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This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqu^ ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X y tax 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X ails du difjer Line lage The copy filmsd her* hes been reproduced thenks to the generosity of: Librmv Division ProiM^icial Archives of British Columbia The imeges eppeering here ere the best quslity possible considering the condition end legibility of the originsi copy end in keeping with the filming contrect specificetions. L'exempleire film* fut reproduit grAce A Is g4nArosit* de. Library Division Provincial Archives of Bi^ PR AUTII JOHN PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA UY THK MARQUIS UK NADAILLAC IKANSLATED UY N. DAN VERS AUTHOR OF 'THK RUEMF.NTARV HISTORV I'K AI!T' ' SCIRNCE LADUERm' KTi.. \ EDITLD BY W. H 1»ALL m iivr// 2\g /rrrsTNAT/oxs LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALliEMARl.K STREET 1885 ^ ^ 1 ;: London ■ PKiNiKr) hv srorrihWOoDK and to., NRw-sikEi;i AM) HAKI lAMKNI STRHKT The pi rAuu'ri .'^anctioi revised nivesti<;i ! the arch This [the arch; fof much [tlic cdito Mail) [and the , |as.si.stanc( [Smith, ol iSainsbur) To tl Ifsiicrs an of illustra originally ■which has by the aut NOTE BY THE EDITOR. The present translation of the Marquis de XadaiJlac's rAiiiiriqiie Prcliistoriqiie has been made witli the author's sanction. \\y his permission it has been modified and revised to brinj; it into harmony uilh the results of recent investigation and the conchisions of the best authoriiies on i the archaeology of the United States. This has required a revision of the chapters relatinjj to [the arclia^ology of North America anil the addition to them of much new information. For such changes and additions [the editor is to t^c held responsible. Many quotations have been verified by Mr. J. \V. Gibbs, land the acknowledgments of the translator are also due for [assistance rendered in architectural matters by Prof. T. Roger [Smitii, of Lond(Mi University, and in other details by Dr. [Sainsbury and Miss F. E. Judge. To the courte.sy of the Messrs. Harper & Bros, the pub- Ifsncrs are indebted for the opportunity of using a number )f illustrations relating to the archaeology of Peru. These )riginally appeared in Squier's well-known work on Peru, diich has been cited as an authority on numerous occasions )y the author of the present work. f 1 It : 2i 9 I I PR F. FACE. l'rc-hi«;toric man ha-: f.»r sonic time excited a justifiable interc>t not only amon f the ancient inhabitants of the Old World. Thi received has led me to otrc^us period in America. {^ood-will with which that work w supplement it by tracing the anal seeking the first evidences of a culture parallel to our own and lirin^jinfi the recital down to the sixteenth century of our era. My task has been facilitated b)- the numerous investiga- tions undertaken in the United States. There, many so- cieties devote themselves to the study of aboriginal antitpii- ties, museums exist already containing a wealth of material ; excavations arc carried on with an energy and perseverance justly commanduig admiration. Success has crowneil these efforts, every day bringing to light the most remarkable di.s- coveries, the most unexpected results. These researches a. d discoveries it is my ilesire 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 liypotheses which the revelations of a tlay have sometimes overturned. As was lately said by Virchow, " when wc kn(»w as little as we do yet, it behoves us to be modest in our theories." Our i)resent lack of inform; tion, however, is stimulating rather than prejudicial to arch.uological study. For my i)art 1 know no grander spectacle than the onward march of human progress. Lvery fact won. every stage accomplished, becomes the starting point of fresh accjuirement, 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 .i:. I granted him such potentiality of mind. Science in its free- dom and its strength cannot disown its author. % 'gnu 01 W cr l\ no Ai T\ AdvaiK rub Am of kite mod i '•"irst di: -Gr encio mour build grouf CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. MAN AM) IHK MASTODCJN. r.\t .••. Ignorance cif ancients of existence of America— Disembarlcation of Cortes on the shores of ^.Texico — Inhahitanls, fauna, any the kitchen-middens or heaps of kitchen rubbish— The immense number of these heaps scattered throughout America -The Paraderos of South America -Kitchen-middens formed of fresh-water shells Speculations regarding date of formation of kitchen-middens— Caves and the relics found in them — Huts and their mode of structure 46 ^0 CHAPTER III. THE MOUND-BUILDERS. First discoverers of the mounds -Immense number of mounds now known — Great variety of form, &c., of mounds — Defensive works -Sacred enclosures — The tnmcated p)'ramids known as temples — Sacrificial mounds— Sepulchral mounds or tumuli — Cremation amongst the mound- builders — Mounds of the shape of animals — Canals connecting different groups of mounds So -1 r ' CONTENTS. ■-^ CHAPTER IV. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS. r.\(iE Ancient keramic art -Different processes of making pottery — Great variety uf form in ancient and modem pottery— Vases with necks -Cooking vessels -Lamps — Hasins and cups — Funeral vases —Representations of fruits in pottery— Representations of animals and of the human form — Stone pipes — Idols — Weapons and implements — Ornaments — CJostumes i)f mound-builders — Traces of mining operations — The origin, amount of civilization, and migrations of the mound-builders — Their complete ex- tinction Theories respecting the mound-builders . . . . • ^H CHAPTER V. THE CLIFF-DWELLERS AND INHABITANTS OF THE PUEBLOS. Contrast between past and present appearance of New Mexico, Arizona, ivc. — The Pueblos — The drying up of watercourses -Attempts at classifica- tion of ruins of the Far West into Lowlands or Agricultural Villages, Cave-dwellings, and Cliff-dwellings -Cliff-dwellings on the Rio Mancos— Ruins in the Mac-Elmo valley ; on the Hovenweep ; in the M(;iiUezuma Caiion, and elsewhere — The Casa (irande in the Gila valley — The Pueblo Bonito — Pottery, weapons, and ornaments of the Cliff-dwellers — Paintings, sculptures, and engravings on rocks in New Mexico, Arizona, &c. — The relations between the Cliff-dwellers and the other inhabitants of America . . 19S CHAPTER VI. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. f General drifting of populations from the north southwards — Successive migrations —The Mayas and the relics left by them — The Nahuas and their customs —The Toltecs : their form of government, medical skill, &c. — The Chichimees and their cruel customs, &c. — The Tezcucans am' their culture— The Aztecs : their obscuie origin and rapid advance in prosperity — Two Tezcucan rulers — Forms of worship amongst the early inhabitants of America — Their belief in a future life — Funeral ceremonies — The practice of cremation -Astronomical science amongst the aborigines of America — Their weapons and fortilkaiions — Their social organization, costumes, &c. ....... 260 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER VII. THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. t-ACK (ieneral inferiority of American to Oriental niins — Ruins of Palenque — Monuments at Copan — Ruins in Yucatan — The Casa ^amhualjja — Sculji- ture.s at Zuirigua— Ornaments and pottery of al>jrigine5 of Central America , . . . . . . . . . • 3'7 CHAPTER VI n. PERU. i;\tr.iordinary energy of early inhabitants of i'eru — The Incas — Pacha- 1 amac— Tiaguanaco — The Lake of Titicaca — The Island of Coal — The Island of Soto — Cuzco and its original magniticence : fortresses erected b) Incas at OUantay Tamho, Piiuillacta, Choccequirao, «ic.— Roads, canals, and reservoirs constructed by the Incas— Cemeteries, tombs, nuacas, chulpas, and sepulchral caves of Peru - Religion and forms of worship of ancient Peruvians — Their laws and customs — Their i)ottery — Their skill in weaving tissues, working nieials, A:c. — The Pintados or rock sculptures and engravings — The Ouifpos or rope- writing of the I'eruvians — The Chibchas and their customs — The Piedras — Pintadas or intaglio sculptures — The jxittery of ancient Peru . 3S7 CHAPTER I.\. THE MEN Ot A.MERIC.V. The Denver skull — Skeleton found in the I^ Plata Pampas- Skulls found ni caves — The Lagoa-Santa skull— Skulls four.ii in kitchen-middens — Bones* of mound-builders- Small cranial capacity v>f nviuiid skulN — Practice of platycnemia or fla'tcning of tibi.T. — Perforation of the hu- merus — Stature of mound-builders— The Clifl-Jwellers- The peoples of Central America — The Peruvians — Other races of South America — Smallpox and other diseases — Trcjanning before and after death — Arti- ficial deformations of the skull ........ 47O xn CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. IHK ORIGIN OI' MAN IN AMERICA. Man not aiiloclithonous in the New World — Traditions and kj^ends respect- ing origin of primeval man in America Successive waves of migra- tion — Legends of a great Hood and subsequent repeopling of America from a single pair — \'arif)us opinions of scientific men as to the origin of American aborigines — Conclusion . . . . . . . ;iS APPENDIX. Discoveries in California — List of species found in shell heaps of Maine and Massachusetts — Note on recent investigations in Palenque by Charnay . 533 INDKX 539 ^% DJJ • 539 ■\ CHAPTER I. MAN AND IHE MASTODON. The existence of the American continent was unknown to the Egyptians and the PhcEnicians, as well as to the Greeks and Romans. VVc find nothing in the writings either ot 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' ; 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,' we must place those of Jacques Car- * 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. ' ("luistoph.er Columbii<; left Palos, near Seville, on the 3d of August, 1492, '.:.d on the I4lh of the following October landed on the island of ^•amana. tl 'i I StSBBBSSS 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,' who ventured to oppose his passage. The second battle, which was bloody and long contested, took place on the i8th of March, 15 19. 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 App''opriation ; from that moment her fortunes and those of the New World have been indissolubly united.' ' ColumbuF, 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, ' 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 Ruincs 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 " ; Brasscur de Bourbourg's " Ilis- toire des Nations Civilisces du Mexique et de 1' Amcrique Centrale," in four volumes ; Southall's " Recent Origin of Man " ; Short's " North Americans - ' in four ricans From doXlxOi long, and necpaXif head. ' The Llama (Ancfienia) is a ruminant of the family of the Camelidic. 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 tiie Andes. Tiie (juanaco and tiie Vicuna are species of the same group. '■ Certain kinds of dogs were, however, domesticated in America. Tlioy weie called Xulos in Nicaragua. Tzomes in Yucatan, and Techichis in Mexico. 1: 2 ir PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. by the coyote,' or prairie wolf, wliich they kept in captivity and had succeeded in taming to a certain extent. Tiic large feline animals were represented by the jaguar," the lynx,' the puma,* the habitat of which extended from Canada to Patagonia ; and the ocelot,* 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 Worlds 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," tobacco," tomatoes, and peppers — all valuable acquisitions to civilization. These were considered to aiTord very delicate food after having been castrated and fattened. ' Canis 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." * Felis oftca, Linnaeus, a native of South America. ' L^'nx canadensis, 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 Coi. xny. The natives are said to eat its flesh, which is white and insipid. * Felis concolor, Illiger, ' Felis pardalis, Linnaeus. * Ursus Americanus, native to North America. ' 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. * 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. Eur MAN AND THE MASTODON. rity irge nx, a to t of ittlc cr in been ?s, so { the e not The Asia. Vorld» North : were :y had ropean piluable castrated 1649, we had no lomestic. ell as the or wild- In a thou- |)n in Cal- issos. kpioca. tir Walter The Indians, who were successively conquered by forei^ 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 GuaranL 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.* " In ' " Native Races," vol. III., p. 557. These dialects may be divided into numerous distinct groups, of which four particularly characterijtic families may be mentioned. 1. The Innuit or Eskimo, which differs strongly fioia th» other American languages ; 2. The Tinneh, spoken sn the Rocky Mocniaia region, and extending into Alaska, the British possessions, Oregon, California, New Mexico, and Texas ; 3. The Aztec or Nahua, which b widely spread throughout Central America. The remarkable poems of Nezahaalcoyod, king of Ttzcuco, are written in this language. Lastly the Maya-Qoiche, probably the most ancient language of Central America, which predominated in Vocatan, Chiapas and Guatemala. The Indians of Yucatan are said to speak it to this day, and Se5or Orozco y Berra tells us that all the geograpL'-ml names of the peninsula are of Maya origin (" Geog. de las Lenguas de Mex., p. I2g). '" La Antiguedad del Hombre," vol I., p. 77. Seizor Ameghino notes the curious fact that amongst certain tribes the women speak a dialect distinct fnsn that of the men. It is more likely that the sexes merely express themselves in a different manner. 'N'ort and Gliddon, *' Types of Mankind." Squier asserts that one hundred and eighty-seven words of these four hundred dialects are common to fore^n languages ; one hundred and four occur in Asiatic or Australian, forty-three in European, and forty in African languages. This, however, requires fonher confirmation. * 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 doals ; the application of gender to the third person of the verb ; the direct conversion of nouns, substantive and adjective, into verbst and their conjugation a^ -iich ; 1 i I PRr.-IUSTORIC AMERICA. America," s.iys Humboldt,' " from the countrj'of the Esqui- maux to the bunks 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 oiher 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,' 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." 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- r.iatc beincjs." 'Quoted by Pritchard, "Natural History of Man,"* 4ih edition, vol. II., p. 44"t, following Clavigero, places their boundaries be- tween N. Lat. iS° and 21" on the Atlantic side, and 14° and 19" on the r.icific. ■• Wc follow the spelling generally .idopted. The real name of the chief con- fjueifd liy C(jrt<'s was Moctheuzcma, or Muktczcnia. ''Vi I •1 12 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. w tribes were probably descended from the Toltccs,' who, as we shall sec, 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 Toltccs 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- tccs 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- mccs. 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 arc even less known than their rivals,^ and tc add to our difificulties 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 ' Sahagun is the first historian who mentions the Toltccs. 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. * Ixtlilxochitl, " Hist. Chichimeca ;" Kingsborough, " Mex. Ant.," vol. IX. This historian was descended through Jie 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 i6oS. '"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 wliichwere chiefly dependent on the re- sult of the chase for their subsistence." — Bancroft, vol. I., p. 617. Becker, "Migrations dcsNahuas," Congrh des AmMcanistes, Luxembourg, 1S77. ;,£?'^:i? MAN AND THE MASTODON. n who, as We are modern ;ra. We and that it chief." [umboldt ire about owns for ry doubt- ccd more I that the the Tol- sthmus of decimated lie Chichi- e merged of whose atly. The Is,' and to ,me a gen- cw Spain. were wild ic Nahuatl leir true name Ir capital Tol- Ihe mysterious ley lasted sev- Id from seven occasion to re- ,t.," vol. IX. cicnt kint;s of the Catholic under which |he mountains pnt on the re- ii7. Becker, [rg, 1877. 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.' All these men, whether Toltecs, Chichimccs, or Aztecs, believed that their people came from the North,* and mi- grated southv/ard, 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 row 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 Pimentcl, " Lenguas Indigenas de Nrexico." vol. I., p. 154. * 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 gre-t antiquiiy of the American continent. The latter believes the Missis-ippi to have flowed .niong its present bed for more than a hundred thousand years. — " Second Visit to the United States," vol. II., p. 188. 15,1 \ til ill i » 1 I t P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. of stone, America was alrerdy 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," 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 operacion 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 ar.".:';n 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 fidr 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 conquerorsof 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. ' For these nnaloj^ies see " Ensayo de un estuiUo cdinparativo ciitrc la Pira- mide Egypt ias y McAicanas," Mexico, 1871. tons ribic i.1 MAN AND THE MASTODON. fOUS lavc hcsc natc, cdcd that / and ,vhich ut its taken says hings ysical lincnts r and iitudcs conti- ruins, ttcry. cords, s that litions. o call s that en in fi-om rira- 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. lie 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 MacJiairodiis with tusks as sharp as the blade of a dagger, with the Mammoth, and the Rhinoceros ticJiorinus ; perhaps, also, with the yet more ancient FJcphns antiquus and RJiinoceros ctrusais. The first y\mericans too were con- temporary with gigantic animals which, like their con- querors of Europe, have passed away never to return. They had to contend with the Mastodon, the Megatherium, (fig. i), the Mylodon (fig. 2), the ]\Icgalonyx, the elephant," with a jaguar larger than that of the present day, and a bear more formidable than that of the caves." Like our \i 4 ^Khfhas Colombi (Owen). Found in both Americas, Imt it disappeared fmrn the N'orth sooner than from the .South. Amontjst fossil species we must mention the Equid.x, of wlii.h niunemu, I: U -•^UA!k(^iMUjd4MWM».H]ULi'««.:>«H'.:4u,. ^ ■ y i6 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. forefathers they had to attack and overcome them with stone hatchets, obsidian knives, and all the wretched weapons the importance of which wc have been so long in recognizing in America as in Europe. By the inevitable law of progress, intelligence prevailed over brute f jrcc ; the animal, in spite of its powerful weapons of offence and defence, was van- quished in a struggle in which every thing se MTicd to be in its favor ; and man, weak and naked though he was, lived on and perpetuated his race. ■ 1 Fig. I. — The Megatherium. Primeval man had not only to contend with pachyderma- tous' and edentate' animals: the period during which he lived was marked by floods, of which man still retains traditions. " If I may judge " says the Abb6 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 horsL "have been found in Nebraska which difTered little from our own Equiis Caballus, Of these equine forms we may name the Jli/parioii, Anchitherimn, Proiohippus, Orohippus, etc., which appear to have been the ancestors of the modern horse. Gaudry, " Les Enchaineinenls du Monde Animal." Ameghino in " La Antiguedad del Hombre," vol. L, p. 195, con- cludes from this consecutive series that the horse is of American origin. * From the Greek 7taxvdepl.l0? ; or, thick-skinned. ' From the Latin, Eifentatus ; or, toothless. * Arch, de la Com. Scientifujue du Ahxique, vol. L, p. 95. MAN AND THE MASTODON. i; one the ■r in rcss, 5pitc van- )C in d on I fexi?- dcrma- \v hich 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." ' Amongst these changes must doubt- Fig. 2. — The Mylodon. less be included the glacial epoch which placed 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 moutonndcs (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 ' It is hardly necessary to observe tlint this remark is one of many in the writings of the learned but credulous author, which testify more to the strength of his eatliusiasm than to the coolness of his judgment. 11 ""'I ■ % 1 ' iS PKE./nSTOK/C 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.' 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 Apur(§ are found erratic blocks of conical form, which some observers suppose to have been brought down by great glaciers from the Andes.' Agassiz' 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 mora.ine 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.* 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 ' Col. Whittlesey, Proc, Am. Assoc, for the Advancement of Science, Buf- falo, 1866. ^ Bull. Soc. de G^og., April, 1880. '"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. * Proc. Am. Assoc, for tht Advancement of Science, Buffalo, 1866. MAN AND THE MASTODON. 19 liile tof irge own azil, the ratio le to idcs.' .rt of de la I at he imcri- nadca .veiled ,d pol- across d in a This broken o the termit- ily dis- those : Ohio ; river Profes- anks of of the nee. Buf- are dis- I much re- ■■* mastodon, the mammoth, and of a large bcaver-Iike 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 inter\-ening 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 ^\\Q. remains of their bones mixed with those of huge plants.* Lastly the Geolot^ical Survey of Canada' 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 docs this glaciation date ? It is difificult 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 * ; he sur\'ived the rigors of the cold ; he survived the floods, as the recent dis- coveries of Dr. Abbott ' in the glacial deposits of the Dela- ' Castoroides Ohioensis, Foster. * American jfournal of Science, vol. V., p. 240. ' Geological Surrey of Canada, " Report of Progress for iSjy-S." * " I see no reascm to doubt," says Putnam, " the general conclasion in re- ', gard to the existence of man in glacial times, on the Atlantic coast of North America." ' " Primitive Industry," Salem, Mass., 1881. " Palasolithic 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 S-:on< Instruments in the Glacial Drift in North America." London, iS'S. n ii C 2 ao PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. ware,' 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 1, and greatly re- sembling the palaeolithic implements of Europe, especially the most ancient of all, those of St. Acheul, or of Chelles. the Fig. 3. — Stone implement from the Delaware valley. Fig. 4. — Scr2i>er found in the Dela- ware valley. The objects are of very hard trap,' an argillaceous rock of volcanic origin. Owing to the difficulty of working it is due ' The Delaware flows into the Atlantic afier 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 litcral'y covered in some p!ace> with ordinary Indian relics, not a specimen of which has as yet occurred in this gravel ?" Abbott, " Report Peabody Museum," 1S76. p. 35. * The deposit of trap nearest to Trenton is thirty miles farther north. The' found o no less convinc( yield si; tJic islai mcnts e: ' n. w. r)elaware I AfA.V AXD THE MASTODON. 21 Dubt. is of feet, cntly ;ly re- icially [Ics. 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.' They occur in the midst of boulders, some of them twenty fctt in diameter, and of rocks striated and polished by the action of ice, or which havr hrcn swept aion^ 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. the Dela- 1 rock of it is due [ndred and J ersey. Urged dur- Id into the forms of ime place> ked in this llh. Fig. £. — Stone weapon irom the Delaware valley. The Trenton discover)' 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 islands of the Susquehanna have been obtained imple- ments exactly resembling the rudest forms of Scandinavian H. W. Haynes : " The Ar^Iiite Implements Found in the Gravels of Delaware River,"— /"nv. BosUm Socuty of Xat. Hist., Jan., 1881. ; "1(1 u ;[•:' II 11 22 PKE-IIIS TOKIC A MEKICA . oricjin.' Like those of Trcntcjii, tlity \VLrc made by men who probably lived durin<^ the glacial epoch, and certainly preceded by many centuries tiiose inhabiting North America on the arrival of the Spaniards.' A member of the Commission d'Exploration du Mcxique, M. Guillemin Tarayrc, 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 paLxolithic tj'pe ; in another place an axe like those of St. Acheul, and a scraj^er 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 Elcphas Colombi, mixed with productions 'Letter of Prof. Haldenian of the 27th Sept., 1877. "Report Peabody Museum," 1S7S, p. 255. \Ve 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 tlic Pemberton hammer it is roughly enough executed, even if the intent of tlie artist was to reproduce it, which there is no reason to believe. * Nature, iSyS. part I., p. 262 ." Ameghino, vol. I,, p. 148. \ nf r temj H the man; numi Fig. 7.- nea thefl rs 'The are incre( acceptanc a half ago, Transacti( *"Oi and Glidd tribui^oes iio Musto . iJ*! M.l.V AS'D THE MAS TOD OX. Teabody found al recog- pngst the On the It of the nf man, indicate that man and tliis proboscidian were con- temporaries. Hewn stone implements, the Avork of their liands, are not tlie only relics of the early inhabitants of America. In many places human bones have been found, associated with numerous fraijfmq^its of extinct animals.' Lund was one of Fig. 7. — A lance head found near Guanajuato. yiG. S, — Stone scraper from a valley near Mexico. the first ' to call attention to them. In a cave excavated in ' 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- tribuigoes aoEstudo Anthropolc^ico das Ra9aslndigcnas do Brazil." — Archives do Museo Nacionaly Rio de Janeiro, 1876. I I V- V\ % i 1 24 PK /■:.// /S TONIC ,1 M ERICA. w ill' m ■( M the limestone rocks on the borders of the Httlc lake known as thcLa^oatloSumidouro, in the province of Minas Geraiis, Brazil,' he du^ out the bones of more tiian thirty individuals, of both sexes and every age, from those of an infant to those of a decrepit old man. Some skulls \\ ere found among these remains, re'narkable 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.g. — Stone hammer from I'emberton, New Jersey. lines in thickness. Several skulls had holes in them, all of the same size, of a regular and <»blong 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,' were mixed together in such great confu- ' This cave is three leagues from Santa Lucia, between the Las Velhas and Paraopeba rivers. ' Letter from Lund to Rafn, dated from Lagoa Santa, 2Sth of March 1844; Mint. Soc. Roy. des Antiquaircs de Nord, 1S45, p, 49. Cartailhac, " Materiaux pour r histoire de 1' homme," January, jSS2. • 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. sion wen Tile, tion; fallei Ml foun( still t to Sf Amoi frima snlcid specie than 1 Megat such a of the The same a atcd, u •which ( great ] togctht phcs, tl Thesd his resc the per.- to scare bones ai six of a work he four spc Ji'^ploph 'ThePui Cervus ) * De Qua! * I-und de \ I^ra/il. '^A eup/i > \\ AfAN AND THE MASTODON. 25 12 sur- I ^ confu- llhas and Ih 1844; lateriaux ling piled U of the sion as to forbid the idea of their havinfj been buried, and were lyinjj upon the red cartli, tlic ori^iii.il .s(»il of the cave. Tiiey were inibeddcid in hard clay with calcareous incrusta- tions, and Covered with lar^e blocks of stone, whicii had fallen on tiiem from the walls or roof of tiic 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 ha\'e now migrated or become extinct. Amongst the last we may name a monkey, {Callitiirix prima'vus\ a rodent of the size of thi" t.ipir, {Ifydroc/ucrus snlcidctis), a peccary {Dicotylcs) twice as large as the living species, a horse very similar to our own, a large cat bigger than the jaguar {Filis protopanthcr), a llama {Aiichertia), a Megatherium {Aci-luiot/nritDn, Owen), and several others, such as Cldauiydotlieriiim Ifumlwldtii,[\n 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.* 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.* 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,' which were as large as our oxen, and the Smilo- ' Tlie Puma {Felts concolor), the Ocelot, {Felis pardalis). " Cervus rufus and C. simpHcornis, Dasyptis longicaudis and D. mirus. ' De Quatrefages Congres Anthrop. de Moscou, 1S79. P- ^• * Lund devoted forty-eight years of his life to the study of the fossil fauna of r.ra/il. //. euphratus, //, Selloyi, II. minor ; the last much smaller than its con- il 26 PRE-IIISTORIC 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, Jic 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- do i;o cave. The first aid thickest i.J 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 proof:-, 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 peners. Pictet places the hoplophori with the glyptodonts amongst the Eden- tates (•' Palaeontology," vol. I., p. 273), but there is nothing to prove, as hn.s been claimed, that the Hoplophorus had a cuirass like that of the Glyptodon. ' Letter to Rafn, p. 5. • " In my opinion," said M Do Quatrefages, at Moscow, " the honor is in- contv stably due to Lund of having discovered fossil ..lan 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. Dc Quatrefages : Congr. Anthrop. de i'fos- cou, 1879. lar of ma the agu vcs: arrc toll and gula vian climat exact); wlu'ch science \Vc ' Mai, '"Ma iS(,8. • The supposed fragments ii' M.IX AXD Till: MASTODOX. 27 ibrc- mes. ;onti- latcd ■ that storic ics, — from Hcmi- lusion itings. dated al con- lust be I Sumi- by the as the respond imcrica; f more cindeer human )rc, that he post- races of dd that series the Eden- ive, as has lyptodon. onor is in- erican con- ice ot that European Tn the Frcncli colony of Cuiana, man existed when a large portion of the country uas submerged in consequence of a subsidence of the soil. Traces of his occupation can be m;»dc out, and polished stone hatchets have been found on the banks of the Maroni, Sinnamari, Ciyenne, and Aprou- ague rivers.' Strobel has recently d<-scribed* 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 \\\c paradcros' of Patagonia have yielded many trian- gular arrow-points, some resembling European, others Peru- vian types* (fig. 10). Under very different biological and Fio. 10. — Arrow-point from Patagonia. climatic conditions, pre historic man has produced o jv;cts exactly similar. We shall often recur to this singular fact, which is in full accord with modern research in other sciencos as well as archaeology. We must enumerate the most important of these recent • Maurcl, Bull. Soc. Anthr., April, 1878. ' " Material! di Paleontologia comparata, racolti in Sud-.-\merica." I'arma, 1868. 'I he word jiir-adero: comes irQi!\ panir, to sojourn. The paradiros are 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. * Moreno : " l,cs I'araderos preh, de la ralagonie." Rei: Hf I .1 I 28 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. discoveries. Several years ago Seguin collected on the borders of the Rio Carcarafia (in the province of Buenos Ayrcs) numerous bones of extinct animals,' 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, vertebras, ribs, long bones, belonging to at least four different individuals. The material in which they were imbedded resembled in eveiy 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 Amcghino 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 m the same formation, but not in the same stratum, so that with regard to them certain reservations must be made.* Vv e will now speak of another explorer. Ameghino' tells ' Gervais, youmal de Zflolog'e, vol. II., 1S72. The mammals of uhich Se- guin found remains, are the Arctotherium Bonooicnsis, the Hydrochcsrus ma^m/s, the AfiT' fon, the M.'i^atheriu7n Americanus, the Lesiod.m trig^nidens, the Euryurus riidis, and a horsn of uncertain species (Ameghino, "La Anti- gueda'l del Ilombre en el Plata," vol. II., p. 526). * Ursus spelizus : its bones occu : in great numbers in all the post-tertiary strata of Europe. ' Three are of quartzite, one qI chalcedony. * Some of these bones and ai the hewn flints collected by Seguin were exhib- ited at the Exposition of 1S67. Tl;ey are row in the Paris Museum. 'Letter of October 31, 1S75, in the JiHtrual de Zoologie, vol. IV.; " L'Homme preh. dans la Plata " (A-^-r^ d' Antlir., 1S79-1830) ; "La Antiguedad del Hombre en el Plata," 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, iSSi. level MAN' AXD THE MASTODOX. 29 tells Ihich Se- Vochmrus \ronidens, .a Anti- k-tertiary re eji 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' 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.'' vVU around the shell lay charcoal. F:r.. 12.- -The r.Iypto'Jon. ashes, burnt and split bones, and a few flints. The reddish earth of the original soil was consolidated. Below this level exploration rev al- I : stone implement, long bones of \ vt;- we refer our readers, Ameghino gives ..1; a of the pampas. A table in vol. II. ' In the remarkable v.or'w complete details on the floi.. : shows the tL-rti.*ry fauna of Patagoni iiv fauna of the upper and lower pam- pas, the lacustrine pani'^ns, of recent alluvial deposits, and lastly of the fauna of llie time of the ^pa ■ . nqucst. By the help of tliis tal)le it is easy to form an idea of the rangr, .. ame of each of '' ■• diffcicut species. The mam- mals, bones of which were found by Ameghino mixed with those of man, are : Tlie Canis cuUridens, the Ilydrocharus sulcidcns, the Reilhyodon, the ToxrJon r/atenns,, an Equus, an Auchcnia and a Cervus of undetermined species, the Mylcdon rolmstits, the Pa>wchirtus tiihcntilatus, the Glyptodon reticulattis, and the G. typtis (^'^ KxA. del H, :hre," vol. II., chs. X., XL, XIV., and XV.). ' Pictel places this ani; ; -':. .i' the Armadillo family amongst the Edentates. Burmeif.ter (^«M. «£' J/wjff 'j ' -.t \: Jiuenos Ayres) mcn\\K.yw-, a glyptodon of which the shell measured five and a half feet long by about four feet wide and three high. ill; % 30 PRE-IIISTORIC 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.' 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 1 ^"^ ^ong discussions. Bur- meister " rejected the theory of ::ontemporaneity of the men and mammals whose bones wi e 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' 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 ^ were certain indi- ' "El llombre seguramente liabitaba 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 pampa Argentina. Later Burmeister was less positive : " No parece, ' he says, " que scan cohtemporaneos de los animales de la epoca inferior porqne carecemos de pruebas para determinar con seguridad que hayan vividosimultaneamente." — " Descripcion fisica de la Republica Ar- gentina." ' Ameghino (Vol. II., p. 424) gives a list of the animals to which the striated bones belonged. * " En algunos puntos se encuentra una gran cantidad de fragmentos in- formes de tierra cocido de color ladrilloso. Que es lo que indican ? Son Ins productos de los primeros ensayosen 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. \ ; lisi 'ilJl MAN AND riTF. MASTODON. 31 s of DXO- ;iyp- :ned ipas, man .mals Dig- of a Bur- .f the The the accept bones 1 were >n and tcs are these ork of bones, arrow, kened n Indi- pero no [tiguedad ■ ,v. 4 I was less Imales de leguridad olica Ar- strialcd lentos in* Son 1"S resultado tpoca del 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 v/as not afraid to at- tack the glyptodon, toxodon,' 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 quartziie stones, which often were only to be obtained from a distance. All this seems to us to be absolutely proved." 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.' 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. Burmeistcr speaks of the action of ice. To ' Toxodon p'.atfnsis, 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. ' Ameghino's has not remained the only discovery. We shall mention an- , other later (Chap. IX.). ' Tt is remarkable that the deposits of the pampas contain no marine shells. : Tliiii^ a serious objection to the exclusive system advocated by Darwin and j U'Orbigny. "^ S4 K ^ ' 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 Fclis lougi/rons, 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 ej^ch 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, resemblini; that which has always prevailed amongst the Aymaras, and is also met with among tribes more than six hundred leagues ^ Bull. Soc. Anthr., iSSo, p. 490. from the I I tribu teresi Mc the a anciei certai seatec the b crosse that ol tons Av of mar tery o lines ; tars — dififerer ostrich red. A century dition, i f killed ii \ add thai 1 Would i "[ been pr J^'yptodc ^ The d: ous, if ^ This rese show tha =^-'ives to more by ^^i'm foun and pa-'t i : made up ( [>n the p i r ( i I MAN AND THE MASTODON, 33 I and luna ; [ sud- d dis- disap- great s, the e two times. )n, es- limals, ; other -glacial onging pampas ," says , varied lerated, to their ■ knowl- )le, it is )ch, and geologi- ica, and ■, it will by Dr. Itagonia. yellow tons for- th there leternii- Ind calls lembllng Iras, and leagues from them. Broca has also pointed out the tmccs left on the forehead by periostitis, and he does not hesitate to -it- tribute this scar to a syphilitic disease. This is a ver>' 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- ter}' ornamented with dots, straight, waving, and zig-zag lines; bowls of sandstone, diorite, or porphyrj'; 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-conceivcd ideas. In 1848, Count F. de Pour- tales found some human jaws with thr teeth still in them, and pai-t 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, I ■: S I 'HI Ml .\n M 'l III m m 34 PRE-HISTCRIC AMERICA. Florida, about ten miles from the coast. A^assiz ' 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 1 3.300 years, and for the bones imbedded in it 10,000 years. Lyell,' Wilson,' 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 fi>und not in the crial conglomerate, but in a fresh-water c;'Icareous deposit dis- tinctly characterized by mollusks ' such as still live in th-^ 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 LycU showed more reserx-e ; 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.' 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.' 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. 'Agassiz' Lecture. — Mobile Daily Tribune, April 14, i£;5. Ncjtt ar.J Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," p. 352. '"Antiquity of Man," p. 44. •"Prehistoric Man," p. 12. * He met especially with Ampullaria and Pahidina. — Am. NaiwraHu, vol. II., p. 443, Oct., 1868. * Os innominatum. Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," p. 349. '" Second Visit to America in 1846," vol. II. , p. 197 ; " Antiquity of Mar- " Chap. X. ' " Pre-historic Man." Southall, "Recent Origin of Man," p. 5;'. i Short, " North Americans of Antiquity," p. 114, I Th Mexii i distin water zun, a sects conqui cities c sippi, \ feet. ' pipes, \ '\n uin'c which J: Jonging amoncjs; lay a ski J which li' % in its tu I the grov I forest de ^ remains ; ,, tion to b I this hims ? an antiqu I figures re • reasonabl ' low, were ' " Picture ■' P' 11,^ ; Lycl - "1 Xature," ■Soiithal], "R ' The cyp, mentions oik speaks of anot ''(-' lliinks has subject to imn We give t f-Tiinns/'p. i: '"Prehistor MAN AXD THE MASTODON. "^^ The plains stretching from Neu- Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico are low and wet. In crossing them it is diflficult to distinguish between dr>- 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 ri-ies from alluvial deposits of the Missis- sippi, which c^ttain 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.' 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 ye^rs after the owner of the head, and had in its turn succumbed.' In estimating the time required for the growth of ihe 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 * years ! Like the first quoted, these figures rest on no solid foundation, if, as Dr. Foster* very reasonably suggests, the so-called forests successively laid low, were but trees carried down by the river in its frequent ' " Picture of New Orleans," 1S52 : Nott and Gliddon, " Tj-pesof Mankind," p. 333 ; Lycll, " Antiquity of Man," pp. 44 and 200 ; Huxley, " Man's Place in Nature," Note by Dr. Daly ; Lubbock, " L' Homme Prth., p. 261 ; Southall, "Recent Origin of Man,** pp. 470 and 551. 'The cypress ( Taxjdium distickum) 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. ' We give these estimates as quoted in a recent book, 'Short's "American Indians," p. 123.) ' " Prehistoric Races of the United States of America," p. 76, u 2 I:l1 ivl I !i(' !:l m I' '.''.1 36 PRE-lll^TORlC AMERICA. % ' \h m inundations, and deposited with alluvial loam where the Mississippi empties its waters into the sea. The same con- elusion is arrived at, if wc accept Dr. Ililjjard's opinion, who looks upon the bed \\\ 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.' 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.' This animal, one of the largest known, i.ii sunk in the mud of the marshes ; borne aown 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 ^ArunJinaria tnacrospcrma. This mat is now in the National Museum at Wasliington. ' Koch announced his discovery in many pamphlets of little scientific value. Dana has preserved the titles of a great many ; among them, see Kui.ii'> : "Evidence on the Contemporaneity of Man and the Mastodon in Missouri." American yonrnal of Science and Arts, May, 1S75. Consult also Foster ("Preh. Races," p. 62) ; Rau, (" North Am. Stone Implements", Smith Cont.. 1S72,) who admits the authenticity of Koch's discovery, and Short (" Nor:h 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 tlieir great antiquity. r ' Three of " Trans. Koch was can and Euro the discoverer Museum. * Bancroft, \M A/AX AXD THE MASTODON. 17 year he made a somewhat similar discover}' in Benton County, Missouri. At about ten miles from the junction of the Potato River with the Osage, he found, under the thrt^h- bonc of a mastodon, an arrow of pink quartz, and a little farther off, also in the direction of the animal, four other arrows,' which to all appearance had been shot at him." These observations are very likely correct ; but unfortu- nately Koch's want of scientific knowledge ' and the exaggera- tions with which he accompanied his stor}', 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 thcso feeble weapons, not only did not fear to attack the gigantic animal, but succeeded in vanqu'shing 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 industrj' 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.* These facts are confirmed in California. Colorado (fig. 13), ' 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. 'Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 697. * v>-6 I i • ^; I b: r . . I ] . 1 ;■ ' A 1 1 ^ . "!' r.< i i: 'li «•'. ; ■I : :■■ rlt' i It'll ::^i| F:g. j3.— Cax'ion of tl;^- Colorado River. maaV axd the mastodox. 39 Wyominj^, v. hcrcvcr a scarcli has been possible. In a ni.inu- script which we bcHeve to be still unpublished, Voy' de- scribes numerous and interesting discoveries, all carefully verified. We will mention two stone mortars found in some auriferoui: gravel near Table Mountain, one in 1S5S, at a depth of three hundred feet, the other in 1 862, 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 follow ing 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 l-'lat, stone implements ; at Gold Spring gulch, an oval granite dish more than eighteen inches in diameter, two to three inches thick, and vveighin, forty pounds; at Georgetown several very similar dishes. Every- wl'ere these flints, mortars, and dishes were associated with tile 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.' Traces of ancient mining operations are also met with in several places in North America ; but all we know about them is that they arc of much earlier date than the Spanish con- quest. Mention is made of ancient mines of cinnabar exist- ing in California,' 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." We shall recur to this subject ; ' " Relics of the Stone A^e in California." ^Bancroft, vol. III., p. 549. He quotes an unpublished manuscript of Powers. In appendi.\ A, we give the chief discoveries and the fauna associated with tliem. 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. ,1849, \'\ !i ^ 40 rRE-IIlSTORIC AMERICA, but wc may add now that the work nanship of these objects is similar to tliat of liic Indians, and need not be attributed to a different race. Bcrthoud tells us that in the Tertiary gravels at Cow's Creek, and near the South Platte River, he found some stone implements, toijether with which he picked up some shells that he assigns to the most ancient beds of thi Pliocene de- posits, perliaps even to those of the Miocene period. These arc, it must be admitted, but feeble proofs of a fact of such capital importance as the existence of man in tertiary times.' Fig. 14. — The Calaveras skull, after Whitney. The discovery wc have still to Mention lias been discussed in all the learned societies ot America and Europe ; and al- though a satisfactory solution of it has not yet been ariived at, it will be well to give such details as are possible. In 1857, a f agment 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 ' Ilerlhoud says he found these ol)jects in 40° N. Lat,, and 104° \V. \.o\\^. Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 1S72. * Whitney, " Auiifcrous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada," p. 264, there v fragmei to the I A fe\i Directoi the disc at a dep aiiriferoi (Calavcr; and was volcanic of strata undation: be correc tricts inh has dried The ski were scve some sma, shell of a some com shaft of th become fil become im pumping i Thougli mal bones, is a fact th -in identica There are c ' ^Ve give a 1 J'^l'Homme," I bl 2gr 3 wl 4 C"; 5 wli According to th( "olicc was founc ii MAN AND THE MASTODON. 41 ;scd al- Ivcd In itcd ll of r.C. So- liusc l.ong. there was no evidence conccrring 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\, 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.' 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 h iman bones, the remains of some small mammals which it was impossible to class, and a shell of a land snail {Helix inormomim). 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 rHistoire Primitive et Naturelle dc I'Homme," of the series of deposits from above downward. 1 black lava 40 ft. 6 gravels 25 ft. 2 gravels 3 " 7 brown luva 9 " 3 white lava 30 " S gravels 5 " 4 gravels 5 " g red lava 4 " 5 white lava 15 " 10 red gravels 17 " According to the proprietor of the mine, it is in bed No. S that the skull under notice was found. I;,l . . 1 ill 42 P RE-HI S TORIC A A'. ERICA. 1.1 i" '\'\ I :. ! \\ popular expression, the remains of elephants and mastodons might be had by the wagon-load. Beside gigantic pachyder- mata we meet with the Pala^olama, tlie Elotherium,' 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." J' 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 M'e have unequivocal proofs of the existence of man on the Pacific coasts prior to th" 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 nov% and since which a vertical erosion of from two to three thousand feet of hard rock strata has taken place." The scientific wor'd awaited with natural impatience the confirmation oi these discoveries. Desor constituted himself the spokesman of his colleagues, and in 1872 Whitney replied to him ' : " You may rely upon my publishing this fact, with all its details, as soon as the necessary maps are engraved, and I 'According to Pictct, belonging to the rachydermata and the family of Suidue. In apper.i'ix A. we give the list of the fauna drawn ap by Whitney, in his " Auriferous Gravels." " Lesquereux made out in the flora of the mining districts forms belonging to the Pliocene period, and even approaching those of the Miocene. * Revue d' Antlircp., 1S72, p. 7G0. and pr the vo nothing the san every o view, t\ the Cah have a '^^'^g, in t; or oh ice jncnts cc informed m the Pi liuman b facts wen f For th( '*' 1 • .1 nis disco\ i taking th( > been the Siibseqi ; Harvard ; since then I ^vhich his \ tains tlie \ researches binders of t competent ^' o proo resembles '^'■bital ridp - o "-Materiau' P>55. '' Whitney ; ^'^■""■' Memoir 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 geologis. of Philadelphia at the same time informed the Abb6 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.' 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. Pie 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 prom.inent supra- orbital ridges form its most distinguishing feature, Chemi- ' " Materiaux pour r Ilistoire Primitive et Naturelle de 1' Ilomme," 1873, P.55. 'Whitney: "Lecture in Cambridge," April 25, 1878. "The Calaveras Skull : Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of IT irvard College," vol. VI. af -11 44 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. .. H IK: li! 'i 1 \V } : .m i Mti cal analysis gives no decided verdict. It shows thai tue skull contains a slight trace of organic matter,' and that phosphate of Hme is parLly replaced by carbonate. Wc 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.' 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 formati y.~ of the valleys and the deep ravines, at a period when tliC 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 ' " The skull being as nearly deprived of its organic matter as fossil bones of the Tertiary period usually arc." Whitney, p. 271 ; on page 269 is given the analysis. * 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," 1S75, p. 3S9. studic contro 1 8; 7 ] vanceii althoui man ir this ha: If, h man 01 difficult time \v little kr prc-hist( of this different origin. about tl arc nece; profounc of the ta narrative ^«"o reas together by condition, c auriferous g tainty still j gravels In ge mains are f( gravels, and I )egan rbout Kvant- vvoulil :n no been erup- Cala- icriod fully jones of liven the MAX AXD THE MASTODON. 45 studied from a scientific point of view, apart from the fierce controversies that these questions too often provoke. In :'i-j-j Prof. 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 prc-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 difificulties of the task be our excuse, if inevitable errors creep into our narrative. ' No reasonable perpon who has impartially reviewed the evitlence 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 .n 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. — [./w. Editor.\ w^m c i . i » by refers lalifornia si ^B mmmmm wmt MB Pi I ■} h ii ' '^ li I'f iilii ■i ■I :il fHi CHAPTER II. THE KITCIIEN-MIDDENS AND THE CAVES. At the close of tlic last chapter \vc 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 sp.\/ages, 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.' Excavations in them in the different countries of Europe have yielded the most interesting results. They have revealed the ;ry-day ' 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 'irgely replaced the more cumbrous term derived from the Danish, IS KITCITEN-MIDDEXS AN^D CA VES. 47 lost en- o thero, ish. the food, the manners, the journeys, and the migrations of pro-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- lubks, all telling of the prolonged residence of man. Xo less numerous are the kitchen-middens or shell-heaps in America. and wherever excavations have been made they have been most fruitful in results.' 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.* Another at the mouth of the St. John's 'The report of llie Pie-historic Congress held at Bclogna, in 1871, gives a fai:ly complete list of the authors wlio have written aluut the Americun shell- heaps. See also " Reports of the Peabody Museum of Arch^olog}-, Cambridge. Mass.," vol. II. ; and of the " Am. Association for the Adv. of Science," Ch'- ca^^o, IS67 ; Detroit, 1S75 ; and Wyman's articles in the American X^ituraliit, iS63. ' "Second Visit to the United States," vol. I., p. T52. — " British Ass. Rq), tor 1S59." Address of the President. V. '5 \ ,S \\ \. . rUi i 11 ::?! ■ I 4\ M Ik! ' I lb i i,ll !;l; 48 PRE-IIISTORrr 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.' 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." The whole island, he tells us, is covered with shell-mounds. Similar heaps, chiefly formed of tlie 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 commor. Fragments of pottery are not abundant; the ornamenta- tion, always coarse, presents little resemblance to the most ' Brinton : ' Notes on the Floridian Peninsula." Philadelphia, 1859. " "Antiquities of the Southern Indians and Georgia Tribes." ancK^nt duccd t of a she numeroi ciccr,' t] common great au pcnnis\ \ extreme times. ' met witJi Fig. I tioncd.. M lived witli r 33 his wild 'This pritni nois, Ohio, Ter 'In appendix and uiolJusca lo Couch's Cove, The reindee fi"« of Maine '•^nti- The elk &'■"( auk has rei -V.'yman, " Re , '. 1' KITCHES-MiDDEXS AXD CAVES. 40 ancient European pottcrj-. The ornamentation was pro- duccd by traceries made on the soft clay either with the point oi a shell, or of a siiarp stone.' The bones of animals are numerous.' Wyman met with those of the elk, the rein- deer,' the Vir^^inian deer {Ccrviis Virginianus), the most common of all ; the beaver, the seal, the mud-turtle, the great auk, and the wild turkey. Except the auk {^Aka im- pfiniis), 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- FiG. 15. — Various stone and 'ooae implements from California, tioncd. . 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 'This primitive mode of ornamentation has been met with in Missouri, Illi- nois, Ohio, Tennessee, and P'loriJa. " Kepyort, Peabocly Museum," 1S72. 'In appendix B. we give a complete list of the mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and moUusca found by Jeffries \Vjrman in the shell-heaps of Mount Desert and Couch's Cove, Eagle Hill and Cotuit Port, 'The reindeer or caribou {Ran-ifcr carihcti) 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 cf the United States, if not extinct. -Wyman, " Report. I'e.-body Museu^i," iS65, p. ii. if* V^i !^; I ' 5 ; If! I I I*.' ii; Ml 50 PRK-IIISTORIC 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 arc literally covered with them. One of them, situated near San Tablo (Contra t]ies( hcen \)v !jy \\\ at U tcnde( f pliallu f di.scov( f 'ty con ; Greek Tlie inacher \ n pipes of •■"f sonn- fi're, ami 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. Excavations to a depth of twenty-five feet in a similar mound have yielded arrow-points and hammers. Amoiu' others have been found thousands of bone implements (fi; 15), the largest of which are eight inches long. Mixed vi:;' 'Foster, " Prehistoric Races of the United States," p. 163. Bancroft, vcl IV., p. 709. '■ ' 7',, ■!i 'Smiths _2 J'^i.-'Carc ^Saiila Barb; •f Survey, "vol |Or>teaiite;vl I may be pick |coveries in X, |; ^-"1 at Christ #nil'Iemcnts an liners, have b f^'^"d of San f ^""1 t!ie quarni 1^"i-^-J form. ^ 1 :an the ind tcr- of a the , all KITClIEX-MIDDHSa AXD CAVES, 51 these tools lay human remains, which have unfortunately been dispersed witiuiut any benefit to science.' Dr. Vates sent a complete collection of the objects found by him in Alameda County to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington." It includes several lar<;e stone mortars (fig. i6\ already alluded to, some implements chiefly in- tended for borinc;, pii^es, and a rouqh representation of a phallus. This last fact must be noted, for we shall sec 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 (A soap'^tone,* daggers, knives, flint arrows, attempts at sculp- ture, and bone or shell implements. One of these exxava- ' liancroit, vol IV., p. 711. ' " Smithsonian Report," 1S69, p. 36. ' " Researches on tlie Kjukkenmoiklings of tlie Coast of Oregon and in the Santa Barbara Islands and Adjacent Mainland." — " Bui. U. S, Geog. ■ Survey," vol. III. " Report, Tcabody Museum," 1878. * On the island of Santa Catalina Scliumacher found a quarry of soapstonc [or steatite wliere the ancient inhabitants had set up a regular manufactory of Ipots and dishes. They are found in all stages of production, and about them Iriay be picked up the tools used in fashioning them. Several similar dis- fcoveries in New England are mentioned. A steatite or soapstone fjuarry ex- jSisted at Christiana, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. More than 2,000 stone |implemcnts and a number of great stones, which seem to have served as ham- aers, have been coUectt J there. The same process was employed as in the sland 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. K 2 ! ;■ i! iihiri •^1 < ■ M K 52 PRr-IIISTORlC AMERICA. tions brouj^lit to lif^ht thirty lunnan skulls and two almost complete .skeletons. The dead had been laitl beneath the dwelling-place of the livintj. Shell-heaps also abound on Vancouver Island, accordinjj to a manuscript quoted by 15ancroft (vol. IV., i)p. 'ji'j, 741, et sc(j.). Amongst heaps of shells have biHMi collected ham- mers, arrow-points, wooden clubs, and a surt of knife carved out of whalebone. Amongst the debris lay skeletons. One of tlicm had a shell bracelet on his arm, and a stone arrow- head was sticking in one of his bones. At I'lscjuimalt a dish was ft)und with two handles, one of them representing the figure of a man, the other the head of an animal. As wc shall see, exactly similar articles arc 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,' arc 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 VH. 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, tlu coasc 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' and others near Madisonvillc, in the Little Miami valley. These pits, which arc from three to four feet in diameter and from four to seven feet deep, arc filled with ashes arranged in thin layers and mixed with gravel and cliai- ' A British word signifying long stones, generally used to denote the tall 11; ■ right stones erected, for some purpose not now known with certainty, by 1'- ; ancient Celts. [ '■* Putnam, one of the most eminent anthropologists of ihe United Stale-. ^ mentions having explored more than 400 of these pits. f tiles, {\ and bi t(JO, cli Icctcd ; tlleni w tlic ant ham me stone p foimd a with en These b cultural. Tile Si people 1 Tli-re, a: incidents slu.ils ' o "^' »^s an of life is Frr.m a I luunan re showin"- c Jiiarrow Brazil nee hi this en ten canni So.ooo so I The sai ■f^urton, w ' ^ev. Arc, los sambaqui.- ^■ul- I., 1870), ■■ The molli. "ally shells with. *^t. Mour ^an I'aolo; " K'lTCIir.X-MIDDF.X S AXD CA VJiS. 5i coal. From I un- ccr- )f the )UlUl3 \vith d;ito i.. -•I tall »i'i'- y. by tl.c T to bottom occur numerous bones o' rep- tilt's, fish, birds, ami mammals. Tlie bones of the deer, elk, and bear had been brokin to j;et out the marrow; shells, too, chiefly fresh-water mussels of tin; j^eiuis Unio, were col- lected ; some were pierced to .si.'rvc as ornaments; with them were fragments of pottery, implements made of bone, the antlers of the deer and the elk, arrow-points, scrapers, hammt:rs, polished stone axes, copper ornaments, beads, and stone piocs. 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 arc formed of the remains of the food of a people wlio for centuries inhabitctl the coasts of Brazil.' TliLfc, as in a boolc, wc can read of the customs, usages, and incidents of the daily life of this extinct race. Each bed of sluils' or of cinders is a page, on which facts written in stoucs and ashes speak for themselves, and where the drama of Hfc is retraced by the broken bones of the victims. Frnm 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.' The sambaquis often attain a considerable height. Captain Burton, who is, it is true, inclined to exaggerate, speaks of ^ Re-j. Arch., vol. XV. ist. scries, Paris, 1867. Ch. Wiener: " Estutlos sobre los sambaquis do sul do Brazil " {Archivos de Mtisco Nacional Je Kiode JaKeirc, vol. I„ 1876). ^ The mollusca of which they arc composed are chiefly bivalve testacea, espe- cially shells of the genus Corbula, Oyster and whelk shells are also lucl with. 'Dr. Moure : " Les Indiens de la Province dc Matto Grosso " ; Dr. Rath dc San Paolo: "Letter Addressed to the Au^lo-liiazilian Times." ■ It > \ wmm I! ft '■ W ■ L ! ''^^ I'M ♦ii/ i'A ' we must mention some very close imitations of an mals, especially a parrot's head very true to life. The wor'cs of man lay mixed together in a Fig. 1 8.- -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 th;it 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 th.e 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 tiiirty-seven and a half miles ' Cervus nifus and C. campestris. Dr. Zeballos speaks of more than 3,000 fraj^ments ; .among them he men- tions twenty ollas or jars still intact. ^,J\ \ 5° PRE-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. 1 ' :i:r' !' '\ from tlic coast, and Professor llartt has described one at Taperinha,' near Santarcm, which he considers very ancient, and which is entirely made up of river-shells, mixed with fragmoits of pottery, cinders, and the bones of different animals. On the banks ( f the Mississippi and its tributaries White has also recognized shell-heaps, composed of fluviatile mol- lusks, nearly all belonginj^ 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." The heaps excavated by him are much smaller than those situated on the sea- coast ; the largest arc not more than about one hundred yards .'ong by four to five broad, and about three to six feet deep. That of Keosauqua (Iowa) rests on alluvial soil, ind in it have been observed fragments of stone torn from the neighboring rocks, bearing traces of fire, and frag- ments of pottery of rude w^orkmanship, mixed with largo 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.' 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 Bellcvue, Iowa, White was able to make out the method employed by these men in cooking the shell-fish which formed their chief nourishment. They dv^ holes in the ground about one foot in diameter and of coi- lesponding depth, in which they lighted fires. The charcoal, ashes, and shells found in each one of these holes proves this beyond a doubt. ' " Report, Peabody Museum," 1S73, p. 21. '"On Artificial Shell-heaps of Fresh-water MoUusks ; Am. Association, Portland (Maine), 1873. Very ancient shell-hcaijs are also mentioned as cxi^t■ 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 egret a few years ajjo that these heaps had not been excavated. ' In Appendix C. we rive White's list of the chief mammals, fish, and luol lusca which he found in the muumls he examined. '{':>m I ! a moil asks, ^Ve must numerous 'I'tniggle k in cvciy a instance ; fonntliev; arc now vi Cape Cod £>anish k abundant, tlio Baltic. '"i;ical con ^nniiiished of I-'ike Ge " Fresh-wa Jan., 1S68. ancient beds of ' Doth are un E'ohular, the w, f'^lected lahrum "'o'"e slender, ar kitciien-midden:^ and caves. 57 ialion. cxisl- [olonel ll luol Jeffries Wyman describes the river shell-heaps of Florida with as much care as docs White those of the North.' They arc 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 Anipullaria and Paludiia^ 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, arc now very rare, and the same fact has been observed at Cape ("od 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- loi^ncal conditions now enjoyed by the oyster '<5 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 ' " Fresh-water Shell-heaps of the St. John River " ; American Naturalist, Jan,, iS6S. "Report, Peabody Museum," 1874. Wyman remarks that llie most ancient beds of the Florida kitchen-middens never contain speclinens of pottery. ' Both are univalves. The former lives in warm latitudes only; its shell is globular, the wliorls ventricose, and with a wide aperture bounded by an un- reflected lahrum. Pahtdina, resembles Ampullona, but the shell is longer and more slender, and generally more solid. i u 'iri. I] ' I 1 ' I' skins of beasts, hunting the aurochs' and the elk, imitating the cries of animals, and devouring their fellow-creatures.* Examples also abound in America, and the death of the man to be eaten was very often accompanied by hornble tortures, unknown among the natives of the other conti- nent. The accounts of travels published by Br>' contain many details of the ways in which the savages of Guiana were accustomed to prepare, cook, and eat the bodies of their victims.' 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.* The ^lexicans 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,* 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 caieful to fatten the ' The Bos Urns or Bison of Poland. ' Sch'iVcJens Urgeschichli:, p. 341. ' " Collectiones peregrinationum in Indiam Occidentalem," XXV., partes comprehensae 4 Th. de Bry et a M. Merian puhlicatoe, Francofurti ad Moenum, 1590, 1634. "Biesil voy. de J. Stadius IIesous,"(ran III., pp. 71, 81. 69, 125 and 127). " Voyage de Joannes Lerus de ISuryundus," part 3. p. 213. See also the numerous facts collected by Wyman, "Report, Peabody Museum," 1S64. ' Prescott : " History of the Conquest of Peru," p. 96, 1S54. ' Prescott : " Hist, of the Conquest of Mexico," Philadelphb, 1874, vol. I.; l-3>- ' h I .1 ,' W * f ■ M . 1 \ ' lii I- wxy %: i. if ■!H 62 PRhlllSTORIC AMERICA. unfortunate victims they nncant to cat.' 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 wiiich human flesh was the only food supplied, have handed down to us an account of them.* 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 v/ere 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' 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 A^hich gayly finished off the feast.* In our own day, even, sailors and travell jrs 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- ' Peter Martyr d' Anghiera : " Dc R<;bus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo, Decades, I., Book I. 'P. Hennepin: " Description de la Louisiane," Paris, i863, pp. 65, GS, 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. 1S9. ■"La Polhierie".: " Ilistoire de I'Amerique," Paris, 1723, p. 23. Fatlier Jean de Brebeuf: " Voyage dans la nouvelle France occidental." He himself perished under such tortures as those he had described. Barth de Vimont's ■' Relation," Paris, 1642, p. 46. saries 1 which ( were a they fa the trit the flcs a bettei brought presenc famine • year m? we neve plenty, ; Hiimbol at Tahit the inha sacrifice honor of king. 1 tyc) is a To CO easily ex tion of several c; the bank bones, an woman ir ning heac These tion, and They sho ticcs may efforts mi ■•^0 many i '"Voyage "'Congr. ' The sente ■"■'giiial Fren( v\ KITClfE.y-MIIWEXS AXD CAVES. 63 :ades, 6S, cruel Red sarics of life. The expeditions of these miserable savaj^cs, of which Captain Fitzroy'-s description' is most melancholy reading, were always made for the sake of getting prisoners ; when Ihcy 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 expeditions, and the presence among them of devoted missionaries. 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 tliis 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 frequently noted by travellers, the sacrifice of prisoners was followed bv cannibal feasts ; the honor of eating the eyes of the victims being reserved to the king. The first name of Queen Pomare {Aimata, I eat t/ic rye) is a last souvenir of the royal privilege,'- To conclude these melancholy accounts, which wc might easily extend inaefinitely. Dr. Crevaux, in a recent explora- tion of the Amazon and its chief tributaries, came upon several 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 ^0 many miserable races.^ [It is to be borne in mind, how- ' "Voyage of the Adventure and the Hea^le," vol. II., ]i. 1S3 and 189. ' "Coni;r. I'rch. de Paris," l!>67, p. 161. ' The sentence following was added by the American Editor, anil is not in the niginal French work. i ■; A I' ' { ^^1^ 64 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. w •ll «• 'If i i 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 \vhich in the Middle Ajres 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 ago of the shell-heaps the day has not yet come for expressing a definite opinion. It is certain many of them arc 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 archeeology 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 u. nown to them or to their fathers.' 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.^ 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. ' 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 come down to them. Tliey attriliule thcni to their piedecessors in the occu- pation of the peninsula of Florida. See Wyman, " Report, Peabody Museum," iS6S, p. 1 6. * Bancroft, vol. III., p. 177. Since th no more their for Thoug facts exi: them, at shcll-hea] and the r the same of large c cither on disco\'cry iri.)!!, copj objects, between t fauna and It is ev £:;c!icratior hitherto c formed nc denudatioi quite rccci ncigliborin plements sent notab temporanc shell-heap;^ occupied thinjj^ posit that conqi quercd, un powerful 01 greatly resc semblance out at the useless obj the proxim 11 KITCHEN. MIDDKXS AXD CAVES. 65 been in e heaps e occu- seuni, " Since then the Ilohgatcs, chanfjcd into brilliant stars, return no more to earth, where the shell-heaps remain as witness of their former residence. Thou<;h tradition is silent as lo 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 [ijcnerations. 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 tl;c 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 F w, i! M' >^ I 'Vi. > 66 PlU:.Il!S TOKJC A MLRICA . l IV K 'I! SI ^.. I over. Travellers w ho visit tin? Eskimo of to-day, the last representatives of one (>( the most ancient American races,' 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 fd)res from the bark of trees? as were those of the natives of Florida, according tothe Spanish conquerors, who were the first to jjenetrate into the country. This is not at all necessary. These natives were migratory with the seasons, and, judging by the practice of the Eskimo, probabl}' 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 ' 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, asseparation did their language. \V. H. Dall, " Remainsof Later Pre- historic Man from the Caves of the Catherina Archipelago, Alaska Territor)," "Smith. Cont.," No. 318, 4°. 1878. in one ( handles 1 scmhle u interior, baked an able stoii for dcfcn. general ri produced belonged shall notic other Iiani pieces of coloring" \ in man c his taste j it assumes, ne are des necessarily or final thc( ni'iny other One met approximat shell-heaps, trees. Tha one of the I; to tu-ent}'-sc Jeffries Wyr Judging fror the trees on ^our hundre sidcrcd to be factorily the t'le forest trc our ignorance ^^•len the ace '''is which it ' " Report, Pei KITCIIEX-MIDDENS AXD CAP'FS. 67 i in one case tire clot^ant in form and ornamentation; the hancll<\s represent the figures of animals and of men, they re- semble in many respects th(ise f(jund in the mounds of the interior. In otiier cases, on the contrary, the pottery is badly baked and of coarse construction. In certain regions, suit- able stone i.s rare, and pointed bones seem to have served for defensive weapons and all domestic reciuirements. As a general rule, excavations in the Atlantic siiell-heapshavc not produced cither a single pipe or a fragment that couKl 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 oft^n pieces of red chalk or h.x'matite, doubtless to be used in coloring wood or skins. The taste for finery is iimatc 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,* 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 i\\. I ■! ■ i Si ■ "Report, Peabody Museum," 1872, vol. I., p. 25. li.l F 1 ■:^i m\ ,, 'I 'I '•.*t , in i;|i!|i •it it 68 PA'/-:.///:; ruiac America. IMorcovcr, 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 haviiig been observed in a tree only fourteen years oM 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 I'eabody Museum at Cambridge, Mass., owns twenty gold ornaments from ihe Chincha Islands.' 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 L.aIs which have played such an important part in our modern Flc. K), -Silver fish from the Chinclia Islands. agricultun. were accumulating, and doubtless fed upon the numeroiis sua-birtls peopling them. In s-mtic 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 belon;,' to the same periods as th.e shell-heaps above described ; the occurrence of precious metals, such as gold and silver mii^iit, indeed indicate a more recent epoch, but we know that they * " Report, Peabody Museum," 1874, p. 20. I were u« A in eric In qi or ,avei These c Belgiun esting J his habi have be time the explorer in which we arete .sen ting niummic these m( meats w with by 1 ley, in t number c distinct : objects c arrow-po fancied t Spaniard; of the m: the Incas scribed a these cav of; or .-.I tloubt tin ^nvcn b_\' le extre met with chrcs, ant ' <'on.ant : I'roc. An KITCIIEX-MIDDEXS AXD CAVES. 69 t, es- th in than years /• as a J. 19^. >erous ridge, ancls.' allclo- ' wide, means to the : L.,.!s lodcrn on the le beds iniiig a ct indi- s, have :d from ■ct un- bclon^^ ;d ; the mi;,^iit, at they I were used at an earlier chitc in I'eru than in Xortli or Central America. In quaternary times tlie Europeans inhabited natural caves or _aves artificially enlarged, according to their requirements. Tliese caves, especially those of the south of France and of Belgium, have yielded the mosL certain and most inter- esting proofs of the existence of pre-historic man, and of his habits and his daily life. In xVmerica, 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 \'irginia, 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 the) were covered, from the races met with by the Spaniards. From a cave in the Rio Norzas val- ley, in the province of Durango, IMexico, 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 mMt-nniies 'vcre hatchets, stone arrow-points, and vases, the decoration of which has been fancied to resemble that of some Egyptian potter)-." 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 reall)' existed, have been lost sight of; or all they contained has disappeared, and we can not doubt the exaggeration whicli appears in most of the details tjiven by the conquerors. The very few caves still known ii^ 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 ' ("onant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," ch. VI. Tryc. Anthropological Soc. of NVubhington, iS;';, p. So. \\ \ \ t Ijil ::i 70 rKE-llISTOKlC AMERICA. had been occupied by Indians, as dwellings or places of refuge,' and all the objects that explorers have been able to collect arc of recent origin. Amongst the caves which may be of some interest, Ave 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. Alluviumniixed with cinders and fragments Cinders ..... Clay Cinders ..... Alluvium ..... Clay and cinders mixed Cinders ..... Alluvium ..... Cinoers mixed with charcoal Alluvium ..... Cinders Alluvium mixed with fragments of charcoal B. C. D. E. I. G. H. J- K. L. M, Total 18 ins. 2 " \ 3 3 \ 31 4 7 3 20 67 ins. The strata must have beei^ 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 roughh' 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 po.si- tively prodigious quantities in the various strata. At a depth of about two feet the explorers came to a skeleton ' Schoolcraft : " Arcliivcs of Aboriginal Knowlcilge," vol. IV., p. 217. " V,\t Navnjos," says Gallatin, " inhabited caves in which they kept their crops." " Nouv, Ana. des Voyage^," vol. (.XX.\1,, 1S57. lyiniT on \ further to arh'anced s ircserved. about the fall 3ones o sk nils o cons dently long inhabil nil', unless 1 !K ar their o this was a Iieii pic Shek er e; ave served Fir;, At a depth o the excavatic the sf)il form the bones of ^vhich could those of men chosen, by tl "^^ere in a goo ciiinati, in 18 tion for tlie 1 iiately destro; fiiust.'uni of t Ij^'^^ti placed, sril.e Ihem. ^'"^ United i o( KITCHEX-MIDDEiyS AXD CAVES. 71 lyin>T on its back, then to a second doubled up, a little {iirthcr 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 Avere strewn ^n-i at 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 Vmg inhabited by man ; burial in it was an accidental feat- \\\K\ unless tliese bodies m;iy have been intentionally interred luar their own hearth. We lean to the latter opinion, for this was a custom dear to the heart of many savage jiL'iiple. Shelter cave, near Rlyria, Lorain county, Ohio, must also have served as a shelter to early inhabitants of the country. Fk;, 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 thereof. The skulls, waich ■were in a good state of preservation, w.-re exhibited in Cin- ciiin:iti, in io5i,atthe meetin^i^ of the American Associa- tion for tlie Advancement ot Science. They were unfortu- nately destroyed a few years afterward, together M'ith the museum of the Homoeopathic College in which they had been j)Iacecl, and we have no information enabling us to de- s rllie tlicni. One of the most distinguished arch.ieologists of iho United States — Colonel VVhittlcsey — attributes a great I 1 h %\. \\> i 72 PRE-HIS TOKIC A MERICA. ♦i:.i. VI if! 'Hi P. antiquity ' to these remains, but his estimate is too hy- pothetical to be worth discussincj. Ash Cave in Benton county, Ohio, is one of these rock- shelters, so common in tlie 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, bone^ 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 h'm, could still be made out. The greatest precaution had also evidently been taken with regard to a packet of little seeds" placed near him, which had been carefully covered with a layer of grass and ferns, and then \\\\\\ 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 Andrew s,' 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 ci)unty, 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- o ac'cumii- ' " Judging from the ajipenrances of llie bones and the u^^ ' '"icH<;}n Kiifiiralist, February, 1870) says that it must have taken centurie ; to form ten inches of vegetable mould, but we have already pointed nut how hypothetical such calculations always are. 'I II: !l mnm i: ' W\' I ji li '^4 74 PRE-HIS TOR IC A M ERICA . Unio shells from the river, three hundred fragments of pot- tery, the tube of ui earthenware pipe resembling those we shall describe in connection with the mound-builders, ana 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 rem.aining 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 irtact, 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.' We hasten to pass to better information pub- lished in an excellent report addressed in 1875 ^^ ^'^'^ trustees of the Peabody Museum by Putnam.' The learned professor noticed near Gregson's Springs, Kentucky, a rock-shelter resembling those we have nun- tioned. The rock had been hollowed out artificially and the * Dr. Slagiiire : Proc. Boston Soc. of Natural History, vol. II., May, 1S39. 'Repoci, Vol. 1., J). 48, etc. ' ^Ve ^^ il HutnUu' C. tii'lii nml 'li'it Wviw I'll caves. 'We follf unlcis wo sii pub- ihc thc |iS39' K1TCH1:X-MIDDKXS AND CAVES. 75 soil \vas strewn witli 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.' 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 ca\e. 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, ' 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 v/ere woven of the bark of young trees ; some black stripes traced on a piece of cloth so prepared, and fragments o^ 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 \\'\\\\ human excrement, the analyses of which suggest that the inhabitants of the cave were ven"ctarians, but excavations have onlv yielded a few fresh-water mussel-shells almost entirely decomposed. The discovery of saliilals, woven ntuffs, the absence of the bones ' Wc will merely recall several caves, such as those called Sauiii-'cn' Care, the Ihumtci! Cavi\ and one sitiuileil in Ilarl County. Although frequent errcava- liiiU'i nnd disttnlmnces make all surmises problematical, the probability is lliat these caves were never used for human habitation, but were only used as graves. 'We follow Putnam's account : the distance he gives appears ver>' great, unlcis we suppose the existence of another entrance not yet known. < 1 % i \ ! J Hi \>- A 1^ rKE-iriSTOKIC AMERICA. Ill I- 1 i .1 of animals;, and the lonc^ habitation rf tlic cave su^':fc^cst a sedentary population devoted to ac,'riciilturc, and no longer depending; exclusively for food upon hunting; and fishing. Putnam adds an important remark. A mummy was found in 1S13 in Short's Cave, ' and deposited in the ^Museum of Worcester, ]\Iassachusetts ; 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 tliat 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 ]\Iexico, probably inhabited wigv.ams. put together in a few hours (fig. 21) and destroyed no less rapidly, '.vhen the nomad habits of their owners or the pursuit of game led them to a distance. Colonel IMcKee, who was one of the first to reach California when the countr}^ 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 .^pent the winter, so as to destroy the vermin with which they .swarmed. Most of the men of these tribes went about nearlv naked ; the women and the girls of marriageable age wore onl\- a little petticoat reaching from the waist to the knees, the bosom remaining' uncovered at every age. The arrangement of tlic hut doubtless varied, as it docs ' Short's Cave is eifjlit miles from Mammoth Cave, which is often wrongly cited as the scene of the discovery of l!iis mummy. K f:. no nd nd of the f us avc itat tain tho ■ncn >ovc and Am- shcl nals, ards, ia or thcr ,vhcn ekd ' the I ipi cd t ap- their so as St of men icoat niii'' CI d(KS i^ H. « \ IliN- % i ' nl ■i • t - ■ ' [•! t t 1 ri '•I i lit rs PRi-.nisTOK/c AAfr./aic.i. now, amoncj the different races .uul tribes. The Comanche, set upri;j;ht the poles which were to keep the tent in position ; tlie 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 wic^wam, 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 cxaminatioTi 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 dicrging 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. Thisvvrctchcd 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.' The dwellings of the people inhabiting the central districts of ^lexico consisted of a few poles, bound together with creepers of vigorous growth native to the tropics, and covered in with palm leaves. In thecolder mountain regions 'James Simpson : "Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from Santa Fe to the Navajo Country," Philadelphia, 1852. ' Bartlett : " Personal Narrative of Exploration and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua," New York, 1854. ' Venegas : " Nolicia de la California ydesu Conquista," Madrid, 1757 : " T,e abitazione le piu comuni sono ccrte chiuse circolari di sassi schioiti ed amucclii- ati, le quali hanno cinque piedi didiametro e mcno di due d'altezza." Clav. igero, " St. del la California," vol. I., p. 119, Venezia, ijSg. /'/ TCI 11: X MiDDi A.v WD C.I I '/■:.;. ro the walls were formed of the trunks. firnil\- Ixvi'iul tf)'_;t'tlu r with cane, and rovcred inside and out with a thick coatinj,' of clay. Such were some of the tribes met with by the conquerors, and such doubtless had they been for many t^enerations 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. \ I: 1 { ■ III i i I I ,1 \ and Feto New I* ii! 'i\ 'Le lucchi- 1 Clav. ^ k^VJ IMAGF EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A {./ % 7a 1.0 I.I l^|26 • 50 ~^™ •- ^ IL25 ■ 1.4 6' M |20 1.6 % ^ /a M y /^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. US80 (716) 872-4S03 I C/j I CHAPTER III. («' ri' »••; 'ITIE MOUM) IJUILDERS. The cxistt'ncc 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' and the anonymous chronicler of the unfortunate expedition of Hernandez dc Soto' 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" living beyond the Alleghany Moun- tains, that any exact information was obtained with regard to these rrde but imposing monuments — sole witness of a life and customs which remain almost unknown. Carver in 1776 and Harle in 1791, were the first to take any special notice of these mounds ; l^reckcnridge, who wrote of them in 18 14,* tells us that they astonished him as much as did the monuments of Egypt ; and later Messrs. Squierand Davis checked earlier accounts bv the more exact methods of ' " History of Florida," published at Lisbon in 1605, at Madrid in 1723, and translated several times into other languages. ' " Velacao verdadeira dos trabalhos que hogobernador don Fernando de Soto et certos fidalgos Portuguesos passaraono descobrimiento da provincia da Flor- ida," translated into French and published in Paris in 16S5; translated into Eng- lish and published for the Ilakluyt Society in 1S51. 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 fust edition of this work. It is a small octavo in black letter. ' They themselves had given to the Yazoo the characteristic name of River of thf Ancient Ruins, on account of the mounds in its vicinity, * " Views of Louisiana," Pittsburg, 1S14. THE MO VXD DUILDERS. 8i modern science. Between 1845 ^"^ '847, more than two hundred mounds were excavated by them, anc' the descrip- tion they give, pubHshed by the Smithsonian Institution, is still our best guide with regard to these remains.' 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," 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 arc known north of Mexico ; others can be climbed with difficulty. St)mc 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 arc 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 ana actuated by similar motives. We find these mounds in the valleys' already mentioned, and in those of Wyoming ; of the rivers Susque- '" Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." Smith. Cont. to Knowl' fd^e, PhiLidelphia, 1847, vol. I. Arch. Amcricaiiii, 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 ii'- origin and artificial character. 'According 10 Dr. Foster's calculations, the Mississippi Valley includes an area of 2.455,000 square miles, mea.suring 30° longitude by 23° latitude. "Mississippi Valley," Chicago, 1869, p. 31. ? i i • i ^■J\ I ' ' " \ 82 PRE-IIISTORIC AMr.RICA. i •'. • ik I I pi hanna, Yazoo, and Tennessee; on the banks of Lake Ontario as far as the St. Lawrence ; in the western districts of tlic 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.' 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.' Wells relates that in Honduras, even in the forests through which a path must be cut axe in hand, the Baqueanos* find * The Mexicans acknowledged a God, Teut or TAeot ; hence the name of Teocallis, the house of God. ' 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 tlie 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). * 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 Labnah. 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 I.ayarto are two pyramids, on tht summit of which now grow lofty tufts of trees (Baril, " La Mexique," Douai, 18C2, p. 129). Monte Cuyo, near Yalahao, which is visible far out at sea, wai spoken of even by the old navigator Dampier as the work of man. * Wells called them Vaqueros, and on his authority we had used that name; but from a communication that Mr. Ch. £arbicr has been good enough to mounds yielded curious occur on Arizona. Californii rafio and them by l ced River is approai arc still m The nur so stianuc with the c repeat, cha indiscrimin of the worl the mound; Island, Ten Acufla tell Costa Rica Other tumi h'lstoryr in t of Central J in honor o recall the < ballos gives I J' >.^ THE MOUXD BUILDERS. 83 > SI mounds often of remarkable height. Each of these nnounds 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 tne valleys formed by the Colo- raflo 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 arc still more so in Ikitish America. The number, form, and disposition of these mounds, often so stiange 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 Acufia tells of countless tumuli in the Terraba plains of Costa Rica, the centre of a once numerous population.' Other tumuli, no less numerous, bear witness to ancient histor}' in the desert stretching all along the Mosquito coast of Central America,' Near the Balize River' mounds raised in honor of the dead and surrounded with circles of stones recall the cromlechs* of the old world. Lastly, Dr. Ze- ballos gives us a description of a tumulus near Campana, address to us we learn thit the Vaqueros, 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. ^ 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, 181 1. Frobel : " Seven Years' Travel in Central America," London, 1S39. * 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. \ H 4 f. 2 84 PRE-I/rSTOA'/C AMERICA. r[i« Buenos Ayres," 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- siderablc quantity of bones of animals and fragments of \. ottery. 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." 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.' We meet with such cairns again in Honduras, near San Salvador. Three miles from Toolcsborough, 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 ' Rn'. For Religious Purposes. ( Miscellaneous. I Of Sacrifice. J For Templc-sitcs. 1 Of Sepulchre. [Of Observation. To these ilifferent lists perhaps may be added nujunds built of adobes, or unburiit brick, which have crumbled to dust and are the remains of successive dwellings The ^\ hole 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' 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 ither 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 ^lound 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." ' 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," 1S77. If a siockade 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. ' " 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 tlie sites of embryo towns and villages by men of different race." "Smith- {.onian Contributions," vol, VII., p. 64. THE MO VXD BUILDERS, 89 Bourncville, twelve miles from Chillicotlic, is one of the most curious fortified enclosures of Ohio. It occupies the summit of a steep hill ; the \v;ills- a r;irc enough instance — are of stone, built up without cement,' 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 paf-ts, 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 dugout 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 arch.eolo- ^,'ists, 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- l)osed. In Wisconsin, saj's 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 eanncjt date from much earlier than the sixteenth century, and they arc 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. 'The Mound Builders used the materials at hand. When stones wtre 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 arc supposed to have been posts of observation. '"The Antiquities of Wisconsin," "Smith. Cont.," Vo. 'II. Southall, "Recent Origin of Man," p. 583. n h ' ijO rA'/:.///S70A'/C A Ml-.KICA. \\ The walls ciiclusc an area of 1 1 1 acres. Above the stream, uliicli formed a iiatur.il defence, tlicy are hardly four feet liij^h, but everywhere else the hci^dit is six feel, and they are some thirty-five feet thick. Several opening's made entrance easy. One of them leads to an enclosure which was prob- ably square, but its walls have been in a ^reat measure de- stroyed ; no trench or ditch protects them, and traces of a great fire can easily be discerned. In this second enclosure Scpjier places the dwellings of the inhabitants, built of w\\- 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 'Cox, " A remarkable ancient stone fort in Clarke County, Ohio." Am. Ass., Har«fijnl, Connecticut, 1874. eight O tlie sou stream, short di r'ses 2i almost ] is a pre the buil tected ii fi ve feet or ceme out of a ditch. ' situated Clark's \ cring an feet long be made nvj^ to a ( refer, ros Many a skill w nizcs a great int Ohio, fro hanna in Along th very num the tribu at its moi Beyond t six miles Tlie amo millions of c Mound Built ' Dr. Jon, Smiihsoniau THE MOUA'D liU I IDEA'S. 9' ci^ht 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, l-'ourteen Mile Creek, which flows into the Ohio, a short distance beyond, 'lliis 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 ■• 1 still be made out of a number of conical mounds and of a \ de aiul decj) ditch. These works must not be confou.' led with others situated in Ross count}-, and known under Lhe name of Clark's Works. The latter include a parallelognaii 275 feet by i;'7; and on the right of this parallelogrun a square cov- ering an area of sixteen acres.' 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 nuund. Inside, accord- ing to a custom to which we shall often liavc occasion to refer, rose several mounds of different sizes. Many of these works arc 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." 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 ' 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," Smiilibonian Contributions, vol, XX 11., p. 4. '^1 t ■ I 1 .1 M PRE-niSTORIC AMERICA. ;u ' w % \ 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 isohitcd mounds, mostly sot upon hills commanding an ex- tensive view.' 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. Hosca nas 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,' 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* situated on an arm of the Rock River, Wisconsin. They ' The great Miamisburgh mound on tlic 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. * Force ; "A quelle Race appartenaient les Mound Builders" ; Cong, des Amer., Luxembourg, 1S77, vol, L, p. 125. Rev. S. D. Peet : " The Military Architecture," Am. antiq., Jan. 1881. * American Antiquarian, April, 1878, March, 1880. * Mihuaukee Advertiser, 1S37 ; SUliman' ■ American Journal of Science, yo\. 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 rarr 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 Ave 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 .vT 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 doublcd-up posture. ' The name of Aztalan is derived from two Mexican words : Atl, water, and An, near to. In Mexican traditions Aztalan, Cullniacan, 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 Krasseur de Bourbourg, Aztalan is situated northwest of California. (" Hist, des Xat. Civilisees," vol. II., p. 292.) We may observe that nothing is more uncertain than such tradition. n i \k \\ 94 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. i: 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 arch.xolo- gists, describes' 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 ' " Report, Tcabody Museum," 1878, vol. II., p. 339. THE MOUXD BUILDERS. 95 of any thing beyond the standard of the modern Indian. Sandy-Woods settlement,' 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 sui)posed that it was intended to supply the inhabi- tants wilh 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 >!nd 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, wl^ich 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 tw^o 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 soi-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 were covered did not belong to the spot in 'W. r. Totter : " Arch. Remains inS. E. Missouri." Saint Louis Acad. o£ Stionccs, iSSo. % '^^ I nil ! ' 5 ■' ' i >i> I \ 96 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. m m n I r 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 arc 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 we 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 wc may refer to a series of <^ll THE MO VXD BUILDERS, 97 trenches extending for several miles near Juigalpa ir Nica- ragua.' Their arrangement is peculiar (fig. 24), The gen- eral width varies from three to four }ards, and at equal dis- tances occur oval reservoirs, the axis of which reaches about twenty-six yards. Two and four mounds occur alternatel}- 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 t.c . command, justifies us in looking upon the mounds as intended to be permanent, and probabh-, 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 sneaking tc the Historical Society of Ohio,* - ^ — 'Boyle ; " A Ride Across the Continent," vol. I., p. 212, 'Transactions Hist. Soc. of Ohio, vol. I., p. 263 H \\ Mi '■ ? 9S PKE./nsrOKiC AMl-.Rh A. u ii^ii ! ''i '■? /Ml I that these fortifications were not erected for a defence from a sudden invasion, for the hcij^'ht of the walls and the solidity of their construction show that the dant^cr they were to i^uard 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 Do 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 v.hich the besieged could shoot their arrows. In 1855 an intrenchmcnt was noticed erected on the banks of the Missouri, near Council Bluffs, by an Indian tribe, the Arikarees. This intrenchmcnt, in accord- ance with a constant tradition of their race, was made of trunks of trees piled one upon the other.' Catlin describes a large Mandan village, in which the inhabitants were pro- tected with palisades." 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 tl. 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- ' Am. Ass., Worcester, Massachusetts, 1855. ' " Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians," London, i866, 2 vols. THE MOUXD BUILDERS. 99 stniction that they were nf)t intended for defence. Forts wore 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 liuildcrs 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 arc right angles, all the sides arc 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 arc so large, their arrangement so varied, and their numbers so great, that it is very difificult to give an e.xact 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 tWi^nty 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 n/les, 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, fied II 2 i\ \'\ % M in V I I I m 'fti f If i 'Vi !»• m lOO PRi:-ins TORIC 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 dc- Fio. 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 Ilopetown, 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 'Squier : " Anc. Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," pi. XVI. Ohio, iTil THE MO VXD BL'Il.DKRS. lOI consists of two circles and a square. The di:»meter 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 i,oSo 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.' 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 ev< ry 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 'Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 759 I ^hort, p. 48. i! A ' ! '^\ f M' i , '^k,.^ k.„y I02 J'A'K.inSTOjWC JMEk'lCA. 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 arc 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, whetlier they be round, oval, polygonal, or square, they always end in a platform at the top. 1 ho I -5^ m yym 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- ' Garcilasso de la Vega reports that in Florida the chiefs used such mounds as sites for their dwellings. lie mentions one no le»s than i.Soo feet in cir- cumference. Tin: Movxn nrn ders. '03 tuck)', Missouri, Ti;nncsscc, .nnd the southern states. They arc more rare in the North, thou^li tlicy occur as far as the sliorcs of Lake Superior, which seems to have been the ex- treme northern limit of tlie mounds. One of the most remarkable of these mounds is without doubt that of Cahokia, Illinois.' 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 Mass, 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 25,000,000 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 cast, 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 Scltzertown mound is hardly less imposing than that of Cahokia. The base is a parallelogram six hundred feet by ' W. De Hass, Am. Ass., Chicago 1S67 ; Putnam, "Report, Peahody Museum," vol. II. 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, hecause Breckenridge, who visited it in iSii, located by mistake a Trappist convent on it, wliich was really on a neighboring mound. ' Force, quoted above, says 20,000,000 of cubic feet only. I I !: « , i ^ * ^fal I, I I ! ml i 'I'., 'I if ^(l j 'I'S y •f 'I 104 rr:F..in^TORic ^uvr.RrcA. four hundred feet ; its height i ; forty feet, and the platform, whicli is reached by a flight oi steps, is no less than three acres in extent.' On this platform rise tlirec conical mounds, liie largest of which is also forty feet high, which gi\L'3 to the structure as a whole a height of eighty feet above the ground. This mound presents this peculiarit}-: the whole of the northern side, that most exposed to inclemency of weather, is strengthened by a w;ill ' two feet thick, made, as is very ccjnimon amongst the Mc^xicans, 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 re^jort having found, among the ruins bordering the rivers and streams tributary to the Missouri, a mound of the form of a parallelogram, rising above e\'ery 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 anrl seventy feet at the summit. The most interest- ing fact re\ealcd by the excavation is the existence of an in- terior chamber, formed of poles of elm or c\press, set h'ke the rafters in the roof of a house. Tiie 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.* 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. Squier and Davis : " Anc. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley," p. 117. Short: "The North Americans," p. 72. Foster: " Preh. Races," p. H2. ' Professor Cox has difiovered near Helena (Phillips county, Arkansas) a similar wall ; only the clay instead of being mixed with dry grass encloses numerous frafpnents of ree^s. • " Report, Peabody Museum," 1875, p. 17. THE AfOCJVD BUILDERS. 105 There is no doubt that these trees arc of later date than the erection of the niouiul-;; hut how much later than that erec- tion was tin- seed from whicii these iar^'e trees were to spring flun^ by a chance wind upon these piles of eartii? We have s[)oken <»f tlie trench protecting the mound of New Madriil ; in other cases tlie protection consists of walls of considerable heiL,dit defending the approaches. At Ma- tontiple a mound of considerable dimensions, and l.irgely made up of baked earth, was surrounded by a circle of smaller mounils. At the junction of the Ohio and the Muskingum are to be seen two parallelograms, the walls of 4'<'i:l io6 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. base, and it is flanked by two smaller mounds, representing truncated cones with steep walls.' Messier Mcund (Georgia) is erected on a natural eminence. The heiglit 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 difificult to climb to the top.'' Messrs. Bertrand and \V. 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 Kolcemokce 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, im.plements, nor pottcrv , but at a cer- tain dc[)th 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 trom Olympia, Wash- ington Territor}-; 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 eight}--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 ha\e, till quite lately, looked upon as wrapped in barbarism. We ha\'e 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 ' Whittlesey ; " The Great Mound on Etowr.h River," Ainer. Ass., Indian- apolis, 1S71. Traces of a trench are sii])posed to have been made oat round the mound ; according to Short (p. S2), i;s height is seventy-five feet, "Bancroft, v,]. IV., p. 267. '" Travels in Nortli America,' p. 2J3. an writers, THE MOUXD BCII.DLRS. 107 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, e<'!rth,and sand. Professor Andrews* has proved th:it 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 cofBns of unhewn stone are arranfjed round the altar. The size of thecc 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 ofTercd 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. AH were mutilated and broken by the action of the fire, and it Avas only after a longscarch 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 in'^hes long by four inches wide." 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 tlie ficrce- nessof 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 ' " The Nat'vc Anvricans," p. S3, note 2. ' t>]uicr : " Aiic. Mon. of tlic Missisfippi Valley," p. 213. III i. : ill ii'' ^1 mi' A i/t ii'( li i 4\. mm io8 PRE-inSTORIC AMERICA. work cut out r f very thin plates of mica, and pierced with regular holes by wliich 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 1 >i;-,.'--i.l i^'ll 'm. Fig. 28. — Group near the Kickapoo River, Wisconsin. with t'le 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 thir hypothesis, but this is a point which later excavations and fresh discoveries alone can determme. Perhaps two groups recently discovered in Wisconsin ' may be classed amongst sacrificial mounds. The first is ' Conanl, p. 20, THE MOUXD ni-ILDKRS. ;o9 situated in a low meadow near the Kickapoo River (fig. 28). The height of the central mound, wiiich represents a radiat- ing circle, is but three feet ; its diameter is sixty feet, and is surrounded by five cresccntic ridges, rising scarcely two feet above the ground, presenting a flat upper surface. Ex- cavations show that these mounds were n^ade 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 Fir,. 2g. — 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 arc those v\hich ribc from '•.'\\ !];' \ 1 lO rA'i:.///s TO/: re amlk/ca graves ; at all ages ami places man shows respect to tlie mortal remains of him who w as 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 ot the vengeance of him whose corpse had been profaned ; all these motives combine to produce the respect for the dead which we n.'xt with among most bar- barous as Avell as most civilized pe~>ple. Ml, H. Fic. 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 stud}'ing them. At different epochs they have been used by successive tribes of Indians, and even by tiic 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 arc 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 arc the migrations and changes w hich THE MOrXD nriLDEKS. rri Ikivc taken place during the last few centuries. Brcckcn- ridge, however, in speakini^ of the excavations of the liig Mound (fig. 3i\ wliich a short time since was a. prominent object within tlic 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 horizontal])-, sometimes doubled up. We noted at Sandy Woods settle- ment the different positions of the bodies ; in Union county, 1 !(;. 31.— IJii; Mound at St. Louis (Missouri). Kentuck}', the bodies were placed one upon another without apparent method.' Cremation, too, was practised. In Wis- .'■ouri the botly was sometimes covered over with a la\'er of clay, after which a huge funeral pile Wiis lighted. Mention has also been made of rcmair.s found in Ohio, covered with ;i la)-cr of clay made so hard by baking that it was only with the greatest trouble that it could be cut into.' Gillman tells of having found in Florida the ashes of the dead preserved vvith pious care in human skulls.' In Kansas stones were heaped over the body, forming a cairn." In other places ' T.yon : " Smiths. Contr.," 1S70. ' " Burial Mounds in Ohio," Avi. Ant., July, 1879. ' Explorations in the vicinity of Alcdo, Florida. * " Report, Pc-iLioily Museum," vol. II., p. 717. it Is .\ ■1:: I 1 i 1H ■':■: :x I ill Ml 112 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA, 'A J' '■:!.'. 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 brouglit 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 endelvor 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. I\Ir. II. 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. ' Aat. of the Mississippi N'aliey," p. 164. V " 1 1 ¥ T//E MOUND BUILDERS. 113 The excavations at Madisonvillc in the valley of the Lit- tle Miami, Ohio, by Mctz 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, poU ished adzes, l?one implements, and shell and copper orna- ments.' 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 {^Busycon pcrvcrsum — 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. '"Bulletin, Harvard University," June, rSSi. ' American Antiquarian, 1879. This statement requires confirmaiion by an expert concholcgist. 1^-4 n ^l*i \ 114 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. U.riV ,?.( 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 \n 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.' 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.' Humboldt mentions similar facts in Peru.* 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, fifteen 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. ' I'eikins : " Ancient liurial-Giouud in Swanlon, Vermont." "Rep. Am. Ass.," Portland, 1873. " " Ant. of Wisconsin," " Smiths. Contr.," vol. VII. ° Jones : ' ' Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee." " Smiths. Contr.," vol. XXII., Washington, 1S76. * " Personal Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America," vol. XL, p. 396 i-t seq., Bolin's Edition, 1S52. "•Re 3 II THE MorxD nm.nr.Rs. "5 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.' Putnam was of the opinion tliat they were the graves and the work of the same race as that of which he had found cemeteries in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois.' 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 Avas estimated at between six and eight hundred ; one of the sepulchres alone, excavated under the personal superintendence of the learned keeper of the Pcabody 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.' 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,* 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 ' "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. ° " Report, Peabody Museum," 187S, vol. II., p. 203, etc. ' " Arch. Explorations in Tennessee," " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., P- 305. * In the following chap'er we .shall recur to the very curious pieces of pottery found in these excavations, I 2 •'T 1 >i n\ 1 1. ; !> . kA \ J n ■'• ! : : ' 1 1 .3, '''i §i • til % * I: m „i! 'li i I i ml am}! m ■i'i i' !:' h ii6 PRE'IIIS TORIC A M ERICA . has been rocogni/.cd by competent judges as approachin}; 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 tumuh, that of Grave Greek, Virginia, at tlie 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 - me of a man, the other of a woman. Reside 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. ' " 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.s central which \ destroy ineasuri The ua compaci roof liac eartli. dating j stretche( toward 1 broken were pic shells cf neighbor of Lama Ohio, ant the Gulf It is pr crematior Builders, of their di sepulchral important he had ex< formed a s and a pass the east, gradually mortar or closed wit shut in wit enclosed s( ' Kreckenrifi place this cryj over an area s£ ' In one f THE MOUND BUILDERS. ii; Tliesc sepulchral chambers are chiefly met ^v■ith in the central states. Excavations in Big Mound, St. Louis, of which we have already spoken (fig, 31), and which was only destroyed in 1 869, brought to light the existence of ;i cr\pt measuring thirty feet high by one hundred and fifty feet long.' The walls were not of stone like those just mentioned but of compact clay carefully smoothed. It is suppijsed 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 cf fresh-water muss(;ls, which are \ery abundant in the neighborhood, and a pretty sea-shell the Marginella apicimx of Lamarck; also shell beads, somewhat like those found in Ohio, and cut out of the Busycon pcrvcrsjim so abundant in the Gulf of Mexico. It is proved be\ond a doubt b\- 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 disappearctl. Each of them enclosed several skeletons." all of which had been subjected '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, /. (-., p. 42. ' In one f the crypts Curtiss bays he made out five skeletons ; in an- Hi III I f^ I 1 i. : I t pi 1 il :| r (w k Il8 /•A'A -//IS TOKli ' A M ERICA, \ •; to fierce heat. The human bones were mixed with cinders, bits of charcoal, and animal bones, which were piled upon the ground several inches hi^di,and amongst the remains the explorers discovered several all but unrecognizable frag- nients of pottery, some stone implements, and a shark's tooth. i'Lxcavations were also carried on under a lar<:c mound near by, but no traces of cremation were met with in it. The bodies w ere 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 the)' belong to the same races? Did they live at the same epoch? There are no means of replying with an_\' CLTtaint)' to these questions. Missouri is not the only region where cremation was practised. Dr. Andrews s{)eaks 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.' 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 i)ractice 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." Under one of the mounds rising in the I'ishtaka 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. V. West, Western Kevie-w, Feb., 1879. ' " Report, Pe.ibo v Museum," 1S77, vol. II., p. jcj. '" Report, Peabody Museum," 1880, vol. II., p. 722. ninety-eight and varying from one have been jncked of burials. With of remarkable ex ments of quartz, tions proceeded, c were found ; they skull which unfor it was brought tc for we have alrcac these skulls, the use of a special fur bodies had been b the one hand the s other no remains o lected. We must have been split ; if its natural interpi among the Mcjund We may also me to the mounds 01 Muscatine. They y charcoal and burn had been lighted ; of conducting the f Cremation is st dians of North Ar witnessed scenes o settled near Fort \ the Gila. A deep before the jjarents of the men were pa funeral hymns al consumed, an old proached it and wit ' America Wr THR MOUND fiUILDF.RS. 119 ninety-eight and eighty-eight feet. At different deptlis varying from one to fifteen feet numerous human bones have been picki.d 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 wc 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 inen 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 thi: 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 ceremon\-.' Creniation 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 * American Antiquarian, 1879, 31I (juarter, p. 99. ■f! ■fM It I If * J ■ f \ I I 1.1 ■:; ild f i fi [ It ' 120 PKt-inaTORlC 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.' 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 if mounds (fig. 32) rises Fig. 32. — Group of mounds at the junction of Straddle Creek and Plumh River, IlUnois. at the junction of Straddle Creek and Plumb River, Car- roll count}', Illinois." The forms of these mounds vary; some are conical, others are more or less complete circles. Excavations have yielded cinders ar;d a residuum of black mould. It is supposed that these mounds were the burial- places of men who burned their dead, that eaci. 'amily had its tomb, and when one of the members died his ashes were laid besid-' those of his people and covered with a layer of earth, and that this wa,-: continued until a cone about two feet high was formed. The circles and half circles are sup- '" Cremation Amongst North American Indians." — Am. Ass., New York, 1874. ' Conant ; ' Fooipiints of Vanished Races," p. 17. THE MOUND BUILDERS. 121 posed to indicate tombs the inmates of \vhich 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 Ol'o 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 mo.le 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.' The central mound {a) represents a turtle forty feet long by twenty-seven U \ 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. Farh 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 east and west are two ^Conant ; " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 18. t A. \ W i V'' \ \ :|J:f t^\^:^ iiii if ■1 5 in If I r 12.! r RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. elongated mounds {c) sixty feet long with a diameter of twelve feet. Two smaller mounds (t) on the right and left of the turtle arc each twelve feet long by four feet high. 7'hey consist of white sand mixed with numerous fragments of mica and covered with a layer of rlay and a second one of vegetable mould. The two mounds {b) 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 .r #00© O ^O 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 (K/C AMhKlCA, It is not asserted that tlic 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 rca- 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 cmbanl its that are essentially of the same character as thot nd 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 l^cT held the region over which these works are scattered, it is believed that we are fully justificii in claiming that the mouiuls 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, /. r., p. 107.) not be very wide of the truth to assert that they were the same people." - Lapham. See Carr, /. c, p. 4, note. ■ ' ''t ''!l CHAPTER IV. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS OF THE MOUND BriLDERS. The humblest forms of ccnimic art were amonpf the first inventions of tlie human race. Dishes of some sort arc in- dispensable for hol(lin<; the food of man. and no matter how remote the a^e to which we look back, we find them amon^ the relics telling of his presence. They were used in re- lii^Mous 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 Ecclesiastcs 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.' 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 '" Iliad." Book V., verse 642. ' " Clay is a material so generally diffused, and its plastic nature so easily uis- t :l!'t to' 11 i •1 i 't I,* '!■;;« ,. 1 I , ■ i t-' 'i *' i 134 PRE- HIS TORIC A . Ur.R/CA . 'H him ro knead it ; a ball, the plaything of the moment, flung has*:ily 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 uent to draw the water he needed. Facts such as the^e 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 Icar.^'^d 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 supjilr^mented by reflection must have led him to encase in earth the food or the calabashes he submitt'^d to the heat of his fire. Goguet relates that in 1503 Captain Gonncville visited some Indians who had amongst them y/ooden dishes, which they covered with a thick coating of clay belt, re putting them near the fire.' Cook mentions' dishes seen at Jnalashka "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.' The natives of Murray Islai.d cook their food in a hole dug in the earth, which they are careful to line with well kneaded flay 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 oat.* Some must have been moulded ',n or in coarse tissues, or wooden moulds, which were destroyed in the baking, though indelible covered, that the art of working it floes not exceed the intelligence of the rudest sav.ii^e." Birch : " Ancient Pottery," Introduction, p. i. '" Memoire touchant retablissement d'une mission ciretiennj dans Ic troisi- eme nionde. autrement appele la Terre Australe," Paris, !Co3, published by the Abb ; Paulrnier de Gonneville, one of the descendants of the captain. "" Vo .'age to the Pacific Ocean," 1734, vol. TI., p. 511. 'One ( f these c\i. be seen in the Peabody Museum. It is marked No. 7,750 in the cataioj^ae. * Ran : "Indian Pottery," Smiths. Contr., 1866. Tylor : " Esirly History of Mankind," p. 73. POTTERY, WE A POX S, AKD ORNAMENTS. '35 traces of them exist to this day. Many methods may have been em',jloyed 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. Tiie belief in immortality, with which human nature is so deeply imbued, is vividly revealed. Man, however savage, '..owever degraded wc 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. Mis imagination doubtless does not soar beyr id the enjoyments of a purely material e.xistence, free from \\ ork and anxiety ; but he endeavors to assure to those he has loved here that existence in the unknown world to which death lias taken them. Hence the numerous and varied objects found in tombs, secret tokens Lit 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.' 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 i.vhom the French, the first explorers of the Mississippi .!ul 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 ' E. Evers : " Ancient Pottery of Missouri," Saint T.ouis Academy of Sciences, iSSo. Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races/' iJciiut Louis, 1S79. ;i 1^ ;1 ■]'■ , V ^ ! " m\. I H m \i i --»i*y 136 PRL:.iilSTORIC A MERICA. ;■> I- Vi \ '■■ > the first colonist? 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 colli;cted.' The burial-places excavated at Sandy Woods have yielded nearly as many.' Some suppose the numerous fragments found in some parts of Michigan to point to the existence of actual manufactories.' 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 arc mentioned as intact amongst all those discovered.' Tiiehe fragments, which have defied the wear and tear < V i It M ^ ■ M,/ f ' (lU ' * \ "'' 1 ; t j \ 1, y ■%\\ I si m % 140 rKE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. i W needs have led m;ui to make the same efforts of intelligence and to produce the same creations of industr\'. Some of these vases are painted, the colors chiefly employed bein^ black and very dark gray. Red, yellow, \vhite, and brown vases are, however, met with ; these colors, beincj generally added after baking, have little stabilit)', 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 cx- FlG. 40. — Jar found in a Ohio mound. amples which might be given.' 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. yj). A vase from Ohio merits representation (fig. 40), on account ' Those who are os])ccially interested in this question may consult a recent work, Dr. Ed. Ever/ " Contributions to the Archa?oloi;y of Missouri," part I., Pottery. Salem, Massachusetts, ioSo. NVe have borrowed largely from it. of its can m in Ar tions recen said t Egyp publis ing th( is obt occasii reseml We colorin ' We r period. aborij;ini a:v.i .v/:xrs. 143 on the earliest potter)- of I'Ajrope, and executed, as those were, either will) the potter's nail, with the i^nd of a pointed instrument, a bit of wood or a shell, which give a distinct mark without a jat,^ged 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 })ieces of pottery decorated in this manner, notably those found at l^'ort Wayne' Some vases iiave Fio. 43.— Vase fminrJ in the excavations in Missouri, witli ornaments in relief painted in red of various sliaiies. 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 tin; wolf, the fox, and further south the llama, and even human figures. It would take a long tiine to describe all the varieties ; as it ' " Proc. Am. Assoc," Buffalo, 1876. Tills mode of Dinamcntation was fre- quently employed in Maine, Massaelnisetts, Missouri, Illinois, Oliio, Tennessee and Florida. "Report, Peabody Museum," 1872. I ' . I m) fv:- D (-'■ I I: \ 144 PRF.-inS TORIC A M ERICA . II • I is is evident that the patters 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 arc to accept the words of the Popol Vuh' : " 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 potter\- 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-i 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 I'opol 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 1S61 the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, who characterized it as a sacred book, issued it again. The origir.al 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 Bourliourg's opinion, we can place but a very limited reliance on this book. •w POTTERY, WI.APONS, AXD ORXAMI.XTS. J45 whicli tlicy sccin t(i liavo been intended ; ue shall then have certain data to go upon. Perhaps more vases with necks have been found than any other kind. Tiieywere probabl)- used to hold liciuids; mo.-it 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 Tei.nessee. vessels have a swelling at the base ; others are o\ d and arc pierced with lateral holes through which were passed cords tu 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 ' I'utnam : " Report, fVahody Museum," 1S78, vol. II. Dr. Ilabel (" Smith. il '^ \ 1 . f ' A % ill Ji . 14^ rRl.mSTOh' U ' AMJ.KK 'A. '.■\ have been found provided with a stopper, also of earthen- ware ; one of tlicin still contained tlie traces of a red liquid that coukl not be analyzed.' The ornamentation I'rr,. 46. — Vase with spiral grooving; in the Museum of the Academy i»f Sciences, St. Louis. Fig. 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. iq), also men- tions some found under the huacas of Chiritpii. ' Coiiant ; " Footjirints of Vanished Races." ., "--l rorr/.A'V, ii'/.troxs, ax/) (>a\v.i.u/-:x7-s. «4; is very varittl and n-scmbli."^ tliat \Vf liavi- hc-forc described. The St. Louis imiseiini possesses .'imon^'st other specimens a bottle (fig. 46), in uhich ue nf)tice a series of sui llings and depressions, forming a regular spiral. Although the form is still graceful the vases used for cooking purjjoses are notice- able for the coarseness (»f their execution and ornamentation (figs. 42, 47, 48, and 49). They generally have a large Fia 48, — Vase with handles from a sepulchral luouml in Tennessv^^e. Fig. ^g. — Vessel with Icmr Implies, six inches high hy al)out ei::;lil in diameter. opening sometimes provided with a cover to hasten boiling. Nearly all have one or more iiandlcs, by means of which they can be more easily moved. One is mentioned with a long handle like those of our saucepans (Hg. 50); others have the edges pinched out so as to form a spout (fig. 51). Several of these vessels bear marks of long usage, and retain traces of the fire on which they had been placed. I. 2 ! \ \\ if' A I I ill HV ] « i^li- i f i. w i I 148 PRE.IIISTORir AMERICA. In excavations we also often meet with pieces of black earth- enware, the body of which is elliptical, of careful execution, and havinj]^ a handle on one side often representing a bird, ard on the other a brim or knob by which they can the more y\-^. 50. —Black cooking pot o'. coarse execution, found beneath a mound in Missouri. I ■ > -H Fig. 5'. — Vessel witti n ^])out. Missouri. easily be Lelu (fip^. 52J. Some an almost completely closed, and have but one orifice, large or small ; others contain some little pellets of clay, intcntlcd to make a rattling noise. of al! whicl that tl tions POTTERY, WEATOXS, AND ORNAMENTS. 149 These vessels do not appear ever to have been subjected to tlic lieat 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 si/e. ) ^'8- 53- — Basin, with a rouG;h attempt at ornamentation. (Diameier, nine inches ; height, ei^'ht.) Basins, generally pretty rare, are the coarsest in execr.; ion of all the p .ctery preserved in the St. Louis museum ; from which, "v'ithout 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 I \ ■■■! '.,1 t' ; s I ■MH I50 PRE. HIS TOKJC A M ERICA. i'' I w \ I forms, from whicli it is easy to judge of their use and the mode of their construction. They arc of black earthen- ware, and one of them shows a rough attempt at ornamenta- tion.' Cups, whicli doubtless served as drinking-vcssels, are small, round or oval, and always provided with a handle, often representing the head of a man or of an animal. We lii', r..i^iii found in Missouri (one third natural size), in lilack sui\-(liii(l 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 ' A l>;»sin exactly similar has been found in the pre-historic camp uf Catenoy, Oise, France. ) rOTTERY, IVEAPOXS, AXD ORiVAMEiVTS. 151 vry 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 eis^ht hundred or a thousand specimens have been found. It is easy to recognize that they had been used in accordance with some ;ite 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.' In Tennessee, the vases were generally ])laced 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- ' W. P. rotter; "Arch. Remains in S. li. Missouri," bt. Louis Acau. of Sciences, 1880. il; M hi;f i i(- i (.1 f I il II. i ii'i 1 '1 ^H III if) I'M V t \ MiiMaaM 153 / RL- Ills TUJiJC A MEKICA . ^i' .{ X able. Wc Gfivc illustrations of two : one of them, found in a sepulchral chamber in Tennessee, is so like those now in use that they miijht be taken for eacii other (fig. 57) ; the other, a rough imitation of the human figure, comes from a mound in Missouri (fig. 58), J'lCi. 57. I'lpe from a sepulchral chamber in Tcnnt. ^i^.•. Fig. 58. — I£arthenware pipe from Missouri. Dr. I label mentions, from near San Salvador, in Central yVmerica,' two pipes about four inches high, with about the ' " Smithsonian Contributions," vol. XXII. The same excavations liave yielded a considerable number of pieces of pottery, amongst which is an imila- tiou of an old man's head of fairly remarkable character. rOTTERV, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 153 same diameter, covered with red and white figures, A hole had been made for the introduction of tlic stem. This is a fact of rare occurrence in these rcf^ions, where the use of tobacco was less widespread than among the Mound Builders.' 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 iinU Fig, 59. — Red vase with neck .inci a snake coiled about the body, found in excavations in Missouri. lation is generally exact, and the artist may have obtained it either by copying or by moulding the fruit before hirn. These are not the onl}' iiriitations 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. \V'(. r-n'v mention among such forms, snakes (fig. 59), bears ' Oviedo was the first Spanish writer to mention the use of tobacco. His book, " Natural Historia de las Indias," was printed at Toledo in 1529. I ■ J :.' 1 ' f \ i I ■1:1 m Ml I if \ riUMM mmmmmtk 154 rRE-lUS TORIC A M ERICA . (fig. Co?), pigs (fig. 6i), fish (fig. 62), frogs, turtles very per- fectly copied, and birds, including the common brown owl, the long-cared owl and the duck. Ducks especially were carefully studied, and different species arc 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 do' lestic pig ; but this animal appears to have been un- FiG. 60. — Painted vase found in a sepulchral mound in Tennessee. known before the Spanish conquest.' The species most nearly resembling it is the peccary {^Dicotylcs, Cuvicr), 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- ' Garcilasso de la Vega (" los Commentarios reales que tratan de I'Oiigen dc los 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, WEATOXS, 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 vas' s 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 1- 11;. 01. — Vase with handles, rcprcscntinjj the head of ;i jii^. Fig. 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 lias been suj)p()sed, so much alike that they can be taken to represent a single characteristic form. ii ' ! 1. !!!•[ if^: I Ml n:? i ^ \ • \ 156 PKE-UISTOKIC A M ERICA, 'i\ Im Neither are representations of man wanting. Some, exe- cuted with talent, are true portraits, and each one, whate\er may be the form of the vase it isintendc-d to decorate, presents a very marked individual character (^figs. 63, 64, and 65). Fig. 63. — Drinking-vase, over 4J inrhes high by 9 iiicho.- at iis grciucsit diameter. Fig. 64. — Water-bottle, 8^ inches high, found under a mound near Belmont, 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 ;. 'ui rOTTKKY, I IE A PDA'S, AXD ORXAMEXTH. 157 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 Fig. 66. — Figure in hlack 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 rcach- r Hi !' t 1 V .d] il •HHWIli ' '■)* Mfi, 5! 158 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA, ing to the knees. We may also notice another reprcicnti'nt^ a man lyin^^ on his back, with the arms and le^s rouj^lily imitated. This vase was emptied through a neck sjirinj^intj from the navel of the fij;urc. In a grave of Missouri pieces of potteiy have been c(»llectcd ornamented witii 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 nf the first, and the openini^ is on one side ; one fouilh natural size. Side by side with these pieces of pottery thousands of otliers are found with nothing human about them. There are also caricatures.' 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, (f'igs. 66, 67, and 68.) /', ^' ^ FOTTEKY, WEAPOXS, AND OAA'AAfJ-ATTS. 159 head, clearly indicatint,^ that they wctc used as bottles. We may remark that so far but few indeci iit objects have been found, though they were numerous among the ancient peo- ples of Europe ; reproductions of the sexual nrgans have rarely come to light,' which fact is an important testimony to the morality of these primitive peopl(\ 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 sinV ar stage of civilization, one is astonished it* the in- feriority of the latter. Lately excavations have b-.-en made 'We may instance a few examples: "In altre provincie," said one of tlie companions of Cortez, " e particularemente in quella di Panuco, adoravano il membro che portano gli huomini fra le gambe." — " Relazione d' alcune cose dclia Nueva Spagna." Dr. Jones (" .Smith. Cent.," vol. XXII.) mentions a phallic pipe and Heywood a phallus found near Chillicollie ("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 viembnini virile in erectio)ie. Stephens tells of ornaments in several temples of Yucatan representing membra conjuncta in coittt. Pieces of Peruvian pottery of the same kind are met with, but they are exceptions. Father Kircher, how- ever, .Tnd Pancroft following him, believe in the former existence in America of a Phallic cultus, such as undoubtedly existed in the Old World. iiii \ ' ■1 . i ^^M %\ ■ '1? % »i ^ i6o PK /•:.// IS Ti. )K/C A .]//■: A'/CA. in some tunuili on tlic practisint; c^rouiid of the school oT artillery at Tarbes, on the bonitrs of the liepartnu-nts of dcs Halites et iiasses Pyrenees, when' vases were found dating'' probably from Gallo- Roman times ; the)' arc inferior alike in material, execution, and ornamentation to those of the American races. It is the same with tlu' vases found by Chantre near Samthravo.' We content ourselves with these facts, though examples mifjht be multiplied. It is probable that the presence of a ^^ood material for pottery had more or less to do with pro<^rcss 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 jjieces of pottery found in a sin^de 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 a:;sthetic feelinfj of the people. Probably, we have to deal with the products of the work of more or less skilkd 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 inh.ibitants of America must have been sturdy smokers,' judging from the number of pipes found in mound excavations. Earthenware pipes have been already men- tioned ; others were carved of slate, soapstone"^ (fig. 69), and ^ Knne tf Anthrop., April, i88[. 'According to I'aiicroft (vol. II., p. 2SS) 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 indigeno 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 ;)U'- POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. I6l ma:l)Ic, more frcf|iicntly still out of a very luml and resistant red or l)rovvn jiorijiiyry. Some are mere bowls fjuite 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, scjunrels, toads and frops. IJirds are perhaps still more numerous. Amongst them we Fig. 6(). — 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.' 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, I'eabody Museum," vol. II. ' In the American Antiquatian (March, 1S80), 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. M trf !!! • ■' \ U i 1 62 PRr.-ITl^TORIC AMERICA. L < '( vcstigation of bird-pipes and carvings by a well-known orni- thologist has resulted in demolishing the foundation of much '^"llini!^ r m — — ^oilJX^^ Fig. 70. -Pipe representing a wildcat. Fig. 71. — Pipe representing a woodpecker, or wading b'rd. theorizing which had been basi,'d on the identical specimens examined.' Forgeries a "e also too common. ' II. W. lleushaw, 2d Annual Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, S84. POTTERY, WE A POX S, AXD ORXAMEXTS. 163 These designs have often represented the animal in a f.imihar 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 manateC: but arc more probably rudely carved otters. Fig, ^2. — Stone pipe, supposed to rppresent an elephart, found in Louisa county, Iowa. Tlie toucan, elephant, and armadillo require a warmer cli- mate than that of Ohio or Kentuck}' ; the manatee, so far as the United States are concerned, only lives in Floridian v/aters, where it is now extremely rare, if not extinct as a resident, though in former times abundant. Ftg. 73. — Pipe found in Oliio, representing a heron holding a fish. The llama, which has been said to b(" found sculptured on rocks on the banks of the Susquehanna, belongs to the fauna cf the South. All accounts of these animals, in connection v.ith aboriginal relics found in the United States, may there- fore be regarded either as wrong identifications of the rudely J I it- ■ 1 M 2 i ( i\1> fn i 164 PRE-IIISrURli ■ AMI'.RICA. 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 vcrj'hard and compact black stone, wears a peculiar head-dress. The hair is plaited, and round the forehead were fifteen pearl beads, wiiich had been calcined. The face is covered with incised lines, form- ing regular tatooing, the mouth is compressed, the eyes are ^M '^li/M/^y #^^ Fig. 74. — Pipes found at Mound City. large, the cars arc pierced. Another type represents a woman, and may be compared as far as execution goes with the Mexican and Peruvian sculptures." A pipe from Con- necticut represents the bust of a woman, with the wrists and shoulders laden with ornaments ; another, found in * 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°. Londor. 1826. POTTERY, WEAPOXS, AND ORiVAMENTS. 165 Virginia, presents a type which may he compared with the antique Kgyptian ; and yet another pipe from Missouri, in very hard sandstone, represents a man's head, with ?) pointed beard somewhat hkc that seen in the Assyrian monoHths of the British Museum.' 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 smok'c ; but numerous discoveries have modified this opinion. It cannot be doubted that wooden stems were used, which, of course, wouM decay and leave no traces. In several pLces steatite stems have been found,' and Professor Andrews mentions others in earthenware, stone, and copper, which he found in Ohio.' 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,* and bone tubes have been found as far north as Canada. At Swanton, Vermont," 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." ^ Am Ant., Jan., iSSi. ' Schoolcraft, vol. I., p. 93, pi. xxxii. and xxxiii. ' " Explorations of Mounds in S. E., Ohio," " Report, Peabody Museum," 1877. * " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," " Smith. Cent.," vol. I., p. 234, fig- 122, 125. * G. H. Perkins: " On an Ancient Burial-ground in Swanton, Vermont," "Rep. Am. Assoc," Portland, 1S73. " Beneath the bird three little marks can easily be made out. — (Amcricm Anliq., March, 18S0). These have been supposed to be letters ; but nothing i\ >*• .1 ) ! :l ni I B ' 1 i«ai m m 1 66 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. What was the use of these tubes, met with in such differ- ent places? Putnam tliinks that a pioat many of them were the stems of pipes,' other authorities look upon them as in- struments of music ; several of them, notably those found at Swanton, arc, 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 numerou-, 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. ^■Y "•'^^ ** ■" ^ * of 'f Fig. 75.— Bird engraved on a stone tube from Swanton, Vermo. t. 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 potter}' or pipr;s, 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 tliat the Mound Builders were sufficiently ad- vanced in civilization to have an alpliauei. * This was also Squier's opinion after his dis:overy at Chiilicothe of a tube carved in slate, thirteen inches long, ending in a mouthpiece. " Ancient Mnn. 01 the Mississippi Vallev." Sec also Cortereul, " Voy. aux Indes occidenlales, " Amsterdam, 1722, vol. I., p. 3q. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AXD ORXAMEXTS. I(,7 habitnnts 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 ovt-r thirty-seven pounds. A female figure was discovered in the Cumberland valley, sculptured of brown sandstone, eleven inches high, wilh the sexual organs veiy prominent ; in Honduras and Guatemala have been found numerous terra-cotta statuettes, called manccashy the present inhabitants. All these figures are of somewhat similar t}'pc, and tleir 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 th.e 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 car-plugs. On one altar were found several terra-cotta figurines quite unlike anything hitherto found in the mounds. They arc artistically superior to any figure- work yet noted by American aborigines, and were tloubtless 'Jones : " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., p. 12S. It is interesting to remem- ber that these supposed idols are of. tlie same typi^ as Mmp of the figures made by the Toltecs. w ;• I i; r |: ■ f A mnfffimmmm^-j^ \i ^% i ^ lii: l^y m '^ km 1 'p! It ' i ;: I I n \ 1 68 PRE.HISTOKIC 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 sp 170 PRE-Il rSTORIC AMERICA. % \ I I '■' I Alaska to Patap;nnia. In pre-historic times not only weapons were made of it, but also jewels, ornaments, and even look- inc^-c:;iasscs. The Mexicans, accordincj to Clavic^cro, were such expert workmen that they were able to turn out a hundrexl obsidian knives in an hour, which is very probable, as they were hardly more than elongated flakes of the t^lassy material. The Mexicans also inserted a double row of bits of obsidian A.- FiGS. 76 and 77. -Beard's Mound, Ohio. -Serpentine axes, B.— Hill Mound, Ohio. Fig. 78. — Serpentine implement found beneath a mound near Big Ilarpeth River, Tennessee. in handles of very hard wood, and fastened tftem in with cord and gum. This weapon was wielded with both hands, and the Spanish historians speak of the terrible havoc it wrought. Tlie MahquaJnvitl, as this weapon is called, is sculptured on a door-post at Kabah, Yucatan.' 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. ' Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 210. ! H POTTER W IVEAPOjVS, AA'D OhWAMENTS. i;i It IS almost impossible to distirifjuish between the weapons and implements of these; primitive timi's. Mass describes a number of tools fashiontNl in am[)hibolite, quartzite, jadeite, and fjranite, all well made.' Besides these we hear of shell fish-hooks, knives, borers, harpoons, and bone, horn, or deer- horn needles." Wc give illustrations of two implements of peculiar form, unknown in Europe. The first (fi<^. 78) is of serpentine, eighteen inches long, and carefully polished. It was found under a mound near Big Har- pcth 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 isof 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.' 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 instntment 1 [ 1 • - 1 • 1 from New Jersey. 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- ' "Arch, of the Mississippi Valley," Rep. Am. Assoc, Chicago, l86S. ■ 'Potter: "Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri," St. Louis Acad, of Sciences, 1S80. Rau : " Smith. Contr.," vol. XXH., fig. 236, et seq. 'Rau : "Arch. Coll. of the U. S. Nat. Museum," Washington, 1876, fig. 99. m i i ^ w^ •'^j'vfmmfm «■ 172 PRE.// IS rOA/C • A M I.RICA . cil, aiul it would be impossible to distinguish those of New Jersey from those of Micliigaii, or thoyj of Ohio from those of l""lori(lii. They consist of pearls, of shells, of cylin- ders made from the ribs of the manatee, the pierced teeth of the Ijear, of the wild cat, wolf and shark, the bones of little birds, the claws of birds of prey, and rings of stone or bone.' Beneath a mound near St. Clair River, Michigan, a collar has been found made of bear teeth, alternating with beads of copjjcr and bird-bones. All this recalls the ornaments still affected by the Indians of our own time. ]?eads may be counted by thousands ; they are of mother- of-pearl, of shell, stone, and wooil, 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-siiapcd 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." 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 pcrvcrsuvi, Stronibus gigtis, Fasciolaria giganica, and Margincila 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 'Rail : " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., figs. 213 and 214. "•"Dr. S. Scoville, Cincinnati Quarterly Journal, April, 1875. roTTi:/n\ ir/iAroxs. am> orxamixts. 173 in Tennessee on one of which (^l^^ 8o) four birds' heads can be made out ; the edges of the second are ek'L;antly carved. The St. Louis Museum owns many siniil.ir shells ; on oiu" of them is cni^TavL'd a hut^e spitler. On others an attempt has been made to represent human fij^nires, 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 Michiijan Fig. So. — 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. 8i). 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 )-ears, by barter, vi.i iJcr'ng Strait, it is not wonderful that articles from Mex- icii or Florida should be found in Minnesota or New Eng- lan.l. \ A (v .■iiU IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A .V^fc ^ 1.0 I.I 1.25 ^ SH 1 2.5 12.0 ^m^ V] % ^ ^^' > .^ o;i /(^ PholDgraphic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^ 4^'' >* ^■ ^ /> ,.v «. :/- i mm 174 PRE.illSTORlC AMERICA. AmonfT the ornaments affected by the Mound Builders were polished stones, often brought from long distances, and pierced with one or more holes for lianging 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.' Of these stones, some are of considerable weight, and sometimes Fig. Si. — Pin made of shell from Ely Mound, Va. Fig. 82. — Sculptured stone found at Swanton, Vermont : the ba?^ is flat and is pierced with two holes for suspension. Length 2,-^^ 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. \Vc must not omit to mention the metallic ornaments of the Mound Builders. At Connett's Mound more than five * G. H. Perkins : " On an Ancient Biuui Gtoond in Swanton, Vermont," Am. Assoc., Portland, 1973. POTTERY WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 1 75 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.' 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 sire). 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 Jolict, Illinois, a sharp blade, and at Fort Wayne a knife. On a skeleton discovered beneath a mound at ZoUicoffer Hill, a copper ornament of ' Andrews : " Expl. in S. E. Ohio." '" Report, Pcabody Museum," 1S77. I I ■-% . ' ■ V- \ u 1 V " ^ i ll' 1 1 * 1 i 4 '- » 1 >* 1 ^m f ■ 1 f t%. 1'' -. 1 m 1 9Bm 176 riai.iiisroRic America. quite peculiar form was foutul.' The cross surmountincj it led people to sujjpose it to be of ILuropcan oriijin ; but Dr. Jones mentions the same subject as an ornament on some enj^raved 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 fii^ure 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 1 5 18 on the coast of Yucatan, his surprise was great to meet with the sign of his own faith in the temples of the natives.' 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 Eg>*pt, 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 foand in \ViM:on.>>in. •.• primitive man. ' I'utriam : '"Arch. Lxpl. ill Tennessee." "Kep., I'eabody Mus.," 1S7S, vol. II., p. 307. * IIe\-wood : \pl. of the .•Vborigin.il Remains of Tennessee." " Smi:h- sonian Conlr.," 1S76. * ilerrera : '• liist. Gen, de los heclios de Ids C'astillanos en la-^ l.^las y Tierra F I. Thi ' Fostt Ohio." ' Short ' DulU POTTERY, ll'EAPOXS. AXD ORXAMEXTS. I,",- Thc potter)- of Missouri and the discoveries of Putnam in the caves of Kentucky have ahcady revealed the nature of tlie 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 btxlies 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.' 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 v ell preserved cloth,' and in January-, 1876, excavations in a mound in Illinois' brought to light several turtles in beaten copper of remarkable workman- Fig, 85. —Copper ship. Most of these turtles measure :r";7aveSlUc"of* not more than 2 i-S inches in length, fer HiU, Tenn. and the copper has been reduced by beating to a thick- Tierra Firme del mar Oceano." MadriJ. 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. .\ssoc.," Albany. iSsi. 'Short : "The North Americans of Antiquity," p. 37. * Bulletin of the Buffalo Society 0/ Natural IIistar\; March, 1S77. N "^ w li II ' » , ti ■ ,<■ ; *! M if ^ « ' i 111 lii %\ < i \ \ r: \ 178 PRF./frSTORIC AMERICA. ncss of \-(i\ of an inch. These jewels, for such they must be called, evidently of ^reat 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,' 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 ver>' 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 Ikiilders used so frequently came from the shores of Lake Superior.* 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, tlie 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 ' 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" ; Atp. Assoc., Montreal, Canada, 1857. Swineford : " Review of the Mineral F ources of Lake Superior," 1876. POTTERY. WEAPONF:, AND ORNAAfFXTS. I/'Q course of years with earth and vcfjctablc refuse, the remains of several generations of trees, was found, at about eij^htecn feet from the surface, a block of metal measurinj:^ two feet hmg, by three wide and two thick, and weit^hing nearly six tons. This mass had been placed on rollers from six to ci,i;ht inches in diameter, the edges of which still bore the marks of a sharp instrument. The miners had rolleil 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 luunmer or mallet. Several of the mallets used have been found, the heaviest weighing as much as thirty-six pounds ; also a great num.ber 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 unhcated. 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 varj'ing quantities. The deposits of Isle Royal, Lake Superior, were even richer than those of Keweenaw Point.' 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 ' 11. Gillman : " Ancient Works of Isle Royal." " Smith. Cont.," 1873. N 2 ^ I I;" 'I' ' W \\{f ; o ,t I I , ( ■II 4 i'i iji.) 'i^ ^^!i 4 : - i.il i8o PKE-IIIS TORIC A Ml: RICA. \\ estimated that the vcfjetation 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 Anu;rica, in Arkansas, Missouri, and on the slopes of the Ozark Mountains, for instance.' There were also copper mines in Mexico,' 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.' 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 ' Schoolcraft : " Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. I., p. loi. • F'. von Hellwald : " Congr^s des Americanistes," Luxembourg, 1877. ' Lubbock : " Prehistoric Times," p. 289. ' Iron ore and galena occur, but no iron or lead, Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 778. ■HHHS POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. i8i 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 discovery 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,' and their weapons, or implements of copper, were, as wc 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-bids. We meet with similar embankments in Missouri and in all the ' 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, 1881, called " Were ay.cient 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." 'Schoolcraft: "Ancient G.irden-Beds in Grand River Valley " (Michigan), vol, I., p. 50, and pi. VI. Conant, p. 65. I i * «: 1 ?i I il: III % m i '•',; I83 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. districts west of the Mississippi ; they extend into the valleys of the Ozark Mountains, from Pulaski county to the (iulf 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 arc 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 's 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 t'^ ed River and Wichita, they can be counted by thousa* According to Forshey, who de- scribed them to tl' - i^cw 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 arc 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, frijolcs or black kidney beans, introduced by the Spaniards into Europe, and even the vine. A recent ex- plorer, Amasa Potter, in describing the excavations of a wtmmmm POTTKNV, in-.ArOXS, AXD OR/^AMEXTS. IS3 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 car of exceptional length, containing a number of gr.iins 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 Allcghanies on the cast 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 leeds ; subject to chiefs, for a despotic authority must have been indispensable to the erection of the works left behind them ; and histly 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 races 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- IJcared how was it that all recollection of their disappearance '•'^ % II ■ t i l8<] PKl.-IIISTONn AMI.KHA. was effaced from the memor>' of their conquerors or their successors? It is impossible to disguise either tlie 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 o[)inions 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 dilTicuities already in themselves so great. To the most recent and cautious investi- gators the Indians at the time of the ccmquest 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 -'hsolutely 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 anrjogy 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 " P'ootprints 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 6) POTTERY, WTAPOXS, AXD ORXAMl XTS. 1 85 vestiges f)f the human body, but a tew little heaps of white ilust ; thoiigli huntlrcds 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 f'om 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 generat.ions 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" in a speech already quoted. " The rich lands of the West arc, 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 .•^ettIcment 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 ' 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. Mist. Soc. of Ohio," vol. I., p. 263. See also " Arch. Americana," vol. I., p. 306 ; and Squier and Davis' "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Ydlley," 184S, p. 306. k i ^1 i Wh \ t V ■ M iM 1 : > * 1. ■ \ 1 : t^ 'I ■: ■ rik li i i86 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. assimilation can be effected. We iind 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 arc by at least the second growth after the primitive forest state was regained ? " Barrandt ' 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.* Excavations have yielded nothing but charcoal or fragments of coarse potteiy, 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 ' " Smithsonian Report," 1870. * J. Dille : " Smithsonian Report," 1866. * " Narrative of a Journey across the Cordillera of the Andes." London, 18:5. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 18: 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 sedentar>' of the Indian tribes existing when the white race poured into America like a resistless flood, have been de- stroyed ; of Ynany 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. r i ' h ■•*■* !^ ■'J\\A i I m \\\ \ :'■ \ I I l88 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 trj'ing 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 reser\-ations 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 " Obser\'ations 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. ' ■' Report, Pcahody Museum," vol. II.. pp. 361. etc. grc: Ala pop and the inst; 1857. POTTERY, WEAPOXS, AND ORNAMEXTS. 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 cown 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 Guachoule near the source of the Coosa, not far from the countr\' 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 whicli 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 ' " 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. " Vol I., p 294. See also A. J. Pickett, " History of Alabama," Charleston, 1857, vol. I., p. 8. ^t ! ?; Si: •i I t '-r ij vi .y di m (•«^.' skull of an enemy. ' ***** Y\xx- 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 conrirm 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 centur)', gives a description. "The council or town hot-'''"he says, speaking of that of the Cherokees, " is a large rotunda, capable of accommodating 'These extracts, which are taken from Squier and Davis' " Ancienl 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 m 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 1S4S. ' " Report of Peabody Museum," voL II. p. 75, etc • ^\ |: : ' .♦ t,:.| ^ 1' \ Il il I. I ^! ) \ 192 PKE-//ISTOK/C AMEklCA. 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 j^ives the whole fabric an elevation of about fifty feet from tlie 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 Chcrokces 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 !6th 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 w^as 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.' His work describes the Iroquois gov- ernment which included five nations. These were the Mohawks, also called in some French narratives the Agniers, the Oncidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, or Recent Origin of Man," ch. xxxvi., p. 530 et seq. POTTERY, WEAPOXS, AXD OKA'AMEATTS. '93 Tsonontouas. According to the Jesuit fathers these nations numbered in 1665. 2340 warriors or altogether ii./cx) 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 F'rench. 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 V>i\y. Since then they have given up their nomad habits and we have some \cry exact descriptions of their villages and dwellings.' It was the same in many other parts of the countr>-. Strachey, travelling in Virginia at the beginning of the 17th centur}',* relates that he found the Indians iiv- 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 thirt}' 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, Dcla- wares, and Indians of Florida and Louisiana made vases, the ornamentation and delicacy of which were not in any way inferior to the potter\- of the Mound Builders, i.id the curi- ous pipes, of which we have spoken, are met with among the Indians of the present day. Lastlv, two centuries ago, when French missionaries first visited the districts bordering on Lake Superior, the Chip- pcwas used copper weapons and tools. These facts, with many others which might be quoted, would appear to justify ' See ospccLilly tlie account by Crecnhal^li who visited several Seneca villages in if^'77, and Morgan's " l.c.igue of ilie Iroquois." ' " llistorie of Travailc inlo Virginia IJritannia " (written in i6iS). O : JJ .■Al in ;. ;-f. :i I ;■ 1; I %, 'I: t I » 194 /■A'E.///S TO A- /I ' .-/ M ERICA . a belief that the Indians once possessed a civiHzation supc- rior to the conc'ition lo which their descend;ints liave been reduced by defeat, in /asion, indulgence in too much alcoiiol, and otlier causes. We have given a summary of the different opinions held, and liave stated the conckisions to which they lead most modern anthropologists. Some discussion of the physical characters of tlicse 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 v\'erc smeared. Like the whitc3, 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 arc black or very dark-b,own; 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 fortunaLe 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 ' I POTTLKV. WEAPOXS, AND ORSAMEXTS. •95 characterized by a general conformation vvliich 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 wc 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." Tiie external conformation of the heads can only be ^^uessed 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 ' 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. 'Fnrce: A quelle r.ice appartenaient les Mound Builders ("Cong, des Americanistes," Luxembourg, vol. I., p. 121.) 2 I 1' I K , I: * « ly \ ill 1 ^i »- 1, i w igG PRE-lllSTOKlC A Af Eric A. ■I; people akin to the Mound IJuilders amongst the Aztecs, whose stone teocallis resemble the conical mounds in form, and amongst the Mayas,' of whose remarkable monuments we shall presently speak, and who also had to contend with formidable enemies.' 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 wc 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 olil as that. One conclusion may be drawn : that th<.' mounds had been abandoned when they became overgrown with trees. lUit 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 contemp;>- 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 wc can learn nothing. A lapse of thirty centuries or of five would account e(]ual!y 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 ' 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 ("CongresdesAmericanistes," Luxem- bourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 43.) ' 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. traditi so mai plicati We ' Re'pc Amcric, 'Aqu A rOTTKKY, \VF.,\POS'S, AXP ORNAMENTS. 197 centuries.' The margin, it is evident, is wide. Force," in fix- iiiL; on the seventh century as the most flourishing period of these people, and Ilellwald,' in making them contemporary with Charlemagne, wouUl 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 Oliio 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 ispn^bable that what may be called the epoch of mound-building, but recently terminated, has been of very long duration. These estimates, divergent as they arc, 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 (1885) 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 el'.-phants (fig. 72) ; and if these highly problematical assumptions are correct, one might presume that the Mound Builders knew, at least by tradition, of the anim:ds 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 t^ivc us ; and meanwhUe be on our guard against brilliant hypotheses, startling guesses, and over-rash conclusions. ' Repertoire chronologique de I'hist. des Mound Builders, " Cong, des Americ," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 312. 'A quelle race appartenaicnt des Mound Builders. '"Cong, des Americanistes," Luxembourg, vol. L, p. 50. yi ill '■ -A % h ( ^^} , I % • I - ■ 1^ !» '1^ •^li 'III 1^ M '1^ : m \r. kU i ■ li 5 1: ii|**M; CI I. \ ITER V. TIIK C:LI1F DWKI.LKRS AM) TIIK FNIIAniTANIS OF rUEBLOS. rriK TllK iiiiictcciuh century, now api)ri)aching its ilcclinc, has played a grand role in the history of humanity, antl never have such j^rcat things been acconipiishetl with si'.ch marvel- lous raj)idity. We justly count amongst those who iiavc had a glorious share in the common work, the hold travel- lers who have opened, or arc opening, up wliole conti- nents to civilization and progress. In America, as in Afric.i and y\sia, the pioneers of science daily announce new dis- coveries. The vast regions of California, Arizona, New Mexico. Nevada, Colorado, antl Utah, were, a few j'ears ago, absolutely unknown. They are now intersected with rail- ways; commerce and industry will shortly possess the land ; pojjulous towns have sprung u|), 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 bo doomed to eternal solitude. The very wild animals have almost deserted these dreary wastes which arc only haunted by wantlering 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- ; f rUE CI.ll F DWEI.l.l.KS. Uy) lined dniibtlcs"^ to yicKla liarvcstso rich that it i-; impossible to ovcivstiinatc its importance. Tilings were dilicrciit htrr in the past. 1 hcsc caAons, as Fig. 86. — A Canon of the Colorado. arc called the narrcnv t^urges shut in between perpendicular rocks (fig. 86) with their deep ravine^i, these arid valleys \ \ . \ IL' 't\ I: m 200 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. covered with brushwood rarely more than a few feet hij^h, this drear)' 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 b}^ a numerous, active, and intelli- gent pojjulation. In many man has built houses, fortifica- tions, reservoirs, forming true cities ; the very rocks are adorned with painted or sculptured figures; ever^-wherc man has left behind him indelible marks of his presence. The Spanish, who were the first to cross Central America,' 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 Xorte, Colorado Cliiquito, and their tributaries for an area of two hundred thousand square miles." The earliest inhabitants whose traces can be recognized evidently fol- lowed tliese valle}'s in their forward march, halting here and there where the scjil wiis 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. Cabeca dc Vaca speaks of some pueblos in ruins and others stil! inhabited ' ; many he says were larger than the town of Mexico. The houses, often insisting of several stories, one behind the other as in our illustration (fig. 87), were of stone. The inhabitants lived in the upper stories,* and the ground floor, generally dark, served as a storeroom for food and fodder. These basements are known amongst the Spanish as Casas dc coniodidad or Almacenas (see Castaheda de Na- gera. Relacion dc voy. dc Cibola). The upper stories were 'New Mexico was finally subdued in 1597 and i5i;S by Don Juan de Oflate. The fir=t Spanish expedition took place in 1540, uniier Cabc^-a de Vaca, ship- wrecked on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in 1535. * r.arbcr, " ('ont;. des Anicricanistes," Luxembourg, l?77, vol. 1., p. 25, *" (juarta Relacion * * * Collccion de l)ocumcntos," vol. II., p. 475- * Putnam, " Bull, of the Essex Institute," Dec, iSSo. THE CUFF DIVFLLFRS. 201 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 juclLiing f'-om tlu.' 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 .:omo 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 comjileting the defences ; others, as the Pueblo of Acoma for instance,' which is supposed to have occujiied the site of the present village of Acuco, rises from several plateaux or ter- FiG. S7.— Pueblo of Taos, Ne\/ Mexico. races called mesas, often situated several hundred feet above the valley, ;ind only to be reached by all but impracticable paths. We can imagine the astonishment of the explorers when the)' saw all these ruin., 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 ' V hallamos a iin jnicblo ijue se llama Acuiii.-i, iloiide nos parecio h.il)ria mas de seis mil animas. Antonio dc Kspeja, " Carta," 23d April, 15S4. Doc. iiicJitos del archivo de Indias, vol. XV., p. 179. ■f • ! . *! I ' I ■■tai fm%mmiimmi)m, i It -i > N i»K I* .!' 202 PKE-II/srOk/C AMIRICA. havincj lived in these deserts, addin;^ that there was not one of the six miles he had W explore that did not afford certain proof of havin^j been inhabited for a considerable leni^th of time by men absolutely distinct from and certainly superior to the wanderini^ savai^es who alone traverse them now.' Lastly, to quote another of the many accounts, Major Powell, United States ideologist, expresses his surprise at seeing nothing fnr whole days but perpendicular cliffs every- where riddled with human habitati(.>ns, wliich resemble the cells of a honevcomb more than anvthing else. In these districts, noiv 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 dnibt one of the chief causes of the depopu- lation of the countr\- to be th.e diminished rainfall. The rainfall is ver\' 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 ver>* abundant rains, the average reaching some four feet. From the coasts of the Atlantic, and from the delta of the Mississiopi. the quantity of rain gradually diminishes as the interior cf 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 Color.-.do it is even considerably less. The very small rainfall watering all the 'istricts between the plains of the far West ami the Pacific coasts explains the poverty of the vegetation. The rivers, the ver\' 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 >;hort duration, but plentiful. They pour down upon an impermeable soil with a rocky found.ation. forming impetuous torrents known as washes. At Certain times and places these washes rise to a height of ' Holmes : " Report on the .Vntitnt Ruins of S. \V. Colorado, examined during llic suniniei> of iS;? and 1*76," rilE CIJ/I- n\Vl:l.l.i:l. 5. See also Jackion: " Kuins of .S. W. Colorado in 1S75 aiul 1S77.' rM Wm ;il feS t' M tsS'A'-^^- 204 PRE-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. ■ ^r; llf i; i r The cstufas 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.' Others think the estufas were wells, but the testimony of P"iz settles the question. Mariano Ruiz lived for a loner time amoncrst the Pecos In- dians as a son of the tribe {fii/o del Pueblo), 3.nA he relates that these Indians preserved the sacred fire in en estufas until 1S40. when the five families who alone sur\-ivea became affiliated with another tribe. The fire was kept in a kuid of oven and was never allowed to emit flames. Ruiz himself was in his turn charged to keep it iip 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 cstufas 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.'' 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 ' " These estufas, which are used as places of council and for the perform- ance of their religious rites, are still found at all tlie present occupied pueblos in New Mexico. There are six at Taos ; throe at each house, and tTiey 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 Rejx>rt," vol. II., p. 547. Am. Assco., Si. Louis, 1S-7. * Ilandeller, " Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos." — " Cong, des Americ," Luxembourg, 1S77, vol. II., p. 230. * Simpson. " Exjiedition to the Navajo Countr)','" p. 78. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 205 . 'Mm ;if? 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 Hovenveep 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 varving 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 cnvcs of ever>' 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 verj' 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 considi.-r these houses to be more recent than the pueblos or the caves ; the few arrow-points, ^>l ; 1' m I ,i h ^li i J! i ; ft i '» 1 s ;;ed 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 oth :r 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 bqans ; but unfortu- nately the explorers, exhausted with a long march, could not or did not search further. In some instances the houses of the ClifT 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, carry ir'_^ 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 ' Holmes : Loc. cit., pi. XLV. : THE CUFF DWELLERS. Ill have led to the discovery in certain localities in the clifTs themselves of sprint^s, the waters of which supplied their needs and were stored up in natural or artificially enlarged reservoirs. Fig. 91. — Two-storied house on the Rio Mancoa. 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, I' 2 '* fl ■ ! r 1 1 1 1., \ ; 1'' 1 ;>' S J 4* , [ 1 '•■ . ! .' 1 P ! • F! If! ,| a I i \ \'. : i lii >j i| m »; ' ''A i ! I :i( iii 212 PRR.niSTORIC AMEK/CA. is better preserved thin any of those surrounding it. One of the rooms measures nine feet by ten, another is six feet scjuarc, while the iieight 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. 03. — 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. 9;!) 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 imitat' .g that of the neighboring rocks. It is impossible to say THE CUFF DWELLERS, 2'3 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 rcfuf^o, to which the inhabitants of the valley retired on the approach of danj^cr? 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 tho 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. I ^ f \ j| :' '.\\ m -■iiij t:l:-u: I 214 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. m I ! j, ( The Mac Elmo 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 Fig. 95. — Tower on the summit of a rock in the MacEImo 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 Mac Elmo river, which always dries up in summer. The unfortunate inhabitants must then hav^ 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 agrical- Till-. CLIFF DWELLERS. 215 tural population coukl 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 r'imatic changes since the time when the country was pcophd." 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 whor>e 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 cf>ndi- 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 canon), 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 W-:;i; ■fill lii ,m •%\ 1 ' v' i i 2l6 FRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. that is just the expression for it — on all the Icd^^cs or ter- races of the cliffs. Here we note the exceptional circum- stance that the houses are circular, their diameter not ex- FlG. g6. — Altec Spring (ground plan^, ceeding twelve to fifteen feet, the angles arc rounded, and the walls built of stones, each as large a;? three ordinary' bricks. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 217 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 Ilovcnweep, the Cliff Dwellers had ma-^agcd to erect no less than forty different houses. Montezuma valley' 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 obser\ '?d, ' * in the rock at regular distances, in which the feet a.i ' 1 .j could be successively placed. These were the only mt.ans of access ; no tree native to these valleys cjald have bUpplied 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 ment'on seven erect stones in the Monte- zuma valley, whL'h >: ii\ the midst of its desert like the menhirs of Britta: ; « - ^'^ ales. Later observations, however, lead to a belief tl r. :> ."St were not menhirs, but pillars in- tended to strengthen Q.A i.sive works. Defence, in fact, seems to have ever c -'upied the thoughts of these men ; for in a radius of fiftc o^'les, at every point commanding the valiey or that could serve as a post of bservation, 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 popu'v or. ; such works can indeed only have been Constructed by 1; . be-'s, 'Jackson, /. r. p. 427 et. seq. k V W I ^ :i8 rRE-illSTOKIC A M ERICA. The rocks of the Rio dc Chclly enclose habitations ex- actly similar to those we have just described. In fact \\c arc doomed to inevitable repetition in describing the remains of the Cliff Dwellers, of whom these buildings, a few frag- ments of pottery, and wretched fhnt implements are the only 11 V 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- tha anc iii THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 2IQ tional importance, and Jackson, (/. c, p. 421) speaks of some ruins at an elevation of seventy feet which he calls a Ca\ e town. They are 545 feet long by a maxinium 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 httle 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. Mere, 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 tound. We give a drawing (fig. 99) of a house built at a height of seventy foot 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 ^ A- ill '5 \ \ ■it li « i itf k 220 rRE.iriSTOKIC AMERICA. story hifjli ; the i^round-floor measures eightct n 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 (n 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 ot 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 Fig. 99. — Clifi-houoC in the Canon de Chelly. i If :i ;. i 'f ' M •. 'I UH • I-, I A -^■Ji 1 :«'| i^'ll n •' T W ! 'I f I 1 222 rRE.IIISTORTC AMERICA. the .ipprorichc;. The dominant idea amnnc^<^t thc?!e people seems to liavc 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 Evcniuir Bulletin of July 8, 1864, "is strewn with ruins for hundreds y.\ 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 f.ve miles south of the Southern Pacific Railroad, should also be men- FlG. 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 (/. c, p. 388), " seem to be distributed very much as dwelling-houses are in the rural districts of civilized and peaceable communities." •^^^,1^-^ rilE CUFF DWFIJ.ERS. fy 23 Cliff houses arc as numerous in Arizona as in New Mexico, but tiieir sites seem to have been better chosen, and the foundations arc of stone, though there is nothing to lead us to suppose them to be older than the walls of adobes rising from them. \Vc 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 spcci:.l 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 chichilticallc or the red house. The first at all complevj 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 foity 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 liitherto 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.' 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. ' "Doc, Hist. Mex.," Series IV., vol. I., p. 2S2. 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, 1S54, vol. II., p. 271, et seq. ' Judging by the plan, these measurements appear to be mere rough approxi- mations. * ' ^ \ « i 224 PRE-IIISTORIC 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 sec crumbling walls and masses of rub- bish, the .emains 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. ioi. — 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 tl>e Rio Verde, the former of which flows into the Gila.' 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 ' Bancroft, vol. IV., pp. 632 and 635. * Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner : " Report upon the Indian Tribes." can its the THE CUFF DWELLERS. 225 helpful to their commerce or their .ipjriculturc. They illus- tnitc perhaps better then their buildings to what a degree of culturj 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 Grandcs, deserve mention here, as they arc evidently the work of the same race and date from the same epoch as those of Arizona. These Casas Grandes arc situated in the San Miguel val- ley, not far from the present boundary between the United States and Mexico. The country is occupiel by the Apaches, who make all exploration dangerous.' 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 anc' 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 185 1 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 ' 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, " rersonal Narrative," New York, 1834, vol. II,, p. 347. ' SK^H n^RH " i ' ■■ill \ II HI M H ill 1, I i; 1 |i .« 1 • M v\ 226 PRF-IflSTOKrC AMERICA. \ : \ six chambers twenty feet l)y 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 Grandcs 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 cither 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.' 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 'Sitgreaves, " Report of an Expedition down the Zufiiand Colorado Rivers," p. 8, Washington, 1853, Whipple, " Report and Explorations near the 35th Parallel." B. M6lhausen, " T.igebuch ciner reise vom Mississippi nach dem kusten der Sud See," Leipzig, 1858. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 227 twelve feet thick. Inside wc 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 IJeaver Creek.' 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 transj" "rt and work the stones under such conditions. We ask ":lvcswhat manner of men were the builders and whav -„.. 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." " 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 '! ■',■ ^M • 1 •II' 'Dr. Hoffman : " Ethn. Obs. on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, California, and Arizona," U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, 1876. "^ San Francisco Herald, quoted by Bancroft, "Native Races," vol. IV., P-647. . .. '.' 2 lli tmi 228 PRE-IJISTORIC AMERICA. exist in Missouri, on the Gasronndc River, not far from St. Louis, of an ancitnr town with regular squares, roads cross- ing each other at rigiit 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.' Some time ago Major Pov/ell ascended for some himdrcds of miles the Great Colorado, still so little known. He tells of having noticed in dreary and deserted n Mons traces of a population now completely passed away. Everywhere in the valleys are pueblos, and cliff-houses are seen at every turn in the vv'ild and picturesque cartons, amonrj 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, arrovV-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 w jre defended by watch-tov Ts or other posts of observation. Every thing tells of constant reprisals, of incessant peril, and formidable enem'es. i^ut 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 co'.imunities, 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 1 840, was the f^.rst to describe them,' and he tells us that the ruins of the ru>.'blo l?onito in the Navaio country, at the foot of the mountau.:: included houses bui t of slabs of sandstone, a mode of con- 'Conant : " Foot-prints A VoriLshed Races," p. 71. '" Commerce dcs I'rairies," vol. I., p. 284, New York, 1844. The pur'ilo of wliich Cirep:^ speaks under the name of the Bonito Pueblo is probably the Pintado I'ucblo. >> ' THE CL/Ff DWELLERS. 229 struction quite unknown in the country at present. These houses arc still intact, though their antiquity is such that we arc absolutely ignorant of iheir origin. In 1S49, Colonel Washington, Governor of New Mexico, organized an expedition against the Navajos, who infested tlie northern part of the territory, and it is to Lie utenant, afterward General, Simpson, attached to the topographical X mm Jim ^ _j (® tni:nnr=]iz:]irz][ nnyr nrjDQn ][ □□□□na £a6 ole ccnclrcA *» Fig. 102. — Ground plan of the Pueblo Bonito in the Chaco Caflon. 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 tlie Chaco Cafion.' The Bonito Pueblo is the most important of these villages (fig. 102), It will be well to describe it with some detail,' to be able to compare it with other pueblos closely rcsemblinf^ '" Report, Secretary of War," Thirty-first Corifjress, First Session. ' Ruins of Chato Caiion examined in 1S77. Jackson, /. <,-., 432, 440, et set/., rl. LVIII. ^ 'I ';<(' I i: : ] ! Ill ■ . ' I I '! ill iu.ii n \ 230 PRE-HISTORIC 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 Canon, and forms an irregular half of an ellipse measuring five hundred and forty-four feet by four hundred ana 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 ♦hree 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.' 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 lo 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 wore even more in the Pueblo Bonito. ' There are also several stories in the neighboring; p-'eblos. The Pueblo Pintado has four ; the second, ten feet high ; the third, seven. The Pueblo of tlic 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 orpine wood scarcely squared and merely laid side by side. The floors must have been of wood, hut 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- ^^1;=?=^ T~L 3; gs; IT crn I ?^s^^ iXJEfc Ti^^ — ■ TH^ 11 ■ ^ I~±n^ COB ^gp^^^^^ L IZXZI ^ a r mi x::i rn Fig. 103. — Different kinJs of masonry used in the buildings of the Chaco Valley. ing fifty feet. They were situated in the centre of a court, and covered by a mass of masonry, forming a rectangle of one hundred and fifteen feet by sixly-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 i II 1.1 iti I i \%\ ' I I- }:\ ri^M- , If ' " if; •I y. 232 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 'i !,j i people of the pueblos always selected the largest stones to fraTie the openings, and they placed them exactly u,. ught angles. In the very diverse buildings which make up the Pueblo Benito, 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, ■:en 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,' 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 estu^^as which ever)'where rise ainidst 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 cf earth and stones. Those few still standing prove the intelligcr.ee of the architects and the skill of the workmen. In sc nie pueblos the estufas are strengthened with buttresses ; in the Ilungo-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. Les premiers Ilommes et les Temps prt-historiques," vol. I., p. 414. the )1(1S he i a good state of preservation.' Jackson, who visited these ruins twenty-eight years later thuP General Simpson, did not find this room north-west of the main building,' but he mentions others no less curious, which were reached by holes made in the masonry, the first story alone having a scries of little windows. The walls of the Chettro-Kettle Pueblo measured 935 feet long by forty high, and contained 315,003 cubic feet of masonry. VVlien we remember that each stone making up this sum total had to be hewn from the quarr)-, 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 diflficult ' " Kuins of S. W. Colorado in 1875 and 1877," p. 439. i IF : > ji i> m Ik im '»■ ! f uii n 1 1 ;, . : ' J 1 ! . I. I i !.;,1 I? A. 236 PRE.IIISTORIC 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 Cafion. This pueblo has been visited by the Hon. L. H. Morgan, and de- scribed by him with scrupulous fidelity.' 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," 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 F6. We choose from among these ruins those in the valley of the Rio Pecos, a little river flowing into the Rio Grande, in ' " 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. of in THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 237 the neighborhood of which arc found rich placctas, as the Spanisii called mines containing precious metals, and ccrilios, in which blue and green turquoises arc 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.' 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 hundr..d 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?" 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. *Castai\eda de Nagera : "Relation du Voy. de Ciljola." Juan Jaravillo ; " App. VI., Ternaux Compans," series I., vol. IX. G. Castano de la Cosa : " Memoria del Descubrimiento que — hizo en el Nuevo Mexico," Mexico, rsgo ; Doc. ined. de los Archives de Indias, vol. XV., p. 244. A ill ■t » .i iifiii li v'-n„,t, , 238 rRE'HISTORIC AMERICA. m'ii. !'.-' is covered with a very carefully spread white coatinff, 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. Castafleda, 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 Zufii, 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.' 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 * Bandelier, /. c, p. 78. of le as ed. THE CUFF DWELLERS. 239 seen, and three little estufas recall the usual customs of the people under notice. Mr. E. Lee Childe, in a recent publica- tion {Correspondent, loth 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 roof.s 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 thnvn 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 ihc Mexicans. Thus far this is the only fact that throws any light on the religion of the inhabitants of the pueblos.' This habitation in common, these cells all exactly resem- bling one ar.other, 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 ' The researches of Mr. Frank Gushing at the Zuni I'ueblo 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 Goronado'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 ; " Gronica," p. 300. Bandelier, /. c., p. 120 et sei/. ' Bandelier, /. c, pp. 54, 60, i>(), et seq. Force, Cong, des Am., Luxem- bourg, 1877, p. 16. , ■ i, I ^i 11 . ;]i ■ i ...J" * ■ 15 V 240 rRE-inSTORIC AMERICA. '^ \ traveller, " I was waked at dawn by a strange cliaiit. Hav- ing' at once drawn asiile the curtains of the ambulance, I dimly made out the profile of the chief, who wns standing; at the summit of the pueblo. When he had finished chanti he gave out a procl; ati He had :ly fit rarcei 1 saw tiijures movinj^' rapidly. It was explained to me that the chant of the chief was an act of adoration, and the object of the ])roclamation was to make known what was to be the task of the different families made up of the five hundred persons livinjjj 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 accqtnas or large canals, and caiijas or irrigating ditches. This was doubtless the Hucrta 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 piedc 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 "Ar i n THE Cl.ll't DWEl.l.EKS. 241 Ihavc )und these uS of (jDltcry everywhere strewinjj their path, ntul that even in parts where no vesti;,a; of iuunan habitatit)U has been found. I'lie pottery was doubtless of a kind to enable it to last loiiLier than the adobes, which have crund)Ied to t'.ust. Www- dclicr, a|.;ain, in si)eakins^ of the ruins of the Rio I'ecos, say.s that wac,'on-loads of painted pottery lie at the feet of the tra- veller ; and Schoolcraft' speaksof the profusion of frai;nient3 of pottery left behind them by the ancient tribes who li\'ed on the banks of the Rio Gila, as proofs of their lon^' resi- dence there. Holmes is even more explicit, and, accortling t I'rcvcnt 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 seas(Mis. Genenilly, the earthen\v'are 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 Dweller , and, to give it cun- FlG. 105. — Funeral urii found in Utah. sistency, this clay was mixed with a small quantity of sand, bits of shell, or even with pellets of carlli moulded and baked. Often after kne: ding his clay, the potter cut it into thin strips, which he laid one upon the other, giving thcin 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 gi/e a figure (fig. 105) of a jar, or funeral urn, found in U; li, no;ir a structure of adobes now completely in ruins.' This illus- tration will heln us to understand the details of the manii- ' This jar bch)nt;s Id ;he I'cahody Museum, and is capable anu- lins; three lions. facturc. 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 ciear metallic sound. Lightness was evidently ?. 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 ^ 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 brilHant 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 potter} , 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 cremaiion at cer- tain periods by certain races.' The varnish was gei. Tally black, blue, or brown, more rarely red or white. Wc do not know what were its constitu- ents ; they vari-rl 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,* 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." A vase is mentioned found at Ojo Calienta, New Mexico, sti.'l covered Vvith 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 gre;'.t precision ; the ornaments stand out from the surface cither in relief or in a different color.* Some, for instance, are black on a red or white ground. A few of the fracnnents picked uj) are of a bronze color, but it is impossible to say ' Dancrufl : Lcc. cit., vol. IV., ]). 71 1 ^ " Caslafieila de Nagera : " .'vcl. ilu Voyage dc Cibola," 'Icrnaux Compans, vi 1. IV., first series. ^ li.Tricroft : /. <•. , vol. I., j). 39S. Mh. Rau : " Indian I'ottery," "Smith. Con.," 1S60, vol. XVI. i< 2 ,1 fllil 11^^ ! »■' t ■I If ' y^ ; f ^'ir i '■\ i:^» r ^V . f I,; i^i;; 3 i t1 ■!fi V 244 PRE-IIISrORIC AMERICA. ■M .'. ii < by what processes this color was obtained.' 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 conaplicated designs, which by a very remarkable coincidence resemble to a positively confusing degree those of the Ltruscans (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.* Fig. 106. — Fragments of potterj'. Other pieces of potter}- 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 ' Putnam : Bull of the Essex Institute, iSSo. *IIofTman : " Ethn. Obs. on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, California, and Arizona," U. S. Geol. Survey. 1S76, 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 archiological 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 188?. and kltery, 1 influ- tollec- tm, or Ired to 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 potter}% 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 ^he uien under notice passed their lives, compelled to be a,hvays defending their homes. Near the Rio Mancos has been found a polished celt exactly similar to those of Eu- rope." This celt was eight inches long ty 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 pndcr 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 battle to be used either for drilling or hammering purposes, A good many metates or stone hand-mills for grinding corn have also been found. X^ese consist of blocks of basalt, naturally concave or artificially rendered so, upon which another stone was pi^shed 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 arc 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 pueblr>= or mounds. Lastly, a mat made of rushes may be referred to, of a 'Holmes : U. S. Geog. Survey, pi. XLVI. ^f^ HI V -i '4 \ '] y- :.f i 1 :'-■ i ■J ■ 1 y 24^> PNK.iriS TOKIC A ME RICA. WW,- W \ variety {Scirpus valictus) still very common on tlie banks of the Mancos. Some ropes woven of the fibres of tiie )-ucca, 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 wanderiuL^ about amongst the ruais. It is remarkable that, except for the copper rings found at Pecos, not a weapon or ornament of metal has been found.' Were such articles carried off by the Indians, or were tlic early inhabitants of the j)ueblosof Xew 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, fur 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 \\or(\, pictograp/ij', which we use in our turn, although we are by no means persuaded, as arc certain archaeologists, that the Cliff Dwellers intended by means of pictography to gi\ e a record of their own histoiy, 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. '"The implements and ornaments are not numerous, include no articles of any metal whatever, and do not difTer materially from the articles now in use among tlie Pueblo Indians." — r«ancroft, /. r., vol TV., p. 677. ;les o( in use 7V//i" CJ.Ii F JU'.-l.I I.r.KS. It is not only on tlvo rocks that wo find the representations inuler notice ; the numerous erratic blocks of the valley of the Gila are covered 'vvith roujjhly outlined figures of men and of animals ' (fig. Io7\ l>ut it is cl'.Iefly on the banks of the iMancos and the San Juan, and in the cahons stretching Fig. 107. — Lrraiic blocks covered with figures. Arizona, a\va\' westward, that these pictographs iibuund. Some are cut into the rock t<.) a depth var)-ing from a (juarter to half an inch "(figs 108 and 109); others are merely tracetl in broad red or white h >es. The former, in nianx- cases at an ' liartltlt : " Personal %.-,»..• '. . • ,01. II., jip. |()5, 206. "Holmes: pis. XLII. .iiul XLIIl. i|f im 11 1 ' » :i V- \ \ k i: u i] M 248 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. ■\\ t .1 if all but inaccessible height, must have involved considerable toil. Arc they the work of the Cliff Dn-ellcrs ? 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,' 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 lirittany. 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 goin^'' in the same direction.' 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 Bandclier speaks of pictographs' 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 : ].l. XMI.. fi- 2. " Hohiics: J.!, XI, III., fiL,'. 1. '"Ruins of the Rio I'eajs." pp. 92, ct seq. icn be !rcct cir- arcd the THE CLIl-F DWELLERS. -49 banks of the Pucrco and Zufii rivers," two of the tributaries of the Colorado Chiquito, drawings have been noticed ' which resemble hieroglyphics. Their meaning is unknown, indeed wc cannt)t even assert that they have any meaning. The rocks surrounding Salt Lake City, Utah, the capital city *)f the Territory, are covered with sculptures which re- mind us of those of Egypt. ^ Some of the human figures of Fu;. loS. — Pictography on the banks of t'.ie San Juan. 9^ \ t Jk A 1 L^ a«a ^^ ^^ 1^1 ^ [ ^ ^p j fi ^^^1j,„^ ^ re ^< L^J l\l pJr •^y r ^H— -^ B Fig. 109. — Pictographs on the banks of the San Juan. life size, incised in very hard blue granite, arc .situated more than thirty feet above the level of the ground. The height at which some of these sculptures occur has suggested th.it since their production son^e geological phenomenon, such as the depression of the lake, may have taken place. ' It was on the banks of the Zuui that Coronado spealj^s of having seen the seven villages of CiboLi in 1540. " Mulhailsen : " Tagebuch einer Reisc vom Mississippi nach den Kusten der. Sud-Sec." Leipsic, 1S5S. ' Rcmy and Brenchlcy ; "A Journey to the (ireat Salt Like City. " l^ondon, 18G2, vol, II., p. 362. i ; ■I ' ■■■', > 1^ !i < ^4-' \ > V ' u w i Hi m m 1 m i. ,1 ' ■■■ '• 250 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. y\ 1, .!! This is yet another hypothesis to add to the many ah-eady 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.' 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 V) 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, p 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 diffei>.nt 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 arc dis- posed to assign a very great antiquity, arc to be seen on the walls of caves in Nicaragua.' One is mentioned near Nihapa 'Whittlesey : "Rep. Am. Ass.," Indianapolis, 1S71. Th. Comslock, 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. tioi the in the,! whc Lie I Pro the the inec two has by An icnts ser- same, Ass.," THE CLIFF DWELLERS, 251 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.' 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 Sonora,' 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 arc 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 Mirasseur de Bourbourg : " Voy. surl'Isthme de Tehuantepec," p. 123. '"RuU. Soc. Gcog." Talis, Sept., iSSo. 'Diego Garcia de Palacios : " Carta diiigada al Key de Espana," auo 1576. -. 6 t H ♦ '! I \ r \'. 'T'f t ! it ! 1 I' /ill •''I. I Ml I I Fig. no. — Specimens of the rock sculptures of the Bushmen of South Africa. I^ ^v Pl^ nca. Fig. m. — Engravings found oiv rocks in Algeria. it <}>'■. 254 rKr..nrsTOR/c amf.rtca. !■( f" with signs that cannot be deciphered.' Neither the Pah Utes, occupying the California seaboard, nor tlie Shavvnccs, who encamp near Columbus, claim them as the work of their ancestors. Twenty miles south of Benton, the ro.id follows a narrow defile, shut in on either side by almost perpendicular rocks, risinj^ to a height of forty or fifty feet. These stone walls arc 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 Ilarpeth, 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 l\Iis- souri; and more modern travellers bear witness to the faith- fulness of his account.' 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- ' Iloflman : " Ethn. Obscrv. on Indians Inliabiting Nevada, California, and Arizona," U. S. Geol. and Gcog. Survey, 1S76. "Jones' "Antiquities of the Southern Indians," New York, 1873, p. 137. ^" Voyages et Dccouvertes du P. Marquette dans 1' Ameriquc Septentrionalo." Tlievenot : " Relation de Divers Voyarrcs Curieux " Paris, 16S1. J. G. Shea " Discovery and Explorations of the Mississippi Valley," p. 41. I3ui TT^VT^ -a ~Ti U l3 -v. : r x'^fF-7 —.—■.-*.'» jWH TTTF. CUFF niVFU.ERS. 255 137- -ionalo." i. Shea rica, (fifj. 1 10), or with those cnj^ravcd on the rocks of Al- geria. This similarity, in every clime and at every period, of the taste, instinct, and pcniiis of man is the best proof that can be broug'^t 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 arc 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 j)cople 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 cither 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 th';y resemble the palaces, temples, and re- markable buildings erected by the Mayas or the Aztecs, The rarity of pipes, which arc 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. M w t ;l 'ifl ll 256 PRE-I//r. rORIC A ME RICA. V ■ !f I Coronado, the first Spaniard to visit these regions, notices no resemblance bet'.vecn the Mexicans and the inhabitants of New Mexi:o. Father H;jcalante, who crossed the country in 1776, mor.^ 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.' 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 liuilders, who have been identified by some with the Aztecs, on tlife cast. These people may have sprung origi- nally from Iht same source, but their separation doubtless Fio. 112. — Pipe found jlihongst the relics of the ClilT Dwellers. i' ' I *ll * r i I!, took place at a very distant period, and therr -s not sufficient evidence yet available to pi'bve the case one way or the o'her." One thirg is certain : numerous pueblos existed in New Mexico at uie time of the Spanish invasion, and some of them, such as Zufii, Acoma, Taos, Jemez, and Pecos have 'Domihguez and Escalante : " Diario y Derrotero Santa Fe a Monterey," 1776. 'Doc. Ili't. Mcx.," 2d series, vol. I. Short, j). 331, speaks of having examim^d a MS. by Escalante in the Library of Congress, Washington, which confirnij this conclusion. 'In the fifth report of the Archaeological Instituti; of America Bandelier gives an account of studies carried on in 18S3 ''or the society in New Mexico and Arizona. lie finds a well-defined system of growtii, frcm the temporary Indian lodge to tne many-storied pueblo building, which clearly does not owe its origin to any external influences. He has since been seeking in the mountains jf Northern Mexico tracer of any possible connection between the ancient jiULblo people and the Aztecs, and it is announced tlinl his report of important studies at Cholula and Mitla ib nearly ready for publication. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 257 the New me of have icr gives dco ami Indian Lsoiiijin Uains A puL'blo studies 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 Lagunn ; II., on the banks of the Rio Grande Taos, Picuries, Teliua, Qucres, Tiguas, and Tiros; III., to the west of tlie Rio Grande, Jcinez ; and IV., to the cast of the same river, Tanos and Pecos. Liertenant Wheeler, who visited the country in 1S58, .speaks of having seen through his telescope two Moqui pueb- los, at a distance of eight or ten miles, perched on a .'ock overlooking the whole valley. The buildings were flush with the pf jcipice, 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 tae inside, these walls would have to be either removed or scaled. The different stories of the houses arc one behind the other, and the upper ones can only be reached by means of trap-doors in the ceiling. Every building includes three st^-ries, and has no opening except on to the court. Tiic whoiC 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 com[)ara- tivcly 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 f ■I ■I • M| I' Ml IF 2;8 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,' 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 th.e en- trances to the valleys, the arrangement of the pueblos, form- iner as thcv did rccrular fortresses, would have secured the victor^' 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. Mar 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 ' 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 admiftcd into the confederation of the five Nations ; the Alahamas, the Uchees, aid Natchez into that of the Creeks ; and in our own day the Pecos, decimated 1 y sickness, found an asyluni amongst the people of an allied tribe. m THE CUFF DWELLERS. !59 these facts, totally unknown a few years ago. A more noble mission is reserved to those who arc 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. 1 . )E :P1II , \ V 5; |!| t 1 J ■*. a i| \-^ IiiJians. admi'tcJ bees, ai '1 mated 1 y S 2 I CHAPTER VI. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. ';.'! ml m America docs 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 tliat 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 ever}- turn increase as our account proceeds. Here too we are in the presence of name- less people, of races without a written histor}- ; and to add to our difficulties new discoveries are daily made, upsetting preconceived hypotheses, breaking down ca'-'i'^r 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 hier:)- ■!in THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERLCA. 261 1 '^m^ ^'/pliics (fig. 113) are certainly not so old. It is difficult on such slight data to reconstruct a past culture, the \cxy ex- istence of which was unknown a few years ago ; and thus far no ChampoUion has arisen to solve the enigmas which have been preserx'ed in stone.' 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 the) had formerly possessed. The people who successively established themselves in ' 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 Bourboui^ (" 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 Valentini ("The Katunes of Maya History") by a more reason- able calculation places them 137 years after Christ. Ixtlilxocnitl (" 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 ilaces," vol. II., p, 117. f I t ' !« I t I H ( ' < !i!l t^ f ; , ;!i < 'i:i''s r.i m f i ;h: 'Si: 2G: PRE-niSTOklC AMERICA. The vigo- Central America were probably of Nahuatl race reus 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.' The last fact would form a conclusive arcjument against a common origin, did we not know with what rapidity dialects are transformed, which primitively sprang from a single source,' 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 phra-^-cs^ ; 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 migra*v;d 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 countr>'.* ' Kingsborough : " Ant. of Mexico," vol. III.; Prescott, "Hist, of the Conquest of Mexico," vol. I., p. 104; Bancroft, "Native Races," vol. II., p. 772. 'Seflor Orozco y Berra made out fifteen dialects helonuliig to tlie Maya. Among tliese we may mention tlie Quiche, Tzendal, and Cakchiquol. M;iya or its derivatives was spoken in Tal.-.sco, Chiapas, Guatemala, part of San S.il- vador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Some traces of it are perhaps too hastily supposed to have been recognized in Cuba, Ilayti, and various of the West In- dia islands (" Geog. de las Linguas," p. 9S, Mexico, 1S64). 'Bancroft, " Nat ve Races," vol. III., p. 769, * Oro«*.o y Berr.-., /. f . , p. I aS. Tl th of I wlii Mil TAi vol. ^,l.m THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAT. AMERICA. 263 Their empire flourished long, the rule of their chiefs or of the tribes subject to them ' extended over the greater part Fio. 113 — Hpecimen nf hieroglyphics found in Central America. of Central America.* Nachan or the Town of Serpents, of ' The Mayas had as many as three districts tributary to them, the Capitals of which were : Tula or Tulan, generally placed two leagues from Ococingo, Muyiipiiii in Yucatan, and Copan. ' Hrasseur de Dourbourg : " Hist, des Nations Civilisees du Mexique et de I'Amt'rique Cemtiile"; Bancroft, vol. II., p. 523; vol. III., p. 460, etc.; vol. v., pp. 157 and 231. I M'i I ri ! W «.' ! «1 . Hi, '. 1 \ 264 PRE.IIISTOKIC AMEKICA. i : !t which the ruins at Palcnqu6 exhibit the grandeur, was their cai^ital, while Mayapan, Tuhm, and Copan, were the chic^f 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." Legends have preserved to our tlay the name of the Ouinames, 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 ' Torquemada : " Mon. Indiana," vol. T., chs. 15 and 20. * " Los Qiiinemetin, gigantesque vivian en esla renconada que se dice ahora Nueva Espafia." 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 Cordiller.as " (Mrs. Williams' translation, 2 vols, octavo, 1814) and Bancroft, vol. III., p. 274. '1 THE PEOPLE OE CENTRAL AMERICA. 265 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 de^^raded 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 ajitoda fS ordered by the Spanish priests in 1569. The name of Katunes (from Kat, stone and hin, 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." 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 'Salislmry : " Proc. Am. y\ntiq. Soc," October 2i, 1S79. Stephens : catan," App., vols. I. and II. Yu- l s V i I •i :i! r '4 1 w n '111' \ !.'" ' ^c^h , ' , 'I ( yj \ t i i W': I ':i ! ' 1 266 PJiE-//IS TORIC A M ERICA . ^'i worn-out people, no longer able to defend itself af^ainst younger and more vigorous races. The result could not be doubtful. Amongst the concjuered tribes, some accepted a new usurpation, others retired to Yucatan and Guatemala, where their descendants offered an heroic resistance to the Spanish conquerers.' 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 Biblioth^'que 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 Sefior 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.' One remarkable distinction is noticed : the office of sacrl- 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.* At ChichenTtza, 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 tlie Kingdom of Guatemala," London, 1824, p. 14. Bancioft /. c, vol. I., p. 647 i-t seq. ; vol. V., p. 616. '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. 'Diego de Landa, " Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan," p. 166 ; Paris, 1864. * " El oficio de abrir el pecho a los sacrificados que en Mexico era estimado, aqui era poco honoroso." lierrera, " Hist. Gen.," dec. IV., book X., th. IV. am na or, th til clui ope th th: hi iii' ^1 THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 267 iMaya Madriil, ^ondon, throw- by the IS, 1864. ttimado, ch. IV. tribes of Yucatan, these sacrifices were more numerous. A deep excavation was dufj in the centre of the town and filled with water. An altar, reached by a fli^dit of steps cut \\\ 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 tkrra calicntc^ 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 aown 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, cither among the prisoners or among the inhabitants themselves.' 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 blocd. When the victim was a prisoner the body was at once cut u;j ; tho heart belonging to the high-priest, the feet and hands to the chiefs, the thighs to the ' Peter Martyr d'Anghicra " De Orbc Nov-." dec. VI., book VI. f5: I ; ^i j»r 11 • 1 I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^ J^'4e. "0 I.I 1.25 ^ IS IIIM 1.8 U 11.6 .^ ^. V. <^ /2 ^l ^W^^f '/ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 k. ^^^^'^ 268 PRE-HISTORIC 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 ' relates that sev- eral Spanish prisoners were thus oevoured, and Albomoz adds that in Honduras the Indians gave up eating the flesh of the white victims becaust it was too tough and stringy. Sacrifices were always succeeded by several holidays, dan- cing, banquets, and brutal drunkenness.* 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.' 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, belie, ng it to be an aphrodisiac* In Guatemala a woman and a female dog were sacrificed before every battle. The horror those 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 ' " I list. Gen. de los Hechos de los Castillanos en las Islas e Tierra Firmc 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. * Herrera, /. <■.; Pctur Martyr, /. c. Firmc , VII. ; THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. ^69 speaks of one huge serpent made of stone and asphaltum set up in Yucatan, and we know that the Itzas, jo^rcatly 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.' 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.* 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 o£ gold. '"Hist. Gen.," vol. III., p. loo. i ». :' i:! i! '1^1 ■J i ; * ! \ 270 PRE-IIISTORIC 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 bean, 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 difificult 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." 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 * 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- 'Herrera: "Hist. Gen.," dec, I., book V., ch. V.; CogoJludo : "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 sot afraid to undertake long voyages in them. * 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. 2 , 426. 447. Hist. Char- e, and THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 271 ing than the houses of the people. The images of the gods were kept in vf;ry 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' 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 .rn 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' TheToltecs' 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 Tcpanecs. 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 tw limits we must place the numerous in- vasions of the various people who, driven on as by an irre- ' Oviedo : " Ilist. Gen.," vol. IV., p. 27. Peter Maityr : dec, VI., book V. * 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 greaily at dif- ferent periods. We think, however, that it was limited on the Atlantic by the Ibth and 21st degrees of N. lat., and on the Pacific by the r4th and 19th. Becker : " On the Migrations of the Nahuas " ; Cong, des Americanistes, Lux- embourg, 1'877. ' The name of Toltecs, which we take for want of a better, is founded on very insufficient data. Saliagun, one of the must ancient Spanish historians, was, we think, the first to use it, in his "Hist. Gen. de las Cosas de Nueva Espaiia." <) !, « 4 ■ i 272 PRE-inSTORIC AMERICA. sistiblc force, precipitated themselves toward this common centre.' 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.' 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 Uuran, Veytia, Torquemada, Vctancurt, and Clavigero. Bancroft, however, (vol. V., pp. 219, 616, ct. scq.) 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 Hiuhiie-Tlapallan in the Popol-Vuh; Tulan-Zuiwa by other historians,' must be the same as the country of Amaqiuinccan, the birthplace of the Chichimecs. Ferdinand Alva de Ixtlilxochitl, a Christian descendant of the rulers of the countrj', has endeavored to trace the ancient history of his race.* It is too easy to recognize in * 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. ' ' Relaciones " and " Hist. Chichimeca." Kingsborough : " Ant. of Me.\.," vo.. IX. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERLCA. 273 1 can but 1 1866. jn caves |{ Mex.," 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 dehigc. After long and arduous journeys their descendants settled in Iluehue- Tlapallan, a fertile country and pleasant to live in, adds the historian.' **at they went ' Bancroft (vol. V., pp. 208-2 iS) gives a summary of the whole o£ this his- t;)ry, which is legendary rather than serious. T A '•\ tw 274 PRE-inSTOKlC 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. 114). 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.' 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. 115) 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 arc well stocked with representations of Quetzacoatl ; those in the Louvre have been described by M. de Longperier (" Notice sur les monuments exposes dans la Salle des Ant. Am^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. 114) 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., jjp. 450, 451, et seq. Urreligionen." Basel, \Zt% p. 486, etc. Muller ; ' Americanischen THE PEOPLE Of CENTRAL AMERICA. 275 kCs dans logical to the abl^ to ig. 114) in his icanUchen In spite of wars and discord the time of the Toltcc domi- nation is enshrined in the memory of the Nahuas as their golden age. The Toltccs, 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 ! >Kt| 4 M' T2 2'j(i PRE.iriSTORrC AMF.mCA. %\ their mouths was sweet, but that of the upper part of their face severe. They were brave, but cruel, eaj^er for revenge, and the reUgious rights practised by them were sanguinary. IntclHgent 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 {tcmazcalli). Certain plants' 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.' 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 C'""^' x ; the products of the regions washed by both oceans v .ieen side by side with numerous objects made by the iwicccs themselves. These objects were of great variety, for though iron was unknown to them the Toltecs worked in gold, silver, copper, tin, and lead.* 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, ' turquoises, amethysts, of which large deposits were found in various places, were sought after for making ' 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 rcntas y vasallos, donde se resabian y curaban los enfermos pobres." Las Casas: " Hist. Apol." MS. quoted by Bancroft, vol. H., p. 597. * Ixtlilxochitl : " Relaciones." Kingsborough, vol. IX., p. 332. '"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 CENTRAI. AMENICA. '-77 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.' 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'' ; 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.* 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 ' " Relaciones," loc. cit., pp. 325, 327, 332, 388. * " La gente menuda comunmente se enterrana," Gomara, loc. fit., foL 308. ' Sahagun : " Hist. Gen.," vol. III., book X., p. 141. Ixtlilxochitl, loc. cit., P- 327. *Torquemada: " Monarquia Indiana," Madrid, 1723, vol. I., pp. 60, 72, 87. ' 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, ctse ill .1 ■ !tl II i| 9;8 PKE.HISTORIC 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 {Xuihniolpilli). — 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.' The traditions which have come down to us of the mag- nificence of the Toltec rulers arc 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 feathors ; in one the feathers were yellow ; in another, blue taken from the wings of a bird called Xctihtototl. In the southern room the feathers were white, and in that on the north they were red.' Side by side with the Toltecs, in the mountainous regions of the north of Mexico, lived numerous savage tribes, in- ' Bancroft, vol. II., p. 265, * We should have remarked that the termination tl, 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 AMEKICA. 79 eluded under the general name of Chichimccs, of which the more important were the Pames, Otomcs, Pintos, Micho- caqucs, and Tarascos. These people, chiefly of the Nahuall race, and coming originally from the same district as the Toltccs, 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.' Spanish historians report that in the sixteenth century the Chichimecs wandered about completely naked, or weariu'^ 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 livcf' 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 ' Jos. de Acosta, " Hist. Natural y moral de las Yndias." Seville, 1580. ' Ixtlilxochitl : " Hist. Chic," /. c, p. 214. Gomara : /. c, p. 298. Torque- mada: /. c, p. 38. :f!i i si U ■ 1 r 1 r ^ ^ :: • .\ 1 •■. 1 1 ' ■ ( -^ ■ 1 U' '11 28o PKE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. ii enemy that they killed. The pri/ oners 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' 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 cJnclii Jog, was a grave insult. Rude though they were, the Chichimccs had a religion. They adored the sun as the supreme god," and they also worshipped lightning, represented by the god MixcoatP (the Serpent of Clouds), v.-ho, like the antique Jupiter, was fig- ured with thunder-bolls 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 ' Reproduced by Alegre, "Ilist, de la Campania de Jesus en Nueva Espafia." Mexico, 1S41, vol. I., p. 281. 'Alegre, /. c, vol. I , p. 279. 'Also called Ixiac Mixcoatl, the white nebulous serpent ; recent re- searches point to tlie conclusion that he was the same as 7aras, the chief god of the Tarascos ; or Comaxfli, tlie god of the Teochichimecs. Brinton, ** The Myths of the New World." New York. 186S. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 281 1 with jrrible ield of rophy. nd the ng the :ccs rc- 1 them ir taste eating defeat, hem as c whole \ to be rehgion. icy also atP(the was fig- t-ar with Some, elected appear children mts, and Iguilty of the wed- virgin. Inly have Ir on the recent re- , the chief . Brinton, slightest pretext, to replace her by another. These wives were practically slaves; on them foil 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 wc then admit that, toward the end of the eleventu century or the be- ginning of the twelfth, after unknown revolutions and strUj^gles, 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 ^vhich would compel the admir- '"Ilist. Chichimcca." Kingsborough, "Ant. of Mex„" vol, IX., p. 251. '! .'1 III -\ .1 i H. 11 IS 1 \ \ 282 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. i > \h. 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. Rut 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,' 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. n., p. 7) fixes the Chichimec victory in 11 17; Ixtlilxochitl seems to confuse the facts, or at least he assigns to them several different dates, varying from 962 to 1015 (" Ant. of Hex.," vol. IX., pp. 208, 337, 395,451). Clavigero speaks of 11 70. Other historians will have it that the fall of the Toltcc league preceded the Chichimec invasion. ' " Monarquia Indiana," vol. I., p. 44. the chic Poci died son Waxt I <: THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 283 ere age mes ling men ledi- nght 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 pcstilental 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,' Tolan their capital was taken ; the country submitted ; and Xolotl took the title of ChicJiimccatl TcciiJitli, 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." 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, Te^ozomoc, 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 historj' is the relation of a succession of revolts, bloody wars, conspiracies, and ' We follow the account given by Ixtlilxochitl ; that of Veytia, " Hist. Ant. Mej," vol. I., p. 302-3) presents notable diflerences ; so does that of Brasseur de I5ourl)ourg (" Hist. des. Nat. Civ.," vol. I., p. 405, etc.). ' Iiiasseur de Ilourbourj;, quoted above, vol. I., p. 236, "bee Bancroft, /. r., vol. V., chs. V., \ I., and VH. H i :! 1 i, i< I, m II , ,1 wmm 284 rRE.HlSTORIC AMERICA. revolutions, which waa to end in 143 1 in the triple alliance of the Aztecs, Acolhuas, and Tcpanecs, 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.* AH 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, Zacatccas, 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.'' ' Bancroft, loc, cit, vol. V., p. 305. F. von Hellwald : " The American Migrations," Smith. Contr., 1866. 'Urasseur de Bourbourg ("Hist, des Nat, Civilisees," vol. II., p. 292) places Aztlan in California ; Humboldt (" keseaxhes concerning the institu- tions and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of America," translated by Helen Maria Williams, 1814), about 42" north latitude. Foster: "Prch. 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. Bandolier says, in speaking of Chicomoztoc (the THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. ;S5 p. 292) he iiiblitu- nslated by " rrch. peaks of ooks uiinn riitchard e last de- loztoc (the 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' It was not therefore until much later, between 11S6 and 1194,' if we adopt the date given by the Codex Chimalpopoca, that they established themselves at Chapultcpcc. 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.* Hunting and fish- ing could not long supply the needs of a population which rapidly increased. By dint of hard work the Aztecs managed to make gardens in the water in which grew maize and other plants.* 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, Pcabody 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 nucva hist, general de la America Septentrional" pp. 12O-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. * 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 a ' Ian. 'In 1 140 or in llSg, according to two different dates given by Ixtlilxochitl ; in 1245, according to Clavigero ; in 120S, according to Veylia, 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 al)out 1325. Duran cited by Bancroft (/. c, vol. I., chap. I^'^-VI. ; Veytia : " Hist. Ant. de Mcjico," vol. II., p. 156 ; Torque- mada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. I., p. 92, 2S8, et scq. \ Ixtlilxochitl : /. c, vol. IX., p. 4f>i ; F. de AlvaredoTezozomoc, " Chron. Mexicana," Kingsborough, vol. IX. * Bandelier : *' Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 403. These gardens ! m iL' A \\ ; \. 1 m \. 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 w^e have been speaking. One of the causes of this confusion was the constant rivalry between the two regions of Tenochtitlan and Tczcuco, 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, ct scq.,) 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 Chichiviccatl 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; fr • i 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. 287 ; fr 1 nr first I oceans. knc; no (ht their their swampy foreign conquerors and loaded with odious taxes. Tribute was paid in kind, and consisted of cereals, cotton garments, pipes, rushes, aromatic spires, 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 do Ojcda 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 mcmori- ales lo certifica dc 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. Bancrott, /. c. vol. II. p. 233 and 234. "Bancroft, /. c, vol. V., p. 481. ■I I *1 .1 !? i I. 1 i il 2S8 PRE-iriSTORlC AMERICA. !» /f {• I it was the ripital,' On every side rose the buildincTs 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." The inhabitants were supplied with water by means of aqueducts, and as early as 1446, this water was conducted from Chapultepcc 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.' The chief himself w is a distinguished poet. Ixtlilxochitl, his descendant in the direct line, has preserved some of his poems,' which were still famous at the time of the conquest. ' The Mexican chiefs previous to the Spanish conquest were Itzcoail who died, 1440 ; Montezuma I. to 1469 ; Axayacatl to 1481 ; Tizoc to i486 ; Ahuizotl to 1503 ; Montezuma II. to 1520. * Torquemada alleges that there were more than forty thousand temples or teocallis in Mexico. ' " Ilay sus puentes de muy anchas, y muy grandes vigas juntas y recias y bien labradas, y tales que por muchas dellas pueden passar diez de caballo juntos a la par." Cortes : " Cartas," p. 203, *Veytia, vol. III., p. 247, Torquemada, vol. I., p. 157. Clavigero, vol. I., p. 233. Brasseur de Bourbourg, vol III., p. 228. ° 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. • Four odes are given in Lord Kingsborough's collection (vol. VIII., pp. Iio- 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 f;)urth, 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 or CEhHKAL AMERICA. !89 2S or recias y caballo vol. !•! of the children, pp. lio- he throne of life, juet, is a stly, l^e the per- an Eng- Wewill only quote one strophe, from an ode on the vicissi- tudes of life, in which the chief, speakint^ of himself, writes: " No, thou shalt not be forj^otten ; no, the good which tliou 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 ? " VVe may adil that tlie 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, Hke 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 lisb translation of two of these odes. F, W. v. MUller (" Keisen in den Ver- einigten Staten, Canada, und Mexico," Leipzig, 1864, vol. III., pp. 12S-141) re- publishes two other odes previously unknown, U ( < ! ■ k ■( :'( ■« ii! I ,: ^ { H i I 290 PRE'inSTORlC AMERICA. I I to the palace of Chalchiuhuenctzin. The queen, according to the asseverations of her attendants, ^vas asleep. Neza- huapilll went into her room ; a lay fij^ure, 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 Tlatccatl, the greatest honor which a Tczcuan 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- * Torquemada, vol. I., p. 184. Ixtlilxochitl : "Hist. Chichemec," loc. cit., pp. 265, 267, 271. • Torquemada : " Mon, Ind.," vol. I., p. 165. >rding Neza- n the The cd his aw his of his lovers, ited in icy had I ; not- mglcd ; lier scr- cted of of her legend ■y egaid ." loc. cit., THE PEOPLE or CES'TRA!. AMERICA. 291 hualpilH ordered him lo be strangled, thereby greatiy 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.' 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 a$ 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 fctichism, 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 ' Torquemada, vol. I., p. 216. Ixtlilxochitl : " Hist. Chic," pp. 282, 388, 4 c Tezozomoc, Kingsborough, vol. IX., p. 178, Fray Diego Diiran ])Iaces Ills death in 1509, " Hist, de las Iiidias de la Nueva Espana," written between 1567 and 1581, and published at Mexico by D. Ramirez in 1867. V 2 ll II ^■\ '■I \ ^ \V\ * M \\ m If ii^liJr' WW— I 292 PRE-inSTORIC 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 tlie 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 leart. 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 U i: "! , !:- \ 111: ■;'■ 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.' 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. • " Their mythology, as far as we know it, ^jresents a great number of uncon- nected gods, without apparent system or unity of design." Gallatin, "Am. Ant. Soc. Trans.," vol. I., p. 352. i i THE PEOPLE OF CENTRA I. AAtEh'ICA. 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 tin\e 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 t)bserved 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, 118); 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 sufiferer 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. , .. I ' V mmmmmm ! in,} i i li ;l 294 PRE-HJSTOKIC AMERICA. The hideous trophy was then hun^ up in the temple of Yapico, or, if it had beloncjed 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.— Sacrifici.!! 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. " ' l'cil);ips we should say the goddess ; this point has been very much disi)ute(l. * Bancroft (vol. II., chap. IX.. and vol. III., pp. 355-412) gives a very ejcact account of these celebrations, to which we refer those who wish to know more ah'iut them, temple n war, ings in r, were s deer, of the ices ; a pipes or the god awaiting VCl) much a very exact know more THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMI- RICA. ^95 On the day consecrated to Xuihtccutli, the god of fire, the captives were carried in triumph, on the shoulders of the priests, to the platform from which the tcocalli 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. 119. — 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 culled 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 >-oung girl, chosen on account of their beauty, were maintained Tor . ill 11 ' It-: i* -H m % m m m \m ■iiaiiii»a 296 rRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. W a wliolc year in royal luxury, and then led to the sacrifice as victims acceptable to the gods. Such were the religicius 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 Fi(J. 120. — Vaseus.edin 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 w< "c visited by a defeat, a pestilential malady, a fam- ine, or an earthquake, the people eagerly offered fresh sacri- fices to appea'-:c the anger of the gods. The dedication by Ahuizotl of the great temple of Muitzilopochtii,' in 1487, ' r.:incroft's text is as follows: " Nativr Races," vol. III., ji. 2SS, 2S9. " lluitzilopochlli, Iluitziloputzli, or Vitzilii)utzili, was the god of war, and the i 5.,. If the ', a fam- ish sacri- ation by in 1487. 2S3,2S(}. ar, and the THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 297 is alleged to have been celebrated by the butchery of 72,344 victims ; ' the priests were wearied with striking, and had to bo successively replaced ; but the people did not tire of the frightful butchery ; they responded by exclamations of joy to the groans of the dying.^ Under Montezuma II., twelve thousand captives are said to have perished at the inaugura- tion of a mysterious stone, brought to Mexico at g.eat ex- pense, and destined to form the sacrificial altar,' but fortu- espccially 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 d;iy in the tem- ple, as her custom was, slie 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, liuitzilopoclitli, perfect as Pallas Athena, was instantly burn, 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 fa:.e, 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 fnim that day forth his names were Tezahuitl, Terror, and Tetzauhteotl, Ter- ril>le God." ' 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 Af I ica could such wholesale slaughter as really occurred in Mexico be paralleled. '■' Torquemada, vol. I., p. l86. 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 p'aced in such a position as to facilitate the task of the sacrificing priest. "The height of the altar," says Duran ("Hist, de las Yu 'ias de Nueva Espana"), reached to a man's waist, and its length might be eii^ht 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 1S73. \ t i 1!! (V. u 298 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. X ' \^\ vw < 'h\ - I- [i V- natcly the end of these sacrifices was approaching; in 15 18, 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.' 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. Zumart.>ga, the first bishop of Mexico, in a letter dated June 12, 1531, estimates it at no less than twen^^^y thou- sand ; and Gomara * b 'ings it up even to fifty thousand. These numbers, which are contradict- ed by Las C^sas, in his cele- brated treatise,' 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. The hope or expectation of a life beyond the tomb exists 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 degroc 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 arc so ' Torquemada, /. c, vol. I., p. i86. Vetancu'rt, /. c, vol. II., p. 46. Veytia: "Hist. Ant. de Mejico," vol. III., p. 476. •" Hist. Gen. de las Indias." Anvers, 1554. *" Hist. Apoi. de las Indias Occidentalcs," Kingsborough, vol, VIII. Fig. 121. — Vase found in the island of .'.OS Sacrificios. amongst all human races. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 299 Veytia : 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 v/'iere 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 liis memory by feasts and dances." These rites were observed in the two months of TlaxocJiimalco and Xocotlhuczin. 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, tifking 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, vul, II., page 618. ) i 300 PRE.mSTOKIC AMERICA. 1 11 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 Chiciinahuapan, 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.'' 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 ^aves 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,' speaks of having seen several of these bur>'ing-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 RioNayus vally, in the province of Durango, a cave of considerable 'Brasseurde Bourbourg, " Hist, des Nat. Civilisees," vol. III., p. 569. " Torquemada : '* Mon. Ind.," vol. II., p. 527. Clavigero : " St. Ant. del Messico," Vol. II., p. 94. ' " Geografica descripcion de la parte scptentrionnalc del Polo Artico de la America." Oajaca, Mexico, 1674, 2 vols. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 301 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 unshrivcllcd, 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.' 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 {icntcll), 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," fol. 309. " Vestivano lo d'un abito corrispondente alia sua condizione, alle sue facolta ed alle circonstanze della suamorte," Clavigero, loc. cii., vol. II., p. 3(). i I .! I m jriiiTi 1:1 ', , ' ' ■ i '1 " ■: t* I ■ '*"■ '! ' ! Mr 302 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. V'W '! ": 1; 'I V'l 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 difificult 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. Som" of the Chichimecs, after burying their dead, gave themselves up to dances and feasts, which often lasted many days." 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." 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 tliese bones more easily in his successive migrations." 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- ' Sahagun : " Hist. gen. de las cosas de Nueva Espano," vol. III., book X., p. 119. ' " Chronica de la Orden de N. P. S. Aug." Mexico, 1624. ' Herrera, loc. cit., decade IV., book IX,, chap. VII. skct the lesc )mad the lany was en of as in ithe An- ok X., THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 303 tigua do 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.' 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 Miccaciiicatl, 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 tcocalli. 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 Coacuilcs 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 " J. (le Acosta : " llist. Natural y Moral de las Vndias," Sevilla, iSgo, p. 321, et scq. Herrera, loc. cit, decade III., book II., chap. XVIII.; Ixtlilxo. chitl : " Relaciones ; " Kingsborough, vol. IX., p., 370. I I I *;: '■i « ;. ■!■ 1: .'! t ■■'{ ?!>' m I ! ^ I, I I ni m 1 :|ii j-j' m ■ '-)■'' m\ ! i I « r/;'l 15 ^ i«' 304 puF-rnsTORic 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 Coacuilcs 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 wcr" 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 Nczahualpilli 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 labrct 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 01 CENTRAL AMERICA. 305 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. ' 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, cither 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. ' Ixtlilxochitl (" Relaciones," /. c, p. 322), following in the trail of his pricst'.y instructors, says that in the year 5097 from the creation a meeting of astronomers ■;: II t\ ••}; ; 1 J ^i MMMH 5^ M mwi 306 Ph'r./f/STORrC 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.' 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 ' 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 IIuhhue-Tlapallan, and it was they who fixed the divisions of time which lasted until the conquest. Processor Valentin!, "The Katunes of Maya History," places this change in the divisions of time in the year 29 B. C. Roth of these estimates are, perhaps it is needless to say, more or less hypo- thetical. 'It has been reproduced byChamay, plate I., and Short (" North Ameri- cans," p. 409) copies it from him. ' Bancroft, vol. III., p. 502, ']'-,l,ei 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. ' 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 PEOPI.E OF CE.VTRAI. AMERICA. 307 item of il Organi- PeaboJy The chief weapon of the Aztecs was the juvehn {Jllacochtli), a short hince of liard wood, the end of whicli was provided with a point of flint, obsidian, or, more rarely, of copper. This point was fixed in a sHt in the wood, and kept it in its place by lashinj^s cemented with resin. Each warrior also carried darts which he flung from a distance, a bow {tlauitolliy often more than five feet long, and slings. The viacualniitl (from viacua, hand, and cuahuitl, wood) was a wooden sword, of similar form to the two-handed sword {cspadas 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,' 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 v;ith cotton.' The braves,* 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 wc have already described. In some places, the defensive works were important. The way the Mexicans made fortifications was to ci.oose a naturally strong position, such as a hill difificult 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 ' Clavigero, /. c, book VII., chap. XXIII. ' " El Conquistador Anonimo," Collection of Unpublished Documents, vol. I., p. 375, ' " Raccolta di Mendoza," Kingsborough Collection. * The title, or rather the rank, of braz'e was obtained by some dazzling action. The braves, as amongst the Indians of the present day, took the characteristic n^mzi ol Jlesh-eaten, ^reat eagles, winged arrows, and suchlike. .\ 2 ' I .11 ^11 'N M Ifi t! ' Irk iti ' ' m ' ill :'ii 1 i : Iffin 1' il ^ lH; 30S PRE.IIIS TORIC A M F.RICA. of a connection that may have existed between them.' The costume of the Mexicans consisted of a sleeveless tunic {iiucpil), fastened to the right shoulder, and of a sash {maxtlatl) 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 ' relates that the soldiers only wore the maxtla'cl, 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,^ 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 vhe heads of the tiger, wolf,, and serpent, covered with the actual skin of the aninrial. The reward of valor in war was the right of wearing, aoove the ears, one or more partings in the hair. The character of these head-dresses and marks of luMTor have been preserved to our day by pictograjMiy. In Mexico tho chiefs vere called Tcachcautin, 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 werpons. The cliicfs wore, as insignia of their rank, ear-plugs like those of the Mound Builders, and labrets,* 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 supportctl by subsidiary chiefs, also hereditary. The first hints o'\ this subject come from Cortes himself {Carta scgtinda, pp. 12 and 13). ' Tezozomoc, /, c, chap. XC, p. 158-9. Du.an, /. c, chap. LVI., j). 4^3. ■' L. c, book VIII., chap. XXIII. ' A letter of the 28th July, 1524, reproduced by Veylia : " Hist. Ant, de Mejico," vol. I. *Duran, /. c, chap. XIX., p. i6q. Sahagun, book IX., chap. VI., p. 264, L THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 309 " In the town of Mexico," he vritcs, "arc 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.' Tlaca-Tccuhtli, 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 hereditap- right, if indeed it existed, had to be confirmed by election." The supreme chief could be deposed ; and it was thus that Mon- tezuma was degraded, and replaced by his brother, Cuitla- huatrin.' 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 'Bandelier, /. c, " Report of Peabody Museum," vol. 11., pp. 95, 475, 557, 600. 'The titles of king, nobles, court, lords, palaces, etc., are mibleading 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 understandiiig, the organization of Mexican society, and .,)plied 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 Espaiia," chap. XXVI., p. 132), LasCasas (" Brevissima Relacion," p. 49), Sahagun (book XII., chap. XXI., p. 28), Torquemada (book IV., chap. LXVIII., p. 494), and Ilerrera (decade II., book X., chap. VIII., p. 264), arc unanimous on this point. * This dignity does not appear to have existed until after the alliance between Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacolpan. I)uran, chap. XXIV., p. 205 ; Tezozomoc. "Chronica," chap. XXIX., p. 35; Ixtlilxochitl : " Rclaniones"; Kingsbur- ough, vol. IX. f!' ■■■ ij ^ V. \ 3IO PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. ]M \\. 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-CohuatI 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.* 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.' 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.' 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- "."scing 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 colicc- 'Duran, /. c, chap. XIV. ard XVI. J. de Acosta, /. c, chap. XXV., p. 441. " Torquemada, /. c, book XIV., chap. I., p. 534. • Ixtlilxochitl : "Hist. Chic. ."chap. XXXVIII. C. de Mendieta : "Hist. Keel. Indiana," Mexico, 1870, book II., chap. XXVI., p. 129. * Randelier, /. c. p. 557, etc. Tlist. THE PEOPLE OE CENTRAL AMERICA. 3" tlvc 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 aveng" 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 Calpulalliy 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 riding within the limits of the Calpulli, Some land' ' '' • ,'i) were reserved to the chiefs, bu*. neither these chiefs nor their families had any permanent rights in them, and when tliey gave up ofifice the lands were reabsorbed in the public domain. Other lands {tlatocatlaili) 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 -m -^uiitted, or would have to submit, to a very severe re^.l^'s initiation, which we are about to describe. As ^v ' .;.^ ~een, this collection of institutions shows no trace of fc r 'Jitm.' Descent vis througa the female line, and the family was constitutcc \' the maternal alliances alone. It was not until later chat paternal d- cent was admitted. Marriage existed ; but marriage was forbidden between near relations, and probably between members of the same Calpjlli. The position of women was hard ; they became in most respects ' Crozeo y E-'nu Mexico." 'Geographia de las lenguas y carta ethnografica de % a W ■ ' lip ill* :, li si :i 9^11 iSI 312 PRE-f/ISTOKlC 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.' On the birth of her child the mother chose tl: ,iame she wished given to him ; this name was generally coh; i either with the month in which the infant was born or w, •. 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 {tclpuchcalh) was set apart for this purpose. All t.ie 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 marr)', or who did not cultivate the lands assigned to him, and the prisoners taken in war, unless they were sacrificed to ' Torquem.ida, book XIII., cliap. XXII., p. 454, et srq. ' Gomara : " Ilisl. 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 I., chap. 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.' 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 were 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*; he who violated a child in Michoacan was impaled; the sodomite was burned." He ' Mendieta : " HLt. Ecc. Ind.," book II., chap. XXVII., p. 30. ' Bancroft, vol. II., p. 460, ct scq. Bandelier, loc. cit., p. 623, et seq. ' " Hist. Apol.," App., Kingsborough, vol. VIII. * Torqiiemada, book XII., chap. 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 Tcrnaux J i 3M PRE-inSTORIC 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.' The same punishment was given for seducing a woman who had taken a vow of chastity, or a married woman belonging to the srme 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 prirons in the different Teocallis and the public buildings"; 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,' ist series, vol X., p. 197), could not have wives, scd earum loco pturos abutebantur. The sin was so common that young and old were infected by it. ' We must, however, make some allowance for ex.iggeralion. ' Mendieta, /t;<:. f//.. book II., chap. XXIX. Vetancurt : " Teatro Mexi- cano," vol. I., p. 4S4. " Tcilpiloyan or Tecaltzaqualoyan. Mcndieta, loc. cit., chap. XXIX., p. IS^. Molina: " Vocabulerio in lengua Castillana y Mcxicana," Mexico, 1571, vol. II., jip. 86-gi. itro Mexi- ..p.133. 1571. vol- THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 315 tribes arc mentioned which included as many as twenty Calpulli. The tribe was governed by a council composed of dele- gates from each Calpulli {tctoani, 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.* 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." ' A. de Zurita : " Rapport surles differentes classes de chefs de la Nouvelle Espagne," Ternaux Compans, 2d series, v«l. II, "Sahagur., book VIII., chap. XXXVIII., p. 329. Ixtlilxochiir. " Rela-. ^^1 II 'I 'i «pm mm ■V 316 PRE.IIISTORIC AMERICA. Wc 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, wc 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 oflfices 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 ctremonies somewh.-it like these amongst the Incas and the Indians of Orinoco (Bandelier, /. c, p. 643 and note 171). CHAPTER VII. i 1 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 rac3 forcibly com- pelling a subject people to do the necessary \;ork. 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 tiieir 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.' * Short, " North Americans of Antiquity," p. 340. J> •! I, I V: . i i; ■ ■. It> 3IS PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. II'. The monuments of Palcnquc ' arc justly reckoned amonp^st 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 Palcnquc, at the foot of the first buttresses of the mountain-chain, on the banks of the little river Otolum, one of the tributaries of the Tulija, was ad- mirably chosen." 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 Palcnquc without suspecting its existence; and it was not till 1746, that chaj.'^. led to its discovery by a cure of the neighborhood.' We owe the first description of the ruins to Jos6 dc 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 Palcnquc, and the casts taken by him of the hieroglyphics there are among the most curious possessions of the new Trocadero Museum at Paris. * Palenque comes from a Spanish word signifying palisade ; the ancient name of the town is still unknown. *A. del Rio," Descripcion del terreno y poblacion anti^ua," English transla- tion, London, 1S22. Captain Dupaix, " Relation des trois expeditions ordon- necs en 1805,-6, and-7, pour la recherche des antiquites du pays notamment de cellesde 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, 183S. Stephens & Catherwood : " Incidents of Travel in Central America," New York, 1S41 ; "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, 1S66. Bancroft, /. c, vol. IV., p. 289, et seq., gives a very complete bibliography, which is useful to con- sult. ' In 1750, according to D. Diego Juarros : " Hist, of the Kingdom of Guate- mala," London, 1823. THE RUINS OF CENTRA I AMERICA. 319 orcrs ; from phics new »f Guate- Among the bcst-prcscrvcd 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 arc 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 Palcnquc in 1877, fixes the number of the temples or palaces at twelve. These contradictions arc more apparent than real, and are explained by the different impressions of each traveller, and the divisions he th'^ught it necessary to adopt. The palace, the most important building of Palcnquc, 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'' ; the walls, which are two or three feet thick, .-.re 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 cast ; it includes fourteen entrances about nine foct 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 arc 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 ihe pyramid. These pyramids, which remind us of the work of the Mound Guilders, are the most striking characteristics of the architecture of Central America. * Stephens, /. <•., 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 rcbioratioa (/. c, vol. IV., P- 323). i X\ ■ i tl . > ( s ; (■ ■ ' .'■ r I ! i ! 1? 320 PREHISTORIC AMERICA. ft V discovered and the history of Palcnquc be revealed. Nu- merous masonry niches in the wall merit special atten- tion on account of their rescniblance to the letter T or rather the Egyptian tau.^ 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 '^,11 *'i> Fig. 123. — Stucco bas-relief from Palenque. used for supplying the passage-ways with air and light of which they stood in great need. ' " As fc" the figures of tati, so numerous in the buildings, ornaments, l)as- 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 knowk'clj,'c, we cannot avoid noticing it." Jomnrd : Bull. Soc Gi'oi^., de Paris, vol. V., series II., p. 620. One of the bas-reliefs of the palace figured by Bancroft (/. c, in sig alt. icnts, bas- lossible to in&wk'cl;^e, s, vol. v., icroft(/. <^-. TIIK A'lV.V.'! or CF.yTRAI AMERICA. 321 The inside of tlic j)alace corresponds with the mafrnifi- cence of the outside ; there are {galleries forming a peristyle all round the court ; and the rooms are decorated with granite bas-reliefs (fij;. 124), {^rotcscjue fi<,'ures, some thirteen feet hi'lth, 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 oi it, took possession of it, and carried it to Washington, wiiere it forms part of the collection of the National Museum.' The centre represents a cross, resting upon a hideous figure, and surmounted by a grotesque bird. 0\\ 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 tv/o persons is unlike any that is now in use ; and above their heads wc 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 ' Charnay, loc. cit., p. 417, from whom we boruw the greater part of these details. Del Rio, /^r. cit.,^. 17. Waldeck, plate XX. Stephens, loc. cit., vol. IT., p. 344. ^Ch. Rail ; " The Palcnquc Tablet," Smith Cont., vol. XXII. titude, ime of ; ari'l pliicul them. make THE RUINS OF CENTRA!. AMERICA. 325 but 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 Palcnque' (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 ' Nature, October 4, 1079. li y \ ' ^ i ':.!' I » Ui 9 ! u a a* C u u a (U > o u rl T'//^ 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 earUer 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 the ruins of Palenque without mentioning a statue (fig. 128), remarkable for more than one reason.' The calm and smiling expression of the fact 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 A JAVA* Fig. 128. — Statue from Pelanque. * "Carta dirigada al Rey de Esparia aflo 1576," published at Albany, with an English translation in i860. ' 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. 1 V, i;.' :< I , li 1i ■i. ' I ■ i !■ 328 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. ' I ii J is? ; , 'Ijilll If '1^ 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 ver}' distinct resemblance in some of these hieroglyphics to those of Egypt. We mention this without however trying to sohe, b\' 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 l^gypt and those of Central America at the comparatively recent date of the erection of the monuments of Palenque. Two races succcssivelv bore the name of Quiche. The old Quiches of ?*Iaya origin, to whom we owe the monu- ments of Copan and of Ouirigua, and the Cakchiquel Ouiches, 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 ' In the various hieroglyphics that we reprotUice, the existence can he maile out of several dots in regular order, separatetl by a stroke from the rest of the inscription ; this is perliaps a key for a future Champoliion. 'The ruins are situated in N. Lat. 14° 45' and W.Long, go' 52'. Copan has sometimes been confounded \vith the town which in 1530 offered bo heroic a rcoiiiaucc to Ilcrnaiulc^: dc Cliiavcs. i I long Un has leroic a ■ .!' l} ' V ' ■ 5 i-.| ■ ? ' ?. t '■, 1: 1 ^ '■ ?* r '^ i.f 'ii ? I i 'I IIP 330 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. arc first mentioned in a letter addressed in 1576 to Kin^' 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 Abb6 Brasseur de Bourbourg, who visited Copan in 1863 and 1866.' 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, Bull. Soe, Gdog. 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. Fig. 130. — Statue found amongst the ruins of Copau. 1: '1 1; ■•,■■; ; ■■ 1 ■ 1 if ■ ' i mmm Ii 332 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. vases of red earth, containing bones mixed with h'me.' A great number of statues, obelisks, and columns, laden with sculpture and hieroglyphics," 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 perimc- ter of the principal enclosure are rows of heads (fig. 131). Some of these are skulls,' 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 thvi 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, Akc, 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 soutii- 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- ^ Bull. Soc. Geog., vol. V., 2d series, Paris, 1836. *Tliese hieroglyphics resemble those of Palenque, and like the latter are still undeciphered. ' 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 tlic ruins themselves have almost eulirely dis- appeared. Stephens: " Yucatan, " vul. II., p. 348. d o pes Yu mm , the cast, 50Uth- Icss nt dis- Itur- re still a frieze ve been rely Ji^- r///-: AT/.V5 0/-' CE\'TK,\l. AMEKtCA. 333 bide. " That extensive ruins yet lie hidden in these uncx- plored regions can hardly be doubted ; indeed, it is by no means certain tliat 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 from them. As at Palenque, we find a cruciform symbol ; but it resembles rather the Buddhist than the Christian cross." Most of these ruins have been described, so we content ourselves with giving a rapid summary of the most important of them. One preliminaiy remark must Fig. 131.— Head of a monkey on be made. There are notable 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, I.e., vol. IV., p. 148. 'Hamy : Soc. of Geog., meeting of January 2, i3S2. m ■ li m ' ■ '1- 1 1 T i k ' ^ 1' M A 11 t!: 1 ! \-\4 i *'! I ilPH ' 334 PK /■:.// IS TORH ' // M ERICA. Aryan race at Palcnquc. They sensibly resemble it at Cliiclien-Itza. Lastly, it is only in the monuments of Yuca- tan that we can trace the influence of earlier construction in wood.' " 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. i32.^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, dilTer from those of Palenque, and more nearly approach those we are about to describe at Uxmal and at Chichen-Itza. Here, then, wc 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- * Viollet-le-Duc, Int., p. 97, after Charnay: "Cites et Ruines Ameri- 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. ^^ Ameri- es to the the Aryan THE A'C'/XS OF CE^^TKAt. AMERICA. 335 cr.iblc area.' The Casa del Gobernador {^\g. 133), the most remarkable of all, rises from a natural eminence artificially enlarged by means of rubble masonry, and cut by three suc- C'-'ssive terraces ; the walls ari; 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 .vhich recalls that which wc have described at i'alenquc (fig. 125), and several rooms of very varying di- mensions. The walls of these rooms arc of rough stone, without traces of painting or sculpture ; in one or two places only arc there traces of piaster. 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.' Amongst these ornaments Greek frets are prominent ; this type of ornament, so com- mon for centuries in Europe, furnishes yet another proof of tiie 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 arc sup- posed to have been made out ; this would be a curious fact,' if true, for the elephant was certainly not living in America at the time of the erection of the monuments of Uxmal. Mis memory must then have been preserved in a permanent tradition, and it is possible that this m.ay turn out to be an * Waldcck : " Voy. pittoresque et arch, dars la Prov. de Yucatan," fol., Paris, 1838. Nonnan : •' Rambles in Yucatan," New York, 1843. Baron von Friederickstahl : " Les Monuments du Yucatan," 1841. Charnay : " Cites et Riiines Americaines," Paris, 1S63. Bancroft: "Native Races," vol. IV., p. 149. Short : " North Americans of Antiquity," p. 347. ' Brasseur de Bourbourg : "Hist, des Nat, Civ. du Mexique et de I'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. *\ iii-i i 33^^ rh'/:-ff/s TOR re a merica . W% /•:itf \-\ K\ Mi :m , indication of the i\siatic (jriLjin of the civilization under notice. Other animals also served as models to the workmen ; at the Casa de Tortiiguas the decoration consists of an imitation of palisades '.ormcd of round wooden posts. Tortoises in relief arc the sole interruption to the horizontal Lne of the upper frieze. In front of the palace, a round stone several yards high, Fig. 133.— Casa d>l Gobernador, Uxmal. without ornaments, without even a trace of human workman- ship, rises like a column ; other similar stom were erected in various parts v.f the town. Some think these are phallic emblems, and hcuce conclude that the ancient people of Yucatan were devotees of the phallic cultus. But Brasseur de Bourbouif; (/. r., vol. IV., p. 67) tells us that the natives call these stone /zV^^rx and think they were intended to be i;i THE KULVS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 337 mder n; at ;ation 5es in of the high, mm V^ --S50 orkman- crccted phallic coplc of Brasscur natives ,d to be used as wliipping-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 Monj'as is looked upon as the most rem.ark- able building of Central America. It presents considerable resemblance with the Casa del Cobcrnador. Here too we see the traditional mound, surmounted by a platform, on which rise four different buildings surrounding a court.' 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 iahabitants, 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 ar^- alike displayed. "Every alternate door" sa>3 Charn^iy (p. 364), "is sur- rounded by a niche of marvellous workmanship ; those were to be occupied by statues. As for the fri':':e 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 ; fiucly 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 awav. The left wing, Casa dc la Culcbra, still 'The measurements of these buildings given by different txjilorers differ cnii- siilerably amcmg thems.elvc . Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 174) ^ivcs them nil. We lufcr the re.nler lu liiiii. A i •f (.■ ■'t^if >k 338 PRE-HISTORTC AMERICA. standing, represents a huge rattlesnake, running all along the facade, the interlacing coils of its body serving as frames to different panels.' The northern building, rising from a platform about twenty feet high, dominates the whole court." 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 Uxmal, 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.' 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 tlic 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 niorc rich, more elaborate and carefully executed than those of any other edifice in Uxmal." * Besides these there arc 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. 3G7. " Waldcck, /. c, pi., XIII aiul XVIII. ^ Slef)luMis : " Yucatan," vol. II., p. 30, ■* SU'iiliens : " Vucaian .1 1. !>• 313 THE RUrXS OF C EXTRA I. 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, cither at Palcnque, 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 Fin. 134.— Portico at Kabah. of pottery. It is, however, impossible tliat 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 drav/ing conclusions from 1^ :?1 11 ■M 7. 2 340 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 inoment's attention. At Kabah a pyramid measuring i8o 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 i.i the midst of a solitude in the New World ? And how can we help ad- miring the marvellous unity of the genius of man, 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.' The buildings of Labna were no less remarkable than those of Uxmal; but unfortunately they are in a state of ex- treme decay." The chici building was covered with stucco ornaments, which are breaking off and rapidly disappearing. One can still make out a row of skulls, some bas-rclicfs representing human figures, and a globe of considerable di- ameter upheld by two men, one of whom 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 18. 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 It-aay one of the chief branches of the Maya race, was a dependency of the Mayapan confederacy. On the destruc- ' Stephens, loc. cit., vol. I., p. 39S. Baldwin: "Ancient America," New York, 1872, p. 139. ' Stephens, loc. cit., vol. II., p. i6 : " The summits of the neighboring liills are capped with gray, broken walls for many miles around." Norman : " Ram- bles in Yucatan," p. 150. WBRiBVi^s^aK; the American Antiquarian Society.* ' 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, OLt. 21. 1878. — -. %, THK A'UhVS or 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 Jnilani, the tiger chief, was one of three brothers who shared between them the government of Yucatan. lie had married Kinich Katm6, a woman of marvellous beauty, who inspired Aak, one of her brothcrs-in- Fk;. 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 1 V I ■i't i i \ s H 350 PRFrrrsroRic amertca. 'in \\\ ill Spaniprds, 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 importaiit than those of the Mayas. Wc have described the courts of the rulers of Tenotchitlan and Tczcuco •. 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. W' therefore select from them such as may serve as a type of .^Jahuatl architecture, and best help us to un- derstand the manners and religion of the Nahuas. The pyramid of Cholula ' is situated in a miserable village, about ten miles from Puebla de los Angeles. A magnificent icmple, dedicated according to some to ^^e sun, according to others to Ouetzacoatl, rose from the platform crowning the pyramid, but it was entirely destroyed by Cortes, after a battle w) -ch took place at the very foot of the monument. The pyramid still standing measures 1,440 feet square, and covers an aroa 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 * Ilumhoklt, " Essai pel. sur le !->y. de la Nouvelle Espagne," Paris, iSii, p. ;!3g, and"Vues dcs Cordilleres," Paris, 1S16, p. 96. Dupaix : " Prem. Exp," Kingsborough, vol. V. and VI. Jones: " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII. Ciavigero; " St. Ant. del Messico," vol. II., p. 33. Clavigcro visited Cholula in 1741 ; Humboldt, in 1803. Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 471) gives as usual a very complete bibliogranhy. 'Mayer ("Mexico as it Was," p. 26) s .ys 204 feet; Tylor : "Anahuac," 205 feet. ■1', i'.lt' "Hi THE PEOPLE OE CENTRAL IMERICA. ;5i lat, terraces. IIcio the material employed was no longer dressed stones, as in Yucatan, but adobes about fifteen inches long, similar to those employed \>y the Pueblo Indians, cemented with a very bard mortar mixed with little stones and even fragments of potteiy . A German traveller ' adds that the four faces were coated with a cement similar to that in use at the present day. Excavations have shewn 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 t.ie centre of the monument, into which the ex- plorers wore not able to en:er. it has therefore been sup- posed that tliey were those of slaves, killed at the time of the erection of the monuments. M. Bandclicr 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 ' Heller: " Reisen in Mexiko," Leipzig, 1853, p. J31. ' " Areh. Hist, of America," Nov., iSSi. ' " Ilist. Ant. de la Nueva Espafia," vol. I., cliap. I. written about 15S5.) (The history was hi V I ■■■■I 05' rRE-IIIS TOR re A MI: RICA. Toltccs, so that it is to them that the building under notice must be due. Xochicalco, seventy-five miles northwest of IMcxico, is cer- tainly one of the most peculiar monuments of the province.' 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, v.hcre the explorers were obliged to turn back. The second tunnel pierces the calcarenus 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, wh.erever 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, scv'- enty feet high, upheld by walls crowned with parapets. l)u- paix relates that the summit was reached by a path eight ' Alzate y Ramirez visited Xochicalco in 1777, and, in X79I, published a very inexact account of his discoveries, under the title of " Hescripcion de las Antiguedades de Xoi hicalro." Diipaix and Castaueda visited the ruins in 1S31, p'ld the Reiiista Mcxicana (vol. I., p. 539) gives the result of a more recent e.xpk)ration, made at the cost of the Mexican Government. Lastly, among other explorers, we name ; IlnmboMt, " Vues dos Conlillcrcs." vol. T., p. 98. Tylor : " Anahuac," p. 1S9. Nehel ; " Viaje pitloresco y arqiieo- logico sobre la rep. Mejicana." ij'f! % \ ^ i ;3 TIIF. RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 353 feet wide. The platform measures three hunchx'd iirid twenty-eight feet by two hundred and eighty-five. iV 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 porpln-ritic granite,' laid without mortar, and with such art that the joints arc scarcely visible. It is impossible to estimate the Fig. 141. — Ruins of the temple of Xochicalco, Mexico. labor required to take these block.s from a distant (luarry 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 l)e 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 ' " I'orfiitlo granilico," AVi/.fAz Me.w, vol. I., p. 54^. " Ila'altf) porhrico," Xebel. " Basalt," Lowcnstern, Max., ]i. 209. " I.a calid.id de picdra dc csla maijnilica arquitcctura est de piedia vitrifkabilc," Alzate, /. c, \>. 8. A A ! 1 V ::' .•■. i i ¥ji Si i Iff I \ ] i 11 \ L ! t "■'i j ! \ f m \ ^ m Hi 354 PRF..HISTORIC AMERICA. execute as it is to describe. An unfortunately very inexact motUl on reduced scale of this monument "l-ured in the mi- ternatioiial exhibition of 1867, It was reproduced in the Illustrated London Ncivs, 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, nnd 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 Iluatusco, 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 neighborihg for- est hides several pyramids, which, thank's to its protecticn, have remained standing.' 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 pj-ni- mids that the teocallis or palaces rise oc Talenque as at Copan, in Yucatan and Honduras as in Anahuac ; the trav- ' Sarlorius, " Soc. Mex. (loog. Boleiin, 2 a cpoca," vol. I., p. S21 ; vol. II., p. 143. '' 4^1j» ^ «l m M Wl W fcfe!i T tt < i >' ■ '.«. - rUF. AV.^'7 OF CFNTKAI. AMFRICA. 355 fur- whif'li ; Nol. II., cller meets with them as far as tlie Isthmus of Tchuiintepcc, whore two of them near the town of 'I'ehuantepec are es- pecially noticeable ; the lars^er 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 tlian 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 !)uildcrs ; 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 tliem, but it is probable that the exuberance of Spanish ad- jectives and the natural tendency of travellers to exaggerate the features of their discoveries arc responsible for much that has passed into history. Tula,' 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 no*;h- ing but its name. " Five centuries before the conquest," says Sahagun, ' " 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- ' There .ire several places of the name of Tula, Tullia, 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 inh.abitantstook 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 Rone on account of tiie splendor (jf its monuments. ' " Hist, de la cosas de Nucva Kspaua," prol. al. lib. VIII. A A X \ A A I ik .|! ii.- 1 , s\ [Hi 41 35^^ PRE-inSTORIC AMERICA. cuted, is interesting, as it shows us the mode of jointinc^ with tenon and mortice employed by these people, who were al- ready well advanced in their knowledge of technical pro- cesses." 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, shoukl they be confirmed, will prove of capital importance to the ancient 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, (i:'!rO=^**-i mountains of rubbish probably, which had cov- ^-^^C^w^t^,! cred 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." " This is not all," he adds ; " in the midst of /^'^'t3['' ^>j fragments of pottery of all kinds, from the |^^!T^^3^,'> 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." 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, '"Soc. Mex. Geog. Boletin," 3d epoca, vol, f,, p. 185. "The Toltecs used indifferently stones mixed in mud or in mortar lor tlie interior of the walls, and cement and lime lor copying them. They employed burnt brick and hewn stone for the inside coating, brick and stone for the stairs, and wood fur tlie roofs. They were acquainted with the pilaster, which we have found \\\ tlieir 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 Tntit 1/ Uni:-. \ 358 PRE-IIISTORIC 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.' To get some idea of what were the buildings of the Aztecs, wc 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.' 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 * Bernal Diaz : " Hist, venladera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana," fol. 70. ; " Relatione falta per un gentil'huomo del signor F. Cortese." Ramusio : " Navigation! et Viaggi," vol. III., fols. 307, 309. Torquemada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. II., p. 197. Cortes: "Cartas y Relaciones," p. lo6. Sahagun: " Hist. Gen.," vol. I., p. 197. Gomara : "Hist, de Max.," fol. 118. 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 labradade piedras grandes .a manera de culebras asidas las unas a las Otras." Acosta ; " Hist, de las Yndias," p. 333. ssaos 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 inLernal 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.' 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 tempi was con- secrated. That of Tlatoc was reached by a flight of fifty steps*; that of Quetzacoatl was circular and cro\\'ned 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 ' " Hist, de k Conq.," fol. 7. 'Oviedo : " Hist. Gen. y Nat. de las Indias," vol. lil., p. 302. o rKi:-JI/S TOA'/C A Mi: RICA . to devour them." The flJiuicatruan wa>? dedicated to the pl.inct Venus, and a captive had to be sacrificed at tho very moment of the appearance of that planet above the horizon. In accordance with a rather orit;inaI idea an immense catje was placed in one of the teocallis to receive the statues of foreij^n gods, so that they miL,dit not be able to use their hberty for succoring their worshippers.' The Qnauhxicalco was an immense ossuary where the bones of victims were accumulated. The skulls were set aside and put in the Tccnipant li o\xi?,\dc the enclosure near the west- ern gate. This Tzempantii 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.' 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 arc the sole mementoes at the present day of the past splendor ' Torquemada : " Mon. Intl.," vol. II., p. 145. ' Torquemaila, quoted above, vol. II., p. 147. 'Warden: "'Kcchcrches sur lus Ant. de I'Am, du Nord., Ant. Mex.," vol. II., p. Gb. u:£-. ' -"iU..;wit.- cage vol. II., THE KUIXS or CEXTRAL AMERICA, 36 r of a town which contained one Imndred and forty thousand houses, and where two hiuulretl thousand craftsmen worked for years at the erection of the dwelHn;^ of tlic chief.' Ty- lor, in a recent visit, made out the foundations of two large Teocallls and several tumuli, which marked ancient graves. In consecjuence 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 CJuemada, 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 *own, the true name of which is unknown, owes its founda- tion." The Ccrro dc 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 'Torquemada : " Mon. Ind.," vol. I., p, 304. The fi^^ures he gives .ire prob- ably greatly exaggerated. Peter Martyr mily spraks of twenty tliousand houses, and Cabajal Espinosa of thirty thousand, " Mist, de Mexico," Mexico, lSf)2. vol. I., p. 87. 'Lyon : " Journ.al of a tour in the Republic of Mexico," I-ondon, 1828, vol, T., p. 225. Narco (^v Esparza ; " Informe prcsentado al Gobierno," Zacate- cas, 1830. J. Du'karl ■ " Aufenthal und Reisen in Mexico," Stuttgart, 1S36. Ncbel ; " Viage sobre la I\opublica Mejicana," Paris, 1839. " Soc. Mex. Geog. lii>l,," 2a. cpoca, VI 1. Ill , p. 278. Fcgueux ; " Les Ruines dc la tjuemada," •/iV,', (/' Ethn., vol., 1, p. iig. • ■I ; n • '« ■: * -1 • \ >% IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1^ m ? -^ IIIIM 1.8 1.25 1.4 1 1 A -< 6" ► p>w V. <^ r ^ ^ /^ '•z f> !■'■ /^ "W Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 /. ■■"' ,.V*^. t 5 ch. XI. nificcnce contrasts strangely with the arid and desert coun- try surrounding them. *' The monuments of the golden ago of Greece and of Rome," says the eminent archeologist, VioIIet-le-Duc, " alone equal the beauty of the masonry of this great building. The facings, dressed with perfect regu- larity, the well-cut joi ts, the faultless bends, and the edges of unequalled sharpness, bear witness to knowledge and loiig experience on the part of the builders." ^ttav'tiKi *iSS!'*CU' 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 ' On the plan given by Dupaix he figures a fourth building. Vit)llet-le-Duc reproduces it (p. 75). The very foundations have now completely disappeared. in V\ n , ►, 366 PRE.IIISTORIC AMERICA, III I ;1 (if two columns (r., r.). The western buildinjr (D) has fared still worse ; its foundations alone remain. At I'alenque 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 (/^) 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." 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 dc 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 ' 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. ! mri 11 s fared que the n Yuca- le-stonc Dyed at exterior y hewn y varied t on the ee doors Dnger in numents columns, nns were csscn the ese ruins /■ were of pinion of le of his the con- abs more 1, and the ding that with gro- , kind of ins to re- jossibility facts so confusing nth three Idoubtedly of the eastern u a B o o .a U i i ^: ! ; !'; t li 368 PRE.IIIS TORIC A M ERICA. layers of very durable strcco, 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 arc 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 Ccrrode Guiengola,' 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," Musco Mcx. MUller ; Vercinigten Staaten, Canada, und Mexico," Leipzig, 1864. Reisen in den THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 3^ ot un- cd into in spite Dnes of remark- in little or ara- iaics. of dvanced difficult lowcvcr, cmal arc standing, igh on a icratic in- Uowed to in stone, itla. We form of a ict rare in iReisen in den corpses were placed with the faces turned toward the tjround, a very uiuisual .irrantjemcnt. The Ccrro do Guicngoia is but a few leagues from Te- FiG. 146. — Image of a Zapotec chief. Fig. 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.' ' F. Malcr, Nature, I4lh June, 1879. r. I! U I 1 if ^ . i ( 1 ',' 1 ■i' ^' .1 370 PRE.inSTORIC 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 arc 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 seen\s to have been a labret or pendant for the lip. A similar ornament is fastened to the royal h'p. 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. yf^''':. the gold ornaments were also picked up several cop- pei cts, earthenware vases of graceful form, a cup, the h?'.Ji-- 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 TITE h'U/XS or CF.r^TRAt. AMFRICA. 371 bund a several contact I at the lot have :t, taken ig great the (lis- e weight ;d down. 5. 146 to ' a Zapo- to have namcnt is presented ved, with- [ful jewel- ;o imitate, ivcral cop- 1 cup, the limal, oth- :ings, and ets of sea- are figures luseum of onuments, le industry lies or pal- America, is literally nt regions ; lumbers, to laintain ex- nterest, to o illustrate people, the vcr)' name of which is almost cfTaccd 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 Kscuintla (Guatemala), a little town of recent creation, not yet marked on any ^w\\\^, rises at the loot of the volcano del Fuego. The celebr.ited Fig. 148. — Zanoteo ornament found al Tehuanlepec. I'lcj. 149. — Zapotec labret. 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.' ' Habel : "Investigations in Central and South America," "Smiii . Ooni.," vol. XXII. Schobel : " Un chap, de I'Arch. Am. Congres de Luxembourg," vul. II. H H 2 Ut> 372 Ph'/:-f/rSTOf!fC A.MF.NICA. Amonpst blocks of cyclopcan stone, and rubbish of all kinds, sculptures arc seen, differing materially from and in- finitely superior to those we have described. In the sugar plantation of Don Manuel Ilerrcra, Rastian 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 Kr.cienda dc los Taros lay three other figuri*s in relief, five feet nine inches in height, by three feet seven inches across, and t)f 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 h.ird porphyritic rocks, such as ire on.y found near the volcano of Acatenango, so that Ihe 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 sccnesTepresent the adoration of the sun and of the moon, or rather of the gods presiding over these heavenly bodies, for men had already adop&ed 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 reprofients a human sacrifice (fig. isO* 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 /7/A A'L'/XS OF CI.NTKAI. AMEKICA. m his face is that of a skeleton ; he is girded with two serpents, and the f^ V^-V^v(? ,-, v/ W^ : I ^^.^■^// /:..- ¥ni. 151. — Human Sacrifice ; Las-relief from Sta, Lucia. ■da THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 375 ritic rock ; the terror that this c^reat feline animal inspired doubtless led to its being admitted to the rank of a god.' 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 'vith 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 desiie of perpetuating the memory of the objects before his eyes by imitating them is one of the 'Stephens: " Central America," vol. II., p. i8S. Scherzer : " Ein Besuch bei den Ruinen von Quirigua im Staate Guatemala," Vienna, 1865. ' Soldi : ' Les camees et les pierres gravees I'art au moyen age, I'art Khmer, lee arts du Perou et du Mexique, I'art Egyptien, les arts industriels, des musees du Trocadero " Paris, iSSo. pi t ' ''\ . i k '= * fv i.,M -I ♦1 :t>| ri^ 376 PRE-IIISTORIC 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 arc regular annals of the people, and represent their first migrations. Bancroft (vol. II., pp. 544, 545, 547) reproduces these paintings after Gemclli, Carer, and Lord Kingsborough. They arc 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 arc 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. 377 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 a.- a battle, a migration, or a fire, the memory of which ihey wished to preserve. La'.cr, 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 : CJiapultcpcc, the hill of the grasshopper ; Tzompanco, the place of skulls ; Chunal- popoca, the shield full of smoke ; Acainapitzin, the hand full of reeds ; MacuilxocJiitl, the five flowers ; Qiiauhtcnchan, 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- [^uage ; 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 > -■'-\ ■ \ \ ;, ' \ i i i. * ! ; f ■i til. ■ r 'Mi; !■ i !' * 1 : - kiniA 11^^ . or Copan, as on those of Chichcn-Itza or Quirigua (figs. 113, 124, 126, 127, 128, 130); they were sculptured or engraved on granite or on porphyry, with quartzite and obsidian im- plements.' 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,' 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 Perczianus and that of Dresden. Bancroft (vol. II., p. 771) enters into minute details in regard to these various manu- scripts, lie 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 ' ; 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 ' Gomara : " Conq. Mex.," p. 31S. Clavigero : " Stor, Ant. del Messico," vol. II., p. 205. • " Hist. Apologetica de las Vndias Occidentales." • " Relacion de las cosas de Vucaian," published in 1864 by Brasseurde Bour- bourg, wiih 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 RUIN:, OF Cr.XTRAL AMERICA. 379 spite of estimable earnest works ' on the subject, it has been impossible to decipher, with its help, either the mar.uscripts, or the hieroglyphics, which according to all appearance arc 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- thctic system, and present that character so characteristic of the languages of the New World. They were written on real paper, made cither 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 woodcfi 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 arc red, brown, sometimes blue, according to the text to which they relate, arc 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 ; 'We will mention L. de Rosny : "Essai de dechiffrement de I'ecriture liicraiique de I'Ameriqiie Centiale," Paris, 1875. De Charency, " Rccherches sur le Codex Troano," J'aris, 1876. " E^sai de dechiffrement d'une inscription palenqueenne " ; Actesde le boc. ue Philologie, vol. I., March, 1878. Unfor- luiiately kv..cn this last work appeared, we had only very imperfect reproduc- tions cf the hieroglyphics of Paienque. Cliarnay has lately sent to Paris plaster casts of i!iem, and every one can now consult them in the Trocadero Museum. See also Eollatrl's paper published ia the " Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London," vol. II., p. 298. We do not speak of the works of the Al)be Brasseur de Bourbourg, which are characterized rather by imagination than by science. *Ch. Rau, p. 57, "Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII. ' Peter Martyr, decade iv., book viii. Juan de Villagutierre y Sotomayor, "IIi^t. ilo la Conquista de la Province du cl Iiza," Madrid, 1701. ^ I '. ;H; \ r- lit i \ f' |. 'i lit; i I I 1 1 3So PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. the Codex Tellcriano-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 ycry distinct kinds of painting : figurative painting, in which the artist reproduces more or less exactly the objects before his eyes ; jymbolical 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 tlic 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.' 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 oi iecr, 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 bhic ' Torquemada : " Mon. Ind." p. 378; Acosta: "Hist, dc las Vnd.," p 515; Veytia : "Hist ant. de Mejico," vol. III., p. 377 ; Herrcia : "Hist. Gen.," dec. II., book III., ch. IX. TIJF. RUINS OF CFXTRAf. AMERICA. rary of 566, in :he col- la, sup- lex, the ;o have iukc of rcscnta- it is to , special escaped distinct liQ artist his eyes ; ted by a in which that the ;xisted in low that era Cruz, Mitczuma othcs of alarm of habitants at of the t in the rm of an These and orna- ns of the principal and blue ml.,"i) 515; Gen.." dec. 381 being most generally preferred.' 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 ei her country to justify this assertion. Cortes mentioned to Charles V. his surprise at the num- ber of gold, silver, lead, copper, and tin " ornaments publicly exposed for sale. In some places little bits of tin were used as money ; elsewhere pieces of copper, very much like the ' Ordoiiez : " 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," 30th Oct., 1520. V ■ i i ! 4 382 PRE //fS TOR/C A M ERIC A. ■'1 •I ( tau (t) in form; or quills filled with gold-dust served the same purpose. Trading was, however, chiefly carried on b\ barter, and payments, according to BoUaCrt, 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 di.stricts furnished ample means of color- ing cloth. The pottery was remarkable, alike in style and execution. Herrcra 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 c^ Palenquc. 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^ayas. They not only fashioned vases of the most varied form for domes- tic use,' 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. !i irtiiniii run muiNs of central America. 383 1 ;.,' red the 1 on b\- Tiadc ill :cn con- ound in oncludc metals, alzavoh, 1 the art d varied of color- xecution. re it was 1 Palacio of Agua- aya race, lie of San i at Ticul, die centre designs c^ (f^g-153). 1 idol or a as. They or domes- jed, statu- hey burnt ornament, the cry of ction in Lon- imerous speci- uion the Na- National Mu- published in he second by 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. 1 56, J57> 158). We mention especially a vase more than twenty- <■ il I ; ■' :.;, .J \ ^ i « 384 PRE. niS TORIC AMERICA . two inches hipjh by fifteen in diameter, found in an excava- tion under one of the pubhc squares of Mexico, not onlj- Fig. 155. — Idol from Zachila. Fir,. i;6 — Vase frfim the Naiiuii„l Aluscuin of Mexico. Fio, 157. — Vase belonging to the National Museum at Washington. •xcnva- ot only XICO. linglon. TUE Rl'lXS or (EXTRA I. AMF.iaCA. 385 on account of its form and docoration, hut l)ccause 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.' The Aztecs were no less skilful in working obsidian than in moulding clay. They made of obsidian, in spite of the Fig. 15S. — 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.' Lastly, the ' "Proc. Anthr. Soc. of Washington," 1879, p. 80. ' 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." t C i ^ ' % IP . I; I 1 ' til It 386 PRE-niSTORlC AMERICA. National Museum of Mexico contains numerous and inter- estin^ 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 surprisin;:; 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 Reviezv, 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. rF.R'-j. 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,' with a few valleys, formed by the tributaries of th.e 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 ' " Sahara is a thing of beauty, and Arizona a joy forever, compared wilh the coast of Peru." Squier, " Peru," p. 25. e l: 2 ,M r\ t ,i If 1 *« ; 1: I M t ■ 1 1 ; i 1 388 PRE-niSTORlC AMERICA. m \ I fortress dcfcndinfT it, the roads intersecting it, the acequias or canals conducting the water needed for fertilizing the fields, the tambos or houses of refuge in tlic mountains for the use of travellers,' 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.' The empire of the Incas, oi which we are now to speak, was three thousand miles in length by four hundred in width, between S. Lat. 4° and 34° — i. c, from the river Andasmayo of the north of Quito to the river Maule in Chili. It included within its limits Peru,' 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 culminatincj ' Tlic Qquichua name was tam/ti, and tambo is a Spanish corruption. ' Montesinos : " Memorias antiguas historiales del Peru." Temaux Compaiis published a French translation in 1840 ; its facts are mingled with many fables. Garcilasso de la Vega : " Los Comentarios reales que tratan del origcn 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 was witness, and with an evident partiality for the Incas, from whom he was descended by the mother's side. " Tres relacions de Antigucdades Pcruanas publicalas el Ministerio de Fomento," Madrid, 1879. This volume contains " Kelacion por el Licenciado Fernando de Santillon"; " Rel. Anonima"; " Rel. porD. Joan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti." Humboldt : " VuesdesCordilliires et Mon. des Peuples indigenes de 1' Amerique," Paris, 1810. D'Orbigny : " L'Homme Americain," Paris, 1834-1847 (Extract from "Voy. dans I'Amer. Meridionale," 9 vols., 4"). E. de Rivero et Tschudi : " Antiguedadcs Peruana.-," Vienna, 1851, and " Die Kechua Sprache," Vienna, 1853. W. H. Prcscolt : " Hist, of the Conquest of Peru," 7th edition, London, 1854. Hutchinson ; " Two Years in Peru." E. Desjardins : " Le Perou avant la Conqucte Espag- nole." Paris, 1858. W. Bollatirt : "Antiquarian, Ethnological, and otlicr Resarches in .^^^ew Granada, Ecuador, Peru, and Chili," London, i860, Mateo Paz Soldan: " Geog. del Peru," Paris, 1862. V. F. Lopez: " Les Racts 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 0/ t/u world" itants called it Tavan- .'ERU. 3S9 point of its grandeur, its population may possibly have num- bered from ten to eleven million souls.' The origin of the Incas is unknov/n, and there is nothing known of the real history of the country covering more than four hundred yearr before the Spanish conquest. Accord- ing to tradition Manco-Capac and the beautiful Mama-CEUo, 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 {llatitit) 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 sepukhral tumuli, fortresses, and temples preserve similarities of style from Arica to San ' 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. "Angrand: " Leltre sur les Antiquites de Tiaguanaco," Paris, i366. AUeit: " La tr^s Ancienne Amerique," Nancy, 1S74. '- 1 i -1^ 1 t .1 ; \H\ I 390 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. Jose ; 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.' D'Orbigny is of opinion that the differences be- tween them were rather apparent than real. There arc 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 ° 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 difificult 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 t? Toltecs and the Aztecs. Whilst admitting the possibility of this hy- pothesis, ^here 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.' 'Markhani : "The Tribes of the Empire of the Incas," Royal Geog. Soc, 1871. DOrbigny: " L'Homme Americain," vol. II., p. 306. Forbes :" The Aymara Indians," yourn. 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 MananccaUahy- cucullnhuancupasraocchu (they have not had the kindness or the charity to think of me). See also Tschud- : " Die Kechua Sprache," Cong, dcs American- isles, Luxembourg, 1877, vol. II., p. 75. 'Angrand, /. c, p. "i"] ct seq. PERU. 391 Setting aside conjectures more or less justified, the native account generally accepted shows us Manco-Capac reigning from 102 1 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'.' 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 X6res 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 17th of 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 ' ' " No ha habido en la tierra monarcas mas despoticos que los Incas, Eran aJorados 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 fur tlie ■■,-_ V, "■ \ \ !' ^ ' \ If- 392 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 studyin^^ their manners, laws, and religious ideas. We shall tell what were Pachacamac, Chimu, Tiaguanaco, Titicaca, Cuzco, and other tov ns, with the important monu- ments of every kind, of which the ruins bear witness. Un- fortunately man is daily busyin effecting their destruction ; intoxicated by the innumerable legtnds on the hidden riches of the Incas, the treasure-seekers cr 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 arc 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, I lakluyt Society by C. R. Markham, Loi^don, 1872. Consult Desjardins' ex- cellent work, " Le Perou avant la Conquete Espagnole." ' Yxoxn pacha, the earth, and camnf, particijile of cainani to create, Desjar- dins (note I, p. 23,) however gives another etymology. /hat we who, in on, suc- .tions of jing the by them, as ideas, guanaco. It monu- :ss. Un- truction ; len riches zealously pick-axe ; sages are ppearing, been re- liles from ;he sacred icult even arrival of ly broken where pil- the faith- isiderable ir. ernandez chacamac mple rose Iwas called tells us, those met ent town, esjardins' ex- ile. Desjai- 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,' one behind the other. This is an arrangement resembling that noticed in Central America,' and bears Fig. 160. — Peruvian mummy. Fig. i6i. — 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 ofifensively-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 ^Ia^kham (" 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," I ■ I : ^ > 1 % I k. I t: If 394 PRE-IIIS TORIC A M ERICA. \ % 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 i:till 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 Tumbcz, for an extent of more than six hundred and twenty-five miles, belonged to a people known under the name of Chimus. ^ The carga equals about 62 lbs. PERU. 395 Montcsinos alone speaks of the ori^^in 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, ^nd to give up the worship of animals," 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. ' 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 tliunder and lightning. •* The word huaca usually denotes a sepulchre, but its meaning is extended to embrace any consecrated or veuerated spot. ili 1 ■ i : 'j t i ;1 i • -. , i i i i] 1 i f I i H n I i y [/ 396 PRE-IIISTORIC 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,' 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 wc 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 tcmplo del Sol ' "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 t/uncated 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 ' 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- ' We retain the name palace given by Squier. This building, or rather this collection of buildings, was evidently used as a palace. . ^ rm ; i ? V t i I I : iV 398 PRE-inSTORIC AMERICA. certain their purpo<;c. In other rooms the walls arc covered with a coatinjr (jf color, generally dark red. There is a cor- ridor, the door opening into which consists of a double row of pilasters, whilst the walls arc covered with fissures 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. ' ^, '■ - ^ \ ' -'''.': v'' i.- ^■\ -■ . :-.i* ! ■^l.'jj^ fto^ . ^#^-:'i -*' .J^^HBMh4u.. ^:'A *^ '■^m \ ■'W;-'^'' ; ^ .^.., X" '^.'AiJ-'^y^: ^■\'Qi'%. f: 'y '(iS^S^r** 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 j^ive a drawing is in the Squicr 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 durint^ the struL,'c:les 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." 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 wc 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 Fig. 164.— Silver ajp found .,, . , f at Chimu. 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 "Squier: " Peru," p. 144. 1 ''ill , ;i ■ I i » 40O PK/:-///S TORIC A M ERICA . buildinr,'. aiul if it be really a prison the inhabitants of ("liimu were tlie first to conceive the idea of what we may call tlie 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, st)mc square, were arranged with great regularity in streets or scjuares. The rooms, of course, vary in number and size, the hirgest 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.' Tiaguanaco ' 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 difificult of access, men had, however, erected an important town and remarkable buildings.' Garcilasso rciutcs that when Mayta-Capac, the fourth Inca, for the first rime 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 ' Squier, loc. cit., p. i8i. ' Such is the name given to the town by the Incas. Its ancient name remains unknown. Angrand : " Lettre sur les Ant. de Tiaguanaco." ' Desjardins : '• Le Pcrou avant la domination Espagnole." Rivery and Tschudi : "Ant. Peruanas." of Cliimu y call the cut town, by carth- ncicnt in- 3cks. 'his is rare alone have formidable unci, some streets or nd size, the twelve in Its a house I the gable, /c been the itness to a nod by two hat of Aul- itains, ovcr- and is the able-land is the line of possible, no othing pro- access, men remarkable Capac, the he country, ivians a pro- 3 make out It name remains • Rivery auJ PERU. 401 what processes had been employed in their construction, 'liaguanaco 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 .^iM£#^>:c ■ • 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 Orejoncs, given by the Spanish to the natives. The stones employed are red freestone, a slate-colored ' Their height is very unequal ; the highest measures fourteen feet. The nionolilhs 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 bix thick. n D I I 'I- t , : j ( li I 1 { ' Mil! I 1 T I < : 4 ,■1 ' I < ^:l \ \ 402 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. ':\ ( /( trachyte, and a very hard and very dark basalt.' 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," 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 Tiiguanaco are fc md 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 oi 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 Desicirdins justly remarks, the popular designations are any thing but '- litable to the buildings to which they have been applied. The fortress* is a mound of rectangular form, which rises to a height of one hundred and fifty feet in successive ter- races, one behind the othc and "pheld by massive walls. This is again the same arrangement that we meet with in Mexico and Yucatan. The platform was covered with build- ings, of which the foundations are now scarcely visible. No- ' 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 bi.'Mers had to contend with. • *' In no part of the world have I seen stones cut with such mathematical precisi. i 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. lie speaks of the finest building of the country as a mountain of prodigious height made by the hand of man. .11 these xtly cut t of the o under- 5k so dif- id to use Df bronze vith such ured with /e served ;, and the e of more thedral of his height >od, or the aguanaco ; which have Desiardins thing but appUed. vhich rises cessive ter- sive walls. et with in with build- in sible. No- uins, and beds the mountains lad to contend mathematical u are there any liuco." Squier, larkable for its building of the )f man. PERU. 403 where have the tapadas shown a wilder zeal, excited doubL 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 pr:",ent 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 othe- 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'Orbifjny, in 1833. According to all appeara? ^es 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 -A this trench, the wa'ls 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. Y ii \ ' : Ml i-t i:if i I 1) It 2 i I \ 404 PRE-rilSTORIC AMERICA. m ;,! East of the Hall of J usticc wc sec a mound eight or ten feet high, forming a perfect square of one hundrcu and sev- enty-five feet each way. In the centre rose a building fifty feet square, to which Squicr 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 Fio. i66. — 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," surmounted by a frieze that ' This door is four feet six inches hifjli by two feet nine inches wide. Dcs- jardins, loc. cit., p. T59, gives an excellent description of this monument. M ' PERU. 405 has been dam.ifjcd by lis:T|itnin[T; and then four rcrics of cartouches bearinfr human hj^urcs cnfrravcd in intagli'^\ some unfinished, and in the centre a very original and com- plicated mass of ornamentation (tig. 167). This central or- FiG. 167. — Central portion of the great monolith of Tiaguanaco. nament represents a human face, surrounded by bas-reliefs which r.rc said to be of jaguars and condors.' The figures ' Angrand, who has visited Tiaguanaco, calls attention to its resemblance, I i tiie smallest details, to tiic monuments nf I'alenejue, Ococingo, and Aochicalco. ' i ■,| 1 ' 1 m \\ ^*f'!i- Prtili ? !i i ' ♦; 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 ir" the prolific table-land of Anahuac. One thing we thin tain : such monuments cannot be the remains of a civ. .zation 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.' 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, ' Wiener, loc, cit. , 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 ofTerings 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 Kenti punco, 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.' 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 parallelof^ram of i6|> 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 fagade was pierced with five doors, and with two ' We take this account from Padre Ramos, who wrote a short time after the conquest. j ■ - j' 1 ' i 1 . 1 1 i 1 . i ■ J * • i 5' E. ) 2 « ^•^ i I 408 PRE-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 otl. jr ■ 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 net communicating with each other can be made out, each including a series of twelve rooms, arranged according to totally different plans.' The internal and external walls, like these of the temple, were coated with fairly hard stucco, painted yellow • the jambs 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 lodgi d; the pi/a, or fountain of the Incas, where the water still flows from unknown springs through subterranean conduits ; the Chingana, 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 dispcnsa, supposing that the treasures of the temple and the objects used in worship were there ' Squier, " Peru," pp. 344, 345, gives the plan of each of these stories. PERU. 409 deposited. Squier looks upon them as the aclahiiasi, 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- ainas, 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 wc 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 fagade ; 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 tiie Inca on the island of Titicaca. The two buildings date frc.n the same period ; for though the palace of the Virgins was erected during the reign of Huayna- ■ I, t ,1 f I H ■ I ■ n > i 4IO PRE-inSTORlC AMERICA. Capac, his father, Tupac-Yupanqui, laid the foundations. On the west of tiic palace we can still observe ruins of a semicircular court, in which lived the sacred llamas and vicufias. 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,' 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 11,380 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 bj^ walls, which remind us of the cyclopeah 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 ' 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. ations. S of II IS and vc the ;as and :ontent e Incas prayer left the branch, uld sink )k place, ie it the to great accounts er of the It that a le for the uins still how men ;erile soil, the only ^ ripen in •ocks had yy walls, )f Greece t in posi- lese walls etimes of extremely blocks of PERU. 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." 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 pKTiitive ideas of men are of spontaneous origin and develop pn^gressively, according to a universal law which can be traced everywhere. The valley is overlooked by the Sacsahuaman^ 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 Rodj.dero, forming the sole mode of access to this fortress, which, with its triple enclos- ure of huge irregular blocks,' its terraces, and its para- pets, its projecting and re-entering angles resembling those of modern bastions, was absolutely impregnable ' Squier : " Pphi," p. 419. 'Comte de Sartiges : Eev. des Deux Mondcs, 1851, Squier: "Peru," p. 468. Historians differ as to tlie 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 build 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. ' 1, ■I 1 '1 ■m * ' }' 1 r H If ^^^ {i^\\ ■•it I 412 PRE.//TSTOf!IC AMEKICA. before the invention of artillery. Garcilasso ' 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 Europe. 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, Stonehengc, 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 Tiiipuncii, or gate of sand, the Acahuanapuncu, and the Viracochapwicu^ after the name of the guardian god of the to.v ., 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 Plzarro 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 Rodadcro, by * " Hist, des Incas, Rois du Pe'rou," 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. ' 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. rr.RU. 413 means o'f accquias or canals of remarkable execution, testi- fies still more to that of the engineers. \Vc give a drawing of one of those aqueducts (fig. 168), uhich, 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 er^inencc eighty feet above the Iluatenay. 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 vhere 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 Iniipampa, the field of the sun. The inner ::ud 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 Scrra 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, -vho 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 ) ; ?! ii ki i t ; r, ■ :l '! f 414 J'KE./IIS TORIC A ME RICA . supreme canse of every thinjj. In the centre a fountain hewn out of a stone of considerable size, still gives llii; nionks 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 Aclahuasi was only separated from the temple by a large building which served as a lodging for the priests. Fig. i68. — Aqueduct on the Rodadeio. 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 deatn this palace became the residence of his son. That of Huayna-Capac, the most illustrious of PERU. 4'5 his race, was no less than 800 feet lonp; 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 Atahualjja 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 \.\\*z A mantes, literally the wise men, taught the great deeds of the Incas, and pre- sorved 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 < Brazil ; but ail 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 OUantay-Tambo, Pisac, Piquillacta, and Choccequirao. The Ucayali,' 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 ' This river successively bears the names of Vilcamayo, Urubamba, and Yucay. — i I i: III i -i ^'l ( ; il I ^ 416 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. enlarged, mausoleums supported on pillars crowned by a lintel, and sculptures. Amonj^ 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.' Inside Tire heaps of huge blocks of red porphyP;', which enable us to form an idea of the importance of the fortress. Sorie of these blocks bear finely-executed ornaments, resembling those of Tia- Fig. 169. — Wall with niches, forming part of the fortification of Ollantay- Tambo. guanaco. \.^alls twenty-five feet high, with battlements like those oi 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- d- ed feet high, are seen the ruins of a little building, with a dc'or opening on to the brink of the precipice. The Spanish ' " Cie9a de Leon," chap. XCIV. Garcilasso : " Comm. Kealcs," book V., chap. XXVII. Markham : " Cuzco and Limi.." Squier ; " Peru," p. 482. d by a a puma was in- vncd by 'c heaps form an ;c blocks of Tia- o£ OUantay- ments like ks of the h away in )arricr. nine hun- ing, ^vitll ^ ic Spanish lIcs," book v., :u." r- 482. PERU. 417 gave to it the name of la horca del JiombrCy and, according to legend, criminals were taken to it and flung into the abyss. A little farther off is the liorca de mtijer, 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 tail that we have already seen at Palcnque. 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. Tl.j 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 paralk-i 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 irom at- tack, and devote themselves in peace to their .igricultural occupations. We must not omit to mention some very curious monu- ments, to which the name of intiJmatana ' has been given. " Inti signifies sun ; huatana, the point where a thing is fixed ; so that /«/»'- Intatana signifies, literally, the point where the sun is fixed. E E 'MU ill m Ml iil ? \ i ( ■'W""T"'"»T* I !; .- riii 418 PRE-niSTORIC AMERICA. These are isolated rocks, the summit of whicli 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. Squicr 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. '''>>> "^^'-vN, "^^.^ Fig. 170. — The Intihuatana of Pisac. That of Pisac is one of the best preserved, doubtless oii 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 champp 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. ' Champi is the name for Peruvian bronze. Scjuier : " Peru," \k 525. en com- ttle col- huatana nentions he little t of the ible that the sun, le temple ry uncer- 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 arc 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,' and where his son Viracocha com) -^lled him to reside, after having conquered the rebels by Ms "(-urage and bound his brow with the royal llautu.' 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 s' nghold was the refuge of the last survivors of the race 'f Alanco- Capac. Nothing could equal the wild grandeur of tnese places.' We are astonished at finding the industry of man gaining a footing on tlie rocks w^here the condor had built its eyrie. The first ruins to meet the eye of the traveller arc those of the outer circuit of defence. Angrand has suggested that ' 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 red aigrette, and the cnpac-ongo, or royal mantle. * Desjardins : " Le Perou avant la Conquclc Espagnole," p. 138 et seq. The Comte de Sartiges in 1334, and Angrand, 1847, are the only Frenchmen who have visited Choccequirao, and it is from them we take these details. !•; !■: 2 'Hi 420 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. ■\ the buildings next seen served as a prison, as he had noticed that the doors were closed with st" ' ^ of enormous weight. A hundred and fifty-three yards lower, following the inclina- tioa of the crest, wc come to the palace and to the bath-room, in which wc 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 buildinjjs, 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 tlie ancient inhabitants of the country. More useful works have been preserv d as witnesses to the PERU. 421 noticed weight, inclina- ;h-room, ch must Is in use s which, ting-hall, windows other, a und rro- s animals buildings, ind a half nd a half ; )per story, all, which The third the upper ing access ible cleva- trancc, and alls on the are ruins, -r the vast buildings, Idians know Is of to-day doubtful ; ;a, we shall Insurmount- baffled the liesses to the 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 v*iio 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' 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 •Bollaert: "Ant. Ethn. and other Researches," p. 90. ' We mention especially Zurate. *Hist. del Descubrimiento y Conquisla del !^ ^1 I \ •ifilii . %■ i; \ I ii J f * ! ; Jiil! 422 PRE-ITIS TOnrC 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 th(^ 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 Ncpafla, 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. nnd Tschudi. tancc of le truth, ost diffi- Icvellcd, Dices was lad been : are not ercly cm- s had no id freight ;e circum- sar to us, n tropical ced in elc- icequias or , " I have ;hcm wind- md out as rh walls of 2 cases con- jbstructing narrow val- mts fifty or ted around descending int idea of LaNcpana, cemented is reservoir lalf a mile. I, and could s a remark- lommunica- de Leon (ch. kt, Rivero, rjid PERU. 423 tion with each other, conducted at a considerable height the water of the Cerro dc Pasco to the Cerro dc Sipa. Constructions of minor importance, but nevertheless of great interest, are to be seen at Huanuco Viejo,' 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,' 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 FlG. 171.— The castle of Huanuco, held in great honor amongst the ancient Peruvians, and no difficulty deterred t.hem. 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 ' Huanuco Viejo, a fhort distance from the celebrated silver mines of Cerro de Pasco, is so called t j distinguish the ancient from the modern town, situated sixteen leagues farthe;' 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, I'az-Soldan : " Geog. del Peru," p, 271. ' " These ruins are interesting from the six stone porl^ Mqu^ Fig. 175. — Vase from a Peruvian tomb. (One fourth natural size.) Fig. 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 ' Some vases of nearly similar form are still used to prepare infusions of rr.RiT. 429 chicha, the latter obtained by the fcrmcntaticm of roasted maize, which has always been the favorite national beverage. Fig. 177. — Aymara niuminy. From these tombs have been taken little copper hatchets ; Coca. (" Erythroxylon coca.") An excellent monograph on this plant, by Dr. L. A. Cosse, was publishe ' at lirussels in 1S61. ! f .' ! i V.\ i 430 PRE-I/ISTORIC 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 ^vhole 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, .n 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. Tiicse objects were large earth^nvvare jars of the coarsest workmanship, stone arrow-points, copper pins, and roughly hewn stones, intended for grinding maize.' Between these two extremes we meet with other tombs, varying according to the wealth of the survivor. Some hu- acas near Arica, excavated in 171 2, have brought to light mummies wrapped in rich cloth, having beside them vases of gold or silver.'' The bodies, mummined by the dryness of the climate, for they show no trace of embalming, were in a sitting posture ; several held in the mouth a I'ttle golden plaque.' In 1836, other explorers resumed these excavations on the shores of the Bay of Chacota, a mile and a half from Arica.* The tomb': 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 beer; violated. Those still inti::t enable us to judge of the mode of buriiil ; some of the corpses had evidently been dried before inhu- mation ; others were covered with a resinous substance.' ' ' Vo-'age of the Beagle." BollaiJrt, /, c, p. 175. "Iloilaiirt, /or. 1.7V., p. 1 5 1. ' Riveio et Tschudi : " Antiguidades Peruaiias." * J. Blake : " Notes on a Collection from the Ancient Cemetery of the Ciyof Chacota" ; " Report Peabody Museum," vol, II., ji. 177, etc. * Apossiz meiitions mummies preserved by this process at Pisagua. Accord- PERU. 431 ■^'i \ ! Mj Others of and little he whole mou mi- ll height, ound the c tumuli, I one of a )icked up rest class. z coarsest d roughly tcr tombs, Some hu- lit to light :hem vases dryness of r, were in a ttle golden excavations a half from r diameter om five to h of erect id. All rc- ,, doubtless violated, of burial ; cfore inhu- substancc.' of the Day of agua. Accord- 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 cemeter)', Wiener (" Peru and Bolivia"), who has excavated numerous tcmbs, should be consulted, and .also tile magnificent work by Reuss and Stiibel ; "The Necropolis of Ancon in Poru." if i 432 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. dren their toys ; women,' 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.' 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 ' 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 Peruviana." » "Bull. Soc. Anth.," i8Si. p. 550. ool, and fineness, iknown ; ;her hair y for the es. The taining a ind under PERU. 433 she had begun to weave, and which death had prevented her from finishing.* Her hair, of a hght-brown color, was firie 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." At Iquique, one huaca contained no less than five hundred bodies, all seated and wrapped in long mantles of different colors.' Some rites are still unexplained ; for instance, in i:^ M- \i \ Lacota. [he climate, Ih touching 1, whose le- lly vases of [c cloth that Fig. i8o. — 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 ' At Pachacamac excavations have brought to light a loom of half-woven tissue. ' The Galibi women still paint their legs with Toticou, a vegetable powder of a fine red, which they dissolve in oil extracted from certain oleaginous seeds. ' BoUaert, /. c, p. 179. V V \ ^ ^ K 1| it ;!iil 4j4 PRE-IIIS TORIC A MERICA . 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 rr.ade from the wool of the vicuna 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,' 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. *" Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Peru," Lima, 1621. Fig. 181. — Pitcher from an ancient Peru- vian sepulchre. (Natural size.) PERU. 435 \ goal of , and the 5crvcd to In some if bodies ; ow of the 'he tombs ith reeds, ound, and coverings ,vool of the )aca. Here contained •so objects, .ined their t the poor .tent with a ppcr, which •pose of the s for Charon il rites of ner, in his t Ancon, number of rcr or bronze the mouths .ccd the im- ct and fisli- With the were often z or crystal, ^anopas, the to continue on which he o watch over 621. 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 01 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 mcr^ 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, w'ithout any good results for science." Many travellers also mention a cave of some extent, which has received the appropriate name of Infernillos^ At the entrance arc rude sculptures, representing personages of both sexes. On the walls 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.' The Peruvians distinguished the intelligent and immaterial soul {runa) from the body, the name of which {allpacamasca), animated earth, is characteristic* They believed in a future life ; and the man who had well employed the time of his 'Sruier : " Peru," pp. 49I-531. Bol.iert, /. r., p. 152. ' T'r-'ns. Ethn. Soc. of London," vol. III. Nature, May 7, 1881. * Desjaii., ij, ;. c., p. 100. I' !•■ 2 3 » Mil- I 1 I 43^5 PRR-lirSTOKIC AMERICA, mortality went after death to the Ilaiianpacha^ the world above, where he awaited his reward. If, on the contrary, lie had led a bad life, he was flung into the UrupacJia, 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 {raoti). 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 bv side with the visible forces of nature existed ccr- lain inferior gods : Papapconopa, who was invoked to ensure a good harvest of potatoes (sweet potatoes) ; Caullama, the protector of flocks ; Chichiry who, like the god Tcrmcs, en- sured respect for landed property ; and Lacarvilka, 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, willinL;ly or by force, to the worship of the sun. The wars of the Incas had an essentially religious character,' and may be ' Desjardins, /. c, p. 95. PERU. 437 y,hc ,vorld ,'as to very maras ;ors of iards? ipcnsc :ssarily an, ex- d after re than iiundcr. worship ; y those ijccts of 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 sh'nvn that, at a certain period, Peruvian priests taught the existence of a supreme god, a Dciis igHOtus, to whom no temple was dedicated,' and whose image none were permitted to make." 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 bearwitness to the most elevated sentiments in their authors.' But their authenticity does not seem sufificiently 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,* ' 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-Huacac, 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 Hakluyt Society, London, 1873. * Garcilasso (" Com. Real., ' part I., book II., ch. IX.) asserts that human sacrifices had been completely abolished by the Incas, but the contrary is as- serted by the Spanish chroniclers, Sarmiento, Montesinos, Balboa, Cie^a de 438 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. I 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 Mexican^. 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.' The population was di- vided into decuries, and amongst the ten individuals who formed each dccury, 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, \\\\o received orders direct from the Inca. Besides this organization, which shared the combined in- conveniences of democracy and despotism, were the Ctiracas, 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, /. c, 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,' 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 ' " 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 Sanlillan and the anonymous account. \ I \ ! 440 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. hands of each couple, and proclaimed their union before the people. Such was the only form of marriage ; it does not ai)pear that the inclination of the wedded pair was consulted, and generally every one marricfl 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. Oil the birth of each child, the allowance made was increased by one faiicga for a boy, and a half-fa7iega 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 \vc understand it, does not apt^'^ar to have existed.' The Peru- vian was simply the farmer lor 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 membejs, 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 ' " Rel. primera del Licenciado Polo de Ondegardo." Ondegardu had been corregidor of Cuzco about 1560. Prescott obtained a copy of his reports which were addressed to Philip IT., and are preserved in the archives of Simancas. Tliey have since been partly printed, at the cost of the Ilakluyt Society of London. VERU. 441 Fig. 182.— Sepulchral vase from a huaca of I'cru. was distributed to each fainil)-, accordiivx to the number of wdUKMi 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 maki a certain (luantit) of cloth which was stored away as a re- serve for the unforeseen needs of the community. The dwellings of tiie Pe- ruvians were in harmony with the position of Liicir inhabitants. Except that of the Incas or of tlie 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 f the build- ing, and which may be compared with ancient cloisters. Someof thcroc;fs had a double " slope rest- ing on lateral walls with two gables, o!i which . ere carried cross-pieces formed of cane, \\hich were cov- ered with agave leaves, maize-straw, and some- times even with mats. The organization above described guaranteed the undisputed authority of the supreme master. Each in- FlG. T83. — Penivian vase representing a man squatting on the ground. m 1 II ' Comte de Sartiges ; Rev. des Deu.x MonJes, I051. ' Wiener, /. c, p. 503. 442 PKE.lllSTORlC A M Eli I C A. L dividual formed part of a clan, which he was forbidden to leave. He could not ameliorate either his own position, or that of those belon^MU^' to him ; nor coukl 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 wantint,'. Public spirit could not develop, and this is the best explanation of the strange r;N pidity with which a few Spanish adven- turers reduced to submission a popula- tion of several million souls. Peruvian pottery was equal in e.xccu- 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 Fig. 185. — Piece of Peruvian pottery, representing a llama. is astonishing. In the archaological 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 1 tf) leave, r Ills own )n-iii^; to ticath it. st powcr- )tisni, am- the spirit wanting;. (, aiitl this strange ra- ish advcn- a popula- in exccu- 3thcr races cl appears, : the work- lical means at Madrid arc extremely varied, from the clumsiest vessel, reminding us of the lake pottery of Kurope, 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,* baked in a kiln,' and covered outside with a per- meable varnish, probably .silictj-alkaline. Some have attribu- ted this varnish to polishing when cold ; but Demmin ha.s 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. 17^)), 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- ; t Fig. 186. — Piece of 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.* 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 ' Desjardins, /. c, p. 171. Wiener : "Peru and Bolivia," p. 620, et seq. ' Demmin : '* Guide de 1' amateur de faiences ou de porcelaines." 3d. edition, Paris, 1867. Barnard Davis, Anth. Institute of Great Britain, April, 1873, ' Bollaert (/. c, p. 210) s.ays that the pottery was baked in the sun, and that the use of the kiln was unknown. This is an evident error. * Demmin, /. c, p. 134, Birch : " Ancient Pottery," vol. 11., p. 253. i\\ I ,t )r? lin 444 PRE-IIIS TORIC A MEKICA '. from the Pacific coast, the tlesign of which reminds us of Hercules struggling with a fish, a subject so often reproduced by the I>truscans. At the ethnographical museum of St. Petersburg we may also sec a scjuatting 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 certair. antique Fig. i?7. — A vase found at Chinibote. statues.' There is indeed not a single Peruvian collecticii, public or private,'' which does not contain types curiously re- "Scliobcl : " Antiquites Amcricaines du Musl'c F*Jino{;'aplii(}vie Je Saint relersbourjj." "Cong, dcs Amoric," Nancy, iSyc, vol. II., p. 273. '■' The M -iccdo collection, recently ac([uired by tlic Prussian Government, con- tains numerous type; of animals. Many are reproduced in the A^oiire'k Rtfiw d Ethno^^raphie (iSrfa, No. 1), which, under the skilful direc 'on of Dr. llaiiiy. is destined to render real scrvii e to science. Tin.' Louvre ' 'useum also pn?- ' 4. I'fRU. 445 U t id.'? lis of [M'OcluCCcl 111 of St. her more long eurs ted by ii •. anticjuc collection, uriously r^- i(iue Je Saint 73- vornment, con- Koiive'lc Rn-^i-: of Dr. II •>""■• scum also i"'=- scrrbliiiiT those which have w rongly been .supposed to be exclusively character- istic of tlic Old World. Numerous pieces of pot- tery represent men (figs. 183, 184), animals in famil- i.U" attitudes (figs. 185,186)- a Ihima, for instance, eat- ing an ear of cdrn. The I'eabody Museum possesses fifty-one piixes from the Agassiz collec- tion, among them several representatives of mon- keys, and three human fig- ures, from thirteen to sev- [ren inches in height. Two v;.ses found, on>. at Cliim- ' I FlO. lS(j. — A silv;ul( Fie.. iSS. — I'lnrtlienwnre v.Tse fouiul iiiulcr a luiaca iu;ar Sant.^. bote (fig. 190), the other under a huaca near Santa (fig. iSS), are remarkable. The first is the work of the Chiinus, and dates from the time of the domination of the Incas, for the cars are distended by an ornament dat- ing from the same period ; the second is a human figure in retl clay, of a very characteristic type. scsses, in one of its jiublic rooms, a valuable collection uf statuettes of men .111(1 animals. De l.ongperier : " Notice des uiuiiuuicnts c.xposcc dans la sulle Jw Anticjuites Anicricaines," Nus. (J5S, et scq. I -g < fl n-l I \ i ; fs I 5 i 446 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. The silvador (fig. 189), fur 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. igo. — Piece of painted pottery representing a vicufla hunter. with each other.' One only of these necks is open, ;uid when liquid is poured into it, the compressed air in ihecaicr escapes with a peculiar whistle ; by a skilful contrivance the 'J. Bertillon : Nature, lotli June, iS32. Wiener reproduces .a certain num- ber of silvadors ; they resemble the Etruscan iiasilemes, and yet jnore the double jars which are still manufactured in Kabylia. i.'cn to a Museum, orlginal- unicatincf (fig. 197) their jewcl- e even more ludc lizards, nkeys, birds 5h with their heir leaves; ■elicf, others list did not ;tempting to roups. We lying in a ;e is about to The latter, led forty-nine ]e an iUustra- Ut the Poru- als, the only ilicatcd pii-L'^^ which latter | inventar uti nuevo sistema de escritura fu quemado vivo." Ameghino, /. c; con- sult the same author's " Inscripcioncs ante colombianas encuulradas en la R> publica Argentina," 8". Brussels, 18S0. PERU. 457 ordinary purposes of life they used qiiipos (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 rometimes mathematical.' Gar- cilasso tell us that the quipos, which related to the history of the Incas, were carefully preserved by an otficer called Qiiipo Camayol, literally the guardian of the quipos. The greater number were destroyed as monuments of idolatry Fig. 202. — 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. ' Before the accession of the Emperor Fo-Fli (3,300 B. C), it is said that the Cliinese 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." Jaffray : Nature, 1376, vol. II., p. 405. ;> '. / '.] \ ii ) \. ' V HI ■■ n I \\ 1 Ifef Ia}^ Sf < 458 PRE-IIISTORIC 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 tam.bos, or stations for the c//aj^«M 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.' 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 ' Prescolt : " History of the Conquest of Peru," p. 29. PERU. 459 sun of the Pacific coast. We shall recur again to the origin of this c'viHzation, 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.' 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 countrj', they knew jw 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 Now 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, stor ', 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 C ibchas ' Piedrahita : " Hist. gen. de la conquista del Nuevo Reyno de Granada," Madrid, 1688. Humboldt : ' ' Voyage aux regions equinoctiales," etc., and " Vues lies 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, 1S60. Uricochoea : " Mem. sobre las aniiguedades Neo-Granadinas," Berlin, n. d. Nature, 1877, vol. I., p. 359. " Isographia fisica y politica de los Estados Unidos de Colombia," Bogota, 2 vi)!s., 1862-3. Dr. Jaffray: "Voyage \ la Nouvelle Grenade," "La Tour du Monde." vol. XXIV., XXV.. XXVI. m 4 V I 1 iJ'.l ■4 li '{ ■ r ■ ■ I ' ! ; \ 460 PRE-HISTORIC 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 the conquistadorcs collected spoil of which the value exceeded thirty million francs.' 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,* 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 arc 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, condemned her to give light to the earth only during the night.* 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 analog}- 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 Uricochoea 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. ' The Chibchas are supposed to have called themselves Muyscas, a word signifying men in their language. * Dcsjardins : " Le Perou avant la conquete Espagnole," pp. 44 and 102. PERU. 461 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 vas 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 ' " Bull. Soc. Ge'og.," 1847. Travellers differ as to the number of columns still standing. See J affray : " Viaje a nueva Gran&da." Ameghino : "La An- tiguedad del Hombre," vol. I., p. 103. rT' ''* ■ f i !i ! ti ' .1 ' 462 PRE.IIISTORIC AMERICA. chief called Zippa, who commanded at Bogota; the chief of the other faction bore the title of Zoquc, 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 Z'ppa 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 cofifin of palm-wood, ornamented inside and out with sheets of gold. This cofifin 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 vvere 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 ..^M^liilliiitiiiliiiitlnilli PERU. 463 }n out J then nd out ulchrc, s been sought ccount, , which hat the yielded or pcr- ithed in ,t dedi- V\\\\ the c insig- ;ubines. .<, that Ints, and greater |e which lat lived in those )micide 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 {ccrcadas) 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, le^d, 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. Uriccechea 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 they 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 coinai^c to facili- tate these exchanges, and that it was for this purpose that t > 1 1 ! i ■w '' ^ I hi HI m^ 464 PRE.inSTOfilC AMERICA. were made certain peculiar little gold discs; it is more prnb- 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 tlu PEA' If. 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, tivered with colossal figures of crocodiles and tigers. They look as if they were intended to defend the representa- tions of tile sun and moon accompanying them. Ameghino also speaks' of hieroglyphics in New Granada, and perhaps wc 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 [' c object of the su- perstitious veneration of the natives.* 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 Sorth 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 '"EnNueva Granado las inscripciones geroglificas se encuentran a cado paso." " La Ant. del Hombre," vol. I., p. 92. 'Zamora : " Hist, de la Prov. del Nuevo Reino de Granada." ' Bastian : "Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde," Berlin, 1878. H H ;, \-l 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 (Siu/is gigas), which the natives t^'ie with the lance when it comes to the surface of the water, and the sca-turtle alone, would suffice for the nourishment of a large fish- eating population.* The barbarism of man presents a strange contrast with the riches of nature. Whilst powerful and industrious pco- pic, with regular government, laws, and towns, flourislicd 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- • "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 las provinces de Kio de Janeiro et de Minas Geraes." F. Denis : " Le Bresil, Univers Pittores(iue," Paris, 1837. F. de Castelnau : " Exp. dans les parties centrales de rAmericjue du Sud, de 1843 et 1847," 6 vol., 8°. A. de Varnhagen : " Hist. Gcral lio Brazil," Madrid and Riode Janeiro, 1855-7. Dr. T. Waitz : " Amhropolou'ie der Naturvolker," vol. III., Leipzig, 1862. C. de Martius : " Beitrat;Lwar Ethnographie und Sprachenkunde Amerikas zumal Brasiliens," Leipzig, lih'- 72. Marcoy (St. Cricq) : "Voyage k travers I'Amerique du Sud, de TOcw-n Pacifique 4 I'Ocean Atlantique," Paris, 1868. R. Burton : " Highlands of Brazil," London, 1868. Hartt : "Geology and Physical Geography cf Brazil," Boston, 1870. Pompeu de Souza : " Compendio de Geographia t'-ral e especial do Brazil." Lacerda and Peixotto : "Contribu9oes amo pestiido anthropologico das Ra^as indigenas do Brazil." " Archives du Museo Nacional," Kio de Janeiro. PERU. 46; [lores >sc. ircsts. imals, The CSS rc- o rich IS :iblc (Siiilis hen it ;\-turtle ge fish- ist with ous peo- aurishcd tricts of Brazil but a scattered population, steeped in the saddest degradation,' and where cannibalism has continued to exist to our own day.' 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 i>'ature, Aug. 19, 1882). •"Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1881. p. 564. !l! it il^ M W 468 PRE.lIIETOniC 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,' 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 typo of the men of Lagoa-Santa was still met with at the time of the 'Olfers, Eschwege, "Journal v. Bresilien," vol. 11., 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 i)romi- nence of the glabella and of the supraciliary ridges, by the depression ol tlif 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. SC. liorJier, "Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1S81, p. 5O6. Fig. 204. — Botocudo. PERU. 469 European invasion,' 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 roral 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 the picture.* 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 interprr^tation appears to be impos- 'De Quatrefages, Cong. Anth. de Moscou, 1877. 'F. Denis, "Le Bresil,"p. 252. 'Hymencea curbarii. C. Rath, " Rcvista do Institute historico, geogra- phico, ethnographico do P azil," 1871. *Debret, " Voy. pitt. et hist, au Bresil depuis 1816 jusqu'en 1831." Paris, 18:0. I m \ I, 'm m ^11 470 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. siblc' 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,* and every thing justifies us in hoping for new discoveries as travellers are able to penetrate ^V*< — ^ — ^ i$t^ i\ ) 4 %sv h 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, from the Paracaima mountains to Uruana. These drawings, according to Humboldt, date from different periods and are the work of very different people. "•Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1879. p. 732. * "Voyage dans la partie septentrionale du Bresil depuis i8og jusqu'en 1S15." 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- FlG. 206. — Inscription on rock at Ceara. ' " Puro los objetos mai notables, creo son las numerosas inscripcionas bobre rocas que han descubierto en diversos puntos de la provincia." " La Antigiiedad del Hombre," vol. I., p. 541, figs. 353 to 364. Pi 1 r ; 1 It 472 PRE-IIISrORIC AMERICA. fl 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.' 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- FJu. 207. — Rock covered with engravings. Province of Catamarca. ncctcd 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 potter)' collected in large quantities in Brazil and La Plata. The most important dis- coveries of this kind are those made by Professor Hartt' on the island of Pacoval-Marao and at Taperinha on the Rio Tapajos, one of the tributaries of the Amazon. They cn- ' Mario Isola, " Caverna conocida por palacio suterreano de Porongos dcp. de San Jose." (R. O. del U.) Ameghino, /, c, p. 461. *' El Siglo de Monte- video." *." Report, Peabody Museum," 1S73, p. 20. W-"- PJiRU. 473 olumns vaulted Exca- ve only known so that : arrow- on con- imarca. itcnt our- lignorancc in large )rtant dis- Hartt' on the Rio They cn- Ingos dcp. (Ic |o de Monie- ablc 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 iieaped up eighteen miles above the junciiun of the Rio das Trombettas, also called the Orixameiia. with the Amazon.' In this expedition he discovered several specimens of a stone image, called Mni- rakitan. It represents a toad or a frog, cut out of hard rock. According to tradition, these were amulets given by the ' II. Fischer : " Sur 1' origine des pierrco dites d' Amazone et sur ce peuple fabuleux," iSSo, p. 127. M;| ; t;-j . r 474 PRE-inSTORIC 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 Uaupds, 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 iiiouth of the Parana.' 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 dt^cora- 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. AH the bones were so much decomposed, by consti t 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 rusli- 'Burmeister: " Congres d' Anthropologic et d' Archeologie prehistoriques," Brussels, 1872, p. 348. PERU. 475 V on the :hia are of the hibchas. the ac- lo went is return omen as ibly the tremities ,vitnesses lottery of id in the near the clay, and Dcen very isinterrcd. in inch in with very h, by a di- rcular and inflected, :h a large •namented so dt'cora- ,f pottery ;h urn con- over the All the undations ine them, cntioncd, the bodies le in rush- tehisloriques t ,1 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-cast coast of Brazil, have been taken to the Anthropological Society of Paris.' 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 aflfinity 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 r^sum6 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. ' " Bull. Soc. Anth.," l88i, p. 206. ' " Les Premiers Hommes et les Temps pre-historiques," vol. I., p. ir. 'Barboso Rodriguez has recently found, writes the Emperor of Brazil, to M. lie 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. I '\ ; i ill mmm ■«■ 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- THE MEN OF AMERICA. A77 served with proper care. The excavations undertaken, cither 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.' 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. AbboU : "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., 1881. I ' I ii ''■. 'I h ^ 478 PRE. II IS TORIC A ME RICA . I 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 fauna; completely distinct. It was in the first layer that the human relics were picked up, near I'ontimelo on the north of the province of Buenos Ayres. They included a skull with the lower jaw ; the cer- vical vertebra,* 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 A At ERICA. 479 pological Congress held at Moscow in 1879.' " T^'-'' 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 arc 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.' 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 Dc Quatrefages, on the contrary, this peculiarity, 'Besides the account given of this Congress, may be consulted the " Me- moires 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 jUr Anthropologie, vol. V., p. 241. ' 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 Seflor Moreno, in his turn, as- serts the same to be true with regard to those from the paraderos of Patagonia. %\ ITT 1 ■ ' ' „ ! ' 1 ,. . i. 1 \^ i 1 i 1 [j. i i. i,| ' 48o PRF-rr/STOKIC 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 sec so striking an artificial characteristic, and which can only result from a common moilc of mastication, occurring amongst paleontolo{,Mcal peoples and then disai)pearin{j 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. Quatrefagcs also afifirmed 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' 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.* The exploration of the shell-heaps, which are very nume- rous on the coasts of Oregon and California, have led to interesting results.' In many places excavations have yield- ed the mortars and pestles so characteristic of the ancient ' Quatrefages attaches importance to uie 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, .073. ' P. Schumacher " Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, vol. II., p. 203. THE MEN OF AMERICA. 481 hcs an bitants c adds, ich can currintr in : : n \i. 4^2 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. to deny the existence of nunierous 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 I'eet 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 ekvated 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 ' "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 Mcrom,' 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, E) reminds us of that of Bor- FlG. 208. — A, European skuli. B, Stirrpson's mound skull. C, The Neander Ihal 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,' 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. ' 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. ' " Les Premiers Hommes et les Temps prehistoriques," 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. I I 2 ■ i •^ m \ ' j ■ ! , ;* f '; :■«■ ^ mmmmmm 484 PRE.iri^TORIC AMERICA. The same facts are established in Missouri. Two crania were taken from a regular 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 arc 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' has also a very retreating forehead, orbits nearly as prominent as those of Fig. 2og. — Fragment of a skull from Missouri. the long-arm "^d 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, whcie 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 ' Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 106. ' A perpendicular line traced from the lower jaw to the level of the top of the skull would pass about two inch -is from the forehead. Short: "North Ameri- cans of Antiquity," pp. 12G, 167, This skull was discovered by General H W. Thomas. THE MEN OF AMERICA. 485 crania d that mia is ;neath it first ondary bones placed nd had lese ex- o a very ;hose of lism ; the character- alls of an Lilchrcs of out hori- ;ure. The forehead, the Mil- ;nt brows. itics of the the top of the 1 North Ameri- jjy General U- 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,' the other from a tumulus in Tennessee.' 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.' 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. ' American Antiquarian, July, 1879, '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 Pcabody 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 invhes. The difference is decided, and this skull if normal i"; 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 MEX OF AMERICA. 487 ns and peculi- . adult, mounts /entcen le mean les, and anthro- rence is of the portant : mound in ther side jiree and nt day i^ lore than enounced mpanzce, examined to any lous fact ; n from a which ii' probably individual, for it is not met with in any of the other skulls from the same source.' Though most of the skulls which can be attributed with any certainty to the so-called Mound Builders arc 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 ' 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 arc 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 br-^chycephalic, 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' Dr. Farquharson* has examined twenty-five skulls ob- tained from different mounds ; the average cephalic index was 75.8, or in other words th^ form is slightly dolicho- cephalic. Carr examined sixty-seven skulls from the stone graves of Tennessee, of which nineteen are brachycephalic, ' " Report, Peabody Museum," 1S73, p. 12. " Report, Am. Assoc," Builalo, 1876. "^ " Report, Peabody Museum." 1878, vol. II., p. 316. • Hubbard : " Am. Ant.," March, 1S80. * " Observations on the Crania from the Stone Graves in Tennessee." " Re- port, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 361. 1 it * ■ ! ) .'-i n 488 PKE-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. five only dolichocephalic, eighteen orthocephalic, and fifteen artificially depressed.' Jones, after the examination of twenty-one skulls, also found in the stone graves of Tcnncs- 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." 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 (i(> ; and another, found under a mound of Alabama, in which it reaches 11 1.8. Except, perhaps, in such extreme cases,' 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 * who constantly proclaimed a unity of physical type amongst all the inhabitants of the two Americas, with the sole exception ' " Recent Explorations of Mounds near Davenport, Iowa." " Report, Am. Assoc.," Detroit, 1875. " Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races." ■ " In no part of the world," said Retzius, " does cranial morphology present differences more marked or extremes more exaggerated." " Ethnol. Schriften,' pp. 37, 98. * " Crania Americana ; or, A Comparative View of the Skulls of Various Abo- riginal Nations of North and South America," Philadelphia, 1839. 3gy present Schriften," THE MEN OF AMERICA, 489 irious Abo- of the Eskimo.' 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 Quatrcfages and Hamy,^ in theii 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 brachyccphalic ; ac- cording to him the forehead is wide and lofty, and the de- '" 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. ' " Crania Ethnica," p. 464. r ^'1 •11; f/j :.M 490 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. pression noticed is artificial.' 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 I188 Skulls examined by Jones' 21 1667 IIOO 1318 Tennessee Stone Graves 30 1825 1084 1341 Kentucky 24 1540 II30 1313 Albany 9 1540 II30 HOC Rock River II 1540 1 130 1205 Henry County .... 4 1540 1 1 30 1205 Santa-Catalina Id. California Santa-Cruz, California' . 18 Male 18 Female 1680 1451 1282 1098 1326 1279 40 Male 32 Female 1625 1528 II44 1043 1 3^5 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'Antliropo- logie, July, 1882 : * "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. 25 19 44 33 65 125 49 88 63 57 60 27 II 23 19 28 29 42 II lOI 42 25 21 21 21 21 21 Races. WHITK RACES. Solutre ; paleolithic period Cave of the Dead Man ; neolithic period Baye Cave Gallic Merovingians of Chelles . Parisians of the I2lh century . , Dutch of Zaandam .... Auvergnats of St. Nectaire . . Bas Bretons Basques of St. Jean de Luz . . Basques of Zaraus, Guipuzcoa . . Savoyards Croats, Slav, race .... Corsicans of Avapesa, iSth century . Arabs YELLOW RACES. Chinese Javanese (coll. Vrolik) Polynesians Laplanders ..... Eskimo of Greenland (Hayes) . Eskimo of N. W. America (Dall) Aleutians (Dall) .... BLACK RACES. Hottentots Nubians ...... Australians Western Negroes .... New Caledonians .... Capacity. 1525 C. C. 1543 " 1483 " 1552 •• 1465 " 1449 •• 1463 '* '529 " 1479 •• 1556 •• 1499 " 1494 " I-I33 " 1475 " 1447 " i486 c. c. 1473 " 1449 " 1585 " 1250 " 1401 " 1409 " 1317 c. c. 1329 " 1337 " 1423 '* 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' ; 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," these dif- ' 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 tiiat uf a microcephalic person. % i: ill ')i '. v\ «■ 492 PRR.niSTORIC AMERICA. fcrcnccs 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 arc 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.' 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 ' With these two monkeys, the mean relation between the two diameters is 67. Gillman : "Ren. Am. Assoc," Detroit, 1875, p, 316. : cranial rid is in- dent or ;hc most ictcristic t assume . Other ; no one the most andcring, ; yet the 359 c. c, I glancing that the ; value of the skulls ers of re- nentioned mall. The st three of Paris, therefore, le charac- er factors ^et pretty cd platyc- American than in this as a s it is met in which it iametersis67. ;d 'flit. MEN OF AMERICA. 493 doef? not occur generally belong to men buried later than the erection of the tumulus. JJut, although these platycnemic or sabre-blade-likc tibi.x arc 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- ncmia 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.' Platycnemia is yet more apparent, and the sharp edge more pronounced, in the tibir; taken from the great mound of the Red River, and in thoss of Fort Wayne.* The tumuli Fig. 212. — Section of an ordinary tibia at the level of the nutrient foramen. Fig. 213. — Section of a platycnemic 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 tibial 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, 1S76, ' " Report, Peabody Museum," 1873. Short : tiquity," p. 30. ' North Americans of An- \ f ■ ,; i i * if 5 » 494 PRE.IIISTORIC AMERICA. near the Detroit River it is as low — exceptionally so, we must add — as 0.43, and even 0.40. These figures arc re- markable, and they will be better understood if we coni|)arc them with those given by liroca 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 cxtremcst cases of pla- tycnemia observed in France. Platycnemia, as well as the compression of the femora, which is generally considerable, are perhaps the results (jf 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,' in others found in Wiltshire, which date from neo- lithic times ; Dr. Prunieres,' in numerous skeletons from the department of Loz^re, also dating from the same period; Baron von Dubcn,* oa those from Scandinavia ; Bertrand,' on a tibia found at Clichy ; Broca," on another from Sainte- • " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1869, p. 148. • *' Journal of the Anth. Soc. of London," 1865, p. 146. • " Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1878, p. 214. *"The tibia is always compressed, resembling a sabre "(" Cong, preh.de Copenhague," 1869, p. 243). " Mat.," 1869, p. 544. » " Bull. Soc. Anth.," February, i86g. • *' Bull. Soc. Anth.," 1866, p. 642. THE MEN OF AMEh'lCA. 495 Suzanne (Sarthe). Side by side with these specimens the tibi;e found by Dupont in the caves of Iklgium,' with a ^reat number of others datinjj, to all appearance, from paleolithic times, are triangular, resembling those of modern Europeans. The characteristics, then, which have been proposed in ordi-r 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 pecuii- 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 arc 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 ' 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* than among men, among negroes' or Indians than among whites; ' Hamy tells us, however, that a tibia from the Goyet cave is platycnemic. "Bull. Soc. Anlh.," 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. * 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. ' Of fourteen negro humeri preserved in the Jardin des Plantes seven are perforated. r. I ' \ J 496 PRE.inSTORIC 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.' 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 i,ooo 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 01 . 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,' exceeded six feet. The latter, enclosed in a regular winding-sheet of clay, was re- markable for its retreating forehead anu prominence of its brows. Beside it lay hewn stones and fragments of pottery, ornamented with human figures. These are probably v^ 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 ' 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 til ia 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. ;an races, n ancient lis conclu- e present ind period character- t there is ■ied under he average IS follows: the perforated [which shows the d'Anth.,"iS78. nessee, Smith. THE MEN OF AMERICA. 497 stature, aiid although he ofien 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.' 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 cafions mot 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 difificul- 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 Cafion, 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. 214) 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 mo'T 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, 1S76. Aehler : "Stone Cist near Highland, Madison county, Illinois," 'Dr. VV. Hoffman: " Report on the Chaco Cranium"; U. S. (ieol. and Geog. Survey, Washington, 1878. i, y V 498 tRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. left parietal. The skull wa'- so completely filled with agglu- tinate'! 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 Ch-co Caiion, 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 arc promi- nent, the forehead is not distinguished by any special char.u ' ?ristic, tiie lower jaws are massive, and the teeth, especially the incisors, slightly worn. The capacity is 1325 c.c. The second skull i:> 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 ' " The hum.in 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 th'^ Smithsonian Institution of numerous objects collected from the mounds of Tennessee.' Amongst these objects were two skulls (figs. 210, 211) 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 CHfl Dwellers ; to do so would be little more than a monotonous i-pnetltion. In all we note this characteristic depression, now p marked on the right, now on the left ; it is certainly amric'al, and we find it already ver> 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 aI' presented the same characteristics as the sub- ject exh"v. < a (y Pinart, from a tumulus near the Casa- Grande r.r ..u.vtoz.uma." The top a! ?nj of this skull, which now belongs to the Paris museum, li. picserved. Its cranial index is 90.36. One of t'^ f^i.uUs sent from Teul presents the same cephalic peculi.ii...ies, except that it is more flattened from before backward, and that the index exceeds 97. But although the ethnic characteristic, of the Mound ' " Con^ri^s des Air.ericanistes," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 147. ' This h>..;>d is preserved in the Osteological Collection of the U. S. Army. Itscapacr vi^ 1213 c.c. ' "Crania L. rin ; 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 graven oi Tcnnesee,' and that traces of a similar kind occurred on other bones * from the mounds of Iowa, Rock River, Illinois, and those near Nash- ville.' 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 rtiay 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. ' Clavigero: "Storia Antica del Messico," vol. I., p. 117 ; vol. IV., p. 303. Ilerrera : "Hist. Gen.," dec. II., book CXXXI. Gomera : "Conq. Mex.." fo. 148. Sahagun : "Hist. Gen. de las Cosas de Nueva Espaua," vol. II., book VII., p. 246. Oviedo : " Hist, de las Indias." 'Troisi^me, "Cong, des Americanistes," Madrid, 18S1 '"Several skeletons in these mounds bore unmistakable marks of the ravages of syphiKs," Jones : " Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee," " Smith. Cont., " vol. .XXII. * Farquharson : " Proc. Am. Assoc," Detroit (Michigan), 1875. ' Putnam : " Arch. Expl. in Tennessee ; " " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 305. 1 I II 1 I-. N'' ! Ill --•at.-r.' •.Ji\.'--.!!r»t-*i So8 PKE-IIISTOKJC AMERICA. It is questionable whether these lesions are due to the aiicijed 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.' 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.* 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 app' > to have been cured. Recovery from this lesion was and very tedious, requiring a long t'.me 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* ; 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. * Putnam : " Rep., Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 316. ' Dr. Bnihl {Cincinnati Lancet and 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. l8i. * 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 rauses rare. The Pcabody Museum contains two Peruvian skulls collected by Agassiz, which deserve to be mentioned. One of them ha? 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 liave 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 arc no traces of any surgical operation, such as the removal of pieces of bone.' It was not always thus. On another skull, also belonging to the remarkable collection of the Pcabody Museum, a per- foration can be seen, probably attempted as a mode of heal- ing an inflammation of the cranium, Ihe 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 N^laton 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 '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, f, ti . ■i n- II ,1 ■ 5IO PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. iite, or were made to let out the brain, or for hanging up tlic head, or were intended to allow the soul to revisit the body thai 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 skeletoiis buried standing ; a sixth lay in the centre A the tumulus, evidf^ntly occupying the place of honor; all alike had a simi'ar 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 rnounds. The trepan- nings of M i c h i ga,i, about which we have more complete details, were always made after death, and only on adults of the male sex ' ; they arc from one to two Fig. 217. — Tiepanrjed Peruvian skull. centimetres in diameter, and usually occur at the sagittal su- ture,^ generally at the point of j unction 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 ' these perforations in Europe, especially in France, where they have been so completely discussed by ' Broca : " Rev. d' Anth.," 1876, p. 435. ' The sagittal suture unites the two parietal bones, and stretches from before backwai \ along the median line. The coronal suture extends from one tem- poral be le to t'..e other, above the crown, uniting the frontal to the parietal bone. ' " Les Premiers Ilommes," vol. II,, p. 218 et scq. ng up the the body possible ; mound of high, have . sixth lay the place e skull, skulls have ', or was it often the result of a method em- ployed to hold or to fasten the new-born?" 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 ^;ive 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. Otiiers have gone further, md look upon it as a congenital peculiarity. " I am not afiaid to assert," said Robertson, at ' Hence the name of FlatJwads 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 Qiialsinos and TsimpsiarLs, 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 Ptirou," chap. XII,, Paris, 1744. I. i ! •' "\ \ 1, 1.2 5i6 P-Rf^. HISTORIC AMERICA. the Congr^s des Americanist^s,' " 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, tliosc 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 • " Les Mound Builders." 1877, p. 34. •Bordier ; " Bull. Sor. Anth.," January, 1881. THE MEN OF AMERICA. 517 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,' 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,' 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. *" 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." " L;;ttcr of Dr. Lapham to Dr. Foster," Conant, I.e., p. 108. ' J. Soury : " Int. a I'llist. des Prc'istes de Hseckel," p. 6. ■; [ f CHAPTER X. THE ORIGIN OF MAN IX 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 [elcpluis) 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 * For the present chapter the American editor is chiefly responsible. THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 5«9 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 cither recent or fossil. The American monkeys, it is admitted, arc 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 ctll 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 afifirm 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 AmericiMi 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 i 520 PRE.IIISTORIC 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 appiy 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 .-esthetic 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 or MAN IN AMERICA. 5*1 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.' Nature to him was an appalling mys- tery out of whose bowels any thing might issue. He lived in a haze of fctichism. Not a leaf might flutter, not a rabb'' 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 *Prof. W. G. Sumner : " North American Review," June, 1884. 1/ I' 1' i ■ 522 PRE-lllSTOKlC AMERICA. simple physical phcnoinciKi if only unfrcqucnt, — oi.Iy those can have a realizing sense of the horrors nature enfolds for the ignorant yet thinking savage, l^ut it is not our purpose to trace the stages of mental culture, a task ftir which tlio material is yet imperfect ; though glimmerings of the trutii 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 ur surmised with a degree of probability on this difficult topic, it will suffice if wc allude to the physical characteristics of the different pathways to the American continent, to the indications of successive waves of migration in America aiul 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 Elhnology," vol. I., Wasliington, 1S77, pp. qs-qS. 77//: Oh'/G/X (>/■• A/A.V /,V AMERICA. 523 ICC, there is 110 reason why people like the Eskimo of the present clay, or even lower in the scale, mi[;ht ncjt make their way alonj^ this temporary bridge and subsist on the marine animals which probaM / 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 u mij/ation 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 uf 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 whil ^ 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 no.*- been in progress. That successive waves of migration occurred there is no reason to doubt, and that these successive bodies of immi- >^ I V if I " ! .1. ;!l 524 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. grants differed to some extent in culture and in rare is hii^iily probable, but that the distinctively American culture which may be traced from the shell-heap to the mountl, 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 foreij^n culture for its chief features, is utterly incai/able 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 area« in America, has lately been sufficiently shown,' 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 moi'i- fications of physique in turn responded to the environment, and th is 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 ciystal- 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 differs, tiated. 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 tlie best we have. That a better will be frund eventually there is little doubt. ' "*.j!i in:isks, lp')rets, and certain aboripjinal customs, with an enquiry into the bearing; of their geographical distribution" Third annual rejiort, Bureau of Ethnology, 8° Wanhinjiton, 1884. THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 525 cal and culture ica, has ,blc that ^ more, il direc- :o a ccr- c world, the nor- laractcr- lolor was er movU- •onmcnt, ;ed even ural pro- ut when ic could crystal- memory jy which 3st truly 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 summarised here. Attention has been frequently called in the preceding pages to the sim'.Iar manner in which similar needs were met, similar artistic ideas developed, and similar results attained by people in widely separated parts of .he globe. That from these similarities, no special homologies can be drawn, is a fundamental ^anon of scientific anthropology, from the neglect of which science has suffered mu«.h. That these facts test'fy to the fundamental unity of the human race and to thf analogous processes of evolution tlirough 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 matc-ial 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 arc 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 mstance, in a deluge or flood is widely spread among American races, and can hardly be attributed to Christian teaching. ;: I i 526 PRE-llIsrORIC 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.' 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-It/a, probably the same person as Ouetzacoatl." Both preached celibacy and asceticism to the people of Yucatan, and were claimed to be the initiators of their culture. At their deatli 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.' 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 aiui bloody wars ensued between them and the new arrivals. It is probable that all these traditions have some foundation in truth. ' Brasscur dc IJourhourg : " liist. des nations civilisecs du Mexiqiie et de I'Amerique Centrale," vol. I., pp. 105, 106, 166. ■ Cukulcan and Quetzacoall hoth signify the serpent covered loilh feathers. " Landa : "Relation de las Cosas de Yucatan," p. 23. Ilerrara : "Hist. CitMi. do los Castellanos en las Islas i Tierra Fiimc del Mar Oceano," dec, H ■. book IV., cliap. TI. Co;4o!ludo : " Ilist. de Vv.;.atan," p. 17S. * Da I'lal/ " Ilisl. of Louisiana," vol. J I., p. 175, London, 1703- of the TIIR ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 527 In Sviuth America we also find accounts which attribute the origin oi the people, or at least that of their civilization, to strangers. The Peruvians attribute their progress to Manco-Capac and to the beautiful Mama-Qi^Uo, his sister and his wife, who had crossed the sea to their country.' 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.' 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 Guarant, 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,' 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.^ "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: " rem. Incidents of Travel and Exploration in llie Land of the Incas." " Avendano : " Serm.," IX., p. 100. Desjardins: " Lc Perou avant la con- qucte Espagnole," p. 29. "Guevara: "Hist, del Paraguay, en la col. Hist. Arj^entina," vol. I., p. 76. *D'Eichtal : " Eludes sur les origines Bouddhiqu'^s," 1st part, p. 65. '' " Rclacion do las Cosas de Yucatan ." DicL^o de Landa, a Franciscan monk of tlie house of Calderon, was the second bisiiop of Meritla. 528 PKE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. I'/i i 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 flun"- 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," ho said to them, " in making pulque,' 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. Tley 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 chatiged the fish into dogs. Another Mexican tradition ' tells us that Coxcox and his 'Bancroft /, c. : vol. III., p. 69. ' A fermented drink made with the sap of the aloe, and known in Mexico, where it is still in use, under the name of oc//i. '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 dci^arture 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. I THE ORIGIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. 529 them wood which to the Mexico, Kingsbo- retation < f rom whii.!i iresent the We see a all looking Tihuito- t start, are itioned by tlilxochitl. wife Xochique!:zal alone escaped the deluge ; they took refuge in the hollow trunk of a cypress, which floated upon the water, ^nd 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- lerd, noticing ti.at the llamas passed the night looking at the stars, questic- ' ^'^^: among them as to the cause of his preoccupation. The liama called his attention to the un \:- I li. i'l M M 530 PRE.mSTORIC 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 ' 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.* 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 mea^ prepared for them. Curious to know who had thus come lO 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,' 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; ' According to some, the mountain of Ancasmarca five leagues from Cuzco, according to others Mount Huarocheri nearer the sea. » 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 O HI GIN OF MAN IN AMERICA. an race, corrup- One matures; arch, I were two in a great ;ndered to 531 ^Ifinan took pity on his misery and gave him a wife, and it Vv'as they who repeopled the earth after these terrible events.' Similar myths arc 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 sufificient 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 PhcEnicians, 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 ' P. Thevet, Cordelier, " Les singularitesde la France Antarctique autrement nommee Amerique," Paris, 1858. M .M 2 11 :«t Hi J I i ! I! 532 PRE-HIS TORIC A M ERICA. their turn the subject of investigation by psychologists in- terested in aberrant mental phenomena. But every clay 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 Ap6, 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 ploced 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 has been brought as nearly in unison with the present state of science in England and America 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 con- ception of Pre-historic 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 CALIFOKNIA. 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 quartemary period. Mariposa county, mastodon bones mixed with human bones and stone weapons, the most remarkable of (he latter being an obsidian iance-point, live inches long. At llornitos and Princeton, stone mortars with their pestles, one of the mor- tars eighteen inches high and weighing fifiy 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 bonesof 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,' 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. Amador 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 eit;hteen inches in diameter ; at Devil's Canon, two human bones beneath a thick bed of lava. Nevada county, numerous objec*s fabricated by man have been picked up be- tween 1853 and 1864. * " Scoops, or ladles with well-shaped liandless." — Whitney, " Auriferous Gravels." p. 264. *Proc. Boston Soc. 0/ Nat. Hist., vol, XV, 1873, p. 257- t; 1' 534 PRE.llISTOKIC AMERICA. fiuHe rounty, the first discoveries were madi! more limn twenty years aj^o ; thv;y tonsisteU ol instrumenls, weapons, and iniijlcments of the mobt varied form. Some traces of the contemporaneity of man and of animals of extinct race have also been made out in Trimly and Siskiyou counties. It is very probable that later researches will complete the discoveries already made. '1 1.^ bones of which we have still to speak were none of them found in their natural position ; they had evidently bcei: brought down by tumultuous waters, which the bones of the sir(jngest 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 tiiat tin.' bones can have painod 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 thinR of an intact condition ' : a rhin- oceros {>?, hespcnis) related alike to the R. iudiciis and the R. occidentalis, br.t decidedly smaller than the latter ; the Elotherium superbum, a species probably related to the Elotherium irtgens of Dakota ; and lastly a pachyderm, of wlii;.li 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 jiachy- derm ; not the mastodon or elephant, and probably allied to the hippopotamus." Quaternary species are of course more numerous. Amongst them we will mention : /"'elides, Felis imperialis. Camdes. — 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 {Auchetiia californica) of very large size ; some teeth from the Alameda county appear to belong lo a smaller species {A hcsterna). Dr. Snell possesses in his collection the molar tooth of a large ruminant found near Sonera ; 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 Megalomeryx, but which is very likely the same as the Procainelus. Caprides. — None of the bones found belong inconteslably to this group. Ceniides. — 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.' The greater number are related to M. americanus. On account of cert.iin slight differences, however, Dr. Leidy has thought of creating three new species M. mirijicus, M, andium, and M. obscurus. ' J. Leidy : " The extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nabraska," Philadelphia, i86g. " Contributions to the extinct vertebr.-ite Fauna of the Western Territories," AV/t'Wcy the U, S. Geological Survey^ Washington, 1873. * " Cart loads of Mastodon bones have been .iccumulated at various places between Sonnra and the Stanislaus river at workings in the limestone crevices." Whitney : " The Auriferous Gravels." p. 251. APPENDIX. 535 Elephants {FJfphas eolumhi, Falconer) were less numerous than mastoiis, tlreen . " anodontoides, Lea " crassus, Say " ebenus, I,ea giblxjsus, Harnes. nodosus, Haines . ov.atus, Say plicatus, Say pustulosus Lea . rectus, Lamark . ruj^osus, liarnes . tuberculatus, Harnes undatus, Harnes , ventricosus, Harnes 4< «< SI ICA. IKAPS OK IOWA. Keoso(|ua Subulu Mcllcvu«, 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 Socicte dc Geographic of Paris, is fully reported upon in the Society's Bulletin for the present year (pp. 268-277). The recipient, M. Desire Charnay, has long been eng.igcd in ethnological researches, to which reference has been made in the jirccciling pages. His work, which, at last advices, w.as on the point of publication, lias been crowned by the Society ; and in the report of the committee upon tliis 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 tougli wlien set, and the lightness of the mould greatly facilitating transportation, alw.iys so expensive and difficult for large ethnological olijects. 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 cd in L-eiling , has this Like closct- :ulturc veil at upon APPENDIX. 537 sculptures reported by VValileck on which so many pretty theories have lacn erccleil. There is absolutely nothing elephantine lliere, anil it .seems that liic earlier reports were based on a niiscuneeptiiju, due to exlrancjus vegetation lichens or stalagmites which have encrusted part of the ruins. It appears that Palenijue, so far from being in forgotten ruins at the time of the SpanLsh Conquest, as Ins been so often .stated (after Waldeck), wa.s the city of Teoticcac, the religious metrojiolis of the Acaltecs, where Cortez and all liis men might have encamped in a single building. Another site disc(jvered by Charnay, and temporarily named Lorillard City, after the patron of liis explora- tions, is deciiled to be the remains of I/ancanac, the capital of the State of Aeallan, traversed by Cortez in returning to Iloiulura.s. 'I'hese, 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 anil Chiapas arc wholly due to the Toltecs, immigrants from the plateau of Anahuac, after the destruction of the (Jovernment of Tollan in the beginning of the twelfth cen- tury. The differences exhii)ited by the various monuments, to him character- ize only stages or special ilevelopments of one and the same, state of art and social culture. "However this may be," says Dr. Ilamy, the learned and distinguished arch:cologist 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 indispensalile hereafter that they shall be seriously taken into account in the study of American ethnology." i :ss, by It cun- on in when always set of itional L'phant lv INDEX. V Al)iquico (New Mexico), two skulls from near, 498, 499 AceliJbtheriuiu associated with human remains in Brazil, 25 Acequias near Casa Grande, 224 Acequias of Peru, 422 Acolhuas (the), 11 Acora (Peru), megaliths and chulpas at, 424 Agriculture amongst the Peruvians, 423 amongi.t the Mound Builders, 182 Alabama, rbnormal skull of a child from mouiid in, 488 mounds near Florence, 106 shell-heaps, 48 Alaska, shell-hiaps, 47 Algonquins, c^-nnibalism amongst, 62 Amazon valley, cannibalism amongst the tribes of the, 63 complerion of the inhabitants of, in ifnh century, 3 Amelia Island, shell-heap, 48 America, first discovered by Euro- peans I ; landing of Cortes upon the shores of, 2 in the i6th century, its mhabi- tants, 3 its fauna, 3 its flora, 4 Anahuac, conquered by the Aztecs, II Andes, complexion of the inhabitants of, in i6tli century, 3 Anercerty Point, shell-heap, 48 animal I)ones associated with human remains, 28, 36, 37, 55, 535, 536 Apaches, treatment of prisoners by, 62 Aprouaguc river (Guiana), polished stone hatchets from ;he banks of, 27 funeral arms from the Parana, and from the provinces of Tucuman .".nd ]^a Rioja, 471 Argentine Republ.c, piclographs 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 ; I 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, 474 Azilan, the home of the Nahur.tl race, where located, 284 Azlalan, mounds of, 92 tradition concerning, 93 Aztecs, ihey conquer Anahuac, 1 1 religion of, 292 ; the god Teotl, 292 ; the godCamaxtti, 293 ; sacri- fice of infants, 293 ; obsidian knife used in sacrifice, 293 ; the god Mixcoatl, 294 ; the god Xuihte- cutli, 295 their migration, 285 ; toe, 285 ; founding of litan, 285 ; wars, 286 with the Acolhuas and necs, 2S6 ; rapi(i Aztecs, 286 tribute from the conquered tribes who hate tiieir conrjuerors, 287 ; buildings and engineering works erected by the Aztecs, 288 ; poems of Nezahualcoyotl, 288 Nezahualpilli and the daughter of AxacayatI, 289 ; a propliecy of the return of Auelzacoull whicii greatly helped the Spaniards, 291 ; death of Nezahualpilli, 291; Montezuma, 291 Chicomez- Tenotch- ; alliance the Tepa- progress of the >i i n h Ss. 540 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. Aztecs, Tlacatlaotli, 291; ; the dedica- tion of the temple of Iluitzilo- pochtli, 2f)6 ; legend concerning ti)at god, 296 ; number of victims sacnfiLL'tl at tlie Aztec festivals though large was greatly exaggera- ted by Spanish historians, 297 ; type of sacrificial altars, 297 ; belief m a future life, 2g3 ; some burial cus- toms, 299 Aztec Spring (Colorado), ruins at, 215 liones of, bearing traces of human workmanship found in Buenos Ayres, 30 Braz'l, cannibalism in, 53, 58 ; fertil- ity of its soil, 465 ; Agassis on its resources, 466 ; flora and fauna, 466 ; degradation of its natives ])op- ulation, 466 ; the native called Guarani by the Spaniards and Tupi bythe Portuguese (see Guarani), 467; they probably had more civilized predecessors to whom we must .it- tribute the megaliths and rock- paintings and engravings, 469 ; dis- coveries of Herkman in the prov- ince of I'ernambuco, 469 ; intaglio sculptures of Para and I'lauhy, 469 ; red ochre drawings on liank of Rio Doce, 469, 470 ; inscription on rocks in Ceara, 470, 471 ; inTijuco, 470 ; the Piedias IMntadas, 470 ; el I'alacio, 471 ; pottery, 472 ; discov- eries of pottery on the island of I'acoval-Marajo and at Taperinha, 472 ; fragments of pottery from near Santarem (province of Para), 473 ; Rodriguez, discoveries on tiie Kio das Trombettas. 473 ; the Muirakitau, 473 ; weapons and im- plements, 475 ; weapons from pro- vince of Maranhrlo, 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 Pa/ (Mexico), 82 Calaveras skull (the), 40-45 its resemblance to the Eskimo lype-, 43 it contains a trace of organic matter, 44 note Ijy the American Editor, 45 Calca, tinver of, 417 Calendar stone, found in Mexico, 30(1 California tribes, degradation of, S California shell-heaps, 50-51 caves as burial places, 69 the Hohgates, 64 mounds in, 83 principal discoveries in, 533 seqieniine cups, 16S ; dishes from vertebra- of Cetacea from Santa Barbara, 168 skulls in the shell-heaps of, 4S0 Canada, two glacial periods in, 19 Caiiis 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 liorders of the Eu.\- ine, 60 ; amongst the Gnlatians, 60 ; in Ireland, 60 ; in Gaul, 60 ; in Rome, 60 ; in Scandinavia, Co ; in Terra del Fuego, 62, 63 ; on the Orinoco, 63 ; at Tahiti, 63 ; on the Amazon, 63 amongst the mound builders, 1 19 Capulli (the), 310 Caribs, Cannibalism amongst, 61 Carthage ( Alal)ama), tiuncr.led 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 tuHiulus from near the Casa- Grande of Monte/uma, 499 Cave-Dwellings described, 203, 205 Caves, human remains in, 24 inhabi hI by luiropeans in quaternriy times, 69 ; used as burial places in America, 69 ; in Duranj^o (Mexico), 69 ; in Peru, 69 ; in California, Og ; in Missouri, 70; list oi' 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 , m the province of Oajaca, 74 ; niar Greyson's .Springs (Kentucky), 7-1 ; Salt Cave (Kentucky), 75 ; Shot's Cave (Kentucky), mummy in, 7(> Cayenne River ((lui:ina), poli-licd stone hatchets from the banks of, 27 Ceara (Brazil), inscriptions on rocks of, 470 Ceutia, ruins of, 354 INDEX. 541 Central America, resemblance of its ancient monuments to those of Kgypt, 14 traditions regarding convulsions of nature in, 17 number of mounds in, S5 earthenware pipes from near San Salvador, 152 people of, 260 ; hieroglyphics, 260-263 ; 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 ; theChichimecs, 279 ; the Tezcuans, 2S1 ; the 'I'epanecs and Acolhuas, 284 ; the Aztecs, 2S5 ; religious i'V-asof the Central American races, 291 ; of the Nahuacs, 292 ; burial customs and rites, 299 ; mummies, 301 ; cremation, 302 ; a royal fu.K^'id, 303 ; human sacrifices, 304 ; m - ••':iry vase, 305; astronomy, 305 ; divisions of time among the Aztecs, 306 ; amongst the Alayas 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, 31 1 ; 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, 38; ; ornaments of agate, coral and shell, 386 ; conclusions as to their culture, 386 ■ ruins of Maya and Nahuatl, architecture distinguishable, 317 ; Maya buildings of Chi.ipas of differ- ent style from those of'-'ucatan, 317 ; Maya ruins, monuments of PalLMKiue, 318; hieroglyphics, 319; niches re- sembling the Egyptian tau, 320 ; the arch unknown, 321 ; hypotheses as to the age of the ralenijue ruins, 322 ; the temple of the cross, 324 ; the Palcnque tablet, 324, 325 ; the cross elsewiiere in Central America, 327 ; Copan, 328 ; ruins of, 330 Central America, ruins in difftcnt parts of Yucatan, 332 Lorillard city, 333 : differences between monuments of Chiapas and those of Yucatan, 333 ; ruins of Chichen-Itza and Uxnial, 334 ; ele- phant-trunk-shaped ornaments, 335; representations of other animals, 336; phallic eml)lems, 336, 33S; no weapons nor implements found in the ruins, 340 ; Kahah and Labna, ruins of, 340 ; Zayi, ruins at, 340 ; Chichen-ltza, ruins of, 340; bas-relief f')und by Dr. L. Plongeon at Chichi n-Itza, 345 ; dn- ciphering the hieroglyphics, 346 ; the cara gigantesca, 347, 348 ; Iza- mal, ruins of, 349 roads and bridges, 349 Nahuatl ruins, 350 ; pyramid of Cholula, 350 ; date of erection 351 ; Xochicalco, 352 ; temple of, 353 ; fortihcations in Anahuac, 354 ; at Huatusco, 354 ; at Ceutla, 354 ; jiyraniids near Tehuantepec, 355 ; Tula, ruins of, 355 ; discoveries of Charnay, 356 ; glass and porcelain, 356 ; temple in honor of the gnd Huitzilopochtli, 35S ; Tezcuco, 360 ; (^uemada, 361 Zapotecs ruins, 364 ; Mitla, 364 ; temple of Mitla, 365 ; mozaics, 368; Cerro de Guiengola fortihcations, 368, seinilchre at Tt-huantepec, 369 ; Santa Lucia Cosumlluiapa, ruins at, 371 ; ruins elsewhere in Guatemala, 373 ; -11 Huirigi'.a, 373 Cerro de Guiengola, fortifications of, 368 Chaco canon (New Mexico), cliff dweller's Nkull, from 497, 49S Chaco valley, ruins in, 230, 231, 234 Chacota, bay of, mummies from, 430 mummies from. 504 Chami)er's Inland (Wi-oonsin), platy- cnemic's tii)ire from tumulus on, 493 various shaped skulls frcun mound on, 4S7 Chelles, resemblance of its palreolithic inijilements to those of the Dela- ware valley, 20 Cherokees, councd-house of, 191 Chibchas or Muyscas (the), they and their country described, 459 ; Engin- eering and architectural works, 459; J1 542 PRE- II IS TORIC A M ERICA . fabrics and orn'\ments : pottery, 459; their wealili, 460; traditions, 4O0 ; legends about ISoCHlCA simi- lar to those about (^)uetzacoatl and Manco-CaI'AC, 4G0 ; [a gram- mar of their language, 460 ;J they vorshippcd the sun, to whicli they oiTered human sacrillce, 461 ; ruins near Tunja, supposed to be the town of Sogomuxi, 461 ; government of the Chibchas 461 ; the Zii>pas 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, monunicnis and liieroglyphics, 464, 465 ; Columns near the junction of the Carare and Mngdalena, 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, 2S0 ; marriage customs, 280 ; conquest of Anahuac, 282 Chicomoztoc, establishment of the Aztecs in, 285 Chicuitd, megaliths of , 424 Chihuahua, casagrandes in San Miguel valley, 225 low type skulls from certain sep- mounds at, 100, ulchres in, 4S4 Chillicothe (Ohio), 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, igo Circleviile (Ohio), mounds at, loi C'lCu'.ar mound, skull froni, 48!; "Clark's Works, " Koss county (Ohio). 91 Clavigero, boundaries of Anahunc, II Cliff Dwe'ers, points of diffe ence be- tween them and the Mound Uuild- crs and other ancient races, 255 ; the Spaniards notice no resemblane between the inhabitants of Mexico and New Mexico, 256 ; a sedentary agricultural race, 257 see also " I're-historic Amer- icans," 497 on lieaver Creek, 227 ; on the Colorado Chiquito, 227 causes 01 J?cadence, 258; prob- able decrease in rainfall the most important, 258 ClilT-Houses described, 2or, 202, 203, 205 ; on the Rio Mancos, 208, 210; in Mac Elmo valley, 214 ; at Aztec Spring, 215 ; on the 1 1 oven weep, in Montezuma 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, ,43 Colorado Chiquito, ruins along the, 226 Colorado river, ancient ruins along, 228 Complexions of the Indians, 3 Connecticut, pipe from, 1O4 Connett's Mound, near Dover (Ohio), iiS 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, 180 Coppei -ng by the Mound Builders on Laxe Superior, 178 ; on Isle Royal, 179 Counc'.l BluiTs, intrenchment of the Arikarees at, 98 Coyote, the American ''og, 4 w INDEX. 543 Amer- Cremation amonp the Indians, itq 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 sk'.leton 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, 4S4 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 ; in Oceanica, 514 ; in France, deformation tottlon- saiiu, 515 ; was deformation always voluntary, 515 Delaware valley, palceolithic imple- ments from, ig, 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 Esquimau, dish with two handleb found in shell-heap, 52 Etowah river, mound on, 105 Fasciolaria gigantea, ij'i Fauna of America (native), 3 Figians, cannibalism amongst, 61 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 tibiaj from, 493 skulls in the shell-heaps of, 48 1 Fort, ancient, 92 Foil Hill (Ohio), mound at, 89, qo Fort Wayne (Indiana), burial mound at, 112 platycnemic tibia; from, 493 skulls from, 485, 4S7 Frias (the), (Buenos Ayres), human fossils on the banks Oi', 29 Funeial rites of the Nahuacs, 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, iSi Garden Beds, 181 ; in Michigan, In- diana, and Missouri, 181 ; west of the Mississippi and on the Gulf of Mexico, 1S2 ; in Louisiana. 1S2 Gasconade river (Missouri), cave on banks of, /O 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 periotls of, 18, )9 existence of man during, it) in Kentucky, 18 in New Jersey, i3 in North America, 17, 18 Glacial phenomena in C^alifornia, 18 in the savannahs of the Meta and the Apure, iS ; in tho valley of the Amazon and Rio de la Plata, 18 Glacial striae in New England, 17 ; in Ohio, iS ; in Iowa, 18 ; in Michigan, l8 ; 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 i^- 544 PRF..IIISTORIC AMERICA. Great Miami river, mounds along, 91 Greenwood (Tennessee), 94 GreyMin's Springs (Kentucky), rock slieltci near, 74 Guano deposits in Peru, ornaments in, 63 ; their age, 63 Guanajuato, spear point from the, 22 Guarani or Tupi, the native race of Brazil, 6, 9, 467 ; cliaracteristics and language, .'67 ; analogies be- tween the languages of Guiana, the Upper Amazon, the Antilles, and the bay of Rio de Janeiro, 467 ; the Hotocudos, the Tapuyas, theTupin- ambas, 468 ; [description of the skull of the Botocudos by Rey, 46S] the Guaranis probably had more civilized predecessors to whom we must attribute the megaliths and rock jiaintings, 469 Guiana, cannibalism in, 61 inhabitants of, 10 ]iiimeval man in, 27 shell-heaps, 47 Gulf of Mexico, mounds along, 82 Harrissonville (Ohio), sepulchral mound at, 116 Hask, 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 Holigates, legend of, 64 Honduras, cairns near San Salvador, 84 mounds in, 82, 83 veneration of the tiger in, 7 Hopetown (Ohio) mounds at, too lloplophori Euphrntus, If. St'llovi, H. Minor, found fossil in Brazil by Lund, 25 Horse, ancestors of the, 16 of American origin, 16 Hovenweep (the), ancient ruins along, 217 nu;icas, resemble the Mexican teoc- allis, 395 ; Obispo huaca, 396 ; NJoche huncn, 396 ; of Copiapo Valley (Chili), 430 ; near Arica, 430 ; on Bay of Chacota, 430 ; at Icpiique, 433 Iluatasco, fortifications at, 354 lluehue Thajiallan a great empire in the North according to Mexican traditions, 13 Ilydroclucrus SulciJcus, associated with human remains in Brazil, 25 Hyer, the ruins of Aztalan, Wiscon- sin, 92, 93. Illinois, shell-heaps in, 56 cloth in mountls of, 177 copper turtles from mound, 177 mound at Cnhokia, 103 mounds in, 85, 87 sepulchral mounds in Carroll county, 120 Stone cists in Madison county, 115 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 lom 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 l)een 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 diflerences, 187 iheir culture, Creeks and Natchez., 190 ; Cherokees, 190 ; Iroquois, ig2 ; Mandans, 193 ; Chippewas, 193 camp, 76-77 Intihuatana, 417 ; of Pisac, 418 Iowa, bones of the Mastochm iniii'd with stone w(.'apons found in, 37 shell-heaps in, 56 mounds in, 82, 85 mounds near Toolcsborough, 84, 113 w IXDF.X. 545 Iowa, skeletons in mounils at Daven- port, 113 ck'pliant-shape stone pipe from, 163 copper axes wrapped in cloth from mounds, 177 Ipswich (Massachusetts) human l)ones with marks of workmanship, 59 Iron among tlie Mound Ihiilders, 180 Iron (meteoric) in the Little Miami mounds, 180 Iroquois, cannibalism amongst, 62 fortifications of, g3 Irrigation canals in Missouri, 129 Isle Royal, ancient copper mining on, 179 IXTiiiLXOCHiTL, the historian, 12 Izamal, ruins of, 349 Jadeite hatchet from Brazil, 475 ja])an, 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. humari bones in cave near Louis- ville, 74 Halt 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- nienls unconnnon in, 48 ; bones of (illlinals fdiliiil In, 49; bones of man found in, 51 ; in Oregon, 51 ; on Vancouver's Island, 52 ; on the Mississipjii river, 5(1 ; on Florida rivers, 57 ; contain shells of the Ampullaria and Paltidina, 57 ; oysters most abundant in Danish shell-lieaps, 57 ; also in shell-heaps of Cape Cod and Maine, 57 ; rude- ness of pottery in Florida siiell- heaps, 58 Kitchen-Middens, Age of, 64 ; origin unknown to the Indians, 64; on Point St. (ieorge ((California) attributed to the I loligates, 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 l>y trees growing upon them, 67 Kokopas (Indians), cremation amongst, 119 Koleemokee, pyramid of, 106 Labna, ruins of, 340 Lagoa Santas (Brazil), skull, descrip- tion of, 47S Lake Monroe (Florida), shell-heap with human bones, 58 the source of the Mound Build- ers, copper, 178 Lake Superior mines, stone hammers i". 39 Languages, the number of dialects, 5 Aymara and Guarani, 5 division of dialects into groups, 5 resemblance in structure of, 6 I^a Plata, earthenware and arrow heads from the banks of, 27 pottery of, 472 Lil)erty (Ohio), mounds at, 100 Llama, its utility, 3 Llautu (the), 419 Lookout Mountain, mound on, g2 Lorillard City, ruins of, 3;5j Louisiana, ancient skeleton found in New Orleans, 35 reed mat found in salt mines on Island of Petite Ansc, 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-Santa skull, 479, 480 MacElmo valley, ancient ruins in, 214 Mackinac Island, sea shell pendants from, 173 Madisonville, pits at, 52, 53 ; one of tiiem contains corn, 53 N N I S! 546 PR/:-// IS TO/aC AME/ilCA. Madisonville (Ohio), skeletons in moiintls at, 113 Mahquahvvitl (tlic), 170 Maine, shell heaps, 4S ; bones of ani- mals found in, 49 cannihalism in, 59 Mammoth Cave, plaiycneniic tihiiv from, 493 Mammoth in glacial clay in Ohio, 19 Man on the American Continent, his great antiquity, 14 Manacas (ierra-c(jtta siaiuetles) in Honduras and Guatemala, 167 Mandans, foriifications of, q8 Manioc, idigenous to America, 4 Manuscripts of the Aztecs, the Troanu manuscript, 379 of the Mexicans, 379; different styles of, 380 Maranhrlo (Brazil), wc.ipons from, 475 Alargittclla apirina, shells of, in Big Mound, St. Louis, 117 Marginella couoidalis, 1 72 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 confederution, 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 Alegalonyx, 15 Mcgatheriuin, 15, 16 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, 6g ; 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 i)ust-tertiary beds, 22 ; hatchet from the Rio Juehipila, 22 ; spear point from the Guanajuato, 22 ; scraper from near Mexico, 22 traditions regarding convulsions of nature in, 17 or 'I'enotchitlan, founding of, 285 resemblance of skulls from, to those of the Mound Buiklers, 500 Mica, in the mounds, 109 Mica ornaments (sec 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 IXDF.X. 547 on the St. :ar Trenton, Missouri, v.isc from New Madrid, 144 vase from yrave, 146 C()oiund in, 142 pipes from Mound City, 164 |)i]3e from, 165 ancient minint; in, 180 skuil associated with tooth of a mastodon from New Madrid mound, 482 low type skull from mounds of, 4S7 two categories of skulls authen- ticated, 4S8 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 Mcnite Cuyo, near Yalahao, the work of man, S2 Montezuma valley, ancient ruins in, 217 Mounds, alluded to by the Spaniards, 80 ; first specially noticed by Car- ver (1776) and Harte (17QI), 80; Breckenridge (1S14) wrote about them, 80 ; scientifically described by Squier and Davis, 80 ; the mounds described, 81, 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, go ; in Clarke county (Ohio), 90 ; Clark's works in Ross county (Ohio), gi ; along the Big Ilarpeth 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- fi;nce) of the Mississippi valley, 97; erected as pernuuienl fortifications, 97, 98 ; among the Indians, 98 ; at Newark (Oliio), 99; at Chillicothe (O.), 100; at lio]ietown (O.), 100; at Liberty (O.), 100; at Circleville (O.), loi ; near Black Run, Ross county (O.), loi ; as temples, loi ; at Marietta (O.), 102 ; at Cahokia (Illinois), 103 ; at Seltzer- town, 103 ; at New Madrid, 104 ; at Matonliple, 105 ; on the Etowah river, 105 ; the Mes- sier mound ((Georgia), I(j6 ; the pyramid of Koleeniokee, 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, no; different positions of the bodies in, in, 112 ; atChilIicothe(0.), 112 ; at Madi.-,on- ville (O.). 113 ; 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'b river (Nlinnesota), 121 ; mounds representing animals, 123 ; almost confined to the Northern and West- ern States, 123 ; bird-shaped mound in Georgia, 123 ; at I'ewaukee (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 Mex'':o, Peru, and Central America, their resemblance to the temples and palaces of Egypt, 14 Moreau river, mound city on, 186 Moreno, paraderos in Buenos Ayres, 54 N N 2 548 PRE-niS TOKIC A M ERICA. Trc- MC tl)c Mouiul lluilil- in the Mississippi practiced amoiii^si, Morton's tables of capacities of In ilian skulls, 4S6 Mound Builders, see also under historic Americans " Mound Huilders, their weapons " Weapons of ers " Mound Builders valley, 13 cremation III, 118, 119 cannibalism atnongst, 119 irrij;ation canals built by, I2() the ancestors of the Indians, 130, 131 sturdy smokt rs, 160 method of executing iheir sculp- tures, 168 their clothing, 177 territory occupied by, 183 ; char- aiteristics of, 183 ; did they disap- pear ? 183 ; or are the red Indians their descendants? 183, 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 evidenie that they weio 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, 188 ; testimony of Spanish historians, 1S9 ; the natives of Florida and the Mississippi val- ley lived in fortified towns at the time of the Spanish invasion, i8g ; traces of structures analogous to the mounds found amt)iig the Creeks and Natchez, lyo ; chunk yards, igo ; 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 us 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, G() Mummy from Chacota, 504 MyloJon, 15, 17 Nahuatl (the), race, II cradle of the. 13 Neanderthal skull, comparison of, with some skulls frt.ni the mounds, 483 Nebraska, bones of the mastodon mixed with stime weapons, found ill. 37 mounds in, 82 New Almaden mines (Cal.), skeletons and stone hammeis in, 39 Newark (Ohio), mounds near, 99 New Kngland, visited by Northmen, i Newfoundland, its discovery, ^2 ; shell-heaps, 47, 52; uninhabited when discovered, 52 New Jersey, stone hammer from I'end)erton, 22-24 palceolithic 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 Nezahuacoyote, poems of, 288 Nicragua shell-heaps, 47 mounds near Juigalpa, 97 Oajaca (Province), caves in, 74 Obsidian cut into knives, etc., by Mexicans, 169-170; in moumls, 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 - " ■ »%> ^-^"gic'.^ INDEX. 549 01\!o, moiiiul in Clarke county, 90, yi " Chilli's " works, Russ county, 9' mounds at Hourneville, 89 mounds .it Newark, 99 at Cliillicothe, at Hopctown, at Liherly, 100 ; at ('irclcville, loi ; near JJIack Run, Ross county, loi mounds at Cliilliciitlic, I'orts- moutli. Marietta, 102 sei)ulcliral ntuunds at Madison- ville, 1 13 Connetl's mound, near Dover, ilS alligator mound at Granville, •25 snake-shaped mound on Brush creek, 126 cross-shaped mounds in, 129 pottery jar from, 140 iieron-shaped pipe from, 163 terra cotta tij;ures in mounds near the Little Miami river, 167 serpentine axes from, 1 70 siiell ornaments from mounds near the Little Miami, 172 copper beads from Connetl's mound, 174 cloth in mounds of, 177 low type skuUj from certain mounds in, 4S4 Oliio valley, mounds in, 80 Old Town shell-heap, its age, 67 Ollantay-Tambo, fortress of, 416 Olynipia (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 dei)endent upon the environment, 520 ; origin of the famdy, 520; primitive man a slave to nature, 521 ; physical character- istics of American aborigines poinl toward affinities with people of the Pacific re.'ion, 522 ; emigration possible '<'?(/ i'.i^riii.tT Strait, 522 ; also along the thirtieth south parallel, 523 ; it pr. -hniily dck place by both routes, 523 nothiig definite known of the spread of the emigrants ex- ce|)ting 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 (jquiches, Zanma, Cukulcan, and Quetzacoatl, 526 ; legends of the Shawnees, the Natchez, the Tusca- roras, 526 ; the Peruvians and Manco-Capac and Mama-lKllo, 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 Lsland, 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 Mill, 175- 177 ; copper turtles in Illinois, 177 ; skin with copper beads, 178 Osceola mound, human remains provn 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, 180 Ozark hills, covered with cairns, 84 Pachac.amac, ruins of, 392 ; cemetery :it. 433 Palca (I'eru), chulpa at, 425 I'alenque, monuments of, 318 Pampas (the), human remains found in, 28, 29, 30, 31 theories of Darwin, Burmeisler, Bravard, Ameghino, D'Orbigny, re- garding their geological age and method of formation, 31, 32 ^ 5S 1 'p- IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 1.0 I.I tim tu Hi ^ U£ 1^ |2.2 I mil: 2.0 1-25 1.4 1.6 « — ' 6" ► ^^ ^ /2 / :^ > /A y ^ Photographic Sdences Corporation '^^;^^ 23 WEST MAIN C> ?^&T WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SS0 (716) 672-4503 n 4/. % 4^0 ^ ^ <> ^ V'^Q ;\ ^1^ 550 PRli-HISTORlC AMERICA. Para (Brazil), intaglio, sculptures of. 469 Paraderos of Patagonia, triangular ar- row-points in, 27 ol La I'lataand 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 situli on the banks of the Rio Negro, 32 shell-iieaps, 47 mounds in, 83 defoimatiDii of Tehuelches, skulls fi(im, 511 Patagoiiians, their lofty stature, 3, 10 P.Tiicar-Tanibo, tombs in the valley of, 435 Peniberton (New Jersey), stone ham- mer from, 22, 24 Pennsylvania, ancient soa])stone quar- ry at Christiana, Lancaster county, 51 cannibalism in, 61 deposits of guano containing gold and silver images, 68 caves as i)uric; places, fig cave with human remains on the Susquehanna, 73 mounds in, 81, 82 mounds in Pike county, 86 human remains enclosed in bas- kets, 114 Peru, the country described, 387 ; the empire of the Incas, 388 ; Tavaii- tisuyi the real name, 388 ; the region defined, 388 ; the origin of the Incas, 389 ; Aymaras and Qquichuas, 390 ; Manco-Capac, 389, 391 ; Atahualpa, 391 ; landmg 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 dale than the Incas, 401 ; were the builders of Tiaguanaco rel.-ilcd to the (Qqui- chuas ? 406 ; Lake Tiiicaca, 406 ; island of Tiiicaca, 406 ; ruins on, 407; buildings erected by 'I'upai- \'upanqui, the eleventh Lica, 408 ; island of Coati, ruins of, 409 ; island of Soto, 4T0 ; 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 tlie 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 ate- quias, 422 ; in the valley of La Ke- pana, 422; in Huanuco Viejo, 423 ; agriculture, 423 ; funeral riles, 424 ; sepulchres of the Aymnras, 424; megaliths, 424 , megaliths of Vil- cabamba and Chicuiio, 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 va'ley of Paucar-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' arc, 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, 156 ; 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 cultusin the New World, 159 Piauhy (Brazil), intaglio sculptures of, 469 Pictograjihy, of the Cliff Dwellers, 246 ; on boulders in Arizona, 247 ; on llie banks of the San Jnr.n, 248 ; near the MacEimo, 24S ; near the Pecos ruins, 248 ; on the Puerco and Zuiii rivers, 249 ; near Salt Lake City, 249 ; in Licking valley, 250 ; in Cuyahoga and Belmont counties, 250 ; in Vermont, 250 ; in Nicara!j;ua, 250 ; in Oajaca, 251 ; in Sonora, 251 ; in Colum- bia, 251 ; in Venezuela, 251 ; on the Istlinius of Panama, 251 ; in Nevada and California, 251 ; in 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- pean <, 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 Clifl Dwellers and the inhabitants of the puelilos, 240 ; great q\iantity 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 decor.ition, 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, 1 48 ; 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- iiessee, 152 ; ditto, from Missouri, 152; red vase, with snake, from M issouri ,153; " bear "-shaped vase from Tennessee, 154; pig-shaped vase, 155 ; fish-shaped vase, 135 ; vases with representations of men, 156 ; from Belmont (Missouri), 156 ; from New Madrid (Missouri), 157 ; few indecent objects among, 159; superiority of, to that 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 ; pipef) from Mound City, 164 ; from Connecticut, Virginia, Mis- souri, Indiana, 164, 1(15 ; 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- brr^ of Cetacea, 168 ; jar from near \ 552 PRE-HISTORIC AMI-RH A. the Tallalialdicc river (Mississippi), i68 ; human masks in stone, i6S Pre-historic Americans, of tlie same type as those of Europe and Asia, 15 phases of their civilization analogous to that of the Euro- pean>, 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 l>ones with the remains of the glyptodon, etc.. in the La Plata pampas, 477 ; discoveries near Pon- timelo, in Huenos Ayres, 478 ; con- temporaneity of man and the glyp- todon not, however, thoroughly proven, 478 ; the skull of Lagna Santa (lirazill described, 478 [a similar skull found at Rock Bluff, Illinois, 479] ; remarks ow the La- goa-Santa skull by Lund and De Quatrefages, 479. 4S0 ; skulls in shell-heaps on the California and Oregon coasts. 4S0 ; skulls in sttta- tite quarry on island of Santa Co.ta- lina, 43 1 : skulls in Florif^a shell- heaps, 4S1 ; bones of the Mound Huilder.N, 4; I ; skull associated with tooth of a mastodon, from mound at New Madrid, Missouri, 4S2 ; 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, 4S3 ; comparison of Stimpson's mound skull and Dunlcith (Indiana) mound skull with the Neanderthal skull. 4S3 ; skulls from Kennicott mound of degraded type, 4 S3 ; skulls of analogous type from Missouri, I>akota. Chihuahua (Mexico), and Ohio, 4?4 ; prominent eyebrows and retreating foreheads in skulls from Wisconsin, Mississip])i valley, and Tenne>see mounds, 4S5 , analogous remains from the mounds near the great lakes, on the Red River, and Detroit River, 4S5 ; skulls from (Cir- cular mound, from Western mound, and from Fort Wayne mound, 4S5 ; some skulls of very small cubical contents. 4S6 ; skulls differing greatly in sha])e often found in same mound. 4S7 ; some instances, 487 ; some measurements of skulls by Farquharson. Carr, and Jones, 487, 4?^ ; two categories of skulls from Missouri, 4S8 ; individual variations, 4S8 ; skull of a child from Atatam:i and from Alal)ama, 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 Chillicothc, and different theories relating thereto, 489, 490 ; some measurements of the capacity of the skulls of the Mound Puilders, 490; capacity of the skulls of modern races, 491 ; the Mound lluilders seem to stand low in the comparison, 491 ; exceptional large skulls from Tennessee stone graves, 491 ; from j an Illinois mound, 491 ; the ex- tremely small "Albany skull," 491 ; j extremes vitiate averages, 492 ; cra- I nial capacity not proof of high in- j tellectuality, nor vice vers.i, 492 ; platycnemia among American races, I 492 ; this form of tibia occurs in yi% 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 ; 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 ha> perforation of the olecranon fos>a, 495 ; a tendency to perforation seems to diminish among European races, 496 ; Mound liuilders 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 feel in heig'iit 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 •;mal1 stature, 497 ; bones of tlie C'lff Dwellers, but few disc()vcrcuatt<'- fages and Ilamy on the ethnic identity of the Mound Uuilders 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 lonj^er general, 500 ; analogies of mound crania with those of the ancient inhabitants of Anahuac ; skulls from tombs of Mexico, Oluniba, 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 ; artidcial 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 ; averai^e 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 ; difiti- culties in studying race-types greatly incrcaseil by intermixture of races, 503 ; skulls of a variety of shapes found at the caslillo of the gieat Chimu by S(]uier, 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 ; mummieil head of a man, 505, 506 ; ancient men of Patagonia ic- sembled the Lskinio, 5(15 ; doliclio- cephalic skulls from lirnzil, 505 ; the liotocudos a ilolichotcplialic race, 505 ; they jueseni analngits witli the Eskimo, 505 ; were ilie.'-e people conlem]ioraries of the Euro- pean pal.'olilhic j)eople? 506 ; sypbi- lis amongst the Mound J'uilders and in Patagonia, 507 ; the Mayas acquainted with venereal off icl ions, 508 ; other diseases of the bones, 508 ; T^arquh arson describes n Itsion whici ipears to have been cured, 508 ; skulls bearing traces of ancient inflammation, fiom Tennessee, 508 ; anchylosed vertebral column from the Aleutian Islands, colkcled ly Dall, 508 ; hurts from traumatic causes not rare, 508 ; fractured Pe- ruvian skulls with evidence of recov- ery, 509 ; trepanned skull from Yu- cay valley, 509, 510; posthumous trepannings of frequent occurrence, 509 ; hypotheses regarding these, 509 ; trepanned skulls from Sable and Red Kiver mounds and from mounds in Michigan, 510; trepan- ning only practised on adult males, 510; trepanned skulls in Euiope, dititiculty of comparing these wiib 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 emjiloyed, 512 ; by the Choctaws, by the M()squitf)s, 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 toulousaini 515 ; was de- formation always volunlary ? 515. Conclusions. — The pre-historic American difTers but lilile from the Indians, and there is no essential physical difference between him and the ancient Euro])e:in, 516 ; varie- ties and migrations of the Ameri- cans, 5 Pre-historic man, existence of man in the fjuarternary period, 15 contemporary of extinct animals, 554 rRE.HlSTORIC AMERICA. Frc-historic man his weapons, i6 his existence during (glacial times, hones of, associated with those of extinct animals, 23 his antic|uity in America, accord- ing to IauuI, sf) his remains in the Sumidouio cave connected witii the reindeer ])erioil in Europe and not with tlic 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 Nei;ro (I'atagonia), it is arti- ficially deformed and shows traces of periostitis, 33 skeletons from the ancient ceme- teries of I'atagoiiia, 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 Hrazil, 53 a cannibal in Florida, 58, 59 ; in New England, 59 — — Ills remains in caves in Cali- fornia, Mexico, Peru, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, 69 on the Gasconade River (Mis- souri), 70, ; in Shelter Cave (Ohio), "I ; in Ash Cave (Ohio), 72 — — in Summit county (Ohio), 72 ; in Pennsylvania, 73 [)robably inhabited wigwams when caves were not available, 76 - — -skeletons in the ruins of Aztalan (WisconsinI, 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 ; cstufas, 204 ; ob- servation towers, 214 in Montezuma Valley, 217 ; on the Rio de Chelly, 21 S — on the La Plata, 222 Casa- (irandeof the Rio Gila, 223 ; Casas- (irandes in Chihuahua, 225 — Pueblo Honito (Pintado), 22S ; Pueblo Bonito, 229 ; P. 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(li-'n. ilf los Hcclios dc los Ca.stillaAos en las Islus y 'I'ierra Firme tlcl Mar Oceano," 176, 2f)6. 268, 269, 270, 3(J2, 303, 3o(;, 363, 364, 380, 438, 5Y (J.), "Contributions to (he Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of ihe Western Territories," 534 " The Extinct Mammalian Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska, 534 Le I'LONGEON (Dr.), Letter of, 344 Lewis and Clark, " Travels*lo the Source of the Nl'-souri River," 85 " Littorina Peruviu. ,'' 432 Lopez (V. F.), " Les Ra;;es Ai7ennes du Perou," 3S8 $Co PHI-:. II IS I'oKh • .iMIlh'ICA. LoWKNSTRRN, " Mexico," 353 l.lJHiiiK K " 1/Ilommir I'rLh., "35 " I'rt'liiNloric Tines," iSo l.YKM,, " AiitiS Nadaii.i.ac, " Lcs Pretniers Hommes et les Temps Prehistoriques," 424, 483. 510 Nackka (CastaTieda de), " Relation du Voy. de Cibola," 237, 243 Neiiei,, " Viaje pittoresco y artjueo- logico sobre la rep. Mejicana," 352, 353. 361 Norman. "Rambles in Yucat.in," 335. 340, 341 Nott and Gi.innoN's " Types of Man- kind," 3, 5, 23, 34. 35, '503 (")R07X0 Y Berra, " Geographia de Lis lenguas y Carta Ethnografica de Mexico," 262, 311 OviEDO, " Natural Ilistoria -de las Indi;is," 153 OviEuo Y Valdes, " Hist. Gen. y Natural de las Indias," 268, 271, 350. 413. 501 Paz-Soi,I)AN (Mateo), " Geog. del Peru," 388, 391, 423 Peet (Rev. S. D.), " The Military Architecture," 92 American Antiquarian, 92, if)i Perkins (G. H.), "Ancient Burial- Ground in Swanton, Vermont," 1X4, 165, 174 "General Remarks upon the Arch, of Vermont," 136, 250 Pickett (A. J.), "History of Ala- bama," 189 PiOGEON, "Ant. Researches," 85 Piedrahita, " Hist. Gen. de )a Con- quista del Nuevo Reyno de Gra- nada," 459 Pimentel (Francesco), " Lenguas In- digenas de Mexico," 13 »»« •mm IXlJEX. 561 Pottk.r(\V. v.), "Arch. Keiu.iins iu S. 1:. Missouri," 85, ys, 136, 151, •71 ruKsroiT (W. H.). "Hist, of tlie (Joiic|iit'si of Peru," 61, 3SS, 412. 45S " lli^t. of the Conquest of Mexico," 61. 262, 353 rRlT(HAKi), " Natural History of Mail," fi, 2S4 " I'roc, IJuston Soc. of Nat. Hist.," 533 rKi;NlKKKs(I)r.), '• Hull. Soc. Anth.," 494 PiRCllAS, " Mis IMliniines," 270. I'UTNAM (F. W.) ' Arch. Kxpl. in Tenn.." 507 " IJull. of the Essex Inst.," 200, 244 " Report, rcahoily Museum," 74, 04. 103, 115, 145, I7(>. 244, 487, 497. SO"* I Ramusio, " Navigationi et Vicggi," ! 3^S I Raih iC), " Revisia do Tiistituto hisuiiico, geoi;r,iphico, clhno^jraphi- | CO do lirazil," 464 Rau. "Arch. Coll. U. S. N.it. Mus.," j " Indian Pottery," 134, 243 | " North American .Stone Ini- l)lements " (" Smith. Cent."), 3O | "The Palenqne Tablet," 324, I 379 " Smith. Contrilnuidns," 168, 171, 172 1\I;aI), " Ex]>loration of a Rock Shel- ter in Hoston, S'ammit county, Ohio." 73 " Rel. primera del Licenciado de On- deganlo," 440 Remsal (A. de), " Mist, de la Prov. de .S. Vincente de Chyapa," 266 Remy and Rre.nciiley, " A Journey to Great Salt Lake City," 137, 249 " Report, liureau of Ethnology," 524 "Report, Peabody Mus.," 477, 493, 501, 512 Retzius, " Archives des Sciences Nal- urelles,*' 514 " Ethnol. Schriften." 488 Rkuss and Stuhei., " The Necropolis of Ancon in Peru,""' 431 "R-ev. d'Anth.."496 " Revista Mexicana," 352 " Revue des Questions Scientifiques," 357 Revnoi.ds, " Aboriginal Soapstone • Jiiauies ill the District of ('uhim- bi;i," if)i RiVEKo, " Hist, lie Jalapa, Mexico," 127 RoiiER I so.v, " Congrcs des Ainerican- istcs," 196 " Ees Mound Builders," 51^) Ruiz (Mariano), the estufas of the pueblos, 303 Sahacii.v, "Hist. Gen. de las Cos.is de Nueva Espafia," 271, 277, 278, 293. S'Ja, 308, 312, 315, 355, 353, 507 Sai.isiu'ry, " Maya Arch.," 344 ^ "The Mayas, tin. .Sources of their History,' 344 " I'roc. A , Antiq. Soc," 265 San Paoi.o (Dr. U-jth de), " Letter Addressed to tlie Aii.;lo-Braziliiin ThN,:<," 53 Sari K-.Es (Comtc ile), Kn'. ,/,-s lUux Moiliti 441 Sariokius, "Soc. Mex. Geog. P^ole- ti"."354 ScnERZER, " Ein Ik-Mich hei den Ruiiien von (1uiri(iua im Staate Guatemala," 375 ScilMliiT, "Zur Urgeschichte Nord Amerika," 479 ScHMiDi' (Ulricu), account of Mcii- doza's expedilion, 8 SciliiDKL, " Antiijuites Americaines du .Muse-; ICthncgraphique de S.iint Petersi)ourg," 444 " Un chap, de I'Arch. Am. Coit- gres de Luxembourg " 371 Schoolcraft, " Archives oI Aborigi- nal Knowledge," 36, 70, 130, i()4, 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 KjttkkenmOddings of ihc (^oast of Oregon and in the Sania P.ailiara Islands and Adjacent Mainland," 51 " Rep., Peabody Museum," 137, 171. 480 ScHWEDEN, " Urgeschichte," 61 ScoviLi.E (Dr. S.), Cincinnati Quar- terlv Journal, 172 Short, " North Americans of Antiq- uity," 34, 35, 36, 87, 92, 104. 106, 177 197, 306, 317, 335, 344, 347, 484. 493 O O 562 PRE-HiS TORIC A M ERICA . SiClM.Us (Diodorus), ' Biblical His- tory," f)C Sii.i.iman's Am. Journ. of Sci., 92 MMi'SUN (James), "Journal of a Mili- tary Reconnaissance from Santa Fe to the Navajo Country," 7S, 204 " Kep. to Sec. of War," 22y, 234 SiTCRKAVES, •' Report of an Expedi- tion down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers," 226 " Soc. iMex. Cieog. Bol.," 361 Sot. 1)1, " Les camees et les pierres firavces I'art au moyen age, I'art Khmer, les arts du I'erou et du Mexiciue, I'art Egyptien, les arts in- dustriels, des musees du Trocadero, 375 SosA (Caspar Castanode), " Mem. del Descuhriniiento del Reino de Leon," 142 SoiJRY (J.), " Int. a 1' Hist, des Pro- tistes de IlDEckel," 517 Sof IKAIL, " Recent Origin of Man," 34. 35. 80, 192 Squikr, " Peru, Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas," 3S7, 38S, 393, 396, 399, 400, 402,407, 40S, 411, 416, 418,422, 425,435, sor, 502, 503, 509, 523, 527 quoted by Nott and Gliddon, 5 "Smithsonian Contrib. to Knowledge," 131 " Nicaragua," 513 S(juiER and Davis, " Ancient Monu- ments of tlie Mississippi Valley," Si, 100, 104, 107, 112, 137, 165, i6f), 185, 190, 4S9 Stephens, " Incidents of Travel in Yucatan," 82, 159, 265, 318, 319, 324, 330, 332. 338, 340, 341. 343. 344. 347. 349 SiEi'HENS and Catiierwood, " Inci- dents of Travel in Central Amer- ica," 318, 375 " Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan," 330 Si'RAiio, "Geography," 60, 514 Sl'RACKEY, " Historic of Travaile into Virginia Hritanni.i." 193 Stronck, " Repertoire Chronologiquf (le r Hist, des Mound Builders," Cong, des .'\nieric., 197 Sumner (Prof. W. G.), XortJi Amn-i- caii Rc7'/t'r,', 521 Swallow (Prof), " Report, Peabody .\Ius.," 104, 138, 4>2 SwiNEi'ORi), " Review of tlie .V. ci 1 Resources of Lake Superior," 1876 178 St. Jerome, " Ilier. Opera," 60 Tenochtitlan (City of Mexico), foundation of, 11 Ternai X Compans, " Notice Hist. sur la (iuyane Fran9aise," 10, 138 Tezozo.moc (F. de Alvaredo), "Chron. Mexicana," 285, 287, 291, 308, 309 "lli.st. Mex.," 358 Thevenop, " Relation de Divers Voyages Curieux," 254 Tiiukma.n "Crania Britannica," 514 TopiNARD, " Bull. Soc. Anlh." in Rev. d'Anth., 3 Torc^uemada, " Mon. Indiana," 264, 277, 279, 282, 285, 288, 290, 291, 297. 300, 302, 309, 310, 312, 313, 358, 360, 361, j64, 380 " Tres relacions de Antiguedades Peruanas puiilicalas el Ministerio de Fomento," Madrid, 1879, 388 Troisicme Cong, des Americanistes, 507 Tylor, " Anahu!3c," 350, 352, 358 Uhlman (Max), " Handbuch der ges- amten .l^gyptischen Altertluim- skunde," 321 URlCocHfEA, " Mem. sobre las An- tiguedades Neo-Granadiiias," 459 Vaca (Cabcra dc), " Quarta Rela- cion," 200 Valentkne, "The Katuncs of Maya History," 261 " Velacao verdadeira dos trabal- hos que ho gobernador don Fer- nando de Soto et certos fidalgos Portugesos jiassaraono descobri- mientoda provincia da Florida," 80 Venegas, " Nolicia de la California y de su Conquista," 78 Vetancurt, " Teatro Mexican©," 2S4, 297, 314 " Cronica," 239 Veytia, " Hist. ant. de Mejico," 261, 277, 282. 283, 285, 288, 302, 308, 364, 3S0 Violiet le Due, 365 ViMdNP (Barth.de), " Relation," 62 Vor.T (C), " Squelette humain associc aux giy))todontes," 477 VoN DuHEN (Baron), "Cong, preh.de Copenhague," 494 JM)hX. 563 (le Divers VoY, *' Relics of the Stone Age in Cal- ifornia," 39 Waitz (Dr, T.), "Anthropologic ('.li Naturvolker," 466 WALUEfJK, " Voy. arch, et ])ittoresta del Peru," 422 ZiKiiA (;\. de), "Rapport sur les ditVcientes classes de chefs de la Nouvelle Espagne," 315 Red River Mound, platycnemio tibiae from 493. Skulls from 485, 487 Rhinoceros ticliorinus, 15 /('. etrnsiUs, 15 Rio Caicarana (Buenos Ayres), human bones and those of exiinct animals (111 the borders of, 28 Rio das Trombcttas (or Orix.nmcna), fragments of pottery on, 473 Rio de Chelly, cliff Imu^us aloiij^, 2iS Rio de la Plata, paraderos in region of, 54 Rio Doce (ISrazilj, drawings on bank of, 469, 470 Rio Frias, paraderos of the, 54 Rio Juchii.ila, hatchet from the, 22 Rio Luj.iM, paiadeins of the, 54 Rio Mancos, anciciii luins along, 208, 210 Rio Marco-Diaz, paraderos of liic, 54 Rio Norzas (Duranco, Mexico), mum- inics from cave in valley of, 69 Rio Salado, ruins of the, 224 kio Verde, ruins of the, 224 Roads of Peui, 421 Root River, mounds on, S7 Saiuila (Iowa), shell-heaps, 56 Salt Cave (Kentucky), discoveries in, 75 Sambaquis in lirazil, 53, 55 ; ihcir size, 53, 54 at Tajierinha, 56 Sandy-Woods settlement (.Missouri), mounds at, 95 pottery at, 136 San I'ablo ((,'alifornia), shell-heap, 50 Santa Caialina(i^lando; .ncient soap- stone quarry on, 51 skulls in ilie sliell-heaps of, 481 .Santa Caiherina, (!'mpli'xion of the inhabitants of the island of, in the l6lh t'cntury, 3 Santa Lucia (,"o^i!niliu:ilpa, ruins at, 3'/ 1 Santa Ro>a, slicil-licap, 4S Santarcin (pioviiice of Para), frag- ments of pottery iicai , 473 Santiiigo-Tlatelolcoli, resemblance of skiilN from, to those of the Mound Builders, 500 5^4 PKE-llISTORlC AMERICA. Sar.ilo^a (New \'()ik), discoveries at lli^li Rock Sprmn, 74 Saicopluiyi ii'jar Trenton, Missouri, 114 in Tennessee mounds, 115 Scandinavian impk-nieiits, th-jir rc- semblante to those frrmi the islands of the Susquehanna, 21 Scioto skull from Chillicothe, 489 Sculptures among the Mound BuiMers, see under " I'otterj'," etc. Seltzertowii, mound at, 103 Serpent iu American mythology, 126, 127 Shaw's Flat (Cal.), ornaments of calc- sjiar and granite mortar from, 39 ■ Shell-heaps, see " Kitchen-middens " of Oregon and California, skulls in, 480 list of species founlements near, 39 Solo,, island of, 410 Spaniards, discoveries and coikjucsIS by, 1, 2, 4. 7, 8 Spana (Tennessee), hutuan remains enclosed in rush baskets near, 114 S(iuirrel, 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 Siimpson's mound skull, comparison with the Neanderthal skull, 4S3 Stroniliiis gigas, 172 Siigu;i>-su River (lira7.il), sambacpiis \\ iih human relics on banks of, 53 Su>i[uehanna River cave, 72 [ Swanton (Vermont), cojjper pipe-stems fium, 1G5 copper tubes in mounds at, 166 .-itone ornanjents from, 174 Swastika, the sacred sign of the Ar- yans, on the Femberton 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, canr>ibn}i.'*m at, 63 Taperinha, discoveries of pottery at, 472 sambaquis at, 56 Tehungkee, game of, igo J'echichis, the dog of Mexico, 3 Tecuhtli, initiation of the, 315 Tehuantcpec, recent discovery of a sepulchre at, 369 pyramids near, 355 Tehuelche (Patagonia), 10 skulls from Patagonia ceraeterieiv pre.senting 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 m, 107 human remains ii» rush baskets near Sparta. 114; near Cairo, 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 nK>unds, 151 pipe from sepulchral mound, 153 " 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 H II HRIJlJl.J.lll i MU.i!I.J » l 'i «** INDEX. 565 ol the mounds Tenochtitlan, founding of, 285 Tepanecs (the), 11 Ticrra del Fuc-go, 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 Titjer, veneration of the, in Honduras, 7 Tijuco (Brazil), inscription on rocks of, 470 Tin, amongst the Mexicans, 381 Tiiitaca, island in Lake Titicaca, the sacred island of the Peruvians, 406 ; the birthplace of Manco-Capac and (Ello, 407 ; ruins on, 407 ; build- ings erected by Tupac-Tupanqui, the eleventh Inca, 408 'I'ilicaca Lake, chulpas near, 426 ; near 'I'iuhiiani, j.2(. Tiuhuani (I'eru), chul sr^ rear, 426 Tolan or Tula, t!ii; i apilal of the Toltecs, 12 Toltecs, the, 12, •:7i ; conquered Ana- huac about the sixth century of ons of Mound Builders, copper hatchet at Swanton, 175 ; knife and lance point in Wisconsin, 175, 176; sharp blade at Joliet (Illinois), 175 ; knife at Fort NVayne (Indiana), 175; copper axes in Iowa, 177 Western rnound, skull from, 485 \Viscon~in. mounds in, 82 ruins of Aztalan, on Kock River, 92 methods of burial among the Mound Guilders, 114 mounds on the Kickapoo River, 108 — chief centre of mounds repre- senting animals, 123 animaUshaped mounds at Pewau- kee, 123 Wisconsin, animaUshaped mounds in, 126 cross-shaped mounds in, 129 copper weapons from, 175, 176 Wyominj^, 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 LONDON : rKINIED IIV SfOTTIsWOODE AND CO., nk\v-stp;ki;t MJl AUli AND I'AHI.IA.MKN r SIRKKC '■p ]\IE. MUEEAY'S LISl THE CORRESPONDENCE and DIARIES of the ' Riylit Hon. John Wilson Cuokeh, LL.D. and F.H.S. (Secretiiry to tlie Ailiiiiriilly t'roin 1809 to 1880); piimprising Letters, ^[omnriii(lii. and other Ddcmncnts rehitinif to the Cliief Politiciil and vSocial Invents of the I''irst lliilf of the i'lesent, Century. Edited hy Louis J. Jennings. With Portrait. 3 VOL'S. 8vo. 45.''. The STUDENT'S ELEMENTS of GEOLOGY. By Sir Charlks Lykix. 1'".R.S. a Xew Ei/Uiaii. cntirvly linhal. I5y P. Maktin Di'ncan, F.R.S., Professor of Geology, King's CoMege, London. With 600 Illustnitioiw. Post Svo. Os. RELIGIOUS THOUGHT and LIFE in INDIA: VEDISM, l^_ ]iHAHMANL'. Snoiid FJdion. With Portraits. Svo. Ki... 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