The articles in these numbers signed "R.D. in manuserfit are probably by Professor of Robley Cinglison, R.D., Studicine in the University of Virginia JOURNAL OF BELLES LETTRES, ARTS, &c. Published every Wednesday.-Terms, five dollars per annum, to be paid in advance. "POSCENTES VARIO MULTUM DIVERSA PALATO."-Hor. Lib. ii. Ep. 2. No. 13.-VOL. 1. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. ANTHROPOLOGY. OPINIONS OF VARIOUS RUDE NATIONS RE- It is singular to observe the uniformity between the ideas of all nations, who have not been favored with the light of divine revelation, or who have not been able to appreciate it, regarding the origin of mankind. The belief with the nations of antiquity that man arose from earth or slime, or that he sprang from gods, from the teeth of serpents, &c. has seemed so repulsive to many archæologists, that they have considered there must have been something figurative ly implied. But if we inquire into the sentiments of nations on this subject, who still continue in an uncivilized state, we find that they most of them possess opinions, equally strange and incredible, as those of the antient people and philosophers; so that we are forced to the conclusion, that all unenlightened people, in all times and in every part of the globe, have believed that they derived their origin from gods, animals or from inorganic matter. Several nations agree in the belief, that there was a time, when gods or superhuman natures bore rule upon the earth and peopled the world or that the descendants of gods produced the human race. Thus thought the antient Phoenicians, Chaldæans, and all the Keltic nations as well as the Peruvians, who held their Incas to be children of the sun and the children of the sun and of the moon were by them regarded as creators of men and beasts. The Brahmins are of the same opinion, as well as all the nations who have received their religion from the Hindus, as far as Japan. The Chinese, who boast of their SEPT. 9, 1829. intellectual superiority over the "barbarous 7 1% work, and the che flesh of afterwards to air them so well, creation of the division of the heavens | own name Nanni, This Nanni and the earth the yin and yang: the se- subject of all their comic stor paration of the darkness from the light Reaumur has remarked, is th &c. that all things were produced from an the negroes as Kutka is th egg, first formed in water: that there were schatdales. His mother i four other human beings formed, one at he could live in the ▾ each of the four points of the compass. by dexterously imp Having said this, the being called Kin-sih- gods. She taugh jin (man of the golden city,") disappear- poultry and to su ed, and the four persons, referred to, flew stuff them again, or to the spot, each from a different quarter. in appearance, that the Fetish did not susIt is further said, that these five persons, by pect the cheat. Nanni, in executing one a chemical process, obtained from an im- of his mischievous tricks, lost both his mense crucible, a male being and also a fe- arms: but this did not prevent him from male. These, obtaining celestial influence chopping wood and from doing other mefrom the sun and moon, produced other chanical operations for which hands and human beings, who again united and gra- arms are required. These contradictions, dually filled the earth with people. (Asi- however, do not strike the Negro, and he atic Journal, vol. 22, p. 41.) remains firm in the belief of the story he narrates, notwithstanding its absurdity. Numerous as are the nations who derive their race from deities, the number of The Kalmucs, according to Pallas and others, assert, that there was originally a monstrous space or chaos, of the origin of which they knew nothing, but whose width and depth they estimate at six millions, one hundred and seventeen thousand of their miles. In this expanse, clouds collected, which poured down such a constant rain that an immense ocean was formed. On this a scum rose by degrees, on which all living beings and amongst them, man, began to crawl: and from the midst of it the Burchans or gods were produced. The Otaheitans and other Polynesians, to this day, boast of their divine origin, as well as the Kamtschadales and African negroes. The two last relate the most child-those, who believe themselves sprung either ish and extravagant actions of their gods. from animals or inorganic matter, is far The Kamtchadales give the name Kutka greater. to the creator of Kamtschatka and the primitive father of their race. They do not profess to know certainly whence this Kutka was derived or whether he was originally God or man: but they affirm for certain, that he formerly lived, fed, and employed himself as one of their progenitors that he was frequently ill treated by his wife, his children and relations and even by the most contemptible animals: in short he was duped and derided as a base and abject wretch; and this ill treatment and mockery, extravagant beyond conception, form the chief contents of their comic tales. They impute to the stupidity of Kutka that their country was not more beautiful and fertile, that it is deformed by so many lofty mountains and inaccessible rocks; and that they are even subject to violent tempests. The traditions of the African Negroes, regarding their Nanni, are equally extravagant. A large black spider, according to them, was the original creator of man: or rather it furnished the substance from which a Fetish formed mankind. When, at length, she had spun herself out and all the men she had produced ungratefully left her, she used the little matter that still remained for the formation of one man, who was smaller than all the rest. Him she herself brought up and gave him her The belief of the inhabitants of the Moluccas and other isles in the East Indian ocean, is nearly identical with that of the Kalmucs. Almost all these consider themselves to have been derived from inorganic substances, whilst all the American tribes, on the other hand, accord in the idea, that beasts were their creators or first progenitors. The Molucca islanders gave an account of three eggs, which were found on a rock, and from which three mighty kings were hatched. To this day they pay their adoration to the rock, where these wonderful eggs were found, as well as to the eggs themselves, and to the kings that issued from them. The Philippine islanders believe, that the first man and woman proceeded from a bamboo stalk on the island of Sumatra. And when the inhabitants of the Philippine isles style the crocodile their | ters had left, and infused vitality into them. grandfather, it is probably in the same sense Many other miracles equally surprising in which certain nations of Sumatra consi- were wrought by him, and, ultimately, out der the tiger their progenitor: because, in of gratitude for the services which the their opinion, the spirits of their grand- musk-rat had rendered him, he married an fathers had passed by metempsychosis into animal of that species, by which he had those animals. children who peopled the world afresh. The Ladrone islanders, again, affirm, that the first man arose from a clod of earth, on the island of Juam; that he was afterwards changed into a stone, and that from this stone all mankind originated. The Greenlanders, according to Crantz, give their first man the name of Kallak: this man arose from the earth, and, shortly afterwards, the first woman sprang out of his thumb from this pair, in the sequel all mankind proceeded. There is, also, amongst the Greenlanders a tradition, that the earth of old, was tossed about like a ship, and that the greater part of mankind were drowned, but that some were transformed into spirits of fire. The only man that remained, they affirm, smote the ground with a rod, whereupon a woman started up, by whom he repeopled the earth. We can hardly imagine how men who could adopt such follies, could draw the conclusion, from the fragments of the bones and shells of fishes which are found on the high mountains in Greenland, that the sea must formerly have covered the whole surface of the earth. Yet such has been their correct inference. The Indians of our own country, on the other hand, have derived themselves either from the great haze, which they imagine to have been a giant of prodigious bulk, or from bears and other animals. "The majority of the Algonquin nations," says Charlevoix, "believe, that, when the great haze with his whole retinue, consisting of four-footed animals, was drawn out of the water, he formed the earth of a grain of sand, which he brought up from the bottom of the sea, and that he created mankind from the bodies of dead animals. The Hurons and the Iroquois are more bold in their speculations. They make six men appear on the earth simultaneously: how they came there they do not profess to comprehend. One of these, they say The Californian aborigines appear to mounted to heaven to look out for a wife; have been lower in the scale of humanity there he found one, who became pregnant than any other of the American tribes: it by him, but when the sovereign of heaven is consequently to be lamented that the saw this, he cast them down from their ce- Jesuit Begent has touched so slightly on lestial abode. The lady was received on their notions concerning the origin of their the back of a tortoise and delivered of two race. Some, according to that missionary, children, one of whom slew the other. believed that they were originally descendThe mythology of these savages is ex-ed from a bird: others from a stone in the cessively ridiculous and involved; and their vicinity of the Father's house. traditions, concerning the creation of mankind, accord perfectly with those found amongst them regarding the destruction of the human race by a great flood and the repeopling of the earth. The whole of the human race, say they, having been almost extirpated by a general deluge, a certain Messu, who had saved himself, from the waters, sent out a raven to fetch him a piece of earth from the bottom of the sea. But as the bird did not execute his commission properly, Messu substituted a musk-rat which was either more fortunate or more dexterous. Messu, from the portion of earth which the rat had brought him, restored the whole earth to its primitive condition. He discharged arrows against the dried branches of the trees, which the wa Gumilla, a brother of the same order, has been more circumstantial in his account of the traditionary belief of the savages of the Oroonoko, concerning their origin. If the Caraibes, says Gumilla, be asked regarding their origin, they proudly reply, that they are the only nation on the earth and that all other people are their slaves. Their neighbours, the Salivas, however, related to the missionary the following tradition on the origin of the Caraibes. At a time, when a formidable serpent had devoured all the nations on the Oroonoko, the God of heaven sent his son upon the earth to slay this monster: who succeeded in stretching him dead to the great joy of all the tribes along the Oroonoko. This, joy was, however, of but |