98                   ORIGIN OF THE

Coriaks of Siberia, says Santini, have originally Sprung
from the same fountain. Having studied them both,
the affinity appears to me to be very evident. Besides,
I frequently observed the Tongusi and the Coriaks con-
versingr together, while each used that language which
was spoken in his own country. They could not, cer-
tainly, understand each other easily, from the repetitions,
gestures, and circumlocutions which I observed during
their conversation. Both languages have two genders:
the one is called the noble, and is applied to animate
things; and the other the ignoble, of which gender are
inanimate things. The verbs are without number, and
are increased according to the variety and quality of
the action. For example, a Coriak does not use the
same verb, when he says he saw a bird or a tree. In the
same manner the Coriaks alter their verb, when they
say they drank wine or water. The same idiom, con-
tinues Santini, is peculiar to some languages which are
spoken by the North American Indians. Father Chiara-
testa, who remained two years in Kamschatka, has
said, and his word should not be doubted, that those



on the American
stood the languag
frequently to pass
the other.



  Accord
schadales
other side
of Cawsar
tween Ca
straits in
reason of
this narri



side of the straits of Beering under-
e of the Karmschadales, and were seen
and repass from the one continent to



ing to this author, the language of the Kam-
is not much different from that spoken on the
of Beering's straits. He alludes to the landing
in Britain from Gaul, where the passage be-
lais and Dover is as wide as that of Beering's
one place, and much more difficult to cross, by
the cluster of islands that is interspersed in
xw channel between Asia and America. As



Cawsar found the ancient Britons to resemble, in a
most striking manner, the Gauls whom he had left be-
hi-nd him on the continent, in their dress, language and
mode of fighting, so Chiaratesta discovered the Indians
of America to be equally similar to the Kamschadales