A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder James De Mille

124
'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