December 17, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



569 



measurements ' in order to preseirve the char- 

 acteristics of the group to science and history, 

 for in another generation or two they will be 

 completely mised up and extinct. They are 

 going rapidly like many of our Amierican 

 tribes and unless promptly studied we shall 

 before many years long in vain for satis- 

 factory records. Here is a problem which 

 calls for immediate attention, a problem of 

 much more than a local or even only Asiatic 

 interest, something indispensable to American 

 anthropology; and one remembers with pity 

 the recent resolutions relating to the problems 

 of the Pacific made at the Congress of 

 Hawaii, among which questions like this were 

 wholly forgotten. 



A little farther south, we come to still an- 

 other interesting and important group, in the 

 process too of becoming anthropologically 

 spoiled by amalgamation — the Mongolians. 

 The term " Mongol " applied to many of the 

 Asiatic peoples is of course a misnomer, much 

 as when we call all white people " Caucasian " 

 or " Aryan." The Mongolian people who ex- 

 tend over a large region to the south of Lake 

 Baikal, and admixture with whom is very evi- 

 dent in some parts of China, are, like the 

 Koriaks and the Tunghuz, remarkable for the 

 frequent occurrences among them of types 

 that resemble, and at times resemble to the 

 point of identity, the American Indian. Be- 

 sides this, you will find among the Mon- 

 golians not a few indications of admixture 

 vidth white people. Tou will find, especially 

 in the western part of the territory, individ- 

 uals with blue eyes and brown hair and white 

 skin. And in southern Mongolia the people 

 have become mixed with other branches of the 

 yellow-browns that do not so much resemble 

 the American Indian. Here surely is a stock 

 that calls for investigation, not merely phys- 

 ically but also linguistically and in other di- 

 rections. They speak five chief dialects or 

 languages; they sing songs that are purely 

 Indian in sound and character, and they do 

 many things like the Indian. One night, be- 

 ing absorbed in my work, and hearing a Mon- 

 golian pass, singing as he went, I just simply 

 became confused; it seemed I must be some- 



where in America amongst the Indian tribes. 

 Whether the words were alike I do not know, 

 but the sounds were identical. They are like 

 the Indians in many habits — for instance, you 

 will find piles of rocks in the mountain passes 

 accumulated through ages by the traveling 

 Mongols, precisely as you may see in parts of 

 our Sierras where they have been piled up by 

 the Indians; and they do exactly as the 

 Indian does when he reaches the summit of 

 the pass — ^they take up a pebble, offer a short 

 prayer, spit on the stone, pass it over their 

 legs, return thanks that they have reached the 

 summit, and pray that they may reach the 

 end of their journey in good strength and 

 safety. This is exactly what the Pueblo 

 Indian does in our southwest, or the Peruvian 

 Indian in the Andes. And this is but one 

 instance out of many such resemblances be- 

 tween the Mongolian and the American 

 Indian. They extend to personal and even 

 religious observances, notwithstanding the 

 fact that the Mongols have long been con- 

 verted to Lamaism, one of the most exacting 

 and intolerant of religions. So here again 

 there is a series of problems which urgently 

 calls for investigation, and they are problems 

 connecting directly with the American, and 

 hence calling for the student well acquainted 

 with the American Indian. 



We come now to the more cultured and 

 better known groups of the Japanese, Koreans, 

 Chinese, Indo-Chinese, Burmese, Hindu, etc., 

 and every one of these groups teems with 

 problems that need investigation. 



Take Japan for instance. To this day the 

 origin of the Japanese people is in consider- 

 able haze. It is supposed that their main 

 line of ancestors, in all probability of mixed 

 Tmighuz derivation, came about 1,000 years 

 B.C. or a little over, from somewhere in east- 

 ern or northeastern Manchuria, and very 

 likely also southeastern Siberia. But it is 

 also perceptible in Japan, especially among 

 the female children, that there has been some 

 infusion of an Eskimo-like type. In all prob- 

 ability the " Tunghuz " carried with them 

 some elements of the Asiatic Eskimo. Tou 

 may find little girls in the streets of Tokyo 



