mination. In short, it is evident that they

le.

on is a curious question; and here the This tribe, the Ongres, Ugurs,

id.

, are deduced by Abulgasi from the d only by the resemblance of the more to invalidate it than the en the present Hungarians ry considerable, may be causes. The Ongres when they inhabited the Jaik. In the zares, living on Catharinoslav. of which the out of their pathian moun

ave a new name to

mained in Asia, were

oved incontestably that Hungarian, these nations to have emigrated originally

dingly anxious as usual to force a Lapponic and the Hebrew. Olave d the boldness to assert, that out of 2000 are only 200 or 300 which are not from We only notice this absurd declaration to nishment that Mr. Townsend has been so far as to pronounce peremptorily that the Lapponic ce," by which he means nearer to the Hebrew than dialects of Arabia.

e find in the extremities of Europe, towards the north the remains of nations, who from their situation must posed to have occupied this portion of the earth before the of the Indian colonies. The languages of the Cantabrians Tchudes are totally distinct from each other, and from those the Indian stock. Even the numerals, which coincide so exnsively in languages otherwise unconnected, have here no esemblance. The Tchudes probably possessed all the southern shores of the Baltic, from which they were expelled by the Germans, and driven into Scandinavia.

The north of Asia, from the country occupied by the Finns to the sea, which separates this continent from America, is peopled by tribes of various origin, which are arranged by Mr. Adelung in three departments. The first contains seven nations of mixed

declension to each, and eleven moods of the verbs, viz. an indicative, consuetudinary, potential, voluntary, obligatory, necessary, imperative, subjunctive, optative, penitudinary, and infinitive.— The following is a specimen :-il-dau, he is dead;-il-ete-dau, he must be dead;-il-edo-dau, it is probable that he is dead.

From the Biscayan, in the west of Europe, we proceed to the Finnish, and Lapponic, in the north, another wholly unconnected family of languages. To the nations of this stock, collectively, Adelung gives the name of Tchudes; and he establishes on a firm basis, the old opinion of Leem and Gunnerus of Drontheim, which has been called in question by misinformed writers, that the Finns, Laplanders, and Esthonians, are tribes of one kindred; and that the Hungarians or Madjars, as they call themselves, are a remote branch of the same stock, the language of the latter being much intermixed with that of the Petchenegars, and other Tartar tribes, with whom they have been associated and mingled. A Laplander and a Finn cannot understand each other: the language of the former is split into a number of dialects, each wandering alone, having one peculiar to itself; so that one family, as often happens among savages, is scarcely intelligible to another. In many particulars the Lapponic coincides more nearly with the Hungarian than the Finnic; yet with the latter it is manifestly allied, as our author proves by a careful analysis of the grammatical structure of both. In the work of Leem, which contains a very excellent and interesting account of the Norwegian Laplanders, we find that their language has some traits which remind us of the Celtic, and we should not be surprised if a careful comparison should point out more. It is, indeed, highly probable, that when the Asiatic colonies arrived with their Druidical hierarchy in the north of Europe, they found that country already occupied by tribes of Tchudic race, and that some intermixture followed. A permutation of consonants prevails in the Lapponic, not unlike that of the Celtic dialects. The nouns have from 10 to 15 cases; these, however, are not real inflections, but formed by prepositions, or rather suffixes added to the terminations of the nouns. Other inflections are very abundant, but mostly on the same principle. The present tense of the verb substantive is as follows:

Lapponic.-Sing. 1. Leh. 2 lep. 3 le.-Dual. 1. Len. 2 lepen. 3 lepe. Plural. 1. lepe. 2 lepet. 3 lan.

Finn.--Sing. 1. Ölen. 2 olet. 3 on.-Plural. 1. Olemme. 2 olette. 3 owat.

The numerals are nearly the same in the two languages up to ten, the term for which is totally different. The number nine was probably the last term of their arithmetic, when the tribes of the Tchudic stock first separated. They give themselves the

same national denomination. In short, it is evident that they were formerly one people.

The origin of this nation is a curious question; and here the Hungarians come to our aid. This tribe, the Ongres, Ugurs, or Madjars, of different writers, are deduced by Abulgasi from the Huns. His opinion is supported only by the resemblance of the names; and this circumstance does more to invalidate it than the difference of bodily characters between the present Hungarians and the ancient Huns, which, though very considerable, may be accounted for by the agency of physical causes. The Ongres come first to our view in the 4th century, when they inhabited Bashkiria, between the Tobol, the Volga, and the Jaik. In the 7th century we find them in alliance with the Chazares, living on plunder and the chace, in the department of Catharinoslav. Towards the end of the 9th century seven tribes, of which the most considerable was called Madjars, were driven out of their territory by the Petchenegars, and passed the Carpathian mountains into Pannonia, where they settled, and gave a new name to that country. The tribes of Ongres, who remained in Asia, were seen by Rubruquis in 1251. As it is proved incontestably that the Finnish language is allied to the Hungarian, these nations must be held to be of one race, and to have emigrated originally from the same quarter.

The old writers are exceedingly anxious as usual to force a comparison between the Lapponic and the Hebrew. Olave Rudbeck, a Swede, had the boldness to assert, that out of 2000 or 3000 words, there are only 200 or 300 which are not from Hebrew or Syriac. We only notice this absurd declaration to express our astonishment that Mr. Townsend has been so far deceived by it as to pronounce peremptorily that the Lapponic is more " pure," by which he means nearer to the Hebrew than

the modern dialects of Arabia.

Thus we find in the extremities of Europe, towards the north and west, the remains of nations, who from their situation must be supposed to have occupied this portion of the earth before the arrival of the Indian colonies. The languages of the Cantabrians and Tchudes are totally distinct from each other, and from those of the Indian stock. Even the numerals, which coincide so extensively in languages otherwise unconnected, have here no resemblance. The Tchudes probably possessed all the southern shores of the Baltic, from which they were expelled by the Germans, and driven into Scandinavia.

The north of Asia, from the country occupied by the Finns to the sea, which separates this continent from America, is peopled by tribes of various origin, which are arranged by Mr. Adelung in three departments. The first contains seven nations of mixed

race, who are more or less connected with the Tchudes; the second consists of the people called Samoiedes, and various scattered tribes, who claim a common origin with them; in the third are placed several nations, whose history has not been investigated, and who speak languages quite unconnected. As these nations are very little known, we shall extract some of the most interesting of our author's observations concerning them.

1. The seven nations called Permians, Vogules, Ostiacs of the Oby, Tcheremisses, Votiacs, Mordouines, and Teptjerais, have been represented by Pallas, Gmelin, and others, as so many tribes of Finns, and their languages are generally said to be Tehudic dialects. Adelung shows that this affinity has been very much exaggerated. Of 200 Permian vocables, which Müller the Russian historian has collected, 17 are of Finnish origin: he found only eight in the same number of Vogulian words, 16 in the Tcheremissic, and 22 in the Votiac vocabularies. In several of these there is a considerable mixture of Tartar words, which may well be accounted for from the long dominion of that people. The great mass of vocables in their language is apparently distinct, and of separate origin in each.

The Permians now inhabit the governments of Archangel and Kasan. In the middle ages they seem to have possessed all the country between the White Sea and the Ural Mountains. Ohthere, the celebrated voyager and friend of Alfred, represents the Biarmahs as a very populous nation, and says they spoke the same language as the Finns. The Icelandic traditions tell us, that this region was formerly enriched by the commerce of Persia and the Indies. It is difficult to imagine what was the foundation of this

rumour.

2. The Samoiedes are the most destitute wretches of the whole human race. They procure a miserable subsistence by fishing along the shores of the Icy sea, and extend from the neighbourhood of Archangel to the Lena. They probably inhabited formerly a more hospitable climate, and were driven to the northern coasts by the Tartars and Mongoles; some tribes of the same kindred are dispersed around the shores of Lake Baikal and the borders of Mongolia. The tribes who wander through these wide regions have such a diversity of dialect, that it is difficult to recognise their mutual resemblance; yet a careful examination discovers enough to identify the race. Perhaps in a few ages these traces will be lost.

3. Between the Lena and Béhring's Straits are found several hunting or fishing tribes, who are for the most part addicted to the Shaman paganism. The Jeniscan Ostiacs, the Tchuktschi, and the Kamtschadales, are those whose names are best known in Europe. As far as we can judge by the vocabularies which have