TliG First Men. 



209 



conversation." Thoy possess very distinct religious conceptions, and 

 their language is, like that of the Koi-Koin [Hottentots], an unex- 

 pected evidence of very considerable intellectual power and discrimina- 

 tion. It posseses eight case terminations, and as many numbers as the 

 Greek. '^The verb is as rich in tenses as the Latin, and has also ter- 

 minations for the dual, and three genders for the third person. In 

 addition to active and passive, it has reflective, reciprocal, deter- 

 minative and coutinuative forms. We also find among them attempts 

 at poetry, and the names of renowned poets." * 



The language of the Hottentots (or Koi-Koin, as they call them- 

 selves), says Winchell, " is of great ethnological interest, since, accord- 

 ing to Moffat, Lepsius, Pruner Bey, Max Muller, Whitney and Bleek, 

 it presents some resemblances to the language of ancient Egypt. 

 Though other philological authorities dissent from this view, the ex- 

 istence of an opinion of this kind, so well indorsed, proves that the 

 Koi-Koin are in possession of a language which has reached a remark- 

 able development. Whether these people are descendants, with more 

 or less extraneous mixture, from the ancient Egyptians, or have lived 

 in communication with them, or some other civilized people, are ques- 

 tions "which naturally arise for discussion. It is not impossible that 

 even so rude a people as the Koi-Koin should have created a language 

 as complex and polished as that which they employ; though it seems 

 more probable that they present to-day the mere ruins of a former 

 better condition, or the reminiscences of ancient contact with a higher 

 race." 



Here, then, we have the Adamites in ruins, ethnologically speaking; 

 fallen, theologians would say. 



Turning to our own continent, we have the Mound Builders and 

 Cliff Dwellers, who lived north and north-west of the gulf of Mexico; 

 their kindred, the ancient Mexicans and Central Americans, with the 

 ancient Peruvians, who were unlike any other people, except the Mexi- 

 cans, and were doubtless remotely from the same ancestral stock. 

 The ^lound Builders lived so long before the Indians that they were 

 not known to them even by tradition. The carvings upon some of 

 their elaborate stone pipes are thought to prove that they were con- 

 temporaries of the Mammoth and the Mastodon. Their civilization is 

 undoubted. In reference to the report of a ceiling in one of the Cliff 

 dwellings Avhich had been arched at the height of twenty-five feet over 

 a room twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter. Dr. E. Bessels remarks: 

 ''There are but two tribes inhabiting this continent whose architect- 

 ural skill proved efficient enough for this purpose — namely, the Peru- 

 vians and the Eskimo." \ The Eskimo once occupied much of North 



* Peschal. 



27 



t Bulletin of Hayden*s Survey, Vol. II, p. 61. 



