1864] REVIEW. 147 



fectly separated from each other. There have also not been 

 wanting students of the subject, who supposed they could discover 

 links of connection with the languages of the old world. Still the 

 subject has been pursued only in a desultory manner, and it pre- 

 sents a rich and comparatively unexplored field. It is more 

 especially important in connection with the bold theory of Retzius, 

 based on cranial conformation, that the " lonsr-headed " Indian 

 races of Eastern America may have been of North African or 

 South European origin. This would make America the meeting 

 ground of the opposite extremes of human migration to the 

 East and the West, as it seems certain that the Indians of Western 

 America are related to the races of Northern Asia. To us this 

 theory receives strong confirmation, not only from the similar 

 physical conformation of the Guanches of the Canaries, and some 

 of the North African races, but also from the facts which have 

 been ascertained as to the form, habits, and rites of the earUest 

 aborigines of Europe. In the further solution of such questions, 

 the study of the languages is most important, and we need a 

 careful and thorough comparison of all the Eastern American 

 tongues, more especially with a view to the question of their 

 possibly having originated from colonists landing on the West- 

 ladia Islands from some part of the shores of the Mediterranean, 

 and this at a remote period, when the languages of Europe were 

 in their most primitive state. The task is a dijQ&cult one, requir- 

 ing the combination of the learning of many men and laborious 

 investigation ; but if any reliable positive results could be obtained, 

 the labor would not be in vain. In the meantime we give a few 

 extracts from the pamphlet of " N. 0.," in illustration of his protest 

 against the dictum of M. Renan, that the idea of the primitive 

 unity of language is a chimera : — 



" Mr. Renan will be perhaps surprised to learn that that Iro- 

 quois tongue which he had considered so barbarous has, neverthe- 

 less certain very curious analogies with the learned languages. 

 Thus those Hebrew and Indo-Germanic quadriliteral and quinqui- 

 literal roots, of which M. Renan makes such a show in his book of 

 comparative philology, are also found in the Iroquois tongue ; and 

 certainly the words raonraon, kitkit, 8iion8iion, taraktarak, sara- 

 sara, teriteri, k8isk8is, herhar, tsiskoko, kSitokSito, iekonienk, 

 8irok8iro, and others may very well be compared with gargar, 

 tsiftsef, tsiUsel, GARGARISER, GARGARIZEIN, pipivit, PIPI- 



