510 SYSTEMS OF C X S A X GUI XI T Y AXD A F FIXITY 



so far as any evidence in their respective systems bears upon the question. The 

 systems of the Tungusian and Mongolian stocks yet remain to be ascertained. 

 They are the only important Asiatic stocks not represented in some of their 

 branches in the Tables. When their several systems are procured it is not impro- 

 bable that the Eskimo form will find its type in one of them, although the suppo- 

 sition is conjectural. It would be remarkable if it did not. The Eskimo are 

 comparatively a recent people upon the American continent, at least to the east- 

 ward of Mackenzie River. This fact is attested by the present nearness of the 

 dialects of the Greenland, Labrador, and Western Eskimo, in all of which the 

 identity of the vocables is still recognized with facility ; whilst the Ganowanian 

 language has fallen into a large number of stock languages, the vocables of each 

 of which are different and distinct. 



The Eskimo form agrees with the Ganowanian in being classificatory, and in 

 merging the collateral lines in the lineal line ; but it differs from it in the classifi- 

 cation of kindred. Its generalizations are true to the nature of descents in every 

 particular, as they now exist with marriage between single pairs, and as they are 

 found in the Aryan family, with the exception of those which relate to the merging 

 of the collateral lines in the lineal line. In many respects it approaches quite near 

 to the systems of the Aryan and Uralian families, to both of which it is nearer 

 than to the Turanian or Ganowanian, thus implying an advance in their experi- 

 ence at some anterior period far beyond either of the latter. In the absence of 

 all knowledge of the forms which prevail in Northeastern Asia, it is premature to 

 indulge in conjectures, but there are features in the Eskimo which suggest, at least, 

 the possibility that when traced to its limits it may furnish the connecting links 

 between the Turanian and Uralian forms. 



