324 Mr. Home’s Observations on the grinding Teeth 
led to conclude, from the preceding observations, that there was 
a succession of dentes sapientiae. 
There is a very curious circumstance in favour of this 
conjecture, which has been mentioned to me by Sir Joseph 
Banks. In Otaheite, the natives have a tradition, that Adam, or 
the first man, was remarkable for the length of his jaws. His 
name, in their language, is Taa roa tahi etoomoo , which sig- 
nifies the one (the stock) from which all others sprung, with 
the long jaws ; so that these islanders have a tradition of the 
original race of men having had their jaws much longer than 
at present 
Although the grinder of the boar differs in appearance, as in 
extent of surface, from those of all the recent animals that have 
been mentioned, yet, upon comparing it with the large fossil 
teeth found on the banks of the river Ohio in North America, 
belonging to the animal incognitum, they are so much alike, 
both in their external appearance and internal structure, that it 
is evident they are teeth of the same kind, only of very different 
sizes. 
This resemblance led me to examine the mode of dentition 
of this unknown animal, as far as could be done from the 
specimens preserved in this country, to see if any resemblance 
could be traced between it and that of the wild boar. 
From the different specimens of these fossil teeth deposited in 
the British Museum, the collection of the late Dr William 
Hunter, and the Hunterian Museum, together with one in 
my own possession, presented to me by Sir Joseph Banks, the 
following facts have been ascertained. 
The first grinders are small, when compared with those which 
