divine feet." It will be remembered that one of the signs of the Hindoo lunar zodiac, the Nacshatras, or Houses of the Moon, is termed the Sravanna, and represents the three prints of the feet of Vishnoo.* Buddha was one of the incarnations of Vishnoo, and Vishnoo was identical with the Sun. But the zodiacal sign Sravanna is the same as the Mexican sign Olin Tonatiuh, or notion of the Sun, which was also denoted by the prints of three feet: thus the coincidence between the Hindoo and Mexican signs is complete. But this ancient myth was of still wider prevalence in America. Payzome, the Buddha of Brazil, when he departed left his footsteps imprinted upon the shore; in Chile we find the figures of human feet engraven upon the rocks; at St. Louis in the United States was a tabular mass of limestone with the same impressions; they have been recently discovered at Zacatecas in Mexico among the ancient ruins, and Clavigero says they have been frequently observed throughout that country.†

In conclusion, the Mexicans, Peruvians, and Hindoos, offered sacred cakes of flour to their deities; the feats of Mexican jugglery were equally surprising as those still practised in India; masks were worn by the priests in Egypt, America, and India, in their religious ceremonies; the mask or figure of the Sun on the monuments and paintings of New Spain, is almost identical in appearance with the Hindoo Kala, time, "who swallows the world, opening a fiery mouth, exhibiting a row of dreadful teeth, and protruding an enormous tongue;" the position and figures of the American idols, are often similar to those

* Vide page 324.

†The Spaniards ascribed these to St. Thomas.

of the Hindoos; and the Hindoo artificial lakes approached by avenues of trees resemble those the remains of which have been observed here. The custom of shaving the head with the exception of a single lock; that of tattooing, which has not yet been wholly abandoned in India; the appearance of hieroglyphic and emblematic sculptures and paintings in the Hindoo temples and caves; the stone benches or couches in the dormitories of the temples; the conical caps of the figures on the walls of Elephanta; the frequent position of the Hindoo temples upon elevated terraces; some traces of the institution of castes in America; and the general resemblance of their religious belief, ceremonies, superstitions and traditions, present many decided analogies, which despite numerous points of difference in other respects, tend to indicate the ancient connection of the American nations with South-Eastern Asia.*

The Mongols. Siberian Asia is occupied by two great races, the Tartars and Mongols; the principal territory of the Mongols lies to the north, and that of the Tartars to the south of the Sir

* Waldeck, p. 19. Heeren, vol. iii. p. 81. Mod. Trav. India, vol. viii. pp. 267, 364, 175. Carli, Lettres sur L'Amerique, lett. 13. One of the Hindoo traditions resembles that in which Bochica figures, among the Muyscas. According to the Hindoo tradition," the valley of Cashmere was formerly a large lake. Casyapa, a grandson of Brahma, drained its waters by opening a passage through the mountains near Baramauleh, through which the waters escaped. He then peopled the restored territory with the assistance of the gods. See Asiatic Res., vol. vi. p. 455. "The Piragua now used at Chiloe, and by the savages of the Chonos Archipelago, exactly resembles, in every minute detail, the Maseulah boat of Madras."King and Fitzroy, note, vol. ii. p. 648.

or Sihon.* Though at present composed mostly of nomadic and barbarous tribes, the Mongols seem to have been in ancient times far more civilized; and nations of the same family now occupy the vast region extending along the ocean from India to the highest northern latitudes. The ancient Scythians appear to have been a branch of the same race. There are yet to be found in Siberia indications that these rude tribes. were formerly more cultivated than at present. It is said that the Tartar and Mongol writings extant are of a date long subsequent to the time of Mohammed, and that none of these nations had formerly any written memorials. Be this as it may, in many parts of Siberia there are characters and figures engraven or painted upon stones and rocks, some of which appear to be in the nature of letters, and others hieroglyphical emblems, and the figures of animals; they are usually painted red. Some of these remind us of the ancient inscriptions in America, for they are cut upon the face of perpendicular rocks on the banks of rivers, at great heights which appear inaccessible. Others according to Kircher, as referred to by Strahlenburgh, resemble the ancient Chinese characters. The same author describes ancient idols and obelisks, cut out of large blocks of stone, from seven to nine feet high, with hieroglyphic figures sculptured on their backs. His description of the tumuli should be quoted in his own words. "Vast numbers are found in Siberia, and in the deserts which border on that government

* Heeren's Res., vol. i. p. 11. Bell's Journey, p. 464. Tooke's View, vol. ii. p. 35.

† Asiatic Tracts, vol. i. pp. 149, 155. The Mongolian manuscripts are written on a thick paper, covered with a colored varnish. They are found in the tombs and temples.

southwards. In these tombs are found all sorts of vessels, urns, wearing-apparel, ornaments and trinkets, cimeters, daggers, horse-trappings, knives, all sorts of little idols, medals of gold and silver, chess-boards and chess-men of gold, as also large golden plates, on which the dead bodies have been laid.* The graves of the poorer class have likewise such things in them, of copper and brass, arrows of copper and iron, stirrups, large and small polished plates of metal, or mirrors, with characters upon them; earthen urns of different sizes, some almost two feet high, others more, some with and some without handles.

As to the graves themselves, they are of different structures, some are only raised up of earth, as high as houses, and placed so near together and in such numbers on the spacious plains, that at a distance they appear like a ridge of hills. Others are set round with rough hewn stones, and some with square free stones, and are either of an oblong or a triangular form. In some places these tombs are entirely built of stone. Hence we find in the ancient maps of Tartary the greater, a number of pyramids, with these words, in Latin, the pyramidal sepulchres of the Tartarian kings, by which they must needs mean their monuments, though they are not so properly pyramids." Traces also of mural remains similar to those of the United States exist in some parts of this region.†

Shamanism, the religion of the Mongols, is based on the same idea as, and is similar in its developments to, those ancient

* The mines of silver and gold were worked by the ancient inhabitants.

† Strahlenburgh, pp. 364, 324, 429, et seq. Hist. Kamtschatka, p. 16. Malte Brun, book 38.

cults which have been considered. The existence of the Supremne Being is recognised by some of the Siberian tribes, and the Yakuts "worship the invisible God" under three different names, which are called Samans, sacred.* Traces of the Hindoo Trimurti are also discernible in one of the Calmuck idols which is figured with three heads. The worship of the heavenly bodiest and of fireț is also prevalent, and particularly among the Tongoos, or Tungusi. The belief in the transmigration of souls, the veneration for animals, polytheism, and magical practices are all prominent features of Shamanism. Its leading and characteristic trait, however, consists in the class of priests, who are sorcerers pretending to a communion with evil spirits, and of whom it may be most emphatically said, that they are precisely identical with the conjurors or jugglers of the American aborigines §

The Nomadic tribes of Siberia, like most of the barbarous Indian tribes, are probably the descendants of more civilized ancestors, and it is curious to perceive how, under the operation

*One of the titles of this deity, Tanga-ra, resembles that by which the triune god, said to have been worshipped in Peru, was known, Tanga-Tanga.-Vega, vol. i. p. 70.

† Sauer's Expedition, vol. i. p. 116.

The Scythians worshipped fire.—Herod., 1. iv. C. 59.

§ Herodotus, 1. iv. c. 69, mentions the art of divination as prevailing among the Scythians. The Shamans are also prophets and physicians, and cure diseases by supernatural means. The preparatory ceremonies for obtaining an interview with the evil spirits, and their feats of jugglery, are the same as those of the Indian sorcerers. They carry with them little images or amulets, which represent the forms in which these deities appear.