Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 341 



common obfervation. Nor can we fufpedl him of any intention to 

 impofe upon the reader with refpeil to this fa£t. If indeed he had 

 maintained that the Indians of North America were defcended of 

 the Egyptians, and came from that country, he might be fuppofed 

 to have feigned this fa<fl, in order to fupport his fyftem, if he had 

 known, what 1 do not beUeve he did, that this was a pecuhar cuftom 

 of the Egyptians. But his hypothefis, which he has endeavoured 

 to maintain by many arguments, is, that thefe Indians were a colo- 

 ny of Jews, which came off about the time that their city v/as ta- 

 ken by Nebuchadnezar, and themfelves tranfpoited to Babylon. 

 Now, among the Jews, it is well known that the men pifTed as we 

 do in Europe ; and accordingly, pijfttig againjl the ivally is, in the 

 language of the Old Teflament, made a charafteriftical mark of the 

 male fex. 



This circumflance may appear trifling to many of my readers' ; 

 but I think it tends not a little to fupport my fyftem of the lan- 

 guages of thefe Indians in North America being derived from Egypt, 

 as well as every other language : For it proves, that the men, 

 who from Kamfchatka peopled America, muft have had fome com- 

 munication with the Egyptians, not immediately, I believe, but by 

 the intercourfe of other nations. And when they adopted this An- 

 gular cuftom of the Egyptians, I muft fuppofe that they alfo learned 

 their language. 



In making this wonderful inveftigation, M. Gebelin has followed, 

 I think, a very proper method : For he has endeavoured to difcover 

 the radical words in the feveral languages he examines ; which he 

 fuppofes, very juftly, muft have been words of the primitive lan- 

 guage. Nor indeed could the refemblance betwixt fo many diffe- 

 rent languages have otherwife been clearly made out ; for we 

 know, that derivative and compounded words differ very much in 



found 



