"All these stories of strange animals," said Oxenden, "may be very interesting, doctor, but I must say that I am far more struck by the account of the people themselves. I wonder whether they are an aboriginal race, or descendants of the same stock from which we came?"
"I should say," remarked the doctor, confidently, "that they are, beyond a doubt, an aboriginal and autochthonous race."
"I differ from you altogether," said Oxenden, calmly.
"Oh," said the doctor, "there can be no doubt about it. Their complexion, small stature, and peculiar eyes--their love of darkness, their singular characteristics, both physical and moral, all go to show that they can have no connection with the races in our part of the earth."
"Their peculiar eyes," said Oxenden, "are no doubt produced by dwelling in caves for many generations."
"On the contrary," said the doctor, "it is their peculiarity of eye that makes them dwell in caves."
"You are mistaking the cause for the effect, doctor."
"Not at all; it is you who are making that mistake."
"It"s the old debate," said Melick. "As the poet has it:
""Which was first, the egg or the hen?
Tell me, I pray, ye learned men!""
"There are the eyeless fishes of the great cave of Kentucky," said Oxenden, "whose eyes have become extinct from living in the dark."
"No," cried the doctor; "the fish that have arisen in that lake have never needed eyes, and have never had them."
Oxenden laughed.
"Well," said he, "I"ll discuss the question with you on different grounds altogether, and I will show clearly that these men, these bearded men, must belong to a stock that is nearly related to our own, or, at least, that they belong to a race of men with whom we are all very familiar."
"I should like very much to have you try it," said the doctor.
"Very well," said Oxenden. "In the first place, I take their language."
"Their language!"
"Yes. More has given us very many words in their language. Now he himself says that these words had an Arabic sound. He was slightly acquainted with that language. What will you say if I tell you that these words are still more like Hebrew?"
"Hebrew!" exclaimed the doctor, in amazement.
"Yes, Hebrew," said Oxenden. "They are all very much like Hebrew words, and the difference is not greater than that which exists between the words of any two languages of the Aryan family."
"Oh, if you come to philology I"ll throw up the sponge," said the doctor. "Yet I should like to hear what you have to say on that point."
"The languages of the Aryan family," said Oxenden, "have the same general characteristics, and in all of them the differences that exist in their most common words are subject to the action of a regular law.
The action of the law is best seen in the changes which take place in the mutes. These changes are indicated in a summary and comprehensive way by means of what is called "Grimm"s Law." Take Latin and English, for instance. "Grimm"s Law" tells us, among other things, that in Latin and in that part of English which is of Teutonic origin, a large number of words are essentially the same, and differ merely in certain phonetic changes. Take the word "father." In Latin, as also in Greek, it is "pater." Now the Latin "p" in English becomes "f;"
that is, the thin mute becomes the aspirated mute. The same change may be seen in the Latin "piscis," which in English is "fish," and the Greek "[pi upsilon rho]" which in English is "fire." Again, if the Latin or Greek word begins with an aspirate, the English word begins with a medial; thus the Latin "f" is found responsive to the English "b," as in Latin "f.a.gus," English "beech," Latin "fero," English "bear." Again, if the Latin or Greek has the medial, the English has the thin, as in Latin "duo," English "two," Latin "genu," English "knee." Now, I find that in many of the words which More mentions this same "Grimm"s Law" will apply; and I am inclined to think that if they were spelled with perfect accuracy they would show the same relation between the Kosekin language and the Hebrew that there is between the Saxon English and the Latin."
The doctor gave a heavy sigh.
"You"re out of my depth, Oxenden," said he. "I"m nothing of a philologist."
"By Jove!" said Featherstone, "I like this. This is equal to your list of the plants of the Coal Period, doctor. But I say, Oxenden, while you are about it, why don"t you give us a little dose of Anglo-Saxon and Sanscrit? By Jove! the fellow has Bopp by heart, and yet he expects us to argue with him."
"I have it!" cried Melick. "The Kosekin are the lost Ten Tribes.
Oxenden is feeling his way to that. He is going to make them out to be all Hebrew; and then, of course, the only conclusion will be that they are the Ten Tribes, who after a life of strange vicissitudes have pulled up at the South Pole. It"s a wonder More didn"t think of that--or the writer of this yarn, whoever he may be. Well, for my part, I always took a deep interest in the lost Ten Tribes, and thought them a fine body of men."
"Don"t think they"ve got much of the Jew about them," said Featherstone, languidly. "They hate riches and all that, you know.
Break a Jew"s heart to hear of all that property wasted, and money going a-begging. Not a bad idea, though, that of theirs about money.
Too much money"s a howwid baw, by Jove!"
"Well," continued Oxenden, calmly resuming, and taking no notice of these interruptions, "I can give you word after word that More has mentioned which corresponds to a kindred Hebrew word in accordance with "Grimm"s Law." For instance, Kosekin "Op," Hebrew "Oph;" Kosekin "Athon," Hebrew "Adon;" Kosekin "Salon," Hebrew "Shalom." They are more like Hebrew than Arabic, just as Anglo-Saxon words are more like Latin or Greek than Sanscrit."
"Hurrah!" cried Melick, "we"ve got him to Sanscrit at last! Now, Oxenden, my boy, trot out the "Hitopadesa," the "Megha Dhuta," the "Rig Veda." Quote "Beowulf" and Caedmon. Gives us a little Zeno, and wind up with "Lalla Rookh" in modern Persian."
"So I conclude," said Oxenden, calmly, ignoring Melick, "that the Kosekin are a Semitic people. Their complexion and their beards show them to be akin to the Caucasian race, and their language proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that they belong to the Semitic branch of that race. It is impossible for an autochthonous people to have such a language."
"But how," cried the doctor--"how in the name of wonder did they get to the South Pole?"
"Easily enough," interrupted Melick--"Shem landed there from Noah"s ark, and left some of his children to colonize the country. That"s as plain as a pikestaff. I think, on the whole, that this idea is better than the other one about the Ten Tribes. At any rate they are both mine, and I warn all present to keep their hands off them, for on my return I intend to take out a copyright."
"There"s another thing," continued Oxenden, "which is of immense importance, and that is their habit of cave-dwelling. I am inclined to think that they resorted to cave-dwelling at first from some hereditary instinct or other, and that their eyes and their whole morals have become affected by this mode of life. Now, as to ornamented caverns, we have many examples--caverns adorned with a splendor fully equal to anything among the Kosekin. There are in India the great Behar caves, the splendid Karli temple with its magnificent sculptures and imposing architecture, and the cavern-temples of Elephanta; there are the subterranean works in Egypt, the temple of Dendera in particular; in Petra we have the case of an entire city excavated from the rocky mountains; yet, after all, these do not bear upon the point in question, for they are isolated cases; and even Petra, though it contained a city, did not contain a nation. But there is a case, and one which is well known, that bears directly upon this question, and gives us the connecting link between the Kosekin and their Semitic brethren in the northern hemisphere."
"What is that?" asked the doctor.
"The Troglodytes," said Oxenden, with impressive solemnity.
"Well, and what do you make out of the Troglodytes?"
"I will explain," said Oxenden. "The name Troglodytes is given to various tribes of men, but those best known and celebrated under this name once inhabited the sh.o.r.es of the Red Sea, both on the Arabian and the Egyptian side. They belonged to the Arabian race, and were consequently a Semitic people. Mark that, for it is a point of the utmost importance. Now, these Troglodytes all lived in caverns, which were formed partly by art and partly by nature, although art must have had most to do with the construction of such vast subterranean works.
They lived in great communities in caverns, and they had long tunnels pa.s.sing from one community to another. Here also they kept their cattle. Some of these people have survived even to our own age; for Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, saw them in Nubia.
"The earliest writer who mentions the Troglodytes was Agatharcides, of Cnidos. According to him they were chiefly herdsmen. Their food was the flesh of cattle, and their drink a mixture of milk and blood. They dressed in the skins of cattle; they tattooed their bodies. They were very swift of foot, and were able to run down wild beasts in the hunt.
They were also greatly given to robbery, and caravans pa.s.sing to and fro had to guard against them.
"One feature in their character has to my mind a strange significance, and that is their feelings with regard to death. It was not the Kosekin love of death, yet it was something which must certainly be considered as approximating to it. For Agatharcides says that in their burials they were accustomed to fasten the corpse to a stake, and then gathering round, to pelt it with stones amid shouts of laughter and wild merriment. They also used to strangle the old and infirm, so as to deliver them from the evils of life. These Troglodytes, then, were a nation of cave-dwellers, loving the dark--not exactly loving death, yet at any rate regarding it with merriment and pleasure; and so I cannot help seeing a connection between them and the Kosekin."
"Yes," said the doctor, "but how did they get to the South Pole?"
"That," said Oxenden, "is a question which I do not feel bound to answer."
"Oh, it is easy enough to answer that," said Melick. "They, of course, dug through the earth."
Oxenden gave a groan.
"I think I"ll turn in for the night," said he, rising. Upon this the others rose also and followed his example.
On the following morning the calm still continued. None of the party rose until very late, and then over the breakfast-table they discussed the ma.n.u.script once more, each from his own point of view, Melick still a.s.serting a contemptuous scepticism--Oxenden and the doctor giving reasons for their faith, and Featherstone listening without saying much on either side.
At length it was proposed to resume the reading of the ma.n.u.script, which task would now devolve upon Oxenden. They adjourned to the deck, where all disposed themselves in easy att.i.tudes to listen to the continuation of More"s narrative.