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been continuous; so that the original Hyperborean populations must be considered to have been broken up, and partially superseded by the Turks and Tungusians, and to exist, at present, only in the form of fragments.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.
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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--