more so than the allegorical description of the three races, and the account of the physical appearance of Noah contained in the Apocryphal Book of Enoch—a work probably written a short time before the Christian era.* We see here most clearly that some at least of the Jews entertained a belief in the very ancient differences of color, which characterize the races.

*The Book of Enoch the Prophet, translated from an Ethiopic MS. in the Bodleian Library, by Richard Lawrence, Archbishop of Cashel. Oxford, 1833. pp. 112, 116, 161. Ch. 84, sec. 17, v. 2. "And behold a cow sprang from the earth; v. 3. And this cow was white. v. 4. Afterwards a female heifer sprung forth, and with it another heifer; one of them was black, and one was red," &c., et seq.

Ch. 88, v. 1. "Then one of these four went to the white cows, and taught them a mystery. While the cow was trembling, it was born, and became a man, and fabricated for himself a large ship. In this he dwelt, and three cows dwelt with him in that ship, which covered them. (The deluge and its subsidence are then described, and then the allegory proceeds.) v. 9. Again I looked, in the vision, until those cataracts from that lofty roof were removed, and the fountains of the earth became equalized, while other depths were opened. v. 10. Into which the water began to descend until the dry ground appeared. v. 11. The ship remained on the earth; the darkness receded; and it became light. v. 12. Then the white cow which became a man went out of the ship, and the three cows with him. v. 13. One of the three cows was white, resembling that cow, one of them was red as blood, and one of them was black; and the white cow left them."

In the same book, ch. 105, Noah is described at his birth "as a child the flesh of which was white as snow, and red as a rose; the hair of whose head was white like wool and long, and whose eyes were bright and beautiful;" as a son unlike to other children;" as 'of a different nature from ours (theirs), being altogether unlike to us," who resembled "not his father Lamech."

It is to be remarked that in these traditions, and indeed in those of all ancient nations, there are undoubted evidences that by the concurrent belief of mankind all men were children of the same first parents. Tradition and history, sacred and profane, unite in asserting this, and yet from the same testimony we are forced to admit the existence of the three races, separated by the same broad lines of distinction that they now are, in the earliest postdiluvian ages. Science, while it has by close observation, and a rigid system of induction, confuted the once general idea that these varieties have been produced by climate and similar causes, has at the same time by analogical testimony rendered it probable, if not demonstrated, that the production of varieties is not a phenomenon unknown in the physical history of man; and thus the unity of the human race is reconciled with its ancient ternary division. It is the province of true wisdom not to strive to penetrate beyond, or to inquire as to the final cause of this division. Our duties are to be learned from things as they exist, and not from speculation. In proving the common origin and the relationship of all men, though now existing in three races, tradition and physiology act in harmony; by acknowledging this relationship, the most severe and lofty code of morals, and the most benign philanthropy are satisfied; for by this result, the social, moral, and political rights of every branch of the same great family are placed upon an incontrovertible equality, and the most degraded members of the human race have claims upon our sympathy.

It appears from the preceding investigation that the Red race may be traced, by physical analogies, into Siberia, China, Japan, Polynesia, Indo-China, the Malayan islands, Hindoo

stan, Madagascar,* Egypt, and Etruria. In some of these countries the pure type of the race may be perceived existing at present, in others many of its characters have been changed and modified, apparently by intermarriage, and in others its ancient existence is to be discovered only by the records preserved on their monuments. In these directions, then, are we to search for further analogies, and it may be found that physiology is by no means a fallacious guide in the elucidation of ancient history.

* The physical description of the tribes in Madagascar was accidentally omitted in the preceding chapter. The inhabitants of this island consist of two classes. The one is distinguished by a light person, straight black hair, weak and scanty beard, which they pluck out like the American aborigines, and by an olive or copper-colored complexion. The members of the other class are more robust and dark-colored-sometimes black-with woolly hair. The first race resembles the Malays and Polynesians; the latter approach to the Negro. These races have intermingled. The olive-colored tribes are not the aborigines of the country, and there seems to be good foundation for the opinion that their ancestors were a colony from Java.--Ellis's Hist. Madagascar, vol. i. pp. 115, 133, 122; vol. ii. p. 4.

THE mutual diversities of the American languages, heretofore so much exaggerated, and the few signs of affinity they exhibit to those of the other continent, have been often urged as decisive of their indigenous origin. And in one sense these diver sities clearly are indigenous, that is, they present undoubted indications of having been originated since the migration of the race into America. Perhaps the highest proof of the original relationship of languages consists in the resemblance of their grammatical structure. Abandoning the old system of endeavoring to establish affinities by the identity of words, a defective criterion when employed alone, and one which was often limited only by the fancy and ingenuity of the inquirer, philologists have examined into the form and character of the American languages, and have established satisfactorily that they have all sprung from one common source. The features of resemblance are such as enter into their elementary construction; the diversities, those to which all languages are exposed by the separation and dispersion of those who speak them. When the ancient progenitors of the aborigines reached our shores, they found a vast uninhabited continent expanded before them. The immediate and rapid distribution of population which must have ensued, the separation into distinct tribes and communities, each remaining isolated for a long series of ages, the

change in mode of life, and the decline of civilization, must soon have effected a radical alteration in the words of an oral language, and effaced every sign of verbal identity. If the chief evidence of the common origin of the American languages exists in their construction, we might, with great certainty, anticipate the absolute loss of every trace of verbal affinity with any of the dialects of the other hemisphere. Accordingly none of the efforts to discover the origin of the Americans has proved more unsuccessful, than those which have been based upon an examination of their languages. The scanty analogies which have been perceived, however, point towards Asia. Thus, in eighty-three American languages, one hundred and seventy words have been found, with similar roots, a great majority of which are related to similar words in the Tongoo, Mantchoo, Mongol, Samoid, Ostiac and other Siberian idioms. Other points of resemblance have been traced between the Indian languages, and the Coptic, Basque, and Polynesian. The Aztec is said to possess a small number of affinities with the Chinese and Japanese; Tonquin words have been found in the Maya tongue; and the Otomite is thought to present some similitude to the Chinese. Another peculiarity which appears to be common to the Oriental dialects of Asia and some of our aboriginal languages, is the existence of a court-language—a modification of speech differing from the ordinary idiom. Thus the Mexicans, Natchez, and Creeks, and other nations used a language of honor in addressing their chiefs and princes, and the same has been observed in China, among the Malays,* and in Java and Siam. Of this language of ceremony, Clavigero

* Marsden's Sumatra, p. 102.