222 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



blood in the composition of these tribes, still, as they 

 vary, from absolutely Oriental Negroes, to nations 

 having most striking characteristics of true Caucasians, 

 the sole test of language, even if it were beyond dispute, 

 is scarcely of sufficient weight to determine the whole 

 question. It should be remembered, that all the Malay 

 dialects abound in Sanscrit words, which, be they bor- 

 rowed from the tongues of the present Indo-China, or 

 from the Telinga of the peninsula, are still evidence of 

 a pervading Caucasian admixture. Indo-China, the 

 primaeval abode of the Malays, bears Sanscrit names 

 in every locality, whereas the Polynesian languages 

 are without these characteristics in the words and gram- 

 matical structure. There are, moreover, monuments of 

 Man's presence in many islands, from the Ladrones, in 

 the Chinese Seas, and Tinian, to Java, the Marquesas, 

 Easter, and Pitcairn Islands, monuments, not the work 

 of the present existing nations, but raised at so remote 

 a period, that all memory of the facts connected with 

 them is departed even from mythical tales ; yet they 

 are constructed upon principles positively akin to Cau- 

 casian reasoning and Caucasian skill. Tribes of this 

 type have left strong evidence of their ancient preva- 

 lence in the present mop headed Figees, the brown 

 curly haired Marquesans, the dark haired Hawaiians, 

 and the variously featured New Zealanders, in all of 

 which, though the masses of population indicate mix- 

 tures of lower origin, the chiefs point to a true Cauca- 

 sian descent, in their whole external conformation, and 

 still more in the intellectual faculties they possess. It 



