The North Americans of Antiquity / Their origin, migrations, and type of civilization considered

by John T. Short

Indian.	Chinese.	English.	Indian.	Chinese.	English.
Nang-a,	Nang,	Man.	A-pa,	A-pa,	Father.
Yi-soo,	Soa,	Hand.	A-ma,	A-ma,	Mother.
Keoka,	Keok,	Foot.	Ko-le,	A-ko,	Brother.
Aek-a-soo,	Soo,	Beard.	Ko-chae,	To-chae,	Thanks.
Yuet-a,	Yuet,	Moon.	Nagam,	Yam,	Drunk.
Yeeta,	Yat,	Sun.	Koolae,	Ku-kay,	Her.
Utyta,	Hoto,	Much.	Koo-chue,	Chue-koo,	Hog.
Lee-lum,	Ee-lung,	Deafness.	Chookoo,	Kow-chi,	Dog.”
Ho-ya-pa,	Ho-ah,	Good.

We have no means at hand of testing the following statement from the same author: “The Chinese, who have become so numerous in California since the discovery of gold, bear a striking resemblance to the Indians, and are known to be able to converse with them in their respective languages to an extent that cannot be the result of mere coincidence of expression.”—Cronaise, The Natural Wealth of California, p. 31. Probably a mistake.

[753] “Unhesitatingly as I make this assertion—an assertion for which I have numerous tabulated vocabularies as proof—I am by no means prepared to say that one-tenth part of the necessary work has been done for the parts in question; indeed, it is my impression that it is easier to connect America with the Kuirle Isles and Japan, etc., than it is to make Japan and the Kuirle Isles, etc., Asiatic.”—Latham, Man and His Migrations, pp. 195–6. Barton, New Views, is certain that the languages of America originated in Asia; see pp. lxxxviii–xcii. On p. 28 of Appendix he furnishes a comparative list of Japanese and Indian words.

[754] Vergleichung der Amerikanischen Sprachen mit den Ural-Altaïschen hinsichtlich ihrer Grammatik. (Congrès des Américanistes, Luxembourg, 1877, tom. ii, p. 56 et seq.) Also see E. L. O. Roehrig “On the Language of the Dakota or Sioux Indians,” Smithsonian Report, 1872.

[755] Prof. Valentini’s communication to the author.

[756] Brasseur, in Landa’s Relacion, p. xxi, and Popol Vuh, chap. iii. Brasseur, in Quatre Lettres, p. 24, speaking of the Codex Chimalpopoca, says: “Oui, Monsieur, si ce livre est en apparence l’histoire des Toltèques et ensuite des rois des Colhuacan et de Mexico, il présente, en réalité, le récit du cataclysme qui bouleversa le monde, il y a quelques six on sept mille ans, et constitua le continents dans leur état actuel,” pp. 40–41. He expresses his belief that the Cod. Chim. has a double meaning, and that many names and symbols possessed by the natives refer to the cataclysm which occurred six or seven thousand years ago. “C’est le récit de ces bouleversements, c’est l’histoire du cataclysme, dont tous les peuples ont gardé la mémoire, que racontent tous mes documents.”

[757] The following are the legends, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg: “According to the tradition of the Sacred Book (Popol Vuh), water and fire contributed to the universal ruin, at the time of the last cataclysm which preceded the fourth creation. ‘Then,’ says the author, ‘the waters were agitated by the will of the Heart of Heaven, and a great inundation came upon the heads of these creatures. * * * They were engulfed, and a resinous thickness descended from heaven. * * * The face of the earth was obscured and a heavy darkening rain commenced, rain by day and rain by night. * * * There was heard a great noise above their heads as if produced by fire. Then were men seen running, pushing each other, filled with despair; they wished to climb upon their houses, and the houses tumbling down fell to the ground; they wished to climb upon the trees, and the trees shook them off; they wished to enter into the grottoes, and the grottoes closed themselves before them.’ In the Codex Chimalpopoca, the author, speaking of the destruction which took place by fire, says: ‘The third sun is called Quia-Tonatiuh, sun of rain, because there fell a rain of fire; all which existed burned, and there fell a rain of gravel.’ They also narrate that whilst the sandstone which we now see scattered about, and the tetzontli (amygdaloide poreuse) boiled with great tumult, there also rose the rocks of vermillion color. Now this was in the year Ce Tecpactl, One Flint, it was the day Nahui-Quiahuitl, Fourth Rain. Now, in this day, in which men were lost and destroyed in a rain of fire, they were transformed into goslings; the sun itself was on fire, and everything, together with the houses, was consumed.” Brasseur recounts a Haytian legend concerning the origin of the sea and isles: “There was, they say, a powerful man called Iaia, who, having murdered his only son, wished to bury him; but not knowing where to put him, enclosed him in a calabash, which he placed afterwards at the foot of a high mountain, situated a little distance from the place where he lived; on account of his affection for his son he often went to the spot. One day, having opened it (the calabash), there came out whales and other very large fishes, of which Iaia, full of fear, having returned home, told his neighbors what had happened, saying that this calabash was filled with water and innumerable fishes. This news being spread abroad, four twin brothers, desiring to obtain fish, went to the place where the calabash was. Just as they had taken it in their hand to open it, Iaia came, and they seeing him, threw the calabash on the ground, in their fear of him. This (the calabash) having burst, on account of the great weight which was enclosed in it, the waters gushed forth, and the interminable plain, which stretched farther than the eye could reach, was flooded and covered with water. The mountains alone, because of their great height, were not submerged in this great inundation. So they believed that these mountains were the islands and the other divisions of the earth which we see in the world.”—Brasseur de Bourbourg, in Landa’s Relacion, pp. xxi–iv.

[758] “With regard to the primitive dolichocephalæ of America, I entertain an hypothesis still more bold, perhaps, namely, that they are nearly related to the Guanches in the Canary Islands and to the Atlantic populations of Africa, the Moors, Tauricks, Copts, etc., which Latham comprises under the name of Egyptian-Atlantidæ. * * * We find, then, one and the same form of skull in the Canary Islands, in front of the African coast, and in the Carib-Islands, on the opposite coast which faces Africa. * * * The color of the skin on both sides of the Atlantic is represented in these populations as being of a reddish-brown. * * * These facts involuntarily recall the tradition which Plato tells us in his Timæus was communicated to Solan by an Egyptian priest respecting the ancient Atlantis. * * * This tradition deserves attention in connection with facts which seem to point in the same direction.”—Retzius, in Smithsonian Report for 1859, p. 266.

[759] Salisbury, Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, pp. 57–61.

[760] Unger, Die Versunkene Insel Atlantis, cited by Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 440.