bably the latter.

He thinks that had the nine tribes and a half, which were carried off
by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, and which settled in Media, remained
there long, they would, by intermarrying with the nations of that
country, from a natural fickleness and proneness to idolatry, and from
the force of example, have adopted and bowed before the Gods of the
Medes and Assyrians; and have carried them along with them. But he
affirms that there is not the least trace of this idolatry to be
discovered among the Indians: and hence he argues that those of the
ten tribes who were the forefathers of the natives, soon advanced
eastward from Assyria and reached their settlements in the new
continent, before the destruction of the first Temple.

In support of the position that the American Indians are thus
descended, Mr. Adair adduces among others the following arguments:

_1st, Their division into tribes._

"As each nation has its particular symbol, so each tribe has [17] the
badge from which it is denominated. The Sachem is a necessary party
in conveyances and treaties, to which he affixes the mark of his
tribe. If we go from nation to nation among them, we shall not find
one, who does not distinguish himself by his respective family. The
genealogical names which they assume, are derived either from the
names of those animals whereof the cherubim is said in revelation
to be compounded; or from such creatures as are most similar to them.
The Indians bear no religious respect to the animals from which they
derive their names; on the contrary they kill them whenever an
opportunity serves.

"When we consider that these savages have been upwards of twenty
centuries without the aid of letters to carry down their traditions,
it can not be reasonably expected, that they should still retain the
identical names of their primogenial tribes: their main customs
corresponding with those of the Israelites, sufficiently clear the
subject. Moreover they call some of their tribes by the names of the
cherubinical figures, which were carried on the four principal
standards of Israel."

_2nd, Their worship of Jehovah._

"By a strict, permanent, divine precept, the Hebrew nation was ordered
to worship at Jerusalem, Jehovah the true and living God, who by the
Indians is styled '_Yohewah_.' The seventy-two interpreters have
translated this word so as to signify, _Sir_, _Lord_, _Master_,
applying to mere earthly potentates, without the leas