THB KTHJffOLOGY OP THE IXDTAV A ttnHTPEr, XQQ. .77 



Tt is not my intention to present ray readers with a general 

 review of eastern ethnology m the form, of a connected and 

 continuous work, which would not be adapted to the plan of this 

 Journal. I shall from time to time, and in every number in 

 which room can be found, insert an Bttay embracing one section of 

 the subject. The greater part is already written, but there are a 

 few blanks in my outline linguistic ma'p, and I wish, if it can be 

 done, to fill up these before completing the preliminary compari- 

 sons. As the chapters on this, the most important branch of the 

 enquiry, may thus be pogtponed for some months, I shall conclude 

 this introduction with a short notice of one or two of the more 

 interesting results, positive, probable or suggestive, to which, at 

 this early stage of the comparison, I have been conducted. 



If almost any Oceanic language be examined, it will he found to 

 have strong resemblances, and even coincidences, in words and 

 structural traits, to one or another branch of all or «»everal of the 

 groat linguistic families bordering on the Ocean or intimately con- 

 nected with the border nation^, — Lau-Chinese, Japanese, Tartarian, 

 TiReio-lmlian, Burraan, Old-Indian, Syro-Arabian, ancient Egyp- 

 tian, African and even Iranian and American. The investigation 



«gypter« Stdle In der Weltgeschlchte, 1845, 1st book, S. 11—13. The history 

 and regular chronology of the Chinese go beck to 24O0, and even to 2700, before 

 our era, roach beyond Ju to Hoang-ty. There are many literary monuments of 

 the 13tb century a. c. : and la the mh, Tb«rh*u-li i-ecords the measurement of 

 the length of the solstitial shadow by Tscheu^kung, In the (own of l.n-yang, south 

 of the Yellow River, which L» <»o exact that Laplace found ll quite accordant with 

 the theory of the alteration of lbs obliquity of Use ecliptic, which was only 

 prop aii.tJi d at the clow of lb* Nut eajftun ; *v il-.u ',<.-:• • ■-■ i ... ■[•.,-, ,)fs 

 fictitious measurement obtained by calculating back, See Edouard Bint Mir hi 

 Constitution politique de la Chine an 19fero* sleek avant notre ere (18*5), pp.5 

 and 0. The building of Tvre and of the original temple of Mdknrth, the Tyrtan 

 Hercules, would reach bark to 27«50 years before our era, according to the account 

 which Herodotus received from the p'riests (11.44). Compare also Heeren, Ideen 

 ttber PolUik and Verkehr der Volker. Th. L a, \QU, S. 12, SimpSicliM, from t 

 notice transmitted by Porphyry, tsiiujates the antiquity of Baby Ionian flHtmnomi* 

 eat observations which were known to Aristotle at 1003 yearn before Alexander the 

 Great; and the pnrtmind and onu'n.m chronologic Meier censiderb this datum bv 

 no mean* improhubie. Compare lua Handbuch der Chronologic, Bd. L 3. 207 ; tha 

 Abhandlurigen der Berber Akad. aaf das J. l<Ji4, S. 217 ; and Bockh, metroL 

 Untemehungea Sher die Moat* rfes Alterthttma, 1638, S. 30. It is a question still 

 wrapped in obscurity, whether there is historic ground in India earlier than 1900 

 a- «;-, according to the Chronicles, of Kashmeer {Itsdjainrangini. trad, par Trover), 

 while Megasthcne* {Indieu, ed. Schwanbeck, 184fi. p. 50,1 reckons from 00 to 64 

 centuries »rom Monu to Chandragupta, for 153 kings of the dynaatv of Ma-adlta, 

 and the astronomer Aryabhatm plat** the beginning of hi* Chronology 8102 B, C. 

 (Las*en, ind. Altrrtbumsk. B.I. i. S. 473, 506, 507, and 510.) For the purpose of 

 rendering the numbers contained in lids note more significant in respect to the 

 history of civilisation, ft may not be superfluous to recul. that the detraction of 

 Trot is placed 11H4. Homer 1000 or W0, and Cadmus the Milesian, the first 

 historical writer among the Greek*, 52-1 year? before uur era. This comparison of 

 epochs shew* how unequally the desire for an exact record of events and - •'"ir.-rjiriiea 

 made Uself felt among the nations most hiehlv mi*c< ptihU' of culture : It reminds us 

 involuntarily of the sentence which Plato, in the Tirawus. place* in the mouth of 

 the priests of Sais : " O Solon, Solon I you Greeks still remain ever children ; 

 nowhere In Hellas is there an Bged man. Your 9oul« are ever youthful ; you haw? 

 in them no knowledge of antiquity, no ancient faith, no wisdom irrcwu boar by 

 age." 



