1896-97-] THE DENES OF AMERICA IDENTIFIED WITH THE TUNGUS OF ASIA. 205 



polysynthesis is not that of the Koriak-Tchuktchi of Siberia nor of the 

 American Iroquois, which is the same, but of the Tungus. 



I append a Hst of over 170 words, comprising different parts of speech 

 in the two languages. For the Tungus, I am indebted almost entirely 

 to Klaproth's Asia Polyglotta. The Dene I have taken from a great 

 variety of sources, including vocabularies of tribes from the Eskimo 

 border on the north, to Mexico in the South. These I have copied 

 in good faith, though, it is quite possible, they may contain erroneous 

 equivalents of the English terms. I regret the deficiency of my 

 vocabularies in particles, especially postpositions. The numerals on 

 comparison show strange discrepancy, either indicating that those of the 

 Denes belong to an archaic Siberian system, or that, prior to their, 

 advent to this continent, they had borrowed from the Kamtchadale 

 Koriaks. It is strange that their 3 and 4 should be the same as the 

 Tungus 4 and 5. Father Morice has questioned the native origin of 

 Dene government by toeiiaz-as, notables or chiefs ; but it is certain that 

 the Tungus recognized the distinction between such and the common 

 people, and the Tungusic forms for lord and master, such as edshen, 

 hiinniu, ungiu, nyiinga, and even turunbayo, suggest the original of 

 toeneza. He has also stated that pipes and tobacco were unknown to 

 the Carriers and Tse'kehne before the arrival of Sir Alexander 

 Mackenzie. It is, therefore, strange to find the Orotong Tungus word 

 for tobacco-pipe, tagon, so near in form to the Dene tekatsi. There is 

 little doubt that the pipe was originally a sacred instrument or incense 

 burner, and as such is prehistoric in many lands, independent of 

 tobacco. 



A dialectic difference of the Dene as compared with the Tungusic 

 forms of speech is the replacement of labials, including m, and of r, by 

 other sounds. So far as labials are concerned, the same is true of the 

 Iroquois dialects as compared with their Asiatic relatives. This evidence 

 of phonetic decay marks an unliterary language in transition through 

 changed circumstances, in which climate, no doubt, played a large part 

 There appears, also, that interchange of liquids which is so common 

 a feature in northern Asiatic and American dialects, as in the Tungus 

 halgar and halgan, foot ; and even of less accountable variations, as in 

 the forms for grass, orokto, owokto, okokto. A common Tungus term for 

 the throat is bilga, but the Tshapogirs call it nemgot, both being derived 

 from the same original root. Almost as great variations appear among 

 Tungus words, as compared among the Asiatic dialects, as between 

 them and those of the D^Mie forms of speech. It would be no matter 

 for surprise to find the Dene kliiithchii, bread, in a comparative 



