Prehistoric America 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA 
 
 MARQUIS DE NADAILLAC 
 
 TRANSLATED BY N. D'ANVERS 
 
 EDITED BY W. H. DALL 
 
 WITH 219 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 27 WKST TWBHTY-THIRD ST. 77 KING WILLIAM ST.. STRAND 
 
 bt Jinicktrborhrr |)rtis 
 1890 
 
COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 1884 
 
 t be ftnicfcerbocfeer press, flew 
 
 Klectrotypcd and Printed by 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons 
 
 THt GETTY CENTER 
 LIBRARY 
 
NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 
 
 The present translation of the Marquis de Nadaillac's 
 I'Amerique Prthistorique, published by Masson in 1882, was 
 made with the author's sanction. By his permission it has 
 been modified and revised to bring it into harmony with the 
 results of recent investigation and the conclusions of the 
 best authorities on the archaeology of the United States. 
 
 It is proper to state that this has required a revision of 
 the chapters relating to the archaeology of North America 
 and the addition to them of much new material. For such 
 changes and additions the American editor is to be held 
 responsible. 
 
 Many quotations have been verified by Mr. J. W. Gibbs, 
 and the acknowledgments of the translator are also due for 
 assistance rendered in architectural matters by Prof. T. 
 Roger Smith of London University, and in other details by 
 Dr. Sainsbury and Miss F. E. Judge. 
 
 To the courtesy of the Messrs. Harper & Bros., the pub- 
 lishers are indebted for the opportunity of using a number 
 of illustrations relating to the archaeology of Peru. These 
 originally appeared in Squier's well-known work on Peru, 
 which has been cited as an authority on numerous occasions 
 by the author of the present work. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Pre-historic man has for some time excited a justifiable 
 interest not only among men of science but among men of 
 intelligence everywhere. 
 
 The first revelations in regard to the co-existence of man 
 with extinct animals were received not only with surprise 
 but with natural incredulity. Soon, however, proofs of such 
 weight multiplied, that doubt became no longer reasonable, 
 and we are now able to assert with confidence that, at a period 
 from which we are separated by many centuries, man inhab- 
 ited the earth, already old at the time of his appearance. 
 The length of this period can be measured by no chronology, 
 no calculation can compute it, history and tradition are si- 
 lent with regard to it ; and it is only by the study of works 
 which may be almost termed stupendous, and by the most 
 careful reasoning that traces of pre-historic man have been 
 followed up through an almost fabulous past and some idea 
 has been gained of the rude pioneers who were the ances- 
 tors of the human race. With some probability Asia has 
 been fixed upon as the primaeval cradle of humanity, from 
 which by successive migrations, during an incalculable 
 period, man spread to the uttermost parts of the Old World. 
 
 At an epoch not far distant, men probably derived from 
 the same source, made their appearance in the New World, 
 wandering on the shores of either ocean. Like their nomad 
 contemporaries of the other hemisphere they knew no shelter 
 save that afforded by nature in her forests and rocks. 
 Rudely shaped stones served them alike for tools and 
 weapons and their social condition was paralleled by that 
 known for their European contemporaries under the name 
 of the Stone age. In accordance with a universal law of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Nature now well recognized, men alike in habits, physique, 
 and mental culture, though in the midst of most diverse con- 
 ditions of fauna, flora, and climate, were traversing the forests 
 of India and the frigid regions of the north, chasing the rein- 
 deer or the bear on the banks of the Delaware or the Miss- 
 issippi as well as along the Thames or the Seine. 
 
 Nor is this all ; the inhabitants of distant continents 
 passed through strictly analogous phases of culture. The 
 nomads were succeeded by sedentary tribes who settled by 
 the banks of rivers or the shores of ocean, wherever the 
 bounty of the waters afforded the subsistence. Shell-heaps 
 and kitchen middens bear witness to the long duration of 
 their sojourn. Centuries passed, new wants were felt, 
 aesthetic feeling awoke, and here and there the stimulus to 
 progress did not fail. Social life had taken on a communal 
 garb and the common needs led to united effort for their 
 satisfaction. Mounds, tumuli, pyramids, arose, and earthen 
 structures in whose form the savage often embodied the 
 animal outlines associated with his myths or ceremonials. 
 In other regions, probably later, another form was taken by 
 the outward symbols of social structure, resulting in bee- 
 hive-like pueblos. Threatened by dangers soon to be ever 
 present they sought for refuge in the recesses of the cliffs, 
 conquering difficulties of construction which appear almost 
 insurmountable to our eyes. Towns and monuments arose 
 of which the imposing ruins still bear witness to the skill of 
 those whose very existence has been but recently made 
 known. 
 
 Although mounds and cliff-houses, ruins and temples, de- 
 termine no dates of erection or names of the builders, yet 
 through them we -may become acquainted with the essentials 
 of the manners, habits, and mental culture, of the ancient in- 
 habitants of America. We are able to conclude that at the 
 time of the first European invasion the civilization of the 
 Americans, the slow growth of ages, was in some respects 
 not inferior to that of their conquerors. 
 
 In " Les premiers hommes et les temps prtthistoriques" I have 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 described the Stone Age of Europe and the early resting- 
 places of the ancient inhabitants of the Old World. The 
 good- will with which that work was received has led me to 
 supplement it by tracing the analogous period in America, 
 seeking the first evidences of a culture parallel to our own 
 and bringing the recital down to the sixteenth century of our 
 era. 
 
 My task has been facilitated by the numerous investiga- 
 tions undertaken in the United States. There, many so- 
 cieties devote themselves to the study of aboriginal antiqui- 
 ties, museums exist already containing a wealth of material ; 
 excavations are carried on with an energy and perseverance 
 Justly commanding admiration. Success has crowned these 
 efforts, every day bringing to light the most remarkable dis- 
 coveries, the most unexpected results. 
 
 These researches and discoveries it is my desire to make 
 widely known, but, as I have said elsewhere, and now repeat, 
 the state of archaeology is such that however great the im- 
 portance of the facts revealed by it, we cannot regard our 
 present conclusions from them as final. Nothing has been 
 more injurious to science that the ephemeral popularity of 
 hypotheses which the revelations of a day have sometimes 
 overturned. As was lately said by Virchow, " when we 
 know as little as we do yet, it behooves us to be modest in 
 our theories." 
 
 Our present lack of information, however, is stimulating 
 rather than prejudicial to archaeological study. For my part 
 I know no grander spectacle than the onward march of 
 human progress. Every fact won, every stage accomplished, 
 becomes the starting point of fresh acquirement, of further 
 progress which will ever be the glorious heritage of future 
 generations. A yet more elevating sentiment results from 
 these studies which is a profound gratitude toward Him who 
 created man, who made him capable of such progress and 
 granted him such potentiality of mind. Science in its free- 
 dom and its strength cannot disown its author. 
 
 PARIS, October 7, 1882. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. MAN AND THE MASTODON i 
 
 II. THE KlTCHEN-MlDDENS AND THE CAVES . 46 
 
 III. THE MOUND BUILDERS 80 
 
 IV. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS OF 
 
 THE MOUND BUILDERS . . . .133 
 V. THE CLIFF DWELLERS AND THE INHABI- 
 TANTS OF THE PUEBLOS . . . .198 
 VI. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA . . 260 
 VII. THE RUINS OE CENTRAL AMERICA . .317 
 
 VIII. PERU 387 
 
 IX. THE MEN OF AMERICA . . ; .. . . 476 
 
 X. THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA . . 518 
 
 APPENDIX .... _^* == ^*= . -533 
 
 INDEX 539 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 MAN AND THE MASTODON. 
 
 THE existence of the American continent was unknown to 
 the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, as well as to the Greeks 
 and Romans. We find nothing in the writings either of 
 historians or of geographers to justify the assertion that the 
 ancients even suspected the existence of a vast continent 
 beyond the Atlantic, and a few vague statements, a few bold 
 guesses, interpreted later with the help of accomplished 
 facts, cannot be accepted as evidence. M. De Guignes has 
 endeavored to prove that intercourse took place between 
 China and America as early as the fifth century of our era 1 ; 
 according to legends in which a little truth is mingled with 
 much fiction, Northmen landed in New England about A.D. 
 looo ; and in maps dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 centuries, continents and islands of uncertain outline are 
 for the first time represented beyond the ocean. The 
 Eskimo passed freely from one continent to another in the 
 circumpolar regions, but they were themselves as entirely 
 unknown as the other inhabitants of America. In the course 
 of the present work we shall examine into the question of 
 the relations which may have existed between the Old World 
 and the New, but shall content ourselves at present with 
 saying that the first positive information about the new 
 countries and their mysterious people dates only from the 
 fifteenth century. Side by side with the glorious name of 
 Christopher Columbus, 3 we must place those of Jacques Car- 
 
 1 These fables arose from early voyages of the Chinese to Korea and Japan, 
 exaggerated accounts of which were misunderstood by students of ancient 
 Chinese literature. 
 
 1 Christopher Columbus left Palos, near Seville, on the 3d of August, 1498, 
 and on the I4th of the following October landed on the island of Samana, 
 
 I 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 tier, John and Sebastian Cabot, Amerigo Vespucci, Magellan, 
 Pizarro, and especially Fernando Cortes, as the first to 
 establish the supremacy of European civilization in the New 
 World. 
 
 Cortes disembarked at the mouth of the little river Tabas- 
 co, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, and fought two 
 successive battles with the Indians, 1 who ventured to oppose 
 his passage. The second battle, which was bloody and long 
 contested, took place on the i8th of March, 1519. Victory 
 remained with the Spaniards, and Cortes erected upon the 
 soil of America his great standard of black velvet embroid- 
 ered with gold, having in the centre a red cross surrounded 
 by blue and white flames, bearing the following inscription 
 in Latin : " Friends, let us follow the Cross, and if we have 
 faith in that sign we shall conquer." This was Europe's 
 Act of Appropriation ; from that moment her fortunes and 
 those of the New World have been indissolubly united.* 
 
 1 Columbus, imbued with the ideas of his time, supposed the land he saw 
 stretching before him to be the coast of India, hence the name of the West 
 Indies, and that of Indians still given to the natives of America, as if posterity 
 had felt it a point of honor to perpetuate the illusion of the great navigator. 
 
 3 Pre-historic America has been discussed by numerous writers. A mere 
 list of them would fill a long bibliography : we will only name : Atwater's 
 " Description of the Antiquities of Ohio " ; the publications of the Smithsonian 
 Institution, including the work of Squier and Davis on "Ancient Monuments 
 of the Mississippi Valley " ; the researches of Dr. Chas. Rau, and those of Dall, 
 on pre-historic remains in the Aleutian islands ; Squier's " Antiquities of the 
 State of New York," and Lapham's " Antiquities of Wisconsin " ; Schoolcraft's 
 "Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the Indian Tribes of the 
 United States, "in six volumes ; Baldwin's " Ancient America " ; Wilson's" Pre- 
 historic Man " ; Waldeck's " Voyage au Yucatan " ; Charnay's " Cites et Ruines 
 Americaines," with a preface by Violletle Due ; Stephens' " Incidents of Travels 
 in Central America," in two volumes ; Prescott's " Conquest of Mexico" and 
 " Conquest of Peru " ; Jones' " Antiquities of the Southern Indians " ; Morton's 
 "Crania Americana" ; Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind "; Foster's 
 "Pre-historic Races of the United States "; Brasseur de Bourbourg's " His- 
 toire des Nations Civilisees du Mexique et de 1' Amerique Centrale," in four 
 volumes ; Southall's " Recent Origin of Man " ; Short's " North Americans of 
 Antiquity"; Tylor's "Researches into the Early History of Mankind"; 
 Squier's " Peru " ; his " Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the 
 Incas " ; and the important work of H. H. Bancroft, on "The Native Races 
 of the Pacific States of North America," in five volumes. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 3 
 
 In the sixteenth century America was inhabited from the 
 Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn, from the shores of the Atlantic 
 to those of the Pacific, by millions of men of types analogous 
 to and with characteristics as varied as many of the inhab- 
 itants of the Old World. Amongst them were to be found 
 numerous shades of complexion, from the ruddy white of 
 the inhabitants of the Cordillera of the Andes, of the Amazon 
 valley, or of the island of Santa Catherina, to the much 
 darker tint of some of the tribes of California and Florida, 
 of the natives of the island of St. Vincent, or of the Charruas 
 dwelling on the southern banks of the Rio de la Plata. 1 The 
 Eskimo of the north were short ; the Patagonians of the 
 south were remarkable for their lofty stature." Some Indian 
 tribes had slender limbs with small hands and feet ; others 
 were robust and stoutly built. Some had round heads, 
 whilst in others the dolicho-cephalous 3 form was pronounced. 
 Some had an abundant crop of hair, others scarcely any ; 
 some shaved their heads, others let their hair grow long. It 
 would take a long time to enumerate all the differences of 
 type and race met with by Europeans when they first arrived 
 on the American continent. The native Americans lived 
 among mammalia, birds, fish, and reptiles mostly unknown 
 in Europe. In the south the Llama 4 was their chief do- 
 mestic animal ; they used it as a beast of burden, ate its 
 flesh, clothed themselves with its wool. Oxen, camels, goats, 
 horses, and asses were unknown to them. The European 
 dog, our faithful companion, also appears to have been a 
 stranger to them." His place was very inadequately filled 
 
 1 Nott and Gliddon's " Types of Mankind " ; Broca, Primer Bey, Bull. Soc. 
 Anth., 1862 ; Ameghino, " La Antiguedad del Hombre en el Plata," vol. i., 
 
 p. 71. 
 
 1 Topinard, Rev. if Anth., 1878, p. 511. 
 From doAz^O? long, and H<pakrf head. 
 
 4 The Llama (Auchenia) is a ruminant of the family of the Camelida. It re- 
 sembles the camel in the peculiar structure of its stomach, and is a native of the 
 regions on the slopes of the Cordillera of the Andes. The Guanaco and the 
 Vicuna are species of the same group. 
 
 5 Certain kinds of dogs were, however, domesticated in America. They 
 v.\-:c called Xulos in Nicaragua, Tsomes in Yucatan, and Techichis in Mexico. 
 
4 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 by the coyote, 1 or prairie wolf, which they kept in captivity 
 and had succeeded in taming to a certain extent. The large 
 feline animals were represented by the' jaguar,* the lynx, 3 
 the puma, 4 the habitat of which extended from Canada to 
 Patagonia ; and the ocelot, 5 frequenting Mexico and part of 
 South America. The bears were represented by the little 
 black bear * and by the grizzly bear/ both of which differ in 
 many important characters from any which could have been 
 previously known to the Spaniards. Even the monkeys, so 
 numerous in South America, were quite unlike those of the 
 Old World. All had long prehensile tails, such as are not 
 possessed by European or African monkeys. 
 
 The differences in the flora were not less marked. The 
 trees were generally of species foreign to Europe and Asia. 
 Maize was the only cereal cultivated in the New World, 
 though the so-called " wild rice " was harvested in North 
 America. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, millet, and rice were 
 unknown to the Indians. On the other hand, they had 
 a leguminous plant, the manioc, different from any European 
 vegetable, 6 tobacco, 9 tomatoes, and peppers all valuable 
 acquisitions to civilization. 
 
 These were considered to afford very delicate food after having been castrated 
 and fattened. 
 
 1 Cants latrans, Baird. In a description of Virginia published in 1649, we 
 read : " The wolf of Carolina is the dog of the woods. The Indians had no 
 other curs before the Christians came amongst them. They are made domestic. 
 They go in great droves in the night to hunt deer, which they do as well as the 
 best pack of hounds." 
 
 1 Felis onca, Linnaeus, a native of South America. 
 
 * Lynx canadetisis, Raf. , known also under the name of loup-cervier or wild- 
 cat ; its skin formed one of the objects of trade by the Hudson Bay Company. 
 The natives are said to eat its flesh, which is white and insipid. 
 
 4 Felis concolor, Illiger, 
 6 Felis pardalis, Linnaeus. 
 
 * Ursus Americanus, native to North America. 
 
 T Ursus ferox. It could easily drag off a buffalo weighing more than a thou- 
 sand pounds. Some twenty years ago this bear was still pretty common in Cal- 
 ifornia. The Indians hunted and overcame it with the help of their lassos. 
 
 8 The roots of the manioc yield a starch known under the name of tapioca. 
 
 * It is said that tobacco was first imported into Europe in 1588 by Sir Walter 
 Raleigh. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 5 
 
 The Indians, who were successively conquered by foreign 
 invaders, spoke hundreds of different dialects. Bancroft 
 estimates that there were six hundred between Alaska and 
 Panama ; ' Ameghino " speaks of eight hundred in South 
 America. Most of these, however, are mere derivatives from 
 a single mother tongue like the Aymara and the Guarani. 
 We quote these figures for what they are worth. Philology 
 has no precise definition of what constitutes a language, and 
 any one can add to or deduct from the numbers given 
 according to the point of view from which he considers the 
 matter. As an illustration of this, it may be mentioned that 
 some philologists estimate the languages of North America 
 at no less than thirteen hundred, whilst Squier" would 
 reduce those of both continents to four hundred, 
 
 These dialects present a complete disparity in their vocab- 
 ulary side by side with great similarity of structure. 4 " In 
 
 '"Native Races," vol. III., p. 557. These dialects maybe divided into 
 numerous distinct groups, of which four particularly characteristic families may 
 be mentioned, i. The Innuit or Eskimo, which differs strongly from the 
 other American languages ; 2. The Tinneh, spoken in the Rocky Mountain 
 region, and extending into Alaska, the British possessions, Oregon, California, 
 New Mexico, and Texas ; 3. The Aztec or Nahua, which is widely spread 
 throughout Central America. The remarkable poems of Nezahualcoyotl, king 
 of Tezcuco, are written in this language. Lastly the Maya-Quiche, probably 
 the most ancient language of Central America, which predominated in Yucatan, 
 Chiapas and Guatemala. The Indians of Yucatan are said to speak it to this 
 day, and Sefior Orozco y Berra tells us that all the geographical names of the 
 peninsula are of Maya origin (" Geog. de las Lenguas de Mex.," p. 129). 
 
 *"La Antiguedad del Hombre," vol I., p. 77. Sefior Ameghino notes the 
 curious fact that amongst certain tribes the women speak a dialect distinct from 
 that of the men. It is more likely that the sexes merely express themselves in 
 a different manner. 
 
 'Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind." Squier asserts that one hundred 
 and eighty-seven words of these four hundred dialects are common to foreign 
 languages ; one hundred and four occur in Asiatic or Australian, forty-three in 
 European, and forty in African languages. This, however, requires further 
 confirmation. 
 
 4 Bancroft, vol. III., p. 556. " Other peculiarities common to all American 
 languages might be mentioned, such as reduplications, or a repetition of the 
 same syllable to express plurals ; the use of frequentatives and duals ; the 
 application of gender to the third person of the verb ; the direct conversion of 
 nouns, substantive and adjective, into verbs, and their conjugation as such ; 
 
6 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 America," says Humboldt,' " from the country of the Esqui- 
 maux to the banks of the Orinoco, and thence to the frozen 
 shores of the Straits of Magellan, languages differing entirely 
 in their derivation have, if we may use the expression, the 
 same physiognomy. Striking analogies in grammatical con, 
 struction have been recognized, not only in the more perfect 
 languages, such as those of the Incas, the Aymara, the Guarani, 
 and the Mexicans, but also in languages which are extremely 
 rude. Dialects, the roots of which do not resemble each 
 other more than the roots of the Sclavonian and Biscayan, 
 show resemblances in -structure similar to those which are 
 found between the Sanscrit, the Persian, the Greek, and the 
 Germanic languages." These languages are polysynthetic * 
 and agglutinative, 3 which generally indicates a rudimentary 
 state of culture. They were, however, rich enough to indi- 
 cate that there was not a total absence of intellectual devel- 
 opment. 4 Their diversity may be accounted for by the con- 
 stant crossing of races, migrations, and by the new customs 
 
 peculiar generic distinctions arising from a separation of animate from inani- 
 mate beings." 
 
 'Quoted by Pritchard, "Natural History of Man," 4th edition, vol. II., 
 p. 496. 
 
 'Gallatin ("Trans. Am. Ethn. Soc. ,"vol. I.) defines a polysynthetic language 
 as one in which all that modifies the subject or the action, or still more several 
 complex ideas having a natural connection with each other, is expressed by a 
 single word. The Aztec language is one of the most curious of this kind. 
 Take, for instance, the word Amatlacuilolitquitcatlaxlahuilli, which means, 
 " Payment received for having been bearer of a paper with writing on it." On 
 p. 34 Gallatin gives the longest word in the Cherokee language Winitawtgegi- 
 naliskawlungtanawnelitisesti, which translated into English means : " They will 
 by that time have nearly done granting (favors) from a distance to thee and to 
 me." 
 
 8 An agglutinative language is one in which new words are formed by joining 
 roots together without changing their construction. Ameghino in his " An- 
 tiguedad del Hombre," vol. I., p. 76, says: " casi todas las lenguas Ameri- 
 canas son polisilabicas o aglutinativas, es decir que difieren esencialmente del 
 grupo de lenguas monosilabicas del Asia oriental y de las lenguas a flexion que 
 hablan los pueblos arianos." 
 
 4 We cannot agree with Canon Farrar's opinion, that the richness which has 
 been admired in the aboriginal American languages is only a means of hiding 
 their real poverty (" Families of Speech," London, 1873, pp. 124 et seq.). 
 
MAN- AND THE Af AS TO DON. J 
 
 and ideas which gradually become introduced even amongst 
 the most degraded peoples ; still more by the well-recognized 
 instability and mobility of many aboriginal languages. Some 
 missionaries say they have found the language of tribes, 
 revisited after an absence of ten years, completely changed 
 in the interim. 1 
 
 The differences in culture of the American aborigines 
 were hardly less remarkable. These need not, however, sur- 
 prise us, for at the same period equally radical differences 
 existed among European races, differences, indeed, which 
 are still maintained in spite of constant intercommunication. 
 Some of the American races were rich, industrious, and 
 agricultural ; they had an organized government, towns, laws, 
 a religious system, and a powerful priesthood. In reporting 
 to the Emperor Charles V. on a reconnoissance made in the 
 province of Quacalco, Cortes stated that the river* was 
 dotted on either side with numerous large towns. "The 
 whole province is level and well fortified, rich in all the pro- 
 ductions of the earth." ' His verdict was equally favorable 
 in many other particulars. 
 
 Side by side with these people, who may best be compared 
 with the ancient nations of Asia, dwelt other aborigines, pre- 
 senting a complete contrast to their neighbors ; sedentary 
 tillers of the soil, living in communities, in pueblos resem- 
 bling bee-hives in their arrangement ; the Algonquins and 
 the Apaches, nomad savages living on grasses and roots 
 when the chase and fishing failed them ; the Aleutians, dis- 
 figured by hideous tatooing, chasing the sea otter in ingen- 
 ious canoes of seal-skin, fabricating delicate tissues out of 
 such materials as grass-fibres and feathers, and deriving their 
 entire subsistence from the products of the sea. 
 
 Some of these people venerated animals, such as the ser- 
 pent and the owl ; in Honduras it was the tiger, in Vancouver 
 
 1 Dr. Carl Gtittler, " Naturforschung und Bibel," Freiburg im Breisgau, 1877. 
 
 * The Coatzacoalcos, a river of the isthmus of Tehuantepec, at the southern 
 extremity of the province of Vera Cruz. 
 
 *Carta Segunda de relacion ap. Lorenzana, Folios 91, 92, Published at 
 Mexico, 1700, 
 
8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Island the squirrel, which was connected with religious 
 myths. Nor was this the extreme limit of human degradation; 
 among certain Californian tribes men and women wandered 
 about stark naked, recognizing neither laws, Gods, nor 
 chiefs, and owning no shelter but that of some lofty tree, or 
 the cave for which they competed with the wild beasts. 
 
 No less striking were the contrasts in South America ; 
 side by side with the Peruvians, the richest and most cul- 
 tured people of the two Americas, the barbarous Queran- 
 dis occupied the territory now forming the Argentine Repub- 
 lic. On the 2d of February, 1535, Don Pedro de Mendoza 
 landed at the mouth of the Riachuelo, where he founded the 
 city of Santissima Trinidad de Buenos Ayres. One of his 
 companions has written an account of his expedition, 1 and of 
 his long struggle with the savages who had nothing but stone 
 weapons, slings with which they flung their bolas, and the 
 lassos so formidable in their hands. Even less civilized were 
 the vast deserts of the extreme South, overrun as they were 
 by savage nomad tribes, disputing with each other and 
 with wild beasts for subsistence and shelter. 
 
 Such were the people upon whom the Europeans swept 
 down as upon a prey given over to their desires. While 
 Cortes was subjugating Central America, and Pizarro was 
 overturning the throne of the Incas, parties led by Mendoza, 
 Solis, Gaboto, and Cabea de Vaca ascended the Rio de la 
 Plata, the Paraguay, and the Parana, their courage and 
 energy winning for Spain the magnificent colonial empire 
 which she retained until the nineteenth century. Why was it 
 necessary that their glory should have been stained by foul 
 cruelty and gloomy fanaticism ? 
 
 The Portuguese a were no less active, and the two nations 
 
 1 A German soldier, Ulrich Schmidt, who took part in the expedition, has 
 given a very interesting account of it, which was printed at Frankfort-on-the- 
 Main in 1567, under the title of " Warhafftige und liebliche Beschreibunge et- 
 licher furnemen Indianischen Landtschafften und Indsulen," etc. See also 
 Ruy Diaz de Guzman's " Historia del descubrimiento, conquistas y poblacion 
 del Rio de la Plata." 
 
 * For an account of the part taken by the Portuguese in the discovery of the 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 9 
 
 disputed for the possession of the New World with ferocious 
 zeal. 
 
 On the Qth of March 1 500, Alvarez de Cabral left Portu- 
 gal with a fleet of thirteen vessels, to go to the Indies by 
 way of the Cape of Good Hope. After passing the Cape de 
 Verde islands he steered westward to avoid the calms which 
 prevail off the coast of Guinea. Chance favored him be- 
 yond his hopes, and six weeks after he sailed he landed at 
 Porto Seguro. Brazil was thus discovered, ' and Cabral had 
 the glory of giving to his country a land sixteen times as 
 large a as France. The country was inhabited by the Tupis, 
 of the Guarani race. 3 These people lived in villages con- 
 sisting generally of four spacious green arbors enclosing a 
 square. They were skilful in the use of the bow, and sub- 
 sisted upon the products of the chase. They were entirely 
 naked. A strange ornament disfigured the men, who wore 
 in the lower lip a plug of wood or jade, 4 the weight of which 
 dragged down the lip in a hideous fashion. 
 
 Some years later, Magellan * discovered the strait bearing 
 his name. An Italian named Antonio Pigafetta, who went 
 with him, relates* that the great navigator was obliged 
 
 New World, see a capital essay by L. Cordeiro in the first volume of the 
 Compte rendu du Congrls des Amdricanistes, held at Nancy in 1875. 
 
 1 It is possible that the French had previously touched at several points of 
 Brazil. On this point see Bergeron, " Hist, de la Navigation," Paris, 1630, p. 107. 
 " Normans and Bretons, however, maintain that they were the first to discover 
 these countries, and that they traded from time immemorial with the natives of 
 that part of Brazil now known as Porto Real. But there having been no writ- 
 ten record of this intercourse it has fallen into complete oblivion. The Portu- 
 guese called the country Santa Cruz, after the cross solemnly erected by Cabral ; 
 but our French called it Brazil, because that wood grows very plentifully in 
 certain parts." See also an essay by M. Gafferel, Congrh des Amtricanistes , 
 Luxembourg, volume I., 1877. 
 
 "Brazil has an area of 3.288,000 English square miles. 
 
 3 Dr. Couto de Magalhaes, "O Selvagem," Riode Janeiro, 1876. The Guaranis 
 also peopled the Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and Paraguay. 
 
 4 This custom lingers lo the present day among the Botocudos, a savage tribe 
 of cannibals in Brazil, and the western Eskimo. 
 
 From 1519 to 1522. 
 
 " Magellan's First Voyage Round the World," Hakluyt Society's publica- 
 tions, p. 50, 
 
10 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 to winter in the Bay of San Juliano, where an Indian was 
 brought to him who had been surprised by his sailors. This 
 man, says our historian, "was so tall that the tallest of us 
 only came up to his waist ; however, he was well built ; he 
 had a large face, painted red ' all round, and his eyes also 
 were painted yellow around them ; * * * he was 
 clothed with the skin of a certain beast ; * * * this 
 beast has its head and ears of the size of a mule, and the 
 neck and body of the fashion of a camel, the legs of a deer, 
 and the tail like that of the horse. * * * This giant 
 had his feet covered with the skin of this animal in the form 
 of shoes, and he carried in his hand a short and thick bow, 
 * * with a bundle of cane arrows, which were not 
 very long, and were feathered like ours, but they had no iron 
 at the end, though they had at the end some small white 
 and black cut stones." It was a Tehuelche, to whom Ma- 
 gellan gave the name of Patagon, because of the size of his 
 foot, which was aggravated by the shape of the shoe he wore. 
 
 Before the arrival of the Europeans, Guiana was inhabited 
 by a number of petty native tribes, many of them consisting 
 of a few families. The more advanced cultivated fields of 
 manioc, the roots of which supplied all their needs. Their 
 bows and cotton hammocks were their only wealth. Their 
 chiefs had little authority, and they were so totally ignorant 
 of religion that they could not even be called idolaters. They 
 had vague ideas of the existence of a good and an evil 
 spirit, and their only dissipation was to intoxicate themselves 
 with a drink made from manioc root, which was chewed by 
 the old women and then fermented. 1 
 
 But we need not give any further account of these great 
 discoveries. We must return to the companions of Cortes 
 to tell of the new wonders which awaited them. Even in 
 the most remote districts in the primeval forests covering 
 Chiapas, Guatemala, Honduras, and Yucatan ; where through 
 
 1 The women also painted their breasts red. Pigafetta's relation is an obvi- 
 ously gross exaggeration so far as relates to the stature of the natives. 
 
 a Ternaux Compans, " Notice Hist, sur la Guyane Fran9aise," Paris, 1843, 
 P-35- 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. II 
 
 the dense undergrowth a passage had often to be forced, 
 axe in hand ; statues, columns, hieroglyphics, unoccupied 
 villages, abandoned palaces, and stately ruins rose on every 
 side, mute witnesses of past ages and of vanished races. 
 Everywhere the conquerors were met by tokens, not only of 
 a civilization even more ancient and probably more advanced 
 than that of the races they subjugated, but also of struggles 
 and wars, those scourges of humanity in every race and every 
 clime. 
 
 About three centuries before the arrival of Cortes, the 
 Aztecs, who were to be conquered by him, established them- 
 selves in Anahuac, 1 where, after terrible struggles and de- 
 feats which, for a time, arrested their progress, they founded 
 Tenochtitlan," which became their capital. It is almost im- 
 possible to fix the exact limits s of their empire, which 
 stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the countries 
 now forming Mexico and part of the United States. These 
 limits were constantly varied by the submission of one 
 tribe or the revolt of some other which achieved an ephem- 
 eral independence. It is even doubtful whether this em- 
 pire was not, like the Aztec, little more than a federation 
 of tribes of the Nahuatl race, like the Aztecs themselves, 
 among whom the Acolhuas and Tepanecs were the most 
 important. 
 
 One thing is certain : the government, though oppressive 
 to the governed, was by no means firm. Cortes found some 
 faithful friends among discontented tribes and chiefs smart- 
 ing under injuries received, and it was due to their help that 
 he was able to break the power of Montezuma. 4 These 
 
 1 The name of Anahuac, very incorrectly given to the Mexican empire, was 
 a general term used in speaking of any country situated about a lake or a large 
 sheet of water. See Brasseur de Bourbourg's " Ruines de Palenque," Chap. 
 II., p. 32. 
 
 * Indian name of the city of Mexico. 
 
 'Bancroft (vol. II., p. 94), following Clavigero, places their boundaries be- 
 tween N. Lat. 18 and 21 on the Atlantic side, and 14 and 19 on the 
 Pacific. 
 
 * We follow the spelling generally adopted. The real name of the chief con- 
 quered by Cortes was Moctheuzema, or Moktezema. 
 
12 PRR-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 tribes were probably descended from the Toltecs, 1 who, as 
 we shall see, invaded Mexico before the Aztecs. We are 
 completely in the dark as to this invasion, which modern 
 historians place at about the sixth century of our era. We 
 only know that the Toltecs formed a confederacy, and that 
 each tribe yielded allegiance to an independent chief." 
 Were these Pelasgians of the New World, as Humboldt 
 calls them, the sole builders of the monuments we are about 
 to describe, the first inhabitants of the ruined towns for 
 which their descendants have no names ? It is very doubt- 
 ful, although we know that this race has influenced more 
 than any other the history of Central America, and that the 
 language, the religious rites, and the customs of the Tol- 
 tecs were met with from the Gila river to the isthmus of 
 Panama. But, torn by internecine struggles, decimated 
 by pestilence, they could not successfully resist the Chichi- 
 mecs. Some withdrew southward and' became merged 
 with the Mayas, already settled in Yucatan, and of whose 
 importance we shall also have to speak presently. The 
 Chichimecs are even less known than their rivals, 3 and to 
 add to our difficulties their name has now become a gen- 
 eral term to designate the unconquered tribes of New Spain. 
 Hence, doubtless, the universal idea that they were wild 
 and barbarous. Bancroft thinks they were of the Nahuatl 
 
 1 Sahagun is the first historian who mentions the Toltecs. Their true name 
 is still uncertain. That given to them by us is derived from their capital Tol- 
 lan or Tula. According to Humboldt, they were the builders of the mysterious 
 towns scattered throughout Central America, where their supremacy lasted sev- 
 eral centuries. A very old tradition says that they are descended from seven 
 chiefs, who came out of the seven caves to which we shall have occasion .to re- 
 fer again. 
 
 1 Ixtlilxochitl, " Hist. Chichimeca ; " Kingsborough, " Mex. Ant.," vol. IX. 
 This historian was descended through the female line from the ancient kings of 
 the country. He was brought up by theSpaniards, and converted to the Catholic 
 faith. He was still living in 1608. 
 
 '"I will only mention the people denominated Chichimecs, under which 
 general name were designated a multitude of tribes inhabiting the mountains 
 north of the valley of Mexico, all of which were chiefly dependent on the re- 
 sult of the chase for their subsistence." Bancroft, vol. I., p. 617. Becker, 
 " Migrations des Nahuas," Congres des Amdricanistes, Luxembourg, 1877. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 1 3 
 
 race ; others, and amongst them the earliest historians of 
 the country, hold a different opinion, maintaining that 
 their language was wholly different from that of the 
 Nahuas. 1 
 
 All these men, whether Toltecs, Chichimecs, or Aztecs, 
 believed that their people came from the North,* and mi- 
 grated southward, seeking more fertile lands, more genial 
 climates, or perhaps driven before a more warlike race ; one 
 wave of emigration succeeding another. We must, accord- 
 ing to this tradition, seek in more northern regions the cradle 
 of the Nahuatl race. 
 
 In the Mississippi valley are found mounds occasionally 
 of imposing grandeur, huge earth-works, fortifications, vil- 
 lage-sites, altars, or tombs, from which are derived the name 
 of Mound-Builders, given to those who constructed them ; 
 a title very widely adopted in ignorance of facts which the 
 most recent investigations are only now beginning to place 
 on a sound foundation. 
 
 There is, it is now reasonably certain, no good ground for 
 connecting the builders of the earthworks of the Mississippi 
 valley with the Central American people who erected the 
 remarkable monuments which will hereafter be referred to. 
 But, until very recently, it has been a favorite and not un- 
 natural hypothesis which served to temporarily appease an 
 ignorance, pardonable in itself, but now no longer neces- 
 sary. 
 
 Undoubtedly America bears witness to a venerable past ; 
 and without admitting the claims of some recent authors' 
 who are of opinion that when Europe was inhabited by 
 wandering savages, whose only weapons were roughly hewn 
 
 'Francesco Pimentel, " Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico," vol. I., p. 154. 
 
 a The most ancient Mexican traditions speak of a great empire in the North, 
 to which the name of Huehue Tlapallan was given. We shall have to recur to 
 this question again. 
 
 * Agassiz and Lyell lead those who insist upon the great antiquity of the 
 American continent. The latter believes the Mississippi to have flowed along 
 its present bed for more than a hundred thousand years. " Second Visit to the 
 United States," vol. II., p. 188. 
 
14 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 of stone, America was already peopled by men who built 
 cities, raised monuments, and had attained to a high degree 
 of culture, we must admit that their civilization and social 
 organization can only have become what it was by degrees. 
 The wealth which roused the avarice of the Spaniards 
 must have accumulated slowly. To erect the monuments of 
 Mexico and Peru, the yet more ancient ones of Central 
 America, the singular resemblance of which, in some par- 
 ticulars, to the temples and palaces of Egypt, 1 strikes the 
 archaeologist, must have required skilled labor, a numerous 
 population, and an established priesthood, such as could have 
 developed only during the lapse of centuries. During these 
 centuries, the number of which it is impossible to estimate, 
 the people into whose origin we are enquiring were preceded 
 by others more ignorant and barbarous. It is certain that 
 all over the world civilization has increased gradually and 
 by slow degrees. This is a fixed law of humanity to which 
 there is no exception. The olden time was not without its 
 changes, however slowly we may suppose them to have taken 
 place. " The oldest monuments of human labor," says 
 Lyell (" Travels in North America," vol. II., p. 33), " are things 
 of yesterday, in comparison with the effects of physical 
 causes which were in operation after the existing continents 
 had acquired the leading features of hill and valley, river and 
 lake, which now belong to them." To sum up : multitudes 
 of races and nations have arisen upon the American conti- 
 nent and have disappeared, leaving no trace but ruins, 
 mounds, a few wrought stones, or fragments of pottery. 
 History can only preserve facts founded on written records, 
 or bond fide traditions, and it is from these formulations that 
 it builds up chronology and traces the pedigree of nations. 
 Here all these fail. Those whom we are disposed to call 
 aborigines are perhaps but the conquerors of other races that 
 preceded them ; conquerors and conquered are forgotten in 
 a common oblivion, and the names of both have passed from 
 the memory of man. 
 
 1 For these analogies see " Ensayo de un estuclio comparative entre la Pira- 
 mide Egyptias y Mexicanas," Mexico, 1871. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 15 
 
 Who and what, then, were the first inhabitants of 
 America ? Whence did they come ? To what immigra- 
 tion was their arrival due? By what disasters were they 
 destroyed ? By what routes did they reach these unknown 
 lands ? Must we admit different centres of creation ? 
 and were the primeval Americans born on American soil ? 
 Could evolution and natural selection, those principles 
 so fully accepted by the modern school, have produced 
 on the shores of the Atlantic and the Pacific a type of man 
 resembling the European and the Asiatic, alike in the struc- 
 ture of his frame and in his intellectual development ? Vast 
 and formidable are the problems involved in these ques- 
 tions, for they affect at once the past and the future of the 
 human race. We are, however, already in a position to 
 assert that the earliest vestiges of man in America and 
 in Europe resemble each other exactly, and by no means the 
 least extraordinary part of the case is that in the New, 
 as in the Old World, men began the struggle for existence 
 with almost identical means. 
 
 One fact now is incontestably secured to science : Man ex- 
 isted in the Old World in the Quaternary period. He was 
 the contemporary, and often the victim, of large animals, 
 the great strength of which can be estimated from the skele- 
 tons preserved in our museums. Our early ancestors had to 
 struggle with the bears and lions of the caves, with the ter- 
 rible Machairodm with tusks as sharp as the blade of a 
 dagger, with the Mammoth, and the Rhinoceros tichorinus ; 
 perhaps, also, with the yet more ancient Elephas antiques 
 and Rhinoceros etruscus. The first Americans too were con- 
 temporary with gigantic animals which, like their con- 
 querors of Europe, have passed away never to return. 
 Tlu-y had to contend with the Mastodon, the Megatherium, 
 (fig. i), the Mylodon (fig. 2), the Megalonyx, the elephant, 1 
 with a jaguar larger than that of the present day, and a 
 bear more formidable than that of the caves.* Like our 
 
 1 Elephas Colombi (Owen). Found in both Americas, but it disappeared 
 from the North sooner tbr.n from the South. 
 
 8 Amongst fossil species we must mention '.V Fquidae, of which numerous 
 
l6 PRE-U1STOK1C AMERICA. 
 
 forefathers they had to attack and overcome them with stone 
 hatchets, obsidian knives, and all the wretched weapons the 
 importance of which we have been so long in recognizing in 
 America as in Europe. By the inevitable law of progress, 
 intelligence prevailed over brute force ; the animal, in spite 
 of its powerful weapons of offence and defence, was van- 
 quished in a struggle in which every thing seemed to be in 
 its favor ; and man, weak and naked though he was, lived on 
 and perpetuated his race. 
 
 FIG. i. The Megatherium. 
 
 Primeval man had not only to contend with pachyderma- 
 tous 1 and edentate 8 animals: the period during which 
 he lived was marked by floods, of which man still retains 
 traditions. " If I may judge " says the Abbe" Brasseur de 
 Bourbourg, ' "from allusions in the documents that I have 
 been fortunate enough to collect, there were in these 
 
 varieties occur from the United States to the La Plata. Recently the bones of 
 a horse have been found in Nebraska which differed little from our own 
 Equus Caballus. Of these equine forms we may name the Hipparion, 
 Anchitherium, Protohippus, Orohippus, etc., which appear to have been 
 the ancestors of the modern horse. Gaudry, " Les Enchainements du Monde 
 Animal." Ameghino in "La Antiguedad del Hombre," vol. I., p. 195, con- 
 cludes from this consecutive series that the horse is of American origin. 
 
 1 From the Greek Ttaxvdepj^o? ; or, thick-skinned, 
 
 1 From the Latin, Edentatus ; or, toothless. 
 
 * Arch, de la Com. Scienlifique du Mexique, vol. I., p. 95. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. \J 
 
 regions, at that remote date, convulsions of nature, deluges, 
 terrible inundations, followed by the upheaval of mountains, 
 accompanied by volcanic eruptions. These traditions, 
 traces of which are also met with in Mexico, Central Ameri- 
 ca, Peru, and Bolivia, point to the conclusion that man ex- 
 isted in these various countries at the time of the upheaval 
 of the Cordilleras, and that the memory of that upheaval 
 has been preserved." 1 Amongst these changes must doubt- 
 
 
 FIG. 2. The Mylodon. 
 
 less be included the glacial epoch which played so important 
 a part in North America, and of which such striking traces 
 are met with over an extensive region. These traces are 
 rocks striated or moutonntes (rounded like a sheep's back) by 
 the friction of glaciers, moraines, drift gravels, terraces, and 
 huge erratic blocks which were carried by the ice. In New 
 England glacial striae have been met with at a height of 
 
 1 It is hardly necessary to observe that this remark is one of many in the 
 writings of the learned but credulous author, which testify more to the strength 
 of his enthusiasm than to the coolness of his judgment. 
 
1 8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 3,000 feet; in Ohio, the loftiest reach 1,400 feet; while 
 those in Iowa, Michigan, and Wisconsin attain a height of 
 about 1,200 feet above the sea-level. 1 In California, a large 
 area bears witness to the action of glaciers which came down 
 from the Sierra Nevada ; while even in the forests of Brazil, 
 in the countries watered by the Amazon, as well as on the 
 vast savannahs of the Meta and the Apure are found erratic 
 blocks of conical form, which some observers suppose to 
 have been brought down by great glaciers from the Andes. 2 
 Agassiz 3 tells of similar phenomena in the very heart of 
 the tropics, in the valleys of the Amazon and the Rio de la 
 Plata, and he considered them to be so numerous that he 
 could not but conclude that they extend all over the Ameri- 
 can continent. 
 
 Professor Cook, State Geologist of New Jersey, has made a 
 map of the glaciers of New Jersey. A huge glacier travelled 
 slowly from north to south, grinding, scratching, and pol- 
 ishing all in its path, tearing from the rocks it came across 
 blocks weighing some twenty tons, which it deposited in a 
 terminal moraine as eternal witnesses of its passage. This 
 moraine can still be seen as a vast accumulation of broken 
 rock, gravel, and clay, extending from the Raritan to the 
 Delaware. 
 
 These periods of glaciation seem to have been intermit- 
 tent or perhaps recurrent. Sutton describes two wholly dis- 
 tinct deposits in Kentucky. 4 According to him, one of those 
 deposits is of earlier date than the formation of the Ohio 
 valley, and the second was not made until after the river 
 had hollowed out its present bed. A few years ago, Profes- 
 sor Newberry announced his discovery, on the very banks of 
 the Ohio, of a " Forest Bed " containing the bones of the 
 
 1 Col. Whittlesey. Proc. Am. Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, Buf- 
 falo, 1866. 
 
 5 Bull. Soe. de G<!og., April, 1880. 
 
 3 "Journey in Brazil." Other geologists, after more careful study, are dis- 
 posed to doubt the glacial origin of the deposits in Brazil which so much re, 
 semble the drift. 
 
 4 Proc. Ant. Assoc. for the Advancement of Science, Buffalo, 1866. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 19 
 
 mastodon, the mammoth, and of a large beaver-like animal ' 
 intercalated between two beds of clay, the glacial origin of 
 which appeared to him beyond a doubt. Unequivocal traces 
 of two periods had already been observed near Lake Supe- 
 rior. It is easy to distinguish traces of the one from those 
 of the other ; during the first the glaciers drifted from the 
 northeast to the southwest ; during the second, from the 
 north to the south. During the period intervening between 
 the two, North America, especially those districts forming 
 the state of Ohio, was covered with magnificent forests, 
 where mastodons and megatheria found alike a safe retreat 
 and the abundant food they required, as proved beyond a 
 doubt by the remains of their bones mixed with those of 
 huge plants.* Lastly the Geological Survey of Canada 3 has 
 in its turn quite recently authenticated two glacial periods : 
 the first and most terrible must have coincided with a gen- 
 eral invasion of the ice sheet ; the other with a subsequent 
 development of merely local glaciers. 
 
 From what remote period does this glaciation date ? It is 
 difficult for the human imagination to grasp its causes or its 
 duration ; history and tradition are alike silent about them ; 
 we only know that, as soon as it came to an end, inundations 
 characterized by violent torrents achieved the modification 
 of the valleys of to-day, and gave to the river system of 
 America the physical configuration which since then has been 
 but little changed. 
 
 Man lived through these convulsions 4 ; he survived the 
 rigors of the cold ; he survived the floods, as the recent dis- 
 coveries of Dr. Abbott 6 in the glacial deposits of the Dela- 
 
 1 Castoroides Ohioensis, Foster. 
 
 1 American Journal of Science, vol. V., p. 240. 
 
 8 Geological Survey of Canada, " Report of Progress for 1877-8." 
 
 4 " I see no reason to doubt," says Putnam, " the general conclusion in re- 
 gard to the existence of man in glacial times, on the Atlantic coast of North 
 America." 
 
 * " Primitive Industry," Salem, Mass., 1881. " Palaeolithic Implements from 
 the Drift in the Valley of the Delaware River, near Trenton, New Jersey." 
 " Report Peabody Museum," 1876 and 1878. Th. Belt : " Discovery of Stone 
 Instruments in the Glacial Drift in North America." London, 1878. 
 
2O PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 ware, 1 near Trenton, N. J., seem to prove beyond a doubt. 
 In the post-tertiary alluvial deposits, consisting of beds of 
 sand and gravel, at a depth varying from five to twenty feet, 
 Abbott found a considerable number of implements evidently 
 fashioned by the hand of man (figs. 3, 4, 5), and greatly re- 
 sembling the palaeolithic implements of Europe, especially 
 the most ancient of all, those of St. Acheul, or of Chelles. 
 
 FIG. 3. Stone implement from FIG. 4. Scraper found in the Dela- 
 
 the Delaware valley. ware valley. 
 
 The objects are of very hard trap, 2 an argillaceous rock of 
 volcanic origin. Owing to the difficulty of working it is due 
 
 1 The Delaware flows into the Atlantic after a course of three hundred and 
 fifty miles. It forms the boundary between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 
 Some geologists think that part of the American continent was submerged dur- 
 ing the glacial epoch. At that time the Delaware certainly flowed into the 
 sea near Trenton, which is now 130 miles inland. 
 
 " Why should this recently displaced material only yield the rudest forms of 
 chipped stone implements, when the surface is literally covered in some places 
 with ordinary Indian relics, not a specimen of which has as yet occurred in this 
 gravel?" Abbott, " Report Peabody Museum," 1876, p. 35. 
 
 9 The deposit of trap nearest to Trenton is thirty miles farther north. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 21 
 
 the fact that the secondary chipping is not so perfect as, for 
 instance, it is in the flint axes of the valley of the Somme. 1 
 They occur in the midst of boulders, some of them twenty 
 feet in diameter, and of rocks striated and polished by the 
 action of ice, or which have been swept along by torrents of 
 water. One of the implements has scratches exactly similar 
 to those of the stones amongst which it was found. This is 
 too important a fact to be omitted. 
 
 FIG. 5. Stone weapon from the Delaware valley. 
 
 The Trenton discovery is not an isolated one. Dr. Abbott 
 found other objects, on which the work of human hands is 
 no less evident, in different parts of New Jersey, and he is 
 convinced, that a search made on scientific principles would 
 yield similar results in all the valleys of this state. From 
 the inlands of the Susquehanna have been obtained imple- 
 ments exactly resembling the rudest forms of Scandinavian 
 
 1 H. W. Haynes : "The Argillite Implements Found in the Gravels of 
 Delaware River." Proc. Boston Society of Nat. Hist., Jan., 1881. 
 
22 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 origin. 1 Like those of Trenton, they were made by men 
 who probably lived during the glacial epoch, and certainly 
 preceded by many centuries those inhabiting North America 
 on the arrival of the Spaniards.* 
 
 A member of the Commission d' Exploration du Mexique, 
 M. Guillemin Tarayre, speaks of the occurrence of worked 
 stones in the post-tertiary beds. He had not time to con- 
 tinue his researches, but late discoveries seem to confirm his 
 report. A hatchet has been found in the Rio Juchipila, near 
 the old town of Teul ; in the Guanajuato, a spear point of 
 
 FIG. 6. Hatchet from the alluvial deposits of the Rio Juchipila. 
 
 the palaeolithic type ; in another place an axe like those of 
 St. Acheul, and a scraper which is a fac-simile of those 
 abounding in European museums, (figs. 6, 7, and 8). The 
 scraper (fig. 8) was found a short distance from Mexico, in 
 the undisturbed post-tertiary deposits, and the numerous 
 remains of the Elephas Colombi, mixed with productions 
 
 'Letter of Prof. Haldeman of the 27th Sept., 1877. "Report Peabody 
 Museum," 1878, p. 255. We must also mention a stone hammer found at 
 Pemberton, New Jersey (fig. 9), on which some have supposed they recog- 
 nized the Swastika, that sacred sign of the Aryans which occurs amongst the 
 Hindoos, Persians, Trojans, Pelasgians, Celts, and Germanic races. On the 
 Pemberton hammer it is roughly enough executed, even if the intent of the 
 artist was to reproduce it, which there is no reason to believe. 
 
 * Nature, 1878, part I., p. 262 ; Ameghino, vol. I,, p. 148. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 
 
 of man, indicate that man and this proboscidian were con- 
 temporaries. 
 
 Hewn stone implements, the work of their hands, are not 
 the only relics of the early inhabitants of America. In 
 many places human bones have been found, associated with 
 numerous fragments of extinct animals. 1 Lund was one of 
 
 FIG. 7. A lance head found 
 near Guanajuato. 
 
 FIG. 8. Stone scraper from a valley 
 near Mexico. 
 
 the first " to call attention to them. In a cave excavated in 
 
 1 The earliest examinations were very superficial and the mistakes made 
 are incredible. I cannot give a better proof of this than by mentioning the 
 acceptance as human remains by the Royal Society of London, a century and 
 a half ago, of the bones of a mastodon found near Albany, New York. ' ' Philos. 
 Transactions," vol. XXIX., 1714. 
 
 * " On the Occurrence of Fossil Human Bones in South America." Nott 
 and Gliddon, "Types of Mankind," p. 350. Lacerda and Peixotto, " Con- 
 tribui9oes aoEstudo Anthropologico das Ra9aslndigenas do Brazil." Archives 
 do Museo National, Rio de Janeiro, 1876. 
 
24 PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 the limestone rocks on the borders of the little lake known 
 as the Lagoa do Sumidouro, in the province of Minas Geraes, 
 Brazil, 1 he dug out the bones of more than thirty individuals, 
 of both sexes and every age, from those of an infant to those 
 of a decrepit old man. 
 
 Some skulls were found among these remains, remarkable 
 for their pyramidal form and the narrowness of their fore- 
 heads. Lund, writing a few years later, speaks * of some 
 lower jaws which had not only lost all their teeth, but were 
 so much worn that they looked like a bony plate but a few 
 
 FIG.Q. Stone hammer from Pemberton, New Jersey. 
 
 lines in thickness. Several skulls had holes in them, all of 
 the same size, of a regular and oblong shape. These were 
 probably inflicted with stone weapons, and were wounds of 
 so serious a nature that the injured cannot have long sur- 
 vived them. 
 
 The skeletons, 3 were mixed together in such great confu- 
 
 1 This cave is three leagues from Santa Lucia, between the Las Velhas and 
 Paraopeba rivers. 
 
 2 Letter from Lund to Rafn, dated from Lagoa Santa, 28th of March 1844 ; 
 Mtm. Soc. Roy. des Antiquaires de Nord, 1845, p. 49. Cartailhac, " Materiaux 
 pour 1'histoire de 1' homme," January, 1882. 
 
 1 The word skeleton is perhaps inappropriate ; most of the skulls being piled 
 up apart, whilst another heap was made of small bones, such as those of the 
 fingers and toes, the wrist or ankle. Letter from Lund quoted above. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 2$ 
 
 sion as to forbid the idea of their having been buried, and 
 were lying upon the red earth, the original soil of the cave. 
 They were imbedded in hard clay with calcareous incrusta- 
 tions, and covered with large blocks of stone, which had 
 fallen on them from the walls or roof of the cave. 
 
 Mixed up promiscuously with the human remains were 
 found those of several animals, chiefly feline ' and cervine,* 
 still extant in the same region, together with others belonging 
 to species which have now migrated or become extinct. 
 Amongst the last we may name a monkey, (Callithrix 
 prim&vus), a rodent of the size of the tapir, (Hydrochcerus 
 sulcidens), a peccary (Dicotyles) twice as large as the living 
 species, a horse very similar to our own, a large cat bigger 
 than the jaguar (Felis protopantlier), a llama (Auchenia), a 
 Megatherium (Aceltdothcrium, Owen), and several others, 
 such as CJilamydotherium Humboldtii, an edentate of the size 
 of the tapir, and the Platyonyx of Lund. 
 
 The chemical constituents of the human bones are the 
 same as those of the animals with which they were associ- 
 ated, whether in the soil which has remained loose or in that 
 which calcareous infiltration has converted into a breccia of 
 great hardness. 3 Doubtless these men and animals lived 
 together and perished together, common victims of catastro- 
 phes, the time and cause of which are alike unknown. 
 
 These were the results of Lund's first efforts. 4 Pursuing 
 his researches in the province of MinasGeracs, where he had 
 the perseverance and energy, in spite of constant difficulties, 
 to search more than a thousand caves, he met with human 
 bones again amongst important animal remains, but only in 
 six of all the caves examined. By prolonged and careful 
 work he succeeded in gathering complete specimens of forty- 
 four species now extinct, including several monkeys, some 
 hoplophori, 6 which were as large as our oxen, and the Smilo- 
 
 1 The Puma (Felis concolor), the Ocelot, (Felis pardalis). 
 
 * Cervus rufus and C. simplicomis. Dasypus longicaudis and D. mints. 
 
 * De Quatrefages Congrh Anthrop. de Moscou, 1879. P- & 
 
 * Lund devoted forty-eight years of his life to the study of the fossil fauna of 
 Bra/.il. 
 
 6 H. euphratus, H. Selloyi, H, minor ; the last much smaller than its con- 
 
26 PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 don, a large feline animal akin to the Machairodus or sabre- 
 toothed tiger, which inhabited Europe in post-tertiary times. 
 
 Lund claims the presence of man on the American conti- 
 nent from very remote antiquity, telling us * that it dated 
 in South America not only earlier than the discovery of that 
 part of the world by Europeans, but far back in historic 
 times, perhaps even farther than that, in geological times, 
 as several species of animals seem to have disappeared from 
 the fauna since the appearance of man in the Western Hemi- 
 sphere. The learned Dane did not arrive at this conclusion 
 without much hesitation, which is reflected in his writings. 
 Indeed, at first, after his remarkable discoveries, he dated 
 the bones of the Lagoa Santa within historic times.* 
 
 M. Gaudry accepts without hesitation Lund's final con- 
 clusions.* He thinks, however, that a distinction must be 
 recognized between two post-tertiary deposits in the Sumi- 
 douro cave. The first and thickest is characterized by the 
 occurrence of the bones of the extinct animals, such as the 
 Platyonyx and the Chlamydotherium, and must correspond 
 with the age of the Mammoth in Europe and North America ; 
 the second stratum is characterized by the occurrence of more 
 recent species, and would be represented by the Reindeer 
 period of Europe. It is with the latter that the human 
 bones must be connected. The only proofs, therefore, that 
 we have of the existence of man in Brazil during the post- 
 tertiary period are of more recent date than the traces of 
 pre-historic man in Europe ; but we must hasten to add that 
 this conclusion may easily be modified by later discoveries 
 
 geners. Pictet places the hoplophori with the glyptodonts amongst the Eden- 
 tates (" Palaeontology," vol. I., p. 273), but there is nothing to prove, as has 
 been claimed, that the Hoplophorus had a cuirass like that of the Glyptodon. 
 1 Letter to Rafn, p. 5. 
 
 * " In my opinion," said M. De Quatrefages, at Moscow, " the honor is in- 
 contestably due to Lund of having discovered fossil man on the American con- 
 tinent, and of having proved his discovery at a time when the existence of that 
 man was considered more than doubtful by the most competent European 
 authorities," 
 
 * His letter was quoted by M. De Quatrefages : Congr. Anthrop. de Mos- 
 cou, 1879. 
 
J/./.V A. YD Tltr. MASTODON. 2 7 
 
 In the French colony of Guiana, man existed when a 
 large portion of the country was submerged in consequence 
 of a subsidence of the soil. Traces of his occupation can be 
 made out, and polished stone hatchets have been found on 
 the banks of the Maroni, Sinnamari, Cayenne, and Aprou- 
 ague rivers. 1 Strobel has recently described 8 earthenware 
 vessels of the most primitive construction, and chalcedony 
 arrow-heads from the banks of the La Plata, which appear 
 to have belonged to the earliest inhabitants of that region ; 
 and the paraderos * of Patagonia have yielded many trian- 
 gular arrow-points, some resembling European, others Peru- 
 vian types* (fig. 10). Under very different biological and 
 
 FIG. 10. Arrow-point from Patagonia. 
 
 climatic conditions, pre-historic man has produced objects 
 exactly similar. We shall often recur to this singular fact, 
 which is in full accord with modern research in other 
 sciences as well as archaeology. 
 
 We must enumerate the most important of these recent 
 
 1 Maurel, Bull. Soc. Anthr., April, 1878. 
 
 " Material! di Paleontologia comparata, racolti in Sud- America. " Parma, 
 1868. 
 
 1 The word paraderos comes from parar, to sojourn. The paraderos arc 
 supposed to occupy the sites of ancient habitations, on account of the numerous 
 fragments of burnt earth strewn about them, which seem to have been used for 
 hearths. 
 
 4 Moreno : " Les Paraderos preh. de la Patagonie," Rev. a" Anthr., 1874. 
 
28 
 
 PKE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 discoveries. Several years ago S6guin collected on the 
 borders of the Rio Carcarafia (in the province of Buenos 
 Ayres) numerous bones of extinct animals, 1 including those 
 of a bear larger than the cave bear/ a horse, the mastodon, 
 and the megatherium. With these remains lay human 
 bones, such as fragments of skulls, jaw-bones, vertebrae, ribs, 
 long bones, belonging to at least four different individuals. 
 The material in which they were imbedded resembled in 
 every respect that containing the bones of animals, and 
 there could be no serious doubt as to their being contempo- 
 
 FIG. II. Arrow-points in the Ameghino collection. 
 
 raneous. This was not, however, the case with four imple- 
 ments of hewn stone * of the neolithic type ; they were, it is 
 true, found in the same formation, but not in the same 
 stratum, so that with regard to them certain reservations 
 must be made. 4 
 
 We will now speak of another explorer. Ameghino* tells 
 
 1 Gervais, Journal de Zoologie, vol. II., 1872. The mammals of which Se- 
 guin found remains, are the Arctotherium Jionoetiensis, the Hydrochcerus 
 magnus, the Mastodon, the Megatherium Americamts, the Lestodon trigonidens, 
 the Euryurus rudis, and a horse of uncertain species (Ameghino, " La Anti- 
 guedad del Hombre en el Plata," vol. II., p. 526). 
 
 2 Ursus spelaus : its bones occur in great numbers in all the post-tertiary 
 strata of Europe. 
 
 3 Three are of quartzite, one of chalcedony. 
 
 4 Some of these bones and of the hewn flints collected by Seguin were exhib- 
 ited at the Exposition of 1867. They are now in the Paris Museum. 
 
 6 Letter of October 31, 1875, in the Journal de Zoologie, vol. IV. ; " L'Homme 
 preh. dans la Plata" (Rev. d' Anthr., 1879-1880); "La Antiguedad del 
 Hombre en el Plata," 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1881. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 2Q 
 
 us that on the banks of the little stream of Frias near Mer- 
 cedes, twenty leagues from Buenos Ayres, he met with a 
 number of human fossils, mixed with quantities of charcoal, 
 pottery, burnt and scratched bones, arrow-heads, chisels, 
 and stone knives (fig. 11), together with a number of the 
 bones of extinct animals 1 on which were marks of chopping 
 evidently done by the hand of man, pointed bones, knives, 
 and bone-polishers. Afterward Ameghino discovered the 
 actual dwelling of this early American, and his singular 
 choice was the carapax of a gigantic armadillo scientifically 
 known as the glyptodon." All around the shell lay charcoal, 
 
 FIG. 12. The Glyptodon. 
 
 ashes, burnt and split bones, and a few flints. The reddish 
 earth of the original soil was consolidated. Below this 
 level exploration revealed a stone implement, long bones of 
 
 1 In the remarkable wock to which we refer our readers, Ameghino gives 
 complete details on the flora and fauna of the pampas. A table in vol. II. 
 shows the tertiary fauna of Patagonia, the fauna of the upper and lower pam- 
 pas, of the lacustrine pampas, of recent alluvial deposits, and lastly of the fauna 
 of the time of the Spanish conquest. By the help of this table it is easy to 
 form an idea of the range in time of each of the different species. The mam- 
 mals, bones of which were found by Ameghino mixed with those of man, are : 
 The Cam's cultridens, the Hydrocharus sulciJens, the Reithrodon, the Toxodon 
 Platensis,, an Equus, an Auchenia and a Cervus of undetermined species, the 
 Mylodon robustus, the Panochirtus tuberculatus, the Glyptodon reticulatus, and 
 the G. typus(" Ant. del Hombre," vol. II., chs. X., XI., XIV., and XV.). 
 
 1 Pictet places this animal in the Armadillo family amongst the Edentates. 
 Burmeister (Ann. de Museo Publico de Buenos Ayres) mentions a glyptodon of 
 which the shell measured five and a half feet long by about four feet wide and 
 three high. 
 
30 PKB-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the deer and llama, some split and bearing evident traces of 
 human workmanship, and teeth of the mylodon and toxo- 
 don, also worked. Still later the discovery of another glyp- 
 todon shell under nearly similar conditions strengthened 
 Ameghino's convictions. 1 In the midst of the pampas, 
 those vast plains without a tree or rock behind which man 
 might shelter himself from attack by the gigantic animals 
 wandering about, his mother-wit did not desert him. Dig- 
 ging a hole in the ground, he roofed it with the shell of a 
 vanquished glyptodon, thus forming a cave-like retreat. 
 
 Ameghino's discoveries led to long discussions. Bur- 
 meister * rejected the theory of the contemporaneity of the 
 men and mammals whose bones were found together. The 
 Argentine Scientific Society even refused to listen to the 
 reading of a memoir upon the subject. We cannot accept 
 these decisions. Ameghino asserts that the human bones 
 were mixed with those of the animals 3 and that both were 
 covered with dendritic deposits of the oxides of iron and 
 manganese derived from the soil. The same dendrites are 
 met with in the striae, which is positive proof that these 
 grooves and scratches, which must have been the work of 
 man, were of earlier date than the interment of the bones. 
 Other bones had been split open to get out the marrow, 
 pointed in the shape of an arrow or dagger, and blackened 
 by fire. The charcoal and burnt earth 4 were certain indi- 
 
 1 "El Hombre seguramente habitaba las corazas de los Glyptodon, pero no 
 siempre las colocaba en la posicion que acabo de indicar " (" La Antiguedad 
 del Hombre," vol. II., p. 532). 
 
 * Los caballos fossiles de la pantpa Argentina. Later Burmeister was less 
 positive : " No parece,"he says, " que scan contemporaneos de los animales de 
 la epoca inferior porque carecemos de pruebas para determinar con seguridad 
 que hayan vividosimultaneamente." " Descripcion fisica de la Republica Ar- 
 gentina." 
 
 s Ameghino (Vol. II., p. 424) gives a list of the animals to which the striated 
 bones belonged. 
 
 4 " En algunos puntos se encuentra una gran cantidad de fragmentos in- 
 formes de tierra cocido de color ladrilloso. Que es lo que indican ? Son los 
 productos de los primeros ensayos en el arte ceramico 6 son el simple resultado 
 de la accion del fuego de un fogon enciditto por el hombre de la epoca del 
 Glyptodon." " Ameghino." Vol. I., p. 427. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 31 
 
 cations of the hearths of men. The stones could 
 have been fashioned only by the hand of man. 
 We think, therefore, with Ameghino, that man lived in 
 South America with animals long since extinct ; that he 
 chased the deer, the llamas, and several little rodents whose 
 bones occur with his own ; that he was not afraid to at- 
 tack the glyptodon, toxodon, 1 the megatherium, and the 
 mastodon. Their flesh served for his food, their skins for 
 his garments, and their bones became his implements and 
 weapons, in lieu of silicious and quartzite stones, which 
 often were only to be obtained from a distance. All this 
 seems to us to be absolutely proved. 8 
 
 There remains one important question to be solved. At 
 what period were the pampas formed ? To what geological 
 time must we assign the upper stratum where the human 
 bones were found? Darwin considers it of recent, Burmeis- 
 ter of Quaternary, and Bravard and Ameghino of Pliocene 
 formation. Opinions differ no less as to the mode of its for- 
 mation. D'Orbigny says that, in Tertiary times, the sea 
 covered a great part of the Argentine territory ; the up- 
 heaval of the Andes caused great changes in the adjacent 
 region, and, incidentally, the formation of the pampean de- 
 posits of argillaceous sand. Darwin also admits this hy- 
 pothesis. 3 Lund thinks the pampas are alluvial deposits, 
 brought by a great flood which covered the whole of South 
 America. Bravard sees in them the result of volcanic cin- 
 ders, sand, and dust drifted by strong winds ; other geolo- 
 gists think they are the sediment brought down in the time 
 of great floods by the countless streams flowing from the 
 Andes. Dr. Burmeister speaks of the action of ice. To 
 
 1 Toxodon platcnsis, Owen. The first was discovered on the borders of the 
 Rio Negro, 120 miles northwest of Montevideo ; the length of its head was 
 two feet four inches. Later, several species have been recognized. 
 
 a Ameghino's has not remained the only discovery. We shall mention an- 
 other later (Chap. IX.). 
 
 3 It is remarkable that the deposits of the pampas contain no marine shells. 
 This is a serious objection to the exclusive system advocated by Darwin and 
 D'Orbigny. 
 
32 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 him the pampean deposits appear to be some pre-glacial and 
 others post-glacial, each characterized by a different fauna ; 
 but the most recent researches justly reject the idea of sud- 
 den and complete changes with the fauna appearing and dis- 
 appearing abruptly. No fauna has thus appeared and disap- 
 peared. Moreover, Ameghino calls our attention to great 
 mammals, such as the smilodon, the Felis longifrons, the 
 toxodon, and the mastodon in successive strata, the two 
 last named even occurring in comparatively recent times. 
 The hoplophorus, the megatherium, and the mylodon, es- 
 pecially classed by Burmeister among pre-glacial animals, 
 occur in the upper strata of the pampas. On the other 
 hand the species quoted as characteristic of the post-glacial 
 epoch are met with in every stratum. Without prolonging 
 the discussion we will add that the formation of the pampas 
 certainly took a long time, "largos y largos siglos" says 
 Ameghino ; that they are the result of many and varied 
 causes, and that all those which we have just enumerated, 
 with perhaps others also, undoubtedly contributed to their 
 production. If it is difficult, in the present state of knowl- 
 edge, to assign to each of these causes its exact role, it is 
 still more impossible to place them in a definite epoch, and 
 the difficulties are greatly increased by the fact that geologi- 
 cal periods are not synchronous in Europe and America, and 
 if ever they are assimilated more perfectly than now, it will 
 only be after long and patient researches. 
 
 We must not omit to mention a skull discovered by Dr. 
 Moreno, in 1874, on the banks of the Rio Negro, Patagonia, 
 at a depth of thirteen feet, in a bed of gravel and yellow 
 sand, which he considers ' to be of a contemporaneous for- 
 mation with the subsoil of the pampas. Although there 
 were no bones with this skull to aid in the exact determi- 
 nation of its age, Moreno thinks it very ancient, and calls 
 attention to its remarkable artificial deformation, resembling 
 that which has always prevailed amongst the Aymaras, and 
 is also met with among tribes more than six hundred leagues 
 
 1 Bull. Soc. Anthr., 1880, p. 490. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODOX. 33 
 
 from them. Broca has also pointed out the traces left on 
 the forehead by periostitis, and he does not hesitate to at- 
 tribute this scar to a syphilitic disease. This is a very in- 
 teresting pathological fact. 
 
 Moreno had previously collected many human bones in 
 the ancient cemeteries of Patagonia. That they are very 
 ancient no one can doubt, but to fix their real age with any 
 certainty is very difficult. The skeletons were generally 
 seated, with the face turned outward, the knees drawn up to 
 the breast, one foot resting on the other, and the hands 
 crossed on the shins. This is much the same position as 
 that of Peruvian and Aleutian mummies. With the skele- 
 tons were found arrow-points of many different shapes and 
 of many kinds of stone, little flint knives, fragments of pot- 
 tery ornamented with dots, straight, waving, and zig-zag 
 lines; bowls of sandstone, diorite, or porphyry; stone mor- 
 tars one of them fourteen inches in diameter ; shells of 
 different kinds ; and, lastly, the bones of the guanaco and 
 ostrich split lengthwise. Some of the human bones were dyed 
 red. As some Indians were still in the habit during the last 
 century of painting their faces red before starting on an expe- 
 dition, it is supposed that these bones belonged to warriors 
 killed in battle. It is useful to note this fact, but we must 
 add that the funeral rites to which the remains bear witness 
 would not date back to the Quaternary period, nor have 
 been practised by the contemporaries of the mylodon or 
 glyptodon. 
 
 The discoveries in North America would be no less curi- 
 ous, if we could but accept them with more confidence. 
 This reservation made, we must mention them, if only to 
 show that sometimes even masters in science allow them- 
 seives to be carried away by their imaginations, and even 
 more by pre-conceived ideas. In 1848, Count F. de Pour- 
 tales found some human jaws with the teeth still in them, 
 and part of the bones of a human foot, in a conglomerate 
 made up of fragments of coral or broken shells and imbedded 
 in the perpendicular rocks overhanging Lake Monroe, 
 
34 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Florida, about ten miles from the coast. Agassiz ' informed 
 the scientific world of the fact, and considering that the land 
 here gains on the sea at the rate of about a foot in a cen- 
 tury, he allowed for the coral-bank an age of 13,300 years, and 
 for the bones imbedded in it 10,000 years. Lyell," Wilson, 3 
 and with them many other scientific men, had accepted the 
 fact of the discovery, with the consequences resulting from 
 it, when a letter from the Count de Pourtales put an end to 
 a controversy which had extended over many years, by as- 
 serting that the human bones were found not in the coral 
 conglomerate, but in a fresh-water calcareous deposit dis- 
 tinctly characterized by mollusks 4 such as still live in the 
 lake. 
 
 In the loess of the Mississippi at Natchez, Dr. Dickson 
 found, side by side with the bones of the mylodon and 
 megalonyx, a human pelvis/ blackened like them by time, 
 and still more by the peat in which they were all lying. 
 This time, Sir Charles Lyell showed more reserve ; he ob- 
 served that the human bone might have come from the very 
 numerous Indian burial-places in the- neighborhood, and 
 have been carried along by water. 8 Sir J. Lubbock did not 
 express his opinions, but he extended a certain amount of 
 credit to the opinion of Usher, who regarded the bones in 
 question as fossil. 7 We must also mention that Dr. Leidy 
 adopted the wiser course, and refrained until the recep- 
 tion of more complete evidence from coming to any conclu- 
 sions as to the contemporaneity of man with the mammals 
 amongst the remains of which his bones were mixed. 
 
 1 Agassiz' Lecture. Mobile Daily Tribune, April 14, 1855. Nott and 
 Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," p. 352. 
 a "Antiquity of Man," p. 44. 
 8 " Pre-historic Man," p. 12. 
 
 4 He met especially with Ampullaria and Paludina. Am. Naturalist, 
 vol. II., p. 443, Oct., 1868. 
 
 5 Os innominatum. Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," p. 349. 
 
 " Second Visit to America in 1846," vol. II., p. 197 ; " Antiquity of Man," 
 Chap. X. 
 
 7 " Pre-historic Man." Southall, "Recent Origin of Man," p. 551, 
 Short, " North Americans of Antiquity," p. 114. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 35 
 
 The plains stretching from New Orleans to the Gulf of 
 Mexico are low and wet. In crossing them it is difficult to 
 distinguish between dry land and the marshes covered with 
 water-plants. These wild solitudes, shut in by a barren hori- 
 zon, are the haunt of fevers, and tenanted by reptiles and in- 
 sects of all kinds. The energy of man has succeeded in 
 conquering the resistance of nature, and one of the chief 
 cities of the South rises from alluvial deposits of the Missis- 
 sippi, which attain at certain points a height of five hundred 
 feet. Trenches, dug some years ago for laying down gas- 
 pipes, laid bare several successive strata of ancient forest, 
 in which geologists have made out ten generations of trees 
 which have been buried for some centuries. 1 In a bed be- 
 longing to the fourth forest, at a depth of sixteen feet, 
 amongst the trunks of trees and fragments of burnt wood, 
 lay a skeleton. The skull was beneath a gigantic cypress, 
 which lived many years after the owner of the head, and had 
 in its turn succumbed. 2 In estimating the time required for 
 the growth of the trees with the duration of the various 
 forest deposits, Bennet Dowler asserts the age of the human 
 remains at 57,000 years. This is too hypothetical a calcula- 
 tion to be worth discussion. Dr. Dowler seems to have felt 
 this himself, for in a later calculation he gives the skeleton 
 an antiquity of 14,400 3 years ! Like the first quoted, these 
 figures rest on no solid foundation, if, as Dr. Foster 4 very 
 reasonably suggests, the so-called forests successively laid 
 low, were but trees carried down by the river in its frequent 
 
 1 " Picture of New Orleans," 1852 ; Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," 
 p. 338 ; Lyell, "Antiquity of Man," pp. 44 and 200 ; Huxley, " Man's Place 
 in Nature," Note by Dr. Daly ; Lubbock, " L' Homme Preh., p. 261 ; 
 Southall, "Recent Origin of Man," pp. 470 and 551. 
 
 4 The cypress ( Taxodium distichtttri) lives to a great age. Adanson 
 mentions one, which he believes to have lived 5,200 years, and Humboldt 
 speaks of another at Chapultepec, already old in the time of Montezuma, which 
 he thinks has lived at least 6,000 years, but these estimates must be taken as 
 subject to immense reduction. 
 
 8 We give these estimates as quoted in a recent book. (Short's "American 
 Indians," p. 123.) 
 
 4 " Prehistoric Races of the United States of America," p. 76. 
 
36 PKE-rtTSTOKIC AMERICA. 
 
 inundations, and deposited with alluvial loam where the 
 Mississippi empties its waters into the sea. The same con- 
 clusion is arrived at, if we accept Dr. Hilgard's opinion, who 
 looks upon the bed in which the skeleton lay, as a recent 
 alluvial deposit. 
 
 In a salt mine on the island of Petit Anse, Louisiana, was 
 found a mat made of interlaced reeds. 1 The salt occurs at a 
 depth of fifteen to twenty feet, and the fragment of mat was 
 found at the level of the first deposit of salt. Two feet 
 above lay some fragments of the tusks or bones of an ele- 
 phant. Man and the proboscidian had lived at the same 
 time and met death at the same place. 
 
 In the bottom land of the Bourbeuse River, Gasconade 
 County, Missouri, Dr. Koch discovered the remains of a mas- 
 todon. 2 This animal, one of the largest known, had sunk in 
 the mud of the marshes ; borne down by its own weight, it 
 had been unable to regain its footing, and had fallen on its 
 right side. Some men had seen it in this position, and had 
 at first attacked it from a distance, throwing at it arrows, 
 stones, and pieces of rock, of which a great number are mixed 
 with its bones ; then, to get the better of it the more easily, 
 they had succeeded in lighting fires round it, to which the 
 heaps of cinders, some of them as much as six feet high, still 
 bear witness. The arrows, lance-points, and knives were 
 certainly the work of man, and the pieces of rock, some of 
 them weighing no less than twenty-five pounds, had been 
 brought from a distance. Every thing seems to prove the 
 exact truth of the scene described by Koch. The following 
 
 l ArunJinaria macrosperma. This mat is now in the National Museum at 
 Washington. 
 
 3 Koch announced his discovery in many pamphlets of little scientific value. 
 Dana has preserved the titles of a great many ; among them, see Koch's 
 "Evidence on the Contemporaneity of Man and the Mastodon in Missouri." 
 American Journal of Science and Arts, May, 1875. Consult also Foster 
 ("Preh. Races," p. 62) ; Rau, (" North Am. Stone Implements", Smith Cont., 
 1872,) who admits the authenticity of Koch's discovery, and Short ("North 
 Americans") who denies it. Schoolcraft, (Vol, I., p. 174) says of the bones of 
 the mastodon discovered near the Potato River, that they were not petrified, 
 which throws a doubt on their great antiquity. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 37 
 
 year he made a somewhat similar discovery in Benton 
 County, Missouri. At about ten miles from the junction of 
 the Potato River with the Osage, he found, under the thigh- 
 bone of a mastodon, an arrow of pink quartz, and a little 
 farther off, also in the direction of the animal, four other 
 arrows, 1 which to all appearance had been shot at him." 
 
 These observations are very likely correct ; but unfortu- 
 nately Koch's want of scientific knowledge 3 and the exaggera- 
 tions with which he accompanied his story, at first threw 
 some discredit upon the facts themselves. But the recent 
 discoveries of Dr. Aughey in Iowa and Nebraska have now 
 confirmed them. There, too, the bones of the mastodon 
 have been found mixed with numerous stone weapons ; and 
 man, we learn to our surprise, armed with these feeble 
 weapons, not only did not fear to attack the gigantic animal, 
 but succeeded in vanquishing it. 
 
 In the Sierra Nevada region, at various localities on the 
 Pacific coast, numerous traces of the presence of man are 
 met with. The discovery of implements or weapons at a 
 depth of several hundred feet, in diversely stratified beds 
 showing no trace of displacement, simply implies that the 
 country was peopled many centuries before the arrival of the 
 Spaniards, and that the inhabitants were witnesses of the 
 convulsions of nature, of the volcanic phenomena, which 
 brought about such remarkable changes. But when the 
 bones of man and the results of his very primitive industry 
 are associated with the remains of animals which have been 
 extinct for a period of time of which it is difficult to estimate 
 the length, it is impossible not to date the existence of that 
 man from the most remote antiquity. 4 
 
 These facts are confirmed in California, Colorado (fig. 13), 
 
 1 Three of these arrows were of agate and one of bluish-colored silex. 
 
 * " Trans, of the Saint Louis Academy of Sciences," 1857. 
 
 " Koch was chiefly great as a skilful and persevering collector. The Ameri- 
 can and European museums abound in specimens collected by him. He was 
 the discoverer, among other things, of the magnificent mastodon of the British 
 Museum. 
 
 4 Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 697. 
 
FIG. 13. Canon of the Colorado River. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 39 
 
 Wyoming, wherever a search has been possible. In a manu- 
 script which we believe to be still unpublished, Voy 1 de- 
 scribes numerous and interesting discoveries, all carefully 
 verified. We will mention two stone mortars found in some 
 auriferous gravel near Table Mountain, one in 1858^ at a 
 depth of three hundred feet, the other in 1862, forty feet 
 lower down, under a bed of lava four hundred feet thick ; 
 and at St. Andrews, several similar mortars, such as abound 
 all over California. We confine ourselves to the following 
 rather dry enumeration ; Dr. Snell speaks of a pendant of 
 siliceous schist and several lance-points. From Shaw's Flat 
 there are ornaments of calc-spar and a granite mortar ; near 
 Sonora and at Kincaid's Flat, stone implements ; at Gold 
 Spring gulch, an oval granite dish more than eighteen inches 
 in diameter, two to three inches thick, and weighing forty 
 pounds; at Georgetown several very similar dishes. Every- 
 where these flints, mortars, and dishes were associated with 
 the bones of the mastodon, of the elephant, of a large tapir, 
 and of other extinct animals. It has been the fashion to 
 attribute these objects, evidently the work of man, to a sav- 
 age and cannibal race, extinct with the animals amongst 
 which it lived, and having nothing in common with the 
 Indians of the present day. 8 
 
 Traces of ancient mining operations are also met with in 
 several places in North America ; but all we know about them 
 is that they are of much earlier date than the Spanish con- 
 quest. Mention is made of ancient mines of cinnabar exist- 
 ing in California, 8 where the rocks have given way, burying 
 in their fall the miners, whose skeletons lay at the bottom of 
 the mine beside clumsy stone hammers, the only tools of 
 these savage workmen. Similar hammers have been found 
 in the Lake Superior mines. 4 We shall recur to this subject ; 
 
 1 " Relics of the Stone Age in California." 
 
 "Bancroft, vol. III., p. 549. He quotes an unpublished manuscript of 
 Powers. In appendix A, we give the chief discoveries and the fauna associated 
 with them. 
 
 'Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 696. The Spaniards gave the name of Almaden to 
 these mines in memory of those of their country. 
 
 *" Report of the Am. Assoc. for the Adv. of Science. "Cambridge, Mass.,i84g. 
 
4 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 but we may add now that the workmanship of these objects 
 is similar to that of the Indians, and need not be attributed 
 to a different race. 
 
 Berthoud tells us that in the Tertiary gravels at Cow's 
 Creek, and near the South Platte River, he found some stone 
 implements, together with which he picked up some shells 
 that he assigns to the most ancient beds of the Pliocene de- 
 posits, perhaps even to those of the Miocene period. These 
 are, it must be admitted, but feeble proofs of a fact of such 
 capital importance as the existence of man in tertiary times. 1 
 
 FIG. 14. The Calaveras skull, after Whitney. 
 
 The discovery we have still to mention has been discussed 
 in all the learned societies of America and Europe ; and al- 
 though a satisfactory solution of it has not yet been arrived 
 at, it will be well to give such details as are possible. In 
 1857, a fragment of a human skull was found, associated 
 with the bones of the mastodon, in the auriferous gravel of 
 Table Mountain, California, at a depth of 180 feet. Dr. C. 
 F. Winslow sent this fragment to the Natural History So- 
 ciety of Boston," where it attracted little attention, because 
 
 'Berthoud says he found these objects in 40 N. Lat., and 104 W. Long. 
 Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 1872. 
 8 Whitney, "Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada," p. 264, 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 4! 
 
 there was no evidence concerning the age of deposit. A 
 fragment from the same skull was also given by Dr. Winslow 
 to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. 
 
 A few years later, i. e., in 1866, Professor J. D. Whitney, 
 Director of the Geological Survey of California, announced 
 the discovery of a skull, this time nearly complete (fig. 14), 
 at a depth of about a hundred and thirty feet, in a bed of 
 auriferous gravel on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada 
 (Calaveras County). The deposit rested on a bed of lava 
 and was covered with several layers, some of lava, some of 
 volcanic deposits, overlying beds of gravel. 1 This succession 
 of strata indicates long periods of agitation, during which in- 
 undations alternated with eruptions. If the facts reported 
 be correct, the waters have more than once invaded the dis- 
 tricts inhabited by man, and burning lava from volcanoes 
 has dried up the rivers at their sources. 
 
 The skull was imbedded in consolidated gravel, in which 
 were several other fragments of human bones, the remains of 
 some* small mammals which it was impossible to class, and a 
 shell of a land snail (Helix mormonuni). Beside them lay 
 some completely fossilized wood. We must add that the 
 shaft of the mine, from which the skull was taken, has since 
 become filled with water, and any further examination has 
 become impracticable on account of the expense involved in 
 pumping it out. 
 
 Though the Calaveras skull was associated with no mam- 
 mal bones, with the aid of which its age might be fixed, it 
 is a fact that, in other parts of the Sierra Nevada, gravels of 
 an identical kind have yielded the bones of extinct animals. 
 There are deposits in California and Oregon where, to use a 
 
 'We give a list, from the " Materiaux pour 1'Histoire Primitive et Naturelle 
 de rHomme," of the series of deposits from above downward. 
 
 1 black lava 40 ft. 6 gravels 25 ft. 
 
 2 gravels 3 " 7 brown lava 9 " 
 
 3 white lava 30 " 8 gravels 5 " 
 
 4 gravels 5 " 9 red lava 4 " 
 
 5 white lava 15 " 10 red gravels 17 " 
 
 According to the proprietor of the mine, it is in bed No. 8 that the skull under 
 notice was found. 
 
42 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 popular expression, the remains of elephants and mastodons 
 might be had by the wagon-load. Beside gigantic pachyder- 
 mata we meet with the Palaeolama, the Elotherium, 1 extinct 
 oxen, Hipparion, and several kinds of horses. The fossil 
 flora, impressions of which are of frequent occurrence in the 
 argillaceous deposits, also presents notable differences from 
 that of to-day. ? It contains elms, figs, alders, and other 
 trees of Europe ; but we notice particularly the complete 
 absence of coniferous trees, which now give to the flora of 
 California its distinctive character. Whitney also calls at- 
 tention, in support of his theory, to such implements as 
 lance-points, stone hatchets, mortars, doubtless used for 
 grinding grain or kernels, all bearing witness to the presence 
 of man, and which have been found in many places buried 
 beneath beds of lava. The following are the terms in which 
 he announces his discovery to M. Desor : " My chief in- 
 terest now centres in the human remains, and in the works 
 from the hand of man that have been found in the Tertiary 
 strata of California, the existence of which I have been able 
 to verify during the last few months. Evidence has now 
 accumulated to such an extent that I feel no hesitation in 
 saying that we have unequivocal proofs of the existence of 
 man on the Pacific coasts prior to the glacial period, prior to 
 the period of the mastodon and the elephant, at a time when 
 animal and vegetable life were entirely different from what 
 they are now, and since which a vertical erosion of from two 
 to three thousand feet of hard rock strata has taken place." 
 The scientific world awaited with natural impatience the 
 confirmation of these discoveries. Desor constituted himself 
 the spokesman of his colleagues, and in 1872 Whitney replied 
 to him 3 : " You may rely upon my publishing this fact, with all 
 its details, as soon as the necessary maps are engraved, and I 
 
 1 According to Pictet, belonging to the Pachydermata and the family of 
 Suidse. In appendix A. we give the list of the fauna drawn up by Whitney, in 
 his " Auriferous Gravels." 
 
 a Lesquereux made out in the flora of the mining districts forms belonging to 
 the Pliocene period, and even approaching those of the Miocene. 
 
 * ReviM d 1 Anthrop., 1872, p. 760. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 43 
 
 have completely finished my survey of the geology of the 
 region. It will then be seen that there has been no mis- 
 take. The mere publication of the fact that human remains 
 and products of human industry have been found beneath 
 the volcanic emissions of the Sierra Nevada would prove 
 nothing, if the geological structure of the region had not at 
 the same time been determined with sufficient precision for 
 every one to be able to appreciate, from a scientific point of 
 view, the significance of this discovery. Rest assured that 
 the Calaveras County skull is not an isolated fact, but that I 
 have a whole series of well authenticated cases of the find- 
 ing, in the same geological position, of either human remains 
 or objects of human workmanship." To make these state- 
 ments complete, a geologist of Philadelphia at the same time 
 informed the Abb Bourgeois that Whitney had collected, 
 in the Pliocene strata of California, in nine different places, 
 human bones or relics of human industry, and that these 
 facts were destined to remove all uncertainty. 1 
 
 For the next eight years Whitney published no details of 
 his discoveries, and the newspapers reported, without his 
 taking the trouble to contradict it, the assertion that he had 
 been the victim of an unfortunate hoax. 
 
 Subsequently he referred to the subject in a lecture at 
 Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and 
 since then has fully discussed the subject in the works to 
 which his name gives a legitimate importance. He main- 
 tains the authenticity of his discovery, as attested by the 
 researches he has made in person, while admitting that the 
 finders of the skull were but ignorant laborers, and that no 
 competent person saw it in its original position.' 
 
 No proof is afforded by the characteristics of the skull. It 
 resembles the Eskimo type, and the very prominent supra- 
 orbital ridges form its most distinguishing feature. Chemi- 
 
 ' " Materiaux pour 1' Histoire Primitive et Naturelle de 1" Homme," 1873, 
 
 'p. 55- 
 
 "Whitney: "Lecture in Cambridge," April 25, 1878. "The Calaveras 
 Skull : Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zo6logy of Harvard College," 
 vol. VI. 
 
44 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 cal analysis gives no decided verdict. It shows that the 
 skull contains a slight trace of organic matter, 1 and that 
 phosphate of lime is partly replaced by carbonate. 
 
 We note these two facts, which seem to us important. 
 It seems unlikely that traces of organic matter, however 
 slight they may be, could have been preserved throughout 
 the vast periods of time separating our own from the Ter- 
 tiary period. No less unexpected would be the resemblance 
 of -a skull of that age to the skulls of the Eskimo of to-day, 
 and it is difficult to admit the perpetuation of a type with- 
 out appreciable modifications during the incalculable ages in 
 which all nature has undergone so complete a transforma- 
 tion. 4 
 
 The conclusions to be arrived at seem to us simple. 
 Without doubt man lived in California, and Whitney's nar- 
 rative is one more proof added to those already quoted, 
 during the time when the volcanoes of the Sierra Nevada 
 were in full action, before the great extension of the glaciers, 
 before the formation of the valleys and the deep ravines, at 
 a period when the flora and the fauna were totally different 
 from those of to-day. But Whitney himself admits that if 
 the eruption of the great mass of volcanic matter began 
 toward the Pliocene period, it certainly lasted throughout 
 the whole of the post-Pliocene period, and even during 
 recent times. All initial or final dates are therefore want- 
 ' ing, and even if it were possible to determine them it would 
 be impossible to assert positively that there had been no 
 displacement at any given point, when the ground had been 
 rent asunder by such terrible convulsions as volcanic erup- 
 tions. Even those who admit the authenticity of the Cala- 
 veras skull should reserve their opinion as to the period 
 from which it dates, till the question has been more fully 
 
 1 " The skull being as nearly deprived of its organic matter as fossil bones of 
 the Tertiary period usually are." Whitney, p. 271 ; on page 269 is given the 
 analysis. 
 
 a It seems certain, for instance, that at the period to which Whitney refers 
 this skull, the climate of California was tropical. " Proceedings of California, 
 Acad. of Sciences," 1875, p. 389. 
 
MAN AND THE MASTODON. 45 
 
 studied from a scientific point of view, apart from the fierce 
 controversies that these questions too often provoke. In 
 1877 P rof - March said at Nashville ("Am. Ass. for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science ") : " The evidence as it stands to-day, 
 although not conclusive, seems to place the appearance of 
 man in this country in the Pliocene ; and the best proof of 
 this has been found on the Pacific coast." ' 
 
 If, however, we hesitate as yet to admit the existence of 
 man on the American continent in the Tertiary period, it is 
 difficult to deny that long centuries have rolled by since the 
 time when these unknown men lived amongst animals as 
 little known as themselves. This is, in the present state of 
 pre-historic science, the only decision possible. Other parts 
 of this work will introduce the reader to other races with 
 different tastes, different manners, and probably a different 
 origin. History and tradition are silent about them, as 
 about their predecessors, and long and patient researches 
 are necessary to separate the few still obscure facts from the 
 profound darkness enveloping them. May the difficulties 
 of the task be our excuse, if inevitable errors creep into our 
 narrative. 
 
 1 No reasonable person who has impartially reviewed the evidence brought 
 together by Whitney, and who saw, as we did, the Calaveras skull in its original 
 condition, can doubt that it was found, as alleged by the discoverers, in the 
 auriferous gravels below the lava. The only question to which some uncer- 
 tainty still attaches itself among geologists is that of the true age of these 
 gravels in geological time ; and whether all the extinct species of which re- 
 mains are found in them were contemporaneous with the deposition of the 
 gravels, and with the then undoubted presence of man. [Am. Editor.] 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND THE CAVES. 
 
 AT the close of the last chapter we said that other men 
 with different manners and tastes, perhaps also of different 
 origin, replaced the first inhabitants of America. A con- 
 siderable change took place, and we have not now to deal 
 with nomad savages, wandering without shelter in the for- 
 ests of the North and the pampas of the South ; we are to 
 make acquaintance with a numerous population living in so- 
 cial intercourse, and dwelling for long periods in a single lo- 
 cality. The great difference in the fauna helps us to realize 
 the importance of the change that had come about, and also 
 the immense length of time necessary to its accomplishment. 
 Though these men, who doubtless arrived in successive mi- 
 grations, were still rude and barbarous, the permanence of 
 their homes was already a great step in advance, and atten- 
 tive study enables us to discover the germs of a more ad- 
 vanced civilization, which would develop still more rapidly 
 among those who should succeed them. 
 
 Every thing is of importance in treating of the existence 
 of man in those times, which but yesterday were totally un- 
 known. From this point of view the kitchen-middens (literally 
 kitchen-heaps), as the heaps of rubbish and offal of all kinds 
 which accumulate about the dwellings of man have come to 
 be called, deserve special attention. 1 Excavations in them 
 in the different countries of Europe have yielded the most 
 interesting results. They have revealed the every-day life, 
 
 1 These heaps of rubbish in America are so generally composed almost en- 
 tirely of marine or fresh-water shells, that the term shell-heap, as applied to them, 
 has here largely replaced the more cumbrous term derived from the Danish. 
 
 46 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CA VES, 47 
 
 the food, the manners, the journeys, and the migrations of 
 pre-historic men ; their progress can be followed and their 
 gradual improvement noted. The excavators have collected 
 hatchets, knives, implements of all kinds, in stone, in horn, 
 and in bone ; fragments of pottery, and of charred wood. 
 Amongst the cinders of these hearths, abandoned for cen- 
 turies, have been found numerous bones of animals and 
 birds, fish bones, shells of oysters, cockles, and other mol- 
 lusks, all telling of the prolonged residence of man. No less 
 numerous are the kitchen-middens or shell-heaps in America, 
 and wherever excavations have been made they have been 
 most fruitful in results. 1 Immense heaps of shells, the grad- 
 ual accumulations of man, stretch along the coasts of New- 
 foundland, Nova Scotia, Massachusetts, Louisiana, and 
 Nicaragua, where deposits are described dating from the 
 most remote antiquity. They are met with again in the 
 Guianas, Brazil, and Patagonia ; near the mouths of the Ori- 
 noco ; on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico ; on the coasts of 
 the Pacific, as well as on those of the Atlantic ; and the 
 shell-mounds of Tierra del Fuegoand of Alaska can be made 
 out from afar by the navigator, on account of their green 
 color, the herbage being darker and more luxuriant than 
 that of the adjacent surface. 
 
 Some of these shell-heaps are of considerable dimensions. 
 Sir Charles Lyell describes one on St. Simon's Island at the 
 mouth of the Altamaha River in Georgia, which covers ten 
 acres of ground, to a depth varying from five to ten feet. 
 It is formed almost entirely of oyster-shells, and excavations 
 have yielded hatchets, stone arrow-heads, and some frag- 
 ments of pottery. 2 Another at the mouth of the St. John's 
 
 1 The report of the Pre-historic Congress held at Bologna, ia 1871, gives a 
 fairly complete list of the authors who have written about the American shell- 
 heaps. See also " Reports of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Cambridge, 
 Mass.," vol. II. ; and of the " Am. Association for the Adv. of Science," Chi- 
 cago, 1867 ; Detroit, 1875 ; and Wyman's articles in the American Naturalist, 
 1868. 
 
 1 " Second Visit to the United States," vol. I., p. 152. " British Ass. Rep. 
 for 1859." Address of the President. 
 
48 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 River, consisting, like that visited by Lyell, of oyster-shells 
 of extraordinary size, is three hundred feet in length, with a 
 width not exactly determined, but which is certainly several 
 hundred feet. The shell-heaps of Florida and Alabama are 
 yet more considerable. There is one on Amelia Island of a 
 quarter of a mile in extent, with a depth of about three and a 
 width of nearly five hundred feet. That of Bear Point cov- 
 ers sixty acres of ground ; that of Anercerty Point, one hun- 
 dred ; and that of Santa Rosa, one hundred and fifty. Oth- 
 ers are of a considerable height : Turtle mound, near Smyr- 
 na, is a mass of shells attaining a height of thirty feet, 
 and many others are more than forty feet high. 1 In all these 
 shell-heaps quantities of shells have been collected, although 
 much of the ground they occupy has not yet been examined; 
 large trees, roots, tropical creepers, and other climbing plants 
 covering them with often impenetrable thickets. 
 
 All the shell-mounds just enumerated are situated on the 
 shores of the sea, or in its immediate vicinity. One, how- 
 ever, is mentioned fifty miles beyond Mobile, consisting almost 
 entirely of marine shells. This fact implies a considerable 
 alteration in the elevation of the shores since the time of 
 pre-historic men ; for it is not very likely that he would have 
 taken the trouble to carry the shell-fish necessary for his 
 daily food to such a distance, when it would have been so 
 easy to set up his dwelling-place close to the beach. 
 
 Dr. Jones has explored forty shell-heaps on Colonel 
 Island, Georgia. 2 The whole island, he tells us, is covered 
 with shell-mounds. Similar heaps, chiefly formed of the 
 shells of oysters, clams, and mussels, are of very frequent 
 occurrence in Maine and Massachusetts, and excavations 
 have yielded results no less interesting. Dr. Jeffries Wy- 
 man has noted the rarity of stone implements, which are 
 replaced by articles of bone, which are very common. 
 Fragments of pottery are not abundant; the ornamenta- 
 tion, always coarse, presents little resemblance to the most 
 
 1 Brinton : " Notes on the Floridian Peninsula." Philadelphia, 1859. 
 8 "Antiquities of the Southern Indians and Georgia Tribes." 
 
KITCHEN.MIDDENS AND CA VES. 
 
 49 
 
 ancient European pottery. The ornamentation was pro 
 duced by traceries made on the soft clay either with the point 
 of a shell, or of a sharp stone. 1 The bones of animals are 
 numerous. 8 Wyman met with those of the elk, the rein- 
 deer, 1 the Virginian deer (Cervus Virginianus), the most 
 common of all ; the beaver, the seal, the mud-turtle, the 
 great auk, and the wild turkey. Except the auk (Alca im- 
 pennis), which was before its extinction only found in the 
 extreme north, all these animals lived in Maine in historic 
 times. The caribou, though much rarer than of old, is still 
 met with in the same region. The dog should also be men- 
 
 FlG. 15. Various stone and bone implements from California. 
 
 tioned. Many bones bear marks of his teeth ; so that he 
 lived with man and was subject to him, at least as much so 
 as his wild nature permitted. Some of these important 
 
 1 This primitive mode of ornamentation has been met with in Missouri, Illi- 
 nois, Ohio, Tennessee, and Florida. " Report, Peabody Museum," 1872. 
 
 * In appendix B. we give a complete list of the mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, 
 and mollusca found by Jeffries Wyman in the shell-heaps of Mount Desert and 
 Couch's Cove, Eagle Hill and*Cotuit Port. 
 
 * The reindeer or caribou (Rangifer caribou) is still found within the con- 
 fines of Maine ; but the wild turkey has become virtually extinct in New Eng- 
 land. The elk is not found nearer than the Alleghany Mountains, and the 
 great auk has retreated beyond the confines of the United States, if not extinct. 
 Wyman, " Report, Peabody Museum," 1868, p. n. 
 
 
SO PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 excavations were made under the supervision of American 
 anthropologists, after the meeting in 1868, at Chicago, of the 
 Association for the Advancement of Science. A mound 
 opened on that occasion, covered an area of ten acres. Oyster- 
 shells, cod bones, some of the bones of a dog, and those of a 
 large deer were found ; all relics bearing witness to the 
 presence of men living entirely on the products of fisheries 
 and of the chase, and who as yet were strangers to all 
 agriculture. 
 
 The shell-heaps are also frequently met with in California, 
 and some districts near San Francisco are literally covered 
 with them. One of them, situated near San Pablo (Contra 
 
 FIG. 16. Stone mortar (California). 
 
 Costa County), is more than a mile long by half a mile wide. 
 The shells of which it is made up, chiefly those of the oyster 
 and the mussel, have all been subjected to the action of fire. 1 
 Excavations to a depth of twenty-five feet in a similar 
 mound have yielded arrow-points and hammers. Among 
 others have been found thousands of bone implements (fig. 
 15), the largest of which are eight inches long. Mixed with 
 
 'Foster, " Prehistoric Races of the United States," p. 163. Bancroft, voL 
 IV., p. 709. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 5 I 
 
 these tools lay human remains, which have unfortunately 
 been dispersed without any benefit to science. 1 
 
 Dr. Yates sent a complete collection of the objects found 
 by him in Alameda County to the Smithsonian Institution 
 at Washington.* It includes several large stone mortars 
 (fig. 16), already alluded to, some implements chiefly in- 
 tended for boring, pipes, and a rough representation of a 
 phallus. This last fact must be noted, for we shall see that 
 discoveries of this description are rare in America ; this rar- 
 ity contrasts strangely with the too frequent obscenities of 
 Greek or Roman art. 
 
 The excavations in Oregon were directed by Paul Schu- 
 macher.* He made an important collection of mortars, 
 
 FIG. 17. Quartz scraper. 
 
 pipes of inferior workmanship, pieces of pottery, little cups 
 of soapstone, 4 daggers, knives, flint arrows, attempts at sculp- 
 ture, and bone or shell implements. One of these excava- 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol IV., p. 711. 
 
 1 " Smithsonian Report," 1869, p. 36. 
 
 * " Researches on the Kj6kkenm6ddings of the Coast of Oregon and in the 
 Santa Barbara Islands and Adjacent Mainland." " Bui. U. S. Geog. 
 Survey," vol. III. " Report, Peabody Museum," 1878. 
 
 4 On the island of Santa Catalina Schumacher found a quarry of soapstone 
 or steatite where the ancient inhabitants had set up a regular manufactory of 
 pots and dishes. They are found in all stages of production, and about them 
 may be picked up the tools used in fashioning them. Several similar dis- 
 coveries in New England are mentioned. A steatite or soapstone quarry ex- 
 isted at Christiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 stone 
 implements and a number of great stones, which seem to have served as ham- 
 mers, have been collected there. The same process was employed as in the 
 island of Santa Catalina ; the stone was roughly hewn on the spot, then taken 
 from the quarry and given to the workman who finished it off, giving it the re- 
 quired form. 
 
52 PRE-H1STOKIC AMERICA. 
 
 tions brought to light thirty human skulls and two almost 
 complete skeletons. The dead had been laid beneath the 
 dwelling-place of the living. 
 
 Shell-heaps also abound on Vancouver Island, according 
 to a manuscript quoted by Bancroft (vol. IV., pp. 737, 741, 
 et seq^]. Amongst heaps of shells have been collected ham- 
 mers, arrow-points, wooden clubs, and a sort of knife carved 
 out of whalebone. Amongst the debris lay skeletons. One 
 of them had a shell bracelet on his arm, and a stone arrow- 
 head was sticking in one of his bones. At Esquimalt a dish 
 was found with two handles, one of them representing the 
 figure of a man, the other the head of an animal. As we 
 shall see, exactly similar articles are met with in the mounds 
 of Central America. That of Esquimalt probably dates 
 from the same period as the mounds with which the island 
 abounds, some composed of pebbles, others of clay or sand. 
 Huge flat stones, regular menhirs, 1 are often placed verti- 
 cally on these mounds ; venerable trees overshadow them, 
 bearing witness to their antiquity. Newfoundland was dis- 
 covered in 1491 by the Venetian, John Cabot, who com- 
 manded an expedition sent out at the expense of Henry 
 VII. of England ; perhaps, also, for that question is still un- 
 decided, by the Portuguese navigator, Cortereal. It is cer- 
 tain, however, that when it was discovered, the coast of the 
 island appeared to be uninhabited. The numerous mounds 
 alone attested the presence of man, and these mounds, with 
 the stone implements they concealed, must therefore date 
 from a period previous to the arrival of Europeans. 
 
 We must also mention the pits explored by Mr. F. W. 
 Putnam 3 and others near Madisonville, in the Little Miami 
 valley. These pits, which are from three to four feet in 
 diameter and from four to seven feet deep, are filled with 
 ashes arranged in thin layers and mixed with gravel and char- 
 
 1 A Breton word signifying long stones, generally used to denote the tall up- 
 right stones erected, for some purpose not now known with certainty, by the 
 ancient Celts. 
 
 a Putnam, one of the most eminent anthropologists of the United States, 
 mentions having explored more than 400 of these pits. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 53 
 
 coal. From top to bottom occur numerous bones of rep- 
 tiles, fish, birds, and mammals. The bones of the deer, elk, 
 and bear had been broken to get out the marrow ; shells, 
 too, chiefly fresh-water mussels of the genus Unio, were col- 
 lected ; some were pierced to serve as ornaments ; with 
 them were fragments of pottery, implements made of bone, 
 the antlers of the deer and the elk, arrow-points, scrapers, 
 hammers, polished stone axes, copper ornaments, beads, and 
 stone pipes. At the bottom of one of these pits Dr. Metz 
 found a large quantity of carbonized grains of corn, covered 
 with corn husks and a matting of reeds, also carbonized. 
 These bear witness to a people not only sedentary but agri- 
 cultural. 
 
 The sambaquis are formed of the remains of the food of a 
 people who for centuries inhabited the coasts of Brazil. 1 
 There, as in a book, we can read of the customs, usages, and 
 incidents of the daily life of this extinct race. Each bed of 
 shells" or of cinders is a page, on which facts written in 
 stones and ashes speak for themselves, and where the drama 
 of life is retraced by the broken bones of the victims. 
 From a heap on the banks of the Suguassu River numerous 
 human relics have been taken, the fractures in the bones 
 showing clearly that they had been broken to get out the 
 marrow. The cannibalism of these ancient inhabitants of 
 Brazil need not surprise us, for at the present day there are 
 in this empire, so advanced in many respects, no less than 
 ten cannibal tribes, numbering altogether some 70,000 or 
 80,000 souls. 1 
 
 The sambaquis often attain a considerable height. Captain 
 Burton, who is, it is true, inclined to exaggerate, speaks of 
 
 1 Rev. Arch., vol. XV. ist. series, Paris, 1867. Ch. Wiener : " Estudos sobre 
 los sambaquis do sul do Brazil " (Archives de Museo National de Riode Janeiro, 
 vol. I., 1876). 
 
 4 The mollusca of which they are composed are chiefly bivalve testacea, espe- 
 cially shells of the genus Corbula. Oyster and whelk shells are also met 
 with. 
 
 "Dr. Moure : " Les Indiens de la Province de Matto Grosso " ; Dr. Rath de 
 San Paolo: "Letter Addressed to the Anglo-Brazilian Times." 
 
54 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 having seen one no less than one hundred feet high. One 
 thing is certain, the shells forming these hillocks are so nu- 
 merous that a single sambaqui has for more than two 
 centuries not only supplied all the lime needed by the little 
 neighboring town of Nostra-Senhora-da-Gloria, but yielded 
 considerable quantities for exportation. 
 
 In the region of La Plata paraderos are met with some- 
 what resembling kitchen-middens. Both mark the sites of 
 human dwellings, and the absence of all traces of disturbance 
 excludes the idea of their having been cemeteries to 
 which they were at first likened. Moreno and Zeballos 
 have described those in several parts of Buenos Ayres ; 
 Ameghino in his turn describes those of the banks of the 
 Marco-Diaz, the Lujan, and the Frias. 1 
 
 Numerous mammal bones are scattered about in certain 
 places, often covering a considerable area. 3 The long bones 
 are split, others show grooves and cuts ; nearly all have been 
 subjected to the action of fire. With these bones have 
 been picked up stone implements, chiefly arrow-points (fig. 
 1 8) and fragments of clumsy and badly baked pottery, show- 
 ing, however, traces of artificial coloration. Heaps of burnt 
 earth and charcoal cinders tell clearly of the hearths, of 
 men. All the bones, whether of mammals or birds, are 
 of species, such as the deer and llama, still extant in South 
 America ; nowhere are any bones found, such as those 
 of frequent occurrence in the pampas formation, belonging 
 to extinct animals. The paraderos must not therefore 
 be confounded with those formations, and their much more 
 modern character brings them near to that of the ordinary 
 shell-heaps. 
 
 Recent discoveries * have lately confirmed this conclusion. 
 Excavations in a tumulus of elliptical form* on the Parana 
 
 '"La Antiguedad del Ilombre en el Plata," vol. I., p. 302, etc. 
 'A paradero on the banks of the Marco-Diaz covers an area of 612 by 408 
 yards. 
 
 * Zeballos : " Un Tumulus pre-historique de Buenos Ayres " (Rev. (FAnthrop., 
 18-8, p. 577)- 
 
 * The greatest diameter is 260 ft. ; the smallest 105 feet. The height is about 
 eight feet. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 55 
 
 near the port of Campana, have brought to light a great 
 many objects which bear witness to an advanced state of 
 culture. There are weapons and tools of quartz or of blue 
 granite, often of remarkable workmanship, hand-mills very 
 like those still in use in the interior of Africa, implements of 
 deer-horn, * whistles of venado wood, and above all a 
 considerable number of fragments of pottery,* very superior 
 in execution to any hitherto noticed. Some of these frag- 
 ments are colored red, others are decorated with designs or 
 ornamentation. 
 
 Among these pieces of pottery we must mention some 
 very close imitations of animals, especially a parrot's head 
 very true to life. The works of man lay mixed together in a 
 
 FlG. 18. Arrow-points from the paraderos of Patagonia. 
 
 considerable accumulation of large pieces of charcoal, fish, and 
 mammal bones. It is evident that this mound concealed one 
 or more primitive hearths; and that these hearths, accord- 
 ing to a custom that we meet with in many different 
 races, became burial-places ; the discovery of several human 
 skeletons leaves no doubt on this point. 
 
 So far we have spoken only of the shell-heaps near the 
 sea-coast, and formed of marine shells. Similar heaps are 
 met with on the banks of streams and rivers, made of the 
 shells of such fresh-water or even of terrestrial mollusca, as 
 man might use for food. In Brazil, of which we are now 
 speaking, there are sambaquis thirty-seven and a half miles 
 
 1 Cervus rufus and C. campestris. 
 
 * Dr. Zeballos speaks of more than 3,000 fragments ; among them he men- 
 tions twenty ollas or jars sfill intact. 
 
$ PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 from the coast, and Professor Hartt has described one at 
 Taperinha", 1 near Santarem, which he considers very ancient, 
 and which is entirely made up of river-shells, mixed with 
 fragments of pottery, cinders, and the bones of different 
 animals. 
 
 On the banks of the Mississippi and its tributaries White 
 has also recognized shell-heaps, composed of fluviatile mol- 
 lusks, nearly all belonging to the family of Naiadce, and 
 chiefly to the genus Unio. Complete success has rewarded 
 his persevering researches in the states of Minnesota, Iowa, 
 Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana. 4 The heaps excavated by 
 him are much smaller than those situated on the sea- 
 coast ; the largest are not more than about one hundred 
 yards long by four to five broad, and about three to six 
 feet deep. That of Keosauqua (Iowa) rests on alluvial 
 soil, and in it have been observed fragments of stone torn 
 from the neighboring rocks, bearing traces of fire, and frag- 
 ments of pottery of rude workmanship, mixed with large 
 grains of sand and ornamented with lines traced with a 
 pointed bone or stone. In this same shell-heap White col- 
 lected flint-chips, arrow-points, and a serpentine hatchet, with 
 numerous bones of the Virginia deer. 3 They had been used 
 as food by man, for the long bones which contain marrow had 
 been split open, evidently for the sake of extracting it. In 
 other heaps at Sabula and Bellevue, Iowa, White was able to 
 make out the method employed by these men in cooking the 
 shell-fish which formed their chief nourishment. They dug 
 holes in the ground about one foot in diameter and of cor- 
 responding depth, in which they lighted fires. The charcoal, 
 ashes, and shells found in each one of these holes proves this 
 beyond a doubt. 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1873, p. 21. 
 
 a "On Artificial Shell-heaps of Fresh-water Mollusks ; Am. Association, 
 Portland (Maine), 1873. Very ancient shell-heaps are also mentioned as exist- 
 ing in Tennessee, especially at Chattanooga, and at Mussel-Shoals. Colonel 
 Whittlesey, whose name is an authority in America on all these questions, ex- 
 pressed regret a few years ago that these heaps had not been excavated. 
 
 s In Appendix C. we give White's list of the chief mammals, fish, and mol- 
 lusca which he found in the mounds he examined. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 57 
 
 Jeffries Wyman describes the river shell-heaps of Florida 
 with as much care as does White those of the North. 1 They 
 are mostly mounds exactly similar to those of the coast, only 
 entirely made up of fresh-water shells, associated with a few 
 rare bones of the Virginian deer, the oppossum, the raccoon, 
 and some remains of birds. Some of these heaps also con- 
 tain shells of Ampullaria and Paludina? hardly suitable for 
 food, and rejected with disdain by the present Indians. One 
 of the most remarkable heaps is situated at Silver-Spring, on 
 the western side of Lake George. It is the largest of those 
 visited by Wyman, in the valley of the St. John's River. It 
 covers an area of twenty acres ; its height is very variable ; 
 here it rises to no less than twenty feet, there it sinks to two 
 or three, in proportion doubtless to the number of the in- 
 habitants and the length of their stay. It is difficult to un- 
 derstand how man can have collected such quantities of these 
 mollusks, which now seem rare alike in the lake and the river. 
 We must therefore suppose that they were much more 
 numerous in past centuries, and have disappeared in the great 
 struggle for existence which has been so fiercely maintained 
 in every age and in every country. This is no exceptional 
 instance ; the oysters of gigantic size, the shells of which 
 form the vast deposits on the Damariscotta River, of Maine, 
 are now very rare, and the same fact has been observed at 
 Cape Cod and Cotuit Port. Of the shells found in the 
 Danish kitchen-midden, those of oysters were the most 
 abundant, and they are now but very poorly represented in 
 the Baltic. Another consequence of the less favorable bio- 
 logical conditions now enjoyed by the oyster is that it is 
 diminished in size, and it is the same with the mollusks 
 of Lake George and the St. John's River as with the oysters 
 
 1 " Fresh-water Shell-heaps of the St. John River" ; American Naturalist, 
 Jan., 1868. " Report, Peabody Museum," 1874. Wyman remarks that the most 
 ancient beds of the Florida kitchen-middens never contain specimens of pottery. 
 
 3 Both are univalves. The former lives in warm latitudes only ; its shell is 
 globular, the whorls ventricose, and with a wide aperture bounded by an un- 
 reflected labrum. Paludina resembles Ampullaria, but the shell is longer and 
 more slender, and generally more solid. 
 
58 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 of Maine. It would be easy to multiply instances, proving 
 the incessant struggle of nature, of which we are only now 
 beginning to discern the traces. 
 
 The fact that the men who made these heaps of rubbish, 
 which are now the sole witnesses to their existence, fed upon 
 mollusks now rejected by the Indians themselves, so far 
 from particular with regard to their food, is of a piece with 
 the coarseness of their potteries. Wyman tells us that 
 amongst the thousands of fragments he examined, none are 
 of such skilful workmanship or of such elegant ornamenta- 
 tion as those of the mounds of Mississippi, or those he him- 
 self picked .up in the sepulchres of Cedar Keys, or in the 
 shell-heaps of Fernandina and of St. John's Bluff, on the sea- 
 coast. 
 
 Every thing .goes to prove that these men were in a low 
 state of culture ; we need not therefore wonder to find that 
 they practised cannibalism. We have already noted its ex- 
 istence amongst the nomad tribes of Brazil ; l as early as 1861, 
 Jeffries Wyman noticed, in an excavation made on the 
 shores of Lake Monroe, some long human bones (femur, 
 tibia, humcrus) broken into pieces a few inches long and 
 mixed with bones of deer broken in exactly the same way. 8 
 His interest once aroused, he paid especial attention to this 
 question in his later researches, and he had soon ten very 
 characteristic examples, which left no doubt in his mind as 
 to the existence of cannibalism in Florida, at the period 
 during which man collected about his dwelling the heaps of 
 rubbish to which we have applied the name of shell-heaps. 
 
 It is evident that the human bones did not come from a 
 burying-place; no skeleton was complete ; the remains of 
 several individuals were mixed in the greatest confusion ; all 
 the bones, especially the long ones containing marrow^ were 
 broken like those found near Lake Monroe, and doubtless 
 
 1 " Omnes cum mngna voluptate vescuntur," says Osorio, of the natives of 
 Brazil, speaking of their predilection for human flesh. De Rebus Emmanuelis 
 Regis Lusitanice, Colonise Agrippinae, 1574. 
 
 3 " Human Remains in the Shell-heaps of the St. John's River (East Florida) ; 
 Cannibalism." " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. I., p. 26, 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CA VES. 59 
 
 for the same reason as those of the animals, such as the deer 
 or the alligator, which these people used as food. The in- 
 teresting excavations at Osceola Mound have since confirmed 
 Wyman's conjectures. The remains of men and animals 
 were inclosed in very hard breccia, somewhat like that of the 
 European caves which have yielded such important results. 
 From this breccia Wyman extracted two femora, belonging 
 to two different individuals ; on one of them he noticed an 
 incision made round the bone in order to break it more 
 easily. On the other femur, the incision may have existed, 
 but it is not sufficiently marked to be stated with certainty. 
 
 The learned professor also mentions a human bone found 
 at Ipswich, Massachusetts, with evident marks of workman- 
 ship upon it. 
 
 While Jeffries Wyman was proving the existence of can- 
 nibalism in the southern states, Manly Hardy announced 
 the same fact with regard to New England.' In a shell- 
 heap on the coast of Maine he discovered thirty or forty long 
 bones, the femur, tibia, humerus, radius, a sternum, a pelvis, 
 and two human skulls. Among these remains there were 
 literally no vertebrae, ribs or little bones ; none of the human 
 fragments corresponded with each other in such a manner as 
 to make it possible to put together even part of the skeleton. 
 The long bones were broken, and the excavations yielded 
 bones of the beaver and the moose mixed with the human 
 bones broken in the same way. There were also bird and 
 fish-bones, numerous sea-shells, some fragments of pottery, 
 a stone arrow and a bone needle. In many places heaps of 
 cinders marked the hearth of the cannibal, where he had pre- 
 pared his horrible meals. 
 
 Such facts, sad as they are for humanity, cannot surprise 
 us. In historic times we find man feeding on human flesh, 
 even in the midst of abundance, and that when most animals 
 show a singular repugnance to eating the flesh of one of their 
 own species. Herodotus a tells us of the cannibalism of 
 
 1 " Report, Peabocly Museum," 1877, vol. II., p. 197. 
 
 Book IV., chap. XVIII., XXVI.. etc. These people probably inhabited 
 Central Russia. 
 
60 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 several of the people in the neighboring countries of Scythia, 
 amongst the Androphagi and the Issedonians, for instance. 
 Aristotle relates it of several peoples on the borders of the 
 Euxine. 1 Diodorus Siculus mentions it amongst the Gala- 
 tians," and Strabo, in his turn, speaking of the inhabitants of 
 Ireland, says : " They are more savage than the Britons, 
 feeding on human flesh, * * * and deeming it commenda- 
 ble to devour their deceased parents." 3 In the ancient tombs 
 of Asiatic Georgia, dating from the eighth to the second 
 century, B. C, boiled or charred human bones are found, the 
 remains, doubtless, of victims devoured by those who as- 
 sisted in the feasts which formed an essential part of the 
 funeral rites. 4 
 
 St. Jerome, in the fourth century A. D., asserts that in 
 Gaul he saw some Attacotes, descended from a savage 
 Scotch tribe, who lived upon human flesh, notwithstanding 
 they possessed great herds of swine, oxen, and sheep, to 
 which their immense forests supplied excellent pasturage. 6 
 How can we be surprised to find this degrading practice 
 amongst savage tribes, when in the golden age of Rome the 
 courtiers of the Emperor Commodus, according to Galen, ate 
 human flesh in a refinement of gluttony," and though the 
 Scandinavian kitchen-middens show no trace of cannibalism, 
 Adam of Brenen, who lived in the eleventh century and 
 
 1 " Treatise on Government," book VIII. 
 
 8 " Biblical History," book V., chap. XXXII. 
 
 3 Strabo, " Geography," book IV., ch. V., pp. 298-9. (Hamilton's transla- 
 tion, 1854.) 
 
 4 Congress Arch, de Kazan, 1877. 
 
 '"Quid loquar de ceteris nationibus, quum ipse adolescentulus in Gallia 
 viderim Attacotos, gentem Britannicam, humanis vesci carnibus et quum per 
 sylvas porcorum greges et armentorum pecudumque reperiunt, puerorum nates 
 et feminarum papillas, solere abscindere, et has solas ciborum delicias arbi- 
 trari." Hier., Opera, vol. II., p. 335, coll. Migne, vol. XXII. Richard of 
 Cirencester says that the Attacotes lived on the banks of the Clyde beyond the 
 great wall of Hadrian. 
 
 'Commodus lived from 161 to 192 A.D. We take this fact from Bachelet's 
 " Dictionnaire des Sciences morales et politque." We might add these lines of 
 Juvenal: " ... Sed qui mordere cadaver sustinuit, nil unquam hac came 
 libentius edit." (Sat. XV., v., 87.) 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 6 1 
 
 preached Christianity at the Court of King Sven Ulfsen 
 represents the Danes of his time as wearing the skins of 
 beasts, hunting the aurochs' and the elk, imitating the cries 
 of animals, and devouring their fellow-creatures. 9 
 
 Examples also abound in America, and the death of the 
 man to be eaten was very often accompanied by horrible 
 tortures, unknown among the natives of the other conti- 
 nent. The accounts of travels published by Bry contain 
 many details of the ways in which the savages of Guiana 
 were accustomed to prepare, cook, and eat the bodies of 
 their victims. 3 In their first feeble effort to reach Peru by 
 way of the Isthmus of Panama, in 1524, Pizarro and his 
 companions one day entered an Indian village from which 
 the terrified inhabitants fled precipitately at their approach, 
 leaving the human flesh they were cooking before the fire. 4 
 The Mexicans indulged in these hideous repasts on all their 
 feast days. The captive was given up to the warrior who 
 had made him prisoner, and the friends of the conqueror 
 were invited to a joyful feast. It was not, says Prescott, 5 
 the meal of starving wretches, but a refined banquet, pre- 
 pared with all the art the Mexicans could bring to bear 
 upon it. The allies of the Spaniards, after the siege of 
 Mexico, ate the flesh of their enemies, and the besieged 
 sacrificed in the honor of the god of war numerous victims, 
 amongst whom Cortes often recognized one of his soldiers, 
 from the whiteness of the skin. After the sacrifice the 
 bodies were cut up, and the flesh distributed to the people. 
 
 The Caribs, like the Fijians, were careful to fatten the 
 
 1 The Bos Urus or Bison of Poland. 
 
 " Schweden's Urgeschichte, p. 341. 
 
 * " Collectiones peregrinationum in Indiam Occidentalem," XXV., partes 
 comprehensse a Th. de Bry et a M. Merian publicatae, Francofurti ad Moenum, 
 1590, 1634. "Bresil voy. de J. Stadius Hesous," (Part III., pp. 71, 81, 89, 125 
 and 127). " Voyage de Joannes Lerus de Burgundus," part 3, p. 213. See 
 also the numerous facts collected by Wyman, " Report, Peabody Museum," 
 1864. 
 
 4 Prescott : " History of the Conquest of Peru," p. 96, 1854. 
 
 8 Prescott : " Hist, of the Conquest of Mexico," Philadelphia, 1874, vol. I., 
 P- 3i. 
 
62 PRE-H1STOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 unfortunate victims they meant to eat. 1 Cannibalism existed 
 amongst the Algonquins, Iroquois, the Maumis, the Kicka- 
 poos, and many other tribes, and the Jesuits, who were 
 often witnesses of the feasts in which human flesh was the 
 only food supplied, have handed down to us an account of 
 them. 2 One shudders with horror at the tortures invented 
 by the ingenuity of man. Among some Indian tribes these 
 tortures began several days before the final sacrifice. 
 Lighted firebrands were applied to every part of the body; 
 the nails of the fingers and toes were wrenched off; the 
 flesh was torn, and burning splinters plunged into the gaping 
 wounds; the victim was scalped and burning coals applied 
 to the spot. Women 3 and children were not the least eager 
 amongst the torturers, and when the sufferer at last expired, 
 his breast was opened, and if he had died bravely the heart 
 was taken out, cut in pieces, and distributed to the young 
 warriors of the tribe. They also drank the still smoking 
 blood, hoping to inoculate themselves with the courage of 
 which they had just had proof. The trunk, limbs, and head 
 were roasted or boiled ; all gorged themselves with the 
 horrible food, and the day ended with dances and song 
 which gayly finished off the feast. 4 
 
 In our own day, even, sailors and travellers have told of 
 similar scenes. The Apaches, to a very recent date, 
 were accustomed to treat their prisoners with a ferocity 
 equal to that of their ancestors. The inhabitants of Terra 
 del Fuego have at least as an excuse the wretched existence 
 they lead, in a country almost destitute of all the neces- 
 
 1 Peter Martyr d' Anghiera : " De Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo, Decades, 
 I., Book I. 
 
 9 P. Hennepin : " Description de la Louisiana," Paris, 1868, pp. 65, 68, 
 and 69. 
 
 ' "On this occasion it is always observed that the women are more cruel 
 than the men." Schoolcraft : "Ethnological Researches Respecting the Red 
 Men of America," vol. III., p. 189. 
 
 4 La Pothierie : " Hi.->toire de I'Amerique," Paris, 1723, p. 23. Father 
 Jean de Brebeuf: " Voyage dans la nouvelle France occidental." He himself 
 perished under such tortures as those he had described. Earth, de Vimont's 
 " Relation," Paris, 1642, p. 46. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CA VES. 63 
 
 saries of life. The expeditions of these miserable savages, 
 of which Captain Fitzroy's description * is most melancholy 
 reading, were always made for the sake of getting prisoners ; 
 when they failed, and hunger became pressing, the old 
 women of the tribe were seized, roasted at a roaring fire, 
 and pieces of the flesh distributed to the warriors. Of late 
 years, however, a better state of things has prevailed in those 
 desolate regions, brought about by the visits of various ex- 
 peditions, and the presence among them of devoted mission- 
 aries. But if the famine which bears so hardly on the 
 Fuegians nearly every year may be referred to as an excuse 
 for their cannibalism, we nevertheless find this practice has 
 prevailed in regions of plenty, amongst the most luxuriant 
 vegetation of the tropics. Humboldt saw similar scenes on 
 the banks of the Orinoco ; at Tahiti even, where the gentle 
 and affectionate manners of the inhabitants have been fre- 
 quently noted by travellers, the sacrifice of prisoners was 
 followed by cannibal feasts ; the honor of eating the eyes of 
 the victims being reserved to the king. The first name of 
 Queen Pomare (A imata, I eat the eye) is a last souvenir of 
 the royal privilege. 1 
 
 To conclude these melancholy accounts, which we might 
 easily extend indefinitely, Dr. Crevaux, in a recent explora- 
 tion of the Amazon and its chief tributaries, came upon sev- 
 eral cannibal tribes. Amongst the Ouitotos, who live on 
 the banks of the Yapure, he saw some flutes made of human 
 bones, and he tells us that one day, having surprised an old 
 woman in the act of preparing her dinner, he saw the grin- 
 ning head of an Indian boiling in her kettle. 
 
 These facts form a striking contrast to our brilliant civiliza- 
 tion, and to the progress of which we are so justly proud. 
 They show in what degradation man may exist ; what prac- 
 tices may be justified by custom and superstition ; and what 
 efforts must still be made to raise to a state of civilization 
 so many miserable races. It is to be borne in mind, how- 
 
 " Voyage of the Adventure and the Beagle," vol. II., p. 183 and 189. 
 '"Congr. Preh. de Paris," 1867, p. 161. 
 
64 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 ever, that the practice of cannibalism in many cases was not 
 a mere devotion to a diet of human flesh, but a rite or ob- 
 servance of a superstitious or religious character, not so far 
 removed from the anthropomorphism which in the Middle 
 Ages claimed for the chief Christian rite the " real presence 
 of body and blood " of the victim sacrificed for the welfare 
 of the race. 
 
 In regard to the age of the shell-heaps the day has not yet 
 come for expressing a definite opinion. It is certain many 
 of them are of great antiquity, and that additions continued 
 to be made to some of them up to a very recent time. 
 
 Historians are generally silent about these heaps, which did 
 not attract much attention until archaeology began to take 
 its place among the sciences. When the Indians were ques- 
 tioned about them they generally answered that they are 
 very old, and are the work of people unknown to them or to 
 their fathers. 1 As an exception to this rule, however, the 
 Californians attribute a large shell-heap formed of mussel- 
 shells and the bones of animals, on Point St. George, near 
 San Francisco, to the Hohgates, the name they give to seven 
 mythical strangers who arrived in the country from the sea, 
 and who were the first to build and live in houses. 8 The 
 Hohgates killed deer, sea-lions, and seals ; they collected the 
 mussels which were very abundant on the neighboring rocks, 
 and the refuse of their meals became piled up about their 
 homes. One day when fishing, they saw a gigantic seal ; they 
 managed to drive a harpoon into it, but the wounded animal 
 fled seaward, dragging the boat rapidly with it toward the 
 fathomless abysses of the Charekwin. At the moment when 
 the Hohgates were about to be engulfed in the depths, where 
 those go who are to endure eternal cold, the rope broke, the 
 seal disappeared, and the boat was flung up into the air. 
 
 1 It is the uniform testimony of those who have within recent years been in 
 communication with the Seminoles, that no tradition of the origin of these heaps 
 has comedown to them. They attribute them to their predecessors in the occu- 
 pation of the peninsula of Florida. See Wyman, " Report, Peabody Museum," 
 1868, p. 16. 
 
 'Bancroft, vol. III., p. 177. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES, 65 
 
 Since then the Hohgates, changed into brilliant stars, return 
 no more to earth, where the shell-heaps remain as witness of 
 their former residence. 
 
 Though tradition is silent as to the kitchen-middens, a few 
 facts exist which may help us if not to fix a definite age for 
 them, at least to determine something of their limits. The 
 shell-heaps existed long before the arrival of the Spaniards, 
 and the mammals whose remains are found in them were of 
 the same kind as those seen by the conquerors. No bones 
 of large extinct animals have been found in the shell-heaps, 
 either on the sea-coast or on the banks of rivers. So far no 
 discovery has been made in those of North America of any 
 iron, copper, or bronze implements, or of any gold or silver 
 objects. It therefore seems natural to place their formation 
 between the time of the disappearance of the latest tertiary 
 fauna-and the first introduction of metals by Europeans. 
 
 It is evident that they are the accumulations of many 
 generations. The fresh-water shell-heaps, judging from those 
 hitherto examined, appear to be more ancient than those 
 formed near the sea, but were in localities less liable to 
 denudation and change. The shell-heaps of California are 
 quite recent, those of Florida perhaps less so ; and even in 
 neighboring districts the pieces of pottery, weapons, and im- 
 plements found in different shell-heaps sometimes pre- 
 sent notable differences, suggesting that they were not con- 
 temporaneous. Did the men who slowly piled up these 
 shell-heaps belong to one race, or to races that successively 
 occupied the same site ? Without being able to say any 
 thing positive on this point, it is an invariable law of history, 
 that conquerors should occupy the dwellings of the con- 
 quered, until they were in their turn driven out by yet more 
 powerful or braver invaders. The shell-heaps all over America 
 greatly resemble each other ; but there is nothing in this re- 
 semblance to surprise us; it is natural to the savage to throw 
 out at the door of his hut and about its immediate vicinity, 
 useless objects, rubbish of all kinds, without caring about 
 the proximity of dirt. This is a common thing all the world 
 
66 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 over. Travellers who visit the Eskimo of to-day, the last 
 representatives of one of the most ancient American races, 1 
 tells us that about their tents the ground is strewn with all 
 sorts of rubbish, emitting a most noisome odor. There we 
 have a sufficiently exact picture of the manners and customs 
 of most of the savages who inhabited America in pre-historic 
 times. 
 
 Amongst these heaps, some, those of Santa Rosa for in- 
 stance, bear evidence that those who formed them devoted 
 themselves to the chase, wearing the skins of the animals 
 they killed ; numerous bone needles giving proof of their in- 
 dustry. Amongst the neighboring .middens of Bear Point, 
 only sea-shells are found ; no sign of the bones of animals, 
 no bone implements. Must we then conclude that the 
 people who made them were different, or that their clothes 
 were made of grass or of fibres from the bark of trees ? as 
 were those of the natives of Florida, according to the Spanish 
 conquerors, who were the first to penetrate into the country. 
 
 This is not at all necessary. These natives were migratory 
 with the seasons, and, judging by the practice of the Eskimo, 
 probably limited their pursuits in accordance with their super- 
 stitions ; at one season they resided at a certain spot, hunted 
 the seal, but perhaps like the Eskimo did no sewing while 
 the hunt was going on. At another season, as in winter, re- 
 tiring to some sheltered cove they might have subsisted 
 chiefly on mollusks, and occupied their time in making cloth- 
 ing, carving wooden or bone utensils, etc. Then the con- 
 tents of the two resulting middens would be quite different, 
 though made by the same people at the same period of their 
 history. 
 
 Differences are often noticeable in the pottery. The vases 
 
 1 It is interesting to note the resemblance in primitive times between the 
 Eskimo and the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands. The weapons, tools, and 
 implements yielded in excavations are identical. The difference in the fauna 
 and the climate gradually modified the customs of the two branches of one 
 people, as separation did their language. W. H. Dall, " Remains of Later Pre- 
 historic Man from the Caves of the Catherina Archipelago, Alaska Territory." 
 "Smith. Cont.," No. 318, 4, 1878. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 67 
 
 in one case are elegant in form and ornamentation; the 
 handles represent the figures of animals and of men, they re- 
 semble in many respects those found in the mounds of the 
 interior. In other cases, on the contrary, the pottery is badly 
 baked and of coarse construction. In certain regions, suit- 
 able stone is rare, and pointed bones seem to have served 
 for defensive weapons and all domestic requirements. As a 
 general rule, excavations in the Atlantic shell-heaps have not 
 produced either a single pipe or a fragment that could have 
 belonged to one, so that the fashion of smoking, of which we 
 shall notice so many traces, probably came in later. On the 
 other hand we find ornaments almost everywhere, and often 
 pieces of red chalk or haematite, doubtless to be used in 
 coloring wood or skins. The taste for finery is innate 
 in man even when most miserable and degraded, and 
 his taste sometimes astonishes us with the strange form 
 it assumes. In the vast regions where the accumulations 
 we are describing have been found, the differences must 
 necessarily be very considerable. No general conclusions 
 or final theories are possible ; for if one point seems proved, 
 many others are uncertain or even contradictory. 
 
 One method has frequently been adopted in forming an 
 approximate idea of the date of the formation of certain 
 shell-heaps. There are some which are covered with gigantic 
 trees. That of Silver-Spring is crowded with venerable oaks ; 
 one of the largest of them measures no less than twenty-six 
 to twenty-seven feet in circumference, so that, according to 
 Jeffries Wyman, 1 it cannot be less than six hundred years old. 
 Judging from their concentric rings, he estimates the age of 
 the trees on the shell-heaps of Blue-Spring and Old Town at 
 four hundred years. If these calculations could be con- 
 sidered to be exact, they would enable us to ascertain satis- 
 factorily the time when the shell-heap was abandoned, and 
 the forest tree replaced the dwelling of man ; but even then 
 our ignorance would remain complete as to the initial date 
 when the accumulation of shell and rubbish began, and it is 
 this which it is above all important to know. 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1872, vol. I., p. 25. 
 
68 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA, 
 
 Moreover, recent observations of botanists show that, es- 
 pecially in warm regions, the concentric rings of growth in 
 trees by no means accord with successive years ; more than 
 fifty rings having been observed in a tree only fourteen years 
 old on one occasion. They are entirely untrustworthy as a 
 measure of chronology. 
 
 The deposits of guano in Peru have yielded fish (fig. 19), 
 little figures, clumsy gold and silver images, and numerous 
 fragments of pottery The Peabody Museum at Cambridge, 
 Mass., owns twenty gold ornaments from the Chincha Islands. 1 
 These consist of very thin metal plates arranged in parallelo- 
 grams from seven to eight inches long by three to four wide, 
 covered with dotted lines and pierced with a hole, by means 
 of which they can be hung round the neck or fastened to the 
 clothes. Man then inhabited these islands when the beds 
 which have played such an important part in our modern 
 
 FIG. 19. Silver fish from the Chincha Islands. 
 
 agriculture were accumulating, and doubtless fed upon the 
 numerous sea-birds peopling them. In some parts the beds 
 are covered with marine deposits, sometimes attaining a 
 depth of six feet. A geological survey of the district indi- 
 cates that since they were visited by man, these islands have 
 been submerged beneath the waves and have emerged from 
 them again ; but the causes of these phenomena are yet un- 
 known. According to all appearance these deposits belong 
 to the same periods as the shell-heaps above described ; the 
 occurrence of precious metals, such as gold and silver might, 
 indeed indicate a more recent epoch, but we know that they 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1874, P- 20. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CA VES. 69 
 
 were used at an earlier date in Peru than in North or Central 
 America. 
 
 In quaternary times the Europeans inhabited natural caves 
 or caves artificially enlarged, according to their requirements. 
 These caves, especially those of the south of France and of 
 Belgium, have yielded the most certain and most inter- 
 esting proofs of the existence of pre-historic man, and of 
 his habits and his daily life. In America, grottos seem to 
 have been chiefly used as burial-places, during a period of 
 time the limits of which it is impossible to fix. The earliest 
 explorers * tell of caves in Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, 
 in which human bones were found. Others in California were, 
 we are told, covered with admirably preserved drawings repre- 
 senting men or strange animals ; they contained many 
 mummies. Clavigero, who gives these details, adds that 
 these men differed as much in their features as in the gar- 
 ments with which they were covered, from the races met 
 with by the Spaniards. From a cave in the Rio Norzas val- 
 ley, in the province of Durango, Mexico, a considerable 
 number of mummies have been taken, of an appearance very 
 distinct from the present inhabitants of the country. The 
 objects deposited near the mummies were hatchets, stone 
 arrow-points, and vases, the decoration of which has been 
 fancied to resemble that of some Egyptian pottery. 9 The 
 Spaniards could not contain their astonishment at the sight 
 of the marvellous feather garments with which the bodies of 
 the Incas of Peru were covered, in the caves which are de- 
 scribed as forming their last resting-places. But nearly all 
 these caves, if they ever really existed, have been lost sight 
 of ; or all they contained has disappeared, and we can not 
 doubt the exaggeration which appears in most of the details 
 given by the conquerors. The very few caves still known 
 are extremely difficult to explore. Some, especially those 
 met with in Mexico, in Chihuahua, or California, were sepul- 
 chres, and retained no traces of previous habitation ; others 
 
 1 Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," ch. VI. 
 * Proc. Anthropological Soc. of Washington, 1879, p. 80. 
 
?O PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 had been occupied by Indians, as dwellings or places of 
 refuge, 1 and all the objects that explorers have been able to 
 collect are of recent origin. 
 
 Amongst the caves which may be of some interest, we 
 will name those in the calcareous cliffs overlooking the Gas- 
 conade River. One of the most remarkable is in Pulaski 
 county, Missouri. It was originally formed in geologi- 
 cal times, and afterward artificially enlarged by man ; its 
 entrance is rather difficult of access, being perpendicular to 
 the river. Conant had a trench made 175 feet long without 
 reaching the limits of the successive deposits. We give a 
 list of the beds as they occur, with their depth : 
 
 A. Alluvium mixed with cinders and fragments . 18 ins. 
 
 B. Cinders . . . . . . . . 2 " 
 
 C. Clay 2\ " 
 
 D. Cinders > \ " 
 
 E. Alluvium . , . . . . . . 3 " 
 
 F. Clay and cinders mixed ..... 3 
 
 G. Cinders J " 
 
 H. Alluvium . . 3$ " 
 
 J. Cinders mixed with charcoal .... 4 " 
 
 K. Alluvium . . . . . . . . 7 " 
 
 L. Cinders . . ..... . . 3 " 
 
 M. Alluvium mixed with fragments of charcoal . 20 " 
 
 Total ..... . . 67 ins. 
 
 The strata must have been frequently disturbed. They 
 consist of earth and cinders mixed with fragments of pot- 
 tery and charcoal, stone implements, broken human bones, 
 and a great number of bone or shell tools of various forms, 
 rather roughly made (fig. 20). The original soil consisted 
 of a reddish clay, where were picked up numerous shells of 
 Unios completely decomposed. Similar shells occur in posi- 
 tively prodigious quantities in the various strata. At a 
 depth of about two feet the explorers came to a skeleton 
 
 1 Schoolcraft : " Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. IV., p. 217. " The 
 Navajos," says Gallatin, " inhabited caves in which they kept their crops." 
 " Nouv. Ann. des Voyages," vol. CXXXI., 1857. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. /I 
 
 lying on its back, then to a second doubled up, a little 
 further to that of a very old woman. All were in such an 
 advanced state of decay that only a few fragments could be 
 preserved, and those were of no use for comparison. Round 
 about the skeletons were strewn great quantities of the 
 bones of deer, bears, mud-turtles, and wild turkeys. The 
 skulls of all the animals were broken ; the brains were evi- 
 dently considered a dainty. This was undoubtedly a cave 
 long inhabited by man ; burial in it was an accidental feat- 
 ure, unless these bodies may have been intentionally interred 
 near their own hearth. We lean to the latter opinion, for 
 this was a custom dear to the heart of many savage 
 people. 
 
 Shelter cave, near Elyria, Lorain county, Ohio, must also 
 have served as a shelter to early inhabitants of the country. 
 
 FIG. 20. Bone implements from the Gasconade River. 
 
 At a depth of four feet the difficulties became so great that 
 the excavations could not be proceeded with. At this point 
 the soil formed a compact breccia, in which were imbedded 
 the bones of the bear, wolf, elk, rabbit, and squirrel, among 
 which could be made out three human skeletons, probably 
 those of men who had been crushed, in the shelter they had 
 chosen, by the fall of part of the roof. The skulls, which 
 were in a good state of preservation, were exhibited in Cin- 
 cinnati, in 185 i, at the meeting of the American Associa- 
 tion for the Advancement of Science. They were unfortu- 
 nately destroyed a few years afterward, together with the 
 museum of the Homoeopathic College in which they had 
 been placed, and we have no information enabling us to de- 
 scribe them. One of the most distinguished archaeologists of 
 the United States Colonel Whittlesey attributes a great 
 
72 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 antiquity 1 to these remains, but his estimate is too hy- 
 pothetical to be worth discussing. 
 
 Ash Cave in Benton county, Ohio, is one of these rock- 
 shelters, so common in the south of France, and is remark- 
 able for a considerable deposit of cinders covering an area of 
 one hundred feet long by an average breadth of eighty feet. 
 A trench two and one half feet deep revealed a considerable 
 mass of debris of all kinds, bones of animals such as were 
 suitable for the food of man, little sticks which may have 
 been used as shafts for arrows, fragments of pottery, nuts, 
 and grass fibres. A skeleton was seated near the wall, and 
 the pieces of bark with which he had been covered, doubtless 
 to keep the cinders from touching him, could still be made 
 out. The greatest precaution had also evidently been 
 taken with regard to a packet of little seeds 9 placed near 
 him, which had been carefully covered with a layer of grass 
 and ferns, and then with some coarse tissue. We are igno- 
 rant alike of their purpose and of the rite with which they 
 were connected. We can only add that Professor Andrews, 3 
 from whom we have gleaned these details, considers the 
 skeleton to date from a very remote period. 
 
 In June, 1878, a habitation was examined situated in Sum- 
 mit county, Ohio ; it was formed by two rocks, each from 
 fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, with a third rock forming 
 a kind of roof. This dwelling, open though it was on the 
 north and south, had served as a home for long generations, 
 for after removing a thin layer of vegetable mould, the 
 archaeologists who conducted the excavation met with beds 
 of cinders four or five feet in thickness. Numerous boul- 
 ders, that the troglodytes had not even had the energy to 
 remove from their wretched residence, were imbedded 
 amongst these cinders, together with more than five hun- 
 
 1 " Judging from the appearances of the bones and the depth of the accumu- 
 lation over them, two thousand years may have elapsed since these human skele- 
 tons were laid on the floor of the cave." " Evidences of the Antiquity of Man 
 in the U. S." 
 
 * Chenopodium album. 
 
 '"Report, Peabody Museum," 1877, vol. II., p. 48. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AXD CAVES. 73 
 
 dred fragments of pottery, bones, shells, and stone weapons 
 or tools. The pottery retained the marks of the bark fibres 
 of the netting in which it had been supported before 
 baking. The deeper the excavations went the coarser and 
 clumsier was the pottery. Not one of the stone objects 
 showed the slightest trace of polishing, and most of them 
 seem to have served as knives. The bones were those of 
 the bear, wolf, porcupine, buffalo, stag, squirrel, fox, beaver, 
 and there were some which had belonged to a heron and a 
 wild turkey. The bones containing marrow had been broken, 
 some were roughly pointed, all indicating that the culture of 
 the cave men had been of the most primitive description. 1 
 
 In Pennsylvania, eighty-two miles from Philadelphia, 2 on 
 the face of a cliff rising parallel to the Susquehanna River, 
 a natural cave was found, some seven feet high, in a very- 
 hard quartzite, showing no trace of erosion either by the 
 work of man or the action of water. The original soil con- 
 sisted of yellow clay, and on this clay rested a bed of black 
 mould, some thirty inches thick. 8 The whole deposit was 
 rich in human remains, and there were collected here more 
 than four hundred arrow-points made of petrosilex, jasper, 
 basalt, argillite, with rare examples in quartzite, which ma- 
 terials were easily accessible from the neighboring rocks. 
 These arrows presented a great variety of forms, and were in 
 every stage of manufacture. With them were found five 
 perforated objects commonly called tomahawks, but too thin 
 to have been used as a weapon or tool ; some knives or frag- 
 ments of knives, only the concave sides of which were 
 polished, the convex side showing a groove and marks of 
 having been struck sharply ; some broken turtle bones, some 
 
 'Read, "Exploration of a Rock shelter, in Boston, Summit county, Ohio." 
 American Antiquarian, March, 1880. 
 
 * Haldeman : "A Rock Retreat in Pennsylvania," Congres des American- 
 isles. Luxembourg, 1877, vol. II., p. 319. 
 
 * " This mould," says Haldeman, "is of vegetable origin." Dr. Andrews 
 (American Naturalist, February, 1876) says that it must have taken centuries 
 to form ten inches of vegetable mould, but we have already pointed out how 
 hypothetical such calculations always are. 
 
74 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Unto shells from the river, three hundred fragments of pot- 
 tery, the tube of an earthenware pipe resembling those we 
 shall describe in connection with the mound-builders, and 
 lastly a pestle and some pieces of red or black ferruginous 
 minerals, which these cave men had used to get the colors 
 they required, traces of these colors still remaining on the 
 pestle. The excavations yielded no bones that could be 
 attributed to man. Those who used' this shelter were not, 
 therefore, cannibals, and they disposed of their dead away 
 from their dwelling. 
 
 Some human bones have been picked up in a cave near 
 Louisville, Kentucky. This cave, which is very large, has a 
 remarkable declivity at the further end ; it has been very im- 
 perfectly excavated, the numerous rattlesnakes having driven 
 off the explorers. It has been ascertained however, that, as 
 in the cave of Elyria, the bones were imbedded in a breccia 
 formed by the lime-impregnated water which oozed from 
 the roof. After a great deal of trouble the explorers suc- 
 ceeded in taking out six skulls almost intact, and with them 
 a hatchet, a mortar, and a stone arrow-point. Colonel 
 Whittlesey attributes to these skulls an antiquity no less re- 
 mote than to those of Elyria. 
 
 The German traveller, Miiller, tells of the existence, in the 
 province of Oajaca, of some caves which had been used as 
 human residences from a very ancient epoch ; we must con- 
 tent ourselves with mentioning them, together with the dis- 
 coveries made at High Rock Spring near Saratoga, New 
 York, although since 1839 some archaeologists have claimed 
 for these, as first traces of the aboriginal American, a great 
 antiquity. 1 We hasten to pass to better information pub- 
 lished in an excellent report addressed in 1875 to the 
 trustees of the Peabody Museum by Putnam." 
 
 The learned professor noticed near Gregson's Springs, 
 Kentucky, a rock-shelter resembling those we have men- 
 tioned. The rock had been hollowed out artificially and the 
 
 1 Dr. Maguire : Proc. Boston Soc. of Natural History, vol. II., May, 1839. 
 1 Report, Vol. I., p. 48, etc. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 75 
 
 soil was strewn with the bones of animals, worked stone 
 articles, and fragments of pottery and charcoal. This was 
 but a beginning, and Putnam's persevering researches ought 
 to lead to more important discoveries. 1 
 
 The cave known as Salt Cave may be compared to the 
 celebrated Mammoth Cave. It consists like the latter 
 of a great number of passages, which can be followed for 
 miles. In one of the smaller or larger rooms to which these 
 passages lead certain traces of the residence of man were 
 recognized. These are the cinders of several hearths, or 
 piles of stones built up with a cavity in the centre where, ac- 
 cording to a plausible supposition, fagots of chips, or of 
 reeds were placed to give light to the cave. In several 
 places such fagots have been found tied together with fibres 
 of bark. 
 
 In one little dwelling-place, at about three miles from the 
 entrance to the cave, f Putnam made out the footprints of a 
 man shod with sandals, and a little further on he found the 
 sandals themselves, made with great skill of interwoven 
 reeds. The garments of the cave men were woven of 
 the bark of young trees ; some black stripes traced on a 
 piece of cloth so prepared, and fragments of fringe also 
 found in the cave, bore witness to their taste for dress ; an- 
 other piece of stuff curiously mended gave proof of their in- 
 dustry. Remains were also picked up of gourds, often 
 of considerable size, and two finely worked arrow-points. 
 The ground was covered with human excrement, the 
 analyses of which suggest that the inhabitants of the cave 
 were vegetarians, but excavations have only yielded a few 
 fresh-water mussel-shells almost entirely decomposed. The 
 discovery of sandals, woven stuffs, the absence of the bones 
 
 'We will. merely recall several caves, such as those called Saunders' Cave, the 
 Haunted Cave, and one situated in Hart County. Although frequent excava- 
 tions and disturbances make all surmises problematical, the probability is 
 that these caves were never used for human habitation, but were only used as 
 graves. 
 
 'We follow Putnam's account : the distance he gives appears very great, 
 unless we suppose the existence of another entrance not yet known. 
 
76 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 of animals, and the long habitation of the cave suggest 
 a sedentary population devoted to agriculture, and no 
 longer depending exclusively for food upon hunting and 
 fishing. 
 
 Putnam adds an important remark. A mummy was found 
 in 1813 in Short's Cave, ' and deposited in the Museum of 
 Worcester, Massachusetts ; a careful comparison between the 
 clothes it wore and the fragments found at Salt Cave allow us 
 to class them as identical in character. Here then we have 
 a people that buried their dead with care, and whose habitat 
 extended over a large area. Putnam adds that certain 
 details of the burial point to the great antiquity of the 
 mummy found in Short's Cave ; adding that these cave-men 
 presented every appearance of a culture very much above 
 that of the savages to whom the shell-heaps bear witness, and 
 they probably date from a less remote antiquity. 
 
 When caves were not at hand, when these primeval Am- 
 ericans saw before them nothing but vast bare plains, shel- 
 terless prairies, impenetrable forest, haunted by wild animals, 
 these first Americans, like the men met with by the Spaniards, 
 and like those who still wander in the deserts of Arizona or 
 of New Mexico, probably inhabited wigwams, put together 
 in a few hours (fig. 21) and destroyed no less rapidly, when 
 the nomad habits of their owners or the pursuit of game led 
 them to a distance. Colonel McKee, who was one of the 
 first to reach California when the country was first occupied 
 by the United States government, tells us that at the ap- 
 proach of summer the tribes of the Northwest burnt their 
 skins or reed huts in which they had spent the winter, so as 
 to destroy the vermin with which they swarmed. Most of 
 the men of these tribes went about nearly naked ; the women 
 and the girls of marriageable age wore only a little petticoat 
 reaching from the waist to the knees, the bosom remaining 
 uncovered at every age. 
 
 The arrangement of the hut doubtless varied, as it does 
 
 1 Short's Cave is eight miles from Mammoth Cave, which is often wrongly 
 cited as the scene of the discovery of this mummy. 
 
77 
 
/8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 now, among the different races and tribes. The Comanches 
 set upright the poles which were to keep the tent in position ; 
 the Lipans and Navajos ' tied them in a conical form ; the 
 Apaches arranged them in an elliptical oval.* Each tribe had 
 its own special form of wigwam, transmitted from its ances- 
 tors, and, perpetuated by custom, they remained permanently 
 characteristic. Even now, when an abandoned camp is met 
 with, the tribe it belonged to can often be easily ascertained 
 by an examination of the huts. The poles were sometimes 
 covered with branches or with skins, sometimes with grass or 
 flat stones. The huts were from twelve to eighteen feet in 
 diameter, by four to eight feet high. Sometimes the ground 
 was hollowed out, so as to give the family a little more room. 
 A triangular opening closed with a strip of cloth or of skin, 
 completed the dwelling. Other tribes contented themselves 
 with digging a hole in the earth and covering it with branches. 
 Some of the Indians of New Mexico were still more savage. 
 Naked and horribly dirty, they wandered during the great 
 heat of the summer near the water-courses, taking temporary 
 shelter now in a ravine, now in a cave, a precarious refuge, 
 and for which they had to dispute possession with wild 
 beasts. In winter they built up a circular wall, about two 
 feet high, with stones and branches of trees. This wretched 
 dwelling could never be closed, a roof of any kind being con- 
 trary to their superstitious notions, and there huddled to- 
 gether they tried to protect themselves from the extremes 
 of cold. 3 The dwellings of the people inhabiting the central 
 districts of Mexico consisted of a few poles, bound together 
 with creepers of vigorous growth native to the tropics, and 
 covered in with palm leaves. In the colder mountain regions 
 
 'James Simpson : " Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe to 
 the Navajo Country," Philadelphia, 1852. 
 
 a Bartlett : " Personal Narrative of Exploration and Incidents in Texas, New 
 Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua," New York, 1854. 
 
 8 Venegas : " Noticiade la California y desu Conquista," Madrid, 1757 : " Le 
 abitazione le piu comuni sono ccrte chiuse circolari di sassi schiolti ed amucchi- 
 ati, le quali hanno cinque piedi didiametro e meno di due d'altezza." Clav- 
 igero, " St. del la California," vol. I., p. 119, Venezia, 1789. 
 
KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 79 
 
 the walls were formed of the trunks, firmly bound together 
 with cane, and covered inside and out with a thick coating 
 of clay. 
 
 Such were some of the tribes met with by the conquerors, 
 and such doubtless had they been for many generations be- 
 fore the arrival of the Spaniards. Side by side with them 
 lived others more interesting to the historian and the philoso- 
 pher, and of these it is now time to speak. The mystery in 
 which they are shrouded adds to the fascination exerted by 
 a mere view of the ruins bearing witness to their presence 
 in the past. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MOUND BUILDERS. 
 
 The existence of artificial mounds in the valleys of the 
 Mississippi, the Ohio, and the Missouri, with those formed 
 by their tributaries, escaped the notice of the first pioneers 
 in America, who were altogether absorbed with the search 
 for valuable booty. Garcilasso de Vega 1 and the anonymous 
 chronicler of the unfortunate expedition of Hernandez de 
 Soto a make, it is true, some allusion to them ; but it was 
 not until many years later, when a regular trade was estab- 
 lished with the Indians 3 living beyond the Alleghany Moun- 
 tains, that any exact information was obtained with regard 
 to these rude but imposing monuments sole witness of a 
 life and customs which remain almost unknown. 
 
 Carver in 1776 and Harte in 1791, were the first to take 
 any special notice of these mounds ; Breckenridge, who wrote 
 of them in 1814,* tells us that they astonished him as much 
 as did the monuments of Egypt ; and later Messrs. Squierand 
 Davis checked earlier accounts by the more exact methods of 
 
 1 " History of Florida," published at Lisbon in 1605, at Madrid in 1723, and 
 translated several times into other languages. 
 
 * " Velacao verdadeira dos trabalhos que ho gobernador don Fernando de Soto 
 et certos fidalgos Portuguesos passaraono descobrimiento da provincia da Flor- 
 ida," translated into French and published in Paris in 1685; translated into Eng- 
 lish and published for the Hakluyt Society in 1851. Consult also, in the Ter- 
 naux collection, the account given by the chaplain of this expedition, which 
 took place in 1539. 
 
 The Grenville collection in the British Museum has a rare copy of the first 
 edition of this work. It is a small octavo in black letter. 
 
 1 They themselves had given to theYazoo the characteristic name of River of 
 the Ancient Ruins, on account of the mounds in its vicinity. 
 
 4 " Views of Louisiana," Pittsburg, 1814. 
 
 80 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 8 1 
 
 modern science. Between 1845 and 1847, more than two 
 hundred mounds were excavated by them, and the descrip- 
 tion they give, published by the Smithsonian Institution, is 
 still our best guide with regard to these remains. 1 This 
 publication gave a fresh impulse to investigations. Expe- 
 ditions undertaken on every side and carried out with zeal, 
 resulted in the finding of the most diverse and curious 
 objects. Most interesting monographs and careful studies 
 were published after the expeditions, and it is our task to 
 make known the results of both. 
 
 The mounds are artificial hillocks of earth, nearly always 
 constructed with a good deal of precision. They are of vari- 
 ous forms, round, oval, square, more rarely polygonal or tri- 
 angular. Their height varies from a few inches to more 
 than ninety feet, 3 and their diameter from three to about a 
 thousand feet. Those supposed to be intended for the per- 
 formance of religious rites end in a platform, which is 
 reached by a skilfully planned flight of steps ; none of these 
 however are known north of Mexico ; others can be 
 climbed with difficulty. Some rise from the summit of 
 a hill, others stretch away irregularly in the plains, often 
 for a distance of several miles ; others again we find sym- 
 metrically arranged and enclosed within walls, built of earth, 
 as are the mounds themselves. All those of the United 
 States, however, whatever their form or size, present very 
 remarkable analogies with each other, and evidently 
 belonged to men in about the same stage of culture, 
 submitting to similar influences and actuated by similar 
 motives. We find these mounds in the valleys' already 
 mentioned, and in those of Wyoming ; of the rivers Susque- 
 
 1 " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." Smith. Cont. to Knowl- 
 edge, Philadelphia, 1847, vol. I. Arch. Americana, vol. I. 
 
 * Dr. Habel ("Smithsonian Contributions," vol. XXII.) mentions a conical 
 mound 300 or 400 feet high near Quito, but grave doubts are entertained as to 
 its origin and artificial character. 
 
 * According to Dr. Foster's calculations, the Mississippi Valley includes an 
 area of 2,455,000 square miles, measuring 30 longitude by 23 latitude. 
 " Mississippi Valley," Chicago, 1869, p. 31. 
 
82 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 hanna, Yazoo, and Tennessee; on the banks of Lake Ontario 
 as far as the St. Lawrence ; in the western districts of the 
 state of New York ; in the states of Missouri, Mississippi, 
 Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Louisiana; the 
 valleys of the Arkansas and of the Red River. Near 
 Carthage, Alabama, a remarkable group of truncated mounds 
 is described, surrounded by embankments which are gradu- 
 ally disappearing beneath the plough. In the South, how- 
 ever, the mounds appear to be less ancient than on the Ohio 
 and Mississippi ; as if the builders had been gradually driven 
 back by an invading enemy from the North. 
 
 Similar tumuli stretch all along the coast of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, from Florida to Texas. In the latter state and in 
 South Carolina, especially, occur conical mounds, forming a 
 transition in shape between this kind of structure and the 
 teocallis ' of Mexico, in which a temple crowns a truncated 
 pyramid, in this case built of stone. 9 In Yucatan and Chi- 
 apas, artificial mounds form the foundation of some remark- 
 able monuments that we shall have to describe, and which 
 were already old at the time of the Spanish Conquest. 3 
 Wells relates that in Honduras, even in the forests through 
 which a path must be cut axe in hand, the Baqueanos 4 find 
 
 1 The Mexicans acknowledged a God, Teut or Theot ; hence the name of 
 Teocallis, the house of God. 
 
 a Brasseur de Bourbourg speaks of a great number of tumuli in the province 
 of Vera Paz, presenting, he says, a striking resemblance to those of the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley. They are of reddish earth, and the Indians call them Cakhay, 
 or the red houses (" Histoire des Nations civilizees," t. I., p. 15). 
 
 3 The whole central region is strewn with mounds bearing ruined buildings 
 (Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 200). Such artificial mounds are met with at Uxmal, 
 Nohpat, Kabah, and I.abnah. The Mayas always raised a mound as a founda- 
 tion for their buildings ; if a natural eminence existed, they took pains to 
 enlarge it. Near the port of Silan two mounds are described on which are 
 seen extensive ruins (Stephens : " Incidents of Travel in Yucatan," New York, 
 1858, vol. II., p. 427). Close to the Rio Layarto are two pyramids, on the 
 summit of which now grow lofty tufts of trees (Baril, " La Mexique," Douai, 
 1862, p. 129). Monte Cuyo, near Yalahao, which is visible far out at sea, was 
 spoken of even by the old navigator Dampier as the work of man. 
 
 4 Wells called them Vaqueros, and on his authority we had used that name ; 
 but from a communication that Mr. Ch. Barbier has been good enough to 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 83 
 
 mounds often of remarkable height. Each of these mounds 
 yielded pieces of pottery, clumsy in construction, but of 
 curious shape and ornamentation. Mounds are said to 
 occur on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, in Utah, and in 
 Arizona. They also occur, though of smaller dimensions, in 
 California and Oregon, in the valleys formed by the Colo- 
 rado and its tributaries, and Taylor pretends to have counted 
 them by thousands from an eminence overlooking the Mer- 
 ced River. Their number diminishes as the Atlantic Ocean 
 is approached. Rare beyond the Rocky Mountains, they 
 are still more so in British America. 
 
 The number, form, and disposition of these mounds, often 
 so strange in their design, so original in their execution, 
 with the objects brought to light by excavations, are, we 
 repeat, characteristic, and such as forbid their being classed 
 indiscriminately with the burial mounds common to all parts 
 of the world. It is amongst these latter that we must class 
 the mounds travellers tell of in British Columbia, Vancouver 
 Island, Peru, Brazil, and the pampas of Patagonia. Father 
 Acufta tells of countless tumuli in the Terraba plains of 
 Costa Rica, the centre of a once numerous population. 1 
 Other tumuli, no less numerous, bear witness to ancient 
 history in the desert stretching all along the Mosquito coast 
 of Central America.* Near the Balize River 3 mounds raised 
 in honor of the dead and surrounded with circles of stones 
 recall the cromlechs 4 of the old world. Lastly, Dr. Ze- 
 ballos gives us a description of a tumulus near Campana, 
 
 address to us we learn that the Yaqueros, rulers of the vast herds of the country, 
 do not make these researches. They may far more reasonably be attributed to 
 the Baqueanos, who served as guides to the explorers. 
 
 1 Harper's Magazine, vol. XX., p. 319. 
 
 ' Boyle, " A Ride Across the Continent," vol. I., p. 296. 
 
 * G. Henderson: "An Account of the British Settlement of Honduras," 
 London, 1811. Frobel : " Seven Years' Travel in Central America," London, 
 1859. 
 
 * A cromlech is the name given by archaeologists to a heap composed of two 
 or more upright stones with a flat stone laid across them, marking a tomb. 
 Cromlechs are to be met with throughout the British Isles, in France, and other 
 European countries, and in some parts of Asia and America. 
 
84 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Buenos Ayres, 1 which is over six feet high and measures 
 about two hundred and sixty feet long and one hundred 
 and fifteen feet across. Excavations resulted in the dis- 
 covery of twenty-seven skeletons ; round about them lay 
 arrow-points, stone hatchets, stones for slings, and a con- 
 siderable quantity of bones of animals and fragments of 
 pottery. 
 
 In other places explorers tell of piles of stones. These 
 piles may probably date from much more recent periods, for 
 even in our own day the Indians have a custom of adding a 
 stone when they pass near the spots which tradition has long 
 pointed out as the burial-places of ancient chiefs, or for some 
 other reason. It is in this way that the Ozark hills have be- 
 come covered with cairns or murgers. 8 They were looked 
 upon as posts of observation, but their number alone is 
 enough to confute this hypothesis, and excavations have of- 
 ten yielded human bones, leaving no doubt as to the real 
 purpose of some of the mounds. 3 
 
 We meet with such cairns again in Honduras, near San 
 Salvador. Three miles from Toolesborough, Iowa, there are 
 mounds actually built of granite boulders taken from the bed 
 of the river. But it is in their style of construction alone 
 that they differ from other mounds ; in them also excavations 
 have brought to light charcoal, worked stone, and the 
 charred bones of animals. 
 
 In several states of the far West the mounds represent 
 mammals, birds, and reptiles ; indeed some bold architects 
 have not hesitated to attempt to imitate the human body. 
 
 Ohio appears to have been one of the centres of mound- 
 building. It is true that we meet with fewer mounds of 
 strange form, but their total number is considerable. It can- 
 not be estimated at less than 10,000, of which 1,500 are en- 
 closed, and it has been calculated that the total length of all 
 the mounds raised by man in this one State would be no less 
 
 1 Rev. d' Anthropologie, 1879. 
 
 * Habel : " Investigations in Central and South America," Smithsonian Con- 
 tributions, vol. XXII. 
 
 ' American Antiquarian, July, 1879, p. 59. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 85 
 
 than 306 miles. 1 The whole of Missouri, especially the south- 
 east portion known as the Swamp region a is also covered 
 with countless tumuli, often grouped with evident design. In 
 the state of New York, there are 250 enclosures resembling 
 our modern fortifications. 3 In an area of fifty miles, on the 
 bordersof the states of Iowa and Illinois, 2,500 mounds have 
 been made out without counting earthern inclosures. 4 
 Everywhere a much greater number than this have been 
 destroyed by colonists and farmers, caring little in their hard 
 struggle for existence for those who preceded them. Others, 
 lost in vast deserts or in the impenetrable forests covering a 
 considerable area in the two Americas, are still unknown 
 to us. 
 
 The extent of the territory occupied by the builders of 
 mounds in Central America, with the number of mounds 
 erected by them, proves the great length of their exist- 
 ence. The importance of some of the works, which, accord- 
 ing to the judgment of competent engineers, it would have 
 taken several thousand of our workmen, provided with all 
 the resources of our grand modern industries, 6 months to 
 execute, bears witness to an organized community and a 
 powerful hierarchy. Lastly, the regularity of the buildings 
 with the excellence of the execution of the objects found in 
 them, prove to what an extent artistic feeling was developed 
 amongst the makers of the mounds, whose existence has so 
 unexpectedly been revealed to us by excavations. 
 
 It is with the relics of an unknown and remote past that 
 
 'Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 752. Pidgeon : "Ant. Researches," New York, 1858. 
 Lewis & Clark : " Travels to the Source of the Missouri River," London, 1814. 
 
 a The Swamp region covers an area of 4,000 square miles, and includes six 
 counties and portions of three others. The soil is formed of recent alluvium 
 covering tertiary beds of gravel, clay, and marl filled with fossils. (W. P. 
 Potter: "Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri," St. Louis Acad. of Sciences, 
 1880.) 
 
 3 Squier : " Ant. of the State of New York," Buffalo, 1851. " Report, Pea- 
 body Museum," 1880, vol. II., p. 721. 
 
 4 American Antiquarian, July, 1879, P- 59 et Se 1- 
 
 6 The builders had no beasts of burden. These large structures were, there- 
 fore, built by man unaided. 
 
86 
 
 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA, 
 
 we have to deal, and we will begin with the mounds ; but 
 the confusion in which the different forms they assume are 
 mixed together, adds singularly to the difficulty of the task. 
 Cones and pyramids are enclosed within a sort of breast- 
 work ; mounds supposed to be intended for the offering up 
 of sacrifices are connected with tumuli ; side by side with 
 those representing animals rise polygonal or triangular 
 mounds. Dr. Andrews 1 mentions in a plan of Athens 
 county, Ohio, a collection of twenty-three mounds, seven 
 of which, according to him, were intended as fortifications 
 and sixteen as burial-places. The loftiest is 40 feet high 
 
 FIG. 22. Triangular mounds. 
 
 by 170 in diameter.' In Pike county, Pennsylvania, a per- 
 fect square is to be seen enclosed within a circle constructed 
 with no less regularity ; at Portsmouth, four concentric cir- 
 cles intersected by wide avenues perfectly true to the car- 
 dinal points. The mounds near St. Louis formed three sides 
 of a parallelogram about 328 yards long by 215 yards wide. 
 The fourth side was shut in by three smaller mounds.* 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1877. 
 
 * The content of this mound is estimated at 437,742 cubic feet, and as no 
 signs of excavations are to be seen in the neighborhood, one can but suppose 
 that this mass of earth was brought from a distance. 
 
 * Breckenridge : "Views of Louisiana." St. Louis is sometimes called 
 Mound City on account of the number of mounds which rise, or rather did rise, 
 in its neighborhood. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 87 
 
 According to De Hass, the mounds of Illinois form quite 
 a town, a vast and mysterious series of monuments. He 
 tells us that he was surprised to find nothing but sepulchres 
 on the other side of the Mississippi, whereas everywhere else 
 the groups of ruins were associated with walls of circum- 
 vallation. Conant ' tells of a collection of mounds on the 
 Root River, about twenty miles from its junction with the 
 Mississippi (fig. 22). The chief mound measures twelve feet 
 in height by thirty-six feet in diameter. It is situated in the 
 centre of a circle, of which traces can still be made out. The 
 ridges forming the three sides of the triangle are of equal 
 length 144 feet ; their diameter is twelve feet, and their 
 height three, four, and five feet respectively. It is remark- 
 able that these heights, taken together, equal the height of 
 the central mound, and that when they are multiplied to- 
 gether the length of the sides of the triangle is obtained. 
 This is doubtless an accidental coincidence, though several 
 earthworks are mentioned of square or rectangular form, in 
 which a similar relation is alleged to exist between the 
 height and lengths of the mounds forming them. 
 
 As they have been subjected to vertical denudation for an 
 uncounted number of years, it is certain that any numerical 
 relations existing at present are different from those which 
 originally characterized such mounds. 
 
 These facts will show how very difficult, not to say impos- 
 sible, is any classification ; we will, however, follow that of 
 Squier; for, in spite of some too apparent inaccuracies, it 
 has the advantage of simplifying our task and supplying an 
 approximate grouping, each class of which will be success- 
 ively taken up alterward. They are : I, Defensive works ; 
 2, Sacred enclosures; 3, Temples; 4, Altar mounds; 5, 
 Sepulchral mounds ; and 6, Mounds representing animals. 
 Short (" North Americans," p. 81) gives a slightly different 
 classification, as follows : 
 
 1 " Footprints of Vanished Races," St. Louis, 1879, p. 30. 
 
88 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 (For Defence. 
 
 I. ENCLOSURES -I For Religious Purposes. 
 ( Miscellaneous, 
 f Of Sacrifice. 
 
 For Temple-sites. 
 II.-MOUNDS . j of Sepulchre. 
 
 [_ Of Observation. 
 
 To these different lists perhaps may be added mounds 
 built of adobes, or unburnt brick, which have crumbled to 
 dust and are the remains of successive dwellings 
 
 The whole of the space separating the Alleghanies from 
 the Rocky Mountains affords a succession of entrenched 
 camps, fortifications generally made of earth. There were 
 used ramparts, stockades, and trenches 1 near many eminences, 
 and nearly every junction of two large rivers. These works 
 bear witness to the intelligence of the race, which has so 
 long been looked upon as completely barbarous and wild, 
 and an actual system of defences in connection with each 
 other can in some cases be made out, with observatories on 
 adjacent heights, and concentric ridges of earth for the pro- 
 tection of the entrances. War was evidently an important 
 subject of thought with the Mound Builders. All the de- 
 fensive remains occur in the neighborhood of water-courses, 
 and the best proof of the skill shown in the choice of sites is 
 shown by the number of flourishing cities, such as Cincin- 
 nati, St. Louis, Newark, Portsmouth, Frankfort, New Mad- 
 rid, and many others, which have risen in the same situations 
 in modern times. 4 
 
 1 The ditch instead of skirting the rampart outside, and thus multiplying the 
 obstacles in the way of an assailant, is generally placed inside. Professor An- 
 drews quotes, however, an external moat at Lancaster (Fairfield County, Ohio), 
 but he adds that it is an isolated example. " Report, Peabody Museum," 1877. 
 If a stockade was placed on the rampart, the ditch would add an obstacle to at- 
 tempts at digging a way in, while if placed outside it would facilitate such an 
 attack. 
 
 a " The same places," says Dr. Lapham, speaking of the mounds of Wiscon- 
 sin, " which were the seat of aboriginal population, are being now selected as 
 the sites of embryo towns and villages by men of different race." "Smith- 
 sonian Contributions," vol, VII., p. 64. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 89 
 
 Bourneville, twelve miles from Chillicothe, is one of the 
 most curious fortified enclosures of Ohio. It occupies the 
 summit of a steep hill ; the walls a rare eno.ugh instance 
 are of stone, built up without cement, 1 presenting a striking 
 resemblance with the ancient pre-historic forts of Belgium 
 and the north of France. The closing ridge measures more 
 than two miles, and three entrances can still be made out, 
 defended by mounds, which made access more difficult. In 
 many parts, especially near the entrances, the walls seem to 
 have been subjected to the action of a fierce fire, which has 
 actually baked the surface. Basins artificially dug out sup- 
 plied the inhabitants with the water they required. On part 
 of the rampart grow gigantic trees, supposed to be of great 
 age. 
 
 Round about these trees can be made out rotting trunks, 
 the remains of earlier generations which have slowly perished 
 after gaining their maturity. According to some archaeolo- 
 gists, centuries have passed away since the forest usurped 
 the place of the abode of man ; others with more probability 
 think these trees are less venerable than is generally sup- 
 posed. In Wisconsin, says Dr. Lapham,* 54 to 130 years are 
 required for a tree to increase one foot in diameter. Among 
 those actually living very few exceed three or four feet in 
 diameter. Lapham therefore concludes that they cannot 
 date from much earlier than the sixteenth century, and they 
 are probably considerably younger. 
 
 Fort Hill affords a still better example of these earth- 
 works. This fortress, for such it may justly be called, rises 
 from an eminence overlooking the little river of Paint Creek. 
 
 1 The Mound Builders used the materials at hand. When stones were abun- 
 dant, they piled them up with earth to make their walls, but these stones are 
 never quarried or dressed, nor are they ever cemented with any mortar ; several 
 instances may be quoted, notably a stone fort on the Duck River, near Man- 
 chester, Tennessee, in which the walls are of unworked stones, detached from 
 neighboring rocks. At the entrance two mounds can be made out, which are 
 supposed to have been posts of observation. 
 
 '"The Antiquities of Wisconsin," "Smith. Cont.," vol. VII. Southall, 
 " Recent Origin of Man," p. 583. 
 
C/) PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The walls enclose an area of 1 1 1 acres. Above the stream, 
 which formed a natural defence, they are hardly four feet 
 high, but everywhere else the height is six feet, and they are 
 some thirty-five feet thick. Several openings made entrance 
 easy. One of them leads to an enclosure which was prob- 
 ably square, but its walls have been in a great measure de- 
 stroyed ; no trench or ditch protects them, and traces of a 
 great fire can easily be discerned. In this second enclosure 
 Squier places the dwellings of the inhabitants, built of un- 
 burnt bricks, or perhaps mere huts covered with grass, 
 
 FIG. 23. Fort Hill, Ohio. 
 
 branches of trees, or the skins of animals killed in the chase. 
 Within the fortifications can be distinguished two enclosures 
 one semicircular, the other circular. These were probably 
 places sacred to the religious rites, or to the councils of the 
 chiefs. All this is, however, mere conjecture ; for the cus- 
 toms, ceremonies, and mode of government of these men 
 can only be inferred from the very scanty historical data 
 relating to tribes dwelling much further south. 
 
 One of the most curious works * of this kind is situated in 
 Clarke County, Ohio. It is a fort covering an area of only 
 
 1 Cox, " A remarkable ancient stone fort in Clarke County, Ohio." Am. Ass., 
 Hartford, Connecticut, 1874. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 9 1 
 
 eight or ten acres, and built at the top of a hill washed on 
 the south by the Ohio, and on the north by a wide, deep 
 stream, Fourteen Mile Creek, which flows into the Ohio, a 
 short distance beyond. This hill, which is of conical form, 
 rises 280 feet above the river, and on that side presents 
 almost perpendicular walls, except at one point, where there 
 is a pretty wide fault, the importance of defending which 
 the builders of the fort were not slow to see. They pro- 
 tected it therefore with a wall, nowhere less than seventy- 
 five feet high, built of rough stones arranged without mortar 
 or cement of any kind. Inside, the traces can still be made 
 out of a number of conical mounds and of a wide and deep 
 ditch. These works must not be confounded with others 
 situated in Ross county, and known under the name of 
 Clark's Works. The latter include a parallelogram 275 feet 
 by 177 ; and on the right of this parallelogram a square cov- 
 ering an area of sixteen acres. 1 The sides are eighty-two 
 feet long, and in the middle of each of them an entrance can 
 be made out, defended by a little mound. Inside, accord- 
 ing to a custom to which we shall often have occasion to 
 refer, rose several mounds of different sizes. 
 
 Many .of these works are connected with each other with 
 a skill which may well surprise us. Squier thinks he recog- 
 nizes a continuous system of fortifications, arranged with 
 great intelligence, stretching diagonally across the state of 
 Ohio, from the sources of the Alleghany and of the Susque- 
 hanna in the state of New York to the Wabash River. 
 Along the Big Harpeth River, Tennessee, earthworks are 
 very numerous. 11 The line of the Great Miami River, one of 
 the tributaries of the Ohio, is defended by three forts: one 
 at its mouth, a second at Colerain, and a third at Hamilton. 
 Beyond this last point other works extend for a distance of 
 six miles along the river, protecting the tributaries of the 
 
 1 The amount of earth used in making these earthworks is estimated at three 
 millions of cubic feet. Whittlesey . " On the Weapons and Character of the 
 Mound Builders," Boston Soc. of Natural History, vol. I., p. 473. 
 
 * Dr. Jones' "Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee," 
 Smithsonian Contributions, vol. XXII., p. 4. 
 
92 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Great Miami on the north and west, or ranged in succession 
 as far as Dayton and Piqua, so as to complete the line of de- 
 fence. All these points are connected with each other by 
 isolated mounds, mostly set upon hills commanding an ex- 
 tensive view. 1 These are supposed, with reason, to have been 
 used as sentinel stations from which to watch the move- 
 ments of the enemy or to transmit pre-arranged signals.* 
 
 Fort Ancient is forty-two miles from Cincinnati. Professor 
 Locke, who was the first to describe it, estimates the quantity 
 of earth used in its construction at over 628,000 cubic yards. 
 It is built on the left bank of the Little Miami, 230 feet 
 above the level of the stream, and forms behind the line of 
 defences, to which we have referred, a central citadel. The 
 length of the enclosing ridges is not less than three or four 
 miles, and the walls, where they have resisted the ravages of 
 time, are nearly twenty feet high. Hosea has lately re- 
 peated an observation often made, that the outline of these 
 walls made a rough sketch of the continents of America. 
 If this be so it can be but a purely accidental coincidence 
 quite unworthy of any serious consideration. The Rev. 
 S. D. Peet, taking up an entirely different point of view, sees 
 in these outlines a struggle between two huge serpents, 3 
 another flight of imagination difficult to follow. What is 
 really of importance is the great amount of work done by the 
 builders, and the skill they showed in their works of defence. 
 
 We must not omit to mention the ruins of Aztalan 4 
 situated on an arm of the Rock River, Wisconsin. They 
 
 1 The great Miamisburgh mound on the Ohio is one of the best examples we 
 can cite. It is sixty-eight feet high and the circumference of the base is not 
 less than 862 feet. (Short : " The North Americans of Antiquity," p. 52). 
 Lookout Mountain, near Circleville, with its lofty mound, must have served 
 the same purpose. 
 
 9 Force : "A quelle Race appartenaient les Mound Builders" ; Cong, des 
 Amer., Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 125. Rev. S. D. Peet : "The Military 
 Architecture," Am. antiq,, Jan. 1881. 
 
 1 American Antiquarian, April, 1878, March, 1880. 
 
 4 Milwaukee Advertiser, 1837 ; Silliman's American Journal of Science, vol. 
 XLIV. ; Lapham : "Antiquities of Wisconsin," p. 41, plates, XXXIV. and 
 XXXV. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 93 
 
 were discovered in 1836 by Hyer, who gave them the name 
 they bear in memory of an old tradition of the Mexicans, 
 who make out that their ancestors came from Aztalan * in the 
 North. The characteristic feature of these ruins is an en- 
 closure of earthworks forming three sides of an irregular 
 parallelogram, of which the rivers shut in the fourth 
 side. They present considerable analogy to those of 
 Ohio, but we do not find in them the regularity which is 
 generally so striking in the latter. The angles are not right 
 angles ; the northern side is 600 feet long, the southern 684, 
 while the western wall is more than double that length. 
 The width of the walls is nearly twenty-five feet, but they have 
 crumbled away to so great an extent that it is impossible to 
 decide upon their original height. The present height 
 varies from about one foot to three yards and a half. 
 
 We must note one rare and interesting peculiarity ; the 
 walls are reinforced at equal distances with projecting curves 
 or bastions. Finally, at the southwest angle there are two 
 little enclosures which we may if we like call outposts. All 
 these walls were constructed of earth mixed with grass and 
 rushes, and then subjected in various parts to great heat, 
 doubtless with a view to strengthen their cohesive proper- 
 ties. This is probably the reason why various travellers have 
 stated that the walls of Aztalan were built of brick. We 
 can now affirm to the contrary. 
 
 In walking round the inside of the enclosure it is still 
 easy to make out a considerable number of mounds. Some 
 are truncated pyramids rising in successive tiers ; others are 
 tumuli. One of the latter has been excavated and two skele- 
 tons were brought to light. It was observed that the 
 corpses had been placed in a sitting or doubled-up posture. 
 
 1 The name of Aztalan is derived from two Mexican words : Atl, water, and 
 An, near to. In Mexican traditions Aztalan, Culhuacan, and Aquilasco were 
 the towns the people of Mexico inhabited before their migration in the direction 
 of Anahuac. (Bancroft, vol. V., pp. 156, 305.) According to the Abbe 
 Brasseur de Bourbourg, Aztalan is situated northwest of California. (" Hist, 
 des Nat. Civilisees," vol. II., p. 292.) We may observe that nothing is more 
 uncertain than such tradition. 
 
94 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The bones unfortunately crumbled to dust at the very mo- 
 ment of discovery, so that no satisfactory examination was 
 possible. 
 
 Most archaeologists consider Aztalan to have been a 
 fortified post. Lapham alone remarks, and his observa- 
 tion is not without justice, that the situation of these build- 
 ings, overlooked as it is from every side, would in that case 
 have been very badly chosen, and at complete variance with 
 all the traditions of the builders. In any case, whether the 
 ruins be those of a town or merely of a fortified enclosure, 
 they must have been quickly abandoned, for excavations 
 have yielded no remains proving the long residence of 
 man. 
 
 Putnam, one of the most learned of American archaeolo- 
 gists, describes 1 at Greenwood, near Lebanon, Tennessee, 
 some earthworks forming a true fortification. He was able 
 to make out the position of three entrances, and inside the en- 
 closure numerous sepulchral tumuli and a lofty mound form- 
 ing a truncated cone with very steep walls measuring fifteen 
 feet high by one hundred and fifty feet in diameter at the base. 
 At two different heights excavations have yielded calcined 
 stones, cinders, and burnt bones, evident proofs of huge fires, 
 either for offering sacrifices or for funeral rites. The dwell- 
 ings of the men who made these earthworks must have been 
 circular huts, of which some traces can still be made out. 
 The burial-places were generally at a distance from the 
 homes, but with touching sentiment the bodies of children 
 were interred close to the hearths of their parents. Putnam 
 considers the people of Greenwood to have been one of the 
 most forward races inhabiting North America. They tilled 
 the ground ; they did not burn their dead as did the men of 
 Ohio ; their pottery and their ornaments are truly artistic, 
 and we find amongst their relics copper from Lake Superior 
 and marine shells. Seven perforated pearls were picked up 
 in the grave of a child, so that trade was not unknown 
 to them. All this speaks of progressing culture but not 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, vol. II., p. 339. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 95 
 
 of any thing beyond the standard of the modern Indian. 
 
 Sandy-Woods settlement, 1 Missouri, includes nine tumuli 
 and a considerable number of circular excavations surrounded 
 with walls and with an external trench. The present height 
 of the walls varies from two feet to three and one half feet, 
 and they are seven feet wide at the base. The trench is 
 three feet at its deepest part, and seven feet wide. This 
 trench communicates on the east with a marsh ; so it has 
 been supposed that it was intended to supply the inhabi- 
 tants with the water they required, and that the wall was 
 intended rather as a protection from inundations than as a 
 defence against invaders. 
 
 The most important of the tumuli of which we have just 
 spoken is of rectangular form. The northern and southern 
 faces are two hundred and forty-six feet long, the eastern 
 and western only one hundred and eighteen feet. The 
 height is more than sixteen feet on the north, and nineteen 
 feet on the south. The top forms a platform fairly easy of 
 access, which measures one hundred and eight feet by 
 fifty-one, which platform is covered by numerous fragments 
 of badly baked clay, somewhat like, bricks of coarse manu- 
 facture, and nearly all of them bearing impressions of grass 
 or straw, mixed with the adobe before baking. Excavations 
 of this mound yielded no results. Those in other mounds 
 have been more fruitful, especially those in two circular 
 mounds devoted to burial purposes, which must have con- 
 tained from one to two hundred skeletons in each stratum. 
 The first layer of skeletons was arranged on a level with the 
 original soil, the second about a foot above it. They were 
 so much decayed that an exact statement of their numbers 
 cannot be made. Some of these skeletons had been doubled 
 up, others were in a squatting posture, but the greater num- 
 ber lay stretched on their backs or stomachs, or lay on their 
 sides. It has been remarked that the fact that the earth 
 with which they w r ere covered did not belong to the spot in 
 
 *W. P. Potter : " Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri." Saint Louis Acad. of 
 Sciences, 1880. 
 
96 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 which they were found, but must have been brought there 
 from a distance (not necessarily great) bears witness to the 
 respect shown by these men to their dead, and the im- 
 portance they attached to funeral rites. Vessels and broken 
 pieces of pottery placed near the corpses were numerous ; 
 from eight hundred to one thousand fragments have been 
 collected. 
 
 As at Greenwood circular trenches marked the site of 
 dwellings. They are about two feet deep by twenty-eight 
 feet in diameter. The presence, in some particular spots, of 
 heaps of burnt clay, cinders, fragments of charcoal, and the 
 calcined bones of animals, indicate the hearths. They were 
 generally in the centre of the habitation, and, as is the cus- 
 tom among numerous savage tribes, the smoke escaped 
 through a hole made in the roof. 
 
 All the trenches of which we have just spoken were grouped 
 irregularly within the enclosure. Every one chose the site 
 that best suited his convenience, needs, or pleasure, and 
 there erected his home. 
 
 On the branches of Little River are many settlements, in 
 general resembling those ave have just described. There is an 
 elliptical mound surrounded by a wall and trench. This 
 mound measures one hundred and ten by seventy feet. It is 
 eleven feet high. Farther on in the Lewis Prairie rises the so- 
 called Mound group where the traces of a double wall have 
 been made out. A religious society utilized one of the 
 mounds of Lewis Prairie on which to build a church, and at 
 that time numerous bones appear to have been dispersed, so 
 that Professor Swallow's later excavations were barren of 
 results. In other places are mounds, banks sometimes of great 
 length, intended to defend the approaches to a river or a 
 spring, and excavations marking the sites of ancient habi- 
 tations. 
 
 In fact, in many different places the earthworks of man 
 have resisted time and preserved to the present day proofs 
 of his existence. 
 
 If we leave the United States we may refer to a series of 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 97 
 
 trenches extending for several miles near Juigalpa in Nica- 
 ragua. 1 Their arrangement is peculiar (fig. 24). The gen- 
 eral width varies from three to four yards, and at equal dis- 
 tances occur oval reservoirs, the axis of which reaches about 
 twenty-six yards. 
 
 Two and four mounds occur alternately in each of these 
 reservoirs. We are ignorant alike of the use of these works 
 and of the people who executed them. 
 
 It was desirable to mention these trenches, which are 
 different from any thing else of the kind reported from Cen- 
 tral America. We shall not, however, multiply useless repe- 
 titions, and we will content ourselves with adding that if 
 fortifications are less common southwest of the Missouri, 
 they are numerous enough in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Indiana. 
 In the last-named state and in Illinois their form is gen- 
 
 FlG. 24. Trenches at Juigalpa, Nicaragua. 
 
 erally square, in Iowa and Missouri it is often triangular; 
 but everywhere we notice great similarity in their structure 
 and the occurrence of a central mound. On all the rivers 
 which flow from the south and empty into Lake Erie or 
 Ontario numerous forts are met with ; but they are irregular, 
 and enclose none of the mounds so characteristic of the 
 others we have described. 
 
 The great amount of labor involved in the erection of 
 their fortifications, bearing in mind the resources the builders 
 had at their command, justifies us in looking upon the 
 mounds as intended to be permanent, and probably, in case 
 of the larger ones, as having been constructed by slow 
 degrees. General Harrison, one of the early Presidents of 
 the United States,- was indeed justified in the opinion he 
 expressed in speaking to the Historical Society of Ohio, 1 
 
 1 Boyle : " A Ride Across the Continent," vol. I., p. 212. 
 " Transactions Hist. Soc. of Ohio, vol. I., ;> 263. 
 
98 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 that these fortifications were not erected for a defence from 
 a sudden invasion, for the height of the walls and the solidity 
 of their construction show that the danger they were to 
 guard against was ever present. General Harrison added : 
 " The three mounds that I have examined, those of Marietta, 
 Cincinnati, and that at the mouth of the Great Miami, par- 
 ticularly the latter, have a military character stamped upon 
 them which cannot be mistaken. War and struggle have ever 
 been the sad heritage of humanity, and the New World was 
 not likely to be more exempt from them than the Old." 
 
 It is no less certain that similar works were far from 
 uncommon among the Indians. They were described by 
 all the earlier explorers, notably by the chronicler of De 
 Soto's expedition, who saw them in the South actually occu- 
 pied by the existing tribes. An early traveller tells us that 
 he noted one general mode of fortification, which was a cir- 
 cumvallation formed of palisades from twelve to fifteen feet 
 high, with openings through which the besieged could shoot 
 their arrows. In 1855 an intrenchment was noticed erected 
 on the banks of the Missouri, near Council Bluffs, by an 
 Indian tribe, the Arikarees. This intrenchment, in accord- 
 ance with a constant tradition of their race, was made of 
 trunks of trees piled one upon the other. 1 Catlin describes 
 a large Mandan village, in which the inhabitants were pro- 
 tected with palisades. 8 The forts attacked by Champlain in 
 1609 were defended by stakes driven into the ground and 
 bound together with branches of trees and ropes made of 
 bark fibre. Similar fortifications were always met with by the 
 French in their long struggles with the Iroquois. There is little 
 doubt that most of the encircling walls of the fortified enclo- 
 sures of the mounds were surmounted by some sort of stock- 
 ade, the remains of which have been occasionally noticed. 
 
 Some earthworks, occurring chiefly in the western states, 
 have been thought to show from the mode of their con- 
 
 1 Am. Ass., Worcester, Massachusetts, 1855. 
 
 '"Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North 
 American Indians," London, 1866, 2 vols. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 99 
 
 struction that they were not intended for defence. Forts 
 were erected in places naturally indicated, often on heights 
 all but inaccessible. The enclosures, on the contrary, to 
 which Squier and others wrongly give the title of sacred, are 
 on the banks of rivers, in valleys overlooked by the neigh- 
 boring hills, serious drawbacks which the Mound Builders 
 avoided in the erection of their purely defensive forts. 
 
 These enclosures, which were in all probability village de- 
 fences, by whatever name we may call them, are always of 
 regular form, square or circular, more rarely elliptical or 
 polygonal. All the figures are perfect, all the angles are 
 right angles, all the sides are equal. The men who built 
 them certainly understood the art of measuring surfaces and 
 angles. The walls vary in height, and their original eleva- 
 tion can only now be guessed at. We may add that these 
 works are so large, their arrangement so varied, and their 
 numbers so great, that it is very difficult to give an exact 
 idea of them. A few examples will help us to do so. 
 
 The most remarkable group is probably that of Newark, 
 in the Scioto Valley. It includes an octagon covering an 
 area of fifty acres, a square of twenty acres, and two circles 
 of twenty and thirty acres respectively. The walls of the 
 larger circle still measure twelve feet high by fifty feet wide 
 at their base ; they are protected by an internal trench seven 
 feet deep by thirty-five feet wide. According to a survey 
 made by Colonel Whittlesey, the whole of these buildings 
 occupy an area of twelve square miles, and the length of the 
 series of mounds exceeds two miles. The large entrances 
 are defended by slopes thirty-five feet high, trenches thirteen 
 feet deep, passages forming regular labyrinths adding to the 
 difficulties of access ; mounds of strange form, one of which 
 resembles a bird's foot, with the middle claw 155 feet long, 
 and those on either side 1 10 feet long, all astonish the ex- 
 plorer. On these abandoned ruins, forest-trees have grown 
 to a great age ; others preceded them, their gigantic trunks, 
 now in a state of decomposition, bearing witness to their 
 existence. Man, actuated by motives unknown to us, fled 
 
100 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 from the scenes where every thing testifies to his power and 
 his intelligence ; the vigorous vegetation of nature is the 
 only life which has endured. 
 
 At Chillicothe ' we meet with a circle more than one hun- 
 dred feet in diameter and an octagon of somewhat smaller 
 dimensions. The walls of the octagon, like those at Newark, 
 are from ten to twelve feet high, by fifty feet thick at the 
 base. The height of the walls of the circle, partially de- 
 
 
 FIG. 25. Group at Liberty, Ohio. 
 
 stroyed, is nowhere more than four and a half to five feet. 
 All round these enclosures great numbers of small circles, 
 scarcely above the level of the ground, can still be made 
 out. At Hopetown, near Chillicothe, there are a circle and 
 a square adjoining each other ; together they cover an area 
 of exactly twenty acres. 
 
 We give a drawing of a group somewhat resembling the 
 one we have just described, and which can be more clearly 
 examined (fig. 25). It is situated near Liberty, Ohio, and 
 
 1 Squier : " Anc. Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," pi. XVI, 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. IOI 
 
 consists of two circles and a square. The diameter of the 
 large circle is 1,700 feet, and it covers an area of forty acres ; 
 the diameter of the little one is 500 feet ; the area covered by 
 the square, each side of which is 1,080 feet long, is twenty- 
 seven acres. The walls are not connected with a trench, 
 and, contrary to the custom generally followed, the earth of 
 which they are composed is taken from trenches cut within 
 the circle. 1 
 
 Circleville, Ohio, takes its name from structures of this 
 kind ; a square and circle touching one another. The side 
 of the square measures 875 feet ; and the diameter of the 
 circle is 985 feet. 
 
 Eight openings, one at each angle and in the middle of 
 each side, give access to the square mound ; each of these 
 was defended by a mound, and the circle was surrounded by 
 a double wall. This group has already been greatly muti- 
 lated ; many others have unfortunately shared its fate, and 
 we must hasten to study these last witnesses of a by-gone 
 condition of things, for the plow invades them every day, 
 and no relic of this remote past can long resist the necessi- 
 ties of modern life. 
 
 An enclosure built of stone, near Black Run, Ross county, 
 Ohio, merits special notice. It is of elliptical form, the large 
 axis measuring 246 feet, and the small one 167 feet. A 
 single opening gives access to it, and in front of this five 
 walls stretch out in the form of a fan, but there is absolutely 
 nothing to explain their purpose. 
 
 The number and extent of these enclosures, with the 
 great area they cover, forbids us to look upon them as tem- 
 ples. We know of no worship, ancient or modern, of no 
 rite, with which they can be connected. It is more reasona- 
 ble to suppose them to have been fortified villages, accord- 
 ing to a usage met with in various parts of the Mississippi 
 Valley by the first explorers. According to Ferguson, the 
 small enclosures so often joined on to the large one, was the 
 chief's dwelling ; the tents of his companions and those of 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 759 ; Short, p. 48. 
 
IO2 
 
 PRE-HIS TOXIC A M ERIC A . 
 
 the members of his family having been grouped about his. 
 Squier has given the name of temples to some truncated 
 pyramids, the summits of which are reached by inclined 
 planes. Some of them were doubtless so used. Occasion- 
 ally these pyramids are in terraces or successive stories, but 
 whatever their form, whether they be round, oval, polygonal, 
 or square, they always end in a platform at the top. The 
 
 FIG. 26. Truncated mound at Marietta (Ohio). 
 
 early explorers ] found the houses of the chiefs in fortified 
 villages always built on such mounds, others of which were 
 used for religious purposes. Hence the name by which they 
 are known. These mounds are very numerous at Chillicothe, 
 Portsmouth, Marietta, (fig. 26), and generally throughout the 
 whole of the State of Ohio. They are also met with in Ken- 
 
 1 Garcilasso de la Vega reports that in Florida the chiefs used such mounds 
 as sites for their dwellings. He mentions one no less than 1,800 feet in cir- 
 cumference. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 103 
 
 tucky, Missouri, Tennessee, and the southern states. They 
 are more rare in the North, though they occur as far as the 
 shores of Lake Superior, which seems to have been the ex- 
 treme northern limit of the mounds. 
 
 One of the most remarkable of these mounds is without 
 doubt that of Cahokia, Illinois. 1 It rises in the centre of 
 sixty others, of heights varying from thirty to sixty feet, and 
 covering an area of six acres, according to Hass, but double 
 that extent according to Putnam. The great pyramid of 
 Cheops, we may remark by the way, covers an area of thir- 
 teen acres. 
 
 The great mound overlooks all the others, and attains, in 
 four successive terraces, a height of ninety-one feet ; its base 
 measures 560 feet by 720 ; the platform covering it, 146 by 
 310, and it is estimated that 25,0x30,000 of cubic feet of earth 
 were used in its construction.* Of course many years and 
 thousands of workmen were needed for carrying on and com- 
 pleting so considerable a work. 
 
 The large mound was surmounted by a smaller one of 
 pyramidal form, which may have been ten feet high, and 
 was destroyed a few years ago. In demolishing it were 
 found many human bones, bits of chert, arrow-points, frag- 
 ments of coarsely made and badly burnt pottery, remains of 
 offerings or of sacrifices. The approaches of this mound, 
 which evidently played an important part in the history of 
 these people, were defended by four square mounds, facing 
 east, west, and southwest. These mounds vary in height 
 from twenty to thirty feet, and on two of them had been 
 erected conical pyramids, resembling pretty closely those 
 surmounting the central mound. 
 
 The Seltzertown mound is hardly less imposing than that 
 of Cahokia. The base is a parallelogram six hundred feet by 
 
 1 W. De Hass, Am. Ass., Chicago 1867; Putnam, "Report, Peabody 
 Museum," vol. Ill, p. 471. etc. Putnam gives the plan of Cahokia as it 
 is and the restored plans . It is known under the name of Monks' Mound, 
 because Breckenridge, who visited it in 1811, located by mistake a Trappist 
 convent on it, which was really on a neighboring mound. 
 
 * Force, quoted above, says 20,000,000 of cubic feet only. 
 
104 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 four hundred feet ; its height is forty feet, and the platform, 
 which is reached by a flight of steps, is no less than three acres 
 in extent. 1 On this platform rise three conical mounds, the 
 largest of which is also forty feet high, which gives to the 
 structure as a whole a height of eighty feet above the 
 ground. This mound presents this peculiarity: the whole 
 of the northern side, that most exposed to inclemency of 
 weather, is strengthened by a wall a two feet thick, made, as 
 is very common amongst the Mexicans, of adobes, or mud 
 bricks dried in the sun. Some of these bricks have retained 
 to this day the marks of the fingers of the workmen who 
 made them. 
 
 At New Madrid, a mound of considerable dimensions is 
 surrounded by a trench five feet deep by ten feet wide ; and 
 the explorers of this county report having found, among 
 the ruins bordering the rivers and streams tributary to the 
 Missouri, a mound of the form of a parallelogram, rising 
 above every thing near it. Professor Swallow describes one 
 of these mounds, which he considers very ancient, as meas- 
 uring nine hundred feet in circumference at its base and five 
 hundred and seventy feet at the summit. The most interest- 
 ing fact revealed by the excavation is the existence of an in- 
 terior chamber, formed of poles of elm or cypress, set like the 
 rafters in the roof of a house. The rafters were tied with 
 reeds and covered inside and out with a plaster of marl. The 
 outside plastering was left rough, but the inside was smoothed 
 carefully and coated with red ochre. 3 Excavations have 
 yielded syenite disks and numerous pieces of potter}', among 
 others" a vessel moulded on a human skull, which cannot be 
 taken out without breaking it (fig. 27). A sycamore twenty- 
 eight feet, a nut-tree twenty-six feet, and an oak seventeen 
 feet in circumference, overshadow one of these mounds. 
 
 1 Squier and Davis : " Anc. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley," p. 117. Short : 
 " The North Americans," p. 72. Foster: " Preh. Races," p. 112. 
 
 2 Professor Cox has discovered near Helena (Phillips county, Arkansas) a 
 similar wall ; only the clay instead of being mixed with dry grass encloses 
 numerous fragments of reeds. 
 
 * " Report, Peabody Museum," 1875, p. 17. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 1 05 
 
 There is no doubt that these trees are of later date than the 
 erection of the mounds ; but how much later than that erec- 
 tion was the seed from which these large trees were to spring 
 flung by a chance wind upon these piles of earth? 
 
 We have spoken of the trench protecting the mound of 
 New 'Madrid ; in other cases the protection consists of walls 
 of considerable height defending the approaches. At Ma- 
 tontiple a mound of considerable dimensions, and largely 
 made up of baked earth, was surrounded by a circle of 
 smaller mounds. At the junction of the Ohio and the 
 Muskingum are to be seen two parallelograms, the walls of 
 
 FlG. 27. Skull enclosed in an earthenware pot. 
 
 which are twenty-seven feet wide at their base. In the 
 middle of the larger one rise four pyramids, the summit of 
 three of which is reached by a flight of steps, whilst the fourth 
 is inaccessible. Two embankments start from the single 
 entrance of the enclosure, which is on the west, and run 
 down to the river, the approaches to which they would 
 appear to guard. On this account General Harrison has 
 classed Matontiple among fortifications, but the absence of 
 a ditch has led Squier to form a different opinion. 
 
 Let us now proceed with a rapid and very incomplete enu- 
 meration. One mound rises from the banks of the Etowah. 
 It is of irregular form ; it covers three acres of ground at its 
 
106 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 base, and it is flanked by two smaller mounds, representing 
 truncated cones with steep walls. 1 Messier Mound (Georgia) 
 is erected on a natural eminence. The height of the arti- 
 ficial mound is fifty-five feet, and the platform at its summit 
 measures one hundred and fifty-six by sixty-six feet. There 
 is no road up to this platform, and it is difficult to climb 
 to the top. 8 Messrs. Bertrand and W. Mackinley * also 
 speak of several conical mounds in the state of Georgia, 
 made up of strata, one on top of the other, perhaps dating 
 from different periods. The pyramid of Koleemokee is 
 especially remarkable ; it is no less than ninety-five feet high. 
 We must also mention a mound twenty-three feet high, situ- 
 ated in the Cumberland Valley, Tennessee; excavations 
 yielded neither bones, implements, nor pottery, but at a cer- 
 tain depth stones were met with arranged regularly, and 
 which may reasonably be compared with the cromlechs of 
 Ireland or of Wales. Recent discoveries have brought to 
 light a large tumulus twenty-five miles from Olympia, Wash- 
 ington Territory; and, if the accounts of travellers can be 
 trusted, its height is three hundred feet, far exceeding that 
 of any other mound yet found. There is a single truncated 
 pyramid eighty-eight feet high at Florence, Alabama, which 
 deserves mention on account of the regularity of its construc- 
 tion. Each side is arranged with a precision astonishing as 
 the work of people whom we have, till quite lately, looked 
 upon as wrapped in barbarism. 
 
 We have followed the descriptions of American writers, 
 who have had the advantage of writing and studying on the 
 spot these monuments of a by-gone time. Whilst accepting 
 their classification, however, in default of a better, we must 
 repeat that with regard to the "temples," as well as the 
 " sacred enclosures," there is no proof that they were used 
 for religious rites, and it is more probable that these rites 
 
 1 Whittlesey : " The Great Mound on Etowah River," Amer. Ass., Indian- 
 apolis, 1871. Traces of a trench are supposed to have been made out round 
 the mound ; according to Short (p. 82), its height is seventy-five feet. 
 
 'Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 267. 
 
 8 " Travels in North America," p. 223. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. IO7 
 
 were solemnized on the altars of which we are about to 
 speak. 
 
 The mounds intended as altars are some of them square, 
 some rectangular, and others circular or elliptical. Invari- 
 ably situated in an enclosure, they frequently consist of hori- 
 zontal layers of gravel, earth, and sand. Professor Andrews ' 
 has proved that this stratification is not, as hitherto supposed, 
 a universal custom. These materials cover an altar always 
 on a level with the soil, and made of flat stones, or of clay 
 hardened in the sun or by fire. Dr. Jones mentions an adobe 
 altar in Tennessee, on which it is easy to make out the marks 
 of the reeds upon which it had been moulded. In excep- 
 tional cases roughly made coffins of unhewn stone are 
 arranged round the altar. The size of these altars varies ad 
 infinitum : some are but of a few inches square, others on the 
 contrary are fifty feet long by fifteen feet wide. All bear 
 traces of exposure to violent heat, and excavations seem to 
 show that the objects offered up to the gods to whom these 
 altars were sacred had to be purified in the flames at the 
 time of sacrifice. 
 
 Under one of these altars have been found thousands of 
 hyaline quartz, obsidian, and manganese arrow-points, of ad- 
 mirable workmanship. All were mutilated and broken by 
 the action of the fire, and it was only after a long search that 
 three or four were found intact. Under another mound were 
 found more than six hundred hatchets, presenting a certain 
 analogy with the European hatchets, of St. Acheul. These 
 hatchets averaged seven inches long by four inches wide. 1 
 Under a third mound were exhumed two hundred calcined 
 pipes and some copper ornaments, the latter, in many cases, 
 covered with a thin plating of silver, all distorted by the fierce- 
 ness of the heat to which they had been subjected ; and lastly, 
 under other mounds, were discovered fragments of pottery, 
 obsidian implements, ivory and bone needles, so broken up 
 that their original length could not be determined, and scroll 
 
 1 " The Native Americans," p. 83, note 2. 
 
 * Squier : " Anc. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley," p. 213. 
 
io8 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 work cut out of very thin plates of mica, and pierced with 
 regular holes by which it could be suspended. 
 
 These differences between the objects dug up near the 
 different altars are important. Some have yielded spear- 
 heads and pipes ; others, fragments of pottery and needles ; 
 others, again, only chert with no marks of human workman- 
 ship. It is probable that the offerings varied according to 
 circumstances. 
 
 We must, however, add that lately doubts have arisen as 
 to the purpose of these mounds. These altars on a level 
 
 FIG. 28. Group near the Kickapoo River, Wisconsin. 
 
 with the ground, buried beneath heaps of sand or earth, ap- 
 pear strange, and are without precedent in the history of any 
 known religion. The question has been asked whether they 
 are not, after all, burial-places where cremation was the rite 
 performed. The great number of similar objects met with 
 seem to me to bear against this hypothesis, but this is a 
 point which later excavations and fresh discoveries alone 
 can determine. 
 
 Perhaps two groups recently discovered in Wisconsin 1 
 may be classed amongst sacrificial mounds. The first is 
 
 1 Conant, p. 20. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 
 
 109 
 
 situated in a low meadow near the Kickapoo River (fig. 28). 
 The height of the central mound, which represents a radiat- 
 ing circle, is but three feet ; its diameter is sixty feet, and 
 is surrounded by five crescentic ridges, rising scarcely two 
 feet above the ground, presenting a flat upper surface. Ex- 
 cavations show that these mounds were made up of white 
 sand and bluish clay. They have yielded only a considerable 
 number of plates and very thin fragments of mica. Mica 
 seems to have been much used by the Indian tribes of the 
 United States, who were able to obtain it. It is frequently 
 
 FIG. 29. Group of mounds (Wisconsin). 
 
 found in graves and on the altar places, especially in the 
 southeast, where it is particularly abundant in the mountain 
 districts of North Carolina and Virginia. 
 
 The second group (fig. 29), situated a short distance from 
 the first, is more complicated in its arrangement. It con- 
 sists of two circles separated by a pentagon and several de- 
 tached mounds. The diameter of the large circle is twelve 
 hundred feet. In the centre rises an altar, in connection 
 with which a romantic story about the offering up of human 
 sacrifices has been invented, which it is unnecessary to quote. 
 
 The most numerous mounds are those which rise from 
 
1 10 
 
 PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 graves ; at all ages and places man shows respect to the 
 mortal remains of him who was a man like himself. Affec- 
 tion for parents or friends, the universal notion of a future 
 life, vague and materialistic though it evidently was in that 
 stage of culture, perhaps also the desire of propitiating the 
 dead, or the fear of the vengeance of him whose corpse had 
 been profaned ; all these motives combine to produce the 
 respect for the dead which we meet with among most bar- 
 barous as well as most civilized people. 
 
 FIG. 30. Group of sepulchral mounds. 
 
 Sepulchral mounds (fig. 30), everywhere showing many 
 points of resemblance, are met with throughout the United 
 States. Frequent supplementary burials add to the origi- 
 nally great difficulties of studying them. At different 
 epochs they have been used by successive tribes of Indians, 
 and even by the whites, for the burial of their dead. It is, 
 however, often possible to distinguish the intrusive inter- 
 ments, which are near the surface, whilst the bodies placed 
 on a level with the ground certainly belonged to the race of 
 the builders of the mounds. There are few traditions relat- 
 ing to these mounds among the Indians, who generally 
 deny that they were the works of their ancestors, which often 
 may be true, so great are the migrations and changes which 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. Ill 
 
 have taken place during the last few centuries. Breclcen- 
 ridge, however, in speaking of the excavations of the Big 
 Mound (fig. 31), which a short time since was a prominent 
 object within the city limits of St. Louis, says that the In- 
 dians hastened to take from it the bones of one of their 
 chiefs. 
 
 Mounds are connected with very different rites, and 
 among them we meet with every form of burial in use in 
 Europe ; the bodies were sometimes extended horizontally, 
 sometimes doubled up. We noted at Sandy Woods settle- 
 ment the different positions of the bodies ; in Union county, 
 
 FIG. 31. Big Mound at St. Louis (Missouri). 
 
 Kentucky, the bodies were placed one upon another without 
 apparent method. 1 Cremation, too, was practised. In Mis- 
 souri the body was sometimes covered over with a layer of 
 clay, after which a huge funeral pile was lighted. Mention 
 has also been made of remains found in Ohio, covered with 
 a layer of clay made so hard by baking that it was only with 
 the greatest trouble that it could be cut into. 2 Gillman tells 
 of having found in Florida the ashes of the dead preserved 
 with pious care in human skulls. 3 In Kansas stones were 
 heaped over the body, forming a cairn. 4 In other places 
 
 'Lyon: "Smiths. Contr.," 1870. 
 1 " Burial Mounds in Ohio," Am. Ant., July, 1879. 
 1 Explorations in the vicinity of Aledo, Florida. 
 4 " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 717. 
 
112 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 skeletons have been found wrapped up in a few fragments 
 of coarse tissue, or in bandages of bark. Squier * describes 
 a sepulchre excavated under his direction in which the earth 
 had been levelled and a layer of bark placed beneath the 
 corpse. Round about lay some implements and a few orna- 
 ments, including two bear's teeth which were pierced ; above 
 the skeleton was a second layer of bark, carefully arranged, 
 and, piled upon these, earth, forming a mound. 
 
 Under a mound at Chillicothe, the skeleton was discovered 
 of a very tall woman who died young ; her teeth were all in- 
 tact, and at her feet lay the bones of a child. Beneath these 
 human remains was greasy black earth, in which the microscope 
 has revealed remains of animal matter and heaps of cinders. 
 Further excavations brought to light a great many other 
 bones. It is uncertain whether they were those of unfortu- 
 nates offered up in sanguinary rites, or merely of those 
 whose remains had been subjected to cremation as a mark 
 of respect. All the bodies lay on the left side, and by each 
 one was placed a vessel full of food, which would hardly 
 have been provided for victims. These are very character- 
 istic funeral rites. 
 
 Other explorers tell of vast cemeteries, or groups of 
 mounds, which they look upon as the sepulchres of great 
 chiefs. We shall mention the most important discoveries 
 and endeavor to show to what different rites they bear 
 witness. 
 
 Near New Madrid, Conant noticed that the bodies were 
 placed horizontally, with the head turned toward the centre 
 of the mound. Vessels were placed on the right and the 
 left, and a third was held upon the breast by the crossed 
 arms of the dead. Mr. H. Gillman mentions a burial 
 mound at Fort Wayne, where the confusion in which the 
 bones lay showed numerous secondary burials, but where in- 
 humation had always been the mode employed. Some pot- 
 tery vases give evidence of an art that had already made 
 progress. 
 
 1 " Ant. of the Mississippi Valley," p. 164. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 113 
 
 The excavations at Madisonville in the valley of the Lit- 
 tle Miami, Ohio, by Metz and Putnam, have yielded more 
 than six hundred skeletons of every age and of both sexes. 
 Near them were picked up numerous pots, some of them 
 decorated with incised designs. Two were decorated with 
 small medallions representing human heads. Other articles 
 found were stone pipes, arrow-points, knives, hammers, pol- 
 ished adzes, bone implements, and shell and copper orna- 
 ments. 1 
 
 No less interesting were Farquharson's excavations near 
 Davenport, Iowa. One of the mounds is thirty feet in di- 
 ameter and five feet high. The successive layers counting 
 from the top are : earth, one foot ; stones brought from the 
 bed of the river, one and one half feet ; second layer of earth, 
 one and one half feet ; layer of shells, two inches ; third 
 layer of earth, one foot ; second layer of shells, four inches. 
 Five skeletons stretched out horizontally rested on the last 
 layer. The objects placed with the dead consisted of a large 
 sea-shell (Busy con perversum L.) ; two unused copper axes 
 covered with a woven tissue of which the remains could still 
 be made out ; an awl also of copper, a stone arrow-point, and 
 two pipes one representing a frog. The human bones 
 crumbled to dust as soon as they were brought to light, so 
 that no examination was possible. The objects picked up in 
 the other mounds of Iowa were of a similar kind ; two pipes 
 are mentioned, one representing a pig, the other a bird, both 
 presenting a considerable resemblance to those of Ohio. We 
 must also mention the tooth of a gray bear, pierced with a hole 
 by which to hang it on a cord ; careful examination proved 
 this tooth not to be a real one, but an imitation in bone. 
 These people were therefore not wanting in powers of ob- 
 servation. Under a mound near Toolesborough, Iowa, was 
 picked up a shell alleged to be native to South America,' 
 which had been brought far away from the scenes where the 
 mollusk had lived to which it had belonged. 
 
 1 "Bulletin, Harvard University," June, 1881. 
 
 1 American Antiquarian, 1879. This statement requires confirmation by 
 an expert conchologist. 
 
1 14 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Deacon Elliot Frinck speaks of a skeleton buried head 
 downward.' This would be a curious fact, but it is one of 
 so exceptional a character in America as well as in the Old 
 World, that one cannot help thinking the corpse was origi- 
 nally placed in a sitting or doubled up posture, and that the 
 pressure of the earth or the decomposition of the body 
 caused the head to slip between the knees. In Wisconsin 
 the dead were wrapped in bandages of bark and seated 
 facing the east. No weapons or ornaments were placed 
 near them, and Dr. Lapham's numerous excavations have 
 produced nothing but three vases of very common pottery. 4 
 
 In other places, in Tennessee for instance, numerous 
 skeletons, apparently dating from the time of the Mound 
 Builders, have been found in caves. In one of these caves, 
 fifteen miles from Sparta, some human remains were found 
 enclosed in baskets made of rushes artistically plaited ; nor 
 is this an isolated instance. Heywood relates having seen 
 on Smith's Fork, near Cairo, the skeletons of a man and of a 
 woman laid in baskets. 8 Humboldt mentions similar facts 
 in Peru. 4 The most curious sepulchres are, however, those 
 in which the dead were buried between slabs of rough stone, 
 or in sepulchral chambers, recalling the chambered barrows 
 of England. 
 
 Since 1818, a cemetery has been found at Trenton, fif teen 
 miles from St. Louis, where the skeletons lay in cists made 
 of six stones, clumsily put together without cement of any 
 kind. The largest of these cists were not more than fifty 
 inches in length, and the bodies must have been curled up 
 in them, or the bones placed there after decomposition of 
 the flesh. Hence the popular belief, maintained to this day, 
 that Missouri and Tennessee were originally inhabited by a 
 race of pygmies. 
 
 1 Perkins : " Ancient Burial-Ground in Swanton, Vermont." " Rep. Am. 
 xVss.," Portland, 1873. 
 
 9 " Ant. of Wisconsin," " Smiths. Contr.," vol. VII. 
 
 * Jones : ' ' Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee." " Smiths. 
 Contr.," vol. XXII., Washington, 1876. 
 
 4 " Personal Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America," vol. II., p. 
 396 etseq. t Bolin's Edition, 1852. 
 
THE AfOUND BUILDERS. 11$ 
 
 Other discoveries have supplemented these. During the 
 session of the American Association for the Advancement 
 of Science, at Nashville, in 1877, several of the numer- 
 ous mounds of Tennessee were excavated. 1 Putnam was of 
 the opinion that they were the graves and the work of 
 the same race as that of which he had found cemeteries in 
 Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois. 2 These mounds were situ- 
 ated on a farm belonging to Miss Bowling. The skulls 
 were of similar form, the ornaments and pottery of similar 
 manufacture. The number of the skeletons was consider- 
 able. Their figure was estimated at between six and eight 
 hundred ; one of the sepulchres alone, excavated under the 
 personal superintendence of the learned keeper of the 
 Peabody Museum, yielded nearly fifty. The bodies with but 
 one exception were enclosed between slabs of unwrought 
 stone of varying size, and these sarcophagi were arranged 
 hap-hazard in successive layers. 3 Some were empty, doubt- 
 less awaiting the body that was to occupy them. The bodies 
 were stretched out horizontally, . and near each had been 
 placed pieces of pottery of various forms, 4 stone and bone 
 implements, and shell ornaments, the last souvenirs given to 
 the dead. In Madison county, Illinois, two stone cists were 
 found which have been described in detail by Bandelier. 
 They form a rectangle, each side of which is made of slabs 
 of limestone in their natural condition, showing no trace 
 of human workmanship. The bones were so mixed together 
 that they are supposed to have been thrown into the 
 cist after the decomposition of the flesh. Although the 
 antiquity of these bones seems to be great, one of the skulls 
 
 1 " Numerous stone graves containing human remains are at the present day 
 found along the banks of the rivers and streams in the fertile valleys, and around 
 the cool springs which abound in the limestone region of Tennessee and 
 Kentucky. These ancient repositories of the dead are frequently surrounded by 
 extensive earthworks." Dr. Jones. 
 
 s " Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, vol. II., p. 203, etc. 
 
 3 " Arch. Explorations in Tennessee," " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., 
 P- 305. 
 
 4 In the following chapter we shall recur to the very curious pieces of pottery 
 found in these excavations. 
 
Il6 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 has been recognized by competent judges as approaching the 
 type of the present Indian race. 
 
 More important work and more complicated arrangement 
 are seen in the chambered mounds. We mention first 
 one of the most remarkable tumuli, that of Grave Creek, 
 Virginia, at the junction of that stream with the Ohio. 
 This mound, which is of considerable size, encloses two 
 sepulchral chambers one at about thirty feet above the 
 other. They were built of beams, which, gradually giving 
 way, let the stones and earth piled up on the roof fall into 
 the vacant space and crush the skeletons which had been 
 laid in the chambers. The upper room contained but one 
 body, the lower two bodies one of a man, the other of 
 a woman. Beside them lay numerous mica ornaments, shell 
 collars, copper bracelets, and some fragments of hewn stone. 
 From the lower room was entered a larger one where 
 ten skeletons were found in a squatting posture, but un- 
 fortunately so much decomposed that they could not be sub- 
 jected to any scientific examination. It is supposed that 
 they were the remains of unfortunate victims immolated in 
 honor of the chief to whom the tomb was devoted. 
 
 At Harrisonville, Franklin county, Ohio, excavations have 
 brought to light rough stones placed one on top of the other, 
 without any trace of mortar ; after removing the earth, roots 
 and rubbish of all kinds covering it up, a room twelve feet 
 square was made out, with a hearth at the end still filled with 
 cinders and charcoal, round about which lay eight skeletons 
 of every age from the child to the old man. In the various 
 valleys of the same region rise similar mounds, in which have 
 been found numerous human bones, stone implements, and 
 fragments of pottery. In one of the skulls was stuck a 
 spear point about six inches long which had probably in- 
 flicted the death wound. Some of the crypts had vaulted 
 roofs ' the better to resist the pressure of the earth above. 
 
 1 " Recent explorations of many mounds have disclosed vaults walled and 
 covered with stone, some of large dimensions, with contents similar to those of 
 Utah," Conant : " Foot prints of Vanished Races, "p. 75. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 117 
 
 These sepulchral chambers are chiefly met with in the 
 central states. Excavations in Big Mound, St. Louis, of 
 which we have already spoken (fig. 31), and which was only 
 destroyed in 1869, brought to light the existence of a crypt 
 measuring thirty feet high by one hundred and fifty feet long. 1 
 The walls were not of stone like those just mentioned but of 
 compact clay carefully smoothed. It is supposed that the 
 roof had been formed of beams for supporting the weight of 
 earth. This is a plan followed in many neighboring mounds, 
 dating probably from the same epoch. The bodies were 
 stretched upon the bare ground, all the heads being turned 
 toward the east. In the black mould covering the bones, 
 broken into fragments by the fall of earth from above, 
 were picked up a considerable number of shells, chiefly the 
 shells of fresh-water mussels, which are very abundant in the 
 neighborhood, and a pretty sea-shell the Marginella apicina 
 of Lamarck ; also shell beads, somewhat like those found in 
 Ohio, and cut out of the Busycon perversum so abundant in 
 the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 It is proved beyond a doubt by numerous instances that 
 cremation was practised in certain cases by the Mound 
 Builders, who at the same time in other cases disposed 
 of their dead by inhumation. We have been speaking of the 
 sepulchral chambers of the Missouri ; Curtiss speaks of 
 important groups on both sides of the river. Three of these 
 he had excavated under his own superintendence ; the crypts 
 formed a square of eight feet with a height of four to five feet, 
 and a passage several feet long ended in an opening facing 
 the east. Toward the base the walls were five feet thick 
 gradually decreasing to the top, and built of stone, without 
 mortar or cement of any kind. One of the crypts was 
 closed with great slabs ; the others had probably been 
 shut in with beams, long since disappeared. Each of them 
 enclosed several skeletons, 1 all of which had been subjected 
 
 1 Breckenridge : "Views of Louisiana." When the excavations took 
 place this crypt had already been disturbed, but it could still be distinguished 
 over an area seventy-two feet in length. Conant, /. c., p. 42. 
 
 * In one of the crypts Curtiss says he made out five skeletons ; in an- 
 
Il8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 to fierce heat. The human bones were mixed with cinders, 
 bits of charcoal, and animal bones, which were piled upon 
 the ground several inches high, and amongst the remains the 
 explorers discovered several all but unrecognizable frag- 
 ments of pottery, some stone implements, and a shark's 
 tooth. Excavations were also carried on under a large 
 mound near by, but no traces of cremation were met with in 
 it. The bodies were stretched horizontally on the ground, 
 and Mr. Curtiss was able to make a valuable collection 
 of implements, stone weapons, and carefully manufactured 
 pieces of pottery. What were the relations between the 
 men who buried their dead and their neighbors who burnt 
 them ? Did they belong to the same races ? Did they 
 live at the same epoch ? There are no means of replying 
 with any certainty to these questions. 
 
 Missouri is not the only region where cremation was 
 practised. Dr. Andrews speaks of some burnt human bones 
 found in Connett's Mound, near Dover, Athens county, 
 Ohio, which distinctly prove that the corpse had been re- 
 duced to ashes by fire. 1 Before cremation the body seems 
 to have been placed in a wooden coffin. The presence of 
 remains of various matters used for food, such as those met 
 with in the shell-heaps, points to the practice of feasting in 
 connection with the funeral ceremonies. Dr. Larkin comes to 
 the same conclusions after the excavation of a mound in the 
 state of New York. 3 Under one of the mounds rising in 
 the Pishtaka valley, Lapham collected some burnt clay, some 
 stones almost converted into lime by the action of intense 
 heat, some pieces of charcoal, and among all these a 
 half calcined human shin-bone. Squier also mentions sev- 
 eral instances of skeletons still showing traces of the fire 
 which consumed the flesh. 
 
 We may also mention a mound of oval form situated 
 in Florida. The two axes of the base measure respectively 
 
 other, thirteen. " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 717. See also E. 
 P. West, Western Review, Feb., 1879. 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1877, vol. II., p. 59. 
 
 '"Report, Peabody Museum," 1880, vol. II., p. 722. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. lig 
 
 ninety-eight and eighty-eight feet. At different depths 
 varying from one to fifteen feet numerous human bones 
 have been picked up, bearing witness to a whole series 
 of burials. With these bones were found several vases 
 of remarkable execution and ornamentation, some frag- 
 ments of quartz, and a stone hatchet. As the excava- 
 tions proceeded, cinders, and half-consumed human bones 
 were found ; they had been collected and placed in a 
 skull which unfortunately crumbled to dust as soon as 
 it was brought to light. This is not a solitary instance, 
 for we have already spoken of other cases in point. Did 
 these skulls, the presence of which certainly proves the 
 use of a special funeral ceremony, belong to the men whose 
 bodies had been burned ? It is difficult to say ; for if on 
 the one hand the skulls bear no mark of fire, there are on the 
 other no remains of skulls among the human fragments col- 
 lected. We must add that some of the long bones seem to 
 have been split ; if this be really the case and we attach to it 
 its natural interpretation, cannibalism was not unknown 
 among the Mound Builders. 
 
 We may also mention the excavations made in 1874, in- 
 to the mounds on the Mississippi, opposite the town of 
 Muscatine. They yielded human bones, and above the bones 
 charcoal and burnt earth, a positive proof that a large fire 
 had been lighted after burial. This was still another mode 
 of conducting the funeral ceremony. 1 
 
 Cremation is still practised amongst some of the In- 
 dians of North America. John Leconte speaks of having 
 witnessed scenes of this description amongst the Kokopas 
 settled near Fort Yuma, at the junction of the Colorado and 
 the Gila. A deep trench had been dug and wood piled up 
 before the parents and friends brought the body. The faces 
 of the men were painted black ; the women howled and sung 
 funeral hymns alternately. When the body was half 
 consumed, an old man, one of the chiefs of the tribe, ap- 
 proached it and with a pointed stick tore out both the eyes 
 
 1 American Antiquarian, 1879, 3d quarter, p. 99. 
 
I2O 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 and held first one and then the other toward the sun, saying 
 a few words which, according to the guide who accompanied 
 Leconte, were a prayer for the deceased. When all was 
 over and the fire put out, the assistant carefully collected 
 the ashes and the calcined bones to give them back to 
 the family of the departed. 1 
 
 To conclude our remarks on sepulchral mounds we must 
 mention some facts hitherto little known, and which il- 
 lustrate still better the honors rendered by the Mound 
 Builders to their chiefs, and the pious care with which their 
 funerals were conducted. A group of mounds (fig. 32) rises 
 
 FIG. 32. Group of mounds at the junction of Straddle Creek and Plumb 
 River, Illinois. 
 
 at the junction of Straddle Creek and Plumb River, Car- 
 roll county, Illinois. 9 The forms of these mounds vary; 
 some are conical, others are more or less complete circles. 
 Excavations have yielded cinders and a residuum of black 
 mould. It is supposed that these mounds were the burial- 
 places of men who burned their dead, that each family had 
 its tomb, and when one of the members died his ashes were 
 laid beside those of his people and covered with a layer 
 of earth, and that this was continued until a cone about two 
 feet high was formed. The circles and half circles are sup- 
 
 111 Cremation Amongst North American Indians." Am. Ass., New York, 
 1874. 
 * Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 17. 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 121 
 
 posed to indicate tombs the inmates of which were not 
 numerous, but whose families had become extinct or dis- 
 persed, so that the graves were never filled. We give this 
 explanation for what it is worth, only adding that similar 
 burial-places are met with in all the districts west of the 
 Mississippi, in the Ohio valley, Michigan, and many of the 
 northern states. 
 
 At about two hundred and eighty yards from the group 
 we have just noticed another has been discovered, dating ap- 
 parently from the same epoch, in which the bodies were 
 simply interred. It is alleged that tradition ascribes this 
 change in the mode of burial to obedience to the prophets of 
 the tribe, who were alarmed by an eclipse of the sun which 
 occurred whilst the body of one of their chiefs was be- 
 ing burnt. Without attaching more importance than it 
 deserves to this asserted tradition, we will merely add that 
 the fact of the simultaneous practice amongst the same 
 people of two funeral rites so different as cremation and in- 
 terment would surprise us more, if we did not know of many 
 analogous examples among the various races of Europe. 
 
 The second group (fig. 33) discovered in Minnesota, on the 
 northern bank of the St. Peter's River, about sixty miles 
 from its junction with the Mississippi, is of more com- 
 plicated appearance. It includes twenty-six mounds placed 
 at regular distances from each other, and forming together a 
 large rectangle. 1 The central mound (a) represents a turtle 
 forty feet long by twenty-seven feet wide and twelve feet 
 high. It is almost entirely formed of yellow clay, foreign to 
 the locality, and doubtless brought from a distance. On the 
 north and south rise two mounds (d) of triangular form, com- 
 posed of red earth, covered with a thin layer of soil. Each 
 of these mounds is twenty-seven feet long by about six feet 
 wide at the wider end, gradually decreasing toward the 
 opposite end, which scarcely rises above the level of the soil. 
 At each corner rises a circular mound (_/") twelve feet high by 
 twenty-five feet in diameter. On the cast and west are two 
 
 l Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 18. 
 
122 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 elongated mounds (c) sixty feet long with a diameter of 
 twelve feet. Two smaller mounds (e) on the right and 
 left of the turtle are each twelve feet long by four feet 
 high. They consist of white sand mixed with numerous 
 fragments of mica and covered with a layer of clay and 
 a second one of vegetable mould. The two mounds (#) 
 differ in height ; that on the south being twelve feet high by 
 twenty-seven feet in diameter, whilst that on the north 
 is only four feet high, with a diameter of twenty-two feet. 
 Lastly thirteen little mounds, the dimensions of which 
 are not given, complete this remarkable group, which must 
 have cost the builders all the more work because part of the 
 
 FIG. 33. The burial-place of the Black Tortoise. 
 
 materials can only have been obtained from a considerable 
 distance. 
 
 Here is the explanation given by Conant, of the whole 
 group. The principal tomb (a) would be the last home of 
 a great chief, the Black Tortoise ; the four mounds (/) which 
 form the corners of the quadrangle were also erected as a 
 sign of the mourning of the tribe ; the secondary mounds 
 would be the tombs of other chiefs, and the little mounds 
 erected in the north and south correspond with the number 
 of bodies which had been deposited in them. The two 
 pointed mounds (d) indicate that the Black Tortoise was 
 the last of his race, and the two large mounds the 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 123 
 
 importance of that race and the dignity that had be- 
 longed to it. Lastly, the two mounds (e) on the right 
 and left of the royal tomb mark the burial-places of the 
 prophets or soothsayers, who even to our own day play 
 a great part among the Indian tribes. The fragments of 
 mica found in their tombs would indicate their rank. It 
 may be said that in the absence of any accurate information 
 whatever, as to the origin and use of these mounds, the pre- 
 ceding hypothesis is not more unfounded than many others 
 which might be invented. 
 
 Of all the mounds erected on American soil, the most 
 curious are without doubt those representing animals, first 
 noticed and described by Mr. W. Pidgeon in 1853. They 
 are met with in Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and 
 generally speaking in all the states of the far west ; but 
 the chief centre of these singular erections seems to have 
 been Wisconsin, where they are very numerous. Some 
 archaeologists think that the animal mounds may perhaps 
 have been intended to represent the totem or distinctive 
 symbol of a clan. This symbol is often an animal, such as 
 the eagle, wolf, bear, turtle, or fqx, but, if the observations 
 made may be relied on, they are as often representations of 
 objects not totemic as otherwise. They represent men with 
 the trunk, head, arms, and legs, still recognizable ; mammals 
 sixty-five yards long; birds 1 with outspread wings measuring 
 more than thirty-two yards from tip to tip ; reptiles, turtles, 
 and " lizards " of colossal dimensions ; and, lastly, Pidgeon 
 mentions having seen in Minnesota a huge spider, whose 
 body and legs covered an acre of ground. 
 
 These mounds of diverse form are grouped without ap- 
 parent order, now by the side of pyramids or truncated 
 cones, now in the midst of circles or rectangles connected 
 with the structures we are about to describe. At Pewaukee, 
 Wisconsin, seven turtles, two " lizards," and four mounds of 
 
 1 Mounds of the form of birds have recently been discovered in Putnam 
 county, Georgia. This is an interesting fact, for hitherto such mounds had 
 only been found in the northern and western states. ' ' Bird-shaped mounds 
 in Putnam county, Georgia," Anthr. Inst. of Great Britain and Ireland, 1879. 
 
124 
 
 PRE-H1STOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 elliptical form can be made out together. One of the turtles, 
 the largest yet discovered, measures no less than four hun- 
 dred and fifty feet. A little farther off, in Dane Co., we meet 
 with a group of quadrupeds, buffaloes according to some 
 authorities, pumas according to others. Their length varies 
 from eighty-two to one hundred and fourteen feet. In other 
 places an observer of lively imagination can make out elks, 
 bears, wolves, panthers, eagles, wild geese, herons, even frogs. 
 What is more certain than their form, however, is, that in the 
 vast western plains these ridges can easily be seen from a 
 distance, though their height seldom exceeds two yards, and 
 
 FIG. 34. Mound supposed to represent a man. 
 
 often amounts only to a few inches. We may as well add 
 that nothing has been found in the numerous excavations 
 made into mounds of this description, and that some archae- 
 ologists are bold enough to doubt the very existence as 
 artificial structures of many of those which have been de- 
 scribed. However, from among the most celebrated mounds 
 of this sort we select a human figure (fig. 34), in which the 
 design may be admitted. It is stated that a more or less 
 ancient tradition alleges that this mound was erected in 
 honor of a chief killed in battle. The little mound placed 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 
 
 125 
 
 between the legs was sacred to the memory of his son, killed 
 fighting by the side of his father. We may also refer to the 
 "alligator," of Granville, Ohio, (fig. 35); the length of the 
 
 FIG. 35. Curved section of the mountain, and plan of the so-called alligator 
 
 mound. 
 
 FIG. 36. Mound supposed to represent a mastodon. 
 
 body is two hundred and five feet, that of each foot is 
 twenty feet ; it is evidently not an alligator, for the abo- 
 rigines were too good observers to give an alligator a round 
 
126 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 head. It might have been intended for an otter, or the 
 great salamander (tnenopoma), if really designed for an 
 animal at all. Another has been claimed as a mastodon 
 (fig. 36), and is situated a short distance from the junction 
 of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi rivers. It is considered 
 to be a surprising likeness by archaeologists who are not 
 zoologists. 
 
 Other enthusiastic investigators have discovered in Wiscon- 
 sin a monkey 160 feet long. Its alleged tail forms a semi- 
 circle, which, uncurled, would measure no less than 320 feet. 1 
 In one of those in Wisconsin a bird is represented just about 
 to take flight, and under one of its wings is a little elliptical 
 
 mound. Lapham thinks he makes 
 out a complete allegory in this : 
 The bird is taking to the land of 
 spirits the soul of him to whom 
 the mound is sacred, and this soul 
 is represented by the little mound 
 under the wing of the bird. 4 
 
 We must not omit the great 
 
 FIG. 37- -Basalt cup from Mexico. gnake set upon a hijl overlook- 
 ing Brush Creek, Adams county, Ohio. His coils are 
 about 700 feet long, and he appears to be swallowing an egg, 
 which he holds in his mouth and which is represented by 
 a mound, the large axis of which measures 160 feet. Proba- 
 bly we have an allegory here also. The serpent plays an 
 important part in the mythology of the American aborig- 
 ines. We find it represented on their pottery. Out of 
 eighteen Busycon shells, now in the Peabody Museum, 
 which had served as ornaments to these unknown people, 
 thirteen are engraved with the figure of a serpent. The 
 National Museum at Washington possesses a pipe rep- 
 resenting a human figure with a serpent coiled round 
 the neck ; and that of Mexico, a vase remarkable for the 
 elegance of its shape, the handle of which is formed by a 
 serpent, (fig. 37). 
 
 'Foster, "Prehistoric Races," p. 101. 
 
 ' " Ant. of Wisconsin," pi. XLVI., fig. 4, 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. I2/ 
 
 We have other yet more curious instances. In several 
 places, though we cannot interpret its meaning, we meet 
 with the representation of a serpent swallowing the head of 
 a turtle. The Dominican monks of Mexico have preserved 
 and set up over their entrance gate an antique bas-relief 
 representing a serpent crushing a human victim in his coils. 
 At Chichen Itza colossal serpents are carved on the walls of 
 the palace. Near Jalapa, in the province of Vera Cruz, a 
 serpent fifteen feet long is distinguishable sculptured on a 
 rock, 1 and similar serpents are found in the bas-reliefs of the 
 temple of Huitzilopochtli, which dates from the time of the 
 Aztecs, as well as on the walls of the buildings of Cuzco, 
 witnessing to Peruvian splendor. 
 
 The very name of some races recalls the worship of the 
 serpent. The Nahuas, who share with the Mayas the 
 honor of having enjoyed the highest known civilization 
 of ancient America, are often called the Culhuas, or the 
 men of the race of the serpent ; among the Mayas the 
 empire of Xibalba was known under the name of the Do- 
 minion of the Chanes, or serpents. May we not trace to this 
 origin the veneration in which certain Indian tribes of New 
 Mexico still hold the rattlesnake ? They keep it in certain 
 caves of their mountains, the entrances to which they hide 
 with jealous care, and it is said they go to worship it in 
 secret. 2 
 
 On the northern banks of the Wisconsin rises a strange 
 group (fig. 38), which is a true puzzle to explorers. 8 It in- 
 cludes one figure 180 feet long, placed horizontally, and an- 
 other 1 60 feet long, arranged perpendicularly with regard to 
 the former. The latter abuts upon a ridge eighty feet long 
 by six feet high and twenty-seven feet in diameter. On the 
 same line are a series of mounds of conical shape and gradu- 
 ated size, the largest representing the same diameter as that 
 of the above-mentioned ridge. The first figure has been re- 
 
 1 Rivero, " Hist, de Jalapa, Mexico," vol. I., p. 7. 
 
 a Bandelier : " Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos." 
 
 * Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 32, etc. 
 
128 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 garded as an elk, the second as human. The horns of the 
 elk are of unequal size, and at its feet is one of the triangu- 
 lar mounds which have been supposed to typify the extinc- 
 tion of a race. This group is explained as intended to com- 
 memorate the alliance of two tribes, of which the elk and 
 the buffalo were the totem or the symbols. These once pow- 
 erful tribes, exhausted by long and bloody struggles, united 
 for the common defence, and their alliance is indicated by 
 the touching of the man's hand and the elk's foot. The 
 two mounds on the right and the left are regarded as 
 altars, on which sacrifices were offered to commemorate the 
 union of the two tribes. A layer of burnt earth, cinders, and 
 
 FlG. 38. The so-called "man and the elk " mounds in Wisconsin. 
 
 charcoal, fourteen inches thick, seems to justify this supposi- 
 tion. An old tree has pushed its roots beneath the mounds ; 
 and its 424 concentric rings of growth form the only guide 
 we have as to the age of this interesting group. Why one 
 tribe was represented by its symbol and the other not, is not 
 explained by the above hypothesis. 
 
 Several mounds show a variety worthy of remark. Some 
 animals of dimensions pretty nearly resembling those of 
 which we have just spoken, are represented, not by ridges 
 but by ditches. We mention this fact, while we fully recog- 
 nize that in such a matter imagination is offered unlimited 
 scope. 
 
 In other places representations of inanimate objects are 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS, 12<) 
 
 spoken of, such as a cross on the shores of Lake Michigan, 1 
 and a Greek cross in Ohio about twenty-nine yards long, 
 with a large hollow in the centre about six yards deep. 
 We may also mention a cross in the valley formed by the 
 Rock River. The arms of this cross appear to be equal, 
 but the plow has already commenced its work of destruc- 
 tion, and it is impossible to determine the length. A 
 mound on the banks of the Scioto a represents a boat fifty- 
 two yards long by about thirty yards wide, and a little 
 farther off the explorer makes out some groups which he 
 may call, according to the fancy of the moment, clubs or 
 pipes. We are not disposed to attach importance to resem- 
 blances probably quite accidental. 
 
 Although incredulous as to certain interpretations which 
 some would have accepted, it is difficult to repress surprise 
 in contemplating the admittedly genuine works accom- 
 plished by these vanished people with only the help of 
 stone tools, baskets, and persistent manual labor. In 
 metals they had at most some copper implements. Iron 
 and bronze appear to have been practically unknown to 
 them, and in no part of a vast territory they occupied have 
 excavations revealed the existence or the use of any metal but 
 native copper, with its associated silver, gold and a few frag- 
 ments of meteoric iron. But our astonishment is redoubled 
 when we find these men digging canals to establish water 
 communication, a striking proof of a numerous population, 
 and a decided advance on the nomadic state, though, as evi- 
 denced by numerous Asiatic peoples, not necessarily an indi- 
 cation of a high degree of culture. Lately traces of such 
 canals have been made out in Missouri. Dr. G. Swallow, 
 State Geologist of Missouri, calls the attention of archaeolo- 
 gists to them, and describes one fifty feet wide by twelve 
 feet deep. There are others in different places. All are of 
 systematic design, and, according to that gentleman, they 
 
 1 Lapham : "Ant. of Wisconsin," pp. 20 and 39, pi. XXXI., figs. 2 and 3. 
 * W. de Hass : "Arch, of the Mississippi Valley," Rep. Am. Assoc., 
 Chicago, 1868. 
 
130 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 are executed with intelligent reference to the difficulties of 
 the ground. Earthquakes have in many places destroyed 
 the traces of these canals the progress of civilization is per- 
 petually levelling their embankments but the works can 
 still be made out, and on a line seventy miles long a series 
 of canals can be recognized connecting the Mississippi with 
 Big Lake, Cushion and Collins lakes. 1 These people may 
 have navigated the canals in boats, which we can confidently 
 assert they knew how to hollow out, with the aid of fire, 
 from the trunks of trees. 2 Similar processes were employed 
 in Europe in the early days of navigation. Recent discov- 
 eries have suggested the existence of pile-dwellings rising 
 from the Great Lakes of the north. 3 All over the earth 
 similar wants have led to similar efforts of intelligence and 
 similar products of industry. This is a fact of very great 
 importance. 
 
 In closing this chapter, what, it may be asked, are we to 
 believe was the character of the race to which for the pur- 
 pose of clearness we have for the time being applied the 
 term, " Mound Builders " ? The answer must be, they were 
 no more nor less than the immediate predecessors in blood 
 and culture of the Indians described by De Soto's chronicler 
 and other early explorers, the Indians who inhabited the 
 region of the mounds at the time of their discovery by 
 civilized men. As, in the far north, the Aleuts up to the 
 time of their discovery were, by the testimony of the shell- 
 heaps, as well as their language, the direct successors of the 
 early Eskimo, 4 so in the fertile basin of the Mississippi, the 
 Indians were the builders or the successors of the builders 
 of the singular and varied structures just described. It is 
 true that a very different opinion has been widely enter- 
 tained, chiefly by those who were not aware of the historical 
 
 1 Letter from M. Carlton, quoted by Conant : "Footprints of Vanished 
 Races," p. 78. 
 
 4 Schoolcraft : " Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. I., p. 76. 
 
 * Am. Antiquarian, Jan., 1881, p. 141. 
 
 4 "See Contributions to North American Ethnology," vol. I., 1877. Article 
 2. " On Succession in the Shell-heaps of the Aleutian Islands." 
 
THE MOUND BUILDERS. 13! 
 
 evidence. Even Mr. Squier who, in his famous work on the 
 ancient monuments of the Mississippi valley, makes no dis- 
 tinction in these remains, but speaks of the Mound Builders 
 as an extinct race and contrasts their progress in- the arts 
 with the supposed low condition of the modern Indians, in 
 a subsequent publication felt compelled to modify his views 
 and distinguish between the earthworks of western New 
 York, which he admits to be of purely Indian origin, and 
 those found in southern Ohio. 1 Further researches have 
 shown that no line can be drawn between the two ; the dif- 
 ferences are merely of degree. For the most part the 
 objects found in them, from the rude knife to the carved and 
 polished " gorget," might have been taken from the inmost 
 recesses of a mound or picked up on the surface among the 
 debris of a recent Indian village, and the most experienced 
 archaeologist could not decide which was their origin. Lucien 
 Carr * has recently reviewed the whole subject in a manner 
 which cannot but carry conviction to the impartial archaeolo- 
 gist, but the conclusions he arrives at have the weight of 
 other and, as all will admit, most distinguished authority. 8 
 
 1 " Smithsonian Contr. to Knowledge," ii., p. 83, 1851. 
 
 * " Mounds of the Mississippi Valley," " Memoirs of the Kentucky Geological 
 Survey," vol. II., 1883. 
 
 1 The earthworks ' ' differ less in kind than in degree from other remains 
 respecting which history has not been entirely silent." HAVEN. " There is 
 nothing indeed in the magnitude and structure of our western mounds which a 
 semi-hunter and semi-agricultural population, like that which may be ascribed 
 to the ancestors or Indian predecessors of the existing race, could not have ex- 
 ecuted." SCHOOLCRAFT. " All these earthworks and I am inclined to assert 
 the same of the whole of those in the Atlantic States and the majority in the 
 Mississippi Valley were the production, not of some mythical tribe of high 
 civilization in remote antiquity, but of the identical nations found by the whites 
 residing in these regions." BRINTON. " No doubt that they were erected by 
 the forefathers of the present Indians." Gen. LEWIS CASS. " Nothing in 
 them which may not have been performed by a savage people." GALLATIN. 
 " The old idea that the mound builders were peoples distinct from and other 
 than the Indians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and their progenitors, 
 appears unfounded in fact, and fanciful." C. C. JONES. " Mound builders 
 were tribes of American Indians of the same race with the tribes now living." 
 Judge M. F. FORCE. " The progress of discovery seems constantly to 
 diminish the distinction between the ancient and modern races ; and it may 
 
132 PKE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 It is not asserted that the mounds were built by any par- 
 ticular tribe, or at any particular period, nor that each and 
 every tribe of the Mississippi valley erected such structures, 
 nor that there were not differences of culture and pro- 
 ficiency in the arts between different tribes of mound 
 builders as between the modern Indian tribes now known. 
 
 All that can be claimed is that there is nothing in the 
 mounds beyond the power of such people as inhabited the 
 region when discovered ; that those people are known to 
 have constructed many of the mounds now or recently exist- 
 ing, and that there is no evidence that any other or different 
 people had any hand in the construction of those mounds 
 in regard to which direct historical evidence is wanting. 
 
 " Summing up the results that have been attained, it may 
 be safely said that, so far from there being any a priori rea- 
 son why the red Indians could not have erected these works, 
 the evidence shows conclusively that in New York and the 
 Gulf States they did build mounds and embankments that 
 are essentially of the same character as those found in 
 Ohio." 
 
 " In view of these results, and of the additional fact that 
 these same Indians are the only people, except the whites, 
 who, so far as we know, have ever held the region over 
 which these works are scattered, it is believed that we are 
 fully justified in claiming that the mounds and inclosures of 
 Ohio, like those in New York and the Gulf States, were the 
 work of the red Indians of historic times, or of their imme- 
 diate ancestors. To deny this conclusion, and to accept its 
 alternative, ascribing these remains to a mythical people of 
 a different civilization, is to reject a simple and satisfactory 
 explanation of a fact in favor of one that is far-fetched and 
 incomplete, and this is neither science nor logic." (Carr, 
 /. c., p. 107.) 
 
 not be very wide of the truth to assert that they were the same people." 
 LAPHAM. See CARR, /. c., p. 4, note. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS OF THE MOUND 
 BUILDERS. 
 
 THE humblest forms of ceramic art were among the first 
 inventions of the human race. Dishes of some sort are in- 
 dispensable for holding the food of man, and no matter how 
 remote the age to which we look back, we find them among 
 the relics telling of his presence. They were used in re- 
 ligious ceremonies ; they played a part in funereal honors in 
 countries differing greatly from each other, and in accordance 
 with a sacred rite they were placed beside the dead. A 
 potter's college was founded at Rome by Numa ; a family 
 of potters, workmen of the king, is mentioned in the gene- 
 alogy of the tribe of Judah, and the author of Ecclesiastes 
 speaks of them seated near the wheel that they turn with 
 their feet. Agathocles, King of Sicily, according to Dio- 
 dorus Siculus, gave to his friends vases of precious metals, 
 telling them that they were copied from earthenware models 
 fashioned by himself when he was a potter ; and every one 
 has heard of the curious pottery discovered at Troy by Dr. 
 Schliemann. The most beautiful belonged to the town of 
 Dardanus, of which it is related that it was destroyed by his 
 grandson Hercules. 1 All these sorts of pottery, however, 
 show an already considerable advance in ceramic art, and we 
 are doubtless far from any knowledge of the very first essays 
 of this description ; they would be too coarsely executed and 
 too badly baked to have been preserved to our day. In the 
 earliest days of his existence, man must have observed the 
 adhesiveness and plasticity of the damp clay lying at his 
 feet." Chance perhaps in the first instance may have led 
 
 1 " Iliad," Book V., verse 642. 
 
 * " Clay is a material so generally diffused, and its plastic nature so easily dis- 
 
 133 
 
134 PRE-HISTORlC AMERICA. 
 
 him to knead it ; a ball, the plaything of- the moment, flung 
 hastily away, may have been hardened by the powerful rays 
 of the sun. The impressions made upon it resembled those 
 in the rock, where the same man went to draw the water he 
 needed. Facts such as these could not have escaped his ob- 
 servation, and appealed to the love of imitation innate in 
 human nature. Fire was found to dry his rude pots quicker 
 than the sun, and man learned to turn it to account. The 
 cooking of his food was one of man's first advances, and was 
 once considered as the primary distinction between him and 
 an animal ; observation supplemented by reflection must 
 have led him to encase in earth the food or the calabashes 
 he submitted to the heat of his fire. Goguet relates that in 
 1503 Captain Gonneville visited some Indians who had 
 amongst them wooden dishes, which they covered with a 
 thick coating of clay before putting them near the fire. 1 
 Cook mentions 2 dishes seen at Unalashka " made of a flat 
 stone with sides of clay not unlike a standing pye." In 
 other places pots have been met with which appear to have 
 been hardened by putting red-hot coals in the interior. 3 
 
 The natives of Murray Island cook their food in a hole dug 
 in the earth, which they are careful to line with well kneaded 
 clay before lighting the fire. The Indians of the Gulf of 
 Florida moulded their pottery on gourds, and to support the 
 large pots until baked they covered them with baskets made 
 of rushes, creepers, or even of netting, the marks of which 
 on the baked clay can still be made out. 4 Some must have 
 been moulded on or in coarse tissues, or wooden moulds, 
 which were destroyed in the baking, though indelible 
 
 covered, that the art of working it does not exceed the intelligence of the 
 rudest savage." Birch : " Ancient Pottery," Introduction, p. i. 
 
 1(1 Memoire touchant 1'etablissement d'une mission chretienne dansle troisi- 
 eme monde, autrement appele la Terre Australe," Paris, 1663, published by 
 the Abbe Paulmier de Gonneville, one of the descendants of the captain. 
 
 2 " Voyage to the Pacific Ocean," 1784, vol. II., p. 511. 
 
 *One of these can be seen in the Peabody Museum. It is marked No. 7,750 
 in the catalogue. 
 
 4 Rau: "Indian Pottery," Smiths. Contr., 1866. Tylor : "Early History 
 of Mankind," p. 73. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 13$ 
 
 traces of them exist to this day. Many methods may have 
 been employed in the fabrication of the first pottery ; 
 probably all were tried and led to or perfected this useful 
 discovery. 
 
 As already stated, fragments of pottery have been found 
 in America in the caves which were the first dwelling-places 
 of man, under the shell-heaps which bear witness to his long 
 sojourn ; but it is chiefly in the mounds, and above all in the 
 sepulchral mounds, that the most important specimens have 
 been found. 
 
 Funeral vases date from the most remote antiquity. The 
 belief in immortality, with which human nature is so deeply 
 imbued, is vividly revealed. Man, however savage, however 
 degraded we may suppose him to be, looks confidently be- 
 yond this life, which for him passes so rapidly away. He 
 does not admit that he is to disappear for ever, like the grass 
 he treads beneath his feet, or the animals subject to his 
 needs or his pleasures. His imagination doubtless does not 
 soar beyond the enjoyments of a purely material existence, 
 free from work and anxiety ; but he endeavors to assure to 
 those he has loved here that existence in the unknown world 
 to which death has taken them. Hence the numerous and 
 varied objects found in tombs, secret tokens left by men of 
 every age and every clime. 
 
 It is in the valleys of the Missouri and its tributaries that 
 we meet with the pieces of pottery most interesting alike in 
 their form and ornamentation. 1 The country had been in- 
 habited by men owning towns, a government, a religious 
 system, and artistic tastes tribes more advanced in culture 
 than many of their relatives the Indians with whom the 
 French, the first explorers of the Mississippi and the Mis- 
 souri, had later to contend. St. Louis, one of the towns 
 founded by the French, is sometimes called Mound City, on 
 account of the number of mounds surrounding it, and which 
 long remained unnoticed by the rough laborers who were 
 
 1 E. Evers : " Ancient Pottery of Missouri," Saint Louis Academy of Sciences, 
 1880. Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," Saint Louis, 1879. 
 
1 36 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the first colonists of the country. Judging from the objects 
 they contain, these mounds are less ancient than those of 
 Ohio or of Wisconsin. The fragments of pottery found in 
 them are innumerable. One mound is mentioned in which 
 more than a thousand specimens have been collected. 1 The 
 burial-places excavated at Sandy Woods have yielded nearly 
 as many. 8 Some suppose the numerous fragments found in 
 some parts of Michigan to point to the existence of actual 
 manufactories. 8 The collections of the St. Louis Academy 
 contain four thousand carefully selected specimens, and 
 doubtless a very much greater number must have been des- 
 troyed and scattered before their importance was suspected. 
 In the state of Vermont, for instance, only six pieces are 
 mentioned as intact amongst all those discovered. 4 These 
 fragments, which have defied the wear and tear of centuries, 
 are the imperishable witnesses of men, the very memory of 
 whom has been completely lost to those who succeeded 
 them. 
 
 The pottery manufactured in America was evidently 
 very superior to that produced in Europe during the same 
 period of development. 6 It is also probable that many of 
 the numerous fragments of which we were unable to fix the 
 date belong to very remote epochs. They are rarely as- 
 sociated with metal objects, and the only weapons of the 
 Mound Builders were hatchets, knives, or arrows of stone, 
 
 1 This number need not surprise us. Who does not know the hill at Rome 
 formed entirely of fragments of the pottery of the ancient Romans, and, to 
 quote but one other example, at Aries fragments have been found in sufficient 
 quantities for the embankments of the railway crossing the northern part of 
 the Camargue to be exclusively formed of them, for a distance of about one and 
 a quarter miles. 
 
 * W. P. Potter: "Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri," Saint Louis Acad. of 
 Sciences, 1 880. 
 
 8 Gillman : " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. I. 
 
 4 G. H. Perkins : " General Remarks upon the Arch, of Vermont," Proc. 
 Am. Assoc. for the Advancemenl of Science, St. Louis, 1878. 
 
 * Among none of the Western nations of Europe, not even among the Swiss 
 Lake Dwellers, whose civilization was in some respects far advanced, do we 
 know of these little figures representing either men or animals. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 137 
 
 which resemble alike in form and workmanship those of 
 Europe, dating from the period to which archaeologists have 
 given the name of the Stone age. 
 
 The pottery of the Mound Builders was manufactured of a 
 clay of a fairly dark gray color, sometimes verging on blue ; 
 to give this clay more consistency the potter mixed it in 
 Mississippi with sand and fragments of shells, in Vermont 
 with bits of quartz, mica, or feldspar, and in other places 
 with little nodules of carbonate of lime.' The thickest and 
 clumsiest of the pieces were the only ones in which this 
 precaution was not taken. On the other hand the finer 
 pieces of pottery were mixed with gypsum, by which means 
 lighter shades of color were obtained. When sufficiently 
 kneaded and shaped to the form required, the workman 
 smoothed the surface with his hand and dried the vase, 
 probably first in the sun and later in a fierce fire, which was 
 a very imperfect mode of baking. In their remarkable work 
 on the mounds of the Mississippi valley, Squier and Davis 
 assert the existence of real ovens," intended for baking pot- 
 tery. Other explorers speak of similar ovens near Cedar 
 City, which rises from the ruins of an old Aztec town. 3 
 Nothing however, proves them to be of very remote an- 
 tiquity, and it is probable that their construction indicates a 
 progress that time alone could have brought about. Neither 
 is it impossible that the ancient Americans employed a pro- 
 cess till quite recently in use amongst the Indians of Cali- 
 fornia, who placed the pieces of pottery to be baked in large 
 holes dug in the earth, and heated by means of fires made of 
 blazing chips of wood. 4 Other methods too may have been 
 adopted ; but with regard to them as with those just men- 
 tioned nothing positive can be asserted. 
 
 1 W. de Hass : " Arch, of the Mississippi Valley," Proc. Am. Assoc., Chicago, 
 1868. 
 
 '"An. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley." Bancroft says: "Pottery kilns 
 were found in the South ; but that they were the work of the Mound Builders 
 has not been satisfactorily proven." " The Native Races," Vol. IV., p. 780. 
 
 1 Remy and Brenchley : " A Journey to Great Salt Lake City." London, 
 1861. 
 
 4 Schumacher: " Report, Peabody Museum," 1879, vol. II., p. 521, et seq. 
 
138 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 It was later too that the native races of America employed 
 moulds. This method was certainly known to the Mexicans 
 and Peruvians, the moulds found in very different places 
 leave no doubt as to that point ; but moulding must have 
 been preceded by a long course of tentative efforts. We 
 have mentioned gourds, baskets of canes or creepers, coated 
 inside or outside with clay and then subjected to heat. 
 Such were doubtless the earliest attempts ; numerous frag- 
 ments that have been collected bear marks of their origin, 
 and in the dough there are bits of charcoal which probably 
 originated in the vegetable substances employed. 1 It would 
 be impossible to name all the methods employed, but it may 
 be imagined that they would vary according to time and 
 place. The pottery of Missouri was superior to that of 
 Ohio, that of Kentucky or that of Virginia cannot compare 
 with that of Illinois, and that of Michigan is probably the 
 coarsest of all. If, which is not certain, these pieces of 
 pottery date from the same epoch, the differences between 
 them are explained by the rarity, perhaps even the total ab- 
 sence, of communication between tribes scattered over vast 
 stretches of country, and absorbed in the material difficul- 
 ties of life. 
 
 The size of the pots naturally varies according to their 
 purpose. Some hold a few pints, others several quarts. 
 Cockburn, one of the few travellers who during the last cen- 
 tury succeeded in crossing the continent from the Gulf of 
 Honduras to the Great South Sea," mentions one which held 
 ten gallons, and others yet larger may be found, especially 
 among the Pueblo people and other tribes of New Mexico. 
 
 The potter's wheel seems to have been unknown in North 
 
 1 Prof. Swallow verified this fact in his excavations of Big Mound .(Fig. 31). 
 " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. I. 
 
 *"A Journey Overland, from the Gulf of Honduras to the Great South 
 Sea." London, 1735. In 1527 four of the companions of Pamfilo de Narvaez, 
 after the failure of their efforts at colonization in Florida, started from the Gulf 
 of Mexico for the Pacific. This first transcontinental expedition took nine 
 years, and was accomplished at the cost of extraordinary sufferings, of which an 
 account has been given by Cabe9a de Vaca, one of the explorers. " Ternaux 
 Compans," vol. VII., first series. Perkins: Am. Assoc., Buffalo, 1876. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 139 
 
 as well as in South America. Considering, however, the 
 finish and symmetry of certain specimens which have come 
 down to us, it is difficult to believe that the workmen had no 
 mechanical process by means of which to ensure uniformity 
 of pressure. Such was the opinion of eminent archaeologists, 
 after an attentive examination of several pieces of pottery 
 found in excavations made near New Madrid. 1 Unfortu- 
 
 FIG. 39. Bottle of baked clay found in a mound in Missouri. 
 
 nately these specimens fell to pieces as soon as they were ex- 
 posed to the air, so that further examination is impossible, 
 and the problem remains unsolved. 
 
 The great varieties of form assumed by American pottery 
 resemble strangely these of the Old World, alike of pre-his- 
 toric * and of modern times. 8 Everywhere, we repeat, the same 
 
 'Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races." 
 
 * The pieces of pottery found under the mounds may be compared especially 
 with those from the covered way of West Kennet, Wiltshire, England. 
 
 'In March, 1882, a Japanese book containing a description of the shell 
 mounds of Omori, Japan, was presented to the Anthropological Society. 
 Numerous fragments of pottery were found at Omori, and their resemblance to 
 those of the American mounds was very striking. 
 
140 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 needs have led man to make the same efforts of intelligence 
 and to produce the same creations of industry. Some of 
 these vases are painted, the colors chiefly employed being 
 black and very dark gray. Red, yellow, white, and brown 
 vases are, however, met with ; these colors, being generally 
 added after baking, have little stability, and in spite of every 
 precaution they scale off or are rubbed out very rapidly. 
 Sometimes the ornaments stand out in different colors, al- 
 ways shaded with great taste, as proved by numerous ex- 
 
 FIG. 40. Jar found in a Ohio mound. 
 
 amples which might be given. 1 One little vase about eight 
 inches high is decorated with black and red lines on the neck 
 and red and white on the body. Another has six concentric 
 circles of red and white alternately, and in the centre of 
 each circle a St. Andrew's cross in white. One bottle has 
 rays of equal size in brown, white, and bright red (fig. 39). 
 A vase from Ohio merits representation (fig. 40), on account 
 
 1 Those who are especially interested in this question may consult a recent 
 work, Dr. Ed. Evers' " Contributions to the Archaeology of Missouri," part I., 
 Pottery. Salem, Massachusetts, 1880. We have borrowed largely from it. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 141 
 
 of its complicated ornamentation, in which some think they 
 can make out a bird's head. It is the same with a vase found 
 in Arkansas and decorated with finely executed representa- 
 tions of bones of the dead (fig. 41).' Some pieces of pottery 
 recently found and deposited in the St. Louis museum are 
 said to recall, in the figures with which they are decorated, 
 Egyptian or Etruscan art. These figures have not yet been 
 published, so that we must content ourselves with mention- 
 
 FlG. 41. Vases from the tumuli of Arkansas. 
 
 ing the fact, reserving our opinion until further information 
 is obtained. In the course of this work we shall have 
 occasion to refer to other no less curious and important 
 resemblances. 
 
 We do not know what was the substanca employed in 
 coloring potter} 7 , but some red ochre has been found in a 
 
 'We reproduce this curious vase, but we believe it to date from a less ancient 
 period. The same style of decoration is, howjever, met with amongst the 
 aborigines of America, and Bancroft speaks of a stone seen at Nohpat, Yucatan, 
 on which are engraved representations of human skulls and cross-bones. 
 
142 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 vase, which may have been used for this purpose. Some of 
 the colors seem to have been fixed by means of a varnish, of 
 which traces are supposed to have been found. 1 This pro- 
 cess was certainly known to the Mexicans and the Peruvians, 
 but it was more rarely employed by the Mound Builders. 
 We are ignorant as to what this glaze was made of. One 
 thing only is certain, that the metallic varnish used in mod- 
 ern potteries, and that of more complicated composition 
 employed for porcelain, were introduced by the Spaniards, 
 and no discovery thus far made in America permits us to 
 attribute a knowledge of it to the ancient inhabitants. 
 Some Americans mention an earthenware vase covered with 
 
 FIG. 42. Vase found under a sepulchral mound in Missouri. 
 
 a siliceous varnish, found in a mound of Florida; but the 
 circumstances of the discovery leave no doubt as to the 
 mound having been disturbed. In Europe enamelled 
 ceramic work was known in the most remote antiquity, and 
 in Egypt we find vases, statuettes, and amulets of glazed 
 porcelain dating from the earliest dynasties. 
 
 The ornamentation of these vases, generally very simple, 
 usually consists of several rows of dots, such as can be seen 
 
 1 Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 714) says : " To this day some of it retains a very 
 perfect glaze." Caspar Castano de Sosa (" Mem. del Descubrimiento, del 
 Reino de Leon," 1590) speaking of the pottery of the pueblos of New Mexico, 
 says : " Tienen mucha loza de los colorados y pintadas y. negras, platos, caxe- 
 tes saleros, almoficos, xicaras, muy galanas alguna de la loza esta vidriada." 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 143 
 
 on the earliest pottery of Europe, and executed, as those 
 were, either with the potter's nail, with the end of a pointed 
 instrument, a bit of wood or a shell, which give a distinct 
 mark without a jagged edge. In other examples we have 
 more complicated combinations, lines, circles, ellipses, cres- 
 cents, wolf's teeth, zig-zags tastily arranged, so as to obtain 
 the happiest effects (fig. 42). Sometimes on the neck or body 
 of the vase was the figure of a rope or a creeper. Gillman 
 mentions several pieces of pottery decorated in this manner, 
 notably those found at Fort Wayne. 1 Some vases have 
 
 FIG. 43. Vase found in the excavations in Missouri, with ornaments in 
 relief painted in red of various shades. 
 
 denticulated or fringed edges ; in others the ornaments are 
 in relief (fig. 43). These relievos were obtained either by 
 moulding the clay itself or by the application of moulds be- 
 fore baking. Numbers of these vases had handles, and these 
 handles often represented birds, mammals, such as the wolf, 
 the fox, and further south the llama, and even human figures. 
 It would take a long time to describe all the varieties ; as it 
 
 1 " Proc. Am. Assoc.," Buffalo, 1876. This mode of ornamentation was fre- 
 quently employed in Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee 
 and Florida. " Report, Peabody Museum," 1872. 
 
144 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 is evident that the potters were always at work, striving to 
 satisfy their artistic tastes. They appear, however, to have 
 been held in small esteem in Central America, if we are to 
 accept the words of the Popol Vuh 1 : " You will no longer 
 be fit for any thing but to make earthenware things, such as 
 pie-dishes or saucepans, or to cultivate maize ; and the 
 beasts that live in the shrubbery will be your only portion." 
 Any description of this pottery is difficult, if not impossi- 
 ble. It is as if one attempted to describe all the things now 
 to be found in the shop of a famous dealer in crockery. We 
 
 FIG. 44. Bottle or vase, with a neck of remarkable delicacy ; New Madrid, 
 Missouri ; 8-J- inches high. 
 
 will endeavor to class the vases found under the mounds, 
 according to the shape of the specimens and the purpose for 
 
 "The Popol Vuh, the name of which maybe translated "Collection of 
 Leaves," is written in the Qquiche language, and was discovered in the second 
 half of the i6th century, by a Dominican monk in a village of Guatemala. It 
 contains several details strangely resembling those of Genesis, and some have 
 seen in them an adaptation, by a pious fraud, of Indian mythologies to 
 the dogmas of Christianity. Such was not the opinion of Brother Ximenes, 
 who was the first to reproduce the Popol Vuh, and did not hesitate to call 
 it the work of the Devil. It was republished at Vienna in 1857 by Dr. C. 
 Scherzer, and in 1861 the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, who characterized 
 it as a sacred book, issued it again. The original text is not extant ; it was 
 evidently written or corrected after the Spanish conquest, for one of the 
 Indian chiefs is mentioned by his Spanish name. In spite, therefore, of M. 
 Brasseur de Bourbourg's opinion, we can place but a very limited reliance on 
 this book. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 145 
 
 which they seem to have been intended ; we shall then have 
 certain data to go upon. 
 
 Perhaps more vases with necks have been found than any 
 other kind. They were probably used to hold liquids; most 
 of them are black and carefully moulded ; they recall the 
 vases known to travellers as " monkeys," still used by the 
 Spaniards and the inhabitants of South America, to keep 
 their drinking-water cool (figs. 39, 44, and 46). The porosity 
 of the clay leads to evaporation, hence rapid cooling. Some 
 
 FIG. 45. Vase found in a child's grave in Tennessee. 
 
 vessels have a swelling at the base ; others are ovoid and are 
 pierced with lateral holes through which were passed cords 
 to hang the vases up by. We give a representation of a 
 vase with three feet (fig. 45), discovered beneath a mound in 
 Tennessee which had served as the grave of a child. It 
 is black and was merely baked in the sun ; the feet are 
 hollow and connected with the body of the vase.' Others 
 
 1 Putnam : " Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, vol. II. Dr. Habel (" Smith. 
 
146 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 have been found provided with a stopper, also of earthen- 
 ware ; one of them still contained the traces of a red 
 liquid that could not be analyzed. 1 The ornamentation 
 
 FIG. 46. Vase with spiral grooving in the Museum of the Academy of 
 Sciences, St. Louis. 
 
 FlG. 47. Vase found in a grave in Missouri. 
 
 Cont.," vol. XXII.), speaks of similar vases near San Salvador, and in Nicara- 
 gua. The feet enclose little clay balls. Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 19), also men- 
 tions some found under the huacas of Chiriqui. 
 1 Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races." 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 147 
 
 is very varied and resembles that we have before described. 
 The St. Louis museum possesses amongst other specimens a 
 bottle (fig. 46), in which we notice a series of swellings and 
 depressions, forming a regular spiral. Although the form is 
 still graceful the vases used for cooking purposes are notice- 
 able for the coarseness of their execution and ornamentation 
 (figs. 42, 47, 48, and 49). They generally have a large 
 
 FIG. 48. Vase with handles from a sepulchral mound in Tennessee. 
 
 Fig. 49. Vessel with four handles, six inches high by about eight in diameter. 
 
 opening sometimes provided with a cover to hasten boiling. 
 Nearly all have one or more handles, by means of which they 
 can be more easily moved. One is mentioned with a long 
 handle like those of our saucepans (fig. 50); others have the 
 edges pinched out so as to form a spout (fig. 5 1 )- Several 
 of these vessels bear marks of long usage, and retain traces 
 of the fire on which they had been placed. 
 
148 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 In excavations we also often meet with pieces of black earth- 
 enware, the body of which is elliptical, of careful execution, 
 and having a handle on one side often representing a bird, 
 and on the' other a brim or knob by which they can the more 
 
 Fig. 50. Black cooking pot of coarse execution, found beneath a mound in 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 Fig. 51. Vessel with a spout. Missouri. 
 
 easily be held (fig. 52). Some are almost completely closed, 
 and have but one orifice, large or small ; others contain 
 some little pellets of clay, intended to make a rattling noise. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 
 
 149 
 
 These vessels do not appear ever to have been subjected to 
 the heat of an oven ; hence the hypothesis that they may 
 have been used as lamps, and their comparison with Etruscan 
 or Roman lamps. This would certainly be an interesting 
 fact, but it appears to us most improbable ; for the vases of 
 this kind found as yet show no traces either of oil or of any 
 fatty matter used for lighting purposes. 
 
 Fig. 52. Vessel found in Missouri. (Half natural size.) 
 
 Fig. 53-- 
 
 -Basin, with a rough attempt at ornamentation, 
 inches ; height, eight.) 
 
 (Diameter, nine 
 
 Basins, generally pretty rare, are the coarsest in execution 
 of all the pottery preserved in the St. Louis museum ; from 
 which, without any good foundation, it has been decided 
 that they are of the greatest antiquity. We give illustra- 
 tions of two of these basins (figs. 53 and 54), of different 
 
150 PRE-niSTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 forms, from which it is easy to judge of their use and the 
 mode of their construction. They are of black earthen- 
 ware, and one of them shows a rough attempt at ornamenta- 
 tion. 1 
 
 Cups, which doubtless served as drinking-vessels, are 
 small, round or oval, and always provided with a handle, 
 often representing the head of a man or of an animal. We 
 
 Fig- 54- Basin found in Missouri (one third natural size), in black sun-dried 
 earthenware, of a somewhat rare form. 
 
 Fig. 55. Drinking-vessel with the head of an owl. 
 
 shall speak further on of these imitations of animate ob- 
 jects, but will content ourselves now with mentioning two 
 of these cups, both from mounds near New Madrid ; the 
 handle of the first (fig. 55) is the head of an owl, which is so 
 like those found at Santorin or at Troy, that they might be 
 mistaken the one for the other ; the second (fig. 56) is of 
 
 1 A basin exactly similar has been found in the pre-historic camp of Catenoy, 
 Oise, France. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. !$! 
 
 very fine execution, and the handle represents the head of 
 an animal. 
 
 We have already stated how very numerous funeral vases 
 are. In certain sepulchral mounds of Missouri, as many as 
 eight hundred or a thousand specimens have been found. 
 It is easy to recognize that they had been used in accordance 
 with some rite consecrated by usage or superstition, and the 
 form varies according to whether the vase was placed near 
 the head, the feet, or the pelvis of the skeleton. This posi- 
 tion of the vases has been noted especially at Sandy Woods 
 settlement. 1 In Tennessee, the vases were generally placed 
 at the head of the body ; in Mississippi, many contained 
 food prepared for the deceased. 
 
 FIG. 56. Drinking-vessel with the head of an animal. 
 
 It is the same in other regions where the food-vessels such 
 is the characteristic name given to them are filled with the 
 shells of mollusca, chiefly mussels, or with carbonized fruits, 
 amongst which some wild grapes are supposed to have been 
 recognized. These were doubtless provisions for the great 
 journey. In other graves have been collected now a shell, 
 now a fragment of a bone, now a little vase of ovoid form, 
 simple amulets intended to protect the deceased. Lastly, 
 some urns, which must have contained the ashes of the de- 
 parted after cremation. One of those found in excavations 
 in Utah shows the form of most frequent occurrence (fig. 
 105.) 
 
 The number of pipes found in mounds is very consider- 
 
 1 W. P. Potter: "Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri," St. Louis Acad. of 
 Sciences, 1880. 
 
152 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 able. We give illustrations of two : one of them, found in 
 a sepulchral chamber in Tennessee, is so like those now in 
 use that they might be taken for each other (fig. 57); the 
 other, a rough imitation of the human figure, comes from a 
 mound in Missouri (fig. 58). 
 
 FIG. 57. Pipe from a sepulchral chamber in Tennessee. 
 
 FIG. 58. Earthenware pipe from Missouri. 
 
 Dr. Habel mentions, from near San Salvador, in Central 
 America, 1 two pipes about four inches high, with about the 
 
 1 " Smithsonian Contributions," vol. XXII. The same excavations have 
 yielded a considerable number of pieces of pottery, amongst which is an imita- 
 tion of an old man's head of fairly remarkable character. 
 
POTTEKY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 153 
 
 same diameter, covered with red and white figures. A hole 
 had been made for the introduction of the stem. This is a 
 fact of rare occurrence in these regions, where the use of 
 tobacco was less widespread than among the Mound 
 Builders. 1 
 
 Some pieces of pottery represent fruits which, like pump- 
 kins, figs, or pears, are of rounded form. The neck of a 
 bottle was often superposed upon such a model. The imi- 
 
 FIG, 59. Red vase with neck and a snake coiled about the body, found in 
 excavations in Missouri. 
 
 tation is generally exact, and the artist may have obtained 
 it either by copying or by moulding the fruit before him. 
 
 These are not the only imitations which are hidden away 
 in graves; the mounds of Missouri and Mississippi have 
 yielded numerous representations, now of men, now of 
 animals. It is noticeable that such are extremely rare in 
 the New England States. 
 
 We may mention among such forms, snakes (fig. 59), bears 
 
 1 Oviedo was the first Spanish writer to mention the use of tobacco. His 
 book, " Natural Historia de las Indi.is," was printed at Toledo in 1529. 
 
154 
 
 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 (fig. 60?), pigs (fig. 61), fish (fig. 62), frogs, turtles very per- 
 fectly copied, and birds, including the common brown owl, 
 the long-eared owl and the duck. Ducks especially were 
 carefully studied, and different species are quite recognizable. 
 Surely a very long time must have been required for the art 
 to attain such perfection ; generations of artists must have 
 been needed for the creation of the art itself. 
 
 We must not omit to mention certain figures of animals 
 often found in the mounds. The head resembles that of our 
 domestic pig ; but this animal appears to have been un- 
 
 FlG. 60. Painted vase found in a sepulchral mound in Tennessee. 
 
 known before the Spanish conquest. 1 The species most 
 nearly resembling it is the peccary (Dicotyles, Cuvier), of the 
 hog family, which has no tail ; whilst the creature under 
 notice always has one, and this tail is often turned up. 
 Other authorities think the figure represents the hippopota- 
 
 1 Garcilasso de la Vega (" los Commentarios reales que tratan del'Origen delos 
 Yncas, Reyes que fueron del Peru," Lisbon, 1609), says that the ancient Peru- 
 vians had pigs in their mountains, greatly resembling those of Europe. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 155 
 
 mus, but this pachyderm has never, so far as we know, lived 
 in the New World. The object intended is very possibly the 
 opossum. The size of these vases varies greatly. Some are 
 very small, of yellow earthenware, and covered with zigzag 
 designs in various colors, among which red and white pre- 
 dominate. Others, on the contrary, those found in the State 
 
 FIG. 61. Vase with handles, representing the head of a pig. 
 
 FlG. 62. Vase of a clear yellow color, baked with fire. Missouri. 
 
 of Vermont for instance, are capable of holding over six gal- 
 lons. The larger ones often have human faces joined to the 
 hinder parts of animals. The animals thus represented are 
 not, however, as has been supposed, so much alike that they 
 can be taken to represent a single characteristic form. 
 
PRK-111STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Neither are representations of man wanting. Some, exe- 
 cuted with talent, arc true portraits, and each one, whatever 
 may be the form of the-vase it is intended to decorate, presents 
 a very marked individual character (figs. 63, 64, and 65). 
 
 FIG. 63. Drinking-vase, over 4| inches high by 9 inches at its greatest 
 
 diameter. 
 
 FIG. 64. Water-bottle, 8| inches high, found under a mound near Belntont, 
 
 Missouri. 
 
 The St. Louis museum possesses a bottle, the neck of which 
 has been broken, bearing four medallions representing human 
 figures incrusted in the clay before baking. A vase found 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 1 57 
 
 in the very fruitful excavations at New Madrid also deserves 
 mention. The figures, it is true, are designed without art, 
 
 FIG. 65. Black pottery vase. Missouri. 
 
 but they are valuable as showing the kind of garments worn 
 by the Mound Builders. The most important represents a 
 
 FlG. 66. Figure in black pottery found in Missouri ; one third natural size. 
 
 flowing robe, or, to be more exact, a blouse somewhat like 
 those worn by the French, drawn in at the waist and reach- 
 
158 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 ing to the knees. We may also notice another representing 
 a man lying on his back, with the arms and legs roughly 
 imitated. This vase was emptied through a neck springing 
 from the navel of the figure. In a grave of Missouri pieces 
 of pottery have been collected ornamented with designs 
 representing heads, busts, and even the entire bodies of 
 women. 
 
 FIG. 67. Vase found in Missouri. A second face is joined to the back of the 
 first, and the opening is on one side ; one fourth natural size. 
 
 Side by side with these pieces of pottery thousands of 
 others are found with nothing human about them. There 
 are also caricatures. 1 That most frequently met with repre- 
 sents a crouching woman, with hanging breasts, and arms 
 resting on the knees. The constant repetition of this figure 
 has led to the supposition that it was an idol one of the 
 malevolent goddesses whose anger had to be averted. But 
 the want of foundation for this conclusion appears in the 
 fact that the vases always have an opening in the back of the 
 
 'Such human caricatures are met with in the most divers localities ; among 
 other places the island of Ometepec, Lake Nicaragua, is noted for them. (Figs. 
 66, 67, and 68.) 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 1 59 
 
 head, clearly indicating that they were used as bottles. We 
 may remark that so far but few indecent objects have been 
 found, though they were numerous among the ancient peo- 
 ples of Europe ; reproductions of the sexual organs have 
 rarely come to light, 1 which fact is an important testimony 
 to the morality of these primitive people. 
 
 The disposition of the Mound Builders for copying forms 
 which they saw about them is characteristic of many of the 
 American races. So in a less degree is the superiority of 
 their pottery. If indeed the American mound pottery 
 
 FIG. 68. Bottle representing a woman. 
 
 be compared with that from the middens of the Lake Dwel- 
 lers of Switzerland, who are supposed to have reached a 
 similar stage of civilization, one is astonished at the in- 
 feriority of the latter. Lately excavations have been made 
 
 1 We may instance a fw examples: "In altre provincie," said one of the 
 companions of Cortez, " e particularemente in quella di Panuco, adoravano il 
 membro che portano gli huomini fra le gambe." " Relazione d* alcune cose 
 della Nueva Spagna." Dr. Jones (" Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII.) mentions a 
 phallic pipe and Heywood a phallus found near Chillicothe ("Natural and 
 Aboriginal Hist, of Tennessee," p. 115). Others are also known which came 
 from Alameda county, California. In other places, in Smith county, and in 
 the island of Zapatero, Costa Rica, for instance, idols are spoken of with the 
 membrum virile in erectione. Stephens tells of ornaments in several temples of 
 Yucatan representing membra conjuncta in coitu. Pieces of Peruvian pottery 
 of the same kind are met with, but they are exceptions. Father Kircher, how- 
 ever, and Bancroft following him, believe in the former existence in America 
 of a Phallic cultus, such as undoubtedly existed in the Old World. 
 
l6o PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 in some tumuli on the practising ground of the school of 
 artillery at Tarbcs, on the borders of the departments of des 
 Hautes et Basses Pyr6nes, where vases were found dating 
 probably from Gallo-Roman times ; they are inferior alike in 
 material, execution, and ornamentation to those of the 
 American races. It is the same with the vases found by 
 Chantre near Samthravo. 1 We content ourselves with 
 these facts, though examples might be multiplied. It is 
 probable that the presence of a good material for pottery 
 had more or less to do with progress in ceramic art, and that 
 the absence of suitable clays accounts in part for the wretched 
 pottery of northeastern American races as it certainly does 
 in the extreme northwest of the continent. 
 
 It may be also remarked that the considerable differences in 
 execution between pieces of pottery found in a single undis- 
 turbed mound cannot be held to decide that they do 
 not date from the same period, or that the differences 
 observed are due to progress in the manufacture and the 
 natural result of the development of the aesthetic feeling of 
 the people. Probably, we have to deal with the products of 
 the work of more or less skilled or more or less intelligent 
 artisans, with work intended for more or for less important 
 uses, or, and this is a yet simpler explanation, with the pot- 
 tery of the poor and of the rich. This last is a fact scarcely 
 worth discussing, for it is one belonging to all times and 
 every people. 
 
 The early inhabitants of America must have been sturdy 
 smokers, 2 judging from the number of pipes found in mound 
 excavations. Earthenware pipes have been already men- 
 tioned ; others were carved of slate, soapstone 3 (fig. 69), and 
 
 ' Revue d' Anthrop,, April, 1881. 
 
 'According to Bancroft (vol. II., p. 288) the Americans, at the time of the 
 Spanish conquest, smoked cigarettes and took snuff. Ameghino (vol. I., p. 354) 
 in his turn says : " Es del dominio publico, que el tabaco, es indigene de 
 America." 
 
 "'A steatite quarry has been examined near Washington, in which the stone 
 had been quarried with quartzite pickaxes ; dishes and cups, of which there 
 were many fragments, were made of this stone. This quarry was probably pre- 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. l6l 
 
 marble, more frequently still out of a very hard and resistant 
 red or brown porphyry. Some are mere bowls quite prim- 
 itive in form ; others represent various animals, such as the 
 beaver, the otter, deer, bears, the panther, the wildcat (fig. 
 70), the mud-turtle, the raccoon, squirrels, toads and frogs. 
 Birds are perhaps still more numerous. Amongst them we 
 
 FIG. 69. Soapstone pipe. 
 
 may mention herons, hawks, the paroquet, woodpecker, 
 grouse, and the bittern. On a soapstone pipe from Ken- 
 tucky an armadillo is supposed to have been recognized ; and 
 quite recently in Iowa a pipe has been found made of rather 
 soft sandstone, which is claimed to represent an elephant. 1 
 
 It is to be observed, however, that such identifications gen- 
 erally owe much to the natural desire to recognize some- 
 thing strange or unusual, and also to the want of a sufficient 
 knowledge of natural history. A recently published in- 
 Columbian, but the date cannot be fixed. Reynolds : " Aboriginal Soapstone 
 Quarries in the District of Columbia," " Report, Peabody Museum," 
 vol. II. 
 
 1 In the American Antiquarian (March, 1880), the Rev. S. D. Peet announces 
 the discovery of a pipe which he believes represents an elephant ; the supposed 
 trunk is straight and the smoke escapes through a skilfully contrived hole. 
 
1 62 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 vestigation of bird-pipes and carvings by a well-known orni- 
 thologist has resulted in demolishing the foundation of much 
 
 FIG. 70. Pipe representing a wildcat. 
 
 FIG. 71. Pipe representing a woodpecker, or wading bird. 
 
 theorizing which had been based on the identical specimens 
 examined. 1 Forgeries are also too common. 
 
 1 H. W. Henshaw, 2d Annual Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1884. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 163 
 
 These designs have often represented the animal in a 
 familiar attitude and display true artistic talent. The heron 
 holds a fish in its mouth, an otter also carries a fish, and 
 a hawk tears a little bird with his claws. Seven heads have 
 been found in the mounds of Ohio which are supposed to 
 represent the walrus or manatee, but are more probably 
 rudely carved otters. 
 
 FIG. 72. Stone pipe, supposed to represent an elephant, found in Louisa 
 
 county, Iowa. 
 
 The toucan, elephant, and armadillo require a warmer cli- 
 mate than that of Ohio or Kentucky ; the manatee, so far as 
 the United States are concerned, only lives in Floridian 
 waters, where it is now extremely rare, if not extinct as a 
 resident, though in former times abundant. 
 
 FIG. 73. Pipe found in Ohio, representing a heron holding a fish. 
 
 The llama, which has been said to be found sculptured on 
 rocks on the banks of the Susquehanna, belongs to the fauna 
 of the South. All accounts of these animals, in connection 
 with aboriginal relics found in the United States, may there- 
 fore be regarded either as wrong identifications of the rudely 
 
164 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 carved or mutilated figures referred to, as representing ani- 
 mals with which the carvers had become acquainted either by 
 report or by journeys and migrations, or as forgeries. 
 
 At Mound City four pipes have been dug out, each rep- 
 resenting a human profile of a very characteristic Indian 
 type * (fig. 74). One of them, cut in a very hard and compact 
 black stone, wears a peculiar head-dress. The hair is plaited, 
 and round the forehead were fifteen pearl beads, which had 
 been calcined. The 'face is covered with incised lines, form- 
 ing regular tatooing, the mouth is compressed, the eyes are 
 
 FIG. 74. Pipes found at Mound City. 
 
 large, the ears are pierced. Another type represents a 
 woman, and may be compared as far as execution goes with 
 the Mexican and Peruvian sculptures. 4 A pipe from Con- 
 necticut represents the bust of a woman, with the wrists 
 and shoulders laden with ornaments ; another, found in 
 
 1 Schoolcraft, vol. I, pi. xiii. 
 
 * See Garcilasso de la Vega, Book VI., p. 187. Peter Martyr d' Anghiera : 
 " De Novo Orbe," Dec. 187. Clavigero : " Hist. Antigua de Mejico," 2 vols., 
 8, London, 1826. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 165 
 
 Virginia, presents a type which may be compared with the 
 antique Egyptian ; and yet another pipe from Missouri, in 
 very hard sandstone, represents a man's head, with a pointed 
 beard somewhat like that seen in the Assyrian monoliths of 
 the British Museum. 1 Finally, one of these pipes, dis- 
 covered in Indiana, and the last we shall mention, has on 
 one side a death's head, and on the other that of a goose. 
 
 It was long supposed that the Mound Builders applied 
 their lips to the hole made in the lower part of the bowl, 
 and thus inhaled the smoke ; but numerous discoveries have 
 modified this opinion. It cannot be doubted that wooden 
 stems were used, which, of course, would decay and leave 
 no traces. In several places steatite stems have been found," 
 and Professor Andrews mentions others in earthenware, 
 stone, and copper, which he found in Ohio. 8 In California 
 they are still more numerous, even remains of wooden 
 stems have been found ; and the Peabody Museum posses- 
 ses one such tube from Massachusetts. Long ago, Squier 
 spoke of similar stems in the Mississippi valley, 4 and bone 
 tubes have been found as far north as Canada. At Swanton, 
 Vermont, 6 an old burial-place has been discovered, in the 
 midst of a forest where venerable trees replaced others yet 
 more ancient. Here the excavations yielded numerous 
 copper tubes, the length of which varied from three to four 
 inches. The sheet of copper had been drawn out, beaten, 
 and rolled in a manner giving a very high idea of the skill 
 of the workman. Some tubes again are of stone, without 
 ornament ; on one, however, a bird is engraved (fig. 75) re- 
 sembling a spread eagle." 
 
 1 Am. Ant., Jan., 1881. 
 
 * Schoolcraft, vol. I., p. 93, pi. xxxii. and xxxiii. 
 
 1 " Explorations of Mounds in S. E., Ohio," " Report, Peabody Museum," 
 1877. 
 
 4 " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," " Smith. Cont.," vol. I., 
 p. 224, fig. 122, 125. 
 
 * G. H. Perkins: " On an Ancient Burial-ground in Swanton, Vermont," 
 "Rep. Am. Assoc.," Portland, 1873. 
 
 * Beneath the bird three little marks can easily be made out. (American 
 Antiq,, March, 1880). These have been supposed to be letters ; but nothing 
 
1 66 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 What was the use of these tubes, met with in such differ- 
 ent places ? Putnam thinks that a great many of them were 
 the stems of pipes, 1 other authorities look upon them as in- 
 struments of music ; several of them, notably those found at 
 Swanton, are, however, not pierced, which contradicts both 
 hypotheses and, on the assumption that they were finished 
 implements, leaves us in complete uncertainty. Rau thinks 
 these tubes were used in the operations of medicine-men or 
 sorcerers, so numerous in Indian tribes, and the German 
 traveller, Kohl, states that he saw a medicine-man use the 
 hollow bone of a wild goose to operate on his patient. 
 
 FlG. 75. Bird engraved on a stone tube from Swanton, Vermont. 
 
 We have dwelt on every thing relating to pipes, because, 
 after the pottery, they are the most important objects 
 hitherto found, and also because this taste for modelling 
 men or animals is very remarkable. 
 
 Besides the human figures used as ornaments on pottery 
 or pipes, we meet with others, which have been taken for 
 images of divinities supposed to be adored by the early in- 
 
 as yet justifies us in supposing that the Mound Builders were sufficiently ad- 
 vanced in civilization to have an alphabet. 
 
 1 This was also Squier's opinion after his discovery at Chillicothe of a tube 
 carved in slate, thirteen inches long, ending in a mouthpiece. " Ancient Mon. 
 of the Mississippi Valley." See also Cortereal, " Voy. aux Indes occidentales," 
 Amsterdam, 1722, vol. I., p. 39. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. l6? 
 
 habitants of North America. In Tennessee ' many stone, 
 steatite, sandstone, and terra-cotta figures have been found ; 
 in Knox county, an image hewn out of stalactite, about 
 twenty inches in height and weighing over thirty-seven 
 pounds. 
 
 A female figure was discovered in the Cumberland valley, 
 sculptured of brown sandstone, eleven inches high, with the 
 sexual organs very prominent ; in Honduras and Guatemala 
 have been found numerous terra-cotta statuettes, called 
 maitecas by the present inhabitants. All these figures are of 
 somewhat similar type, and their execution is always coarse, 
 contrasting unfavorably with that of the pottery and other 
 carvings. A good many fraudulent figures have turned up 
 from time to time in the United States, and the authenticity 
 of any such image always requires careful verification. These 
 forgeries are the more dangerous since the authors of them 
 often arrange that they shall be " accidentally " found by 
 some person whose good faith cannot be questioned. 
 
 In some " altar mounds " in Anderson township, near the 
 Little Miami River, Ohio, Metz and Putnam found some 
 very remarkable objects in 1882. These " altars " are basins 
 of clay burned hard, in situ, and on them have been found 
 thousands of articles which had been thrown into the fire as 
 offerings or sacrifices. Besides native copper, silver, and a 
 very little native gold, all hammered into various shapes, a 
 considerable amount of meteoric iron, of the variety known 
 as pallasite, was found on these altars. There were orna- 
 ments of bone, mica, shell disks, canine teeth of the bear and 
 other animals, about half a bushel of pearls (recalling the 
 story of De Soto's chronicler), and about thirty of the spool- 
 shaped copper ear-plugs. On one altar were found several 
 terra-cotta figurines quite unlike anything hitherto found in 
 the mounds. They are artistically superior to any figure- 
 work yet noted by American aborigines, and were doubtless 
 
 'Jones: "Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., p. 128. It is interesting to remem- 
 ber that these supposed idols are of the same type as some of the figures made 
 by the Toltecs. 
 
1 68 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 the product of some workman of very exceptional talent. 
 They had represented in their ears the plugs above men- 
 tioned, thus determining the use of the specimens found. 
 With them were two remarkable stone dishes in form of 
 animals, probably mythical in their nature, but admirably 
 wrought and polished. These remarkable and unique 
 articles have been restored from numerous calcined and 
 splintered fragments and of their authenticity there is not 
 a shadow of doubt. It is to be hoped that they will be fully 
 illustrated and described before long by the authorities of 
 the Peabody Museum where they are deposited. 
 
 Stone vases, or jars made of steatite, are also met with, but 
 rarely east of the Rocky Mountains. Some of these vases 
 have handles. In California cups of serpentine have also 
 been found. Every thing was turned to account by the 
 aboriginal inhabitants of America, for in the island of Santa 
 Barbara plates have been found hollowed out of the centra 
 of the vertebrae of large Cetacea. 1 One may be referred to 
 which was found in a mound near the Tallahatchee River, 
 Lafayette county, Mississippi, provided with a cover which 
 closed it hermetically. This jar, which is supposed to have 
 been a funeral urn, weighs more than one hundred pounds ; 
 the execution is remarkable, the more so when we take into 
 account the wretched tools which were all the workmen had 
 at their command. 2 
 
 We may also notice life-sized human masks in hard stone, 
 which have been occasionally found. We know that the 
 Aztecs made similar masks in obsidian or serpentine, and 
 placed them on the faces of the dead. The same custom 
 prevailed to some extent further north, and was character- 
 istic of the Aleuts in historic times, though the masks used 
 by them were of wood. 
 
 It was by patient labor, rubbing one stone against another, 
 that the Mound Builders executed their sculptures. The 
 Mexicans and Peruvians employed the same processes, 
 
 1 Ch. Rau : "Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., p. 37. 
 
 2 Jones: " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., p. 144, fig. 85. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 169 
 
 after having first rough-hewn the stone with the help of 
 obsidian implements. It was natural that the owners of 
 objects so laboriously obtained should attach very great 
 value to them, and we do in fact meet with pipes mended 
 with extreme care. The process was very simple : holes 
 were pierced at the edges of the fracture, and little rivets of 
 wood or copper were placed in them to keep the pieces to- 
 gether. 
 
 Weapons which belonged to the Mound Builders are more 
 rare, and if the extent and importance of their fortifications 
 had not revealed to us the dangers which threatened them, 
 we might have supposed them to have been a peaceful race, 
 entirely devoted to agriculture or commerce. We can how- 
 ever refer to some very finely executed arrow-points, 1 lance- 
 heads, and daggers. In some places regular magazines have 
 been found, where numerous spear-heads have been col- 
 lected. 
 
 We give illustrations of a couple of serpentine hatchets 
 (figs. 76 and 77), from among a number which are so like the 
 neolithic implements of Europe that they might be taken 
 for each other. Squier tells us that this resemblance is so 
 striking as to lead at first to the conclusion that they are 
 the work of men of the same race ; which conclusion would, 
 he thinks, be irresistible if we did not know that the wants 
 of man are everywhere the same, and have everywhere led 
 him to give to his implements the same form, and to use 
 them in the same manner. Similar implements are barely 
 out of use in the more remote parts of Alaska. 
 
 Many knives or daggers are of obsidian, (the Itzli of the 
 Mexicans) which is a glass of volcanic origin and was known 
 in the most remote ages. Pliny (book XXXVI., ch. XXXI.) 
 says that the first fragments were found in Ethiopia by Ob- 
 sidius, hence the name by which it is known. Great quan- 
 tities have been found in Mexico, and it is known from 
 
 1 Lucien Carr (Exploration of a Mound, Lee county, Virginia ; "Report, 
 Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 90) gives illustrations of a quartzite lance- 
 point and a chalcedony dagger. 
 
I/O 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 Alaska to Patagonia. In pre-historic times not only weapons 
 were made of it, but also jewels, ornaments, and even look- 
 ing-glasses. 
 
 The Mexicans, according to Clavigero, were such expert 
 workmen that they were able to turn out a hundred obsidian 
 knives in an hour, which is very probable, as they were 
 hardly more than elongated flakes of the glassy material. 
 The Mexicans also inserted a double row of bits of obsidian 
 
 FIGS. 76 and 77. Serpentine axes. 
 A. Beard's Mound, Ohio. B. Hill Mound, Ohio. 
 
 FlG. 78. Serpentine implement found beneath a mound near Big Harpeth 
 River, Tennessee. 
 
 in handles of very hard wood, and fastened them in with 
 cord and gum. This weapon was wielded with both hands, 
 and the Spanish historians speak of the terrible havoc it 
 wrought. The Mahquahwitl, as this weapon is called, is 
 sculptured on a door-post at Kabah, Yucatan. 1 Judging 
 from the fragments of obsidian arranged in regular rows, 
 occasionally met with in graves, the Mound Builders may 
 have had a very similar weapon. 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 210. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. \J\ 
 
 It is almost impossible to distinguish between the weapons 
 and implements of these primitive times. Hass describes a 
 number of tools fashioned in amphibolite, quartzite, jadeite, 
 and granite, all well made. 1 Besides these we hear of shell 
 fish-hooks, knives, borers, harpoons, and bone, horn, or deer- 
 horn needles. 2 We give illustrations of two implements of 
 peculiar form, unknown in Europe. The first (fig. 78) is of 
 serpentine, eighteen inches long, and carefully polished. It 
 was found under a mound near Big Har- 
 peth River, Tennessee. Similar imple- 
 ments have been found in the Cumber- 
 land valley ; others from South Carolina 
 are in the National Museum at Wash- 
 ington ; their use is unknown. The 
 second of which we give an illustration 
 is of quartz, and comes from New Jersey 
 (fig. 79). This form is frequently met 
 with in America, especially in Ohio, 
 Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and the State 
 of New York. 3 Probably some of these 
 implements were used in tilling the 
 ground ; in Utah, for instance, hewn 
 stones have been found of considerable 
 size, with horn handles, supposed to 
 have been agricultural implements. 
 Schumacher (" Report, Peabody Muse- 
 um," vol. II., p. 271) speaks of one of 
 these implements measuring fourteen 
 inches long by five wide. 
 
 In describing the mounds, we have FIG. 79. Flint instrument 
 spoken of numerous objects which 
 
 served either as ornaments of the deceased or as burial 
 offerings. These ornaments greatly resemble each other 
 in every region where artificial mounds have been erect- 
 
 1 "Arch, of the Mississippi Valley," Rep. Am. Assoc., Chicago, 1868. 
 "Potter: "Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri," St. Louis A cad. of Sciences, 
 1880. Rau : " Smith. Contr.," vol. XXII., fig. 236, et seq. 
 'Rau : "Arch. Coll. of the U. S. Nat. Museum." Washington, 1876, fig. 99. 
 
1/2 PKE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 ed, and it would be impossible to distinguish those of 
 New Jersey from those of Michigan, or those of Ohio from 
 those of Florida. They consist of pearls, of shells, of cylin- 
 ders made from the ribs of the manatee, the pierced teeth of 
 the bear, of the wild cat, wolf and shark, the bones of little 
 birds, the claws of birds of prey, and rings of stone or bone. 1 
 Beneath a mound near St. Clair River, Michigan, a collar has 
 been found made of bear teeth, alternating with beads of 
 copper and bird-bones. All this recalls the ornaments still 
 affected by the Indians of our own time. 
 
 Beads may be counted by thousands ; they are of mother- 
 of-pearl, of shell, stone, and wood, sometimes covered with 
 a thin coating of metal. Numerous ornaments of wood 
 covered with a coating of copper have been found, chiefly 
 near Nashville ; and under a stone mound in Tennessee, ear- 
 plugs of similar workmanship. Some of these articles are of 
 copper, plated, by hammering, with native silver, gold, or 
 meteoric iron. 
 
 Mica, with its brilliant surface played an important part 
 in matters of ornament. It was also commonly employed 
 in large sheets supposed to have served as mirrors, or cut 
 into ovals, spiral or diamond-shaped points, which served as 
 ornaments. At Grave Creek, Virginia, more than one 
 hundred sheets of mica were discovered, pierced with holes 
 for hanging them up. Under a mound on the banks of the 
 Little Miami, several pieces of mica, measuring as much as 
 a foot in diameter, are mentioned as having been placed on 
 the skeletons. 3 Chiefs and important personages wore shell 
 ornaments. These were generally cut out of the flattest 
 part of large shells. The shells most often used were Busy- 
 con pcrversum, Strombus gigas, Fasciolaria gigantea, and 
 Marginella conoidalis. These species are still found off the 
 southeastern coast of the United States in great abundance. 
 The ornaments were worn on the neck, and at death were 
 placed in the grave. Two such ornaments were discovered 
 
 'Rau : " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., figs. 213 and 214. 
 
 * Dr. S. Scoville, Cincinnati Quarterly Journal, April, 1875. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 1 73 
 
 in Tennessee on one of which (fig. 80) four birds' heads can 
 be made out ; the edges of the second are elegantly carved. 
 The St. Louis Museum owns many similar shells ; on one 
 of them is engraved a huge spider. On others an attempt 
 has been made to represent human figures, and even scenes 
 from life, such as a battle in which the conqueror, sword in 
 hand, has his foot on the breast of his adversary. In a pre- 
 historic grave of Mackinac Island between Lakes Michigan 
 
 FIG. 80. Shell ornament from Tennessee. 
 
 and Huron, Robertson found two pendants made of sea 
 shell. These pendants must therefore have been taken 
 across the greater part of North America. Shells were also 
 used to make necklaces, pins, and probably many other 
 things (fig. 81). A very extensive intertribal traffic in such 
 and other articles has doubtless existed in America from 
 remote ages. As recently it has been found that articles 
 from the shores of the Caspian may reach the mouth of the 
 Mackenzie, on the Arctic Sea, in about three years, by barter, 
 via Bering Strait, it is not wonderful that articles from Mex- 
 ico or Florida should be found in Minnesota or New Eng- 
 land. 
 
174 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Among the ornaments affected by the Mound Builders 
 were polished stones, often brought from long distances, and 
 pierced with one or more holes for hanging them up by. 
 Squier has remarked that with the stones from the mounds 
 of Mississippi, the holes for suspension were always pierced 
 at a distance of four fifths, of an inch apart. By a coincidence 
 probably accidental, but certainly curious, the same measure 
 is exactly reproduced on some stones found at Swanton. 1 Of 
 these stones, some are of considerable weight, and sometimes 
 
 FlG. 81. Pin made of shell from Ely Mound, Va. 
 
 FIG. 82. Sculptured stone found at Swanton, Vermont ; the base is flat and 
 is pierced with two holes for suspension. Length 3^ inches. 
 
 exceed two pounds ; some represent animals (fig. 82) chiefly 
 birds, almost always roughly hewn. A fragment of white 
 marble is mentioned in which the parts the artist wished 
 especially to accentuate are colored red. It would indeed 
 be difficult to enumerate all the varieties which have 
 rewarded excavations. 
 
 We must not omit to mention the metallic ornaments of 
 the Mound Builders. At Connett's Mound more than five 
 
 1 G. H. Perkins : " On an Ancient Burial Ground in Swanton, Vermont," 
 Am. Assoc., Portland, 1873. 
 
POTTERY. WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 175 
 
 hundred copper beads (fig. 83) have been collected. These 
 beads were intended to make bracelets or necklaces. 
 
 At Circular Mound, near the Detroit River, some similar 
 beads were threaded on a string made of bark. They had 
 been shaped from a thin sheet of copper, first cut out and 
 then rolled without any trace of soldering. 1 In other in- 
 stances the beads were of oval form, and their manufacture 
 must have presented serious difficulties. 
 
 Besides the ornaments just mentioned we meet with celts. 
 A " celt " is an implement of stone or bronze, used some- 
 times as a weapon, but generally for industrial purposes, 
 performing the office of a chisel or an adze. Celts vary 
 considerably both in shape and size, but usually have the 
 
 FIG. 83. Copper beads from Connett's Mound, Ohio (natural size). 
 
 outline of a plane-iron such as carpenters use, though of 
 course much thicker when of stone, and with the cutting 
 edge more or less arched. There are also scrapers, scissors, 
 knives, lance- and arrow-points of different forms, all made 
 by hammering pieces of native copper. To the early and 
 late aborigines of America the malleable properties of cop- 
 per were well known. At Swanton a copper hatchet was 
 found originally provided with a wooden handle, of which 
 fragments could still be distinguished ; in Wisconsin a 
 lance-point and a knife that might * be compared with 
 our modern weapons (fig. 84) ; at Joliet, Illinois, a sharp 
 blade, and at Fort Wayne a knife. On a skeleton discovered 
 beneath a mound at Zollicoffer Hill, a copper ornament of 
 
 1 Andrews : " Expl. in S. E. Ohio." " Report, Peabody Museum," 1877. 
 
1 76 
 
 PRE-HIS TOR 1C A ME RICA . 
 
 quite peculiar form was found. 1 The cross surmounting it 
 led people to suppose it to be of European origin; but Dr. 
 Jones mentions the same subject 
 as an ornament on some engraved 
 shells and copper objects, also 
 found in Tennessee.' A skeleton 
 taken from one of the Chillicothe 
 mounds bore a cross upon its breast, 
 and a figure with a cross engraved 
 upon its shoulder was discovered be- 
 neath a mound in the Cumberland 
 valley. The cross occurs again on 
 one of the bas-reliefs of Palenque, 
 and on the monuments of Cuzco, in 
 the very centre of the worship of the 
 sun. When Grijalva landed in 1518 
 on the coast of Yucatan, his surprise 
 was great to meet with the sign of 
 his own faith in the temples of the 
 natives. 8 Similar instances occur all 
 over the continent of America and 
 are mentioned, though it is impos- 
 sible to attach any importance to 
 them. The cross is of great antiquity 
 in all countries. It is found on the 
 most ancient monuments of Egypt, 
 where it symbolizes eternal life. It 
 is, moreover, one of the simplest 
 forms of ornament and as such, and 
 as suggested by many flowers and 
 other natural objects, we should ex- 
 pect to find in all parts of the world 
 FIG. 84. Copper weapons that it has been made use of by 
 
 found in Wisconsin. 
 
 primitive man. 
 
 'Putnam: "Arch. Expl. in Tennessee." "Rep., Peabody Mus.," 1878, 
 vol. II., p. 307. 
 
 a Hey wood : " Expl. of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee." "Smith- 
 sonian Contr.," 1876. 
 
 * Herrera : "Hist. Gen. de los hechos de los Castillanos en las Islas y 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 
 
 \TJ 
 
 The pottery of Missouri and the discoveries of Putnam in 
 the caves of Kentucky have already revealed the nature of 
 the clothing worn by the Mound Builders, and mummies 
 found in the caves of the western states enable us to judge 
 of them still better. The bodies were wrapped in coarse 
 cloth, over which was a kind of net with wide meshes, 
 in which were stuck feathers of brilliant colors, the whole en- 
 veloped in a third covering of skin. The ancient inhabitants 
 of America manufactured different kinds 
 of tissues. A few years ago the excava- 
 tion of a mound near the Great Miami 
 River, two miles north of Middletown, 
 Ohio, yielded several fragments of half- 
 burnt cloth mixed with charcoal, and hu- 
 man bones also injured by fire. 1 This cloth 
 which had been coarsely woven by hand 
 was doubtless used to wrap the body in be- 
 fore cremation, or, at least, the partial 
 burning which preceded interment. It 
 cannot reasonably be attributed to the 
 present Indians, as the mound showed no 
 traces of disturbance. 
 
 Other instances confirm what we have 
 just stated. In Iowa some copper axes 
 have been recently discovered carefully 
 wrapped in very well preserved cloth, 2 and 
 in January, 1876, excavations in a mound 
 in Illinois ' brought to light several turtles 
 in beaten copper of remarkable workman- 
 ship. Most of these turtles measure 
 not more than 2 1-8 inches in length, fer Hill, Tenn. 
 and the copper has been reduced by beating to a thick- 
 
 Tierra Firme del mar Oceano." Madrid, 1725-30, Dec. 2d, Book III., chap. 
 I. The first edition was published in 1605. 
 
 'Foster: "Description of samples of ancient cloth from the mounds of 
 Ohio." " Rep., Am. Assoc. ," Albany, 1851. 
 
 * Short : " The North Americans of Antiquity," p. 37. 
 
 * Bulletin of the Bu/alo Society of Natural Hi stoiy, March, 1877. 
 
 FIG. 85. Copper 
 
1/8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 ness of 1-64 of an inch. These jewels, for such they 
 must be called, evidently of great value, were enveloped suc- 
 cessively in a vegetable tissue, some stuff of brown color 
 made of the hair either of the rabbit or some other animal, 1 
 and lastly in a covering made out of the intestines of some 
 animal. In the same mound were found teeth of a deer 
 perforated for suspension and covered with very thin plates 
 of copper. These teeth were wrapped like the turtles we 
 have just described. 
 
 The Ohio mounds, which have afforded results so fruitful 
 for science, have also yielded a very well-preserved piece 
 of skin about eight or ten inches long, ornamented with nu- 
 merous oval copper beads. This was a fragment of a 
 garment which had belonged to a Mound Builder.* 
 
 The copper which the Mound Builders used so frequently 
 came from the shores of Lake Superior. 8 The works of 
 ancient miners are scattered over a region 150 miles long 
 and from four to seven miles wide, now called the Trap-zone. 
 Keweenaw Point juts out like a buttress into the lake for a 
 distance of seventy miles, and the mineral deposits which 
 abound there have been worked in remote ages, though all 
 traces had been obliterated, and all memory of the old 
 miners lost, until, in 1848, the work of a mining company 
 laid them bare. The depth of the excavations, which were 
 always open to the sky, varied from twenty to thirty feet, 
 the latter forming the extreme limit to which these inexperi- 
 enced workmen dared to penetrate, and the copper was 
 found in masses varying from a few ounces to thousands of 
 pounds. In one mine, which had been choked up in the 
 
 1 Examination with the microscope has not succeeded in satisfactorily de- 
 termining the nature of this hair. It is known, however, that the Nahuas manu- 
 factured a tissue as fine as silk out of rabbit's hair. 
 
 'School-house Mound, Ohio. Andrews: "Report, Peabody Museum," vol. 
 II., p. 65. 
 
 * C. Jackson : " Geological Report to the U. S. Government," 1849. Fos- 
 ter and Whitney: " Report on the Geology of the Lake Superior Region," part 
 I, 1850. Ch. Whittlesey : "Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior" ; 
 Am. Assoc., Montreal, Canada, 1857. Swineford : " Review of the Mineral 
 Resources of Lake Superior," 1876. 
 
PO TTER Y, WE A PONS, A ND ORNA MEN TS. 1 79 
 
 course of years with earth and vegetable refuse, the remains 
 of several generations of trees, was found, at about eighteen 
 feet from the surface, a block of metal measuring two feet 
 long by three wide and two thick, and weighing nearly six 
 tons. This mass had been placed on rollers from six to 
 eight inches in diameter, the edges of which still bore the 
 marks of a sharp instrument. The miners had rolled the 
 mass up about five feet, and then they had abandoned an 
 undertaking beyond their strength or the means at their dis- 
 posal. Their mining processes were very simple ; the work- 
 men lighted great fires in the mine, and when the rock had 
 become friable they broke it with powerful blows of a stone 
 hammer or mallet. Several of the mallets used have been 
 found, the heaviest weighing as much as thirty-six pounds ; 
 also a great number of small serpentine or porphyry ham- 
 mers. Knapp, who was the first to direct these excavations, 
 states that he took out from these mines ten cart-loads of 
 stone implements of all kinds. In an unusually deep exca- 
 vation, a quite primitive ladder was found, consisting of the 
 trunk of a young tree, with the branches cut at unequal 
 distances to serve as rungs. In other places shovels, levers, 
 and dippers of cedar wood were discovered, preserved 
 from destruction by the water in which they were soaked. 
 Everywhere copper implements were found side by side with 
 stone, mostly bearing marks of long service. One mallet 
 weighed more than twenty pounds. Like all the other cop- 
 per objects it had been made by hammering unheated. 
 
 Various analyses of the copper of Lake Superior have 
 proved its identity with that collected from the mounds. 
 Both yield the same proportion of silver, and we know that 
 the latter metal is always present with copper in varying 
 quantities. 
 
 The deposits of Isle Royal, Lake Superior, were even 
 richer than those of Keweenaw Point. 1 They extended for a 
 distance of forty miles, and the ground was riddled with 
 ancient excavations dug out to get at the ore. It has been 
 
 1 H. Gillman : " Ancient Works of Isle Royal." " Smith. Cont.," 1873. 
 
180 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 estimated that the vegetation rising from the old mining 
 works of the Great Lakes represent an approximate duration 
 of several centuries. But we have already referred to the 
 uncertain character of what may be called vegetable evi- 
 dence. 
 
 Traces of native mining operations have been found in sev- 
 eral other parts of North America, in Arkansas, Missouri, and 
 on the slopes of the Ozark Mountains, for instance. 1 There 
 were also copper mines in Mexico, 3 but there is nothing to 
 show when they were worked. Captain Peck noticed near 
 the Ontonagon River, in northern Michigan, at a depth of 
 twenty-five feet, some sledges and other tools in contact with 
 a vein of copper. 3 A little above them lay the fallen trunk 
 of an old cedar ; the roots of a fir in full vigor surrounded 
 the cedar. This fir was estimated to be at least a hundred 
 years old, and to that time must be added the age of the 
 cedar it had replaced, with the yet longer period necessary 
 to the filling up of the abandoned cutting by the slow accu- 
 mulations of successive winters, which supplied the trees 
 with the vegetable earth necessary to their growth. 
 
 Copper seems to have been the only metal in common 
 use amongst the Mound Builders. Few well authenticated 
 discoveries of gold are known ; silver was rare, and so far 
 has been found chiefly under some mounds of Mound City, 
 in very thin leaves covering shells or copper ornaments, and 
 this plating is so well done that the work of the artificer 
 can only be made out with difficulty. This silver must have 
 come from Lake Superior, where it is found associated with 
 native copper in a metallic state. 
 
 It has been generally supposed that iron was unknown,* 
 and in numerous excavations made at many different points 
 and in many different regions, not a scrap of it has been 
 found. We have previously mentioned the recent and au- 
 thentic discovery of meteoric iron by Putnam and Metz in 
 
 1 Schoolcraft : " Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. I., p. 101. 
 s F. von Hellwald : " Congres des Americanistes," Luxembourg, 1877. 
 
 3 Lubbock : " Prehistoric Times," p. 289. 
 
 4 Iron ore and galena occur, but no iron or lead, Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 778. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. l8l 
 
 the Little Miami mounds, which show that it was considered 
 very valuable, since copper ornaments were plated with it 
 as others were with gold or silver. Previous statements 
 with regard to the discover)' of iron in the mounds are, with- 
 out exception, unsatisfactory. 
 
 The Mound Builders are supposed to have been quite ig- 
 norant of any process of fusing metals, 1 and their weapons, 
 or implements of copper, were, as we have more than once 
 remarked, shaped by hammering. A recent discovery, 
 however, is claimed to modify this opinion and to prove that 
 in one place at least the Mound Builders understood the art 
 of smelting metals. Some recent excavations in Wisconsin 
 have yielded not only implements of copper, but the very 
 moulds in which they are supposed to have been cast. It is 
 desirable that other facts should confirm an assertion upset- 
 ting the hitherto generally received opinion." It has been 
 held by some and with much probability, that the 
 moulds were used in the process of shaping cold copper, a 
 piece of approximately similar form having been put into 
 the mould and hammered until it took the shape of the 
 cavity. The experiment was successfully tried by Dr. Hoy 
 with one of the stone moulds. 
 
 Traces of cultivation attributed to the Mound Builders are 
 numerous in the western states, especially in Michigan and 
 Indiana.* These are parallel embankments, which often 
 cover a considerable area, several acres for instance, to which 
 have been given the significant name of Garden-beds. We 
 meet with similar embankments in Missouri and in all the 
 
 1 There is no evidence that metal was ever obtained from ore by smelting. 
 The Mound Builders were ignorant of the arts of casting, welding, and alloy- 
 ing. Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 778. 
 
 * The above was written when I heard of a letter from Putnam, of Nov. 17, 
 1 88 r, called " Were ancient implements hammered or moulded into shape?" 
 The learned professor concludes with me that there is so far no serious proof of the 
 use of moulding. " Besides beating," adds Putnam, " these men employed one 
 other process ; the metal was rolled between two flat stones, by which means 
 the required form was obtained." 
 
 1 Schoolcraft : " Ancient Garden-Beds in Grand River Valley " (Michigan), 
 vol. I., p. 50, and pi. VI. Conant, p. 65. 
 
1 82 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 districts west of the Mississippi ; they extend into the valleys 
 of the Ozark Mountains, from Pulaski county to the Gulf 
 of Mexico on the south, to the banks of the Colorado and to 
 Texas on the west, and to Iowa on the north. Their 
 diameter varies from ten to sixty feet, and their height from 
 two to three feet. Numerous and detailed excavations have 
 yielded no relic, no bone, no fragment of pottery, no heap of 
 cinders or of coal that could witness to the residence 
 or the burial of man. They cannot therefore be compared 
 either with the kitchen middens or the sepulchral mounds. 
 
 Professor Forshey attests their presence in Louisiana, where 
 they are of considerably larger dimensions, their diameter 
 varying from thirty to one hundred and forty feet. It should 
 be added that the diameter of one hundred and forty feet is 
 an isolated case. Their greatest height is five feet, which 
 diminishes to a few inches in the vast marshes stretching away 
 from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. At certain points these 
 embankments touch each other, and between Galveston and 
 Houston, between the Red River and Wichita, they can be 
 counted by thousands. According to Forshey, who de- 
 scribed them to the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, 
 these embankments cannot have served as the founda- 
 tions of the homes of men. He remarked that none of the 
 known burrowing animals execute such works, whilst hurri- 
 canes could not have accumulated materials with such regu- 
 larity. He added that in his opinion it was impossible to 
 say any thing definite with regard to their origin, which 
 seemed to him inexplicable. Other archaeologists are more 
 positive ; they consider that these embankments could have 
 been used for nothing but cultivation, and that they were in- 
 tended to counteract the humidity of the soil, still the 
 greatest obstacle with which the tillers of the rich plains of 
 the lower Mississippi valley have to contend. 
 
 According to certain authorities the Mound Builders cul- 
 tivated maize, frijoles or black kidney beans, introduced by 
 the Spaniards into Europe, and even th.e vine. A recent ex- 
 plorer, Amasa Potter, in describing the excavations of a 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 183 
 
 mound in Utah, tells of having found a handful of corn, 
 a few grains of which carefully collected and planted yielded 
 the following year an ear of exceptional length, containing a 
 number of grains of a shape quite distinct from that of 
 any cereal of to-day ; but the whole account of this dis- 
 covery is so extraordinary that it is impossible to accept it. 
 
 To sum up : the vast region between the Mississippi on 
 the west and the Alleghanies on the east and between 
 the Ohio on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, 
 was occupied for centuries, the exact number of which it 
 is impossible to estimate in the present state of our knowledge, 
 by man. Judging from the number of structures left to bear 
 witness, this population was numerous ; tolerably homo- 
 geneous, for everywhere we recognize similar funeral rites, 
 and much the same arts and industries ; sedentary, for 
 nomads would not have erected such temples or constructed 
 such intrenchments ; pastoral and agricultural, for the chase 
 could not have supplied all their needs ; subject to chiefs, for 
 a despotic authority must have been indispensable to the 
 erection of the works left behind them ; and lastly they must 
 have been traders, for beneath the same mounds we find the 
 copper of Lake Superior, the mica of the Alleghanies, the 
 obsidian of Mexico, and the pearls and shells of the Gulf. All 
 testify to the fact that the men, whose traces we are seeking, 
 had long since risen from the barbarism of savagery, and that 
 they had attained to a state of comparative culture. It 
 is certain that, as with all the savage rac"es whose evolution 
 history enables us to follow, this culture could only have 
 been acquired slowly and by degrees. 
 
 What then, we must now ask, were the men, whose works 
 so justly excite our astonishment ? Did the Mound Builders 
 disappear ? Were they aboriginal, or were their architecture, 
 their industrial art, and their agriculture of foreign origin? 
 If they migrated from neighboring regions, or from distant 
 continents, what were those regions and what those con- 
 tinents? By what route did they travel, and if they disap- 
 peared how was it that all recollection of their disappearance 
 
184 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 was effaced from the memory of their conquerors or their 
 successors? It is impossible to. disguise either the bearing 
 of these questions on the development of the American 
 races ; or the fact that at present we can but partially solve 
 them. The conditions of the problem and the opinions 
 which have been successively enounced may be briefly 
 stated. 
 
 Those who have made this subject their special study have 
 been divided into two parties, and religious prejudice has 
 even been invoked to aggravate the difficulties already in 
 themselves so great. To the most recent and cautious investi- 
 gators the Indians at the time of the conquest represent 
 in a general way the so called Mound Builders, while others, 
 on the contrary, assert that the builders of the great mounds 
 have completely disappeared, and these persons absolutely 
 refuse to admit the possibility of the native races of North 
 America being their descendants. We must examine in 
 turn the arguments and objections which are not wanting for 
 or against any of the theories put forth. 
 
 One thing is certain : The analogy between the mounds 
 is such that they cannot but be the work of a people in 
 about the same stage of culture. " They are all built by one 
 people," observes Conant, on p. 39 of his " Footprints of 
 Vanished Races," and it is not less certain that centuries 
 may have been required for their erection. The men who 
 worked the mines of Lake Superior, who erected such mounds 
 as those of Newark,' Portsmouth, Cincinnati, Chillicothe, and 
 Circleville, and such fortifications as those of Ohio, must long 
 have dwelt in these regions, though it is impossible to fix the 
 limits of their occupation. The question of the time of their 
 residence is so intimately connected with that of their origin, 
 that it is impossible to separate them. 
 
 One preliminary remark must be made : in the caves and 
 beneath the tumuli of Europe have been found numerous 
 well-preserved human bones, often dating from the most re- 
 mote antiquity, while this is less commonly the case in 
 America. These excavations have often yielded, as the last 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 185 
 
 vestiges of the human body, but a few little heaps of white 
 dust ; though hundreds of skeletons have been taken out, but 
 a small proportion of them have been treated with the care 
 necessary to their preservation. 
 
 It has also been noticed that mounds are rarely met with 
 in the lower levels * of the districts watered by the Ohio or 
 its tributaries. These structures nearly all rise from terraces 
 formed by ancient alluvial deposits, and some have retained 
 to this day traces of great inundations which altered the 
 valleys. It is likely that their builders chose their sites so 
 as to avoid the great floods, the disastrous effects of which 
 they must have annually experienced at the outset. Recent 
 discoveries enable us to add that some of the mounds rise 
 from the most recent alluvial deposits. This fact would 
 prove that the erection of mounds went on for centuries. 
 
 The giants of the forest have covered many of the arti- 
 ficial earthworks, and generations of tree in their turn suc- 
 ceeded the residence of man. Such changes surely needed 
 a long period of time. " The process by which nature re- 
 stores the forest to its original state, after being once 
 cleared, is extremely slow," says General Harrison 2 in a 
 speech already quoted. " The rich lands of the West are, 
 indeed, soon covered again, but the character of the growth 
 is entirely different, and continues so for a long period. In 
 several places upon the Ohio, and upon the farm which I 
 occupy, clearings were made in the first settlement of the 
 country, and consequently abandoned and suffered to grow 
 up. Some of these new forests are now sure of fifty years' 
 growth, but they have made so little progress toward attain- 
 ing the appearance of the immediately contiguous forest as 
 to induce any man of reflection to determine that at least 
 ten times fifty years must elapse before their complete 
 
 1 The difference of level between the high and low water is thirty-five feet for 
 the Upper Mississippi, from thirty to thirty-five for the Missouri, and forty-two 
 for the Ohio. 
 
 * " Trans. Hist. Soc. of Ohio," vol. I., p. 263. See also "Arch. Americana," 
 vol. I., p. 306 ; and Squier and Davis' " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi 
 Valley," 1848, p. 306. 
 
1 86 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 assimilation can be effected. We find in the ancient works 
 all that variety of trees which give such unrivalled beauty 
 to our forests, in natural proportions. The first growth of 
 the same kind of land, once cleared and then abandoned to 
 nature, on the contrary, is nearly homogeneous, often stinted 
 to one or two, at most three, kinds of timber. If the ground 
 has been cultivated, the yellow locust will thickly spring 
 up ; if not cultivated, the black and white walnut will be the 
 prevailing growth. * * * Of what immense ages, then, 
 must be the works so often referred to, covered as they are 
 by at least the second growth after the primitive forest 
 state was regained ? " 
 
 Barrandt J describes a regular town, a Mound City he 
 calls it, on the Yellowstone River, which town had perfectly 
 straight avenues and mounds at equal distances. Another 
 town rather like this, on the Moreau River, contains nearly 
 two hundred mounds, and a third rises on the banks of the 
 Great Cheyenne, Nebraska. In Missouri and Arkansas we 
 also see a considerable number of mounds of elliptical form, 
 measuring from five to seven yards long, and rising from 
 about one foot to one and a half feet above the ground. 
 All are symmetrically arranged, with passages crossing each 
 other at right angles, as do our streets. 2 Excavations have 
 yielded nothing but charcoal or fragments of coarse pottery, 
 from which no useful inferences could be drawn. In the 
 neighborhood numerous jasper and agate arrow-points have 
 been picked up, and syenite and porphyry axes. * 
 
 It has been claimed by those who would see in the build- 
 ers of the mounds a unique, civilized, and vanished race, 
 that the symmetry above described is foreign to the charac- 
 ter of the existing Indians, that the Indian races did not 
 build mounds, that they did not throw up embankments, 
 that their customs and industries have never presented so 
 striking a similarity as the remains of the mounds seem to 
 
 1 " Smithsonian Report," 1870. 
 
 * J. Dille : "Smithsonian Report," 1866. 
 
 8 " Narrative of a Journey across the Cordillera of the Andes." London, 1825. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 187 
 
 indicate for their builders, that the Indians could not or 
 would not dig canals, hammer copper into utensils, or make 
 such pottery as that found in the mounds. It is also 
 said that the Indians have no traditions in regard to the 
 mounds, or ascribe them to a foreign race or to some mythi- 
 cal people, and have no reverence for them such as would be 
 expected if the works were the tombs of their ancestors. 
 
 Of these arguments it may be said that there is hardly 
 one of them which has not already been refuted by scientific 
 researches of recent days, and most of them would never 
 have been offered if the persons who advanced them had 
 had our present knowledge of the American races, the 
 mounds, and the methods of scientific archaeology. This is 
 no reproach to the early investigators. Archaeology as a 
 science is young, and yet those who depend upon many of 
 the early writers for their general principles are in the posi- 
 tion of the blind led by the blind. 
 
 It should, however, be distinctly understood that the 
 reference to " Indians " in connection with the mounds, is a 
 strictly general term. The richest, most cultured, and most 
 sedentary of the Indian tribes existing when the white race 
 poured into America like a resistless flood, have been de- 
 stroyed ; of many tribes none remain. Of others only a 
 most feeble remnant exists or lately existed in a region to 
 which they have been exiled from the lands of their fathers. 
 Those who constitute the greater portion of our Indian 
 population to-day are those who were nomads, wanderers, 
 the Bedouins of America, the idle wanderers who were not 
 tied to the soil by their progress in culture, and who proba- 
 bly never troubled themselves about mounds as long as they 
 could shift their wigwams from one good hunting ground to 
 another. It is of these that one thinks as Indians when the 
 contrast between Mound Builder and Indian is mooted. 
 Again, even among those who were not of the nomadic 
 category there is no doubt that their facility in many ab- 
 original arts wilted before the sun of civilization, while the 
 methods and tools of the white man, like foreign weeds, 
 
1 88 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 sprang up in the vacant place. Why spend hours of work 
 making fragile, if artistic, pots when an otter skin would 
 purchase three good kettles outlasting a wilderness of pots ? 
 Why wearily weave the macerated fibres of wild herbage to 
 a coarse, unsightly fabric when a basket of wild berries 
 would sell to the white man for a fathom of bright calico? 
 The Indian, whatever romance may be reflected upon him 
 by the novelist in trying to hold the mirror up to nature, is, 
 in business matters, as he understands them, severely practi- 
 cal. The white man's tools, fabrics, weapons, kettles are 
 the better ones, and the Indian adopts them. After three 
 centuries of this sort of thing why should the disappearance 
 of many historically recorded aboriginal methods astonish us. 
 
 It is also to be remembered that America holds many 
 peoples of different culture and habits. We know that most 
 of them are ultimately related though put in various linguis- 
 tic families. Were their heaps of refuse and the relics of 
 their villages their only record, who would claim kindred 
 between the Pueblos of the South and the fishing Indians of 
 Canada ? the Northern Tinneh and the Apache, or many 
 other contemporaries ? These reservations made, the prob- 
 lem of the mounds becomes less misty. 
 
 Although it is true that we meet with no structures amongst 
 the Indians of the extreme north which at all recall those of 
 the Mound Builders, and although the laziness of the ab- 
 origines of the present time is so indomitable that they have 
 often not even dreamed of turning the mounds to account for 
 the burial of their own dead, facts of a different kind may be 
 quoted with regard to other regions. The Kickapoos living 
 in southern Illinois, and the Shawnees, who dwelt near 
 Nashville, buried their dead, until quite recent times, in 
 stone graves. This fact, we must add, has been called in 
 question, especially by Carr in his " Observations on the 
 Crania from the Stone Graves of Tennessee," ' and, if it be 
 true, there is nothing to prove that the Indians did not use 
 sepulchral chambers dating from before their arrival in the 
 locality. 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., pp. 361, etq. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 189 
 
 The testimony of the Spanish historians is more impor- 
 tant. Garcilasso de la Vega ' tells of the Indian mode of 
 founding a town at the time of the conquest. According to 
 him the Indians collected large quantities of earth with which 
 they formed a platform many feet in height, large enough 
 to hold from ten to twelve houses, or if necessary fifteen to 
 twenty. There dwelt the chief, his family and his chief 
 attendants. At the foot of the mound a square was marked 
 out, of the size the town was to be ; the principal chiefs took 
 up their residences in it, and the common people gathered 
 about them. Further on, Garcilasso * described the town of 
 Guachoul6 near the source of the Coosa, not far from the 
 country of the Achalaques, part of the Cherokee tribe, in 
 which the house of the chief was erected on an eminence 
 terminating in a platform, on which six men could stand up- 
 right. 
 
 The confirmatory testimony of early explorers shows that 
 the valley of the Mississippi, as well as the districts now 
 forming the states of Ohio, Florida, and Georgia, was inhab- 
 ited by warlike nations, who tilled the ground, lived in forti- 
 fied towns, erected their temples on eminences, often arti- 
 ficial, and worshipped the sun. These were the men who 
 repulsed Narvaez when he endeavored to conquer Florida in 
 1528. It is but fair to remark that Narvaez' army consisted 
 of but 400 foot soldiers and twenty cavalry, though provided 
 with civilized weapons. It was against them that Hernan- 
 dez de Soto fought for four years, giving them battle with 
 great slaughter in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, 
 Alabama, and Arkansas. Everywhere he found a numerous 
 population. The towns were surrounded with walls of earth, 
 and towers strengthened the broad trenches which completed 
 the defences. At Pascha, west of the Mississippi, for 
 instance, the Spaniards found a fortified town surrounded 
 
 1 " Hist, de la Conquete de la Floride, ou Relation de ce qui s' est passe 
 au voyage de Ferdinand de Soto pour la Conquete de ce pays." La Haye, 1735, 
 vol. I., p. 136. 
 
 a Vol I., p. 294. See also A. J. Pickett, " History of Alabama," Charleston, 
 1857, vol. I., p. 8. 
 
190 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 by a trench sufficiently wide for two canoes to float in it 
 abreast. This trench was nine miles long and communicated 
 with the Mississippi. 
 
 Squier in his turn tells of finding among the Creeks. 
 Natchez, and other tribes of the south, traces of structures 
 which, if they do not exactly resemble the regular enclos- 
 ures of the west, seem at least to have some analogy with 
 them, and the description we borrow from him of the Chunk 
 Yards J is certainly a fresh proof in favor of the opinion he 
 advances. 
 
 " The Chunk Yards* are rectangular areas, generally occu- 
 pying the centre of the town, enclosed and having an 
 entrance at each end. The public square and rotunda, or 
 great winter council-house, stand at the two opposite corners 
 of them. They are generally very extensive, especially in 
 older towns. Some of them are 600 to 900 feet in length 
 and of proportionate breadth. The area is levelled, and sunk 
 two, or sometimes three feet below the banks or terraces 
 surrounding them, which are occasionally two in number, 
 one behind and above the other, and composed of earth 
 taken from the area at the time of its formation. These 
 banks or terraces served the purpose of seats for spectators. 
 In the centre of the yard or area there is a low circular 
 mound or eminence, in the middle of which stands the 
 ' Chunk Pole,' which is a high obelisk or four-square pillar, 
 tapering upward to an obtuse point. This is of wood, the 
 
 1 " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," p. 121. 
 
 8 Their name is derived from an Indian game. Catlin describes it among 
 the Mandans and gives it the name of Tchungkee ("Illustrations of the 
 Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians," London, 
 1866, vol I., p. 132). Adair had already described the Chung kee among the 
 Cherokees (" Hist, of the Am. Indians," London, 1/75, p. 401). Jones met 
 with the same game among the Indians of the South ("Antiquities of the 
 Southern Indians"), and Bartram among those of Carolina. Carr gives an 
 illustration of a carefully polished sandstone of elliptical form measuring about 
 four inches at its widest part and nearly two and three fourths thick. This 
 stone was found under Ely Mound, Virginia, and similar ones have been met 
 with in various places. They are supposed to have been used in the favorite 
 game of the Indians. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. IQI 
 
 heart or inward resinous part of a sound pine-tree, which is 
 very durable. It is generally from thirty to forty feet in 
 length, and to the top is fastened some object which serves 
 as a mark to shoot at, with arrows or the rifle, at certain 
 appointed times. Near each corner of one end of the yard 
 stands erect a smaller pole or pillar, about twelve feet high, 
 called the ' Slave Post,' for the reason that to them are 
 bound the captives condemned to be burned. These posts 
 are usually decorated with the scalps of slain enemies, sus- 
 pended by strings from the top. They are often crowned 
 with the white dry skull of an enemy." ***** Fur- 
 ther on the same author describes " a circular eminence, at 
 one end of the yard, commonly nine or ten feet higher than 
 the ground round about. Upon this mound stands the 
 great rotunda, hot-house, or winter council-house, of the 
 present Creeks. It was probably designed and used by the 
 ancients who constructed it for the same purpose. * * * 
 A square terrace or eminence, about the same height with 
 the circular one just described, occupies a position at the 
 other end of the yard. Upon this stands the Public Square." ' 
 Recent discoveries confirm this account." Under a coni- 
 cal mound measuring 19 feet high by 300 feet in circum- 
 ference at the base, in Lee county, Virginia, were found a 
 number of posts of cedar wood, arranged at regular intervals 
 so as to form a circle, with a much higher one in the centre 
 doubtless intended to hold up the roof or covering. This 
 was the council-chamber, the assembly-room, of the tribe, 
 greatly resembling that of which Bartram, quoted above, 
 writing in the last century, gives a description. " The 
 council or town house," he says, speaking of that of the 
 Cherokees, " is a large rotunda, capable of accommodating 
 
 1 These extracts, which are taken from Squier and Davis' "Ancient Monu- 
 ments of the Mississippi Valley," pp. 121-123, are in reality quotations by these 
 authors, taken with others from a MS. by W. Bartram, author of " Travels in 
 North and South Carolina." "The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi 
 Valley" will be found in vol. I. of the " Smithsonian Contributions to Know- 
 ledge," published by the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, in 1848. 
 
 * " Report of Peabody Museum," vol. II. p. 75, etc. 
 
1 92 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 several hundred people ; it stands on the top of an ancient 
 artificial mount of about twenty feet perpendicular, and the 
 rotunda on the top of it being about thirty feet more gives 
 the whole fabric an elevation of about fifty feet from the 
 common surface of the ground ; but it may be proper to ob- 
 serve that this mount, on which the rotunda stands, is of a 
 much more ancient date than the building, and perhaps was 
 raised for another purpose. The Cherokees themselves are as 
 ignorant as we are as to by what people or for what purpose 
 these artificial hills were raised ; they have various stories 
 concerning them." 
 
 The Indians of the South then not only used the ancient 
 mounds for the houses of their chiefs, or for their council- 
 chambers, but they also erected similar mounds in their own 
 chunk yards. These facts greatly modified Squier's first 
 impressions, and led him, as he himself tells us, to a conclu- 
 sion he little expected when he began his researches. In his 
 last studies he decided that the earthworks in the western 
 portion of the state of New York were erected by the 
 Iroquois, and that their erection only preceded their discov- 
 ery by a short time. He adds, it is true, that in the i6th 
 century there was not a single Indian tribe between the At- 
 lantic and the Pacific, except the half-civilized people of the 
 South, who had sufficient means of subsistence to be able 
 to give up time to unproductive labor ; nor was there one 
 tribe in such a social condition as would admit of the com- 
 pulsory erection by the people of the structures under no- 
 tice. Subsequent researches have removed many of the 
 supposed difficulties, and are well summarized by Lucien 
 Carr in the paper from which we have already quoted. 
 
 Southall dwells on the facts which seem to him to prove, 
 not only an Indian origin for the mounds, but also their re- 
 cent construction. 1 His work describes the Iroquois gov- 
 ernment which included five nations. These were the 
 Mohawks, also called in some French narratives the Agniers, 
 theOneidas, the Onondagas, theCayugas, and the Senecas, or 
 
 1 " Recent Origin of Man," ch. xxxvi., p. 530 et seq. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 193 
 
 Tsonontouas. According to the Jesuit fathers these nations 
 numbered in 1665, 2340 warriors or altogether 11,700 souls, 
 according to the generally accepted method of estimating 
 such populations. 
 
 They devoted themselves to agriculture, and were able 
 for nearly two centuries to maintain their independence 
 against the Dutch and French. Their territory stretched 
 from the St. Lawrence to Tennessee and Ohio ; they were 
 not ignorant of navigation, and early travellers report having 
 seen their canoes as far southeast as Chesapeake Bay. Since 
 then they have given up their nomad habits and we have 
 some very exact descriptions of their villages and dwellings. 1 
 
 It was the same in many other parts of the country. 
 Strachey, travelling in Virginia at the beginning of the 
 1 7th century, 2 relates that he found the Indians liv- 
 ing in houses made of wood, cultivating maize and tobacco, 
 and harvesting peas, kidney-beans, and fruit. The Mandans, 
 dwelling on the upper Missouri, not far from the mouth of 
 the Yellowstone River, dug out earth for a depth of about 
 two feet, and built their huts in the hollows thus obtained. 
 These huts, which were of circular form, made of solid ma- 
 terials and roofed in with turf, were from about thirty to 
 forty feet in diameter. Several families lived together; the 
 beds, which were ranged round the circular walls, had cur- 
 tains of dressed deer-skin. The Iroquois, Natchez, Dela- 
 wares, and Indians of Florida and Louisiana made vases, the 
 ornamentation and delicacy of which were not in any way 
 inferior to the pottery of the Mound Builders, and the curi- 
 ous pipes, of which we have spoken, are met with among the 
 Indians of the present day. 
 
 Lastly, two centuries ago, when French missionaries first 
 visited the districts bordering on Lake Superior, the Chip- 
 pewas used copper weapons and tools. These facts, with 
 many others which might be quoted, would appear to justify 
 
 1 See especially the account by Greenhalgh who visited several Seneca villages 
 in 1677, and Morgan's " League of the Iroquois." 
 * " Historic of Travaile into Virginia Britannia " (written in 1618). 
 
194 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 a belief that the Indians once possessed a civilization supe- 
 rior to the condition to which their descendants have been 
 reduced by defeat, invasion, indulgence in too much alcohol, 
 and other causes. 
 
 We have given a summary of the different opinions held, 
 and have stated the conclusions to which they lead most 
 modern anthropologists. Some discussion of the physical 
 characters of these races may be useful, The Indians of 
 America have been held to form a distinct variety of the 
 human race. Their skin is swarthy, varying from the pale 
 olive to a warm brown, often with a bright color on the 
 cheeks. The stories of their copper-colored complexion are, 
 at least in North America, due to the ridiculous miscon- 
 ception of the early voyagers who took no account of the 
 reddish paint with which they were smeared. Like the 
 whites, their complexion is darkened or burned by the sun, 
 sometimes to a considerable degree, but nobody ever saw 
 a naturally copper-colored American Indian ; their hair is 
 black and wiry and almost invariably straight ; their eyes are 
 black or very dark-brown ; their lips are thick or thin, ac- 
 cording to the tribe or individual ; their forehead is com- 
 paratively low ; their face is generally long with high cheek- 
 bones ; their hands and feet are small and often delicately 
 made. These characteristic traits have rarely been known 
 to vary during the three centuries in which they have been 
 in contact with the whites, but marked differences occur be- 
 tween the various tribes as to physiognomy, physique, tem- 
 perament, personal attractiveness, and tint of complexion. 
 This has been observed by all students of the Indians who 
 have been fortunate enough to have wide experience among 
 them. Much stress has been placed on supposed funda- 
 mental differences between the bones of the Mound Builders 
 and those of other American races. These differences were 
 more apparent while the material was scanty, and tend to 
 disappear as we come to know more of the Indians of vari- 
 ous parts of America, and to have larger mound material for 
 comparison. It has been said that the Mound Builders are 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 195 
 
 characterized by a general conformation which places them 
 apart amongst human races, and differentiates them espe- 
 cially from the Indians of North America. For myself, 
 however, I do not attach as much importance as do some 
 eminent anthropologists to differences between bones, 
 especially the bones of skulls. Too often we find beneath 
 the same mound, dating from contemporaneous burials, 
 amidst similar stone implements and pieces of pottery, 
 brachycephalic and dolichocephalic skulls, skulls of the 
 Caucasian, and skulls of almost negroid type. All varieties, 
 from extreme long heads to rounded or nearly square heads 
 have been found among undoubted Eskimo crania. 1 The 
 external conformation of the heads can only be guessed at, 
 and therefore any conclusion might turn out to be pre- 
 mature. 
 
 Moreover, however true these assertions may be, there are, 
 as we have previously intimated, Indians and Indians. The 
 Indians of the north should not be confounded with those 
 met with by the Conquistadores in the south, and who were 
 certainly in a much more advanced state of culture. It may 
 be supposed that the wild tribes from the north and the 
 northwest first drove the mound-building people from 
 Illinois and Indiana ; that those of Ohio, protected by a 
 solid line of fortified camps or villages, offered a more 
 efficacious resistance, but that they, in their turn, were 
 driven beyond the Mississippi : that the struggle went on in 
 Kentucky and Tennessee, until the day when the remnants 
 of this ancient people were driven back to the districts 
 bordering on the Gulf, where the vanquished were gradually 
 merged with the conquerors, and that thus united they 
 contended bravely and often with success against a foreign 
 yoke.* 
 
 Perhaps too it may be possible to meet with traces of 
 
 1 We have mentioned numerous facts leading to a similar conclusion in Eu- 
 rope. See, also, " Les premiers hommes et les temps pre-historiques," vol. 
 I., ch. iii., and vol. II., ch. xii. 
 
 'Force: A quelle race appartenaient les Mound Builders ("Cong, des 
 Americanistes, " Luxembourg, vol. I., p. 121.) 
 
196 PRE-IHSTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 people akin to the Mound Builders amongst the Aztecs, 
 whose stone teocallis resemble the conical mounds in form, 
 and amongst the Mayas, 1 of whose remarkable monuments 
 we shall presently speak, and who also had to contend with 
 formidable enemies. 8 
 
 There can be no doubt whatever that tribes who were 
 builders of mounds lived in Central America for centuries, 
 but we have no chronological scale by which we can estimate 
 the duration of their residence there, still less determine 
 a definite emigration to or arrival in the valleys of the 
 Mississippi or of the Missouri. The trees growing from the 
 mounds of Ohio are rarely more than one or two hundred 
 years old ; while in the valleys of Florida and on the shores 
 of the Gulf of Mexico they are not even so old as that. One 
 conclusion may be drawn : that the mounds had been 
 abandoned when they became overgrown with trees. But 
 were these trees the successors of others, and can we say how 
 many generations have disappeared since the erection of the 
 mounds, or whether the latter were generally contempo- 
 raneous ? We were met by a similar problem in dealing 
 with the shell heaps and we can only give a similar an- 
 swer. 
 
 From the mounds themselves we can learn nothing. A 
 lapse of thirty centuries or of five would account equally 
 well for the development of the civilization they represent. 
 Stronck ascribes the erection of some of the mounds to the 
 earliest days of our own era, and thinks that some of them 
 must have been abandoned between the sixth and twelfth 
 
 1 Robertson speaks of having disinterred a considerable number of Mound 
 Builders' skulls, and says that they have in every case been of a type somewhat 
 resembling that of the natives of Yucatan (" Congres des Americanistes," Luxem- 
 bourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 43.) 
 
 2 The examinations of the organic and monumental remains, and of the works 
 of art of the aborigines of Tennessee, by Dr. Jones, in his opinion establish 
 the fact that they were not the relics of the nomadic and hunting tribes of 
 Indians such as many known to exist at the time of the first explorations by the 
 white race ; but on the contrary that they are the remains of a people more 
 closely related to but not identical with the aborigines of Mexico and Central 
 America, " Smithsonian Contr.," vol. XXII., p. 88. 
 
POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. l<)7 
 
 centuries. 1 The margin, it is evident, is wide. Force, 8 in fix- 
 ing on the seventh century as the most flourishing period of 
 these people, and Hellwald, 1 in making them contemporary 
 with Charlemagne, would appear to endorse to some extent 
 the hypothesis of Stronck. Short, in an excellent work 
 on the North American Indians, tells us that one or at 
 the most two thousand years only can have elapsed since the 
 Mound Builders were compelled to abandon the valleys 
 of the Ohio and its tributaries, and but seven or eight hundred 
 since they retired from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 
 Lastly the early explorers found mounds occupied and even 
 being constructed within the last few hundred years. So we 
 must content ourselves with the conclusion that, whatever 
 the period of their initiation, it is probable that what may be 
 called the epoch of mound-building, but recently terminated, 
 has been of very long duration. These estimates, divergent 
 as they are, may serve to give some idea of our ignorance 
 in regard to the actual antiquity of these ruins. 
 
 One thing is certain, no excavations of the mounds up to 
 this date (1883) have yielded a single bone of those gigantic 
 pachyderms, those extraordinary edentate creatures which 
 frequently occur in earlier epochs. Must we not therefore 
 conclude that these animals were extinct before the times of 
 the Mound Builders? One of the mounds, however (fig. 
 36), as already stated, is claimed to represent a mastodon, 
 and some pipes from Iowa to represent elephants (fig. 72) ; 
 and if these highly problematical assumptions are correct, one 
 might presume that the Mound Builders knew, at least by 
 tradition, of the animals they imitated ; but this point, like 
 so many others, is still very obscure, and not free from com- 
 plications due to fraudulent recently manufactured" relics." 
 
 We must await in the future what the present cannot 
 give us ; and meanwhile be on our guard against brilliant 
 hypotheses, startling guesses, and over-rash conclusions. 
 
 1 Repertoire chronologique de 1'hist. des Mound Builders, " Cong, des 
 Americ.," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 312. 
 
 *A quelle race appartenaient des Mound Builders. 
 *"Cong. des American istes," Luxembourg, vol. I., p. 50. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CLIFF DWELLERS AND THE INHABITANTS OF THE 
 
 PUEBLOS. 
 
 THE nineteenth century, now approaching its decline, has 
 played a grand role in the history of humanity, and never 
 have such great things been accomplished with such marvel- 
 lous rapidity. We justly count amongst those who have 
 had a glorious share in the common work, the bold travel- 
 lers who have opened, or are opening, up whole conti- 
 nents to civilization and progress. In America, as in Africa 
 and Asia, the pioneers of science daily announce new dis- 
 coveries. The vast regions of California, Arizona, New 
 Mexico. Nevada, Colorado, and Utah, were, a few years ago, 
 absolutely unknown. They are now intersected with rail- 
 ways ; commerce and industry will shortly possess the land ; 
 populous towns have sprung up, and new states contribute 
 to the development of the United States, and the greatness 
 of this people, youngest born of the nations, which is un- 
 doubtedly predestined to play an important part in the fu- 
 ture history of the world. 
 
 While awaiting the brilliant future of the states recently 
 or to be admitted to the Union, we have to cross much half 
 desert, rude, and desolate region where the trees, chiefly 
 pines, are rare and stunted, the vegetation is feeble and 
 meagre, and nature would at first sight appear to be doomed 
 to eternal solitude. The very wild animals have almost 
 deserted these dreary wastes which are only haunted by 
 wandering Indians, perhaps the wildest and most barbarous 
 of all the existing aborigines of North America, who not 
 long since would flee at the approach of the traveller unless 
 they felt themselves strong enough to rob him. We must 
 cross the San Juan river to reach the alluvial districts des- 
 
 198 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 1 99 
 
 tincd doubtless to yield a harvest so rich that it is impossible 
 to overestimate its importance. 
 
 Things were different here in the past. These caftons, as 
 
 FIG. 86. A Cafion of the Colorado. 
 
 are called the narrow gorges shut in between perpendicular 
 rocks (fig. 86) with their deep ravines, these arid valleys 
 
2OO PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 covered with brushwood rarely more than a few feet high, 
 this dreary lifeless nature, presents a most striking contrast 
 with the ruins that rise up at every turn, bearing witness 
 that for centuries, which it is impossible to estimate, these 
 countries were inhabited by a numerous, active, and intelli- 
 gent population. In many man has built houses, fortifica- 
 tions, reservoirs, forming true cities ; the very rocks are 
 adorned with painted or sculptured figures ; everywhere man 
 has left behind him indelible marks of his presence. 
 
 The Spanish, who were the first to cross Central America, 1 
 gave the name of pueblo, which signifies a market-town or 
 village, to groups of buildings, a great number of which, pre- 
 senting every appearance of great antiquity, were already in 
 ruins at the time of their victorious march. These buildings 
 are found in the valleys drained by the San Juan, Rio Grande 
 del Norte, Colorado Chiquito, and their tributaries for an 
 area of two hundred thousand square miles. 3 The earliest 
 inhabitants whose traces can be recognized evidently fol- 
 lowed these valleys in their forward march, halting here and 
 there where the soil was fertile, to be driven away by new- 
 comers, who, like themselves, were seeking water and pas- 
 turage. The struggle for existence is a universal law written 
 in every country in letters of blood. 
 
 Cabe^ade Vaca speaks of some pueblos in ruins and others 
 still inhabited * ; many he says were larger than the town of 
 Mexico. The houses, often consisting of several stories, one 
 behind the other as in our illustration (fig. 87), were of stone. 
 The inhabitants lived in the upper stories, 4 and the ground 
 floor, generally dark, served as a storeroom for food and 
 fodder. These basements are known amongst the Spanish 
 as Casas de comodidad or Almacenas (see Castafleda de Na- 
 gera, Relacion de voy. de Cibola). The upper stories were 
 
 'New Mexico was finally subdued in 1597 and 1598 by Don Juan de Onate. 
 The first Spanish expedition took place in 1540, under Cabeca de Vaca, ship- 
 wrecked on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in 1535. 
 
 8 Barber, " Cong, des Americanistes," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 25. 
 
 *" Quarta Relacion * * * Collecion de Documentos," vol. II., p. 475. 
 
 4 Putnam, " Bull, of the Essex Institute," Dec., 1880. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 2OI 
 
 reached by means of ladders, and when these ladders were 
 drawn up the occupiers enjoyed comparative security, and 
 could defend themselves from attacks which must have been 
 frequent enough judging from the countless quartz, obsid- 
 ian, and agate arrow-points found everywhere about these 
 dwellings. 
 
 The buildings were nearly all of considerable size, and we 
 shall describe some large enough to lodge several hundred 
 families. Some, as the Taos pueblo (fig 87), were situated 
 in the valley and were occasionally surrounded by a wall 
 completing the defences ; others, as the Pueblo of Acoma for 
 instance, 1 which is supposed to have occupied the site of the 
 present village of Acuco, rises from several plateaux or ter- 
 
 FIG. 87. Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico. 
 
 races called mesas, often situated several hundred feet above 
 the valley, and only to be reached by all but impracticable 
 paths. We can imagine the astonishment of the explorers 
 when they saw all these ruins rising before them. " Im- 
 agine," says a recent traveller, " the dry bed of a river shut 
 in between steep inaccessible rocks of red sand-stone, and a 
 man standing in that bed looking up at the habitations of 
 his fellow-creatures perched on every ledge. Such is the 
 scene spread out before us at every step." Another travel- 
 ler speaks of the evident proofs of a considerable population 
 
 1 Y' hallamos a un pueblo que se llama Acoma, donde nos parecio habria 
 mas de seis mil animas. Antonio de Espeja, " Carta," 23d April, 1584. Doc. 
 ineditos del archive de Indias, vol. XV., p. 179. 
 
2O2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 having lived in these deserts, adding that there was not one 
 of the six miles he had to explore that did not afford certain 
 proof of having been inhabited for a considerable length of 
 time by men absolutely distinct from and certainly superior 
 to the wandering savages who alone traverse them now. 1 
 
 Lastly, to quote another of the many accounts, Major 
 Powell, United States geologist, expresses his surprise at 
 seeing nothing for whole days but perpendicular cliffs every- 
 where riddled with human habitations, which resemble the 
 cells of a honeycomb more than anything else. 
 
 In these districts, now nearly uninhabited, dwelt numer- 
 ous people to whom has been given the name of Cliff Dwel- 
 lers, from the rocks in which they made their homes. 
 
 One point we can pronounce upon with certainty : we 
 know beyond a doubt one of the chief causes of the depopu- 
 lation of the country to be the diminished rainfall. The 
 rainfall is very unequal in the United States. It averages 
 about three feet on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. 
 On the slopes of the Pacific, north of San Francisco, the 
 west winds bring very abundant rains, the average reaching 
 some four feet. From the coasts of the Atlantic, and from 
 the delta of the Mississippi, the quantity of rain gradually 
 diminishes as the interior of the country is approached. In 
 some parts of Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska, the average 
 rainfall of the year diminishes to a foot and a half, and in 
 parts of Colorado it is even considerably less. The very 
 small rainfall watering all the districts between the plains of 
 the far West and the Pacific coasts explains the poverty of 
 the vegetation. 
 
 The rivers, the very streams, are dried up, and we only find 
 in the valleys the traces, already ancient, of dried-up water- 
 courses. 
 
 The rains of spring are of short duration, but plentiful. 
 They pour down upon an impermeable soil with a rocky 
 foundation, forming impetuous torrents known as washes. 
 At certain times and places these washes rise to a height of 
 
 'Holmes : " Report on the Ancient Ruins of S. W. Colorado, examined 
 during the summers of 1875 and 1876," 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 2O3 
 
 thirty to forty feet, carrying everything before them and 
 often causing inundations. After these torrents the water 
 does not long remain in the arroyos, but evaporates with 
 great rapidity. At other seasons rain is unknown, and the 
 intense heat of the climate adds to the effect of this constant 
 aridity. Can it be attributed to geological or climatic 
 changes ? Possibly it may, and Colonel Hoffman mentions 
 an arroyo forty .feet above the present level of the water 
 about fifteen miles from the town of Prescott, Arizona. This 
 is a curious fact, but it should be corroborated by many oth- 
 ers before so important a decision can be arrived at, and it is 
 possible that, as in Algeria, one cause of the persistent aridity 
 was the reckless destruction of forests by the Cliff Dwellers. 
 
 Holmes, one of the first to study the ruins of the Far 
 West, on a truly scientific method, adopts the following 
 classification, which it will be useful to quote. 1 
 
 I. Lowland villages, in which dwelt the purely agricultural 
 classes, the sites chosen being always in the most fertile val- 
 ley and close to rivers. 
 
 II. Cave-Dwellings, caves artificially enlarged, often closed 
 and strengthened with adobes or bricks of kneaded clay 
 dried in the sun, such as are still used by the Indians for 
 building their huts. 
 
 III. Cliff-Houses, true fortresses to which the people of 
 the valleys probably retired when danger threatened. 
 
 The habitations in the valleys are regular pueblos ; they 
 form parallelograms or circles marked out, where the nature 
 of the ground permitted, with great regularity. All are 
 built of stone carefully laid, and the crevices generally filled 
 with clay and mud. The circular ruins met with are some- 
 times those of towers used as defences or buildings sixty feet 
 or more in diameter, enclosing several series of little apart- 
 ments with one in the centre often half under ground, to 
 which the Spaniards have given the name of estufas, mean- 
 ing literally stove or sweating-room, in reference to their use 
 as hot air bath-rooms or sweat-houses. 
 
 ' L. c. p. 5. See also Jackson: " Ruins of S. W. Colorado in 1875 and 1877." 
 
204 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The estufas have been much discussed. Some think they 
 were council-chambers where the chiefs of the tribe met to 
 discuss public affairs ; others look upon them as spots con- 
 secrated for the presence of the sacred fire, so long the ob- 
 ject of veneration to the Indians. 1 Others think the estufas 
 were wells, but the testimony of Ruiz settles the question. 
 Mariano Ruiz lived for a long time amongst the Pecos In- 
 dians as a son of the tribe (Hijo del Pueblo), and he relates 
 that these Indians preserved the sacred fire in an estufas 
 until 1840, when the five families who alone survived became 
 affiliated with another tribe. The fire was kept in a kind of 
 oven and was never allowed to emit flames. Ruiz himself 
 was in his turn charged to keep it up but he refused, influ- 
 enced by the superstitious fear of the Indians, that he who 
 should leave his brethren after having watched over the 
 sacred fire would inevitably perish within the year. On ac- 
 count of his refusal he was never allowed to enter estufas.* 
 It is certain that these estufas occur in all habitations, even 
 in those situated above precipices, or on rocks not to be 
 scaled without extreme difficulty, so that it is evident that 
 great importance was attached to them by the inhabitants of 
 the pueblos. In New Mexico and Colorado estufas are still 
 met with, even in Christian villages, where they are looked 
 upon with superstitious terror, perhaps as a last relic of the 
 mysterious rites practised by the ancestors of the inhabi- 
 tants. 3 
 
 Besides the towers rising from the midst of the pueblo 
 there are others generally round, rarely square or oblong 
 (fig. 88), set up on points commanding a wide view, or at the 
 entrances of cafions. It is evident that these were posts of 
 
 1 " These estufas, which are used as places of council and for the perform- 
 ance of their religious rites, are still found at all the present occupied pueblos 
 in New Mexico. There are six at Taos ; three at each house, and they are 
 partly sunk in the ground by an excavation. They are entered by a trap door- 
 way in the roof, the descent being by a ladder." Morgan : " Peabody Museum 
 Report," vol. II., p. 547. Am. Assco., St. Louis, 1877. 
 
 * Bandeller, " Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos." " Cong, des 
 Americ," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. II., p. 230. 
 
 1 Simpson, " Expedition to the Navajo Country," p. 78. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 2O$ 
 
 observation, where sentinels might be always on the watch 
 to warn the inhabitants of any impending danger. The site 
 of these posts was always admirably chosen ; one of them 
 overlooks the whole of the MacElmo valley, commanding 
 a view for several miles up and down ; another is situated at 
 the spot where the Hovenweep divides into two branches. 
 These towers have neither doors nor windows, and could 
 doubtless only be entered from the roof. 
 
 Near some of these dwellings long lines of walls have 
 been made out varying from twelve to eighteen feet in 
 height and built of adobes or simply of earth. These were 
 probably corrals or enclosures for cattle. Evidently these 
 people were more civilized than the Mound Builders. 
 
 The cliffs themselves consist of sedimentary rocks, layers 
 of hard sandstone very impervious to the action of the ele- 
 ments alternating with beds of very friable rock containing 
 fossil shells. The last-named beds have been in part disinte- 
 grated by atmospheric action, and are riddled with holes 
 and caves of every size, floored and roofed by the sandstone. 
 In other places erosion has acted all along the outcrop of 
 the bed so as to produce galleries, often of great length, 
 though seldom very deep. Here and there a lofty promon- 
 tory has been detached from the main cliff and has become 
 even more difficult of access than the rest. 
 
 The early inhabitants of the region under notice were 
 wonderfully skilful in turning the result of the natural 
 weathering of the rocks to account. To construct a " cave 
 dwelling" the entrance to the cave or the front of the open 
 gallery was walled up with adobes, leaving only a small 
 opening serving for both door and window. 
 
 The " cliff houses " take the form and dimensions of the 
 platform or ledge from which they rise. The masonry is 
 well laid, and it is wonderful with what skill the walls are 
 joined to the cliff and with what care the aspect of the 
 neighboring rocks has been imitated in the external archi- 
 tecture. Some explorers consider these houses to be more 
 recent than the pueblos or the caves; the few arrow-points, 
 
20)6 PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 stone implements, and fragments of pottery which have 
 been picked up do not justify an expression of opinion. 
 
 Several burial-places of the Cliff Dwellers have been found, 
 but the difficulty attending their excavation, and the dangers 
 to which the members of the United States survey who 
 undertook it were exposed, have prevented any repetition of 
 their examination. Nothing has been found but a few 
 human bones, with weapons, implements, and pottery always 
 placed near them. Like the Mound Builders and all the 
 ancient races of America, the Cliff Dwellers were actuated 
 by a hope of a future life for their departed ones, as it 
 proved by this provision for their supposed needs. 
 
 We must also mention enclosures of considerable extent 
 containing upright stones like the cromlechs of Europe, 
 arranged in circles. Excavations have been made in one of 
 these enclosures on the left bank of the Dolores ; the original 
 soil, which had not been displaced, was quickly reached, and 
 rested on the surface of the rock itself. At a depth of six 
 inches was found a layer of cinders mixed with fragments of 
 pottery, but no bones justifying us in supposing the enclos- 
 ures to have been burial-places, nor has the chemical analysis 
 of the cinders yielded any trace of animal matter, so that 
 the idea of cremation is excluded. 1 
 
 Having enumerated, in a general way, the various struc- 
 tures attributed to the' Cliff Dwellers, a few details respect- 
 ing each will render their importance clearer. 
 
 The Rio Mancos 2 flows between cliffs, formed of alter- 
 nate beds of cretaceous limestone and a clayey deposit, in 
 many parts disintegrated and worn away by the action of 
 water. One of the indentations thus formed, situated about 
 forty feet above the level of the river, is between four and 
 
 1 Jackson, /. c., pp. 415, 421, etc. 
 
 * The Mancos rises in the La Plata mountains, on the southwest of the Col- 
 orado, and flows into the San Juan. The other tributaries of the San Juan, to 
 which we shall have occasion to refer, are the La Piedra, Los Pinos, Las Ani- 
 mas, La Plata, the MacElmo, Hovenweep, and the Montezuma. The two last 
 are almost always dried up. On the south, the San Juan receives the Navajo, 
 Chaco, and Chelly. 
 
FIG. 88. Tower near Epsom Creek. 
 
208 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 FIG. 89. Cliff-house on theRio 
 Mancos. 
 
 six feet deep. 1 In this nar- 
 row space the Cliff Dwellers 
 had set up their homes. 
 Seven of these homes still 
 remain, four in a sufficiently 
 good state of preservation 
 for the mode of their con- 
 struction to be made out. 
 The walls are of stones, ce- 
 mented with clay mixed with 
 cinders and charcoal. 2 This 
 mortar was strengthened by 
 the insertion, in the intersti- 
 ces, of pebbles or little bits of 
 pottery, and to this day we 
 can make out in this masonry 
 the marks of the tools used, 
 and even the fingers of the 
 workmen. All the openings 
 are very narrow, and the 
 doors and windows are only 
 a few inches in width or 
 height. In the midst of the 
 ruins a cellar was discovered, 
 choked up with a mass of 
 rubbish, once a store of food, 
 from which half -calcined 
 grains of maize have been 
 taken, of a species still culti- 
 vated in the country. A 
 hatchet of polished stone 
 and a few fragments of pot- 
 
 I Holmes: Loc. cit., p. 393, pi. 
 XXXV. 
 
 II Castaneda (" Voy. de Cibola,"!!., 
 ch. iv., p. 168), says: "They have 
 no lime, and they replace it by a mix- 
 ture of cinders, charcoal, and clay. " 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 209 
 
 tery were the only other objects found in the excavations, 
 which had to be rapidly executed. 
 
 Another group (fig. 89), a short distance from the first, 
 rises from the indentations of the rock, which towers above 
 the river to a height of about two hundred feet. The lower 
 structures occupy a free space, sixty feet long by about fif- 
 teen feet at its widest part (fig. 90). The walls are about 
 one foot thick, and are flush with the very edge of the preci- 
 pice. They are erected with skill, the angles are regular, 
 the lines do not diverge from the perpendicular, and, when 
 the difficulties the builder had to contend with in laying his 
 foundations in such a position and at such a height are taken 
 
 FIG. 90. Cliff-house on the Rio Mancos (ground plan). 
 
 into account, these aerial dwellings may well excite our ad- 
 miration. In the centre we find the inevitable estufa, and, 
 as far as we can now tell, it could only be entered by an 
 opening of twenty-two inches ; and, moreover, in order to 
 reach this strange door, a regular tunnel, thirty feet long, 
 had to be crawled through. The various rooms were sep- 
 arated by division walls, which did not reach to the rock 
 above, so that communication between them was easy by 
 means of movable ladders. 
 
 Some hastily conducted excavations yielded two vases of 
 coarse pottery, closed with stone covers of equally rude 
 workmanship. These vases, which would hold three gallons,. 
 were empty ; one of them had been mended with a fragment 
 of the same color, stuck upon it with viscous clay ; they 
 
210 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 were placed on a bed of bark fibres covered with a mat of 
 woven reeds, 1 another proof of the value placed upon them 
 by their owner. 
 
 Between the two houses the rock is absolutely vertical ; at 
 a place where the slope is a little less abrupt some steps 
 roughly indicated rather than cut in the rocks have been 
 made out. At present they offer very little assistance in 
 climbing the cliff. It is probable, however, that these in- 
 dentations, never very deep, have suffered by weathering. 
 
 At the level of the upper story another ledge has per- 
 mitted the erection of another structure. This second plat- 
 form is about one hundred and twenty feet long by ten 
 at its greatest width. The work appears never to have been 
 completed. The Cliff Dwellers were probably discouraged 
 by the difficulties in the way of bringing their materials 
 to the spot. 
 
 The finished parts had been inhabited, and the rooms 
 communicated with each other by means of low and narrow 
 doors. In one of these rooms the explorers thought they 
 recognized traces of a fire, in others the excavations yielded 
 some grains of maize and some kidney beans ; but unfortu- 
 nately the explorers, exhausted with a long march, could not 
 or did not search further. 
 
 In some instances the houses of the Cliff Dwellers were at a 
 very much greater height. Some are mentioned, by Holmes, 
 eight hundred feet above the level of the river, so well con- 
 cealed that even with the aid of a telescope they can hardly 
 be distinguished from the rocks protecting them. We lose 
 ourselves in conjectures on the means employed to reach the 
 places from which the buildings rise, or to take to them 
 provisions and other necessaries of life. Ives, in his report 
 on the Colorado River of the West, tells us that to-day the 
 Moquis often build at very great elevations, carrying the 
 stones and earth needed in packs on their shoulders. For a 
 long time it was supposed that all the Cliff men had to 
 go down to the river to draw water; but fresh researches 
 
 1 Holmes : Lot. fit., pi. XLV. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 211 
 
 have led to the discovery in certain localities in the cliffs 
 themselves of springs, the waters of \vhich supplied their 
 needs and were stored up in natural or artificially enlarged 
 reservoirs. 
 
 FIG. 91. Two-storied house on the Rio Mancos. 
 
 FIG. 92. Cliff-house on the Mancos (ground plan). 
 
 A mile farther on, still following the banks of the Rio 
 Mancos, Jackson discovered a structure seven hundred feet 
 above the level of the river (figs 91 and 92). This building, 
 to which he gave the name of the Two-story Cliff House, 
 
212 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 is better preserved than any of those surrounding it. One 
 of the rooms measures nine feet by ten, another is six 
 feet square, while the height of the building is twelve feet, 
 and there is a space of between two and three feet between 
 the walls and the rock which overhangs them like a roof. 
 These rooms, which appear to us so small, were large for 
 the Cliff Dwellers, and Jackson speaks of another place 
 where a space of fourteen feet long by six wide and five 
 high was divided into two rooms of nearly equal size, to 
 which entrance was gained through a little square hole. 
 Examples might easily be multiplied ; at Montezuma, 
 for instance, there are cells of which the largest are not more 
 
 FIG. 93. Interior of a room in a cliff-house. 
 
 than nine and a half feet square, whilst the smaller ones are 
 not quite four feet square. It seems astonishing that human 
 creatures could exist in such cramped spaces ! 
 
 The inside walls of these rooms (fig. 93) were covered 
 with several coatings of clay moistened with water. This 
 mortar was laid on with the hand ; the marks of the fingers 
 of the workmen leave no doubt on that point. The small- 
 ness of these fingers has even led some to suppose that the 
 work was done by women. 
 
 The same care was bestowed on the outside coating, and 
 the mortar is gray or pinkish in color, exactly imitating 
 that of the neighboring rocks. It is impossible to say 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 213 
 
 whether this is the result of the action of time, or if the 
 workmen selected the clay with a view of better concealing 
 their homes. 
 
 Were these cliff-houses only places of refuge, to which the 
 inhabitants of the valley retired on the approach of danger? 
 Holmes says that we are tempted to suppose they were, 
 when we note the all but total absence of the bones of men 
 or animals, or of the refuse of all kinds so plentiful in the 
 kitchen middens, and which are proofs of long residence. 
 
 FIG. 94. Pueblo of the MacElmo valley (ground plan). 
 
 The coatings of clay have remained as fresh and compact as 
 when they were first laid on ; a fact especially noticeable in 
 the Two-story Cliff-House ; and if it had been long inhab- 
 ited it must have undergone a thorough repair just before 
 it was deserted. Other explorers, it is true, speak of char- 
 coal and traces of fire as proving a lengthy sojourn of man ; 
 but archeologists too generally come to the study of such 
 remains with preconceived notions, which notions are too 
 often reflected in the impressions of travellers. 
 
214 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The MacElmo valley contains ruins no less important 
 than those just mentioned. We reproduce (fig. 94) a plan 
 of one of them, which is useful as giving an idea of the gen- 
 eral arrangement of a pueblo. The large tower or estufa 
 presents a certain resemblance to the singular structures in 
 the Balearic Isles to which the name of Talayoti has been 
 given. It is built of unhewn stone, and is surrounded by a 
 triple wall. The space between the two external walls is 
 only five feet, and it contains fourteen cells. Another 
 estufa, with walls more than three feet thick, is situated at 
 
 FlG. 95. Tower on the summit of a rock in the MacElmo valley. 
 
 one of the extremities. The rooms, or rather the cells, are 
 rectangular and all extremely small. 
 
 This pueblo is in the heart of a rather barren district, and 
 and is about a mile from the MacElmo river, which always 
 dries up in summer. The unfortunate inhabitants must then 
 have been reduced for several months in the year to fetching 
 their water from the Dolores, at a distance of fifteen miles, 
 if we suppose the conditions to have remained unchanged. 
 This is, however, quite an inadmissible idea, for no agricul- 
 
'I HI-. CLII-I-- DWELLERS. 21$ 
 
 tural population could have lived under such conditions. 
 " To suppose an agricultural people existing in such a local- 
 ity, with the present climate, is manifestly absurd," says 
 Holmes (p. 399) ; " yet every isolated rock and every bit of 
 mesa within a circle of miles is strewn with remnants of 
 human dwellings (fig. 95). We must therefore admit, as 
 we have already stated, considerable climatic changes since 
 the time when the country was peopled." 
 
 The same remark applies with even greater force to the 
 ruins of Aztec Spring in Colorado, so called after a spring 
 (E, fig. 96) that Captain Moss speaks of having found, but 
 which has disappeared since his journey. These ruins (fig. 
 96), situated on the Mesa Verde, at an equal distance from 
 the MacElmo and the Mancos, cover an area of 480,000 
 square feet, and represent an average of 1,500,000 cubic 
 feet of masonry. 
 
 The principal building forms a rectangle (A), eighty feet by 
 one hundred, surrounded by a double wall and divided into 
 three separate rooms. The walls are twenty-six inches thick 
 and vary from twelve to fifteen feet in height ; between the 
 two walls are twenty cells whose purpose it is difficult to 
 guess, but which may have been store-rooms. 
 
 Three estufas (B, C, and D) rise in the centre of the en- 
 closure, and as far as can be judged in their present condi- 
 tion, they may well have served as cisterns for keeping the 
 water needed by the inhabitants. 
 
 The division walls are of adobe brick, the outer walls of 
 blocks of fossiliferous limestone from the Mesa Verde, all 
 symmetrically hewn and cemented with clay mixed with 
 the dust of the decomposed carbonate of lime abundant in 
 the neighborhood. It is doubtless thanks to this mortar 
 that the ruins of Aztec Spring are so well preserved. 
 
 The Hovenweep, now entirely dry (the name is borrowed 
 from the Ute language and signifies desert cation}, once 
 flowed between abrupt and desolate cliffs. Everywhere in 
 the valley we meet with series of ruins, including at every 
 turn those strange dwellings of several stories perched 
 
2l6 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 that is just the expression for it on all the ledges or ter- 
 races of the cliffs. Here we note the exceptional circum- 
 stance that the houses are circular, their diameter not ex- 
 
 
 FIG. 96. Aztec Spring (ground plan). 
 
 ceeding twelve to fifteen feet, the angles are rounded, and the 
 walls built of stones, each as large as three ordinary bricks. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 21? 
 
 Every thing seems to have been done with a view to de- 
 fence ; the houses were all but inaccessible, and little watch- 
 towers had been erected at every point commanding an ex- 
 tended view. On a natural terrace measuring scarcely three 
 hundred feet by fifty, situated at the very source of the 
 Hovenweep, the Cliff Dwellers had managed to erect no less 
 than forty different houses. 
 
 Montezuma valley 1 is at certain points ten miles wide. 
 It is covered with ruins: towers with a triple enclosure, 
 mounds made up in a great measure of pieces of broken pot- 
 tery. The cliffs overlooking the valley present a long series 
 of caves, ledges, and rock-shelters, invariably turned to ac- 
 count by man (fig. 97). In many places holes have been 
 observed, cut in the rock at regular distances, in which the 
 feet and hands could be successively placed. These were 
 the only means of access ; no tree native to these valleys 
 could have supplied ladders long enough to reach these 
 eagles' nests. In one of these rock-shelters the explorer 
 discovered the skeleton of a man, wrapped in a covering 
 with broad black and white stripes. This man had, how- 
 ever, no connection with the ancient inhabitants of these 
 aerial dwellings. According to all appearances he was a 
 Navajo, a victim to the incessant warfare between his tribe 
 and the Utes. 
 
 We must also mention seven erect stones in the Monte- 
 zuma valley, which rise in the midst of its desert like the 
 menhirs of Brittany or Wales. Later observations, however, 
 lead to a belief that these were not menhirs, but pillars in- 
 tended to strengthen defensive works. Defence, in fact, seems 
 to have ever occupied the thoughts of these men ; for in a 
 radius of fifteen miles, at every point commanding the valley 
 or that could serve as a post of observation, we find blocks torn 
 from the neighboring rocks and piled up one on the other, 
 the interstices being filled with small stones to consolidate 
 the mass. Every thing bears witness to the presence of a 
 numerous population ; such works can indeed only have been 
 constructed by numbers. 
 
 1 Jackson, /. c., p. 427 ft. seq. 
 
218 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The rocks of the Rio de Chelly enclose habitations ex- 
 actly similar to those we have just described. In fact we 
 are doomed to inevitable repetition in describing the remains 
 of the Cliff Dwellers, of whom these buildings, a few frag- 
 ments of pottery, and wretched flint implements are the only 
 
 FIG. 97 House in a rock of Montezuma canon. 
 
 relics. On the Rio de Chelly, as in the Montezuma valley 
 and on the banks of the Mancos or the MacElmo, natural 
 and artificial caves, depressions, and the smallest ledges have 
 been turned to account. The buildings are often of excep- 
 
THE CUFF DWELLERS. 2ig 
 
 tional importance, and Jackson, (/. c., p. 421) speaks of some 
 ruins at an elevation of seventy feet which he calls a Cave 
 town. They are 545 feet long by a maximum width of forty 
 feet. Nearly all include a ground-floor and one story ; one of 
 them indeed has two stories, and is supposed to have been the 
 house of the chief. The walls are everywhere very thin, 
 none of them exceeding one foot in thickness, while some 
 are but half as much. The stones are imbedded in a thick 
 mortar and coated with it inside and out. Seventy-five sepa- 
 rate rooms have been made out, with the inevitable estufa 
 in the centre, and behind the house are two little reservoirs 
 for holding water^ None of these houses have any openings 
 but the windows which almost all face an inside court, and 
 examination has resulted in the discovery of no means of ac- 
 cess but broken pieces of rock and natural fissures which 
 might be used as a help in climbing ; several corrals or interior 
 courts, are still full of dung reduced to dust ; how did these 
 Cliff men ever get cattle up to such a height, and how could 
 they subsist them on steep rocks with no outlets? Any 
 number of guesses may be made, but it must be admitted 
 that none are completely satisfactory. The height of the 
 rocks of schistose sandstone which crown these structures is 
 no less than two hundred feet above the foot of the Mesa. 
 The descent from this point is therefore even more difficult 
 than the ascent from the valley. The Mesa is arid, desolate, 
 and covered with stunted vegetation. 
 
 At the foot of the rocks we see a number of upright 
 stones surrounding rectangular spaces such as those of 
 which we have already spoken. Here, too, excavations 
 have produced nothing to suggest that these stones marked 
 burial-places. Some red earthenware, knives, hatchets, 
 awls, and finely chipped stone arrow-points are all that have 
 been found. 
 
 We give a drawing (fig. 99) of a house built at a height 
 of seventy feet about two miles from Cave Town. This 
 will help us to realize the difficulties of access and the 
 means employed to surmount them. The house is one 
 
220 
 
 PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 story high ; the ground-floor measures eighteen feet by ten, 
 and this narrow space forms two separate rooms, whilst the 
 first story consists of only one. The overhanging rock 
 serves as a protecting roof. Eight miles from Cave Town 
 is another group of similar buildings of smaller size. 
 
 The whole of Epsom Creek valley, so called after a 
 stream of brackish water which is said to taste something 
 like Epsom salts, is covered with ruins of a smaller size than 
 those already noticed. These are chimney-like caves (fig. 
 98), which Jackson calls " cubby-holes," and are situated 
 now on the banks of a stream, now wedged like sandwiches 
 between the layers of rock. These dwellings generally con- 
 tain but a single room, the walls of which are so perfectly 
 
 FIG. 98. Cave-Town near the San Juan. 
 
 coated that even now there is not a crack in the mortar. 
 The entrance to the valley was defended by a tower (fig. 88) 
 on an inaccessible elevation, which Mr. Jackson made many 
 fruitless efforts to scale; on the opposite bank of the stream 
 rises another circular tower forty feet in diameter, of which 
 the antiquity is attested by its crumbling walls covered with 
 moss and brushwood. 
 
 A few miles up stream, on the banks of a deep ravine, are 
 ruins presenting the aspect of a fortified town. Explorers 
 found themselves face to face with a great mass of rectan- 
 gular form, with towers connected with each other and ar- 
 ranged on either side of the ravine, so as to command all 
 
' 
 
 FlG. 99 Cliff-house in the Canon de Chelly. 
 
 221 
 
222 
 
 PKE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the approaches. The dominant idea amongst these people 
 seems to have been dread of the attacks of enemies, hence 
 the necessity of being always prepared to repulse them. 
 " The San Juan valley," said the San Francisco Evening 
 Bulletin of July 8, 1864, "is strewn with ruins for hundreds 
 of miles ; some buildings three stories high, of masonry, are 
 still standing." 
 
 The buildings on the banks of the La Plata, twenty-five 
 miles from its junction with the San Juan, and five miles 
 south of the Southern Pacific Railroad, should also be men- 
 
 FIG. 100. Casa Grande in the Gila valley. 
 
 tioned, if only on account of their peculiar arrangement. 
 They stretch away irregularly throughout the valley ; each 
 family had its own home. Every thing bears witness to a 
 state of culture different from those hitherto noticed. The 
 family seems to have come into existence, and isolated 
 dwellings, such as we meet with in all countries of Europe, 
 show still better the independence of their inhabitants. 
 "These houses," says Holmes (I.e., p. 388), "seem to be 
 distributed very much as dwelling-houses are in the rural 
 districts of civilized and peaceable communities." 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 22$ 
 
 Cliff houses are as numerous in Arizona as in New Mexico, 
 but their sites seem to have been better chosen, and the 
 foundations are of stone, though there is nothing to lead us 
 to suppose them to be older than the walls of adobes rising 
 from them. We have now reached the extreme southern 
 limit of the districts occupied by the Cliff Dwellers, and the 
 vast heaps of broken earthenware met with at every turn 
 bear witness to the great length of their residence. 
 
 Amongst all these ruins, the Casa Grande (fig. 100) 
 merits special mention. It rises from a little eminence in 
 the valley of the Rio Gila, two miles and a half from the 
 river, and it appears certain that it had existed for several 
 centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards, who knew of it 
 from the time of their very earliest expeditions ; indeed, it 
 is generally admitted that it is to it that Coronado refers 
 under the name of the chichilticalle or the red house. The 
 first at all complete description, however, which has come 
 down to us, is that of Father Mange, who visited the Casa 
 Grande with Father Kino, in 1697.' It appears that at that 
 date the ruins included eleven different buildings, surmounted 
 by a protective wall of moderate height. Now these build- 
 ings are reduced to three, only one of which is still in a state 
 permitting of its examination. It is built of large adobes 
 measuring four feet by two, and it is fifty feet by forty feet 
 in size. The walls are five feet thick at the base, and gradu- 
 ally decrease in breadth toward the top." The inside is di- 
 vided in five rooms (fig. 101), much larger than any hitherto 
 described. The central of these rooms are eight feet long by 
 fourteen wide ; the others are as much as thirty-two feet 
 long by ten wide. 1 Fragments of cedar-wood beams, still 
 inserted in the walls, prove that the buildings originally con- 
 sisted of three, perhaps in its central portion of four, stories. 
 
 1 "Doc, Hist. Mex.," Series IV., vol. I., p. 282. Bancroft: loc. cit., vol. 
 IV., p. 621, et seq. 
 
 "Bartlett : "Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New 
 Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua." New York, 1854, vol. II., p. 
 271, et seq. 
 
 ' Judging by the plan, these measurements appear to be mere rough approxi- 
 mations. 
 
224 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 No staircase, nor any thing to take its place, can be made 
 out, so that communication between the stories must have 
 taken place by means of ladders. A vast conflagration has 
 everywhere left indelible traces, and this is supposed to have 
 been the work of the Apaches, the wildest and most indomi- 
 table of all the Indian tribes. 
 
 The Casa Grande was the centre of an important estab- 
 lishment. Bartlett tells us that in every direction as far as 
 the eye can reach we see crumbling walls and masses of rub- 
 bish, the remains of old buildings ; while Fathers Mange, 
 Kino, and Font say that the plain was covered for a radius 
 of ten miles with hillocks of adobes turned to dust. In fact 
 volumes would not suffice to describe all the ruins in these 
 
 FIG. 101. Ground plan of the Casa Grande. 
 
 regions or all the people who have inhabited them. We can 
 only name those of the valley of the Rio Salado and its 
 tributary the Rio Verde, the former of which flows into the 
 Gila. 1 
 
 Several acequias, or canals for irrigation also bear witness 
 to the industry of the inhabitants." Father Mange speaks 
 of one near the Casa Grande, intended to receive the waters 
 of the Gila. This canal was twenty-seven feet wide by ten 
 deep and was three leagues long. These figures, we must 
 add, appear exaggerated to later travellers, though they 
 mention another canal in the Salado valley which must have 
 been nearly as wide, and was four or five feet deep. The 
 Cliff Dwellers then did not shrink from such undertakings, 
 any more than did the Mound Builders, when they were 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. IV., pp. 632 and 635. 
 
 " Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner : " Report upon the Indian Tribes." 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 22$ 
 
 helpful to their commerce or their agriculture. They illus- 
 trate perhaps better then their buildings to what a degree 
 of culture these people had attained. 
 
 We must now compare with the Casa Grande of the Rio 
 Gila some other yet more extensive ruins, resembling them 
 in every respect, situated in Chihuahua. These buildings, 
 to which the Spaniards have given the same name of Casas 
 Grandes, deserve mention here, as they are evidently the 
 work of the same race and date from the same epoch as 
 those of Arizona. 
 
 These Casas Grandes are situated in the San Miguel val- 
 ley, not far from the present boundary between the United 
 States and Mexico. The country is occupied by the 
 Apaches, who make all exploration dangerous. 1 
 
 Masses of rubbish in the midst of which rise parts of walls 
 some of them fifty feet high, indicate the old site of the 
 town. The walls were built of adobes. These adobes were 
 of very irregular length and twenty-two inches thick, while 
 the walls themselves were nearly five feet wide and simply 
 coated with clay moistened with water. The chief building 
 was 800 feet long on the fronts facing north and south, 
 but only 250 on those to the east and west. The " Album 
 Mexicano " says 1380 feet by 414, and Bartlett, from whom 
 we quote our figures, probably did not include detached 
 buildings in the sum total. In 1851 when Bartlett visited 
 them there were neither stones nor beams to be seen, and the 
 state of dilapidation was such that neither the marks of a 
 floor nor of a staircase could be made out ; nor could he tell 
 the number or height of the stories. Other less conscien- 
 tious explorers assert that the principal buildings were three 
 stories high and surmounted by a terrace. 
 
 He had the same difficulties to contend with in examining 
 the internal arrangements ; but in one place he made out 
 
 1 Arleguy: " Chron. de la Prov. de S. Francisco de Zacatecas," Mexico, 1737, 
 p. 104. Clavigero : "St. Ant. del Messico," vol. I., p. 159. Escudero : 
 " Noticias del Estado de Chihuahua," p. 234. "Album Mexicano," Mexico, 
 1849, vol. I., p. 374. Bartlett, " Personal Narrative," New York, 1834, vol. 
 II., p. 347. 
 
226 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 six chambers twenty feet by six in extent, and this restricted 
 space, was still further curtailed by a little niche three to 
 four feet high at the end of each chamber, the use of which 
 is unknown. 
 
 A short distance off, other buildings surround a square 
 court. Here too we find the little cells which are one of 
 the characteristic features of the Casas Grandes as of the 
 cliff-houses and the pueblos. This is an important indi- 
 cation of similar habits, and of the similar origin of the 
 builders. 
 
 There are more than 2000 mounds in the neighborhood of 
 the Casas Grandes, and it is probable that they were burial- 
 places. Excavations have not, however, produced a single 
 human bone. All that has been picked up are a few stone 
 axes, clumsy earthenware statuettes and fragments of pot- 
 tery, decorated with red, black, or brown ornaments on a 
 generally white ground. 
 
 A few miles farther off rises a regular fortress, not built of 
 adobes, but of well-dressed stones put together without 
 mortar of any kind. The walls are from ten to twenty feet 
 thick, and the summit is reached by a path cut in the rock. 
 There is nothing to show whether this fortress was erected 
 to defend the Casas Grandes, or even if it existed when that 
 little town flourished. 
 
 Important ruins are to be seen on either side of the Col- 
 orado Chiquito, one of the upper branches of the Colorado. 
 They date from different epochs, and on foundations of un- 
 wrought stone we find, as in Arizona, walls made of adobes 
 or of wood. Numerous fragments of fine light pottery, sel- 
 dom painted, bits of obsidian and of rocks mostly foreign to 
 the locality, also witness to the presence of man. 1 
 
 Among the ruins is one building measuring 120 feet by 
 360, situated on an isolated eminence. The walls have all 
 but crumbled away, but we can still see that they were 
 
 1 Sitgreaves, " Report of an Expedition down the Zuniand Colorado Rivers," 
 p. 8, Washington, 1853. Whipple, " Report and Explorations near the 3$th 
 Parallel." B. Mblhausen, " Tagebuch einer reise vom Mississippi nach dem 
 kusten der Sud See," Leipzig, 1858. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 twelve feet thick. Inside we find the same little cells we 
 have so often described. We must also mention a fort, if 
 we may so call it, which rises from the western bank of 
 Beaver Creek. 1 
 
 The river flows between deep cafions, presenting a deso- 
 late aspect. Toward the middle of a cliff with perpendicular 
 walls and no means of access, at a height of a hundred feet, 
 rises a square tower of admirably dressed stone, which may 
 have been from thirty to thirty-five feet high. Each story 
 rising behind the one below contains but a single room, the 
 dimensions of which vary from four to eight feet square by 
 a height of three to five feet. The floors are of beams 
 roughly squared, and the openings are few and very narrow. 
 It is extremely difficult to penetrate this tower. Through- 
 out the valley, as far as Montezuma Wells, rise similar 
 towers, which have been justly compared by a traveller to 
 swallows' nests. It must have required unheard of labor to 
 transport and work the stones under such conditions. We 
 ask ourselves what manner of men were the builders and 
 what can have been their aim ; but we are unable to answer 
 these constantly repeated questions. 
 
 But we have not yet exhausted the surprises which await 
 us in these regions ; that is, if we can accept with full con- 
 fidence the account of Captain Walker, who speaks of having 
 discovered in 1850, on the banks of the Colorado Chiquito, a 
 regular citadel, situated in the centre of a town, the ruins of 
 which extend for more than a mile, and of which the streets 
 running at right angles with each other are still recognizable. 2 
 " A storm of fire," he says, " had passed over the town ; the 
 stones are calcined by the flames ; the very rock from which 
 the chief building rises bears traces of fusion ; every thing 
 testifies to the intensity of the heat." 
 
 Before entirely rejecting an account which no one has yet 
 confirmed we must remember that more important traces 
 
 1 Dr. Hoffman : " Ethn. Obs. on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, California, and 
 Arizona," U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, 1876. 
 
 1 San Francisco Herald, quoted by Bancroft, " Native Races," vol. IV., 
 p. 647. 
 
228 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 exist in Missouri, on the Gasconade River, not far from St. 
 Louis, of an ancient town with regular squares, roads cross- 
 ing each other at right angles, and houses of unwrought 
 stone without any traces of mortar. We may also mention 
 similar ruins at Buffalo Creek and on the Osage River. 1 
 
 Some time ago Major Powell ascended for some hundreds 
 of miles the Great Colorado, still so little known. He tells 
 of having noticed in dreary and deserted regions traces of a 
 population now completely passed away. Everywhere in 
 the valleys are pueblos, and cliff-houses are seen at every 
 turn in the wild and picturesque canons, among rocks about 
 4,800 feet high, and where the cliffs sometimes lean 
 so closely together that one is tempted to believe that the 
 river sinks into a subterranean passage like the tunnels of a 
 railway. Round about these abandoned habitations the 
 travellers found fragments of pottery, arrow-points, and chips 
 of quartz, similar to those which have been picked up every- 
 where in Central America. 
 
 We have described numerous buildings situated in the 
 valleys at the foot of the rocks on which the cliff-houses 
 were built, all the approaches to which were defended by 
 watch-towers or other posts of observation. Every thing 
 tells of constant reprisals, of incessant peril, and formidable 
 enemies. But there are yet other more considerable ruins, 
 of more imposing appearance as a whole, the former in- 
 habitants of which do not appear to have been exposed 
 to the same dangers. 
 
 These formed peaceable communities, exclusively agricul- 
 tural, in which communism under the authority of a despotic 
 chief appears to have been the prevalent system. Gregg, 
 who crossed New Mexico about 1840, was the first to 
 describe them, 2 and he tells us that the ruins of the Pueblo 
 Bonito in the Navajo country, at the foot of the mountains 
 included houses built of slabs of sandstone, a mode of con- 
 
 'Conant : " Foot-prints of Vanished Races," p. 71. 
 
 a " Commerce des Prairies," vol. I., p. 284, New York, 1844. The pueblo 
 of which Gregg speaks under the name of the Bonito Pueblo is probably the 
 Pintado Pueblo. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 229 
 
 struction quite unknown in the country at present. These 
 houses are still intact, though their antiquity is such that we 
 are absolutely ignorant of their origin. 
 
 In 1849, Colonel Washington, Governor of New Mexico, 
 organized an expedition against the Navajos, who infested 
 the northern part of the territory, and it is to Lieutenant, 
 afterward General, Simpson, attached to the topographical 
 
 
 
 r-ir- irnr 11 irni ^n 
 
 ff 
 
 m 
 
 or 
 
 UD 
 DD 
 ID 
 DQ 
 
 FIG. 102. Ground plan of the Pueblo Bonito in the Chaco Cafion. 
 
 department of the army, that we owe the first regular plans 
 of the ruins met with by the soldiers at every turn in cross- 
 ing the Chaco Cafion. 1 
 
 The Bonito Pueblo is the most important of these villages 
 (fig. 102). It will be well to describe it with some detail, 1 to 
 be able to compare it with other pueblos closely resembling 
 
 '" Report, Secretary of War," Thirty-first Congress, First Session. 
 * Ruins of Chaco Cafion examined in 1877. Jackson, /. c., 432, 440, ti 
 pi. LVIII. 
 
230 PREHISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 it in their chief arrangements. We must add, however, that 
 most of them are of rectangular plan, and that they present 
 a unity of design that we do not find to the same extent in 
 the Bonito Pueblo. 
 
 This pueblo, built doubtless by degrees as the necessities 
 of the moment dictated, rises below the perpendicular rocks 
 which limit the Chaco Caflon, and forms an irregular half of 
 an ellipse measuring five hundred and forty-four feet by 
 four hundred and fourteen. An inside court is divided into 
 two almost equal portions by a row of four estufas. 
 
 Two wings are placed perpendicularly to the principal 
 building. The left wing is divided into three rows of 
 parallel rooms, measuring from twelve to twenty feet long 
 by from twelve to fifteen wide, larger than those of the cliff- 
 houses. The outer walls are in ruins, but the division walls 
 in pretty good preservation still reach up to the second 
 story. This wing forms a quarter of a circle, and although 
 the whole of this portion has suffered very much we can still 
 make out five rows of cells, with nine cells to each row. 
 Lastly we must mention three estufas, half underground, 
 a little in advance of the buildings. 
 
 In the right wing the walls are better preserved ; they are 
 still thirty feet high, and four different stories, one above 
 the other, have been made out. 1 This part of the buildings 
 appeared to the explorers to be the most recent portion of 
 the whole pueblo, some of the beams which supported the 
 floor are still in their places, and from them we can judge 
 how the different rooms, the largest of the pueblo, were 
 arranged. 
 
 The state of decay of part of the ruins is such that it is 
 impossible to decide on the exact number of the rooms. In 
 a neighboring pueblo, that of Pintado, one hundred and 
 fifty have been counted, and every thing points to the con- 
 clusion that there were even more in the Pueblo Bonito. 
 
 1 There are also several stories in the neighboring pueblos. The Pueblo 
 Pintado has four ; the second, ten feet high ; the third, seven. The Pueblo of 
 the Arroyo has three stories, and many others might be quoted. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 231 
 
 Neither the inner nor the outer walls show any trace of 
 stairs, so that it is probable the inhabitants went from one 
 story to another by means of ladders a mode of access still 
 obtaining in the pueblos now inhabited. The windows are 
 extremely small, and their lintels consist of pieces of cedar 
 or pine wood scarcely squared and merely laid side by side. 
 The floors must have been of wood, but most of them were 
 used by Colonel Washington's soldiers to feed their camp- 
 fires. 
 
 The walls of the eastern side are pretty well preserved, 
 and rise to the height of the second story. On this side are 
 the two largest estufas of the pueblo, their diameter exceed- 
 
 FIG. 103. Different kinds of masonry used in the buildings of the Chaco 
 
 Valley. 
 
 ing fifty feet. They were situated in the tentre of a court, 
 and covered by a mass of masonry, forming a rectangle of 
 one hundred and fifteen feet by sixty-five. Farther on, 
 masses of rubbish mark the site of buildings, the use of 
 which cannot be made out, connecting the large estufas with 
 two small ones, which touched the chief buildings. In the 
 court itself, a series of excavations, filled with rubbish of all 
 kinds, suggests a set of subterranean passages, and it 
 is to be regretted that this interesting point has not been 
 verified. 
 
 The masonry, generally remarkable for the care and pre- 
 cision with which it is executed, contrasts strangely with 
 that now to be seen amongst the sedentary Indians. The 
 
232 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 people of the pueblos always selected the largest stones to 
 frame the openings, and they placed them exactly at right 
 angles. In the very diverse buildings which make up the 
 Pueblo Bonito, this masonry presents remarkable differ- 
 ences (fig. 103) ; it does not all seem to date from the same 
 period, and it may be that parts have been restored at more 
 recent epochs than that of the original buildings. In many 
 parts the walls are strengthened with round pieces of wood, 
 three to four inches in diameter, set upright ; and, by others, 
 ten to fifteen feet long by six to eight inches in diame- 
 ter, arranged horizontally. We find a similar plan adopted 
 in the islands of Greece, 1 subject, as they are, to disas- 
 trous earthquakes, and the same causes may have led the 
 inhabitants of New Mexico to take the same precautions. 
 Let us not weary of calling attention to the similitude in 
 the intellect of man and the identity in his ideas all over 
 the surface of the globe. For, truly, it is one of the most 
 curious points of the study in which we are engaged. 
 
 We must also note the great number of estufas which 
 everywhere rise amidst the ruins under notice. Jackson has 
 counted twenty-one of them. They are generally remark- 
 able for their size and the solidity of their construction. 
 Nearly all of them were on a level with the soil, and their 
 height was greater than that of the other buildings. There 
 were no lateral openings to be seen, and it is probable that, 
 as in the Pintado Pueblo, the entrance was from a hole in 
 the roof. Most of these estufas are completely in ruins, and 
 their site alone is marked by a pile of earth and stones. 
 Those few still standing prove the intelligence of the 
 architects and the skill of the workmen. In some pueblos 
 the estufas are strengthened with buttresses ; in the 
 Hungo-Pavie Pueblo, for instance, the estufa is flanked 
 by six buttresses, forming regular pillars ; and, in the 
 Pueblo Pintado, there are four very similar ones. Instan- 
 ces of this peculiarity might be multiplied. 
 
 Every discovery confirms the importance of these estufas. 
 
 1 " Les premiers Hommes et les Temps pre'-historiques," vol. I., p. 414. 
 
THE CLIFF DIVELLERS. 233 
 
 We have noticed them in the cliff-houses, we find them again 
 in the pueblos, and to this day they are to be seen amongst 
 the Moqui Indians, where they consist of square rooms used 
 as workshops for weaving. The Moquis, both male and fe- 
 male, assemble in them to avoid the great heat of the day, 
 or, according to more credible accounts, to practise their 
 mysterious rites. This constant presence of the estufa is 
 another point of comparison which must not be forgotten. 
 
 In the course of his researches Jackson discovered outside 
 the enclosure of the pueblos, on the east, some little struc- 
 tures raised on a bank of stones forming the lower stratum 
 of the rock. The calcareous bed had indeed been length- 
 ened by a layer of masonry, formed of large and small stones 
 arranged alternately. Yet farther off was another more im- 
 portant mass of ruins covering an area of 163 feet by 73, and 
 including two estufas. All appearances pointed to the con- 
 clusion that these ruins were connected with the Bonito 
 Pueblo. 
 
 Time doubtless failed the explorers for the excavation of 
 the two heaps of cinders on the south of the pueblo ; but it 
 is very certain that these middens would have yielded many 
 objects which would have made us better acquainted with 
 the ancient inhabitants of the pueblo. 
 
 Amongst the other pueblos discovered we must mention 
 that of Una Vida, the estufa of which is the largest hitherto 
 found, its diameter exceeding sixty feet ; the Pintado Pueblo, 
 already referred to more than once; the Weje-Gi Pueblo; 
 the Peflasca-Blanca Pueblo, of elliptical form, with an in- 
 ternal court measuring 364 feet by 269, the largest of any 
 after the Bonito Pueblo, the buildings covering altogether 
 an area of 499 feet by 363 ; and the Arroyo Pueblo, in which 
 three stories can be made out, with floors of interlaced wil- 
 low branches covered with beaten earth. Near these large 
 pueblos were several other very small ones. That marked 9 
 in the plans drawn by Jackson is only seventy-eight feet by 
 sixty-three ; yet it has two estufas and some twenty rooms. 
 A detailed description of these pueblos would involve us in 
 
234 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 constant repetition. Everywhere we meet with the same 
 class of structures with their remarkable regularity, their 
 walls of stones or adobes, and their estufas overlooking the 
 rest of the buildings. We must add, however, that the 
 Pueblo Alto, which can scarcely be seen from the valley, is 
 situated, like the cliff-houses, at the top of a hill of consider- 
 able height. It is reached by a flight of twenty-eight steps 
 roughly cut in the rock, and on either side holes can be made 
 out, in which the hands could be placed to facilitate the 
 ascent. Arrived at the Mesa we find ourselves opposite a 
 building forming a parallelogram, presenting every appear- 
 ance of great antiquity, and probably much older than any 
 of the structures in the valley. Close by we see a huge heap 
 of rubbish of all kinds, chiefly fragments of pottery. This 
 heap has been measured by American engineers, who esti- 
 mate its contents at 25,000 cubic feet. We can but repeat 
 our regrets that the explorers could not undertake any ex- 
 cavations, which would doubtless have aided in the elucida- 
 tion of the problems we have stated. 
 
 The traveller is well rewarded for the fatigue of the ascent 
 of the Pueblo Alto. Beneath his feet he sees the ruins 
 rising from every part of the Chaco Cafton, while beyond 
 stretches a vast panorama ; on the north the basin of the 
 San Juan and the La Plata chain ; on the east the Sierra 
 Tunecha ; on the south the snowy crest of the Sierra San 
 Mateo ; on the west the Jemez Mountains, overlooked by the 
 Pelado with its eternal snows. All else is changed, nature 
 alone has remained immovable, and the man of the igth 
 century enjoys the same view, alike imposing and attractive, 
 which must have charmed the ancient inhabitants of the 
 pueblo. 
 
 At the Chettro-Kettle Pueblo, General Simpson, during 
 his first exploration, was able to examine a chamber still in 
 a remarkable state of preservation. 1 We cannot do better 
 than quote the description he gives, which proves that the 
 
 1 "Journal of Lieutenant James A. Simpson in the Report of the Secretary 
 of War" ; 3ist. Congress, ist Session. (Senate) Ex. Doc. No. 64, pp. 79, 80. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 235 
 
 men of old, buried though they were in regions so difficult 
 of approach, knew how to build their home with as much 
 art as the people whom we have been in the habit of look- 
 ing upon as the initiators of civilization. 
 
 " This room," says General Simpson, " is fourteen feet 
 wide by seventeen and a half feet long, and ten feet in 
 elevation. It has an outside door-way three and a half 
 feet high by two and a quarter wide, and one at its west 
 end, leading into the adjoining room, two feet wide, and 
 at present, on account of rubbish, only two and a half 
 feet high. The stone walls still have their plaster upon 
 them, in a tolerable state of preservation. On the south 
 wall is a recess or niche three feet two inches high by four 
 feet five inches wide and four feet deep. Its position and 
 size naturally suggested the idea that it might have been a 
 fireplace ; but if so, the smoke must have returned to the 
 room, as there was no chimney outlet for it. In addition to 
 this large recess, there were three smaller ones in the same 
 wall. The ceiling showed two main beams, laid trans- 
 versely ; on these longitudinally were a number of smaller 
 ones in juxtaposition ; the ends being tied together by a 
 species of wooden fibre, and the interstices chinked in with 
 small stones. On these again transversely, in close contact, 
 was a kind of lathing of the odor and appearance of cedar, 
 all in a good state of preservation." Jackson, who visited 
 these ruins twenty-eight years later than General Simpson, 
 did not find this room north-west of the main building, 1 but 
 he mentions others no less curious, which were reached by 
 holes made in the masonry, the first story alone having a 
 series of little windows. The walls of the Chettro-Kettle 
 Pueblo measured 935 feet long by forty high, and contained 
 315,000 cubic feet of masonry. When we remember that 
 each stone making up this sum total had to be hewn from 
 the quarry, carried a considerable distance, dressed and set 
 in its place ; further that the posts had to be brought from 
 a long way off and the openings to be made, it is difficult 
 
 1 " Ruins of S. W. Colorado in 1875 and 1877," p. 439. 
 
236 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 to avoid concluding that a great number of workmen, di- 
 rected by skilful architects, must have been employed on 
 this building, which at least in the art of masonry, marks an 
 advanced stage of culture. 
 
 The same remarks apply with equal force to a pueblo on 
 the banks of the Las Animas River, which flows into the 
 San Juan about sixty miles from the Chaco Cafton. This 
 pueblo has been visited by the Hon. L. H. Morgan, and de- 
 scribed by him with scrupulous fidelity. 1 The chief build- 
 ing, 368 feet, and its two wings, 270 feet long, are higher than 
 any others yet discovered. They contained five, perhaps 
 even six, stories, and seventy rooms or cells on each story. 
 The walls, never less than two feet, are here and there three 
 feet six inches thick. Some of the rooms communicate 
 with each other by trap-doors ; others have two doors and 
 four lateral openings, small enough, it is true, but at least 
 admitting air and light, luxuries nearly unknown amongst 
 these people. There too we find estufas ; there are two in 
 the principal structure, a third in a building annexed to it, 
 and a fourth, sixty-three feet and a half in diameter, rises 
 in the centre of the court. 
 
 There are other pueblos, nearly as large, in the valley of 
 Las Animas, but Morgan estimates its population at only 
 five thousand at a time when all the pueblos were inhabited. 
 
 At the other end of New Mexico there are ruins no less re- 
 markable, 8 and there is so great a resemblance between them 
 and those we have been describing that it is impossible not 
 to attribute them to the same races and the same period. 
 These pueblos are scattered over the whole of that part of 
 the valley of the Rio Grande bounded on the north by the 
 Rio de las Frijoles, on the south by the San Domingo, on 
 the east by the plateau stretching away to Santa Fe". 
 
 We choose from among these ruins those in the valley of 
 the Rio Pecos, a little river flowing into the Rio Grande, in 
 
 1 " On the Ruins of a Stone Pueblo on the Animas River in New Mex- 
 ico." Am. Assoc. St.Louis, 1877. "Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p.536. 
 
 * A. F. Bandelier : " Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos." Arch. In- 
 stitute of America," Boston, 1881. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 237 
 
 the neighborhood of which are found rich placetas, as the 
 Spanish called mines containing precious metals, and cerillos, 
 in which blue and green turquoises are still found. Bande- 
 lier has recently visited the Rio Pecos valley, which is from 
 twenty to twenty-five miles long by six to eight wide, and is 
 situated at a height of six thousand three hundred and forty- 
 six feet. 1 We cannot do better than follow his description 
 of the chief buildings, supplementing it, however, from other 
 sources, and will retain the initials A and B, by which he 
 designates two groups, the name and history of which are 
 both completely unknown. 
 
 The Pueblo B rises on a mesa overlooking the Rio Pecos. 
 Its foundations rest on siliceous rock, and the arrangements 
 of the building vary according to the sinuosities or asperities 
 of the site, so that they are far from presenting that regu- 
 larity which strikes us so forcibly in the pueblos of the Chaco 
 or of the MacElmo. The building is four hundred and 
 forty feet long by sixty-three at its widest portion. It has 
 no lateral wings, no internal court, and for the first time we 
 find no estufa. As many as five hundred and seven cells 
 have been counted, separated by very thin division walls. 
 The largest measure nine feet by sixteen, the smallest seven 
 feet by nine. Bandelier estimates their height at seven feet 
 and a half, and if his calculation be correct the total height 
 of the building would be thirty-six feet. How could such a 
 tiny place be the home of a human being? 2 
 
 Very different layers can be made out in the masonry ; 
 some are of gray or red schistous sandstone, others of a 
 conglomerate formed of a quantity of stones varying in size 
 from that of a pea to that of a nut. One part only, consid- 
 ered the most recent, is of adobes of considerable size, measur- 
 ing eleven inches by six. The inside surface of the masonry 
 
 'Emory: "Notes of a Military Reconnoisance from Fort Leavenworth 
 in Kansas to San Diego in California." Washington, 1848. 
 
 *Castaneda de Nagera : "Relation du Voy. de Cibola." Juan Jaravillo : 
 " App. VI., Ternaux Compans," series I., vol. IX. G. Castaflo de la Cosa : 
 " Memoria del Descubrimiento que hizo en el Nuevo Mexico," Mexico, 
 1590 ; Doc. ined. de los Archives de Indias, vol. XV., p. 244. 
 
238 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 is covered with a very carefully spread white coating, the 
 constituents of which could not be determined, and the walls 
 are strengthened with' posts of cedar or pine wood imbedded 
 in the masonry in their natural state, only the bark having 
 been removed. Other posts served as supports to the floor, 
 consisting of brushwood, chips of wood, and a thick coating 
 of moistened clay, this arrangement being the same as that 
 described above. No trace has been found of side-doors or 
 staircases ; the different stories, which are placed one behind 
 the other, were reached by trap-doors. Castafieda, speaking 
 of one of the earliest of the expeditions of the Spanish, that 
 of .1540, in which he took part, relates that the roof of the 
 houses formed terraces, by which the inhabitants passed 
 from one to the other. Such doubtless had also been their 
 mode of communication. We may add that it is the plan 
 still in use amongst the Indians of Zufti, Moqui, Acoma, and 
 Taos ; no change has taken place in these secular customs. 
 
 In one of the rooms some cinders and fragments of char- 
 coal have been picked up, sole traces of the domestic hearth. 
 It was impossible to ascertain what method was employed 
 to ensure the escape of the smoke, but this was probably 
 because of the state of dilapidation in which the building 
 was found, as General Simpson describes a hole for the 
 escape of the smoke exactly above the hearth in the San 
 Domingo Pueblo. 
 
 Pueblo A. is situated on the north of Pueblo B. It in- 
 cludes several buildings surrounding a court. The height of 
 these buildings must have varied very much ; that on the 
 east was five, that on the north two, and that on the south four 
 stories high. 1 Bandelier gives the size of the court as two 
 hundred and ten feet by sixty-three. The perimeter of the 
 whole is one thousand one hundred and ninety feet, and as 
 many as five hundred and eighty-five rooms have been 
 counted. This pueblo is the largest hitherto discovered. 
 Its construction differs in no respect from that of those 
 already described ; no staircase, window, or hearth is to be 
 
 1 Bandelier, /. (., p. 78. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 seen, and three little estufas recall the usual customs of the 
 people under notice. Mr. E. Lee Childe, in a recent publica- 
 tion (Correspondent, roth Nov., 1881), describes an Indian 
 village of New Mexico which he had just visited. "Before 
 us,'.' he says, " on the right and the left, are two rows of these 
 adobe habitations, low, with no openings outward, no doors, 
 no staircases. The flat terraced roofs are reached by a mov- 
 able outside ladder. All the windows and doors open on to 
 an inside court, which can only be reached by going down 
 another ladder. Each house is thus a kind of little fort, into 
 which, the ladder once withdrawn, neither man nor beast 
 can penetrate. This tribe forms part of the Pueblo Indians, 
 who have adopted agricultural customs, cultivating the 
 ground and breeding cattle." Does not this read like a 
 description of the ancient dwellings we are endeavoring to 
 make known ? 
 
 Round about the pueblos and inside the different cells 
 have been picked up innumerable fragments of pottery, 
 arrow-points, chips of obsidian, black lava, agates, jasper, 
 quartz, stone axes and hammers, and copper rings. Among 
 these objects we must mention especially two little earthen- 
 ware figures, very like the idols of the Mexicans. Thus far 
 this is the only fact that throws any light on the religion of 
 the inhabitants of the pueblos. 1 
 
 This habitation in common, these cells all exactly resem- 
 bling one another, with the absence of any larger residence, 
 point to the conclusion that the men of the pueblos led a 
 communal existence." " The next morning," says a recent 
 
 1 The researches of Mr. Frank Gushing at the Zufii Pueblo will doubtless 
 throw a flood of light on the whole subject. The few preliminary words which 
 have appeared in the Century Magazine and elsewhere promise the most inter- 
 esting results. Mr. Gushing is now (1884) about to prepare his final report. 
 Ant. de Espejo : " El Viaje que hizo en el anno de ochenta y tres." Hakluyt, 
 " Voyages," vol. III. If we accept Coronado's account Pecos was already in 
 ruins in 1540. Later, under the direction of the Franciscans, the pueblo was re- 
 built, a church and convent erected, and in 1680 the population exceeded 2,000. 
 Vetancurt ; " Cronica," p. 300. Bandelier, /. c., p. 120 et seq. 
 
 * Bandelier, /. c., pp. 54, 60, 89, et seq. Force, Cong, des Am., Luxem- 
 bourg, 1877, p. 16. 
 
240 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 traveller, " I was waked at dawn by a strange chant. Hav- 
 ing at once drawn aside the curtains of the ambulance, I 
 dimly made out the profile of the chief, who was standing at 
 the summit of the pueblo. When he had finished chanting, 
 he gave out a proclamation. He had scarcely finished when 
 I saw figures moving rapidly. It was explained to me that 
 the chant of the chief was an act of adoration, and the object 
 of the proclamation was to make known what was to be the 
 task of the different families made up of the five hundred 
 persons living in the pueblo." The present may help us to 
 understand the past. They were certainly an agricultural 
 race, for every sedentary population must be so from mere 
 force of circumstances. Moreover, near the Rio Pecos culti- 
 vated fields have been made out, and irrigative works of 
 considerable extent, including acequias or large canals, and 
 zanjas or irrigating ditches. This was doubtless the Huerta 
 del pueblo, the garden cultivated by all in common. In many 
 places the outlines have been traced of fields in which maize 
 was cultivated, and these fields are remarkable for the 
 luxuriant growth of a robust variety of sun-flower. The 
 common property was under the same kind of government 
 as that generally adopted in Mexico before the Spanish Con- 
 quest. The land, the property of all, was divided every year 
 amongst the different families forming the tribe, who were 
 probably very closely related to each other. But each 
 family had a right to the produce of the toil of its members ; 
 they reaped the seed they sowed, they gathered the fruits 
 they planted. These assertions seem to be well founded ; 
 for according to Mariano Ruiz, who lived for a long time 
 amongst the Pecos Indians, this mode of cultivation was till 
 recently practised by them ; in fact it lasted until the extinc- 
 tion of the tribe, and to quote their own words: " La tierras 
 son del pueblo, pero cada uno piede vender sus cosechas." 
 
 The Cliff Dwellers and inhabitants of the pueblos have 
 left behind them as many fragments of pottery as the Mound 
 Builders. Jackson tells us that all who have visited these 
 regions have been strongly impressed by the fragments of 
 
THE CUFF DWELLERS. 241 
 
 pottery everywhere strewing their path, and that even in 
 parts where no vestige of human habitation has been found. 
 The pottery was doubtless of a kind to enable it to last 
 longer than the adobes, which have crumbled to dust. Ban- 
 delier, again, in speaking of the ruins of the Rio Pecos, says 
 that wagon-loads of painted pottery lie at the feet of the tra- 
 veller ; and Schoolcraft * speaks of the profusion of fragments 
 of pottery left behind them by the ancient tribes who lived 
 on the banks of the Rio Gila, as proofs of their long resi- 
 dence there. Holmes is even more explicit, and, according 
 to him, the number of these fragments is quite confusing. 
 
 FIG. 104. Vases found on the banks of the San Juan. 
 
 On a surface, roughly estimated at ten feet square, he was able 
 to pick up fragments belonging to fifty-five different vases, 
 jars or amphorae, dishes or bottles. All explorations lead 
 to the same results, and everywhere the heaps of frag- 
 ments of all kinds are of much greater importance than those 
 found at the present day near villages occupied by seden- 
 tary Indians. To explain this, recourse has been had to a 
 strange supposition. It has been said that the inhabitants 
 of the country, forced to flee before a sudden invasion, had 
 broken their crockery before leaving their hearths forever 
 either under the influence of a superstitious horror, or to 
 
 1 "Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. III., p. 83. 
 
242 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 prevent their property becoming the booty of a hated 
 enemy. 
 
 What is more certain is, that the pieces of pot- 
 tery found on the surface of the ground show no signs 
 of deterioration, although they have been subjected 
 for centuries to all the inclemencies of the seasons. 
 Generally, the earthenware of the Cliff Dwellers is far 
 superior to that of the Mound Builders (fig. 104) ; it 
 was made of a fine clay, very plentiful in the neighbor- 
 hood of the homes of the Cliff Dwellers, and, to give it con- 
 
 FlG. 105. Funeral urn found in Utah. 
 
 sistency, this clay was mixed with a small quantity of sand, 
 bits of shell, or even with pellets of earth moulded and 
 baked. Often after kneading his clay, the potter cut it into 
 thin strips, which he laid one upon the other, giving them 
 the form required with his hand. This is the mode still em- 
 ployed in the glass-works of Europe in making crucibles and 
 other things requiring delicate workmanship. We give a 
 figure (fig. 105) of a jar, or funeral urn, found in Utah, near 
 a structure of adobes now completely in ruins. 1 This illus- 
 tration will help us to understand the details of the manu- 
 
 1 This jar belongs to the Peabody Museum, and is capable of holding three 
 gallons ; another, found near Epsom Creek, holds no less than ten gallons. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 243 
 
 facture. All the pieces of pottery found had been subjected 
 to the heat of fire ; and, although that heat had never been 
 great enough to change the original color of the clay, the 
 baking had made them so hard that, when struck, they give 
 out a very clear metallic sound. Lightness was evidently a 
 quality much esteemed ; the internal and external surfaces 
 were carefully smoothed before baking, and the workman 
 often succeeded in making the body of the largest pots no 
 thicker than a quarter of an inch. A great many of these 
 pots retain traces of paintings, and several have been coated 
 with a varnish converted by baking into a brilliant polish, 
 worthy to be compared with that of our modern enamelled 
 manufactures. Beneath some sepulchral mounds near the 
 Great Salt Lake have been found some pieces of pottery, in- 
 ferior in execution to those of Ohio and Mississippi, which 
 still retain this polish. These jars contained burnt human 
 bones, yet another proof of the practice of cremation at cer- 
 tain periods by certain races. 1 
 
 The varnish was generally black, blue, or brown, more 
 rarely red or white. We do not know what were its constitu- 
 ents ; they varied probably according to the locality. We 
 know for instance that the Spanish found some vases in the 
 pueblos that were full of varnish ready for use, 1 and at the 
 present day the people of Guatemala use a resinous gum to 
 coat the surface of their pottery when they take it from the 
 fire. 3 A vase is mentioned found at Ojo Calienta, New 
 Mexico, still covered with a very fine powder of mica ; 
 so that this may have been yet another mode employed. 
 
 The decoration of the vases is generally executed with 
 great precision ; the ornaments stand out from the surface 
 either in relief or in a different color. 4 Some, for instance, 
 are black on a red or white ground. A few of the fragments 
 picked up are of a bronze color, but it is impossible to say 
 
 1 Bancroft : Loc. cit., vol. IV., p. 714. 
 
 * " Castaneda de Nagera : " Rel. du Voyage de Cibola," Ternaux Compans, 
 vol. IV., first series. 
 8 Bancroft : /. c., vol. I., p. 398. 
 4 Ch. Rau : " Indian Pottery," "Smith. Con.," 1860, vol. XVI. 
 
244 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 by what processes this color was obtained. 1 Fragments have 
 also often been found on which lines and geometrical draw- 
 ings have been traced, as among the Mound Builders, with a 
 pointed instrument or. with the nail of the potter; other 
 vases have more complicated designs, which by a very 
 remarkable coincidence resemble to a positively confusing 
 degree those of the Etruscans (figs. 104 and 106). The draw- 
 ings on the pottery of Arizona resemble the ornaments 
 traced on the walls of the temple of Mitla, which again re- 
 call the processes used in ornamentation by the ancient 
 people of Italy. 8 
 
 FIG. 106. Fragments of pottery. 
 
 Other pieces of pottery are covered with representations 
 of human figures and of animals. A fragment is mentioned 
 as having been found on the banks of the Gila on which an 
 unknown artist had engraved a turtle ; another was supposed 
 to represent the head of a monkey. Birds are numerous, 
 and while the Mound Builders appear to have preferred the 
 duck as a model the Cliff Dwellers generally chose the owl 
 
 1 Putnam : Bull of the Essex Institute, 1880. 
 
 * Hoffman : " Ethn. Obs. on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, California, and 
 Arizona," U. S. Geol. Survey, 1876, p. 454. The modern pueblo pottery, 
 which is produced in enormous quantities, begins to show evidences of the influ- 
 ence of civilization and of modification for an archaeological market. Collec- 
 tors should be on their guard against pots with the "Swastika" on them, or 
 other equally remarkable designs, which are now, it appears, manufactured to 
 order. Cf. Putnam : " Peabody Museum Report," for 1882. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 245 
 
 or the parrot. To sum up : if the pottery of the Cliff 
 Dwellers is superior to that found in the mounds it still more 
 excels that now manufactured by the potters of the Rio 
 Grande or of the San Juan. The Moqui and Zufii Indians 
 know very well how to make pottery, and to produce the 
 symmetrical forms or artistic ornamentation characteristic 
 of the ceramic work of their predecessors inhabitants of the 
 pueblos. 
 
 A few implements of quartz or other rock of various kinds 
 are, with the pottery just noticed, nearly the sole relics of 
 this ancient civilization which have come down to us. 
 Arrow-points are often found at the foot of the cliff-houses 
 and round about the pueblos. They bear witness, as we 
 have already remarked, to the constant struggle in which 
 the men under notice passed their lives, compelled to be 
 always defending their homes. Near the Rio Mancos has 
 been found a polished celt exactly similar to those of Eu- 
 rope. 1 This celt was eight inches long by two and a half at 
 its widest part. One side is slightly concave, the other per- 
 fectly flat. It was hidden in one of the cells of a cliff-house 
 under a heap of maize. A polished scraper of silicious schist 
 has also turned up, which may have been used to prepare 
 skins, schist being too brittle to be used either for drilling 
 or hammering purposes. 
 
 A good many metates or stone hand-mills for grinding 
 corn have also been found. These consist of blocks of 
 basalt, naturally concave or artificially rendered so, upon 
 which another stone was pushed backward and forward, 
 which fact supplies us with another proof that the Cliff 
 Dwellers were an essentially agricultural people, living on 
 the produce of the fields they tilled. These metates are at 
 present in common use on the borders of Mexico, both by 
 Indians and by the not much more civilized " greasers." It 
 is a curious fact that these people often obtain their metates, 
 here, as in Yucatan, from the ancient pueblos or mounds. 
 
 Lastly, a mat made of rushes may be referred to, of a 
 
 1 Holmes : U. S. Geog. Survey, pi. XLVI. 
 
246 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 variety (Scirpus valictus) still very common on the banks of 
 the Mancos. Some ropes woven of the fibres of the yucca, 
 some sea-shells, a few amulets in stone or turquoise, a few 
 bead necklaces, and our list is closed. We have alluded to 
 the very small number of excavations hitherto undertaken, 
 and the obstacles which checked the explorers, zealous as 
 they were in the cause of science ; and it will readily be be- 
 lieved that very few of the objects left on the surface of the 
 ground were likely to escape the rapacity of the Utes and 
 Navajos, who are always wandering about amongst the ruins. 
 
 It is remarkable that, except for the copper rings found 
 at Pecos, not a weapon or ornament of metal has been found. 1 
 Were such articles carried off by the Indians, or were the 
 early inhabitants of the pueblos of New Mexico and Colorado 
 ignorant of iron and bronze ? This latter hypothesis seems 
 probable, for the roughly squared beams supporting their 
 home appear to have been shaped with stone implements. 
 We cannot pronounce a decided opinion on the question, for 
 it can only be decided by scientifically conducted excavations. 
 
 Among the most remarkable characteristics of the archae- 
 ology of the region are the paintings, sculptures, and 
 engravings on rocks, met with in New Mexico, Arizona, Col- 
 orado, and even in Texas. Among others which may be 
 cited are those of the Sierra -Waco, thirty miles from El Paso. 
 
 These rock-drawings have caused the coinage of a new 
 word, pictography, which we use in our turn, although we are 
 by no means persuaded, as are certain archaeologists, that the 
 Cliff Dwellers intended by means of pictography to give a 
 record of their own history, the struggles in which they had 
 taken part, their migrations or their haunts. The figures 
 are, as a rule, of such great simplicity that the descendants of 
 the artists could learn nothing from them of the main facts 
 of the history of their ancestors. It is more probable that 
 these figures, curious though they be, were generally the 
 outcome of the painter's or sculptor's fancy. 
 
 1 " The implements and ornaments are not numerous, include no articles of 
 any metal whatever, and do not differ materially from the articles now in use 
 among the Pueblo Indians." Bancroft, /. c., vol IV., p. 677. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 247 
 
 It is not only on the rocks that we find the representations 
 under notice ; the numerous erratic blocks of the valley of 
 the Gila are covered with roughly outlined figures of men 
 and of animals ' (fig. 107). But it is chiefly on the banks of 
 the Mancos and the San Juan, and in the cafions stretching 
 
 FlG. 107. Erratic blocks covered with figures. Arizona. 
 
 away westward, that these pictographs abound. Some are 
 cut into the rock to a depth varying from a quarter to half 
 an inch '(figs 108 and 109); others are merely traced in 
 broad red or white lines. The former, in many cases at an 
 
 1 Bartlett : " Personal Narrative," vol. II., pp. 195. 206. 
 'Holmes: pis. XLII. and XLIII. 
 
248 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 all but inaccessible height, must have involved considerable 
 toil. Are they the work of the Cliff Dwellers ? Nearly every 
 thing points to the conclusion that they are, for they are 
 almost all near the cliff-houses. We must add, however, 
 that inscriptions and figures are, on the other hand, very rare 
 near the most ancient pueblos ; and the most recent are 
 often, perhaps, of later date than the Spanish Conquest. 
 The appearance of these inscriptions might have warranted 
 us in attributing them to pre-historic Cliff Dwellers, had not 
 one of them represented a horse, 1 and we know that this 
 animal was unknown in America before the arrival of the 
 conquerors. 
 
 We must also notice a figure resembling rudely a hatchet 
 (fig. 109), met with repeatedly in these engravings. Its form 
 recalls the hatchets engraved on the megalithic monuments 
 of Brittany. This is a curious fact, but its importance must 
 not be overrated. 
 
 Among the most interesting of the engravings on rock 
 we will mention one on the banks of the San Juan, about 
 ten miles from the mouth of the La Plata. It represents a 
 long series of men, animals, and even birds with long necks 
 and long legs, all going in the same direction. 2 Two men 
 are standing up in a sledge harnessing a deer which may be 
 supposed to be a reindeer, and other men follow or direct 
 the march. These engravings are evidently connected with 
 the migration of a tribe. 
 
 Jackson also speaks of a cliff near the MacElmo covered 
 for an area of sixty square feet with figures of men, stags 
 and lizards, and Bandelier speaks of pictographs 3 the weather- 
 worn condition of which testifies to their antiquity. The 
 latter, situated near the Pecos ruins, represent the footprints 
 of a man or child, a human figure and a very complete cir- 
 cle enclosing some small cups which may also be compared 
 with those on the megalithic stones of France. On the 
 
 'Holmes: pi. XLIL.fig. 2. 
 
 Holmes: pi, XLIII., fig. i. 
 
 1 " Ruins of the Rio Pecos," pp. 92, et seq. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 249 
 
 banks of the Puerco and Zufii rivers, 1 two of the tributaries 
 of the Colorado Chiquito, drawings have been noticed " which 
 resemble hieroglyphics. Their meaning is unknown, indeed 
 we cannot even assert that they have any meaning. 
 
 The rocks surrounding Salt Lake City, Utah, the capital 
 city of the Territory, are covered with sculptures which re- 
 mind us of those of Egypt. 3 Some of the human figures of 
 
 FIG. 108. Pictography on the banks of the San Juan. 
 
 FlG. 109. Pictographs on the banks of the San Juan. 
 
 life size, incised in very hard blue granite, are situated 
 more than thirty feet above the level of the ground. The 
 height at which some of these sculptures occur has suggested 
 that since their production some geological phenomenon, 
 such as the depression of the lake, may have taken place. 
 
 1 It was on the banks of the Zufii that Coronado speaks of having seen the 
 seven villages of Cibola in 1540. 
 
 1 Mulhalisen : " Tagebuch einer Reise vom Mississippi nach den Kusten der 
 Sud-See." Leipsic, 1858. 
 
 1 Remy and Brenchley : "A Journey to the Great Salt Lake City." London, 
 1862, vol. II., p. 362. 
 
250 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 This is yet another hypothesis to add to the many already 
 noticed. 
 
 The desire to reproduce the figures, animals, and events 
 which have arrested their attention is one of the most char- 
 acteristic features of the various American races. On the 
 rocks of Ohio and Wyoming signs have been noticed which 
 have been looked upon as hieroglyphics. 1 Amongst these 
 engravings one of the most important is in Licking county; 
 it covers a surface from fifty to sixty feet long, by from ten 
 to twelve feet wide. Unfortunately nearly all the figures 
 have been destroyed, only a few slight traces still remaining. 
 We may also mention those of Perrysburgand Independence, 
 Cuyahoga county, and those of Belmont county. If these 
 really are inscriptions it is impossible now to decipher them, 
 but there is little probability of their being more than rude 
 pictographs. Here and there beside these signs we see en 
 graved a trident, an harpoon, a bear's foot or a human hand 
 or foot, several of which are mentioned as cut into the rock 
 to the depth of an inch and a half. 
 
 In Vermont, too, the rocks bathed by the Connecticut 
 River are covered with engravings. On one of them a hu- 
 man figure can be made out, on another twenty heads of 
 different sizes, the largest being twenty inches long and the 
 smallest five inches." Several of them have two rays, two 
 horns if you like, on the forehead, and the central figure has 
 as many as six. The eyes and the mouth are indicated by 
 circular holes, and the- nose is nearly always missing. An 
 engraving at Brattleboro is still more curious ; it represents 
 eleven different subjects, including mammals, birds, and ser- 
 pents. 
 
 Some similar pictographs, to which authorities are dis- 
 posed to assign a very great antiquity, are to be seen on the 
 walls of caves in Nicaragua. 3 One is mentioned near Nihapa 
 
 1 Whittlesey : "Rep. Am. Ass.," Indianapolis, 1871. Th. Comstock, same, 
 Detroit, 1875. 
 
 *G. W. Perkins : " Remarks upon the Arch, of Vermont," " Rep. Am. Ass.," 
 St. Louis, 1878. 
 
 *" Report, Peabody Museum," 1880, vol. II., p. 716. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 2$ I 
 
 representing a serpent covered with feathers. The artist 
 gave imagination full scope. Some caves in the mountains 
 of the province of Oajaca also show man's handiwork. 1 But 
 here we only find clumsy paintings in red ochre. Amongst 
 these can be distinguished impressions of the hand in black, 
 recalling those noticed by Stephens on the ruined walls of 
 the buildings of Uxmal. Pinart, in his journey across Sonera," 
 met with a great many inscriptions on rocks. He describes 
 one engraved on the three faces of a basaltic rock near the 
 Rio de Busanig. Although they are much defaced, we can 
 still make out on the northern face a human hand, beneath 
 two concentric circles grouped round a central point. The 
 upper part also bears a number of little round holes ar- 
 ranged symmetrically, and on a second rock rising above the 
 first several other circles have been traced. 
 
 Near Cahorca rises a rocky circular hillock to which the 
 Papagos have given the name of Ko Ka. It consists of a 
 heap of rocks bearing pictographs on their flat surfaces. In 
 several places more ancient designs, including a series of 
 lines or of symmetrical figures, can be distinguished, but 
 they have been in a great measure obliterated by later in- 
 scriptions traced in white paint. 
 
 Such engravings or paintings are met with in all the re- 
 gions which once formed Spanish America. They are men- 
 tioned as existing near the extinct volcano of Masaya, in 
 the United States of Colombia ; on the banks of the Orinoco, 
 in Venezuela, where they are in such a state of decay that 
 they can hardly be recognized ; on the Isthmus of Panama, 
 where they were noticed as early as 1520 by the Spaniards.* 
 Lieutenant Whipple describes them on the rocks of Arizona. 
 Professor Kerr on the Black Mountains near the sources of 
 the Tennessee ; and in crossing the White Mountains, between 
 the towns of Columbus, Nevada, and Benton, California, we 
 meet with numerous representations of men and animals, or 
 
 1 Brasseur de Bourbourg : " Voy. surl'Isthme de Tehuantepec," p. 123. 
 
 '"Bull. Soc. Geog." Paris, Sept., 1880. 
 
 1 Diego Garcia de Palacios : " Carta dirigada al Rey de Espaila," afio 1576. 
 
FIG. no. Specimens of the rock sculptures of the Bushmen of South Africa. 
 
 252 
 
FiO. ni. Engravings found on rocks in Algeria. 
 253 
 
254 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 with signs that cannot be deciphered. 1 Neither the Pah 
 Utes, occupying the California seaboard, nor the Shawnees, 
 who encamp near Columbus, claim them as the work of their 
 ancestors. Twenty miles south of Benton, the road follows 
 a narrow defile, shut in on either side by almost perpendicular 
 rocks, rising to a height of forty or fifty feet. These stone 
 walls are covered with figures of unknown origin. 
 
 The ancient inhabitants of Tennessee have also left behind 
 them paintings on the cliffs overlooking their great rivers. 
 Some represent the sun and the moon ; others, mammals, the 
 bison for instance." These paintings were done in red ochre, 
 and, like the sculptures of Utah referred to above, they are 
 at almost inaccessible heights. A colossal sun, engraved on 
 a rock overlooking the Big Harpeth, is visible four miles off. 
 At Buffalo Creek these workmen of the past have drawn an 
 entire herd of bisons, walking in single file. Father Mar- 
 quette, during his voyage up the Mississippi, saw similar 
 scenes engraved on the cliffs between Illinois and the Mis- 
 souri ; and more modern travellers bear witness to the faith- 
 fulness of his account. 3 
 
 In speaking of South America we shall describe rock sculp- 
 tures, similar to those first noticed ; but with regard to them 
 we shall also be unable to say who executed them or when 
 they were made. The only conclusion which we can arrive at 
 is that resemblances exist between the instincts 'of man in 
 all regions. Everywhere man, however degraded we may 
 consider him to have been, traced as with childish vanity, 
 upon the rocks, on the walls of caves, and on erratic blocks, 
 his own image or the scenes taking place before his eyes, and 
 from this point of view nothing could be more curious than 
 a comparison between the rude figures of the Americans 
 and the engravings executed by the Bushmen of South Af- 
 
 1 Hoffman : " Ethn. Observ. on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, California, and 
 Arizona," U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, 1876. 
 
 8 Jones' " Antiquities of the Southern Indians," New York, 1873, p. 137. 
 
 '"Voyages et Decouvertes du P. Marquette dans 1' Amerique Septentrionale." 
 Thevenot : " Relation de Divers Voyages Curieux," Paris, 1681. J. G. Shea 
 " Discovery and Explorations of the Mississippi Valley," p. 41. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 
 
 rica, (fig. 1 10), or with those engraved on the rocks of Al- 
 geria. This similarity, in every clime and at every period, of 
 the taste, instinct, and genius of man is the best proof that 
 can be brought forward of the common origin of the human 
 race. 
 
 As already stated it appears certain that the Cliff Dwellers 
 and the inhabitants of the pueblos belonged to the same 
 race, and that this did not materially differ from the Moquis 
 and Zuflis of the present day. The buildings, whether of 
 stone or of adobe, are always alike and always regular ; the 
 rooms are everywhere extremely small ; the absence of stairs 
 and of trap-doors giving access from one story to another, 
 points to a life led in common; and everywhere we find estufas, 
 places for meetings alike of a religious and secular character. 
 Both the Cliff Dwellers and the people of the pueblos manu- 
 factured pottery of a similar kind, and used the same kind 
 of arrow-points and the same kind of implements. 
 
 All the relics which have come down to us point to the 
 same conclusion, and it appears no less certain that the peo- 
 ple under notice differed in many respects from the Mound 
 Builders of Ohio and Mississippi, the Mayas of Yucatan and 
 the Nahuas of Mexico. There are no structures left by the 
 Cliff Dwellers resembling either the truncated pyramids, 
 mounds shaped like animals, or other earth mounds of the 
 Northern United States. In the Territory of Utah, however, 
 Dr. Parry found a mound containing several specimens of 
 pottery a good deal like that of the pueblos. Dr. Palmer, 
 after many excavations in the neighborhood, confirmed this 
 fact, but added that the mound in question was derived from 
 crumbled walls, originally of adobes. 
 
 Still less do they resemble the palaces, temples, and re- 
 markable buildings erected by the Mayas or the Aztecs. 
 The rarity of pipes, which are so numerous amongst the Mound 
 Builders and northern Indians is no less remarkable. We 
 give a drawing (fig. 112) of one of the few pipes found as 
 yet in the district inhabited by the Cliff Dwellers. It is of 
 clay, and the mouth-piece is at the end of the handle. 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Coronado, the first Spaniard to visit these regions, notices 
 no resemblance between the Mexicans and the inhabitants 
 of New Mexico. Father Escalante, who crossed the country 
 in 1776, more than two centuries after Coronado, describes 
 ruins now unknown, pueblos inhabited when he saw them, 
 now crumbled to dust ; and nothing in his narrative supports 
 what has been called on the other side of the Atlantic the 
 Aztec theory. 1 As yet, nothing justifies us in deciding that 
 New Mexico was peopled by colonists from Anahuac. Two 
 distinct classes of remains appear to have been observed in 
 Central America ; the Cliff Dwellers on the west and the 
 Mound Builders, who have been identified by some with the 
 Aztecs, on the east. These people may have sprung origi- 
 nally from the same source, but their separation doubtless 
 
 FIG. 112. Pipe found amongst the relics of the Cliff Dwellers. 
 
 took place at a very distant period, and there is not sufficient 
 evidence yet available to prove the case one way or the 
 other. 5 
 
 One thing is certain : numerous pueblos existed in New 
 Mexico at the time of the Spanish invasion, and some of 
 them, such as Zufli, Acoma, Taos, Jemez, and Pecos have 
 
 1 Dominguez and Escalante : " Diario y Derrotero Santa Fe a Monterey," 
 1776. "Doc. Hist. Mex.," ad series, vol. I. Short, p. 331, speaks of having 
 examined a MS. by Escalante in the Library of Congress, Washington, which 
 confirms this conclusion. 
 
 5 In the fifth report of the Archaeological Institute of America Bandelier gives 
 an account of studies carried on in 1883 for the society in New Mexico and 
 Arizona. He finds a well-defined system of growth, from the temporary Indian 
 lodge to the many-storied pueblo building, which clearly does not owe its origin 
 to any external influences. He has since been seeking in the mountains of 
 Northern Mexico traces of any possible connection between the ancient pueblo 
 people and the Aztecs, and it is announced that his report of important studies 
 at Cholula and Mitla is nearly ready for publication. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 257 
 
 been inhabited until now. The pueblos of the sedentary 
 Indians of New Mexico are grouped as follows: I., be- 
 tween the frontier of Arizona and the Rio Grande, Zufli, 
 Acoma, and Laguna; II., on the banks of the Rio Grande 
 Taos, Picuries, Tehua, Queres, Tiguas, and Piros; III., to 
 the west of the' Rio Grande, Jemez ; and IV., to the east 
 of the same river, Tanos and Pecos. 
 
 Lieutenant Wheeler, who visited the country in 1858, 
 speaks of having seen through his telescope two Moqui pueb- 
 los, at a distance of eight or ten miles, perched on a rock 
 overlooking the whole valley. The buildings were flush 
 with the precipice, and from the Lieutenant's point of view 
 presented the appearance of a town with walls and crenel- 
 lated towers. The whole was singularly picturesque. Each 
 of these pueblos is built round a rectangular court, enclos- 
 ing the spring of water indispensable to the population. 
 The walls, which are of stone, have no opening on the out- 
 side. To reach the inside, these walls would have to be 
 either removed or scaled. The different stories of the 
 houses are one behind the other, and the upper ones can 
 only be reached by means of trap-doors in the ceiling. 
 Every building includes three stories, and has no opening 
 except on to the court. The whole arrangement is such as 
 to offer resistance in case of attack. As the court and the 
 communications are common to all, the inhabitants must 
 have led a communal existence, such as is known to be char- 
 acteristic of all American tribes. 
 
 We might well take this account as a description of an 
 ancient pueblo, and it will help us to a second conclusion, 
 which follows as a matter of course. New Mexico, Arizona, 
 Utah, Colorado, and the northern part of Chihuahua, were 
 formerly inhabited by a sedentary agricultural and compara- 
 tively cultured race, who differed no more from each other 
 than do the present inhabitants of the pueblos. The de- 
 cline of these people probably began some time before the 
 arrival of the Spaniards, and this decadence has gone on until 
 the present day, when a few scattered settlements are the 
 
258 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 sole representatives of a once numerous and powerful popu- 
 lation. 
 
 The causes of this decadence are many. Among the 
 most important we must certainly include the perpetually 
 recurrent invasions of the Apaches, wild and dangerous ene- 
 mies whom the* Cliff Dwellers long and energetically resisted. 
 At last, however, this resistance became powerless to stem 
 the torrent, the people had to leave the homes they had 
 built, the hearths often watered with their blood, perhaps to 
 join themselves to other tribes at a distance, 1 who in their 
 turn had to defend themselves, probably with no better suc- 
 cess, against the attacks of the same enemies. 
 
 The enemies gained ground daily, and daily the Cliff 
 Dwellers receded before them. The end was inevitable. The 
 vanquished race was rapidly reduced in power and number, 
 and unfortunately the Spanish conquest could not restore it. 
 It is probable, however, that the inroads of the nomad tribes, 
 however formidable they may have been, would not have 
 been enough to depopulate the country. The aerial dwell- 
 ings, so difficult of access, the towers defending the en- 
 trances to the valleys, the arrangement of the pueblos, form- 
 ing as they did regular fortresses, would have secured the 
 victory to their inhabitants, had not another cause, already 
 referred to, hastened their ruin. The destruction of the for- 
 ests, prolonged droughts, and the disappearance of water- 
 courses changed lands which had been rendered productive by 
 cultivation into arid deserts and valleys choked with sand, 
 which strike the traveller of to-day as so melancholy. Man 
 fled from regions where further struggle with an ungrateful 
 nature had become impossible. He receded before an enemy 
 more dangerous than the nomads, and against whom resis- 
 tance was impossible. 
 
 It was reserved to the nineteenth century to ascertain 
 
 1 Examples of similar union of tribes are not rare in the history of the Indians. 
 Since the discovery of America the vanquished Tuscaroras have been admitted 
 into the confederation of the Five Nations ; the Alabamas, the Uchees, and 
 Natchez into that of the Creeks ; and in our own day the Pecos, decimated by 
 sickness, found an asylum amongst the people of an allied tribe. 
 
THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 2$g 
 
 these facts, totally unknown a few years ago. A more noble 
 mission is reserved to those who are to come after us. It is 
 for science to reestablish that which the barbarism of man 
 has been permitted to destroy, and by the resources of mod- 
 ern science to make the desert blossom as the rose. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 AMERICA does not stint her surprises for those who study 
 her ancient history. We have spoken of the mounds, so 
 strange alike in form and construction, the dwellings, true 
 eagle's nests, formed amid perpendicular cliffs, the pueblos, 
 where a considerable population lived in common. We shall 
 now consider a more advanced state of culture, monuments 
 in ruins at the time of the Spanish invasion, temples, palaces, 
 monoliths, statues, and bas-reliefs recalling in their complexity 
 those of Egypt or Assyria, India or China. These monu- 
 ments extend over entire districts, and the pioneers who. cut 
 their way, axe in hand, through the all but impenetrable for- 
 ests, flattering themselves that they were the first to tread 
 the virgin soil, found themselves face to face with ruins and 
 sepulchres, incontestable proofs of the former presence of 
 generations now disappeared. In stating these facts we shall 
 incidentally confute the error of an eminent historian who 
 did not hesitate to assert that there were not throughout the 
 whole of America any traces of a single building of earlier 
 date than the fifteenth century. 
 
 The difficulties we meet with at every turn increase as our 
 account proceeds. Here too we are in the presence of name- 
 less people, of races without a written history ; and to add 
 to our difficulties new discoveries are daily made, upsetting 
 preconceived hypotheses, breaking down earlier theories, and 
 completely destroying what had appeared to be the best 
 founded conclusions. 
 
 The myths and traditions that have been collected may 
 date back to a time before the Christian era, but the hiero- 
 
 260 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 26l 
 
 glyphics (fig. 1 13) are certainly not so old. It is difficult on 
 such slight data to reconstruct a past culture, the very ex- 
 istence of which was unknown a few years ago ; and thus 
 far no Champollion has arisen to solve the enigmas which 
 have been preserved in stone. 1 Before examining the monu- 
 ments themselves we must sum up the opinions of modern 
 historians, who have thrown a little light where, before their 
 researches, nothing but obscurity and chaos existed. 
 
 One fact appears probable, and that is that there was a 
 tendency of population extending over a long period from 
 the north toward the south," one driving another before it as 
 one wave of the sea follows that in advance of it. We can- 
 not do better than compare these successive invasions, with 
 those of the barbarous races that quarrelled over the parts 
 of the dismembered Roman empire, or with that of the 
 Aryans, who from the farther end of Asia fell in hordes 
 first upon India and Persia and then upon the different coun- 
 tries of Europe, giving to the Vanquished as the price of 
 their defeat a culture undoubtedly superior to that they had 
 formerly possessed. 
 
 The people who successively established themselves in 
 
 1 The twelfth century of our era is the limit of our very incomplete historical 
 knowledge of America. All that has come down to us of earlier days are a 
 few ethnological facts and legends or fables usurping the place of truth. With 
 such materials hypothesis has run wild. The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg 
 (" Popol-Vuh," Introd.) says that in 955 B.C. there was in America a settled gov- 
 ernment. The chronicle of Clavigero (" St. del Messico," book II. ch. I.) com- 
 mences 596 years before our era. Veytia (" Hist. Ant. de Mejico," t. I., chap. 
 II.) dates the first migrations of the Nahuas from the year 2,237 after the Crea- 
 tion ; while Valentin! (" The.Katunes of Maya History") by a more reason- 
 able calculation places them 137 years after Christ. Ixtlilxochitl (" Hist. Chi- 
 chimeca," Kingsborough, vol. IX.) in his turn gives the year 503 A.D. as the 
 date of the foundation of Tezcuco. All these dates, however, are, we repeat, 
 merely fanciful. There is no positive evidence either to confirm or to disprove 
 them. 
 
 * Bancroft's opinion, however, is that " while the positive evidence in favor 
 of the migration from the south is very meagre, it must be admitted that the 
 southern origin of the Nahua culture is far more consistent with fact and tradi- 
 tion than was the north-western origin, so long accepted." " Native Races," 
 vol. II., p. 117. 
 
262 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Central America were probably of Nahuatl race. The vigo- 
 rous researches being made in America itself tend more and 
 more to connect with this single source the Olmecs, Toltecs, 
 Miztecs, Zapotecs, Chichimecs, and Aztecs, and it is to vari- 
 ous branches of this conquering race that we owe the ruined 
 monuments still scattered over Mexico, Yucatan, Honduras, 
 Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and found as far as the Isthmus 
 of Tehuantepec. 
 
 The earliest were the Mayas, who are also supposed to 
 have been of Nahuatl origin, though we are unable to assert 
 any thing positive on this point, as the traditions, monu- 
 ments and hieroglyphics which can with certainty be attrib- 
 uted to them, appears to differ from those of the Nahuas, 
 and their language presents striking disparities. 1 The last 
 fact would form a conclusive argument against a common 
 origin, did we not know with what rapidity dialects are 
 transformed, which primitively sprang from a single source, 8 
 and if side by side with these differences we did not note re- 
 markable resemblances, such as the monosyllabic words and 
 the similarity in the construction of phrases 3 ; all that we can 
 really say at the present moment is that if the Mayas and 
 the various branches of the Nahuas had really a common 
 origin, their separation certainly preceded the Spanish inva- 
 sion by a considerable period. 
 
 The Mayas are supposed to have dwelt upon the shores of 
 the Atlantic. They migrated probably after defeat, and later 
 established themselves in Chiapas, on the banks of the Usu- 
 macinta River, in the midst of a rich and fertile country. 4 
 
 J Kingsborough : "Ant. of Mexico," vol. III.; Prescott, "Hist, of the 
 Conquest of Mexico," vol. I., p. 104 ; Bancroft, " Native Races," vol. II., 
 
 P- 772. 
 
 a Senor Orozco y Bcrra made out fifteen dialects belonging to the Maya. 
 Among these we may mention the Quiche, Tzendal, and Cakchiquel. Maya 
 or its derivatives was spoken in Tabasco, Chiapas, Guatemala, part of San Sal- 
 vador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Some traces of it are perhaps too hastily 
 supposed to have been recognized in Cuba, Hayti, and various of the West In- 
 dia islands (" Geog. de las Linguas," p. 98, Mexico, 1864). 
 
 3 Bancroft, " Native Races," vol. III., p. 769. 
 
 4 Orozco y Berra, /. <-., p. 128. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 263 
 
 Their empire flourished long, the rule of their chiefs or of 
 the tribes subject to them ' extended over the greater part 
 
 FIG. 113. Specimen of hieroglyphics found in Central America. 
 
 of Central America.* Nachan or the Town of Serpents, of 
 
 1 The Mayas had as many as thre; districts tributary to them, the Capitals of 
 which were : Tula or Tulan, generally placed two leagues from Ococingo, 
 Mayapan in Yucatan, and Copan. 
 
 1 Brasseur de Bourbourg : " Hist, des Nations Civilisees du Mexique et de 
 I'Amerique Centrale " ; Bancroft, vol. II., p. 523; vol. III., p. 460, etc.; 
 vol. V., pp. 157 and 231. 
 
264 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 which the ruins at Palenqu6 exhibit the grandeur, was their 
 capital, while Mayapan, Tulan, and Copan, were the chief 
 towns of the tributary districts forming the confederation of 
 Xibalba or of the Chanes (Serpent). 
 
 Such are the only at all trustworthy data that we possess. 
 Legends add some details in which a few facts are mixed 
 with much that is fabulous. The Maya confederation, it 
 is said, was founded many centuries before our era, by a mes- 
 senger of the gods named Votan, who came, according to 
 tradition, from the other side of the Caribbean Sea, and the 
 time of his arrival is placed by the legend ten centuries 
 before the Christian era. Perhaps there may have been 
 several Votans, and the descendants of the first retained his 
 name as a title of honor. 
 
 The most ancient traditions made him come from a land 
 of shadow, beyond the seas ; on his arrival, the inhabitants of 
 the vast territories stretching between the isthmus of Panama 
 and California, lived in a state which may be compared with 
 that of the people of the stone age of Europe. A few 
 natural caves, huts made of branches of trees, served them 
 as shelter ; their only garments were skins obtained in the 
 chase ; they lived upon wild fruits, roots torn out of the 
 ground and raw flesh of animals which they devoured while 
 still bloody. 1 Legends have preserved to our day the name 
 of the Quinames, wild and barbarous giants, whose memory 
 filled the Indians with terror, even during the Spanish domi- 
 nation." Such doubtless were the men who struggled with 
 the large animals which so long roamed as undisputed mon- 
 archs in the forests, pampas, and marshes of the two Ameri- 
 cas. It is curious that nearly every American tribe has 
 legends of barbarous people who preceded them and to 
 
 1 Torquemada : " Mon. Indiana," vol. I., chs. 15 and 20. 
 
 * " Los Quinemetin, gigantesque vivian en esta renconada que se dice ahora 
 Nueva Espana." Ixtlilxochitl : " Relaciones" ; Kingsborough: "Ant. of Mex- 
 ico," vol. IX., p. 322. Traces are also supposed to have been met with of a 
 more ancient language than the Maya, Nahua, or their derivatives. See Hum- 
 boldt's "Views of the Cordilleras " (Mrs. Williams' translation, 2 vols. octavo, 
 1814) and Bancroft, vol. III., p. 274. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 26$ 
 
 whom all evil attributes are attached in the current myths. 
 Sometimes, as among the Eskimo, Aleuts, and northern Tin- 
 neh, these mythical nomads are believed to still exist, hidden 
 in the recesses of the mountains or the forests. 
 
 All the Central American tribes do not seem to have lived 
 in an equally degraded condition before the period of the 
 Mayas. Ruins of considerable extent are met with in 
 Guatemala. These consist of undressed stones similar to 
 those used in the cyclopean buildings of Greece or Syria ; 
 but no tradition refers to their origin. They are, however, 
 attributed with some reason to a race driven back by con- 
 quest, and superior in culture to the people overcome by the 
 Maya invasion of Central America. 
 
 It was by war that Votan, placed after his death among 
 the gods, established the authority of his tribe, and it was 
 by war that his successors maintained its supremacy. Le- 
 gends have come down to us of a long series of victories and 
 of defeats, of internecine struggles and foreign wars, alliances 
 broken off, and revolts of tributary people. A manuscript 
 translated by Don J. Perez, called " Katunes of Maya His- 
 tory," gives according to the translator the history of the 
 Mayas from 144 to 1536 A.D., but according to Professor 
 Valentini, who reckons the Ahau or cycle differently, from 
 142 to 1544. The Katunes give only incidents of war, as if 
 times of peace were unworthy of attention. This manu- 
 script escaped the general auto da ft ordered by the Spanish 
 priests in 1 569. The name of Katunes (from Kat, stone and 
 tun, to interrogate) was given in Yucatan to engraved stones 
 bearing dates or inscriptions relating to historical events. 
 These stones were imbedded in the walls of public buildings. 
 Every thing points to the conclusion that the inscriptions 
 were not very ancient. 1 
 
 In accordance with the general law of human affairs the 
 confederation declined, one invasion succeeded another, and 
 the opposition of the Mayas to their invaders was that of a 
 
 1 Salisbury : " Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc.," October 21, 1879. Stephens : " Yu- 
 catan, "App., vols. I. and II. 
 
266 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 worn-out people, no longer able to defend itself against 
 younger and more vigorous races. The result could not be 
 doubtful. Amongst the conquered tribes, some accepted a 
 new usurpation, others retired to Yucatan and Guatemala, 
 where their descendants offered an heroic resistance to the 
 Spanish conquerers. 1 
 
 We know very little about the religion, the manners or 
 the customs of the Mayas. Three Maya manuscripts are 
 known : the Codex Perezianus, preserved in the Bibliothque 
 Nationale at Paris; the Dresden codex, known since the 
 eighteenth century, and long described as an Aztec manu- 
 script ; it is published in the large work by Lord Kings- 
 borough ; and lastly, the Troano manuscript (named after 
 Senor Tro y Ortolano, one of its owners), found at Madrid 
 in 1865. Some doubts have been expressed with regard to 
 this, and also to a manuscript which figured in 1881 at the 
 American Exhibition at Madrid, and which is looked upon 
 as a continuation of the Troano manuscript/ 
 
 The gods of the Mayas appear to have been less sangui- 
 nary than those of the Nahuas. The immolation of a dog 
 was with them enough for an occasion that would have been 
 celebrated by the Nahuas by hecatombs of victims. Human 
 sacrifices did however take place, and prisoners of war were 
 chosen in preference ; failing them, parents offered up their 
 children as the sacrifice most pleasing to the gods. 3 
 
 One remarkable distinction is noticed : the office of sacri- 
 ficer was considered the greatest dignity to which a Mexican 
 could aspire ; among the Mayas, on the contrary, it was 
 looked upon as impure and degrading. 4 
 
 At Chichen-Itza, capital of the Itzas, one of the Maya 
 
 'A. de Remsal : " Hist, de la Prov. de S. Vincente de Chyapa," Madrid, 
 1619, p. 264. Juarros : " Hist, of the Kingdom of Guatemala," London, 
 1824, p. 14. Bancroft /. c., vol. I., p. 647 et seq. ; vol. V., p. 616. 
 
 3 An investigation by Prof. Cyrus Thomas of the Manuscript Troano, throw- 
 ing much new light upon the subject, is on the point of publication by the 
 Ethnological Bureau of the United States. 
 
 s Diego de Landa, " Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan," p. 166 ; Paris, 1864. 
 
 4 " El oficio de abrir el pecho a los sacrificados que en Mexico era estimado, 
 aqui era poco honoroso." Herrera, " Hist. Gen.," dec. IV., book X., ch. IV. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 267 
 
 tribes of Yucatan, these sacrifices were more numerous. A 
 deep excavation was dug in the centre of the town and filled 
 with water. An altar, reached by a flight of steps cut in 
 the rock, rose at the very edge of the precipice. Trees and 
 shrubs surrounded it on every side, and to add to the awe 
 which the spot naturally inspired, a perpetual silence reigned 
 there. In the days of Votan's first successors, in accordance 
 with the instructions of the messenger of the gods, nothing 
 was offered up but animals, flowers, or incense ; but by de- 
 grees the people went back to the most revolting sacrifices, 
 and in the years preceding the fall of the confederation, if 
 they were threatened with any calamity, such as the failure 
 of the harvest or the cessation of rain, so indispensable in 
 the tierra caliente, the populace hastened to gather round 
 the altar, and to appease the anger of the gods with human 
 victims. These victims were generally young virgins ; they 
 marched triumphantly to their fate, arrayed in rich apparel 
 and surrounded by an imposing escort of priests and 
 priestesses. Whilst the fumes of the incense rose to- 
 ward heaven, the priests explained to the virgins what they 
 were to ask of the gods, before whom they were to ap- 
 pear. Then, when the incense was dying out upon the altar, 
 they were flung down into the abyss, whilst the prostrate 
 crowd went on offering up their ardent petitions. In Nica- 
 ragua, every one of the eighteen months into which the 
 year was divided opened with a holiday. The high-priest 
 announced the number of victims to be offered up and the 
 names of those he had chosen, either among the prisoners 
 or among the inhabitants themselves. 1 The unhappy wretch 
 thus pointed out was pitilessly seized and stretched upon 
 the altar ; the sacrificer walked slowly round him three times, 
 chanting funeral hymns ; then he approached, quickly 
 opened the breast, tore out the heart, and bathed his face in 
 the still smoking blood. When the victim was a prisoner 
 the body was at once cut up ; the heart belonging to the 
 high-priest, the feet and hands to the chiefs, the thighs to the 
 
 1 Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, " De Orbe Novo," dec. VI., book VI. 
 
268 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 warrior who had had the honor of his capture, the entrails 
 to the trumpeters, the rest distributed among the people, 
 and lastly, the head was hung upon the branch of a tree as a 
 religious trophy. If the victim was a child offered or sold by 
 its parents, the body was buried, custom not permitting 
 the assistants to eat the flesh of one of their own 'people. 
 These sacrifices, which dated from a very remote antiquity, 
 lasted until the Spanish conquest. Herrera 1 relates that sev- 
 eral Spanish prisoners were thus devoured, and Albornoz 
 adds that in Honduras the Indians gave up eating the flesh 
 of the white victims because it was too tough and stringy. 
 
 Sacrifices were always succeeded by several holidays, dan- 
 cing, banquets, and brutal drunkenness. 8 Husbands had 
 to refrain from all intercourse with their wives, and the de- 
 vout pierced the tongue, ears, and other parts of their bodies, 
 and smeared the lips and beard of the idols with the blood 
 from their wounds. 3 At other times blood was drawn from 
 the male organ, and some grains of maize were sprinkled 
 with it, for the possession of which the assistants disputed 
 eagerly, believing it to be an aphrodisiac. 4 In Guatemala a 
 woman and a female dog were sacrificed before every battle. 
 The horror these details inspire is our excuse for cutting short 
 the enumeration. Nowhere was human barbarity greater 
 than amongst the early Americans, and the cruelty of the 
 executioners was only equalled by the stoicism of their 
 victims. 
 
 We do not know who the gods were who were supposed to 
 be honored by these revolting sacrifices, and very little has 
 been learned yet about the mythology of the Mayas. Some 
 of their idols represent men, others animals. Peter Martyr 
 
 1 " Hist. Gen. de los Hechos de los Castillanos en las Islas e Tierra Firme 
 del Mar Oceano," dec. I, book V., chap. V.; dec. III., book IV., chap. VII. ; 
 dec. IV., book VIII., chap. IX.; book XCIV. 
 
 "The Mayas were acquainted with several fermented drinks. The Itzas pre- 
 pared one of a mixture of cacao and maize. In other parts honey and the juices 
 of the banana, figs, and other fruits, were fermented. 
 
 *Oviedo y Valdes : " Hist. Gen. y Natural de las Indias," Madrid, 1851-54, 
 vol. IV., p. 52. 
 
 4 Herrera, /. c.; Peter Martyr, /. c. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 269 
 
 speaks of one huge serpent made of stone and asphaltum 
 set up in Yucatan, and we know that the Itzas, greatly struck 
 with the appearance of Cortes' horse, hastened to copy it in 
 stone and place it amongst their idols. 
 
 The Mayas knew nothing of iron ; copper and gold were 
 the only metals they used, and it is doubtful whether they 
 understood smelting metals. Christopher Columbus is said, 
 however, to have seen, off the coast of Honduras, a boat 
 laden with crucibles, filled with ingots of metal and hatchets 
 made of copper which had been fetched from a distance. 
 Gold was very plentiful at the time of the Spanish conquest, 
 and it was used for making ornaments of all kinds. 1 The 
 weapons in use were slings, spears, arrows, and darts pointed 
 with silex, obsidian, porphyry, copper, or bone. The war- 
 riors wore well-padded cotton armor, often so heavy that a 
 soldier once prostrated could not always get up again ; their 
 round shields were decorated with feathers and covered with 
 cotton cloth or with the skins of animals which they had 
 killed in the chase. The Mayas were acquainted with navi- 
 gation. Oviedo relates that the inhabitants of Nicaragua 
 used balsas for crossing the rivers ; these balsas were reg- 
 ular rafts of five or six logs, bound together with creepers 
 and supporting a deck of interlaced branches. 1 The Chia- 
 panecs used calabashes for floats. In other localities naviga- 
 tion was more advanced ; the Guatemalians hewed out the 
 trunks of the cedar and the mahogany tree, and their canoes 
 might be counted by thousands on their lakes and rivers. 
 The people of Yucatan used trunks of trees in the same way, 
 and their boats, which they guided with great skill with the 
 help of a steering oar, were capable of holding as many as 
 fifty people. Some say that sailing vessels were also used. 
 
 'Cortes : " Cartas y Relacionesal Emperador Carlos V.," Paris, 1866. Her- 
 rera (" Hist. Gen.," decade III., book IV., chs. V. and VI.) speaks of 
 golden idols and hatchets. Cogolludo (" Hist, de Yucatan," Madrid, 1688.) 
 in his turn speaks of little figures representing fish and geese ; and Brasseur de 
 Bourbourg (" Hist, des Nat. Civ.," vol. II., p. 69), of finely chased vases, all of 
 gold. 
 
 *"Hist. Gen.," vol. III., p. 100. 
 
2/0 PRE-HISTGRIC AMERICA. 
 
 A balsa met with by Pizarro, near the second degree of north 
 latitude, and the boat seen by Christopher Columbus, were 
 reported to have been thus rigged ' ; but these facts are very 
 much disputed, and we only know that the last-named vessel 
 was of the same length as the Spanish galleys of eight feet 
 beam, that it was manned by twenty-five men, and that in 
 the middle was a canopy of matting to protect the women 
 and children from the heat of the sun. 
 
 The houses inhabited by these people were of a very great 
 variety, but this need not surprise us when we remember 
 the great extent of the confederation of Xibalba, and the 
 very different tribes composing it. The Quiches and the 
 Cakchiquels inhabiting the highlands of Guatemala built 
 their towns, as did the Cliff Dwellers, on points difficult of 
 access, and surrounded them with lofty walls and deep 
 trenches. Grijalva and Cordova, the first Spaniards to visit 
 the coast of Yucatan, speak of houses built of stone 
 cemented with a mortar made of lime, and covered in with 
 roofs of reeds or palm-leaves, sometimes even with slabs of 
 stone. 2 These houses had door-ways, but no doors, and 
 every one was free to go in and out. 
 
 In Nicaragua, the walls, like those of the jacals of the 
 Indians, were of cane. The houses of the chiefs were 
 erected on artificial platforms, often several feet high. 
 Cortez tells us 3 that the one he lived in, near the Gulf of 
 Dulce, consisted merely of a roof supported on posts. The 
 temples, with one notable exception, were not more impos- 
 
 1 Herrera : "Hist. Gen.," dec, I., book V., ch. V. ; Cogolludo : "Hist, 
 de Yucatan," p. 4. At the present day the Haidas, living on the Queen Char- 
 lotte Islands, build similar boats capable of holding one hundred people, and 
 are not afraid to undertake long voyages in them. 
 
 a Juan de Grijalva : " Cronica de laOrdende N. P. S. Augustin," Mexico, 
 1624. " Las casas son de piedro y ladrillo, con la cubierta de paja o rama, y 
 dun alguna de lanchas de piedra." Gomara : " Hist, de Mexico," Antwerp, 
 1554, folio 23. " The houses were of stone or brick and lyme, very artificially 
 composed. To the square courts or first habitations of their houses they as- 
 cended by ten or twelve steps. The roof was of reeds or stalks or herbs." 
 " Purchas His Pilgrimes," London, 1625-6- 
 
 * " Cartas," pp. 268, 426. 447. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 2JI 
 
 ing than the houses of the people. The images of the gods 
 were kept in very dark subterranean rooms. Before each 
 temple rose a truncated pyramid, resembling those of 
 Florida or, Mississippi. It was there that the sacrifices were 
 offered up in the sight of all the people. 1 
 
 We have now summed up all that is really known of the 
 Mayas. The temples and palaces of which the ruins are 
 still standing give a better idea of their artistic taste and 
 social organization ; but before commencing their study we 
 must speak of the Nahuas, who overran in their turn these 
 countries whose resources had become celebrated. 
 
 As already stated, we must include under the title of 
 Nahuas the tribes, evidently of the same origin, who suc- 
 cessively dominated Anahuac. 8 
 
 TheToltecs 1 were the first to establish a regular govern- 
 ment, and this government gradually spread to the neigh- 
 boring countries. These Toltecs arrived about the sixth 
 century of our era ; later they were replaced by the 
 Chichimecs, who in their turn were to be vanquished by the 
 combined forces of the Aztecs, Acolhuas, and Tepanecs. 
 Finally the Aztecs, as conquerors of their former allies, re- 
 mained sole masters of Mexico until the Spanish conquest. 
 Between the sixth and sixteenth centuries then there were 
 three distinct periods in the Nahuatl rule : that of the 
 Toltecs, that of the Chichimecs, and that of the Aztecs. 
 Between these two limits we must place the numerous in- 
 vasions of the various people who, driven on as by an irre- 
 
 1 Oviedo : " Hist. Gen.," vol. IV., p. 27. Peter Martyr : dec., VI., book V. 
 
 1 The prefix A in Anahuac appears to be an abbreviation of Atl, water. 
 Anahuac may therefore be translated as the country of the Nahuas by the 
 water. It is difficult to fix the extent of this country. It varied greatly at dif- 
 ferent periods. We think, however, that it was limited on the Atlantic by the 
 iSth and aist degrees of N. lat., and on the Pacific by the I4th and igth. 
 Becker : " On the Migrations of the Nahuas " ; Cong, des Ame'ricanistes, Lux- 
 embourg, 1877. 
 
 8 The name of Toltecs, which we take for want of a better, is founded on very 
 insufficient data. Sahagun, one of the most ancient Spanish historians, was, 
 we think, the first to use it, in his "Hist. Gen. de las Cosas de Nueva 
 Espana." 
 
2/2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 sistible force, precipitated themselves toward this common 
 centre. 1 
 
 All these people belonged to one race, all spoke dialects 
 apparently springing from the same source. This point has 
 been hotly disputed. " From a careful examination of the 
 early authorities, I can but entertain the opinion that the 
 Toltec, Chichimec, and Aztec languages are one." These 
 conclusions of Bancroft's (vol. III., p. 724) are also mine. 
 
 This is an important point ; the identity or the relation- 
 ship of languages is incontestably an ethnological fact, which 
 establishes the relationship of nations. 2 
 
 Very little is known of this past ; from the time of the de- 
 struction of the Xibalba confederation chronological data 
 are most confused, and the history of Central America is 
 shrouded in mystery which can be only very imperfectly 
 penetrated. 
 
 The ancient American races preserved the tradition of dis- 
 tinct migrations, in their hieroglyphics and pictographs. Ac- 
 cording to these traditions it was from a country situated on 
 the north or the northwest that the Nahuas came. This is 
 the version of all Spanish historians, and we may mention 
 amongst them Duran, Veytia, Torquemada, Vetancurt, and 
 Clavigero. Bancroft, however, (vol. V., pp. 219, 616, et. seq.} 
 thinks these people came from the south. We are obliged 
 to add that his reasons for this opinion do not appear to us 
 conclusive. 
 
 This country called Huehue- Tlapallan in the Popol-Vuh ; 
 Tulan-Zuiwa by other historians, 3 must be the same as the 
 country of Amaquemecan, the birthplace of the Chichimecs. 
 
 Ferdinand Alva de Ixtlilxochitl, a Christian descendant 
 of the rulers of the country, has endeavored to trace the 
 ancient history of his race. 4 It is too easy to recognize in 
 
 1 Bancroft with his usual accuracy enumerates these people. We can but 
 refer the reader to him. " Native Races," vol. II., pp. 103, et seq. 
 
 * F. von Hellwald : " The American Migrations," " Smith. Cont.," 1866. 
 
 ' An attempt has been made to identify Tulan-Zuiwa with the seven caves 
 that play such an important part in Aztec traditions. 
 
 4 " Relaciones " and " Hist. Chichimeca." Kingsborough : " Ant. of Mex.," 
 vol. IX, 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 2J$ 
 
 his narrative the religious influence of the Spanish mission- 
 aries to accord it any great confidence. According to him 
 seven families were saved from the deluge. After long and 
 arduous journeys their descendants settled in Huehue- 
 Tlapallan, a fertile country and pleasant to live in, adds the 
 historian. 1 
 
 FIG. 114. Quetzacoatl (Ethnographical Department of the Trocadero 
 Museum, Paris). 
 
 Their sojourn was long and their fortunes were various ; 
 they were at last compelled to leave their adopted country 
 after numerous defeats, and it was then that they went 
 
 1 Bancroft (vol. V., pp. 208-218) gives a summary of the whole of this his- 
 tory, which is legendary rather than serious. 
 
274 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 southward to found a new country. A singular fact in all the 
 legends collected is the reported arrival of white and bearded 
 strangers wearing black clothes, who have been absurdly 
 identified as Buddhist missionaries, who came to preach new 
 doctrines to the Nahuas. Of these strangers there is no cer- 
 tain information, all that is definitely alleged being that the 
 chief was called Quetzacoatl, or " the serpent covered with 
 feathers " (fig. 1 14). The first Spanish writers choose to 
 see in Quetzacoatl St. Thomas, who passed from India to 
 America. Legends about him are numerous, and their 
 variety justifies us in supposing that imaginary or real 
 actions of several Maya and Nahua gods were attributed to 
 him. All is confusion on this point. 1 He was worshipped 
 by the people as the incarnation of Tonacateatl, the serpent 
 sun, the creator of all things, the supreme god of the 
 Nahuatl mythology. It is to Quetzacoatl that the myths 
 and traditions of the Nahuas chiefly refer ; numerous temples 
 were dedicated to him, his attributes were represented in 
 bas-reliefs, and his image (fig. 1 1 5) is met with under the 
 most different aspects, in terra-cotta and in stone, wherever 
 excavations have been attempted. All the museums of 
 Europe and America are well stocked with representations 
 of Quetzacoatl ; those in the Louvre have been described by 
 M. de Longprier (" Notice sur les monuments exposes dans 
 la Salle des Ant. Ame"ricaines "). The new ethnological 
 museum of the Trocadero is not less rich. Thanks to the 
 courtesy of its learned director Dr. Hamy we are able to 
 give from it a curious figure of the god in question, (fig. 1 14) 
 represented seated with crossed legs as is Buddha in his 
 images. 
 
 There appear to have been very hotly contested religious 
 disputes ; constant wars broke out between the sectarians 
 following the god Votan and those who worshipped Quetza- 
 coatl, and the vanquished on either side perished under hor- 
 rible tortures, or were compelled to fly their country. 
 
 'Bancroft, vol. III., Rp. 450,451, et seq. Muller : " Americanischen 
 Urreligionen." Basel, 1869, p. 486, etc. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 275 
 
 In spite of wars and discord the time of the Toltec domi- 
 nation is enshrined in the memory of the Nahuas as their 
 golden age. The Toltecs, they tell us were tall, well- 
 proportioned, with clear yellow complexions; their eyes 
 
 FIG. 115. Quetzacoatl. 
 
 were black, their teeth very white ; their hair was black and 
 glossy; their lips were thick; their noses were aquiline, and 
 their foreheads were receding. Their beards were thin, and 
 they had very little hair on their bodies ; the expression of 
 
276 PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 their mouths was sweet, but that of- the upper part of their 
 face severe. They were brave, but cruel, eager for revenge, 
 and the religious rights practised by them were sanguinary. 
 Intelligent and ready to learn, they were the first to make 
 roads and aqueducts ; they knew how to utilize certain metals ; 
 they could spin, weave and dye cloth, cut precious stones, 
 build solid houses of stone cemented with lime mortar, 
 found regular towns, and lastly build mounds which may 
 justly be compared with those of the Mississippi valley.' 
 To them popular gratitude attributes the invention of medi- 
 cine, and the vapor bath (temazcallt). Certain plants 3 to 
 which curative properties were attributed were the remedies 
 mostly used. In the towns, we are told, were hospitals 
 where the poor were received and cared for gratuitously. 8 
 
 Our information respecting the commerce of the Toltecs 
 is very vague. We know, however, that it was important. 
 At certain periods of the year regular fairs were held at 
 Toltan and Cholula ; the products of the regions washed by 
 both oceans were seen side by side with numerous objects 
 made by the Toltecs themselves. These objects were of 
 great variety, for though iron was unknown to them the 
 Toltecs worked in gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead. 4 Their 
 jewelry is celebrated, and the few valuable ornaments which 
 escaped the rapacity of the Conquistadores are still justly 
 admired. The Toltecs cut down trees with copper hatchets, 
 and sculptured bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics with stone im- 
 plements. For this purpose flint, porphyry, basalt, and 
 above all, obsidian, the istli of the Mexicans, were used. 
 Emeralds, 5 turquoises, amethysts, of which large deposits 
 were found in various places, were sought after for making 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. I., p. 24. 
 
 * " Casi todos sus males curan con yerbas." Gomara : " Hist, de Mexico," 
 Antwerp, 1554, fol. 117. 
 
 * " En las cuidades principales * * * habea hospitales dotadas de rentas 
 y vasallos, donde se resabian y curaban los enfermos pobres." Las Casas : 
 " Hist. Apol." MS. quoted by Bancroft, vol. II., p. 597. 
 
 4 Ixtlilxochitl : " Relaciones." Kingsborough, vol. IX., p. 332. 
 
 6 " Gli smeraldi erano tanto comuni, che non v' era signora che non ne 
 avesse." Clavigero : " St. Ant. del Messico," vol. II., pp. 206-7. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 1J7 
 
 jewelry for both men and women. At Cholula a famous 
 kind of pottery was made, including vases and the utensils 
 in daily use, censers, and idols for the temples of the gods 
 and common ornaments for the people. 
 
 The weapons of the Toltecs resembled those of the 
 Mayas. Like them, too, they wore garments padded with 
 cotton, forming regular armor impenetrable to arrows 
 and javelins. Their round shields called chimallis were 
 made of light and flexible bamboos, and those of their 
 chiefs were ornamented with plaques of gold, insignia of the 
 rank of their owners. 
 
 Cremation appears to have been practised very early. It 
 is said that the Nahuas burned the bodies of their chiefs, so 
 as to be able to carry their ashes about with them in their 
 migrations ; Ixtlilxochitl speaks of a Chichimec chief being 
 killed in war, whose body was burned on the field of battle. 1 
 The body of Topiltzin, the last ruler of the Toltec race, 
 was also burned. With the common people, however, 
 burial was the usual mode of disposing of the dead 3 ; such 
 was the purpose of the hundreds of tumuli still in existence 
 near Teotihuacan.' Amongst the Chichimecs, on the con- 
 trary, cremation was the general practice. 4 Human sacri- 
 fices * accompanied funeral ceremonies ; women were burned 
 alive upon the funeral pile of their husbands, and they ac- 
 cepted this cruel death with joy, for it opened to them the 
 first celestial sphere, where they could follow their husbands. 
 If they refused to submit to this sacrifice, their future 
 
 1 " Relaciones," loc. cit., pp. 325, 327, 332, 388. 
 
 1 " La gente menuda coraunmente se enterrana," Gomara, loc. fit., fol. 
 308. 
 * Sahagun : " Hist. Gen.," vol. III., book X., p. 141. Ixtlilxochitl, loc. cit., 
 
 P- 327. 
 
 4 Torquemada : " Monarquia Indiana," Madrid, 1723, vol. I., pp. 60, 
 72, 87. 
 
 8 The victims were generally prisoners of war. At royal funerals were also 
 offered up those who were born in the five complementary days of their 
 year, which were looked upon as of bad omen. Ixtlilxochitl, loc. cit., p. 379 
 and 388. Veytia : "Hist. Antigua de Mejico," Mexico, 1836, vol. III., pp. 
 8, etseq. 
 
278 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 life had to be passed in Mictlan, a gloomy and solitary 
 abode. 
 
 The Toltecs formed a grand confederation of tribes, under 
 the government of hereditary chiefs. By a somewhat strange 
 condition, of which we know no other example in the his- 
 tory of races, the rulers could only reign for a cycle of 
 years (Xuihmolpilli). This cycle was fixed at fifty-two 
 years, and when this time, which, it must be admitted, was 
 of considerable length, was accomplished, the chief handed 
 over to his successor the power and insignia of office. An- 
 other obligation, little in harmony with the customs of the 
 Nahuas, with whom concubinage was legal, was imposed 
 upon the chief : he could not have more than one wife, and 
 if she died before him, he was forbidden to re-marry, and he 
 could not even take a concubine. Second marriage was 
 also forbidden to the wives of rulers. 1 
 
 The traditions which have come down to us of the mag- 
 nificence of the Toltec rulers are interesting, and probably 
 much exaggerated. The palace of Quetzacoatl," according 
 to these legends, contained four principal rooms: the first 
 opened on the east and was called the Gilded Chamber ; its 
 walls were covered with finely chased plaques of gold ; an 
 Emerald and Turquoise Room was on the west, and as its 
 name implies, the walls were encrusted with these stones ; 
 the walls of the southern room were ornamented with shells 
 of brilliant colors, set in plaques of silver ; and lastly, the 
 northern room was of finely wrought red jasper. In another 
 palace, the walls of all the rooms were hidden by tapestries 
 of feathers ; in one the feathers were yellow ; in another, 
 blue taken from the wings of a bird called Xeuhtototl. In 
 the southern room the feathers were white, and in that on 
 the north they were red. 8 
 
 Side by side with the Toltecs, in the mountainous regions 
 of the north of Mexico, lived numerous savage tribes, in- 
 
 a Bancroft, vol. II., p. 265. 
 
 * We should have remarked that the termination //, so characteristic of the 
 Nahuatl language, is met with again in the Indian dialects of the Pacific coast. 
 "Sahagun, " Hist. Gen.," vol. III., book X., p. 107. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 279 
 
 eluded under the general name of Chichimecs, of which the 
 more important were the Fames, Otomes, Pintos, Micho- 
 caques, and Tarascos. These people, chiefly of the Nahuatl 
 race, and coming originally from the same district as the 
 Toltecs, were plunged in the most complete barbarism. 
 They despised all culture, and their only occupation was to 
 hunt game in the forests which covered a great part of their 
 territory, even to the summit of the loftiest mountains. No 
 flesh came amiss to them ; they ate wolves, pumas, weasels, 
 moles, and mice ; failing them, lizards, snakes, grasshoppers 
 and earth-worms. 1 
 
 Spanish historians report that in the sixteenth century the 
 Chichimecs wandered about completely naked, or wearing 
 only the skins of beasts, which they flung over their shoulders, 
 with the hair inside in the winter and outside in the summer. 
 Most of them lived in caves, or rock-shelters. Some of them, 
 however, knew how to shelter themselves, either by placing 
 a roof of palm-leaves upon posts sunk in the ground, or by 
 driving trunks of trees into the earth, which were then 
 bound together with creepers. Where wood was scarce, 
 they replaced it with clay, dried in the sun and cut into 
 adobes. Inside these huts hung a few reed mats, which with 
 gourds and very rude pottery made up all their household 
 goods. On this pottery, however, a certain artistic feeling 
 is already discernible, and black figures, executed with taste, 
 often stand out upon a red ground. 
 
 Constantly at war with their neighbors, they often under- 
 took raids, and could repulse with energy every attack upon 
 their own territory. Their weapons were bows and arrows, 
 slings, with which they flung little pottery balls, which 
 caused dangerous wounds, and above all, clubs, which were 
 formidable weapons in their hands.* 
 
 The warriors wore a bone at their waist, and on this bone, 
 in testimony of their courage, they made a mark for every 
 
 1 Jos. de Acosta, " Hist. Natural y moral de las Yndias." Seville, 1580. 
 * Ixtlilxochitl : " Hist. Chic.," /. c., p. 214. Gomara : I.e., p. 298. Torque- 
 mada : 1. c., p. 38. 
 
28O PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 enemy that they killed. The prisoners were treated with 
 unheard-of cruelty, and perished under the most horrible 
 torture. The conqueror often scalped them on the field of 
 battle, and the bleeding scalp became a glorious trophy. 
 The heads of the victims were carried in triumph round the 
 camps, in the midst of dances and rejoicings celebrating the 
 victory. The horror and terror with which the Toltecs re- 
 garded these people can be imagined. They called them 
 barbarians and drinkers of blood, on account of their taste 
 for the blood of their victims, and their habit of eating 
 strips of raw flesh. This reputation survived their defeat, 
 and after the Spanish conquest, Zarfate 1 speaks of them as 
 the greatest homicides, and the greatest thieves in the whole 
 world. The very name of Chichimec, which is said to be 
 derived from cJiichi Jog, was a grave insult. 
 
 Rude though they were, the Chichimecs had a religion. 
 They adored the sun as the supreme god," and they also 
 worshipped lightning, represented by the god Mixcoatl* (the 
 Serpent of Clouds), who, like the antique Jupiter, was fig- 
 ured with thunder-bolts in his hands. 
 
 Nearly all these independent tribes, always at war with 
 each other, obeyed chiefs selected by themselves. Some, 
 however, acknowledged no authority, and merely elected 
 a warrior to lead them to battle. Still some laws appear 
 to have been observed amongst these wild races : children 
 could not marry without the consent of their parents, and 
 the violation of this rule involved the death of those guilty of 
 it. Marriage was pronounced null if, the day after the wed- 
 ding, the husband declared his wife not to be a virgin. 
 Herrera, moreover, says that the Chichimecs could only have 
 one wife, though it is true that they repudiated her on the 
 
 1 Reproduced by Alegre, "Hist, de la Campania de Jesus en Nueva Espana." 
 Mexico, 1841, vol. I., p. 281. 
 
 'Alegre, /. c. , vol. I., p. 279. 
 
 'Also called Ixtac Mixcoatl, the white nebulous serpent ; recent re- 
 searches point to the conclusion that he was the same es Taras, the chief 
 god of the Tarascos ; or Comaxtli, the god of the Teochichimecs. Brinton, 
 " The Myths of the New World." New York. 1868. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 28 1 
 
 slightest pretext, to replace her by another. These wives 
 were practically slaves; on them fell all the work of the 
 house, the preparation of food, the weaving of cloth, the 
 making of mats and pottery, the felling of trees, and 
 the fetching of the wood and water needed by the whole 
 family. The cares of maternity made no break in their 
 arduous labor ; whilst they were engaged in them they 
 merely hung a basket upon a tree, in which they put their 
 children, whom they often suckled till they were six or 
 seven years old. 
 
 Such is the picture given to us by historians of the barba- 
 rians who were to conquer the Toltecs. What seems still 
 more difficult to believe, is that the conquerors at once 
 adopted the manners, customs, and social status of the con- 
 quered, and the Chichimec supremacy was nothing more 
 than a continuation of the Toltec. Must we then admit 
 that, toward the end of the eleventh century or the be- 
 ginning of the twelfth, after unknown revolutions and 
 struggles, these savage tribes obtained the supremacy, and in 
 their turn dominated Central America? Is it not more 
 natural to conclude that there is some confusion in the ac- 
 count of the Spanish chroniclers, the sole sources of our in- 
 formation ? This confusion may be thus explained. The 
 name of Chichimec was given alike to the barbarous tribes 
 of the north and to the chiefs of Tezcuco. It might then 
 have been these latter, allied perhaps with a few wilder 
 tribes, who were the true conquerors of the Toltecs. 
 
 The culture of the Tezcuans was no less advanced than 
 that of the nation they were destined to reduce to sub- 
 mission. The chiefs of Tezcuco are reported to have been 
 as magnificent as those of the Toltecs. Ixtlilxochitl ' gives 
 an undoubtedly exaggerated account of the palaces, gar- 
 dens, and lakes, made at great cost, and of the manage- 
 ment of the forests preserved for hunting, which may be 
 ascribed to a natural desire to magnify the importance 
 of his race in a manner which would compel the admir- 
 
 1 "Hist. Chichimeca." Kingsborough, "Ant. of Mex.," vol. IX., p. 251. 
 
282 PRE-tilSTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 ation of its conquerors, accustomed as the latter were 
 to kings and courts belonging to a totally distinct stage 
 of culture. He has pretended to enumerate the names 
 of towns which had to supply the service of the ruling 
 chief. Twenty-eight amongst them had to furnish men 
 to take care of the palace; five others, the servants immedi- 
 ately attached to the person of the chief ; whilst eight 
 provinces sent gardeners, foresters and laborers. Tezcuco 
 was built on the eastern bank of the Lake of Mexico ; the 
 waters are dried up, and the modern town is several miles 
 off. But few traces remain of its alleged grandeur. Mayer 
 speaks of substructures of adobes, covering squares of 400 
 feet. They are supposed to be the foundations of ancient 
 pyramids ; bits of pottery', numerous idols, chips of obsidian, 
 and other rubbish, have been picked up all about them. 
 The power of the Chichimec chief who invaded the 
 country of the Toltecs is still further illustrated, if we attach 
 importance to such evidence as we have cited, by the num- 
 ber of those who followed him in this expedition. Accord- 
 ing to the historian quoted above (pp. 337^375), Xolotl had 
 under his orders 3,202,000 men and women, and he is care- 
 ful to add that he does not include amongst them the chil- 
 dren who accompanied their mothers. .The absurdity of this 
 is obvious. Torquemada, 1 though he confesses that this 
 account may appear exaggerated, relates that the historic 
 paintings which are relied on to atttest these facts, are sup- 
 posed to enumerate a million warriors, under the order of 
 six grand chiefs and twenty thousand or even twenty-two 
 thousand chiefs of inferior rank. Nothing can be more ob- 
 scure than the date of this invasion. Veytia (" Hist. Ant. 
 Mej.," vol. II., p. 7) fixes the Chichimec victory in 1117; 
 Ixtlilxochitl seems to confuse the facts, or at least he assigns 
 to them several different dates, varying from 962 to 1015 
 (" Ant. of Mex.," vol. IX., pp. 208, 337, 395,451). Clavigero 
 speaks of 1170. Other historians will have it that the fall 
 of the Toltec league preceded the Chichimec invasion. 
 
 1 " Monarquia Indiana," vol. I., p. 44. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 283 
 
 They differ as much about the facts as about the dates. In 
 truth the evidence throughout is more legendary than his- 
 torical. 
 
 The Toltecs, enervated by luxury, pleasure, and the most 
 shameful debauchery, decimated by pestilental maladies, 
 abandoned by the allies they had oppressed and by their 
 own subjects, who in consequence of a religious schism had 
 emigrated in great numbers to more favored regions, yet 
 gave proof, in this supreme danger, of manly energy. Their 
 chief Acxtitl called all his subjects to arms ; the old men 
 and children took weapons in hand ; Xochitl, mother of 
 the chief, is said to have been killed fighting valiantly at 
 the head of a legion of Amazons. But these efforts came 
 too late ; the Toltecs were completely defeated and nearly 
 exterminated, after repeated conflicts lasting several days. 1 
 Tolan their capital was taken ; the country submitted ; and 
 Xolotl took the title of Chichimecatl TecuJitli, the great chief 
 of the Chichimecs. His descendants added to this pompous 
 title that of Huactlatohani, lord of the world. 
 
 To confirm his power, he divided the country into several 
 provinces, which he gave in fief to his principal officers on 
 condition of their subordination to him ; and by a skilful 
 policy he planned that his eldest son Nopaltzin should 
 marry a daughter of the Toltec ruling family. 9 
 
 It is not our intention to narrate the supposed history of 
 the Chichimecs. We may mention among the Chichimec 
 chiefs who succeeded Xolotl, his son Nopaltzin, Tlotzin, 
 Pochotl, who ruled from 1305 to 1359, Ixtlilxochitl, who 
 died about 1419, Tezozomoc, who usurped the power of the 
 son of Ixtlilxochitl, and reigned eight years, and lastly 
 Maxtla, who possessed himself of the chieftainship by the 
 murder of his eldest brother.* Their history is the relation 
 of a succession of revolts, bloody wars, conspiracies, and 
 
 1 We follow the account given by Ixtlilxochitl ; that of Veytia, " Hist. Ant. 
 Mej," vol. I., p. 302-3) presents notable differences ; so does that of Brasseur 
 de Bourbourg (" Hist. des. Nat. Civ.," vol. I., p. 405, etc.). 
 
 1 Brasseur de Bourbourg, quoted above, vol. I., p. 236. 
 
 1 See Bancroft, /. c., vol. V., chs. V., VI., and VII. 
 
284 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 revolutions, which was to end in 1431 in the triple alliance of 
 the Aztecs, Acolhuas, and Tepanecs, and then in the ephem- 
 eral triumph of the Aztecs as conquerors of all their rivals. 
 The Tepanecs and the Acolhuas had been the faithful al- 
 lies of Xolotl in his struggles with the Toltecs, and their 
 chiefs took a subordinate place in the new league. They 
 had long been established in Anahuac when the Aztecs 
 arrived there. Both had probably formed part of some of 
 the numerous immigrations which succeeded each other in 
 Central America. 1 All these men came from a country to 
 which the unanimous accounts of the chroniclers give the 
 name of Aztlan. Where was this land, this officina gentium, 
 which throughout more than five centuries sent southward 
 whole nations, all speaking the same language ; practising 
 the same rights; accepting the same cosmogony; all under 
 the rule of sacerdotal orders strictly supervised by priests ; 
 with the same divisions of time, the same hieroglyphical 
 paintings, the same taste for noting and registering events ; 
 and who understood each other without difficulty, recogniz- 
 ing their common origin ? There are few points more ob- 
 scure and more hotly contested than the situation of Aztlan. 
 It has been sought in turn in California, Mississippi, New 
 Mexico, Florida, Zacatecas, and in yet other regions. All 
 these hypotheses have been brought forward, and there is 
 something to be said for them all. The importance of the 
 question is assuredly considerable, for, if there be a connec- 
 tion between the Nahuas and the Northern Indians, it is to 
 Aztlan that we must look for it.* 
 
 1 Bancroft, loc. fit. vol. V., p. 305. F. von Hellwald : " The American 
 Migrations," Smith. Con tr., 1866. 
 
 *Brasseur de Bourbourg ("Hist, des Nat. Civilisees," vol. II., p. 292) 
 places Aztlan in California ; Humboldt ("Researches concerning the institu- 
 tions and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of America," translated by 
 Helen Maria Williams, 1814), about 42 north latitude. Foster: "Preh. 
 Races," p. 340. Vetancurt ("Teatro Mexicano," part II., p. 20) speaks of 
 New Mexico. Fontaine (" How the World was Peopled, "p. 149) looks upon 
 the earthworks of Mississippi as witnesses to Aztec migrations. Pritchard 
 ("Nat. Hist, of Man," vol. II., pp. 514-5) sees in the Moquis the last de- 
 scendants of the Atzecs, Bandelier says, in speaking of Chicomoztoc (the 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 285 
 
 The Aztecs had left Aztlan at the same time as the people 
 who had preceded them in Anahuac ; but according to 
 tradition they halted for a long time at Chicomoztoc. 1 It 
 was not therefore until much later, between 1186 and 1194,' 
 if we adopt the date given by the Codex Chimalpopoca, 
 that they established themselves at Chapultepec. Their 
 early settlement was full of difficulties ; overcome by their 
 neighbors, with whom they were perpetually at war, they 
 were forced to leave the country where they had established 
 themselves, and compelled to take refuge in the midst of al- 
 most inaccessible marshes, dotted here and there by a few 
 wretched islets of sand. It was on one of these islets that 
 they founded Tenochtitlan, or Mexico. 3 Hunting and fish- 
 ing could not long supply the needs of a population wh'ich 
 rapidly increased. By dint of hard work the Aztecs 
 managed to make gardens in the water in which grew maize 
 and other plants. 4 Then, the water of the lake being 
 
 seven caves) : " These caves are in Aztlan, a country which we all know to be 
 toward the north and connected with Florida." " Report, Peabody Museum," 
 vol. II., p. 95, etc.). Clavigero (" St. Ant. del Messico," vol. I., p. 156) 
 mentions the Colorado as the stream that all accounts say was crossed by the 
 emigrants ; whilst Boturini (" Idea de una nueva hist, general de la America 
 Septentrional" pp. 126-8) has it that the Gulf of California is referred to. 
 Lastly Bancroft (quoted above, vol. V., p. 322), who believes Aztlan to have 
 been in the south near Anahuac, concludes thus : " We have no means of de- 
 termining, in a manner at all satisfactory, whether Aztlan and Chicomoztoc 
 were in Central America or in Zacalecas and Jalisco ; nor indeed of proving 
 that they were not in Alaska, in New Mexico, or on the Mississippi," a remark 
 with which we heartily concur. 
 
 1 Bancroft gives the whole of the march of the Aztecs. Chicomoztoc is sup- 
 posed to be the seven caves celebrated in all legends. Generally, Chicomoztoc 
 is placed in the same place as Aztlan. 
 
 a ln 1140 or in 1189, according to two different dates given by Ixtlilxochitl ; 
 in 1245, according to Clavigero ; in 1298, according to Veytia, Gama, and Gal- 
 latin ; in 1331, according to Gondra. The margin as we see is wide. The 
 Codex Chimalpopoca is dated May 22, 1538. Bancroft may be consulted (/. c., 
 vol. V., p. 192), who gives interesting details bearing upon the question. 
 
 'This settlement took place about 1325. Duran cited by Bancroft (/. c., vol. 
 I., chap. IV-VI. ; Veytia : " Hist. Ant. de Mejico," vol. II., p. 156 ; Torque- 
 mada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. I., p. 92, 288, et seq. ; Ixtlilxochitl : /. c., vol. IX., 
 p, 461 ; F. de Alvaredo Tezozomoc, "Chron. Mexicana," Kingsborough, vol. IX. 
 
 4 Bandelier : " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 403. These gardens 
 
286 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 brackish, they obtained, by paying an annual tribute, the 
 right of fetching from the shore the fresh water which was 
 needed in their homes. 
 
 Such was the humble beginning of the Aztecs ; but their 
 subsequent history is even more confused than that of the 
 people of whom we have been speaking. One of the causes 
 of this confusion was the constant rivalry between the 
 two regions of Tenochtitlan and Tezcuco, and the want of 
 care taken by the first Spanish chroniclers in distinguishing 
 between the facts relating to each of the two countries. 
 
 It seems that as we approach the end of this bloody era 
 tradition itself is effaced. As under the Chichimec domina- 
 tion we find whole series of wars and revolts, of struggles 
 and submissions. Brasseur de Bourbourg (/. c., vol. III., p. 
 194, et seq.^) gives a full account of them. Unfortunately 
 he is inexact on a multitude of points. The chief wars car- 
 ried on by the Aztecs were against the kingdom of Micho- 
 acan, inhabited by the Tarascos, a branch of the Toltecs, on 
 the west ; and against the Miztecs and Zapotecs on the 
 south. In the midst of this tumult the power of the Aztecs 
 was ever on the increase. Their alliance with the Acolhuas and 
 the Tepanecs, against Maxtla, the last Chichimec chief, end- 
 ing with his defeat, inaugurated a new era in their history. 
 After the victory a confederation was formed between the 
 conquerors. Nezahualcoyotl, son of Ixtlilxochitl, from 
 whom Tezozomoc had usurped the chieftainship, in his turn 
 took the title of Chichimecatl Tecuhtli. Tezcuco was his 
 capital ; that of the Tepanecs was Tlacolpan ; and that of the 
 Aztecs, as we have seen, Tenochtitlan. 
 
 From this moment the Aztecs progressed rapidly ; from 
 the marshes where they had found a refuge after their first 
 disasters, their power spread to the shores of the two oceans. 
 Their conquests were won by their victorious arms alone; no 
 town voluntarily accepted their yoke ; no nation sought their 
 alliances. The people, were harshly oppressed by their 
 
 have been termed " floating" but they were probably merely soft and swampy 
 islets. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 28? 
 
 foreign conquerors and loaded with odious taxes. Tribute 
 was paid in kind, and consisted of cereals, cotton garments, 
 pipes, rushes, aromatic spices, and various other articles. 
 Some towns of the Pacific were compelled to send annually 
 4,000 bunches of feathers, 200 sacks of cacao, forty wild-cat 
 skins, and 160 birds of a rare species. The Zapotecs were 
 mulcted to the extent of forty sheets of gold, of a fixed 
 weight, and twenty sacks of cochineal. Certain nomad tribes 
 had to contribute jars filled with gold dust. The towns of 
 the Gulf of Mexico sent 20,000 bunches of feathers, six 
 emerald necklaces, twenty rings of amber or gold, and 16,000 
 packages of gum. All had to contribute to the tribute, and 
 those who were too wretched to do so were obliged to 
 furnish a certain number of serpents or scorpions. It is 
 alleged that Alonso de Ojeda and Alonso de Mata, men- 
 tioned among the companions of Cortes, as the first to enter 
 the so-called royal palace of Mexico, noticed some carefully 
 piled up sacks. They hastened to take possession of them, 
 hoping for a rich booty. These bags were filled with lice, 
 and were part of the tribute of a province. Torquemada 
 (loc. cit., vol. i., p. 461), who is responsible for this extra- 
 ordinary statement, adds : " Ai quien diga, que non eran 
 Piojos sino Gusanillos ; pero Alonso de Ojeda en sus memori- 
 ales lo certifica de vista, y lo mismo Alonso de Mata." 
 The conquered people, pillaged and oppressed by Mexican 
 traders, who were very expert in this kind of traffic, were 
 constantly in revolt. Every fresh rising was quenched in 
 blood, and thousands of human victims perished on the altars 
 of Mexico in honor of the victories. In reading these de- 
 tails, we understand the hatred of the vanquished, and the 
 devotion manifested by the allies of Cortes.* 
 
 Mexico, the first houses of which had been a few miserable 
 reed or earth huts, grew with the power of its inhabitants, 
 and soon became a town worthy of the dominion of which 
 
 'Tezozomoc may also be consulted. " Cron. Mex.," Kingsborough, vol. IX. 
 Clavigero: " St. Ant. del Messico," vol. I. p. 275. Bancroft, /. c. vol. II. p. 
 233 and 234. 
 
 'Bancroft, /. f., vol. V., p. 481. 
 
288 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 it was the capital. 1 On every side rose the buildings of the 
 rulers, and temples of the native or foreign gods"; for as in 
 ancient Rome, the divinities of the conquered people be- 
 came those of the conquerors. Nor were more useful works 
 wanting. Viaducts, supplemented by large bridges con- 
 structed on scientific principles, were erected by the tribu- 
 tary or allied tribes, rendering communication easy.* A 
 dyke seven or eight miles long, and, according to different 
 accounts, thirty to sixty feet wide, was intended to protect 
 the city of Mexico against inundations. 4 The inhabitants 
 were supplied with water by means of aqueducts, and as 
 early as 1446, this water was conducted from Chapultepec 
 to the capital through earthenware pipes. 
 
 The prosperity of Tezcuco was not inferior to that of 
 Mexico, and the figures of two of its rulers stand out to re- 
 lieve the monotony of the history of Anahuac. Thanks to 
 the wise administration of Nezahualcoyotl, Tezcuco had be- 
 come the centre of the art and culture of that people. 6 The 
 chief himself was a distinguished poet. Ixtlilxochitl, his 
 descendant in the direct line, has preserved some of his 
 poems, 8 which were still famous at the time of the conquest. 
 
 1 The Mexican chiefs previous to the Spanish conquest were Itzcoatl who died, 
 1440 ; Montezuma I. to 1469 ; Axayacatl to 1481 ; Tizoc to 1486 ; Ahuizotl 
 to 1503 ; Montezuma II. to 1520. 
 
 a Torquemada alleges that there were more than forty thousand temples or 
 teocallis in Mexico. 
 
 * " Hay sus puentes de muy anchas, y muy grandes vigas juntas y recias y 
 bien labradas, y tales que por inuchas dellas pueden passar diez de caballo 
 juntos a la par." Cortes : " Cartas," p. 203. 
 
 4 Veytia, vol. III., p. 247. Torquemada, vol. I., p. 157. Clavigero, vol. I., 
 p. 233. Brasseur de Bourbourg, vol III., p. 228. 
 
 6 Sagahun describes the education given to the sons and daughters of the 
 chief. He mentions a discourse addressed by Nezahualcoyotl to his children, 
 remarkable for the elevated sentiments displayed in it. 
 
 8 Four odes are given in Lord Kingsborough's collection (vol. VIII., pp. 110- 
 115). One is an imprecation against Tezozomoc, who had usurped the throne 
 of Nezahualcoyotl's ancestors ; another is the ode on the vicissitudes of life, 
 from which the above quotation is taken ; the third, recited at a banquet, is a 
 comparison between the chiefs of Anahuac and precious stones. Lastly, the 
 fourth, celebrates the dedication of a royal palace, and enlarges upon the per- 
 ishable nature of earthly grandeur. Bancroft, (vol. II,, p. 494) gives an Eng- 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTKAL AMERICA. 289 
 
 We will only quote one strophe, from an ode on the vicissi- 
 tudes of life, in which the chief, speaking of himself, writes: 
 " No, thou shalt not be forgotten ; no, the good which thou 
 hast done shall not be lost unto men ; for is not the throne 
 which thou occupiest the gift of the matchless God, the pow- 
 erful creator of all things, who makes and who brings down 
 chiefs and rulers ? " We may add that the succeeding strophes 
 express similar sentiments, which it seems strange to find in 
 a man in the state of culture of the Mexicans ; they breathe 
 disdain of that pomp of which the chief had learned to feel the 
 vanity; if they are genuine, they would justify to a certain 
 degree the assertion of the Spanish historian, who tells us 
 that Nezahualcoyotl worshipped one invisible god, the ap- 
 pearance of whom it was impossible for mortal to conceive. 
 
 Nezahualcoyotl died about 1472 ; he left only one legiti- 
 mate son, but more than a hundred children by his concu- 
 bines ; that son Nezahuapilli succeeded him ; he proved 
 himself, like his father, skilful in war, just, always severe, 
 often inexorable, merciful toward the weak, generous toward 
 his subjects. Like his father, he was addicted to pleasure, 
 and he is said to have had in his palace more than two thou- 
 sand concubines. He had also several legitimate wives. 
 The daughter of Axacayatl, of whom we shall speak, was 
 among the number, as were three nieces of Tizoc. 
 
 Among his wives was a daughter of Axacayatl, ruler of 
 Mexico ; she was very young, and a private palace had been 
 assigned to her until the time when the marriage should be 
 consummated. She was noted for her beauty, and the king 
 paid her frequent visits ; each time he noticed, in a room 
 where he was, a great number of statues covered with rich 
 robes ; but, not wishing to thwart his wife in her tastes, he 
 made no remark upon them. One day he saw the queen's 
 ring on the finger of one of his principal courtiers. His sus- 
 picions were awakened, and the same evening he paid a visit 
 
 lish translation of two of these odes. F. W. v. MUller (" Keisen in den Ver- 
 einigten Staten, Canada, und Mexico," Leipzig, 1864, vol. III., pp. 128-141) re- 
 publishes two other odes previously unknown. 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 to the palace of Chalchiuhuenetzin. The queen, according 
 to the asseverations of her attendants, was asleep. Neza- 
 huapilli went into her room ; a lay figure, dressed in the 
 queen's clothes, occupied her place in the royal bed. The 
 king, whose suspicions were justly confirmed, pursued his 
 researches, and in a secret part of the palace he saw his 
 young wife, completely naked, dancing with three of his 
 principal officers. The statues were those of her lovers, 
 and by a strange whim she had had them represented in 
 the costume which they had worn the first time they had 
 enjoyed her favors. The punishment was terrible ; not- 
 withstanding the respect due to her rank, she was strangled ; 
 and with her perished her lovers, the women in her ser- 
 vice, and more than two thousand persons convicted of 
 complicity, or of even the slightest knowledge of her 
 licentiousness.' 
 
 This is not the only example of severity which legend 
 narrates of Nezahualpilli. His eldest son had shown re- 
 markable talents as a general. He was the favorite of the 
 chief, who conferred upon him the title of Tlatecatl, the 
 greatest honor which a Tezcuan could receive. One day he 
 was accused of having spoken too freely to one of his father's 
 concubines. The chief examined the guilty persons, and the 
 fact being proved, he did not hesitate to put into practice a 
 law which he had made ; he condemned his son to death, 
 and caused him to be executed in spite of the supplications 
 of his courtiers." Another of his sons had begun the build- 
 ing of a palace, without having obtained authority for so 
 doing, or having distinguished himself in war by any of 
 those actions which alone gave the right to possess a sep- 
 arate palace ; the chief caused him also to be executed. 
 Some years afterward, Tezozomoc, father-in-law of Monte- 
 zuma, was accused of adultery ; the judges, out of regard for 
 his rank, had only condemned him to banishment. Neza- 
 
 1 Torquemada, vol. I., p. 184. Ixtlilxochitl : "Hist. Chichemec," loe. cit., 
 pp. 265, 267, 271. 
 
 * Torquemada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. I., p. 165. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 29 1 
 
 hualpilli ordered him to be strangled, thereby greatly irritat- 
 ing the chiefs who were his allies. 
 
 The last years of the life of the ruler of Tezcuco were sad. 
 A prophecy, in which the Tezcuans placed great confidence, 
 gave out that the god Quetzacoatl was to return to the 
 earth, in the same form as at his first appearance. The date, 
 fixed by this prophecy, arrived, and coincided with the dis- 
 embarkation of the Spaniards. The superstitious mind of 
 the chief was singularly impressed by this fact. From that 
 time he shut himself up in his house, occupied himself no 
 more with public affairs, and even refused to receive those 
 to whom he had entrusted the management of affairs. His 
 death, now supposed to have been in 1515, was long un- 
 known, and a legend which grew up round his name has 
 been perpetuated to the present day ; the Tezcuans im- 
 agined that death could not touch him, and that he had re- 
 tired to Amaquemecan, the land of his ancestors. 1 
 
 The death of Nezahualpilla, and the quarrels which arose 
 between his sons, promoted the ambitious schemes of 
 Montezuma. He was for a short time undisputed master of 
 Anahuac, but fortune soon abandoned him ; he knew neither 
 how to fight the Spanish, to treat with them, or to ensure 
 the devotion of his own people. The empire of the Aztecs 
 was doomed, and Anahuac, like the whole of the New 
 World, was to belong to other races, for whom by unfathom- 
 able decrees the future of America was reserved. 
 
 So far as we can judge at the present day, religious ideas 
 were met with amongst all the American races, but with the 
 most striking contrasts. Some tribes had not got beyond 
 fetichism, the most degraded and primitive form of wor- 
 ship. Idolatry, which prevailed amongst the nations of 
 Central America, was a higher form ; the savage adored the 
 waves of the sea, the trees of the forest, the waters of the 
 spring, the stars of the firmament, the stones beneath his 
 
 1 Torquemada, vol. I., p. 216. Ixtlilxochitl : " Hist. Chic.," pp. 282, 388, 
 410. Tezozomoc, Kingsborough, vol. IX., p. 178, Fray Diego Duran places 
 his death in 1509, " Hist, de las Indias de la Nueva Espana," written between 
 1567 and 1581, and published at Mexico by D. Ramirez in 1867. 
 
292 
 
 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 feet ; he invested with supernatural power the first object to 
 strike his eyes or impress his imagination. The idolater is 
 superior to the fetich worshipper ; he adores the god of the 
 sun, of the sea, of the forest, of the spring ; he often clothes 
 this god, before whom he trembles, with a human form (figs. 
 114, 115, 116), and attributes to him the passions of his own 
 heart. Monotheism, from a purely philosophical point of 
 view, is a great advance. It has been said that the Aztecs 
 adored an invisible god, Teotl, the supreme master, but this 
 
 FIG. 116. Idol in terra-cotta. 
 
 fact is disputed, and every thing goes to prove on the contrary 
 that polytheism existed amongst them, and a very inferior 
 polytheism, too, to that, for instance, which history records 
 among the Egyptians or the Greeks. 1 The number of sec- 
 ondary divinities was very considerable ; every tribe, every 
 family, every profession had its patrons, and thought to do 
 honor to its gods by severe fasts, prolonged chastity, baths- 
 purifications, and often also cruel mortifications. 
 
 1 " Their mythology, as far as we know it, presents a great number of uncon- 
 nected gods, without apparent system or unity of design." Gallatin, "Am. 
 Ant. Soc. Trans.," vol. I., p. 352. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 293 
 
 Before celebrating the feast of the god Camaxtli, for 
 instance, the priests were bound to rigorously abstain from 
 indulgence for a period of a hundred and sixty days ; and 
 during that time they pierced their tongues with little 
 pointed sticks having about the diameter of a quill. 
 
 Among all the tribes of the Nahuatl race religious holi- 
 days were frequent, each of them being accompanied by hu- 
 man sacrifices. On such occasions, in accordance with a 
 strictly observed rite, infants at the breast were offered to 
 the god of rain ; these infants were sacrificed on high moun- 
 tains, or thrown into the lake which washes the city of 
 
 FIG. 117. Obsidian knife used by the sacrificing priests (Trocadero Museum). 
 
 Mexico. In the following month sacrifices no less bloody 
 were required by the god of the goldsmiths. Hundreds of 
 miserable captives were successively led to the chief priest ; 
 the breast was cut open with an obsidian knife (figs. 117, 1 18) ; 
 the heart was torn out and offered, still palpitating, to the 
 idol. At other festivals, if they can be so called, the skin of 
 the unfortunate sufferer was stripped off ; gladiators clothed 
 themselves in it for mock combats ; or in an outbreak of zeal 
 priests prided themselves in wearing the spoils (figs. 119 
 and 120) until the skins fell into rags. " They smelt like 
 dead dogs," adds Sahagun, from whom we take this 
 detail. 
 
294 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The hideous trophy was then hung up in the temple 
 of Yapico, or, if it had belonged to a prisoner taken in war, 
 returned to the offerer of the victim. The rejoicings in 
 honor of Mixcoatl, the god ' of hunting and thunder, were 
 inaugurated by battues, in which animals such as deer, 
 coyotes, hares, rabbits fell beneath the arrows of the 
 devotees. Then came the inevitable human sacrifices ; a 
 
 FIG. 118. -Sacrificial collar (Trocadero Museum). 
 
 great fire was lighted, into which the men threw pipes or 
 vases (fig. 121), the women distaffs, in the hope that the god 
 would repay their offerings with interest in the life awaiting 
 them beyond the grave. a 
 
 1 Perhaps we should say the goddess ; this point has been very much 
 disputed. 
 
 * Bancroft (vol. II., chap. IX., and vol. III., pp. 355-412) gives a very exact 
 account of these celebrations, to which we refer those who wish to know more 
 about them. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 295 
 
 On the day consecrated to Xuihtecutli, the god of fire, the 
 captives were carried in triumph, on the shoulders of the 
 priests, to the platform from which the teocalli rose, and 
 then flung into a red-hot furnace. From every side crowds 
 gathered to gloat over the agony of the unfortunate wretches ; 
 and dances, rejoicings, and feasts in which human flesh was 
 the chief dainty, ended the day. The most delicate morsels 
 were reserved for the priests. Part of the body was given 
 
 FIG. 1 19. Mexican carving representing an Aztec priest clothed in a human 
 
 skin. 
 
 back to the person furnishing the victim. Sahagun tells us 
 that this meat was cooked with hominy. The dish was 
 called Tlacatlaotli, and the master of the slave sacrificed was 
 not allowed to eat it, for the slave was looked upon as one 
 of the family. 
 
 At Tlascala, one month of the year was dedicated to sen- 
 sual pleasures. It was inaugurated by the sacrifice of nu- 
 merous virgins. At other times, a young man and a young 
 girl, chosen on account of their beauty, were maintained for 
 
296 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 a whole year in royal luxury, and then led to the sacrifice as 
 victims acceptable to the gods. 
 
 Such were the religious rites which were observed every 
 year. There were also extraordinary rites, on the occasion 
 of victory, the accession of a ruler, or the dedication of a 
 temple. The last event was frequent in Mexico, and also 
 
 FlG. 120. Vase used in sacrifices, the head representing that of a priest cov- 
 ered with human skin. From the Trocadero Museum. 
 
 the occasion for a sacrifice of hecatombs of victims. If the 
 Aztecs were visited by a defeat, a pestilential malady, a fam- 
 ine, or an earthquake, the people eagerly offered fresh sacri- 
 fices to appease the anger of the gods. The dedication by 
 Ahuizotl of the great temple of Huitzilopochtli, 1 in 1487, 
 
 Bancroft's text is as follows: "Native Races," vol. III., p. 288,289. 
 " Huitzilopochtli, Huitziloputzli, or Vitziliputzili, was the god of war, and the 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 297 
 
 is alleged to have been celebrated by the butchery of 72,344 
 victims ; l the priests were wearied with striking, and had to 
 be successively replaced ; but the people did not tire of the 
 frightful butchery ; they responded by exclamations of joy 
 to the groans of the dying. 3 Under Montezuma II., twelve 
 thousand captives are said to have perished at the inaugura- 
 tion of a mysterious stone, brought to Mexico at great ex- 
 pense, and destined to form the sacrificial altar, 8 but fortu- 
 
 especially national god of the Mexicans. Some said that he was a purely 
 spiritual being, others that a woman had borne him after miraculous conception. 
 This legend, following Clavigero, ran as follows : In the ancient city of Tula 
 lived a most devout woman, Coatlicne by name. Walking one day in the tem- 
 ple, as her custom was, she saw a little ball of feathers floating down from 
 heaven, which, taking without thought, she put into her bosom. The walk 
 being ended, however, she could not find the ball, and wondered much, all the 
 more that soon after this she found herself pregnant. She had already many 
 children, who now, to avert this dishonor of their house, conspired to kill her ; 
 at which she was sorely troubled. But, from the midst of her womb the god 
 spoke : ' Fear not, O my mother, for this danger will I turn to our great honor 
 and glory.' And lo, Huitzilopochtli, perfect as Pallas Athena, was instantly 
 born, springing up with a mighty war shout, grasping the shield and the glitter- 
 ing spear. His left leg and his head were adorned with plumes of green ; his 
 face, arms, and thighs barred terribly with lines of blue. He fell upon the un- 
 natural children, slew them all, and endowed his mother with their spoils. And 
 from that day forth his names were Tezahuitl, Terror, and Tetzauhteotl, Ter- 
 rible God." 
 
 1 Recent researches justify us in believing that the number of the victims 
 has been greatly exaggerated by the Spanish historians. Admitting this exagger- 
 ation, which seems to us necessary, it is probable that only in the interior of 
 Africa could such wholesale slaughter as really occurred in Mexico be paralleled. 
 
 1 Torquemada, vol. I., p. 186. Vetancurt : " Teatro Mex.," vol. II., p. 37. 
 
 ' Sacrificial altars may be classed under three different types : (i) the 
 Tehcatl, generally of obsidian or serpentine, and of convex form, so that the 
 breast of the victim is placed in such a position as to facilitate the task of the 
 sacrificing priest. "The height of the altar," says Duran ("Hist, de las 
 Yndias de Nueva Espafla "), reached to a man's waist, and its length might be 
 eight feet. (2) the Temalacatl, a stone of cylindrical form, to which was bound 
 the poor wretch, who had to show his courage by defending himself from his 
 assailants with the help of nothing but a shield. As soon as an arrow struck 
 him, he was taken to the Tehcatl and his heart at once plucked out by the sacri- 
 ficing priest. (3) the Cuauhxicalli, a concave stone with a basin in the centre, 
 in which the blood was collected. It is to this last type that belongs the cele- 
 brated stone discovered in Mexico in 1791. " Ann. del Museo Nacional," 
 Mexico, 1877 and 1878. 
 
298 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 nately the end of these sacrifices was approaching; in 1518, 
 when Juan de Grijalvawas disembarking on the coast, where 
 Vera Cruz now stands, numerous prisoners were being immo- 
 lated in honor of the dedication of the Temple of Coatlan. 1 
 This was the last of these horrible scenes ; the Spanish con- 
 querors at once abolished them. 
 
 In addition to the extraordinary sacrifices which we have 
 described, the alleged number of victims who perished at 
 the annual saturnalia passes all belief. Zumarraga, the first 
 bishop of Mexico, in a letter dated June 12, 1531, estimates 
 
 it at no less than twenty thou- 
 sand ; and Gomara a brings it 
 up even to fifty thousand. These 
 numbers, which are contradict- 
 ed by Las Casas, in his cele- 
 brated treatise, 3 are without 
 doubt most grossly exaggerat- 
 ed ; but certain facts remain un- 
 deniable, which show that the 
 Aztecs had remained sanguinary 
 and barbarous in spite of their 
 apparent culture. 
 FIG. 121. Vase found in the island The hope or expectation of 
 
 of Los Sacrificios. IT u j 1- u ^ 
 
 a life beyond the tomb exists 
 
 amongst all human races. Man, however degraded he is 
 supposed to be, shrinks from the thought of complete anni- 
 hilation, and aspires to a happier life than that he is leading. 
 Before the" introduction of Christianity, the conception of 
 this life was one of purely material happiness, which varied 
 according to the degr&e of culture. The Greeks dreamt of 
 purer joys in Elysium than the sensual Mussulman in the 
 arms of his houris, or the Scandinavian Viking in the midst 
 of perpetual feasts. With the savage the idea of a future 
 life is weak; his notions of the past and of the future are so 
 
 1 Torquemada, /. c., vol. I., p. 186. Vetancurt, /. c., vol. II., p. 46. Veytia: 
 "Hist. Ant. de Mejico," vol. III., p. 476. 
 1 " Hist. Gen. de las Indias." Anvers, 1554. 
 111 Hist. Apol. de las Indias Occidentales," Kingsborough, vol. VIII, 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 299 
 
 confused and vague that it is difficult to make out his real 
 impressions. 
 
 Of one thing we may feel certain, that in America, as 
 among the nations of the Old World, these notions varied in 
 different tribes. Some of those of the Pacific included the 
 idea of retribution in the future life ; others believed that 
 man was born anew from his ashes, to pass again through 
 the same phases which he had already traversed, but the 
 remembrance of which was forever effaced from his mind. 
 In many places we meet with the idea of transmigration. 
 The Tlascallas of the Nahuatl race were convinced that the 
 social hierarchy would be perpetuated beyond the tomb, the 
 common people being transformed into insects, the chiefs 
 into birds. The ideas of the Aztecs were loftier ; they ad- 
 mitted a series of gradations in the happiness reserved for 
 men. Warriors slain in battle were immediately to inhabit 
 the house of the sun ; more obscure folk would have less 
 brilliant homes in the various stars peopling the firmament. 
 It seems, however, that this was but a transitional state, a 
 limbo where the dead waited before arriving at their final 
 destination. It lasted four years, and throughout that time 
 the parents and friends were bound to offer meat, wines, 
 flowers, and perfumes to the dead, and to do honor to his 
 memory by feasts and dances. 1 These rites were observed 
 in the two months of Tlaxochimalco and Xocotlhuezin. The 
 first was sacred to children, the second to chiefs and warriors 
 killed in battle. 
 
 The same ideas are met with in all tribes of Nahuatl 
 origin, and are naturally reflected in the ceremonies observed 
 in obsequies. Amongst the Aztecs, when a chief died, the 
 body was covered with mantles richly embroidered and 
 decked with precious stones. While one of the attendants 
 was dressing the body others were cutting up bits of paper, 
 taking care to give to each one a particular form, and pla- 
 cing them on the body. A priest poured water upon the 
 head of the deceased, repeating the words sacred to the 
 
 'Bancroft, /. c., vol. II., page 618. 
 
300 P%E-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 funeral rite ' ; after which he presented the corpse with 
 various papers. " With this," he said to him, "thou wilt be 
 admitted to cross the defile between the two mountains; 
 with this other, thou wilt avoid the great serpent ; with this 
 third, thou wilt put to flight the alligator ; with this fourth, 
 thou wilt successfully cross the eight great deserts and the 
 eight hills." The mantles were intended to protect the 
 dead from the winds, as cutting as obsidian, which he would 
 meet with by the way. A little red-haired dog was then 
 killed ; a leash of cotton was put round his neck, and he 
 was buried near the deceased. This little dog had the im- 
 portant duty of guiding his master and helping him to 
 cross the Chicunahuapan, or nine torrents ; it is not difficult 
 to see in this an allusion to the nine firmaments in which 
 souls were to sojourn during their successive migrations. 1 
 
 Slaves and concubines were generally immolated at the 
 funeral of a chief ; their duty was to serve him during the 
 formidable passage from one firmament to another. At the 
 obsequies of the Chichimec rulers, the guardian of the do- 
 mestic idols was the first victim sacrificed. Amongst the 
 Miztecs, who inhabited the present province of Oajaca, two 
 male slaves and three women were sacrificed, who had previ- 
 ously been stupefied by narcotic drinks. The bodies were 
 deposited in the heart of a forest, and, when possible, in the 
 recesses of a cave. 
 
 Burgoa, writing two centuries ago, 3 speaks of having seen 
 several of these burying-places. Numerous skeletons cov- 
 ered with trinkets, and gold or silver ornaments, lay in 
 niches hewn out of the walls of the cave. Here and there 
 smaller niches were reserved to the guardian gods of the 
 dead, and their statues were still in existence at the time of 
 the explorations of Burgoa. Quite recently, in the RioNayas 
 vally, in the province of Durango, a cave of considerable 
 
 'Brasseurde Bourbourg, " Hist, des Nat. Civilisees," vol. III., p. 569. 
 
 s Torquemada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. II., p. 527. Clavigero : " St. Ant. del 
 Messico," vol. II., p. 94. 
 
 * " Geografica descripcion de la parte septentrionnale del Polo Artico de la 
 America." Oajaca, Mexico, 1674, 2 vols. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 3O1 
 
 extent, has been discovered in which thousands of mummies, 
 not resembling the Indians of the present day, slept their 
 last sleep. Each mummy was covered with a mantle of 
 richly-dyed agave leaves. The bodies were in a remarkable 
 state of preservation ; the flesh was unshrivelled, and the 
 hair was silky. No metal object was discovered in the re- 
 searches made which is the only indication we have of the 
 antiquity of this sepulchre. 1 
 
 In other cases costly monuments were dedicated to the 
 dead. It was thus with the great pyramid of Mexico, de- 
 stroyed by the Spaniards, which was said to have been 
 erected to receive the bodies of the chiefs. What is more 
 certain is, that the Conquistadores found treasures in it. 
 
 For the common people the funeral ceremonies were 
 necessarily more simple; the rite was, however, always 
 faithfully followed. The body, washed three times with 
 aromatic waters, was successively dressed in ordinary clothes, 
 bright red clothes and feathers, and black clothes and feath- 
 ers. A stone (tentell), of which we do not know the mean- 
 ing, was placed between the lips of the dead. Papers, regu- 
 lar passports for the other life, were placed by him with 
 liturgical words. By his side was deposited a jar filled with 
 water, a dog a companion indispensable to the safety of 
 the journey, the weapons or implements used in life ; a 
 hatchet for a soldier, a spade for a laborer, a spindle or a 
 broom for a woman. The corpse was then covered with a 
 mantle symbolical of the patron of the commune to which 
 the deceased had belonged, or even, if we can trust the 
 Spanish writers, of the god of the vices the deceased had in- 
 dulged in during life, or of the mode of the death which he 
 had met." Thus the soldier was dressed in the mantle ap- 
 propriate to the god of war ; the merchant in that of the 
 god of commerce ; the drunkard in that of the god of wine ; 
 
 '" Proc. Anthr. Soc. of Washington," 1879-1880. 
 
 " Gomara : "Hist. Ant. de Mexico," 01.309. " Vestivano lo d'un abito 
 corrispondente alia sua condizione, alle sue facolta ed alle circonstanze della 
 sua morte," Clavigero. loc. cit., vol. II., p. 39. 
 
3O2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the drowned, in that of the presiding gods of the flood ; the 
 adulterer, in the mantle consecrated to the god of sensual 
 pleasures, and when all was thus prepared, the parents and 
 friends brought their offerings. These offerings consisted 
 of flowers, food, clothing, or implements, which had to be 
 renewed several days in succession. The dominant idea of 
 these rites was the desire of assuring to the deceased an ex- 
 istence resembling that which he had had on earth. He 
 was finally borne to his last resting-place, a cave, or to a yet 
 more simple grave dug in the ground. 
 
 It would be difficult to give even a rapid summary of the 
 funeral customs observed in regions of so vast an extent ; 
 these customs varied in every nation, in every tribe. Some 
 of the Chichimecs, after burying their dead, gave themselves 
 up to dances and feasts, which often lasted many days. 1 
 Near Tabasco, Grijalva discovered the skeletons of a young 
 boy and a young girl, wrapped in cotton cloths and covered 
 with trinkets. These bodies had merely been laid in the 
 sand of the shore. 2 At Yucatan the dead were embalmed, 
 the priests taking out the entrails, and placing them in large 
 amphorae, ornamented sometimes with human and some- 
 times with animals' heads. In Coazacoalco, to give only one 
 example, bones stripped of their flesh were put in a basket 
 and placed on the top of a tree near the former home of the 
 deceased, doubtless so that he might be able to find these 
 bones more easily in his successive migrations. 8 
 
 Cremation dates from the time of the ancient nomad 
 tribes, who could by this means more easily carry about the 
 remains of their ancestors. The custom lasted for many 
 centuries, and, at the arrival of the Conquistadores, it was 
 still in certain places an honor rendered to chiefs and men of 
 note. Brasseur de Bourbourg, says that cremation was in 
 use among the Toltecs ; Torquemada and Clavigero says the 
 same of the Chichimecs ; and Veytia, in his " Historia An- 
 
 1 Sahagun : " Hist. gen. de las cosas de Nueva Espano," vol. III., book X., 
 p. 119. 
 
 * " Chronica de la Orden deN. P. S. Aug." Mexico, 1624. 
 1 Herrera, loc. cit., decade IV., book IX,, chap. VII. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 tigua de Mejico," says that the bodies of the first Aztec 
 kings were burned. 
 
 The Spanish historians have preserved an account of the 
 so-called royal funerals. 1 The body, covered with sumptuous 
 garments, was seated on a lofty throne, and the chief nota- 
 bles came in turn to pay their respects, as they had done 
 when he was still alive. They dwelt upon his virtues, upon 
 the grief his death caused the people, and they prayed him 
 to accept the customary presents. Each notable was bound 
 to offer ten slaves, and a hundred mantles of magnificence 
 corresponding to his standing; the common people then 
 advanced, bringing less costly offerings ; lastly came the turn 
 of the women, and while they were presenting to the defunct 
 the food he had preferred, his oldest followers intoned the 
 Miccacuicatl, or funeral chant. This was the signal for hu- 
 man sacrifices, the necessary accompaniment of the cere- 
 mony. On the fifth day after death, a procession was 
 formed to go to the teocalli. The cortege was preceded by 
 a large banner, on which were painted the chief facts of the 
 life of the deceased ; then came the priests with censers, and 
 the servants carrying the body, stretched upon a litter. All 
 around walked the lesser chiefs, wearing dull-colored man- 
 tles, trailing upon the ground and covered with paintings 
 and embroidery representing heads or the bones of the dead. 
 The messengers of the chiefs of the adjacent country car- 
 ried the arms, the insignia, and ornaments for the funeral 
 pyre. The slaves of the king were loaded with clothes and 
 other objects intended for the use of the dead, together with 
 his favorite food. On its arrival at the temple, some priests 
 called Coacuiles received the body. Their songs reminded 
 the assistants that they, too, would soon be motionless 
 corpses, flung upon the funeral pile, and that the 
 only testimony in their favor would be their good ac- 
 tions. The functions of these Coacuiles were considered 
 
 1 J. de Acosta : "Hist. Natural y Moral de las Yndias," Sevilla, 1590, p. 
 321, et seq. Herrera, loc. cit, decade III., book II., chap. XVIII.; Ixtlilxo- 
 chitl : " Relaciones ; " Kingsborough, vol. IX., p. 370. 
 
304 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA, 
 
 so important that they had to prepare themselves for them 
 by rigorous fasts. According to some accounts they wore 
 on these occasions a costume similar to that of the deceased. 
 Other accounts, on the contrary, speak of these Coacuiles 
 as disguised as demons, wearing robes covered with hideous 
 heads, the eyes of which were represented by little bits 
 of mica; others again say the priests were naked, with 
 the body painted black, waving in their hands sticks which 
 they were to use to stir up the fire. The pile was three feet 
 high, the corpse was laid upon it, and when the flames began 
 to rise it was the duty of the assistants to throw into 
 the midst of it the objects they carried, after which fresh 
 sacrifices began. 
 
 In the earliest times only a few victims were offered up; 
 but as the pomp of funerals increased with the luxury and 
 wealth of the country their numbers increased. For in- 
 stance, in honor of Nezahualpilli the throats of two hundred 
 men and a hundred women were successively cut. Some- 
 times, before his death a chief pointed out those of his 
 concubines who were to follow him. In Michoacan seven 
 women of good family were offered up at the death of the 
 chief. One was charged with the care of the sacred emerald 
 labret that the chief wore hung from his lower lip ; another 
 with that of his trinkets ; a third was his cup-bearer. All 
 were destined to serve him, and to prepare for him food 
 suitable to the rank which he was to retain in his new life. 
 Those who could be most useful to the deceased were also 
 chosen from among his slaves ; but instead of their breasts 
 being opened and their hearts torn out, as was the 
 custom amongst the Aztecs, those who offered the victims 
 were contented with a more ordinary death. The slaves 
 were simply clubbed to death. When the victims of a 
 higher sort were ranged around the pile, one of the relatives 
 of the chief addressed them at length, thanking them for the 
 services rendered the deceased, and urging them to serve 
 him with the same fidelity in the new world that they were 
 both to enter. Then the unhappy wretches were seized one 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTKAL AMERICA. 3O5 
 
 by one by the priests and stretched upon the sacred stone ; 
 the heart was torn out and flung upon the pile, and the 
 corpse was hurriedly carried away. l 
 
 When the body of the chief was completely consumed 
 the fire was put out with the blood of the victims reserved 
 for that purpose. The ashes, calcined bones, and fragments 
 of ornaments were collected and placed in an urn (fig. 122) 
 surmounted by an effigy of the deceased, and this urn was 
 placed, either at the foot of the god to whom the mourners 
 wished to do special honor, or at those of the divinity 
 who had been the protector of the deceased. 
 
 FIG. 122. Aztec mortuary vase. 
 
 At the end of the ceremony the assistants took part in 
 a great banquet ; they were bound to return daily for four 
 days to the teocalli and to renew their offerings. On 
 the fourth day a last sacrifice of fifteen or twenty miserable 
 slaves concluded the affair. With the Chichimecs it was 
 kept up longer, and the sacrifices and offerings had to be re- 
 newed through twenty-four days. 
 
 The various races which occupied Central America had 
 some knowledge of astronomy. They were acquainted with 
 divisions of time founded on the motion of the sun, and 
 long before the conquest they possessed a regular system.* 
 
 'Gomara, who wrote in the sixteenth century, says that the victim was 
 buried ; other historians, that the body was burned on a neighboring pile. 
 
 1 Ixtlilxochitl (" Relaciones," /. c., p. 322), following in the trail of his priestly 
 instructors, says that in the year 5097 from the creation a meeting of astronomers 
 
3O6 PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 Amongst the Aztecs it included periods of forty-two years 
 divided into cycles of thirteen years, expressed in their pic- 
 tographs by hieroglyphic signs. The year consisted of 
 eighteen months, of twenty days each, and five supplement- 
 ary days, which were looked upon as of ill omen, and during 
 which no Aztec would do any action of importance. Lastly, 
 the days were divided into divisions analogous to our hours. 
 The calculations of their astronomers early proved that the 
 year of 365 days did not correspond exactly with the solar 
 motion ; so that, many years before the Gregorian reform 
 was accepted in Europe, they had added thirteen days to 
 each cycle of fifty-two years. In 1790, excavations made at 
 the Great Plaza of the City of Mexico, on the supposed site 
 of the great Teocalli destroyed by the Spainards, brought 
 to light a block of porphyry weighing not less than twenty- 
 three tons. On this block was engraved a circle a little more 
 than eleven feet in diameter, containing the divisions of the 
 astronomical cycle of the Aztecs. 1 Together with the solar 
 year, the Mexicans kept the lunar year, which appears to 
 have been used only for religious holidays. This year was 
 divided into periods of thirteen days, corresponding with the 
 phases of the moon. * 
 
 Amongst the Mayas 3 and the Toltecs, as amongst the 
 people of Central America, the months also consisted of 
 twenty days ; and with them all the number twenty (fingers 
 and toes) appears to have been the base of their system of 
 numeration. 
 
 took place at Huhhue-Tlapallan, and it was they who fixed the divisions of 
 time which lasted until the conquest. Professor Valentini, " The Katunes of 
 Maya History," places this change in the divisions of time in the year 29 B. C. 
 Both of these estimates are, perhaps it is needless to say, more or less hypo- 
 thetical. 
 
 'It has been reproduced by Charnay, plate I., and Short (" North Ameri- 
 cans," p. 409) copies it from him. 
 
 * Bancroft, vol. III., p. 502, 755, et seq. Bandelier : " On the Special Organi- 
 zation and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans," " Report, Peabody 
 Museum," vol. II., p. 475, 557, et seq. 
 
 1 The Maya calendar has recently been the subject of exhaustive research by 
 Prof. Cyrus Thomas, of the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, to whose publications 
 the reader is referred for all details of this branch of the subject. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 307 
 
 The chief weapon of' the Aztecs was the javelin (tlacochtli\ 
 a short lance of hard wood, the end of which was provided 
 with a point of flint, obsidian, or, more rarely, of copper. 
 This point was fixed in a slit in the wood, and kept it in its 
 place by lashings cemented with resin. Each warrior also 
 carried darts which he flung from a distance, a bow 
 (tlauitolli) ' often more than five feet long, and slings. The 
 macuahuitl (from macua, hand, and cuaJiuitl, wood) was a 
 wooden sword, of similar form to the two-handed sword 
 (espadas de dos manas) of the Conquistadors. The Spanish 
 also tell us that on the edges of this sword were inserted 
 fragments of obsidian as keen as the blades of Toledo. The 
 blows of this weapon, 1 used by the Aztecs as a club, were 
 formidable; but the obsidian broke at the first shock, 
 and then the macuahuitl became useless. The shield, which 
 must not be confused with that carried by the chiefs in 
 dances and processions, was small, round, and wadded with 
 cotton.* The braves, 4 such was the title of the chief warriors, 
 fastened it to the left arm. As will be seen, these weapons 
 scarcely differ from those of the other Nahuas, which we 
 have already described. 
 
 In some places, the defensive works were important. The 
 way the Mexicans made fortifications was to choose a 
 naturally strong position, such as a hill difficult of access, 
 artificially widening, if necessary, the summit with earth 
 carried up to it, and by surrounding the whole either by 
 stone walls or palisades, essentially in the manner of the 
 Mound Builders and Indians. The height of these walls, 
 with that of the eminence itself, were the chief obstacles en- 
 countered by the enemy. The Aztec method resembled 
 that of the Mound Builders, which is yet another indication 
 
 1 Clavigero. /. c., book VII., chap. XXIII. 
 
 1 " El Conquistador Anonimo." Collection of Unpublished Documents, 
 vol. I., p. 375. 
 
 1 " Raccolta di Mendoza," Kingsborough Collection. 
 
 4 The title, or rather the rank, of brave was obtained by some dazzling action. 
 The braves, as amongst the Indians of the present day, took the characteristic 
 names of flesh-eaters , great eagles, winged arrows, and such like. 
 
3O8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 of a connection that may have existed between them. 1 
 
 The costume of the Mexicans consisted of a sleeveless 
 tunic (nuepil), fastened to the right shoulder, and of a sash 
 (niaxtlatt) of gaudy colors. The head, the arms, and the 
 legs were left naked. The chiefs also wore a mantle, the 
 length of which indicated their rank. This mantle was 
 ornamented with feathers, the color of which varied accord- 
 ing to the tribe to which the wearer belonged. Clavigero 2 
 relates that the soldiers only wore the maxtlatl, and that 
 before going to war they painted their bodies, and especially 
 the face, black. Alvarado, on the contrary, in a letter ad- 
 dressed to Cortes, 3 says that the Guatemalians dressed in 
 garments padded with cotton, which came down to the ankles. 
 The shoes (cactli-cotaras) resembled the Indian moccasins. 
 They are reproduced on some of the bas-reliefs of Palenque. 
 
 As head-dresses, the warriors wore imitations in wood of 
 the heads of the tiger, wolf, and serpent, covered with the 
 actual skin of the animal. The reward of valor in war was 
 the right of wearing, above the ears, one or more partings 
 in the hair. The character of these head-dresses and marks 
 of honor have been preserved to our day by pictography. 
 
 In Mexico the chiefs were called Teachcautin, or elder 
 brothers. It was their duty not only to lead their soldiers 
 to battle, but to teach them in time of peace their military 
 duties, especially how to handle their weapons. The chiefs 
 wore, as insignia of their rank, ear-plugs like those of the 
 Mound Builders, and labrets, 4 as may be seen in the repre- 
 sentations of them at Palenque and Copan. 
 
 The Aztec government is constantly represented as an 
 hereditary chieftainship, strongly organized and supported 
 by subsidiary chiefs, also hereditary. The first hints on 
 this subject come from Cortes himself (Carta segunda, pp. 
 12 and 13). 
 
 * Tezozomoc, /. c., chap. XC., p. 158-9. Duran, /. c., chap. LVI., p. 443. 
 1 L. c., book VIII., chap. XXIII. 
 
 * A letter of the 28th July, 1524, reproduced by Veytia : " Hist. Ant. de 
 Mejico," vol. I. 
 
 4 Duran, /. c., chap. XIX., p. 169. Sahagun, book IX., chap. VI., p. 264. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 309 
 
 " In the town of Mexico," he writes, "are a considerable 
 number of large and beautiful houses, which are the resi- 
 dences of all the lords of the country, vassals of Monte- 
 zuma." The almost unanimous accounts of Spanish writers, 
 unconsciously colored, perhaps, by the impressions or preju- 
 dices of their country, combined to establish this account. 
 Later researches, however, on the contrary, justify us in sup- 
 posing that the government was very democratic, and that 
 appointments were given by election. 1 
 
 Tlaca-Tecuhtli, the chief of men, the wise veteran, such 
 were the titles he bore, was elected for life. It is fair to 
 add, however, that this king was almost always chosen from 
 the same family. Among the Tezcuans this office passed 
 from father to son ; among the Aztecs, from brother to 
 brother, from uncle to nephew, but the hereditary right, if 
 indeed it existed, had to be confirmed by election. 4 The 
 supreme chief could be deposed ; and it was thus that Mon- 
 tezuma was degraded, and replaced by his brother, Cuitla- 
 huatrin. 3 
 
 Another chief, also elective, bore the grotesque title of 
 Chihua-Cohuatl, the " female serpent." He sat beside the 
 ruler, and it was his duty to preside at the administration of 
 
 1 Bandelier, /. c. , " Report of Peabody Museum," vol. II., pp. 95, 475, 557, 
 600. 
 
 "The titles of king, nobles, court, lords, palaces, etc., are misleading as ap- 
 plied to the chiefs of any American races. Nothing resembling monarchy in 
 the civilized sense has ever existed among our aborigines. But this was not re- 
 alized by the Spaniards, who saw, without understanding, the organization of 
 Mexican society, and applied to it terms with which they were familiar, no mat- 
 ter how unsuitable in reality. 
 
 * Cortes ("Carta segunda ") makes, it is true, no allusion to it ; but Bernal 
 Diaz de Castillo (" Hist, verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espafla," 
 chap. XXVI., p. 132), Las Casas (" Brevissima Relacion," p. 49), Sahagun (book 
 XII., chap. XXI., p. 28), Torquemada (book IV., chap. LXVIII., p. 494), and 
 Herrera (decade II., book X., chap. VIII., p. 264), are unanimous on this 
 point. 
 
 4 This dignity does not appear to have existed until after the alliance between 
 Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacolpan. Duran, chap. XXIV., p. 205 ; Tezozomoc, 
 "Chronica," chap. XXIX., p. 35; Ixtlilxochitl : " Relaciones"; Kingsbor- 
 ough, vol. IX. 
 
310 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 justice and the receipt of tribute. According to some, he 
 could never go to war ; according to others, he commanded 
 the Mexicans, while the Tlaca-Tecuhtli led the allies. The 
 Chihua-Cohuatl alone had the right of wearing a tuft of 
 green feathers on his head, gold rings in his ears and in his 
 lips, an emerald hanging from the cartilage of the nose, gold 
 bracelets, and anklets of rare feathers. On his war costume 
 he also wore a large tress of feathers, which hung down to 
 the waist ; and on such occasions used a little drum to give 
 his orders. 1 
 
 The aim of war was often merely to secure prisoners 
 necessary for sacrifices. When it was resolved upon, the 
 Mexicans sent ambassadors to the pueblo against which they 
 had a complaint, the ambassadors carrying, as tokens of 
 their mission, an arrow with the point downward and a 
 shield fastened to the left arm. a Arrived at the council, 
 they stated their demands ; if the chiefs of the pueblo agreed 
 to them, the envoys accepted the present offered to them ; 
 if on the contrary their demands were rejected, they 
 approached the chief of the tribe, painted his arms white, 
 placed feathers on his head, and offered him a sword and a 
 shield. This was the accepted form of a declaration of war, 
 and when it was made the ambassadors had to beat a hasty 
 retreat, or their lives were in the greatest danger. 3 
 
 In truth neither the Aztecs nor the other Nahuas formed 
 a state, a nation, or even a political society. They were 
 simply a confederation of tribes, these tribes themselves con- 
 sisting of an agglomeration of clans or Calpulli? This organi- 
 zation presents certain resemblances with that which existed 
 in the north of Scotland and Ireland. All the members of 
 the clan, connected by a real or supposed relationship to a 
 common ancestor and bearing the same name, had a collec- 
 
 'Duran, ./. c., chap. XIV. and XVI. J. de Acosta, /. c., chap. XXV., p. 
 441. 
 
 * Torquemada, /. c., book XIV., chap. I., p. 534. 
 
 * Ixtlilxochitl : " Hist. Chic. ," chap. XXXVIII. G. de Mendieta : " Hist. 
 Eccl. Indiana," Mexico, 1870, book II., chap. XXVI., p. 129. 
 
 4 Bandelier, /. ., p. 557, etc. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 311 
 
 tive right in the lands of the tribe, which they enjoyed, pay- 
 ing an annual rent to the chief. 
 
 The Calpulli, true families, doubtless united by a close 
 blood-relationship, were responsible for the acts and the con- 
 duct of their members. These members were bound mutu- 
 ally to defend each other, to avenge injuries done to any 
 one of them, and to support the old, the infirm, and all 
 those incapable of taking part in the common work. 
 
 There was no such thing as private property, at least with 
 regard to land. The lands, which were called Calpulalli, 
 belonged to the Calpulli, who could neither sell nor exchange 
 them. They were divided at fixed periods between all the 
 males of the tribe, with the obligation of cultivating them 
 and of residing within the limits of the Calpulli. Some 
 lands (tlamilli) were reserved to the chiefs, but neither these 
 chiefs nor their families had any permanent rights in them, 
 and when they gave up office the lands were reabsorbed in 
 the public domain. Other lands (tlatocatlallt] were set aside 
 for the tribute that every Calpulli had to pay to the ruler of 
 Mexico. They were cultivated by all the members of the 
 family, and the crops were taken to private storehouses. 
 But for the necessity of making this annual payment, the 
 tribes and Calpulli appear to have been completely indepen- 
 dent ; their chiefs were elected for life, and no one could 
 interfere with their choice, which almost always fell upon 
 old men who had submitted, or would have to submit, to a 
 very severe religious initiation, which we are about to 
 describe. As will be seen, this collection of institutions 
 shows no trace of feudalism. 1 
 
 Descent was through the female line, and the family was 
 constituted by the maternal alliances alone. It was not 
 until later that paternal descent was admitted. Marriage 
 existed ; but marriage was forbidden between near relations, 
 and probably between members of the same Calpulli. The 
 position of women was hard ; they became in most respects 
 
 1 Orozeo y Berra : " Geographia de las lenguas y carta ethnografica de 
 Mexico." 
 
312 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the property of their husbands. A marriage could, however, 
 be annulled, on the request of the woman, provided that 
 this annulment had the approbation of the Calpulli, and 
 in that case the woman returned to her own family. Every 
 man was bound to marry when he came to the age of twenty 
 years, with the exception of certain priests, who took a vow 
 of chastity in honor of the gods they served. Polygamy 
 was not forbidden ; the husband, or rather the master, had a 
 right to as many concubines as he wished ; the necessity 
 of supporting them was the only curb upon his passion. 
 
 Patronymic names were unknown. 1 On the birth of her 
 child the mother chose the name she wished given to him ; 
 this name was generally connected either with the month in 
 which the infant was born or with circumstances of his birth. 
 When his childhood was over the name by which he was 
 henceforth to be known was given to him by the medicine- 
 man, who played a considerable part amongst the Mexican 
 tribes, as he still does alike amongst the Indians of the 
 pueblos and the wandering Indians. A warrior could get a 
 third name by an act of exceptional bravery ; and this name 
 was awarded to him by the Calpulli. 
 
 The Calpulli was also charged with the education of 
 children. A public building (telpuchcalti) was set apart for 
 this purpose. All the boys without exception went to it ; 
 manual work, the art of war, the handling of arms, dancing, 
 and singing formed the rudiments of education." Those 
 amongst the scholars who were strong enough had to 
 cultivate the lands belonging to the Teocallis, which were set 
 aside for the support of the priest and the expenses of public 
 worship. 
 
 Slavery existed amongst the various tribes of Central 
 America. The man belonging to a Calpulli who refused to 
 marry, or who did not cultivate the lands assigned to him, 
 and the prisoners taken in war, unless they were sacrificed to 
 
 1 Torquemada, book XIII., chap. XXII., p. 454, et seq. 
 
 2 Gomara : " Hist, de Mexico." Sahagun : " Hist. Gen.," book III., chap. 
 IV., p. 268, chap. V., p. 269, chap. VIII., p. 275. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 313 
 
 the gods, became slaves. They were called tlacolti, literally 
 " bought men." If the slave escaped, his master had the 
 right to make him wear a wooden collar. If he ran away a 
 second time he was taken to the temple and immediately 
 slain. If, as very rarely happened, he managed to reach the 
 council-chamber set aside for the chiefs of the tribe, without 
 being arrested either by his master or by any other member 
 of the Calpulli, he received his liberty. 1 The slave who 
 in battle achieved an act of valor not only had a right to his 
 liberty, but he could also be adopted by the Calpulli; 
 henceforth he became one of its members, enjoying the same 
 rights as his brothers, and like them receiving arms. When 
 a slave was not thus liberated he acted as load-bearer during 
 war, as do certain negroes of the interior of Africa at 
 the present day. Beasts of burden were unknown ; it was 
 the duty of the porters to carry the necessary maize for the 
 frugal food of the soldiers, the tents and the cords for mak- 
 ing them fast, and the poles and straw for the construction 
 of rude huts. In case of capture by the enemy the poor 
 wretches were almost always offered in sacrifice to 
 the gods. 
 
 Judging by the accounts which have come down to us, or 
 by the old paintings preserved at Mexico, punishments were 
 severe among the tribes of the Nahuatl race.* According to 
 Las Casas, murder was punished by death * ; according to 
 Duran, by slavery for life. The man or woman who wore 
 the clothes of the other sex was also condemned to death. 
 Rape, incest, sodomy, were punished with the same penalty ; 
 but for each crime the mode of execution varied : the inces- 
 tuous criminal was hung 4 ; he who violated a child in 
 Michoacan was impaled ; the sodomite was burned.* He 
 
 1 Mendieta: " Hist. Ecc. Ind.," book II., chap. XXVII., p. 30. 
 
 1 Bancroft, vol. II., p. 460, et seq. Bandelier, loc. cit., p. 623, el seq. 
 
 1 " Hist. Apol.," App., Kingsborough, vol. VIII. 
 
 4 Torquemada, book XII., cbap. IV. 
 
 * In spite of the severity of this punishment, sodomy was no less common 
 among the Aztecs than among the ancient people of Europe. " A certain num- 
 ber of priests," says Father Pierre de Gand (' Letter included in the Ternaux 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 who in a battle took possession of a prisoner taken by an- 
 other, he whose duty it was to cultivate the lands of 
 children or of others unable to till their own ground, and who 
 neglected this duty for two consecutive years, or he who 
 stole gold or silver objects consecrated to the gods, was 
 also punished with death. 1 The same punishment was given 
 for seducing a woman who had taken a vow of chastity, or a 
 married woman belonging to the same Calpulli. The adul- 
 teress was quartered, and her limbs were divided amongst 
 all the men of the Calpulli. 
 
 The restitution of the stolen objects made amends for the 
 theft ; but in default of this restitution the thief became a 
 slave for life. Those guilty of calumny had their lips cut. 
 Old men of more than seventy were alone allowed to get 
 drunk ; a drunkard younger than this had his head shaved, 
 and if he held any office he was publicly degraded. 
 
 Corporeal punishment was rare. It was considered shame- 
 ful even for a slave to be chastised. Pictography, however, 
 shows us a father or a master chastising a child with a whip. 
 There were prisons in the different Teocallis and the public 
 buildings 2 ; and, if we can trust the Conquistadores, these 
 prisons were pestilential- places, in which the air was so 
 vitiated that the unfortunate wretches sent to them rapidly 
 perished by suffocation. 
 
 No written laws regulated those various penalties ; they 
 were probably inflicted in accordance with ancient customs, 
 and must certainly have varied amongst the different tribes. 
 
 We have said that the association of the clans or Calpulli, 
 united by the bonds of a common territory, common reli- 
 gious rites and a common language, formed the tribe. Some 
 
 Compans Collection,' 1st series, vol X., p. 197), could not have wives, sed 
 earum loco pueros abutebantur. The sin was so common that young and old 
 were infected by it." We must, however, make some allowance for 
 exaggeration. 
 
 1 Mendieta, loc. fit., book II., chap. XXIX. Vetancurt : " Teatro Mexi- 
 cano," vol. I., p. 484. 
 
 a Teilpiloyanor Tecaltzaqualoyan. Mendieta, loc. cit., chap. XXIX., p. 138. 
 Molina : " Vocabulerio in lengua Castillana y Mexicana," Mexico, 1571, vol. 
 II., pp. 86-91. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 31$ 
 
 tribes are mentioned which included as many as twenty 
 Calpulli. 
 
 The tribe was governed by a council composed of dele- 
 gates from each Calpulli (tetoani, orators, or techutatoca, 
 talking chiefs). They met in the tecpan, or council-cham- 
 ber, and it was their duty to uphold the ancestral customs, 
 and especially to maintain harmony among the Calpulli, 
 which was, according to the chroniclers, a very difficult task. 1 
 
 In the tribe, as in the Calpulli, no office or dignity was 
 hereditary. They were obtained by election, with the ex- 
 ception of the title of Tecuhtli (grandfather), which was 
 given as a reward for acts of bravery before the enemy, for 
 long and important services either in the council or in the 
 embassies, of which we have described the perils. It was 
 also possible to obtain it by a series of initiations, to which 
 he who aspired to this honor had to submit. During four 
 days and four nights he was shut up in the chief teocalli of 
 the tribe and subjected to a most rigorous .fast. He was 
 bled from every part of his body ; all sleep was forbidden to 
 him ; his keepers tore off his clothes, scourged him cruelly, 
 and to add to his misery they partook before him of sump- 
 tuous feasts, at which he had to look on without for an in- 
 stant losing his impassibility. The four days over, the 
 novice returned to his Calpulli, where he passed an entire 
 year in retreat and the most rigorous penance, mutilating 
 himself and inflicting often intolerable bodily torture. 
 Throughout this time his brothers collected the presents 
 that they were bound to offer to the gods, chiefs of the 
 tribe, priests, and medicine-men. At the expiration of the 
 year, the future Tecuhtli had to go back to the teocalli and 
 to submit anew to the tests he had already gone through, 
 and which terminated at last in a grand feast, at which were 
 given to him the ornaments that he had henceforth the right 
 to wear, and which appear to have been his only privilege. 2 
 
 1 A. de Zurita : " Rapport sur les differentes classes de chefs de la Nouvelle 
 Espagne," Ternaux Compans, 2d series, vol. II. 
 Sahagun, book VIII., chap. XXXVIII., p. 329. Ixtlilxochitl : " Rela- 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 We have now summarized the facts actually known of the 
 organization and government of the various people belong- 
 ing to the powerful Nahuatl race, who successively overran 
 Central America, and especially Anahuac. We have still to 
 speak of the ruins, the importance of which becomes each 
 day more apparent, which rise before the eyes of the trav- 
 eller even in deserts and in the midst of forests previously 
 reputed impenetrable. 
 
 Before touching these new questions, we must not omit 
 one remark which cannot fail to have occurred to the reader. 
 Long before the Spanish conquest the people of America 
 had reached that state to which modern socialism would 
 return, and of which the latter claims the honor and the 
 profit ; the absence of all hereditary principles in property 
 as in the family ; communism alike in the pueblo and in the 
 Calpulli ; the omission, strange as it may appear, of any 
 name transmitted from father to son which could perpetuate 
 in descendants the glory of ancestors ; the education in 
 common of all children under the sole authority of represen- 
 tatives of the Calpulli ; election to all offices and all posts ; 
 the merging of the individual for the good of the com- 
 munity. To what did these institutions lead, which igno- 
 rance and theory delight in holding up to the human race as 
 the beacon lights of the future ? To the most complete 
 anarchy ; to struggles without end or truce between tribe 
 and tribe, Calpulli and Calpulli ; to hatred so fierce that the 
 Spanish appeared as liberators, and owed their victory as 
 much to the services of allies, eager to escape from the yoke 
 which weighed them down, as to the courage of their own 
 soldiers. 
 
 clones," app., p. 257. Mendieta, book II., chap. XXXVIII., p. 156. It is 
 curious to meet with ceremonies somewhat like these amongst the Incas and 
 the Indians of Orinoco (Bandelier, /. c., p. 643 and note 171). 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 IN a previous chapter we gave a summary of the best 
 available information about the races who occupied Central 
 America, pushed southward, founding confederacies, build- 
 ing towns, and covering whole regions with their struc- 
 tures, to disappear, leaving hardly a name in history, or a 
 memory in tradition. To complete this study, we must 
 now ascertain what the monuments, or rather the ruins, 
 that time and men have alike been powerless to destroy, can 
 tell us. 
 
 One preliminary remark must be made. We hardly meet 
 with such grand structures as those of Egypt or Assyria, of 
 India or of China, except under similar circumstances ; al- 
 most essential for their erection were a people living under 
 despotic government, and a conquering race forcibly com- 
 pelling a subject people to do the necessary work. The con- 
 querors contributed their taste, their traditions, and their 
 peculiar genius ; the conquered contributed the material 
 elements with their labor and the sweat of their brow. We 
 are hardly yet justified in asserting that similar events took 
 place in America, though we may suspect that the monu- 
 ments still existing had a similar origin. 
 
 The researches, made at the cost of difficult and often 
 dangerous explorations, have rendered possible some at- 
 tempts at classification ; and we can already distinguish 
 between Maya and Nahuatl architecture ; and among the 
 Mayas themselves, between the style of the buildings of 
 Chiapas and those of Yucatan ' 
 
 1 Short, "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 340. 
 
 3*7 
 
3l8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 The monuments of Palenque ' are justly reckoned amongst 
 the most remarkable in Chiapas. The town stands in the 
 region watered by the Usumacinta, where settled the first 
 immigrants of whom it has been possible to distinguish 
 traces. The position of Palenque, at the foot of the first 
 buttresses of the mountain-chain, on the bank's of the little 
 river Otolum, one of the tributaries of the Tulija, was ad- 
 mirably chosen. 2 The streets extended for a length of from 
 six to eight leagues, irregularly following the course of the 
 streams which descend from the mountains and furnished 
 the inhabitants with an abundant supply of the water neces- 
 sary to them. At the present day the ruins rise in solitude, 
 which adds to the effect produced by them. They were 
 long altogether unknown ; Cortes, in one of his expeditions, 
 passed within a few miles of Palenque without suspecting 
 its existence; and it was not till 1746, that chance led to its 
 discovery by a cure of the neighborhood. 3 
 
 We owe the first description of the ruins to Jos de 
 Calderon, who had been sent by the Spanish government to 
 examine them. His account is dated December 15, 1764. 
 Since then they have been visited by numerous explorers ; 
 only a year or two ago Charnay returned a second time from 
 Palenque, and the casts taken by him of the hieroglyphics 
 there are among the most curious possessions of the new 
 Trocadero Museum at Paris. 
 
 1 Palenque comes from a Spanish word signifying palisade ; the ancient name 
 of the town is still unknown. 
 
 4 A. del Rio," Descripcion del terreno y poblacion antigua," English transla- 
 tion, London, 1822. Captain Dupaix, " Relation des trois expeditions ordon- 
 nees en 1805, -6, and-7, pour la recherche des antiquites du pays notamment de 
 celles de Mitlaetde Palenque," 3 vol, fol. Paris, 1833. See also Kingsborough, 
 /. c., vols. V. and VI. Waldeck : " Voy. arch, et pittoresque dans la province 
 du Yucatan," fol. Paris, 1838. Stephens & Catherwood : " Incidents of Travel 
 in Central America," New York, 1841 ; " In Yucatan," New York, 1858, by 
 the same authors. Brasseur de Bourbourg: " Recherches sur les mines de 
 Palenque avec les dessins de Waldeck," fol. Paris, 1866. Bancroft, /. c,, vol. 
 IV., p. 289, et seq,, gives a very complete bibliography, which is useful to con- 
 sult. 
 
 3 In 1750, according to D. Diego Juarros: " Hist, of the Kingdom of Guate- 
 mala," London, 1823. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 319 
 
 Among the best-preserved ruins may be mentioned the 
 palace, the temple of the three tablets, the temple of the bas- 
 reliefs, the temple of the cross, and the temple of the sun. 
 We keep the names given by various explorers in the 
 absence of better ones. There are others, but of less impor- 
 tance. Dupaix speaks of eleven buildings still standing, 
 and a few years before A. del Rio mentioned twenty ; 
 Waldeck says eighteen, and Maler, who visited the ruins of 
 Palenque in 1877, fixes the number of the temples or palaces 
 at twelve. These contradictions are more apparent than 
 real, and are explained by the different impressions of each 
 traveller, and the divisions he thought it necessary to 
 adopt. 
 
 The palace, the most important building of Palenque, 
 rests on a truncated pyramid ' about forty feet high, the 
 base of which measures from three hundred and ten feet by 
 two hundred and sixty. The inside of this pyramid is of 
 earth ; the external faces are covered with large slabs ; steps 
 lead up to the principal building, which forms a quadrilateral 
 of two hundred and twenty-eight feet by one hundred 
 and eighty a ; the walls, which are two or three feet thick, are 
 of rubble, crowned by a frieze framed between two double 
 cornices. Inside as well as outside they are covered with a 
 very fine and durable stucco, painted red or blue, black 
 or white. The principal front faces the east ; it includes 
 fourteen entrances about nine feet wide, separated by 
 pilasters ornamented with figures. These figures measure 
 more than six feet high, and are full of movement ; while 
 above the head of each are hieroglyphics inlaid in the 
 stucco (fig. 123). Some day, perhaps, a key to them will be 
 
 'Some subterranean galleries have been made out in the interior of the 
 pyramid. These pyramids, which remind us of the work of the Mound 
 Builders, are the most striking characteristics of the architecture of Central 
 America. 
 
 "Stephens, /. c., vol. II., p. 310; Waldeck: "Palenque," pi., II.; 
 Armen (" Das heutige Mexico ") gives a ground-plan and an attempt at restora- 
 tion of the temple. Bancroft also gives an attempt at restoration (/. c., vol. IV., 
 P- 323). 
 
320 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 discovered and the history of Palenque be revealed. Nu- 
 merous masonry niches in the wall merit special atten- 
 tion on account of their resemblance to the letter T or 
 rather the Egyptian tau. 1 Waldeck made out on some of 
 them marks of smoke, from which he concluded that 
 they were intended to hold torches ; others may have been 
 
 FIG. 123. Stucco bas-relief from Palenque. 
 
 used for supplying the passage-ways with air and light 
 of which they stood in great need. 
 
 1 " As for the figures of tau, so numerous in the buildings, ornaments, bas- 
 reliefs, and even in the form of the lights, although it is impossible to 
 pronounce an opinion on this point in the present state of our knowledge, 
 we cannot avoid noticing it." Jomard : Bull. Soc. Gdog. t de Paris, vol. V., 
 series II., p. 620. One of the bas-reliefs of the palace figured by Bancroft (/. c.. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 321 
 
 The inside of the palace corresponds with the magnifi- 
 cence of the outside ; there are galleries forming a peristyle 
 all round the court ; and the rooms are decorated with 
 granite bas-reliefs (fig. 124), grotesque figures, some thirteen 
 feet high. The drawing and the anatomical proportions are 
 tolerably correct, and the expression of the figures speaks 
 well for the skill of the artist ; but the execution is weak, 
 suggesting an art in decadence rather than the ruggedness 
 of one in its infancy. 1 
 
 FlG. 124. Bas-relief of the palace of Palenque. 
 
 These rooms were united by corridors ; we reproduce a 
 section of one of them (fig. 125), which will give an idea of 
 the mode of its construction. The architects of Palenque 
 were ignorant of the arch, and their vaults were formed of 
 over-sailing courses, one above the other, as in the cyclopean 
 monuments of Greece and Italy. 
 
 vol. IV., p. 317) is a figure wearing an ornament in the form of the tau. 
 In chapter VIII, we mention some windows which are also of this form 
 in the Yucay valley, Peru. We know that the tau, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, 
 signifies life. Max Uhlman : " Handbuch der gesamten Aegyptischen 
 alterthumskunde," vol. I., p. 108. 
 
 1 Viollet le Due, in Charnay : " Cites et Ruines Americaines," Int., p. 74. 
 
322 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The building is finished off with a tower of three stories, 
 measuring thirty feet square at the base. Here, too, we find 
 symbolical decorations, which are very rich and in a very 
 good state of preservation. There is nothing to indicate the 
 age of this palace ; it was, as we have said, abandoned at the 
 time of the Spanish conquest, at which epoch, moreover, 
 none of the races peopling America were in the habit of 
 constructing similar buildings. We can, however, fix a cer- 
 tain limit to its age ; for, with tropical rains lasting six 
 months a year, and the luxurious vegetation which fills all 
 the crevices, no monument could last for a number of cen- 
 turies, such as is attributed, for instance, to the buildings of 
 Egypt ; and the most daring conjectures do not admit of 
 
 FlG. 125. Section of a double corridor at Pak-nque. 
 
 our dating the monuments of Palenque earlier than the first 
 centuries of our era. 1 After this last visit, indeed, Charnay 
 no longer accepts so remote a date as that, but thinks that 
 all the monuments of Yucatan are the work of the Toltecs, 
 and were built between the twelfth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies.* It is impossible that these delicate ornaments, 
 made of little lozenge-shaped bits of cement stuck on to the 
 wall, could have longer resisted the effects of a destructive 
 
 1 Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 362, note 68) gives a list of all the hypotheses as to 
 the date of the foundation of Palenque. They vary from the date of the 
 deluge to the fifteenth century of the Christian era. The margin, it will be 
 seen, is wide. 
 
 * Bull. Soc. Gtbgr., November, 1881. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 climate. Another no less important remark must be made. 
 The staircases are new, the steps are whole, the edges are 
 sharp ; nowhere do we see any traces of wear and tear, the 
 certain proofs of long habitation. The conclusion is inevi- 
 table ; the people of Palenque, for reasons which are still 
 unknown, evacuated the town soon after the construction of 
 the chief buildings. 
 
 The size of the trees overgrowing the roofs and the pyra- 
 mids had hitherto been accepted as a conclusive proof of 
 the antiquity of these buildings. It was by relying upon 
 such evidence that Waldeck spoke of 2,000 years ; and Lar- 
 rainzar speaks of one tree amongst the ruins, on which he 
 was able, with the help of a microscope, to count as many 
 as 1,700 concentric circles, to which, founding his opinion on 
 the formerly received data, he assigned an antiquity of 
 1,700 years. But here again Charnay comes to totally dif- 
 ferent conclusions. He had a shrub cut down, eighteen 
 months old at most, and found in it eighteen of these cir- 
 cles. His first thought was, that he had come upon an 
 anomaly ; but after having several trees of different kinds 
 and sizes cut down, he found in all of them similar phenom- 
 ena in similar proportions. 
 
 Nor is this all ; at the time of his first visit to Palenque in 
 1859, Charnay had the trees hiding the ruins cut down, so 
 as to take more exact photographs. Other trees grew up in 
 their places, which trees must have been twenty-two years 
 old in 1 88 1. On a section of one of these, rather more than 
 two feet in diameter, he counted 230 concentric circles. 
 This is an important fact of vegetable physiology, and proves 
 that we cannot estimate the age of trees in the tropics by 
 the same process as we do that of those in northern lati- 
 tudes (which for that matter also afford but imperfect evi-' 
 dence), and the chief proof of the antiquity of the buildings 
 of Palenque falls through completely. 
 
 It would take too long to describe the other monuments 
 of Palenque, which are known under the name of temples. 1 
 
 1 The great temple of Palenque bears a curious resemblance to that of Boro- 
 Boudor, in the island of Java. Edinburgh Re-t>ic-M, April, 1867. 
 
PRE-HISTOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 We must, however, mention one of them, situated on the 
 other bank of the Otolum, and known under the name of 
 the Temple of the Cross. It rises from a truncated pyra- 
 mid and forms a quadrilateral with three openings in each 
 face, separated by massive pilasters, some ornamented with 
 hieroglyphics and some ornamented with human figures. 
 The frieze is also covered with human figures, and amongst 
 those still visible Stephens mentions a head and two torsos, 
 which, in their perfection of form, recall Greek art. The 
 openings, all at right angles, lead into an inside gallery com- 
 municating with three little rooms. The central one of 
 these rooms contains an altar, which fairly represents an 
 open chest, ornamented with a little frieze with a margin. 
 From the two upper extremities of this frieze spring two 
 wings, recalling the mode of ornamentation so often em- 
 ployed in the pediments of Egyptian monuments. 1 
 
 Above the altar was originally placed the tablet of the 
 cross (fig. 126), which was afterward torn from its position 
 by the hand of a fanatic, who chose to see in it the sacred 
 sign of the Christian faith, miraculously preserved by the 
 ancient inhabitants of the palace. The tablet was taken 
 down and then abandoned, we know not why, in the midst 
 of the forest covering part of the ruins. Here it was that 
 the Americans discovered part of it, took possession of it, 
 and carried it to Washington, where it forms part of the 
 collection of the National Museum. 4 The centre represents 
 a cross, resting upon a hideous figure, and surmounted by a 
 grotesque bird. On the right, a figure on foot is offering 
 presents ; on the left, another figure, in a stiff attitude, 
 seems to be praying to the divinity. The costume of 
 these two persons is unlike any that is now in use ; and 
 above their heads we can make out several hieroglyphical 
 characters. A slab on the right is also covered with them. 
 In the present state of knowledge it is impossible to make 
 
 1 Charnay, loc. cit., p. 417, from whom we borrow the greater part of 
 these details. Del Rio, loc. cit., p. 17. Waldeck, plate XX. Stephens, loc. 
 cit., vol. II., p. 344. 
 
 *Ch. Rau : " The Palenque Tablet," Smith Cont., vol. XXII. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 32$ 
 
 out whether these inscriptions are prayers to the gods, the 
 history of the country or that of the temple, the name or 
 the dedication of the founders. 
 
 At the end of the sanctuary recently discovered near 
 Palenque' (fig. 127, p. 326), by Maler, are three slabs of 
 sculptured stone in low relief. On the right and left are 
 
 FIG. 126. Tablet of the cross at Palenque. 
 
 hieroglyphics ; in the centre a cross, surmounted by a 
 head of strange appearance, wearing round the neck a 
 collar with a medallion ; above this head is a bird, and on 
 either side are figures exactly like those of the temple of 
 
 1 Nature, October 4, 1879. 
 
1 
 
 326 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 327 
 
 the cross. Evidently this was 
 a hieratic type, from which the 
 artist was not allowed to de- 
 part. 
 
 The existence of the cross at 
 Palenque, on one of the monu- 
 ments of an earlier date than the 
 introduction of Christianity, is 
 not an isolated fact. Palacio, 
 the judicial assessor, saw at Co- 
 pan a cross, with one of its arms 
 broken ' ; the Jesuit Ruiz men- 
 tions one in Paraguay ; Garci- 
 lasso de la Vega, another at 
 Cuzco ; and we have previously 
 referred to several examples. 
 The cross is supposed to have 
 been looked upon as the sym- 
 bol of the creative and fertilizing 
 power of nature, and in several 
 places was honored by sacrifices 
 of quails, incense, and lustral 
 water. 
 
 We cannot leave tue ruins of 
 Palenque without mentioning a 
 statue (fig. 128), remarkable for 
 more than one reason. 4 The 
 calm and smiling expression of 
 the face resembles that of some 
 of the Egyptian statues ; the 
 head-dress is a little like that 
 of the Assyrians ; there is a 
 necklace around the neck ; the 
 
 FIG. 128. Statue from Pelanque. 
 
 1 " Carta dirigada al Key de Espafia afio 1576," published at Albany, with 
 an English translation in 1860. 
 
 a The height of the statue is 10 ft. 6 in., and there was another, a counterpart 
 of it. They were evidently both intended to form pilasters, for one side of each 
 was left in the rough ; they were discovered and figured by Waldeck. 
 
328 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 figure presses upon its bosom an instrument, and rests 
 its left hand upon an ornament, the meaning of both 
 of which it is difficult to imagine. The plinth of the statue 
 has a cartouch with a hieroglyphical inscription, ' probably 
 giving the name of the god or hero to whom it was dedi- 
 cated. 
 
 There is a very distinct resemblance in some of these 
 hieroglyphics to those of Egypt. We mention this without 
 however trying to solve, by a few accidental resemblances, 
 the great problem of the origin of races, still less to establish 
 the existence of a connection between the inhabitants of 
 Egypt and those of Central America at the comparatively 
 recent date of the erection of the monuments of Palenque. 
 
 Two races successively bore the name of Quiche. The 
 old Quiches of Maya origin, to whom we owe the monu- 
 ments of Copan and of Quirigua, and the Cakchiquel 
 Quiches, who were probably descended from the first, but 
 had been greatly modified by various Nahuatl influences. 
 These latter still existed as a people at the time of the 
 Spanish invasion ; they offered vigorous resistance to the 
 Conquistadores, and their capital, Utatlan, was taken and 
 destroyed. 
 
 Copan is now a miserable village, a short distance from 
 the ruins, famous alone for the excellence of its tobacco, 
 which rivals that of Cuba. The ancient town was situated 
 at the foot of the mountains separating Guatemala from 
 Honduras," on the Rio Copan, a tributary of the Motagua, 
 which flows into the Bay of Honduras. Its ruins have long 
 been overgrown by the dense vegetation of the forests, 
 which can only be penetrated with axe in hand ; hence the 
 oblivion in which they have so long been shrouded, and in 
 which they still remain in spite of their great interest. They 
 
 1 In the various hieroglyphics that we reproduce, the existence can be made 
 out of several dots in regular order, separated by a stroke from the rest of the 
 inscription ; this is perhaps a key for a future Champollion. 
 
 'The ruins are situated in N. Lat. 14 45' and W. Long. 90" 52'. Copan has 
 sometimes been confounded with the town which in 1530 offered so heroic a 
 resistance to Hernandez de Chiaves. 
 
329 
 
330 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 are first mentioned in a letter addressed in 1576 to King 
 Philip II., by Diego de Palacio ; but it is to Stephens that 
 we owe the only complete description in existence, and 
 it is this description which is referred to by the Abb 
 Brasseur de Bourbourg, who visited Copan in 1863 and 
 1866. 1 
 
 In their present state the ruins cover an area of 900 feet 
 by 1, 600. The walls, built of immense blocks of stone, and 
 partly destroyed by the roots of trees which penetrate them 
 everywhere, are twenty-five feet thick at their base, and in 
 some places rise in terraces, and still preserve some traces of 
 painting. The chief building, known under the name of the 
 temple, is situated on the northwest of the enclosure ; its 
 form is that of a truncated pyramid, the sides of which are six 
 hundred and twenty-four feet high on the north and south, 
 and eight hundred and nine on the east and west. The 
 walls on the side facing the river are perpendicular, and 
 vary from sixty to ninety feet in height ; on the other 
 side they slope considerably. It is scarcely necessary to 
 call attention to the resemblance of this building to the 
 mounds of Mississippi and Ohio. The pyramids were dedi- 
 cated to the gods of the Mayas, and it was on the platform 
 crowning them, that these people attempted to honor their 
 gods by sacrifices which were too often bloody. 
 
 Beyond the river fragments of walls, terraces, and pyra- 
 mids, which cannot now be completely made out, stretch 
 away in the direction of the forest ; mountains of rubbish 
 indicate the sites of buildings now crumbled, promising an 
 ample harvest to future archaeologists." In one of the 
 rooms of the palace Col. Galindo discovered several 
 
 'Besides those whom we have already named, we may mention among the 
 explorers, Francisco de Fuentes in 1700; his account has been published by 
 Domingo Juarros, " A Statistical and Commercial Hist, of Guatemala," Lon- 
 don, 1824, and by Col. Galindo in 1832, fiull. Soc. Gtog. de Paris, series 
 II., 1836, vol. 5, p. 267. Stephens and Catherwood visited the ruins in 1839. 
 Their work is entitled, " Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, 
 Chiapas, and Yucatan," fol. New York, 1844. Bancroft gives for Copan, as for 
 Palenque, a very complete bibliography. 
 
 'Galindo, " Am. Ant. Soc. Trans.," vol. II., p. 547. 
 
FlG. 130. Statue found amongst the ruins of Copaii, 
 331 
 
33 2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 vases of red earth, containing bones mixed with lime. 1 
 A great number of statues, obelisks, and columns, laden 
 with sculpture and hieroglyphics, 4 form the most inter- 
 esting discoveries made at Copan. We give an illustration 
 of one of these statues (fig. 130), which seems to mark the 
 zenith of Maya art, and in which we know not what is the 
 most astonishing, the grotesqueness of the design, the rich- 
 ness of the ornamentation, or the delicacy of the execution. 
 We may also mention an alligator, holding in its mouth a 
 figure with a human head and the extremities of an animal ; 
 and a gigantic toad with feet ending in the nails of a cat. 
 
 On the faces of one of the pyramids included in the perime- 
 ter of the principal enclosure are rows of heads (fig. 131). 
 Some of these are skulls, 8 others the heads of monkeys, 
 which animals are very numerous in the neighborhood, and 
 may have been the objects of the veneration, or even of the 
 worship, of the inhabitants. A human face (fig. 132) found 
 near the temple, also deserves to be reproduced. The in- 
 habitants of Copan have left their portraits in the bas-reliefs, 
 they have hewn them out of hard stone, they have modelled 
 them in earthenware. The desire of perpetuating his 
 memory is a feeling innate in man ; we meet with it in every 
 clime and through every age. 
 
 The whole of Yucatan is covered with interesting ruins. 
 In the north are Izamal, Ake, Merida, Mayapan ; in the 
 centre, Uxmal, Kabah, Labna, and nineteen other towns, the 
 extent of which attest their importance ; and in the east, 
 Chichen-Itza, one of the wonders of America. The south- 
 ern districts, especially that bordering on Guatemala, are less 
 known, but it has already been ascertained that brilliant dis- 
 coveries are reserved to explorers in the province of Itur- 
 
 1 Bull. Soc. Geog., vol. V., 2d series, Paris. 1836. 
 
 2 These hieroglyphics resemble those of Palenque, and like the latter are still 
 undeciphered. 
 
 8 There are other examples of this style of decoration. At Nohpat a frieze 
 has been found covered with skulls and cross-bones. Nohpat may have been 
 a town as large as Uxmal ; but the ruins themselves have almost entirely dis- 
 appeared. Stephens: " Yucatan, " vol. II., p. 348. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 333 
 
 bide. " That extensive ruins yet lie hidden in these unex- 
 plored regions can hardly be doubted ; indeed, it is by no 
 means certain that the grandest cities, even in the settled 
 and partially explored part of the peninsula, have yet been 
 described." ' Bancroft's prediction has been verified, and 
 while this volume was in press, Charnay discovered, on the 
 borders of the province of Pachualko, and of the country 
 claimed by Guatemala, a town in ruins, containing monu- 
 ments of the same style as those of Palenque. The origin 
 and the name of this town are alike entirely unknown, and 
 Charnay thought himself authorized to call it Lorillard City. 
 The decoration consists chiefly of 
 stucco, which is in a very bad con- 
 dition ; the skilful explorer was, 
 however, able to remove five bas- 
 reliefs, and take casts frorn^ them. 
 As at Palenque, we find a cruciform 
 symbol ; but it resembles rather the 
 Buddhist than the Christian cross. 8 
 Most of these ruins have been 
 described, so we content ourselves 
 with giving a rapid summary of 
 the most important of them. 
 
 One preliminary remark must 
 be made. There are notable 
 
 FIG. 131. Head of a monkey on 
 a pyramid at Copan. 
 
 differences between the monuments of Chiapas and those 
 of Yucatan. " The mode of construction of Palenque," 
 says M. Viollet-le-Duc, " did not consist, as at Chichen-Itza, 
 or Uxmal, in facings of dressed stone in front of cyclopean 
 masonry ; but in covering the masonry with coatings of 
 ornamented stucco and with large slabs." 
 
 The character of the sculpture at Palenque is far from 
 possessing the energy of that met with in the buildings of 
 Yucatan. The types of the persons represented differ yet 
 more. They have features very dissimilar to those of the 
 
 'Bancroft, /. <:., vol. IV., p. 148. 
 
 'Hamy : Soc. of Geog., meeting of January 2, 1882. 
 
334 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Aryan race at Palenque. They sensibly resemble it at 
 Chichen-Itza. Lastly, it is only in the monuments of Yuca- 
 tan that we can trace the influence of earlier construction in 
 wood. 1 
 
 " Nothing," adds Charnay, after his first exploration, 
 "can vie with the richness, grandeur, and harmony of the 
 buildings of Uxmal. It is not improbable that the founders 
 of the ancient towns of Yucatan were descended from the 
 inhabitants of Palenque, or at least that their civilization 
 grew out of that much more ancient one." 
 
 FIG. 132. Fragment found near the temple of Copan. 
 
 To these very just remarks we must add, that at Copan 
 these differences can already be established. The sculp- 
 tures, and the ornaments covering them, differ from those 
 of Palenque, and more nearly approach those we are about 
 to describe at Uxmal and at Chichen-Itza. Here, then, we 
 have the point of union between two modes of structure, 
 which differ in appearance alone. 
 
 The origin of the name of Uxmal is unknown. The ruins 
 are about thirty-five miles from Merida, and cover a consid- 
 
 1 Viollet-le-Duc, Int., p. 97, after Charnay: "Cites et Ruines Ame'ri- 
 caines." We must say, however, in regard to the reference he makes to the 
 Aryans, that so far there is nothing to justify any one in connecting the Aryan 
 with the American races. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 335 
 
 crable area. 1 The Casa del Gobernador (fig. 133), the most 
 remarkable of all, rises from a natural eminence artificially 
 enlarged by means of rubble masonry, and cut by three suc- 
 cessive terraces ; the walls are of rough stone, cemented 
 with very hard mortar. The Casa itself is three hundred 
 and twenty-two feet long by thirty-nine wide and about 
 twenty-six high. The interior includes a double corridor, 
 the section of which recalls that which we have described at 
 Palenque (fig. 125), and several rooms of very varying di- 
 mensions. The walls of these rooms are of rough stone, 
 without traces of painting or sculpture ; in one or two places 
 only are there traces of plaster. The doors were surrounded 
 with lintels of sapotilla wood, and one of these lintels, cov- 
 ered with finely under-cut ornaments, is in the National 
 Museum at Washington. 
 
 All the richness of ornamentation was reserved for the 
 external walls. At about one third of the height a frieze 
 runs round the building, presenting a series of curved lines, 
 arabesques, and ornaments of every kind of execution, as 
 capricious as it is grotesque. 2 Amongst these ornaments 
 Greek frets are prominent ; this type of ornament, so com- 
 mon for centuries in Europe, furnishes yet another proof of 
 the similarity of the genius of man, everywhere and at all 
 times, as manifested in the least important of his works. 
 
 Amongst these ornaments some elephant-trunks are sup- 
 posed to have been made out ; this would be a curious fact, 3 
 if true, for the elephant was certainly not living in America 
 at the time of the erection of the monuments of Uxmal. 
 His memory must then have been preserved in a permanent 
 tradition, and it is possible that this may turn out to be an 
 
 1 Waldeck : " Voy. pittoresque et arch, dans la Prov. de Yucatan," fol., 
 Paris, 1838. Norman : " Rambles in Yucatan," New York, 1843. Baron von 
 Friederickstahl : " Les Monuments du Yucatan," 1841. Charnay : " Cites et 
 Ruines Americaines," Paris, 1863. Bancroft: "Native Races," vol. IV., p. 
 149. Short : " North Americans of Antiquity," p. 347. 
 
 1 Brasseur de Bourbourg : " Hist, des Nat. Civ. du Mexique et de 1'Am. 
 Centrale," vol. II., p. 23. 
 
 "' We meet with this ornament at the Casa Grande of Zaya, at a short distance 
 from Uxmal. It is possible that the sculptures may relate to the tapir. 
 
336 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 indication of the Asiatic origin of the civilization under 
 notice. 
 
 Other animals also served as models to the workmen ; at 
 the Casa de Tortuguas the decoration consists of an imitation 
 of palisades formed of round wooden posts. Tortoises in 
 relief are the sole interruption to the horizontal line of the 
 upper frieze. 
 
 In front of the palace, a round stone several yards high, 
 
 FIG. 133. Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal. 
 
 without ornaments, without even a trace of human workman- 
 ship, rises like a column ; other similar stones were erected 
 in various parts of the town. Some think these are phallic 
 emblems, and hence conclude that the ancient people of 
 Yucatan were devotees of the phallic cultus. But Brasseur 
 de Bourbourg (/. c., vol. IV., p. 67) tells us that the natives 
 call these stone picotes and think they were intended to b"e 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 337 
 
 used as whipping-posts. Would it not be more natural 
 to look upon these stones as gnomons, similar to those we 
 shall have to describe later in speaking of the monuments 
 of Peru ? 
 
 The Casa de Monjas is looked upon as the most remark- 
 able building of Central America. It presents considerable 
 resemblance with the Casa del Gobernador. Here too we see 
 the traditional mound, surmounted by a platform, on which 
 rise four different buildings surrounding a court. 1 These 
 buildings contain eighty-eight rather small rooms, at regular 
 intervals, reminding us of the pueblos of New Mexico. The 
 inside walls are bare and doors are altogether wanting. It 
 is evident that the inhabitants, protected by their poverty, 
 or perhaps by the sanctity of the spot, lived in complete 
 security. 
 
 The outer walls are adorned with a vast frieze in which 
 the grandeur and originality of native art are alike displayed. 
 " Every alternate door " says Charnay (p. 364), " is sur- 
 rounded by a niche of marvellous workmanship ; these were 
 to be occupied by statues. As for the frieze itself, it is 
 a remarkable collection of pavillions in which curious figures 
 of idols grow, as if by accident, out of the arrangement 
 of stones, and remind us of the enormous sculptured heads 
 of the palace of Chichen-Itza ; finely executed curved bands in 
 stone serve as frames to them, and vaguely suggest hiero- 
 glyphic characters ; then follows a succession of Greek frets 
 of large size, alternating at the angles with squares and 
 little rosettes of admirable finish." It is estimated that all 
 these sculptures cover an area of twenty-four thousand 
 square feet ; no two are alike, and the artist has everywhere 
 been able to give free scope to his imagination. 
 
 The western building is the most remarkable of this col- 
 lection of structures but unfortunately a great part of it has 
 crumbled away. The left wing, Casa de la Culebra, still 
 
 1 The measurements of these buildings given by different explorers differ con- 
 siderably among themselves. Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 174) gives them all. We 
 refer the reader to him. 
 
338 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 standing, represents a huge rattlesnake, running all along 
 the facade, the interlacing coils of its body serving as frames 
 to different panels. 1 
 
 The northern building, rising from a platform about twenty 
 feet high, dominates the whole court. 2 It was surrounded by 
 thirteen towers, each seventeen feet in height, loaded with 
 ornaments. Of these towers four only were still standing at 
 the time of Stephens' visit. On these towers two figures 
 were noticed exhibiting priapism ; this fact would tend 
 to confirm the existence of the phallic cultus at tlxmal. 
 
 In some places, better protected against the inclemency 
 of the weather, traces have been made out of pictures drawn 
 with a rich and brilliant red. 3 
 
 The purpose of the Casa de Monjas is quite unknown. It 
 has, however, been supposed that it was the residence of 
 Maya virgins, who, like the Roman vestals or the Peruvian 
 Mamacunas, kept up the sacred fire. There is nothing 
 either to confirm or to contradict this idea. Amongst the 
 other buildings of Uxmal, we will mention the Casa del Adi- 
 vino, with the outer walls painted in different colors, rising 
 from a pyramid eighty-eight feet high, and built of rubble 
 set in mortar. The Casa del Enano, or "house of the 
 dwarf," says Charnay, " consists of a structure with two in- 
 ner rooms and a sort of chapel below. This little piece is 
 chiselled like a jewel." Waldeck (p. 96) says it is a master- 
 piece of art and elegance. " Loaded with ornaments more 
 rich, more elaborate and carefully executed than those of 
 any other edifice in Uxmal." 4 Besides these there are 
 the Tolokh-eis, or holy mountain, and the Kingsborough 
 pyramid. At a short distance from the town are other ruins, 
 dating probably from the same period, of the same style of 
 architecture, and rising invariably from mounds which form 
 a lower platform. This was evidently a general custom, and 
 extended from the temple of the gods to the chief's houses. 
 
 'Charnay, /. c., p. 367. 
 
 11 Waldeck, /. c., pi., XIII and XVIII. 
 
 3 Stephens : " Yucatan," vol. II., p. 30. 
 
 4 Stephens : "Yucatan," vol. I., p. 313 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 339 
 
 In describing the shell-heaps, mounds, and cliff-dwellings, 
 we had frequent occasion to speak of the stone or bone in- 
 struments or fragments of pottery bearing witness to the 
 presence of man. We have no similar discovery to relate, 
 either at Palenque, Copan, Uxmal, or the other towns of 
 which we shall have to speak, and the excavations hitherto 
 made have only yielded a few flints and still fewer fragments 
 
 Fie. 134. Portico at Kabah. 
 
 of pottery. It is, however, impossible that such monuments 
 could have been created without an important population 
 and a long residence. Why have the weapons, implements, 
 and vases disappeared ? Why do the graves of the builders 
 of the monuments render up none of their bones ? No re- 
 ply is as yet possible ; we can but collect facts, leaving those 
 who shall come after us the task of drawing conclusions from 
 
340 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 them. It is likely, however, that the mere rubbish heaps 
 might, as in civilized cities, have been removed to a distance 
 for sanitary reasons. We must recollect that the ruins of 
 an ordinary town would yield few weapons or implements 
 to an excavator five centuries hence. 
 
 The ruins of Kabah and Labna, very near those of Ux- 
 mal, deserve a moment's attention. At Kabah a pyramid 
 measuring 180 square feet at the base, and a portico (fig. 134) 
 recalling a Roman structure, rise before the traveller. How 
 did this souvenir of ancient Rome come to be in the midst 
 of a solitude in the New World ? And how can we help ad- 
 miring the marvellous unity of the genius of marj, leading 
 him constantly to arrive at identical results ? We can never 
 weary of calling attention to this. It is one of the chief in- 
 terests of our study. 1 
 
 The buildings of Labna were no less remarkable than those 
 of Uxmal ; but unfortunately they are in a state of ex- 
 treme decay. 3 The chief building was covered with stucco 
 ornaments, which are breaking off and rapidly disappearing. 
 One can still make out a row of skulls, some bas-reliefs 
 representing human figures, and a globe of considerable di- 
 ameter upheld by two men, one of whorti is kneeling. 
 All these figures retain some traces of color. 
 
 At Zayi, the Casa Grande has three stories, each 
 smaller than the one below it ; the first measures 265 
 feet by 120; the second, 220 by 60; the third, 150 by 
 1 8. A staircase thirty-two feet wide, and somewhat like 
 those met with in various parts of Yucatan, leads up to 
 the third story. 
 
 Chichen-Itza, one of the few towns which has preserved 
 its ancient Maya name, from chicken, opening of a well, and 
 lisa, one of the chief branches of the Maya race, was a 
 dependency of the Mayapan confederacy. On the destruc- 
 
 1 Stephens, loc. cit., vol. I., p. 398. Baldwin: "Ancient America," New 
 York, 1872, p. 139. 
 
 8 Stephens, loc. cit., vol. II., p. 16 : " The summits of the neighboring hills 
 are capped with gray, broken walls for many miles around." Norman : " Ram* 
 bles in Yucatan," p. 150. 
 
THE RUINS 01-' CENTKAL AMERICA. 34! 
 
 tion of the latter in the fifteenth century, it managed to 
 maintain its independence, and it was not until two centuries 
 after the conquest, on the I3th of March, 1697, that it was 
 taken by the Spanish and given over to pillage ; from this 
 period dates its complete destruction. 1 
 
 Over an area of several miles we see nothing but artificial 
 mounds, overturned columns, of which no less than 480 
 bases have been counted, broken sculptures, rude colon- 
 nades, the length of which astonishes us, and masses of 
 rubbish, the last form assumed by the monuments that 
 man, in his pride, thought he had built for eternity. 
 Chichen was one of the chief religious centres of Yucatan ; 
 hence its importance and the number and magnificence of 
 its temples and buildings. 2 Amongst those still standing, 
 we may mention the circus, castle, palace of the nuns, the 
 Caracol or spiral staircase, and the Chichanchob, or the Red 
 house, as they are now called. 
 
 The circus was probably nothing but a gymnasium, in 
 which the young men met for trials of strength, skill, and 
 agility. The monument formerly included two parallel 
 pyramids, extending about 350 feet. That on the left, still 
 well preserved, is covered with paintings. These represent 
 processions of warriors or of priests, some carrying weapons ; 
 some offerings ; they have black beards, and they wear 
 strange head-dresses on their heads, and wide tunics on their 
 shoulders. The colors employed are black, red, yellow, and 
 white. The bas-reliefs are remarkable ; all the faces are of 
 the present Yucatan type, and contrast strongly with the 
 pointed heads and retreating foreheads represented at 
 Palenque, and which are said to be still met with amongst 
 the inferior mountain races. 
 
 1 Landa, Bishop of Merida, who died in 1579 : " Relacion de las Cosas de 
 Yucatan," p. 340. Fried rickstahl : " Nouv. Annales des Voyages," 1841, p. 
 300, et seq. Stephens: " Yucatan," vol. II., p. 282. Norman: "Rambles 
 in Yucatan," p. 104. Charnay, /. c., p. 339. Baron Friederichstahl visited the 
 ruins in 1840, Stephens and Norman in 1842, Charnay, in 1858. 
 
 1 " A city which I hazard little in saying must have been one of the largest 
 the world has ever seen." Norman: " Rambles," p. 108. 
 
342 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The palace of the nuns rests upon a base of masonry 32 
 feet high, and 160 by 112 wide. The bujlding, which is 
 reached by a wide staircase, was two stories high ; the walls 
 are ornamented with rich sculptures, similar to those of 
 Uxmal, and the door has an ornamentation of stone tur- 
 rets, which we cannot better compare than with Chinese or 
 Japanese structures. A protestant missionary, Hardy, has 
 ("Indian Monachism," p. 122) called attention to the resem- 
 blance between the buildings of Chichen and the topes or 
 dagobas of the Buddhists. 
 
 FIG. 135. Jamb ornament of a door of the castle at Chichen-Itza. 
 
 Inside is a room forty-seven feet long, with walls coated 
 with plaster, on which can be made out, though they have 
 suffered greatly from damp, some men crowned with 
 feathers. 
 
 The name of castle has been given to a pyramid the base 
 of which measures 197 feet by 202. Its height is 75 feet, 
 and it ends in a platform reached by a staircase, enclosed by 
 a balustrade, covered with serpents' heads ; from this plat- 
 form rises a building 49 feet by 43, the chief door of which 
 faces northward. The jambs of this door are of stone and 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 343 
 
 covered with sculptures. We reproduce one of these bas- 
 reliefs (fig. 135), which may give an idea of the face and the 
 head-dress of the inhabitants. The ornament fastened to the 
 nose is particularly characteristic. The internal arrange- 
 ment, of which the ground-plan (fig. 136) enables us to 
 judge, differs from any thing we have yet noticed. 
 
 The Chichanchob, 1 or Red house, (fig. 137) is the best-pre- 
 served monument of Chichen. It includes only one dwell- 
 ing, placed on a pyramid of moderate height, with three 
 doors facing west, lighting a gallery of the same height as 
 the structure. This gallery gives access to three rooms 
 which are only lighted through their doors. Charnay, who 
 mentions this, adds that he 
 has never noticed any win- 
 dows in the numerous ruins 
 of Yucatan visited by him. 
 
 The Caracal is a circular 
 building only twenty-two feet 
 in diameter. The inside re- 
 calls the estufas met with 
 among the Cliff Dwellers, and 
 consists of a mass of masonry 
 
 FIG. 136. Ground plan of the castle 
 of Chichen-Itza. a, square pillars 
 in the centre of the principal room. 
 i>, columns supporting the northern 
 door. 
 
 with a very narrow double 
 corridor. The building rises 
 from two artificial terraces 
 placed one upon the other. 
 The lower terrace, according to Stephens, measures two hun- 
 dred and twenty-three feet by one hundred and fifty, the up- 
 per terrace thirty feet by fifty-five. A flight of twenty steps, 
 forty-five feet in length, leads from the first to the second, 
 and is ornamented with a balustrade which represents inter- 
 laced serpents. The serpent plays an important part in the 
 architecture of Chichen-Itza. We meet it at every turn, and 
 it is not difficult to see in it a religious symbol. 
 
 We cannot exaggerate the richness of the sculptures ; the 
 
 'We do not know why the Indians give to this building the name of 
 la Carcel, the prison. 
 
344 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 church built for the Indians is filled with bas-reliefs taken 
 from these ruins. The paintings are even more numerous 
 than the sculptures ; everywhere can be made out long pro- 
 cessions of men and animals, defiles, battles, struggles be- 
 tween a man and a tiger or a serpent, trees, houses. 1 One 
 of these paintings on the walls of the circus represents 
 a boat somewhat resembling a Chinese junk, and is the only 
 example thus far known of the mode of navigation of these 
 ancient people. Stephens says, speaking of this boat, " that 
 it is the greatest gem of aboriginal art which, on the whole 
 continent of America, now survives." 
 
 FIG. 137. Chichanchob at Clychen-Itza. 
 
 Nor are hieroglyphics wanting. In form they resemble 
 those of Copan. Like the latter they are still undeciphered, 
 and we know of but one exception, which we quote with all 
 due reservation, and then only since it has been published by 
 the authority of an important scientific body, the American 
 Antiquarian Society. 2 
 
 1 Stephens: "Yucatan," vol. II., pp. 303, 305. 
 
 'Salisbury: "The Mayas, the Sources of their History," Worcester, 1877. 
 "Maya Arch.," Worcester, 1879. Short: "North Americans," pp. 396, 
 et seq. Letter of Dr. Le Plongeon, of Jan. 15, 1878. Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc., 
 Oct. 21, 1878. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 345 
 
 Before relating this discovery it will be well to tell 
 the legend on which it is founded. Chaak Mool, also known 
 under the name of Balam, the tiger chief, was one of three 
 brothers who shared between them the government of 
 Yucatan. He had married Kinich Katm6, a woman of 
 marvellous beauty, who inspired Aak, one of her brothers-in- 
 
 FIG. 138. Bas-relief found by Dr. Le Plongeon at Chichen-Itza. 
 
 law, with ardent love. This Aak, to obtain her hand, 
 did not hesitate to have her husband assassinated ; but 
 Kinich remained faithful to the memory of Chaak, and 
 her conjugal piety led her to have his statue made, and 
 to adorn her palace with paintings representing the chief 
 events in his life and the sad scene of his death. In one of 
 
346 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 these paintings Aak holds in his hand three spears, which 
 symbolize the three wounds inflicted on his brother. The 
 Assyrian type is supposed by some to be recognizable in the 
 three personages who are represented three quarters of the 
 size of life. Beside them we see three tall men, with 
 rather small heads, thick lips, and woolly hair, in which some 
 see examples of the negro type. 
 
 Dr. Le Plongeon, who visited the ruins of Chichen-Itza 
 in 1875 tells us that he succeeded in deciphering part of the 
 hieroglyphics accompanying the figures; from which he 
 learned that the tornb of Chaak Mool was to be found at a 
 
 FIG. 139. Statue of Chaak Mool, found at Chichen-Itza. 
 
 place pointed out, about 435 yards from the palace. Ex- 
 cavations were undertaken, and succcessively brought to 
 light several bas-reliefs, representing feline animals or birds 
 of prey (fig. 138); a figure in the form of a tiger with a 
 human face ; about twenty feet lower down a stone urn, 
 with a terra-cotta lid, filled with ashes which no one seems 
 to have thought of analyzing ; and lastly the statue of a man 
 reclining upon a sepulchral stone (fig. 139). The type of 
 the face, the costume, the head-dress, do not resemble those 
 seen, either at Chichen-Itza or in the other towns of Yuca- 
 tan ; and to specify one point only, the sandals are like those 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 347 
 
 found on the feet of the Guancho mummies of the Canary 
 Islands. 
 
 Dr. Le Plongeon was not to reap the fortunate result of his 
 excavations ; the Mexican Government took possession of 
 the statue, which is now in the National Museum of Mexico. 
 
 This is not an isolated discovery ; several similar statues 
 are known, one of which, also part of the collections 
 of the National Museum, was found in Mexico itself 1 ; 
 another comes from Tlascala ; and a smaller Chaak Mool 
 from Merida. This recurrence of the same figure at 
 different places, at a distance from each other, leads 
 us to suppose that it represents not a legendary king of 
 Chichen-Itza, but an as yet unknown divinity. This is 
 Charnay's feeling. " The statue of Yucatan," he tells us, 
 " cannot represent a king, for it is impossible to admit that 
 a king of Yucatan was venerated as a god at Mexico or at 
 Tlascala." 2 
 
 Many pages would be required to describe all the innumer- 
 able ruins covering Yucatan 3 ; worthy of mention is a 
 gigantic head, the Cara Gigantesca (fig. 140) which is re- 
 markable for its expression ; it is made of a kind of coarse 
 rubble masonry, the blocks of which have been skilfully 
 turned to account by the sculptor in forming the cheeks, 
 mouth, nose, and eyes ; the head has been finished in a 
 stucco so hard as to have lasted for centuries. This head is 
 seven feet high. Charnay mentions another, of the same 
 cyclopean character, surrounded by strange ornaments ; it is 
 larger than the one we reproduce, being twelve feet high. 
 In a second journey Charnay discovered a bas-relief, which 
 he characterizes as more beautiful than any that have as 
 
 1 Letter from the Rev. John Butler, of the loth of October, 1878. Butler 
 looks upon the statue found at Mexico as more ancient than those of Chichen ; 
 but as he does not give the grounds for his opinion, we cannot do more than 
 quote it. See also Short, /. f., p. 399. Revue d* Ethnographic, vol. I., p. 163. 
 
 * Revue d 'Ethnographic, vol. I., p. 167. 
 
 3 We should perhaps mention Ake, with its cyclopean walls, made of huge 
 blocks of rough stone, which Stephens, one of the few explorers who have 
 visited them, considers the most ancient ruins of the district. (" Yucatan," vol. 
 I., p. 127. 
 
348 
 
 PRE-II1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 yet been found. The chief subject, unfortunately damaged, 
 represents a feline animal with a human head, perfectly 
 modelled. On the left of the animal are some grotesque 
 decorations, reminding us of the ornaments of Palenqueand 
 Uxmal. 1 The head figured was discovered at Izamal, one 
 of the sacred towns of Yucatan, where Zamna, the compan- 
 ion aiid disciple of Votan, is said to be buried. According 
 to the accounts of the Indians, the prophet Zamna was 
 buried beneath several pyramids. That on the northeast 
 
 FIG. 140. Cara Gigantesca found at Izamal. 
 
 (Kab-ul, the industrious hand) contains his right hand. 
 The head is buried beneath the northern pyramid (KinicJi- 
 Kakmo the sun with rays of fire). The heart is beneath the 
 third, from which now rises a church and Franciscan convent. 
 This pyramid is called Ppapp-hol-chak, the house of heads 
 and lightnings. 
 
 It is to Zamna that the Yucatecs ascribed all their pro- 
 gress ; tradition attributes to him the invention of hiero- 
 glyphic writing, and he was the first to teach the people to 
 give a name to men and to things. 
 
 1 Letter from Merida of the 28th, Jan. 1882. Rev. d'Ethn., vol. I., p. 160. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 349 
 
 Besides the Cara Gigantesca, Izamal possesses several 
 pyramids. One of them is from 700 to 800 feet long, and 
 contains, like the pyramids of Egypt, several chambers ; 
 it is considered the most important building in the district. 1 
 These pyramids are rapidly disappearing ; Bishop Landa * 
 counted eleven or twelve at the time of the conquest, 
 and even then the temples crowning them were in ruins. 
 
 The accounts of Spanish historians 3 leave no doubt of 
 the existence of roads, made for the convenience of travel- 
 lers, and above all to give access to the religious centres. 
 Some of them extended beyond the limits of Yucatan, 
 and stretched into the neighboring kingdoms of Guate- 
 mala, Chiapas, and Tabasco. Some of these roads were 
 paved ; such were the Calzadas spoken of by Cogolludo and 
 Bishop Landa, which led to Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, Izamal, 
 and to Tihoo, the ruins of which have been used to build the 
 modern town of Merida. These last highways measure 
 from between seven and eight yards in width ; they are 
 made of blocks of stone, covered with very well-preserved 
 mortar and a layer of cement about two inches thick. The 
 rivers were spanned by bridges of masonry ; Clavigero, 4 who 
 traversed the whole of Mexico during the last century, speaks 
 of having seen still standing, in many places, the massive piers 
 intended to support them. 
 
 We will close what we have to say of the Maya monu- 
 ments with one general observation : Their number and 
 their dimensions, the taste governing their design and the 
 richness of their ornamentation, strike even the most super- 
 ficial observer. The progress made by these little known 
 races in ceramic art, the manufacture of textile fabrics and 
 embroidery, and all the technical or industrial arts is not less 
 remarkable. 
 
 There is no doubt that, at the time of the arrival of the 
 
 1 Stephens : " Yucatan," vol. II., p. 434. 
 * " Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan," p. 326. 
 
 8 Landa, /. c. , p. 344. Cogolludo : " Hist, de Yucatan, "p. 193. Chamay : 
 " Cites et Ruines Americaines," p. 321. 
 4 "Storia antica del Messico," vol. II., p. 371. 
 
35 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Spaniards, the Indians were in some respects superior to the 
 Conquistadores ; but the latter had horses and gunpowder, 
 and were, moreover, endowed with a superior energy. The 
 Indians succumbed in an unequal struggle, and rapidly be- 
 came the prey of the avaricious strangers, incapable even of 
 understanding the culture they were about to destroy. 
 
 The buildings erected by the Nahuas were, according to 
 historians, more important than those of the Mayas. We 
 have described the courts of' the rulers of Tenotchitlan and 
 Tezcuco : their dwellings probably corresponded with the mag- 
 nificence of their temples, but have perished. The rage of 
 the Spaniards, irritated as they were by an unexpected re- 
 sistance, together with the gloomy fanaticism of the priests 
 and monks accompanying the army, were the chief causes of 
 a destruction for ever irreparable. The ruins that still re- 
 main standing, sole witnesses of the past, add to our regrets. 
 It would be impossible to describe or even to enumerate 
 them all. We therefore select from them such as may serve 
 as a type of Nahuatl architecture, and best help us to un- 
 derstand the manners and religion of the Nahuas. 
 
 The pyramid of Cholula l is situated in a miserable village, 
 about ten miles from Puebla de los Angeles. A magnificent 
 temple, dedicated according to some to the sun, according 
 to others to Quetzacoatl, rose from the platform crowning 
 the pyramid, but it was entirely destroyed by Cortes, after a 
 battle which took place at the very foot of the monument. 
 The pyramid still standing measures 1,440 feet square, and 
 covers an area nearly double the extent of that of the great 
 pyramid of Cheops ; its height, according to Humboldt, was 
 177 feet,* and the summit was reached by four successive 
 
 1 Humboldt, " Essai pol. sur le roy. de la Nouvelle Espagne," Paris, 1811, 
 p. 239, and " Vues des Cordilleres," Paris, 1816, p. 96. Dupaix : " Prem. 
 Exp." Kingsborough, vol. V. and VI. Jones : " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII. 
 Clavigero: " St. Ant. del Messico," vol. II., p. 33. Clavigero visited Cholula 
 in 1744 ; Humboldt, in 1803. Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 471) gives as usual a very 
 complete bibliography. 
 
 'Mayer ("Mexico as it Was," p. 26) says 204 feet; Tylor : " Anahuac," 
 205 feet. 
 
THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 35 1 
 
 terraces. Here the material employed was no longer dressed 
 stones, as in Yucatan, but adobes about fifteen inches long, 
 similar to those employed by the Pueblo Indians, cemented 
 with a very hard mortar mixed with little stones and even 
 fragments of pottery. A German traveller ' adds that the 
 four faces were coated with a cement similar to that in use 
 at the present day. 
 
 Excavations have shown the regularity of the building, 
 and have brought to light a tomb of slabs of stones, sup- 
 ported by posts of cedar wood. Two skeletons rested in 
 this tomb, and beside them lay two basalt figures, various or- 
 naments of little value, and some fragments of pottery. 
 The pyramid of Cholula may therefore have been a tomb ; 
 but if so, its ostentatious structure was as powerless here as 
 in Egypt to preserve the bones of its inmates from the profa- 
 nation so much dreaded. There are, however, some doubts 
 as to the purpose of the pyramid. The skeletons were not 
 placed in the centre of the monument, into which the ex- 
 plorers were not able to enter. It has therefore been sup- 
 posed that they were those of slaves, killed at the time of 
 the erection of the monuments. M. Bandelier looks upon 
 the buildings of Cholula as having been chiefly defensive 
 works.* 
 
 According to certain legends, of which traces are met with 
 amongst the natives, this pyramid was erected in expecta- 
 tion of a fresh deluge. Father Duran gives another version ' ; 
 that men, dazzled by the glory of the sun, had tried to erect 
 a structure which should reach up to the firmament ; the in- 
 habitants of heaven, indignant at such audacity, destroyed 
 the building and dispersed the builders. 
 
 Historic data are neither more serious nor more precise 
 than legends. The dates of the erection of the pyramids 
 vary from the seventh to the tenth century of our era. 
 Cholula was then an important town in the power of the 
 
 x Heller : " Reisen in Mexiko," Leipzig, 1853, p. 131. 
 2 " Arch. Hist, of America," Nov., 1881. 
 
 * " Hist. Ant. de la Nueva Espana," vol. I., chap. I. (The history was 
 written about 1585.) 
 
35 2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Toltecs, so that it is to them that the building under notice 
 must be due. 
 
 Xochicalco, seventy-five miles northwest of Mexico, is cer- 
 tainly one of the most peculiar monuments of the province. 1 
 
 In the centre of the plain rises a conical eminence, the 
 base of which, of oval form, is two miles in circum- 
 ference and the height of which is variously estimated 
 at from 300 to 400 feet. Two tunnels, pierced in 
 the flank of the hill, open on the north ; the first has 
 been penetrated for a distance of eighty-two feet, where 
 the explorers were obliged to turn back. The second 
 tunnel pierces the calcareous mass of the hill, as a gal- 
 lery nine feet and a half high, which extends by various 
 branches to a length of several hundred feet. A pavement, 
 no less than a foot and a half thick, covers the ground ; the 
 sides are strengthened with walls of masonry, wherever such 
 works are necessary, then coated with cement and painted 
 with red ochre. The principal gallery leads to a room 
 measuring eighty feet, and the architects' practical knowl- 
 edge of their art was such that they were able to contrive 
 two piers to give more solidity to the roof. In one of the 
 corners of the room opens a little rotunda, six feet in diam- 
 eter, excavated, as is the room itself, in the rock, and of which 
 the dome, in the form of a pointed arch, greatly struck the 
 first explorers, who were not at all prepared to find in the 
 heart of Mexico a specimen of Gothic art. 
 
 The whole of the outside of the hill is covered with a 
 revetment of masonry, forming five successive terraces, sev- 
 enty feet high, upheld by walls crowned with parapets. Du- 
 paix relates that the summit was reached by a path eight 
 
 1 Alzate y Ramirez visited Xochicalco in 1777, and, in 1791, published a 
 very inexact account of his discoveries, under the title of " Descripcion de las 
 Antiguedades de Xochicalco." Dupaix and Castaneda visited the ruins in 
 1831, and the Revista Mexicana (vol. I., p. 539) gives the result of a more 
 recent exploration, made at the cost of the Mexican Government. Lastly, 
 among other explorers, we name : Humboldt, " Vues des Cordilleres." vol. I., 
 p. 98. Tylor : " Anahuac," p. 189. Nehel : "Viaje pittoresco y arqueo- 
 logico sobre la rep. Mejicana." 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 353 
 
 feet wide. The platform measures three hundred and 
 twenty-eight feet by two hundred and eighty-five. A tem- 
 ple (fig. 141) measuring sixty-five feet from east to west, 
 and fifty-eight from north to south, rose from this platform, 
 in honor of an unknown god ; the building, which was of 
 rectangular form, was constructed of blocks of porphyritic 
 granite, 1 laid without mortar, and with such art that the 
 joints are scarcely visible. It is impossible to estimate the 
 
 FIG. 141. Ruins of the temple of Xochicalco, Mexico. 
 
 labor required to take these blocks from a distant quarry 
 and place them at the height they occupy. 
 
 In 1755 there were five stories, one behind the other, to 
 the temple ; it was crowned by a stone which could be used as 
 a seat, and which was covered, as was the rest of the building, 
 with an ornamentation which must have been as difficult to 
 
 '"Porfirdo granitico," Rei'ista Mex., vol. I., p. 548. " Basalto porfirico," 
 Nebel. " Basalt," Lowenstern, Mex., p. 209. " La calidad de piedra de esta 
 magnifica arquitectura est de piedra vitrificabile," Alzate, /. c., p. 8. 
 
354 
 
 PRE-HISTOK1C AMERICA. 
 
 execute as it is to describe. An unfortunately very inexact 
 model on reduced scale of this monument figured in the in- 
 ternational exhibition of 1867. It was reproduced in the 
 Illustrated London News, of June i, 1867. It is fair to add 
 that the destruction of Xochicalco is not to be imputed to 
 the Spaniards ; the author of this act of vandalism was a 
 neighboring land-holder, who wanted to use the stone for 
 building a factory. 
 
 The long wars which desolated Anahuac, and which were 
 in truth, the normal state of the country, had led to the 
 erection of vast defensive works, and traces of these fortifi- 
 cations have been made out at Huatusco, in the province of 
 Vera Cruz, whence they stretched for a very great distance 
 northward. Centla appears to have been one of the chief for- 
 
 FiG. 142. Pyramid at Centla. 
 
 tified places; ruins cover the plain ; but they are gradually dis- 
 appearing, destroyed by the inhabitants. A neighboring for- 
 est hides several pyramids, which, thanks to its protection, 
 have remained standing. 1 We reproduce one of them, which 
 may serve as a type (fig. 142). The walls are of dressed 
 stone, cemented with lime mortar ; but lime was doubtless 
 costly, and all the inside of the walls is of rubble, laid in 
 clay. Niches are prepared in various places to receive stat- 
 ues, or symbols of the protective deities. 
 
 These pyramids are certainly the most striking examples 
 of ancient American architecture. It is from truncated pyra- 
 mids that the teocallis or palaces rise at Palenque as at 
 Copan, in Yucatan and Honduras as in Anahuac ; the trav- 
 
 'Sartorius, " Soc. Mex. Geog. Boletin, 2 a epoca," vol. I., p. 821; vol. II., 
 p. 148. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 355 
 
 eller meets with them as far as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, 
 where two of them near the town of Tehuantepec are es- 
 pecially noticeable ; the larger measures one hundred and 
 twenty feet by fifty-five at the base, and sixty-six by thirty 
 at the platform crowning it ; a staircase no less than thirty 
 feet wide leads to this platform. 
 
 Local differences may be observed, the cause of which is 
 most often the difference of the materials at the disposal of 
 the builders ; but everywhere the primitive type is retained, 
 a development connecting itself with the mounds, which oc- 
 cur from the borders of the Ohio and the Mississippi into 
 Florida, and thence into more southern regions, where they 
 remain last witnesses of the migrations of these races. 
 
 Such are the chief ruins that recall the Nahuas. The 
 carelessness, the fanaticism, and the avarice of the conquerors 
 have rapidly destroyed monuments the magnificence of 
 which is alleged to have dazzled the Spaniards. These 
 monuments may be judged by our description of a few of 
 them, but it is probable that the exuberance of Spanish ad- 
 jectives and the natural tendency of travellers to exaggerate 
 the features of their discoveries are responsible for much 
 that has passed into history. 
 
 Tula, 1 the former capital of the Toltecs, is now represented 
 by a poor and miserable village, thirty miles to the north- 
 west of Mexico. Of its past grandeur it has preserved noth- 
 ing but its name. " Five centuries before the conquest," 
 says Sahagun, a " this great and celebrated town shared the 
 adverse fortunes of Troy." The ruins that existed have in 
 their turn disappeared, and excavations executed in 1873 
 yielded nothing but a monstrous idol and two basalt columns. 
 One of these (fig. 143), covered with ornaments finely exe- 
 
 1 There are several places of the name of Tula, Tulha, and Tulau ; hence a 
 serious difficulty. (" Popol.-Vuh, pp. LXXXV. and CCLIV.) Tula was, it 
 is said, destroyed by the Chichimecs in 1064, and the inhabitants took refuge at 
 Cholulan, the city of exiles. The latter town in its turn rose to importance 
 rapidly, for the Spaniards, we are told, gave it the name of Rome on account of 
 the splendor of its monuments. 
 
 * " Hist, de la cosas de Nueva Espana," prol. al. lib. VIII. 
 
356 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 cuted, is interesting, as it shows us the mode of jointing with 
 tenon and mortice employed by these people, who were al- 
 ready well advanced in their knowledge of technical pro- 
 cesses. 1 Other ruins of little importance are met with in the 
 neighborhood ; but we learn nothing about the ancient Tula. 
 Such was the state of things when recent discoveries re- 
 vealed facts which, should they be confirmed, will prove of 
 capital importance to the ancie-nt history of America. 
 
 Charnay, in the execution of a mission entrusted to him 
 by the French Government, went to Zula and 
 superintended the excavation of some tumuli, 
 mountains of rubbish probably, which had cov- 
 ered for many centuries the relics of the ancient 
 Toltecs. One dwelling thus exhumed consisted 
 of twenty-four rooms, two cisterns, twelve cor- 
 ridors, and fifteen little staircases " of extraordi- 
 nary architecture and thrilling interest," enthu- 
 siastically exclaims the fortunate explorer. 2 
 
 " This is not all," he adds ; " in the midst of 
 fragments of pottery of all kinds, from the 
 coarsest used in building, such as bricks, tiles, 
 water-pipes, to the most delicate for domestic 
 use, I have picked up enamels, fragments of 
 crockery and porcelain, and more extraordinary 
 still, the neck of a glass bottle iridescent like 
 ancient Roman glass." FIG. 143. Col- 
 
 A A-\- j 'u i ^L. -L. e umn from Tula. 
 
 Amongst the debris lay the bones of some 
 gigantic ruminants (perhaps bisons ?), the tibia of which 
 were about one foot three inches long by four inches thick, 
 
 1 " Soc. Mex. Geog. Boletin," 3d epoca, vol. I., p. 185. "The Toltecs 
 used indifferently stones mixed in mud or in mortar for the interior of the walls, 
 and cement and lime for coating them. They employed burnt brick and hewn 
 stone for the inside coating, brick and stone for the stairs, and wood for the 
 roofs. They were acquainted with the pilaster, which we have found in their 
 houses ; with the engaged column, caryatides, and the free column, and we 
 can think of few architectural devices that they did not know and use." 
 Charnay, " Bull. Soc. Geog.," Nov., 1881. 
 
 * Letter to the Trait d' Union of the 28th of August, 1880. "Archives des 
 Missions scientifiques," vol. VII. 
 
THE RUIN'S OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 357 
 
 the femur at the upper end about six inches by four inches. 
 
 Admitting that there is no mistake, these facts are abso- 
 lutely new, for previously it was considered that the early 
 Americans did not know how to make either glass or porce- 
 lain, and that before the arrival of the Conquistadors none 
 of our domestic animals were known in America, but that 
 the oxen, horses, and sheep living there at the present day 
 are all descended from ancestors imported from Europe. 
 
 The excavations have also yielded some little chariots 
 that Charnay thinks were the toys of children. Now, sup- 
 posing these toys to have been a reproduction in miniature 
 of objects used by men, we must conclude that the Toltecs 
 employed carriages, and that their use was not only given 
 up, but absolutely unknown on the arrival of Cortes. 1 
 
 These discoveries, we can but repeat, greatly modify the 
 conclusions hitherto accepted. But are these really original 
 productions ? May they not have been imported ? This is 
 after all doubtful, and new proofs are needed to establish 
 certainly that the objects discovered really date from the 
 pre-Columbian period before we can admit that in the elev- 
 enth century the Toltecs possessed domestic animals, that 
 they knew how to make and fashion porcelain, glass, perhaps 
 even iron, for Charnay also collected in his excavations sev- 
 eral iron implements. He himself expresses an idea that 
 the material of which they were made dates from the Span- 
 ish period. He does not explain why he makes an excep- 
 tion on this point with regard to the glass and porcelain 
 objects. 
 
 It is strong evidence against their prehistoric character 
 that all these elements of an advanced civilization must 
 have disappeared without leaving any trace even in the 
 memory of man. It is probable, therefore, that the differ- 
 ent objects brought to light by Charnay are later than the 
 Spanish conquest, and it will be wise to reserve our opinion 
 with regard to them until more complete information can 
 be obtained. 
 
 1 Revue des Questions scientifiques, Oct. , 1 88 1 , p. 640. 
 
. PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 No monument of Mexico has remained standing ; there is 
 nothing to recall the power of the Aztecs ; pyramids, pal- 
 aces, teocallis, all have disappeared ; the ruins themselves 
 are buried beneath the accumulated dust of three centuries; 
 and we are ignorant of the very position of the edifices over 
 the grandeur of which Spanish writers expatiate. 1 To get 
 some idea of what were the buildings of the Aztecs, we 
 must reproduce the description of the great temple erected 
 by Ahiutzotl in honor of the god Huitzilopochtli. 
 
 This temple occupied the centre of the town ; it was situ- 
 ated in the middle of an enclosure surrounded with walls 
 which extended for a length of 4,800 feet. These 
 were built in rubble-stone laid in mortar, coated with 
 plaster, polished on both faces, surrounded by turrets and 
 machicolations of spiral form, and ornamented with numer- 
 ous sculptures, chiefly representing serpents. Hence the 
 name by which they were known, Coetpantli, or walls 
 of serpents. 2 On each side was a building, the lowest story 
 of which served as a portal to the interior of the court. 
 
 On entering one found one's self opposite the great temple, 
 which formed a regular parallelogram of three hundred and 
 seventy-five feet by three hundred, and which like the other 
 teocallis rose in five terraces, each built smaller than 
 the other below it. The walls were of rubble, mixed with 
 clay and beaten earth, covered with large slabs of stone 
 carefully cemented and encased by a thick coating of gyp- 
 sum. The upper platform, which was reached by a flight of 
 three hundred and forty steps, passed round each of the ter- 
 races in succession, and was surmounted by two towers 
 
 1 Bernal Diaz : " Hist, verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espafia," 
 fol. 70. ; " Relatione fatta per un gentil'huomo del signer F. Cortese." 
 Ramusio : "Navigation! et Viaggi," vol. III., fols. 307, 309. Torquemada : 
 " Mon. Ind.," vol. II., p. 197. Cortes: " Cartas y Relaciones," p. 106. 
 Sahagun : "Hist. Gen.," vol. I., p. 197. Gomara : " Hist, de Mex.," fol. 
 nS. Las Casas: "Hist. Apol.," chs. XLIX., LI., CXXIV. Tezozomoc : 
 "Hist. Mex.," vol. I., p. 151. Amongst modern writers may be consulted 
 Prescott's " Hist, of the Conquest of Mexico " and Tylor's " Anahuac." 
 
 ' " Era labrada de piedras grandes a manera de culebras asidas las unas a las 
 otras." Acosta : " Hist, de las Yndias," p. 333. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 359 
 
 of three stories each, their total height being fifty-six feet. 
 The two upper stories were of exceptional construction, be- 
 ing in wood, and could only be reached by means of ladders. 
 The roof was also of wood, and consisted of a cupola 
 upheld by columns painted alternately black and red. 
 
 The sancturies of the gods were in the lower story of the 
 teocalli ; on the right was that of Huitzilopochtli, and 
 on the left that of his half brother Tezcatlipoca. The statue 
 of the former was exhumed almost intact in 1790; the 
 Indians hastened to cover it with flowers. This is a strange 
 fact, especially when we contrast it with the indifference to 
 the past noticed among the present Indians of North 
 America. The gigantic statues of Huitzilopochtli and 
 Tezcatlipoca were hidden from the eyes of the faithful by 
 magnificent draperies, and at their feet was set up the 
 sacrificial stone, said by Clavigero to have been of green 
 jasper, on which so many unfortunate victims perished. Las 
 Casas is enthusiastic even to exaggeration over the internal 
 richness of the temple. Bernal Diaz, who is probably more 
 veracious, says that the walls and the floors were streaming 
 with human blood, and exhaled an odor so fetid that the visit- 
 ors were quickly put to flight. 1 In all the temples and before 
 all the idols burned the sacred fire, which was always scrupu- 
 lously kept up, for its extinction threatened the country with 
 great danger. From the top of the principal teocalli could 
 be counted six hundred braziers, which were burning day 
 and night. 
 
 Forty smaller temples, mostly crowning pyramids, rose 
 from different points of the sacred enclosure, like satellites 
 of the greater gods to whom the chief temple was con- 
 secrated. That of Tlatoc was reached by a flight of fifty 
 steps * ; that of Quetzacoatl was circular and crowned by a 
 dome ; the door was low, and represented the mouth of a 
 serpent ; the worshippers who came to adore their god had 
 to pass through this half-open mouth which seemed ready 
 
 1 " Hist, de la Conq.," fol. 7. 
 
 1 Oviedo : " Hist. Gen. y Nat. de las Indias," vol. III., p. 302. 
 
360 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 to devour them. 1 The Ilhuicatlican was dedicated to the 
 planet Venus, and a captive had to be sacrificed at the very 
 moment of the appearance of that planet above the horizon. 
 In accordance with a rather original idea an immense cage 
 was placed in one of the teocallis to receive the statues of 
 foreign gods, so that they might not be able to use their 
 liberty for succoring their worshippers. 2 
 
 The Quauhxicalco was an immense ossuary where the 
 bones of victims were accumulated. The skulls were set aside 
 and put in the Tzempantli outside the enclosure near the west- 
 ern gate. This Tzempantli was an immense oblong pyramid 
 formed by human heads enshrined in the masonry. Two 
 columns dominated the platform of the pyramid, and these 
 columns were entirely composed of heads taking the place 
 of stones. 3 When the victim was a chief the head was set 
 up in its natural condition, and nothing could exceed the 
 horror and disgust inspired by these grinning dead faces. 
 The Spaniards alleged that there were as many as one 
 hundred and thirty-six thousand of these heads thus 
 exposed. 
 
 The court was the largest portion of the enclosure. It 
 was here that an immense crowd collected to assist at the 
 sacrifice and at the combats of the gladiators. Here, too, 
 were the lodgings of thousands of priests, women, and chil- 
 dren, whose duty it was to take care of the temples and the 
 sacred precincts; according to Bernal Diaz, however great 
 the number of visitors, the enclosure was kept clean with 
 such care that it would be impossible to discover in it so 
 much as a single straw. 
 
 Tezcuco has disappeared like its ancient and eager rival ; 
 its stones, bas-reliefs, and sculptures have been used to build 
 the houses of the modern town, and a few heaps of now 
 shapeless adobes and rubbish of all kinds here and there are 
 the sole mementoes at the present day of the past splendor 
 
 1 Torquemada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. II., p. 145. 
 8 Torquemada, quoted above, vol. II., p. 147. 
 
 'Warden: " Recherches sur les Ant. de 1'Am. du Nord., Ant. Mex.," vol. II., 
 p. 66. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 361 
 
 of a town which contained one hundred and forty thousand 
 houses, and where two hundred thousand craftsmen worked 
 for years at the erection of the dwelling of the chief. 1 Ty- 
 lor, in a recent visit, made out the foundations of two large 
 Teocallis and several tumuli, which marked ancient graves. 
 In consequence of one of these geological phenomena which 
 it is difficult to explain satisfactorily, but which are met with 
 in every part of the globe, the lake which once washed the 
 capital of the Tezcucans is now several miles from the mod- 
 ern town. 
 
 In spite of our wish to abridge a necessarily very dry list 
 of names, it is impossible to omit noticing the ruins of 
 Quemada, in the south of Zacatecas, on the road between 
 the town of that name and Villanueva, not only on account 
 of the mass of ruins which cover a considerable area and 
 bear witness to the ancient importance of the town, but also 
 because of the differences between its buildings and any of 
 those of which we have hitherto spoken. 
 
 The origin of Quemada is unknown, but it has been stated, 
 without any serious proof, that the Aztecs halted there in 
 their migrations southward, and that it is to them that the 
 town, the true name of which is unknown, owes its founda- 
 tion.* 
 
 The Cerro de los Edificios is an irregular hill, half a mile 
 long and from six hundred to nine hundred feet wide, which 
 suddenly rises to the height of about sixteen hundred feet, 
 near its summit. This was a fortress, a regular intrenched 
 camp, surrounded with walls no less than twelve feet thick, 
 with several tiers of bastions connected by curtains. A large 
 
 1 Torquemada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. I., p, 304. The figures he gives are prob- 
 ably greatly exaggerated. Peter Martyr only speaks of twenty thousand 
 houses, and Cabajal Espinosa of thirty thousand, " Hist, de Mexico," Mexico, 
 1862, vol. I., p. 87. 
 
 * Lyon : " Journal of a tour in the Republic of Mexico," London, 1828, vol. 
 I., p. 225. Narcos de Esparza: " Informe presentado al Gobierno," Zacate- 
 cas, 1830. J. Burkart : " Aufenthal und Reisen in Mexico," Stuttgart, 1836. 
 Nebel : " Viagesobre la Republica Mejicana," Paris, 1839. " Soc. Mex. Geog. 
 Bol.," 2a. epoca, vol. III., p. 278. Fegueux : " Les Ruines de la Quemada," 
 Rev. d' Ethn., vol., I, p. 119. 
 
362 PREHISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 pyramid about thirty-two feet high, forms a veritable re- 
 doubt. 
 
 It is at Los Edificios, as the name implies, that the most 
 important ruins are found. It is impossible to describe 
 them, for they are now, as we have said, nothing but masses 
 of rubbish ; and long and costly excavations alone could 
 enable us to judge of the form and purpose of the various 
 buildings. Several columns have remained standing, and 
 the position of some of them indicate that they had formed 
 part of porticos. This is an exceptional fact in ancient 
 American architecture. These columns are in gray por- 
 phyry, and remind us of the massive ones of Egyptian tem- 
 ples. One of these columns is no less than nineteen feet in 
 circumference, and eighteen feet high. Fegueux speaks of 
 eleven columns of about three feet in diameter and nine 
 in height. 
 
 Besides the pyramid we have mentioned, there are several 
 others belonging to this well-known type. The mortar 
 which binds the stones together is, as in the buildings of the 
 Mound Builders, a mixture of clay and straw. So far none 
 of the sculptures, hieroglyphics, or pictographs, such as are 
 so constantly met with in other ancient towns, have been 
 found. Fegueux, however, speaks of a stone on which five 
 serpents were engraved, situated at the foot of the escarp- 
 ment of Los Edificios. 
 
 The plain surrounding the Cerro is covered with ruins, 
 amongst which neither pottery, flint weapons, nor imple- 
 ments are found. We are met with the strange problem of 
 a town, every thing about which proves its importance, yet 
 where nothing of this sort reveals the presence of man. 
 
 The province of Oajaca, situated on the banks of the 
 Pacific and crossed by the Cordillera, includes a mountain- 
 ous and sterile region overlooking the tierras calientes with 
 their rich tropical vegetation ; here dwelt the Zapotecs, 1 who 
 
 1 Maler writes Tzapoteques {Nature, 2$th Dec., 1880). Perhaps he is 
 right, for the name seems to be derived from Tzapotl, " a well-known fruit," 
 says Molina, "Vocabularis en lengua Castellana y Mexicana." They called 
 themselves Didsasa, 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 363 
 
 resembled the Mayas in their language, 1 and the Nahuas in 
 their religious rites and in the style of their architecture ; 
 springing very probably from intermarriages between these 
 two races. The men were strong and well built, brave and 
 often ferocious" ; the expression of their faces was disagree- 
 able ; whilst the women, on the contrary, are said to have 
 been pretty, with finely cut and delicate features. 
 
 Their religious rites, as we have just said, resembled those 
 of the Aztecs. Among their numerous divinities, patrons of 
 all the virtues and also of all the vices, they recognized one 
 principal God, Piycxoo ; the uncreated being, Pitao-Cozaana^ 
 the Creator. What is more certain is that, like the Aztecs, 
 they did honor to their gods by human sacrifices. Men 
 were offered up on the altars of the gods, women on those 
 of the goddesses. On the day dedicated to Teteionan, 8 a 
 woman, who was seated on the shoulders of another woman, 
 had her head cut off ; and her bearer had to appear before 
 the goddess bathed in the blood which flowed. At the cele- 
 bration of a holiday in honor of the arrival of the gods, the 
 victims were burned, and on other occasions children were 
 drowned or walled up in caves, there to die slowly of the 
 cruel tortures of hunger and fear. 4 
 
 The Zapotecs were subject to a chief, and the office was 
 hereditary. Contemporary with this chief lived a chief 
 priest, the Weyctao, who resided at Yopaa, and took an im- 
 portant part in the government of the country. His feet 
 were never allowed to touch the ground ; he was carried on 
 the shoulders of his attendants ; and when he appeared, all, 
 even the chiefs themselves, had to prostrate themselves be- 
 fore him, and none dared to raise their eyes in his presence. 
 
 1 Bancroft (vol. III., p. 754) gives very fairly complete details on this Ian- 
 guage, and mentions his authorities. 
 
 * " Ferozes y valientes," says Burgoa, " Geog. Descr.," vol. I., p. 2, fol. 
 196, vol. II., fol. 362. Herrera: " Hist. Gen.," vol. III., dec. III., book III., 
 CXIV. 
 
 1 A goddess adored by the various people of the Nahuatl race, also known 
 under the names of Tozi, Toccy and Tocitzin. 
 
 4 Clavigero, "St. Ant. del Messico," vol. II., p. 45 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 The Weyetao could not marry, and was bound to continence, 
 but on a certain day of the year he had a right to become 
 intoxicated, and when he was in that state, a young and 
 beautiful virgin was brought to him ; and it was the eldest 
 of the children born of this union of a single day who in- 
 herited the sacerdotal dignity. 1 
 
 The splendor of the edifices erected by the Zapotecs was 
 by no means inferior to that of the other people of Central 
 America, and Mitla, 2 their capital and sacred town, was in 
 every respect worthy of comparison with Palenque or Ux- 
 mal, Chichen-Itza or Tenotchitlan. It is said to have been 
 founded by the disciples of Quetzacoatl, and a legend tells 
 that one day an old man of venerable aspect suddenly came 
 out of Lake Huixa, accompanied by a young girl of incom- 
 parable beauty. This old man was clothed in a dress and 
 mantle of brilliant blue, and wore a mitre on his head. He 
 pointed out an eminence, on -which a temple was built un- 
 der his orders ; he gave to the country wise and just laws, 
 and disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived. 3 But a 
 town had already risen near the temple, and for centuries 
 this town continued to prosper, thanks to the celestial pro- 
 tection. There are vast gaps in its history, and a few very 
 doubtful facts are just beginning to accumulate. We know 
 that the Zapotecs were engaged in long struggles with the 
 Aztecs, and that, at the end of the I5th century, about 
 1494, Mitla was taken and given over to pillage, the priests 
 who had conducted the defence being taken to Mexico, and 
 offered up on the altars of Huitzilopochtli. 
 
 The town of Mitla rises in the centre of a narrow and 
 dusty valley, framed in dreary and rugged mountains. Its 
 ruins appear suddenly before the traveller, and their mag- 
 
 1 Burgoa, loc. cit. Brasseur de Bourbourg : " Hist, des Nat. Civ.," vol. 
 III., p. 29. 
 
 1 The Zapotec name was Lioba or Yobba, the town of tombs ; the name of 
 Mitla seems to have been given by the Aztecs. It may come from Mictlan, 
 the abode of souls after death ; or from Mill, one of the Nahua gods. 
 
 * Torquemada, vol. I., p. 255. Herrera, dec. III., book II., ch. XI. 
 Veytia, vol. I., p. 164. Burgoa, fol. 297, 343. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 365 
 
 nificence contrasts strangely with the arid and desert coun- 
 try surrounding them. " The monuments of the golden age 
 of Greece and of Rome," says the eminent archeologist, 
 Viollet-le-Duc, " alone equal the beauty of the masonry of 
 this great building. The facings, dressed with perfect regu- 
 larity, the well-cut joints, the faultless bends, and the edges 
 of unequalled sharpness, bear witness to knowledge and long 
 experience on the part of the builders." 
 
 FIG. 144. Plan of the great temple of Mitla. 
 
 The most remarkable building of Mitla is the palace, 
 lauded in such enthusiastic terms ; it consists of an interior 
 quadrangle measuring 130 by 120 feet, surrounded on three 
 sides' by rounded mounds, from which rise important 
 buildings (fig. 144). The northern building (A) is well 
 preserved ; of that on the east (C) nothing remains but a 
 few crumbled walls, in the midst of which rise a portico and 
 
 1 On the plan given by Dupaix he figures a fourth building. Viollet-le-Duc 
 reproduces it (p. 75). The very foundations have now completely disappeared. 
 
366 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 two columns (e., c.}. The western building (D) has fared 
 still worse ; its foundations alone remain. At Palenque the 
 walls were entirely constructed of dressed stones; in Yuca- 
 tan, dressings of large stones mask a heart of rubble-stone 
 and mortar ; it is this latter mode which was employed at 
 Mitla ; but the mortar is replaced by clay, and the exterior 
 face is formed in masonry consisting of perfectly hewn 
 stones, of the size of a small brick, producing many varied 
 combinations by their joint patterns and zig-zags. 
 
 The lateral buildings measure 96 feet by 17 ; that on the 
 north 130 by 36. Several steps (G.) lead up to three doors 
 (k.*) and give access to them. The lintels are no longer in 
 wood, but in large stones, such as those in the monuments 
 of Greece or Rome. 
 
 The chief room (fig. 145) was ornamented by six columns, 
 without plinth and without capital. These columns were 
 probably intended to uphold the roof, and thus to lessen the 
 bearing of the beams. 1 Humboldt, who visited these ruins 
 in 1802, speaks of large beams; Dupaix says they were of 
 the wood of a coniferous tree ; such was also the opinion of 
 Viollet-le-Duc ; and Maler reports that at the time of his 
 visit all the beams had disappeared. Burgoa, on the con- 
 trary, speaks of having seen in their places large slabs more 
 than two feet thick, resting on pillars nine feet high, and the 
 Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg" confirms this fact, adding that 
 all round the building ran a cornice ornamented with gro- 
 tesque sculptures, the whole of which formed a kind of 
 diadem crowning the building. We have taken pains to re- 
 late these unimportant details, to illustrate the impossibility 
 of coming to any conclusions in the presence of facts so 
 very obscure in themselves and rendered yet more confusing 
 by the discrepancy of different explorers. 
 
 The walls and the pavement had been covered with three 
 
 1 Similar examples might be mentioned in certain pueblos, undoubtedly of 
 more recent construction than the palace of Mitla, at Tuloom, on the eastern 
 coast of Yucatan. 
 
 * " Hist, des Nat. Civ.," vol. III., p. 26. 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 layers of very durable stucco, painted red, of a tone not un- 
 like that decorating the walls of Pompeii. 
 
 From the room of the columns a very dark lobby led into 
 a second court (I.), surrounded by rooms (., .), which, in spite 
 of their small dimensions, must have been the chief ones of 
 the palace. The richness of their ornamentation was remark- 
 able ; the walls were covered with a regular mosaic in little 
 stones, forming symmetrical designs, Greek frets, or ara- 
 besques. It is difficult to decide whether these mosaics, of 
 very skilful execution, bear witness to an art more advanced 
 than that of the sculptures at Uxmal, it is yet more difficult 
 to assign a date to the building of either. It is however, 
 pretty generally agreed that the monuments of Uxmal are 
 more ancient than those of Mitla. 
 
 The three other palaces, the ruins of which are standing, 
 must be briefly mentioned. They resemble, though on a 
 smaller scale, the one already noticed. Probably hieratic in- 
 fluence consecrated a type from which none were allowed to 
 depart ; everywhere we meet with the mosaics in stone, 
 which are characteristic of the architecture of Mitla. We 
 will only mention a subterranean gallery in the form of a 
 cross, under one of these palaces. Crypts are in fact rare in 
 Central America. 
 
 The Zapotecs had carried their conquests as far as the 
 isthmus of Tehuantepec, and it is probably to them that are 
 due the pyramids still standing in several places, such as the 
 fortifications of Cerro de Guiengola, 1 of which we have already 
 had occasion to speak. These fortifications were erected 
 after the taking of Mitla, by order of Cociyoeza ; they ena- 
 bled the Zapotecs to make a victorious resistance, the result 
 of which was an honorable peace for the vanquished. A 
 sepulchre hewn in the very side of the Cerro has yielded 
 more than two hundred pieces of pottery, chiefly vases or lit- 
 tle figures of animals. The whole of the inside of the 
 tomb was covered with a thick coating of cement, and the 
 
 'Arias : " Antiguedades Zapotecas," Museo Mex. Mtlller : " Reisen in den 
 Vereinigten Staaten, Canada, und Mexico," Leipzig, 1864. 
 
THE KUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 
 
 corpses were placed with the faces turned toward the 
 ground, a very unusual arrangement. 
 
 The Cerro de Guiengola is but a few leagues from Te- 
 
 FIG. 146. Image of a Zapotec 
 chief. 
 
 He. 147. Zapotec ornament 
 found at Tehuantepec. 
 
 huantepec, the capital of the province, where the recent 
 discovery of the sepulchre of one of the ancient chiefs of 
 the country is announced. 1 
 
 1 F. Maler, Nature, I4th June, 1879. 
 
370 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 In 1875, in demolishing a house, the workmen found a 
 number of costly jewels of gold, together with several 
 human skeletons which fell to dust immediately on contact 
 with the air. This tomb was completely unknown at the 
 time of the Spanish conquest, or it would certainly not have 
 escaped the rapacity of the Spaniards. This last fact, taken 
 with the state of the bones, justifies us in assigning great 
 antiquity to the sepulchre, and adds to the value of the dis- 
 covery. Unfortunately the jewels were sold for the weight 
 of the gold, and nearly all were immediately melted down. 
 The only ones left are those we reproduce (figs. 146 to 
 149). One of them is supposed to be the image of a Zapo- 
 tec chief, placed near his corpse ; the bird seems to have 
 been a labret or pendant for the lip. A similar ornament is 
 fastened to the royal lip. Several little figures represented 
 turtles ; they are all made in a single piece, hollowed, with- 
 out a trace of soldering, and such as the most skilful jewel- 
 lers of our present day would find it very difficult to imitate. 
 
 With the gold ornaments were also picked up several cop- 
 per objects, earthenware vases of graceful form, a cup, the 
 handle of which represents the paw of a feline animal, oth- 
 ers ornamented with tastefully executed paintings, and 
 lastly some necklaces of round stones and bracelets of sea- 
 shells. At previous times several little earthenware figures 
 had been found, which are now in the National Museum of 
 Mexico. These discoveries, together with the monuments, 
 or rather the ruins still existing, bear witness to the industry 
 of the Zapotecs. 
 
 We are obliged to omit numerous ruins, temples or pal- 
 aces, mounds, pyramids or fortifications. Central America, 
 from the Mississippi to the Isthmus of Panama, is literally 
 covered with them, and that in the most different regions ; 
 from fertile plains, where men can live in large numbers, to 
 arid mountains, where it is scarcely possible to maintain ex- 
 istence. It is impossible, however great their interest, to 
 describe all these discoveries ; our sole aim is to illustrate 
 the riches, the luxury, and the culture of these people, the 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 371 
 
 very name of which is almost effaced from the memory of 
 men. 
 
 Under these circumstances there is but one other fact to 
 which it will be useful to call attention. Santa Lucia Co- 
 sumhualpa, in the department of Escuintla (Guatemala), a 
 little town of recent creation, not yet marked on any map, 
 rises at the foot of the volcano del Fuego. The celebrated 
 
 FIG. 148. Zapotcc ornament 1 .^.. 149. Zapotec labret. 
 
 found at Tehuantepec. 
 
 German traveller, Bastian, who crossed the country in 1876, 
 has proved the existence all around the village of important 
 ruins, the greater number of which are, however, still hidden 
 in the midst of impenetrable forests. 1 
 
 1 Habel : " Investigations in Central and South America," "Smith. Cont.," 
 vol. XXII. Schobel : " Un chap, de 1'Arch. Am. Congres de Luxembourg," 
 vol. II. 
 
37 2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Amongst blocks of cyclopean stone, and rubbish of all 
 kinds, sculptures are seen, differing materially from and in- 
 finitely superior to those we have described. 
 
 In the sugar plantation of Don Manuel Herrera, Bastian 
 saw colossal heads in stone, of a strange and unknown type, 
 and several figures of animals, such as tapirs and alligators. 
 These gigantic statues were arranged in threes, at equal dis- 
 tances from each other, as if they had marked a colonnade 
 now destroyed. At the Hacienda de los Taros lay three 
 other figures in relief, five feet nine inches in height, by three 
 feet seven inches across, and of bold execution. Two of 
 these figures wore earrings, and their head-dresses resembled 
 the Asiatic turban. 
 
 Farther on are some bas-reliefs, sculptured in very hard 
 porphyritic rocks, such as are only found near the volcano of 
 Acatenango, so that the blocks must have been brought 
 from a great distance. These huge bas-reliefs represent 
 figures grotesque alike in design and execution, and mytho- 
 logical scenes perfectly unlike those with which we are ac- 
 quainted either in Maya or Nahuatl art. Several of these 
 scenes represent the adoration of the sun and of the moon, 
 or rather of the gods presiding over these heavenly bodies, 
 for men had already adopted anthropomorphism and en- 
 dowed their gods with the human form. The priests and 
 worshippers are naked ; but the ornaments and jewels with 
 which they are loaded are full of interest. Farther on a 
 chief is seated on his throne, with the ear distended by a 
 ring of considerable size and weight ; an interesting fact, for 
 we meet again with this same barbarous custom imposed by 
 the Incas upon the inhabitants of Peru, and the Mound 
 Builders wore large copper rings in the ears. The most in- 
 teresting bas-relief represents a human sacrifice (fig. 151); 
 the principal personage is a priest, wearing the strange head- 
 dress of a crab, holding in his right hand a flint, probably the 
 sacrificial knife, and in his left hand the head of the victim 
 whom he has just killed. Beneath are two figures, each car- 
 rying a human head. One doubtless represents Death, for 
 
fHE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 373 
 
 his face is that of a skeleton ; he is girded with two serpents, 
 and the form of his head is like that of an ape. The cut-off 
 heads appear to have belonged to a different race from the 
 priest or his assistant. 
 
 The bodies are nude and of correct proportions; orna- 
 ments are arranged so as to hide the sexual organs ; the feet 
 are shod with sandals, and the features express satisfaction. 
 Lastly, it is the head of the victim, not the heart as was the 
 invariable custom of the Aztecs, which was being presented 
 to the gods. 
 
 The sculptures found at Santa Lucia are by no means 
 
 FIG. 150. Stone head found near Santa Lucia. 
 
 exceptional. The whole of Guatemala, that ancient land of 
 the Quiches and Cakchiquels, is covered with ruins, among 
 which are bas-reliefs, statues and monoliths, some attaining 
 twenty-five feet in height, and including numerous repre- 
 sentations of men and animals. At Quirigua especially, on 
 the Rio Motagua, about eight miles from Ysabal, a little 
 port on the Gulf of Honduras, have been discovered a colos- 
 sal head, and a statue of a woman with feet and hands mis- 
 sing, wearing on her head a crowned idol ; while, close by, 
 excavations have yielded the head cf a tiger in porphy- 
 
FIG. 151. Human Sacrifice ; bas-relief from Sta. Lucia. 
 374 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 375 
 
 ritic rock ; the terror that this great feline animal inspired 
 doubtless led to its being admitted to the rank of a god. 1 
 An altar, on one of the sides of which a turtle has been 
 sculptured, and lastly an idol, twenty-three feet high, also 
 deserve to be mentioned. All these figures are menacing 
 or repulsive ; human bodies are surmounted by the heads of 
 apes. Unlike the immortal creators of art in Greece, the 
 early Americans did not seek beauty, or rather they did not 
 understand it, and their conceptions could not therefore be 
 of equal elevation. 
 
 What justly surprises us is the immense amount of work 
 required in these sculptures, with such mechanical processes 
 as alone appear to have been known. First of all, blocks of 
 hard stone had to be got out with wretched implements of 
 quartz or obsidian ; and then the granite or porphyry had to 
 be sawn into slabs with agave-fibre and emery.* A rough 
 drawing of the outline indicated where the thickness was to 
 be reduced, and this work was executed either by sawing a 
 certain portion, which was immediately skilfully chipped, 
 or by hammering with a flint point ; lastly, with the help of 
 flat stones or polishers and of water mixed with emery, the 
 surface of the plane portions was rubbed so as to remove all 
 traces of the work. These processes were long, and neces- 
 sarily required great patience on the part of the workmen 
 to obtain the desired results. This is a certain indication of 
 a society in its infancy, where men had not yet learned to 
 recognize the value of time. 
 
 We have spoken of the engravings on rock and hiero- 
 glyphics met with in the region occupied by the Cliff Dwellers 
 and the inhabitants of the pueblos. We meet with similar 
 engravings and similar hieroglyphics throughout Central 
 America. The desire of perpetuating the memory of the 
 objects before his eyes by imitating them is one of the 
 
 1 Stephens : " Central America," vol. II., p. 188. Scherzer : " Ein Besuch 
 bei den Ruinen von Quirigua im Staate Guatemala," Vienna, 1865. 
 
 Q Soldi : " Les camees et les pierres grave'es Fart au moyen age, Fart Khmer, 
 les arts du Pe'rou et du Mexique, Fart Egyptien, les arts industriels, des muse'es 
 du Trocadero," Paris, 1880. 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 most characteristic peculiarities of man. In Honduras is a 
 rock covered, as to a great part of its surface, by figures of 
 men, animals, and plants, engraved in taglio to a depth 
 of more than two inches, and Pinart describes in the State 
 of Panama cliffs entirely covered with hieroglyphics, which 
 he tells us are full of interest for the student. 
 
 In Mexico there are paintings, which are regular annals of 
 the people, and represent their first migrations. Bancroft 
 (vol. II., pp. 544, 545, 547) reproduces these paintings after 
 Gemelli, Carer, and Lord Kingsborough. They are very 
 curious. 
 
 The museum of Mexico possesses a whole series of 
 paintings, showing the education of children, the food 
 which was given to them, the tasks which were set them, 
 and the punishments which were inflicted upon them. Ban- 
 croft (vol. II., p. 589) gives these figures after the Codex 
 Mendoza. 
 
 These pictures have the distinct outlines and brilliant 
 colors at which the Aztecs aimed above every thing, as we 
 have already seen, in speaking of their sculptures ; they did 
 not aspire to an exact imitation of nature, still less to a beau- 
 tiful ideal, which they were incapable of understanding. 
 " We see in the Mexican paintings," says Humboldt, " heads 
 of an enormous size, a body extremely short, and feet which, 
 from the length of the toes, look like the claws of a bird. 
 All this denotes the infancy of the art ; but we must not 
 forget that people who express their ideas by paintings, and 
 who are compelled by their state of society to make frequent 
 use of mixed hieroglyphical writing, attach as little impor- 
 tance to correct painting, as the literati of Europe to a fine 
 handwriting in their manuscripts." Without agreeing with 
 Humboldt's comparison, it is certain that we must not seek 
 amongst the Aztecs for models of decorative painting such 
 as those recently discovered in the Palatinate ; the ignorance 
 of the artists shows that their work was a spontaneous pro- 
 duct of their genius, and that they had not been subjected to 
 any foreign influence on the soil of America. According to 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 
 
 tradition they borrowed their processes from the Toltecs, 
 the initiators of all progress in Mexico and Central America. 
 After their final victory it is said that the rulers of Mexico 
 had the paintings destroyed which recalled the grandeur of 
 those they had conquered. By a just retribution, but un- 
 fortunately for science, the Spaniards in their turn destroyed 
 the Aztec annals, and a few incomplete copies, a few frag- 
 ments that escaped this barbarous destruction, are the only 
 original sources of information from which it is now possible 
 to draw. 
 
 It is easy to understand the first idea of the hieroglyphics. 
 First of all engravings on rocks give the animate or inani- 
 mate object which struck the eye of the artist. In all 
 ages this is the primitive form of the art. Then arose a 
 desire to represent not only men or objects, but also cer- 
 tain scenes, such as a battle, a migration, or a fire, the 
 memory of which they wished to preserve. Later, by way 
 of abbreviation, the artist was content to express names or 
 things by conventional signs. An arrow, for example, signi- 
 fied an enemy ; several arrows, several enemies ; the direc- 
 tion of the point, the direction these enemies had taken. 
 Often the names themselves had a signification lending itself 
 to representation by a figure, thus : Chapultepec, the hill of 
 the grasshopper ; Tzowpanco, the place of skulls ; C/iimal- 
 popoca, the shield full of smoke ; Acamapitzin, the hand full 
 of reeds ; Macuilxochitl, the five flowers ; Quauhtenclian, the 
 dwelling of the eagle. In other cases names are translated 
 by regular puns. To give one instance, Itzcoatl, ruler of 
 Mexico, was represented by a serpent, coatl, pierced by 
 several splinters of obsidian, itzli. Hence by a rapid transla- 
 tion was given, not the true form of the objects, but the 
 representation of the name they bore in the spoken lan- 
 guage ; then by a very simple link, signs were replaced by 
 letters, and an alphabet was complete. 
 
 Hieroglyphics, true conventional signs, mark then a period 
 of human evolution. They are met with on the monuments 
 of Chiapas as on those of Yucatan ; on the walls of Palenque 
 
37$ PRE-H1STOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 or Copan, as on those of Chichen-Itza or Quirigua (figs. 1 13, 
 124, 126, 127, 128, 130); they were sculptured or engraved 
 on granite or on porphyry, with quartzite and obsidian im- 
 plements. 1 Iron, we repeat, was absolutely unknown ; no- 
 where do we find it mentioned, and nowhere do we meet 
 with the characteristic rust which is the undeniable proof of 
 its presence. 
 
 Hitherto it has been impossible to discover a key by which 
 to decipher the hieroglyphics. Las Casas tells us that in his 
 time there were still men learned in the reading and the re- 
 production of these signs, 8 whose business it was to register 
 events, noting the day, the month, and the year in which 
 they happened ; and he adds that these men so thoroughly 
 understood what they had written, and what the ancients 
 had written before them, that our letters would have been 
 useless to them. In earlier times these hieroglyphics were 
 executed by the priests of the god Centeotl, which priests 
 had to be old men, widowers, and vowed to continence and 
 a contemplative life. It was then a hieratic writing, known 
 to the initiated only, which is reproduced in the Maya manu- 
 scripts of which we have spoken, especially in the Codex 
 Perezianus and that of Dresden. Bancroft (vol. II., p. 771) 
 enters into minute details in regard to these various manu- 
 scripts. He reproduces fragments of two of them ; it is easy, 
 by means of comparison, to make sure of their similarity to 
 the hieroglyphics of which we are speaking. Bishop Diego 
 de Landa speaks of a graphic system 3 ; he has even pre- 
 served an alphabet of thirty-three signs, one of which is in- 
 tended to mark the aspirate ; but unfortunately the alphabet 
 has only come down to us in a very imperfect form ; and in 
 
 1 Gomara : " Conq. Mex.," p. 318. Clavigero : " Stor. Ant. del Messico," 
 vol. II., p. 205. 
 
 1 " Hist. Apologetica de las Yndias Occidentals. " 
 
 * " Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan," published in 1864 by Brasseur de Bour- 
 bourg, with a French translation. It is fair to add that the aim of the bishop 
 was to prepare for the natives religious books with signs which were familiar to 
 them. He did not occupy himself with art, history, or archaeology. Some well- 
 founded doubts, we must add, exist as to the value of his alphabet. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 3/9 
 
 spite of estimable earnest works ' on the subject, it has been 
 impossible to decipher, with its help, either the manuscripts, 
 or the hieroglyphics, which according to all appearance are 
 more ancient than they. 
 
 The letters given by Landa, however, sensibly resemble 
 those of the manuscripts"; they may, therefore, be a con- 
 necting link between the hieroglyphics and the graphic 
 writing. The words, arranged in the same order as ours, 
 appear most probably to be constructed on the polysyn- 
 thetic system, and present that character so characteristic of 
 the languages of the New World. They were written on 
 real paper, made either of the root of certain plants, such as 
 the agave, on prepared skins, or even on cotton cloth. 
 Several leaves were enclosed between richly ornamented 
 wooden boards. These are called analtccs, and this word 
 cannot be better rendered than by annals* 
 
 The Troano manuscript is written on a strip of paper 
 fourteen feet long by about nine inches wide. The charac- 
 ters, which are red, brown, sometimes blue, according to 
 the text to which they relate, are written on both sides. 
 The paper opens out as does a fan, and each leaf thus repre- 
 sents thirty-five pages. The chief manuscripts which have 
 come down to us, and which must not be confounded with 
 those already mentioned, are the Codex Mendoza, sent to 
 Charles V., by the viceroy Mendoza, now in the Bodleian 
 Library at Oxford, and of which a copy is in the Escurial ; 
 
 1 We will mention L. de Rosny : " Essni de dechiffrement de 1'ecriture 
 hieralique de 1'Amerique Centrale," Paris, 1875. De Charency, " Recherches 
 sur le Codex Troano," Paris, 1876. " Essai dede'chiffrement d'une inscription 
 palenqueenne " ; Actesde le Soc. de Philologie, vol. I., March, 1878. Unfor- 
 tunately when this last work appeared, we had only very imperfect reproduc- 
 tions of the hieroglyphics of Palenque. Charnay has lately sent to Paris plaster 
 casts of them, and every one can now consult them in the Trocadero Museum. 
 See also Bollaert's paper published in the " Memoirs of the Anthropological 
 Society of London," vol. II., p. 298. We do not speak of the works of the 
 Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, which are characterized rather by imagination 
 than by science. 
 
 *Ch. Rau, p. 57, "Smith. Com.," vol. XXII. 
 
 * Peter Martyr, decade iv., book viii. Juan de Villagutierre y Sotomayor, 
 "Hist, de la Conquista de la Province de el Itza," Madrid, 1701. 
 
380 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the Codex Telleriano-Remensis in the National Library of 
 France; the Codex Vaticanus copied at Mexico in 1566, in 
 the Vatican Library at Rome ; the Codex Borgia, in the col- 
 lege of the Propaganda at Rome ; the Codex Bologna, sup- 
 posed to be a treatise on astrology ; and lastly a codex, the 
 origin of which is unknown, but which we know to have 
 been given to the Emperor Leopold in 1677 by a duke of 
 Saxe Eisenach. Lord Kingsborough also gives representa- 
 tions of fragments of several other manuscripts, and it is to 
 his magnificent work that those who wish to make a special 
 study of the subject should refer. 
 
 To sum up, the Mexican manuscripts which have escaped 
 so many causes of destruction include three very distinct 
 kinds of painting : figurative painting, in which the artist 
 reproduces more or less exactly the objects before his eyes ; 
 symbolical painting, in which the object is represented by a 
 conventional sign ; and, lastly, phonetic painting, in which 
 it is no longer the object, but the name it bears, that the 
 artist endeavors to give. These three styles still existed in 
 Mexico on the arrival of the Spanish, for we know that 
 when Juan de Grijalva appeared on the coaSt of Vera Cruz, 
 the Cuetlachtlan chiefs hastened to send to Montezuma 
 very exact paintings of the vessels, weapons, and clothes of 
 these strangers, who already so justly excited the alarm of 
 the Mexicans. 1 
 
 The luxury of the private life of the wealthy inhabitants 
 of these sumptuous towns was on a par with that of the 
 public buildings. The chairs on which they sat in the 
 Oriental style were of wood, often imitating the form of an 
 animal, such as a tiger or an eagle, for instance. These 
 chairs were covered with the tanned skins of deer, and orna- 
 mented with embroideries in gold and silver. Skins of the 
 same kind were used to decorate the walls of the principal 
 rooms, or they were painted in gaudy colors, red and blue 
 
 1 Torquemada : " Mon. Ind." p. 378 ; Acosta : ' ' Hist, de las Ynd.," p 515 ; 
 Veytia : " Hist ant. de Mejico," vol. III., p. 377 ; Herrera : " Hist. Gen.." dec. 
 II., book III., ch. IX. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 381 
 
 being most generally preferred. 1 They had at home vases 
 of agate or precious stone, ornaments, statuettes of gold or 
 silver cast in one piece, eight-sided dishes, each side of a 
 different metal, fish of which the scales were made of gold 
 and silver mixed, and parrots that moved their head and 
 wings. It has even been alleged that they were acquainted 
 with the art of enamelling, and that they knew how to 
 
 FIG. 152. Earthenware vase found at Ticul. 
 
 temper copper so as to render it hard enough to make 
 hatchets and very sharp knives. The Peruvians are also said 
 to have possessed such a secret, but no weapons or orna- 
 ments have been discovered in either country to justify this 
 assertion. 
 
 Cortes mentioned to Charles V. his surprise at the num- 
 ber of gold, silver, lead, copper, and tin 1 ornaments publicly 
 exposed for sale. In some places little bits of tin were used 
 as money; elsewhere pieces of copper, very much like the 
 
 1 Ordonez : " Palenque," quoted by Brasseur de Bourbourg : " Hist, des Nat. 
 Civilisees, vol. II., p. 69. 
 
 * Tin (tachco) is chiefly found near the town of Tazco, from which it takes 
 its name. "Carta secunda de Relacion," 3Oth Oct., 1520. 
 
382 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 tau (T) in form ; or quills filled with gold-dust served the 
 same purpose. Trading was, however, chiefly carried on by 
 barter, and payments, according to Bollaert, were made in 
 balls of cotton or cacao-nibs. The copper objects often con- 
 tained a certain amount of silver; but as silver is found in 
 copper in its natural state, we must not, therefore, conclude 
 that the Mexicans were acquainted with alloys of metals. 
 The tissues used were no less rich ; the goddess Ixalzavoh, 
 it is said, had herself taught the people of Yucatan the art 
 of spinning and weaving ; and the numerous and varied 
 dye-woods of these districts furnished ample means of color- 
 ing cloth. 
 
 The pottery was remarkable, alike in style and execution. 
 Herrera speaks of a province of Guatemala, where it was 
 the especial duty of the women to make it, and Palacio 
 adds, that this manufacture was the chief industry of Agua- 
 chipa, one of the towns of the Pipiles, of the Maya race, 
 who inhabited the territory now forming the republic of San 
 Salvador. We give a reproduction of a vase found at Ticul, 
 near Uxmal, (fig. 152), the monkey face forming the centre 
 of the decoration, is remarkably characteristic of designs of 
 Palenque. We also give a little terra-cotta figure (fig. 153), 
 found in Chiapas, near Ococingo ; whether it be an idol or a 
 grotesque, it has about it a certain artistic merit. 
 
 The Nahuas were inferior in nothing to the Mayas. They 
 not only fashioned vases of the most varied form for domes- 
 tic use, 1 but also images of the gods they worshipped, statu- 
 ettes of animals or serpents, censers in which they burnt 
 copal on holy days ; bowls, beads for personal ornament, 
 and trumpets or flutes, with which they imitated the cry of 
 different animals. 
 
 "The different museums of Europe, such as the Christy collection in Lon- 
 don, the Unde collection at Heidelberg, and others, contain numerous speci- 
 mens of the art of American potters. Above all, we must mention the Na- 
 tional Museum of Mexico ; the Smithsonian Institution and the National Mu- 
 seum at Washington. The catalogue of the first of them was published in 
 Vol. III. of the "Philosophical Transactions," and that of the second by 
 Charles Rau : "Smith. Contr.," vol. XXII. 
 
THE RU1XS UF CENTRAL AMEKICA. 
 
 383 
 
 These musical instruments of terra cotta were of very 
 fine workmanship ; they were four or five inches long, and 
 pierced with several holes, which gave forth from two to six 
 different notes. In nearly all of them the mouth is modelled 
 so as to represent an animate object, such as a flower, an 
 animal or a man (fig. 154). The human faces, like those of 
 
 FIG. 153. Terra-cotta statuette 
 found at Ococingo. 
 
 FIG. 154. Earthenware flute. 
 
 the idols (fig. 155), are always grotesque and hideous, afford- 
 ing another proof that these people had no idea of beauty, 
 or rather of beauty such as we conceive it. When the Mexi- 
 cans departed from the human form, the decoration of their 
 vases is perhaps too profuse, but not at all inartistic (figs. 156, 
 157, 158). We mention especially a vase more than twenty- 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 two inches high by fifteen in diameter, found in an excava- 
 tion under one of the public squares of Mexico, not only 
 
 FlG. 155. Idol from Zachila. 
 
 FIG. 156. Vase from the National 
 Museum of Mexico. 
 
 FIG. 157. Vase belonging to the National Museum at Washington. 
 
THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 385 
 
 on account of its form and decoration, but because it was 
 filled with human skulls, curiously piled one on top of the 
 other. 
 
 Some Mexican pottery is probably of great antiquity, and 
 it may even be of earlier date than the arrival of the Toltecs 
 in Anahuac. Indeed, recently have been discovered, in a 
 cave of the province of Durango, thousands of dried mum- 
 mies ; and with these mummies hatchets, arrow-points of 
 flint, and vases remarkable in form and decoration. 1 
 
 The Aztecs were no less skilful in working obsidian than 
 in moulding clay. They made of obsidian, in spite of the 
 
 FIG. 158. Mexican vase in the National Museum at Washington. 
 
 difficulties of cutting and polishing it, knives, razors, lance- 
 or arrow-heads, mirrors, and sometimes masks, which they 
 placed on the faces of the dead at the time of the funeral. 
 This last custom was general, for the chiefs at least, for 
 similar masks have been found in several places, not only in 
 obsidian, but also in marble or serpentine. 1 Lastly, the 
 
 1 " Proc. Anthr. Soc. of Washington," 1879, p. 80. 
 
 1 Math, de Fossey : " Le Mexique," Paris, 1857, p. 213. It is also a charac- 
 teristic of the Aleuts and Western Eskimo of the northwest coast of America, 
 and has been treated of at length in the " Report of the Bureau of Ethnology at 
 Washington for 1883." 
 
386 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 National Museum of Mexico contains numerous and inter- 
 esting agate, coral, and shell ornaments. The Christy col- 
 lection of London is no less rich, and from it we illustrate a 
 chalcedony knife. The handle is a mosaic made of tur- 
 quoises, malachite, and white or red shells. It is surprising 
 to find a people still in the stone age executing such delicate 
 work with the wretched implements we know of. 
 
 To sum up, every thing goes to prove that the ancient 
 races of Central America possessed an advanced culture, 
 exact ideas on certain arts and sciences, and remarkable 
 
 FIG. 159. Knife with chalcedony blade, in the Christy collection. 
 
 technical knowledge. As pointed out in 1869 by Morgan, 
 in the North American Review, the Spanish succeeded in 
 destroying in a few years a civilization undoubtedly superior 
 in many respects to that which they endeavored to substi- 
 tute for it. We are not at all surprised at this severe judg- 
 ment, which we should endorse if we did not think that the 
 suppression of the human sacrifices, of which we have de- 
 scribed the gloomy horrors, ought to be taken into account 
 before pronouncing a final judgment on the peoples of the 
 New World and on their cruel and bigoted conquerors. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PERU. 
 
 THE chain of the Andes traverses the whole of South 
 America, and near the boundary between Bolivia and Chili 
 it divides into two branches, the principal still called the 
 Cordillera of the Andes, and the other and nearer to the 
 Pacific the Cordillera de la Costa parallel with the Pacific, 
 which enclose between them, at a height of above 3,000 feet, 
 the Dcsaguadero, a vast table-land, the area of which is 
 equal to that of France. At one of the extremities of this 
 table-land is Potosi, the most elevated town of the globe, 
 13,330 feet above the sea level ; and on the north is Cuzco, 
 the ancient capital of the Incas; whilst between them lies 
 Lake Titicaca, the greatest body of fresh water in South 
 America. 
 
 The whole country is dreary and desolate ; no luxuriant 
 vegetation breaks the gloom of the landscape ; cereals can- 
 not ripen, and animals are rare. Between the Cordillera de 
 la Costa and the ocean are arid rocks, sands on which noth- 
 ing can grow, resembling the great deserts of Africa, 1 with a 
 few valleys, formed by the tributaries of the Amazon, and 
 swallowed up in these vast solitudes, the sole possessors of 
 the wealth of tropical nature. 
 
 Nowhere in the world; perhaps, has man displayed greater 
 energy. It was in these desolate regions that arose the most 
 powerful and most highly civilized empire of the two 
 Americas, and at the present day its memory is everywhere 
 preserved in the imposing ruins covering the country, the 
 
 1 "Sahara is a thing of beauty, and Arizona a joy forever, compared with 
 the coast of Peru." Squier, " Peru," p. 25. 
 
388 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 fortress defending it, the roads intersecting it, the accquias 
 or canals conducting the water needed for fertilizing the 
 fields, the tambos or houses of refuge in the mountains for 
 the use of travellers, 1 the potteries, the linen and cotton 
 cloth, and the ornaments of gold and silver concealed in the 
 graves, and which are sought for by the Tapadas with insati- 
 able zeal. 2 
 
 The empire of the Incas, of which we are now to speak, 
 was three thousand miles in length by four hundred in 
 width, between S. Lat. 4 and 34 i. e., from the river 
 Andasmayo of the north of Quito to the river Maule in 
 Chili. It included within its limits Peru, 3 Bolivia, Ecua- 
 dor, part of Chili, and the Argentine Republic. It was as 
 much as one million square miles in area, and when, under 
 the Inca Huayna-Capac, it had reached the culminating 
 
 1 The Qquichua name was tampu, and tambo is a Spanish corruption. 
 
 8 Montesinos : " Memorias antiguas historiales del Peru." Ternaux Compans 
 published a French translation in 1840 ; its facts are mingled with many 
 fables. Garcilasso de la Vega : " Los Comentarios renlcs que tratan del origen 
 de los Incas, reyes que fueron del Peru," 2 vols , fol., Lisbon, 1609-1616 ; 
 " Hist des Incas, rois du Perou," French translation, Paris, 1744. It is the 
 most complete account which we have of the history of the Incas, but Garcilasso, 
 from his retirement in Spain, wrote forty years after the events of which he wns 
 witness, and with an evident partiality for the Incas, from whom he was 
 descended by the mother's side. " Tres relacions de Antiguedades Peruanas 
 publicalas el Ministerio de Fomento," Madrid, 1879. This volume contains 
 " Relacion por el Licenciado Fernando de Santillon " ; " Rel. Anonima " ; 
 " Rel. porD. Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti." Humbolclt : " VuesdesCordillercs 
 et Mon. des Peuples indigenes de 1' Amerique," Paris, 1810. D'Orbigny : 
 " L'Homme Americain," Paris, 1834-1847 (Extract from " Voy. dans 1'Amer. 
 Meridionale," 9 vols., 4). E. de Rivero et Tschudi : " Antiguedades Peruanas," 
 Vienna, 1851, and " Die Kechua Sprache," Vienna, 1853. W. H. Prescott : 
 " Hist, of the Conquest of Peru," 7th edition, London, 1854. Hutchinson : 
 " Two Years in Peru." E. Desjardins : " Le-Perou avant la Conquete Espag- 
 nole," Paris, 1858. W. Bollaert : "Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other 
 Resarches in New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Chili," London, 1860. Mateo 
 Paz Soldan : " Geog. del Peru," Paris, 1862. V. F. Lopez: " Les Races 
 Aryennes du Perou," Paris and Montevideo, 1871. Squier : "Peru, Incidents 
 of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas," 2d edition, London, 1878. 
 C. Wiener : " Perou et Bolivie," Paris, Hachette, 1880. 
 
 "The name of Peru is a Spanish invention. The inhabitants called it Tavan- 
 tisuyu, literally " the four parts of the -world," 
 
PERU. 389 
 
 point of its grandeur, its population may possibly have num- 
 bered from ten to eleven million souls. 1 
 
 The origin of the Incas is unknown, and there is nothing 
 known of the real history of the country covering more than 
 four hundred years before the Spanish conquest. Accord- 
 ing to tradition Manco-Capac and the beautiful Mama-CEllo, 
 his sister and his wife, made known the first elements of 
 civilization to tribes which had previously been savage and 
 barbarous. In obedience to them these men broke their 
 idols to adore a spirit, Creator and Preserver of the world, of 
 whom the sun and the moon were the visible form. Mon- 
 tesinos gives the history of one hundred and one rulers 
 who, after Manco-Capac, wore the head-dress (llaiitii) denot- 
 ing their sovereignty, and he dates their origin from the fifth 
 century before the deluge. 
 
 In this account a little truth is mixed with much fable. It 
 is certain that before the time of Manco-Capac the in- 
 habitants of the country were by no means plunged in 
 barbarism. The Qquichua culture had a past, of which the 
 theocratic and social organization founded by the first Inca 
 was but a development. Numerous buildings are un- 
 doubtedly earlier than the Incas, at least than those of 
 whom authentic history has preserved an account. They 
 are distinguished by their more massive character, their 
 bolder and more artistic construction, and by certain general 
 features presenting some resemblances to sundry Asiatic 
 monuments." As for the narrative of Montesinos it doubt- 
 less refers in part to the history of different people or tribes, 
 the union of which later formed the dominion of the Incas. 
 These people certainly had common bonds of union. A 
 curious analogy is presented by the monuments which may 
 be attributed to them, the sepulchral tumuli, fortresses, and 
 temples preserve similarities of style from Arica to San 
 
 1 A census ordered by Philip II. indicated no more than eight million two 
 hundred and eighty thousand, and at the present day the population of these 
 countries does not amount to half this number. 
 
 1 Angrand : " Lettre sur les Antiquite's de Tiaguanaco," Paris, 1866. Allen : 
 " La tres Ancienne Ame'rique," Nancy, 1874. 
 
390 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Jos6 ; everywhere the ornaments, pottery, and mode of 
 burial are identical ; every thing indicates a common 
 origin. 
 
 At the time of the Spanish conquest those aboriginal races 
 were represented by the Aymaras, who inhabited the table- 
 land of the Andes, and the Qquichuas, established around 
 Cuzco. 1 D'Orbigny is of opinion that the differences be- 
 tween them were rather apparent than real. There are 
 decided analogies in the grammatical structure of their 
 language ; a great number of the words are the same, and 
 the differences we notice are such as are usually met with in 
 dialects eminating from a single source. 2 Side by side with 
 these undeniable relations, however, there are dissimilarities 
 so marked that they must be attributed to different biologi- 
 cal conditions, and we conclude that, if there be a kinship 
 between these races, their common origin must be carried 
 back to a remote period. 
 
 To sum up : In the present state of knowledge, it is 
 difficult to determine the connection between the Aymaras 
 and the Qquichuas, and we cannot do better than compare 
 it with that which we have pointed out between the Mayas 
 and the Quiches, or better still between the Toltecs and 
 the Aztecs. Whilst admitting the possibility of this hy- 
 pothesis, there is yet another, even more plausible, which 
 Humboldt was the first to advance, and which Angrand up- 
 holds with weighty reasons. The Qquichuas may have come 
 from the north, probably several centuries after the Aymaras, 
 and we must look for their ancestors among the prolific races 
 of Central America. 3 
 
 'Markham: "The Tribes of the Empire of the Incas," Royal Geog. Soc., 
 1871. D'Orbigny: " L'Homme Americain," vol. II., p. 306. Forbes :" The 
 Aymara Indians," Joum. of the Ethn. Soc., London, 1870. Ch. Wiener: 
 " Perou et Bolivia," Paris, 1880. 
 
 * Don V. F. Lopez supposed Qquichua to be an Aryan language ; but in that 
 case would it have remained agglutinative with words such as Mananccallaby- 
 cucullahuancupasraocchu (they have not had the kindness or the charity to think 
 of me). See also Tschudi : " Die Kechua Sprache," Cong, des Ame'rican- 
 istes, Luxembourg, 1877, vol. II., p. 75. 
 
 'Angrand, /. c., p. 37 et seq. 
 
PERU. 391 
 
 Setting aside conjectures more or less justified, the native 
 account generally accepted shows us Manco-Capac reigning 
 from 1021 to 1062, while by another version he only reigned 
 thirty-six years and died in 1054. Fourteen Incas succeeded 
 him, several of whom were remarkable men, under whom 
 the government became consolidated and increased in terri- 
 tory. 1 The last was Atahualpa, whose short reign was 
 marked by a fierce struggle with his brother Huascar, and 
 by the cruel massacres which terminated it. 
 
 A more dangerous enemy was about to appear ; Pizarro 
 disembarked in the Bay of San Mateo in 1534,* having with 
 him three vessels, 174 men and twenty-seven horses. A 
 little later he received a reinforcement of 130 men. It was 
 before these feeble forces that the empire of the Incas was 
 to succumb. Atahualpa was beaten and made prisoner at 
 Caxalmalca. A little later, implicated in a probably imagi- 
 nary conspiracy, he was" condemned to perish by fire. In 
 vain he offered, to save his life, to fill one of the rooms of his 
 palace, as high as a Spaniard on foot could reach with his 
 hand, with ornaments, vases, and gold and silver jewels. 
 This room, according to Xeres the secretary of Pizarro, was 
 twenty-two feet long by seventeen wide The conquista- 
 dores accepted his riches, but the only favor the unfortunate 
 Inca could obtain, and that on condition that he would re- 
 ceive baptism, was that of being strangled instead of being 
 burnt. The notary Sanchez has preserved for us the act, 
 dated the i/thof June, 1533, sanctioning the division of the 
 ransom of the Inca. Pizarro received for his share 2350 
 marks of silver and 57,220 pieces of gold ; his brother 
 Hernandez, 1,267 marks of silver and 31,080 pieces of gold. 
 The church deducted to begin with, as tithe, 90 marks 
 of silver and 2,220 pieces of gold. 
 
 It is not our intention to relate here, either the history ' 
 
 1 " No ha habido en la tierra monarcas mas despoticos que los Incas, Eran 
 adorados como seras sobrinaturales." Paz-Soldan, " Geog. del Peru." 
 
 * A first exploration of the coast of Peru by Pizarro took place in 1524, under 
 the reign of Huayna-Capac. F. Xeres : " Rel. de la Conq. du Perou " ; Ternaux- 
 Compans, translation. 
 
 "Itineraries of Francisco and Hernandez Pizarro," published for th 
 
39 2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 of the Incas or that of the Spanish domination. What we 
 want to do is to make known the strange people who, in 
 spite of the obstacles due to an inhospitable region, suc- 
 ceeded in occupying the first place among the nations of 
 South America ; and this we shall do by describing the 
 ruins, and products of art and industry, left behind by them, 
 and by studying their manners, laws, and religious ideas. 
 We shall tell what were Pachacamac, Chimu, Tiaguanaco, 
 Titicaca, Cuzco, and other towns, with the important monu- 
 ments of every kind, of which the ruins bear witness. Un- 
 fortunately man is daily busy in effecting their destruction ; 
 intoxicated by the innumerable legends on the hidden riches 
 of the Incas, the treasure-seekers or tapadas dig zealously 
 everywhere ; the walls are crumbling beneath the pick-axe ; 
 the sculptures are breaking ; the subterranean passages are 
 falling in ; all the mementos of a great past are disappearing, 
 and men are overturning in an instant what has been re- 
 spected for centuries. 
 
 Pachacamac * is situated on the Pacific, twenty miles from 
 Lima. A few miserable reed huts have replaced the sacred 
 town of the ancient Peruvians, with a few ruins, difficult even 
 to describe, of monuments that at the time of the arrival of 
 the first Inca, were already old. A silence, scarcely broken 
 by the flight of a few condors, reigns in districts where pil- 
 grimages once attracted an immense concourse of the faith- 
 ful, and a single burial-place (figs. 160,. 161) of considerable 
 extent, remains the sole witness of bygone grandeur. 
 
 According to Estete, one of the companions of Hernandez 
 Pizarro, who was sent by his brother to reduce Pachacamac 
 to submission, the town was large, and near the temple rose 
 a house surrounded by a series of five walls which was called 
 " The house of the Sun." There were also, he tells us, 
 many other large houses, with terraces similar to those met 
 with in Spain. It must have been a very ancient town, 
 
 Hakluyt Society by C. R. Markham, London, 1872. Consult Desjardins' ex- 
 cellent work, " Le Perou avant la Conquete Espagnole." 
 
 1 From^acAa, the earth, and camac, participle of camani to create. Desjar- 
 dins (note I, p. 23,) however gives another etymology. 
 
PERU. 
 
 393 
 
 judging from the numerous buildings in ruins. At the time 
 of this writer the whole town was surrounded by a wall, 
 already in ruins in several places, and with large doors open- 
 ing out of it. 
 
 El Castillo, to which Estete's description doubtless refers, 
 rose from a rock 500 feet above the sea-level. The walls of 
 the rock were faced with adobes painted red, forming four 
 terraces, 1 one behind the other. This is an arrangement 
 resembling that noticed in Central America, 1 and bears 
 
 FIG. 160. Peruvian mummy. FIG. 161. Peruvian mummy. 
 
 witness to the relation which certainly existed between the 
 inhabitants of the two areas. The platform covers several 
 acres of ground, and on it the ruins of what were once im- 
 portant buildings can still be discerned. The temple faced 
 the south. Estete goes on to tell us that it was a fine 
 house, well painted and decorated, and that in a very dark 
 and offensively-smelling recess, always kept closed, was a 
 wooden idol, which represented for these people the image 
 
 'Such is Squier's account. Wilkes (" U. S. Exploring Expedition ") and 
 Markham (" Cuzco and Lima ") speak of only three terraces. 
 
 * The pyramidal mound of Cholula may especially be compared with it. 
 Hutchinson : " Two Years in Peru," vol. I., p. 159-303. Markham : "Cuzco 
 and Lima." 
 
394 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 of the Creator. At its feet were numerous gold and silver 
 ornaments, the offerings of the worshippers of the god. 
 None but the priest were allowed to enter this recess. 
 
 After a visit to the sanctuary, which quite stupefied the 
 natives with astonishment, Hernandez destroyed the image 
 of Pachacamac, after whom the town was called. He was 
 still more eager to take possession of the treasure, and con- 
 temporary chroniclers relate that the Spanish obtained 
 twenty-seven cargas'of gold and 16,000 ounces of silver ; 
 unfortunately, they add, they were not able to discover the 
 principal treasure which may have amounted to 400 cargas 
 of gold. 
 
 FIG. 162. Niche in a wall at Pachacamac. 
 
 A mile and a half from El Castillo, near a little lake, the 
 ruins of a nuns' convent (Mamacuna) still exist. The de- 
 tails of the structure remind us of those of the buildings of 
 the Incas ; and the erection of this convent is therefore at- 
 tributed to them ; by skilful policy they were careful to 
 show veneration for this spot, so sacred to their subjects. 
 
 Garcillasso relates that the whole of the coast, from Trux- 
 illo, a modern town founded in 1535 by Pizarro, to Tumbez, 
 for an extent of more than six hundred and twenty-five 
 miles, belonged to a people known under the name of Chimus. 
 
 1 The carga equals about 62 Ibs. 
 
PERU. 395 
 
 Montesinos alone speaks of the origin of this people. His 
 idea is that the strangers came from the ocean, and that, 
 more warlike and better armed than the natives, they rapidly 
 reduced to submission all who lived between the sea and the 
 mountains. We have already remarked that Montesinos' ac- 
 counts must be received with caution ; but in this case they 
 are corroborated by the singular resemblance of the " hua- 
 cas " we are about to describe, with the teocallis of Mexico 
 and Central America. Such a resemblance cannot be acci- 
 dental. Historians add ' that, at the time of Pachacutec, 
 the ninth Inca, the country was governed by Chimu-Canchu, 
 who was greatly dreaded by his neighbors. Yupanqui, son 
 of Pachacutec, wished to compel Canchu to acknowledge 
 himself the vassal of Pachacutec, .and to give up the worship 
 of animals, 2 and to adore the sun-god. A bloody war suc- 
 ceeded the refusal of Canchu ; but the Chimus were com- 
 pelled to give way before superior numbers and submit to 
 the conquerors. From this moment until the arrival of the 
 Spanish, their history may be summed up as a perpetual 
 series of revolts which show their horror of a foreign yoke. 
 
 Their capital, which also bore the name of Chimu, cov- 
 ered a considerable area. The ruins extended from the Monte 
 Campana on the north to the Rio Moche on the south, over 
 an area of twelve and one half to fifteen miles long by from 
 five to five and a half miles wide 
 
 In every direction, for an extent of several leagues, long 
 lines of massive walls, huacas,' palaces, aqueducts, reservoirs 
 of water, and granaries can be made out. Every thing 
 proves the power and wealth of a people, the very name of 
 whom has remained uncertain. 
 
 Of the monuments, the huacas are the most important. 
 
 1 Garcilasso, /. c., vol. I. p. 234. 
 
 * The animals which were the objects of their adoration were probably sym- 
 bolical ; fishes, the tortoise, and the crab represented water ; the serpent and 
 the lizard, the earth. The lance, also met with in the temple, is supposed to 
 have been the symbol of thunder and lightning. 
 
 a The word huaca usually denotes a sepulchre, but its meaning is extended to 
 embrace any consecrated or venerated spot. 
 
39^ PXE-1I1STOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 This is a name given to truncated pyramids nearly always 
 built of stones, cemented with a very plastic clay and form- 
 ing a durable conglomerate. The Obispo huaca, one of the 
 most remarkable, is no less than one hundred and fifty feet 
 high, with a base of five hundred and eighty feet square ; it 
 covers, says Squier, 1 an area of eight acres, and it is esti- 
 mated that nearly fifty million cubic feet of materials were 
 used in its construction. Excavations have been made on 
 the faith of legends telling of subterranean chambers filled 
 with gold and silver, and Squier, one of the last travellers to 
 visit it, tells us that it looks from a distance like the huge 
 crater of a volcano. 
 
 Another huaca rises not far from Obispo, in the centre of 
 an enclosure of adobe two hundred and fifty-two feet by two 
 hundred and twenty-two. Its walls measure fourteen feet 
 in height by six feet in breadth at their base. We mention 
 it, though its height is not considerable, on account of the 
 bones which it encloses, and which are the best proof we 
 have of the purpose of at least a certain number of these 
 huacas. 
 
 The abodes of the dead, in every variety of form, appear 
 to be the last mementos of this people, and are met with all 
 about the neighborhood of Chimu. A vast sandy plain 
 stretches away to the sea, overlooked by a hill on which 
 rises a huaca, like an outpost ; this plain is covered with 
 graves, where lay skeletons very irregularly buried in the 
 most varied positions, victims doubtless of the battles in 
 which the Chimus defended their independence. This is 
 a plausible idea, for a great many skulls are fractured as if 
 by the blow of a club, and others have holes in them, such 
 as might have been made by the bronze arrow-points picked 
 up in the same place. 
 
 Skirting along this plain we come to the little village of 
 Moche. This village possesses a huaca, which passes as the 
 most considerable of any in the country.* El templo del Sol 
 
 1 " Peru," p. 120. 
 
 * Squier : " Peru." p. 130. 
 
PERU. 397 
 
 (all the important ruins of Peru are called temples of the 
 sun) is a rectangular building eight hundred feet long by 
 four hundred and seventy broad. It covers an area of more 
 than seven acres, and its greatest height is two hundred feet. 
 The mode of construction is very peculiar: Huge blocks of 
 adobes, at a short distance from one another, form pillars, 
 inclined at an angle of seventy-seven degrees. These pillars 
 were covered with a very thick stucco which secured the 
 stability of the platform, which was crowned by several 
 buildings, of which no traces can be made out. At the 
 southern extremity rises a truncated pyramid, formed of re- 
 ceding terraces one above the other. Seven of these terraces 
 are still standing and an attentive examination justifies us 
 in assuming the original number to have been nine ; the 
 summit was reached by a slope so gentle as to be impercep- 
 tible. The rooms, recesses, and subterranean passages have 
 been excavated, but without more success than at the 
 Obispo huaca. All they revealed was that these two huacas 
 were not burial-places, as was at first supposed. 
 
 The palace 1 included an irregular series of buildings in 
 adobes, covering an area of several acres, and rising from a 
 mound made up of successive terraces. The external walls 
 were ornamented in such a manner as to break their mo- 
 notony. We give a drawing of one of the most usual modes 
 of treatment, which will give an idea of the general effect 
 (fig. 163). The interior included a series of halls, rooms, 
 corridors and vaulted crypts. One of these rooms is more 
 than fifty-two feet in width ; but its length remains uncer- 
 tain, on account of the rubbish with which it is choked up. 
 It certainly, however, exceeded one hundred feet. The 
 walls are richly ornamented with stuccos in relief, fine ara- 
 besques, and Greek frets, reminding us of those of Mitla. At 
 a height of about twelve feet we notice several niches five 
 feet wide. These niches are one of the most striking charac- 
 teristics of Peruvian architecture, but it is impossible to as- 
 
 1 We retain the name palace given by Squier. This building, or rather this 
 collection of buildings, was evidently used as a palace. 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 certain their purpose. In other rooms the walls are covered 
 with a coating of color, generally dark red. There is a cor- 
 ridor, the door opening into which consists of a double row 
 of pilasters, whilst the walls are covered with figures in re- 
 lief, which have been supposed to represent monkeys, carry- 
 ing on their heads a sort of half moon. This ornament must 
 have had some special signification, for it is often repeated 
 on the pottery and metal vases of the Chimus. 
 
 FIG. 163. Ruined walls at Chimu. 
 
 Colonel la Rosa, one of the most eager and fortunate of 
 the tapadas, discovered in a vault of the shape of a well, 
 which he had to get into through a narrow opening, a con- 
 siderable collection of gold and silver vases (fig. 164), some 
 of which were covered with ornaments in relief. The body 
 of these vases was very thin, those in silver had a large ad- 
 mixture of copper, and were in such a state of oxidation that 
 they broke in the fingers of the excavators. Unfortunately, 
 
PERU. 
 
 399 
 
 nearly all were melted down immediately after their discov- 
 ery. The vase of which we give a drawing is in the Squier 
 collection, and is one of the few which have been preserved. 
 The disorder in which these costly articles, evidently hidden 
 in haste, were found, leads us to suppose that an effort was 
 made to place them in safety, either during the struggles be- 
 tween the Chimus and the Incas, or on the arrival of the 
 conquistadores. 
 
 The necropolis of the rulers of Chimu was a short distance 
 from their palaces. 2 An excavation has laid bare walls of 
 immense thickness, the length of which has nowhere been 
 verified. A staircase led to a series 
 of vaulted chambers, all with one or 
 more niches. In these niches reclined 
 dried-up mummies, the skulls of 
 some of which were painted red, 
 while others, if we accept Colonel La 
 Rosa's account, were gilded. The 
 bodies were clothed in rich stuffs, 
 and wore feather crowns and gold 
 and silver ornaments. These orna- 
 ments have disappeared, and Squier 
 was only able to procure a few frag- 
 ments of a stuff made of cotton and 
 wool, with figures of lizards and birds 
 of the most varied colors woven in 
 with the woof. 
 
 We will not pause to give a detailed account of all the 
 ruins of Chimu ; el Presidio, the prison, alone deserves to be 
 excepted. This is an enclosure 320 feet by 240, surrounded 
 by a wall twenty-five feet high by five and a half at the base. 
 In the centre is a mound, the foundations of which, of ex- 
 ceptional solidity, rest upon huge blocks of stone. Excava- 
 tions have brought to light, a little below the level of the 
 soil, forty-five cells arranged in five rows, and without any 
 communication between them. Hence the name of the 
 
 FIG. 164. Silver cup found 
 at Chimu. 
 
 9 Squier: "Peru," p. 144. 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 building, and if it be really a prison the inhabitants of Chimu 
 were the first to conceive the idea of what we may call the 
 cellular system. Wiener remarks that the present town, 
 built in 1533, has been thrown down three times by earth- 
 quakes. The solidity of the buildings of the ancient in- 
 habitants enabled them to resist these terrible shocks. 
 
 At Chimu we can make out private houses. This is rare 
 enough, for in most ruined towns the monuments alone have 
 resisted the inroads of time, and the far more formidable 
 devastations of man. These buildings, some round, some 
 square, were arranged with great regularity in streets or 
 squares. The rooms, of course, vary in number and size, the 
 largest reached twenty-five feet in length by twelve in 
 height. A very curious piece of pottery represents a house 
 with a pointed roof, a single door, and a hole in the gable, 
 probably to ensure ventilation. These must have been the 
 homes of the people, and their number bears witness to a 
 considerable population. 1 
 
 Tiaguanaco 2 rises in the centre of a basin formed by two 
 lakes of very unequal size, that of Titicaca and that of Aul- 
 lagas, on a table-land surrounded by lofty mountains, over- 
 looked by Illampu, which is 18,000 feet high, and is the 
 loftiest mountain of South America. This table-land is 
 12,000 feet above the level of the sea, almost at the line of 
 perpetual snow. At this height vegetation is impossible, no 
 cereal can ripen, breathing is difficult, there is nothing pro- 
 duced by which life might be sustained. 
 
 In this arid and desolate region, so difficult of access, men 
 had, however, erected an important town and remarkable 
 buildings. 3 Garcilasso relates that when Mayta-Capac, the 
 fourth Inca, for the first time penetrated into the country, 
 the sight of these monuments awoke in the Peruvians a pro- 
 found astonishment, and they were at a loss to make out 
 
 1 Squier, loc. cit., p. 181. 
 
 * Such is the name given to the town by the Incas. Its ancient name remains 
 unknown. Angrand : " Lettre sur les Ant. de Tiaguanaco." 
 
 1 Desjardins : ' Le Perou avant la domination Espagnole." Rivery and 
 Tschudi : "Ant. Peruanas." 
 
PERU. 
 
 401 
 
 what processes had been employed in their construction. 
 Tiaguanaco was the seat of a civilization at once the most 
 ancient and the most brilliant in South America. This con- 
 tinued contrast between nature and the works of man is one 
 of the most interesting points of the study we are pursuing. 
 On his arrival in the midst of the ruins, the explorer is 
 struck by the number of monoliths (fig. 165) placed erect at 
 regular intervals, reminding us of those of Stonehenge ' in 
 the cyclopean size of the stones employed, and in the pro- 
 fusion of sculptures, ornaments, bas-reliefs, and statues of 
 colossal size, of which eight have thus far been discovered. 
 
 FIG 165. Monoliths at Tiaguanaco. 
 
 The ears of the representations of human heads are not 
 distorted, which is yet another proof that they are of earlier 
 date than the Incas, for we know that it was the Inca Roca 
 who introduced the custom of wearing heavy earrings ; 
 hence the name of Ore/ones, given by the Spanish to the 
 natives. 
 
 The stones employed are red freestone, a slate-colored 
 
 1 Their height is very unequal ; the highest measures fourteen feet. The 
 monoliths of Stonehenge vary from sixteen to twenty-one feet. 
 
 * Acosta, one of the first Spaniards who entered Tiaguanaco, speaks of stones 
 thirty-eight feet long, eighteen broad, and six thick. 
 
402 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 trachyte, and a very hard and very dark basalt. 1 All these 
 stones are admirably polished, and they are so perfectly cut 
 that we may compare their workmanship with that of the 
 granites of the Egyptian pylones. It is not easy to under- 
 stand how the workmen could have executed a task so dif- 
 ficult, 8 when iron was unknown to them, and they had to use 
 implements either of silex, or a rather soft alloy of bronze 
 (champi}. The stones are laid one upon the other with such 
 precision that the joints are hardly visible, and secured with 
 bronze cramps. The ruins of the monuments have served 
 to build all the churches of the surrounding valleys, and the 
 sculptures of Tiaguanaco are found at a distance of more 
 than twenty leagues, even in the walls of the cathedral of 
 La Paz, the present capital of Bolivia. 
 
 Wood was not used in these buildings ; at this height 
 trees could not grow, and a little stunted brushwood, or the 
 dried dung of llamas, was the only fuel to be had. 
 
 We must now rapidly describe the ruins of Tiaguanaco ; 
 and we will keep as data for reference, the names which have 
 been given to the different buildings ; but, as Desjardins 
 justly remarks, the popular designations are any thing but 
 suitable to the buildings to which they have been applied. 
 
 The fortress 3 is a mound of rectangular form, which rises 
 to a height of one hundred and fifty feet in successive ter- 
 races, one behind the other and upheld by massive walls. 
 This is again the same arrangement that we meet with in 
 Mexico arid Yucatan. The platform was covered with build- 
 ings, of which the foundations are now scarcely visible. No- 
 
 1 There are large cliffs of red freestone five leagues from the ruins, and beds 
 of trachyte and basalt at Yunguyo. The transport through the mountains 
 must have added to the immense difficulties which the builders had to contend 
 with. 
 
 " " In no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical 
 precision and admirable skill as in Peru ; and in no part of Peru are there any 
 to surpass those which are scattered over the plains of Tiahuanuco." Squier, 
 " Peru," p. 279. 
 
 'Garcilasso tells us that the town of Tiaguanaco was remarkable for its 
 large and extraordinary buildings. He speaks of the finest building of the 
 country as a mountain of prodigious height made by the hand of man. 
 
PERU. 403 
 
 where have the tapadas shown a wilder zeal, excited doubt- 
 less by the tradition, which no Indian would think of doubt- 
 ing, that a subterranean communication exists between this 
 fortress and the town of Cuzco, more than one hundred 
 and sixty leagues off. 
 
 It is not likely that this pyramid, in spite of the name the 
 natives have given to it, ever served a defensive purpose. 
 The fortresses of Peru have always been built upon places 
 indicated by the situation itself. Many archaeologists look 
 upon it as a temple and think it was the scene of the 
 human sacrifices which are said to have been offered up be- 
 fore the domination of the Incas. This is a mere guess, 
 which, in our present state of ignorance, we are able neither 
 to accept nor to reject. 
 
 North of the fortress rises the temple, the most ancient 
 monument of the town. It forms a parallelogram of four 
 hundred and forty-five feet by three hundred and eighty- 
 eight, and was surrounded by a vast enclosure built of 
 blocks of trachyte, which measure from eight to ten feet 
 long, by from two to four wide, and are from twenty to 
 thirty inches thick. They are of irregular form and less 
 carefully prepared than the stones employed in the other 
 buildings of Tiaguanaco. 
 
 The Hall of Justice is now nothing but a heap of stones ; 
 long and patient study would be required to make out the 
 exactitude of the account written by Cieca de Leon three 
 centuries ago, or even of the plan made by D'Orbigny, in 
 1833. According to all appearances the building was a 
 parallelogram measuring four hundred and twenty feet by 
 three hundred and seventy. Walls surrounded a platform of 
 earth, leaving in the centre a trench which reached down to 
 the level of the soil. We are ignorant of the purpose of 
 this trench, the walls of which were formed by large stones, 
 said by Cieca de Leon, to be thirty feet long by fifteen wide, 
 and six high, while Squier assigns them smaller dimen- 
 sions. A door-way still standing gives access to it, with 
 jambs made of a single stone, and a frieze ornamented with 
 human faces in relief. 
 
404 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 East of the Hall of Justice we see a mound eight or ten 
 feet high, forming a perfect square of one hundred and sev- 
 enty-five feet each way. In the centre rose a building fifty 
 feet square, to which Squier has given the name of the Sanc- 
 tuary. It was reached by flights of very narrow steps, and 
 it is easy to make out a kind of Naos, which was probably a 
 goal of pilgrims. Tiagaunaco had, in fact, a great renown 
 for sanctity, inferior in nothing to that of Pachacamac, and 
 
 FlG. 166. Doorway at Tiaguanaco. 
 
 at certain holidays men flocked to it from all parts of Peru. 
 Several monolithic door-ways, similar to those we have de- 
 scribed, tower above the ruins surrounding them. One of 
 them is probably the most curious monument of the town. 
 Imagine a block of trachyte thirteen feet five inches long by 
 seven feet two inches high, 1 surmounted by a frieze that 
 
 1 This door is four feet six inches high by two feet nine inches wide. Des- 
 jardins, loc. cit., p. 159, gives an excellent description of this monument. 
 
PERU. 
 
 405 
 
 has been damaged by lightning; and then four series of 
 cartouches bearing human figures engraved in intaglio, 
 some unfinished, and in the centre a very original and com- 
 plicated mass of ornamentation (fig. 167). This central or- 
 
 FIG. 167. Central portion of the great monolith of Tiaguanaco. 
 
 uament represents a Luman face, surrounded by bas-reliefs 
 which are said to be of jaguars and condors. 1 The figures 
 
 1 Angrand, who has visited Tiaguanaco, calls attention to its resemblance, 
 even in the smallest details, to the monuments of Palenque, Ococingo. and 
 Xochicalco. 
 
406 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 are probably symbolical ; but the religion of the ancient in- 
 habitants of the town is unknown to us, so that we cannot 
 interpret them. In the western face are five niches, two of 
 which are sunk in the soil, so that the height of the mono- 
 lith has still to be determined. 
 
 History and tradition are alike mute on the relations 
 which may connect the builders of Tiaguanaco with the 
 Qquichuas. We are no less ignorant of those which existed 
 between the former and the Aymaras. It is probable, al- 
 though we cannot positively assert it, that both sprang 
 from Nahua races, and that they came from the north, per- 
 haps even from the prolific table-land of Anahuac. One 
 thing we think certain : such monuments cannot be the 
 remains of a civilization of local growth, nor can a race, 
 unaided, have developed from its own genius such archi- 
 tectural knowledge. We share the conclusion of Angrand, 
 that the civilization of which the remaining ruins bear the 
 impress, could not have taken its rise on these frozen 
 table-lands. Man must have arrived upon them sufficiently 
 armed for the struggle, by previous experience of social 
 life. 
 
 Lake Titicaca, of irregular oval form, is one hundred miles 
 long by from fifty to seventy wide ; soundings have re- 
 cently given a depth of 1,710 feet, while the altitude of 
 the lake is about 12,000 feet above the sea. 1 Several 
 islands dot its surface, the most important of which is 
 that of Titicaca, with rugged rocks and irregular shore- 
 line. It is six miles long by three or four wide. Its 
 name comes from titi, a tiger, and caca, rock ; according 
 to tradition, before the arrival of man the island was in- 
 habited by a tiger, that carried on its head a magnificent 
 ruby, the light from which illuminated the whole lake. 
 
 This was the sacred island of the ancient Peruvians ; 
 and, according to a legend still dear to the inhabitants, 
 it was here that the sun re-appeared resplendent after a 
 total eclipse which had lasted for several days ; here, too, 
 
 1 Wiener, loc. fit., p. 390. 
 
PERU. 407 
 
 were born Manco-Capac and Oello, the children of the sun, 
 and it was from here that they set forth to direct the 
 great destinies of their people. 
 
 The island is covered with monuments, the pious offerings 
 of the Incas to the manes of their glorious ancestors. We 
 mention the palace of the Sun, a convent of priests con- 
 nected with the worship of that god, and the palace of the 
 Incas. On disembarking from the reed-boat (balsa), on which 
 every traveller has to trust himself, one sees successively the 
 ruins of three porticos, through which the pilgrims had to 
 pass; the Puma punco, or the gate of the puma, where they 
 had to confess their sins ; the Kent i punco t ornamented with 
 sculptures representing a bird called Kenti, where other 
 ceremonies had to be gone through with ; and, lastly, the 
 Pillco punco, or the door of hope. After having passed 
 through it, the faithful worshipper was allowed to approach 
 the sacred rock, where the sun had risen, lighting up the 
 horizon with its fires. 1 This rock was entirely covered 
 with magnificent tapestries, ornamented with sheets of gold 
 and silver ; and in all the hollows were deposited the most 
 costly offerings. None except the priests might approach 
 this venerated spot ; pilgrims contemplated it from afar, re- 
 maining in a large enclosure, in which can still be seen the 
 foundations of two sanctuaries dedicated to two inferior 
 gods, symbolized by thunder and lightning. 
 
 The temple formed a parallelogram of 165 feet by 30, and 
 rose from a rock situated at the extremity of the island. 
 There has been much discussion as to its site ; we accept the 
 opinion of Squier (/. c., p. 369), which appears to us the best 
 founded. 
 
 It was reached by steps cut in the rock. The walls 
 were of stones, imbedded in a very hard clay and faced 
 with a coating of stucco. Inside we notice a whole series 
 of the niches so characteristic of Peruvian monuments. The 
 principal facade was pierced with five doors, and with two 
 
 1 We take this account from Padre Ramos, who wrote a short time after the 
 conquest. 
 
408 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 windows placed at equal distances between each two doors. 
 On the opposite side, a single door opened upon a series of 
 terraces, one behind the other ; and by crossing them and 
 going down some skilfully arranged steps, two smaller tem- 
 ples in the same style were reached. They were erected, as 
 were most of the buildings of the island, by Tupac-Yupanqui, 
 the eleventh Inca. They are neither so well built, nor so 
 loaded with ornament, as are those of Tiaguanaco. In them 
 we see art in its decadence, an almost certain indication of a 
 declining culture. If we believe the Conquistadores, the 
 wealth of the temples was immense ; but the priests hastened 
 on the arrival of the Spanish, to throw into the lake all their 
 gold and silver vases, to prevent their becoming the prey of 
 the conqueror. 
 
 El palacio del Inca occupies a magnificent position, com- 
 manding a view of the lake and the snow-capped mountains 
 overlooking it. It forms a rectangle of somewhat moderate 
 dimensions, only fifty-one feet by forty-four, and two stories 
 not communicating with each other can be made out, each 
 including a series of twelve rooms, arranged according to 
 totally different plans. 1 The internal and external walls, like 
 those of the temple, were coated with fairly hard stucco, 
 painted yellow ; the jarnbs of the doors, and the niches, 
 which were the only ornamentation, stood out in red ; the 
 roof, of pyramidal form, was made of stones overhanging one 
 another. The great scarcity of wood doubtless led to this 
 mode of building, which must have presented great difficul- 
 ties. 
 
 Lastly, we mention the tambos, where the pilgrims lodged ; 
 the///tf, or fountain of the Incas, where the water still flows 
 from unknown springs through subterranean conduits ; the 
 Clungana, or labyrinth, with its vaulted caves, narrow open- 
 ings, numerous corridors and tiny rooms. We retain the 
 name of Chingana for these ruins, to which the Spanish had 
 at first given that of dispensa, supposing that the treasures 
 of the temple and the objects used in worship were there 
 
 1 Squier, " Peru," pp. 344, 345, gives the plan of each of these stories. 
 
PKRU. 409 
 
 deposited. Squier looks upon them as the aclakuasi, which 
 was the name given to the residence of the virgins of the 
 sun : all these suppositions are possible ; we leave them to 
 the consideration of the reader. 
 
 The island of Coati was about six miles from that of Titi- 
 caca. It was two and a half miles long by three fourths of 
 a mile wide, and played a part in the religious system of the 
 Peruvians, almost as important as the island of Titicaca, or 
 as that dedicated to the sun. Coati was consecrated to the 
 moon. In it we meet again with the gates of purification, 
 where took place the same religious ceremonies as at Titi- 
 caca, and the tambos set aside for the pilgrims ; but the 
 most remarkable ruins are those of the palace of the mama- 
 cunas, or virgins dedicated to the sun. This aclahuasi occu- 
 pied three sides of a vast court ; the walls, like those of the 
 other buildings of the Incas, were of rough stones, im- 
 bedded in clay and covered with very hard cement. On the 
 ground-floor thirty-five rooms can still be counted ; one of 
 these, which was approached by a vaulted corridor, and was 
 the only one in which the walls were made of dressed stones, 
 was probably a sacred spot. The doors were surrounded by 
 niches, which were the only ornamentation ; for nowhere do 
 we find sculptures and arabesques such as are so numerous 
 at Tiaguanaco and Chimu. One story, which was reached 
 by several flights of steps, rose above the ground-floor; and 
 the roof, cut by several pediments, presents a certain resem- 
 blance to the Elizabethan style so dear to the English. All 
 the rooms communicated with each other ; so that here we 
 have the same arrangement as in the pueblos of New Mex- 
 ico. On the first story two large halls opened on the prin- 
 cipal fa$ade ; each had the inevitable niche ; in the first was 
 placed a golden statue of the sun, and in the second a silver 
 one of the moon, Lastly, the lake was reached by a series 
 of terraces and steps, a good deal like those connected with 
 the palace of the Inca on the island of Titicaca. The two 
 buildings date from the same period ; for though the palace 
 of the Virgins was erected during the reign of Huayna- 
 
410 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Capac, his father, Tupac-Yupanqui, laid the foundations. 
 On the west of the palace we can still observe ruins of a 
 semicircular court, in which lived the sacred llamas and 
 vicuflas. It was the duty of the Mamacunas to weave the 
 wool for their own garments and for those of the Incas and 
 their children. 
 
 There were other islands on the lake, but we will content 
 ourselves with mentioning that of Soto, to which the Incas 
 retired in times of anxiety, to seek by fasting and prayer 
 the protection of their glorious ancestors. 
 
 Legends relate that, when Manco-Capac and Oello left the 
 island of Titicaca, the sun gave to them a golden branch, 
 and instructed them to walk on until the branch should sink 
 into the earth. It was at Cuzco that the marvel took place, 
 and the Incas, full of gratitude to their father, made it the 
 capital of their dominions. The town rapidly rose to great 
 importance, and without accepting the exaggerated accounts 
 of certain Spanish writers, who bring up the number of the 
 inhabitants to two hundred thousand, 1 it is evident that a 
 numerous and obedient population was indispensable for the 
 construction of the buildings, whose imposing ruins still 
 astonish the traveller. It is difficult to imagine how men 
 can have lived at an altitude of 1 1,380 feet, on a sterile soil, 
 when there were no domestic animals, and maize, the only 
 cereal with which they were acquainted, could only ripen in 
 a few distant valleys. 
 
 The town rises from steep slopes ; everywhere rocks had 
 to be levelled, terraces erected, and earth upheld by walls, 
 which remind us of the cyclopean structures of Greece 
 or Syria. At Tiaguanaco we found the walls kept in posi- 
 tion by bronze cramps ; in the island of Titicaca these walls 
 are sometimes of adobes dried in the sun, sometimes of 
 stones cemented with clay ; at Cuzco they are of extremely 
 hard rocks, such as diorite, porphyry, and great blocks of 
 
 l The number of inhabitants of the whole province of which Cuzco is the 
 capital does not now exceed three hundred thousand souls. Such is the sterility 
 of the soil and the struggle for existence, that this number is not at all likely 
 to increase. 
 
PER U. 411 
 
 brown trachyte, carried by main force, without the help of 
 paths, from the quarries of Anduhaylillas, twenty-two 
 miles off. How the stones were transported to Cuzco is not 
 easy to say; but as the Incas had no beasts of draught 
 it must have been done through the direct application of 
 human force. 1 These blocks were carefully squared and 
 then joined together by means of a mortise about one foot 
 deep by one and a half feet in diameter, into which fitted a 
 tenon of nearly the same size, hewn out of the upper block. 
 The walls were kept in place by their own weight alone, for 
 Squier, (/. c., p. 435) after a careful examination, declares 
 that no cement was used ; he adds that all modern masonry, 
 whether executed in Europe or in America, is inferior, when 
 compared with that of the ancient capital of the Incas. In 
 certain characteristics this architecture recalls that of the 
 Egyptians ; but this resemblance, curious as it may appear, 
 does not allow any conclusion to be drawn from it ; for the 
 primitive ideas of men are of spontaneous origin and develop 
 progressively, according to a universal law which can be 
 traced everywhere. 
 
 The valley is overlooked by the Sacsahuaman 3 built on a 
 perpendicular rock which juts out like a spear between two 
 streams, the Huatenay and the Rodadero. From the side 
 next the town ascent was impossible and a path was cut out 
 on the opposite side, along the Rodadero, forming the sole 
 mode of access to this fortress, which, with its triple enclos- 
 ure of huge irregular blocks, 3 its terraces, and its para- 
 pets, its projecting and re-entering angles resembling 
 those of modern bastions, was absolutely impregnable 
 
 1 Squier : " Peru," p. 419. 
 
 2 Comte de Sartiges : Rev. des Deux Monde s, 1851. Squier: "Peru," 
 p. 468. Historians differ as to the erection of the Sacsahuaman. Some 
 attribute it to Yupanqui, others to Huayna-Capac, the father of Atahualpa and 
 Huascar. It is probable that it took many years to huild it and that several 
 generations of workmen were employed. 
 
 'The total length of the walls is one thousand eight hundred feet ; the pres- 
 ent height of the first enclosure is twenty-seven feet, that of the second seven- 
 teen, and that of the third, fourteen. 
 
4' 2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA.. 
 
 before the invention of artillery. Garcilasso l places this 
 work on an equality with all that was most celebrated 
 in antiquity, for its execution appeared to him impossible, 
 even with all the instruments and machines known in 
 Zurope. Many persons, therefore, he tells us, believed it to 
 have been made by enchantment, on account of the famili- 
 arity of the Indians with demons, and the Spanish author 
 owns that he was not indisposed to come to the same con- 
 clusion. Though different in kind Squier's enthusiasm was 
 no less great ; he does not hesitate to compare the Sacsahua- 
 man with the pyramids, Stonehenge, and the Coliseum. Like 
 those glorious monuments, he adds, it ought to defy time 
 and remain an eternal witness to the power of man. 
 
 Three openings in the form of an elongated trapezium 
 give access to the outer enclosure, the Tiupuncu, or gate of 
 sand, the Acahuanapuncu, and the Viracochapuncu? after the 
 name of the guardian god of the town. Hugh blocks of 
 stone were made ready for closing these openings at the first 
 appearance of danger. In the centre of the citadel still re- 
 main several minor strongholds, and among them a round 
 tower, the Muyuc-Marca, in which were placed the treasures 
 of the Incas, and from which, by one of those freaks of 
 fortune of which history presents so many curious examples, 
 their last descendant was to fling himself down, after 
 the final failure of an insurrection which cost Juan Pizarro 
 his life and brought the Spaniards to the brink of destruc- 
 tion.* 
 
 If the fortifications of the citadel bear witness to the skill 
 of the architects, the diverting of water of the Rodadero, by 
 
 1 " Hist, des Incas, Rois du Perou," French translation, vol. I., p. 268. 
 
 "The word Viracocha is still a title of honor amongst modern Peruvians. 
 Viracocha-tatai, our father Viracocha, is the salutation with which Europeans 
 are always greeted. 
 
 3 Manco-Capac II. was recognized by Pizarro as Inca after the execution of 
 Atahualpa. Another legend, dear to the Indians, gives a different account of 
 his death. According to it, Manco-Capac, after the final submission of Cuzco, 
 retired to the Andes, where he continued to struggle against the Spanish, and 
 where he was assassinated by those who had been unable to conquer him. See 
 Prescott : "Conquest of Peru," bk. III., ch. X. 
 
PERU. 413 
 
 means of acequias or canals of remarkable execution, testi- 
 fies still more to that of the engineers. We give a drawing 
 of one of those aqueducts (fig. 168), which, like that of the 
 portico of Kabal (fig. 134), recalls the magnificent works of 
 the Romans, which are certainly one of the glories of our 
 ancient civilization. 
 
 A hill near the Sacsahuaman is covered with granite 
 blocks, richly sculptured and converted into seats ; galleries 
 ornamented with steps, terraces, and niches. The Incas 
 omitted nothing which could add to the splendor of their 
 capital. 
 
 The temple of the sun, the wealth of which is still pro- 
 verbial, was situated on an eminence eighty feet above the 
 Huatenay. The river was reached by a series of terraces. 
 There stretched the celebrated gardens, where, according to 
 the account of Spanish chroniclers, the animals, insects, and 
 the very trees were of gold and silver. The whole of the 
 quarter where the temple was, bore the characteristic name 
 of Coricancha, the town of gold. 
 
 The temple, now converted into a Dominican convent, 
 occupies one side of a vast court, which preserves the name 
 of Intipampa, the field of the sun. The inner aud outer 
 walls it is alleged were covered with sheets of gold. This 
 last fact may be true, for Squier relates having seen, in vari- 
 ous houses in Cuzco, sheets of gold preserved as relics which 
 came from the temple of the Sun. These plaques, he tells 
 us, were scarcely as thick as a sheet of paper. 
 
 Above the altar, which faced east, was a colossal repre- 
 sentation of the sun, also in gold, which, after the conquest, 
 became the booty of a certain Mancio Serra de Leguicano, 
 a reckless gambler, who lost it on a single throw of the dice. 
 
 All around were laid the dried bodies of the Incas, who 
 seemed to be rendering a last homage to their father. 
 
 The court was surrounded with sanctuaries dedicated to 
 inferior divinities, such as the moon, the stars, thunder, 
 lightning, and the rainbow, visible and active manifestations 
 of that Being, superior to all, who was the essence and 
 
4H PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 supreme cause of every thing. In the centre a fountain 
 hewn out of a stone of considerable size, still gives the 
 monks the water they need. This stone, like those used in 
 making the walls of the temple, was also covered with sheets 
 of gold, and Garcilasso relates that he himself saw the water 
 flow into it through pipes also of gold. 
 
 The AclaJiuasi was only separated from the temple by a 
 large building which served as a lodging for the priests. 
 
 FIG. 168. Aqueduct on the Rodadero. 
 
 The walls are still standing, for a length of 750 feet, their 
 height varying from 20 to 25. .They bear witness to the 
 splendor of the building, to which the daughters of the Incas 
 were sent at a most tender age, and where they were sub- 
 mitted to a rigorous discipline. 
 
 Nor could the Incas neglect their private dwellings, in the 
 town in which they lived. Each Inca erected a palace at his 
 ascension, and at his death this palace became the residence 
 of his son. That of Huayna-Capac, the most illustrious of 
 
PERU. 415 
 
 his race, was no less than 800 feet long; all its other dimen- 
 sions were on a similar scale, and the Jesuits have been able 
 to build a church, the viceroys a prison and a barrack, in these 
 structures of impregnable solidity. The palace of Atahualpa 
 was of adobes ; and the room is still shown in which he was 
 imprisoned, and which he had to fill with gold for his ran- 
 som. Opposite to the palace of the Inca Roca were the 
 schools, Yachahuasi, which he had founded, and which he 
 took pleasure in superintending ; there the Arnautes, literally 
 the.w/.ft' men, taught the great deeds of the Incas, and pre- 
 served the legends relating to them. Interlaced serpents 
 were sculptured upon the door of the palace of Huayna- 
 Capac, and they are also met with on the walls of Yachahu- 
 asi, and of several of the other buildings of Cuzco. These 
 sculptures, which are exceptional among the Inca buildings, 
 have evidently a mythological signification which evades us. 
 In other places hieroglyphics are supposed to exist, which 
 have been compared to those of Mexico or Brazil ; but all 
 relating to them is the boldest guesswork. 
 
 The Incas appear to have taken extreme precaution 
 against dangers unknown to us. Were these dangers the 
 revolts of their own subjects, or were they the incursions of 
 the ferocious Chinchas, who lived in the impenetrable forests 
 watered by the Amazon and its tributaries ? We cannot 
 tell ; but it is certain that important fortresses rise from 
 many points in Peru ; besides the Sacsahuaman, of which we 
 have just spoken, we may mention Ollantay-Tambo, Pisac, 
 Piquillacta, and Choccequirao. 
 
 The Ucayali, 1 one of the branches of the Amazon, flows 
 across the fertile valley of Yucay, between steep rocks, over- 
 looked by the distant lofty snow-laden summits of the Andes. 
 These rocks bear witness to the work and the energy of 
 man ; for on every side, even on points apparently inacces- 
 sible, and at heights that the condors alone would appear 
 to have been able to reach, we see niches, caves artificially 
 
 1 This river successively bears the names of Vilcamayo, Urubamba, and 
 Yucay. 
 
410 
 
 PKE-HIS TOKJ C A M ERIC A . 
 
 enlarged, mausoleums supported on pillars crowned by a 
 lintel, and sculptures. Among these sculptures is a puma 
 sucking her cub. 
 
 Ollantay-Tambo, fifteen leagues north of Cuzco, was in- 
 tended to defend the valley of Yucay, and was crowned by 
 lofty towers, now almost entirely ruined. 1 Inside are heaps 
 of huge blocks of red porphyry, which enable us to form an 
 idea of the importance of the fortress. Some of these blocks 
 bear finely-executed ornaments, resembling those of Tia- 
 
 KIG. 169. Wall with niches, forming part of the fortification of Ollantay- 
 
 Tambo. 
 
 guanaco. Walls twenty-five feet high, with battlements like 
 those of the strong castles rising from the banks of the 
 Rhine, cover the sides of the mountain, and stretch away in 
 zigzags to precipices, which form an insuperable barrier. 
 
 On one of the perpendicular rocks, more than nine hun- 
 dred feet high, are seen the ruins of a little building, with a 
 door opening on to the brink of the precipice. The Spanish 
 
 1 " Cie?a de Leon," chap. XCIV. Garcilasso : " Comm. Reales," book V., 
 chap. XXVII. Markham : " Cuzco and Lima." Squier : " Peru," p. 482. 
 
PERU. 417 
 
 gave to it the name of la horca del hombre, and, according to 
 legend, criminals were taken to it and flung into the abyss. 
 A little farther off is the horca de mujer, where faithless 
 wives had to undergo the same punishment. 
 
 We will not leave the valley of Yucay without speaking 
 of a round tower situated on an isolated rock and made of 
 rough stones, faced with a coating of stucco. Inside are 
 niches, and outside is a sculpture, in which an unskilful artist 
 has endeavored to represent a serpent. Above the door, 
 and simulating windows, we meet again with the Egyptian 
 tau that we have already seen at Palenque. These orna- 
 ments, and the carefulness with which the building is made, 
 have led to the belief that this tower was not a post of ob- 
 servation or defence, but more likely a temple. The pecul- 
 iar veneration of the ancient Peruvians for isolated rocks 
 justifies this idea. The Indians of to-day have inherited the 
 superstition of their predecessors ; and none of them would 
 dare to pass the tower of Calca without bowing profoundly 
 to it, throwing down a stone, and muttering an unintelligible 
 invocation. 
 
 The valley of Pauca-Tambo is parallel with that of Yucay, 
 from which it is separated by the chain of the Andes. It 
 was protected by the vast fortified enclosure of Pisac. All 
 the declivities which could aid in ascent are crowned with 
 towers; all the inequalities of the rock are filled in and faced 
 with slabs, covered with very hard and highly polished 
 stucco, impossible to climb over ; every strategic point is de- 
 fended by works, unsurpassed by any thing in modern 
 science. These fortifications stretch for considerable dis- 
 tances, and form, if we may so express it, a vast intrenched 
 camp, in which whole tribes could live protected from at- 
 tack, and devote themselves in peace to their agricultural 
 occupations. 
 
 We must not omit to mention some very curious monu- 
 ments, to which the name of inliliuatana 1 has been given. 
 
 1 Inti signifies sun ; huatana, the point where a thing is fixed ; so that Inti- 
 liuatana signifies, literally, the point where the sun is fixed, 
 
418 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 These are isolated rocks, the summit of which has been com- 
 pletely levelled, and which are surmounted by a little col- 
 umn in the form of a truncated cone. These intihuatana 
 are met with in all the provinces of Peru. Squier mentions 
 several in the valley of Pisco ; one overlooking the little 
 town of Ollantay-Tambo, and another at the foot of the 
 terrace of Colcompata at Cuzco. It is very probable that 
 one of these intihuatanas rose before the temple of the sun, 
 and traces of another can still be seen in front of the temple 
 of the island of Titicaca. Their purpose is still very uncer- 
 tain. 
 
 FIG. 170. The Intihuatana of Pisac. 
 
 That of Pisac is one of the best preserved, doubtless on 
 account of its nearly inaccessible position (fig. 170). It is 
 eleven inches in diameter at its base and nine at its summit ; 
 it is sixteen inches high, and it is said that but a few years 
 ago it was surrounded by a champi* collar, which, with so 
 many other interesting relics, has become the booty of tapa- 
 das. The whole rock is surrounded with walls, in the shape 
 of the letter D, 'and made of squared stones, perfectly 
 polished, and hewn in such a manner as to accommodate 
 themselves to every inequality of rock. 
 
 1 Champi is the name for Peruvian bronze. Squier : " Peru," p. 525. 
 
PERU. 419 
 
 Various guesses have been hazarded as to the purpose of 
 the intihuatanas. The most plausible, is undoubtedly that 
 representing them to be gnomons, used for measuring the 
 height of the sun. 
 
 The fortress of Piquillacta was situated on the south of 
 the possessions of the first Incas, not far from the quarries 
 which supplied the stone for the buildings of Cuzco. A 
 wall seven hundred and fifty feet long by thirty six feet wide 
 at the base, and thirty-four feet high, is still standing to 
 mark its site. 
 
 The jambs of the two entrances are of dressed stone, the 
 other parts of rubble-stone, set in clay. Near Piquillacta 
 was the ancient town of Muyna, where the Inca Yahuar- 
 Huacac took refuge in his terror at an invasion of the Chin- 
 chas, 1 and where his son Viracocha compelled him to reside, 
 after having conquered the rebels by his courage and bound 
 his brow with the royal llautu. 8 
 
 On the banks of the Apurimac, which would appear to be 
 the principal branch of the Amazon, on the crest of the but- 
 tress of a glacier surrounded by precipices, rose the fortress 
 of Choccequirao, its name, meaning precious cradle, pointing 
 out its purpose, which was to serve as the residence of the 
 heirs to the crown of the Incas. Later, this stronghold was 
 the refuge of the last survivors of the race of Manco- 
 Capac. 
 
 Nothing could equal the wild grandeur of these places.' 
 We are astonished at finding the industry of man gaining a 
 footing on the rocks where the condor had built its eyrie. 
 The first ruins to meet the eye of the traveller are those of 
 the outer circuit of defence. Angrand has suggested that 
 
 1 Garcilasso, /. c., vol. I. 
 
 " The llautu was a bandage which passed three or four times round the head, 
 and was ornamented with a fringe falling over the eyes. It was black for the 
 members of the Inca's family, yellow for his direct descendants, and the Inca 
 alone had the right of wearing a red llautu. He al>o wore as insignia the 
 Masca-faycha, or rid aigrette, and the capac-ongo, or royal mantle. 
 
 ' Desjardins : " Le Perou avant la Conquete Espagnole," p. 138 et seq. The 
 Comte de Sartiges in 1834, and Angrand, 1847, are the only Frenchmen who 
 have visited Choccequirao, and it is from them we take these details. 
 
420 rRE-ttlSTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the buildings next seen served as a prison, as he had noticed 
 that the doors were closed with stones of enormous weight. 
 A hundred and fifty-three yards lower, following the inclina- 
 tion of the crest, we come to the palace and to the bath-room, 
 in which we can still see the site of the bath, which must 
 have been in gold, as were all the vessels and utensils in use 
 amongst the Incas. Farther on are two buildings which, 
 according to Angrand, were: the one a banqueting-hall, 
 about forty-five yards long by thirteen wide, with windows 
 resembling those of Egyptian monuments ; the other, a 
 menagerie. In the walls of the menageries are found pro- 
 jecting stone rings, to which were chained ferocious animals 
 sent to the Incas from all parts of their dominions. 
 
 The palace includes three groups of rectangular buildings, 
 two of them about eleven yards broad by sixteen and a half 
 long; the third, eight and a half yards by sixteen and a half ; 
 the two first consisting of a ground-floor and one upper story. 
 They are divided lengthways by an internal wall, which 
 forms two elongated chambers on each story. The third 
 building had only a ground-floor, on a level with the upper 
 story of the other two, the terrace crowning it giving access 
 to them. 
 
 On the other side of the palace, at a considerable eleva- 
 tion, is a regular fortress, which commands the entrance, and 
 leaves no outlet but four openings made in the walls on the 
 summit of the crest ; beyond these four doors are ruins, 
 probably those of a temple. 
 
 We might multiply such descriptions, for all over the vast 
 country of the Incas we meet with imposing buildings, 
 often elevated at inaccessible heights. Do the Indians know 
 of other paths than those that the few travellers of to-day 
 dare attempt ? This is a point that remains doubtful ; 
 but even if practicable routes should be discovered, we shall 
 still be confronted with difficulties apparently insurmount- 
 able, though they do not seem to have at all baffled the 
 ancient inhabitants of the country. 
 
 More useful works have been preserved as witnesses to the 
 
PERU. 421 
 
 government of the Incas. Roads intersected the country 
 at a time when there were none in Europe. Two of these 
 roads went from north to south, from Quito toward Cuzco ; 
 one, for a distance of 1,200 miles, crossing the sierras and 
 buttresses of the Andes, buried beneath perpetual snow. 
 This was the road followed by Almagro, when he was sent 
 by Pizarro, to bring Chili to submission. The other, finished 
 by the Inca Huayna-Capac, followed the coast, and its 
 length was 1,600 miles. These roads, which Humboldt 
 does not hesitate to compare with the Roman causeways, 
 were from eighteen to twenty-six feet wide ; they were pro- 
 tected from landslips by walls of earth, were paved with 
 blocks of stones and in some parts covered with broken 
 stone, a first attempt at macadamizing. They always fol- 
 lowed the straight line, crossing the steepest slopes, as the 
 Indians who do not know how to turn by an obstacle still 
 do. The ravines and marshes were crossed by embankments 
 of masonry ; rocks were cut through, sometimes for a con- 
 siderable distance ; streams and torrents were spanned by 
 bridges made of the fibres of the aloe, creepers or reeds, the 
 lightness of which was not incompatible with strength. The 
 mode of construction of these bridges, which are still in use, 
 is very simple. Two ropes of maguey or agave fibre a few 
 inches in diameter, pass over masonry piers and are firmly 
 secured at a distance of sixteen to twenty feet from the pier. 
 Vertical ropes are fastened to these cables, and on them 
 rests the platform of the bridge, made of woven reeds. The 
 Peruvians, however, knew how to make masonry bridges. 
 That of Rumichaca, for instance, dates from the time of 
 Huayna-Capac. 1 Here and there, where vegetation was 
 possible, the road was planted with trees, which ensured 
 shade and freshness, and in the mountains, tambos, where 
 the wearied traveller could rest, were built at convenient 
 distances. 
 
 Such is the account given by Spanish historians* who 
 
 1 Bollaert : " Ant. Ethn. and other Researches," p. 90. 
 
 1 We mention especially Zurate, " Hist, del Descubrimiento y Conquista del 
 
422 PRE-iriSTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 have, however, somewhat exaggerated the importance of 
 these works. Recent researches have established the truth. 
 At certain points of the route, especially in the most diffi- 
 cult parts, the road was not cut, the rock was not levelled, 
 but the direction to be followed to avoid the precipices was 
 merely indicated by stakes. In declivities steps had been 
 made, upheld only by a row of little stones ; these are not 
 flights of steps suitable for aiding the ascent, but merely em- 
 bankments to prevent landslips. As the Peruvians had no 
 beasts of burden, journeys were made on foot, and freight 
 was carried on the shoulders of men. Under these circum- 
 stances, these paths, defective as they must appear to us, 
 met all the needs of the inhabitants. 
 
 We have already said that water, so precious in tropical 
 climates, was carefully collected in reservoirs placed in ele- 
 vated situations, and then conducted, by masonry acequias or 
 irrigation canals to distances often of many miles. " I have 
 followed them for days together, and have seen them wind- 
 ing amidst the projections of hills, curving in and out as 
 the topography required ; here sustained by high walls of 
 masonry, there cut into the living rock, and in some cases con- 
 ducted in tunnels, through sharp spurs of the obstructing 
 mountains. Occasionally they were carried over narrow val- 
 leys or depressions in the ground, on embankments fifty or 
 sixty feet high ; but generally they were deflected around 
 opposing obstacles, on an easy and uniform descending 
 grade" (Squier: "Peru," p. 218). To give a faint idea of 
 what these works were, we mention the valley of La Nepafia, 
 a reservoir made by means of a dam of strongly cemented 
 pieces of rock, shutting in two deep gorges. This reservoir 
 was three fourths of a mile long by a width of half a mile. 
 The walls were eighty feet thick at their base, and could 
 bear the greatest pressure. Wiener also mentions a remark- 
 able hydraulic work, in which large cisterns, in communica- 
 
 Peru," Anvers, 1855, book I., ch. XIII. Consult also Cie9a de Leon (ch. 
 XXXVII.), Garcilasso, and amongst modern writers, Humboldt, Rivero, and 
 Tschudi. 
 
PERU. 
 
 423 
 
 tion with each other, conducted at a considerable height the 
 water of the Cerro de Pasco to the Cerro de Sipa. 
 
 Constructions of minor importance, but nevertheless of 
 great interest, are to be seen at Huanuco Viejo, 1 where stood 
 a palace of the Incas (fig. 171), and where, according to a 
 tradition perhaps founded on the numerous sculptured pu- 
 mas ornamenting the walls, the monarchs kept a menagerie. 
 Monumental doors, 8 somewhat resembling the Egyptian 
 pylones, gave access to these buildings. 
 
 Water-works were necessary not only for the food-supply 
 of the population, but also for irrigation. Agriculture was 
 
 FIG. 171. The castle of Huanuco. 
 
 held in great honor amongst the ancient Peruvians, and no 
 difficulty deterred them. In the isolated dunes which 
 formed the coast, the sand was dug out to a great depth, 
 until a naturally humid soil was reached, when the trenches 
 were filled with guano, the usefulness of which was already 
 appreciated. The gardens of the Inca, for such is the name 
 given to them, still retain their fertility, and it is on a soil 
 
 1 Huanuco Viejo, a short distance from the celebrated silver mines of Cerro 
 de Pasco, is so called to distinguish the ancient from the modern town, situated 
 sixteen leagues farther to the east. Xeres says that the former was nearly three 
 leagues in circuit. The stones, he adds, were admirably worked and set one 
 upon the other without cement or mortar of any kind. Paz-Soldan : " Geog. 
 del Peru," p. 271. 
 
 * " These ruins are interesting 'rom the six stone portals, one within the 
 other." Bollaeit, /. <-., p. 199. 
 
424 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 thus prepared that grow the richest vines which surround 
 the town of lea. 
 
 In a previous work we remarked ' that burial has ever 
 been one of the most solemn subjects of thought for hu- 
 manity, and a religious sentiment has always been connected 
 with funeral honors. To deprive men of burial, said Euripi- 
 des, is to offend the gods. The. history of Peru in its turn 
 tells us the same story ; tombs are everywhere numerous, 
 and the modes of burial are most varied. At Chimu corpses 
 were buried in a doubled-up position, and set in the midst of 
 sand, the beds of which gradually decreased in size, so that 
 the necropolis formed a pyramid as it rose. 3 Near Accra, a 
 little town not far from the lake of Titicaca, the bodies were 
 placed under megalithic stones, 3 reminding us of the dol- 
 mens and cromlechs of Europe (fig. 172). One vast plain is 
 covered with stones placed erect, some forming circles, some 
 squares, and often covered in with large slabs closing the 
 sepulchral chamber. 
 
 These sepulchres are the work of the Aymaras, and they 
 probably date from the period when these people obeyed 
 independent chiefs. All we know of their history is that 
 their chiefs bore the title of Curacas, which they retained 
 under the rule of the Incas. Later, as the country ad- 
 vanced, clumsy monuments gave place to more magnificent 
 tombs ; hence the towers or clmlpas which, mixed with 
 megaliths, cover the whole of the plain of Accra. The 
 
 1 " Les Premiers Homines," vol. II., p. 235. 
 
 * Desjardins (/. c., p. 168) describes one of the largest of these sculptures, the 
 Huaca San Pedro. 
 
 9 Megaliths are also met with, bearing witness to a more advanced art. 
 Wiener speaks of a cyclopean structure near Vilcabamba, and Squier reproduces 
 an interesting megalith which rises near Chicuito. It is a rectangle sixty feet 
 long, formed of huge blocks of stones driven into the earth, and rising fourteen 
 feet above the level of the soil. There is but one opening, facing east, and 
 marked by two blocks of considerable dimensions. In South America a certain 
 importance is attached to these megaliths. " Pero lo que sin duda es aun de 
 mas importancia, es encontrarse por muchos puntos del territorio Peruano, con- 
 strucciones en piedra, iguales por el estilo y el caracter a esos cromlechs, dol- 
 menes, circulos del sol o druidicos de la Escandinavia las islas Britanicas, 
 Francia, Asia," etc. (Ameghino, vol. I., p. 100). 
 
PERU. 
 
 425 
 
 chulpas consist of a mass of masonry of rough stones and 
 clay, faced with huge blocks of trachyte or basalt. The 
 mass is so put together as to form a cist, in which the corpse 
 was placed ; the door, generally very low, always faces east, 
 in honor, doubtless, of the rising sun. Almost all have a 
 cornice near the top, and are set upon a little platform of 
 slabs. Squier mentions one more than twenty-four feet 
 high. An opening eighteen inches square gave access to 
 the sepulchral chamber, which was eleven feet square by 
 thirteen high. He succeeded in getting into it after great 
 difficulties, but onlv to find that others had entered it before 
 
 Fir,. 172. Mcgalithic tomb at Acora. 
 
 him, and to pick up a few remains of human bones and some 
 miserable bits of pottery. 
 
 We give a drawing of one of these chulpas, situated in the 
 mountain near the village of Palca (fig. 173). It rises above 
 a trench four feet deep, forming a regular cave, upheld by 
 walls of rough stone. It is sixteen feet high, and at about 
 two feet from the summit is a cornice, formed of ic/iu, a 
 coarse grass, which grows in the mountains, greatly com- 
 pressed and then cut with the aid of sharp instruments. 1 
 The masonry is a mixture of pebbles and clay, coated with 
 stucco, and then painted white and red so as to form various 
 
 1 Similar cornices are met with in various places. Squier mentions one at 
 Tiuhuani (" Peru," p. 368). 
 
426 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 designs. Human bones, mixed together in the strangest 
 disorder, formed a deposit more than a foot deep in the 
 sepulchral chamber. 
 
 The chulpas are generally of square or rectangular form ; 
 sometimes, however, we meet with round towers, which by 
 a peculiar arrangement gradually increase in diameter from 
 the base to the summit. The internal arrangements differ 
 no less ; some enclose arched vaults, others cists shut in by 
 slabs of stone, or, again, mere niches. Numerous in Bolivia, 
 and in the whole of the basin of Lake Titicaca bounded bv 
 
 FIG. 173 Chulpa near Palca. 
 
 the Andes and the Cordillera, they can be seen in groups, 
 varying from twenty to a hundred, on the sides of the 
 mountains or on isolated rocks ; everywhere they form one 
 of the characteristic features of the landscape. 
 
 Near Tiuhuani, on the eastern bank of the lake, we meet 
 with two chulpas, each containing two sepulchral cists. 
 They are painted red, yellow, or white, and as rain is ex- 
 tremely rare throughout the whole district, the colors are 
 remarkably well preserved. These double chulpas, regular 
 
PERU. 427 
 
 family tombs, contained as many as twelve skeletons. In 
 the Escoma valley a chulpa is mentioned, with two sepul- 
 chral chambers, each with a separate entrance. It has been 
 excavated several times, and completely stripped by tapa- 
 das. Some fragments of human bones alone remain as wit- 
 ness to its original purpose. 
 
 Las Casas ' relates that, at the time of the Spanish con- 
 quest, the Peruvians still practised this mode of burial. In 
 certain provinces, he adds, their sepulchres are towers of 
 
 FIG. 174. Karthenware vase from an ancient Peruvian tomb. (One quarter 
 original size.) 
 
 massive construction, hollowed out at the height of an 
 estado (six feet). In certain spots they are round, in others 
 square. They are always very lofty, and numerous enough 
 to cover large spaces. Some of the natives built them on 
 eminences half a league and more from towns, so that they 
 look from a distance like populous villages. Every one has 
 a separate ancestral tomb. The dead are wrapped in llama 
 skins, on which care is taken to mark the eyes and mouth ; 
 the corpses are then covered with other garments, and 
 
 1 " Hist, Apologetica de las Indias," 
 
428 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 placed in a sitting posture, when the doors of the tombs, 
 which always open to the east, are walled up. In other 
 places the dead are wrapped up as we have described, and 
 then placed in their houses, often among the living. They 
 do not emit any smell, on account of the skins in which they 
 are strongly sewn up, and also on account of the cold, which 
 rapidly mummifies them. The chiefs are put in the place of 
 
 FIG. 175. Vase from a Peruvian 
 tomb. (One fourth natural 
 size.) 
 
 FlG. 176. Vase from an ancient tomb 
 in the Bay of Chacota. (One 
 fourth natural size.) 
 
 honor of their dwelling, loaded with the insignia of their 
 rank and the trinkets they affected. 
 
 On the coast of the Pacific the modes of burial were dif- 
 ferent. Near Quito, north of the kingdom of the Incas, the 
 body, reduced to a state of complete desiccation, was de- 
 posited in a tomb constructed of stone or adobe, and vases, 
 often of peculiar form (figs. 174, 175, 176), were placed near 
 the corpse. These vases ' were intended to hold maize or 
 
 1 Some vases of nearly similar form are still used to prepare infusions of 
 
PERT. 
 
 429 
 
 chicha, the latter obtained by the fermentation of roasted 
 maize, which has always been the favorite national beverage. 
 
 FIG. 177. Aymara mummy. 
 
 From these tombs have been taken little copper hatchets : 
 
 Coca. (" Erythroxylon coca.") An excellent monograph on this plant, by Dr. 
 t,. A. Cosse, was published at Brussels in 1861. 
 
43 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 looking-glasses, some of polished stone or obsidian, others of 
 metal ; pendants for the nose or the ears ; bracelets and little 
 figures in gold or silver. In the extreme south of the whole 
 of the valley of Copiapo (Chili) is covered with mound- 
 shaped huacas, measuring as much as twelve feet in height, 
 by twenty or thirty long. Darwin, in his voyage round the 
 world, assisted at the excavation of one of these tumuli, 
 which contained two skeletons, one of a man and one of a 
 woman. (Fig. 177.) Judging from the objects picked up 
 in this tomb, its inmates had belonged to the poorest class. 
 These objects were large earthenware jars of the coarsest 
 workmanship, stone arrow-points, copper pins, and roughly 
 hewn stones, intended for grinding maize. 1 
 
 Between these two extremes we meet with other tombs, 
 varying according to the wealth of the survivor. Some hu- 
 acas near Arica, excavated in 1712, have brought to light 
 mummies wrapped in rich cloth, having beside them vases 
 of gold or silver." The bodies, mummified by the dryness of 
 the climate, for they show no trace of embalming, were in a 
 sitting posture ; several held in the mouth a little golden 
 plaque. 8 In 1836, other explorers resumed these excavations 
 on the shores of the Bay of Chacota, a mile and a half from 
 Arica. 4 The tombs were all of circular form, their diameter 
 varying from three to five feet, and their depth from five to 
 six. They were often surrounded by a cromlech of erect 
 stones, whilst others were surmounted by a mound. All re- 
 tained traces of large fires lighted after the burial, doubtless 
 in accordance with a sacred rite. 
 
 The greater number of these tombs had been violated. 
 Those still intact enable us to judge of the mode of burial ; 
 some of the corpses had evidently been dried before inhu- 
 mation ; others were covered with a resinous substance. 5 
 
 1 "Voyage of the Beagle." Bollaert, /. c., p. 175. 
 1 Bollaert, loc. cit., p. 151. 
 
 * Rivera et Tschudi : " Antiguidades Peruanas." 
 
 4 J. Blake : " Notes on a Collection from the Ancient Cemetery of the Bay of 
 Chacota" ; "Report Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 177, etc. 
 
 ' Agassiz mentions mummies preserved by this process at Pisagua. Accord- 
 
PERU. 43* 
 
 All were seated on slabs of stone, the arms folded on the 
 breast, the legs drawn up, and the head resting on the knees. 
 They were clothed in coarse linen cloth, sewn with strong 
 cactus thorns like needles, which were left in the garment. 
 The bodies wore all the objects used during life ; men (fig. 
 
 FIG. 178. Peruvian mummy. 
 
 178) had their weapons, implements, and ornaments; chil- 
 
 ing to Putnam, those from the necropolis of Ancon, are not embalmed by the 
 aid of resinous substances. On this latter cemetery, Wiener (" Peru and 
 Bolivia"), who has excavated numerous tombs, should be consulted, and also 
 the magnificent work by Reuss and Sttibel : " The Necropolis of Ancon in 
 Peru." 
 
432 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 dren their toys ; women, 1 their distaffs filled with wool, and 
 balls of thread, wooden needles, often of great fineness, 
 combs, and several instruments of which the use is unknown ; 
 little shells used for money * ; bags containing either hair 
 (the last memento given to the dead) or provisions for the 
 long voyage such as ears of maize or coca leaves. The 
 Peabody Museum owns a regular work-box, containing a 
 woman's implements for needle-work, which was found under 
 a huaca of Peru. 
 
 FIG. 179. Mummy of a woman, found at the Bay of Chacota. 
 
 All these objects, thanks to the dryness of the climate, 
 are in a wonderful state of preservation. 8 With touching 
 thoughtfulness, the relations of the dead woman, whose re- 
 mains we figure, had placed near her not only vases of 
 every shape (fig. 174, 175, 176, 180), but also the cloth that 
 
 1 The figure we give (fig. 179), is reproduced from a photograph, prepared 
 after all the objects worn by the woman had been taken off. 
 * " Littorina Peruvians. " 
 ' " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1881, p. 550. 
 
PERU. 433 
 
 she had begun to weave, and which death had prevented 
 her from finishing. 1 Her hair, of a light-brown color, was 
 fine and carefully kept. The legs, from the ankle to the 
 knee, were painted red, a fashion probably dear to Peruvian 
 coquetry, for care had been taken to place near the dead 
 little bladders full of resinous gum and red powder for her 
 toilet in the new life that had begun for her. 1 
 
 At Iquique, one huaca contained no less than five hundred 
 bodies, all seated and wrapped in long mantles of different 
 colors. 3 Some rites are still unexplained ; for instance, in 
 
 FIG. 1 80. Bowl from a tomb at Chacota Bay. 
 
 1830, a huaca was discovered surrounded by a circle of red 
 stones, in the centre of which was found the skeleton of a 
 woman, and near her those of four men, on each of which 
 three large stones had been placed. Amongst the numerous 
 objects belonging to this sepulchre, the statuette of a 
 woman is mentioned, with the face of silver. 
 
 Pachacamac, as we have said, was a sacred place to the 
 
 1 At Pachacamac excavations have brought to light a loom of half-woven 
 tissue. 
 
 1 The Galibi women still paint their legs with Toncou, a vegetable powder of 
 a fine red, which they dissolve in oil extracted from certain oleaginous seeds, 
 
 1 Bollaert, /. c., p. 179. 
 
434 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 ancient inhabitants of Peru, and the temple was a goal of 
 pilgrimage. Its approaches are one vast cemetery, and the 
 sandy soil, impregnated as it is with nitre, has preserved to 
 this day the mummies entrusted to the ground. In some 
 places it is easy to make out three or four layers of bodies ; 
 generations of worshippers rest beneath the shadow of the 
 walls that were the object of their adoration. The tombs 
 were made of adobe, and were thatched over with reeds. 
 The bodies were doubled up, or rather coiled round, and 
 then wrapped in very fine cotton cloth, and in coverings 
 
 made from the wool of the 
 vicufta or the alpaca. Here 
 too the tombs contained 
 the most diverse objects. 
 The rich retained their 
 ormaments, but the poor 
 had to be content with a 
 little bit of copper, which 
 served the purpose of the 
 obolus set aside for Charon 
 in the funeral rites of 
 Greece. Wiener, in his 
 excavations at A n c o n , 
 found a great number of 
 these little silver or bronze 
 plates placed in the mouths 
 of the mummies. By the side of each were placed the im- 
 plements of his profession ; near the fisher, net and fish- 
 hooks, near the young girl, household utensils. With the 
 vases always met with in Peruvian sepulchres were often 
 found at Pachacamac roughly cut bits of quartz or crystal, 
 which were, according to Father Arriaga, 1 Canopas, the 
 Lares Penates, or gods of the hearth, who were to continue 
 their protection to the deceased in the new life on which he 
 was entering ; the canopas, whose duty it was to watch over 
 the family, were always given to the eldest son. 
 
 1 " Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Peru," Lima, 1621. 
 
 FIG. 181. Pitcher from an ancient Peru- 
 vian sepulchre. (Natural size.) 
 
PERU. 435 
 
 Leaving the Pacific we find caves, artificially widened if 
 necessary, often serving as burial-places. In the valley of 
 Yucay, as in that overlooked by the fortress of Pisac, the 
 almost inaccessible sides of the mountains are covered with 
 them to a height of several hundred feet ; and to this day 
 the few inhabitants of the country call them, in memory of 
 their inmates, Tantama-Marca, or the precipices of desola- 
 tion. The funereal rites were similar to those we have de- 
 scribed ; the bodies were seated, sometimes wrapped in cot- 
 ton cloth, sometimes in mere mats, but all have the head 
 resting on the knees ; some vases and very rude implements 
 made up all the furniture of the tombs. 
 
 In the valley of Paucar-Tambo the rocks had been levelled, 
 and the tombs wrought of dressed stone. They were walled 
 up after the burial, and the stones were covered with a coat- 
 ing of stucco, painted in brilliant colors. The care bestowed 
 on these tombs was an irresistible attraction to the tapadas ; 
 they were the first to be violated, and every thing that 
 they contained was dispersed, without any good results for 
 science. 1 
 
 Many travellers also mention a cave of some extent, which 
 has received the appropriate name of Infernillos? At the 
 entrance are rude sculptures, representing personages of both 
 sexes. On the \valls we notice, several times repeated, the 
 impression of a human hand, traced either with cinnabar or 
 oxide of iron, or yet more simply by the application of an 
 actual hand, wet with a coloring substance. This is the 
 mano Colorado, of the meaning of which we are ignorant, but 
 which is met with at various points in the two Americas, and 
 also in Australia. 3 
 
 The Peruvians distinguished the intelligent and immaterial 
 soul (runa) from the body, the name of which (allpacamasca), 
 animated earth, is characteristic. 4 They believed in a future 
 life ; and the man who had well employed the time of his 
 
 1 Squier : " Peru," pp. 491-531. 
 
 * Bollaert, /. (., p. 152. 
 
 * Miles : " Trans. Ethn. Soc. of London," vol. III. 2\'aiurt, May 7, 1881. 
 4 Desjardins, /. f., p. 100. 
 
43" pRR-nrsTOKic AMERICA. 
 
 mortality went after death to the Hananpacha, the world 
 above, where he awaited his reward. If, on the contrary, he 
 had led a bad life, he was flung into the Urupacha, or world 
 below. This future life, whether happy or unhappy, was to 
 be entirely material. How else can we interpret the very 
 different objects collected in the tombs, among the Aymaras 
 as well as among the Qquichuas, among the predecessors of 
 the Incas, and among the contemporaries of the Spaniards? 
 
 The belief in the immortality of the soul, the recompense 
 of the good and the punishment of the wicked, necessarily 
 implies that in the existence of beings superior to man, ex- 
 ercising over him an influence alike during his life and after 
 his death. The Peruvians worshipped, as we have more than 
 once remarked, the sun, the moon, the stars, and thunder. 
 In certain districts the earth was the object of their worship ; 
 in others, the sea, the springs, the mountains, chiefly those 
 covered with snow (razji). Stones were also objects of 
 the veneration of the Peruvians. This is explained by one 
 of their traditions, which relates that Viracocha had endowed 
 stones with life, and thus created the first men and the first 
 women. 
 
 Side by side with the visible forces of nature existed cer- 
 tain inferior gods : Papapconopa, who was invoked to ensure 
 a good harvest of potatoes (sweet potatoes) ; Canllama, the 
 protector of flocks ; ChicJiic, who, like the god Termes, en- 
 sured respect for landed property ; and Lacarvillca, who pre- 
 sided over works of irrigation. In other places the dead 
 themselves were invoked as the protectors of their families. 
 These gods were probably the modified representatives of a 
 more ancient fetichism, which have outlived the people 
 among whom it originated. Some less civilized tribes 
 adored animals, such as the condor, the puma, the owl, and 
 the serpent ; and even the products of the earth, such as 
 maize and potatoes. But these different people, in submit- 
 ting to the laws of the Peruvians, were converted, willingly 
 or by force, to the worship of the sun. The wars of the 
 Incas had an essentially religious character, 1 and may be 
 
 1 Desjardins, /. (., p. 95. 
 
PERU. 437 
 
 compared with those of the Mussulmans, at the time when 
 Islamism, propagated by the sword, spread with such rapid- 
 ity over whole regions. 
 
 Recent investigations have shown that, at a certain period, 
 Peruvian priests taught the existence of a supreme god, a 
 Dcus ignotus, to whom no temple was dedicated, 1 and whose 
 image none were permitted to make. 5 He was adored under 
 the name of Pachacamac, in upper Peru, under that of Vira- 
 cocha at Cuzco ; the sun, the moon, and the stars were but 
 the symbols under which he manifested himself to men ; 
 animals were his creation, and the fruits of the earth a gift 
 of his bounty. Molina has preserved some very beautiful 
 prayers, addressed to this particular god and creator; they 
 bear witness to the most elevated sentiments in their authors.* 
 But their authenticity does not seem sufficiently proved ; 
 the attributes ascribed to this god are inconsistent with the 
 general state of culture in Peru at that period, and it is 
 probable that, if the idea of one supreme God did exist 
 amongst a few enlightened spirits, the masses identified with 
 this god himself, the symbols which, to the more enlightened, 
 represented his attributes. 
 
 The Peruvians offered flowers, incense, animals, such as 
 tapirs and serpents to their gods. At the grand festival of 
 the Raymi or sacred fire, a llama was sacrificed. On certain 
 solemn occasions, such as a victory or the accession of an 
 Inca, for instance, a child or a virgin, chosen for her beauty, 4 
 
 1 There exists, however, a temple erected in honor of this supreme god, by 
 the Inca Viracocha, to whom he had appeared to command him, on the refusal 
 of his father, Yahuar-IIuacac, to march against enemies who had dared to in- 
 vade the lands of the sun, promising him a decisive victory. Garcilasso has 
 preserved for us a description of this temple, which was destroyed by the 
 Spanish. 
 
 * " Relacion Anonym, de las Costumbres Antiguas de los Naturales de 
 Peru." 
 
 * " Saggio della Storia del Chili." Markham : " Narratives of the Rites and 
 Laws of the Incas," published for the Ilakluyt Society, London, 1873. 
 
 4 Garcilasso (" Com. Real.," part I., book II., ch. IX.) nsserts that human 
 sacrifices had been completely abolished by the Incas, but the contrary is as- 
 serted by the Spanish chroniclers, Sarmiento, Montesinos, Balboa, Oiea de 
 
438 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 was slain before the image of the sun ; but these sacrifices 
 were rare, and they were never followed by the revolting 
 feasts which invariably accompanied human sacrifices 
 amongst the Mexicans. 
 
 It is pretended that confession existed amongst the Peru- 
 vians, and several Spanish historians * agree in asserting this. 
 No one had the special privilege of hearing it ; it could be 
 made to all, to men or to women ; and the confessor had the 
 right of imposing a penance, according to the gravity of the 
 faults confessed. A certain importance has been assigned to 
 these practices, by connecting them with the dogmas of 
 Christianity. We think, however, that this is merely an in- 
 teresting coincidence, if true. 
 
 The despotic authority of the Incas was the basis of gov- 
 ernment ; that authority was founded on the religious re- 
 spect yielded to the descendant of the sun, and supported 
 by a skilfully combined hierarchy. 2 The population was di- 
 vided into decuries, and amongst the ten individuals who 
 formed each decury, the Inca or his representatives chose 
 one, who became the chief over the nine others. Five decu- 
 ries had at their head a decurion of superior rank ; fifty 
 decuries a chief, who thus commanded five hundred men. 
 Lastly, one hundred decuries obeyed a supreme chief, who 
 received orders direct from the Inca. 
 
 Besides this organization, which shared the combined in- 
 conveniences of democracy and despotism, were the Curacas, 
 or governors of provinces, Some belonged to the family 
 of the Incas ; others were descended from the ancient chiefs 
 
 Leon, Ondegardo, and Acosta. Their unanimity justifies us in supposing that 
 Garcilasso, as a descendant of the Incas, was carried away in his account by his 
 natural veneration for his ancestors. 
 
 " Este vilahoma eligia senalaba confesores, paraque asi en el Cuzco como 
 en todas las demas provincias y pueblos confesasen secretamente a todas las 
 personas, hombres y mujeres, oyendo sus pecados y dando las penitencias per 
 ellos." The anonymous author of the account from which we borrow these de- 
 tails adds that the confessors of the virgins of the sun were obliged to be eu- 
 nuchs. See Herrera : "Hist. Gen.," dec. V., book IV., chap. IV. Acosta, 
 /. c. , ch. XXV. 
 
 * Desjardins, /. ., p. 117. 
 
PERU. 439 
 
 of conquered countries. Their dignity appears to have 
 been hereditary ; it passed to the eldest of the sons, or, in 
 default of children, to the eldest of the brothers. Little is 
 known as to the exact position of the Curacas. In certain 
 cases they were elected by the people, but the election was 
 subject to the approval of the Inca, who could also revoke 
 it. 
 
 Penal laws were severe, 1 and were enforced by the sole 
 authority of the Inca. Those guilty of homicide or adultery, 
 those who had dared to blaspheme the sun, or the Inca, his 
 representative, were punished with death. The decurion 
 who did not denounce the crimes committed in his decury 
 was liable to the same punishment as the guilty. The 
 sodomite was flayed, the incestuous hung. Marriage was per- 
 mitted between relations outside of the second degree. As 
 with the vestals of Rome, the virgins of the sun who broke 
 their vows were buried alive ; their house was razed to the 
 ground, and the village or town inhabited by their family 
 shared the same fate. More venial faults were punished 
 with the whip or imprisonment. In other cases the guilty 
 was compelled to carry a heavy stone for a certain time. 
 
 Marriage was obligatory ; a man could only have one 
 wife ; but the Curacas had a dispensation from this rule ; 
 as for the Inca, the number of his wives or his concubines 
 was unlimited. He chose them from among the daughters 
 of his race, even amongst his sisters, and among those vir- 
 gins of the sun who attracted him by their beauty. His 
 choice was limited neither by blood-relationship nor religious 
 respect. When he was tired of one of his temporary partners, 
 the honor of having shared the royal bed followed her in 
 her retreat and she was the object of the respect of all. 
 
 On a certain day of each year, the young men of twenty- 
 four years and the girls of eighteen were united in the 
 public square. The representatives of the Inca joined the 
 
 1 " El castigo era riguroso que por la mayor parte era de muerte por liviano 
 que fuese el delito." Garcilasso : "Com. Reales," part I., book II., ch. XII, 
 Ch. F. de Santillan and the anonymous account. 
 
440 PKE-niSTORIC A ME K 1C A. 
 
 hands of each couple, and proclaimed their union before the 
 people. Such was the only form of marriage ; it does not 
 appear that the inclination of the wedded pair was consulted, 
 and generally every one married in his own family. The 
 decury, which none could leave without the express permis- 
 sion of the Inca, was bound to have a home built for each 
 new household, and to assign to it land enough for its sup- 
 port. On the birth of each child, the allowance made was 
 increased by one fanega for a boy, and a half-fanega for a 
 girl, the exact value of which is unknown. We only know 
 that a fanega was equal to the area which could be sown 
 with one hundred pounds of maize. 
 
 This division of the land was modified by an annual re- 
 vision, and a new partition took place according to the num- 
 ber of the members of each family. This was, as will be 
 seen, a regular agrarian law. Private property, such as we 
 understand it, does not appear to have existed. 1 The Peru- 
 vian was simply the farmer for a year of the lot which fate or 
 the will of the decurions assigned to him. Besides the lands 
 belonging to the community, and divisible amongst all its 
 members, there were others, and these not the least impor- 
 tant, forming the exclusive property of the Sun or the Inca. 
 The inhabitants had to cultivate the lands, even at their own 
 expense ; and none but the sick or infirm could evade this 
 sacred duty. 
 
 Llamas were the chief domestic animal of Peru. These 
 animals which, like their congeners, the camels, can exist 
 with the most wretched nourishment and live where other 
 mammals would die of hunger, were valuable in these barren 
 regions. All belonged to the Inca. He chose the shep- 
 herds who took them in immense herds into the mountains ; 
 and at the time appointed their wool was carried to the 
 magazines built to receive it. A certain quantity of wool 
 
 1 " Rel. primera del Licenciado Polo cle Ondegardo." Ondegardo had been 
 corregidor of Cuzco about 1560. Prescott obtained a copy of his reports which 
 were addressed to Philip II., and are preserved in the archives of Simancas. 
 They have since been partly printed, at the cost of the Hakluyt Society of 
 London. 
 
PERU. 
 
 441 
 
 FIG. 182. -Sepulchral vase from a 
 huaca of Peru. 
 
 was distributed to each family, according to the number of 
 women contained in it ; and whilst the men were cultivating 
 the ground, the former 
 spun and wove the neces- 
 sary garments. The women 
 had also to make a certain 
 quantity of cloth which 
 was stored away as a re- 
 serve for the unforeseen 
 needs of the community. 
 The dwellings of the Pe- 
 ruvians were in harmony 
 with the position of their 
 inhabitants. Except that 
 of the Incas or of the Cur- 
 acas, all appear to have 
 been built on the same 
 model ' ; the rooms had no 
 communication except by outer doors opening upon a cor- 
 ridor, which ran along the 
 whole length of the build- 
 ing, and which may be 
 compared with ancient 
 cloisters. Some of the roofs 
 had a double 4 slope rest- 
 ing on lateral walls with 
 two gables, on which were 
 carried cross-pieces formed 
 of cane, which were cov- 
 ered with agave leaves, 
 maize-straw, and some- 
 times even with mats. 
 
 The organization above 
 described guaranteed the 
 FIG. 183. Peruvian vase representing a undisputed authority of the 
 man squatting on the ground. supreme master. Each in- 
 
 1 Comte de Sartiges : Rev. des Deux Mondes, 1851. 
 ' J Wiener, /. c., p. 503. 
 
442 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 dividual formed part of a clan, which he was forbidden to leave. 
 He could not ameliorate either his own 
 position, or that of those belonging to 
 him ; nor could he sink beneath it. 
 Hence the motives which most power- 
 fully move man, such as patriotism, am- 
 bition, the desire of wealth and the spirit 
 of invention, were altogether wanting. 
 Public spirit could not develop, and this 
 is the best explanation of the strange ra- 
 pidity with which a few Spanish adven- 
 turers reduced to submission a popula- 
 tion of several million souls. 
 
 Peruvian pottery was equal in execu- 
 FIG. 184. Peruvian tion to the best made by the other races 
 of America. The potter's wheel appears, 
 however, to be unknown, and the regularity that the work- 
 men obtained without the employment of mechanical means 
 
 FlG. 185. Piece of Peruvian pottery, representing a llama. 
 
 is astonishing. In the archaeological museum at Madrid 
 may be seen a very complete series of vessels from the 
 Pacific coast, some intended to be put on the fire and others 
 for use at table, or in the different apartments. The forms 
 
PERU. 
 
 443 
 
 are extremely varied, from the clumsiest vessel, reminding 
 us of the lake pottery of Europe, to ewers of excellent work- 
 manship, representing men, animals, and a curious series of 
 plants, the study of which will enable us to recognize many 
 species of the ancient flora of the country. 
 
 This pottery ' was black, gray, or red, more rarely yellow 
 or blue, 2 baked in a kiln, 3 and covered outside with a per- 
 meable varnish, probably silico-alkaline. Some have attribu- 
 ted this varnish to polishing when cold ; but Demmin has 
 proved that it was obtained by means of baking, for he could 
 not get it off, either with spirits of wine or volatile oil. 
 
 The vases were moulded 
 in two pieces, and joined be- 
 fore baking ; so that they 
 often show a swelling at the 
 joint. The form was often 
 ovoid (fig. 176), and a special 
 stand was absolutely neces- 
 sary to keep them upright. 
 The ornamentation has an 
 originality of its own ; it is 
 less simple and more involved 
 than that of the Mexicans. 
 Some vases are, however, dec- 
 orated with Greek frets, loz- FlG " l86 '~ Peruvian pottery ' 
 
 enges, chevrons, spirals, or concentric circles (figs. 174, 175, 
 182). The Louvre possesses a remarkable piece, of Peruvian 
 origin, unfortunately hidden away for many years in the reserve 
 collection. 4 Its ornaments bear witness to a singular paral- 
 lelism between Greek and American art. The reserve col- 
 lections of the Louvre also contain another piece of pottery 
 
 1 Desjardins, /. c., p. 171. Wiener : " Peru and Bolivia," p. 620, et seg. 
 
 'Demmin: "Guide de 1' amateur de faiences ou de porcelaines." 3d. 
 edition, Paris, 1867. Barnard Davis, Anth. Institute of Great Britain, 
 April, 1873. 
 
 1 Bollaert (/. c., p. 210) says that the pottery was baked in the sun, and that 
 the use of the kiln was unknown. This is an evident error. 
 
 4 Demmin, /. r., p. 134. Birch: "Ancient Pottery," vol. II., p. 253. 
 
444 
 
 PKE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 from the Pacific coast, the design of which reminds us of 
 Hercules struggling with a fish, a subject so often reproduced 
 by the Etruscans. At the ethnographical museum of St. 
 Petersburg we may also see a squatting figure rather more 
 than a foot high, of which the disproportionately long ears 
 recall the Orejones, whilst the head is surmounted by a 
 mural crown resembling that worn by certain antique 
 
 FIG. 187. A vase found at Chimbote. 
 
 statues. 1 There is indeed not a single Peruvian collection, 
 public or private," which does not contain types curiously re- 
 
 'Schobel: " Antiquite's Ame'ricaines du Musee Ethnographique de Saint 
 Petersbourg. " "Cong, des Americ.," Nancy, 1875, vol. II., p. 273. 
 
 "The Macedo collection, recently acquired by the Prussian Government, con- 
 tains numerous types of animals. Many are reproduced in the Nouvelle Revue 
 d Ethnographie (1882, No. I), which, under the skilful direction of Dr. Hamy, 
 is destined to render real service to science. The Louvre Museum also pos- 
 
PERU. 
 
 445 
 
 sembling those which have 
 wrongly been supposed to 
 be exclusively character- 
 istic of the Old World. 
 
 Numerous pieces of pot- 
 tery represent men (figs. 
 183, 184), animals in famil- 
 iar attitudes (figs. 185, 1 86); 
 a llama, for instance, eat- 
 ing an ear of corn. 
 
 The Peabody Museum 
 possesses fifty-one pieces 
 from the Agassiz collec- 
 tion, among them several 
 representatives of mon- 
 keys, and three human fig- 
 ures, from thirteen to sev- 
 teen inches in height. Two 
 vases found, one at Chim- 
 
 FIG. 189. A silvador. 
 
 188. Earthenware vase found under 
 a htraca near Santa. 
 
 bote (fig. 190), the 
 other under a huaca 
 near Santa (fig. 188), 
 are remarkable. The 
 first is the work of 
 the Chimus, and 
 dates from the time 
 of the domination 
 of the Incas, for the 
 ears are distended 
 by an ornament dat- 
 ing from the same 
 period ; the second 
 is a human figure in 
 red clay, of a very 
 characteristic type. 
 
 sesses, in one of its public rooms, a valuable collection of statuettes of men 
 and animals. De Longperier : " Notice des monuments expose'e dans la salle 
 des Antiquites Ame'ricaines," Nos. 658, et seq. 
 
446 
 
 PRE-HISTOH1C AMERICA. 
 
 The silvador (fig. 189), for such is the name given to a 
 piece of pottery preserved in the Trocadero Museum, 
 deserves special mention, if only on account of its original- 
 ity. It consists of two vases with necks communicating 
 
 FIG. 190. Piece of painted pottery representing a vicufia hunter. 
 
 with each other. 1 One only of these necks is open, and 
 when liquid is poured into it, the compressed air in the other 
 escapes with a peculiar whistle ; by a skilful contrivance the 
 
 1 J. Bertillon : Nature, loth June, 1882. Wiener reproduces a certain num- 
 ber of silvadors ; they resemble the Etruscan nasiternes, and yet more the 
 double jars which are still manufactured in Kabylia. 
 
PERU. 
 
 447 
 
 sounds are modified so as to imitate the cries of different 
 animals, and even the human voice. On the mouth of one 
 vase, of which 
 we give a 
 drawing, is a 
 little figure 
 fairly well ex- 
 ecuted, repre- 
 senting a man 
 holding a 
 tomahawk, 
 the most for- 
 midable wea- 
 pon of the 
 ancient Peru- 
 vians. 
 
 Some pieces 
 of pottery are 
 ornamented 
 with subjects 
 the execution of which 
 is. generally very infe- 
 rior ; and we even won- 
 der if the vicuna hunter 
 (fig. 190) is not actually 
 a caricature. Some of 
 these paintings are cer- 
 tainly symbolical, but 
 their interpretation is 
 purely conjectural; oth- 
 ers are more obscene, 1 and, 
 singularly enough, many 
 of them have been picked 
 up under huacas, mixed FlGS igi and 1Q2 _ Disks intended to be 
 
 with human bones. 
 
 used as ear pendants. 
 
 . ' " From the north of Peru I have seen clny figures characterized by 
 prurient indecency," Bollaert, /. c. , p. 211. 
 
FIG. 193. Peruvian cloth. 
 448 
 
PERU. 
 
 449 
 
 Like the Mexicans, the Peruvians made of earthenware 
 musical instruments, such as shepherd's pipes or trumpets, 
 and ornaments of all kinds, especially heavy disks (figs. 191, 
 192), intended to be worn in the ears* and producing by 
 their weight the grotesque forms characteristic of the sub- 
 jects of the Incas. 
 
 No American people has surpassed the Peruvians in the 
 manufacture of woven tissues. The cotton they cultivated 
 in the warm and humid valleys, with the wool of llamas, 
 alpacas, and vicunas, supplied excellent material. They 
 knew the art of 
 dyeing, the stuff 
 was often woven 
 in wool of differ- 
 ent colors, and 
 by this means 
 the most varied 
 designs were ob- 
 tained in the 
 woof (fig. 193). 
 The cotton 
 cloths, generally 
 of great fineness, 
 were dyed in dif- 
 ferent colors; 
 and the workmen 
 knew how, by 
 combinations of FIG. 194. Die for cl^th printing, 
 
 ornaments or figures, to obtain the most happy results. For 
 this purpose they used regular stamps, sometimes of bark, 
 sometimes of eathenware (fig. 194) ; they also added feathers 
 of brilliant colors, tastily shaded, and the garments of the 
 Incas and Curacas, with their undulating colors, excited the 
 enthusiasm of the first Spanish chroniclers. Many interesting 
 specimens of these Peruvian stuffs maybe seen in the British 
 Museum, and were described several years ago by Bollaert. 
 
 In the Louvre and Trocadero museums may also be seen 
 
450 
 
 PRE-HIS TORIC A M ERIC A . 
 
 fragments remarkable for the variety of the combination and 
 the natural taste of the workmen. One is really amazed at 
 the results which they obtained, in spite of the obstacles to 
 industry presented by their form of government. 
 
 The rich mines of Peru, and especially those of Pasco, so 
 celebrated, retain traces of ancient mining operations, the 
 epoch of which it is difficult to determine. One thing is 
 certain : the artizans who worked the precious metals had 
 attained the skill which time alone can give. 
 
 Although a great many objects have disappeared in the 
 
 crucible, there still remain enough 
 bracelets, pins, tweezers, and vases, 
 with ornaments in relief (fig. 197) 
 to prove the talents of their jewel- 
 lers. The statuettes are even more 
 remarkable ; they include lizards, 
 serpents (fig. 196), monkeys, birds 
 with their feathers, fish with their 
 scales, trees with their leaves ; 
 modelled some in relief, others 
 in intaglio. The artist did not 
 even shrink from attempting to 
 represent complete groups. We 
 may mention a child lying in a 
 hammcck, on which a serpent coiled round a tree is about to 
 fling itself, and a man seated between two women. The latter, 
 which belonged to Squier's collection, weighed forty-nine 
 ounces. Unfortunately, it is impossible to give an illustra- 
 tion of it. If it is true, as has been claimed, that the Peru- 
 vians were ignorant of the art of casting metals, the only 
 process known for the production of such complicated pieces 
 was an amalgamation of gold with mercury, which latter 
 metal is very common in the country, and known to the 
 Indians of the present day. The paste made by a mixture 
 of the two is very plastic, and lends itself easily to model- 
 ling ; when the artist had finished his work, he volatilized 
 the mercury, by exposing it to a fierce heat ; the gold alone 
 
 FIG. 195. Silver va>o discov- 
 ered at Chnnu. 
 
PERU. 
 
 451 
 
 was left, and simple polishing was enough to obtain the de- 
 sired result. Cie^a de Leon * relates that the working of 
 metals was a speciality of the men of Chimu, and adds that 
 after the submission of the country the Inca Yupanqui car- 
 ried off to Cuzco the best workmen of the town. 
 
 We must also refer to several little round pieces of gold, 
 silver, or copper, pierced with a hole, and bearing on one 
 side a rough impression either of a man or an animal. Were 
 those used as money? There is nothing to justify us 
 in supposing that these men had invented a system of ex- 
 change, unless for their simple wants ; and it is more 
 probable that these were ornaments resembling those of 
 
 FIG. 196. Silver serpent. 
 
 gold, silver, earthenware, stone, and glass found under 
 the huacas (fig. 197). 
 
 Iron appears to have been unknown to the Peruvians as to 
 the other inhabitants of America. It was replaced by bronze, 
 or copper, and a considerable number of weapons, tools, im- 
 plements, and ornaments, made of one or other of these metals, 
 have been picked up. The copper was mixed with from five 
 to ten per cent, of silver." This may have been an alloy, or 
 more probably a natural product of the mine. Some writers 
 nave pretended that the Peruvians were acquainted with 
 
 1 Cieca de Leon, one of the companions of Pizarro, remained for seventeen 
 years in Peru. His history " Primera parte de la chronica del Peru," was 
 printed at Seville in 1553 and at Antwerp in 1554. 
 
 * We have mentioned this same fact with regard to the copper extracted 
 by the Mound Builders from the mines of Lake Superior. 
 
452 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 a mode of hardening which added to the power of resist- 
 ance of copper. None of the objects thus far discovered 
 justify this assertion. At the Madrid exhibition was to 
 be seen a bronze statuette rather more than six inches high, 
 representing a man with his legs crossed, seated on a 
 tortoise, and his arms resting on a tablet, on which is traced 
 an inscription. This statuette was taken from a huaca 
 at the foot of the Andes. 
 
 FIG. 197. Beads of gold, silver, earthenware, stone, and glass. 
 
 The spade and chisel used by the ancient Peruvians were 
 of the form still retained in the country. The celts re- 
 sembled the stone ones of Europe ; the knives, those still in 
 use amongst French saddlers. Sometimes the tools were 
 more clumsy ; Darwin speaks of having seen rough stones, 
 pierced with a hole to receive a handle, used by the in- 
 habitants of Chili to till, or rather to scratch, the ground. 
 
 The weapons found are generally of the most wretched 
 
PERU. 453 
 
 description, and include lance-points, 1 javelins, arrows, 
 and bronze tomahawks. Near the mines of Pasco especially 
 have been picked up hatchets and arrow-points of flint, 
 obsidian, diorite, and basalt, and stone mortars resembling 
 those of California. 
 
 The Trocadero museum contains several stone batons, 
 which have been supposed to be insignia of rank," presenting 
 a curious relationship with those objects, alleged to be 
 of that character, of neolithic times in Europe. It is prob- 
 able, however, that none of these objects had any such pur- 
 pose. The idea of " rank " can hardly have developed 
 among neolithic men any more than among the present 
 Eskimo. Objects obtained from the Eskimo of Nunivak 
 Island by Dall, in 1874, exactly resemble some of the 
 so-called batons of neolithic man, and were handles for skin 
 scrapers, or snuff pestles. We give a drawing of a rod (fig. 
 198) of interesting workmanship, 8 with seven birds sculptured 
 along it, that appear to be climbing toward the top, which is 
 crowned by two birds said to be pelicans. We may also 
 mention, as a specimen of wood-work, a seat upheld by two 
 pumas, found at Cuzco (fig. 199), and some four-legged 
 stools cut in a single piece of wood. These stools figured at 
 the Madrid exhibition ; they resemble in shape the seats 
 represented in Mexican pictographs. Wood was also used 
 to make many objects in daily use. For instance, several 
 examples of tastefully carved combs (fig. 200) are known. 
 Such combs were nearly always placed in the huacas, near 
 the dead. 
 
 To conclude our summary of all relating to the Peruvians, 
 we must describe the Pintados ; such is the name given to 
 the engravings and sculptures met with upon the granite rocks 
 of the chain of the Andes. 4 These represent men, some of 
 
 1 Squier has in his collection a lance-point twenty inches long. 
 
 1 It is remarkable that the insignia of rank have invariably developed from an 
 ordinary stick or club. Such was the origin of the sceptre of the kings, 
 the crozier of the bishop, and the baton of the marshal of France. 
 
 1 Nature, roth June, 1882. 
 
 4 Bollaert, /. c., p. 157. " Trans. Ethn. Soc, of London," 1857. 
 
454 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 which are thirty feet high, animals, chiefly dogs and llamas, 
 plants and inanimate objects. One block of granite twelve 
 
 FIG. 198. Carved rod from Peru. 
 
 FlG. 199. Seat of maguey wood found at Cuzco. 
 
 feet square near Macaya, known by the name of la Picdra 
 del Leon, is loaded with very ancient sculptures. The most 
 
PERU. 
 
 455 
 
 \\\\\\\v\\\\\\\\\\\mvm^ 
 
 v\\\\vm\v\\\\\v\\\m\W^ 
 
 important group represents a struggle between a man and a 
 puma. 1 On another rock it is easy to make out a puma. 
 Near the little town of Nepefi, a colossal serpent is to be 
 seen ; at Caldera, a short distance from Arequipa, trees and 
 flowers. At the Pintados de las Rayas, near Noria, it is no 
 longer animate objects, but geometrical figures, such as cir- 
 cles or parallelograms, that are met with. In the province of 
 Tarapaca, considerable surfaces are covered, not only with 
 figures of men and animals, most of them of remarkable exe- 
 cution (fig. 201), but also 
 with characters, which ap- 
 pear to be written vertical- 
 ly. The lines are from 
 twelve to eighteen feet 
 high, and each character 
 is several inches in depth. 
 Near Huara half-effaced 
 inscriptions are reported, 
 and between Mendoza and 
 La Punta, Chili, is a large 
 pillar, on which are marks 
 supposed to be letters. 
 Their indefinite character 
 may be judged from the 
 fact that they have been 
 said to present some resem- 
 blance With Chinese char- Fl<: - 200. -Peruvian comb. 
 acters. 9 Every thing relating to these so-called inscriptions is 
 very vague, very uncertain, and does not justify any conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 I am disposed to attach more importance to the discov- 
 eries of Professor Liberani, in the Santa Maria valley, 
 Province of Catamarca, in the Argentine Republic. 1 He de- 
 scribes figures of animate objects accompanied by reproduc- 
 tions of inanimate objects, geometrical figures, and lines of 
 
 1 Bollaert, /. c., p. 102. 
 1 Bollaert, /. c., p. 218. 
 1 Arneghino : "La Antiguadud del Hombre," vol. I., p. 94. 
 
456 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 dots differently combined. The same signs are met with, 
 and this is a fact worthy of attention, constantly repeated 
 and always in a similar order. Ameghino considers these 
 inscriptions to indicate a complete system of writing, made 
 up partly of figures and symbolical characters, partly of 
 purely phonetic characters ; and he is even disposed to ad- 
 mit that these are the remains of ancient Peruvian writing, 
 which has been perpetuated far from the district where it 
 first came into existence. According to Montesinos," this 
 writing was proscribed by Pachacuti III., one of the fabulous 
 predecessors of the historic Incas ; he even had an amauta 
 burned for having dared to infringe his orders. 8 
 
 FIG. 201. Peruvian pictograph. Province of Tarapaca. 
 
 It is certain, that in the sixteenth century the Peruvians 
 were acquainted with no system of writing, either hiero- 
 glyphic or phonetic, and with no mode of numeration. It is in 
 the highest degree incredible that a system of writing should 
 have been so utterly lost if it had ever existed. For the 
 
 1 " Mem. hist, sur 1'ancien Perou," coll. Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1849. 
 
 " Unode los reyes del Peru prohibio en efecto su uso bajo las penas mas 
 severas, y uno de sus subditos que algunos anos mas tarde se propuso inventar 
 un nuevo sistema de escritura fu quemado vivo." Ameghino, /. c.; con- 
 sult the same author's " Inscripciones ante colombianas encontradas en la Re- 
 publica Argentina," 8. Brussels, 1880. 
 
PERU. 
 
 457 
 
 ordinary purposes of life they used quipos (fig. 202), or strings 
 of varying length, on which were knotted a certain number 
 of threads. The color of the threads and the number and 
 distance from each other of the knots had a significance 
 sometimes historic and sometimes mathematical. 1 Gar- 
 cilasso tell us that the quipos, which related to the history 
 of the Incas, were carefully preserved by an officer called 
 Quipo Camayol, literally the guardian of the quipos. The 
 greater number were destroyed as monuments of idolatry 
 
 FIG. 2O2. Fragment of a quipo. 
 
 by some fanatical friars, but their loss is not important to 
 history, as neither tradition nor study enable us to interpret 
 those still remaining. The Indians, however, long preserved, 
 and perhaps still retain, this system of secret correspondence. 
 
 1 Before the accession of the Emperor Fo-Fli (3,300 B. C.), it is said that the 
 Chinese were not acquainted with writing and also used quipos. In the 
 writings of Confucius we find a passage which bears on this point. " The men 
 of antiquity," he says, " used knotted cords to convey their orders ; those who 
 succeeded them substituted signs or figures for these cords." J affray : Nature, 
 1876, vol. II., p. 405. 
 
458 PRE-HISTORTC AMERICA. 
 
 A great revolt against the Spaniards was organized in 1792. 
 As was found out later the revolt had been organized by 
 means of messengers, carrying a piece of wood in which 
 were enclosed threads, the ends of which formed red, black, 
 blue, or white fringes. The black thread had four knots, 
 which signified' that the messenger had started from Val- 
 dura, the residence of the chief of the conspiracy, four days 
 after full moon. The white thread had ten knots, which 
 signified that the revolt would break out ten days after the 
 arrival of the messenger. The person to whom the keeper 
 was sent had in his turn to make a knot in the red thread 
 if he agreed to join the confederates ; in the red and blue 
 threads, on the contrary, if he refused. It was by means of 
 these quipos that the Incas transmitted their instructions ; 
 on. all the roads starting from the capital, at distances rarely 
 exceeding five miles, rose tambos, or stations for the chasquis 
 or couriers who went from one post to another. The orders 
 of the Inca thus became disseminated with great rapidity ; 
 those which emanated directly from him were marked with 
 a red thread of the royal llantu, and nothing, as historians 
 assure us, could equal the respect with which these messages 
 were received. 1 
 
 This very imperfect mode of communication presented 
 many other drawbacks, when the preservation of historic 
 facts and their transmission to posterity was in question. 
 From this point of view, it was certainly very inferior to the 
 pictographs of the Mexicans, to the hieroglyphic system em- 
 ployed in Yucatan and Chiapas, and even to the clumsy 
 representations of the North Americans ; it offers a strange 
 contrast with the progress in many directions characterizing 
 the Peruvians. 
 
 We cannot conclude our account of Peru without again 
 laying stress on the admiration with which the historian and 
 philosopher are inspired in studying an organization so 
 strange and a culture so advanced as that of the population 
 who braved the severe climate of the Andes and the burning 
 
 1 Prescott : " History of the Conquest of Peru," p. 29. 
 
PERU. 459 
 
 sun of the Pacific coast. We shall recur again to the origin 
 of this civilization, but, before touching that question, we 
 must complete our work by studying the other peoples of 
 South America. 
 
 On the lofty table-lands which form the chain of the 
 Andes, in N. Lat. 4, at an elevation of nearly ten thousand 
 feet, lived the Chibchas. 1 This was a strong and courageous, 
 agricultural and industrious race, individual in character, and 
 possessing an original culture. Isolated in the narrow area 
 which formed their country, they knew how to maintain 
 their independence against their more powerful native 
 neighbors, who resembled them in manners, customs, arts, 
 and worship. After the Spanish conquest, however, the Chib- 
 cha country, which consisted only of a territory forty-five 
 leagues long by twelve to fifteen wide, became the province 
 of Cundinamarca, and was included in the viceroyalty of 
 New Grenada. Since 1861, the state of Cundinamarca has 
 formed part of the confederation which has taken the name 
 of the United States of Colombia. 
 
 Less advanced perhaps, than the Aztecs or the Peruvians, 
 the Chibchas were yet able to lay out and pave roads, to 
 span their water-courses with bridges, to build temples 
 with columns to their gods, to carve statues, to engrave 
 figures on stone, to weave and dye cotton and wool, to adorn 
 their woven tissues with varied patterns, and to work in 
 wood, stone, and the metals. Their pottery resembled that 
 of other people of America ; their vessels are generally 
 formed of three super-posed layers ; the central layer is 
 black, whilst the internal and external ones are of finer 
 earth and lighter color. The ornaments of the Chibchas 
 
 1 Piedrahita : "Hist. gen. de la conquista del Nuevo Reyno de Granada," 
 Madrid, 1688. Humboldt : " Voyage aux regions equinoctiales," etc., and " Vues 
 des Cordilleres." J. Acosta : " Compendio hist, del descubrimiento y colonisa- 
 cion de la Nueva Granada," Paris, 1848. Bollaert : "Ant. Ethn. and other 
 Researches in New Granada," London, 1860. Uricochoea : " Mem. sobre las 
 antiguedades Neo-Granadinas," Berlin, n. d. Nature, 1877, vol. I., p. 359. 
 " Isographia fisica y politica de los Estados Unidos de Colombia," Bogota, 2 
 vols., 1862-3. Dr. Jaffray : "Voyage a la Nouvelle Grenade," "La Tour 
 du Monde," vol. XXIV., XXV., XXVI. 
 
460 PRE-tnSTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 were collars made of shells which came from the coasts 
 of the Pacific, more than two hundred leagues off ; gold, 
 stone, and silver pendants, .pearls, and emeralds. Their 
 wealth was considerable, and chroniclers relate, that in the 
 first few months succeeding the conquest theconquistadores 
 collected spoil of which the value exceeded thirty million 
 francs. 1 If these figures are not exaggerated they are really 
 enormous for the time and country. 
 
 We know very little about this people, who are looked 
 upon as one of the authors of the ancient civilization of 
 South America. Their very language has disappeared,* and 
 the name by which we know them dates from the time 
 of the Spaniards, 3 who borrowed it from Chibchachimi, one 
 of the chief gods of the country, the protector of agricultur- 
 alists and goldsmiths. The traditions relating to the 
 Chibchas are of little importance. According to Chibcha 
 legend the moon was the wife of Bochica, who personified 
 the sun ; she did as much harm to men as he did good, 
 and Bochica, irritated against her, condemn-ed her to give 
 light to the earth only during the night. 4 They called them- 
 selves aborigines, born before the moon was created, on the 
 tableland where Santa F6 de Bogota now rises. They wan- 
 dered about naked, without laws and without culture, until 
 a stranger, Bochica, came from distant regions and taught 
 them the art of clothing themselves, building houses, and liv- 
 ing in society. The legends relating to Bochica present a 
 curious analogy with those about Quetzacoatl or Manco- 
 Capac, and, by one of those coincidences of which ethnology 
 affords so many examples, the mythical civilizer of Colom- 
 bia had something in common alike with the reformer of 
 Buddhism and the first Inca of Peru. 
 
 'Acosta, /. c., pp. 123 and 126. 
 
 * In 1871 Uricochcea published a Chibcha grammar. This language, he tells 
 us, can only be studied now through two others, which are probably only 
 dialects of it, that of the Turievos, a people who lived north of Bogota, and 
 that of the Itocos, who lived near the celebrated emerald mines of Muzo. 
 
 3 The Chibchas are supposed to have called themselves Muyscas, a word 
 signifying men in their language. 
 
 4 Desjardins : " Le Pe'rou avant la conquete Espagnole," pp. 44 and 102. 
 
PERU. 4<>I 
 
 Besides their own particular gods, such as Chibchachimi or 
 Nehmquitiba, the Chibchas also adored the sun and the 
 moon ; they offered human victims to the sun, but only on 
 rare occasions. One of these occasions was the commence- 
 ment of each cycle of fifteen years, which formed the basis 
 of their astronomical calculations ; and with a cruelty but 
 little in accordance with their habitual manners, the victim 
 was often chosen several years beforehand, and prepared 
 by a long initiation for the death which awaited him. The 
 lofty summits of the mountains, the water-courses, and 
 the lakes were dedicated to their divinities. Among the 
 lakes, that of Quatavita was the most venerated, and it is 
 related that at the time of the conquest the inhabitants 
 flung into its waters all their treasures that they might 
 not become the prey of the conqueror, the report of whose 
 avarice had already reached the Chibchas. This legend, 
 which does not agree at all with the account of the immense 
 sums drawn by the Spanish from New Grenada, has shown 
 great vitality. At various times the tapadas have en- 
 endeavored to recover these riches but the results have 
 by no means corresponded with the hopes of the explorers ; 
 in 1562, one alligator, two monkeys, and thirteen frogs 
 of gold were taken from the water ; but more recent 
 attempts have yielded but a few statuettes of no value. 
 
 Not far from Tunja, in the state of Boyaca, thirteen col- 
 umns, four or five yards high, still stand ; a little farther off, 
 near some extensive ruins, rise nineteen shorter columns ' ; 
 numerous carved stones covered with ornaments are scat- 
 tered all over the coast for a distance of more than two 
 miles. It is supposed that this was the town of Sogomuxi, 
 and the temple, of which the columns are relics, would be 
 that of Nehmquitiba, which was destroyed by Quesada. 
 
 Although belonging to one race, the Chibchas do not 
 appear to have formed a national body. Some obeyed a 
 
 J " Bull. Soc. Ge'og.," 1847. Travellers differ as to the number of columns still 
 standing. See Jaffray : " Viaje a nueva Granada." Ameghino : "La An- 
 tiguedad del Hombre," vol. I., p. 103. 
 
462 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 chief called Zippa, who commanded at Bogota ; the chief 
 of the other faction bore the title of Zoque, and lived at 
 Hunsa, the Tunja of to-day. The authority of these chiefs 
 was as despotic as that of the Incas, and no one dared to 
 oppose their will. The Zippa could only have one legiti- 
 mate wife, but was allowed any number of concubines 
 (Thiguyes). None of his sons inherited the paternal power; 
 but, in accordance with a custom which still prevails in the 
 heart of Africa, it was transmitted to the eldest son of the 
 sister. 
 
 As soon as the Zippa was dead, his viscera were taken out 
 and replaced by sweet-smelling resin ; the body was then 
 placed in a coffin of palm-wood, ornamented inside and out 
 with sheets of gold. This coffin was placed in a sepulchre, 
 the situation of which was secret ; and this secret has been 
 so well kept that to this day the tombs, so eagerly sought 
 after, have never been discovered. Such is the account, 
 bearing the impress of their habitual exaggeration, which 
 we borrow from the Spanish writers. It is probable that the 
 cave situated not far from Bogota, and which has yielded 
 such an ample harvest of jewels of gold and silver, or per- 
 haps that near Tunja, where rows of mummies clothed in 
 rich garments were to be seen, was really the spot dedi- 
 cated to the burial of the Zippas and the Zoques. With the 
 chiefs were interred their weapons, their garments, the insig- 
 nia of their rank, and even those of their favorite concubines. 
 In all the tombs, without exception, we find the objects that 
 had been used in daily life, the professional implements, and 
 jars filled with chicha. For these men, as for the greater 
 number of the native people of America, the life which 
 began after death was to be a continuation of that lived 
 upon earth. 
 
 The laws of the Chibchas were no less severe than those 
 of the Aztecs or the Peruvians. Violation and homicide 
 were punished with death ; the thief incurred the penalty of 
 the whip. Sometimes the penalties inflicted were more 
 original ; he who showed cowardice in war was dressed like 
 
PERU. 463 
 
 a woman, and made to do female work. The woman ac- 
 cused of adultery had to swallow a certain quantity of red 
 pepper ; if she confessed her fault, she was pitilessly put to 
 death ; but if she could stand the ordeal, her husband had 
 to make public apologies to her. 
 
 These men had no cattle of any kind ; they do not appear 
 even to have known how to make use of llamas. Their food 
 consisted of honey, which was very abundant on the slopes 
 of the mountains, maize, and potatoes, which they obtained 
 by cultivating the earth with wooden implements, and 
 watering it frequently by means of irrigating canals. Their 
 houses rose in the midst of circular enclosures (cercadas) 
 often defended by watch-towers. They were built of wood 
 and clay moistened with water ; the roof was conical, and 
 covered with reed mats. The openings were closed with 
 interlaced rushes. 
 
 Primitive as their buildings and their mode of life appear, 
 the Chibchas were acquainted with bronze, copper, tin, lead, 
 gold, and silver, but not with iron. They were very .skilful 
 in the use of the metals just enumerated, and their chief oc- 
 cupation was the fabrication of gold and silver objects. In 
 the Saint Germain Museum may be seen interesting speci- 
 mens of Chibcha art (fig. 203). M. Uricoechea has a still 
 more remarkable collection, amongst the contents of which 
 we must mention two golden masks of the human face, 
 larger than life, and hundreds of little statuettes repre- 
 senting men, monkeys, and frogs. The last-named are 
 numerous throughout New Granada, from which we may 
 gather that the veneration of the Muyscas for water-courses 
 extended to the batrachians peopling them. 
 
 The Chibchas appear to have carried on an extensive trade 
 in the various objects the}' manufactured ; they also ex- 
 ported to their neighbors the rock salt which abounded in 
 their territories, and in return they received the cereals 
 which the poverty of their soil rendered indispensable to 
 them. They are said to have invented a coinage to facili- 
 tate these exchanges, and that it was for this purpose that 
 
4 6 4 
 
 r RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 were made certain peculiar little gold discs ; it is more prob- 
 able that these were ornaments, for nothing that we know of 
 the social state of the people of South America justifies us 
 in supposing that they understood the use of money. 
 
 FIG. 203. Chibcha weapons and jewels. (Saint Germain Museum.) 
 
 Monuments, except the columns already mentioned, are 
 rare in the Chibcha country, and we can enumerate them 
 rapidly. A stone is mentioned, probably intended for sac- 
 rifices, and upheld by caryatides ; a sculptured jaguar at the 
 
PERU. 465 
 
 entrance to a cave near Neyba, and further on some gigantic 
 llamas. Humboldt mentions, at the entrance to the Muysca 
 country, between 2 and 4 N. Lat., granite or syenite rocks, 
 covered with colossal figures of crocodiles and tigers. 
 They look as if they were intended to defend the representa- 
 tions of the sun and moon accompanying them. Ameghino 
 also speaks ' of hieroglyphics in New Granada, and perhaps 
 we must also attribute to the Chibchas two columns of great 
 height, covered with sculpture, situated at the junction of 
 the Carare and Magdalena. They are the object of the su- 
 perstitious veneration of the natives. 11 
 
 Every day, so to speak, brings new facts which add to our 
 knowledge. We must not omit to mention the curious 
 pictographs recently discovered in the valleys of Bogota, 
 Tunga, and Cauca, which appear to be a roughly outlined 
 map of the country, in which, however, the nearest pueblos 
 can be made out.' 
 
 At every turn South America presents vestiges of a van- 
 ished race, of a culture now lost ; and we are always com- 
 pelled to one conclusion as to our absolute powerlessness to 
 decide on the origin or cause of the decadence of these 
 races, now represented by a few miserable savages, without 
 a past, as without a future. 
 
 In no region of the globe has nature been more prodigal 
 than in the vast districts stretching from Guiana to Uruguay, 
 from the Atlantic to the foremost spurs of the Andes, form- 
 ing the empire of Brazil. The fertility of the soil, under the 
 double influence of heat and moisture, is wonderful ; forest 
 trees grow in great variety everywhere ; valuable medical 
 plants spring up in profusion which are not to be met 
 with in any other climate ; and vegetables, good for food, or 
 fruits pleasant to the palate of man, with flowers of the most 
 brilliant colors. Fifteen thousand vegetable species peculiar 
 to Brazil have already been recognized. Agassiz, telling of 
 
 1 " En Nueva Granado las inscripciones geroglificas se encuentran a cado 
 paso." " La Ant. del Hombre," vol. I., p. 92. 
 
 1 Zamora : " Hist, de la Prov. del Nuevo Reino de Granada." 
 
 1 Bastian : " Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde," Berlin, 1878. 
 
466 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 his memorable expedition to the Amazon, in 1865 and 1866, 
 adds: "An empire might esteem itself rich in anyone of 
 the sources of industry which abound in this valley, and yet 
 the greater part of it rots on the ground, and goes to form a 
 little more river-mud, or tinges the water on the shores 
 of which these manifold products die and decompose." ' 
 The fauna is no less rich than the flora; virgin forests, 
 the magnificence of which, according to travellers, baffles 
 description, are filled with monkeys and feline animals, 
 tapirs, peccaries, and birds of brilliant plumage. The 
 abundance of fish in the streams and rivers is no less re- 
 markable ; in fact, the Brazilian ichthyology is so rich 
 that, in his exploration of the Amazon, Agassiz was able 
 to class three hundred new species. The pirarucu (Sudis 
 gigas), which the natives take with the lance when it 
 comes to the surface of the water, and the sea-turtle 
 alone, would suffice for the nourishment of a large fish- 
 eating population. 2 
 
 The barbarism of man presents a strange contrast with 
 the riches of nature. Whilst powerful and industrious peo- 
 ple, with regular government, laws, and towns, flourished 
 upon the sandy coasts of the Pacific and on the lofty table- 
 lands of the Andes, at heights where cold and hunger were 
 formidable enemies, the Portuguese found in the fertile dis- 
 
 1 "A Journey in Brazil," Boston, 1868, p. 510. 
 
 * Prince Max de Neuwied : " Reise nach Bresilien," 3 vol., 4, Frankfurt- 
 am-Main, 1820. A. de St. Hilaire : "Voyage dans les provinces de Rio de 
 Janeiro et de Minas Gerae's." F. Denis : " Le Bresil, Univers Pittoresque," 
 Paris, 1837. F. de Castelnau : " Exp. dans les parties centrales de 1'Ame'rique 
 du Sud, de 1843 et 1847," 6 vol., 8. A. de Varnhagen : " Hist. Geral do 
 Brazil," Madrid and Rio de Janeiro, 1855-7. Dr. T. Waitz : " Anthropologie 
 der Naturvolker," vol. III., Leipzig, 1862. C. de Martius : " Beitrage zur 
 Ethnographic und Sprachenkunde Amerikas zumal Brasiliens," Leipzig, 1867- 
 72. Marcoy (St. Cricq) : "Voyage a travers l'Amerique du Sud, de 1'Ocean 
 Pacifique a 1'Ocean Atlantique," Paris, 1868. R. Burton: "Highlands of 
 Brazil," London, 1868. Hartt : "Geology and Physical Geography of 
 Brazil," Boston, 1870. Pompeu de Souza : " Compendio de Geographia geral 
 e especial do Brazil." Lacerda and Peixotto : " Contrilnupoes arao pestudo 
 anthropologico das Ra9as indigenas do Brazil." " Archives do Museo Nacional," 
 Rio de Janeiro. 
 
PERU. 
 
 tricts of Brazil but a scattered population, steeped in the 
 saddest degradation,' and where cannibalism has continued 
 to exist to our own day. 2 
 
 This native population belonged to the race called 
 Guarani by the Spaniards and Tupi by the Portuguese. This 
 was the most prolific race in South America." We meet 
 with it in the Antilles, in Uruguay, in Guiana, and as far as 
 Bolivia. The skin of the Guaranis was a shade less dark 
 than that of the Aymaras or the Qquichuas ; they were of 
 more robust and vigorous constitution ; but, on the other 
 hand, their character was more violent, and their intelligence 
 was less marked, and above all, less susceptible of progress. 
 
 Dr. Crevaux, of whose murder by the Tobas we have 
 just heard, and whose death is a great loss to science, noted 
 important analogies between the languages of Guiana, the 
 Upper Amazon, the Antilles, and that of the ancient inhabi- 
 tants of the bay of Rio de Janeiro. This is a weighty fact 
 in support of the opinion that a single race peopled all the 
 Atlantic coasts of America. 4 But this race has been pro- 
 
 1 Varnhagen estimated the number of natives at the time of the Portuguese 
 conquest at about a million. The different tribes which have remained in a 
 savage state may now amount up altogether to five hundred thousand souls. 
 The rest are merged in the population of the country. There are the Capufos, 
 children of negro and Indian women ; the Afamelucos, or Curibocos, children 
 of white men and Indian women ; and the Mulattos, of white and black paren- 
 tage. The subdivisions, as the generation succeed each other, are infinite. 
 
 a We have already said that all, men, women, and children, wandered about 
 in a state of complete nudity ; in some tribes, however, we find earthenware 
 " fig-leaves," or tangas, used for covering the sexual parts. These tangas are 
 of very fine clay, baked in the fire. The concave side retains its natural color, 
 but the convex is enamelled with white clay, and on some of them a face is 
 represented. Hartt, " Archives of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro," 
 vol. I. 
 
 * The Galibis, who are met with in French Guiana, sprung from a source 
 probably allied to the Tupis, and which, according to Martius l gave birth, by a 
 cross with the original people of the Antilles, to the redoubtable race of the 
 Caribs. D'Orbigny : " L' Homme Americain," vol. II., p. 268. M. Girard 
 de Rialle has made the Galibis very well known by his account of several 
 natives of the country who were to be seen in the Jardin d' Acclimatation. 
 (Nature, Aug. 19, 1882). 
 
 4 " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1881, p. 564. 
 
468 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 foundly modified by prior or later intermixtures. Some 
 people present a very marked Asiatic type ; their figure is 
 squat and thick-set ; their faces are flat, the nose is low, the 
 cheek-bones are prominent ; the eyes are of oblique shape, 
 the skin is yellow, the beard thin, and the hair black, long 
 and smooth. We meet with these same characteristics at 
 the present day amongst the Aimores, 1 to whom the Portu- 
 guese have given the name of Botocudos* on account of the 
 large round piece of wood (botoque) or labret which they 
 are in the habit of introducing into an artificial aperture in 
 the lower lip (fig. 204.) 
 
 These people were broken up 
 into innumerable tribes, who, 
 notwithstanding their common 
 origin, were constantly at war 
 with each other. Side by side 
 with the Tupis, the Portuguese 
 found the Tapuyas and the 
 Tupinambas, who occupied the 
 whole coast, from the island of 
 St. Vincent to that of Maranhao, 
 with others, the enumeration of 
 whom would be of no interest. 
 Were these the most ancient 
 people of Brazil ? Those, for 
 instance, whose bones have been 
 found in the caves of the province of Minas-Geraes ? We 
 are justified in doubting it, and although the type of the 
 men of Lagoa-Santa was still met with at the time of the 
 
 'Olfers, Eschwege, " Journal v. Bresilien," vol. II., p. 194. According to 
 Lacerda and Peixotto (" Arch, of the Nat. Mus. of Rio de Janeiro," vol. I.) it 
 would be the Botocudos that are most nearly allied to the primitive race 
 of Brazil. 
 
 * Rey describes the skull of the Botocudos as characterized by the promi- 
 nence of the glabella and of the supraciliary ridges, by the depression of the 
 root of the nose, the absence of frontal eminences, the simplicity of the sutures, 
 the spherical form of the occipital, and by the cymbicephalic shape of the cra- 
 nial cavity. The cephalic index varies between 71.67, and 74.86. Bordier, 
 "Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1881, p. 566. 
 
 JP 
 
 FlG. 204. Botocudo. 
 
PRKT. 469 
 
 European invasion, 1 Quatrefages believes that the barbarous 
 Guaranis had either as predecessors or contemporaries a 
 more civilized race. If we admit this latter hypothesis, it 
 would be to this unknown race that we must attribute the 
 few megaliths, and the rock-paintings and engravings so fre- 
 quently met with in Brazil. 
 
 Herkman, sent into the interior of the province of Per- 
 nambuco by the prince of Nassau-Siegen, during the Dutch 
 domination, mentioned two perfectly round stones, the 
 larger six feet in diameter, placed one upon the other.* This 
 is one of those structures which characterize the infancy of 
 culture in all societies. It has been taken for an altar, on 
 account of the accumulation of stones about it, which, in 
 accordance with an almost universal custom, bear witness to 
 the veneration of the natives. In several places in the inte- 
 rior of the country explorers have met with tumuli, some- 
 times of stones, sometimes of earth. In all, excavations 
 have yielded bones, and with the bones weapons, ornaments 
 of chert or hard rock, crystals, pieces of coral and jutah * root. 
 
 The solitudes of Para and Piauhy contain intaglio 
 sculptures, the work of vanished races. These represent 
 animals, birds, and men in the most varied attitudes ; some 
 of whom have the body tattooed, and others are crowned 
 with feathers ; whilst arabesques and scrolls complete ihe 
 picture. 4 
 
 Philippe Rey mentions, at the Sierra da Onca, on the 
 rocks overlooking the right bank of the Rio Doce, the occur- 
 rence of drawings in red ochre, sometimes singly and some- 
 times grouped without apparent order (fig. 205). Is this 
 an inscription, and must we attribute to these drawings any 
 meaning beyond the caprice of the artist ? We should not 
 venture to say ; for all interpretation appears to be impos- 
 
 1 De Quatrefages, Cong. Anth. de Moscou, 1877. 
 
 "F. Denis, " Le Bresil,"p. 252. 
 
 3 Hymencea curbarii. C. Rath, " Revista do Institute historico, geogra- 
 phico, ethnographico do Brazil," 1871. 
 
 4 Debret, " Voy. pitt. et hist, au Bresil depuis 1816 jusqu'en 1831." Paris, 
 1879. 
 
47 PRF.-fffSTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 sible. 1 In the province of Ceara are rocks, reminding us, by 
 the engravings with which they are covered, of those 
 in Scandinavia (fig. 206). A. de Saint-Hilaire mentions 
 similar ones on the rocks of Tijuco ; Koster speaks of a 
 boat sculptured in intaglio, 5 and every thing justifies us in 
 hoping for new discoveries as travellers are able to penetrate 
 
 * 
 
 FIG. 205. Engravings on rock on the right bank of the Rio Doce. 
 
 more freely into the virgin forests, savannahs, and deserts, 
 making up a great part of the Brazilian territory. 
 
 On the north, the zone of the so-called Piedras Pintadas, 
 stretches into the Guianas, fronvthe Paracaima mountains to 
 Uruana. These drawings, according to Humboldt, date from 
 different periods and are the work of very different people. 
 
 1 " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1879, p. 732. 
 
 1 "Voyage dans la partie septentrionale du Bresil depuis 1809 jusqu'en 1815." 
 
PERU. 
 
 471 
 
 But who were these people ? The illustrious German trav- 
 eller adds nothing to make them known to us. These Pied- 
 ras Pintadas are met with in the south as in the north, in 
 Chili and in Peru, as well as in Arizona and New Mexico, 
 presenting every where a remarkable analogy with each 
 other. This constant resemblance, not met with to a simi- 
 lar degree among any other peoples of the globe, is a racial 
 characteristic, difficult to disregard. Ameghino reproduces a 
 great many inscriptions, which he discovered within the 
 bounds of the Argentine Republic, and which may be com- 
 pared with those of Brazil ' ; they appear to be more com- 
 plicated, as may be seen by that of which we give a drawing 
 fig. 207); their art 
 is of a somewhat 
 more d ev e 1 o p e d 
 character, and they 
 doubtless date from 
 a more recent pe- 
 riod. 
 
 It is difficult to 
 attribute the draw- 
 ings of Brazil or of 
 Uruguay to tribes 
 of the Guarani race, 
 though the case of 
 the African Bushmen might justify us in supposing that 
 savages, even as degraded as these are represented to have 
 been, may have had sufficient intelligence to rudely repro- 
 duce on stone the objects which struck their imagination. 
 The same remark, however, will hardly apply to a subterra- 
 nean passage of considerable length, excavated in very com- 
 pact sandstone, which excavations have lately brought to 
 light. 
 
 On penetrating into el Palacio, as this subterranean pas- 
 
 1 " Puro los objetos mas notables, creo son las numerosas inscripcionas 
 sobre rocas que han descubierto en diversos puntos de la provincia." " La 
 Antiguedad del Hombre," vol. I., p. 541, figs. 353 to 364. 
 
 FIG. 206. Inscription on rock at Ceara. 
 
472 
 
 PRE-HIS TORIC A ME RICA . 
 
 sage is called, we are astonished at the sight of columns 
 placed at regular distances, supporting a regular vaulted 
 roof, and all converging toward a common centre. 1 Exca- 
 vations, which have thus far been very superficial, have only 
 yielded a few agate arrow-points; now the nearest known 
 deposit of agate is on the banks of the Rio Negro, so that 
 it may probably have been from there that these arrow- 
 points were derived. There is no serious tradition con- 
 
 FlG. 207. Rock covered with engravings. Province of Catamarca. 
 
 nected with these structures, so that we will content our- 
 selves with mentioning them, and adding that our ignorance 
 is complete as to their date and origin. 
 
 We must say the same for the pottery collected in large 
 quantities in Brazil and La Plata. The most important dis- 
 coveries of this kind are those made by Professor Hartt a on 
 the island of Pacoval-Marajo and at Taperinha on the Rio 
 Tapajos, one of the tributaries of the Amazon. They en- 
 
 1 Mario Isola, " Caverna conocida porpalacio suterreano de Porongos dep. de 
 San Jose." (R. O. del U.) Ameghino, /, c., p. 461. " El Siglo de Monte- 
 video." 
 
 * " Report, Peabody Museum," 1873, p. 20. 
 
PERU. 473 
 
 able us to judge of the general form and ornamentation of 
 this class of objects, the latter consisting chiefly of somewhat 
 complicated lines traced on the soft clay or on that already 
 hardened by the sun. The vases were also sometimes 
 painted, and some cups in the form of birds, of the most 
 brilliant colors, are especially mentioned. The handles pre- 
 sent a no less curious variety, imitating sometimes animals, 
 sometimes different parts of the human body, more often 
 still grotesque heads. Imagination was certainly not want- 
 ing to these unknown potters. An urn two feet and a half 
 high by four feet in diameter, a clumsy imitation of the 
 human body, is the most remarkable of the objects sent by 
 Hartt to the Peabody Museum. A number of similar urns, 
 called by Hartt Face Urns, have also been found, some of 
 them containing human bones. They evidently date from 
 remote times, for nothing that we know of the mode of life 
 of the Tupis, and especially of their funereal rites, justifies 
 us in attributing these urns to them. 
 
 Some fragments of pottery have also been found under a 
 kitchen midden near Santarem (province Para); Hartt dates 
 this midden, which consists entirely of fresh-water shells, 
 from the same period as the most ancient heaps in Florida. 
 The broken fragments of pottery were accompanied by 
 bones of various animals ; and these bones, enclosed in a 
 compact breccia, might have supplied some useful indica- 
 tions ; but, unfortunately, they have not been described, or 
 at least their description has not reached Europe. 
 
 Barboso Rodriguez, commissioned by the Brazilian Gov- 
 ernment to explore the valley of the Amazon, speaks of 
 innumerable fragments of pottery heaped up eighteen miles 
 above the junction of the Rio das Trombettas, also called 
 the Orixamena, with the Amazon. 1 In this expedition he 
 discovered several specimens of a stone' image, called Mui- 
 rakitan. It represents a toad or a frog, cut out of hard rock. 
 According to tradition, these were amulets given by the 
 
 1 H. Fischer : " Sur 1" origine des pierres dites d' Amazone et sur ce peuple 
 fabuleux," 1880, p. 127. 
 
474 PRE-II1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Amazons to their lovers at their annual meeting on the 
 banks of the Yamunda. Similar imitations of batrachia are 
 met with in Mexico and Peru, and we have spoken of the 
 superstitious idea connected with them by the Chibchas. 
 As for the fable of the Amazons, it dates back to the ac- 
 count of Orillana, one of Pizarro's companions, who went 
 down the river in the years 1539 and 1540, and on his return 
 to Spain told of the battles he had waged with women as 
 warlike as men. These adversaries were probably the 
 Uaupes, slim beardless Indians, with delicate extremities 
 and feminine features, whose wives were only the witnesses 
 of struggles in which they took no direct part. 
 
 Lastly, to conclude every thing relating to the pottery of 
 South America, we must mention some urns found in the 
 islands situated to the north of Buenos Ayres, near the 
 mouth of the Parana. 1 These urns are of plastic clay, and 
 the baking to which they were subjected having been very 
 superficial, they fall to pieces as soon as they are disinterred. 
 The fragments vary from an inch to a quarter of an inch in 
 thickness. It has been possible to preserve one, with very 
 great care ; this is more than eighteen inches high, by a di- 
 ameter of nearly twenty-three inches. It is of circular and 
 perfectly regular form ; the upper part is rapidly inflected, 
 so as to form a kind of neck two inches high, with a large 
 opening. The vase was painted white, and ornamented 
 with lines, circles, and squares painted red. These decora- 
 tions vary infinitely, and a great many pieces of pottery 
 bear ornaments in relief, moulded when soft. Each urn con- 
 tained a seated skeleton, with the head bending over the 
 breast and the knees drawn up toward the chin. All the 
 bones were so much decomposed, by constant inundations 
 of the cemetery, that it was impossible to examine them. 
 In the province of Tucuman similar urns are mentioned, 
 also containing skeletons. In that of La Rioja the bodies 
 were placed in a similar position, but this time in rush- 
 
 1 Burmeister : ".Congres d' Anthropologie et d' Archeologie prehistoriques, " 
 Brussels, 1872, p. 348. 
 
PERU. 475 
 
 baskets. The vases or baskets were deposited in natural or 
 artificial caves. Here we have a very characteristic funeral 
 rite. 
 
 We have been careful to omit none of the discoveries 
 made. These sculptures, paintings, and pieces of pottery, 
 found at considerable distances from each other, appear to 
 bear witness to a higher culture than that met with by the 
 first Europeans who landed on the eastern coast of South 
 America. In Brazil and Uruguay stone hatchets, weapons, 
 and implements of every kind have frequently been picked 
 up. Lately similar weapons, found in the auriferous de- 
 posits of the province of Maranhao, on the north-east coast 
 of Brazil, have been taken to the Anthropological Society 
 of Paris. 1 These are, as Dr. Hamy remarked at the time, 
 analogous to those which come to us from Guiana, Mar- 
 tinique, Guadaloupe, Tahiti, and Upper Peru, thus pleading 
 in favor of the affinity of the Guarani group with the races 
 inhabiting the Antilles. For the present natives, these 
 stones of diverse forms, which they look upon with supersti- 
 tious terror, have all fallen from the sky. It is interesting 
 to meet in America with a legend which is also prevalent 
 among the nations of the Old World." 
 
 Here closes our archaeological task.* We have given 
 a resum of the very numerous works of man in the two 
 Americas ; we must now study the physical conformation 
 of that man himself, which will be the subject of the 
 following chapter. 
 
 1 " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1881, p. 206. 
 
 1 " Les Premiers Hommes et les Temps pre'-historiques, " vol. I., p. n. 
 
 1 Barboso Rodriguez has recently found, writes the Emperor of Brazil, to M. 
 de Quatrefages, a hatchet of jadeite ; which has been considered to be a 
 remarkable fact, as no deposit of jadeite has been known in America until very 
 lately. Within the last few years, however, jadeite has been discovered in situ 
 both in Alaska and Nicaragua. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MEN OF AMERICA. 
 
 IN the preceding chapters is related all that it is at present 
 possible to state definitely about the times which preceded 
 the Spanish invasion in America. We have seen the first 
 inhabitants of the New World passing successively through 
 the phases of a civilization analogous to that of our 
 ancestors ; struggling with humble stone weapons against 
 the gigantic animals which have for ever disappeared, piling 
 up huge earthworks to defend their hearths, to honor their 
 gods, or their dead, scaling almost inaccessible rocks to erect 
 their dwellings, founding towns, building monuments, culti- 
 vating the arts, establishing governments, and obeying fixed 
 laws. We must now study these men from the point of view 
 of their physical conformation, examine the consequences 
 which result from these studies, and the, as yet very incom- 
 plete, conclusions which they justify. 
 
 Let us traverse once more the districts where we have 
 noted the relics or mementos of man ; let us demand of the 
 sand of the pampas, the mounds of the Mississippi, the hua- 
 cas of Peru, the huts of the Eskimo, the bones which they 
 conceal. Nothing that touches these questions can be in- 
 different to the thinker. These men, of whom a few miser- 
 able relics are the sole witnesses, have lived, loved, 
 struggled, and suffered like ourselves. Their life has been 
 like the life of our fathers, their past like the past of our 
 own race ; their instincts, their aspirations, their ideas, were 
 like the instincts, the aspirations, the ideas, of our predeces- 
 sors. Unfortunately these bones, the importance of which 
 was once not even suspected, have not always been pre~ 
 
 476 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 477 
 
 served with proper care. The excavations undertaken, 
 either out of curiosity or in search of treasures dear to 
 credulity and avarice, were often not methodically con- 
 ducted, or superintended by competent men ; hence nu- 
 merous errors, of which it is well to warn the reader at the 
 outset. 
 
 Amongst the most ancient human relics discovered, on 
 American soil may be ranked a skull brought to light by the 
 works of a railway near Denver, three and a half feet below 
 the surface of the ground. 1 It lay in a loess which does not 
 appear to have been at all displaced ; this loess covers im- 
 mense plains, and offers a striking resemblance to the glacial 
 deposits of Europe. We have already noted in our first 
 chapter that it has yielded numerous implements, of a make 
 very similar to those of European paleolithic times. Every 
 thing points to the conclusion that this skull dates from the 
 same period ; but we have no details as to its structure, and 
 if it proves the existence of man on the American continent 
 during the glacial period, it does not tell us what this man 
 was like, who lived in the midst of glaciers. 
 
 We have spoken of the very curious discoveries of Ame- 
 ghino in the La Plata pampas, which discoveries were sup- 
 plemented and confirmed by others in 1882." The whole of 
 the country between Buenos Ayres and Rosario along the 
 Parafla, is a vast undulating plain, about five thousand 
 square leagues in area. 
 
 The pampean formation is beneath a first layer of vege- 
 table earth about three feet deep ; it includes an upper 
 layer varying from fifteen to eighty feet, which goes down 
 to the borders of the stream as far as the level of the water, 
 and is characterized by the presence of the Glyptodon, Mylo- 
 don, and Hoplophorus, with some equine and ruminant ani- 
 mals ; also a second layer, from three to ten feet thick, 
 
 'Ch. Abbott: "The Paleolithic Implements from the Glacial Drift in the 
 Valley of the Delaware near Trenton, New Jersey." "Report, Peabody 
 Museum, 1878," vol. II., p. 257. 
 
 * C. Vogt : " Squelette humain associe aux glyptodontes," " Bull. Soc. 
 Anth.," 20th Oct., 188*. 
 
47 8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 where the bones are less friable and better preserved. It 
 contains the remains of the Mastodon, Megatherium, and 
 Toxodon. Roth, to whom we owe these details, looks upon 
 the. two layers as belonging to the quaternary age ; but he 
 asserts that in his numerous excavations he has always 
 found the two faunae completely distinct. 
 
 It was in the first layer that the human relics were picked 
 up, near Pontimelo on the north of the province of Buenos 
 Ayres. They included a skull with the lower jaw ; the cer- 
 vical vertebrae were at a distance from the skull ; the ribs 
 lay here and there ; and one femur adhered to the pelvis. 
 The bones of one hand were in their place; those of the 
 other, with those of the foot, were dispersed ; and several 
 were missing. 
 
 All the bones were decomposed, and the outer parts were 
 eaten away by decay. They were placed beneath the cara- 
 pax of a Glyptodon, turned upside down. Under the skull 
 were found an oyster-shell and an implement of deer-horn, 
 on which human workmanship was scarcely apparent. 
 
 Such are the facts ; we are bound to mention them, in 
 order to omit nothing in relation to the important subject 
 under notice. Unfortunately, we have no information as to 
 the shape of the skull, or that of the long bones. The rapid 
 displacements resulting from rain, wind, and rivulets of 
 water, resulting from the constant storms of the district, pre- 
 vent us, moreover, from being positively certain of the 
 contemporaneity of the owner of the bones with the Glypto- 
 don. 
 
 We have nothing to add to what we have said about the 
 human skeletons met with in the caves, which formed the 
 homes or burial-places of the ancient Americans. Some of 
 these bones probably date from a very remote antiquity, but 
 the observations made are not yet sufficiently numerous to 
 admit of any final conclusion. 
 
 We shall make but one exception in favor of the skull 
 of Lagoa Santa (Brazil), and will borrow the description 
 given by M. de Quatrefages at the meeting of the Anthro- 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 479 
 
 pological Congress held at Moscow in 1879.' " This skull," 
 he says, " belonged to an individual more than thirty years 
 old ; outside it presents a metallic, bronzed aspect ; its 
 weight is considerable. The zygomatic arches are broken 
 in the middle ; the styloid processes have disappeared ; on 
 the right temple we see an elliptical opening forty-eight mil- 
 limetres by twenty, probably caused by the blow of some 
 instrument which caused death. The forehead is low and 
 retreating, as in all American skulls ; the glabella is promi- 
 nent ; the supra-orbital ridges are very prominent ; and the 
 occiput is almost vertical. The external occipital protuber- 
 ance is wide, smooth, and not prominent ; the plane of the 
 foramen magnum carried forward includes a horizontal line 
 joining the two orbits. The cheek-bones are prominent, 
 and project in front. The orbits are quadrangular, and the 
 lateral walls of the skull are vertical. The mastoid pro- 
 cesses are small, and almost completely united. On the 
 upper jaw-bone we see fourteen alveoli more or less frac- 
 tured, and the second molar tooth is worn away." ! 
 
 We must also remark that the capacity of the cranium 
 (1388 cubic centimetres), although small, is greater than the 
 average of the skulls of the Mound Builders, and that the 
 cephalic index (69.72) is of a pronounced dolichocephalic 
 type. 3 The wearing away of the incisors, of which we have 
 already had occasion to speak, attracted the attention of 
 Lund. He looked upon this characteristic as peculiar to the 
 man of Sumidouro, and thought that it ought to separate 
 him from the various human races, except perhaps from the 
 ancient Egyptians, among whom the same peculiarity is met 
 with. To De Quatrefages, on the contrary, this peculiarity, 
 
 1 Besides the account given of this Congress, may be consulted the " Me- 
 raoires de la Soc. d' Hist, et de Geog. du Bresil." 
 
 * A skull, the general form of which is very much the same, has been found 
 at Rock Bl"ff, on the borders of Illinois. Schmidt : " Zur Urgeschichte Nord 
 Amerika," Archiv fur Anthropologie, vol. V., p. 241. 
 
 3 Lacerda and Peixotto affirm that the ancient races of Brazil were dolicho- 
 cephalic. The same peculiarity is of frequent occurrence in the skulls picked 
 up in the plains of the Argentine Republic, and Senor Moreno, in his turn, as- 
 serts the same to be true with regard to those from the paraderos of Patagonia. 
 
480 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 noted amongst all the fossil European races, establishes an 
 unexpected relationship between the primitive inhabitants 
 of the Old and the New World. " It is curious," he adds, 
 " to see so striking an artificial characteristic, and which can 
 only result from a common mode of mastication, occurring 
 amongst paleontological peoples and then disappearing en- 
 tirely amongst the living races of the two continents." 
 
 But the danger of too hasty generalization is here exhib- 
 ited in a striking manner, for this feature is common not 
 only to most crania of the northern Indians of North 
 America, but exhibited almost without exception among the 
 Eskimo and Hyperborean people now living in North 
 America and northeastern Asia. 
 
 Quatrefages also affirmed that the shape of the head found 
 in the crania of Lagoa Santa is met with on the shores of 
 both oceans, and as far as the heart of the Peruvian Cordil- 
 lera. It is also seen in two modern Aymara skulls, and in 
 some heads examined by Wiener. We may reasonably con- 
 clude that the race of which the head found by Lund is a 
 type 1 contributed a share, at present undetermined, in the 
 constitution of the Brazilian and Andeo-Peruvian races. 
 The present peoples of America, like those of Europe, are 
 the issue of the intermixture of several races. The crossings 
 are true modifications of fundamental types. The men of 
 the primitive races have resisted these modifications ; they 
 have not yet completely disappeared, and in spite of varia- 
 tions from one extreme to the other, an attentive study fre- 
 quently enables us to recognize a predominant type. 1 
 
 The exploration of the shell-heaps, which are very nume- 
 rous on the coasts of Oregon and California, have led to 
 interesting results. 3 In many places excavations have yield- 
 ed the mortars and pestles so characteristic of the ancient 
 
 1 Quatrefages attaches importance to the fact that in the Lagoa Santa skull 
 the vertical diameter exceeds the maximum transverse diameter. This double 
 character also recurs among living men. 
 
 " De Quatrefages and Hamy : "Crania Ethnica." Foster: "Prehistoric 
 Races of the U. S.," Chicago, 1873. 
 
 3 P. Schumacher "Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, vol. II., p. 203. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 481 
 
 inhabitants of the country, pieces of pottery, little steatite 
 vases, pipes, daggers, knives, stone arrow-points, carvings of 
 hard stone, and bone or shell implements. In one of these 
 shell-heaps, in the midst of rubbish of all sorts, were picked 
 up thirty skulls, in a pretty good state of preservation, and 
 two or three nearly complete skeletons. 
 
 The Island of Santa Catalina contains a steatite quarry, 
 the importance of which is attested by the number of vases, 
 pots, and plates in every stage of fabrication. In the quarry 
 lay fifty skulls, which had belonged to these ancient work- 
 men. Twenty-nine were in a state to be measured; the 
 capacity of one of them was very great, amounting to 1680 
 c.c.; but this was an isolated case ; the average is low, being 
 only 1326 c.c. for the male skulls and 1279 c.c. for the female 
 skulls. 
 
 The skulls taken from the shell-heaps of Florida, which latter 
 consist chiefly of fresh-water shells, give a somewhat higher 
 average (1375 c.c.). They are of remarkable thickness, reach- 
 ing nearly half an inch, and one of these skulls weighs no 
 less than 995 grammes, a weight rarely reached by fossil 
 skulls. 1 
 
 Rare as are still the bones, especially the skulls, of the 
 Mound Builders which have been carefully examined, either 
 from the point of view of their structure, or that of the 
 deposit in which they were discovered, we are already able 
 to establish certain general characteristics, such as the small 
 height and capacity of the skull, the obliquity of the zygo- 
 matic arch, flattening of the tibia, and perforation of the 
 humerus. These characteristics are met with in most skele- 
 tons of the so-called Mound Builders, and they may even 
 help us to distinguish between their bones and those of the 
 more modern Indians, who often appropriate for their own 
 dead the tombs of those who preceded them. 
 
 In saying that these are the general characteristics of the 
 more ancient bones found in the mounds, we do not pretend 
 
 '"Report, Peabody Museum," 1871, p. 13. Foster: " Preh. Races," p- 
 159- 
 
482 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 to deny the existence of numerous exceptions. Nowhere, 
 either in the Old or New World, do we find exactly similar 
 forms, or absolutely typical racial characteristics. Exces- 
 sive variety is the general law, which still remains unex- 
 plained. One of the most ancient skulls which can be 
 attributed to the mound period was discovered in the county 
 of New Madrid, Missouri, under a mound which contained 
 numerous human remains. This skull lay at a depth of 
 about thirty feet and from the mound rose venerable trees, 
 the offspring of a yet more ancient forest, for their roots 
 clasped the old trunks of their predecessors. Since the 
 erection of this mound, the Mississippi had accumulated 
 alluvial deposits to the height of six feet. Near by was 
 picked up, under identical conditions, the tooth of a masto- 
 don. Every thing points to the conclusion that the original 
 owner of this tooth was the contemporary of the man with 
 whom chance had associated him in a common tomb. If a 
 single proof is not enough to justify a belief in the extreme 
 antiquity of this skull, it would seem that the total of the 
 proofs we give will enable us to assert it with something of 
 confidence. We still hesitate, however ; for not only is it 
 small and oval, differing little from modern skulls, but Swal- 
 low, in giving an account of these facts to the American 
 Association for the Advancement of Science ' added a 
 description of an excavation under his own supervision in a 
 neighboring mound, which he claims to be of the same peri- 
 od. Several bodies had been deposited in this sepulchre, 
 the bones were decomposed, and only a few little heaps of 
 gray dust remained, last relics of man. On the other hand 
 were picked up numerous fragments of pottery, and vases 
 ornamented with drawings representing heads, busts, some- 
 times the entire bodies of men and women. These figures 
 are of an elevated type, too little in harmony with the 
 antiquity claimed for the mound. 
 
 In other places we come to opposite conclusions. In 1872 
 Foster* called attention to the resemblance of certain skulls 
 
 1 "Report, Am. Assoc.," Portland, 1873, p. 403. 
 '"Report, Am. Assoc.," Dubuque, Iowa, 1872. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 483 
 
 found near Chicago, at Merom, Indiana, and at Dubuque, 
 Iowa. This resemblance also exists between the weapons, 
 pottery, and ornaments, as well as in the earthworks, and 
 justifies us in deciding on the identity of the population of 
 these regions. The bones present the characteristics we are 
 in the habit of looking upon as belonging to inferior races. 
 Thus the examination of a skull found at Dubuque, that of 
 another of from Dunleith mound, Illinois (fig. 208, D], with 
 the study of numerous cranial fragments found at Merom, 1 
 and at Chicago, show the well-known characteristics of the 
 Neanderthal* skull (fig. 208, C), one of the lowest of those 
 which excavations have yielded in Europe. 
 
 These are not exceptional facts ; the skull found at 
 Stimpson's mound (fig. 208, B] reminds us of that of Bor- 
 
 A 
 
 FlG. 208. .-/ , European skull. B, Stimpson's mound skull. C\ The Neander- 
 thal skull. D, Dunleith mound skull. E, Skull of Chimpanzee. 
 
 reby, the degraded type of which is celebrated ; those from 
 Kennicott mound are also characterized by a very low fore- 
 head. The skull of an infant, 3 as far as can be determined, 
 for it is very incomplete, is still stranger, for it resembles, 
 more than any other known skull, those of the anthropoid 
 apes. 
 
 1 It is only fair to add that other skulls, found near Merom, are of a superior 
 type ; but they were taken from stone graves, the walls of which are formed of 
 very thin slabs of stone, covered in with flat stones. It is probable that these 
 sepulchres are those of a later period. 
 
 J " Les Premiers Hommes et les Temps pre'historiques," vol. I., p. 149, 
 * This skull was kept in the collections of the Academy of Sciences at Chicago. 
 It was destroyed in the great fire of 1871. 
 
484 PRE-H/STOKJC AMERICA. 
 
 The same facts are established in Missouri. Two crania 
 were taken from a cegular sepulchre, under a mound that 
 had not been disturbed. The forehead in these crania is 
 low, the head flat (fig. 209), whilst other skulls found beneath 
 the same mound are not of this type. The explorers at first 
 made the mistake of attributing the former to a secondary 
 burial ' ; but careful examination proved that all the bones 
 dated from the same period. Similar vases had been placed 
 in similar positions with each body, and the mound had 
 been erected after the burial of all the bodies, that these ex- 
 cavations were to bring to light. 
 
 A skull obtained from a mound in Dakota 2 has also a very 
 retreating forehead, orbits nearly as prominent as those of 
 
 FIG. 209. Fragment of a skull from Missouri. 
 
 the long-armed ape, and a pronounced prognathism ; the 
 jaw is massive, and in contrast with these inferior character- 
 istics the nose is aquiline and well formed. Skulls of an 
 analogous type have been found in certain sepulchres of 
 Chihuahua, where the bodies were not stretched out hori- 
 zontally, but seated in a slightly stooping posture. The 
 most ancient skulls of Ohio have also this retreating forehead, 
 and Dr. Lapham mentions two skulls, preserved in the Mil- 
 waukee Museum, with low forehead and prominent brows. 
 The doctor looks upon these as typical characteristics of the 
 
 1 Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 106. 
 
 1 A perpendicular line traced from the lower jaw to the level of the top of the 
 skull would pass about two inches from the forehead. Short : "North Ameri- 
 cans of Antiquity," pp. 128, 107. This skull was discovered by General H. 
 W. Thomas. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 48 5 
 
 ancient races of Wisconsin, characteristics subsequently 
 modified either by crossing with a superior race or perhaps 
 by the progress of the primitive race itself. 
 
 The prominence of the brows is no less exaggerated 
 in two skulls, one from a mound in the Mississippi Valley, 1 
 the other from a tumulus in Tennessee. 2 The teeth of the 
 latter are worn and several of them show traces of decay. 
 The head is in every case depressed on the right side, probably 
 from the pressure of the superincumbent earth after burial. 
 
 We have already spoken of the mounds erected in the 
 region of the Great Lakes, and we have said that they were 
 the work of a people that had covered the valleys of the 
 Ohio and Mississippi with earthworks. 8 We may mention 
 the great mound of the Red River, in which were found the 
 fragments of a skull in a bad state of preservation, remind- 
 ing us, in its massive proportions, of that of Neanderthal; 
 and a circular mound near the Detroit River, which latter 
 yielded eleven skeletons, and besides them sepulchral vases, 
 hatchets, arrow-points, scissors, stone drills, pipes, and shell 
 ornaments. The skulls are mostly in bad condition. One 
 from Circular mound has a cranial index of 74.1, one from 
 Western mound of 76.7, and another from Fort Wayne 
 of 77.3. Objects were also obtained made of copper which 
 doubtless came from Lake Superior, a needle several inches 
 long, and a collar made of seeds, threaded on a cord manu- 
 factured out of the fibres of bark. Did all these objects 
 form part of the furniture of the tomb ? We are justified 
 in doubting it, for the cinders of a hearth were also dis- 
 covered, and we may presume that the habitation of the liv- 
 ing had succeeded the last abode of the dead. This habita- 
 tion must have been very ancient, for the present inhabitants 
 of the country remember to have seen the mound covered 
 with venerable trees, which have now disappeared. 
 
 1 American Antiquarian, July, 1879, 
 
 a Jones: "Explorations of Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee," "Smith. 
 Cont.," vol. XXII. 
 
 "Gillman: "The Ancient Men of the Great Lakes," Am. Ass., Detroit, 
 1875. "Cong, des Am.," Luxembourg, 1877, p. 65. 
 
486 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 One of the skulls found in these last excavations and 
 deposited in the Peabody Museum presents important peculi- 
 arities. It is singularly low and long, and although adult, 
 for the sagittal suture is united, its capacity scarcely amounts 
 to fifty-six cubic inches, or nine hundred and seventeen 
 cubic centimetres. According to Morton's tables the mean 
 capacity of an Indian skull is eighty-four cubic inches, and 
 the minimum capacity observed by that eminent anthro- 
 pologist was sixty-nine cubic inches. The difference is 
 decided, and this skull if normal is certainly one of the 
 smallest known. Another peculiarity is no less important : 
 
 FIG. 210. Skull from a mound in 
 Tennessee. 
 
 FIG. 211. Skull from a mound in 
 Missouri. 
 
 the distance between the temporal crests on either side 
 of the frontal bone nearly always varies between three and 
 four inches. The minimum known at the present day is 
 two inches, and yet in the Detroit skull it is not more than 
 three fourths of an inch. This is doubtless a very pronounced 
 Simian character, such as is met with in the chimpanzee, 
 for example. Professor Wyman, who carefully examined 
 this skull, asserts that it has not been subjected to any 
 artificial deformation. Here then we have a curious fact ; 
 but it impossible to come to any serious conclusion from a 
 case of such extreme variation, a variation which is 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 487 
 
 probably individual, for it is not met with in any of the 
 other skulls from the same source. 1 
 
 Though most of the skulls which can be attributed with 
 any certainty to the so-called Mound Builders are short or 
 brachycephalic, there are numerous exceptions ; and often 
 beneath the same mound have been found skulls which 
 appear to date from the same period, yet which present dif- 
 ferent forms ; numerous excavations have established similar 
 facts in the Old World, which naturally lessens the impor- 
 tance that one is disposed to attribute to mere form. 
 
 A few examples will better elucidate the questions. 
 Putnam 2 mentions two skulls, one brachycephalic and the 
 other dolichocephalic, lying in the same tomb. Of eight 
 skulls from the great Red River mound, three only are 
 brachycephalic. On the other hand, of four found on 
 Chambers' Island, Wisconsin, three are decidedly brachy- 
 cephalic. Ten skulls have been found under the sepulchral 
 mound at Fort Wayne, of which one is long, or dolicho- 
 cephalic, while the others are medium, or orthocephalic, or 
 even brachycephalic, with a cephalic index varying from 
 seventy-seven to eighty-two in those that it has been possi- 
 ble to measure. The forehead is retreating, the eyebrows 
 are prominent, and the bone is of average thickness. These 
 characteristics are met with in all the skulls, although in this 
 case the interment appears to date from different periods. 
 In Michigan, the skulls found under the mounds are dolicho- 
 cephalic, and the tibiae platycnemic. 1 
 
 Dr. Farquharson 4 has examined twenty-five skulls ob- 
 tained from different mounds ; the average cephalic index 
 was 75.8, or in other words the form is slightly dolicho- 
 cephalic. Carr examined sixty-seven skulls from the stone 
 graves of Tennessee, of which nineteen are brachycephalic, 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 187*3, p. 12. " Report, Am. Assoc.," Buffalo, 
 1876. 
 * " Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, vol. II., p. 316. 
 
 3 Hubbard : " Am. Ant.," March, 1880. 
 
 4 " Observations on the Crania from the Stone Graves in Tennessee." " Re- 
 port, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 361. 
 
488 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 five only dolichocephalic, eighteen orthocephalic, and fifteen 
 artificially depressed. 1 Jones, after the examination of 
 twenty-one skulls, also found in the stone graves of Tennes- 
 see, obtained a somewhat different result. He found no 
 dolichocephalic skull, but five were orthocephalic, eight 
 brachycephalic, and eight artificially deformed (fig. 210). 
 
 In Missouri two categories of skulls have been authenti- 
 cated, differing as much from each other as do those, for in- 
 stance, of the Caucasian and the Negro races. 8 The skele- 
 tons are in the same position. Vases, weapons, and imple- 
 ments of the same kind have been placed alike near both, 
 and it is difficult to suppose that they do not belong to the 
 same race, or that they do not date from the same period. 
 
 Individual variations are considerable. The skull of a 
 child from Atacama is mentioned, in which the cephalic 
 index is only 66 ; and another, found under a mound of 
 Alabama, in which it reaches in. 8. Except, perhaps, in 
 such extreme cases, 3 the same facts can be authenticated in 
 Europe during pre-historic times, and have been perpetuated 
 to our own day. Must we look upon this as the result of a 
 very ancient admixture of races, as examples of atavism, or can 
 it be that the mode of life and differences of the occupation, 
 prolonged during centuries, have exercised such influence ? 
 Whataver may be the cause of these modifications, it is cer- 
 tain that they exist, and we must not fail to recognize that, 
 in taking the shape of the skull as characteristic of a race, 
 we obtain results as unsatisfactory in. the New as in the Old 
 World. 
 
 We are far from accepting the theory of Morton 4 who 
 constantly proclaimed a unity of physical type amongst all 
 the inhabitants of the two Americas, with the sole exception 
 
 1 " Recent Explorations of Mounds near Davenport, Iowa." " Report, Am. 
 Assoc.," Detroit, 1875. 
 
 * Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races." 
 
 3 " In no part of the world," said Retzius, " does cranial morphology present 
 differences more marked or extremes more exaggerated." " Ethnol. Schriften," 
 
 pp. 37, 9 8 - 
 
 4 ' ' Crania Americana ; or, A Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Abo- 
 riginal Nations of North and South America," Philadelphia, 1839. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 489 
 
 of the Eskimo. 1 To him the long skulls of the Peruvians do 
 not differ from the round ones of the Indians, except on 
 account of the pressure to which they were subjected during 
 infancy, and the result of which would have been to modify 
 the primitive form. He adds that amongst all those races 
 the same mode of burial was adopted, and that from Canada 
 to Patagonia the dead were placed in a sitting posture. We 
 have already shown how little foundation there is for this 
 latter assertion. The first, though it had been accepted by 
 such savants as Agassiz, Nott, Meigs, and many others, is 
 also now generally abandoned, and important discoveries 
 are every day rendering its further defence impossible. 
 
 The form of the skull can have, however, but a very gen- 
 eralized value. We find among the Eskimo such extremes 
 of length as 199 and 165 mm., with respective breadths of 
 137 and 144 mm., which is sufficient to show that great cau- 
 tion must be used in generalizing from such characters. 
 
 This negative conclusion is the only one that can as yet 
 be formulated. The differences of opinion between the 
 most eminent anthropologists add to the intrinsic difficul- 
 ties which are already so great. Let us take, for example, 
 the Scioto skull discovered under a mound near Chillicothe. 
 This skull, remarkable for its vertical and transverse devel- 
 opment, and for the truncated form of the hinder portion, 
 was long looked upon as presenting the most complete type 
 of the Mound crania.' Messrs. De Quatrefages and Hamy, 3 
 in their magnificent work tell us that " the orbits are wide 
 and quadrangular, the nose is prominent, the upper jaws 
 are deep, heavy, massive, and slightly projecting." Dr. 
 Wilson describes the skull as decidedly brachycephalic ; ac- 
 cording to him the forehead is wide and lofty, and the de- 
 
 1 " Quatrefages and Hamy, in the " Crania Ethnica," place the Eskimo in 
 the Mongolian group because they appear to them, as to Morton, more nearly 
 related to the yellow type than to the American. The Eskimo are generally 
 dolichocephalic. 
 
 * Squier and Davis : " Anc. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley," " Smith. Cont." 
 vol. I., pi. XLVII. and XLVIII. 
 
 3 " Crania Ethnica," p. 464. 
 
490 
 
 PRE-HIS TORIC A M ERIC A . 
 
 pression noticed is artificial. 1 Morton gives a different de- 
 scription, and Dr. Foster looks upon the Scioto skull as 
 merely that of a modern Indian. These contradictions il- 
 lustrate the inconvenience of too absolute theories in the 
 present state of science. An attempt is made to assign all 
 the skulls of one race to a single type, without taking into 
 consideration the vast territory inhabited by that race, or 
 the biological conditions under which it lived. 
 
 What would appear to be proved is the relatively small 
 cranial capacity of the Mound skulls, which is also a charac- 
 ter found among the various living races of America, espe- 
 cially the Greenland Eskimo. Some measurements will 
 enable us to judge better of this. 
 
 Source. No. of Skulls. 
 
 Maximum 
 
 Minimum. 
 
 Average. 
 
 
 c. c. 
 
 c. c. 
 
 c. c. 
 
 Skulls examined by Farquharson . 15 
 
 1362 
 
 936 
 
 1188 
 
 Skulls examined by Jones * 
 
 21 
 
 1667 
 
 1 100 
 
 1318 
 
 Tennessee Stone Graves 
 
 30 
 
 1825 
 
 1084 
 
 I34i 
 
 Kentucky ..... 
 
 24 
 
 1540 
 
 1130 
 
 1313 
 
 Albany ...... 
 
 9 
 
 1540 
 
 1130 
 
 IIOO 
 
 Rock River ..... 
 
 II 
 
 1540 
 
 1130 
 
 1205 
 
 Henry County .... 
 
 4 
 
 1540 
 
 1130 
 
 1205 
 
 Santa-Catalina Id. California 
 
 18 Male 
 1 8 Female 
 
 1680 
 1451 
 
 1282 
 1098 
 
 1326 
 1279 
 
 Santa-Cruz, California 3 . . j 
 
 40 Male 
 32 Female 
 
 1625 
 1528 
 
 "44 
 1048 
 
 1365 
 1219 
 
 These averages are low, and they appear still lower if we 
 compare them with those obtained from other races. We 
 borrow most of the following table from a very interesting 
 work by Dr. Topinard. published in the Revue d'Anthropo- 
 logie, July, 1882 : 
 
 1 "Preh. Man," vol. II., p. 127. Carr has also published in the reports of 
 the Peabody Museum an excellent article on this question : " Observations on 
 the Crania from the Stone Graves of Tennessee." 
 
 * The average for the skulls of men is 1459, for those of women, 1250. 
 Jones, " Smiths. Cont.," vol. XXII. 
 
 * According to Morton, the skulls of the Indian of to-day give on an average 
 84 cubic inches or 1359 c. c., and not 1376, as stated by Dr. Wyman. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 
 
 491 
 
 No. of Skulls 
 Examined. 
 
 Races. 
 
 Capacity. 
 
 
 WHITE RACES. 
 
 
 25 
 
 Solutre ; paleolithic period .... 
 
 1525 c. c. 
 
 19 
 
 Cave of the Dead Man ; neolithic period . 
 
 1543 " 
 
 44 
 
 Baye Cave . 
 
 1483 ' 
 
 38 
 
 Gallic . . . . . . . 
 
 1552 ' 
 
 65 
 
 Merovingians of Chelles . . . . . 
 
 1465 ' 
 
 125 
 
 Parisians of the I2th century . . . ... 
 
 1449 ' 
 
 49 
 
 Dutch of Zaandam . . . . ... 
 
 1463 
 
 88 
 
 Auvergnats of St. Nectaire .... 
 
 I52Q 
 
 63 
 
 Bas Bretons ....... 
 
 1479 
 
 57 
 
 Basques of St. Jean de Luz .... 
 
 1556 
 
 60 
 
 Basques of Zaraus, Guipuzcoa .... 
 
 1499 
 
 27 
 
 Savoyards ........ 
 
 1494 
 
 ii 
 
 Croats, Slav, race 
 
 1433 
 
 28 
 
 Corsicans of Avapesa, i8th century . 
 
 1475 
 
 19 
 
 Arabs 
 
 1447 
 
 
 YELLOW RACES. 
 
 
 28 
 
 Chinese 
 
 1486 c c. 
 
 2Q 
 
 
 1473 ' 
 
 *v 
 
 42 
 
 Polynesians ....... 
 
 1449 ' 
 
 II 
 
 Laplanders ....... 
 
 1585 
 
 IOI 
 
 Eskimo of Greenland (Hayes) .... 
 
 1250 
 
 42 
 
 Eskimo of N. W. America (Dall) 
 
 1401 
 
 25 
 
 Aleutians (Dall) 
 
 1409 
 
 
 BLACK RACES. 
 
 
 21 
 
 Hottentots .. . . . 
 
 1317 c. c. 
 
 21 
 
 Nubians ........ 
 
 1329 " 
 
 21 
 
 Australians ....... 
 
 1337 ' 
 
 21 
 
 Western Negroes ...... 
 
 1423 ' 
 
 21 
 
 New Caledonians 
 
 1462 " 
 
 We must descend very low in the human scale to find 
 races presenting so small a cranial capacity as the American 
 Indians of the Mound period. 
 
 A few exceptional skulls have, however, been found ; one 
 of those from a stone grave of Tennessee measures no less 
 than 1825 c. c. 1 ; it is equal, in consequence, to the skull of 
 Cuvier. Another skull is mentioned, also picked up in a 
 stone grave, which reaches 1667 c. c. Dr. Jones possesses 
 one in his collection of 1688 c. c.; the Army Medical Museum 
 at Washington another, discovered in Illinois, of 1785 c. c.; 
 and Schoolcraft speaks of one of 1704 c. c. Compared with 
 the Albany skull, which only measured 936 c. c., 1 these dif- 
 
 1 L. Carr : " Obs. on the Crania from the Stone Graves in Tennessee." 
 " Peabody Museum Reports," vol. II., p. 383. 
 
 'Wyman mentions a skull of capacity amounting only to 530 c. c., but it is 
 that of a microcephalic person. 
 
49 2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 fercnccs are considerable. Skulls of extreme size are a grave 
 argument against the value of averages ; it is evident that 
 they vitiate all the results that can be obtained. 
 
 If it remain proved that the development of the cranial 
 volume amongst the various races of the New World is in- 
 ferior to that of other human races, whether ancient or 
 modern, except perhaps those who are accounted the most 
 inferior of the globe, this may be an anatomical characteristic 
 rather than a psychological one, and we must not assume 
 from it that the people were of inferior intelligence. Other 
 causes doubtless influence the intellectual worth ; no one 
 would dream of comparing the ancient Peruvians, the most 
 advanced people of South America, with the wandering, 
 savage, and blood-thirsty Indians of North America ; yet the 
 average capacity of the skulls of the latter is 1359 c. c., 
 whilst that of the Peruvians is only 1250 c. c. In glancing 
 through the preceding table, it is easy to see that the 
 cranial capacity is not at all in harmony with the value of 
 the race, and if from an individual point of view the skulls 
 of Cuvier and Byron are of large capacity, numbers of re- 
 markable and even of eminent men might be mentioned 
 whose cranial capacity was, on the contrary, very small. The 
 skull of Dante scarcely exceeds the average, whilst three 
 skulls of unknown men, taken from the potter's field of Paris, 
 reach the maximum. The superiority of a people, therefore, 
 does not depend either on cranial capacity or on the charac- 
 teristics of certain bones. It is evident that other factors 
 enter into the question, of which we are as yet pretty 
 ignorant. 
 
 The flattened form of the shin bone or tibia, called platyc- 
 nemia, is frequently met with among the various American 
 races (figs. 212, 213); it is often more pronounced than in 
 the gorilla or chimpanzee. 1 Wyman looks upon this as a 
 distinctive characteristic, for under certain mounds it is met 
 with in nearly all the tibia discovered, and those in which it 
 
 1 With these two monkeys, the mean relation between the two diameters is 67. 
 Gillman: "Rep. Am. Assoc.," Detroit, 1875, P- 3*6. 
 
777 K MEN OF AMERICA. 493 
 
 does not occur generally belong to men buried later than 
 the erection of the tumulus. But, although these platycnemic 
 or sabre-blade-like tibiae are common among the big 
 monkeys, it does not follow that we ought to look upon it 
 as characteristic of inferiority. While reserving this point, 
 it is certain that among the bones collected from the mounds 
 of Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan, and Indiana, as also from 
 the Florida shell-heaps, the number of those in which platyc- 
 nemia occurs may be estimated at thirty per cent. It is no 
 less marked in a certain number of tibiae discovered in the 
 recesses of the celebrated Mammoth Cave. 1 
 
 Platycnemia is yet more apparent, and the sharp edge 
 more pronounced, in the tibiae taken from the great mound 
 of the Red River, and in those of Fort Wayne. 1 The tumuli 
 
 K 
 
 FIG. 212. Section of an ordinary tibia FIG. 213. Section of a platycnemic 
 at the level of the nutrient foramen. tibia. 
 
 of the St. Clair River, those erected near Lake Huron, with 
 a very ancient one situated on Chambers' Island, Wisconsin, 
 furnish analogous examples.' Beneath all these mounds, 
 human remains are associated with stone implements, bones 
 of birds and fish, rude pottery and necklaces of teeth or little 
 bones, all objects attesting a poorly developed culture. 
 
 On some of these tibiae the relation of the transverse 
 diameter to the antero-posterior is only 0.48 ; even this .is 
 not the extreme limit, for in certain bones from a mound 
 
 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1875, p. 49. 
 * Gillman : " Rep., Am. Assoc.," Buffalo, 1876. 
 
 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1873. Short: "North Americans of An- 
 tiquity," p. 30. 
 
494 PRE-H1STOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 near the Detroit River it is as low exceptionally so, we 
 must add as 0.43, and even 0.40. These figures are re- 
 markable, and they will be better understood if we compare 
 them with those given by Broca for the old man of Cro- 
 Magnon ; the relation between the two diameters, he tells 
 us, is 0.68, and yet this is one of the extremest cases of pla- 
 tycnemia observed in France. 
 
 Platycnemia, as well as the compression of the femora, 
 which is generally considerable, are perhaps the results of 
 the truly immense efforts that the ancient inhabitants of 
 -America, being without domestic animals, were condemned 
 to make. They had to follow game on foot, and overtake it 
 by speed ; they had to carry heavy loads across mountains 
 and marshes ; so that it need not cause much wonder if their 
 physical conformation was affected by such a mode of life. 
 Some anatomists look upon these anomalies as the result of 
 greater liberty in the movement of the foot and a more con- 
 stant habit of prehension. Perhaps we ought also to take 
 into account the kind of food eaten by these populations, 
 which in course of time might modify the bony parts. It 
 is, however, certainly an indication of a low type of physical 
 structure. 
 
 We have said that the flattening of the tibia was much 
 more rare in Europe than in America. It is easy, however, 
 to give examples of it on the former continent ; Busk ' was 
 one of the first to notice it in bones from Gibraltar ; Carter 
 Blake, 8 in others found in Wiltshire, which date from neo- 
 lithic times ; Dr. Prunieres, 3 in numerous skeletons from the 
 department of Lozere, also dating from the same period ; 
 Baron von Duben, 4 on those from Scandinavia ; Bertrand," 
 on a tibia found at Clichy ; Broca," on another from Sainte- 
 
 1 " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1869, p. 148. 
 
 a " Journal of the Anth. Soc. of London," 1865, p. 146. 
 
 * " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1878, p. 214. 
 
 4 "The tibia is always compressed, resembling a sabre "(" Cong. preh. de 
 Copenhague," 1869, p. 243). " Mat.," 1869, p. 544. 
 
 * " Bull. Soc. Anth.," February, 1869. 
 ' " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1866, p. 642. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 495 
 
 Suzanne (Sarthe). Side by side with these specimens the 
 tibiae found by Dupont in the caves of Belgium, 1 with a great 
 number of others dating, to all appearance, from paleolithic 
 times, are triangular, resembling those of modern Europeans. 
 The characteristics, then, which have been proposed in order 
 to differentiate races have existed from the most remote an- 
 tiquity, and among the most varied peoples ; this is without 
 doubt an important fact. 
 
 The perforation of the humerus has also been considered 
 a racial characteristic by Dr. Topinard, although we are un- 
 able to say what race or races, if any, bequeathed this peculi- 
 arity to their descendants. It is very frequently noticed in 
 bones from the mounds, and often occurs upon half of those 
 picked up. Going toward the south this proportion dimin- 
 ishes, until it is no more than thirty-one per cent. The Pea- 
 body Museum contains no less than eighty humeri found 
 beneath the mounds of the west, or under those of Florida, 
 of which twenty-five are perforated ; it also contains fifty- 
 two humeri belonging to white races, in only two of which 
 this typical characteristic occurs." Side by side with these 
 facts, of ten skeletons found at Fort Wayne but one has per- 
 foration of the olecranon fossa. 
 
 It is difficult, then, to establish a general law ; it has been 
 said that this perforation 8 is a characteristic of physical in- 
 feriority, which assertion is founded on the fact that it is of 
 more frequent occurrence among the anthropoid apes 4 than 
 among men, among negroes 6 or Indians than among whites; 
 
 1 Hamy tells us, however, that a tibia from the Goyet cave is platycnemic. 
 " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1873, p. 427. 
 
 '"Report, Peabody Museum," 1872, p. .28. "Cong, des Am.," Luxem- 
 bourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 69. 
 
 * Which may have been the result of the length of the bone hindering the play 
 of the articulation. 
 
 4 Wyman has authenticated the perforation of the olecranon fossa on but one 
 of the humeri of the two male gorillas that he was able to examine. He did 
 not find it on a female chimpanzee, nor on a male ourang-outang, both belong- 
 ing to the British Museum ; the Anthropological Society of Paris owns a fine 
 gorilla skeleton, which has one of the humeri perforated. 
 
 6 Of fourteen negro humeri preserved in the Jardin des Plantes seven are 
 perforated. 
 
49 6 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 that its tendency is to diminish among the European races, 
 and that it is more often met with in bones from ancient 
 cemeteries than amongst our contemporaries. 1 This conclu- 
 sion appears to us still somewhat premature, in the present 
 state of anthropology. 
 
 It has also been said that the people of the Mound period 
 had very long arms ; this again is called a simian character- 
 istic. Gillman has, in fact, recently shown that there is 
 nothing in it, at least with regard to the men buried under 
 the mound of Fort Wayne, and that estimating the average 
 stature at 1,000 we have the length of the arm as follows : 
 In modern Indians . . . 353 
 Whites . . . . ... 348 
 
 Mound skeletons . . . 343 
 
 The arms of the last-named, therefore, far from being 
 longer, were shorter than those of some modern Indians, or 
 white men. But it is probable that the material is still too 
 scanty for any positive conclusions. 
 
 The Mound people appear to have varied as much in 
 stature as our modern races. A skeleton is mentioned, 
 found in a stone grave of Tennessee, which measured more 
 than seven feet ' ; another, discovered at Fort Wayne, only 
 reached five feet eleven inches, Two skeletons, one from 
 Utah, the other from Michigan, 3 exceeded six feet. The 
 latter, enclosed in a regular winding-sheet of clay, was re- 
 markable for its retreating forehead and prominence of its 
 brows. Beside it lay hewn stones and fragments of pottery, 
 ornamented with human figures. These are probably very 
 exceptional cases ; Professor Putnam, who has excavated 
 with extreme care numerous sepulchres in Tennessee, is con- 
 vinced that the men who rested there were of ordinary 
 
 1 We may remark that amongst prehistoric French races the perforated 
 humerus has been thought to belong to another race than that which shows the 
 platycnemic tibia and the femur with the sharp edge. " Rev. d' Anth.," 1878, 
 
 P- 514. 
 
 'Jones : " Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains in Tennessee," " Smith. 
 Cont.," vol. XXII. 
 
 ' Am. Antiquarian, July, 1879. 
 
THE ME A' OF AMERICA. 497 
 
 stature, and although he often met with tombs made of slabs 
 measuring from seven to eight feet long, he always noticed 
 a pretty wide space between the head or the feet of the 
 dead and the walls of the tomb. 1 We may add that all the 
 skeletons found in the numerous stone cists of Madison 
 county, Illinois, were of small stature, and that the bones 
 were remarkably slender.' 
 
 We have already described the numerous canons met with 
 in New Mexico, Colorado, or Arizona, and the ruins which 
 rise wherever the rock has provided space, however limited 
 that space may be. We possess few bones of these inde- 
 fatigable builders, which is easily explained by the difficul- 
 ties attending excavations in a country still uninhabited, and 
 where explorers are constantly exposed to danger from the 
 Apaches. 
 
 One skull is, however, mentioned from the Chaco Cafton, 
 New Mexico. Among the ancient alluvial deposits bearing 
 witness to arroyos now dried up, fragments of walls and 
 foundations testify to the presence of a formerly numerous 
 population, anterior perhaps to the arrival of the Cliff Dwell- 
 ers. It was in the midst of these deposits, at a depth of 
 about fourteen feet, on a heap of broken pottery, that this 
 skull (fig. 2 14) was found. Probably it had been brought 
 down by water, for researches have not resulted in the dis- 
 covery of any other human bones.' From what period 
 must we date it ? With what race must we connect it ? It 
 is at present impossible to decide ; we only know that it be- 
 longed to a young woman, whose last molar teeth had not 
 yet appeared. 
 
 It is asymmetrical, the forehead is low, the orbits are oval 
 and slightly prominent. The most curious characteristic is 
 the flatness of the back part of the head. This flatness is 
 no less marked in the parietal bones, and especially in the 
 
 '"Report, Peabody Museum,' vol. II., p. 306. 
 
 *Bandelier: " Report, Am. Assoc.," St. Louis, 1876. Aehler : "Stone 
 Cist near Highland, Madison county, Illinois," 
 
 'Dr. W. Hoffman: " Report on the Chaco Cranium"; U. S. Geol. and 
 Geog. Survey, Washington, 1878. 
 
PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 left parietal. The skull was so completely filled with agglu- 
 tinated sand that it had to be broken to get the exact meas- 
 urements, so that its capacity has remained undetermined. 
 
 To Dr. Bessels ' we owe a complete description of several 
 skulls recently discovered, which maybe attributed either to 
 the Cliff Dwellers or to the inhabitants of the pueblos. 
 
 FIG. 214 Skull found in the Chaco Cafion, and attributed to the Cliff Dweller. 
 
 Two of them came from an ancient burial-place near 
 Abiquico, (New Mexico). Each tomb was surrounded by 
 piles of stones, forming now a rectangle, now a circle, and 
 near to each body care had been taken to place numerous 
 fragments of pottery. The first of these skulls presents a 
 very marked flattening of the left parietal, and a less appar- 
 ent flattening of the right parietal. The orbits are promi- 
 nent, the forehead is not distinguished by any special charac- 
 teristic, the lower jaws are massive, and the teeth, especially 
 the incisors, slightly worn. The capacity is 1325 c.c. The 
 second skull is that of a woman of about seventeen years old ; 
 the last molar teeth are beginning to appear, the progna- 
 thous character is very much marked. The same flattening 
 
 1 " The human remains found among the ancient ruins of S. W. Colorado 
 and New Mexico," p. 47. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 499 
 
 is noticed as on the skull just described, only in that of the 
 man it is more pronounced on the left side, and in that of 
 the woman on the right. The capacity of the latter is very 
 small, and does not exceed 1020 c.c. 
 
 A short time afterward Dr. Bessels assisted at the recep- 
 tion for the museum of the Smithsonian Institution of 
 numerous objects collected from the mounds of Tennessee. 1 
 Amongst these objects were two skulls (figs. 210,21 1) which 
 struck him by their resemblance to those of New Mexico. 
 This resemblance is such, he tells us, that it is impossible to 
 distinguish them from each other. 
 
 We will not dwell upon the other skulls of the Cliff 
 Dwellers ; to do so would be little more than a monotonous 
 repetition. In all we note this characteristic depression, now 
 more marked on the right, now on the left ; it is certainly 
 artificial, and we find it already very marked in the skull of 
 a child of ten years old, whose jaw also shows a sensible 
 tendency to prognathism." In the skull of a young woman 
 occurs a deformation similar to that of the Peruvians. The 
 orbits are but little prominent, the forehead is retreating, 
 and the teeth are very irregularly set. 
 
 De Quatrefages and Hamy, in discussing these discoveries, 
 add that there can be no doubt as to the ethnic identity of 
 the Mound Builders and Cliff Dwellers ; which conclusion 
 would extend to the builders of the Casas-Grandes of the 
 Rio Gila, if all presented the same characteristics as the sub- 
 ject exhumed by Pinart, from a tumulus near the Casa- 
 Grande of Montezuma.' 
 
 The top alone of this skull, which now belongs to the 
 Paris museum, is preserved. Its cranial index is 90.36. One 
 of the skulls sent from Teul presents the same cephalic 
 peculiarities, except that it is more flattened from before 
 backward, and that the index exceeds 97. 
 
 But although the ethnic characteristics of the Mound 
 
 1 " Congres des Americanistes," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 147. 
 1 This head is preserved in the Osteological Collection of the U. S. Army. 
 Its capacity is 1213 c.c. 
 * "Crania Ethnica,"p. 464, 
 
500 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 crania are met with even in distant regions, the type is no 
 longer general, according to the learned authors of the 
 Crania Ethnica, in the countries they peopled, and they 
 assert that among the number of skulls of modern Indians 
 preserved in various collections, we find but a few resembling 
 those of which we have just spoken. What most clearly 
 would result from these facts, were they well authenticated, 
 is the rapidity with which anatomical modifications of a sec- 
 ondary order might proceed ; hence their small importance 
 in fixing with any certainty the characteristics of a race, and 
 above all for following successfully the development of these 
 characteristics through generations. 
 
 The analogies between the Mound crania and those of the 
 ancient inhabitants of Anahuac are no less striking than 
 those between the former and the Cliff Dwellers. 1 Four 
 skulls from the tombs of Mexico, Otumba, and Tacuba, re- 
 produce the type of the inhabitants of North America ; 
 others found at Santiago-Tlatelolcoli admit of still less 
 doubt. 8 In all we see the flattening of the occiput, the re- 
 treating forehead, and massive bones, so common among the 
 Mound crania, especially amongst those from the banks of 
 the Ohio and Mississippi. 
 
 Amongst the Mayas this flatness, doubtless due to arti- 
 ficial pressure, is still more apparent. This is proved by the 
 bas-reliefs of Palenque (figs. 123, 124). The pointed heads, 
 the retreating foreheads presenting so strange an appearance, 
 evidently bear witness to the type most admired among 
 them. Recent explorers think they have found this type 
 amongst the inferior tribes who dwell in the mountains; but 
 it has disappeared, or never existed, among the people who 
 erected the monuments of Yucatan and Honduras. The 
 sculptures of Chichen-Itza present a type absolutely different 
 from the preceding (fig. 135). "The skull is large," says 
 Charnay, " flattened at the top, 3 though the forehead does 
 
 1 Morton : " Crania Americana," pi. XIX., XXXI. Quatrefages and Hamy : 
 " Crania Ethnica," p. 466. 
 a These skulls belong to the Paris museum. 
 *" Cites et Ruines Americaines," p. 341. 
 
THE MEN 01- AMERICA. 5OI 
 
 not bulge out, but forms with the aquiline nose an almost 
 straight line." 
 
 The artificial deformation of skulls amongst the Peruvians 
 renders their study very difficult ; this deformation is the re- 
 sult of mechanical pressure on the skulls of new-born in- 
 fants ; the direction, amount, and duration of this pressure, 
 all alike differing according to circumstances. Gosse, in his 
 dissertations on the races of Peru, says that three kinds 
 of deformation were practised : the occipital, amongst the 
 Chinchas, and, perhaps, in the family of the Incas ; the 
 elongated symmetrical deformation, amongst the Aymaras ; 
 while the cuneiform obtained in several provinces, such 
 as that of Chiquito. This last gave to the head a long slope 
 from the front to the back. These deformations were still 
 practised in 1545, and at that time the council of Lima 
 solemnly forbade them under the names of Caito, Opalta, 
 and Orna. In five hundred skulls from Peru, the property 
 of the Paris museum, scarcely sixty are exempt from this 
 deformation. 1 It occurs sometimes from the front toward 
 the back, as is the case in nearly all the skulls taken from 
 the huacas of Ancon,* while sometimes it is circular, giving 
 to the head a conical form. This was the custom, the 
 fashion if we like to call it so, sought after by the Peruvians 
 who inhabited the neighborhood of LakeTiticaca ; this char- 
 acteristic occurring in nearly all the skulls from the Chulpas.* 
 
 As we have already had occasion to remark the cranial 
 capacity was very small. In eleven skulls from Ancon, 
 which showed no trace of deformation, the average in only 
 1129 c. c., the maximum is but 1260 c. c., and the minimum 
 sinks to 1040 c. c. 
 
 In other parts of Peru, as can be seen by the table we 
 give, the results obtained are no higher, and at Chimu 
 the average sinks even lower. 4 
 
 1 De Quatrefages and Hamy : " Crania Ethnica," p. 474. 
 ""Report, Peabody Museum," 1874, p. 8. 
 '" Report, Peabody Museum," 1876, p. 10. 
 
 * Squier : " Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas," d 
 edition, London, 1878, p. 582. 
 
5O2 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Source. 
 
 No. of 
 Skulls. 
 
 Maximum 
 
 Minimum. 
 
 Average. 
 
 
 
 c. c. ! c. c. 
 
 c. c. 
 
 Chulpas near Lake Titicaca 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 1445 "55 
 
 1292 
 
 Casma 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 1455 1050 
 
 1254 
 
 Amacavilca 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 1320 1055 
 
 1176 
 
 Chimu 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 1460 
 
 1065 
 
 1090 
 
 Pachacamac 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1365 
 
 1035 
 
 "95 
 
 Cajamarquilla 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 1410 
 
 "55 
 
 1268 
 
 Truxillo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 1325 
 
 "35 
 
 1286 
 
 Total 
 
 56 
 
 1460 
 
 1035 
 
 1212 
 
 Morton and Meigs give as the average capacity of 
 Peruvian skulls measured by them 1230 c. c. ; we have 
 above tabulated it at 1212 c. c. These averages, which do 
 not differ sensibly from those of Squier, are very low, 
 and do not occur again among any known race. The Peru- 
 vian maxima scarcely equal the minima of other people. 
 This is a fact, of which we have no satisfactory explana- 
 tion. 
 
 Rivero and Tschudi ' recognize three different races in 
 Peru : the Chinchas, occupying the Pacific coast from 10 to 
 14 S. Lat. a ; the Aymaras, established on the lofty table- 
 lands of Bolivia ; and lastly the Huancas, so named after 
 the most powerful tribe amongst them, who lived between 
 the Cordillera and the Andes from 9 to 14 S. Lat. The 
 authors of the Antiguedades Peruanas do not admit artificial 
 deformation except amongst the Chinchas, and pretend that 
 amongst the other races it is congenital, and that it exists 
 amongst children who have not been subjected to any kind 
 of pressure, and even amongst certain foetuses. This iso- 
 lated fact would not be a proof, for deformations made on 
 the body at the time of the birth, as Gosse observes, may to 
 a certain extent be transmitted hereditarily. They become 
 permanent when both sexes have been subjected to the 
 same deformations to a similar extent, during many succes- 
 
 1 " Antiguedades Peruanas." 
 
 1 The Chimus, of whom we have spoken in a previous chapter, should be 
 classed amongst the Chinchas. Meyer (" Reise urn die Erde ; Beitrage zur 
 Zoologie," Bonn, 1834) speaks of them as the primitive inhabitants of Peru. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 
 
 503 
 
 sive generations, on condition that the means employed 
 have profoundly modified alike nutrition and the structure 
 of the bones. 1 
 
 To the difficulties resulting from deformation which was 
 practised by different processes throughout the -land of the 
 Incas, we have to add, as everywhere else, the incessant 
 mixtures of race and type which are met with amongst the 
 dead. At the Castillo of the great Chimu, Squier saw 
 together regularly-shaped heads, attributed to the Qquich- 
 uas, square-shaped skulls, obtained by posterior pressure, 
 and elongated skulls (fig. 2 1 5), the cephalic characteristics of 
 which resemble those 
 of Palenque and Co- 
 pan, as they are made 
 known to us by sculp- 
 tures. 
 
 Dr. Wilson 3 admits 
 only two distinct 
 types. The Peruvians 
 of the time of the 
 Incas were brachyce- 
 phalic and of small 
 stature ; they had a 
 retreating but very 
 lofty forehead and a 
 flattened occiput ; their bones were light and delicate, their 
 fingers long and tapering. These men must have formed an 
 aristocratic class, incapable of fatiguing work. The more 
 ancient Peruvians were on the contrary, dolichocephalic ; 
 their bones are heavy and massive, the attachments robust ; 
 every thing with them indicates great muscular force. Mor- 
 ton confounds these two types, and is of opinion that the 
 second sprung from the first, and was obtained by the arti- 
 ficial compression to which infants were subjected.* But 
 
 1 Gosse, /. c., p. 162, says that the fact appears to be corroborated by modern 
 experiments on domestic animals. 
 
 * " Prehistoric Man," vol. II., chap. XX., pp. 145, 158, 165, 
 ' Nott and Gliddon, ' ' Types of Mankind." 
 
 FIG. 215. Deformed skull, said to be Aymara, 
 from the " Crania Ethnica." 
 
5<H PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA, 
 
 Wilson' justly replies to him that skulls artificially deformed 
 are always asymmetrical, and that the dolichocephalic skulls 
 on the contrary, which are looked upon as normal, are 
 always completely regular. They have also peculiar charac- 
 teristics: they are, for instance, longer and narrower; the 
 upper jaw is extremely prominent; and the teeth, especially 
 the incisors, are oblique. 
 
 We do not contest any of these assertions ; we content 
 ourselves with repeating what we have already said several 
 times, that the existence of different types would not neces- 
 sarily imply that of different races ; the causes of the origin 
 or of the modifications of types being as yet absolutely un- 
 known.* 
 
 The custom of mummifying human bodies has enabled us 
 to make many useful observations. The mummy discovered 
 at Chacota, for instance, an illustration of which we repro- 
 duce (fig. 179), gives as the length of the humerus nine 
 inches, that of the hand five and one half inches, that of the 
 middle finger three and one half inches, that of the femur 
 thirteen inches, of the tibia twelve inches, of the foot seven 
 and a half inches ; whilst the width of the hand is only two 
 inches, and of the foot two and one half inches. 8 
 
 In accordance with custom, locks of hair were placed by 
 friends in the tomb as a last testimony of affection. This 
 hair is as fine as that of the Anglo-Saxon races, and the 
 faded color generally varies from dark brown to chestnut. 
 It was probably originally black. It was the custom to wear 
 
 1 " Few who have had extensive opportunities of minutely examining and 
 comparing normal and artificially deformed crania will, I think, be prepared to 
 dispute the fact that the latter are rarely, if ever, symmetrical." Wilson, /. c. 
 
 a Virchow notes the frequent occurrence in Peruvian skulls of an anomaly, 
 known under the name of the Inca bone, or the interparietal bone, and asserts 
 its recurrence amongst the Indo-Chinese and the Malays of the Philippine 
 Isles. According to him, then, it would be characteristic of these races ; but 
 Anoutchine, in a recent work (" Rev. d'Anthr.," 1881), has shown that it is also 
 met with amongst the negroes. It is doubtless common to individuals among 
 all the less developed races. See Gosse, /. c. , p. 165, etc. 
 
 s J. Blake : " Notes on a Collection from the Ancient Cemetery of the Bay 
 of Chocota," "Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, p. 384. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 505 
 
 the hair long, to plait it, and let the plaits hang down be- 
 hind the head. Women added false hair to their plaits, and 
 after the lapse of centuries the opening of the tomb has be- 
 trayed their vanity. It is only just to add that it was not 
 only the woman who thus called art to the aid of nature. 
 The dried head of a man of advanced age, for his hair is 
 dashed with gray (fig. 216), is covered with little false plaits 
 arranged on the forehead. This head, which comes from an 
 ancient Peruvian cemetery, presents notable differences from 
 others recently discovered. The forehead is lofty, the nose 
 prominent, the cheek-bones are high, the incisors are set 
 vertically, and the ears are disproportionately distended. 
 The hair is now brown, and the plaits hang in tresses, as did 
 those of the French hussars of the end of last century. 1 
 
 If we advance further southward, we shall meet with dis- 
 tinctly dolichocephalic races, resembling probably the ancient 
 races among whom this form has been noticed. The man 
 discovered by Ameghino in the pampas was of small stature, 
 and his skull was dolichocephalic. It was the same with 
 those found by Moreno in the paraderos of Patagonia ; both 
 recall the type of the Greenland Eskimo of the present 
 time. 
 
 The fossil skull of Lagoa Santa was also dolichocephalic, 
 and the learned authors of the " Crania Ethnica " mention 
 several other similar skulls discovered in Brazil. The ce- 
 phalic index of one of them, which was in a condition for 
 measurement, is 70. 
 
 The Botocudos, who are very distinct from the tribes 
 surrounding them, and who doubtless represent the most 
 ancient races of the country, are also dolicocephalic. 
 
 They are no less remarkable for the height of the skull, 
 the prominence of the brows, and the lowness and rectangu- 
 lar form of the orbits. In all these respects they present, as 
 do the Patagonians, numerous analogies with the Eskimo, 1 
 
 1 Blake, /. c., p. 301. Morton : " Crania Americana," pi. I. 
 * " La raza esquimal diffiere de la masa de la poblacion americana, y con- 
 serva una tal homogenejdad que presenta el aspecto de una razo primitiva aperau 
 
506 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 who inhabit the other extremity of the American continent. 
 May we not suppose that both were dispersed and then re- 
 treated, little by little, before conquering races, to whom 
 they could offer but an inefficacious resistance? This was 
 what happened in Europe at the time of the invasion of va- 
 rious Asiatic races ; the Basques and Finns were driven to 
 the extreme limits of Europe to arid and uncultivated re- 
 gions ; and although it is impossible to establish with any 
 
 degree of certainty, 
 we are justified in 
 supposing that simi- 
 lar events may have 
 taken place in Ameri- 
 ca, and that these 
 ancient races, driven 
 from the regions they 
 first inhabited, were 
 the contemporaries 
 of the European 
 paleolithic people. 
 Every thing points 
 to the conclusion that 
 the most ancient in- 
 habitants of America 
 were little inferior in 
 antiquity to the earl- 
 ier inhabitants of the 
 Old World. 
 
 The Spaniards brought small-pox with them, which caused 
 great havoc amongst the natives, whole tribes having been 
 
 FIG. 216. Head of a mummy from an ancient 
 Peruvian sepulchre. 
 
 modificada, por unos que otros cruzamientos. Lo que sobre todo distingue al 
 esquimal de todos los demas pueblos de la tierra es su cabeza sumamente 
 larga," Ameghino : " La Antiguedad del Hombre en el Plata," vol. I., p. 163. 
 " The Eskimo and the Botocudos are short, the cephalic index (73) is the same ; 
 both have prominent cheeks ; small, oblique eyes ; coarse, straight, black hair ; 
 large, distended ears ; a flat, round face ; and a tendency to obesity. Even 
 the botoque, the strange ornament to which the Botocudos owe their name, 
 is met with among the western Eskimo." Bordier, Topinard : "Bull. Soc. 
 Anthr.," 1881. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 5O/ 
 
 destroyed by the scourge. They in their turn are supposed 
 by some to have received from the Americans a no less 
 cruel malady, syphilitic affections destined to blight, if not 
 to destroy, the very source of life. 1 This last assertion has 
 been hotly contested ; it is alleged that syphilis existed in 
 America before the i6th century ; did it also exist in 
 Europe ? This is a point which has remained very obscure. 
 The Chinese historians relate that, 2637 B. C, the Emperor 
 Hoang-ty described syphilitic affections in both sexes. But 
 this fact, which would prove the existence of syphilis before 
 the discovery of America, is very much disputed. Great 
 stress has been laid on the Spanish word Buba, which is 
 translated by syphilitic affection ; but it remains to be as- 
 certained whether this word then had the same signification 
 which we give to it now." One thing which is not doubtful 
 is that the bones bearing the supposed marks of this malady 
 have been found in the stone graves of Tennesee, 3 and that 
 traces of a similar kind occurred on other bones 4 from the 
 mounds of Iowa, Rock River, Illinois, and those near Nash- 
 ville. 6 It is not only in the Central United States that we 
 see these indelible traces, and we have already mentioned a 
 skull, from the paraderos of Patagonia, on which Broca no- 
 ticed traces of inflammatory action which he did not hesi- 
 tate to attribute to a syphilitic affection. 
 
 If this diagnosis be correct, however, it may be taken as 
 bearing either way ; that is, the interment may have been 
 subsequent to the invasion of the whites or the disease pre- 
 ceded their establishment in America. 
 
 1 Clavigero: "Storia Antica del Messico," vol. I., p. 117 ; vol. IV., p. 303. 
 Herrera : " Hist. Gen., "dec. II., book CXXXI. Gomera : " Conq. Mex.," 
 fo. 148. Sahagun : "Hist. Gen. de las Cosas de Nueva Espana,"vol. II., 
 book VII., p. 246. Oviedo : " Hist, de las Indias." 
 
 ' Troisieme, "Cong, des Americanistes," Madrid, 1881 
 
 ' "Several skeletons in these mounds bore unmistakable marks of the ravages 
 of syphilis," Jones : " Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee," " Smith. Cont., " vol. 
 XXII. 
 
 4 Farquharson : " Proc. Am. Assoc.," Detroit (Michigan), 1875. 
 
 6 Putnam : " Arch. Expl. in Tennessee ; " " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. 
 II., p. 305. 
 
5O8 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 It is questionable whether these lesions are due to the 
 alleged pathological cause ; " Several pathologists who have 
 examined these bones unite in stating that they do not prove 
 the existence of syphilis, as other diseases not syphilis 
 might have such effects " ' ; but other facts tend to confirm 
 the hypothesis. Accounts which have come down to us lead 
 us to believe that the Mayas were acquainted with venereal 
 affections, and that to cure them they used the bark of a 
 tree called Guayacan, native to Nicaragua. 2 It is alleged 
 that in the ancient languages of America there are words 
 relating to these maladies, the origin of which the natives, 
 by a grotesque fancy, ascribed to one of their gods, Nan- 
 huatl, who is said to have been the first to infect the human 
 race with this disease. 3 At all events, there is no a priori 
 reason why such a disease may not have been common to 
 the whole human race from a very early period. Other 
 diseases of the bones, though of less frequent occurrence, 
 were not unknown. Dr. Farquharson describes a curious 
 affection of the cervical vertebrae, which appears to have 
 been cured. Recovery from this lesion was rare and very 
 tedious, requiring a long time and constant care. These 
 people then lived in societies, and did not abandon those 
 belonging to them who were afflicted by sore infirmities. 
 Several skulls of Tennessee bear traces of ancient inflamma- 
 tions 4 ; old anchyloses have also been noted on long bones. 
 Dall collected at a pre-historic village site in the Aleutian 
 Islands, a skeleton of which the entire vertebral column 
 was anchylosed as a sequel to some severe affection ; 
 so that the individual must have lived for years in a 
 crouching posture. This skeleton is now in the Army Medi- 
 cal Museum at Washington. 
 
 Neither were hurts resulting from traumatic causes rare. 
 
 1 Putnam : " Rep., Peabody Museum, *' vol. II., p. 316. 
 
 a Dr. Bruhl (Cincinnati Lancetand Clinic, May 29, 1880) speaks of the syphi- 
 litic remedies, known to the inhabitants of Central America and Peru. 
 
 * Brasseur : " Hist, des Nations civilisees," vol. I., p. 181. 
 
 4 L. Carr: "Observations on the Crania from the Stone Graves of Tennes- 
 see ; " "Peabody Museum Report," vol. II., p. 381. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 509 
 
 The Peabody Museum contains two Peruvian skulls collected 
 by Agassiz, which deserve to be mentioned. One of them 
 has a fracture five centimetres long by three broad and 
 eighty-four millimetres deep. The work of repair is very 
 visible, and four fragments of the bony structure have again 
 become united. The other skull, which belonged to an 
 adult, has a long fracture on the forehead, eleven centimetres 
 long by five broad, which was doubtless produced by a 
 violent blow from a club. Here, too, the five or six frag- 
 ments that can still be made out had united. In both cases 
 the wounded had probably lived for many years after their 
 injury ; they had triumphed by the strength of their consti- 
 tution, for there are no traces of any surgical operation, such 
 as the removal of pieces of bone. 1 
 
 It was not always thus. On another skull, also belonging 
 to the remarkable collection of the Peabody Museum, a per- 
 foration can be seen, probably attempted as a mode of heal- 
 ing an inflammation of the cranium, the trace of which is 
 very apparent, and Squier speaks" of a Peruvian skull (fig. 
 217), found in a cemetery of the Yucay valley, in which a 
 piece seems to have been taken out by means of four regular 
 incisions. The opening measures one hundred and seventy- 
 seven by one hundred and forty-six millimetres. Here, too, 
 the bones show traces of an ancient inflammation, and some 
 eminent surgeons, such as N61aton and Broca, have not hesi- 
 tated to attribute this perforation to an operation attempted 
 during life. 
 
 We must not confound these operations with the post- 
 humous trepannings* of frequent occurrence in some parts 
 of America. 
 
 We know nothing certain about the reason for these tre- 
 pannings ; whether they were a mark of honor, a religious 
 
 1 Wyman : " Report, Peabody Museum," 1874, p. 10. 
 
 * Squier : " Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas," 
 p. 457, appendix A. 
 
 * Am. Assoc., Detroit, 1875. H. Gillman : " Add. Facts Concerning 
 Artificial Perforation of the Cranium in Ancient Mounds in Michigan," Am. 
 Assoc., Nashville, 1887. 
 
5io 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 rite, or were made to let out the brain, or for hanging up the 
 head, or were intended to allow the soul to revisit the body 
 that it had inhabited. All these hypotheses are possible ; 
 none of them can be proved. Excavations in a mound of 
 an irregular conical form, from ten to fifteen feet high, have 
 brought to light five skeletons buried standing ; a sixth lay 
 in the centre of the tumulus, evidently occupying the place 
 of honor ; all alike had a similar perforation in the skull. 
 
 Trepanned skulls have 
 also been taken from a 
 mound near Sable River, 
 and from the large tu- 
 mulus of the Red River, 
 of which we have al- 
 ready spoken ; but the 
 perforations are gener- 
 ally smaller than those 
 of the skulls from other 
 mounds. The trepan- 
 nings of Michigan, 
 about which we have 
 more complete details, 
 were always made after 
 death, and only on 
 adults of the male sex ' ; 
 they are from one to two 
 centimetres in diameter, and usually occur at the sagittal su- 
 ture, 5 generally at the point of junction with the coronal suture. 
 They were obtained by means of an instrument, probably a 
 pointed stone drill, which was turned round rapidly. We 
 have noticed 8 these perforations in Europe, especially in 
 France, where they have been so completely discussed by 
 
 1 Broca : " Rev. d' Anth.," 1876, p. 435. 
 
 5 The sagittal suture unites the two parietal bones, and stretches from before 
 backward along the median line. The coronal suture extends from one tem- 
 poral bone to the other, above the crown, uniting the frontal to the parietal 
 bone. 
 
 * " Les Premiers Hommes," vol. II., p. 218 et sty. 
 
 FIG. 217. Trepanned Peruvian skull. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 
 
 Broca. 1 They were often surgical, and made upon the skull 
 of the living (fig. 218). Every age and both sexes were sub- 
 ject to them. Their position, form, and length varied 
 according to the wound or the nature of the malady they 
 were supposed to relieve. Comparison between them and 
 American trepannings is, therefore, difficult. A circular 
 cranial perforation has also been mentioned in an American 
 cranium, in every respect similar to those found in France 
 by Dr. Prunieres, but the discovery is thus far unique. 
 
 We must recur again to curious artificial deformation of 
 the skull, of frequent occurrence in the north and south of 
 the American conti- 
 nent. At the time of 
 the Spanish conquest 
 the greater n u m - 
 ber of the natives, 
 especially those in- 
 habiting the coasts of 
 the Pacific, retained 
 their ancient habit of 
 compressing the head 
 of their infants at the 
 time of their birth." 
 The most recent of 
 these deformations, 
 most fashionable, if we may use such a word, was the flat- 
 tening of the forehead, so that the head is widened at the 
 side, and looks as though displaced backward, the angle of 
 inclination varying. There were yet others ; at the first 
 Congres des Americanist es, held at Nancy, in 1875, were 
 shown successively an Aymara skull from Bolivia, lengthened 
 
 1 " Memoire lu en 1876 au Congres de Buda-Pest," " Rev. d' Anth.," 1877. 
 
 "Wilson: "Prehistoric Man," vol. II., chap. XXI. Jones: "Ant. of 
 Tennessee," "Smith. Cont.," 1876. Catlin : "North American Indians," vol. 
 II., p. 40. Bancroft: "The Native Races," vol. I., II., and IV. Dr. 
 Moreno (" Rev. d'Anth.," 1874,) has obtained in the cemeteries of Patagonia 
 forty-five skulls of ancient Tehuelches, eighteen presenting a very marked de- 
 formation. 
 
 FIG. 218. Perforated skull from the de Baye 
 collection. 
 
$12 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 to a point ; another of the same origin of cylindrical form ; 
 an Indian skull flattened from before backward so as to 
 give the forehead huge dimensions ; and, lastly, Patagonian 
 skulls, one of which had been subjected to such pressure in 
 the middle of the head that it presented a two-lobed appear- 
 ance. 
 
 This custom dates from the most ancient races who peo- 
 pled the country ; nearly all the Mound skulls thus far 
 discovered have the occiput flattened ; but with them the 
 deformation is, perhaps, of less exaggerated character than 
 amongst the American races. Many of these deformations 
 may be attributed to posthumous causes, such as the pres- 
 sure of the earth upon the bones softened by moisture. 
 Under one of the mounds of Utah, in the centre of that 
 country which a few years ago was an absolutely unknown 
 desert, a skull has been obtained showing a considerable 
 artificial depression. 1 This deformation was practised among 
 all the Maya races ; the representations of the human form 
 found in Chiapas, Honduras, and Yucatan, leave no doubt 
 on this point (figs. 123, 124, 126, 128). The skulls taken by 
 Dr. Flint from the caves of Nicaragua have also a very 
 marked frontal depression. 1 The origin of this custom is 
 unknown ; but it is stated to have been introduced among 
 men by the gods themselves. The idols all have curiously 
 flattened heads. Recent excavations near Vera Cruz have 
 brought to light some earthenware statuettes, in which this 
 same deformation occurs, and which, according to the custom 
 among Mexicans of the ruling class, have a pointed beard on 
 the chin. 
 
 The means employed varied greatly. Sometimes the de- 
 formations were obtained by means of planks fastened on 
 the head of the child. Our illustration (fig. 219) shows the 
 martyrdom inflicted on these little creatures, which lasted 
 eight or ten months, but apparently did not inflict much 
 pain. We may reasonably suppose, from the shape of the 
 
 1 " Report, Peabody Museum," 1871, vol. II., p. 199. 
 1 "Report, Peabody Museum," 1880, vol. II., p. 716. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 
 
 5'3 
 
 mother's head, that she wished to make that of her child 
 like it. 
 
 In other cases bandages were wound round the head 
 of the new-born. The Choctaws ' used a little bag of sand, 
 on which the head rested constantly. 3 The Mosquitos 
 placed a plank on the skull of their infants as soon as they 
 were a month old, and they increased the pressure until the 
 result obtained was satisfactory. In Yucatan, four or five 
 days after its birth 
 the child was laid 
 upon its stomach, and 
 the head placed be- 
 tween two planks ; 
 one pressed the fore- 
 head and the other 
 the occiput ; and this 
 position, which ap- 
 pears so cruel, was 
 maintained without 
 change for a consid- 
 erable time. 3 
 
 These grotesque 
 customs do not ap- 
 pear to have injured 
 either the health or- 
 the intelligence, nor 
 should they surprise 
 us, for we meet with them on every page of ethnic history. 
 Hippocrates 4 speaks of a macrocephalic tribe living near 
 
 1 Among the Choctaws, as among the Aymaras, cranial deformation was ex- 
 clusively reserved for male infants. 
 1 Adair : " Hist, of the American Indians," p. 284. 
 
 3 Oviedo y Valdes: "Hist. Gen. y Nat. de las India-," Madrid, 1851-4, 
 vol. IV., p. 54. Herrera : " Hist. Gen. de los Hechos de los Castellaiios en 
 las Islas i Tierra Firme del mar Oceano,"dec. III., book IV., chap. VII. ; 
 Dec. X., book X., chap. III., Madrid, 1601. Squier : " Nicaragua," New 
 York, 1860, vol. II., p. 341. Landa : " Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan," 
 Paris, 1864, pp. 114, 1 80, 194. 
 
 4 " De Aeris, Aquis, et Locis." 
 
 FIG. 219. Artificial deformation practised on 
 a child. 
 
5H PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Palus Moeotis among whom the parents, at the birth of a 
 child, endeavored to give an elongated form to the head ; 
 Strabo ' mentions an Asiatic people among whom the fore- 
 head was forced out beyond the line of the chin by arti- 
 ficial means. Blumenbach saw a skull with this depression 
 taken from a tumulus in the Crimea ; another exactly 
 similar was found near Kertch, so that it was a general 
 practice. Such, too, was the custom of the Mongolian 
 Avari, 2 if, as we suppose, we may attribute to them either 
 the skulls of Grafenegg and Atzgerrsdorf near Vienna, or 
 others discovered in various parts pf Germany and Switzer- 
 land, in which the same deformation occurs. A medal 
 struck in honor of Attila, 452 A. D., bears the bust of the 
 " Scourge of God," in which the head is visibly depressed. 
 A skull thus deformed, belonging to a skeleton of very great 
 stature, has been found near the gate of Damascus at Jeru- 
 salem. 3 Dr. Meigs recognized that the form was due to 
 pressure exercised during infancy. This artificial modifica- 
 tion of the head also existed among the Caledonians, Scan- 
 dinavians, 4 and Anglo-Saxons of the most remote ages. 5 It 
 exists in our own day in a great many of the islands of 
 Oceanica. The shape of the head is even a means of recog- 
 nizing the islanders, for the people of different islands have 
 peculiar customs, transmitted from their ancestors and 
 formerly religiously observed. Among the Flatheads it 
 was an aristocratic privilege, and neither slaves nor men 
 of inferior condition were allowed to adopt it for their 
 children. 
 
 But without going so far, we still meet with this cus- 
 
 "' Geographia," book I., chap. XIX. 
 
 " Retzius in noting the constant deformation amongst the Mongols pretends 
 that it was introduced into America by Asiatic emigrants. " Archives des Sci- 
 ence Naturelles," Geneva, 1860. "Smiths. Report," 1859, p. 270. 
 
 s This skull is now part of the collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
 at Philadelphia. " Description of a Deformed Fragmentary Skull in an 
 Ancient Quarry Cave at Jerusalem," "Trans, of Philadelphia Acad. of Nat. 
 Sciences," 1859. 
 
 4 Gosse : ' Essai sur les deformations artificielles du crane," p. 72. 
 
 "Thurman: "Crania Britannica," p. 38, 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA. 5 ! 5 
 
 torn, at the present day in some parts of France, where it is 
 known under the name of deformation toulousaine. It is 
 obtained by pressing the head of the new-born with band- 
 ages. In the department of Deux-Sevres there is a mode of 
 compression different from the deformation toulousaine, and 
 other examples might be given of such local customs. It 
 is curious to find a practice, which at first sight appears 
 so strange, existing amongst the ancient races of Europe, 
 recurring among Asiatics, as well as among the most 
 ancient inhabitants of America, perpetuating itself not only 
 among the Indians, 1 or the wild islanders of Polynesia, but 
 also amongst the most civilized races of Europe. This 
 similarity between the most different races, even in the 
 most grotesque practices, is a fact of deep significance, 
 worthy of the consideration of all who are interested in the 
 study of humanity. 
 
 One question has been raised. Was this depression 
 always voluntary, or was it often the result of a method em- 
 ployed to hold or to fasten the new-born? 2 Garcilasso de 
 la Vega* relates that amongst the Peruvians the child was 
 always laid in a wooden frame, furnished with plaited cords, 
 to which he was fastened in such a manner as to check all 
 his movements ; he was never taken out of this bed, even to 
 give him the breast, which was done regularly three times a 
 day. Was the flattening of the skull the result of this, and 
 involuntary ? This is scarcely probable, and it seems certain 
 that these people thought to add to their beauty by such 
 deformations. 
 
 Others have gone further, and look upon it as a congenital 
 peculiarity. " I am not afraid to assert," said Robertson, at 
 
 1 Hence the name of Flatheads given to certain Indians of Northwest 
 America. Compression was probably once a general custom among many 
 Indians of the northwest, especially those of Vancouver's Island, the Quatsinos 
 and Tsimpsians, where the perfect form appears to be that of the sugar loaf, the 
 Chinooks, Sahaptins, etc. Amongst the Indians of the southern United States 
 we may mention the Choctaws and Catawbas. 
 
 * Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 102 
 
 * " Hist, des Incas, rois de Perou," chap. XII,, Paris, 1744. 
 
P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the Congres des Americaniste's, 1 " that the flattening is the 
 result not of an artificial compression, but of a law of na- 
 ture." This is entirely an error, contradicting alike physi- 
 ological laws and historical facts ; it would scarcely deserve 
 mention, if we were not determined to place before our 
 readers all the hypotheses which have been put in circula- 
 tion, however unfounded they may appear. 
 
 We have now given a summary of the existing informa- 
 tion in regard to the human bones found in America, and 
 which are supposed to date from pre-historic times. What 
 conclusions may we draw from these discoveries? What 
 general laws are we justified in evolving from them ? One 
 primary conclusion naturally presents itself. The American, 
 no matter how remote the antiquity to which he may be as- 
 signed, hardly differs from the men who now inhabit the 
 shores of the Atlantic and Pacific. The fauna and the flora 
 are changed ; climatic and biological conditions have under- 
 gone profound modifications ; man alone if not entirely un- 
 changed has yet remained without serious differences, simi- 
 lar in his bony framework, similar in his physique and in his 
 pathological affections. Everywhere he has had to submit 
 to the stern laws of life, he has gone through the same 
 struggles, and where possible he has been led to similar pro- 
 gress. A second conclusion is no less important. Between 
 the men of the New World and those of the Old there ex- 
 ists no essential physical difference. The unity of the 
 human race stands out as the great law dominating the 
 history of humanity. 
 
 Doubtless, as with the ancient races of Europe, those of 
 America were made up of diverse elements, of different 
 varieties." A primeval dolichocephalic race appears in the 
 first instance to have invaded the vast regions included be- 
 tween the two oceans. The men of this race were con- 
 temporary with the huge pachydermal and edentate ani- 
 mals ; and, as did their contemporaries in Europe, they 
 
 1 " Les Mound Builders," 1877, p. 34. 
 *Bordier : " Bull. Soc. Anth.," January, 1881. 
 
THE MEN OF AMERICA, 5 I/ 
 
 passed through the various phases of the Stone Age. Other 
 races arrived in successive migrations, the first of which 
 doubtless dated from very remote ages, 1 and brought about, 
 amongst the ancient inhabitants of America, modifications, 
 analogous to those produced in Europe by similar migra- 
 tions. 
 
 Doubtless many points still remain obscure and insoluble ; 
 whichever side man turns, it has been said, 8 whether he 
 looks into the past or into the future, whether he scrutinizes 
 the sidereal universe or interrogates the vestiges and muti- 
 lated documents of the history of life on this planet, if he 
 wishes to start from some settled or assured point, if he 
 seeks an immovable foundation, a corner-stone, he will not 
 find it. We readily endorse these words ; man by his un- 
 aided powers will never be able to solve the great questions 
 of our origin and our end, of primary or of final causes. 
 The intelligence of Man, however admirable it may be 
 shown to be by the ceaseless progress of humanity, is limited. 
 The infinite stretches before him ; man is unable to grasp it. 
 
 141 Hence we find Mound skulls with this ancient form, associated with 
 others of more modern type. The discovery of these skulls, with characteristics 
 so much like those of the most ancient of the pre-historic type of Europe, would 
 seem to indicate that if America was peopled by emigration from the Old 
 World, that event must have taken place at a very early time, far back of any 
 of which we have any record." "Letter of Dr. Lapham to Dr. Foster," 
 Conant, I.e., p. 108. 
 
 * J. Soury : " Int. 4 1'Hist. des Protistes dc Haeckel," p. 6. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 
 
 IN the preceding pages ' we have reviewed the existing 
 knowledge of ancient man in America. His temples, fort- 
 resses, dwellings, monuments, agricultural and hydraulic 
 works, his personal characteristics, and even the relics of his 
 dinners have been described in detail. This task being 
 ended the inevitable question presents itself : Who and 
 whence was this primitive man ? Was he original to the soil 
 of the New World? If not, how did he reach it, and what 
 was the cradle of his race ? 
 
 It may be stated at the outset that our knowledge of 
 primitive man in America suffices only to decide that he 
 existed here, in a state of the lowest barbarism and but little 
 elevated above the brutes, at an exceedingly distant epoch. 
 While in this condition he has left his traces over both 
 Americas, and that at a time which was probably contem- 
 poraneous with the existence of the mammoth (elepJias) if 
 not with its perhaps somewhat older relative, the mastodon. 
 
 That this primitive man was not original to America is 
 probable on biological grounds. With those who believe 
 in the spontaneous generation of large, highly organized 
 mammals out of inorganic material, we have no argument. 
 Those who accept the results of science, believing that the 
 present lawful sequence of organic nature is at once an 
 exemplar and epitome of the progress of nature in the past, 
 and that the methods of the Author of nature are best com- 
 prehended by studying them and their results, will better 
 comprehend the weight of the reasoning by which we are 
 
 1 For the present chapter the American editor is chiefly responsible. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 5IQ 
 
 led to decide against the existence of autochthonous man in 
 the New World. 
 
 The naturalist thus far has met with no traces of the 
 higher anthropoid animals in America either recent or 
 fossil. The American monkeys, it is admitted, are of a rela- 
 tively low structural rank. 
 
 On the other hand in various parts of the Old World, 
 especially in Africa and some of the Asiatic islands, anthro- 
 poid animals approximating much more nearly to man in 
 physical structure are well known to exist. The fossil remains 
 of anthropoids of a tolerably advanced type are also more 
 numerous, though these fossils are of such a nature, and the 
 region possesses such climatic features, as to render their 
 preservation at all rather a happy accident than an occur- 
 rence to be confidently anticipated. The insanitary and 
 tropical character of the countries mentioned is also a serious 
 obstacle in the way of geological research and the collection 
 of fossil remains which might be happily preserved in 
 later formations. 
 
 No biologist of standing, we believe, would affirm that the 
 physical structure of primitive man was developed from that 
 of the anthropoid animals now in existence, or now known 
 to have existed. But, other things being equal, it is prob- 
 able that such a physical structure would find more favor- 
 able opportunities for its evolution in a region favorable 
 to the evolution of allied types ; such as the countries re- 
 ferred to are proved to be, not only by the actual occur- 
 rence of such types, but by the climate and eatable products 
 which would serve as sustenance. 
 
 What changes in the area of land and water have taken 
 place since the progenitors of man appeared upon the earth 
 we do not know, and any hypothesis must take this un- 
 certainty into account. But judging from the facts as 
 known to us we are justified in deciding against the prob- 
 ability of an American origin for the human race. 
 
 Excavations in the middens and shell-heaps of all parts of 
 the world indicate that man, at an epoch when his culture 
 
520 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 was of the lowest, had already extended his geographical 
 range over an immense area. It is impossible to fix a date 
 for this extension of the race or to apply any other than 
 an approximate geological chronology to the period of his 
 wanderings and his conflicts with the cave bear, the reindeer, 
 and the mammoth. 
 
 It must also be remembered that the duration of the state 
 of culture we refer to was very unequal in different regions 
 and probably with different races or geographical assem- 
 blages of men. To this day in the remote corners of the 
 earth it still persists and doubtless is not very different from 
 that which characterized the progenitors of the Aryan race 
 before the earliest dawn of civilization anywhere. It is 
 notable that this persistence of savagery goes hand in hand 
 with an inhospitable environment. We find it in the bleak 
 and icy deserts of the north ; in the famine-stricken wilds of 
 Tierra Fuego, where the struggle for mere existence is so 
 bitter that unproductive members of the community are 
 promptly swept away by cannibalism ; and on the arid sands 
 of Australia, where the most extraordinary devices to secure 
 infertility in most of the male members of a band, have been 
 resorted to in the attempt to repress population within 
 limits approximated to the supply of food. 
 
 From this fact we may suppose that among those men 
 gifted with a tendency to progress, such of them as found 
 themselves in a hospitable environment would tend to 
 advance in culture. On the contrary, those who had to 
 struggle for a bare existence and live in a constant state 
 of reaction from their surroundings, would find no time 
 for culture except that directly applicable to their sus- 
 tenance, and would be more likely to spend an occasional 
 breathing-spell in idleness or sensual pleasure than in in- 
 ventive or aesthetic work. For all, in their early stages of 
 culture, long enduring, intense labor was the price of every 
 thing. 
 
 At first lawless, hardly even social, chiefs and leaders, 
 except as heads of families, were unknown. Religious 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. $21 
 
 ideas at this stage could hardly exist ; the family turned 
 to its leader as the herd turns to the sturdiest bull ; a 
 crude and unthinking materialism born of man's relation as 
 a preying animal to the world about him considered as a 
 source of supply, with occasional irrational stampedes, as of 
 wild horses, from sudden alarms begotten of unfamiliar 
 phenomena ; a terror of the darkness, of the swift torrent, of 
 the falling tree or avalanche ; rage, jealousy, fear ; the pair- 
 ing instinct ; gluttony ; these, and such as these, were the 
 lights and shades in the mental radiations of the savage 
 brain. Progress from the real or formalized family to the 
 band or clan, and so upward, would follow ; its phases have 
 been classified by the lamented Morgan and many others. 
 Too often, however, the view of savagery has been sub- 
 jected to a strange refraction in penetrating the haze of a 
 later culture which surrounds the observer. Only in these 
 last days are we come to recognize, even now but dimly, the 
 primitive savage in his lair. As man developed culture he 
 was perhaps more successful, more physically comfortable, 
 but not more happy. It may be said that physical comfort, 
 a full belly, and a warm, well-tanned robe, is the highest 
 happiness of a savage. We think this might have been true 
 for the primitive savage, who was not comfortable, but not 
 for his successor who had begun to think and to dream. A 
 mole is probably happier than a fox, either of them than the 
 primitive man who had begun to question nature. 
 
 The primitive man was a slave to nature, in continual 
 terror before dangers which he did not understand and could 
 not guard against. 1 Nature to him was an appalling mys- 
 tery out of whose bowels any thing might issue. He lived in 
 a haze of fetichism. Not a leaf might flutter, not a rabbit 
 cross the path, no distant thunder roll, or raven croak un- 
 seen, but heralded to him some spirit only too malign. 
 
 Those who have observed in a distant camp or remote 
 village of savages the midnight alarms, the whispered fears, 
 the wild unfounded rumors, the cowering before the most 
 
 1 Prof. W. G. Svunner : " North American Review," June, 1884. 
 
522 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. 
 
 simple physical phenomena if only unfrequent, only those 
 can have a realizing sense of the horrors nature enfolds for 
 the ignorant yet thinking savage. But it is not our purpose 
 to trace the stages of mental culture, a task for which the 
 material is yet imperfect ; though glimmerings of the truth 
 have lately broken through the mists of misconception which 
 have so long prevailed. 
 
 For the purpose of the conservative ethnologist, desiring 
 to give to the public a general view of what is known or 
 surmised with a degree of probability on this difficult topic, 
 it will suffice if we allude to the physical characteristics of 
 the different pathways to the American continent, to the 
 indications of successive waves of migration in America and 
 their lines of march ; and briefly refer, as a matter of curi- 
 osity, to the myths of origin of some American tribes ; and, 
 as a warning to the enthusiast, to some of the preposterous 
 and unscientific hypotheses which men of good literary 
 standing, but without sound anthropological training, have 
 adopted and disseminated. 
 
 The physical characteristics of the American aborigines 
 are generally admitted to point toward affinities with people 
 belonging to the Pacific region, rather than with those bor- 
 dering the opposite coasts of the Atlantic basin. The 
 nomads and fishermen of Siberia are more like hyperboreans 
 than any existing European people, and certain features re- 
 call the Melanesian inhabitants of the Pacific islands rather 
 than the African negro races. 
 
 The approximation of Asia and America at Bering Strait 
 lends probability to this hypothesis on the north, and the 
 prevalent winds and currents together with the distribution 
 of islands, help it on the south. It has been shown ' that 
 the route to America via Bering Strait is feasible (though 
 that so often referred to, via the Aleutian Islands, is not), 
 and in glacial times if the shallow waters near the strait 
 were, as there is some reason to suppose, filled with grounded 
 
 'Contributions to "North American Ethnology," vol. I., Washington, 1877, 
 PP- 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MAN 1 IN AMERICA. $23 
 
 ice, there is no reason why people like the Eskimo of the 
 present day, or even lower in the scale, might not make 
 their way along this temporary bridge and subsist on the 
 marine animals which probably swarmed along its borders. 
 
 On the other hand, a knowledge of navigation no better 
 than that possessed at present by the lowest people of Me- 
 lanesia would have enabled a migration on the line of the 
 thirtieth parallel, south, to reach the coast of South America 
 and, in time, to give it a considerable population. A differ- 
 ent distribution of land and water from that at present ex- 
 isting, is a possible factor in the problem, but of which it is 
 too early in ocean exploration to avail ourselves. 
 
 Squier, Gibbs, and numerous other American ethnologists 
 believed in a migration from the west to South America. 
 A northern migration is almost universally considered to 
 have taken place. Probably the American races entered by 
 both gates. 
 
 Of their spread afterward it is impossible to speak with 
 confidence, except as to the fact that they did spread over 
 both Americas while in a very low stage of culture. This is 
 undeniable. More than this it is likely will never be certain. 
 That the nations of to-day which now populate the western 
 shores of the Pacific and many of its islands were, either in 
 physique or culture, the same as we know them is as little 
 likely as that the original invaders of America had the 
 culture of the Aztecs or the physique of the Apaches. To 
 say then that the Americans are derived from the Chinese, 
 the Japanese, the Malays or the Polynesians, is highly un- 
 scientific and inaccurate. Theoretically it is probable that 
 the language, the physique, the social and religious culture, 
 and the geographical distribution of all these peoples, have 
 undergone radical changes since that early time, and that 
 since their present stages or any approximation to them 
 have been attained, migration to America has not been in 
 progress. 
 
 That successive waves of migration occurred there is no 
 reason to doubt, and that these successive bodies of immi- 
 
524 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 grants differed to some extent in culture and in race is 
 highly probable, but that the distinctively American culture 
 which may be traced from the shell-heap to the mound, 
 from the mound to the pueblo, from the pueblo to the 
 structures of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, irrespec- 
 tive of race, that this is indebted to an equivalent foreign 
 culture for its chief features, is utterly incapable of proof in 
 fact and highly improbable in theory. 
 
 That, irrespective of race as indicated by physical and 
 linguistic characteristics, certain distinctive items of culture 
 have spread over wide geographical areas in America, has 
 lately been sufficiently shown, 1 and it is highly probable that 
 something similar will prove to be true of many more. 
 From the nature of the human mind and the natural direc- 
 tion of its evolution, follow very similar results up to a cer- 
 tain more or less advanced stage in all parts of the world. 
 At that stage, wherever it may differentiate itself in the nor- 
 mal line of progress, begin those features which character- 
 ize a stock or race as opposed to man in general. Color was 
 probably the first feature to become distinctive, other modi- 
 fications of physique in turn responded to the environment, 
 and this process can hardly be said to have ceased even 
 among the most civilized races. It is a normal natural pro- 
 cess, such as might be traced among the brutes. But when 
 man's mental powers had reached a point when he could 
 look to posterity as well as ancestry, when he could crystal- 
 lize his ideas in stone to convey his methods and memory 
 to future generations, then a new category of facts by which 
 he might be classified, arose, and by these is he most truly 
 differentiated. 
 
 The ordinary idea of race is a consensus of facts relating 
 to the two categories, and as a means of classification more 
 or less confusing, although at present the best we have. 
 That a better will be found eventually there is little doubt. 
 
 1 " On masks, labrets, and certain aboriginal customs, with an enquiry into 
 the bearing of their geographical distribution" Third annual report, Bureau 
 of Ethnology, 8 Washington, 1884. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. $2$ 
 
 The origins of language belong to the first category, its 
 final differentiations to the second. By the introduction of 
 writing, different languages have been petrified, so to speak, 
 in various stages more or less mature. 
 
 By the physical category, America gives evidences of 
 many races, not to mention innumerable linguistic stocks; by 
 the mental category a much greater degree of unity is indi- 
 cated, as we think will be evident to those who have fol- 
 lowed the author through the preceding pages. It will be 
 still more plain to those who have kept abreast of the recent 
 wonderful progress in the essentials of American anthro- 
 pology, too recent, too extensive, and still in part too tenta- 
 tive, to be summarized here. 
 
 Attention has been frequently called in the preceding 
 pages to the similar manner in which similar needs were met, 
 similar artistic ideas developed, and similar results attained 
 by people in widely separated parts of the globe. That 
 from these similarities, no special homologies can be drawn, 
 is a fundamental canon of scientific anthropology, from the 
 neglect of which science has suffered much. That these 
 facts testify to the fundamental unity of the human race and 
 to the analogous processes of evolution through which dis- 
 tinct communities have reached a higher plane of culture is 
 generally admitted, but in the absence of connecting links 
 their significance goes no farther. 
 
 That these analogies should be found, not merely in the 
 material products of the man's hands and brain, but also be- 
 tween his conceptions, legends, and myths, is not surprising 
 or unexpected. From many such cases the following instances 
 are selected with the caution that for them we are depend- 
 ent upon writers not always free from mental bias, and who 
 often derived their information from individuals who had 
 been subjected to missionary teaching, and were more or 
 less familiar with the myths and legends of the superior race. 
 Notwithstanding these disadvantages, it will be seen that a 
 general belief, for instance, in a deluge or flood is widely 
 spread among American races, and can hardly be attributed 
 to Christian teaching. 
 
526 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Ixtlilxochitl, the Christian descendant of the ancient 
 rulers of Anahuac, relates that after the dispersion of the 
 human race which succeeded the attempt at building the 
 Tower of Babel (which he had learned from his Catholic in- 
 structors), seven Toltecs reached America, and became the 
 parents of a numerous race. The Qquiches speak of white 
 men who came from the land of the sun. 1 The people of 
 Yucatan believed that their ancestors had come from the 
 East, across a great body of water that God had dried up to 
 let them pass over. 
 
 From the East, too, came Zamna, the disciple and emula- 
 tor of Votan, and Cukulcan, the founder of Chichen-Itza, 
 probably the same person as Quetzacoatl." Both preached 
 celibacy and asceticism to the people of Yucatan, and were 
 claimed to be the initiators of their culture. At their death 
 the grateful people erected temples to them, and adored 
 them as gods.* 
 
 There are also some interesting traditions amongst the In- 
 dians. The Shawnees are said to have claimed that the an- 
 cient inhabitants of Florida were white, and that when they 
 arrived in the country they found there buildings and cus- 
 toms, with a civilization very unlike their own. The Natchez 
 believed that they received their religion and their laws from 
 a man and woman sent by the sun. 4 The Tuscaroras are 
 said to possess a legendary chronology going back nearly 
 three thousand years ; according to them, their fathers were 
 natives of the extreme north, of districts far beyond the 
 Great Lakes; they established themselves upon the St. 
 Lawrence ; a strange people came by sea, and long and 
 bloody wars ensued between them and the new arrivals. It 
 is probable that all these traditions have some foundation in 
 truth. 
 
 1 Brasseur de Bourbourg : "Hist, des nations civilise'es du Mexique et de 
 1'Amerique Centrale," vol. I., pp. 105, 106, 166. 
 
 a Cukulcan and Quetzacoatl both signify the serpent covered with feathers. 
 
 * Landa : " Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan," p. 28. Herrara : "Hist. 
 Gen. de los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano," dec. IV., 
 book IV., chap. II. Cogolludo : " Hist, de Yucatan," p. 178. 
 
 4 Du Pratz: "Hist, of Louisiana," vol. II., p. 175, London, 1703. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 
 
 In South America we also find accounts which attribute 
 the origin of the people, or at least that of their civilization, 
 to strangers. The Peruvians attribute their progress to 
 Manco-Capac and to the beautiful Mama-CEllo, his sister 
 and his wife, who had crossed the sea to their country. 1 In 
 another part of Peru it was believed that three eggs had 
 fallen from the sky ; the first was of gold, the second of 
 silver, the third of copper. From the first sprang the 
 curacas or chiefs, from the second the nobles, and from 'the 
 third the people. 3 Another tradition relates that a white 
 man, wearing a long beard, had taught the inhabitants the 
 art of building houses and sowing seeds, after which he dis- 
 appeared, to live for two thousand years in retreat before re- 
 appearing upon the earth. 
 
 The Guaranis relate that two brothers, Tupi and Guarani, 
 landed on the shores of Brazil after a great flood, with their 
 women and children, and it is from them that sprung 
 the races bearing their names. 8 
 
 Other traditions allude to convulsions of nature, to inun- 
 dations, and profound disturbances, to terrible deluges, 
 in the midst of which mountains and volcanoes suddenly 
 rose up. Some of these legends relate to a universal flood, 
 a myth " spread throughout the New World, from one pole, 
 so to speak, to the other." 
 
 We reproduce as nearly as possible the naive account 
 given by Bishop Landa. 5 " The water " he says " then 
 became swollen, and there was a great inundation, which 
 reached to the top of the heads of the inhabitants ; they were 
 covered with water, and a thick resin came down from 
 
 'Squier: "Peru, Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of 
 the Incas." 
 
 'Avendano : " Serm.," IX., p. 100. Desjardins: " Le Perou avant la con- 
 quete Espagnole," p. 29. 
 
 "Guevara: "Hist, del Paraguay, en la col. Hist. Argentina," vol. I., 
 p. 76. 
 
 4 D'Eichtal : " Eludes sur les origines Bouddhiques," ist part, p. 65. 
 
 * " Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan." Diego de Landa, a Franciscan monk 
 of the house of Calderon, was the second bishop of Merida. 
 
528 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the sky. The face of the earth was darkened, and a black 
 rain began ; rain by day, rain by night, and there was a 
 great noise above their heads. Then were seen men running 
 and pushing each other ; filled with despair, they wanted 
 to climb the trees and the trees flung them far from them ; 
 they wanted to enter the caves and the caves fell in before 
 them." 
 
 The Chimalpopoca Codex ' also gives an account of a del- 
 uge, in which men perished, and were changed into fish. In 
 one day the earth disappeared ; the loftiest mountains were 
 covered with water, and remained beneath the billows for a 
 whole spring. But before this disaster, Titlahuacan, one of 
 the Nahua gods, often called Tezcatlipoca, had called Nata 
 and his wife Nena. " Do not busy yourselves any longer," he 
 said to them, " in making pulque, 3 but in the month Tozotli 
 hew out a large cypress, and when you see the waters rising 
 toward the sky, make it your home." Nata and Nena obeyed 
 these divine orders. They fed upon maize during the time 
 when their boat floated on the water ; at the end of the allot- 
 ted time this boat stood still, and for the first time they saw a 
 few fish. They hastened to seize them and to roast them 
 on a fire, which they made by rubbing two pieces of wood 
 together. But the gods complained of the smoke which 
 reached them, and the irritated Titlahuacan hurried to the 
 earth, and changed the fish into dogs. 
 
 Another Mexican tradition * tells us that Coxcox and his 
 
 1 Bancroft /. c. : vol. III., p. 69. 
 
 1 A fermented drink made with the sap of the aloe, and known in Mexico, 
 where it is still in use, under the name of octli. 
 
 3 We give Clavigero's version, reproduced by Humboldt and Lord Kingsbo- 
 rough ; but according to more recent works it is a mistaken interpretation of 
 the map of Gemalli Carreri (Churchill " Coll. of Voyages," vol. IV.), from which 
 it is borrowed. The painting dedicated to this tradition would represent the 
 departure and migrations of a tribe amongst the lakes of Anahuac. We see a 
 bird perched upon a tree, and at the foot of this tree a crowd of men all looking 
 one way and ready to start on their journey. The name of this bird, Tihuito- 
 chan, and its cry, Tihui, which signifies in Aztec language We must start, are 
 probably the origin of the legend which we relate ; but it is not mentioned by 
 any of the more ancient historians, such as Sahagun, Mendieta, or Ixtlilxochitl. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MAX IN AMERICA. 
 
 wife Xochiquetzal alone escaped the deluge ; they took 
 refuge in the hollow trunk of a cypress, which floated 
 upon the water, and stopped at last on the top of a 
 mountain of Culhuacan. They had many children, but 
 the children were dumb. The great spirit took pity on 
 them and sent them a dove to teach them to speak ; this 
 dove hastened to fulfil its mission ; fifteen of Coxcox's 
 children succeeded in understanding it, and it is from them 
 that the Toltecs, Aztecs, and Acolhuas are descended. We 
 meet with a legend somewhat like this in Michoacan ; only 
 the name of the man preserved from the deluge is different ; 
 he is called Tespi, and the bird that is the harbinger of fine 
 weather is a humming-bird. In Guatemala and California 
 the most ancient traditions of the natives preserve the mem- 
 ory of a great inundation ; and according to the inhabitants 
 of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the world was repeopled by 
 a man and woman rescued from the waters that covered the 
 whole country. 
 
 The Peruvians also have several legends relating to a great 
 deluge. At Quito, it is said that in very remote ages the 
 waters had invaded the land, as a punishment for the crimes 
 of men ; a few of them had been spared, and these had re- 
 tired to a wooden house on the top of Pichincha. At Cuzco 
 the sun interfered, and hid those who were to be saved in 
 the Island of Titicaca. According to a tradition preserved 
 at Pachacamac, the entire country was covered with water 
 some centuries before the time of the Incas ; a few men 
 took refuge in the mountains, and when the water began to 
 go down they let loose some dogs, which came back wet ; a 
 few days later they were sent forth a second time, and came 
 back soiled with mud. At this sign the men knew that the 
 waters had retired : they left their retreat, and their pos- 
 terity peopled the country. 
 
 A still more strange account is that telling how a shep- 
 herd, noticing that the llamas passed the night looking at 
 the stars, questioned one among them as to the cause of his 
 preoccupation. The llama called his attention to the un- 
 
53 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 usual conjunction of six stars, adding that this conjunction 
 was a sure sign that the world was soon to be destroyed by 
 water and that if his master wished to escape becoming the 
 victim of the approaching catastrophe he must take refuge 
 with his family and flock on the neighboring mountains. 
 The shepherd hastened to follow this advice, and withdrew 
 to the loftiest mountain 1 of the country, where a crowd of 
 animals had already preceded him. He had scarcely arrived 
 when the angry waves covered the earth, but the mountain 
 floated like a boat, and rose as the waters increased. This 
 deluge lasted five days, and was accompanied by a total 
 eclipse of the sun. Then the waters gradually retired, and 
 the shepherd and his family became the ancestors of the 
 Peruvian people. 1 
 
 Other traditions, chiefly met with in the countries form- 
 ing the present republic of Ecuador, make two brothers who 
 took refuge from the waters on the mountain of Huacayfian, 
 the fathers of the whole human race. Their provisions 
 were exhausted, and they were obliged to leave the misera- 
 ble hut where they had found a refuge, to go into the half 
 submerged valley. On their return they were astonished to 
 find a meal prepared for them. Curious to know who had 
 thus come to their assistance, one of the brothers only went 
 out the next day, while the other kept watch. He soon 
 saw two birds called aras, in the form of women, 8 approach- 
 ing, loaded with provisions. He succeeded in seizing one 
 of them, who became his wife, and mother of the human race. 
 
 Lastly in Brazil a god named Monan, angry at the corrup- 
 tion of men, destroyed the earth by water and by fire. One 
 man alone escaped, in the destruction of all living creatures; 
 
 1 According to some, the mountain of Ancasmarca five leagues from Cuzco, 
 according to others Mount Huarocheri nearer the sea. 
 
 8 Molina, " Relacion de las fabulas y Ritos de los Ingas," MS. des arch. 
 Madrid. 
 
 * Brasseur de Bourbourg, who relates this legend, says that there were two 
 women called Ara. He adds that the people of this province retain a great 
 veneration for the Aras, on account of the service which birds had rendered to 
 their ancestors. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 531 
 
 Monan took pity on his misery and gave him a wife, and it 
 was they who repeopled the earth after these terrible events.' 
 
 Similar myths are found among various Indian tribes ; the 
 legend of a deluge and of a saviour and benefactor of the 
 human race extends to the Alaskan tribes and is in fact 
 almost world-wide among all classes of men in some form or 
 other. No dissemination of merely Christian ideas, since 
 the conquest, is sufficient to account for these myths, which 
 appear to have their root in the natural tendencies of the 
 human mind in its evolution from a savage state. 
 
 That America was peopled at different times by scions of 
 different races is highly probable from the physical differ- 
 ences to be observed between the remains of pre-historic man 
 and the complexion and features he bequeathed to his his- 
 toric descendants. That these races were still in a very 
 low and undifferentiated state, other than in their physique, 
 we have already stated as probable. 
 
 Among the crude and imperfectly digested hypotheses 
 which have engaged the attention of untrained ethnologists, 
 none have been more popular than those which ascribed the 
 origin of the Americans to full-fledged races such as we 
 know at present in other regions of the world. Among 
 those who have been claimed as the original or genuine 
 ancestors of the Americans are the Chinese, the Japanese, 
 the Malays, the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Basques, 
 the ten lost tribes of Israel, the early Irish, the Welsh, the 
 Norsemen, some unknown Asiatic freemasons, and other 
 equally unknown Buddhists. Volumes have been filled with 
 the most enthusiastic rubbish by men upon whose ability 
 and sanity in other matters, nothing has ever thrown a 
 doubt. Fortunately the era of such speculations is passing 
 away. The scientific treatment of anthropological subjects 
 is no longer the exception. 
 
 The " ten lost tribes " still linger with us, and doubtless 
 will continue to do so for some time, probably becoming in 
 
 1 P. Thevet, Cordelier, " Les singularites de la France Antarctique autrement 
 nominee Amerique," Paris, 1858. 
 
53 2 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 their turn the subject of investigation by psychologists in- 
 terested in aberrant mental phenomena. But every day in- 
 creases our knowledge of the true constitution of savage 
 society, and builds a more enduring barrier against the floods 
 of pure hypothesis. Students are less and less likely to be 
 fooled by such a preposterous fiction as the so-called history 
 of Moncatch Ap, which, within a few years has engaged 
 the serious attention of some of the most worthy and dis- 
 tinguished European ethnologists ; and the day is not far 
 distant when men possessed by absurd anthropological 
 hobbies will no longer be patiently permitted to ventilate 
 them before scientific bodies, but will be placed on the same 
 list with the squarers of circles and the discoverers of per- 
 petual motion. 
 
 Many of these hypotheses were discussed at length, with 
 a view to their refutation in the French edition of this work, 
 by its learned author. It has been thought best to omit 
 the discussions as, in the interval which has elapsed, they 
 have come to bear still less relation to the actual state of the 
 science ; and, further, because American students, having 
 the advantage of being on the ground, have pretty well dis- 
 carded many ill-founded notions which still linger among 
 the less enterprising of European anthropologists. 
 
 This translation being intended for the American public 
 has, therefore, been brought as nearly in unison with the 
 present state of science in this country as the rapid progress 
 of such studies would permit, and, it is hoped, will convey 
 to many general readers a not uninteresting survey of the 
 class of facts upon which the scientific conception of Pre-his- 
 toric man in America is based. That there is much to learn 
 is self-evident, that a beginning has been made is certain, 
 that the results in the end will testify to the orderly reign of 
 evolution here as in the Old World we have every reason to 
 be confident. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A. DISCOVERIES IN CALIFORNIA. 
 
 WE think it will be useful to give a summary of the principal discoveries 
 made in California, and to add to it a list of the mammals whose remains have 
 been found on the coasts of the Pacific, in strata ascribed to the quaternary 
 period. 
 
 Mariposa county, mastodon bones mixed with human bones and stone 
 weapons, the most remarkable of the latter being an obsidian lance-point, five 
 inches long. 
 
 At Hornitos and Princeton, stone mortars with their pestles, one of the mor- 
 tars eighteen inches high and weighing fifty pounds, being one of the largest 
 known ; obsidian arrow and lance-heads, together with bones of the elephant, 
 horse, and an indeterminate species resembling the camel. 
 
 Merced county, numerous implements from near Snelling. 
 
 Stanislaus county, an elephant's tusk, ten feet long. 
 
 Tuolumne county, wagon-loads of mastodon bones ; numerous stone objects. 
 In all the auriferous gravels have been found bones of extinct animals associated 
 with the products of human industry. The greatest depth of the excavations 
 yielding profitable results here was two hundred feet. 
 
 Under the basaltic deposits of Table Mountain has been discovered a human 
 jaw, together with two lance-heads, a pestle, and several stone objects resemb- 
 ling our ladles, 1 A human skeleton was found in cutting a tunnel beneath 
 Table Mountain,* but details respecting it are as yet too incomplete to justify 
 any conclusion. 
 
 A mador county, various stone objects. 
 
 El Dorado county, at Shingle Springs, stone mortars and mastodon bones ; 
 at Diamond Springs, mortars; at Spanish Flat, "Tools, kitchen utensils, and 
 other indestructible traces of man's presence and activity," says Voy, one of the 
 most indefatigable excavators of California. Some human bones have been 
 picked up in a bed of clay. (Letter of Dr. Boyce, Nov. 2, 1870.) 
 
 Placer county, near Gold Hill numerous stone objects ; at Forest Hill, a dish 
 hewn out of very hard granite, measuring about eighteen inches in diameter ; at 
 Devil's Canon, two human bones beneath a thick bed of lava. 
 
 Nevada county, numerous objects fabricated by man have been picked up be- 
 tween 1853 and 1864. 
 
 1 " Scoops, or ladles with well-shaped handles*." Whitney, " Auriferous Gravel*," p. 164. 
 * Proc. Boston Sac. of Nat. Hist., vol. XV, 1873, p. 257. 
 
 533 
 
534 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Butte county, the first discoveries were made more than twenty years ago ; 
 they consisted of instruments, weapons, and implements of the most varied 
 form. 
 
 Some traces of the contemporaneity of man and of animals of extinct race 
 have also been made out in Trinity and Siskiyou counties. It is very probable 
 that later researches will complete the discoveries already made. 
 
 The bones of which we have still to speak were none of them found in their 
 natural position ; they had evidently been brought down by tumultuous waters, 
 which the bones of the strongest mammals alone were able to resist. 
 
 Some of these bones have been picked up under thick beds of basalt or lava. 
 In these beds we note no fissure which could justify us is supposing that the 
 bones can have gained access to the places where they lay after the deposit of 
 volcanic material. The species discovered under such conditions are very few. 
 Thus far but three are mentioned in any thing of an intact condition ' : a rhin- 
 oceros (R. hesperus) related alike to the R. indicus and the R. occidentalis , but 
 decidedly smaller than the latter ; the Elotherium superbum, a species probably 
 related to the Elotherium ingens of Dakota ; and lastly a pachyderm, of which 
 all that has been found is one fragment of one tooth. In speaking of it Leidy 
 says : " Apparently the fragment of an incisor or canine of some large pachy- 
 derm ; not the mastodon or elephant, and probably allied to the hippopotamus." 
 
 Quaternary species are of course more numerous. Amongst them we will 
 mention : 
 
 Felides, Felis imperialis. 
 
 Canides. A wolf that Dr. Leidy thinks is the C. indianaensis, found together 
 with the megalonyx on the banks of the Ohio. 
 
 Bovides ; B. latifrons. 
 
 Camelides. In Merced county Voy found a llama (Auchenia californicd) of 
 very large size ; some teeth from the Alameda county appear to belong to a 
 smaller species (A hesterna). 
 
 Dr. Snell possesses in his collection the molar tooth of a large ruminant found 
 near Sonora ; it resembles a tooth picked up near the Niobrara river, and attri- 
 buted by Dr. Leidy to a species to which he proposes giving the name of 
 Afegalotneryx, but which is very likely the same as the Procamelus. 
 
 Caprides. None of the bones found belong incontestably to this group. 
 
 Cervides. All that is known of this group is a metatarsus from Mariposa 
 county, belonging to a deer smaller than the C. virginianus. 
 
 Proboscidians. We have already said how numerous these were in California. 
 During the tertiary and probably also during a great part of the quaternary 
 periods they wandered freely throughout North America as far as Labrador. 8 
 The greater number are related to M. americanus. On account of certain 
 slight differences, however, Dr. Leidy has thought of creating three new species 
 .)/. mirificus, M. andium, and M. obscurus. 
 
 1 J. Leidy : " The extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nabraska," Philadelphia, 
 1869. " Contributions to the extinct vertebrate Fauna of the Western Territories," Report of 
 the U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, 1873. 
 
 1 " Cart loads of Mastodon bones have been accumulated at various places between Sonora 
 and the Stanislaus river at workings in the limestone crevices." Whitney : " The Auriferous 
 Gravels " p. 251. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 535 
 
 Elephants (Elephas eolumbi, Falconer) were less numerous than mastodons. 
 A complete skeleton has been discovered near the Fresno river ; its vertebral 
 column was more than twenty feet long. 
 
 Equits. Many are known. E. excelsus found at Santa-Maria oil springs, 
 E. caballus, recalling the horse of the present day, and lastly, E. pacificus, the 
 largest of all the Californian species, found in Contra Costa county, and which 
 Whitney even ascribes to the pliocene period. 
 
 To complete our study we give a list of the flora whose presence has been 
 made out in the auriferous gravels and deposits of Table Mountain. 1 
 
 Fagus antipofi Aralia zaddachi 
 
 Quercus eloenoides Cornus ovalis 
 
 Quercus convexa Acer bolanderi 
 
 Salix California Ilex prunifolia 
 
 Platinus dissecta Zizyphus microphyllus 
 
 Ulmus californica Rhus typhinoides 
 
 Ulmus affinis Rhus metopioides 
 
 Ficus microphylla Rhus dispersa 
 
 Persea pseudo-carolinensis Cerocarpus antiqua. 
 
 B. SPECIES FOUND IN THE SHELL-HEAPS OF MAINE AND 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 
 Mount 
 
 Couch 
 
 Eajcle 
 
 Cotuit 
 
 
 Desert. 
 
 Cave. 
 
 Hill. 
 
 Port. 
 
 Homo . . . . '. 
 
 . _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 I 
 
 Cervus canadensis .... 
 
 . I 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Alces americanus .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 Rangifer caribou .... 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Cervus virginianus .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I? 
 
 Ursus americanus .... 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Canis occidentalis .... 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Canis (species domesticate) 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Vulpes fulves ..... 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 Felissp 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Lutra canadensis .... 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 Putorius vison ..... 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 Mustela americana .... 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Mephitis mephitica .... 
 
 .. 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 Phoca vitulina ..... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 Castor canadensis .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 Arctomyx monax .... 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Alca impennis ..... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Alca torda ..... 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 
 Anser (species duo) .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 I'Ucis squaloideus .... 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Morrhua americana .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 Lophius americanus .... 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 Buccinum undatum .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 Busycon canaliculatum et B. carica . 
 
 . 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 Ostrea edulis et Mya arenaria . 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Venus mercenaria .... 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 Mytilus edulis .... 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 Pecten tenuicostatus et P. islandicus . 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 Mactra sp ..... 
 
 . 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 1 Whitney, /. c., p. 235. 
 
53* 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 C. SPECIES FOUND IN THE SHELL-HEAPS OF IOWA. 
 
 Mammals. Bos americanus . 
 
 Cervus virginianus 
 Birds. Bernicla canadensis . 
 Chelonian Reptiles. Chelydra serpentina 
 
 Trionyx ferox . 
 Fish. Pimelodus (?) . . . 
 
 Embiotoca (?) . 
 
 Mollusca. Paludina integra, Say . 
 Unio aesopus, Green . 
 
 anodontoides, Lea 
 
 crassus, Say 
 
 ebenus, Lea 
 
 gibbosus, Barnes. 
 
 nodosus, Barnes . 
 
 ovatus, Say 
 
 plicatus, Say 
 
 pustulosus Lea . 
 
 rectus, Lamark . 
 
 rugosus, Barnes . 
 
 tuberculatus, Barnes . 
 
 undatus, Barnes . . 
 
 ventricosus, Barnes 
 
 Keosoqua Sabula Bellevue. 
 
 I 
 I I 
 
 I 
 
 NOTE ON RECENT INVESTIGATIONS IN PALENQUE BY CHARNAY. 
 
 The occasion of conferring the Logerot prize, the gold medal, for new ex- 
 plorations in Mexico and Central America, by the Societe de Geographic of 
 Paris, is fully reported upon in the Society's Bulletin for t! e present year (pp. 
 268-277). The recipient, M. Desire Charnay, has long been engaged in 
 ethnological researches, to which reference has been made in the preceding 
 pages. His work, which, at last advices, was on the point of publication, has 
 been crowned by the Society ; and in the report of the committee upon this 
 matter, some of the important results attained are briefly summarized. Like 
 all scientific investigations, their tendency is to refute much sensational closet- 
 ethnology and to indicate more clearly than ever the unity of aboriginal culture 
 in America. 
 
 Some of the facts brought out are of such interest that it has seemed well at 
 the last moment to include them in the present appendix. Their bearing upon 
 some of the problems discussed in the chapters on Central America and Mexico 
 will be evident to our readers. 
 
 In visiting Palenque, M. Charnay made great use of a convenient process, by 
 which moulds of bas-relief sculpture can be taken in a few moments. It con- 
 sists in the application of tow sopped in liquid plaster, which can be laid on in 
 a thin layer, the threads of the tow making the plaster extremely tough when 
 set, and the lightness of the mould greatly facilitating transportation, always 
 so expensive and difficult for large ethnological objects. An extensive set of 
 reliefs from these moulds is on exhibition in the United States National 
 Museum at Washington. 
 
 The moulds of M. Charnay have entirely done away with the elephant 
 
APPENDIX. 537 
 
 sculptures reported by Waldeck on which so many pretty theories have been 
 erected. There is absolutely nothing elephantine there, and it seems that the 
 earlier reports were based on a misconception, due to extraneous vegetation 
 lichens or stalagmites which have encrusted part of the ruins. 
 
 It appears that Palenque, so fa*! from being in forgotten ruins at the time of 
 the Spanish Conquest, as has been so often stated (after Waldeck), was the 
 city of Teoticcac, the religious metropolis of the Acaltecs, where Cortez and all 
 his men might have encamped in a single building. Another site discovered by 
 Charnay, and temporarily named Lorillard City, after the patron of his explora- 
 tions, is decided to be the remains of Izancanac, the capital of the State of 
 Acallan, traversed by Cortez in returning to Honduras. These, as well as 
 Copan, Chichen Itza, and Izamal are of relatively modern origin, and, accord- 
 ing to Charnay, cannot exceed seven or eight hundred years in age. 
 
 The explorer decides that the remarkable edifices of Yucatan and Chiapas are 
 wholly due to the Toltecs, immigrants from the plateau of Anahuac, after the 
 destruction of the Government of Tollan in the beginning of the twelfth cen- 
 tury. The differences exhibited by the various monuments, to him character- 
 ize only stages or special developments of one and the same, state of art and 
 social culture. "However this may be," says Dr. Hamy, the learned and 
 distinguished archaeologist of Paris, "the affinities demonstrated by Charnay 
 between Yucatan and ancient Anahuac, are so close, so very numerous, and so 
 much in harmony with the teachings of history that it will be indispensable 
 hereafter that they shall be seriously taken into account in the study of 
 American ethnology." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abiquico (New Mexico), two skulls 
 
 from near, 498, 499 
 Acelidotherium associated with human 
 
 remains in Brazil, 25 
 Acequias near Casa Grande, 224 
 Acequias of Peru, 422 
 Acolhuas (the), II 
 Acora (Peru), megaliths and chulpas 
 
 at, 424 
 Agriculture amongst the Peruvians, 
 
 423 
 amongst the Mound Builders, 
 
 182 
 Alabama, abnormal skull of a child 
 
 from mound in, 488 
 
 mounds near Florence, 106 
 
 shell-heaps, 48 
 
 Alaska, shell-heaps, 47 
 
 Algonquins, cannibalism amongst, 62 
 
 Amazon valley, cannibalism amongst 
 
 the tribes of the, 63 
 complexion of the inhabitants of, 
 
 in i6ih century, 3 
 Amelia Island, shell-heap, 48 
 America, first discovered by Euro- 
 peans I ; landing of Cortes upon the 
 
 shores of, 2 
 
 in the l6th century, its inhabi- 
 tants, 3 
 its fauna, 3 
 
 its flora, 4 
 Anahuac, conquered by the Aztecs, 
 
 ix 
 Andes, complexion of the inhabitants 
 
 of, in i6th century, 3 
 Anercerty Point, shell-heap, 48 
 animal bones associated with 
 
 human remains, 28, 36, 37, 55, 535, 
 
 536 
 Apaches, treatment of prisoners by, 
 
 62 
 Aprouague river (Guiana), polished 
 
 stone hatchets from the banks of, 
 
 funeral arms from the Parana, 
 
 and from the provinces of Tucuman 
 and La Kioja, 474 
 
 Argentine Republic, pictographs in 
 the Santa Maria valley, 455 
 
 Piedras Pintadas in, 471, 472 
 
 Arica, mummies from, 430 
 Arizona, mound in, 83 
 Arkansas, ancient mining in, 180 
 
 vases from the mounds, 141 
 
 wall near Helena, 104 
 
 Ash Cave, Benton county (Ohio), 72 
 Astronomy among the Nahuacs, 305 ; 
 Aztec division of time, 306 ; the 
 Maya and Toltec calendar, 306 
 Atacama, abnormal skull of a child 
 
 from, 488 
 Aymara, 6 
 
 Aymaras, sepulchres of the, 424 
 Azilan, the home of the Nahuatl race, 
 
 where located, 284 
 Aztalan, mounds of, 92 
 
 tradition concerning, 93 
 
 Aztecs, they conquer Anahuac, II 
 
 religion of, 292 ; the god Teotl, 
 
 292 ; the god Camaxtli, 293 ; sacri- 
 fice of infants, 293 ; obsidian knife 
 used in sacrifice, 293 ; the god 
 Mixcoatl, 294 ; the god Xuihte- 
 cutli, 295 
 
 their migration, 285 ; Chicomez- 
 
 toc, 285 ; founding of Tenotch- 
 litan, 285 ; wars, 286 ; alliance 
 with the Acolhuas and the Tepa- 
 necs, 286 ; rapid progress of the 
 Aztecs, 286 
 
 tribute from the conquered tribes 
 
 who hate their conquerors, 287 ; 
 buildings and engineering works 
 erected by the Aztecs. 288 ; poems 
 of Nezahualcoyotl, 288 
 
 Nezahualpilli and the daughter of 
 
 Axacayatl, 289 ; a prophecy of the 
 return of Quetzacoatl which greatly 
 helped the Spaniards. 291 ; death of 
 Nezahualpilli, 291; Montezuma, 291 
 
 539 
 
540 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Aztecs, Tlacatlaotli, 295 ; the dedica- 
 tion of the temple of Huitzilo- 
 pochtli, 296 ; legend concerning 
 that god, 296 ; number of victims 
 sacrificed at the Aztec festivals 
 though large was greatly exaggera- 
 ted by Spanish historians, 297 ; type 
 of sacrificial altars, 297 ; belief in a 
 future life, 298 ; some burial cus- 
 toms, 299 
 
 Aztec Spring (Colorado), ruins at, 215 
 
 Bones of, bearing traces of human 
 workmanship found in Buenos 
 Ayres, 30 
 
 Brazil, cannibalism in, 53, 58 ; fertil- 
 ity of its soil, 465 ; Agassiz on its 
 resources, 466 ; flora and fauna, 
 466 ; degradation of its natives pop- 
 ulation, 466 ; the native called 
 Guarani by the Spaniards and Tupi 
 by the Portuguese (see Guarani), 467; 
 they probably had more civilized 
 predecessors to whom we must at. 
 tribute the megaliths and rock- 
 paintings and engravings, 469 ; dis- 
 coveries of Herkman in the prov- 
 ince of Pernambuco, 469 ; intaglio 
 sculptures of Para and Piauhy, 469 ; 
 red ochre drawings on bank of Rio 
 Doce, 469, 470 ; inscription on 
 rocks in Ceara, 470, 471 ; inTijuco, 
 470 ; the Piedras Pintadas, 470 ; el 
 Palacio, 471 ; pottery, 472 ; discov- 
 eries of pottery on the island of 
 Pacoval-Marajo and at Taperinha, 
 472 ; fragments of pottery from 
 near Santarem (province of Para), 
 473 ; Rodriguez, discoveries on the 
 Rio das Trombettas, 473 ; the 
 Muirakitau, 473 ; weapons and im- 
 
 - plements, 475 ; weapons from pro- 
 vince of MaranhSo, 475 ; discovery 
 of a jadeite hatchet, 475 
 
 Cairo (Tennessee), human remains en- 
 closed in baskets near, 114 
 
 Cakhay, the Indian name for the 
 mounds in Vera Paz (Mexico), 82 
 
 Calaveras skull (the), 40-45 
 
 its resemblance to the Eskimo 
 
 type, 43 
 
 it contains a trace of organic 
 
 matter, 44 
 
 note by the American Editor, 45 
 
 Calca, tower of, 417 
 
 Calendar stone, found in Mexico, 306 
 California tribes, degradation of, 8 
 
 California shell-heaps, 50-51 
 caves as burial places, 09 
 
 the Hohgates, 64 
 
 mounds in, 83 
 
 principal discoveries in, 533 
 
 serpentine cups, 168 ; dishes 
 
 from vertebrae of Cetacea from 
 Santa Barbara, 168 
 
 skulls in the shell-heaps of, 480 
 
 Canada, two glacial periods in, 19 
 Cams latrans (Coyote), 4 
 Cannibalism amongst North American 
 
 Indians, 62 
 
 in Brazil, 53, 58 ; in Florida, 58, 
 
 59 ; in New England, 59 ; in 
 Europe, 59, 60 ; in America, 61 ; in 
 Peru, 61 ; in Mexico, 61 ; in Scy- 
 thia, 60 ; on the borders of the Eux- 
 ine, 60 ; amongst the Galatians, 60 ; 
 in Ireland, 60 ; in Gaul, 60 ; in 
 Rome, 60 ; in Scandinavia, 60 ; in 
 Terra del Fuego, 62, 63 ; on the 
 Orinoco, 63 ; at Tahiti, 63 ; on the 
 Amazon, 63 
 
 amongst the mound builders, 119 
 
 Capulli (the), 310 
 
 Caribs, Cannibalism amongst, 61 
 Carthage (Alabama), truncated mounds 
 
 near, 82 
 
 Casa Grande, 223 
 Casas Grandes, see also Pueblos 
 
 the probable Ethnic identity of 
 
 the builders with the Mound Build- 
 ers and Cliff Dwellers, 499 ; skull 
 from a tumulus from near the Casa- 
 Grande of Montezuma, 499 
 
 Cave-Dwellings described, 203, 205 
 Caves, human remains in, 24 
 
 inhabited by Europeans in 
 
 quaternary times, 69 ; used as burial 
 places in America, 69 ; in Durango 
 (Mexico), 69 ; in Peru, 69 ; in 
 California, 69 ; in Missouri, 70 ; 
 list of Strata in cave on Gasconade 
 River, 70 ; implements in, 70 ; 
 Shelter Cave (Ohio), 71 ; Ash Cave 
 (Ohio), 72 ; in Summit County 
 (Ohio), 72 ; in Pennsylvania, 73 ; 
 near Louisville (Kentucky), 74 ; in 
 the province of Oajaca, 74 ; near 
 Greyson's Springs (Kentucky), 74 ; 
 Salt Cave (Kentucky), 75 ; Short's 
 Cave (Kentucky), mummy in, 76 
 Cayenne River (Guiana), polished 
 stone hatchets from the banks of, 27 
 Ceara (Brazil), inscriptions on rocks 
 
 of, 470 
 Ceutla, ruins of, 354 
 
INDEX. 
 
 541 
 
 Central America, resemblance of its 
 ancient monuments to those of 
 Egypt, 14 
 
 traditions regarding convulsions 
 
 of nature in, 17 
 
 number of mounds in, 85 
 
 earthenware pipes from near 
 
 San Salvador, 152 
 
 people of, 260 ; hieroglyphics, 
 
 260-263 I movement of population 
 from North to South, 260 ; no posi- 
 tive evidence as to date of Emigra- 
 tions, 261 ; the Nahuatl race. 262 ; 
 the Mayas, 262 ; the predecessors of 
 Mayas, 264 ; the Toltecs, 271 ; fol- 
 lowed by other tribes of the 
 Nahuatl race, 271 ; did these 
 people come from the North or 
 South ? 272 ; religious wars, 274 ; 
 the Chichimecs, 279 ; the Tezcuans, 
 281 ; the Tepanecs and Acolhuas, 
 284 ; the Aztecs, 285 ; religious 
 ideas of the Central American races, 
 291 ; of the Nahuas, 292 ; burial 
 customs and rites, 299 ; mummies, 
 301 ; cremation, 302 ; a royal 
 funeral, 303 ; human sacrifices, 304 ; 
 mortuary vase, 305 ; astronomy, 
 305 ; divisions of time among the 
 Aztecs, 306 ; amongst the Mayas 
 and Toltecs, 306 ; weapons of the 
 Aztecs, 307 ; defensive works, 307 ; 
 costume, 308 ; government probably 
 democratic, 309 ; the Calpulli, 310 ; 
 no private ownership of land, 311 ; 
 descent though female line, 311 ; 
 marriage, 312; no patronymic 
 names, 312 
 
 education of children, 312; slavery, 
 
 312 ; punishments, 313 ; tribes and 
 tribe government, 315 ; initiation of 
 the Tecuhtli, 315 ; manuscripts of, 
 389 ; private life, 380 ; knowledge 
 of the arts, 381 : decoration of pot- 
 tery, 383 ; obsidian implements and 
 ornaments, 385 ; ornaments of agate, 
 coral and shell, 386 ; conclusions as 
 to their culture, 386 
 
 ruins of Maya and Nahuatl, 
 
 architecture distinguishable, 317 ; 
 Maya buildings of Chiapas of differ- 
 ent style from those of Yucatan, 317 ; 
 Maya ruins, monuments of Palenque, 
 318; hieroglyphics, 319; niches re- 
 sembling the Egyptian tau, 320 ; 
 the arch unknown, 321 ; hypotheses 
 as to the age of the Palenque ruins, 
 322 ; the temple of the cross, 324 ; 
 
 the Palenque tablet, 324, 325 ; the 
 cross elsewhere in Central America, 
 327 ; Copan, 328 ; ruins of, 330 
 
 Central America, ruins in different 
 parts of Yucatan, 332 
 
 Lorillard city, 333 : differences 
 
 between monuments of Chiapas and 
 those of Yucatan, 333 ; ruins of 
 Chichen-Itza and Uxmal, 334 ; ele- 
 phant-trunk-shaped ornaments, 335 ; 
 representations of other animals, 
 336; phallic emblems, 336, 338; 
 no weapons nor implements found 
 in the ruins, 340 ; Kabah and 
 Labna, ruins of, 340 ; Zayi,, ruins 
 at, 340 ; Chichen-Itza, ruins of, 
 340; bas-relief found by Dr. L. 
 Plongeon at Chichen-Itza, 345 ; de- 
 ciphering the hieroglyphics, 346 ; 
 the cara gigantesca, 347, 348 ; Iza- 
 mal, ruins of, 349, 536 
 
 roads and bridges, 349 
 
 Nahuatl ruins, 350 ; pyramid of 
 
 Cholula, 350 ; date of erection, 351 ; 
 Xochicalco, 352 ; temple of, 353 ; 
 fortifications in Anahuac, 354 ; at 
 Huatusco, 354 ; at Ceutla, 354 ; 
 pyramids near Tehuantepec, 355 ; 
 Tula, ruins of, 355 ; discoveries of 
 Charnay, 356 ; glass and porcelain, 
 356 ; temple in honor of the god 
 Huitzilopochtli, 358 ; Tezcuco, 360 ; 
 Quemada, 361 
 
 Zapotecs ruins, 364 ; Mitla, 364 ; 
 
 temple of Mitla, 365 ; mosaics, 368; 
 Cerro de Guiengola fortifications, 
 368, sepulchre at Tehuantepec, 369 ; 
 Santa Lucia Cosumhualpa, ruins at, 
 371 ; ruins elsewhere in Guatemala, 
 373 ; at Quirigua, 373 
 
 Cerro de Guiengola, fortifications of, 
 368 
 
 Chaco canon (New Mexico), cliff 
 dweller's skull, from 497, 498 
 
 Chaco valley, ruins in, 230, 231, 234 
 
 Chacota, bay of, mummies from, 430 
 
 mummies from. 504 
 
 Chamber's Island (Wisconsin), platy- 
 cnemic's tibiae from tumulus on, 493 
 
 various shaped skulls from mound 
 
 on, 487 
 
 Chelles, resemblance of its palaeolithic 
 implements to those of the Dela- 
 ware valley, 20 
 
 Cherokees, council-house of, 191 
 
 Chibchas or Muyscas (the), they and 
 their country described, 459 ; Engin- 
 eering and architectural works, 459; 
 
542 
 
 PRE-llIS TOR 1C AMERICA. 
 
 fabrics and ornaments : pottery, 
 
 459 ; their wealth, 460 ; traditions, 
 
 460 ; legends about BOCHICA simi- 
 lar to those about QUETZACOATI. 
 and MANCO-CAPAC, 460 ; [a gram- 
 mar of their language, 460 ;] they 
 worshipped the sun, to which they 
 offered human sacrifice, 461 ; ruins 
 near Tunja, supposed to be the town 
 of Sogomuxi, 461 ; government of 
 the Chibchas 461 ; the Zippas and 
 the Zoques, or chiefs, 462 ; burial 
 customs, 462 ; laws and penalties, 
 462 ; food and dwellings, 463 ; 
 knowledge, and use of the metals, 
 463 ; trade and coinage, (?) 463 , 
 monuments and hieroglyphics, 464, 
 465 ; Columns near the junction of 
 the Carare and Magdalena, 465 ; 
 pictographs of the valleys of Bogota, 
 Tunga, and Cauca, 465 
 
 Chichen-Itza. ruins of, 333, 334, 340 
 
 Chichimecs (the), 12 
 
 278 ; of the Nahuatl race but un- 
 like the Toltecs complete savages, 
 279 ; their religion, 280 ; marriage 
 customs, 280 ; conquest of Anahuac, 
 282 
 
 Chicomoztoc, establishment of the 
 Aztecs in, 285 
 
 Chicuito, megaliths of, 424 
 
 Chihuahua, casagrandes in San Miguel 
 valley, 225 
 
 low type skulls from certain sep- 
 ulchres in, 484 
 
 Chillicothe (Ohio), mounds at, 100, 
 101 
 
 Cross on skeleton from mound 
 
 near, 176 
 
 position of bodies in mound at, 
 
 112 
 
 Chimu, ruins of, 395 
 
 Chincha Islands, gold ornaments from, 
 68 
 
 silver fish from, 68 
 
 Choccequirao, fortress of, 419 
 
 Cholula, pyramid of, 350 ; date of 
 erection, 351 
 
 Christiana (Pennsylvania), ancient 
 soapstone quarry at, 51 
 
 Chulpas of Acora, 421 ; near Palca, 
 425 
 
 Chunk Yards, 190 
 
 Chunkey, game of, 190 
 
 Circleville (Ohio), mounds at, 101 
 
 Circular mound, skull from, 485 
 
 ' ' Clark's Works, " Ross county (Ohio), 
 
 Clavigero, boundaries of Anahuac, 
 II 
 
 Cliff Dwellers, points of difference be- 
 tween them and the Mound Build- 
 ers and other ancient races, 255 ; 
 the Spaniards notice no resemblance 
 between the inhabitants of Mexico 
 and New Mexico, 256 ; a sedentary 
 agricultural race, 257 
 
 see also ' ' Pre-historic Amer- 
 icans," 497 
 
 on Beaver Creek, 227 ; on the 
 
 Colorado Chiquito, 227 
 
 causes of decadence, 258 ; prob- 
 able decrease in rainfall the most 
 important, 258 
 
 Cliff-Houses described, 201, 202, 203, 
 205 ; on the Rio Mancos, 208, 210; 
 in Mac Elmo valley, 214 ; at Aztec 
 Spring, 215 ; on the Hovenweep, in 
 MonJ.ezuma valley, 217 ; on the 
 Rio de Chelly, 216, 218 ; Cave 
 Town, 219; in Epsom Creek val- 
 ley, 220 
 
 Cloth in mounds of Ohio, Iowa, and 
 Illinois, 177 
 
 Coati, island of, 409 ; consecrated to 
 the moon, 409 ; ruins of, 409 
 
 Coatzacoalcos river, numerous large 
 towns discovered by Cortes upon, 7 
 
 Colonel Island (Georgia), shell-heaps, 
 48 
 
 Colorado Chiquito, ruins along the, 
 226 
 
 Colorado river, ancient ruins along, 
 228 
 
 Complexions of the Indians, 3 
 
 Connecticut, pipe from, 164 
 
 Connett's Mound, near Dover (Ohio), 
 118 
 
 copper beads from, 174 
 
 Convulsions of nature, traditions re- 
 garding, in Mexico, Central Amer- 
 ica, Peru, and Bolivia, 17 
 
 COOK (Prof.), glacial phenomena in 
 New Jersey, 18 
 
 Copan, ruins of, 328 
 
 Copiapo Valley (Chili), mummies from 
 huacas in, 430 
 
 Copper, the only metal in common 
 use among the Mound Builders, 
 1 80 
 
 Copper mining by the Mound Builders 
 on Lake Superior, 178 ; on Isle 
 Royal, 179 
 
 Council Bluffs, intrenchment of the 
 Arikarees at, 98 
 
 Coyote, the American dog, 4 
 
INDEX. 
 
 543 
 
 Cremation among the Indians, 119 
 
 amongst the Mound Builders, 
 
 117, 118, 119 
 
 Cromlechs described, 83 
 
 Cross in Central America monuments, 
 
 327 ; at Lorillard City, 333 
 Culture of the Indians, 7 
 Cumberland valley, cross on skeleton 
 
 from mound in, 176 
 Cuzco, legend of its foundation, 410 ; 
 
 difficulties overcome in building, 
 
 411 ; ruins of, 411 ; grandeur of the 
 
 Sacsahuaman, or fortress, 412 ; 
 
 aqueduct, 413 ; the temple, 413 ; 
 
 private dwellings of the Incas, 414 
 Cypress, great age of, 35 
 
 Dakota, low type skulls from mounds 
 of, 484 
 
 Davenport (Iowa), sepulchral mound 
 at, 113 
 
 Deformation amongst the Mayas, 500 ; 
 amongst the Peruvians, 501 ; 
 amongst the Indians, 511 ; the cus- 
 tom very ancient, 512; idols with 
 flattened heads, 512; means em- 
 ployed, 512 ; health nor intelligence 
 apparently injured by, this, 513 , in 
 Europe and Asia, 513 ; inOceanica, 
 514 ; in France, deformation toulou- 
 saine, 515 ; was deformation always 
 voluntary, 515 
 
 Delaware valley, palaeolithic imple- 
 ments from, 19, 20, 21 
 
 Dog, bones of, in shell-heap, 49 
 
 Dunleith mound skull, comparison of 
 with the Neanderthal skull, 483 
 
 Elephant , trunk-shaped ornaments, 335 
 Ely mound (Virginia), shell pin from, 
 
 174 
 
 Escoma valley (Peru), chulpa in, 427 
 Eskimo, they passed freely between 
 
 the two hemispheres, I 
 their short stature, 3 
 
 manners and customs similar to 
 
 those of pre-historic man in America, 
 especially to the inhabitants of the 
 Aleutian Islands, 66 
 
 Esquimalt, dish with two handles 
 
 found in shell-heap, 52 
 Etowah river, mound on, 105 
 
 Fasciolaria g igantea, 172 
 Fauna of America (native), 3 
 Fijians, cannibalism amongst, 6 1 
 Flora of America (native), 4 
 Florence (Alabama), mounds at, 106 
 
 Florida, discovery of a human jaw- 
 bone near Lake Monroe, 33, 34 
 
 river shell-heaps, 57 
 
 shell-heaps, 48 
 
 shell heaps, platycnemic tibiae. 
 
 from, 493 
 
 skulls in the shell-heaps of, 481 
 
 Fort, ancient, 92 
 
 Fort Hill (Ohio), mound at, 89, 90 
 
 Fort Wayne (Indiana), burial mound 
 at, 112 
 
 platycnemic tibiae from, 493 
 
 skulls from, 485, 487 
 
 Frias (the), (Buenos Ayres), human 
 fossils on the banks of, 29 
 
 Funeral rites of the Nahuatl, 299 ; 
 cremation, 302 ; a royal funeral, 
 303 ; human sacrifices, 304 ; mor- 
 tuary vase, 305 
 
 Fusing of metals, were the Mound 
 Builders ignorant of the process? 
 discoveries in Wisconsin, 181 
 
 Garden Beds, 181 ; in Michigan, In- 
 diana, and Missouri, 181 ; west of 
 the Mississippi and on the Gulf of 
 Mexico, 182 ; in Louisiana. 182 
 Gasconade river (Missouri), cave on 
 
 banks of, 70, 71 
 Georgetown (Cal.), granite dishes 
 
 from, 39 
 
 Georgia, shell-heap on St. Simon's 
 Island, 47 
 
 bird-shaped mound in, 123 
 
 the Messier mound, 106 
 
 Glacial epoch, two periods of, 18, 19 
 existence of man during, 19 
 
 in Kentucky, 18 
 
 in New Jersey, 1 8 
 
 in North America, 17, 18 
 
 Glacial phenomena in California, 18 
 
 in the savannahs of the Meta 
 
 and the Apure, 18 ; in the valley of 
 the Amazon and Rio de la Plata, 
 IS 
 
 Glacial striae in New England, 17 ; in 
 Ohio, 18 ; in Iowa, 18 ; in Michigan, 
 18 ; in Wisconsin, 18 
 
 Glassware in the Tula ruins, 356 
 
 Glyptodon, its shell used as a dwell- 
 ing by primeval man, 29 
 
 Gold Spring Gulch, oval granite dish 
 from, 39 
 
 Granville (Ohio), alligator mound at, 
 125 
 
 Great Cheyenne River (Nebraska), 
 mound city on, 186 
 
 Great Lakes, pile-dwellings in, 130 
 
544 
 
 PRE-H1STORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Great Miami river, mounds along, 91 
 
 Greenwood (Tennessee), 94 
 
 Greyson's Springs (Kentucky), rock 
 shelter near, 74 
 
 Guano deposits in Peru, ornaments in, 
 68 ; their age, 68 
 
 Guanajuato, spear point from the, 22 
 
 Guarani or Tupi, the native race of 
 Brazil, 6, 9, 467 ; characteristics 
 and language, 467 ; analogies be- 
 tween the languages of Guiana, the 
 Upper Amazon, the Antilles, and the 
 bay of Rio de Janeiro, 467 ; the 
 Botocudos,- the Tapuyas, theTupin- 
 ambas, 468 ; [description of the 
 skull of the Botocudos by Rey, 468] 
 the Guaranis probably had more 
 civilized predecessors to whom we 
 must attribute the megaliths and 
 rock paintings, 469 
 
 Guiana, cannibalism in. 6l 
 
 inhabitants of, 10 
 
 piimeval man in, 27 
 
 shell-heaps, 47 
 
 Gulf of Mexico, mounds along, 82 
 
 Harrisonville (Ohio), sepulchral 
 
 mound at, 116 
 
 HASS, the Cahokia (111.) mound, 103 
 Helena (Arkansas), wall near, 104 
 Hieroglyphics in Central America, 
 
 260, 263 
 at Palenque 319; throughout 
 
 Central America, 375 ; evolution of 
 
 hieroglyphic writing, 377 ; graphic 
 
 system of Bishop Diego de Landa, 
 
 378 ; the Troano manuscript, 379 
 High Rock Spring, Saratoga (New 
 
 York), 74 
 Hill Mound (Ohio), serpentine axe 
 
 from, 170 
 
 Hohgates, legend of, 64 
 Honduras, cairns near San Salvador, 
 
 84 
 
 mounds in, 82, 83 
 
 veneration of the tiger in, 7 
 
 Hopetown (Ohio) mounds at, 100 
 Hoplophorus euphratus. H. Selloyi, 
 
 H. minor, found fossil in Brazil by 
 
 Lund, 25 
 Horse, ancestors of the, 16 
 
 of American origin, 16 
 
 Hovenweep (the), ancient ruins along, 
 
 217 
 Huacas, resemble the Mexican teoc- 
 
 allis, 395 ; Obispo huaca, 396 ; 
 
 Moche huaca, 396 ; of Copiapo 
 
 Valley (Chili), 430 ; near Arica, 
 
 430 ; on Bay of Chacota, 430 ; at 
 Iquique, 433 
 
 Huatasco, fortifications at, 354 
 
 Huehue Tlapallan a great empire 
 in the North according to Mexican 
 traditions, 13 
 
 Hydrocharus sulcidens, associated 
 with human remains in Brazil, 25 
 
 Hyer, the ruins of Aztalan, Wiscon- 
 sin, 92, 93. 
 
 Illinois, shell-heaps in, 56 
 
 cloth in mounds of, 177 
 
 copper turtles from mound, 177 
 
 mound at Cahokia, 103 
 
 mounds in, 85, 87 
 
 sepulchral mounds in Carroll 
 
 county, 120 
 Stone cists in Madison county, 
 
 "5 
 
 Implements, in the drift near Trenton, 
 (N. J.,) 20 
 
 in post-tertiary alluvial deposits, 
 
 20 
 
 polished stone hatchets found on 
 
 the banks of the Maroni, Sinna- 
 mari, Cayenne, and Aprouague 
 rivers (Guiana), 27 
 
 of the neolithic type, from Bue- 
 nos Ayres, 28 
 
 in shell-heaps, 47 
 
 from the Gasconade river (Mis- 
 souri) cave, 71 
 
 from altar mounds, 107, 108. 
 
 of the Cliff Dwellers, 245 ; with 
 
 the exception of a few copper rings, 
 no metal implement or armament 
 has been found, 246 
 
 Incas, 6 
 
 Indiana, shell-heaps in, 56 
 
 burial mound at Fort Wayne, 112 
 
 pipe from, 165 
 
 Indians, arrangement of wigwams, 
 78 ; of New Mexico, shelter of, 78 
 
 fortifications of, 98 
 
 cremation amongst, 119 
 
 their differences, 187 
 
 their culture, Creeks and Natchez, 
 
 190 ; Cherokees, 190 ; Iroquois, 192 ; 
 Mandans, 193 ; Chippewas, 193 
 
 camp, 76-77 
 
 Intihuatana, 417 ; of Pisac, 418 
 
 Iowa, bones of the Mastodon mixed 
 with stone weapons found in, 37 
 
 shell-heaps in, 56 
 
 mounds in, 82, 85 
 
 mounds near Toolesborough, 84, 
 
 "3 
 
INDEX. 
 
 545 
 
 Iowa, skeletons in mounds at Daven- 
 port, 113 
 
 elephant-shape stone pipe from, 
 
 163 
 
 copper axes wrapped in cloth 
 
 from mounds, 17? 
 
 Ipswich (Massachusetts) human bones 
 with marks of workmanship, 59 
 
 Iron among the Mound Builders, 180 
 
 Iron (meteoric) in the Little Miami 
 mounds, 180 
 
 Iroquois, cannibalism amongst, 62 
 
 fortifications of, 98 
 
 Irrigation canals in Missouri, 129 
 
 Isle Royal, ancient copper mining on, 
 
 *79 
 
 IXTLILXOCHITL, the historian, 12 
 Izamal, ruins of, 349 
 
 Jadeite hatchet from Brazil, 475 
 Japan, resemblance of its prehistoric 
 
 pottery to that of America, 139 
 JONES, examination of twenty-one 
 
 skulls from Tennessee stone graves, 
 
 488 
 Juigalpa (Nicaragua), mounds near, 97 
 
 Kabah, ruins of, 340 
 
 Keosauqua (Iowa) shell-heap, 56 
 
 Kennicott mound, skulls from, of de- 
 graded type, 483 
 
 Kentucky, caves as burial places, 69. 
 
 human bones in cave near Louis- 
 ville, 74 
 
 Salt cave, 75 ; Saunders cave, 
 
 75 ; Haunted cave, 75 ; Short's 
 cave, 76 
 
 Kickapoo river (Wisconsin), mounds 
 on, 108-109 
 
 Kickapoos, cannibalism amongst, 62 
 
 Kincaid's Hat (Cal.), stone imple- 
 ments near, 39 
 
 Kitchen-Middens or shell-heaps de- 
 scribed, 46 ; where found, 47 ; their 
 large dimensions, 47 ; authorities 
 upon American, 47 ; stone imple- 
 ments uncommon in, 48 ; bones of 
 animals found in, 49 ; bones of 
 man found in, 51 ; in Oregon, 51 ; 
 on Vancouver's Island, 52 ; on the 
 Mississippi river, 56 ; on Florida 
 rivers, 57 ; contain shells of the 
 Ampullaria and Paludina, 57 ; 
 oysters most abundant in Danish 
 shell-heaps, 57 ; also in shell-heaps 
 of Cape Cod and Maine, 57 ; rude- 
 ness of pottery in Florida shell- 
 heaps, 58 
 
 Kitchen-Middens, Age of, 64 ; origin 
 unknown to the Indians, 64; on Point 
 St. George (California) attributed to 
 the Hohgates, 64 ; accumulations of 
 many generations, 65 ; those of Cal- 
 ifornia more recent than those of 
 Florida, 65 ; differences in their 
 contents not proof of different races, 
 66 ; date of formation estimated by 
 trees growing upon them, 67 
 
 Kokopas (Indians), cremation 
 amongst, 119 
 
 Koleemokee, pyramid of, 106 
 
 Labna, ruins of, 340 
 
 Lagoa Santa (Brazil), skull, descrip- 
 tion of, 478 
 
 Lake Monroe (Florida), shell-heap 
 with human bones, 58 
 
 the source of the Mound Build- 
 ers, copper, 178 
 
 Lake Superior mines, stone hammers 
 in, 39 
 
 Languages, the number of dialects, 5 
 
 Aymara and Guarani, 5 
 
 division of dialects into groups, 5 
 
 resemblance in structure of, 6 
 
 La Plata, earthenware and arrow 
 heads from the banks of, 27 
 
 pottery of, 472 
 
 Liberty (Ohio), mounds at, 100 
 
 Llama, its utility, 3 
 
 Llautu (the), 419 
 
 Lookout Mountain, mound on, 92 
 
 Lonllard City, ruins of, 333 
 
 Louisiana, ancient skeleton found in 
 New Orleans, 35 
 
 reed mat found in salt mines on 
 
 Island of Petite Anse, 36 ; associa- 
 ted with bones of an elephant 
 
 shell-heaps in, 47 
 
 mounds in, 82 
 
 garden beds in, 182 
 
 Louisville (Kentucky), human bones 
 in cave near, 74 
 
 Lowland villages described, 203, the 
 estufas, 204 ; observation towers, 
 204 
 
 Lund, remarks of the Lagoa-SanU 
 skull, 479, 480 
 
 MacElmo valley, ancient ruins in, 
 
 214 
 Mackinac Island, sea shell pendants 
 
 from, 173 
 Madisonville, pits at, 52, 53 ; one of 
 
 them contains com, 53 
 
546 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERTCA. 
 
 Madisonville (Ohio), skeletons in 
 mounds at, 113 
 
 Mahquahwitl (the), 170 
 
 Maine, shell heaps, 48 ; bones of ani- 
 mals found in, 49 
 
 cannibalism in, 59 
 
 Mammoth Cave, platycriemic tibiae 
 from, 493 
 
 Mammoth in glacial clay in Ohio, 19 
 
 Man on the American Continent, his 
 great antiquity, 14 
 
 Manecas (terra-cotta statuettes) in 
 Honduras and Guatemala, 167 
 
 Mandans, fortifications of, 98 
 
 Manioc, idigenous to America, 4 
 
 Manuscripts of the Aztecs, the Troano 
 manuscript, 379 
 
 of the Mexicans, 379 ; different 
 
 styles of, 380 
 
 Maranhao (Brazil), weapons from, 475 
 Marginella apicina, shells of, in Big 
 
 Mound, St. Louis, 117 
 Marginella conoidalis, 172 
 Marietta (Ohio), mounds at, 102 
 Maroni river (Guiana), polished stone 
 
 hatchets from the banks of, 27 
 Massachusetts, shell-heaps in, 47, 48 
 
 human bones, with marks of 
 
 workmanship, at Ipswich, 59 
 
 Mastodon, 15 
 
 in glacial clay in Ohio, 19 
 
 with human remains in Buenos 
 
 Ayres, 28 
 
 Matontiple, mound at, 105 
 
 Maumis, cannibalism, 62 
 
 Mayas (the), 12 
 
 Mayas (the), 262 ; their empire and 
 capital, 263, 264 ; legend about the 
 founding of the confederation, 264 ; 
 Votan, 264 ; katunes of Maya his- 
 tory, 265 ; manuscripts of, 266 ; 
 religious sacrifices, 266 ; idols, 268 ; 
 metals, ornaments, and weapons, 
 269 
 
 navigation among, 269 ; houses, 
 
 270 ; temples, 270 
 
 crania of, artificially deformed, 
 
 500 
 
 Megaliths, 424 
 Megalonyx, 15 
 Megatherium, 15, 1 6 
 Menhirs, on mounds at Esquimalt, 52 
 Mercedes (Buenos Ayres), human fos- 
 sils near, 29 
 
 Merom, skulls from, 483 
 Messier mound (Georgia), 106 
 Mexicans, 6 
 Mexico, city of, scraper from near, 22 
 
 Mexico, cannibalism in, 61 
 
 caves as burial places, 69 ; in 
 
 general they contain no evidence of 
 
 previous habitation, 69 
 
 mounds in, 82 
 
 ancient bas-reliefs of the serpent, 
 
 127 
 Mexico, resemblance of its ancient 
 
 monuments to those of Egypt, 14 
 worked stones in post-tertiary 
 
 beds, 22 ; hatchet from the Rio 
 
 Juchipila, 22 ; spear point from the 
 
 Guanajuato, 22 ; scraper from near 
 
 Mexico, 22 
 traaitions regarding convulsions 
 
 of nature in, 17 
 
 or Tenochtitlan, founding of, 
 
 285 
 
 resemblance of skulls from, to 
 
 those of the Mound Builders, 500 
 
 Mica, in the mounds, 109 
 
 Mica ornaments (see ornaments). 
 
 Michigan, mounds in, 82 
 
 ancient pottery in, 136 
 
 collar of bear teeth and beads of 
 
 birds bones and copper, from near 
 
 St. Clair river, 172 
 Minnesota, shell heaps, 56 
 
 sepulchral mounds on the St. 
 
 Peter's River, 121 
 
 spider-shaped mound in 123 
 
 Mississippi, jar from near the Talla- 
 
 hatchie river, 168 
 
 mounds in, 82 
 
 sepulchral mound near Musca- 
 
 catine, 119 
 
 pottery in sepulchral mounds, 
 
 151 
 
 shell-heaps on banks of, 56 
 
 Mississippi valley, mounds in, 80 
 Missouri, Mastodon and arrow points 
 near Bourbeuse river, 36 
 
 same near Potato river, 37 
 
 shell-heaps, 56 
 
 cave in Pulaski county, 70 
 
 mounds in, 82 
 
 number of mounds in, 85 
 
 mounds near St. I.ouis, 86 
 
 mounds at Sandy-Woods settle- 
 ment, 95 
 
 sepulchral mounds near Trenton, 
 
 114 
 
 irrigation canals in, 129 
 
 ancient pottery in, 135, 136 
 
 clay bottle at New Madrid, 139 
 
 pottery jar from, 139 
 
 vase in sepulchral mound in, 142 
 
 143 
 
INDEX. 
 
 547 
 
 Missouri, vase from New Madrid, 144 
 
 vase from grave, 146 
 
 cooking pot, 148 ; vessel with 
 
 spout, 148 ; vessel from, 149 ; basins 
 
 from, 149, 150 
 
 cup from New Madrid, 150 
 
 pottery in sepulchral mounds, 
 
 151 
 
 earthenware pipe from, 152 
 
 red vase with snake, 153 
 
 fish-shaped vase from, 155 
 
 vases representing man, 156, 157, 
 
 158 
 
 pipes from Mound City, 164 
 
 pipe from, 165 
 
 ancient mining in, 180 
 
 skull associated with tooth of a 
 
 mastodon from New Madrid mound, 
 482 
 
 low type skull from mounds of, 
 
 487 
 
 two categories of skulls authen- 
 ticated, 488 
 
 Missouri valley, mounds in, 80 
 
 Mitla, ruins of, 364 
 
 Mixcoatl, the serpent of the clouds, 
 god of the Chichimecs, 280 
 
 Mobile, shell-heap 50 miles from, 48 
 
 Monkey, found fossil in Brazil, by 
 Lund, 25 
 
 Monks' Mound, 103 
 
 Monte Cuyo, near Yalahao, the work 
 of man, 82 
 
 Montezuma valley, ancient ruins in, 
 217 
 
 Mounds, alluded to by the Spaniards, 
 80 ; first specially noticed by Car- 
 ver (1776) and Harte (1791), 80; 
 Breckenridge (1814) wrote about 
 them, 80 ; scientifically described 
 by Squier and Davis, 80 ; the 
 mounds described, 8l, 83 ; near 
 Campana (Buenos Ayres), 83, 84. 
 
 classification of, 87, 88 ; defen- 
 sive works, 88 ; modern cities on 
 the sites, of, 88 ; at Bourneville 
 (Ohio), 89 ; at Fort Hill (Ohio), 89, 
 90 ; in Clarke county (Ohio), 90 ; 
 Clark's works in Ross county 
 (Ohio), 91 ; along the Big Harpeth 
 and Great Miami rivers, 91 ; Miam- 
 isburgh mound, 92 ; Fort Ancient, 
 92 ; on Lookout Mountain, 92 ; 
 Aztalan, Rock river (Wisconsin), 
 92, 93 ; at Greenwood (Tennessee), 
 94 ; at Sandy-Woods settlement 
 (Missouri), 95 ; on Little River, 96 ; 
 near Juigalpa, (Nicaragua), 97 ; gen- 
 
 eral form of the mounds (for de- 
 fence) of the Mississippi valley, 97; 
 erected as permanent fortifications, 
 97, 98 ; among the Indians, 98 ; at 
 Newark (Ohio), 99 ; at Chillicothe 
 (O.), 100 ; at Hopetown (O.). 100 ; 
 at Liberty (O.). 100 ; at Circleville 
 (O.), 101 ; near Black Run, Ross 
 county (O.), 101 ; as temples, 
 101 ; at Marietta (O.). 102 ; at 
 Cahokia (Illinois), 103 ; at Seltzer- 
 town, 103 ; at New Madrid, 
 104 ; at Matontiple, 105 ; on 
 the Etowah river, 105 ; the Mes- 
 sier mound (Georgia), 106 ; the 
 pyramid of Koleemokee, 106 ; in the 
 Cumberland valley (Tennessee), 
 106 ; at Olympia, (Washington Ter- 
 ritory), 106 ; at Florence (Alabama), 
 106 ; as altars, 107 ; on the Kick- 
 apoo river (Wisconsin), 108, 109 ; 
 sepulchral mounds, 1 10 ; different 
 positions of the bodies in, in, 112 ; 
 at Chillicothe (O.). 112 ; at Madison, 
 ville (O.). "3 I at Davenport (la.), 
 113; at Toolesborough (Iowa), 113; 
 at Trenton (Missouri), 114; near 
 Nashville (Tennessee), 115; at 
 Grove creek (Virginia), 116; at 
 Harrisonville (Ohio), 116 ; in Utah, 
 116; Big Mound (St. Louis), 117; 
 Connett's mound (Ohio), 118 ; in 
 Florida, lib ; near Muscatine 
 (Mississippi), 119 ; in Carroll coun- 
 ty, (Illinois), 120 ; on the St. Pe- 
 ter's river (Minnesota), 121 ; mounds 
 representing animals, 123 ; almost 
 confined to the Northern and West- 
 ern States, 123 ; bird-shaped mound 
 in Georgia, 123 ; at Pewaukee (Wis- 
 consin), 123 ; in Dane county 
 (Wisconsin), 124 ; " Alligator ' 
 mound, Granville (Ohio), 125 ; 
 " Mastodon " mound, 125 ; animal- 
 shaped mounds in Wisconsin, 126 ; 
 snake-shaped mound on Brush 
 creek (Ohio), 126 ; on the banks of 
 the Wisconsin, 127 ; cross-shaped 
 mounds, 129 ; boat-shaped mound 
 on the Scioto, 129 ; mounds Obsid- 
 ian in, 170 
 
 Monuments of Mexico, Peru, and 
 Central America, their resemblance 
 to the temples and palaces of 
 Egypt, 14 
 
 Moreau river, mound city on, 1 86 
 MORENO, paraderosin Buenos Ayres, 
 54 
 
548 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Morton's tables of capacities of In- 
 dian skulls, 486 
 
 Mound Builders, see also under " Pre- 
 historic Americans " 
 
 Mound Builders, their weapons, see 
 " Weapons of the Mound Build- 
 ers" 
 
 Mound Builders in the Mississippi 
 valley, 13 
 
 cremation practiced amongst, 
 
 in, 118, 119 
 
 cannibalism amongst, 119 
 
 irrigation canals built by, 129 
 
 the ancestors of the Indians, 130, 
 
 131 
 
 sturdy smokers, 1 60 
 
 method of executing their sculp- 
 tures, 1 68 
 
 their clothing, 177 
 
 territory occupied by, 183 ; char- 
 acteristics of, 183 ; did they disap- 
 pear ? 183 ; or are the red Indians 
 their descendants ? J 83, 184 ; all 
 the mounds the work of a people in 
 about the same stage of culture, 184 ; 
 the Mound Builders must have long 
 dwelt in the region, 184 ; symmetiy 
 of some of the mounds as evidence 
 that they were not built by the In- 
 dians, 186, 187 ; this and similar 
 arguments refuted by recent re- 
 searches, 187 ; not improbable that 
 sepulchral chambers were used by 
 some Indians, 1 88 ; testimony of 
 Spanish historians, 189 ; the natives 
 of Florida and the Mississippi val- 
 ley lived in fortified towns at the 
 time of the Spanish invasion, 189 ; 
 traces of structures analogous to the 
 mounds found among the Creeks 
 and Natchez, 190 ; chunk yards, 
 190 ; mounds in Western New York 
 believed to have been erected by 
 the Iroquois, 192 ; apparent differ- 
 ences in structure between the 
 Mound Builders and the Indians 
 tend to disappear on more thorough 
 examination, 194 ; resemblance of 
 the Mound Builders to the Aztecs, 
 196 ; estimates as to their antiquity, 
 196, 197 
 
 bones of, 481 ; skull from New 
 Madrid, Missouri, 482 
 
 Muirakitan the, 473 
 
 Mummies in caves, in California, 
 Mexico, and Peru, 69 
 
 Mummy from Chacota, 504 
 
 Mylodon, 15, 17 
 
 Nahuatl (the), race, n 
 
 cradle of the, 13 
 
 Neanderthal skull, comparison of, 
 
 with some skulls from the mounds, 
 
 483 
 Nebraska, bones of the mastodon 
 
 mixed with stone weapons, found 
 
 in, 37 
 
 mounds in, 82 
 
 New Almaden mines (Cal.), skeletons 
 
 and stone hammers in, 39 
 Newark (Ohio), mounds near, 99 
 New England, visited by Northmen, I 
 Newfoundland, its discovery, 52 ; 
 
 shell-heaps, 47, 52 ; uninhabited 
 
 when discovered, 52 
 New Jersey, stone hammer from 
 
 Pemberton, 22-24 
 
 palaeolithic implements in, 19, 
 
 20, 21 
 
 flint instruments from, 171 
 
 New Madrid (Missouri), mound at, 
 
 104 
 
 cup from, 150 
 
 position of bodies in mound at, 
 
 112 
 
 vase from, 144 
 
 skull from mound at, associated 
 
 with tooth of a mastodon, 482 
 
 New Mexico, Indians of, 78 
 
 veneration of the rattlesnake in, 
 
 127 
 
 New Orleans, human skull found 
 beneath a buried cypress, 35 
 
 its probable age, 35 
 
 New York, discoveries at High Rock 
 Spring (Saratoga), 74 
 
 mounds in, 82-85 
 
 Neyba (Peru), sculptured jaguar at 
 
 entrance of cave near, 465 
 Nezahualcoytl, poems of, 288 
 Nicaragua shell-heaps, 47. 
 
 mounds near Juigalpa, 97 
 
 Oajaca (Province), caves in, 74 
 Obsidian cut into knives, etc., by 
 Mexicans, 169-170 ; in mounds, 
 170 
 
 Ohio, bones of the mastodon, mam- 
 moth, etc., between beds of glacial 
 clay, 18 
 
 Shelter cave, 71 ; cave in 
 
 Summit county, 72 
 
 Ash cave, 72 
 
 The centre of mound building, 
 
 84 
 
 mounds in Athens county, 86 
 
 mound at Fort Hill, 89, 90 
 
INDEX. 
 
 549 
 
 Ohio, mound in Clarke county, 90, gl 
 
 " Clark's " works, Ross county, 
 
 91 
 mounds at Bourneville, 89 
 
 mounds at Newark, 99 
 
 at Chillicothe, at Hopetown, at 
 
 Liberty, 100 ; at Circleville, 101 ; 
 near Black Run, Ross county, 101 
 
 mounds at Chillicothe, Ports- 
 mouth, Marietta, 102 
 
 sepulchral mounds at Madison- 
 
 ville, 113 
 
 Connett's mound, near Dover, 
 
 118 
 
 alligator mound at Granville, 
 
 125 
 
 snake-shaped mound on Brush 
 
 creek, 126 
 
 cross-shaped mounds in, 129 
 
 pottery jar from, 140 
 
 heron-shaped pipe from, 163 
 
 terra cotta figures in mounds 
 
 near the Little Miami river, 167 
 
 serpentine axes from, 170 
 
 shell ornaments from mounds 
 
 near the Little Miami, 172 
 
 copper beads from Connett's 
 
 mound, 174 
 
 cloth in mounds of, 177 
 
 low type skulls from certain 
 
 mounds in, 484 
 
 Ohio valley, mounds in, 80 
 Old Town shell-heap, its age, 67 
 Ollantay-Tambo, fortress of, 416 
 Olympia (Wash. Ter.), mounds near, 
 
 106 
 Oregon, shell-heaps, 51 
 
 mounds in, 83 
 
 skulls in the shell-heaps of, 480 
 
 Origin of man in America, man not 
 indigenous to the New World, 518, 
 519 ; he had extended his geographi- 
 cal range over an immense area 
 when his culture was of the lowest 
 kind, 520 ; impossible to fix the 
 date for this extension, 520 , ad- 
 vance of culture unequal in differ- 
 ent localities, and dependent upon 
 the environment, 520 ; origin of the 
 family, 520 ; primitive man a slave 
 to nature, 521 ; physical character- 
 istics of American aborigines point 
 toward affinities with people of the 
 Pacific region, 522 ; emigration 
 possible vid Bering Strait, 522 ; also 
 along the thirtieth south parallel, 
 523 ; it probably took place by both 
 routes, 523; nothing definite known 
 
 of the spread of the emigrants ex- 
 cepting the simple fact, 523 ; suc- 
 cessive waves of migration, 523 ; 
 emigrants differed somewhat in cul- 
 ture, but this will not account for 
 differences of culture in the pre-his- 
 toric Americans, 524 ; stages of 
 progress and changes, 524 ; lan- 
 guage, 525 ; analogies in develop- 
 ment of ideas and customs not very 
 significant, 525 ; myths and legends, 
 526 ; legends of the Toltecs and the 
 Qquiches, Zamna, Cukulcan, and 
 Quetzacoatl, 526 ; legends of the 
 Shawnees, the Natchez, the Tusca- 
 roras, 526 ; the Peruvians and 
 Manco-Capac and Mama-CEllo, 527; 
 tradition of the Guaranis, 527 ; 
 other legends, 527 ; legends about 
 floods, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531 ; 
 crude hypotheses regarding ances- 
 tors of the Americans, 531 
 Ornaments of the Mound Builders, 
 171 ; near St. Clair River (Michigan), 
 171 ; copper ornaments in Ten- 
 nessee, 172; mica ornaments at 
 Grave Creek (Virginia), 172 ; on 
 the Little Miami (Ohio), 172 ; shell 
 ornaments, 172 ; from Tennessee, 
 
 173 ; from Mackinac Island, 173 ; 
 shell pin from Ely mound (Virginia), 
 174 ; polished stone ornaments, 
 
 174 ; from Swanton (Vermont), 
 174 ; copper beads from Connett's 
 mound (Ohio), 174, 175; celts, 175 ; 
 copper cross at Zollicoffer Hill, 175- 
 177 ; copper turtles in Illinois, 177 ; 
 skin with copper beads, 178 
 
 Osceola mound, human remains prov- 
 ing cannibalism, 59 
 
 Otumba, resemblance of skulls from, 
 to those of the Mound Builders, 
 500 
 
 Ouitotos, cannibalism among, 63 
 
 Ozark mountains, ancient mining in 
 the, 1 80 
 
 Ozark hills, covered with cairns, 84 
 
 Pachacamac, ruins of, 392 ; cemetery 
 
 at, 433 
 
 Palca (Peru), chulpa at, 425 
 Palenque, monuments of, 318 
 Pampas (the), human remains found 
 in, 28. 29, 30, 31 
 
 theories of Darwin, Burmeister, 
 
 Bravard, Ameghino, D'Orbigny, re- 
 garding their geological age and 
 method of formation, 31, 32 
 
550 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Para (Brazil), intaglio, sculptures of, 
 469 
 
 Paraderos of Patagonia, triangular ar- 
 row-points in, 27 
 
 ol La Plata and Buenos Ayres, 54, 
 
 55 
 
 Parana (the), paradero on, 54 ; re- 
 markable implements in the, 55 
 
 discoveries of arms of plastic 
 
 clay near the mouth of, 474 
 
 Patagonia, ancient men of small stat- 
 ure and dolichocephalic, 505 
 
 arrow-points in the paraderos 
 
 of, 27 ; some resemble European, 
 others Peruvian types, 27 
 
 discovery of a skull on the banks 
 
 of the Rio Negro, 32 
 
 shell-heaps, 47 
 
 mounds in, 83 
 
 deformation of Tehuelches, 
 
 skulls from, 511 
 
 Patagonians, their lofty stature, 3, 10 
 Paucar-Tambo, tombs in the valley of, 
 
 435 
 
 Pemberton (New Jersey), stone ham- 
 mer from, 22, 24 
 
 Pennsylvania, ancient soapst.one quar- 
 ry at Christiana, Lancaster county, 
 
 51 
 
 cannibalism in, 61 
 
 deposits of guano containing gold 
 
 and silver images, 68 
 
 caves as burial places, 69 
 
 cave with human remains on the 
 
 Susquehanna, 73 
 
 mounds in, 8l, 82 
 
 mounds in Pike county, 86 
 
 human remains enclosed in bas- 
 kets, 114 
 
 Peru, the country described, 387 ; the 
 empire of the Incas, 388 ; Tavan- 
 tisuyu the real name, 388 ; the 
 region defined, 388 ; the origin of 
 the Incas, 389 ; Aymaras and 
 Qquichuas, 390 ; Manco-Capac, 
 389, 391 ; Atahualpa, 391 ; landing 
 of Pizarro, 391 ; ruins of Peru, 392 ; 
 Pachacamac, 392 ; the Chimus, 394 ; 
 Montesinos, accounts of, 395 ; the 
 city of Chimu, 395; "huacas," 
 395, Obispo huaca, 396; huaca of 
 Moche, 396 ; necropolis of Chimu, 
 399 ; el presidio, 399 ; private 
 houses, 400 ; Tiaguanaco. 400 ; 
 monoliths, 401 ; of earlier date than 
 the Incas, 401 ; were the builders 
 of Tiaguanaco related to the Qqui- 
 chuas ? 406 ; Lake Titicaca, 406 ; 
 
 island of Titicaca, 406 ; ruins on, 
 407 ; buildings erected by Tupac- 
 Yupanqui, the eleventh Inca, 408 ; 
 island of Coati, ruins of, 409 ; 
 island of Soto, 410 ; Cuzco, legend 
 of its foundation, 410 ; difficulties 
 of building, 411 ; ruins of, 411 ; 
 grandeur of the Sacsahuaman, or 
 fortress, 412 ; aqueduct, 413 ; the 
 temple, 413 ; private dwellings of 
 the Incas, 414 ; fortresses of Peru, 
 415; ruins on the Ucayali, 415 ; for- 
 tress of Ollantay-Tambo, 416 ; the 
 tower of Calca, 417 ; the valley of 
 Pauca-Tambo and the fortress of 
 Pisac, 417; intihuatana, 417; the 
 fortress of Piquillacta, 419 ; the 
 fortress of Choccequirao, 419 ; roads 
 of Peru, 421 ; reservoirs and ace- 
 quias, 422 ; in the valley of La Ne- 
 pana, 422 ; in Huanuco Viejo, 423 ; 
 agriculture, 423 ; funeral rites, 424 ; 
 sepulchres of the Aymaras, 424 ; 
 megaliths, 424 , megaliths of Vil- 
 cabamba and Chicuito, 424 ; mega- 
 liths and chulpas at Acora, 424 ; 
 chulpa near Palca, 425 ; chulpas 
 of the basin of Lake Titicaca, 426 ; 
 near Tiuhuani in the Escoma val- 
 ley, 427 , burial customs at time of 
 conquest, 427 ; burial customs on 
 the Pacific coast, 428 ; mummies 
 from Arica and the Bay of Cha- 
 cota, 430; method of preserving the 
 bodies, 430 ; contents of tombs, 
 431 ; huaca at Iquique, 433 ; ceme- 
 tery at Pachacamac, 433 ; caves as 
 burial places, 435 ; Tantama-Mar- 
 ca, 435 ; tombs in the valley of 
 Pauca-Tambo, 435 ; infernillos, 
 435 ; mano Colorado, 435 ; religious 
 ideas of the Peruvians, 435; Hanan- 
 pacha and Urupacha, 436 ; nature 
 worship and inferor gods, 436 ; a 
 Deus ignotus, 437 ; human sacrifice, 
 437 ; government of the Incas, 438 ; 
 the curacas, 438 ; penal laws, 439 ; 
 marriage. 439 ; property, 440 ; do- 
 mestic animals, 440 ; dwellings, 
 441 ; results of the form of govern- 
 ment, 441 ; pottery, 442 ; resem- 
 blance to early European pottery, 
 444; vases from Chimbote and San- 
 ta, 445 ; the silvador, 446 ; musical 
 instruments, 449 ; cloth, 449 ; the 
 art of dyeing, 449 ; mines and 
 mining, 450 ; the jewellers' art, 
 450; iron unknown, 451; copper 
 
INDEX. 
 
 55* 
 
 implements, weapons, 452 ; batons, 
 453 ; Pintados or inscriptions, 453 ; 
 Peruvians unacquainted with any 
 system of writing at time of con- 
 quest, 456 ; quipos, 457 ; means of 
 transmitting the orders of the Incas 
 458 
 
 Peru, resemblance of its ancient 
 monuments to those of Egypt, 14 
 
 traditions regarding convulsions 
 
 of nature in, 17 
 
 mounds in, 83 
 
 Peruvians. (See also under ' ' Pre-his- 
 toric Americans.") 
 
 Pewaukee (Wisconsin), animal-shaped 
 mounds at, 123 
 
 Phallic cultus in the New World, 159 
 
 Piauhy (Brazil), intaglio sculptures of, 
 469 
 
 Pictography, of the Cliff Dwellers, 
 246 ; on boulders in Arizona, 247 ; 
 on the banks of the San Juan, 248 ; 
 near the MacElmo, 248 ; near the 
 Pecos ruins, 248 ; on the Puerco 
 and Zuni rivers, 249 ; near Salt 
 Lake City, 249 ; in Licking valley, 
 250 ; in Cuyahoga and Belmont 
 counties, 250 ; in Vermont, 250 ; 
 in Nicaragua, 250 ; in Oajaca, 
 251 ; in Sonora, 251 ; in Colum- 
 bia, 251 ; in Venezuela, 251 
 the Isthmus of Panama, 251 
 Nevada and California, 251 
 Tennessee, 254 ; in South America, 
 254 ; in Africa, 252, 253, 254 
 
 Piedras Pintadas, 470 
 
 Pinart, skull discovered by, in a 
 tumulus near the Casa-Grande of 
 Montezuma, 499 
 
 Piquillacta, fortress of, 419 
 
 Pisac, fortress of, 417 
 
 Platycnemia, among the Mound 
 Builders, 492, 493 ; its possible 
 cause, 494 ; among the early Euro- 
 peans, 494 
 
 Popol Vuh (the), 144 
 
 Porcelain in the Tula ruins, 356 
 
 Porto Seguro, landing of Cabral 
 at, 9 
 
 Portuguese, part taken by, in the dis- 
 covery of the New World, 8 
 
 Potato River (Missouri), mastodon and 
 arrow-points near, 37 
 
 Pottery of the Cliff Dwellers and the 
 inhabitants of the pueblos, 240 ; 
 great quantity of, 241 ; its superior- 
 ity to that of the Mound Builders, 
 242 ; jar found in Utah, 242 ; it 
 
 was baked, 243 ; and covered with 
 a varnish, 243 
 Pottery of the inhabitants of the 
 
 pueblos, its decoration, 244 
 Pottery of the Peruvians, 442 
 Pottery, weapons, and ornaments : 
 Pottery among the first inven- 
 tions of the human race, 133 ; 
 moulded on gourds in Florida, 134 ; 
 in the mounds of St. Louis, 135 ; 
 at Sandy Woods, 136 ; in Michigan, 
 136 ; in Vermont, 136, 137 ; Amer- 
 ican pottery superior to European, 
 136 ; method of baking, 137 ; em- 
 ployment of moulds, 138 ; size of 
 the pots, 138 ; the potter's wheel 
 unknown, 138 ; bottle in Missouri, 
 
 139 ; in Japan, 139 ; jar in Ohio, 
 
 140 ; vase in Arkansas, 141 ; means 
 of coloring, 141 ; vase in sepul- 
 chral mound in Missouri, 142 ; or- 
 namentation of, 142, 143 ; vase at 
 New Madrid (Missouri), 144 ; vase 
 in child's grave, Tennessee, 145 ; 
 vase from Missouri grave, 146 ; 
 vase with handles from Tennessee, 
 147 ; cooking pot from Missouri, 
 148 ; vessel with spout from Mis- 
 souri, 148 ; vessel from Missouri, 
 149; basins from, 149, 150; cup 
 from New Madrid (Missouri), 150 ; 
 in sepulchral mounds in Missouri, 
 151 ; ditto, in Tennessee, 151 ; ditto, 
 in Mississippi, 151 ; pipe from Ten- 
 nessee, 152 ; ditto, from Missouri, 
 152; red vase, with snake, from 
 Missouri, 153; " bear "-shaped vase 
 from Tennessee, 154; pig-shaped 
 vase, 155; fish-shaped vase, 155; 
 vases with representations of men, 
 156 ; from Belmont (Missouri), 156 ; 
 from New Madrid (Missouri), 157 ; 
 few indecent objects among, 159; 
 superiority of, to Uiat of Swiss Lake 
 Dwellers, 159 ; soapstone pipe, 161 ; 
 pipe representing a wild cat, 162 ; 
 ditto, a woodpecker (?), 162 ; ditto, 
 an elephant, 163 ; ditto, a heron, 
 163 ; pipes from Mound City, 164 ; 
 from Connecticut, Virginia, Mis- 
 souri, Indiana, 164, 165 ; pipe- 
 stems in Ohio, California, Massa- 
 chusetts, Mississippi valley, Ver- 
 mont, 165 ; images in Tennessee, 
 167 ; near the Little Miami river 
 (Ohio), 167 ; serpentine cups from 
 California, 168 , dishes from verte- 
 brae of Cetacea, 168 ; jar from near 
 
552 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 the Tallahatchee river (Mississippi), ' 
 168 ; human masks in stone, 168 
 
 Pre-historic Americans, of the same 
 type as those of Europe and Asia, 15 
 
 phases of their civilization 
 
 analogous to that of the Euro- 
 peans, 476 ; paucity of their rel- 
 ics. 476 ; numerous errors resulting 
 from excavations by untrained men, 
 477 ; skull from near Denver (?), 
 477 ; Ameghino's discoveries of hu- 
 man bones with the remains of the 
 glyptodon, etc., in the La Plata 
 pampas, 477 ; discoveries near Pon- 
 timelo, in Buenos Ayres, 478 ; con- 
 temporaneity of man and the glyp- 
 todon not, however, thoroughly 
 proven, 478 ; the skull of Lagoa 
 Santa (Brazil) described, 478 [a 
 similar skull found at Rock Bluff, 
 Illinois, 479] ; remarks on the La- 
 goa-Santa skull by Lund and De 
 Quatrefages, 479, 480 ; skulls in 
 shell-heaps on the California and 
 Oregon coasts, 480 ; skulls in stea- 
 tite quarry on island of Santa Cata- 
 lina, 481 ; skulls in Florida shell- 
 heaps, 481 ; bones of the Mound 
 Builders, 481 ; skull associated with 
 tooth of a mastodon, from mound 
 at New Madrid, Missouri, 482 ; the 
 discovery of fragments of decorated 
 pottery casts doubts upon the an- 
 tiquity of the skull, 482 ; skulls of 
 low type found in some mounds, 
 483 ; comparison of Stimpson's 
 mound skull and Dunleith (Indiana) 
 mound skull with the Neanderthal 
 skull, 483 ; skulls from Kennicott 
 mound of degraded type, 483 ; skulls 
 of analogous type from Missouri, 
 Dakota, Chihuahua (Mexico), and 
 Ohio, 484 ; prominent eyebrows and 
 retreating foreheads in skulls from 
 Wisconsin, Mississippi valley, and 
 Tennessee mounds, 485 ; analogous 
 remains from the mounds near the 
 great lakes, on the Red River, and 
 Detroit River, 485 ; skulls from Cir- 
 cular mound, from Western mound, 
 and from Fort Wayne mound, 485 ; 
 some skulls of very small cubical 
 contents, 486; skulls differing 
 greatly in shape often found in same 
 mound, 487 ; some instances, 487 ; 
 some measurements of skulls by 
 Farquharson, Carr, and Jones, 487, 
 488 ; two categories of skulls from 
 
 Missouri, 488 ; individual variations, 
 488 ; skull of a child from Atacama 
 and from Alabama, 488 ; Morton's 
 theory of the unity of physical type 
 of the Americans, 488 ; the form of 
 skull has but a very generalized 
 value, 489 ; the Scioto skull from 
 Chillicothe, and different theories 
 relating thereto, 489, 490 ; some 
 measurements of the capacity of the 
 skulls of the Mound Builders, 490 ; 
 capacity of the skulls of modern 
 races, 491 ; the Mound Builders 
 seem to stand low in the comparison, 
 491 ; exceptional large skulls from 
 Tennessee stone graves, 491 ; from 
 an Illinois mound, 491 ; the ex- 
 tremely small " Albany skull," 491 ; 
 extremes vitiate averages, 492 ; cra- 
 nial capacity not proof of high in- 
 tellectuality, nor vice versa, 492 ; 
 platycnemia among American races, 
 
 492 ; this form of tibia occurs in 
 30 % of the remains from mounds in 
 Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan, and 
 Indiana, and from the Florida shell- 
 heaps, also from Mammoth Cave, 
 
 493 ; it also occurs in bones from 
 the Red River and Fort Wayne 
 mounds, and the tumuli of the St. 
 Clair River, those near Lake Huron, 
 on the one on Chamber's Island 
 (Wisconsin), 493 ; from near the 
 Detroit River, 494 ; causes of 
 platycnemia, 494 ; an indication of 
 a low type of physical structure, 
 
 494 ; platycnemia in Europe, 494 I 
 perforation of the humerus consid- 
 ered a racial characteristic, 495 ; 
 frequently noticed in bones from the 
 mounds, 495 ; considered a charac- 
 teristic of physical inferiority, but it 
 appears difficult to establish a gen- 
 eral law. 495 ; but one skeleton out 
 of ten found at Fort Wayne has 
 perforation of the olecranon fossa, 
 
 495 ; a tendency to perforation 
 seems to diminish among European 
 races, 496 ; Mound Builders said to 
 have long arms, but this contradicted 
 by facts, 496 ; their variation in 
 stature, 496 ; seven-foot skeleton 
 from stone grave in Tennessee, and 
 skeletons exceeding six feet in 
 height found in Utah and Michi- 
 gan, 496 ; but as a rule the Mound 
 Builders were not above ordinary 
 size, and many of them were of 
 
INDEX. 
 
 553 
 
 small stature, 497 ; bones of the 
 Cliff Dwellers, but few discovered, 
 497 ; skull from the Chaco cafton 
 (New Mexico), 497, 498 ; two skulls 
 from near Abiquico (New Mexico), 
 described by Dr. Bessels, 498 ; re- 
 semblance of these to two skulls 
 from Tennessee, 499 ; De Quatre- 
 fages and Hamy on the ethnic 
 identity of the Mound Builders and 
 Cliff Dwellers, 499 ; the builders of 
 the Casas-Grandes probably of the 
 same race, 499 ; Pinart's discoveries 
 in a tumulus near the Casa-Grande 
 of Montezuma, 499 ; skull from 
 Teul, 499 ; type of mound crania 
 no longer general, 500 ; analogies 
 of mound .crania with those of the 
 ancient inhabitants of Anahuac ; 
 skulls from tombs of Mexico, 
 Otumba, and Tacuba, and Santiago- 
 Tlatelolcoli, 500 ; crania of the 
 Mayas as seen in bas-reliefs of Pal- 
 enque, 500 ; artificially deformed, 
 
 500 ; crania of the builders of the 
 monuments in Yucatan and Hon- 
 duras of a different type, 500; 
 sculptures of Chichen-Itza, 500; 
 artificial deformation of skulls 
 amongst the Peruvians, three kinds 
 of deformation practised, according 
 to Gosse : the occipital, the elon- 
 gated symmetrical, and the cunei- 
 form, 501 ; small capacity of the 
 crania from Ancon, from Chimu, 
 
 501 ; table of cranial capacities, 
 
 502 ; average capacity of Peruvian 
 skulls according to Morton and 
 Meigs and Squier, 502 ; races of 
 Peru, the Chinchas, the Aymaras, 
 the Huancas, 502 ; Rivero and 
 Tschudi think that artificial defor- 
 mation was confined to the Chin- 
 chas, doubts about this, 502 ; diffi- 
 culties in studying race-types 
 greatly increased by intermixture of 
 races, 503 ; skulls of a variety of 
 shapes found at the castillo of the 
 great Chimu by Squier, 503 ; Dr. 
 Wilson admits only two distinct 
 types of Peruvian skulls, 503 ; dif- 
 ferences in skull types do not neces- 
 sarily imply different races, 504 ; 
 observations from mummies, 504 ; 
 mummy from Chacota, 504 ; hair of 
 the Peruvians of fine texture, prob- 
 ably black in color, 504 ; false hair 
 was worn by both men and women, 
 
 505 ; mummied head of a man, 505. 
 
 506 ; ancient men of Patagonia re- 
 sembled the Eskimo, 505 ; dolicho- 
 cephalic skulls from Brazil, 505 ; 
 the Botocudos a dolichocephalic 
 race, 505 ; they present analogies 
 with the Eskimo, 505 ; were these 
 people contemporaries of the Euro- 
 pean paleolithic people? 506 ; syphi- 
 lis amongst the Mound Builders 
 and in Patagonia, 507 ; the Ma\a> 
 acquainted with venereal affections, 
 508 ; other diseases of the bones, 
 508 ; Farquh arson describes a lesion 
 which appears to have been cured, 
 508 ; skulls bearing traces of ancient 
 inflammation, from Tennessee, 508 ; 
 anchylosed vertebral column from 
 the Aleutian Islands, collected by 
 Dall, 508 ; hurts from traumatic- 
 causes not rare, 508 ; fractured Pe- 
 ruvian skulls with evidence of recov- 
 eT' 59 I trepanned skull from Yu- 
 cay valley, 509, 510; posthumous 
 trepannings of fiequent occurrence, 
 509 ; hypotheses regarding these, 
 509 ; trepanned skulls from Sable 
 and Red River mounds and from 
 mounds in Michigan, 510; trepan- 
 ning only practised on adult males, 
 510; trepanned skulls in Europe, 
 difficulty of comparing these with 
 the American skulls, 511; skull de- 
 formation practised by the Indians 
 at time of conquest, 511; the cus- 
 tom very ancient, 512 ; deformation 
 practised by all the Maya races. 
 512; idols with flattened heads, 
 512 ; means employed, 512 ; by thi- 
 Choctaws, by the Mosquitos, in 
 Yucatan, 513; health nor intelli- 
 gence apparently injured by this 
 custom, 513 ; deformation prac- 
 tised in Europe and Asia, 513 ; in 
 Oceanica, 514 ; in France, defor- 
 mation toulousaine, 515 ; was de- 
 formation always voluntary ? 515. 
 CONCLUSIONS. The pre-historic 
 American differs but little from the 
 Indians, and there is no essential 
 physical difference between him and 
 the ancient European, 516 ; varie- 
 ties and migrations of the Ameri- 
 cans, 5 
 
 Pre-historic man, existence of man in 
 
 the Quaternary period. 15 
 contemporary of extinct animals, 
 
 15 
 
554 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 Pre-historic man his weapons, 16 
 his existence during glacial times, 
 
 19 
 
 bones of, associated with those of 
 
 extinct animals, 23 
 
 his antiquity in America, accord- 
 ing to Lund, 26 
 
 his remains in the Sumidouro 
 
 cave connected with the reindeer 
 period in Europe and not with the 
 mammoth, 26 
 
 his remains associated with those 
 
 of the extinct mammalia in Buenos 
 Ayres, 28, 29 
 
 his skull found on the banks of 
 
 the Rio Negro (Patagonia), it is arti- 
 ficially deformed and shows traces 
 of periostitis, 33 
 
 skeletons from the ancient ceme- 
 
 teries of Patagonia, 33 
 
 in Louisiana, 34, 35 
 
 in Missouri, 36 ; in Iowa, 37 ; in 
 
 Nebraska, 37 ; in the Sierra Nevada 
 region, 37 
 
 in California, 37, 39, 45 
 
 in Arizona, 37 
 
 in Wyoming, 39 
 
 his remains found in the shell- 
 heaps, 51, 52, 53 
 
 a cannibal in Brazil, 53 
 
 a cannibal in Florida, 58, 59 ; in 
 
 New England, 59 
 
 his remains in caves in Cali- 
 fornia, Mexico, Peru, Virginia, 
 Tennessee, Kentucky, 69 
 
 on the Gasconade River (Mis- 
 souri), 70, ; in Shelter Cave (Ohio), 
 71 ; in Ash Cave (Ohio), 72 
 
 in Summit county (Ohio), 72 ; in 
 
 Pennsylvania, 73 
 
 probably inhabited wigwams 
 
 when caves were not available, 76 
 
 skeletons in the ruins of Aztalan 
 
 (Wisconsin), 93 
 
 skeletons in mounds at Sandy- 
 Woods settlement (Missouri), 95 
 
 a skull enclosed in pottery, 104, 
 
 105 
 
 Prescott, cannibalism in Mexico, 61 
 
 Pueblos, described, 200 ; Taos, 201 ; 
 Acoma, 201 ; estufas, 204 ; ob- 
 servation towers, 214 
 
 in Montezuma Valley, 217 ; on 
 
 the Rio de Chelly, 218 
 
 on the La Plata, 222 ; Casa- 
 
 Grande of the Rio Gila, 223 ; Casas- 
 Grandes in Chihuahua, 225 
 Pueblo Bonito (Pintado), 228 ; 
 
 Pueblo Bonito, 229 ; P. Hungo 
 Pavie, 232 ; P. Una Vida, 233 ; P. 
 Weje-Gi, 233 ; P. Penasca-Blanca, 
 233 ; P. Arroyo, 233 ; P. Alto, 234 
 P. Chettro-Kettle, 234 ; on Las 
 Animas river, 236 ; on the Pecos 
 river, 236 
 
 government of, 240 
 
 and cliff-dwellings, similarity of, 
 
 255 
 grouping of modern, 257 
 
 Quacalaco, towns in the province of, 
 
 discovered by Cortes, 7 
 Quemada, ruins of, 361 
 Quetzacoatl, legend of, 274 
 Quinames, legend concerning the, 264 
 Quipos, 457 
 
 Quirigua (Guatemala), ruins at, 373 
 Quito, conical mound, 400 feet high, 
 
 near, 81 
 
 Races and tribes of America in the 
 sixteenth century, 3, 7, 13 
 
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 555 
 
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 BERTRAND, " Bull Soc. Anth.," 494 
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 "Congres des Americanistes, "499 
 
 BIRCH, "Ancient Pottery," 134, 443 
 " Bird-shaped mounds in Putnam 
 
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 BLAKE (Carter), "Journal of the 
 
 Anth. Soc. of London," 494 
 BLAKE (J.), " Notes on a Collection 
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 BOLLAERT (W.), " Antiquarian, Eth- 
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 New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and 
 Chili," 388, 421, 423,430, 433,435. 
 
 443, 447, 453, 455, 459 
 
 " Memoirs of the Anthropo- 
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 BORDIER, " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 468, 
 506, 516 
 
 BOTURINI, " Idea de una nueva hist, 
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 BOYLE, "A Ride Across the Conti- 
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 BREBEUF (Father Jean de), "Voyage 
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 62 
 
 BRECKENRIDGK, "Views of Louisi- 
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 BRINTON, " Notes on the Floridian 
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 " The Myths of the New 
 
 World." 280 
 
 BROCA, " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 3. 494 
 ' Rev. d'Anth.," 510, 511 
 
 BRUHL (Dr.), Cincinnati lancet and 
 Clinic. 508 
 
 BRY, " Bresil Voy. de J. Stadius He- 
 sous," 61 
 
556 
 
 PRE-H1STOR1C AMERICA. 
 
 BRY, In " Collectiones perigrinatio- 
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 "Voyage de Joannes Lerus de 
 
 Burgundus," 61 
 
 "Bulletin Buffalo Soc. Nat. Hist., 
 1877," 177 
 
 "Bull. Soc. Anth.," 432, 467, 470, 
 
 475, 477- 
 BURGOA, " Geografica descripcion de 
 
 la parte septentrionnale del Polo 
 
 Artico de la America," 300, 363, 
 
 364, 366 
 "Burial Mounds in Ohio,"^4/. Ant., 
 
 in 
 
 BuRKART(J.), "Aufenthal und Reisen 
 
 in Mexico," 361 
 BURMEISTER, " Congres d'Anthropolo- 
 
 gie et d'Arche'ologie pre'historiques," 
 
 474 
 BURTON (R.), " Highlands of Brazil," 
 
 466 
 BUSK, " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 494 
 
 CARR (Lucien), " Recent Explora- 
 tions of Mounds near Davenport, 
 Iowa," 488, 490, 491 
 
 " Observations on the Crania 
 
 from the Stone Graves of Tennes- 
 see," 188, 508 
 
 " Rep., Am. Assoc.," 488. 
 
 " Mounds of the Mississippi 
 
 Valley," 131, 132 
 
 "Carta, segunda de relacion ap. Lo- 
 renzana," 7 
 
 CASTANEDA, " Voy. de Cibola," 208. 
 
 CASTANO DE LA COSA (G.), " Memo- 
 ria del Descubrimiento que hizo 
 en el Nuevo Mexico," 237 
 
 CATLIN, " Illustrations of the Man- 
 ners, Customs ana Conditions of the 
 North American Indians," 98, 190, 
 
 5" 
 CHANTRE, " Revue d'Anthrop., 1881," 
 
 160 
 CHARNAY, "Cites et Ruines Amer- 
 
 icaines," 306, 321, 334, 335, 337, 
 
 338, 341, 349. 500 
 " Bull. Soc. Geogr.," 322, 324, 
 
 356, 536 
 
 "Revue d'Ethnographie," 347, 
 
 348 
 
 CHILDE (E. Lee), Correspondent, 239 
 " Chronica de la Orden de N. P. S. 
 
 Aug.," 302 
 
 CHURCHILL, " Coll. of Voyages," 285 
 CLAVIGERO, "Hist. Antigua de Me- 
 
 jico," 164 
 " Storia Antica del Messico," 225, 
 
 261, 276, 282, 285, 287, 288, 300, 
 301, 302, 307, 308, 349, 350, 363. 
 378, 507 
 
 CLAVIGERO, "Storia del la California," 
 78 
 
 COCKBURN, ' 'A Journey Overland from 
 the Gulf of Honduras to the Great 
 South Sea," 138 
 
 COGOLLUDO, " Hist de Yucatan," 269, 
 270, 349, 526 
 
 CONANT, " Footprints of Vanished 
 Races," 69, 87, 116, 117, 120, 127, 
 r 3, J 35. !39> r 46, 181, 228, 484, 
 488, 515, 517 
 
 Congress Arch, de Kazan, 60 
 
 Cong, des Am., 485 
 
 Contributions to North American Eth- 
 nology, 130, 522 
 
 COOK, " Voyage to the Pacific Ocean," 
 
 134 
 CORDELIER (P.Thevet), "Les singular- 
 
 ite's de la France Antarctique autre- 
 
 ment nomme'e Amerique," 521 
 CORTEREAL, " Voy. aux Indes Occi- 
 
 dentales," 166 
 CORTES, " Cartasy Relaciones al Em- 
 
 perador Carlos V.," 269, 270, 288, 
 
 308, 309. 358 
 Cox, a remarkable ancient stone fort 
 
 in Clarke county (Ohio), 90 
 CREVAUX, "Congr. Preh. de Paris, "63 
 GUSHING (Frank), Century Magazine, 
 
 239 
 
 DARWIN, " Voyage of the Beagle, "430 
 
 D'ANGHIERA (Peter Martyr), " DC 
 Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo," 
 62, 164, 267, 268, 271, 361, 379 
 
 DALL (W. H.), remains of later pre- 
 historic man from the caves of llie 
 Catherina Archipelago, Alaska Ter- 
 ritory, 66, 508 
 
 DE BOURBOURG (Brasseur), " Hist, 
 des Nations Civilizees du Mexique 
 et de 1' Amerique Centrale," 82, 93, 
 261, 263, 269, 283, 284, 286, 288, 
 300, 302, 335, 336, 366, 381, 508, 
 530 
 
 " Recherches sur les rflines de 
 
 Palenque avec les dessins de Wai- 
 deck," II, 318, 330 
 
 " Voy. sur 1'Isthme de Tehuan- 
 
 tepec," 251 
 
 DEBRET, " Voy. pitt. et hist, au Bre'sil 
 depuis 1816 jusqu'en 1831," 469 
 
 DE CASTELNAU (F.), " Exp. dans les 
 parties centrales de 1'Amerique du 
 Sud,"466 
 
IXDRX. 
 
 557 
 
 DE CHARENCY, " Essai de dechiffre- 
 
 ment d'une inscription palenque- 
 
 enne," 379 
 " Recherches sur le Codex 
 
 Troano," 379 
 D'ElCHTAL, " Etudes sur les origines 
 
 Bouddhiques," 527 
 DE ESPARZA, " Informe presentado al 
 
 Gobierno," 361 
 DE FOSSEY (Math.), " Le Mexique," 
 
 385 
 
 DE HASS (W.), "Arch, of the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley," 129, 137 
 
 Am. Ass. Trans. 
 
 DE LEON (Cie9a), " Primera parte de 
 la chronica del Peru," 451 
 
 DE LONGPERIER, "Notice des Monu- 
 ments exposee dans la Salle des 
 Antiquites Americaines," 445 
 
 DEL Rio (A), "Descripcion del ter- 
 reno y poblacion antigua," 318, 324 
 
 DE MARTIUS, "Beitrage zur Ethno- 
 graphic und Sprachenkunde Amer- 
 ikas zumal Brasiliens," 466 
 
 DEMMIN, "Guide 1'amateur de fai- 
 ences ou de porcelaines," 443 
 
 DE NEUWIED (Prince Max), " Reise 
 nach Bresilien," 466 
 
 DENIS (F.), " Le Bresil, Univers Pit- 
 toresque," 466, 469 
 
 DE QUATREFAGES and HAMY, 
 " Crania Ethnica," 480, 489, 499, 
 500, 501 
 
 DE QUATREFAGES, Cong. Anth. de 
 Moscou, 469 
 
 DE RIVERO ET TSCHUDI (E.), " An- 
 tiguedades Peruanas," 388, 400, 430, 
 502 
 
 " Die Kechua Sprache," 388, 
 
 390 
 DE ROSNY (L.), " Essai de dechiffre- ; 
 
 ment de I'e'criture hieratique de 
 
 1'Amerique Centrale," 379 
 DE SARTIGES (Comte), in Rev. des 
 
 Deux Mondes } 411, 419 
 Description of a deformed fragmentary 
 
 skull in an ancient quarry cave at 
 
 Jerusalem, 514 
 DE ST. HILAIRE (A.) " Voyage dans 
 
 les provinces de Rio de Janeiro et de 
 
 Minas Geraes," 466 
 DESJARDINS (E.), " Le Perou avant la 
 
 Conquete Espagnole," 388. 392, 400, i 
 
 404, 419, 424, 435, 436, 438, 443, ! 
 
 460, 527 
 DE SOUZA (Pompeu), " Compendio de 
 
 Geographia geral e especial do j 
 
 Brazil," 466 
 
 DE VARNHAGEN (F.), " Hist, geral 
 do Brasil," 466, 467 
 
 DE VlLLAGUTIERRE Y SOTOMAYOR 
 
 (Juan), " Hist, de la Conquista de 
 la Province de el Itza," 379 
 DIAZ (Bernal), " Hist. Verdadera dc 
 la Conquista de la Nueva Espana," 
 309, 358. 359 
 
 " Relatione fatta per un gentil'- 
 
 huomo del Signor F. Cortese." 358 
 
 DOMINGUEZ and ESCALANTE, " Diario 
 
 y Derrotero Santa Fe a Monterey," 
 
 1776, 256 
 D'ORBIGNY, " L'Homme Ame'ricain," 
 
 388, 390, 467 
 DUPAIX (Captain), " Relation des trois 
 
 expeditions ordonneesen i8o5-'6-'7, 
 
 pour la recherche des antiquites du 
 
 pays notamment de celles de Mitla 
 
 et de Palenque," 318 
 Du PRATZ, " Hist, of Louisiana," 
 
 526 
 DURAN (Father), " Hist. Ant. de la 
 
 Nueva Espana," 351 
 " Hist, de las Indias de la Nueva 
 
 Espana," 291, 297, 308, 309, 310 
 
 " El Conquistador Anonimo," 307 
 EMORY, " Notes of a Military Recon- 
 noissance from Fort Leavenworth in 
 Kansas to San Diego in California," 
 
 237 
 
 Ensayo de un estudio comparative 
 entre la Pyramide Egyptias y Mexi- 
 canas," 14 
 
 ESCUDERO, " Noticias del Estado de 
 Chihuahua," 225 
 
 ESPINOSA (Cabajal), " Hist, de Mex- 
 ico," 361 
 
 EVERS (E), " Ancient Pottery of Mis- 
 souri," 135 
 
 "Contributions to the Archae- 
 ology of Missouri," 140 
 
 FARQUHARSON (Dr.), "Observations 
 on the Crania from some Stone 
 Graves in Tennessee," 487 
 
 " Proc. Am. Assoc.," 507, 508 
 
 "Report, Peabody Museum, "487 
 
 FEGUEUX, " Les Ruines de la Quern- 
 ado," 361 
 
 FISCHER (H.), "Sur 1'origine des 
 pierres dites d'Amazone et sur ce 
 peuple fabuleux," 473 
 
 FITZROY. "Voyage of the Adventure 
 and the Beagle," 63 
 
 FLINT (Dr.), " Report, Peabody Muse- 
 
558 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 FONTAINE, ' ' How the World was 
 
 Peopled," 284 
 FORCE, " A quelle Race appartenaient 
 
 les Mound Builders," 92, 103, 195 
 
 Cong, des Am. , 239 
 
 FOSTER, " Description of Samples of 
 
 Ancient Cloth from the mounds of 
 
 Ohio," 177 
 " Prehistoric Races of the U. S. 
 
 of America," 35, 36, 50, 104, 126, 
 
 284, 480, 481 
 " Mississippi Valley," 81 
 
 " Report, Am. Assoc.," 482 
 
 FOSTER and WHITNEY, " Rep. on 
 
 the Geol. of the Lake Superior Re- 
 
 gion," 178 
 FRIEDERICKSTAHL (Baron von), " Les 
 
 Monuments du Yucatan," 335 
 " Nouv. Annales des Voyages," 
 
 341 
 
 FRO3BEL, "Seven Years' Travel in 
 Central America," 83 
 
 GALINDO, "Am. Ant. Soc. Trans.," 
 
 330, 332 
 
 GALLATIN, " Am. Ant. Soc. Trans.," 
 292 
 
 " Nouv. Ann. des Voyages," 70 
 
 " Trans. Am. Ethn. Soc.," 6 
 
 GARCILASSO L>E LA VEGA, " Los Com- 
 entarios reales que tratan del origen 
 de los Incas, reyes que fueron del 
 Peru," 154, 164, 388, 395, 416, 437, 
 
 439 
 
 " Hist, de la Conquete de la 
 
 Floride, ou Relation de ce qui s'est 
 passe au Voyage de Ferdinand de 
 Soto pour la Conquete de ce Pays," 
 189 
 
 " Hist, des Incas, rois de 
 
 Perou," 388, 412, 515 
 
 " History of Florida," 80 
 
 GAUDRY, " Les Enchainements du 
 
 Monde Animal," 16 
 GERVAIS, in Journal de Zoologie, 28 
 GILLMAN(H.), "Add. Facts Concern- 
 ing Artificial Perforation of the Cra- 
 nium in Ancient Mounds in Mich- 
 igan," 509 
 
 " Rep., Am. Assoc.," 492, 493 
 
 " Report, Peabody Museum," 
 
 136 
 " The Ancient Men of the Great 
 
 Lakes," 485 
 " Ancient Works of Isle Royal," 
 
 179 
 
 " Explorations in the vicinity of 
 
 Aledo, Florida," III 
 
 GOGUET, " Memoire touchant 1' eta- 
 blisement d' une mission chretienne 
 dans le troisieme monde, autrement 
 appele la Terre Australe," 134 
 
 GOMARA, " Hist, de Mexico, " 270, 
 276, 277, 279, 301, 305, 312, 358, 
 378, 507 
 
 " Hist. gen. de las Indias," 298 
 
 GOSSE, "Essai sur les deformations 
 artificielles du crane," 501, 503, 504 
 
 514 
 
 GREENHALGH, 193 
 
 GRIJALVA (Juan de), "Cronica de la 
 Orden de N. P. S. Augustin," 270 
 
 discovery of the cross in Yuca- 
 tan temples, 1 76 
 
 GUEVARA, " Hist, del Paraguay, en 
 col. Hist. Argentina," 527 
 
 GtJTTLER, " Naturforschung und 
 Bibel." 
 
 HABEL (Dr.), "Investigations in 
 Central and South America," 84, 
 
 371 
 " Smithsonian Contributions," 81, 
 
 146, 152 
 
 HAKLUYT, " Voyages," 239 
 HALDEMAN, "A Rock Retreat in 
 
 Pennsylvania," 73 
 
 letter of, 22 
 
 HAMY, " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 333, 495 
 HARDY, " Indian Monachism," 342 
 
 " Report, Peabody Museum," 59 
 
 HARRISON (Gen.), " Trans. Hist. Soc. 
 
 of Ohio," 185 
 HARTT, "Archives of the National 
 
 Museum of Rio de Janeiro," 467 
 " Geology and Physical Geogra- 
 phy of Brazil," 466 
 
 "Rep., Peabody Mus.," 56, 472 
 
 HAYNES, (H. W.), "The Argillite 
 
 Implements found in the Gravels 
 
 of Delaware River," 21 
 HELLER, " Reisen in Mexiko," 351 
 HELLWALD (F. von), "A quelle race 
 
 appartenaient des Mound Builders," 
 
 197 
 
 Congres des Americanistes, 180 
 
 " The American Migrations," 
 
 272, 284 
 HENDERSON (G.), " An Account of 
 
 the British Settlement of Hon- 
 duras," 83 
 HENNEPIN (P.), "Description de la 
 
 Louisiane," 62 
 HENSHAW (H. W.), 2d Annual Rep. 
 
 Bureau of Ethnology, Wash., 
 
 1884, 162 
 
INDEX. 
 
 559 
 
 HERRERA, " Hist. Gen. de los 
 Hechos de los Castillanos en las 
 Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar 
 Oceano," 176, 266, 268, 269, 270, 
 302, 303, 309, 363, 364, 380, 438, 
 507 
 
 HEYWOOD, " Expl. of the Aboriginal 
 Remains in Tennessee," 176 
 
 "Natural and Aboriginal His- 
 tory of Tennessee," 159 
 
 HIPPOCRATES, " De Aeris, Aquis, et 
 Locis," 513 
 
 HOFFMAN (Dr.), " Ethn. Obs. on In- 
 dians Inhabiting Nevada, California, 
 and Arizona," 227, 244, 254 
 " Report on the Chaco Cranium," 
 497 
 
 HOLMES, "Report on the Ancient 
 Ruins of S. W. Colorado," 202, 208, 
 210, 215, 222, 245, 247, 248 
 
 HUBBARD, " Am. Ant. ," 487 
 
 HUMBOLDT, " Essai pol. sur le roy. 
 de la Nouvelle Espagne," 350 
 " Personal Travels to the Equi- 
 noctial Regions of America," 114 
 
 ".Researches concerning the In- 
 stitutions and Monuments of the 
 Ancient Inhabitants of America," 
 284 
 
 " Vues des Cordilleres et Mon. 
 
 des Peuples indigenes de 1' Amer- 
 ique," 350, 352, 388, 459 
 
 " Views of the Cordilleras," 264 
 
 "Voyage aux regions equinoc- 
 
 tiales," etc., 459 
 
 HUTCHINSON, "Two Years in Peru," 
 388, 393 
 
 HUXLEY, " Man's Place in Nature," 
 35 
 
 " Isographia fisica y politica de los 
 
 Estados Unidos de Colombia," 459 
 IXTLILXOCHITL " Hist. Chichimeca," 
 
 261, 272, 279, 281, 282, 283, 285, 
 
 290, 310 
 " Relaciones," 264, 272, 276, 
 
 277, 291, 303, 305, 309, 315 
 
 JACKSON, "Ruins of S. W. Colo- 
 rado," 203, 206, 217, 219, 229, 235 
 
 "Geol. Rep. to U. S. Gov't," 
 
 178 
 
 JAFFRAY, in Nature, 457 
 
 " La Tour du Monde," 459 
 
 "Voyage a la Nouvelle Gre- 
 nade," 459, 461 
 
 JAKAVILLO (Juan), " App. VI.. 
 'lYrnnux Compans," 237 
 
 JONES, "Antiquities of the Southern 
 Indians and Georgia Tribes," 48, 
 190, 254 
 
 " Explorations of the Aboriginal 
 
 Remains of Tennessee," 91, 114, 
 "5,485, 49. 507, 5", 
 
 "Smiths. Contrib. ," 159, 167, 
 
 168, 196, 490 
 
 JOMARD, " Bull. Soc. Geog. de 
 Paris," 320 
 
 JUARROS (Domingo), " A Statistical 
 and Commercial History of Guate- 
 mala," 330 
 
 " Hist, of the Kingdom of 
 
 Guatemala," 266 
 
 KINGSBOROUGH "Ant. of Mexico," 
 262, 264, 272, 276, 281, 282, 285, 
 287, 288, 291, 298, 303, 307, 313, 
 3i8, 350 
 
 KNAPP, "Ancient Mining on Lake Su- 
 perior," 179 
 
 KOSTER, "Voyage dans la partie sep- 
 tentrionale du Bresil depuis 1809 
 jusqu'en 1815." 
 
 LACERDA and PEIXOTTO, " Archives 
 do Museo Nacional," 466, 468 
 
 " Contribu9oes ao estudo an- 
 
 thropologico das Ra9as indigenas do 
 Brazil," 23, 466 
 
 LANDA (Bishop of Merida), " Rela- 
 cion de las Cosas de Yucatan," 266, 
 341, 349, 378, 513, 526, 527 
 
 LAPHAM, " The Antiquities of Wis- 
 consin," 89, 91, 114, 126, 129 
 
 Letter to Dr. Foster, 517 
 
 " Smithsonian Contrib.," 87 
 
 LARKiN(Dr.),"Rep., Peabody Mus.," 
 118 
 
 LAS CASAS, " Brevissima Relacion," 
 
 309 
 " Hist. Apol. de las IndiasOcci- 
 
 dentales," 298, 358, 378, 427 
 LECONTE, " Cremation Amongst the 
 
 North American Indians," 120 
 LEIDY (J.), "Contributions to the 
 
 Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of the 
 
 Western Territories," 534 
 " The Extinct Mammalian 
 
 Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska, 
 
 534 
 
 LE PLONGEON (Dr.). Letter of, 344 
 LF.WIS and CLARK, " Travels to the 
 
 Source of the Missouri River," 85 
 " Littorina Peruviana," 432 
 LOPE/. (V. F.), " Les Races Aryennes 
 
 du I'erou," 388 
 
560 
 
 PRE-HJSTO.RIC AMERICA. 
 
 LOWENSTERN, " Mexico," 353 
 LUBBOCK " L'Homme Preh.," 35 
 
 " Prehistoric Times," 180 
 
 LYELL, " Antiquity of Man," 34, 35 
 
 " Second Visit to America in 
 
 1846," 34, 47 
 
 LYON, " Journal of a Tour in the Re- 
 public of Mexico," 361 
 " Smiths. Contrib.," in 
 
 MAGALHAES (Dr. Couto de) " O Sel- 
 vagem," 9 
 
 MAGUIRE, " Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. 
 Hist.," 74 
 
 MALER(F.), Nature, 369 
 
 MARCOY (St. Cricq) " Voyage a Tra- 
 vers 1'Amerique du sud de 1'Ocean 
 Pacifique a 1'Ocean Atlantique," 
 466 
 
 MARKHAM, " Cuzco and Lima," 393, 
 416 
 
 " Narratives of the Rites and 
 
 Laws of the Incas," 437 
 
 " The Tribes of the Empire of 
 
 the Incas," 390 
 
 MARQUETTE, " Voyages et Decou- 
 vertes du P. Marquette dans 1'Am- 
 erique Septentrionale," 254 
 
 MAUREL, "Bull. Soc. Anthr.," 27 
 
 MAYER, " Mexico as It Was," 350 
 
 McKEE (Col.), " Habits of California 
 Indians," 76 
 
 " Memoires de la Soc. d'Hist. et de 
 Geog. du Bresil," 479 
 
 MENDIETA (G. de), "Hist. Eccl. In- 
 diana," 310, 313, 314, 316 
 
 MEYER, " Reise um die Erde ; Beit- 
 rage zur ZoSlogie," 502 
 
 MILES, " Trans. Ethn. Soc. of Lon- 
 don," 435 
 
 Milwaukee Advertiser, 1837, 92 
 
 M5LHAUSEN (B.), " Tagebuch eine 
 reise vom Mississippi nach dem 
 Kusten der Sud See," 226, 249 
 
 MOLINA, " Vocabulerio in lengua Cas- 
 tillana y Mexicana," 314 
 
 " Vocabularis en lengua Castel- 
 
 lana y Mexicana," 362 
 
 ' ' Relacion de las Fabulas y 
 
 Ritos de los Ingas," 530 
 
 MONTESINOS, " Memorias Antiguas 
 historiales del Peru," 388 
 
 Mem. hist, sur 1'ancien Perou," 
 
 456 
 MORENO, " Les Paraderos preh. do la 
 
 Patagonie," 27, 32, 33, 505 
 MORGAN (L. H.), " League of the 
 
 Iroquois," 193 
 
 MORGAN (L. H.), "On the Ruins of 
 a Stone Pueblo on the Animas 
 River in New Mexico," 236 
 
 " Rep., Peabody Mus.," 204 
 
 52i 
 
 MORTON, " Crania Americana ; or, A 
 Comparative View of the Skulls of 
 Various Aboriginal Nations of 
 North and South America," 488, 
 .490, 500, 502, 503, 505 
 
 MOURE, (Dr.) " Les Indiens de la 
 Province de Matto Grosso," 53 
 
 MOLLER (F. W.v.), " Americanischen 
 Urreligionen," 274 
 
 " Reisen in den Vereinigten 
 
 Staten, Canada, and Mexico," 289, 
 368 
 
 NADAILLAC, " Les Premiers Hommes 
 
 et les Temps Prehistoriques," 424, 
 
 483, 5io 
 NAGERA (Castaneda de), " Relation 
 
 du Voy. de Cibola," 237, 243 
 NEBEL, ' ' Viaje pittoresco y arqueo- 
 
 logico sobre la rep. Mejicana," 352, 
 
 353, 361 
 NORMAN, "Rambles in Yucatan," 
 
 335, 340, 341 
 
 NOTT and GLIDDON'S " Types of Man- 
 kind," 3, 5, 23, 34, 35, 503 
 
 OROZCO Y BERRA, " Geographia de 
 
 las lenguas y Carta Ethnografica de 
 
 Mexico," 262, 311 
 OVIEDO, " Natural Historia de las 
 
 Indias," 153 
 OVIEDO Y VALDES, " Hist. Gen. 7 
 
 Natural de las Indias," 268, 271, 
 
 359- 413, 501 
 
 PAZ-SOLDAN (Mateo), " Geog. del 
 Peru," 388, 391, 423 
 
 PEET (Rev. S. D.), "The Military 
 Architecture," 92 
 
 American Antiquarian, 92, 161 
 
 PERKINS (G. H.), "Ancient Burial- 
 Ground in Swanton, Vermont," 
 114, 165, 174 
 
 ' * General Remarks upon the 
 
 Arch, of Vermont," 136, 250 
 
 PICKETT (A. J.), " History of Ala- 
 bama," 189 
 
 PIDGEON, "Ant. Researches," 85 
 
 PIEDRAHITA, " Hist. Gen. de la Con- 
 quista del Nuevo Reyno de Gra- 
 nada," 459 
 
 PIMENTEL (Francesco), " Lenguas In- 
 digenas de Mexico," 13 
 
INDEX. 
 
 5 6i 
 
 POTTER (W. P.), "Arch. Remains in 
 S. E. Missouri," 85, 95, 136, 151, 
 i?i 
 
 PRESCOTT (W. H.), "Hist, of the 
 Conquest of Peru,"6i, 388, 412,458 
 
 " Hist, of the Conquest of 
 
 Mexico," 61. 262, 358 
 
 PRITCHARD, " Natural History of 
 
 Man," 6, 284 
 " Proc., Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist.," 
 
 533 
 PRUNIERES (Dr.), "Bull. Soc. Anth.," 
 
 494 
 
 PURCHAS, " His Pilgrimes," 270. 
 PUTNAM (F. W.) "Arch. Expl. in 
 
 Tenn.," 507 
 " Bull, of the Essex Inst.," 200, 
 
 244 
 " Report, Peabody Museum," 74, 
 
 94, 103, 115, 145, 176, 244, 487, 
 
 497, 508 
 
 RAMUSIO, " Navigationi et Viaggi," 
 
 358 
 RATH (C.), " Revista do Institute 
 
 historico, geographico, ethnographi- 
 
 co do Brazil," 464 
 RAU, "Arch. Coll. U. S. Nat. Mus.," 
 
 171 
 
 " Indian Pottery," 134, 243 
 
 " North American Stone Im- 
 plements " (" Smith. Cont."), 36 
 "The Palenque Tablet," 324, 
 
 379 
 " Smith. Contributions," 168, 
 
 171, 172 
 
 READ, " Exploration of a Rock Shel- 
 ter in Boston, Summit county, 
 
 Ohio," 73 
 " Rel. primera del Licenciado de On- 
 
 degardo," 440 
 REMSAL (A. de), " Hist, de la Prov. 
 
 de S. Vincente de Chyapa." 266 
 REMY and BRENCHLEY, " A Journey 
 
 to Great Salt Lake City," 137, 249 
 " Report, Bureau of Ethnology," 524 
 " Report, Peabody Mus.," 477, 493, 
 
 501, 512 
 RETZIUS, " Archives des Sciences Nat- 
 
 urelles," 514 
 
 " Ethnol. Schriften," 488 
 
 REUSS and STUBEL, " The Necropolis 
 
 of Ancon in Peru," 431 
 " Rev. d'Anth.," 496 
 " Revista Mexicana," 352 
 " Revue des Questions Scientifiques," 
 
 357 
 REYNOLDS, " Aboriginal Soapstone 
 
 Quarries in the District of Colum- 
 bia," 161 
 
 RIVERO, " Hist, de Jalapa, Mexico," 
 127 
 
 ROBERTSON, " Congres des American- 
 isles," 196 
 
 " Les Mound Builders," 516 
 
 Ruiz (Mariano), the estufas of the 
 
 pueblos, 203 
 
 SAHAGUN, " Hist. Gen. de las Cosas 
 
 de Nueva Espafia," 271, 277, 278, 
 
 293, 302, 308, 312, 315, 355, 358, 
 
 507 
 
 SALISBURY, " Maya Arch.," 344 
 "The Mayas, the Sources of 
 
 their History," 344 
 
 " Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc.," 265 
 
 SAN PAOLO (Dr. Rath de), " Letter 
 
 Addressed to the Anglo-Brazilian 
 
 Times" 53 
 SARTIGES (Comte de), Rev. des Deux 
 
 Mondes, 441 
 
 SARTORIUS, "Soc. Mex. Geog. Bole- 
 tin." 354 
 SCHERZER, "Ein Besuch bei den 
 
 Ruinen von Quiriqua im Staate 
 
 Guatemala," 375 
 SCHMIDT, " Zur Urgeschichte Nord 
 
 Amerika," 479 
 SCHMIDT (Ulrich), account of Men- 
 
 doza's expedition, 8 
 SCHOBEL, " Antiquites Ame'ricaines 
 
 du Muse'e Ethnographique de Saint 
 
 Petersbourg," 444 
 
 " Un chap, de 1'Arch. Am. Con- 
 gres de Luxembourg," 371 
 
 SCHOOLCRAFT, " Archives of Aborigi- 
 nal Knowledge," 36, 70, 130, 164, 
 165, 180, 241 
 
 " Ancient Garden-Beds in Grand 
 
 River valley (Michigan)," 181 
 
 "Ethnological Researches Re- 
 specting the Red Men of America," 
 62 
 
 SCHUMACHER (Paul), " Researches on 
 the Kjokkenmdddings of the Coast 
 of Oregon and in the Santa Barbara 
 Islands and Adjacent Mainland," 51 
 
 " Rep., Peabody Museum," 137, 
 
 171, 480 
 
 SCHWEDEN, " Urgeschichte," 61 
 
 SCOVILLE (Dr. S.). Cincinnati Quar- 
 terly Journal. 172 
 
 SHORT, " North Americans of Antiq- 
 uity," 34, 35, 36, 87, 92, 104. 106, 
 77. 197. 306. 37. 335. 344. 347, 
 484. 493 
 
562 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 SICULUS (Diodorus), " Biblical His- 
 tory," 60 
 
 SILLIMAN'S Am. Journ. of Sci., 92 
 SIMPSON (James), "Journal of a Mili- 
 tary Reconnaissance from Santa Fe 
 to the Navajo Country," 78, 204 
 " Rep. to Sec. of War," 229, 234 
 SITGREAVES, " Report of an Expedi- 
 tion down the Zuni and Colorado 
 Rivers," 226 
 
 " Soc. Mex. Geog. Bol.," 361 
 SOLDI, " Les camees et les pierres 
 gravees 1'art au moyen age, 1'art 
 Khmer, les arts du Perou et du 
 Mexique, 1'art Egyptien, les arts in- 
 dustriels, des muse'es du Trocadero, 
 
 375 
 
 SosA (Caspar Castanode), " Mem. del 
 Descubrimiento del Reino de 
 Leon," 142 
 
 SOURY (J.), " Int. a 1' Hist, des Pro- 
 tistes de Hseckel," 517 
 
 SOUTHALL, " Recent Origin of Man," 
 34, 35, 89, 192 
 
 SQUIER, " Peru, Incidents of Travel 
 and Exploration in the Land of the 
 Incas," 387, 388, 393, 396, 399, 400, 
 402, 407, 408, 411, 416, 418, 422, 
 425,435, 501, 502,503, 509, 523, 
 527 
 
 quoted by Nott and Gliddon, 5 
 
 "Smithsonian Contrib. to 
 
 Knowledge," 131 
 " Nicaragua," 513 
 
 SQUIER and DAVIS, " Ancient Monu- 
 ments of the Mississippi Valley," 
 81, too, 104, 107, 112, 137, 165, 
 166, 185, 190, 489 
 
 STEPHENS, " Incidents of Travel in 
 Yucatan," 82, 159, 265, 318, 319, 
 324, 330, 332, 338, 340, 341, 343, 
 344, 347, 349 
 
 STEPHENS and CATHERWOOD, " Inci- 
 dents of Travel in Central Amer- 
 ica," 318, 375 
 
 "Views of Ancient Monuments 
 
 in Central America, Chiapas, and 
 Yucatan," 330 
 
 STRABO, " Geography," 60, 514 
 
 STRACHEY, " Historic of Travaile into 
 Virginia Britannia," 193 
 
 STRONCK, " Repertoire Chronologique 
 de 1' Hist, des Mound Builders," 
 Cong, des Americ.. 197 
 
 SUMNER (Prof. W. G.), North Aiin-ri- 
 can Review, 521 
 
 SWALLOW (Prof.), " Report, Peabody 
 Mus.," 104, 138, 482 
 
 SWINEFORD, " Review of the Mineral 
 Resources of Lake Superior," 1876 
 178 
 
 ST. JEROME, " Hier. Opera," 60 
 
 TENOCHTITLAN (City of Mexico), 
 
 foundation of, II 
 TERNAUX COMPANS, "Notice Hist. 
 
 sur la Guyane Francaise," TO, 138 
 TEZOZOMOC (F. de Alvaredo), 
 
 " Chron. Mexicana," 285, 287, 291, 
 
 308, 309 
 
 " Hist. Mex.," 358 
 
 THEVENOT, " Relation de Divers 
 
 Voyages Curieux," 254 
 THURMAN " Crania Britannica," 514 
 TOPINARD, " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 490 
 
 in Rev. cT Anth., 3 
 
 TORQUEMADA, " Mon. Indiana," 264, 
 
 277, 279, 282, 285, 288, 290, 291, 
 
 297, 300, 302, 309, 310, 312, 313, 
 
 358, 360, 361, 364, 380 
 " Tres relacions de Antiguedades 
 
 Peruanas publicalas el Ministerio 
 
 de Fomento," Madrid, 1879, 388 
 Troisieme Cong, des Americanistes, 
 
 507 
 TYLOR, " Anahuac," 350, 352, 358 
 
 UHLMAN (Max), " Handbuch der ges- 
 amten /Egyptischen Alterthum- 
 skunde," 321 
 
 URICOCHCEA, " Mem. sobre las An- 
 tiguedades Neo-Granadinas," 459 
 
 VACA (Cabeja de), " Quarta Rela- 
 cion," 200 
 
 VALENTINE, ' ' The Katunes of Maya 
 History," 261 
 
 " Velacao verdadeira dos trabal- 
 hos que ho gobernador don Fer- 
 nando de Soto et certos fidalgos 
 Portugesos passaraono descobri- 
 miento da provincia da Florida," 80 
 
 VENEGAS, " Noticia de la California y 
 de su Conquista," 78 
 
 VETANCURT, " Teatro Mexicano," 
 284, 297, 314 
 
 " Cronica," 239 
 
 VEYTIA, " Hist. ant. de Mejico," 261, 
 
 277, 282, 283, 285, 288, 302, 308, 
 
 364, 380 
 
 Viollet le Due, 365 
 VIMONT (Earth, de), " Relation," 62 
 VOGT (C.), " Squelette humain associe 
 
 aux glyptodontes," 477 
 VON DUBEN (Baron), "Cong, prch.de 
 
 Copenhague," 494 
 
INDEX. 
 
 563 
 
 VOY, " Relics of the Stone Age in Cal- 
 ifornia," 39 
 
 WAITZ (Dr. T.), " Anthropologie der 
 
 Naturvolker," 466 
 WALDECK, "Voy. arch, et pittoresque 
 
 dans la province du Yucatan," 318, 
 
 319, 320, 324, 335, 338. 
 WARDEN, " Recherches sur les Ant. 
 
 de 1'Am. du Nord. Ant. Mex.," 360 
 WEST (E. P.), Western Review, 118 
 WHIPPLE, " Report and Explorations 
 
 near the 35th Parallel," 226 
 WHIPPLE, EWBANK, and TURNER, 
 
 " Report upon the Indian Tribes," 
 
 224 
 WHITE, "On Artificial Shell-Heaps of 
 
 Fresh- Water Mollusks," 56 
 WHITNEY, "Auriferous Gravels," 533, 
 
 534, 535- 
 WHITTLESEY (Col.), "Age of Skulls 
 
 found near Louisville, Kentucky,"74 
 " Ancient Mining on the Shores 
 
 of Lake Superior," 178 
 
 " The Great Mound on the 
 
 Etowah River," 106 
 
 " Rep. Am. Ass.," 250 
 
 " On the Weapons and Character 
 
 of the Mound Builders," 91 
 
 WIENER, (Chas.), " Estudos sobre los 
 sambaquis do sul do Brazil," 53 
 
 "Perou et Bolivie," 388, 390. 
 
 406.431, 441,443 
 
 WILKES, " U. S. Exploring Expedi- 
 tion," 393 
 
 WILSON, " Prehistoric Man," 34, 490, 
 
 503, 504, 5" 
 
 WYMAN (Jeffries), "Fresh-Water Shell- 
 Heaps of the St. John's River," 57 
 
 " Human Remains in the Shell- 
 Heaps of the St. John's River (East 
 Florida) cannibalism," 58. 
 
 " Rep., Am. Assoc.." 487 
 
 " Report, Peabody Museum, "49, 
 
 61. 64, 67, 487. 491, 493, 509 
 
 XERES (F.), " Rel. de la Conq. du 
 Perou," 391 
 
 YATES (Dr.), "Smithsonian Report," 
 51 
 
 ZAMORA, "Hist, de la Prov. del 
 Nuevo Reino de Granada," 465 
 
 ZEBALLOS (Dr.) Rev. d' Anthropologie, 
 84 
 
 " Un Tumulus prehistonque 
 
 de Buenos Ayres," 54 
 
 ZURATE, " Hist, del Descubrimiento 
 y Conquista del Peru," 422 
 
 ZURITA (A. de), "Rapport sur les 
 differentes classes de chefs de la 
 Nouvelle Espagne," 315 
 
 Red River Mound, platycnemic tibiae 
 
 from 493. 
 
 Skulls from 485, 487 
 Rhinoceros tichorinus, 15 
 R. etruscus, 15 
 Rio Carcarana (Buenos Ayres), human 
 
 bones and those of extinct animals 
 
 on the borders of, 28 
 Rio das Trombettas (or Orixamena), 
 
 fragments of pottery on, 473 
 Rio de Chelly, cliff houses along, 218 
 Rio de la Plata, paraderos in region 
 
 of, 54 
 Rio Doce (Brazil), drawings on bank 
 
 of, 469, 470 
 
 Rio Frias, paraderos of the, 54 
 Rio Juchipila, hatchet from the, 32 
 Rio Lujan, paraderos of the, 54 
 Rio Mancos, ancient ruins along, 208, 
 
 210 , 
 
 Rio Marco-Diaz, paraderos of the, 54 
 Rio Norzas (Durango, Mexico), mum- 
 mies from cave in valley of, 69 
 Rio Salado, ruins of the, 224 
 Rio Verde, ruins of the, 224 
 Roads of Peru, 421 
 Root River, mounds on, 87 
 
 Sabula (Iowa), shell-heaps, 56 
 
 Salt Cave (Kentucky), discoveries in, 
 
 75 
 
 Sambaquis in Brazil, 53, 55 ; their 
 size, 53. 54 
 
 at Taperinha, 56 
 
 Sandy-Woods settlement (Missouri), 
 mounds at, 95 
 
 pottery at, 136 
 
 San Pablo (California), shell-heap, 50 
 
 Santa Catalina (island of), ancient soap- 
 stone quarry on, 51 
 
 skulls in the shell-heaps of, 481 
 
 Santa Catherina, complexion of the 
 inhabitants of the island of, in the 
 l6th century, 3 
 
 Santa Lucia Cosumhualpa, ruins at, 
 
 371 
 
 Santa Rosa, shell-heap, 48 
 
 Santarem (province of Para), frag- 
 ments of pottery near, 473 
 
 Santiago-Tlatelolcoli, resemblance of 
 skulls from, to those of the Mound 
 Builders, 500 
 
PRE-HIS TOXIC A M ERIC A . 
 
 Saratoga (New York), discoveries at 
 
 High Rock Spring, 74 
 Sarcophagi near Trenton, Missouri, 
 
 114 
 
 in Tennessee mounds, 115 
 
 Scandinavian implements, their re- 
 semblance to those from the islands 
 
 of the Susquehanna, 21 
 Scioto skull from Chillicothe, 489 
 Sculptures among the Mound Builders, 
 
 see under ' ' Pottery," etc. 
 Seltzertown, mound at, 103 
 Serpent in American mythology, 126, 
 
 127 
 Shaw's Flat (Cal.), ornaments of calc- 
 
 spar and granite mortar from, 39 
 Shell-heaps, see " Kitchen-middens" 
 of Oregon and California, skulls 
 
 in, 480 
 
 list of species found in shell- 
 heaps of Maine and Massachusetts, 
 
 535 ; in Iowa, 536 
 Shelter Cave, near Elyria, (Lorain Co., 
 
 Ohio), 71 
 
 Shell ornaments, see " Ornaments " 
 Short's Cave (Kentucky), mummy in, 76 
 Sinnamari River (Guiana), polished 
 
 stone hatchets from the banks of, 27 
 Silver Spring (Florida), shell-heap, 57 
 
 its age, 67 
 
 Skulls, table of capacity of Mound 
 
 Builders', 490 ; of those of modern 
 
 races (Topinard's), 491 
 Small-pox, 'its destructive effect on 
 
 the Indians, 506 
 Smilodon, found fossil in Brazil by 
 
 Lund, 26 
 Sonora (Cal.), stone implements near, 
 
 39 
 
 Soto, island of, 410 
 
 Spaniards, discoveries and conquests 
 by, I, 2, 4, 7, 8 
 
 Sparta (Tennessee), human remains 
 enclosed in rush baskets near, 114 
 
 Squirrel, veneration of the, in Van- 
 couver's Island, 8 
 
 St. Acheul, resemblance of its paleo- 
 lithic implements to those of the 
 Delaware valley, 20 
 
 St. Andrews (Cal.), stone mortars 
 from, 39 
 
 St. Louis (Missouri), mounds near, 86 
 
 Stimpson's mound skull, comparison 
 with the Neanderthal skull, 483 
 
 Strombus gigas, 172 
 
 Suguassu River (Brazil), sambaquis 
 with human relics on banks of, 53 
 
 Susquehanna River cave, 72 
 
 Swanton (Vermont), copper pipe-stems 
 from, 165 
 
 copper tubes in mounds at, 166 
 
 stone ornaments from, 174 
 
 Swastika, the sacred sign of the Ar- 
 yans, on the Pemberton hammer, 
 
 22, 24 
 
 Syphilis, is it native to America? 507 ; 
 among the Mound Builders, 507 
 
 Tabasco, battles near the mouth of the 
 
 river, 2 
 Table Mountain (Cal.), stone mortars 
 
 from, 39 
 Tacuba, resemblance of skulls from, 
 
 to those of the Mound Builders, 
 
 500 
 
 Tahiti, cannibalism at, 63 
 Taperinha, discoveries of pottery at, 
 
 472 
 
 sambaquis at, 56 
 
 Tchungkee, game of, 190 
 Techichis, the dog of Mexico, 3 
 Tecuhtli, initiation of the, 315 
 Tehuantepec, recent discovery of a 
 
 sepulchre at, 369 
 
 pyramids near, 355 
 
 Tehuelche (Patagonia), 10 
 
 skulls from Patagonia cemeteries 
 
 presenting marked deformation, 511 
 Tennessee, caves as burial-places, 69 
 
 mounds in, 91 
 
 mounds at Greenwood, 94 
 
 mounds in the valley of the 
 
 Cumberland, 106 
 
 adobe altar in, 107 
 
 human remains in rush baskets 
 
 near Sparta. 114; nearCairo, 114 
 
 excavations near Nashville, 115 
 
 sepulchral mounds near Nash- 
 ville, 115 
 
 vase in child's grave, 145 
 
 vase with handles from sepul- 
 chral mound, 147 
 pottery in sepulchral mounds, 
 
 151 
 pipe from sepulchral mound, 152 
 
 " bear "-shaped vase from, 154 
 stone images in the mounds, of 
 
 167 
 copper ornaments from mounds 
 
 of, 172 
 
 shell ornament from, 173 
 
 copper cross in grave at Zolli- 
 
 coffer Hill, 176, 177 
 seven-foot skeleton from stone 
 
 grave, 496 
 cross from mound in, 176 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Tenochtitlan, founding <>f, 285 
 
 Tepanecs (the), n 
 
 Tierra del Fuego, shell-heaps, 47 
 
 cannibalism amongst the tribes 
 
 of, 62, 63 
 
 Teul, hatchet from near, 22 
 
 skull from, 499 
 
 Tezcuans (the), 281 
 
 Tezcuco, 288, 360 
 
 Tiaguanaco, ruins of, 400 
 
 Tiger, veneration of the, in Honduras, 
 7 
 
 Tijuco (Brazil), inscription on rocks 
 of, 470 
 
 Tin, amongst the Mexicans, 381 
 
 Titicaca, island in Lake Titicaca, the 
 sacred island of the Peruvians, 406 ; 
 the birthplace of Manco-Capac and 
 CEllo, 407 ; ruins on, 407 ; build- 
 ings erected by Tupac-Tupanqui, 
 the eleventh Inca, 408 
 
 Titicaca Lake, chulpas near, 426 ; 
 near Tiuhuani, 426 
 
 Tiuhuani (Peru), chulpas near, 426 
 
 Tolan or Tula, the capital of the 
 Toltecs, 12 
 
 Toltecs, the, 12, 271 ; conquered Ana- 
 huac about the sixth century of our 
 era, 271 ; Quetzacoatl, 274 ; re- 
 ligious wars, 274 ; characteristics of 
 the Toltecs, 275 ; their knowledge 
 of the useful arts, 276 ; their com- 
 merce, 276 
 
 their jewelry and ornaments, 
 
 276 ; their weapons and armor, 
 277 ; cremation practised among the 
 higher classes, but the dead of the 
 common people were buried, 277 ; 
 human sacrifices, 277 ; govern- 
 ment, 278 ; marriage custom, 278 
 
 traditions of ihe magnificence of 
 
 their palaces, 278 ; conquered by 
 the Chichimecs, 283 
 
 Toolesborough (Iowa), alleged South 
 American shell in mound at, 113 
 
 Topinard (Dr.), Table showing ca- 
 pacity of skulls of modern races, 
 491 
 
 per/oration of the humerus as 
 
 a racial characteristic, 495 
 
 Trenton (N. J.), palaeolithic imple- 
 ments in the drift near, 20 
 
 Trepanned skulls from Yucay valley 
 (Peru), 509 ; from Sable and Red 
 River mounds and from mounds in 
 Michigan, 510; trepanning only 
 practised on aduk males, 510; tre- 
 panned skulls in Europe, 510 
 
 Troano manuscript, 379 
 
 Tula, ruins of, 355 
 
 Tunga (Peru), ruins near, 461 
 
 Tupi, see " Guarani " 
 
 Tupis, the, inhabit Brazil, 9 
 
 Turtle mound, a shell-heap near 
 
 Smyrna, 48 
 T tomes, the dog of Yucatan, 3 
 
 United States of Colombia, the an- 
 cient state of Cundinamarca and 
 the home of the Chibchas, 459 
 
 Ursus Americanus, 4 
 
 Ursus ferox (grizzly bear), 4 
 
 Uruguay, inscriptions of, not attributa- 
 ble to the Guaranis, 471 
 
 weapons and implements, 475 
 
 Utah, mounds in, 83 
 
 sepulchral mounds in, 116 
 
 pottery in sepulchral mounds, 
 
 151 
 ancient agricultural implements, 
 
 i?i 
 discovery of corn in a mound of, 
 
 183 
 Uxmal, ruins of, 333, 334 
 
 Vancouver Island, veneration of the 
 squirrel in, 8 
 
 shell-heaps, 52 
 
 mounds in, 83 
 
 Veneration of animals, 7 
 Vermont, ancient pottery in, 136 
 
 large vases from, 155 
 
 copper pipe stems from Swanton, 
 
 165 
 
 stone ornament from Swanton, 
 
 174 
 Vera Cruz, deformed statuettes from, 
 
 512 
 
 Vilcabamba, megaliths of, 424 
 Virginia, caves as burial-places, 69 
 sepulchral mound at Grave Creek, 
 
 116 
 pipe from, 165 
 
 shell ornaments from Grave 
 
 Creek mounds, 172 
 
 shell pin from Ely mound, 174 
 
 Votan, legend concerning, 264 
 
 Washington Territory, mounds near 
 Olympia, 106 
 
 Weapons of the aborigines, 16 ; (see 
 " Weapons of the Mound Builders ") 
 
 Weapons of the Mound Builders, 169 ; 
 serpentine axes from Ohio, 169, 
 170 ; serpentine implement from 
 Tennessee, 170; the Mahquahwitl, 
 
566 
 
 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 
 
 170; flint instrument from New 
 
 Jersey, 171 
 Weapons of Mound Builders, copper 
 
 hatchet at Swan ton, 175 ; knife and 
 
 lance point in Wisconsin, 175, 176; 
 
 sharp blade at Joliet (Illinois), 175 ; 
 
 knife at Fort Wayne (Indiana), 175; 
 
 copper axes in Iowa, 177 
 Western mound, skull from, 485 
 Wisconsin, mounds in, 82 
 ruins of Aztalan, on Rock River, 
 
 92 
 methods of burial among the 
 
 Mound Builders, 114 
 mounds on the Kickapoo River, 
 
 1 08 
 
 chief centre of mounds repre- 
 senting animals, 123 
 animal-shaped mounds at Pewau- 
 
 kee, 123 
 
 Wisconsin, animal-shaped mounds in, 
 
 126 
 
 cross-shaped mounds in, 129 
 
 copper weapons from, 175, 176 
 
 Wyoming, stone implements at Cow's 
 
 Creek, 40 
 
 Xochicalco, 352 
 
 Xulos, the dog of Nicaragua, 3 
 
 Yellowstone River, mound city on, 186 
 Yucatan, mounds in, 82 
 
 the cross in the native temples of, 
 
 176 (see also " Central America"). 
 
 Zamna, the god, 348 
 
 Zapotecs the, 362 ; language, 363 ; 
 
 religious rites, 363 ; government, 
 
 363 : Mitla, 364. 
 Zayi, ruins at, 340 
 
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