357 



as the tse, the tchi, and the celestial animals of 

 the Chinese, of the people of Thibet, and of the 

 Tartars, this multiplicity of signs is probably 

 owing to a mixture of several nations, who have 

 been subdued one by the other. The effects of 

 this mixture, those of the influence exercised by 

 the conquerors on the vanquished people, are 

 particularly manifest in the north-east part of 

 Asia ; the languages of which, notwithstanding 

 the great number of Mongnl and Tartar roots 

 they contain, differ so essentially * from each 

 other, that they seem to defy any methodi- 

 cal classification. In proportion as we remove 

 from Thibet and Indostan, we see the uniform 

 type of civil institutions, of knowledge, and of 

 religious rites, weaken and disappear. Now, if 

 the hordes of eastern Siberia, among whom the 

 dogmas of Bouddhism have evidently penetrat- 

 ed, appear nevertheless to be connected only by 

 feeble ties to the civilized nations of southern 

 Asia, ought we to be surprised, that, in the New 

 Continent, along with some features of analogy 

 in traditions, in chronology, and in the style of 

 their remains, we should discover so great a 

 number of striking differences ? When nations of 

 Tartar or Mongul origin, transplanted to foreign 

 shores, mingled with the indigenous hordes of 

 America, have found a road toward civilization 



Adelung, Mithridates, vol. 2, p. 533 and 560. 



