ON THE ORIGHN AND MIGEATIONS OF THE POLYNESIAN NATION. 65 



But the probability is tliat the pyramid of Teotihuacan was 

 erected long before the Toltecks had emerged from the forests of 

 the North, and that that warlike but less polished race retained 

 the ancient Polynesian name of the stupendous edifice, while they 

 worshipped their own national divinities within its sacred 

 precincts, under their own northern appellations. At all events 

 there is a wonderful difference in character and aspect between 

 the Polynesian name Teotihuacan and those of the Azteck and 

 Tolteck divinities Suitzilopochtli, the god of war, and Mictlan- 

 cihimtl, the goddess of hell. 



I have already quoted the strongly expressed opinion both of 

 Humboldt and of Dr. Von Martins, that the Indo-Americans are 

 all one and the same people, from north to south, with no inter- 

 mixture with any other portion of the family of man. Baron 

 Humboldt also apprises us of the very interesting fact that not- 

 withstanding the wonderful diversity of language among the 

 aborigines of America there is a common principle of mechanism 

 exhibited in the structure of all the aboriginal languages of that 

 great continent which entitles us to refer them all to one common 

 origin. " Languages," says that illustrious writer, " are much 

 more strongly characterized by their structure and grammatical 

 forms than by the analogy of their sounds and of their roots ; and 

 this analogy of sounds is sometimes so disfigured in the dif- 

 ferent dialects of the same tongue as not to be distinguishable ; 

 for the tribes into which a nation is divided often designate the 

 same object by words altogether heterogeneous. Hence it follows 

 that we are easily mistaken, if, neglecting the study of the inflec- 

 tions, and consulting only the roots — for instance, the words 

 which designate the moon, sky, water, and earth — we decide on 

 the absolute difference of two idioms from the simple want o 

 resemblance in sounds."* " Erom the country of the Esquimaux 

 to the banks of the Oroonoko, and again from these torrid banks 

 to the frozen climate of the Straits of Magellan, mother-tongues, 

 entirely difi'erent with regard to their roots, have, if we may use 

 the expression, the same physiognomy. Striking analogies of 

 grammatical construction are acknowledged, not only in the more 

 perfect languages, as that of the Incas, the Tymara, the Gruarani, 

 the Mexican, and the Cora, but also in languages extremely rude. 

 Idioms, the roots of which do not resemble each other more than 

 the roots of the Sclavonian and the Biscayan, have those resem- 

 blances of internal mechanism which are found in the Sanscrit, 

 the Persian, the Glreek, and the Grerman languages. It is on 

 account of this general analogy of structure — it is because Amer- 

 ican languages, which have no word in common (the Mexican, 

 for instance, and the Quichua), resemble each other by their 

 organization, and form complete contrasts with the languages of 



* * Humboldt, uhi supra. 



