ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 201 



such an origin. The post position of the adjective, which my know- 

 ledge of the Dacotah dialects does not enable me to say is universal, 

 finds its analogue in some Japanese and Loo Choo fox'ms. The in- 

 clusive and exclusive plural belongs to the Siberian area, and is 

 Turanian. The post position of the negative sni answers to the post 

 position of nang and nasJiee in Loo Choo. And the use of two tenses 

 only, a present-past and a future, reminding the philologist of the 

 Semitic and Celtic languages, presents no barrier to the relationship, 

 inasmuch as the temporal index follows the verbal root, while the 

 pronoun precedes it. It is worthy of note that while there is a 

 general agreement in grammatical forms among the Iroquois, Choc- 

 taw and Dacotah languages, they specially coincide in marking the 

 difference between transitive and intransitive verbs by the use of dis- 

 tinct pronominal particles. Judging from the identity in form of the 

 Sioux and Assiniboin verbs to the Loo Choo and Kamtchatdale res- 

 pectively, I would be inclined to regard the Dacotah family as a far 

 more recent off-shoot from the Peninsular stock than the Iroquois 

 or the Cherokee- Choctaws, a view which is favoured by the geogra- 

 phical position of the several tribes. 



The ball play or lacrosse of the Choctaws and Iroquois is practised 

 by the Assiniboins, whose method of boiling by dropping heated 

 stones into a skin substitute for a cauldron, has, according to Catlin, 

 gained them their Cree name of " Stone Indians." Pottery was ex- 

 tensively manufactui-ed by the Mandans ; and the large, handsome 

 skin lodges of the whole Dacotah family present a marked contrast 

 to the wigwams of the Tinneh and Algonquin tribes. The Mandan 

 lodges, excavated to a slight distance and covered with earth, with 

 the exception of a hole in the centre, are the same as those of the 

 Koriaks and Tchuktchis.* The lascivious dances of many Dacotah 

 tribes I'esemble those of the Kamtschatdales. One physical peculia- 

 rity of this family is the long hair of the warriors which often sweeps 

 the ground. My limited knowledge of the inhabitants of the Pen- 

 insular area does not enable me to say whether this feature character- 

 izes any of its populations. Thje Sioux have a story of a maiden's 

 leap from a precipice into the water, the " Lover's Leap " of Catlin, 

 which recalls the tradition of the Leucadian Rock and the Hyper- 

 borean practice alluded to by many ancient writers. If this be a 



* According to Klaproth, the Koriaks call the Tchuktchis Mainetang, wliich may be the ori- 

 ginal of the name Mandan. 



