330 Dr Prichard on the Relations of Ethnology 



of speech, or in the primitive vocables, and a striking analogy 

 in grammatical construction. But beyond all this, there is a 

 singular resemblance in the structure of words themselves. 

 For example, in all these languages that euphonic principle 

 prevails which was first pointed out by Viguier in the Turk- 

 ish language, and was termed the " quadruple harmony of 

 vowels.'^ According to this principle, only vowels of certain 

 sets can occur in the same word. There are four such sets in 

 the Turkish language, and this law pervades all the dialects 

 of the Turkish race spread from the confines of China to 

 Constantinople. It also prevails in the idioms of the Mon- 

 goles and Kalmucks, and in those of the Tungusian and Man- 

 tchu Tartars, who are masters of China. It has likewise been 

 noticed in the idioms of the Finnish and Lapponic nations ; 

 and Mr Norris, the learned secretary of the Asiatic Society, 

 who is one of the greatest linguists in the world, assures me 

 that it is equally prevalent in the language of the Japanese, 

 which is likewise spoken in the Lieu-kieu islands. 



How far towards the west the oifsetts of this race extended 

 themselves is as yet unknown. Professor Rask and others 

 have thought the Euskaldunes or Euskarians, or the ancient 

 inhabitants of Spain and the South of France, who are sup- 

 posed to have occupied those countries before the Celts, 

 might be referred to this stock of nations, but no sufficient 

 proof has been afforded in support of this hypothesis, nor does 

 it appear at all established that the aborigines of Britain 

 vv'ere a Finnish race, though this has been conjectured, and 

 is, I beheve, the opinion of Dr Meyer, who has studied the 

 Celtic languages and literature more successfully than any of 

 his contemporaries. On this subject I shall say nothing at 

 present, since I hope that we shall soon hear it most ably 

 treated by that learned writer, with some of whose works on 

 the Celtic history I have had occasion to become acquainted. 

 It is no small confirmation of his views to observe that, in 

 many parts of Western Europe, the sepulchral remains of 

 the oldest and most barbarous class of inhabitants display a 

 type resembling that of the round-headed Tartar race. If 

 these facts should be fully determined, we may find hereafter 

 that the old British legend of Gog and Magog is at least true 



