In the opinion of the present writer the Peninsular languages agree in the general fact of being more closely akin to those of America than any other; and this, of itself, he considers to be a sufficient reason for placing them in a separate division. It also, to a certain extent, removes the evidence of their mutual affinity to another part of the work, i.e. that which treats of the origin of the American population; inasmuch as the same tables which connect the American languages with the Peninsular ones, connect these last with each other. In a series of monographs these proofs could have been given separate; in a systematic work, however, it is necessary to economise space by making the same lists prove two points at once. Hence, they will appear in the sequel.
THE KOREANS.
Locality.—The peninsula of Korea; in Chinese, Kao-li.
Political relations.—Subject to China.
Religion.—That of Fo, modified.
Alphabet.—Not rhæmatographic.
Chief foreign influences.—Chinese, Mantshu, and Japanese; in the thirteenth century, Mongolian.
Physical appearance.—"The Kooraïan is superior in stature to the Japanese; yet his height seldom exceeds five-and-a-half Parisian feet: he is of strong, vigorous make, his figure well-proportioned, active, and full of life. The shape of his features bears in general the impress of the Mongolian race: the coarse broad countenance; the projecting cheek-bones; the strong under-jaw; the nose depressed at the root or upper part, and broadly-spread alæ; the large mouth, with broad lips; the peculiar position of the eyes, apparently angular in the direction of their opening; the rough, thick, black hair of the head, often inclined to a red brown colour; thick eyebrows; thin beard; with a reddish-yellow, wheat-coloured (weitzen-farbich), or straw-coloured complexion, announce him at once and at the first look, as an inhabitant of the north-eastern parts of Asia. This type is common to most of the Kooraïans observed by us, and they recognise it as that which is most distinctive of their nation."—Siebold.[88]
The political relations towards China, the great amount of Chinese influences upon the civilization of Korea, and the physical likeness between the Koreans and the Chinese have had, in many instances, the effect of diverting the attention of ethnologists from the true affinities of this division of the Peninsular Mongolidæ; and it should be added that the last of the three facts just enumerated is a legitimate ground for looking, in the first instance, to China.
It is one which the present writer has no wish to conceal. The question, however, must be viewed in all its bearings; in which case we meet with the important fact that the Korean language is anything rather than monosyllabic. Siebold, as I learn from Prichard, thought that he perceived some analogies between the Japanese, the Korean, and the Aino. He might have done more. He might have been sure of their existence—and that to an extent sufficient to throw the three tongues in the same category.