WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 254, 10 July 1926, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The id>-a that the ancient civilisations of Central America and Peru were derived from Asia is a very old one, aiia one early historian even has a Storv that the third son of the famous Kublai Khan was driven with his fleet to sea and eventually landed in South America and became the first Inca of Peril. I nis seems to have been a little historical daydream, and later historians altogether pooh-poohed the idea of an Asian origin for the old Maya and Peruvian civilisation. In. more (lavs, with a closer examination of the ruins, there is a school, however, which tends to look, to Asia again, and within the last year or so certain figures tn Mava carvings have been noticed as more closelv “resembling elephants than any animal' found in America. An interesting letter on this subject has come to ’'-and from Mr. F. Christian, of Palmerston writes ns follows: “In last Saturdays issue of The Dominion a new archaelogical issue has been raised involving a ' question of profoundly, strong human ns well as academic interest. Irof"«or Grafton Elliot Smith, of University College. London, confidently declares that the citilisation of lhe Mayas, as evidenced bv the ruined temples und cities Central America, was directly dented from South-East Asia and was the work of immigrants from Java and IndoChina Cambodia being .particulany mentioned. I might mention hat by years of careful research work commenced in 1892 I have independently come to a precisely similar conclusion. “The evidence of the Pacific. Ocean currents and that of the Indonesian and South Asiatic dialects irresistibly points to the same influence—a succession of race movements for many centuries flowing from west to east across the Pacific and bridging the "rent ocean gulf between Asia and America. Professor J. Brown, of Christchurch, in lhe Ridof the Pacific” has already shown the high probability of, big canoea from the east coast of New Zealand and from south-east Polynesia reaching the South American coast in the dritt of the Humboldt Current, and reaching Arauco in Southern Chile and the long coast line of Peru. I myself have discovered manv unmistakable Polynesian words in the language of Arauco, which must have been introduced by voyagers voluntarily or involuntarily using this route. And in the Northern Pacific the great Black Current . must have brought numbers of emigrants from South China, Formosa, and Japan across to the Vansouver coast and down to Mexico. "Tiiis explains many of the phenomena in the civilisation of Ancient Mexico—a presumption which is strengthened bv the Zodiac calendar signs of the Aztecs being absolutely Mongolian.” * “A third great sea route for southeastern Asiatic migration remains to be mentioned-the Northern Equatorial counter current. This great - a ’ water river was the principal factor m peopling the basin of the Pacific right up to the shores of the New World and caused the arrival of bodies of Hindu-Malays, sea-gipsey Malays ad Indo-Chinese voyagers, piobablj using Malav pilots, on the Esmeralda coj. and on the Ecuador coast at Guayaquil. The Inca language of Middle Eeru, the Chimu of North Peru, and the language of Unner Peru show clear traces ot «. considerable infusion of Hindu-Maav and Philippine-Malay <-l enl «! t >. /A g latter evidently preponderated ’nJ 11 ® latter wave of migration. Itns L pointed out to the late Sir Clemen* Markham, the great Peruvian explorer and linguist. . - and he fully agreed with me that the names of many Inca princes in the genealogies, and a great number of words in the Inca Janguage,. which I quoted, were evidently Introduced by such a migration.

"Any New Zealand scientist who doubts this can easily examine the large typewritten comparative taMe ot 450 English kev words in Afalavan, Micronesian, Oceanic, and Peruvian, and Araucanian dialects which can be seen in the library of the Polynesian Society of New Zealand at Wellington. The question is one of simple scientific demonstration, and the ™cronesian area is clearly enough the half-rvay house showing the trend of this emi- & “Another stream of emigrants in which the Indo-Chinese element preponderates seems to have struck the American coast a little higher up below Panama, and by this route we mav with great probability suppose that Indo-Chinese navigators, possibly mixed with Japanese and Malays, landcl and became an important element in the Alava and kindred civilisations ot Central'America. In 1898 I received Professor Brister’s -Maya vocabulary from an American scientist, with instructions to make marginal notes upon it and remember very well remarking that there was a Malay, and possibly an Indo-Chinese, element in it. Since then although I have mainly given mv time to studying Oceanic languages, I have o>me across fresh evidence which sems absolutely to confirm Professor Elliot Smith’s conclusions. "Dr.- Gann gives a Maya worn, ‘taun,’ for a cycle of years used in reckoning time. In Malay ‘tahun and 'taun’ mean ‘a year.’ Professor Bnste- gives the. Maya word ‘km aa meaning- (a) ‘the sun,’ (b) ‘gold,’ and (c‘ ‘a vellow colour. This ■uord tsi both Ala lav and Mongolian >—Malay 7 ‘Knning,’ ‘yellow.’ Japanese: ‘Kin. ‘cold ’ Annamese and Cambodian t ‘kin ’ ‘gold.’ These words, as far ’as thev go, appear to strengthen the . probability that a careful comparative study . of the Champa language of Cambodia and ot Brister's Maya “"dictionary should give us more practically decisive evidence. This line of research I propose to follow up directly I receive these two books from Professor Smith m London. _ , “I mav add in conclusion,” savs Air. Christian, "that the evidence of the style of building in the Cambodian temples, the carvings, the huge statues, the decoration, and. above all, the peculiar pointed arch common to the Central American temples and buildings and those of Angkor-Thom in Cambodia irresistibly points to the infer, ence that Indo-Chinese Columbuses, with possible a sprinkling of Alalay shipmen and pilots, actually reached the shores of the New World and were the chief, if not actually the sole, moving influence in the building of Hie marvellous structures which strew the forests of Central America.’' ‘ I * * Air. Christian adds that in three or four months he hopes to have Professor Elliot /smith’s review of the large amount of linguistic and other evidence he has forwarded to him. THE UNNOTICED. I would hav<_ furs and gowns For the folk in church to oee. I would recite my prayer® In a most amazing key. I would be guilty of some sparkling sin. That God might take heed of me! —Frederick Thayer, in "Harper's.* Mttia gid to c&ccriste j>«*-