72 ARCHEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



sphere, than upon any exceptional instances that may be detected. 1 Thus while the 

 question of foreign derivation may be left to stand or fall with that of the unity of 

 the human species, the philological indications of extreme antiquity claimed for the 

 American race as a variety of mankind will hardly be disputed. 



There is a curious circumstance which deserves to be mentioned before leaving 

 this subject. It is that the European language which has been pointed out as most 

 nearly resembling those of the American aborigines, in its employment of the prin- 

 ciple of agglutination, is the Basque or Euskarian; and this is supposed to have 

 been a language of the aborigines of Europe, who, by the irruption of the Celts and 

 Indo-Germanic races from the East, were either exterminated or driven to inacces- 

 sible regions. Of these the Lapps and Finns, and the Euskarians of the Biscayan 

 provinces, have been regarded by some writers as the remnant. 2 



The physical attributes of aboriginal Americans have furnished arguments in 

 favor of the unity and antiquity of the race, subject to an equal want of harmony 

 of sentiment in regard to matters of fact. 



As in what has been said of native languages the object has been to present the 

 American view of the subject almost exclusively, for similar reasons the archaeo- 

 logical deductions of the physiologist will be examined chiefly from the same point 

 of observation. 



The inquiry is not what opinions Buffon, Cuvier, Blumenbach, Prichard, Law- 

 rence, Smith, and other writers on the natural history of man in general, have 

 entertained concerning the origin and varieties of the human species — and refer- 

 ence to these must be brief and incidental — but the aim is to ascertain what 

 impressions have been interwoven with ethnological studies and discussions here ; 

 what special comparisons have been instituted ; and what substantial results, if 

 any, have been reached by the scientific men of our own country. 



There has been great unanimity among writers usually regarded as authorities, 

 in considering the American race — not including the Eskimaux — as a distinct variety 

 of human kind; and whatever deviations have been made from the systems of Lin- 

 naeus, Buffon, and Blumenbach, this division has generally been retained by their 

 successors. 



The propriety of distinguishing between the occupants of the polar regions and 

 other inhabitants of the continent has also been commonly recognized. 3 



1 " Neither the analogy nor the diversity of language can suffice to solve the great problem of the 

 filiation of nations." — Humboldt, Personal Narrative, III, 285. 



"Humanity has a common character. The ingenious scholar may find analogies in language, cus- 

 toms, institutions, and religion, between the aborigines of America and any nation whatever of the Old 

 World."— Bancroft, Hist, of U. &, Ill, 312. 



3 Prof. Carpenter, in "Cyclop, of Anat. and Physiol.," p. 1349. Latham, in "Varieties of Man," 

 p. 551, who quotes Arndt and Rask, distinguished Scandinavian ethnologists. 



3 " The Eskimaux are manifestly a race of men distinct from all the nations of the American con- 

 tinent, in language, in disposition, and in habits of life. But among all the other inhabitants of 

 America there is such a striking similitude in the form of their bodies, and the qualities of their minds, 



