Captain King, “Transactions on returning to Sandwich Islands,” &c., continuation of Cook’s voyages, Pinkerton (xi. 730) says on the contrary: “The inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands are undoubtedly of the same race with those of New Zealand, the Society and Friendly Islands, Easter Islands, and the Marquesas. This fact, which, extraordinary as it is, might be thought sufficiently proved by the striking similarity of their manners and customs, and the general resemblance of their persons is established beyond all controversy by the absolute identity of their language.”
Shortland says that the New Zealanders, “when speaking of any old practice, regarding the origin of which you may inquire, have the expression constantly in their mouths, ‘E hara i te mea poka hou mai; no Hawaika mai ano.’—It is not a modern invention; but a practice brought from Hawaiki, Sandwich Islands).”—Shortland’s “Traditions of the New Zealanders,” p. 61.
[225] As far as I can ascertain, the pheasant is not a native of America. Yarrell speaks of it as Asiatic, and that it has been domesticated “in all parts of the old continent.” So also Gould. Of the American writers, neither Wilson, Audubon, Bonaparte, Nuttall, Richardson, or Jameson include the pheasant. Mr Catlin, however, says, p. 44: “From the translation of their name, already mentioned (Nu-mah-ká-kee, pheasants), an important inference may be drawn in support of the probability of their having formerly lived much farther to the south, as that bird does not exist on the prairies of the Upper Missouri, and is not to be met with short of the hoary forests of Ohio and Indiana, eighteen hundred miles south of the last residence of the Mandans. In their familiar name of Mandan, which is not an Indian word, there are equally singular and important features. In the first place, that they knew nothing of the name or how they got it; and next, that the word Mandan in the Welsh language [Mr C.’s theory is that they are the survivors of Prince Madoc’s expedition from Wales in the fourteenth century] means red dye, of which further mention will be made.” On the legend of the Welsh expedition, vide Warburton’s “Conquest of Canada,” ii., Appendix iv.
[226] “The Indians resemble the people of north-eastern Asia in form and feature more than any other of the human race; their population is most dense along the districts nearest to Asia; and among the Mexicans, whose records of the past deserve credence, there is a constant tradition that their Aztec and Toltec chiefs came from the north-west.”—Warburton’s “Conquest of Canada,” i. 195.
Brace (“Manual of Ethnology,” p. 115) says, after noting that whereas the prominence in the head “is anterior in the Chinese rather than lateral, as in the American Indians and the Tangusic tribes,” adds, “The peculiar distinguishing characteristics are the smallness of the eyes and the obliquity of the eyelids. The nose is usually small and depressed, though sometimes, in favourable physical conditions, natives are found with a slightly aquiline nose, giving the face a close resemblance to that of the American Indians or New Zealanders.”
Refer to argument at [p. 70], with reference to the Mozca Indians.
[227] Compare what Ogilby (p. 36) says: “Near Firando (Japan) at an inlet of the sea stands an idol, being nothing but a chest of wood, about three feet high, standing like an altar [the big canoe was placed on end among the Mandans], whither women, when they suppose they have conceived, go in pilgrimage, offering on their knees rice or other presents.” At p. 136, at Jado, it is said, “somewhat farther stands a temple dedicated to all sorts of animals with a very high double roof.” (Query, Noah’s ark?)
In the Illustrated London News, January 13, 1872, its correspondent from Yokohama gives a short account of the Japanese religious festivals, in which among other coincidences I note the following: “The most absurd,” he says, “is one in which the foul fiend is simultaneously expelled from every house by dint of pelting him with boiled peas. The devil is chased out of the town with a dance of derision, by young fellows in grotesque costumes, for the public mirth.” Compare with the scene in the Mandan ceremonies, described by Catlin, vide supra, [p. 260].
[228] Compare p. 448 in “Flint Chips,” (E. T. Stevens). “The Omahas possess a sacred shell, which is regarded as an object of great sanctity by the whole nation. It has been transmitted from generation to generation, and its origin is unknown. A skin lodge is appropriated to it, and in this lodge a man, appointed as a guard to the shell, constantly resides. It is placed upon a stand, and is never suffered to touch the earth. It is concealed from sight by a number of mats made of strips of skin plaited. The whole forms a large package, from which tobacco” (comp. Stevens’ “Flint Chips,” p. 315, and Catlin, supra) “and the roots of trees” (comp. supra, p. 155), “and other objects are suspended,” &c. &c.
[229] Vide Japanese tradition of the Deluge (Bertrand, “Dict. des Relig.,” Gainet, i. 208; also id.), it is said that the Japanese commemorate this event in their third annual festival, which takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month. Compare with Mandan’s, supra.