JAPETIC STOCK. 239 



Pahlavi was spoken, and flourished during the reign of the Parthian 

 dynasty. The modern dialect of the Guebres is the Parsi, a language, as 

 Professor Rask affirms, evidently borrowed from the Zend, to which 

 alone the names of beings, implements, ceremonies, &c. belonging to the 

 Pars! religion are to be retraced. The opinion of some writers, and 

 among them Mr. Erskine, that the Zend was a dialect of the ancient 

 Sanscrit, is repudiated by Professor Rask : " The grammatical structure, 

 or system of inflections, in the Zend," he observes, " corresponds not 

 only with the Sanscrit, but, in some instances, with the Phrygian class ot 

 languages ; that is to say, the Greek and Latin, with their different 

 dialects : in others it is quite peculiar, which seems to shew that it is a 

 distinct language, to be arranged between the Sanscrit and Greek." 



SANSCRITIC BRANCH. Bory St. Vincent regards the Hindoos as 

 forming a distinct species, to which he has given the designation of Homo 

 Indicus. The cradle of this species he places among the sources of the 

 Indus and Ganges, among the high chains of the Himalaya, whence they 

 descended along the course of the rivers, peopling the Indian Peninsula. 

 Allowing this not improbable theory, it may be asked, was the Sanscrit the 

 language of this mountain-sprung race, or has its progress been inter- 

 rupted by a stream of Sanscritic wanderers from another quarter ? With 

 respect to the Sanscritic language, the parent of so many of the dialects 

 of India, Professor Rask regards it as of foreign importation ; not the 

 aboriginal language of India. It is remarkable, he observes, that many 

 learned men, amongst whom is Sir W. Jones, have supposed that Sanscrit 

 was introduced as a foreign language in India, from Iran ; and this is 

 much more likely than that it is an original language of India, on the 

 supposition that the great conquest, or migration, which spread Sanscrit 

 all over the northern and by far the most extensive part of India, had 

 taken place before the existence of historical records ; for, according to 

 Professor Rask, all the modern dialects of Hindustan, as well as the 

 Guzerati and Mahratta, are chiefly derived from the Sanscrit, and, conse- 

 quently, this must have been introduced into India before those dialects 

 originated, just as Latin must have existed in Spain and Gaul, long 

 before the modern Spanish, Portuguese, and French were formed. The 

 grammatical structure of the Telegu, Tamil, Carnatica, and Malayal'ma, 

 which he regards as those of the aboriginal tribes, agrees exactly with the 

 Finnish and Tartar, in Northern and Central Asia, whence he supposes 

 that one great race of men, which may be styled the Scythian, in the most 

 ancient times, extended from the Frozen Sea to the Indian Ocean, until 

 the chain was broken by a great inundation of people of our own race, 

 which he calls the Japetic, and which, issuing from eastern Persia, took 

 possession of somewhat more than Hindustan. It is remarkable that 

 the above-mentioned Indian aborigines of Malayalam, of Carnata, of 



