THE ESKIMO RACK ANH LANGUAGE. 281 



ascertained, or the question settled, whether the Akilllnek of the 

 Greenland Eskimo, the N'an':Uag>nuH of the ]ieople of the central 

 regions, and the NaUroik of the Tchiglit of the Mackenzie, refer to 

 specific localities, or ai-e mere figments of the savage imagination. 

 Dr. Rink^ thinks that Akillinek is perhaps tlie Asiatic side of 

 Behring's Straits, to which expeditions from the American shore may 

 have taken place. Murdoch' comi)ares with the legend of Akillinek, 

 the Pt. Barrow legend of the" country of Iglu-Nuna discovered by a 

 man who had lost his way when out sledging. I might here remark 

 that Killinek is still the Eskimo name for Cape Chudley and the 

 adjacent islands. 



In a paper read before the Institute last year,^ I advanced the view 

 that instead of the Eskimo being derived from the Mongolians of 

 North -Eastern Asia, the latter are on the contrary descended from 

 the Eskimo, or their ancestors, who have fi'om time immemorial 

 inhabited the continent of America. - Since then I have been enabled 

 to collect a comparative vocabulary of some 200 words, exhibiting 

 the relationship between the Eskimo dialects and the Turanian lan- 

 guages of Northern Asia and Europe. I am sure the vocabulary could 

 have been greatly extended if I had had more time and more mater- 

 ial to work upon. Still I think that a vocabulary of 200 words will 

 seem a sufficient j ustification for the position I have taken. Together 

 with the list of words will be found some examples of similarity in 

 grammatical structure, between the language-groups considered. The 

 apparent great age of the residence of the so-called " Mongolian " 

 peoples in Asia and in Europe, may at first sight seem adverse to 

 the opinions I have advanced. From language, from craniology and 

 from archaeology, I have drawn what seem to me reasonable inferences. 

 H. H. Howarth* thinks that "the Finns proper entered Scandinavia 

 in the wake of the Norsemen," and others have i-emarked that the Finns 

 are among the latest comers from Asia. The true form of the 

 Eskimo skull is dolichocephalic' ; and the dolichocephaly decreases as 

 we proceed from Greenland westwards into Asia. Among the kind- 

 red Tui-anian tribes of Asia and Europe, this type has to a consider- 



1. Eskimo Tales and Trad., p. 29. 

 •2. Loe. cit., p. 598. 



3. Pioc. Can. Inst., 3id. Ser., vol. v., Fasc. i., Oct. 1887, p. 70. 



4. The Finns, Journ. Anthr. Inst., vol. ii., p. 208. 



5. Rae. Eskimo Skulls, .Journ. Anthr. Inst., Gt. Brit, and Ire., vol. vii. 1879-8, p. 142. 



