74 PR >CEt:DING3 OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



Barth says that the relations of the Peulhs (Foulahs) carry us back 

 to an antiquity pi'odigiously anterior to the domination of the 

 Pharaohs (see Crozal Les Peulhs, p. 268), and the date of the distur- 

 bance of the primitive negro people of Africa by the ancestors of the 

 Peulhs etc., is fixed by F. Mueller at about (lOOO B. C. Tt is to a 

 people boasting an antiquity like this that I would seek to attach 

 the ancestors of the aborigines of America. Prof. Anders Betzius, 

 from a comparative study of crania of the ancient Caribs of the West 

 Indies and of the Guanches of the Canaries, unhesitatingly came to 

 conclusion that these two peoples were closely related ; and the 

 Guanches belong to the great brown race of Northern Africa and it 

 is probable that many South American tribes cause the same way 

 as the Caribs did from Africa to the northern coast of that continent. 

 It has been attempted to deinve some of the American peoples 

 from Asia by reason of an apparent similarity in tribal names and 

 names of rivers, mountains etc. This is a very dangerous ground to 

 tread iipon ; and random comparison is worse than useless. For 

 example " Koriak " and " Cherokee " have been thus co-related. 

 But " Koriak " is from a word " Kora " (cp. Tchuktschi " Korang") 

 meaning "rein-deer," and can have no possible connection with 

 ^'Tsheiaki" the name of the Indians here mentioned. The names 

 " Yuma " and Yemez have been connected with " Yaraato," " Hima- 

 laya," " Haemus " and " Hamath." " Yum-a " according to H. L. 

 Pinart (Zeitschrift fiir Ethnol, 1886, Heft III.) is a borrowed word, 

 being applied to the Yuma Indians by the Pitna tribe, and its 

 signification is probably the same as we find in other cases of tiibal 

 nomenclature where the name is of foreign origin. " Himalaya," 

 according to the best authorities, means '■ abode of snow " in Sans- 

 crit, and the related word " Haemus " (and " Himalaya" as well) is 

 clearly explained by Pliny, (Imaus incolarum in lingua nivosum sig- 

 nificante). In tracing the alleged migrations of the Hittites or 

 Khitai into America much use has been made of topographical 

 resemblances. The river-name Songala has been connected ■ with 

 Saghalien (island) and Sangar (sts). Now the meaning of Saghalien 

 is easily seen; the native name is " Saghalin anga hada" "isle of 

 the black mouth " i. e., the island at the mouth of the "black river," 

 the Amur, the native name of which is " saghalinula " (black river). 

 The same word is seen in the Tungus " sachalin," black. Now it is 

 altogether unlikely that Songala means the " black river " or San. 



