PRINCIPAL FAMILIES OP MANKIND. 1051 



to have existed as a separate family of nations from a very early period in the 

 world's history. They do not form, however, so distinct a variety, in regard to 

 physical characters, as some anatomists have endeavored to prove ; for, although 

 certain peculiarities have been stated to exist in the skulls of the aboriginal 

 Americans, yet it is found, on a more extensive examination, that these peculi- 

 arities are very limited in their extent the several nations spread over this vast 

 continent differing from each other in physical peculiarities as much as they do 

 from those of the Old World, so that no typical form can be made out among 

 them. In regard to complexion, again, it may be remarked that, although the 

 native Americans have been commonly characterized as "red men," they are by 

 no means invariably of a red or coppery hue, some being as fair as many Euro- 

 pean nations, others being yellow or brown, and others nearly, if not quite, as 

 black as the Negroes of Africa; whilst, on the other hand, there are tribes 

 equally red, and perhaps more deserving that epithet, in Africa and Polynesia. 

 In spite of all this diversity of conformation, it is believed that the structure of 

 their languages affords a decided and clearly marked evidence of relationship 

 between them. The words, and even the roots, may differ entirely in the differ- 

 ent groups of American nations; but there is a remarkable similarity in gram- 

 matical construction amongst them all, which is of a kind not only to demonstrate 

 their mutual affinity, but to separate them completely from all known languages 

 of the Old Continent. Notwithstanding their diversities in mode of life, too, 

 there are peculiarities of mental character, as well as a number of ideas and 

 customs derived from tradition, which seem to be common to them all, and 

 which, for the most part, indicate a former elevation in the scale of civilization, 

 that has left its traces among them even in their present degraded condition, 

 and that still distinguishes them from the sensual, volatile, and almost animal- 

 ized savages that are to be met with in many parts of the Old Continent. The 

 Esquimaux constitute an exception to all general accounts of the physical cha- 

 racters of the American nations; for in the configuration of their skulls, as also 

 in their complexion and general physiognomy, they conform to the Mongolian 

 type, even presenting it in an exaggerated degree. Their wide extension along 

 the whole northern coast of America, and the near proximity of this coast to 

 Kamschatka, certainly lend weight to the idea that they derive their origin 

 from the Northern Asiatic stock; but, on the other hand, they have a marked 

 affinity, in regard to language, to the other American nations. The Athapascan 

 Indians, various tribes of which inhabit the country south of the Esquimaux 

 country, seem intermediate in physical characters, as they are in geographical 

 position, between the Esquimaux and the ordinary Americans. They have a 

 tradition which seems to indicate that they are derived from the North-Eastern 

 Asiatics, with whom they have many points of accordance in dress and manners. 

 1060. It now remains for us to notice the Oceanic races, which inhabit the 

 vast series of islands scattered through the great ocean, that stretches from 

 Madagascar to Easter Island. There is no part of the world which affords a 

 greater variety of local conditions than this, or which more evidently exhibits 

 the effects of physical agencies on the organization of the human body. More- 

 over, it affords a case for the recognition of affinities by means of language, that 

 possesses unusual stability; since the insulated position of the various tribes that 

 people the remote spots of this extensive tract prevents them from exercising 

 that influence upon each other's forms of speech which is to be observed in the 

 case of nations united by local proximity or by frequent intercourse. Tried by 

 this test, it is found that the different groups of people, inhabiting the greater 

 part of these insular tracts, are more nearly connected together, although so 

 widely scattered, and so diverse in physical characters, than most of the families 

 of men occupying continuous tracts of land on the great continents of the globe. 

 The inhabitants of Oceania seem divisible into two principal groups, which are 



