly, within the department of
the ethnologist. In this case, however, he reverses his method, and,
arguing from the past and present to the future, argues from cause to
effect also.
XXXIX.
Still his proper sphere is limited to the appreciation of physical
influences. The historian measures the influence of a great warrior.
The ethnologist inquires whether the American of New England can be
acclimatized to the intertropical influences of Brazil.
* * * * *
NOTE.
Translation and Transliteration (_Metagraphy_) of the specimens
of--
A.
_The Vei writing_ (syllabic).
Amu a mo sa Rora fa vala a ro ya ya deng mu ulu ru
Vai ke
_And he man send Rora father to he said oh oh child who begotten in
Vei this_
a na niye a ro i ni mo sa a bina kilafa gboluye ro
mo mu la
_he come here he say you must man send him fetch back book say
man who go_
ke a wa tang Balaka mo ngo a Rora fa tala.
_this his -- name Balaka -- ---- he Rora father met._
B.
_The Arrow-headed._
Iyam Fráda aduruj-iya awathá athaha adam Khsháyathia amiya
_Hic Phraates mendacium-dixit ita dicebat Ego rex sum_
Marguwa.
_Margianæ._
C.
_The powers of the Tuarick Alphabet._
1=w, 2=n, 3=gh, 4=l, 5=y, 6=t, 7=b, 8=kh, 9=r, 10=d, 11=k,
12=m, 13=z, 14=th, 15=sh, 16=nn, 17=kk.
D.
_The Cherokee writing_ (syllabic).
Dite le nö di sak.
ayado lö. ii.--(_Genesis, chapter ii._)
1. No-nah-no ga-lö-lo-i e-lo-hi-no du-li-sa-qua-do-ne-i
te-ne-lö-sa-go-i, ni-ga-y nu-su-qui-sa-wö-i.
2. ga li quo gi ne
no--iga-unelanöhi--usaquagai--dulöwisatenehöi
nwotlönöi.--nyawe sole i
no--galiquogine--iga,--nigay--iga---nigay--dulöwisatenehöi,
nwötlönöi.--
3. unelanöhino--osö--unetoele--galiquogine--iga,--ulöquoteneno;
wihitsö--yeno--utsa-we-solösatenei--nigay--dulöwisatenehöi,--
unelanöi--ale--uwotlö-nöi--unelanöhi.--_Deciphered by E.
Norriss, Esq._
FOOTNOTES:
[193] It is scarcely necessary to inform the reader that both this term
and the classification are from Whewell's History of the Inductive
Sciences.
[194] Plus ad catamenia præcipitanda, et ad nubilitatem immaturam
inducendam vitiosam societatis compagem quam aut cælum aut terra,
conferre, libellis de Catameniis Afrarum, vicit, vir sagax, Robertonus
Mancuniensis.
INDEX.
Abiponians, 428.
Abenaki, 328.
Abors, 34.
Accaways, 445.
Accocesaws, 350.
Achagua, 441.
Achastlier, 384.
Adampi, 476.
Adahi, 342.
Adiyah, 479.
Afer, v. Danakil.
Affghans, 547.
Agows, 500.
Ahnenin, 344.
Aino, 273, 281.
Aka, 34.
Akvambu, 476.
Albanians, 552.
Aleutians, 292.
Algonkins, 328.
Aliche, 349.
Alibamons, 338.
Amakosas, 490.
Amazirgh, 507.
Amharic, 517.
Ammonites, 514.
Amokebits, 429.
Anamese, 15.
Annatom, 225.
Andamanese, 246.
Andastes, 333.
Anies, 333.
Antilles, 446.
Apaches, 348.
Apelusas, 342.
Api, 224.
Apolistas, 449.
Appamatucks, 335.
Arabs, 515.
Arrapahoes, 344.
Araris, 432.
Arawaks, 445.
Arecunas, 445.
Aripe, 385.
Armenians, 549.
Arrohatecks, 335.
Arru Isles, 162, 211.
Ashantí, 476.
Assam, 54, 465.
Assyrians, 512.
Assineboin, 333.
Atacamas, 414.
Atchin, 137.
Athabaskans, 302.
Atnas, 295, 311.
Attacapas, 343.
Attiondarons, 333.
Aura Islanders, 196.
Austral Islanders, 196.
Australians, 229.
Avars, 83.
Avekvom, 478.
Avoyelles, 351.
Aymaras, 413.
Babyanis, 181.
Babylonians, 512.
Bagnon, 476.
Bagoes, 476.
Balantes, 476.
Bali, 158.
Bambarrans, 473.
Basares, 476.
Bashis, 181.
Basques, 549.
Batangas, 489.
Battas, 137.
Beaver Indians, 302.
Bechuanas, 490.
Begharmi, 481.
Bejas, v. Bishari.
Belandas, 135.
Beluchi, 546.
Bengali, 465.
Benin, 477.
Berber, 500.
Berdars, 465.
Besisik, 135.
Bethuck, 330.
Bhils, 465.
Bhot, 18.
Bidduma, 481.
Bidias, 351.
Bikhaneer, 465.
Billechúla, 300.
Biluxi, 341.
Bimbia, 479.
Bishari, 501.
Bissago, 476.
Blackfoots, 328.
Bocootawwonaukes, 335.
Bodega, 383.
Bodo, 37.
Bohemians (Tsheks), 539.
Bonaks, 347.
Bonny, 478.
Bor Abors, 33.
Borneo, 163.
Bornú, 481.
Botocudos, 430.
Bougainville Island, 222.
Brahúi, 464.
Brazilians, 430.
Bullom, 473.
Bulti, 19.
Bundelcund, 465.
Burmese, 15, 23.
Busaos, 178.
Busiks, 78.
Cabyles, 307.
Cachineses, 432.
Caddos, 338.
Caicaches, 351.
Calabar (Old), 478.
Californians, 381.
Camacan, 431.
Cames, 432.
Canarins, 430.
Cances, 350.
Canichana, 424.
Capita, 402.
Capoxos, 432.
Cappadocians, 519.
Caribs, 445.
Carisos, 348.
Caroline Indians, 335.
Carnicobarians, 249.
Carriers, 302.
Cashmirians, 467.
Catawba, 334.
Cathlascou, 323.
Cayugas, 333.
Cayús, 324.
Cayuvava, 425.
Celts, 529.
Celebes, 169.
Chacriabas, 431.
Chaga, 506.
Chain Island, 196.
Chaldees, 513.
Changos, 414.
Charruas, 420.
Chatham Island, 203.
Chayma, 446.
Chemmesyan, 300.
Chépáng, 53.
Cheraws, 334.
Cherokees, 337.
Chesapeaks, 335.
Chetimachas, 341.
Chiapa, 409.
Chinese, 15, 55.
Chinúks (Tshinúk), 317.
Chippewyans, 302, 337.
Chiquitos, 425.
Chiricoa, 442.
Chiriguanos, 444.
Chonchona, 409.
Chontal, 410.
Choctahs, 337.
Chowry, 249.
Chorotega, 410.
Chorti, 410.
Chumetós, 432.
Chupumnes, 382.
Cingalese, 468.
Circassians, 119.
Cochimi, 385.
Coco Island, 204.
Coco-maricopas, 393.
Colapissas, 341.
Concani, 466.
Congarees, 334.
Connamox, 334.
Coosadas, 338.
Cora, 385, 401.
Corabeca, 426.
Coramines, 334.
Coretu, 431.
Copts, 509.
Covareca, 426.
Coshattas, 349.
Cree, 328.
Cru (Cruman), 478.
Cuitlateca, 402.
Cumanachós, 432.
Cumanches, 347.
Cumbri, 480.
Curucaneca, 426.
Curuminaca, 426.
Cutachós, 431.
Cutch, 465.
Cyprians, 519.
Dacota, 333.
Daho-dinni, 302.
Dallas, 484.
Dammaras, 497.
Danes, 535.
Danakil, 499.
Dardoh, 547.
Dar-Mitchegan, 484.
Dar-Saleh, v. Mobba.
Denka, 483.
Dhimál, 37.
Diggers, 347.
Dígothi, 297.
Doba, 484.
Dog-rib Indians, 302.
Dongolawi, 500.
Druses, 516.
Dutch (Batavians), 534.
Ducie's Island, 197.
Dufla, 34.
Easter Island, 197.
Edomites, 514.
Ekhili, 515.
Elamites, 519.
Endé, 158.
Enganho Island, 140.
Erigas, 333.
Erromango, 224.
Eskimo, 288.
Eslen, 384.
Esthonians, 101.
Etchemin, 328.
Etruscans, 553.
Falasha, 500.
Fantí, 476.
Fellatah, 480.
Felúp, 475.
Feroe Isles, 535.
Fertit, 483.
Feejee (Fiji) Islands, 226.
Finlanders, 99.
Formosa, 182.
Fotuna, 205.
Free-will Island, 205.
French, 543.
Frisians, 534.
Fulahs, 480.
Furians, 483.
Gaels, 529.
Gafat, 517.
Galibi, 446.
Gallas, 499.
Gambier Island, 196.
Garo, 32.
Georgians, 112.
Germans, 532.
Gés, 433.
Ghá, 476.
Gheez, 517.
Gilbert Islands, 190.
Goïtacas, 430.
Gongas, 485.
Goulou Cluster, 188.
Grebo, 478.
Greeks, 542.
Griquas, 556.
Guanches, 507.
Guarani, 443.
Guarayos, 444.
Guiana, 402.
Gujerati, 465.
Gurungs, 53.
Gypsy, 465.
Haeltzuk, 300.
Haidah Dialects, 300.
Hare Indians, 302.
Haroti, 465,
Haussa, 479.
Hebrews, 514.
Hervey Isles, 196.
Himyarite, 515.
Hiong-nou, 88.
Hindi, 465.
Hindostani, 465.
Hittites (Hivites, &c.), 518.
Horn Island, 204.
Hottentots, 496.
Huasteca, 410.
Huilliché, 415.
Huitcole, 401.
Humas, 341.
Hungarians, 101.
Hurons, 333.
Iawanis, 350.
Iapetidæ, 1-14.
Ibo, 479.
Icelanders, 535.
Igorots, 178.
Ikas, 385,
Illyrians, 539.
Ilmorma, v. Galla.
Indians, 335.
Inkalit, 297.
Inkhuluklait, 297.
Immer, 205.
Ioways, 334.
Irôn, 115.
Iroquois, 332.
Ishmaelites, 514.
Isle of Lepers, 224.
Isles of Brown (Ralik Chain), 190.
Italians, 542.
Itè (Iténès), 425.
Itetepanes, 178.
Itonama, 424.
Japanese, 273-277.
Java, 152.
Jariyas, 53.
Jili, 33.
Jokong, 135.
Kachari, 32.
Kachiquel, 410.
Kaffre, 488.
Kalapuya, 324.
Kaldani, 511.
Kamskadales, 273-285.
Kambojians, 15-22.
Kaus, 325.
Karien, 29.
Kasia, 32.
Katodis, 465.
Kazumbi, 491.
Kecoughtans, 335.
Kelænonesian Stock, 122-210.
Kelts, 530.
Kenay of Cook's Inlet, 295.
Kensi, v. Nubian.
Ketchies, 351.
Keyauwees, 334.
Khamti, 21.
Khyen, 30.
Khasiyas, 466.
Khasdim, v. Chaldees.
Khazars, 87.
Khumia (Choomeeas), 30.
Ki Islands, 161.
Kiaways, 347.
Killiwashat, 325.
Kickapoos, 329.
Kingsmill's Group, 190.
Kirata, 53.
Kisky, 382.
Kissi, 473.
Kissour, 481.
Koldagi, 483.
Koltshani, 295.
Kolúch, 294.
Konægi, 293.
Koniunki, 491.
Konzas, 334.
Koraquas, 496.
Koreans, 273, 275.
Koriaks, 273, 283.
Kossa, 493.
Kuki, 30.
Kulis, 465.
Kunawer, 20.
Kurds, 546.
Kuskokwim, 293.
Kútanis, 316.
Kyo, 32.
Lacandona, 409.
Ladakh Tibetans, 19.
Lamoursek Groups, 188.
Lampong, 138.
Laplanders, 101.
Layamon, 385.
Lenguas, 429.
Lenni Lenapé, 329.
Lepchas, 53.
Lesgians, 115.
Ligurians, 529.
Limbu, 53.
Lipans (Sipans), 349.
Lithuanians, 536.
Lolos, 28.
Lord North's Island, 186.
Louisiade, 225.
Loyalty Isle, 225.
Lougounor, 189.
Lughmani, 547.
Lules, 429.
Lutuami, 325.
Lú-Chú Islands, 28.
Lycian, 554.
Machapanga, 334.
Machacari, 431.
Macusi, 446.
Maongkong, 445.
Madagascar, 210, 519.
Magars, 53.
Magimut, 207.
Maha, 477.
Mahratta, 466.
Maithili, 465.
Malacca, 133.
Malays, 131.
Maldivians, 468.
Malali, 431.
Malegasi, 210, 519.
Mallicollo, 224.
Mam, 499.
Mamelucos, 556.
Mandara, 481.
Mandingos, 473.
Mandans, 333.
Manipur, 31.
Manxmen, 529.
Marquesas, 198.
Mariannes, 188.
Mascovie, 350.
Massachusetts, 329.
Mataguayos, 428.
Matlazinga, 409.
Mauhés, 435.
Maya, 401, 410, 428.
Mayes, 350.
Maypures, 441.
Mazateca, 409.
Mazenas, 492.
Mbayas, 428.
Mbocobis, 428.
Menangkabaw, 137.
Meherrin, 333.
Mendajaha, 516.
Menieng, 431.
Mendi, 473.
Messisaugis, 329.
Mewar, 465.
Mexico, 408.
M'Hiao, 506.
Miaou-tse, 25.
Micmacs, 328.
Micronesians, 186.
Minetari, 333.
Mira, 34.
Mishimi, 33.
Mixteca, 409.
Mizjeji, 115.
M'Kuafi, 501.
M'Kindo, 506.
Moa, 162.
Moabites, 517.
Mobba, 483.
Mocéténès, 449.
Mœso-Goths, 532.
Mohawks, 333.
Mohicans, 329.
Mokorosi, 402.
Molele, 324.
Moluccas, 175.
Moluché, 415.
Môn, 15, 23.
Monakans, 329.
Moskito, 413.
Montaug, 326.
Moqui, 394.
Movima, 424.
Moxos, 424.
Mpoongas, 489.
M'Sambara, 493.
M'Sigua, 493.
Multani, 465.
Mundrucus, 435.
Murus, 436.
Murmis, 53.
Mussai, 506.
Muttuck, 34.
Muysca, 412.
Myamma, 23.
Nagas, 30.
Naloo, 476.
Namaqua, 497.
Namollos, 292.
Nandsamunds, 335.
Narraganset, 329.
Natchez, 340.
Natchitoches, 342.
Navahos, 348.
Navaosos, 350.
Navigators Islands, 195.
Nehanni, 299.
Nemshaw, 382.
Newars, 53.
New Guinea, 213.
New Zealand, 203.
New Hebrides, 224.
Nicobar Islanders, 247.
Nipissing, 328.
Nipmuk, 329.
Nitendi (Indendi), 222.
Norwegians, 535.
Nottoway, 333.
Nubians, 500.
Nutkans, 301.
Odipoor, 465.
Ojibwa, 328.
Omaguas, 444.
Omahaw, 334.
Ombay, 158.
Oneida, 333.
Onondago, 333.
Ooch, 465.
Orang Maruwi, 140.
Orotina, 410.
Osage, 334.
Ostiaks, 97.
Otomi, 403.
Ottomacas, 442.
Ottawas, 328.
Ottogami, 329.
Ottos, 334.
Otuké, 426.
Ouluthy (Egoy Island), 188.
Pacaguara, 425.
Pacanas, 342.
Paducas, 346.
Paioconeca, 427.
Palaik, 325.
Palawan, 176.
Palembang, 139.
Pali, 544.
Pame, 402.
Pamticoes, 329.
Panhami, 432.
Panwes, 489.
Papel, 475.
Papuans, 211.
Pareci, 435.
Pascagoulas, 341.
Paspaheghes, 335.
Passamaquoddy, 328.
Patacho, 431.
Patagonians, 418.
Paumotu, 196.
Pawnees (Panis), 344.
Payaguas, 428.
Pawtucket, 329.
Pelasgi, 552.
Pelew Group, 187.
Pennakuk, 329.
Penobscot, 328.
Penrhynn Island, 204.
Pericu, 385.
Permians, 97.
Persians, 546.
Persian frontier, 81.
Pessa, 473.
Philippines, 176.
Philistines, 518.
Phœnicians, 513.
Picts, 529.
Pimos, 390, 393.
Pipil Indians, 410.
Pirinda, 401.
Piro language, 396.
Pitcairn Island, 196.
Pittás, 432.
Pochonchi, 410.
Pocomo, 492.
Poggi Islanders, 140.
Polabi, 539.
Poles, 539.
Popoluca, 409.
Portuguese, 543.
Potawotomi, 329.
Pounipet, 189.
Puelché, 415.
Pulinda, 463.
Pulo Batu (Mas Islanders), 140.
Puncas, 334.
Punjabi, 465.
Puquina, 411.
Purbutti, 466.
Qamamyl, 484.
Quanto, 28.
Quiche, 410.
Quichua, 413.
Quitos, 413.
Quixos, 413.
Quiyoughcohanocks, 335.
Radack chain, 190.
Ramusis, 465.
Rapa, 196.
Rawack, 212.
Rayet Laut (Orang Akkye), 137.
Rejang, 138.
Rhukheng, 23.
Riccarees, 344.
Rotuma, 204.
Rumsen, 384.
Russians, 538.
Saabs, 497.
Sahaptin, 323.
Saintskla, 325.
Salish, 311.
Saliva, 439.
Saluda, 334.
Samaritans, 514.
Samöeids, 265.
Sampiches, 347.
Samucu, 427.
Sandwich Isle, 244.
Sandwich Islands, 198.
Sangara, 473.
Sanskrit Language, 544.
Santees, 334.
Sapiboconi, 425.
Sapi, 476.
Saravecas, 425.
Sauk, 329.
Savage Island, 204,
Saxons, 534.
Scarborough Island, 190.
Scoffis, 328.
Semang, 136.
Seneca, 333.
Serawolli, 473.
Serbs, 539.
Sereres, 473.
Servians, 538.
Serwatty, 161.
Severnow, 383.
Sewees, 334.
Shabún, 483.
Shangalla, 484.
Shasti, 325.
Shawno, 329.
Sheshatapoosh, 328.
Shilluk, 483.
Shoshonis, 347.
Shyennes, 330.
Siamese, 15, 21.
Siaposh, 547.
Silong, 29.
Sinca, 410.
Singpho, 33.
Si-Fan, 24.
Sindi, 465.
Sioux, 333.
Siranians, 97.
Sirionos, 444.
Sissispahaws, 334.
Sitkans, 296.
Sokko, 473.
Solomon's Island, 222.
Solymi, 519.
Somauli, 499.
Sonsoral, 187.
Soones (Zuni), 395.
Spaniards, 543.
Stonoes, 334.
Subtugil, 410.
Strongbow Indians, 302.
Sulimana, 473.
Sulus, 176.
Sumatra, 137.
Sumbawa, 158.
Sungai, 481.
Susu, 473.
Swedes, 535.
Swiss, 543.
Syrians, 511.
Tactayas, 432.
Tacana, 449.
Taculli, 302.
Taensas, 341.
Tagalas, 179.
Tahitian Group, 196.
Talatui, 382.
Tamulians, 462.
Tamoyas, 444.
Tanna, 225.
Taos, 396.
Tapii, 426.
Tapua, 479.
Tarahumara, 398.
Tarasca, 401.
Taruma, 439.
Tasmanian, 244.
Tavaiti, 493.
Tcheremiss, 99.
Tchuvatch, 99.
Tepeguana, 400.
Tetons, 333.
Texian Tribes, 349.
Thú-kiú, 89.
Tibetans of Bután, 15, 19.
Tibboos, 485.
Tigré, 517.
Tikopia, 204.
Timbiras, 433.
Timmani, 473.
Timor Laut, 161.
Timor, 160.
Tobas, 428.
Toncahuas, 350.
Tonga Group, 195.
Toteros, 334.
Totonaca, 401.
Tototune, 325.
Towiachs, 349.
Tsalel, 325.
Tshugatsi, 293.
Tshampa, 28.
Tsihaili, 310.
Tuaricks, 508.
Tuhuktukis, 350.
Tularena language, 383.
Tumali, 483.
Tungusians, 61, 63.
Tungaas, 296.
Tunicas, 341.
Tupi, 444.
Tutelo, 333.
Tuscarora, 333.
Tzendales, 409.
Ualan, 189.
Uché, 338.
Uchitee, 385.
Udai, 136.
Ugalents (Ugalyakhmutsi), 296.
Ugrians, 95, 103.
Union Group, 203.
Unataquas, 350.
Utahs, 347.
Vaddahs, 468.
Vaitupu Groups, 204.
Vanikoro, 222.
Vazimbers, 520.
Vei, 473.
Vileles, 429.
Virginia Indians, 335.
Voguls, 96.
Voturongs, 432.
Votiaks, 96.
Waigiú, 212.
Waikuru, 385.
Wakamba, 493.
Wallachians, 543.
Wampago, 506.
Wanika, 492.
Wapityan, 439.
Waralis, 465.
Warow, 438.
Warraskoyacks, 335.
Washitas, 351.
Wataita, 493.
Waterees, 334.
Waxsaws, 334.
Westoes, 334.
Whidah, 477.
Wico, 351.
Wihinast, 346.
Winnebagoes, 333.
Wyniaws, 334.
Woccoon, 334.
Wolaitso, 484.
Woloff, 473.
Wyandot, 333.
Wyanokes, 334.
Xaramenes, 351.
Yakuts, 93.
Yamassees, 334.
Yakon, 324.
Yasumnes, 382.
Yallonkas, 473.
Yancton, 333.
Yanktoanans, 333.
Yangaro, 484.
Yap, 188.
Yarriba, 479.
Yarura, 442.
Yasumnes, 382.
Yellow-knife Indians, 302.
Yemez (Hemez) language, 396.
Yeniseians, 265, 268.
Yezids, 516.
Yuk, 382.
Yukahiri, 265, 269.
Yukal, 382.
Yumas, 393.
Yunga, 414.
Yuracares, 449.
Zapoteca, 409.
Zoe, 401.
Zoques, 409.
Zulus, 490.
Zuni (Soones), 395.
THE END.
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Transcriber's Notes:
Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were
silently corrected.
Punctuation normalized.
Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed.
Italics markup is enclosed in _underscores_.
Fancy or unusual font markup is enclosed in ~tildes~.
P. 36 A'ká and A'bor appear to be incorrectly placed in table.
Did not change as unknown which is correct.
P. 193 added missing footnote anchor.
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