OCR Text |
Show 5G8 TilE MONOGENISTS AND Toudtn pos c sea no historical sense but that of non-Persian (Aniranian) thuologically: non but that of Turkostlln geographically. It were as reasonable to divide ABiatic and Emop an humanity iul1> Semitic, l3riLish (for Arian), and non-British (for everybody else not compressible into such Procrustean bod), as to classify all Lhoso multiform nn.tion!:t into omitic, Arian (i. o. Per·sian) and Turauian; when this last adjective suits, strictly speaking, uo human group of fhmili s but tho Tul'kish. N vcrtholcss, liko hakspearo's "word 'occupy,' which was an oxc llcnt goo<l word before it was ill-sorted," na "Touranian" may sti I L do som oflcctivo service in specifying, whenever their ethnic rolationB b come snfliciontly cleared up,479 the ancient inhabitants of countries now term d Turkestan: but, because "agglutination" happens to be their linguistic attribut , in common even with liclH·cw ( omitic), alld anscrit (Arian), and all human speech in its oarlicl' formations: 01· because "iu them tho conjugation and tl1o declension can still bo tal n to pi cos," prcsorvino- all tho wltiJo the radical syllable of tho discourso,4~-it docs seo~ to mo tbat to c~assify,. on tH~ch grounds nloue, tho transplanted and n~w prodig1ous~ y-mtcrnnxcd descendants of Hioung-nou, Sian-pi, San-miao ?r ~ftao-tse, 1'ata, Yue-tclti, Ting-lings, Geou-gen, TMu-lciu, and other u~d1_gcnous rae s (every one according to physiological descriptions d1stmct from the ro t) known in ancient Asia to tho Chinese 4ij' und r such a misnomer as "Turanian ;" to forgot that primi~ive and. i~d?flnablc cythia has vomited forth upon ]1~UJ·opc men of absolutely d1Hcrcnt stocks and unfixed derivations- lluns, white aHcl ncal'ly bln.ck, Kbazars, Awars, Comaus, Alains, &c.-or :finally, to connect, th.1·ouo-~1 one omnific name, Samoycds with Athapasoans (if not also w1th 'Ioltccs and Botooudos !), hybrid Osmanlcos with pure A'inos Madjars with Tclingas,482-those arc aberrations from common sons~ 478 Ilmry lV, 2d part, Act 11, scone 4. m l1or tho real diflioullioa, slunod over by English cthnogro.phors, see KLAPl\OTU and DY.SMOULINB. PP~~ ~;~:~po.rably well indicated by the Turkish verb "sov-mok ;" MAx-MULLEn, op. cit., ~1 1'ho most ~opious nccount of these nations, compiled from tho best sources, is in JAl\llO'J', Revol~twn~ ~ea PC!Iplea de l'A&ie Afoymme, Paris, 2 vo18. Svo, 1880. Tho Arabs, lot mo hero mont10n, chu not ronch Chinese vicinities, through navigation, boforo tho 9th century (MAUrtY, "lhamon do lo. route quo suivaiont, au IX• sibclo do notre llre, los A\~~c~ ot !os Persnns pour allor en Cbino"-Bu/leti11 dt la Soc. de Oeourapliie, Avril, 1846). . 1 hyH1cnl nmnlgamation with higher types, than any branch of tho ~·urkish family wns m U~o days of Alp Arslil.n, has tmnMmuted his mongt·el descendants residing around tho Mcdltcr:!moan, Archipelago, 1111d mack Sen, to such an amazing extent tho.t it is difficult to descrJbo what a real Turk (nud I have lived whore thousands of o.ll gmdes rosido) should bo. Thnt the pre~ent Cuttca~ianized Osmanloo is not the same animal now that his forofathers wore only m tho 12th century, is easily proved. BY.NJAMIN Dl! ~'U.LIELA -speaking THE POl~ ·i':·GENl'ST£', '' into which Bun on'fl ndol'sement of richard's "Touranian" ha~ led au amazing numb l' ofwortby monog nists on this side of the wat t'; buL whiuh Prof. Max-Mi.illcr himself never c ntomplatcd in adopting this unlttcky term: for the very learned philologist excludes the Oltine1Je,48'J and doubtless withhold~ other An-A1·ian types of mn.Hkind from his Turanian arrangement. It appoat·s to be tho unavoidable :fhtc of every human science to pass through a phase of cmpi1·icism. Each one, at some time ot· other, is regarded as a sort of univct·flal panacea corn pet nt to heal all controversial sot·cs. uch, at this moment, throughout AllgloSaxondom, is the popular opinion concerning "Philology:" Jaflt refuge fol' aln.nnccl protestant monogcnism,- at tl1o very time that Continental scholarship has stcpp cL into a higher sphere of linguistic philosophy, which alrcaJy re ·ogniz s the total inadequacy of philology (or other sci nco) to solve tho dilemma whcthct· humanity Ol'iginatcs in one human pair, Ot' has emanated from a plurality of zoological centres. Philology, infltoad of b ing etltnology, is only one instmrncnt., if even a most precious one, out of many other tool::! indispcnBablo in ethnological researches. The powers of the science termed "la linguistiquc" arc not infinite, even supposing that correct knowledge had as yet been obtained of even one-half tho tongues spoken ovcl' the cat'th; or that it wore witl1in the capacity of one man to b come sufficiently acquainted with the grammatical cllarn.ctct'ifltics of the remainder. We do not oven possess a complete catalogtw of the names of all tongues ! 4&~ Yet, "What sLu<lions man is th l' ," inquit·cs Lc Clerc, "whose imagination l1as not been cangl1t strayi1w from conj cturc to conjcctnrc, from ccntnl'y to ccntul·y, in search or tho debr-is of a forgotten tongue; of thoRo relics of wor<ls that arc but the J'L"a.gmonts of tho l1isLory of Nations ?" 485 Eichhofl:' eloquently continuos the idea-" The s icnccs of Philology and History vet· march in concert, ancl tho one lends its support to tl1o other; because the li fc of ations manifests itself in the it· languao-e, tho faithful repro ntativo of their vicissitudes. Where nn.lionnl chl'onology stops short, where tho thtcad ~f tradition. is hrokcn, .tl10 antiquo genealogy of words that have Slll'VlVCU the rmgn of cmpn·c·s of Tnrt!tt' f!at-nosos-narmtc~, "Tho king of Pot·sia being om11gcd nt tho 1'ul'lcs, who hnvo two holes in the midst of tl~t·ir face instead of a 11ose, fo1· lmving plundered his kingdom, resolved to p11l'Sll them." (13ASNA0fl, fli~t. Of the Jew~, p. 473). 483 Op. cit., pp. 8fl, QG-0. I rcf01· to this admimblo work in preference to "Phonology" in 13uNSfiN's Outlints, bocau~o tho latter !Jns been disposed of by ltENAN (supl'll, no to 1 fl). 681 An~ LUNG (Catalouue, t. Petersburg, 1820, P· 186) counted s,_OG4 lo.ngungos: BA.loll! enumerated 860 languages and GOOO dialects. 'l'ho greatest lingwst on record, Cnrduml Mezzof:wti, wns acquainted, it is said, with but 62. ~ Otia ./Euyptiaca, p. 12. |