4 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



It may be said, perhaps, that I throw too much importance 

 into the resemblances of words, and that tbe community of lan- 

 guage is not the only conclusive proof of unity of race. But, 

 each to his own department, it will be for the geologist, the 

 anthropologist, and the general historian to deal with the ques- 

 tion more fully — where I go outside the province of language I 

 do so only in the briefest manner. But it is to language that 

 the scientist looks for his most conclusive evidence of common 

 descent. The measurement of skulls, the comparisons of reli- 

 gions, the groupings by shades of colour, would never have led 

 to the certainty that the dusky Hindoo was brother to tbe fair 

 Prussian, had not the testimony of language been decisive. A 

 change of locality induces alteration in the lower animals far 

 greater than any variety in the races of men ; the pig, trans- 

 ported to South America, becomes in some cases red, in some 

 black ; it gets a thick fur, underneath which is wool, some even 

 have solid hoofs ; the number of tbe vertebra? differs in different 

 species, and the wild hog has six incisor teeth in the upper jaw, 

 and six in tbe lower, while the tame animal has only three. 

 According to M. de Quatrefages there is a race of cattle in Pia- 

 centino which have fourteen pairs of ribs instead of thirteen. 

 Dr. Draper affirms that darkness or fairness of skin depends on 

 the manner in which the liver performs its duties, and that 

 colour has no reference to race. Tbe ravages made by even half 

 a century of degradation, are well shown by Brace in bis manual 

 of Ethnology: "Malacca," says Dr. Yvan, '-has about 30,000 

 inhabitants. This population is composed of Portuguese, Dutch, 

 English, and Chinese. Among tbe inhabitants of European 

 origin, the Portuguese are the most numerous. They are, for 

 the most part, descendants of tbe ancient conquerors of Malaisia. 

 Their fathers were the companions of Vasco di Gama and Albu- 

 querque, but like the monuments that their ancestors raised, 

 and which cover the soil of their ruins, they also have been in- 

 jured by degradation and age." After mentioning that they are 

 lower in every way than the Malay, that even their features 

 have put on an Ethiopian type, he resumes : " The majority bear 

 illustrious names, and they are ignorant who were their fathers, 

 and what ray of the past pierces their obscurity. In the space 

 of half a century, perhaps, religion, morals, traditions, written 

 transmission of thought, are effaced from their remembrance." 



The Maoris have had no such fall; in their religion, their 

 language, their customs, they seem simply not to have advanced, 

 but among them we stand as we should have stood among our 

 own ancestors in the age of polished stone weapons, the Neolithic 

 period. I will, then, revert to the chief line of scientific com- 

 parison, that of language, and will compare Maori with tongues 

 now spoken. First, the Aryan of Persia and Hindustan. Hin- 

 dustani is scarcely to be called a language ; it is a compound of 



