CHAPTER XIX. WHENCE CAME THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA? M ANY and varied are the answers to this interrogation, and like Gaul, they are divided into three parts, or classes, the impossible and absurd, the possible, and the probable. Most of the writers on this subject seem to have evolved out of their inner consciences or imaginations a fine-spun theory, and then to have marshaled all the evidence possible in support of it. Should there be other facts which do not support their theory, so much the worse for those facts. Wherever it is possible they are tortured and perverted into supporting what it is predetermined to prove. But if this can not be done by any sophistry or jugglery of words, then the facts in question are coolly ignored. Now we do not expect to settle this long-mooted question, but we have honestly and carefully investigated the subject in all its bearings, and without any preconceived theory to support. Instead of trying to begin with the American Indian and trace the line of descent back to its source, we have reversed this order, and, beginning with the source and starting point of all the nations and tribes of the earth, which is the dispersion of mankind at the Tower of Babel, we have endeavored to trace that branch or branches of the Shemites which peopled this hemisphere. But it might be asked, is such a thing possible after the lapse of ages? The reader shall be the judge after, not before, he knows the position we take, and our reasons for it. However, before beginning our task proper, we want to consider other theories which have been advanced and stoutly defended, to account for the inhabitants and civilization found in America. One of these theories is (or was) that the original civilizers of Mexico and Central America were the "lost ten tribes of Israel." It was first promulgated by the Spanish monks, who established missions in Mexico and Central America, a class of men to whom the world is indebted for a great variety of amazing contributions to the literature of hagiology. According to this theory the "lost ten tribes" left Syria, or Assyria, or whatever country they dwelt in at the time, traversed the whole extent of Asia, crossed over into America at Behring's Strait, went down the Pacific coast almost the full length of North America and established that wonderful civilization of Central America. If it required forty years for the ancestors of those same ten tribes to journey from Egypt to Canaan, a distance of a few hundred miles at most, we are curious to know how much time, in the estimation of those who advocate this theory, would be necessary for this interminable journey? The kingdom of the ten tribes was destroyed not long previous to the year 700 B. C., at which period the Jews of the Northern Kingdom were not noted for their architecture or other evidences of civilization. They were incapable of building their own Temple without aid from the Tyrians. Moreover, there is nowhere a fact, a suggestion, or a circumstance of any kind to show that the "lost ten tribes" ever left the countries of Southwestern Asia, where they dwelt after the destruction of their kingdom. They were "lost" to the Jewish nation because they rebelled against God and worshiped idols. After their subjugation by the Assyrians in 721 B. C. they were to a great extent absorbed by the surrounding nations. To assume that a population came over and passed down to Mexico, Yucatan and even to South America, carrying with them their arts, but not exercising them on this interminable journey, is ridiculous. No pottery has yet been found between the Yukon and the Humbolt, or even further south. It was also assumed that either the ten tribes, or a Jewish colony, were the ancestors of the American Indians. But, as J. H. Beadle well says: "It would certainly be an amazing thing if such a people as the Jews could, in a few centuries, lose all trace of their language, religion, laws, form of government, art, science and general knowledge, and sink into a tribe of barbarians. But when we add that their bodily shape must have completely changed, their skulls lengthened, the beard dropped from their faces, and their language undergone a reversion from a derivative to a primitive type-a thing unknown in any human tongue-the supposition becomes too monstrous even to be discussed." There are three other characteristics in which the Jew and the Indian are diametrically opposite. From the time of David and his harp, the Jewish people have been among the great musicians of the world, while the Indian, like the Chinese, can make a diabolical din sufficient to drive Orpheus crazy, but has no idea of harmony. The Jews have been the financiers of the world throughout the ages, but the Indians have no conception of the value of a dollar. From the very beginning of Jewish history certain animals, such as cattle, sheep and fallow deer were considered "clean" and allowed by their law for food. Other animals, such as swine, dogs and hares, were considered "unclean," and forbidden as food. The same rule obtains among orthodox Jews to this day. But among the North American Indians there is no such thing as "clean" or "unclean" animals. "All is grist that comes to their mill." An Indian will positively eat anything, from the paunch and intestines of a buffalo or beef and their contents, to a dog, skunk, snake or horned toad. Most of the so-called "Blanket" Indians have no conception of cleanliness in their food or cooking, but to a civilized man it is indescribably filthy. We might add that the theory that America was peopled by a colony of Jews is substantially that of the Mormons, who, to bolster it up, ask us to believe that an angel appeared to one Joseph Smith and told him to dig in a certain hill in Ontario County, New York. This he did September 22, 1823, and found certain gold plates engraved with Egyptian characters. Having translated it through the aid of a scribe (Smith being a poor writer), and by means of a "curious instrument, called by the ancients the Urim and Thummim, which consisted of two transparent stones, clear as crystal, set in the two rims of a bow, and used by seers to receive revelation of things distant, or of things past or future,'* he found it a Divine revelation, which proved conclusively that the Indians were descendants from a Jewish colony which came in ships to this continent. Is it not remarkable that those plates, though giving an account of Jews, were engraved in Egyptian characters? And that Smith, though confessedly an ignorant man and a poor writer, could translate Egyptian, one of the most difficult languages in the world? We are skeptical and can only say, show us the golden plates and the Urim and Thummim, and it sufficeth us. We are persuaded that Joseph Smith did not find any such plates, but that he preceded Barnum in discovering that "the American people delight to be humbugged." We desire now to consider what is designated as the Phoenician theory. Intelligent investigators who use reason in their inquiries sufficiently to be incapable of accepting the absurdities of monkish fancy, maintained that this civilization came originally from the Phoenicians. To those who believe that this civilization was imported, this seems more reasonable than any other theory, for more can be said to give it the appearance of probability. It is well known that the Phoenicians were preeminent as the colonizing navigators of antiquity. They were an enlightened and enterprising maritime people, whose commerce traversed every known sea, and extended its operations beyond the "Pillars of Hercules" into the "Great Exterior Ocean." The *Parley P. Pratt. |