357 
?iS the tse, the tcM^ 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 Mongul 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 he 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. 
