ON ETHNOLOGY. 
245 
1. Nouns are nearly or wholly incapable of inflexion. They admit no 
variations of case, number, or sex, which can only be expressed by append¬ 
ing an additional word, as a noun of multitude or of gender. 
2. All auxiliaries to composition, such as are prepositions and other par- 
tidss, and the possessive and even relative pronouns of other Inuguages, are 
in these idioms uniformly suffixed or placed after the words of which they 
modify the meaning. 
3. io many of these languages the principle of vocalic harmony prevails 
through the entire vocabrUary, and extentis to the grammatical system, such 
ait is. This euphonic principle was first pointed out by Viguicr in his 
Turkish Grammar, and was termed by him the quadruple harmony of vowels. 
According to it, only vowels of certain sets can occur in the same words, and 
Ihk cxtcDfls to words compounded with particles or appended syllables. 
I shall now briefly enumerate the several groujies of nations and languages 
which have been referred to this great family, premwing that I do uot con¬ 
sider the. relationship of some of them ns fully established. 
1. First, then, wc have the Ugrian tribes, whose name occurs in the chro¬ 
nicles of Ae venerable Nestor of Kiev, and has been adopted by learned 
writers of late times, who have investigated the history of these nations. In 
the sagas of the Northmen, who were their enemies and conquerors, They are 
tertaed lotuns and Jotnar, and by the Russians Tselmdi and Tselmdaki. 
Hie original country of this race reached through Northern Europe, from 
the Danish Islands to the North Cape of Asiu. Almo.-'t everywhere they 
have been vanquished, and either enslaved or driven northwards itdo moun- 
biiious tracts by Gi>nnan, or Slavonian, or 'iarbir nations, who have ap- 
Fwclied them from the south. In one only instance has it fallen to the lot of 
® people of this race to found an independent state,—! allude to tho kingdom 
d the Magyars in Hungary. In the east of Europe separate Ugrian tribes 
^ssed all the countries to the northward of the Great Uwalli or Valdai 
’loQutalns, the chain which separates the waters flowing towards the. Raltic 
fod Frozen Ocean from the rivew which by a longer course find their way 
the Euxine and the Caspian. In that region arc still Qumiw and 
“h^ians —-the Finns and Lapps further to tlie westward—and Pertnians, and 
^^a’nians, Morduans, and TscheremUscs, and Tschuvasches. The Vogouls 
oatite Uralian Mountains, and the Ostiaks of the river Oby, are more remote 
|'»Mcbes of this stock. 
,*L~ groupe of nations belonging to the same great family includes 
s various hordes who have been known under the iiamcs of Tartars, 1 urks, 
* •'Bgoles, Mandsliurians, and Tuiipiisians. All these nations appear, from 
•‘Jesuit of lat(! reseai'clips, to be anie<l in descent, though long supposed 
Great Constantin?. 
