THE ESKIMO RACE AND LANGUAGE. 279 



reached America. H. W. Elliott^ detects a striking resemblance 

 between the Aleuts and the Japanese, regarding the former as a 

 connecting link between the lattei- and the Eskimo. Prof. Flowei-s- 

 discusses tiie matter in these tei-ms : 



•' The sjjecial characteristics which distinguish a Japanese from the 

 average of mankind are seen in the Eskimo in an exaggerated degree 

 so that there can be no doubt of their being deriv-ed from the same 

 stock." Claiming that this exaggeration decreases as we progress 

 from east to west in the Eskimo ten-itory, he derives the Eskimo from 

 the Mongols of Asia, I'epresented by the Japanese. A. H. Keane^ 

 reviewing Dr. Rink's paper on the Eskimo dialects, referred to above, 

 notices the views advanced by Prof. Flowers and Mr. Elliott. He 

 points out that the Japanese are but comparatively recent intruders 

 into Yesso (having been preceded by the Ainos), and could hardly have 

 had time to throw off a branch which should have developed into so 

 specialized a people as the Eskimo, and inclines to favour the opinion 

 of Dr.jRink. Petroff* opposes Dr. Rink's theory and considers that the 

 Eskimo moved southwards after the invention of the Kayak. Turner 

 criticises Dr. Rink's general views and his opinion regarding the 

 development of the Kayak implements and their bearing upon Eski- 

 mo migrations, but does not advance any very striking arguments. 

 At the present time the Asiatic origin theory first set forth by 

 Crantz, the historian of Greenland, seems to be fast losing ground and 

 the American theory in projiortion gaining in popular favor. 



A few words as to the Eskimo legends regarding their own mio-ra- 

 tions. The Asiatic Eskimo are said by Dr. C. Neumann^ to retain a 

 distinct recollection of the passage of their forefathers from America 

 in times long past. Murdoch ^ comparing the story of Kokpausina 

 as told by the Pt. Barrow Eskimo, with that of Kagssuk as given by 

 Rink, says "if Kokpausina and Kagssuk were real beings, it is pro- 

 bable that they were the same men, and lived not in the locality now 

 pointed out, but in the common home of the prehistoric Eskimo • 

 before the Greenlander started on the weary journey towards the 



1. Our Arctic Province, Alaska and the Seal Islands, p. ITS. 



2. Presid. Addr. Anthrop. Inst., .Jan. 9,1885. 



3. Nature, Jan. 27, 1887. 



4. Am. Nat., vol. x.\i, p. 567-75, and Smithson. Report, 1882, p. 646. ^ 



5. Proc. Roy. Geog. Soe. xxi. (1876-7), p. 217. 



6. A few Legend. Fragm. of Pt. Barrow Esk. Am. Nat., July, 1886, p. 596. 



