199 



and the meaning of the hieroglyphical paintings^, 

 they referred every thing to the system they had 

 previously formed ; like the Romans, who saw 

 nothing among the Germans and Gauls but 

 their own worship, and their own divinities. 

 When we examine this question by the rules of 

 the most rigid analysis, we find nothing among 

 the Americans, which leads to the supposition^ 

 that the Asiatic nations migrated to the New 

 Continent after the establishment of Christianity. 

 I am very far from denying the possibility of 

 these posterior communications ; I am not igno- 

 rant*, that the Tchoutskis annually crossed 

 Behring's Straits to make war on the inhabit- 

 ants of the north-west coast of America ; but I 

 think I may affirm, from the knowledge we have 

 acquired since the end of the last century of the 

 sacred books of the Hindoos, that, in order to 

 explain these resemblances of traditions, of 

 which all the first missionaries speak, we have 

 no need to recur to Western Asia, peopled by 

 nations of the Semetia race ; these same tra- 

 ditions, of high and venerable antiquity, are 

 found both among the followers of Brahma, and 

 among the Shamans of the eastern steppes of 

 Tartary. 



We will resume this important subject, either 



* See my Essai Politique sur la Nouvelle-Espagne, vol. 2, 

 p, 502, 8vo edition . 



