has prevailed over, and incorporated itself so
readily with the Chéna* proper, as to leave, lit
probable that their original relations, in a philological
sense, were greater than has generally
been supposed. Viewed by itself, the Chinese
language appears to be the most remote from the
American group, of any in all Asia. It is*, as is
well known, monosyllabic, and if we except jthe
Otomi of Mexico, no language, on this plan of
utterance, has been found in America, although
it is to be remarked^ that many of the North
American languages, however compounded and
concrete, in their present spoken character, are,
without any doubt, founded on monosyllabic and
dissyllabic roots. It is further to be= remarked,
in examining the Tata and Chcna families, that
the latter have reduced their language to writing,
on the symbolic plan, partly of ^picture1 writing,
and partly Of hieroglyphics^ from which, we
may draw two conclusions fir st, that the people
are a Very ancient one, and second; that they
have borrowed nothing, in their system of notation,
from either the Hebrew;, Egyptian, or Greek
alphabets. With regard to the system itself, it
appears to be the most cumbrous and jejune, and
the least suited to advance the progress of the
human mind, that could have been devised.
With its tens of thousands of concrete characters,
it is a most complete exemplification, in the
notation of a language, of what the American
tribes have arrived at, in the compounding of
* The word is so pronounced in the celestial kingdom.
their spoken dialects. Each character o f it, like
each word of these dialects, is a congeries of
abbreviated combinations. The syllabieal system
of the Cherokee, which expresses every
combination of thcet language by eighty-six characters,
is as far superior to it, on the score of
ease and facility in learning it, as it is possible
to conceive one system of recording articulate
sounds, may be superior to another.
When we cast our view to the northern latitudes
of Asia, spreading across the great valleys
of the Lena, the Yenisei* and the Obe, quite to
the gulf of Obe, on the Arctic ocean, and the foot
of the Ural mountains, we have still less material,
of an exact and ethnographic character, to
judge how far, if to any extent, these higher latitudes
furnished an early impulse, or contributed
to the. early peopling of this continent. Of all
the divisions.of Asia, we know, indeed, least, and
are therefore the least prepared to judge, of the
distinctive traits and character of the native inhabitants
of Siberia. That the Samoides, the
Ostiacs, the^Tunguissians*, and the Koriaks, roved
over these vast-steppes and defiles, making wars,
and pursuing game, and plunder, is only an evidence
of generic traits of barbarism, which are
common to distant branches of the human family,
under adverse, but similar, circumstances, between
whom, however, there may be no direct
affinities.
An opinion has been expressed, unfavorable
to the probability of strong affinities to the Ame