AMERICAN LANGUAGES. 53 



the Florida Indians. All articles of a higher order of manufacture, said to have 

 heen occasionally met with, he believed to have been derived from the early Spanish 

 or French adventurers, or from other external sources. 



Although Dr. McCulloh's deductions are usually sensible and discriminating, the 

 plan of his work is open to serious objections. It may serve for a dictionary of 

 reference, but as a method of reasoning it is unsound and deceptive. Detached 

 quotations Yieed not of necessity mislead the compiler, provided he carefully studies 

 the connection in which they are found, but they are liable to have in their separate 

 position, or when combined with other extracts, a force and signification their authors 

 by no means intended. They can never be admitted as evidence, or made the basis 

 of a solid judgment, without a knowledge of the circumstances in which they were 

 written. Dr. McCulloh's work has this great merit and interest : It contains the first 

 clear and definite statement, upon evidence, of opinions that have since been adopted 

 by some of the latest and most influential writers. Dr. Morton employs the term 

 brown, suggested by him, to express the general color of the Indians, recognizing 

 also the various shades of complexion which Dr. McCulloh has described, without, 

 however, regarding them as indicative of distinctions of race. Mr. Schoolcraft con- 

 firms his views respecting the southern origin of the mound-builders, and the probable 

 history of those remains, and apparently concurs with the general conclusions of his 

 research. 1 



It is time to notice more particularly a department of research, thus far but 

 indirectly referred to, which is destined to exert a prominent, if not decisive influ- 

 ence, upon archaeological questions. 



An examination of American languages, as a means of determining from what 

 branch of the human family the original inhabitants of the country were descended, 

 was suggested at an early period. Efforts have never been wanting, since vocabu- 

 laries began to be collected, to trace affinities with the languages of the Old World, 

 through words having a similarit}^ of sound and signification; yet, although many 

 striking cases of apparent resemblance between single words of various Indian dia- 

 lects and those of parallel import in other tongues were detected, philological 

 inquiries produced no satisfactory fruits, because the proper principle on which they 

 should be conducted was not understood. 



When Psammeticus, king of Egypt, caused two children to be brought up 

 without an opportunity of hearing speech, iu order, by the first words they should 

 utter, to settle a dispute between the Egyptians and Phrygians, as to which was 

 the most ancient language, he acted under the same philosophical misapprehension. 

 The first word spoken happened to be beccos; and the Phrygians claimed the victory, 

 because beccos in their tongue signified bread. 



If Psammeticus had prolonged his experiment until the children sought to com- 

 municate their ideas to one another, and, after having given names to things, 

 endeavored to combine and modify them to express relation, quality, and action, 

 he might, perhaps, have ascertained in what manner the human mind, governed 

 solely by instinctive impulses, would proceed to the construction of language. 



1 Hist. Cond. and Prosp. of the Ind. Tribes, II, 84 and 320. lb., IV, 115. 



