Origin of the American Nations: 123 



On the other hand, trlere are people whey though they find 

 many words in the languages of two nations which have 

 confiderable fimilarity and the fame fignification, will not 

 acknowledge the fimilitude. Thefe, however, are in the 

 wrong, becaufe they do not take into conflderation the way 

 in which different nations pronounce their words, either by 

 fhortening or contracting them ; and do not reflect that every 

 nation has in its alphabet peculiar characters which others 

 have not, and which they cannot pronounce ; from which 

 there muft naturally follow a perceptible variation in the found 

 of two words of the fame meaning. 



Such a general collection of words might require, perhaps, 

 one or more centuries ; and if no other way can be found for 

 difcovering the origin of the Americans, our refearches by this 

 method will, in all probability, prove fruitlefs; for hifto'ry, or 

 rather tradition, affords us no light in this refpecl:, and, in my 

 opinion, hiftori*>jis have never given themfelves much trouble 

 refpecting it. There is however another method of attaining 

 to the propofed end; that is, by comparing the . manners,- 

 cuftoms, and mode of life among the Americans, with the 

 manners and cuftoms of other nations. It is indeed true, 

 that two nations very remote from each other may have a 

 great fimilarity in their manners, cuftoms, &c. without being 

 iprung from the fame ftock ; but when fingular practices, 

 which appear to be contrary to nature, are found among dif- 

 ferent nations, they muft either have been invented there, or 

 been borrowed from others. The flrft cafe feems not very 

 probable, for it can hardly be comprehended how fuch fin- 

 gular ideas could have arifen among individuals, and much 

 more among different nations; it is therefore probable that 

 thefe people have communicated their fingular manners and 

 cuftoms to each other by their common intercourfe. 



We (hall therefore examine the origin of the Americans 

 on thefe principles, and coniider, as briefly as poffible, their 

 lingular mode of life, together with the moft remarkable of 

 their manners and cuftoms, fo far as they coincide with thofe 

 of the old world. 



I. Singular Form of Government. 



In the Eaft Indies, the Samorin, that is, the fovereign of 

 the kingdom of Calicut, was iucceeded not by his own foil 

 but by the fon of his fifter. This manner of fucceifion is 

 common alfo in all the ftates of Malabar. The princes do 



viga, navita, navicularius, a fhipmafter; nova* no vera, nine; Japta, ftp - 

 tern, feven ; tri, tres, three ; did, duo. two j adia, hodie,to-d .v ; r vtu'ba r va^ 

 ▼idua, a widow ; no } non, no ; Jua, fuus, his, &c. See Fra Paolino's Fqy- 

 age to tbe litiji India, p. 316. — Edit. 



not 



