9 



These deductions naturally led to the extension of the field o 

 inquiry to the old world, and particularly to those Scythic peoples, 

 with whom it was supposed, on other ethnological grounds, the 

 Red race would affiliate, if ever successfully traced to an Asiatic 

 original. Hence, these schedules have been distributed in some 

 portions of Asia, and in some of the islands of the Pacific, in order 

 to discover whether this system is confined to the American In- 

 dians, or is indeed common with them, and the Mongolian, Tun- 

 gusian, Turkish, and Finnish families, whose languages constitute 

 what is now known as the Scythian group of tongues. 



But two schedules have, as yet, been obtained, and these but 

 partially filled, although fortunately the prominent and indicative 

 features of the system of each are presented. They contain the 

 principal degrees of consanguinity and relationship of the Tamil 

 and Telugu peoples of southern India, numbering about twenty- 

 four millions, who, with the Canarese, the Malayalam, the Tulu, 

 and a few subordinate Dravidian races, have been recognized as an 

 Ante-Brahminical people, having their nearest affinities with the 

 Scythian families above mentioned. 



A comparison of the Tamil and Telugu schedules shows that 

 the systems of these races are identical ; leading to the same in- 

 ference of their genetic connection, which has been drawn from 

 the similarity of the Iroquois and the Dakotas as to them. A 

 further comparison of the Tamil and Telugu system, with that of 

 the American Indians, discloses the extraordinary fact, that so far 

 as we have the present means of comparison, they are nearly 

 identical. To what extent the Asiatic and the American Indians 

 have the system in common, will appear by the following state- 

 ment of the principal features of the Tamil and Telugu system, 

 which are the following : 



I — All the brothers of a father are usually called fathers, 

 (Takappan,*) but in strictness, those who are older than the father 

 are called great fathers, (Poriya Takappan,) and those who are 

 younger, little fathers, (Seriya Takappan j) so that in any event 

 all the father's brothers are fathers, and not uncles. 



* These words are in the Tamil language, and all of them are used in 

 the singular number. 



