06 Oy THE OEIGEN' AXD MI&EATIO>'S OF THE POLTXESIA^T ^TATIO'. 



Latin Europe, that the Indians of the missions familiarise them- 

 selves more easily with an American idiom than with that of the 

 metropolis. In the forests of the Oroonoko I have heard the 

 wildest Indians speak two or three tongues. Savages of different 

 nations often communicate their ideas to each other by an idiom 

 which is not their own.'"* 



Another extraordinary coincidence in the civilisation of the 

 Indo-Americans with that of Polynesia presents itself in the fact 

 of there having been in both a language of ceremony, distinct 

 from the lano:uao:e of common life. I have shown in mv first 

 lecture that there was such a language, not only among the 

 Indo-Chinese nations of Eastern Asia, but in Polynesia also, 

 especially in the larger islands and among the more advanced 

 tribes, as in Samoa and Tahiti ; as, for instance, when inferiors 

 addressed their superiors, when a plebeian addressed a chief, or 

 when the latter addressed his prince. This language of ceremony 

 did not consist in the use of a few phrases of deference and 

 respect, such as those in use in European languages, in addressing 

 royalty or nobility. It constituted, so to speak, a sepai'ate 

 language, and pervaded the whole economy of speech. ''The 

 ^Mexicans," says Dr. Eobertson, when alluding to the singular 

 circumstance, which he had no idea of its having ever obtained 

 or been observed among any other people, — '" The ^Mexicans had 

 not only reverential nouns, but reverential verbs ;" and the use 

 of any other than this reverential lano^uasre in conversins: with a 

 king or higher chief would, both in Mexico and in Tahiti, have been 

 held tantamount to high treason. This feature of resemblance 

 between such widely dissevered portions of the human family 

 is surely of such a character as not to be mistaken for a mere 

 accidental coincidence ; it constitutes rather an evidence of the 

 absolute identity of the Indo-American and Polynesian nations 

 that cannot be gainsaid. 



The right of property was recognised and established among 

 the Indo-American nations ; but the lower orders generally 

 cultivated a considerable extent of ground in common, the 

 produce of which was laid up in storehouses, called tambos, and 

 distributed at certain periods, agreeably to some established 

 custom. Xow it is very remarkable that the practice of the Xew 

 Zealanders was precisely similar. The kumaras, or sweet 

 potatoes of that island, are always cultivated pro iono publico by 

 persons set apart for the purpose ; the produce beins: afterwards 

 distributed according to rule. The storehouses in Xew Zealand 

 are always tahoo, the violation of which by. any person is death. 

 I suspect the Spaniards have either reported the word inac- 

 curately, or disguised it a little with their peculiar pronunciation ; 

 for the Mexican tainbo is unquestionably the same word as the 

 Polynesian idboo, as they both signify the same thing. 



* Humboldt, ?/?>' p./pra. 



