Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada
[Footnote 226: "The bones of animals and snakes have sometimes been
found mixed with human bones in these tumuli, and out of one near
Cincinnati were dug two large marine shells, one of which was the
_Cassis cornulus_ of the Asiatic islands, the other the _Fulgur
perversus_ of the coast of Georgia and East Florida; and this is an
additional argument used in favor of the alleged intercourse existing
anciently between the Indians of this part of North America and the
inhabitants of Asia, and between them and those of the Atlantic. Many
circumstances still existing give probability to the popular belief that
the American Indians had their origin in Asia. In their persons, color,
and reserved disposition, they have a strong resemblance to the Malays
of the Oriental Archipelago--that is to say, to some of the Tartar
tribes of Upper Asia; and it is a remarkable circumstance, that, like
those, they shave the head, leaving only a single lock of hair. The
picture language of the Mexicans, as corresponding with the ancient
picture language of China, and the quipos of Peru with the knotted and
party-colored cords which the Chinese history informs us were in use in
the early period of the empire, may also be adduced as corroborative
evidence. The high cheek bones and the elongated eye of the two people,
besides other personal resemblances, suggest the probability of a common
origin."--_Quarterly Review_, No. LVII., p. 13.
"The Iroquois and Hurons made hieroglyphic paintings on wood, which bear
a striking resemblance to those of the Mexicans."--Lafitau, vol. ii., p.
43, 225; La Houtan, p. 193.
"A long struggle between two religious sects, the Brahmans and the
Buddhists, terminated by the emigration of the Chamans to Thibet.
Mongolia, China, and Japan. If tribes of the Tartar race have passed
over to the northwest coast of America, and thence to the south and the
east, toward the banks of Gila, and those of the Missouri, as
etymological researches serve to indicate, we should be less surprised
at finding among the semi-barbarous nations of the New Continent idols
and monuments of architecture, a hieroglyphical writing, and exact
knowledge of the duration of the year, and traditions respecting the
first state of the world, recalling to our minds the arts, the sciences,
and religious opinions of the Asiatic nations."--Humboldt's
_Researches_.
In his description of a Mexican painting, Humboldt observes, "The slave
on the left is like the figure of those saints which we see frequently
in Hindoo paintings, and which the navigator Roblet found on the
northwest coast of America, among the hieroglyphical paintings of the
natives of Cox's Channel."--Merchant's _Voyage_, vol. i., p. 312.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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