Man and His Migrations

by R. G. Latham

In the way of physical conformation, the Hottentot presents the maximum of peculiarities. The speech, however, of the latter is simply African; whilst, in form and colour, the Basks and Albanians are European. A fly is a fly even when we wonder how it came into the amber; and men belong to humanity even when their origin is a mystery. This gives us a composition of difficulties, and it is by taking this and similar phænomena into account, that the higher problems in ethnology must be worked. Nothing short of a clear and comprehensive view of the extent to which points of difference in one department are compensated by points of likeness in another, will give us even a philosophical hypothesis; all partial argument from partial points of disagreement being as unscientific as a similar overvaluation of resemblances.

As for the detail of the chief difficulties, the writer believes that he, unwillingly and with great deference, differs from the best authorities, in making so little of the transition from America to Asia, and so much of that between Europe and Asia. The conviction that the Semitic tongues are simply African, and that all the theories suggested by the term Indo-European must be either abandoned or modified, is the chief element of his reasoning upon this point—reasoning far too elaborate for a small work like the present. He also believes that the languages of Kafferistan, the Dardoh country, and north-eastern Afghanistan, are transitional to the monosyllabic tongues and those of Persia—in other words, that the modern Persian is much more monosyllabic than is generally supposed. Yet even this leaves a break. How far the most western tongue of this class can be connected with those of Europe, and how far the most south-western one has Semitic affinities are questions yet to examine—questions beset with difficulties. However, as the skeleton of system he believes the present work to be true as far as it goes, and at the same time convenient for the investigator. That there is much in all existing classifications which requires to be unlearnt is certain. Lest any one think this a presumptuous saying, let him consider the new and unsettled state of the science, and the small number of the labourers as compared with the extent of the field.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES

[27] Since this chapter was written, the news of the premature death of the most influential supporter of the double doctrine of (a.) the unity of the American families amongst each other, and (b.) the difference of the American race from all others—Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia,—has reached me. It is unnecessary to say, that the second of these positions is, in the mind of the present writer, as exceptionable as the first is correct. Nor is it likely to be otherwise as long as the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains is so exclusively studied as it is by both the American and the English school. I have little fear of the Russians falling into this error. With this remark the objections against the very valuable labours of Dr. Morton begin and end. His Crania Americana is by far the most valuable book of its kind. His Crania Ægyptiaca and other minor works, especially his researches on Hybridism, are all definite additions to ethnological science. The impulse which he, personally, gave to the very active study of the Human Species, which so honourably characterises his countrymen, is more than an Englishman can exactly value. Perhaps, it is second only to that given by Gallatin: perhaps, it is scarcely second.

[28] Mr. Norris, for instance, of the Asiatic Society, has given reasons for connecting the Australian tongues with those of the Dekhan.

[29] Taken, with much besides, from Mr. Brown’s Tables, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

[31] Considering the Burampúter and Ganges as separate rivers.

[32] Conveniently thrown into a single class, and called Hyperboreans.

[33] The great family of which the Mantshús are the best-known members.