IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ul m M 1.8 1.25 1.4 J4 .« 6" ~ ► V] <^ c*: e: /i ,.> ^;. r^% .»' /A ^1 '^# or^M Photographic Sciences Corporation \ « ^ ^ O 4^ €y%.\ 4s ;\ 33 wr. . MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 1 4' 80 (716) 873-4503 '9) CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHJVi/ICJVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques Th« toi The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. D Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur □ Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagie n Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur6e et/ou pellicul6e □ Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque □ Coloured maps/ Cartes g^ographiques en couleur □ Coloured ink (I.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) □ Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur □ Bound with other material/ Relid avec d'autres documents D D D Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion along interior margin/ La reliure serr^e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6x6 filmdes. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppl^mentaires; L'Institut a microfil>.i6 le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la methods normale de filmage sont indiqu6s ci-dessous. I — 1 Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommagdes Pages restored and/oi Pages restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es f*ages discoloured, stained or foxei Pages d6color6es, tachet6es ou piqudes Pages detached/ J Pages ddtach^es Showthrough/ Transparence Quality of prir Qualit^ indgale de I'impression Includes supplementary materii Comprend du materiel suppldmentaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible j — TL- Pages damaged/ I — I Pages restored and/or laminated/ j — ! r*ages discoloured, stained or foxed/ r~'/ Pages detached/ I ] Showthrough/ I I Quality of print varies/ I I Includes supplementary material/ I — I Only edition available/ D Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film6es A nouveau de fapon d obtenir la meilleure image possible. Th( poi of filr Ori bei thi sio OtI firi sio or Th shi Til w^ Mi dif en be rig rec m( This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqud ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X 7^ 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here hat been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grAce A la gAnirositi de: Bibliothdque nationale du Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in iceeping with the filming contract specifications. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the bacit cover when appropriate. ^.11 other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ^ (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les images suivantes ont At6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition at de la nettetA de l'exemplaire fiimi. et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprimAe sont filmto en commen9ant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont filmAs en commengant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernlAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaltra sur la dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — »> signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent §tre filmAs A des taux de reduction diffArents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 6 Pre-Historic America BY THE MARQUIS DE NADAILLAC TRANSLATED BY N, D'ANVERS EDITED BY VV. II. DALL WITH 219 ILLUSTRATIONS //r/^ NEW YORK & LONDON G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS (The ,>iuithtrbotlur ,|.)reBB 1884 ^u r//^ 63990 COPYRIGHT DV G. P. I'UTNAM'S SONS 1884 Press ol G. P. Putnam's Sons New York NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. The present translation of the Marquis de Nadaillac's 'Amcrigue Pr^historique, published by Masson in 1882, was made with the author's sanction. By his permission it has been modified and revised to bring it into harmony with the results of recent investigation and the conclusions of the best authorities on the archaeology of the United States. It is proper to state that this has required a revision of the chapters relating to the archaeology of North America and the addition to them of much new material. For such changes and additions t'le American editor is to be held responsible. Many quotations have been verified by Mr. J. W. Gibbs, and the acknowledgment? of thc^ translator are also due for assistance rendered in ^architectural matters by Prof. T. Roger Smith of London University, and in other details by Dr. Sainsbury and Miss F. E. Judge. To the courtesy of the Messrs. Harper & Bros., the pub- lishers are indebted for the opportunity of using a number of illustrations relating to the archaeology of Peru. These originally appeared in Squier's well-known work on Peru, which has been cited as an authority on numerous occasions by the author of the present work. iU PREFACE. Pre-historic man has for some time excited a justifiable interest not only among men of science but among men of intelligence everywhere. The first revelations in regard to the co-existence of man with extinct animals were received not only with surprise but with natural incredulity. Soon, however, proofs of such weight multiplied, that doubt became no longer reasonable, and we are now able to assert with confidence that, at a period from which we are separated by many centuries, man inhab- ited the earth, already old at the time of his appearance. The length of this period can be measured by no chronology, no calculation can compute it, history and tradition are si- lent with regard to it ; and it is only by the study of works which may be almost termed stupendous, and by the mor.t careful reasoning that traces of pre-historic man have been followed up through an almost fabulous past and some idea has been gained of the rude pioneers who were the ances- tors of the human race. With some probability Asia has been fixed upon as the prima;val cradle of humanity, from which by successive migrations, during an incilculable period, man spread to the uttermost parts of the Old World. At an epoch not far distant, men probably derived from the same source, made their appearance in the New World, wandering on the shores of either ocean. Like their nomad contemporaries of the other hemisphere they knew no shelter save that afforded by nature in her forests and rocks. Rudely shaped stones served them alike for tools and weapons and their social condition was paralleled by that known for their European contemporaries under the name of the Stone age. In accordance with a universal law of -r-rrr vl PREFACE. Nature now well recognized, men alike in habits, physique, and mental culture, though in the midst of most diverse con- ditions of fauna, flora, and climate, were traversing the forests of India and the frigid regions of the north, chasing the rein- deer or the bear on the banks of the Delaware or the Miss- issippi as well as along the Thames or the Seine. Nor is this all ; the inhabitants of distant continents passed through strictly analogous phases of culture. The nomads were succeeded by sedentary tribes who settled by the banks of rivers or the shores of ocean, wherever the bounty of the waters afforded the subsistence. Shell-heaps and kitchen middens bear witness to the long duration of their sojourn. Centuries passed, new wants were felt, aesthetic feeling awoke, and here and there the stimulus to progress did not fail. Social life had taken on a communal garb and the common needs led to united effort for their satisfaction. Mounds, tumuli, pyramids, arose, and earthen structures in whose form the savage often embodied the animal outlines associated with his myths or ceremonials. In other regions, probably later, another form was taken by the outward symbols of social structure, resulting in bee- hive-like pueblos. Threatened bj' dangers soon to be ever present they sought for refuge in the recesses of the cliffs, conquering difficulties of construction which appear almost insurmountable to our eyes. Towns and monuments arose of which the imposing ruins still bear witness to the skill of those whose very existence has been but recently made known. Although mounds and cliff-houses, ruins and temples, de- termine no dates of erection or names of the builders, yet through them we may become acquainted with the essentials of the manners, habits, and mental culture, of the ancient in- habitants of America. We are able to conclude that at the time of the first European invasion the civilization of the Americans, the slow growth of ages, was in some respects not inferior to that of their conquerors. In " Lis premiers houimcs et les temps pnfhistoriques" I have PREFACE. vii described the Stone Age of Europe and the early resting- places of the ancient inhabitants of the Old World. The good-will with which that work was received has led me to supplement it by tracing the analogous period in America, seeking the first evidences of a culture parallel to our own and bringing the recital down to the sixteenth century of our era. My task has been facilitated by the numerous investiga- tions undert .ken in the United States. There, many so- cieties devote themselves to the study of aboriginal antiqui- ties, museums exist already containing a wealth of material ; excavations are carried on with an energy and perseverance justly commanding admiration. Success has crowned these efforts, every day bringing to light the most remarkable dis- coveries, the most unexpected results. These researches and discoveries it is my desire to make widely known, but, as I have said elsewhere, and now repeat, the state of archaeology is such that however great the im- portance of the facts revealed by it, we cannot regard our present conclusions from them as final. Nothing has been more injurious to science that the ephemeral popularity of hypotheses which the revelations of a day have sometimes overturned. As was lately said by Virchow, ** when we know as little as we do yet, it behooves us to be modest in our theories." Our present lack of information, however, is stimulating rather than prejudicial to archaeological study. For my part I know no grander spectacle than the onward march of human progress. Every fact won, every stage accomplished, becomes the starting point of fresh acquirement, of further progress which will ever be the glorious heritage of future generations. A yet more elevating sentiment results from these studies which is a profound gratitude toward Him who created man, who made him capable of such progress and granted him such potentiality of mind. Science in its free- dom and its strength cannot disown its author. Paris, October 7, 1882. CONTENTS. otArrsK I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. Appendix Index Man and the Mastodon . The Kitche.,.Middens and the'cav'es The Mound Builders . Po-TERv, Weapons, and Ornaments o.' THE Mound Builders The Cliff Dwellers and the Inhabi* TANTS OF THE PUEBLOS The People of Central America The Ruins oe Central America Peru The Men of America . [ The Origin of Man in America I 46 80 ^33 198 260 317 387 476 Si8 S33 539 f CHAPTER T. MAN AND THE MASTODON. The existence of the American continent vas unknown to the Egyptians and the Phoenicians, as well as to the Greek:; and Romans. We find nothing in llie writings either of historians or of geographers to justify the assertion that the ancients even suspected the existence of a vast continent beyond the Atlantic, and a few vague statements, a few bold guesses, interpreted later with the help of accomplished facts, cannot be accepted as evidence. M. De Guignes has endeavored to prove that intercourse took place between China and America as early as the fifth century of our era' ; 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 tiie 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. ' Christopher Columbus left Palos, near Seville, on the 3d of August, 1492, «nd on the 14th of the following October landed on the island of Samana. I I 2 PKF.-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. Victcry remaii.cd with the Spaniards, and Cortes erected upon the soil of America his great standard of black velvet embroid- ered with gold, having in the centre a red cross surrounded by blue and white flames, bearing the following inscription in Latin : " Friends, let us follow the Cross, and if we have faith in that sign we shall conquer." This was Europe's Act of Appropriation ; from that moment her fortunes and those of the New World have been indissolubly united." ' Columbus, imbued with the ideas of his time, supposed tlie l.ind he saw- stretching before him to be the coast of India, hence tlie 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 fdl 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. Uau, and those of Dall, on pre-historic remains in the Aleutian islands ; Squier's " Antiquities of the State of New York," and Lapham's " Antiquities of Wisconsin " ; Schoolcraft's "Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the Indian Tribes of the United States," in six volumes ; Baldwin's " Ancient America " ; Wilson's" Pre- historic Man " ; Waldeck's " Voyage au Yucatan " ; Charnay's " Cites et Ruines Americaincs," with a preface by VioUetle Due ; Stephens' " Incidents of Travels in Central America," in two "ol-.-mes ; Prescott's " Conquest of Mexico "and "Conquestof Peru "; Jones' " Antiqiities of the Southern Indians " ; Morton's "Crania Americana" ; Nott and Gliddon's "Types of Mankind " ; Foster's "Prehistoric Racns of the Uniied States " ; Brasseur de Bourbourg's " His- toire des Nations Civilisees du Mexique et de 1' Amerique Centrale," in four volumes ; Southall's " Recent Origin of Man " ; Short's " North Americans of Antiquity"; Tylor's "Researches into the Early History of Mankind"; Squier's " Peru "; his " Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas" ; and the important work of H. H. Bancroft, on "The Native Races, of the Pacific States of North America," in five volumes. MA AT AND THE MASTODON. In the sixteenth century America was inhabited from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific, by milHons of men of types analogous to and with characteristics as varied as many of the inhab- itants of the Old World. Amongst them were to be found numerous shades of complexion, from the ruddy white of the inhabitants of the Cordillera of the Andes, of the Amazon valley, or of the island of Santa Cathcrina, to the much darker tint of some of the tribes of California and Florida, of the natives of the island of St. Vincent, or of the Charruas dwelling on the southern banks of the Rio de la Plata.' The Eskimo of the north were short ; the Patagonians of the south were remarkable for their lofty stature." Some Indian tribes had slender limbs with small hands and feet ; others were robust and stoutly built. Some had round heads, whilst in others the dolicho-cephalous ^ form was pronounced. Some had an abundant crop of hair, others scarcely any ; some shaved their heads, others let their hair grow long. It would take a long time to enumerate all the differences of type and race met with by Europeans when they first arrived on the American continent. The native Americans lived among mammalia, birds, fish, and reptiles mostly unknown in Europe. In the south the Llama* was their chief do- mestic animal ; they used it as a beast of burden, ate its flesh, clothed themselves with its wool. Oxen, camels, goats, horses, and asses were unknown to them. The European dog, our faithful companion, also appears to have been a stranger to them.' His place was very inadequately filled ' Nott and Gliddon's " Types of Mankind " ; Broca, Pruner Bey, Bull, Soc. Anth., 1862 ; Ameghino, " La Antiguedad del Hombrc en el Plata," vol. i,, p. 71. ' Topinard, Hev. J" Anth., 1878, p. 511. » From doXlXOi long, and xetpaXtJ head. * The Llama (Auchenia) is a ruminant of the family of the Camtlidce, It re- sembles the camel in the peculiar structure of its stomach, and is a native of the regions on the slopes of the Cordillera of the Andes. The Guanaco and the VicuAa are species of the same group. ' Certain kinds of dogs were, however, domesticated in America. They were called Xulos in Nicaragua, Tzomes in Yucatan, and Techichis in Mexico. PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. I I J by the coyote,' or prairie wolf, which they kept in captivity and had succeeded in taming to a certain extent. The large feline animals were represented by the jaguar," the lynx,' 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, sugh as are not possessed by European or African monkeys. The differences in the flora were not less marked. The trees were generally of species foreign to Europe and Asia. Maize was the only cereal cultivated in the New World, though the so-called "wild rice" was harvested in North America. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, millet, and rice were unknown to the Indians. On the other hand, they had a leguminous plant, the manioc, different from any European vegetable," tobacco," tomatoes, and peppers — all valuable acquisitions to civilization. These were consideied to afford 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 onai, Linnfcus, a native of South America. ' Lynx 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 Company. The natives are said to eat its flesh, which is white and insipid. • Felis coiicolor, Illiger, ' Felis pania lis, Linnaeus. • Ursits 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. li MAN AXD THE MASTODON. 5 The Indians, who were successively conquered by foreign invaders, spoke hundreds of different dialects. Bancroft estimates that there were six hundred between Alaska and Panama : ' Amcghino ' speaks of eight hundred in South America. Most of these, however, are mere derivatives from a single mother tongue like the Aymara and the Guarani. We quote these figures for what they arc 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- ular\' side by side with great similarity of structure.* " In '"Native Races," vol. III., p. 557. These dialects maybe divided into numerous distinct groups, of which four particul.irly characteristic families may be mentioned. I. The Innuit or Eskimo, which differs strongly from the other American languages ; 2. The Tinneh, spoken in the Rocky Mountain region, and exteiuimg into .Maska, the British possessions, Oregon, California, New Mexico, and Texas ; 3. The Aztec or Nahua, which is widely spread throughout Central America. The remarkable poems of Nezahualcoyotl, king of Tezcueo, are written in this language. Lastly the Maya-Quiche, probably the most ancient language of Central America, which predominated in Yucatan, Chiapas and Guatemala, The Indians of Yucatan are said to speak it to this day, and Sei'ior Orozco y Berra tells us that all the geograpliical names of the peninsula are of Mnya origin (" Geog. de las Lenguas de Mex.," p. 129), '" I, a Antiguedad del Ilonibre," vol I,, p. 77. Senor Ameghino notes the curious fact tliat amongst certain tribes the women speak a dialect distinct from that of the men. It is more likely that tiie sexes merely express themselves in a dilTerent maimer. 'Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind." Sijuier asserts that one hundred and eighty-seven words of these four hundred dialects are common to foreign languages ; one hundred and four occur in Asiatic or Australian, forty-three in European, and forty in African languages. This, however, requires further confirmation. 'Bancroft, vol. III., p. 556. " Other peculiarities common to all American languages might be mentioned, such as reduplications, or a repetition of the same syllable to express plurals ; the use of frequentatives and duals ; the .ipplication of gender to the third person of the verb ; the direct conversion of nouns, substantive and adjective, into verbs, and their conjugation as such ; ^) i.-«w.*r.».—-». I I M O PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. America," says Humboldt,' " from the country of the Esqui- maux to the banks of the Orinoco, and thence to the frozen shores of the Straits of Magellan, languages difTering entirely m their derivation have, if we may use the expression, the same physiognomy. Striking analogies in grammatical con. struction have been recognized, not only in the more perfect languages, such as those of the Incas, the Aymara, the Guarani, and the Mexicans, but also in languages which are extremely rude. Dialects, the roots of which do not resemble each other more than the roots of the Sclavonian and Biscayan, show resemblances in structure similar to those which are found between the Sanscrit, the Persian, the Greek, and the Germanic languages." These languages arc polysynthctic" 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 cus oms peculiar generic distinctions arising from a separation of animate from inani- mate beings." 'Quoted by Pritchard, "Natural History of Man," 4th edition, vol, II., p. 496. 'Gallatin ("Trans. Am. Ethn. Soc. ,"vol. I.) defines a polysynthetic language as one in which all that modifies the subject or the action, or still more several complex ideas having a natural connection with each other, is expressed by a single word. The Aztec langu.igc is one of the most curious of this kind. Take, for instance, the word Amatlacuilolitquitcatlaxlahuilli, which means, " Payment received for having been bearer of a paper with writing on it." On p. 34 Gallatin gives the longest word in the Cherokee language — Winitawtgegi- nallskawlungtanawnelitisesti, which translated into English means : ' ' They will by that time have nearly done granting (favors) from a distance to thee and to me. * An agglutinative language is one in whic'i new words are formed by joining roots together without changing their construction. Ameghino in his"An- tiguedad del Hombre," vol. I., p. 7O, s.iys : " casi todas las Icnguas Ameri- canas son polisilabicas o .iglutinativas, es decir que difieren esencialmente del }^rupo de lenguas monosilabicas del Asia oriental y de las lenguas a flexion que liablan los pueblos arianos." * We cannot agree with Canon Farrar's opinion, that the richness which has been admired in the aboriginal American languages is only a means of hiding their real poverty (" Families of Speech," London, 1873, pp. 124 et seq.). MAN AND THE MASTODON. 7 ; Esqui- e frozen entirely lion, the ;ical con. c perfect Guarani, xtremely ible each Biscayan, vhich are :, and the ;ynthetic " iimentary h to indi- ual devel- y the con- w cus cms te from inani- ion, vol. II.. letic language more several xpressed by a of this kind, which means, g on it." On Winitawtgegi- " They will to thee and to Tied by joining in his " An- nguas Ameri- ncialmente del s a flexion que ness which has neans of hiding 4 et seq:). and ideas which gradually become introduced even amongst the most degraded peoples ; still more by the well-recognized instability and mobility of many aboriginal languages. Some missionaries say they have found the language of tribes, revisited after an absence of ten years, completely changed in the interim.' The differences in culture of the American aborigines were hardly less remarkable. These need not, however, sur- prise us, for at the same period equally radical differences existed among European races, — differences, indeed, which are still maintained in spite of constant intercommunication. Some of the American races were rich, industrious, and agricultural ; they had an organized government, towns, laws, a religious system, and a powerful priesthood. In reporting to the Emperor Charles V. on a reconnoissance made in the province of Ouacalco, Cortes stated that the river' was dotted on either side with numerous large towns. " The whole province is level and well fortified, rich in all the pro- ductions of the earth." ' His verdict was equally favorable in many other particulars. Side by side with these people, who may best be compared with the ancient nations of Asia, dwelt other aborigines, pre- senting a complete contrast to their neighbors ; sedentary tillers of the soil, living in communities, in pueblos resem- bling bee-hives in their arrangement ; the Algonquins and the Apaches, nomad savages living on grasses and roots when the chase and fishing failed them ; the Aleutians, dis- figured by hideous tatooing, chasing the sea otter in ingen- ious canoes of seal-skin, fabricating delicate tissues out of such materials as grass-fibres and feathers, and deriving their entire subsistence from the products of the sea. Some of these people venerated animals, such as the ser- pent and the owl ; in Honduras it was the tiger, in Vancouver ' Dr. Carl GUttler, " Naturforschung und Bibel," Freiburg im Ureisgau, 1877. ' The Coatzacoalcos, a river of the isthmus of Tehuantepec, at the southern extremity of the province of Vera Cruz. * Carta Segunda de relacion ap. Lorenzana, Folios 91, 92. Published at Mexico, 1700. iwiMii n^ r - f -: 4. ' j i i> li fc ( ' 8 PRE-HISTOKIC AMEKICA. \ ! Island the squirrel, which was connected with religious myths. Nor was this the extreme limit of human degradation; among certain Californian tribes men and women wandered about stark naked, recognizing neither laws, Gods, nor chiefs, and owning no shelter but that of some lofty tree, or the cave for which they competed with the wild beasts. No less striking were the contrasts in South America ; side by side with the Peruvians, the richest and most cul- tured people of the two Americas, the barbarous Oucran- dis occupied the territory now forming the Argentine Repub- lic. On the 2d of February, 1535, Don Pedro de Rlendoza landed at the mouth of the Riachuelo, where he founded the city of Santissima Trinidatl de Huciios Ayres, One of his companions has written an account of his expedition,' and of his lon^ struggle with the savages w ho had nothing but stone weapons, slings with which they flung their bolas, and the lassos so formidable in their hands. Even less civilized were the vast deserts of the extreme South, overrun as they were by savage nomad tribes, disputing with each other and with wild beasts for subsistence and shelter. Si ch were the people upon whom the Europeans swxpt down as upon a prey given over to their desires. While Cortes w.'s subjugating Central America, and Pizarro was overturning the throne of the Iiicas, parties led by Mendoza, Solis, Gaboto, and Cabc^a de Vaca ascended the Rio de la Plata, the Paraguay, and the Parana, their courage and energy winning for Spain the magnificent colonial empire which she retained until the nineteenth century. Why was it necessary that their glory should have been stained by foul cruelty and gloomy fanaticism ? The Portuguese" were no less active, and the two nations ' A German soldier, Ulrich Schmidt, who took part in the expedition, has given a very interesting account of it, wiiich was printed at Franiifort-on-the- Main in 1567, under the title of " Warhafflige und liebliche lieschreibunge el- licher furnemen Indianischen LandtschafTten und Indsulen," etc. See also Ruy Diaz de Guzman's " Historia del descubrimiento, conquistas y poblaciun del Rio de la Plata." • For an account of the part taken by the Portuguese in the discovery of the MAN AND IHE MASTODON. 9 ,vo nations disputed for the possession of the New World with ferocious zeal. On the 9th of March 1 500, Alvarez de Cabral left Portu- gal with a fleet of thirteen vessels, to go to the Indies by way of the Cape of Good Hope. After passing the Cape de Verde islands he steered westward to avoid the calms which prevail off the coast of Guinea. Chance favored him be- yond his hopes, and six weeks after he sailed he landed at Porto Segiiro. Hrazil was thus discovered,' and Cabral had the glory of giving to his country a land sixteen times as large" as France. The country was inhabited by the Tupis, of the Guarani race. " These people lived in villages con- sisting generally of four spacious green arbors enclosing a square. They were skilful in the use of the bow, and sub- sisted upon the products of the chase. They were entirely naked. A strange ornament disfigured the men, who wore in the lower lip a plug of wood or jade,' the weight of which dragged down the lip in a hideous fashion. Some years later, Magellan ' discovered the strait bearing his name. An Italian named Antonio Pigafetta, who went with him, relates " that the great navigator was obliged New World, see a capital essay by L. Cordeiro in the first volume of the Compte rendu du Congrh d(s Amiricanistcs, held at Nancy in 1875. ' It is possible that the French had previ()ii>ly touched at several points of Brazil, On tiiis point see Beri^eron, " Hist, dc l.i Navij^alion," Paris, 1630, p. 107. " Normans and Bretons, however, maintain that they were the first to discover these countries, and that they traded from time immemorial with the natives of that part of Brazil now known as Porto Real. But there having been no writ- ten record of this intercourse it has fallen into complete oblivion. The Portu- guese called the country Santa Cruz, after tlic cross solemnly erected by Cabral ; but our French called it Brazil, because that wood grows very plentifully in certain parts." See also an essay by M. Gaffertl, Coiigris des AmMcanistes, Luxembourg, volume I., 1877. •Brazil has an area of 3.288,000 English square miles. 'Dr. Couto de Magalhails, "OSelvagcm," Kiode Janeiro, 1876. The Guaranis also peopled the Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and Paraguay. * This custom lingers to the present day among the Botocudos, a savage tribe of cannibals in Brazil, and the western I^skimo. * From 1519 to 1522. * " Magellan's First Voyage Round the World," Hakluyt Society's publica- tions, p. 50. ' lO PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. .1 il \ , to winter in the Bay of San Juliano, where an Indian was brought to him who had been surprised by his sailors. This man, says our historian, " was so tall that the tallest of us only came up to his waist ; however, he was well built ; he had a large face, painted red ' all round, and his eyes also were painted yellow around them ; * * * he was clothed with the skin of a certain beast ; * * * this beast has its head and ears of the size of a mule, and the neck and body of the fashion of a camel, the legs of a deer, and the tail like that of the horse. * * * This giant had his feet covered with the skin of this animal in the form of shoes, and he carried in his hand a short and thick bow, * * * with a bundle of cane arrows, which were not very long, and were feathered like ours, but they had no iron at the end, though they had at the end some small white and black cut stones." It was a Tehuclchc, to whom Ma- gellan gave the name of Patagon, because of the size of his foot, which was aggravated by the shape of the shoe he wore. Before the arrival of the Europeans, Guiana was inhabited by a number of petty native tribes, many of them consisting of a few families. The more advanced cultivated fields of manioc, the roots of which supplied all their needs. Their bows and cotton hammocks were their only wealth. Their chiefs had little authority, and they were so totally ignorant of religion that they could not even be called idolaters. They had vague ideas of the existence of a good and an evil spirit, and their only dissipation was to intoxicate themselves with a drink made from manioc root, which was chewed by the old women and then fermented.' But we need not give any further account of these great discoveries. We must return to the companions of Cortes to tell of the new wonders which awaited them. Even in the most remote districts in the primeval forests covering Chiapas, Guatemala, Honduras, and Yucatan ; where through ' The women also painted their breasts red. Pigafetta's relation is an obvi- ously gross exaggeration so far as relates to the stature of the natives. " Temaux Compans, " Notice Hist, sur la Guyane Franyaise," Paris, 1843, P 35- II. AfAX AND THE MASTODON. II on is an obvi- tlic dense undergrowth a passage had often to be forced, axe in hand; statues, columns, hieroglyphics, unoccupied villages, abandoned palaces, and stately ruins rose on every ide, mute witnesses of past ages and of vanished races, i'^verywhere the conquerors were met by tokens, not only of a civilization even more ancient and probably more advanced than that of the races they subjugated, but also of struggles and wars, those scourges of humanity in every race and every clime. About three centuries before the r -^rival of Cortes, the Aztecs, who were to be conquered bviiim, established them- selves in Anahuac,' where, after terrible struggles and de- feats which, for a time, arrested their progress, they founded Tenochtitlan," which became their capital. It is almost im- possible to fix the exact limits ' of their empire, which stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the countries now forming Mexico and part of the United States. These limits wire constantly varied by the submission of one tribe or the revolt of some other which achieved an ephem- eral independence. It is even doubtful whether this em- l)ire was not, like the Aztec, little more than a federation of tribes of the NahuatI race, like the Aztecs themselves, among whom the Acolhuas and Tepanecs were the most important. One thing is certain : the government, though oppressive to the governed, was by no means firm. Cortes found some faithful friends among discontented tribes and chiefs smart- ing under injuries received, and it was due to their help that he was able to break the power of Montezuma.* These ' The name of Anahuac, very incorrectly given to the Mexican empire, was a general term used in speaking of any country situated about a lake or a large sheet of water. See Brasseur de IJourbourg's " Kuines de Palenque," Chap. II., p. 32. * Indian name of the city of Mexico. 'Bancroft (vol. II., p. 94), following Clavigero, places their boundaries be- tween N. Lat. 18" and 21^ on the Atlantic side, and 14° and 19" on the Pacific. ■* We follow the spelling generally adopted. The real name of the chief con- ■quered by Cortes was Moctheuzema, nr Moktezcnia. I I'l 13 PRR-msrORlC AMERICA. tribes were probably descended from the Toltecs,' who, as we shall see, invaded Mexico before the Aztecs. \Ve are completely in the dark as to this invasion, which motlcrn historians place at about the sixth century of our era. We only know that the Toltecs formed a confederacy, and tlial each tribe yielded alle^nance to an independent chief.' Were these Telasyians 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, althoul;!! we know that this race has influencetl more than any other the history of Central America, and that the lan^ua^e, the relij^ious rites, and the customs of the Tol- tecs were met with from the (iila river to the isthmus o{ Panama. Jiut, torn by internecine struj^gles, decimated by pestilence, they could not successfully resist the Chiclii- mecs. Some withdrew southward and became mer^^ed with the Mayas, already settled in Yucatan, and of whose imjjortance we shall also have to speak presently. The Chichimecs are even less known than their rivals,' and to add to our difficulties their name has now become a gen- eral term to designate the unconquered tribes of New Spain. Hence, dou!)tiess, the universal itlea that they were wild and barbaroi.,. Bancroft thinks they were of the Nahuatl ' Sahagun is the first liistorian who ineiilions the Toltecs. Tlicir true name is still uncertain. Tiiat given to thcni by us is ilurivcd from their capital TuU Inn or Tula. According to IlumbokU, they were the builders of the mysterious towns scattered throui^hout 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 tiie seven caves to which we shall have occasion to re- fer again. ° Ixllil.\othil!, " Hist. Chichimeca ; " Kingsborough, " Mex. Ant.," vol. IX. This historian was descended through the female line from the ancient kings of the country. He was brought up by theSpaniards, and converted to the Catholic faith. He was still living in ifioS. '"I will only mention the people denominated Chichimecs, under which general name were designated a multitude of tribes inhabiting the mountain > north of the valley of Mexico, all of which were chiefly dependent on the re- sult of the chase for their subsistence." — Bancroft, vol. I., p. 617. Becker, " Migrations des Nahuas," Congrh des AiiUricanistts, Luxembourg, 1877.. MAN AND THE MASTODON. '3 race ; others, and amonjjst tlicm the earliest historians of the country, hold a different opinion, maintaining that their "anguage was wholly different from that of the Nahuas.' All these men, whether Toltecs, Chichimecs, or Aztecs, believed that their people came from the North,' and mi- grated southward, seeking more fertile lands, more genial climates, or perhaps driven before a more warlike race ; . 95. fPK. MAN AND THE MASTODON.- 17 h stone ions the izing in irogrcss, in spite ,as van- to be in lived on lyderma- 1CT which 1 retains isscur de it I have in these the bones of Din our own Ilipparion, have been Us ilu Monde p. 105. con- rigir . 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 played so important a part in North America, and of which such striking traces are met with over an extensive region. These traces are rocks striated or vioutonnccs (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 that this remark is one of many in the writings of the learned but credulous author, which testify more to the strength of his enthusiasm than to the coolness of his judgment. i8 PRE-IllSTORIC AMERICA. \ i' 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 Mcta and the Apurii 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 moraine can still be seen as a vast accumulation of broken rock, gravel, and clay, extending from the Raritan to the Delaware, These periods of glaciation seem to have been intermit- tent or perhaps recurrent. Sutton describes two wholly dis- tinct deposits in Kentucky.* According to him, one ot 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, 1S66. " Bull. Soc. de Gc'o^'., April, iSSo. '"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 the Advancement of Science, Buffalo, 1866. MAN AND THE MASTODON. 19 • Science, Buf- mastodon, the mammoth, and of a large beaver-like animal ' intercalated between two beds of clay, the glacial origin of which appeared to him beyond a doubt. Unequivocal traces of two periods had already been observed near Lake Supe- rior. It is easy to distinguish traces of the one from those of the other ; during the first the glaciers drifted from the northeast to the southwest ; during the second, from the north to the south. During the period intervening between the two, North America, especially those districts forming the state of Ohio, was covered with magnificent forests, where mastodons and megatheria found alike a safe retreat and the abundant food they required, as proved beyond a doubt by the remains of their bones mixed with those of huge plants.' Lastly the Geological Survey of Canada^ has in its turn quite recently authenticated two glacial periods : the first and most terrible must have coincided with a gen- eral invasion of the ice sheet ; the other with a subsequent development of merely local glaciers. From what remote period does this glaciation date ? It is difficult for the human imagination to grasp its causes or its duration ; history and tradition are alike silent about them ; we only know that, as soon as it came to an end, inundations characterized by violent torrents achieved the modification of the valleys of to-day, and gave to the river system of America the physical configuration which since then has been but little changed. ' Man lived through these convulsions*; he survived 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 Journal of Science, vol. V., p. 240. ' Geological Siiniey of Canada, " Report of Progress for 1877-8." * " I see no reason to doubt," says Putnam, " the general conclusion in re- gard to the existence of man in glacial times, on the Atlantic coast of North America." ' " Primitive Industry," Salem, Mass., 1881. " Pateolithic Implements from the Drift in the Valley of the Delaware River, near Trenton, New Jersey." " Report Peabody Museum," 1876 and 1S78. Th. Belt : " Discovery of Stone Instruments in the Glacial Drift in North America." London, 1S7S. PV I r I if i ^ 4 I f| I, ^ r n'! 20 PKE.IIISTOKIC 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), and greatly re- sembling the palaeolithic implements of Europe, especially the most ancient of all, those of St. Acheul, or of Chclles. Fig. 3. — Stone implement from the Delaware valley. Fig. 4. — Scraper found in the Dela- ware valley. The objects arc 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 after a course of three hundred and fifty miles. It forms the boundary between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Some geologists think that part of the American continent was submerged dur- ing the glacial epoch. At that time the Delaware certainly flowed into the sea near Trenton, which is now 130 miles inland. " Why sliould thiii recently displaced material only yield the rudest forms of chipped stone implements, when the surface is literally covered in some places with ordinary Indian relics, not a specimen of which has as yet occurred in this gravel?" Abbott, " Report Peabody Museum," 1876, p. 35. " The deposit of trap nearest to Trenton is thirty rniles farther north. MAN AND THE MASTODON. 21 in the Dela- 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 feet in diameter, and of rocks striated and polished by the action of ice, or which have been swept along by torrents of water. One of the implements has scratches exactly similar to those of the stones amongst which it was found. This is too important a fact to be omitted. Fig. 5. — Stone weapon from the Delaware valley. The Trenton discovery is not an isolated one. Dr. Abbott found other objects, on which the work of human hands is no less evident, in different parts of New Jersey, and he is convinced, that a search made on scientific principles would yield similar results in all the valleys of this state. From the islands of the Susquehanna have been obtained imple- ments exactly resembling the rudest forms of Scandinavian ' H. \V. Haynes : " The Argillite Implements Found in the Gravels of Delaware River." — Proc. Boston Society of Nat. Hist., Jan., 1881. -■^. ?-■■■ .!XJ*jA.\r._ «mPMw«C«>».^ ••'^ 7r^ 22 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. origin.' Like those of Trenton, they were made by men who probably lived during the glacial epoch, and certainly preceded by many centuries those inhabiting North America on the arrival of the Spaniards." A member of the Commission d'Exploration du Mexique, M. Guillemin Tarayre, speaks of the occurrence of worked stones in the post-tertiary beds. He had not time to con- tinue his researches, but late discoveries seem to confirm his report. A hatchet has been found in the Rio Juchipila, near the old town of TcmiI ; in the Guanajuato, a spear point of Fig. 6. — Hatchet from the alluvial deposits of the Rio Juchipila. the paljEolithic type ; in another place an axe like those of St. Acheul, and a scraper which is a fac-simile of those abounding in European museums, (figs. 6, 7, and 8). The scraper (fig. 8) was found a short distance from Mexico, in the undisturbed post-tertiary deposits, and the numerous remains of the Elcphas Colombi, mixed with productions 'Letter of Prof. Haldeman of the 27th Sept., 1S77. "Report Peabody Museum," 1S78, p. 255. We must also mention a stone hammer found at Pemberton, New Jersey (fig. y), on which some have supposed they recog- nized the Swastika, that sacred sign of the Aryans which occurs amongst the Hindoos, Persians, Trojans, Pelasgians, Celts, and Germanic races. On the Pemberton hammer it is roughly enough executed, even if the intent of the artist was to reproduce it, which there is no reason to believe. ■■ .Vature, 187S, part I., p. 262 ; Ameghino, vol. I,, p. 148. ll I MAN AND THE MASTODON. 23 those of of those 8). The exico, in numerous oductions ort Peabody ler found at they recog- amongst the tes. On the intent of the of man, indicate that man and this proboscidian were con- temporaries. Hewn stone implements, the work of their hands, are not the only relics of the early inhabitants of America. In many places human bones have been found, associated with numerous fragments of extinct animals.' Lund was one of Fig. 7. — A lance head found near Guanajuato. Fig. 8, — Stone scraper from a valley near Mexico. the first " to call attention to them. In a cave excavated in ' The earliest examinations wpre 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- tribui^oes ao Estudo Anthropologico das Ragaslndig ias do Brazil." — Archives do Museo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, 1876. 1 l'" 'I t I 4 Ik if f I I Iff vil- li I 24 PRK-IIISTORIC AMERICA. the limestone rocks on the borders of tlie little lake known as the LagoadoSumidouro, in the province of Minas Geraiis, Brazil,' he dug out the bones of more than thirty individuals, of both sexes and every age, from those of an infant to those of a decrepit old man. Some skulls were found among these rema!*- i, remarkable for their pyramidal form and the narrowness of their fore- heads. Lund, writing a few years later, sj^eaks ' 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 Fifi.g. — Stone liammer from Pemberton, New Jersey. lines in thickness. .Several skulls had holes in them, all of the same size, of a regular and oblong shape. These were probably inflicted with stone weapons, and were wounds of so serious a nature that the injured cannot have long sur- vived them. The skeletons,' 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 lo Rafn, dated from Lagoa Santa, 23tli of March 1844 ; M^m. Soc. Roy, des Antiquaires de Nord, 1845, p. 49. Cartailhac, " Materiaux pour I'histoire de 1' homme," January, 1882. * The word skeleton is perhaps inappropriate ; most of the skulls being piled up apart, whilst another heap was made of small bones, such as those of the fingers and toes, the wrist or ankle. — Letter from Lund quoted above. MAN AND THE MASTODON. 25 sion as to forbid the idea of their having been buried, and were lying upon the red earth, tlie original soil of the cave. They were imbedded in hard clay with calcareous incrusta- tions, and covered with large blocks of stone, which had fallen on them from the walls or roof of the cave. Mixed up promiscuously with the human remains were found those of several animals, chiefly feline' and cervine," still extant in the same region, together with others belonging to species which have now migrated or become extinct. Amongst the last we may name a monkey, {Callithrix priincevus), a rodent of the size of the tapir, {Hydroc/tcerus sulcidcus), a peccary {Dkoijlcs) twice as large as the living species, a horse very similar to our own, a large cat bigger than the jaguar {Fclis protopattt/icr), a llama (Aiic/ieiiia), a Megatherium {Accluiot/icriiiiit, Owen), and several others, such as Clilatnydoilicriiivi Hiniiboldtii, an edentate of the size of the tapir, and the Platyonyx of Lund. The chemical constituents of the human bones arc 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 MinasGcracs, whore 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- ' The Puma {Felis coiicolor), the Ocelot, [FiUs J'aniiilis). ' Cei^vns rufiis and C. simplicontis. Dasyptis lougicaudis and D. inirus. ' De Quatrefages Congres Anthrop. de Moscou, 1879. p. 6, * Lund devoted forty-eight years of his life to the study of the fossil fauna of Brazil. ' H. euphratus, II. Selloyi, H. minor ; the last much smaller than its con- \ ;i i I ,Jl li I 36 PKE-lllSTOKlC AMERICA. don, .1 large feline anim.il 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 Euroj)cans, but far back in historic times, — perhaps even farther than that, in geological times, — as several species of animals seem to have disappeared from the fauna since the appearance of man in the Western Hemi- sphere. The learned Dane did not arrive at this conclusion without much hesitation, which is reflected in his writings. Indeed, at first, after his remarkable discoveries, he dated the bones of the Lagoa Santa within historic times.' M. (jaudry accepts without hesitation Lund's final con- clusions.' He thinks, however, that a distinction must be recognized between two post-tertiary deposits in the Sumi- douro cave. The first and thickest is characterized by the occurrence of the bones of the extinct animals, such as the riatyonyx and the Chlamydotherium, and must correspond with the age of the Mammoth in Europe and North America; the second stratum is characterized by the occurrence of more recent species, and would be represented by the Reindeer period of Europe. It is with the latter that the human bones must be connected. The only proofs, therefore, that we have of the existence of man in Brazil during the post- tertiary period are of more recent date than the traces of prc-historic man in Europe; but we must hasten to add that this conclusion may easily be modified by later discoveries geners. Piclet places the hoplophori '• 'ih the glyptodonts amongst the Eden- tates (" Palreontology," vol. I., p. 27:), ')i.< there is nothing to prove, as has been claimed, that the Hoplophorua had a t uirass like that of the Glyptodon. ' Letter to Rafn, p. 5. " " In my opinion," said M. Dc Qnatrefages, at Moscow, " the honor is in- contestably due to Lund of having discovered fossil man on the American con- tinent, and of having proved his discovery at a time when the existence of that man was considered more than doubtful by the most competent European authorities. " • His letter was quoted by M. De Quatrefages : Congr. Anthrop. de ATos- rou, 1879. Ar.iiV AND Till: MASTOnON. 27 In the French colony of Guiana, man existed when a hirgc portion of the country was submerged in consequence of a subsidence of tlie soil. Traces of his occupation can be made out, and polished stone hatchets have been found on the banks of the Maroin', Mnnamari, Cayenne, and Aprou- ayuc rivers.' Strobcl has rccL-ntly described" earthenware vessels of the most primitive construction, and chalcetlony arrow-heads from the banks of the La Plata, which appear to have belonged to the earliest inhabitants of that region ; and X\\c parndcros^ of I'atagonia have yielded many trian- gular arrow-points, some resembling European, others Peru- vian t\'pes * (fig. loV Under very different biological antl 5venes Fio. 10. — Arrow-point from I'atagonia. climatic conditions, pre-historic man has produced objects exactly simitar. We shall often recur to this singular fact, which is in full accord with modern research in other sciences as well as archieology. We must enumerate the most important of these recent ' Maurcl, Bull. Si>c. Anthr., Ajiril, 187S. " " Materiali di raleontologia coniparata, racolti in Sud-America." Parma, 1868. ' The word paraderos conies from farar, to sojourn. The paraderos are supposed to occupy the sites of ancient habitations, on account of the numerous f r.igments of burnt earth strewn about them, which seem to have been used for hearths. * Moreno : " Les Taraderos prc'li. de la l'at.agonie," Rev. d' Anthr., 1874. 1 t': ll * 28 PKE-niSTORIC AMERICA. ! i discoveries. Several years ago Seguin collected on the borders of the Rio Carcarafla (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, vertebrae, ribs, long bones, belonging to at least four different individuals. The material in which they were imbedded resembled in every respect that containing the bones of animals, and there could be no serious doubt as to their being contempo- FiG. II. — Arrow-points in the Ameghino collection. raneous. This was not, however, the case with four imple- ments of hewn stone ° of the neolithic type ; they were, it is true, found in the, same formai-'on, but not in the same stratum, so that v ith regard to th^in certain reservations must be made.* We will now speak of another explorer. Ameghino ' tells ' Gervais, yomital dc ZoiilogU, vol. II., 1872. The niamm.-ils of vhich Se- guin found rL'uiains, .ire the Arctotheritim Bonoeiieiisis, the Hydrochcctits mai;iii(s, tlie J\Iasto!cncaiiiis,\.\\c Lesiodon irigonideiis, the J'.iiiyunts rttdis, and a horse of uncertain species (Ameghino, " La Anti- guedad del IIonil)re en el Plata," vol. 11., p. 526). '•' 'US spt'lints : its bones occur in great numbers in all the post-tertiary L.ratu. of Europe. ° Three are of quartzite, one of chalcedony. * Some of these bones and ot the hewn flints collected by .Seguin were exhib- ited at the Exposition of iSdy. They are now in the Paris Museum. ' Letter of October 31, 1S75, in the Journal de Zoologie, vol. IV.; " L'llomme preh. dans la Plata" (AV-'. d' Aiilhr., 1S79-1880) ; "La Antiguedad del Hombre en el Plata," 2 vols., 8vo, Paris, iSSi. MAN AND THE MASTODON. 29 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. il), 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." All around the shell lay charcoal. 10' tells V hich Sc- xirochitrtii rii^onidens. La Anti- fere exhib- FiG. 12. — The Glyptodon. ashes, burnt and split bones, and a few flints. The reddish earth of the original soil was consolidated. Below this level exploration revealed a stone implement, long bones of " In the reirarkable work to v/l.'ch we refer our readers, Ameghino gives complete details on the flora and fauna of the pampas. A table in vol. II. shows the tertiary fauna of Patagonia, the fauna of the u[)per and lower pam- pas, of the lacustrine pamjias, of recent alluvial deposits, and lastly of the fauna of the time of the Spanish conquest. By the help of this table it is easy to form an idea of the range in time of each of tlie diffentnt species. The mam- mals, bones of which were found by Ameghino mixed with those of man, are : The Canis ciiltr'ukns, the HydrochiTrtis siikiilt'iis, the Reithrodon, tlie Toxodon Platensis,, an Equus, an Atichenia and a Cervus of undetermined species, the Mylodon robustits, the Paiwchhich 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 Hombre seguiamente habitaba las corazas de los Glyptodon, pero no siempre las colocaba en la posicion que acabo de indicar " (" La Antiguedad del Hombre," vol. II., p. 532). 'Los caballos fossilis Je la. pampa Argentina. Later Burmeister was less positive : " No parece," he says, " que scan contemporaneos de los animales de la epoca inferior porque carecemos de pruebas para determinar con seguridad que hayan vividosimultaneamente." — " Descripcion fisica de la Republica Ar- gentina." ' Ameghino (Vol. II., p. 424) gives a list of the animals to which the striated bones belonged. * " En algunos puntos se oncuentra una gran cantidad de fragmentos in- formes de tierra cocido de color ladrilloso. Que es lo ijue indican ? Son los productoi de los primeros ensayosen el arte ceramico o 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. li' i MAN AND THE MASTODON. 31 cations of the hearths of men. The stones could have been fashioned only by the hand of man. We think, therefore, with Amegl ino, that man lived in South America with animals lung since extinct ; that he chased the deer, the llamas, and several little rodents whose bones occur with his own ; that he was not afraid to at- tack the glyptodon, toxodon," the megatherium, and the mastodon. Their flesh served for his food, their skins for his garments, and their bones became his implements and weapons, in lieu of silicious and quartzite stones, which often were only to be obtained from a distance. All this seems to us to be absolutely proved." 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. Burmeister speaks of the action of ice. To ' Toxodon platvnsis, 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.). ' It is remarkable that the deposits of the pampas contain no marine shells. This is a serious objection to the exclusive system advocated by Darwin and D'Orbigny, / im •t ik Mi i! si i m i 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 hab thus appeared and disap- peared. Moreover, Ameghino calls our attention to great mammals, such as the smilodon, the Fclis loitgifrons, the toxodon, and the mastodon in successive strata, the two last named even occurring in comparatively recent times. The hoplopho; us, 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 arc met with in every stratum. Without prolonging the discussion we will add that the formation of the pampas ccrlainly took a long time, " largos y largos siglos," says Ameghino ; that they are the result of many and varied causes, and that all those which we have just enumerated, with perhaps others also, undoubtedly contributed to their production. If it is difficult, in the present state of knowl- edge, to assign to each of these causes its exact role, it is still more impossible to place them in a definite epoch, and the difficulties are greatly increased by the fact that geologi- cal periods are not synchronous in Europe and America, and if ever they are assimilated more perfectly than now, it will only be after long and patient researches. We must not omit to mention a skull discovered by Dr. Moreno, in 1874, on the banks of the Rio Negro, Patagonia, at a depth of thirteen feet, in a bed of gravel and yellow sand, which he considers ' to be of a contemporaneous for- mation with the subsoil of the pampas. Although there were no bones with this skull to aid in the exact determi- nation of its age, Moreno thinks it very ancient, and calls attention to its remarkable artificial deformation, resembling that which has always prevailed amongst the Aymaras, and is also met with among tribes more than six hundred leagues * Bull. Soc. Ant/ir., 1880, p. 400. i! II AfAX AND THE MASTOrox. 33 from them. Broca has also pointed out the traces left on the forehead by periostitis, and he does not hesitate to at- tribute this scar to a syphilitic disease. This is a very in- teresting pathological fact. Moreno had previously collected many human bones in the ancient cemeteries of Patagonia. That they are very ancient no one can doubt, but to fix their real age with any certainty is very difficult. The skeletons were generally seated, with the face turned outward, the knees drawn up to the breast, one foot resting on the other, and the hands crossed on the shins. This is much the same position as that of Peruvian and Aleutian mummies. With the skele- tons were found arrow-points of many different shapes and of many kinds of stone, little flint knives, ''ragments of pot- tery ornamented with dots, straight, waving, and zig-zag lines; bowls of sandstone, diorite, or porphyry; stone mor- tars — one of them fourteen inches in diameter ; shells of different kinds ; and, lastly, the bones of the guanaco and ostrich split lengthwise. Some of the human bones were dyed red. As some Indians were still in the habit during the last century of painting their faces red before starting on an expe- dition, it is supposed that these bones belonged to warriors killed in battle. It is useful to note this fact, but we must add that the funeral rites to which the remains bear witness would not date back to the Quaternary period, nor have been practised by the contemporaries of the mylodon or glyptodon. The discoveries in North America would be no less curi- ous, if we could but accept them with more confidence. This reservation made, we must mention them, if only to show that sometimes even masters in science allow them- sei»es to be carried away by their imaginations, and even more by pre-conceived ideas. In 1848, Count F. de Pour- tales found some human jaws with the teeth still in them, and part of the bones of a human foot, in a conglomerate made up of fragments of coral or broken shells and imbedded in the perpendicular rocks overhanging Lake Monroe, I 1 , 1 / ^ 1 I' ■■1 i , 1 . ■il ■ 34 PRE-IUSTORIC AMERICA. Florida, about ten miles from the coast. Agassiz ' informed the scientific world of the fact, and considering that the land here gains on the sea at the rate of about a foot in a cen- tury, he allowed for the coral-bank an age of 13,300 years, and for the bones imbedded in it 10,000 years. Lyell," Wilson,' 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 dc Pourtal&s put an end to a controversy which had extended over many years, by as- serting that the human bones were found not in the coral conglomerate, but in a fresh-water calcareous deposit dis- tinctly characterized bymollusks* such as still live in the lake. In the Ivic' s oi ' '^'" Mississippi at Natchez, Dr. Dickson found, side b)- .iuu with the bones of the mylodon and megalonyy, a human pelvis,'' blackened like them by time, and still mi;re by the •" "'.'" in which they were all lying. This time, Sir Cluuics ] .yell showed more reserve ; he ob- served that the human bone might have come from the very numerous Indian burial-places in the neighborhood, and have been carried along by water." 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 Tribtcite, April 14, 1855. Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," p. 352. ' "Antiquity of Man," p. 44. °"rre-historicMan," p. 12. * He met especially with Atnpullaria and Paludina. — Am. Naturalist, vol. II., p. 443, Oct., 1S68. ° Os innominatum. Nott and Gliddon, " Types of Mankind," p. 349. "" Second Visit to America in 1846," vol. II., p. 197 ; " Antiquity of Man," Chap. X. ' " Pre-historic Man." Southall, "Recent Origin of Man," p. 551. Short, " North Americans of Antiquity," p. 114. I I II MAN AND THE MASTODON. 35 The plains stretching from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico are low and wet. In crossing them it is difficult to distinguish between dry land and the marshes covered with water-plants. These wild solitudes, shut in by a barren hori- zon, arc the haunt of fevers, and tenanted by reptiles and in- sects of all kinds. The energy of man has succeeded in conquering the resistance of nature, and one of the chief cities of the South rises from alluvial deposits of the Missis- sippi, which attain at certain points a height of five hundred feet. Trenches, dug some years ago for laying down gas- pipes, laid bare several successive strata of ancient forest, in which geologists have made out ten generations of trees which have been buried for some centuries.' In a bed be- longing to the fourth forest, at a depth of sixteen feet, amongst the trunks of trees and fragments of burnt wood, lay a skeleton. The skull was beneath a gigantic cypress, which lived many years after the owner of the head, and had in its turn succumbed." In estimating the time required for the growth of the trees with the duration of the various forest deposits, Bennct 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," 1852 ; Nott and Gliddon, " Typesof Mankind," p. 33S ; Lyell, " Antiquity of Man," pp. 44 and 200 ; Huxley, " Man's Place in Nature," Note by Dr. Daly; Lubbock, " L' Homme Preh., p. 261; Southall, "Recent Origin of Man," pp. 470 and 551. " The cypress ( Taxcdiuin distichuni) lives to a great age. Adanson mentions Oi.'>, 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. " Americaa Indians," p. 123.) * '•'• Piehistoric Races of the United States of America," p. 76. / n- I ( 'iif k:'' t' c. 1 3^> PKE-UISTORIC AMERICA. inundations, and deposited with alluvial loam where the Mississippi empties its waters into the sea. The same con- clusion is arrived at, if wc accept Dr. Hil Letter 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 ^Arundinaria macrosperma. "this mat is now in the National Museum at Washington. " Kocli announced his discovery in many pamphlets of little scientific value. Dana has preserved the titles of a great many ; among them, see Koch's "Evidence on the Contemporaneity of Man and the Mastodon in Missouri." American yotirnal of Science and Arts, May, 1S75. Consult also Foster r* Preh. R.ices," p. 62) ; Rau, (" North Am. Stone Implements", Smith Cont., 1S72,) who admits the authenticity of Koch's discovery, and Short ("North Americans") who denies it. Schoolcraft, (Vol, I., p. 174) says of the bones of the mastodon discovered near the Potato River, that they were not petrified, •which throws a doubt on their great antiquity. MAN AND THE MASTODON. 17 year he made a somewhat similar discovery in Benton County, Missouri. At about ten miles from the junction of the Potato River with the Osage, he found, under the thigh- bone of a mastodon, an arrow of pink quartz, and a little farther off, also in the direction of the animal, four other arrows,' 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 storj', at first threw some discredit upon the facts themselves. But the recent discoveries of Dr. Aughey in Iowa and Nebraska have now confirmed them. There, too, the bones of the mastodon have been found mixed with numerous stone weapons; and man, we learn to our surprise, armed with these feeble weapons, not only did not fear to attack the gigantic animal, but succeeded in vanquishing it. In the Sierra Nevada region, at various localities on the Pacific coast, numerous traces of the presence of man are met with. The discovery of implements or weapons at a depth of several hundred feet, in diversely stratified beds showing no trace of displacement, simply implies that the country was peopled many centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards, and that the inhabitants were witnesses of the convulsions of nature, of the volcanic phenomena, which brought about such remarkable changes. But when the bones of man and the results of his very primitive industry are associated with the remains of animals wliich 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 bhiish-colored silex. * " Trans, of the Saint Louis Academy of Sciences," 1S57. ' 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. %. U ■KB.,;i=;~iSSi iiffii ifiii 1 •1 ' '! r ■' f ) . 15 u; !; Fio. 13. — Cnflon of the Colorado River. MAN WD THE MASTODON. 39 Wyoming, wherever a search has been possible. In a manu- script which we believe to be still unpublished, Voy' de- scribes numerou and interesting discoveries, all carefully verified. We will mention two stone mortars found in some auriferous gravel near Table Mountain, one in 1858, at a depth of three hundred feet, the other in 1862, forty feet lower down, under a bed of lava four hundred feet thick ; and at St. Andrews, several similar mctars, such as abound all over California. We confine ourselves to the following rather dry enumeration ; Dr. Snell speaks of a pendant of siliceous schist and several lance-points. From Shaw's Flat there are ornaments of calc-spar and a granite mortar; near Sonora and at Kincaid's Flat, stone implements ; at Gold Spring gulch, an oval granite dish more than eighteen inches in diameter, two to three inches thick, and weighing forty pounds ; at Georgetown several very similar dishes. Every- where these flints, mortars, and dishes were associated with the bones of the mastodon, of the elephant, of a large tapir, and of other extinct animals. It has been the fashion to attribute these objects, evidently the work of man, to a sav- age and cannibal race, extinct with the animals amongst which it lived, and having nothing in common with the Indians of the present day." Traces of ancient mining operations are also met with in several places in North America ; but all we know about them is that they are of much earlier date than the Spanish con- quest. Mention is made of ancient mines of cinnabar exist- ing in California,^ 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 Age in California." "Bancroft, vol. III., p. 549. He quotes an unpublished manuscript of I'owers. In appendix A, we give the chief discoveries and the fauna associated with them. 'Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 6g6. 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. r^i, !i I 40 rHE./IISTORlC AMERICA, I f. but W'c may add now that the workmansliip of these objects is similar to that of the Indians, and need not be attributed to a different race. iJerthoud tells us that in the Tertiary yravels at Cow's Creek, and near the South Platte River, he found some stone implements, together with which he picked up some shells that he assigns to the most ancient beds of the Pliocene de- posits, perhaps even to those of the Miocene period. These are, it must be admitted, but feeble proofs of a fact of such capital importance as the existence of man in tertiary times.' Fig. 14.- The Calaveras skull, after Whitney. ! The discovery we have still to mention has been discussed in all the learned societies of America and Europe ; and al- though a satisfactory solution of it has not )et been arrived at, it will be well to give such details as are possible. In 1857, a fragment of a human skull was found, associated with the bones of the mastodon, in the auriferous gravel of Table Mountain, California, at a depth of 180 feet. Dr. C. F. Winslow sent this fragment to the Natural History So- ciety of Boston," where it attracted little attention, because ' Berthoud says he found these oVijccts in 40° N. Lat., and 104° W. Long. Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 1S72. * WhiUiey, " Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada," p. 264, MAN AND THE MASTODON. 41 there was no evidence concerninjj the age of deposit. A fragment from the same skull was also given by Dr. Winslow to the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences. A few years later, i.e., in 1866, Professor J. D. Whitney, Director of the Geological Survey of California, announced the discovery of a skull, this time nearly complete (fig. 14), at a depth of about a humired and thirty feet, in a bed of auriferous gravel on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada (Calaveras County). The deposit rested «.;ii 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 human bones, thr remains of some small mammals which it was impossible to class, and a shell of a land snail {Helix viormonnni), 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 ago 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 riiisioire Primitive et Naturelle de THomme," of the series of deposits from above downward. 1 black lava 2 gravels 3 \Miite lava 4 gravels 5 white lava 40 ft. 3 " 30 " 5 " 15 '• 6 gravels 7 brown lava 8 gravels 9 red lava 10 red gravels 25 ft. 9 " 5 " 4 " 17 " i According to the proprietor of the mine, it is in bed No. 8 that the skull under notice was found. V M' .42 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. ^ m £> 1 popular expression, the remains of elephants and mastodons might be had by the wagon-load. Beside gigantic pachyder- mata we meet with the Palasolama, the 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." It contains elms, figs, alders, and other trees of Europe ; but we notice particularly the complete absence of coniferous trees, which now give to the flora of California its distinctive character. Whitney also calls at- tention, in support of his theory, to such implements as lance-points, stone hatchets, mortars, doubtless used for grinding grain or kernels, all bearing witness to the presence of man, and which have been found in many places buried beneath beds of lava. The folloxving are the terms in which he announces his discovery to M. Desor : " My chief in- terest now centres in the human remains, and in the works from the hand of man that have been found in the Tertiary strata of California, the existence of which I have been able to verify during the last few months. Evidence has now accumulated to such an extent that I feel no hesitation in saying that we have unequivocal proofs of the existence of man on the Pacific coasts prior to the glacial period, prior to the period of the mastodon and the elephant, at a time when animal and vegetable life were entirely different from what they arc now, and since which a vertical erosion of from two to three thousand feet of hard rock strata has taken place." The scientific world awaited with natural impatience the confirmation of these discoveries. Dc?or 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 eng"aved, and I 'According to Pictet, belonging to the Padiydermata and the family of Suida;. In appendix A. we give ihe list of the fauna drawn up 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 ci' Anthivp., 1872, p. 7O0, 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 tne 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 assur'^d that the Calaveras County skull is not an isolated fact, but that I have a whole series of well-authenticated cases of the find- ing, in the same geological position, of either human remains or objects of human workmanship." To make these state- ments complete, a geologist of Philadelphia at the same time informed the Abb6 Bourgeois that Whitney had collected, in the Pliocene strata of California, in nine different places, human bones or relics of human industry, and tha: these facts were destined to remove nil 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. He main- tains the authenticity of his discovery, as attested by the researches he has made in person, while admitting that the finders of the skull were but ignorant laborers, and that no competent person saw it in its original position." No proof is afforded by the characteristics of the skull. It resembles the Eskimo type, and the very prominent supra- orbital ridges form its most distinguishing feature. Chemi- ' " Mateiiaux pour r Ilistoire Primitive ct Naturelle de 1' Homme," 1873, p. 55. "Whitney: " Lecture in Cambridge," April 25, 1878. " The Calaveras Skull : Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard College," vol. VI. Ml iV^ J,; .- -^'^f - .11 ) i !'f !i m ';i' II I' 44 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. cal analysis gives no decided verdict. It shows that the skull contains a slight trace of organic matter,' and that phosphate of lime is partly replaced by carbonate. We note these two facts, which seem to us important. It seems unlikely that traces of organic matter, however slight they may be, could have been preserved throughout the vast periods of time separating our own from the Ter- tiary period. No less unexpected would be the resemblance of a skull of that age to the skulls of the Eskimo of to-day, and it is difficult to admit the perpetuation of a type with- out appreciable modifications during the incalculable ages in which all nature has undergone so complete a transforma- tion.' The conclusions to be arrived at seem to us simple. Without doubt man lived in California, and Whitney's nar- rative is one more proof added to those already quoted, during the time when the volcanoes of the Sierra Nevada were in full action, before the great extension of the glaciers, before the formation of the valleys and the deep ravines, at a period when the flora and the fauna were totally different from those of to-day. But Whitney himself admits that if the eruption of the great mass of volcanic matter began toward the Pliocene period, it certainly lasted throughout the whole of the post-Pliocene period, and even during recent limes. 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 d'^prived of its organic matter as fossil bones of the Tertiary period usually are." 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," 1875, p. 389. )! 1 MAN AND THE MASTODON. 45 !l' studied from a scientific point of view, apart from the fierce controversies that these questions too often provoke. In 1877 P''of- March said at Nashville ("Am. Ass. for the Ad- vancement of Science ") : " The evidence as it stands to-day, although not conclusive, seems to place the appearance of man in this country in the Pliocene ; and the best proof of this has been found on the Pacific coast." ' If, however, we hesitate as yet to admit the existence of man on the American continent in the Tertiary period, it is difficult to deny that long centuries have rolled by since the time when these unknown men lived amongst animals as little known as themselves. This is, in the present state of pre-historic science, the only decision possible. Other parts of this work will introduce the reader to other race,? with different tastes, different manners, and probably a different origin. History and tradition are silent about them, as about their predecessors, and long and patient researches are necessary to separate the few still obscure facts from the profound darkness enveloping them. May the difficulties of the task be our excuse, if inevitable errors creep into our narrative. \\ 'No reasonable person who has impartially reviv^wed the evidence brought together by Whitney, and who saw, as we did, the Calaveras skull in its original condiiion, can doubt that it was found, as alleged by the discoverers, in the auriferous gravels below the lava. The only question to which some uncer- tainty still attaches itself among geologists is that of the true age of these gravels in geological time ; and whether all the extinct species of which re- mains are found in them were contemporaneous with the deposition of the gravels, and with the then undoubted presence of man. — \Am. Editor.^ M I ■l aj i LM- ' i i'ii ii t i . ii t^l. iA \ ^ _ \\ '.'.«■ CHAPTER II. THE KITCIIEN-MIDDENS AND THE CAVES. illl i I I m 51 li At the close of the last chapter we said that other men with different manners and tastes, perhaps also of different origin, replaced the first inhabitants of America. A con- siderable change took place, and we have not now to deal with nomad savages, wandering without shelter in the for- ests of the North and the pampas of the South ; we are to make acquaintance with a numerous population living in so- cial intercourse, and dwelling for long periods in a single lo- cality. The great difference in the fauna helps us to realize the importance of the change that had come about, and also the immense length of time necessary to its accomplishment. Though these men, who doubtless arrived in successive mi- grations, were still rude and barbarous, the permanence of their homes was already a great step in advance, and atten- tive study enables us to discover the germs of a more ad- vanced civilization, which would develop still more rapidly among those who should succeed them. Every thing is of importance in treating of the existence of man in those times, which but yesterday were totally un- known. From this point of view the kitchen- middens (literally kitchen-heaps), as the heaps of rubbish and offal of all kinds which accumulate about the dwellings of man have come to be called, deserve special attention.' Excavations in them in the different countries of Europe have yielded the most interesting results. They have revealed the every-day life, ' These heaps of rubbish in America are so generally composed almost en- tirely of marine or fresh-water shells, that the term shell-heap, as applied to them, has here largely replaced the more cumbrous term derived from the Danish. 46 ' i 1 KITCHEN-MIDDEN S AND CA VES. 47 the food, the manners, the journeys, and the migrations of pre-historic men ; their progress can be followed and their gradual improvement noted. The excavators have collected hatchets, knives, implements of all kinds, in stone, in horn, and in bone ; fragments of pottery, and of charred wood. Amongst the cinders of these hearths, abandoned for cen- turies, have been found numerous bones of animals and birds, fish bones, shells of oysters, cockles, and other mol- lusks, all telling of the prolonged residence of man. No less numerous are the kitchen-middens or shell-heaps in America, and wherever excavations have been made they have been most fruitful in results.' 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 ' Tlie report of the Pre-historic Congruss held at Bologna, in 1871, gives a fairly complete list of the authors who have written about the American shell- heaps. See also " Reports of the Teabody Museum of Archeology, Cambridge, Mass.," vol. II. ; and of the " Am. Association for the Adv. of Science," Chi- cago, I867 ; Detroit, 1875 ; and Wyman's articles in the American Xaturalist, 1868. " " Second Visit to the United States," vol. I., p. 152. — " British Ass. Rep. for 1859." Address of the President. -1) I i I 41 ''■■ * i|| in 'c ' H 1 j j ; ) 1 !: 1 i; ^ 48 PRE-inSTORIC AMERICA. I' • '!■ ; i ;„.! I 8., ..1. r H\ 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 : lu.tle 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 the shells of oysters, clams, and mussels, are of very frequent occurrence in Maine and Massachusetts, and excavations have yielded results no less interesting. Dr. Jeffries Wy- man has noted the rarity of stone implements, which are replaced by articles of bone, which are very common. Fragments of pottery are not abundant; the ornamenta- tion, always coarse, presents little resemblance to the most ' Brinton : " Notes on the Floridian Peninsula." Philadelphia, 1859. * "Antiquities of the Southern Indians and Georgia Tribes." \ KITCHEN-MIDDEXS AND CA FES. 49 ancient European pottery. The ornamentation was pro- duced by traceries made on the soft clay either with the point of a shell, or of a sharp stone.' The bones of animals are numerous.' Wyman met with those of the elk, the rein- deer,' the Virginian deer {Cervus Virginianus), the most common of all ; the beaver, the seal, the mud-turtle, the great auk, and the wild turkey. Except the auk (^Alca ini- pennis), which was before it? extinction only found in the extreme north, all these animals lived in Maine in historic times. The caribou, though much rarer than of old, is still met with in the same region. The dog should also be men- FlG. 15. — Various stone and bone implements from California. tioned. Many bones bear marks of his teeth ; so that he lived with man and was subject to him, at least as much so as his wild nature permitted. Some of these important 'This primitive mode of ornamentation has been met with in Missouri, Illi- nois, Ohio, Tennessee, and Florida. " Report, I'eabody Museum," 1S72. ' In appendix B. we give a complete list of the mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and mollusca found by Jeffries Wyman in the shell-heaps of Mount Desert and Couch's Cove, Eagle Hill and Cotuit Port. ' The reindeer or caribou (Rangifer caribou) is still found within the con- fines of Maine ; but the wild turkey has become virtually extinct in New Eng- land. The elk is not found nearer than the Alleghany Mountains, and the great auk has retreated beyond the confines of the United States, if not extinct. — Wyman, " Report, Peabody Museum," 186S, p. 11. t ill ' I - It 1 1 1 1 I ii Si \D\ V ' .'M' ' ;;''li; 50 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. excavations were made under the supervision of American anthropologists, after the meeting in 1868, at Chicago, of the Association for the Advancement of Science. A mound opened on that occasion, covered an area of ten acres. Oyster- shells, cod bones, some of the bones of a dog, and those of a large deer were found; all relics bearing witness to the presence of men living entirely on the products of fisheries and of the chase, and who as yet were strangers to all agriculture. The shell-heaps are also frequently met with in California, and some districts near San Francisco are literally covered with them. One of them, situated near San Pablo (Contra Fig. 16. — Stone mortar (California). Costa County), is more than a mile long by half a mile wide. The shells of which it is made up, chiefly those of the oyster and the mussel, have all been subjected to the action of fire.* Excavations to a depth of twenty-five feet in a similar mound have yielded arrow-points and hammers. Among others have been found thousands of bone implements (fig. 15), the largest of which are eight inches long. Mixed with ' Foster, " Prehistoric Races of the United States," p. 163. Bancroft, voL IV., p. 709. \ UitgBw.li. ^HiMBaa KITCIIEN-MIDDENS AND CA VES. 51 these tools lay human remains, which have unfortunately been dispersed without any benefit to science.' Dr. Yates sent a complete collection of the objects found by him in Alameda County to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington." It includes several large stone mortars (fig. 16), already alluded to, some implements chiefly in- tended for boring, pipes, and a rough representation of a phallus. This last fact must be noted, for we shall see that discoveries of this description are rare in America ; this rar- ity contrasts strangely with the too frequent obscenities of Greek or Roman art. The excavations in Oregon were directed by Paul Schu- macher." He made an important collection of mortars, Fig. 17. — Quartz scraper. pipes of inferior workmanship, pieces of pottery, little cups of soapstone,* daggers, knives, flint arrows, attempts at sculp- ture, and bone or shell implements. One of these cxcava- ' Bancroft, vol IV,, p. 711. * " Smithsonian Report," l86g, p. 36. * " Researches on the Kjoki• 31- illl ^m i Pi f 1' ?A' p f '^ ; t ^'ilf' il 11 ! ' ,! I' 62 r RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. unfortunate victims they meant 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 which human flesh was the only food supphcd, have handed down to us an account of them." One shudders with horror at the tortures invented by the inc^cnuity '^f man. Among some Indian tribes these tortures began several days before the final sacrifice. Lighted firebrands were applied to every part of the body ; the nails of the fingers and toes were wrenched off ; the flesh was torn, and burning splinters plunged into the gaping wounds ; the victim was scalped and burning coals applied to the spot. Women" and children were not the least eager amongst the torturers, and when the sufferer at last expired, his breast was opened, and if he had died bravely the heart was taken out, cut in pieces, and distributed to the young warriors of the tribe. They also drank the still smoking blood, hoping to inoculate themselves with the courage of which they had just had proof. The trunk, limbs, and head were roasted or boiled ; all gorged themselves with the horrible food, and the day ended with dances and song which gayly finished off the feast.^ In our own day, even, sailors and travellers have told of similar scenes. The Apaches, to a very recent date, were accustomed to treat their prisoners with a ferocity equal to that of their ancestors. The inhabitants of Terra del Fuego have at least as an excuse the wretched existence they lead, in a country almost destitute of all the neces- ' Peter Martyr d' Anghiera : " De Rebus Oceanicis et Orbe Novo, Decades, I., Book I. ' P. Hennepin : " Description de la Louisiane," Paris, i868, pp. 65, 68, and 69. •"On this occasion it is always observed that the women are more cruel than the men." Sciioolcraft : "Ethnological Researches Respecting the Red Men of America," vol. III., p. i8g. * La Polhieric : " Ilistoire de I'Americjue," Paris, 1723, p. 23. Father Jean de Brel)euf: " Voyage dans la nouveile France occidental." He himself perislicd under such tortures as those he had described. Barth. de Vimont's " Relation," Paris, 1642, p. 46. KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES. 63 saries of life. The expeditions of these miserable savages, of which Captain Fitzroy's description ' is most melancholy reading, were always made for the sake of getting prisoners ; when they failed, and hunger became pressing, the old women of the tribe were seized, roasted at a roaring fire, and pieces of the flesh distributed to the warriors. Of late years, however, a better state of things has prevailed in those desolate regions, brought about by the visits of various ex- peditions, and the presence among them of devoted mission- aries. But if the famine which bears so hardly on the Fucgians nearly every year may be referred to as an excuse for their cannibalism, we nevertheless find this practice has prevailed in regions of plenty, amongst the most luxuriant vegetation of the tropics. Humboldt saw similar scenes on the banks of the Orinoco; at Tahiti even, where the gentle and affectionate manners of the inhabitants have been fre- quently noted by travellers, the sacrifice of prisoners was followed by cannibal feasts; the honor of eating the eyes of the victims being reserved to the king. The first name of Queen VomvLYc {Aiinahii, I cat ihr eji') is a last souvenir of the royal privilege.' To conclude these melancholy accounts, which we might easily extend indefinitely. Dr. Crcvaux, in a recent explora- tion of the Amazon and its chief tributaries, came upon sev- eral cannibal tribes. Amongst the Ouitotos, who live on the banks of the Yapure, he saw some flutes made of human bones, and he tells us that one day, having surprised an old woman in the act of preparing her dinner, he saw the grin- ning head of an Indian boiling in her kettle. These facts form a striking contrast to our brilliant civiliza- tion, and to the progress of which we are so justly proud. They show in what degradation man may exist ; what prac- tices may be justified by custom and superstition ; and what efforts must still be made to raise to a state of civilization so many miserable races. It is to be borne in mind, how- ' " Voyage of the Adventure and the Beagle," vol. II., p. 183 and 189, » " Congr. Preh. de Paris," 1867, p. 161. ■^,' S^^>J ■ ^%^■ nm ntXtfbiH ^ h 64 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. '\. s:'' ' lil 'II 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 which in the Middle Ages claimed for the chief Christian rite the " real presence of body and blood " of the victim sacrificed for the welfare of the race. In regard to the age of the shell-heaps the day has not yet come for expressing a definite opinion. It is certain many of them are of great antiquity, and that additions continued to be made to some of them up to a very recent time. Historians are generally silent about these heaps, which did not attract much attention until archa.'ology began to tr.ke its place among the sciences. When the Indians were q.ies- tioned about them they generally answered that they are very old, and are the work of people unknown 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 ^-ones of animals, on Point St. George, near San Francisco, . j 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 etciual 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 w ilh tlie Seminoles, that no tradition of the origin of these heaps has comedown to them. Tliey attribute them to their predecessors in theoccu- ]iatiou of the peninsula of Florida. See Wyman, " Report, Peabody Museum," 18C8, p. 16. 'Bancroft, vol. III., p. 177. KITCHEN-MIDDENS AND CAVES, 65 Since then the Hohgates, changed into brilliant stars, return no more to earth, where the shell-heaps remain as witness of their former residence. Though tradition is silent as to the kitchen-middens, a few facts exist which may help us if not to fix a definite age for them, at least to determine something of their limits. The shell-heaps existed long before the arrival of the Spaniards, and the mammals whose remains arc found in them were of the same kind as those seen by the conquerors. No bones of large extinct animals have been found in the shell-heaps, either on the sea-coast or on the banks of rivers. So far no discovery has been made in those of North America of any iron, copper, or bronze implements, or of any gold or silver objects. It therefore seems natural to place their formation between the time of the disappearance of the latest tertiary fauna and the first introduction of metals by Europeans. It is evident that they are the accumulations of many generations. The fresh-water shell-heaps, judging from those hitherto examined, appear to be more ancient than those formed near the sea, but were in localities less liable to denudation and change. The shell-heaps of California are quite recent, those of Florida perhaps less so ; and even in neighboring districts the pieces of potter)-, weapons, and im- plements found in different shell-heaps sometimes pre- sent notable differences, suggesting that they were not con- temporaneous. Did the men who slowly piled up these shell-heaps belong to one race, or to races that successively occupied the same site ? Without being able to say any thing positive on this point, it is an invariable law of history, that conquerors should occupy the dwellings of the con- quered, until they were in their turn driven out by yet more powerful or braver invaders. The shell-heaps all over America greatly resemble each other ; but there is nothing in this re- semblance to surprise us; it is natural to the savage to throw out at the door of his hut and about its immediate vicinity, useless objects, rubbish of all kinds, without caring about the proximity of dirt. This is a common thing all the world m . ii! :. ''1 '**i5' 1/ i. Jmk 66 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA . over. Travellers who visit the Eskimo of to-day, the last representatives of one of ihe 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 fibres from the bark of trees? as were those of the natives of Florida, acc(jrding to the Spanish conquerors, who were the first to penetrate into the country. This is not at all necessary. These natives were migratory with the seasons, and, judging by the practice of the Eskimo, probably limited their pursuits in accordance with their super- stitions ; at one season they resided at a certain spot, hunted the seal, but perhaps like the Eskimo did no sewing while the hunt was going on. At another season, as in winter, re- tiring to some sheltered cove they might have subsisted chiefly on mollusks, and occupied their time in making cloth- ing, carving wooden or bone utensils, etc. Then the con- tents of the two resulting middens would be quite different, though made by the same people at the same period of their history. Differences are often noticeable in the pottery. The vases 'It is interesting to note the rescmlilaiice in piimitive times between the Eskimo ami the iiilialutants of tlie Aleutian Inlands. The weapons, tools, and implements yielded in cxeavalions are identieal. The diflerence in the fauna and the climate gradually modified the customs of the two branches of one people, as separation did their languai^e. W. II. Dall, " Remains of Later Pre- historic Man from the Caves of the Catherina Archipelago, Alaska Territory." "Smith. Cent.," No. 318, 4°, 1878. KITCHEN-MIDDEXS AND CAVES. 67 in one case arc elegant in form and ornamentation; the handles represent the figures of animals and of men, they re- semble in many respects those found in the mounds of the interior. In other cases, on the contrary, the pottery is badly baked and of coarse construction. In certain regions, suit- able stone is rare, and pointed bones seem to have served for defensive weapons and all domestic reciuirements. As a general rule, excavations in the Atlantic shell heaps have not produced either a single pipe or a fragment that could have belonged to one, so that the fashion of smoking, of which we shall notice so many traces, probably came in later. On the other hand we find ornaments almost everywhere, and often pieces of red chalk or haematite, doubtless to be used in coloring wood or skins. The taste for finery is innate in man even when most miserable and degraded, and his taste sometimes astonishes us with the strange form it assumes. In the vast regions where the accumulations we are describing have been found, the diffen ces 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 datc when the accumulation of shell and rubbish began, and it is this which it is above all important to know. ' " Report, Peabody Museum," 1872, vol. I., p. 25. \s \ I! ik '5( 68 PRK-Z/JS TORIC .IMEKICA . Moreover, recent observations of botanists show that, es- pecially in warm regions, the concentric rings of growth in trees by no means accord with successive years ; more than fifty rin^s luiving been observed in a trrt; only fourteen years old on one occasion. They are entirely untrustworthy as a measure of chronologj'. The deposits of guano in Peru have yielded fish (fig. 19), little figures, clumsy gold and silver images, and numerous fragments of pottery The Teabody IVlustium at Cambridge, jVlass., owns twenty gold ornaments from theChincha 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 clotlies. Man then inhabited these islands when the beds which have played such an important part in our modern Fig. 19. — Silver fish from the Chincha Islands, agriculture were accumulating, and doubtless fed upon the numerous sea-birds jjcopling them. In some parts the beds are covered with marine deposits, sometimes attaining a dei^th of six feet. A geological survey of the district indi- cates that since they were visited by man, these islands have been submerged beneath the waves and have emerged from them again ; but the causes of these phenomena are yet un- known. According to all appearance these deposits belong to the same periods as the shell-heaps above described ; the occurrence of precious metals, such as gold and silver might, indeed indicate a more recent epoch, but we know that they ' " Report, Peabody Museum," 1874, p. 20. li KITCIIEX-MJDDENS AND C.I VRS, 69 were used at an earlier date in I'eru than in North or Central America. In quaternary times the Europeans inhabited natural caves or caves artificially enlarged, according to their requirements. These caves, especially those of the south of France and of Belgium, have yielded the most certain and most inter- esting proofs of the existence of pre-historic man, and of his liabits and his daily life. In America, grottos seem to have been chiefly used as burial-places, during a period of time the limits of which it is impossible to fix. The earliest explorers ' tell of caves in Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, in which human bones were found. Others in California were, we are told, covered with admirably preserved drawings repre- senting men or strange animals ; they contained many mummies. Clavigero, who gives these details, adds that these men differed as much in their features as in the gar- ments with which they were covered, from the races met with by the Spaniards. From a cave in the Rio Norzas val- ley, in the province of Durango, Mexico, a considerable number of mummies have been taken, of an appearance very distinct from the present inhabitants of the country. The objects deposited near the mummies were hatchets, stone arrow-points, and vases, the decoration of which has been fancied to resemble that of some Egyptian pottery.' The Spaniards could not contain their astonishment at the sight of the marvellous feather garments with which the bodies of the Incas of Peru were covered, in the caves which are de- scribed as forming their last resting-places. But nearly all these caves, if they ever really existed, have been lost sight of ; or all they contained has disappeared, and we can not doubt the exaggeration which appears in most of the details given by the conquerors. The very few caves still known are extremely difficult to explore. Some, especially those met with in Mexico, in Chihuahua, or California, were sepul- chres, and retained no traces of previous habitation ; other;- ' Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," ch. VI. ' Proc. Anthropological Soc. of Washington, 1879, p. 80. 1'. LlL!l III li •'Ai f '( :M I ill/ 1 f. h ' w i ■!i 5! i if II '■•^ '1 (■!; J i!: i \ I 70 PRE- II I r. rORIC A MKKK W. had been occupied by Indians, as dwellings or places of refuge,' and all tl;e objects that explorers have been able to collect are of recent origin. Amongst the caves which may be of some interest, we will name those in the calcareous cliffs overlooking the Gas- conade River. One of the most remarkable is in Pulaski county, Missouri, It was originally formed in geologi- cal times, and afterward artificially enlarged by man ; its entrance is rather difficult of access, being i)crpendicular to the river. Conant had a trench made 175 fret long without reaching the limits of the successive depo;-:its. We give a list of the beds as they occur, with their depth : A. Alhiviummixed with cinders and fragments B. Cinders ........ C. Clay D. Cinders E. Alluvium ........ F. Clay and cinders mixed G. Cinders ........ H. Alluvium ........ J. Cinders mixed witli charcoal .... K. Alluvium ........ L. Cinders M. Alluvium mixed with fragments of charcoal Total .... . . 67 ins. The strata must have been frocjucntly disturbed. The)' consist of earth and cinders mixed with fragments of pot- tery and charcoal, stone implements, broken human bones, and a great number of bone or shell tools of various forms, rather roughly made (fig. 20). The original soil consisted of a reddish clay, where were picked up numerous shells of Unios completely decomposed. Similar shells occur in posi- tively prodigious quantities in the various strata. At a depth of about two feet the explorers came to a skeleton 'Schoolcraft: " Arcliivcs of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. IV., ;i. 217. "The Kavtijos," says Gallaiin, " inhabited caves in wbicli they kept their crops." " Nouv. Ann. des Voyages," vol. CXXXI., 1857. 18 ins 2 ^~\ \ 3 3 \ 3i 4 7 3 I.; '. 1' l,( KITCIIEX-MIDDENS AXD CAVES. n lying on its back, then to a second doubled up, a little further to that of a very old ■woman. All were in such an advanced state of decay that only a few fray;mcnts could be preserved, and tliosc were of no use for comparison. Round about the skeletons were strewn great quantities of the bones of deer, bears, mud-turtles, and wild turkeys. The skulls of all the animals were broken ; the brains were evi- dently considered a dainty. This was undoubtedly a cave long inhabited by man ; burial in it was an accidental feat- ure, unless these bodies may have been intentionally interred near their own hearth. We lean to the latter opinion, for this Avas a custom dear to the heart of many savage people. Shelter cave, near Elyria, Lorain county, Ohio, must also have served as a shelter to early inhabitants of the country. Fk;, 20. — Bone implements from the Gasconade River. At a depth of four feel; the difficulties became so great that the excavations could not be proceeded \\ ith. At this point the soil formed a compact breccia, in which were imbedded the bones of the bear, wolf, elk, rabbit, and squirrel, among Avhich could be made out three human skeletons, probably those of men who had been crushed, in the shelter they had chosen, by the fall of part of the roof. The skulls, which were in a good state of preservation, were exhibited in Cin- cinnati, in i85i,atthe meeting of the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science. They were unfortu- nately destroyed a few years afterward, together with the museum of the Ilomieopathie College in which they had been 2:)laced, and we have no information enabling us to de- scribe them. One of the most distinguislicd archaeologists of the United States -("!olonel \\'Iiittlesey — attributes a great li \ : If .1 72 PRE-HIS TOKIC . I M ERICA . k antiquity ' to these remains, but his estimate is too hy- pothetical to be worth discussing. Asli Cave in Benton county. Oliio, is one of these rock- shelters, so common in the south of France, and is remark- able for a considerable deposit of cinders coverint^ an area of one hundred feet long by an average breadth of eighty feel. A trench two and one half feet deep revealed a considerable mass of debris of all kinds, bones of animals such as were suitable for the food of man, little .sticks which may have been used as shafts for arrows, fragments of pottery, nuts, and grass fibres. A skeleton was seated near the wall, and the pieces of bark with which he had been covered, doubtless to keep the cinders from touching him, could still be made out. The greatest precaution had also evidently been taken with regard to a packet of little seeds " placed near him, which had been carefully covered with a layer of grass and ferns, and then with some coarse tissae. We are igno- rant alike of their purpose and of the rite with which they were connected. \/ecan only add that Professor Andrews,' from whom we ha\e gleaned these details, considers the skeleton to date from a very remote period. In June, 187.S, a habitation was examined situated in Sum- mit county, Ohio ; it was formed by two rocks, each from fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, with a third rock forming a kind of roof. This dwelling, open though it was on the north and south, had served as a home for long generations, for after removing a thin layer of vegetable mould, the arch;tologists whc 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 1 -tched residence, were imbedded amongst these cinders, together with more than five hun- ' " J"Ja'"g from the a]ipearances of the bones and the depth of the accumu- lation over thoni, two thousand years may have elapsed since these human skele- tons were laid on the floor of the cave." — " Evidences of the Antiquity of Man in the I'. S." ' Clienopodium album. •"Report, Peabody Museum," 1S77, vol. IT., p. 48 KITCIIEK-MIDDENS AND CAVES. n dred fragments of pottery, bone: , shells, and stone weapons or tools. The pottery retained the marks of the bark fibres of the netting in which it had been supported before baking. The deeper the excavations went the coarser and clumsier was the pottery. Not one of the stone objects showed the slightest trace of polishing, and most of them seem to have served as knives. The bones were those of the bear, wolf, porcupine, buffalo, stag, squirrel, fox, beaver, and there were some which had belonged to a heron and a Avild turkey. The bones containing marrow had been broken, ome were roughly pointed, all indicating that the culture of the cave men had been of the most primitive description.' In Pennsylvania, eighty-two miles from rhiladc'ohia,' on the face of a cliff rising parallel to the Susquehanna River, a natural rave was found, some seven feet high, in a very hard quartzite, showing no trace of erosion either by the work of man or the action of water. The original soil con- sisted of yellow clay, and on this clay rested a bed of black ^noulii, some thirty inches thick." The whole deposit was rich in human remains, and there were collected here more than four hundred arrow-points made of petrosilex, jasper, basalt, argillite, with rare examples in quartzite, which ma- terials were easily accessible from the neighboring rock,;. These arrows presented a great variety of forms, and were in every stage of manufacture. With them were found five perforated objects commonly called tomahawks, but too thin to have been used as a weapon or tool ; some knives or frag- ments of knives, only the concave sides of which were polished, the convex side showing a groove and marks of having been struck sharply ; some broken turtle bones, some 'Read, "Exploration of a Rock shelter, in Boston, Summit county, Ohio." — AiinrictU- Anlitjiiariaii, March, lS8o. ° Ilaldeman : "A Rock Retreat in Pennrylvania," Congres des Araerican- istes. Luxembourg, 1877, vol. II., p. 319. '■'This mould," says Ilaldeman, 'is of vegetable origin." Dr. Andrews {Atiicriftut A'aliiriilis/, February, 1S76) says that it must have taken centuries to form ten inches of vegetable mould, but we have already pointed out hov hypothetical such calculations always are. il li & I ' , 74 PRE-HISrORIC AMERICA. ■- I 1 ■Unio shells from the river, throe hundred fragments of pot- ter)-, the tube of an earthenware pipe resembhng those we shall describe in connection with the mound-builders, and lastly a pestle and some pieces of red or black ferruginous minerals, which these cave men had used to get the colors they required, traces of these colors still remaining on the pestle. The excavations yielded no bones that could be attributed to man. Those who used this shelter were not, therefore, cannibals, and they disposed of their dead away from their dwelling. Some human bones have been picked up in a cave near Louisville, Kentucky. This cave, which is very large, has a remarkable declivity at the further end ; it has been very im- perfectly excavated, the numerous rattlesnakes having driven off the explorers. It has been ascertained however, that, as in the cave of Elyria, the bones were imbedded in a breccia formed by the lime-impregnated water which oozed from the roof. After a great deal of trouble the explorers suc- ceeded in taking out six skulls almost intact, and with them a hatchet, a mortar, and a stone arrow-point. Colonel Whittlesey attributes to these skulls an antiquity no less re- mote than to those of Elyria. The German traveller, Miiller, tells of the existence, in the province of Oajaca, of some caves which had been used as human residences from a very ancient epoch ; we must con- tent ourselves with mentioning them, together with the dis- coveries made at High Rock Spring near Saratoga, New York, although since 1839 some archaeologists have claimed for these, as first traces of the aboriginal American, a great antiquity." W^e hasten to jiass to better information pub- lished in an excellent report addressed in 1875 to the trustees of the I'eabody Museum by Putnam." The learned professor noticed near Gregson's Springs, Kentucky, a rock-shelter resembling those we havo men- tioned. The rock had been hollowed out artificiallv and the ' Dr. Maguire : Proc. Boston Soc. of Natural History, vol. II., May, 1839. -Report, Vol. I., ji. 4S, etc. K I TCII EX-M IDDKN S AND CA VES. 75 soil was strewn with the bones of animals, worked stone articles, and fragments of pottery and charcoal. This was but a beginning, and Putnam's persevering researches ought to lead to more important discoveries.' The . avc known as Salt C.ivc may be compared to the celebrated Mammntli Cavi\ It consists liki- 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 cintlers 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 gi\'e light to the cave. In several places such fagots have been found tied together with fibres of bark. In one little dwelling-place, at about three miles from the entrance to the cave, " Putnam made out the footprints of a man shod with sandals, and a little further on he found the sandals themselves, mad'' \\\\\\ great skill of interwoven reeds. The garments of the cave men were wo\en of the bark of young trees ; some black stripes traced on a piece of cloth so prepared, and fragments of fringe also found in the cave, bore witness to their taste for dress ; an- other piece of stuff curiousK' mended gave proof of their in- dustry. Remains were also picked up of gourds, often of considerable size, and two finely worked arrow-points. The ground was covered with human excrement, the analyses of which .suggest that the inhabitants of the cave were vegetarians, but excavations have only yielded a few fresh-water mussel-shells almost entirely decomposed. The discovciy of sandals, woven stuffs, the absence of the bones ' We will merely recall several caves, such as those called SaunJi-rs' Cinv, the Haunted Cii-r, an square miles, and includes six counties and portions of three others. The soil is formed of recent alluvium covering tertiary beds of gravel, clay, and marl filled with fossils. (W. P. Potter: "Arch. Remains in S. K. Missouri," St. l.ouis Acad, of Sciences, 1880.) "Squier: "Ant. of the State of New York," Huffalo, 1851. "Report, Pea- body Museum," 1880, vol. IL, p. 721. * American Antii/iiarian, July, 1879, p. 59 e/ seq, ' The builders had no beasts of burden. These large structures were, there- fore, built by man unaided. |( 86 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. '. 1 i we have to deal, and we will begin with the mounds ; but the confusion in which the different forms they assume are mixed together, adds singularly to the difficulty of the task. Cones and pyramids arc enclosed within a sort of breast- work ; mounds supposed to be intended for the offering up of sacrifices are connected with tumuli ; side by side with those representing animals rise polygonal or triangular mounds. Dr. Andrews' mentions in a plan of Athens county, Ohio, a collection of twenty-three mounds, seven of which, according to him, were intended as fortifications and sixteen as burial-places. The loftiest is 40 feet high i ;; Fig. 22. — Triangular mounds. by 170 in diameter.' In Pike county, Pennsylvania, a per- fect scjuare is to be seen enclosed within a circle constructed with no less regularity ; at Portsmouth, four concentric cir- cles intersected by wide avenues perfectly true to the car- dinal points. The mounds near St. Louis formed three sides of a parallelogram about 328 yards long by 215 yards wide. The fourth side was shut in by three smaller mounds.' ' " Report, Peabcdy Museum," 1877. •The content of this mound is estimated at 437,742 cubic feet, and as no signs of excavations arc to be seen in the neighborhood, one can but suppose that this mass of earth was brought from a distance, * Breckenridge : "Views of Louisiana." St. I.ouis is sometimes called Mound City on account of the number of mounds which rise, or rather did rise, in its neighborhood. ff ^ •i led se, THE MOUXD BUILDERS. 87 e. no ose According to De Hass, the mounds of Illinois form quite a town, a vast and mysterious series of monuments. He tells us that he was surprised to find nothing but sepulchres on the other side of the Mississippi, whereas everywhere else the groups of ruins were associated with walls of circum- vallation. Conant ' tells of a collection of mounds on the Root River, about twenty miles from its junction with the Mississippi (Ig. 22). The chief mound measures twelve feet in height b) thirty-six feet in diameter. It is situated in the centre of a circle, of which traces can still be made out. The ridges forming the three sides of the triangle are of equal length — 144 feet ; their diameter is twelve feet, and their height three, four, and five feet respectively. It is remark- able that these heights, tak-en together, equal the height of the central mound, and that when they are multiplied to- gether the length of the sides of the triangle is obtained. This is doubtless an accidental coin :idence, though several earthworks arc mentioned of square or rectangular form, in which a similar relation is alleged to exist between the height and lengths of the mounds forming them. As they have been subjected to ve.tical denudation for an uncounted number of years, it is ceitiiin that any numerical relations existing at present are different from those which originally characterized such mounds. These facts will show how very difficult, not to say impos- sible, is any classification ; we will, however, follow that of Squier; for, in spite of some too apparent inaccuracies, it has the advantage of simplifying our task and supplying an approximate grouping, each class of which will be success- ively taken up alterward. They are : i. Defensive works ; 2, Sacred enclosures; 3, Temples; 4, Altar mounds; 5, Sepulchral mounds ; and 6, Mounds representing animals. Short (" North Americans," p. 81) gives a slightly different classification, as follows : ' " Footprints of Vanished Races," St. Louis, 1879, p. 30. ■, i | H iM, « g.»,A. i*V 1^ IdM. I*. I h 88 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. I. — Enclosures II. — Mounds iFor Defence. For Religious Purposes. Miscellaneous. r Of Sacrifice. J For Temple-sites. j Of Sepulchre. [ Of Observation. To these different lists perhaps may be added mounds built of adobes, or unburnt brick, which have crumbled to dust and are the remains of successive dwellings The whole of the space separating the AUeghanics 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 other can in some cases be made out, with observatories on adjacent heights, and concentric ridges of earth for the pro- tection of the entrances. War was evidently an important subject of thought with the Mound Builders. All the de- fensive remains occur in the neighborhood of water-courses, and the best proof of the skill shown in the choice of sites is shown by the number of flourishing cities, such as Cincin- nati, St. Louis, Newark, Portsmouth, Frankfort, New Mad- rid, and many others, which have risen in the same situations in modern times." * The ditch instead of skirting the lampart outside, and thus muhiplying the obstacles in the way of an assailant, is generally placed inside. Professor An- drews quotes, however, an oxtern.il moat at Lancaster (Fairfield County, Ohio), but he adds that it is an isolated example. " Report, Peabody Museum," 1877, If a stockade was placed on the rampart, the ditch would add an obstacle to at- tempts at digging a way in, while if placed outside it would facilitate such an attack, * " The same places," says Dr. Lapham, speaking of the mounds of Wiscon- sin, " which were the seat of aboriginal population, are being now selected as the sites of embryo towns and villages by men of different race." "Smith- sonian Contributions," vol, VIL, p. 64. II . pn- as THE MOUND BUILDERS. 89 Bourneville, twelve miles from Chillicothe, is one of the most curious fortified enclosures of Ohio. It occupies the summit of a steep hill ; the walls — a rare enough instance — are of stone, built up without cement/ presenting a striking resemblance with the ancient pro-historic forts of Belgium and the north of France. The closing ridge measures more than two miles, and three entrances can still be made out, defended by mounds, which made access more difficult. In many parts, especially near the entrances, the walls seem to have been subjected to the action of a fierce fire, which has actually baked the surface. Basins artificially 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- gists, centuries have passed away since the forest usurped the place of the abode of man ; others with more probability think these trees are less venerable than is generally sup- posed. In Wisconsin, says Dr. I.apham," 54 to 130 years are required for a tree to increase one foot in diameter. Among those actually living very few exceed three or four feet in diameter. Lapham therefore concludes that they cannot date from much earlier than the sixteenth century, and they are probably considerably younger. Fort Hill affords a still better example of these earth- works. This fortress, for such it may justly be called, rises from an eminence overlookinii the little river of Paint Creek. ' The Mound Builders used the materials at hand. When :,tones were abun- dant, they piled them up with earth to make their walls, but these stones are never quarried or dressed, nor are they ever cemented with any mortar ; several instances may be quoted, notably a stone fort on the Duck River, near Man- chester, Tennessee, in which the walls are of unworked stones, detached from neighboring rocks. At the entrance two mounds can be made out, which are supposed to have been posts of observation. '"The Antiquities of Wisconsin," "Smith. Cont.," vol. VII. Southall, " Recent Origin of Man," p. 583. I S\ •'1 90 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. r I \. \ Mil I, i The walls enclose an area of 1 1 1 acres. Above the stream, which formed a natural defence, they are hardly four feet high, but everywhere else the height is six feet, and they are some thirty-five feet thick. Several openings made entrance easy. One of them leads to an enclosure which was prob- ably square, but its walls have been in a great measure de- stroyed ; no trench or ditch protects them, and traces of a great fire can easily be discerned. In this second enclosure Squier places the dwellings of the inhabitants, built of un- burnt bricks, or perhaps mere huts covered with grass, Fig. 23.— Fort Hill, Ohio. branches of trees, or the skins of animals killed in the chase. Within the fortifications can be distinguished two enclosures — one semicircular, the other circular. These were probably places sacred to the religious rites, or to the councils of the chiefs. All this is, however, mere conjecture ; for the cus- toms, ceremonies, and mode of government of these men can only be inferred from the very scanty historical data relating to tribes dwelling much further south. One of the most curious works ' of this kind is situated in Clarke County, Ohio. It is a fort covering an area of only "Cox, " A remarkable ancient stone fort in Clarke County, Ohio." Am. Ass., Hartford, Connecticut, 1S7J. lUi THE MOUND BUILDERS. 9« in ■eight or ten acres, and built at the top of a hill washed on the south by the Ohio, and on the north by a wide, deep stream, Fourteen Mile Creek, which flows into the Ohio, a short distance beyond. This hill, which is of conical form, rises 280 feet above the river, and on that side presents almost perpendicular walls, f xcept at one point, where there is a pretty wide fault, the importance of defending which the builders of the fort were not slow to see. They pro- tected it therefore with a wall, nowhere less than seventy- five feet high, built of rough stones arranged without mortar or cement of any kind. Inside, the traces can still be made out of a number of conical mounds and of a wide and deep ditch. These works must not be confounded with others situated in Ross county, and known under the name of Clark's Works. The latter include a parallelogram 275 feet by 177; and on the right of this parallelogram a square cov- ering an area of sixteen acres.' The sides are eighty-two feet long, and in the middle of each of them an entrance can be made out, defended by a little mound. Inside, accord- ing to a custom to which we shall often have occasion to refer, rose several mounds of different sizes. Many of these works 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 wreat 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 liig Harpcth 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," Smithsonian Contributions, vol. XXII., p. 4. \\ ■ i i ,4 R ^ J'JiE.J//STOA'/C AMI-i/ilCA. Great Miami on the north and west, or ranjjed in succession as far as Dayton and I'iqua, so as to cc»mpletc the lino of de- fence. All these points are connected with each other by isolated mounds, mostly set 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 Ancii'tit 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. Ilosea has lately re- peated an observation often made, that the outline of these walls made a rough sketch of the continents of America. If this be so it can be but a purely accidental coincidence quite unworthy of any serious consiiieration. The Rev. .S. D. Peet, taking up an entirel)' different point of view, sees in fliese 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 groat Miamisburgh mound on the Ohio is one of the best examples we c.in cite. It is sixty-eight feet high and the circuniferenLC of ihe base is not less than 862 feet, (Short : " The North Americans of Antiquity," j). 52). Looliout Mountain, near CircleviUe, with its lofty mound, must have served the same purpose. * Force : '' A quelle Race appartenaient les Mound Builders" ; Cong, des Amer., Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., )>. 125. Kev. S. 1). I'eet : "The Military Architecture," yi/«. atitiij., Jan. 1881. * American A nli(/uarian, April, 1 878, March, 1880. * Mihvaukee Advt'rtiser, 1837 ; Sillimaii's A nit-ricnn Journal of Sciencf, vol. XI, IV. ; Lapham : "Antiquities of Wisconsin," p. 41, plates, XXXIV. and XXXV. THE MOUND liUlLDKKS. 93 were discovered in 1836 by Hyer, who gave tlicm the name they bear in memory of an old tradition of tlie Mexicans, who make out that their ancestors came from Ax.talan ' in the North. The characteristic feature of these ruins is an en- closure of earthworks forminj^ th.ree sides of an irrejjular paralleloj^ram, of which the rivers shut in the fourth side. They present ct)nsiderable 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 6X4, while the western wall is more than double that length. The width of the walls is nearly twent) ^.\'c feet, but they have crumbled away to so great an extent that it is imjxjssible to decide upon their t)riginal height. The present height varies from about one '^'">l Lo three yards and a half. We must note one rare and interesting peculiarit)- ; the walls are reinfoi. d at ecpial distances with projecting curves or bastions. Finally, at the southwest angle there are two little enclosures which we may if we like call outposts. All these walls were constructed of earth mixed with grass and rushes, anil thin 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 c , tr. 'i io8 PRE-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. WOK cut out of very thin plates of mica, and pierced with •C'gular holes by which it could be suspended. These differences between the objects dug up near the differe':t 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, howe\ er, add that lately doubts have arisen as to the purpose of these mounds. These altars on a level Fig. 2S. — Group near the Kickapoo River, Wisconsin. Avith the ground, buried beneath heaps of sand or earth, ap- pear strange, and are without precedent in the history of any known religion. The question has been asked whether they are not, after all, burial-places where cremation was the rite performed. The great number of similar objects met with seem to me to bear against this hypothesis, but this is a point which later excavations and fresh discoveries alone can determine. Perhaps two groups recently discovered in Wisconsin ' may be classed amongst sacrificial mounds. The first is ' Conant, p. 20. '?asi THE MOUiVn BUILDERS. 109 th he ir- s; n- to IS el situated in a low meadow near the Kickapoo River (fig, 28). The height of the central mound, which represents a radiat- ing circle, is but three feet ; its diameter is sixty feet, and is surrounded by five crescentic ridges, rising scarcely two feet above the ground, presenting a flat upper surface. Ex- cavations show that these mounds were made up of white sand and bhiish clay. They have yielded only a considerable number of phites and very thin fragments of mica. Mica seems to have been much used by the Indian tribes of the United States, who were able vo obtain it. It is frequently Fig. 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 are those which rise from I m 'm^ I 'i : .¥ IIO PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. graves ; at all ages and places man shows respect to the mortal remains of him who was a man like himself. Affec- tion for parents or friends, the universal notion of a future life, vague and materialistic though it evidently was in that stage of culture, perhaps also the desire of propitiating the dead, or the fear of the vengeance of him whose corpse had been profaned ;• all these motives combine to produce the respect for the dead which \\q meet with among most bar- barous as well as most civilized people. Fk;. 30. — Group of sepulchral mounds. Sepulchral mounds (fig. 30), everywhere showing many points of resemblance, are met with throughout the United States. Frequent supplementary burials add to the origi- nally great difficulties of studying them. At different epochs they have been used by successive tribes of Indians, and even by tiie whites, for the burial of their dead. It is, however, often possible to distinguish the intrusive inter- ments, which are near the surface, whilst the bodies placed on a level with the ground certainly belonged to the race of the builders of the mounds. There are few traditions relat- ing to these mounds among the Indians, who generally deny that they were the works of their ancestors, which often may be true, so great are the migrations and changes whicli THE MOUND BUILDERS. iir have taken place during the last few centuries. Brcckcn- ridge, however, in speaking of the excavations of the Big Mound (fig, 31), which a short time since was a prominent object within the city limits of St. Louis, says that the In- dians hastened to take from it the bones of one of their chiefs. Mounds are connected with very different rites, and among them we meet with every form of burial in use in Europe ; the bodies were sometimes extended horizontally, sometimes doubled up. We noted at Sandy Woods settle- ment the different positions of the bodies ; in Union county, Fig. 31.— Big Mound at St. Louis (Missouri). Kentucky, the bodies were placed one upon another without apparent method.' Cremation, too, was practised. In Mis- souri the body was sometimes covered over with a layer of clay, after which a huge funeral pile was lighted. Mention has also been made of remains found in Ohio, covered with a layer of clay made so hard by baking that it was only with the greatest trouble that it could be cut into." Gillman tells of having found in Florida the ashes of the dead preserved with pious care in human skulls." In Kansas stones were heaped over the body, forming a cairn.* In other places ' Lyon : " Smiths, Contr.," 1870. ° " Burial Mounds in Ohio," Am. Ant., July, 1879. ' Explorations in the vicinity of Aledo, Florida, * " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. IL, p, 717. I mmm 112 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. ':, .1 skeletons have been found wrapped up in a few fragments of coarse tissue, or in bandages of bark. Squier ' describes a sepulchre excavated under his direction in which the earth had been levelled and a layer of bark placed beneath the corpse. Round about lay some implements and a few orna- ments, including two bear's teeth which were pierced ; above the skeleton was a second layer of bark, carefully arranged, and, piled upon these, earth, forming a mound. Under a mound at Chillicothe, the skeleton was discovered of a very tall woman who died young ; her teeth were all in- tact, and at her feet lay the bones of a child. Beneath these human remains was greasy black earth, in which the microscope has revealed remains of animal matter and heaps of cinders. Further excavations brought to light a great many other bones. It is uncertain whether they were those of unfortu- nates offered up in sanguinary rites, or merely of those whose remains had been subjected to cremation as a mark of respect. All the bodies lay on the left side, and by each one was placed a vessel full of food, which would hardly have been provided for victims. These arc very character- istic funeral rites. Other explorers tell of vast cemeteries, or groups of mounds, which they look upon as the sepulchres of great chiefs. We shall mention the most important discoveries and endeavor to show to what different rites they bear witness. Near New Madrid, Conant noticed that the bodies were placed horizontal!)', with the head turned toward the centre of the mound. Vessels were placed on the right and the left, and a third was held upon the breast by the crossed arms of the dead. Mr. 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. ' " Ant. of the Mississippi Valley," p. 164. THE MOUND BUILDERS. 113 ; i The excavations at Madisonville in the valley of the Lit- tle Miami, Ohio, by Metz dnd Putnam, have yielded more than six hundred skeletons of every age and of both sexes. Near them were picked up numerous pots, some of them decorated with incised designs. Two were decorated with small medallions representing human heads. Other articles found were stone pipes, arrow-points, knives, hammers, pol- ished adzes, bone implements, and shell and copper orna- ments.' 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 consir.ted of a large sea-shell {Ihisycon pcrvcrsuui — 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, 1S81. ' American Anti(/tianaH, 1879. This statement requires confirmation by an expert conchologist. 114 PKE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 1 'i \v Deacon Elliot Frinck speaks of a skeleton buried head downward.' This would be a curious fact, but it is one of so exceptional a character in America as well as in the Old World, that one cannot help thinking the corpse was origi- nally placed in a sitting or doubled up posture, and that the pressure of the earth or the decomposition of the body- caused the head to slip between the knees. In Wisconsin the dead were wrapped in bandages of bark and seated facing the east. No weapons or ornaments were placed near them, and Dr. Lapham's numerous excavations have produced nothing but three vases of very common pottery." 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. Hey wood 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. 'Perkins: "Ancient Burial-Ground in Swanton, Vermont." "Rep. Am. Vss.," Portland, 1873. « " Aj- of Wisconsin," " Smitlis. Contr.," vol. VII. "^ plorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee." "Smiths. '" .r . .'. '■'Jill., Washington, 1876. •• • .'-'e- '^i^l Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America," vol. II., p. ^:6 ■'- . "^ ■. ,'«^dition, 1852. I. THE MOUND BUILDERS. "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 that they were the graves and the work of the same race as that of which he had found cemeteries in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois." These mounds were situ- ated on a farm belonging to Miss Bowling. The skulls were of similar form, the ornaments and pottery of similar manufacture. The number of the skeletons was consider- able. Their figure was estimated at between six and eight hundred ; one of the sepulchres alone, excavated under the personal superintendence of the learned keeper of the Peabody Museum, yielded nearly fifty. The bodies with but one exception were enclosed between slabs of unwrought stone of varying size, and these sarcophagi were arranged hap-hazard in successive layers." 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 Bandelicr. 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," 1878, vol. II., p. 203, etc. ° " Arch. Explorations in Tennessee," " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., P- 305. * In the following chapter we shall recur to the very curious pieces of pottery found in these excavations. ii6 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. I! \ has been recognized by competent judges as approaching the type of the present Indian race. More important work and more complicated arrangement are seen in the chambered mounds. We mention first one of the most remarkable tumuli, that of Grave Greek, Virginia, at the junction of that stream with the Ohio. This mound, which is of considerable size, encloses two sepulchral chambers one at about thirty feet above the other. They nere built of beams, which, gradually giving way, let the stones and earth piled up on the roof fall into the vacant space and crush the skeletons which had been laid in the chambers. The upper room contained but one body, the lower two bodies — one of a man, the other of a woman. Beside them lay numerous mica ornaments, shell collars, copper bracelets, and some fragments of hewn stone. From the lower room was entered a larger one where ten skeletons were found in a squatting posture, but un- fortunately so much decomposed that they could not be sub- jected to any scientific examination. It is supposed that they were the remains of unfortunate victims immolated in honor of the chief to whom the tomb was devoted. At Ilarrisonville, 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 MOUND iniLDKKS. 117 These sepulchral chambers arc chiefly met with in the central states. Kxcavations in Jiig Mound, St. Louis, of which we have already spoken (fig. 31), and which was only destroyed in 1869, brought to light the existence of a crypt measuring thirty feet high by one hundred and fifty feet long.' The walls were not of stone like those just mentioned but of compact clay carefully smoothed. It is supposed that the roof had been formed of beams for supporting the \, eight 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 fragrhents by the fall of earth from above, were picked up a considerable number of shells, chiefly the shells of fresh-water mussels, which are very abundant in the neighborhood, and a pretty sea-shell the Marginclla apicina of Lamarck ; also shell beads, somewhat like those found in Ohio, and cut out of the Busycon pcrversum so abundant in the Gulf of Mexico. It is proved beyond a doubt by numerous instances that cremation was practised in certain cases by the Mound Builders, who at the same time in other cases disposed of their dead by inhumation. We have been speaking of the sepulchral chambers of the Missouri ; Curtiss speaks of important groups on both sides of the river. Three of these he had excavated under his own superintendence ; the crypts formed a square of eight feet with a height of four to five feet, and a passage several feet long ended in an opening facing the east. Toward the base the walls were five feet thick gradually decreasing to the top, and built of stone, without mortar or cement of any kind. One of the crypts was closed with great slabs ; the others had probably been shut in with beams, long since disappeared. Each of them enclosed several skeletons," all of which had been subjected ' Breckenridge : "Views of Louisiana." When t..j excavations took place this crypt had already been disturbed, but it could still be distinguished over an area seventy-two feet in length. Conant, /. c, p. 42. * In one of the crypts Curtiss says he made out five skeletons ; in an- . Il8 PRE.IIISTORIC AMERICA. to fierce heat. The human bones were mixed with cinders, bits of charcoal, and animal bones, which were piled upon the ground several inches high, and amongst the remains the explorers discovered several all but unrecognizable frag- ments of pottery, some stone implements, and a shark's tooth. Excavations were also carried on under a large mound near by, but no traces of cremation were met with in it. The bodies were stretched horizontally on the ground, and Mr. Curtiss was able to make a valuable collection of implements, stone weapons, and carefully manufactured pieces of pottery. What were the relations between the men who buried their dead and their neighbors who burnt them ? Did they belong to the same races ? Did they live at the same epoch ? There are no means of replying with any certainty to these questions. Missouri is not the only region where cremation was practised. Dr. Andrews speaks of some burnt human bones found in Connctt'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 practice of feasting in connection with the funeral ceremonies. Dr. Larkin comes to the same conclusions after the excavation of a mound in the state of New York." Under one of the mounds rising in the Pishtaka valley, Lapham collected some burnt clay, some stones almost converted into lime by the action of intense heat, some pieces of charcoal, and among all these a half calcined human shin-bone. Squier also mentions sev- eral instances of skeletons still showing traces of the fire which consumed the flesh. We may also mention a mound of oval form situated in Florida. The two axes of the base measure respectively other, thirteen. "Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 717. .See also E. 1'. West, Western Review, Feb., 1879. ' " Report, I'eabody Museum," 1877, vol. II., p. 59. ""Report, Peabody Museum," j88o, vol. II., p. 722. I THE MOUXJ) liUILDERS. 119 ninety-eight and eighty-eight feet. At different depths varying from one to fifteen feet numerous human bones have been picllies were laid beside those of his people and covered wich a layer of earth, and that this was continued until a cone about two feet high was formed. The circles and half circles are sup- '" Cremation Amongst North American Indians." — Am. Ass., New York, 1874. ' Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 17. I :d as :d to St il. id ir es THE MOUND BUILDERS. lai b r- I \\ posed to indicate tombs the inmates of which were not numerous, but whose families had become extinct or dis- persed, so that the graves were never filled. We give this explanation for what it is worth, "nly adding that similar burial-places are met with in all the districts west of the Mississippi, in the Ohio valley, Michigan, and many of the norLhern states. At about two hundred and eighty yards from the group we have just noticed another has been discovered, dating ap- parently from the same epoch, in which the bodies were simply interred. It is alleged that tradition ascribes this change in the mode of burial to obedience to the prophets of the tribe, who were alarmed by an eclipse of the sun which occurred whilst the body of one of their chiefs was be- ing burnt. Without attaching more importance than it deserves to this tisscrted 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 feet wide and twelve feet high. It is almost entirely formed of yellow clay, foreign to the locality, and doubtless brought from a distance. On the north and south rise two mounds {d) of triangular form, com- posed of red earth, covered with a thin layer of soil. Each of these mounds is twenty-seven feet long by about six feet wide at the wider end, gradually decreasing toward the opposite end, which scarcely rises above the level of the soil. At each corner rises a circular mound (/) twelve feet high by twenty-five feet in diameter. On the east and west are two ^Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 18. 122 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. elongated mounds (c) sixty feet long with a diameter of twelve feet. Two smaller mounds (e) on the right and left of the turtle are each twelve feet long by four feet high. They consist of white sand mixed with numerous fragments of mica and covered with a layer of clay and a second one of vegetable mould. The two mounds [d) 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 ih*": builders all the more work because part of the • » iH I i .r Q Q @ ^ Fig. 33. — The burial-place of the Black Tortoise. materials can only have been obtained from a considerable distance. Here is the explanation given by Conant, of the whole group. The principal tomb (a) would be the last home of a great chief, the B/nck Tortoise; the four mounds (/) which form the c i lers of the quadrangle were also erected as a sign of the mourning of the tribe ; the secondary mounds would be the tombs of other chiefs, and the little mounds erected in the north and souch correspond with the number of bodies which had been deposited in them. The two pointed mounds {d) indicate that the B/ack Tortoise was the last of his race, and the two large mounds the 0i THE MOUND BUILDERS. 123 importance of that race and the dignity that had be- longed to it. Lastly, the two mounds {e) on the right and left of the royal tomb mark the burial-places of the prophets or soothsayers, who even to our own day play a great part among the Indian tribes. The fragments of mica found in their tombs would indicate their rank. It may be said that in the absence of any accurate information whatever, as to the origin and use of these mounds, the pre- ceding hypothesis is not more unfounded than many others which might be invented. Of all the mounds erected on American soil, the most curious are without doubt those representing animals, first noticed and described by Mr. W. Pidgeon in 1853. They are met with in Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and generally speaking in all the states of the far west ; but the chief centre of these singular erections seems to have been Wisconsin, where they are very numerous. Some archaeologists think that the animal mounds may perhaps have been intended to represent the totem or distinctive symbol of a clan. This symbol is often an animal, such as the eagle, wolf, bear, turtle, or fox, but, if the observations made may be relied on, they are as often representations of objects not totemic as otherwise. They represent men with the trunk, head, arms, and legs, still recognizable ; mammals sixty-five yards long; birds' with outspread wings measuring more than thirty-two yards from tip to tip; reptiles, turtles, and " lizards " of colossal dimensions ; and, lastly, Pidgeon mentions having seen in Minnesota a huge spider, whose body and legs covered an acre of ground. These mounds of diverse form are grouped without ap- parent order, — now by the side of pyramids or truncated cones, now in the midst of circles or rectangles connected with the structures we are about to describe. At Pewaukee, Wisconsin, seven turtles, two " lizards," and four mounds of ' Mounds of the form of birds have recently been discovered in Putnam county, Georgia, This is an interesting fact, for hitherto such mounds had only been found in the northern and western states. — "Bird-shaped mounds in Putnam county, Georgia," Anthr. Inst, of Great Britain and Ireland, 1879. it i! 124 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. I m III ; If .4i Si I 't elliptical form can be made out together. One of the turtles, the largest yet discovered, measures no less than four hun- dred and fifty feet. A little farther off, in Dane Co., we meet with a group of quadrupeds, — buffaloes according to some authorities, pumas according to others. Their length varies from eighty-two to one hundred and fourteen feet. In other places an observer of lively imagination can make out elks, bears, wolves, panthers, eagles, wild geese, herons, even frogs. What is more certain than their form, however, is, that in the vast western plains these ridges can easily be seen from a distance, though their height seldom exceeds two yards, and Fig. 34. — Mound supposed to represent a man. often amounts only to a few inches. We may as well add that nothing has been found in the numerous excavations made into mounds of this description, and that some archae- ologists are bold enough to doubt the very existence as artificial structures of many of those which have been de- scribed. However, from among the most celebrated mounds of this sort we select a human figure (fig. 34), in which the design may be admitted. It is stated that a more or less ancient tradition alleges that this mound was erected in honor of a chief killed in battle. The little mound placed THE MOUND BUILDERS. 125 between the legs was sacred to the memory of his son, killed fighting by the side of his father. We may also refer to the "alligator," of Granviile, Ohio, (fig. 35); the length of the Sectu>n cou/6e cCo la. ntjondaane ^"W Fig. 35. — Curved section of the mountain, and plan of the so-called alligator mound. Fig. 36. — Mound supposed to represent a mastodon. body is two hundred and five feet, that of each foot is twenty feet ; it is evidently not an alligator, for the abo- rigines were too good observers to give an alligator a round MMM f I 126 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. I *■' l( ! 'I % - r: '. ' Li 1 ■ I 1 •' ! head. It might have been intended for an otter, or the great salamander (inawpoma), if really designed for an animal at all. Another has been claimed as a mastodon (fig. 36), and is situated a short distance from the junction of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi rivers. It is considered to be a surprising likeness by archzeologtsts who are not zoologists. Other enthusiastic investigators have discovered in Wiscon- sin a monkey 160 feet long. Its alleged tail forms a semi- circle, which, uncurled, would measure no less than 320 I'^et.' In one of those in Wisconsin a bird is represented just about to take flight, and under one of its wings is a little elliptical mound. Lapham thinks he makes out a complete allegory in this : The bird is taking to the land of spirits the soul of him to whom the mound is sacred, and this soul is represented by the little mound under the wing of the bird." We must not omit the great Fig. 37.-Basalt cup from Mexico, g^ake set upon a hill overlook- ing Brush Creek, Adams county, Ohio. His coils are about 700 feet long, and he appears to be swallowing an egg, which he holds in his mouth and which is represented by a mound, the large axis of which measures 160 feet. Proba- bly we have an allegory here also. The serpent plays an important part in the mythology of the American aborig- ines. We find it represented on their pottery. Out of eighteen Busycon shells, now in the Peabody Museum,, which had served as ornaments to these unknown people, thirteen are engraved with the figure of a serpent. The National Museum at Washington possesses a pipe rep- resenting a human figure with a serpent coiled round the neck ; and that of Mexico, a vase remarkable for the elegance of its shape, the handle of which is formed by a serpent, (fig. 37). 'Foster, "Prehistoric Races," p. loi. » " Ant. of Wisconsin," pi. XLVI., fig. 4. 'I I 1 .i THE MOUND BUii^DERS. 127 We have other yet more curious instances. In several places, though we cannot interpret its meaning, we meet with the representation of a serpent swallowing the head of a turtle. The Dominican monks of Mexico have preserved and set up over their entrance gate an antique bas-relief representing a serpent crushing a human victim in his coils. At Chichen Itza colossal serpents are carved on the walls of the palace. Near Jalapa, in the province of Vera Cruz, a serpent fifteen feet long is distinguishable sculptured on a rock,' and similar serpents are found in the bas-reliefs of the temple of Huitzilopochtli, which dates from the time of the Aztecs, as well as on the walls of the buildings of Cuzco, witnessing to Peruvian splendor. The very name of some races recalls the worship of the serpent. The Nahuas, who share with the Mayas the honor of having enjoyed the highest known civilization of ancient America, are often called the Ciilhnas, or the men of the race of the serpent ; among the Mayas the empire of Xibalba was known under the name of the Do- minion of the Chanes, orseipcnts. May we not trace to this origin the veneration in which certain Indian tribes of New Mexico still hold the rattlesnake ? They keep it in certain caves of their mountains, the entrances to which they hide with jealous care, and it is said they go to worship it in secret." On the northern banks of the Wisconsin rises a strange group (fig. 38), which is a true puzzle to explorers." It in- cludes one figure 180 feet long, placed horizontally, and an- other 160 feet long, arranged perpendicularly with regard to the former. The latter abuts upon a ridge eighty feet long by six feet high and twenty-seven feet in diameter. On the same line are a series of mounds of conical shape and gradu- ated size, the largest representing the same diameter as that of the above-mentioned ridge. The first figure has been re- ' Rivero, " Hist, de Jalapa, Mexico," vol. I., p. 7. • Bandelier : " Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos." • Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 32, etc. m i 128 PRE-IllSTORIC AMERICA. '\ If garded as an elk, the second as human. The horns of the elk are of unequal size, and at its feet is one of the triangu- lar mounds which have been supposed to typify the extinc- tion of a race. This group is explained as intended to com- memorate the alliance of two tribes, of wiiich the elk and the buffalo were the totem or the symbols. These once pow- erful tribes, exhausted by long and bloody struggles, united for the common defence, and their alliance is indicated by the touching of the man's hand and the elk's foot. The two mounds on the right and the left are regarded as altars, on which sacrifices were offered to commemorate the union of the two tribes. A layer of burnt earth, cinders, and CD O O Cce Fig. 38. — The so-called " man and the elk " mounds in Wisconsin. charcoal, fourteen inches thick, seems to justify this supposi- tion. An old tree has pushed its roots beneath the mounds ; and its 424 concentric rings of growth form the only guide we have as to the age of this interesting group. Why one tribe was represented by its symbol and the olher not, is not explained by the above hypothesis. Scveril mounds show a variety worthy of remark. Some animals of dimensions pretty nearly resembling those of which we have just spoken, are represented, not by ridges but by ditches. We mention this fact, while we fully recog- nize that in such a matter imagination is offered unlimited scope. In other places representations of inanimate objects are i THE MOUND BUILDERS. 129 4 spoken of, such as a cross on the shores of Lake Michigan,' and a Greek cross in Ohio about twenty-nine yards long, with a large hollow in the centre about six yards deep. We may also mention a cross in the valley formed by the Rock River. The arms of this cross appear to be equal, but the plow has already commenced its work of destruc- tion, and it is impossible to determine the length. A mound on the banks of the Scioto' represents a boat fifty- two yards long by about thirty yards wide, and a little farther off the explorer makes out so'.ie groups which he may call, according to the fancy of the moment, clubs or pipes. We are not disposed to attach importance to resem- blances probably quite accidental. Although incredulous as to certain interpretations which some would have accepted, it is difificult to repress surprise in contemplating the admittedly genuine works accom- plished by these vanished people with only the help of stone tools, baskets, and persistent manual labor. In metals they had at most some copper implements. Iron and bronze appear to have been practically unknown to them, and in no part of a vast territory they occupied have excavations revealed the existence or the use of any metal but native copper, with its associated silver, gold and a few frag- ments of meteoric iron. But our astonishment is redoubled when we find these men digging canals to establish water communication, a striking proof of a numerous population, and a decided advance on the nomadic state, though, as evi- denced by numerous Asiatic peoples, not necessarily an indi- cation of a high degree of culture. Lately traces of such canals have been made out in Missouri. Dr. G. Swallow, State Geologist of Missouri, calls the attention of archaeolo- gists to them, and describes one fifty feet wide by twelve feet deep. There are others in different places. All are of systematic design, and, according to that gentleman, they ' Lapham : "Ant. of Wisconsin," pp. 20 and 39, pi. XXXI., figs. 2 and 3. * VV. de Hass : "Arch, of the Missis.sippi Valley," Rep. Am. Assoc, Chicago, 1868. ' m .■ II .h I 130 PRE.inSTORIC AMERrCA. are executed with intelligent reference to the difficulties of the ground. Earthquakes have in many places destroyed the traces of these canals — the progicss of civilization is per- petually levelling their embankments —but the works can still be made out, and on a line seventy miles long a series of canals can be recognized connecting the Mississippi with Big Lake, Cushion and Collins lakes.' These people may have navigated the canals in boats, which we can confidently assert they knew how to hollow out, with the aid of fire, from the trunks of trees ' Similar processes were employed in Europe in the early days of navigation. Recent discov- eries have suggested the existence of pile-dwellings rising from the Great Lakes of the north.' All over the earth similar wants have led to similar efforts of intelligence and similar products of industry. This is a fact of very great importance. ^ In closing this chapter, what, it may be asked, are we to believe was the character of the race to which for the pur- pose of clearness we have for the time being applied the term, " Mound Builders " ? The ans...er must be, they were no more nor less than the immediate predecessors in blood and culture of the Indians described by De Soto's chronicler and other early explorers, the Indians who inhabited the region of the mounds at the time of their discovery by civilized men. As, in the far north, the Aleuts up to the time of their discovery were, by the testimony of the shell- heaps, as well as their language, the direct successors of the early Eskimo,* — so in the fertile basin of the Mississippi, the Indians were the builders or the successors of the builders of the singular and varied structures just described. It is true that a very different opinion has been widely enter- tained, chiefly by those who were not aware of the historical 'Letter from M. Carlton, quoted by Conant : "Footprints of Vanished Races," p. 78. " Schoolcraft : " Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. I., p. 76. ' Am. Antiquarian, Jan., 1881, p. 141. * "See Contributions to North American Ethnology," vol. I., 1877. Article. 2. " On Succession in the Shell-heaps of the Aleutian Islands." THE MOUND BUILDERS. IJI evidence. Even Mr. Squier who, in his famous work on the ancient monuments of the Mississippi valley, makes no dis- tinction in these remains, but speaks of the Mound Builders as an extinct race and contrasts their progress in the arts with the supposed low condition of the modern Indians, in a subsequent publication felt compelled to modify his views and distinguish between the earthworks of western New York, which he admits to be of purely Indian origin, and those found in southern Ohio." Further researches have shown that no line can be drawn between the two ; the dif- ferences are merely of degree. For the most part the objects found in them, from the rude knife to the carved and polished " gorget," might have been taken from the inmost recesses of a mound or picked up on the surface among the debris of a recent Indian village, and the most experienced archaeologist could not decide which was their origin. Lucien Carr " has recently reviewed the whole subject in a manner which cannot but carry conviction to the impartial archaeolo- gist, but the conclusions he arrives at have the weight of other and, as all will admit, most distinguished authority." " " Smithsonian Contr. to Knowledge," ii., p. 83, 1851. ' " Mounds of the Mississippi Valley," " Memoirs of the Kentucky Geological Survey," vol. II., 1883. ' The earthworks ' ' differ less in kind than in degree from other remains respecting which history has not been entirely silent." — Haven. " There is nothing indeed in the magnitude and structure of our western mounds which a semi-hunter and semi-agricultural population, like that which may be ascribed to the ancestors or Indian predecessors of the existing race, could not have ex- ecuted." — Schoolcraft. " All these earthworks — and I am inclined to assert the same of the whole of those in the Atlantic States and the majority in the Mississippi Valley — were the production, not of some mythical tribe of high civilization in remote antiquity, but of the identical nations found by the whites residing in these regions." — Brinton. " No doubt that they were erected by the forefathers of the present Indians." — Gen. Lewis Cass. "Nothing in them which may not have been performed by a savage people." — Gallatin. " The old idea that the mound builders were peoples distinct from and other than the Indians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and their progenitors, appears unfounded in fact, and fanciful." — C. C. Jones. " Mound builders were tribes of American Indians of the same race with the tribes now living." — ^Judge M. F. Force. " The progress of discovery seems constantly to diminish the distinction between the ancient and modern races ; and it may w I i' s 132 PKE-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. It is not asserted that the mounds were built by any par- ticular tribe, or at any particular period, nor that each and every tribe of the Mississippi valley erected such structures, nor that there were not differences of culture and pro- ficiency in the arts between different tribes of inoni;d 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 f ir from there being any a priori rea- son why the red Indians could not have erected these works, the evidence shows conclusively that in New York and the Gulf States they did build mounds and embankments that are essentially of the same character as those found in Ohio." " In view of these results, and of the additional fact that these same Indians are the only people, except the whites, who, so far as we know, have ever held the region over which these works are scattered, it is believed that we are fully justified in claiming that the mounds and inclosures of Ohio, like those in New York and the Gulf States, were the work of the red Indians of historic times, or of their imme- diate ancestors. To deny this conclusion, and to accept its alternative, ascribing these remains to a mythical people of a different civilization, is to reject a simple and satisfactory explanation of a fact in favor of one that is far-fetched and incomplete, and this is neither science nor logic." — (Carr, /. c, p. 107.) not be very wide of the truth to assert that they were the same people. " — I.APHAM. See Carr, /. c, p. 4, note. i I CHAPTER IV. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTr OF THE MOUND BUILDERS. ^arr, The humblest forms of ceramic art were among the first inventions of the human race. Dishes of some sort are in- dispensable for holding the food of man, and no matter how remote the age to which we look back, we find them among the relics t filing of his presence. They were used in re- ligious ceremonies ; they played a part in funereal honors in countries differing greatly from each other, and in accordance with a sacred rite they were placed beside the dead. A potter's college was founded at Rome by Numa; a family of potters, workmen of the king, is mentioned in the gene- alogy of the tribe of Judah, and the author of Ecclesiastes speaks of them seated near the wheel that they turn with their feet. Agathocles, King of Sicily, according to Dio- dorus .Siculus, gave to his friends vases of precious metals, telling them th.-xt 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 dis- 133 w i » /' \\\ r i :^i f t ^ 134 PRE-niSTORIC AMERICA. him to knead it ; a ball, the plaything of the moment, flung hastily away, may have been hardened by the powerful rays of the sun. The impressions made upon it resembled those in the rock, where the same man went to draw the water he needed. Facts such as these could not have escaped his ob- servation, and appealed to the love of imitation innate in human nature. Fire was found to dry his rude pots quicker than the sun, and man learned to turn it to account. The cooking of his food was one of man's first advances, and was once considered as the primary distinction between him and an animal ; obsefvation supplemented by reflection must have led him to encase in earth the food or the calabashes he submitted to the heat of his fire. Goguet relates that in 1503 Captain Gonneville visited some Indians who had amongst them wooden dishes, which they covered with a thick coating of clay before putting them near the fire.' Cook mentions' dishes seen at Unalashka " made of a flat stone with sides of clay not unlike a standing pye." In other places pots have been met with which appear to have been hardened by putting red-hot coals in the interior." The natives of Murray Island cook their food in a hole dug in the earth, which they are careful to line with well kneaded clay before lighting the fire. The Indians of the Gulf of Florida moulded their pottery on gourds, and to support the large pots until baked they covered them with baskets made of rushes, creepers, or even of netting, the marks of which on the baked clay can still be made out.' Some must have been moulded on or in coarse tissues, or wooden moulds, which were destroyed in the baking, though indelible covered, that the art of working it does not exceed the intelligence of the rudest savage." Birch: " Ancient Pottery," Introduction, p. i. '" Mcmoire touchant I'etablissement d'une mission chretienne dansic troisi- ^me monde, autrement appele la Terre Australe," Paris, 1663, published by the Abbe Paulmier de Gonneville, one of the descendants of the captain. "" Voyage to the Pacific Ocean," 1784, vol. II., p. 511. •One of these can be seen in the Peabody Museum. It is marked No. 7,750 in the catalogue. * Rau : "Indian Pottery," Smiths. Contr., 1866. Tylor : "Early History of Mankind," p. 73. tlie I POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 135 traces of them exist to tliis day. Many methods may have been employed in the fabrication of the first pottery; probably all were triid and led to or perfected this useful discovery. As already stated, fragments of pottery have been found in America in the caves which were the first dwelling-places of man, under the shell-heaps which bear witness to his long sojourn ; but it is chiefly in the mounds, and above all in the sepulchral mounds, that the most important specimens have been found. Funeral vases date from the most remote antiquity. The belief in immortality, with which human nature is so deeply imbued, is vividly revealed. Man, however savage, however degraded we may suppose him to be, looks confidently be- yond this life, which for him passes so rapidly away. He does not admit that he is to disappear for ever, lik( he grass he treads beneath his feet, or the animals subject to his needs or his pleasures. His imagination doubtless does not soar beyond the enjoyments of a purely material existence, free from work and anxiety ; but he endeavors to assure to those he has loved here that existence in the unknown world to which death has taken them. Hence the numerous and varied objects found in tombs, secret tokens left by men of every age and every clime. It is in the valleys of the Missouri and its tributaries that we meet with the pieces of pottery most interesting alike in their form and ornamentation.' The country had been in- habited by men owning towns, a government, a religious system, and artistic tastes — tribes more advanced in culture than many of their relatives the Indians with whom the French, the first explorers of the Mississippi and the Mis- souri, had later to contend. St. Louis, one of the towns founded by the French, is sometimes called Mound City, on account of the number of mounds surrounding it, and which long remained unnoticed by the rough laborers who were ' E. Evers : " Ancient Pottery of Missouri," Saint Louis Academy of Sciences, 1880. Conant : " Footprints of V.inished Races," Saint Louis, 1879. n h '■ 1 ll'< I 'I 1 1 Tl 136 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. the first colonists of the country. Judging from the objects they contain, these mounds are less ancient than those of Ohio or of Wisconsin. The fragments of pottery found in them are innumerable. One mound is mentioned in which more than a thousand specimens have been collected.' 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 manufiictorics.' The collections of the St. Louis Academy contain four thousand carefully selected specimens, and doubtless a very much greater number must have been des- troyed and scattered before their importance was suspected. In the state of Vermont, for instance, only six pieces are mentioned as intact amongst all those discovered.* These fragments, which have defied the wear and tear of centuries, are the imperishable witnesses of men, the very memory of whom has been completely lost to those who siicceeded them. Tlie pottery manufactun^d in America was evidently very superior to that produced in Europe during the same period of development.' It is also probable that many of the numerous fragments of which wc were unable to fi.x the date belong to very remote epochs. They are rarely as- sociated with metal objects, and the only weapons of the Mound Builders were hatchets, knives, or arrows of stone, ' This number need not surprise us. Who does not l^now the hill at Rome formed entirely of fragments of the pottery of the ancient Romans, and, to quote but one other example, at Aries fragments have been found in sufficient quantities for the embankments of the railway crossing the northern part of the Camargue to be exclusively formed of them, for a distance of about one and a quarter miles. *\V. P. Potter; "Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri," .Saint Louis Acad, of Sciences, 1880. ' Gillman ; "Report, Peabody Museum," vol. 1. *G. II. Perkins: "General Remarks upon the Arch, of Vermont," Proc. Am. Assoc, for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis, 1878. ' Among none of the Western nations of Europe, not even among the .Swiss Lake Dwellers, whose civilization was in some respects far advanced, do we know of these little figures representing either men or animals. \ POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 137 Troc. which resemble alike in form and workmanship those of Europe, dating from the period to which archaeologists have given the name of the Stone age. The pottery of the Mound Builders was manufactured of a clay of a fairly dark gray color, sometimes verging on blue ; to give this clay more consistency the potter mixed it in Mississippi with sand and fragments of shells, in Vermont with bits of quartz, mica, or feldspar, and in other places with little nodules of carbonate of lime.' The thickest and clumsiest of the pieces were the only ones in which this precaution was not taken. On the other hand the finer pieces of pottery were mixed with gypsum, by which means lighter shades of color were obtained. When sufificiently kneaded and shaped to the form required, the workman smoothed the surface with his hand and dried the vase, probably first in the su.i and later in a fierce fire, which was a very imperfect mode of baking. In their remarkable work on the mounds of the Mississippi valley, Squier and Davis assert the existence of real ovens," intended for baking pot- tery. Other explorers sneak of similar ovens near Cedar City, which rises from the ruins of an old Aztec town.' Nothing however, proves them to be of very remote an- tiquity, and it is probable that their construction indicates a progress that time alone could have brought about. Neither is it impossible that the ancient Americans employed a pro- cess till quite recently in use amongst the Indians of Cali- fornia, who placed the pieces of pottery to be baked in large holes dug in the earth, and heated by means of fires made of blazing chips of wood.* Other methods too may have been adopted ; but with regard to them as with those just men- tioned nothing positive can be asserted. ' VV. de Hass : " Arch, of the Mississippi Valley," Proc. Am. Assoc, Chicago, 186S. ' "An. Mon. of the Mississippi Valley." Bancroft says: "Pottery kilns were found in the South ; but that they were the work of the Mound Builders has not been satisfactorily proven." — " The Native Races," Vol. IV., p. 780. ' Remy and Brenchley : "A Journey to Great Salt Lake City." London, 1861. * Schumacher : " Report, Peabody Museum," 1S79, vol. IL, p. 521, et seq. \ I 1 ii m lit', i T 74 138 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. It was later too that the native races of America employed moulds. This method was certainly known to the Mexicans and Peruvians, the moulds found in ver>' different places leave no doubt as to that point ; but moulding must have been preceded by a long course of tentative efforts. We have mentioned gourds, baskets of canes or creepers, coated inside or outside with clay and then subjected to heat. Such were doubtless the earliest attempts ; numerous frag- ments that have been collected bear marks of their origin, and in the dough there are bits of charcoal which probably originated in the vegetable substances employed.' It would be impossible to name all the methods employed, but it may be imagined that they would vary according to time and place. The pottery of Missouri was superior to that of Ohio, that of Kentucky or that of Virginia cannot compare with that of Illinois, and that of Michigan is probably the coarsest of all. If, which is not certain, these pieces of pottery date from the same epoch, the differences between them are explained by the rarity, perhaps even the total ab- .sence. of communication between tribes scattered over vast stretches of country, and absorbed in the material difficul- ties of life. The size of the pots naturally varies according to their purpose. Some hold a few pints, others several quarts. Cockburn, one of the few travellers who during the last cen- tury succeeded in crossing the continent from the Gulf of Honduras to the Great South Sea," mentions one which held ten gallons, and others yet larger may be found, especially among the Pueblo people and other tribes of New Mexico. The potter's wheel seems to have been unknown in North ' Prof. Swallow verified this fart in his excavations of Uig Mound (Fig. 31). " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. I. '"A Journey Overland, from the Gulf of Honduras to the Great South Sea." London, 1735. In 1527 four of the companions of Pamfilo de Narvaez, after the failure of their efforts at colonization in Florida, started from the Gulf of Mexico for the Pacific. This first transcontinental expedition took nine years, and was accomplished at the cost of extraordinary sufferings, of which an account has been given by Cabefa de Vaca, one of the explorers. " Ternaux Compans," vol. VII., first scries. Perkin-; : Am. Assoc, Buffalo, 1876. 31). POTTERY, n'EAPOXS, AND ORNAMENTS. 139 as well as in South America. Considering, however, the finish and symmetry of certain specimens which have come down to us, it is difficult to believe that the workmen had no mechanical process by means of which to ensure uniformity of pressure. Such was the opinion of eminent archaeologists, after an attentive examination of several pieces of pottery found in excavations made near New Madrid.' Unfortu- FlG. 39. — Bottle of baked clay found in a mound in Missouri. nately these specimens fell to pieces as soon as they were ex- posed to the air, so that further examination is impossible, and the problem remains unsolved. The great varieties of form assumed by American pottery resemble stran;j:ely these of the Old World, alike of pre-his- toric" and of modern times.'' Everywhere, we repeat, the same 'Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races." '■" The pieces of pottery found under the mounds may be compared especially with those from the covered way of West Kennet, Wiltshire, England. 'In March, 1882, a Japanese book containing a description of the shell mounds of Omori, Japan, was presented to the Anthropological Society. Numerous fragments of pottery were found at Omori, and their resemblance to those of the American mounds was very striking. " ii| 140 PKE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 4% !! II 'ii it IW IT' I' ( '> needs have led man to make the same efforts of intelligence and to produce the same creations of industry. Some of these vases are painted, the colors chiefly employed being black and very dark gray. Red, yellow, white, and brown vases are, however, met with ; these colors, being generally added after baking, have little stability, and in spite of every precaution they scale off or arc rubbed out very rapiJly. Sometimes the ornaments stand out in different colors, al- ways shaded with great taste, as proved by numerous ex- FiG. 40. — jar found in a Oliio mound. amplcs 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. 39). A vase from Ohio merits representation (fig. 40), on account ' Those who are especially intciesled in this question may consult a recent work, Dr. Ed. Evcrs' " Contributions to the Archccology of Missouri," part I., Pottery. Salem, Massachusetts, 1880. We have borrowed largely from it. I 5 \ % POTTERY, IVEAPONS, AND ORNAMEiVTS. 141 of its complicated ornamentation, in which some think they can make out a bird's head. It is the same with a vase found in Arkansas and decorated with finely executed representa- tions of bones of the dead (fig. 41).' Some pieces of pottery recently found and deposited in the St. Louis museum are said to recall, in the figures with which they are decorated, Egyptian or Etruscan art. These figures have not yet been published, so that we must content ourselves with mention- FiG. 41, — Vases from the tumuli of Arkansas. ing the fact, reserving our opinion until further information is obtained. In the course of this work we shall have occasion to refer to other no less curious and important resemblances. We do not know what was the substance employed in coloring potterj', but some red ochre has been found in a ' We reproduce this curious vase, but we believe it to date from a less ancient period. The same style of decoration is, however, met with amongst the aborigines of America, and Bancroft speaks of a stone seen at Nohpat, Yucatan, on which are engraved representations of human skulls and cross-bones. II I 142 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. ! vase, which may have been used for this purpose. Some of the colors seem to have been fixed by means of a varnish, of which traces are supposed to have been found.' This pro- cess was certainly known to the Mexicans and the Peruvians, but it was more rarely employed by the Mound Builders. We arc ignorant as to what this glaze was made of. One thing only is certain, that the metallic varnish used in mod- ern jootteries, and that of more -complicated composition employed for porcelain, were introduced by the Spaniards, and no discovery thus far made in America permits us to attribute a knowledge of it to the ancient inhabitants. Some Americans mention an earthenware vase covered with Fig. 42. — Vase found under a sepulchral mound in Missouri. a siliceous varnish, found in a mound of Florida; but the circumstances of the discovery leave no doubt as to the mound having been disturbed. In Europe enamelled ceramic work was known in the most remote antiquity, and in Egypt we find vases, statuettes, and amulets of glazed porcelain dating from the earliest dynasties. ■" » The ornamentation of these vases, generally very simple, usually consists of several rows of dots, such as can be seen ' Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 714) says : " To this day some of it retains a very perfect glaze." Caspar CastaRo de Sosa ("Mem. del Descubrimiento, del Reino de Leon," 1590) speaking of the pottery of the pueblos of New Mexico, says : " Tienen mucha loza de los colorados y pintadas y negras, platos, caxe- tes saleros, almoficos, xicaras, muy galanas alguna de la loza esta vidriada." omc oC nish, of his pro- uvians, uildcrs. f. One n mod- position aniards, ts us to ibitants. red with ri. but the to the namellcd uity, and )f glazed y simple, be seen tains a very miento, del ew Mexico, platos, caxe- idriada." POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 14^ on the earliest pottery uf Europe, and executed, as those were, either with the potter's nail, with the end of a pointed instrument, a bit of wood or a shell, which give a distinct mark without a jagged edge. In other examples we have more complicated combinations, lines, circles, ellipses, cres- cents, wolf's teeth, zig-zags tastily arranged, so as to obtain the happiest effects (fig. 4 ). Sometimes on the neck or body of the vase was the figure of a rope or a creeper. Gillman mentions several pieces of pottery decorated in this manner, notably those found at Fort Wayne.' Some vases have Fig. 43.— Vase fontnl in the excavations in Missouri, with ornaments in relief painted in red of various oliades. denticulated or fringed edges; in others the ornaments are in relief (fig. 43). These relievos were obtained either by moulding the clay itself or by the application of moulds be- fore baking. Numbers of these vases had handles, and these handles often represented birds, mammals, such as the wolf, the fox, and further south the llama, and even human figures. It would take a long tiine to describe all the varieties; as it ' '' Proc. Am. Assoc," BufTalo, 1876. This mode of ornamentation was fre- quendy employed in Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, and Florida. " Report, Peabody Museum," 1872. 144 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. is evident that the potters were always at work, striving to satisfy their artistic tastes. They appear, however, to have been held in small esteem in Central America, if we are to accept the words of the Popol Vuh' : " You will no longer be fit for any thing but to make earthenware things, such as pie-dishes or saucepans, or to cultivate maize ; and the beasts that live in the shrubbery will be your only portion." Any description of this pottery is difficult, if not impossi- ble. It is as if one attempted to describe all the things now to be found in the shop of a famous dealer in crockery. We Fig. 44. — lioltle or vase, with a neck of reniarkabl'; delicacy ; New Madrid, Missouri ; SA inches liigh. 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 Qquichc language, and was discovered in the second half of the i6th century, by a Dominican monk in a village of Guatemala. It contains several details strangely resembling those of Genesis, and some have seen in them an adaptation, by a pious fraud, of Indian mythologies to the dogmas of Christianity. Such was not the opinion of Brother Ximenes, who was the first to reproduce the Popol Vuh, and did not hesitate to call it the work of the Devil. It was republished at Vienna in 1857 by Dr. C. Scherzer, and in jS6i the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, who characterized it as a sacred book, issued it again. The original text is not extant ; it was evidently written or corrected after the .Spanish conquest, for one of the Indian chiefs is mentioned by his Spanish name. In spite, therefore, of M. Brasseur de Bourbourg's opinion, we can place but a very limited reliance on this book. ' I. POT TEA']; IVEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. '45 ^clion of second (lala. It Ime have hogies to (.imenes, to call ly Dr. C. lacterized it was of the k of M. liance on which they seem to have been intended ; we shall then have certain data to go upon. Perhaps more vases with necks have been found than any other kind. They were probably used to hold liquids; most of them arc black and carefully moulded ; they recall the vases known to travellers as " monkeys," still used by the Spaniards and the inhabitants of South America, to keep their drinking-water cool (figs. 39, 44, and 46). The porosity ■of the clay leads to evaporation, hence rapid cooling. Some Fig. 45. — Vase found in a child's grave in Tennessee. vessels have a swelling at the base ; others are ovoid and are pierced with lateral holes through which were passed cords to hang the vases up by. We give a representation of a vase with three feet (fig. 45), discovered beneath a mound in Tennessee which had served as the grave of a child. It is black and was merely baked in the sun ; the feet are hollow and connected with the body of the vase.' Others ' Putnam ; " Report, Peabody Museum," 1878, vol. II. Dr. Ilabel (" Smith. V 14^ /'A' /■. .///.V TOKIC A M ERIC A . H I have been found provided with a stopper, also of earthen- ware ; one of them still ccntaincd the traces of a red liquid that could not be analyzed.' The ornamentation, Fig. 46. — Vase with spiral grooving in the Museum of the Academy of Sciences, St. Louis. Fig. 47. — Vase found in a grave in Missouri. Cent.," vol. XXII.), speaks of similar vases near San Salvador, and in Nicara- gua. The feet enclose little clay balls. Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 19), also men- tions some found under the huacas of Chiriqui. ' Conant : " Footprints of Vanished Races." POTTER W WE A TONS, AND ORNAMENTS. H7 n- ed on, is very varied and resembles that we have before described. The St. Louis museum possesses amongst other specimens a bottle (fig. 46), in which wc notice a series of swellings and depressions, forming a regular spiral. Although the form is .still graceful the vases used for cooking purposes are notice- able for the coarseness of their execution and ornamentation (figs. 42, 47, 48, and 49). They generally have a large Fig. 48.— Vase with handles from a sepulchral mound in Tennessee. len- Fig. 49. — Vessel with four handles, six inches high by al)out eight in diameter. opening sometimes provided with a cover to hasten boiling. Nearly all have one or more handles, by means of which they can be more easily moved. One is mentioned with a long handle like those of our saucepans (fig. 50) ; others have the edges pinched out so as to form a spout (fig. 51). Several of these vessels bear marks of long usage, and retain traces of the fire on which they had been placed. 148 PNE.IIIS TOKH • A Ml: AJCA . I I In excavations \vc also often meet with pieces of black earth- enware, the body of which is elliptical, of careful execution, and having a handle on one side often representing a bird, and on the other a brim or knob by which they can the more Fig, 50. — lilack cooking pot of toarso cxlluudu, haiiul beneath a mound in Missouri. F'li- 51- — Vessel with a spout. Missouri. easily be held (fig. 52). Some are almost completely closed, and have but one orifice, large or small ; others contain some little pellets of clay, intended to make a rattling noise. irth- ;ion, Dird, iiore lund in POTIEKY, W'EAl'ONS, AM) ORNAMENTS, 149 These vessels do not appear ever to have been subjected to tlic heat of an oven ; hence the hypothesis tliat they may liave been used as lamps, and their comparison with Etruscan or Roman lamps. This would certainly be an interesting fact, but it appears to us most improbable ; for the vases of this kind found as yet show no traces either of oil or of any fatty matter used for lighting purposes. Fig. 52. — Vessel found in Missouri. (Half natural size.) |osed, itain lioise. F'B 53- — Basin, with a rough attempt at ornamentation. (Diameter, nine inches ; height, eight.) Basins, generally pretty rare, are the coarsest in execution A all the pottery preserved in the St. Louis museum ; from which, without any good foundation, it has been decided that they are of the greatest antiquity. We give illustra- tions of twi of these basins (figs. 53 and 54), of different ■»♦ ii: V' I- 11 I 150 PRE-HISTORJC AMERICA. forms, from which it is easy to judge of their use and the mode of their construction. They are of black earthen- ware, and one of them shows a rough attempt at ornamenta- tion.' Cups, which doubtless served as drinking-vessels, are small, round or oval, and always provided with a handle, often representing the head of a man or of an animal. We rig. 54. — Basin found in Missouri (one third natural size), in black sun-dried earthenware, of a somewhat rare form. Fig- 55. — Drinking-vessel with the head of an owl. shall {.peak further on of these imitations of animate ob- jects, but will content ourselves now with mentioning two of these cups, both from nounds near New Madrid ; the handle of the first (fig. 55) is the hefi 1 of an owl, which is so like chose found at Santorin or at Troy, that they might be mistaken the one for the other ; the second (fig. 56) is of ' A basin exactly similar has been found in the pre-historic caiiio of Catenoy, Oise, France. \ the len- nta- are idle, We n-dried ob- two the is so it be is of fttenoy. i POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 151 very fine execution, and the handle represents the head of an animal. We have already stated how very numerous funeral vases are. In certain sepulchral mounds of Missouri, as many as eight hundred or a thousand specimens have been found. It is easy to recognize that they had been used in accordance with some rite consecrated by usage or superstition, and the form varies according to whether the vase was placed near the head, the feet, or the pelvis of the skeleton. This posi- tion of the vases has been noted especially at Sandy Woods settlement.' In Tennessee, the vases were gen :rally placed at the head of the body ; in Mississippi, many contained food prepared for the deceased. Fig. 56. — Drinking-vessel with the head of an animal. It is the same in other regions where the food-vessels — such is the characteristic name given to them — are filled with the shells of mollusca, chiefly mussels, or with carbonized fruits, amongst which some wild grapes are supposed to have been recognized. These were doubtless provisions for the great journey. In other graves have been collected now a shell, now a fragment of a bone, now a little vase of ovoid form, simple amulets intended to protect the deceased. Lastly, some urns, which must have contained the ashes of the de- parted after cremation. One of those found in excavations in Utah shows the form of most frequent occurrence (fig. 105.) The number of pipes found in mounds is very consider- ' W. p. Potter: "Arch. Remains in S. E. Missouri," St. Louis Acad, of Sciences, 1880. 152 P RE-HISTORIC AMERICA. able. We give illustrations of two : one of them, found in a sepulchral chamber in Tennessee, is so like those now in use that they might be taken for each other (fig. 57) ; the other, a rough imitation of the human figure, comes from a mound in Missouri (hg. 58). I'"iG. 57. — Pipe from a sepulchral chamber in Tennessee. Fig. 58. — Earthenware pipe from Missouri. Dr. Habel mentions, from near San Salvador, in Central America,' two pipes about four inches high, with about the ' " Smithsonian Contributions," vol. XXII. The same excavations have yielded a considerable number of pieces of pottery, amongst which is an imita- tion of an old man's iiead of fairly remarkable character. J* —A -^ * POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 153 ;S same diameter, covered with red and white figures. A hole had been made for the introduction of the stem. This is a fact of rare occurrence in these regions, where the use of tobacco was less widespread than among the Mound Builders.' Some pieces of pottery represent fruits which, like pump- kins, figs, or pears, are of rounded form. The neck of a bottle was often superposed upon such a model. The imi- FiG, 59. — Red vase with neck and a snake coiled about the body, found in excavations in Missouri. tation is generally exact, and the arti *; may have obtained it cither by copying or by moulding tlK iruit before him. These are not the only imitations which are hidden away in graves, the mounds of Missouri and Mississippi have yielded numerous representations, now of men, now of animals. It is noticeable that such arc extremely rare in the New England States. We may mention among such forms, snakes (fig. 59), bears ' Oviedo was the first Spanish writer to mention the use of tobacco. Hi-^ book, " Natural Historia de las Indias," was printed at Toledo in 1529. 154 PRE-IIIS TORIC A M ERICA . (fig. 60?), pigs (fig. 61), 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 are quite recognizable. Surely a very long time must have been required for the art to attain such perfection ; generations of artists must have been needed for the creation of the art itself. We must not omit to mention certain figures of animals often found in the mounds. The head resembles that of our domestic pig ; but this animal appears to have been un- Fig. Oo. — Painted vase foL;nd in a sepulchral mound in Tennessee. known before the Spanish conquest.' The species most nearly resembling it is the peccary {^Dicotylcs, Cuvier), of the hog family, which has no tail ; whilst the creature under notice always has one, and this tail is often turned up. Other authorities think the figure represents the hippopota- 'Garcilasso de la Vega (" los Commeniarios reales que tratan de I'Origen de los Yncas, Reyes que fueron rep- resenting a human profile of a very characteristic Indian type ' (fig. 74). One of them, cut in a very hard and compact black stone, wears a peculiar head-dress. The hair is plaited, and round the forehead were fifteen pearl beads, which had been calcined. The face is covered with incised lines, form- ing regular tatooing, the mouth is comprei:sed, the eyes are y^'Z/yy^'^///"/^/^//. Fig. 74. — -Pipes found at Mound City. large, the ears are pierced. Another t}'pe represents a woman, and may be compared ; s 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' Angliiera : " De Novo Orbe," Dec. 187. Clavigero : " Hist. Antigua de Mejico," 2 vols., S°. London, 1826. t POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 165 Virginia, presents a type which may be compared with the antique Egyptian ; and yet another pipe from Missouri, in very hard sandstone, represents a man's head, with a pointed beard somewhat like that seen in the Assyrian monoliths of the British Museum.' Finally, one of these pipes, dis- covered in Indiana, and the last we shall mention, has on one side a death's head, and on the other that of a goose. It was long supposed that the Mound Builders applied their lips to the hole made in the lower part of the bowl, and thus inhaled the smoke ; but numerous discoveries have modified this opinion. It cannot be doubted that wooden stems were used, which, of course, would decay and leave no traces. In several places steatite stems have been found,' and Professor Andrews mentions othcs 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, Squicr 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., Jar , 1881. ' Schoolcraft, vol. 1., p. 93, pi. xxxii. and xxxiii. ' " Explorations of Mounds in S. E., Ohio," " Report, Peabody Museum," 1877. * " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," " Smith. Cont.," vol. I., p. 224, fig. 122, 125. * G. H. Perkins: " On an Ancient Burial-ground in Swanton, Vermont," "Rep. Am. Assoc," Portland, 1S73. * Benei th the bird three little marks can easily be made out. — (American Antiq., March, 1880). These have been supposed to be letters ; but nothing ' lit '1: 1 m PRF-HISTORIC AMERICA. What was thfe use of these tubes, met with in such differ- ent places? Putnam thinks that a great 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, are, however, not pierced, which contradicts both hypotheses and, on the assumption that they were finished implements, leaves us in complete uncertainty. Rau thinks these tubes were used in the operations of medicine-men or sorcerers, so numerous in Indian tribes, and the German traveller, Kohl, states that he saw a medicine-man use the hollow bone of a wild goose to operate on his patient. Fig. 75.— Bird engraved on a stone tube from Swanton, Vermont. We have dwcit 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 voiy remarkable. Besides the human figures used as ornaments on pottery or pipes, we meet with others, which have been taken for images of divinities supposed to be adored by the early in- as yet justifies us in supposing that the Mound Builders were sufficiently ad- vanced in civilization to have an alphabet. ' This was also Squier's opinion after his discovery at Chillicothe of a tube carved in slate, thirteen inches long, ending :•■ a mouthpiece. " Ancient Men. of the Mississippi Valley." See also Cortereal, " Voy. aux Indes occidentales," Amsterdam, 1722, vol. I., p. 39. I POTTERY, WEAPONS, AAD ORNAMENTS. 167 -:i "habitants of North America. In Tennessee ' many stone, steatite, sandstone, and terra-cotta figures have been found ; in Knox county, an image hewn out of stalactite, about twenty inches in height and weighing over thirty-seven pounds. A female figure was discovered in the Cumberland valley, sculptured of brown sandstone, eleven inches high, with the sexual organs very prominent; in Honduras and Guatemala ' . c been found numerous terra-cotta statuettes, called jiianccas by the present inhabitants. All these figures arc of somewhat similar type, and their execution is always coarse, contrasting unfavorably with that of the pottery and other carvinL . \ 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 forp'eries are the more dangerous since the authors of them o'icn ar/ange that they shall be " accidentally " found by soniC p rson 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 1S82. These " altars" are basins of clay burned hard, in situ, and on them have been found thousands of articles which had been thrown into the fire as offerings or sacrifices. Besides native copper, silver, and a very little native gold, all hammered into various shapes, a considerable amount of meteoric iron, of the variety known as pallasite, was found on these altars. There were orna- ments of bone, mica, shell disks, canine teeth of the bear and other animals, about half a bushel of pearls (recalling the story of D'^ Soto's chronicler), and about thirty of the spool- shaped copper ear-plugs. On one altar were found several terra-cotta figurines quite unlike anything hitherto found in the mounds. They are artistically superior to any figure- work yet noted by American aborigines, and were doubtless ' Jones : " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., p. 128. It is interesting to remem- ber that tliese supposed idols are of the same type as some of the figures made hy the Toltecs. \ .. 'f im PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. the product of some workman of very exceptional talent. They had represented in their ears the plugs above men- tioned, thus determining the use of the specimens found. With them were two remarkable stone dishes in form of animals, probably mythical in their nature, but admirably wrought and polished. These remarkable and unique articles have been restored from numerous calcined and splintered fragments and of their authenticity there is not a shadow of doubt. It is to be hoped that they will be fully illustrated and described before long by the authorities of the Pcabody Museum where they are deposited. Stone vases, or jars made of steatite, are also met with, but rarely east of the Rocky Mountains. Some of these vases have handles. In California cups of serpentine have also been found. Every thing was turned to account by the aboriginal inhabitants of America, for in the island of Santa Barbara plates have been found hollowed out of the centra of the vertebrae of large Cetacea.' One may be referred to which was found in a mound near the Tallahatchee River, Lafayette county, Mississippi, provided with a covjr which closed it hermetically. This jar, which is supposed to have been a funeral urn, weighs more than one hundred pounds; the execution is remarkable, the more so when we take into account the wretched tools which were all the workmen had at their command." We may also notice life-sized human masks in hard stone, which have been occasionally found. We know that the Aztecs made similar masks in obsidian or serpentine, and placed them on the faces of the dead. The same custom prevailed to some extent further north, and was character- istic of the Aleuts in historic times, though the masks used by them were of wood. It was by patient labor, rubbing one stone against another, that the Mound Builders executed their sculptures. The Mexicans and Peruvians employed the same processes, • Ch. Rau : "Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., p. 37. 'Jones: " Smith. Cent.," vol. XXII., p. 144, fig. 85. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 169 ad ler, lie ;es. after having first rough-hewn the stone with the help of obsidian implements. It was natural that the owners of objects so laboriously obtained should attach very great value to them, and we do in fact meet with pipes mended with extreme care. The process was very simple : holes were pierced at tlic edges of the fracture, and little rivets of wood or copper were placed in them to keep the pieces to- gether. Weapons which belonged to the Mound Builders arc more rare, ant' if the extent and importance of their fortifications had not revealed to us the dangers which threatened them, we might have supposed them to have been a peaceful race, entirely devoted to agriculture or commerce. We can how- ever refer to some very finely executed arrow-points.' lance- heads, and daggers. In some places regular magazines have been found, where numerous spear-heads have been col- lected. We give illustrations of a couple of serpentine hatchets (figs. 76 and J"]), from among a number which are so like the neolithic implements of Europe that they might be taken for each other. Squier tells us that this resemblance is so striking as to lead at first to the conclusion that they are the work of men of the same race ; which conclusion would, he thinks, be irresistible if we did not know that the wants of man are everywhere the same, and have everyw iiere led him to give to his implements the same form, and to use them in the same manner. Similar implements are barely out of use in the more remote parts of Alask i. Many knives or daggers arc of obsidian, (the Itzli of the Mexicans) which is '.\ glass of volcanic origin and was known in the most remote ages. I'lin)-(book XXXVI., ch. XXXI.) says that the first fragments were found in Ethiopia by Ob- sidius, hence the name by which it is known. Great quan- tities have been found in Mexico, and it is known from ' Lucien Carr (Exiilor.ilion of .a Mound, I, ce county, Virginin ; "Report, Pea>)0(ly Museum," vol, II., p. go) gives illustrations of .a (juartzite lance- point and a chalcedony dagger. I70 PRE-HIS TORIC A M ERICA . Alaska to Patagonia. In pre-historic times not only weapons were made of it, but also jewels, ornaments, and even look- ing-glasses. The Mexicans, according to Clavigero, were such expert workmen that they were able to turn out a hundred obsidian knives in an hour, which is very probable, as they were hardly more than elongated flakes of the glassy material. The Mexicans also inserted a double row of bits of obsidian A KiGS. 76 and 77. — Serpentine axes. A.— btard'. Mound, Ohio. 15.— Hill Mound, Ohio. Fig. 78. — Serpentine implement found beneath a mound near Big Harpeth River, Tenne<«*ee. in handles of very hard wood, and fastened them in with cord and gum. This weapon was wielded with both hands, and the Spanisli historians speak of \.\\< terrible havoc it wrought. The Maliqualnvitl, as this weapon is called, is sculptured on a door-post at Kabah, Yucatan.' Judging from the fragincnts 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. aio. POTTERY. WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 171 M It is almost impossible to distinguish between the weapons and implements of these primitive times. Hass describes a number of tools fashioned in amphibolite, quartzitc, jadeite, and granite, all well made.' Besides these we hear of shell fish-hooks, knives, borers, harpoons, and bone, horn, or deer- horn needles." We give illustrations of two implements of peculiar form, unknown in Europe. The first (fig. 78) is of serpentine, eighteen inches long, and carefully polished. It was found under a mound near Big Har- peth River, Tennessee. Similar imple- ments have been found in the Cumber- land valley ; others from South Carolina are in the National Museum at Wash- ington ; their use is unknown. The second of which we give an illustration is of quartz, and comes from New Jersey (fig. 79). This form is frequently met with in America, cspcciall)' 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 instrument , r i_ • .^ 1 • 1 from New Jersey. spoken ot 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 mcjunds have been erect- ' "Arch, of the Mississippi Valley," Rep. Am, Assoc, Chicago, i863. 'Potter: "Arch. Rem.iins in S, E. Missouri," St. Louis Acad, of Sciences, 1880. Rau : " Smith. Contr.," vol. XXII., fig. 236, et seq. 'Rau : "Arch. Coll. of the U. S. Nat. Museum," Washington, 1876, fig. 99. A 172 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. ed, and it would be impossible to distinguish those of New Jersey from those of Michigan, or those of Ohio from those of Florida. They consist of pearls, of shells, of cylin- ders made from the ribs of the manatee, the pierced teeth of the bear, of the wild cat, wolf and shark, the bones of little birds, the claws of birds of prey, and rings of stone or bone.' Beneath a mound near St. Clair River, Michigan, a collarhas been found made of bear teetli, alternating with beads of copper and bird-bones. All this recalls the ornaments still affected by the Indians of our own time. Beads may be counted by thousands ; they are of mother- of-pearl, of shell, stone, and wood, sometimes covered with a thin coating of metal. Numerous ornaments of wood covered with a coating of copper have been found, chiefly near Nashville ; and under a stone mound in Tennessee, ear- plugs of similar workmanship. Some of these articles are of copper, plated, by hammering, with native silver, gold, or meteoric iron. Mica, with its brilliant surface played an important part in matters of ornament. It was also commonly employed in large sheets supposed to have served as mirrors, or cut into ovals, spiral or diamond-shaped points, which served as ornaments. At Grave Creek, Virginia, more than one hundred sheets of mica were discovered, pierced with holes for hanging them up. Under a mound on the banks of the Little Miami, several pieces of mica, measuring as much as a foot in diameter, are mentioned as having been placed on the skeletons." 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 Biisy- coti pcrvcrsiim, Strombns gigas, Fasciolaria gigantca, and Marginclla conoidalis. These species are still found off the southeastern coast of the United States in great abundance. The ornaments were worn on the neck, and at death were placed in the grave. Two such ornaments were discovered 'Rau : " Smith. Cont.," vol. XXII., figs. 213 and 214. 'Dr. S. Scoville, Cincinnati Quarterly Journal, April, 1875. i; POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 173 in Tennessee on one of which (fig. 80) four birds' heads can be made out ; the edges of the second are elegantly carved. The St. Louis Museum owns many similar shells; on one of them is engraved a huge spider. On others an attempt has been made to represent human figures, and even scenes from life, such as a battle in which the conqueror, sword in hand, has his foot on the breast of his adversary. In a pre- historic grave of Mackinac Island between Lakes Michigan Fig. 80. — Shell ornament from Tennessee. and Huron, Robertson found two pendants made of sea shell. These pendants must therefore have been taken across the greater part of North America. Shells were also used to make necklaces, pins, and prob: ' ly many other things (fig. 81). A very extensive intertribal trafific in such and other articles has doubtless existed in America from remote ages. As recently it has been found that articles from the shores of the Caspian may reach the mouth of the Mackenzie, on the Arctic Sea, in about three years, by barter, via Bering Strait, it is not wonderful that articles from Mex- ico or Florida should be found in Minnesota or New Eng- land. ", 1 »74 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. Among the ornaments affected by the Mound Builders were polished stones, often brought from long distances, and pierced with one or more holes for hanging them up by. Squicr 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. 8i. — Pin made of shell from Ely Mound, Va. Fig. 82. — Sculptured stone found at Swanton, Vermont; the base is flat and is pierced with two holes for suspension. Length 3-j^ 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 difificult to enumerate all the varieties which have rewarded excavations. We must not omit to mention the metallic ornaments of the Mound Builders. At Connett's Mound more than five ' G. H. Perkins : " On an Ancient Burial Ground in Swanton, Vermont," Am. Assoc, Portland, 1873. POTTERY. WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 1/5 hundred copper beads (fi^. 83) have been collected. These beads vere 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 froin 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 difificulties. 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 botii in shape and size, but usually have the FiH. 83. — Copper beads from Connett's Mound, Ohio (natural size). outline of a plane-iron sucli as carpenters use, though of course much thicker when of stone, and with the cutting edge more or less arched. There are also scrapers, scissors, knives, lance- and arrow-points of different forms, all made by hammering pieces of native copper. To the early and late aborigines of America the malleable properties of cop- per were well known. At Swanton a copper hatchet was found originally provided with a wooden handle, of which fragments could still be distinguished ; in Wisconsin a lance-point and a knife that might be compared with our modern weapons (fig. 84) ; at Joliet, Illinois, a sharp blade, and at Fort Wayne a knife. On a skeleton discovered beneath a mound at Zollicoffer Hill, a copper ornament of ' Andrews : " Expl. in S. E. Ohio." " Report, Peabody Museum," 1S77. I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^ <*«.. 1.0 I.I 1 ^'' ffli= iiiii o o (iO an 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" - ^ m ^ /a m. 7. •c*l <$>! V ^ ^^J /a om. '/ m Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. MSBO (716) 872-4503 176 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 'quite peculiar form was found.' The cross surmounting it led people to suppose it to be of European origin ; but Dr. Jones mentions the same subject as an ornament on some engraved shells and copper objects, also found in Tennessee.' A skeleton taken from one of the Chillicothe mounds bore a cross upon its breast, and a figure with a cross engraved upon its shoulder was discovered be- neath a mound in the Cumberland vai'cy. The cross occurs again on one of the bas-reliefs of Palenque, .■^iid on the monuments of Cuzco, in the very centre of the worship of the -uii. When Grijalva landed in 15 18 on the coast of Yucatan, his surprise v/as 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 Egypt, where it symbolizes eternal life. It is, moreover, one of the simplest forms of ornament and as such, and as suggested by many flowers and other natural objects, we should ex- pect to find in all parts of the world Fii;. b4— Copper weapons that it has been made use of by ' found in Wisconsin. • •«.- primitive man. ' I'umam : "Arch. Expi. in Tennessee." "Rep., I'eabody Mus.," 1878, vol. 11., p. 307. ■ Hey wood : " Expl. of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee." "Srailh- 'onian Contr.," 1876. ^.Herrera: "Hist.Gen.de los hechos de los Castillanos en las Islas y POTTERY, WEAPONS, AXD ORNAMENTS. 177 The pottery of Missouri and the discoveries of Putnam in the caves of Kentucky have already revealed the nature of the clothing worn by the Mound Builders, and mummies found in the caves of the western states enable us to judge of them still better. The bodies were wrapped in coarse cloth, over which was a kind of net with wide meshes, in which were stuck feathers of brilliant colors, the whole en- veloped in a third covering of skin. The ancient inhabitants of America manufactured different kinds of tissues. A few years ago the excava- tion of a mound near the Great Miami River, two miles north of Middlctown, 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 wc have just stated. In Iowa some copper a.xcs have been recently discovered carefully wrapped in very well preserved cloth,' and in January, 1876, excavations in a mound in Illinois' brought to light several turtles in beaten copper of remarkable workman- ship. Most of these turtles measure not more than 2 1-8 inches in length, and the copper has been reduced by beating to a thick- FiG. 85. — Copper ornament found in a stone grave .it Zullicof- fer Hill. Tenn. Tierra Firme del mar Occano." Madrid, 17^5-30, Dec. 2d, Book III., chap. I. The first edition was published in 1605. 'Foster: "Description of samples of ancient cloth from the mounds of Ohio." " Rep., Am. Assoc.," Albany, 1851. ' Short : " The North Americans of Antiquity," p. 37. * Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural History, March, 1877. 178 PKk.mSTQRiC AMERICA. ncss of 1-64 of an inch. These jewels, for such they must be called, evidently of great value, were enveloped suc- cessively in a vegetable tissue, some stufT of brown color made of the hair cither 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 very thin plates of copper. These teeth were wrapped like the turtles we have just described. The Ohio mounds, which have afforded results so fruitful for science, have also yielded a very well-preserved piece of skin about eight or ten inc-lics long, ornamented with nu- merous oval copper beads. This was a fragment of a garment which had belonged to a Mound Builder." The copper which the Mound Builders used so frequently came frf)m the shores of Lake .Superior.* The works of ancient miners are scattered over a region 1 50 miles long and from four to seven miles wide, now called the Trap-zone. Keweenaw Point juts out like a buttress into the lake for a distance of seventy miles, and the mineral deposits which abound there have been worked in remote ages, though all traces had been obliterated, and all memory of the old miners lost, until, in 1848, the work of a mining company laid then: bare. The depth of the excavations, which were always open to the sky, varied from twciity 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 line as sillt out of rahliit'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 tiie Geology of the Lake Superior I\e(;i'>n." p. in 1, 1850. Ch. Whittlesey : "Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake .Siipcnoi " ; Am. Assoc., Montreal, Canada, 1857. Swineford : ' Review of the Mineral Resources of Lake Superior," 1876. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. •79 course of years with earth and vegetable refuse, the remains of several generations of trees, was found, at about eighteen feet from the surface, a block of metal measuring two feet long by three wide and two thick, and weighing nearly six tons. This mass had been placed on rollers from six to eight inches in diameter, the edges of which still bore the marks of a sharp instrument. The miners had rolled the mass up about five feet, and then they had abandoned an undertaking beyond their strength or the means at their dis- posal. Their mining processes were very simple; the work- men lighted great fires in the mine, and when the rock had become friable they broke it with powerful blows of a stone hammer or mallet. Several of the mallets used have been found, the heaviest weighing as much as thirty-six pounds; also a great number of small serpentine or porphyry ham- mers. Knapp, who was the first to direct th::se excavations, states that he took out from these mines ten cart-loads of stone implements of all kinds. In an unusually deep cxci;- 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 soakod. Everywhere copper implements were found side by side with stone, mostly bearing marks of long service. One mallet weighed mtirc than twenty pounds. Like all the other cop. per objects it had been made by hammering unheated. Various analyses of the copper of Lake Superior have proved its identity with that collected from the mounds. Both yield the same proportion of silver, and we know that the latter metal is always present with copper in varying quantities. The deposits of Isle Royal, Lake Superior, were even richer than those of Keweenaw Point.' 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 ' H. Gillman : " Ancient Works of Isle Royal." " Smith. Com.," 1873. h n H iM i8o PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. estimated that the vegetation rising from the old mining works of the Great Lakes represent an approximate duration of several centuries. But we have already referred to the uncertain character of what may be called vegetable evi- dence. Traces of native mining operations have been found in sev- eral other parts of North America, in Arkansas, Missouri, and on the slopes of tho Ozark Mountains, for instance.' There were also copper mines in Me-xico," 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 meLal 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 'eaves 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. ' I"', von Hellwald : " Congres des Americanistes," Luxembourg, 1877. * Lubbock : " Prehistoric Times," p. 28g. * Iron ore and galena occur, but no iron or lead, Bancroft, vol. IV., p. 778. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. I8l the Little Miami mounds, which show that it was considered very valuable, since copper ornaments were plated with it as others were with gold or silver. Previous statements with regard to the discover)' of iron in the mounds are, with- out exception, unsatisfactory. The Mound Builders are supposed to have been quite ig- norant of any process of fusing metals,' and their weapons, or implements of copper, were, as we have more than once remar' ed, 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 arc 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 caccessfully tried by Dr. Hoy with one of the stone moulds. Traces of cultivation attributed to the Mound Builders are numerous in the western states, especially in Michigan and Indiana.' These are parallel embankments, which often cover a considerable area, several acres for instance, to which have been given the significant name of Garden-beds. We meet with similar embankments in Missouri and in all the * There is no evidence thai 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 1 heard of a letter from Putnam, of Nov. 17, 1 88 1, called " Were ancient implements hammered or moulded into shape?" The learned professor concludes with me that there is so far no serious proof of the use of moulding. " Besides beating," adds Putnam, " these men employed one other process ; the metal was rolled between two flat stones, by which means the required form was obtained." * Schoolcraft : " Ancient Garden-Beds in Grand River Valley" (Michigan), vol. I., p. 50, and pi. VI. Conant, p. 65. •^1 ^^^^^ 183 PA£-///srOAVr AMF.h'lCA. I! 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 hei|^ht from two to three feet. Numerous and detailed excavations have yielded no relic, no bone, no frajjnient 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 cither with the kitchen middens or the sepulchral mounds. Professor Forshey attests their presence in Louisiana, where they are of considerably larger dimensions, their diameter varying; from thirty to one hundred and forty feet. It should be added that the diameter of one hundred and forty feet is an isolated case. Their j^reatest height is five feet, which diminishes to a few inches in the vast marshes stretching away from the shores of the (iulf ot Mexico. At certain points these embankments touch each other, and between (ialveston and Houston, between the Red River and Wichita, they can be counted by thousands. According to Forshey, who de- scribed them to the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, these embankments cannot iiave 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 rejjju- larity. He added that in his opinion it was impossible to say any thinj; definite with regard to their orij^in, which seemed to him ine.xplicable. Other arch;eologists are more positive ; they consider that these embankments could have been used for nothing but cultivation, and that they were in- tended to counteract the humidity of the soil, still the greatest obstacle with which the tillers of the rich plains of the lower Mississippi valley have to contend. According to certain authorities the Mound Huilders cul- tivated maize, frijohs or black kidney beans, introduced by the Spaniards into Furojie. and even the vine, A recent ex- plorer, Amasa Potter, in describing the excavations of a POTTER W UKAPOXS, AND ORNAMEXTH. 'Si cul- :cl by inoutul in Utah, tells of having found u handful nf corn, a few grains of which carefully collected and planted yielded the following year an ear of exceptional length, containing a number of grains of a shape quite distinct from that of any cereal of to-day ; but the whole account of this dis- covery is so extraordinary that it is impossible to accept it. To sum up: the vast region between the Mississippi on the west and the Alleghanies on the east and between the Ohio on the north and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, was occupied for centuries, the exact number of which it is impossible to estimate in the present state of our knowledge, by man. Judging from the number of .structures left to bear witness, this population was numerous; tolerably homo- geneous, for everywhere we recognize similar funeral rites, and much the same arts and industries ; sedentary, for nomads w ould not have erected such temples or c a science is young, and yet those \,'ho depend upon many of the early writer f. ■ their general principles are in the posi- tion of the blind led by the blind. It shun id, however, be distinctly understood tliat the reference to " Indians " in connection with the mounds, is a strictly general term. The richest, most cultured, and most sedentary of the Indian tribes existing when the white race poured into America like a resistless flood, have been de- stroyed ; of many tribes none remain. Of others only a most feeble remnant e.xists or lately existed in a region to which they have been exiled from the lands of their fathers. Those who constitute the greater portion of our Indian population to-day are those who were nomads, wanderers, the Bedouins of America, the idle wanderers who were not tied to the soil by their progress in culture, and who proba- bly never troubled themselves about mounds as long as they could shift their wigwams from one good hunting ground to another. It is of these that one thinks as Indians when the contrast between Mound Builder and Indian is mooted. Again, even among those who were not of the nomadic category there is no doubt that their facility in many ab- original arts wilted before the sun of civilization, while the methods and tools of the white man. like foreign weeds. \\ 1 88 PRF..HIST0R1C AMERICA. \ ill' 1' ' sprang up in the vacant place. Why spend hours of work making fragile, if artistic, pots when an otter skin would purchase three good kettles outlasting a wilderness of pots? Why wearily weave the macerated fibres of wild herbage to a coarse, unsightly fabric when a basket of wild berries would sell to the white man for a fathom of bright calico? The Indian, whatever romance may be reflected upon him by the novelist in trying to hold the mirror up to nature, is, in business matters, as he understands them, severely practi- cal. The white man's tools, fabrics, weapons, kettles are the better ones, and the Indian adopts them. After three centuries of this sort of thing why should the disappearance of many historically recorded aboriginal methods astonish us. It is also to be remembered that America holds many peoples of different culture and habits. We know that most of them are ultimately related though put in various linguis- tic families. Were their heaps of refuse and the relics of their villages their only record, who would claim kindred between the Pueblos of the South and the fishing Indians of Canada ? the Northern Tinnch and the Apache, or many other contemporaries ? These reservations made, the prob- lem of the mounds becomes less misty. Although it is true that we meet with no structures amongst the Indians of the extreme north which at all recall those of the Mound Huilders, 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 maybe quoted with regard to other regions. The Kickapoos living in southern Illinois, and the Shawnees, who dwelt near Nashville, buried their dead, until quite recent times, in stone graves. This fact, we must add, has been called in question, especially by Carr in his " Observations on the Crania from the Stone Graves of Tennessee," ' and, if it be true, there is nothing to prove that the Indians did not use sepulchral chambers dating from before their arrival in the locality. ' " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., pp. 361, etc. POTTERY, WE A POX S, AND ORNAMENTS. 189 The testimony of the Spanish historians is more impor- tant. Garcilasso de la Vega ' tells of the Indian mode of founding a town at the time of the conquest. According to him the Indians collected large quantities of earth with which they formed a platform many feet in height, large enough to hold from ten to twelve houses, or if necessary fifteen to . twenty. There dwelt the chief, his family and his chief attendants. At the foot of the mound a square was marked out, of the size the town was to be; the principal chiefs took up their residences in it, and the common people gathered about them. Further on, Garcilasso ' described the town of Guachoule near the source of the Coosa, not far from the country of the Achalaques. part of the Cherokee tribe, in which the house of the chief was erected on an eminence terminating in a platform, on which six men could stand up- right. The confirmatory testimony of early explorers shows that the valley of the Mississippi, as well as the districts now forming the states of Ohio, Florida, and Georgia, was inhab- ited by warlike nations, who tilled the ground, lived in forti- fied towns, erected their temples on eminences, often arti- ficial, and worshipped the sun. These were the men who repulsed Narvaez when he endeavored to conquer Florida in 1528. It is but fair to remark that Narvaez' army consisted of but 400 foot soldiers and twenty cavalry, though provided with civilized weapons. It was against them that Hernan- dez de Soto fought for four years, giving them battle with great slaughter in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas. Everywhere he found a numerous population. The towns were surrounded with walls of earth, and towers strengthened the broad trenches which completed the defences. At Pascha, west of the Mississippi, for instance, the Spaniards found a fortified town surrounded ' " Hist, i-le la Conqucte 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. 51 \ ■ r i ! ii ili^ if I 1/ (1 \'l M I ii 1 I 1 1 1! 190 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. by a trench sufficiently wide for two canoes to float in it abreast. This trench was nine miles long and communicated with the Mississippi. Scjuicr in his turn tells of finding among the Creeks. Natchez, and other tribes of the south, traces of structures which, it they do not exactly resemble the regular enclos- ures of the west, seem at least to have some analogy with them, and the description we borrow from him of the Chunk Yards ' is certainly a fresh proof in favor of the opinion he advances. " The Chunk Yards' are rectangular areas, generally occu- pying the centre of the town, enclosed and having an entrance at each end. The public square and rotunda, or great winter council-house, stand at the t'vo opposite corners of them. They are generally very extensive, especially in older towns. Some of them are 600 to 900 feet in length and of proportionate breadth. The area is levelled, and sunk two, or sometimes three feet below the banks or terraces surrounding them, which are occasionally two in number, one behind and above the other, and composed of earth taken from the area at the time of its formation. These banks or terraces served the purpose of scats for spectators. In the centre of the yard or area there is a low circular mound or eminence, in the middle of which stands the 'Chunk Pole,' which is a high obelisk or four-square pillar, tai)ering upward to an obtuse point. This is of wood, the ' " Ancient MonumL'iits of the Missis>ippi Valley," p. 121. ' Their name is (K-rivfil from an Indian jjame. Catlin describes it among the Mandans ami gives it the name of 'rdiungkee (" Illustrations of the Manner-^, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians," London, 1866, vol I., p. 132). Adair had already described the Chung kee among the Cherokees (' Hist, of ihe Am. Indians," London, 1775, p. 401). Jones met wiih the same gime among the Indians of the South ("Antiquities of the Souiiiern Indians"), and Bartram among those of Carolina. Carr gives an illustration of a carefully polished sandstone of elliptical form measuring about four inches at its widest part and nearly two and three fourths thick. This stone was found under Ely Mound, Virginia, and similar ones have been met with in various places. They are supposed to have been used in the favorite game of the Indians. POTTERY, WEAPONS, AXD ORNAMENTS. 191 fig tie heart or inward resinous part of a sound pine-tree, which is very durable. It is generally from thirty to forty feet in length, and to the top is fastened some object which serves as a mark to shoot at, with arrows or the rifle, at ceitain appointed times. Near each corner of one end of the yard stands erect a smaller pole or pillar, about twelve feet high, called the ' Slave Post,' for the reason that to them are bound the captives condemned to be burned. These posts are usually decorated with the scalps of slain enemies, sus- pended by strings from the top. They are often crowned with the white dry skull of an enemy." * * * * * Fur- ther on the same author describes " a circular eminence, at one end of the };ird, commonly nine t)r ten feet higher than the ground round about. Ujion this mound stands the great rotunda, hot-house, or winter council-house, of the present Creeks. It was probably designed and used by the ancients who constructed it for the same purpose. '^ * '^ A square terrace or eminence, about the same height with the circular one just described, occupies a position at the other end of the yard. Upon this stands the Public Square." ' Recent discoveries confirm this account." Under a coni- cal mound measuring 19 feet high by 300 feet in circum- ference at the base, in Lee county, Virginia, were found a number of posts of cedar wood, arranged at regular intervals so as to form a circle, with a much higher one in the centre doubtless intended to hold up the roof or covering. This was the council-chamber, the assembly-room, of the tribe, greatly resembling that of which Bartram, quoted above, writing in the last century, gives a description. "The council or town house," he says, speaking A that of the Cherokees, " is a large rotunda, capable of accommodating ' Tliesc cxlracls, which are taken from Sijuier and Davis' "Ancient Monu- ments of the Mississippi Valley," pp. 121-123, are in reality (|uolations by tliese authors, taken with others from a MS. by W. Harlrani, author of '' Travels in North and South Carolina." "The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" will be found in vol. I. of the " .Smithsonian Contributions to Know- ledge," published by the Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, in 1848. " " Report of Peabody Museum," vol. II. p. 75, etc. ^1 M t\ !l ' 192 PKE-mS TOKIC A ME RICA . !i. h\s. several hundred people ; it stands on the top of an ancient artificial mount of about twenty feet perpendicular, and the rotunda on the top of it being about thirty feet more gives the whole fabric an elevation of about fifty feet from the common surface of the ground ; but it may be proper to ob- serve that this mount, on which the rotunda stands, is of a much more ancient date than the building, and perhaps was raised for another purpose. The Cherokecs 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 Squicr'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 16th ccntur- there was not a single Indian tribe between the At- lantic and the Pacific, except the half-civilized people of the South, who had sufficient means of subsistence to be able to give up time to unproductive labor ; nor was there one tribe in such a social condition as would admit of the com- pulsory erection by the people of the structures under no- tice. Subsequent researches have removed many of the supposed difficulties, and are well summarized by Lucien Carr in the paper from which we have already quoted. Southall dwells on the facts which seem to him to prove, not only an Indian origin for the mounds, but also their re- cent construction.' His work describes the Iroquois gov- ernment which included five nations. These were the Mohawks, also called in some French narratives the Agniers, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas, or ' " Recent Origin of Man," cli. xxxvi., p. 530 et seq. POTTERY, WEAPONS, ^ND ORNAMENTS. 193 Tsonontouas. According to the Jesuit fathers these nations numbered in 1665, 2340 warriors or altogether 11,700 souls, according to the generally accepted method of estimating such populations. They devoted themselves to agriculture, and were able for nearly two centuries to maintain their independence against the Dutch and French. Their territory stretched from the St. Lawrence to Tennessee and Ohio; they were not ignorant of navigation, and early travellers report having seen their canoes as far southeast as Chesapeake Bay. Since then they have given up their nomad habits and we have some very exact descriptions of their villages and dwellings.' It was the same in many other parts of the country. Strachey, travelling in Virginia at the beginning of the 17th century," relates that he found the Indians liv- ing in houses made of wood, cultivating maize and tobacco, and harvesting peas, kidney-beans, and fruit. The Mandans, dwelling on the upper Missouri, not far from the mouth of the Yellowstone River, dug out earth for a depth of about two feet, and built their huts in the hollows thus obtained. These huts, which were of circular form, made of solid ma- terials and roofed in with turf, were from about thirty to forty feet in diameter. Several families lived together; the beds, which were ranged round the circular walls, had cur- tains of dressed deer-skin. The Iroquois, Natchez, Dela- wares, and Indians of Florida and Louisiana made vases, the ornamentation and delicacy of which were not in any way inferior to the pottery of the Mound Builders, and the curi- ous pipes, of which we have spoken, are met with among the Indians of the present day. Lastly, two centuries ago, when French missionaries first visited the districts bordering on Lake Superior, the Chip- pewas used copper weapons and tools. These facts, with many others which might be quoted, would appear to justify ' See especially the account by Greenhalgh who visited several Seneca villages ill 1677, and Morgan's " League of the Iroquois." " " Historie of Travailc into Virginia Britannia" (written in 1618). f, V ! Hi h\s^ m PRE-iriSTORIC AMERICA. a belief that the Indians once possessed a civilization supe- rior to the condition to which their descendants have been reduced by defeat, invasion, indulgence in too much alcohol, and other causes. We have given a summary of the different opinions held, and have stated the conclusions to which they lead most modern anthropologists. Some discussion of the physical characters of these races may be useful. The Indians of America have been held to form a distinct variety of the human race. Their skin is swarthy, varying from the pale olive to a warm brown, often with a bright color on the cheeks. The stories of their copper-colored complexion are, at least in North America, due to the ridiculous miscon- ception of the early voyagers who took no account of the reddish paint with which they were smeared. Like the whites, their complexion is darkened or burned b)' the sun, sometimes to a considerable degree, but nobody ever saw a naturall)' copper-colored American Indian ; their hair is black and wiry and almost invariably straight : their e\-esare black or very dark-brown ; their lips are thick or thin, ac- cording to the tribe or individual ; their forehead is com- paratively low ; their face is geiierall\- long with high cheek- bones ; their hands and feet are small and often delicate!)- made. These characteristic traits have rarely been known to vary during the three centuries in which they have been in contact with the whites, but marked differences occur be- tween the various tribes as to physiognomy, physique, tem- perament, personal attractiveness, and tint of complexion. This has been observed by all students of the Indians who have been fortunate enough to have wide experience among them. Much stress has been placed on supposed funda- mental differences between the bones of the Mound Builders and those of other American races. These differences were more apparent while the material was scanty, and tend to disappear as we come to know more of the Indians of vari- ous parts of America, and to have larger mound material for comparison. It has been said that the Mound Builders are POTTERY, WEAPONS, AND ORNAMENTS. 195 characterized by a general conformation which places them apart amongst human races, and differentiates them espe- cially from the Indians of North America. For myself, however, I do not attach as much importance as do some eminent anthropologists to differences between bones, especially the bones of skulls. Too often we find beneath the same mound, dating from contemporaneous burials, amidst similar stone implements and pieces of pottery, brachycephalic and dolichocephalic skulls, skulls of the Caucasian, and skulls of almost negroid type. All varieties, from extreme long heads to rounded or nearly square heads have been found among undoubted Eskimo crania.' The external conformation of the heads can only be guessed at, and therefore any conclusion might turn out to be pre- mature. Moreover, however true these assertions may be, there are, as \vc 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 rnd 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. "Force: A quelle race appartenaient les Mound Builders ("Cong, des Americanistes," Luxembourg, vol. I., p. 121.) \ Ul r I, f i >• 1 ■i ■ ii \i f 1 ii . M, 196 PRE.HISTOKIC AMERICA. people akin to the Mound Builders amongst the Aztecs, whose stone teocallis resemble the conical mounds in form, and amongst the Mayas,' of whose remarkable monuments wc 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 we can estimate the duration of their residence there, still less determine a definite emigration to or arrival in the valleys of the Mississippi or of the Missouri. The trees growing from the mounds of Ohio are rarely more than one or two hundred years old ; while in the valleys of Florida and on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico the)' are not even so old as that. One conclusion may be drawn : that the mounds had been abandoned when they became overgrown with trees. But were these trees the successors of others, and can we say how many generations have disappeared since the erection of the mounds, or whether the latter were generally contempo- raneous? We were met by a similar problem in dealing with the shell heaps and we can only give a similar an- swer. From the mounds themselves we can learn nothing. A lapse of thirty centuries or of five would account equally well for the development of the civilization they represent. Stronck ascribes the erection of some of the mounds to the earliest days of our own era, and thinks that some of them must have been abandoned between the sixth and twelfth '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 ihe natives of Yucatan (" Congres des Americanistes," Luxem- bourg, 1877, vol. 1., 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. POTTEKY, IV K. I PONS, AND Oh'NAA/ENTS. 197 I centuries.' The margin, it is evident, is wide. Force," in fix- ing on the seventh century as the most flourishing period of these people, and Helhvald,' in making tliem contemporary with Charlemagne, would appear to endorse to some extent the hypothesis of Stronck. Short, in an excellent work on the North American Indians, tells us that one or at the most two thousand years only can have elapsed since the Mound Builders were compelletl to abandon the valleys of the Ohio and its tributaries, and but seven or eight hundred since tiiey retired from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Lastly the early explorers found mounds occupied and even being constructed within the last few hundred years. So we must content ourselves with the conclusion that, whatever the period of their initiation, it is probable that what maybe called the epoch of mound-building, but recently terminated, has bccri of very long duration. These estimates, divergent as they are, may serve to give some idea of our ignorance in regard to the actual anticpiity of these ruins. One thing is certain, no excavations of the mounds up to this date (1883) have yielded a single bone of those gigantic pachyderms, those extraordinary edentate creatures which frecpiently occur in earlier epochs. Must we not therefore conclude that these animals were extinct before the times of the Mound liuilders? One of the mounds, however (fig. 36), as already stated, is claimed to represent a mastodon, and some pipes from Iowa to represent elejjhants (fig. 72); and if these highly problematical assumptions are correct, one might presume that the Mound Builders knew, at least by tradition, of the animals they imitated ; but this point, like so many others, is still very obscure, and not free from com- plications due to fraudulent recently manufactured" relics." We must await in the future what the present cannot give us ; and meanwhile be on our guard against brilliant hypotheses, startling guesses, and over-rash conclusions. 'Repertoire chronologique de I'hist. des Mound Builders, "Cong, des Americ.," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 312. ' A quelle race apparlenaient des Mound Builders. *" Cong, des Atnericanistes," Luxembourg, vol. L, p. 50. '* M II I-' V 1 ^*. • . f ^ i CHAPTER V. THE CLIFF DWELLERS AND THE INHABITANTS OF THE PUEBLOS. The nineteenth century, now approaching its decline, has played a grand r61e in the history of humanity, and never have such great things been accomplished with such marvel- lous rapidity. We justly count amongst those who have had a glorious share in the common work, the bold travel- lers who have opened, or arc opening, up whole conti- nents to civilization and progress. In America, as in Africa and Asia, the pioneers of science daily announce new dis- coveries. The vast regions of California, Arizona, New Mexico. Nevada, Colorado, and Utah, were, a few years ago, absolutely unknown. They arc now intersected with rail- ways; commerce and industry will shortly possess the land ; populous towns have sprung up, and new states contribute to the development of the United States, and the greatness of this people, youngest born of the nations, which is un- doubtedly predestined to play an important part in the fu- ture history of the world. While awaiting the brilliant future of the states recently or to be admitted to the Union, we have to cross much half desert, rude, and desolate region where the trees, chiefly pines, are rare and stunted, the vegetation is feeble and meagre, and nature would at first sight appear to be doomed to eternal solitude. The very wild animals have almost deserted these dreary wastes which are only haunted by wandering Indians, perhaps the wildest and most barbarous of all the existing aborigines of North America, who not long since would flee at the approach of the traveller unless they felt themselves strong enough to rob him. We must cross the San Juan river to reach the alluvial districts des- 19S THE CUFF DWELLERS. 199 tined doubtless to yield a harvest so rich that it is impossible to overestimate its importance. Things were different here in the past. These caflons, as Fig. 86.— a Caflon of the Colorado. are called the narrow gorges shut in between perpendicular rocks (fig. 86) with their deep ravines, these arid valleys ^mM&M^^^SSs i;. 200 PRE'HISTORIC AMERICA. covered with brushwood rarely more than a few feet high, this dreary lifeless nature, presents a most striking contrast with the ruins that rise up at every turn, bearing witness that for centuries, which it is impossible to estimate, these countries were inhabited by a numerous, active, and intelli- gent population. In many man has built houses, fortifica- tions, reservoirs, forming true cities; the very rocks arc adorned with painted or sculptured figures ; everywhere man has left behind him indelible marks of his presence. The Spanish, who were the first to cross Central America,' gave the name of pueblo, which signifies a market-town or village, to groups of buildings, a great number of which, pre- senting every appearance of great antiquity, were already in ruins at the time of their victorious march. These buildings are found in the valleys drained by the San Juan, Rio Grande del Norte, Colorado Chiquito, and their tributaries for an area of two hundred thousand square miles.' The earliest inhabitants whose traces can be recognized evidently fol- lowed these valleys in their forward march, halting here and there where the soil was fertile, to be driven away by new- comers, who, like themselves, were seeking water and pas- turage. The struggle for existence is a universal law written in every country in letters of blood. Cabe^ade Vaca speaks of some pueblos in ruins and others still inhabited * ; many he says were larger than the town of Mexico. The houses, often consisting of several stories, one behind the other as in our illustration (fig. 87), were of stone. The inhabitants lived in the upper stories,* and the ground floor, generally dark, served as a storeroom for food and fodder. These basements are known amongst the Spanish as Casas de comodidad or Almacenas (see Castafieda de Na- gera, Rclacion de voy: de Cibola). The upper stories were •New Mexico was finally subdued in 1597 and 1598 by Don Juan de Oliaic. The first Spanish expedition took place in 1540, under Cabe^a de Vaca, ship- wrecked on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico in 1535. "Barber, "Cong, des Americanistes," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. I., p. 25. • " Quarta Relacion • • • CoUecion de Documentos," vol. II., p. 475.. ♦Putnam, " Bull, of the Essex Institute," Dec, 1880. '— ■-- I I I . I 111,1 i lJ Wl < W>.> » « »-^^i ' XrVj9ffl.Hi.iVTi'' \ ni'liK*^ '^"f"''T.iii'iSiiS THE CUFF DlVELLEtiX 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 judging from the countless quartz, obsid- ian, and agate arrow-points found everywhere about these dwellings. The buildings were nearly all of considerable size, and we shall describe some large enough to lodge several hundred families. Some, as the Taos pueblo (fig 87), were situated in the valley and were occasionally surrounded by a wall completing the defences ; others, as the Pueblo of Acoma for instance,' which is supposed to have occupied the site of the present village of Arvco, rises from several plateaux or ter- FiG. 87. — Pueblo of Taos, New Mexico. races called mesas, often situated several hundred feet above the valley, and only to be reached by all but impracticable paths. We can imagine the astonishment of the explorers when they saw all these ruins rising before them. " Im- agine," says a recent traveller, " the dry bed of a river shut in between steep inaccessible rocks of red sand-stone, and a man standing in that bed looking up at the habitations of his fellow-creatures perched on every ledge. Such is the scene spread out before us at every step." Another travel- ler speaks of the evident proofs of a considerable population ' Y' hallamos a un pueblo que se llama Acoma, donde nos parecio habria mas de seis mil animas. Antonio de Espeja, " Carta," 23d April, 1584. Doc ineditos del archive de Indias, vol. XV., p. 179. nii I I I II 11 P i. m M •202 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. having lived in these deserts, adding that there was not one of the six miles he had to explore that did not afford certain proof of having been inhabited for a considerable length of time by men absolutely distinct from and certainly superior to the wandering savages who alone traverse them now.' Lastly, to quote another of the many accounts, Major Powell, United States geologist, expresses his surprise at seeing nothing for whole days but perpendicular cliffs every- where riddled with human habitations, which resemble the cells of a honeyjomh more than anything else. In these districts, now nearly uninhabited, dwelt numer- ous people to whom has been given the name of Cliff Dwel- lers, from the rocks in which they made their homes. One point we can pronounce upon with certainty : we know beyond a dnubt one of the chief causes of the depopu- lation of the country to be the diminished rainfall. The rainfall is very unequal in the United States. It averages about three feet on the Atlantic coast from Maine to Florida. On the slopes of the Pacific, north of San Francisco, the west winds bring very abundant rains, the avciage reaching some four feet. From the coasts of the Atlantic, and from the delta of the Mississippi, the quantity of rain ^,, 'dually diminishes as the interior of the country is approached. In some parts of Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska, the average rainfall of the year diminishes t.) a foot and a half, and in parts of Colorado it is even considerably less. The very small rainfall watering all the districts between the plains of the far West and the Pacific coasts explains the poverty of the vegetation. The rivers, the very screams, are dried up, and we only find in the valleys the traces, already ancient, of dried-up water- courses. The rains of spring arc of short duration, but plentiful. They pour down upon an impermeable soil with a rocky foundation, forming impetuous torrents known as washes. At certain times and places these washes rise to a height of 'Holmes : "Report on the Ancient Ruins of S. W. Colorado, examined •during the summers of 1875 ^'"^' 1876." THE CLIFF DWELLERS. -JOS thirty to forty feet, carrying everything before them and often causing inundations. After these torrents the water does not long remain in the arroyos, but evaporates with great rapidity, xxt other seasons rain is unknown, and the intense heat of the climate adds to the effect of this constant aridity. Can it be attributed to geological or climatic changes ? Possibly it may, and Colonel Hoffman mentions an arroyo forty feet above the present level of the water about fifteen miles from the town of Prescott, Arizona. This is a curious fact, but it should be corroborated by many oth- ers before so important a decision can be arrived at, and it is possible that, as in Algeria, one cause of the persistent aridity was the reckless destruction of forests by the Cliff Dwellers. Holmes, one of the first to study the ruins of the Far West, on a truly scientific method, adopts the following classification, which it will be useful to quote.' I. Lowland villages, in which dwelt the purely agricultural classes, the sites chosen being always in the most fertile val- 'ey and close to rivers. n. Cavc-DwcUings, caves artificially enlarged, often closed and strengthened .vith adobes or bricks of kneaded clay dried in the sun, such as are still used by the Indians for building their huts. HI. Cliff-Houses, true fortresses to which the people of the valleys probably retired when danger threatened. The habitations in the valleys are regular pueblos ; they form parallelograms or circles marked out, where the nature of the ground permitted, with great regularity. All are built of stone carefully laid, and the crevices genenillj' filled with clay and mud. The circular ruins met with are some- times those of towers used as defences or buildings sixty feet or more in diameter, enclosing several series of little apart- ments with one in the centre often half under ground, to which the Spaniards have given the name of estufas, mean- ing literally stove or sweating-room, in reference to their use 'is hot air bath-rooms or sweat-houses. ' L. c. p. 5. See also Jackson: " Ruins of S. W. Colorado in 1875 and 1877." ilt f '' :t:!l 204 PRE-niS TORIC A M ERICA . ' .■ i f: V ' 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 Ruiz settles the question. Mariano Ruiz lived for a long time amongst the Pecos In- dians as a son of the tribe {f/ijo del Pueblo), and he relates that these Indians preserved the sacred fire in an estufas until 1840, when the five families who alone survived became affiliated with another tribe. The fire was kept in a kind of oven and was never allowed to emit fHames. Ruiz himself was in his turn charged to keep it up but he refused, influ- enced by the superstitious fear of the Indians, that he who should leave his brethren after having watched over the sacred fire would inevitably perish within the year. On ac- count of his refusal he was never allowed to enter estufas." It is certain that these estufas occur in all habitations, even in those situated above precipices, or on rocks not to be .scaled without extreme difficult)', 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 caftons. It is evident that these were posts of ' " These estufas, which are used as places of council and for the perform- ance of their rehgious rites, are still found at ail the present occupied pueblos in New Mexico. There are six at Taos ; three at each house, and tliey are partly sunk in the ground by an excavation. They are entered by a trap door- way in the roof, the descent being by a ladder." Morgan : " Peabody Museum Report," vol. II., p. 547. Am. Assco., St. Louis, 1877. ' Uandeller, " Report on the Ruins of the Pueblo of Pecos." — " Cong. des. Americ," Luxembourg, 1877, vol. II., p. 230. ' Simpson, " Expedition to the Navajo Country," p. 78. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 205 observation, where sentinels might be always on the watch to warn the inhabitants of any impending danger. The site of these posts was always admirably chosen ; one of them overlooks the whole of the MacElmo valley, commanding a view for several miles up and down ; another is situated at the spot where the Hovenweep divides into two branches. These towers have neither doors nor windows, and could doubtless only be entered from the roof. Near some of these dwellings long lines of walls have been made out varying from twelve to eighteen feet in height and built of adobes or simply of earth. These were probably corrals or enclosures for cattle. Evidently these people were more civilized than the Mound Builders. The cliffs themselves consist of sedimentary rocks, layers of hard sandstone very impervious to the action of the ele- ments alternating with beds of very friable rock containing fossil shells. The last-named beds have been in part disinte- grated by atmospheric action, and are riddled with holes and caves of every size, floored and roofed by the sandstone. In other places erosion has acted all along the outcrop of the bed so as to produce galleries, often of great length, though seldom very deep. Here and there a lofty promon- tory has been detached from the main cliff and has become even more difificult of access than the rest. The early inhabitants of the region under notice were wonderfully skilful in turning the result of the natural weathering of the rocks to account. To construct a " cave dwelling " the entrance to the cave or the front of the open gallery was walled up with adobes, leaving only a small opening serving for both door and window. The "cliff houses" take the form and dimensions of the platform or ledge from which they rise. The masonry is well laid, and it is wonderful with what skill the walls are joined to the cliff and with what care the aspect of the neighboring rocks has been imitated in the external archi- tecture. Some explorers consider these houses to be more recent than the pueblos or the caves; the few arrow-points. !ll T Mi! Hii ! 206 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 1 V stone implements, and fragments of pottery which have been picked up do not justify an expression of opinion. Several burial-places of the Cliff Dwellers have been found, but the difificulty attending their excavation, and the dangers to which the members of the United States survey who undertook it were exposed, have prevented any repetition of their examination. Nothing has been found but a few human bones, with weapons, implements, and pottery always placed near them. Like the Mound Builders and all the ancient races of America, the Cliff Dwellers were actuated by a hope of a future life for their departed ones, as it proved by this provision for their supposed needs. We must also mention enclosures of considerable extent containing upright stones like the cromlechs of Europe, arranged in circles. Excavr.tions have been made in one of these enclosures on the left bank of the Dolores; the original soil, which had not been displaced, was quickly reached, and rested on the surface of the rock itself. At a depth of six inches was found a layer of cinders mixed with fragments of pottery, but no bones justifying us in supposing the enclos- ures to have been burial-places, nor has the chemical analysis of the cinders yielded any trace of animal matter, so that the idea of cremation is excluded.' Having enumerated, in a general way, the various struc- tures attributed to the Cliff Dwellers, a few iletails respect- ing each will render their importance clearer. The Rio Mancos'^ (lows between cliffs, formed of alter- nate betls of cretaceous limestone and a clayey deposit, in many parts disintegrated and worn away by the action of water. One of the indentations thus formed, situated about fort}' feet above the level of the river, is between four and 'Jackson, /. <., jip. 415, 421, etc. ' The Mancos rises in the I.a Plata mountains, on the southwest of the Col- orado, and flows into the San Juan. The other tributaries of the San Juan, to which we shall have occasion to refer, are the La I'iedra, Los I'inos, Las Ani- mas, La Plata, the MacLlmo, Ilovenweep, and the Montezuma. The two last are almost always dried up. On the south, the San Juan receives the Navajo, Chaco, and Chelly. 'ftiVJf Fic. 88. — Tower near Epsom Creek. 307 Hi I It 1 I [ t (i 208 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. "cr the cells, are rectangular and all extremely .small. This pueblo is in the heart of a rather barren district, and and is about a mile from the MacElmo ris'c, which always dries up in summer. The unfortunate inhabitants must then have been reduced for several months in the year to fetching their water from the Dolores, at a distance of fifteen miles, if we suppose the conditions to have remained unchanged. This is, however, quite an inadmissible idea, for no agricul- Hi, Till: CLIFF DWELLERS. 215 tural population could have lived under such conditions. *' To suppose an agricultural people existing in such a local- ity, with the present climate, is manifestly absurd," says Holmes (p. 399) ; " yet every isi>!,ited rock and every bit of mesa within a circle of miles is r-trc\vn with remnants of human dwellings (fig. 95), We must therefore .ndmit, as we have already stated, considerable climatic changes since the time when the country was peopled." The same remark applies with even (greater force to the ruins of Aztec Spring in Colorado, so called after a spring (E, fig. 96) that Captain Moss speaks of having found, but which has disappeared since his journey. These ruins (fig. 96), situated on the Mesa Verde, at an equal distance from the Mac Elmo and the Mancos, cover an area of 4iSo,ooo 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 arc twenty-six inches thick and vary from twelve to fifteen feet in height ; between the two walls are twenty cells whose purpose it is difficult to guess, but which may have been store-rooms. Three estufas (B, C, and D) rise in the centre of the en- closure, and as far as can be judged in their present condi- tion, they may well have served as cisterns for keeping the water needed by the inhabitants. The division walls are of adobe brick, the outer walls of blocks of fossiliferous limestone from the Mesa Verde, all symmetrically hewn and cemented with clay mixed with the dust of the decomposed carbonate of lime abundant in the neighborhood. It is doubtless thanks to this mortar that the ruins of Aztec Spring are so well preserved. The Hovenweep, now entirely dry (the name is borrowed from the Ute language and signifies desert 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 — TW U 216 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. I \\ that is just the expression for it — on all the ledges or ter- races of the cliffs. Here we note the exceptional circum- stance that the houses are circular, their diameter not ex- ana rnr^rri „aijDdaa|iQ, MULJuaa n yuJL^n^ xi'lG. 96. — Aztec Spring (ground plan), ceeding twelve to fifteen feet, the angles are rounded, and the walls built of stones, each as large as three ordinary bricks. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 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 v^.•ry source of the Hovenweep, the Cliff Dwellers had managed 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 scries of caves, ledges, and rock-shelters, invariably turned to ac- count by man (fig. 97). In many places holes have been observed, cut in the rock at regular distances, in which the feet and hands could be successively placed. These were the only means of access ; no tree native to these valleys could have supplied ladders long enough to reach these eagles' nests. In one of these rock-shelters the explorer discovered the skeleton of a man, wrapped in a covering with broad black and white stripes. This man had, how- ever, no connection with the ancient inhabitants of these aerial dwellings. According to all appearances he was a Navajo, a victim to the incessant warfare between his tribe and the Utes. We must also mention seven erect stones in the Monte- zuma valley, which rise in the midst of its desert like the menhirs of Brittany or Wales. Later observations, however, lead to a belief that these were not menhirs, but pillars in- tended to strengthen defensive works. Defence, in fact, seems to have ever occupied the thoughts of these men ; for in a radius of fifteen miles, at every point commanding the valley or that could serve as a post of observation, we find blocks torn from the neighboring rocks and piled up one on the other, the interstices being filled with small stones to consolidate the mass. Every thing bears witness to the presence of a numerous population ; such works can indeed only have been constructed bv numbers. \\ ' Jackson, /. f., p. 427 et. seq. I w m I ! ./ n \-4 "' I i i i !l I I f :2l8 PRE-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. The rocks of the Rio de Chelly enclose habitations ex- actly similar to those we have just described. In fact we are doomed to inevitable repetition in describing the remains of the Cliff Dwellers, of whom these buildings, a few frag- ments of pottery, and wretched flint implements are the only Fig. 97 — House in a rock of Montezuma cafion. Tclics. On the Rio dc Chclly, as in the IMontezuma 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- %k. THE CUFF DWELLERS. tional importance, and Jackson, (/. c, p. 421) speaks of some ruins at an elevation of seventy feet which he cails a Cave town. They are 545 feet long by a maximum width of forty feet. Nearly all include a ground-floor and one story ; one of them indeed has two stories, and is supposed to have been the house of the chief. The walls are everywhere very thin, none of them exceeding one foot in thickness, while some are but half as much. The stones are imbedded in a thick mortar and coated with it inside and out. Seventy-five sepa- rate rooms have been made out, with the inevitable estufa in the centre, and behind the house are two little reservoirs for holding water. None of these houses have any openings but the windows which almost all face an inside court, and examination has resulted in the discovery of no means of ac- cess but broken pieces of rock and natural fissures which might be used as a help in climbing ; several corrals or interior courts, are still full of dung reduced to dust ; how did these Cliff men ever get cattle up to such a height, and how could they subsist them on steep rocks with no outlets? Any number of guesses may be made, but it must be admitted that none arc completely satisfactory. The height of the rocks of schistose sandstone which crown these structures is no less than Iwo hundred feet above the foot of the Mesa. The descent from this point is therefore even more diflficult than the ascent from the valley. The Mesa is arid, desolate, and covered with stunted vegetation. At the foot of the rocks wc see a number of upright stones surrounding rectangular spaces such as those of which we have already spoken. Here, too, excavations have produced nothing to suggest that these stones marked burial-places. Some red earthenware, knives, hatchets, awls, and finely chipped stone arrow-points are all that have been found. We give a drawing (fig. 99) of a house built at a height of seventy feet about two miles from Cave Town. This will help us to realize the difficulties of access and the means employed to surmount them. The house is one ^TTH 220 PRK-insrOKlC AMERICA. It: {) h;i story high ; the ground-floor measures eighteen feet by ten, and this narrow space forms two separate rooms, whilst the first story consists of only one. The overhanging rock serves as a protecting roof. Eight miles from Cave Town is another group of similar buildings of smaller size. The whole of Epsom Creek valley, so cafled after a stream of brackish water which is said to taste something like Epsom salts, is covered with ruins of a smaller size than those already noticed. These are chimney-like caves (fig. 98), which Jackson calls " cubby-holes," and are situated now on the banks of a stream, now wedged like sandwiches between the layers of rock. These dwellings generally con- tain but a single room, the walls of which are so perfectly Fig. 98. — Cavc-I tjwn near the San Juan. coated that even now there is not a crack in the mortar. The entrance to the valley was defended by a tower (fig. 88) on an inaccessible elevation, which Mr. Jackson made many fruitless efforts to scale ; on the opposite bank of the stream rises another circular tower forty feet in diameter, of which the antiquity is attested by its crumbling walls covered with moss and brushwood. A few miles up stream, on the banks of a deep ravine, are ruins presenting the aspect of a fortified town. Explorers found themselves face to face with a great mass of rectan- gular form, with towers connected with each other and ar- ranged on either side of the ravine, so as to command all % ■• Fig. qg. — Cliff-liouse in the Caflon de Chelly. 221 t ^ iiri Vv^ I II 1 ; i: ^ I 222 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. the approaches. The dominant idea amongst these people senms to have been dread of the attacks of enemies, hence the necessity of being always prepared to repulse them. " The San Juan valley," said the San Francisco Evening Bulletin of July 8, 1864, "is strewn with ruins for hundreds of miles ; some buildings three stories high, of masonry, are still standing." The buildings on the banks of the La Plata, twenty-five miles from its junction with the San Juan, and five miles south of the Southern Pacific Railroad, should also be men- FiG. 100. — Casa Grande in the Gila valley. tioned, if only on account of their peculiar arrangement. They stretch away irregularly throughout the valley ; each family had its own home. Every thing bears witness to a state of culture different from those hitherto noticed. The family seems to have come into existence, and isolated dwellings, such as we meet with in all countries of Europe, show still better the independence of their inhabitants. " These houses," says Holmes (/. c, p. 388), " seem to be distributed very much as dwelling-houses are in the rural districts of civilized and peaceable communities." THE CUFF DWELLERS. 223; Cliff houses are as numerous in Arizona as in New Mexico, but their sites seem to have been better chosen, and the foundations are of stone, though there -is nothing to lead us to suppose them to be older than the walls of adobes rising from them. We have now reached the extreme southern 'imit of the districts occupied by the Cliff Dwellers, and the vast heaps of broken earthenware met with at every turn bear witness to the great length of their residence. Amongst all these ruins, the Casa Grande (fig. 100) merits special mention. It rises from a 'ittle eminence in the valley of the Rio Gila, two miles and a half from the river, and it appears certain that it had existed for several centuries before the arrival of the Spaniards, who knew of it from the time of their very earliest expeditions ; indeed, it is generally admitted that it is to it that Coronado refers under the name of the chichilticalle or the red house. The first at all complete description, however, which has come down to us, is that of Father Mange, who visited the Casa Grande with Father Kino, in 1697.' It appears that at that date the ruins included eleven different buildings, surmounted by a protective wall of moderate height. Now these build- ings are reduced to three, only one of which is still in a state permitting of its examination. It is built of large adobes measuring four feet by two, and it is fifty feet by forty feet in size. The walls are five feet thick at the base, and gradu- ally decrease in breadth toward the top." The inside is di- vided in five rooms (fig. 101), much larger than any hitherto described. The central of these rooms are eight feet long by fourteen wide ; the others are as much as thirty two feet long by ten wide." 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. 282. Bancroft : loc. cil., vol. IV., p. 621, et seq. "Bartlett : "Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua." New York, 1854, vol. II., p. 271, et scq. ' Judging by the plan, these measurements appear to be mere rough approxi- mations. i! '' \\ \ m, m ■ill ii li ? f • '' i :.l i ■! II m :i l.fi \<\ 224 PKE.IIISTOIUC 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 Ave see crumbling walls and masses of rub- bish, the remains of old buildings ; while Fathers Mange, Kino, and Font say that the plain was covered for a radius of ten miles with hillocks of adobes turned to dust. In fact volumes would not suffice to describe all the ruins in these '^Z'T^^^^ri^m 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 the 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 tl;ree leagues long. These figures, we mu.st 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." ^ THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 225 helpful to their commerce or their agriculture. They illus- trate perhaps better then their buildings to what a degree of culture these people had attained. We must now compare with the Casa Grande of the Rio Gila some other yet more extensive ruins, resembling them in every respect, situated in Chihuahua. These buildings, to which the Spaniards have given the same name of Casus Grandes, deserve mention here, as they are evidently the work of the same race and date from the same epoch as those of Arizona. These Casas Grandes are situated in the San Miguel val- ley, not far from the present boundary between the United States and Mexico. The country is occupied by the Apaches, who make all exploration dangerous.' Masses of rubbish in the midst of which rise parts of walls some of them fifty feet high, indicate the old site of the town. The walls were built of adobes. These adobes were of very irregular length and twenty-two inches thick, while the walls themselves were nearly five feet wide and simply coated with clay moistened with water. The chief building was 800 feet long on the fronts facing north and south, but only 250 on those to the east and west. The " Album Mexicano " says 1380 feet by 414, and Bartlett, from whom we quote our figures, probably did not include detached buildings in the sum total. In 1 851 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, " Personal Narrative," New York, 1834, vol. 11- , P- 347- I sP 226 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. M? six chambers twenty feet by six in extent, and this restricted space, was still further curtailed by a little niche three to^ four feet high at the end of each chamber, the use of which is imknown. A short distance off, other buildings surround a square court. Here too we find the little cells which are one of the characteristic features of the Casas Grandes as of the cliff-houses and the pueblos. This is an important indi- cation of similar habits, and of the similar origin of the builders. There are more than 2CXXD 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 earthen\ 'are statuettes and fragments of pot- tery, decorated with red, black, or brown ornaments on a generally white ground. A few miles farther off rises a regular fortress, not built of adobes, but of well-dressed stones put together without mortar of any kind. The walls are from ten to twenty feet thick, and the summit is reached by a path cut in the rock. There is nothing to show whether this fortress was erected to defend the Casas Grandes, or even if it existed when that little town flourished. Important ruins are to be seen on either side of the Col- orado Chiquito, one of the upper branches of the Colorado. They date from different epochs, and on foundations of un- wrought stone we find, as in Arizona, walls made of adobes or of wood. Numerous fragments of fine light pottery, sel- dom painted, bits of obsidian and of rocks mostly foreign to- the locality, also witness to the presence of man.' 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 ZuAiand Colorado Rivers," p. 8, Washington, 1853. Whipple, " Report and Explorations near the 35th Parallel." B. Mttlhausen, " Tagebuch einer reise vom Mississippi nach dem. kusten der Sud See," Leipzig, 1858. \*1 ^^ THE CUFF DWELLERS. 22/ tlo. m- »cs to Iby lall Uth letn. twelve feet thick. Inside we find the same little cells we have so often dcscriued. We must also mention a fort, if we may so call it, which rises from the western bank of Beaver Creek.' The river flows between deep caflons, presenting a deso- late aspect. Toward the middle of acliff 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 squar^^d, and the openings are few and very narrow. It is extremely difficult to penetrate this tower. Through- out the valley, as far as Montezuma Wells, rise similar towers, which have been justly compared by a traveller to swallows' nests. It must have required unheard of labor to transport and work the stones under such conditions. We ask ourselves what manner of men were the builders and what can have been their aim ; but we are unable to answer these constantly repeated questions. But we have not yet exhausted the surprises which await us in these regions ; that is, if we can accept with full con- fidence the account of Captain Walker, who speaks of having discovered in 1850, on the banks of the Colorado Chiquito, a regular citadel, situated in the centre of a town, the ruins of which extend for more than a mile, and of which the streets running at right angles with each other are still recognizable.' " A storm of fire," he says, " had passed over the town ; the stones arc 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 theit more important traces ' 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. 1 i ■i i ':' 1' TTT i' 1 1 If. 228 PRE-IIISTORIC AMIiRlCA. exist in Missouri, on the Gasconade River, not far from St. Louis, of an ancient town with regular squares, roads cross- ing each other at right angles, and houses of unwrought stone without any traces of mortar. We may also mention similar ruins at Buffalo Creek and on the Osage River.' Some time ago Major Powell ascended for some hundreds of miles the Great (Colorado, still so little known. He tells of having noticed in dreary and deserted regions traces of a population now completely passed away. Everywhere in the valleys are pueblos, and cliff-houses are seen at every turn in the wild and picturesque caftons, among rocks about 4,800 feet high, and where the cliffs sometimes lean so closely together that one is tempted to biliuve that the river sinks into a subterranean passage like the tunnels of a railway. Round about these abandoned habitations the travellers found fragments of pottery, arrow-points, and chips of quartz, similar to those which have been picked up every- where in Central America. We have described numerous buildings situated in the valleys at the foot of the rocks on which the cliff-houses were built, all the approaches to which were defended by watch-towers or other posts of observation. Every thing tells of conNlaiit reprisals, of incessant peril, and formidable enemies. But there are yet other more considerable ruins, of more imposing appearance as a whole, the former in- habitants of which do not appear to have been exposed to the same dangers. These formed peaceable communities, exclusively agricul- tural, in which communism under the authority of a despotic chief appears to have been the prevalent system. Gregg, who crossed New Mexico about 1840, was the first to describe them,' and he tells us that the ruins of the Pueblo Bonito in the Navajo country, at the foot of the mountains included houses built of slabs of sand.stone, a mode of con- ' Conant : " Foot-prints of Vanished Races," p, 71. ""Commerce des Prairies," vol. I., p. 284, New York, 1844. The pueblo of which Gregg speaks under the name of the I5onito Pueblo is probably the Pintado Pueblo. DD an !!! ^: TtlE CUIF DWELLERS. 229 struction quite unknown in the country at present. These houses are stili intact, though their anti(juity is such that we are absolutely ignorant of their origin. In 1849, Colonel Washington, Governor of New Mexico, organized an expedition against the Navajos, who infested the northern part of the territory, and it is to Lieutenant, afterward General, Simpson, attached to the topographical \\- tic g. to lo ns In- ^saBRBBHR^p^ nnnnfZDCjrriLji/i.ji jizj ^^TcTSQcirDcz] Lin [zirnan nnQbo nana- zDiiiiaciKiiiiizjciicziaaaDg -^'<' ''\'i(m'iii„i„M-.-.-jfii/., ^ toA de ecndrti 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 the Chaco Carton.' 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 resembling '" Report, Secretary of War," Thirty-first Congress, First Session. ' Ruins of Chaco Caiion examined in 1877, Jackson, /. c, 432, 440, et seq., pi. LVIII. II A. ^1 Is ; \m 230 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. ;;i / 1 ! \ it in their chief arrangements. We must add, however, that most of them are of rectangular plan, and that they present a unity of design that we do not find to the same extent in the Bonito Pueblo. This pueblo, built doubtless by degrees as the necessities of the moment dictated, rises below the perpendicular rocks which limit the Chaco Caflon, and forms an irregular half of an ellipse measuring five hundred and forty-four feet by four hundred and fourteen. An inside court is divided into two almost equal portions by a row of four estufas. Two wings are placed perpendicularly to the principal building. The left wing is divided into three rows of parallel rooms, measuring from twelve to twenty feet long by from twelve to fifteen wide, larger than those of the cliff- houses. The outer walls are in ruins, but the division walls in pretty good preservation still reach up to the second story. This wing forms a quarter of a circle, and although the whole of this portion has suffered very much we can still make out five rows of cells, with nine cells to each row. Lastly we must mention three estufas, half underground, a little in advance of the buildings. In the right wing the walls arc better preserved ; they are still thirty feet high, and four ilifferent stories, one above the other, have been made out.' This part cf the buildings appeared to the explorers to be the most recent portion of the whole pueblo, some of the beams which suoported the floor are still in their places, and from them we can judge how the different rooms, the largest of the pueblo, were arranged. The state of decay of part of the ruins is such that it is impossible to decide on the exact number of the noms. In a neighboring pueblo, that of Pintado, one hundred and fifty have been counted, and every thing points to the con- clusion that there were even more in the Pueblo Bonito. ' There are also several stories in the neighboring pueblos. The Pueblo Pint.ido has four ; the second, ten feet high ; the third, seven. The Pueblo of tlic Arroyo has three stories, and many others might be quoted. THL CLil'F DWELLERS. J3I Neither the inner nor th^ outer walls show any trace of stairs, so that it is probable the inhabitants went from one story to another by means of ladders — a mode of access still obtaining in the pueblos now inhabited. The windows are extremely small, and their lintels consist of pieces of cedar or pine wood scarcely squared and merely laid side by side. The floors must have been of wood, but most of thf^m were used by Colonel Washington's soldiers to feed their camp- fires. The walls of the eastern side arc pretty well preserved, and rise to the height of the second story. On this side arc the two largest estufas of the pueblo, their diameter exceed- & T a l-,. !' [ - KiG. 103. — Different kinds 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 sixty-five. Farther on, masses of rubbish mark the site of buildings, the use of which cannot be made out, connecting the large estufas with two small ones, which touched the chief buildings. In the court itself, a series of excavations, filled with rubbish of all kinds, suggests q 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 f 11 233 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. 1 I people of the pueblos always selected the largest stones to frame the openings, and they placed them exactly at right angles. In the very diverse buildings which make up the Pueblo Bonito, this masonry presents remarkable differ- ences (fig. 103) ; it does not all seem to date from the same period, and it may be that parts have been restored at more recent epochs than that of the original buildings. In many parts the walls are strengthened with round pieces of wood, three to four inches in diameter, set upright ; and, by others, ten to fifteen feet long by six to eight inches in diame- ter, arranged horizontally. We find a similar plan adopted in the islands of Greece,' 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 arc engaged. We must also note the great number of estufas which everywhere rise amidst the ruins under notice. Jackson has counted twenty-one of them. They arc 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 arc completely in ruins, and their site alone is marked by a pile of earth and stones. Those few still standing prove the intelligence of the architects and the skill of the workmen. In some pueblos the estufas are strengthened with buttresses ; in the Hungo-Pavie Pueblo, for instance, the estufa is flanked by six buttresses, forming regular pillars ; and, in the Pueblo Pintado, there are four very similar ones. Instan- ces of this peculiarity might be multiplied. Every discovery confirms the importance of these estufas. ' " Les premiers Hommes et les Temps pre-historiques," vol. I., p. 414. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 233 We have noticed them in the cliff-houses, we find them again in the pueblos, and to this day they arc to be seen amongst the Moqui Indians, where they consist of square rooms used as workshops for weaving. The Moquis, both male and fe- male, assemble in them to avoid the great heat of the day, or, according to more credible accounts, to practise their mysterious rites. This constant presence of the estufa is another point of comparison which must not be forgotten. In the course of his researches Jackson discovered outside the enclosure of the pueblos, on the east, some little struc- tures raised on a bank of stones forming the lower stratum of the rock. The calcareous bed had indeed been length- ened by a layer of masonry, formed of large and small stones arranged alternately. Yet farther off was another more im- portant mass of ruins covering an area of 163 feet by 73, and including two estufas. All appearances pointed to the con- clusion that these ruins were connected with the Bonito Pueblo. Time doubtless failed the explorers for the excavation of the two heaps of cinders on the south of the pueblo ; but it is very certain that these middens would have yielded many objects which would have made us better acquainted with the ancient inhabitants of the pueblo. Amongst the other pueblos discovered we must mention that of Una Vida, the estufa of which is the largest hitherto found, its diameter exceeding sixty feet ; the Pintado Pueblo, already referred to more than once ; the VVeje-Gi Pueblo ; the Peilasca-Blanca Pueblo, of elliptical form, with an in- ternal court measuring 364 feet by 269, the largest of any after the Bonito Pueblo, the buildings covering altogether an area of 499 feet by 363 ; and the Arroyo Pueblo, in which three stories can be made out, with floors of interlaced wil- low branches covered with beaten earth. Near these large pueblos were several other very small ones. That marked 9 in the plans drawn by Jackson is only seventy-eight feet by sixty-three ; yet it has two estufas and some twenty rooms. A detailed description of these pueblos would involve us in ('■ ilil ^34 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. ifl •constant repetition. Everywhere we meet with the same class of structures with their remarkable regularity, their walls of stones or adobes, and their cstufas overlooking the rest of the buildings. We must add, however, that the Pueblo Alto, which can scarcely be seen from the valley, is situated, like the cliff-houses, at the top of a hill of consider- able height. It is reached by a flight of twenty-eight steps roughly cut in the rock, and on either side holes can be made out, in which the hands could be placed to facilitate the ascent. Arrived at the Mesa we find ourselves opposite a building forming a parallelogram, presenting every appear- ance of great antiquity, and probably much older than any of the structures in the valley. Close by we see a huge heap of rubbish of all kinds, chiefly fragments of pottery. This heap has been measured by American engineers, who esti- mate its contents at 25,000 cubic feet. We cart but repeat our regrets that the explorers could not undertake any ex- cavations, which would doubtless have aided in the elucida- tion of the problems we have stated. The traveller is well rewarded for the fatigue of the ascent of the Pueblo Alto. Beneath his feet he sees the ruins rising from every part of the Chaco Cafion, wh'le beyond stretches a vast panorama ; on the north the basin of the San Juan and the La Plata chain ; on the east the Sierra Tunccha ; on the south the snowy crest of the Sierra San Mateo ; on the west the Jemez Mountains, overlooked by the Pelado with its eternal snows. All else is changed, nature alone has remained immovable, and the man of the 19th century enjoys the same view, alike imposing and attractive, which must have charmed the ancient inhabitants of the pueblo. At the Chettro-Kettle Pueblo, General Simpson, during his first exploration, was able to examine a chamber .still in a remarkable state of preservation.' We cannot do better than quote the description he gives, which proves that the ' "Journal of Lieutenant James A. Simpson in the Report of the Secretary of War" ; 31st. Congress, 1st Session. (Senate) Ex. Doc. No. 64, pp. 79, 80. TIJE CLIFF DWELLERS. 235 ry !o. men of old, buried though they were in regions so difficult of approach, knew how to build their home with as much art as the people whom we have been in the habit of look- ing upon as the initiators of civilization. " This room," says General Simpson, " is fourteen feet wide by seventeen and a half feet long, and ten feet in elevation. It has an outside door-way three and a half feet high by two and a quarter wide, and one at its west end, leading into the adjoining room, two feet wide, and at present, on account of rubbish, only two and a half feet high. The stone walls still have their plaster upon them, in a tolerable state of preservation. On the south wall is a recess or niche three feet two inches high by four feet five inches wide and four feet deep. Its position and size naturally suggested the idea that it might have been a fireplace ; but if so, the smoke must have returned to the room, as there was no chimney outlet for it. In addition to this large recess, there were three smaller ones in the same wall. The ceiling showed two main beams, laid trans- versely; on these longitudinally were a number of smaller ones in juxtaposition ; the ends being tied together by a species of wooden fibre, and the interstices chinked in with small stones. On these again transversely, in close contact, was a kind of lathing of the odor and appearance of cedar, all in a good state of preservation." Jackson, who visited these ruins twenty-eight years later than General Simpson, did not find this room north-west of the main building,' but he mentions others no less curious, which were reached by holes made in the masonry, the first story alone having a series of little windows. The walls of the Chettro-Kettle Pueblo measured 935 feet long by forty high, and contained 315,000 cubic feet of masonry. When we remember that each stone making up this sum total had to be hewn from the quarry, carried a considerable distance, dressed and set in its place ; further that the posts had to be brought from a long way off and the openings to be made, it is difficult ' " Ruins of S. VV. Colorado in 1875 and 1877," p. 439. W ^ } .1 :f.| 1 [; ' < m 1 • 236 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. to avoid concluding that a great number of workmen, di- rected by skilful architects, must have been employed on this building, which at least in the art of masonry, marks an advanced stage of culture. The same remarks apply with equal force to a pueblo on the banks of the Las Animas River, which flows into the San Juan about sixty miles from the Chaco 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, arc 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 lignt, 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 Fe. 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. t*4t-«..— . THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 237 the neighborhood of which are found rich placctas, as the Spanish called mines containing precious metals, and ^-^W/Zo^, in which blue and green turquoises are still found. Bande- lier has recently visited the Rio Pecos valley, which is from twenty to twenty-five miles long by six to eight wide, and is situated at a height of six thousand three hundred and forty- six feet.' 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 w'ings, no internal court, and for the first time we find no estufa. As many as five hundred and seven cells have been counted, separated by very thin division walls. The largest measure nine feet by si.xteen, the smallest seven feet by nine. Bandelicr 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 si.x. The inside surface of the masonry 'Emory: "Notes of a Military Reconnoisance from Fort Leavenworth in Kansas to San Diejjo in California." Washington, 1848. 'Castafleda de Nagera : "Relation du Voy. de Cibola." Juan Jaravillo ; " App. VI., Ternaux Compans," series I., vol. IX. G. Castafio de la Cosa : " Memoria del Descubrimiento que — hizo en el Nuevo Mexico," Mexico, 1590 ; Doc. ined. de los Archives de Indias, vol. XV., p. 244. TW Hi ir^ 338 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. is covered with a very carefully spread white coating, the constituents of which could not be determined, and the walls arc 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, /. f., p. 78. 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 Me.xico which he had just visited. "Before us," he says, " on the right and the left, are two rows of these adobe habitations, low, with no openings outward, no doors, no staircases. The flat terraced roofs are reached by a mov- able outside ladder. All the windows and doors open on to an inside court, which can only be reached by going down another ladder. Each house is thus a kind of little fort, into which, the ladder once withdrawn, neither man nor beast can penetrate. This tribe forms part of the Pueblo Indians, who have adopted agricultural customs, cultivating the ground and breeding cattle." Does not this read like a description of the ancient dwellings we are endeavoring to make known ? I 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 those objects we must mention especially two little earthen- ware figures, very like the idols of the Mexicans. Thus far this is the only fact that throws any light on the religion of the inhabitants of the pueblos.' This habitation in common, these cells all exactly resem- bling one another, with the absence of any larger residence, point to the conclusion that the men of the pueblos led a communal existence.'' " The next morning," says a recent ' The researches of Mr. Frank Gushing at the Zufii 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 (18S4) about to prepare his final report. Ant. de Espejo : " El Viaje tjue hizo en el anno de ochenia y ires." Hakluyt, " Voyages," vol. III. If we accept Goronado's account Pecos was alre.iily in ruins in 1540. Later, under the direction of the Franciscans, the pueblo was re- built, a church and convent erected, and in 1680 the population exceeded 2,000. Vetancurt ; " Cronica," p. 300. Bandelier, /. c, p. I20 ct seq. ' Bandelier, /. c, pp. 54, 60, %q, et seq. Force, Cong, des Am., Luxem- bourg, 1877, p. 16. 24© PKE-lllsrONlC AMENICA. \\ trcivcllcr, " I was waked at dawn b\' a strange chant. Hav- ing; at once drawn aside the curtains of the ambulance, I dimly made out tiie profile of the chief, who was standing at the summit of the pueblo. When he had finished ciiantinj;, he gave out a jiroclamation. Me had scarcely finished when I '^aw figures moving rapidly. It was explained to me that the chant of the chief was an act of adoration, and the object of the proclamation was to make known what was to be the task of the different families made up of the five hundred persons living in the pueblo." The present may help us to understand the past. They were certainly an agricultural race, for every sedentary population must be so from mere force of circumstances. Moreover, near the Rio Pecos culti- vated fields iiave been made out, and irrigative works of considerable extent, including acajuias or large canals, and zanjas or irrigating ditches. This was doubtless the Hucrta -del pueblo, the garden cultivated b\'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 uniler the same kind of government as that generall)' adopted in Mexico before the Spanish Con- quest. The land, the jjroj^erty 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 recentl)- practised by them ; in fact it lasted until the extinc- tion of the tribe, and to quote their own words: " La tierras son del pueblo, pero cada uno piede vender sus cosechas." The Cliff Dwellers and inhabitants of the pueblos have left behind them as many fragments of pottery as the Mound Builders. Jackson tells us that all who have visited these regions have been strongly impressed by the fragments of i c- IS 'C d >e )f THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 24 1 pottery everywhere strewing their path, and that even in parts where no vestiye of human habitation has been found. The pottery was doubtless of a kind to enable it to last lont^er than the adobes, which have crumbled to dust. Ban- delier, again, in speaking of the ruins of the Rio Pecos, says that wagon-loads of painted pottery lie at the feet of the tra- veller ; and Schoolcraft' speaks of the profusion of fragments of pottery left behind theni by the ancient tribes who lived on the banks of the Rio Gila, as jiroofs of their long resi- dence there. Holmes is even more explicit, and, according t(j him, the number of these fragments is quite confusing. Fig, 104. — Vasts found on the banks of the San Jii.in. On a surface, 1 ouglily estimated at ten feet scjuare, he was able to pick up fragments belonging to fifty-fi\e different vases, jars or amphor;e, dishes or bottles. All explorations lead to the same results, and everywhere the heaps of frag- ments of all kinds are of much greater iinportance than those found at the present day near villages occupied by seden- tary Indians. To explain this, recourse has been had to a strange supposition. It has been said that the inhabitants of the country, forced to flee before a sudden invasion, had broken their crockery before leaving their hearths forever — either under the influence of a superstitious horror, or to ' "Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge," vol. III., p. 83. PiM 1 »w 'II ' j 242 PA'£.///S TORIC AMLRICA. m Ml prevent their property becoming the booty of a hated enemy. What is more certain is, that the pieces of pot- tery found on the surface of the ground show no signs of deterioration, although they have been subjected for centuries to all the inclemencies of the seasons. Generally, the earthenware of the Cliff Dwellers is far superior to that of the Mound Builders (fig. 104) ; it was made of a fine clay, very plentiful in the neighbor- hood of the homes of the Cliff Dwellers, and, to give it con- Fu;. 105. — Funeral urn found in Utah. sistcncy, this clay was mixed with a small quantity of sand,, bits of shell, or even with pellets of earth moulded and baked. Often after kneading his clay, the potter cut it into thin strips, which he laid one upon the other, giving them the form recjuired with his hand. This is the mode still em- ployed in the glass-works of Europe in making crucibles and "other things recpiiring delicate workmanship. We give a figure (fig. 105) of a jar, or funeral urn, found in Utah, near a structure of adobes now completely in ruins.' This illus- tration will help us to understand the details of the manu- ' This jar belongs to the Peabody Museum, and is capable of holding three, gallons ; another, found near Epsom Creek, holds no less than ten gallons. . rut: CUFF DWELLERS. 243 » ind,. id into :m Icni- aiid I'c a icar lus- facture. All the pieces of pottery found had been subjected to the heat of fire; and, although- that heat had never been great enough to change the original color of the clay, the baking had made them so hard that, when struck, they give out a very clear metallic sound. Lightness was evidently a quality much esteemed ; the internal and external surfaces were carefully smoothed before baking, and the workman often succeeded in making the body of the largest pots no thicker than a quarter of an inch. A great many of these pots retain traces of paintings, and several have been coated with a varnish converted by baking into a brilliant polish, worthy to be compared with that of our modern enamelled manufactures. Beneath some sepulchral mounds near the Great Salt Lake have been found some pieces of pottery, in- ferior in execution to those of Ohio and Mississippi, which still retain this polish. These jars contained burnt human bones, yet another proof of the practice of cremation at cer- tain periods by certain races.' The varnish was generally black, blue, or brown, more rarely red or white. We do not know what were its constitu- ents ; they varied probably according to the locality. We know for instance that the Spanish found some vases in the pueblos that were full of varnish ready for use,' 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, still covered with a very fine powder of mica ; so that this may have been yet another mode employed. The decoration of the vases is generally executed with great precision ; the ornaments stand out from the surface either in relief or in a different color.* Some, for instance, are black on a red or white ground. A few of the fragments picked up are of a bronze color, but it is impossible to say ' Bancroft : Loc. cit., vol. IV., p. 714. ' " Castafledade Nagera : " Rel. du Voyage de Cibola," Ternaux Compans, vol. IV., first series. " Bancroft : !. c, vol. I., p. 398. *Cli. Ran Indian Pottery," "Smith. Con.," i860, vol. XVT. \ h\ 1 , I : :5l i ' T1 ! \'i 'I. t ' ill 244 PRE-HIS TORIC A MEKIC. I . 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 complicated designs, which by a very remarkable coincidence resemble to a positively confusing degree those of the Etruscans (figs. T04 and 106). The draw- ings on the potteiy 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." Fk;, ioO. — Fragments of ]ioUcry. Other pieces of potter}- are covered with representations of human fitrures and of animals. A frasjment is mentioned as having been for.nd on the banks of the Gila on which an unknown artist had engraved a turtle ; another was s pposed to represent the head of a monkey. I5irds are numerous, and while the Mound Builders appear to have preferred the duck as a model the Cliff Dwellers generally chose the owl ' Putnam : 6'//// of the Essex Iiisii'.ite, 1880. "IIofTmap : " Ethn. OIjs. on Indians Inhabiti. it Nevada, California, and Arizona," U. S. Gaol. Survey, 187C, p. 454. liie modern pueblo pottery, which is produced in enormous quantities, begins to show evidences of the influ- ence of civilization and of modification for an arclixological market. Collec- tors should be on their guard against pots with the " Swastika" o'l them, or other equally remarkable designs, which are now, it appears, manufactured to order, Cf, Putnam : " Peabody Museum Report," for 1882. THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 245 an md to or the parrot. To sum up : if the pottery of the ClifT 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 Zufli Indians know very well how to make potterj', 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, nenrlv the sole relics of this ancient civilization v hich have com(,' down to us. Arrow-points are often found at the foot of the clift-houses and round about the pueblos. They bear witness, as we have already remarked, to the constant struggle in which the men under notice passed their lives, compelled to be always defending their homes. Near the Rio Mancos has been found a polished celt exactly similar to those cf Eu- rope.' This celt was eight inches long by two and a half at its widest part. One side is slightly concave, the other per- fectly flat. It was hidden in one of the cells of a cliff-house under a heap of maize. A polished scraper of silicious schist has also turned up, which may have been used to prepare skins, schist being too brittle to be used either for drilling or hammering purposes. A good many metates or stone hand-mills for grinding corn have also been found. These consist of blocks of basalt, naturally concave or artificially rendered so, upon which another stone was pushed backward and forward, which fact supplies us with another proof that the Cliff Dwellers were an essentially agricultural people, living on the produce of the fields they tilled. These metates are at present in common use on the borders of Mexico, both by Indians and by the not much more civilized " greasers." It is a curious fact that these people often obtain their metates, here, as in Yucatan, from the ancient pueblos or mounds. Lastly, a mat made of rushes may be referred to, of a •Holmes : U. S. Geog. Survey, pi. XLVI. \\\ I t ;i; 246 PRE-HISTORIC A.UEKfC.I. i I l\ variety {Scirpus valictiis) still very common o\\ the banks of the Mancos. Some ropes woven of the fibres of the yucca, some sea-shells, a few amulets in stone or turquoise, a few- bead necklaces, and our list is closed. We have alluded to the very small number of excavations hitherto undertaken, and the obstacles which checked the explorers, zealous as they were in the cause of science ; and it will readily be be- lieved that very few of the objects left on the surface of the ground were likely to escape the rapacity of the Utes aiul Navajos, who are always wanderint^ about amonjjst the ruins. 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 b\' the Indians, or were the early inhabitants of the pueblos of New Mexico and Colorado ignorant of iron and bronze ? This latter hypothesis seems probable, for the roughly squaretl beams supporting their home appear to have been shaped with stcMie implements. We cannot pronounce a decided opinion on the question, for it can only be decided by scientifically conducted excavations. Among the most vemarkable characteristics of the archa.-- 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, thiity miles from El Paso. These rock-drawings have caused the coinage of a new \\'o\\\, pictograpJty, which we use in our turn, although we are by no means persuaded, as are certain arclueologists, that the Cliff Dwellers intended by means of pictography to give a record of their own history, the struggles in which they had taken part, their migrations or their haunts. The figures are, as a rule, of such great simplicity that the descendants of the artists could learn nothing from them of the main facts of the history of their ancestors. It is more probable that these figures, curious though the)' be, were generally the outcome of the painter's or sculptor's fancy. '" The implements and ornaments are not numerous, incluiiu no articles of any metal whatever, and do not differ materially from the articles now in use r.mong the Pnehlo Tndiin^ -I'nncrofi, /. c, vol W ., p. 677, ^ THE CUFF DWELLERS. ^4/ It is not only on the rocks that \\c find the representations untler notice ; tiie numerous erratic blocks of the vallc}- of the Gila are covered with rou^hlv outlined fisrures of men and of animals ' (fig. I071. liut it is chiefly on the banks of the Mancos and the San Juan, and in the caflons stretching KiG. roy, — Euatic blocks covered wilh figures. Arizona. away westward, that these pictographs al)i)uiKl. Some are cut into the rock to a depth var\-ing from a (piarter to half an inch ^ I figs loS ami 109); others are merel_\- traced in broad red or white lines. The former, in main' cases at an ' Ikirtk'tt : " IVrsoiuil N\iir.itivo," vol. MIolnics: pis. XI, II. ;in 1 Xl.III. II., p|i. i()5, 206. m 248 PRE-HISrORIC AMERICA. all but inaccessible height, must have involved considerable toil. Are they the work of the Cliff Dwellers ? Nearly every thing points to the conclusion that they are, for they are almost all near the cliff-houses. We must add, however, that inscriptions and figures are, on the other hand, vcrj- 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 Brittany. This is a curious fact, but its importance must not be overrated. Among the most interesting of the engravings on rock we will mention one on the banks of the San Juan, about ten miles from the mouth of the La Plata. It represents a long series of men, animals, and even birds with long necks and long legs, all going in the same direction." Two men arc 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 si.xty square feet with figures of men, stags and lizards, and Bandelier 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; pi. XLII., fig. 2. 'Holmes: pi, XUH.. fig. i. '' "Ruins of the Rio Peros," pp. 92, /•/ .?(•(/. ! THE CLIFF DWELLERS. 249" banks of the Puerco and Zufli rivers,' two of the tributaries of the Colorado Chiquito, drawings have been noticed " which resemble hieroglyphics. Their meaning is unknown, indeed we cannot even assert that they have any meaning. The rocks surrounding Salt Lake City, Utah, the capital city of the Territory, arc covered with sculptures which re- mind us of those of Egypt.' Some of the human figures of Fig. io8. — Pictography on the banks of the San Juan. Fig. log. — Pictographs on the banks of the San Juan, life size, incised in very hard blue granite, arc situated more than thirty feet above the le\-el of the ground. The height at which some of these sculptures occur has suggested that since their production some geological phenomenon, such as the depression of the lake, may have taken place. ' It was on the banks of the Zufii that Coronado speaks of having seen the seven villages of Cibola in 1540, " Mulhatlsen : " Tagebuch einer Raise vora Mississippi nach den Kusten der Sud-See." Leipsic, 1858. ' Remy and Brenchley : "A Journey to the Great Salt Lake City." London,. 1862, vol. IL, p. 362. I I 250 PRE-IIISTORIC A mi: RICA. This is yet another hypothesis to add to the many already noticed. The desire to reproduce the figures, animals, and events which have arrested their attention is one of the most char- acteristic features of the various American races. On the rocks of Ohio and Wyoming signs have been noticed which have been looked upon as hieroglyphics.' 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 Pcrrysburgand Independence, Cuyahoga'county, and those of Belmont county. If these really are inscriptions it is impossible now to decipher them, but there is little probability of their being more than rude pictographs. Here and there beside these signs we sec en graved a trident, an harpoon, a bear's foot or a human hand or foot, several of which are mentioned as cut into the rock to the depth of an inch and a half. In Vermont, too, the rocks bathed by the Connecticut River are covered with engravings. On one of them a hu- man figure can be made out, on another twenty heads of different sizes, the largest being twenty inches long and the smallest five inches.'' Several of them have two rays, two horns if you like, on the forehead, and the central figure has as many as six. The eyes and the mouth arc indicated by circular lioles, and the nose is nearly always missing. An engraving at Brattleboro is still more curious ; it represents eleven different subjects, including mammals, birds, and ser- pents. Some similar pictographs. to which authorities are dis- posed to assign a very great antiquity, are to be seen on the walls of caves in Nicaragua.' One is mentioned near Nihapa 'Whittlesey; "Rep. Am. Ass.," Indianapolis, 1871. Th. Comstock, same, Detroit, 1875. 'G. W. Perkins : " Remarks upon tlie Arch, of Vermont," " Rep. Am. Ass.," St. Louis, 1878. '"Report, Peabody Museum," 1880, vol. II., \\ 716. \% "^Jasat ^lJUB^g- ' " t j r^i ^ ' *J ! y I ■(•N**i*«*«ri - ■■" — — ' ■ THE CUFF DWELLERS. 351 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 Bus.uiig. Although they are much defaced, we can still make out on the northern face a human hand, beneath two concentric circles grouped round a central point. The upper part also bears a number of little round holes ar- ranged symmetrically, and on a second rock rising above the first several other circles have been traced. Near Cahorca rises a rocky circular hillock to which the Papagos have given the name of Ko Ka. It consists of a heap of rocks bearing pictographs on their flat surfaces. In several places more ancient designs, including a series of lines or of symmetrical figures, can be distinguished, but they have been in a great measure obliterated by later in- scriptions traced in white paint. Such engravings or paintings are met with in all the re- gions which once formed Spanish America. They are men- tioned as existing near the extinct volcano of Masaya, in the United States of Colombia ; on the banks of the Orinoco, in Venezuela, where they are in such a state of decay that they can hardly be recognized ; on the Isthmus of Panama, where they were noticed as early as 1520 by the Spaniards." Lieutenant Whipple describes them on the rocks of Arizona. Professor Kerr on the Black Mountains near the sources of the Tennessee ; and in crossing the White Mountains, between the towns of Columbus, Nevada, and Benton, California, we meet with numerous representations of men and animals, or ' Hrasseur de Bourbourg : " Voy, surl'Isthme de Tehuantepec, " p. 123. ' "Bull. Soc. Geog." Paris, Sept., 1880. * Diego Garcia de Palacios : " Carta dirigada al Rey de Espafia," aflo 1576. I t ( .• !. Fig. iio. — Specimens of the rock sculptures of the Bushmen of South Africa. 252 '' i Hi li FiQ. III.— Engravings found on rocks in Algeria. 253 854 PKE-HISrORIC AMERICA. with signs that cannot be deciphered.' Neither the Pah Utes, occupying the California seaboard, nor the Shavvnecs, who encamp near Columbus, claim them as the work of their ancestors. Twenty miles south of Benton, the road follows a narrow defile, shut in on either side by almost perpendicular rocks, rising to a height of forty or fifty feet. These stone walls are covered with figures of unknown origin. The ancient inhabitants of Tennessee have also left behind them paintings on the cliffs overlooking their great rivers. Some represent the sun and the moon ; others, mammals, the bison for instance." These paintings were done in red ochre, and, like the sculptures of Utah referred to above, they are at almost inaccessible heights. A colossal sun, engraved on a rock overlooking the Big Harpeth, is visible four miles off. At Buffalo Creek these workmen of the past have drawn an entire herd of bisons, walking in single file. Father Mar- quette, during his voyage up the Mississippi, saw similar scenes engraved on the cliffs between Illinois and the Mis- souri ; and more modern travellers bear witness to the faith- fulness of his account.' In speaking of South America we shall describe rock sculp- tures, similar to those first noticed ; but with regard to them wc shall also be unable to say who executed them or when they were made. The only conclusion which wc can arrive at is that resemblances exist between the instincts of man in all regions. Everywhere man, however degraded we rnny 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- ' Hoffman : " Ethn. Observ. on Indians Inhabiting Nevada, California, and Arizona," U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, 1876. 'Jones' " Antiquities of the Southern Indians," New York, 1873, p. 137. '"Voyages et Decouvertes du P. Marquette dans 1' Amerique Septentrionale." Thevenot : " Relation de Divers Voyages Curieux," Paris, 1681. J. G. Shea " Discovery and Explorations of the Mississippi Valley," p. 41. THK Cr.IFF DWELLERS. ass rica, (fig. no), or with those engraved on the rocks of Al- geria. This similarity, in every clime and at every period, of the taste, instinct, and genius of man is the best proof that can be brought forward of the common origin of the human race. As already stated it appears certain that the Cliff Dwellers and the inhabitants of the pueblos belonged to the same race, and that this did not materially differ from the Moquis. and Zufiis of the present day. The buildings, whether of stone or of adobe, are always alike and always regular; the rooms are everywhere extremely small ; the absence of stairs and of trap-doors giving access from one story to another, points to a life led in common; and everywhere we find cstufas,^ places for meetings alike of a religious and secular character. Both the Cliff Dwellers and the people of the pueblos manu- factured pottery of a similar kind, and used the same kind of arrow-points and the same kind of implements. All the relics which have come down to us point to the same conclusion, and it appears no less certain that the peo- ple under notice differed in many respects from the Mound Builders of Ohio and Mississippi, the Mayas of Yucatan and the Nahuas of Mexico. There are no structures left by the Cliff Dwellers resembling 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 they resemble the palaces, temples, and re- markable buildings erected by the Mayas or the Aztecs. The rarity of pipes, which are so numerous amongst the Mound Builders and northern Indians is no less remarkable. VVe 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. I 'A ? 5 '1 : i] 256 PKE-inSlOKIC A MKNICA. Coronndo, the first Spaniard to visit these regions, notices no resemblance between the Mexicans and tlie inhabitants of New Mexico. Father Escahinte, who crossed the country in 1776, more than two centni' s 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 l^uilders, who have been identified by some with the Aztecs, on the east. These people may have sprung origi- nally from the same source, but their separation doubtless f. Fit;. 112.- — Pipe fouml amongst the relics of the Cliff Dwellers. took place at a very tlistant period, and tiiere is not sufficient evidence yet available to prove the case one way or the other.' [ One thing is certain : numerous pueblos existed in New Mexico at the time of the Spanish invasion, and some of them, such as Zuni, Acoma, Taos, Jemez, and Pecos have 'Dominguez and Escalante : " Diario y Derrotero Santa Fe a Monterey," 1776. " Doc. Hist. Mex,," 2d series, vol. I. Short, p. 331, speaks of having examined a MS. by Escalante in the Library of Congress, Washington, which confirms this conclusion. ° In the fifth report of the Archaeological Institute of America Bandelier gives an account of studies carried on in 1S83 for the society in New Mexico and Arizona. He finds a well-defined system of growth, from the temporary Indian lodge to the many-storied pueblo building, which clearly does not owe its origin to anv external influences. He has since been seeking in the mountains of Northern Mexico traces of any possible connection between the ancient pueblo people and the Aztecs, and it is announced that his report of important studies ■ at Cholulaand Mitla is nearly ready for publication. L ~; ^". ' ii ! |^ -J?»jgf^wr^J'Bit j i>i^ '■ i- n it T/fH CLIFF DWELLERS. 557 been inhabited until now. The pueblos of the sedentary Indians of New Mexico are grouped as follows: I., be- tween the frontier of vVrizona and the Rio Grande, Zufti, Acoma, and Laguna; II., on the banks of the Rio Grande Taos, Picuries, Teluia, Queres, Tiguas, and Piros; III., to the west of the Rio Grande, Jcmcz ; and IV., to the east of the same river, Tanos and Pecos. Lieutenant Wheeler, who visited the country in 1858, speaks of having seen through his telescope two Mocjui pueb- los, at a distance of eight or ten miles, perched on a rock overlooking the whole valle\-. The buildings were flush with the precipice, and from the Lieutenant's point of view presented the appearance of a town with walls and crenel- lated towers. The whole was singularly picturescpie. Each of these pueblos is built round a rectangular court, enclos- ing the spring of water indispensable to the population. The walls, which are of stone, have no opening on the out- side. To reach the insitle, these walls would have to be cither removed or scaled. The different stories of the houses are one behind the other, and the upper ones can only be reached by means of trap-doors in the ceiling. Every building includes three stories, and has no oi)ening except on to the court. The whole arrangement is such as to offer resistance in case of attack. As the court and the communications are common to all, the inhabitants must have led a communal existence, such as is known to be char- acteristic of all American tribes. We might well take this account as a description of an ancient pueblo, and it will help us to a second conclusion, which follows as a matter of couise. New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and the northern part of Chihuahua, were formerly inhabited by a sedentary agricultural and compara- tively cultured race, who differed no more from each other than do the present inhabitants of the pueblos. The de- cline of these people probably began some time before the arrival of the Spaniards, and this decadence has gone on until the present day, when a few scattered settlements are the i 1}^ 1 1 . \ \\ UW's. i lit 1 11 i 11 258 PKE-HISrORIC AMERICA. sole representativ'c.s of u once numerous and powerful popu- lation. The causes of this decadence are many. Amoncf the most important we must certainly include, the pcrpetuaUy recurrent invasions of the Apaches, wild and dangerous ene- mies whom the Cliff Dwellers long and energetically resisted. Ac last, however, this resistance became powerless to stem the torrjnt, 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 i- ^^vitable. 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 depr pulate the country. Tiie aerial dwell- ings, so difficult of access, the towers defending the en- trances to the valleys, the arrangement of ^\\<: j)uebloj, form- ing as they did regular fortresses, would have secureu the victory to their inhabitants, had not another cause, already referred to, hastened their ruin. The destruction of the for- csi.s, prolonged droughts, and the disappearance of water- courses changed lands which had been rendered productive by cultivation into arid deserts and valleys choked with sand, which strike the traveller of to-day as so melancholy. Man fled from regions where further struggle with an ungrateful nature had become impossible. He receded before an enemy more dangerous than the nomads, and against whom resis- tance was impossible. It was reserved to the nineteenth century to ascertain ' Examples of similar union of tribes are not rare in the history of the Indians. Since the discovery of America the vaneiuished Tuscaroras have been admitted into the confederation of the Five Nations ; the Alabamr.s, the Uchees, and Natchez into that of the Creeks ; and in our own day the Pecos, decimated by sickness, found an asylum amongst the people of an allied tribe. w ■ Vlt^,..^ ^ THE CUFF DWELLERS. 259 r"* these facts, totally unknown a few years ago. A more noble mission is reserved to those who are to come after us. It is for science to reestablish that which the barbarism of man has been permitted to destroy, and by the resources of mod- ern science to make the desert blossom as the rose. r. 1 ,11 It i warrior who had had the honor of his capture, the entrails to tile trumpeters, tlie rest distributed amoni; the people, and lastl)', the head was \\\.\\v^ upon the branch of a tree as a religious troph)'. 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 anticjuity, lasted until the Spanish conquest. Herrera' relates that sev- eral Si)anish prisoners were thus devoured, and Albornoz adds that in Honduras the Indians gave up eating the flesh of the white victims because it was too tough and stringy. Sacrifices were always succeeded by several holidays, dan- cing, banquets, and brutal drunkenness.'^ 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 tlu'ir 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, believing it to be an aphrodisiac.'' In Guatemala a woman and a female dog were sacrificed before every battle. The horror these details inspire is our excuse for cutting short the enumeration. Nowhere was human barbarity greater than amongst the early Americans, and the cruelt}^ of the executioners was only equalled by the stoicism of their victims. \\'e 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 ' " Ilist. Gen. de los Ilechos V .'I n I' h { 270 PRE-HISTORIC 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 feci beam, that it was manned by twenty-five men, and that in the middle was a canopy of matting to protect the women and children from the heat of the sun. The houses inhabited by these people were of a very great variety, but this need not surprise us when we remember the great extent of the confederation of Xibalba, and the very different tribes oompoiUng it. The Quiches and the Cakchiqucls inhabiting the highlands of Guatemala built their towns, as did the Cliff Dwellers, on points difficult of access, and surrounded (hem 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 \\vc 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- ' llerrera : " Hist. Gen.," dec, I., book V., ch. V.; Cogoiludo : " Hist, de Yucatan," p. 4. At the present day the Ilaidas, living on the Queen Char- lotte Islands, build similar boats capable of holding one hundred people, and are not afraid to undertake long voyages in them. * 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 artificiallv composed. To the square courts or first habitations of their houses they ns- cended by ten or twelve steps. The roof was of reeds or stalks or herbsi.'' " Purchas His Pilgrimes," London, 1625-6 • " Cartas," pp. 268, 426, 447. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 271 ing than the houses of the people. The images of the gods were kept in very dark subterranean rooms. Before each temple rose a truncated pyramid, resembling those of Florida or Mississippi. It was there that the sacrifices were offered up in the sight of all the people.' We have now summed up all that is really known of the Mayas. The temples and palaces of which the ruins are still standing give a better idea of their artistic taste and social organization ; but before commencing their study we must speak of the Nahuas, who overran in their turn these countries whose resources had become celebrated. As already stated, we must include under the title of Nahuas the tribes, evidently of the same origin, who suc- cessively dominated Anahuac.' The Toltecs' were the first to establish a regular govern- ment, and this government gradually spread to the neigh- boring countries. These Toltecs arrived about the sixth century of our era ; later they were replaced by the Chichimecs, who in their turn were to be vanquished by the combined forces of the Aztecs, Acolhuas, and Tepanecs. Finally the Aztecs, as conquerors of their former allies, re- mained sole masters of Mexico until the Spanish conquest. Between the sixth and sixteenth centuries then there were three distinct periods in the Nahuatl rule : that of the Toltecs, that of the Chichimecs, and that of the Aztecs. Between these two limits we must place the numerous in- vasions of the various people who, driven on as by an. irre- ' Oviedo : " Hist. Gen.," vol. IV., p. 27. Peter Martyr: dec, VI., book V. * The prefix A in Anahuac appears to be an abbreviation of All, 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 ihc 18th and 3ist degrees of N. lat., and on the Pacific by the 14th and iqth. Becker : " On the Migrations of the Nahuas " ; Cong, des Americanistes, Lux- embourg, 1877. ' The name of Toltecs, which we take for want of a better, is founded on very insufficient data. Sahagun, one of the most ancient Spanish historians, was, we think, the first to use it, in his " Hist. Gen. de las Cosas de Niieva Espafia." 27: PKE.mSTOh'JC AMERICA. sistible 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, Chichimcc, and Aztec languages are one." These conclusions of Bancroft's (vol. III., p. 724) arc 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 Duran, Veytia, Torqucmada, Vetancurt, and Clavigcro. Bancroft, however, (vol. V., pp. 219, 616, it. scq.) think-i these t)eople came from the south. We are obliged to add that his reasons for this opinion do not appear to us conclusive. This country called Htichne-Tlapallan in the Popol-Vuh ; Tulaii-Zuiwa by other historians,' must be the same as the country of Aiiiaqitcmccnii, the birthplace of the Chichimecs. Ferdinand Alva de I.xtlilxochitl, a Christian descendant of the rulers of the country, has endeavored to trace the ancient history of his race.* It is too easy to recognize in ' li.incroft 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 Ilellwakl : " 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 Mex," vol. IX. m ' THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 73 his narrative tlic religious influence of the Spanish mission- aries to accord it any great confidence. According to him seven families were saved from the deluge. After long and arduous journeys their descendants settled in Huehuc- Tlapallan, a fertile country and pleasant to live in, adds the historian.' Fig. 114. — Qiietracoail (Ethnographical Department of the Trocadero Museum, Paris). Their sojourn was long and their fortunes were various ; they were at last compelled to leave their adopted country after numerous defeats, and it was then that they went ' Bancroft (vol. V., pp. 208-218) gives a summary of the whole of this his- tory, which is legendary rather than serious. I I PRE-i/ISTORIC AaMERICA. 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 god* were attributed to him. All is confusion on this point.' He was worshipped by the people as the incarnation of Tonacatcatl, the serpent sun, the creator of ail things, the supreme god of the Nahuat! mythology. It is to Quetzacoatl that the myths and traditions of the Nahuas chiefly refer ; numerous temples were dedicated to him, his attributes were represented in bas-reliefs, and his image (fig. 1 1 5) is met with under the most different aspects, in terra-cotta and in stone, wherever excavations have been attempted. All the museums of Europe and America are well stocked with representations of Quetzacoatl ; those in the Louvre have been described by M. de Longperier (" Notice sur les monuments exposes dans la Salle des Ant. Amdricaines "). 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., ijp. 450,451, et seq. Urreligionen." Basel, 1869, p. 486, etc. MuUer : " Americanischea THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 275 In spite of wars and discord the time of the Toltec domi- nation is enshrined in the memory of the Nahuas as their golden age. The Toltecs, they tell us were tall, well- proportioned, with clear yellow complexions; their eyes 5 ; 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 i ...*»<**^ 27^) PRE.IFlSTOHrC AM E NIC A. ■ their mouths was sweet, but that of the upper part of their face severe. They were brave, but cruel, eajjer for revenge, and the reUgious ri{^hts practised by them were s.inguinar)-. Tiitelliyent 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 jjrecious stones, build solid houses of stone cemented with lime mortar, found regular towns, and lastly build mounds wiiich may justly be compared with those of the Mississippi valley.' To them popular gratitude attributes the invention of medi- cine, and the vapor bath {tcviaccalli). 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 Jield at Toltan and Cholula ; the products t)f tin: regions washed b\- both oceans were seen side by side with numerous objects made by the Toltecs themselves. These objects were of great variety, for though iron was unknown to them the Toltecs worked in gold, silver, copper, tin. and lead.* Their jewelry is celebrated, and the few valuable onianunts which escaped the rapacity of the Conquistadores are still justl}' admiretl. The Toltecs cut down trees with C()p|)er hatchets, and sculi)tured bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics with stone im- plements. For this purpose flint, por[ihyr)', basalt, and above all, obsidian, the istli of tlie Me.xicans, were used. Emeralds, '' turquoises, amethy.sts of which large deposits were found in various places, were sought after for making ' Hancroft, vol. I., p. 24. ' " C.isi todos sus males curan con ycrbas." (loniarn : " Hist, de Mfxico," Antwerp, 1554, fol. 117. ' " Kn las cuidadcs principales ♦ ♦ * habea hospitalcs dotadas de rentas y vasallos, donde sc resabian y cur.iban los enfcrmos pobres. '* Las Casas : " Hist. Apol." MS. quoted by Hancroft, vol. II., p. 597. * Ixtlilxochitl : " Relaciones." Kingsborough, vol. IX., p. 332. '"G'i smeraldi erano tanto comuni, die non v' era signora che non ne avesse." Clavigero: "St. Ant. del Messico," vol. II., pp. 206-7. !l THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 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 jfarments padded with cotton, forming; regular armor impenetrable to arrows and javelins. Their round shields called chiinallis were made of h.^ht and fle.xible 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 e.xistence 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. cil., pp. 325, 327, 332, 388. • " La gente meniuK-i comunmcnte se enterrana," CJomara, Ice. (if., 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 alsi> ofTered 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. 37() and 388. Veytia ; " Hist. Antigua de Mejico," Mexico, 1S36, vol. III., pp. 8, elseq. I pr— .1 278 PKE.//ISTORIC AMERICA. \u\ > ) '■.' i I 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. Wy 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 {Xuihtnolpilli). — This cycle was fixed at fift\'-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 are interesting, and probably much exaggerated. The palace of Quctzacoatl,' according to these legends, contained four principal rooms: the first opened on the east and was called the Gilded Chamber ; its walls were covered with finely chased plaques of gold ; an Emerald and Turquoise Room was on the west, and as its name implies, the walls were encrusted with these stones ; the walls of the southern room were ornamented with shells of brilliant colors, set in plaques of silver ; and lastly, the northern room was of finely wrought red jasper. In another palace, the walls of all the rooms were hidden by tapestries of feathers; in one the feathers were yellow; in another, blue taken from the wings of a bird called Xnihtototl. 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 liave remarked that the termination //, so characteristic of the Nahuatl language, is met with again in the Indian dialects of the Pacific coast. 'Sahagun, " Hist. Gen," vol. III., iiook X., p. 107. ITWHil Tin: PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 279 eluded under the general name of Chichimccs, of which the more important were the Pames, Otomes, Pintos, Micho- caques, and Tarascos. These people, chiefly of the Nahuatl race, and coming originally from the same district as the Toltecs, were plunged in the most complete barbarism. They despised all culture, and their only occupation was to hunt game in the forests which covered a great part of their territory, even tc 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 wearing only the skins of beasts, which they flung over their shoulders, with the hair inside in the winter and outside in the summer. Most of them lived in caves, or rock-shelters. Some of them, however, knew how to shelter themselves, either by placing a roof of palm-leaves upon jiosts 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 territor)-. 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 Yiidias." Seville, 1580. * Ixtlilxochitl : " Hist. Chic," /. c, p. 214. Gomara ; /. c, p. 298. Torquc- mada : /.<■., p. 38. J p i! ; i lit i W V ?! "^ i'> i 1, i Vi 1 lit aSo PRE-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. enemy that they killed. Tlie prisoners were treated with unlieard-of cruelty, and perished under tlic most horrible torture. The conqueror often scalped them on the field of battle, and the bleedinji scalp became a i;lorious trophy. The heads of the victims were carried in triumph round the cajnps, in the midst of dances and rejoicinjjs celebrating the victory. The horror and terror with which the Toltecs re- garded these people can be imagined. They called them barbarians and drinkers t)f 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 aa the greatest homicides, and the greatest thi'.-ves in the whole world. The very name of Chichimec, which is said to be derived from chichi log, was a grave insult. Rude though they were, the Chichimecs had a religion. They adored the sun as Mie supreme god," and tliey also worshipped lightning, represented by the god Mixcoatl ' (the Serpent of Clouds), who, like the anticjue Jupiter, was fig- ured with thunder-bolts in his hands. Nearly all these independent tribes, always at war with each other, obeyed chiefs selected by themselve:;. 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. Ilerrera, moreover, says that the Chichimecs could only have one wife, though it is true that they repudiated her on the ' Reproduced by Alegrc, "liist. de la Campa&ia dc Jesus en Nueva Espafia." Mexico, 1841, vol. I., p. 281. 'Alegrc, /. <■., vol. I., p. 270. •Also called Ixtac Mixcoatl, the white nebulous serpent ; recent re- searches point to the coi)clu>ion that he was the same as Taras, the chief god of the Tarascos ; or Comaxtli, the god of the Teochichimecs. Brintoiv. '• Tlic Myths of the New World." New York. 1868. mmmmm THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. aSi slightest pretext, to rcpiaix- licr by another. Tlicsc wives were practically slaves; u\\ them fell all the work of the house, the preparation of food, the weaving' t)f cloth, the making of mats and pottery, the felling of trees, and the fetching of the wood and water neetled b)' the whole family. The cares of maternity made no break in their arduous labor; whilst they were engaged in tluin they merely hung a basket upon a tree, in which they i)iit their children, whom they (»ften suckled till they were six or seven years old. Such is the picture given to us by liistorians of the barba- rians who were to concpiLr the Toltecs. What seems still more difTicult to believe, is that the concpierors . i once adopted the manners, c 'stoms, and social status of thi con- quered, and the Chichimec supremacy was nothing more than a continuation of the Toltec. Must wt ' !K n admit that, towarj the end of the eleventh ceniiiry or tl' be- ginning ot the twelfth, aftir unknown revolutions and sf.;:ggles, these savage tribes obtained the supremacN.and in their turn dominated Central America? Is it not more natural to conclude that there is some confusion in t!ie 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 Te/cuco. It might then have been these latter, allied perha])s with a few wilder tribes, who were the true coiujuerors of the Toltecs. The culture of the Tezcuans was no less advanced than that of the nation they were destinetl to reduce to sub- mission. The chiefs of Tezcuco are reported to ha\e been as magnificent as those of the Toltecs. IxtlilxocliitI ' gives an undoubtedly exaggerated account of the palaces, gar- dens, and lakes, made at great cost, and of the manage- ment of the forests preserved for hunting, which may be ascribed to a natural desire to magnify the importance of his race in a manner which would compel the admir- '"Hist. Chichimeca." KinRsborough, "Ant. of Mex.," vol. IX., p. 251. ■ 282 PRE.HJSTO/ilC AMERICA. ation of its conquerors, accustomed as the latter were to kings and courts belonging to a totally distinct sta^^e 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 arc dried up, and the modern town is several miles off. But few traces remain of its alleged grandeur. Mayer speaks of substructures of adobes, covering squares of 400 feet. They are supposed to be the foundations of ancient pyramids; bits of pottery, numerous idols, chips of obsidian, and other rubbish, have been picked up all about them. The power of the Chichimcc chief who invaded the country of the Toltecs is still further illustrated, if we attach importance to such evidence as we have cited, b\' 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 Chichimcc 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 Mex.," vol. IX., pp. 208, 337, 395, 45 1). Clavigero speaks of 1170. Other historians will have it that the fall of the Toltcc league preceded the Chichimec invasion. ' " Monarquiii Indiana," vol. 1., p. 44. ftrr,**- THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 283 They differ as much about the facts as about the dates. In truth the evidence throughout is more legendary than his- torical. The Toltecs, enervated by luxury, pleasure, and the most shameful debauchery, decimated by pestilental maladies, abandoned by the allies they had oppressed and by their own subjects, who in consequence of a religious schism had emigrated in great numbers to more favored regions, yet gave proof, in this supreme danger, of manly energy. Their chief Acxtitl called all his subj icts to arms ; the old men and children took weapons in hand ; Xochitl, mothei 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 lastin^,- several days.' Tolan their capital was taken ; the country submitted ; and Xolotl took the title of CJiichimccatl Tecuhtli, 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, Tezozomoc, who usurped the power of the son of Ixtlilxochitl, and reigned eight years, and lastly Maxtla, who possessed himself of the chieftainship by the murder of his eldest brother.' Their history is the relation of a succession of revolts, bloody wars, conspiracies, and ' We follow the account given by Ixtlilxochitl ; that of Veytia, " Hist. Ant. Mej," vol. I., p. 302-3) presc.its notable differences ; so does that of Brasseur ■de Bourbourg (" Hist. des. Nat. Civ.," vol. I., p. 405, etc.). ' Brasseur de Bourbourg, quoted above, vol. I., p. 236. •See Bancroft, /. c, vol. V., chs. V., VI., .ind VII. 4 i i i I H f.! 1' i ii! 284 PRE-HlSrORIC AMERICA. revolutions, which was to end in 1431 in the triple alliance of the Aztecs, Acolhuas, and Tepanecs, and then in the ephem- eral triumph of the Aztecs as conquerors of all their rivals. The Tepanecs and the Acolhuas had been the faithful al- lies of Xolotl in his struggles with the Toltecs, and their chiefs took a subordinate place in the new league. They had long been established in Anahuac when the Aztecs arrived there. Both had probably formed part of some of the numerous immigrations which succeeded each other in Central America.' All these men came from a country' to which the unanimous accounts of the chroniclers give the name of Aztlan. Where was this land, this officina gentiuiHy 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 arc few points more ob- scure and more hotly contested than the situation of Aztlan. It has been sought in turn in California, Mississippi, New Mexico, Florida, Zacatecas, and in yet other regions. All these hypotheses have been brought forward, and there is something to be said for them all. The importance of the question is assuredly considerable, for, if there be a connec- tion between the Nahuas and the Northern Indians, it is to Aztlan that we must look for it.'' 'Bancroft, loc. r//. vol. V., p. 305. F, von Helhvald : "The American Migrations," Smitli. Contr., 1866. 'IJrasseurde Bourbourg ("Hist, des Nat. Civilisees," vol. II., p. 292) places Aztlan in California ; Humboldt (" Researches concerning the institu- lions and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of America," translated by Helen Maria Williams, 1814), about 42° north latitude. Foster: "Preh. Races," p. 340. Vetancurt ("Teatro Mexicano," part II., p. 20) speaks of New Mexico. Fontaine (" How the World was Peopled," p. 149) looks upon the earthworks of Mississippi as witnesses to Aztec migrations. Pritchard ("Nat. Hist, of Man," vol. II., pp. 514-5) sees in the Moquis the last de- scendants of the Atzecs. Bandclier sny<, in speaking of Chicomoztoc (the ■HP!)* ; ' THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 285 The Aztecs had left Aztlan at the same time as the people who had preceded them in Anahuac ; but according to tradition they halted for a lon^ time at Chicomoztoc' It was not therefore until much later, between 1 186 and 1194,' if we adopt the date given by the Codex Chimalpopoca, that they established themselves at Chapultcpec. Their early settlement was full of difficulties ; overcome by their neij^hbors, 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. Hy 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, Pc-ihody 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 Itoturini (" Idea de una nueva hist, general i M (♦ ' 292 PRK-IIISTOKIC AMERICA. feet ; he invested with supernatural power the first object to strike his eyes or impress his imagination. The idolater is superior to the fetich worshipper ; he adores the god of the sun, of the sea, of the forest, of the spring ; he often clothes this god, before whom he trembles, with a human form (figs. 1 14, 115, 1 16), and attributes to him the passions of his own heart. Monotheism, from a purely philosophical point of view, is a great advance. It has been said that the Aztecs adored an invisible god, Teotl, the supreme master, but this Fig. 116. — Idol in lerra-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, presents a great number of uncon- nected gods, without apparent system or unity of design." Gallatin, "Am, Ant. Sec. Trans.," vol. I., p. 352. > (V.* -■■•fc-r*.-* THE PEOPLE OF CENTKAl. AMERICA. 293 to is ic cs s. n )f :s is Before celebrating the feast of the god Camaxtli, for instance, the priests were bound to rigorously abstain from indulgence for a period of a hundred and sixty days; and during that time they pierced their t«)ngues with little pointed sticks having about the diameter of a quill. Among all the tribes of the Nahuatl race religious holi- days were frequent, each of them being accompanied by hu- man sacrifices. On such occasions, in accordance with a strictly observed rite, infants at the bi:ast 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 use(' 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 successiveh' 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 sufferer was stripped off ; gladiators clothed themselves in it for mock combats; or in an outbreak of zeal priests prided themselves in wearing the spoils (figs. 1 19 and 120) until the skins fell into rags. " They smelt like dead dogs," adds Sahagun, from whom we take this detail. mi m<.. 294 PKE.HIHTORIC AMKk'ICA. The hideous trophy was then hung up in the temple of Yapico, or, if it had belonged to a prisoner taken in war, returned to the offerer of the victim. The rejoicings in honor of MixcoatI, the god' of hunting and thunder, were inaugurated by battues, in which animals — such as deer, coyotes, hares, rabbits — fell beneath the arrows of the devotees. Then came the inevitable human sacrifices ; a Fig. 118. -Sacrificial collar (Trocadero Museum). great fire was lighted, into which the men threw pipes or vases (fig. 121), the women distaffs, in the hope that the god would repay their offerings with interest in the life awaiting them beyond the grave. ' ' Perhaps we should say the goddess ; this point has been very much disputed. * Bancroft (vol. II., chap. IX., and vol. III., pp. 355-412) gives a very exact account of these celebrations, to which we refer those who wish to know more about them. rut: PEOPLE OF CESTRAI. AMERICA. 295 On the day consecrated to Xuihtccutii, the yod of fire, the captives were carried in triumph, on the shoulders of the pries s, to the platform from which the teocalli ruse, and then flun^j 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. ii(j. — Mexican carving representing an Aztec priest clothed ii\ a human skin. back to the person furnishing tlie victim. Saiiagun tells us that this meat was cooked with hominy. The dish was called Ttacatlaotli, and the master of the slave sacrificed was not allowed to eat it, for the slave was looked upon as one of the family. At Tlascala, one month of the year was dedicated to sen- sual pleasures. It was inaugurated by the sacrifice of nu- merous virgins. At other times, a young man and a young girl, chosen on account of their beauty, were maintained for tf ^;\ 296 PKE-HISTOlilC AMERICA. a whole year in royal luxurv> and then led to the sacrifice as victims acceptable to the gods. Such were the religious rites which were observed every year. There were also extraordinary rites, on the occasion ' \ victory, the accession of a ruler, or the dedication of a temple. The last event was frequent in Mexico, and also Fig. 120. — Vase used in sacrifices, the liead representing that of a priest cov- ered with human skin. From the Trocadero Museum. the occasion for a sacrifice of hecatombs of victims. If the Aztecs were visited by a defeat, a pestilential malady, a fam- ine, or an earthquake, the people eagerly offered fresh sacri- fices to appease the anger of the gods. The dedication by Ahuizotl of the great temple of Huitzilopochtli,' in 1487, 'Bancroft's text is as follows: "Native Races," vol. III., p. 288,289. *' Huitzilopochtli, Huitziloputzli, or Vitziliputzili, w,-.s the god of war, and the t^ntit Mta THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMEKICA. 297 is alleged to have been celebrated by the butchery of 72,344 victims ; ' the priests were wearied with striking, and had to be successively replaced ; but the people did not tire of the frightful bjichcry ; 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 great ex- pense, and destined to form the sacrificial altar,' but fortu- especially national god of the Mexicans. Some said tiiat^ he "was a purely spiritual being, others tliat a woman i\ad borne him after miraculous conception. This legend, following Clavigero, ran as follows : In the ancient city of Tul.i lived a most devort woman, Coatlicrie by n.ime. Walking one day in the tem- ple, as her custom was, she saw a little ball of feathers floating down from heaven, which, taking without thought, she put into her bosom. The walk hp-'ng ended, however, she could not find the ball, and wondered much, all the more that soon after this she fciund iierself pregnant. She had already many children, who now lo avert this dishonor of their house, conspired to kill her ; at which she was sorely troubled. lUit, from '.he midst of her womb the god spoke : ' Keai nol, O my mo.hci, for this danger will I turn to our great honor and glory.' And lo, lluitzilopochtii, perfect as Pallas Athena, was instantly born, springing up with a mighty war shout, grasping the shield and the glitter- ing spear, His left leg and his head were adorned wilh plumes of green; his face, arms, and I'lighs barred terribly with lines 'of blue. lie fell upon the un- natural childien, slew them all, and endowed his mother with their spoils. And from that day forth his names were Tezahuitl, Terror, and Tetzauhteotl, Ter- rible God." ' Recent researches justify us in believing that the number of the victims has been greatly exaggerated by the Spanish historians. Admitting this exagger- ation, which seems to us necessary, it is probable that only in the interior of Africa could such wliclesrle slaughter as really occurred in Mexico be paralleled. ' Torquemada, vol. I. .p. iS6. Vetancurt : " Teatro Mex.,"vol. II., p. 37. ' Sacrificial altars may be classed under three different types : (l) the Tehcatl, generally of obsidian or serpentine, and of convex form, so that the breast of the victim is placed in such a position as to facilitate the task of the sacrificing priest. "The height of the altar," s.ays Duran ("Hist, de las Yndias de Nueva Espana "), reached to a man's waist, and its length might be eight feet. (2) the Temalaia/l, 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 takt-n to the Tehcatl and his heart at once plucked out by the sacri- ficing priest. (3) the Ciiau/ixii,i!li, 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 1701. "Ann. del Museo Nacional," Mexico, 1877 and 1878. I iii-*, '! f < ( 298 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. nately 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. Zi'marraga, the first bishop of Mexico, in a letter dated June 12, 1531, estimates it at no less than twenty thou- sand ; and Gomara " brings it up even to fifty thousand. These numbers, which are contradict- ed by Las Casas, in his cele- brated treatise,' are without doubt most grossly exaggerat- ed ; but certain facts remain un- deniable, which siiow that the y\/.tecs 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 degroe of culture. The Greeks dreamt of purer joys in Elysium than the sensual Mussulman in the arms of his houris, or the Scandinavian Viking in the midst of perpetual feasts. With the savage the idea of a future life is weak ; his notions of the past and of the future are so ' Torquemada, /. c, vol. I., p. i86. Vetancurt, /. <•., vol, II., p, 46. Veytia: ^'Hist. Ant. dc Mejico," vol. III., p. 476. '" Hist. Gen. de las Indias." Anvers, 1554. ''" Hist. Apol, de las Indias Occidentales," Kingsborough, vol. VIII. F*IG. 121. — V.Tse found in the island of Los Saciificios. amongst all human races. L THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 299 •confused and vague that it is difficult to make out his real impressions. Of one thing we may feel certain, that in America, as among the nations of the Old World, these notions varied in different tribes. Some of those of the Pacific included the idea of retribution in the future life ; others believed that man was born anew from his ashes, to pass again through the same phases which he had already traversed, but the remembrance of which was forever effaced from his mind. In many places we meet with the idea of transmigration. The Tlascallas of the Nahuatl race were convinced that the social hierarchy would be perpetuated beyond the tomb, the common people being transformed into insects, the chiefs into birds. The ideas of the Aztecs were loftier ; they ad- mitted a series of gradations in the happiness reserved for men. Warriors slain in battle were immediately to inhabit the house of the sun ; more obscure folk would have less brilliant homes in the various stars peopling the firmament. It seems, however, that this was but a transitional state, a limbo where the dead waited before arriving at their final destination. It lasted four years, and throughout that time the parents and friends were bound to offer meat, wines, flowers, and perfumes to the dead, and to do honor to his memory by feasts and dances.' These rites were observed in the two months of Tlaxocliimalco and XocotlJiucaiit. The first was sacred to children, the second to chiefs and warriors killed in battle. The same ideas are met with in all tribes of Nahuatl origin, and are naturally reflected in the ceremonies observed in obsequies. Amongst the Aztecs, when a chief died, the body was covered with mantles richly embroidered and decked with precious stones. While one of the attendants was dressing the body others were cutting up bits of paper, taking care to give to each one a particular form, and pla- cing them on the body. A priest poured water upon the head of the deceased, repeating the words sacred to the •'Bancroft, /. <■., vol, II., page 618. I. \ / li ,. 1* iiii ; • 300 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. funeral rite'; after which he presented the corpse witit various papers. " With this," he said to hirn, "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 wiis 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 Chicunahttapiin, or nine torrents; it is not difficult to sec in this an allusion to the nine firmaments in which souls were to sojourn dui>ig 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 obsccjuics of the C'hichimec rulers, the guardian of the do- mestic idols was the first victim sacrificed. Amongst the Miztecs, wlio inhabited the present province ot Oajaca, two male slaves and three women were sacrificed, who had previ- ous!)' been stupefieil 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 burying-places. Numerous skeletons cov- ered with trinkets, and gold or silver ornaments, lay in niches hewn out of the walls of the cave. Here and there smaller niches were reserved to the guardian gods of the dead, and their statues were still in existence at the time of the explorations of Burgoa. Quite recently, in the RioNayas vally, in the province of Durango, a cave of considerable 'Brasseurde Bourbourg, " Hist, des Nat. Civilisces," 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 septentrionnale del Polo Artico de la. America." Oajaca, .Mexico, 1674, 2 voh. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 301 extent, has been discovered in which thousands of mummies, not rescmbUng the Indians of the present day, slept their last sleep. Each mummy was covered with a mantle of richly-dyed agave leaves. The bodies were in a remarkable state of preservation ; the flesh was unshrivelled, and the hair was silky. No metal object was discovered in the re- searches made which is the only indication we have of the antiquity of this sepulchre." 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 {tentcll\ of which we do not know the mean- ing, was placed between the lips of the deed. 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 abilo corrispondente alia sua condizione, alle sue facolta ed alle circonstanze della sua morte," Clavigero, loc. cit., vol. II., p. 39. I I I : \^i^ 1 1 i a ll' 302 PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. •■'WK the drowned, in that of the presiding gods of the flood ; the adulterer, in the mantle consecrated to the god of sensual pleasures, — and when all was thus prepared, the parents and friends brought their offerings. These offerings consisted of flowers, food, clothing, or implements, which had to be renewed several days in succession. The dominant idea of these rites was the desire of assuring to the deceased an ex- istence resembling that which he had had on earth. He was finally borne to his last resting-place, a cave, or to a yet more simple grave dug in the ground. It would be difficult to give even a rapid summary of the funeral customs observed in regions of so vast an extent ; these customs varied in every nation, in every tribe. Some of the Chichimecs, after burying their dead, gave themselves up to dances and feasts, which often lasted many days.' 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 amphora.^, ornamented sometimes with human and some- times with animals' heads. In Coazacoalco, to give only one example, bones stripped of their flesh were put in a basket and placed on the top of a tree near the former home of the deceased, doubtless so that he might be able to find these bones more easily in his successive migrations.' 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 samp of the Chichimecs ; and Veytia, in his " Historia An- ' Sahapun : " Hist. gen. de las cosas de Nueva Espafio," vol. III., book X.„ ' •".hronica de la Orden deN. P. S. Aug." Mexico, 1624. H'l-rera, loc. cit., decade IV., book IX,, chap. VII. "»vv»< 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 Miccacuicatl, or funeral chant. This was the signal for hu- man sacrifices, the necessary accompaniment of the cere- mony. On the fifth day after death, a procession was formed to go to the teocalli. The cortege was preceded by a large banner, on which were painted the chief facts of the life of the deceased ; then came the priests with censers, and the servants carrying the body, stretched upon a litter. All around walked the lesser chiefs, wearing dull-colored man- tles, trailing upon the ground and covered with paintings and embroidery representing heads or the bones of the dead. The messengers of the chiefs of the adjacent country car- ried the arms, the insignia, and ornaments for the funeral pyre. The slaves of the king were loaded with clothes and other objects intended for the use of the dead, together with his favorite food. On its arrival at the temple, some priests, called 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. lie Acosta : " Hist. Natural y Moral de las Yndias," Sevilla, 1590, p. 321, et seq. Herrera, loc. cit, decade III., book II., chap. XVIII.; Ixtlilxo- chitl : " Relaciones ; " Kingsborough, vol. IX., p. 370. 304 PRE.HISTORIC 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 jf these Coacuiles as disguised as demons, wearing robes covered with hideous heads, the eyes of which were represented by little bits of mica; others again say the priests were naked, with the body painted black, waving in their hands sticks which they were to use to stir up the fire. The pile was three feet high, the corpse was laid upon it, and when the flames began to ri.se it was the duty of the assistants to throw into the midst of it the objects they carried, after which fresh sacrifices began. In the earliest times only a few victims were offered up; but as the pomp of funerals increased with the luxury and wealth of the country their numbers increased. For in- stance, in honor of Nezahualpilli the throats of two hundred men and a hundred women were successively cut. Some- times, before his death a chief pointed out those of his concubines who were to follow him. In Michoacan seven women of good family were offered up at the death of the chief. One was charged with the care of the sacred emerald 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 "Iwiliil ' -' '••iSS^SSkit. THE PEOPLE OE CENTRA I. AMERICA. 305 • f- 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, either at the foot of the god to whom the mourners wished to do special honor, or at those of the divinity who had been the protector of the deceased. Fig. 122. — Aztec mortuary vase. At the end of the ceremony the assistants took part in a great banquet ; they were bound to return daily for four days to the teocalli and to renew their offerings. On the fourth day a last sacrifice of fifteen or twenty miserable slaves concluded the affair. With the Chichimecs it was kept up longer, and the sacrifices and offerings had to be re- newed through twenty-four days. The various races which occupied Central America had some knowledge of astronomy. They were acquainted with divisions of time founded on the motion of the sun, and long before the conquest they possessed a regular system." 'Gomara, who wrote in the sixteenth century, says that the victim was buried ; other historians, that the body wa- burned on a neighboring pile. ' Ixtlilxochitl (" Relacioncs," /. c, p. 322), following in the trail of his priestly instructors, says that in the year 5097 from the creation a meeting of astronomers tl *l 3o6 PKK.IIISTOKIC 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 sii[)plement- 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 (iregorian reform was accepted in Europe, they had added thirteen days to each cycle of fiftj-two )'ears. In 1790, excavations made at the Great Plaza of the City of Mexico, on the supposed site of the great Teocalli destroyed by the Spainaids, 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 Alayas " 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 IIuhliue-Tlapallan, and it was they who fixed the divisions of lime which lasted until the conquest. Professor Valentin!, " The Katunes of Maya History," places this ch.nnge in the divisions of time in the year 29 B. C. Both of these estimates are, perhaps it is needless to say, more or less hypo- thetical. 'It has been reproduced by Charnay, plate I., and Short (" North Ameri- cans," p. 409) copies it from him. ' Bancrofi, vol. III., p. 502, 755, et seq. Bandelier ; " On the Special Organi- zation and Mode of Government of the Ancient Mexicans," " Report, Peabody Museum," vol. II., p. 475, 557, et seq. • 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. ; ) ''■'*^ ■?l»»-T»fcZlr.j THE rr.OPI.E OF CEXTKAl. AMERICA. ZO7 ; The chief weapon of the Aztecs was the javelin {t/acochtli), a short lance of hard wood, the end of wliich was provided with a point of flint, obsidian, or, more rarely, of copper. This point was fixed in a slit in the wood, and kejjt it in its place by lashinj^s cemented with resin. Each warrior also carried darts which he fluni; from a distance, a bow {tlanitolli)^ often more than five feet lon^, and slinks. The viaciiahnitl (from macua, hand, and cua/itiit/, wootl) was a wooden sword, of similar form to the two-handed sword {i-spadds de dos manas) of the Conquistadors. The Spanish also tell us that on the edj^cs of this sword were inserted fragments of obsidian as keen as the blades of T(jledo. The blow;; 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 with 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 we have already described. In some places, the defensive works were important. The way the Me.xicans made fortifications was to choose a naturally strong position, such as a hill difficult of access, artificially widenin<^, 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., cha]>. XXIII. ' " Kl Conquistador Anonimo." Collection of Unpublished Documents, vol. I., p. 375. ' " Raccolta di Mendoza," Kingsborough Collection. * The title, or rather the rank, of brave was obtained by some dazzling action. The braves, as amongst the Indians of the present day, took the characteristic names oi Jlesh-eatcrs, f;reat eagles, winged arrows, and such like. t (1 :i 308 PKE'HISTOKIC AMEKJCA. of a connection that may have existed between them.' The costume of the Mexicans consisted of a sleeveless tunic {ntupi/)y fastened to the right slioulder, and of a sasii {»iaxt/a(l) 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 w-ith feathers, the color of which varied accord- ing to the tribe to which the wearer belonged. Clavigero* relates that the soldiers only wore the maxtlatl, and that before going to war they painted their bodies, and especially the face, black. y\lvarado, on the contrar)', 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 {cactlUofaras) resemljled the Indian moccasins. They are reproduced on some of the bas-reliefs of Palenquc. As head-dresses, the warriors wore imitations in wood of the heads of the tiger, wolf, and serpent, covered with the actual skin of tlie animal. The reward of valor in war was the right of wearing, above the ears, one or more partings in the hair. The character of these head-dresses and marks of honor have been preserved to our day by pictography. In Mexico the chiefs were called 'J'lachcautiii, or elder brothers. It was their duty not onh' to lead their soldiers to battle, but to teach them in time of peace their military duties, especially how to handle their weapons. The chiefs- wore, as insignia of their rank, ear-plugs like those of the Mound Builders, and labrets,* 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 ,r.Tanized and supported by subsidiary chiefs, also her'diuir>. The first hints on this subject come from Cortes hiinsf;if {Carta scgiinda, pp. 12 and 13). ' Tezozomoc, /. f., chap. XC, p. 158-9 '' L. c, book VIII., chap. X.XIII. ' A letter of the 28th July, 1524, reproduced by Veytia Mejico," vol. I. *Duran, /. c, chap. XIX., p. i6g. Sahagun, book IX., chap. VI., p. 264 Duran, /. c, chap. LVI., p. 443. ' Hist. Ant. de I . (1 '*'>^:,«ihHWB=::; Tin-. PF.OPl.E OF CF.NTKAl. AMERICA. 309 . :' " In the town of Mexico," he writes, "are .1 considerable number of larj^e and beautiful houses, which arc the resi- dences of all the lords of the country, vassals of Monte- zuma." The almost unanimous accounts of Spanish writer^, unconsciously colored, perhaps, by the impressions or preju- dices of their country, combined to establish this account. Later researches, however, on the contrars', justify us in sup- posing that the goverimient was very democratic, anil that appointments WL-re given by election.' Tlaca-Ticulitli, 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 saine family. Among the Tezcuans this office passed from father to son ; among the A/.tecs, from brother to brother, from uncle to nephew, but the hereditary 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, C'uitla- huatrin." Another chief, also elective, bore ihe grotes(iue title of Chi/tiia-Co/tHiUi, the " female serpent." * Me sat beside the ruler, and it was his duty to preside at the administration of ' n.TiKlflier, /. c, " Report of Peabody Museum," vol. II., pp. 95, 475, 557, 600. 'The titles of king, nobles, court, lords, palaces, etc, are misleading as ap- plied to the chiefs of any .American races. Nothing resembling monarchy in the civilized .sense has ever existed among our aborigines. I5ut this was not re- alized by tl)e Spaniards, who saw, without understanding, the organization of Mexican society, and applied to it terms with which they were familiar, no mat- ter how unsuitable in reality. 'Cortes ("Carta segunda ") makes, it is true, no allusion to it ; but Berna! Diaz de Castillo (" Hist, verdailera do la Conquisla de la Nueva Kspana," chap. XXVI., p. 132), Las Casas (" Brevissima Kelacion," p. 49), Sahagun (book XII., chap. XXI., p. 28), Torquemada (book IV., chap. LXVIII., p. 494), and Herrera (decade II., book X., chap. VIII., p. 264), are unanimous on this point. * This dignity does not appear to have existed until after the .alliance between Mexico, Tezcuco, and Tlacolpan. Duran, chap. XXIV., p. 205 ; Tezozomoc. "Chronica," chap. XXIX., p. 35; Ixtlilxochiil : " Relanlones "; Kingsbor- ough, vol. IX. •i/i .5 • I jio PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. ' ': W- li; justice and the receipt of tribute. According to some, he could never go to war ; according to otlicrs, he commanded the Mexicans, while the Tlaca-Tecuhtli led the allies. The Chihua-Cohuatl alone had the right of wearing a tuft of green feathers on his head, gold rings in his ears and in his lips, an emerald hanging from the cartilage of the nose, gold bracelets, and anklets of rare feathers. On his war costume he also wore a large tress of feathers, which hung down to the waist ; and on such occasions used a little drum to give his orders.' 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- sisting of an agglomeration of clans or Calpulli.^ This organi- zation presents certain resemblances with that which existed in the north of Scotland and Ireland. All the members of the clan, connected by a real or supposed relationship to a commo; . ncestor and bearing the same name, had a collec- ' Duran, /. <■., chap. XIV. and XVI. J. de Acosta, /. r,, chap. XXV., p. 441. ' Torquemada, /. c, book XIV., chap. I., p. 534. • IxthlxochitI : " Hist, Chic. ," chap. XXXVIII. G. de Mendieta : "Hist. Keel. Indiana," Mexico, 1S70, book II., chap. XXVI., p. 129. * Bandelier, /. c, p. 557, etc. I THE PEOPLE OF CENTkAL AMERICA. 311 tive right in the lands of the tribe, which they enjoyed, pay- ing an annual rent to the chief. The Calpulli, true farrilies, doubtless united by a close blood-relationship, were responsible for the acts and the con- duct of their members. These members were bound mutu- ally to defend each other, to avenge injuries done to any one of them, and to support the old, the infirm, and all those incapable of taking part in the common work. There was no such thing as private property, at least with regard to land. The lands, which were called Calpulalli, belonged to the Calpulli, who could neither sell nor exchange them. They were divided at fi.xed periods between all the males of the tribe, with the obligation of cultivating them and of residing within the limits of the Calpulli. Some lands {tlatnilli) were reserved to the chiefs, but neither these chiefs nor their families had any permanent rights in them, and when they gave up ofifice the lands were reabsorbed in the public domain. Other lands {tlatocatlalli) 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 thejr choice, which almost always f^ll upon old men who had submitted, or would have to submit, to a very severe religious initiation, which we are about to describe. As will be seen, this collection of institutions shows no trace of feudalism.' Descent was through the female line, and the family was constituted by the maternal alliances alone. It was not until later that paternal descent was admitted. Marriage existed ; but marriage was forbidden between near relations, and probably between members of the same Calpulli. The position of women was hard ; they became in most respects ' Orozeo y Berra : " Geographia de las lenguas y carta ethnografica de Mexico." 1 J ;'-i m 312 PRE.HISTORIC AMERICA. the property of their husbands. A marriage could, however, be annulled, on the request of the woman, provided that this annulment had the approbation of the Calpulli, and in that case the woman returned to her own family. Every man was bound to marry when he came to the age of twent\- 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 the name she wished given to him ; this name was generally connected cither with the month in which the infant was born or with circumstances of his birth. When his childhood was over the name by which he was henceforth to be known was given to him by the medicine- man, who played a considerable part amongst the Mexican tribes, as he still does alike amongst the Indians of the pueblos and the wandering Indians. A warrior could get a third name by an act of exceptional bravery ; and this name was awarded to him by the Calpulli. The Calpulli was also charged with the education of children. A public building {tiipuchcalli) was set apart for this purpose. All the boys without exception went to it ; manual work, the art of war, the handling of arms, dancing, and singing formed the rudiments of education.' Those amongst the scholars who were strong enough had to cultivate the lands belonging to the Teocallis, which were set aside for the support of the priest and the expenses of public worship. Slavery existed amongst the various tribes of Central America. The man belonging to a Calpulli who refused to marry, or who did not cultivate the lands assigned to him, and the prisoners taken in war, unless they were sacrificed to ' Torquemada, book XIII., chap. XXII., p. 454, et seq. * Gomar.-i: " Hist, de Mexico." Saliagun : " Hist. Gen.," book IH., ciiap. IV., p. 268, chap, v., p. 269, chap. VIII., p. 275. r THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 3'3- the gods, became slaves. They were called tiacolti, literally "bought men." If the s'ave 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 wiis punished by death'; according to Duran, by slavery for life. The man or woman who wore the clothes of the other se.x was also condemned to death. Rape, incest, sodomy, were punished with the same penalty; but for each crime the mode of e.\ecution varied ; the inces- tuous criminal was huntr*; he who violated a child in Michoacan was impaled ; the .sodomite was burned.' He ' Mei)diel.i: " Hist. Ecc. Iii.l.," book II., cliap. XXVII., p. 30. * Bancroft, vol. II., p. 460, i-t stu/. H.nndelier, loi-. (it., p. 623, et seq. ' " Hist. Apol.," App., Kingsl)oiouj;li, vol. VIII. * Torqii email .1, book XII., chap. IV. * In spite of the severity of tiiis 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 Ciand (' Letter included in the Ternaux >ts li m i:1 ^ )■ (.1 '3H PPE-HISTORIC AMERICA. who in a battle took possession of a prisoner taken by an- other, he whose duty it was to cultivate the lands of children or of others unable to till their own ground, and who neglected this duty for two consecutive years, or he who stole gold or silver objects consecrated to the gods, was also punished with death.' The same punishment was given for seducing a woman who had taken a vow of chastity, or a married woman belonging to the same Calpulli. The adul- teress was quartered, and her limbs were divided amongst all the men of the Calpulli. The restitution of the stolen objects made amends for the theft ; but in default of this restitution the thief became a slave for life. Those guilty of calumny had their lips cut. Old men of more than seventy were alone allowed to get drunk ; a drunkard younger than this had his head shaved, and if he held any ofifice he was publicly degraded. Corj- ::eal punishment was rare. It was considered shame- ful even for a slave to be chastised. Pictography, however, shows us a father or a master chastising a child with a whip. There were prisons in the different Tcocallis 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 Comp.ins Collection,' 1st series, vol X., p. 197), could not have wives, j^i/ earttm loco piieros abutebantur. The sin was so common that young and old were infected by it." We must, however, make some allowance for exaggeration. ' Mendieta, /w, rtV., book II., chap. XXIX. Vetancurt : " Teatro Mexi- cano," vol. I., p. 484. ° Teilpiloyan or Tecaltzaqualoyan. Mendieta, loc. cit., chap. XXIX., p. 138. Molina: " Vocabulerio in lengua Castillana y Mexicana," Mexico, 1571, vol. IT., pp. 86-91. THE PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 315 tribes are mentioned which included as many as twenty Calpulli. The tribe was governed by a council composed of dele- gates from each Calpulli (tetoani, orators, or techutatoca, talking chiefs). They met in the tccpan, 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 difTerentes classes de chefs de la Nouvelle Espagne," Ternaux Compans, 2d series, vol. II. •Sahagun, book VIII., chap. XXXVIII., p. 329. Ixtlilxochitl : " Rela- I 5 1 3i6 PKE-HISTONIC AMERICA. ti 1 i ( ^ I 1 i ( ! , i 1 i J We have now summarized the facts actually known of the organization and government of the various people belong- ing to the powerful Nahuatl race, who successively overran Central America, and especially Anahuac. We have still to speak of the ruins, the importance of which becomes each day more apparent, which rise before the eyes of the trav- eller even in deserts and in the midst of forests previously reputed impenetrable. Before touching these new questions, we must not omit one remark which cannot fail to have occurred to the reader. Long before the Spanish conquest the people of America had reached that state to which modern socialism would return, and o' wh'. ■ the latter claims the honor and the profit ; the absence )i all hereditary principles in property as in the fapiih'; communism alike in the pueblo and in the Calpulli ; the om.i "on, ;^^ ige as it may appear, of any name transmitted from father to son which could perpetuate in descendants the glory of ancestors ; the education in common of all children under the sole authority of represen- tatives of the Calpulli; election to all offices and all posts; the merging of the individual for the good of the com- munity. To what did these institutions lead, which igno- rance and theory delight in holding up to the human race as the beacon lights of the future ? To the most complete anarchy ; to struggles without end or truce between tribe and tribe, Calpulli and Calpulli ; to hatred so fierce that the Spanish appeared as liberators, and owed their victory as much to the services of allies, eager to escape from the yoke which weighed them down, as to the courage of their own soldiers. ciones," .ipp., p. 257. Mendieta, book II., chap. XXXVIII., p. 156. It is curious to meet with ceremonies somewhat lilte these amongst the Incas and the Indians of Orinoco (liandelier, /. c, p. 643 and note 171), Ifht' I J.I i CHAPTER VII. THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. In a previous chapter we g^v^e a summary of the best available information about the races who occupied Central America, pushed southward, founding confederacies, build- ing towns, and covering whole regions with their struc- tures, to disappear, leaving hardly a name in history, or a memory in tradition. To complete this study, we must now ascertain what the monuments, or rather the ruins, that time and men have alike been powerless to destroy, can tell us. One preliminary remark must be made. We hardly meet with such grand structures as those of Egypt or Assyria, of India or of China, except under similar circumstances; al- most essential for their erection were a people living under despotic government, and a conquering race forcibly com- pelling a subject people to do the necessary work. The con- querors contributed their taste, their traditions, and their peculiar genius ; the conquered contributed the material elements with their labor and the sweat of their brow. We are hardly yet justified in asserting that similar events took place in America, though we may suspect that the monu- ments still existing had a similar origin. The researches, made at the cost of difficult and often dangerous explorations, have rendered possible some at- tempts at classification ; and we can already distinguish between Maya and Nahuatl architecture ; and among the Mayas themselves, between the style of the buildings of Chiapas and those of Yucatan.' ' Short, " North Americans of Antiquity," p. 340. 317 , A,: ili ; t* ^'i 318 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. The monuments of Palenque ' are justly reckoned amongst the most remarkable in Chiapas. The town stands in the region watered by the Usunacinta, where settled the first immigrants of whom it has been possible to distinguish traces. The position of Palenque, at the foot of the first buttresses of the mountain-chain, on the banks of th-^ 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 Palenque without suspecting its existence ; and it was not till 1 746, that chance led to its discovery by a cure of the neighborhood." We owe the first description of the ruins to Jos6 de Calderon, who had been sent by the Spanish government to examine them. His account is dated December 15, 1764. Since then they have been visited by numerous explorers ; only a year or two ago Charnay returned a second time from Palenque, and the casts taken by him of the hieroglyphics there are among the most curious possessions of the new Trocadoro 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 antigua," 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 cellcs de Mitlaetde Palenque," 3 vol, fol. Paris, 1833. See also Kingsborough, /. c, vols. V. and VI. Waldeck : " Voy. arch, et pittoresque dans la province du Yucatan," fol. Paris, 1838. Stephens & Catherwood : " Incidents of Travel in Central America," New York, 1841 ; "In Yucatan," New York, 1858, by the same authors. lirasseur de Bourbourg: " Recherches sur les ruines de Palenque avec les dessins de Waldeck," fol. Paris, 1866. Bancroft, /. c, vol. IV., p. 28g, 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. 'tm iMfa THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AAfERICA. 3J9 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 are others, but of less impor- tance. Dupaix speaks of eleven buildings still standing, and a few years before A. del Rio mentioned twenty ; Waldeck says eighteen, and Maler, who visited the ruins of Palenque in 1877, fixes the number of the temples or palaces at twelve. These contradictions are more apparent than real, and are explained by the different impressions of each traveller, and the divisions he thought it necessary to adopt. The palace, the most important building of Palenque, rests on a truncated pyramid ' about forty feet high, the base of which measures from three hundred and ten feet by two hundred and sixty. The inside of this pyramid is of earth ; the external faces are covered with large slabs ; steps lead up to the principal building, which forms a quadrilateral of two hundred and twenty eight feet by one hundred and eighty"; the walls, which are two or three feet thick, are of rubble, crowned by a frieze framed between two double cornices. Inside as well as outside they are covered with a very fine and durable stucco, painted red or blue, black or white. The principal front faces the east ; it includes fourteen entrances about nine feet wide, separated by pilasters ornamented with figures. These figures measure more than six feet high, and are full of movement ; while above the head of each are hieroglyphics inlaid in the stucco (fig. 123). Some day, perhaps, a key to them will be 'Some subterranean galleries have been made out iu the interior of the pyramid. These pyramids, which remind us of the work of the Mound Builders, are the most striking characteristics of the architecture of Central America. "Stephens, /. c, vol. II., p. 310; Waldeck: "Palenque," pi., II.; Armcn (" Das heutige Mexico ") gives a ground-plan and an attempt at restora- tion of the temple. Bancroft also gives an attempt at restoration (/. (., vol. IV., p. 323). li \\ 320 PRE-HISTORIC AMEKICA. discovered and the history of Palenque be revealed. Nu- merous masonry niches in the wall merit special atten- tion on account of their resemblance to the letter T or rather the Egyptian /««.' 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 l'"iG. 123. — Stucco bas-relief from Palenque. -used for supplying the passage-ways with air and light of which they stood in great need. ' " As for the figures of tau, so numerous in the buildings, ornaments, bas- reliefs, and even in the form of the lights, although it is impossible to pronounce an opinion on this point in the present state of our knowledge, we cannot avoid noticing it." Jomard : Bull. Soc. Gdog., de Paris, vol. V., series II., p. 6ao. One of the bas-reliefs of the palace figured by Bancroft (/. c. THE KUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 321 The inside of the palace corresponds with the magnifi- cence of the outside ; there are galleries forming a peristyle all round the court ; and the rooms are decorated with granite bas-reliefs (fig. 124), grotesque figures, some thirteen feet high. The drawing and the anatomical proportions are tolerably correct, and the expression of the figures speaks well for the skill of the artis*- ; but the execution is weak, suggesting an art in decadence rather than the ruggedness of one in its infancy.' ^ «uTir Fig. 124. — Bas-relief of the palace of Palenque. These rooms were united by corridors ; we reproduce a section of one of them (fig. 125), which will give an idea of the mode of its construction. The architects of Palenque were ignorant of the arch, and their vaults were formed of over-sailing courses, one above the other, as in the cyclopcan monuments of Greece and Italy. vol. IV., p. 317) is a figure wearing an ornament in the form of thf ' >.. In chapter VIII, we mention some windows which are also of this lorm in the Yucay valley, Peru. We know that the tau, in Egyptian hieroglyphics, signifies life. Max Uhlman : " Handbuch der gesamten Aegyptischen alterthumskunde," vol. I., p. 108. ' Viollet le Due, in Charnay : " Cites et Ruines Americaines," Int., p. 74. <■•! ] 322 /'A' A- HIS TOKIC A Ml'. KICA . 1/ r.i; ii m The buildirifT is finished off with a tower of three stories, measuring thirty feet square at the base. Here, too, we find symbolical decorations, which are very rich and in a very good state of preservation. There is nothing to indicate the age of this palace ; it was, as we have said, abandoned at the time of the Spanish conquest, at which epoch, moreover, none of the races peopling America were in the habit of constructing similar buildings. We can, howcv' r, fix a cer- tain limit to its age ; for, with tropical rains lasting six months a year, and the luxurious vegetation which fills all the crevices, no monument could last for a number of cen- turies, such as is attributed, for instance, to the buildings of Egypt ; and the most daring conjectures do not admit of Fig. 125, — Section of a double corridor at I'alenque. our dating the monuments of Palenque earlier than the first centuries of our era.' After this last visit, indeed, Charnay no longer accepts so remote a date as that, but thinks that all the monuments of Yucatan are the work of the Toltecs, and were built between the twelfth and fourteenth cen- turies." It is impossible that these delicate ornaments, made of little lozenge-shaped bits of cement stuck on to the wall, could have longer resisted the effects of a destructive ' Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 362, note 68) gives a list of all the hypotheses as to the date of the foundation of Palenque. They vary from the date of the deluge to the fifteenth century of the Christian era. The margin, it will be seen, is wide. 'Bull. Soc. Gdogr., November, 1881. %\-- V THE RUINS OF CENTRAL A Af ERIC A. 323 ,. climate. Another no less important remark must be made. The staircases are new, the steps are whole, the e(l;;cs are sharp ; nowhere do we see any traces of wear and tear, the certain proofs of lonjj habitation.* The conclusion is inevi- table ; the people of Palenquc, for reasons which are still unknown, evacuated the town soon after the construction of the chief buildings. The size of the trees overgrowing the roofs and the pyra- mids had hitherto been accepted as a conclusive proof of the antiijuity of these buildings. It was by relying upon such evidence that Waldeck spoke of 2,000 years ; and Lar- rainzar speaks of one tree amongst the ruins, on which he was able, with the help of a microscope, to count as many as 1,700 concentric circles, to which, founding his opinion on the formerly received data, he assigned an antiquity of 1,700 years. But here again Charnay comes to totally dif- ferent conclusions. He had a shrub nit down, eighteen months old at most, and found in it eighteen of these cir- cles. His first thought was, that he had come upon an anomaly ; but after having several trees of different kinds and sizes cut down, he found in all of them similar phenom- ena in similar proportions. Nor is this all ; at the time of his first visit to Palenque in 1859, Charnay had the trees hiding the ruins cut down, so as to take more exact photographs. Other trees grew up in their places, which trees must have been twenty-two years old in 1 88 1. On a section of one of these, rather more than two feet in diameter, he counted 230 concentric circles. This is an important fact of vegetable physiology, and proves that we cannot estimate the age of trees in the tropics by the same process as we do that of those in northern lati- tudes (which for that matter also afford but imperfect evi- dence), and the chief proof of the antiquity of the buildings of Palenque falls through completely. It would take too long to describe the other monuments of Palenque, which are known under the name of temples.' ' The great temple of Palenque bears a curious resemblance to that of Boro- Boudor, in the island of Java, Edinburgh Review, April, 1867. i 324 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. %* * We must, however, mention one of them, situated on the other bank of the Otolum, and known under the name of the Temple of the Cross. It rises from a truncated pyra- mid and forms a quadrilateral with three openings in each face, separated by massive pilasters, some ornamented with hieroglyphics and some ornamented with human figures. The frieze is also covered with human figures, and amongst those still visible Stephens mentions a head and two torso^>, which, in their perfection of form, recall Greek art. The openings, all at right angles, lead into an inside gallery com- municating with three little rooms. The central one of these rooms contains an altar, which fairly represents an open chest, ornamented with a little frieze with a margin. From the two upper extremities of this frieze spring two wings, recalling the mode of ornamentation so often em- ployed in tlie pediments of Egyptian monuments.' Above the altar was originally placed the tablet of the cross (fig. 126), which was afterward torn from its position by the hand of a fanatic, who chose to see in it the sacred sign of the Christian faith, miraculously preserved by the ancient inhabitants of the palace. The tablet was taken down and then abiuidoned, we know not why, in the midst of the forest covering part of the ruins. Here it was that the Americans discovered part of it, took possession of it, and carried it to Washington, where it forms part of the collection of the National Museum.'' The centre represents a cross, resting upon a hideous figure, and surmounted by a grotesque bird. On the right, a figure on foot is offering presents; on the left, another figure, in a stiff attitude, seems to be [)raying to the divinity. The costume of these two persons is unlike any that is now in use ; and above their heads we can make out several hieroglyphical characters. A slab on the right is also covered with them. In the present state of knowledge it is impossible to make ' Charnay, he. cit.. p. .jiy, from whom we borrow the greater part of these details. Del K\o, Inc. cif.,p. 17. Waldeck, plate XX. .Stephens, lee, cit., vol. II., p. 344. "Ch. Rail : "The Palenque Tablet," Smith Cont., vol. XXII. r. M^ THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 325 out whether these i.iscriptions 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 !ilS^B!SCT» P'iG. 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 arc figures exactly like those of the temple of ^Nature, October 4, 1S79. , r m 'It , I ■ 1' ', 3 a V U a -a s I 396 THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 327 # the cross. Evidently this was a hieratic type, from which the artist was not allowed to de- part. The existence of the cross at Palenque, on one of the monu- ments of an earlier date than the introduction of Christianity, is not an isolated fact. Palacio, the judicial assessor, saw at Co- pan a cross, with one of its arms broken'; the Jesuit Ruiz men- tions one in Paraguay ; Garci- lasso de la Vega, another at Cuzco ; and we have previously referred to several examples. The cross is supposed to have been looked upon as the sym- bol of the creative and fertili/iing power of nature, and in several places was honored by sacrifices of quails, incense, and lustral water. We cannot leave tne ruins of Palenque without mentioning a statue (fig. 128), remarkable for more than one reason.'' The calm and smiling expression of the face resembles that of some of the Egyptian statues ; the head-dress is a little like that of the Assyrians ; there is a necklace around the neck ; the Statue from Pelanque. ' " Carta dirigada al Rey de Espaiia 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 !l .>?; If 1 ' 1 1' > I" ^t PRE-HISTOKIC AMERICA. figure presses upon its bosom an instrument, and rests its left hand upon an ornament, the meaning of both of which it is difificult to imagine. The pHnth of the statue has a cartouch with a hieroglyphical inscription, ' probabh- giving the name of the god or hero to whom it was dedi- cated. There is a very distinct resemblance in some of <-hese hieroglyphics to those of Egypt. We mention this without however trying to solve, by a few accidental resemblances, the great problem of the origin of races, still less to establish the existence of a connection between the inhabitants of Egypt and those of Central America at the comparatively recent date of the erection nf the monuments of Palcnque. Two races successively bore the name of Quiche. The old Quiches of ]\Iaya origin, to whom Ave owe the monu- ments of Copan and of Quirigua, and the Cakchiquel Quiches, who were probably descended from the first, but had been greatly modified by various Nahuatl influences. These latter still existed as a people at the time of the Spanish invasion ; they offered vigorous resistance to the Conquistadores, and their capital, Utatlan, was taken and destroyed. Copan is now a miserable village, a short distance from the ruins, famous alone for the excellence of its tobacco, which rivals that of Cuba. The ancient town was situated at the foot of the mountains separating Guatemala from Honduras," on the Rio Copan, a tributary of the Motagua, which flows into the Bay of Honduras. Its ruins have long been overgrown by the dense vegetation of the forests, which can only be penetrated with axe in hand; hence the oblivion in which they have so long been shrouded, and in which they still remain in spite of their great interest. They * In the various hieroglyphics that we reproduce, the existence can be made out of several dots in regular order, separated by a stroke from the rest of the inscription ; this is perhaps a key for a future Champollion. 'The ruins arc situated in N. Lat. 14' 45' and W.Long. 90° 52'. Copan has sometimes been confounded with the town which in 1530 offered so heroic a resistance to Hernandez de Chiaves. I .1 ■' 3 a CI it .no 330 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. t .,< jlf-nt are first mentioned in a letter addressed in 1576 to King Philip II., by Diego de Palacio ; but it is to Stephens that we owe the only complete description in existence, and it is this description which is referred to by the Abb6 Brasseur de Bourbourg, who visited Copan in 1863 and 1866.' In their present state the ruins cover an area of 900 feet by i,6cx). The walls, built of immense blocks of stone, and partly destroyed by the roots ol **"ees 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 archajologists." In one of the rooms of the palace Col. Galindo discovered several ' Besides those whom \vc 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. Soc. Gc'og. 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. 'G.ilindo. " Am. Ant. Soc. Tran^..." vol, II., p. 547. li Fig. 130. — Statue found amongst the ruins of Copan, 331 M 1 ^ I i' 'it.'/ 1^' \i :i :.;! r 332 PRE-mSTORIC AMERICA. vases of red earth, containing bones mixed with lime.' 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 grotcsqueness of the design, the rich- ness of the ornamentation, or the delicacy of the execution. We may also mention an alligator, holding in its mouth a figure with a human head and the extremities of an animal ; and a gigantic toad with feet ending in the nails of a cat. On the faces of one of the pyramids included in the perime- ter of the principal enclosure are rows of heads (fig. 131). Some of these are skulls,' others the heads of monkeys, which animals are very numerous in the neighborhood, and may have been the objects of the veneration, or even of the worship, of the inhabitants. A human face (fig. 132) found near the temple, also deserves to be reproduced. The in- habitants of Copan have left their portraits in the bas-reliefs, they have hewn them out of hard stone, they have modelled them in earthenware. The desire of perpetuating his memory is a feeling innate in man ; we meet with it in every clime and through every age. The whole of Yucatan is covered with interesting ruins. In the north are Izamal, Ake, Merida, Mayapan ; in the centre, Uxmal, Kabah, Labna, and nineteen other towns, the extent of which attest their importance ; and in the east, Chichen-Itza, one of the wonders of America. The south- ern districts, especially that bordering on Guatemala, are less known, but it has already been ascertained that brilliant dis- coveries are reserved to explorers in the province of Itur- ^Bull. Soc. Geog., vol. V., 2d series, Paris. 1836. * These 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 the ruins themselves have almost entirely dis- appeared. Stephens: " Yucatan," vol. II., p. 348. ' THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 333 bide. " That extensive ruins yet lie hidden in these unex- plored regions can hardly be doubted ; indeed, it is by no means certain that the grandest cities, even in the settled and partially explored part of the peninsula, have yet been described." ' Bancroft's prediction has been verified, and while this volume was in press, Charnay discovered, on the borders of the province of Pachualko, and of the country claimed by Guatemala, a town in ruins, containing monu- ments of the same style as those of Palenque. The origin and the name of this town are alike entirely unknown, and Charnay thought himself authorized to call it Lorillard City. The decoration consists chiefly of stucco, which is in a very bad con- dition ; the skilful explorer was, however, able to remove five bas- reliefs, and take casts 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 preliminary remark must be made. There are notable 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. ^Hatny: Soc. of Geog., meeting of January 2, 1882. Fig. 131. — Head of a monkey on a pyramid at Copan. 'Ill i f I . { 334 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. Aryan race at Palenque. They sensibly resemble it at Chichen-Itza. Lastly, it is only in the monuments of Yuca- tan that we can trace the influence of earlier construction in wood.' *' Nothing," adds Charnay, after his first exploration, "can vie with the richness, grandeur, and harmony of the buildings of Uxmal. It is not improbable that the founders of the ancient towns of Yucatan were descended from the inhabitants of Palenque, or at least that their civilization grew out of that much more ancient one." Fig. 132. — Fragment found near ihe temple of Copan. To these very just remarks we must add, that at Copan these differences can already be established. The sculp- tures, and the ornaments covering them, differ from those of Palenque, and more nearly approach those we are about to describe at Uxmal and at Chichen-Itza. Here, then, we have the point of union between two modes of structure, which differ in appearance alone. The origin of the name of Uxmal is unknown. The ruins are about thirty-five miles from Merida, and cover a consid- ' Viollet-le-Duc, Int., p. 97, after Charnay: "Cites et Ruines Ameii- caines." We must say, however, in regard to the reference he makes to tlie Aryans, that so far there is nothing to justify any one in connecting the Aryan with the American races. THE KUIXS OF CliNTA'AL AMERICA. 33S crable area.' The Casa del Gobertiador {^g. 133), the most remarkable of all, rises from a natural eminence artificially enlarged by means of rubble masonry, and cut by three suc- cessive terraces ; the walls arc of rough stone, cemented with very hard mortar. The Casa itself is three hundred and twenty-two feet long by thirty-nine wide and about twenty-six high. The interior includes a double corridor, the section of which recalls that which we have described at Palenque (fig. 125), and several rooms of very varying di- mensions. The walls of these rooms are of rough stone, without traces of painting or sculpture ; in one or two places only are there traces of plaster. The doors were surrounded with lintels of sapotilla wood, and one of these lintels, cov- ered with finely under-cut ornaments, is in the National Museum at Washington. All the richness of ornamentation was reserved for the external walls. At about one third of the height a frieze runs round the building, presenting a series of curved lines, arabesques, and ornaments of every kind of execution, as capricious as it is grotesque.' Amongst these ornaments Greek frets are prominent; this type of ornament, so com- mon for centuries in Europe, furnishes yet another proof of the similarity of the genius of man, everywhere and at all times, as manifested in the least important of his works. Amongst these ornaments some elephant-trunks are sup- posed to have been made out ; this would be a curious fact,' if true, for the elephant was certainly not living in America at the time of the erection of the monuments of Uxmal. His memory must then have been preserved in a permanent tradition, and it is possible that this may turn out to be an ' VValdeck : " Voy. pittoresque et arch, dans la Prov. de Yucatan," foL, Paris, 1838. Norman: " Rambles in Yucatan," New York, 1843. Baron von Friederickstahl : " Les Monuments du Yucatan," 1841. Charnay : " Cite's et Ruines 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. .^A.M t I' nml ii ; ■ ^ "h Ml;!' i!1 " ■ - |H. 33^> PRE-llISTORlC AMERICA. iiulicMtion of the Asiatic orii^in of tin; civilization under notice. Other animals also served as models to the workmen ; at the Casa dc Tortuguas the decoration consists of an imitation of j)alisades formed of round wooden posts. Tortoises in relief are the sole interruption to the horizontal line of the upper frieze. In front of the palace, a round stone several yards high, 1 1 ■srs Fig. 133. — Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal. without ornaments, without even a trace of human workman- ship, rises like a column ; other similar stones were erected in various parts of the town. Some think these are ph;i 'Ir emblems, and hence conclude that the ancient peo Yucatan were devotees of the phallic cultus. But Bi ur de Bourbourg (/. c, vol. IV., p. 67) tells us that the n.i. > ''s call these stone /iVtf/w and think they were intended to be THE KUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA, 337 used as whipping-posts. Would it not be more natural to look upon these stones as gnomons, similar to those we shall have to describe later in speaking of the monuments of Peru ? The Casa dc Monjas is looked upon as the most remark- able building of Central America. It presents considerable resemblance with the Casa del Gobcrnador. 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 inhabitants, protected by their poverty, or perhaps by the sanctity of the spot, lived in complete security. The outer walls are adorned with a vast frieze in which the grandeur and originality of native art arc alike displayed. "Every alternate door" says Charnay (p. 364), "is sur- rounded by a niche of marvellous workmanship ; these were to be occupied by statues. As for the frieze itself, it is a remarkable collection of pavillions in which curious figures of idols grow, as if by accident, out of the arrangement of .stones, and remind us of the enormous sculptured heads of the palace of Chichen-Itza ; finely executed curved bands in stone serve as frames to them, and vaguely suggest hiero- glyphic characters ; then follows a succession of Greek frets of large size, alternating at the angles with squares and little rosettes of admirable finish." It is estimated that all these sculptures cover an area of twenty-four thousand square feet ; no two are alike, and the artist has everywhere been able to give free scope to his imagination. The western building is the most remarkable of this col- lection of structures but unfortunately a great part of it has crumbled away. The left wing, Casa dc la Cidcbra, still ' The measurements of these buildings given by different explorers differ con- siderably among themselves. Bancroft (vol. IV., p. 174) gives them all. We refer the reader to him. !'(' 'I , t i [■nil 33« PRE-HIS TORIC AMERICA. standing, represents a huge rattlesnake, running all along tlic (acade, the interlacing coils of its body serving as frames tt) 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 ; tins fact woukl 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 dc Monjas is quite unknown. It has, however, been supposed that it was the residence of Ma}a virgins, who, like the Roman vestals or the Peruvian Mamacunas, kept up the sacred fire. There is notiiing either to confirm or to contradict this idea. Amongst the other buildings of Uxm^il, we will mention the Casa del Adi- viiio, 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 Eiiaito, or "house of the dwarf," says Charnay, "consists of a structure with two in- ner rooms and a sort of chapel below. This little piece is chiselled like a jewel." Waldeck (p. 96) says it is a master- l)iece of art and elegance. " Loaded with ornaments more rich, nunc elaborate and carefully executed han those of any other edifice in Uxmal." * Besides these there are the ToIokJi-cis, or holy mountain, and the Kingsborough pyramid. At a short distance from the town are other ruins, dating probably from ihe same jieriod, of the same style of architecture, and rising invariab.y from mounds which form a lower platform. This was evidently a general custom, and extended from the temple of the gods to the chief's houses. 'Charnay, /. c, p. 367. 'Waldeck, /.<-., pi., XIII and XVIII. 'Stephens; " Yucatan," vol, II., i.. 30. * Stephens : "Yucatan," vol. 1., ]>. 313 J THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 339 In describing the shell-heaps, mounds, and cliff-dwcIlings, we had frequent occasion to speak of the stone or bone in- struments or fragments of pottery bearing witness to the presence of man. We have no similar discovery to relate, either at Palenque, Copan, Uxmal, or the other towns of which w^e shall have to speak, and the excavations hitherto made have only yielded a few flints and still fewer fragments Fli;. 134.— Portioi ;il Kahah. of pottery. It is, however, impossible that such monuments could have been created without an important population and a long residence. Why have the weapons, imi)Iements, and vases disappeared.? Why do the graves of the builders of the monuments render up none of their bones ? No re- ply is as yet possible ; we can but collect facts, leaving those who shall come after us the task of drawing conclusions from 340 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. V '/,; •i?l % them. It is likely, however, that the mere rubbish heaps might, as ir civilized cities, have been removed to a distance for sanitary reasons. VVc must recollect that the ruins of an ordinary town would yield few weapons or implements to an excavator five centuries hence. The ruins of Kabah and Labna, very near those of Ux- mal, deserve a moment's attention. At Kabah a pyramid measuring l8o square feet at the base, and a portico (iig. 134) recalling a Roman structure, rise before the traveller. How did this souvenir of ancient Rome come to be in the midst of a solitude in the New World ? And how can we help ad- miring the marvellous unity of the genius of 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 chief building was covered with stucco ornaments, which are breaking off and rapidly disappearing. One can still make out a row of skulls, some bas-reliefs representing human figures, and a globe of considerable di- ameter upheld by two men, one of 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 chichen, opening of a well, and It^a, 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. 16 : " The summits of the neighboring hills are napped with gray, broken walls for many luiles around." Norman : " Ram- bles in Yucatan," p. 150. , IP ^eui iC^ THE HUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 341 d a c- lew liUs km- tion of the latter in tlie fifteenth century, it managed to maintain its independence, and it was not until two centuries after the conquest, on the 13th of March, 1697, that it was taken by the Spanish and given over to pillage ; from this period dates its complete destruction.' Over an area of several miles we see nothing but artificial mounds, overturned columns, of which no less than 480 bases have been counted, broken sculptures, rude colon- nades, the length of which astonishes us, and masses of rubbish, the last form assumed by the monuments that man, in his pride, thought he had built for eternity. Chichen was one of the chief religious centres of Yucatan ; hence its importance and the number and magnificence of its temples and buildings.' Amongst those still standing, we may mention the circus, castle, palace of the nuns, the Caracol or sjjiral staircase, and the Chichanchob, or the Red house, as they are now called. The circus was probably nothing but a gymnasium, in which the young men met for trials of strength, skill, and agilit)'. The monument formerly included two parallel pyramids, extending about 350 feet. That on the left, still well preserved, is covered with paintings. These represent processi(5ns of warriors or of priests, some carrying weapons ; some offerings ; they have black beards, and they wear strange head-dresses on their heads, and wide tunics on their shoulders. The colors employed are black, red, yellow, and white. The bas-reliefs are remarkable ; all the faces are of the present Yucatan type, a* >) contrast strongly with the pointed heads and retreating foreheads represented at Palenque, and which are said to be still met with amongst the inferior mountain races. ' Lamia, Bishop of Merida, who died in 1570 : " Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan," p. 340. Friedrickstahl : " Nouv. Aniiales ties Voyages," 1841, p. 300,^/ scq. Stephens: " Yiuiatan," vol. II., p. 2S2. Norman: "Rambles in Yucatan," p. 104. Charnay, /. r. , p. 339. Baron Friederichstahl vi.sited the ruins in 1840, .Stephens and Norman in 1842, Charnay, in 1858. ' " A city which I hazard liiile in saying must have been one of the largest the world has over seen." Norman: " Rambles," p. 108. il ■■(:'! 342 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. The palace of the nuns rests upon a base of masonry 32 feet high, and 160 by 112 wide. The building, which is reached by a wide staircase, was two stories high ; the walls arc ornamented with rich sculptures, similar to those of Uxmal, and the door has an ornamentation of stone tur- rets, which we cannot better compare than with Chinese or Japanese structures. A protestant missionary, Hardy, has ("Indian Monachism," p. 122) called attention to the resem- blance between the buildings of Chichen and the topes or dagobas of the Buddhists. Fig. 135. — Jamb orriiiment of a door of the castle at Chichen-Itza. Inside is a room forty-seven feet long, with walls coated with plaster, on which can be made out, though they have suffered greatly from damp, some men crowned with feathers. The name of castle has been given to a pyramid the base of which measures 197 feet by 202. Its height is 75 feet, and it ends in a pLttforrn reached by a staircase, enclosed by a balustrade, covered with serpents' heads ; from this plat- form rises a building 49 feet by 43, the chief door of which faces northward. The jambs of this door are of stone and w-A THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 343 covered with sculptures. We reproduce one of these bas- reliefs (fig. 135), which may give an idea of the face and the head-dress of the inhabitants. The ornament fastened to the nose is particularly characteristic. The internal arrange- ment, of which the ground-plan (fig. 136) enables us to judge, differs from any thing we have yet noticed. The Chichanchob,' or Red house, (fig. 137) is the best-pre- served monument of Chichen. It includes only one dwell- ing, placed on a pyramid of moderate height, with three doors facing west, lighting a gallery of the same height as the structure. This gallery gives access to three rooms which are only lighted through their doors. Charnay, who mentions this, adds that he has never noticed any win- dows in the numerous ruins of Yucatan visited by him. The Caracol is a circular building only twenty-two feet in diameter. The inside re- calls the estufas met with among the Cliff Dwellers, and consists of a mass of masonry with a very narrow double corridor. The building rises from two artificial terraces placed one upon the other. Fig. 136. — Ground plan of tlie castle of Cliiclien-Itza. a, square pillars in the centre of the principal room. *, columns supporting the northern door. The lower terrace, according to Stephens, measures two hun- dred and twenty-three feet by one hundred and fifty, the up- per terrace thirty feet by fifty-five. A flight of twenty steps, forty-five feet in length, leads from the first to the second, and is ornamented with a balustrade which represents inter- laced serpents. The serpent plays an important part in the architecture of Chichen-ltza. We meet it at every turn, and it is not difficult to see in it a religious symbol. We cannot exaggerate the richness of the sculptures ; the ' We do not know why the Indians give to this building the name of la Car-eel, the prison. ,* I v'' m 344 PRE-IIISTORIC AMERICA. church built for the Indians is filled with bas-reliefs taken from these ruins. The paintings are even more numerous than the sculptures; everywhere can be made out long pro- cessions of men and animals, defiles, battles, struggles be- tween a man and a tiger or a serpent, trees, houses.' One of these pali tings on the walls of the circus represents a boat somewhat resembling a Chinese junk, and is the only example thus far known of the mode of navigation of these ancient people. Stephens says, speaking of this boat, " that it is the greatest gem of aboriginal art which, on the whole continent of America, now survives." "-{.■ulU'l* Fig. 137. — Chichanchob at Chidien-Itza. Nor are hieroglyphics wanting. In form they resemble those of Copan. Like the latter they are still undeciphered, and we know of but one exception, which we quote with all due reserviition, and then only since it has been published by the authority of an important scientific body, the American Antiquarian Society." ' Stcpliens : "Yucatan," vol. II., pp. 303, 305. "Salisbury: "The Maya.s, the Sources of their History," Worcester, 1S7;. "Maya Arch.," Worcester, 1879. .Short: "North Americans," pp. 396. et seq. Letter of Dr. I.e Plongeon, of Jan. 15, 1878. Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc, Oct. 21, 187S. !1 THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 345 Before relating this discovery it will be well to tell the le<;end on which it is founded. Chaak Mool, also known under the name of Balain, the tiger chief, was one of three brothers who shared between them the government of Yucatan. He had married Kinich Katmo, a woman of marvellous beauty, who inspired Aak, one of lier brothers-in- Fig. 138. — Bas-relief found by Dr. Le I'longeon at Chichen-Itza. law, with ardent love. Tliis Aak, to obtain her hand, did not hesitate to have her hi'sband 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 ])aintings representing the chief events in his life and the sad scene of his death. In one of Ifil H If ' 346 PRE.IIISTORIC AMERICA. these paintings Aak holds in his hand three spears, which symbolize the three wounds inflicted on his brother. The Assyrian type is supposed by some to be recognizable in the three personages who arc represented three quarters of the size of life. Beside them we see three tall men, with rather small heads, thick lips, and woolly hair, in which some see examples of the negro type. Dr. Le Plongeon, who visited the ruins of Chichen-Itza in 1875 tells us that he succeeded in deciphering part of the hieroglyphics accompanying the figures; from which he learned that the tomb of Chaak Mool was to be found at a i V > F" \ % i i^ i Fig. 139. — Statue of Chaak Mool, found at Chichen-Itza. place pointed out, about 435 yards from the palace. Ex- cavations were undertaken, and succcessively brought to light several bas-reliefs, representing feline animals or birds of prey (fig. 138); a figure in the form of a tiger with a human face ; about twenty feet lower down a stone urn, with a terra-cotta lid, filled with ashes which no one seems to have thought of analyzing; and lastly the statue of a man reclining upon a sepulchral stone (fig. 139). The type of the face, the costume, the head-dress, do not resemble those seen, either at Chichen-Itza or in the other towns of Yuca- tan ; and to specify one point only, the sandals are like those THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 347 found on the feet of the Guancho mummies of the Canary Islands. Dr. Le Plongeon was not to reap the fortunate result of his excavations ; the Mexican Government took possession of the statue, which is now in the National Museum of Mexico. This is not an isolated discovery ; several similar statues arc known, one of which, also part of the collections of the National Museum, was found in Mexico itself; another comes from Tlascala ; and a smaller Chaak Mool from Mcrida. This recurrence of the same figure at different places, at a distance from each other, leads us to suppose that it represents not a legendary king of Chichcn-Itza, but an as yet unknown divinity. This is Charnay's feeling. " The statue of Yucatan," he tells us, " cannot represent a king, for it is impossible to admit that a king of Yucatan was venerated as a god at Mexico or at Tlascala." " Man\- p;igcs would be required to describe all the innumer- able ruins covering Yucatan"; worthy of mention is a gigantic head, the Cam Gigantcsca (fig. 140) which is re- markable for its expression ; it is made of a kind of coarse rubble masonry, the blocks of which have been skilfully turned to account by the sculptor in forming the cheeks, mouth, nose, and eyes ; the head has been finished in a stucco so hard as to have lasted for centuries. This head is seven feet high. Charnay mentions another, of the same Cyclopean character, surrounded by strange ornaments ; it is larger than the one we reproduce, being twelve feet high. In a second journey Charnay discovered a bas-relief, which he characterizes as more beautiful than any that have as ' Letter from the Rev. John Butler, of the loth of October, 1878. Butler looks upon the statue found at Mexico as more ancient than those of Chichen ; but as he does not give the grounds for his opinion, we cannot do more than quote it. See also Short, /. c, p. 399. Revue d' Ethnographic, vol. I., p. 163. "^ Revue d^ Ethnographic, vol. I., p. 167. ' We should perhaps mention Ake, with its cyclopean walls, made of huge blocks of rough stone, which Stephens, one of the few explorers who have visited tliem, considers the most ancient ruius of the district. (" Yucatan," vol. I., p. 127. If 348 PRE-IIIS TORIC A M ERICA . t, :' I . I* Pi' if \ I '31 1 1 yet been found. The chief subject, unfortunately damaged, represents a feline animal with a human head, perfectly modelled. On the left of the animal are some grotesque decorations, reminding us of the ornaments of Palenqueand Uxmal.' The head figured was discovered at Izamal, one of the sacred towns of Yucatan, where Zamna, the compan- ion and disciple of Votan, is said to be buried. According to the accounts of the Indians, the prophet Zamna was buried beneath several pyramids. That on the northeast I''lG. 140. — Caia Giganlesca fouiitl at Izamal. {Kab-iil, the industrious hand) contains his right hand. The head is buried beneath the norther" pyramid {Kitiich- Kaknio the sun with rays of fire). The heart is beneath the third, from which now rises a church and Franciscan convent. This pyramid is called Ppapp-hol-chak, the house of heads and lightnings. It is to Zamna that the Yucatccs ascribed all their pro- gress ; tradition attributes to him the invention of hiero- glyphic writing, and he was the first to teach the people to give a name to men and to things. ' Letter from Merida of the 28th, Jan. 1SS2. Rev. tVEthn., vol. I., p. 160. THE RUINS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 349 Besides the Cara Gigantesca, Izamal possesses several pyramids. One of them is from 700 to 800 feet long, and contains, like the pyramids of Egypt, several chambers ; it is considered the most important building in the district.' These pyramids are rapidly disappearing; Bishop Landa' counted eleven or twelve at the time of the conquest, and even then the temples crowning them were in ruins. The accounts of Spanish historians' leave no doubt of the existence of roads, made for the convenience of travel- lers, and above all to give access to the religious centres. Some of them extended beyond the limits of Yucatan, and stretched into the neighboring kingdoms of Guate- mala, Chiapas, and Tabasco. Some of these roads were paved ; such were the Calzadas spoken of by CogoUudo and Bishop Landa, which led to Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, Izamal, and to Tihoo, the ruins of which have been used to build the modern town of Merida. These last highways measure from between seven and eight yards- in width ; they are made of blocks of stone, covered with very well-preserved mortar and a layer of cement about two inches thick. The rivers were spanned by bridges of masonry ; Clavigcro,* who traversed the whole of Mexico during the last century, speaks of having seen still standing, in many places, the massive piers intended to support them. We will close what we have to say of the Maya monu- ments with one general observation : Their number and their dimensions, the taste governing their design and the richness of their ornamentation, strike even the most super- ficial observer. The progress made by these little known races in ceramic art, the manufacture of textile fabrics and embroidery, and all the technical or industrial arts is not less remarkable. There is no doubt that, at the time of the arrival of the II ' Stephens : "Yucatan," vol. II., p. 434. ' " Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan," p. 326. ' Landa, /. c, p. 344. Cogolludo : " Hist, de Yucatan," p. 193. Chamay '" Cites et Ruines Americaines," p. 321. * "Storia antica del Messico," vol. II., p. 371. !:ii It' ill ,» I ! .1 Li i 350 PRE-HISTORIC AMERICA. Spaniards, the Indians were in some respects superior to the Conquistadores ; but the latter had iiorses and gunpowder, and were, moreover, endowed with a superior energy. The Indians succumbed in an unequal struggle, and rapidly bi came the prey of the nwiricious strangers, incapable even of understanding the culuire they were about to destroy. The buildings erected by the Nahuas were, according to historians, more important than those of the Mayas. We have described the courts of' the rulers of Tenotchitlan and Tczcuco : thcirdwellings 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, "vere the chief causes of a destruction for ever irreparable. The ruins that still re- main standing, sole witnesses of the past, add to our regrets. It would be impossible to describe or even to enumerate them all. We therefore select from them such as may serve as a type of Nahuatl architecture, and best help us to un- derstand the manners and religion of the Nahuas. The pyramid of Cholula' is situated in a miserable village, about ten miles from Puebla