n, after dinner at "Tom Phinn's," a
noted bachelor barrister of eminence whose little dinners were not
the least agreeable in London, the story of that famous ride had been
coaxed out of the young _militaire_, who, if left to himself, would
never have let you have a notion that he had seen such splendid
service. The only Cornwallis now left is Lady Elizabeth, granddaughter
of the first marquis.

NOVELTIES IN ETHNOLOGY.

Two savants of high reputation have lately undertaken to seek out the
origin of that German race which has just put itself at the head of
military Europe. One is Wilhelm Obermueller, a German ethnologist,
member of the Vienna Geographical Society, whose startling theory
nevertheless is that the Germans are the direct descendants of Cain!
The other scholar, M. Quatrefages, a man of still greater reputation,
devotes himself to a proposition almost as extraordinary--namely, that
the Prussian pedigree is Finn and Slav, with only a small pinch of
Teuton, and hence, in an ethnographical view, is anti-German!

That M. Quatrefages should maintain such a postulate, his patriotism
if not his scientific reputation might lead us to expect; but that
Obermueller should be so eager to trace German origin back to the first
murderer is rather more suprising. Obermueller's work embraces in
its general scope the origin of all European nations, but the most
striking part is that relating to Germany. He holds that, from
the remotest era, the Celto-Aryan race, starting from the plain
of Tartary, the probable cradle of mankind, split into two great
branches--one the Oriental Aryans, and the other the Western Aryans,
or Celts. The former--who, as he proceeds to show, were no other than
the descendants of Cain--betook themselves to China, which land they
found inhabited by the Mongolians, another great primordial race; and
we are told that the Mongolians are indicated when mention is made in
Scripture of Cain's marriage in the land of Nod. The intermixture of
Cainists and Mongolians produced the Turks, while the pure Cainist
tribes formed the German people, under the name of Swabians (Chinese,
_Siampi_), Goths (_Yeuten_ in Chinese) and Ases (_Sachsons_). Such, in
brief, is the curious theory of Obermueller.

The question next arises, How is it that we find the Germans
transplanted from the Hoang-Ho to the Rhine? We are told that, being
driven out of China by the Turks, they poured into the European
countries which t