160 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
at basis Hittite or Khitan. Already at the commencement of my 
Hittite studies I had noted the agreement of many characters in the 
Corean alphabet with those of Hamath and Jerabis on the one hand, 
and, on the other, with those on our mound tablets. The Rev. John 
Edwards of Atoka with great kindness procured for me, from a mem- 
ber of the Japanese Imperial Household at Tokio, a work on the 
ancient writing of the Japanese. One of the forms of writing exhi- 
bited in this work and occupying much space is very similar to the 
Corean, and is undeniably of the same origin. I have not yet had 
time to investigate the volumes thoroughly, but as they appear to 
contain samples of ancient alphabets with guesses at their significa- 
tion rather than complete inscriptions, little progress may be antici- 
pated by means of them. Nevertheless the existence in Japan of a 
syllabary of so Hittite a type as the Corean in ancient times is con- 
firmatory of the Khitan origin of the Japanese. As for the relations 
of American civilizations, such as those of the Mexicans, Muyscas, 
and Peruvians, with that of Japan, I need only refer to the writings 
of so accurate and judicious an observer as Humboldt. 
Returning to the Hittites of Syria, who figure so largely in the 
victorious annals of the Egyptian Pharaohs and Assyrian kings, and 
whose empire came to an end towards the close of the 8th century 
B.C., we find that, although apart from my own conclusions no defi- 
nite opinion has been reached regarding their language beyond the 
mere fact that it was Turanian, guesses have been made by scholars 
whose hypotheses even are worthy of consideration. Professor Sayce 
belicves the Hittite language to have been akin to that furnished by 
the ancient Vannic inscriptions of Armenia. The Vannic language, 
according to Lenormant, belongs to the Alarodian family, of which 
the best known living example is the Georgian of the Caucasus. 
Now it is the Caucasus that I have made the starting point of Hit- 
tite migration, which terminated at Biscay in the west, and in the 
east, reaching the utmost bounds of Northern Asia, overflowed into 
America. Not only the Georgians, I unhesitatingly assert, but most 
of the other Caucasian families, the Circassians, Lesghians, and 
Mizjeji at least, should be classed as Alarodians, or better still as 
Khitan. So far I have found no evidence from ancient Caucasian 
inscriptions, though such I believe have been discovered ; but an 
evidence as conclusive is furnished by the languages of the Caucasian 
families I have named as compared with those which are presum- 
