t 



74 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



Mbaya-Abipone. Malay-Polynksian. 



figb noay Mocobt. nau Gilolo. 



moon epenai Mbaya. bouan Tagaln. 



tongne noqueligi " nangaladi (ri(!oio. 



white j'alaga 3fr><!o6?", kul(»b Celebes. 



name oonagadi Mbaua. hingoa Tonaa. 



come enagui Mhapa. anac Toha. inokere Tidore, maika Celebes^ 



food geeeniqiie " genanga Tci/i^/a. 



make yoeni " gnahi '* 



bad beagi *' hehe\ Amblaw. 



day nagata Mocobi. bangat Eouru. 



The poverty of my collection of Mbaya-Abipone words places 

 the comparison of these dialects at a i»reat disadvantage as con- 

 trasted with the Algonquin and the Maya -Quiche, although I 

 must confess that even in my short vocabulary many terms 

 appear which have no corresponding forms among the Malay- 

 Polynesian languages known to me, but exhibit decided evidence 

 of a Turanian origin. Similar words occur in the Maya-Quich4 

 and Algonquin vocabularies, and may be the result of admixture 

 on the part of the peoples employing them with other American 

 tribes of Turanian derivation. Thus naccuta, the Mocobi word 

 for "hair," is Aymara Peruvian, Kadiak and Asiatic Tchuktchi, 

 languages whose grammatical structure is totally different from 

 that of the Mbaya- Abipone. 



Language naturally leads to mythology and religion in such 

 an enquiry as this. According to Sir John Lubbock and Mr. 

 Tylor, the Polynesians do not worship the heavenly bodies. I do 

 not know whether this is the case with the Mbaya- Abipone family 

 or not, but solar worship had at least no prominence among the 

 Maya-Quiches, and was unknown among the Algonquins before 

 the adoption of the Delawares into the Iroquois confederacy. 

 On the other hand, the Dacotahs, Iroquois, Choctaws, Natchez, 

 Mexicans, Peruvians, Muyscas and Chilenos were sun -worshippers. 

 The heaven of tht latter peoples was supposed to be continental, 

 happy hunting grounds in some distant region, or it was celestial 

 above the clouds : but the Algonquin heaven was, like that of 

 the Polynesians, an island in the ocean. The Abb^ Maurault, 

 in his Histoire des Abenaquis, says : " Ce Grand-Esprit residait 

 Bur une ile du grand lac (I'Ocean Atlantique)." In this we find 

 an evidence of insular derivation. The same appears in the story 

 of the creation of the world. Maui of New Zealand, with whom 

 Mr. Tylor compares the Algonquin Manitou or Monedo, fished 

 up the earth with a hook from the universal ocean, as did Tau- 

 galoa of the Friendly Islands. The Quiche Tohil, Tzakoll or 



