BOAS] HANDBOOK OF AMEEICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES 9 



Instances of similar kind, in which we find permanence of blood 

 with far-reacliing modifications of language and culture, are found 

 in other parts of the world. As an example may be mentioned the 

 Veddah of Ceylon, a people fundamentally different in type from 

 the neighboring Singhalese, whose language they seem to have 

 adopted, and from whom they have also evidently borrowed a 

 number of cultural traits. Still other examples are the Japanese 

 of the northern part of Japan, who are undoubtedly, to a consider- 

 able extent, Ainu in blood; and the Yukaghir of Siberia, who, 

 while retaining to a great extent the old blood, have been assimilated 

 in culture and language by the neighboring Tungus. 



I*ernuinence of Lauguage; Changes of Physical Tyx*e 



While it is therefore evident that in many cases a people, without 

 undergoing a considerable change in type b}^ mixture, have changed 

 completely their language and culture, still other cases may be adduced 

 in which it can be shown that a people have retained their language 

 while undergoing material changes in blood and culture, or in both. 

 As an example of this may be mentioned the Magyar of Europe, who 

 have retained their old language, but have become mixed with people 

 speaking Indo-European languages, and who have, to all intents and 

 purposes, adopted European culture. 



Similar conditions must have prevailed among the Athapascans, 

 one of the great linguistic families of North America. The great 

 body of people speaking languages belonging to this linguistic stock 

 live in the northwestern part of America, while other dialects are 

 spoken by small tribes in California, and still others by a large body 

 of people in Arizona and New Mexico. The relationship between all 

 these dialects is so close that they must be considered as branches 

 of one large group, and it must be assumed that all of them have 

 sprung from a language once spoken over a continuous area. At 

 the present time the people speaking these languages differ funda- 

 mentally in type, the inhabitants of the Mackenzie river region 

 being quite different from the tribes of California, and these, again, 

 differing from the tribes of New Mexico. The forms of culture in 

 these different regions are also quite distinct ; the culture of the Cali- 

 fornia Athapascans resembles that of other Californian tribes, while 

 the culture of the Athapascans of New Mexico and Arizona is 

 influenced by that of other peoples of that area. It seems most 



