112 



Account of the Taye^ 



ern parts of North- America (and even to the east of the 

 , Missisippi); and as the Mexicans, and other American 

 nations, are known to have manufactured copper into 

 axes, and other implements, there is the less cause of 

 suspicion as to the veracity of Lahontan, in his account 

 of the Tahuglaiik medal. And if the animals repre- 

 sented on this nnedal be, as I suppose they are, sheep, 

 we are furnislied with an additional argument in fa- 

 vour of the opiiion, that the Americans and Asiatics 

 are one and the same people. For we have seen, that 

 " brazen images and stone figures" of the Argali arc 

 often discovered in the graves of the Tartars. 



I must not bonclude this very imperfect notice of 

 the western Narth- American sheep, without observ- 

 ing, that bet\veen the Indian (Califoimian) name of 

 this animal and the Asiatic (Tartar) name of an ani- 

 mal considerably allied to it, there is a striking coin- 

 cidence. The Monqui name, we have seen, is Taye, 

 Now certain Tartars call the Capra Ibex, Tau Tokke, 

 or Mountain goat*. This coincidence will hardly 

 be deemed altogether accidental^ especially as both 

 the American animal and the Ibex are mountain ani- 

 mals ; and I find that Tati^ or Ta-oOy Tavj, and Tag, 

 are the names of a mountain in the dialects of seve- 

 ral Tartar and other Asiatic nationsf, between whose 

 languages and those of the Americans I have, long 

 since, pointed out some very striking affinities J. 



• Mr. Pennant's History of Quadrupeds. Vol. i. page Sf. 



t See the Vocabularia Comparativa of Pallas. Pars prior, p. 

 Zol. \. See my New Views, &:c. 



