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Title: The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies

Author: Robert Gordon Latham

Release Date: February 16, 2010 [EBook #31296]

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Transcriber's Note:

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    nouns) remain as printed, except where noted. Minor typographical
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                             THE
                          ETHNOLOGY
                             OF
                    THE BRITISH COLONIES
                             AND
                        DEPENDENCIES.

                             BY
                 R. G. LATHAM, M.D., F.R.S.,
 CORRESPONDING MEMBER TO THE ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK,
                          ETC. ETC.

                          [Device]

                           LONDON:
              JOHN VAN VOORST, PATERNOSTER ROW.

                         M.DCCC.LI.




              LONDON:
 Printed by SAMUEL BENTLEY and CO.,
      Bangor House, Shoe Lane.




CONTENTS.


                              CHAPTER I.

                        DEPENDENCIES IN EUROPE.
                                                                    PAGE
 Heligoland and the Frisians.--Gibraltar and the Spanish Stock.--
 Malta.--The Ionian Islands.--The Channel Islands.                     1


                              CHAPTER II.

                        DEPENDENCIES IN AFRICA.

 The Gambia Settlements.--Sierra Leone.--The Gold Coast.--The
 Cape.--The Mauritius.--The Negroes of America.                       34


                              CHAPTER III.

               BRITISH COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES IN ASIA.

 Aden.--The Mongolian Variety.--The Monosyllabic Languages.--Hong
 Kong.--The Tenasserim Provinces; Maulmein, Ye, Tavoy, Tenasserim,
 the Mergui Archipelago.--The Môn, Siamese, Avans, Kariens, and
 Silong.--Arakhan.--Mugs, Khyens.--Chittagong, Tippera, and
 Sylhet.--Kuki.--Kasia.--Cachars.--Assam.--Nagas.--Singpho.--Jili.
 --Khamti.--Mishimi.--Abors and Bor-Abors.--Dufla.--Aka.--Muttucks
 and Miri, and other Tribes of the Valley of Assam.--The Garo.--
 Classification.--Mr. Brown's Tables.--The Bodo.--Dhimal.--Kocch.
 --Lepchas of Sikkim.--Rawat of Kumaon.--Polyandria.--The Tamulian
 Populations.--Rajmahali Mountaineers.--Kúlis, Khonds, Goands,
 Chenchwars.--Tudas, &c.--Bhils.--Waralis.--The Tamul, Telinga,
 Kanara, and Malayalam Languages.                                     92


                              CHAPTER IV.

 The Sanskrit Language.--Its Relations to certain Modern Languages
 of India; to the Slavonic and Lithuanic of Europe.--Inferences.--
 Brahminism of the Puranas.--Of the Institutes of Menu.--Extract.
 --Of the Vedas.--Extract.--Inferences.--The Hindús.--Sikhs.--
 Biluchi.--Afghans.--Wandering Tribes.--Miscellaneous Populations.
 --Ceylon.--Buddhism.--Devil-worship.--Vaddahs.                      150


                              CHAPTER V.

 British Dependencies in the Malayan Peninsula.--The Oceanic Stock
 and its Divisions.--The Malay, Semang, and Dyak Types.--The Orang
 Binua.--Jakuns.--The Biduanda Kallang.--The Orang Sletar.--The
 Sarawak Tribes.--The New Zealanders.--The Australians.--The
 Tasmanians.                                                         203


                              CHAPTER VI.

                        DEPENDENCIES IN AMERICA.

 The Athabaskans of the Hudson's Bay Country.--The Algonkin Stock.
 --The Iroquois.--The Sioux.--Assineboins.--The Eskimo.--The
 Kolúch.--The Nehanni.--Digothi.--The Atsina.--Indians of British
 Oregon, Quadra's and Vancouver's Island.--Haidah.--Chimsheyan.--
 Billichula.--Hailtsa.--Nutka.--Atna.--Kitunaha Indians.--
 Particular Algonkin Tribes.--The Nascopi.--The Bethuck.--Numerals
 from Fitz-Hugh Sound.--The Moskito Indians.--South American
 Indians of British Guiana.--Caribs.--Warows.--Wapisianas.--
 Tarumas.--Caribs of St. Vincent.--Trinidad.                         224




PREFACE.


The following pages represent a Course of Six Lectures delivered at the
Royal Institution, Manchester, in the months of February and March of
the present year; the matter being now laid before the public in a
somewhat fuller and more systematic form than was compatible with the
original delivery.




         ETHNOLOGY
            OF
 THE BRITISH DEPENDENCIES.




CHAPTER I.

DEPENDENCIES IN EUROPE.

    HELIGOLAND AND THE FRISIANS.--GIBRALTAR AND THE SPANISH
    STOCK.--MALTA.--THE IONIAN ISLANDS.--THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.


_Heligoland._--We learn from a passage in the _Germania_ of Tacitus,
that certain tribes agreed with each other in the worship of a goddess
who was revered as _Earth the Mother_; that a sacred grove, in a sacred
island, was dedicated to her; and that, in that grove, there stood a
holy wagon, covered with a pall, and touched by the priest only. The
goddess herself was drawn by heifers; and as long as she vouchsafed her
presence among men, there was joy, and feasts, and hospitality; and
peace amongst otherwise fierce tribes instead of war and violence. After
a time, however, the goddess withdrew herself to her secret
temple--satiated with the converse of mankind; and then the wagon, the
pall, and the deity herself were bathed in the holy lake. The
administrant slaves were sucked up by its waters. There was terror and
there was ignorance; the reality being revealed to those alone who thus
suddenly passed from life to death.

Now we know, by name at least, five of the tribes who are thus connected
by a common worship--mysterious and obscure as it is. They are the
Reudigni, the Aviones, the Eudoses, the Suardones, and the Nuithones.

Two others we know by something more than name--the Varini and the
Langobardi.

The eighth is our own parent stock--the _Angli_.

Such is one of the earliest notices of the old creed of our German
forefathers; and, fragmentary and indefinite as it is, it is one of the
fullest which has reached us. I subjoin the original text, premising
that, instead of _Herthum_, certain MSS. read _Nerthum_.

"----Langobardos paucitas nobilitat: plurimis ac valentissimis
nationibus cincti, non per obsequium sed prœliis et periclitando tuti
sunt. Reudigni deinde, et Aviones, et _Angli_, et Varini, et Eudoses, et
Suardones, et Nuithones, fluminibus aut silvis muniuntur: nec quidquam
notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Herthum, id est, Terram
matrem colunt, eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis,
arbitrantur. Est in insula Oceani Castum nemus, dicatumque in eo
vehiculum, veste contectum, attingere uni sacerdoti concessum. Is adesse
penetrali deam intelligit, vectamque bobus feminis multâ cum veneratione
prosequitur. Læti tunc dies, festa loca, quæcumque adventu hospitioque
dignatur. Non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt, clausum omne ferrum; pax et
quies tunc tantùm nota, tunc tantùm amata, donec idem sacerdos satiatam
conversatione mortalium deam templo reddat; mox vehiculum et vestes, et,
si credere velis, numen ipsum secreto lacu abluitur. Servi ministrant,
quos statim idem lacus haurit. Arcanus hinc terror, sanctaque
ignorantia, quid sit id, quod tantùm perituri vident."--"De Moribus
Germanorum," 40.

What connects the passage with the ethnology of Heligoland? Heligoland
is, probably, the _island of the Holy Grove_. Its present name indicates
this--_the holy land_. Its position in the main sea, or _Ocean_, does
the same. So does its vicinity to the country of Germans.

At the same time it must not be concealed from the reader that the Isle
of Rugen, off the coast of Pomerania, has its claims. It is an
island--but not an island of the _Ocean_. It is full of religious
remains--but those remains are _Slavonic_ rather than _German_.

I believe, for my own part, that the seat of the worship of _Earth the
Mother_, was the island which we are now considering.

In respect to its inhabitants, it must serve as a slight text for a long
commentary. A population of about two thousand fishers; characterized,
like the ancient Venetians, by an utter absence of horses, mules,
ponies, asses, carts, wagons, or any of the ordinary applications of
animal power to the purposes of locomotion, confined to a small rock,
and but little interrupted with foreign elements, is, if considered in
respect to itself alone, no great subject for either the ethnologist or
the geographer. But what if its relations to the population of the
continent be remarkable? What if the source of its population be other
than that which, from the occupants of the nearest portion of the
continent, we are prepared to expect? In this case, the narrow area of
an isolated rock assumes an importance which its magnitude would never
have created.

The nearest part of the opposite continent is German--Cuxhaven, Bremen,
and Hamburg, being all German towns. And what the towns are the country
is also--or nearly so. It is German--which Heligoland is _not_.

The Heligolanders are no Germans, but _Frisians_. I have lying before me
the Heligoland version of _God save the Queen_. A Dutchman would
understand this, easier than a Low German, a Low German easier than an
Englishman, and (I _think_) an Englishman easier than a German of
Bavaria. The same applies to another sample of the Heligoland muse--_the
contented Heligolander's wife_ (_Dii tofreden Hjelgelünnerin_), a pretty
little song in Hettema's collection of Frisian poems; with which,
however, the native literature ends. There is plenty of Frisian verse in
general; but little enough of the particular Frisian of Heligoland.

A difference like that between the Frisians of Heligoland and the
Germans of Hanover, is always suggestive of an ethnological alternative;
since it is a general rule, supported both by induction and common
sense, that, except under certain modifying circumstances, islands
derive their inhabitants from the nearest part of the nearest continent.
When, however, the populations differ, one of two views has to be taken.
Either some more distant point than the one which geographical proximity
suggests has supplied the original occupants, or a change has taken
place on the part of one or both of the populations since the period of
the original migration.

Which has been the case here? The latter. The present Germans of the
coast between the Elbe and Weser are not the Germans who peopled
Heligoland, nor yet the descendants of them. Allied to them they are;
inasmuch as Germany is a wide country, and German a comprehensive term;
but they are not the same. The two peoples, though like, are different.

Of what sort, then, were the men and women that the present Germans of
the Oldenburg and Hanoverian coast have displaced and superseded? Let us
investigate. Whoever rises from the perusal of those numerous notices of
the ancient Germans which we find in the classical writers, to the usual
tour of Rhenish Germany, will find a notable contrast between the
natives of that region as they _were_ and as they _are_. His mind may be
full of their _golden_ hair, expecting to find it _flaxen_ at least.
Blue and grey eyes, too, he will expect to preponderate over the black
and hazel. This is what he will have read about, and what he will _not_
find--at least along the routine lines of travel. As little will there
be of massive muscularity in the limbs, and height in the stature. Has
the type changed, or have the old records been inaccurate? Has the wrong
part of Germany been described? or has the contrast between the Goth and
the Italian engendered an exaggeration of the differences? It is no part
of the present treatise to enter upon this question. It is enough to
indicate the difference between the actual German of the greater part of
Germany in respect to the colour of his hair, eyes, and skin, and the
epithets of the classical writers.

But all is not bare from Dan to Beersheba. The German of the old
Germanic type is to be found if sought for. His locality, however, is
away from the more frequented parts of his country. Still it is the part
which Tacitus knew best, and which he more especially described. This is
the parts on the Lower rather than the Upper Rhine; and it is the parts
about the Ems and Weser rather than those of the Rhine at all--sacred as
is this latter stream to the patriotism of the Prussian and Suabian. It
is Lower rather than Upper Germany, Holland rather than Germany at all,
and Friesland rather than any of the other Dutch provinces. It is
Westphalia, and Oldenburg, as much, perhaps, as Friesland. The tract
thus identified extends far into the Cimbric Peninsula,--so that the
Jutlander, though a Dane in tongue, is a Low German in appearance.

The preceding observations are by no means the present writer's, who has
no wish to be responsible for the apparent paradox that the _Germans in
Germany are not Germanic_. It is little more than a repetition of one of
Prichard's,[1] in which he is supported by both Niebuhr and the
Chevalier Bunsen. The former expressly states that the yellow or red
hair, blue eyes, and light complexion has now become uncommon, whilst
the latter has "often looked in vain for the auburn or golden locks and
the light cerulean eyes of the old Germans, and never verified the
picture given by the ancients of his countrymen, till he visited
Scandinavia; there he found himself surrounded by the Germans of
Tacitus."

For _Scandinavia_, I would simply substitute the _fen districts of
Friesland, Oldenburg, Hanover, and Holstein_--all of them the old area
of the Frisian.

Such is the physiognomy. What are the other peculiarities of the
Frisian? His language, his distribution, his history.

The Frisian of Friesland, is not the Dutch of Holland; nor yet a mere
provincial dialect of it. Instead of the infinitive moods and plural
numbers ending in -_n_ as in Holland, the former end in -_a_, the latter
in -_ar_. And so they did when the language was first reduced to
writing,--which it has been for nearly a thousand years. So they did
when the laws of the Old Frisian republic were composed, and when the
so-called _Old_ Frisian was the language of the country. So they did in
the sixteenth century, when the popular poet, Gysbert Japicx, wrote in
the _Middle_ Frisian; and so they do now--when, under the auspices of
Postumus and Hettema, we have Frisian translations of Shakespeare's "As
You Like it," "Julius Cæsar," and "Cymbeline."

Now the oldest Frisian is older than the oldest Dutch; in other words,
of the two languages it was the former which was first reduced to
writing. Yet the doctrine that it is the mother-tongue of the Dutch, is
as inaccurate as the opposite notion of its being a mere provincial
dialect. I state this, because I doubt whether the Dutch forms in -_n_,
could well be evolved out of the Frisian in -_r_, or -_a_. The -_n_
belongs to the older form,--which at one time was common to both
languages, but which in the Frisian became omitted as early as the tenth
century; whereas, in the Dutch, it remains up to the present day.

If the Frisian differ from the Dutch, it differs still more from the
proper Low German dialects of Westphalia, Oldenburg, and Holstein; all
of which have the differential characteristics of the Dutch in a greater
degree than the Dutch itself.

The closest likeness to the Frisian has ceased to exist as a language.
It has disappeared on the Continent. It has changed in the island which
adopted it. That island is Great Britain.

No existing nation, as tested by its language, is so near the Angle of
England as the Frisian of Friesland. This, to the Englishman, is the
great element of its interest.

The history of the Frisian Germans must begin with their present
distribution. They constitute the present agricultural population of the
province of Friesland; so that if Dutch be the language of the towns, it
is Frisian which we find in the villages and lone farm-houses. And this
is the case with that remarkable series of islands which runs like a row
of breakwaters from the Helder to the Weser, and serves as a front to
the continent behind them. Such are Ameland, Terschelling, Wangeroog,
and the others--each with its dialect or sub-dialect.

But beyond this, the continuity of the range of language is broken.
Frisian is _not_ the present dialect of Groningen. Nor yet of Oldenburg
generally--though in one or two of the fenniest villages of that duchy a
remnant of it still continues to be spoken; and is known to philologists
and antiquarians as the _Saterland_ dialect.

It was spoken in parts of East Friesland as late as the middle of the
last century--but only in parts; the Low German, or Platt-Deutsch, being
the current tongue of the districts around.

It is spoken--as already stated--in Heligoland.

And, lastly, it is spoken in an isolated locality as far north as the
Duchy of Sleswick, in the neighbourhood of Husum and Bredsted.

It was these Frisians of Sleswick who alone, during the late struggle of
Denmark against Germany, looked upon the contest with the same
indifference as the frogs viewed the battles of the oxen. They were not
Germans to favour the aggressors from the South, nor Danes to feel the
patriotism of the Northmen. They were neither one nor the other--simply
Frisians, members of an isolated and disconnected brotherhood.

The epithet _free_ originated with the Frisians of Friesland Proper, and
it has adhered to them. With their language they have preserved many of
their old laws and privileges, and from first to last, have always
contrived that the authority of the sovereigns of the Netherlands should
sit lightly on them.

Nevertheless, they are a broken and disjointed population; inasmuch, as
the natural inference from their present distribution is the doctrine
that, at some earlier period, they were spread over the whole of the
sea-coast from Holland to Jutland, in other words, that they were the
oldest inhabitants of Friesland, Oldenburg, Lower Hanover, and Holstein.
If so, they must have been the _Frisii_ of Tacitus. No one doubts this.
They must also have been the _Chauci_ of that writer, the German form of
whose names, as we know from the oldest Anglo-Saxon poems, was _Hocing_.
This is not so universally admitted; nevertheless, it is difficult to
say who the Chauci were if they were not Frisians, or why we find
Frisians to the north of the Elbe, unless the population was at one time
continuous.

When was this continuity disturbed? From the earliest times the
sea-coast of Germany seems to have been Frisian, and from the earliest
times the tribes of the interior seem to have moved from the inland
country towards the sea. Their faces were turned towards Britain; or, if
not towards Britain, towards France, or the Baltic. I believe, then,
that as early as 100 B.C. the displacement of some of the occupants of
the Frisian area had begun; this being an inference from the statement
of Cæsar, that the Batavians of Holland were, in his own time,
considered to have been an immigrant population. From these Batavians
have come the present Dutch, and as the present Dutch differ from the
Frisians of A.D. 1851, so did their respective great ancestors in B.C.
100--there, or thereabouts. But the encroachment of the Dutch upon the
Frisian was but slow. The map tells us this. Just as in some parts of
Great Britain we have _Shiptons_ and _Charltons_, whereas in others the
form is _Skipton_ and _Carlton_; just as in Scotland they talk of the
_kirk_, and in England of the _church_;[2] and just as such differences
are explained by the difference of dialect on the part of the original
occupants, so do we see in Holland that certain places have the names in
a Dutch, and others in a Frisian form. The Dutch compounds of _man_ are
like the English, and end in -_n_. The Frisians never end so. They drop
the consonant, and end in -_a_; as _Hettema_, _Halberts-ma_, &c.
Again--all three languages--English, Dutch, and Frisian--have numerous
compounds of the word _hám_=_home_, as _Threekingham_, _Eastham_,
_Petersham_, &c. In English the form is what we have just seen. In
Holland the termination is -_hem_, as in _Arn-hem_, _Berg-hem_. In
Frisian the vowel is _u_, and the _h_ is omitted altogether, _e.g._,
_Dokk-um_, _Borst-um_, &c.

Bearing this in mind, we may take up a map of the Netherlands. Nine
places out of ten in Friesland end in -_um_, and none in -_hem_. In
Groningen the proportion is less; and in Guelderland and Overijssel, it
is less still. Nevertheless, as far south as the Maas, and in parts of
the true Dutch Netherlands, where no approach to the Frisian language
can now be discovered, a certain per-centage of Frisian forms for
geographical localities occurs.[3]

The remainder of the displacement of the Frisians was, most probably,
effected by the introduction of the Low Germans of the empire of
Charlemagne, into the present countries of Oldenburg and Hanover; and I
believe that the same series of conquests, which then broke up the
speakers of the Frisian, annihilated the Germanic representatives of the
Anglo-Saxons of England; since it is an undeniable fact that of the
numerous dialects of the country called Lower Saxony, all (with the
exception of the Frisian) are forms of the Platt-Deutsch, and none of
them descendants of the Anglo-Saxon. Hence, as far as the language
represents the descent, whatever we Anglo-Saxons may be in Great
Britain, America, Hindostan, Australia, New Zealand, or Africa, we are
the least of our kith and kin in Germany. And we can afford to be so.
Otherwise, if we were a petty people, and given to ethnological
sentimentality, we might talk about the Franks of Charlemagne, as the
Celts talk of us; for, without doubt, the same Franks either
exterminated or denationalized us in the land of our birth, and
displaced the language of Alfred and Ælfric in the country upon which it
first reflected a literature.

There are no absolute descendants of the ancestors of the English in
their ancestral country of Germany; the Germans that eliminated them
being but step-brothers at best. But there is something of the sort. The
conquest that destroyed the Angles, broke up the Frisians. Each shared
each other's ruin. This gives the common bond of misfortune. But there
is more than this. It is quite safe to say that the Saxons and
Frisians[4] were closely--_very_ closely--connected in respect to all
the great elements of ethnological affinity--language, traditions,
geographical position, history. Nor is this confined to mere
generalities. The opinion, first, I believe, indicated by Archbishop
Usher, and recommended to further consideration by Mr. Kemble, that the
Frisians took an important part in the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Great
Britain is gaining ground. True, indeed, it is that the current texts
from Beda and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle make no mention of them. They
speak only of Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. And true it is, that no
provincial dialect has been discovered in England which stands in the
same contrast to the languages of the parts about it, as the Frisian
does to the Dutch and Low German. Yet it is also true that, according to
some traditions, Hengist was a Frisian hero. And it is equally true
that, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, we find more than one incidental
mention of Frisians in England--their presence being noticed as a matter
of course, and without any reference to their introduction. This is
shown in the following extract:--"That same year, the armies from among
the East-Anglians, and from among the North-Humbrians, harassed the land
of the West-Saxons chiefly, most of all by their _æscs_, which they had
built many years before. Then King Alfred commanded long ships to be
built to oppose the æscs; they were full-nigh twice as long as the
others; some had sixty oars, and some had more; they were both swifter
and steadier, and also higher than the others. They were shapen neither
like the Frisian nor the Danish, but so as it seemed to him that they
would be most efficient. Then some time in the same year, there came six
ships to Wight, and there did much harm, as well as in Devon, and
elsewhere along the sea-coast. Then the king commanded nine of the new
ships to go thither, and they obstructed their passage from the port
towards the outer sea. Then went they with three of their ships out
against them; and three lay in the upper part of the port in the dry;
the men were gone from them ashore. Then took they two of the three
ships at the outer part of the port, and killed the men, and the other
ship escaped; in that also the men were killed except five; they got
away because the other ships were aground. They also were aground very
disadvantageously, three lay aground on that side of the deep on which
the Danish ships were aground, and all the rest upon the other side, so
that no one of them could get to the others. But when the water had
ebbed many furlongs from the ships, the Danish men went from their three
ships to the other three which were left by the tide on their side, and
then they there fought against them. There was slain Lucumon the king's
reeve, and Wulfheard the Frisian, and Æbbe the Frisian, and Æthelhere
the Frisian, and Æthelferth the king's _geneat_, and of all the men,
Frisians and English, seventy-two; and of the Danish men one hundred and
twenty."

Lastly, we have the evidence of Procopius that "three numerous nations
inhabit Britain,--the Angles, the Frisians, and the Britons."[5]

Whatever interpretation we may put upon the preceding extracts, it is
certain that the Frisians are the nearest German representatives of our
Germanic ancestors; whilst it is not uninteresting to find that the
little island of Heligoland, is the only part of the British Empire
where the ethnological and political relations coincide.

_Gibraltar._--This isolated possession serves as a text for the
ethnology of Spain; and there is no country wherein the investigation is
more difficult.

It is difficult, if we look at the analysis of the present population,
and attempt to ascertain the proportion of its different ingredients.
There is Moorish blood, and there is Gothic, Roman, and Phœnician; some
little Greek, and, older than any, the primitive and original Iberic.
Perhaps, too, there is a Celtic element,--at least such is the inference
from the term _Celtiberian_. Yet it is doubtful whether it be a true
one; and, even if it be, there still stands over the question whether
the _Celtic_ or the _Iberic_ element be the older.

When this is settled, the hardest problem of all remains behind; _viz._,
the ethnological position of the Iberians. What they were, in
themselves, we partially know from history; and what their descendants
are we know also from their language. But we only know them as an
isolated branch of the human species. Their _relation_ to the
neighbouring families is a mystery. Reasons may be given for connecting
them with the Celts of Gaul; reasons for connecting them with the
Africans of the other side of the Straits; and reasons for connecting
them with tribes and families so distant in place, and so different in
manners as the Finns of Finland, and the Laps of Lapland. Nay
more,--affinities have been found between their language and the Hebrew,
Arabic, and Syriac; between it and the Georgian; between it and half the
tongues of the Old World. Even in the forms of speech of America,
_analogies_ have been either found or fancied.

Be this, however, as it may, the oldest inhabitants of the Spanish
peninsula were the different tribes of the Iberians proper, and the
Celtiberians; the first being the most easily disposed of. They it was,
whose country was partially colonized by Phœnician colonists; either
directly from Tyre and Sidon, or indirectly from Carthage. They it was
who, at a somewhat later period, came in contact with the Greeks of
Marseilles and their own town of _Emporia_. They it was who could not
fail to receive some intermixture of African blood; whether it were from
Africans crossing over on their own account, or from the Libyans,
Gætulians, and Mauritanians of the Carthaginian levies.

And now the great western peninsula becomes the battle-ground for Rome
and Carthage; the theatre of the Scipios on the one side, and the great
family of the Barcas on the other. On Iberian ground does Hannibal swear
his deadly and undying enmity to Rome. At this time, the numerous
primitive tribes of Spain may boast a civilization equal to that of the
most favoured spots of the earth,--Greece, and the parts between the
Nile, the Euphrates and the Mediterranean alone being excepted. As
tested by their agricultural mode of life, their commercial and mining
industry, their susceptibility of discipline as soldiers, and, above
all, by the size and number of their cities, the Iberian of Spain is on
the same level with the Celt of Gaul, and the Celt of Gaul on that of
the Italian of Italy,--_i.e._, _as far as the civilization of the latter
is his own, and not of Greek origin_. But this is a point of European
rather than Spanish ethnology.

That the obstinate spirit of resistance to organized armies by means of
a _guerilla_ warfare, the savage patriotism which suggests such
expressions as _war even to the knife_, and the endurance behind stone
walls, which characterizes the modern Spaniards, is foreshadowed in the
times of their earliest history, has often been remarked, and that
truly. Numantia is an early Saragossa, Saragossa a modern Numantia.
Viriathus has had innumerable counterparts. Where the indomitable
Cantabrian held out against the power of Rome, the Biscayan of the year
1851 adheres to his privileges and his language; and what the Cantabrian
was to the Roman, the Asturian was to the Moor. Both trusted their
freedom to their impracticable mountains and stubborn spirits--and kept
it accordingly. It is an easy matter to refer the peculiarities of the
Spanish character to the infusion of Oriental blood; and with some of
them it may be the case. But with many of them, the reference is a false
one. Half the Spanish character was Iberic and Lusitanian before either
Jew or Saracen had seen the Rock of Gibraltar.

Of the early Spanish religion, we know but little. A remarkable passage
in Strabo speaks to their literature. They had an _alphabet_. This is
known from coins and inscriptions. And it was of foreign origin--Greek
or Phœnician. This nothing but the most inconsiderate and uncritical
patriotism can deny. Denied, however, it has been; and the indigenous
and independent evolution of an alphabet has been claimed; the
particular tribe to which it has more especially been ascribed being the
_Turdetani_. These--and the passage I am about to quote is the passage
of Strabo just alluded to--are "put forward as the wisest of the Iberi,
and they have the use of letters; and they have records of ancient
history, and poems, and metrical laws for six thousand years--as they
say."[6]

Now, whatever may be the doubts implied by the last three words of this
extract, the evidence is to the effect that the old Iberians were a
lettered nation; the antiquity of their civilization being another
question. To modify our scepticism on the point, the text has been
tampered with, and it has been proposed to read _poems_ (ἐπῶν) instead
of years (ἐτῶν). The change, to be sure, is slight enough--that of a
single letter--from _p_ (π) to _t_ (τ); nevertheless, as it is more than
cautious criticism will allow, the reading must stand as it is, and the
claim of the Turdetanians must be for a literature nearly as old as the
supposed age of the world in the current century,--a long date, and a
date which would be improbable, even if we divided it by twelve, and
rendered ἔτος by _month_ instead of _year_. It denotes either some
shorter period (perhaps a day) or nothing at all.

So much for the Iberians; of which the Lusitanians of Portugal were a
branch; and of which there were several divisions and subdivisions
involving considerable varieties both of manners and language. In
respect to the latter there is the special evidence of Strabo that their
tongues and alphabets differed. And so did their mythologies. The
Callaici had the reputation of being _atheists_; whilst the Celtiberi
worshipped an anonymous God,[7] at the full of the moon, with feasts and
dances.

But who were the Celtiberi? I have already said that there were
difficulties upon this point. The name makes them a mixed people; half
Celt and half Iberic. If so, the French influence in the Spanish
Peninsula was as great in the time of Hannibal, as it was wished to be
in the time of Louis XIV.

With the exception of Niebuhr, the chief authorities have considered the
Iberi as the aborigines, and the Celts as emigrants from Gaul. To this,
however, Niebuhr took exceptions. He considered the warlike character of
the Iberians; and this made him unwilling to think that any invader from
the north had displaced them. And he considered the geographical
_distribution_ of the Celtiberi. This was not in the fertile plains nor
along the banks of fertilizing rivers, nor yet in the districts of the
golden corn and the precious wool of Hispania, but in the rougher
mountain tracts, in the quarters whereto an aboriginal inhabitant would
be more likely to retire, than an invading conqueror to covet, I admit
the difficulty implied in his objection; but I admit it only as a
_presumption_--against which there is a decided preponderance of
material facts.

In the first place, there are the oldest names of the geographical
localities throughout Spain. These, as shown by the well-known monograph
of Humboldt, are _not_ Celtic, and are _Iberic_.

In the next place, the Celtic frontier was by no means so near the
geographical boundary of the Peninsula as it is often supposed to have
been. Instead of the Celtic of Gaul reaching the Pyrenees, the Iberic of
Spain reached the Loire--so that the province of Aquitania, although
Gallic in politics, was Iberic in ethnology. This, again, is shown by
Humboldt.

For my own part, instead of discussing the relation of the Celts of
Celtiberia to the other inhabitants of Spain, I would open a new
question, and investigate the grounds upon which we believe in an
intermixture at all. Whatever respect we may pay to the statements of
the classical writers, the _name_ itself is not conclusive; since it
would be just as likely to be given from an approach on the part of an
Iberic population to the Celtic manners, or from the adoption of any
_supposed_ Celtic characteristic, as from absolute ethnological
intermixture. Like modern observers, the ancient writers were too fond
of gratuitously assuming an intermixture of blood for the explanation
of the results of common physical or social conditions. Hence--without
pressing my opinion on the reader--I confine myself to an expression of
doubt as to the existence of Celts amongst the Celtiberi _at all_.

But this only simplifies the question as to the ethnological position of
the Iberic variety of the human species. It does not even suggest an
answer. They were the aborigines of Spain. They are the ancestors of the
present Biscayans. Their tongue survives in the north-west provinces of
Spain, and in the north-east corner of France. It _has no recognized
affinity with any known tongue; and it has undeniable points of contrast
with all the languages of the countries around._

Yet it is only by means of the Basque language that the problem can be
attempted. The physical conformation of the still extant Iberians, has
nothing definitely characteristic about it. The ancient mythology has
died away. The tribes most immediately allied have ceased to be other
than unmixed. So the language alone remains--and that has yet to find
its interpreter.

An Iberic basis--Greek, Phœnician, and Mauritanian intermixtures--possibly
a Celtic element--Roman sufficient to change the language through
four-fifths of the Peninsula--Gothic blood introduced by the followers
of Euric--Arabian influences, second in importance to those of Rome
only--such is the analysis of ethnological elements of the Spanish
stock. The proportions, of course, differ in different parts of the
Peninsula, and, although they are nowhere ascertained, it is reasonable
to suppose that the Arab blood increases as we go southwards, and the
Gothic and Iberic as we approach the Pyrenees. This makes Gibraltar the
most Moorish part of Europe; and such I believe it to be.

_Malta._--When we have subtracted the English, Italians, Greeks, and
other nations of the Levant from the population of Malta, there still
remain the primitive islanders, with their peculiar language.

Now this language is a form of the Arabic; and, with the exception of
some of the dialects of Syria, it is the only instance of that language
in the mouth of a Christian population. So thoroughly are the language
and the religion of the Koran co-extensive.

At what period this tongue found its way to Malta is undetermined. As
compared with any of the present languages of the island it is
_ancient_. But it is not certain that, though old, it is the earliest.
Carthaginians may have preceded the Arabs; Greeks the Carthaginians;
and, possibly, Sicanians, or the earliest occupants of Sicily, the
Greeks. I am unable, however, to carry my reader beyond the simple fact
of the _language being Arabic_.

The only other Arabic dependency of Great Britain is Aden.[8]

_The Ionian Islands._--The reader may have remarked the peculiar
character of European ethnology. It consists chiefly in the _analysis_
of the component parts of particular populations; and this it
investigates so exclusively as to leave no room for the description of
manners, customs, physiognomy, and the like--paramount in importance as
these matters are when we come to the other quarters of the world. There
are two reasons for this difference. First--the peculiarities of the
European nations are by no means of the same extent and character with
those of the ruder families of mankind. A similar civilization, and a
similar religion, have effected a remarkable amount of uniformity; and,
hence, the differences are those that the historian deals with more
appropriately than the ethnologist. Secondly--such external and palpable
differences as exist are generally known and appreciated. The
_analysis_ of blood, or stock, which, partially, accounts for them, is
less completely understood.

Hence, in treating of the Maltese, there was no description of the
Arabic stock at all. All that was stated was a reason for believing that
the Maltese belonged to it. Such also, to a great degree, was the case
with the Gibraltar population, and the Heligolanders. And such will be
the case with the Ionian Islanders. It will not be thought necessary to
enlarge upon the Greeks; it will only be requisite to ask how far the
group in question is Grecian.

The very oldest population of the Ionian Islands I believe to have been
_barbarous_--a term which, in the present classical localities, is
convenient.

In the smaller islands, such as Ithaca and Zacynthus, the population had
become Hellenized at the time of the composition of the Homeric poems.
In Corcyra, on the other hand, the original barbarism lasted longer.
Such, at least, is the way in which I interpret the passages in the
Odyssey concerning the Phæacians (who were certainly not Greek), and the
later language of Thucydides respecting the relations of the Corinthian
colonies of Epidamnus, and Corcyra. The whole context leads to the
belief that, originally, the ἄποικοι were Greeks in contact with a
population which was _not_ Greek.

In respect to the stock to which these early and ante-Hellenic
islanders belonged, the presumption is in favour of its having been the
Illyrian; a stock known only in its probable remains--the Skipitar
(Albanians, or Arnaouts) of Albania.

Time, however, made them all equally Hellenic, a result which was,
probably, completed before the decline of Greek independence; since
which epoch there have been the following elements of intermixture:--

1. Albanian blood, from the opposite coast.

2. Slavonic, from Dalmatia.

3. Italian, from Italy.

4. Turk--I have no pretence to the minute ethnological knowledge which
would enable me even to guess at the proportions.

Upon the whole, however, I believe the Ionian islanders to be what their
language represents them--Greek. At the same time they are Greeks of an
exceedingly mixed blood.[9]

Again--of the foreign elements I imagine the Italian to be the chief.
This, however, is an impression rather than a matured opinion.

The Slavonic element, too, is likely to be considerable. The Byzantine
historians speak of numerous and permanent settlements, during the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, both in Thessaly, and in the Morea;
statements which the frequency of Slavonic names for Greek geographical
localities confirms.[10] Neither, however, outweighs the undoubted
Hellenic character of the language, which is still the representative of
the great medium of the fathers of literature and philosophy.

_The Channel Islands._--As Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, are no
parts of Great Britain, and are, nevertheless, European, I make a brief
mention of them; although they are neither colonies nor dependencies:
indeed, in strict history, Great Britain is a dependency of theirs.

They are _Norman_ rather than _French_, and the illustration of this
distinction, which will re-appear when we come to the Canadas--concludes
the chapter.

The _earliest_ population of France was twofold--Celtic for the north,
Iberic for the south.

Its _second_ population was Roman.

Its language is Roman--all that remains of the old tongues of the tribes
which Cæsar conquered being (1) certain words in the present French,
(2) the Breton of Brittany, which is closely akin to the Welsh Celtic,
and (3) the Basque dialects of Gascony, which is Iberic.

Now whether the old Gallic blood be as fully displaced by that of the
Roman conquerors, as the old Gallic language has been displaced by the
Latin is uncertain. It is only certain that the old and indigenous
elements of the French nation, however indeterminate in amount--were not
of a uniform character, _i.e._, neither wholly Celtic, nor wholly
Iberic; but Celtic for one part of the country, and Iberic for another.

The ancient tribes of Normandy were _Celtic_. Hence, when the third
element of the present Norman population was introduced, all that was
not Italian was Welsh--just as it was in Picardy and Orleans, and just
as it was _not_ in Gascony and Poitou. _There_ the old element was
Iberic.

The _third element_--just alluded to--was Germanic; Germanic of
different kinds, but chiefly Frank or Burgundian.

The _fourth_ great element was the Norse or Scandinavian; introduced by
the so-called _Sea-kings_ of Denmark and Norway in the ninth and tenth
centuries. These, as the empire of Charlemagne declined, insulted and
dismembered it. They converted Neustria in _Normandy_=_the country of
the Northmen_. The exact amount of their influence has not been
ascertained; nor is the investigation easy. The process, however, by
which we measured the original extent of the Frisian area is applicable
to that of the Northmen. There are Norse names for French localities. Of
these the most important are the compounds of -_tot_, -_fleur_, and
-_bec_; like Yve-_tot_, Har-_fleur_, and Caude-_bec_.

 FRENCH.    NORSE.    ENGLISH.

  -tot       toft     _village_.
  -fleur     flöt     _stream_.
  -bec       beck     _brook_.[11]

Names of places thus ending are almost exclusively limited to Normandy;
occurring, even there, most numerously within a few miles of either the
sea or the Seine.

Furthermore, there is a fresh element suggested by a term of the
"Notitia Utriusque Imperii," a document of the latter end of the fourth
century. This is _Litus Saxonicum per Britannias_, a tract extending
from the Wash to Portsmouth. Now the opposite shore of the continent was
a _litus Saxonicum_ also; within which lay Normandy. I believe that
these Saxons were part of the same branch of Germans which invaded
England; in other words, that portions of France, like portions of
England, were _Anglicized_; the two processes differing in respect to
their extent and duration. What was general and permanent on the
island, was partial and temporary on the continent. That there were
Saxons at Bayeux in the tenth century is asserted by express evidence.

Taking in the account the preceding invasions, and remembering that,
both from Germany and Italy, Normandy is one of the most distant of the
French provinces, we arrive at the following analysis.

The Channel Islanders are what the Normans are.

The Normans are Romanized Celts; the Roman element being somewhat less
than it is elsewhere.

The Frank and Burgundian elements are also less.

But a Saxon element is greater.

And a Norse element is pre-eminently Norman.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Natural History of Man," p. 197.

[2] The form in _c_ and _sk_ (_Skipton_ and _Carlton_) being of Danish,
whilst those in _ch_ and _sh_ are of Anglo-Saxon origin.--_See_
"Quarterly Review," No. CLXIV.

[3] The details of this investigation are given in full in the present
writer's "Taciti Germania with Ethnological notes," now in course of
publication.

[4] I include in this term the so-called old Saxons of Westphalia.

[5] The original passage is as follows:--"Βριττίαν δὲ τὴν νῆσον ἔθνη
τρία πολυανθρωπότατα ἔχουσι, βασιλεύς τε εἷς αὐτῶν ἑκάστῳ ἐφέστηκεν,
ὀνόματα δὲ κεῖται τοῖς ἔθνεσι τούτοις Ἀγγίλοι τε καὶ Φρίσσονες καὶ οἱ τῆ
νήσῳ ὁμώνυμοι Βρίττωνες. Τοσαύτη δὲ ἡ τῶνδε τῶν ἐθνῶν πολυανθρωπία
φαίνεται οὖσα ὥστε ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος κατὰ πολλοὺς ἐνθένδε μετανιστάμενοι ξὺν
γυναιξὶ καὶ παισὶν ἐς Φράγγους χώρουσιν."--Procop. B. G. iv. 20.

Reasons which have induced me to go farther than any previous writer in
respect to the importance of the Frisian element in the Anglo-Saxon
invasion, and to believe that instead of _Saxon_ being a native German
name for any portion of the Germanic population, it was only a Celtic
and Roman term for the Germans of the sea-coast, and (amongst these) for
the Frisians most especially, are given, at large, in my ethnological
edition of the "Germania of Tacitus."

[6] Σοφώτατοι δ' ἐξεταζονται τῶν Ἰβήρων οὗτοι, καὶ γραμματικῆ χρῶνται·
καὶ τῆς παλαιᾶς μνήμης ἔχουσι τὰ συγγράμματα, καὶ ποιήματα καὶ νόμους
ἐμμέτρους ἑξακισχιλίων ἐτῶν, ὥς φασι.

[7] This was probably the case with the Callaici.

[8] The famous Knighthood of Malta--_without fear_, but (though,
perhaps, the best of its class) not _without reproach_, has no place
here. Its ethnology belongs to the different countries which it
dignified by its valour, or dishonoured by its profligacy.

[9] This I believe to have been the case with the ancient Greeks also;
though the proof would require an elaborate monograph.

[10] The two together have led to a doctrine which has been best
developed by Fallmerayer. It is this--_that the modern Greeks are
Sclavonians_. The Russian school are the chief believers of this. In the
few countries where ethnology is scientific rather than political, the
more moderate opinion of the modern Greeks being a mixed stock prevails.

[11] Or _beck_.




CHAPTER II.

DEPENDENCIES IN AFRICA.

    THE GAMBIA SETTLEMENTS.--SIERRA LEONE.--THE GOLD COAST.--THE
    CAPE.--THE MAURITIUS.--THE NEGROES OF AMERICA.


_The Gambia._--All our settlements on the Gambia are in the Mandingo
country.

Of all the true and unequivocal Negroes, the Mandingos are the most
civilized; the basis of their civilization being Arab, and their
religion that of the Koran. Hence, they have priests, or Marabouts, the
use of the Arabic alphabet, and a monotheistic creed.

Of all the Negroes, too, the Mandingos are the most commercial, not as
mere slave-dealers, but as truly industrial merchants.

Of all the families of the African stock, with the exception of the
Kaffres, the Mandingo is the most widely spread. It also falls into
numerous divisions and subdivisions. Hence the term has a twofold power.
Sometimes it is a generic name for a large group; sometimes the
designation of a particular section of that group. The Mandingos of the
Lower Gambia are Mandingos in the restricted meaning of the word.

For the Mandingo tribes, when we use the term in a general sense, the
most convenient classification is into the _Mahometan_ and the _Pagan_.
That this division should exist is natural; since, with the exception of
the Wolofs, the Mandingos are the most northern of all the western
Negroes, and, consequently, those who are most in contact with the
Mahometan Arabs, and the equally Mahometan Kabyles of Barbary and the
Great Desert,--a fact sufficient to account for the monotheistic creeds
of the northern tribes.

As for the Paganism of the others, we must remember how far southwards
and inland the same great stock extends--indefinitely towards the
interior, and as far as the back of the Ashanti country, in the
direction of the equator.

This prepares us for finding Mandingos at our next settlement.

_Sierra Leone._--The native populations which encircle this settlement
are two--the _Timmani_ towards the north, and _Bullom_ towards the
south.

Both are Negroes of the most typical kind, in respect to their physical
conformation.

Both are Pagans.

Both speak what seem to be mutually unintelligible languages, but which
have an undoubted relationship to each other, and to the numerous
Mandingo dialects as well. It is this which induces me to place them in
the same section with the more civilized Africans of the Gambia.

It is safe to say that they are amongst the rudest members of the stock;
indeed it is only in the eyes of the etymologist that they are Mandingo
at all. Practically, they, and several tribes like them, are Mandingo,
in the way that a wolf is a dog, or a goat a sheep.

The Bullom and Timmani are the frontagers to Sierra Leone; and it was
with Bullom and Timmani potentates that the land of the settlement was
bargained for. The settlers themselves are of different origin. Mixed
beyond all other populations of Africa, the occupants of Free Town are
in the same category with the Negroes of Jamaica and St. Domingo;
concerning whom we can only predicate that they have dark skins, and
that they come from Africa. The analysis of their several origins, and
their distribution amongst the separate branches of the African family,
would be one of the most difficult feats in minute ethnology; and this
would be but a fraction of the investigation. When the several countries
which supplied the several victims of the slave-trade had been
ascertained, the complicated question of _intermixture_ would stand
over; and there we should find lineages of every degree of
hybridism--children, whose ancestors originated on different sides of
Africa, themselves the parents of a lighter-coloured offspring, the
effect of European intercourse.

At present it is sufficient to state that the nucleus of the Free Town
population consists of what is called the _Maroon_ Negroes. These were
slaves of Jamaica, who, having recovered their freedom during the
Spanish dominion in the island, were removed, by the English, in the
first instance to Nova Scotia, and afterwards to their present locality.

Round this has collected an equally miscellaneous population of rescued
slaves; and, besides these, there are immigrants, labourers, and
barterers from all the neighbouring parts of the Continent--Krumen more
especially.

A writer who, when we come to the Negroes of the Gold Coast, will be
freely quoted, calls the Krumen the _Scotchmen_ of Africa, since, with
unusual industry, enterprise, and perseverance, they leave, without
reluctance, their own country to push their fortunes wherever they can
find a wider field. They are ready for any employment which may enable
them to increase their means, and ensure a return to their own country
in a state of improved prosperity. There the Kruman's ambition is to
purchase one or two head of cattle, and one or two head of wives, to
enjoy the luxuries of rum and tobacco, and pass the remainder of his
days as

    "A gentleman of Africa who sits at home at ease."

Half the Africans that we see in Liverpool are Krumen, who have left
their own country when young, and taken employment on board a ship,
where they exhibit a natural aptitude for the sea. Without being nice as
to the destination of the vessel in which they engage, they return home
as soon as they can; and rarely or never contract matrimony before their
return. In Cape Coast Town, as well as in Sierra Leone, they form a
bachelor community--quiet and orderly; and in that respect stand in
strong contrast to the other tribes around them. Besides which, with all
their blackness, and all their typical Negro character, they are
distinguishable from most other western Africans; having the advantage
of them in make, features, and industry.

A Kruman is pre-eminently the _free labourer_ of Africa. In the slave
trade he has engaged less than any of his neighbours, attaches himself
readily to the whites, and, in his native country, as well as in Sierra
Leone, Coast Town, and other places of his temporary denizenship, is
quick of perception and amenable to instruction. His language is the
_Grebo_ tongue, and it has been reduced to writing by the American
missionaries of Cape Palmas. It has decided affinities with those of
the Mandingo tongues to the north, the Fanti dialects of the Gold Coast,
and, in all probability, still closer ones with those of the Ivory
coast. These last, however, are but imperfectly known; indeed, a single
vocabulary of the _Avekvom_ language, in the "American Oriental
Journal," furnishes nine-tenths of our philological data for the parts
between Cape Palmas and Cape Apollonia.

The best measure of the heterogeneousness of the Sierra Leone population
is to be found in Mrs. Kilham's vocabularies. That lady collected, at
Free Town, specimens of thirty-one African tongues, from Negroes then
and there resident. Of these--

A. Eight belonged to the Mandingo group, _viz._, Mandingo Proper, Susu,
Bambara, Kossa, Pessa, Kissi, Bullom, and Timmani.

B. Two were dialects of the Grebo (Kru): the Kru, and the Bassa.

C. Two were Fanti: the Fanti and the Ashanti, closely allied dialects.

D. Two were Dahoman: the Fot, and the Popo.

E. Two Benin: the Benin Proper, and the Moko, languages of a tract but
little known.

F. One Wolof, from the Senegal.

G. Eight from the parts between the rivers Formosa and Loango, _viz._,
the Bongo, the Ako, the Ibu, the Rungo, the Akuonga, the Karaba, the
Uobo, the Kouri.

H. One from the river Kongo, _i.e._, the Kongo properly so-called.

I. Two from the Lower Niger, but, still separated from the coast--the
Tapua (Nufi) and Appa.

K. Three from the widely-spread nations of the interior--the Fulah, the
Haussa, and the Bornu.

I do not say that all Mrs. Kilham's specimens represent mutually
unintelligible tongues; probably they do not. At the same time, as
several decidedly different languages are omitted, the list understates,
rather than exaggerates, the number of the divisions and subdivisions of
the western African populations, as inferred from the divisions and
subdivisions of the language.

Thus, no samples are given of the--

1. _Sereres._--Pastoral tribes about Cape Verde.

2. _Serawolli._--On the Middle Senegal, different, in many respects,
from the Sereres, the Wolofs, and the Fulahs; nations with which they
are in geographical contact.

3. _The Feloops._--Between the Gambia and Cacheo, along the coast.

4. _The Papels._--South of the Cacheo; and also coastmen.

5. _The Balantes._--Coast-men to the south of the Papels.

6. _The Bagnon._--Conterminous with the Feloops of the river Cacheo.

7. _The Bissago._--Fierce occupants of the islands so-called.

8. _The Naloos._--On the Nun and river Grande.

9. _The Sapi._--Conterminous with the Naloo, and like all the preceding
tribes, from the Feloops downwards, pre-eminently rude, fierce,
intractable, and imperfectly known.

Southward, the unrepresented languages are equally numerous--especially
for the Ivory Coast, and for the Delta of the Niger. Of these I shall
only notice one--the Vey.

The settlement with which the tribes speaking the Vey language is in
contact is one of which the tongue is English, but not the political
relations. It is the American free Negro settlement of Liberia.

In the Vey language, it had been known for some time to the American
missionaries, that there were _written books_, a fact not likely to be
undervalued by those who felt warmly on the social and civilizational
prospects of the coloured divisions of our species. One of these books
was discovered by Lieutenant Forbes, of H.M.S. the Bonetta; local
inquiry was further made by the Rev. W. S. Koelle; and the MS. was
critically analyzed by Mr. Norris, of the Asiatic Society.[12]

The phenomenon, if properly measured, is by no means a very significant
one; since, although the Vey alphabet, the invention of a man now
living, so far differs from the Mandingo, as to be spelt by the
_syllable_ rather than the _letter_, it is anything but an independent
creation of the Negro brain. Doala Bukara, its composer, an imperfect
Mahometan, had seen Mahometan books, and, although he was no Christian,
had seen an English Bible also. He knew, then, what spelling or writing
was. He knew, too, the phonetic analysis of the Mandingo, a tongue
closely allied to his own. And this is nine parts out of ten in the
so-called invention of alphabets.

The true claims of Doala, in this way, are those of the phonetic
reformers in England, as compared with those of Toth or Cadmus--real but
moderate. His own account of the matter, as he gave it to Mr. Koelle,
was, that the fact of sounds being _written_, haunted him in a dream,
wherein he was shown a series of signs adapted to his native tongue.
These he forgot in the morning; but remembered the impression. So he
consulted his friends; and they and he, laying their heads together,
coined new ones. The king of the country made its introduction a matter
of state, and built a large house in Dshondu, as a day-school. But a
war with the Guru people disturbed both the learners and teachers, so
that the latter removed to Bandakoro, where all grown-up people, of both
sexes, can now read and write.

This alphabet is a _syllabarium_.

The books written in it are essentially Mahometan; the Koran appearing
in them much in the same way as the Bible appears in the more degenerate
legends of the middle ages.

How far the Vey alphabet will be an instrument of civilization, is a
difficult question. For my own part, I half regret its evolution; since
the Arabic that served for the Mandingo, would have served for the Vey
as well--or if not the Arabic, the English.

As a measure of African capacity it is of some value; and in this
respect, it speaks for the Negro just as the Cherokee alphabet speaks
for the American Indian. This latter was invented by a native named
Sequoyah. Like Doala, he knew what reading was. Like Doala, too, he had
a language adapted to a _syllabarium_. Hence, both the Vey and the
Cherokee, the two latest coinages in the way of alphabets, are both
syllabic.

We now move southwards to the--

_Gold Coast Settlements._--The climate of Western Africa requires
notice. It suits the native, but destroys the European. Of the two
settlements, already mentioned, the Gambia is the most deadly; though
Sierra Leone has the worst name. _Both_ are on the coast; both,
consequently, on the lower courses of the rivers, and both on low
levels. The import of these remarks applies to the Negroes of America.
At present, it ushers in a brief notice of the climate of the Gold
Coast; this district being chosen for the purpose of description because
it makes the nearest approach to the equator of any English settlement
in Africa. Consequently, it may serve as a typical sample of the
malarious parts of the coast in question.

From April till August is the rainy season, which gradually passes into
the dry; heavy fogs forming during the transition. These last till the
end of September. Occasional showers, too, continue till November. Then
the weather becomes really clear and dry, until, towards the end of
January, the dry parching wind, called the Harmattan, sets in, with its
over-stimulant action upon the human system, and clouds of penetrating
impalpable sand. If this is not blowing, the atmosphere is loaded with
moisture; and this it is, combined with the heat of an intertropical
sun, and the effluvia engendered by the decay of an over-luxuriant
vegetation, which makes Western Africa the white man's grave. Not that
the soil, even on the coast, is always swampy and alluvial. About Cape
Coast it is rocky and undulating. Still, it is inordinately wooded, as
well as full of spots where water accumulates and exhalations multiply.
Yet the thermometer ranges between 78° and 86° Fahrenheit--a low
_maximum_ for the neighbourhood of the equator; a high one, however, to
feel cold in. Nevertheless, such is the case. "From this peculiarity of
the atmosphere, the sensations of an individual almost invariably
indicate a degree of _cold_, especially when sitting in a room, or not
taking bodily exercise; so that, to ensure a feeling of comfortable
warmth, it becomes necessary to dress in a thicker material than what is
usually considered best adapted for tropical wear, and to have a fire
lighted in one's bedroom for some time before one retires to rest."[13]

The chief Africans of these parts--and we now approach the great
_officina servorum_--alone tolerant of the heats, and droughts, and
rains, and exhalations are--

1. The Fantis.

2. The Ghans.

3. The Avekvom (?)

A. _The Fantis._--Of the true natives of the country these are the
chief.

The term _Fanti_, like the term _Mandingo_, has a double sense--a
general and a specific signification.

The particular population of the parts about Cape Coast is Fanti in the
limited sense of the term.

The great section of the Negro family, which comprises, besides the
Fantis Proper, the Ashanti, Boroom, and several other populations, is
_Fanti_ in the wide sense of the term.

The Fanti, Ashanti, and Boroom forms of speech are merely dialects of
one and the same language.

A great proportion of the vocabularies of "Bowdich's Ashanti" are the
same.

So are the Fetu, Affotoo, and other vocabularies of the "Mithridates."

The inhabitants of the Native Town of Cape Coast, a mixed population of
Krumen, Fantis, and Mulattoes, amounting to as many as 10,000, are no
true specimens of the African of the Gold Coast. European influences
have too long been at work on them. Before the town was English it was
Dutch; and it was English as early as 1661.

More than this. It is not certain that their fathers' fathers were the
_exact_ aborigines; in other words, a tribe akin to, but slightly
different from them, seems to have been the earlier possessors. These
were the Fetu--the remains of which can doubtless be met with among the
populations of the neighbourhood; since we find in the "Mithridates" a
_Fetu_ vocabulary and an _Affotoo_ one as well.

Now the Fantis that thus displaced the Fetu, were themselves fugitives
from the conquering Ashantis; all, however, being the members of one
stock, and the pressure being from the highlands of the interior towards
the lowlands of the coast.

All three are truly Negro in conformation, and miserably Pagan in creed,
the best measure of their political capacity being the organized kingdom
of the Ashantis; and the lowest form of it, the system of clanships,
chieftainships, or captainships of the proper Fantis of the coast. The
details of these are of importance.

I cannot ascertain upon what principle those different divisions which
are sometimes called _tribes_, sometimes _clans_, are formed; since it
is by no means safe to assume that they necessarily consist of
descendants from one common ancestor. The investigations concerning the
_tribes_ of ancient Rome show this.

It is easier to enumerate their external characteristics, and material
elements of their union. In the Native Town there are four quarters,
each occupied by a separate section of the population. This section has
its own proper head, its own proper standards, and its own proper band
of music.

What follows seems to apply to the rude state of society in the country
around. Each division has its badge or device; so that we have the
tribe, or clan, of the leopard, the cat, the dog, the hawk, the parrot,
&c. On certain days there are certain festivals and processions, when
the chief is carried in a long basket on the heads of two men, with
umbrellas above him, and attendants around proportionate to his rank.
When in distress, the Fanti has a claim upon the good offices of his
tribe.

When a Fanti government becomes extensive enough to require
organization, we find absolute monarchs with satraps (caboceers) under
them; under these the heads of the different villages or towns, and
under these captains of hundreds, fifties, and tens--an organization
which is, perhaps, of military rather than social origin. The Ashanti
kingdom gives us the best measure of extent to which a branch of the
Fanti stock has developed itself into a political influence. As for the
_Constitution_, it is a simple and unmitigated despotism; of which the
most remarkable point is the law of succession. This follows the female
lines, so that the heir-apparent is the eldest son of the reigning
king's eldest sister. The same applies to the caboceers; except that, in
cases of mental or physical incapacity, the rightful heir is set aside,
and a path opened to the ambition of private adventurers.

Slavery is what we expect; and on the coast of Guinea it meets us at
every turn, though not in the worst forms of the _Trade_. This
flourishes in Dahomey, and along the whole of the Bight of Benin. In the
Fanti countries, however, the milder form of _domestic_ servitude
preponderates; and along with it a chronic state of warfare. These two
evils are connected with one another, as cause and effect. The conquest
supplies the slaves; the slaves provoke the conquest.

Besides this there is a sort of temporary servitude, which reminds us of
the _Nexi_ of the Romans. This occurs when "a person, in order to raise
a particular sum of money, voluntarily sells himself for a certain
period, or until such time as he is enabled to pay the amount so
borrowed, together with whatever interest may have been agreed upon.
This is called the system of pawning, and the people so sold, pawns.
Thus a native, in order to make a great display on any particular
occasion, as on his marriage, or to have a grand 'custom' for a deceased
relative, will forfeit his labour for a definite time, or give one of
his slaves for a period agreed upon. Neither these pawns, however, nor
the domestic slaves, entertain any feeling of disgrace, but on the
contrary are happy and contented."[14]

Everything connected with the administration of justice is rude and
savage; the severity of the punishment upon detection being the chief
preventive. The awards, of course, depend much upon the individual
character of the chiefs; and there are but few who have not exhibited
horrible proofs of cruelty. These, however, are no measures of the
temper of the people at large. The legitimate, normal, established, and
familiar forms of torture give us this. It may just be a shade or two
better than that of the autocrats--though bad at best. I still draw upon
the writer already quoted. "The most common mode of torture is what is
termed tying Guinea-fashion. In this the arms are closely drawn together
behind the back, by means of a cord tied tightly round them, about
midway between the elbows and shoulders. A piece of wood to act as a
rack, having been previously introduced, is then used so as to tighten
the cord, and so intense is the agony that one application is generally
sufficient to occasion the wretch so tortured to confess to anything
that is required of him. There are various other modes of torture in
common use among the natives of Guinea. One is tying the head, feet, and
hands, in such a way that by turning the body backwards, they may be
drawn together by the cords employed. Another is securing a wrist or
ankle to a block of wood by an iron staple. By means of a hammer any
degree of pressure may thus be applied, while the suffering so produced
is continuous, only being relieved by the wood being split, and the
staples removed, but this may not be done until a crime has been
confessed by a person who never committed it, and even then his limb has
generally been destroyed. It would not be interesting to here enumerate
the various tortures employed by a barbarous people, but when we
recollect the refinement of the art of torture in our own country in the
days of the maiden, the boot, and thumb-screws, we will cease to wonder
that substitutes for these should be used in a country where
civilization has not yet begun to elevate a people who are generally
allowed to be the lowest of the human race.

"There are some superstitious rites employed by Fetish-men for the
detection of crime; and whether it is that these people really possess
such powerful influence over their wretched dupes, as to frighten into
confession of his guilt the perpetrator of crime, or whether it is that
they manage by their numerous spies to obtain a clue sufficient in most
cases to lead to the detection of the person, is more than I can venture
to assert; but, be the means employed what they may, a Fetish-man will
assuredly very often bring a crime home to the right person, even after
the most patient investigation in the ordinary way has failed to elicit
the slightest clue.

"There is also what is called Trial by Dhoom. This consists in whoever
are suspected of having committed a crime being made to swallow a
decoction of _dhoom_ wood of the country, and it is believed that
whoever is innocent will immediately eject the deleterious draught, but
the guilty person will die. This, however, is not much to be depended
upon; for while it causes death in one instance, it may do so in all who
partake of it; or on the other hand, from some accident in its
preparation, it may be productive of no effect either upon the guilty or
the innocent.

"The Rice test, although practised in this part of Africa, is, I
believe, not peculiar to it, being also employed in the West Indies, and
South America. Although no doubt originally introduced by a people in a
low state of civilization, it is interesting in so far that it
exemplifies the powerful influence which the mind possesses over the
corporeal functions, and as it appears to have been in use among the
blacks for centuries, we may give them the credit of having been
practically aware that 'conscience doth make cowards of us all,' long
before the Bard of Avon chronicled the fact. In the employment of this
test in Guinea, those who are suspected of having committed a crime are
assembled, and to each a small portion of rice is given, which they are
required to masticate, and afterwards produce on the hand; and it is
invariably the case that while all but the real culprit will produce
their rice in a soft pulpy mass, his will be as dry as if ground in a
mill, the salivary glands having, under the influence exerted upon the
nervous system by fear, refused to perform their ordinary functions."

Something like this is common in many savage countries. In the shape of
the _dhoom_ test, it re-appears in Old Calabar, and, probably,
elsewhere. There, the "king and chief inhabitants ordinarily constitute
a court of justice, in which all country disputes are adjusted, and to
which every prisoner suspected of capital offences is brought, to
undergo examination and judgment. If found guilty, they are usually
forced to swallow a deadly potion made from the poisonous seeds of an
aquatic leguminous plant, which rapidly destroys life. This poison is
obtained by pounding the seeds, and macerating them in water, which
acquires a white milky colour. The condemned person, after swallowing a
certain portion of the liquid, is ordered to walk about, until its
effects become palpable. If, however, after the lapse of a definite
period, the accused should be so fortunate as to throw the poison from
off his stomach, he is considered as innocent, and allowed to depart
unmolested. In native _parlance_ this ordeal is designated as 'chopping
nut.'"[15]

The hardest workers amongst the Fantis are the fishers, who use a canoe
of wood of the bombax, from ten to twelve feet in length, and
strengthened by cross timbers. The net--a casting net--is made from the
fibres of the aloe or the pine-apple, and is about twenty feet in
diameter (?).

Next to these come the farmers, whose rough agriculture consists in the
cultivation of maize, bananas, yams, and pumpkins; and lastly, the
gold-seekers. Of this there is abundance; and where the European coin of
the coast ceases, the native currency of gold-dust begins. Sums of so
small a value as three half-pence are thus paid; smaller ones being
represented by cowries.

The highest of their arts is that of manufacturing gold ornaments, and
this is the hereditary craft of certain families. These transmit the
secret of their skill from father to son, and keep the corporation to
which they belong up to a due degree of closeness, by avoiding
intermarriage with any of the more unskilled labourers. A little
weaving, and a little potting, constitute the remaining arts of the
Fanti--as far, at least, as they are either _fine_ or _useful_.

The craft of the _Fetish-man_ comes under none of the preceding
categories. He is the priest, sorcerer, or medicine man; the
representative of "Paganism, in its lowest and most hideous form, the
objects of their worship being the most repulsive reptiles, and their
ceremonies the most degrading. They certainly have some idea of the
existence of a First Cause, and believe themselves to be in the power of
the _Great Fetish_, their protection or destruction being dependent upon
the will of this power, of whose attributes they know nothing further.
They also believe in the existence of a spirit of evil, and on some
parts of the coast consider his power over them so great, that they
address their supplications, and erect, for his especial service, small
mud huts, usually of a conical shape, built under the shade of some
stately palm or wild fig-tree, in one of the most inviting spots to be
found. These huts bear the unattractive name among Europeans of 'devil's
temples.' It will be seen thus, that this belief in the existence of the
Great Fetish professed by the Fantees, is a faint glimmering of that
natural religion which all nations possess. Of the creation of our
species, they do not appear to entertain very correct ideas, unless it
be that they owe their being to this Fetish, who, they say, in the
beginning made two people, one of whom was black, the other white, and
that both originally occupied the Fantee country. It would seem,
however, from their account, that, after these two men were brought into
existence, the Fetish was at a loss to know how to dispose of them, and
in order to prevent any jealousy arising between them, had recourse to a
sort of lottery, where there were all prizes and no blanks. Two packets
were accordingly placed before them, and the black man drew first; nor
was he disappointed with his prize, for it consisted of such a quantity
of gold-dust, that it has not been taken out of the country yet. The
remaining packet was of course the lawful property of the white man, and
in the long run he had no cause to complain--for, on being opened, it
was found to contain a book which taught him everything; and so do the
poor wretches account for the superior intellect of whites, and the
inexhaustible treasures of their own country.

"In the neighbourhood of Cape Coast, the natives seem to believe that
this Fetish occupies more especially particular localities, and exists
in the form of a particular animal, so that an isolated portion of rock
is frequently called a Fetish-stone, and snakes even of the most
poisonous description, in a certain locality, are preserved and allowed
to propagate, undisturbed, their venomous species. In some places on
the coast, temples dedicated to snake-worship are built, and the Fetish
men, or priests, connected with them are frequently esteemed
particularly holy, no doubt from the familiar terms upon which they, in
course of time, become with the horrid reptiles, upon which the people
look as the personification of their Fetish. The offerings made at these
temples are often very valuable, the cupidity of the deities within not
being easily satisfied. Gold-dust and clothes are the most acceptable
offerings; but when these are not to be obtained, it is perfectly
wonderful how large a quantity of rum and tobacco the _snakes_ will
consume before they vouchsafe their good offices for the removal of a
disease from a cow, a wife, a child, or the detection of a thief, who,
not unlikely, has been employed by themselves.

"These Fetish men and women, too, for there are Fetish women, and,
consequently Fetish children, have spies in different directions,
forming as many links of communication between the priesthood in various
parts of the country, so that very few occurrences take place of which
they have not the means of making themselves acquainted."[16]

The same writer continues, "Religious observances, properly so called,
the Fantees have none, but each particular class has a certain day of
the week upon which they cease from following their ordinary
avocations--thus, a fisherman will not go to sea on a Tuesday; nor will
a bushman enter the forest on a Friday--these days being dedicated to
the Fetish, and thus, in some degree, representing the Sabbath of
Christian nations. There are, in addition, several days throughout the
year--apparently occurring at the desire of the Fetish men--in which the
Fantees abstain from work, and during a period of war, it often happens
that the movements of the opposing armies are much interfered with by
the numerous occasions upon which it becomes necessary to propitiate the
Fetish. One of these especial Fetish days may be here noticed, it being,
apparently, the most important of those that occur during the whole
year, and its object no less important than driving the devil out of the
village. The period when this desirable object is effected, occurs
during the month of December, the night-time being chosen as the most
fitting for the ceremony. As soon as darkness has closed in, the
inhabitants of a village collect at an appointed rendezvous, with sticks
and staves, and under the directions of a leader, sally out, entering
every house in their way, through the various apartments of which they
knock about, and yell and howl with such violence that they would
actually scare any devil but a most impertinent one. Having, as they
think, completely rid the town of him, they pursue the retreating enemy
for some distance into the bush, after which they return and spend the
remainder of the night in carousals.

"There is another festival, which, as it partakes somewhat of a
religious nature, may also be noticed here, _viz._, the yam-custom,
which is held in September, to celebrate the goodness of the Fetish, in
having granted an abundant harvest. On this occasion, the king of the
village and the staff of Fetish men connected with it, take part. All
the people who can by any possibility attend, assemble, a procession is
formed, and then the most extraordinary mixture of costumes, the noises
produced by numerous tom-toms, horns made from elephants' tusks, and the
still ruder, if possible, rattle of two pieces of wood, or common metal,
which the women beat together to a tune similar to what in Ireland is
known as the Kentish fire. The constant firing of musketry, and the
obscene dances performed by the two sexes form one of the most debasing
and savage exhibitions it is possible to see. In this way does the
procession parade the principal streets, the king seated in his basket
carried by his slaves, and protected by the umbrellas, according to his
rank--the Fetish-men dressed in white robes, also in their baskets. On
arriving at the king's house sacrifices are usually offered--some fowls
or eggs being now substituted in the vicinity of our settlements for a
human being, but we have still too good reasons to believe, that even as
near as the capital of Ashantee many human lives are sacrificed on this
particular occasion, as well as in other festivals of various
descriptions. The offerings being made, the Fetish-man partakes of the
yam; the king then eats of the valued root; and after these two have
pronounced them ripe and fit for food, the people consider themselves at
liberty to commence digging.

"A being named _Tahbil_ resides in the substance of the rock, upon which
Cape Coast is built, and watches the town. Every morning, offerings of
food or flowers are left for him on the rock. Most villages have a
corresponding deity; and in earlier times, there is good reason for
believing that human beings were sacrificed to him."

Likely enough--as may be seen from the practices at Fanti funerals, and
as may be inferred from the analogy of the other parts of Western
Africa.

If the survivors of a deceased Fanti be poor, the corpse is quietly
interred in one of the denser spots of the jungles; and if rich, the
funeral is at once costly and bloody; since gold and jewels are buried
along with the dead body, and human victims as well. The ceremonial is
as follows. The coffin is carried to the grave by slaves, when the
retainers and friends press forwards, fix the number required (in
general four), stun the selected individuals by a sudden blow on the
head, throw the still breathing bodies into the grave of their master,
and, whilst life yet remains, cover in the earth.

This horrible custom is truly West-African. How near we must approach
the Mandingo frontier, before we get rid of it on the north, or how far
south it extends, I am not exactly able to say. In Dahomey, where it
attains its _maximum_ development, it is worse than amongst the
Ashantis, and amongst the Ashantis worse than in the proper Fanti
districts. It certainly reaches as far southwards as Old Calabar, where,
upon the death of Ephraim, a well-known Caboceer, "some hundreds of men,
women, and children were immolated to his manes,--decapitation, burning
alive, and the administration of the poison-nut, being the methods
resorted to for terminating their existence. When King Eyeo, father of
the present Chief of Creek Town, died, an eye-witness, who had only
arrived just after the completion of the funeral rites, informed me that
a large pit had been dug, in which several of the deceased's wives were
bound and thrown in, until a certain number had been procured; the earth
was then thrown over them, and so great was the agony of these victims,
that the ground for several minutes was agitated with their convulsive
throes. So fearful, in former times, was the observance of this
barbarous custom, that many towns narrowly escaped depopulation. The
graves of the kings are invariably concealed, so as, it is stated, to
prevent an enemy from obtaining their skulls as trophies, which is not
the case with those of the common people."[17]

I have said that it is in Dahomey, where the immolation of human beings
is the bloodiest; and I now add that it is in Dahomey where those who
look for the more characteristic peculiarities of the Negro stock, must
search. But it is the bad side which will preponderate; it is the
darkest practices which will develop themselves most typically. What we
find in germs and remnants elsewhere, grow, in Dahomey, to inordinate
and incredible proportions.

The sacro-sanctitude of the snake is doubled in Dahomey.

Slavery, bad along the whole Bight of Benin, is worse, still, in
Dahomey.

In Akkim we find a _female_ colonel. In Dahomey there is an army of
Amazons, as indicated by Mr. Duncan, and as described in detail by
Captain Forbes.

_The Gha._--Accra, and the forts lately purchased from the
Danes--Christiansborg and others,--are the localities of the _Gha_
nation. I say _Gha_ (or _Ghan_) because the author of a paper soon about
to be noticed states, that this is the indigenous name of the people
which we call _Acra_, _Akra_, _Accrah_, or _Inkra_--and it is always
best to give the native name if we can.

Adelung, on the authority of Romer and Isert, gives the following
account of the Negroes speaking the Gha language. He calls it Akra.

They began with conquering and reducing to a state of servitude the
_Adampi_, or _Tambi_, Negroes of the hill country; these being a portion
of their own stock, and speaking a mutually intelligible language.

But, in time, they were themselves conquered by the _Akvambu_, and broke
up into two parts. One of these remained _in situ_, and is represented
by the present Gha of Christiansborg. The other fled to the Little Popo,
an island off the coast of Dahomey, and there settled.

What remained then on the Gold Coast were the Gha and Akvambu; and these
were afterwards conquered by the Akkim Fantis, themselves eventually
reduced by the Ashantis.

In no more than nine or ten villages, lying within nine or ten miles of
Fort St. James and Christiansborg, was the Akra language spoken in the
time of Protten (A.D. 1794), and of the Ghas thus speaking it each
understood the Fanti.

This makes the Gha a decreasing, and, for practical purposes, an
unimportant population. At the same time I should be glad to direct the
attention of some investigator to their ethnology. Their exact relations
to the Akvambu are uncertain. The only work known to me where specimens
of the latter language are to be found is out of reach.[18]

Then as to the _Adampi_. Bowdich states that it radically differs from
the Gha; the numerals, which agree, being borrowed from the one tongue
into the other. But his collation rests on only seven words.

Again,--_Adampi_, _Tembi_, and _Tambu_ are words so much alike as to
pass for the same. Yet a _Tembu_ vocabulary in the "Mithridates" differs
from a _Tambu_ one in the same work--

 ENGLISH.    TEMBU.      TAMBU.

 _Sky_       so          giom.
 _Sun_       wis         pum.
 _Moon_      igodi       horamb.
 _Man_       naa         nyummu.
  ...        ibalu       numero.
 _Woman_     alo         in.
 _Head_      knynoo      ii.
 _Foot_      navorree    nandi.
 _One_       kuddum      kaki.
 _Two_       noalee      ennu.
 _Three_     nodoso      ettee.

Again--the _Tembu_ is related to the vocabulary of a language called
_Kouri_, which the _Tambu_ is _not_.

 ENGLISH.    TEMBU.    KOURI.

 _Sun_       wis       nosi.
 _Man_       ibalu     abalu.
 _Woman_     alo       alu.
 _One_       kuddum    kotum.
 _Two_       noalee    nalee.
 _Three_     nodoso    natisu.

Thirdly, the _Tjemba_ of Balbi's "Atlas Ethnologique" is called
_Kassenti_.

Lastly, the _Gha_, as far as very short comparison goes, is neither
_Tambu_ nor _Tembu_: nor yet _Kouri_--though it has a few resemblances
to all.

The author of the paper alluded to above is the Rev. Mr. Hanson--himself
a Gha by birth. It was laid before the British Association in 1849. Two
points characterize the theory that it exhibits; but as the publication
of the paper _in extenso_, is contemplated, I merely state what they
are.

1. A remarkable number of customs common to the _Jews_ and the _Gha_.

2. The probable origin of the latter population in some part of the
interior of Africa, north of their present locality, and, perhaps, in
the parts about Timbuktu.

_The Quaquas._--I am not sure that this name is the best that can be
given to the class in question. Hence, it is merely provisional. The
language that is spoken by them is called the _Avekvom_. They constitute
the chief population of the _Ivory_--just as the Krumen do that of the
_Grain_ and the Fantis that of the _Gold_--Coast. _Apollonia_ is the
English dependency where we find members of the _Quaqua_ stock.

The Avekvom dialects of the Quaqua tribes seem to belong to a different
tongue from that of the Krumen and Fantis; and I imagine that the three
are mutually unintelligible. Still, it is difficult to predicate this
from the mere inspection of vocabularies; the more so, as no language of
the western coast of Africa is less known than the Avekvom--the only
specimen of any length being one in the last number of the "Journal of
the American Oriental Society." With numerous miscellaneous affinities,
it is more Fanti and Grebo than aught else; and, perhaps, is
transitional in character to those two languages.

At any rate it is no isolated tongue, as may be seen from the following
table, where _Yebu_ means the language of the Yarriba country, at the
back of Dahomey, and _Efik_ that of Old Calabar:--

 ENGLISH.          AVEKVOM.        OTHER IBO-ASHANTI LANGUAGES.

 _Arm_             ebo             ubok, _Efik_.
 _Blood_           evie            eyip, _Efik_; eye, _Yebu_.
 _Bone_            ewi             beu, _Fanti_.
 _Box_             ebru            brânh, _Grebo_.
 _Canoe_           edie            tonh, _Grebo_.
 _Chair_           fata            bada, _Grebo_.
 _Dark_            eshim           esum, _Fanti_; ekim, _Efik_.
 _Dog_             etye            aja, ayga, _Yebu_.
 _Door_            eshinavi        usuny, _Efik_.
 _Ear_             eshibe          esoa, _Fanti_.
 _Fire_            eya             ija, _Fanti_.
 _Fish_            etsi            eja, eya, _Fanti_.
 _Fowl_            esu             suseo, _Mandingo_; edia, _Yebu_.
 _Ground-nut_      ngeti           nkatye, _Fanti_.
 _Hair_            emu             ihwi, _Fanti_.
 _Honey_           ajo             ewo, _Fanti_; oyi, _Yebu_.
 _House_           eva             ifi, _Fanti_; ufog, _Efik_.
 _Moon_            efe             hâbo, _Grebo_; ofiong, _Efik_.
 _Mosquito_        efo             obong, _Fanti_.
 _Oil_             inyu            ingo, _Fanti_.
 _Rain_            efuzumo-sohn    sanjio, _Mandingo_.
 _Rainy season_    eshi            ojo, _rain_, _Yebu_.
 _Salt_            etsa            ta, _Grebo_.
 _Sand_            esian-na        utan, _Efik_.
 _Sea_             etyu            idu, _Grebo_.
 _Stone_           desi            sia, shia, _Grebo_.
 _Thread_          jesi            gise, _Grebo_.
 _Tooth_           enena           nyeng, _Mandingo_; gne, _Grebo_.
 _Water_           esonh           nsu, _Fanti_.
 _Wife_            emise           muso, _Mandingo_; mbesia, _Fanti_.
 _Cry_             yaru            isu, _Fanti_.
 _Give_            nae             nye, _Grebo_; no, _Efik_.
 _Go_              le              olo, _Yebu_.
 _Kill_            bai             fa, _Mandingo_; pa, _Yebu_.

There has been war and displacement here as well as in the Gha country.
In the seventeenth century the parts about Cape Apollonia were contended
for by two tribes called the Issini (or Oshin) and the Ghiomo. The
former gave way to the latter, and having retreated to the country of
the Veteres, were joined by that tribe against the Esiep.

A Quaqua prayer is given in the "Mithridates." It is uttered every
morning by the tribes on the Issini, after a previous ablution in that
river--_Anghiume mame maro, mame orie, mame shikke e okkori, mame akaka,
mame frembi, mame anguan e awnsan_--_O Anghiume! give rice, give yams,
give gold, give aigris, give slaves, give riches, give (to be) strong
and swift._

What is here written about the ethnology of Apollonia is written
doubtfully; since here, as at Acra, the simple ethnology of the pure and
proper Fantis becomes complicated.

_The Cape of Good Hope._--The aboriginal population of the Cape is
divided between two great families:--

1. The Hottentot.

2. The Kaffre.

1. _The Hottentots._--Of the two families this is the most western; it
is the one which the colonists came first in contact with, and it is the
one which has been most displaced by Europeans. The names of fourteen
extinct tribes of Hottentots are known; of which it is only necessary to
mention the Gunyeman and Sussaqua the nearest the Cape, and the Heykom,
so far eastwards and northwards as Port Natal. The displacement of these
last has not been effected by Europeans. African subdued African; and it
was the Kaffres who did the work of conquest here.

Of the extant Hottentots, within the limits of the colony of the Cape,
the most remote are the _Gonaqua_, on the head-waters of the Great Fish
River; or rather on the water-shed between it and the Orange River. They
are fast becoming either extinct, or amalgamated with the Kaffres;
inasmuch as they are the Hottentots of the Amakosa frontier, and suffer,
at least, as much from the Kaffres as from their white neighbours.

The _Namaquas_ occupy the _lower_ part of the Orange River, the Great
and Little Namaqualand.

_The Koranas._--This branch of the Hottentots has its locality on the
middle part of the Gariep, with the Griquas to the north, the Bechuana
Kaffres to the east, and the Saabs in the middle of them. Their number
is, perhaps, 10,000. Their exact relation to the other Hottentots is
uncertain. They are a better formed people than the Gonaqua and Namaqua,
but whether they be the best samples of the Hottentot stock altogether
is uncertain. Probably a tribe far up in the north-western parts of
South Africa, and beyond Namaqualand, may dispute the honour with them.
These are the Dammaras--themselves disputed Hottentots. Their country
lies beyond the British colony, but it must be noticed for the sake of
taking in all the branches of the stock in question. It is the tract
between Benguela and Namaqualand, marked in the maps as _sterile
country_; in the northern parts of which we sometimes find notices of a
fierce nation called _Jagas_. Walvisch Bay lies in the middle of it. Now
some writers make the Dammaras of this country Hottentot; others Kaffre;
and that both rightly and wrongly. They are both--partly one, partly the
other; since Dammara is a geographical term, and some of the tribes to
which it applies are Kaffre, some Hottentot. The Dammaras of the plains,
or the Cattle Dammaras are the former; the Dammaras[19] of the hills,
the latter. Between the Dammara and the Korana a much nearer approach
to Kaffre type is made than is usually supposed.

A branch of the Koranas--those of the valley of the Hartebeest
River--deserves particular attention. They caution us against
overvaluing differences; and Dr. Prichard has quoted the evidence of Mr.
Thompson with this especial object. They are Koranas who have suffered
in war, lost their cattle, and been partially expatriated by the more
powerful sections of their stock. Hence, want and poverty have acted
upon them; and the effect has been that they have become hunters instead
of shepherds, have been reduced to a precarious subsistence, and as the
consequence of altered circumstances, have receded from the level of the
other Koranas, and approached that of the--

_Saabs or Bushmen._--These belong to the parts between the Roggeveld and
Orange River; parts which rival the _sterile country_ of the map in
barrenness. As is the country so are the inhabitants; starved, miserable
hunters--hunters rather than shepherds or herdsmen.

The Lap is not more strongly contrasted with the Finlander, than the
Korana with the Saab; and the deadly enmity between these two
populations is as marked as the differences in their physical
appearances. I think, however, that undue inferences have been drawn
from the difference; in other words, that the distance between the
Korana and the Saab has been exaggerated. The languages are
unequivocally allied.

I think, too, that a similarly undue inference has been drawn from the
extent to which the Kaffre and the Korana are _alike_; inasmuch as an
infusion of Kaffre has been assumed for the sake of accounting for it.
Of this, however, no proof exists.

The Saabs are described as having constitutions "so much enfeebled by
the dissolute life they lead, and the constant smoking of _dacha_, that
nearly all, including the young people, look old and wrinkled;
nevertheless, they are remarkable for vanity, and decorate their ears,
legs, and arms with beads, and iron, copper, or brass rings. The women
likewise stain their faces red, or paint them, either wholly or in part.
Their clothing consists of a few sheepskins, which hang about their
bodies, and thus form the mantle or covering, commonly called a
_kaross_. This is their only clothing by day or night. The men wear old
hats, which they obtain from the farmers, or else caps of their own
manufacture. The women wear caps of skins, which they stiffen and finish
with a high peak, and adorn with beads and metal rings. The dwelling of
the Bushman is either a low wretched hut, or a circular cavity, on the
open plain, into which, at night, he creeps with his wife and children,
and which, though it shelters him from the wind, leaves him exposed to
the rain. In this neighbourhood, in which rocks abound, they had
formerly their habitations in them, as is proved by the many rude
figures of oxen, horses, serpents, &c. still existing. It is not a
little interesting to see these poor degraded people, who formerly were
considered and treated as little better than wild beasts in their rocky
retreats. Many of those who have forsaken us live in such cavities not
far from our settlement, and we have thus an opportunity of observing
them in their natural condition. Several who, when they came to us from
the farmers, were decently clothed and possessed a flock of sheep, which
they had earned, in a short time returned to their fastnesses in a state
of nakedness and indigence, rejoicing that they had got free from the
farmers, and could live as they pleased in the indulgence of their
sensual appetites. Such fugitives from civilised life, I have never seen
otherwise occupied than with their bows and arrows. The bows are small,
but made of good elastic wood; the arrows are formed of small reeds, the
points furnished with a well-wrought piece of bone, and a double barb,
which is steeped in a potent poison of a resiny appearance. This poison
is distilled from the leaves of an indigenous tree. Many prefer these
arrows to fire-arms, under the idea that they can kill more game by
means of a weapon that makes no report. On their return from the chase,
they feast till they are tired and drowsy, and hunger alone rouses them
to renewed exertion. In seasons of scarcity they devour all kinds of
wild roots, ants, ants' eggs, locusts, snakes, and even roasted skins.
Three women of this singular tribe were not long since met with, several
days' journey from this place, who had forsaken their husbands, and
lived very contentedly on wild honey and locusts. As enemies, the
Bushmen are not to be despised. They are adepts in stealing cattle and
sheep; and the wounds they inflict when pursued, are ordinarily fatal if
the wounded part is not immediately cut out. The animals they are unable
to carry off, they kill or mutilate.

"To our great comfort, even some of these poor outcasts have shown
eagerness to become acquainted with the way of salvation. The children
of such as are inhabitants of the settlement, attend the school
diligently, and of them we have the best hopes.

"The language of the Bushman has not one pleasing feature; it seems to
consist of a collection of snapping, hissing, grunting, sounds; all more
or less nasal. Of their religious creed it is difficult to obtain any
information; as far as I have been able to learn, they have a name for
the Supreme Being; and the Kaffre word _tixo_ is derived from the
_tixme_ of the Bushmen. Sorcerers exist among them. One of the Bushmen
residing here being sick, a sorceress was sent for before we were aware
of it, who pretended, by the virtue of mystic dance, to extract an
antelope horn from the head of the patient."[20]

_The Griquas._--The Griquas, called also Baastaards, are a pastoral
population, upwards of 15,000 in number, on the north side of the great
bend of the Orange River. They are the descendants of Dutch fathers and
Hottentot mothers.

A mixture of Griquas and Hottentots occurs also on the Kat River, a
feeder of the Great Fish River, in the district of Somerset, and on the
Kaffre frontier. Here they are distributed in a series of district
locations, amid the dales and fastnesses of the eastern frontier. A
great proportion of them are discharged soldiers--so that in reality,
like the borderers of old, they form a sort of military colony.

2. _The Kaffres._--The British districts in contact with the Kaffre
populations are the eastern, and of these Albany and Somerset most
especially. The Kaffre nation in most immediate contact with Albany and
Somerset is--

_The Amakosa._--This is the population which constituted the authority
of Hintza, and to which Pato, Gaika, and the other chiefs of the last
war belonged. To this, too, belong the troublesome chiefs of the
present. Next to the Amakosa, and in alliance with them, come--

_The Amatembu_, or _Tambuki_ (_Tambookies_), occupants of the upper part
of the river Kei, as the Amakosa are of the lower Keiskamma.

Between the Amatembu and Port Natal lie _the Amaponda_, or _Mambuki_
(_Mambookies_), the northern extremity of which reaches the country of--

_The Amazulu_, or _Zulu_ (_Zooloos_), the chief frontagers (conjointly
with the _Mambuki_) of Port Natal.

The last division of the Kaffres of the coast is that of--

_The Fingos._--In 1835, a numerous population, called Fingos, was found
by Sir B. D'Urban in the Kaffre chief Hintza's country, and in a state
of abject servitude to the Amakosas. They were from different tribes;
darker and shorter than the Amakosas--but still true Kaffres. They were
offered land between the lower Keiskamma and the Great Fish River, and
were emancipated and brought safe into the colony to the amount of
17,000.[21] Since then, they have served as a sort of military police on
the Kaffre frontier; and as shepherds in Australia--whither they have
been advantageously introduced.

But, besides the Kaffres of the coast there are those of the interior.
These speak a modified form of the Kosa (or Amakosa), called
Si-_chuana_, the name of the people being Bi-_chuana_. They lie due
north of the Koranas; beyond the boundaries of the colony; but not
beyond the influence of its missionaries, or the range of its explorers.
Litaku, Kurrichani, and other similar _towns_ are _Sichuana_; the Kaffre
civilization being said to attain its _maximum_ hereabouts.

There are plenty of points of contrast between the Kaffre and the
typical Negro; so many indeed as to have suggested the doctrine that the
former class belongs to some division of the human species other than
the African. And these points of contrast are widely distributed,
_i.e._, they appear and re-appear, whatever may be the view taken of the
Kaffre stock. They appear in the descriptions of their skin and
skeletons; they appear in the notice of their language; and they appear
in the history of the Kaffre wars of the Cape frontier--wars more
obstinate and troublesome than any which have been conducted by the true
Negro; and which approach the character of the Kabyle struggle for
independence in Algeria. In investigating these differences we must
guard against the exaggeration of their import.

Physically, the Kaffre has the advantage of the Negro in the
conformation of the face and skull. His forehead betokens greater
capacity; being more prominent, more vaulted, and with a greater facial
angle. His teeth, too, are more vertically inserted, and the nasal bones
less depressed. I have not heard of aquiline noses in Kaffraria; but
should not be surprised if I did.

The cheek-bones of the Kaffre project outwards; and where the
cheek-bones so project beyond a certain limit, the chin appears to taper
downwards, and the vertex upwards. When this becomes exaggerated we hear
of _lozenge-shaped_ crania; the Malay skulls being currently quoted as
instances thereof. Be this as it may, the breadth in the malar portion
of the face is a remarkable feature in the Kaffre physiognomy. This he
has in common with the Hottentot. His hair is also tufted like the
Hottentot's: while his lips are thick like the Negro's. Tall in stature,
wiry and elastic in his muscles, the Kaffre varies in colour, through
all the shades of black and brown; being, in some portions of his area
nearly as dark as the Negro, in others simply brown like the Arab. The
eye is sometimes oblique; the opening generally narrow.

An opinion often gives a better picture than a description. Kaffres,
that have receded in the greatest degree from the Negro type, have been
so likened to the more southern Arabs as to have engendered the
hypothesis of an infusion of Arab blood.

The manners of the Kaffres of the Cape are those of pastoral tribes
under chieftains; tribes which, from their habits and social relations,
are naturally active, locomotive, warlike, and jealous of encroachment.
Next to marauding on the hunting-grounds of an American Indian,
interference with the pasture of a shepherd population is the surest way
to warfare.

It would be strange indeed if the Kaffre life and Kaffre physiognomy had
no peculiarities. However little in the way of physical influence we may
attribute to the geography of a country, no man ignores them altogether.
Now Kaffreland has very nearly a latitude of its own; inhabited lands
similarly related to the southern tropic being found in South America
and Australia only. And it has a soil still more exclusively
South-African. We connect the idea of the _desert_ with that of sand;
whilst _steppe_ is a term which is limited to the vast tracts of central
Asia. Now the Kaffre, and still more the Hottentot, area, dry like the
desert, and elevated like the steppe, is partially a _karro_. Its soil
is often a hard, cracked, and parched clay rather than a waste of sand,
and it constitutes an argillaceous table-land. Its vegetation has
strongly marked characters. Its Fauna has the same.

The language is peculiar. If English were spoken on Kosa or Sichuana
principles we should say

 _b_un beam   instead of _s_un beam.
 _l_oon light    ...     _m_oon light.
 _s_rand-son     ...     _g_rand-son, &c.,

since, in the Kaffre languages throughout, subordinate words in certain
syntactic combinations, accommodate their initial letter to that of the
leading word of the term.

Their polity and manners, too, are peculiar. The head man of the village
settles disputes; his tribunal being in the open air. From him an appeal
lies to a chief of higher power; and from him to some superior, higher
still. In this way there is a long chain of feudal or semi-feudal
dependency.

But the power of the chief is checked by that of the priest. A supposed
skill in medicine, imaginary arts of divination, and an accredited power
over the elements are the prerogatives of certain witches and wizards.
Thus, when a murrain among the cattle, or the death of an important
individual has taken place, the blame is laid upon some unfortunate
victim whom the witch or wizard points out. And the ordeal to which he
must submit, is equal in cruelty to those of the Gold Coast. He is
beaten with sticks, and then pegged down to the ground. Whilst thus
helpless, a nest of venomous bush-ants is broken over his racked and
quivering body. If this fail to extort a confession, he is singed to
death with red-hot stones.

This tells us what is meant by Kaffre chiefs and Kaffre wizards.

The wife is the slave to the husband; and he _buys_ her in order that
she should be so. The purchase implies a seller. This is always a member
of another tribe. Hence the wish of a Kaffre is to see his wife the
mother of many children, girls being more valuable than boys.

Why a man should not sell his offspring to the members of his own tribe
is uncertain. It is clear, however, that the practice of doing so makes
marriage between even distant relations next to impossible. To guard
against the chances of this, a rigid and suspicious system of restraint
has been developed in cases of consanguinity; and relations must do all
they can to avoid meeting. To sit in the same room, to meet on the same
road, is undesirable. To converse is but just allowable, and then all
who choose must hear what is said. So thorough, however, has been the
isolation in many cases, that persons of different sexes have lived as
near neighbours for many years without having conversed with each other;
and such communication as there has been, has taken place through the
medium of a third person. No gift will induce a Kaffre female to violate
this law.

Is the immolation of human beings at the death of chieftains a Kaffre
custom, as it was one of western Africa? The following extract gives an
answer in the affirmative, the only difference being the _pretext_ of
the murders. On the "death of the mother of Chaka, the great Zulu chief,
a public mourning was held, which lasted for the space of two days, the
people being assembled at the kraal of the chief to the number of sixty
or eighty thousand souls. Mr. Fynn, who was present, describes the scene
as the most terrific which it is possible for the human mind to
conceive. The immense multitude were all engaged in rending the air with
the most doleful shrieks, and discordant cries and lamentations; whilst,
in the event of their ceasing to utter them, they were instantly
butchered as guilty of a crime against the reigning tyrant. It is said
that no less than six or seven thousand persons were destroyed on this
occasion, charged with no other offence than exhausted nature in the
performance of this horrid rite, their brains being mercilessly dashed
out amidst the surrounding throng. As a suitable _finale_ to this
dreadful tragedy, it is said that ten females were actually buried alive
with the royal corpse; whilst all who witnessed the funeral were
obliged to remain on the spot for a whole year."

Details of Kaffre manners may be multiplied almost _ad infinitum_; and
as their history and habits are likely to fill a Blue Book, a short
treatise can only notice their more prominent peculiarities.

However, lest an undue inference be drawn from their contrast to the
Hottentot, we must remember that the former has encroached upon the
latter, and that such transitional populations as existed have been
swept away.

Now comes a coloured population--not indigenous, but the descendants of
the _slaves_ of the colony. This consists of--

1. Negroes.

2. Malays from the Indian Archipelago.

3. Malagasi from Madagascar.

To which we must add, as of mixed blood, the offspring of--

1. Negroes and Dutch, English, &c.

2. Malays and Dutch, English, &c.

3. Malagasi and Dutch, English, &c.

This seems to be the limit of the intermixture; since, between the
Malays and Negroes, &c., there is but little intermarriage. The
_possible_ elements, however, of hybridity are numerous, _e.g._, Griquas
and Negroes, Griquas and Malays, Malays and Kaffres, &c.

_The so-called yellow men._--On the 4th of August, 1782, the
"Grosvenor" Indiaman was wrecked on the coast of Natal. Of the crew who
escaped, some reached the Cape and others remained amongst the natives.
In 1790, an expedition was undertaken in search of them.

In this expedition, Mr. Van Reenens, considered that he had discovered a
village where the people were descended from the whites, and in which
there were three old women who had been wrecked when very young. They
could not tell to what country they belonged; were treated as superior
beings; and, when offered a safe convoy to the Cape, were at first
pleased with the prospect, but eventually refused to leave their
children and grandchildren. Now, whatever these old women were, they
were not of the crew of the "Grosvenor," and I doubt whether they were
Europeans at all.

Again--Mr. Thomson, when at Litaku, heard of yellow _cannibals_, with
long hair, whose invasions were the dread of the country; a statement
which merely means that some tribes of South Africa, are lighter
coloured, and more savage in their appetite than others.

Lastly, Lieutenant Farewell saw one of these yellow men at Natal, who
was described as a cannibal, and _who shrunk abashed from the
lieutenant_.

Be it so. The evidence that "there are descendants of Europeans and
Africans now widely diffusing their offspring throughout the country;
whose services might be turned to good account in civilizing the native
tribes," is still incomplete.

_Mauritius._--The coloured population, which is far greater than that of
the white, consists in the Mauritius of--

1. True Africans--chiefly from the east coast, and, consequently, of the
Kaffre stock; the word being used in its most general sense. Darker than
the Kaffres of the Cape, they, nevertheless, recede from the Negro type
in the shape of the jaw, lips, and forehead. The hair also is less
woolly. They are strong and powerful individuals.

2. Malagasi, or natives of Madagascar.--These are _not_ Africans to the
same extent as the Kaffres of the coast. As far back as the time of
Reland it was known that the affinities of the Malagasi language were
with the Malay and Polynesian tongues of Asia; but it was also known
that the similarity in physiognomy was less than that of language. Hence
came a conflict of difficulties. The speech indicated one origin, the
colour another--whilst the fact of an island so near to Africa, and so
far from Malacca, as Madagascar, being other than what its geographical
position indicated, is, and has been, a mystery. Some writers have
assumed an intermixture of blood; others have limited the Malay element
to the dominant population. Lastly, Mr. Crawfurd has denied the
inferences from the similarity of language _in toto_; considering that
there is "nothing in common between the two races, and nothing in common
between the character of their languages." The comparative philologist
is slow to admit this--indeed, he denies it.

The blacks form the great majority of the coloured population. Besides
these, however, there are--

3. Arabs.

4. Chinese.

5. Hindús, from the continent of India; convicts being transported to
the Mauritius for life, and worked on the roads of the colony.

6. Cingalese from Ceylon--the Kandian chiefs whose presence in their
native country was thought likely to endanger the tranquillity of the
island, were sent hither.

The whites of the Mauritius are chiefly French; though not wholly of
pure blood. The first settlers took their wives from Madagascar. The
English form the smallest part of the population.

_Rodrigues_--occupied by a few French colonists from the Mauritius.

_The Seychelles_--The same; the coloured population outnumbering the
white in the proportion of ten to one. Here there is a Portuguese
admixture. From Maha, the chief town of the Seychelles, to Madagascar,
is five hundred and seventy-six miles--a fact to be borne in mind when
we speculate upon the origin of the population of that island.

       *       *       *       *       *

_The Africans of British America.--Honduras, Belize, the West India
Islands, and Demerara._--The usual distribution of the population of
these parts is--

WHITE.

    1. European whites, born in Europe.
    2. Creoles, or whites born in the island.

COLOURED.

  _a. Pure Blood._

    1. Mandingos, from the river-systems of the Senegal and Gambia.
    2. Coromantines--from the Ivory and Gold Coast.
    3. Whydahs--from Dahomey.
    4. Ibos--from the Lower Niger.
    5. Congos--from Portuguese Africa.

  _b. Mixed Blood._

    1. Sambos, intermixture of the Negro and Mulatto.
    2. Mulattoes--Negro and white.
    3. Quadroons--Mulatto and white.
    4. Mestis--Quadroon and white.

Such is what I find in Mr. Martin's valuable work on the Colonies, and
it is, undoubtedly, a convenient and practical classification. Yet for
the purposes of ethnology, it is deficient in detail. Without even
guessing at the proportion of American slaves which the different parts
of the western coast of Africa may have supplied, I subjoin a brief
notice of tract between the Senegal and Benguela.

1. First come the _Wolof_, between the Senegal and Cape Verde. To the
back of these lie--

2. The _Serawolli_--and around Cape Verde--

3. The _Sereres_--none of these are truly Mandingo; nor is it certain
that many slaves have come from them; such as do, however, are probably
Mandingos in the current classification.

4. The Fulahs of Fouta-Torro and Fouta-Jallo possess the higher part of
the Senegambian system. Imperfect Mahometans, they are lighter-coloured
than either the Wolof or the Mandingo. Notwithstanding the great Fulah
conquests--for under a leader named Danfodio this has been one of the
encroaching and subjugating families of Africa--there are still American
slaves of Fulah blood--though, perhaps, but few. Mr. Hodgson procured
his vocabulary from a Fulah slave of Virginia; and what we find in the
United States, we may find in the British possessions also.

5. The Mandingos Proper are the Negroes of the Gambia; but the following
Africans, all within the range of the old slave trade, belong to the
same class.

_a._ The Susu; whose language is spoken from the River Pongos to Sierra
Leone.

_b._ The Timmani.

_c._ The Bullom--each in contact with that settlement.

_d._ The Vey--the written language already noticed.

_e._ The Mendi--conterminous with the Vey.

_f._ The Kissi--like the last two, spoken in the country behind Cape
Mount, and on the boundaries of Liberia.

South of the Gambia and north of the Pongos, the Mandingo tongues,
though spoken in the interior, do not reach the coast. On the contrary,
they encircle the populations on the mouths of the Cacheo, Rio Grande,
and Nun--and truly barbarous populations these are. Of these the most
northern are--

6. _The Felúp_ (Feloops)--between the Gambia and Cacheo.

7. _The Papel_--south of the Cacheo.

8. _The Balantes_--south of the Papel.

9. _The Bagnon_--on the Lower Cacheo.

10. _The Bissago_--islanders off the Cacheo.

11. _Nalú_ (_Naloos_)--on the Lower Nun.

12. _Sapi_--_ibid_.

After these come the Susu, &c.; down to the tribes about Cape Mount and
Cape Mesurado.

Between Cape Mesurado and Cape Palmas come--

13. _The Krumen._ Next to them--

14. _The Quaquas_, of the Ivory Coast; speaking different Avekvom
dialects.

Somewhere hereabouts come the--

15, 16, 17. Kanga, Mangree, and Gien; three undetermined vocabularies of
the "Mithridates." Then--

18, 19, 20. The Fanti, Gha, and Adampi (?) of the Gold Coast. We now
approach the great marts--

21, 22. Benin and Dahomey; and--almost equal in infamous notoriety--the
countries of the Delta, of the Niger, or of the--

23, 24, 25. Ibu, Bonny, and Efik (Old Calabar) Africans; at the back of
which lie--

26, 27. Yarriba, and the Nufi country. In Fernando Po the population
is--

28. Ediya. About the Bimbia river and mountain--

29. Isubu.

30, 31, 32. The _Banaka_ (or _Batanga_), the _Panwi_, and the _Mpoongwe_
take us from the Gaboon to Loango; forming a transition from the true
Negroes to the Kaffres.

33, 34, 35, 36. _Loango_, _Congo_, _Angola_, and _Benguela_--the Kaffre
type, both in form and language, is now more closely approached. Below
Benguela there has been little or no exportation.


FOOTNOTES:

[12] "Journal of the Geographical Society," 1850.

[13] "United Service Magazine," Dec., 1850.

[14] "United Service Journal," Nov., 1850.

[15] Daniell in "Transactions of the Ethnological Society."

[16] "United Service Journal," Nov., 1850.

[17] Dr. Daniell on the Natives of Old Calabar, "Transactions of the
Ethnological Society."

[18] Rask.--_Vejledning tel Acra-sproget, paa Kysten Ginea, med et
Tillaeg om Akvambuisk._--Copenhagen, 1828. _Introduction to the Acra
Language, on the Coast of Guinea, with an Appendix on the Akvambu._

[19] "Journal of the American Oriental Society," vol. i. no. 4.

[20] "British Colonies." By M. Martin.

[21] "Journal of the Geographical Society," vol. v. p. 319.




CHAPTER III.

BRITISH COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES IN ASIA.

    ADEN.--THE MONGOLIAN VARIETY.--THE MONOSYLLABIC LANGUAGES.--HONG
    KONG.--THE TENASSERIM PROVINCES; MAULMEIN, YE, TAVOY, TENASSERIM,
    THE MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO.--THE MÔN, SIAMESE, AVANS, KARIENS, AND
    SILONG.--ARAKHAN.--MUGS, KHYENS.--CHITTAGONG, TIPPERA, AND
    SYLHET.--KUKI.--KASIA.--CACHARS.--ASSAM.--NAGAS.--SINGPHO.--JILI.--
    KHAMTI.--MISHIMI.--ABORS AND BOR-ABORS.--DUFLA.--AKA.--MUTTUCKS AND
    MIRI, AND OTHER TRIBES OF THE VALLEY OF ASSAM.--THE GARO.--
    CLASSIFICATION.--MR. BROWN'S TABLES.--THE BODO.--DHIMAL.--KOCCH.--
    LEPCHAS OF SIKKIM.--RAWAT OF KUMAON.--POLYANDRIA.--THE TAMULIAN
    POPULATIONS.--RAJMAHALI MOUNTAINEERS.--KÚLIS, KHONDS, GOANDS,
    CHENCHWARS.--TUDAS, ETC.--BHILS.--WARALIS.--THE TAMUL, TELINGA,
    KANARA AND MALAYALAM LANGUAGES.


_Aden._--The ethnology of the Arab stock would fill a volume. It is
sufficient to state that the British political dependency of Aden is,
ethnologically, an Arab town.

Far more important possessions direct our attention towards India.
Nevertheless, there are certain preliminaries to its ethnology.

Mongolia and China--each of these countries illustrates an important
ethnological phenomenon.

The first is a physical one. Cheek-bones that project outwards, a broad
and flat face, a depressed nose, an oblique eye, a somewhat slanting
insertion of the teeth, a scanty beard, an undersized frame, and a tawny
or yellow skin, characterize the Mongol of Mongolia.

The second is a philological one. A comparative absence of grammatical
inflexions, and a disproportionate preponderance of monosyllabic words,
characterize the language of China.

So much for the simple elementary facts; the former of which will be
spoken of under the designation of _Mongolian conformation_; the second
under that of _monosyllabic language_.

Neither term is limited to the nation by which it has been illustrated.
Plenty of populations besides those of Mongolia Proper are Mongol in
physiognomy. Plenty of nations besides the Chinese are monosyllabic in
language.

All the nations speaking monosyllabic tongues are Mongol in physiognomy;
though all the nations which have a Mongol physiognomy do _not_ speak
monosyllabic tongues. This makes the latter group, which for shortness
will be called that of the _monosyllabic_ nations or tribes--a section,
or division, of the former.

Little Tibet, Ladakh, Tibet Proper, Butan, and China, are all Mongol in
form, and monosyllabic in language. So are Ava, Pegu, Siam, Cambojia,
and Cochin China, the countries which constitute the great peninsula,
sometimes called _Indo-Chinese_, and sometimes _Transgangetic_.

The extremity however--the Malayan peninsula--is _not_ monosyllabic.

_The British possessions of Hindostan are monosyllabic on their Tibetan
and Burmese frontiers._

_Hong-Kong._--Aden was disposed of briefly. So is Hong-Kong; and that
for the same reason. Politically, British, it is ethnologically Chinese.

_Maulmein, Ye, Tavoy, Tenasserim, and the Mergui Archipelago._--These
constitute what are sometimes called the _ceded_, sometimes the
_Tenasserim_ provinces. They came into possession of the British at the
close of the Burmese war of 1825. Unlike our dependencies in Hindostan,
they are cut off from connection with any of the great centres of
British power in Asia--in which respect they agree with the smaller and
still more isolated settlements of the Malaccan Peninsula. The power
that ceded them was the Burmese, so that it is with the existing
subjects of that empire that their present limits are in contact; though
only for the northern part. To the south they abut upon Siam.

The population throughout is monosyllabic; except so far as it is
modified by foreign intermixture--of which by far the most important
element is the Indian. Everything in the way of religious creed which is
not native and pagan is Indian and Buddhist. The alphabets, too, of the
lettered populations are Indian in origin.

The population of the _continental_ part of these British dependencies
is referable to four divisions--of unequal and imperfectly ascertained
value. 1. The Môn. 2. The Siamese. 3. The Avans. 4. The Kariens.

1. _The Môn._--Môn is the native name of the indigenous population of
Pegu, so that the Môn of Maulmein, or Amherst, the most northern of the
provinces in question, on the left bank of the lower Salwín, are part
and parcel of the present occupants of the delta of the Irawaddi, and
the country about Cape Negrais. The Burmese call them _Talieng_, and
under that designation they are described in Dr. Helfer's Report.[22]
The Siamese appellation is _Ming-môn_; apparently the native name in a
state of composition. In the early Portuguese notices a still more
composite form appears--and we hear of the ancient empire of
_Kalamenham_, supposed to have been founded by the _Pandalús_ of Môn or
Pegu.

None of the _lettered_ languages of the Indo-Chinese peninsula are less
known than that of Pegu. At the same time its unequivocally
monosyllabic character is beyond doubt. The alphabet is a slight
variation of the Avan.

The geographical position of the Môn at the extremity of a promontory,
and on the delta of a river, taken along with their philological
isolation, is remarkable. They have evidently been encroached upon by
the Avans in latter times; whilst, at an earlier period, they themselves
probably encroached upon others. Whether they are the oldest occupants
of Maulmein is uncertain; it is only certain that they are older than
their conquerors.

To the Môn of Pegu the exchange of Avan for British rule, has been a
great and an appreciated advantage.

2. _The Siamese._--The native name for the Siamese language is _Tha'y_,
and _Tha'y_ is the national and indigenous denomination of the Siamese.
It is the Avans who call them _Sian_ or _Shan_; from whence the European
term has been derived through the Portuguese.

The Siamese population is of course greatest on the Siamese frontier; so
that, increasing as we go south, it attains its _maximum_ in Tenasserim
just as the Môn did in Maulmein. It seems, also, to have been introduced
at different times; a fact which gives us a distinction between the
native Siamese and the recent settlers.

Like the _Môn_, the Tha'y, at least in its more classical dialect, is a
lettered language; the alphabet, like the Buddhist religion, being
Indian. Unlike, however, the _Môn_, which is the only representative of
the family to which it belongs, the _Tha'y_ tribes constitute a vast
class, falling into divisions and subdivisions, and exceedingly
remarkable in respect to its geographical distribution.

The Siamese of Siam, the kingdom of which Bankok is the capital, form
but a fraction of this great stock. The _upper_ half of the river Menam
is occupied by what are called the _Laú_, or _Laos_. These are partly
wholly independent, and partly in nominal dependence upon China; and
proportionate to their independence is the unlettered character of their
language, and the absence of Indian influences. Nor is this all. The
Menam is pre-eminently the river of the Tha'y stock, and along the
water-system of the Menam its chief branches are to be found; their
position being between the Burmese populations of the west, and the
Khomen of Cambojia on the east. This distribution is _vertical_, _i.e._,
it is characterized by its length, rather than its breadth, and runs
from south to north. So far does it reach in this direction that, as
high as 28° North lat., in upper Assam we find a branch of it. This is
the _Khamti_. In a valuable comparison of languages, well-known as
"Brown's Tables,"[23] the proportion of the Khamti words to the South
Siamese is ninety-two _per cent._

Of the physical appearance of the Siamese, we find the best account in
"Crawfurd's Embassy," the classical work for the ethnology of the
southern part of the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Their stature is low; the
tallest man out of twenty having been five feet eight inches, the
shortest five feet three. The complexion, darker than that of the
Chinese, is lighter than that of the Malay; the eye oblique; the jaw
square; and the cheek-bones broad.

_Tha'y_ is an ethnological term, and denotes all the nations and tribes
akin to the Siamese of the southern, the Khamti of the northern, or the
Laú of the intermediate area. The difference between the first and the
last of these three should be noticed. Some members of the family are
Indianized in religion, and organized in politics. Such are the Siamese
of Bankok. Others retain both their independence and their original
Paganism. Such are some of the Laú. _Mutatis mutandis_, the same applies
to the next family.

This is the _Burmese_, to which both the Avans and the Kariens belong;
but as it has been already stated that the divisions under
consideration are by no means of equal value, the two branches will be
considered separately.

3. _The Avans._--_Avan_ is a more convenient term than _Burmese_,
inasmuch as it is more definite; the _Burmese Empire_ containing not
only very distant members of the great _Burmese_ family, but also
populations which belong to other groups. _Ava_, on the other hand, is
the centre of the dominant division.

Whether the _Môn_, or a family yet to be mentioned, represent the
aborigines of _Maulmein_, it is certain that the Avans of that country
are of comparatively recent introduction.

Again, whether the _Tha'y_, or a family yet to be mentioned, represent
the aborigines of _Tenasserim_, it is certain that the Avans of that
country are of comparatively recent origin.

Nevertheless, there are Avans in each; and in Maulmein, although the Môn
preponderate in number, they all are able to speak the language of their
conquerors. I say _conquerors_, because the Avans are for all the parts
south of 18° North lat., an intrusive population: the end of the
eighteenth century being the date, when, under Alompra, an Avan or
Umerapúra dynasty broke up and subjected, in different degrees, the Môn
and Tha'y populations to the south, as well as several others more akin
to itself on the east, west, and north.

The kingdom of Ava, next to those of China and Siam, best represents the
civilization of those families whose tongue is monosyllabic. This
implies that it has an organized polity, a lettered language, and a
Buddhist creed; in other words that the influences of either China or
India have acted on it. Of these two nations it is the latter which has
most modified the Indianized members of the great Burmese stock. In
strong contrast with these is the fourth and last branch of the
_continental_ population for the provinces in question, the

4. _Karien._--The Kariens are partially independent; chiefly pagan; and
their language, belonging to the same class with the Avan, is
unlettered. They are the first of a long list.

Their geographical distribution is remarkable, like that of the Tha'y.
Its direction is north and south; its dimensions linear, rather than
broad; and it bears nearly the same relation to the water-system of the
Salwín that that of the Siamese does to the river Menam. There are
Kariens as far south as 11° North lat. and there are Kariens as far
north as 25° North lat. Hence we have them in Maulmein, and in
Tenasserim, and in the intermediate provinces of Ye and Tavoy as well.
All these, like the Môn, have been eased by the transfer from Avan
oppression to British rule; though this says but little. Hence, with one
exception, the other members of their family are decreasing; the
exception being the so-called _Red_ Karien.

This epithet indicates a change in physiognomy; and, indeed, the
physical conformation of the Burmese tribes requires attention. It is
Mongolian in the way that the Siamese is Mongolian; but changes have set
in. The beard increases; the hair becomes crisper; and the complexion
darkens. The Kyo,[24] the isolated occupants of a single village on the
river Koladyng, are so much darker than their neighbours as to have been
considered half Bengali; and, as a general rule, the nearer we approach
India, the deeper becomes the complexion. The Môn, too, of Pegu, are
very dark. What is this the effect of? Certainly not of latitude, since
we are moving northward. Of intermarriage? There is no proof of this.
The greater amount of low alluvial soils, like those of the Ganges and
Irawaddi, is, in my mind, the truer reason. But this is too general a
question to be allowed to delay us. The Red Kariens are instances of an
Asiatic tribe with an American colour; just as the Red Fulahs were in
Africa. Such are the occupants of the _continent_.

5. _The Silong._--In the _islands_ of the Mergui Archipelago, there is
another variety; but whether it form a class itself, or belong to any
of the previous ones, is uncertain. Their language is said to be
peculiar;[25] but of this we have no specimen. As it is probably that of
the oldest inhabitants of the continent opposite, this is to be
regretted.

They are called _Silong_, are a sort of sea-gipsy; and amount to about
one thousand. Of all the creeds of either India or the Indo-Chinese
peninsula theirs is the most primitive; so primitive as to be
characterized by little except its negative characters. They believe
that the land, air, trees, and waters are inhabited by _Nat_, or
spirits, who direct the phenomena of Nature. How far they affect that of
man, except indirectly, is unascertained. "We do not think about that,"
was the invariable answer, when any one was questioned about a future
state. Too vague for monotheism, the Silong creed is also said to be too
vague for idolatry, too vague for sacrifices.

The Kariens, also, believe in _Nat_, but, as _they_ believe in their
influence on human affairs, they sacrifice to them accordingly.

Little, then, as we know, respecting these two families, we know that
the common practice of _Nat_ worship connects them; and this worship
connects many other members of the _Burmese_ stock. Consequently it
helps us to place the Silong in that group. It also favours the notion
of the Tenasserim aborigines being Burmese.

It is the delta of the Irawaddi which isolates the _Tenasserim
provinces_; and the British dependency from which it separates them is--

_Arakhan._--We are prepared for the ethnological position of the Arakhan
populations. They are _Burmese_.

We are likewise prepared for a division of them; there will be the
Indianized and the Pagan--paganism and political independence going, to
a certain degree, together.

We are prepared for even minuter detail; the paganism will be
Nat-worship; the Indian creed Buddhism: the alphabet also, where the
language is written, will be Indian also. In Captain Tower's
vocabulary,[26] only seven words out of fifty differ between the Burmese
of Arakhan, and the Burmese of Ava; and some of these are mere
differences of pronunciation.

The language itself is called _Rukheng_ by those who use it; but the
Bengali name is _Mug_.

This applies to the Indianized part of the population, the analogues of
the Avans and Siamese of Tenasserim, and of the Môn of Maulmein. What
are the Arakhan equivalents to the Karien?

_The Khyen._--These inhabit the Yuma mountains between Arakhan and Ava.
A full notice of them is given by Lieutenant Trant, in the sixteenth
volume of the "Asiatic Researches." But as they are chiefly independent
tribes, it is enough to state that they form the Anglo-Burmese frontier.
It is also added that there are numerous Khyen slaves in Arakhan.

Farther notice of them is the less important, because a closely allied
population will occur amongst the hill-tribes of--

_Chittagong._--Hindú elements now increase. Even in Arakhan, Buddhism
had ceased to be the only creed of western origin. There were Mahometans
who spoke a mixed dialect called the _Ruinga_;[27] and Brahminical
Hindús who spoke another called the _Rosawn_. In Chittagong, then, we
must look about us for the aborigines; so intrusive have become the
Hindú elements. Intrusive, however, they are, and intrusive they will be
for some time to come.

The foot of the hill, and the hill itself, are important points of
difference in Indian ethnology. On the _lower_ ranges of the mountains
on the north-east of Chittagong are the _Khumia_ (_Choomeeas_) or
_villagers_; _khum_ (_choom_) meaning _village_. These are definitely
distinguished from the Hindús, by a flat nose, small eye, and broad
round face, in other words by Mongolian characteristics in the way of
physiognomy. But the _Khumia_ are less perfect samples of their class
than the true mountaineers. These are the _Kuki_,[28]--hunters and
warriors, divided into tribes, each under elective chiefs, themselves
subordinate to a hereditary _Raja_,--at least such is the Hindú
phraseology.

Their creed consists in the belief of _Khogein Pootteeang_ as a
superior, and _Sheem Sauk_ as an inferior deity; the destruction of
numerous enemies being the best recommendation to their favour. A wooden
figure, of human shape, represents the latter. The skulls of their
enemies they keep as trophies. In the month of January there is a solemn
festival.

Language and tradition alike tell us that the Kuki (and most likely the
Khumia as well) are unmodified Mugs. The displacement of their family
has been twofold--first by Hindús, secondly by Buddhist (or modified)
Mugs at the time of the Burmese conquest. The Kuki population extends to
the wilder parts of the district of _Tippera_.

_Sylhet._--On the southern frontier we have Kukis; on the eastern
Cachari; on the northern Coosyas (_Kasia_). Due west of these last lie
the Garo. I imagine that both these last-named populations are members
of the same group--but cannot speak confidently. If so, we have
departed considerably from the more typical Burmese of Arakhan and Ava.
Still we are within the same great class. The Garo will command a
somewhat full notice.

The Cachars depart still more from the more typical Burmese; the group
to which they most closely belong being one which will also be enlarged
on.

North of the Kasia we reach the western portion of the southern frontier
of--

_Assam._--Here it will be convenient to take the whole of the
valley--Upper as well as Middle and Lower Assam--although parts of the
former are independent rather than British--and to go round it;
beginning with the Kasia country and the Jaintia mountains on the
south-west. I imagine--but am not certain--that the Kasia and Jaintia
mountaineers are very closely allied.

Next to the Cachars on the southern, or Manipur, frontier are--

_The Nagas._--These are in the same class with the Kuki; _i.e._, the
wild tribes of Manipur, speaking a not very altered dialect of the
Burmese.

_The Singpho._--This people is said to have come from a locality between
their present position and the north-eastern corner of Assam and the
Chinese frontier. An imperfect Buddhism, and an unappreciated alphabet
of Siamese origin, are the chief phenomena of their civilization.

_The Jili._--These are conterminous with the Singpho; to whom they are
closely allied, in language, at least; seventy words out of one hundred
agreeing in the two vocabularies.

The _Khamti_ come in now. These have been mentioned as Tha'y in their
most northern localities. They occupy north-eastern Assam, and are
conterminous with the Singpho. The Khamti language, with its per-centage
of ninety-two words common to it and the Siamese of Bankok, ten degrees
southwards, has only three out of one hundred that agree with the
Singpho, and ten in one hundred with the Jili. This shows the remarkable
character of their ethnological distribution, and, at the same time,
suggests the idea of great displacement.

_The Mishimi._--These occupy the north-east extremity of Assam. With the
Mishimi we turn the corner, and find ourself on the northern or Tibetan
frontier. Here it is the most western tribes which come first; and these
are--

_The Abors and Padam Bor-Abors._--The first, like the Kuki, on the
mountain-tops; the latter, like the Khumia, on the lower ranges.

_The Dufla._--Mountaineers west of the Abors, with whom they are
conterminous in about 94° East lon.

_The Aka._--Mountaineers west of the Dufla, with whom they are
conterminous in about 92° East lon. The Akas bound Lower Assam, the
eastern part of which lies between them and the Cachari country.

The tribes hitherto mentioned, although sufficiently numerous, represent
the mountaineers of the Manipur and Tibetan _frontiers_ only. The native
tribes of the valley still stand over. These are--

1. The _Muttuck_ or _Moa Mareya_, _south_ of the Brahmaputra, and so far
Indianized as to be Brahminical in religion. Their locality is the south
bank of the Brahmaputra; opposite to that of--

2. _The Miri_, on the _north_.--The Miri are backed on the north by the
Bor-Abors.

3. _The Mikir._--Mr. Robertson looks upon these as an intrusive people
from the Jaintia hills: their present locality being the district of
Nowgong, where they are mixed up with--

4. _The Lalong._--I cannot say whether the Lalong speak their originally
monosyllabic tongue, or have learnt the Bengali--a phenomenon which does
much to disguise the true ethnology of more than one of the forthcoming
tribes; one of which is certainly--

5. _The Dhekra_, occupants of Lower Assam and Kamrup, where they are
mixed up with other sections of the population.

6. _The Rabhá._--Like the Dhekra, these are Hindús. Like the Dhekra
they speak Bengali. Hence, like the Dhekra, their true affinities are
disguised. It is, however, pretty generally admitted by the best
authorities that what may be predicated of the Garo and Bodo--two
families of which a fuller notice will be given in the sequel--may be
predicated of the sections in question, as also of--

7. _The Hajong_ or _Hojai_.--Hindús, speaking a form of the Bengali at
the foot of the Garo hills; and who join the Rabhá, whose locality is
between Gwahatti and Sylhet, _i.e._, at the entrance of the Assam
valley.

The _Garo_ of the Garo hills to the north-east of Bengal now require
notice. A mountaineer of these parts has much in common with the Coosya;
yet the languages are, _perhaps_, mutually unintelligible. In form they
are exceedingly alike.

Now, a Garo[29] is hardy, stout, and surly-looking, with a flattened
nose, blue or brown eyes, large mouth, thick lips, round face, and brown
complexion. Their _buniahs_ (_booneeahs_) or chiefs, are distinguished
by a silken turban. They have a prejudice against milk; but in the
matter of other sorts of food are omnivorous. Their houses, called
_chaungs_, are built on piles, from three to four feet from the ground,
from ten to forty in breadth, and from thirty to one hundred and fifty
in length. They drink, feast, and dance freely; and, in their
matrimonial forms, much resemble the Bodo. The youngest daughter
inherits. The widow marries the brother of the deceased; if he die, the
next; if all, the father.

The dead are kept for four days; then burnt. Then the ashes are buried
in a hole on the place where the fire was. A small thatched building is
next raised over them; which is afterwards railed in. For a month, or
more, a lamp is lit every night in this building. The clothes of the
deceased hang on poles--one at each corner of the railing. When the pile
is set fire to, there is great feasting and drunkenness.

The Garo are no Hindús. Neither are they unmodified pagans. Mahadeva
they invoke--perhaps, worship. Nevertheless, their creed is mixed. They
worship the sun and the moon, or rather the sun _or_ the moon; since
they ascertain which is to be invoked by taking a cup of water and some
wheat. The priest then calls on the name of the sun, and drops corn into
the water. If it sink, the sun is worshipped. If not, a similar
experiment is tried with the name of the moon. Misfortunes are
attributed to supernatural agency: and averted by sacrifice.

Sometimes they swear on a stone; sometimes they take a tiger's bone
between their teeth and then tell their tale.

Lastly, they have an equivalent to the _Lycanthropy_ of the older
European nations:--

"Among the Garrows a madness exists, which they call transformation into
a tiger, from the person who is afflicted with this malady walking about
like that animal, shunning all society. It is said, that, on their being
first seized with this complaint they tear their hair and the rings from
their ears, with such force as to break the lobe. It is supposed to be
occasioned by a medicine applied to the forehead; but I endeavoured to
procure some of the medicine thus used, without effect. I imagine it
rather to be created by frequent intoxications, as the malady goes off
in the course of a week or fortnight. During the time the person is in
this state, it is with the utmost difficulty he is made to eat or drink.
I questioned a man, who had thus been afflicted, as to the manner of his
being seized, and he told me he only felt a giddiness without any pain,
and that afterwards he did not know what happened to him."[30]

In a paper of Captain C. S. Reynolds, in the "Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal,"[31] we have the notice of a hitherto undescribed
superstition; that of the _Korah_. A _Korah_ is a dish of bell-metal, of
uncertain manufacture. A small kind, called Deo Korah, is hung up as a
household god and worshipped. Should the monthly sacrifice of a fowl be
neglected, punishment is expected. If "a person perform his devotion to
the spirit which inhabits the Korah with increasing fervour and
devotion, he is generally rewarded by seeing the embossed figures
gradually expand. The Garos believe that when the whole household is
wrapped in sleep, the Deo Korahs make expeditions in search of food, and
when they have satisfied their appetites return to their snug retreats
unobserved."

The Miri are supposed to believe the same of what are called _Deo
Guntas_, brought from Tibet.

Now what is the classification of all these tribes? Preliminary to the
answer on this point, there are eleven dialects spoken in the parts
about Manipur--besides the proper language of Manipur itself--to be
enumerated. These are as follows:--1. Songpu. 2. Kapwi. 3. Koreng. 4.
Maram. 5. Champhung. 6. Luhuppa. 7, 8, 9. Northern, Central, and
Southern Tangkhul. 10. Khoibu; and 11. Maring. Now these twelve (the
Manipur being included) have been tabulated by Mr. Brown, in such a way
as to show the per-centage of words that each has with all the others;
and not only these, but nearly all the tongues which we have had to deal
with, are similarly put in order for being compared. The part of the
table necessary for the present use is as follows:--

                                                         |N.|C.|S.|
                                                   |C |  |  |  |  |
                                    |M |           |h |  |T |T |T |
                  |M |B |  |S |     |a |           |a |L |á |á |á |
                  |i |u |  |i |     |n |S |  |K |  |m |u |n |n |n |K |M
                  |s |r |K |n |     |i |o |K |o |M |p |h |g |g |g |h |a
               |Á |h |m |a |g |J |G |p |n |a |r |a |h |u |k |k |k |o |r
            |Á |b |i |e |r |p |i |á |u |g |p |e |r |u |p |h |h |h |i |i
            |k |o |m |s |e |h |l |r |r |p |w |n |á |n |p |u |u |u |b |n
            |á |r |í |e |n |o |í |o |í |ú |í |g |m |g |a |l |l |l |ú |g
 -----------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--
 Áká        |  |47|20|17|12|15|15| 5|11| 3|10| 3| 8| 8| 8| 5| 6|10| 8|10
 Ábor       |47|  |20|11|10|18|11| 6|15| 6|11| 5| 8| 6| 8| 8| 8|10|10|18
 Mishimí    |20|20|  |10|10|10|13|10|11| 0|11| 0| 3| 5| 6| 8| 6|13|10| 8
 Burmese    |17|11|10|  |23|23|26|12|16| 8|20| 6|11|11|11|10|13|13|16|16
 Karen      |12|10|10|23|  |17|21| 8|15|10|15| 8|12| 4|12| 8|12|12|10|15
 Singpho    |15|18|10|23|17|  |70|16|25|10|18|11|11|13|15|13|25|13|20|18
 Jilí       |15|11|13|26|21|70|  |22|16|10|21|13|11|11|18|20|20|13|20|20
 Gáro       | 5| 6|10|12| 8|16|22|  |10| 5| 6| 5| 8| 5| 8|13|11| 5| 5| 5
 Manipurí   |11|15|11|16|15|25|16|10|  |21|41|18|25|28|31|28|35|33|40|50
 Songpú     | 3| 6| 0| 8|10|10|10| 5|21|  |35|50|53|20|23|15|15|13| 8|15
 Kapwí      |10|11|11|20|15|18|21| 6|41|35|  |30|33|20|35|30|40|45|38|40
 Koreng     | 3| 5| 0| 6| 8|11|13| 5|18|50|30|  |41|18|21|20|20|11|10|15
 Marám      | 8| 8| 3|11|12|11|11| 8|25|53|33|41|  |21|28|25|20|16|23|26
 Champhung  | 8| 6| 5|11| 4|13|11| 5|28|20|20|18|21|  |40|20|20|16|15|25
 Luhuppa    | 8| 8| 6|11|12|15|18| 8|31|23|35|21|28|40|  |63|55|36|33|40
 N. Tángkhul| 5| 8| 8|10| 8|13|20|13|28|15|30|20|25|20|63|  |85|30|31|31
 C. Tángkhul| 6| 8| 6|13|12|25|20|11|35|15|40|20|20|20|55|85|  |41|45|41
 S. Tángkhul|10|10|13|13|12|13|13| 5|33|13|45|11|16|16|36|30|41|  |43|43
 Khoibú     | 8|10|10|16|10|20|20| 5|40| 8|38|10|23|15|33|31|45|43|  |78
 Maring     |10|18| 8|16|15|18|20| 5|50|15|40|15|26|25|40|31|41|43|78|

The last eleven dialects are not spoken in any British dependency; and
they have only been mentioned for the sake of explaining the table.

All belong to one and the same class; a point upon which I see no room
for doubt; although respecting the _value_ of that class I admit that
some exists.

For this, the term _Burmese_ is as good as any other--without professing
to be better; yet, should it seem too precise, there is no objection to
the sufficiently general term of _monosyllabic_ being substituted for
it.

The reader, however, may doubt the fact of the affinities. This has
been done. Long before the present writer knew of such dialects as the
Jili, Mishimi, Aka, Abor, Singpho, and the like, he had satisfied
himself that the Garo was monosyllabic, and had so expressed himself in
1844,[32] when Brown's Tables had been published, though not seen by
him. It was with surprise, then, that he found the author of them
writing, that "it would be difficult to decide from the specimens before
us, whether it is to be ranked with the monosyllabic or polysyllabic
languages. It probably belongs to the latter."

Again, Mr. Hodgson makes the Garo Tamulian, _i.e._, polysyllabic; a fact
which will be noticed again when the Bodo, Dhimal, and Kocch have been
disposed of.

_The Kocch_, _Bodo_, and _Dhimal_ is the title of one of that writer's
works--a model of an ethnological monograph. This gives us a new class.
The Bodo of Hodgson are the wild tribes that skirt the Himalayas, from
Assam to Sikkim. West of these, between the river Konki and the river
Dhorla are the Dhimal, a small tribe mixed with Bodo; and, southwards,
in Kocch Behar, are the Kocch. The two former are so much described
together that a separation is difficult. This leaves us at liberty to
follow the details of either one population or of both. The history of
a Bodo from his cradle to his grave is as follows. The birth is attended
with a _minimum_ amount of ceremonies. Midwives there are none; but
labours are easy. Neither has the priest much to do with ushering-in the
new-comer to the world. A short period of uncleanness is recognized, but
it is only a short one; the purification consisting in the acts of
bathing and shaving performed by the parties themselves. Four or five
days after delivery, the mother goes out into the world; and at that
time, the child is named. Any passing event determines this; as there
are no family names, and no names taken from their mythology. The
account, however, of Mr. Hodgson, in this respect is somewhat obscure,
"A Bhotia chief arrives at the village, and the child is named Jinkháp;
or a hill peasant arrives, and it is named Gongar, after the titular, or
general designation of the Bhotias."

As long as a mother can suckle a child (or _children_) she continues to
do so, sometimes for so long a period as three years, when the last and
last but one may be seen sucking together.

The period of weaning is thus delayed; and, notwithstanding the current
notion as to the prematurity of marriages in warm climates, that of
wedlock is delayed as well: the male waits till he is twenty or
twenty-five, the female till between fifteen and twenty. The parties
least concerned are the bride and bridegroom; the parents do the
courtship. Those of the lady take a payment. This is called a _Jan_
amongst the Bodo, and varies from ten to fifteen rupees. With the Dhimal
it is a _Gandi_, and amounts to a higher sum, ranging from fifteen to
forty-five. Failing this, service must be done by the youth; and a wife
be earned as Jacob earned Leah and Rachel. This is the _Gabor_ of the
Bodo, and the _Gharjya_ of the Dhimal.

Such marriages are easily dissolved, _i.e._, at the option of either
party. In case, however, of infidelity on the part of a wife having
caused a divorce, the wedding-money is repaid. Adoption is common,
concubinage rare; each being on a level with marriage in respect to the
_status_ of the children. Of these, all males inherit alike; but the
rights of the female are limited.

The ceremony itself begins with a procession on the part of the
bridegroom's friends to the bride's house, two females accompanying
them. Of these, it is the business to put red-lead and oil on the
bride-elect's hair. A feast follows; after which the husband takes his
wife home. Thus far the Bodo forms agree with the Dhimal; but they
differ in what follows.

_The Bodo_ sacrifices a cock and a hen in the names of the bridegroom
and the bride, respectively to the Sun.

_The Dhimal_ propitiate _Data_ and _Bedata_ by presents of betel-leaf
and red-lead.

Both bury their dead, and purify themselves by ablution in the nearest
stream when the funeral procession is over. The family, however, of the
deceased is considered as unclean for three days.

A feast with sacrifices attends the purification. Before sitting down,
they repair once more to the grave, and present the dead with some of
the food from the banquet;--"take and eat, heretofore you have eaten and
drunk with us; you can do so no more; you were one of us, you can be so
no longer; we come no more to you; come you not to us." After this each
member of the party takes from his wrist a bracelet of thread, and
throws it on the grave.

A ceremonial implies a priesthood. Under this class come the Deoshi, the
Dhami, the Ojha, and the Phantwal.

The first of these is the village, the second the district, priest.

The Ojha is the village exorcist; and the Phantwal a subordinate of the
Deoshi. The influence of this clerical body, although probably higher
than Mr. Hodgson places it, is, evidently, anything but exorbitant.

I cannot find anything in the Bodo and Dhimal superstitions higher than
what was found in Africa. Nor yet is anything _essentially_ different.
Similar intellectual conditions develop similar creeds, independent of
intercourse; a fact which, the more we go into the natural history of
religions, the more we shall verify. We read indeed of _oaths_ and
_ordeals_; but oaths and ordeals are by no means, what they have too
loosely been supposed to be, appeals to the moral nature of the
Divinity. The _dhoom_ test, in Old Calabar, is an ordeal. The criminal
tests of the Fantis are the same. Indeed, few, if any tribes, are
without them. What the real ideas are which determine such and such-like
ceremonies is difficult for intellectual adults to understand. The way
towards their appreciation lies in the phenomena of a child's mind; the
true clue to the psychology of rude populations.

If we take the Bodo and Dhimal religions in detail we find ourselves in
a familiar field, with well-known forms of superstition around us.

Diseases are attributed to supernatural agency; and the medicine-man,
exorcist, or Ojha, is more priest than surgeon.

The _feticism_ of Africa re-appears; at least such is my inference from
the following extract. "_Batho_ is clearly and indisputably identifiable
with _something tangible_, _viz._, the _Sij_ or _Euphorbia_; though why
that useless and even exotic plant should have been thus selected to
type the Godhead, I have failed to learn."

Euhemerism, or the worship of dead men deified, is to be found either in
its germs or its rudiments; at any rate, one of their deities bears the
name of Hajo, a known historic personage. But this may be referable to
Hindú influences unequivocally traceable in other parts of the Pantheon.

It is the rites and ceremonies of a country that give us its religion in
the concrete. All beyond is an abstraction. These, with the Bodo and
Dhimal, are numerous. Invocations, deprecations, and thanksgivings are
all mentioned by Mr. Hodgson; and they are all attended by offerings or
sacrifices; libations attend the sacrifices, and feasting follows the
libations.

The great festivals of the year are four for the Bodo, three for the
Dhimal.

_a._ In December or January, when the cotton-crop is ready, the Bodo
hold their _Shurkhar_, the Dhimal their _Harejata_.

_b._ In February or March, the Bodo hold the _Wagaleno_.

_c._ In July or August, the rice comes into ear. This brings on the Bodo
_Phulthepno_, and the Dhimal _Gavipuja_.

All these are celebrated out of doors, and on agricultural occasions.

_d._ The fourth great festival is held at home; its time being the month
of October; its name _Aihuno_ in Bodo, and _Pochima paka_ in Dhimal.
Here, in the _Aihuno_ at least, the family assembles, the priest joins
it, and the Sij, or Euphorbia, represents Batho. This is placed in the
middle of the room, has prayers offered to it, and a _cock_ as a
sacrifice; whilst Mainou's offering is a _hog_; Agrang's a _he-goat_,
and so on, through the whole list of the nine _nooni madai_, or deities
thus worshipped. As for the symbols which represent them, besides the
Sij, which stands for Batho, there is a bamboo post about three feet
high, surmounted by a small cup of rice, denoting Mainou; but the
equivalents of the other seven are somewhat uncertain.

The Wagaleno festival was witnessed by Mr. Hodgson and Dr. Campbell. The
account of it is something lengthy. I mention it, however, for the sake
of one of its principal actors--the Déódá. This is the _possessed_, who,
"when filled with the god, answers by inspiration to the question of the
priest as to the prospects of the coming season. When we first discerned
him, he was sitting on the ground, panting, and rolling his eyes so
significantly that I at once conjectured his function. Shortly
afterwards, the rite still proceeding, the Déódá got up, entered the
circle, and commenced dancing with the rest, but more wildly. He held a
short staff in his hand, with which, from time to time, he struck the
bedizened poles, one by one, and lowering it as he struck. The chief
dancer with the odd-shaped instrument waxed more and more vehement in
his dance; the inspired grew more and more maniacal; the music more and
more rapid; the incantation more and more solemn and earnest; till, at
last, amid a general lowering of the heads of the decked bamboo poles,
so that they met and formed a canopy over him, the Déódá went off in an
affected fit, and the ceremony closed without any revelation." This
self-excited state of ecstasy is an element of most religions in the
same stage of development; and a low level it indicates. In Greece, in
Africa, and in Northern Asia, we find it as regularly as we find a
coarse and material creed; and to the coarseness of the materialism of
such a creed it is generally proportionate.

Witches, and the discovery of them, and the influence of the evil eye
are part and parcel of the Bodo and Dhimal superstitions.

_Kocch_ means a population, which possibly amounts to as much as a
million souls, extended from about 88° to 93½° East long., and 25° to
27° North lat., and of which Kocch Behar is the political centre. The
term is _ethnological_--not political. It is ethnological, and not
political, because, although originally native, it has since been
partially abandoned. _All_ the inhabitants of the parts in question
_once_ called themselves Kocch; and Kocch they were called by their
neighbours the Mech. At this time the country was unequivocally other
than Indian; _i.e._, in the same category with that of the Garo and
Bodo. Since then, however, great changes have taken place; so that, just
as Wales is partially Anglicized, the Welsh language being replaced by
the English, the Kocch--the native tongue--is under the process of being
replaced by a Hindú dialect. Nevertheless, just as many a Welshman who
speaks nothing but English is still a Welshman, so are the Kocch, who
have changed their languages, Bodo, Garo, or something closely akin, in
ethnological position.

The extent to which different portions of the once great Kocch nation
have abandoned or retained their original characteristics is easily
measured.

1. Those who have changed most speak a form of the Bengali, and are
imperfect Mahometans; imperfect, because their creed is strongly
tinctured with Hinduism. Thus the very epithet which they apply to
themselves is Brahminical; _Rájbansi_=_Suryabansi_=_Sun-born_. The
converted Kocch of the Mahometan creed are chiefly of the lower order
of the province of Behar.

2. Those who have changed, but changed less than the _Mahometans_ of
Behar, are either Brahminists or Buddhists--speaking the same Bengali
dialect as the last. These are chiefly the higher classes of the
population of Behar. They are Kocch in the way that the Cornishmen are
Welsh. They consider them _Rájbansi_ also. Doubtless, their Hinduism is
imperfect; _i.e._, tinctured with the original paganism.

3. The primitive, unconverted, or _Pani_ Kocch, have either not changed
at all, or changed but little. They retain the original name of Kocch;
which is not endured by the others. They retain their original tongue,
which, according to Buchanan, has no affinity with any of the Hindú
tongues. They retain their original customs; and they retain their
original paganism. Lastly, Mr. Hodgson attests the "entire conformity of
the physiognomy of all--with that of the other aborigines around them."
He adds that he cannot improve on Buchanan's account of them, which is
as follows:--"The primitive or Páni Kocch live amid the woods,
frequently changing their abode in order to cultivate lands enriched by
a fallow. They cultivate entirely with the hoe, and more carefully than
their neighbours who use the plough, for they weed their crops, which
the others do not. As they keep hogs and poultry they are better fed
than the Hindús, and as they make a fermented liquor from rice, their
diet is more strengthening. The clothing of the Páni Kocch is made by
the women, and is in general blue, dyed by themselves with their own
indigo, the borders red, dyed with Morinda. The material is cotton of
their own growth, and they are better clothed than the mass of the
Bengalese. Their huts are at least as good, nor are they raised on posts
like the houses of the Indo-Chinese, at least, not generally so. Their
only arms are spears: but they use iron-shod implements of agriculture,
which the Bengalese often do not. They eat swine, goats, sheep, deer,
buffaloes, rhinoceros, fowls, and ducks--not beef, nor dogs, nor cats,
nor frogs, nor snakes. They use tobacco and beer, but reject opium and
hemp. They eat no tame animal without offering it to God (the Gods), and
consider that he who is least restrained is most exalted, allowing the
Gárós to be their superiors, because the Gárós may eat beef. The men are
so gallant as to have made over all property to the women, who in return
are most industrious, weaving, spinning, brewing, planting, sowing; in a
word, doing all work not above their strength. When a woman dies the
family property goes to her daughters, and when a man marries he lives
with his wife's mother, obeying her as his wife. Marriages are usually
arranged by mothers in nonage, but consulting the destined bride. Grown
up women may select a husband for themselves, and another, if the first
die. A girl's marriage costs the mother ten rupees--a boy's five rupees.
This sum is expended in a feast with sacrifice, which completes the
ceremony. Few remain unmarried, or live long. I saw no grey hairs.
Girls, who are frail, can always marry their lover. Under such rule,
polygamy, concubinage, and adultery are not tolerated. The last subjects
to a ruinous fine, which if not paid, the offender becomes a slave. No
one can marry out of his own tribe. If he do, he is fined. Sutties are
unknown, and widows always having property can pick out a new husband at
discretion. The dead are kept two days, during which the family mourn,
and the kindred and friends assemble and feast, dance and sing. The body
is then burned by a river's side, and each person having bathed returns
to his usual occupation. A funeral costs ten rupees, as several pigs
must be sacrificed to the manes. This tribe has no letters; but a sort
of priesthood called Déóshi, who marry and work like other people. Their
office is not hereditary, and everybody employs what Déóshi he pleases,
but some one always assists at every sacrifice and gets a share. The
Kocch sacrifice to the sun, moon, and stars, to the gods of rivers,
hills and woods, and every year, at harvest-home, they offer fruits and
a fowl to deceased parents, though they believe not in a future state!
Their chief gods are Rishi and his wife Jágó. After the rains the whole
tribe make a grand sacrifice to these gods, and occasionally also, in
cases of distress. There are no images. The gods get the blood of
sacrifices; their votaries, the meat. Disputes are settled among
themselves by juries of Elders, the women being excluded here, however
despotic at home. If a man incurs a fine, he cannot pay with purse, he
must with person, becoming a bondman, on food and raiment only, unless
his wife can and will redeem him."

I must now request particular attention on the part of the reader to the
terms which Mr. Hodgson applies to the physical conformation of these
northern, or sub-Himalayan tribes; and still closer attention must be
given to his nomenclature. He calls the stock in question _Tamulian_.
This connects it with the _South_ Indian. He contrasts it with the
_Hindú_. By this he means the Brahminical elements of the Indian
populations.

Let us then see what points he considers to be _Tamulian_.

1. There is "less height, less symmetry, more dumpiness and flesh."

2. There is "a somewhat lozenge contour (of face) caused by the large
cheek-bones."

3. There is "less perpendicularity of features in the front--a larger
proportion of face to head--a broader flatter face--a shorter wider
nose, often clubbed at the end, and furnished with round nostrils."

4. There is a smaller eye, "less fully opened, and less evenly crossing
the face by their line of aperture." In other words, there is the
_oblique_ eye, so much considered in the Chinese physiognomy.

5. Lastly, there are larger ears, thicker lips, and less beard.

I submit that all these points are Mongolian; and this is what Mr.
Hodgson evidently thinks also.

The whole class has passed beyond the hunter state, if ever such
existed. It has passed beyond the pastoral or nomadic state also; if
such existed. It is at present--and, perhaps, has always been--an
agricultural state of society. On the other hand--the industrial state,
the development represented by towns and commerce, has not been
attained.

The whole stock is essentially agricultural. Likewise, the agriculture
is peculiar. We may explain it by the term _erratic_. They "never
cultivate the same field beyond the second year, or remain in the same
village beyond the fourth to sixth year. After the lapse of four or five
years they frequently return to their old fields and resume their
cultivation, if in the interim the jungle has grown well, and they have
not been anticipated by others, for there is no pretence of
appropriation other than possessory, and if, therefore, another party
have preceded them, or, if the slow growth of the jungle give no
sufficient promise of a good stratum of ashes for the land when cleared
by fire, they move on to another site, new or old. If old, they resume
the identical fields they tilled before, but never the old houses or
site of the old village, that being deemed unlucky. In general, however,
they prefer new land to old, and having still abundance of unbroken
forest around them, they are in constant movement, more especially as,
should they find a new spot prove unfertile, they decamp after the first
harvest is got in."

_Arva in annos mutant et superest ager._ This passage is explained by
their customs.

In respect to their social constitution, they dwell in small communities
of from ten to forty houses; each of which community is under a _grà_ or
head. This is Hindú--except that as the Hindú villages are both larger
and more permanent, the functionaries, in addition to the _headman_, are
more numerous. This is noted, because the difference in the two sorts of
village government seems to be one of _degree_ rather than _kind_.

And now comes more in the way of classification. The Bodo are Kachars,
or the Kachars are Bodo. Their languages are the same, so are their
gods, so is their name; since Kachar is a Hindú, and no native term--the
native name (_i.e._, of the Kachars) being _Bodo_. On the other hand,
the _Hindú_ name of the Bodo is Mech. Whoever looks to a map will find
that the outline of the Bodo area is very deeply indented; implying
either a great original irregularity of area, or great subsequent
displacement.

Now follow the Garo. One fourth--fifteen out of sixty--of the words of
Mr. Brown's Garo vocabulary is Bodo. The inference? That the Bodo and
Garo are in the same category. What is this? Mr. Hodgson makes both
Tamulian or Indian. In my own mind both are Burmese. But be this as it
may, one fact is certain; _viz._, that a transition between the tongues
of the Indian and the tongues of the Indo-Chinese peninsula exists, and
that the lines of demarcation which divide them are less broad and
trenchant than is generally supposed.

The Dhimal bring us to Sikkim. The dominant nation of Sikkim are--

_The Lepchas._--Their language also is monosyllabic; but it is Tibetan
rather than Burmese. They are a Sikkim rather than a British Indian
population.

When we have passed the rajahship of Sikkim, we reach that of Nepâl.
This, again, is independent. Such being the case, the line of frontier
between the Hindú populations and the populations of the Bodo and Garo
character lies beyond the pale of the British dependencies.

But in proceeding westward, we pass Nepâl, and reach Kumaon.

This is British, and, as it extends as far north as the Himalayas, it
may contain monosyllabic languages, and tribes speaking them. It may
present also instances of intermixture like those which we have already
found in Behar--the line of demarcation being equally difficult and
undefined. Difficult and undefined it really is--because, although it is
an easy matter to take a portion of the Sirmor, Gurhwal, or Kumaon
population, and say, "this is Hindú because both language and creed make
it so," it is by no means so easy to prove that the blood, pedigree, or
descent is Hindú also. To repeat an illustration already in use--many
such populations may be Hindú only as the Cornishmen are English.

Now the populations of the Tibetan stock to the west of Nepâl, so little
known in detail, must be illustrated by means of our knowledge of the
tribes of Nepâl and Tibet most closely related to them--by those of
Nepâl on the east, and those of Tibet on the north.

For neither of these areas are there any very minute _data_. For the
aborigines of _eastern_ and _central_ Nepâl, we have plenty of
information. They are tribes speaking monosyllabic languages, and tribes
in different degrees of intercourse with the Hindús; being by name--1.
The Magars. 2. The Gurungs. 3. The Jariyas. 4. The Newars. 5. The
Murmis. 6. The Kirata. 7. The Limbu; and 8. The Lepchas, common to the
eastern boundary of Nepâl, to the western part of Butan, and to Sikkim.
This, however, will not bring us far west enough for the Kumaon
frontier; indeed, for the forests of Nepâl _west_ of the Great Valley,
we have the notice of one family only--the Chepang. For this, as for so
much more, we are indebted to Mr. Hodgson. It falls into three tribes;
the Chepang proper, the Kusunda, and the Haju. Its language (known to us
by a vocabulary) is monosyllabic; its physical conformation, that of the
unmodified Indian.

So much for analogy. In the way of direct information we simply know
that the Pariahs, or outcasts, of Kumaon[33] are called _Doms_. These
have darker skins and curlier hair than the Hindús. Are these enslaved
and partially amalgamated aborigines? Probably. Nay more; in the
eastern part of the province, amidst the forests at the foot of the
Himalayas, a community of about twenty families, pertinaciously adheres
to the customs of their ancestors, resembles the _Doms_ in looks, and is
called _Rawat_ or _Raji_. Though I have seen no specimen of their
language, I have little doubt as to the _Rawat_ of Kumaon being the
equivalents to the Chepang of Nepâl.

From Konawur we have three monosyllabic vocabularies, the Sumchu, the
Theburskud, and the Milchan; but the exact amount to which the Tibetan
and the Hindú populations indent each other along the western Himalayas
is more than I can give.

Here end the monosyllabic tongues spoken in British India. But they
fringe the Himalayas throughout, and occur in the country of Gholab
Singh, as well as in the independent rajahships between the Sutlege and
Cashmeer. My latest researches have carried them even further westward
than Little Tibet; as far as the Kohistan, or mountain country, of
Cabul--the Der, Lughmani, Tirhai, and other languages, known, wholly or
chiefly, through the vocabularies of Lieutenant Leach, being essentially
monosyllabic in structure, and definitely connected with the tongues of
Tibet, and Nepâl in respect to their vocables.

But this is episodical to the subject--a subject still requiring the
notice of a very important phenomenon.

_Polyandria_[34] is a term in ethnology, even as it is in botany. Its
meaning, however, is different. Etymologically, it denotes a form of
_polygamy_. _Polygamy_, however, being restricted to that particular
form of marriage which consists in a multiplicity of _wives_,
_polyandria_ expresses the reverse, _viz._, the plurality of _husbands_.

At the first glance, the word _polyandria_ looks like a learned name for
a common thing; and suggests the inquiry as to how it differs from
simple promiscuity of intercourse; or, at least, how far the Tibetan
wife differs from the fair frail one who was always constant to the 85th
regiment. The answer is not easy. Still it is certain that some
difference exists--if not in form, at least, in its effects. One of
these, in certain countries where _polyandria_ prevails, is the law of
succession to property. This follows the female line, rather than the
male.

Again--the marriage of the widow with the surviving brother of her
husband, is polyandria under another form.

What the exact polyandria of Tibet is, is uncertain. I am not prepared
to deny its existence even in so extreme a form as that of _one woman
being married to several husbands, all alive at once_. Still, I think it
more likely that either the circle of community was limited to certain
degrees of relationships, or else that the multiplied husbands were
successive, rather than simultaneous. Still, the facts of the Tibetan
_polyandria_ require further investigation.

One thing, only, is certain--_viz._, that as an ethnological criterion
the practice is of no great value. Capable, as it has been shown to be,
of modification in form, it is anything but limited to either Tibet, or
the families allied to the Tibetan. It occurs in many parts of the
world. It is a Malabar practice; where it is, probably, as truly Tibetan
as in Tibet itself. But it is also Jewish, African, Siberian, and North
American; so that nothing would more mislead us in the classification of
the varieties of man than to mistake it for a phenomenon _per se_, and
allow it to separate allied, or to connect distinct populations.

_Necdum finitus Orestes._--There are several populations which, on fair
grounds, have been believed to be in the same category with the Dhekra,
_i.e._, which are Hindú in language and creed, though monosyllabic in
blood. The Kudi, Batar, Kebrat, Pallah, Gangai, Maraha, Dhanak, Kichak,
and Tharu, are oftener alluded to than described--though, doubtless, a
better-informed investigator in such special matters than the present
writer could find several definite details concerning them. They seem
chiefly referable to Behar and north-eastern Bengal. The _Dhungers_--in
the same class--the husbandmen of South Behar, bring us down to the
vicinity of the population next to be noticed; a population which is
generally considered with reference to the nations, tribes, and families
of _Southern_ rather than _Northern_ India.

The name of this family has already been mentioned. It is _Tamulian_;
and the _Tamulian_ physiognomy has been described. It has been seen to
extend as far north as the Himalayas. If so, the nations already
enumerated have been Tamulian; and no new class is now approaching. This
may or may not be the case. Another change, however, is more undeniable.
This is that of language. It is no longer referable to the Chinese type;
since separate monosyllables have, more or less perfectly, become
_agglutinated_ into inflected forms, and the speech is as
_poly_-syllabic as the other tongues of the world in general. As we
approach the south this abandonment of the monosyllabic character
increases, and from the _Tamul_ language spoken between Pulicat and Cape
Comorin, the term _Tamulian_--applicable in a general ethnological
sense--is derived. _Agglutinated_ (or _agglutinate_) is also a technical
term. It means languages in the second stage of their development; when
words originally separate, such as adverbs of time, prepositions, and
personal pronouns, have become permanently connected with the root, so
as to form tenses, cases, and persons--the union of the two parts of an
inflected word being still sufficiently recent and imperfect to leave
their original separation and independence visible and manifest. When
the incorporation or amalgamation, has become more complete; so
complete, as in most cases to have obliterated all vestiges of an
original independence; the _agglutinate_ character has departed, the
second stage of development has been passed, and the language is in the
same class with those of Greece, Rome, and Germany, rather than in that
of the tongues in question, and of many others.

To return, however, to the _Tamulian_ family, meaning thereby a branch
of the great Mongolian stock, speaking, _either now or formerly_, a
language more or less allied to the Tamul of the Dekhan.

The first members of the class, as we proceed southwards from Behar, are
certain hill-tribes of the Rajmahali Mountains--the Rajmahali
mountaineers. Their Mongolian physiognomy is unequivocal;--a Mongolian
physiognomy but conjoined with a dark skin. They have "broad faces,
small eyes, and flattish or rather turned-up noses. Their lips are
thicker than those of the inhabitants of the plain."[35]

The flattened nose reminded the writer of the Negro, and the general
character of the features of the Chinese or Malay; though it is added
that the resemblance is in a great degree lost on closer inspection. At
the same time it has been sufficiently recognized to have originated the
hypothesis of a descent from one of those nations as a means of
accounting for it.

With a slight tincture of Brahminic Hinduism, the Rajmahali mountaineers
are Pagans. _Bedo_ is one of their gods; doubtless the _Potteang_ of the
Kuki, and the _Batho_ of the Bodo. _Gosaik_, too, is either the name of
a god, or a holy epithet; this, also, being a mythological term current
amongst many other tribes of India. Other elements in their
imperfectly-known mythology deserve notice. Their priesthood contains
both _Demauns_ and _Dewassis_; the latter form being the Bodo _Deoshi_.
As the names are alike, so are the functions. The _Dewassi_ is an
oracular seer. When he vouchsafes to give answers, his inspiration takes
the form of frenzy--but he neither hurts nor speaks to any one. He makes
signs for a cock, and for a hen's egg as well. The cock's head he
wrenches off, and sucks the bleeding neck. The egg he eats. After this
he seeks the solitude of the wood or stream; and is fed by the deity.
Sometimes he has ridden a snake; sometimes put his hands in the mouth of
a tiger with impunity. Trees too large to move, or too thorny to touch,
he places on the roofs of houses. He sees Bedo Gosaik in visions; and,
in the sacrifices therein enjoined, red paint, rice, and pigeons make a
part. From the touch of women he abstains; so he does from the taste of
flesh. Either would make his prophecies false.

There are also certain sacrifices that the _Maungy_ (chief?) of each
village makes, and in which threads of red silk play a part.

One of their gods--an elemental one--is the god of rain, and the dangers
of a drought are averted by praying to him. A ceremony called the
_Satane_ determines the chief who takes the office of invoker.

A black stone, called _Ruxy_, is much of the same sort of fetish with
these mountaineers as the Sij with the Bodo. The name, too, Ruxy _Nad_,
suggests the Nat worship of the Silong, Kariens, and others.

The northern half of the Tamulian families are, like the Welsh, the
Cornish, and the Bretons of France, members of the same ethnological
group, but not in geographical contact with each other. Or, rather, they
are, like the Celtic population of Wales and the Scottish Highlands,
cut off from one another by a vast tract of intervening Anglo-Saxons.
Yet the time was when all was Celtic, from Cape Wrath to the Land's End;
and when the original population extended, in its full integrity, over
York and Nottingham, as well as over Merioneth and Argyleshire. And so
it is with the populations in question. They stand apart from each
other, like islands in an ocean; the intervening spaces being filled up
by Hindús. At the same time the isolation has been much overvalued, and,
I imagine that when greater attention shall have been bestowed upon this
important subject, connecting links which have hitherto been unnoticed
will be detected.

The next locality where we find a population akin to the Rajmahali
mountaineers, is the mountain system of Orissa. These are called by the
Hindús _Kóls_ (_Coolies_), _Khonds_ and _Súrs_. Such, however, are no
native designations--no more than the classical term _Barbarian_, or the
English word _Tartar_. The people themselves have no collective name;
but, being divided into tribes, have a separate one for each.

I say that this branch of Tamulians is isolated, because I am not able
to show its continuity; the range of hill-country which gives rise to
the rivers between the Ganges and Mahanuddy being but imperfectly known.

In Orissa, the most northern of the hill-tribes are the Kól of Cuttack.
South of these come the Khonds best studied in the neighbourhood of
Goomsoor. The following is a list of their gods, and as _n_ seems to
stand for _d_, _Pennu_ is but another name for _Bedo_, and _Gossa Pennu_
for _Bedo Gosaik_:--

  1. Bera _Pennu_, or the earth god.
  2. Bella _Pennu_, the sun god, and Danzu _Pennu_, the moon god.
  3. Sandhi _Pennu_, the god of limits.
  4. Loha _Pennu_, the iron god, or god of arms.
  5. Jugah _Pennu_, the god of small-pox.
  6. Madzu _Pennu_, or the village deity, the universal _genius loci_.
  7. Soro _Pennu_, the hill god.
  8. Jori _Pennu_, the god of streams.
  9. Gossa _Pennu_, the forest god.
  10. Munda _Pennu_, the tank god.
  11. Sugu _Pennu_, or Sidruja _Pennu_, the god of fountains.
  12. Pidzu _Pennu_, the god of rain.
  13. Pilamu _Pennu_, the god of hunting.
  14. The god of births.[36]

The most southern of the Orissa hill-tribes are the _Súr_; connected by
language with the preceding tribes; as they were with each other and the
Rajmahali mountaineers.

These stand in remarkable contrast with the rest of the population of
Orissa; whose language is the Udiya, a tongue which, according to many,
belongs to a wholly different class, or, at least, to a different
division of the present.

South of Chicacole, however, the Tamul tongues are spoken continuously.
I cannot say where the southern limits of the Súr population come in
contact with the northern ones of the--

_Chenchwars_--who occupy the same range of mountains, in the parts
between the rivers Kistna and Pennar, and, probably, extending as far
south as the neighbourhood of Madras. Their language is the Telugu, the
language of the parts around, and of Tamul origin.[37] The contrast
between the Chenchwars of the hills, and the Telingas of the lower
country lies in their mythologies; the former retaining much of the
original creed of their country, the latter being Brahminists.

Below Madras, the mountain range changes its direction, and the next
locality under notice is the Neilgherry hills.

The families here are--

1. _The Cohatars_--so little Indianized as to eat of the flesh of the
cow, amounting to about two thousand in number, and occupants of the
highest part of the range.

2. _The Tudas._--An interesting monograph by Captain Harkness has drawn
unusual attention to these mountaineers, the chief points of importance
being the comparative absence of all elements of Brahminism, and the
occurrence in their physiognomy of the most favourable points of Hindú
beauty--regular and delicate features, oval face, and a clear brunette
skin. Free from the other religious and social characteristics of
Hinduism as the Tudas may be, they still admit a sort of caste; _e.g._,
whilst the _Peiki_, or _Toralli_, may perform any function, the _Kuta_,
or _Tardas_, are limited. Neither did they always intermarry, though
they do now; their offspring being called _Mookh_, or _descendants_.

3. _The Curumbas_, called by the Tudas _Curbs_, inhabit a lower level
than the preceding populations, but a higher one than--

4. _The Erulars_ at the foot of the hills; falling into two
divisions--_a_, the _Urali_ (a name to be noticed), and _b_, the
_Curutali_.

Between the Neilgherries and Cape Comorin, the hill-tribes are worth
enumerating, if only for the sake of showing their complexity. According
to Lieutenant Conner in the "Madras Journal," they are--1, Cowders; 2,
Vaishvans; 3, Múdavenmars; 4, Arreamars, or Vailamers; 5, Ural-Uays.
Besides these, there is a population of predial slaves, divided and
subdivided.

  1. Vaituvan, Konaken.
  2. Polayers--
       _a._ Vulluva.
       _b._ Kunnaka.
       _c._ Morny Pulayer.
  3. Pariahs.
  4. Vaidurs.
  5. Ulanders and Naiadi.

To return to the Neilgherries, and follow the western Ghauts upwards, a
population more numerous than any hitherto mentioned is that of the--

_Buddugurs_, called also _Marvés_. This name takes so many forms that
_Berdar_ may be one of them. One division of Buddugurs is called
_Lingait_.

I cannot follow the Ghauts consecutively; however, when we reach the
southern portion of the Mahratta country, we find in the rajahship of
Satarah, two predatory tribes:--

_The Berdars_, supposed to be closely allied to Ramusi. The--

_Ramusi_ themselves connected by tradition and creed, with the _Lingait_
Buddugurs. But not by language; or at any rate not wholly so. The Ramusi
dialect is a mixture of Tulava and Marathi--the former being undoubted
Tamul, but the latter in the same category with the Udiya.

The continuous Tamul languages are now left to the south of us, and the
hill-tribes next in order, will have unlearnt their native tongues, and
be found speaking the Hindú dialects of the countries around them.
Hence, the evidence of their Tamulian descent will be less conclusive.

_Warali of the Konkan._--Mountaineers of the northern Konkan. We have
seen this name twice already, and we shall see it again. The evidence of
their Tamulian extraction is imperfect. Their language is Marathi and
their creed an imperfect Brahminism. Their mountaineer habits separate
them from--

_The Katodi_--outcasts, who take their name from preparing the _kat_, or
_cat-echu_, and who hang about the villages of the _plains_.

_The Kúli._--From Poonah to Gujerat, the occupants of the range of
mountains parallel to the coast are called _Kúli_ (_Coolies_), the same
in the eyes of the Hindús of the western coast, as the _Kól_ were in
those of the Bengalese and Orissans; and similarly named. Their language
is generally (perhaps always) that of the country around them, _viz._,
Marathi amongst the Mahrattas, and Gujerathi in Gujerat. However,
difference of habits and creed sufficiently separate them from the
Hindús.

_The Bhils._--These are generally associated with the Kúlis; from whom
they chiefly differ geographically, belonging, as they do to the
transverse ranges--the Satpura and Vindhia mountains--rather than to the
main line of the Ghauts with its due north-and-south direction, and with
its parallelism to the coast.

_The Paurias._--Hill-tribes in Candeish, belonging to the Satpura range,
and conterminous with the Bhil tribes, and with--

_The Wurali of the Satpura range._--The Wurali re-appear for the fourth
time. In the parts in question they are in contact with the Bhils and
Paurias; from whom they keep themselves distinct; and from whom they
differ in dialect. Still their language is Marathi. Pre-eminent as they
are for their Paganism, their country contains ruins of brick buildings,
and considerable excavations.[38]

These three are the hill-tribes of the water-shed of the rivers Tapti
and Nerbudda. The water-system of the south-western feeders of the
Ganges is more complex. Along the mountains between Candeish and Jeypur
come--

Certain _Bhil_ tribes.

_The Mewars_--under the Grasya chiefs of Joora, Meerpoor, Oguna, and
Panurwa. The political relations of these tribes--in some cases of an
undetermined nature--are with the Rajpút governments; in other words,
we are now amongst the aborigines of Rajasthan.

_The Minas._--These, like the Mewars, are in geographical contact with
certain Bhil tribes; in political contact with the Rajpúts--the Mewars
with those of Udipúr; the Minas with those of Ajmer, Jeypur, and Kota.

_The Moghis._--At present, a free company rather than a population;
although the representatives of what was once one--_viz._, the
aborigines of Jodpure. So little Brahminists are they that they eat of
the flesh of the jackal and the cow, and indulge freely in fermented
drinks.

The hills that separate Malwah from the Haroti country, and from the
south-eastern boundary of the valley of the River Chumbul are occupied
by--

_The Saireas._--This is a name which has occurred before and
elsewhere;[39] and is almost certainly, anything but native. Tribes,
under this name, extend into Bundelcund.[40]

_The Goands._--The central parts between Candeish and Orissa, the
head-waters of the Nerbudda and Tapti on the west, and of the Godavery
on the east, still require notice. Here the hill population is at its
_maximum_, both in point of numbers and characteristics; and the _Khond_
forms of the Tamul re-appear under the name _Goand_. Of these we have
specimens from--

_a._ The Gawhilghur mountains near Ellichpoor.

_b._ Chupprah.

_c._ Mundala in _Gundwana_, or the _Goand_ country.

Such are the chief hill-populations; which, although they belong to
Tamulian stock, differ as to the extent to which they carry outward and
visible signs of their origin. Some, like the Rajmahali, are merely
separated geographically; and, perhaps, not even that. Others, like the
Khonds of Orissa, are contrasted with the Tamuls of the south, by their
inferior and social condition, and their non-Brahminical creeds. The
Minas and Bhils differ in language; whilst the Ramusis and Berdars,
probably, exhibit transitional forms of speech. The Tudas and Chenchwars
surrounded by Telingas and Tamuls, as the Khonds and Goands are by
Udiyas and Mahrattas, are merely the population of the parts around them
with a primitive polity and religion.

The _lettered_ languages of the Dekhan, where the Tamul character is
unequivocal, but where the civilizational influences have chiefly been
Hindú, are spoken in continuity from Chicacole, east, and the parts
about Goa, west, to Cape Comorin, _i.e._, in the Madras Presidency, and
in the countries of Mysore, Travancore, and the coasts of Malabar and
Coromandel. Of these, the most northern--beginning on the eastern
coast--is--

_The Telinga or Telugu._--Spoken from the parts about Chicacole to
Pulicat, where it is succeeded by--

_The Tamul Proper._--The language of the Coromandel coast and the parts
of the interior as far as Coimbatore. Each of these tongues has a double
form, one for literature, and one for common use; the former being
called the High, the latter the Low, Tamul or Telugu, as the case may
be, and the creed which it embodies being either Brahminism, or some
modification of it.

In Travancore and on the Malabar coast the language is--

_The Malayalma_ or _Malayalam_--and in the greater part of Mysore--

_The Kanara_--which, like the Tamul and Telinga, is both High and
Low--literary or vulgar.

Amongst these four well-known forms of the South Tamulian tongue, may be
distributed several dialects and sub-dialects. Such as the Tulava for
the parts between Goa and Mangalore, and the Coorgi of the Rajahship of
Coorg, not to mention the several varieties in the language of the
hill-tribes.

Now all the populations of the present chapter agree in this
particular--their language is generally admitted to be Tamulian at the
present moment, or if not, to have been so at some earlier period. With
the languages next under notice, the original Tamulian character is not
so admitted--indeed, it is so far denied as to make the affirmation of
it partake of the nature of paradox.

The distinction then is raised on the existence of the doubt in
question, or rather on the differences that such a doubt implies. Hence
the division of the languages of India into the Hindú and the Tamulian
is practical rather than scientific--the _Hindú_ meaning those for which
a _Sanskrit_, rather than a _Tamul_ affinity is claimed.

_Sanskrit_ is the name of a language; a name upon which nine-tenths of
the controversial points in Indian ethnology and in Indian history
turn.


FOOTNOTES:

[22] "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. viii.

[23] "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. vi. part 2.
See also pp. 112, 113 of the present volume.

[24] Described by Lieutenants Phayre and Latter in "Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal."

[25] Dr. Helfer, "Asiatic Society of Bengal," vol. viii.

[26] "Asiatic Researches," vol. v.

[27] Dr. Buchanan, "Asiatic Researches," vol. v.

[28] Macrae in "Asiatic Researches," vol. vii.

[29] Eliot, in "Asiatic Transactions," vol. iii.

[30] Eliot, _ut supra_.

[31] For Jan. 1849.

[32] "Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science," 1844.

[33] "Statistical Sketch of Kumaon," by G. W. Traill, Asiatic
Researches, vol. xvi.

[34] From the Greek _polys_=_many_, and _anær_=_man_.

[35] Eliot in "Asiatic Researches," vol. iv.

[36] Captain S. C. Macpherson, "Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol.
xiii.

[37] See Lieut. Newbold, "Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol. viii.

[38] Lieut. C. P. Rigby, in "Transactions of the Bombay Geographical
Society," May to August 1850.

[39] The Soars of Orissa.

[40] Col. Todd, "Travels in Western India."




CHAPTER IV.

    THE SANSKRIT LANGUAGE.--ITS RELATIONS TO CERTAIN MODERN LANGUAGES
    OF INDIA; TO THE SLAVONIC AND LITHUANIC OF EUROPE.--INFERENCES.--
    BRAHMINISM OF THE PURANAS--OF THE INSTITUTES OF MENU.--EXTRACT.--OF
    THE VEDAS.--EXTRACT.--INFERENCES.--THE HINDÚS.--SIKHS.--BILUCHI.--
    AFGHANS.--WANDERING TRIBES.--MISCELLANEOUS POPULATIONS.--CEYLON.--
    BUDDHISM.--DEVIL-WORSHIP.--VADDAHS.


The language called _Sanskrit_ has a peculiar alphabet. It has long been
written, and embodies an important literature. It has been well studied;
and its ethnological affinities are understood. They are at least as
remarkable as any other of its characters.

Like most other tongues, it falls into dialects; just like the ancient
Greek. Like the Doric, Æolic, and Ionic, these dialects were spoken over
distant countries, and cultivated at different periods. Like them, too,
each is characterized by its peculiar literature.

The Sanskrit itself, in its oldest form, is the _Vedaic_ dialect of the
religious hymns called _Vedas_--of great, but of exaggerated, antiquity.

Another form of equal antiquity is the language of the Persepolitan and
other arrow-headed inscriptions. These are of a known antiquity, and
range from the time of Cambyses to that of Artaxerxes.

By _old_ is meant _old in structure_, _i.e._, betraying by its archaic
forms, an early stage of development. It is by no means _old_ in
chronology. In the way of chronology, the English of Shakespeare is
older than the German of Goethe; yet the German of Goethe is the older
tongue, because it retains more old inflections.

The third form is called _Pali_. In this is written the oldest Indian
inscription; one containing the name of Antiochus, one of Alexander's
successors. It is also the dialect of the chief Buddhist works.

A fourth form is the _Bactrian_. This occurs in the coins of Macedonian
and other Indianized kings of Bactria, and is best studied in the
"Ariana Antiqua," of Wilson.

A fifth is the _Zend_ of the Zendavesta, the Scriptures of the followers
of Zoroaster.

Others are called _Pracrit_. Some of the Sanskrit works are dramatic. In
the modern comedies of Italy we find certain characters speaking the
provincial dialects of Naples, Bologna, and other districts. The same
took place here. In the Sanskrit plays we find deflexions from the
standard language, put into the mouths of some of the subordinate
characters. It is believed that these Pracrits represented certain local
dialects, as opposed to the purer and more classical Sanskrit.

Every spoken dialect of Hindostan has a per-centage of Sanskrit words in
it; just as every dialect of England has an amount of Anglo-Norman. What
does this prove? That depends upon the per-centage; and this differs in
different languages. In a general way it may be stated that, amongst the
tongues already enumerated, it is smallest in the isolated Tamulian
tongues; larger in the Tamul of the Dekhan; and largest in the tongues
about to be enumerated; these being the chief languages of modern
Hindostan.

1. The _Marathi_ of the Mahrattas. Here the Sanskrit words amount to
four-fifths in the Marathi dictionaries.

2. The _Udiya_, of Cuttack and Orissa, with a per-centage of Sanskrit
greater than that of the Marathi, but less than that of--

3. The _Bengali_. Here it is at its _maximum_, and amounts to
nine-tenths.

4. The _Hindú_, of Oude, and the parts between Bengal and the Punjâb,
falling into the subordinate dialects of the Rajpút country.

5. The _Gujerathi_ of Gujerat.

6. The _Scindian_ of Scinde.

7. The _Multani_ of Múltan; probably a dialect of either the Gujerathi
or--

8. The _Punjabi_ of the Punjâb.

By going into minor differences this list might be enlarged.

None of the previous languages were mentioned in the last chapter; in
fact, they were those different Hindú tongues which were contrasted with
the Tamulian, and which, in the northern part of the Peninsula had
effected those displacements which separated, or were supposed to
separate, the Rajmahali, Kól, and Khond dialects from each other. They
formed the _sea_ of speech, in which those tongues were _islands_.

Now what is the inference from these per-centages? from such a one as
the Bengali, of ninety out of one hundred? What do they prove as to the
character of the language in which they occur? Do they make the Sanskrit
the basis of the tongue, just as the Anglo-Saxon is of the English, or
do they merely show it as a superadded foreign element, like the
Norman--like that in kind, but far greater in degree? The answer to this
will give us the philological position of the North-Indian tongues. It
will make the Bengali either Tamul, with an unprecedented amount of
foreign vocables, or Sanskrit, with a few words of the older native
tongue retained.

If the question were settled by a reference to authorities, the answer
would be that the Bengali was essentially Sanskrit.

It would be the same if we took only the _primâ facie_ view of the
matter.

Yet the answer is traversed by two facts.

1. In making the per-centage of Sanskrit words it has been assumed that,
whenever the modern and ancient tongues have any words in common, the
former has always taken them from the latter,--an undue assumption,
since the Sanskrit may easily have adopted native words.

2. The grammatical inflections are so far from being as Sanskritic as
the vocables, that they are either non-existent altogether,
unequivocally Tamul, or else _controverted_ Sanskrit.

Here I pause,--giving, at present, no opinion upon the merits of the two
views. The reader has seen the complications of the case; and is
prepared for hearing that, though most of the highest authorities
consider the languages of northern India to be related to the Sanskrit,
just as the English is to the Anglo-Saxon, and the Italian to the Latin;
others deny such a connexion, affirming that as the real relations of
the Sanskrit are those of the Norman-French to our own tongue, and of
the Arabic to the Spanish, there is no such thing throughout the whole
length and breadth of Hindostan as a dialect descended from the
Sanskrit, or a spot whereon that famous tongue can be shown to have
existed as a spoken and indigenous language.

But, perhaps, we may find in Persia what we lack in India; and as the
modern Persian is descended from the Zend, and as the Zend is a sister
to the Sanskrit, Persia may, perhaps, supply such a locality. The same
doubts apply here.

Such are the doubts that apply to an important question in Asiatic
ethnology. I am not, at present, going beyond the simple fact of their
existence. Rightly or wrongly, there is an opinion that the Sanskrit
never was indigenous to any part of India, not even the most
north-western; and there is an extension of this opinion which--rightly
or wrongly--similarly excludes it from Persia. So much doubt should be
relieved by the exhibition of some universally admitted fact as a
set-off.

Such a contrast shall be supplied, in the shape of a comment on the
following tables.[41] It is one of Dr. Trithem's.

 ENGLISH.             LITHUANIC.    RUSSIAN.        SANSKRIT.

 _Father_             tewas         otets           pitr.
 _Mother_             motina        mat'            mātr.
 _Son_                sunai         suin            sūnu.
 _Brother_            brolis        brat            bhratr.
 _Sister_             sessu         sestra          svasr.
 _Daughter-in-law_     --           snokha          snushā.[42]
 _Father-in-law_       --           svekor[43]      śvasúra.
 _Mother-in-law_       --           svekrov'[44]    śvas ru.
 _Brother-in-law_      --           dever'[45]      devr.
 _One_                wienas        odin            eka.
 _Two_                du            dva             dvā.
 _Three_              trys          tri             tri.
 _Four_               keturi        chetuire        chatvārah.
 _Five_               penki         piat'           pancha.
 _Six_                szessi        shest'          shash.
 _Seven_              septyni       sedm'           saptan.
 _Eight_              asstuoni      osm'            ashtan.
 _Nine_               dewyni        deviat'         navan.
 _Ten_                dessimtis     desiat'         dasá.

The following similarities go the same way, _viz._, towards the proof of
a remarkable affinity with certain languages of _Europe_, there being
none equally strong with any existing and undoubted Asiatic ones.

 ENGLISH.     LITHUANIC.    SANSKRIT.    ZEND.

 _I_          ass           aham         azem.
 _Thou_       tu            twam         tūm.
 _Ye_         yus           yūyam        yūs.
 _The_[46]    tas           ta-_d_       tad.
   --         szi           sah          ho.


 LITHUANIC.

 Laups-inni = _I praise._

 _Present._

 1. Laups    -innu    -innawa    -inname.
 2.  --      -inni    -innata    -innata.
 3.  --      -inna    -inna      -inna.


 SANSKRIT.

 Jaj-ami = _I conquer._

 _Present._

 1. Jaj    -āmi    -āvah     -āmah.
 2. --     -ăsi    -ăthah    -ătha.
 3. --     -ăti    -ătah     -anti.


 LITHUANIC.

 Esmi = _I am._

 1. Esmi    eswa    esme.
 2. Essi    esta    esti.
 3. Esti    esti    esti.


 SANSKRIT.

 Asmi = _I am._

 1. Asmi    swah     smah.
 2. Asi     sthah    stha.
 3. Asti    stah     santi.

The inference from the vast series of philological facts, of which the
following is a specimen, has, generally--perhaps _universally_--been as
follows, _viz._, that the Lithuanic, Slavonic, and the allied languages
of Germany, Italy, and Greece--numerous, widely-spread, and
unequivocally European--are _Asiatic_ in origin; the Sanskrit being
first referred to Asia, and then assumed to represent the languages of
that Asiatic locality. I merely express my dissent from this inference;
adding my belief that the relations of the Sanskrit to the Hindú tongues
are those of the Anglo-Norman to the English, and that its relation to
those of the south-eastern Slavonic area, is that of the Greek of
Bactria, to the Greek of Macedon--greater, much greater in degree, but
the same in kind.[47]

The Brahminic creed of Hindostan is the next great characteristic.
Brahminism may be viewed in two ways. We may either take it in its later
forms, and trace its history backwards, or begin with it in its simplest
and most unmodified stage, and notice the changes that have affected it
as they occur. At the present its principles are to be found in the holy
book called _Puranas_; the Brahminism of the _Puranas_ standing in the
same relation to certain earlier forms, as the Rabbinism of the Talmud,
or the Romanism of the fathers does to primitive Judaism and
Christianity. The pre-eminence of a sacred caste--the sanctitude of the
cow--an impossible cosmogony--the worship of Siva and Vishnu--and an
indefinite sort of recognition of beings like Rama, Krishna, Kali, and
others, are the leading features here; the recognition of the Ramas and
Krishnas being of an indefinite and equivocal character, because the
extent to which the elements of their divine nature are referable to the
idea of _dead men deified_, or the very opposite notion of _Gods become
incarnate_, are inextricably mixed together. The Puranas are referable
to different dates between the twelfth and sixth centuries A.D.

The germs of the Brahminism of the Puranas are the two great epics, the
_Ramayana_, or the conquest of Hindostan by Rama, and the _Mahabharata_,
or great war between the Sun and Moon dynasties. If we call the _worship
of dead men deified_, Euhemerism, it is the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata, to which the Euhemerist elements of the present Brahminism
are to be attributed. They increased the _personality_ of the previous
religion. This is the natural effect of narrative poetry, and one of
which we may measure the magnitude by looking at the influence and
tendencies of the great Homeric poems of Greece. It is these which give
us Kali, Rama, Krishna, Siva, and Vishnu, and which helped to determine
the preponderance of the two last over Brahma--Brahma being the Creator;
Vishnu, the Preserver; and Siva, the Destroyer. The highest antiquity
which has been given to the _epics_ is the second century B.C.; and this
is full high enough.

The Brahminism of the "Institutes of Menu," the oldest Indian code of
laws, is simpler than that of the epics. Its Euhemerism is less.
Nevertheless, it contains the great text on the caste-system, the
_fulcrum_ of priestly pre-eminence.


INSTITUTES OF MENU.

_Sir Graves Haughton's Translation._

    1. For the sake of preserving this universe, the Being, supremely
    glorious, allotted separate duties to those who sprang respectively
    from his mouth, his arm, his thigh, and his foot.

    2. To _Bráhmins_ he assigned the duties of reading the _Veda_, of
    teaching it, of sacrificing, of assisting others to sacrifice, of
    giving alms, _if they be rich_, and, if _indigent_, of receiving
    gifts.

    3. To defend the people, to give alms, to sacrifice, to read the
    _Veda_, to shun the allurements of sensual gratification, are, in a
    few words, the duties of a _Cshatriya_.

    4. To keep herds of cattle, to bestow largesses, to sacrifice, to
    read the scripture, to carry on trade, to lend at interest, and to
    cultivate land, are _prescribed or permitted_ to a _Vaisya_.

    5. One principal duty the Supreme Ruler assigns to a _Súdra_;
    namely, to serve the before-mentioned classes, without depreciating
    their worth.

    6. Man is declared purer above the navel; but the Self-Creating
    Power declared the purest part of him to be his mouth.

    7. Since the Bráhmin sprang from the most excellent part, since he
    was the first born, and since he possesses the _Veda_, he is by
    right the chief of this whole creation.

    8. Him, the Being, who exists of himself, produced in the beginning,
    from his own mouth, that having performed holy rites, he might
    present clarified butter to the gods, and cakes of rice to the
    progenitors of mankind, for the preservation of this world.

    9. What created being then can surpass Him, with whose mouth the
    gods of the firmament continually feast on clarified butter, and the
    manes of ancestors, on hallowed cakes?

    10. Of created things, the most excellent are those which are
    animated; of the animated, those which subsist by intelligence; of
    the intelligent, mankind; and of men, the sacerdotal class.

    11. Of priests those eminent in learning; of the learned, those who
    know their duty; of those who know it, such as perform it
    virtuously; and of the virtuous, those who seek beatitude from a
    perfect acquaintance with scriptural doctrine.

    12. The very birth of _Bráhmins_ is a constant incarnation of
    DHERMA, _God of Justice_; for the _Bráhmin_ is born to promote
    justice, and to procure ultimate happiness.

    13. When a _Bráhmin_ springs to light, he is borne above the world,
    the chief of all creatures, assigned to guard the treasury of
    duties, religious and civil.

    14. Whatever exists in the universe, is all in effect, _though not
    in form_, the wealth of the _Bráhmin_; since the _Bráhmin_ is
    entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth.

    15. The _Bráhmin_ eats but his own food; wears but his own apparel;
    and bestows but his own in alms: through the benevolence of the
    _Bráhmin_, indeed, other mortals enjoy life.

    16. To declare the sacerdotal duties, and those of the other classes
    in due order, the sage MENU, sprung from the self-existing,
    promulged this code of laws.

    17. A code which must be studied with extreme care by every learned
    _Bráhmin_, and fully explained to his disciples, but _must be
    taught_ by no other man _of an inferior class_.

    18. The _Bráhmin_ who studies this book, having performed sacred
    rites, is perpetually free from offence in thought, in word, and in
    deed.

    19. He confers purity on his living family, on his ancestors, and
    on his descendants, as far as the seventh person; and He alone
    deserves to possess this whole earth.

Subtract from the Brahminism of the Institutes, the importance assigned
to caste; substitute for the Euhemerism of the Epics, an _elemental
religion_, and we ascend to the religion of the Vedas; the nominal, but
only the nominal basis, of all Hinduism. In the following Vedaic hymns,
_Agni_ is _fire_; _Indra_, the _sky_, _firmament_, or _atmosphere_; and
_Marut_, the _cloud_.


RIGVEDA SANHITA.

_Wilson's Translation._


    I.

    1. I glorify AGNI, the high priest of the sacrifice, the divine, the
    ministrant, who presents the oblation (to the gods), and is the
    possessor of great wealth.

    2. May that AGNI, who is to be celebrated by both ancient and modern
    sages, conduct the gods hither.

    3. Through AGNI the worshipper obtains that affluence, which
    increases day by day, which is the source of fame and the multiplier
    of mankind.

    4. AGNI, the unobstructed sacrifice of which thou art on every side
    the protector, assuredly reaches the gods.

    5. May AGNI, the presenter of oblations, the attainer of knowledge;
    he who is true, renowned, and divine, come hither with the gods!

    6. Whatever good thou mayest, AGNI, bestow upon the giver (of the
    oblation), that verily, ANGIRAS, shall revert to thee.

    7. We approach thee, AGNI, with reverential homage in our thoughts,
    daily, both morning and evening.

    8. Thee, the radiant, the protector of sacrifices, the constant
    illuminator of truth, increasing in thine own dwelling!

    9. AGNI, be unto us easy of access, as is a father to a son; be ever
    present with us for our good!


    II.

    1. AŚWINS, cherishers of pious acts, long-armed, accept with
    outstretched hands the sacrificial viands!

    2. AŚWINS, abounding in mighty acts, guides (of devotion),
    endowed with fortitude, listen with unaverted minds to our praises!

    3. AŚWINS, destroyers of foes, exempt from untruth, leaders in
    the van of heroes, come to the mixed libations sprinkled on the
    lopped sacred grass!

    4. INDRA, of wonderful splendour, come hither; these libations, ever
    pure, expressed by the fingers (of the priests), are desirous of
    thee!

    5. INDRA, apprehended by the understanding and appreciated by the
    wise, approach and accept the prayers (of the priest), as he offers
    the libation!

    6. Fleet INDRA with the tawny coursers, come hither to the prayers
    (of the priests), and in this libation accept our (proffered) food.

    7. Universal Gods! protectors and supporters of men, bestowers (of
    rewards), come to the libation of the worshipper!

    8. May the swift-moving universal Gods, the shedders of rain, come
    to the libation, as the solar rays come 'diligently' to the days!

    9. May the universal Gods, who are exempt from decay, omniscient,
    devoid of malice, and bearers of riches, accept the sacrifice!

    10. May SARASWATÍ, the purifier, the bestower of food, the
    recompenser of worship with wealth, be attracted by our offered
    viands to our rite!

    11. SARASWATÍ, the inspirer of those who delight in truth, the
    instructress of the right-minded, has accepted our sacrifice!

    12. SARASWATÍ makes manifest by her acts a mighty river, and (in her
    own form) enlightens all understandings.


    III.

    1. Come, INDRA, and be regaled with all viands and libations, and
    thence, mighty in strength, be victorious (over thy foes)!

    2. The libation being prepared, present the exhilarating and
    efficacious (draught) to the rejoicing INDRA, the accomplisher of
    all things.

    3. INDRA, with the handsome chin, be pleased with these animating
    praises: do thou, who art to be reverenced by all mankind, (come) to
    these rites (with the gods)!

    4. I have addressed to thee, INDRA, the showerer (of blessings), the
    protector (of thy worshippers), praises which have reached thee, and
    of which thou hast approved!

    5. Place before us, INDRA, precious and multiform riches, for
    enough, and more than enough, are assuredly thine!

    6. Opulent INDRA, encourage us in this rite for the acquirement of
    wealth, for we are diligent and renowned!

    7. Grant us, INDRA, wealth beyond measure or calculation,
    inexhaustible, the source of cattle, of food, of all life.

    8. INDRA, grant us great renown and wealth acquired in a thousand
    ways, and those (articles) of food (which are brought from the
    field) in carts!

    9. We invoke, for the preservation of our property, INDRA, the lord
    of wealth, the object of sacred verses, the repairer (to the place
    of sacrifice), praising him with our praises!

    10. With libations repeatedly effused, the sacrificer glorifies the
    vast prowess of INDRA, the mighty, the dweller in (an eternal
    mansion)!


    IV.

    1. The MARUTS who are going forth decorate themselves like females:
    they are gliders (through the air), the sons of RUDRA, and the doers
    of good works, by which they promote the welfare of earth and
    heaven: heroes, who grind (the solid rocks), they delight in
    sacrifices!

    2. They, inaugurated by the gods, have attained majesty, the sons of
    RUDRA have established their dwelling above the sky: glorifying him
    (INDRA) who merits to be glorified, they have inspired him with
    vigour: the sons of PRISNI have acquired dominion!

    3. When the sons of the earth embellish themselves with ornaments,
    they shine resplendent in their persons with (brilliant)
    decorations; they keep aloof every adversary: the waters follow
    their path!

    4. They who are worthily worshipped shine with various weapons:
    incapable of being overthrown, they are the overthrowers (of
    mountains): MARUTS, swift as thought, intrusted with the duty of
    sending rain, yoke the spotted deer to your cars!

    5. When MARUTS, urging on the cloud, for the sake of (providing)
    food, you have yoked the deer to your chariots, the drops fall from
    the radiant (sun), and moisten the earth, like a hide, with water!

    6. Let your quick-paced smooth-gliding coursers bear you (hither),
    and, moving swiftly, come with your hands filled with good things:
    sit, MARUTS, upon the broad seat of sacred grass, and regale
    yourselves with the sweet sacrificial food!

    7. Confiding in their own strength, they have increased in (power);
    they have attained heaven by their greatness, and have made (for
    themselves) a spacious abode: may they, for whom VISHNU defends
    (the sacrifice) that bestows all desires and confers delight, come
    (quickly) like birds, and sit down upon the pleasant and sacred
    grass!

    8. Like heroes, like combatants, like men anxious for food, the
    swift-moving (MARUTS) have engaged in battles: all beings fear the
    MARUTS, who are the leaders (of the rain), and awful of aspect, like
    princes!

    9. INDRA wields the well-made, golden, many-bladed thunderbolt,
    which the skilful TWASHTRI has framed for him, that he may achieve
    great exploits in war. He has slain VRITRA, and sent forth an ocean
    of water!

    10. By their power, they bore the well aloft, and clove asunder the
    mountain that obstructed their path: the munificent MARUTS, blowing
    upon their pipe, have conferred, when exhilarated by the _soma_
    juice, desirable (gifts upon the sacrificer)!

    11. They brought the crooked well to the place (where the _Muni_
    was), and sprinkled the water upon the thirsty GOTAMA: the
    variously-radiant (MARUTS) come to his succour, gratifying the
    desire of the sage with life-sustaining waters!

    12. Whatever blessings (are diffused) through the three worlds, and
    are in your gift, do you bestow upon the donor (of the libation),
    who addresses you with praise; bestow them, also, MARUTS, upon us,
    and grant us, bestowers of all good, riches, whence springs
    prosperity!

If we investigate the antiquity of these hymns we shall find no definite
and unimpeachable date. Their epoch is assigned on the score of internal
evidence. The language is so much more archaic than that of the
Institutes, and the mythology so much simpler; whilst the Institutes
themselves are similarly circumstanced in respect to the Epics. Fixing
these at about 200, B.C.; we allow so many centuries for the archaisms
of Menu, and so many more for those of the Vedas. For the whole, eleven
hundred has not been thought too little, which places the Vedas in the
fourteenth century, B.C., and makes them the earliest, or nearly the
earliest records in the world.

It is clear that this is but an approximation, and, although all
inquirers admit that creeds, languages, and social conditions present
the phenomena of _growth_, the opinions as to the _rate_ of such growths
are varied, and none of much value. This is because the particular
induction required for the formation of anything better than a mere
impression has yet to be undertaken--till when, one man's guess is as
good as another's. The age of a tree may be reckoned from its concentric
rings, but the age of a language, a doctrine, or a polity, has neither
bark nor wood, neither teeth like a horse, nor a register like a child.

Now the antiquity of the Vedas, as inferred from the archaic character
of their language, has been shaken by the discovery of the structure of
the Persepolitan dialect of the arrow-headed inscriptions. It approaches
that of the Vedas; being, in some points, older than the Sanskrit of
Menu. Yet its date is less than 500, B.C. Again, the Pali is less
archaic than the Sanskrit; yet the Pali is the language of the oldest
inscriptions in India, indeed, of the oldest Indian records of any sort,
with a definite date.

One of the few cases where the phenomena of _rate_ have been studied
with due attention, is in the evolution of the three languages of
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden out of the Icelandic. What does this tell
us? The last has altered so slowly that a modern Icelander can read the
oldest works of his language. In Sweden, however, the speech _has_
altered. So it has in Denmark; whilst both these languages are
unintelligible to the Icelander, and _vice versâ_. As to their
respective changes, Petersen shows that the Danish was always about a
hundred years forwarder than the Swedish, having attained that point at
(say) 1200, which the Swedish did not reach till 1300. Both, however,
changed; and that, at a uniform rate; the Danish having, as it were, the
start of a century. The Norwegian, however, comported itself
differently. Until the Reformation it hardly changed at all; less than
the stationary Icelandic itself. Fifty years, however, of sudden and
rapid transformation brought it, at once, to the stage which the Danish
had been three hundred years in reaching. How many times must the
observation of such phenomena be multiplied before we can strike an
average as to the rate of change in languages, creeds, and polities?

Again--it is by no means certain that the Institutes and the Vedas
represent a contemporary state of things. All doctrinal writings contain
something appertaining to a period older than that of their composition.

Lastly,--the proof that all the writings in question belong to the same
linear series, and represent the growth of _the same phenomena in the
same place_ is deficient. The Ægyptologist believes that contemporary
kings are mistaken for successive ones; the philologist, that difference
of dialects simulates a difference of age. Doubts of a more specific
nature dawn upon us when we attempt to realize the alphabet in which an
Indian MS. of even only eight hundred years B.C., was written. No Indian
MS. is fifteen hundred years old; no inscription older than Alexander's
time. Nevertheless,--though I write upon this subject with
diffidence--the Devanagari characters of the Sanskrit MSS. can be
deduced from the alphabet of the inscriptions; whilst these inscriptions
themselves approach the alphabets of the Semitic character in proportion
to their antiquity: so that the oldest alphabet of the Vedas is
referable to that of the inscriptions, and that of the inscriptions
betrays an origin external to India. Its introduction _may_ be very
early; nevertheless its epoch must be investigated with a full
recognition of the comparatively modern date of even the earliest
alphabets of Persia, and the parts westward; early as compared with such
a date as 1400, B.C., the accredited epoch of the Vedas; an epoch,
perhaps, a thousand years too early.

Nevertheless, the existence of an alphabet, an architecture, a coinage,
and an algebra at a period which no scepticism puts much later than 250,
B.C., is so undoubted, that they may pass as ethnological facts, _i.e._,
facts sufficiently true to be not merely admitted with what is called an
_otiose_ belief, but to be classed with the most unexceptionable _data_
of history, and to be used as effects from which we may argue
backwards--_more ethnologico_--to their antecedent causes; the
appreciation of these requiring a philosophy and an induction of its
own.

We cannot detract from the antiquity of Indian civilization without
impugning its indigenous origin, nor doubt this without stirring the
question as to the countries from which it was introduced. These have
been Persia, Assyria, Egypt, and Greece; the introduction being direct
or indirect as the case might be.

In this way are contrasted the views of the general ethnologist, with
those of the special orientalist, in respect to the great and difficult
question of Indian antiquity. Yet, how far does the scepticism of the
former affect our views concerning the descent of the Hindús, the
Mahrattas, the Bengali, and those other populations, to the languages
whereof they applied? Not much. Whichever way we decide, the population
may still be Tamulian; only, in case we make the language Sanskritic, it
is Tamulian in the same way as the Cornish are Welsh; _i.e._, Tamulian
with a change of tongue.

The doubts, too, as to the antiquity of the Sanskrit literature unsettle
but little. They merely make the introduction of certain foreign
elements some centuries later.

Whatever may be the oldest of the great Hindú creeds, that of the
_Sikhs_ is the newest. Its founder, Nanuk, in the fifteenth century, was
a contemplative enthusiast; his successor, Govind, a zealous man of
action; himself succeeded by similar _gúrús_, or priests, who
eventually, by means of fanaticism, organization, and union with the
state raised the power of the _Khalsa_ to the formidable height from
which it has so lately fallen. _Truth_ is the great abstraction of the
Sikh creeds; and the extent to which it is at once intolerant and
eclectic may be seen from the following extracts.[48] They certainly
present the doctrine in a favourable light.


    I.

    The true name is God; without fear, without enmity; the Being
              without death; the Giver of salvation; the Gooroo and
              Grace.
    Remember the primal truth; truth which was before the world began.
    Truth which is, and truth, O Nânuk! which will remain.
    By reflection it cannot be attained, how much soever the attention
              be fixed.
    A hundred wisdoms, even a hundred thousand, not one accompanies the
              dead.
    How can truth be told, how can falsehood be unravelled?
    O Nânuk! by following the will of God, as by Him ordained.


    II.

    Time is the only God; the First and the Last, the Endless Being; the
              Creator, the Destroyer; He who can make and unmake.
    God who created angels and demons, who created the East and the
              West, the North and the South; How can He be expressed by
              words?


    III.

    Numerous Mahomets have there been, and multitudes of Bruhmas,
              Vishnoos, and Sivas.
    Thousands of Peers and Prophets, and tens of thousands of saints and
              holy men:
    But the chief of Lords is the one Lord, the true name of God.
    O Nânuk! of God, His qualities, without end, beyond reckoning, who
              can understand?


    IV.

    Many Bruhmas wearied themselves with the study of the Veds, but
              found not the value of an oil seed.
    Holy men and saints are sought about anxiously, but they were
              deceived by Maya.
    There have been, and there have passed away, ten regent Owtârs, and
              the wondrous Muhadeo.
    Even they, wearied with the application of ashes, could not find
              Thee.


    V.

    He who speaks of me as the Lord, him will I sink into the pit of
              hell!
    Consider me as the slave of God; of that have no doubt in thy mind.
    I am but the slave of the Lord, come to behold the wonders of
              creation.


    VI.

    Dwell thou in flames uninjured,
    Remain unharmed amid ice eternal,
    Make blocks of stone thy daily food,
    Spurn the earth before thee with thy foot,
    Weigh the heavens in a balance,
    And then ask of me to perform miracles.


    VII.

    Since he fell at the feet of God, no one has appeared great in his
              eyes.
    Ram and Ruheem, the Poorans, and the Koran, have many votaries, but
              neither does he regard.
    Simruts, Shasters, and Veds, differ in many things; not one does he
              heed.
    O God! under Thy favour has all been done, nought is of myself.


    VIII.

    All say that there are four races,
    But all are of the seed of Bruhm.
    The world is but clay,
    And of similar clay many pots are made.
    Nânuk says man will be judged by his actions,
    And that without finding God there will be no salvation.
    The body of man is composed of five elements;
    Who can say that one is high and another low?


    IX.

    There are four races and four creeds in the world among Hindoos and
              Mahometans;
    Selfishness, jealousy, and pride drew all of them strongly;
    The Hindoos dwelt on Benares and the Ganges, the Mahometans on the
              Kaaba;
    The Mahometans held by circumcision, the Hindoos by strings and
              frontal marks.
    They each called on Ram and Ruheem, one name, and yet both forgot
              the road.
    Forgetting the Veds and the Koran, they were inveigled in the snares
              of the world.
    Truth remained on one side, while Moollas and Brahmins disputed,
    And salvation was not attained.


    X.

    God heard the complaint (of virtue or truth), and Nânuk was sent
              into the world.
    He established the custom that the disciple should wash the feet of
              his Gooroo, and drink the water;
    Pâr Bruhm and Poorun Bruhm, in his Kulyoog, he showed were one.
    The four feet (of the animal sustaining the world) were made of
              faith; the four castes were made one;
    The high and the low became equal: the salutation of the feet (among
              disciples) he established in the world;
    Contrary to the nature of man, the feet were exalted above the head.
    In the Kulyoog he gave salvation; using the only true name, he
              taught men to worship the Lord.
    To give salvation in the Kulyoog, Gooroo Nânuk came.


PARTS BEYOND THE INDUS.

The Punjâb is the most western locality of the Indian stock, whether we
call the members of it Hindú or Tamulian. On crossing the Indus we reach
a new ethnological area, only partially, and only recently British;
_viz._, the country of the Bilúch, and the country of the Afghans. And
here we must prepare for new terms; for hearing of _tribes_ rather than
_castes_; and for finding a polity more like that of the Jews and Arabs
than the institutions of the Brahmins.

_The Bilúch._--_Biluchi-stan_ means the country of the _Bilúch_, just as
_Hindo-stan_ and _Afghani-stan_ mean that of the Hindús and Afghans. It
is the south-western quarter of Persia, that is the chief area of the
tribes in question. Hence, however, they extend into Kutch Gundava,
Scinde, and Múltan, and the northern parts of Gujerat. Between Kelat,
the Indus, and the sea, they are mixed with Brahúi.

The Biluchi is a dialect of the Persian--sufficiently close to be
understood by a Persian proper.

There are no grounds for believing the Bilúch to have been other than
the aborigines of the country which they occupy; as their advent lies
beyond the historical period; beyond the pale of admissible tradition.
We may, perhaps, be told that they came from Arabia; an origin which
their Mahometanism, their division into tribes, and their manners,
suggest; an origin, too, which their physiognomy by no means impugns.
Yet the tradition is not only unsupported, but equivocal. The _Arabia_
that it refers to is, probably, the country of the ancient _Arabitæ_;
and that is neither more nor less than a part of the province of Mekran,
within--or nearly within--the present Bilúch domain. Hence, they may be
_Arabite_, though not _Arabian_; or rather the old _Arabitæ_ of the
_Arabius fluvius_ were Bilúch.

But the Arabs are not the only members of the Semitic family with which
the Bilúch have been affiliated. A multiplicity of Jewish
characteristics has been discerned. These are all the more visible from
their contrast to the manners of the Hindús. Intermediate in appearance
to the Hindú and the Persian, the Bilúch "cast of feature is certainly
Jewish;"[49] his tribual divisions are equally so; whilst the Levitical
punishment of adultery by stoning, and the transmission of the widow of
a deceased brother to the brothers who survive, have been duly
recognized as Hebrew characteristics. We know what follows all this; as
surely as smoke shows fire. Levitical peculiarities suggest the
ubiquitous decad of the lost tribes of Israel. We shall soon hear of
these again.

Tribes under chiefs--hereditary succession--pride of blood--clannish
sentiments--feuds between tribe and tribe--the sacro-sanctity of revenge
as a duty--the suspension of private wars when foreign foes
threaten--greater rudeness amongst the mountains--comparative industry
in the plains--the business of robbery tempered by the duties of
hospitality--black mail, &c. All this is equally Bilúch, Arabian, and
Highland Scotch; and it all shows the similarity of details which
accompanies similarity of social institutions. Ethnological relationship
it does _not_ show.

The word _Bilúch_ is Persian. The bearer of the designation either calls
himself by the name of his tribe, or else glorifies himself by the term
_Usul_ or _Pure_. The tribes or _khoums_ are numerous. Sir H. Pottinger
gives the names of no less than fifty-eight; without going into their
subdivisions.

If, however, instead of details, we seek for classes of greater
generality we find that _three_ primary divisions comprise all the
ramifications of the Bilúch. The first of these is the _Rind_; the other
two are the _Nihro_ and the _Mughsi_. The daughter of a Rind may be
given to a Rind as a wife; but to marry into a tribe of Nihro or Mughsi
extraction is a degradation. Here the elements of _caste_ intermix with
those of _tribe_ or _clan_.

_Afghans._--_Afghani-stan_ means the country of the Afghans, just as
_Hindo-stan_ and _Biluchi-stan_ mean that of the Hindús and Biluchi,
respectively.

In India the Afghans are called _Patan_.

Their language is called _Pushtu_. It is allied to the Persian--but less
closely than the Bilúch.

Fully and accurately described in the admirable work of Lord Mountstuart
Elphinstone, the Afghans have long commanded the attention of the
ethnologist; and all that has been said about the Judaism of the Biluchi
has been said in respect to them also, though not by so good a writer as
the one just quoted. No wonder. Their tribual organization, if not more
peculiar in character, has been more minutely described; a greater
massiveness of frame and feature has been looked upon as eminently
Judaic; and, lastly, an incorrect statement of Sir William Jones's, as
to the Hebrew character of the Pushtu language, has added the authority
of that respected scholar to the doctrine of the Semitic origin of the
Afghans. Against this, however, stands the evidence of their peculiar
and hitherto unplaced language. I say _unplaced_, because the criticism
that separates the modern dialects of Hindostan from the Sanskrit,
disconnects the Pushtu and the old Persian. Nevertheless, it is anything
but either Hebrew or Arabic.

Similarity of political constitution, and its attendant spirit of
independence, have given a political importance to both the Bilúch and
the Afghan. Each is but partially--very partially--British; and each
became dependent upon Britain, not because they were the Afghans and
Bilúch of their own rugged countries, but because they were part and
parcel of certain territories in India. It was on the Indus that they
were conquered; and it as Indians that they are British.

Four great patriarchs are the hypothetical progenitors of the four
primary Afghan divisions--though it is uncertain whether any such
quaternion be more of an historical reality than the four castes of
Brahminism. Subordinate to these four heads is the division called
_Ulús_ (_Ooloos_).

A minuter knowledge of the Afghan affiliations--real or supposed--is to
be gained by premising that _khail_ has much the same meaning as the
Bilúch _khoum_, so that it denotes a division of population which we may
call _clan_, _tribe_, or _sept_; whilst the affix -_zye_, means _sons_
or _offspring_. Hence, _Eusof-zye_ is equivalent to what an Arab would
call _Beni Yusuf_; a Greek, _Ioseph-idæ_; or a Highland Gael,
_MacJoseph_. All this is clear. When, however, we try to give precision
to our nomenclature, and ask whether the _khail_ contains a number of
-_zye_, or the -_zye_ a number of _khails_, difficulties begin.
Sometimes the one, sometimes the other is the larger class. And a
_khail_ in one case may be divided into groups ending in -_zye_; in
others, a group denoted by -_zye_ may contain two or more _khails_. Each
is a _generic_ or _specific_ designation as the case may be.

However, to proceed to instances, the following groups of Afghans may be
constituted.

1. Three sections--the _Acco-zye_, the _Mulle-zye_, and the
_Lawe-zye_--are subdivisions of the--

2. _Eusof._--The Eusof and _Munder_ being branches of the--

3. _Eusof-zye._--Now the _Eusof-zye_ is one out of four divisions of
the--

4. _Khukkhi._--The _Guggiani_, _Turcolani_, and _Mahomed-zye_, being the
other three.

5. Lastly, the _Khukkhi_, the _Otman-khail_, the _Khyberi_, the
_Bungush_, the _Khuttuk_ and, probably, some others form the _Berdurani_
Afghans.

But as _Berdurani_ is a geographical, or political, rather than a
tribual designation; as it is the name by which the _north_-eastern
Afghans were known to the Moghuls; and as it is equivalent to such an
expression as _Western_ or _Eastern Highlander_, rather than to names so
specific as _Campbell_ or _MacDonald_, it may be excluded from the true
Afghan affiliations.

With this deduction, however, the classification is sufficiently
complex; besides which, it is, probably, much more systematic on paper
than in reality. This, however, can only be indicated.

The valley of Peshawar is the valley of the _Guggiani_, and
_Mahomed-zye_ Afghans.

The parts round it belong to the _Eusof-zye_, the _Otman-khail_, the
_Turcolani_, the _Momunds_, and the _Khyberi_ of the Khyber Range and
Pass. These last fall into the _Afridi_, the _Shainwari_, and the
_Uruk-zye_. Their country is chiefly to the north of the Salt Range.

The river Kúrúm gives us the two valleys of Dowr and Bunnú[50]--the
_Bunnúchi_ being as pre-eminently a mixed, as the mountaineers around
them--the _Vizeri_--are a pure branch. These, and others, appear to
belong to the great _Khuttuk_ division.

The _south_-eastern Afghans are called _Lohani_; and, as a proof of this
designation being of the same geographico-political character as
_Berdurani_, the Khuttuk Afghans are divided between the two sections;
at least the particular Khuttuks called _Murwuti_ are mentioned as
Lohani, though the Khuttuk class in general is placed in the Berdurani
branch. The chief Lohani Afghans are the _Shiráni_ near the
Tukt-i-Solimán mountain, and the _Storiáni_ (_Storeeanees_,
_Oosteraunees_) conterminous with the most northern of the Bilúch.

Of these the Búgti and Murri are the chief populations of the frontier;
whilst the _Nútkani_, _Kúsrani_, _Lund_, _Lughari_, _Gurkhari_,
_Mudari_, and others, help to fill up the Muckelwand (or the parts
immediately along the course of the Indus), and the Bilúch portions of
Múltan.

_The Brahúi._--The Brahúi, with whom it has been stated that the Bilúch
are intermixed, are pastoral tribes, with a coarser physiognomy, and a
stouter make than their neighbours. Their language also is different. A
specimen of it may be found amongst the well-known and important
vocabularies of Lieutenant Leach; and this forms the subject of a memoir
of no less a scholar than Lassen. Without placing it, he remarks that
the numerals are _South_-Indian (or Tamulian) rather than aught else. He
might have said more. The Brahúi is a remarkable and unexplained branch
of the Tamul; but whether it be of late introduction or indigenous
origin in the parts where it now occurs is uncertain. The mountains
between Kutch Gundava and Mekran seem to form the area of the Brahúi;
some eastern branches of which population I presume to be British, mixed
with Bilúch.[51]

       *       *       *       *       *

_Ceylon._--The inhabitants of the northern part of Ceylon speak the
Tamul language, and are Brahminists in creed. They are not, however, the
true natives of the island. These latter use a Hindú tongue, called the
_Singhalese_. Its philological relations are exactly those of the
Mahratta, Bengali, and Udiya,--neither better nor worse defined, more or
less unequivocal. Some make it out to be of Sanskrit, others of Tamulian
origin. All that is certain is, that it is more Sanskritic than the
proper Tamul, and more Tamul than the Bengali. It is _written_; and
embodies a copious, but worthless literature, its alphabet being derived
from that of the Pali language.

This introduces a new characteristic. The Pali has the same relation to
Buddhism, that the Sanskrit has to Brahminism. It is the language of the
Scriptures, the priest, and the scholar, and, although, at the present
moment, it is as little recognized as a holy tongue on the continent of
India, as the Greek of the New Testament is at Rome, it divides with the
Arabic and Latin, the honour of being the most widely-spread literary
language of the world. All the forms of Buddhism in the transgangetic
peninsula are embodied in Pali writings. So are those of the Mongols;
and so, to a great extent, those of the Tibetans as well. This makes the
language and the creed nearly co-extensive. In China, however, and
Japan, where great changes have taken place, and where either the
development, or the deterioration of Buddhism has gone far enough to
abolish the more palpable characteristics of the original Indian
doctrine, the Pali language is no longer the medium. It _is_ so,
however, for the vast area already indicated.

In Buddhism, as opposed to Brahminism, there is a greater tenderness of
animal life in general, whilst less respect is paid to the ox-tribe in
particular. There is less also of the system of caste; and, in
consequence of this, fewer of those elements of priestly influence,
which originate in the ideas of the hereditary transmission of
sacro-sanctitude. Buddhism, too, has the credit of running further in
the dream-land of subjective metaphysics than Brahminism,--though this,
as far as my own very imperfect means of judging go, is doubtful. Into
practical pantheism, and into the deification of human reason it _does_
run.

When self-contemplation has reached its highest degree of abstraction,
the state of _Nirwana_ is induced. This seems to mean the absorption of
the spirit within itself; a condition which at once suggests adjectives
like _impassive_, _subjective_, _exalted_, and _supra-sensual_, or
substantives like _transcendentalism_, _egoism_, &c., and the like; in
some cases with definite ideas to correspond with the term; oftener as
mere meaningless words. Such, however, is the nomenclature which is
requisite; a nomenclature to which I have recourse, not for the sake of
illustrating my subject, but with the view of giving a practical notion
of its indistinctness.

Buddha himself is a specimen and model of self-absorption, consummation,
perfection, or exaltation rather than a deity, or even a prophet. He
shows what purity can effect, rather than teaches what purity consists
in. He may even have become what he was, by his own unaided powers of
supra-sensual abstraction.

All this is but a series of negations, at least in the way of theology.
But his spirit, after the departure of his body from the earth,[52]
became incarnate in the body of some successor--and so on _ad
infinitum_. This connects Buddhism with the doctrine of metempsychosis;
a doctrine which the incarnations of Brahminism also suggest.

Such are some of the speculative points of Buddhism. Its morality has
been greatly, and, perhaps, unduly extolled. So much contemplation can
scarcely exist without the condemnation of the more palpable sins of
_commission_. Hence, those vices which are the offspring of passion and
ignorance are condemned; as is but natural. The suspension of exertion
precludes active vice. Of the active virtues, however, the recognition
is as slight as may be; so slight as to make it doubtful whether
Buddhism be a better rule for the formation of good citizens than
Brahminism. Which has been the most resistant to the influences of
Christianity is doubtful.[53]

Just as the Anglo-Saxon language, although it originated in Germany, has
survived and developed itself in Britain only, the Buddhist creed, once
indigenous to the continent of Hindostan, is now found nowhere between
the Himalayas and Cape Comorin; whilst beyond the pale of India, it is
as widely extended as the English language is beyond the limits of
Germany. The rival religion of the Brahmins expelled it. Which of the
two was the older is uncertain. Still more difficult is it to determine
how far each is a separate substantive mythological growth, or merely a
modification of the rival creed.

I lay but little stress upon the internal evidence derivable from the
character of the religions themselves. Both are complicated and
artificial--both, perhaps, equally so. In contrast, however, to the more
speculative and transcendental points, suggestive of recent development,
there are others indicative of great antiquity. Nevertheless, it is as
difficult to affirm that the primitive parts of the one creed are older
than the most primitive parts of the other, as it is to affirm that the
highest transcendentalisms are more recent.

The fact of the oldest inscriptions being in the Pali dialect, is
favourable to the greater antiquity of Buddhism, but it is not
conclusive. The notion that Sanskrit itself is comparatively recent, of
course subtracts from that of Brahminism. But this is far from being
admitted. Besides which, it by no means follows, that because Brahminism
is, comparatively speaking, recent, Buddhism must be ancient.

The best clue in this labyrinth of conflicting opinions is the study of
the superstitions of the ruder tribes of the hill-ranges of India
itself, of the sub-Himalayas, and of the Indo-Chinese peninsula; the
result of which investigation will be that that creed which has most
points in common with the primitive and unmodified mythologies of the
Tamulian stock, and of those branches of the monosyllabic populations
nearest akin thereto, has also the best claim to be considered as the
older.

In my own mind, I believe that the _Bedo_ of the Rajmahali mountaineers,
is the _Batho_ of the Bodo, the _Pennu_ of the Khonds, and the
_Potteang_ of the Kukis,[54]--name for name. I believe this without
doubt or hesitation. But if I ask myself the import of this identity,
the answer is unsatisfactory. There is doubt and hesitation in
abundance. _Bedo_, _Batho_, _Petto_, and _Potteang_, _may_ represent the
germ of what afterwards became _Buddh-ism_. They may exhibit the Indian
creed in its _rudiments_. True. But they may also represent it in its
_fragments_, so that _Bedo_ and _Batho_ may be but _Buddh_, distorted in
form, and but imperfectly comprehended in import. In our own Gospel, the
name for the place of punishment, which the Greeks called _Hades_, and
the Hebrews typified by _Gehenna_, is the name of a Saxon goddess
_Hela_; and, in this particular instance, a point of our original
paganism has been taken up into our present Christianity. The same is
the case with the Finnic nation, where _Yumala_ signifies _God_; Yumala
being as truly heathen as _Jupiter_. On the other hand we find amongst
the genuine pagan Gallas of Africa, an object of respect or worship
called _Miriam_. What is this? No true piece of heathendom at all. Dr.
Beke has given good reasons for believing that it means the Virgin
Mother of the Saviour, the only extant member of the Christian
Revelation now known to that once imperfectly Christianized community.

Buddhism, then, may claim a higher antiquity than Brahminism under the
two following conditions.

1. That the names _Batho_, &c., be really a form of _Buddh_.

2. That they have belonged to superstitions in which they occur from the
beginning; and are not in the same category with the _Miriam_ of the
Gallas, _i.e._, recent introductions from a wholly different
religion--grafts rather than embryos.

How far this latter is the case must be ascertained by a wide and minute
inquiry, foreign to the present work.

It is no wonder that, side by side with a semi-philosophical creed like
Buddhism, we should have such a phenomenon as Devil-worship. When the
spirit falls short of its due degree of self-sustained hardihood, fear
finds its way to the heart. The evil powers are then propitiated;
sometimes in a manner savouring of dignity, sometimes with groveling and
grotesque cowardice. The Yezid of Mesopotamia, whose belief in the power
of an evil spirit is derived from the Manicheism of old, shows his fear
of the arch-enemy by simple and not unreasonable acts of negation. He
does nothing that may offend; never mentions his name; and dwells on his
attributes as little as possible. The devil-worshipper of Ceylon uses
such invocations as the following:--

    I.

    Come, thou _sanguinary Devil_, at the sixth hour. Come, thou _fierce
    Devil_, upon this stage, and accept the offerings made to thee!

    The _ferocious Devil_ seems to be coming measuring the ground by the
    length of his feet, and giving warnings of his approach by throwing
    stones and sand round about. He looks upon the meat-offering which
    is kneaded with blood and boiled rice.

    He stands there and plays in the shade of the tree called _Demby_.
    He removes the sickness of the person which he caused. He will
    accept the offerings prepared with blood, odour, and reddish boiled
    rice. Prepare these offerings in the shade of the _Demby_ tree.

    Make a female figure of the _planets_ with a monkey's face, and its
    body the colour of gold. Offer four offerings in the four corners.
    In the left corner, place some blood, and for victims a fowl and a
    goat. In the evening, place the scene representing the planets on
    the high ground.

    The face resembles a monkey's face, and the head is the colour of
    gold. The head is reddish, and the bunch of hair is black and tied.
    He holds blood in the left-hand, and rides on a bullock. After this
    manner make the sanguinary figure of the planets.


    II.

    O thou great devil _Maha-Sohon_, preserve these sick persons without
    delay!

    On the way, as he was going, by supernatural power he made a great
    noise. He fought with the form of _Wessamoony_, and wounded his
    head. The planet _Saturn_ saw a wolf in the midst of the forest, and
    broke his neck. The _Wessamoony_ gave permission to the great devil
    called _Maha-Sohon_.

    O thou great devil _Maha-Sohon_, take away these sicknesses by
    accepting the offerings made frequently to thee.--The qualities of
    this devil are these: he stretches his long chin, and opens wide his
    mouth like a cavern: he bears a spear in his right-hand, and grasps
    a great and strong elephant with his left-hand. He is watching and
    expecting to drink the blood of the elephant in the place where the
    two and three roads meet together.

    Influenced by supernatural power, he entered the body of the
    princess called _Godimbera_. He caused her to be sick with severe
    trembling sickness. Come thou poor and powerless devil _Maha-Sohon_
    to fight with me, and leave the princess, if thou hast sufficient
    strength.

    On hearing these sayings, he left her, and made himself like a blue
    cloud, and violently covered his whole body with flames of fire.
    Furiously staring with his eyes, he said, "Art thou come, blockhead,
    to fight with me who was born in the world of men? I will take you
    by the legs, and dash you upon the great rock _Maha-meru_, and
    quickly bring you to nothing."

    Thou wast born on Sunday, the first day of the month, and didst
    receive permission from the _King of Death_, and didst brandish a
    sword like a plantain-leaf. Thou comest down at half-past seven, to
    accept the offerings made to thee.

    If the devil _Maha-Sohon_ cause the chin-cough, leanness of the
    body, thirst, madness, and mad babblings, he will come down at
    half-past seven, and accept the offerings made to him.

    These are the marks of the devil _Maha-Sohon_: three marks on the
    head, one mark on the eye-brow and on the temple; three marks on the
    belly, a shining moon on the thigh, a lighted torch on the head, an
    offering and a flower on the breast. The chief god of the
    burying-place will say, May you live long!

    Make the figure of the _planets_ called the emblem of the _great
    burying-place_, as follows: a spear grasped by the right-hand, an
    elephant's figure in the left-hand, and in the act of drinking the
    blood of the elephant by bruising its proboscis.

    Tip the point of the spear in the hand with blood, pointed towards
    the elephant's face in the left-hand. These effigies and offerings
    take and offer in the burying-place,--discerning well the sickness
    by means of the devil-dancer.

    Make a figure of the _wolf_ with a large breast, full of hairs on
    the body, and with long teeth separated from each other. The effigy
    of the _Maha-Sohon_ was made formerly so.

    These are the sicknesses which the great devil causes by living
    among the tombs: chin-cough, itching of the body, disorders in the
    bowels; windy complaints, dropsy, leanness of the body, weakness and
    consumptions.

    He walks on high upon the lofty stones. He walks on the ground where
    three ways meet. Therefore go not in the roads by night: if you do
    so, you must not expect to escape with your life.

    Make two figures of a goose, one on each side. Make a lion and a dog
    to stand at the left-leg, bearing four drinking-cups on four
    paws--and make a moon's image, and put it in the burying-place.

    Comb the hair, and tie up a large bunch with a black string. Put
    round the neck a cobra-capella, and dress him in the garments by
    making nine folds round the waist. He stands on a rock eating men's
    flesh. The persons that were possessed with devils are put in the
    burying-place.

    Put a corpse at the feet, taking out the intestines through the
    mouth. The principal thing for this country, and for the Singhalese,
    is the worship of the planets.[55]

In the centre of the island is the kingdom of Kandy; naturally fortified
by impervious forests, and long independent. This creates a variety; the
Kandyans being somewhat ruder than the other Singhalese. It is not,
however, an important one. The really important ethnology of Ceylon is
that of the _Vaddahs_, in the eastern districts, inland of Battacaloa.
They are still unmodified by either the Hindú habits, or the great
Indian creeds,--the true analogues of the Khonds, and Kóls, and Bhils,
&c. Their language, however, is Singhalese; an important fact, since it
denotes one of two phenomena,--either the antiquity of the conquest of
Ceylon supposing the extension of the Singhalese language to have been
gradual, or the thorough-going character of it, if it be recent.

Who were the _Padæi_ of the following extract from
Herodotus?[56]--"Other Indians there are, who live east of these. They
are nomads, eaters of raw flesh; and called Padæi. They are said to have
the following customs. Whenever one of their countrymen is sick, whether
man or woman, he is killed. The males kill the males, and amongst these
the most intimate acquaintance kill their nearest friends; for they say
that for a man to be wasted by disease is for their own meat to be
spoilt. The man denies that he ails; but they, not letting him have his
own way, kill and feast on him. If a female be sick, the women that are
most intimate with her treat her as the males do the men. They sacrifice
and feast upon all who arrive at old age. Few, however, go thus far,
since they kill every one who falls sick before he reaches that stage of
life."

Name for name, the _Vaddahs_ of Ceylon have a claim to be _Padæi_.
Besides which they are Indian.

But, name for name, the _Battas_[57] of Sumatra have a claim as well;
and although they are not exactly Indian, they are cannibals of the sort
in question--or, at any rate, cannibals in a manner quite as remarkable.

This gives us a conflict of difficulties. The solution of them lies in
the fact of neither _Vaddah_ nor _Batta_ being _native_ names; a fact
which leaves us a liberty to suppose that the _Padæi_ of Herodotus were
simply some wild Indian tribe sufficiently allied in manners to the
_Vaddahs_ of Ceylon, and the _Battas_ of Sumatra, to be called by the
same name, but without being necessarily either the one or the other; or
even ethnologically connected with either.

       *       *       *       *       *

Now look at the _gipsies_ of Great Britain. They are wanderers without
fixed habitations; whilst, at the same time, they are more abundant in
some parts of the island than others. They have no very definite
occupation; yet they are oftener tinkers and tinmen than aught else
equally legal. They intermarry with the English but little. All this is
_caste_, although we may not exactly call it so. Then, again, they have
a peculiar language, although it is so imperfectly known to the majority
of the British gipsies, as to have become well-nigh extinct.[58] These
gipsies are of Indian origin, and a wandering tribe of Hindostan, called
Sikligurs, reminded Mr. Pickering of the European gipsies more than any
other Indians he fell in with. Like these, the Sikligurs are _coves_, or
tinkers.

This, however, is by the way. Although it is as well to make a note of
the Indian extraction of the English and other European gipsies, it is
not for this reason that they have been mentioned. They find a place
here for the sake of illustrating what is meant by the _wandering tribes
of India_, whilst at the same time they throw a slight illustration over
the nature of _castes_. Lastly, they are essentially parts of an
ethnological investigation--ethnological rather than either social or
political. Their characteristics are referable to a difference of
descent; and they are tinkers, wanderers, poachers, and smugglers, not
so much because they are either gipsies, or Indians, as because they are
of a different stock from the English. They are foreigners in the
fullest sense of the term; and they differ from their fellow-citizens
just as the Jew does--though less advantageously.

Now India swarms with the analogues of the English gipsy; so much so as
to make it likely that the latter is found as far from his original
country as Wales and Norway, simply because he is a vagabond, not
because he is an Indian.

Of the chief of the tribes in question a good account is given by Mr.
Balfour. This list, however, which is as follows, may be enlarged.

1. The _Gohur_ are, perhaps, better known under the name of _Lumbarri_,
and better still as the _Brinjarri_, the bullock-drivers of many parts
of India, but more especially of the Dekhan. They are corn-merchants as
well. Their organization consists of divisions called _Tandas_, at the
head of which is a _Naek_. Two Naeks paramount over the rest, reside
permanently at Hyderabad, on the confines of the Mahratta and Telugu
countries. The bullock, _Hatadia_, devoted to the God _Balajee_, is an
object of worship. In a long line of Brinjarri met by Mr. Pickering,[59]
one of the females was carrying a dog, which neither a Hindú nor a Parsi
would have done. Many of them are Sikhs. There are, certainly, three
divisions of the Gohuri--the Chouhane,[60] the Rhatore, and the Powar,
and probably--

_The Purmans_ are another branch of them; consisting of about
seventy-five families of agriculturists on the Bombay islets.

2. _The Bhowri_, called also _Hirn-shikarri_ and _Hern-pardi_, though
Bhowri is the native name, are hunters. They also fall into subordinate
divisions.

3. _The Tarremúki_; so-called by themselves, but known in the Dekhan as
_Ghissaris_, or _Bail-Kumbar_, and amongst the Mahrattas, as _Lohars_,
are blacksmiths.

4. _The Korawi_, fall in tribes which neither eat with each other, nor
intermarry, _viz._:--

_a._ The Bajantri, who are musicians.

_b._ The Teling--basket-makers and prostitutes.

_c._ The Kolla.

_d._ The Soli.

5. _The Bhattu_, _Dummur_, or _Kollati_, are exorcists and exhibitors of
feats of strength.

6. _The Muddikpur_, so called by themselves, though known under several
other names, follow a variety of employments; some being ferrymen.

All these tribes wander about the country without any permanent home,
speak a peculiar dialect with a considerable proportion of
Non-Sanskritic words, and preserve certain peculiarities of creed;
though in different degrees--the Muddikpur being wholly or nearly pagan,
the Tarremúki Brahminic.

The wandering life of these, and other similar tribes is not, by itself,
sufficient to justify us in separating them from the other Hindús. But
it does not stand alone. The fragments of an earlier paganism, and the
fragments of an earlier language are phenomena which must be taken in
conjunction with it. These suggest the likelihood of the Gohuri, the
Bhatti, and their like, being in the same category with the Khonds and
Bhils, &c., _i.e._, representatives of the earlier and more exclusively
Tamulian populations. If the gipsy language of England had, instead of
its Indian elements, an equal number of words from the original
British, it would present the same phenomena, and lead to the same
inference as that which is drawn from the Bhatti, Bhowri, Tarremúki, and
Gohuri vocabularies,[61] _viz._: the doctrine that fragments of the
original population are to be sought for amongst the wanderers over the
face of the country, as well as among the occupants of its mountain
strongholds.

       *       *       *       *       *

In a country like India, where differences of habit, business,
extraction, and creed, are accompanied by an inordinate amount of
separation between different sections and subsections of its population,
and where slight barriers of diverse kinds prevent intermixture, the
different sects of its numerous religions requires notice. This,
however, may be short. As sectarianism is generally in the direct ratio
to the complexity of the creed submitted to section, we may expect to
find the forms of Brahminism and Buddhism, not less numerous than those
of either Christianity or Mahometanism. And such is really the case. The
sects are too numerous to enlarge upon. The Sikh creed has been noticed
from its political importance. That of the Jains is also remarkable,
since it most closely resembles Buddhism, without being absolutely
Buddhist in the current sense of the word. It is, possibly, the actual
and original Buddhism of the continent of India--supposed to have been
driven out bodily by Brahminism, but really with the true vitality of
persecuted creeds, still surviving in disguise. Again, in India, though
in a less degree than in China, Philosophy replaces belief--so much so,
that the different forms of one negation--Natural Religion--must be
classed amongst the creeds of Hindostan; by the side of which there
stand many kinds of simple philosophy; just as was the case in ancient
Greece, where, in one and the same city, there were the philosophers of
the Academy and the believers in Zeus.

There is, then, creed within creed in the two great religions of
India--to say nothing about the numerous fragments of modified and
unmodified paganism.

And besides these there are the following introduced religions--each
coinciding, more or less, with some ethnological division.

1. Christianity from, at least, four different sources--

_a._ That of the Christians of Thomas on the Malabar Coast. Here the
doctrine is that of the Syrian Church, and the population being
_perhaps_ (?) Persian in origin.

_b._ The Romanism of the French and Portuguese; the latter having its
greatest development in the Mahratta country, about Goa.

_c._ Dutch and Danish Protestantism.

_d._ English and American Protestantism. To which add small infusions of
the Armenian and Abyssinian churches.

Of these it is only the Christians of St. Thomas that are of much
ethnological importance.

2. Judaism on the coast of Malabar; or the Judaism of the so-called
_Black Jews_.

3. Parseeism in Gujerat; of Persian origin, and, probably, nearly
confined to individuals of Persian blood.

4. Mahometanism.

       *       *       *       *       *

Of foreign blood there are numerous infusions.

1. _Arab._--On the western coast, more especially amongst the Moplahs of
the neighbourhood of Goa; where the stock seems to be Arabian on the
father's, and Indian on the mother's side.

2. _Persian._--Amongst the Parsees and Saint Thomas Christians (?); and,
far more unequivocally, and in greater proportions, amongst the _Moghul_
families--these being always more or less Persian; but Persian with such
heterogeneous intermixtures of Turk and Mongol blood besides as to make
analysis almost impossible.

3. _Afghan._--The Rohillas of Rohilcund are Afghan in origin; so are the
Patani--indeed, the term _Patan_ means an Afghan of Hindostan wherever
he may be.

4. _Jewish._

5, 6, 7.--_Chinese_, _Malay_, _Burmese_, &c.

8. _European._

Of the _Indians out of India_, by far the most are--

1. The _Gipsies_.

2. The _Banians_, who are the Hindú traders of Arabia, Persia, Cashmir,
and other parts of the East.

3. The _Hill Coolies_, individuals of the Khond and Kúli class, upon
whom England is trying the experiment of what may end in a revival of
the old crimping system, as a substitute for slave-labour in our
intertropical colonies.

       *       *       *       *       *

Such is a sketch of the ethnology of India; pre-eminently complex, but
not pre-eminently mysterious; its chief problems being--

1. The general ethnological relations of the Tamulian stock.

2. Those of the intrusive Brahminical Hindús.

3. The relation of the intrusive population to the aboriginal.[62]


FOOTNOTES:

[41] "Transactions of Philological Society," No. 94.

[42] Latin _nurus_, from _snurus_.

[43] Latin _socer_, Greek ἕκυρος.

[44] Latin _socrus_, Greek ἕκυρα.

[45] Latin _levir_ (_devir_), Greek δαηρ.

[46] Or _that_, _this_.

[47] The full exposition of this doctrine is in the present writer's
ethnological edition of the "Germania" of Tacitus; v. _Æstyi_.

[48] Taken from the Appendix to Captain Cunningham's "History of the
Sikhs."

[49] Captain Postans, in "Transactions of Ethnological Society," who,
along with Sir H. Pottinger, is my chief authority.

[50] For a description of these parts see Major Edwardes' "Year on the
Punjâb Frontier."

[51] The best account of the Brahúi is to be found in Sir H. Pottinger's
Travels.

[52] In the sixth century, B.C. according to the Buddhist chronology.

[53] Such, at least, is the opinion of the author of "Christianity in
Ceylon," Sir E. Tennent.

[54] Names explained in Chapter iii.

[55] From Callaway's "Translation of the _Kolán Nattannawa_."

[56] Book iii. §. 99.

[57] The same, probably, is the case with the BIDI of Java.

[58] From this language, I imagine that the three following words have
come into the English--two of them being slang and one a sporting
term--_rum_, _cove_, _jockey_.

[59] "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," No. 145.

[60] These names introduce a difficulty: They are _Rajpút_ as well.

[61] All of which may be found in the paper already quoted; and all of
which contain numerous Tamul roots.

[62] Since this was written Major-General Briggs' valuable paper on the
_Aboriginal Tribes of India_, has been published in "Transactions of the
British Association," &c., for 1851. Having been seen in MS. by the
present writer it has been freely used.




CHAPTER V.

    BRITISH DEPENDENCIES IN THE MALAYAN PENINSULA.--THE OCEANIC STOCK
    AND ITS DIVISIONS.--THE MALAY, SEMANG, AND DYAK TYPES.--THE ORANG
    BINUA.--JAKUNS.--THE BIDUANDA KALLANG.--THE ORANG SLETAR.--THE
    SARAWAK TRIBES.--THE NEW ZEALANDERS.--THE AUSTRALIANS.--THE
    TASMANIANS.


Our isolated and small settlements in the Malayan Peninsula,[63] the
depôt at Labuan, Sir James Brooke's Rajahship of Sarawak, New Zealand,
the joint protectorate of the Sandwich Islands and Tahiti, Australia,
and Van Dieman's Land, bring us to a new division of the human species,
which is conveniently called the _Oceanic_.

Its divisions and subdivisions are as follows:--

                         { PROTONESIANS { MICRONESIANS
         { AMPHINESIANS -{ POLYNESIANS -{ POLYNESIANS
         {               { MALAGASI     {   PROPER
 OCEANIC-{
         {               { PAPUANS
         { KELÆNONESIANS-{ AUSTRALIANS
                         { TASMANIANS.

Our settlements are limited to the Protonesian, Proper Polynesian,
Australian, and Tasmanian sections: and we have no political authority
over any of the Malagasi, Micronesians, or Papuans.

With the exception of the occupants of the Malayan Peninsula, all the
Oceanic population occupy islands. This explains the term _Oceanic_.

Their _distribution_ is as remarkable as their _extension_. The
Amphinesian[64] stream of population, originating in the peninsula of
Malacca, is continued through Borneo, the Moluccas, and the Philippines,
Lord North's Island, Sonsoral, the Pelew group, the Caroline and
Marianne Isles, the Ralik and Radack chains, the Kingsmill group and the
Gilbert and Scarborough Islands, to the Navigators', Society, Friendly,
Marquesas, Sandwich, and New Zealand groups; having become _Micronesian_
rather than _Protonesian_, after passing the Philippines, and _Proper
Polynesian_ rather than _Micronesian_, after passing the Scarborough and
Gilbert Archipelagoes. In this course it passes _round_ New Guinea and
Australia; in each of which islands the population is Kelænonesian.

The Malay of the Malacca peninsula is no longer either monosyllabic or
uninflectional, although in immediate contact with the southern
dialects of the Siamese. Hence, the transition is abrupt; although by no
means conclusive as to any broad and trenchant line of ethnological
demarcation.

The differences of physical form are less than those of language. No one
has denied that the Malay configuration is a modification of the
Mongolian--_at least in some of its varieties_.

I say _at least in some of its varieties_, because within the narrow
range of the Malaccan peninsula and the island of Borneo we find no less
than three different types. In _Polynesia_ one of these, and in
_Kelænonesia_ another becomes exaggerated--so much so, as to suggest the
idea of a different origin for the populations.

_a._ The _Malays_ are referable to the first type. Mahometans in
religion, they partake of the civilization of the Arab and Indian, and
differ but slightly from the Indo-Chinese nations; the complexion being
dark and the hair straight. The Mahometan Malays, however, are no true
aborigines. They are not only a new people on the peninsula, but they
consider themselves as such; and those occupants which they recognize as
older than themselves, they call _Orang Binua_, or _men of the soil_. Of
these some have a darker complexion and crisper hair than the intruding
population: and when we reach a particular section called--

_b._ The _Semang_, we find them described as having curly, crisp,
matted, and even woolly hair, thick lips, and a black skin. These, like
most of the other _Orang Binua_, are Pagans. Still their language is
essentially Malay; and their physical conformation passes into that of
the Malays by numerous transitions.

_c._ Thirdly, we find in Borneo the _Dyaks_. Many of these are as much
fairer than the Malays as the Semang are darker. Their language,
however, belongs to the Malay class; whilst their religion and
civilization may reasonably be supposed to be that of the Malays
previous to the influences of Brahminism from India, Mahometanism from
Arabia, and the changes effected in their habits, language, and
appearance effected thereby.

It is not too much to say that within the peninsula of Malaya, the
Johore Archipelago, and the island of Borneo, each of these types, and
every intermediate form as well, is to be found.

_Malacca._--The town of Malacca is a town of Mahometan Malays, but I
believe that the eastern parts of Wellesley province are on the frontier
of the _Jokong_, _Jakon_, or _Jakun_. These are _Orang Binua_, or
aborigines--at least as compared with the true Malays.

In the eighth century--I am drawing an illustration from the history of
our own island, and its relations to continental Germany--the
Anglo-Saxons of Great Britain, themselves originally Pagan Germans, took
an interest in the spiritual welfare of the so-called Old Saxons, a
tribe of Westphalia, immediately related to their own continental
ancestors, these Old Saxons having retained their primitive Paganism.
The mission partly succeeded, and partly failed.

Now, if in addition to this partial success of the Anglo-Saxon mission,
there had been a partial Anglo-Saxon colonization as well, and if, side
by side with this, fragments of the old unmodified Paganism had survived
amongst the fens and forests up to the present time, we should have had,
in the relations of England and Germany, precisely what I imagine to
have been the case with the Malayan peninsula and the island of Sumatra.
Like Germany, the peninsula would have supplied the original stock to
the island; but, in the island, that stock would have undergone certain
modifications. With these modifications it would--so to say--have been
_reflected_ back upon the continent--_re_-colonizing the old
mother-country. Now just what the Old Saxons of Westphalia were to the
Anglo-Saxons of the eighth century, are the Jakun to the true Malays.
They differ from them in being something other than Mahometan; _i.e._,
in being nearly what the Mahometan Malays were before their conversion.

The Jakun are Malays, _minus_ those points of Malay civilization which
are referable to the religion of the Koran.

But the Jakun are only a few out of many; a single branch of a great
stem.

The most convenient term for the members in general of this class is
_Orang Binua_--a term already explained.

_The Biduanda Kallang._--The next, then, of the _Orang Binua_ that comes
in contact with a British dependency--many others _not_ thus politically
connected with us being passed over--are the _Biduanda Kallang_ of the
parts about Sincapore. Their present locality is the banks of the most
southern of the rivers of the peninsula, the Pulai. Thither they were
removed when the British took possession of the island of Sincapore; of
which they were previously the joint occupants--joint occupants, because
they shared it with the tribe which will be next mentioned. They were an
_Orang Laut_ in one sense of the word, but not in another. _Orang_ means
_men_ or _people_, and _laut_ means _sea_ in Malay; and the Biduanda
Kallang were boatmen rather than agriculturists. But they were only
freshwater sailors; since, though they lived on the water, they avoided
the open sea. They formerly consisted of one hundred families; but have
been reduced by small-pox to eight.

Their priest or physician is called _bomo_, and he invokes the _hantu_,
or deities, the _anito_ of the Philippine Islanders, the _tii_ of the
Tahitians; and, probably, the _Wandong_ and _Vintana_ of Australia and
Madagascar respectively.

They bury their dead after wrapping the corpse in a mat; and placing on
the grave one cup of woman's milk, one of water, and one of rice; when
they entreat the deceased to seek nothing more from them.

Persons of even the remotest degree of relationship are forbidden to
intermarry.

The accounts of their physical appearance is taken from too few
individuals to justify any generalization. Two, however, of them had the
forehead broader than the cheek-bones, so that the head was pear-shaped.
In a third, it was lozenge-shaped. The head was small, and the face
flat. The lower jaw projected; but not the upper--so that "when viewed
in profile, the features seem to be placed on a straight line, from
which the prominent parts rise very slightly."[65]

_The Orang Sletar._--The original joint-occupants of Sincapore with the
Biduanda Kallang, were the _Orang Sletar_, or _men of the river Sletar_;
differing but little from the former. Of the two families they are the
shyer, and the more squalid; numbering about two hundred individuals and
forty boats. Their dialect is Malay, spoken with a guttural
pronunciation, and with a clipping of the words.

At the birth of a child they have no ceremonies; at marriage a present
of tobacco and rice to the bride's mother confirms the match; at death
the deceased is wrapped in his garments and interred.

Skin diseases and deformities are common; nevertheless, many of their
women are given in marriage to both the Malays and Chinese; but I know
of no account of the mixed progeny.

A low retreating forehead throws the face of the _Orang Sletar_
forwards, though the jaw is rather perpendicular than projecting.[66]

Such are the _Orang Binua_ originally, or at present, in contact with
the small and isolated possessions of the British in the Malayan
peninsula.

Of the proper Malays I have said next to nothing. Excellent works give
full accounts of them;[67] whilst it is not through _them_ that the true
ethnological problems are to be worked.

I believe that when we reach Borneo, the equivalents to the _Orang
Binua_, or the original populations in opposition to the Mahometan
Malays, become referable to a fresh type, and that instead of being
_darker_ than the true Malays they are often _lighter_. At any rate, one
thing is certain, _viz._, that, whether the skin be brown, blackish, or
fair, the language belongs to the same stock.

Again--although in one area the darker tribes may preponderate, it is
not to the absolute exclusion of the fairer. The Dyaks of Borneo are,
generally speaking, light-complexioned; yet, there is special evidence
to the existence of dark tribes in that island. On the other hand there
is equal evidence to the existence of families lighter-skinned than the
true Malays in the peninsula. Nevertheless, as a general rule, the
departure from the type of that population is towards darkness of colour
on the continent, and towards lightness in Borneo.

With what physical conditions these differences coincide is not always
easy to be discerned. In the South Sea Islands, where in one and the
same Archipelago, we find some tribes tall and fair, whereas others are
dark and ill-featured, it has been remarked by Captain Beechy that this
contrast of complexion coincides with the geological structure of the
soil. The lower and more coralline the island, the blacker the
islanders; the more elevated and volcanic, the lighter. In Africa, it is
the low alluvia of rivers that favour the Negro configuration.
Mountains or table-lands, on the other hand, give us red or yellow
skins, rather than sable.

The Dyaks, then, are light-coloured Pagans, speaking languages allied to
the Malay; little touched by Arabic, and less by Hindú influences; with
manners and customs that, more or less, re-appear amongst the Battas (or
ruder tribes of Sumatra), and the so-called Harafuras of Celebes--and
not only here but elsewhere. In other words, in all the islands, where
Indian and Arabic civilization have not succeeded in wholly changing
the primitive character, analogues of the _Orang Binua_ are to be
found; their greatest differences being those of stature and
complexion--differences upon which good judges have laid great stress;
but differences which will probably be found to coincide with certain
geological conditions in the way of physical, and with a lower level of
civilization in the way of moral causes--these moral causes having
indirectly a physical action.

The Dyaks, in general, use the _sumpitan_, or blow-pipe, about five feet
long; out of which some tribes shoot simple, others poisoned arrows. The
utmost distance that the sumpitan carries is about one hundred yards. At
twenty it is sure in its aim. The differences between the Dyak weapon,
and one in use with the Arawaks of Guiana is but trifling--perhaps it
amounts to nothing at all.

Some Dyak tribes tattoo their bodies; others do not.

Before a Dyak youth marries he must lay at the feet of the bride-elect
the head of an enemy. This makes _head-hunting_ a normal item of Dyak
courtship.

Traces of the Indian mythology--measures of the Indian influence in
other respects--just exist amongst the Dyaks--_e.g._, _Battara_ is a
name in their Pantheon, and this is an alteration of the Brahminic
_Avatar_.

The pirates who harass the coasts of Borneo and the Chinese
Seas--destined, at some future time to be, like the Kaffres, but too
well-known to the English tax-payers--are Malays rather than _Orang
Binua_, or their equivalents; the navigation of the Dyaks being chiefly
confined to rivers.

The particular tribes of Sarawak are the following--the Lundu, the
Sarambo, the Singé, the Suntah, the Sow, and the Sibnow. It is almost
unnecessary to name the great fountain-head for all our recent knowledge
of Borneo--Sir James Brooke.

The Dyak type predominates amongst the _Orang Binua_ of Borneo. In the
Philippines the Semang complexion re-appears. But the prolongation of
the eastward line of migration takes us through the Mariannes and
Ladrones to Polynesia; and here the magnitude of the islands decreases;
in other words, the influences of the sea-air become greater. The
aliment becomes almost wholly vegetable. The separation from the
civilizational influences of Asia amounts to absolute isolation. Of the
general ethnology of the South Sea Islanders I say nothing. The reasons
which took me over China, Arabia, and the Malayan peninsula, _sicco
pede_, spare the necessity of details here.

In the Sandwich Islands there is a constitution. In Tahiti, a school of
native Christian Missionaries.

New Zealand exhibits the contrast between the darker and
lighter-coloured Oceanic populations in so remarkable a manner as to
have engendered the notion that two stocks occupy the island. If it were
so, the fact would be remarkable and mysterious. How _one_ population
found its way to a locality so distant is by no means an easy question;
whilst the assumption of a second family of immigrants just doubles its
difficulty.[68]

       *       *       *       *       *

In Java the proper Malay influences have been so great as to leave but
few traces of the _Orang Binua_; and, earlier even than these, those of
India were actively at work.

East of Bali, however, the _Orang Binua_ re-appear, and here the type is
that of the Semangs. From Ombay, parts of Ende, and parts of Sumbawa, we
have short vocabularies--short, but not too scanty to set aside the
hasty, but accredited, assertion of the Australian language, having
nothing in common with those of the Indian Archipelago.[69]

I feel as satisfied that Australia was peopled from either Timor or
Rotti, as I do about the Gallic origin of the ancient Britons.

I believe this because the geographical positions of the countries
suggest it.

I believe it, because the older and more aboriginal populations of Timor
and Rotti approach, in physical character, the Australian.

I believe it, because the proportion of words in the vocabularies
alluded to is greater than can be attributed to accident; whilst the
words themselves are not of that kind which is introduced by
intercourse. Besides which, no such intercourse either occurs at the
present moment, or can be shown to have ever existed.

Australia agrees with parts of Africa, South America, and Polynesia, in
being partially intertropical and wholly south of the equator--no part
of continental Asia or Europe coming under these conditions. But it
differs from Polynesia in being continental rather than insular in
climate; from South America in the absence of great rivers and vast
alluvial tracts; and from Africa in being wholly isolated from the
Northern Hemisphere. It is with South Africa, however, that its closest
analogies exist. Both have but small water-systems; both vast tracts of
elevated barren country; and both a distinctive vegetation. The animal
kingdoms, however, of the two areas have next to nothing in common. The
comparative non-existence of Australian mammalia, higher in rank than
the marsupials, is a subject for the zoologist. Ethnology only indicates
its bearing upon the sustenance of man. Poor in the vegetable elements
of food, and beggarly in respect to the animal, the vast continental
expanse of Australia supports the scantiest aboriginal population of the
world, and nourishes it worst. The steppes of Asia feed the horse; the
_tundras_, the reindeer; the circumpolar icebergs, the seal; and each of
these comparatively inhospitable tracts is more kindly towards its
Mongolian, its Samoeid, and its Eskimo occupant, than Australia with its
intertropical climate, but wide and isolated deserts.

Except that his hair (which is often either straight, or only crisp or
wavy) has not attained its _maximum_ of frizziness, and has seldom or
never been called _woolly_, the Australian is a Semang under a South
African climate, on a South African soil, and with more than a South
African isolation.

Few Australians count as far as five, and fewer still beyond it. This
paucity of numerals is South American as well--the Brazilian and Carib,
and other systems of numeration being equally limited.

The sound of _s_ is wanting in the majority of Australian languages. So
it is in many of the Polynesian.

The social constitution is of extreme simplicity. Many degrees removed
from the industrial, almost as far from the agricultural state, the
Australian is hardly even a hunter--except so far as the kangaroo or
wombat are beasts of chase. Families--scarcely large enough to be called
tribes or clans--wander over wide but allotted areas. Nowhere is the
approach to an organized polity so imperfect.

This makes the differences between section and section of the Australian
population, both broad and numerous. Nevertheless, the fundamental unity
of the whole is not only generally admitted, but--what is better--it has
been well illustrated. The researches of Captain Grey, Teichelmann,
Schurrmann, and others, have chiefly contributed to this.

The appreciation of certain apparent characteristic peculiarities has
been less satisfactory; differences having been over-rated and points of
similarity wondered at rather than investigated.

The well-known instrument called the _boomerang_ is Australian, and it
is, perhaps, exclusively so.

Circumcision is an Australian practice--a practice common to certain
Polynesians and Negroes, besides--to say nothing of the Jews and
Mahometans.

The recognition of the _maternal_ rather than the _paternal_ descent is
Australian. Children take the name of their mother. What other points it
has in common with the Malabar polyandria has yet to be ascertained.

When an Australian dies, those words which are identical with his name,
or (in case of compounds) with any part of it, cease to be used; and
some synonym is adopted instead; just as if, in England, whenever a Mr.
_Smith_ departed this life, the parish to which he belonged should cease
to talk of _blacksmiths_, and say _forgemen_, _forgers_, or something
equally respectful to the deceased, instead. This custom re-appears in
Polynesia, and in South America; Dobrizhoffer's account of the
Abiponian custom being as follows:--The "Abiponian language is involved
in new difficulties by a ridiculous custom which the savages have of
continually abolishing words common to the whole nation, and
substituting new ones in their stead. Funeral rites are the origin of
this custom. The Abipones do not like that anything should remain to
remind them of the dead. Hence appellative words bearing any affinity
with the names of the deceased are presently abolished. During the first
years that I spent amongst the Abipones, it was usual to say _Hegmalkam
kahamátek_, when will there be a slaughtering of oxen? On account of the
death of some Abipon, the word _Kahamátek_ was interdicted, and, in its
stead, they were all commanded by the voice of a crier to say,
_Hegmalkam négerkatà?_ The word _nihirenak_, a tiger, was exchanged for
_apanigehak_; _peû_, a crocodile, for _Kaeprhak_, and _Kaáma_,
Spaniards, for _Rikil_, because these words bore some resemblance to the
names of Abipones lately deceased. Hence it is that our vocabularies are
so full of blots occasioned by our having such frequent occasions to
obliterate interdicted words, and insert new ones."

The following custom is Australian, and it belongs to a class which
should always be noticed when found. This is because it appears and
re-appears in numerous parts of the world, in different forms, and,
apparently, independent of ethnological affinities.

A family selects some natural object as its symbol, badge, or armorial
bearing.

All natural objects of the same class then become sacred; _i.e._, the
family which has adopted, respects them also.

The modes of showing this respect are various. If the object be an
animal, it is not killed; if a plant, not plucked.

The native term for the object thus chosen is _Kobong_.

A man cannot marry a woman of the same _Kobong_.

Until we know the sequence of the cause and effect in the case of the
Australian _Kobong_, we have but little room for speculation as to its
origin. Is the plant or animal adopted by a particular family selected
because it was previously viewed with a mysterious awe, or is it
invested with the attributes of sacro-sanctity because it has been
chosen by the family? This has yet to be investigated.

Meanwhile, as Captain Gray truly remarks, the Australian _Kobong_ has
elements in common with the Polynesian _tabu_! Might he not have added
that the _names_ are probably the same? The change from _t_ to _k_, and
the difference between a nasal and a vowel termination, are by no means
insuperable objections.

He also adds that it has a counterpart with the American system of
_totem_; although the exact degree to which the comparison runs on all
fours is undetermined.

But the disuse of certain words on the death of kinsmen, and the
_Kobong_ are not the only customs common to the Australian and American.

The admission to the duties and privileges of manhood is preceded by a
probation. What this is in the Mandan tribe of the Sioux Americans, and
the extent to which it consists in the infliction and endurance of
revolting and almost incredible cruelties, may be seen in Mr. Catlin's
description--the description of an eye-witness. In Australia it is the
_Babu_ that cries for the youths that have arrived at puberty. Suddenly,
and at night, a cry is heard in the woods. Upon hearing this, the men of
the neighbourhood take the youths to a secluded spot previously fixed
upon. The ceremony then takes place. Sham fights, dances, partial
mutilations of the body, _e.g._, the knocking out of a front tooth, are
elements of it. And this is as much as is known of it; except that from
the time of initiation to the time of marriage, the young men are
forbidden to speak to, or even approach a female.

Surely, it is the common conditions of a hunter life which determine
these probationary preparations for the hardships which accompany it in
populations so remote as the Australian and the American of the prairie.
I say of the prairie, because we shall find that in the proportion as
the agricultural state replaces the erratic habits of the hunter,
ceremonies of the sort in question decrease both in number and
peculiarity of character.

A third regulation forbids the use of the more enviable articles of
diet, like fish, eggs, the emu, and the choicer sorts of opossum and
kangaroo to the Australian youth.

All that is known of the Australian religion is due to the researches of
the United States Exploring Expedition. The most specific fact in this
respect is the name _Wandong_ as applied to the evil spirit. I believe
this to be truly a word belonging to the Oceanic Pantheon in general,
and--as stated above--to be the same as _Vintana_ in Malagasi, and as
the root _anit_ in many of the Polynesian languages.

_The Tasmanians._--A few families, the remains of the aborigines of Van
Dieman's Land, occupy Flinder's Island, whither they have been removed.

I can give but little information concerning them.

From the Australians they differ but slightly in mental capacity, and
civilizational development. Perhaps their very low level in this
respect is the lower of the two.

The language seems to have fallen into not less than four mutually
unintelligible forms of speech.

Their _hair_ constituted their chief physical difference. This was
curled, frizzy, or mopped.

The _a priori_ view of their origin is that they crossed Torres Straits
from Australia. I have, however, stated elsewhere that a case may be
made out for either Timor or New Caledonia being their mother countries;
in which case the stream of population has gone _round_ Australia rather
than _across_ it. Certain peculiarities of the Tasmanian language give
us the ground for thus demurring to the _primâ facie_ view of their
descent. The same help us to account for the differences in texture of
the hair.[70]


FOOTNOTES:

[63] Malacca, Wellesley Province, Penang, and Sincapore. For excellent
information about the ethnology of these parts see Newbold's "British
Settlements," and the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago."

[64] From ἀμφὶ (_amfi_) _roundabout_, and νῆσος (_næsos_) _an island_.

[65] Logan in "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," vol. i.

[66] Logan and Thompson in "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," vol. i.

[67] Especially Crawfurd's "Indian Archipelago," Sir Stamford Raffles'
"History of Java," and Marsden's "Sumatra."

[68] Dr. Dieffenbach's work on New Zealand is the repertory of details
here--a valuable and standard book.

[69] The collation of these may be seen in the Appendix to Mr. Jukes'
"Voyage of the Fly."

[70] In the Appendix to Jukes' "Voyage of the Fly," and in "Man and his
Migrations."




CHAPTER VI.

DEPENDENCIES IN AMERICA.

    THE ATHABASKANS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COUNTRY.--THE ALGONKIN
    STOCK.--THE IROQUOIS.--THE SIOUX.--ASSINEBOINS.--THE ESKIMO.--THE
    KOLÚCH.--THE NEHANNI.--DIGOTHI.--THE ATSINA.--INDIANS OF BRITISH
    OREGON, QUADRA'S AND VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.--HAIDAH.--CHIMSHEYAN.--
    BILLICHULA.--HAILTSA.--NUTKA.--ATNA.--KITUNAHA INDIANS.--PARTICULAR
    ALGONKIN TRIBES.--THE NASCOPI.--THE BETHUCK.--NUMERALS FROM
    FITZ-HUGH SOUND.--THE MOSKITO INDIANS.--SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS OF
    BRITISH GUIANA.--CARIBS.--WAROWS.--WAPISIANAS.--TARUMAS.--CARIBS OF
    ST. VINCENT.--TRINIDAD.


_The Athabaskans._--The best starting-point for the ethnology of the
British dependencies in America is the water-system of the largest of
the rivers which empty themselves into the Polar Sea, a system which
comprises the Rivers Peel, Dahodinni, and the Rivière aux Liards,
tributaries to the McKenzie, as well as the Great Bear Lake, the Great
Slave Lake, and Lake Athabaska; a vast tract, and one which is _almost_
wholly occupied by a population belonging to one and the same class; a
class sometimes known under the name _Chepewyan_, or _Chepeyan_,
sometimes under that of _Athabaskan_.

The water-system in question forms the centre of the great Athabaskan
area--the centre, but not the whole. _Eastward_, there are Athabaskan
tribes as far as the coasts of Hudson's Bay; westwards as far as the
immediate neighbourhood of the Pacific; and southwards as far as the
head-waters of the Saskatchewan. Full nineteen-twentieths of the
Athabaskan population, in respect to its political relations, is
British; all that is not British being either Russian or American. To
this we may add, that it is the Hudson's Bay territory rather than
Canada to which the British Athabaskans belong.

The divisions and subdivisions of the Athabaskans are as follows:--

1. The _Sí-ísaw-dinni_ (_See-eesaw-dinneh_), or
_rising-sun-men_.--These, generally called either _Chipewyans_, or
_Northern Indians_, are the most eastern members of the family, and
extend from the mouth of the Churchill River to Lake Athabaska. I
imagine that the _Brushwood_, _Birchrind_, and _Sheep_ Indians are
particular divisions of this branch.

2. _The Beaver Indians._--From the Lake Athabaska to the Rocky Mountain,
_i.e._, the valley of the Peace River.

3. The _Daho-dinni_.--On the head-waters of the Rivière aux Liards.
Called also _Mauvais Monde_.

4. The _Strong-Bows_.--Mountaineers of the upper part of the Rocky
Mountains.

5. The _Kancho_.--Called also _Hare_ and _Slave_ Indians. Starved and
miserable occupants of the parts along the River McKenzie between the
Slave and Great Bear Lakes. Accused of occasional cannibalism, justified
by the pressure of famine. Due east of these come--

6. The _Dog-ribs_, and

7. The _Yellow-knives_, on the _Copper River_; these last being also
called the Copper Indians.

8, 9. The _Slaous-cud-dinni_[71] of the McKenzie River is, probably, a
division of some of the other groups rather than a separate substantive
class.

10. The _Takulli_.[72]--These fall into eleven minor tribes or clans.

_a._ The _Taú-tin_; probably the same as the _Naote-tains_.

_b._ The _Tshilko-tin_.

_c._ The _Nasko-tin_.

_d._ The _Thetlio-tin_.

_e._ The _Tsatsno-tin_.

_f._ The _Nulaáu-tin_.

_g._ The _Ntsaáu-tin_.

_h._ The _Natliáu-tin_.

_i._ The _Nikozliáu-tin_.

_j._ The _Tatshiáu-tin_.

_k._ The _Babine_ Indians.

11. The _Susi_ (_Sussees_).--On the head-waters of the Saskatchewan.

New Caledonia is the chief area of the _Takulli_.

Adjacent to them, but to the east of the Rocky Mountains, lie--

12. The _Tsikani_ (_Sicunnies_).

The Athabaskan is the _first_ class in our list; and, if we look only at
the area which its population occupies, it is a great one. All the
Athabaskan languages or dialects are mutually intelligible.

_The Algonkins._--The _second_ class is the Algonkin. It is greater in
every way than the Athabaskan--greater in respect to the number of its
divisions and subdivisions, greater in respect to the ground it covers,
and greater in respect to the range of difference which it embraces. All
the Algonkin languages are not mutually intelligible.

Unlike the Athabaskan the Algonkin stock is nearly equally divided
between the United States and Great Britain.

Unlike, too, the Athabaskan, it is divided between the Canadas and our
other possessions and the Hudson's Bay territory.

The whole of the Canadas, with one small but important exception, the
whole of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward's
Isle, is Algonkin. Labrador and Newfoundland are chiefly Algonkin.

To this stock belonged and belong the extinct and extant Indians of New
England, part of New York, part of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, part of the Carolinas, and part of even Kentucky and
Tennessee; a point of American rather than of British ethnology, but a
point necessary to be noted for the sake of duly appreciating the
magnitude of this stock.

Amongst others, the Pequods, the Mohicans, the Narragansetts, the
Massachuset, the Montaug, the Delaware, the Menomini, the Sauks, the
Ottogamis, the Kikkapús, the Potawhotamis, the Illinois, the Miami, the
Piankeshaws, the Shawnos, &c. belong to this stock--all within the
United States.

The British Algonkins are as follows:--

1. The _Crees_; of which the _Skoffi_ and _Sheshatapúsh_ of Labrador are
branches.

2. The _Ojibways_;[73] falling into--

_a._ The _Ojibways Proper_, of which the _Sauteurs_ are a section.

_b._ The _Ottawas_ of the River Ottawa.

_c._ The original Indians of Lake _Nipissing_; important because it is
believed that the form of speech called _Algonkin_, a term since
extended to the whole class, was their particular dialect. They are now
either extinct or amalgamated with other tribes.

_d._ The _Messisaugis_, to the north of Lake Ontario.

3. The _Micmacs_ of New Brunswick, Gaspé, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and
part of Newfoundland; closely allied to the--

4. _Abnaki_ of Mayne, and the British frontier; represented at present
by the _St. John's Indians_.

5. The _Bethuck_--the aborigines of Newfoundland.

6. The _Blackfoots_, consisting of the--

_a._ _Satsikaa_, or _Blackfoots Proper_.

_b._ The _Kena_, or _Blood Indians_.

_c._ The _Piegan_.

To these must be added numerous extinct tribes.

_The Iroquois._--The single and important exception to the Algonkin
population of the Canadas is made by the existence of certain members of
the great Iroquois class on the New York frontier; a class falling into
two divisions. The _northern_ Iroquois belong to New York and
Pennsylvania, the _southern_ to the Carolinas.

The former of these two falls into two great confederations, and into
several unconfederate tribes.

The chief of the unconfederate tribes are the now extinct _Mynkasar_ and
_Cochnowagoes_--extinct, unless either or both be represented by a small
remnant mentioned by Schoolcraft, in his great work on the Indian
tribes, now in the course of publication, under the sanction of
Congress, as the _St. Regis Indians_.

Of the second confederation the leading members were the _Wyandots_, or
_Hurons_, of the parts between Lakes Simcoe, Huron, and Erie.

The first was that of the famous and formidable _Mohawks_. To these add
the _Senekas_, the _Onondagos_, the _Cayugas_, and the _Oneidas_, and
you have the _Five_ Nations. Then add, as a later accession, from the
southern Iroquois, the _Tuskaroras_, and the _Six_ Nations are formed.

Between these two there was war _even to the knife_; the greater portion
of the Wyandot league belonging to the Algonkin class.

Nevertheless, a few representatives of the whole seven tribes[74] still
remain extant, their present locality--a reserve--being the triangular
peninsula which was the original Huron area.

Again, in the present site of Montreal, the earlier occupants were the
_Hochelaga_; an Iroquois tribe also.

_The Sioux._--In tracing the Nelson River from its embouchure in
Hudson's Bay, towards its source in the Rocky Mountains, we reach Lake
Winnepeg, and the Red River Settlement--the Red River rising within the
boundary of the United States, flowing from south to north, and
receiving, as a feeder, the Assineboin. Now the Valley of the Assineboin
is an interesting ethnological locality.

Either the river takes its name from the population, or the population
from the river; the division to which it belongs being a new one.
Different from the Algonkins on the east, different from the Athabaskans
on the north, and (in the present state of our knowledge) different from
the Arrapahoes on the west, the Assineboins have all their affinities
southwards. In that direction the family to which they belong extends as
far as Louisiana. These Indians it is to whom nine-tenths of the Valley
of Missouri originally belonged--the Indians of the great Sioux class;
Indians whose original hunting-grounds included the vast prairie-country
from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi, and who again appear as an
isolated detachment on Lake Michigan. These isolated Sioux are the
Winebagoes; the others being the Dahcota, the Yankton, the Teton, the
Upsaroka, the Mandan, the Minetari, the Missouri, the Osage, the Konzas,
the Ottos, the Omahaws, the Puncas, the Ioways, and the Quappas,--all
American, _i.e._, belonging to the United States.

None of the Sioux tribe come in contact with the sea. None of them
belong to the great _forest_ districts of America. Most of them hunt
over the country of the buffalo. This makes them warlike, migratory
hunters; with fewer approaches to agricultural or industrial
civilization than any Indians equally favoured by soil and climate.

Of this class the Assineboins are the British representatives. They are
the chief _Red River_ aborigines.

It is the Iroquois, the Sioux, and certain members of the Algonkin
stock, upon which the current and popular notions of the American
Indian, the _Red Man_, as he is called--

    The Stoic of the woods, the man without a tear, &c.,

have been formed. The Athabaskans, on the other hand, have not
contributed much to our notions on this point. In the first place, they
are less known; in the next, they are less typical.

But this raises their value in the eyes of the ethnologist; and the very
fact of their possessing certain characteristics, in a comparatively
slight degree, makes them all the fitter for illustrating the phenomena
of _transition_.

Previous, however, to this, we must get our other _extreme_. This is to
be found in the ethnology of--

_The Eskimo._--It is a very easy matter for an artistic ethnologist to
make some fine light-and-shade contrasts between two populations, where
he has an Iroquois or a Sioux at one end, and an Eskimo of Labrador at
the other. An oblique eye, bleared and sore from the glare of the snow,
with a crescentic fold overshadowing the _caruncula lacrymalis_,
surmounted by a low forehead and black shaggy locks, with cheek-bones of
such inordinate development as to make the face as broad as it is long,
are elements of ugliness which catch the imagination, and produce a
caricature, where we want a picture. And they are elements of ugliness
which can be accumulated. We may add to them, a nose so flat, and cheeks
so fleshy, as for a ruler, placed across the latter, to leave the former
untouched. We may then notice the state of the teeth, from the
mastication of injurious substances; and having thus exhausted nature,
we may revert to the deformities of art. We may observe that wherever
there is a fleshy portion of the face that can be perforated by a stone
knife, or pierced by a whalebone, there will be tattooing and incisions;
and that wherever there are incisions, bones, nails, feathers, and such
like ornaments will be inserted. All this is the case. What European
ladies do with their ears, the Eskimo does with the cartilage of his
nose, the lips, the corners of his mouth, and the cheeks. More than
this--in the lower lip, parallel to the mouth, and taking the guise of a
mouth additional, a slit is made quite through the lip, large enough to
allow the escape of spittle and the protrusion of the tongue. The
insertion of a shell or bone, cut into the shape of teeth, completes the
adornment.

Then comes the question of colour. The Indian has a tinge of red; a
tinge which enables us to compare his skin to _copper_. The Eskimo is
simply brown, swarthy, or tawny.

Again, the Eskimo hold periodical fairs. Whales are scarce in the south,
and wood in the north of Greenland; and in consequence of this, there
are regular meetings for the business of barter. This gives us the
elements of commercial industry; elements which must themselves be taken
in conjunction with the maritime habits of the people. What stronger
contrast can we find to all this than the gloomy isolation of the
hunters of the prairie-countries, whether Sioux, Iroquois, or Algonkin?

Again, it is safe, in the way of intellectual capacity, to give the
Eskimo credit for ingenuity and imitativeness. The Indian, of the type
which we have chosen to judge him by, is pre-eminently indocile and
inflexible.

Yet all this, with much more besides, is capable of great
qualification--qualification which we find necessary, whether we look to
the extent to which the Eskimos approach the Indian, or the Indian the
Eskimo--each receding from its own more extreme representative.

The prominence of the nasal bones is certainly common amongst the Red
Indian tribes; and rare amongst the Eskimo. Yet it is neither universal
in the one, nor non-existent in the other. Oval features, a mixture of
red in the complexion, an aquiline nose, have all been observed amongst
the more favoured of the Circumpolar men and women.

In respect, too, to stature, the Eskimo is less remarkable for
inferiority than is generally supposed. His bulky, baggy dress makes him
look square and short. Measurements, however, correct this impression.
Men of the height of five feet ten inches have been noticed as
particular specimens--better grown individuals than their fellows. And
men under five feet have also been noticed for the contrary reasons.
Numerous measurements, however, give about five feet as the height of an
Eskimo woman, and five feet six inches as that of a man. This is more
than so good an authority as Mr. Crawfurd gives to the Malays; whose
person is squat, and whose average stature does not exceed five feet
three or four inches. It is more, too, than Sir R. Schomburgk gives the
Guiana Indians, as may be seen from the following table:--

 +---------------+-------+-------------+
 |               | Aged. | ft.   in.   |
 +---------------+-------+-------------+
 | _Wapisianas._ |  12   |  4   8-5/10 |
 |               |  15   |  4   6      |
 |               |  16   |  5   1-1/10 |
 +---------------+-------+-------------+
 | _Tarumas._    |  14   |  4  11-3/10 |
 +---------------+-------+-------------+
 | _Mawackas._   |  15   |  4  10      |
 |               |  16}  |  4   9-5/10 |
 |               |  17}  |             |
 +---------------+-------+-------------+
 | _Atorais._    |  35   |  5   1-5/10 |
 |               |  15   |  5   1      |
 +---------------+-------+-------------+
 | _Macusis._    |  14}  |  4   8      |
 |               |  15}  |             |
 |               |  14   |  5   0      |
 +---------------+-------+-------------+

It is more than the average of several other populations.

Neither is the Eskimo skull so wholly different from the American. It
is, probably, larger in its dimensions; so that its cavity contains more
cubic inches. The measurements, however, which suggest this view, are
but few. On the other hand, the relations between the _width_ and the
_depth_ of the skull, are considered important and distinctive.

By _width_ is meant the number of inches from side to side, from one
parietal bone to the other; in other words, the _parietal diameter_.

_Depth_ signifies the length of the _occipito-frontal_ diameter, or the
number of inches from the forehead to the back of the skull.

Now, in one out of four of the Eskimo crania examined by Dr. Morton, the
parietal diameter so nearly approaches the occipito-frontal as for the
skull in question to be as much as 5·4 inches in width, and as little as
5·7 in depth; a measurement which makes the Eskimo brain almost as
broad as it is long. _Valeat quantum._ It is an extreme specimen. The
remainder are as 5·5 to 7·3; as 5·1 to 7·5; and as 5 to 6·7, proportions
by no means exclusively Eskimo, and proportions which occur in very many
of the undeniably American stocks.

Likeness there is; and variety there is;--likeness in physical feature,
likeness in language, and likeness in the general moral and intellectual
characteristics. And then there is variety--variety in all the details
of their arts; variety in their bows, their canoes, their dwellings,
their fashions in the way of incisions and tattooings, and their
fashions in the dressing of their hair.

This is as much as can be said about the Eskimo at present. It is,
however, preparatory to the general statement that _all the remaining_
Indians of British North America recede from the Sioux and Iroquois
type, and approach that of the family in question. Such, indeed, has
been the case, though (perhaps) in a less degree, with one of the
classes already considered--the Athabaskan.

_The Kolúch._--The extreme west of the British possessions beyond the
Rocky Mountains, _north_ of latitude 55° is but imperfectly known.
Indeed, for scientific, and, perhaps, for political purposes as well,
the country is unfortunately divided. The Russians have the long but
narrow strip of coast; and, consequently, limit their investigations to
its bays and archipelagoes. The British, on the contrary, though they
possess the interior, have no great interest in the parts about the
Russian boundary. In the way of trade, they are not sufficiently on the
sea for the sea-otter, nor near enough the mountains for other
fur-bearing animals.

Now, the mouth of the Stikin River is Russian, the head-waters British.
Beyond these, we have the water-system of the McKenzie--for that river,
although falling into the Arctic Sea, has a western fork, which breaks
through the barrier of the Rocky Mountains, and changes in direction
from west and south-west to north. Lake Simpson, Lake Dease, and the
River Turnagain belong to this branch; the tract in which they lie being
a range of highlands, if not of mountains.

This is the country of the Nehannis; conterminous on the south with that
of the Takulli, and on the north-east with that of the Dahodinni. How
far, however, it extends towards the Russian boundary and in the
north-west direction I cannot say.

The Nehannis are, probably, the chief British representatives of the
class called Kolúch.[75] Assuming this--although from the want of a
special Nehanni vocabulary, the philological evidence is wanting--I
begin with the notice of the _Nehannis_, as known to the Hudson's Bay
Company, and afterwards superadd a sketch of the _Sitkans_, as known to
the Russians of New Archangel; the two notices together giving us the
special description of a family, and the general view of the class to
which that family belongs.

That the Nehannis are brave, warlike, and turbulent, is no more than is
expected. We are far beyond the latitude of the peaceful Eskimo. That
they are ruled by a woman should surprise us. Such, however, is the
case. A female rules them--and rules them, too, with a rod of iron.
Respect for sex has here attained its height. It had begun to be
recognized amongst the Athabaskans.

The Nehannis are strong enough to rob; but they are also civilized
enough to barter; buying of the inland tribes, and selling to the
Russians--a practice which seems to divert the furs of British territory
to the markets of Muscovy. But this is no business of the ethnologist's.
They are slavers and slave-owners; ingenious and imitative; fond of
music and dancing; fish-eaters; active in body; bold and treacherous in
temper; and with the common Kolúch physiognomy and habits.

_These_ we must collect from the descriptions of the Russian
Kolúches--the locality where they have been best studied being Sitka
Sound, or New Archangel. We must do it, however, _mutatis mutandis_,
_i.e._, remembering that the Sitkans are Kolúch of an Archipelago, the
Nehanni Kolúch of a continent.

The Kolúch complexion is light; the hair long and lank; the eyes black;
and the lip and chin often bearded.

The _Konægi_ are the natives of the island Kadiak. Now Lisiansky, from
whom the chief details of the Sitkan Kolúch are taken, especially states
that, with few exceptions, their manners and customs are those of these
same Konægi; one of the minor points of difference being the greater
liveliness of the Sitkans, and one of the more important ones, their
treatment of the dead. They _burn_ the bodies (as do the Takulli
Athabaskans) and deposit the ashes in wooden boxes placed upon pillars,
painted or carved, more or less elaborately, according to the wealth of
the deceased.

On the death of a _toyon_, or chief, one of his slaves is killed and
burned with him. If, however, the deceased be of inferior rank the
victim is _buried_. If the death be in battle, the head, instead of
being burned, is kept in a wooden box of its own. But it is not with the
shaman as with the warrior. The shaman is merely interred; since he is
supposed to be too full of the evil spirit to be consumed by fire. The
reason why burning is preferred to burying is because the possession of
a piece of flesh is supposed to enable its owner to do what mischief he
pleases.

_Now the Konægi are admitted Eskimo._

Notwithstanding the similarity between the Sitkans and Konægi there is
no want of true American customs amongst them. Cruelty to prisoners,
indifference to pain when inflicted on themselves, and the habit of
scalping are common to the Indians of King George's Archipelago, and
those of the water-system of the Mississippi. On the other hand, they
share the skill in painting and carving with the Chenúks and the
aborigines of the Oregon.

_The Digothi._--The Dahodinni are Athabaskan rather than Kolúch; the
Nehanni Kolúch rather than Athabaskan. Now I imagine that the Dahodinni
country is partially encircled by Kolúch populations, and that a fresh
branch of this stock re-appears when we proceed northwards. On the Lower
McKenzie, in the valley of the Peel River, and at the termination of the
great Rocky Range on the shore of the Polar Sea, we find the _Digothi_
or _Loucheux_; the only family not belonging to the Eskimo class, which
comes in contact with the ocean; and, consequently, the only
unequivocally Indian population which interrupts the continuity of the
Eskimo from Behring's Straits to the Atlantic. Perhaps the alluvium of
a great river like the McKenzie, has determined this displacement. Such
an occupancy would be as naturally coveted by an inland population, as
undervalued by a maritime one. At any rate, the Loucheux have the
appearance of being an encroaching tenantry; indeed, few Indians have
had their physical appearance described in terms equally favourable.
Black-haired and fair-complexioned, with fine sparkling eyes, and
regular teeth, they approach the Nehanni in physiognomy, and surpass
them in stature. The same authority which expressly states that the
Nehanni are not generally tall, speaks to the athletic proportions and
tall stature of the Loucheux; adding that their countenances are
handsome and expressive.

Whence came they? From the south-east, from Russian America. Their
points of contrast to the Eskimo indicate this. Their points of contrast
to the Athabaskans indicate it also. Their points of similarity to the
Kolúch do more. The Loucheux possessive pronoun is the same as the
Kenay. Thus--

 ENGLISH.         LOUCHEUX.    KENAY.

 _My_-son         _se_-jay     _ssi_-ja.
 _My_-daughter    _se_-zay     _ssa_-za.

Fuller descriptions, however, of both the Loucheux and Nehanni are
required before we can decidedly pronounce them to be Kolúch; indeed,
so high an authority as Gallatin places the latter amongst the
Athabaskans.

_The Fall Indians._--In a MS. communicated by Mr. Gallatin to Dr.
Prichard, and, by the latter kindly lent to myself, and examined by me
some years back, was a vocabulary of the language of the Indians of the
Falls of the Saskatchewan. In this their native name was written
_Ahnenin_. Mr. Hale, however, calls them _Atsina_. Which is correct is
difficult to say.

_Gros ventres_ is another of their designations; _Minetari of the
Prairie_ another. This last is inconvenient, as well as incorrect, since
the true _Minetari_ are a Sioux tribe, different in language, manners,
and descent.

_Arrapaho_ is a third synonym; and this is important, since there are
other _Arrapahoes_ as far south as the Platte and Arkansas Rivers.

The identity of name is _primâ facie_ evidence of two tribes so distant
as those of Arkansas and the Saskatchewan being either offsets from one
another, or else from some common stock; but it is not more. Nothing can
be less conclusive. This has just been shown to be in the case of the
term _Minetari_.

The Ahnenin, or Atsina language is peculiar; though the confederacy to
which the Indians who speak it belong, is the Blackfoot.

Of the southern Arrapaho we have no vocabulary; neither do we know
whether the name be native or not.

       *       *       *       *       *

A tract still stands over for notice. As we have no exact northern
limits for the Nehanni, no exact western ones for the Dahodinni, and no
exact southern ones for the Loucheux, the parts due east of the Russian
boundary are undescribed.

I can only _contribute_ to the ethnology here.

_The Ugalentses._--Round Mount St. Elias we have a population of
_Ugalentses_ or Ugalyakhmutsi. Though said to consist of less than forty
families,[76] as their manners are migratory, it is highly probable that
some of them are British.

_The Tshugatsi_.--In contact with the Ugalents, who are transitional
between the true Eskimo and the true Kolúch, the Tshugatsi are
unequivocally Eskimo. The parts about Prince William's Sound are their
locality.

_The Haidah._--Queen Charlotte's, and the southern extremity of the
Prince of Wales' Archipelago, are the parts to which the Indians
speaking the Haidah language have been referred. In case, however, any
members of their family extend into the British territory, they are
mentioned here.

Three Haidah tribes are more particularly named--

_a._ The _Skittegat_.

_b._ The _Cumshahas_--a name remarkably like that of the _Chimsheyan_,
hereafter to be noticed.

_c._ The _Kygani_.

_The Tungaas._--This is the name of the language of the most Northern
Indians, with which the Hudson's Bay Company comes in contact. It is
Kolúch; and more Russian than British.

The chief authority is Dr. Scouler. The whole of his valuable remarks
upon the North-western Indians, is a commentary upon the assertion
already made as to the extent which we have formed our ideas of the
Aboriginal American upon the Algonkins and Iroquois exclusively; and his
facts are a correction to our inferences. In what way do the moral and
intellectual characters of the Western Indians differ from those of the
Eastern? I shall give the answer in Dr. Scouler's only terms. They are
less inflexible in character. Their range of ideas is greater. They are
imitative and docile. They are comparatively humane.[77] No scalping. No
excessive torture of prisoners. No probationary inflictions.

Now--whether negative or positive--there is not one of those
characteristics wherein the Western American differs from the Eastern,
in which he does not, at the same time, approach the Eskimo. In the
absence of the scalping-knife, the tomahawk, the council fire, the
wampum-belt, the hero chief, and the metaphorical orator, the Eskimo
differs from the Ojibway, the Huron, and the Mohawk. True. But the
Haidah and the Chimsheyan do the same.

The religion of the Algonkin and Iroquois is Shamanistic; like the Negro
of Africa they attribute to some material object mysterious powers. As
far as the term has been defined, this is Feticism. But, then, like the
Finn, and the Samoeid of Siberia, they either seek for themselves or
reverence in others, the excitement of fasting, charms, and dreams. As
far as the term has been defined this is Shamanism. Now lest our notions
as to the religion of the Indians be rendered unduly favourable through
the ideas of pure theism, called up by the missionary term _Great
Spirit_, we must simply remember, in the first place, that the term is
_ours_, not _theirs_; and that those who, by looking to facts rather
than words, have criticised it, have arrived at the conclusion that the
creed of the Indians of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi is neither
better nor worse than the creed of the Indians of the Columbia. Both are
alike, Shamanistic. And so is the Eskimo.

The names in detail of the Indians of British Oregon, over and above
those of the Athabaskan family already enumerated, are as follows; Dr.
Scouler still being the authority, and, along with him, Mr. Tolmie and
Mr. Hale.

1. The _Chimsheyan_, or _Chimmesyan_, on the sea-coast and islands about
55° North lat. Their tribes are the _Naaskok_, the _Chimsheyan Proper_,
the _Kitshatlah_, and the _Kethumish_.

2. The _Billichula_, on the mouth of the Salmon River.

3. The _Hailtsa_, on the sea-coast, from Hawkesbury Island to
Broughton's Archipelago, and (perhaps) the northern part of Quadra's and
Vancouver's Island. Their tribes are the _Hyshalla_, the _Hyhysh_, the
_Esleytuk_, the _Weekenoch_, the _Nalatsenoch_, the _Quagheuil_, the
_Ttatla-shequilla_, and the _Lequeeltoch_. The numerals from Fitz-Hugh
Sound will be noticed in the sequel.

4. _The Nutka Sound Indians_ occupy the greater part of Quadra's and
Vancouver's Island, speak the _Wakash_ language, and fall into the
following tribes--

_a._ _The Naspatl._

_b._ _The Nutkans Proper._

_c._ _The Tlaoquatsh._

_d._ _The Nittenat._

5. _The Shushwah_, or _Atna_, are bounded on the north by the Takulli,
belong to the interior rather than the coast, are members of a large
family, called the _Tsihaili-Selish_, extending far into the United
States. According to Mr. Hale, they present the remarkable phenomenon
of an aboriginal stock having increased from about four hundred to
twelve hundred, instead of diminishing.

6. _The Kitunaha_, _Cutanies_, or _Flat-bows_, hardy, brave and shrewd
hunters on the Kitunaha, or Flat-bow River, and conterminous with the
Blackfoots, are the Oregon Indians whose habits most closely approach
those of the Indians to the east of the Rocky Mountains.

       *       *       *       *       *

To some of these I now return, since three points of Algonkin ethnology
require special notice.

_a._ _The Nascopi_ or _Skoffi_.--This is a frontier tribe. Much as we
connect the ideas of cold and cheerless sterility with the inclement
climate and naked moorlands of Labrador, and much as we connect the
Eskimo as a population with a similarly inhospitable country, it is only
the coast of that vast region which is thus tenanted. On Hudson's
Straits there are Eskimo; on the Straits of Belleisle there are Eskimo;
along the intervening coast there are Eskimo, and as far south as
Anticosti there are Eskimo, but in the interior there are no Eskimo.
Instead of them we find the Skoffi, and the Sheshatapúsh--subsections
(as stated before) of the same section of the great Algonkin stock. In
them we have a measure of the effect of external conditions upon
different members of the same class. Between the Skoffi of Mosquito Bay
and the Pamticos of Cape Hatteras we have more than 25° of latitude
combined with a difference of other physical conditions which more than
equals the difference between north and south. Yet the contrast between
the Algonkin and other inhabitants of Labrador is as evident (though
not, perhaps, so great) as that between the Greenlander and the
Virginian; so that just as the Norwegian is distinguishable from the
Laplander so is the Skoffi from Eskimo.

Dirtier and coarser than any other Algonkins, the Nascopi hunts and
fishes for his livelihood exclusively; depending most upon the autumnal
migrations of the reindeer; and, next to that, upon his net. This he
sets under the ice, during the earlier months of the winter. After
December, however, he would set them in vain; the fish being, then, all
in the deep water. Woman, generally a drudge in North America, is
pre-eminently so with the Nascopis. All that the man does, is the
_killing_ of the game. The woman brings it home. The woman also drags
the loaded sledges from squatting to squatting, clears the ground, and
collects fuel; whilst the man sits idle and smokes. Of such domestic
slaves more than one is allowed; so that as far as the Nascopi
recognizes marriage at all, he is a polygamist. In this sense the
contracting parties are respectively the parents of the couple--the
bride and bridegroom being the last parties consulted. When all has been
arranged, the youth proceeds to his father-in-law's tent, remains there
a year, and then departs as an independent member of the community.
Cousins are addressed as brothers or sisters; marriage between near
relations is allowed; and so is the marriage of more than one sister
successively.

The Paganism of the Nascopi is that of the other Cree tribes; their
Christianity still more partial and still more nominal. Sometimes
rolling in abundance, sometimes starving, they are attached to the
Whites by but few artificial wants; the few fur-bearing animals of their
country being highly prized, and, consequently, going a long way as
elements of barter. Their dress is almost wholly of reindeer skin; their
travelling gear a leathern bag with down in it, and a kettle. In this
bag the Nascopi thrusts his legs, draws his knees up to his chin, and
defies both wind and snow.

This account has been condensed from M'Lean's "Five and Twenty Years'
Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory." I subjoin the remainder in his
own words: "The horrid practice still obtains among the Nascopis of
destroying their parents and relatives, when old age incapacitates them
for further exertion. I must, however, do them the justice to say, that
the parent himself expresses a wish to depart, otherwise the unnatural
deed would probably never be committed, for they, in general, treat
their old people with much care and tenderness. The son, or nearest
relative, performs the office of executioner--the self-devoted victim
being disposed of by strangulation."

_b._ _The Aborigines of Newfoundland._--Sebastian Cabot brought three
Newfoundlanders to England. They were clothed in beasts' skin, and ate
raw flesh. This last is an accredited characteristic of the Eskimo; and,
thus far, the evidence is in favour of the savages in question belonging
to that stock. Yet it is more than neutralized by what follows; since
Purchas states that two years after he saw two of them, dressed like
Englishmen, "which, at that time, I could not discover from Englishmen,
till I learned what they were."

Now as the Bethuck--the aborigines in question--have either been cruelly
exterminated, or exist in such small numbers as not to have been seen
for many years, it has been a matter of doubt whether they were Eskimo
or Micmacs, the present occupants of 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. Such I believe them to have been, and have placed them
accordingly.

_c._ _The Fitz-Hugh Sound Numerals._--These are nearly the same as the
Hailtsa. On the other hand, they agree with the Blackfoot in ending in
-_scum_.

Now if the resemblance go farther, so as really to connect the Blackfoot
with the Hailtsa, it brings the Algonkin class of languages across the
whole breadth of the continent, and as far as the shores of the Pacific.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Moskito Indians are no subjects of England, any more than the
Tahitians are of France, or the Sandwich Islanders of America, France,
and England conjointly. The Moskito coast is a Protectorate: and the
Moskito Indians are the subjects of a native king.

The present reigning monarch was educated under English auspices at
Jamaica, and, upon attaining his majority, crowned at Grey Town. I
believe that his name is that of the grandfather of our late gracious
majesty. King George, then, king of the Moskitos, has a territory
extending from the neighbourhood of Truxillo to the lower part of the
River San Juan; a territory whereof, inconveniently for Great Britain,
the United States, and the commerce of the world at large, the limits
and definition are far from being universally recognized. Nicaragua has
claims, and the Isthmus canal suffers accordingly.

The king of the Moskito coast, and the emperor of the Brazil, are the
only resident sovereigns of the New World.

The subjects of the former are, really, the aborigines of the whole line
of coast between Nicaragua and Honduras--there being no Indians
remaining in the former republic, and but few in the latter. Of these,
too--the Nicaraguans--we have no definite ethnological information. Mr.
Squier speaks of them as occupants of the islands of the lakes of the
interior. Colonel Galindo also mentions them; but I infer, from his
account, that their original language is lost, and that Spanish is their
present tongue; just as it is said to be that of the aborigines of St.
Salvador and Costa Rica. This makes it difficult to fix them. And the
difficulty is increased when we resort to history, tradition, and
archæology. History makes them Mexicans--Asteks from the kingdom of
Montezuma, and colonists of the Peninsula, just as the Phœnicians were
of Carthage. Archæology goes the same way. A detailed description of Mr.
Squier's discoveries, is an accession to ethnology which is anxiously
expected. At any rate, stone ruins and carved decorations have been
found; so that what Mr. Stephenson has written about Yucatan and
Guatemala, may be repeated in the case of Nicaragua. Be it so. The
difficulty will be but increased; since whatever facts makes Nicaragua
Mexican, isolates the Moskitos. They are now in contact with Spaniards
and Englishmen--populations whose civilization differs from their own;
and populations who are evidently intrusive and of recent origin.
Precisely the same would be the case, if the Nicaraguans were made
Mexican. The civilization would be of another sort; the population which
introduced it would be equally intrusive; and the only difference would
be a difference of stage and degree--a little earlier in the way of
time, and a little less contrast in the way of skill and industry.

But the evidence in favour of the Mexican origin of the Nicaraguans, is
doubtful; and so is the fact of their having wholly lost their native
tongue; and until one of these two opinions be proved, it will be well
to suspend our judgment as to the isolation of the Moskitos. If, indeed,
either of them be true, their ethnological position will be a difficult
question. With nothing in Honduras to compare them with--with nothing
tangible, or with an apparently incompatible affinity in Nicaragua--with
only very general miscellaneous affinities in Guatemala--their
ethnological affinities are as peculiar as their political
constitution. Nevertheless, isolated as their language is, it has
undoubted _general affinities with those of America at large_; and this
is all that it is safe to say at present. But it is safe to say _this_.
We have plenty of data for their tongue, in a grammar of Mr.
Henderson's, published at New York, 1846.

The chief fact in the history of the Moskitos, is that they were never
subject to the Spaniards. Each continent affords a specimen of this
isolated freedom--the independence of some exceptional and impracticable
tribes, as compared with the universal empire of some encroaching
European power. The Circassians in Caucasus, the Tshuktshi Koriaks in
North-eastern Asia, and the Kaffres in Africa, show this. Their
relations with the buccaneers were, probably, of an amicable
description. So they were with the Negroes--maroon and imported. And
this, perhaps, has determined their _differentiæ_. They are
intertropical American aborigines, who have become partially European,
without becoming Spanish.

Their physical conformation is that of the South rather than the North
American; and, here it must be remembered, that we are passing from one
moiety of the new hemisphere to the other. With a skin which is
olive-coloured rather than red, they have small limbs and undersized
frames; whilst their habits are, _mutatis mutandis_, those of the
intertropical African. This means, that the exuberance of soil, and the
heat of the climate, makes them agriculturists rather than shepherds,
and idlers rather than agriculturists; since the least possible amount
of exertion gives them roots and fruits; whilst it is only those wants
which are compatible with indolence that they care to satisfy. They
presume rather than improve upon the warmth of their suns, and the
fertility of the soil. When they get liquor, they get drunk; when they
work hardest, they cut mahogany. Canoes and harpoons represent the
native industry. _Wulasha_ is the name of their Evil Spirit, and
_Liwaia_ that of a water-god.

I cannot but think that there is much intermixture amongst them. At the
same time, the _data_ for ascertaining the amount are wanting. Their
greatest intercourse has, probably, been with the Negro; their next
greatest with the Englishman. Of the population of the interior, we know
next to nothing. Here their neighbours are Spaniards.

They are frontagers to the river San Juan. This gives them their value
in politics.

They are the only well-known extant Indians between Guatemala and
Veragua. This gives them their value in ethnology.

The populations to which they were most immediately allied, have
disappeared from history. This isolates them; so that there is no class
to which they can be subordinated. At the same time, they are quite as
like the nearest known tribes as the _American_ ethnologist is prepared
to expect.

What they were in their truly natural state, when, unmodified by either
Englishman or Spaniard, Black or Indian, they represented the indigenous
civilization (such as it was) of their coast, is uncertain.

       *       *       *       *       *

That the difference between the North and South American aborigines has
been over-rated, is beyond doubt. The tendency, however, to do so,
decreases. An observer like Sir R. Schomburgk, who is at once minute in
taking notice, and quick at finding parallels, adds his suffrage to that
of Cicca de Leon and others, who enlarge upon the extent to which the
Indians of the New World in general look "like children of one family."
On the other hand, however, there are writers like D'Orbigny. These
expatiate upon the difference between members of the same class, so as
to separate, not only Caribs from Algonkins, or Peruvians from
Athabaskans, but Peruvians from Caribs, and Patagonians from Brazilians.

Now it is no paradox to assert that these two views, instead of
contradicting, support each other. A writer exhibits clear and
undeniable differences between two American tribes in geographical
juxtaposition to one another. But does this prove a difference of
origin, stock, or race? Not necessarily. Such differences may be, and
often are, partial. More than this--they may be more than neutralized by
undeniable marks of affinity. In such a case, all that they prove is the
extent to which really allied populations may be contrasted in respect
to certain particular characters.

Stature is the chief point in which the North American has the advantage
of the Southern, _e.g._, the Algonkin over the Carib. Such is Sir R.
Schomburgk's remark; and such is the general rule. Yet a vast number of
the Indians of the Oregon, are shorter than the South American
Patagonian and Pampa tribes. The head is large as compared with the
trunk, and the trunk with the limbs; the hands small; the foot large;
the skin soft, though with larger pores than in Europe.

_Indians of British Guiana._--These are distributed amongst four
divisions, of very unequal magnitude and importance.--1. The Carib. 2.
The Warow. 3. The Wapisiana. 4. The Taruma.

The number of vocabularies collected by Sir R. Schomburgk was eighteen.

1. The great _Carib_ group falls into three divisions:--

_a._ The Caribs Proper.

_b._ The Tamanaks.

_c._ The Arawaks.

Of these, it is only members of the first and last that occupy British
Guiana.

_The Arawaks._--The Arawaks are our nearest neighbours, and,
consequently, the most Europeanized. Sir R. Schomburgk says, that they
and the Warows amount to about three thousand, and from Bernau we infer,
that this number is nearly equally divided between the two; since he
reckons the Arawaks at about fifteen hundred. Each family has its
distinctive tattoo, and these families are twenty-seven in number.

The children may marry into their father's family, but not into that of
their mother. Now as the caste is derived from their mother, this is an
analogue of the North American _totem_. Polygamy is chiefly the
privilege of the chiefs. The _Pe-i-man_ is the Arawak _Shaman_. He it is
who names the children--_for a consideration_. Failing this, the progeny
goes nameless; and to go nameless is to be obnoxious to all sorts of
misfortunes.

Imposture is hereditary; and as soon as the son of a conjuror enters his
twentieth year, his right ear is pierced, he is required to wear a ring,
and he is trusted with the secrets of the craft.

In imitating what they see, and remembering what they hear, the Arawak
has, at least, an average capacity. Neither is he destitute of
ingenuity. Notation he has none; and the numeration is of the rudest
kind.

 Aba-da-kabo   = once my hand  = _five_.
 Biama-da-kabo = twice my hand = _ten_.
 Aba-olake     = one man       = _twenty_.

Perfect nudity is rare amongst the women; and some neatness in the
dressing of their hair is perceptible. It is tied up on the crown of the
head.

The nearer the coast the darker the skin; the lightest coloured families
being as fair as Spaniards. This is on the evidence of Bernau, who adds,
that, as children grow in knowledge and receive instruction, the
forehead rises, and the physiognomy improves.

The other Guiana Indians, so far as they are Carib at all, are Caribs
Proper, rather than Arawaks. Of these, the chief are--

_The Accaways_,--occupants of the rivers Mazaruni and Putara, with about
six hundred fighting men. They are jealous, quarrelsome, and cruel; firm
friends and bitter enemies. When resisted, they kill; when unopposed,
enslave.

The law of revenge predominates in this tribe; for--like certain
Australians--they attribute all deaths to contrivances of an enemy.
Workers in poison themselves, they suspect it with others.

Their skin is redder than the Arawaks', but then their nudity is more
complete; inasmuch as, instead of clothing, they paint themselves;
arnotto being their red, lana their blue pigment. They pierce the
_septum_ of the nose, and wear wood in the holes, like the Eskimo,
Loucheux, and others. They paint the face in streaks, and the body
variously--sometimes blue on one side, and red on the other. They rub
their bodies with carapa oil, to keep off insects; and _one_ of the
ingredients of their numerous poisons, is a kind of black ant called
_muneery_.

Their forehead is depressed.

They give nicknames to each other and to strangers, irrespective of
rank; and the better their authorities take it the greater their
influence.

It is the belief of the Accaways that the spirit of the deceased hovers
over the dwelling in which death took place, and that it will not
tolerate disturbance. Hence they bury the corpse _in_ the hammock, and
_under_ the hut in which it became one. This they burn and desert.

_The Carabísi._--Twenty years ago the Carabísi (_Carabeese_,
_Carabisce_) mustered one thousand fighting men. It would now be
difficult to raise one hundred. But the diminution of their numbers and
importance began earlier still. Beyond the proper Carabísi area, there
are numerous Carabísi names of rivers, islands, and other geographical
objects. Hence, their area has decreased.

Omnivorous enough to devour greedily tigers, dogs, rats, frogs, insects,
and other sorts of food, unpopular elsewhere, they are distinguished by
their ornaments as well. The under-lip is the part which they perforate,
and wherein they wear their usual pins; besides which they fasten a
large lump of arnotto to the hair of the front of the head.

In ordinary cases the hammock in which the death took place, serves as a
coffin, the body is buried, and a funeral procession made once or twice
round the grave; but the bodies of persons of importance are watched and
washed by the nearest female relations, and when nothing but the
skeleton remains, the bones are cleaned, painted, packed in a basket and
preserved. When, however, there is a change of habitation they are
_burned_; after which the ashes are collected, and kept.

Here we have interment and cremation in one and the same tribe; a
circumstance which should guard us against exaggerating their value as
characteristic and distinguishing customs.

Again. The _Macusi_ is closely akin to the Carabísi; yet the Macusi
buries his dead in a sitting posture without coffins, and with but few
ceremonies. Now the sitting posture is common to the Peruvians, the
Oregon Indians, and numerous tribes of Brazil; indeed, Morton considers
it to be one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Red Man of
America in general.

The Arawak custom is peculiar. When a man of note dies his relations
plant a field of cassava; just as the Nicobar Islanders plant a
cocoa-nut tree. Then they lament loudly. But when twelve moons are over,
and the cassava is ripe, they re-assemble, feast, dance, and lash each
other cruelly, and severely with whips. The whips are then _hung up_ on
the spot where the person died. Six moons later a second meeting takes
place--and, this time, the whips are _buried_.

The _Waika_ are a small tribe of the _Accaways_; the _Zapara_ of the
_Macusis_. Besides these, the following Guiana Indians are Carib.

The _Arecuna_; of which the _Soerikong_ are a section.

The _Waiyamara_.

The _Guinau_.

The _Maiongkong_.

The _Woyawai_.

The _Mawakwa_, or Frog Indians--a tribe that flattens the head.

The _Piano-ghotto_; of which the _Zaramata_ and _Drio_ are sections.

The _Tiveri-ghotto_.

2. _The Warow_, _Waraw_, _Warau_, or _Guarauno_.--These are the Indians
of the Delta of the Orinoco, and the parts between that river and the
Pomaroon. Their language is peculiar, but by no means without
miscellaneous affinities. They are the fluviatile boatmen of South
America. Their habit of taking up their residence in trees when the
ground is flooded, has given both early and late writers an opportunity
of enlarging upon their semi-arboreal habits.

3. _The Wapisianas_ fall into--

_a._ The _Wapisianas_ Proper--

_b._ The _Atorai_, of which the _Taurai_, or _Dauri_ (the same word
under another form), and the extinct, or nearly extinct, _Amaripas_ are
divisions.

_c._ The _Parauana_.

4. The _Tarumas_, on the Upper Essequibo, have their probable affinities
with the uninvestigated tribes of Central South America.

The Indians of Trinidad are Carib. So are those of St. Vincents. In no
other West Indian islands are there any aborigines extant.


FOOTNOTES:

[71] _Dinni_, _tinni_, _din_, _tin_, &c.=_man_ in the Athabaskan
tongues.

[72] Called also _Carriers_, _Nagail_, and _Chin Indians_; though
whether the last two names are correct is uncertain.

[73] By no means to be confounded with the _Chepewyans_.

[74] The Mohawks, Senekas, Onondagos, Cayugas, Oneidas, Tuskaroras, and
Hurons.

[75] See a paper of Mr. Isbester's in the "Transactions of the British
Association," 1847, p. 121.

[76] Thirty-eight.

[77] This requires modification. The Sitkan practices have already been
noticed.




FINIS.


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Transcriber's Amendments:

 p. 30, fn. 10, 'Fallermayer' amended to _Fallmerayer_.

 p. 31, 'Britany' amended to _Brittany_.

 p. 32, 'Notitiæ ...' amended to _Notitia Utriusque Imperii_.

 p. 34, 'Caffres' amended to _Kaffres_.

 p. 35, 'Woloffs' amended to _Wolofs_;
        'Cabyles' amended to _Kabyles_.

 p. 39, 'Avekoom' amended to _Avekvom_;
        'Woloff' amended to _Wolof_;
        'Bambarra' amended to _Bambara_.

 p. 40, 'Woloffs' amended to _Wolofs_.

 p. 65, 'languge' amended to _language_.

 p. 67, 'Yorriba' amended to _Yarriba_;
        'Callabar' amended to _Calabar_;
        'Mosketo' amended to _Mosquito_.

 p. 75, 'Amokosa' amended to _Amakosa_: '_The Amakosa._--This'.

 p. 84, 'Caffraria' amended to _Kaffraria_.

 p. 86, 'Crawford' amended to _Crawfurd_.

 p. 94, 'Trangangetic' amended to _Transgangetic_.

 p. 98, 'Crawford's Embassy' amended to _Crawfurd's Embassy_.

 p. 107, 'Kamti' amended to _Khamti_.

 p. 121, 'ecstacy' amended to _ecstasy_.

 p. 137, 'Pottaing' amended to _Potteang_.

 p. 140, 'Kuttak' amended to _Cuttack_;
         'Penna' amended to _Pennu_ (twice).

 p. 141, 'Cicacole' amended to _Chicacole_.

 p. 146, 'jackall' amended to _jackal_.

 p. 148, 'Rajaship' amended to _Rajahship_.

 p. 177, 'Levitican' amended to _Levitical_.

 p. 181, 'Peshawer' amended to _Peshawar_.

 p. 192, 'Maha-Sodon' amended to _Maha-Sohon_.

 p. 193, 'Singalese' amended to _Singhalese_.

 p. 197, 'Binjarri' amended to _Brinjarri_;
         'Telagu' amended to _Telugu_.

 p. 198, 'Taremuki' amended to _Tarremúki_.

 p. 199, 'Bowri' amended to _Bhowri_.

 p. 201, 'Guzerat' amended to _Gujerat_.

 p. 228, 'Skofi' amended to _Skoffi_.

 p. 233, 'tatooing' amended to _tattooing_.

 p. 237, 'tatooings' amended to _tattooings_.

 p. 243, 'Saskachewan' amended to _Saskatchewan_.

 p. 259, 'tatoo' amended to _tattoo_.

 p. 262, 'Caribis' amended to _Carabísi_.


Further Notes:

 p. 113, Brown's Table: Horizontal rows 'Áká' and 'Ábor' repositioned
         to match data; the value for 'Koreng' (row) and 'S. Tángkhul'
         (column), which originally read '--', has been amended to '11'.

 p. 172-175, corrections to extracts taken from _A History of the Sikhs_,
         by J. D. Cunningham, 2nd Ed., London, 1853.






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