Note 226 — Chapter VI

"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.

"It is probably by philosophical and antiquarian researches in Tartary that the history of those civilized nations of North America, of whose great works only the wreck remains, will alone be elucidated."—See Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. iii., chap. xxii.; and Stephens's Central America, vol. i., p. 96; vol. ii., chap, xxvi., p. 186, 357, 413, 433. Sec Appendix, No. XLVII.