THE HUMAN SPECIES. 183 



(such as the Gomerian Celtae, and the Indo-Germans, 

 Yuchi and Sacae), would have travelled without being 

 pressed in the rear, across deserts, up great rivers and 

 high mountain ranges, before they multiplied, for no 

 other purpose than to return over the same ground, 

 that they might thence continue still further west than 

 they had been east, and delay peopling only that por- 

 tion of the globe which is unquestionably the most im- 

 portant of the whole ; or for the sole purpose of fetching 

 the physical elements of social life already mentioned, 

 which western Caucasus never spontaneously produced, 

 and to learn at a distance, forms of speech, fundamen- 

 tally belonging to the oldest Scythic, or a parent San- 

 scrit a language found to influence, with very few 

 exceptions, every known grammatical tongue in the 

 world, though, in its present shape, it may be a mix- 

 ture of various dialects. Asiatic early lore proves 

 this primseval tongue to have originated in the southern 

 and western Highlands already noticed, and to exist 

 still in many idioms, spreading from their border 

 through India, Indo-Chma ; and, with less evidence, 

 to Australasia, far more than to the west, in Europe, 

 Persia, and Syria ; and none of its dialects positively 

 belonging to western Caucasus. The present Imeri- 

 tians, Circassians, &c., though they may have a just 

 claim to be of the purest bearded typical stock, like the 

 Coords or Gaurs, were originally riding conquerors, 

 and were driven into their present fastnesses at a com- 

 paratively recent period. 



If we turn to India, although the woolly haired stock 



