Origin and Migrations of tlie Polynesian Nation. 119 



probability is that 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 won- 

 derful difference in character and aspect between the Polynesian 

 name Teotihuacan and those of the Azteck and Tolteck divinities 

 Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, and Mictlancihuatl, the goddess of 

 hell, 



I have already quoted the strongly expressed opinion both of 

 Humboldt and of Dr. Von Martius, 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 waiter, "are much 

 more strongly characterised 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 

 different 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 fol- 

 lows that we are easily mistaken, if, neglecting the study of the 

 inflections, 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 of 

 resemblance in sounds."* From 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 different 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 Guarani, 

 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 Greek, and the German languages. It is on 

 account of this general analogy of structure — it is because 

 American languages, which have no word in common (the 

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

 their organisation, and form complete contrasts with the languages 

 * Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. iii. p. 252. 



