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Show 326 In preparing the foregoing list, 350 words of Payute and Mohave served for comparison, and from 200 to 300 of the others. The similarities of words for sun, star, and heaven are certainly remarkable. In comparing a number of otherwise totally different languages of the West, we are struck by the fact that a few words, especially for water, hand, and bird, seem to have the same roots in most of them; moreover, roots we find again in other countries. In comparing the word for hand, we find- Tehua Taos Qnerez Isleta Jemez Aztec TJte Payute Name of tribe. Tooikbar, ( San Gabriel) Kanvuva Gaitchlm Digger Wihinasbt* NeeAhenam* ... Meidoo* Shoshone Comanche Gahita Cora ? t » t » t Tongat H.. Z.. It ft Satahuant Sapamat....... Caffret Country. do do do do Arizona Utah California do do do do do do Nevada Texas . Mexico -- r r - . . . . . r . . .. do Java Hawai Islands - . , . T » , friendship Islands New Guinea " W> y » t- " Polynesia , Africa Italy " Word for " hand." shka- mostsi. mo- khde. mo- itL ne- mo- vuitohaig. ma. ma- ma. mo- shitu. mo- ahpa. mo- tna. li- ma. lima. lima. lima. ri ma. limanjth. galei- ma. manus. * Taken from Bancroft, " Native Races," vol. iii. t Taken from Balbi, Tableaux dea Langues. While the syllable ma for hand can be traced in America as far south as Brazil, it is not found with Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, nor with the Esquimaux. Of the eighty African languages I compared, only the Caffre language contains it again.* Neither is this syllable found in the Semitic, Finnish, Bas Basque, Caucasian, Central and North Asiatic languages, nor in the Sanscrit, ( hasta,) but again in the Latin word manus. As regards Chinese ( hand = shau) and Japanese, ( te,) the analogy is wanting; bnt there is a word in the latter language, mai, meauing a handle. Another word common to a great many Indian languages is that for water. Name of tribe. Country. Word for water. Payute Kanvaya... Gaitchlm.. TJte Tobikhar... Isleta Jemez Tehua Weithspek . Mohave Sidney Abai Nevada California do Utah California New Mexico do do Oregon Arizona Australia Philippine Islands. Java Persia India . Zend Sanscrit --* « « . .. Guzerate I do Boumains I Wallachia Cholo Central America paL pal. pa. par. pa. pa. po. pa- ha. aha. bado. bahi. pa- niu. apo. apa. pani. apa. pay- to. * These remarkable resemblances appear to give support to A. Murray's geological hypothesis of a now submerged continent in the Indian Ocean, the supposed cradle of mankind. |