342 Major- General John Briggs on the 



explained than it has been by Gablenz, in his ' Grammaire 

 Mandchou,' p. 276 : ' On y place toutes les expressions mo- 

 dificatives, avant celles auxquelles elles s'appliquent ; ainsi 

 I'adjectif avant le substantif ; le regi avant le mot qu'il regit ; 

 le regime direct et indirect avant le verbe ; 1' expression mo- 

 dificative avant Texpression modifiee ; la proposition inci- 

 dente, conditionelle, circonstantiale, hypothetique, et causale 

 avant la proposition principale.' " 



Almost all these peculiarities differing from the Sanscrit 

 construction, are participated in by the languages of Thibet 

 and Burma, which Dr E-ost considers to be the connecting 

 link between the languages throughout India and the Chi- 

 nese. 



In confirmation of the opinions of Host and Gablenz, I find 

 Professor Westergard of Copenhagen, in writing to a friend 

 in London, so late as September 1846, observes, " I never 

 entertained any doubt of these (the Indian) languages being 

 of Scythian descent, — a term which I adopt from Rask for 

 the stock of languages usually called Tartar, and which I 

 prefer as a more general name to be adopted in speaking 

 of the Fins, the Mongols, and the Deckan or southern lan- 

 guages of India." Professor Rask, alluded to by Professor 

 Westergard, who passed some years in the south of India, 

 was an excellent Sanscrit scholar, and was also well ac- 

 quainted with the Tamili, writes in like manner : — " I am of 

 opinion, that not only are many words of the southern group 

 of languages (in India) common to those of Upper Asia, but 

 that the construction of the whole of them difi'ers essentially 

 from the Sanscrit, and is based on the languages of Northern 

 Asia." 



The supposition that all the aborigines are derived from 

 the stock of Northern Asia, meets with strong additional 

 confirmation when we find a very prevalent opinion to that 

 effect confirmed by tradition, as in the ancient poems of 

 Chand and others of the bards of Rajputana, who describe 

 the Gujers and the Jats as of the Tacshac or Scythian race, in 

 common with the Gackers, since converted to Mahommetism, 

 which are spoken of as the bravest of the opponents of Mah- 

 miid of Ghizny, in the tenth and eleventh century, in the Pun- 



