ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 201 
such an origin. The post position of the adjective, which my know- 
ledge of the Dacotah dialects does not enable me to say is universal, 
finds its analogue in some Japanese and Loo Choo forms. The in- 
clusive and exclusive plural belongs to the Siberian area, and is 
Turanian. The post position of the negative sn7 answers to the post 
position of nang and nashee in Loo Choo, And the use of two tenses 
only, a present-past and a future, reminding the philologist of the 
Semitic and Celtic languages, presents no barrier to the relationship, 
inasmuch as the temporal index follows the verbal root, while the 
pronoun precedes it. It is worthy of note that while there is a 
general agreement in grammatical forms among the Iroquois, Choc- 
taw and Dacotah languages, they specially coincide in marking the 
difference between transitive and intransitive verbs by the use of dis- 
tinct pronominal particles. Judging from the identity in fcrm of the 
Sioux and Assiniboin verbs to the Loo Choo and Kamtchatdale res- 
pectively, I would be inclined to regard the Dacotah family as a far 
more recent off-shoot from the Peninsular stock than the Iroquois 
or the Cherokee-Choctaws, a view which is favoured by the geogra- 
phical position of the several tribes. 
The ball play or lacrosse of the Choctaws and Iroquois is practised 
by the Assiniboins, whose method of boiling by dropping heated 
stones into a skin substitute for a cauldron, has, according to Catlin, 
gained them their Cree name of ‘“ Stone Indians.” Pottery was ex- 
tensively manufactured by the Mandans; and the large, handsome 
skin lodges of the whole Dacotah family present a marked contrast 
to the wigwams of the Tinneh and Algonquin tribes. The Mandan 
lodges, excavated to a slight distance and covered with earth, with 
the exception of a hole in the centre, are the same as those of the 
Koriaks and Tchuktchis.* The lascivious dances of many Dacotah 
tribes resemble those of the Kamtschatdales. One physical peculia- 
rity of this family is the long hair of the warriors which often sweeps 
the ground. My limited knowledge of the inhabitants of the Pen- 
insular area does not enable me to say whether this feature churacter- 
izes any of its populations. The Sioux have a story of a maiden's 
leap from a precipice into the water, the “ Lover’s Leap” of Catlin, 
which recalls the tradition of the Leucadian Rock and the Hyper- 
borean practice alluded to by many-ancient writers. If this bea 
* According to Klaproth, the Koriaks call the Tchuktchis Mainetang, which may be the ori- 
ginal of the name Mandan. 
