AN INQUIRY 
 
 INTO 
 
 THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 THE ABORIGINAL RACE 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 SAMUEL GEORGE MORTON, M. D., 
 
 Author of Crania Americana, Crania iEgyptiaca, &c. 
 
 t 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 J OHN PENIN GTON, 
 Chestnut street. 
 1844. 
 
 £x iCtbrtfl 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The following Essay was read at the Annual Meeting of the Boston Society 
 of Natural History, on the 27th of April, 1842, and published by direction of 
 the Society. In the present edition I have made a few verbal corrections, and 
 added some collateral facts in an Appendix. 
 
 I have taken a^jrapid glance at what I conceive to be the peculiar traits of the 
 Aboriginal race of America, as embraced in five principal considerations, viz. : 
 their organic, moral, and intellectual characters, their mode of interment, and 
 their maratime enterprise; and from these I have ventured to draw a few defi- 
 nite conclusions. I am aware that it may appear presumptuous to attempt so 
 wide a range within the brief limits of the present occasion, especially as some 
 points can be touched only in the most general manner; but my object has 
 been to dwell rather upon some of these which have hitherto received less at- 
 tention than they obviously deserve, and which are intimately involv^hki tLe 
 present inquiry. ^0 
 
 Philadelphia, July 1, 1844. 
 
 S. G. MORTON. 
 
 Mt'i'rihew &. Thompson, Printeri, 7 Caiter'i Alley. 
 
ON THE 
 
 ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 Ethnography, — the analysis and classification of the races 
 of men,* — is^essentially a modern science. At a time when 
 Nature in her other departments, had been investigated 
 with equal zeal and success, this alone remained compara- 
 tively neglected ; and of the various authors who have at- 
 tempted its exposition during the past and present centuries, 
 too many have been content with closet theories, in which 
 facts are perverted to sustain some baseless conjecture. 
 Hence it has been aptly remarked that Asia is the country of 
 fables, Africa of monsters, and America of systems, to those 
 who prefer hypothesis to truth. 
 
 The intellectual genius of antiquity justly excites our ad- 
 miration and homage ; but in vain we search its records for 
 the physical traits of some of the most celebrated nations of 
 past tftne. It is even yet gravely disputed whether the an- 
 cient Egyptians belonged to the Caucasian race or to the Ne- 
 gro ; and was it not for the light which now dawns upon us 
 from their monuments and their tombs, this question might 
 remain forever undecided. The present age, however, is 
 marked by a noble zeal for these inquiries, which are daily 
 making man more conversant with the organic structure, the 
 mental character and the national affinities of the various and 
 widely scattered tribes of the human family. 
 
 Among these the aboriginal inhabitants of America claim 
 our especial attention. This vast theatre has been thronged, 
 from immemorial time, by numberless tribes which lived only 
 to destroy and be in turn destroyed, without leaving a trace 
 
 * Ethnography may be divided into three branches — I. Physical or Organic 
 Ethnography ; 2. Philological Ethnography ; and 3. Historical Ethnography. 
 
4 
 
 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 of their sojourn on the face of the earth. Contrasted with 
 these were a few civilized communities, whose monuments 
 awaken our surprise without unfolding their history; and he 
 who would unravel their mysteries may be compared, in the 
 language of the poets, to a man standing by the stream of 
 time, and striving to rescue from its waters the wrecked and 
 shattered fragments which float onward to oblivion. 
 
 It is not my present intention even to enumerate the many 
 theories which have been advanced in reference to the origin 
 of the American nations ; although I may, in the sequel, in- 
 quire whether their genealogy can be traced to the Polyne- 
 sians or Mongolians, Hindoos, Jews or Egyptians. Nor shall 
 I attempt to analyse the views of certain philosophers who 
 imagine that they have found not only a variety of races, but 
 several species of men among the aborigines of this continent. 
 It is chiefly my intention to produce a few of the more strik- 
 ingly characteristic traits of these people to sustain the po- 
 sition that all the American nations, excepting the Eskimaux, 
 are of one race, and that this race is peculiar, and distinct 
 from all others. 
 
 1. Physical Characteristics. It is an adage among travel- 
 lers that he who has seen one tribe of Indians, has se^n all, 
 so much do the individuals of this race resemble each other, 
 notwithstanding their immense geographical distribution, and 
 those differences of climate which embrace the extremes of 
 heat and cold. The half-clad Fuegian, shrinking from his 
 dreary winter, has the same characteristic lineaments, though 
 in an exaggerated degree, as the Indians of the tropical plains; 
 and these again resemble the tribes which inhabit the region 
 west of the Rocky Mountains, those of the great valley of the 
 Mississippi, and those again which skirt the Eskimaux on 
 the North. All possess alike the long, lank, black hair, the 
 brown or cinnamon colored skin, the heavy brow, the dull 
 and sleepy eye, the full and compressed lips, and the salient 
 but dilated nose. These traits, moreover, are equally com- 
 mon to the savage and civilized nations ; whether they in- 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 5 
 
 habit the margins of rivers and feed on fish, or rove the forest 
 and subsist on the spoils of the chase. 
 
 It cannot be questioned that physical diversities do occur, 
 equally singular and inexplicable, as seen in different shades 
 of color, varying from a fair tint to a complexion almost 
 black ; and this too under circumstances in which climate 
 can have little or no influence. So also in reference to 
 stature, the differences are remarkable in entire tribes which, 
 moreover, are geographically proximate to each other. These 
 facts, however, are mere exceptions to a general rule, and do 
 not alter the peculiar physiognomy of the Indian, which is as 
 undeviatingly characteristic as that of the Negro ; for whe- 
 ther we see him in the athletic Charib or the stunted Chayma, 
 in the dark Californian or the fair Borroa, he is an Indian still, 
 and cannot be mistaken for a being of any other race. 
 
 The same conformity of organization is not less obvious in 
 the osteological structure of these people, as seen in the 
 squared or rounded head, the flattened or vertical occiput, the 
 high cheek bones, the ponderous maxillae, the large quadran- 
 gular orbits, and the low, receding forehead. I have had op- 
 portunity to compare nearly four hundred crania, derived 
 from tribes inhabiting almost every region of both Americas, 
 and have been astonished to find how the preceding charac- 
 ters, in greater or less degree, pervade them all. 
 
 This remark is equally applicable to the ancient and mo- 
 dern nations of our continent ; for the oldest skulls from the 
 Peruvian cemeteries, the tombs of Mexico and the mounds of 
 our own country, are of the same type as the heads of the 
 most savage existing tribes.* Their physical organization 
 proves the origin of one to have been equally the origin of 
 all. The various civilized nations are to this day represented 
 by their lineal descendants who inhabit their ancestral seats, 
 and differ in no exterior respect from the wild and unculti- 
 vated Indians ; at the same time, in evidence of their lineage, 
 Clavigero and other historians inform us, that the Mexicans 
 and Peruvians yet possess a latent mental superiority which 
 
 ♦See Appendix, No. 1. — Crania Americana, passim. 
 
6 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 has not been subdued by three centuries of despotism. And 
 again, with respect to the royal personages and other privi- 
 leged classes, there is indubitable evidence that they were of 
 the same native stock, and presented no distinctive attributes 
 excepting those of a social or political character. 
 
 The observations of Molina and Humboldt are sometimes 
 quoted in disproof of this pervading uniformity of physical 
 characters. Molina says that the difference between an in- 
 habitant of Chili and a Peruvian is not less than between an 
 Italian and a German ; to which Humboldt adds, that the 
 American race contains nations whose features differ as essen- 
 tially from one another as those of the Circassians, Moors and 
 Persians. But all these people are of one and the same race, 
 and readily recognized as such, notwithstanding their differ- 
 ences of feature and complexion;* and the American nations 
 present a precisely parallel case. 
 
 I was at one time inclined to the opinion that the ancient 
 Peruvians, who inhabited the islands and confines of the 
 Lake Titicaca, presented a congenital form of the head en- 
 tirely different from that which characterizes the great Ameri- 
 can race; nor could I at first bring myself to believe that 
 their wonderfully narrow and elongated crania, resulted solely 
 from artificial compression applied to the rounded head of the 
 Indian. That such, however, is the fact has been indisputa- 
 bly proved by the recent investigations of M. D'Orbigny. 
 This distinguished naturalist passed many months on the 
 able-land of the Andes which embraces the region of these 
 extraordinary people, and examined the dessicated remains 
 of hundreds of individuals in the tombs where they have lain 
 for centuries. M. D'Orbigny remarked that while many of 
 the heads were deformed in the manner to which we have 
 adverted, others differed in nothing from the usual conforma- 
 tion. It was also observed that the flattened skulls were uni- 
 formly those of men, while those of the women remained 
 unaltered ; and again, that the most elongated heads were 
 
 *A portion of the Moorish population of Africa is a very mixed race of 
 Arabs, Berbers, Negroes, &c. 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 7 
 
 preserved in the largest and finest tombs, shewing that this 
 cranial deformity was a mark of distinction. But to do away 
 with any remaining doubt on this subject, M. D'Orbigny as- 
 certained that the descendants of these ancient Peruvians yet 
 inhabit the land of their ancestors, and bear the name of 
 Aymaras, which may have been their primitive designation ; 
 and lastly, the modern Aymaras resemble the common Qui- 
 chua or Peruvian Indians in every thing that relates to physi- 
 cal conformation, not even excepting the head, which, how- 
 ever they have ceased to mould artificially.* 
 
 Submitted to the same anatomical test, the reputed giant 
 and dwarf races of America prove to be the mere inventions 
 of ignorance or imposition. A careful inspection of the re- 
 mains of both, has fully satisfied me that the asserted gigantic 
 form of some nations has been a hasty inference on the part 
 of unpractised observers; while the so-called pygmies of the 
 valley of the Mississippi were mere children, who, for reasons 
 not wholly understood, were buried apart from the adult peo- 
 ple of their tribe, t 
 
 Thus it is that the American Indian, from the southern ex- 
 tremity of the continent to the northern limit of his range, is 
 the same exterior man. With somewhat variable stature and 
 complexion, his distinctive features, though variously modi- 
 fied, are never effaced; and he stands isolated from the rest 
 of mankind, identified at a glance in every locality, and under 
 every variety of circumstance ; and even his dessicated re- 
 mains which have withstood the destroying hand of time, 
 preserve the primeval type of his race, excepting only when 
 art has interposed to pervert it. 
 
 2. Moral Traits. These are, perhaps, as strongly marked 
 as the physical characteristics of which we have just spoken; 
 but they have been so often the subject of analysis as to claim 
 only a passing notice on the present occasion. Among the 
 most prominent of this series of mental operations is a sleep- 
 less caution, an untiring vigilance, which presides over every 
 action and masks every motive. The Indian says nothing and 
 
 * See Appendix, No. 2. f See Appendix, No. 3. 
 
8 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 does nothing without its influence: it enables him to deceive 
 others without being himself suspected ; it causes that pro- 
 verbial taciturnity among strangers which changes to garru- 
 lity among the people of his own tribe ; and it is the basis of 
 that invincible firmness which teaches him to contend unre- 
 piningly with every adverse circumstance, and even with 
 death in its most hideous forms. 
 
 The love of war is so general, so characteristic, that it 
 scarcely calls for a comment or an illustration. One nation is 
 in almost perpetual hostility with another, tribe against tribe, 
 man against man ; and with this ruling passion are linked a 
 merciless revenge and an unsparing destructiveness. The 
 Chickasaws have been known to make a stealthy march of 
 six hundred miles from their own hunting grounds, for the 
 sole purpose of destroying an encampment of their enemies. 
 The small island of Nantucket, which contains but a few 
 square miles of barren sand, was inhabited at the advent of 
 the European colonies by two Indian tribes, who sometimes 
 engaged in hot and deadly feud with each other. But what 
 is yet more remarkable, the miserable natives of Terra del 
 Fuego, whose common privations have linked them for a time 
 in peace and fellowship, become suddenly excited by the 
 same inherent ferocity, and exert their puny efforts for mutual 
 destruction. Of the destructive propensity of the Indian, which 
 has long become a proverb, it is almost unnecessary to speak ; 
 but we may advert to a forcible example from the narrative 
 of the traveller Hearne, who accompanied a trading party of 
 northern Indians on a long journey ; during which he declares 
 that they killed every living creature that came within their 
 reach; nor could they even pass a bird's nest without slaying 
 the young or destroying the eggs. 
 
 That philosophic traveller, Dr. Von Martius, gives a graphic 
 view of the present state of natural and civil rights among 
 the Ameri< n aborigines. Their sub-division, he remarks, 
 into an ah. >st countless multitude of greater and smaller 
 groups, and their entire exclusion and excommunication with 
 regard to eacit other, strike the eye of the observer like the 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OP AMERICA. 9 
 
 fragments of a vast ruin, to which the history of the other 
 nations of the earth furnishes no analogy. " This disruption 
 of all the bands by which society was anciently held together, 
 accompanied by a Babylonish confusion of tongues, the rude 
 right of force, the never ending tacit warfare of all against 
 all, springing from that very disrupture, — appear to me the 
 most essential, and, as far as history is concerned, the most 
 significant points in the civil condition of the aboriginal 
 population of America." 
 
 It may be said that these features of the Indian character 
 are common to all mankind in the savage state. This is gene- 
 rally true; but in the American race they exist in a degree 
 which will fairly challenge a comparison with similar traits 
 in any existing people; and if we consider also their habitual 
 indolence and improvidence, their indifference to private pro- 
 perty, and the vague simplicity of their religious observances, — 
 which, for the most part, are devoid of the specious aid of 
 idolatry, — we must admit them to possess a peculiar and ec- 
 centric moral constitution. 
 
 If we turn now to the demi-civilized nations, we find the 
 dawn of refinement coupled with those barbarous usages 
 which characterize the Indian in his savage slate. We see 
 the Mexicans, like the later Romans, encouraging the most 
 bloody and cruel rites, and these, too, in the name of religion, 
 in order to inculcate hatred of their enemies, familiarity with 
 danger, and contempt of death; and the moral effect of this 
 system is manifest in their valorous, though unsuccessful, re- 
 sistance to their Spanish conquerors. 
 
 Among the Peruvians, however, the case was different. 
 The inhabitants had been subjugated to the Incas by a com- 
 bined moral and physical influence. The Inca family were 
 looked upon as beings of divine origin. They assumed to be 
 the messengers of heaven, bearing rewards for the good, and 
 punishment for the disobedient, conjoined with the arts of 
 peace and various social institutions. History bears ample tes- 
 timony that these specious pretences were employed first to 
 captivate the fancy and then to enslave the man. The fami- 
 
10 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 liar adage that "knowledge is power," was as well understood 
 by them as by us ; learning was artfully restricted to a privi- 
 leged class ; and the genius of the few soon controlled the 
 energies of the many. Thus the policy of the Incas incul- 
 cated in their subjects an abject obedience which knew no 
 limit. They endeavored to eradicate the feeling of individ- 
 uality ; or, in other words, to unite the minds of the plebeian 
 multitude in a common will, which was that of their master. 
 Thus when Pizarro made his first attack on the defenceless 
 Peruvians in the presence of their Inca, the latter was borne 
 in a throne on the shoulders of four men ; and we are told by 
 Herrera that while the Spaniards spared the Sovereign, they 
 aimed their deadly blows at his bearers, who, however, 
 never shrunk from their sacred trust ; for when one of their 
 number fell, another immediately took his place; and the his- 
 torian declares that if the whole day had been spent in kill- 
 ing them, others would still have came forward to the passive 
 support of their master. In fact, what has been called the 
 paternal government of the Incas was strictly such ; for their 
 subjects were children, who neither thought nor acted except 
 at the dictation of another. Thus it was that a people whose 
 moral impulses are known to have differed in little or nothing 
 from those of the barbarous tribes, were reduced, partly by 
 persuasion, partly by force, to a state of effeminate vassalage 
 not unlike that of the modem Hindoos. Like the latter, too, 
 they made good soldiers in their native wars, not from any 
 principle of valor, but from the sentiment of passive obedience 
 to their superiors ; and hence, when they saw their monarch 
 bound and imprisoned by the Spaniards, their conventional 
 courage at once forsook them ; and we behold the singular 
 spectacle of an entire nation prostrated at a blow, like a strong 
 man whose energies yield to a seemingly trivial but rankling 
 wound. 
 
 After the Inca power was destroyed, however, the dormant 
 spirit of the people was again aroused in all the moral vehe- 
 mence of their race, and the gentle and unoffending Peruvian 
 became transformed into the wily and merciless savage. Every 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 one is familiar with the sequel. Resistance was too late to 
 be availing, and the fetters to which they had confidingly 
 submitted were soon riveted forever. 
 
 As we have already observed, the Incas depressed the 
 moral energies of their subjects in order to secure their own 
 power. This they effected by inculcating the arts of peace, 
 prohibiting human sacrifices, and in a great measure avoiding 
 capital punishments; and blood was seldom spilt excepting 
 on the subjugation of warlike and refractory tribes. In these 
 instances, however, the native ferocity of their race broke 
 forth even in the bosom of the Incas ; for we are told by 
 Garcilaso, the descendant and apologist of the Peruvian kings, 
 that some of their wars were absolutely exterminating; and 
 among other examples he mentions that of the Inca Yupanqui 
 against the province of Collao, in which whole districts were 
 so completely depopulated that they had subsequently to 
 be colonized from other parts of the empire: and in another 
 instance the same unsparing despot destroyed twenty thou- 
 sand Caranques, whose bodies he ordered to be thrown into an 
 adjacent lake, which yet bears the name of the Sea of Blood. 
 In like manner, when Atahnalpa contested the dominion with 
 Guascar, he caused the latter, together with thirty of his 
 brothers, to be put to death in cold blood, that nothing might 
 impede his progress to the throne. 
 
 We have thus endeavored to shew that the same moral 
 traits characterize all the aboriginal nations of this continent, 
 from the humanized Peruvian to the rudest savage of the 
 Brazilian forest. 
 
 3. Intellectual Faculties. It has often been remarked that 
 the intellectual faculties are distributed with surprising equal- 
 ity among individuals of the same race who have been simi- 
 larly educated, and subjected to the same moral and other in- 
 fluences: yet even among these, as in the physical man, we 
 see the strong and the weak, with numberless intermediate 
 gradations. This equality is infinitely more obvious in sa- 
 vage than in civilized comrnunities,jsimply because in th 
 
12 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 former the condition of life is more equal ; whence it hap- 
 pens that in contrast to a single master mind, the plebeian 
 multitude are content to live and die in their primitive igno- 
 rance and inferiority. 
 
 This truth is obvious at every step of the present investi- 
 gation ; for of the numberless hordes which have inhabited 
 the American continent, a fractional portion only has left any 
 trace of refinement. I venture here to repeat my matured 
 conviction that as a race they are decidedly inferior to the 
 Mongolian stock. They are not only averse to the restraints 
 of education, but seem for the most part incapable of a con- 
 tinued process of reasoning on abstract subjects. Their minds 
 seize with avidity on simple truths, while they reject what- 
 ever requires investigation or analysis. Their proximity for 
 more than two centuries to European communities, has 
 scarcely effected an appreciable change in their manner of 
 life ; and as to their social condition, they are probably in 
 most respects the same as at the primitive epoch of their ex- 
 istence. They have made no improvement in the construc- 
 tion of their dwellings, except when directed by Europeans 
 who have become domiciliated among them ; for the Indian 
 cabin or the Indian tent, from Terra del Fuego to the river 
 St. Lawrence, is perhaps the humblest contrivance ever de- 
 vised by man to screen himself from the elements. Nor is 
 their mechanical ingenuity more conspicuous in the construc- 
 tion of their boats; for these, as we shall endeavor to show in 
 the sequel, have rarely been improved beyond the first rude 
 conception. Their imitative faculty is of a very humble 
 grade, nor have they any predilection for the arts or sciences. 
 The long annals of missionary labor and private benefaction, 
 present few exceptions to this cheerless picture, which is 
 sustained by the testimony of nearly all practical observers. 
 Even in those instances in which the Indians have received 
 the benefits of education, and remained for years in civilized 
 society, they lose little or none of the innate love of their na- 
 tional usages, which they almost invariably resume when left 
 to choose for themselves.* 
 
 * Crania Americana, p. 81. 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 13 
 
 Such is the intellectual poverty of the barbarous tribes ; 
 but contrasted with these, like an oasis in the desert, are the 
 demi-civilized nations of the new world ; a people whose at- 
 tainments in the arts and sciences are a riddle in the history of 
 the human mind. The Peruvians in the south, the Mexicans 
 in the north, and the Muyscas of Bogota between the two, 
 formed these contemporary 'centres of civilization, each in- 
 dependent of the other, and each equally skirted by wild and 
 savage hordes. The mind dwells with surprise and admira- 
 tion on their cyclopean structures, which often rival those of 
 Egypt in magnitude; — on their temples, which embrace almost 
 every principle in architecture except the arch alone ; — and 
 on their statues and bas-reliefs which, notwithstanding some 
 conventional imperfections, are far above the rudimentary 
 state of the arts.* 
 
 I have elsewhere ventured to designate these demi-civilized 
 nations by the collective name of the Toltecan Family ; for 
 although the Mexican annals date their civilization from a 
 period long antecedent to the appparance of the Toltecas, yet 
 the latter seem to have cultivated the arts and sciences to a 
 degree unknown to their predecessors. Besides, the various 
 nations which at different times invaded and possessed them- 
 selves of Mexico, were characterized by the same fundamen- 
 tal language and the same physical traits, together with a 
 strong analogy in their social institutions: and as the appear- 
 ance of the Incas in Peru was nearly simultaneous with the 
 dispersion of the Toltecas, in the year 1050 of our era, there 
 is reasonable ground for the conjecture that the Mexcans and 
 Peruvians were branches of the same Toltecan stock 
 
 *I cannot omit the present occasion to express my admiration of the recent dis- 
 coveries of Mr. Stephens among the ruined cities of Central America and Yuca- 
 tan. The spirit, ability, and success which characterize these investigations, are 
 an honor to that gentleman and to his country ; and they will probably tend more 
 than the labors of any other person to unravel the mysteries of American Archae- 
 ology. Similar in design to these are the researches of my distinguished friend 
 the Chevalier Freidrichthal, the result of whose labors, though not yet give 
 to the world, are "replete with facts of the utmost importance to the presen 
 inquiry. 
 
 2 
 
14 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 We have alluded to a civilization antecedent to the appearance 
 of the Incas, and which had already passed away when they 
 assumed the government of the country. There are tradi- 
 tional and monumental evidences of this fact which can leave 
 no doubt on the mind, although of its date we can form no 
 just conception. It may have even preceded the Christian 
 era, nor do we know of any positive reasons to the contrary. 
 Chronology may be called the crutch of history ; but with all 
 its imperfections it would be invaluable here, where no clue 
 remains to unravel those mysterious records which excite our 
 research but constantly elude our scrutiny. We may be per- 
 mitted, however, to repeat what is all-important to the present 
 inquiry, that these Ancient Peruvians were the progenitors of 
 the existing Aymara tribes of Peru, while these last are iden- 
 tified in every particular with the people of the great Inca 
 race. All the monuments which these various nations have 
 left behind them, over a space of three thousand miles, go 
 also to prove a common origin, because, notwithstanding some 
 minor differences, certain leading features pervade and charac- 
 terize them all. 
 
 Whether the hive of the civilized nations was, as some 
 suppose, in the fabled region of Aztlan in the north, or whe. 
 ther, asthelearned Cabrera has endeavored to shew, their na- 
 tive seats were in Chiapas and Guatimala, we may not stop 
 to inquire ; but to them, and to them alone, we trace the 
 monolithic gateways of Peru, the sculptures of Bogota, the 
 ruined temples and pyramids of Mexico and the mounds and 
 fortifications of the valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 Such was the Toltecan Family ; and it will now be in- 
 quired how it happens that so great a disparity should have 
 existed in the intellectual character of the American nations, 
 if they are all derived from a common stock, or in other 
 words belong to the same race ? How are we to reconcile 
 the civilization of the one with the barbarism of the other ? 
 It is this question which has so much puzzled the philosophers 
 of the past three centuries, and led them, in the face of facts, 
 to insist on a plurality of races, We grant the seeming 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 23 
 
 the Indian with no additional means of contending with the 
 watery element ; and his log canoe and boat of birch bark, 
 are precisely the same as at the landing of Columbus. 
 
 5. Manner of Interment. Veneration for the dead is a 
 sentiment natural to man, whether civilized or savage: but 
 the manner of expressing it, and of performing the rites of se- 
 pulture, differ widely in different nations. No offence excites 
 greater exasperation in the breast of the Indian than the vio- 
 lation of the graves of his people ; and he has even been 
 known to disinter the bones of his ancestors, and bear them 
 with him to a great distance, when circumstances have com- 
 pelled him to make a permanent change of residence. 
 
 But the manner of inhumation is so different from that 
 practised by the rest of mankind, and at the same time so pre- 
 valent among the American nations, as to constitute another 
 means of identifying them as parts of a single and peculiar 
 race. This practice consists in burying the dead in the sit- 
 ting posture; the legs being flexed against the abdomen, the 
 arms also bent, and the chin supported on the palms of the 
 hands. The natives of Patagonia, Brazil, and Guayana ; the 
 insular and other Charibs, the Florida tribes, the great chain 
 of Lenape nations, the inhabitants of both sides of the Rocky 
 mountains, and those also of Canada and the vast Northwest- 
 ern region, all conform, with occasional exceptions, to this 
 conventional rite. So also with the demi-civilized commu- 
 nities from the most distant epochs ; for the ancient Peru- 
 vians, to whom we have already so frequently referred, pos 
 sessed this singular usage, as is verified by their numberless 
 remains in the sepulchres of Titicaca. They did not, how- 
 ever, bury their dead, but placed them on the floors of their 
 tombs, seated, and sewed up in sacks. The later Peruvians 
 of the Inca race followed the same custom, sometimes inhum- 
 ing the body, at others placing it in a tower above ground. 
 Garcilaso de la Vega informs us, that in the year 1560 he saw 
 five embalmed bodies of the royal family, all of whom were 
 seated in the Indian manner, with their hands crossed upon 
 
24 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 the breast, and their heads bent forward. So also the Mexi- 
 cans from the most ancient time had adopted the same usage, 
 which was equally the privilege of the king and his people. 
 The most remarkable exception to the practice in question, 
 is that in which the body is dissected before interment, the 
 bones alone being deposited in the earth. This extraordinary 
 rite has prevailed among various tribes from the southern to the 
 northern extremity of their range, in Patagonia, Brazil, Flo- 
 rida, and Missouri, and indeed in many intervening localities; 
 but even in these instances, the bones are often retained in 
 their relative position by preserving the ligaments, and then 
 interred in the attitude of a person seated. An example 
 among very many others is recorded by the Baron Humboldt, 
 in his visit to a cavern-cemetery of the Atures Indians, at the 
 sources of the Orinoco ; wherein he found hundreds of skele- 
 tons preserved each in a separate basket, the bones being held 
 together by their natural connexions, and the whole diposed 
 in the conventional posture of which we are speaking. 
 
 I am well aware that this practice has been noticed by 
 some navigators among the Polynesian islands ;the instances, 
 however, appear so few as rather to form exceptions to the 
 rule, like those of the Nassamones of northern Africa : but I 
 have sought for it in vain among the continental Asiatics, who, 
 if they ever possessed it, would have yet preserved it among 
 some at least of their numberless tribes. 
 
 After this, rapid view of the principal leading characteris- 
 tics of the American race, let us now briefly inquire whether 
 they denote an exotic origin ; or whether there is not internal 
 evidence that this race is as strictly aboriginal to America as 
 the Mongolian is to Asia, or the Negro to Africa. 
 
 And first, we turn to the Mongolian race, which by a 
 somewhat general consent is admitted to include the Polar 
 nations, and among them the Eskimaux of our continent. It 
 is a very prevalent opinion that the latter people, who obvi- 
 ously belong to the Polar family of Asia, pass insensibly into 
 the American race, and thus form the connecting link be- 
 tween the two. But without repeating what has already been 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 35 
 
 We shall lastly notice an imaginative classification which 
 separates the aborigines of America into four species of men f 
 exclusive of the Eskimaux. This curious but unphilosophi- 
 cal hypothesis has been advanced by M. Bory de St. Vincent, 
 a French naturalist of distinction, who considers the civilized 
 nations to be cognate with the Malays, and designates them 
 by the collective name of the Neptunian species ; while to 
 his three remaining species, — the Columbian, the American, 
 and the Patagonian, he assigns certain vague geographical 
 limits, without establishing any distinctive characteristics of 
 the people themselves. The system is so devoid of founda- 
 tion in nature, so fanciful in all its details, as hardly to merit 
 a serious analysis; and we have introduced it on the present 
 occasion to illustrate the extravagance, and the poverty, of 
 some of the hypotheses which have been resorted to in expla- 
 nation of the problem before us. 
 
 Once for all I repeat my conviction, that the study of phy- 
 sical conformation alone excludes every branch of the Cau- 
 casian race from any obvious participation in the peopling of 
 this continent. If the Egyptians,* Hindoos, Phenicians, or 
 Gauls have ever, by accident or design, planted colonies in 
 America, these must have been, sooner or later, dispersed and 
 lost in the waves of a vast indigenous population. Such we 
 know to have been the fact with the Northmen, whose re- 
 peated, though very partial, settlements in the present New 
 England States, from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries, 
 are now matter of history ; yet, in the country itself, they 
 have not left a single indisputable trace of their sojourn. 
 
 In fine, our own conclusion, long ago deduced from a pa- 
 tient examination of the facts thus briefly and inadequately 
 stated, is, that the American race is essentially separate and 
 peculiar, whether we regard it in its physical, its moral, or its 
 intellectual relations. To us there are no direct or obvious 
 links between the people of the old world and the new ; for 
 even admitting the seeming analogies to which we have al- 
 
 * See Appendix No. 4. 
 
36 
 
 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 luded, these are so few in number and evidently so casual as 
 not to invalidate the main position : and even should it be 
 hereafter shown, that the arts, sciences, and religion of Ame- 
 rica can be traced to an exotic source, I maintain that the 
 organic characters of the people themselves, through all their 
 endless ramifications of tribes and nations, prove them to be- 
 long to one and the same race, and that this race is distinct 
 from all others. 
 
 This idea may, at first view, seem incompatible with the 
 history of man, as recorded in the Sacred Writings. Such, 
 however, is not the fact. Where others can see nothing but 
 chance, we can perceive a wise and obvious design, displayed 
 in the original adaptation of the several races of men to those 
 varied circumstances of climate and locality which, while 
 congenial to the one, are destructive to the other. The evi- 
 dences of history and 6 the Egyptian monuments go to prove 
 that these races were as distinctly stamped three thousand 
 five hundred years ago as they are now ; and, in fact, 
 that they are coeval with the primitive dispersion of our 
 specie?. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 On the 6th of July, 1841, 1 made the following communication 
 \ to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; and now 
 
 extract it from the Proceedings of the Society of that date : 
 
 I submit to the inspection of the members eight adult skulls of the 
 ancient Mexican race, for six of which I am indebted to Don J. 
 Gomez de la Cortina, and for the other two to Dr. John P. Ma- 
 cartney of the city of Mexico. All these crania have been re- 
 ceived since the publication of my Crania Americana. 
 
 The skulls are supposed to be of the following nations : 
 
 1. Otomies ? — Four in number, with the high vertex, flat occiput, 
 great lateral diameter, and broad face, characteristic of the 
 American race. The Otomies preceded the Toltecas, and were 
 the least cultivated of the demi-civilized nations of Anahuac. 
 The largest of these heads gives 92 cubic inches of internal 
 capacity ; the smallest, that of a female, only 67. 
 
 4 
 
38 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 2. Chechemecan ? — A single skull, of 83 cubic inches of internal 
 capacity. This nation followed the Toltecas in the possession of 
 Mexico in the 11th century of our era. They were nomades 
 and hunters, but rapidly acquired the arts and civilization of their 
 predecessors. 
 
 3. Tlascalan? — A single cranium. These people formed one of 
 the seven tribes who established themselves in Mexico during 
 the Chechemecan monarchy, and are renowned in history for 
 their warlike exploits. They are well known to have rendered 
 Cortez essential aid in taking the city of Mexico. This skull 
 gives an internal capacity of 84 cubic inches, and like the others 
 of this series, is remarkable for its diameter between the pa- 
 rietal bones. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the average internal capacity of 
 these six authentic Mexican skulls, is precisely what I have ac- 
 corded to these people in my Crania Americana, viz., seventy-nine 
 cubic inches. The mean of the facial angle also accords with my 
 previous measurements, and gives 75°. 
 
 All these heads were obtained from tumuli or mounds, within 
 the territories of the nations whose names they bear, so as to 
 leave no doubt in the mind of the distinguished gentleman from 
 whom I received them, of their having pertained to individuals of 
 those nations. 
 
 The two remaining crania are supposed to be those of Aztecs, 
 who also belonged to the confederacy of the seven tribes, but were 
 the last to take possession. These were the people who subse- 
 quently obtained the supreme power, and under the name of Az- 
 tecs, or Mexicans, governed the country at the epoch of the 
 Spanish invasion, a. d. 1521. The Aztecks were a brave and 
 intelligent people, but remarkable for bloody rites, both in their 
 warlike and religious observances. They were less cultivated 
 than the Toltecas, but much more so than the surrounding bar- 
 barous tribes ; and appear, in fact, to have been the connecting 
 link between the two. The largest of these heads gives 85 cubic 
 inches of internal capacity; the smallest 77; the medium being 
 80 cubic inches. The configuration of these heads is on the same 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 39 
 
 model as the preceding series, and the mean facial angle differs 
 but a single degree. 
 
 Whoever will be at the pains to compare this series of skulls 
 with those from the barbarous tribes, will, I think, agree that the 
 facts thus derived from organic characters corroborate the position 
 I have long maintained, that all the American nations, excepting 
 the polar tribes, are of one race and one species, but of two great 
 families, which resemble each other in physical but differ in in- 
 tellectual character. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting of the Society, (August 9, 1842,) I 
 exhibited the remains of a human skeleton found by Mr. J. L. 
 Stevens in a vault or tomb at the ruins near Ticul, nineteen 
 leagues from Merida, in Yucatan. These bones have pertained 
 to a female, whose stature has not exceeded five feet three inches, 
 at the same time that the absence of epiphyses and consequent 
 consolidation of the bones are proofs of adult age. From the 
 appearance of the teeth, however, which are fresh, and not sen- 
 sibly worn, and a line or furrow marking off the crista of the 
 ilium, it is presumed that this individual had not passed her 
 twentieth year. The bones of the head, which are still partially 
 separable at the sutures, are admirably characteristic of the Ame- 
 \ rican Face, ,,as seen in the vertical occiput and the great inter-pa- 
 
 rietal diameter, which measures five inches and eight-tenths. 
 The head is of full size, in proportion to the rest of the skeleton, 
 of which the bones are of very delicate proportions, especially 
 those of the feet and hands. An interesting feature of this 
 skeleton is, the occurrence of a large spongy node on the upper 
 and inner surface of the left tibia, on which it extends about two 
 inches in length, an inch in breadth, and half an inch in thick- 
 ness. Dr. Bridges having subjected some fragments of these 
 bones to the usual chemical tests, found them in a very great 
 degree deprived of animal matter — an additional evidence of their 
 antiquity.* 
 
 * See Stephens; Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, vol. i., p. 281. 
 
40 
 
 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OP THE 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE ANCIENT PERUVIANS. 
 
 (From the 8th vol. of the Journal of the Acad, of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.) 
 
 In my work on American skulls, (Crania Americana,) I have 
 expressed the opinion that the heads of the ancient Peruvians 
 were naturally very much elongated ; and that they differed in 
 this respect from those of the Inca Peruvians, and other surround- 
 ing nations ; and having given this opinion at a meeting of the 
 Academy prior to the publication of my work, I take the present 
 occasion to renounce it. 
 
 In the American Journal of Science, for March, 1840, I have 
 already, in a brief note, adverted to this change of opinion ; and 
 I now repeat my matured conclusions, in connection with posi- 
 tive facts, derived from the work of a distinguished traveller and 
 naturalist, M. Alcide D'Orbigny. 
 
 This gentleman not only visited the elevated table-land of the 
 Andes, which was once inhabited by the ancient Peruvians, but 
 he remained a long time in that interesting region, and has col- 
 lected numerous facts in relation of the people themselves. 
 
 1. The descendants of the ancients Peruvians yet inhabit the 
 land of their ancestors, and bear the name of Aymaras, which 
 was probably their primitive designation. 
 
 2. The modern Aymaras resemble the surrounding Quichua 
 or Peruvian nations in color, figure, features, expression, shape 
 of the head, (which they have ceased to mould into artificial 
 forms,) and in fact in every thing that relates to physical confor- 
 mation and social customs. Their languages differ, but even here 
 there is a resemblance which proves a common origin. 
 
 3. On examining the tombs of the ancient Aymaras, in the 
 environs of the lake Tittcaca, M. D'Orbigny remarked that those 
 which contained the compressed and elongated skulls, contained 
 also a greater number that were not flattened ; whence he infers 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 41 
 
 that the deformity was not natural, or characteristic of the nation, 
 but the result of mechanical compression. 
 
 4. It was also remarked that those skulls which were flattened 
 were uniformly those of men, while the heads of the women al- 
 ways retained the natural shape, — the squared or spheroidal form 
 which is characteristic of the American race, and especially of the 
 Peruvians. 
 
 5. The most elongated heads were found in the largest and 
 finest tombs ; showing- that the deformity was a mark of distinc- 
 tion among these people. 
 
 6. The researches of M. D'Orbigny confirm the statements 
 made at distant intervals of time by Pedro de Cieza, Garcilaso de 
 la Vega, and Mr. Pentland, and prove conclusively, what I have 
 never doubted, that these people were the architects of their own 
 tombs and temples ; and not, as some suppose, intruders^who had 
 usurped the civilization, and appropriated the ingenuity of an an- 
 tecedent and more intellectual race. 
 
 M. D'Orbigny found temples from 100 to 200 metres in length, 
 facing the east, and ornamented with rows of angular columns ; 
 enormous gateways made of a single mass of rock, and covered 
 with bas reliefs; colossal statues of basalt; and large square 
 tombs, wholly above ground, and in such numbers that they are 
 compared to towns and villages. 
 
 My published observations go to show that the internal capa- 
 city of the cranium, as indicative of the size of the brain, is nearly 
 the same in the ancient and modern Peruvians, viz., about 
 seventy-six cubic inches — a smallness of size which is with- 
 out a parallel among existing nations, excepting only the 
 Hindoos. 
 
 M. D'Orbigny even supposes the ancient Peruvians to have 
 been the lineal progenitors of the Inca family; a question which 
 is not yet decided. Supposing this to be the fact, we may in- 
 quire how it happens that the Incas should have abandoned the 
 practice of distorting the cranium ; especially as this, among the 
 Aymaras, was an aristocratic privilege ? 
 
 I was at first at a loss to imagine how this singular elongation of 
 the head had been effected ; for when pressure is applied to a sphe- 
 
 4* 
 
42 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 roidal head, as in the instance of the Chenouks and other tribes 
 of the Columbia river, the skull expands laterally in proportion 
 as it is depressed above ; whereas, in these people, the head is 
 narrow from the face to the occiput. It seems probable that this 
 conformation was produced by placing splints or compresses on 
 each side of the head from the cheek bones to the parietal pro- 
 tuberances, and another on the forehead, and confining them by 
 rotary bandages. In this way the face, in the process of growth, 
 would be protruded in front, and the head elongated backwards; 
 while the skull, in all other directions, could expand compara- 
 tively little. These remarks will be more readily understood by 
 reference to the annexed outlines, which are taken from a cast of 
 one of the skulls obtained by Mr. Pentland. 
 
 Dr. Goddard has suggested to me that the deformity observ- 
 able in this series of crania, might have been produced by the 
 action of rotary bandages alone, without the use of splints or 
 compresses. I admit the possibility of this result in some of the 
 heads, but think that in others there is satisfactory evidence 
 of the employment of the splint or compress, especially on the os 
 frontis. 
 
I 
 
 ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 43 
 
 I have in my possession six casts of heads and three skulls of 
 these people, all of which present the peculiarly elongated form 
 in question. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 REMARKS ON THE SO-CALLED PIGMY RACE OF THE 
 VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 (From the 8th vol. of the Journal of the Acad, of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.) 
 
 It had long been contended by intelligent persons, who, however, 
 were ignorant of Anatomy, that the adjusted bones of these pretended 
 Pigmies never exceeded four feet and a half in length, and were 
 often but three feet, notwithstanding the asserted indications of adult 
 age. These statements made me desirous to investigate the sub- 
 ject by means of a skeleton of one of these people, which I at length 
 obtained through the kindness of Dr. Troost, of Nashville; Dr. 
 M'Call, an intelligent correspondent of Dr. Troost, having exhumed 
 the remains from a " Pigmy cemetery" near the Cumberland Moun- 
 tain, in White county, Tennessee. 
 
 " The colfins," observes Dr. M'Calf, in his letter addressed 
 to me, " are from 18 to 24 inches in length, by IS inches deep, 
 and 15 wide. They are made of six pieces of undressed sandstone 
 or limestone, in which the bodies are placed with their shoulders 
 and head elevated against the eastern end, and the knees raised 
 towards the face, so as to put the corpse in a reclined or sitting 
 posture. The right arm rested on an earthen pot, of about two 
 pints in capacity, without legs, but with lateral projections for being 
 lifted. With these pots, in some graves, are found basins and trays 
 also of pipe clay and comminuted shells mixed; and no one of these 
 repositories is without cooking utensils. In one of the graves was 
 found a complete skull, and an os femoris, but most of the other 
 bones were broke in hastily removing them. This is said to be the 
 
44 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE 
 
 largest skeleton ever found at any of these burying grounds. It 
 has ihe cranium very flat and broad, with very projecting front 
 teeth, and appears to have pertained to an individual not over 
 twelve or fourteen years of age." 
 
 The bones which accompanied the letter indicate a very juvenile 
 subject. For example, many of the deciduous or first teeth yet re- 
 main in both jaws ; while the only teeth of the permanent set which 
 have protruded, are the first molars and the incisors, which, as every 
 anatomist knows, make their appearance at about seven years of 
 age. Of the other permanent teeth, some have no part formed but 
 the crown, and all are completely within the maxillary bones. 
 The presence of the new incisors, isolated from the cuspidati which 
 have not appeared, obviously gave rise to Dr. M'Call's remark re- 
 specting the very " projecting front teeth," but which, however, are 
 perfectly natural in position and proportion. The cranial bones are 
 thin, and readily separable at the sutures; nor does the^a* and broad 
 configuration of the cranium differ from what is common to the 
 aboriginal American race. The long bones have their extremities 
 separated by epiphyses; and every fact observed in these remains 
 is strictly characteristic of early childhood, or about the eighth year 
 of life. Even the recumbent or sitting posture in which they are 
 found, has been observed in the dead bodies of the American na- 
 tions from Cape Horn to Canada; and the utensils found with them 
 are the same in form and composition with those exhumed from the 
 graves of the common Indians. 
 
 These remains are to me an additional and convincing proof of 
 what I have never doubted — viz., that the so-called Pigmies of the 
 western country were merely children, who, for reasons not readily 
 explained, but which actuate some religious communities of our own 
 time, were buried apart from the adult people of their tribe. 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 45 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 With respect to the Egyptians and Hindoos, as involved in this 
 question, I can speak without reservation. Through the kindness 
 of an accomplished gentleman and scholar, George R. Gliddon, 
 Esq., late United States Consul at Cairo, I have received one hun- 
 dred heads of Egyptian mummies from the tombs of Abydos, Thebes 
 and Memphis, &c; and I unhesitatingly declare, that, with a few 
 exceptions, which have a mixed character, and chiefly resemble the 
 Coptic form, the conformation throughout is that of the Caucasian 
 race. 
 
 The following extracts from my Crania JEgyptiaca, just now 
 published, appear to me to be conclusive on this point: 
 
 "It was remarked fifty years ago, by the learned Professor Blu- 
 menbach, that a principal requisite for an inquiry such as we now 
 propose, would be "a very careful, technical examination of the 
 skulls of mummies hitherto met with, together with an accurate 
 comparison of these skulls with the monuments." This is precisely 
 the design I have in view in the following memoir, which I therefore 
 commence by an analysis of the characters of all the crania now in 
 my possession. These may be referred to two of the great races 
 of men, the Caucasian and the Negro, although there is a remark- 
 able disparity in the number of each. The Caucasian heads also 
 vary so much among themselves as to present several different 
 types of this race, which may, perhaps, be appropriately grouped 
 under the following designations : — 
 
 CAUCASIAN RACE. 
 
 1. The *Pelasgic Type. In this division I place jthose heads 
 which present the finest conformation, as seen in the Caucasian 
 nations of western Asia, and middle and southern Europe. The 
 
 * I do not use this term with ethnographic precision ; but merely to indicate 
 the most perfect type of cranio-facial outline. 
 
" ■ • ' \ m 
 
 46 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OP THE 
 
 Pelasgic lineaments are familiar to us in the beautiful models of 
 Grecian art, which are remarkable for the volume of the head in 
 comparison with that of the face, the large facial angle, and the 
 symmetry and delicacy of the whole osteological structure. 
 
 2. The Semitic Type, as seen in the Hebrew communities, is 
 marked by a comparatively receding forehead, long, arched and 
 very prominent nose, a marked distance between the eyes, a low, 
 heavy, broad and strong and often harsh development of the whole 
 facial structure. 
 
 4. The Egyptian form differs from the Pelasgic in having a nar- 
 rower and more receding forehead, while the face being more pro- 
 minent, the facial angle is consequently less. The nose is straight 
 or aquiline, the face angular, the features often sharp, and the hair 
 uniformly long, soft, and curling. In this series of crania I include 
 many of which the conformation is not appreciably different from 
 that of the Arab and Hindoo; but I have not, as a rule, attempted to 
 note these distinctions, although they are so marked as to have in- 
 duced me, in the early stage of the investigation, and for reasons 
 which will appear in the sequel, to group them, together with the 
 proper Egyptian form, under the provisional name of Austral- 
 Egyptian crania. 
 
 NEGRO RACE. 
 
 The true Negro conformation requires no comment ; but it is 
 necessary to observe that a practised eye readily detects a few 
 heads with decidedly mixed characters, in which those of the Negro 
 predominate. For these I propose the name of Negroid crania ; 
 for while the osteological development is more or less that of the 
 Negro, the hair is long but sometimes harsh, thus indicating that 
 combination of features which is familiar in the mulatto grades of 
 the present day. It is proper, however, to remark in relation to 
 the whole series of crania, that while the greater part is readily refer- 
 able to some one of the above subdivisions, there remain a few other 
 examples in which the Caucasian traits predominate, but are par- 
 tially blended with those of the Negro, which last modify both the 
 structure and expression of the head and face. 
 
ABORIGINAL RACE OF AMERICA. 
 
 47 
 
 The following is a Tabular View of the whole series of crania, 
 arranged, in the first place, according to their sepulchral localities, 
 and, in the second, in reference to their national affinities. 
 
 Ethnographic Table of one hundred ancient Egyptian Crania, 
 
 Sepulchral Localities. 
 
 No. 
 
 Egyptian. 
 
 Pelasgic. 
 
 Semitic. 
 
 Mixed.jNegroid. 
 
 Negro. 
 
 Idiot. 
 
 Memphis, 
 
 26 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Maahdeh, 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 Abydos, 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 Thebes, 
 
 55 
 
 30 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 Ombos, 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Philae, 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 Debod, 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 100 
 
 49 
 
 29 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 i 
 
 2 
 
 - — . 
 
 • a 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 CLASSIFICATION OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 
 
 The following classification is a slight modification of that pub- 
 lished in my Crania Americana. The Races correspond with those 
 in Prof. Blumenbach's system, which latter differs but little from that 
 of Bufibn. The subdivision into Families is based upon ethno- 
 graphic analogies, both physical and philological. 
 
 I. CAUCASIAN RACE. 
 A. The Japetic or Indo-European Branch. 
 
 1. The Pelasgic or Caucasian Family. 
 
 2. The Germanic Family. 
 
 3. The Celtic Family. 
 
 4. The Indostanic Family. 
 
4S THE ABORIGINAL RACE OP AMERICA. 
 
 B. The Semitic or Syro-Arabian Branch. 
 
 5. The Arabian Family. 
 
 6. The Hebrew Family. 
 
 C. The Hamitic or ^Egypto-Libyan Branch. 
 
 7. The Nilotic or Egyptian Family. 
 
 8. The Libyan Family. 
 
 II. THE MONGOLIAN RACE. 
 
 9. The Mongol-Tartar Family, 
 
 10. *The Turkish Family. 
 
 11. The Chinese Family. 
 
 12. fThe Indo-Chinese Family. 
 
 13. The Polar Family. 
 
 III. THE MALAY RACE. 
 
 14. The Malay Family. 
 
 15. The Polynesian Family. 
 
 IV. THE AMERICAN RACE. 
 
 16. The American Family. 
 
 17. The Toltecan Family. 
 
 V. THE NEGRO RACE.j: 
 
 18. The Negro Family. 
 
 19. The Caffrarian Family. 
 
 20. The Austral- African or Hottentot Family. 
 
 21. The Oceanic-Negro Family. 
 
 22. The Australian Family. 
 
 # The Turks are a mixed family of the Caucassian and Mongolian races, in 
 which the latter preponderates. 
 
 f The Indo-Chinese nations may yet prove to belong to the Malay race. 
 4 Called the Ethiopian Race by Professor Blumenbach.