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TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Volume XVII.— 1895. 

Page. 

American Anthropology Compared with the Asiatic. 

E, B. Tylar, .... 18 

An Aboriginal War Club (Illustrated). 

James Wickersham, 72 

Anthropomorphic Divinities (Illustrated). 

Stephen D. Peet, . . 79 

A Little Known Civilization. . James Deans, . . . 208 

Ancient Mounds in Northern Minnesota. 

T.H. Lewis, . . . .316 
Archceological Notes. — 

Discovery of an Ancient Cemetery in Rome; The Peabody 
Museum; Honduras Expedition to Yucatan; Guatemalan An- 
tiquities; Maya Hieroglyphics; The Palenque Tablet, ... 5^ 

Greek Coins; Engineering Tools at Pompeii; Newspaper Re* 
ports of Finds in Minnesota; Another Find in Arizona; Ruined 
Cities on the Gila; Mastodon Tusks; Fossil Human Foot-Prints; 
The Missing Link 358 

Book Reviews. — 

A Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics, by D. G. Brinton, M. D., 5^ 

The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of Monuments, by Rev. A. 
H. Sayce; Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology; 

Louisiana Folk Tales 122 

The Story of the Nations, or Vedic India, by Zenai de A. Ra- 
gozin; Manual of Geology, by James G. Dana; Demon Posses- 
sion, by J. L. Nevius, 1 88 

The Mississippi; Basin, the Struggle between England and France, 
1697-1763 by Justin Winsor; Prince Roland Bonaparte: a Chap- 
ter in the History of Cleveland, by C. M. Burton; Observations 
on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Animals, 
and other Matters Worthy of Notice, made by John Bartram, 
reprinted by G. M. Humphrey, of Rochester, N. Y.; The Proto- 
Historic Ethnography of Western Asia, by D. G. Brinton, M. D.; 

The Story of Primitive Man, by Edward Clodd, 252 

Chronicles of Border Warfare, by Alexander Scott Withers; 



1 ^O^ 



THE 



AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN 



AND 



ORIENTAL JOURNAL 



JANUARY-NOVEMBER, 189^. 

^ VOL. XVII. 



EDITED BY STEPHEN D. PEET, PH. D. 

A-SSISTKO BY REV. \VM C WINSI.OW. n h. I.L l>. T. F. WRKiHT. PROF. MUSS 
.\RNOLT. HON. JAMKS WICKKRSH AM. A S. <i\TSCHKT. PH. I).. 

AND OTHFkS. 



W^ 

y^^ 



CHICAGO. ILL. 
175 Wabash Avenue. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. v 

Egyptological Notes. 

Wm, C. Winslow, Sc, D,, LL. D., i6i, 237, 269, 355 

Ethnographic Notes. . . , . Alberts. Gatschet, . . 

The Allentiak; The Africans of Guinea; Mortuary Customs; The 
Locative Prefix A; The Melungeons; Athapaskan Tribes of the 
West; Puquina of Southern Peru; Southern India Revisited. . 1 16 

Grasserie on Roots; Aboriginal Art in Arizona and New Mexico; 
Chinook Texts, by Franz Boas; Central American Archeology; 
Boggiani's Caduvei, 1 85 

Joseph Nicolar; Dr. Edward Seler; Languages of Brazil; Samuel 
Lafone, Quevedo; "Ethnologisches Notizblatt;" Ornamentation 
of the Eyes; Hypnotism, 3^^ 

Exploration of the Temple of Bel. — Selected from 5. 
5. Times Prof, Herman V. HilprecJtt, 334 

Flint Implements or Thunder Stones, 8 

Indian Nations of the Great Lakes. 

W. M, BeoMchamp, . 321 
Literary Notes. — 

The American Oriental Society; The Pleiades; The International 
Folk-lore Society; Guide to Deir el Bahari; Dean Buckland, . 120 

Map of the Distribution of Maize 213 

Map of Illinois in 1680 . . . Hiram W, Beckwith .213 

Notes on the Kootenay Indians. — Third paper. 

A, F, Chamberlain, . 68 
Notes. — 

Sun Worship; Animal Worship, 252 

Origin of the Indians Dr. Cyrus Thomas, 44 

Palestine Exploration. . . . T. F. Wright, . . 51-65 

Palaeolithic Discoveries in Foreign Countries. 

Henry W. Haynes, . .52 
Pre-Historic Contact of the American with Oceanic 

Peoples Prof. Cyrus Thomas, . loi 

Pre-Historic Contact with Oceanic or Asiatic Peo- 
ples. — Third paper Prof. Cyrus Thomas, . 191 

Prints of the Human Hand in the Ruins of the Cliff 

Dwellings. — Quoted from Moorhead's Account, . . 160 

Remarkable Arizona Ruins. . . San Francisco Chronicle, 117 
Rock Shelters in New England. Chas. A. Perkins, . . 218 
Sander's " Indian Wars." . . . Prof. James D. Butler, 1 1 6 



iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

The Meeting Place of Geology and History, by Sir William Daw- 
son; The Gospel of Buddha, by Paul Carus; Lakes of North 
America, by Israel C. Russells; The Mogul Emperors of Hin- 
dustan, by Edward S. H olden, 304 

Commemoration of the Fourth Centenary of the Discovery of 
America, Report upon the Collections Exhibited at the Colum- 
bian Exposition at Madrid, by D. G. Brinton, M. D.; The Early 
Navajo and Apache, by Frederick Webb Hodge; Notes on 
Shippo, a Sequel to Japanese Enamels, by James L. Bowes; The 
Mammoth Hunter, by Willis Boyd Allen; Transactions of the 
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters; Annual Re- 
port of the United States National Museum for the year ending 
June 30, i88q; The Literary Digest; Voyages des Pelerius 
Bouddhistes, par Edouard Chavannes; Proceedings of the Am- 
erican Antiquarian Society for 1894-95; Materiaux pour 1' His- 
torie de THomme Revue d'Anthropologie, Revue d'Ethnog- 
rapbie, Reunis, I'AnthropoIogie Paraissant tous les deux mois 
sous la Direction de MM. Cartailhac, Hamy and Topinard— 
G. Masson, editeur; The Indian Antiquary; Notes on the Spirit 
Basis of Belief and Custom, by ]. M. Campbell; Minnesota His- 
torical Collections, the Mississippi River and its Source, by Hon. 
J. V. Brower; American Historical Register; Palestine Explora* 
tioaTund; The Popular Science Monthly; Sixty-fifth Year of the 
Bibliotheca Sacra; The Atlantic Monthly; History of Greece, 364 

Comparison of the Effigy Builders with the Modern- 
Indians (Illustrated) . . . Stephen D. Peet, . . 19 

Correspondence. — 

Buffalo Rock, by N. F. Douglass 1 15 

Letter from Polynesia, by A. Hamilton; ''About the Bogus Stat- 
uette." by F. W. Putnam, D. G. Brinton and W. H. Holmes; A 
Huge Deposit of Stone Relics in Illinois, by Prof. James D. But- 
ler; The Mound-Builder and the Buffalo, by O. T. Mason, . 248 
Mount Taylor, by Washmgton Matthews, 204 

Discovery of Chaunis Temoatan of 1586. 

\Vm. Wallace Tooker, . 3 

Discovery of a New Trihf 01 Indians. 

Dr. iranz Boas, . 1 56 

Description of the Site (H *'()i d Coosa", Alahama. 

r. //. Li'zvis, . . . .171 
Editorials. - 

In Memoriam; The Union of Societies and the Association of 
Scientific Men; Identifying^ the Land Marks of Early History, . M > 

Sacred Calendars and Ancient Codices, 1 75 

Range of the Buffalo, 251 

Museums and Collections; The Meeting of the American Associ- 
ation at Sprin^'field, 2(^5 

The Fal;i'oliihic A^'e in America; The Chaldean Acc«>unt of the 
Helugc, 357 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Egyptological Notbs. 

Wm. C, Winslow, Sc, D,, LL, D„ i6i. 237. 269. 35s 

Ethnoc;rai*hic Notes. .... Albert S. Gatschet, . . 
The Allcntiak; The Afnouii of Guinea; Mortuary Cuitoms; The 
Locative Prefii A; The Melungeons; Atbapatkan Tribes of the 
West; Puquina of Southern Peru; Southern India Revitited. . 1 16 

Grasterie on Rooti; Aboriginal Art in Arizona and New Mexico; 
Chinook Texts, by Franz Boat; Central American Arch.eology ; 
Bogf iani*8 Caduvei, 1^5 

Joseph Nicolar; Dr. Edward Seler; Languages of Brazil; Samuel 
Lafone, Quevedo; "Ethnologisches Notizblatt;'* Ornamentation 
of the Eyes; Hypnotism 3^^ 

Exploration of thk Temple of Bel.- Selected from S. 

S. Tinus Prof, Hermati V. HUprecht, 334 

Flint Impleme.nts or Thunder .Stones. 8 

Indian Nations of the Great Lakes. 

W, M. Beauchamp, .321 
Literary Notes. — 

The American Oriental Society; The Pleiades; The Intemitional 
Folk-lore Society; Guide to Deir el Bahari; Dean Buckland. . I20 

Map (IF THE Distribution OF Maize 213 

Map of Illinois in 1680 . . . Hiram IV. Beckwitk . 213 

Notes on the Kootenay Indians.- -Third paper. 

A. F. Chamberlain, 68 

Notes.— 

Sun Worship; Animal Worship 252 

Origin of the Indians Dr, Cyrus Thomas, 44 

Palestine Exploration. . T. F. Wright, . . 51-65 

PAL.fvOLiTHic Discoveries in FokFKiN Countries. 

Henry W. Haynes, . .52 
Pre-Historic Contact of the American with Oceanic 

Peoples I^of. Cyrus Thomas, . lOi 

pRE-HisTORU Contact with Ockanu t»R Asiatic Peo- 
ples. -Third paper Prof. Cyrus Thomas, . 191 

Prints of the Human Hand in ihe Ruins ok the Cliff 

DwELLiN<is. ~ Quoled from Moorhead's Account. . . 160 

Remarkable Arizona Ruins. . . San Francisco Chronicle, 117 
Rock Sheltfrs in New Hn*.lani». C/ms. A. Perkins, . . 218 
Sakder s •• Indian Wars." . . . Pro/. James D. Butler, 1 1 6 



vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Silver Vessel FROM GuNDENSTRUP, 112 

Submerged Forests and Peat Beds. 

From BaUetin of Essex Institute, 1 57 

Stockades and Earthworks in New Zealand. 

Elsdon 5. Best, . . .154 

Scenery on the Colorado. , . y, W. Powell, . . . 240 

The Missing Link Dr. D. G. Brinlon, . . 55 

The Religion of the Indians, y. 0. Dorsey and S. D. Peei, 56 

The Hidery Story of Creation. James Deans, ... 61 

The Story of Creation Among the American Abor- 
igines Stephen D. Feet, . .127 

The Soil which Made the Earth — A Legend. 

Gardner C TealL . . 203 

The Moqui Snake Dance. . . . Rupert H, Baxter, . . 205 

The Sacred Pole of the Omaha Tribe. 

Alice C, Fletcher, . . 257 
The Beginnings of History. . . Stephen D, Feet. . . 273 

The Cherokees and their Neighbors. 

A. Downing, .... 30f 

The Frescoes of Mitla. . . . FhiHpp y. y. Valentini, 326 

The Indian as a Citizen. . . . James Wickersham, . 329 

The Choctaw Robin Good Fellow. H. S. Halbert, , . .157 

The Mystery of the Name Pamunkey. 

Wm. Wallace Tooker, . 289 

The Calendar System of the Chibchas. 

Translated from the Spanish of Acosta, 167 

The Discovery of the Pueblos. Stephen D. Feet, . . 339 

The Symbols of Samoans. . . . Rev. Jno. B. Stair, . .154 

The Study OF Maps (Illustrated), . Stephen D. Feet, . . 219 

Visit to the Scene of Romona. . . Wm. Curtis, . . .151 



^3 3 5 




MAP OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF MAIZE. 



THE 



Vol. XVII. January, 1895. No. i. 

DISCOVERY OF CHAUNIS TEMOATAN OF 1586.* 

By William Wallace Tooker. 

^'Ct|e Cotmtrifs nomt is of fame, onb is callrb C^aunts Stmoatan** 



Many of the puzzling narrations of our early voyagers, ex- 
plorers and settlers have aflbrded abundant themes for discussion 
during many years and tor numerous writers. These fore- 
runners of civifizationy in their anxiety to meet with something 
out of their common knowledge, were ready and willing to 
accept any seemingly marvellous tale they heard; which, when 
repeated, was still further magnified, in order to make their 
discoveries, in this then unknown land, more wonderful to their 
superiors, or to their employers. But, at the same time, the 
relations of the aborigines, when stripped of superfluous addi- 
tions, and viewed from their own station of ooservation, are 
found to be for the greater part, true descriptions, and worthy 
of absolute acceptance. Again, these narrative fields ot research 
are strewn witn facts, which hidden, as they have been, in 
the debris and darkness of centuries, now await discovery. 
Consequently, when linguistic, historic, and archseologic truths 
are brought to bear, eacn contributes its quota towards dispelling 
the obscurity of years, bringing into the broad daylight of present 
reality, solutions to the numerous problems which now concern 
and interest every student of American history, and of American 
archaeology. 

The mysterious and unknown is always interesting, and when 
illusive is continually before tis ready to be grasped. But, when 
the mystery is laid bare before our eyes, and its component 

*R€ad bdortUi* Amerlaio Attoctatioo for the Ad%u>cement of Sc:cn<:c. s«^ t <n II. 4t 
Brooklyn. N. V^ Ang. at. 1894. 



4 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

parts solved and explained it becomes commonplace, and finally 
enters into its station in the chronicles of the past, where it 
properly belongs. Thus it is with the subject of the present 
paper, a story related over three hundred years ago, repeated 
in almost the same words after a lapse of over a quarter of a 
century by Captain John Smith and his contemporary, William 
Strachey; again and again, quoted with varying comments by 
many well-known historians and annalists in modern times, until 
it has been left in just as much a tangle of doubt and perplexity 
as before. The reason for this bewildering state of affairs is 
found in the fact that not one of these investigators has touched 
upon the linquistic points involved in what must be considered 
its true interpretation. Therefore, it now remains for as to learn 
how far this kind of evidence — sustained by the historical, con- 
firmed by the archaeological — will go towards answering the 
question, where and what was the province of Chaunis Temoatan 
of 1586? 

Ralph Lane, who was in command of Sir Walter Raleigh's 
colony at Roanoke Island, in 1585-6, made a voyage of explora- 
tion one hundred and sixty miles up a river to the northwest, to 
a tribe called the Chawotiocks, While among these people he 
obtained considerable information regarding more distant tribes 
and localities, part of which he couches in the following words:* 

"And that which made me most desirous to have some doing 
with the MangoakSy either in friendship or otherwise, to have 
had one or two of them prisoners, was, for that it is a thing most 
notorious to all the country, that there is a Province to the which 
the said Mangoaks have recourse and trafique upon the River 
of Moratoc^ which hath a marveilous and most strange mineralL 
This mine is so notorious amongst them, as not onely to the 
Sauages dwelling up the said river, and also to the Sauages of 
Chawonook^ and all them to the westward, but also to all them 
of the maine: the counirtes name is of fame, and is called Chaunis 
Tomoatan. 

The viinerall they say is wassador^ which is copper, but they 
call by the name of wa55twfor every mettall whatsoever; they 
say it is of the colour of our copper, but our copper is better 
than theirs; and the reason is for that it is redder and harder, 
whereas that of Chaunis Temoatan is very soft and pale; they 
say that they take the saide mettall out of a river that falleth 
swift from hie rockes and hils, and they take it in shallow water; 
the maner is this, they take a great bowle, by their description, 
as great as one of our targets, and wrappe a skinne over the 
hollov/ part thereof, leaving one part open to receive in the 
minerall; that done, they watch the comming downe of the 
current, and the change of colour of the water, and then sud- 
denly chop down the saide bowle with the skinne, and receive 

•Hakluyt Voyages, Vol. 3, p. as8 



DISCOVERY OF CHAUNIS TEMOATAN. s 

iato the same as much oare as will come in, which is ever as 
much as their bowie will holde, which presently they cast into 
a fire« and loorthwith it meltetli and doeih yeelde in fme parts, 
at the first melting, two parts of mettall tor three parts of oare, 
ol this mettall the Mangoaks have so great store, by report ol 
all the Sauagcs adjoining, that they beautity their houses with 
great plates of the same; and this is to be true. I received by 
report of all the country and particularly by yonng Skiko^ the 
King of Chawofiocks^ sonne my prisoner, who also himselte had 
bene prisoner with the Afangoaks and set downe all the par- 
ticularities to me betore mentioned; but he had not bene at 
Chaunis 'fenwaian himselfe; for hee said it was twentie dayes 
journey overland from the Mangoaks to the said Mincrall 
Country^ and that they passed through certain other territories 
between them and the Mangoaks before they came to the said 
Countrty^^ 

This story has been characterized by many noted historians, 
such as Bozman, Bancroft, and others, as an invention of the 
wily savage, and therefore not worthy of credit. But, as Mr. 
Henr)' Lee Reynolds justly remarks in his paper on Algonkin 
Metal-Smiths:^ ^But this, could scarcely be a mere trick or 
deception, since Lane asserts that the ^mine was so notorious 
amongst them, as not only to the savages dwelling up the saide 
river, and also to the savages of Chawanock, but also to them 
of the maine.** And again, he says that he received the report, 
not only of young Skiko alone, but of all the country. The 
story therefore must have some foundation in fact; but in 
accepting it we must make allowances by considering, first, the 
diflSculties the English experienced in accurately interpreting 
Indian reports; and secondly, that Lane doubtless colored his 
story witn reference to a softer and paler metal, because he 
needed some plausible excuse for undertaking so disastrous 
expedition.*' 

One late writer interprets the passage as follows rf- **It is im- 
possible to understand nis statement as it stands. It may possi- 
dI> have referred to the use of fire in getting out the mica, or 
may have been a tradition obscured by time and confused by 
ioterpretation of some Spanish operations. The story survived 
into the next century. The English, however, did not see this 
operation, nor did they see any **great plates" of copper. This 
mineral, which was not copper, or any ore of copper, occurring 
in Urge plates, which were paler and softer than copper, was 
undoubtedly mica* and the ancient mines which were the cause 
of the early mining excitement, were re*discovered in the mount- 
ains of North Carolina in 1868." 

These inferences of Mr. Packard are based upon erroneous 

^American Anthroftolofiit. Vol. i. p. a47- 

fit. L. Packard, American Antiqaarian. Vol. iS. pp* ite-J. 



6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

deductions, which careful and analytical study of Lane's rela- 
tions do not warrant. The critical reader can not help but to 
notice in the first instance, that Chaunis Temoatan was 'Hwentie 
days' journey overland from the Mangoaks," who were then 
living on the upper Roanoke (Moratoc) River, in Virginia, and 
are so placed on Wyth's map accompanying Hariot's narrative; 
consequently the "minerall country" could not have been in the 
mountains of North Carolina, as he assumes, but in a tar more 
distant locality, as I hope to demonstrate. 

Other writers have located the province of Ckaunis Temoatan 
in northern Georgia, and say that it is so described by distance 
and direction in Lane's account. It is utterly impossible to 
accept this supposition, which is really based more on the stories 
of early Spanish mining operations in northern Georgia than it 
is on Lane's narrative. The truth of the matter is this: Lane 
traveled northwest up to what is now known as the Chowan 
River, North Carolina, and when one hundred and sixty miles 
up, which was somewhere about what is now Nottaway County, 
Virginia, within "one dayes journey from sunne rising to sunne 
setting" (as Lane says) of the borders of the Mangoaks country 
in Virginia, learneo that ^^Chaunis Temoatan^'* to which the 
^^ Mangoaks had recource andtrafigue up the Moratoc^'* (Roanoke 
River), was still "twentie dayes journey ouerland," which surely, 
as the careful reader and student must admit, points to the west 
and northwest, and not to the southwest. This is also confirmed 
by Hariot,* who remarks: "A hundred and fiftie miles into the 
maine in two townes we found with the inhabitants divers small 
plates of copper that had been made, as we understood, by the 
inhabitants that dwell further into the country^ where, as they 
say, are mountaines and rivers that yield also white grains of 
metall which is deemed silver." 

Lane and Hariot were in America from August 17th, 1585, 
to June i8th, 1586, a period of less than a year's duration, and 
their slight acquaintance with the language of the natives was 
acquired during this short stay. Therefore their conferences 
with the Indians were necessarily almost entirely figurative. 
When this fact is taken into consideration, it can be readily per- 
ceived that all descriptions of this character from the natives 
were sometimes liable to be misunderstood, however true they 
might have been in their application as originall}^ stated. Lane, 
whether intentional or otherwise will never be known, evidently 
confounded several items not related to each other in his recital. 
This fact has made it very ambiguous and perplexing to every 
student of our early history, for the reason that they have at- 
tempted to construe the story as Lane seemingly comprehended 
it Lane and his companions were in search of mines and 
talking about them continually. It was the sole object of their 

• Narrative, p. 17-18, Quaritch Ed. 



DISCOVERY OF CHAUNIS TEMOATAN. 7 

desires to carry back to England some knowledge ol valuable 
mines in order to induce further undertakings, There can be 
no question but that several minerals or metals, including cop- ' 

per, silver and mica, were referred to; also the statement made 
by the Indians that some ol these, more likely the latter, were 
used for decorating their houses. That the native copper was 
more flexible, softer and paler than the European, Lane was 
aware of from personal observation, which fact later discoverers 
and explorers bear testimony. His caUing it **a marueilous and 
most strange Minerall,^ however, shows that he did not fully 
understand the story as related to him, lor in no event could 
copper have been either **ma rueilous*' or '^strange" to himself 
or to his companions. 

The description of the manner of obtaining the copper ore in a 
river, as any mineralogist will admit, could not by any possi- 
bility have applied to any method of mining copper, gola, silver, 
or mica. It was a natural and physical impossibility to have 
filled a "great bowle" prepared for decanting, full of copper ore 
by simply dipping it into the river, or in "shallow water.'* 

In fact, salt must have been the ^marvellous and most strange 
minerattP It is, indeed, the only article of great necessity to 
the natives that could have been obtained in the mode and in 
the abundance as described. He evidently discloses an early 
aboriginal method of procuring this greatly desired commodity. 
The "colour of the water** was the brine, heavily saturated with 
its salts in solution, gypsum, red sand-stone, and other insoluble 
matter in suspension, which, when flowing direct from the salt 
springs, reveals itself in the shallow surface water.* Again, the 
salt is found in low places, which have formed drains or reser- 
voirs for the higher surrounding ground; after the evaporation 
of the water, a crust of good salt is left in the bottom, congealed 
Uke ice. The color is of the purest white, there is usually a 
mixture of gypsum, and it is sometimes penetrated with sparry 
matter.f Tnis crust or crude salt might really have been mis- 
taken for ore, in the relations of the savage stor>'-teller. The 
•*great bowles,** with the tops covered with "skinnes,** and "one 
part open,** were probably used for decanting, draining and 
evaporating4 Hariot's "mountaines and rivers that yield also 
white grains ot metal which is deemed silver,** might, under this 
Ught, nave meant salt. Breckenridge says:§ "Considerable 
quantities are also scattered over the prairies in a pulverized 
state, resembling sand; the Indians gather it with the wing of a 
turkey.** 

The aboriginal terms appearing in Lane and Harriot *s relations 
of this, the nrst English settlement in America, are from the 

*L4mK*i RvpeditioQ to the Kocky Moantalni. 1^3. Vol. 1. pp. 3g?-<). 
f BracKcsfldfe Viewt of I^oisiAnA. p. 66. 



iJpMf' Antlqaltict of the S. I., p. 4S- 



'Itfm of L^oitLuui. p. 66. 



8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Algonquian language, showing that the tribes with whom the 
discoverers associated, including the ChawonockSy who gave 
them this information, were Algonkins. Those who must con- 
cede this fact will find that Lane may be in error in interpreting 
or applying the term wassador to copper, for the reason that 
copper is called fnattassitiy or nCcaquassin^ "red-stone," in the 
Powhatan, as well as in the most Algonquian languages. 
Wassador^ on the contrary, means "it is bright, clear, or it 
glistens;" as in the Otchipwe f Baraga), nir wassikwadon^ "I 
make it shine." (This word is almost identical with Lane's, the 
terminal letters n and r being alternating sounds.) Compare 
Abnaki (Rasle's) wassegfien il est blanc; il est clair, Cree 
(Lacombe), wassesikwan c*est brilliant^ v. q. du cristalde la glace; 
wasesikwaky alun, Powhatan (Smith), u^sawassin (bright stone), 
"iron, brasse, silver, or any white mettall." Thus indicating 
that the term wassador ^ although used, as Lane informs us, and 
with whom Smith agrees, to designate "every mettall what- 
soever," or "any white mettall," would apply equally as well, if 
not better to salt than to copper. Furthermore, as mica must 
have been one of the articles which the Mangoaks themselves 
utilized for the purposes of trade and traffic — for every aboriginal 
tribe or nation seemed to have had some product for which they 
were distinguished — which ihey found in their own dominions, 
and had in such abundance that they decorated their dwellings 
with "great plates" of the same, shows how Lane mixed his 
information, and also that the term might have been descriptive 
of mica. 

Finally, as a suitable sequel to the foregoing analysis of Lane's 
story, and in linguistic corroboration of the same, I interpret the 
mineral country Chaunis Temoatan, or Chawnis Temoatan^ as it 
is varied by Lane — Cltaun-istemoatan, as I would divide it, 
according to the rules of Algonquian phonology, and its syn- 
thetical construction — as the "salt-making town," Chaiin, or 
Chawn, being a verbal signifying "it is sour," as a noun, "salt," 
paralleled by the Pamticough chuwon; Delaware (Zeisberger) 
sckwon; Massachusetts (Eliot and Cotton) sean; Otchipwe (Bar- 
aga) siwan; Cree {\{o'ws^)sewun{\^?iComhk^\siwaw; Powhatan 
(Strachey), as a noun, sawwone, "salt." The second element — 
istem, is an intransitive verb in the inanimate object form, "he 
makes, or prepares;" as in the Cv^ty o'osctam; C3tchipwe, a;ii- 
sitam; Massachusetts, ^Vj/r^;;/; Delaware, ^'j^AiV^w.* Compare 
Otchipwe (Baraga) nin jiwissiton, "I make it sour." The last 
component — oatan, occurs as a terminal in many Algonquian 
names of places, and is undoubtedly the equivalent of the 
Massachusetts and other dialects — otan, "a town." Thus we 
have in four dialects of the Algonquian tongue, as the resulting 
parallel of the Chawonock, Chaun-istem oatan — the Cree, Sewun- 

*See Brinton Lenape and their Legends, pp. 102-3, ^or various derivates of this verb. 



DISCOVERY OF CHAUNIS TEMOATAN. 9 

osetam-oden; Otchipwe, jiwan-issitam-odena; Massarhusetts, 
sean-esteom-otan; Delaware, schwon-ischton-uten, or schwoniton- 
uteney, "a town where salt was made." These parallels could 
be further multiplied from other dialects, but enough are shown 
to prove their identity. 

The question now naturally arises after this presentation, in 
what portion of the United States, now so well known to us all, 
can we find and locate the site of this ''salt-making town," and 
where can we find a, locality, remarkable above all others for 
its salt springs? The Mangoaks, who were the ancestors of 
those people who became known years afterward as the Notto- 
ways and Tuteloes were living, as before stated, on the upper 
water courses of the Roanoke River, with the borders of their 
possessions touchinti^ the Chawonocks on the east, in or about 
Cambell County, Virginia. The main portion of the tribe, 
however, were located at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. 
Lane having been informed that the mmeral country was twenty 
days overland, vi^ must look to the west, following an Indian 
trail, which must have been a well-traveled one, and its lines 
well indicated, allowing thirty to forty miles as an average day's 
travel, would have carried the Mangoaks from their towns, six 
to eight hundred miles over the Blue Ridge and Cumberland 
Mountains, by tortuous paths and portages over the state of 
Kentucky, "through certain other territories," to the southern 
part of the present state of Illinois, or by canoe down the Big 
Sandy, or other streams, through the Ohio to the same locality, 
where we find in Gallatin County, some of the most famous and 
remarkable saline springs in the United States. That within 
this area was the spot indicated to Lane by the Chawonocks all 
the evidence goes to prove. It is in the direction pointed out, 
as will be seen on referring to the map. It is in the lines of 
travel that would be taken in going overland, and it is about 
"twentie dayes' journey" from the country of the Mangoaks, 

The mention of the "great bowles as great as one of our targets," 
or as another writer was informed,* "as large around as the hind- 
wheel of his wagon, with flattish bottoms," enables me to bring 
to bear some archaeological evidence which points strongly to 
the fact that his description referred to the manufacture of salt, 
and to nothing else. None of these large vessels have been 
discovered in a perfect condition, but many fragments have been 
found near these salt springs. One of the earliest notices of such 
discoveries reads if "About one thousand yards to the east of 
this well (at Shawneetown, on the Ohio) is a basin or hollow 
one hundred and thirty feet in diameter. The soil in and about 
it is intimately blended with fragments of earthenware. In the 
middle of that basin a well has been sunk, which affords a more 

•Pop. Sc. Monthly, No. Ixv, p. ^79. 

tLong's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, V^ol. i, pp. 34. 35. 



^ 



lo THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

concentrated brine than that before mentioned — one hundred 
and ten gallons yielding fifty pounds of salt. In digging this 
well, the first fourteen feet was through a light earth, mixed 
with ashes and fragments of earthenware, the remaining four- 
teen through a bed of clay, deeply colored with oxide of iroo 
and containing fragments of pottery. The clay has something 
the appearance of having been subjected to the action of fire. 
At the eastern side of the basin appears to have been a drain 
for the purpose of carrying away the superabundant water. In 
this drain, about four feet below the surface of the earth, is a 
layer of charcoal about six inches deep. The stones in the 
vicinity appear as if they had been burnt." It is remarkable 
how close this description corresponds with the main facts of 
Lane's story. Not only that, but Capt. John Smith's version of 
the same refers to a spout or drain. 

Mr. George E. Sellers visited the salt springs on the Saline 
River, Illinois, in 1854. He relates:* "We found two water- 
worn ravines, commencing on the hills that rise abruptly on the 
south side of the Saline River, and drain into it. At the base 
of the hills they are crossed by the state road, between which 
and the river their bottoms are level, hard and barren, and here 
close to the road rise the salt springs. I have been informed by 
a reliable part}*, who had personal knowledge of all that was 
done by the early settlers in working the salines, that in the 
east ravine they sunk a well and curbed it down to the bed- 
rock, a depth of forty-two feet, and made a boring of about one 
hundred and fifty feet in its bottom; that all the way down from 
the surface to the rock they found pieces of broken pottery, and 
on the rock a pitcher or jug with a handle within the rim; this 
jug was sent to the Philadelphia Museum. My informant ex- 
pressed the opinion that, at the time the aborigines used the 
waters, the spring had its outlet at or near the bed-rock, and 
had since gradually filled by surface-washings, just as the well 
in the west ravine has been filled since my first visit and is now 
a cattle-tramped salt swamp. The present outlet of the spring 
is not over six or eight feet above low water of the Saline River, 
and the character of its bed precludes the possibility of its ever 
having been on a lower level; for at Island Ripple, within two 
miles of the spring, the river falls over a broad reef of rocks, 
which backs the water — forming a pool — up to this place, where 
there is another slight ripple." 

"This, to me, is conclusive evidence that, whoever the people 
were who left the masses of broken pottery as proof of their 
having used the salt waters, they resorted to precisely the same 
means as did their more civilized successors of our time — that 
is, sinking wells or reservoirs to collect the brine; and the 
dipper-Jug which had been dropped had sunk to the bottom, 
showing that their reservoirs were down to the rock." 

♦ Pop. Sc. Monthly, No. Ixv, p. 575. 



DISCOVERY OF CHAUNIS TOMOATAN. ii 

**Running nearly in an east-and-west course on the south side, 
and dose to the outlet of the springs, is an upheaval that has 
brought the carboniferous limestone to the surface standing on 
edge. The sulphur and fresh-water springs rise south of the 
line of this dike. On the line of it, about the center of the 
raised bottom or plateau between the two ravines, say ten or 
twelve feet higher than the springs, and embracing an area of 
eight acres, occurs a sink of about one hundred and twenty feet 
in diameter. It was on the raised rim of this sink that I discov- 
ered the heaps of clay and sheUs, and what I took to be the 
inside mold or core on which the kettles had been formed. It 
was then a pool of water, around which I found the most abund- 
ant remains of pottery, not only represented by fragments of 
these large, coarse salt-pans, but by many pieces of small ves- 
sels of much finer texture, and of superior workmanship, such 
as wotild be used for domestic purposes. From these and large 
quantities of chippings and of ofial, I inferred that this was the 
nU of thi old settlement:' 

**The hills at this point run nearly an east-and-west course, 
forming a range of upheaval that crosses the state of Illinois, 
from the Ohio River at Shawneetown to the Mississippi, and at 
tome places attains a height of about 700 feet, being the high- 
est land in Illinois or either of the adjoining states of Missouri, 
Kentucky and Indiana. Immediately south of the salt springs 
is a spur of the main hill, its northern terminus being precipitous 
blufEi of metaphoric sandstone, which Prof. Worthen^ the geol- 
o^t of Illinois, who once visited the locality with me, classed 
with the Chester group." This agrees with Lane's description 
of the province and is an impressive corroboration of my oeliet 
that the ^Saline** was ^the river that falleth swift from hie rockes 
and hils.** 

Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in his very interesting essay on the 
**Shawnees in pre-Columbian times, '^ also notes the discovery 
of this salt-kettle ware in the same country. His transcripts 
bear vigorously on the subject matter of this paper. He says, 
after referring to Mr. Sellers' find, ^Mention of this pottery had 
previously been made by J. W. Beck.f He remarks that about 
the Gallatin and Big Muddy Salines large fragments of earthen- 
ware were fi^equently found under the surface of the earth. 
They appear to have been portions of large kettles used proba- 
bly Joy the natives for obtaining salt." 

''Tne settlement of the Shawnees at Shawneetown, on the Ohio, 
in this (Gallatin) county, in comparatively modern times, is attested 
not only by history, but also by the name by which the town is 
still known. But there is some evidence that an older Shawnee 
village was at one time located at the very point where this 'salt- 



•Aaerkan ABthropolociit, Vol. 4. pp- i4<Hi 
fCmMmttmt of Iiliooit, p. f j. 1^34- 



12 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

kettle* pottery and these stone graves were found. In the 
American State Papers, Public Lands, Class viii.. Vol. 2, p. 103 
(Gales and Seaton Edition), is a communication by the Illinois 
and Wabash Land Company to the United States Senate and 
House of Representatives in which occurs the following state- 
ment: 'On the 5th of July, 1773, the bargain was completed by 
which these Indians (Illinois), for a large and valuable consider- 
ation, agreed to sell to Murray and his associates two tracts 
of land which are thus bounded: The first begins on the east 
side ot the Mississippi River at the mouth of 'Heron Creek/ 
called by the Frencri *the River of Mary,' being about a league 
below the mouth of the Kaskaskia River. From thence the 
line runs a straight course, northward of east, about eight leagues, 
be it more or less, to the hilly plains; thence the same course, 
in a direct line, to a remarkable place, known by the name of 
the Buffalo Hoofs, seventeen leagues or thereabouts, be it more 
or less; thence the same course, in a direct line, to the Salt lick 
Creek^ about seven leagues, be it more or less; thence, crossing 
the creek about one league below the ancient Shawnee town in 
an easterly, or a little to the north ot east course, in a direct hne 
to the Ohio River, about four leagues, be it more or less; thence 
down the Ohio, by its several courses, until it empties into the 
Mississippi, etc. A copy of the deed is also given, dated July 
20th, 1773,* containing same boundaries, and with it proof of 
record in the office at Kaskaskia the 2nd of September, 1773." 

"Although the claim was rightly rejected by Congress and 
the directions given are slightly erroneous, as the geography ot 
the west was not as well understood at that time, we are justi- 
fied in believing the localities are correctly named, as it is not 
likely such a vast claim would have been based on boundaries 
determined by imaginary places. These were real and given 
correctly as the information then obtainable would admit of. 
The location of the 'ancient Shawnee town' is pretty definitely 
fixed, as it is on Saline River above where the line crosses, and is 
about four leagues from the Ohio, and was at that time (1773) 
known as the ancient Shawnee town, and in the locality where 
the above pottery was tound. The Shawnee village of modern 
times was on the banks of the Ohio, where the city named after 
them now stand; nor was it ancient in 1806, when visited by 
Ashe. It is also worthy of notice that the ancient town is not 
included in the bounds given, while the new town is." 

Here we find apparently an historical confirmation of our dis- 
covery in the fact that a town, or a town site, existed, which 
was called in 1773 the ''ancient Shawnee town',' at or near the 
spot where we suppose Chaun-istem-oatan was located. The 
inquiry now conlronts us, is there any identity between the two? 
It is quite within the range ot possibility that they are the same 



•Ibid., p. 117. 



DISCOVERY OF CHAl'NIS TEMOATAN. 13 

or at least occupied the same site, for this section of the country, 
including these salt springs were in the possession of the 
Ckaauanons a hundred and perhaps two hundred years previous 

to 1773- 

It does not necessarily follow, as supposed, that all those 
called Shawnees indicated one people. In fact, the interpreta- 
tion Chaunisteni'oatan brings into the subject of the Shawnees 
a possible solution of a matter that has seriously bothered many 
historians. Parkman remarks:* "Their eccentric wanderings, 
their sudden appearances and disappearances, perplex the anti- 
quary and defy research." Dr. Brinton saysrl* "The wander- 
ings of the unstable and migratory Shawnees have occupied the 
attention of several writers, but it can not be said that either 
their history or their affiliations have been satisfactorily worked 
out.** Since the above was written Prof. Cyrus Thomas, in his 
essay before referred to, has investigated the subject at a greater 
length and the result of his researches comprises about all we 
know in regard to those supposed to have been Shawnees. One 
fact which has bewildered many investigators is the appearance 
of what seems to have been the same name, in widely separated 
localities, at or about the same period. 1 do not propose to 
theorize in regard to this particular point, nor to go into the sub- 
ject to any extent, but simply endeavor to show what seems to 
me to be a possible answer to the problem. 

The Chawonocks of Lane, or Chawons of Captain John Smith, 
from whom the eastern name of Shawanoes was derived, went 
north to Pennsylvaiiia in 169*^-4.^ and Irom there migrated west 
to the Ohio about 1724 § Their name, as Or. J. Hammond 
Trumbull has suggested,; was derived from their seat on what 
is now known as the Chmvan River, Chmuan olke "south coun- 
try,** because they were south of the Virginia tribes. Therefore 
the eastern origin of the name Shawnee means undoubtedly 
•*the southerners.** This was also the case with the Satrutanoos 
on the Delaware River, of the Dutch maps of 1656 and pre- 
vious, for Van Der Donck says:^ "The Savanoos are the 
southern nations and the Wappanocs are the eastern nations.** 
Tne Chawonocks and the Nanticokes were intimately connected 
by many ancient ties, which lends force to the foregoing argu- 
ment, and are referred to in the Walam Olum as follows: "The 
Nanticokes and Shawnees going to the soulh.***^ 

Ralph Lane bears testimony to this fact, although his story 
has been stamped by some as improbable, on account of the 
pearl-fishery alluded to. But in the light of our present knowl- 

*Lifc of PoatUc. Vol. 1. p. U. 

tLcnape mxA Thetr I.«f cskIsi. p. jq. 

;Coi Hltt. S. v.. Vol. 4. p. 90. ($K m- 

fCol. Hl«t. N. v.. Vol. 6. p. 49a. 

iHtot. Mw . Vol. 7. p. A 1^. 

\H V. Hut. Soc. Coll . Vol. 1. lit SeriM. p. ao6 

^ Brlatos. Leiiape iDd their Lcf eodt. p. J05. 



14 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

edge, it is not at all unlikely, for perforated pearls have been 
found in abundance in the western mounds. There seems to 
have been but little change in the geographical positions of all 
the tribes of this section in the interval between 1585 to 1613. 
The probability is, that the influx of settlers in a few years 
caused more changes in the tribal locations than occurred among 
themselves in hundreds. 

Lane says: **This lame king (of Chawonock) is called Mena- 
tonon. When I had him prisoner two days he told mee that 
three dayes* journey in a conazv up the river Chawnock^ then 
landing and going four dayes journey northeast, there is a king 
whose country lyeth on the sea, but his best place of strength is 
an island in a bay invironed with deep water, where he taketh 
that abundance of pearle that not only his skins, and his nobles, 
but also his beds and houses are garnished therewith. This 
king was at Chawonock two yeares agoe to trade with blacke 
pearle, his worst sort whereof I had a rope, but they were 
naught, but that king he sayeth hath store of white, etc."* 
This passage, as will be observed, describes Captain John 
Smith's trite, the Kuskarawaokes or Kuskaroanokes^ "makers of 
white beads,"t who were the Nanticokes of more recent times. 
They take their name of Nanticoke from their ancient home on 
"Nanticoke Point," on Nanticoke River, Maryland — the Nanta- 
gtiacJk'^^poini of land on a tidal river" of Smith's map. 

The "island in a bay" was, without question, one of Smith's 
islands in Tangier Sound, not far from the mouth of the Nanti- 
coke River — in direction and number of days* travel agreeing 
perfectly with Lane. Some suppose, without critical analysis 
of the description given, that "Craney Island," near Norfolk,. 
Virginia, was meant.;]: But Lane in a previous trip went to the 
town of Chesapeake, further north, and had it referred to Craney 
Island, he would not have written as he did. 

The Chaouanons of the seventeenth century, who were living 
on the Cumberland River, and other streams, including the 
Saline River, tributary to the Ohio, do not seem to have been 
the same people, any more than to call the Massachusetts 
Delawares. In 1673 Marquette passed by the mouth of the 
Ohio, which he called the CDabouskigou^ "a white flowing-out.'^ 
He says:§ "This river comes from the east, where live the 
people called Chaouanons, They are so numerous that in one 
direction they have twenty-three villages, and in another fifteen, 
conveniently near together. They are not at all warlike. They 
are the people whom the Iroquois are seeking to wage war 
upon without provocation, and, as these poor fellows can not 
defend themselves, they are captured and carried off like sheep. 

♦Hakluyt Voyages, Vol. 3, p. 256; Arbers Smith, p. 3x2-13. 
tXooker. American Anthropologist. Vol. 6, p. 409. 
jArchaeologia American. Vol. 4, pp. 29-31. 
gParis reprint Edition, 1681, p. 32. 



DISCOVERY OF CHAUNIS TEMOATAN. 15 

^'UpoQ the map the COatousJkig-ou is traced but a short dia- 
taoce firom the MiaaiaaippL On the map attached to the journal 
pobliflhed m 1681 the Mississippi is traced to the Gulf of Mexico; 
and oa it the Chaouanons are pUced oa the Ohio near to the 



3* >pi. Marauette*s original manuscript with his own map, 
e sa main, was preserved in the College of St. Mane 
in Montreal, and was puolished by Shea in 1850. On this map 
**Ghaauanon^ is placeain the great blank space far to the east 
of the Mississippi.*** 

These Chacuamms^ Chauanons, Chouanima^ or Chaouese, etc., 
as their name variously appears, were inhabitants of a country 
abounding in salt licks. Prof. Cyrus Thomas further remarks if 
*TY\t fragments of the large earthen salt-kettles similar in char- 
acter to those found in Gallatin County, Illinois, has also been 
found in connection with the stone graves of the Cumberland 
Valley, the impression made by the textile fabrics showing the 
same stitches as the former.** Therefore, while the Chaouanons 
were of the same linguistic family and had some of the same 
ethnic characteristics as the eastern Chawonocks^ their name, I 
would suggest, might have been derived originally from the 
salt manufacture carried on by them, and should be translated 
the salt-people, "*Chaun-anougks" This suggestion seems to be 
supported by the fact that nearly all the Algonquian dialectical 
terms for **south** and **sour** are so alike in sound that they 
might hav^ been very easily mistaken one for (he other. 



•Force. Some Early Notlcet of Um lodUns o( Ohio. p. 10. 
fAmerlcaa Aathropologist. Vol. 4, p. 151. 



i6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



SANDERS' INDIAN WARS— VERMONT PRK-HIS- 

TORICS. ETC, 

By Prof. James D. Butler. 

The following extracts must be attractive to readers ot the 
American Antiquarian. They are taken from a work of 
tnOst excessive rarity. A generation ago a copy of that book, 
then supposed to be the only one in existence, was sold for 
more than two hundred dollars. After more than twenty years' 
search, however, a duplicate was discovered in a garret at 
Windsor, Vermont, in 1874, ^Y L. E. Chittenden — whose auto- 
graph was on all the original greenbacks. Four other muti- 
lated specimens were afterwards delected, but in 1893 Mr. 
Chittenden exulted in possessing the only perlect copy save 
one. As it turns ouf, there is a third copy, completed in all its 
parts, in the library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. 
A reprint limited to 200 numbered copies was issued on March 
20, 1893, in a dainty style; but being thus bottled up, it can not 
be circulated widely. 

The title page, besides a Latin motto from Cicero, reads thus: 
A history of the Indian wars, with the first settlers of the United 
States, particularly in New England; written in Vermont, 
Montpelier, 181 2. 

The volume, 319 pages, was anonymous, but its author was 
known to be Rev. Daniel Clark Sanders, president of the Ver- 
mont University. As embodying something of original local 
observation, and still more as showing views of American pre- 
historics prevalent a century ago, the work of President Sanders, 
which came so near perishing, deserves to live. 

Ten years ago officials of the Smithsonian, at Washington, 
supposing the Madison copy of the edits princeps to be unique, 
wrote thither inquiring about its "vocabularia comparativa," 
especially as to the following paragraph: 

"The vocabularies which have been obtained ofTer many 
evidences not only of high authority, but also of Asiatic descent. 
*Num' is the name of God among the Poconchi Indians; among 
the Semoyads in Asia it is changed to *Nim.* The Delawares 
use the name of *Kitchi,' and the Kamptchadals in Asia say 
*Kootcha.' The Indians of Pennsylvania use the word •anna,* 
and the Peruvians *mama,' for mother, while in Asia the 
Tartars say *ana,' and the Albanians *mamma.' The Dela- 
^ wares in America say *nachk* for hand, and the Akashini say 
f *nak.* The Chinese name of blood is "molbuen ;" in Asia the 



SANDERS* INDIAN WARS. 17 

Koriaki call it ^mooUymool/ The name ol ice among Chippe- 
ways in America is ^meequarme/ while among the Karees in 
Asia it is ^meek.' ** 

However slight the affinities may appear between American 
and Asiatic languages, yet the radical affinities *^of the Indian 
languages must be obvious to every observer. But however 
useful extensive Indian and Asiatic vocabularies may prove, yet 
the cautious genius of philosophy will not be ready to erect an 
entire system on a few analogies or obscure etymologies^ 
(p. 191). 

INDIAN AFFAIRS IN VERMONT. 

^Indian cornfields are plainly to be seen in various parts of 
Vermont. In the intervales at Burlington several hundred 
acres together were found by the American settlers, entirely 
cleared, not a tree upon them. ^ Arrow-heads are to be 
found in almost every spot. They are very numerous on Onion 
River, and In all the woods in Burlington. Barrels of them are 
annually ploughed up around Bombareen pond, in Castleton, 
where are stillthe vestiges of a once populous Indian village. 
Here are dug up pestles^ pots, and other utensils, in great 
abundance. Some of these are so common in the state as to 
cease to be articles of curiosity. * * 

At Rockingham are some attempts in a rock to give certain 
heads oi men, women, children, and animals. They are very 
rude and indented one-third ot an inch. * In Kellyvale is yet 
to be seen something like an attempt at painting. ^ * Sev- 
eral Indian pots have been found in the county of Chittenden. 
The most complete of these was lately found in Bolton. It is 
about three feet in circumference, nearly halt an inch thick, 
without legs or eyes for a bail.** * ♦ 

President Sanders describes so many pre-historic relics that 
we are constrained to believe Vermont to have been for ages 
not only the himting-ground of aborigines, but their permanent 
abode to a much greater extent than is admitted by the his- 
torians ot the state. 



> 



It THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGY. 

rFrom the China Daily News. October ft, iS^.] 

The opinion that Amerihan culture as it was before tiie age of 
Columbus was of Asiatic origin is becoming more widely spread. 
At the me ting in August, 1894, of the British Association at 
Oxford, Dr. E. B. Tylor read a paper on the distribution of 
mythical beliefs. If such m3rths as that of the Bridge of the 
Dead are found to be distributed widely in the world, we have 
in this (act evidence of the linking which exists between tiie 
great religions of the world. The weighing of souls in a spirit- 
ual balance is another such widely scattered myth. In tiie 
religion of ancient Mexico four great scenes in the journey of 
the soul in the land of spirits are depicted in the Aztec picture 
writing of what is known as the Vatican Codex, i. The cross- 
ing of the river of death. 2. The passage of the soul between 
two great mountains that clash together. 3. The soul climbing 
up a mountain set with sharp obsidian knives. 4. The dangers 
resulting from these knives bemg carried about by the wind. 
There is a close resemblance between these pictures and certain 
scenes of the Buddhist purgatory depicted on Japanese temple 
scrolls. Here are seen, first, souls wading across the river of 
death; second, souls passing between two iron mountains, which 
are pushed together by demons; third, souls climbing the moun- 
tain of knives whose sharp blades cut their hands and feet; 
fourth, knife-blades flying through the air. Dr. Tylor also 
referred to Humboldt's argument from the calendars and mythic 
catastrophes in Mexico and Asia, and to the correspondence in 
bronze works and games in both regions, and expressed the opin- 
ion that the evidence was sufficient to justify anthropologists in 
considering that ancient American culture was due to a great 
extent to Asiatic influence. 

Mr. James Wickersham, of Tacoma, has advocated in The 
American Antiquarian for January, 1894, that Japanese art has 
found its way to Puget Sound by the drifting that has taken 
place on the Japanese current of vessels large and small at diflfer- 
cnt periods. Partly this current bathes the Alaskan shore and 
partly it sweeps majestically to the south, coasting the states of 
Washington, Oregon and California. There has been a civiliz- 
ing mission in this great current. The Kurosiwo has carried the 
knowledge of Asia across the broad Pacific to elevate and edu- 
cate the Indians of the western continent. It is not only Japan- 
ese that have been conveyed to America, mixed with native races 
there, and taught them what they know. Vessels of other 
Asiatic nations that wandered so far east as to reach the Kurosiwo 
have always been liable to a like destiny. Thus the conclusion 
at which the eminent Oxford anthropologist has arrived is sus- 
tained. 



THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 19 



COMPARISON OF THE EFFIGVBUILDKRS WITH 

THE MODERN INDIANS. 

By Stephen D. Peet. 

Wc have in previous papers given a description of the effigy 
mounds — their shapes, attitudes, locations, and have undertaken 
to explain their object and interpret their significance, but have 
not heretofore undertaken to compare them with the work of 
any other prehistoric people. The recent appearance of two 
volumes from the Ethnological Bureau, one of which gives a 
ciescription of the mounds, the other the Dakota myths, leads 
us to institute such a comparison, with a thought that it may 
fiimish us with a key to certain unsolved problems which have 
been presented by the effigies. These problems have relation 
(l) to the area of the tribe which built the effigies; (2) to the 
religious system which led to their erection; (3) the question 
whether the effigies contained any record of the people; (4) the 
question of the clan life and its resemblance to modern clans. 
There are other problems which we do not expect to entirely 
clear up ; but we believe that the study which has been given to 
the effigies, taken as a whole, and the comparison of the system 
contained in them will have removed the mystcr)' which has 
heretofore covered them, and that a satisfactory basis may be 
reached, on which we may build the record of the prehistoric age. 

I. We shall begin with the consideration of the tribal area of 
the effigy-builders. 

1. This people were situated in the state of Wisconsin, a 
state which in many respects resembles the state of New York, 
especially in the fact that there are so many beautiful inland 
lakes within its borders. 

2. The effigy-builders seem to have been composed of a sin- 
gle tribe who held supreme sway in this state Un a long time 
during the prehistoric age, and here developed their social life 
free from interference from other tribes. 

3. The area of the effigy builders corresponded with the area 
known to have been occupied by the Winnebagoes as late as the 
beginning of the settlements by the whiles. 

4« Effigies are found in Iowa and Mmnesota. showing that 
the people were at peace with the people who were then occu- 
pying that region. This confirms what we have said about the 
Winnebagoes, for they were a branch of the Dakotas and were at 
peace with them. 

$. The custom of building effigies in stone prevailed in the 



20 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



S 



region occupied by the Dakotas, making it probable that this 
wide-spread stock were the actual effigy-builders. 

6. The comparison' of the effigies to the inscriptions con- 
tained in the caves of Iowa show a remarkable resemblance, 
making it probable that the same general people left their rec- 
ords in the entire region. 

These are the points which are brought out by recent discov- 
eries. They confirm what we have already said in reference to 
the effigy-builders, and we shall, therefore, take them up in 
their order. 

I. Let us first take up the location of the different groups out- 
side of the state. 

It is due to Mr. T, H. Lewis that these groups have been 
brought to light, and we shall refer to his descriptions and quote 
them in detail. Mr. Lewis says on examining the delineations 
very important differences in class and style from those farther 
east are discernible. These differences, however, are not such 

as i:o conflict with what we 
have said, for the same ani- 
mals are represented and 
the effigies are built in the 
same way, and prove to be 
the totems of the very same 
clans. 

We shall begin with the 
e^roup opposite LaCrescent 
See Fig. i. This group 
was situated on a terrace above the Mississippi River. It 
consists of a number of round mounds. Among them is an 
effigy of a frog. Near it is the effigy of a bird, and within a 
quarter of a mile there are five other bird effigies and sixty- 
nine round mounds. The frog is about ninety-eight feet long. It 
is near the site of Hokah. on the Root River, (Heyokah is the 
name of a Dakota divinity). He is represented in a sprawling 
attitude. Its full length is sixty-two feet. 

There are two bird effigies on a terrace some lo feet below 
this, and formerly there existed several other effigies, 30 or 40 
round mounds and several embankments. Near Richmond 
Station, on a terrace 24 feet above the river, is a bird effigy with 
wings spread, measuring 76 feet from tip to tip and 44 feet from 
head to tail, and a number of ordinary mounds in the vicinity. 
Near the village of Dakota, Minnesota, also on a terrace, is the 
effigy of a fish with fins in the midst of 19 ordinary mounds. 
It measures 1 10 feet in length and 2j4 feet in heicjht. Mr. Lewis 
says this is the only fish effigy in which the fins are visible. 

These effigies arc opposite Trempeleau County, Wisconsin, 
and may help us to decide as to the totem of the clan which 
dwelt there. Judge Gale, of Galcsville, states that there are 




Fig, 1,—EfflgleM near LaOreseent, Minn, 



THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 



ai 



about one thousand effig[ies in the county, but he does not spec- 
ify what animals are imitated. We may say that the frog is 
rather an unusual effigy, but the birds resemble those to be 
found on the I^:monwier River, where the pigeon clan is sup- 
posed to have had its habitat. 

These are all of the localities in the state of Minnesota in 
which effigies have been recognized. Mr. Lewis, however, found 
several localities in Northeastern Iowa, the very region in which 
the cave inscriptions were discovered. The first group which 
he has discovered was at MacGregor, opposite Prairie du Chien. 
This group stretches along the line of the bluff, which forms 
the dividing ridge between two streams. The bluff is 500 feet 
high and rises perpendicularly above the Mississippi River. 
The Yellow River is to the northwest and the Bloody Run is 




J 



Fig. t,—JBfflffiet near MncGregor^ Io%ca, 

to the southwest of this ridge. The row of mounds consists of 
two long embankments, one 190 feet long. 18 feet wide, the 
other 130 feet long and 18 teet wide, and ten clumsy but tailless 
animals, which were probably designed to represent the bear. 
They vary from 79 to 109 feet in length and from 2 to 3 feet 
in height. These birds resemble the swallow effigies (see Fig. 2) 
which are found in such great numbers in Crawford County, 
Wisconsin, and the animals resemble the bear effigies which are 
Ibund in the same region. The swallow was the clan emblem 
or totem of the people who lived between the Wisconsin and 
Mississippi Rivers. Mr. Lewis says that near Mr. McGill's, 
three miles above Clayton, there is a group of ninety two 
mounds, two of which represent animals, two birds ; the remain- 
der are round mounds and embankments.^ There are also three 



*Tb« flvnrevort of th« Ethoolodcd Bureau dtt covered in the tame recioo terenU elk 
Thar had horns proiactinc forward, very mach as dk carry thair horns, a styla ot 
Has Ihaai which is pscaJlar to this paiticular raroo. 



ai THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

birds which have their wings spread and their heads near the 
edge of ihe bluff. He visited also the group of mounds situated 
on the Minnesota (St. Peter's) River, (N. W. %. S. 26, T. 313, 
R. 2, E.) which Mr. William Ptf;eon in his famous book has 
called the black tortoise group. He says the central figure cor- 
responds with the description given by Mr. Pigeon, It is the only 
one out of ail of the groups which were described that could be 
identified. He says that the location of the majority of the 
mounds was incorrectly given. The account is entirely unre- 
liable. 

Mr. Lewis also visited several localities in Northern Illinois. 
The following is the list of effigies here: (l.) The well known 
turtle mound which is situated within the city limits of Rock- 
ford, west side. Its length 
jioDC^'^'*^^ is 184 feet, its height from 

3 to 4 feet. Near it is a 
bird effigy and seven round 
mounds and two embank- 
ments. (2 ) On the cast 
side of the river, five miles 
below Rockford (on N. W. 
Ji Sec, 14, T. 43, R. 1 E.), 
is a group of three embank- 
ments, two round mounds 
and a bird efTtgy. The size 
of the bird is 45 feet long, 
68 feet across the wings. 
The group is on a bank 
forty five feel above the 
river. See Fig. 3. (3.) Near the village of Hanover, in Jo 
Davies County is a group of twentv-three round mounds, ten 
embankments and a large animal tffigy measuring 216 feet in 
length, height about 5 feet. There is an embankment running 
out from the foreleg of the animal 170 feet long. See Fig. 3. 
Ten miles east of Freeport on the north side of the Pecatonica 
River iS. E. % Sec. 13, T. 27, R, g E.) is a group consisting of 
seven round mounds, an cmbankm-^nt and an animal effigy meas- 
uring 1 16 ftet in length. See Fig. 3, No. 3. The.se groups evidently 
belong to the same clans as were located in Wisconsin — the tur- 
tle at Rockford to the turtle clan whose center was at Beloit, 
the large quadruped near H,inover to the bear clan, which was 
located near to the Hlue Mounds. (4) Mr. Lewis describes the 
groups of tffigics on the F'ox River, near Aurora. One group 
consists of several round mounds and two effigies representing 
birds, one a duck, the other probably an owl, as it has horns 




■ The oulllne figure ol 
ilorig.' circle" in Jlakni 

atthanuilDilividiwIic 



by Mr. T H. Lewis 



ml* niiTi earth eSgla, yet has tbeBolmelihtin. 



THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 13 

above the head. See No. 2. The second Rfoup consi.<>ted 
of two bird effigies, one elliptical mounJ and thirteen round 
mounds. These two groups arc situated on a terrace north of 
the city limits. They mark the southeast limits of the effigy 
mounds, but show that the effigy -builders fullowed the streams 
and mftde their habitats in the valleys ni the streams. 

2. We would here refer to the fact that, according; to all explorers 
the construction 01 these effi^jiL-s is exactly the same. The 
quadrupeds have projections on one side which represent the 
legs, and occasionally two small projections at the head for the 
ears or horns. The amphibious creatures always have fourequal 
projections for the Irgs, and frequently hive one for the head.* 
The birds are constructed with projections at cither side, which 




represent their wini^s, and very seldom have their legs vi<tible. 
Furthermore, the beauty, symmetry and life like resemblance 
ot these effigies impress those who see them as do the cfTijries 
within the state. The agreement is important, for it confirms the 
points which have been taken by the writer, though it brings 
out one or two additional feaiuri-'s, eipecially in reference to the 
manner of representing the legs of the animals. Mr. Lewis 
says it is probable that each leg as built was intended to repre- 
sent a pair of legs rather than a .single one. The report says 
that in some of tlic effigies in Grant County, Wisconsin, each 
leg was divided into two by a sliijht diprossion, a* it the intent 



eaod. nhEditt In Uhio,lm 
nr *iih III Thomn 4ada 



■Tlil>ltaail..fiiiW Ihe mcihud ■bemcr ilic it 
CcIK<i ui ID WwunilD. 

EBilai mwne >at alIer»H I..<in4 iH.ir Motiil'* l.tnJ.uc. tUa „a i lilutf u«-rl.K>iin( Iha 
k*. Thu uI ttw biiltilu rA(i» >c<c l.>»nd ID ihc'iiix ircum. ..d the n i.Mh >1dc ul Bnflils 
Laka. <b* aanuand Ihr rfti^m icma kibJir c irinp .U'ttni The tm- •miilcf biillalA ««n 
ImiuA M*i UlBcm >pnD|<- x"! rcpicxai thi oi'lc and I'ira t buil'iu. I be iih i>l «■■- 
■MBkHCBIa ■■ lb* cm (tpiiacala. »■ a •mall acale. a liae «Si-h Has d.KuiEfed Bur HaM*- 
(tito. BiHih ol l.ak« KwbkuaoM. It •epincni* put .>■ a ttmtilti^e. lb. lu .k.>ul aod iW 
ala ww l (■Bvai af luadiiar lor kabtcra, vbKb *u coanecud vith 1 iimc-drin* Baar Ui« 



> 



24 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

was to make the projection represent the two legs. In reference 
to the shape of the head and the division of the ears the report 
agrees with the testimony of Mr. Lewis and that of the author. 
These are sometimes plainly represented and help us to identify 
the animal, though the distinction between the horns and the 
ears is not easily recognized in some of the effigies.* 

The report further says. "The feeling for correct form is indi- 
cated by the outline which defines the forehead by the curves of 
the back and belly; and of the gambol joints of the legs, as well 
as by the relief which expresses the rotundity and relative 
prominence of the parts." This agreement in the testimony of 
the explorers is important. It shows that there are no great 
diflferences between the effigies on the two sides of the river. It 
shows further that the descriptions which we have already given 
of the beauty and variety of the effigies were correct.f 

2. Now in reference to these groups of effigies we make this 
point, that they only extend the area of the tribe a little way 
beyond the state, but do not break the unity of the system^ 
From them we learn the exact boundaries of the habitat of the 
effigy-builders and find that it corresponds most remarkably 
with the boundaries of the territory of the Winnebago tribe, 
and not only this, but they correspond with the location of the 
Winnebago villages! 

Still we must remember that there were effigies in other states 
— two bird effigies in Georgia; an alligator at Granville, Ohio; 
and a quadruped on the Scioto River; bird track at Newark; 
a serpent effigy in Adams County; a thunder-bird in Clermont 
County. Mr. Lewis thinks he has discovered effigies on the 
Missouri River and in Minnesota. These effigies are all made 
after the same plan as those in Wisconsin — the birds with pro- 
tions on two sides, the alligators with two projections on each 
side, the quadrupeds with two projections on one side, serpedts 
with no projections, but with tortuous bodies. 

The most of these effigies were placed upon hill-tops over- 
awe would refer here to the figures of the moose ad ' bear effiries as compared 
with 'he mouse discovered by Mr. Lewis near ihe town ol Hanover, Illinois The plat- 
ting brings out the peculiar shapes of the bear effigies and shows the variety of expression 
which was given to them. The same figures arc given in the report, but they fail to 
bring out the attitudes. 

+We here refer to the celebrated elephant effigy, which has been so often visited and 
furnished so much mnterial for dis( ussion in reference to the age of the mound-builders. 
The members of the Ethnological Bureau have surveyed this effi»fv and produced a cast 
of it for the exposition at New Orleans. This survey conrtrms what we have said about the 
eftgy. It is a gigantic figure ol the clan totem of the region, which was the bear. We first 
mentioned the buff .do and bear as associated together, and were not certain as to which 
was represented. Subsequent exploration satiihed us that it was the bear. 

tThere were Winnebago villages laid down on the early maps, especially in Farmer's 
map, at several of the places where these groups have been discovered. Furthermoie, the 
trail which was followed bv General Long In his early exploring expedjti<m crossed the 
various nvers, such as Fox, Kock, Pec«itonica and the Mississippi, at the very points 
where these groups are situated, and the map of the expedition contains a record of the 
mounds at these very points. Mr Lewis, to be sure, thinks he has discovered effigies on 
the Miss'>uri River and on the Crow <* ing River, 150 miles distant, and he fixes the limits 
of the effigies at these points. The territory of the effigy-builders did not. however, extend 
to these points, but fhe^e are detached Ironi the tribal »rca. just as are the great serpent 
and alligator mound in Ohio and the serpent mound near Quincy, III. 



THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. JS 

looking river valleys. They show in their location, as'well as 
io their shapes and manner of construction, that they were built 
by the same or a similar people as the cfligies of VVisconsio 
were, and render it probable that the ancestors of the efllgy- 
buiMers originally had their seats upon the Ohio River, and 
before that, east of the Allfghcnies. Thii is in accord with the 
traditions of the Dakotas that their ancestors formerly dwelt 
on the Ohio, and many hundred years ago migrated westward. 
3. The resemblance of the cfligies to the rock inscriptions is to 
be considered, \Vc have spoken of the fish etligies. There are 
many figures of fishes in the sides of the pictured caves of Iowa; 
also figures of deer in the caves of Wisconsin. These are made 



with more regard to the details of fins and horns than was pos- 
sible m the case of the elfiKies; but there is. nevertheless, a 
striking rescmbL^nce. There arc deer ciligics at Madison in 
which the two horns and the four legs arc visible, and elk clfifrics 
in Grant County m which the projecting horns are plamty seen. 

There are also sonie fish effigies on the west shore of Lake 
Koshkonong which have the fins as plainly marked as these in 
Minnesota. Moreover, these fish effigies resemble the inncrip- 
tions lound in the caves of Eistern I.iw.i, giving the idea that 
ihey were erected by the same people as those who left the 
inscriptions. Possibly they were both designed to be pictographs 
which contain the record of successful fishing, or the claim of the 
clan to the fishing ground. 

There are also fish effigies at Dclevan I jkc and Like Monona, 
and the west side of Like Koshkonong. localities where there 
are good fishing grounds at the present time. The particular 
kind of fish is not discoverable in the effigies, for they are 
■o worn by the elements. But so f'lr as they have been recognized 
tbey are the same as those which stilt abound in the lakes. This 



26 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

constitutes one point of difference between the effigies and the 
pictographs. The pictographs contain the figures of suckers, 
red-horse and buffalo, species which abound in the Mississippi 
River; while the effigies seem to represent pickerel, which abound 
in the lakes. See Figs, i and 6, 

4. The history of the Winnebago tribe is next to be consid- 
ered. The earliest that is known of this people is that at the 
time of Nicolet's first visit, in 1634, they were situated at Red 
Banks, near Green Bay. They were afterwards called Puants 
by the French missionaries, but by the Algonquins, Winnepc- 
koak, which means people of the fetid water, "winne," "water," 
and *'pekoak," **foul." The proper meaning is "salt water." 
And it is believed that^hey once reached the salt water. They 
were a branch of the Dakotas and were, less than a thousand 
years ago, a part of the same people.* AUouez says that in 





Fig 7.-^D9er in Pictured 
Fig, 6.— Fish in Pictured Cave, Iowa. Cave in IViteonein, 

1640 they had almost been destroyed by the Illinois. But he 
found the Ojibwas in council whether to take up arms against 
them. They had long held their position and were on good 
terms with the Mascoutens, Menominees, Ottawas, Chippewas, 
and Pottawattamies, who lived in different parts of the state, and 
held it as a common possession between them. Paul Lejeune, 
in speaking of the tribes that dwelt on Lake Michigan, says, 
"still farther on dwell the Ouinipegon, who are very numerous." 
"In the neighborhood of this nation are the Naduessi (Sioux), 
and the Assiniponais (Assiniboines). 

Green Bay was occupied by the Menominees and Sauks, 
and the adjacent Lake Winnebago by the Winnebagoes, which 
was a great centre of population. Allouez and Dablon paddled 
up to Lake Winnebago and the mouth of Upper Fox, which 
they ascended to visit the town of Mascutens. At the time of 
Carver's visit in 1766, he found a village at Red Banks, though 
the band had moved westward and had their village on the Wis- 
consin River. 

Jedediah Morse in 1820 says that they had five villages on 

•Dr. S. R. Riggs, in contributions to North American Ethnology, Vol. ix. p. 189. 




♦fWifJfw/WTii^r 









CM ■•• 



<**, •^#»m'-rv*;' rr.T'T r-r*'" •* 



A 1 • r r 






i^Ma 







— 1 




.*- 






V 



V' 



\ 



I 



/ 



\ 



I I 



/ 



- •- *t\. 



k\t- 



.' * • 

\ 



/ 



k\L. 



\^y 



/■ 



->"' 



G4ME DRIVES ON THE WlbCOSSIN RIVER AND lT»- TRIHUTARlE-^ 




MAP OF EFFIGIES ON THE ROCK RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 



THE EFFIGYBUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 



cral divinity — the symbol of the nature powers, such as the 
Jain or lightning; ?^ This question wc shall not undertake to 
answer, but shall only refer to the fact that the ser|>ent was a 
common effigy throujjbout this entire region, and serpent wor- 
ship was an important element in the religion of all the c ffigy- 
builders, wherever they were. 

3. The surrounding of their forts with serpent effigies is an- 
other |>oint. We have spoken of Ft. Ancient as having the ser- 
pent effigy embodied in its walls. There is, according to the re- 
port of the Ethnological Bureau, an enclosure in Pipestone Co., 
Minn., which has two crescent shaped embankments, each of the 
embankments being in the shape of a tortuous serpent. The 
circumference is 2.386 feet. Inside of the enclosure is a mound 
twenty fert in diameter and four feet high. There is a bastion- 
like enlargement to the wall and two openings or gateways to 

the enclosure. Now it is 
remarkable that the small 
enclosure or circular earth- 
work which we discovered 
j^/Oo ^f^ 1^^ "' •^^ Mineral Springs, near 

▼ ^r j^ .v / Utley's Quarries. Wiscon- 

sin, has its walls in the 
same tortuous shape as this 
one in Pij)estone County. 
Sec Fig. 10. The measure- 
ments, which were carefully 

Fig.t^-^aerpeni Riny. near Mineral i^ing.^^,^^^ indicate that the 

bends in the serpent were more regular and uniform than those in 
the larger enclosure. Mr. Lewis has discovered many serpent 
effigies in Mmnesota. These are important facts, for they bring 
out the point. This confirms what we have said elsewhere about 
the sense of protection which was enjoyed by the elfigy builders 
in connection with the serpent. It was not merely an object of 
fear and a place to be avoided; but the serpent effigy was a 
familiar form which was as sacrrd and dear as anv other animal 
tokens, and its effigy was mingled with the animal effigies mdis- 
criminately. We refer here to the fact that there are many serpent 
figures in caves of Iowa, and these resemble in appearance the 
serpent effigies in Wisconsin. Some of them appear to be 
rattlesnakes, others are without rattles. We give cuts of two 
of these taken from Mr. Lewis' drawings, and will call attention 
to the resemblance to the effigies discovered in Grant County 
and Green Lake Countv. 

4. It is noticable that the Dakotas had a system of mythology 
which embraced serpent worship. The llidatsa make occa- 
sional ofTerings to the great serpent that dwells in the Missouri 

* For this cee Twelfth Af no»l V'eport, Boreao • f E ho >l fy Ut* - hipfe*. 
t At this place a •trean. which failf Into the f roood above the tprinc. bursts oat agais. 
"'vtiaf IM Idaa of the setpeat divinity, which was a subaqneotts or subtcratteao god. 




30 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

River by placing poles la the river, attaching to them sundry 
robes or colored blankets. It is probable that the robe which 
Hennepin saw and took away from near St. Anthony's Falls was 
an offering to the same divinity. The Msndans and the Winne- 
bagos both had a tradition about a certain youth who was 
changed into a huge serpent, 

Oonklaha is the god of the waters. His external form is 
said to resemble the ox or buffalo, though his horns and tail 
reach to the skies. The dwelling place of the male is in the 
water; the spirit of the female animates the earth. ' One of these 
gods, it is believed, dwells under the Falls of St. Anthony.f These 
divinities have been described by Rev, A. L, Riggs. J. O. Dorsey, 
Rev, Gideon Pond, Mrs. Eastman and Miss Alice Fletcher.^ The 




lAtilttning Qod. 



following is the description given by Mr. Riggs: Wakinya is the 
god of thunder, or the thunder bird. He is represented with 
drooping wings g 

►. There are four varieties. One is black with a long beak, four 
joints in his wing ; another yellow, who has six quills ; a third, 
scarlet, which has eight joints; the fourth is blue, and has 
semi-circular lines for eyebrows, from beneath which shoot down- 
wards two chains of zigzag lightning.| This divinity dwells in a 
lodge on a beautiful mound, which has a doorway toward each 
of the cardinal points, with a watcher at each door — a butterfly 
at the east, a bear at the west, a reindeer at the north and a beaver 
at the south. 



) 



■Maximilian Trav* 
ateJubl!r)ai«n'°an™ 


Is in N. A., p. tte. Bourke'a Study of Siouan Culls, p. SnS. 
had a clan which was called the ■-C-a*/«ti They bc.ieve Ihat Iheta 
quilic pjwers which dwell under Ihe around and in the hlBhbluffi, 






an w,.ler. and that they uphold the e»Ih. trees, rivers, and are Ihi 
beiniis. They have l,mg bodies, with horns on their heads. (Sin 
rl.l The IhuiiHer beinRS are bi-ds called Waitalcara One ol Iha 
H is a Ihundei being sjb-gens. This accounts lor the terpenl effitlaa 


enemies ol the thunder 
Elevenlh Annual Kcpo' 


dlvl«i<msol the bird cei 


which are lonnd upon tl 


le snmmils ol lorluous bluffs. They lepeaent a mythologie divin- 




Htnonf! sums oi the U^lcuia [rlbea. though among them it was a sut>- 


l^u't'.ebu'fl'aln'insTad 




.. JS^£„,"7>''oloELe.< 





gGospel amons Ihe Dakoliis. by Rev. S. R. Riggs. D. D. 

llThii temlnds us at the Umowuh. Ihe tain cloud ol the Moquis. 



THE EFFICYBUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 31 

The moving god. Tu-ku-skan, lives in the four winds. His 
symbol is the boulder. To his retinue belong the buzzard and 
raven, fox and the wolf. The Toonkan, the stone god, dwells 
in the tK>uldcrs and his symbol is the round or oval boulder, 
about the size of a man's head. The Hcyoka,^ the anti- 
natural god, assumes the human form. He is armed with bow 
and arrow, but has various animals, such as frogs and birds, 
flving from his bow. He is represented as having two heads, or 
a cap with two peaks. This agrees with the testimony of J. O. 
Dorsey. He adds that the messengers of Unktehi* are serpents, 
serpents, lizards, frogs, owls and eagles. He also mentions the 
horned water nionstcrs, called Wahmenitu. the god of the water. 
This monster has four legs. Its backt>one is like a cross-cut 





r$ff, If.-MtUe and Firtnale Wairr IHtHmUy.i 

saw. It has red hair all over and one eye. They think that it 
causes the ice in the river to break up in the spring of the year. 
The thunder gods are birds of terrific proportions. They 
created the wild rice and prairie grass.J 

It is very remarkable that there are pictographs or rock in- 
scription in eastern Iowa which embody these very myths, and 
these can be identified with the particular Gods of the D«ikotas.§ 
One of these has the shape of an immense bird with drooping 
wings, and w»lh a ser[>ent shooting out from the hc.id. The 
feathers in the wings were probably intended to symbolize the 
rain, and the serpent to symbolize the lightning. Another of 
these is in the shap^ of a massive human face, with horns rising 
above the face. Another figure designed to represent the same 
god has the horns very prominent, the rude semblance of a face, 



2f 



*()nokia^ha IS t>r Kiffr« tpHliog. 

tlHr«« are (rum the iixk inaLnptionii. but tbcT may he compared to the cthg\c9. Tb* 
Bear Aurora ha« horn* and b4>dv like one u( thr«^ Thrie are wings or arm« in th« 
7. but they are lackioc in the inscribed *iKure. ^ec Fic- 3- The t'okteht are subaqoco«t 
•«bter<«nean bcmgi 
tSrc Ametican Antiquarian, Vol. II., No. 4« p- >7o Alto nth Report Bureau of Etb- 



mIovv. p. 44V 



GodL 



luve already been deacnbcd in (he work oa Myths and Symbols and Peraosal 



32 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAli. 

and a figure which may be intended for the body. These pos- 
sibly may represent the male and fernale — ^the abode of the male 
is the water, and the female, the earth. 

In Reno Cave, Houston County, Minn., is a figure which repre- 
sents a man with large hands ; a body in the conventional way; a 
disk in the center of the body, and a crooked head — the hands 
representing the clouds, the crooked head, the lightning, the 
disk, the sun. In Lamoille Cave in Minnesota is a figure of a 
man with upraised arms. The upper parts of the arms are in 
shapes of trees or plants. See Fig. 13. These figures evidently 
embody the mythology of the Dakotas, and were probably made 
by the Winnebagoes. The comparison of certain effigies with these 

pictographs proves quite suggestive. To il- 
lustrate : There is an effigy in Clermont Coun- 
ty, Ohio, which seems to represent the thunder 
bird or Wakinya. This effigy is situated upon 
a hill-top overlooking a series of earth-works 
or enclosures, and is itself contained within an 
enclosure whose gateways are all guarded by 
double walls. It has the shape of a bird with 
outspread wings and is furnished with four 
projections on either side to represent the 
plumes, the whole enclosure with its elaborate 
gateways and its lofty situation and the effigy 
within it conveying the same impression — that 
Fig, is,^Human Tree, ^j^^ j^j^^j ^^g held sacred by the builders. 

We will add to this, one more, namely, the man with two 
heads, which was discovered by Mr. Taylor on the banks of the 
Wisconsin. Wonderful stories are told among the Dakotas of 






FHg» lU^Seyoka and Anungite,* 

a being with two faces. It is possible that the effigy of the man 
with two faces, which was discovered near Muscoda, was in- 
tended to represent this divinity. These may seem to be mere 
conjectures, and we do not build much upon them, but there is 
no other explanation of these figures, nor of the composite 
mounds in which the various animals and birds are mingled 

* Being with two faces.—Doraey, Eleventh Report of the Ethnological Bareaa. 



THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 33 

together, than that they represented snmc niytholofrjcal creatures. 
The human effigy described by Mr. W. H, Canfield may pos- 
sibly represent one of these divinities, as it re'scniblcs the picto- 
graphs in some respects, The best specimen, however, at least 
the one that is most suggestive, is the human effigy which was 
discovered by the writer in company with F. W. Putnam near the 
schoolhouse at Uaraboo. This effigy was situated at the south 
end of a line of burial mounds; was lying on a slope of a hill. 
One arm was partially raised, the other was akimbo. Only one 
leg could be seen The only explanation of the effigy is that it 
was an effigy of the divinity Heyoka, who is always represented 
IS having one leg and an arm partially raised. Sec Fig. IJ. 

5. The customs of the modern Indians in celebrating their 
dances and feasts and sacred mysteries 
dear up many points. These dances 
and mysteries have been dcscrilxd. 

If we compare these descriptions with 
those that arc furnished by Catlin and 
other earlier writers we shall find a re- 
markable correspondence, and not only 
this, but wc secure a very satisfactory 
explanation of ctrlain groups of effigies. 

Now it is to be noticed that there are 
certain groups or lines of effigies v.hich 
can be easily explained on the supposi- 
tion that they were the place where 
mysteries were held. One such group 
is situated near Blue Mounds. It con- 
sists ol a long line of effigies at one end, 
a lookout mound at the other and a «#■«-*■>"«>«. »n™ 
circle in the middle. Another group was discovered by the 
writer at Port Andrews. There was a hiyh mound which com- 
manded an extensive view at one end, an enclosure at the other 
end, a line of swallow effigies which extended nearly a mile along 
the river under the overhanging cliffs. 

Miss Alice Fletcher has descrit>cd the mystery of the elk lodge 
and the dances connected with it. One peculiarity of these 
dances was that the members occasionally emerged from their 
tents and marched aiong through certain familiar spots in pro- 
cession, making a route sometimes two or three miles and then 
returning to their dancehouse. "They wore m.isks resembling 
beads ol elk, antlers shaped from boughs. They followed in a 
general way a pretty wooded creek and went three or four miles 
up the valley. Over tour hours were passed in this tortuous 
fiance. The A-holc movement of this dance with its queer pos- 
turing and actions was not without grace and produced a lasting 
impression." It is probable that this group of effigies marked 
the site of a similar ceremony, and that the march of the dancers 




34 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



was along this line. The lookout mound commands a view of 
the entire group and of another group situated five miles distant 
on the opposite side of the riveri 

The explanation ot this group is that here on the summit of 
the hill there was an important tribal burial or other religious 
ceremony of the tribe, and the various clans assembled here and 
left the effigies as clan totems upon the surface. We will say 

further that there are many 
localities where effigies are 
clustered around some central 
ring, and these groups are gen- 
erally located near some vil- 
lage site, conveying the idea 
that the members of the differ- 
ent clans were accustomed to 
assemble in the council houses 
and on the dance grounds and 
make a common feast together. 
Another specimen of a sa- 
cred dance circle or mystery 
lodge is the one which has 
been discovered at Green 
Lake. Here there is a ring or circle on the hill-top not far 
from the village site, and around the ring a number of effigies 
in various attitudes, among which were recognized the squirrel, 
fox, eagle and pigeon, all of which were the totems of clans near 
by. It is possible that these 
indicate the presence of clans 
at a dance or feast, and yet 
the ring suggests a medicine 
lodge, and reminds us of 
Catlin's picture of the medi- 
cine lodge of the Mandans. 
Another group is situated at 
Lake Koshkonong. Here 
there is a platform mound 




Fig, 16.—HeyokcL, Dakota Divinity, 



'\3Mll 



^^:^ 




.»-—-*.%. 




-**«f rrrnTn 1 tin v 




£ 



which has about the same ^. „ ^^, • r'T^Z o^ »* ^ 

. Fig, 17. ^Medicine Lodge in a Shelter Oaive. 

proportions as the sacred 

lodge of the Dakotas, which was elliptical in shape — twenty feet 

across and forty feet long. 

Another specimen is one found on the north side of Lake 
Mendota. This is a group which extends along the edge of the 
lake for a mile and a half or two miles. There is, at one end of 
it, a cluster of effigies, in the midst of which was a high conical 
mound. The effigies are situated on lower ground, but all of 
them near the water. Among them were recognized the clan 
totems of all the adjoining clans — the panther, weasel, buffalo, 
fox, pigeon, bear, eagle, squirrel, and turtle. There are four or 




AncisnT -vsxsz j . 






FORT. OANCC CIRCLE, OAME DRIVE. MEOiaNE LODOE. 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



practices of the people, and even the names of the divinities 
which they worshiped. These were facts concerning which 
there was no intent on the part of the effigy-builders to 

£ reserve a record, and it is only incidental to the life they 
^d, and especially to the custom of erecting effigies wherever 
they were, that so much has been preserved upon the soiL 
Still they bring the people who built the effigies very near to 
us, and help us to identify them with the people who were occu- 
pying the region at the lime of the first settlements. (5) We 
maintain, however, that there were certain events in their his- 
tory concerning which the effigy-builders did make a record, 
and that they left this record upon the soil, and that if we com- 
pare this with the other records which have been brought down 
to us from the prehistoric times by the tribes, we shall find the 
correspondence as striking as before. 




Fig. 19,—Piclograyh of a Game Drive. 

The comparison of the effigies to the pictographs or 
mnemonic charts which are extant among the modern tribes, 
especially among the Dakotas, will then be in place. These 
pictorial charts may be divided into several classes, (i.) Those 
which contain the myths and traditions, and especially the 
migration myths. (2.) Those which relate to the sacred mysteries 
and which perpetuate the songs and sacred symbols of the abor- 
igines. (3.) Those which contain the names of chiefs and pri- 
vate individuals in a list which may resemble the roster roll 
of modern armies. (4.) Those which relate to the events which 
have occurred in the history of a tribe. These are all very 
valuable and furnish many clews to the interpretation of the 
effigies, but it is with the fourth class that we have especially to 
do in the comparison. According to the testimony of Coload 
Mallery, the Dakotas had certain persons among them wbQ> 
trained to the art of picture-writing, or record-keeping, 




THE EPPIGY'BUILDBRS AMD THE INDIANS. 



Vffe really the tribal hislorUiia. They filled an important offioe, 
a»d rtaembled in this respect the keeper of the sacred pipea. 
whose oflice was hereditary. Their records related to very 
trifling events, or events that seem to us very triflinf— ^ucli 
as the appearance of certain diseases ; killing a small number of 
Dakotas by their enemies; the hardships of certain seasons; tha 
stealing of a certain number of horses; the celebration of certain 
^fences; the building ot trading posts; the appearance of soldiers 
<^-oiost of them mcKiem events. It is through these charts or 
pictographs that we learn the method of recording events and 
the kind of events which were regarded as worthy of record, 
and by studying these we find there was a very general resem- 
blance to certain groups of effigies which are found in the state. 
We find that in these groups there are records, but they are 
records of a clan which occupied certain villages and claimed 



/*^. 



•k 



certain habitats, and which held the right to certain garden 
beds, cornfields, caches and game drives, the burial of chiefs, and 
the celebration of the dances, and pertained to the prehis- 
toric period. The most strikinii^ record is that which relates to 
the conducting of successful hunts, especially by members of the 
clans which have wandered from their own habitats, and have 
killed certain animals in remote out-of-the-way places. This 
last method of making a record is, to be sure, one which brings 
some confusion into the clan map, for it presents the animal 
totem of distant clans on the habitats of other clans and asso- 
ciated with animals which are not clan totems at all. Ordinarily 
a game drive will contain the effigies of the animals hunted, as 
well as the totem of the clan on whose territory the game drive 
is situated. There will also be the animals which may be regarded 
as prey- gods, such as the fox, eagle, hawk, buzzard, panther, and 
wolC These are all beasts of prey, but were, nevertheless, 
invoked by the hunters as aids. It was the custom to defer the 
bunt for the large animals, such as the elk. buffalo and deer, 
tMtil after a dream had appeared and all the signs were favorable, 
for hunting was as much a religious exercise as dancing or the 
burial of a chief. It we examine the groups of effigies which 
ife plainly pame drives, we shall find this to be the case in the 
■ajority of instances. The game drives have the animal hunted 



38 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

and the people hunting surrounded by the animals who are 
attending the hunters, thus making an actual pictograph, in 
which the clan totems and the animals are mingled together, 
the number of animals slain being sometimes recorded in the 
string of circular mounds. The game drives were made up of 
mechanical contrivances, (a) such as embankments covered with 
screens of brush lor hiding the hunters;* (b) also groups of conical 
mounds, on which lookouts were stationed, and long lines of 
mounds situated on the bluffs, which served as elevated ways 
and runways for the lookout messengers; (c) also conical mounds 
surrounded by embankments on which fires could be lighted at 
night for the purpose of attracting the game;t (d) also embank- 
ments which surrounded the feeding places of the grazing ani- 
mals; (e) a series of game drives or traps through which the 
animals would be chased until they became confused and were 
slaughtered by the hunters;| (f) occasionally the building of a 
lodge near the screens, in which the hunters could stay while 
the duck and wild fowl returned from their flight. All of these 
have been noticed by the writer in different places. These were 
important, for they show what the contrivances were, and where 
they were placed, and they furnish an explanation of the map of 
the e^gies. 

These we regard as specimens of picture-writing, for they are 
groups in which we may read the story of a successful hunt, and 
can tell the clan of the hunters, the animals hunted, the number 
of animals slain, and the animals which follovi^ed the hunt and fed 
upon the slain carcasses. These were evidently intentional records 
and could be interpreted by the effigy-builders. It may be that 
there was claim of possession in some of the game drives, as 
the clans placed their totems near the different game drives as 
much as they did their villages, but the most remarkable of the 
groups are pictographs. We shall endeavor to illustrate this by 
certain specimens. We would here refer to the various groups 
we have called game drives, in which animals seem to be 
chasing one another; bears chasing the deer, as at Green Lake; 
also deer flying among squirrels and wolves, in the same locality; 
deer running among eagles and long mound embankments, as at 
Eagle Township; elks surrounded by eagles and mink at the 
Stone Quarry at Madison; elks or buffalo surrounded by eagles, 
and swallows, as on the Kickapoo River; moose fleeing among 
the embankments, as at Honey Creek; birds, foxes, squirrels, 



^he plates illustr-te t' Is contrivance, which was verv common. Such embankments 
were sc tteiei over the state, but according to Dr. Thomas' t.stimony, are rar^ y found 
•Isewhere. 

fFi? 21 iPustr^t 'n this contrivance. There are other locali ies in which the same con- 
trlTan e may be seen. One at Merrill's Sp.ings, nOiir Madiaon, another on the east side of 
Lake Monona. _ ^. ... 

trhts map of the "works ' at Eaffle Town^hi^ja well »s that of the works at Madison, 
tUmtrate th s contrivanM. it will be seeuJ^^BM wer« "game dr ves ' scattered over 
tlie entire r. gion 90Jlgf/gf§ljltiBMds con a t^^^^^ggt from one be.ore they were driven 
into anoiher. 





THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. jq 

COODS and wolves apparently in motion, as at Mayvtlle; elk sur- 
rounded by eagles, hawks and foxes at Honey Creek; bears and 
bufTalo among swallows, near Hazen's Corners; elks surrounded 
by minks and wolves at Mcrritt's Landin(>; panthers running 
among round mounds and long mounds, as at Potosi; bufTalo 
among bears at Shooting Park at Madison, panther among foxes 
or coons at New Lisbon. 

These are all of them picture writings on a large scale, for 
•ome of them cover several hundred feet of ground, ihe effigies 
io some cases being from loo to 600 feet in length. We cannot 
help thinking that these groups were records, as well as mechani- 
cal contrivances. They commemorate the place where certain 
animals were hunted and killed, as well as marked the place 
where the animals were accustomed to make their runways. 




They may represent the place where certain clans had their game 
drives, and so be signs of possession; but there are groups in 
which clan totems are remote from the clan habitats in which the 
clao totems of distant clans are mingled together. These we take 
to be Ihe record of certain eventful hunts in which the clans met 
together. 

IV. The comparison of the clan habitats and the clan vil- 
tiges of the effigy-buUders with those of the modern tribes of 
Indians will next be considered. We may say that the effigy- 
builders diflcred from the modern tribes in that their clans 
occupied river valleys and covered the valleys with clan totems, 
while among the later Indians whole tribes occupied the villages 
and gave their name to the rivers, for the Miami, the Illinois, 
Menominee, Iowa, Kansas and Arkansas all bear the names of 
tribes which formerly lived on them. There are also entire 
ctates which take their name from the aboriginal inhabitants — 
Illinois, Dakota, Kansas and Arkansas. This, however, only 
■hows the changes which have occurred. 

Now this is the point which we arc to bring out by the map 



4ft THS AHKRICAM ANtlQUARlAN. 

iritich we funniBh. See map. This map is bued milaly upM 
tik* study of the effigies; but fat- the purpose of comparison with 
thi Work which has been done by others, we have selected tbt 
digram published by the Ethnological Bureau in conneCtiiM 
ttl^ the catalogue of the mounds and earth-works in the Btate, 




and 



CLAN MAP OF THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS, 
which is covered with the symbols which mark the location 



of the mounds. This catalogue has been carefully made out by 
Mrs, Thomas, the wife of Dr. Cyrus Thomas, after examining 
all that had ever been written upon the effigy-builders, and thft 
locations of the mounds noted. We have added to the map 
certain straight lines, which, according to our study of the 
^gies, mark the habitats of tnc clans. The map itself will 
illustrate the river system and the conformity of the clan habitat! 
to the system. We will only mention the name of the clans And 



THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 41 

the aumber of effigiei which were left by them, and then leavt 
the reader to decide as to the identity of the clan with the local** 
ily. The following is the list: (1.) There are in the Fox River 
valley over twenty panther effigies, located as follows : at Bur- 
lington, one; Big Bend, nine; Racine, five; Milwaukee, five. 
There are in this region no wolves, deer, foxes, elk, or even 
eagles, though there are a few birds resembling prairie chickens 
and several turtles. The evidence is that the panther wan the 
totem of the clan. (2.) The valley of the Milwaukee River 
contains many wolf effigies, showing that it was the habitat of the 
wolf clan. They are as follows : Milwaukee, seven; Waukesha, 
seven ; West Bend, eight. There arc a very few panthers, very 
few turtles, but several wild geese in this district There are 
more wolves here than in any other part of the state. (3.) The 
Sheboygan River seems to have been the habitat of the coon, 
for coon effigies are numerous, though squirrel effigies are as 
numerous, making it somewhat doubtful as to which was the 
clan totem. There are at Sheboygan five coons and four squir- 
rels ; West Bend, two coons, fourteen squirrels and eight wolves, 
showing that the clans mingled together and were at peace with 
one another. (4.) The squirrel habitat was in the vicinity of 
Lake Winnebago and Green Lake, for squirrel effijjies arc very 
numerous here. It was a clan which seemed to frequently go 
beyond its borders, for there are groups in which squirrel effigies 
abound in the following places: Lake Winnebago, fourteen; 
Sheboygan, eleven; West Bend, twelve; Green Lake, east side, 
fourteen; Green Lake, west side, six ; Utiey's, six; Buflfclo Lake 
four; Lake Puckaway, four — seventy in all. (5 ) The habitat 
of the fox clan was in the vicinity of Lake Horicon and Rock 
River, with its branches. It contains about seventeen fox effigies 
Mayville, five; Horicon, seven; Ripley Lake, two; Fox I^ke, 
three. (6.) The habitat of the turtle clan was in the Rock Kiver 
valley, for there are here twenty-five or thirty turtles; at Bcloit, 
seventeen; Lake Koshkonong, seven ; Aztalan,* five; Fort At- 
kinson, three; Delcvan I^ke, five ; I^ike Geneva, one. (7.) The 
bear clan was situated south of the Wisconsin River and on the 
dividing ridjje. Here are thirty-eight bear effigies, as fol- 
lows: at Madison, three; seven miles west, seven. Blue 
Mounds, six; Mount Horeb, two ; Bmficld Place, eight; on the 
Wisconsin River, five; on the Iowa bluffs, seven. (8.) The 



*Tb« tnba] capital «m oodoabtcdiy •Ituatcd at Aiialao. lor thU was ccatfall^ lo' t«d 
I «*• ct'OiMCtcd «lth »ll ih« oti'cr cUoa i)\ trails aod water cooraea. Tu> piai*o«M 
lada. the waiU w th baati>> la. Aod t e ootworka are tlmiljr to t^ oa« I'l the vllfafe aitt 
to VaaderlmrK't Cojoiy lodiaoa, wh ch ha«e i>eeo rec otU de«cr bed b% l>r. T> o i>aa to 
the bxik 00 Hoaod Eaplor^tloo. ll oo y ahowa the reaetnblance betwei o the f nb*l vtl'i 



&capttaU to pretiUtO'ic times I r ere ta 4 re*embUace b. tweeo clao « Uaf e« whicti h •«• 
■I idcatihed aaottg the eftflca and the ai clea vtilag e ot 2»ecutaD. wKicri waa patoted bf 
Iteartiat Wvrtb and described "V l>eBry. Ihia provr« that the rlaa vjlair* wcie eif 

riUar to triMi v lutes; cUo vilUfes havloc g «fdeQ bcd«. com neldt; lo«)koatsandtaardi 
Hi* t*eld*, poada sad aprtaca ol vai« r. i>Ucea lor a'«ooiloff tame, daace circles places of 
ia ci s d leas'*, -ad bat lal places. Sonie «»l them were aarniuadei «t • at icaadrs. some v Ik 
isaereaftl 



tk walls, •'S IB Ob o; aoit w tb afiftto*. at lu W.acH.slii. aad s.mie ol ibea wllih 
If oeisasa, sa to Vtf.tola. 



43 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

swallow clan was situated north of the Wisconsin and on the 
Kickapoo River, with twenty-seven effigies, as follows : On the 
dividing ridge Sec. 6, T. 8, R. 5, one; at Prairie du Chien, three; 
Hazen's Corner's ten; on the Kickapoo, three; Part Andrews, 
eleven; on the Iowa bluffs, five; Honey Creek, four; Sec. 19, 
T. 9, R. s I. (9.) The eagle clan had its habitat north of the 
Wisconsin, Indian River and Honey Creek, with thirty-six eagle 
effigies at the following places; Eagle township, twenty; Mus- 
coda, five; Honey Creek (Sec. 5, T. 10, R. 7), three; at the 
Delles, three ; Madison, five. (10.) The mink clan had its hab- 
itat on the Baraboo and on the Wisconsin, with twenty-two 
mink effigies as follows; Devil's Lake, three; Baraboo, thirteen; 
Endeavor, on Buffalo Lake, three; Madison, three, (ii.) The 
Pigeon clan was on the Lemonweir, with effigies at Mauston, 
seven; One-mile Creek, three; New Lisbon, three. (12.) The 
clan occupying the Four Lake region seemed to have the man 
mound for its totem.* There are fifteen man mounds : Lake Men- 
dota, four; Lake Monona, two; Devil's Lake, three; Baraboo, 
two; Seven-mound Prairie, two; on the Wisconsin River, two. 
There are no man mounds outside of this region. 

We see then from this map that the clans were widely scat- 
tered, but were at the same time closely connected, for the 
river system of the state forms a unit, which favors the abode of 
a single tribe divided into clans. There is no disputing the evi- 
dence. There may be mistakes in reference to the exact loca- 
tion5s of the villages, and occasionally a mistake in reference to 
the identity of the animals whose effigies surrounded the villages, 
but the correspondence of the clan habitats to the river valleys 
is too well marked by the grouping of the effigies for us to 
doubt this point. We therefore call attention to the grouping 
of the effigies as evidence that the clans occupied the river val- 
leys and had the names or totems we have ascribed to them. 

We are convinced that great changes have occurred since the 
mound-building age. It the ancestors of the Indians were the 
Mound-builders, as many claim that they were, the Indians have 
degenerated and their former state may be better learned from 
the study of the effigies than from the tribes that are still living. 
The same lesson is impressed upon us from the study of the 
maps of the pre-historic works in the State of Ohio. These 

*The man mounds are very suggestive of a myth which prevailed amonsr the Osages, a 
branch of the Dakotas. This myth was one which attended the tree of life. This tree 
grew beside a river and above the four houses or caves which constituted the original home 
of the human race. The tree itself was surrounded by the seven stars— morning star, even- 
ing star, sun and moon— and was in the upper world. According to the myth, the souls of 
men were at first without bodies, but as they passed up the ladder from one cave world to 
another they applied for bodies, but did not receive them until they reached the fourth 
world. They tned did not receive human bodies, but the bodies of birds, the wings serving 
for arms; the birds' bodies and beaks for human heads and bodies: the birds' toes and 
claws for human feet. This accounts for the many figures in the inscribed rocks which re- 
semble both birds and human beings (see Diagrams AlII and XIV); also for the many bird 
effigies which so resemble human forms, the birds shading more and more Into the haman 
shape. See Fig. i2i also Plate. 



THE EFFIGY-BUILDERS AND THE INDIANS. 43 

works were arranged along the valleys of the diflfcrent rivers, 
such as the Muskegon and Scioto, the two Miamis. with their 
tributaries, the White and the Licking, and were divided into 
diflerent classes, showing that the rivers were occupied by tribes 
which were gathered into a confederacy, very much as the 
Iroquois trib^ were later in history. The peculiarity of these 
tribes was that they were all divided into clans, each clan having 
a village by itself and a limited habitat which it filled with the 
totems of clan life. There are, however, contrasts, as well as 
resemblances, between the two maps. The people of Ohio v/ere 
agriculturalists and sun-worshipers. They made their villages 
along the banks of the rivers and cultivated the soil, but pro- 
tected themselves by building walls from the village sites to the 
river banks and to the fields, and lived within the defensive 
works, which in their shapes were perhaps symbolic of their 
worship, for the walls are nearly all of them in the shape of 
crescents, circles and squares, all of which are supposed to be 
symbols. The efiigy-builders also placed their villages on the 
banks of the rivers, and made them clan residences; but they 
were hunters, and so needed more room. Their clans dwelt in 
the villages, and they filled whole river valleys with their game* 
drives and spread the signs of their claims for possession over 
the hill-tops, making their presence known in the efiigies, which 
were clan totems. 

The com|>arison is profitable, for it shows that there was a 
time when the mound- builders of Ohio and the effigy-builders 
of Wisconsin were alike in their clan system, even if they were 
unlike in their religious worship. The map of the Scioto valley 
is especially significant, for here there are some ten or twelve 
village sites; each village having its own walled enclosure, burial 
place, dance circles, graded ways, temple platforms, and method 
of defense, the circle and the square being the predominant form 
of earth-work. 



mS AMSRICAH ANTIQUARIAN. 



f 



"ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS." 

By Cyrus Thomas. 

In the December (1894) number of The Ai^tiquarian, Mr. 
James Wickersham takes occasion to offer some strictures on 
previous articles presented by me in regard to the probable 
origin of certain customs, arts, etc., of the Pacific Coast tribes. 

Possibly I may have expressed myself more strongly in some 
directions than really intended, and possibly the title given to 
the article, "Origin of the Indians," was broader than it should 
have been. The object I had in view in presenting those 
papers did not embrace in its scope the exact route or mode of 
migration. What I had in view was to call attention to certain 
customs, arts, beliefs, traditions, etc., which render it highly 
probable that there was prehistoric contact between the West 
Coast tribes of North America and some one or more of the 
tribes or peoples of the Oceanic Islands. If we can show by 
satisfactory evidence that there must have been contact be- 
tween the West Coast tribes and the people of the Oceanic 
Islands or Asiatic Coast, the question of the route must be 
worked out subsequently. 

My last paper (American Antiquarian, March, 1894) was con- 
fined to comparisons of certain Mexican and Central American 
types with those of Polynesia, particularly those relating to 
their calendar or time systems. 

As I am not wedded to any particular theory, but am simply 
in search of truth in this respect, it is of little moment to me 
what the route was by which the peoples of those too distant 
regions came in contact with one another. It is possible, if 
the theory of contact is correct, that the Polynesian and Cen- 
tral American types were both derived from the same section. 
That is to say, they may have come directly from this source 
to America without having passed through Polynesia. For ex- 
ample, we may suppose that both were derived from some 
peoples of the Malayan Archipelago. It would follow, then, 
that a comparison of these types as found in America would 
resemble those found in Polynesia, which would lead us, until 
the proper explanation was found, to suppose that the Amer- 
ican was derived from the Polynesian. This, I am at present 
rather inclined to believe, is the true solution of the problem. 

The first point, however, to be established, is that the types 
as found in America and in the Oceanic Isles, or along the 
Asiatic Coast, bear such strong resemblance to one another as 
to forbid any other explanation than that of prehistoric con- 
tact. This, at present, is the contested point. I have " 




"•OltlGIN or THE INDIANS.- IJ 

inclined to believe tl)at a more thorough and complete com- 
parison of the languages of Central America and Mexico with 
those ot the Malay Archipelago and Southern India would re* 
suit in throwing some light on this debated question. It must 
be admitted, however, that the linguists do not believe that, as 
yet, any satisfactory evidence of relationship between any of 
the languages of the two regions has been presented. 

The only safe course for us to pursue in this investigation is 
to follow the conceded data so far as these will lead us, and 
from this as a basis construct what would appear to be the 
most likely theory, keeping in view, however, the fact that no 
universally accepted data as to prehistoric contact has yet 
been presented. 

As a first step, we may assume, as now generally conceded, 
that the Polynesian Islands derived their population in whole 
or in part from the Malayan Archipelago. At least, 1 believe 
there is no one who denies prehistoric contact between the 
peoples of these two regions. The connection between the 
Malayan and Polynesian languages, whether by derivation or 
by an intrusive element of the former into the latter, is no 
longer denied, but is accepted by the best linguistic authorities. 
John Crawfurd. although an early authority, was thDroughly 
acquainted with the languages of Oceanica and the data re- 
lating to the inhabitants of this region. In regard to the ques- 
tion of the distribution of the members of the Oceanic lin- 
guistic stocks, he remarks as follows: 

** There remain two difficult quettions for solution, respecting which 
rmtional conjectures only can be ottered: How did the Malayan languages, 
and those that spoke them, find their way to the fair isle^ of the Pacific, 
Inhabited by the Polynesian race, the nearest of them 2500 and the most 
remote 6>oo miles distant from the nearest point of the Archipelairo.' and 
how comes one race, speaking one tongue, to occupy, exclusively, most of 
the islands scattered over the vast tract of ocean which lies, in one direc- 
tioo, between the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand, and in another, be- 
tween the Fi;is and Easter Island? I shall attempt to solve these questions 
in the order in which 1 have stated them. 

It has already t>een seen that the Malayan nations, or two leading tribes 
of Sumatra and Java, have for ages been pushing their enterprises, whether 
commercial or preiiatory. to the Phillipine Islands, to the Moluccas, to New 
Guinea, and even to the northern shores of Australia. We find them, there- 
fore, on the eitreme eastern confines of the Archipelago, from which they 
night find their wav into the Northern Pacific through the Philippines, or 
into the Southern netween New Guinea and Australia: or into either of 
them thffmgh the Molucca Islands. They, most probably, did find their 
wav into the Pacific bv these three several routes; but, in so far as concerns 
the Polynesian race, the probability, under all circumstances, is that they 
entered the Pacific by the southern route. 

The course of the winds is a most material element in this inquiry. Peri- 
odical winds or mons<x>ns prevail to the north of the equator, blowing dur- 
ing the winster solstice, from the northeast, and during the summer solstice 
Irooi the southwest, and extending from the equator to the tropic of Cancer 
nnd from the continent of Africa to the Japan Islands. Peno<liral winds 
also prevail to the south of the eouator, but blowing from the southeast and 
northwest. These last are more limited than the first, blowing no further 
•ovth of the euuator than the tenth or twelfth decree of latitude, and in 
kmfitude usually from the southern extremity of Madagascar to the north- 



■> 



46 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

em shores of Australia. The southeast monsoon is but a continuation of 
the southeast trade wind, which, at its height, blows sometimes for two 
degrees north of the equator, while the northwest occasionally penetrates a 
considerable way to the south of it. 

Such are the winds that prevail within the Archipelago. In the Pacific 
the northeast tradewind prevails to the north of the equator, and the south- 
east to the south of it; but in a broad zone, of from seven to eight degrees 
on each side of the equator, the winds are variable, and blow even more 
frequently from the west than from the east.* 

By the help of the monsoons the Malayan nations at present traverse the 
Indian Archipelago from Sumatra to New Guinea and the Philippines. 
They were found doing so when first seen by European nation , and th re 
can be little doubt but that they had been pursuing the same enterprises 
for many ages before. Even now the praus of Celebes pass yearly through 
Torres Straits in pursuit of the Tripang fishery, on the coast of Australia. 

That the Malayran nations effected a certain amount of settlement in the 
islands of the Pacific is sufficiently attested by the admixture ( f their lan- 
guages, which is found in almost every tongue of these islands, while its 
alien character is proved by the corruptions which the words have every- 
where: undergone. The extent to which the intermixture of Malayan has 
been carried, is, indeed, nowhere very large in the remoter languages, yet 
in the Polynesian, at least, it is such as could not have taken place without 
some amount of settlement, and mtermixture of race. Who, then, were the 
parties that effected this indispensible settlement? The most likely, I thinks 
are the rovers, who at present for plunder always, and sometimes for settle- 
ment, range over the whole bounds of the Archipelago. The most formida- 
ble of these rovers, in our times, are a people called Lanuns, natives of the 
great island of Mindanau, but the Malays were the sole pi ates on the first 
arrival of Eun peans, and continue to be more or less so, down to the pres- 
ent day. I sh^ll describe a Lanun pirate prau, according to the authentic 
account given by the most competent judges; and the vessels employed by 
the Malays in early times, i^nd before they were becked by European 
power, were still more formidable. A Lanun war prau is usually of 50 feet 
in length, with a breadth of 18 leet beam, and a no d 6 feet deep. She is 
fortified by a strong bulwark, has a double row of oars, or is a oireme of 
eighteen oars to a side. She ha^ two tripod masts of bamboo cane, with a 
light and manageable sail of matting on each. The crew consists of about loo 
men, the rowers being slaves. The combatants are armed with krises, 
spears, swords, shields, and firearms, and the vessel carries some cannon. 
The bucaniers sail in fle.ts of from half-a-dozen to twenty, thirty, or even 
more, and a few women a company the men in the most of the vesselSr 
The plundering cruises of these fleets often last for two and three years. 

Now, such a fleet as now mentioned, when at the southeastern extremity 
of the Archipelago, might be tempted, in search of adventure and plunder, 
to pass through Torres Straits and enter the Pacific. There a continuous 
chain of isl nds ext nds from New Guinea eastward, over eighty degrees of 
longitude. The northwestern monsoon, adverse to its remrning to the 
Archipelago, woold push ^his fleet a considerable way into the Pacific, 
until It encountered the variable winds and light airs along the equator. 
After a voyage by one-third part shorter than that at present often per- 
formed by the rovers of the Archipelago, the adventurers would meet, for 
the first time, the PiJynesian race and language at the Friendly Island 
group, and if the fleet consisted of but ten sail, its thousand weil-armed 
men would be sufficient to insure it from destruction by the rude inhabitants. 
If not enough for conquest, such a force would be sufficient, at least, to 
insure a compromise. Settling in these islands, their small numbers would 
soon be absorbed by the mass of the population, and their nationality be 
lost; but it is not unnatural to suppose tnat the small portion of their lan- 
guage which we find in the Polynesian would be communicated to the 
native tongue. 

*T> is acrouat of the v^lnHs is «aken from the iniroduction to the directory of the great 
hydrograpber, lames HorsDurgh. F. R. S. 



-ORIGIN OF THE INDIANS." 47 

That Malay adventurers did pass over the broad ocean-stretch 
of 3000 miles between the Malayan Archipelago and Madi|;as- 
car, is proven by the elements of the Malay lan^^ua^e found in 
the latter. That, step by step, the same element extended over 
the islands of the Pacific is proven beyond (|uestion by 
linguistic evidence. Kven the natives of Kaster Island, as we 
arc informed by the latest authority, \Vm. J. Thompson (Tc 
Pito te Henua, or Kaster Lsland, p. 546), '* speak a dialect of 
the Malayo-Polynesian latiguage. which is so widely spread in 
the south sea and Malay archipelago." 

One difficulty in the minds of many persons in believing 
that the islanders of the Pacific could have traversed such long 
ocean stretches arises from the erroneous supposition that their 
ancient vessels were all of the same diminutive type as those 
of comparatively modern times. Nothing could be farther 
from the truth than this idea, as the little vessels of modern 
times, as compared with those of more ancient days, are but as 
Lilliputs to giants, or minnows to tritons. Judge Fornander, 
in his "Polynesian Race" (Vol. II. p. 8), calls attention to this 
obiection as follows: 

It has been objected by not a few writers to the lon^; voyages of the 
Polynesians, euher on their first entcrin); ihc F.iciHc or at this period of 
tribal commotion and unrest, that they could not possibly l>e performed in 
their frail canoes, incapable of containiii)^ stores and provisions for a lon^ 
voyafce, and for want of astronomical and nautical knowledge of those who 
navi^^ated them. Those writers jud)(e the PoUnesians as they found them 
one iiundred years ago. isolated, deteriorated, decaying. Had those writers 
been acquainted with Polynesian folklore, they wou d have learned thai, at 
the time we are now speaking ot, the Polynesians were not only pos«^essed 
of open canoes, hollowed out of a single tree, and seldom used except for 
coasting or hshing excursiors. but of vessels constructed from planks sewn 
or stitched together in a substantial manner, pitchrd and painted, decked 
over, or partly so. and with a capacity of hold sufficient to contain men, 
animals and stores for any projected voyage. 

In a foot note, same page, he gives the following statement: 

Rev. J. Williams relates that during his residence at Tahiti there arrived 
at Papeete, about 1819 20, from Kurutu.one of the Austral group, 700 miles 
distant, a large canoe, pi^nked up and sewed together, whose hold was 
twelve feet deep. This peculiar method of planking up or sewing together 
the different pieces of which the large sea-going canoes in olden times were 
made, prevailed throughout Polynesia, and is still retained at the Naviga- 
tors*. Paumotu and other groups, besides in Micronesia, and is still custom- 
ary among the liuguis of Celebes and Ceram. In the Hawaiian group this 
manner of making large canoes was not wholly discarded as late as the 
middle of the last century; for it is credibly reported by some of the old 
natives, whose grandparents lived at the time and saw it, that the principal 
warcanoe. or admiral's ship, of Peleiholani — the famous warriorking of 
Oahu. who died al>out eight vears before the arrival of Captain Cook— was 
a double canoe built in that manner; its name was **Kaneaaiai," and that 
cm Peleiholani's expeditions it carried on board from one hundred and 
twenty to one hundred and forty men, besides provisions, water, stores, 
armament, etc. 

In the New Zealand legends collected by Sir George Grey, 
and also mentioned by Taylor in his '*Te Ilea a Maui," mention 
is made of a Samoan expedition of five large double-canoes 




4B THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Recked over, or partly so, containing the different chiefs wd 
their families, their retainers and their families, provisions, «ta» 
which were bound to New Zealand, where they embarked and 
settled. The tradition also mentions that some of them returned 
to Samoa, and finally came again to New Zealand. 

That the ancient Malay vessels were superior to those of 
Polynesia may reasonably be inferred, and this inference is in 
accord with their traditions. Sir Stamford Raffles, in his ''His- 
tory of Java," quotes the following from their ancient tradi- 
tional records: 

When Prabu Jaya Baya, of Asttna, died, he was suceeeded by his son 
and descendants, named Ami Jaya, Jaya Ami Sena, Pancka Dria, and 
JCasuma Chitra, During the reign of the last of these pnnces, either the 
seat of government had been removed, or the country had changed its 
name, for it was then called Kufrat or Gufrat; and it having been foretold 
that it would decay and go to ruin altogether, the prince resolved to send 
bis son to Jawa, and possessing the written account of Aji Saka, which had 
been preserved in his family, be gave it to bis son and embarked him, with 
about five thousand followers, for that island. Among these followers were 
people skilled in agriculture, artificers, men learned in medicine, able 
writers, and military men. 

They sailed in six large ships and upwards of a hundred small vessels, 
and after a voyage of four months reached what they conceived to be the 
island of Jawa. and many landed; but as it did not a cord with the account 
given by Aji Saka, they re- embarked. In a few months, however, thev 
came in sight of an island with a long range of mountains, and some ot 
them, with the prince at their head, effected a landing at the western 
extremity, while a part were driven to the southward. 

It appears, therefore, that the Malay influence has reached, 
at some time in the distant past, all over the Polynesian area, 
to its extreme outposts. By what means, and by what routes, 
and at what time this was accomplished, may be questions 
difficult to answer. Yet the fact that they did so can no longer 
be questioned. Dr. Brinton, in his **Races and Peoples," says: 

All the Polynesian languages have some affinities to the Malayan, and 
the Polynesian traditions unanimously refer to the west for the home of 
their ancestors. We are able, indeed, by carefully analy2ing these traditions, 
to trace with considerable accuracy both the route they followed to the 
Oceanic Isles, and the respective dates when they settled them. 

Thus, the first station of their ancestors on leaving the western group, 
was the small island of Buru, or Boru, between Celebes and New Guinea. 
Here they encountered the Papuas, some of whom still dwell in the interior, 
while the coast people are fair Leaving Boru, they passed to the north of 
New Guinea, colonizing the Caroline and Solomon Islands, but the van- 
guard pressing forward to take possession of Savai, in the Samoan group, 
and Tonga, to the south. These two islands formed a second center of dis- 
tribution over the western Pacific. The Maoris of New Zealand moved 
from Tonga — "holy Tonga," as they call it in their songs— about six hundred 
years ago. The Society Islanders migrated from Savai, and they in turn 
sent forth the population of the Marquesas, the Sandwich Islands and Easter 
Island. 

The separation of the Polynesians from the western Malays must have 
taken place about the beginning of our era. This length of time permits 
the best adjustment of their several traditions, and is not so long as to render 
it difficult to explain the similarity of their dialects and usages. 



Although Dr. Brinton*s conclusion as to dates may 




"•ORIGIN or THE INDIANS.** 4t 

|«iermllv accepted, yet this lanf^uage shows his views as to Ike 
Offigiii of the Polynesians. 

It b, therefore, a settled conclusion that adventurers from 
the Malay Archipelago, or southeastern Asia, have, step by 
step, in prehistoric times, traversed two-thirds the breadth of 
the Pacific Ocean. Taking these facts into consideration, 
should it be thought impossible, or even improbable, that some 
of the vessels of one or more of the numerous expeditions 
passing from group to group, or some of those from the parent 
hive, had been driven by winds or currents to the shores of 
Mexico or Central America. 

Pickering and Taylor mention the fact, which is also Quoted 
by Mr. Wickersham, that in 1S4S the United States frigate 
St. Louis took from Mexico to Ningpo, in China, three ship- 
wrecked Japanese, survivors of the crew of a junk which had 
drifted from the coast of Japan entirely across the Pacific 
Ocean, and finally stranded on the coast of Mexico, where they 
remained for two years, until taken back by the St. Louis. 
Mr. Wickersham also quotes, from Brooks, accounts of numer- 
ous vessels which had drifted across the ocean to the American 
shore. 

It is therefore not unreasonable to assume, if evidence of 
contact can be otherwise shown, that some Malay vessels, 
during their expeditions to the Philippine or Molucca islands, 
or other points in the Pacific, may have been driven by the 
winds into the very same current which stranded the Japanese 
junk on the Mexican coast. I call attention also to the follow 
ing remark by Prof. Dall (3d. Ann. Kept. Bur. Ethnology, p. 

147): 

The irremt congeries of islands known to eeofpaphers as Polynesia and 
Melanesia, stretch toward South Amenca inlatitude25 south, as in no other 
direction. Here we have a stream of islands from Papua to the Faumotut, 
dwindling at last to single islets with wide gaps between Eluaheth. Ducie, 
Easier Island, Sala-y-Gomts, San Felix, St. Am^»rose, from which com- 
paratively It IS but a step swept by the northerly current to the Peruvian 
Coast. We observe also that these islands lie south from the westerly south 
equatorial current, in the slack-water between it and an easterly current and 
in a region of winds blowing toward the east. Here, the . is a possible way. 

This course of reasoning leads us back to the crucial test, to- 
wit: Are there such resemblances between customs and arts 
or other special features of the Malay and Cential Americans 
as can not be reasonably accounted for except upon the theorv 
of former contact between these widely separated peoples? It 
ts not my intention to enter at this time upon the discussion of 
this particular point, as this will be reserved for a future com- 
munication. However, I may add that since the preparation of 
the article published in the March (1894) number of The 
Antiquarian, I have discovered some evidence on this point 
which docs not appear to have been heretofore brought for 

ward. 

I limit the discussion to contact with the people of Centra 



50 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

America because I find that the peculiar calendar of this sec- 
tion prevailed only over a portion of Mexico and Central 
America, and hence if introduced by an intrusive element, this 
must have taken place at a comparatively recent date. At least 
it must have taken place after the population was differentiated 
into stocksand tribes. It must also have taken place after 
these stocks and tribes had reached substantially the sime 
localities as those they were found occupying when discovered 
by Europeans at the commencement of the sixteenth century. 
It will be seen by this that the object I had in view in pre- 
senting my^ paper published in The Antiquarian of March, 
1894, had no reference to the original peopling of the Amer- 
ican continent, but was simply a suggestion in the way of ex- 
flaining the similarity in the time systems of certain 
olynesian islands and tribes of Mexico and Central America. 
Since the publication of that article I have obtained other data 
relating to this subject which lead me to believe that the true 
explanation of this similarity is to be found in the probability, 
or possibility that the peculiar features of both localities were 
derived from Malayan sources, or from Southeastern Asia. 

If this supposition be correct (assuming that there is satis- 
factory evidence of prehistoric contact), then the introduction 
of this foreign element into Central America will be direct 
from the original Malayan or Asiatic source, precisely as 
Quatrefages supposed, and hence will not come within the 
scope of Mr. Wickersham's criticisms. 

The next step will be to bring forward evidence of prehis- 
toric contact between the peoples of the two regions. This, in 
order to be satisfactory, must be something more than those 
generalities which have been so often presented. What I have 
to offer in this direction will be presented in a further commu- 
nication. 




PALESTINE EXPLORATION. $i 



PALESTINE EXPLORATION. 

By Theodorb F. Wright, U. S. Skcrbtarv. 

The Palestine Exploration Fund seems now to have the op- 
portunity o( its whole career. Its early excavations were maae 
under the frown of the Turkish government, and were very 
limited in extent. For many years no further leave to dig 
could he obtained. All this time the Fund was not idle, but 
carefully observed the resuhs of private work done in laying the 
foundations of buildings, and it kept up the study of in.scriptions 
which were brought to light and all matters relating to its field. 
No i!».«ue of the Quarterly Statement during these years caused 
any disappointment. Moreover the great work ol surveying 
the land, making maps, and identifying sites went on steadily 
until it reached its goal in the great relief map. li is remarka- 
ble that, as soon as all this work was out of the way, excavation 
reopened. 

The work at Lachish was not favorably regarded by the 
government, the first permit extended only tor six weeks, and 
the Turkish inspector caused live of these to he lost by linger- 
ing in Jerusalem; but, by persistent eflort, an extension of the 
permit was gained and great results followed. 

Now, however, the dor r stands wide open. The very ground 
on which Biblical ar( 1 apologists have set longing eyes for a 
generation is in the hands of Dr. Hliss; all c fHiial suspicion 
seems to have vanished, and there is no sc.rt c)f c.bslaile in the 
way. Il is unscientific to predict, but it is taking no risk to say 
that the whole ft-rusalem problem is likely to be solved belore 
this work ends. 1 hat it is a time when subscriptions should 
be promptly made and steadily maintained goes without sa\ing. 

It dcK's not appear how Dr. Bli^s will find time to study the 
many ohjec's broutiht to light as he goes. In fact, he lannot 
do so, but must follow his men as they dig alon;; the well- 
defint'd line of the old wall; but in due time all objects will 
receive du** attention and we shall have the full account. Mean- 
while the Quarterly Statements will give his illustrated reports, 
cnab'ing the reader to follow him and see just what he is doing. 

While the Turkish government has thus relaxed its opposi- 
tion, it may be said of the United States, that it has withdrawn 
the disreputable duty which it laid upon our books, placing 
Itself l>etween the London office and our subjects and demanding 
a heavy loll for admitting the publications; but now, under the 
new tarifl, books devoted to **original scientific research** come 
in free, and the last case sent to me was not subject to duty. 
If this can be continued, and there is no reason to doubt the 
propriety of the application of the exemption to our books, I 



52 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

shall be able to save our subscribers something on every piur- 
chase. I have an unusually large stock of books now on hand 
and the transactions for books are now amounting to something, 
although evidently what is most wanted is an enlargement of 
the subscription list. 

Our Fund, and the German organization as well, devote a 
good degree of attention to inscriptions, and this is obviously 
wise, since these are the actual records oi the past. Every one 
discovered adds a little to our knowledge of the past. Since 
the great work of Waddington was published in 1870, scores of 
important inscriptions have been brought to light and seem to 
call for a special work. Here is a fine field for our American 
scholar. 

As I write, word is received of a Latin inscription just found 
on the southern wall of Jerusalem where a gate, closed back, 
has long covered it. The stone was a votive tablet, erected by 
th^ Third Legion to Jupiter, praying his favor for the Roman 
Empire, and especially the Roman Trajan. No one suspected 
the existence of this inscription until a storm blew down the 
door. 



) 



RECENT PALEOLITHIC DISCOVERIES IN FOREIGN 

COUNTRIES, 

By Henry W. Haynes. 

The discussion in regard to the primitive character of certain 
flint implements, found in large numbers at elevated points of 
the Chalk Plateau o\ Kent (the North Downs), started by the 
veteran geologist. Professor Prestwich, before the Anthropologi- 
cal Institute of Great Britain, in February, 1892, is continued by 
Mr. A. M. Bell, before the same society, by "Remarks on the 
Flint Implements from the Chalk Plateau of Kent," to be found 
in their yournal for May, T894. The article contains a vigor- 
ous delense of both the positions taken by Prestwich, that 
geological evidence shows the worked flints found on the plateau 
to be ol an earlier date than those found in the gravels of the 
neighboring river valleys, and that their shape and workman- 
ship (in which they differ from the ordinary types of palaeolithic 
implements), point to an earlier age in the development of man. 
Both these positions have been disputed by Professor Boyd 
Dawkins. Mr. Bell subjects his arguments to a very searching 
scrutiny, and endeavors, by reasoning and by setting forth the 
results of his own discoveries, to show that Dawkins* views are 
not only inconclusive, but inconsistent. To me Mr. Bell appears 
to have the best of the argument. It would take too much 
space to give a resume of his reasoning, which we commend to 



RECENT PALEOLITHIC DISCOVERIES. 53 

the careful consideration ot all students of vhe subject. We 
quote, however, a single specimen, to show his style of argu- 
mentation. **So with surface finds; \\ they possess defiDite 
characteristics of form, ot wear, ot weather, of material, of 
working, of position when found, each of which places them 
10 a class by themselves, much more when all taken together, 
then these are certainly local accidents, but they have their 
importance. ♦ ♦ ^ Beyond dout)t it is at once more delight- 
ful and more satisfactory to find in situ^ and the more numerous 
and perfect the associated remains ot extinct animals, so much 
the better. But let us recognize that we cannot always be so 
fortunate. Nature does not create deposits simply to further 
palflcontological research.*' 

Mr. Beli*s article is illustrated by three excellent plates, and 
his conclusion in brief is that *Mn the ochreous drift, which can 
• * * be traced for miles along the gently sloping surface, 
man appears using the palaeolithic axe, but using much more 
largely tools of a ruder and simpler type, which point back to a 
previous time, when he was unable to shape his tools to a form 
already conceived by his mind.** 

Mr. U. B. Shrubsole extends the area of discoveries of similar 
obfects by his article in the August number of the yournal 
•^o Flint Implements of a Primitive Type from old (preglacial) 
tiill gravels in Berkshire.** These deposits, from five to ten 
feet m thickness, lie between the valleys of the Wey and the 
Blackwater, at a general level of about 400 feet above the sea. 
None ot the ordinary types of palaeolithic implements have as 
yet been found in them, but they have yielded (i) large imple- 
ments with rounded butts; (2) grooved or hollowed scrapers; (3) 
fragments of flint worked at the point only; of all of which 
specimens are figured. **Taken as a whole,* the author thinks, 
^they indicate a decidedly rudimentary style in the art of flint- 
working, ♦ • ^ and it seems highly probable that they are 
the work of an older race than that which is associated with the 
pleistocene gravels.** 

From a note by Marcelhn Bonle, in L^ Anthropologies V. 459, 
of an article by De Fonseca Cardoso on **A Chellcan Station 
in tne Valley of Alcantara,** we learn that Portugal must be 
definitely included among the countries whose river valley 
gravels have yielded palaeolithic implements of the common 
types. Hitherto only two such objects have ever been discov- 
ered there, one on the surface, the ether in a cavern. M. 
Cardoso now reports finding two implements of the Chellean 
type in the gravels ot the Tagus, at Alcantara, a short distance 
to the northeast of Lisbon. 

If evidence of the existence of the tertiary man is ever to be 
found, it probably will not be in Western Europe, but in some 
of the warmer regions of the globe, where the conditions of 
living are more favorable, and where the lower animals which 



52 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

shall be able to save our subscribers &omethinjT on every pur- 
chase. I have an unusually large stock of books now on hand 
and the transactions for books are now amounting to something, 
although evidently what is most wanted is an enlargement of 
the subscription list. 

Our Fund, and the German organization as well, devote a 
good degree of attention to inscriptions, and this is obviously 
wise, since these are the actual records of the past. Every one 
discovered adds a little to our knowledge of the past. Since 
the great work of Waddington was published in 1870, scores of 
important inscriptions have been brought to light and seem to 
call for a special work. Here is a fine field for our American 
scholar. 

As I write, word is received of a Latin inscription just found 
on the southern wall of Jerusalem where a gate, closed back, 
has long covered it. The stone was a votive tablet, erected by 
th^ Third Legion to Jupiter, praying his favor for the Roman 
Empire, and especially the Roman Trajan. No one suspected 
the existence oi this inscription until a storm blew down the 
door. 



) 



RECENT PALEOLITHIC DISCOVERIES IN FOREIGN 

COUNTRIES, 

By Henry W. Haynbs. 

The discussion in regard to the primitive character of certain 
flint implements, found in large numbers at elevated points of 
the Chalk Plateau of Kent (the North Downs), started by the 
veteran geologist. Professor Prestwich, before the Anthropologi- 
cal Institute of Great Britain, in February, 1892, is continued by 
Mr. A. M. Bell, before the same society, by "Remarks on the 
Flint Implements from the Chalk Plateau of Kent," to be found 
in their yournal for May, T894. The article contains a vigor- 
ous defense ot both the positions taken by Prestwich, that 
geological evidence shows the worked flints found on the plateau 
to be of an earlier date than those found in the gravels of the 
neighboring river valleys, and that their shape and workman- 
ship (in which they differ from the ordinary types of palaeolithic 
implements), point to an earlier age in the development of man. 
Both these positions have been disputed by Professor Boyd 
Dawkins. Mr. Bell subjects his arguments to a very searching 
scrutiny, and endeavors, by reasoning and by setting forth the 
results of his own discoveries, to show that Dawkins* views are 
not only inconclusive, but inconsistent. To me Mr. Bell appears 
to have the best of the argument. It would take too much 
space to give a resume of his reasoning, which we commend to 



THE MISSING LINK. $S 



«« 



Editorial. 



THE MISSING LINK." 



Accordinfi^ to Dr. D. G. Brinton. in his "Notes on Anthro- 
po\ogy** in Science, January ii, a fossil has been found which 
may prove to be "the missinf;^ link.'* This creature has 
been unearthed by Dr. Eugene Dubois, a surgeon in the Dutch 
army, stationed in Java, and he describes his find in a quarto of 
forty paf^es just issued from the local press of Batavia under the 
title •• Pithecanthropus Erectus. A Man-like Transition- form 
from Java," 

" This noteworthy essay contains the detailed description of 
three fra^^ments of three skeletons which have been found in the 
early pleistocene strata of Java, and which introduce to us a new 
species, which is also a new genus and a new family, of the order 
of primates, placed between the Simiuia and Hominida, — in other 
words, apparently supplying the 'missing Imk' between man and 
the higher apes which has so long and so anxiously been awaited. 

" The material is sufficient for a close osteological comparison. 
The cubical capacity of the skull is about two-thirds that of the 
human average. It is distinctly dolichocephalic, about 70^ — and 
its norma x*irtualis astonishingly like that of the famous Nean- 
derthal skull. The dental apparatus is still of the simian type, 
but less markedly so than in other apes. The femora are singu- 
larly human. They prove beyond doubt that this creature walked 
constantly on two legs, and when erect was quite equal in height 
to the average human male. Of the various differences which 
separate it from the highest apes and the lowest men, it may be 
said that they bring it closer to the latter than to the former." 

This discovery has an interesting t>earing upon the original 
birthplace of the human race. The author believes that the 
steps in the immediate genealogy of our species, as shown by the 
find, indicate the southern aspects of the great Himalavan chain 
as the region in which our race first came into being. This ac- 
cords with the traditional view that Asia is the cradle of man 
kind, and by no mean^ contradicts the Biblical story. Still it is 
placing a good deal of independence on a few tK)nes, when it is 
stated that **the missing link" has been discovered. 



THE AMKRICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



THE RELIGION OF THE INDIANS. 

Mr. J. O. Dorsey, in the concluding chapter of his report, uses the 
following sub-title: "Peet on Indian Religions," and devotes the chapte r 
partly to a reply and partly to the restatement of his own conclusions^ 
This is an honor which is fully appreciated by the editor, for it is the only 
chapter in this or any other report devoted to any individual's opinion. 
The occasion of the use of the sub-title and the "concluding remarks" was 
that the writer had prepared in 1886, at the request of the Victoria Institute, 
or Philosophical Society of Great Britain, a brief review of an article 
already in print which had been furnished by Rev. M. Eells, of Washingtoi^ 
and. which purported to give the Bible ideas in the aboriginal religions of 
America. The paper was designed as a mere review and not as a state- 
ment of the writer's own opinion, though it was esteemed worthy of separate 
publicatioR as a pamphlet, and has been somewhat generally circulated. 
The following are the remarks which were quoted from this review and 
made the basis of comment. Referring to Mr. Eells and Mr. Williams, who 
have been laboring among the Tinnehs, the writer said: 

In reference to the form of religion which is called Shamanism, a 
definition is given which was never intended. Shamanism has never been 
represented by the writer as the worship of a Shaman, but merely as the 
supreme rule of the Shaman. The term demonism would perhaps be more 
suitable, for the exorcising of spirits anH the control of demons was sup- 
posed by the northern tribes to be altogether in the hands of the Shamans. 
Animism is another term which might be used, but the animistic faith was 
by no means confined to the northern tribes. This interpretation is entirely 
out of the way. The following are points on which we think an agreement 
will soon be reached and which will be recognized as the fundamental prin- 
ciples of the aboriginal religions, (i) The cosmic conception which was 
embodied in the tree of life was very similar in all parts of America, and in 
fact in all parts of the world. {2) The recognition of a great unseen divinity, 
who was equivalent to the "master of life," the "earth maker" and the great 
spirit," the "Kitchi Manido" of the Ojibwas, but who went by different names 
among the different tribes. (3) The eternal conflict between benevolent and 
malignant beings symbolized by the "great rabbit" and serpent by the Algon- 
kin«, Dzhemanido and the malignant gods of the Ojibwas, but expressed 
among other tribes and races by varied symbols and myths. (4) The doc- 
trine of the soul which was embodied in the sacred mysteries and found a 
more complete development in the nagualism of the Mayas. (5) The con- 
nection ot these various doctrines and divinities with the "world spaces.** 
the elements, the colors and the creation epochs. (6) The probability that 
there was an esoteric system which was transmitted from tribe to tribe and 
which had very similar symbols and somewhat similar foundation myths. 
All of these are proofs that the subjert of comparative mythology is very 
impo'tant. but the comparison should not be confined to one country or to 
one period, nor should there ' e a discouragement to the workers in the field 
wherever they are or whatever their opinions may be. Cooperation is 
decidedly important. This is the best part of the essay. Nearly every 
worker has been recognized and kindly words have been written. 

"There are four or five points on which both missionaries seem to be 
agreed: Four doctrines— the existence of (io<l. immortality of the soul, the 
sinfulness of man, and the necessity of sacritice— seem to have been held in 
various modified forms by all the tribes in North America." Now, this 
remark which is quoted was merely designed to represent the opinion of 
others and can hardly be taken ^s expressing th^- «icr»fnie and complete 
belief of the writer, and should not have been so stated, and if so used, 
certainly should not have been subjected to an interpretation which was 
never intended. The writer will say that American ethnologists hare 
been making a great advance in their knowledge of aboriginal religions, 
and are really bringing out many new facts. 



ARGHitOLOGICAL NOTES. 57 



ARCHiCOLOGICAL NOTES. 

By Marshall H. Saville. 

Discovery of an Ancient City in Honduras.— The following notice 
appeared in Le Nouveau Monde, Paris, Dec. i, 1894: "Word has been 
received from Honduras of the discovery of an ancient 'Toltec' city in the 
depths of a forest near the Rio Grande. The remains of this city are very 
well preserved and reveal an advanced civilization. The city was well 
constructed; possessed three grtat temples, more than 150 feet in length 
and 35 feet in width; the streets are large and well paved." The Rio 
Grande mentioned is probably that which flows not far from Tegucigalpha» 
the capital of Honduras. Squier is the oiily person who has given us any 
infoimation regarding the ruins in Honduras, and with the exception of the 
ruins of Copan, which being but five miles from the boundary of Guatemala, 
more ptoperly belong to the Guatemala group of ruins. No archaeological 
work has ever been carried on in the Republic. 

Peabody Museum Honduras Expedition.— In connection with the 
reported discovery of an ancient city in Honduras it uould be well to notice 
the expedition which is now in the field at the rums of C' pan, sent out 
under the decree given several years ago to the Peabody Museum of Har- 
varci University. This decree vave to that institution the care of the < ncient 
remains of Honduras, and the exclusive right of excavating for ten years. 
Two expeditions have already been sent out directly by ihe Peabody 
Museum. This yeas however, the work will be carried on jointly by the 
Peabody Museum and the American Museum of Natural History, New 
York. This, the third; expedition, has been placed under the charge of 
Mr. G. B. Gordon, who was associated with the late Mr. Owens as civil 
engineer on the second expedition. The wealth of inscriptions, and numer- 
ous tombs in Copan, make it as important a field for research as any to be 
found in Central America. 

Guatemala Antiquities. — The extremely interesting and valuable 
collection of antiquities formerly owned by Sr. D. Manuel G. Elgueta, of 
Guatemala, has become the property of the California Academy of Science, 
San Francisco, and has been installed in their rooms. This collection was 
exhibited in the Guatemala Building at the World's Columbian Exposition, 
and was taken to San Francisco and exhibited at the Mid-winter Exposi- 
tion. It was made by Sr. Elgueta, among the ruined cities of the Quiches, in 
Northern Guatemala, the material largely being found in tombs, which were 
subterranean chambers, with either mounds of cemented debris or buildings 
erected over them. It comprises a small collection of vases of great value, 
as they bear hieroglyphic inscriptions and pictures painted in colors. In 
view of the small number of such vases to be found in our museums, these 
vases should be carefully studied and reproduced in color, in the same 
manner as Hr. E. P. DieseldorfiE has reproduced a vase from Copan, Gaute- 
mala, in Zeitschz. f. Etnol. (Verb, der Berliner Anthrop. Gesellsch). Bd. 
XXVI, 1894. Such vases properly reproduced are miniature Maya or 
Quiche codices. In addition to the vases in the Elgueta collection are a 



$S THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

ntiinbcr of jadeite heads, ear ornaments, and other ornaments, obsidian im- 
plements, household utensils and a few stone carvings. 

Armour Expedition to Yucatan.— An expedition under the auspices 
of Mr. Allison V. Armour, of Chicago, started for Yucatan the middle of 
December. Mr. Armour has, for several years, taken a deep interest to 
the ruins of Yucatan, and has made a number of visits to the country. Tbtr 
year, accompanied by Frof. W. H. Holmes, curator of anthropoloiy at the 
Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, and Prof. Allan Marquand, of Princeton 
University, he has sailed in his yacht Ituna for Progreso. They will visit 
the rums of Labna, Kabah, Uxmal and Chichen Itza, in company with Mr. 
E. H. Thompson, ex-U. S. consul who has been many years a resident 
of the state, and has recently purchased the haciend i upon which the ruins 
of Chichen Itza stand. The party will visit Palenquc. in Chiapas, and will 
try to make a landing at Tuloom, on the eastern coast of the peninsula of 
Yucatan. Mr. Thompson s intimate knowledge of the Maya people and 
language will facilitate work among the hostile Indians who live near the 
ruins, and if the landing is succ ssful the protographs and observations 
regarding this almost unknown city will be a chapter added to our »^iiowl- 
edge of the ancient cities of Yucatan. 

Dr. PiiiLLii* J. J. Valf.ntini, alter a long absence from the field of 
Central American archaeology, presented before the American Anttquarian 
Society. Worcester, at its last meeting, a paper entitled "Analysis of the 
Pictorial Text Inscribed on the Palenque Tablet (Temple of the Sacred 
Tree).'* This tablet, miscalled Tablet of the Cross, has been studied for 
many years by Dr. Valentini, and his valuable paper will be published io 
the Antiquarian Society proceedings in April. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 

A Primer of the Mayan Huro^lyphtcs, By Daniel G. Bnnton. Boston, 
U. S. A. i8g$. 

The study of symbolism as contained in the various charts, pictof rapbs 

and ceremonies of the wild tribes, also contained in the sand paintings of 

the Niivajoes and the dramatization of the Moquis and /unts, and especially 

those contained in the codices and the hieroglyphics of the Mayas, has been 

followed by various gentlemen in this country and in Europe. Great pro* 

giess has l>ccn made in interpreting the symbols and in identifying and 

naming the gods. The best work, at least the most interesting and the 

most satiNfactory, is the one by Dr. Daniel G. Bnnton. He brings oat 

briefly the different opinion^ which have l>een advanced by Dr. Seler, Schel* 

haus, Foiktemann. in Germany. Dr. Thomas, Dr. J W. Fewkes. M. H. 

5Miville and others in thi% rnuntry. about the Maya codices and hieroglyphics. 

There is no attempt at drawing a compariMin. and yet the statements wtiich 

are made have already proved suggestive to the writer in reference to th • 

analogies. 



TUE 



Jlm.m«« Jltrtiq««^«. 



Vol. XVII. March. 1895. No. 2. 



THE HIDERY STORY OF CREATION. 

By James Dkans. 

In a previous paper I showed that the Hidery had two phra- 
tries or brotherhoods, and that the representative crests of 
these two were the raven and the eagle. I also showed that 
these two were divided into twenty-five clans, who were each 
of them distinguished by certain coats>of-anns or crests, and 
these crests were represented by certain animals, fishes and 
birds, — also by the rain-bow, the sun, moon and the thunder- 
bird. While speaking of phratrics I may say that the neigh- 
boring tribes of the Hidery arc somewhat different, to this 
extent: the Tsimsheans have, I believe, four — the raven, eagle, 
wolf and bear; the Klingat of Southern Alaska, like the Hidery, 
only two, the raven and wolf Yehl and Kanuk — phratries. 
Each of these has almost all the same coat-of-arms. Con- 
nected with nearly all of them is a story. These two phratries, 
to a certain extent, represent good ancl evil, positive and nega- 
tive. Every phratry and clan had an instrument with which 
they could imitate the call of their respective crests. The 
ravens were not allowed to use those of the eagle, nor the eagle 
those of the raven. They also had certain dances. The move- 
ments in the dances corresponded more or less to those of the 
animal, bird, or whatever was the subject of the crest. There 
were certain degrees belonging to these crests, into which a 
person had to be initiated. These degrees entitle them to a 
Tuden Skeel of two or more degrees, as the case may be. The 
Tuden Skeel is shown on the houses and totem posts by a head 
with a hat. From the center of it rises a sort of cone, with a 
lot of pieces all of one size, joined together. Each piece repre- 
sents one degree. They also had masks, or false-faces, cut 
out of a block of wood. Also a mortuary column with a num- 
ber of black and white stripes on it. These are all of the same 
width and encircle the shaft of the column. I saw one at 



63 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Skidegat's town, on which were fourteen of these black and 
white circles. A chief, or a person of high standing, had to 
wear a sort of cloak, attached to a head-dress. On the front of 
the head-piece was carved one of the crests of the wearer. Set 
into its face were a number of abalone shells. Fixed into the 
top of this head-gear, standing upright, were a number of sea- 
lion bristles. These were put in to form a small circle, within 
which were placed a lot of eagle down-feathers. While dancing 
and jumping about and shaking their heads, this down would 
fly about, covenng everything. Attached to this head-gear was 
a yard or two of calico. This had a large number of ermine 
skins sewed to it. This usually hung down the back of the 
wearer. The Hidery name for this is chillka^ the Tsimsheans 
call it am hallaid, (good or nice halloid). With this I shall 
finish my description of their social ways for the present, and 
take the raven phratry. 

The raven which is used is the one common to this coast, and 
is by some ornithologists classed as corvus caMofl. Yet be 
is more then a mere raven, or phratry, in their estimation, be* 
cause he has always been considered as the embodiment of the 
creator and preserver of all. 

Every nation on this coast has a name for him in their own 
language. The Sangus, Sauich, Cowitchians and others give 
the name Spaul; the Fort Ruperts, Billu Billus, call him Cmht^ 
ok; the Southern Hidery call him Chcv-t-ah; the Northern 
Hidery and the Southern Alaskans call him Yehl; the Tsim- 
sheans call him Cauck. According to the Hidery, the god Ne- 
kilst-luss, in all of his works ot creation and providence, assumed 
the shape of a raven. All of the above mentioned nations had a 
god to whom was ascribed the same functions ; all of them when 
asked if they had a god, and what was his name, would always 
give the name as raven. All the others except the Hidery seem 
to have lost the old god name for the raven. This god, 
Ne-kilst-luss, under difTerent names, represented good and evil. 
As the creator he is known as Ne-kilst-luss ; as goodness he is 
known as Suni-a-tlai-duss, and as the evil principle he is known 
as Haidu-tan-ah. In the sha|>e of a raven he existed from all 
eternity. Ikfore this world came into being, as a raven he 
brooded over the intense darkness which prevailed, until after 
aeons of ages, by the continual flapping of his wings, he beat the 
darkness down to solid ground. After this he gave the new 
found earth a principle of evolution. For a long time the only 
light in the world was a dim, hazy one given oflf by the earth. 
\Vhcn the earth was in a condition to receive the stronger light 
from the sun, moon and stars, he set himself to get hold of them. 
They were m possession of a great chief named Settin-ki-juss, 
who lived far up on the Skeeun. He had them in three separate 
boxes, and kept them only for his own use. 



THE HIDERY STORY OF CREATION. 63 

He (Ne-kilst-luss) sent to this chief and told him that the 
earth was now in a condition to receive more light, and for that 
purpose he wanted the contents of his three boxes. On no 
account would the old fellow part with them. So being deter- 
mined to obtain them, he took the following means : This old 
chiei had a daughter. So, in order to become one of the 
family, the better to gain the long- wished- for prize, he turned 
himself into the leaf of a spruce tree and floated on the water 
she drank, and was swallowed by her. In due season she gave 
birth to a son, who, of course, was Ne-kilst-luss. He rapidly 
grew up to be a fine, sturdy boy, and became, not only a great 
favorite with his grandfather, but a spoiled child. So much did 
the old man spoil him that he could not refuse him anything. 
Seeing this, the boy asked for one of the boxes to play with. 
This the old chief sternly refused to give. The boy, however, 
raised such a row in the family as only spoiled children can 
do. He gave the old man no peace. So, in desperation, he 
pointed to a box, saying, ''Take that one, but be careful and 
do not break it" The boy, after rolling it about for some time, 
lifted it up and threw it on the floor and broke it open. He 
took it in his beak. It happened to be the sun he had gotten. 
Just as he was about to fly away with it he saw that the kinct 
or smoke hole was shut, but he called to some one, Ah^ oA, kinct^ 
ah^ kind. So soon as the kinct was opened he picked up the 
sun and placed it in the heavens, where it has been ever since 
giving light to the world. 

Having got the sun, his next step was to get possession of the 
moon and stars. These he obtained in the following manner : 
Hearing that the chief had gone up Naas river in order to lay 
in a stock of small fish {ooluchans\ and to enable him to see, 
had taken the other two boxes with him. Determined to get 
hold of, at least the moon, he prepared a small false one. Hav- 
ing got a canoe, he started up the river, to find Sittin-ki-juss, 
being anxious to get some of these fish, in order to have his 
canoe covered with scales, because he meant to make believe he 
was fishing likewise. Groing along he saw a shag which he 
knew had an ooluchan in its stomach. In order to get the fish, 
he caused the shag and a sea gull to fight. This they did until 
the shag vomited up all the fish in its stomach. This was all 
that Ne-kilst-luss wanted. So he took and rubbed his hands and 
face, and canoe as well, with the fish scales. Having done so, 
he kept on up the river until he met the old man. When they 
met the chief asked him where he had been. To this Ne-kilst- 
luss replied : " I have, like yourself, been fishing ; look at my 
canoe." '* How did you see to fish in the dark ? You have no 
moon." Ne-kilst-luss having all the time hid his moon under 
his feathers. '' I have," he replied, letting out a little light, 
" one of my own, as good as yours." Scttin-ki-juss, seeing an- 



'•l THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAH. 

'Other ftioon, apparently as good as his, became so dtsgusted'that 
lie left, leaving the other two boxes behind. This was Ne^kilHI- 
luss' opportunity. So he broke open the other two tK>xes Mtt 
let out the moon and stars. These he placed in the haiveM, 
where they have been ever since. 

HOW YEHL GOT PRESH WATSR. 

At this date the water on the earth was all salt, and unfit Ibr 
use. So he, Ne-kilst-luss, or Yehl, as I shall call him in the 
following story, following the usages of the people of Southern 
Alaska, from whom I have this story, hearing that Kauinuc 
Wolf had plenty of water, he went off to get some, and a drink 
as well. This chief, Kannuc, lived on an island to the east of 
Sitka. He had his house built over his well, in order to pre- 
vent any one from stealing his fresh water. Yehl took bis 
canoe, and crossed over to the island. Going over he met Kan- 
nuc, so together they went to his house, (n order to find where 
he kept his fresh water, Yehl asked him for a drink. This he 
got, reserving the residue for further use. After spending the 
evening in conversation both fell asleep. After awhile Yehl 
awoke. Seeing his host still asleep, he got up and drank what 
was left in the bucket, and flew away with it So full was he 
with the water that he stuck fast m the smoke hole. 5teme say 
he picked up the bucket and flew away with it in his beak. 
This mishap awoke Kannuc. who, in order to punish him for 
stealing his fresh water, piled a lot of green fir boughs on the 
fire. This made such a smoke that Yehl was not only nearly 
suffocated, but was changed from a beautiful white bird to one 
of sooty blackness. 

When he got out he flew over to the mainland, letting fiill 
as he went along a few drops of water. Wherever those dropa 
tell a large river commenced to flow, and has done so ever since. 
When he reached Hidery land only a tew drops of dirty water 
remained. This accounts for most of the streams on Queen 
Charlotte's Island being black and dirty, unlike the others. 

Having made the rivers, his next step was to stock them with 
fish. Having learned that Tsing, the beaver, had plenty of sal- 
mon, but kept them in a lake and river where no one could find 
them. He turned himself into a pretty little boy, and wandered 
away to the beaver's house. The old chief, seeing him to be a 
rather nice looking little fellow, made him welcome. The better 
to suit his purpose the boy. as I shall name him. was attentive 
to the old beaver's ever>' want, and in all things tried to pleaie 
him. 

One day they had for dinner what the old beaver called bis 
nice salmon, and asked the boy how he liked them. He replied 
they were the nicest fish he ever tasted, and asked where they 



THE HiOBRY STORY OF'cREATIOM. 6s. 

ynmn to be got To this the old beaver replied he had a lake 
filU of them, and a river of his own, where every season he got 
a plentiful supply, but no one knew where they were, and he 
would take care no one ever should know. 

As time passed onward he grew more and more fond of his 
adopted son, and would take him along with him when he went 
fishing. After awhile he became a better fisher than the old 
beaver himself. After this he would stay at home and send the 
boy alone. For a long time the boy never (ailed to return 
nightly, bringing with him a supply of the salmon. All this 
time the boy was nearing the fulfillment of his long-cherished 
scheme. Getting together one day a lot of fine salmon, he 
started on his mission, putting in each river as he passed along 
a quantity of his fish, until his stock was exhausted. This is 
how Ne-kilst-luss cheated old Tsing out of his fish for the bene- 
fit of mankind, and broke his monopoly. 

THE raven's connection WITH THE ORIGIN OP MANKIND. 

When the raven (Ne-kilst-luss) had this world prepared for 
the reception of a being who was to be in his own image, part 
ofi himself, mankind, he went to seek for that being. Accord* 
ingly, as he walked in the shape of a raven one day along Nicoon's 
welMcnown point he found lying on the sand a cockle (Cat* 
dmm Nmttalli) and had several connections with it Returning 
that way at the end of nine months he found the cockle in the 
same place. Looking at it he heard a sound like '*pcep, peep," 
issuing from it These noises was the cockle in labor. It gave 
tNrth to six beings, of whom he was Cither. These six partook 
ol both sexes. In order to put them to ric^hts he took the 
female principle from three, making them males. On the abdo- 
men of the other three he placed six sea snails, or Bechcs de mere, 
making them females. Having by these means got the repre- 
sentatives of three Cimilies, he told them to have children and 
replenish the earth, because it was theirs. At first these people 
were dark-skinned and thickly covered with hair, had long 
arms and legs, and were unable to walk upright After many 
generations, these people, so low in their first estate, by a 
continued selection of the best and fairest looking, were freed of 
hair, and became the people of to-day. The people of to-day, 
though far advanced, have a deal yet to learn, and have a great 
future before them, because, as descendants of God, they are 
always progressing and urged onward by a principle of evo- 
lution implanted in them by their fsither and creator. 

At firsthand for many years or ages the land they lived in 
was always warm and nice, consequently they never were in 
need of anything wherewith to warm themselves. 



66 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

But a change came after many generations; it grew colder; 
then they were in need of something to afford them warmth, and 
latterly to cook their food. So in order to give them fire, Ne- 
kilst-luss learned that all the fire was in the possession of a chief 
who lived on an island far out at sea. So donning his coat of 
feathers, he flew over to the island to get a supply. Seeing a brand 
with a nice glow on it, he picked it up in his beak and quickly 
flew over to the mainland. Before he got over a part of his beak 
was burned ofT. As soon as he reached the other side he let the 
brand fall among some sticks and stones, breaking it into sparks. 
As soon as these sparks fell on the sticks and stones they quickly 
absorbed the fire. So ever since whosoever strikes two of these 
stones together, they will give out the fire, also if any one rub 
two of the sticks together, they, too, will do the same. This is 

how the Hidery got Hre. 

« m 
m 

THE SCAMSUM AND MAMIIA CHICKA. 

Long ago. as I have said, the climate was warm, and at the 
same time the land was very moist, and consequently brought 
forth mosquitos of an enormous size. Their bites were terrible 
and deadly, many of the people dying from their bites. A sad 
cry went up to Ne-kilst-luss for relief. He heard their prayer, 
and sent the Scamsum (mosquito hawk), and gave him the 
mosquitos for food. This hawk was unable to eat them all. See* 
ing this, Nc-kilst-luss sent the Dra^^on Fly (mamma ckicka), to 
help him. So there soon was relief from their tormentors; like* 
wise, the climate growing colder, very much helped to do away 
with them. 

The laws of evolution established by Ne-kilst-luss were im* 
mutable. So in course of time this Northern climate not only 
grew colder, but ice began to form, and snow deeply covered 
first the hill tops, then afterward, the lowlands. Finally the 
cold became so intense that they had to move farther south. 
This they did. led by a woman whose name was Call-cab-jude 
(woman of the ice). They left in a body for a warmer home, 
where they lived for many generations. Afterward, when the 
climate again got warmer, they moved to Alaska and to Queco 
Charlotte's Islands. 

AN ACCOUNT OK A (iKKAT PLOOn. 

The same laws which brought the snow and ice brought also 
a terrible rush of water, which finally covered the whole earth, 
at least Hidery land. Thunder and lightning and rain which 
fell in torrents on the earth, quaked and rent it everywhere. Out 
of these rents came fire and water. The people, terribly afraid 
of the rising waters, made for their canoes and for the high 
mountain near Gunoisheod, Queco Charlotte's Islands, which 



THE HIDERY STORY OF CREATION. 67 

above the rising waters. Many of them lost their lives be- 
fore they reached the mountain, because their canoes were broken 
by the floating drift wood. Those who were fortunate enough to 
reach the mountain remained there until the waters dried up. 
Then they ventured down again and tried to find the homes they 
left, but all was so changed no trace of them was to be seen. 
Being few in number, the survivors became quite disheartened. 
Seeing them in such a state Ne-kilst-luss, in shape of a raven, 
appeared to them and advised them to be of good cheer, .raying 
if they would do as he told them they would soon have plenty of 
company. They replied they would be glad to do anything for 
the best. Well, then, all of you esither together a pile of stones. 
Then stand with your faces toward the pile. Then all of you 
pick up the stones and throw them over your head backward, 
and await the result This they did, all of them. Each stone 
as soon as it touched the ground jumped up either a man or a 
woman. So they soon had plenty of companions and felt much 
better. 

Yehl, or Ne-kilst-luss, himself, in shape of a raven, was pre- 
served during the flood by sticking his beak into a cloud and 
holding on until the waters left. 

For a long time the people lived in fear of another flood. As 
time passed onward without another visitation, they felt more 
comfortable, and soon everything went on as before, always get- 
ting better as time passed. 

When Yehl wished to regulate the seasons, he called together 
in council all the animals, in order to have their opinion with 
regard to the number of months in each of the four seasons. 
There was a deal of argument as to the length of the summer and 
winter quarters ; some wanted three months of winter and four of 
summer, others of them, more especially the sleep>ers, wanted 
three months of summer and four of winter. While the subject 
was being discussed Yehl asked Saugh the (raccoon) for his 
opinion. Holding up his hand with his five fingers upward, he 
said, *' I want five months of winter and four of summer." As 
soon as the Saugh expressed his opinion Yehl took a hold of 
his thumb and wrenched it ofT, saying, '* four months of winter 
we shall have forever." And so it was decided. Of course, this 
refers to Southern Alaska. 

When Yehl had finished his labors he retired to the east in 
order to have a long rest In the far east, near the source of the 
river Naas, there is a very high mountain with a large hole in it. 
He lives in this hole, from which he often flies when the east 
wind blows. The name of this mountain is Naas Shieky Yehl — 
that is, Yehl's dwelling on the Naas. 

This is all I can say about the raven as a crest or clan and 
phratry. In my next paper I shall take the Sun clan and tell 
itsftory. 



6g THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



NOTES ON THE KOOTENAY INDIANS. 



By a. F. Chamberlain. 




III.— MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE. 

Besides a few legends published by Dr. Franz Boas in the 
"Verhandlungen der Berliner anthropologischen Gesellschak'^ 
for 1891 and some abstracts of myths by the present writer in 
the ''Report of the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science" for 1892, there has been very little written of the myth<* 
ok>gy and folklore of the Kootenays, In this paper (and in 
others to- follow) an attempt will be made to give a brief account 
of the mythology of this little-known tribe of Indians, based 
upon the writer's own notes, made vi^iilst resident among them. 

COSMOGONY AND WORLD IDEAS. 

As the Algonkian Chippewas use aki, so do the Kootenay 
Indians use amak^ whose primitive signification is "earth, mud, 
dirt," in the extended sense of "land, country," then "earth, 
world." In his version of the Lord's Prayer, De Smet 
renders the words "on earth" by yuno amak (in his spelling 
yaunoamake; yuno^ "on"). The Indians use the following ex- 
pressions: Kitonaqa amakis, "the land ot the Kootenays;" 
na atnak^ "the land, this country," etc. There is also in use the 
expression, K'ape amak (lit., "all lands, the whole earth"), which 
is a fair equivalent of our "world." There are two words, natanik 
and nukkua, which mean both "sun" and "moon;" the last, 
however, is obsolescent, occurring chiefly in compounds. Wher- 
ever ambiguity would otherwise arise, the "moon" is called 
K'tsitlmeyet natanik, "night sun." The words in use for "sunrise" 
are, Kiyuakumi nukktia; yua kutni nukkuane; these may mean 
*'the sun is painting." The "aurora" is called Kanos itlmeyet, 
"red sky," and the "red sky" at sunset is termed Kitenus itlmeyet^ 
from KitenusHk, "to paint (red)", and aqkitltneyet, "sky." The 
sunset" is called Kiwatum nukkua, the signification of which is 
sun over (behind) the mountains." Another word for "sunset" 
xs watl koaety which also signifies "evening," and is related to 
watlkoa, "yesterday." The *'full moon" is K'ape'ne natanik, 
"there-is-all the moon;" the "moon in the second quarter, tciko- 
saka natanik, "piece of moon." The "rising" of the heavenly 
dies is expressed by the general term owokine ("it rises"), and 
moon is new" is rendered by tlaowokine natanik, "the moon 
again (tla)!' The word for "star" is aqkitlnohos, which is 



Ai 
4t 



NOTES ON THE KOOTENAY INDIANS. 






evidently a derivative of nohos (nos), "red." The "morning star 
and the '"evening star" are both termed guwiilitlHok^s, *'big star. 
The "north star" is called tlauaa, "grizzly bear;" the "Pleiades 
are called aqkitl kanka;'* the " milky way" is called aqirmms 
qoitltsim, "the trail ol the dog." A "meteor" or "falling sUr" is 
Kamuqo (from Kanuqdm^ "it falls." The "thunder" and the 
"^thunder-bird" are termed numa; the lightning is caused by the 
arrows which this bird shoots. It is interesting to note that in 
the Kootenay vocabulary published in 184 1 by Prince Maximiliaa 
the word given for "God" is numa; this has been driven out by 
the missionary*made term, Yakasin Kimawaske, "He who made 
us/' which is now in use among these Indians. The sun is 
looked upon as a man, the moon as a woman, while the stars 
are lodians who, from time to time, have ascended to the sky. 






ORIGIN OP THE SUN AND MOON. 



In the beginning there was no sun and an Indian tried to 
make it, as did several after him, but without any success. Finally 
the Coyote (Skinkuts) tned his hand, and next morning the sun> 
rose over the tops of the mountains. Another version of this* 
legend makes the Coyote manufacture the sun out of some- 
grease made into a ball; the sun rises all right, but does not last 
very long, and the people are angry at him. Then the Chicken* 
hawk (Accipiter Cocp€r%\ called Intlak by the Indians, a male 
character, essays the task, and the sun is created in all its glory. 
But the Coyote is so angry at the success of the Chicken-hawk 
that he shoots an arrow at the sun and set the earth on fire, and 
the coloring of his fur bears evidence of the fact to this very day, 
for he had great difficulty in escaping with his life. A variant, 
recorded by Dr. Boas, makes the two sons of the Wild-cat try 
to create the sun and the moon. The elder turned himself into 
the sun, and by his brightness dispelled the gloom which the 
great black t>ody and outspread wings of the raven had caused 
in the world ; the younger, rising behind the mountains, became 
the moon. The Coyote, whose efforts had been attended with 
no success, got very angry and shot an arrow at the sun, which, 
however, did not strike it, but fell upon the dry grass and caused 
the first prairic-fire. The version obtained by the present writer 
ascribes the making of the moon to the Chicken-hawk. Proba- 
bly the Chicken-hawk is identical with the younger of the Wild- 
cats. 1 he Coyote and the Chicken-hawk appear to l>c the most 
conspicuous figures in Kootenay mythology and are both males, 
the wife of the Chicken-hawk Ixring a little bird called Sukptka. 
The Coyote's wives seem to have t>een quite numerous; among 
them was the dog. Some Indians say that the Chicken- hawk 
€nade the stars and the rainbow {imamin)^ as well as the moon. 



7D THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

The Great Bear constellation, called tlautla, is looked upon as a 
female grizzly bear, formerly an Indian woman in the time man 
and the animals were pretty much the same kind of beings. 

ORIGIN OF THE CLOUDS. 

In the beginning there were no clouds. There was only 
numa^ the great thunder-bird, in the sky. By and by along came 
the Coyote and his daughter. The thunder-bird had no wife, so 
he took the daughter of the Coyote. The Coyote then made a 
little sack or bag, which he gave to the thunder-bird's wife for a 
blanket. This blanket is the clouds which we now see in the 
sky. This story appears to have arisen from the resemblance of 
the word *'aqk'atl," cloud, and "aqkatl," sack, cloth for making 
sicks. 

ORIGIN OF MEN. 

According to a legend obtained by Dr. Boas, when men were 
Srst created they rose up before they were quite finished and 
began to dance, ai^fcept on dancing till they fell down dead. 
Then new men wK created, from whom the present tace of 
Indians is descenSL The story of creation given by the Koo- 
tenays to the wmer of these notes, states that the first male 
Indian came out of a hole in the ground somewhere east of the 
Rocky mountains, while the first woman was obtained by an 
Indian from a spirit in the mountains. 

Rev. E. F. Wilson has recorded a very curious legend of the 
Canadian Kootenay Indians, between some of whom and the 
white Americans of the adjoining portions of the United States 
there is no great love lost . "Once upon a time, they say, they 
(Kootcnays) and the Pesioux (French* Canadian voyageur») lived 
together in such happiness that the Great Spirit at>ove envied 
their happy condition. So he came to the earth, and as he was 
riding on the prairies on the other side of the Rocky mountains 
he killed a buffalo, and out of the buflalo crawled a lank, lean 
figure, called a ' Boston man,' and from that day to this thoir 
troubles commenced, and there never will be peace again till 
they go to the land of their fathers." This is so strange a story 
that one might almost suspect it of being un Indian. 

ORIGIN OF ANIMAI^. ETC. 

The animals apparently existed long before men were upon 
earth, but it is very difficult sometimes to say whether these 
creatures were not more human than bestial in their characteris- 
tics. Kootenay mythology \% largely concerned with the doiogs 



NOTES ON THE KOOTENAY INDIANS. 71 

and exploits of animals, of which the Coyote, the Chicken-hawk, 
the Turtle, the Grizzly Bear, the Fox, the Rabbit, the Wolf, the 
Owl and the Frog are the chief. 

A legend obtained by Dr. Boas states that when the muskrat 
killed his wife, he made the animals believe that the arrow which 
was found sticking in her body came from the sky. After all 
the other animals had tried, the h?wk shot an arrow into the 
sky, and by shooting another into the end of the first one and 
so on made a chain of arrows, by which the muskrat, followed 
by all the other animals, climbed up. But "when the muskrat 
got to the top he began shooting at the other animals, but they 
returned the fire and killed the muskrat. Then the chain broke, 
and all the arrows were piled up in a heap and became the 
Rocky mountains." The legend goes on to say that "the ani- 
mals were nearly all left up in the sky and did not know how to 
come down again. They made a sling and caught the great 
thunder-bird and pulled out its feathers. The fathers were 
distributed to the animals as fiir as they would go, and they made 
for themselves wings and flew down and became birds; and 
others, who could not get feathers, fell into the sea and became 
fishes. The sucker fell upon^ rock and broke all his bones, and 
had to borrow new ones from all the other animals ; that is why 
he is so full of bones.'* 

The story of the origin of horses, as related by the Kootenays 
to the present writer in 189 1, is as follows: Formerly the Indians 
had no horses. Once upon a time a medicine man cut a piece 
of wood into the shape of a horse and threw it on the ground ; 
it became alive, and was the first horse. 

Of the origin of mosquitos and flies there are two accounts. 
The first is that they sprang from the ashes of a child-stcalmg 
witch, whom some ot her would-be victims (or, in one version 
of the myth, the coyote, who has chan$i;ed himself into a child,) 
manage to tumble into a fire-pit and thus destroy. The second 
makes them spring from the body of the first mosquito, who 
ate so much blood that his body burst into pieces. The writer 
of these notes has treat* d of these legends in his articles on the 
"Owl and the Coyote" and on the "Origin of Mosquitos.** 



Appended is a brief btbliogrmphy of Kootenmy mythology and folklore: 

I. Boat. Frani.— British Aswciation for the Advanceinent of Science, New- 
castle-upon-Tyne meetinir, i88q. Fifth Report on the Northwe ste rn 
Tril>es of Canada. London. i88q, 103 pp., 8vn. Contains, p. 46, notes 
00 tMfth, marriage and death customs of the Kutonaqa; p. 52, religiofi; 
p. SQi shamanism. 

s. Boas, Fraot.— Eioiire Sagen der Kootenay. Krr>l dfr Btrlhur Ctulluk 
/. Antkrpp., etc^ jahnt. 1891. S. 161-172. 

> Chamberlain. A. F.— BHiith Association for the Adirancemeot of Science. 
Ediabofff b meetisf . 18^ Eighth Report 00 the Noithwcttem Tribes 



72 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

of Canada. Report oo the Kootenay Indians of Soatheatteni BfltiiliL 
Columbia. London. 1892. 71 pp.. 8vo. Part II., pp. 31-38 devoted l» 
in)rthology and folklore. 

4. Chamberlain, A. F.— Der Wettlauf : Eine Sage der KCtonAqft^ Am Uw^ 

Quell, MI., Bd., (1892) S. 212 213. 

5. Chamberlain, A. F.— Sagen vom Urtprung der Fliegen and MotkiteiL 

ibid., IV., Bd. (1803). S. 129-131. Contains abetracu of KooKDaf- 
legends of origin of mosauttos. 

6. Chamberlain. A. F.— The Coyote and the Owl (Tales of the KooCeoar 

Indians). Mem, Iniem, Cong, Antkr, ( 1803), Chicago, 1804, pp. 283-384. 

7. Chamberlain. A. F.— A Kootenay Legend: The Coyote and the Movataui 

Spirit. Jomm, Amer, Folk- Lore, Vol, K// (1894), pp. I9S-196. 

8. Wilson. Rev. £. F.— The Kootenay Indians. Our ForeU Ckiidrm. VsL. 

///{i9qoh No. 13. New Series No. 11. April, 1800, pp. 164-168. Cootmios 
on pp. 166-167 abstracts of a few Kootenay legendi, chiefly derived 
from Dr. Boas. 



"AN ABORIGINAL WAR CLUB.- 

Bt James Wickershaiu 

A very fair display of aboriginal weapons was made by 
vate collectors at the Inter-State Fair held at Tacocna in lt9#k 
In the collection exhibited by the Pullman College of the Stafe» 
of Washington was a plaster cast of a stone implement found ia 
a mound in Bent County, Colorado, by J. B. Aldrich, the origi- 
nal being now in the Smithsonian Institution. This weapon is 
fifteen inches long, and bears this astonishing legend: **Pati»> 
Patu or Mcrai, said to have l>een found in a mound. Bent Countv« 
Colorado; Relieved to have come from New Zealand, Pacific 
Ocean; ori^mal No. 6i.g59 in U. S. National Museum; collected 
by J. B. Aldrich!" Upon a careful examination I was satisfied 
that this cast was not of a New Zealand specimen, but of a typi* 
cal Indian war club, quite common throughout that vast stretch 
of country from Alaska to Peru, via Puget Sound, Columbia 
river. Great Salt Like, Pueblos. Mexico, Central America and 
thence to the land of the Incas. where it was reproduced in 
bronze. My opinion was strengthened upon an examination of 
a descriptive catalogue issued by the Smithsonian Institution in 
1892. in which a history of this identical weapon is found. The 
catalogue is entitled *' labels for Collection of Casts of Prehis- 
toric Implements/' and the following extract will be interesting 
for many things found in it. as well as some which are missing: 
'* Patu Patu or Mcrai. This is the traditional weapon of the New 
Zealandcr. They may be made of wood, but usually are of hard 
greenstone, the jade of that country. They have t>cen polished 
with a sfXTcics of corundum found in the island. They are finely 
and symmetrically made, must have required much labor, and 
are valued highly. They become heirlooms and are given proper 
names. A sword knot is attached either by a groove or hole. 



AN ABORIGINAL WAR CLUB. 



73 



Yhls ffiecimen was given by J. B. Aldrich, who describes it by 
Ktter'from 'Memphis, June 25, iSSj^lhus: "It was dug out of 
rmound under my direction in 1806, while Quartermaster U. S. 
fhxmy. The mound was situated just south of the Arkansas 
threr near the thirty-eighth parallel, in Bent County, South East 
^'Colorado. It was the theory of Kit Carson, who accompanied 
'the command, that it 'had been secreted there by some of the 

Comanche or Apache Indians, who then oc- 
cupied the Territory. The hole was filled 
with a remnant of the loop made of vegetable 
fiber." 

It will be seen by this testimony ot the col- 
lector, as well as by a most competent witness. 
Kit Carson, that the probability is that the 
weapon did not come from New Zealand, and 
this assumption of its foreign workmanship 
probably arose from the fact that it so closely 
resembled the characteristic weapon of the 
Maoris. To show this relationship, I have 
copied a cut of a Patu-Patu or Merai, from 
•* Savage Weapons at the Cen- 
tennial Exhibition.*'* It is there 
described as "the Merai or Patu- 
Patu of New Zealand is a two- 
edged club of a prolonged ovoidal 
shape. It usually has a hole in 
the neck for a wrist cord. Fig. 7 
(Fig. 2 in this article) is of green 
jade, very symmetrical, and beau- 
tifully polished with a species of corundum found 
in the island. Fig. 10 is a carved weapon, the 
name of which was K€ukomohi, or ' face eater.' It 
is made from a bone of a spermaceti whale, and 
has the reputation ot having been handed down in 
the family for twelve generations. Merais of this 
shape are also made of wood, but are not as much 
valued as those ot harder and more enduring mate- 
rials." By comparing the cuts, i and 2, with the 
l^^guage used in relation to them, it will be seen 
that the label for Fig. i prepared by the Smithsonian FU/.t'-aumeFatu 
Institution was evidently based upon the informa- '''*"'^ ^' ^*' 
tion in the Report ot 1879. Instead of accepting the plain tes- 
timony ot Aldrich and Carson it was thought better to theorize 
— hence the mistake. The implement in question is a typical 
American weapon. 

It is much more likely that the Maoris of New Zealand obtained 




Oblorokiou 



^SotthiimlBD Report, 1879. page 219-10. 



li_ 



74 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

their weapon from the north-west coast of America than that it 
came to Colorado from Polynesia. In the Antiquariah for 
December, 1894, I have undertaken to show that the Polynesians 
reached their Oceanica homes from the north-east, via the 
" Kuro-shiwo," or "black stream," of the Jap- 
anese, together with its southern flow of! the 
coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, 
and the return equatorial Sow to Asia. The 
Indians ot Alaska to Columbia river travel on 
the ocean in their splendid great canoes, and it 
is not impossible that the weapon first reached 
Polynesia by these people drifting to the islands 
ot the Pacific. Be that as it may, it is a common 
weapon from Alaska to Southern Oregon, as 
well as on Puget Sound and the 
Columbia river, in Mexico and 
Peru. 

During a twenty years' resi- 
dence at Umatilla, Oregon, Mrs. 
Helen A. Kuozie has been an 
enthusiastic and intelligent col- 
lector of the archaeology of that 

_, . ^ ..„ locality. Her home lies at the 
Mtc. 9— Bronte "Ma- ^.■' , ., .- ..„ 

eano," coomMa mouth of the Umatilla nver, on 
■'"^■* the banks of the Colun^bia, about 

«ghty miles east of Dalles, Oregon. In pre> 
historic times the Aztecs traded in this rej^on, 
as well as Puget Sound, for Mrs. Kunzie has in 
her rare and valuable collection a characteristic 
three-legged " metate," exactly like those of 
Moqui and Mexico, a similar one having been 
recently found on Puget Sound. Her collection 
also embraces the finest display of obsidian 
knives probably north of Mexico, and her thou- 
sands of arrow points are jewels. The most 
interesting specimen, however, in her priceless 
collection is a bronze "Macana," or war club. 
It is exactly like Fig. i from the Colorado Mound. 
I have compared them side by side, and barring 
the material, they are exact counterparts, and 
may have been made at the same time by the 
same mechanic. This bronze specimen was g^ t_wboii ••Ams- 
found on the Columbia river bluffs opposite '"^JLiS"* 
Umatilla, in Klickitat County, Washington, in 
an ancient grave. It appears to have been cast, and is a finely 
made implement. It is, like the Colorado specimen, fifteen inches 
long and of the same width, having the same hole for the string 
or sword knot. So far as I know it is the only bronze ever 




AN ABORIGINAL WAR CLUB. H 

found ia this regioa, and only proves two thingt: (t) That the 
bronie of Mexico reached the Columbia river, with other char- 
acteristic Aztec implements, either by being carried by traden, 
or by traffic from tribe to tribe ; (3) that the Mexican " Macana" 
was of the same shape in Colorado, Columbia river and north- 
ward. 

The Nusqually Indian name for this weapon is "slubbeta," 
and the form is well known to all tribes in this region, from the 
Columbia to Alaska. Ftg. 4 is a typical wood "slubbcts," and 
was made for me by an ancient Nusqually mechanic. They 
formerly made them out of yew wood, whale bone, elk's horo 
and stone. They made two 
forms of the stone, the common 
one being like figures i, 2 and 3, 
while a ruder style was also quite 
often found. This kind did not 
widen out into the ovoJdal shape, 
but continued ^>out one width 
to the end, while the cross sec- 
tioa was diagonal. It was fin- 
ished with a hole for thong, and 
usually embellished with some 
ornamentation at the handle. I 
have one of these specimens in 
my collectioa. and Rev. Myron 
Eells of Skokomisb Indian res- 
ervationhasanother. The Indian 
who made the wood " slubbets " 
No. 4 had not previously seen 
any of my specimens, and hit 
implement therefore was not fin- 
ished with any fixed ideas except 
those derived from his ancient 
occupation as an arrow and war 
club maker. I sute this be- 
cause upon his weapon he has 
placed two lines lengthwise of^-t^ 
the implement which are ex- 
tremely interesting as evidence. He did not finish the weapon 
before sending it to me, for he did not bore the hole for the 
string, but only maiked it with a pencil. 

What other ornamentation he would have placed on it, if any, 
we may gather from an examination of the next two figures, 
which contain the same base lines as Fig. 4. Fig. 5 is a whale 
bone " slubbets " found in an old Indian grave on Puget Sound. 
The State University at Seattle has one almost exactly like it, of 
the same material and omamentatJoo, and the form is quite 
common. This specimen, like Fig. 4, is finished at the haiuUe 




t6 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 




:to represent a bird's head, while down the length of the blade is 
found the two base lines. It is ornamented on both sides alike. 
The upper ends of the base lines support a human head from 
which extends rays, and I presume it was intended to represent 
the sun. It is twenty-one inches long and quite heavy. It is a 
beautiful implement, and has a yellow — almost brown — appear- 
ance from age and burial. It was evidently the property of some 
fchief, and was worth many slaves. 

Of a common form with Fig. 5 is another specimen of the 

Aztec "macana" found on page 560, volume 4, 
Bancroft's '• Native Races." This stone " ma- 
cana" from Mexico and the richly carved whale 
bone "slubbets" from Puget Sound are of one 
common type. The Athapascan race spread 
from the shores of Bering's Strait to Hudson 
Bay and thence southward to Oregon. My opin- 
ion is that the Nusqually language of Puget 
Sound is Athapascan and not Salishaw ; a por- 
tion of their people at the extreme south end of 
Puget Sound certainly speak the same language 
as the Apaches of Mexico, Arizona and New 
Mexico. Then why need we teel a doubt that 
Kit Carson was correct when he said that the 
Colorado specimen (Fig. i) was an Apache im- 
plement — it may have been Aztec, for this race 
certainly traded even in prehistoric times far 
north of the Arkansas river. Bancroft says of 
Fig, 6: "The macana, an Aztec aboriginal 
weapon, shown in the cut, is copied from one of 
his (Gondra) plates. The material is probably a 
basaltic stone." He refers for this statement to 
Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex. tom. Ill, pp. 82, 87, 
99 and loi, pi. 25 — 30. 

The •* copper age " is popularly supposed by 
ethnologists to have ended in America with the 
disappearance of the mound-builders in the north 




FHg.T-^c&puer'^siub-aLnd the decline of the Aztec rule in Mexico. 
beuri^w. CooMt. gy^ ^^ greater mistake than this has been made. 

for it yet exists on the northwest coast in its pristine vigor. 
The Thiinkets and other Southern Alaskan tribes are in the 
" copper age " and yet own what are termed " coppers," or large 
shield-shaped copper sheets marked and carved with heraldic or 
totemic designs. Then, too, they made war clubs out of this 
rich material. Rev. Myron Eells of Skokomish, Hood's Canal,, 
is the owner of a copper "slubbets" figured herein as No. 7 
This was found on Hood's Canal, and passed into Mr. Eell's 
possession, who kindly made me the drawing from which Fig. 7 
was prepared. Mr. Eells writes me that the figure on the handle 



AN ABORIGINAL WAR CLUB. 77 

of his copper club is a representation of the thunder-bird; that 
the Clallam name for it is "tin-ting tsetkel." I have no doubt 
that the bird head on the figures 4 and 5 (and 6?) are also rep- 
resentations of this widespread iK-lief in the mythological thun- 
der bird. In the "Savage Weapons at the Centenial Exhibi- 
tion" is a description of a copper ** si ubbets" found in Michi- 
gan. I quote the following: "Another of native copper has 
been found in Michigan, and was shown at the Centennial. It 
is sixteen and one-fourth inches long, two and five-eighth inches 
wide for eleven inches of its length, contracts to one and one- 
half inches, and then enlarges to two inches, to assist the hand- 
grasp. No deduction of importance is to be made from this ; 
the blade is but one and one eighth inches wider than the han- 
dle, and the probability is that the piece of native copper approxi- 
mated that shape, the work of the owner consisting in flattening, 
sharpening and shaping it symmetrically." The author is en- 
tirelv mistaken in his deduction. He describes Mr. Ecli's north- 
west coast copper war club exactly, and the correct deduction 
is this: *'A copper 'slubbets' from Pu^et Sound was carried 
in trade via the Ncz Perce country to the Yellowstone, and 
thence to Michigan." ?tliny pipes of Catlinite from the Red 
Pipestone quarries in Dikota are found on Puget Sound and 
the Columbia River — Mrs. Kunzic and I have such specimens. 
The owner of the copper weapon from Michigan has a typical 
weapon from the North Pacific coast, and not. as the author sug- 
gests, an accidental form. 

Many more examples can be given of the existence of this 
weapon in this region; nearly all the early travelers and writers 
on this coast mention it — for instance. Francherc and Jewitt. 
The Indians of Puget Sound and north made warm, finely- woven 
woolen blankets, beautiful and closely-woven basket work ; their 
loom and spiniiin;j-wheel is the exact type of the Ap.ache and 
Navajo; they used the characteristic and identical war club used 
in Mexico ; they lived in large, permanent, wooden communal 
\io\xsis, hut they did not make pottery. Humboldt and Prcscott 
afiirm that the Aztecs came from the northwest coast — from 
some point north of California; the In<lians of Puget Sound, like 
those <>f the cliff dwellings and Pueblos, as well as the Peru- 
vians, are flatheads; 1. e.^ they depress by bandages the frontal 
bones of the skull in infancy as a sign of sujK'riority. All lines 
of traditions and migrations go southward; for these reasons I 
am of the opinion that the northwest coast is the American 
home of this typical Indian war club, and that it went from this 
region southward with swarms of tribes from the original hiding 
place of that type of Indian repre^entmg the .semi -civilization of 
America, viz., the Cliff- Dwellers. Puebloes, Aztecs and Peruvians. 
If such a type had come north it would have brought what nr\ r 
existed north ot the Columbia — the art of pottery-making. 



] 



78 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

PALESTINE EXPLORATION. 
T. F. Wright. United States Secretabv. 

An intelligent supporter of our work has raised the question, 
"Does Dr. Bliss seem to be proceeding in the right way?" To 
my mind he is doing just right. Dr. Bliss received by the 
firman liberty to dig over a large tract now just outside of the 
walls of Jerusalem, but formerly a part of the city within the 
walls. This tract lay, for the most part, on the brow of Mount 
Zion. If we think of a broad U as placed with its ends against 
the northern wall, which runs high across the top of Zion, one 
of the ends at the western end of this wall and the other at the 
eastern end, then its curve will show the boundary of the space 
at the disposal of Dr. Bliss. After thinking the whole problem 
over carefully, he decided to begin at the west end and go all 
along the boundary of his ground first of all, and then follow 
the lines of special interest which might be laid bare. Now 
he has gone more than a thousand feet in this easterly course, 
and he intends to keep on until he finds how the old wall 
terminated in the vicinity of the Pool of Siloam. Perhaps the 
April Quarterly Statement will show that this has already been 
done. Already he has intercepted a street and has found the 
gate through which it passed. He might have swerved off 
there and followed that street, but I think that the comment 
would have been, "Why did he not follow that rock-scarp 
quite round to the temple-wall, and let us understand the whole 
subject, before he dropped it for another?" 

If Dr. Bliss follows out his plan he will come round to the 
southeastern angle of the temple-wall. Before he gets to that 
he will find that some previous excavations will help him. 
What next? By all means let him dig westward over the little 
hill called Ophel and make thorough work from the wall on the 
north to the end of the hill on the south. This is a triangular 
space about one thousand feet wide across the top, and about 
the same length to the brow of the hill. In the volume "Re- 
covery of Jerusalem," Captain Warren wrote, in 1870, that he 
believed Solomon's Palace to have been at a lower level than 
the temple, and to have stood just here. Later kings still 
further enriched the hill. It is believed that the buildings 
looked down from above a lofty wall into the valley of the 
Kedron. The theater of Hadrian is generally located very near 
here, but has never beet/ uncovered. The tombs of the kings 
are probably on the westerly side of Ophel. 

It is unnecessary to plan farther. By the time this is done 
the whole problem will be in process of solution. But we can 
see in a general way that, within the whole tract, on the edge 
of which Dr. Bliss is now digging, only the most patient and 
thorough work will s^tisiy the Christian world. One firman at 
time is enough. One official excavation at a time is enough. J 
Indeed, our meagre contributions will not permit us to lay larg< 
plans. Let us be patient, helpful, grstefui,4J 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 79 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 

By Stephen D. Peet. 

We have now passed over the diflerent districts in which ethno- 
graphic religions have been recognized, and have spoken of the 
diflerent symbols under which these religions embody them- 
selves. In giving this geography of religion and of mythology, 
we would not be understood as claiming that the various forms 
of religion were confined to the districts mentioned, or even that 
they predominated to the exclusion of all others, for many forms 
of religion prevailed in alf parts of the continent, and the 
symbols and myths which served as drapery to them were also 
widely distributed. There was, to be sure, a striking correlation 
between each form of religion and its environment, the mythol- 
ogy always partaking of the material surroundings, and the 
symbols also being affected by them ; but there was nevertheless 
a common basis for the symbols, which shows that they could 
not have originated altogether in these different centers, but 
must have been transmitted from one to the other and perhaps 
from another continent. These symbols or conventional 
forms were not confined to one stock or race of people, but 
seem to have been adopted by all tribes and races, and were 
understood by all as having about the same significance. They 
are not peculiar to the American tribes, although they bear 
the American stamp. While the myths were indigenous, many 
of the symbols were the same as those seen in other parts 
of the world. The myths were very largely the product 
of nature worship, and show the effect of nature upon the 
aboriginal mind. The nature divinities were, perhaps, oftener 
represented under the animal semblance, such as the serpent, 
panther, bear, eagle, raven, quetzal, or parrot, and owl, which 
became zoomorphic divinities, but they were sometimes repre- 
sented under the form of tadpoles, toads, lizards, butterflies, 
and beetles, as well as snakes. There were also certain figures 
and symbols which were supposed to represent the storms, 
clouds, whirlwinds, snow and rain, and mountain divinities. Some 
of these were composed of arches and crosses, parallel lines and 
zigzags, each of which stood for a different element — the arch 
for the sky, the cross for the winds, the zigzags for the light- 
nings, the parallel lines for the falling rain, the stepped figures 
for the mountains, which were supporters of the sky, the feathers 
for the clouds, the suastika for the revolving sky, the scroll for 
the whirlwind, the Jerusalem cross for the water or sea, the 



8o THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

tortuous line for the rivers, and the bird-tracks for the creatures 
of the sky. Occasionally there were fif^ures which represented 
the motions of the sky and earth and the order of the seasons, 
the very shape of the figures giving to us the idea of revolving 
seasons and the turn which all nature takes, the bend of the 
arms of the cross, or the turn of the scroll, the beak of the 
birds, the coil of the serpent, as well as the circles, indicating 
the motion of the sky, so that we have a map of the heavens, 
with its sun and moon, winds, stars, seasons, currents, as well as 
a map of the earth, with its caves, mountains, rivers, and four 
quarters, also its various seasons, all of the movements of the 
universe being plainly represented as in a modern orrerary. 
Moreover there are symbols which represent the epochs of the 
world. These are often combined with the symbols of the 
months and years and seasons, so that it is difficult to distinguish 
the longer from the shorter period, for they are all mingled 
together in a mass of symbolism and can not be separated and 
scarcely analyzed, but generally they are very common objects 
which are used for the time symbols, such as circles, crosses, 
animal heads, serpents, plants, reeds, grains of corn, flint axes, 
arrows, battle axes, macheU, feathers, and occasionally human 
faces, each object having received an arbitrary significance and 
being represented in conventional shape. 

DifTerent colors were also ascribed to the nature powers and 
the heavenly bodies — the four quarters of the sky, the moun- 
tains, seas, the upper and lower worlds, caves, all having colors 
which were significant. The various objects m nature, which 
have diflerent colors, such as precious stones, shells, turquoise, 
gems, crystals, mosses, leaves, (grains of sand, feathers, reeds 
and plants, were used as symbols of the nature divinities, and were 
supiMiscd to have a peculiar charm, especially in the healmg of 
disease and in securing the aid of the su|)ernatural go<is. There 
were also certain symbols which reproented spiritual things— 
the feathers arran^jcd uf)on a stafT, called Pahos, were prayers 
which were materialized. Th«* sacred tree stood for the spirit 
of life or the soul; the seqK*nt stood at times tor the spirit of 
evil, the malignant spirit; the arrow also stood for prayer which 
penetrated the sky; the vine with the nodes upon it stood for 
speech or prayer which reached the ear of divinity. There were 
synit)oU also to represent the state of the soul, a passage through 
the mountain for the journey of the soul; shrines in the moun- 
tains for the resting place of the soul ; the clouds and the t*irreted 
hills, which were the sacred spaces in the sky. or the city beneath 
the water, which formed the home of the soul. Moreover the 
ornaments in the pottery and on the domestic vessels symbol- 
izcd a spirit possession, the disks or open spaces representing 
the inward pas!age of the spirit ; the pyramids, circles and scrolls 
symbolizing the dwelling of the spirit of a "made being,** as the 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 8i 

shape of the real mountains and sky did the "unmade beinqs."^ 
These are all symbols of nature worship, though they show that 
the various tribes, even the rude as well as the most civilized, had 
conceptions of the universe which arc not unlike those which 
we ourselves possess, and in which we take so much pride as 
evidences of our superior culture. These all reveal the force of 
religious sentiment which prevailed among a people who were 
so remote from the ordinary fountains of thought and the sources 
of religious influence. They prove that man is naturally relig- 
ious: and if he is not furnished with a religion, he will make 
one for himself and will gather inspiration from the works of 
nature about him. 

These conventional figures answered the purpose of an alpha- 
bet, and conveyed to the people in prehistoric times much re- 
ligious thought, and constitute the sacred record or **sacred books*' 
of the aborigines. There was in them a system of natural rcliigion 
which has not been surpassed, not even by the people of the 
east; though it was similar to that system out of which the 
various historic humanly- founded religions ot the east may t>e 
supposed to have grown. They do not represent the chief pecul- 
iarity of the historic religion^, because the element of personality 
was lacking and could not well be embodied in nature powers. 
There was, however, one form of religion which brought in this 
element of personality and gave to the symbols a new signifi- 
cance and introduced others, so that we have m it an entirely 
different set of myths and a distinct system of s\ mbolism. To 
this religion we have given the name of Anthromorphism. The 
term is derived from two Greek words, anthropos^ **man," and 
morpha, **shape." It means the representation of a deity in 
human form and with human attributes. This is the type of 
religion to which we shall invite attention. 

I. Let us consider the character of anthropomorphism as it 
existed in America. It was one of the prominent ethnographic 
and religious systems in the world, but had a greater influence 
here than anywhere else. It was prevalent throughout the con- 
tinent, though its highest development was among the semi- 
civilized races of the southwest, where the symbolism reached 
its highest perfection. It was also prevalent throughout the 

*rhe u%t of fe4ther« a> prtyrr tymboU «a« caromoa with oearlr all of the ab'>rictn%l 
tflb«9. but mA* r»pcct*iiir cuiunoo Aiuonc the Ta«a> ao«. They are e^pUtiMd bv Mr. J. W. 
F**ke« to ht» pamphlet called * I'uaaiao New Fire Ce'emoa%. ' re not Irom the proceed* 
lao vl the BoatoB ^oclety o( Natural Htatury. Kvrry breath movet them, and ao 
they are the tymbol of ttie breath ol the body and the breathiof of the aoal la 

rrsyeff A* the aa travels acroaa the aky he acct the Taho In the «h(ine, place* them ia 
la fird»e and carriaa tbeni tu hia we^Ut'O home. anddUtnouiea them to the woild-tioa tcr 
chicia. Th«»e wund quvrter chiefs are the oanie as Jivimties or cloud chicts; their servaata 
art Ui# all plamcd saakaa. all of which art addressed la the prayers, la wa/rl •€ aocictf 
ctWbr«tt -o* tame cods are addresacd. A-iar* and ahnnes were alao the symbols oif 
Um aitettoc |^«<i» ornivloliv and the soul. These with the Tasayans wcrt ol Ihrtt kinds, 
(i ) cU>nd cliarm ailar with a medicine bout at the juaction • I tbt six liaas. aa<l car« of 
ma at tbt fids ot ihf li e«, tt t Saad palntinc a Urs with fire slabs. (3.) Symbolic 
Ifarta made la meal aacd la the flat* ctrtm>jnUl loot racaa. Ktradorta It a ttrm uad to 
t^rtatsi the apriglit Iraaat work back ol tht taad pictartt. 



aa THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

eastern continent and was there among the highest types of 
religion, only one higher form having been reached by the pagan 
nations, viz.: monotheism. It was, in fact, the connecting link 
between the prehistoric and historic religions, and was one of 
the most familiar types among the ancient nations. There was, 
to be sure, often connected with it a degraded system of idolatry, 
which receives condemnation from enlightened consciences; but 
notwithstanding this it resulted in a view of the personality of 
God, which, upon the whole, was a benefit to mankind. This 
only shows how the human mind works in the matter of relig- 
ion, for it rises at one time to the greatest heights, but at another 
falls into the most debased and degraded condition, but some- 
how the religious sentiment advances with each movement, heav- 
ing in tide waves the thought of man to a higher stage, where the 
truth seems to be better apprehended. This is illustrated beau- 
tifully in America, for here the aboriginal mind worked accord- 
ing to its own laws and forces, without the influence of the 
historic faiths and without the aid of revelation; and yet it 
seemed to have come with each advancing type nearer and nearer 
to the apprehension that there was one supreme and personal 
God. The type of religion which we called anthropomorphism 
is removed but one step from this conception, and was itself in 
the process of growth. 

The natives of America were, some of them, bad enough in 
their practices, ^hey were full of cruelty, and some of them 
were carried to extreme frenzy; the dog-eating shaman, among the 
Thiinkeets, would take the live dog in his hands, and while fol- 
lowed by others as crazy as himself would tear it to pieces with 
his teeth ; the Eskimo in his hut would tell tales of the bestial 
indulgence and cruelty of Sedna, his female divinity of the 
seas; the Thiinkeets would repeat the myths of the strange 
amours of Ne-kiltluss, the great creator, and represent the an- 
cestors of the race as coming from the cockle-shells upon the 
shore; the Navajo would tell about the hermaphrodite which 
was born out of the union of the clouds and the sky on the 
mountains, having no semblance except that of the dark storm 
cloud and the fleecy cloud combined; the Zuni Indian would 
tell the .story of creation, and say that the creator lifted the sun 
and sky from the earth, and was to be worshiped under the 
semblance of the feather-headed serpent; the Aztec would re- 
peat his myths about the god of war. death and hell, and fill 
temples with the images or idols which were covered with the 
ghastly array of skulls; and even the Maya devotee would 
erect the image of the .«^rpent, with open mouth and protruding 
tongue, and worship this mask as the embodiment of his divin- 
ity; still, notwithstanding all these cruel practices and degraded 
customs, the conception of god was constantly rising. The habit 
of ascribing human attributes to the divinity was only one evi- 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 83 

deoce that progress was being made toward the truth. We may 
regard then this habit of clothing the divinity in the drapery of 
the human face and form as a positive aid to devotion, for it 
enabled the people to conceive of God as a f>ersonal being, and 
to represent him not only as a national divinity, but as one who 
ruled all nations and peoples. 

We do not find in Ameiica any such conception of a holy heing 
as is contained in the Scriptures; nor do we find the thought of 
one true and living God ruling over all things, but so far as 
symbols and myths could express it we may say that the con- 
ception of God as a personal being, having f>ersonal feelmgs 
and bearing a human semblance, was similar to that which was 
common among the nations of the cast and that which may be 
easily recognized in the language of the wor<l of God. To the 
benighted and belated sons of men who inhabited this continent, 
anthropomorphism D^as a great boon, for it brought them to a 
higher conception of God than the mere nature worship ever 
could have done. Though there was no Moses among them 
who could go up the mountain's height and talk face to face 
with God, nor was there any gift of law, revelation, or religion, 
yet those who worshiped the humanized personal divinities were 
much nearer the truth than those who either worshiped animals, 
or ancestors, or even culture heroes, for they had a view of his 
personal attributes and were on the way to apprehend the unity 
of God and his sovereignty over all creatures. 

II. Let us now turn to the prevalence of the system in Amer- 
ica, There were diflferent phases which anthropomorphism 
assumed in the various parts of the continent. Its chief devel- 
opement was in Gautemala and among the ancient Mayas, but it 
also prevailed among the lower and ruder tribes, though it was 
here associated with animal worship and totemism, the zoomor- 
phic and anthropomorphic divinities being strangely mingled in 
their pantheon. It is a matter of surprise that so much of the 
advanced forms of anthropomorphism existed among the rude and 
savage tribes, and that even the gods of the world-quarters were 
so frequently represented as personal beings which bore the 
human semblance. The majority of them were, to t>e sure, 
loomorphic, as would be natural with the totemistic tribes; but 
there were many divinities among them which had the human 
semblance, for we find every where pictographs, rock inscription.s, 
inscribed shells, carved relics and masks, as well as idols, contain- 
ing the human semblance.^ There are also many charts which 
contain human figures or faces, and the chief divinities are rep- 
resented in this way. but the subordinate divinities under the 



* Here wv would «peak ahoat the hamaQ hand, which hai been recoffniye*! as to oma- 
Bl on the pottery Mwi in the thellt of the Moand-builden. Thlt It dtflereiit from lh« 
Imman face and form, and yet it was expressive of the same thoayht. and was a very wide- 
' symbol. 



84 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

animal semblance. There were also dances and feasts among 
the wild tribes in which the individuals personated the divinities, 
sometimes imitating the animals which they worshiped and 
mimicking their motions; sometimes the birds; sometimes the 
nature powers; sometimes the motions of the serpent, which 
which was the symbol of the seasons, especially spring, at its 
appearance after the long bondage ol winter. The highest style 
of dramatization was that in which the supernatural powers were 
represented as personal beings. Moreover, the gods who repre- 
sented the four elements, and who ruled the world quarters and 
bore the sacred colors, assumed the human form for the sake of 
conversing with their devotees, though they were capable of 
transforming themselves into any shape. 

We can not look upon these different manifestations without 
believing that the personality was an element in the divine being 
even in the minds of the untrained savages, and that all the 
mysteries which were celebrated had regard to this element. 
Some believe that the future state of the soul was often in the 
minds of the initiates, and that much of the symbolism brought 
out the thought of the unseen world, for the religious customs 
which were practiced at the burial of the dead wete in ac- 
cord with this. The spirits of the departed were regarded as 
still in existence, and food must be placed within the grave, or 
in the house which was placed over the grave, and articles >e^ 
for use within the grave. Moreover, the myths and symbols 
which were perpetuated by the sacred mysteries bring out the 
thought that an unseen spirit, who was perhaps equivalent to the 
Supreme Being and Great Spirit, directed the mysteries and de- 
signed to bestow gifts upon the people. There are many illus- 
trations of this among the different tribes, for there are charts 
and symbols, as well as myths and traditions, which perpetuate 
the religious views of the aborigines. Some of these seem to 
have been affected by the views which were brought in by the 
white man, but others are purely aboriginal. The best illustra- 
tion is that which is found among the Ojibwas, an Algonkin tribe 
which still dwells on the borders of Like Superior and the 
head waters of the Mississippi River. The following is a sum- 
mary of their beliefs: The chief or superior manito is termed 
Kitshi Manido, approaching to the idea of the God of the Chris- 
tian religion. The second in importance is Dzhe Manido, a 
benign being, upon whom they look as a guardian spirit or good 
spirit. Another is called Dzhibai Manido, shadow spirit, or 
ghost spirit, for he rules the place of shadows. Aside from 
these, there was the chief animal spirit, who is supposed to be 
the national god and culture hero, represented as the giant rab- 
bit, called Minabozho, who was subordinate to the Kitshi Manido, 
but was the means by which his gifts came to the people. Op- 
posite to these various divinities, but subordinate to them, were 



CHART OF THE MIDE SONO-8CHOOLCRAFT. 



«6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

certain evil or malignant spirits, which assume the shape of ser- 
pents and bears and birds. 

The manner of securing supernatural gifts and favor with the 
Kitchi Manido was by passing through the four degrees of the 
sacred mysteries. These were guarded by certain mah'gnant 
spirits who assumed the shapes of serpents, bears and panthers, 
and who opposed the passage of a candidate into the sacred 
lodge, where he would receive the gift of immortah'ty. These 
were, however, under the control of the good spirit, and opened 
the passage into the lodge at his command. When he has 
passed into the second degree he receives from Dzhe Manido 
eyes to look into futurity; ears that can hear a great distance; 
hands that can touch those which are remote; feet which can 
traverse ail space. When he has passed to the fourth degree he 
is in a position to accomplish the greatest fetes in magic, and 
can read the thoughts and intents of others. His path is beset 
with dangers and |>oints to which he may deviate from the true 
course of propriety ; but at the end of the world his soul is 
permitted to pass from the Mide-wigan to the land of the setting 
sun, the place of the dead, upon the road of the dead. An 
illustration of these different points will be found in the charts 
which f>erpetuate the Mide songs of the Ojibwas,* which have 
been preserved as very sacred, and which represent the ancient 
mysteries, still so sacred among them. 

We shall call attention to these charts, for they are the sacred 
books of the Ojibwas and perpetuate the sacred songs, or the 
Mide songs, exactly as the sand paintings do among the Navajos 
and the codices do among the Mayas. What is most remarka- 
ble about the myths is that they represent about the same 
fundamental truths or beliefs as those contained in the sacred 
books of the east, and like them are given in poetical language 
and were attended by songs that were designed as interpretations. 
They are, in fact, the Vedas of this aboriginal tribe, and repre- 
sent the religion as well as the literature of this people. 

Nearly all of these charts t>egin with the story of creation 
and end in the passage of the soul into the sacred lodge in the 
heavenly spaces, but represent the processes by which the can- 
didate is to appease the great divinity, who is unseen, but who 
has revealed these mysteries to the people. The interpretation 
of the chart reveals the (act that there was a foundation myth 
which prevailed among all the tribes of the Mississippi Valley, 
and, with variations, appeared among the tribes of the interior. 

*S^-hoiilcraft saft The \ >rlh Aiirnran tivliant hav« two lernrt fof iKclr pUtcMTsp^ 
—Krkrira.u. «uih Ihinif* a« jur frnrrally un Irmtool by the tribr. Krkernuvin lof thm 
%9Mct..ng% i*l the Mivie« or pnr%t« The knowlevlce of the latter i« chirtly coafcatd to per* 
•on* »ho are «rr«ctl m their •>4tr'i) ol mj^i^ mrrJKtne ot their rrhci^Hn. am may be lefiMd 
hieratK 7'he former ct>ii«t*t« (»t tmunt.^t *><n«. «uch at arc etnployoi at placet ol tefral- 
tare or hur>ttiiic or tratehrttf partir^ ft ■« al^o r.i>pl'i%eii in the rocli wffitiotf*. me«ilA*mk«. 
Maay of the fi^uir^ are ('iiiiiion tu Nith Ih.^ rnkultt fri>rit the li(«re ol Uie alphabet be- 
lag pre- %f\y tur %A:nr. >>ut Ih** .irt:^c« uf tt:e iiiedKine < Wabcoot. hiiQliQf aad VM tM^* 

kbuwti ftolcif to the toitiAtr^. »ho ha«r learool tbem 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 87 

and even may be recognized amoni; the more civilised tribes of 
the southwest. Let us first take the chart furnished by Henry 
Schoolcraft : 

Ii bCKini with the picture of a bird under an arch (So. 1). Thi* repre- 
Mrli ihe medicine iod|;e hlled with the preience i>f ihe Great Spirit, 
(l.) Nexi ii the candidate for admiumn, hi>Idin)C the pouch from which the 
wind 11 KU-hinf{ nut. M ) A man haldine a diih in hi* hand. ()•) N'eil a 
lodKe in which the Mide men are auetnhlcd. (;.) Nett ihe arm »( (be 
pricti. 18) The Mide tree, or the tree of life. (<>) The crane, which i« the 
loieoi o' the tiit>e. (10) An arrow, whirh Dcnetraici the eniire circle of the 
tky. (It ) A imall hawk, which 11 capable of AymK hiiih inio the (kv. 
ill.) Theiky, wiihtheOreal Spirit looking over it, a mplicaimn arm it»-idc 
of it. (13) A pause. (14) Wabeno tree. (15) A drum^lirk. (16) The 
■on pur«uinR hi* cnur*e until noen. (17 ) The Great Spint, fillinf; all (pace 
with IK beam*. OS- 19) A drum and umbourine. (1 -11.) The raven and 
crow, tymbiit* of Ihe nature powers, (jj.) A medicine lodge and the 
maaler, holdinn in hi* hands the clouds. 

Let us next take the one given by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, and 
the myth or legend which is attached to this. It is as follows: 
Minabozho, the great rabbit, was the servant of Dzhe Manido, 



*«<» *Ai 




CAort V "^ 'Mid* Wtgatt." «r Jberwl Ladf. 

the gotxl Spirit, and acted in the capacity of ancestor and mediator 
and was the friend of the Indians. He looked down upon the 
earth and beheld the ancestors of the Ojibwas occupying the 
four quarters of the earth, and saw how helpless they were. The 
I^ce where he descended was an island in the middle of a Urge 
body of water. He instructed the otter, whose home was in the 
water. Here he built a sacred Mide lodge, "Mide Wigan," and 
took the otter into the "Mide Wigan" and shot the sacred migis 
into his body (hat he might have immortal lif<-.* This is the 
myth. The following is the chart which embodied it: 

Tbe circle with the four projection* (No*, i, 3, \ 4} represetiM the world 
U creation, with the (our Quarter* inhabited bj the people (Ni'S. 5, 6, 7, 8). 
The two oblong square* (No*, ii-ii) r-presen< the lodge guarded b^ two 
maliftnant manidot(Nos. 9- to). Four human (orm* (Noa. 13. 14. tj, 16) rep- 
resent ihe four officiating pnests. Cedar tree* are repreienied by Not. 17, 
it, 19. No*. 31 and 31 represent a bear spitiL No*. 11 and 24 reprrteni ■ 
•acred drum. Not. 38 and ig represent the entrance of the first and second 
degree*. No*. 30-34 represent ibe five terpeni ipinis who oppo*« ihe praf - 
te^a, one of which r«i*c* iu body to fonn an arch for the candidate to past 



acml iraliol ol tlw HMc Wleu." ud biit a 



88 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

under. Nos. 35-47 represent the four malignant bear spirits. Nos. ^7-38 
represent the door of the lodge. Nos. 39-45 represent the seven Miae 
oriests. No. 48 the candidate receiving supernatural powers. No. 50 the 
Bad Mide. No. 53, the third degree. Nos. 61 -67* the Mide spirits who in- 
habit this degree. Nos 5960, the bear spirits. Nos. 69-80, the fourth de- 
gree. Nos. 81-84, 88-96, malignant animal spirits. No. 99, the angular 
pathway. No. loi, the end of the road. Above the fourth degree (110-114) 
are the ghost lodge and the path of the dead. No. 113, the owl, which 
represents the sou passing from the Mide Wigan or ghost lodge to the land 
of the setting sun. 

It would appear from this chart that even the savages had a 
conception of a supreme being and creator, of a mediator, of an 
evil spirit and of a divine or supernatural gift which came in 
answer to offerings and prayer. They had also a view of a future 
state and the passage of the soul after death into the sacred abodes, 
which was not derived from the white man, but was aboriginal 
and was perpetuated by the medicine men Irom generation to 
generation. This conception accompanied the worship of anthro- 
pomorphic divinities far more than that of the animal divinities. 
The Ojibwas were not the only tribes which had charts and 
symbols in which the human face and form were used to repres- 
ent the personality of God and the super-natural being. The 
Dakotas, Omahas, Ponkas, Winnebagos and Pawness all used 
the same semblance. These tribes combined them with the sym- 
bols of the nature powers, such as the lightning, water, air and 
wind, in such a way that the human features could hardly be 
recognized; yet when we come to understand the symbols we 
see that the human semblances are given to the nature powers. 
This conception, however, was prevalent while totemism or 
animal worship was extant, but it was through the anthropomor- 
phic divinities that it was introduced and exercised its sway. 

III. This brings us to a view of anthropomorphism in its combin- 
ations, especially its combination with ''mountain worship.'* We 
shall speak of the divinities which prevailed among the tribes of 
the interior, such as the Zunis, Moquis and Pimas. These di- 
vinities represented the spirits which inhabited the mountains, 
rocks and caves, and were quite different from those already 
described, which mainly represented the animal totems, and had 
little in common with the mountain divinities. These divinities 
or spirits dwelt in different houses ; but they were houses which 
were hid away among the mountains, or water of the lakes, or 
amid the clouds above the mountains, and can be called nature 
divinities or mountain divinities. They, however, all possessed 
the human form, or at least had faces, feet and hands like human 
beings and could talk and act as if they were human. 

It appears that the universe was peopled by supernatural 
beings, and there was not a living creature, nor even an imagin- 
ary object, which did not have its representative in the varied 
"pantheon." The clouds, the rainbow, the storm, the thunder and 
lightning, the snow and rain, the rocks, and the caves among 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 8q 

the rocks, the crystals formed amon^^ the rocks, the water, the 
streams, the trees, the foliage on the trees, the birds, and the 
feathers and the plumage on the birds, the animals, and even the 
fur on the animals, were personified and made objects of worship. 
The colors were especially dwelt upon as representint; divinities, 
and were regarded as the clothing with which the nature powers 
were arrayed. There were not only divinities of the water, sky, 
earth and fire, but there were divinities which represented the 
difTcrent colors and the different elements. 

It was a very brilliant and highly colored universe which the 
people inhabited and which they imagined were also the h« bita- 
tions of the anthropomorphic divinities. The houses of the 
divinities had different colors — the black water and the white 
water, the blue sky and the red sky. the yellow sunbeams and 
the black rocks, the white lightning and the red lightning. The 
colors had much to do with the worship of the divinities amonc^ 
the eastern tribes, but here they were magnified and exalted to 
a higher rank, and they had a great force in the religious cere- 
monies of the people. The points of the compass were regarded 
as sacred and had difTcrent colors, which were sacred to certain 
divinities; but there were added to the four points three more, 
to represent the zenith, nadir and the central point around which 
the universe revolved, making seven spaces, six of which were 
occupied by the divinities, the central one being the place where 
the divinity and humanity met. Among some of the trit>es there 
were double spaces, making two worlds — the celestial and the 
terrestial. Both worlds revolved about the central space exactly 
as the nine worlds of the Chinese revolved around the throne of 
the celestial emperor, and as the four peaks of the Hindoo 
mountain stood around the central mountain of Merer, which 
was regarded as the pillar of the sky and the navel of the 
universe. The celestial spaces were occupied by the anthropo* 
morphic divmities, but the terrestial spaces were guarded by 
animal divinities which were represented in the red stone 
fetiches,* which the people worshiped. There was a central 
space in the sacred geography of the ancient natives of the east. 
There it was always located in the city, and in the temple in the 
midst of the city. With this people it was located in the pueblos. 
Sometimes seven pueblos were built, perhaps to symbolize the 
different spaces. 

We would notice further that the dwelling place of the 



*Thc crotrai mountain amonf the Navaio^. as well as (our nu>uotains farrooDdinff it. 
(Sec the mountain chait tiy Dr Washington Maithcwf^.) 

Thrrr were stx purhlos among the Z urns, one ut which was the seat of (iomlAioo«Off 
ccfitrai power, (iwe Baniieher.i 

A ckcckrr hoard village with a Uffer edifice In the center »m noticed at Sao Carkw, 
Ariiooa. iSee InvesttgatioAS in Southwest, p. 417.) This was of the Mexican type. Cls^ 
Itft ol the checkertioard pattern wefc found near Phoenia. Arlfona. P. 444* Not oolv 
fron the discovery of totemic devices, but from other cvideiiccs, it 11 tupporsed Uiat «» 

the abldiM place of a particular claa or gens. Caasa Graadc shows three storks, with 
third story like a tower— one of then suhterraaeaa, nakiag fo«r. (Sic^ted from Bartlctt*t 
a1 Narrative. Vol. II, p. STt-) (Baacfoft't NMi«« RacM, Vol. IV. p. toS-) 



• third si 



90 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

divinities differed among the different tribes, the Navajos 
representing them as dwelling on top of the mountains and 
above the clouds, while the Zunis and Moquis represented them 
as dwelling beneath the waters and below the mountains. Still 
the houses in which the divinities dwelt, which were pictured 
out by the Navajos, were formed of the clouds and were built 
in terraces resembling the terraced houses of the Pueblos, but 
had diflferent colors, very much as the Babylonian pyramids had. 
These many colored clouds were guarded by animal divinities, 
but they could be reached by human beings, especially when 
attended with the supernatural beings as companions. One of 
the most beautiful tales, or myths, of the Navajos is contained 
in the description of an individual who was seeking after his 
spiritual body and who was led by two of the divinities through 
the different clouds, the grey cloud, and the red cloud, to where 
the body was lying. According to the myth each bank of 
clouds contained a chamber which had a different color and was 
guarded by some animal with a color corresponding to the 
cloud. The house in which the soul body was lying was situ- 
ated in a field beyond the clouds; it had a door and sill, front 
part and back part, each of which are mentioned as if they were 
sacred. The body itself seemed to be held in its place by a 
secret spell or charm which was broken by the presence of the 
supernatural divinities and taken up part by part — hands, leet, 
body, hair, even to the spittal, and carried back to the habitation 
of the human being, who, as a soul, seemed to be disembodied. 
The story reminds us of the Dakota myth of the souls of their 
ancestors which passed up through the different terraces, which 
were supported by the tree of life, and took the bodies of birds. 
It required the greatest formality for these attended divinities — 
the one before, the other behind the soul in its passage through 
the clouds, and the myth is stretched out a great length in its 
repetitions, but is very striking. This differs from the mythol- 
ogy of the Zunis, who imagined that the houses of their divini- 
ties were beneath the waters of the sacred lake, and were to be 
reached by passing through the secret path through the 
mountains. These houses, themselves, resembled the pueblos 
in all particulars. Thus, we see that the different tribes drew 
their ideas of an unseen universe from their surroundings. The 
same contrasts are perceptible in the story of creation. With 
the Navajos the gods were born upon the top of the mountains; 
with the Zunis and Moquis their original home was in the cave 
beneath the earth. 

There are many myths extant among these partially civilized 
tribes which exhibit their conceptions in reference to the appear- 
ance of the humanized divinities. They are very beautiful and 
full of poetical fancies; the imagery of them having been drawn 
from the magnificent scenery of the region and is resplendent 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 91 

with the colors with which the rocks and mountains were clothed 
and sparkles with the jewels and precious stones which abound, 
and is as varied and striking as the vegetation which covered the 
mountains. The symbols also of the different tribes were de- 
rived from the scenery; many of them were invented to express 
the operations of nature, though the tribes borrowed symbols 
f;om one another as well as myths. Many of these myths and 
symbols were embodied in the sand paintings, which for a long 
time were unknown, but are now proving to be very interesting 
objects of study, for they are like the missals written during the 
middle ages. They are not only very beautiful, but they perpet- 
uate the ancient traditions of the people; in fact, have preserved 
the sacred book from destruction.* 

These sand paintings show a wonderful taste for color, and at 
the same time reveal an elaborate symbol which represents the 
various nature powers — such as the wind, rain, lightning and four 
points of the compass — also a familiarity with the sacred plants; 
but the most remarkable thing is that the gods of the sky are 
always represented as having the human form clothed with the 
sunbeams and the colors of the sky and adorned with rainbows, 
but controling the nature powers and guarding the plants. This 
is one peculiarity of anthropomorphism. The divinity who has 
the human form is really master of the creation and reigns 
supreme over all the other powers. The best illustration of this 
is given by the ceremonial and sand-painting called Hastjeltt 
Dailjis, This ceremonial was founded upon the story of creation, 
which is as follows. Hastjelti and Hostjoghon were the children 
of Ahsonnutli, the turquois and the white shell woman, who 
were born on the mountain where the fogs meet. These two 
became the great song makers of the world and were the rain 
gods.f These two gods were the mountain divinities which 
were worshiped by the Navajos. They stand upon the mountain 
tops and call the clouds together around them. Hastjelti is the 
mediator between the Navajo and the sun. He communicates 
with the Navajo through feathers, so the choicest plumes are 
attached to the prayer sticks oflTered to him. They gave to the 
mountain of their nativity (Henry Mountain, in Utah) two songs^ 

^Thes-* sand paintinifs were first discovered by Dr. Washington Matthews, bat others, 
however, ha e added to the descriptioas until quite a mass of litei ature has accumulated— 
Mr. lames Stevenson, Mrs. Mati da Stevenson. Mr. F. H. Gushing, Li utenant Bourke, 
Dr. r Walter Fewlces, and others having furnished many articles in reference to them. 

fThey may be regarded as personifications of the white and yellow com. for they wer« 
conceived of ears of com— the male from the white com and the female from the yellow — 
though they are also rain gods, the effect of the rain being confounded with the cause, as 
it is frequently the case. ' 

tThe Tusayans, according to Dr. Walter Fewlces, had sand-paintings and song makers, 
which served an important part in their rain ceremonials. Tne Tusayans alsohad many 
idols which were distinguished by their head dresses, most careful attention being paid to 
the colors. The gods and goddesses of the Egyptians were principally distinguisned by 
their head dresses. These idols were placed oefore the altars and set in piles ot sana. 
They were sprinkled with meal and adorned with feathers. In many of the houses there 
Are large stone images standing in conspicuous places. A large collection of these idols of 
the Tusayans and Zunis has been gathered at Washington, in the National Maseum. 
<See Tnsayan Indian Dolls, by J. Walter Fewkes, Boston, Mass., 1894.) 



92 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

and two prayers; then they went to Sierra Blanca (Colorado) 
and made two songs and prayers and dressed the mountain in 
clothing of white shell with two eagle plumes placed upright 
upon the head. From here they visited San Mateo Mountain 
(New Mexico) and gave to it two songs and prayers and dressed 
it in turquois, even to the leggings and moccasins, and placed 
two eagle plumes on the head. Hence they went to San Fran- 
cisco Mountain (Arizona) and made two songs and prayers and 
dressed that mountain in abalone shells with two eagle plumes 
upon the head. They then visited Ute Mountain and gave to it 
two songs and prayeis and dressed it in black beads; this mount- 
ain also had two eagle plumes on its head. They then returned 
to the mountain of their nativity* to meditate, "We two have 
made all these songs." 

The myth which served as the foundation of some of the sand 
paintings has relation to a song hunter and the Colorado river. 
A Jerusalem cross was formed out of two logfs — a solid one and 
a hollow one. The song hunter entered the hollow log and 
Hastjelti closed the end with a cloud. The raft was launched 
upon the waters, but the Hostjobokon (river gods), accompanied 
by their wives, rode upon the logs — a couple sitting on the end 
of each cross arm. They were accompanied by Hastjelti and 
Hostjoghon (divinities of the mountains), and two hunchbacks, 
Naaskiddi (cloud divinities). These hunchbacks have clouds 
upon their backs in which seeds of all vegetation are held, and 
were pei haps the gods of vegetation. After they had floated a 
long distance they came to (the ocean) waters that had a shore 
on one side only. Here they found a people who painted pictures 
and who taught them how to make sand- pictures. They learned 
about the corn and carried some back with them to the Navajos,^ 
who had not seen corn before. See Plate.f 

In making their sand-paintings the Navajos prepared a sweat- 
house and painted the rainbow on the outside. This rainbow 
had the head and body, which hung down at one side of the 
lodge, and skirted legs upon the other side. The entrance to 
the lodge was covered with a black and white striped blanket, 
which symbolized the black and white cloud, and two buckskins, 
which represented daylight, or the twilight, or the dawn. Pre- 
parations for the sand-paintings were very elaborate in some 
cases, as in that of the ceremonial called Dailjis\ there were 
deer skins, reeds and colored tubes filled with feathers tipped 
with corn pollen and lighted with crystal, corn husks containing 
bits of turquois, beads and abalone shells, baskets filled with 
pine needles and corals, rugs covered with feathers, medicine 
tubes and crystals. The actors or personators of the gods 
adorned themselves with scarfs, belts, masks, eagle wands, rings 

• 

*This is the central point. f The plate resembles aSsuastika as well as a cross. 



94 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

and gourds. The bodies and limbs were painted white. One 
wore knee breeches and a skirt of black velvet ornamented with 
silver buttons, a robe of mountain lion skins fastened around 
the waist with a silver belt. Another wore a red woolen scarf 
and silver belt; grey fox skins hung from the back of the belt. 

The ^rst sand-painting was made.up of three figures representing the 
divi' ities, as follows: Hastjehi's chin was covered with corn pollen and his 
head was surrounded with red sunlight, red cross lines on the thioat, ear- 
rings of turquois, fringed leggings and beade'l moccasins. Hostjoghon has 
eagle plumes, ear-rings, fox skin ribbons, beaded pendants, earned feather 
wands brightened with red, blue and yellow sunbeams. Hostjobokon, was 
similarly dressed and ornamented, The second painting represented the 
raft of sunbeams which brought back the song hunters. This raft is the 
shape of a Jerusalem cross, and was composed of black cross bars, which 
denote pine logs; white lines, the froth of the water; the yellow, vegetable 
debris gathered by the logs; the blue and red lines, sunbeams. The blue 
tpot in the center denotes water. There are four divinities — Hostjobokon 
with their wives upon the arms of the cross or upon the logs. They carry 
rattles and pinon sprigs in their hands, which bring th« rains. Their 
heads are ornamented with eagle plumes, and they wear turquois ear-rings 
and necklaces. A line of sunlight encircles the head; white spots to repre- 
sent ears; the chins are covered with corn pollen; red sunlight surrounds 
the body; the skirts have a line of blue sunlight. Hastjelti is to the es^st 
and has a white skirt; he carries a squirrel skin filled with tobacco; bis 
head is ornamented with an eaele's tail. Host joghon is to the west and has 
a black skirt; he carries a staff, colored black, and his body is covered with 
four colored stars. The Naaskiddi (cloud divinities) are to the north and 
south; they carry staffs of lightning with eagle plumes and sunbeams. 
The hunch upon the back is a black cloud, and on tbe cloud are eagle 
plumes, for eagles lived with the clouds. The lines of red and blue which 
border the black cloud denote the sunshine which penetrates storm clouds. 
The white lines in the clouds denote com and other seeds. A black circle 
with zigzags of white around the bead denotes the cloud basket filled with 
com and seeds. The mountain sheep horns, tipped with tail feathers of 
the eagle are cloud baskets filled witn clouds. A rainbow surrounds the 
picture with the feet and skirts upon one side, the head, arms and body on 
the other side. See Plate. 

There are other sand-paintings which accompany the ceremo- 
nies in which the medicine men undertook to cure the patients 
who were wealthy and could afford the expense.* Of these the 
following is especially worthy of notice, because of the number 
of human figures and the beauty of the colors: 

In th<8 sand-painting there are twelve fi/ures beside the corn-stalk; four 
of them are the hunch-backed cloud-bearers, with lightning staffs in their 
hands, called Naaskiddi; four of them are the goddesses of the white 
lightning called Ethsetlhe, and they carry in their hands th'e plume and 
circles which symbolize the clouds, and they have their bodies painted 
white; four of them represent the people of the white and the red rocks, 
called the Zenichi. Their homes are high in the cafton wall. The deli- 
mit is said that the Navaios borrowed their ideas in regard to sand-paintings from the 
Pueblo tribes. The Zuni and Tusayan tribes, the Mission Indians of California have sand- 
paintinfifs and also the Apaches. The prominent feature in them all is this: The divinities 
are represeuted in the human shape, and the nature powers are symbolized in the orna- 
ments and colors. 

fThe superstition which represents the rocks as abodes of spirits was common among^ 
the Eskimos, as well as among the inhabitants of the Easter Islands. This led them to 
carve the human face upon the rocks, and the rocks them elves into the shape of animals 
with human faces. This was a species of animism, but it was owing to the animism which 
prevailed that it was mingled with ancestor worship and animal worship. 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. 9S 

catc white lines indicate their houses, whirh are in the interior or depths 
of the rock.t and can not be seen from the ^urface. The pmpte ol the 
rfK*ks move the air hke birds. They are pattiicd in p.ir;i lolor^. two of 
them having one Mde of the body, uuludinK the arms, tlie Ugs and lace, 
red, the other hide biack. with cross-hat* hiiig or /igzag^* of black; ihr other 
two having one side blue, the other yclluw. The red denotes the red corn; 
the bUck, the black clouds; the blue, vciifctation tn grneral; the >rllow. the 
pollen of vegetation. The white zigzag lines represent the wiiiie lightning; 
the circles around the head zigzagged with white are cioudba>ket«, uhich 
are in the p\raint<fal form and capped wnh three eagle plumes. A 1 ghtning 
bow IS held in the left hands of theste figures; the right hand hoid» a rattle 
ornamented with feathers and decorated baskets. They wear white leg- 
gings and beaded moccasins.* 

The myth or sand-paintinj^ which best illustrates the belief in 
anthropotnorphic divinities i^ the one which accompanies the 
myth called the Mountain Chant, which has been dcscribc*d by 
Dr. Washington Matthews. This myth celebrates the exploits 
of a Navajo who was taken captive, and who was delivered by 
Hastjelti, the great mountain divinity. In delivering him the 
mountain god led him through the different houses which were 
inhabit«*d by the animals and various creatures which hide 
among the mountains, such as the mountain bear, the mountain 
rat, rabbits, porcupines, serpents, all of which were supposed to 
have the human torin. The various powers of nature are also 
personified — the water, lightning, wind, storm and rainbow. The 
following is the story: Hastjeiti appeared to the captive while 
he was bound in the tent of bis enemies, and encourages him to 
escape. He bestows upon him some magic bags which he is to 
carry as a passport to the houses in the mountains. He even 
volunteers to lead him and help him make his escape and puts 
forth most miraculous feats ol power to make his escape easy. 
Their first adventure was when they reached the summit of a 
steep precipice, near which is a tall tree growing; the divinity 
flings out the whitelightninglikea lasso, wnich fastens around the 
tree, and he brings it up near the precipice. On this they descend. 
They next came to a deep canon, which seemed to be impassable, 
but Hastjeiti blows a strong breath and instantly a great 
white rainbow spans the canon. He orders the Navajo to cross 
on this. He points to a small hole in the cliff and says. **This 
is the door of my lodge, enter." He blew on the rock, and in- 
stantly the mountain opened and closed again, and saved him 
from his pursuers. They passed through three rooms and stopped 
in the fourth, when Hastjeiti went out, and presently the voices 
of the pursuers died away and were heard no more. When all 
was silent Hastjeiti returned and said: "Your enemies have de- 



•T>»r*r «Sirtcrrnt chIom in which thr mountain dtvinjtirs ncrc painted rrmind ut of the 
lattootnc «n<l f^icr pjintinir ol the < 'iituMas and hakota^ Mandans and other ca5trm tnt)C9. 
Among thr ( »|iti«A% thr Utr patnttng wan donr in conncrtum with thr nacrrd myntcnc* or 
Mk:r<t MM irtu-o and «a« a viM^n o( advancrincnt through the dttferrnt drgrcm With all 
totrtn>«ttc trit-<-% thr personating ainS the panting «e(e de^ignciJ to represent animal divlo- 
Itie^ rjitl.rr ttan mountain di%iritteft. The Mandans paint themaenres aa deer, puttinc 
«hite fttf ipr« on thnr ltin}>« or an hald eagle*. «tth whitened iacea. They rob i^reen earth 
oo the tacf Irorn the car to the mouth aoa put Indian red on the t>ody a upota. They pUc« 
urhitc leather^* on their beadf. whtch wave flo«ly la the daocet. Sec Callm's liMliaiia. 



96 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

parted; you can leave in safety." So, taking a tanned elk's skin 
to cover his back, a pair of new moccasins, a pair of long, fringed 
leggings and a shirt, he set out. 

The Navajo, thus clothed, hastened on until he came near the 
foot of a high pinnacle of rock, on which was a mountain goat 
who bade him to go around the mountain, and then led him into 
the mountain, where there were 
four departments, over which 
the rainbows extended in all di- 
rections. From this place the 
Navajo went to the house where 
was an old man, with a sharp 
nose, little bright ^eyes and a 
small moustache, who led him to 
the home of the bush rats, in 
which were a little old woman, 
two sons and two daughters, who 
offered him food; but the wind 
god, in a low voice, bade him 
not to eat it, lest he be turned to 
a rat himself In the next^ad- 
venture he came to a hill which 
was difhcult to climb. The di- 
vinity bade him ascend, but to 
close his eyes as he took the last 
step. When he opened his eyes 
he stood on the summit ot a 
great mountain peak, seamed 
with deep canons, from which he 
■%yyK V^. could see the place where he 

a^f^ ^t£* had lived. As he went on his 

way, the wind god, Niltci, walked 
beside him. He brought a 
great dark whirl-wind, which 
dug a hole in the ground, and 
a cavern with four chambers. 
The wind god said, in a low 
He went down and rested 
secure, while the dark cloud and the rain passed over him. He 
heard overhead the great peals of thunder, the rushing of the 
tempest, and the pattering of the hail-stones. The wind god 
then told him that his enemies had been dispersed. He accord- 
ingly went on, until about sunset he reached the top of a mountain, 
when the snow began to fall and the wind to blow. Here 
Hasljeiti appeared and commanded him to go down a spruce 
tree and pointed to a distant gltn beyond the valley, in the side 
of the mountain. Here, again, the god put forth his power and 
spanned the valley with a flash of lightning and led the man into 




voice, descend into this retreat. 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. g? 

a cavera, in which was the fire. There was no wood on the 
fire, but four pebbles lay on the ground, which were gleaming 
with flames, and around the pebbles were four bears, who were 
colored like the pebbles — black, blue, yellow and white. These 
bears brought out stores, and oflcred him food to eat. They 
also unrolled a great sheet of cloud, and on it painted the forms 
of cultivated plants — the same plants which afterward appeared 
in the sand-paintings. In the next adventure the Navajo beheld 
a tornado; the air filled with logs and uprooted trees. He 
cried out to the storm and the tempest recognized him and sub- 
sided. Before the next adventure the wind god said to him, 
"those whom you meet are evil ones. I will go before you." 
The two then came to a hole in the rocks, which was guarded 
by two great rattlesnakes, which shook their rattles and struck 
at them. Within the rocks was a bald-headed old man, who had 
a little tuft of hair over each ear. This was Klictso, the great 
serpent, who taught the Indians how to make sacrifice to the 
great serpent. 

From tho home of Klictso they went to a place called Wind- 
Circles-Around-a-Rock, and where they heard loud peals of 
thunder. They entered a house of black clouds. It was the 
house of Icni, the lightning god. He was also bald like the 
great serpent, having only a little tuft of hair over the right ear.* 
At each side of the house was a lightning bird — that in the east 
was black ; south, blue ; west, yellow ; north, white.f From 
time to time the birds flashed lightning from their claws and the 
lightning was the same color as the bird that emitted it.^ The 
next place that they reached was a dwelling filled with butterflies 
and rainbows. Here the butterfly woman brought a beautiful 
white shell filled with water and soap root, and bade the Navajo 
to wash his body and dry himself with meal, and paint his face 
with white earth. When the painting was done she worked his 
body over until she moulded him into a youth of the most 
beautiful form and feature. She g^ve him fine white moccasins 
and a collar of bearer skin, and put plumes on his arms to 
represent wings, and adorned him as the courier Akamimh is 
adorned.§ 



•Thi« thowt the idcnity o( the liahtninc with the freat serpent. «ad makes It probable 
Uial U)e Maya gud. Xmucani. waA aiao the itghtniiur Thts fod is r ep r esented In the Cor* 
l«»tan i'lMirv an ha« inc a bald head and a tuft of hair over the earn. He is seated under Um 
Tree of I.itr. and t« accompanied by the hgure with the scroll about his eye. called Cucol* 
can I>r Hrmton think« they represent oor hrst parents, the divine pair, called in the 
F^fui vuk the crrator and the former. 

tThe«e t olor« of the canlinal points vaned with the different tribes, as will be seen by 
the table Kt«<*n by Kr\. j O. IKirscy 

SThit comeption of the h\n\ throwing It^htntnc from its claws Is common amonc th€ 
Dakotas au'l corrr»pim4U with the conceptions oT the emblem of the .'\mertcaa eagW. 
which hold% arrows in its clavm. 

|Thi4 rounrr \% the one who summons the people to the dances or sand*paintinff. The 
k«s an«l forearm* are painted Ulack to represent the Morm clood. with white rif raff strnikf 
to repre^ient hghtntnff. ai«d hail while spots scattered over their bodle*. mad eai^e feathen 
la thetr hair, necklarrs of ^hell. collars of beaver skin, plumes on their arms to represent 
srlaffs. fawnskin t>iut« m the hai»ds. a ffirdle of shell around the waiat, a short skirt covertly 
their loins. iSee MounUta Chant, p. 484 'Zf>€- Ml- 



g8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

The butterfly woman laid two streaks of white h'ghtning on 
the ground and bade him stand on them with one foot on each 
streak, **for the lightning is yours," she said. She then pointed 
out the lightning trail. This trail he followed until he arrived 
at the house of the holy woman (Estsan-cigini), whose door was of 
trees. Within on the east wall hung the sun and on the west 
hung the moon. Here he was shown the kethawn, or sacrificial 
stick, and was told how to make it. The next house that he 
entered was two stories high, with four rooms on the first and 
four in the second, and had four doorways with trees of differ- 
ent colors for doors. Here dwelt four bear maidens; their faces 
were white, with hands like human hands, but their arms and 
legs were covered with shaggy hair and their teeth were long 
and pointed. The bear woman was a great warrior and in- 
vulnerable. 

He then entered a house made of water, and found eight holy 
young men, with arrows hanging on the wall, two standing at 
each cardinal point, thus representing these points. He next 
went to the house of the big oaks, whose door was made of red 
sunbeams, and of which the walls were made of logs of different 
colors. The east wall was black ; south, blue ; west, yellow, and 
north, white. Here were young men and women in the form 
of squirrels, with red and black stripes on their backs, who 
taught him to make kethawns. He went to a house whose door 
was of darkness, and was guarded by the bat, and was the home 
of the skunks. He then passed to the home of the porcupines, 
which was colored according to the cardinal hues. He next 
entered a house made of black water, with wind for the door, 
which was the home of the frog, water snake and the animals 
of the water, and here learned some of their mysteries. The 
next place was a house built of white rock crystal, the door 
being made of all sorts of plants, and was the home of the 
supernatural young women. 

He also went to the house of cherries witji a door of lightning. 
Here he found the gods arranged around the fire holding arrows 
made of the cliflf-rose in their hands, and afterward to the leaf 
mountain and found a house made of dew drops, with a door 
made of plants. This was the home of the goddesses who had 
long bodies. They had plumes on their heads and were so very 
tall they seemed to touch the heavens. Leaving the house of 
dew he came to the white water and the great spring, where 
there was a house of corn pollen, the door of daylight. The 
ceiling was supported by four spruce trees and rainbows ran in 
every direction, making the house shine within with beautiful 
colors. Hastjelti next took him to the house of brown water, 
and led him to the top of a high hill where he could see his own 
home. When he arrived at home it took him four days and 
four nights to relate his adventures and to instruct his hearers in 



ANTHROPOMORPHIC DIVINITIES. <» 

the mysteries which he had learned. On the fifth day they sent 
out couriers to invite the nei*^hbors to a great feast and dance, 
and then the sand paintings were introduced. 

There are four sand-paintings which embody this mountain 
chant, each representin^f the visit of the Navajo chief to the 
different houtes in the rocks and the people which he there met, 
with the various objects which surrounded them. 

The 6rtt repre%entel the home of the intiket, which was a hou^e mide 
of the dark water. In the center of the picture was a circular cavitv to 
represent the water, which was tprinkled with charcoal.^ Surrounding 
this are lour parallelograms representing the rafts of sunl>eams.t 

This figure of Flastjelti, the divinity who befriended the Nav- 
ajo prophet, diflers from the wind god in appearance. He is 
represented as wearing a white skirt, bordered with black lines, 
to symbolize the black clouds. He carries the squirrel pouch 
in his hands, in which is the food of the gods. He wears on 
his head plumes;, which are also symbols of the clouds. He has 
moccasins of diflerent colors and garters. He is the chief moua- 
tain divinity of the Navajos. 

The second picture represents the painting which the prophets saw in the 
home of the l>eart in the Carrito Mountains, and contains the figures of the 
mountain divinities and the plants which they protect. There is in it the 
same raintMw, tunl>eams. raits, and the same water bowls. But on the 
rafts are the four goHt which have the human form; each one with the feet 
placed upon the raft and the head extending to as to represent the cardinal 
points. These divinities are painted different colors alto, to represent the 
world waters— blue, black, white and yellow. The arms are half extended 
and are adorned with lines to represent lightning, and black to represent 
the clouds. Thev carry in their hands, suspended by a string, a rattle, a 
charm, and a basket They have skirts of red sunlight, adorned with sun- 
K>eams. also ear pendants, bracelets and armle s. made of blue and red 
turq<iois. the prehistoric jewels * f the NHvaj<»s. Their forearms and legs 
are black, to symboltie the r.iin-r|auds. iigz.tg marks to represent lightning. 
At the •^ide ot each of the god< is a plant which has the same color of the 
god. a stalk of corn in the southeast piinted white, which belongs to the 
eastern god. which is white: the bean stalk in the southwest belongs to the 
southern ifod, biuh painted blue; the pumpkin vine in the southwest t>elongs 
to the western iro<). both of them yellow: the tobacco plant belongs to the 
god of the north, both of them black. Each of these four sarred plants are 
represented as growin/ from 6ve white loots in the central waters, but 



• The water i« the ahole o( the 4pirit« of Me. ani the water-jam werr refarlevl as 
McmS i*ii«hinc %A\n W hrn a woman hat fitii^hei a veiiftci. with lU ornaments an 1 <iyin« 
IwU. »hr w.U trll >(»ti «ith an air o( relief. "It I4 a ma le iteinv " Phe spare in the orita* 
Rient« »a4 ti-.r cwX trail of the or t>eing. When the ve«ivl rrackn irou can hear the voice of 
thi« "maJc Ktnt;." »uppiMk*vl to tte the voice of th • a^^txiateii tieing as it cheapen. 

i 1 he«r ratt« are calletl. acconlinf to lU. \Va!ihinston Mntthewn, €a'htl'*i, or **raft^ of 
••nl-rani*." thr fa*i»re<] vr**^! on which the dtvtne onr^ navigate the upper de^ Whrn a 
god \\jk% a p^rl L uUrU lonie )oumeT to make, he take) two tunl^ams. fa»ten» them tr^ether 
and t« t<4irnr «>tf wliither he wilU KciS and Mue represent sunbeams an*! the ni>>rniiiiE .ind 
evening «kir« Fxtrmal to the ftiintieam raft4. Man-ting on them, are the hgu<ieH ol eight 
aerprnt^ two white onr^ to the ea«t. twe blue une^ to the ««>uth. two yellow m the west aoil 
two Mat k in t>ie north The«e «nakeft cro«« one another aivi neem to stand on the arm* of 
therrt*m< I he neck t« Mue rrf>«M>d with foar band* of re-1. Outsiileof the eight «nakrt 
■re four more of greater length, which fotm a Itoundarv to the picture, fhe^e ha\f <!tfcr» 
mt color* anil may reprr*<mt the rain-7<«l* of the wortrt-iuarter*. In the we*t i* a tilack 
Sgiire rr;irr«rntitig a mountain, in which the anake divimttes dwelt. From the tummtt of 
the mountain to the central watera Is a Hoe on which are four foot*printt which repreiient 
the track of the tear, one of the monntain divinities. In the oorthwcst of this picture It 
the figure of a wind-god. who awpemred lo tb« yovof man and went with film to the home 
el tKe taaket. He t* called NUtd. 



100 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

spread out from the center to the circumference — alternating with the gods. 
The gods form one cross and represent the four cardinal points. The 
plants form another cross and represent the mter mediate pomts of the com- 
pass. The gods carry beautifully embroidered pouches in their hands, the 
pouches being the shape of birds. Near the goas is a figure of a suastika,'*' 
which IS formed by crossing the center, the arms of the suastika being 
made of plumes; these are the cloud baskets which are carried by the gods. 
Surrounaing the picture is the rainbow deity, with the body painted in 
different colors, to represent the rainbow, and the hands and feet black, to 
redresent the black clouds and the white lightnine^. The rainbow is always 
a female and reminds us of the Iris, the Greek goddess, who personated the 
rainbow. The third picture commemorates the visit to the lodee of the 
dew, whose door was made of plants of many kinds, and contains the figures 
of the goddesses with long bodies. 

Such is the foundation myth Irom which some of the sand- 
paintings of the Navajos were drawn, and which was embodied 
in them. It will be noticed that nearly all the creatures which 
are mentioned in the myth have human forms and are represented 
as human beings with supernatural powers. Some of them were 
plants, and some were animals, but all had for their houses 
the various elements — the water, rocks, mountains, clouds, caves, 
earth. They also adorned their houses with the most beautiful 
things and colors, such as rainbows, dewdrops, crystals, corn 
pollen, and spruce trees. They dwelt in security, while the 
storms and lightnings, and whirlwinds played around their houses, 
where the supernatural beings, the wind god and the rain god, 
visited them. The object of the myth was to show that all of 
these invisible houses were opened to the medicine man, and 
that when he introduced the sand-paintings, which represented 
them, and made his prayer diTerings and his sacrifices, all of 
these creatures were committed to his assistance, that there was 
no disease which could not be dispelled, and no task which could 
not be carried out. The sand-paintings were full of the symbols 
which represented these different houses, but the people which 
dwelt in the houses were actually present in the images. 

*The suastika. with bent arrows for arms, is novel but this indicates that it is a sky 
symbol— probably denotes the revolving sky. The circles denote the sun and the crescent, 
tne moon and the central cross the cardinal points, the colors the different colors of the sky. 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES, loi 



PREHISTORIC CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH 

OCEANIC PEOPLES. 

By Professor Cyri:s Thomas. 

As promised in my last paper (American Antkjuakian for 
January, 1895), I now call attention to some data which seem 
to indicate prehistoric contact between certain tribes of Mexico 
and Central America and peoples of Oceanica or South<:astem 
Asia. As my attention has been drawn to these incidentally, 
during; investi^^ations on other lines, my chief object in pre- 
senting them at this time, and without that study they deserve, 
is to induce others, who may be more fortunately situated for 
the investigation, to look into the subject along the lines indi- 
cated. 

Having presented reasons in my last paper for believing that 
Malay sea-rovers had, in former times, wandered over all the 
island portion of the Pacific, and might have reached the west- 
ern shores of North America — reason.s, in fact, which would 
render it rather strange that they did not we will now look to 
this end of the route to see whether they have left any traces 
of their presence in the latter region. In doing so my reasons 
for limiting the range of the examination to the region of 
Central America and Mexico will become apparent. I wish 
the reader to understand, however, that I have no reference in 
this paper to the original peopling of this continent. It is 
limited simply to the question of prehistoric contact between 
the peoples of the regions above mentioned. 

The status of this subject among the scientists of the present 
day is somewhat peculiar. It is admitted generally that the 
western continent was peopled from the eastern; that waifs 
from China and Japan have repeatedly been cast on our west- 
ern coast; yet any attempt to show connecting links between 
the two regions is sure to encounter ridicule. It fact it would 
seem that a tabu is laid upon the problem, forbidding any at- 
tempt to solve it. A late writer, speaking of Maya culture, 
remarks: **It were easy, in these names, myths and pictures, to 
pick out abundant analogies to the mvthologies of Peru and 
Mexico, of the Pueblos and of the Old World It has been 
done over and over again, usually with a total oversight of the 
only point in which such analogies have much value — the sim- 
ilarity disclosed the world over by independent evolution of 
the religious sentiment. The effort by such resemblances to 
prove identity of historical origin is to be deprecated whenever 
the natural growth of myths and rites will explain the facts 
considered. • • • That the Mayan mythology and civiliza- 



102 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

tion were distinctly independent, and were only superficially 
touched by their neighbors, I am deeply convinced." Yet he 
adds immediately afterward.*^: **On the other hand, just how far 
the influence of this potent and personal culture of the Mayas 
extended it is difficult to delimit. I have found no trace of its 
peculiar forms in South America, nor anywhere in North 
America beyond the boundaries within which that extraordin- 
ary calendar was accepted, upon whi h so much of it was 
based ; but this, as I have shown elsewhere, included not less 
than seven entirely d'fferent linguistic stjcks** 

How then are we to account for the development of this "ex- 
traordinary calendar" over that particular section? 

A calendar system, which, though peculiar, does not appear 
to have been hampered by the restrictions to which other cus- 
toms were subject, as this author seems to imply, but over-rode 
the barriers of tribal distinctions? 

In the article published in The Antiquarian March, 1894. I 
alluded to this peculiar calendar and called attention to what 
appeared to me to be some resemblances to it found in certain 
Polynesian time-systems. Since the preparation of that paper 
I have discovered reasons for believing that the investigation 
should have been carried back to the Malay Archipelagjo, as 
possibly the source from which both the Polynesians and Cen- 
tral Americans derived some of their customs, especially those 
relating to time-systems and the mythology connected 
therewith. 

As I have mentioned the chief peculiarities of the Native 
Calendar of Central America in the paper referred to, it is 
unnecessary to repeat them here as reference can be made to 
that paper, (American Antiquarian, March, 1894). 

As will be seen by reference to my " Notes on Certain Maya 
and Mexican Manuscripts," published in the Third Annual Re- 
port of the Bureau of Ethnology, it was a custom both of the 
Mayas and Mexicans to arrange the days in groups containing 
five days each. The peculiar feature of this arrangement was 
that these days were not consecutive, but selected by a regular 
system of intervals. Hundreds of these groups of five days 
Tor rather symbols of days), arranged in short columns, are 
round in the codices. Another unusual feature was, that one 
of these groups was assigned to each of the four cardinal points. 
This will be seen on plate 41-42 of the Cortesian Codex; plate 
44 of the Fejervary Codex, and 43 of the Borgian Codex; all of 
which plates are copied into the Third Annual Report of the 
Bureau of Enthology. This, as must be admitted, was a very 
unusual dustom. The special regard paid by savage and semi- 
civilized nations to the cardinal points is well known, but this 
custom of assigning five days to each appears, so far as yet 
made known, quite unusual. And, lastly on this point, we may 
add that to each of the cardinal points, and in relation to the 
calendar, was assigned a certain bird. This is also shown on 
plate 44 of the Fejervary Codex. 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES. 103 

By referring to Crawfurd's ''Indian Archipelago" we find the 
following statement : 

"The Jjivancse have a native week besides the usual week of seven da^rt 
borrowed A rst from the Hindus and then irom the Arabs The oriKinal 
Javanese week, like that of the Mexicans, con»tsts of five da) s, and its 

Enncipal use. like that of the s*ine people, is to determine the markets or 
ktrs held in the principal villa^eii or dibtricts. This arbitrar*/ period has 
perhaps no better foundation than the relation of the numbers to that of 
the finders of the hand Tnc names of the days of th» week areas follo«irs: 
Lagg** Paki'fg, Pom, Wagi, Kiiwon. • • • ♦ • The Javanese con- 
sider the names of the day* of their native week to have a mystical relation 
Id colors, and to the divisions of the honion Arcotdinf; to this whimsical 
interpretation, the first means white, and the east; the second red. and the 
south; the third yellow, and the west; the fourth black, and the north; and 
tbe filth mixed color, and focus, or center.** 

Judging by the list of ^^ibrj.or periods given by Crawfurd and 
Raffles, these days could not have been consecutive, or a true 
week in any sense, but taken at regular intervals, probably of 
six days. Moreover, four of them were assigned to the four 
cardinal points and the fifth to the focus or center. 

Without dwelling longer on this coincidence, we will present 
some further testimony which has not, so far as I am aware, 
t>een heretofore alluded to. 

Among the ancient manuscripts of Java is one called Manek 
Maya, of which a translation, in part, is given by Raffles. In this 
is found the following passage: 

At the request of Sang yamg Gmru, the deity granted that he should 
have nine male and fivelemale children bom unto him, without the aid of 
a mother. 

One of the sons called MaMadrwa, being furnished with one of the 
daughters, called Sfahadrwi, as a wife, was ^ent to preside in the east. He 
was, moreover, provided with a fort and palace of silver, a sea of cocoa- 
nut milk, and a white Pari bird. His letters were kj, ma, ckt, ra and ka^ 
(the five hrst letters of the Javan alphabet,) and his day irgi (which signi- 
fies s wee 1). 

The second son, Sang vamg Satmbm, was «ent to preside in the south; the 
dautfhier allotted to him for a consort was StmgyaHa. His kraton was of 
cop|>er; his bird was a bkramama kite; his sea was of blood; his leiters were 
da, ta. sa wt» and /a; hi!» day p*tA:ftj^. 

The third ^on, San^ V'ttg Kam*j'tYi (the most beautiful), was sent to 

f^reMile in the we<»t. the d lUi^hter alloted to him for a wife was Dewi Raiek, 
which sii^iiiHcs the mo^t t>eautiful female). His t-o/oi was of gold; hissem 
was of hon'*y; his bird mx\ a tif>ttiong or yellow minor; his leiters were. pa, 
da jt v.« an«l um; hisdav was pttn. 

The fourth son. .Vi»##;»/.i#i*; Wniu wis sent to presde in the north; the 
dautrhter allored to hitn for a wife was Sri H:s dav was *r'ttj-. his kraton 
was of iron; hts sea was indigo; his bird was a gaga or crow; his letters were 
■ui. tft h* hi. and not 

The fifth s^m. Vi*.^ t/nntj fUit/u, was appointed to preside over the center 
of the ''arth; the dau<hter allote<I for his wife was /Viri S*i'ni, His kraton 
was of l>cl<->nf'al: his d iv was kt'>0t»; his lett'rs were 91 Inna. nvt, ma, mo, 
la, ;»-• v'l and *»; h.s sea was of hot water; his bird was a gogek. 

The four reinaininir S4ms were appointed to preside in the north-east, 
oonh-west. \outn-wrst and south-eas. quarters re<«pe« tively. 

1 he g<id of the north-rast was Samg yoii^ Fretamj^Mta, and the letter at- 
tache«l to htm was named ^'^. 

The Kod of the south east was Samg ffomg Kwera, and the letter «ittached 
to him was named mura»u»pv. 



104 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

The god of the south- west was Sang yang Mahayakti^ and the letter at- 
tached to him was named gandea 

The god of the north-west was Sang yang Sewa, and the letter attached 
to him was named narunti. 

It is evident at a glance, as was recognized by Raffles, that 
this refers to the Malay or Javanese astronomical, or calendar 
system. A deity is assigned to each cardinal |>oint and one 
also to the center; a bird is placed at each, and a given day to 
each. The color assigned to the cast is white; to the south 
red; to the west yellow; to the north blue, and to the center a 
mixed color. We are therefore justified in comparing it as an 
astronomicaJ, or mythological system with the time systim of 
Central America and Mexico. 

Now it will be observed that the days assigned to the five 
primary space points arc A<^, Puking, Pan, Wage and Kliwon^ 

f precisely those named by Crawfurd as composing the ancient 
avanese week. As these were not consecutive, but in all piob- 
ability evenly spaced, they would seem to indicate a system by 
which the years would commence on certain days in systematic 
order, as in the Central American and Mexican calendars. 
Whether this was true or not I am unable to determine posi- 
tively, as but little is known in regard to the ancient Javanese 
calendar. At least I have no works at hand by which I can 
decide the point. 

We have seen that it was the custom of the Mayas and Mex- 
icans to assign five days to each of the cardinal points By 
referring to the al>ovc extract from the Manek Maya, it will bi 
seen that five letters were assigned to each of the cardinal 
points. Although this assignment consisted of days in one 
case and letters in the other, yet it shows an agreement between 
the two systems in a strange and certainly very unusual custom. 
Attention is called also to the fact that the Javanese counted 
but twenty primary letters Uonsonants) in their alphabet. 
••The alphabet of Java." says Raffles, ''is t>eculiar; it consists 
of twenty consonants ( y and xv are of the number), termed 
aksara or letters. In common with all other characters prop- 
erly Indian, these letters may be considered as syllables, com- 
posed of a Consonant and an inherent V4>wel sound, which is 
invariably expressed, unless contradicted by a particular sign. 
Besides the aksara, there are twenty auxiliary characters.*** Ai 
there were but twentv davs in the Mava month, it will thus be 
seen that there is therein another agreement, and that there 
was no dupluation. 

The letters .l^sIg^ed to the fifth son. i»r central |>oint, were 
nine in iuiiiiIkt. Nothing is found corresponding to this in the 
native .\inerican lalendar. However, ue 4I0 hnd that both 
May.is .111(1 MexK'.ins h.id .1 metho<l of counting days, or rather 
nights, by niiie>. and these were called the •'Nine Lords of the 
Night. ' and are marked by toot-prints on some of the calen- 

* One of the das should be wntteti dha and one ol the tas should be U. 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES. 105 

dars in the codices. The Hawaiians appear to have followed 
the same custom. This custom, which has so far been an 
unsolved problem, may find its explanation in the Javanese 
custom or assigning nine letters to the central point, or some 
mythologic concept which lay still back of this custom. 

Referring again to plate 44 of the Fejervary Codex, as given in 
plate 3 of the Third Annual, Bureau Ethnology, it will be seen 
that a bird is perched on a tree at each of the four cardinal 
points; then there is a bird also at each of the subsidiary or 
intermediate points. Accompanying the figure at each of the 
four cardinal points (though placed outside of the large loop 
for want of room within it), are five day symbols, as explained 
in the accompanying text. We also notice further that the 
large loops representing the cardinal points arc differently 
colored. Reference to the fifth or central point is also fre- 
quently made in the codices, and in some instances, as plates 
II and 12 of the Borgian Codex, the central figure is striped 
with different colors. The assignment of colors in the above 
extract from the Manek Maya is substantially the same as that 
given by Crawfurd; white is to the cast. 

The method of assigning colors to the cardinal points is not 
unusual, nor can we say that the reference of birds to the four 
quarters is unknown in the mythology of widely different peo- 
ples. Our argument is based upon the fact of the number of 
agreements, including some features which appear to be limited 
to the regions here referred to. The more complicated the 
systems and the greater the number of agreements in details, 
especially those which are not easily explained as the natural 
growth of myth.*-, the stronger becomes the evidence of contact. 

Theassignmentsof colorsamong the tribes ot Central America 
and Mexico were by no means uniform, nor has any evidence of 
entire uniformity in this respect among either the Mayas or 
Mexicans been discovered. However, Dr. Brinton ("Primer") 
says, "On the other hand, it should be noted that the names of 
the winds in Maya distinctly assign the color white to the east." 
This as will be seen by referring to the extract given above, 
agrees with the Javanese custom. 

It is stated by Raffles, in his "History" heretofore referred to, 
that in the Cheribon Manuscript, "which appears to be entirely 
of an astronomical or astrological nature, the year appears to 
be divided into four portions, each distinguished by the peculiar 
position of a naga or serpent. The first of the three divisions 
includes yista, Sada, Kasar; the form and shape of the great 
naga in these seasons is first stated, and represented by a 
drawing." 

Now, if we examine the Mexican codices, where facts and 
ideas are represented rather by pictures of symbolic meaning 
than by characters or hieroglyphics, as in the Maya, we see 

f)recisely this Malay or Javanese method of representing the 
our time periods or four seasons. This is seen in plate 43 of 
the Borgian Codex (reproduced in Fig. 4 in Third Annual 



>l 



■ 
J! 

"ii 
lJ\ 



1 06 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Rep.), and plate 24 of the Vatican Codex. In each of these 
there are four coiled serpents, one to each cardinal point. In 
that of plate 43, Borgian Codex, within the coils ot each ser- 
pent is a colored figure, accompanied by five day symbols. In 
the center, toward which the heads point, is a sun symbol. 
It is evident, therefore, that the reference in this plate is to 
time, and the four serpents are four time periods, or the four 
seasons. The serpent as a time-symbol is not unusual, but the 
arrangement of four serpents in the manner designated is the 
peculiarity that becomes of special importance in this com- 
parison. The calendar wheel, as figured by Duran (Fig. 8, 
Third Ann. Rep.), is evidently but the conventionalized form 
of the four serpents. 

Thus we see thatrthe calendar system of the Malays, especially 
the Javanese, as set forth in the brief extracts given above, 
although undoubtedly imperfect and incomplete, agrees with the 
Central American system in some five or six important particu- 
lars, three of which, at least, are unusual, and, so far as I am 
aware, known only to these two .systems. For instance, a deity 
was assigned to each cardinal point; a color to each; a bird to 
each, and five days or letters to each. Again, we find in each 
system the method of referring to the central point and assign- 
ing to it a mixed color. And also that in each system the 
divisions of the year or other time periods are represented by 
four serpents. 

Therefore it may well be asked whether it is conceivable 
that there should be such close agreement in regard to unusual 
customs and minute details without previous contact or histor- 
ical connection. It is true that there are, so far as appears 
from the data I have at hand, two important particulars in 
which the Maya calendar differs from the Javanese. In the 
former, as is well known, it was usual to count twenty days to 
the month and eighteen months to the year, and to number the 
days by thirteen, thus giving a time period of 260 days, called 
a sacred year and included in the common or solar year. In 
the Javanese calendar thirty days were counted to the month 
and twelve months to the year, and thirteen does not appear 
to have been used as a counter. However, it is evident that 
originally the Mayas counted time by the revolutions of the 
moon. It also appears that there was in vogue, at least in some 
sections, a secular month of thirty days, giving twelve months 
to the year. In the "Report on the City of Valadolid, written 
by the Corporation of the city by order of His Majesty and 
the very illustrious Senor Don Guillen de las Casas, Governor 
and Captain General, April, IS79»" we find the following state- 
ment: "They [the Indians] divided the time by months of 
thirty days, and on the first day of the year, before dawn, every 
one, including the Alquin, watched for the rising sun and held 
a great feast on that day." 

There are other points in regard to these calendars which 
are worthy of notice, which, however, I am not prepared to dis- 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES. 107 

cuss without consultinj^ certain works not now at hand. The 
fact that thr title of the epic from which the above extract 
is taken 'Manek Maya"- contains the name of the Central 
American people to whom wc are referring, may have no 
special sii;nifuance, as Maya is a name fretjuently met uith in 
Hindu mythology. In one role he was heaven's chief archi- 
tect. However, the foljoviinj^j statement in the first para<4ra()h, 
taken in connection with what has been ^^iven, may ileserve at- 
tention. After alluding to the jjreat ball or ej^j^ which con- 
tained the universc^ it is said that it separated into three parts; 
one pait became the heavens and earth, another became the 
sun and moon, and the third was man, or Manek Maya. AH 
having made obeisance to the Stng ynug Wtsesa, he addressed 
himself to Manek Maya and said: ** Hereafter thou shalt be 
called Sitn/r yang Guru,*' 

Althou^^h the usual meaning of maya in the Malay is "illu- 
sion, phantom," yet in this place it appears to have been the 
name jjiven to the first man, whose descendents were to possess 
and rule the earth. It is therefore consonant with the usual 
habit of savages of applying to themselves a tribal name signi- 
fying **men." No satisfactory interpretation of this name 
(Maya) has as yet been given by linguists as applied to the 

feople of Yucatan, though numerous attempts in this direction 
ave been made. 

I am aware that the argument from analogy is generally con- 
sidered weak and unsatisfactory. Yet more than one theory 
has been based on analogy, that was subsequently confirmed by 
more convincing evidence. In regard to the question now 
under consideration, with possibly the single exception of the 
linguistic line, the gap can be bridged only by analogy. Even 
though archaeological and ethnological research shall bring to 
light, as I believe it will, much additional data bearing on this 
question, still the conclusion reached therefrom must be chiefly 
on comparison, which, after all, is but one form of analogy. I 
therefore consider it legitimate in this discussion to call atten- 
tion to isolated facts and fiat^ments of evidence, although the 
immediately connecting links to form the chain be yet undis- 
covered, provided they fall directly and consistently into the 
line of the other testimony. 

I therefore present an additional item suggested by the ex- 
tracts from the Manek Maya given by Raffles, portions of which 
have l>een i|uoted above. A few lines preceding the part we 
have (jiioted. it is said: ** Before the heavens and earth were 
createii there existed Sang yatig Wtusa* (the all powerful.) 

1 he term Sang yang is used to signify that the person to 
who>e name it is prefixed is a deity. With the Javanese, 
Wises 2 was considered the Creator, though Sang yang Gumw^LS 
their chief, direct deity, or over-ruler. If we turn to the Maya 
lexicon \%e find the somewhat strange coincidence, that £i:uiA 
signifies "to create from nothing, make exist, give birth to;" 
and that zUtzakul signifies **crea or." Kamajaya, the third son 



io8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

of Guru, mentioned above as presiding in the west, is Kama of 
the Hindu Pantheon, the god of sexual love (jaya being a suffix 
denoting "victor," "conqueror"). In Maya yama signifies "to 
love, to cherish," and yamail, "love." We might add to this 
list of deity names, but of course these resemblances must be 
considered accidental coincidences, and of no value, unless 
fortified by other testimony. I have given them simply to call 
attention to this line of research as one which may possibly 
give fruitful results. If not based on ancient contact, the sup- 
posed dim headlands would soon dissolve into vacancy before 
the light of careful research by one properly equipped for the 
work. 

By carrying our inquiry back to India — which, as we shall 
show, is perfectly legitimate, even on the strict line to which 
we have limited the discussion — we shall be enabled to fill out 
some of the gaps in our knowledge of ancient Java, and fur- 
nish some additional analogies. 

The question of the origin of the Malays, except that they 
came from southeastern Asia, does not necessarily enter into 
the present discussion. All that is necessary for us to show is 
that their language, customs and mythology have been largely 
affected and materially modified by Hindu influence. Nor is 
it even necessary to present proofs of this, as it is a historical 
fact admitted by all. 

It is well known that the Hindus governed and controlled a 
part, at least, if not all of Java, for a long period, the dynasty 
of Hindu sovereigns lasting for a thousand years or more. 
"The Hindu religion and Sanskrit language," says Crawfurd, 
"were, in all probability, earliest introduced in the western part 
of Sumatra, the nearest part of the archipelago to the conti- 
nent of India. Java, however, became eventually the favorite 
abode of Hinduism, and its language the chief recipient of 
Sanskrit. Through the Javanese and Malays, Sanskrit appears 
to have been disseminated over the rest of the archipelago, 
and even to the Philipine Islands." Yet this is by a writer who 
considers the Malays as distinct from the Hindus. 

The Brata Yuda, the great Javanese epic, is but a paraphrase 
of the Mahabharata. The characters are to a large extent the 
same; even the scene of the warfare, though transferred to 
Java, is the same. Astina is the great city; Kresna, Arjuna, 
Yudistira, etc., are the actors. The Rama Kaivi is substantially 
the Ramayana of the Hindus. These are written in the old 
classic Kawi language and hence belong to the early days of 
the Hindu dynasty. We are therefore justified in referring to 
the Hindu mythology and cosmogony in our present line of 
argument. 

As is well known, the Hindu cosmogony embraces four great 
cosmic epochs or j«^<w, three of which have passed; the fourth, 
or Kali-yugay is that in which we live. In his late work, "Primer 
of Mayan Hieroglyphics," Dr. Brinton, speaking of the Maya 
cosmogony, says: "We know practically nothing of the cos- 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES, loq 

mogony of the Mayas, but it is instructive in connection with 
their calendar system to find that, like the Nahuas, they be- 
lieved in epochs of the universe, at the close of each of which 
there was a general destruction of both gods and men. The 
earlv writer Aguilar, savs that he learned from the native 
booKS themselves that they recorded three such periodical 
cataclvsms. • • • This would make the present the fourth 
age of the world ( not the fifth, as the Nahuas believe); and 
this corresponds to the prophecies contained in the *Books of 
Chilan Balim*.*' Brasseur nad previously compared the calam- 
ities spoken of by Aguilar to tne epochs of the Mexicans and 
Quiches. I may add that Bancroft, after comparing the differ- 
ent accounts of the Mexican epochs, concludes tha^ the most 
authentic makes but three that arc passed, the present being 
the fourth. 

This coincidence standing alone might not be considered of 
any special significance, but when talcen with so many other 
resemblances — forming a series which it will be difficult if not 
impossible to parallel by comparing the customs, beliefs, etc., 
of two other peoples that had never come into contact directly 
or indirectly — does form a link in the chain we are endeavoring 
to trace. 

One of the notable incidents in the mythological history of 
the Hindu deity Vishnu, is when, as Narayana, at the beginning 
of a yuga or great epoch, he floated upon the calm and quiet 
primeval waters. Sesha, the seven-headed serpent, formed 
the living craft on which he rested, while Lakshmi, his faithful 
consort, sat at his feet. "The Supreme Being called Narayana," 
says the Mahabharata, ''unknowable by the senses became 
desirous of rest. The serpent Sesha, looking terrible and 
shining with the splendor of ten thousand suns, served as his 
couch. And that adorable and omnipotent God thus slept on 
the bosom of the deep, enveloping all space with nocturnal 
gloom That everlasting^ Being was engaged in meditation for 
the re-crcalion of the Universe." 

It is a rather singular coincidence that in the Quiche myth 
of creation, as recorded in their .Sacred Book — The Popol Vuh — 
we find the Creator, Gucumatz, as a serpent floating on the 
watery expanse. The words of the recora arc as follows: "The 
face of the earth had not yet appeared — only the peaceful sea 
and the space of heaven. There was nothing yet joined together, 
nothing that clung to anything else; nothing that balanced 
Itself, or that made a sound in the heaven. There was nothing 
that stood up; nothing but the quiet water, but the sea. calm 
and alone in its l>ounds. Nothing existed, nothing but immo- 
bility and silence, in the darkness, in the night. Alone were 
the Creator, the Maker, the Ruler, the Serpent covered with 
plumes. Those who engender, who give being, they are uPon the 
water Ukf a skininj^ tight. They are enveloped in green and azure, 
therefore their name is Gucumatz." The signification of the 
name Gucumatz is "The Plumed Serpent." 



no THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Possibly these cosmogonical ideas are the outgrowths of 
native myths. Possibly they are local developments, never- 
theless, there is a remarkable parallelism and a very marked 
similarity. 

Although the Society Islanders, like most of the south Poly- 
nesian tribes, believe that the earth was fished up out of the 
ocean, yet, as we are informed by Fornander in his "Polynesian 
Race," the remnant of a legend collected by M. de Bovis, for 
many years a resident on that group, bespeaks an older creed 
more in harmony with the older Hawaiian, Marquesan and 
Samoan cosmogonies. 

This legend runs as follows: "In the beginning there was 
nothing but the e^od Ikaiko; afterwards there was an expanse of 
waters which covered the abyss, and the god Tino Tata floated 
on the surface." 

A mythologic tradition once current among the Polynesians 

relating to the creation of the world, which Moerenhout has 

preserved, breathes the same elevated, notion. It begins as 

follows: 

"He abides — Taaroa by name — 

In the immensity of space. 

There was no earth, there was no heaven. 

There was no sea, there was no mankind. 

Taaroa calls on high." 

True, similar ideas are found among numerous peoples, yet 
when we compare these expressions of cosmogonical ideas with 
the native traditions of other peoples of both Polynesia and 
America, they have the appearance of being echoes of a higher 
strain from a more elevated origin. 

Another fact which I have not seen noticed is, that the monkey 
plays an important role in the mythological systems of the two 
widely separated regions, and in both appears to bear some 
strange relation to the wind. 

In the Hindu mythology, Hanuman, the chief monkey deity 
of the Ramayana, is the son of Pavan, the wind god, "I am, O 
Sita," says Hanuman to the captive queen, "an emissary of 
Rama, and a monkey begotten of Pavana.*' The wind god was 
known among the Hindus by several synonyms. According to 
the Codex Chimalpopoca, men were changed into monkeys by 
the wind on a day Ehecail^ which is the Mexican name for wind. 
In the Popol Vuh, two prominent characters — Hunbatz and 
Hunchouen — are changed to monkeys by the two heroes Hun- 
ahpu and Xbalanque. Brasseur interprets the two latter as, in 
one sense, symbols of the wind. 

We also notice that in this Sacred Book of the Quiches, the 
two brothers, Xbalanque and Hunaphu are the leading char- 
acters who attack and destroy the princes and powers of 
Xibalba, the abode of wicked beings and of the gods of cruelty 
and death; the "inferno" as Ximenes terms it. Two important 
characters of the drama are monkeys; and the animals of the 
forest often take part in the strife. The bird Voc or Vaku, 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OTHER PEOPLES. ;iii 

the winged messenger of Hurakan (god of storms and thun- 
der), is also an actor in the drama. Of him it is said that he is 
the messenger of Hurakan, resting neither in the heavens, nor 
in the underworld, but in a moment flying to the sky, to Hura- 
kan who dwells there. 

In the Hindu Ramayana, the two brothers, Rama and 
Lakshmana, after long and tedious search for Lanka, the abode 
of Ravana, the evil Kakshasa, who had carried away captive 
Sita, the wife of Rama, destroy him and his demon hosts. This 
ten-headed Rakshasa was the ruler over demons and the hosts 
of evil beings. The brothers are joined in the search and war- 
fare by Hanuman the monkey god, and his monkey hosts. The 
bears also take an active part with the attacking heroes. The 
bird deity Garud. the tireless wanderer of the skies, the temp- 
est breeder, the huricane, also with others of his species plays 
an important role. 

Although the details are widely different in the two epics, 
yet the former, it would seem, might, without a severe stretch 
of imagination, be deemed a faint echo of the latter, a dim 
remembrance of an ancient tradition, yaku, the messenger of 
Hurakan, was in fact the wind, and yaya was the wind with the 
Hindus — changed to Boyu by the Javanese. It may also be 
added that in both traditions sorcery plays a very important 
part. I am not sufficiently versed in myths to understand the 
idea which lies behind the connection of the monkeys and 
wind. It is certainly singular that this mythologic notion 
should be found in two regions so widely separated as India 
and Central America, unless there had been contact. 

If Brasseur and Brinton are right in their interpretation of 
Nimak — one of the deities referred to in the Popol Vuh — we 
find therein another coincidence. The latter says "the name 
Nimak is elsewhere given Zaki-nimak. The former means 
•Great Hog,' the latter *White Great Hog.* Brasseur translates 
ak as 'wild boar,' but it is the common generic name for the hog 
without distinction of sex. • ♦ • • Thus we find here an 
almost unique example of the deification of the hog; for once 
this useful animal, generally despised in mythology and anathe- 
matized in religion, is given the highest pedestal in the Pan- 
theon." Of course the reference must be to the native wild 
hog or peccary. 

As is well known, the form assumed by Vishnu in one of his 
avatars was that of the boar, according to the Javanese repre- 
sentation, with small, sharp horns. In the Manek Maya, before 
referred to, KalaGamarang is a hog who tries to posses himself 
even of Dewi Sri, the wife of Vishnu. 

It is remarked by Violet-le-Duc ( Ckarruy, Rtdnes Amir.) that 
certain passages of the Popol Vuh show a singular analogy to 
the heroic histories of India. 



FHE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



THE SILVER VESSEL FROM GUNDESTRUP. 

Dr. Sophiu Muller, Director ol the Store NordUke Miueum, 
Copenhagtm, in Nordiik* FortidsmnuUr^ givea a full deacrip- 
tkm ot the |;reat silver vcbmI found in Gundntnip bog in Jut- 
land, May 38, 1891. The veasel t^aa been placed on ezhibitioa 
in the Store Nordiake Museum, Copenhagen. 

No archsological find haa created more interest since the dia- 
corery of the famous Golden Horns in 1636 and 1734. A 
laborer working in the boe lound this veasel about three leet 
below the surface. Danish archseologiau agree that originally 
it was not buried, but that the bog grew up around it .lod 
gradually covered it. Its various parts were separated. Most 
of the upper edge, with 
the ringi to carry ibe 
veasel, were not found. 
The main point of inter- 
est centers 00 the quea> 
tioo of origin. Is it of 
Gallic origin or was it 
made in Denmark P Dr. 
MuUer considers it poss- 
ble that it was made ia 
Denmark by Danish 
workmen, who had 
learned their art in GaoL 
French archcologiats claim a Gallo-Roman origin for ii and 
have Utely been allowed to make an exact copy tor the Pari* 
collection of Gallic antiquities. To a French lavmU the veaael 
represents a link in his studies of the development of early art 
in France. The animals ot the veasel pomt decidedly 10 a 
southern climaie. Elephants, lions, hyena*, leopards, etc., arc 
all foreign to Denmark. 

Ol'the inner plates only two are panially visible in the illus- 
tration. On the one to the right we see four armed knights, 
below them, soldiers. Above them ia a serpent with agoat head, a 
reh^ious nvmbol well known among G^illic antiquitiea. Back 
of the knit>hia and the loot Holders in a (jiani figure, who holds 
a humjo li^ure in his exiendt-d armn hv ad downward over a 
veswl. Mrrc wt h.ive ;i Nug^i-Mlion ot" human s4i.Tilic<.', which 
WUK common among the (i.tllii' and Gt-rmanK.' peoples, even at 
the lime ol the hirth ol Cliri.ti. On the Ixittom piatc is a hunt- 
ing Mt-nc ; a man killing an aunx'h, which s<:ems to prove an early 
dale lor ihe vr^8(:■l. On the outiT plates a hunter holds two 
Slags liy the tiind legn, a pictorial reprrientation common in the 
oUltn timrii. The nude t)U!it on the next plale is evidently • 
fem lie goddc^*, and the two nmaU figures next to her are lier 
priestesses. — The Literary JJigeU. 




IN MEMORIAM. 113 



Editor iaL 



IN MEMORIAM. 

We have to record in this number the recent death of several 
of the former contributors to the journal: Judge C. C. Baldwin, 
of Cleveland, Ohio; Rev. J. O. Dorsey and Col. Garick Mallery, 
Washington, D. C; Prof. Augustus C, Merriam. formerly pro- 
fessor of Greek in Columbia College, N. Y., latterly the chief 
director of the American exploration in Greece. The editor 
would take occasion to say it was the privilege of having these 
gentlemen as associate editors and contributors that was appre- 
ciated at the time, but now more than ever, for it was at a 
time when the subject of archaeology was not so popular as at 
present, and when it was a struggle for the Antiquarian, which 
was then the only journal devoted exclusively to the subject, 
to secure recognition. There were, to be sure, other gentlemen 
who aided in giving a reputation to the magazine, several of 
whom have already gone before, among them. Prof. J. S. New- 
bcriy, of New York; Prof. John Avery, of Brunswick, Maine; 
Pro/. John T. Short, of Columbus, Ohio; others are still living 
and are in active service.* 

Some of these gentlemen begun their literary career in writing 
for the American Antiquarian, at least the articles which 
appeared in the pages were the first brought before the public, 
but nearly all of them have established world-wide reputations 
as the authors of books, and the leading archaeologists of 
America. It was the delight of the editor to see the rapid 
stride which they made in their own chosen departments, and 
to know that honors were gathering around them as the leaders 
of thought and the representatives of the best scholarship, 
though if anyone had then prophesied that they would take 
their departure so soon, it would have brought sadness to his 
heart. Many words of commendation have come before the 
editor since the death of these distinguished scholars, some of 
them from private letters, others from the public press, the 
latest of which contain the words spoken over the grave of 
Prof. A. C. Merriam, in Athens, Greece. They are as follows: 

••Seven years ago Augustus Merriam, Professor of Archaeology 
and Greek Literature in Columbia College, came to Athens as 
Director of the American School. At that time full of life and 
vigor, he so ably directed the then newly established institu- 

*Dr. Washington Matthews, Dr. D. G. Brntnn. Dr. Cyrus Thomas. Dr. A. H. Sayce. 
A. S. Gatchet. Prof. J. D. Butler. E. .A. Barber, W. H. Holmes. A. F. Bandelier. L. P. 
Gntacap, Rev. M. Eells. Rev. Selah Merrill. Prof. R. Andersoo. las. Deans. 



114 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

tion as to render it in many respects the compeer of the other 
archaeological schools in our community. As an example of 
this able management may be mentioned especially the exca- 
vations conducted by him at Sikyon and at Iparia in Athens. 

Returning to his native land, Merriam then advanced the 
cause of archaeological science by teaching and publication 
more than any other man in America; nor did he ever cease to 
labor in behalf of the beloved school at Athens. This school 
and his love for classical archaeology bound him to Athens 
with indissoluble bonds, so that a few days ago he once again 
visited our city, proposing to remain with us all winter, pursu- 
ing his favorite archaeological studies. But God had disposed 
otherwise. As the soldier falls on the field of battle, fighting 
for his fatherland, so Merriam fell contending in the cause of 
science. On the Acropolis, studying the immortal monuments 
of antiquity there, he was smitten by the dread disease which 
in a few days bore him to the tomb. 

It was fated that the soil of thy fatherland should not cover 
thee when dead. But the land which receives thee is not a 
stranger to thee. It is a land hospitable and loving. Here by 
Lolling's side thy grave is made. The attic earth which covers 
the bones of Ottfreid Muller, Lenormant and Schliemann will 
receive and guard thee also in peace.** 



THE UNION OF SOCIETIES AND THE ASSOCIATION 

OF SCIENTIFIC MEN. 

The union of societies in annual congress in Washington and 
Philadelphia during the month of January has given a hint as 
to what may be accompli ihed in the Interior. Scholars and 
scientific men are perhaps more numerous on the Atlantic coast 
than in the Mississippi valley, but there are here many institutions 
of learning in which arc naturalists, archaeologists, ethnologists, 
as well as linguists, Folk-lorists, students of classic mythology, 
and gentlemen of varied culture, some of them Orientalists, 
Egyptologists and Assyriologists, others Americanists, who are 
already mak ing their mark. Chicago is the headquarters for many 
of these. Here there arc professorships for the study of com- 
parative religion. Why should there not be an annual congress of 
anthropologists at the west— a congress which should embrace 
the different departments mentioned — somewhere in the Missis- 
sippi valley, and so save the expense of a distant journey to 
the sea-coast. The eastern and western men can assemble in 
the summer-time in connection with the American Association 
or some other general body, but the specialists in the different 
departments need to associate oftener than once a year to com- 
pare notes and form acquaintance. We commend this subject 



BUFFALO ROCK. iiS 

to our confreres in the Mississippi valley. At the same time 
will extend our hearty congratulations to the gentlemen on the 
Atlantic coast who have found so much satisfaction in the 
congress held during the past winter. 



Correspondence. 



IDENTIFYING THE 'LAND-MARKS" OF EARLY 

HISTORY. 

On the importance of identifying the events of early history 
by certain land-marks in Illinois was started by the editor of 
the American Antiquarian during the winter. As a result, 
letters were written and published in the Chicago papers by 
certain scholarly gentlemen, among them Mr. H. W. Beckwith, 
Judge A. O. Marshall, Rev. N. F. Douglass, and several others 
who have a taste for local history, and all able to furnish 
valuable information. 

A local archaeologist in Chicago, whose name is totally 
unknown to the public, has, in a very ridiculous way, under- 
taken to criticise them, but has by the means brought the 
department of archaeology into ill-repute. There are others 
also of the same make-up who are doing no good, but much 
harm, for they set up their own limited observation against the 
advanced scholarship of men who are well known, and seem to 
convey the idea that illiterate exploration in archaeology and 
the collecting of relics is a passport for ignorance, and furnishes 
a wartant for rough and ungcntlemanly attack upon the repu- 
tation of scholars and literary men. 



BUFFALO ROCK. 

Editor American Antiquarian: 

Dear Sir. — Noticing your letter in the Inter-Ocean, making 
inquiry about the location of "Buffalo Rock." I am moved to 
inform you that "Buffalo Rock*' is in the valley of the Illinois 
river, about three miles west of Ottumwa ( Illinois, LaSalle Co.). 
and on the north side of the river. It is about seven or eight 
miles east of "Starved Rock." There is now a shipping station 
for a tile factory near "Buffalo Rock." called "Twin Bluffs," on 
the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway. The river valley 
at that point is about a mile wide; nearly in the center this 
rock juts up into prominence, forming a landmark plainly seen 



ii6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

miles away. The rock is something more than one-half a mile 
long, east and west, and about two-thirds as wide north and 
south. I do not know the exact figures, but it is in the neigh- 
borhood of 150 feet in height. It is said to have been named 
by the Indians; they fancying that it resembled the hump on 
the shoulders of a buffalo bull, hence "Buffalo Rock." 

For several years I was a resident of Peru, LaSalle Co., 111., 
so am familiar with the region. Hoping this may answer your 
inquiry satisfactorily, I am, Yours respectfully. 

N. F. Douglas. 

Newell, Iowa. Jan. 24, 1895. 



-o- 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. 

Ay Albert S. Gatschet, Washington. 

The Allentiak is a dialect of the great Pampean, or as others have 
called it, Araucanian, stock of languages of South .America. The Araucos 
or Araucanians being historically the most famous people of Chili, the group 
of dialects spoken by the Indians of northern and middle Chili is aptly 
named Araucanian, while the cognate dialects heard on the eastern side of 
the Cordillera may be classed under the name of Pampean or prairie 
dialects. Brinton, the American Race, p. 323. has the following: "The 
Indians living on the eastern slope, about the city of Mendoza, and in the 
Cuyo province, are described as! claiming descent from the Pampean tnbes. 
They were locally known as Guarpes (or Huarpes), and spoke dialects 
called the Allentiac and the Milcocoyac, not distant from the Pampean 
proper.'* The missionary Luis de Valdivia has left some indications upon 
the Allentiac in his Arte de la Lengua Chilena— Ed. Lima, 1607. But at 
present a much more complete body of information lies before us in 
Bartolome Mitre, member of the Spanish Academy, who, in a i6mo. volume, 
entitled Lenguas Americanos, LaPlata, 1894, pp. 1 53, has published : "Estudio 
bibliografico-linguistico de las obras del P. Luis de Valdivia sobre el 
Araucano y el Allentiak, con un vocabulario razonado del Allentiak.*' It is 
one of the publications of the far-famed ethnological Museo de la Plata, 
Director Dr. Francisco P. Moreno. The vocabulary, with Allentiac first 
and Spanish second, alone holds forty-eight pages and shows considerable 
judgment in linguistic matters, as does also the grammatic sketch preceding 
it, with its numerous paradigms. 

The Africans of Guinea.— The peculiar nature of the religion of the 
Guinea coast forms quite an attraction to philosophers and ethnologists. 
Adolph Bastian has made of it the subject of a treatise entitled "Zur Myth- 
ologie and Psychologic dcr Nigritier in Guinea." Berlin, Reimer, 1894, 
Octavo, pp. 162 (map). The idea of guardian spirits being present all over 
the human body is here formulated so that every man has three spiritual 
inmates, the first of whom dwells in the head, the second in the stomach 
and the third in the great toe. The second of them, Ipin ijeun, is a pro- 
tector of fire, because food is prepared by his exertions. The dead who 
return to their families on earth are passing into a state of renascence, and 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. iif 



into the bodies of new born children as ancestral spirits. Idols which had 
been dedicated to the special use of certain worshipers by confining a 
fnardian spirit into them, are» after the death of the worshiper, thrown 
away or smashed to pieces, for with death the demoniac power in them is 
supposed to escape. 

Similar ideas are discussed by the same author in the "Samoan Creation 
Myth and cognate things from the Pacific** (1894* PP» SOt where the mythic 
portions are worded in blank verse, •r metrical rhjrthm, and the creation of 
the various genera of animals described at length and in a poetical vetn« 

The mortuary customs observed among the present Indians of Argen- 
tinia are made the object of a careful treatise by Dr. Jos6 Penna, La crema- 
cion en America y particularmente en la Argentina. Buenos Aires, El 
Censor, 1894, pp. 305. It was composed for the furtherance of the views 
and interests of the "Cremation Society of Argentinia,** and powerfully 
advocates the compulsory introduction of this mode of disposing of the 
dead. The investigations made in this respect among the Argentine Indians 
were mainly conducted by Henna himself, and many details are added for 
comparison from the customs and usages of the Guarani, Peruvians, Mexi- 
cans and North Americans. 

The locative prefix A is not very frequent in American geographic 
names, but has a peculiar significance because it points to the historical 
settlements of two great European nations, the Spaniards and the French. 

SpanisA namts with the prefix a occur in the chroniclers of Hernando 
<le Soto*s expedition through the Gulf States (i539-43)» And have a parallel 
form in which the prefix does not appear: 

Amino ja« probably on Mistissippi River; also Minoja. 

Aniko, site onlcnown; alto Nilco. 

Anadako, now the Caddo tribe ot the Nadalco. 

Achalaque, a country; alto Chalaque. It contains Cherokee, the tribal name. 

Another name, of later epochs, is as follows: Arkansa, pronounced 
Akanso or Arkanso, is corrupted from Kansa, K&'sa, Ka'sa, now a tribal 
name, that of the Kaw or Kansa tribe (the Arkansas tribe is that of the 
-Quappas). Originally Kansa was but the people of otu totem, the "wind** 
people or "wind** gens. 

There can hardly be any doubt that this prefix a is the Spanish preposition 
a, from Latin ad, "to, towards,** now so frequently used with local names. 
The island Cozumel, on the coast of Yucatan, is in old Spanish documents 
called Acusamil. The city Oporto is also called Porto, and shows the 
Portuguese form o of the Spanish a, "at the harbor." 

In Nahuatl names initial a is frequent, and often contains a//, water; so 
in Anahuac: "situated around, or along the water.'* 

French names with the prefixes a«, a«x., form exact parallels to the 
one considered above. These are contracted from k and the articles ie. Us, 
a //, a ies. This we have in New York and elsewhere. 

Ausable, nver and chasm, from aux Sables, "at the sands." In Indiana, 
Aglaize river, from French aux ^laises^ at the clay (banks); spelled in Irish 
•orthography O'glais. 

Aux Cahos was once a frequent abbreviation for aux Cahokias, at the 
-Cahokia settlements in southern Illinois. 

Au*Poste stood for the town of Vincennes, Indiana, "at the military post,** 



ii8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Inst as au Fort now means Qaebec to the Canadian 'liabitans** or colonitla. 
and further south "en ville** is "to New Orleans,** for the French Creoles ol 
Louisiana. Istambul or Constantinople originated from the Greek tit Um 
polin, **into the city.** 

Oka or Okaw stands for an abbreviation of auz Kaskashias, with the 
meaning, "at the settlement,** or "on the river of the Kaskaskia Indians,** 
southern Illinois: aux Ka, au Ka. 

Opa, o Pa, au Pi, on Illinois River, took its origin from aux Peortas, "iU 
the home of the Peoria Indians.** Thus the name of the Piankishaws was 
abbreviated into Pian, of the Miaoiis into Mi, of the Pu'.ewatemis into Poua, 
of the Wiwaktanons into Weas,by the early French settlers. 

Ozark has nothing m common with the French word arc, bow, but it an 
abbreviation of aux Ark(ansas). at the town or towns of the Arkansas Indians. 

The Mklungrons are a people of Tennessee, which has been made 
more of a mystery than they really are. They live at Clinch Mountain* 
near Holston River, and when they have merchandize to trade, they bring 
it for sale to the town of Rogersville, in Hawkins County, Tenn.; the locality 
where their homes are, is near the Quarries in Hawkins County, where 
marble of a pink color is now quarried. They are small of stature and 
darker in color than their neighbors, and though they call themselves 
Portuguese. James Mooney, who investigated them, thinks they are a medley 
of some Atlantic coast Indians and of inland negroes. By all events they 
differ in race from the Anglo-Americans, though they speak an English 
dialect, somewhat corrupted. They are known to have lived there for a 
century, says G. L. Babbitt, and will work only when under the pre« ol 
hunger or other necessity. A short article on these people will be found 
in one of the more recent volumes of the Amurictm Amikropoicgiti^ Wash- 
ington. I). C. (1889. pp. 347. sq ) 

ATHAfASKAN TftiBEs OF THE West.— The Kev. A. G. Morice. a French 
priest of the Oblatet of Mary Immaculate, bom in 1859^ has, since 188a, 
lived as a missionary among the Western Ttnn^s or IMn^; he has published 
ten books and treatises on these Indians, and according to Pilling 's "Bibliof- 
raphy," composed as many or more manuscripts on their dialects, manners, 
dwellings, history, etc. In 1885 he was appointed to his present statioa, 
Stuart's Lake Mission. Hrittsh Columbia, among the tribe of Carriers. Some 
of his publications are pnnted by means of the "New. .Methodical, easy and 
complete U^nd Syllabary." which he invented to represent the sounds of 
the Athapaskan languages in a more adequate way than was done before 
him. Undoubtedly the name LMn^ is more fitting to call this linguistic 
family than Athapaskan, which is a Cree or Knstino term. Monce's 
Western I)rn<^s comprehend the three tribes of the Chilcotin, Carriers and 
Tft^kehne. and constitute his special field of research. All of them, together 
with the Nahane, on Stickeen River, do not count over 3,360 persons, all ol 
whom inhabit the western slope of the KcKky Mountains. Under the title, 
**Notcs, archjrological. industrial and sociological, on the Western MnH, 
with an ethnographical sketch of the same," our specialist has published a 
valued sketch of the%e tnl>es in xht fourth volume, part fir^. of the "Trans- 
actions of the Canadian Institute." Toronto. i8>^i.Kvo. pp. 313 (issued March, 
1894* prtce $1), richly illustrated. In this treatise Monce has dcscnbed 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. ii^ 

with great care and remarkable accuracy the physical quahtiet and invent- 
ive power of thete untutored natives, aad also illustrates the mental develop- 
ment of the tribes. The dress of the men and women are minutely sketched, 
also their dwelhngs, manufactures, houses and store-rooms, fisheries, boats» 
musical instruments, toys and playthings, medicines, wood carvings and 
other products of aboriginal art, their hunts and trapping expeditions, and 
a selection of other topics, all highly interestmg for the general reader. 

PuQuiNA OP Southern Peru.— A tribe of Indians bearing this name 
formerly existed around Lake Titicaca and in some villages of the diocese 
of Lima, and was known also under the name of Uru, Hano and Ochomazo. 
Nothing of their langliage was in existence except a Lord's Prayer; this 
contains a few Quichua terms, and hence it was believed the idiom belonged 
to the Quichua stock. Last year Mr. Raoul de la Grasserie published an 
extensive notice upon this language from the "Rituale seu Manuale Peru- 
anum** of 1607, i° which devotional texts were found which revealed enough 
of the Puquina language to make its study possible. The French scien- 
tist soon discovered that it belonged to the great family of Mai pure, also 
called Arawak, and that it formed one of its southernmost branches. The 
Moxo and Baure of Bolivia belong to the same stock, and but recently it 
was found that the Anti (or Campa) in Perfi, the Cauixana and the Custenau 
of Southern Brazil, belong there also. The title of Mr. Raoul de la 
Grasserie's publication is, "Langu€ Puquina, Textes Puquina contenuf 
dans le Rituale Peruanum de Geronimo de Ore, public k Naples, 1607. 
Par R. de la Grasserie.** Leipzig, K. F. Koehler, 1894* Octavo, pp. 67. The 
Indian texts are made accessible by means of a French interlinear transla- 
tion, and by the Spanish version standing opposite. 

Southern India Revisited.— When the anthropologist. Dr. Emit 
Schmidt, went to the Dekhan for an exploring tour in the autumn of 1889, 
he landed near the southern end of the peninsula and went from Tutikorin 
by way of Madura to Madras. From there the general trend of his travel 
was in a southwesterly direction to the principality of Travancore and its 
capital, Triwandram, to Cape Comorin, one of the points of greatest interest 
being the enormous drawidian temple of Madura. He then went along the 
western coast to Cochin, from there to Koimbator, then into the An^mal& 
hills, the western and the eastern Nilgherries, to return again to Koimbator. 
Calicut and surroundings were the last points seen by him before his return 
to Europe. Although the Doctor's style is graphic, pictorial and enthu- 
siastic, he never surrenders, though describing scenes entirely novel and of 
amazing grandeur, to boundless imagination and fanciful poetry. His 
sketchings of men and nations are as true and attractive as those of the 
hills, mountains, forests, coasts and nvers, and in the latter the genius of 
the naturalist may be discovered. Among the salient chapters of his narra- 
tive may be quoted the description of the temple of Madura, which is sacred 
to Siwa and his wife, the goddess Sandarishwara. This structure is typical 
for the other temples in sonthem India; there is always the winama, or 
liouse of God,** with the dark and square-shaped cella, the roof in pyramid 
form, long colonnades to shelter visitors from the sunrays. *a pond for 
ablutions and refreshing baths, long temple walls ending in the pyramidal 
gcipora or gate-tower. 

To pay a visit to the Maharadsha or ruler of Travancore, is undoubtedly 



I30 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

an attraction to any traveler wlio lovet to tee Urge and tamptnotu royal 
mansions, quaint and obsolete ceremonial forms, and the gorgeous display 
seen at the courts of Indian princes. Such a visit is also instructive for 
studying the conflict between the old India customs and policy, and the 
conquering influence of European culture. For all these prtncet ol East 
India will finally have to decide whether they have to follow the Indtaa 
policy or that of their foreign masters, and thus are forced into a political 
dualism. A quaint instance of Asiatic instituttoiu is the fact that the faU 
name of this nUer is composed of no less than nineteen titles. 

The civiliiing influence of Great Britain upon India has no doubt beea 
great The corruption at the courts of the tributary princes was remedied 
or abolished, the criminal, though religious sect of the Thugs exterminated, 
and the suttees are a thing of the past But the lower races, like the 
Kurumbar in the western Nilgherries, are still preyed upon by their stronger 
and inhuman neighbors. Upon the pretense of deaths caused by witch- 
craft the Kotas and Badagas will atuck the villages of the Kurumbar, barm 
the houses and kill the inhabitants* as it was done as late as iSSa in the 
town of Elmanad. Raids of this diabolical kind are generally headed by 
some man of the Toda race or tribe, who, as a "lord of the mountains,** is 
entitle<i to strike the first blow. There are a number of Pariah commoai- 
ties treated in the same way under some superstitious race prejudice, and 
we do not yet see the day coming when the light of humanity and better 
OBOfals will penetrate into these partly impenetrable countries. Many oihar 
passages oi an anthropological nature are of high interest; so what Schmidt 
relates about the prisons and the treatment of criminals; the awe by whlcll 
the Brahmin caste is still regarded by the people; the prayen held ovar 
the dead, etc The book is adorned with thirty-nine photo- lithographa, 
mainly portraits, and though written in German, is set up in Roman type; 
the title IS **Reis€9uuk SudimdUn, Von Emil Schmidt.** Leipiig, Engelmaaa 
publisher, i8<>4. Ocuvo, pp. 8 and 314. The same scientist has also p«b* 
lished, quite recently, a succinct recapitulation of North American prt- 
historics, under the title, '*Vorgeschichte Nordameriltas im Gebiete dtr 
Vereinigten Staaten;" Braunschweig, Vieweg. i8<M* Octavo, illttst., pp. 216. 

o 

LITERARY NOTES. 

The Amkrican Oriental Society.— A leaflet published in i8qi by 
Prof. W. 1). Whitney, and addressed to the membera of the Americaa 
Oriental Society, gives a brief return* of its history. It was in 1842 that 
c^atn gentlemen in lios'on organiied this society and elected I>r. Joba 
Pickcrinfc as president and Prof. E. F. Salisbury, of New Haven, secretary. 
In 184^ Prof. Kciwin Robinson, of New York, was elected president, and 
Prof. K. 1- . Salisbury, of New Haven, as secreury. In 1855 a collection ol 
b^oks vias transferred from lUtston to New Haven. This made New Haven 
the *ir //> to renter, though the localiiatton was not an object. The library 
lias l>ecofiie. in hfty years, very %'aluable. having received liberal gifts from 
misston.try vocieties. frt>m the India office of London, from iiulividuals, such 
as l)r. 1-. Hall. Rev. Dr. Thompson, and C. W. Bradley. The minutes 
an to t»c putt. IS wed. Vol. I in KI17. Vol. 11 in i84<^$o. VoL VI in l8$Q"6o» 



LITERARY NOTES. I3i 

The proceedings began to be published separately in 1858. The Journal 
published at New Haven has now reached its seventeenth volume, thus 
making it a close contemporary of the American Antiquarian. It is* 
perhaps, the most scholarly production in America. ProL Whitney, who 
succeeded Dr. Salisbury as corresponding secretary, and acted in that 
capacity for twenty-seven years, and who sent this circular letter to the 
members, died in December, 1894. The meeting at Washington in January 
devoted one day to his honor. The society has never left the Atlantic 
coast, though the process of delocalizing it is gradually gomg on, and it is 
to be hoped that a meeting will be held in Chicago before many years. 

The Pleiades.— The Eskimos at Point Barrow look upon the sun and 
moon and stars as fairy bodies, and they form them into groups, the same 
as we do the constellations. The star Aldebaran, with the cluster of 
Pleiades, are called the sharing-out of food (pa shukh lunn); the chief star 
represents a polar bear and the others hunters around the bear. The three 
stars in Orion's belt are three men who were carried away in the dark 
winter. They were for a long time covered with snow, but at length, per> 
ceiving an opening, they descended farther and farther, and at last became 
fixed among the stars. Another group is called the house-building, and 
represents a few people engaged in constructing a winter hut Their most 
complete myth refers to the sun and moon, who were brother and sister. 
The moon is considered cold and covered with snow. The figure of the 
man perpetually traveling with his dog can be seen on the surface. 

The International Folklore Society.— Mrs. Helen M. Bassett, the 
secretary of this Society, writes that a very successful congress was held 
in Nashville, in the month of January, and several valuable papers were 
lead. Monthly meetings are also held in Chicago, in private houses, vari- 
ous literary and scholarly ladies and gentlemen attending them. It is grat* 
ifying to notice the increased interest in the subject, and especially to know 
that Chicago is the head-center of such a society and that so efficient a 
person is secretary. There are many ladies and gentlemen throughout the 
west, besides those living in the cities, who should be invited to join. 

Guide to Deir el Bahari.— A very convenient and useful "Guide to the 
Temple of Deir el Bahari** (that of Queen Halasu) has just been issued by the 
Egypt Exploration Fund. It has a folding plan of the site as just excavated. 
Price but 15 cents. Address Rev. W. C. Winslow, 525 Beacon street, Boston. 
No tounst to or from Egypt should be without a copy of this pamphlet 

Dean Buckland. — The work which clergymen have done in connection 
with the science of archxology is worthy of record, for it appears that not- 
withstanding the general impression that their theological training creates a 
bias against advanced thought and the acceptance of new conclusions, there 
is not a more conscientious and truth-loving class of investigators, and none 
whose opinions are oftener quoted by succeeding generations. This is illus- 
trated notably in the case of Dean Buckland, who is called the "father of 
geology,** and may also well be called the father of archxology. He was 
the first to interpret the significance of the bone-caves in Europe. The 
result of his discoveries and theories regarding them was published in 1823, 
in a volume entitled, "Reliquiae Diluvianx," which is still regarded as a 
classic, despite the changes opinion has undergone meantime. The facts 
treasured in the book give it a lasting value. 



12a THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 

Tht Higher Criticism and The Verdict of Monuments, By the Rev. A. H. 
Sayce. Oxford: Second edition ; London Society for Promoting Christ- 
ian Knowlege. NvW York: £. and B. Young & Co., i8o4. 

It was in the early traditions of Greece that destructive criticism fotind 
its first materials, but the reconstruction took place after the excava- 
tions by Dr. Schliemann. So the higher criticism has attacked the tradi- 
tionary view of the Bible ; but the rehabilitating of the ancient book has 
already begun through the researches of the archaeologists. 

The work of Dr. A. H. Sayce in this direction is of incalculable value, 
for it comes from the study of the monuments, and is founded upon a 
scientific basis and is perfectly free from dogmatism. His first effort is to 
show that the Bible is an old book and was not, at the critics claim, put 
together and edited by some unknown redactor at a late date, for it is in 
accord with the conditions of the world and with the teachings of oriental 
archaeology that the books of the Pentateuch should have been written and 
put together in the days of Moses rather than at any other time. He shows 
this by the fact that the art of writing, as well as of building, a hi|ih con- 
dition of literature and attainments in religious thought prevailed in Egypt 
and Palestine long before the days of Moses. Multitudes of inscriptions 
have been recently discovered in Arabia by Dr. Glaser. This gives to cis 
an alphabet supposed to be older than the Phcenician, called the Minctan 
alphabet, the kingdom of Main having preceded that of the Sabaeans. 
It is also proved that the populations of western Asia in the age of Moses 
were as highly cultured in literature as the populations of western Europe 
at the time of the renaissance. 

The Babylonian language was a common medium of literary intercourse 
from the Nile to the Tigris. Papyrus and parchment are preserved in 
the dry climate of Egypt. Clay books were stored in the cities of Chaldea. 
Tablets sent from Palestine, Phccnicia, Tyre and Sidon, inscribed with the 
cuneiform letters, have been found at Tel-el- Armarna, Egypt Canaan was 
the center of the correspondence. Kirjath Sepher was a *' book t >wn,** or 
*'city of books.** Kirjath Sannah was a place of speakicg wherein the 
oracles were held. The influence of Babylonian culture was felt in Egypt 
The Micredness of the seventh day was known. The story of creation and 
the deluge, as told by the Babylonians, has some very remarkable analogies 
to that contained in Genesis. It was certainly easy for Moses to have 
gathered the fragments of these traditions and embody them in the book, 
and there is no need of placing the date of the composition later than the 
Exolus, though the wonder is that Moses, under the Egyptian training, 
should have had so exalted an idea of the true God. The Egyptian tutel- 
age of Israel is dwelt upon in this book, but the writer does not hold that 
the Mosaic ritual was derived at all from the Egyptians. Some things, such 
as the dream of Joseph and the divining cup, were Egyptian rather than 
Palestinian ; still we find nothing of the orientation of the templet, the 
worship of the sun and moon, or the cmbalniing of the dead, cairying tht 



BOOK REVIEWS. 123 

OTcr the water, or any of the Egyptian customs, in the Pentatench. 
If the animal headed divinities were known they were not so much as 
named in the Bible. There was the simplicity of the Abrahamic faith« 
which was retained as thoroughly as if the people had been in the wilderness 
all the time of the Egyptian captivity. The development of the Israelitish 
nation as a nation took place so that they were able on their return to carry 
out the conquest of Canaan and to fill the land with a superior civilization* 
equal to that of the Hittitcs. There was a contrast between the religion of 
the Israelites and the Canaanites, but letters and arts were at a much higher 
stage than has been generally supposed. This has been proved by the dis- 
covery of the tablet at Lachish, for this was covered in peculiarly formed 
letters and shows that before the time of the Exodus there was a corres- 
pondence conducted between Egypt and Palestine, but in the Babylonian 
script The Moabite s one and inscription of Siloam belong to a later date; 
the one to the time of the Ahab, the other to the time of the reign of Hezi* 
kiah, about 650 B. C. Both of these stones not only prove the use of letters 
but prove that the Israelites adopted the language of the Canaanites or 
incorporated it with theirs. There is one singular fact brought out by the 
first Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, was very similar to the Jahveh 
Jehovah of the Israelites, but differed entirely from the sun gods and 
animal headed gods of the Babylonians and Phoenicians. The national 
divinity of the Israelites was always a personal being rather than a nature 
power. The contrast of character in the god of the Hebrews, as conceived 
by Abraham and by Moses, with that of the gods of the Egyptians and 
Babylonians furnishes the proof tbat a knowledge of Him came from 
Revelation. 

Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology ^ iSgo-gi, By J. W. 
Powell, Director. 

This volume contains the report on mound explorations by Dr. Cyrus 
Thomas, and is a valuable contribution to the literature on that subject 
The report begins with a description of the emblematic mounds of Wiscon- 
sin, but the descriptions are confined to the few groups which were 
explored, and really give no view of the system of works which is 
ccmtained in the state. The reader will have to go to the works of Dr. 
Laphan, now out of print, or the volume which was prepared by the editor 
of this magazine, to get any comprehensive view of the system or any 
explanation of the object of erecting the effigies. A description of the 
mounds and stone graves of Illinois, Arkansas and Iowa follows that of 
the mounds of Wisconsin. Here we have some new facts to greet us— facts 
which are gathered from the excavations of certain new groups of mounds 
and the discovery of many relics ; though the relics and mounds are of the 
Mine type as those which have already been described and which are well 
known. Dr. Thomas* and W. H. Holmes* classification of them having been 
established before the work appeared. The mounds of Mississippi, Ala- 
bnma and Georgia follow those of Arkansas, and resemble them in many 
pnrticulars ; though the relics taken from the Etowah mounds differ from 
tliose found in any other part of the continent The sensation which these 
lelics made at the time of their discovery will be remembered, and the 
ditCQSsions which followed. Dr. Thomas calls them modem, but many 
diim lor them a prehistoric ongin and see in them the evidence of contact 



134 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

with more advanced racet, such as the Axtect. The relict and inouiidi of 
North Carolina, Tennessee and West Vir^nia have already been dwelt 
apon by Dr. Thomas as proving the modem character of the mound- 
builders. There is nothing m the report which will settle this question one 
way or the other. Still further explorations will be required before we can 
deade as to the relative age of the different horisons found in the mounds, 
for no one believes that they are all modem, and Dr. Thomas has made no 
effort to trace the mounds back to any remote age or to show the date of 
their beginning. The mounds of Ohio have been surve}-ed and re^^urveyed, 
and the Bureau has corrected its own reports by publishing these surveys, 
for they prove that the measurements and descriptions which were given 
by Squier and Davis nearly fifty years ago were in the main correct ; and 
Mr. Henshaws* criticism of the archcologists who relied upon these 
descriptions was uncalled for and misplaced. We take the fourth volume of 
the '^ontnbuttons'* and the twelfth volume of the "Annual Reporu** and find 
that they are in accord, notwithstanding what was puplished in the second 
volume of the "Reports.** The last part treats of the mound-builders and 
Indians, a topic which has already been discussed, and gives conclusiotts 
which have been adopted, though the distinction between the mound 
building "age" and the modem Indian age is being more and more clearly 
drawn by most archaeologists, and the two terms continue to be oaed 
The volume abounds with engmvings, which bring before the eye the shape 
ci the relics and the mounds in a way that no description t>y words alone 
can do. There is one feature of the book which is to be commended— Dr. 
Thomas has given credit to those who have been engaged in mound 
explorations and has spoken kindly of all. even those who have differed 
from him in opinion. 

Ij^misiams Folk TaU%, In French dialect and English translation. Col- 
lected and edited by AJcee Fortier. D. D. Boston and New York: 
Houghton & CUfiin. 

The Negro Folk Tales in this book differ from those of Ben Remus in 
nearly all particulars. In fact so different are they that one can scarcely 
recognixe as negro tales, and it is only when we come to the appendix that 
we seem to be treading on familiar ground. The book is thus an addition 
to the stock and will be sought for by collectors on that a^'count, as well as 
on account of lU original merits. 

The Joumai of the Poiyneuan Socifiyfor /ammsry, iSq^. 

The articles in this number arc exceedingly valuable, for they show that 
a new era of investigations has begun. The Polynesians are not all to 
recent as Mmie of the linguists would have us believe. Though the peopling 
of the Inlands by the Aryans will be acknowledged, the preceding aborigines 
arc becoming known. Xm what stock did these aborigines belong, and 
what 1ft as the relation uf that stock to the prehistoric Amcncans is the next 
question. No ethntiloi^i^t can afford to do without this journal. 



• A 



THE 



^mtxxci^n ^ntxqtx^xxmx. 



Vol. XVII. May, 1895. No. 3. 

THE STORY OF THE CREATION AMONG THE 

AMERICAN ABORIGINES A PROOF OF 

PREHISTORIC CONTACT. 

By Stephen D. Peet. 

One of the strange things connected with American mythol- 
ogy is that there are so many myths which resemble those so 
common in the far east. This is especially true of that series 
of myths which gather around the story of creation, and consti- 
tute different parts of the cosmogony of the east. It appears 
that this cosmogony embraced certi'in traditionary events, the 
record of which appears in the sacred books and ancient tablets, 
and is especially prominent in the Bible, but traces of it 
were scattered over the globe and are found in all parts of 
America. The following are the elements of the American 
myths which go to make up the record and which are every- 
where recognized as essential parts of the cosmogony. 

(i) In the myth there is a creator who is always regarded as 
the supreme being, but is called by different names — such as 
"earthmaker," "master of life," "supporter of the heavens," the first 
"great ancestor," "old man," the "great white one," "father of all." 
(2) There was a conflict between the great creator and an enemy 
who is represented under different figures* — sometimes as a great 
serpent which lives under the water, as a twin brother who was bom 
in the sky, but whose birth resulted in the death of his mother; 
sometimes the conflict is between the upper divinities, divinities of 

*Tbe first view is given in the myths of the Algonquins, the second given by the Iro- 
quois, the third by the Cherokees, the fourth bv the Ojibwas in their sacred mysteries 
where the candidate is resisted by the animals ana serpents, but befriended by the human 
divinities, the fifth is represented by the Dakotas. who called the one Wakanda and the 
other /cttMtJte, corresponding to the Scandinavian Loki. Among the Mexictms and Nahuas 
the story of the conflict between the hero-^od Quetzatlcoatl and Tezcatlapoca. his mortal 
enemj. forms a chief feature of their early history and important part ol their mythology. 
(Sec Myths ol the New World, p. 143, 122. 176, 182.) 



128 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

the sky, and the lower divinities, divinities of the water, and the 
humanized or anthropomorphic and animal divinities, and between 
the benevolent and kindly and the mischievous and malignant. 
(3) The story of a great flood is as common on the continent of 
America as it is in Asia and resembles in many particulars that 
which is contained in the book of Genesis, and which has also 
been recorded in the cuneiform tablets. This myth presents the 
greatest uniformity of outline but has a great variety in its 
imagery, for the deluge is always localized and made to occur 
near the spot where those who repeat the myth formerly dwelt, 
the deliverance from the deluge being always ascribed to the tribal 
or national divinity. (4) The reconstruction of the earth and the 
creation of man always occurs after the deluge. This re-creation 
among the northern tribes occurs only once, but among the 
tribes of the interior, such as the Zunis, Moquis, as well as among 
the nations of the southwest, four times. Among the Zunis, 
Moquis and Navajos the creation of light is represented under 
the figure of four caves, each one of which becomes lighter and 
larger as the ancestors ascend; but the same features of the land- 
scape appear over and over again. The waters of the deluge fol- 
low through the different caves and fill the new worlds until the 
present world is reached. The Dakotas have a similar myth, 
but the spirits of men come up from below the "tree of life" and 
pass thrbugh four platforms or flat surfaces and take the bodies 
of birds. There are four creation epochs among the Mayas. 
These are symbolized by the fire, the water, the air, and earth. 
They are symbolized in the calendars, showing that the concep- 
tion was prehistoric and was handed down by tradition for many 
generations.* (5) The story of the giants in the days of old, 
figures of mighty proportions looming up through the mist of 
ages, is common property to every nation, and the American 
tribes have it in a great variety of versions, the most of them 
bearing striking resemblances to that told in the east. The story 
is by son^e supposed to have been of late introduction, as it is 
so similar to the Greek myth of the war of the Titans, as well 
as to the Scandinavian myth of the war among the gods, but 
there are the same marks of antiquity as in the other myths, the 
symbols referring to it being contained in the ancient codices of 
Mexico and in the totem poles of the northwest coast. Various 
landmarks are pointed out as the scene of this conflict, the 
mountains on the Pacific coast, the various lakes and rivers in 
the interior, and even the features of the landscape in the far 
southwest having myths connected with them which refer to 
this conflict. (6) There are certain symbols which remind us 
of the tree of life, which, according to the Scriptures, was placed 
in the garden, the tree being a common symbol among all the 
secret societies and sacred mysteries of the wild tribes, and 

*See the Calendar System of the Mayas, by Dr. Cyrus Thomas. 



THE STORY OF CREATION. iJg 

as prominent among the time records and sacred calendars and 
astronomical signs of the semi-civilized and civilized nations as 
among the ancient Babylonians or other nations of the east. 
(7) There is a migration myth, oflcn connected with the story of 
creation, which reminds us of the dispersion of the race as con- 
tained in the Scriptures, tor the migration generally begins with 
the story of a separation and sometimes ends with the settlement 
in permanent abodes.* (8) There are certain pictographs which 
remind us of the confusion of tongues recorded in Ge nesis 
though it is doubtful whether this event was embodied in the 
m)thology of America. We refer now to the picture which is 
preserved in the Boturini Collection. In this picture there is an 
island, a boat, a curved mountain on the main land, the names of 
the thirteen tribes, the picture of the stopping places; and among 
other things, the picture of a bird with commas coming from 
his mouth, which have been interpreted as symbolizing the gift 
of speech. The bird is perched on the summit of the tree, the 
men at its foot. Dr. Brinton says this has been interpcted to 
mean that after the deluge men were dumb until a dove distrib- 
uted to them the gift of speech, but it is entirely an erroneous 
interpretation. 

Such coincidence is surprising when we consider the isolation 
of the continent from all other countries, and especially when we 
note the great difference between the American race and the 
races which first populated the Far East. It has been accounted 
for by some as resulting from the contact of the natives with the 
missionaries, the idea being that the Bible account which was 
tau(;ht to them gradually filtered through the native myths so as 
to appear indigenous; but it really was borrowed from the 
white man. This theory, however, has been rejected by many 
ofthe most prominent ethnologists, and the general conclusion is 
that whatever one may say about the resemblances, the majority 
of these myths and symbols must be acknowledged to belong to 
prehistoric rather than historic times, for the following reasons: 
{i) The creation myth is ver>' wide-spread. It is found not 
only among the tribes which early came in contact with the mis- 
sionaries, but those which were very remote, and always has the 
same elements. (2) The myth is always associated in the minds 
of the natives with certain familiar objects in nature — such as 
mountains, lakes and seas, the event of creation itself having 
taken place in the habitat of the tribe which holds the myth. 
(3) There is a cosmogony which is taught by all of the secret 
societies and sacred mysteries, which with certain variations is 
full of resemblances to the cosmogonies ofthe east, and no one 
pretends to say that these societies were ever influenced by white 

*I>f ltnnti>n %a>t no douM ^omc of tKc lctciid» ha^r t)«rn modified by Christian leach- 
:ng*. I ut fonir ol thrni arc >o coQtieited with local pccuharities and rrliglouft cerrtmmtet 
thai n<» util'ia^cd ttudrni can aatura them «hoUy to that aoorce. (Sec Myths of lh« New 

>lufJd.) 



130 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

men, and certainly not by missionaries. (4) The myth is the 
foundation for many of the religious ceremonies and sacred feasts 
and ancient dramas, the creator himself being frequently per- 
sonated by some one who appears in the ceremony. (5) The 
story is found in the bark records and pictographs of the wild 
tribes, in the sand-paintings of the mountain tribes, in the hiero- 
glyphics and ancient codices of the partially civilized tribes — all 
of which may be regarded as the sacred inheritance from their 
ancestors. (6) The cosmogony is very prominent in the ancient 
calendar stones and astronomical symbols which are so preva- 
lent among the more civilized races, and which are known to 
be prehistoric. (7) The story of creation is the starting point 
for all American mythology, but is so incorporated in it that it 
is impossible to separate the one from the other. (8) The story 
resembles that which we have received from our Aryan ances- 
tors, and which they received from the Semitics;* but in its 
imagery is so purely aboriginal that it is impossible to distin- 
guish it from a native myth. 

Our conclusion is that there was an American cosmogony 
in prehistoric times which was almost identical with that which 
was contained in the ancient and historic records, and that in 
some way this must have been transmitted through some 
unknown channel to the different parts of the American conti- 
nent. The channels are, indeed, unknown, yet there are some 
conjectures about the transmission of the myths which may be 
worthy of our notice: i. The transmission may have been by 
way of Europe, through the wide-spread Indo-European race, as 
the Scandinavian, the Teutonic, the Celtic, the Hellenic and the 
Italic myths are very similar and have the same general char- 
acter and contain the same elements as those found in America. 
2. The transmission may have been by the Ural-Altaic and 
Mongolian tribes, as it is now held that these tribes borrowed 
many things from the ancient Accadians and have transmitted 
them to their descendants, with very little change. 3. It may 
have been by the unknown "ground race" which formed the 
first population of Polynesia, for many of the Polynesian myths 
have t>een recognized among the various American tribes, some 
parts of the creation myths among them. 4. It may have been 
by means of the ancient Hindu literature which, according to 
many writers was originally drawn from the Chaldeans, but 
spread at a very ancient date throughout the wide region of the 
far east. 5. The transmission may have come at an early or a 
late date by means of communication with either Chilna or Japan, 
as the mythology of both these regions occupies a middle ground 
between the Asiatic and the American. 6. The ctvilizatioa 



*I>r frulonu thutt'trr god «a* callrtl l^or the Crirt. Tafftr«rlu«. tb« Wclfth. T arui 
Ihr N<.'r*r. Ar«:r the I.ithuaiiiao. I'rrkuna*. the >uitKnt. PaiiAiiya. the god ol rata utd 
thuiulrr iLc l1intl(Mj. \ rtni.tM. a rli»u'l drmoo (Ncc ongta ol th« Arjiunt^ bf Dt. 1. Tay- 
lor ; tKcUci • i.uiiotii:c» ul luUtrEmopcaA TiwltUooa aad FoU'loft. p. tiy) 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 131 

which for 3,000 years had been pressing the shores of the Pacific 
Ocean might have at any time broken through the water 
barriers which withstood it and thrown out those waifs of thought 
and mythology which have continued to wander all these years, 
thus bestowing upon the American tribes the same tradition we 
received from the still more ancient source. 7. The opinion is 
now growing rapidly that there was a pre-Columbian contact 
between the Eastern continents and America, and that by this 
m^ans the many symbols and myths, religious customs and art 
forms were scattered among the American tribes, the creation 
myth being not the least. 

With these thoughts by way of introduction, we proceed to 
consider the prevalence of the creation myth in America and its 
resemblance to that found in other parts of the world. Our po- 
sition is that the "story of creation*' not only resembles, but has 
the same place in American mythology, bears the same charac- 
ter, is attended with the same particulars and relates to the same 
events, that the story does among the eastern nations, and is 
probably the same story transmitted but clothed in the new dress 
that the American tribes might give to it, and this of itself 
proves a contact with other countries in prehistoric times. Our 
division of the subject will be geographical, and our illustrations 
will be drawn from the tribal myths, rather than from the sym- 
bols or the charts. These we shall give in detail for the purpose 
of showing the unity in variety. The versions may be numerous 
and varied, but the underlying thought is the same. 

I. We shall begin with the eastern tribes, who were mainly 
totemistic, and worshiped the "creator" under the form of an 
animal, the most of whom had also a culture hero, who was a 
combination of animal and human and was regarded as the great 
"law-giver," and "supreme divinity". 

The creator was not always the same, and did not always bear 
the same name; but the process of creation was very similar. It 
consisted in a re-creation of the earth after the destructive effects 
of a deluge which had universally prevailed and had swept off all 
of the inhabitants as well as the animals. The cause of this 
deluge is variously explained by the different tribes, but gener- 
ally it was owing to the work of an evil spirit who was an enemy 
to the Great Spirit, and was represented under the figure of a 
great serpent, or great fish, or some other great monster, or 
underground being. The reconstruction was accomplished by 
means of some of the animals who were subject to the will of the 
great Manitou. The story of creation is perpetuated among these 
difTerent tribes by certain secret societies and sacred mysteries, 
or by certain sacred writings or bark records, which are the 
sacred books, though written in pictographs. It is always very 
interesting on account of its resemblance to the story as told by 
the tribes of the east; though the imagery is that which was 



132 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

drawn from the scenery among which the people lived and the 
place of creation was in the vicinity of the tribal habitat, the pro- 
cess of creation being conducted by the being who was the chosen 
tribal god and culture hero.* 

The question is whether the idea of the creator has any re- 
semblance to that which we have inherited from our fathers. 
On this point there may be a difference of opinion. Still the 
preponderance of evidence is that there was a view which was 
very similar to our own. According to one of Maxamilian's 
informants the Mandans believed in several superior beings, 
(i) The lord of life. He created the earth, man and every exist- 
ing object. (2) The first man holds the second rank. He was 
created by the lord of life, but was likewise of a divine nature. 
(3) The lord of evil is a malignant spirit who has much influence 
over men. Dr. Brinton, W. J. Hoffman and others hold that 
there were different ranks among the gods. Yet, with most of 
the tribes there was one who was supreme. He was not always 
the creator, but he was the deviser. The work of creation was 
delegated to an inferior divinity whose cult was local and who 
was regarded as the special friend of the local tribe — in fact the 
tribal god — the same distinction which some recognize in the 
Scriptures, Elohim being the universal god, and Jehovah the 
national god. Rev. J. O. Dorsey, who has made a special study 
of the mythology of the Dakota and Sioux tribes, in one place 
asserts that the great spirit was regarded as a supreme being, but 
again denies it, and quotes the opinions of persons on either side.f 

Our opinion is that there was everywhere among the Ameri- 
can tribes the conception of a supreme being who was invisible, 
and who filled the same place as the ruling divinity of the east- 
ern nations, but that this thought was obscured by local tradi- 
tions and tribal myths so that the "creator" or "earth-maker" was 
in reality only a tribal divinity who bore the semblance of the 
tribal totem or guardian divinity. The creation itself was located 
in the bounds of the tribe. 

It will be seen, as we proceed, that the "creator" was among 
(i) totemistic tribes an animal, either wolf, rabbit, coyote or raven, 
(2) among the mountain tribes he was a strange hermaphrodite, 
born out of the union of the cloud and mountains, and was sym- 
bolized by the strange and hideous masks, suggestive of 

♦Brinton says, "There are some striking points of similarity between the deluge myths 
of Asia and of America. It has been calleda peculiarity of the latter that in them the per- 
son saved is always the first man: but these first men were usually the highest deities 
known to their nation, the only creator of the world and the guardian of the race. (See 
Myths in the New World, p. 217.) The intimate connection that once existed between the 
myths of the deluge and that of creation is illustrated by the part assigned the birds. They 
fly to and fro over the waves ere any land appears. The doTC in the Hebrew account 
appears in that of the .\lg0n9uins as a raven which Micabi sent out to search for land before 
the muskrat brought it to him from the bottom. A raven also in the Athapascan myth 
saved their ancestors from the general flood and is identified with the mighty thunder bird, 
who at the beginning ordered the earth from the depths. In all these the bird is a relic of 
the cosmogonical myth which explained the origin of the world from the action of the winds 
under the image of the bird on the primeval ocean." (See Myths of the New World, p. 221.) 

tSee Eleventh Annual Report, p. 372. 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 133 

the origin ; (3) among the more civilized tribes he was the air 
divinity, who bore the human semblance and yet carried the 
symbols of the serpent, cross, sun and cloud, the imagery in 
which the god was draped always varying according to the 
people who worshiped him. 

Let us consider the cosmogonies of the Algonkin tribes and 
enquire about the character of their earth-maker. These tribes 
were totemistic in their religion; that is to say, they had animals 
as their tribal divinities and clan totems, and worshiped these as 
their ancestors. Most of them had also a culture hero, who was a 
combination of animal and human, and was regarded as the 
great "lawgiver" and hero of the tribe. Most of them also wor- 
shiped certain nature powers, who were gods of the air and 
earth and sky and the world quarters, and were represented un- 
der the figures of gigantic birds, serpents or other monstrous 
creatures. The being, however, which is the most prominent 
among them all is the divinity who was regarded as the "cre- 
ator," "earth maker," ''master of life," and the supreme ruler 
over all. This being was not oflen represented under any phy- 
sical semblance, nor even identified with any particular time or 
place, but was regarded as invisible and personal. There was 
among many of the tribes a symbol which appeared in the form 
of a bundle, or shell, or medicine sack, or box, or sacred pipes, 
which was a sort of a shekinah, in which the divinity made his 
presence known. This symbol, in its contents and shape, was 
preserved in the sacred tent, and in this respect resembled the 
ark of the Israelites and the sacred boat of the Egyptians. It 
was regarded with great superstition, for it embodied in itself the 
history of the tribe and was the charm by which the tribal unity 
and integrity were preserved. It was not an idol and did not 
represent the real character of the creator, for the real creator, 
according to some of the tribes, lives up in the sky and is an in- 
tangible spirit, and is a supreme ruler, the various animals being 
his agents or servants.* According to others he was himself an 
animal, either a giant rabbit or hare, bird, coyote, raven or eagle, 
whose name varied according to the tribe which was worship- 
ing him.f 

The story as told by the Algonquins is the most interesting 
because it is the most wide-spread and the most varied. It is the 
story of the Giant Rabbit, who was the earth maker, culture hero, 
tribal god as well as a rescuer from the calamities of the deluge. 
Dr. Brinton says, from the remotest wilds of the northwest to 
the coast of the Atlantic, from the southern boundaries of Caro- 
lina to the cheerless swamps of Hudson Bay, the Algonquins 
were never tired of gathering around the winter fires and repeat- 

•Sce Journal ol .\niorican Folk I.orr. Vol. vi., p. ii4. 

t The following is the list o( names by which he was called. Ainoni; the Algonquins he 
WM called ManlbozhOj Manibojow; among the Iroquois, Micabo- among the Pawnees. 
Timuu among the Mojaves, Mustumho; among the tribes of the northwest coast, Vchl. 



134 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

in^ the story of Manibozho, or Michabo, the Great Hare. With 
entire unanimity the Powhattans of Virginia, the Lenni Lenape of 
Delaware, the war-like hordes of New England, the Ottawas of 
the far north, and the western tribes spoke of him as their com- 
mon ancestor. He was the founder of the wide worship, in- 
ventor of picture writing, the father and guardian of their nation. 
From a grain of sand brought from the bottom of the primeval 
ocean, he fashioned the habitable land and set it floating on the 
waters till it grew to such a size that a strong young wolf run- 
ning constantly died of old age ere he reached its limits. Under 
the name of Michabo he created the earth and was originally the 
highest divinity recognized hy them — "powerful and beneficent, 
maker of the heavens and the world/' Manibozho, Manibojou, 
Missibiza, Michabo, Mustumho were varieties of the same name, 
which means the spirit of light, the great light, the dawn, the 
the great white one. He is the grandson of the moon, liis father 
is the west wind; his mother, a maiden who dies in giving him 
birth; his life is a battle with his brother, the flint stone whom he 
broke in pieces and scattered over the land and changed his 
intrails into fruitful vines. The gigantic boulder and loose rocks 
found on the prairies are the missiles hurled by the combatants. 
His foe was the glittering prints of serpents whose abode was 
the lake and who was the great king of the fishes. 

Among the Iroquois two brothers appear — loskeha and 
Tawiscara, who were twins and bom of a virgin mother who 
died in giving them life. Their mother was the moon, called by 
the Hurons, Ataensic, The two brothers quarreled and loskeha 
came ofl* conqueror. In time he became the (ather of mankind, 
the special quardian of the Iroquois. The earth was at first 
arid, but he destroyed the gigantic frog which had swallowed 
all the waters. The woods he stocked with game and taught 
the Indians how to make fire, watched and watered their crops. 
He was their supreme god, m whose honor the chief festival of 
their calendar was celebrated, about the winter solstice.^ 

The Blackfoot version is as follows: The great Manitou was 
a friend to the |K*ople, but he had an enemy who dwelt under 
the water, and who created a deluge. This deluge destroyed all 
the people and compelled the Manitou to reconstruct the earth, 
which he did. The creator is called "the old man/* and the 
story is that he floated upon a log in the water, and had with 
him four animals — the dsYi (mamed \. the Uo^ ymaUokupu)^ ihc 
lizard {mamskeoy and the turtle (spopeo). He sent them down 
into the waters in the order named to see what they could find. 
The first three descended but never returned; the turtle, how- 
ever, arose with his mouth full of mud. Wapioa took the mud 
from the mouth of the turtle, rolled it around in his hand and 
let it fall into the waters. It made the earth. At first it was an 

•Sc« Mythi of the N«« Wofld, pp. l7S^lf». 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 135 

island, but afterward grew to a great size. He was the secondary 
creator. He was not the ancestor of the Blackfeet, but was the 
creator of the Indian race.* 

According to the Huron story, in the beginning there was 
nothing but water. It so happened that a woman fell down 
from the upper world through a rift in the sky. Two loons, 
who were flying over the water, hastened to place themselves 
beneath her and hold her up. They began to cry to the other 
animals to aid them. The turtle came and received the woman 
upon his back.f The turtle then called the diflferent animals to 
dive to the bottom. Each one tried — the beaver, muskrat, diver- 
duck — but the only one that succeeded was the toad. From 
the toad the woman took the earth and placed it around the 
edge of the tortoise shell It became the earth and was sup- 
ported by the tortoise. Twins were born to the woman. The 
name of the good one was loskeha, and the bad one was Tawas- 
cara. The good one created useful animals, but the bad brother 
monstrous creatures, such as serpents, wolves, and among them 
a monster toad, which swallowed all the water.| 

Among the Athapascans, as well as the Dakotas, the creator 
was a mighty bird, whose eyes were fire and whose glances were 
lightning, on whose descent to the ocean the earth mstantly 
arose and remained on the surface of the water. Among the 
Muskogees, before the creation, a great body of water alone was 
visible, and two pigeons flew to and fro over its waves and at 
last spied a blade of grass. Dry land gradually followed and 
islands and continents took their present shapes.§ 

Mr. George Grinnell says that the Tirawa was the creator of 
the Pawnees. He made the mountains, the prairies and the 
rivers. The men of the present era were not the original inhab- 
itants of the earth. They were preceded by another race, a 
people of great size and strength. The race of giants had no 
respect for the ruler. They derided him and insulted him. 
When the sun arose, or when it thundered or rained, they would 
defy him. They had great confidence in their own powers and 
believed that they were able to cope with the creator. As they 
increased in numbers they became more defiant, and at length 
became so bad that Tirawa determined to destroy them. 

The Cherokees also had a creation myth and certain charts 
and records in which the myth was contained. Many of their 

•S«? Journal of Aincrican F«»Ikl«»rr. p. itj-. 

tThe turtle is thi* coiiiiiifin sviiiIk*! t«»r thr t-arth. 

(Mr. Horatio Hale >ayA that it is rcuaikablc that in the Huron-Iroquttis mytholof^y 
the idea ol two hostile creators ^hoii d be sn cle;)r]v but rudely developed. The idea is 
Comtnonl^^'PP^^*^ ^*'* ''^' ^^^' main ebrment in tlic /oajitriatic reiigion. 

n ForWe coinparivin l»etwren thi** invth an. I the cn-atit»n lejfend contained in the cunei- 
form inscriptions, see (. haldean ar« «»iint of (irneM^ >Ahuh is us billows: i. When above 
were Dot raised the heavens. 2 AnM belovi on tbt* earth had not grown up. ^ Tlie abyjis 
had not broken o|M'n their bouni lanes. 4. I'hf Chaos. Tianiat. the sea. was the prodncing 
mother of all. ^. The waters were at the beKinninR. f>. .\ tree had not f^rown or a flower 
nnlolded. 7« WYien the gods had not spninR up any (tne (d them. K Order did not exist. 
Q. Then were made the ffrcatgiHis. lu. The n^^^i> Lainu and Lahamu came and grew. 13. 
Sftr and Ketar were made. 15. A course of days and a lung time passed. 



136 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

ceremonies were based on their mythology and embodied in 
themselves the cosmogony. They were accustomed to make a 
hole in the ground and fill it with fire and then cover it 
with ashes. Their tradition was that through this hole in 
the ground their ancestors came up and the spirits of the 
dead returned in the same way, a tradition which resem- 
bles that which is common among the Zunis and Moquis. 
The Choctaws and other Muskogee tribes have a migration 
myth to the effect that they came from the west, issuing from a 
mountain of fire ; but they tell also that they issued from a pyra- 
mid mound, the creator stamped upon the top of the mound and 
commanded them to come forth.* This story of the creation 
and the deluge, as held by the Indians, resembles that which is 

J contained in the Vedas. 

j^^ The most remarkable story is that kept by the Delav/ares in 

a record which has been preserved from generation to genera- 
tion, and which has been held as sacred by the entire tribe.f 
The creation story is conveyed by certain conventional sym- 
bols, which we;e equivalent to the sign language and could be 
easily interpreted by those who are at all familiar with native 
symbolism, as the same figures represent the same objects every- 
where — an arch symbolizing the sky, the circle the sun, the 
straight line the earth, the face in the circle the Manitou or 
Great Spirit, the crescent the moon, the square the four quarters 
of the earth, the arch in the square earth and sky, a crooked 
line speech, the triangle friendliness, birds, souls, human figures, 
first man and first woman, the turtle the earth, the arch turned 
downward water, the double arch with straight line water, earth 
and sky. The picture writing abounds with the figure of the 
snake and of the human figures in various attitudes, and in the 
figures of the canoe and the turtle, and the rabbit on the turtle. 
The intrinsic evidence is that the bark record was a genuine 
aboriginal chart, for no white man would have used such sym- 
bols. The story runs very much as it does in Genesis: An ex- 
tended fog; the Manitou lost in space; extended lands and sky ;| 
conflict.§ temptation by an evil spirit, destruction, restoration, etc. 

♦See H. S. Halbert in American Antiquarian, Vol. xiv. 

fThis record was for a long time unknown, but through the efforts of the eccentric but 
industrious Rafinesque, the archaeologist, who lived in Philadelphia iu the year 1833. it 
was brought to light and secured the attention of Schoolcraft anci others. It is written in 
the sign or picture language and was called the Walum Glum, which means "painted red," 
or redscore. It was a darlc record written in metrical form. It has been pronounced by the 
best judges as a genuine oral composition of a Delaware Indian. There is a distinct con- 
nection between the pictograph and the sense of the text, each symbol being attended by a 
verse of the Delaware written in metrical form. The first part of the painted traditions 
contained the original traditional poems on the creation, twenty-four verses, and on the 
deluge, sixteen verses. The second part, the historical chronicles from the arrival in Amer- 
ica to settlement in Ohio; and from the settlement to the contest of the snake land and of 
the Talegas. The book was lost for a time, though the translations by E. G. Squeir was 
extant, having been published in the American Kevirw in 1H49, Mr. W. W. Beach, in his 
Indian Miscellany in 1877, Mr. Drake's .Aboriginal Races of America. Dr. G. G. Brinton 
found it and republishea it in the Library of .Anoriginal American Literature. 

^The notion of the earth rising from the primeval waters is strictly a part of the ear- 
liest Algonkin mythology.— i?r/«r<7« 

8 The conflict between the Algonkin hero god and the serpent of the waters is an abor- 
iginal myth shared by Iroquois and Algonkins alike. In one respect it is the deluge myth. 




THE STORY OF CREATION. 



137 



I 



...o. 




3. 











//. 





^^jliL 





/8. 




I.-THE CREATION. 

1. At first in that place above 
the earth, was an extended fog. 

2. And there the great "Manitou" 
was. 

3. The great "Manitou" was 
everywhere. 

4. He made the land and the 
sky. 

5. He made the sun, moon and 
stars. 

6. He made them all to move. 

7. Then the wind blew. 
^ 8. The water flowed. 

9. And the "Great Manitou** 
spoke. 

10. He spoke to mortals and 
souls. 

11. He gave the first father. 

12. He gave the first mother. 

13. He gave the fish and the tur- 
tles and the beasts and the birds. 

14. There was an evil Manitou 
who made bad beings, snakes, rep- 
tiles and monsters. 

15. He made flies and gnats. 

16. All beings were then friendly. 

' 17. Truly the Manitous were ac- 
tive and kindly. 

18. To those very first men and 
to those first mothers, fetched them 
wives. 

19. And fetched them food. 

20. AH had cheerful knowledge 
and leisure, all thought in glad- 
ness. 

2f. Very secretly an evil being 
came on earth. 

22. And with him brought bad 
ncss, quarreling and unhappiness 

23. He brought bad weather, 
sickness, dtath. 

24. All this look place of old on 
the earth, beyond the great tide- 
ifi ater at the nrst. 



138 



THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



II.-THE DELUGE. 

1. There was a mighty tnake 
and beings hostile to men. 

2. This mighty snake hated 
those who were there and great- 
ly disturbed those whom he 
hated. 

3. They both did harm; they 
injured each other and were not 
in peace. 

4. They were driven from 
their homes, and fought with 
this murderer. 

5. This mighty snake resolved 
to do harm. 

6. He brought a monster; he 
brought a rtood.l 

7. The waters rushed and 
dashed and destroyed much. 

8. Manabotho, the white one, 
grandfather of beings and men, 
was on the Turtle Island. 

g. There he walked, and cre- 
ated as he passed. He created 
the Turtle IsUnct 

10. Beings and men go forth. 
Thev walk in the fIcMds and 
shallow waters down the sea to 
the Turtle Island. 

11. There were many mon- 
sters which eat them up. 

12. The .Manit«u*s daughter 
coming, hel|>e<l with her canoe. 

1 3. Also Manabozho, the grand 
father helped. 

14. The men were together on 
the turtle. 

>$• Frightened, the men 
prayed ti^cther on the Turtle 
thai **was »poile<l !khoulfl t»e re- 
stored." 

16. The water ran off. the 
earth dried, the lakes were at 
rest, all wa<i silent, and the 
mighty snake tleparted.* 



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THE STORY OF CREATION. 139 

II. The story of creation as held by the tribes of the northwest 
resembles that which we have already represented as the com- 
mon inheritance of the eastern tribes, and is characterized by 
the same events; but is draped under entirely different imagery 
and is preserved in a different way, for here the commemorative 
columns and ancestor posts serve in the place of sacred* books 
and correspond to the bark records. These tribes were for a 
time the most remote from the contact with the white man and 
the latest to be brought under the influence of missionaries, and 
therefore may be supposed to have retained their native myth- 
ology in a purer aboriginal condition. These tribes were en- 
gaged in fishing as a means of subsistence, and they were in a 
comparatively low grade of civilization. Their religion was a 
modified form of animism and may be called demonism, for they 
believed that every thing was possessed by a spirit or demon, 
and they themselves were under the power of the demons. Still 
they were nearer the Asiatic coasts than many other tribes, and 
they had very many traditions which resemble tiiose extant in 
Asiatic countries. These traditiions relate: i. To a being who 
is called the creator and the changer. 2. To the appearance of 
a pair who were brother and sister, one of whom dwelt in the 
sky and the other upon the earth. 3. The prevalence of a deluge 
and of the reconstruction of the earth. 4. The creation and the 
naming of the animals. 5. The creation of fire. What is most 
remarkable about these myths is that many of resemble those 
found in the classic books. 

We begin with the Rev. Mr. Eells* account of the Skokomish 
"creator." There is among them a tradition of the appearence 
long ago of a supernatural being called Dokibatl.* He was the 
creator and supreme ruler of the world but became the changer, 
for afler the world had become bad and the people foolish he 
changed them into| animals as a punishment of their sins— one 
into a deer, who should jump upon all fours; another into a 
beaver; another into the woodpecker, giving him a long bill, 
strong head and wings; another into the humming bird, making 
his arms into wings and leaving them still swinging in the air; 
another into a blue-jay, by trying his hair into a knot on top of 
his head; another into turtle dove, changing his voice into the 
mourning sound; others whom he found fic^hting he changed 
into stones which now lie on the beach; a woman also he changed 
into a boulder of rounded shape; a man whom he found crying he 
changed into a stone, the tears on his face being the lines which 
arc still visible; he found two canoes, which he changed into two 
long stones; three brothers he changed into three spits or tongues 
of land; a woman he made into an island, which should be the 



*Tbc name It called amoDff the Skokomi9h Dokibatl; by the Skasits and Misknal.l>s. 
Dokwvbiitl, lb« CalaUams and Nukimatt have the same ranic as the Tkaoam of Lhiuooks, 
Aaotekoi of tlie FUt-headi and Simchu of the Spokanea. 



I40 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

wife of the main land; another woman, who abus»ed her husband, 
he changed into a mountain, her daughter into a rock and her 
husband mto Mt. Baker. He gave to each tribe their language, 
their special kinds of food and assigned to them their particular 
places of abode. He came first to create, and second time to 
change or make the world new, and will come the third time to 
make it over again. The natives say we receive this tradition 
from our ancestors.* 

The Assinaboines believed that the Great Spirit formed the 
earth out of a confused mass. He made a fox out of clay which 
he sent forth to see if the world was large enough. The fox 
returned and reported it was too small. The Great Spirit then 
made it larger — the fox went forth but did not return.f 

The name of the next power has not been gained. They 
called him the Lying Prairie Wolf. He is ever moving and 
walking over the earth in human form — a spirit which comes to 
each warrior in a dream after long fasting and is chosen as a 
guardian spirit.^ 

The Chinooks say the first men were sent into the world in a 
lumpish and imperfect state. Their &outh and eyes were closed, 
their hands and feet immovable; but a kind and powerful spirit 
called Ikanam took a sharp stone and opened their eyes and 
gave motion to their hands and feet. He taught them how to 
make canoes as well as other implements. In Vancouver Island 
the chief deity, the maker of the land and water, as well as the 
first ancestor, was called Quawteaht, a purely supernatural being. 
He made the animals first and placed within them the embryos, 
which rapidly developed into men and made use of the huts de- 
serted by the animals. Quawteaht withheld fire from the crea- 
tures he made, with one exception, which will always be found 
burning in the home of the cuttlefish. The Tacullies of British 
Columbia have a creation myth. The flat earth was covered 
with water, but a musk rat swam to and fro seeking food; find- 
ing none he dived to the bottom and brought up a mouthful of 
mud. This he did again and again, until an island was formed. 
The earth grew out of this. According to the Tinnehs the great 

*See American Antiquarian Vol. V., p. 391, article by Res. M. Eells. 

tSee Journal of America, Folk-Lore, Vol. Vol. V. p. 72, Wm. Jono. Potts. 

JAndrew Lang says: "The cosmogonlcal myths, the deluge myth, the myths of the 
stars, the wilder adventures of the gods, the myths of death, the belief in evil spirits, the 
myths of fire stealing, which we hnd in the Veda and still more in the Brahniaus, may all 
be paralleled in the mythology of Tinnehs, Nootkas. Thlinkeeth, Tacullies, Papuans, h s- 
kimo and others of the lowest races. The main difference is that among the lowest races 
animals generally take the chief heroic roles, while in Aryan myths gods do what beasts 
had done. When a boar in Vedic fishes up the earth the boar is Vishnu; but when a coyote 
or muskrat performs the same feat he is a muskrat or coyote and nothing more. Animals, 
not men, are the fire stealers; though a bird brought the Vedic Soma, as a bird brought 
water to the Thlinkeets." (See Folk-lore Journal, Vol. I, April, '83, p. 112.) 

He also says (p. 107) the anthropologist does not call the Tinnehs or the Tacullies prim- 
itive men, but baclcwara men and inters that the religious ideas of people which are com- 
paratively near the begginning of the arts of life must be earlier than the religious ideas of 
peonies which have long acquired all the arts of life. 

Max Muller says what we consider as primitive may be, for all we know, a relapse into 
avagery or a corruption of something that was more rational, 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 141 

ocean was frequented by an immense bird, who descended and 
touched the waters, U(x>n which the earth rose up and appeared. 
According to the Thlinkeets, the woild is an immense flat plate, 
supported on a pillar, and under the world silence and darkness. 
An underground woman guards the great pillar from evil and 
malignant powers.* 

Another version of the story is that a certain mysterious 
brother and sister appeared after the deluge. The brother was 
Chethl, the thunder; the sister was the under-ground woman, the 
earth-maker. They parted and the brother became a great bird, 
and the sister climbed to the top of Mt. Edgecomb and was 
swallowed up in the crater. She has never seen her brother 
since; but when the tempest sweeps down on the mountain the 
lightning of his eyes gleam down the crater's windows and the 
thunder of his wings re-echoes through the subterranean halls.f 

According to the Haida mythology the work of creation was 

accomplished by the raven, called Ne-kilst-luss, who brooded over 

the dense primeval chaotic darkness and produced a race of 

beings who should be a part of himself and should bear his own 

image and likeness. 

At first there were six little beings who were hermaphrodites, but he 
mmde the sex more complete by placing on the abdomen of each a sea snail 
and divided them into couples who should live as husband and wife. From 
these sprang the three great families of mankind— brown, white and black. 
At first the race was verv crude and lUshapen, having long arms and 
crooked legs, unable to walk upright, but each succeeding race, by the pro- 
cess of evolution, came to the more perfect state. The climate at first was 
warmer, the air moitter than now, but afterward became colder, but 
Ne-kilst-luss sought to secure ^re for them. He had to use strategy, for the 
• fire was in the possession of a chief called Setlinkijash. Assuming the form 
of a needle-like leaf of the spruce tree he was swallowed by the girl drink- 
ing water and was afterwards bom in the house of the chief. In the pro- 
cess of time he assumed his raven guise and picked up a burning brand and 
flew out of the smoke-hole at the top of the house. Before the Alaskan 
shore was reached most of the wood and a part of his beak were burned 
away. Arriving there he dropped the embers and the sparks flew about 
and fell amonr the sticks ana stones. Therefore it is by striking these 
stones and by motion on the wood fire is to be had.^ 

The raven's connection with the flood is as follows: After Yehl, the 
raven, had supplied the people with fire, food and water they were contented 
for a time, but soon grew tired and complaining and became worse and 
worse. In order to punish them he sent a Hood of water and drowned all 
but a few, who, in their canoes, fled to one of the high mountains. Along 
with the flood there came heavy and long-continu^ earthquakes, which 
rent the earth and bn ke down the old mountains and raised new ones. 
After the flood the people who had Hed to the mountains came down to 
find their old homes; but all was changed. Instead of a wide, level country 
nothing was left but a few small islands. All the mountain valleys were 

*Thi!t reminds us of the Scandinavian story of the sacred tree whose roots were guarded 
by certain maidens. 

tSee Bancroft's Native Races. Vol. III., p. qc 

IThere is « story about Ne-kilst-luss and the box s \%hich reseinMes the !*tory of Pro- 
mctnetit and the fire-stealing. Ne-kilst-luss wa« a great favorite with his grandtather. the 
monntaln divinity, and was allowed to play with tne t>oxes in which he kept the fire. Ne- 
kiltt-lnaa, alter playing with them for a time, broke one of them open and allowed the 
plagues to Mcape. In this way the mosquitoes, flies and spiders came to be 1 1 lib« rty as 
pests. Ne-kilst-loss also afterward broke the box open which contained the fire and 
escaped with It. 



142 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

turned into long arms of the sea. The people, who were few in number, 
felt sad at the loss of their former companions, and felt very lonesome and 
were afraid of another flood. Yehl appeared to them and was sorrv for 
them, and said that he would give them more company. Each of tnem, 
men and women, were to gather together a heap ot stones, and when all 
was ready thev were to pick them up and throw them over their heads 
backwards. This they did. Each stone as it touched the ground jumped 
up a man or woman. Another version is they picked up the stones as they 
lay loose. 

In this legend of the stone-throwing there is a very striking 
resemblance to Deucalion^ of Greek mythology, who, with his 
wife, Pirrha, were the sole survivors of the flood. They, too, 
were ordered by the gods to pick up stones and throw them back- 
wards over the head with the same results. 

There is also among this tribe a story of the flood and of the 
reconstruction of the earth and the creation of the first pair after 
the flood, but the creator is the raven, instead of the rabbit or 
the coyote. 

According to the Mojave Indians, Mustamho was the creator. 
When he created and named the animals they were very much 
alike in appearance. He did not really know what any particular 
kind was good for. He assembled them together and went 
among them and separated them; some he called fishes and made 
them live in the water; some were snakes and crawled on the 
ground; some to fly, because they wer^^ qualified to live in the 
air. The dog was made at the same time that man was. When 
a Mojave dies he goes to another country like his own — it is the 
shadow of his own country — the shadows ot its rivers, mount- 
ains, valleys and springs, in which his own shadow is to stay. 
The manner of creation was as follows: The earth is a woman, 
the sky is a man. The earth was sterile and barren, but a drop 
of rain fell upon the earth when she was asleep, causing concep- 
tion. Two gods were born in the west, thousands of miles 
away. They were Kukumatz and his brother Tochipa. The 
earth and sky had other children — a brother and a sister. 
The sister was the "queen of the sky," but the brother died, 
and now lies on the top of Spirit Mountain. The Mojaves 
had the story of the deluge: The water remained very high and 
all the land was covered; but Mustamho took the Mojaves in his 
big arms and carried them until the water receded. 

The Thlinkeets say the raven supplied both fire and water. 
The fire was hid away in an island in the ocean, but he flew to 
it and brought back a brand in his mouth. A personage called 
Khamikh kept all the fresh water in a well in an island east of 
Sitka, and over the well he built his hut. Yehl set out in his 
canoe to secure the water, but Chinook took off his hat and 
there arose a dense fog and Yehl found himself completely help- 
less in the darkness. The old sorcerer put on his hat again and 
the fog vanished. He then invited Yehl to his house and showed 
him the well. Yehl drank what fresh water be could and then 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 143 

attempted to fly through the chimney, but stuck in the flue. 
The old man made up a roaring fire and scorched his crafty 
guest. The raven before was a white bird, but he was smoked 
in the chimney and has ever since been black. Yehl escaped 
from the island, flew back to the continent and scattered water 
in every direction. Whatever small drops fell are now springs 
and creeks, and large drops are now lakes and rivers. 

The natives of Mt. Shasta say the Great Spirit made this 
mountain first of all, and that he planted the first trees by put- 
ting his finger into the soil. He gathered leaves from the trees 
and blew upon them and they became birds. He took a stick 
and broke it into pieces; from the small end he made fishes, from 
the middle of the stick he made animals and from the big end 
he made the grizzly bear. The creator made a wigwam for him- 
self out of the mountain; the smoke of which is seen curling up 
from the mountain. In Washington, the family of giants once 
lived — four brothers and a sister. These giants had a contest 
with the monster beaver, which they caught at the falls of Palouse 
river and tore it to pieces, and from the pieces made the various 
tribes. 

The fire myth of the Mojaves is as follows: When Matyavela 
died he was to be cremated, but there was no fire. The blue fly 
put a star in the sky. The coyote was fooled — he thought it 
was a spark of fire, and so scampered off to bring in the star. 
He came back on the full run, the blaze following him. All the 
animals were present at the funeral; the body was cremated, all 
but the heart.* 

The California tribes have a tradition that before the material 
world appeared there lived two beings, a brother and sister — 
the brother living above, and his name meaning the Heavens; the 
sister living below and her name signifying the Earth. The 
earth and sands were the first fruits of this marriage, afterwards 
the rocks and stones, then trees, both great and small; then 
grass and herbs, then animals were created, and lastly was born 
a great personage called Quiot. This Quiot became old and 
died and was cremated, and another divinity arose who distrib- 
uted (x>wers among the descendants of Quiot, one of whom 
should bring rain, another dew, another make the acorn grow, 
others should cause all kind of game to abound and the harvest 
to be sure. He made man out of the clay of the lake and 
formed him, male and female. This invisible all-powerful being 
was called Nocuma. The place of worship was an unroofed 
enclosure of stake, within which was placed the image of the 
god. This image was made of the skin of a coyote. The en- 
closure was called Vanquech, and was very sacred. It was a 
city of refuge, and had rights of sanctuary, exceeding any ever 
granted in Jewish times. 

•Sm Joaroal of AoMilaui Folklore, article on Lieateoaiit Boiirke. VoL II« p. 169^ 



144 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

III. The story of creation as held by the mountain tribes is 
interesting because of its general resemblance to that which is so 
common throughout the globe, and is so unique in its imagery. 
We shall take up the tribes in their order, but would call 
attention to these points as they may be brought out by the myths. 
I. The "creator" or "earth-maker" among these tribes was, as we 
have said, either an hermaphrodite being who combined in him- 
self both sexes, or was a pair of gods, one male and the other 
female, both, however, dwelling together and ruling over the 
elements with united sway. 2. The divinities were born upon the 
mountains and were clothed with adornments which were bor- 
rowed from the mountains — clouds for garments, shells for 
necklaces, mists for feather head-dresses, turquois and colored 
stones for bracelets. They wore skirts which were of different 
colors, resembling the colors of the rocks, but their bodies were 
painted with white streaks, to represent the white lightning, and 
wore sashes which had all the colors of the rainbow, and mocca- 
sins which were painted the colors of the sky. 3. They dwelt 
in houses whose roof was arched as the sky is arched, over 
which was spanned the humanized rainbow, the arms and head 
reaching the earth upon one side and the thighs and legs upon 
the other, but the body stretching as a many colored ribbon over 
the vaulted roof. This conception seems strange among this 
remote people, for it is exactly the same as that which was held 
by the Egyptians, who always represented the sky divinity as a 
goddess, whose body stretched across the vault of the heavens 
and whose beautiful and tapering arms and legs rested upon the 
earth. The Egyptian goddess was often represented as double, 
thus making a double vault, the lower one for the stars, the 
upper one for the sun and moon and various planets. The stars 
are represented as mythologic persons sailing along in boats, 
but the sun is represented as a winged orb, and the moon is rep- 
resented as a scarabaeus or beetle, whose wings are widespread. 
4. Another striking analogy between the symbolism of these 
widely separated nations consisted in shaping constellations in 
the sky which were exactly the same. The pleiades, or seven 
stars, were known to all the American tribes, and especially to 
those who dwelt among the mountains. The morning star, the 
evening star, the seven stars which formed the great dipper 
and a part of the great bear were also known, and the "bear** 
himself is regarded as a supreme divinity allied to the "master 
of life" and the "earth-maker.** 

We seem to be brought, by these constellations, into a very 
subtle intercourse with all the nations of the earth, for the same 
grouping of the stars prevailed throughout all the tribes of 
America and were recognized by the most ancient nations of the 
east as constellations, and what is more, the same story is read 
by the most distant tribes and nations, the Scandinavians in 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 145 

Europe, the ancient inhabitants oi Thibet and of Mongoh'a, the 
Chinese in Hindoo, the people of Japan, the Incas of Peru, the 
Polynesians, the inhabitants of Occanica, as well as the white 
people of our own country, all read the same story in the sky, 
the constellations which were drawn by the ancient astrologers 
of the east having been interpreted by all the generations of 
their children, the tradition having been unconsciously translated 
into all the languages of the earth, and so transmitted from 
island to island and continent to continent, the very mountains 
of the earth waving them back as signs of recognition. Surely 
if the pictures of the sky are so well known and are so easily 
read by all the nations of the earth, we see no reaon why the 
"story of creation" might not also have been transmitted by the 
same hidden lines and interpreted by the same subtle tongues. 

The most interesting version of the creation myth is the one 
which is common to the Navajos and the Pueblos, and which 
represents the origin of all things to have been made in a dark 
cave underneath the earth. The following is the Navajo version 
of it: Our fathers dwelt in four worlds. In the first there 
were three — the first man and the first woman and the coyote. 
It was dark and the world was small, so they ascended to the 
second world. In the second world they found two other 
beings, the sun and the moon. This world was lighter than the 
first, but there was darkness in the cast which overspread the 
whole sky, while the blue light was in the south, the yellow light 
in the west, and a white light in the north. The world became 
too small. They came up to the third world and they found 
here a land which was bounded like their present home by the 
four mountains and a great water at each of the four points. 
Iteyond the mountains there was a great water, which was ruled 
by the ocean monster called Triholtsodi (he who seizes you in 
the sea). This monster became angry at the coyote because he 
had stolen two of his children. He caused the great waters to 
arise from the east, south, north and west and to flow over the 
land. The people took soil from all the four corner mountains 
and placing it on top the mountain which stood in the north, it 
began to grow. The waters continued to rise and the people 
climbed upwards to escape the flood. At length the mountain 
ceased to grow and they planted a great reed, into which they 
entered. The reed grew every night, but did not grow in the 
daytime. This is the reason that the reed has joints. At the 
end of the fourth night the reed had grown up to the floor — the 
fourth world. Here they found a hole through which they 
passed to the surface. Still their troubles did not end. The 
ocean had not found the children that were stolen, and caused 
the waters to rise as before. Once more the people were fugi- 
tives, but they escaped to the mountain and the reed. Instead 
of finding a hole through which they could pass it was solid 



146 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

earth like the roof of a cavern. At this the different animals 
were called upon to bore through the earth. The badger tried 
first, but the locust finally succeeded. He arrived at the surface 
of a lake. He saw four swans — black swan in the east, vellow 
in the west, blue in the south, and white swan in the north. The 
swans, when they saw the locust, arose from the lake and flew 
away. The locust then called to the people to come up. As 
they came up they beheld to their horror the water again rising, 
and looking down beheld the horns of the ocean monster. They 
searched among all their blankets and bundles* and finally threw 
down the bundles in which the coyote had kept the cubs of the 
ocean monster and threw these into the water. The ocean 
monster was appeased and retired, and so the people were left to 
pursue their peaceful life without danger from another flood. 
The peculiarity of the myth is, however, not the introduction oi 
the ocean monster, or even oi the numerous floods and the 
repeated escape of the people, but in the mention of the swans 
and of the mountain maidens, for in these we trace a very 
striking resemblance to the myths which formerly prevail among 
the Hindoos, and spread from them to the early inhabitants of 
Europe. 

The cloud maidens in the Vedas are known as Apas, "waters," 
and "brides of the gods" (devapatnis), "navigators of the celestial 
sea" (navyah),and related to them are the damsels whose habitat 
is between the earth and the sun, and called Apsarases^ "the form- 
less." They are the personifications of the mists. These Apsar- 
ases had shirts of swan plumage and it was by putting on these 
garments that they transformed themselves into swans. The 
German and Norse swan maidens were in the habit of taking ofl 
their swan shirts and leaving them on the margin of the lake 
where they bathed.f 

Another story of the Navajos is to the effect that the moun- 
tain gods were born on the top of the mountains out of the union 
of the dark cloud and the fleecy cloud, but they are brother and 
sister as well as companions. They seem to have been engen- 
dered from ears of corn, as corn was the product of the rain 
clouds, and in this respect resembled the gods of the east. These 
are always personated in the sacred dramas and are the chief 
objects in the sand-paintings. They are generally represented 
as having human form but dressed in all the colors of the rain- 
bow.J The Pueblos have a similar myth which they embody in 
their house architecture, especially that of the kivas. In the bot- 

*See American Antiquarian for April, 1883. 

tSee Kelly's Curiosities of Indo-Luropean Traditions and Folk- Lore. 

Vritra is the demon who makes these brides of the ffods captive and forces them to 
become the brides of the fiends until they are rescued by mdra. The dark cavern in which 
they are imprisoned is the dark storm cloud. 

tSee the Navajo Ceremony of Hastjllti Dailjis, by Jas. Stevenson, 8th Annual Report. 
See The Mountain Chant, by ]3r. Washington Matthews, sth Annual Report of the Bureau 
of Ethnology. 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 147 

torn of the kiva beneath the floor level is the sipa puh with its 
cavity beneath the floor, and is regarded as the place of begin- 
ning — ^the lowest house under the earth, the abode of the creator 
Myuingwa, The main floor or lower floor represents the second 
stage. In the kivas there is an elevated section of the floor 
or ledge which is made to denote the third stage where ani- 
mals were created. There is a ladder which passes through 
an opening in the kiva hatchway. This is the means by which 
the people passed up to the fourth world and to the outer air, 
the whole construction of the kivas typifying the four '•houses/* 
the four caves or four stages described in the creation myth.* 

The same conception prevailed among the Apaches and the 
Comanches, Navajos and Mojaves. Mr. H. H. Bancroft says 
that the Comanches acknowledge more or less vaguely a ser- 
pent spirit, but seemed to use the sun and earth as mediators or 
embodiments of him. Every Comanche wears a little figure 
of the sun attached to his neck, or has a picture of it painted 
on his shield. From the ears hang also two crescents, which 
possibly may represent the moon. The Apaches recognize a 
supreme power in heaven who is creator and master of all 
things, but they render him no open service or worship. 

The story as told by the Sia nation, a tribe on the Jemez River, 
and allied to the Tusayan, is our next illustration. The story is 
as follows: 

"In the beginning there was but one being and that was the 
spider; there were no other animals, birds, reptiles or living 
creature. The spider began to sing; the music was low and 
sweet. After awhile two women appeared, one was called Ut-set^ 
the other Now-ut-seL These were the first mothers, Ut-set the 
mother of the Sia Indians, Now ut-set of the other tribes, but the 
spider was the real creator." 

There were, according to this account, fourf* creations. Pat- 
a-ta-mo, the creation of the sun, moon, stars and all men of the 
earth, Ha-art. Ko-pish-taia, the creation of the lightning, 
thunder, rainbow, peoples and all animal life. Kat-su-na, the 
creation of beings who have human bodies but monster heads, 
that is the masked people who appear in the dances. 

The earth was called Haarts. It was produced at a second 
creation, at the same time with the clouds, thunder and rainbow. 
The earth was divided into six parts. The cardinal points, 
zenith and nadir. A mountain was placed in each part and on 
the summit a great tree; at the heart of the mountain a great 
spring. The tree, mountain and spring remind us of the Scandi- 
navian myth, though there were six instead of one tree for each 
division, each one different. The tree on the north was a spruce, 

*Se« 8th Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 1H5. 

tThe myth says three periods, but if we count the creation of the "earth mothers" as 
the first, it will make four epochs the number which is common among all the tribes of the 
Interior and among the ancient ciTilixed tribes of the southwest. 



148 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

on the west a pine, on the south the oak, on the east the aspen, 
on the zenith the cedar, in the nadir the pungens. A people 
were placed in the middle plain of the world called Tinia, who 
were mountain spirits, but they were surrounded by the clouds, 
which served as masks to protect them from the view of the 
other inhabitants. The people of the earth could not build 
houses, because it was dark, so they made houses for themselves 
by digging holes. 

The two mothers afterwards made the light. They created 
the sun from white shell, turquois, red-stone and abalone shell, 
four colors; the moon from black stone, and afterward created 
the star people, and made their eyes of beautiful, sparkling white 
crystal, that they might twinkle and brighten the world at night. 
The last which they created were beings who had human bodies 
and monster heads, who were personated by men and women 
who wear masks. The sun wears a shirt of dressed deerskin, 
leggins and moccasins, and kilt having a snake painted on it, 
and carries a bow and arrows and a quiver, eagle plumes, has 
a face red like fire and hair around the head. Each day he 
makes his ascent and passes over the world, stopping morn, 
noon and night to take his three meals. He passes by the house 
of the spider by an underground path on his return, and reports 
the number ol births and deaths during the day,* The most re- 
markable myth is that in which is found the story about the stars. 
It is as follows: The spider, Sussestinnako^ placed a reed upon 
the top of the mesa and called Ut-set, who led the way, carrying a 
sack containing many of the star people. Ut-sct then called the 
Scarabaeus and gave him the sack of stars, telling him to pass 
out first with the sack. The little animal did not know what 
the sack contained, but he grew very tired carrying it, and he 
wondered what could be in the sack. After entering the new 
world he was very tired, and laying the sack down he thought 
he would peep into it and see its contents. He cut a tiny hole 
into it. The stars began flying out and filling the heavens every- 
where. When Ut-set looked for the sack she found it nearly 
empty, only a few stars left. These Ut-set took and distributed 
into the heavens. In one group she placed the "seven stars," 
the "great bear;" in another three of the stars in Orion; in another 
group the "Pleiades." Reaching the top of the reed the solid 
earth barred the exit; but Ut set called uf>on the locust first to 
go througjh; then the badger next to make the hole larger; then 
the deer, the elk, and the bufiTalo. 

The cloud, lightning and rainbow people followed the Sia into 
the upper world. They make their homes in the springs. These 
people labor to water the earth. The water is brought from the 
springs at the base of the mountains in gourds, jugs and vases 

*The latter conception of the underground pass^e is a very common one among all 
the tribes of the interior, and known also to the lohabitanta of Hawaii.— See Ellis. 



THE STORY OF CREATION. 149 

which are placed at the base of the tree and then pass through 
the heart to the trunk of the tree, and then pass on the air to be 
sprinkled over the earth. The gods are the rulers of the cloud 
people; but they each have their priests and cult societies just as 
the people below have. The thunder people have human forms 
with wings of knives, and by flapping the wings they make a 
great noise. The rainbow people were created to make the sky 
more beautiful for the people of the earth. There are different 
kinds of cloud people — //rw;/^/i are white floating clouds, and 
I leash are clouds like the plains. The place where the people 
emerged was far to the north and its opening was known as 
Shipapn, Here they built a village. Their only food was seeds 
of certain grasses; but Utset made fields north, west, east and 
south of the village and planted bits of her heart from which the 
corn sprang up, thus doing the same thing for the benefit of her 
people that the woman divinity of the Iroquois did for her peo- 
ple. Such is the story as told by this people. We notice in it 
one peculiarity and that is that the earth-makers are in this myth 
called earth-mothers and that the creator is a female. There are, 
however, other tribes which have the same traditions. 

IV, Of all American peoples the Quiches, of Guatemala, have 
left us the richest mythological legacy. Their description of the 
creation as given in the Popol Vuh, which may be called the 
national book of the Quiches, is, in its rude, strange eloquence 
and poetic originality, one of the rarest relics of aboriginal 
thought. Although obliged, in reproducing it, to condense 
somewhat, I have endeavored to give not only the substance, 
but also, as far as possible, the peculiar style and phraseology of 
the original. It is with this primeval picture, whose simple, 
silent sublimity is that of the inscrutable p.ist, that we begin: 
"And the heaven was formed, and all the signs thereof set in 
their angle and alignment, and its boundaries fixed towards the 
four winds by the Creator and I'^ormer, and Mother and Father of 
life and existence, he by whom all move and breathe, the Father 
and Cherisher of the peace of nations and of the civilization of 
his people; he whose wisdom has projected the excellence of all 
that is on the earth, or in the iakes, or in the sea. The face of 
the earth had not yet appeared — only the peaceful sea and all 
the space of heaven. There was nothing yet joined together, 
nothing that clung to anything else; nothing that balanced itself, 
that made the least rustling, that made a sound in the heaven. 
There was nothing that stood up; nothing but the quiet water, 
but the sea, calm and alone in its boundaries; nothing existed; 
nothing but immobility and silence, in the darkness, in the night. 
Alone also the Creator, the Former, the Dominator, the Feathered 
Serpent — those that engender, those that give being, they arc 
upon the water, like a cjrowing light. They are enveloped in 
green and blue, and therefore their name is Gucumatz. Lo, now 



150 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN, 

how the heavens exist, how exist also the Heart of Heaven; such 
is the name of God; it is thus that he is called. And they spake; 
they consulted together and meditated; they mingled their words 
and their opinion, and the creation was verily after this wise: 
Earth, they said, and on the instant it was formed; like a cloud 
or a fog was the beginning. Then^he mountains rose over the 
water like great lobsters; in an instant the mountains and the 
plains were visible, and the cypress and the pine appeared. 
Then was the Gucumatz filled with joy, crying out: Blessed be 
thy coming, O Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, Thunderbolt. Our 
work and our labor has accomplished its end. The earth and 
its vegetation having thus appeared, it was peopled with the 
various forms of animal life. 

Again the gods took counsel together; they determined to 
make man. So they made man of clay, and when they had 
made him they saw that it was not good. He was without 
cohesion, without consistence, motionless, strengthless, inept, 
watery; he could not move his head, his face looked but one 
way; his sight was restricted, he could not look behind him; he 
had been endowed with language, but he had no intelligence, so 
he was consumed in the water. The bird Xecotcovach came to 
tear out their eyes; and the Camalotz cut off their head; and the 
Cotzbalam devoured their flesh; and the Tecumbalm broke and 
bruised their bones to powder. Once more are the gods in 
counsel; in the darkness, in the night of a desolate universe do 
they commune together; of what shall we make man? and the 
Creator and Former made four perfect men; and wholly of yellow 
and white maize was their flesh composed. They had neither 
father nor mother, neither were they made by the ordinary agents 
in the work of creation; but their coming into existence was a 
miracle extraordinary, wrought by the special intervention of 
him who is pre-eminently the Creator. Verily, at last, were 
there found men worthy of their origin and their destiny; verily, 
at last, did the gods look on beings who could see with their 
eyes, and handle with their hands, and understand with their 
hearts. Grand of countenance and broad of limb the four sires 
of our race stood up under the white rays of the morning sun — 
sole light as yet of the primeval world — stood up and looked." 



A VISIT TO THE SCENE OF ROMONA. 151 



A VISIT TO THE SCENE OF RAMONA. 

Nestling against the foothills of the San Bernardino Mount- 
ains, a spur of the great Sierra Madre range, is the old Indian 
village of Saboba. It is the most picturesque of all the strange 

E laces in Southern California. President Eliot, of Harvard 
niversity. is quoted as saying that nowhere else under the 
stars and stripes can the priqiitive, easy life among the Indians, 
such as Cortez and Coronado found in Mexico and Arizona, be 
better studied than in Saboba vallev. Here the Indians, now 
a mere remnant of a once powerful tribe, which owned nearly 
all of California south of San Francisco and the whole of the 
peninsula of Lower California, can be seen living in the same 
spot and in almost the same way as their ancestors, employing 
much the same rude implements of agriculture that the Sabo- 
bans used when Balboa first looked out upon the Pacific. 

Here lived, until a year ago, Chief Vistorianno, who was 
undoubtedly the oldest man in America at the time. He reachd 
the extraordinary age of 139 years. The Sabobans have cher- 
ished their traditions and have preserved the best Indian 
literature (if that word may be used) of any tribe in the south- 
west. There can be no doubt as to the genuineness of the 
dates they give in their tribal history and the records of the 
lives of the old men. The Franciscan missionaries, who came 
from Spain to California to christianize the red savages in the 
latter part of the eighteenth century, found the Sabobans the 
most tractable of any tribes and the padres learned from them 
almost all that we now know of the early Indians of the Pacific 
coast. The name of the village, which in the mouths of the 
Indians takes on a far more musical sound than its appearance 
in type would appear to make possible, is familiar enough to 
all readers of Helen Hunt Jackson's romance ••Ramona,'* some 
of whose most thrilling, though apocryphal scenes arc located 
here'. The greater number of those readers doubtless have set 
down the village of Saboba as being as much the fiction of the 
imagination as the remainder of the tale which gave it fame, 
and they may be surprised to learn that such a place actually 
exists and in one ot the loveliest valleys in the Golden State. 

Thousands of people come and go at San Jacinto, the thriv- 
ing town of modern build, four miles or so distant, without 
knowing that close at hand is this ancient Indian rancheria, and 
the "oldest inhabitant" receives with an expression of surprise 
any inquiry concerning the place. He cannot for the lite of 
bim see why anybody should care to concern himself with the 
abiding-places of a lot of Indians. Some there are, however, 
in the town who take the liveliest and friendliest interest in the 



152 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

remnant of the tribe of Saboba, or Pachango, Indians, who 
cling so tenaciously to the spot where their forefathers dwelt 
from time immemorial. 

A gentleman chanced to have a few spare hours at his dis- 
posal on the occasion of a recent visit to this locality a few 
days ago, and the subject of "Ramona" having been broached, 
it was suggested that a visit to Saboba and a possible call on 
Senora Ramona herself, who is a resident of that neighborhood, 
might afford an agreeable experience. 

It was a lovely morning in midwinter in the semi-tropics. 
The hills that surround the valley like an amphitheater were 
green with their growth of wild grasses, the plain was carpeted 
with flowers of varied hue which filled the air with their 
fragrance. The atmosphere was fresh with the breeze from the 
pine-clad mountains, whose snowy summits towered 7,000 and 
8,000 feet in the near distance. Orange groves, olive orchards 
and fields of alfafa stretched across the valley from mountain 
base to foothills. 

From San Jacinto the road runs up the valley for a short 
distance and enters the thickets of guatemote that line the bed 
of the San Jacinto River. With a watchful eye for quicksands 
the stream is crossed; then a belt of willow jungle is traversed, 
the road being only a single track, almost overgrown with 
brush, and when this is passed a belt of clear land is reached 
and we arc in the outskirts of Saboba. 

There are some little vineyards and orchards, the vines and 
trees in which appear to have been planted in haphazard fash- 
ion, without regard to straight lines. There are two Indians 
plowing in their little fields — that is to say, they are supposed 
to be doing so. The oxen stand, with heads down, apparently 
asleep, while in the shade of the blossoming peach trees sit the 
two toilers, lazily rolling and smoking cigarettes. They have 
done perhaps a dozen furrows this afternoon and this is doubt- 
less the fourth or fifth time they have halted to have a neigh 
borly smoke and a monosyllable chat. 

The scene is thoroughly typical of the Indian character. It 
is diflficult enough to keep one of the tribe at work under the 
watchful eye of a white overseer, but when he is his own mas- 
ter and servant at the same time he becomes most gloriously 
careless of the passage of time and heedless of the condition of 
the work to be performed. So long as he has a pouch of 
tobacco in his pocket, a shelter, no matter how rude, for his 
head, a blanket, a pair of overalls and a shirt for his body, with 
the wherewithal for filling his stomach at more or less regular 
intervals, he is "muy contento." 

Why should he worry? The year is long, and after that 
another will come, and then another, and so on to the end. 
Why work one's self to death, like foolish Americano? Do 
not the birds, when building their nests pause frequently and 
twitter to each other as they sway side by side on the bough? 
Why should a man pretend to know more than a bird ? There 



A VISIT TO THE SCENE OF ROMONA. 153 

is plenty of time to prepare the beans, the maize, frijolc and 
sandia patches, not for^ettin^ the rows of chiles. Where is 
the harm, then, if Pedro and Kamona sit down in the shtide for 
a quite smoke, or even a comfortable little snooze, with the 
snowy branches sending down showers of pink and white petals, 
and the meadow larks over yonder in the willows singing sweetest 
melodies? "Manana— manana" — never do to-day what you 
can just as well put off till to-morrow. That is the Indian's 
philoso|)hy, and as he appears to thrive and be happy upon it, 
who shall say his is not the most sensible way of getting 
through life? Go over into the American settlement yonder 
and see the white men rushinij to and fro from early morning 
until late at night, driving, hurrying, as onh an American does. 
Yet what does he get out ot life more than the Indian? 

Now the road climbs u|) on the mesa above the bottom lands, 
which have been tilled by the Indians these hundred years. 
The strip of arable land is small, hence none may be wasted in 
roads, which are relegated to the barren mesa, where no water 
is. Down below a row of Cottonwood trees — their soft, downy 
blossoms floating away on the breeze and making little drifts 
in the road -marks the line of the zania which carries the 
water from the river to the little fields of the Indians. 

And, by the way, these poor, miserable, ignorant, untutored 
savages have hit upon a solution of the land question which is 
the acme of fairness and which all the combined wisdom of iiges 
cannot well surpass. It is nothing more nor less than a |)rac- 
tical and successful exem|)lification of the theories of those 
who do not believe in individual ownership of land. To begin 
with, none of the villagers are speculative farmers — that is to 
say, none of them care to raise larger crops or cultivate more 
land than will |)rovide for the sim|)le wants of their families. 
None desire to accumulate beyond that point. So each year 
the village chief allots to these who apply such tracts of land 
as they desire to cultivate. No man is given control over a 
larger area than he actually cultivates, and there is enough for 
all. So long as a man desires the piece of land and will care 
for it he can retain it, but the moment he refrains from culti- 
vating the whole or any portion of it, then it is taken away, 
(provided any one wants it. Hut no one owns an acre of land. 
[t belongs to the tribe as a whole and is subject to the control 
of the captain, in whose decisions all accjuiesce. — The Recotd, 
Apnl /J, iSgj. 



154 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



STOCKADES AND EARTHWORKS IN NEW ZE ALAND. 

By Elsdon S. Best. 

Although we do not see the numerous remains of fortified 
pas here that are met with at Taranaki, Turanga and other 
places, yet this is to be accounted for by the fact that the nature 
of the soil prevented the forming of the pa maioro or earthwork 
defences in this Land of Tara. Therefore most of their forts 
were formed of stockades consisting of large posts or tree 
trunks set upright in the ground and bound by long horizontal 
saplings to which the palisading was lashed. Such were the 
Maupuia, Oruati, Mata-ki-kai-poinga, and other old-time pas of 
Hataitai. Also the ancient pa known as Ngutuihe, which was 
situated on Pukeatua, and close to the road from Waiwhetu to 
Te Wai-nui-o-Mata, the Korohiwa opposite Mana, and many 
others. One ancient earthwork pa was situated on the summit 
of a spur up the Korokoro stream, and another was the historic 
Waimapihi at Pukerua. Probably the strongest fortified place 
in the district was Te Pa-o-Kapo, which was situated on a small 
headland projecting from the cliff between Whitireia and Titahi 
Bay, at Porirua. Three sides of this headland were perpendicu- 
lar cliffs, with the exception of a narrow passage down to the 
sea, and on the fourth it was connected with the mainland by a 
narrow neck of land which had evidently been cut away in 
former times, and a deep ditch formed. Above this ditch was 
a stockade of huge totara posts, of which some of the stumps 
are still to be seen. Inside this was another embankment and 
palisade, so that the whole must have formed a very strong for- 
tress in those gunless days. 

Thus by building numerous forts on their lands, and by alli- 
ances with the powerful Ngatikahungunu of Wairarapa did the 
Ngati-ira hold possession of the land of Tara and become pow- 
erful as a tribe. As time wore on there arose within them that 
strong love for their lands and pride in their own tribal name, 
which would seem to be ever-strongly implanted in the minds 
of a people who dwell amongst hills or mountains. Why is it 
that a hill-dwelling people are ever more independent and pos- 
sess a greater love for their country than do the residents of 
the plains? Possibly because the surrounding scenery is more 
sublime and ennobling, and therefore more liable to develop a 
thinking people, and to endow that people with a powerful 
love for their native lands. 

I think it is Spencer, in his "Development of the Human 
Species," who says, "For the mighty aspects of nature, forest, 
mountain and sea, play their part in moulding the character 

nf a natinn " 



STOCKADES AND EARTHWORKS IN NEW ZEALAND. ISS 

Memories of past scenes come back upon me as I write these 
lines, scenes that will never fade from mv mental vision until 
I too shall descend by the sacred pohutukawa root that leads 
to the rertnga wairua. Back over the space of years comes 
the remembrance of the grand panorama which greeted my 
eyes as I gazed upon the forest ranges of Tutuila one sunny 
morning in the long ago. Grander yet was that scene which 
lay before me as 1 looked from the summit of the Sierra 
Madre in far away New Mexico, where from the Great Conti- 
nental Divide I beheld the Rio Grande speeding away to the 
Mexique Gulf, and saw far across the western desert the line 
of green cottonwoods which marks the head waters of the Rio 
Gila, ever hurrying onward to the Vermilion Sea. The man 
who could thus look down upon that mighty mass Of sombre, 
rugged mountains and mile deep canons, on those desolate 
mesas with their strange relics of an ancient stone-building race, 
on the great waterless desert stretching away to the Gulf of 
California, and yet not experience that singular sensation of 
mingled awe and exaltation which comes to most minds at such 
a time — then do I maintain that he is only fitted for the plains- 
man's life, and that his intellectual faculties are inferior to 
those of the Children of Ira. 

The love that the Ngati-Ira had for their lands is shown in 
the many songs and proverbial sayings which have been pre- 
served by their descendants. It is but a few weeks since that 
I stood on a hill overlooking the harbor of Tara in company 
with a lineal descendant of the great chief Whanake and his 
famous wife Tamairangi, and well do I remember the tone in 
which he spoke of the lost lands of his tribe. How well he 
knew every point and hill, bay and flat, stream and forest, and 
the old names thereof, together with many strange tales con- 
nected with them. With what pride he pointed out the scenes 
of former combats in which his people had been victorious, 
and recounted to me the legends of the land of Tara. How 
earnest he was in showing me the places named in remembrance 
of his ancestors, such as Te Papa-o-Tara on Matiu (Soames* 
Island) and Te Ana-o-Kahungunu (the cave of Kahungunu) 
at Nga Mokopuna (the rocky islets off the North end of 
Matiu), which was ever held a sacred spot by the Ngati-Ira, so 
much so that no fisherman dared cast line or net there. How 
he described to me the beautiful appearance of the harbor in 
those pre-pakeha days, when the hills were covered with forest, 
which extended down to the water's edge, the flocks of wild 
fowl which frequented the beaches of Whioru, Pito-one and 
Waitangi, and the favorite fishing grounds of his tribe. How 
different the harbor of Tara seemed to him in those past days 
before Te Atiawa had caused the streams of Heretaunga and 
Waiwhetu, of Te Koro-koro, Okaitu and Tiakiwai to run red 
with the blood of the Ngati-Ira. How blue the water was, how 
bright the sky, how green and beautiful the forests of Ohiti 
and Pukeatua, of Whata-ahiahi and Papakawhero. 



156 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Coniinc: down to later times he spoke of the encroachments 
of the white people and the disappearance of the Maori in their 
old-time homes. No trace of an^er or resentment could I 
detect in his words or tone, but a certain spirit of proud melan- 
choly and despondency, as he said: — ''Very great is my love for 
this land. Look you, friend! The pakehas increase in the 
world while the Maori dies before them. What says our old 
proverb? * Ka ttgara ite vgaro a te moa * (lost like the losing of 
the moa). E Hoa! That proverb is for the Maori. Therefore 
I say to you, do not cause the genealogies and sacred knowledge 
of my tribe to be printed in \\\c pakeha newspapers for ignorant 
people to stare at, but kecj) these things in your heart, that 
your thoughts may be good of the Maori when they have gone 
to join the lost mora, E Koro! This saying is for me and my 
people." 



— o - 



THK DISCOVERY OF A NEW TRIBE OF INDIANS. 

The remnant of a once powerful Indian tribe, which is now 
nearly extinct, has been discovered by Dr. Franz Boas, near 
the head of Portland Canal, in the Naas River country. Of 
the once numerous people that ranged the great extent of 
country from Behm's canal, in Alaska, to Cape Fox and ex- 
tending down to the lower |)art of the Naas River, only twelve 
souls remain. They have lost their very name, for their present 
name Tsutsout is taken from the Naas River language. These 
Indians differ in appearance and measurements from the other 
Indians of that part of the country and are without doubt a 
distinct tribe. 

Dr. Boas |)ut in some time also examining the Naas River 
Indians, took many measurements of the people and brought 
back many of their traditions. lie finds they .show marked 
differences from other Coast Indians. Thev are shorter than 
the llaidahs. l)Ut larger than the X'ancouver Island Indians, but 
the great peculiarity about them is the broadness of their faces, 
which are about a third of an inch wider than those of other 
Indians. Dr. Boas considers that thev are an offshoot of the 
Athabaskan tribes, which roam from the Rockies to the shores 
of Hudson's Bay. The data he has collectetl Dr. Boas will 
com|)are with meavurement^ and other inf»)rmation he has when 
he returns to the East. 

After spending some four weeks among the Naas River 
Indians. Dr. Boas then went to I'Ort Rupert, where he felt 
j)retty well at home, as he had been there before and is well 
known among the Indians. A family peculiarity of the Fort 
Ruperts, he says, is their immense noses, big prominent fellows, 
ijuite different from the snubs and flats of the other Indians. 



THE CHOCTAW ROBIN GOODFELLOW. 157 



THE CHOCTAW ROBIN GOODFKLLOW. 

Bv II. S. Halhkrt. 

As something that may interest the readers of the Amkrican 
Antkjuakian, 1 ^ive them a curious bit of Choctaw folk-lore. 

The Choctaws in Mississippi say that there is a little man. 
about two feet hij^h, that dwells in the thick woods and is solitary 
in his habits. This little sprite or hobgoblin is called by the 
Choctaws Bohpoli, or Kowi anukasha, both names beinj^ used 
indifferently or synonymously. The translation of Bohpoli is 
the "Thrower.*' The translation of Kowi anukasha is "The one 
who stays in the woods," or, to [^ive a more concise translation. 
"Forest-dweller." Bohpoli is represented as being somewhat 
sportive and mischicvious but not malicious in his nature. The 
Choctaws say that he often playfully throws sticks and stones 
at the people. Kvery mysterious noise heard in the woods, 
whether by day or night, they ascribe to Bohpoli. He takes 
special pleasure, they say, in striking the pine trees. A young 
Indian once told me that one night, whilst camped in the 
woods, he was awakened out of a deep sleep by a loud noise 
made on a pine tree by Bohpoli. Bohpoli. or Kowi anukasha. 
is never seen by the common Choctaws. The Choctaw prophets 
and doctors, however, claim the power of seemg him and of 
holding communication with him. The Indian doctors say that 
Bohpoli assists them in the manufacture of their medicines. 
Most Choctaws say or think that there is but one Bohpoli. In 
the opinion of others there may be more than one. 

Can it be that this bit of Choctaw folk-lore is a dim tradition- 
ary reminiscence of some race of dwarf people, with which, at 
some remote period, the prehistoric Choctaws may have come 
in contact? 



o 



SUBMERGED FORESTS AND PEAT BEDS. 

The bulletin of the Essex Institute, Salem. Mass., has the 
following summar}' of the changes in the height of the land 
and in the soils which have been recognized on the borders of 
the sea near Salem — changes which are as marked as are those 
found in the valley of the Mississippi or on the borders of the 
great lakes. The evidence of man's antiquity in any of 
these regions is thus far lacking, or at le.ist not proven, and 
yet the time may come when the date of man's ap[)earancc 
even in America may be carried back two or three stages, and 
his antiquity proven to be equal to that in Europe and the 
American division of prehistoric time become conformed to 
the European; or shall we say that possibly the European 



158 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

finds in caves and peat beds will yet be found to be as modern 
as those in America. The writer first speaks of the localities 
and then gives conclusions as follows: 

There are several places at Nahant where peat beds are seen 
at or near low water mark. One in the southwest cove of 
Crescent beach is quite extensive and contains many logs and 
stumps of old forest trees; another on the northwest side of 
Little Nahant is of similar character. Lynn harbor and the 
marshes of Saugus furnish numerous examples of old peat 
beds in which large logs of pine and oak lie embedded below 
the recent accumulation of marine peat and salt grass roots. 
At Chelsea beach, a few years ago, some excitement was oc- 
casioned by the supposed discovery of a supply of natural 
gas. No doubt the decay going on in one of these old peat 
beds and the throwing off of marsh gas caused the disturbance. 

On the Beverly shore are many stumps of forest trees which 
may be seen, when the water is clear and still, at a depth of 
twelve or fourteen feet at low tide. A piece secured from one 
of these stumps proved it to be white pine. In Kettle cove, 
Manchester, there is one large oak stump four feet below low 
water mark. On Kettle cove beach a good section of the sub- 
merged area is visible at low water during the spring tides. 
Near the old road bed, inside of Crow's Island, the marine peat 
and salt grass roots are from ten to fourteen inches thick. 
Directly under the marine peat is a bed of leaf mould and fresh- 
water peat, from three to four and one-half feet in thickness, 
in which are found numerous logs of pine, spruce and white 
cedar and the branches of the ground yew ( Taxus canadensis), 
the last named remaining in its normal prostrate position. Below 
the peat are large oak stumps standing where the trees grew on 
glacial drift. While securing a specimen of one of the larger 
oak roots, scratched pebbles and grooved stones were found 
with oak roots growing around them in their natural position. 
From these observations it would appear: — ( i ) That the ancient 
oaks grew on the glacial till which became depressed; (2) that 
a lake formed on this area in which accumulated the peat and 
leaf mould upon which grew the pine, cedar, spruce and ground 
yew; that (3) this in turn became submerged and the marine 
peat and salt grass formed above it; and, lastly, (4) that the 
seaward slope has become so great that the waves are cutting 
into and carrying away these earlier formations and thus expos- 
ing them to view. Salem harbor furnishes additional evidence 
of subsidence. Oak stumps are often found in the coves, and 
on the land near Forest River are several oak stumps standing 
in beds of peat." 

The writer says according to previously accepted theories 
the Quaternary period was one of great and widely extended 
oscillations of the earth's crust. It was divided into three 
epochs: I. The Glacial. II. The Champlain. III. The Ter- 
race. During the Glacial epoch, in high latitudes, the land 
became elevated until the continents were from one to two 



SUBMERGED FORESTS AND PEAT BEDS. IS9 

thousand feet above their present height. The Champlain 
epoch, on the contrary, was characterized by a downward 
motion of land surfaces in these same regions, until the sea 
stood, relatively, from five hundred to one thousand feet above 
its present level. The Terrace epoch was characterized by the 
gradual rising of the land until the present conditions of the 
continents and their climate were attained. 

When the flood waters of the Champlain epoch, which un- 
doubtedly covered nearly all parts of New England, subsided 
and the land surfaces were elevated in the Terrace epoch, 
doubtless many of the so-called inland sand beaches and alluvial 
terraces were produced which are now faintly recognizable in 
some parts of Essex County. 

According to the Powellian theory (Prof. W. J. McGee) the 
sea bottom, being continually weighted down with the detritus 
furnished during the Glacial, Champlain and Terrace epochs, 
must have been depressed. The denuded inland hills and 
mountains which furnished this detritus that built up the drum- 
lins and kames and the deltas at the mouths of the streams. — 
the outer lobes of which have been cut away by the inroads of 
the sea, and which are now seen in the forms of marine marshes 
and clay beds, — being lightened of their loads, would naturally 
become elevated. 

But the study of the submerged forests and the comparison 
of soundings in our harbors indicate a different story for the 
later portion of the Terrace epoch, and necessitates a probable 
modincation of the theory, so far as it applies to this region. 

In this connection the following extract from an article in 
the Forum (June, 1890, p. 448) by Prof. W. J. McGee, entitled 
"Encroachments of the Sea," is of much interest. "The cau- 
tious estimate of the rate at which the New Jersey coast is 
sinking, made by the official geologist of that state, is two feet 
per century. Now the mean seaward slope of the coastal plain, 
mcluding its sub-aerial and submerged portions, is perhaps six 
feet per mile; so that each century's sinking would give a third 
of a mile and each rear a rod of low land to the ocean. This is 
probably the maximum rate for this country." The evidence 
of geographic outline furnished by "drowned rivers'* and half 
flooded and outlying islands indicates that the land has either 
been recently submerged or is now sinking. 

During the past summer. Lieutenant Ripley, U. S. N., and a 
corps of assistants, have been surveying Salem harbor in con- 
nection with the work of the U. S. Hydrographic Survey. Lieut. 
Ripley has authorized me to say that the results of his work 
show a greater depth of water overall the ledges in the harbor 
than was recorded by Dr. Bowditch in 1804-J. and that the sea- 
ward slope in the outer harbor has apparently deepened from 
one to one and one-half fathoms since that time. This cor- 
roboration of my observations is especially gratifying for the 
reason that I had no knowledge of the work of the survey until 
these results were obtained. 



i6o THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



From the accepted rate of subsidence, — two feet for each 
century, — and as indicated by my observations here, it is fair to 
assume that the peat beds stood in their normal position and 
that the trees, whose remains we find to-day beneath the ocean, 
were flourishing in their full growth from one thousand to 
twelve hundred years apfo. 



PRINTS OF THE HUMAN HAND IN THE RUINS OF 

THE CLIFF- DWELLINGS. 

Captain Jackson, of Mancos, (i^ivcs some interesting^ narratives 
of his finds among the ruins of cliff dwellers on the west fork 
of the Galena River says the Grtat Sauihwest, 

From pictures on the white walls of the ruins it is plain that 
the cliff dwellers inhabited that region when there were yet 
active volcanoes among the mountains. Captain Jackson 
describes one picture as representing three ranges of mount- 
ains, the lower one made of slate-colored pigment; the next 
Perfectly black, as if to represent pine timber, and a third range 
igher, perfectly white, representmg snow, and one peak show- 
ing dasnes of red radiating from the top, giving a ver>' good 
representation of an active volcano. 

in one canon ruins were found, half imbedded in lava and 
obsidian, or volcanic glass, and in the cinders and ashes, the 
charred bodies of the little people were found. 

In many of the rooms perfect outlines of the left hand of 
different cliff dwellers were found upon the walls. They seem 
to have a singular custom of making these impressions in the 
following simple manner: The left hand would be held flat 
af ainst the face of the wall, and the paint spattered on between 
the fingers and around the outside by the other hand. Thus 
when the left hand was removed the outline would be left upon 
the wall in more or less perfection. About the only consola- 
tion we get out of this queer cu.stom is the knowledge that they 
had small hands and that they were evidently "rignt-handed. ' 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. i6i 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 

By William C. Winslow. Sc. D.. L. H. D. 

The Temple of Queen Hatasu. — It is doubtless no idle figure 
or speech for Dr. Hogarth, ot the Egypt Exploration Fund 
staff, to write from Deir-el-Bahari (Thebes), under date of Jan- 
uary 1 8, that **the Funerary Temple of the XVI 1 Dynasty takes 
once more as conspicuous a place in the Theban landscape as 
the Memnonia of the XIX and XX Dynasties." Such is the 
progress of excavation at this unique temple, built by the 
greatest of queens in the Nile valley. Within a few weeks* 
time, over 42,000 cubic metres of rubbish have been removed 
from the North Court. Now the brilliantly white columns of 
the northern colonnade and hypostyle hall and the walls of the 
north and south porticoes show boldly against the yellow cliffs of 
the Libyan hills, which rise 350 feet, quite perpendicular, be- 
hind the temple, with the picturesque groups at work, the clear 
skies above, and, with an historic inspiration, an artist of name 
might make fame out of such a scene. 

I can now touch upon but three of many interesting points. 
Was this site ever pre-occupicd? Mariette thought that he de- 
tected remains of the small shrine of Mentuhotep II. of the VI 
Dynasty, when, in 1858, he disclosed the famous mural scene 
of the voyage to Punt. Dr. Navillc now finds no trace what- 
ever of that shrine, and through excavation reveals nothing in 
the enclosure, whether construction or debris, earlier than the 
time of Queen Hatasu. 

Where is the tomb of Queen Hatasu? It has been supposed 
that Mr. Rhind, in 1841, found her place of sepulchre near the 
temple The exclusive funerary character of most of her temple 
and its peculiar position against the cliffs have led to the belief 
that some concealed entrance to her tomb would be found 
within the enclosure. Indeed, Arab tradition still holds to that 
opinion. But so far Dr. Naville has discovered no such 
entrance. 

A bit of rare luck comes through Mr. Carter, of the staff. 
He has picked out of the disinterred ruins of the south wall 
the portrait of the lost kmg of Punt and much of the scenery 
of his land. These pictures of marsh-dwellings in tropical 
Africa, of a period at least 3,600 years ago, are of scientific 
value. It seems impossible to disinter an ancient Egyptian 
temple without several branches of science receiving a benefit; 
many men, however, still think that antiquarian lovers and a 
little fragment of history are alone favored. Quite emphati- 
cally the conservative Naville states that the two colonnades 
in the north-western corner of the middle platform are the 



i62 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

most perfect yet disclosed in that land. The side of art in such 
work as his is not the least important for consideration. 

The introductory volume entitled "The Temple of Deir-el- 
Bahari: Its Plan, Its Founders, and Its First Explorers/' has 
just arrived. Contents: I. The First Explorers, Chanipollion, 
Wilkinson, Lepsius. II. Mariette. III. Plan of the Temple. 
IV. The Family of the Thothmes V Hatshepsu {i. e. Hatasu.) 
VI. Hatshepsus' Naval Expedition to the Land of Punt. VII. 
End of Hatshepsu's Reigri, Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. 
The plates are superbly executed. All readers of this maga- 
zine, if unable to subscribe for this work, should see that their 
town or city library has it. The Annual Report of the Fund, 
also just received, shows a decrease in subscriptions and a 
deficit for the year. The Rev. Morgan Dix, D. D., D. C. L., of 
New York, offers to be one of ten to subscribe J50 each to form 
a special "Queen Hatasu Fund" of {500. 

Professor Sayce, ever on the alert, writes from his dahabeah 
that valuable clay seals have been found in a newly opened 
tomb on the east bank below Siut, on one of which is the title 
of a commander of the soldiers of Pepi, of the sixth dynasty. 
These little treasures are the by-play of archaeological research. 
Dr. Naville, for instance, picked up a crystal bead bearing the 
name of Senmut, the architect of Queen Hatasu's temple. 

Profssor Petrie, the Hawkeye among archaeologists (as 
James Fenimore Cooper would have named him), has found 
opposite Coptos (where he delved last season) some graves 
and temple remains, the latter bearing the name of Thothmes 
III. This temple he calls "the Ombos of Denderah, the natives 
of which warred against the Denderites." This was the idea 
advanced by Dumichen, and Petrie thinks he has verified it. 

Professor Petrie puts in another spoke into his ever-revolving 
wheel of corroborations. Touching the list of names of Thoth- 
mes III. at Karnak, he says that last year he got at Coptos an 
altar dedicated to Baal Yakub in the last year of Caracalla. 
Now he has a scarab marked Yakeb-hez, the name having the 
same signs as in the list of Thothmes, and the date of the ninth 
to tenth dynasty. "Here, then," he says, "we have the god 
Yakub in 3100 B C, in 1450 B. C, and in 217 A. D." 

In the July Antiquarian I alluded to Prof. Petrie's belief 
that he had found at Coptos relics of a period contemporane- 
ous with the stone age in Europe. The great work of Maspero, 
Les Origines, recently published, declares that "nothing, or all 
but nothing, has come down to us from the primitive races of 
Egypt; we cannot with any certainty attribute to them the 
majority of the flint weapons and implements which have been 
discovered in various places."* And Erman remarks that "the 
learned men of Egypt imagined the time before their first 
kin^ Menes to have been a sort of golden age, in which the 

*The Dawn of Civilization, p. 49. 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 163 

gods reigned; learned men of modern times call the same 
period the stone age; both theories arc certainly ingenious, but 
both are alike difficult to prove."t So far as I have looked 
into the matter, the excavation of flint knives and flakes at 
Coptos docs not, as a consequence of their form and substance, 
touch prehistoric times. 

Prof. Pctrie announces, in the Academy of April 20, that he 
has discovered the graves and remains of an hitherto unknown 
race on the soil of Egvpt, and that his work the past season 
produces •*results" "filling the greatest blank in Egyptian his- 
tory." He claims for them a period between the IVth and 
Xllth Dynasties. This, if true, dispels the notion, at first con- 
veyed, that he had found evidences of a prehistoric race. He 
thinks the race a cross between the Libyans and the Amorites. 
They used metal and flint, and the variety and fineness of their 
pottery is surprising. Farther and established evidences of 
this remarkable discovery, between Ballas and Negada, will be 
welcomed by the anthropological world. 

The tomb of Scnmut, the famous architect of the temple of 
Queen Hatasu, has just been discovered by Mr. Newberry, of 
the Fund, and Prof. Steindorff, at Gurneh, consisting of three 
chambers claboratelv decorated. 

Prof. Adolf Ermax. Ph. D., has just accepted the position 
of vice president of the Egypt Exploration Fund for Germany. 

Professor Reginald Stuart Poole, D. C. L., LL. D., who 
died in London on February 8, was eminent in the domain of 
archctology. Tyndall said of him as a lecturer that no one was 
more welcome to the Royal Institution. His varied attain- 
ments as numismatist, linguist, Egyptologist and in Biblical 
lore were, as a whole, unequaled by any other man of our age. 
His main pillar of fame is in the British Museum; a very 
finished shaft has been his chair of archaeology in University 
College. He took the place of Miss Amelia B. Edwards as 
honorary secretary of the Egypt Exploration Fund. 

The position of Punt is being clearly shown by various 
circumstantial discoveries of interest. Dr. Naville, having re- 
united many pieces of mural sculpture dug up at Deir-el-Bahari, 
says that its African character comes out more and more 
clearly. Although the name of Punt may have applied also to 
the coast of South Arabia, it is certain that the Egyptian boats 
sent by the queen landed in Africa. In the newly-discovered 
fragments we find two kinds of monkeys climbing up the palm 
trees: the dog-headed baboon, the sacred animal of Thoth, and 
the round-headed monkey. Then we see bulls with long and 
twisted horns, like the animals which, as I have been told, were 
brought to Egypt some years ago from the Abyssinian coast. 



^Life to .\ocient Emrpt. p. 34* 



i64 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Two panthers are fighting together; a giraffe is showing its 
head, which reaches to the top of a tree; and a hippopotamus 
is also sculptured as one of the animals of the country. A 
small fragment speaks of "cutting ebony in great quantity." 
And on another we see the axes of the Egyptians felling large 
branches on one of tlve dark-stemmed trees which had not 
hitherto been identified, but which are now proved to be ebony. 
A f mall chip shows that the people had two different kinds of 
houses, one of which was made of wickerwork. 

More Jewelry. — Mr. H. Villiers Stuart describes, in a letter 
to the Fund, another disclosure, which indicates that the chil- 
dren of Israel did not "borrow" of the Egyptians all their 
"jewels of silver and jewels of gold." He says: 

A few davs ago there were discovered at Dashour the graves of two 
princesses ot the Xllth Dynasty intact. The coffins had mouldered away, 
and the mummies lay each with a coronet on her head, and wearing other 
jewelry. When an attempt to move the mummies was made they fell to 
tragments. The jewelry is very beautiful. One of the ccrronets was, in 
fact, a wreath of torget-me-nots, made of precious stones mounted on gold 
stems. At intervals occurred Maltese crosses and precious stones set in 
l^old. This lovely wreath was as perfect and looked as fresh as on the day 
It was made — a couple of centuries before the time of Abraham!— more 
than four thousand years ago. It illustrates a passage in the poetic epitaph 
on the funeral pall of Queen Is-em-Kheb, "She is armed with flowers every 
day.'* I visited Dashour and saw, in situ, the sarcophagus in which these 
treasures were found, as also that of the other princess. She also had a 
lovely coronet, fitted with a socket in which was mserted a sprav of various 
flowers made in jewels, with gold stems and gold foliage. Besides these, 
there are necklaces, bracelets, armlets, anklets, daggers, charms, etc. 

The Ashmolean Museum — This famous collection at Oxford 
has just been enriched by the chief results of the excavations 
last year at Coptos by Mr. Pttrie, which he considers to have 
yielded prehistoric fragments of archaic sculpture and terra 
cotta. Among the sculptures are the colossal head of a bird, 
a lion's head, and the head of the god Min, the rest of whose 
statue is en route. We cannot assert these remains to be pre- 
historic, but may indulge the fond belief that they belong to 
Egypt's era. Captain H. G. Lyons, R. E., of the Fund, has 
presented the same museum with stelae of the Xllth Dynasty 
found on the site of the temple at Wady Haifa, and with two 
hieratic stelae from the village of Mut in the Dakhla oasis, 
which refer to fhe artesian wells in that district and the water 
supply. 

The value of the Archaeological Survey department of the 
Egypt Exploration Fund, whose chief mission is the recording 
of important inscriptions, which are being constantly obliter- 
ated, is well illustrated in a letter from Professor Sayce. At 
El-Kab, near an ancient well under the cliff, he found a plat- 
form of rock which had been cut for the foundations of a 
chapel of some size. Here he discovered many texts relating 
to the Old Empire, including one of special value, as it gave 
the names of two temples built on the spot in the period of 



PALESTINE EXPLORATION 165 

Pepi of the Vlth Dynasty. One of them was named KetJhset 
(corner of the mountain). The texts are so numerous that 
weeks of labor would be required to transcribe them. 

At Esnch, the recently found paintings in two subterranean 
Coptic churches, Dr. Sayce says, are already nearly destroyed 
by the fanatical Arabs. Of the few still untouched paintings, 
he writes that "one representing the Virgin and Child is espec- 
ially good, though it will probably have been destroyed by 
the Mohammedan iconoclasts before this letter reaches Eng- 
land/' 

"Now OR Never," seems to me a good motto for the Fund, 
in pressing its claim for aid to prosecute its work with the 
utmost dispatch. The new circular, just issued, will be sent on 
application to every reader of the The Antiquarian, many of 
whom have friends interested in our varied work of exploration 
in the land of the Pharaohs. The volumes (see the notice 
elsewhere) contain illustrations of value and interest to every 
intelligent person in the land. 



PALESTINE EXPLORATION. 

T. F. Wright. United States Secretary. 

In the statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund for July. 
1874, is reprinted a communication which M. Clermont Gan- 
ncaii had printed in the i4/A^w^;/w in regards to the then recently 
discovered head of Hadrian. It seems that a donkey driver, 
whose business it was to find building stones where he could, 
ound among the ruins of an old stone wall a marble head of 
natural size. He could not make use of it, but preserved it 
and sold it to an effendi, who afterwards sold it to the Russian 
archimandrite. The head was found a few minutes' walk north 
of the Damascus gate, where it had probably been thrown with 
rubbish carried out of the city. A minute description of the 
face is given, and M. Ganneau states that he was first in doubt 
as to the person represented, but reached the conclusion that 
it was the Emperor Hadrian. We know that, after Hadrian 
subdued the final revolution of the Jews under the leadership 
of Bar-Cochbar, he sought to efface everything Jewish from 
the city, erected on the site of the temple a place for the wor- 
ship of Jupiter Capitolinus and set up his own statue in it. The 
Bordeaux pilgrim saw it. Jerome saw it. and says that it 
was an equestrian statue. The statue was intact down to the 
end of the fourth century, but it disappeared through the in- 
vasion of the Persians, or perhaps of the Arabs under Omar, 
and its head seems to have been cast out as rubbish. 

The identification of the head as Hadrian's was confirmed 



i66 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

by Mr. W. S. \V. Vaux of the British Museum, whose perfect 
familiarity with the coin department qualified him to speak 
with authority. Mr. Vaux said, in the statement referred to, 
•*1 have no doubt that the head is that of Hadrian." The face 
was reproduced as Hadrian's by the Fund in several publica- 
tions, by Morrison in his work on **The Jews Under the 
Romans," and by the Illustrated London News. I have com- 
pared it with several representations of him. The likeness is 
more striking because he had the unusual mark of a beard. 

But now 1 have received from an intelligent resident of 
Jerusalem a photograph of this same head, of which he says, 
"1 send you a photograph which will interest you. It is the 
head of the old Herodos of Jerusalem. This head was found 
in the Tombs of the Kings and was sold to the Russian 
archimandrite and still remains there.." 

There is a face which might be Herod's, and there is a kind 
of collar below it on which is written in archaic form: 



/^poA3, 



The second of these words was unmistakably **Herod." what- 
ever the last sign may mean. The first was not so plain. But 
a second look at the face led me to consult the records of the 
Pund for Hadrian's head, and there it was, properly authenti- 
cated. So far as 1 know, we hive no head of Herod any- 
where. It does not appear upon his coins. 

This photograph is certainly a fraud. The head seen by 
Ganneau at the time of its discovery and still in the possession 
of the archimandrite, has been taken and furnished with this 
collar of cloth on which the photographer or some other untrust- 
worthy person had written these words in white paint. No 
doubt many copies have been sold to the unsuspecting. The 
fraud is especially flagrant if wc read the first word as lesous, 
and this reading, for which I am indebted to Professor VV. \V. 
Goodwin, seems the only admissible one. **Jesus-Herod" must 
be intended to mean Herod, the Great. As the Fund has con- 
sidered the work of exposing such frauds a part of its duty, I 
have written this note. 

The work of excavating along the line of the old south wall 
of Jerusalem goes bravelv on under Dr. Bliss. It is the most 
interesting period in all Palestine exploration thus far, and the 
interest increases as he draws near to the hill where it is 
believed that the remains of Solomon's palace lie hidden. It 
is unscientific to predict, but it is not unlikely that the results 
will exceed our hopes. 

42 (Juincy St., Cambridge, Mass. 



THE CALENDAR SYSTEM OF THE CHIBCHAS. 167 



THE CALENDAR SYSTEM OF THE CHIBCHAS. 

Translated from the Spanish of Acosta. 

Wc speak of hieroglyphics, a Gieek word which means 
images or sacred figures, and we give this name to the signs and 
figures used by the Egyptians to represent the dogmas of their 
theoloy or of their political and moral science, which are found 
sculptured upon stone and upon the pyramids. The paintings 
and sculptures of these Indians are also purely symbolical. 

They were thought of little value in those times in which 
they could have been studied without much labor and with 
success. None as yet have been able to penetrate the Egyptian 
hieroglyphics. Neither as yet have those of the Indians of 
Amenca been explained. Thus it is that the two peoples, who 
most assiduously cultivated symbols or primitive characters, 
from which originated the use of letters, are equally celebrated 
and equally unintelligible, the monuments of both serving 
more to torment the ingenious and curious than to advance 
knowledge. As it is, ancient America has not failed to have 
some evidences of its symbolism among the erudite, but until 
now the Chibcha have not taken a part in this honor. Father 
Torquemada has complained of the negligence of the first men 
of letters who came to this section. Bishop Piedrahita has 
asserted that the Chibcha had no knowledge of hieroglyphics, 
and even were ignorant of the quipus of the Peruvians, all of 
which is untrue, as may readily be seen in the many fragments of 
their ancient superstition. I have the honoi, therefore, to offer 
to history a new discovery and to explain the year and cycle 
of the Chibcha. interpreting the signs which they contain and 
which I have found by careful personal investigation. This 
interpretation is founded on my knowledge of their customs, 
of their history, of their idolatry and their language, the last 
having been of much service, but cost me much labor in obtain- 
ing a knowledge of it, as it is not now spoken by any one. It 
has, therefore, been necessary for me to reconstruct it from the 
memoranda taken by my predecessors while reducing the 
Chibcha tongue to Latin, with which it has no analogy, to 
restore it to its true basis, forming it anew upon the principles 
of the Oriental languages, to investigate its roots and etymology. 

The Chibcha counted upon the fingers, only havinc^ names 
for the numerals to 10 and for 20. Thus: Ata, i; Bosa, 2; 
Mica, 3; Muyhica, 4; Hisca, 5; Ta, 6; Cuhupcua, 7; Suhuza, 
8; Aca. 9; Ubchihica, 10, and Gueta, 20. Concluding the ten 
upon their fingers they swept their hands in a circle toward 
their feet, repeating the same words, prefixing to each the word 



i68 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Quihicha, which is Chibcha for foot. Thus: Quihicha Ata, ii; 
Quihicha Boza, 12, etc., to Gueta, 20. 

The number 20 expressed by the word Gueta meant in the 
Chibcha house and cultivated ground (perhaps the English word 
''home'' would better express the idea of centralization intended 
to be expressed by Gueta- 7>a«j), — the house and garden in 
which were concentrated their food, their wealth, and where 
centered their happiness and was the sum of all their hopes and 
desires. When thus concluding with one twenty they returned 
to another and another to 20 twenties, for tlie same reason that 
mathematicians divide the circle into 360 — a number divisible 
by a great variety of smaller numbers. The Chibcha used the 
number 30 as the basis of their calender, dividing the 20 into 
four parts of five numbers each. The numbers 5, 10, ij, 20 
were therefore those of most value, and as such were the basis 
also of all their negotiations. The moon was the object of their 
observations and their studies. This satellite, which they never 
allowed to be absent from their thoughts, gave them the model 
of their houses, their enclosures, their temples and their culti- 
vated fields; ^n a word for everything pertaining to them. 

They fixed a pole in the earth and with a cord attached to 
the pole as a center traced a circle. This pole and cord, if 
we consider well the character or symbols which are seen, we 
shall learn we^e the principal elements upon which they were 
formed. 

The different significations which their numeral words had 
in their language are all allusions to the different phases of the 
moon, to their labors in the cultivated fields and to the super- 
stitions of their idolatry, and thus conduct us to their calendar. 

The Chibcha had these symbols literally at their fingers' 
ends, these signs and symbols being to the Chibcha what 
the system of Arcturus is to astronomers, and thus with only a 
numbering of the fingers, they knew the phases of the moon 
and the corresponding government of their labors and of their 
cultivated fields. 

Their vulgar year consisted of twenty moons and their 
vulgar cycle of twenty years or four hundred moons. They 
began to count in the month after the opposition or full moon, 
represented by Ubchihica (lo), which signifies brilliant mooji, 
and beginning at Ata they counted seven days, finding the 
quarter in Cuhupr ua (7). Counting forward again, they found 
the next quarter in Muyhica (4), which means dark or darken- 
ing, and the day following the conjunction in Hisca, which in 
their conception was the union of the moon with the sun, which 
represented the nuptials between the two, this being the most 
important dogma of their creed and the object of their most 
execrable teachings. After counting eight days more they 
found the third quarter in Mica, which signifies a thing varying, 
having reference to the ever varying phases of the moon. 

The first aspect of the first phase they placed in Cuhupcua, 



THE CAL£ND\R SYSTEM OF THE CHIBCHAS. 169 

and as in this symbol fell also the quarter, it was given tuuo 
ears and was called deaf for other superstitious reasons. 

The same symbols served to count the years and contained 
a general law. In such time ata and therefore oca represented 
the rainy seasons by the frog or toad. The frequent croaking 
of this reptile served as a sign that such time was approaching. 

Boza represents a space sowed outside of the central or prin- 
cipal crop to protect the latter from damage. Mica means to 
seek for — to nnd — to select minute things, indicating the care- 
ful selection they should make in the seeds for intended sowing. 

Muyhica, — A thing dark, black or obscure, having reference 
to tempestuous weather; its root also signifying the growth 
of plants, because they by means of the benefit of the water 
acquire body. Hisca, — A thing green. With the frequent 
showers the earth dons her mantle of green, everything becomes 
beautiful and joyful. It also means to rest from labor, and 
that the plants most grown make joyful the heart with promise 
of harvest. Ta. — The field. The sixth month corresponds 
with harvest. 

Cuhupcua. — Graneries. These had the form of a snail shell, 
(cornucopia), or the human ear. CtJtutana, a word having the 
same root, signifies the corners of the house where grain is 
deposited, and also alludes to harvest. Suhuza. — Tail or ter- 
mination. A month which comes at the finish or winding up 
of their season, and also has allusion to the pole at the termin- 
ation of the graded way leading from a chief's house to the 
place where was made these solemn sacrifices after the harvest 
was done. Ubchihica alludes to their convivialities after har- 
vest. Gueta, house and grounds, has a toad stretched out, 
which was their symbol offelicity. 

The Chibcha looked upon these and many other signs as 
oracles. Their sons were rigidly taught these lessons by their 
elders, and not content with these precautions and that the gov- 
ernment of the year should not be forgotten they sealed their 
teachings with the blood of many victims. They never used 
the word Zocam (year) by itself but with the number to which it 
corresponded, viz.. Zocam-^ta, Zocam-Bosa, etc. They did the 
same with the graded way where they made their religious 
sacrifices and masquerades, using Sutia ata, Suna Bosa, etc. 
And in this way these places were like a book in which accounts 
are kept. 

Twenty moons made their vulgar year, which being ended 
they began to count again another twenty and thus until a 
cycle of twenty vulgar years was counted, which was made by 
their priests to correspond with the astronomical year in the 
manner hereafter shown. 

The intercalation of one moon after each thirty-sixth moon, 
to make the lunar correspond with the solar and thus preserve 
the seasons, they executed with great facility. For having on 
their fingers the calendar they signed two seedings in succes- 
sion, with an intermediary between, and then signed the third 



170 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

seed time with two, as upon this principle turns all their as- 
tronomy, idolatry and political economy, and also that which 
now interests us most, their iconography, and therefore it is 
necessary to explain it with great particularity. We will there- 
fore distribute these Chibcha signs upon our fingers, and this 
table of digits will give us all the combinations. Suppose that 
AtUy which is the first finger, corresponds to January, and that 
it is the month for seeding. Following the fingers, the second 
seeding is in '*Mica'\ passing Bosa, which is between Aia and 
Mica, so that the second seeding falls upon the thirteenth lunar 
month, counting Ata, The third seeding, counting as before, 
we find in Hisca, passing Muyhica. Counting again as before, 
but intercalating one, we find it in Suhuza, passing Ta and 
Cuhupana, being the fourteenth from Hisca. 

The month Cuhupcua, which is the intercalated and in Chib- 
cha is the deaf month, is the seventeenth month of the second 
vulgar year, which aggregated to the preceding year makes 
thirty-seven lunar months, and the lunar and solar year are 
equalized in Suhusca, which now becomes the true January. 
This intercalation, which is followed perpetually, leaving each 
thirty-seventh lunar month to pass without office or as deaf, 
enables us to perceive that within the two vulgar years of 
twenty lunar months each there is concealed their astronomical 
year, which consists of thirty-seven lunar months, so the thirty- 
eighth month becomes the true January. 

This people, without understanding the theory of this prop- 
osition, which has been embarassing to more civilized nations 
in consequence of this lunar month that must be added at the 
end of three lunar years, because of there being twelve lunar 
months counted for two years and thirteen for the third year, 
they had, nevertheless, great facility in the practice of making 
the intercalations by following the method set forth, preserving 
thus the astronomical year without the commonalty perceiving 
or noting any difference in the vulgar year of twenty months. 
The vulgar year was used in their treaties, as is seen in their 
history, also in all commercial and social transactions, but the 
astronomical year held good in their agriculture and their 
religion, and thus the Xeques or priests and the leading chiefs, 
by whom only these mysteries were understood, carried their 
calculations to great prolixity, noting the epochs with most 
striking sacrifices and engraving them upon stones by means 
of symbols and figures. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE OF "OLD COOSA." 171 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE OF "OLD COOSA." 
TALLADEGA COUNTY. ALABAMA. 

By T. H. Lewis. 

In the year 1540. Hernando de Soto, an able Spanish com- 
mander, passed with his little army through at least a portion 
of the then famous Coosa Valley, while exploring his "great 
realm of Florida" in quest of precious metafs. Somewhere on 
his route he came to a great Indian town, then known as Coza. 
or Cossa. It is not for me to do otherwise here than to accept 
the generally received opinion of the Soto commentators, that 
the Coza of the sixteenth century is identical with the Coosan, 
Coosa, Coussa. Koosah or Kusa of the eighteenth. With this 
assumption I will now proceed to a more precise description 
of the site than has hitherto been attempted in print, for no one 
has yet given anything like a definite description of it. 

A couple of miles due north of the modern town of Childers- 
burg will be found the site of Coosa, both ancient and modern. 
It is situated on the east side of the Coosa River, between the 
Talladega and Tallassee Hatchee Creeks, the mouths of which 
are fully one mile apart. That the Coosa Valley, with its level 
and gently rolling lands, bordered with high hills that here and 
there rise with perpendicular sides for several hundred feet, is 
beautiful and fertile, goes without saying, and the river, with 
its clear and placid waters winding through the vale, lends 
additional enchantment to the scene. 

According to the government survey, this old town site is 
located un the S. }i of the S. }i of section 8, the N. % and 
the N. yi of the S. ^ of section 17, of town 20, and range 3 
east of the Huntsville meridian. 

The ancient village remains extend from Talladega Creek on 
the north to Tallassee Hatchee Creek on the south, averaging 
over one mile in length and fully three-fourths of a mile back 
from the river. Broken pottery, arrow and spear heads, awls 
or perforators, knives, axes, celts, hand hammers, stone balls, 
mullers, small shallow mortars, stone hoes, sea and gulf shells, 
etc., arc scattered over nearly every acre of the territory 
described, showing that all portions of the site have been occu- 
pied at one time or another. Apparently the principal center 
of the town was located on a low hill which is from sixty to 
seventy-five feet above the bottom lands and from ninety-five to 
one hundred and ten feet above low water in the Coosa River. 
This elevation is about one-third of a mile in length and one- 
eighth of a mile in width. The southwestern angle of the hill, 
which is the nearest point to the river, is some three hundied 



172 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

• 

yards distant from it with bottom land between. On the ^ide 
next to the river the slope of the hill is, quite steep, but ofi all 
other sides the slopes are much more gradual. The principal 
center of the ancient remains, the part most occupied, was 
along the top of the hill and down the gradual slope extending 
north to Talladega Creek. This section was evidently occu- 
pied for a long period of time. While the debris is not so large 
in quantity as might be expected, even as compared to the time 
of its modern historical occupation, yet the remains are deeply 
embedded in the clay soil, thus indicating great age. 

Of the fragments of pottery found upon the site, in the great 
majority of cases, it is composed of broken mussel shells and 
clay, but many fragments are of broken stone and clay and in 
a few instances they are of sand and clay. The first of these is 
apparently the most modern, while the other two are the most 
ancient, being deeply bedded in the clay. The colors used 
are white, brown, red, black and the ordinary brick color. The 
ornamentation in general was done with grooved lines, straight 
and curved, and In some instances the rims of the vessels were 
notched. Of the implements found most of the arrow- heads 
and knives are of white quartz, while a few are of various colors 
of granulated quartz, horn-stone, chert, slate, with two or three 
specimens that are apparently novaculite. Most of the chisels, 
celts and axes were of black or green trap-rock, and the ma- 
jority of the hoes are of micaceous slate. Many fragments of 
clay pipes are to be found, but those made from stone are rare. 
One small catlinite pipe ornamented with grooved lines was 
obtained from the site, and others were reported as having been 
found in the same vicinity. 

At two points, viz: along the Coosa just below the mouth 
of Talladega creek, and on the main townsite on the hill, there 
are several round saucer-shaped excavations which are from 
one and one-half to three feet in depth, and from twenty to 
thirty feet in diameter. Their use is wholly conjectural, but 
they were probably half underground huts or houses, being 
somewhat similar in character to the ruins of the old Mandan 
winter lodges. 

On the highest point of the hill are the remains of the more 
modern occupation. Here evidently weie located the houses 
of the traders or others, as evidenced by the traces of old stone 
hearths, etc. Around these old hearths fragments of thin cop- 
per and brass plate, scraps of iron, old flint locks, gun flints 
and glass and stone china beads are found, together with a few 
old French, Spanish and British coins, none of which date back 
of 1740. There are also similiar evidences at the juncion of 
the Coosa and Talladega, but these are very slight. 

There is a large number of village sites along the river, above 
and below Coosa, and at points farther to the interior, where 
there are fine springs, and along the creeks, in fact, the best 
and most alluvial portion of this whole section of countty seems 
to have been occupied — the poor lands are not cultivated to 



DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE OF "OLD COOSA." 173 

any extent, and where cultivated do not seem to have been 
occupied. 

Just south of the Tallassee Hatchee Creek, mostly on the 
S. Ji of the S. % of section 17, are the remains of a village 
site that extends along the creek for over one-half mile and for 
nearly the same distance down the river from the mouth of the 
creek. The remains — village debris — are of about the same 
general character and quantity as those found on the site of 
Coosa. Whether this site is to be considered as part of the 
old metropolis, or as some other town with another name, is a 
question that can not be decided at present. It may have been 
the town somewhere high up the river, known in the last cen- 
tury as Abeika, Abika, or Abi'hka, whose exact location no one 
can now give; it can scarcely be the Abeycochi of the old maps, 
shown by them as situated on the river a little below "Cousa," 
for the former town (Abeycochi) has been definitely described 
on the best authority as lying five miles up the Tallassee 
Hatchee Creek, and on the north side of it. This site, like that 
of Coosa, immediately north of it, has been under cultivation 
for many years. 

The facts for the above description of the old townsite of 
Coosa, its environs and relics, were obtained on the occasion 
of a visit made there by me on the 30th of November, 1894. 

A consideration of the celebrity of Coosa, or Coza. in old 
times, in view of its also being one of the principal towns at 
which DeSoto sojourned and obtained supplies, now prompts 
me to append some concluding paragraphs of an historical 
nature. 

Garcilaso de la Vega, also known as the "Inca" by reason of 
his Peruvian descent, who some forty years after the time of 
the expedition in question compiled a very interesting narrative 
of it from the accounts furnished him by eye witnesses, when 
speaking of the quartering of the troops in the town, says: 

"The governor was lodged in one of three houses that the 
Cacique had in different parts of the town, made in the way of 
other similar ones already described, situated high up and hav- 
ing all the advantages lords' houses have over those of vassals.* 
The town was built upon the bank of a river; it had five hundred 
lai^e and good houses, which well proved it to be the capital 
of such a great and renowned province as has been described. 
Half of the town (as far as the quarters of the governor,) was 
vacated, and in there the captains and soldiers were lodged. 
And they all established themselves in the town because the 
houses were capacious and could accommodate many people, 
and the Spaniards remained there eleven or twelve days." 

*Af there are no artificial mounds m this immediate vicinity, the three houses said to 
hmve belonged to the Cacique must have been located on the higher points of the hill. 



174 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Previously, in describing the town of Osachile, which the 
expedition passed through the preceding year, the Inca states 
that "the Indians of Florida always seek to locate on a high 
place the houses of their caciques and lords, when they can not 
do it for the whole town." He then proceeds to describe how 
they would construct a mound of earth from two to three pikes 
in height, with a space on top for ten or twelve to fifteen or 
twenty houses for the use of the lord and his family and ser- 
vants — the size of the structure depending on his means and 
the greatness of his rank. As no large mound exists in that 
portion of the Florida peninsula where this Osachile one should 
apparently be located, this, with other statements made by the 
Inca, should be taken with a grain of salt, excepting in as far 
as they are corroborated by the other narratives of the expedi- 
tion. 

Probably the earliest definite notice in English of this town 
is that given by James Adair, who was in the Indian trade for 
forty years, from 1735 ^^ 1775. In his History of the American 
Indians he incidentally remarks as follows: 

"The great and old beloved town of refuge, Koosah, which 
"stands high on the eastern side of a bold river, about 250 
"yards broad, that runs by the late dangerous Alebahma fort, 
"down to the black poisoning Mobile, and so into the gulph of 
"Mexico." 

Montgomery, Ala., Jan. 2, 1895. 



THE SYMBOLS OF THE SAMOANS. 

The national god of the Samoans was a female, who, in conjunction with 
her consort, were the war gods. In addition to these, each separate district 
had its own special gods. The priests were the keepers of the emblems of 
the war gods and were called "warships of the war gods.*' These emblems 
or s^^bols were various, but resembled those which were used by the 
aborigines of America. The fleets of Manono generally carried two em- 
bleme— one a kind of thronct and the latter astreamer, or pennant. 

The symbol used by the warrior of Matauta was a conch shell, called 
"Gods of the Heavens. ' This was always carried by the keeper of the 
war god on land when they engaged in battle. In Atua the symboi of the 
gods* presence was a large box or chest, which was placed upon the canoe 
of the priest of the war god and accompanied the fleet into battle. 

The temples were silways in charge of the keepers of the war gods, who 
were called "warships.'* The emblems of the eod were always placed m 
these temples. These symbols were consulteof as oracles, as the god was 
supposed to enter into the symbol and deliver answers to the questions 
asked. The temples were built upon raised platforms and were placed in 
the principal marae or square of the village, out were built similar to the 
ordinary dwellings.* 

*Rev. John B. Stair in Jouroal of the Polynesian Society, December, 1894. 



SACRED CALENDARS AND ANCIENT CODICES. 175 



Editorial. 



SACRED CALENDARS AND ANCIENT CODICES. 

One of the most hopeful things connected with the study of 
American archaeology is that so much advance has been made 
towards the proper understanding of the sign language, the 
calendar system, the system of time counts, and the various 
methods of recording events and communicating thought, and 
that so much certainty has already been reached in reference to 
the subject. It should be said, moreover, that these results have 
come from the indefatigable industry of a few individuals in this 
country and in Europe, and the cooperation of the government 
in furnishing the facilities for pursuing these studies. 

The greatest progress, however, has been made and the best 
results have been secured in the line of native American symbol- 
ism — a line to which we have devoted much thought, and it is 
therefore gratifying to be able to review the work which these 
gentlemen have accomplished, and to call attention to the con- 
clusions which they have reached, and especially the benefits 
which may follow the continued study of the subject. We also 
take pleasure in acknowledging the aid we ourselves have re- 
ceived in the preparation of these papers. 

I. We shall begin with the sign language and the signal sys- 
tem) which prevailed among the aborigines, for this is the most 
primitive stage of American symbolism. There was, to be sure, 
in the country a vast amount of pictography, which impressed 
itself upon the rocks as well as upon the tents, blankets, *'bark 
records," "winter counts," mnemonic charts, and which was use- 
ful as a means of conveying thought, but as there was very little 
symbolism contained in it we shall pass it by as belonging to 
another department.* We would here call attention to the work 
which has been accomplished by Col. Garrick Mallery, Dr. W. 
J. Hoffman and Col. Clark in the sign language and in the 
interpretations which they have secured from the aborigines. It 
is not certain how the sign language arose, but the resemblance 
to the language used by deaf mutes and the signs used by the 
ancient Etruscans would indicate that there is a natural method 
of communicating thought which does not depend upon speech 
or the art of writing. The same might be said of the signals 
used by the natives. While these were inventions among these 
tribes, they were very natural and practical. 

*The best work upon nictOKraphy is one pri')>ari><l by Col. Ciarrick Mallery and puh- 
lithcd in three different voiuines of the KthnoiORical Buieau. 



176 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

It is remarkable that the signal service and the telegraph have 
a history which leads back to the earliest methods of conveying 
tidings to a distance. These, to be sure, are modern inventions 
and are the products of civilization, but they were preceded by 
methods which were at the time very useful and adapted to the 
circumstances. It would be impossible to describe all of the 
methods or to show how they came to be adopted. The earliest 
methods may, perhaps, be learned from the aborigines of the 
west. One of these consisted in lighting fires and raising 
columns of smoke of varying lengths, which appeared at inter- 
vals, thus resembling the modern telegraph. The manner of 
doing this was as follows: '' The Indian simply takes a blanket 
and goes to some sightly place; after lighting the fire he places 
out in the grass and weeds, by which a dense white smoke is 
created, which arises in a column, he then puts the blanket over 
the fire and rapidly displaces it, and thus is enabled to cause the 
column to appear and disappear, the number and frequency, and 
varying length of the column serving as signs which would be 
easily understood. The materials used in making smoke would 
give sufficient diversity in the color to ^make the signals quite 
numerous. The material consisted of pine or cedar boughs, or 
leaves and grass, each of which would make a different colored 
smoke." This method of signahng is not peculiar to America, 
for it is practiced in all parts of Australia, the Canary Islands, the 
peaks of Teneriffe, and. something similar to it was common in 
the Highlands of Scotland. Another method practiced by the 
modern Indians is as follows: A single horseman goes to a 
prominent height, where he can be seen by all the camps or 
villages, and when an enemy appears he rides rapidly around in 
a circle and occasionally fires off a revolver. Another is to take 
a mirror and throw a flash of sunlight to a distance, thus antici- 
pating the search lights which are so common now. The most 
expressive and varied method is one used by the tribes of the 
west, where there are high precipitous cliffs and deep canons, 
making access difficult and requiring some means of communi- 
cation. It consisted in the person taking the different attitudes 
of the body, which were understood, some of them naturally 
expressing alarm, others defiance, others peace and friendship, 
welcome, direction, submission, inquiry. 

Still another method was practiced by the Omahas and Ponkas, 
who were hunters. It was used at the time to signalize the 
discovery of buffalo. It consisted in taking a blanket or buffalo 
robe, holding it with an end in each hand, spreading it out in 
sight of the people at a distance. 

Illustrations of this have been given by Col. Garrick Mallery, 
who has studied the sign language of the western Indians and 
learned the interpretations, and has furnished a plate to show 
the method of signaling by signs practiced among the Pani 



SACRED CALENDARS AND ANCIENT CODICES. 177 

Indians. The signal in this case is a question — Who are you ? 
It is made by raising the right hand and moving it right and 
left. It is answered by raismg the two hands, giving the usual 
tribal sign of the Panis.* 

2. In reference to the method of keeping time and recording the 
changes of the seasons and making the almanac, much benefit 
has come from the study of symbols. It is regarded as one of the 
great improvements of the nineteenth century that the observa- 
tion of the elements and the watching of the storms has been 
systematized so that warnings can be given and storms predicted. 
It is well to notice, however, that a surprising system of time- 
counting and weather-watching existed among the American 
tribes long before the discovery. This system was not altogether 
for the benefit of commerce, nor was it conducted by means of 
electricity and the telegraph, but it was, nevertheless, an elabor- 
ate and complicated system, and was under direction as closely 
as the "weather bureau." A few men held the charts and inter- 
preted the symbols. The system varied according to the grade 
of civilization. Among the wild tribes it was very rude, was 
founded upon the observation of the sky and the changes of the 
seasons, the deifying of the elements; but among the so-called 
civilized tribes it was perhaps founded upon a knowledge of the 
astronomical principles in which the position of the sun at the 
summer and winter solstices, the position of the constellations 
in the sky, such as the Pleiades, the Dipper or Great Bear, the 
appearance of the planet Venus and the revolutions of the sky, 
as well as the creation epochs, and the order of the seasons. 

This system of time-counts was connected with the religious 
ideas of the people, for the "Cardinal points," the four quarters 
of the sky, the different seasons, the various elements, were all 
symbolized and worshiped. The symt>ols frequently are sug- 
gestive of myths, which themselves are expressive of the religious 
beliefs and superstitions which prevailed. It is singular that the 
serpent, the circle, the cross, the humanized tree, and the bird, 
the suastika, the triskelis, the "Nile key" or the Egyptian "tau," 
the horse shoe, the scroll, the loup, square, the tree of life, are 
found in nearly all parts of America, and generally in as elab- 
orate shapes as in India and the east, and have a very similar 
significance. There was, to be sure, a diflference in the system 
of "time counts." The calendar system was founded sometimes 
upon the solar year, sometimes upon the sacred year, the revolu- 
tions of the sky and the progress of the seasons being marked 
in one, and the return of the feast days and the ceremonial regu- 
lation of the employments of the people by the other.f 

*Thif fign symbolized the ears of the wolf, as the Panis had the wolf for their tribal 
emblem, and were called wolves by other tribes. 

^The following is the list of time counts given by Dr. D. G. Brinton. in his pamphlet. 
"Primer of Hieroglyphics.** i. The sacred year, divided into twenty months of thirteen 
days each, equal to two hundred and sixty days. The month was also divided into lour 
wttkt of Ave days each. 2. A solar year of eighteen months of twenty days each, or a year 



178 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

There were also sacred mysteries, or secret societies, among 
the aborigines to which the time counts were committed. These 
have not been understood, but specialists have gained access to 
the ancient charts kept among the wild tribe, others have been 
initiated into the secret societies of the tribes of the interior, and 
have brought to light an immense amount of symbolism and 
traditional folk-lore which is very important, as it throws light 
upon the aboriginal religions, and at the same time perpetuates 
the mythology which prevailed. The sacred dramas, which are 
practiced in secret by these tribes, are all founded on myths and 
represent the religious beliefs of the people.* 

It is a singular fact that nearly all of the myths and symbols 
which are used in the sacred mysteries of these, as well as of the 
wild tribes, go back to the story of creation as the starting point 
and from that work up to the latest event, which consists in the 
healing of the sick by the aid of the supernatural beings,, which 
are symbolized and personated. It is interesting to trace the 
analogy between these sacred mysteries and to see how many 
symbols were used which were common on both continents, and 
how the myths resembled one another, especially those which 
relate to the "storm-gods" and the natural powers. 

3. The esoteric system is very remarkable. It is known that 
the custom of having a learned class, who should monopolize 
the power over the people, regulate their customs, direct their 
employments, and control their destiny, prevailed in America 
as in Chaldea and Egypt. This is evident from the testimony 
of early writers and historians. Sahagun says that "the Indians 
who knew the secret of the calendar taught or revealed them to 
a very few, for through their knowledge they gained their liveli- 
hood. It was only these "master calculators" who knew these 
many secrets and counts that the calendar continued. Those 
who spoke, knew not; and those who knew, spoke not." 

What is more, there was a system of astrological divination 
connected with the calendar which resembled that which pre- 
vailed in the east, especially in Babylonia. A system which 
consisted in casting up one's horoscope from the study of the 
stars and making the guardian divinity, and the personal destiny 
dependent upon the situation of the stars at the time of one's birth. 

It appears that every day in the month had some animal or 

of twelve months of thirty days equal three hundred and sixty days. 3. The solar year of 
thirteen months of twenty-eight days each equals three hundred and sixty-four days. Dr. 
Fostermannsays that five revolutions of Venus were identified, and divided into ceremonial 
years of two hundred and sixty days each; the year of Venus was divided into four unequal 
parts assigned to four cardinal points and to four divinities. Venus was called the "great 
star" and the "guardian of the sky.'' 4. Landa states that the Mayas measured the passage 
of time at night by observations of the Pleiades and Orion. Dr. Fostermann thinks that 
their position in the heavens decided the beginning of the year. 

*The best work on the subject of sacred mysteries as related to predicting events and 
casting the horoscope is Dr Brinton's little pamphlet on Nagualism. There were secret 
societies and sacred mysteries amongthe wild tribes, such as theOjibwas and Dakotas.and 
among the sedentary tribes. See my article read before the Congress of Anthropology at 
Chicago, 1803: also Dr. Hoffman's essay in Report of the Ethnological Bureau, ana Dr. 
Walter Fewlces' articles in the Anthrapologi:t. 



SACRED CALENDARS AND ANCIENT CODICES. 179 

object in nature, from which it took its name, the shape of which 
was engraved upon the calendar. The sorcerer would use the 
symbol which marked the birthday of a child and would predict 
its destiny. The transformation into eagles, loons, tigers, trees, 
was one of the gifts of Nagualism.* 

Among the Mayas the employments of the people were regu- 
lated by the calendar, for it was supposed that the priests had 
control of the '*powers of nature" and the regulations of seasons. 
There was also a close connection between the meaning of the 
days of the months and the experiences of the individual in the 
course of his life, very much as in the "sacred mysteries" of Egypt 
and Greece, a deep undercurrent of thought being contained 
in the symbols, and an esoteric system which was known only 
to the priests, who resemble the soothsayers of the Chaldeans 
and the augurs of the Romans. 

4. The light that is thrown upon the origin of the numerical 
system is another advantage which has been gained by the study 
of symbolism. It is not now known what the origin was of 
either the Arabic numerals or how the decimal system came into 
vogue, though the number ten seems to be very natural for most 
of the primitive races. It has however been discovered that the 
vigesimal system prevailed among the so-called civilized tribes, 
including the Mexicans, the Mayas, the Peruvians and the peo- 
ple located in the U. S. of Colombia and in other South Ameri- 
can provinces. This system, according to Acosta, a Spanish 
historian, came from the habit of countmg the fingers and toes, 
these parts of the body giving to them the unit for counting; as 
the length of the fingers, toes, fore-arm, full length arm, gave the 
division of inches, ells, feet, cubits and yards in the measure- 
ments of the Indo-European race. It appears that there was a 
sacredness about the human body to the ancient Americans for 
all the parts of the body, such as the head, the arms, the breast, 
heart, brains were symbolized by certain animals, the same ani- 
mals being used to indicate the sif^ns of the zodiac, exactly as 
was the case among the ancient nations of the east. It was the 
mental habit of the people to ascribe supernatural qualities to 
the bodily parts and represent them under various 'semblances. 
This will perhaps account for the application of the vigesimal 

*Gucutnat7, according to th« Popal Vuh. every seven days assumed the nature of a 

serpent and t>ecaine truly a serpent, and every seven days the nature of an eagle, and so on. 

Dr. Fhillipp J.J. Valentin! has advanced a novel and startling theory aoout the hiero* 

flyphics of the ancient Mavas. He has written a pamphlet to show the "glyphs" on the 
'alenque Tablets were pictographs and not phonetic signs: the inference is that the 
glyphs contained in the codices were also pictographs. He calls the Temple of the Cross 
tne Temple of the Sacred-tree. the cross being the conventional form which the "tree of 
Ufa" assumed. He thinks that the symbols are made up of glyphs arranged in seventeen 
transverse rows and six columns, but these really represent tne offerings brought to the 
temple and offered to the cross, the bird on the cross being the symbol oT divininr. Some 
of these glyphs contain portraits of priests, others arbitrary sisns or numerals, which dcsig* 
nate the days of the month, still others the incense vessels and animals, which were offerra. 
There are two hundred and one gljfphs. fifteen of them portraits. seventT-ntne give 
dates, twenty give dsTS of the month, twenty-eight incense vessels, twenty-three birds 
heads, three tigers, eignteen tapirs, fifteen bugs, eleven hands. 



i8o THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

system to the calendar and the use of the symbols in con- 
nection with the calendar stones and the codices, for the human 
and the divine were supposed to be mingled together in both of 
these. The appropriation of so simple a method of counting to 
the sacred purposes of the calendar made the system a power 
among the people. 

The same is true of the system which was introduced later, 
namely, that of counting thirteen with twenty. The origin of 
this number is uncertain, but a common supposition is now that it 
came from the sacred geography of the tribes of the interior, as 
the number seven did among the Chaldeans and the number 
nine did among the Chinese. 

The wild tribes, as we have seen, divided the earth and sky 
into four houses, but the sedentary tribes, according to Mr. 
Frank Gushing, divided them into six houses, the zenith and 
nadir having been added to the four quarters, a seventh house 
being in the center. By doubling the six houses and keep- 
ing the center the same we have the number thirteen, and this 
combined with the tv/enty makes the sacred year. As the num- 
ber twenty completes the body, and all the directions complete 
the body of the universe, the sky and earth combined, i. e., "all the 
directions and all the potencies," as Dr. Brinton says, so the two 
numbers thirteen and twenty formed the basis of the ritual cal- 
endar, just as fifty-two (4x13) made the American "cycle." 

Dr. Cyrus Thomas has given prolonged study to phonetic 
characters, and holds the opinion that they are phonetics, but 
is so far unable to decipher the codices on the tablets by the 
phonetic key. It should be said, however, that Dr. Thomas has 
done more than any other man toward the clearing up the 
mystery which surrounded the codices. He has shown, in the 
first place, that they were calendars used by the priests in reeju- 
lating the religious feasts, and that they all contain dates. He 
next discovered the symbols for the cardinal points, though it 
was after much uncertainty and long discussion that he identified 
the points with specific symbols, either phonetic or hieroglyphic 
or pictographic. The discovery of symbols for the twenty days 
of the month, as used by the Mayas, followed. The division of the 
months into weeks of thirteen days was also recognized, notwith- 
standing the fact that this complicated the calendar so that it 
became very obscure to the common people and could be read 
only by the priests. This itself was a triumph. The next step 
was to trace out the sacred calendar and separate it from the 
secular, or, in other words, divide the sacred year from the solar 
year. Dr. Thomas thinks that the codices were made up of picto- 
graphs, but the transverse symbols were phonetic characters, and 
the columns which run from top to bottom along the left side of 
the pages represent the twenty symbols for days. Thus we have 
the arithmetic side clearly deciphered, but the hieroglyphic side 



SACRED CALENDARS AND ANCIENT CODICES. i8i 

is obscure. Dr. Valentin! claims that these may be cleared up 
by the study of the glyphs. He says, in whatever kind of 
carving, or relief of sculpture on temple or palace walls, on 
large stone slabs, on drinking cups, or on jade celts, the selfsame 
symbols appear, the numerals are their monitors; the "pictorial 
nature" of both written and graven symbols are proved by this 
means. In the codices the images arc abbreviated and obscure, 
but in the sculptured tablets the figures show distinct objects 
and are in reality pictographs. The interpretation of the picto- 
graphic figures in the codices was also undertaken by Dr. 
Brinton, many of which, he thinks, were astronomical, but others 
were ceremonial. 

Mr. James Wickersham ha.« noticed that some of the tribes of 
the northwest coast had the method of counting by tens exactly 
like those used by the Asiatic nations, and his opinion is that it 
was derived from the Japanese or Chinese.* Mr. W. P. Clarke 
says that the decimal system originated among most of the tribes 
of North America. Dr. Thomas, on the other hand, thinks the 
vigesimal system may have been introduced from Southern Asia. 

5. The origin of the alphabet is another subject which comes 
up in connection with the study of the symbols. This has 
interested the Oriental scholars, but no satisfactory results have 
been reached. The old theory was that Cadmus was the inventor 
of letters; another theory was that the Greeks borrowed from 
the Phoenicians, the Phoenicians from the Egyptians, but the 
Egyptians was the oldest writing known. A still later opinion 
is that the Cuneiform alphabet preceded the Egyptian hiero- 
glyphics, and that this was borrowed by the Semitics from the 
ancient Accadian or Turanian race, and was originally connected 
with sun-worship. It is now the opinion of Dr. Sayce that the 
petroglyphs or rock inscriptions of Arabia are older than either 
of these, that they furnish the primordial form from which the 
letters were drawn. 

It is to be noticed that the Chinese alphabet, which seems so 
complicated and mysterious, has certain elements and conven- 
tional figures which may have been drawn from pictographs, and 
are nothing more nor less than abbreviated and degraded forms 
of hieroglyphics which originally resembled those of Egypt. 
The study of the pictographs of the American tribes, as related 
to the symbols, is very suggestive in this connection. It is not 
certain that the symbols grew out of the pictographs, for there 
are various symbols which have the stereotyped form from the 
very outset, and it is supposed that these have been transmitted 
from another continent. Still it is the general opinion that the 
so-called hieroglyphics were originally pictographs and portraits. 
This opinion was first advanced by Dr. Phillip J. J. Valentini in 

*Scc Amurieam Antiquarian, Vol. XVI.. p. 79. 



i82 THE /VMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

1879, in connection with study of the celebrated calendar stone 
in Mexico. The following are his remarks, which he made at 
the time; "They are not to be read in the same manner as those 
of Egypt or Assyria, by sound." "If you look upon a Mexican 
picture sheet and see in sculpture a group of connected orna- 
ments made up of human heads, animals, flowers, and see them 
projected in a horizontal or vertical line, do not conclude that 
each ornament in a group is a letter, and the group itself a word, 
and the union of such groups a sentence, the meaning of which 
may be deciphered by the aid of the alphabet key." "The Mexi- 
cans possessed a language very highly developed, they had 
expressions for each idea, abstract and concrete, and could con- 
vey them with wonderful subtle shades full of feeling and of 
thought, but to separate the human voice into vowels and con- 
sonant sounds, and to depict each sound by a symbol or letter 
and then to form of these letters a word, and to place one syllable 
after another as we do in writing, was to them an unknown art." 

It is noticeable that the latest effort made by Dr. Valentini is 
to prove that the hieroglyphics of Mexico and Central America 
arc not phonetic, but ideographic — they do not express sounds, 
but ideas, what is more, they are made up of pictographs, which 
are their own interpreters, and in this respect resemble the picto- 
graphs of the ruder tribes. He bases his opinion upon the study 
of the remarkable tablet at Palenque. "This contains pictographs 
of objects brought into the temple, portrait, idols, animals, 
vessels, etc., thus it is picture and not alphabetic writing." "These 
very same pictures are found engraved on all the monuments 
that cover the soil of Central America." The whole race of the 
American Indians was unacquainted with phonetic writing. 
Those who were unacquainted with the manufacture of paper 
left their records engraved on rock or sculptured into tablets, 
but in an advanced form of picture writing. In conclusion, he 
quotes Bishop Landa, saying, "all these objects of which I have 
spoken may be seen engraved on the temple and the palace walls." 

6. This brings us to the subject of sacred books in America 
and the analogies which may be drawn from them, and those in 
the east. Here we refer to the fact that the creation tablets and 
deluge tablets discovered by Mr. George Smith in Babylonia, 
twenty-five years ago, still furnish the foundations for much of 
the knowledge about the pre-historic races in the valley of the 
Tigris. These are the earliest sacred books or records in the 
world — certainly earlier than the "book of the dead" of the 
Egyptians, and much earlier than the sacred books of the Hindus. 

The deciphering of these tablets and of the seals, which have 
been discovered since, has brought out a vast amount of infor- 
mation about the god Isdubar and goddess Ishtar, and many 
other divinities of the Chaldeans. Still all of these "books" 
showed an advanced stage of civilization and conveyed the idea 



SACRED CALENDARS AND ANCIENT CODICES. 183 

that there may have been something ruder, and earlier, though 
these have not been identified. In America, however, we have 
sacred books which present all the stages which are possible to 
put upon record. Some of them very rude, perpetuated in a 
rude form of "bark records," "picture charts" and inscribed 
sticks," others in the form ot sand paintings and "formulas" for 
the healing of disease. These prevailed among the wild tribes, 
Delaware s, Ojibwas, Dakotas, Cherokees, the most of them 
having the story of the creation or of the deluge very prominent, 
giving the idea that they may have been based upon borrowed 
traditionary myths. 

It is due to Dr. W. J. Hoffman and Dr. D. G. Brinton that 
these pictographic records, which constitute the ancient sacred 
literature of these various tribes, have been brought out before 
the public in an intelligible form, free from any fanciful interpre- 
tations. They had, to be sure, been known to the archaeologists 
for many years, Henry Schoolcraft and E. G. Squiers, and the 
eccentric Rafinesque having published translations o! them as 
early as 1 849. 

There are, however, other records among the civilized tribes 
which are far in advance of these and which may well be called 
books, for they have the forms of books. They are made of 
paper, are folded in the shape of a fan, have wooden covers and 
are tied with strings. These are called codices. They are writ- 
ten in picture language with certain arbitrary symbols which are 
called hieroglyphics, mingled with the pictures. Much study 
has been given to the deciphering of these pictographs and much 
progress has already been made. The question now is whether 
the sacred books are astronomical records founded upon the 
appearance of the planet Venus, the knowledge of the various 
motions of the sun and its return to the solstices, and the observa- 
tion of the heavenly bodies and the constellations, or were they 
''books" which had regard to the ritualistic ceremonies and 
religious feasts? On this point Prof. Forstemann, who is pro- 
fessor librarian in chief of the Royal Library of Saxony, and Dr. 
D. G. Brinton have taken sides in favor, and Dr. Seler, of 
Berlin, and Dr. Cyrus Thomas have expressed a distrust. Dr. 
Thomas says these records are, to a large extent, only religious 
calendars. Dr. Brinton says they are primarily and essentially 
records of the motions of the heavenly bodies and are to be 
interpreted as referring, in the first instance, to the sun and moon 
and planets and those constellations which are most prominent 
in the night sky." Dr. Brinton says further: "Those who follow 
Fostermann's views must accustom themselves to look upon the 
animals, plants and objects as largely symbolic, representing the 
movements of the heavenly bodies, the changes of the seasons, 
the revolutions of the sun, moon and the planets just as in the 
ancient zodiacs of the lower world we find similar uncouth ani- 



i84 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

mals and impossible collocations of images are presented. The 
great snakes which stretched across the pages of the codices 
mean time; the torches in the hand of the figures, often one 
downward and one upward, indicate the rising and setting of the 
constellations; the tortoise and the snail mark the solstices; the 
mummied bodies, the disappearance from the sky of certain stars 
at certain seasons.* 

7. The most remarable discovery in connection with symbols 
contained in the sacred books is the one made by Mrs. Zelia 
Nutall. She says: "There are strong indications proving that 
the different branches of industry or pursuit were identified with 
certain day signs, and in this way the entire population of Mex- 
ico was sub-divided into twenty castes or kinships grouped 
under four heads; also a division ot products into four categories, 
according to the elements with which each industry or pursuit 
was connected; that on the market days of Catl, the god of water, 
aquatic or vegetable products; on Tecpatl (flint) days, mineral 
products; on Calli (house days) all manufactured articles; on 
Tochtli (tiger) all products of animal life should predominate in 
the market place." From a practical point of view nothing could 
be more simple and admirably adapted for a communal govern- 
ment than such a distribution of labor. By this means a thor- 
ough control of all human activity and the products of the lands 
was in the hands of the rulers. The paramount importance of 
the market as an institution of a communal government, the regu- 
lar rotation of market days, with the day of enforced rest every 
twenty days, were the prominent and permanent features of the 
civil solar year; these were permanent while the great festivals ot 
the religious calendar shifted their positions at the rate of a day 
every four years and were rectified once in fifty-two years. This 
is a far reaching explanation and if accepted will prove that the 
Mayas were far advanted in the science of government, for at the 
end of fifty-two years, or four times thirteen, which constituted 
the sacred knot of years, all of the fires were extinguished and 
the new fire was lighted from the fire-drill which was placed on 
the body of a sacrificial victim. In this way the sacred calendars 
were brought together and harmonized. Sun worship prevailed 
and ruled the religious calendar, but the sun also controlled the 
seasons and their products, therefore there must be a reconciling 
of the two calendars. The ritual year formed the kernel of the 
solar year, kept revolving like a wheel within a wheel, but the 
two came together at the end of fifty-two years. 

♦The tortoise was a svmbol of the summer solstice and the snail of the winter; the frog, 
the well known symbol ot the water. 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. i8S 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. 

By Albert S. Gatschet, Washington. 

Raoul de la Grasserie on Roots.— To find the origin of affixes in 
language is difficult enough, but to discover the way in which roots took 
origin is still harder, and most linguists have despaired to venture anything 
else but theories on that subject. The' fossil called root is so deeply em- 
bedded and mixed up with derivative syllables or sounds, or has altered its 
shape by evolution so entirely that we get from one dilemma into another 
when launching our brain powers on this slippery field of investigation. The 
inquiries of the above author are probably approaching the final goal closer 
than any other book ever did, for he was able to utilize the opinions of so 
many predecessors and illustrate them with his own wide-reaching linguistic 
experience for all parts of the terrestrial globe. He establishes three 
classes of roots — pronominal, interjectional and significative, all of which 
are produced by subjective onomatop(L*ia. Four other classes are indebted 
for their origin to objective onomatoptL'ia. Other divisions of the work treat 
of vocalic and consonantic apophony, growth and decay of the radical sylla- 
ble, union of two or more roots and segmentation of them, earliest evolution 
of language in phonetics, morpholofsy and syntax. The title of the publi- 
cation W, de Vori^ne et de revolution premiere des Racines des langues, 
Paris, J. Maisonneuve, 1895. octavo, pp. 174. 

Aboriginal Art in Arizona and New Mexico.— The researches 
concerning the history and ethnography of the Southwest of the United 
States are now pursued as persistently by American scientists as those of 
other portions of North America, and it is desirable that linguists should 
also join their efforts in clearing up the problems still awaiting solution 
there. Mr. F. W. Hodge has published in the American Anthropolof^t^ 
of April, 1895 (eleven pages), the results of his inquiries into "The first 
discovered city of Cibola,*' from the old chroniclers, as well as from per- 
sonal knowledge of the country around Zufti, where he spent about a 
year. He finds that the special city of the Cibola country that was first dis- 
covered by a white man, the friar Marcos de Niza, was Hawikuh (occupied 
by the Zufti Indians long after his time, until about 1670), and not K'iakima, 
as believed by others. The historical details given after Bandelier and 
other authors give an especial interest to the article. 

''Similarities in culture*' may be observed among peoples of regions most 
distant from each other and which have followed a development entirely 
independent and sui generis. Still certain similarities in art products, poetry, 
basketry, in the calendar and other sides of human culture are so peculiar 
that they become a constant puzzle to thoughtful minds. Prof. Otis T. 
Mason, as a curator of the e:hnological portion of the United States National 
Museum, has had full opportunities to study phenomena of that sort and 
has classified them systematically in the same number of the Anthropolo- 
gist^ giving his impressions and conclusions. 



i86 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Dr. J. Walter Fewkes was surprised early in the course of his investiga- 
tions at perceiving similarities between Zufti and Moqui art and their analo- 
gies in the pictorial remnants of the Nahua peoples; we may add of the 
Maya also. One of his papers relatmg to this was discussed in a former 
number of the American Antiquarian, and now hes before us his "A Com- 
parison of Siaand Tusayan Snake Ceremonials*' {^American Anthropologist ^ 
April, 1895) 2t^^ "The Tusayan New Fire Ceremony" (Proceedings of the 
Boston Society of Natural History, Feb. 9, 1895, Vol. XXVI). The "com- 
parison" was suggested by the publication of an extensive monograph on 
the K^ra pueblo of the Sia (Cia, Cilia), by Matilda Coxe Stevenson, 
and published in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. 
In spite ot many differences in the Sia and Tusayan (Moqui) ceremonials, 
in essential points they are the same, says Fewkes. The lighting of the 
"new fire" once every year is a ceremony found with most tribes of the 
western and eastern hemisphere, and here with the Moqui this art is sur- 
rounded with so much detail of a most ancient date that we understand 
how great and sacred the fiery element appeared to primeval man. Phallic 
rites are mixed with these ceremonies, which last during eight days in 
November. During the rites, which are full of interest, occur many allocu- 
tions and set speeches, of which Dr. Fewkes may perhaps give us the 
original Indian text some other time. 

During 1894 Dr. Fewkes wrote his treatise on the "Dolls of the Tusayan 
Indians," in "Schmeltz*s Internationales Archiv fiir Ethnographie," Vol. VII., 
p. 30, quarto, which is published in Leiden, Holland, by E. J. Brill. The 
article embodies the material which Fewkes collected in 1891 and 1892 in 
Walpi, while attached to the Hemenway Archaeological Expedition. The 
figures described are represented on six magnificent plates, in vivid colors, 
and although they are used by the Moqui children for dolls, they, or the 
majority of them, are tihus, or images, intended to represent mythological 
figures. Their symbolic nature is expressed by the masks worn by them; 
some are game animals, some birds, some men with phallic characteristics, 
while some represent women with rich symbolic appendages. 

Chinook Texts by Franz Boas is the title of a linguistic collection 
of Indian myths, with an interlinear and a free translation into English. 
The dialect represented in them is the Lower Chinook, and the few indi- 
viduals still surviving who speak this language live at Bay Center, Pacific 
County, Washington. Only one of these survivors, Charles Cultec, was 
able to act as interpreter, but he proved to be a true storehouse of informa- 
tion. Eighteen long myths, besides numerous points on beliefs, customs 
and history, were obtained from him, and his portrait adorns the title-page* 
The Lower Chinooks and the Clatsop have all adopted the Chehalis lan- 
guage, a dialect of the Salishan family, as a medium of inter-communica- 
tion. The texts were taken down in 1890 and 1891, and are published as 
one of the bulletins of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and with the 
use of the Bureau alphabet. (Pp. 278, octavo.) 

The latest pubhcation on Central American archeology is Dr. Philipp 
J.J. Valentini's treatise on the problem of the Maya hieroglyphics. It is 
published by the Worcester American Antiquarian Society in its Proceed- 
ings of 1895, 4to, pp. 24, and has the title: "Analysis of the pictorial text 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. 187 

inscribed on two Palenque tablets," with a photographic table uniting all 
the three slabs of the tablet into one plate. The article starts from a care- 
ful analysis of the signs, all of which are imitations of natural objects. 
Many occur in full shape, and also in abbreviated, tachygraphic form. The 
written symbols are of the latter farm, and show on their face the traces of 
abbreviated, degenerated images, and thereby suggest the pre-existence of 
a prototype. Their prototypes are detected in sculpture, and represent 
images of a distinct object — all of which are of a ritual nature. The 
method of recording both symbols on paper and on stone was not alpha- 
betic, syllabic or intermixed, but simply object and picture writing. 

The Sumo Language is spoken in the southeastern parts of Nica- 
ragua, on the Kukra River, anH its affluents, and is a dialect of the Woolwa 
or Ulua, Ulva family. The area of this family or stock is not fully known 
as to its limits, but in a general way may be said to extend from the Patook 
River of Honduras to the Blewficlds River of Nicaragua and south of it, 
bordering on the east on the Misskito family. A vocabulary of Sumo has 
just been published in the May number of the American Arch(toio£^ist 
(Columbus, Ohio), taken down from the natives by the explorer and laturalist, 
J. Crawford H., which embodies nearly 200 terms and clearly proves its 
affinity to Woolwa. The Sumos are a portion of the Cookras, or Kukra peo- 
ple. A small number of its terms agree with the Misskito language, but 
none with the Xicaque, a neighboring family of languages in Honduras. 

As far as a classification can be attempted at the present epoch, the 
following dialects make up the Woolva or Ulua stock: 

1. Ulua or Woolwa, of Blewfields River, Nicaragua. They arc also called 
Mico, Chontalli (savages), Chontalli proper. 

2. Cookra with Sumo, on Kukra River, which runs into Blewfields lagoon. 

3. Tumbla, on Tung la River, Nicaragua. 

4. Twaka or Toaka, on headwaters of Patook River. 

5. Parrasta, n^ar Loviguisca, Dept. Chontales, Nicaragua. 

6. Subirana, near Camoapa, Dept. Chontales. 

7. Rama or Melchoro, on Rama River. 

8. Seco, on Secos and Tinto (or Black) Rivers. 

9. Poya or Bulbul of Olama, Honduras, on Tinto and Patook Rivers, in 
the Poya Mountains. 

la Carcha and Siquia, on the rivers of the same name, tributaries of 
Blewfields River. 

The affinity of the Pantasma, also that of the Coco language, on Coco 
River. Nicaragua, is still undetermined. 

BoGGiAsrs I Caduvei.— The name Caduvei for a South American tribe 
sounds almost new to ethnographists, but along the Paraguay River it is 
used to designate the Mbayd, who are best known by their Tupi name of 
Guaicuru, or "runners'*. An artist of Rome, Italy, has in the present year 
published the results of his investigations and travels among these natives 
in a large volume, royal octavo, of splendid typographic exterior, and 
richly illustrated from photographs, under the title: Guido Boggianit Viaggi 
d*un artista neir America meridionale, I Caduvei (Mbayd o Guaicuru) 
con prefazione ed uno studio storico ed ethografico del Dott. G. A. Colini. 
112 figure intercalate nel testo ed una carta geografica. Publicato col con- 
corse della Societa Geografica Italiana di Roma. Roma, Ermanno Locscber 



i88 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

e Co., 1895. Pp* xxii and 339. To do full justice to the contents of this 
beautiful literary achievement would take several pages of our periodical, 
so we simply turn the attention of our readers to the book with the remark 
that the linguistic side of the Guaicuru is made the object of a long, elab- 
orate and circumstantial appendix — vocabularies and grammar as well. 
(Pp. 249 to 283.) 

o 

BOOK REVIEW. 

The Story of the Nations or Vedic India, By Zenai de A. Ragozin. Pub- 
lished by G. B. Putnam's Sons, New York. 1895. 

The author of this book has a remarkable faculty of making a difficult 
task easy, a heavy subject light, and bringmg out the most abstruse thoughts 
and themes so as to make them interesting. She calls the Vedic, India, 
the wonderland of the East, and so it is, for it contains the greatest variety 
of scenery and climate, the strangest kind of plants and animals and many 
of the wonderful products of literature and art. Its population is ancient 
and varied. The Aryan or Indo European race were late to occupy and 
were preceded by varied aboriginal tribes, among these are the Dravidics, 
the Santals, and others, classed by this author as among the Turanians, 
though this term is rejected by many as meaningless. The sources of our 
knowledge are briefly described. The writings of Sir William Jones, 
Schleigel and Humboldt, the reports of the Asiatic Society of Bengal the 
translation of the Sacred Books, are chief. The Vedas are not the fountain 
bead of literature, though they are the oldest books of the Aryan family of 
nations, and from a collection of {.Samhitra) the hymns and sacred texts 
called mantras of that people, 1,028 in number. They are three-fold, the 
Rig-\'eda being the most ancient, the Atharva-Veda being the most modem. 
The Rig- Veda opens to view a world of "weird, repulsive, darkly scowling 
demons," such as never sprang from Aryan fancy, a gobelin warship, the 
exact counterpart of that which we find in Turanian Chaldea. The oldest 
manuscripts do not date back earlier than 1500 A. D., but the process of 
memorizing began as early as 600 B. C, the time of the making ot com- 
mentaries coming in with the Christian era. 

It is noticable that this author takes the position that the earliest literature 
and mythology of India was derived from the anaent Accadians of Chal- 
dea— a position that some of the Americanists are inclined to deny. This 
is significant, for it may be that it was through this channel and the Island 
of Java that the American myths and art forms were derived. 

The Brahmanas mark the transition from Vedic culture to Brahmanic 
modes of thought and the Upanishads containing the philosophy of the 
entire period. The laws of .Manu and the old stories, or the puranai, are 
the oldest of the sacred writings. The cycles are conuined in these, 
including (i) the creation, (2) dissolution, (3) the theogony, (4) reigns of 
patriarchs, (5) the dynasties of kings, thus making a parallel to the sacred 
scriptures. The Rig-Veda marks the epoch where the ancient gods, repre- 
senting powers of nature are yielding before the deities of a new heavenly 
generation which center around Indra the Hindoo national god. The 
distinction between these different periods, as drawn by the author, is very 



BOOK REVIEWS. 189 

suggestive, though there is do attempt to enter the subject in a critical or 
oracular method. 

The ancient gods are Dravidic; the intermediate gods are Aryan, and 
belong to the proto historic period; the later gods arc Hrahmanic and are 
purely historic, the serpent and the nature power pertaining to the first, the 
worship of Vishnu to the second, and the worship of Indra to the last. 

Manual of Geolo^, By James G. Dana. Published by American Book 
Company, New York and Chicago. 189^). 

The name of Prof. J. G. Dana has been known tor many years as that of 
the leadmg geologist in America, and his manual of geo ogy has been used 
as a text book by the most prominent schools and colleges throughout the 
country. The fourth edition of the book had hardly appeared before 
the tidings came of the death of its author. The book can, therefore, be 
regarded as his crowning work and monument It is a volume of 1,087 
pages, illustrated by over 1,575 figures. It is divided into four parts, entitled 
Physiographic, Structural, Dynamical and Historical Geology. Under the 
first part we have the topography and general contour, relief and sacrigce 
forms of the continents, and the geographical distribution of plants and 
animals. Under the second, the kinds of rocks are described and their 
constituents, and the formations called stralified and unstralified. Under 
the third department, the forces which make the rocks; (i) chemical forces, 
(2) life, (3) atmosphere, (4) water, (5) heat, (6) hypogeic work, underground 
forces. Historical geology occupies a large proportion of the volume— 700 
pages. The subdivisions of the history are as follows: (i) Archaean, sub- 
divided into Laurentian and Huronian; (2) Paleozoic, divided into one 
Cambrian, Lower Silurian, Upper Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous; (3) 
Mesozoic, subdivided into Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous; (4) Cenozoic, 
subdivided into Tertiary and Quartenary periods. It is a singular fact that 
the progress of geological study in America during the lifetime of this dis- 
tinguished writlsr has passed from the Archaean rocks through the different 
periods, but in the last decade has been concentrated on the Tertiary and 
Quartenary periods; the period just preceding that of the advent of man 
having been dwelt upon with especial interest, so that the author was able 
to give in this book a complete history of geology itself. 

There is another noticeable feature in Professor Dana's life— his faith 
was never shaken by his special studies, from the foundations given by the 
Scriptures, but became more and more established as his knowledge widened 
and deepened. There is no controversy in the book. 

The changes of theory never disturbed his mind, or if they did it is not 
seen in any of his writings. This is a remarkable fact, for he lived at a 
time when there were great changes in scientific thought. 

The subject of the antiquity of man has agitated geologists and archaeo- 
logists alike, but there has been no special controversy recognized or hinted 
at in his books. Prof. Dana died when the controversy over the two distinct 
glacial periods was subsiding and when the unity of the period was being 
subdivided into many successive episodes. 

The book merely hints at this ostensible change of base. A face worn by 
bard study is presented as a portrait on the cover of the volume, its lines 
sharply drawn, a strong face, but it will be se^ n no more on earth except in 
portraits; but like the eternal hills the soul continues and God continues. 



IQO THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

What would Prof. Roswell Hitchcock say were he to come back and 
note the progress of the science to which he gave his energy? It is cer- 
tainly a noble science and has made wonderful progress. Its giant strides 
remind us of those of one of the Hindu divinities, which took in the whole 
earth and claimed it for bis own. 

Demon Possession. By J. L. Nevius, D. D. Published by Fleming H. 
Re veil Co. New York and Chicago, 1894. 

The literature of the occult has an accession in a book written by a minis- 
ter who was forty years a missionary to the Chinese, but without the usual 
mistery, for the book is based upon facts. 

The author takes the scriptural view that there is a demoniacal possession 
in ancient and modern times, in India, in China and in christian countries; 
then he speaks of the different theories, which may be used to account for 
it, as follows: (i) The development theory, a law inherent in man's nature. 
(2) Pathological or diseased states of the nervous system.' (3) The psycho- 
logical insanity and hipnotism. (4) The Biblical theory or actual possession 
by unseen spirits or demons. The historical sketch of demonism is drawn 
mainly from the bible and the christian fathers, but comes 4own to the days 
of Salem witchcraft and to modem spiritualism. It proves that there is a 
streak of human nature which is constantly presenting itself and always 
under the same abnormal condition. The subject of demonism, as presented 
by the Abongines of America, seems, however, to have accepted the notice 
of the author. Only eight pages are given to it and not one of them treats 
of the particular type which is known to ethnologists as a system of native 
religion. The book is written from a theological standpoint, though the 
type of psychology, as taught by the new school represented by Dr. William . 
James, of Harvard University, and M. Ribot and others, is referred to at 
considerable length. The materialistic view seems to be rejected. What 
purpose the book will serve is now uncertain, though the position that there 
are actual demons which get possession of men may deter some from trifling 
with themselves and their fellows. The publishers have put the book into 
excellent type and is easy to read and is an attractive volume. 



t 



192 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

were centres of civilization in other parts of the world, as Peru 
in South America, and certain points on the Eastern Continent, 
furnishes no answer to the inquiry, until the cause or reason for 
this development at the other points is shown. The time has 
passed when the mere statement that such things have occurred 
elsewhere and again and again, will suffice as an answer to 
these inquiries. The investigation of to-day demands a specific 
reply to the question, "Why is this so?" or a candid confession 
of inability to solve the mystery. Where the latter concession 
is made, the subject is open to suggestion and theory so far as 
these can be based upon legitimate data. There is nothing in- 
consistent with the true scientific method m this course, if the 
stops are legitimately taken and the suggestion or theory is 
merely a reaching out beyond the last determined foothold for 
other ground. 

There must have been a cause, an impetus, which gave rise 
to the civilization of Mexico and Central America. What was 
this cause, this impetus? Terrien de Lacouperie* says: "The 
science of history has now shown, in all known instances, that 
centres of civilization never arose elsewhere than amid a con- 
flict of races, when sparks, coming from a more enlightened 
quarter, have brought in an initiating and leading spirit, under 
the form of one or several men, or of immigrating tribes, incited 
by trade, religion, or in search of safety. The same science has 
shown, moreover, that man has always traveled more exten- 
sively than was formerly supposed, that there is no such thing 
as the history of one country." 

It is true it may be said there must have been a first center 
where civilization arose, so to speak, spontaneously, conse- 
quently the same thing may occur again and elsewhere. This 
is doubtless a reasonable supposition, but the writer alluded to 
refers to the "known instances," to the facts as revealed by his- 
tory. Therefore if hi$ statement be correct this historical fact 
should be our guide in discussing the question, rather than a 
niere supposition, though apparently ever so reasonable. 

The civilization of Cnina was for a lone time considered un- 
accountable and was generally supposea to be of indigenous 
growth. Recent investigations have, however, at last dis- 
pelled this view, and brought conviction that this civilization 
was, in part at least, deriyed from the more western regions in 
the basms of the Tigris and Euphrates. 

That California was the converging point of numerous ethnic 
stocks is made evident by the linguistic map of the Bureau of 
Ethnology. But the spark necessary to kmdle the blaze of 
civilization was wanting, hence naught but the heaps of savage 
rubbish or the evidence of savage life remain to tell the story 
of the past. 

The region of Southern Mexico and that drained by the 
Usumacinta was also an area of converging stocks. Here 

^West Orig. Chinese CiTilization, p. ix. 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES. 193 

civilization developed to a wonderful degree as contrasted with 
the savagery of the rest of North America. If Lacouperie's 
theory be correct, whence came the spark ? 

Although it is admitted that the question is one difficult to 
answer satisfactorily, there are some broad and comprehensive 
considerations which seem to eliminate some of the supposed 
factors of the problem and at the same time point out the 
direction in which we must look for a solution. Two sugges- 
tions which have been advanced appear to be gaining accep- 
tance among investigators. One, that the types of the Pacinc 
slope (including Mexico and Centraji America), when taken as 
a whole, differ widely from those of the Atlantic slope; the 
other,, that the former have so many resemblances to tnose of 
Oceanica and the opposite Pacific coasts, as to sugeest the 

Eossibility of having received an impress therefrom. If these 
e conceded, as now appears will most likely be the final con- 
clusion, notwithstanding the numerous blows they are destined 
to receive, all reference to the eastern side of the continent, for 
the original germ, will be eliminated. 

There are also other general considerations which seem to 
have a bearing on the question, and a tendency to restrict the 
line of research. Bancroft asserts that "the tendency of 
modern research is to prove the great antiquity of the Ainer- 
ican civilization as well as of the American people; and if 
either was drawn from a foreign source, it was at a time prob- 
ably so remote as to antedate any old-world culture now ex- 
isting, and to prevent any light being thrown on the offspring, 
by a study of the parent stock." This mav be, and probably 
is true in regard to the origin of the people of America, but 
there is nothing to prove its truth in re^^ard to the great an- 
tiquity ot Central America civilization — m fact all the evidence 
lies in the other scale. 

This writer, as do nearly all others of the present day, attri- 
bute the remaining evidences of this civilization to the direct 
ancestors of the people occupyinc^ the country in the sixteenth 
century. That many of the edinces were in use down to the 
arrival of the Spaniards, though others had been long aban- 
doned, is generally conceded. On the other hand, it is evi- 
dent from the range of this civilization, and the number of 
stocks it included in whole or in part, that its development 
must have taken place after these various stocks had reached 
substantially their historic seats, and after their differentiation 
into the known tribes. I venture the assertion, which I do not 
believe can be successfully controverted, that one thousand 
years preceding the Spanish conquest is a sufficient allowance 
of time for the development and progress of this Central 
American civilization. I do not say it did not reach back to a 
more distant date, but that this length of time or perhaps even 
less, is sufficient as a minimum allowance. If the opinions of 
Fergusson and Wheeler be accepted, the buddin^r and com* 
plete development of the architectural art in India embraced 



194 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

much less time than we have allowed as the minimum in Cen- 
tral America. 

Max Muller says: "Any attempt to recognize, in the in- 
habitants of America, descendants of Jews, Phenicians, Chinese 
or Celts are for the present simply hopeless, and are in fact 
outside the pale of real science." This may be true, but it is 
not a fair statement of the general question. The investiga- 
tion of the origin of the American aborigines is not necessarily 
outside the pale of real science any more than is the question 
of the original home of the Aryans. Science has reached the 
conclusion that America was peopled from the old world. 
Such investigations therefore as have for their object the 
elimination of factors and narrowing the bounds of the discus- 
sion are, notwithstanding the assertion of such high authority, 
clearly within the pale of science. New data are constantly 
coming to the surface which enable the investigator to correct 
some error or strengthen some argument. 

That the original peopling of the continent lies so far back 
in the past as to render the comparison of customs, habits, arts, 
etc., with a view of determining from what particular people 
they were derived, valueless, is doubtless true. This, however, 
is but one branch of the general question, but one phase of the 
subject. Other, possibly many, arrivals at points along the 
coasts may have occurred during the long series of centuries 
which have passed since the arrival of the first immigrants. 
This possibility, or rather strong probability, opens a wide field 
for legitimate scientific investigation, which is quite distinct 
from the question of the original peopling or first introduction 
of population. 

In this view of the subject the conclusion that the Pacific 
types have by some means been impressed on the west coast 
tribes becomes important, for, as Prof. Dall has well said, these 
"are not primitive customs, but things which appertain to a 
point considerably above the lowest scale of development in 
culture." It is evident therefore, if this conclusion be correct, 
that this impress must have been received many ages after the 
first peopling of the continent. Stocks and tribes must have 
been developed and spread over a large part of the continental 
area, and those of the Atlantic slope must, if derived from the 
same original stock, have been separated from those of the 
Pacific slope. If the existence of these Pacific types be ad- 
mitted, as will certainly be ultimately the case, this conclusion 
is inevitable. It proves beyond question the fact of prehis- 
toric contact with peoples of the Pacific islands or eastern 
Asia. More than that, it proves that the theory, which has 
been generally, though far from universally, adopted in recent 
years, that all the steps of culture progress of the natives of 
America have been indigenous, is untenable. 

The object, however, of the present writer, is far more 
limited in its scope than the broad fields covered by these 
questions. It relates only to the native civilization of Mexico 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES, igs 

and Central Mexico. And is limited to a discussion of the 
question oi probable contact in prehistoric times with Asiatic 
or Oceanic peoples, by which this civilization was brout^ht 
about, accelerated or affected. 

This civilization, as is well known, was not general in its 
character, but along certain lines, which is of itself an indica- 
tion of exotic origin. "The art,*' says one writer, **in which 
these people excelled was that of architecture. They were 
born builders from a remote epoch.'* 

There is nothing therefore in the broad and general view of 
this civilization, of its era, character, or extent, that militates 
against the theory that the original spark, the germ, was derived 
from Malaysia or Southeastern Asia. 

In a recent article in one of our periodicals, the writer, after 
alluding to a paper by Dr. Seler in the Preussische yakrbucher^ 
adds the following remark: 

'* In singular and sad contrast to these truly scientific views 
are the efforts of a local school of American students to re- 
habilitate the time-worn hypotheses of Asiatic and Polynesian 
influences in the native cultures of our continent. The present 
leader of this misdirected tendency is Professor O. T. Mason, 
whose articles in the International Archives of Ethnography, 
and in the American Anthropologist bearing on this question 
do the utmost credit to his extensive learning and the skill 
with which he can bring it to bear in a lost cause. His latest, 
entitled "Similarities ofCulture,** (Amer. Anthrop, April, 1895) 
is so excellent an effort that it is all the more painful to see its 
true intent is to bolster up a moribund chimera. It is to be 
hoped that ihey will not influence younger workers in the field 
to waste their energies in pursuing these will-o'-the-wisps of 
science which will only lead them to bootless quests.** 

This is decidedly refreshing, coming as it does from one who 
but a short time ago put forth a theory io regard to the peo- 
pling of America which does not appear to have a single sound 
leg to support it. If Prof. Mason's theory is without any prob- 
able basis, this will no doubt be made apparent. This method 
of contrasting the theory of one writer with that of another 
settles nothing except that the question is a controverted one. 
Mere dictatorial statements are no longer current coin in 
science. Prof. Mason's opinion as a scientist in the lines he 
follows is entitled to as much weight as Dr. Seler*s. The facts 
and arguments presented are the only true tests by which to 
judge them. 

ihe origin of the American Indians, and also of the native 
American civilization, are yet unsolved problems which science 
may legitimately attack on all sides with the hope of possibly 
clearing the way to a satisfactory solution. Conclusions in re- 
gard to the origin of the civilizations of the old continent which 
were considered settled are being rudely shaken, and in some 
cases overturned by recent investigations. The new data bear- 
ing on these subjects will from time to time be brought into 



ig6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

the study of the unsettled (questions, and it is proper they 
should, as some additional light will be gained, though the 
problems remain unsolved. I therefore advise the writer not 
to feel "pained," though he should fail to bridle these investi- 
gations; some good will come from them though they be by 
"American students." 

I have not seen the Preussische Jahrbucher that contains Dr. 
Seler's article, yet if permitted to judge by an extract in the 
"Literary Digest," his reasoning in one instance at least ap- 
pears to be based on error. According to this extract he says: 
"The attempts to deduce the beginning of American civiliza- 
tion from foreign sources are all the more curious as nobody 
tries to prove that Chinese civilization began in Egypt or In- 
dian civilization in Chaldea. ' Of course no one will contend 
that the reference is intended to be limited to Egypt, as it is 
clear the writer merely means to say that no one attempts to 
derive Chinese civilization from outside, or foreign sources, 
otherwise the illustration is inapplicable. 

Now it so happens that I have before me at this moment a 
large octavo work, (1894) of some four hundred closely printed 
pa^es, by Terrien ae Lacouperie, (professor of Indo-C)hinese 
rhilology, director of "The Babylonian and Oriental Record," 
whose works have been laureated on two occasions by the 
Academy des Inscription at Belles-Lettres), the object of 
which is to prove the "Western Origin of the Early Chinese 
Civilization ; the centers of civilization in Southwestern Asia 
or the basins of the Euphrates and Tigris being the chief 
sources from which it was drawn. This writer asserts in his in- 
troduction that his views have "received the approbation of no 
less than four scores of scholars of eminence, including some 
of the leading Sinologists, Assyriologists and Orientalists of 
the day." In a previous work the same writer produced evi- 
dence to show that the Chinese written characters were de- 
rived from the archaic cuneiform writing. This he says "has 
deceived confirmatory evidences, direct and circumstantial, 
from all sides, and is now definitely settled." It is certain 
therefore that Dr. Seler has erred in referring to Chinese civili- 
zation as one which no person claims to be of exotic origin. 

Fergusson, who is accepted as high authority in regard to 
architecture, declares in his "History of Architecture" that the 
Indians learned this art (stone architecture) from the Bactrian 
Greeks. This, however, is disputed by Mitra and Cunningham, 
though the latter agrees with Fergusson in believing they de- 
rived the art of sculpture from the Greeks. 

Before referring to other items of comparison, attention is 
called to a general consideration relating to the opposite or 
Asiatic end of the line, which must not be lost sight of in this 
discussion. We have referred to the calendar formerly in use 
in Java as presenting strong and remarkable resemblances to 
that of Central America and as furnishing a justification for the 
belief in prehistoric contact. As by tracing back the race of 



CONTACT or AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES. 197 

this island to their probable continental home other and earlier 

f>hases of their customs, arts, beliefs, etc , may throw additional 
ight on the subject now under discussion, we call attention to 
the following items: 

Notwithstanding the strong Hindu influence in shaping the 
mythology, architecture, religious belief and language of this 
people, yet the theory that the Malays are connected with or 
derived from the Hindus or Indo-Aryan race is by no means 
universally accepted. The school which suggests an Indo-Chi- 
nese origin contains a number of able scholars. This region, as 
is claimed by A. H. Keane, was the meeting point of the two 
great Asiatic races, the Caucasian (which he uses as nearlv 
synonymous with the Aryan) and tne Mongolian. Although 
he does not follow Wallace in connecting the Malay with the 
Mongolian type, he believes **the brown races of Malaysia con- 
sist exclusively of these two elements variously intermingled, 
the Caucasian forming everywhere the substratum.'* As our 
only object at present is to justify reference in our comparisons 
to the customs, beliefs, etc., of this Indo-Chinese region, a 
further discussion of this point is unnecessary here. However, 
wc quote the following from the writer named, and proceed 
with our discussion.* 

"We have seen that the Caucasian Khmers were the first to 
reach Farther India, where they may be regarded as the true 
aborigines, and that the Mongolian, Annamese, Burmese, Siam- 
ese, etc., were later intruders from the north and the north- 
west. Now my contention is that the Caucasians were also the 
first to reach Malaysia, driven southwards in fact by the pres- 
sure of the Mongolians from the north. This is the natural 
sequence, and this is the condition of things required by the 
state of the Malaysian languages. The polysyllabic speaking 
Khmers were everywhere in possession of the field when the 
monosyllabic speaking Mongolians also reached the Archipel- 
ago. But the two linguistic systems are absolutely irreconcil- 
able; hence when settling in the islands, and amalgamating, as 
we know they did, with Caucasians, the Mongolians were fain 
to lay aside their peculiar speech, and adopt that of those in 
possession of the land. Crawfurd opportunely remarks that 
•the Chinese have been settled in great numbers throughout 
the Archipelago for many centuries, and intermarry with the 
native inhabitants; yet there are certainly not a dozen words of 
the Chinese language in Malay, Javanese, or any other native 
tongue of the Archipelago.* So also with the Siamese, who, 
though conterminous with the Malays at the north frontier of 
Malacca, *have not adopted half a dozen words of Malay, and 
the Malays no Siamese words at all.* 

"We find therefore that in Malaysia, as almost everywhere 
else, the ethnical elements are mixed — Caucasian and Mongo- 



^A. H. Keane. "On the Relations of the Indo-Chinese and Inter-Oceanic Races," 
Jovnial Anthrop, Inst. G. B. and Ireland. Vol. 9. pp. 269-270. 



f'>S THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

lian — but the linguistic remains, as it always does, unmixed in 
its .structure. We can speak of a pure Malay ethnical family. 
The latter is everywhere made up of Caucasian and Mongolian 
elements variously combined; the former, as we shall now sec, 
is substantially Caucasian or Cambojan." 

'Ihe following from J. Harmand: "Les Races Indo-Chinese,'* 
as given in the Revue d' Ethnographic,* is so applicable here 
that we cannot refrain from inserting it. 

"It would be important to search out the analogies which may 
exist between the Cambodgiens and the Kouys on one side, 
an(l the populations of the interior of Java on the other side, 
which have, as is known, left monuments which present, with 
those of the ancient Cambodge, most striking analogies. 
According to M. Pierro, director of the botanical garden of 
Saigon, these Javanese are almost identical in aspect with the 
Cambodgiens. Is not the one descended from the other? or 
rather have not the two peoples but one common origin? 
Would not there be in that a new mode of explaining the evi- 
dent traces of Malay blood which are found everywhere in 
Indo-China, save among some families of genuine savages of 
the great chain?" 

This statement by Harmand is valuable in this connection, 
as It seems to indicate the particular section from whence the 
Javanese were derived. Tne fact that in Cambodia monuments 
are found prcsentiug the features of the pre- Hindu structures 
of Java, carries back the dtite of the knowledge of the building 
art to a time sufliciently distant to cover any expedition which 
we may suppose to have been stranded on the Mexican or Cen- 
tral American coast, and which gave impetus to the civilization 
of that section. 

Time is, of course, an important factor in the discussion of 
the thcorv or supposition presented in this series of articles. 
If the ^laya and Mexican civilization was derived from or 
largely influenced by the introduction of a foreign element 
from Malaysia or Soullieastern Asia, this introduction must 
have occurred at a date sufliciently distant in the past to allow 
time for the development of this civilization so far as it was 
thus derived. On the other hand the arts, customs, etc., intro- 
duced must have been in existence in the section from whence 
this foreign element came, at the time of its departure there- 
from. 

It is supposed by more than one author that the peopling of 
the Polynesian islands by the brown race, or Malays, began at 
a date not earlier than the beginning of our era. If at the time 
this dispersion was going on an expedition from the original 
hive, driven by stress of weather and drifted by the ocean 
currents, was stranded on the Mexican or Central American 
coast, all the lequirements of the theory are met. On the 
one side, sufficient time is given for the development of the 

•Tom. II, iJ^ p, 55. 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES. 199 

civilization in Central America, and on the other the date is 
not carried back of the culture era on the Asiatic side. More- 
over, the supposition includes nothing but what is paralleled 
by numerous examples; and furnishes explanations of facts on 
the American side with a less stretch of imagination than that 
which assumes that this civilization was wholly indigenous and 
local. 

In this connection attention is called to some resemblances 
in architectural monuments which appear to be significant, 
though I confess that I am not sufficiently versed in the history 
of architecture to decide to what extent similarities must be 
carried to render them pertinent in this discussion. 

By referring to Raffles' "History of Java" (Edition ot 1830). 
plate 31, we observe the figure of a pyramid so nearly resem- 
bling some of those figured by Stephens — as Mayapan, etc. — 
as to present scarcely the slightest distinguishing characteristic. 
It is truncated and situated on the most elevated of three 
successive terraces, and the sides face the cardinal points. It 
is one of the most ancient structures discovered on the island, 
and, according to the writer referred to, bears indications of 
pertaining to a different form of worship than most of the 
other monuments. It evidently belongs to the pre-Hindu era 
of the island's history. 

Unfortunately the only work I have at hand relating to Cam- 
bodia is a short article by Aymonier in the Journal Asiatique 
(April-June, 1883), relating to inscriptions found on the monu- 
ments. However, it appears from two or three brief statements 
that it was the custom there also to place the structures on 
two, three or more successive terraces. That the same custom 
prevailed in Central America, especially in Yutacan, is well 
known. ''Having fixed upon a site for a proposed edifice," 
says Bancroft, **the Maya builder invariably erected an artificial 
elevation on which it might rest." "Buildings resting on the 
natural surface ot the earth are unknown." "Most of the 
larger mounds have two or more terrace-platforms on their 
slope." Three successive terraces arc observed in several in- 
stances, as at Uxmal and elsewhere. 

Another particular in which the structures of the two sec- 
tions agree is that of forming the ceiling by the "triangulat 
arch," or arch in the form of an inverted V. Compare plates 
30 and 33 of Raffles' work with the examples given by Stephens, 
when it will at once be seen that precisely the same method in 
this respect was adopted in the two sections. So nearly alike 
arc some of them that an interchange would scarcely introduce 
an error worth noticing. 

Having alluded to Cambodia, I can not refrain from intro- 
ducing an item of evidence from that countr>' which is of the 
utmost importance in this discussion, which is in fact a com 
plete reversal of a hitherto supposed insurmountable objection 
to our theory. The Malays and Hindus, as is well known, use 
the decynal system in enumeration; while, as is equally well 



200 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

known, the Mayas use the vigesimal system, counting by 
twenties instead of by tens. This difference in methods is a 
serious, though I do not think by any means fatal objection to 
the theory, for it is not claimed that every item of culture 
among the Mayas was introduced. An examination, however, 
of Aymonier's article above mentioned shows that this objec- 
tion was not well taken. This enterprising explorer and 
investigator has discovered, by an examination of the various 
inscriptions of Bakou and Loley, two systems of enumeration. 
One of these, which appears to be the more recent and gener- 
ally used, corresponding to the Hindu or decimal system ; the 
other and more ancient being the vigesimal system, and hence 
similar to the Maya method. 

The examples he gives in the original characters make this 
so clear as to leave no doubt on the point. There are charac- 
ters for each of the nine digits, for 20 and for 100. The character 
for 20 is distinct, and not two tens. "The greater part," says 
Aymonier, speaking of the figures, "have a special form. More- 
over, insteaa of having the value of position, each has only its 
proper value and must be added to the adjoining figures to 
give the number indicated. ♦ ♦ ♦ The total of 198 in 
enumerating is represented by 100, 80, 10, 8. The special form 
of the figures of tens offer us a trace of the ancient enumera- 
tion by twenty and by forty up to one hundred. It is known 
that the names of the tens used to-day are borrowed from the 
Siamese language." He then refers to the examples given on 
the opposite page, in which he separates by a dash the corres- 
pondmg numbers of the two systems. Of the characters for 
the digits, "4 to 9 are common to the two systems." 

The characters are to be read from left to right. For two 
twenties the character for i is placed over that for 20; for 
three twenties, that for c is placed over it; and for four twenties 
that for 3. From this it would appear that the upper number 
indicates the repititions, the character for 20 beine counted as 
one time. In order to indicate 37, there is first the character 
for 20, then for 10, and last for 7. The 40 is two twenties; 50 
two twenties and ten; 60 three twenties; 80 four twenties; 98 
is four twenties, ten and eight; for 384 is three hundreds, four 
twenties and four. A mingling of the two systems is apparent 
in some of the examples given by Aymonier, but the evidence 
of the ancient vigesimal system is too clear and distinct to 
permit of doubt. This fact, as all must admit, is a strong point 
in favor of the theory of contact with people from Southeast- 
ern Asia. 

It is perhaps worthy of notice that the Javan inscriptions 
were in low-relief, as the Maya are. 

Turning again to India, we refer first to an account given by 
Caleb Wright in his "India and Its Inhabitants" of certain relig- 
ious penances and sacrifices practiced in certain sections. For 
example, he states that in some sections it was not unusual for 
e ligious devotees to bore the tongue and pass through it a 



CONTACT OF AMERICANS WITH OCEANIC PEOPLES, aoi 

cord or even a serpent. Now it is well known that a similar 
custom was followed in Mexico and Central America. This is 
testified to by Sahagun, Torquemado, Clavigero and Landa. 
It is also distinctly shown in a figure given by Charnay* from 
a stone lintel found at Lorillard City. 

Wright also mentions a kind of human sacrifice which re- 
minds us strongly of a horrible practice of the Mexican priest- 
hood. He says the Kunds (Khonds) worshiped a goddess 
called Bhuenee, to whom they offered at certain times human 
victims. "The victims, who must be in the freshness and bloom 
of youth, are procured by stealing children from distant vil- 
lages and rearing them until they become large enough to be 
acceptable to the goddess. At the time of the sacrifice, the 
victim is tied to a post; the sacrificer, with an axe in his hand, 
slowly advances towards him, chanting to the goddess and her 
train a hymn. As soon as the hymn is finished, with one blow 
of the axe the chest of the devoted youth is laid open. The 
sacrificer instantly thrusts in his hand and tears out the heart. 
Then while the victim is writhing in the agonies of death, the 
multitude rush upon him, each one tearing out a part of his 
vitals or cutting off a piece of flesh from the bones; for, accord- 
ing to their superstitions, the pieces have no virtue unless they 
are secured before life is extinct." Sir John Lubbcockf men- 
tions the same sacrifice. 

The Mexican custom of offering human sacrifice by opening 
the breast and tearing out the heart, is too well known to need 
any proof here. It is true that it has been said that this was a 
comparatively modern innovation with this people, but there 
is no satisfactory evidence to sustain this opinion. How far 
back it reaches is unknown. So it has been said in regard to 
human sacrifice in India, but a native of that country— Rajandrala 
Mitra — ("Indo- Aryans") has recently shown from the ancient 
writings that the practice was at least as old as the Vedas.^ He 
also substantiates Wright's account given above, at least so far 
as to mention this sacrifice by the Khonds of Western Orissa 
to the earth goddess Tari Pennu (as he writes the name). In 
immediate connection he quotes the following from Prescott's 
"Conquest of Mexico," where he speaks of sacrifice to Tez- 
catlipoca: "A year before the intended sacrifice, a captive dis- 
tinguished for his personal beauty and without a blemish on 
his body, was selected to represent this deity. Certain tutors 
took charge of him and instructed him how to perform his 
new part with becoming grace and dignity." Let the reader 
compare this with Wright s statement. 

Ot course I do not allude here to the simple fact that human 
sacrifice was practiced in the two distant regions, but to the 
particular method of this sacrifice and the special character of 
the victim. 

•■'Ancient Cities of the New World." 
tOriffin of Civilization, p. 140. 

JI have not teen the reference to this sacrifice, by Reclus. Mem. de la Doc. d' Anthrop. 
dcnito, 18(13. 



202 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

In Mexican mythology the deceitful and crafty Tezcatlipoca 
in his contests with the mild and gentle Quetzalcoatl at last 
deceives him into drinking the wine of the maguey plant, by 
which he is intoxicated, and his downfall accomplished. A 
precisely similar myth prevailed among the Burmese in regard 
to their Bhudda, Godama. But in this case Bhudda, who 
among the Hindus corresponds more nearly to the Mexican 
Quetzalcoatl, is the deceiver. The myth, as recorded by Father 
Sangermano and Francis Buchanan,* is as follows. It is nec- 
essary, first, however, to premise that among the Burmese their 
ancient deities or beneficent geni were called Nats or Nat. 
"Godama, who was then called Maga (or Maja) began to con- 
trive how he might drive these Nat from their ancient posses- 
sions. He and his companions accordingly pretended to have 
drank wine, but what they drank was not true wine. The 
former Nat, Tavateinza, imitating the example of these men, 
drank real wine and became intoxicated. Then Maga, making 
a signal to his companions, they dragged the Nat, while 
insensible with wine, by the heels, and cast them out of the 
abode Tavateinza. But as the lot, acquired by the merit of the 
good actions of the^e Nat was not expired, a habitation formed 
itself for them between the feet of Mienmo (a certain mythical 
mountain); and this habitation is called Assurabon, which in 
everything except its sacred tree, resembles that called Tava- 
teinza." 

According to Lacouperie, a state sacrifice (human) was held 
in early times in one part of China every year at the vernal 
equinox for the renewal of fire. All fires had to be extinguished 
for three days previously and food taken cold. The manage- 
ment of these fires was placed in the hands of a "Director 
of Fire." 

The Mexican festival of the renewal of fire, with accompany- 
ing human sacrifice, held at the close of each cycle of fifty-two 
years, is well known. As the day drew near the people cast 
their household gods of wood and stone into the water, and 
also the hearthstones used for bruising pepper. They washed 
thoroughly their houses and put out all fires. The stars were 
carefully watched to note the hour of midnight, at which 
moment the last year of the cycle having closed, the priests 
renewed the fire and immediately the sacrifice took place. 
Special priests were selected as the chief actors in this 
ceremony. 

If Mrs. Nuttall be correct in her theory that the Mexican 
year began at the vernal equinox, then we find here additional 
resemblances in the ceremonies mentioned. In both cases all 
fires were extinguished before the final day; there is a renewal 
of fire; human victims are offered in sacrifice; special oflFicers 
are appointed; the time is the vernal equinox; and the moment, 
midnight. Although it does not appear to have always been 

*The Burmese Empire, p. i8; Asiatic Researches, Vol. VlII, p. 211. 



THE SOIL WHICH MADE THE EARTH. 203 

the custom in China to begin the day at midnight, it is ex- 

fressly stated to have been the method at the time referred to. 
t is true we here refer to China, but it is possible the same 
custom may have been carried to Farther India in those early 
days. According to Lacouperic the Chinese year, at the time 
mentioned, commenced as above stated, with the vernal equi- 
nox, but the beginning of the calcndai was the winter solstice. 



THE SOIL WHICH MADE THE EARTH. 



A LEGEND FROM THE NORTHWEST COAST. 



By Gardner C. Teall. 

There is, perhaps, no people whose legendary lore is as ex- 
tensive or more mteresting than that of the Indians of the 
North West Coast of America. The extent of detail and the 
minute descriptions they employ excite the wonder and ad- 
miration of the listener. 

Every phenomenon of nature is accounted for by these In- 
dians with an ingenuity that reminds one of some of the clever 
animal stories by Mr. Rudyard Kipling. In their tales these 
people give to the animal, human attributes. They are made 
to tnink, reason, speak and to act like men, and it is quite 
natural that it should be pictured thus, for the Coast Indian 
believes himself to be descended from some animal or even 
plant, (you see their idea of evolution is cousin to that of 
barwin) and so he makes his supposed ancestors converse and 
act as he himself would. The following is one of the earliest 
of these Indian myths. 

Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, right after this earth 
was created, there lived in the world but one man. How he 
came no one is quite sure, but it is believed that he dropped 
down from Kee-wuck-cow, Paradise, because, when the Cow- 
gOH^ wood-mouse, asked, Keesis taut ah ejinf or ''where do you 
come from?" the man pointed up to where Choot, the eagle, 
was soaring. This man seemed to acquire a great power over 
all the animals then living. They also liked him, for he treated 
them kindly, sharing his food, that they might not go hungry, 
and in other ways showing his goodness. These animals would 
do anything for him, and one day with the help of some of the 
stronger ones, and the cliff-birds, he hollowed out a rock to 
serve as his canoe. The paddles of this remarkable canoe 
were likewise of stone, fcT no wood was to be had, in fact no 
plants existed then for everything was stone and water and 
there was no soil in the land. One day this man went salmon 
fishing. His hooks were fashioned from flints and bone and 
secured by strips of hide, used also as line. The fish were able 






204 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

to see it at a great distance. The man used shreds of the tough 
white octopus flesh for bait. He was out a great while, but 
there seemed to be so few fish at that depth that he greatly 
lengthened his line and let it all out. What was his surprise 
upon pulling the line in, to find that the bait had turned a very 
dark color. He immediately knew that the hook must have 
reached bottom and also knew that the bait must have touched 
soil of some kind. How he knew that is a mystery, but he did, 
for this man knew everything. He paddled to shore quickly, 
and speedily summoned all the water birds and animals before 
him. Said he: "I know where there is some sand to be found. 
Now which of you will go down to the bottom of the sea and 
get some for me?" 
"I," said the Grebe. 
"Let me," said the Goose. 
"No." said the Duck. "I can do it best." 
"Well," said the man, "you shall all have a trial." 
The beaver and the mink were afraid to venture out too far, 
and so the other animals said they would remain and keep 
them company while the birds went out with the man in his 
stone canoe. The sea was so calm that the man did not 
anchor. "Well," said he to the puffin, "try your luck." So 
down dipped the puffin, but came back with nothing but a 
pebble. Then the goose tried it, but with no better success, 
for he said he got very dizzy when he went so deep. The duck 
was more successful, but unfortunately he swallowed the sand 
that he carried in his mouth. And so with them all, until the 
man became quite discouraged. "If I may, I should like to 
try" said the loon — they had forgotten all about him, so down 
hi dived. The loon was gone so long that they thought him 
drowned, the more so when they saw him come to the surface 
feet uppemoost. But no, he soon keeled over, flopped into the 
canoe, and dropped some sand which he had clutched in his 
feet, into the bottom. Great was the man's joy and he re- 
warded the loon handsomely, taking him to live with him. The 
friendship between them became so strong that when the man 
died, the loon went o£f alone, and to this day has not ceased to 
mourn for him. Well, to go back to the man in the canoe, 
he took the sand thus procured and went s^ore with it, 
sprinkling the rocks with the precious material, and in a sur- 
prisingly short time it multiplied, and after a few years it 
nearly covered the land. From the sea-weeds that were 
washed upon the shore were gathered the seeds and these 
dropped by the other birds on the soil grew up under these 
different surroundings, into these various forms of plant life. 
All this is as it was told to me. 



THE MOQUI SNAKE DANCE. 205 



THE MOQUI SNAKE DANCE. 
By Rupert H. Baxter. 

[WRITTBN IN 1893.] 

The snake order in an Indian tribe is the most exclusive and 
respected, and the priests of this order are regarded by their 
fellows as men holding their very destiny in their grasp. 
Among the Moquis of Arizona this snake order is highly de- 
veloped, and the ceremonies, handed down to them from their 
ancestors lone since departed for the happy hunting grounds, 
are today followed as reverently as they were 250 years ago 
when the simple natives gave up the meaninp^less religion of 
the white man from the sunny shores of Spam, and returned 
to their own early idol worship. 

During the week previous to the public ceremony of the 
Moqui snake dance, the native priests start out in the early 
morning to collect the snakes. Upon reaching the plains, the^ 
stretch out in a large circle, each man being assigned a terri- 
tory. Meeting a snake the Indian will address him in a famil- 
iar way, and reciting a prayer, endeavor to gather him in. If 
the snake shows fight, the Indian simply waves a few feath- 
ers before his eyes and after a moment the charm works, the 
snake thereupon being peaceably secured. On the night be- 
fore the ceremony all the snakes are washed, and the priests 
then bathe their own faces and wash their hair in the sacred 
water. I have already described the kiva in which these pre- 
liminary ceremonies of the snake dance are held, and I now 
come to the great public ceremony which I witnessed in the 
villages of Cunopovi and Cipaulovi on the Moqui mesas. In 
this dance two orders take part, the antelope and the snake. 
On the first devolves the task of furnishing the prayer songs 
of the dancers. 

Twelve men and two small boys, their chins painted black 
and white and their heads decorated with a single red feather, 
come up from their underground temple of worship, and a 
weird rattle and clanking sound announces to the assembled 
multitude that the great Moqui snake dance is begun. An old 
num heads the fantastic procession bearing a bowl in one hand, 
in the other he grasps tightly a bunch of turkey feathers, or a 
ti-poni, as they call it. The dusky natives following carrv rat- 
tles and dishes of water, and as they approach an altar of sap- 
lings arranged in the open court they form a large circle and 
halt Continuing their march the circle grows smaller and 
smaller until finally the men are massed together. Then be- 
gins the prayer song, at first weird and faint, then loud and 
harsh. They are now praying to the rain god, and beseeching 



2o6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

the snake deities, who are always supposed to have their eyes 
open, to hear their fervent supplication. This prayer is a sig- 
nal to the warrior snake dancers, who file into the court with 
stately tread and face the singers. Now the song changes, 
and the war chants have begun. As the song becomes louder 
both groups of Indians shuffle back and forth till their utter- 
ances reach the height of frenzy. A shiver runs through me 
. as I look upon the crazy throng and for the first time realize 
that I am the only living white man among them. An Indian 
steps up to me and utters a word. I simply say "ne Stiel ik 
watci," I am a friend of Mr. Stephen. These words have a 
potent effect and I am regarded as a friend. 

Now the dancers moderate their tones and their shuffle be- 
comes monotonous. The high priest speaks a word and the 
dusky warriors quickly divide themselves into groups of three, 
a dancer, a helper and a gatherer. An old weathcrbeaten war- 
rior stands near the altar and as the newly formed groups be- 
gin to move puts his hand into the bunch of saplings and 
draws forth a living, hissing snake. The dancer grasps it in 
his hands and — horrors! — carries the slimy, loathsome reptile 
to his mouth, holding the body two thirds above the tail with 
his teeth. Recoiling from the sight, I hurriedly scrambled up 
a ladder, and from the housetops looked down upon the scene 
every moment becoming more hideous. Pen can not depict 
the sight. Each dancer is supplied with a rattle, and as they 
circle about and their teeth become tired, the snakes drop to 
the ground only to gather into coils and hiss, striking out with 
the rapidity of lightning. Here the assistants come into serv- 
ice, for it is their duty to pacify the now thoroughly maddened 
snakes and fondle them in their arms for safe keeping. With 
the most extreme nonchalance they perform the delicate task. 
A snake escapes the vigilant eye of tne gatherer, crawls off to- 
wards the women bearing the sacred meal and immediately 
produces a panic. Confusion reigns supreme, and it is only 
when the reptile is safely secured by the doting priests that 
the terror subsides. 

Finally each snake has been danced with, and the gatherers 
have them twined about their naked waists and necks, the rat- 
tlers being more carefully guarded. The sun is fast reaching 
the horizon and casts a ruddy glow over the entire scene. 
Just as it passes out of sight, the Indians with a blood curdling 
yell quickly mark off a circle on the ground with meal and 
throw in the snakes. Such a wriggling, hissing mass of flesh 
I never saw, and my blood turned cold as I watched the men 
thrust their naked arms into the heap and drag out as many 
snakes as their hands would hold, rushing with them out of the 
village down to the plains below, there to set them free. The 
dance was one of the most interesting ceremonies I ever wit- 
nessed, but one in which I snould not care to participate. 

Directly following the ceremony the dancers drink long 
draughts of a root-extract specially prepared and blessed for 



THE MOQUI SNAKE DANCE. 207 

the occasion. This liquor produces the most violent forms of 
nausea, and is said to prevent any of those poisoned by the 
snakes from suffering ill effects. I have it on the best author- 
ity that the fangs of the snakes are not tampered with, nor 
are the snakes themselves drugged. 

Just before the snake dance at Cipaulovi I strolled down into 
the antelope kiva to attend final prayers, and before holding 
them the natives crowded about me, importuning me to deco- 
rate their bodies preparatory to the dance. This I did, much 
to the amusement of my friend, Mr. Stephen, who saw my 
works of art in their final stages. While I was playing the role 
of artist my attention was attracted by a most mournful howl 
from a corner of the kiva. Looking towards a dark crevice 
in the wall, I saw a friend of mine, an old chief, was suffering 
from something terrible I was convinced. By signs and 
groans, I finally understood that the old fellow had managed 
m some way to get a splinter in his foot. Whipping out my 
knife I removed the oftending thorn and for the first time in 
my life acted as surgeon to the highest potentate of the Mo- 
quis of Arizona. At this point a pTacque of blue bread or piki, 
and a bowl of parboiled beans were lowered down from above. 
The Indians invited me by signs to share their meal, and de- 
spite my fervent protestations of "just had dinner, thank you,** 
they seemed to resent my hesitation to eat with them. I saw 
that there was nothing for mc to do but to go in for it. A big 
lump did come up in my throat, I will confess, as I saw the 
beggars blow dirty water upon their hands, Chinese fashion, 

Preparatory to the feast. I selected a corner of the bowl, and 
ecping my eye upon it, unceremoniously dipped in. Before 
the natives were aware of it I had made a deep furrow in the 
bowl. They hurrried to catch up with me, but as soon as their 
hands came too near my corner, I declared the race off and in- 
sisted that my hunger had been abundantly satisfied, leaving 
them to enjoy the remainder of their repast alone. The beans 
and piki were very good despite the surroundings, but whei> 
living among native people these must always be ignored. 

The day after the dance at Cipaulovi, Mr. Stephen and I 
walked across the plains to Walpiand Tewa, where I remainecf 
over Sunday. The next morning bright and early Joshua 
brought my horse to the door of our cabin, and with a **God 
bless you, my boy, God bless you" from my dear old friend. 
Mr. Stephen. I hurried down the mesa and up the canon to the 
ranch of Mr. Thomas V. Keam. The days passed in this se- 
cluded spot waiting for the stage to carry me to Holbrook. 
were very pleasant ones and long to be remembered. One 
week later I was speeding across the continent, and my sum- 
mer's work for the Ethnological department of the Columbian 
E.xposition was completed. 



2o8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



A LITTLE KNOWN CIVILIZATION .♦ 

By James Deans. 

By "civilization" I mean the advance which any people has 
made from a primitive low estate to one of considerable refine- 
ment and intelligence. The subject of this paper is not the 
civilization of the lost Atlantis, nor that of the Mayas, the 
Incas, the Toltecs, the Aztecs, nor of any nation of Central or 
South America; nor that of the Mound-builders and others of 
North America. Neither is it on those civilizations in other 
parts of the world, the theme of many an ancient story. Mine 
is not a treatise on the conquests of Alexander, of Philip, of 
Caesar, the Saracens, nor of others of by-gone or modern times, 
nor do I mean the kingdoms of whom a poet has said: 

"Sometimes a little kingdom stretches out, 
And elbows all the kingdoms round about; 

Crushed by its own unwieldly weight 

It rushes onward to its fate. 
Thus, headlong down the stream of time it goes, 
And sinks in moments, what in ages^rose." 

It is on a civilization at our own doors, in this province and 
in Southern Alaska — the civilization of the Haidas, or as they 
pronounce their name Hidery. the signification of the name 
being People. This civilization in various forms spread over the 
greater part of British Columbia and part of the adjoining State 
of Washington, and all Southern Alaska. Its greatest develop- 
ment, in one form, was amongst the Quackuts on this island 
and on the mainland adjoining. In another and more extensive 
form it was found along the Rivers Naas and Skeena, amongst 
the Simskeans and numerous other tribes on the mainland and 
isles adjoining; on the Queen Charlotte group and on the 
southern isles of Alaska. Although some writers classify all of 
these tribes as Haida, I shall treat only of the various tribes 
who call themselves by the name of Haida, or rather Hidery, 
because among them this civilization was best developed. 
Having spent many years amongst these people (that is the 
Queen Charlotte Hidery), I know them best, and shall to the 
best of my ability explain the unique hieroglyphics on their 
gargingSy that is their totem poles and houses. 

While giving readings of such difficult matter as are these 
ancient picture writings, I do not say they are perfect. A 
description of their clans and crests is but a history of these 
people and their civilization. There are, as part of their social 

*Read before the British Columbia Natural History Society. 



A LITTLE KNOWN CIVILIZATION. 209 

usages, three sorts of crests, i, the clan crest; 2, the sex crest; 
3, the individual crest. The first two arc called by the Hidery 
ton; for example, the Kimquestan ton is the frog's crest; the 
Choo-itza ton is the wolfs crest; the Chootsa ton is the bear's 
crest. The first of them is a distmguishing mark or coat of 
arms, inherited and acquired. The sex crest is one inherited 
from the mother which controlled the system of marriages. For 
example, a man or woman was not allowed to take a wife or 
husband from the same crest. If the one belonged to the raven 
phratry the other had to belong to the eagles. The third was 
not in reality a crest, it is a totem. Among the Indians of 
North America the totem is an animal, a bird or a fish, and is 
regarded as the protector of tribes and individuals. The above- 
mentioned clans or crests were in two great divisions called 
phratrics or brotherhoods. These two phratrics had their 
representatives in the raven and eagle, in some villages the 
raven was the highest, in others the eagle. Each of these 
phratrics was divided into clans or crests, which were likewise 
represented by a certain object. 

The crests belonging to the raven were eleven. Their English 
names I give first, then the Hidery. First comes the wolf, 
"chooitza" the bear, "choots"; the scannah or killer whale, "the 
skate-f etra" ; the mountain goat, **mut"; the sea lion, "thechee- 
mouse"; a river, "snag"; the moon, **kung"; the sun, **troore"; 
the rainbow, named "coot-coo-towell-coh-coot-coo," meaning 
the roadway of the angels; and lastly, the thunder bird, "scam- 
sum". 

The eagle phratry had fourteen crests or clans, namely, the 
eagle, "choot"; the raven, "cho-e-ah"; the frog, "kimquestan"; 
the beaver, "sing"; the moon, "kung"; the shark, "san cuchuda" 
or dogfish mother; the duck, "ha ha"; the codfish, the wasco, 
an extinct land and water animal resembling an alligator; the 
whale, "boon" ; the owl, "coot-quce-ncss" ; the dogfish, "cachada" ; 
the sculpin, "bahie"; the dragon-fly, "chicka". 

These were the ciests or coats of arms for the clans, and as 
soon as a youth or maiden had the means to pay for it, they 
had themselves tattoed with all the crests belonging to their 
phratry — the boys on their breasts, arms and legs, the girls on 
their arms and legs By doing so they not only raised higher 
but got a better name. They were also by these means initi- 
ated into other privileges in unison with the social usages of 
their nation or people. 

As I said before, a man or woman could take a wife or hus- 
band from any phratry but their own, or in other words a man 
was allowed to take a wife from any crest belonging to the 
eagle phratry, provided he himself was of the ravens, and so 
forth through all the others. 

All the people beloneing to one phratry were considered as 
related and consequently uved together in one of those large 
houses which were often seen in a village. There were a num- 
ber of very good points in this civilization; for instance, when 



210 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

any person had the misfortune to be taken a prisoner of war 
and was conveyed to a village belonging to hostile parties, 
what he had to do on landing was to look along the village for 
a crest showing his own clan. If he found one, all he had to 
do was to tell his captors, "I belong to such a crest or clan; let 
me go to such a house." They would give him his liberty, 
saying "go; you are safe." Although the two tribes were still 
at war, as long as he chose to live there he was safe. If he or 
she wished to go home they had a safe conduct to the bound- 
ary of their own country. If any one were hungry or sick or 
blind in a strange village, or old and infirm at home, without 
relations, those of their crest had to take care of them, and if 
they died they had to dispose of the body in the dead house 
belonging to the same crest. 

If a party from a distant village went to another, on arrival 
they divided, each one taking his or her abode in the house 
which showed their several crests; while there they were enter- 
tained free of charge, and those not belonging to it were 
expected to pay or, at least, make a few presents. From long- 
forgotten ages down to within a few years past, every one who 
comd afford to keep them had a number of slaves obtained by 
purchase from other tribes or taken as prisoners of war. When 
a chief or slaveowner died his slaves were killed in order that 
they might be useful to their dead owners in the other life. 
Moreover, when a house was being built a slave was killed and 
his or her body placed on the bottom of the hole in which the 
myring or main carved column was to stand, its lower end 
being placed on the body. If a slave had been killed for that 
purpose an image of a man or woman, as the case might be, 
was carved with their head down, on the lower part of the col- 
umn, showing what had been done. I have never yet known 
nor heard of the Hidery killing slaves for that purpose. Being 
always on the make, to the Hidery one living slave was worth 
forty dead ones. So they quietly sold a slave to another tribe. 
Of course they had to place an image, with the head down, all 
the same as if one had been killed and the body placed under- 
neath. 

Every man was expected to build a house during his lifetime, 
more especially when he took to himself a wife. With the 
house he had to raise his column on the front, showing the 
social standing of himself and wife, the wife's crest being gen- 
erally placed on the top of the post, while his own was placed 
on the bottom. Every house when finished got a name, either 
connected with the house or the people living in it or some 
event happening while in course of erection. For instance, the 
house of the owls, **nah coot quinees," owl house; the people 
living in it were owl house people — too quinees Hidery — so 
named because they belonged to the coot-quinees ton or owl 
crest. A house through which the wind sounded was named 
"neh querga-heegan." That is, wind sounding house. A house 
in which were a lot of boxes or had a box for its door step was 



A LITTLE KNOWN CIVILIZATION. 211 

named "cotta nass," box house. "Cotta" (box), and ("nass"), 
house of, i. e., house of the boxes. Such names as "nah blee- 
has.*' new house; "nah youans/' large house; "loah heeldans/' 
house of the shaking or earthquake, because while buildinc^ it 
there happened a severe one. The house in which the rainbow 
clan lived was named rainbow house, and the people rainbow 
Dcople — **coot-coo-towlh-cah-coot-coo hidery." One house in 
bkidegate was named "seen-ah-coot-kai-nai," house of content- 
ment. One man built a house and looking over the house 
when finished said, '*! have a regular thunder and lightning 
house.'* So he named it "now gah-deelans." "Now-gah ' 
(^house best), "deelans" (thunder and lightning.) Often a 
figure on top of the hou^c showed its name. For example, a 
raven on top of a house gave the name '*chooacah-nass," the 
ravens' house, because all the people living in it were of the 
raven clan or ton, as the Hidery call it. 

Before I take up the subject of crests I shall begin with the 
two phratries, the raven and the eagle. The eagle I shall take 
first. Not far from the last end of Skidegate town. Queen 
Charlotte Islands, formerly stood a house named "choot nass," 
Eagle's house, because all the people who lived in it belonged 
to the eagle clan. The eagle, commonly chosen as their rep- 
resentative or coat of arms, is a bird very common on those 
islands — the bald, or white-headed variety. I had a model of 
this house made and sent to the World's Fair, It always drew 
a great amount of attention, not only for its elaborate carvings 
but for the stories connected with it. I shall now give a read- 
ing of its picture writings, including the story of the eagles. 

On the projecting ends of the roof beams, six in number 
were six bears; on top of the two front corner-posts were as 
many eagles. The bears showed the crest of the husband, and 
the eagles that of his wife, and at the same time gave the name 
of the house to be "Choot nass," the eagle's house. The figures 
on the post — on the totem post — were seven figures, namely, a 
man. a brown bear, a young bear. These show that the man 
who built this house belonged to the bear clan, and the young 
bear that he had a son. This part belongs to the husband 
alone. The next part belongs entirely to the wife. The fourth 
figure was a dog-fish with a woman's head. This woman had 
several names; first, Hath-lingzo, or bright sunshine; and 
second, "Callcah jude," or woman of the ice; and the third was 
"Ittal-cah-jud," or typical woman of the Hidery. In this paper 
I can only tell the story of the eagles; were I to tell the story 
of the bears and of the woman it would be too long, so I must 
leave them to another time. This much I shall say, that the 
woman got the name of woman of the ice because in by-gone 
ages. Haida tradition says, when the people fled before the 
encroachment of the ice she was the leader of the Hidery 
people to a country further south. In all the Hidery carriages 
she is represented as having a large labret or lip piece. In by- 
gone days every Hidery woman's ambition was to be like her. 



ii2 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

The third figure is the king of the eagles, and the first one con- 
nected with the wife's crest and story. The sixth figure is the 
"Atiseek" mentioned in the story. The seventh and last figure 
is the eagles. The scene of the story is laid in the south of 
Queen Qiarlotte's islands, in Skiddanses country, and is as 
follows: 

Long ago a king lived in Captain Skiddanse's country who 
had a sister. She and her family lived with him and kept his 
house. How many of a family she had tradition does not say; 
one boy, the hero of our story, being mentioned in particular. 
This boy in some manner displeased his uncle, who turned him 
out of doors. Having no home nor anywhere to go, he wan- 
dered about aimlessly. One day three women overtook him, 
one of them being ahead of the other two. The one to find 
him was a princess, her father being king of the eagles. Hav- 
ing heard his story and being a nice-looking boy, she asked 
him to come with her and sne would introduce him to her 
father. This invitation he gladly accepted. She led him into 
the timber. They came to a town up on a tree. It was a town 
of the eagles. A large number of them were flying about; they 
lived in this town. After a while she presented him to her 
father, saying, "Father, I have found a nice husband." The o Id 
king was highly pleased to think he had such a nice looki i7g 
son-in-law. This boy, as I shall call him, soon became a great 
favorite with the old king by studying his ways and likings, as 
well as attending to his every expressed want. One day the 
old kine said: I very much want a piece of whale fish for din- 
ner. The words were hardly spoken when the boy was dressed 
in a suit of the old king's wings and flew off, returning before 
evening with a piece. Thus prepared, he had flown over the 
sea until he had found a lot of whales. Out of one he cut a 
piece and started for home. This very much pleased the old 
King and led him to like the boy more than ever. Being able 
to fly pleased the boy so much that he was always on the wing. 
After a while he badly wanted to have a dress of his own, so in 
order to obtain his wish he and his wife spoke to the old king, 
who went to a box from which he took feathers enough to 
make the boy a full-fledged eagle. 

Again, another day. the old man asked him to get him some 
more whale meat when he returned. This time he flew further 
than he usually did, going to where the sea was full of whales 
in every direction. Among so many he was able to catch one, 
which he presently took home and gave to the old king. This 
led the old king to like the boy more than before. After this 
the boy spent whole days flying about, returning only late at 
night. Noting his fondness for spending his time amongst the 
whales, the old king told him to be careful and shun every 
appeirance of danger, and, above all, to be on the outlook for 
"Ah-seek." If he saw it floating about on the water he was not 
to trouble it by any means, because it would do him a deal of 
harm if he were not careful. 



ILLINOIS IN i68a 213 

For a long time he profited by the old king's advice, until 
one day he saw a strange looking object floating about. In 
order to see what it was he took hold of it. Instantly it took 
hold of his hand, and pulled him down and kept him under the 
water. While held down by **Ah-seek/* for such it was, he 
managed to always have one hand or arm held above water. 
When the boy did not return, all the other eagles went to search 
for him. After flying about for a long time over the water they 
all, one by one, came to where "Ah-seek" lived. The first one 
took hold of the boy's arm and tried to pull him out. As soon 
as he touched the boy's hand he, too, went under, his arm being 
also held up. Thus every one in turn went under, the arm 01 
the last oac being held above water. Seeing that neither the 
boy nor the eagles returned, the mother eagle, fearing **Ah- 
seek," went to look for the lost ones. When she came to where 
he lived, and saw the upheld arm of the last eagle, she knew at 
once what had become of them all. Now, **Ah-scek" having 
no power over the old lady, she took hold of the upheld arm 
and pulled them out one by one, hand over fist, until they were 
all out. When she had them all out she passed her hand over 
them all and restored them to their first estate, saying, "What 
are you doing here? Go home." So they altogether flew home 
a happy lot. 



A MAP OF ILLINOIS IN 1680. 

By Hiram W. Beckwith. 

In Illinois, south from the mouth of Wood River to that of 
the Kaskaskia, is a vast alluvial bottom, some eighty miles 
long by a width that varies from three to seven miles. It is 
lined on the west with narrow forest belts, or patches of rank 
willows, that fringe the Mississippi, and is flanked toward the 
east with a range of bluffs that either raise their steep walls of 
rock boldly out to the plain, as at the ancient village of Prairie 
du Rocher [Rock Prairie], or tone down to the rounded cones 
that deck the foothills east of St. Louis. Within the writings 
of men this bottom has been a nearly level prairie, varied with 
little lakes, bayous, ponds, creeks meandering from the table 
land, and groves that formerly stood out like islands in the sea 
of tall waving grasses. 

Accreted by the **big river" in unknown ages this valley, in 
extent, fertility, and other striking features, only finds its like 
in places along the River Nile. And if the latter have their 
pyramids and catacombs so this one of the Mississippi has, 
across the river from St. Louis, its great terraced earthwork 
towering amid a group of lesser and rounded ones, while the 
"bluffs" named are as so many miles of "an immense ceme- 
tery." Any of their numberless "cones" can hardly be dug 



214 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

into without unearthing^ human remains, or the more lasting 
trinkets, utensils, or implements of shell, pottery clays, or stone 
buried with them. 

The main one of this cluster on Cahokia Creek is ninety- 
nine feet high. Its base covers sixteen acres of land. And if 
made all in all by men, as every re-survey goes to show, it is 
the largest mass of the kind in the world. The map below 
shows its position with reference to its fellowj. And it may 
be said here that in treating of this prehistoric people in Illi- 
nois they are not to be severed from their race on the St. 
Louis or Missouri side ot the river. The figures shown in 
the cuts represent mounds and tumuli, which were common 
on either border of the Mississippi.* 

Above Peoria on conspicuous points of the high bluffs, be- 
tweea which Black Partridge Creek flows from the east into 
the upper end of the present two Peoria lakes, the writer here 
was shown several mounds, supposed from their relative 
positions to have been used in ancient times as places for 
beacon fires to signal news or alarms up and down the lakes. 
Below them a few miles each of two neighbor valleys has a 
mound looking like an immense grain stack in an open, level 
field. They deserve more careful notice. 

The first or upper one is a short way below Spring Bay, and 
although washed by the elements and worn away by the plow 
it was forty-five yards in circuit and twenty odd feet high more 
than half a century ago. Prior to that time it had been opened 
and human remains had been found under its base. The writer 
has made several trips in the last ten years or more from op- 
posite Peoria to Black Partridge Creek for a special purpose. 
With the original accounts and later French maps, not until of 
late accessible, in hand, he has carefully studied the topography 
of the lakelets and river links, valleys and bluffs over that dis- 
tance, with a single reference to the three minute descriptions 
of them and their connecting incidents as given by Sieur de La 
Salle himself and Father Louis Hennepin respectively, who 
was with him at the time. And with due allowance for the 
changes that time has made in these lakes and connecting chan- 
nels, apparent everywhere in their proximity, enough still re- 
mains there, with that seen above and below it, to fairly iden- 
tify the Spring Bay Mound as the little "mound" (small emin- 
ence) whereon La Salle, in the first months of 1680, built his 
fort of the "Broken Heart" (Creve-coeur). 

The similar mound on the valley below it, from early de- 

*The view of the ^eat mound, the map of its position with respect to its surrounding's, 
and the plate showing the "finds" that go with its class of structures appear in a late his- 
tory of Madison County. 111., of W. K. Brink of Edwardsville. to illustrate a very able paper 
of Prof. William McAdams of Alton on "The Antiquities" of that county. All along the 
valley of the Illinois River are other mounds, and, while of lesser note, prove the former 
presence of a by-eone peoole. Some of their works below Peoria have been explored with 
very fruitful results by John F. Snyder, M. D., now of Virginia, Cass County, a native, and 
of a noted early Illinois family, whose printed reports on such "finds" in Missouri as well 
as in Illinois, and contributions on archeology are so much well arranged material as to 
form a valued part of any collection on those and kindred subjects. 



ILLINOIS IN i68a 31$ 

scriptions of that locality, and the French as well as Indian re- 
mains found near by, marks the probable village site of the 
lUinois-Kaskaskia Mission as a stage on its progress down the 
river. Both this last and the Spring Bay mound were described 
by Henry Joutcl, there in September, 1687, leading the survi- 
vors of La Salle's fatal journey in Texas on their mournful way 
to Canada. And because of the presence of these mounds, 
Joutel says "the voyagers and men of the country (of that day) 
named" the adjacent river passway "The Canal of the Two 
Mammals" (des deux Mammells), after their laudable habit of 
fixing the identity of places on the routes of their journeys with 
descriptive names. 

Joutel's forlorn hope found a good canoe navigation where is 
now only the plain visible marks of an ancient channel. Pass- 
ing on up two miles or so above the mouth of the Vermillion 
[of the Illinois River] they reached their assassinated com- 
mander's Fort St. Louis, their long and wearily sought goal, 
then crowning a rocky and precipitous height on the south 
bank of the main river. 

: A sketch of "Le Rocher" ["The Rock"], now better known 
as "Starved Rock," was taken by the scientist, Henry R. 
Schoolcraft, in August, 1821, "from a position across the river 
and directly in front." At the time and for years after it had 
not been identified, but it is the site of the oldest military de- 
fense of Europeans in all the Mississippi Valley, especially if 
wc except LaSallc's"Fort Creve-Cceur," made to fortify his party 
for the winter. So, speaking of it, Mr. Schoolcraft says, "On 
gaining the summit, which is level, and of about three-fourths 
of an acre, wc found a regular entrenchment, corresponding to 
the edge of the precipice, and within this, other excavations, 
which, from the thick growth of trees and brush, could not be 
satisfactorily examined. The labor of many hands was mani- 
fest, as well as a degree of industry that the Indians do not 
usually bestow on defensive works." 

Schoolcraft's description will not apply to the other primitive 
structures of this region, nor was it written with the intent to 
identify the F*ort, but merely to introduce a natural feature 
which attracted his attention in going up the river. 

Still noithward and on above the mouth of the Desplaines, 
the original river "Che-ka-gou" of early French mention, is 
another mound, more of an eliptic in outline and nearly as 
large at base as the great one of Cahokia. It first appears in 
history on a hand map, in colors, made in 1674 by Louis Joliet, 
showing, among other new geographical features, his and 
Feather James Marquette's voyage on the Mississippi and 
return by the Illinois River the year before. This French 
native of Quebec, before then an extensive explorer in other 
parts of New F*rance, without comment, for he was a modest 
and most worthy man. sketches in the mound and under it 
writes the words "Mont Joliet." A quarter of a century later 
it is described by the Rev. John F. Buisson, known best as De 



2i6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

St. Cosme, a missionary priest, as he styles himself, who was 
there, in November, 1679, going from Canada to teach the 
Natchez, sun worshipers of the Lower Mississippi, the ways of 
Christianity. He spells the name "MonjoUy, which is very 
nearly as the French would pronounce Mount Joliet [Mon-Jo- 



li-el, treating it as a compound word. 

He says: "It is a mound of earth on the prairie, on the right 
[of the Desplaines] as you go down, slightly elevated about 
thirty [it is nearer sixty] feet high. The Indians say at the 
time of a great deluge one of their ancestors escaped and that 
this little mountain was his canoe [ark] which he turned over 
here,'' referring to a common tradition, though changed to 
suit the locality among many aboriginal tribes, about the flood, 
the form of the mound suggesting the location of the story. 

The picture of Mount Joliet was also made by Mr. Schoolcraft a few 
davs later than the other by him, who, in company with Lewis Cass, Gen. 
Solomon Sibley, United States Indian Commissioners, with their retinue, 
were then commg on to Chicago, there to treat with the Ottawa, Chippewa» 
and Pottowatomie Indians for the purchase from them of a large section of 
country in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. Thus has a mere 
incident of an ulterior purpose saved a view of this historic mound and its 
outlook in natural form, before the one was defaced by the canal and rail- 
road at either base and the other hedged in and changed by fields, houses, 
roads, or orchards. For at that time, 1821, as Mr. Schoolcraft well savs, 
there was not a white inhabitant between Port Clark (now Peoria) and Cnir 
cago.** He computed the height of this mound at sixty feet, its narrower 
width at "seventy-five vards,** me greater length twice that distance, with 
"a top perfectly level, and adding that "few would pass without giving an 
hour to examine it. nor leave without a conviction that it is a work of human 
hands." 

Its origin is, or has been a subject of quite the opposite opinion, while the 
better judgment is that it is the result of both art and the dements. "Except 
where used as burial places by the Indians known to the Europeans these 
and the like remains in all the Central Mississippi Vidley are tne works of 
an ancient and numerous people of whom research so far offers little else 
than conjecture. They left no written records, no tablets on metals, stones, 
or walls, as in Egypt or other parts of the older world, and it is only from a 
study of their eartnworks, utensils, trinkets, stone implements, or ornaments 
of the like, and a careful comparing of them with ttiose found in other and 
distant sections of our continent that these nameless inhabitants of the Illi- 
nois and their race in Missouri, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio may 
be traced into the broader light of history." 

And in this connection it is notable that the early French 
religious men, learned as they were and well versed in botany^ 
natural history, and ethnography of their day as they all were, 
and close observers withal, as their pastoral and social letters 
prove, were, with few exceptions, singularly silent as to these 
earth monuments along their pathways and often near the very 
door of their missions. Likely it is that, learning enough from 
the living natives to assign such works to a race of sun worship- 
ers, who being long before dead or gone away, the good fathers 
thought no mention need be made of the remains of their 
idolatry. 



REMARKABLE ARIZONA RUIN. 217 



REMARKABLE ARIZONA RUIN. 

Near Flagstaff, Arizona, and on the Upper Verde, there are 
ruins of buildings still in a good state of preservation, and much 
reminding us of those in the north of England and Scotland, the 
ages of which we may approximate with a considerable degree 
o7 certainty. One in particular that is very interesting stands 
near the head of the Verde river on a peak that constitutes the 
extremity of a spur of the Bradshaws. The peak is granite, 
and rises abruptly out of the valley on three sides, while the 
fourth is protected by the mountain spur, which is about one 
hundred feet higher and hangs an impassable precipice above 
the smaller. On this shelf or bench the building was con- 
structed of stone and cement in such a position that one on the 
ruins can get a good view of the entire width of the valley and 
fully five miles either up or down it. Through a taller moun- 
tain a volcanic rift has allowed a perpetual stream of water to 
flow, though it was fully sixty feet beneath the base of the 
ruin and back of it, so that the water came out underneath 
the cliff and flowed across the mesa into the river. In order 
to protect themselves against a water famine in a time of siege 
the inhabitants cut a fissure through the solid rock fully sixty 
feet, and changed the course of the stream so that it flowed out 
on the opposite side of the rock and directly through the forti- 
fication, making it impossible to cut off the water supply. This 
buildmg was over four hundred feet in length by 250 feet in 
width. One of the walls yet stands, four stories in height, 
though some earthquake has changed the surface of the moun- 
tain until the outer one has fallen and the one now standing 
leans considerably toward the north. This structure alone con- 
tained over two hundred rooms, and could have easily accom- 
modated a thousand people. Back of this is a cave, partly 
natural and partly artificial, that extends more than one hundred 
feet, and through which they descended to the water. This was 
also cut up into rooms, each one of which was nicely plastered 
with some kind of cement that is now in a good state of pre- 
servation. There are niches in the walls, where they evidently 
kept their jewels and valuables, and I am informed that two 
small rush bags were found in one of these, though I did not visit 
it first and did not see them. A number of jars filled with 

E arched beans were taken out, and one of these jars, or ollas, 
olding about a bushel, is in the possession of Mr. Drew, who 
has a ranch near by, and is used all the time for holding drink- 
ing water. It is of a very dark colored material, thoroughly 
glazed, but outside of the heat necessary to do the glazing, it 
has not been affected by fire. It has been cracked almost 
entirely around, but has been mended with some kind of gum so 



2i8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

deftly that, though it had been in his possession for years, Mr. 
Drew had not discovered it until one day recently when we were 
examining it together. 

In this cave about twenty skeletons were founds. The skulls 
of some of them had been crushed, while others appeared to 
have died natural deaths, though the bones were so badly 
decayed that had fatal wounds been inflicted upon any part of 
the body than the head it could not have been discovered 
when we made our examination. These remains were scattered 
about the inner rooms in evidently the same position in which 
they had fallen from starvation or had been laid by the hands 
of their comrades after being stricken down by their foes. 
Around the bony necks were found the amulets and on the 
wrists the shell bracelets that protected them from evil or 
served them as ornaments during life. 

The structure was built altogether different from the fort- 
resses of Zuni and Acoma, neither does it resemble any of the 
Pueblo buildings in New Mexico. Judging from the mass of 
cement scattered about on the cliff, these walls must have been 
once fully six stories in height and the buildings almost as 
large as the Casa Grande in the Gila River Valley. — San Fran- 
4:isco Chronicle. 



ROCK SHELTERS IN NEW ENGLAND. 

By Charles A. Perkins. 

The rock shelters, two in number, were discovered by the 
late Mr. A. H. Kingman, of this place. He examined them 
very thoroughly and took everything of value. Before his 
death I photographed the shelters and contents, getting some 
very fine views. Mr. K. also gave me all the information in 
regard to them that he could. I have since visited them sev- 
eral times. I gave to Prof. F. W. Putnam a set of the views 
for the P. A. of S. at Cambridge. There is another cave in the 
next town (Peabody) that Mr. K. found, but which has never 
been dug over yet, though a slight digging with a stick showed 
fragments of shells. Twice Mr. K. and I tried to dig, but the 

f round was frozen too hard. Another large cave in Waltham, 
lassachusetts, finely located, failed to show anything. Still 
another, in Melrose, Massachusetts, is unexplored, owing to 
the hostility of the owners, though Mr. K. got a semi-Tuna 
knife. His fine collection was left to his young daughter. 

Wakefield, Massachusetts. 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 3i<> 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 

By Stephen D. Peet. 

One of the most interesting and instructive exercises for the 
student of American history is to take the maps which were 
published during the period of Discovery and exploration, and 
follow up the growth and development of the knowledge of the 
geography of the continent. This study, to be sure, brings to 
view the strange ignorance which prevailed in reference to the 
continent and shows the false ideas and the tenacity with 
which they were held, but it also illustrates the progress of 
discovery and the gradual correction of errors, and the final 
establishment of the truth as to the physical characteristics of 
the country, both of its coast lines and its interior. Still further, 
it brings to mind the acquaintance which was formed with the 
tribes then occupying the different parts of the country and 
their locations and conditions. 

The names of the continent and its prominent features, rivers^ 
mountains and capes, were those which were given by the dis- 
coverers and explorers, and many of them exhibit their nationality 
or place of nativity. * But as time went on the names of the 
various tribes became known, and these were written down on 
the maps, showing the various localities where these tribes were 
living. We must, then, regard the maps as the earliest and best 
guides to a knowledge of the natives, and may well take them 
as exhibiting the "Footprints of the Aborigines" which may be 
recognized. We have taken, then, this as our subject. We shall 
begin with the maps which bring the continent to view, making 
a brief summary of these. We shall next take the series which 
presents the outlines of the continents in their varying and pro- 
gressive changes. We shall next take the maps which open the 
interior and give us the names pf the tribes which first became 
known. Lastly, we shall take the maps in which the various 
rivers are laid down — the Ohio, the Mississippi and the rivers of 
the west, making this our limit for the present Our effort will 
be all the way through to present the aboriginal side of the sub- 
ject, as the American or European side has been frequently 
brought out by the geographers and does not need further eluci- 
dation. 

I. It will be remembered that India was the continent which 
was sought after when the great navigator and discoverer, Colum- 
bus» made his first voyage. It was bis idea that he had discovered 
India that led him to give the name of Indians to the aborigines, 



220 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

a name which has never been changed. The mistake of Colum- 
bus was perhaps a natural one, though it is a mystery why the 
islands in the Atlantic should be called West Indies when 
those of the Pacific are East Indies, for certainly they are further 
west and were really reached last. The name is confusing. The 
Hindus are Indians and the native Americans are Indians, so we 
shall need to draw the line by some other means, and therefore 
may well take the various tokens which are left and show the 
contrasts between them. 

It also reveals the many changes which occurred among the 
native tribes and the remarkable eflfects which were produced by 
the advent of the white man. These changes may not all have 
been owing to the presence of the whites, but they at least be- 
came known and were put on record by the geographers and by 
the historians, so that we have brought before us a history as 
well as a geography which is very suggestive. 

The most of the maps are, to be sure, very imperfect and the 
information vague and indefinite, yet they aid us to penetrate 
the obscurity which seems to have gathered, like a fog-bank, 
between the historic and the prehistoric periods. The earlier 
'geographers were occupied with the physical peculiarities of 
Uie continent and made it their chief aim to describe these, but 
the later made an efiort to give the names and locations of the 
tribes as they became known. We shall find, then, in the maps, 
and especially in those of the Interior, a record which may well 
engage our attention, for in them we may recognise ''Foot- 
prints" which are unmistakable and enduring. We propose, then, 
to devote this paper to a description of the various maps which 
are in existence, with the view of ascertaining the locations of 
the various tribes during this period. 

Let us then take the maps which were issued immediately after 
the discovery, and which gave the outlines of the continent, with 
the physical features laid down as tliey were understood at the 
time. It will be noticed that various names were placed upon 
these maps, but they were names which were borrowed firom the 
European languages — French, German, Spanish and English — 
and show the nationality of the discoverers. There are very 
few Indian names on them, and they are names which can hardly 
be identified with any of the Indian tribes. 

Commencing with the map of the North Atlantic by Antonio 
Zeno in the year 1400, we trace Iceland, Greenland, Frisland.* 
Next, taking the globe of Martin Beham, 1492, we find the 
islands in the ocean between Western Europe and ancient Asia, 

*The first map. Justin Winsor sajrs. It the osc which bhacB oat the names of Green* 
land and Iceland. It was foond bv Aaron Nordenskjold attacnod lo a Ptelemy codes at 
Nancy. The larve map of Iceland as it was A. D. leoo La ciTca by Rafn. AnoUker man* 
which refers to tne Norse discoverlea. mif ht be maa tinned, bnt thitj ara aot fintlaL Mr. 
Jotiin Winsor has fiven them in his booa. Thcae maps do aot aho« aay InmUiarlly viUi 
the continent as such, thoufh they may have fnraiahed a basts on which Colnmbnt bottt ip 
his theory as to the continent. 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 221 

such as the Canary Islands, the Antilles, Azores and the island 
of Java, but no continent of America. In the map of the east 
coast of North America by Juan de la Cosa we find Cuba, La 
Espanola and the outline of the coasts, but with very few points 
which can be identified. In a chart of the New World by Johann 
Ruysch, 1508, America is a large island, with a large body of 
water to the north of it and the Asiatic coast to the west, and 
the island of Java, the Cape Verde and the Azores to the north. 
On the globe of Johann Schoner, 1520, America is still an island, 
but Cuba, Isabella, Spagnoria are small islands north of it, with 
Asia farther removed to the west, but North America is not on 
the map. In the map of Peter Martyr, 1 5 1 1 , the American coast 
has stretched out to the east and north, and appears to surround 
the island of Cuba and Espanola, but Asia is dismissed from 
view. In a Portuguese map, 1520, the coast of America is 
drawn in a fragmentary manner. A land called Terra Binami 
lies to the north of Cuba, Labrador to the northeast. In a map 
of the world in Ptolemy, Basale, 1530, America is an island, but 
it stretches around Cuba, Jamaica, etc., and contains a gulf (the 
Gulf of Mexico), Terra Florida, Cape Britonum, with the large 
letters Nova Francisca across the whole continent, while India 
and Cathay are west of this island. On two maps in 1543, one 
a French map of the world and the other by M. Vallard de 
Dieppe, the coast from Florida to the Gulf of St. Lawrence is 
laid down with considerable correctness; the large letters La 
Florida across the Carolinas, Ter des Bretons across New Eng- 
land, Ochelaga and Canada north of the St. Lawrence. In this 
map appears a river; the river is called the Archipel de Estienne 
Gomez. In a map by the Italian, Jacomo di Gastildi, ISS^» 
Labrador appears and the whole east coast of North America is 
laid down, but an island bearing the name Tierra de Norumberg 
seems to occupy the place of New England, with Cape Breton 
on the southeast point. The same is repeated by Ruscelli, 1561; 
the words La Florida appear in large letters in their proper place. 
In a map by Michael Locke, 1582, Norumbega is an island, with 
Grand Bay to the north and Hochelaga to the west of it. In 
this map the ocean flows in to the west of the New England States 
and to the north of Florida, but the coast from Norumbega to 
Florida is tolerably correct. The names Jac Cartier, 1555* J* 
Gabot, 1497, appear on the island Norumb^^ ; Cortereal on the 
main land nordi, and Angli, 1576, on an island in Hudson's Bay. 
From these last three maps we learn that the name Norumbega 
has become very prominent, but instead of being descriptive of 
a local fort or river was ascribed to the whole coast ; in &ct, was 
the name by which a part of North America was known. From 
this we conclude that the name Nurumbega was applied to all 
New England. In the map by Mercator, 1590, Nurumbega is 
no longer an island, but is the main land and extends to 39^ of 



222 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

latitude. The same is the case in the map by John Bleau, 1642. 
In a map by Hondius. 1619, the territorial name, in large caps, 
Nurembega has given place to Nova Francia, and Nurem- 
bega is a local name, situated somewhere in the vicinity of Cape 
Cod. In a map by Mercator, earh'er than this, 1569, the east 
coast of North America appears with La Florida in its proper 
place, Apalchian covermgthe region about Virginia, and Nurum- 
bega, in large letters, covers the whole of New England, and 
Nurumbega, small letters, designates a place on a river, probably 
Charles River. Nova Francia is a district north of the St. Law- 
rence River, which is laid down with completeness. The Hudson 
River does not appear up to this date, but the Charles River 
flows south and is frequently in such a location as to be regarded as 
correct. After this date the maps become more specific in detail, 
but it is doubtful whether anything can be ascertained from those 
which preceded them which can be relied upon as descriptive of 
the local geography surrounding any one place. The map of 
Boston, in a general way, precedes that of New York by many 
years. The Charles River appears a long time before the Hud- 
son, but the names are too indefinite and uncertain to identify 
them with definite points. 

II. Let us now turn to the maps of the Interior, and study 
these with the especial view of tracing out the names of the 
Indian tribes and their locations.* 

Mr. C. C. Baldwin, of Cleveland, has been for many years 
engaged in gathering maps of the West. He has now in pos- 
session probably the largest collection of the kind in the world. 
There are other very extensive collections ; those in the library 
of Harvard College, in the State Library at Albany, and those 
which have been gathered by the Geographical Society at New 
York being in other respects much more valuable; but for the 
one object of illustrating the interior of the continent of North 
America, this collection is well nigh complete. 

The maps are now at the residence of Mr. Baldwin, and in the 
library of the Northern Ohio Historical Society, of which he was 
the secretary. They exist in a great variety of shapes and bear 
many different dates, but comprise nearly all the early maps ot 
the interior ever published. Some of them are found in books, 
either in large folios or in quartos, in 12 mos., or in small 16 
mos., such as books of travels, of voyages, of early discoveries, 
or in early geographies and histories. Others are found in 
map form, either as large wall maps or as single sheets. 

There are also a few tracings or copies of maps which cannot 
be secured, and the collector is now negotiating for the purchase 

*This subject has been followed by Mr. Justin Winsor and a ^eat deal of valuable in- 
formation has been furnished, but he teems to write from the white man's standpoint and 
does not make any especial enort to describe the Footprints of the Aborigines. We would 
say still further that the greater part of this chapter was written in 1876 and so precede d 
Mr. Winsor's book by some ten or fifteen years, it is reproduced here with a few changes. 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 223 

of a number of manuscript maps which have never been pub- 
lished. The writer has had opportunity of examining them, and 
is happy to bear testimony to the dihgcnce and great skill exer- 
cised in making the collection complete, as well as to the great 
value of the collection. 

There is a great amount of history in these old maps. As an 
illustration of the different periods of the early history of the 
continent, nothing could be better; in fact, the geography of 
this country was history. 

The maps may be divided into different classes according to 
the dates of their publication. Classifying them in this manner 
they represent the different periods of early history, and the 
study of them is valuable on that account. By grouping them, 
they give us pictures of the country at the various periods, and 
in their succession portray the progress of discovery, conquest 
and settlement. We divide them into five classes : 

The first bears date from 1490 to 1620, and may be regarded 
as descriptive of the period of coast exploration and discovery. 

The second bears date from 1620 to 1703, and is descriptive 
of the early exploration into the interior. 

The third bears date from 1703 to 1765, and will give us a 
view of the contest of claims on the continent among the Euro- 
pean nations. 

The fourth bears date from 1765 to 1790, and is descriptive of 
the location of the Indian tribes in the interior. 

The fifth bears date from 1790 to 1832, and is descriptive of 
the first settlement of the same region. 

The characteristics and peculiarities of the maps will be 
described under this classification, but the first two series will 
be especially dwelt upon in this article. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE MAI'S. 

The first class covers the period of the Discaifcry* The pecu- 
liarity of all these is, that they are very correct in giving the 
contour of the continent, but they give no description of the In- 
terior. The reason for this is that the first discoverers and con- 
querors were familiar with the coast, but knew nothing of the 
vast interior. There are several of this class; one, dated A. D. 
1 569, describes the continent very correctly in its outlines, and 
we are surprised at the resemblance to the modern atlases in 
this respect. The coast lines of the Atlantic and Pacific, and of 
the Gulf of Mexico, arc given quite correctly, and even the Gulf 

•Sec N.J. tHenty-tJvc •>( the paj»er"< of Western Reserve and N. O. Hist. Soc. 

flLikluyt MArt\r. i^V- Winsor ffue* this man. C to F. p. 7a. It fia." the name Bacal" 
loos Af^ftis, tfi^, plateil above the St. Lawrence; rfova Francia, I'trfinta, /j&f. just south 
of the >t LawrcH' e; Ftortda an i Cuba in their proper places; Ns*va ntspanta Attxtro 
iMrxu'M. Xut'.o Mfxtc 'New Mo\:«:t)». Qutvtra, northwest of New Mexico; Neva Albion 
A. t). isfij,ab Anglt* «(>rciri>n). Jf.jr,* /)uict « Hudson's Bayi, HesPfridis Gorg^odts (Ma- 
deira I«}andsi tn South .\nierica; <Jnito and several names on the coast. This it a very cor- 
rect map considering the date, but it shows great ignorance of the interior. 



214 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

of California is portrayed on it ; but the interior is laid down as 
though it were all blank space. There is, however, in it a fort- 
unate guess. Though there was an evident ignorance of the 
Interior, there is a river traced across the map which might 
easily be taken for the St, Lawrence. There ,is 'this mistake, 
however : it is the only river on the continent, and it rises in the 
vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, and runs in a straight line 
across the continent due northeast, until it empties into the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence in the proper place. There are no lakes, 
no mountains and no other rivers.* Another map is very simi- 
lar to this, but in it the interior is covered with vast ranges of 
mountains, and contains the names of Accadia, France and 
Spain scattered indiscriminately over it. 

There is another in the collection which resembles the two 
spoken of, but it has a still more novel description of the Interior. 
There is a river rising in the center of the continent, and run- 
ning to the northeast to the Gulf of St. Lawrence; another also 
starts from the same vicinity and runs south and empties into 
the Gulf of Mexico near New Orleans, while the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia is so situated that an inlet seems also to rise in the same 
central point. A range of mountains in the interior is the 
source of all these bodies of water. 

These three maps are alike in that North America has nearly 
its true shape, but South America looks more like Australia 
than it does the southern continent. The Gulf of Mexico, the 
Isthmus of Yucatan and Honduras are very correct. 

Under the second class we have arranged those which bear 
dates from 1620 to 1700. They are descriptive of the early 
explorations. These are the first maps in existence which give 
us any proper view of the Interior. 

At the head of this class we place Champlain's map, pub- 
hshed in 1632. An earlier map was published by Champlainin 
1609, and Cartier, the noted French voyager, had described the 
St. Lawrence, which he entered as early as 1534; but this is 
really the first which contains any description of the Interior. 
In it the lakes are for the first time portrayed. They are laid 
down in such a way as to show that the author was not familiar 
with them, but had drawn them as they were described to him 
by the native Indians. The River St. Lawrence and Lake 
Champlain are quite accurately located, but the Great Lakes 
are portrayed as if they extended across the whole continent. 

• MetMlor, ijfft. Winsor. C lo P, pp. 65-71. h«s fiiien foot others which hane the same 
■ -^rleliui. liib-. Jn*et», iSM; Quadus, 1600; John Doe. isSo. The first, Mer- 
=-...,. .„,j., U...1. .^ 1„. ■^BBecon-' '■■•-'- 



k (St. Lawrence), BilU lilt and Baccatiut (Newlopndland), 
>. Hockalara (Quebec), Sarutnay. Afialchin (Appalachian 



^iJ«riS/,v1%t. 1 ,.,. 

Nommbega (New Englaodl. Hackalara (Quebec), Saruinay. Afiakhin (Appalachian 
tnonnlatns). CaroUnii, Vlirinii,*, rfii"«5^rn(r)(HlMlMlppl). ff. rfif Po/mm, Gstfo Ver- 

pujt (BOlI of Caliiomia), '■'-' ''■'- ''--'- '- "■■■ -' '-'>■-'-' " ■>' - 

laiTE caps. This mip t 

QDadustaulheianienari___^ 

at the St. Lawtence. John Dee's man I 
applied Is an tilaiid oB the coHt ot Hbi 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 225 

Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are drawn as if they were only 
one, and look scarcely wider than their outlet, the St. Lawrence. 
Lake Ontario is very small, and is called " Lac St. Louis." 
The Falls of Niagara are not mentioned, but to the west and 
north appears a great lake or sea which is called "Mer Douce," 
or Sweet Sea. This was Lake Huron, but it was fully five 
times as large as it ought to be. Westward of these is still an- 
other lake, probably meant for Lake Superior, but called 
"Grand Lac." The "Ottawa River" is laid down on the map, 
but a little north of the river the continent abruptly ends and a 
wide sea appears, with great whales and ships sailing across 
from one ocean to the other. In the far northwest is a great 
sea called the "Mer de Nort Glacialle." According to this map, 
then, the Northwest Passage was discovered soon after the land- 
ing of the Pilgrim Fathers. Champlain's map is found in the 
Documentary History of New York, and in Champlain's works. 
It is interesting, for it shows the first attempts to draw the shape 
and locality of the Great Lakes, or to describe the Interior. 

The especial value of the map is that the Indian tribes are lo- 
cated, as well as the Great Lakes.* The Iroquois are assigned 
to their proper place just west of Lake Champlain. The 
Hurons are also located north of the**Lac St. Louis," or Huron. 
The map locates the "Neuter" nation in a locality which was 
really occupied by the Eries, just south of Lake Erie, in the 
eastern part of Ohio. Father Lallemant, the Jesuit, has de- 
scribed this tribe. They are supposed to have occupied the 
north and not the south sides of Lake Erie. This is the first 
and only map which locates them in this place. The Algonquins 
are located north of the lakes. The tribe of "Des Puans" is 
placed east of Lake Huron, and "savages and buffaloes" are men- 
tioned as inhabiting the region about Illinois and Indiana.t 

We next come to a very interesting map, and one which was 
quite the standard for a number of years. It is published for 
G. Sanson, "Geog'r Ordinaire du Roy," at Paris, in A. D. 1669. 
It is remarkable in that it gives the whole continent instead of 
a part, unlike Champlain's, and has a description of the portions 

* Three maps by Champlain are given by Winsor. C to F. pp. los. 107. 143. The Imit It 
the one described. The Indian tribes located on this map arc as follows: PtttiN nation dts 
Algom€ne quins, north o( the Ht. Lawrence and Ottawa Kivcrs; Hiricois, southeast of Lake 
Ontario; AntonotironoHM, southwest of the lake; Hurons^ north of the lake: La Nation 
S'eutrt, south of the river, which means Lake Erie: Lt G4ns dt F«h Assisia^utronons, 
southwest of Lake Huron or Mer Douce: also Nation Ois U y a I^guantUt U bntffiest ap- 
parently on the prairies of Illinois and Indiana: La Nation dts Puans in Ontario, north of 
Lake Huron or Mer Douce. This map contains the first mention of two of the tribes. tIx.: 
the Winncbagos or dts Fuans, the Mascoutens or Gtns df Peu. but both are located far to 
the east of their proper place. The name "Puants" or "Stinkards'* was applied to the 
Winnebaffi>e4 Ion||[ afterward, when they were located qn Lake Winnebago. The name d€ 
Feu, or "r ire Nation." was applied to the Mascoutens as late as the times of LaSaUe aiul 
Marquette. They are located on this map by Champlain from mere hearsay. 

tCreuxiu's, 1660. hat the following namei tuggettive of the location of Indian tribet: 
JTa^tu, Locum, Alqunquin orum veJ FHHium lor Green BaY. "Fetidt," or **Stfai- 
kardt,'* was the trantiation of Paant. a name which continued to Be Applied to the Winne- 
bac ot. Creoxiu't It the firtt to make Lake Erie flow into the Niagani River* All the pre- 
ceding mapt make it flow watt and north, emptying into Lake Haron or Mer Done* and 
Otuwa River. Sach it the case with Dnval't map. losft. 



226 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

which were claimed by the different European monarchs by 
right of discovery. On this map it appears that all the north 
half of the continent was claimed by the French, and the dis- 
trict of New France covers all the region north and south of the 
Great Lakes as &r south as to Port Royal and Virginia, em- 
bracing New England itself. Next south of this were the pos- 
sessions of the Spanish king; under the name of Florida a great 
territory is marked out, extending from the vicinity of Kentucky 
and embracing all the continent south of it as hr west as Mexico. 

New Spain is marked on this map in the vicinity of Yucatan 
and Central America, and Mexico and New Mexico are also 
names applied to the districts which still hold them. 

The inaccuracy of the map is the same as that of Champlain's 
— the size of Lake Huron; otherwise the lakes are quite cor- 
rectly portrayed, and Niagara Falls are now mentioned. 

The Lakes Ontario, Erie or du Chat and Superior are given, 
but Lake Huron goes by the name of Keregnondi. 

Lake Michigan is not yet laid down except as an arm of 
Lake Huron. Green Bay, however, appears for the first time by 
the name of "Bay des Puans/' but is drawn much larger than it 
really is. The Upper Mississippi and the Ohio had not been 
discovered, nor had Lake Michigan been traversed or the Illi- 
nois River, but the Jesuits had visited Green Bay, and this is 
shown, while the larger lake and those rivers do not appear.* 

There is one remarkable thing about this map. The Ohio 
River was not known at the time, but there is a river which by 
a mistake represents it. This starts in a lake about where 
Chautauqua is, and runs south, as the Alleghany does, to the 
vicinity of Pittsburgh, and turns northward and empties «nto 
Lake Erie about where Cleveland is. It seems quite novel cer- 
tainly to see the Ohio River running into Lake Erie. 

Another still more remarkable thing about Sanson's map is 
that the Appalachian Mountains are represented as extending 
east and west directly across the continent from the vicinity of 
Virginia, and all the rivers flow either north or south from these 
mountains. It seems very singular too to see the Mississippi 
starting near St. Louis at the base of a range of mountains, while 
all the rivers which now flow into the Ohio are represented as 
running northward to the Great Lakes. 

The value of this map is in this, that for the first time the Erie 
tribe of Indians is located. They are found in the eastern part of 
Ohio, just south of Lake Erie, and are called the Erie-chronons. 

Sanson's map is a novel one, as it has the general contour of 

* DuvaPs map, as given by Winsor, F to C, p 3x6. It has the foUowing Indian names: 
Nation des PuarUa, also N*au F^. below Lae dea PuanU, with a river Bowing between 
them northward into the lake. N. Neutre is located soath of Mer Douce and west of Lake 
Duchat; Algonquiru north of £ae St, Louis (Ontario); Iroquois east of this lake: KiriMti- 
nous, also Ifemeiriniens, are between Lake Superior and Hudson Bay: Tadousaac is east 
of Quebec. A chain of mountains stretch from Virginia westward across the map. The 
name Floride on the mountains. Probably the Alleffhanies are intended. Bleau map of 
1652 is given by Winsor, C to F, on this map Vineiana and the Zuyder Zee appear. 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 227 

the continent very correct, and the lakes are accurately laid 
down, but there is no Mississippi or Ohio on it. It, however, 
gives all that was known of the Interior in 1669. 

We next come to a series of maps which present new features 
to the [geography of the interior. These are the maps prepared 
from the accounts given by La Salle, Hennepin and Marquette 
from their explorations and discoveries. 

The first of the series, published in Paris A. D. 1683, is one 
prepared by Hennepin for his first edition.* This is a valuable 
map; it gives the whole of North America. The continent is, 
according to it, divided among the three nations of Europe, but 
the largest part is claimed by France by right of discover)', un- 
der the name of Louisiana. The French possessions under 
this name .stretch across the whole continent, and embrace all 
the region o! the lakes and the vast interior. A small part is 
marked under the name of Florida in one corner, while Mexico 
and "Nouvelle Kspanele** are still left in the southwest as be- 
longing to Spain. England is mentioned, and its claims upon 
the New England States recognized under the title of "Angle- 
tcrre." The Dutch claims are also shown, and the name of 
"Hollande'* is marked on New York and vicinity. 

The lakes are portrayed on Hennepin's map, though Lake 
Erie is large enough to take in nearly all of Ohio, but Lake 
Huron has dwindled into its true size.f The Upper Mississippi 
is portrayed quite correctly, as it rises west and north of Lake 
Superior. The Wisconsin runs into it, and the Outagamie, or 
Fox, is represented as flowing into Green Bay, with a short 
portage between it and the Wisconsin. A large river runs into 
the Mississippi from the east about where the Illinois does, and 
there is no doubt that the latter was the river intended. Lake 
Michigan, however, is incorrect, as it spreads into two arms, and 
a large river flows toward the north into it. The Mississippi does 
not reach the Gulf, but ends in the middle of the continent. 

•W:n5or gives both t»l llennfoin';* maps in C to F, p. -. In the first vkc notice the 
A\iihuef<$ft.i (SittUNt litcAtcd on I.ai de nuadi, northwest of Lake Superior. The Fox 
Ri\er tn calle<l A*. Outa^amcs : the Wisconsin. A', ties ONtsecnstn ; the Illinois River is 
callcvl Setgfulaex on Uttnot< , Lake .vlichiKan ■> called Lac Daufhtn ou dts littnots. There 
are <e\<*ral Mtinsions of the recolle^:ts. une anions ttie Sioux and another on the Illinoit 
River, near Fort (re: r C-rur. S«'ver.il fort?* -Fort l>fs Mtamt<,oTi Lake Michigan; Fort 
Crtve C.rur. on the llliiiu^: Fort Fromenac, north <»f Lake Fri»ntena< lOntano*. The 
Nianara Falls ate callcl Lf-j^ran-fault de Stagara : tne Mis«!:!«sippl,calle«l A* CVM^r/, cnd§ 
shiirt of the eulf. The name LjMttian.t nlU the |»lac<' left t)lank. An old fashioneil \e98el 
a|)peais *n\ tin- ci»a*it «if VjrK:n:a. Hennep.n <« \.rvk of Niagara Falls is given hy Winsor on 
n. 201, ysnh i ioat Nlaml anT lior^e^hoe F.ill'o in full \\e\s. The Niagara Ri>er and a part of 
Lake Frir aie ;n the t<ackground. The tiiitton ;s a mere ;(pei:k on the lake. Sanson s map 
of i^cfi is g.Nen Iv Winsor. F t.> ('. p. i». The locat-.on tif the Indian tnU-s can !•€ learned 
from :t. th-Migh the print is Nerv fine. The Ir«Miuoi> tnl»es have their different tribal names 
•ip<'lle I -.n the Freni'h '*t\le, Ounr'ti^hrcnons, /"'«Mu/'.ir«i«'»«. hrtechrjn n* : the Neuters 
spell'- 1 \eutrf H Att: uiXit.i.tr-tti , the W inne!'agt>s are spell»-d Oukuauironons and 
IcKatel •siiiit?' of Jireen Ha\. A ir.be called //r/a/. fr.w'wf i«» loc.iti d .i\ M'<:h:gan: a tribe 
called . /• f«//.if''iV; ns ■ u du F., :> loi ate-l :n noithein Llmoi*. a tribe called ^luenquior- 
en n in Indi.iiia: a tiJe called .W/u l*rtun ou Sun/tio i^ haated near tite <ieurgian Bay; 
tw>> tn:-!--., KiciHt%ntm» .mi the ytuloue%»*-MrrononM iSionxi are hjcated northeast of Lake 
Supiriiir. the Sttmunronnn .ire hxated ea«»t of the .Mleghanies, m Penn^>l>ania. Mar- 
q»i-it«- ■» rr.ap. "gi-niiine map," i** ijiven ly Win l*or. C to F. p. 240; a meie outline, very 
rule n'^ In<! .\\\ naiiic-:. no name ti»r Fox, \Vi«non-:n. Illitio'«. (ireen Bay. or Lake Winne- 
f'ag». t.hoMgh tfiey are .»!! hx ated relatively w.th ti»lcr.ible aii'uracv. It contains the follow- 
ing nanei: Ijiw tl^M ///<»riiji < Michigan ;: l^tr Hunm, f^tr tiu/>*^rU>r ou de Vracy R. la 
Ooncrption < Mississippi); St. Tgnact placed on the Straits of Mackinac. 



228 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

The names of the lakes and rivers are remarkable. Lake 
Ontario is called Frontenac, Lake Erie, Lac de Conty, or Erie ; 
Lake Huron, Lac de Orleans, or Huron ; Lake Superior, Lac 
de Conde, or Superieur ; Lake Michigan, Lac Dauphin, or Illi- 
nois. Green Bay is still called Bay des Puans, and the two 
rivers are spelled Outougamis and Ouisconsin.f There are 
mountams on either side of the Mississippi. The river is called 
Colbert, from the name of the French Minister, and the Illinois 
is called Souigouillet. There are four forts on the map — Fort 
Frontenac on Lake Ontario, Fort de Conty at Niagara, Fort 
Miami on Lake Michigan, and the fort built by La Salle on the 
Illinois, and called Creve Coeur, or the "Broken Heart." 

There is this remarkable thing about Hennepin's first map : 
Hennepin and Marquette had traversed the upper Mississippi, but 
it appears that the former wanted to be considered the discoverer 
of the whole river. Accordingly, after he had published his first 
map, he made another with the Mississippi portrayed throughout 
its whole length. He also pretended to have explored the south- 
ern part of the river and country, and wrote a description of it. 

La Salle's exploration of the river came between the two 
maps. He, with three others, in 1682, went down the Mississippi, 
and on the 9th day of April passed through its mouth into the 
open sea and returned. 

The next year he sailed from France, expecting to reach the 
river by the sea or the gulf, but unfortunately sailed past the 
mouth, and after sufTering shipwreck and great hardships was 
killed by his men in Texas. 

There was however a companion with him named Joutel, who 
preserved a narrative of La Salle's voyages. 

Hennepin learned something of this narrative, and used it in 
preparing his second map and record. The two maps of Hen- 
nepin, one published in 1683, and the other in Utrecht in 1697, 
are very unlike, but the first is regarded as the most reliable. 
His last map and account of the country has been severely criti- 
cised. J Joutel's narrative was published in A. D. 17 14. 

* Des Puans, or the Puants, was a name applied to the Winnebag^oes when they were 
located on Lake Winnebag^o. It is the name given to Green Bay on all of the early maps 
except this one. The probability is that it was placed over Lake Huron from mere hearsay. 
Prof. A. W. Williamson thinks that the Winnebagos migrated to Wisconsin by way of the 
Great Lakes. But Dr. Hale and Rev. J. O. Dorsey mamtain that the Dakotas and with 
them the Mandans migrated from Ohio down the Ohio River, up the Missouri, one branch 
up the Mississippi. The effigies would indicate that the Winneoagoes followed this track. 
Sec Catlin's Indians, Vol. II., p. 2s8. J. O. Dorsey's Report in the Annual of Ethnological 
Bureau, p. 212. Dorsey locates the last reservation of the tribe above the Yankton, but 
places the first habitat in Wisconsin. See also my book on Emblematic Mounds. Wc give 
a series of cuts which have been loaned to us by Mr. Winslow, of the Geological Survey of 
Missouri, which will illustrate the different maps, though we do not vouchsafe tor the 
accuracy of them. One of these rudely represents Joliet's map of 1673. Another one repre- 
sents the map by Minet in 1685. 

t La Hontan's map is given by Winsor, F. to C, p. 353. In this map we find the Fox River 
called K. des Puantes; the Wisconsin, Ouariconsint; the Illinois, R. des Ilinois. The fol- 
lowing Indian tribes are located: Kikapous, Malhomini, Outagamis. 

X Niagara Falls are called on this map Ongiarasauli. Lake Huron is called Karepiondi; 
Green Bay called Lac de Puans; Lake Erie called £rie(7M Du chat; New England, NouvelU 
Angle terre. 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 22g 

A map by Marquette is in existence. It was prepared A. D, 
1673. It is incomplete, but has this advantage, that Lake Mich 
igan is correctly drawn on it, and is not on Hennepin's. 

THE PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. 

III. In reference to the two series of maps it should be said that 
they very remarkably illustrate the progress of discovery, both in 
the outlines of the continent and the delineation of the features 
of the interior. Both series illustrate how crude were the ideas 
of the discoverers, but at the same time show a rapid progress 
in geographical knowledge. 

At first the continent was depicted as merely an arm or an 
eastern extension of Asia, afterward it appears as an island in the 
midst of the ocean. Then it assumed the appearance of a conti- 
nent, but much broader in proportion to its length, than it really 
is, with South America, as has been mentioned, having much 
the same shape as the present Australia. It soon, however, as- 
sumed a more correct outline. Various maps of the series 
picture the Northern and Southern continent with the Gulf be- 
tween — though it is some time before South America assumes 
the proper dimensions as compared with North America, or is 
understood in its real shape. 

There was the greatest ignorance of the interior throughout 
the whole period, and the maps were evidently made from imagin- 
ation. At first, all that is shown is the general contour — while 
in the interior an indiscriminate mass of mountains and forests 
cover the surface. Not a river or a lake relieves the bare waste. 

Afterward, the river St. Lawrence and the Lower Mississippi, 
the Gulf of Mexico, and Gulf of California, appear on the maps. 
All that seems to have been known, however, of the rivers, was 
their mouths. It ,is strange to see two or three long rivers ex- 
tending across the continent, all rising in one point near the 
center. According to these maps, the locality of St. Louis was 
extremely favored. There were mountains in this vicinity and 
three diflfcrent rivers ran from this as a centres-one to the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, the other to the Gulf of Mexico, and the third 
to the Gulf of California. See Ortelius' map. 

These rivers have no branches and are merely long, straight 
channels, laid down by guessing at them. 

The second class is interesting on account of its information 
as to the progress of discover>^ This time, the discovery is in 
the Interior. The progress of exploration in the interior is por- 
trayed very strikingly. At first, the mouths of the rivers are 
laid down somewhat correctly, but the lakes and mountains are 
dropped down accidentally wherever most convenient. The 
mountains generally cross the continent from east to west. The 
Mississippi is a short stream flowing south from them, occasion- 
ally represented, however, as having two channels instead of 



230 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

one. The only lake which is laid down at first, is the Lac de 
Iroquois or Ontario. This was discovered or navigated by 
Champlain, who became familiar with the St. Lawrence, and 
wandered into some portions of New York state. Changes soon 
occur. The Ottawa river is laid down by Champlain ; Lake 
St. Louis appears; then Lake Erie; after that Lake Superior, and 
last of all, Lake Michigan, or the Lac de Illinois. 

It is novel, however, to see Lake Huron surpassing in size all 
of the rest put together, and Lake Michigan forming an arm to 
the west of it ; while the Bay des Puans or Green Bay is twice 
too large. Lake Erie goes through a variety of changes; some- 
times larger and sometimes smaller. Its shape is extremely 
irregular and angular. The names of the lakes are also very 
changeable. At one time they bear the names of the French 
ministers ; again they assume the names of the Indian tribes in 
the vicinity ; and again, they bear two or three names at the 
same time. See Joliet's map. 

Before the end of this period, the lakes have assumed their 
proper shape, and the rivers begin to appear in due form. Here 
the same progress of discovery is manifest. At first, .the 
Mississippi river ends without a mouth. This was as Marquette 
left it on his first voyage. Hennepin's second map represents 
its whole course. The Missouri river has a novel appearance. It 
is a straight river, with a wide channel flowing directly east. Its 
head waters are not laid down, but it is called the ''Long River." 

As to the rivers, the progress of discovery was rapid. During 
this period, from A. D. 1620 to A. D. 1703, nearly all the rivers 
of the interior are laid down correctly, and the lakes assume their 
proper place and shape. 

77^5^ only exception to this is the Ohio River. This river does 
not appear in' the first two classes of maps at all (1490 to 1703). 
The coasts have been laid down correctly; the gulfs depicted in 
their proper place ; the St. Lawrence river has been described ; 
the lakes appear one after another ; the Upper Mississippi River 
has also been discovered; the Minnesota River is laid down 
under the name of the " Long' River," flowing east from the 
Rocky Mountains, but no Ohio. Two hundred years have passed; 
the explorations of the interior have continued, but no evidence 
is given that this beautiful stream was known. 

IGNORANCE OF THE OHIO. 

As early as 1652, Mercator's map represents a branch of the 
Mississippi as flowing Irom the east, but this river is south of the 
Appalachian Mountains which on this map run east and west, 
and are not named. 

Joannis Blaeu, of Amsterdam, published a map in 1665, but he 
does not mention the Ohio. Vanderbeste, in 1656, sketches the 
\akes, calling Lake Erie by the new name, " Lake Felis," but 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 231 

represents the Appalachian Mountains as running around its west 
end, and up into the peninsula of Michigan ; he also represents 
a river, east of the lake, as taking a southerly and westerly 
course, and emptying its waters into the lake near Cleveland * 
An English geography also, in 1680, represents a river with two 
branches as rising west of Lake Erie, and flowing into the Mis- 
sissippi ; according to it the mountains extend north and south 
across the continent from Michigan to Florida, or from Saginaw 
Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, while the river to the west of them is 
very short and has no name. 

John Baptist Hondius, of Amsterdam, in A. D. 1687, repre- 
sents a chain of mountains in the place of the river ; and La 
Hontan, in A. D. 1703, portrays a lake east of Lake Erie, with a 
river running south, which may have been intended to represent 
the Susquehanna. 

La Hontan's map does not extend far enough south to include 
the course of the Ohio, but in one corner of it, west of Lake Erie, 
there appears a stream which bears the name ** Ou-bache,*' and 
it now becomes evident that at least a branch of the Ohio is 
known. Up to this date then we have only fragments of the 
Ohio, but no delineation of its whole course. 

It is very remarkable that no map appeared before this late 
date which contained either the river or its name, except those 
which were prepared by the companions of La Salle, such as 
Minet and Hennepin, or by some one connected with the French 
government. Hennepin, in the edition of 1697, published after 
La Salle's death, portrayed the river and the name Ho-hio on it. 
Previous to that time Joliet's four maps had appeared, in two of 
which there is a long river without a name,- but with this inscrip- 
tion : Reviere par on dcscendit la sieur de la Salle ^ au sortie du 
Lac Erie pou allex dans le Mexique, but this inscription is sup- 
posed to have been added by a later hand. Franquelin's map 
of 1684 contains the great lakes with their names, also the Upper 
and Lower Mississippi River, with branches resembling the 
Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Wabash, but with no names afExed 
to the rivers. Minet, who was La Salle's engineer, represented 
the Ohio and its branches correctly, with the names of several 

* A letter from Pierre MarQ:ry to the Wisconsin Historical Society was published in the 
American Auticjuarian. Vol. If, No. 3, 1880, p 207. in which he says: The map inserted in * 
the French edition of ray volume conhnns what I have advanced respecting the discovery 
of Ohio. I still very firmly believe La Salle discovered the Mississippi by way of the lakes 
and the Illinois River as far south as the thirty-sixth parallel and ail this before 1686. the 
date of Marquette's discovery. This opinion of mine I base first on the narrative made by 
La Salle to the Abbe < enaudot. This narrative describes an expedition in which La Salle 
was engafj^ed southwest of Ontario for a distance of 400 leagues, and down a river that must 
have been the Ohio. This was in 1669 In tine. I found my opinion on the total antagonism 
between the Jesuits and the merchants, an well as those who represented interest or only a 
legitimate ambition. In opposition to the Jesuits, the Cavalier de La Salle always asso- 
ciatcd with the Sulpitians or Recollects, whom Colbert had raised up against the Jesuits, 
m order to lessen the influence of those who would fain undermine him. See American 
Antiquarian. Vol. U . No. 3. Mr. Parkman, in a letter to Col. Whittlesey, intimates that 
La Salle may possiblv have passed by portage from the Maumee to the Wabash and so 
reached the Lower Ohio, as the earlier maps give the Wabash before they do the Upper 
Ohio. Mr. Winsor reflects on this theory as if unreliable, but gives no facts to prove nis 
assertions. 



232 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

of them added, but the Ohio has two names.* The lower part is 
called R. le Choucagoua and the upper part R. Ouabache. The 
Mississippi bears the name of Fl. Colbert. Parkman, however, 
has given a sketch of a map taken from the archives of the 
Marine at Paris (1683), in which the form of the lakes and their 
names appear as they are at present. There is also a river which 
bears the name River Ohio flowing close to the south shores of 
the two lakes, Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. The question is 
as to who was the discoverer of the Ohio River. On this point 
there has been, and still is, a great difference of opinion. Some 
maintain, with Parkman and Margry, that LaSalle discovered 
the Ohio before he did the Illinois. Others, such as Shea and 
Winsor, maintain that La Salle never reached the Ohio, holding 
that the maps which represent his route along that river are 
fraudulent, or at least the inscriptions were fraudulent. Still the 
maps of Minet and Franquelin, 1684 and 1688, are in evidence, and 
their testimony is strongly in favor of La Salle as the discoverer. 

IGNORANCE AS TO THE BRANCHES OF THE OHIO. 

Many maps published alter this time were very incorrect. 
They represent the Ohio very erroneously, showing^, as yet, a 
strange ignorance of the river and its tributaries. A few of these 
errors are here referred to, John Senex, A. D. 17 10, Lond, 
represented the "Ou bache" or "Belle" River rising east of Lake 
Erie; and a branch of it in a lake called "Onasont," The river 
runs parallel with Lake Erie and quite near it. 

The Illinois flows parallel with the Ohio on the north side, and 
another long river called "Acansea" runs parallel with it on the 
south side, and south of this are the Alleghany mountains, which 
still run east and west near the place of the Appalachians, and 
extend as far as to the Mississippi. Among these mountains are 
the "Tionontatecagas, who inhabit caves to defend themselves 
from the great cat." A river runs from the southeast through 
these mountains, emptying into the Ohio or "Acansea," which is 
said to be "the road which the French take to go to Carolana," 

In the year A. D. 1720, H. Moll prepared a map in which the 
Ohio is called the Sault River, and the Mississippi the St. Louis . 
Daniel Coxe, in 1726, prepared a map of "Carolana," in which 

♦This map by Minet, 1685, is given by Winsor, C to F, p. 316. It lias the Ohio River laid 
down, the upper part of it named R. Ouabache, the lower part named H. le Chon4:agoua, 
It starts in New York State, near Lac Frontenac, liows parallel with Lcus Herrie. It has a 
branch which is nameless, corresponding to the Wabash. A nameless river (the Illinois) 
flows parallel with this, between it and Lac des lllinoU, The Le Mississippi and R. des 
Missouris and R, Miscunsing are properly located, but the lower Mississippi, called the 
Colbert, flows far to the west, and is joinea by Fl. 8eignelay (Red River) near the Gulf of 
Mexico. This map is given in the cut just south of the river: Hurons, Outawaks, north of 
Lake Michigan, near Missil Makinak; Errieonos south of Lake Erie: Kikapous west of 
Lake Michigan; Gumamis southeast of Lake Michigan: the portage de Chegakou (Chicago) 
V. des Illinois. The Forts Crevecoeur and Fort De Mr. de la Salle are also located cor- 
rectly. Fort St. Joseph is located on Lake Huron, where Detroit is. The following new 
features are on this map: Munting grounds, called Chasse de Castor amis des; Francois are 
west of Detroit, in Michigan and Indiana; Chasse de Castor des Yroquis is located north of 
Lake Erie, in Ontario, repeated three times. 



THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 233 

he rq)resents ^our rivers running parallel with one another from 
the vicinity of the Alleghany Mountains and coming together at 
a small lake which is situated near the "Misachebl" (Mississippi). 
The Ohio on this map rises in New York, and the "Oubache" 
near Cleveland, just south of Lake Erie. 

M. Bellin, in 1744, prepared a map of Louisiana and the 
course of the Mississippi, which appeared in '^Charlevoix His- 
tory." He gives the river, with its branches, with considera- 
ble correctness. The river is now called "L'oio, a La Belle 
River." The ''Oubache," or "St. Jerome," empties into it, and 
is now a branch rising near the head of Lake Erie. The "Chera- 
quis" (Cumberland) and the "Reviere des Anciens Chouanous" 
(Tennessee) are branches on the south. 

In 1755, Le Sr. d'Anville prepared for Louis Phillippe a series 
of maps. These are embodied in an atlas containing forty-three 
maps, bearing dates from A, D. 1755 to A. D. 1762. The valley 
of the Ohio is by this geographer depicted, and nearly all its 
branches are mentioned. The river is too near the lake and 
runs with more of an an^le and less of a bend, in the vicinity 
of Pittsburgh, than is correct. The Alleghany is named, and 
rises east of Lake Erie, near the Cayuga Lake. Chatauqua 
Lake is called "Tjadakoin," and its outlet i5; called "Canouagan." 
But the river "Aux Beufs" (Beaver), "Cheninque" (Chenango), 
are about south of the Cuyahoga and the "Muskegan" is south 
of the Sandusky, while the Miami is still farther west. 

This Do Anville's map became the standard, as Sanson's and 
De L. Isle's had been before it It was manifestly imperfect, 
but was regarded with favor, as it was produced with royal sanc- 
tion and was the most correct map published thus far. 

It remained, however, for two Americans to prepare the first 
correct maps of the Ohio Valley. These were Thomas Evans 
and John Fitch, the latter of whom is celebrated for his efTorts at 
early steamboat navigation. The map prepared by Mr. Evans 
is worthy of description. According to it the Ohio rises in the 
State of New York, the Alleghany, or "Yoxiogony," and the 
Monongehela join it at Fort Duquesne. 

Jadaxque Lake (Chatauqua), French Creek and the Venango 
River, the Beaver and Muskingum are the head waters ; while 
the Scioto, Little Miniami, Great Miniami and the "Quoaxtana" 
or Wabash are branches of the Ohio. On this map there are 
several f>ortiges from Lake Erie to the Ohio. They are viz.: 

1. Lake Eric and Canonagy Creek (Chatauqua), twenty miles. 

2. Presque Isle (Erie) and French Creek. 3. "Cuyahagc" River 
(Cuyahoga) and Muskingum, at ''French House," one mile. 
4. Scioto River and Sandusky River, four miles. 5. Sandusky 
River and Miniami River, ten miles. 6. South branch of the 
Miniami (Maumee) and west branch of the Miniami. 7. Maumee 



234 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

and Wabash Rivers. 8. Wabash and St. Joseph Rivers. 9. Des- 
plaines and Lake Michigan. 

Thus, after two hundred and fifty years, the Ohio and its 
branches are for the first time correctly portrayed. It is singular 
that this river should so long remain unknown. It took but 
about fifty years to discover the Great Lakes and accurately 
delineate them, and to portfay the Mississippi throughout its 
whole length; but it took more than two hundred years to cor- 
rectly portray the Ohio, with its course and its tributaries, and 
then only an American was able to properly do it 

This delay in portraying the Ohio River is very significant. 
There are good reasons for it. The river was remote from 
the ordinary line of the "fur trade," and could not be visited by 
those who were seeking for peltries. It was also remote from 
the scenes of the missionary labor of the Jesuits, who were 
located mainly north of the lakes, but had missions at Green 
Bay and on Lake Superior. The French explorers, such as 
Marquette, Hennepin and LaSalle, as well as the Intendant 
Talon and the French minister Colbert, imagined that a passage 
to the South Sea could be found by travelling westward ; but 
they naturally went in the direction of the Great Lakes, as 
these, with the Ottawa River, were the main thoroughfares of 
the Indian tribes with whom they were familiar. There was a 
safer passage for them in that direction, as the Iroquois, who 
claimed the region south of Lake Erie and had control also of 
the tribes bordering on the Ohio, were hostile to the French. 

English exploration did not extend into the mterior during 
this period. Though colonies were settling along the sea coast 
throughout the seventeenth century, yet there is no record that 
any one belonging to them ventured beyond the AUeghanies, 
The " Popham" colony was located on the coast of Maine as 
early as 1608, and Sir Walter Raleigh's colony was established 
at Jamestown ; but neither Ferdinand De Gorges, the founder 
of tiie first, nor Captain John Smith, the leader of the other, ever 
became explorers much beyond the bounds of their own colony. 

It is due to the French that the discovery of nearly all the 
rivers and lakes of the interior was made. It was, however, not 
until the French began to claim, by virtue of these discoveries, 
that vast domain which lay beyond the AUeghanies, that maps 
containing the Ohio River were published. If there were those 
in manuscript prepared by the explorers, there were but few of 
them, and next to none given to the public, before 1703. 

IV. We now come to the chief point, namely, the study of 
the maps with a view of ascertaining the location of the Indian 
tribes, especially those of the deep Interior. It is to be noticed 
that the ignorance about the Ohio and its tributaries extended 
also to the tribes situated along their banks, and yet there are 
tribes which became known and the maps designate their location. 




THE STUDY OF THE MAPS. 23s 

The first one which portrays these at all correctly is De L. 
Isles, in a map published at Amsterdam in A. D. 1708. Do L. 
Isle's map seems to have served as a standard, as Sanson's had 
done before it. A large number of maps are copied from it, and 
it is very reliable. 

In 1 72 1 there appeared the great work called the " English 
Greography." This contains three maps of North America, one 
of them being a general map of the entire continent, another 
representing the English possessions, and a third the Mississippi 
Valley. In the first, a river is placed about half way between 
the mountains and the Gulf of Mexico ; in the second, it does 
not appear at all, but a range of mountains takes its place, and 
the nations of the Filians are occupying the land; but in the third, 
which is a copy of De L. Isle's map, the Ohio is in its proper place, 
having this difference however, that it is called "Ohio" about as 
far down as the Wabash, and thence is called " Oa-bache." 

There are besides two large rivers running parallel to the "Ou- 
bache," or ''St. Jerome," draining a very wide valley between the 
Cumberland Mountains and the Lakes. 

The Ohio rises in New York, but it shares the great valley 
with two other streams. The names of the latter are the river of 
"Chouanons" and the "Cosquinambeau." They were evidently 
designed for the Cumberland and Tennessee. The mountains are 
south of all the rivers, and extend as far west as the Mississippi. 

This map, taken from De L. Isles A. D. 1708, is so remarkable 
that it deserves description, aside from the question of the course 
and name of the Ohio. The first thing noticeable in it is that it 
contains the track of Ferdinan de Soto, made in A. D. 1540. 
This runs parallel with the mountains and twists south and 
north, and extends far out into the prairies beyond the Missis- 
sippi, but turns back and ends at the river. 

To the west of the Mississippi River are seen the River Del 
Norte, the Red River, the Arkansas and Missouri. The Illinois 
is in its proper place, but the Chicagun is a branch of it rising 
near Lake Michigan. The Rock River takes a straight course 
west, about where the line of the State of Wisconsin now is, and 
empties into the Mississippi near Galena. It is called **River a la 
Roche," or "Crystal River." The Fox River is called "Renards," 
and the Wisconsin the **Ou-isconsing." 

The location of the tribes is as follows: The Iroquois first ; 
next the "Nation du Chat," near Lake Erie; near Detroit, the 
"Mississaugues;" the "Poutouatamies," in the vicinity of St. 
Joseph^, or Lake Michigan ; the Miamis, south of them ;*the 
"Fire" nation, near Chicago ; and west of Lake Michigan, a 
tribe called the "Mascoutens." The Illinois are near the Missis- 
sippi, and the "Renards" in the vicinity of Green Bay; while in the 
Far West is the country of the Apaches, Paducahs and Osages. 

The Indian villages are located as follows : Chicagou is on 



236 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Lake Michigan, near its head, and has two houses in it ; "Mileki" 
River is the first one north of Chicagou, and a village on it is 
called "Miskouakimina ;" "Peoria" is on the Illinois River; 
"Caouquias" on the Mississippi ; "Caskaquias," further south on 
the same river. An "Ancient Fort" is located near the mouth 
of the Wabash; while opposite the Missouri are "Flower Pots 
and Castles Ruined." "Quicapou"_ is on the Rock River, near 
where Rockford is now ; and an ancient village of the Illinois is 
on the Illinois River somewhere south of Joliet.* Between the 
Ohio and the Cumberland,'}' in the wide valley represented north 
of the Cumberland Mountains, was a "desert one hundred and 
twenty leagues in compass, where the Illinois hunt cows" (buf- 
faloes). Lake Sandouskie is situated just south of Lake Erie, 
where Sandusky is now. The "Andastes" are located east of 
the Alleghany Mountains ; and "Canage," a "large Indian Fort," 
is on the Susquehanna, "The Falls of Niagara, two hundred 
feet high," are mentioned. The "Sonontouan" tribe is located 
just east of the Falls, "Onontaque" is situated among a series of 
small lakes, and "Goyogouen" in the midst of the Iroquois land. 
De L. Isle's map also gives the various Indian villages situated 
in the Gulf States, with their names. His map is very valuable 
on this acconnt, as it is about the only one in which we may 
learn the location of these southern villages.]: 



UlibttbaU. These towns and th 

ma; be lateiuled tor the towns < 

tWalter B. Scaiie give* a mi 

'-•-• ' nl Mexico Iromlh 



Hi 


■.a. Chiap: 


11 

TiAisl 


9 theS 
iadw»tei 

iMlppi. 


1 In ht» eipe( 


iilion 1 


;olh< 



range of imountaloa, emptjingln.. ^.. . — , 

but KpreainlslheChtcBEoRTver, orpDS«tb1y theSt.Joiep^. : I .. i ud 

rising In the same mounjalns On Ihis map great villages ol (lie Irouuois are ^oulh of 
Lake Ontario; small villages ol the Iroquois noitb of tlita lake. The HascoutcnB are on 
the east side of the Illinois, the KIkapiu west of the lake.wtiile the llliaais ate aboie the 
Baydes fuans. iust belon the "Uppei Lake" oi Lake Superior. Cape St. Anthony at tha 
month of the llltaois River. 

'a map is given by Wlntor tn the "HisalislppI Baiin," 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 237 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 

By Rev. William C. Winslow, LL.D. 

Dr. Petri e has been throwing further light on his astonish- 
ing revelation of the existence of a hitherto unknown race of 
mortaLs in a region some thirty miles north of Thebes. He 
dates the invasion of Egypt by this race at 3000 B. C. About 
1600 tombs were personally inspected by him. Not a single 
pure Egyptian object was found in one of them. The method 
of burial was quite unique. In Eg>'pt the body was always 
laid out full length and embalmed, and the place of interment 
was a cave, so that the earth might not touch the body. In 
the case of this race the bodies were buried in a crouching 
position, with the head to the south and the face to the west. 
There were no traces that the bodies were embalmed. The tomb 
was an open trench with wooden beams, with the earth thrown 
in over the body, and corresponded in many respects with the 
graves found by Schliemann in Mycena:. The skulls were 
those of a race of people with well-developed heads, capable 
of great things, with thin hooked nose, high forehead, great 
strength of eye-brows, straight teeth, and without any trace of 
negro about it. The women had long wavy hair of a brown 
color, and of it some specimens in a fine state of preservation 
had been found. From a carved ivory found in one of the 
tombs thcj' were able to tell that the men wore long pointed 
beards. The whole appearance corresponded to what Prof. 
Sayce and others recognize as a Libyan-Amorite type. In the 
graves were found large numbers of red vases full of the ashes 
of wood, which had evidently been burned at the funerals. 
There was no trace, however, that the bodies themselves had 
been cremated. These ashes, Prof. Petrie thinks, were the re- 
mains of burnings, and he recalled how in the Old Testament 
it was mentioned that there were "great burnings" at the funer- 
als of some of the Jewish kings — a custom which had evident- 
ly been borrowed from their Amorite neighbors. There were 
scratchings on these vases, but no hieroglyphics. Prof. Petrie 
shows how they must be subsequent to tne fourth dynasty. In 
the sloping passages to the Egyptian tombs of that period, 
they found tnat graves of the new race had been dug. They 
must, therefore, come after that first great period of Egyptian 
civilization. Above the graves of the new race, again, were 
found remains of the twelfth dynasty, so that they must place 
the date of the new race between the fourth and sixth and the 
eleventh and twelfth dynasties. It was likely that the} were 
contemporaneous with the seventh, eighth and ninth dynasties, 
and were in all probability invaders — in some ways as civilized 



238 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

as the Egyptians themselves — who had swept into the country, 
had expelled the Egyptians from these parts, and with them 
had held no relations or commercial intercourse. 

Whence came these strange people? Not from the far south, 
as they had no affinity with the negro, and there is a strong 
presumption that they did not come from the north into Egypt; 
for from the fourth dynasty there had been continuous civiliza- 
tion at Memphis, the capital of the country. They must there- 
fore have come from the east or west. The probability is that 
they came from the west, as the district they occupied was 
opposite the western oasis, from which any invading race would 
naturally march eastward. Seeing that the remains have much 
in common with that of the Amorites in Syria, the hypothesis 
is that both were of the Libyan race inhabiting the north of 
Africa, who, about the period of the close of the sixth dynasty, 
threw off two great branches, one of which found its way into 
Syria, and the other marching westward subdued this portion 
of Egypt and destroyed the inhabitants, but had been unable 
to make their way further north on account of the determined 
front presented to them from Memphis. 

The Jew still remembers "the good things" left behind in 
Egypt as well as "the house of bondage." A banker of that 
persuasion, Suares by name, gives ;^40,ooo to the French arch- 
aeological school in Cairo. When will the English, especially 
the Americans, realize, as do the French, how universally inter- 
esting and valuable is the field of discovery in the Nile valley? 

Monsieur Jacques de Morgan, director-general of antiqui- 
ties in Egypt, seems to possess every requisite for that position 
of magnificent opportunities. As a member of the committee 
of our Fund, he affords Dr. Naville and our other explorers 
every reasonable facility for fuithering our work. No man 
appreciates more than he the inestimable service rendered his 
department in Egypt by our Society in its thorough excavation 
of the temple of Queen Hatusu. And he appreciates America's 
part and place in our Fund. 

Dr. Naville received D.C.L. at Oxford, on June 26, for his 
scholarly achievements as an Egyptologist, and Dr. Thompson 
was knighted early in that month for his labors in the British 
Museum. He is active as vice president of the Fund for Eng- 
land. 

It may interest our Antiquarian readers to know that Amer- 
ican subscriptions for the Fund, sent to London, up to July 9, 
amount to ;6i,i20, or $5,485.18. The financial year at the head 
office closes on July 31. If some of the subscribers to this 
magazine will simply take the pains to place our circulars in 
the hands of those who may care for the progress of discovery 
in Egypt, they will aid this office in its arduous and increasing 
effort to keep the Society at work. 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 239 

Uk. D. G. Hogarth, of the E^ypt Exploration Fund staff, has 
made a careful examination of tne strata underlying Alexan- 
dria, with a view to solve the question whether any notable 
remains of the ancient city still exist. As a result of two- 
months* persistent and thorough investigation, the ••borings" 
demonstrate: 

1. That over all the central part of the Roman town there 
lies a deposit from fifteen to twenty feet thick, mostly com- 
posed of Arab living-refuse, and singularly deficient in objects 
of interest. 

2. That such remains as exist of the Roman town are in very 
bad condition; everywhere they present the appearance of 
having been ruined and rifled systematically. Walls are de- 
stroyed to pavement level and pavements ripped away. 

3. That immediately below (sometimes at or even above) 
the Roman level water is tapped. Even tombs are found now 
to be below the inundated line. The soil must have subsided, 
and the stratum, earlier than Roman, be submerged for the 
most part. Neither in this stratum, therefore, nor in that im- 
mediately above, which if still very damp, can papyri be 
expected for one moment. The fact of such substance is proved 
amply by the aspect of the foreshore of the Great Harbor. The 
foundation-courses of large buildings, not earlier than Roman, 
gleam in the sea, and the Tow cliff, composed entirely of debris^ 
shows sections of Roman walls and pavements rignt down to 
water-level. 

The state in which we find the central quarter accords exactly 
with the known fact of the destruction of the Brachium in the 
time of Aurelian. In St. Jerome's day the once rich quarter 
was no more than a refuge for hermits; and St. John Chrysostom, 
when he said that the Tomb of Alexander was as though it had 
never been, seems to have spoken sober truth. The local col- 
lections of antiquities, and reports obtained from local savants^ 
builders, contractors for drainage works, and the like, all 
demonstrate that up to now nothing first-rate of the Greek or 
Graeco-Roman period has been unearthed in Alexandria, and 
very little that is even second-rate. The reward of tomb-riflers 
in recent times has been the leavings of earlier riflers; and 
ruined walls at pavement level, and the most broken of debris^ 
have constituted the only return for the money and time spent 
in excavation in the town itself. 

Dr. Hogarth is convinced that no great mine of museum- 
treasures remains to be explored under Alexandria; that its 
libraries have perished utterly; that all that exists of its Mausolea 
is plundered ruin; that the glories of the former foreshore are 
now represented by shoals m the port; and that its great tem- 
ples, passing into churches and mosques, have been robbed of 
all they once possessed of value or beauty. 



240 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



SCENERY ON THE COLORADO. 
By J. W. Powell. 

Reprinted from the Canyons of the Colorado; published by Ford & Vincent, Meadville, Pa. 

There are two distinct portions of the basin of the Colorado, 
a desert portion below and a plateau above. The lower third, or 
desert portion of the basin, is but little above the level of the sea, 
though here and there, ranges of mountains rise to an altitude 
of from 3, OCX) to 6,000 feet. This part of the valley is bounded 
on the northeast by a line of cliffs which present a bold, often 
vertical step, hundreds or thousands of teet, to the table lands 
above. On the California side a vast desert stretches westward, 
past the head of the Gulf of California, nearly to the shore of 
the Pacific. Between the desert and the sea a narrow belt of 
valley, hill, and mountain of wonderful beauty is found. Over 
this coastal zone there falls a balm distilled from the great ocean, 
as gentle showers and refreshing dews bathe the land. When 
rains come the emerald hills laugh with delight as bourgeoning 
bloom is spread in the sunlight. When the rains have ceased 
all the verdure turns to gold. Then slowly the hills are brinded 
until the rains come again, when verdure and bloom again peer 
through the tawny wreck ol last years's greenery. North of the 
Gulf of California the desert is known as "Coahuila Valley," the 
most desolate region on the continent. 

On the Arizona side of the river, desert plains are interrupted 
by desert mountains. Far to the eastward the country rises 
until the Sierra Madre are reached in New Mexico, where these 
mountains divide the waters of the Colorado from the Rio Grande 
del Norte. Here in New Mexico the Gila River has its source. 
Some of its tributaries rise in the mountains to the south, in the 
territory belonging to the Republic of Mexico; but the Gila 
gathers the greater part of its waters from a great plateau on the 
northeast. Its sources are everywhere in pine-clad mountains and 
plateaus, but all of the affluents quickly descend into the desert 
valley below, through which the Gila winds its way westward to 
the Colorado. In times of continued drought the bed of the Gila 
is dry, but the region is subject to great and violent storms, and 
floods roll down from the heights with marvelous precipitation, 
carrying devastation on their way. 

Where the Colorado River forms the boundary between Califor- 
nia and Arizona it cuts through a number of volcanic rocks by 
black, yawning canons. Between these cafions the river has a 
low but rather narrow flood plain, with cottonwood groves scat- 
tered here and there, and a chaparral of mesquite, bearing beans 
and thorns. 



SCENERY ON THE COLORADO. 241 

The region of country lying on either side of the Colorado 
for 600 miles of its course above the gulf, stretching to Coahuila 
Valley below on the west, and to the highlands, where the Gila 
heads, on the east, is one of singular characteristics. The plains 
and valleys are low, arid, hot, and naked, and the volcanic 
mountains scattered here and there are lone and desolate. 
During the long months the sun pours its heat upon the rocks 
and sands, untempered by clouds above or forest shades beneath. 
The springs are so few in number that their names are house* 
hold words in every Indian rancheria, and every settler's home; 
as there are no brooks, no creeks, and no rivers but the trunk 
of the Colorado and the trunk of the Gila. 

The desert valley of the Colorado, which has been described 
as distinct from the plateau region above, is the home of many 
Indian tribes. Away up at the sources of the Gila, where the 
pines and cedars stand, and where creeks and valleys are found, 
is a part of the Apache land. These tribes extend far south into 
the Republic of Mexico. The Apaches are intruders in this 
country, having at some time, perhaps many centuries ago, 
migrated from British America. They speak the Athapascan 
language. The Apaches and Navajos are the American Bedouins. 
On their way from the far north they left several colonies in 
Washington, Oregon, and California. They came to the country 
on foot, but since the Spanish invasion they have become skilled 
horsemen. They are wily warriors and implacable enemies, 
feared by all other tribes. They are hunters, warriors, and 
priests, these professions not yet being diflerentiated. The cliffs 
of the region have many caves, in which these [feople perform 
their religious rites. The Sierra Madre formerly supported 
abundant game, and the little Sonora deer was common. Bears 
and mountain lions were once found in great numbers, and they 
put the courage and prowess of the Apaches to a severe test. 
Huge rattlesnakes are common, and the rattlesnake god is one 
of the deities of the tribes. 

The low desert, with its desolate mountains, which has thus 
been described, is plainly separated from the upper region of 
plateau by the Mogollon Escarpment, which, beginning in the 
Sierre Madre of New Mexico, extend northwestward across the 
Colorado far into Utah, where it ends on the margin of the 
great basin. See Plate. 

The rise by this escarpment varies from 3,000 to more than 
4,000 feet. The step from the lowlands to the highlands, which 
is here called the Mogollon Escarpment, is not a simple line of 
cliffs, but is a complicated and irregular fagade presented to the 
southwest. Its different portions have been named by the 
people living below, as distinct mountains, as Shiwit? Mountains* 
Mogollon Mountains, Pinal Mountains, Sierra Calitro, etc., but 
they all rise to the summit of the same great plateau. region. 



242 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

This high region on the east, north and west, is set with ranges 
of snow-clad mountains attaining an altitude above the sea varying 
from 8,ocx) to 14,000 leet. All winter long snow falls on its moun- 
tain-crested rim, filling the gorges, half burying the forests, and 
covering the crags and peaks with a mantle woven by the winds 
from the waves of the sea. When the summer sun comes this 
snow melts and tumbles down the mountain sides in millions of 
cascades. A million cascade brooks unite to form a thousand 
torrent creeks; a thousand torrent creeks unite to form half a hun- 
dred rivers beset with cataracts; halt a hundred roaring rivers unite 
to form the Colorado, which rolls, a mad, turbid stream, into the 
Gulf of California. Consider the action of one of these streams. 
Its source is in the mountains, where the snow falls; its course 
through the arid plains. Now, if at the river's flood, storms were 
tailing on the plains, its channel would be cut but little fiister than 
the adjacent country would be washed, and the general level would 
thus be preserved; but under the conditions here mentioned the 
river continually deepens its beds; so all the streams cut deeper 
and still deeper, until their banks are towering cliffs of solid rock. 
These deep, narrow gorges are called cafions. For more than a 
thousand miles along its course the Colorado has cut for itself such 
a canon; but at some fewpoints,where lateral streams join it, the 
canon is broken and these narrow, transverse valleys divide into 
a series of canons. The Virgen, Kanab, Paria, Escalante, Fre- 
mont, San Rafael, Price and Uinta on the west, the Grand, White, 
Yampa, San Juan and Colorado Chiquito on the east, have also cut 
for themselves such narrow, winding gorges, or deep cafions. 
Every river entering these has cut another canyon; every lateral 
creek has cut a canon; every brook runs in a cafion; every rill 
born of shower and born again of a shower and living only during 
theseshowers, has cut for itself a cailon; so that the whole upper 
portion of the basin ofthe Colorado is traversed by a labyrinth of 
these deep gorges. 

After the canons, the most remarkable features of the country 
are the long lines of cliffs. These are bold escarpments scores or 
hundreds of miles in length, — great geographic steps, often 
hundreds or thousands of feet in altitude, presenting steep 
faces of rock, often vertical. Having climbed one of these 
steps, you may descend by a gentle, sometimes imperceptible, 
slope to the foot of another. They thus present a series of ter- 
races, the steps of which are well defined escarpments of rock. 
The lateral extension of such a line of cliffs is usually very 
irregular; sharp salients are projected on the plains below, 
and deep recesses are cut into the terraces above. Intermittent 
streams coming down the cliflTs have cut many cafions or caiion 
villages, by which the traveler may pass from the plaiA below to 
th^ terrace above. By these gigantic stairways he may ascend 
to high plateaus, covered with Crests of pide and fit. 



SCENERY ON THE COLORADO. 



=43 



From the Grand Canon ot the Colorado a great plateau 
extends southeastward through Arizona nearly to the line of 
New Mexico, where this elevated land merges into the Sierra 
Madre. The general surface of this plateau is from 6,000 to 
8,000 feet above the level of the sea. Various tributaries of the 
Gila have their sources in this escarpment, and before entering the 
desolate valley t>elow they run in beautiful caiions which they 
have carved for themselves in the margin of the plateau. Some- 
times these caAons are in the sandstones and limestones, which 
constitute the platform of the great elevated region called the 
San Francisco Plateau. The escarpment is caused by a &ult, the 
great block of the upper side being lifted several thousand feet 




above the valley region. Through the fissure lavas poured out, 
and in many places the escarpment is concealed by sheets of lava. 
The canons in these lava beds are often of great interest. On the 
plateau a number of volcanic mountains are found, and black 
cinder cones are scattered in profusion. 

Through the forest lands are many beautiful prairies and glades 
that in midsummer are decked with gorgeous wild flowers. The 
rains of the region give source to few perennial streams, but 
intermittent streams have carved deep gorges in the plateau, so 
that it is divided into many blocks. The upper surface, although 
forest clad and covered with beautiful grasses, is almost destitute 
of water. A few springs are found; but they are far apart, and 
some of the volcanic craters hold lakelets. The limestone and 
basaltic rocks sometimes hold pools of water; and where the 
basins are deep the waters are perennial. Such pools are known 
as "water pockets." 



244 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

This is the great timber region of Arizona. Not many years 
ago it was a vast park for elk, deer, antelope and bears, and 
mountain lions were abundant. This is the last home of the 
wild turkey in the United States, for they are still found here in 
great numbers. San Francisco Peak is the highest of these vol- 
canic mountains, and about it are grouped in an irregular way 
many volcanic cones, one of which presents some remarkable 
characteristics. A portion of the cone is of bright reddish cin- 
ders, while the adjacent rocks are of black basalt. The contrast 
in the colors is so great that on viewing the mountain from a 
distance the red cinders seem to be on fire. From this circum- 
stance the cone has been named Sunset Peak. When distant from 
it ten or twenty miles it is hard to believe that the effect is pro- 
duced by contrasting colors, for the peak seems to glow with a 
light of its own. A few miles south of San Francisco Peak 
there is an intermittent stream known as Walnut Creek. This 
stream runs in a deep gorge, 600 to 800 feet below the general 
surface. The stream has cut its way through the limestone and 
through a series of sandstones, and bold walls of rock are pre- 
sented on either side. East of San Francisco Peak there is 
another low volcanic cone, composed of ashes which have been 
slightly cemented by the processes of time, but which can be 
worked with great ease. On this cone another tribe of Indians 
made its village. For the purpose they sunk shafts into the 
easily worked, but partially consolidated ashes, and after pene- 
trating from the surface three or four feet they enlarged the 
chambers so as to make them ten or twelve feet in diameter. In 
such a chamber they made a little fire-place, its chimney running 
up on one side of the well-hole by which the chamber was 
entered. Often they excavated smaller chambers connected with 
the larger, so that sometimes two, three, four or even five smaller 
connecting chambers are grou(>ed about a large central room. 
The arts of these people resembled those of the people who 
dwelt in Walnut canon. One thing more is worthy of special 
notice. On the very top of the cone they cleared off a space 
for a court-yard, or assembly square, and about it they erected 
booths, and within the square a space of ground was prepared 
with a smooth floor, on which they performed the ceremonies of 
their religion and danced to the gods in prayer and praise. 

The Little Colorado is a marvelous river. In seasons of great 
rains it is a broad but shallow torrent of mud; in seasons of 
drought it dwindles, and sometimes entirely disappears along 
portions of its course. The upper tributaries usually run in 
beautiful box caiions. Then the river flows through a low, des- 
olate, bad-land valley, and the river of mud is broad but shallow, 
except in seasons of great floods. But fifty miles or more above 
the junction of this stream with the Colorado River proper, it 
plunges into a canon with limestone walls, and steadily this 



SCENERY ON THE COLORADO. 24$ 

canon increases in depth, until, at the mouth of the stream, it 
has walls more than 4,cxx> feet in height. This valley of the 
Little Colorado is also the site of many ruins, and the villages 
or towns found in such profusion were of much larger size than 
those on the San Francisco Plateau. Some of the pueblo-build- 
ing peoples still remain. The Zuni Indians still occupy their 
homes, and they prove to be a most interesting people. They 
have cultivated the soil from time immemorial. They build 
their houses of stone, and line them with plaster; and they have 
many interesting arts, being skilled potters and deft weavers. 
The seasons are about equally divided between labor, worship, 
and play. 

A hundred miles to the northwest of the Zuni pueblo are the 
seven pueblos of Tusayan: Oraibi, Shumopavi, Shupaulovi, 
Mashonc^navi, Sichumovi, Walpi, and Hano. These towns are 
built on high clifTs. The people speak a language radically 
different from that of the Zuni, but, with the exception of that 
of the inhabitants of Hano, closely allied to that of the Utes, 
The people of Hano are Tewans, whose ancestors moved from 
the Rio Grande to Tusayan during the great Pueblo revolt 
against Spanish authority in i68o-h^. In these mountains, 
plateaux, mesas, and canons, the Navajo Indians have their home. 
The Navajos are intruders in this country. They belong to the 
Athapascan stock of British America and speak an Athapascan 
language, like the Apaches of the Sierra Madre country. They 
are a stately, athletic, and bold people. While yet this country 
was a part of Mexico they acquired great herds of horses and 
flocks of sheep, and lived in opulence compared with many ot 
the other tribes of North America. 

Perhaps the most interesting ruins of America are found in 
this region. The ancient pueblos found here are of superior 
structure, but they were all built by a people whom the Navajos 
displaced when they migrated from the far north. Wherever 
there is water, near by an ancient ruin may be found, and these 
ruins are gathered about centers, the centers being larger pueb* 
los and the scattered ruins representing single houses. The 
ancient people lived in villages, or pueblos, but during the grow- 
ing season they scattered about by the springs and streams to 
cultivate the soil by irrigation, and wherever there was a little 
farm or garden patch, there was built a summer house of stone. 
When times of war came, especially when they were invaded by 
the Navajos, these ancient people left their homes in the pueblos 
and by the streams, and constructed temporary homes in the 
cliffs and canon walls. Such cliff ruins are abundant through- 
out the region. Ultimately the ancient pueblo peoples suc- 
cumbed to the prowess of the Navajos and were driven out. A 
part joined related tribes in the valley of the Rio Grande; others 
joined the Zuni and the people of Tusayan ; and still others 



246 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

pushed on beyond the Little Colorado to the San Francisco 
Plateau and far down into the valley of the Gila. 

Farther to the east, on the border of the region which we 
have described, beyond the drainage of the Little Colorado and 
San Juan and within the drainage of the Rio Grande, there lies 
an interesting plateau region, which forms a part of the Plateau 
Province and which is worthy of description. This is the great 
Tewan Plateau, which carries several groups of mountains. The 
plateau itself is intersected with many deep, narrow caAons, 
having walls of lava, volcanic dust, or tufa, and red sandstone. 
It is a beautiful region. The low mesas on every side are almost 
treeless and are everywhere deserts, but the great Tewan Plateau 
is booned with abundant rains, and it is thus a region of forests 
and meadows, divided into blocks by deep and precipitous 
canyons and crowned with cones that rise to an altitude of from 
10,000 to 12,000 feet. For many centuries the Tewan Plateau, 
with its canons below and its meadows and forests above, has 
been the home of tribes of Tewan Indians, who built pueblos, 
sometimes of red sandstones, in the canons, but often of blocks 
of tufa, or volcanic dust. This light material can be worked 
with great ease, and with crude tools of the harder lavas they 
cut out blocks of the tufa and with them built pueblos two or 
three stories high. The blocks are usually about twenty inches 
in length, eight inches in width and six inches in thickness, 
though they vary somewhat in size. On the volcanic cones 
which dominate the country these people built shrines and wor- 
shiped their gods with offerings of meal and water and with 
prayer and symbols made of the plumage of the birds of the air. 

When the Navajo invasion was long past, civilized men, as 
Spanish invaders, entered this country from Mexico, and again 
the Tewan people left their homes on the mesas and by the 
canons to find safety in the cavate dwellings of the cliflTs; and now 
the archaeologist in the study of this country discovers these 
two periods of construction and occupation of the cave dwellings 
of the Tewan Indians. 

To the east of this plateau region, with its mesas and buttes 
and its volcanic mountains, stand the southern Rocky Mountains, 
or Park Mountains, a system of north and south ranges. These 
ranges arc huge billows in the crust of the earth, out of which 
mountains have been carved. The parks of Colorado are great 
valley basins enclosed by these ranges and over their surfaces 
moss agates are scattered. I'he mountains are covered with 
dense forests and are ru^^^cd and wild. The higher peaks rise 
above the timber line and are naked gorges of rocks. In them 
the Platte and Arkansas rivers head and flow eastward to join 
the Missouri river. Here also heads the Rio Grande del Norte, 
which tlows .southward into the Gulf of Mexico, and still to the 
west head many streams which pour into the Colorado waters. 



SCENERY ON THE COLORADO. 247 

destined to the Gulf of California. Throughout all this region 
drained by the Grand, White, and Yampa rivers, there are many 
beautiful parks. The great mountain slopes are still covered with 
primeval forests. Springs, brooks, rivers, and lakes abound, and 
the waters are filled with trout. Not many years ago the hills 
were covered with game — elks on the mountains, deer on the 
plateaus, antelope in the valleys, and beavers building their 
cities on the streams. The plateaus are covered with low, 
dwarf oaks and many shrubs bearing berries, and in the chap- 
arral of this region cinnamon bears are still abundant From 
time immemorial the region drained by the Grand, White and 
Yampa rivers has been the home of Ute tribes of the 
Shoshonean family of Indians. These Indians built their 
shelters of boughs and bark, and to some extent lived in tents 
made of the skins of animals. They never cultivated the soil, 
but gathered wild seeds and roots and were £aimous hunters and 
fishermen. As the region abounds in game, these tribes have 
always been well clad in skins and furs. The men wore blouses, 
loincloth, leggins and moccasins, and the women dressed in short 
kilts. It is curious to notice the effect which the contact of 
civilization has had upon these women's dress. Even twenty 
years ago they had lengthened their skirts, and dresses made of 
buckskin, fringed with furs and beaded with elk teeth were worn 
so long that they trailed on the ground. Neither men nor 
women wore any head dress except on festival occasions for 
decorations, then the women wore little basket bonnets deco- 
rated with feathers, and the men wore headdresses made of the 
skins of ducks, geese, eagles, and other large birds. Sometimes 
they would prepare the skin of the head of the elk or deer, or of 
a bear or mountain lion or wolf, for a head dress. For very cold 
weather both men and women were provided with togas for their 
protection. Sometimes the men would have a bearskin or elk- 
skin for a toga; more often they made their togas by piecing 
together the skins of wolves, mountain lions, wolverines, wild 
cats, beavers and otters. The women sometimes made theirs of 
fawnskins, but rabbitskin robes were far more common. These 
rabbitskins were tanned with the fur on and cut into strips, then 
cords were made of the fiber of wild flax or yucca plants and 
round these cords the strips of rabbitskin were rolled so that 
they made long ropes of rabbitskin coils with a central cord of 
vegetal fiber. 



248 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



Correspondence. 



LETTER FROM POLYNESIA. 

Editor American Antiquarian: 

In a recent number of the Polynesian younud it was announced 
that you desired correspondence with those pursuing ethnolog- 
ical studies in New Zealand. Upon this, I have the pleasure 
to write a few lines on two subjects which may be of interest 
to you, as they are to me. 

I was recently at Gesborne, a small township on the east 
coast of the North Island of New Zealand, and while there 
saw in the house of a friend of mine a terra cotta group of 
figures, probably representing an Aztec sacrifice. I took some 
photographs of it, copies of which I enclose. It is about fifteen 
inches high. My friend bought it in England, from a man who 
brought it from somewhere in America in his portmanteau, and it 
was then in fragments. Little, however, seems to have been 
lost save the hands. I was at once interested in seeing the 
incision at the back, below the shoulder-blade, I believe that 
I have carefully read Bancroft, but I can not recollect any in- 
stance of this form of sacrifice. There are several other points 
of interest in the group — the sacrificial robe and the two objects 
on the altar. I shall feel much obliged if you can give me 
some information on the subject or if you would hand the 
photographs to some one who would. 

The next matter on which I am particularly in search of in- 
formation is, three fingers. As you will probably be aware the 
majority of old Maori carvings represent the male and female 
figure with three fingeis or three toes on each hand or foot. 
The explanations hitherto given for this are quite insufficient, 
and I am collecting facts for a fresh investigation into the 
matter. I have already examples from a number of widely 
separated places, the Fly River, New Guinea, New Hebrides 
and other parts of Melanesia and Polynesia, but recently I have 
seen some of the textiles from Peru (some fragments in our 
colonial museums) and the human figure in these has invaria- 
bly three fingers. I believe the three-fingered hand occurs in 
some of the Indian deities, but this is probably another matter 
altogether. May I a^k if you can refer me to any one who is 
an authority on the Ancon work and similar art. Unfortunate- 
ly, Ruess & Steubel is not accessible here. I have no doubt I 
could get something^ bearing on the subject from that work. 

I should much like to know if the human figure was always 




ABOUT THE BOGUS STATUETTE. 249 

or usually represented with three fingers or toes on the Pacific 
coast If so, is it known why? A. Hamilton. 

Dunedin, April 16, 1895. 

ABOUT THE BOGUS STATUETTE. 

Editor American Antiquarian : 

I herewith return the photograph which you sent to me. 
There is not the slightest evidence about the statue that it is 
of American origin. In fact, .ill the details are against it. It 
seems to me a very doubtful affair, although it may be some 
ideal of a European sculptor. None of our American tribes 
would have represented the body of the dead individual as 
shown in this sculpture. In fact, the sacrifices were made, so 
far as I know, by throwing the victim on the back and cutting 
the heart out from the chest. It looks more like a dead woman 
who has been thrown over the altar. Then the faces, both of 
the woman and of the man, are decidedly of the white race. 
I should not regard the specimens, judging from the photo- 
graph, as of any ethnological importance. 

F. W. Putnam, Secretary A. A. A. S. 

Cambridge, Mass., July i, 1895. 



Editor American Antiquarian : 

Yours of the 17th at hand, with photos (which I enclose). 
They are clearly not Aztec, and not native American, whatever 
else they may be. The hair of the victim is wavy, and the 
priest has a full chin beard and mustache, not to mention his 
wholly un-American features and costume. These exclude all 
possibility of genuine native American origin. Nor does it 
seem to me at all like Polynesian, resp. Maori, work. My 
conviction is that it is modern European in conception and ex- 
ecution. There is entirely too much sentiment in it to be of 
any other origin. U. G. Brinton. 

Editor American Antiquarian: 

I have to acknowlede your favor of the 24th, with two pho- 
tographs. I have no hesitancy in pronouncing the figures 
represented ordinary frauds of a kind now made in Mexico for 
the benefit of tourists. W. H. Holmes. 



ANOTHER HUGE DEPOSIT OF STONE RELICS. 

Editop American Antiquarian: 

A remarkable store of prehistoric stone implements was dis- 
covered last fall in Cooperstown, McDonough County, Illinois. 
Several colossal mounds in that township, near the Illinois 
River, had been long been noticed. Three of them were near 



250 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

together, and each was more than two hundred feet long, with 
a breadth of more than half as many, and a height of well 
nigh thirty teet. The last dimension was the most surprising, 
and yet it led to no excavation till the last halt of 1894. 

The main discoveries were not made till the explorers, often 
ready to quit work in despair, had dug down nearly or quite to 
the surface of the prairie around. The tools were very largely of 
a single type — shaped like a leaf or a flattened egg — each about 
five inches by three. The material was a black, flinty stone, 
chipped to an edge, each side, or all around. The number 
taken out of one mound was counted, and found to be ;,200. 
But the yield from the other piles was too multitudinous for 
counting. The total harvest amounted to all that could be 
loaded on two wagons, and there was a surplus of two barrels 
more. In no ancient earth-works known to me has the deposit 
been so vast. 

Among other relics which were brought to light was a mul- 
titude of bear's teeth, every one bored through with a hole, so 
as to be strung on a cord for forming an ornamental and rattling 
girdle or necklace. Nothing, however, in the curiosities that 
came to light was viewed with so much surprise as two axes of 
copper — a find almost if not altogether unique in Illinois. The 
larger of these unique specimens measures as follows: width 
of cutting edge, 4}^ inches; of the tip. 2^ inches; thickness, 
about 54 inch; weight, 2 lb, 13?^ oz. This implement was not 
buried more than two feet beneath the surface of the ground. 
The other ax lay near the lowest point of the diggings. Its 
weight was half an ounce over one pound, with a cutting edge 
of three inches and a tip of two inches, wanting a quarter This 
ax appeared to be wrapped in a cloth, which through oxidation 
had become copperized, like a similar tool in the Davenport 
museum. A pipe of a nondescript pattern is the last article I 
will mention in a windfall which ought to draw attention, both 
to the mines which have so overpaid the pains of searching, 
and to others which remain still unexplored. 

Prof. James D. Butler. 



THE MOUND-BUILDER AND THE BUFFALO. 

Editor American Antiquarian : 

I have been very much interested in a statement made by 
no less an authority than Professor N. S. Shaler, professor of 
geology in Harvard University, that "the Mound-builders 
apparently did not know the buffalo. We determine this point 
by the fact that we do not find the bison bones about the old 
kitchen fires and we fail to find any pictures of the beast in the 
abundant delineations ot the animals made by these ancient 
people." Then he begins to construct a very interesting theory 



RANGE OF THE BUFFALO. 251 

to account for this ignorance of each other between the Mound- 
builder and the buffalo. Now, to begin with, is this true? Are 
bones of the buffalo ever found associated with the mounds? 
Are there any effigies or pipes or other objects of these people 
which resemble the buffalo? In the second place, if Professor 
Shaler is right, did the buffalo cross the continent after the 
Mound-builders ceased work? or was the appearance of the 
buffalo east of the Mississippi the cause or the occasion of 
their change of life? Perhaps you will enlighten me on this 
point. O. T. Mason. 

Washington, May 10, 1891. 



Editorial. 



RANGE OF THE BUFFALO. 

The evidence as to the range of the buffalo is about as fol- 
lows: There was a map, published in i^39t which represents 
the moose and the buffalo as prevalent in New England. Cham- 

f Iain's map of 1613 represents buffalo hunting-grounds in 
ndiana and on the Ohio line. Winsor speaks of well-defined 
traces of buffalo paths from gap to gap of the Alleghany 
Mountains. He also speaks of the range extending from the 
mouth of the Mississippi to the Athapascan. Parkman also 
speaks of the buffalo as in Ontario and as far east as Quebec. 
In a work published in Amsterdam in 1637, called **New 
English Canaan,*' by Thomas Morton, one of the first settlers 
of New England, he says: **The Indians have also made de- 
scription of great heards of well growne beasts about the parts 
of this lake (Erocoise), now Lake Champlain, such as the 
Christian world hath not bin made acquamted with. Their 
backs are of the bigness of a cawe^ their flesh being very good 
foode, their hide good leather, their fleeces very useful, being a 
kind of wooU, as fine almost as the woole of the beaver, and 
the towages do make garments thereof."* 

•Sec Marcy*! Ex. of Red River. 



252 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



NOTES. 

Sun Worship. — The Indians of Arkansas had a custom of cutting a gssh 
in the feet of their dead and placing in the wound the leaves of a plant called 
"Hound's Tongue." This plant has the peculiarity of following the course 
of the sun through the day. The custom signified that the feet of the ghost 
might be able to follow the sun, the great divinity, during its journey after 
death. 

Animal Worship. — The Sacs and Foxes had a peculiar custom. The 
males of the nation are separated into two great phratries, called ^Kiscoquah 
and Oskosh. To each of these there was a head called the war chief. 
When they go to war one band is painted white with clay, the other band is 
painted black. Each nation is divided into no less than fourteen clans, 
distinguished by the names of animals — Bear, Wolf, Dog, Elk, Eagle, 
Partridge. 

o— — 

BOOK REVIEWS. 

The Mississippi Basin, The struggle in America between England and 
France, 1697-1763, with full cartographical illustrations from contempo- 
rary sources. By Justin Winsor. Boston and New York: Houghton, 
Mifflin & Co., The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 1895. 

The progress of history, as portrayed by the map, is the real subject of 
this book. The volume which preceded it, entitled From Cartier to Fron- 
tenac, treated of the progress of discovery. The two books should be read 
together. Mr. Winsor, the author, has succeeded in doing the very work 
which some have been anxious to accomplish for a number of years, but 
could not do so because of the expense of reproducing the maps and pub- 
lishing them with the history. The writer has waited for fifteen years and 
more hoping that some one would do this. He repeatedly urged the His- 
torical Society of Northern Ohio, or at least Judge C. C. Baldwin, its presi- 
dent, to reproduce the maps which were in their hands. It is better, how- 
ever, that the librarian of Harvard College should undertake the task, for 
hts facilities are much greater than any western man could have. The 
publishers, Houghton & Mifflin, are well known and have every convenience 
at their hands and have done most excellent service in printing and illus- 
trating Mr. Winsor's books. The only fault we find is that by a strange in- 
congruity the author or the publishers have contrived to cut so many blocks 
into two pieces and to divide so many of the maps between two pages. 
This is altogether unnecessary and subjects the reader to a great deal of 
inconvenience. Folded maps certainly would have been more satisfactory, 
for they would then give the names as they were printed and might have 
embraced a larger portion of the original maps. The reproduction of the 
maps in this form may illustrate the points made by the author, but it fails 
to represent the ideas of the geographers. 

There was a geographical instinct, as Winsor says, as well as an historical 
sense. This {becomes apparent as one studies the originals, bu 




BOOK REVIEWS. 253 

to view in the reproduction. The maps were all published with a desi^^. 
Those of the French differed from those of the English as much as their 
national ideas and plans differed. But those of the Spanish fell behind as 
rapidly as the nation itself did. Still both these books are charming to the 
student of history, and the more so because of the readiness on the part of 
the publishers to spare no expense in illustrating them. The article con- 
tained in this number on the study of the maps will illustrate their value 
and yet the charm cannot be expressed by words. We would say that a 
vast storehouse of information is contained in Mr. Winsor's books, and 
readers of history can hardly do without them, for they illustrate the sub- 
ject as no ordinary books have or can. 

Prince Roland Bonaparte, Democratic Suisse, Article pam dans "E'vcnc- 
anent," Du 5 juin, 1890. Imprim^ Paris ponn I'Anteum. 

Prince Roland Bonaparte, Assembles Democratioues en SuissK Article 
paru dans le "Figaro" le 28 Mai, 1890. Paris. Imprim^ ponn TAnteum. 
i8go. 

Prince Roland Bona f arte, les Variations Periodigues, Des Glaciers Fran- 
cais. Extrait de rannuaire de Club Alpin Francis; 17c Volume—iSgo. 
Paris. Typpgraphie Chamerot et Renouard. 19 Rue Des saints-peres 
19, 1891. 

Prince Roland Bonaparte is a great traveler and is especially interested 
in glaciers. His pamphlet, which was published in 1891, treats of Periodical 
Variations of the Glaciers of France. The book on the excursion in corse 
is finely illustrated: some of the gorges which are described remind us of 
the caftons of America, but on a small scale. The pnnce is well known 
among scieatific men in many parts of the world and furnishes many inter- 
esting and elegant books oa scientific subjects. 

Observations on the Inhabitants, Climate, Soil, Rivers, Productions, Ani- 
mals and ot/ter Matters Worthy of Notice, Made by Mr. John Bartram 
in his travels from Pennsylvania to Onondago, Oswego, and the Lake 
Ontario, in Canada, to whicn is annexed a curious account of the cataracts 
of Niagara, by Mr. Peter Kalm, a Swedish gentleman, who traveled there. 
London. Printed for j. Whiston and B. White, in Fleet street, 1751. A 
reprint by G. M. Humphrey, of Rochester, N. Y. 

This book carries us back to the times of Washington and his journey in 
the wilderness of Ohio and Pennsylvania when Indians were as common in 
New York as they are now in Alaska. It contains the map of Virginia, 
Pennsylvania, and New York, with the location of several of the tribes of 
Iroquois as follows: Onondages and Onoydaes, the Tuscaroraes, Mohocks, z. 
reprint of Lewis Evans* map, 1694. The country is called Aquanushionig. 
Mr. Hamphrey has done good service in reprinting this book. 

Some Vestigial Structures in Man. By W. E. Rotzell, M. D. Narbote, Pa, 
The vermi form bone is the chief vestigial structure dwelt upon. 

The Story 0/ Primitive Man. By Edward Clodd. New York: D. Apple- 
ton & Co. 1895. 

The author of this book carries the age of man back to the Miocene con- 
temporaneous with the extinct animals, and seems to be a Darwinian of an 
extreme type. He reviews the remains found in the drift and in caverns, 
describes the Man of Spy and the Mentone cave, but seems to bring the 



254 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

range of the paleolithic cave-dwellers beyond the neolithic mound-builders 
and Indians of America. The newer stone age is distinguished from the 
older mainly by having structures which are enduring. The relics are 
apparently as rude as those in the old age. 

A Chapter in the History of Cleveland, By C. M. Burton. Detroit: i8q3. 

This if a description ot the finding of a mass of papers, including an 
Indian deed at a certain house in Canada, opposite Detroit. The papers 
go back to the time of the deeds when Detroit was the capital of Wayne 
County, ane Wayne County included all of the Northwest Territory. The 
deeds of Machinac, Kaskaskia, Vincennes. Sandusky and Cleveland were 
kept here. The claims of the Moravian and Chippewa Indians were bought 
by Mr. George Asken, amounting to five or six millions. It is an interesting 
little episode in the early history which joins on to the aboriginal history. 

The ProtO' Historic Ethnography of Western Asia. By Daniel Brinton 
M. D., read before the American Phil. Society April 19, 1894. 

This pamphlet is designed to show that no Paleolithic race has been 
found among the inhabitants of the Tigris. Also that the different races 
gathered there were of one stock, probably whites which differed from the 
Turanians. It controverts the opinion that the original civilization of India 
and China started from this center. 



PAMPHLETS ON THE CODICES AND SACRED DRAMAS. 

A Study of Certain Figures in a Maya Codex. J. Walter Fewkes. 

The Walpi Flute Observance. A study of primitive dramatization. 

A Central American Ceremony, which Suggests the Snake Dance of the 
Tusayan Villagers. 

The Kinship of the Tusayan Indians. 

Are the Maya Hieroglyphs Phonetic? By Cyrus Thomas. 

Note of the Ancient Mexican Calendar System. By Zelia Nuttall. 

A Comparative Study of the Graven Glyphs of Copan and Quirigua. 
By Marshall H. Saville. 

The Maya Year. By Cyrus Thomas. 

The Maya Primer. By Dr. D. G. Brinton. 



THE 



^rttjcricatx ^ntxqn^xxmx. 



Vol. XVII. Seftemher. 1895. No. 5. 



THE SACRED POLE OF THE OMAHA TRIBE. 

By Alice C. Fletcher. 

In the Pcabody Museum of Harvard University have been 
placed, for safe-keeping, the contents of two of the sacred 
tents of the Omaha tribe of Indians. The sacred pole and its 
pack were deposited in 1888. while the articles pertaining to 
the sacred tent of war were transmitted four years earlier, in 
1884. These relics are unique and of rare ethnological value, 
and the relinquishing of them by their keepers is. 1 think, 
without historic parallel. It came about in this wise: When 
the changes incident to the impinging of civilization upon the 
Omahas made it evident to their leading men that ancient 
tribal observances were no longer possible, the (j^uestion arose 
as to what should be done with the sacred objects that for 
generations had been essential in their ceremonies, and expres- 
sive of the authority of those charged with the administration 
of tribal affairs. To destroy these sacred articles was not to 
be thought of. and it was suggested that they should be buried 
with the chiefs of theffens charged with their keeping; which 
manner of disposal was finally determined upon. 

At that time, I was engaged in a serituis study of the tribe, 
and to me it seemed a grave misfortune that these venerable 
objects should be suffered to decay, and the full story of the 
tribe be forever lost; for that story was as as yet but imper- 
fectly known, and until these sacred articles, so carefully hidden, 
coulil he examined, it was impossible to gain an inside point 
of view, whence one could study as from the center, ceremonies 
connected with these articles and their relation to the autonomy 
of the tribe. The importance of securing these objects became 
more and more apparent, and influences were brought to bear 
upon the chiefs who were their keepers to prevent the carr>'ing 
out of the plan for burial. 

After years of labor, wherein large credit must be given to 



THE SACRED POLE OF THE OMAHA TRIBE. 259 

The sacred pole is of cottonwood and bears marks of great 
age. It has been subjected to manipulation; the bark has been 
removed and the pole shaped and shaved at both ends, the top 
or *'head" rounded into a cone shaped knob and the lower end 
trimmed to a dull point. Its circumference near the head is 
15 cm. 2 mm.; the middle part increases to 19 cm. and is 
diminished toward the foot to 14 cm. 6 mm. To the lower 
end is fastened by strips of tanned hide, a piece of harder wood, 
probably ash, 55 cm. 2% mm .in length, rounded at top with a 
groove cut to prevent the straps slipping, and with the lower 
end sharpened so as to be easily driven into the ground. There 
is a crack in the sacred pole extending several cm. above this 
foot piece, which has probably given rise to a modern idea that 
this toot piece was added to strengthen or mend the pole when 
it had become worn with long usage. But the pole itself shows 
no indication of ever having been in the ground; there is no 
decay apparent, as is shown on the foot piece whose flattened 
top proves that it was driven into the ground. Moreover, the 
name of this piece of wood is zhi-be, leg, and as the pole itself 
represents a man, and as this name zhi-be is not applied to a 
piece of wood spliced on to lengthen a pole, it is probable that 
a foot piece was originally attached to the pole. 

Upon this zhi-be, or leg, the pole rested; it was never placed 
upright, but inclined forward at an angle of about forty-five 
degrees, and was held firmly in place by a stick tied to it about 
I m. and 46 cm. from its "head.' The native name of this sup- 
port is i-mon-gdhe, a staff, such as old men lean upon. 

Upon the top or "head" of the pole was tied a large scalp, 
ni-ka mon-ghi-ha. About one end, 14 cm. 5 mm. from the 
"head" of the pole, is a piece of hide bound to the pole by 
bands of tanned skin. This wrapping covers a basket work of 
twigs and feathers lightly filled with down of the crane. The 
length of this bundle of hide is 44 cm. 5 mm., and its circum- 
ference about 50 cm. But this does not give an exact idea of 
the size of this basket work when it was opened for the cere- 
mony, as the covering has shrivelled with age, it being twenty 
years this summer since the last ceremony was performed and 
the wrapping put on as it remains to-day. 

This bundle is said to represent the body of a man. The 
name by which it is known, a-kon-da-bpa, is the word used to 
designate the leather shield worn upon the wrist of an Indian 
to protect it from the bow string. This name affords unmis- 
takable evidence that the pole was intended to symbolize a 
man, as no other creature could wear the bow-string shield. 
It also indicated that the man thus symbolized was one who 
was both a provider and protector of his people. 

The accompanying pack contained a number of articles which 
were used in the ceremonies of the sacred pole. The pack 
itself is an oblong piece of buffalo hide, which, when wrapped 
around its contents, makes a round bundle about 80 cm. long 
and 60 cm. in circumference. It was bound together by bands 



26o THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

of rawhide and was called wa-dhi-gha-be, meaning literally, 
things flayed, referring to the scalps stored within the pack. 
Nine were found in it when I opened the pack at the museum, 
and some of them show signs* of considerable wear. They are 
all very large and on one is the remains of a feather, all of 
which has been worn away but the quill. 

The pipe belonging to the pole and used in its rites was kept 
in this pack. The stem is round and 89 cm. in length. It is 
probably of ash, and shows marks of long usage. The bowl 
is of red catlinite 12 cm. 5 mm. at its greatest length, and 7 cm. 
2 mm. in height. The bowl proper rises 4 cm. 5 mm. from the 
base. Upon the sides and bottom of the stone certain figures 
are incised which are difficult to determine; they may be a 
conventionalized bird grasping the pipe. The lines of the 
figures are filled with a semi-lustrous black substance, com- 
posed of vegetable matter, which brings the design into full 
relief; this black substance is also painted upon the front and 
back of the bowl, leaving a band of red showing at the sides. 
The effect is of a black and red inlaid pipe. When this pipe 
was smoked, the stone end rested on the ground; it was not 
lifted, but dragged by the stem as it passed from man to man 
while they sat in the sacred tent or enclosure. To prevent the 
bowl falling off, which would be a disaster, a hole was drilled 
through a little flange at the end of the stone pipe where it is 
fitted to the wooden stem, and through this hole one end of a 
cord made of sinew was passed and fastened, and the other end 
of the cord securely tied about the pipestem 13 cm. above its 
entrance into the stone pipe bowl. 

The stick used to clean this pipe, ni-niu-dhu-ba-thk, was kept 
in a case or sheath of reed wound round with a fine rope of 
human hair, which was fastened with bits of fine sinew; a feather, 
said to be that of the crane, was bound to the lower end of this 
sheath. Oply a part of the quill remains. Sweet grass, 
pe-zthe-zthon-thta. and cedar, na-zthi, broken up and tied in 
bundles, were in the pack. Bits of the grass and cedar were 
spread upon the top of the tobacco when the pipe was filled, 
so that when it was lit these were first consumed, making an 
offering of savory smoke. 

Seven arrows, mon-pe-dhun-ba, were in the pack. The arrow 
shafts are much broken; they were originally 45 cm. 6 mm. in 
length, feathered from the crane, and had stone heads. Part 
of the quills of the feathers remain, but the arrow-heads are 
lost. A bundle of sinew cord, red paint, wa-the-zhi-de, used 
in painting the pole, and a curious brush, complete the con- 
tents of the pack. The brush is made of a piece of hide, one 
edge cut into a coarse fringe and the hide then rolled together 
and bound with bands, making a rude utensil with which the 
paint, mixed with buffalo fat, was put upon the pole. Those 
who may visit the Peabody Museum at Harvard University 
will notice upon the upper portion of the sacred pole some- 
thing that looks like pieces of thick bark; it is the dried paint 



THE SACRED POLE OF THE OMAHA TRIBE. a6i 

that remains from the numerous anointings of the pole, which 
ceremony was a thank offering for successful hunts and a prayer 
for future prosperity. The anointing or painting of the pole 
took place in July, toward the close of the annual buffalo hunt, 
after the tribe had reached that portion of their hunting grounds 
where they felt themselves reasonably secure from their ene- 
mies. The custom long ago. beyond the memory of the oldest 
men, so I was told by the chief of the Honga in 1888, was to 
perform this ceremony twice a year, after the summer and 
winter hunt, but, within his memory and that of his father, it 
had been held only in the summer. 

The rapid destruction of the herds of buffalo in the decade 
following 1870 caused the Indian not only sore physical dis- 
comfort, but also great mental distress. His religious cere- 
monies needed the buffalo for their observance, and its disap- 
Eearance, which in its suddenness seemed to him supernatural, 
as done much to demoralize the Indian, morally as well as 
socially. No one can have his sacred rites overturned in a day 
and preserve his mental equipoise. 

Atter several unsuccessful hunts of the tribe, poverty suc- 
ceeded to their former plenty, and, in distress of mind and 
body, seeing no other way of relief, the people were urged to 
the performance of their ceremony of anointing the pole, 
although misfortune in hunting had made this in its integrity 
impossible. A new plan was suggested by which the ceremony 
could be accomplished and, as they fondly hoped, the blessing 
of plenty be restored to the people. The tribe had certain 
moneys due from the United States in payment for ceded lands, 
and through their agent they astced that such a sum 
as was needful to purchase thirty head of cattle should be paid 
them. The agent, little understanding the trouble of mind of 
the Indians under his charge or the motive of their request, 
wrote to the Interior Department at Washington, that "the 
Omahas have a tradition that when they do not go on the 
buffalo hunt, they should at least once a year take the lives of 
some cattle and make a feast.'' This interpretation of the 
Indian's desire to spend his own money for the purchase of the 
means by which he hoped to perform rites that might bring 
back the buffalo and save him from an unknown and terrifying 
future, is a significant comment upon how little the Indian's 
real life has been comprehended by those appointed to lead 
him along new lines of living and thinking. The cattle were 
bought at a cost to the tri^ of about Si.ooo. The ceremony 
took place; but. alas! the conditions did not alter. A second 
time the tribe spent its money, but to no avail. New interests 
and influences grew stronger every month. The old customs 
could not be made to bend to the new ways forced upon the 
people. Opposition to further outlay arose from the govern- 
ment and among some of the Indians themselves; and one 
year, two years, three years passed and the pole stood silent in 
its tent, dreaded, as a thing that was powerful for harm, but 



262 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

seemingly powerless to bring back the old time prosperity to 
the people. 

When, in 1888, the pole was finally placed for safe keeping 
in the museum at Harvard University, it seemed very important 
to secure its legend, known to the chief of the Honga. The 
fear inspired by the pole was such that it seemed as though it 
would be impossible to gain this desired information, but it was 
finally brought about; and one summer day in September, the 
chief, Shu-de-non-zhe, came to the house of Joseph La Flesche, 
to tell the tradit;ion of his people, as given in the legend of the 
pole. 

It was a memorable day; the harvest was ended and tall 
stacks of wheat cast their shadows over the stubble fields that 
were once covered with buffalo grass. The past was irrevoca- 
bly gone. The old man had consented to speak, but not with- 
out misgivings, until his former head chief cheerfully accepted 
for himself any penalty that might follow the revealing of these 
sacred traditions, which was held to be a profanation punisha- 
ble by supernatural death. 

While the old chief talked he continually tapped the floor 
with a little stick he held in his hand, marking with it the 
rythm peculiar to the drumming of a man who is invoking the 
unseen powers during the performance of certain rites. His 
eyes were cast down, his speech was deliberate, and his voice 
low, as if speaking to himself alone. The scene in that little 
room where we four sat was solemn, as at the obsequies of a 

East once so full of human activity and hope. The fear inspired 
y the pole was strengthened in its very passing away. By a 
singular coincidence the touch of fatal disease fell upon Joseph 
La Flesche almost at the close of this interview, which lasted 
three days, and in a fortnight he lay dead in the very room 
where had been revealed the legend of the pole. 

According to the legend, the appointed time for the cere- 
mony of anointing the pole was in the moon, or month, when 
the buffalo bellow, the latter part of July. It was to follow the 
fourth tribal chase after the ceremony of the taking of the 
twenty buffalo tongues and one heart had been performed four 
times. Then the Wa-ghdhe-ghe-ton subdivision of the Honga 
gens, which had charge of the pole, called the seven principal 
chiefs, who formed the oligarchy, to the sacred tent to transact 
the preliminary business. They sat there with the tent closed 
tight, clad in their buffalo robes, worn ceremonially, the hair 
outside and the head falling on the left arm; they smoked the 
pipe belonging to the pole, and ate the food provided, in a 
crouching attitude and without knife or spoon, in imitation of 
the buffalo's feeding, and taking care not to drop any of the 
food. Should, however, a morsel fall upon the ground, it was 
carefully pushed toward the fire; such a morsel was believed to 
be desired by the pole, and, as the legend says, "no one must 
take anything claimed by the pole." 
When the council had agreed upon a day for the ceremony. 



THE SACRED POLE OF THE OMAHA TRIBE. 263 

runners were sent out to search for a herd of buffalo, and, if 
one was found within four days, it was accounted a sacred 
herd, and the chase that took place provided fresh meat for the 
coming ceremony. If, however, within four days, the runners 
failed to discover a herd, dried meat preserred from their 
previous hunt was used. 

In this preliminary council, each chief, as he took a reed 
from a bundle kept in the sacred tent, merttioned the name of 
a man of valorous exploits. When the number of brave men 
agreed upon had been mentioned, the Ilonga gave the reeds to 
the tribal herald to distribute to the designated men, who, on 
receiving them, proceeded to the sacred tent, and by giving 
back to the Honga their reeds, accepted the distinction con- 
ferred upon them. It was now their duty to visit the lodges 
of the tribe and select from each tent a pole to be used in the 
construction of a lodge for the ceremonies. This they did by 
entering the tent and striking the chosen pole, while they 
recounted the valiant deeds of their past life. These men were 
followed by designated men from the Honga gens, with their 
wives, who withdrew the selected poles and carried them to 
the vicinity of the sacred tent, where they were set up and 
covered so as to form a semi-circular lodge, open toward the 
center of the tribal circle. It was erected upon the site of the 
sacred tent, which was incorporated in it; and. as the poles 
taken from all the tents in the tribe were used in its construc- 
tion, this communal lodge represented the homes of the people. 

Up to this time the tribe may have been moving and camping 
every day, but now a halt is called until the close of the cere- 
mony. To the communal tent the seven chiefs and headmen 
are summoned by the Honga and take their seats, all wearing 
the buffalo robe in the ceremonial manner. The herald, on 
this occasion, wears a band of matted buffalo wool about his 
head, with a downy eagle feather standing in it. 

The sacred pole is brought forward to the edge of the com- 
munial lodge, so as to lean out toward the center of the 
hu-dhu-ga. In front of it a circle is cut in the ground, the 
enclosed sod removed, and the earth made loose and fine. 

From this time to the close of the rites, all the horses must 
be kept outside the hu-dhu-ga. and the people must not loiter 
in or pass across the enclosure. To enforce this regulation, two 
men were stationed as guards at the entrance of the tribal circle. 

The pipe belonging to the sacred pole is smoked by the 
occupants of the communal tent, and the bundle of reeds 
brought out. Each chief, as he draws the reed, mentions the 
name of a man, who must be one who lives in his own lodge 
as the head of a family, and not a dependent upon relatives. 
(What we would term a householder.) As the chief speaks 
the name, the herald advances to the pole and shouts it aloud, 
so as to be heard by the whole tribe. Should the name given 
be that of a chief, the herald will substitute that of one of his 
young sons. The man so called is expected to send by the hand 



364 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAK. 

of his children the finest and fattest piece of the bu£EaIo meat, 
ot a peculiar cut, known as ta-ehu. If the meat is too heavy 
for the children, the parents help carry it to the ccMnmiuttl 
tent. The little ones are full of dread, and particmlarly fear 
the fat, which is to be used upon the pole. So, as they tindge 
along, every now and then they stop to wipe their wee fingers 
on the grass so as to escape any olame or possible guilt of 
sacrilege. 

Should any one refuse to make this offerings to the pole he 
would be struck by lightning, be wounded in battle, or lose a 
limb by a splinter running into his foot. 

The gathering of the meat occupies three days, during which 
the Honga are singing at intervals, by day and night, the sacred 
songs, which echo through the camp and enter into the dreams 
ot the children. The songs belongmg to the ritual of the com 
are first sung, followed by those relating to the hunt, all in 
their proper sequence. If a mistake in the order is made, the 
Honga lift up their hands and weep aloud, until the herald, 
advancing from the sacred pole, wipes away the tears with his 
hands, and the wail ceases, and the songs go on. 

On the morning of the fourth day the meat is spread upon 
the ground before the pole in parallel rows» the full length of 
the communal lodge. The keeper of the pole and his wife 
then advance to perform their part in the ceremony. He is 
clothed in the usual shirt and leggings, and his cheeks are 
ainted in red bands. The woman wears over her gala dress a 
uffalo robe, with the skin outside, which is painted red, so are 
her checks, and bands of the same color are on her glossy, 
black hair, and to the heel of each of her moccasins is attached 
a strip of buffalo hair, like a tail. 

Songs precede and describe every act of the keeper. When 
he is about to cut the fat from the meat offered to the pole, 
the Honga sings the Song of the Knife, and, at the fourth repeat, 
the keeper grasps the knife. So, on the fourth repeat of 
another song, he cuts off the fat and lays it in a large wooden 
bowl, which is carried by his wife. In this vessel the soft fat, 
and a peculiar clay made red by baking, are kneaded into a 
paint, with which the keeper smears the pole. 

In the circle excavated in front of the pole a buffalo chip is 
kindled and sweet-grass and cedar leaves laid upon it, through 
the smoke of which the seven arrows are now passed for puri* 
fication and consecration. The leather covering is removed 
from the body of the pole, and the woman comes forward and 
thrusts the seven arrows, one by one, through the basket-work 
thus exposed. Each arrow has its special song. If an arrow 
passes clear through and falls so as to stand in the ground, all 
the people shout for joy, as this indicates special victory in war 
and success in hunting. 

Now the buffalo meat is gathered up and laid away and four 
images are made of grass and hair and set up before the pole. 
These are to represent enemies of the tribe. Then the herald 



t 



* 



THE SACRED POLE OF THE OMAHA TRIBE. 265 

goes forth shouting, "Pity me, my young men, and let me once 
more complete my ceremonies." Meaning by this that the 
men of the tribe should lay aside all other affairs and consid- 
erations and devote themselves to the part they are to play in 
the final act of the ceremony. 

While the warriors are putting on their ornaments and their 
eagle feather war-bonnets and getting their weapons in order 
for a simulated battle before the pole, where they should act 
out in detail their past brave deeds of war. the people crowd 
together at either end of the communal tent as to a vantage 
point whence to view the dramatic spectacle. 

Some of the warriors appear on horse-back outside the camp 
and charge upon it, crying out, "They have come! They have 
come!" (This was once done in so realistic a manner as to 
deceive the people into the belief of an actual onslaught of an 
enemy, to the temporary confusion of the whole tribe.) The 
warriors fire upon the images before the pole, and the chiefs 
within the communal tent shout back in defiance of them; this 
charge is made four times and then the images are captured 
and treated as conquered. With this stirring drama, which is 
called shooting the wa-ghdhe-she, or pole, the ceremonies come 
to an end, which ceremonies, according to the legend, were 
instituted "to hold the people together." 

On the following day the he-di-wa-chi, under the leadership 
of the In-ke-tha-be gens, takes place. This is participated in 
by all the tribe, men, women and children. The he-di-wa-chi 
is a dance about a pole, which has been cut and painted for the 
occasion with peculiar ceremonies. After this dance the camp 
breaks up, each family following its own pleasure, and all rules 
and regular times as to hunting are at an end for the season. 

The legend states that the finding of the pole occured while 
the council was in progress among the Cheyennes, Arickerees, 
Pawnees, and the Omahas, which latter tribe then included 
what are now the Ponka and Iowa tribes. The object of the 
council was to agree upon terms of peace and decide upon rules 
of war and hunting. 

The legend runs as follows: "During this time a young man 
who had been wandering came back and said: 'Father, I have 
seen a wonderful tree.' " and he described it. The old man 
kept silent, for all was not yet settled between the tribes. The 
young man went again to visit the tree, and on his return 
repeated to his father his former tale of what he had seen. The 
old man kept silent, for the chiefs were still conferring. At 
last when everything was agreed upon between the tribes the 
old man sent for the chiefs and said: "My son has seen a 
wonderful tree. The thunder birds come and go upon this 
tree, making a trail of fire that leaves four paths of burnt grass 
toward the four winds. As the thunder birds light upon the 
tree it bursts into flame and the fire mounts to the top; still 
the tree stands burning, but no one can see the fire except at 
night. 



266 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

When the chiefs heard this tale they sent runners to see 
what it might be, ai>d the runners came back and told the same 
story, — how the tree stood burning in the night. Then all the 
people had a council and they agreed to run a race for the tree 
and attack it as if it were an enemy. The chiefs said: "We 
shall run for it; put on your ornaments and prepare as for 
battle." 

So the young men stripped and painted themselves and put 
on their ornaments and set out for the tree, which stood 
near a lake. The men ran and a Ponka reached it first and 
struck it, as he would an enemy. Then they cut the tree down 
and four men, walking in line, carried it on their shoulders to 
the village. And the people sang four nights, the songs which 
had been composed for the tree while they held their council. 
The tree was taken inside the circle of lodges and a tent was 
made for it. The chiefs worked upon the tree and shaped it 
and called it a human being. They made a basket-work of 
twigs and feathers and tied it on the middle of the pole for a 
body. Then they said: "It has no hair!" So they went out 
to get a large scalp, and they put it on the top of the pole for 
hair. They sent out a herald to tell the people that when all 
was completed they should see the pole. 

Then they painted the pole and set it up before the tent^ 
leaning on a staff, and called all the people; and all the people 
came — men, women and children. When all the people had 
gathered, the chief stood up and said: 

"You now see before you a mystery. When we are in trouble 
we shall bring our trouble to him. To him you shall make 
your offerings and requests; all your prayers must be accom- 
panied by gifts. This (pole) belongs to all the people, but it 
shall be in the keeping of one family, and the leadership be 
with them, and, if any one desires to lead, {i, e. become a chief 
and take responsibility in the governing of the people) he 
shall make presents to the keepers, and they shall give him 
authority." 

When all was finished, the people said: "Let us appoint a 
time when we shall again paint him, and act before him the 
battles which we have fought." So the time was fixed in the 
moon when the buffalos bellow. 

Then followed the details of the ceremony already outlined^ 
ending with the words: "This was the beginning of the cere- 
mony, and it was agreed that it should be kept up." 

The legend goes on: "The people began to pray to the pole 
for courage and for trophies in war, and their prayers were 
answered. The pole is connected with thunder and war, the 
authoritv of the chiefs and of the hunt." 

At the time when the pole was discovered, both the tradition 
of the Omahas and the ronkas concur in stating that the peo- 
ple were living in a village near a lake, and that the tree, 
which was evidently some distance from the camp, grew near 
a lake. The exact position of this village is not yet identified. 



THE SACRED POLE OF THE OMAHA TRIBE. 267 

but it was in all probability at no great distance from the red 
pipe stone quarry on the southwestern part of South Dakota. 

Time forbids an enumeration of my historical research in 
this connection, but the oldest records and authentic maps 
indicate that the pole could not have been cut at any time 
since 1673. 

The establishment of the order of chieftainship and the gov- 
ernment of the tribe as it has been known during the present 
century, antedated the institution of the pole. Several politf cal 
changes had already taken place before that event. 

I can not, at this time, recount and analyze the legend of 
the seven old men, who are said to have instituted the govern- 
ment by seven chiefs, and to have established the ni-ni-ba-ton 
or pipe subgens in certain of the ten gentes of the tribe. This 
legend deals with a political change and a religious innovation 
that long antedated the advent of the sacred pole. When the 
seven old men introduced the sacred tribunal pipes there were 
already in the tribe three distinct groups of insignia of a^ many 
forms of worship, namely: The Four Sacred Stones, in the 
custody of the Ma-then-ga-ge-he gens, having their peculiar 
j-itual; the Honor Pack, the Sacred Shell and the Pole of Red 
Cedar, of the Thunder Rites, in charge of the We-gin-shte gens; 
and the song and ritual of the Hede-wache, committed to the 
Inkethabe gens. 

The entrance of the Omahas into the group of tribes that 
agreed to respect and to observe the ceremony of the Wa-wan, 
Pipes or Calumets of Fellowship, not only tempered thefr sun- 
worship through the teachings of the ritual of this ceremony, 
but opened a new path to tribal honor by which a man of 
valor and industry could reach equality with the hereditary 
chiefs in the government of the tribe. The sacred ritual pipes 
had the same function within the tribe as the Wa-wan or Calu- 
mets of Fellowship had between distant tribes, and they also 
were ornamented with the peculiar woodpecker heads, the 
upper mandril turned back and painted in the same manner as 
upon the Fellowship Calumets. Upon one of these tribal pipes 
seven of these heads were placed in a row, referring to the 
seven chiefs; on the other pipe there was but one head, symbol- 
izing the unit of authority which must be reached by unanimity 
of the seven chiefs in all decisions. 

Poles had long been used in the tribe as symbols of religious 
beliefs and of authority. 

The he-di-wa-chi and its pole bear evidence of great age, and 
it seems not improbable that it sprang from the same root as 
the sun-dance of the Dakotas that has developed so differently. 

The pole of the thunder rites, belonging to the sacred tent 
of war, in the care of the We-jin-shte gens, was of red color, 
I m. 25 cm. in length, to which was corded a zhe-be or leg 61 
cm. long. A rounded stick, like a club, 43 cm. long, also of 
red color, was bound about the middle of the pole. The thun- 
der gods used clubs as weapons; one of the ritual songs of the 



268 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

tent of war says: "Your grandfather, fearful to behold is he! 
When your grandfather lifts his long club, he is fearful to 
behold!" In olden time, when the rites were performed in the 
spring, when the first thunder peal was heard, a part of the 
ceremony was the painting of this pole. 

It is probable that this pole was the prototype of the sacred 
pole; the two have features in common. The zhi-be, or leg; 
the body on the one being the thunder club, and on the other 
bearing the name of the bow-shield, used by wjarriors to pro- 
tect the wrist from the bow-string; both poles were painted 
with due ceremony at appointed times; both referred more or 
less directly to thunder, and any profanation of either was 
avenged by that power, the guilty being struck by lightning. 
It will be recalled that attention was first drawn to the tree, 
from which the sacred pole was shaped, by the thunder birds 
coming to it from the four quarters and the mysterious burning 
that followed; so that the pole became, in the minds of the 
people, endowed with supernatural power by the ancient thun- 
der gods. 

The government by the seven chiefs was at first confined to 
hereditary rulers, drawn froni certain sub-divisions of certain, 
gentes. By a slow process in the course of time men of ability 
rose into power and honors were won and worn by those whom 
the people recognized as leaders, until, at last, the oligarchy of 
seven became representative of individual attainment, and of 
gentes and sub-gentes hitherto debarred from participation in 
the governmental affairs of the tribe. 

The name given to the sacred pole was wa-ghdhe-ghe, bears 
testimony to this political change in the chieftainship. Wa- 
ghdhe-ghe is made up of the prefix wa-, indicating the power 
to do, and ghdhe-ghe, the name of the ceremony of placing the 
mark of honor upon a daughter of a chief. (This consisted in 
tatooing a small round spot, about half an inch in diameter, 
upon the forehead and upon the chest and back just below the 
neck; a circle of four equidistant pomts projecting from it. 
These symbols refer to the sun and the four quarters.) The 
right to put the mark of honor upon a daughter was not hered- 
itary, but could be gained through the performance ot one 
hundred certain deeds, called wa-dhe-en-dhe. The name of 
the pole, wa-ghdhe-ghe, signifies the power to do, or perform, 
this ceremony; ghdhe-ghe, the mask of honor. 

The sacred pole of the Omahas was, as we have seen, scarcely 
an innovation as a symbol, although it stood for the authority 
of new ideas that had been slowly developing within the tribe. 
In it and its ceremonies nothing that had been gained in the 
past was lost, the supernatural control of man was recognized, 
together with his ability to achieve for himself honor and rank. 
It stands as a witness that society, even in its primitive, tribal 
conditions, is not an inert mass of people, but an organization 
operated upon by laws kindred to those which we have learned 
to recognize as instrumental in the unfolding of the mind of men. 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 169 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 

By William C. Winslow, LL. D. 

Two Exhibitions. — In summer while the spades rest, their 
fruit appears — just now in two interesting exhibitions in Lon- 
don. Let us first enter Burlington House and inspect the 
objects sent to England from the site of the temple of Queen 
Hatasu, at Deir-el-nahari, by Dr. Naville. 

General interest is awakened by the large case on the left of 
the room, in which are set out a unique series of tools, models, 
vases, and the like, which were marked with Queen Hatshcpsu's 
name ("Good god Ramaka, beloved of Amen in Serui"), and 
deposited below the foundation of her temple. The mats, 
which cover them, lie on the center table hard by. The metal 
blades of the tools are of bronze, the handles and wooden 
objects of sycamore, the latter especially seeming miraculously 
new, considering that they have been buried about 3,500 years. 
This large deposit, the earliest known, was found last February 
on the extreme south of the temple in a pit with a small recess 
scooped out on one side. There arc fourteen jars of unglazed 
red ware; ten pots of alabaster, with original covers; fifty 
wooden models, probably of threshing-sledges; fifty wooden 
hoes without the usual cross binding, the leathers for which 
were found in bundles close by; eight large adzes, with bronze 
blades and red leather binding, wonderfully preserved; eight 
small adze-handles without blades; eleven stands of basket- 
work for jars; four bronze blades; a sacrificial knife and an ax. 
Five fine blue scarabaei of the queen were found near. This 
collection, singular in date, size and character, is perhaps the 
most remarkable that has ever found its way to London. 

The large painted coffins, which show conspicuously at the 
sides of the room, are notable chiefly for their preservation and 
the completeness of all the accessories of burial— the bead- 
nets, with genii in blue bead- work on the breasts of the dead; 
the wooden hawks and jackals, symbols of Horus and Anubis, 
on guard over the coffins; and the wooden boxes filled with 
blue ushabti figurines at the feet. The mummies in them are 
those of a priest of Khonsu, his mother and her sister: and all 
were found together in a pit excavated at a later period than 
the queen's in a corner of her tem[)le. and preserved inviolate 
to this day by the collapse of the loof above. 

In the show-cases are displayed a great variety of smaller 
objects. In that in the farthest window on the left are scarabs, 
amulets, etc.. of the famous Deir-el-Bahari blue glaze. The 
inscribed scarabs of theXVIIIth Dynasty, shown here, amount 
to over 400. The rarest objects in this case are probably an 
exquisite green frog with red eyes, and the complete blue vase 



270 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

of Princess Nesikhonsu at the back of the case. In the center 
of the room, beside Ptolemaic "Canopic" jars and remains of 
broken up burials of the Saite period, are displayed more speci- 
mens of the local blue ware, beads of all kinds, uninscribed 
scarabs, chessmen, necklaces, and fragments of large vases 
showing great variety of geometric and floral design. On the 
left side, as one proceeds towards the back of the room, the 
late Coptic breast-cloths should be noted, one with name-label 
attached. These are especially interesting as affording clear 
evidence of a survival of the practice of mummification, with 
all the ideas it implied, far into Christian times. The bronze 
objects are not very remarkable; but a few specimens of Coptic 
ostrakuy selected from over looo, are of great interest to stu- 
dents of early ritual and church history. One, it may be noted, 
contains matter bearing with singular appositeness on the con- 
troversy as to the remarriage of divorced persons. Much is 
expected from this enormous find of documents dating from a 
very early and interesting period of the Coptic Church. A 
fine coffin-mask in sycamore wood and rare specimens of 
wooden dove-tails for bonding blocks together on the left side, 
and an artist's trial piece on the right side, ought to be looked 
at; and on a small table near the door lies a child's coffin with 
a pair of baby shoes buried with it. The shoes are cut in two 
to render them useless to a spoiler, while they would remain as 
good as ever for the child's use in a spirit world; the parents 
believed that the child would carry and wear its shoes alter- 
nately on its ghostly journey, as they carried and wore theirs 
(and \\it fellakin does still) on earth. Near the coffin lies 
another small one, containing a rudely cut witch-doll. 

The wall opposite to the door is covered with a large collec- 
tion of drawings for publication; and it should be observed 
that these represent the main reason for the excavation of Deir- 
el-Bahari. The fine reliefs, with which the temple walls are 
covered, have been revealed, many of them for the first time 
now, and will be reproduced in annual instalments. The sculp- 
tures, constituting by far the largest class of the finds, can only 
be represented very imperfectly in such an exhibition as this at 
Burlington House. In former days they would have been 
ripped off ruthlessly and brought away; now they are left in 
position, secured and guarded; and visitors to the exhibition 
will bear in mind that on that account they do not see the tenth 
part of what the Deir-el-Bahari excavation has brought to light. 

Non-Egyptian Objects. — The other exhibition is in the 
Amelia B. Edwards Library and Museum of University Col- 
lege, and consists of antiquities from the western side of the 
Nile, opposite Coptos, where Dr. Petrie discovered remains of 
a race thought to be entirely un-Egyptian, and to have existed 
between the Vlth and Xllth Dynasties. 

This people excelled in the art and craft of pottery; and by 
their pottery we may henceforth follow their traces in Egypt, 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 271 

even where all evidence of their distinctive funeral ceremonial 
has now disappeared. The finish is in many cases exquisite; 
the forms arc beautiful, but entirely un-Egyptian, and the 
makers of the pottery do not seem to have learned from the 
Egyptians the secret of the potter's wheel. All their pottery 
is hand-made. The key to the comparative chronology of 
this pottety and the funeral objects with which it is associated 
was found in the unpolished, wavy-handled jars, of which 
specimens arc arranged in order of development — or degenera- 
tion — on Stand 9. The earlier forms of these jars closely re- 
semble the Amorite pots with wave handles found at Lachish, 
in Palestine, and in these instances the handles are distinctly 
structural. In the later examples the form has changed to a 
cylindrical shape, and the wavy handles in relief to a slight 
and continuous incised pattern carried round the vessel. The 
pottery with polished red haematite facing, examples of which 
occupy Stands 2, 3, and 5, and which recalls in texture the 
modern ware of Asyut, is also distinctly characteristic of this 

Ceople who made it, more especially that which is partially 
lackened in the firing. To quote the catalogue as to its man- 
ufacture: 

"The black portion is due to the de-oxidizing action of the wood-ashes 
in the kiln, reducing the red peroxide to the black magnetic oxide of iron. 
The brilliant lustre of the black is probably due to the solvent action of 
carbonyl, due to imperfect combustion, which enables the magnetic oxide 
to re-arrange in a continuous surface. The coloring materisQ is exactly 
the same as in Greek black and red paintings on pottery." 

Some of the larger pieces of this pottery (Stand 5) were 
incised after firing with cursive linear drawings of natural 
forms, such as a tree, a bird, a scorpion, a gazelle, and even a 
rude human figure, or with conventional signs; but no traces 
of writing have been found in connection with the remains of 
the men who thus marked their property in pots. On Stand 4 
IS pottery made and colored in imitation of the stone jars for 
suspension, which may be seen hanging along the middle of 
the room. It is possible to imagine, from the careful juxtapo- 
sition of the pottery vases, how the realistic marbling may 
have suggested the patterns which succeeded it. Another 
decoration suggests as its origin the network and cordage used 
to sustain the stone jars. Stand 7 is filled with pottery of 
curious and distinctive forms: pottery decorated in relief, jars 
in the forms of animals, clay boats, etc., modelled in the round. 
Here, also, are specimens of the only type of pottery belonging 
to this people which was adopted by the PZgyptians on their 
return to power after the submergence of the Old Kingdom. 
This form, which somewhat suggests bottles in modern use for 
holding salad-dressing, is found, albeit in different material, in 
Egv'ptian potter>', of the Xllth Dynasty. 

That the strange race also imported pottery is to be con- 
cluded from the fact that certain highly decorated types were 
found only in conjunction with examples of a certain stage in 



272 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

the evolution of the wavy handles, and that no evidence of the 
gradual evolution of the characteristic decorations was forth- 
coming on the spot. The commonest desig-n (Stand 6) is a 
large boat with three paddles for steering, and with cabins on 
deck. At the prow are palm fronds, and aft is a tall pole 
bearing an ensign, which is in one case an elephant. There is 
also a further decoration of rows of birds — ostriches or cranes. 
With regard to a second style of imported pottery, we again 
quote the catalogue: 

"The black bowls with incised patterns in white are albo foreign. No 
such pottery is known of Egyptian make; but it resembles a finer pottery 
which has been found in several places with remains of the Xlltb Dynasty. 
The whole of this black incised ware is imported, and bears most resem- 
blance to the earliest Italic black ware found with neolithic and copper 
tools. Similar fragments have been found in the lowest level of HissarliJc." 

The assumption at present is that our non-Egyptian dwellers 
on the west bank of the Nile, who were apparently akin to the 
allied races of the Libyans and Amorites, imported this pot- 
tery from the home of their parent race on the shores of the 
Mediterranean. From time to time some few examples of the 
native and imported pottery and of the characteristic stone 
vessels of this people have found their unrecorded way into 
the general antiquity market. It is a suggestive fact that the 
main centers of this distribution have been Abydos and Gebelen 
— that is to say, the termini of the two main roads by which 
the Libyans would enter Egypt from the oases. The race 
which we will therefore provisionally call the western race, as 
distinct from the dynastic race which entered Egypt by the 
Hammamat Valley, were even more exquisitely skilled in flint 
workmanship than in the manufacture of hand-made pottery. 
At Stands i and 17 some of their stone implements may be ex- 
amined, and also closely compared with a series of palaeolithic 
flints found on the top of a limestone plateau 1400 feet above 
the Nile, and with flints of intermediate period. The people 
also wrought for themselves flint bracelets (Stand 15) and 
glazed with color the quartz beads of their necklaces. And, 
lastly, the curious rude slate figures which have hitherto reached 
museums and collections only through the hands of plunderers 
and traders, arc now traced to this same distinct people of the 
Nile Valley, to the same fine workmen who made the Abydos 
flints and the Gebelen pottery. Nothing is known as to the 
sources of the slate. The geology of the Nile Valley has 
never been adequately studied, still less that of the Libyan 
desert; but no slate is known in the former. 

The Egypt Exploration Fund's primary aim or object is 
discovery; nevertheless, as is seen, very interesting and valua- 
ble objects for study and for the museum are from time to time 
a part of the results from exploration. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. 273 



THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. 

By Stephen D. Peet. 

It is one of the strongest evidences of the progress of arch- 
aeology that in nearly all lands the beginnings of history have 
been carried back so remarkably ; and that races which have 
hitherto been unknown have been added to the historic list. 
This has been accomplished partly by the study of the monu- 
ments, that study having served to* clear up many records which 
were before obscure, as well as to bring out many new facts. 
It is by this means that history has become almost a new science, 
the old methods having been abandoned and new methods 
adopted. Strange revelations have been given and much infor- 
mation secured. In fact, history has been almost everywhere 
lengthened. This is the case in Asia and in the lands of the 
east, but it is also true in Europe and so-called modern lands. 
England, which a lew years ago dated the beginning of its his- 
tory with the Norman conquest, now carries it back so as to 
include the Saxon, the Celt, the Briton, and the Basque among 
the historic nations, and even makes frequent mention of the 
prehistoric races whose monuments are extant. France and 
Germany, instead of making the reign of Charlemagne the 
beginning of their history, carry back their dates to the times 
of Julius Caesar and even to the invasion of the Gauls, and 
make the Basques their earliest race. Rome also, which formerly 
began its history with the Tarquinian kings, now goes back of 
the Albanian fathers and the Latin race, and looks to the Etrus- 
can monuments for its first records. Greece does not stop with 
the Dorian migration, or even with the Hellenic race, but must 
include the Pelasgians and other obscure people in its history. 
Assyria and Babylon formerly commenced their history with the 
names of well-known kings, but now use names which have 
been furnished by the monuments, and make mention of races 
which were a few years ago totally unknown. Even Egypt, 
with its very ancient dynasties which were buried in the pyra- 
mids, must add a new race which has been found on the edge 
of the desert, and so this land of the Nile goes back to the pre- 
historic age for the beginnings of history. But the strange 
thing about American history is that it dates its beginning with 
a very modern event — the Discovery by Columbus — and confines 
its history mainly to the white race. The question is whether 
this shall continue to be so. If the archaeologists have brought 
about such results elsewhere, may they not break throug 



tH THE AMKKICAH AKTIQaARlAN. 

barriers which surraund them here and carry back our liitftry, 
lo that it may compare with that o( other nations ? There roiy 
te indeed difficultici. for the cveots which occurred in the (.re* 
Columbian period aic uncerlain, and much obscuriiy coirers the 
■bdriginui races, but then: luv not insunnoontablc ubiuclcv 1 
In fact, there are ni«ny thmt;s which (avor the lentfthcninf; of 
our hiitciry, making it include evcntH which occurred belnrc ibe 
adwnt of the #hiic man. Of these tJicre may be no records 
except ihofc contained in the traditions nf the diflercnt races, and 
yet tncy niay be regarded as the "be^nnincs ol history," and be 
treated u such. 

1. Let ut consider the various theories which have been held 
as In the first inhabitants and the peopling of the cootinenL 
These theories have each had their day ant! have been frcqueally 
rejected, and )t:t titcy continue to have an influence. First is the 
theory in reference to the "lost tribo." Thi» was very popuUr at 
one time and wojt accepted ai true, but the only truth in il is the 
fact that there are certain analogies between the Indians and the 
Jew». The analogies are as follows; 

t. The American tribes were ()r{ranitcd into clans, which bad 
emblems resembling those described b>' Jacob lo his children, 
and which were the cuts-ofarms uf the various tribes. These 
emblems or totems bear the names of animals and show thftt 
animal tnbc< have exiitcd in all land*. 

3. There were sacred boxes or bundles among the southern 
tribes which resembled the ark of the Jews, and sbclU and other 
OTfwmcnts which lescmble the sacr«d stone« of the priests. 

3. The medicine men had secret rtles and sacred myitertu 
which were not unlike those anions the Jew*. 

4, Tliere Were cities ol refuge which resembled those 1 
lishcd by Joihua. 

;. The sacred sangs which were »uo|> durioe the feasts aod J 
dance* were said to contain words which nrscotble the hallelu'' 1i ] 
of the Jews. 

The fhc..F\' i>.iVr ,.<*: i<, ,1 vjil ..iiio.in' .>r f^rcr-il'jrc -ji'il . 
ofthi: . 
the in 
Israel 
work- ^ 

•CUTl' 

Math. 

know n 

andmn-j l-.'^^r, U^-hiUy .nu on-: »liu I,.-- »i!y .Uiin% 

reputation, though the analogies arv stilt dwelt upon u t 

•uirgcstive. 

The second theory relates to the lost Atlantis This 
on a legend which dates back to the day* of PUlu. but whi 
was mived at the time of the discovery and made i 



THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. 



275 



to the contint'iit. Tlie story was that somewhere beyond the 
pillars of Hercules there was an island which Wtis as large as 
the continents of Africa and Asia combined. Beyond it was a 
great ocean, to which the sea was a mere harbor.* Seneca fore- 
told that the niy.stcrious ocean would yet disclose an un- 
known world it then kept concealed. To the ancient Greek the 
west was a region of vague mj'stery ; it was the abode of de- 
parted heroes, the place where the Elysian plain shown under a 
serene sky; a domain in which the fondest imaginings were 
localized. According to the legend the island sank out of sight 
and never appeared again ; yet the inlluencc of the theory was so 
strong that every new island which was discovered was regarded 
as Atlantis, and even the name often appears upon the early 




Vwr/ oj the ^orirnit 



maps. In in one map the name is even given to the entire con- 
tinent of America. Many books have been written upon this 
fa'^ciaating subject. Among them the mo.st notable and popular 
is the one prepared b)' Ignatius Donnelly, who holds that both 
the continents of i'-iirope and America were first peopled irom 
this sunken i-^land. 

The third theory is that the continent was visited by various 
Kuroptan adventurers wln.i were cither priests or princes, and 
who introduced cert.Tin Ivuropean customs. To illustrate, Madoc 
the Welsh prince, is .said to have eslablished a colony on the 
Atlantic toast. It is related that the son of the King of Wales 
had many contentions respecting the heirship, that he left the 
coast of Ireland and came to an unknown land. On a second 
voyage he filled ten ships with emigrants. This story is the 



lllt<-lli)(ciii.v u'licn llii-rv it 



itingljf 



m any lou'ujatluii 



r/f, THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

foaodaUno tor th« belief that the WcUb lancua^ is ipokcn t 
tfae various tribe* of tbc intenor. Thrrc are thoie who hold ' 
that the Appearance of Indian* who have blue eye* and light 
hair is evidence that the WcltUi or Scandinavian blood wa* 
mingled with the aborigine*. 

St. I{r.indon i* aImj another adventurer whu it tuppoted la 
have visited tht* contincnl. He wu an Irish saint who lived be<- 
(bre the tini» of St Patrick. The story ts often rep*^aied i 
and his travels arc cxtcndeil acrou the entire continent, even as 
far as Central America. He it identified in the "Fair (lod," 
about whom General Lew Wallace wrote Tbc long gartncnt ' 
and be^inJ, and the cro«<c9 on tbc robe ul' this divinity ore xk^ i 
gardcd uproof that some ptiest mu«i have readied thu diitaat 
region. Thtt beliel wat so ttruag thdt the name St Bnudoa I 
applied to an island in the Atlantic occnn, ni.iy be Kcn on i 
ol the eoriv maps. 

A fourth theory u the one which hat relation to the visit ot 
the Chinese to this country. There arc many Kurapcao writers 
who hold that the Chinese Fuung was located in American. 
"Before the viij'agc ol Columbus, before the vtait* ol the Risqiiet 
to Newfoundland, before the Norwegians undertoofc their bold , 
cxcur»i(jns to America, before even the vi«it of St Iti-ptodoo. i 
the fifth century, a Ituddhitt tniuion was cttabtithf-ii oo tti 
Dinlimrnt" I-Vom this have sprung; the many rtr^cnititanccA 1 
between the customs, monument*, and tymbols of Ceotnt. , 
America and lho4e of Japan, China and EoAtcm India.* 

Another theory vt that the voyage of the Zcni brothcn^'J 
which took plate hefntc the timet of Ciilumbus, in ijSl]^ T 
brought the cotitinent of Amcnca to hghl 1 The voyaga I 
reached as far as Fmland or Iceland. Here they learned abottf 1 
a country called Ettotiland. The inhabitant* are very inte)|(>| 
grnt, used Latin bookt, have all kinds uf metals- They sow J 
com and make beer. They have matty luwnt and vilU|;eiy r. 
make umall boat* and sail them. Thcte various atorie* m«,] 
supposed by tome to prove that the contment of America « 
reached by the fishermen, and that tbc /em brothers, in thRl i 
way. learned of the exislcnce of the eunlinent, and llicy reiwrtetf J 
it to Columbus, so thev led to t)ic discovery. J 

Now, such arc the lhenrtc« in refcrcrKe to the peopling of J 
America. We have dwelt upon them for the reason thfl UiM J 
have been held so lenaaooidy and arc »tdl delcnded by c — ' 



th. ma .— .» 
fam 

MM*-'-. 

Iff'"' 



THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. 277 

visionary writers, and especially because they have wrought so 
much confusion into the archccology of this country as to what 
constitutes the real tokens of the aborigines, and what belonged 
to the white man. It may be said that the theories have had 
the effect to lead people astray in leference to nearly everything 
that is aboriginal, and have brought in the greatest errors 
in reference to the various relics which have been discovered. 
Dighton rock, which is a genuine aboriginal pictograph, has 
been made to contain the record of the Norseman, the pictures 
of boats containing Norsemen and Runic lines having been recog- 
nizedin it. At one time an attempt was made to move the rock 
to Boston as a monument of the Norsemen. The skeleton of 
the Indian chief which was discovered in New England covered 
with copper beads and relics is represented as some great knight 
errant or some great Norse sea king whose skeleton was in 
armor. Still further the old mill which stands near Providence, 
and represents the style ot building mills which prevailed in 
England quite late in history, has been regarded as a tower 
erected by Norsemen and much sentiment has been expended 
upon it. Some hold that silver sword scabbards have been found 
in mounds, and take these as proof of the presence of the white 
man. The many fraudulent relics which have appeared at 
different times and in many parts of the country, have under the 
influence of thi.s theory been accepted as genuine, especially 
those which have inscriptions upon them or letters which can be 
in any way made to resemble the Hebrew alphabet, the Newark 
stone, the stone Irom Grave Creek mound, the Davtnport tablet 
being the most notable*. 

II. Still there are actual records of discovery given by the 
Norsemen which wo may regard as formations of historyf. These 
descriptions are contained in the Sagas, which have come down 
from the time of looo A. D. and are very important, for they are 
the first which were ever given. They also bring out the picture 
of the aborigines as they were 500 years before the time of Col- 
umbus. It matters not where the scene is to be located, whether 
upon the coast of Labrador or the coast of New England, Narra- 
ijansett Bay, or Massachusetts Bay, the view of the aborigines 
will be the same.]; 

The Spanish claim St. Augustine and Sante Fe as the earliest 
cities built upon the continent, the French claim Mont real, Detroit, 
.Mackinac, Green Hay, LaPointe, as the places where their first 
missions were established; but the Scandinavians have as good 
rcasiin for looking to the coast of New P)tigland as the place 

r:Bii>.*"l XiV,Ii"an.'nli!- tlimiVltrt'^^^^^^ ' "" '"* 

4II-IP wc ««ul<l ju kiinul-.lue i>iir Imti-hti'ilnvN^ In l>ii<f. R. N. lloflorJ. 
tWiii'.'i ii'U'o n WI.M »l 11 iii.ip Iniin KhIii-i Antimiiiutoj AiDiiric.-ina. elviiiK Ms 

<l.;nl:lKii1i..ii III tK' \'..r-H' :.>.';ititit'S. 'l'l<!s Mvd llu- ..tliiT iii:ip liy KHin i» iiiwrucvd 111 liU 



278 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

where the Norsemen first landed. We should be therefore grate- 
ful to those gentlemen who have given so much time and attention 
to the examination of the various localities and have made 
geography and history to come together. We can pardon a few 
mistakes in the carrying out of the details. It is fortunate that 
men of wealth are willing to lay out their money in commem- 
orating the events of the past. The efforts of Mr. Horsford are 
worthy of commendation, for he has not only erected a monu- 
ment but has furnished a book. In the book there are a great 
many facts which are worthy of study. 

The monument which stands in the village of Watertown, near 
Boston, commemorates the exploits of the early Norsemen very 
much as the monument which is to be erected at St. Ignace in 
Michigan commemorates the voyages of the early missionary, 
Marquette, and the monument near Pullman commemorates the 
massacre at Chicago in 1812. There is an object lesson in each 
monument and an inspiration which comes from commemorating 
the events of the past. The local pride which may be aroused 
both at the west and the east is after all very helpful, for it brings 
us together as a nation, while it carries us back to the foundations 
which were laid by the different European national ties. 

Quotations from the Sagas are before us. These are a small but 
important body of Icelandic literature which has come down to 
us from the period of the events narrated. They are in fact tra- 
ditions, which were held for a long time in memory, as it was 
the habit of the people to perpetuate them by frequent recitations 
and make them a system of education and sometimes of profes- 
sional service. They were by this system transmitted from sire 
and matron to son and daughter, as they were the fireside enter- 
tainment for a series of generations. After the introduction of 
the art of writing these traditions were transferred to parchment, 
but when transferred they preserved their peculiar oral charac- 
ter.* The trustworthiness of the Sagas, though relating to 
events said to have occurred 900 years ago should not be called 
in question, for they form a collection of recorded realities in the 
history of an ancient people, which corresponds in its style with 
the character of the times. They have been accepted as in a 
sense historical by scholarly men.f Of course the Sagas were 
not scientific productions, and are defective in their geographical 
character, as there is no latitude and longitude and distance 
mentioned. Still they furnish material which may be regarded as 
valuable in making up the geography of the coast of America. J 



^Kispcctinix till' S;^£I.l^. l.aiii'.: •<;lv^* it il(ii.'> nut appear llirit any Sa{;;i manuscript has 
hocn writleii luM-iU' tSii- luiirii'iniili ci'iiliiiv. l.)r. Kink S'HVS thai they exist only in a fra^- 
montary iM.nitlition. an.i iln-v sian.i in neivl ot i-ein^r rorrol)oratc<i l>y collateral proofs, if 
wo lia\e to rely iijion tiieni mi Mifl; a <iiiestinn as an ancient colonization of America. 

T'riie K<^'i;'apliei< Kulil, Kain. Mannui-'sen, Konra-!. Maurcr. Worsaao. J. Klliol Cahot. 
B. K. I)e(:«.:-ta. Nci-len-kinM. 

i \Vins«>r )i-i< jiiven in liis Narrative an-i Critical Hi*:tory many paf^cs to a review of the 
pro-Colomliian expl')r:tti.)n<. especially those conductcii by Norsemen. His notes and 
rcferencerf are especially valuable. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. Z7q 

The existence of a Vineland of spontaneous corn and of 
vines in the distant western ocean seems to have been known 
in Denmark long belore the celebrated expeditions of the Norse- 
men, soon after the settlement in Iceland, about the year 1070. 
The Prelate Adam of Bremen gave to the world his conversa- 
tion with the king of Denmark a few years before. Referring 
to the region beyond Greenland, the king said: "An island 
lying in that ocean had been visited by many. It was called 
Vineland because grapes making excellent wine grow there 
spontaneously, and cereals without planting." It wcs at the 
least some three hundred years later that the Vineland sagas 
were written down. In these there arc substantially only four 
Vineland stories — Bjarni's, Leif's, Thorwald's and Thorfinn's — 
and they all revolve about the landfall of Leif and the site of 
his houses in Vineland. 

THE STOKV OF DJAKNI. 

Bjarni, a Norwegian supercargo, who, on a. voyage in gS; from Iceland 
to Greenland, had been driven he knew not whithet in a violent northeast 
storm, accompanied by fog and rain, for many days, found himself as the 
sky cleared, ol! a wooded projection of a coast, without mountains, but 
having here and there little hillocks in the interior. He did not land, as 
the country did not look like Greenland. They left the country on the 
lartMard and let the stern of the ship look landwanl, and they sailed two 
days, when they saw another country; but this was not Greenland, for it 
was level and wooded, for great glaciers are said to be in Greenland. He 
again turned the prow from land and sailed three days and saw the third 
country, which was high and mountainous. Once more they put the ship 
about and sailed four days, and then saw the fnurth country. This was 
Greenland. 

TlIK STOltV OF LRIF BKIKSON. 

Leif Erikson, who was a relative, having heard Bjarni's Story, sailed to 
Greenland and bou^rht his ship and engaged a crew, thirlytive in all, and 
set out to discover the land wnich had been described. Hetakes the points 
in their reverse order. At the tirst point he stepped ashore and gai'e a 
name, calling it Helluland — Hat-roc k laud. At the second point, they cast 
anchor, put out a boat and walked ashore. The country was level and 
wooded, with white sand in many places. Then Leif said: "This country 
Shalt be named according to its uualities, Markland. They sailed se award 
for two days with a northeasterly wind. They came to an island ying 
north of the mainland and lixikcd about in fine we.itbcr. They sailed into 
the sound between the island and the ness or cape which jutted out north 
of the mainland, and steered westward past the nciiS. There great shallows 
extended at ebb-tide, and their ship stood ngroun'', and it appeared far 
from the vessel to the sea, but so eager were they to go ashore that they 
could not wait until the sea should return to their ship. But when the tide 
returned to their ship, then they took the Ixiat and rowed to the ship, but 
it moved (floated) up into the river and then into the lake. There they cast 
anchor and carried their leathern hammocks ashore, and made booths there. 
They then decided to dwell there during the winter, and erected there a 
large buildinir. But the <|uality of the country was .so good according to 
what it setmed to Ihini that livestock would not need provender in winter. 
No frosts came there during the winter, and herbage withered there but 
little. Day and night were there more even than in Greenland or Iceland. 
The discovery of grapes and wine wood took place about this time. It Is 
said that after the ship's boat had beed loaded with grapes, a cargo (of 
wood) was cut for the shio. There were also fields oE wheat arovnae wild. 



THE AMERICAN AfrnQUAItiAH 



Tb* bni (utmaci ThurwAld, mnii m portimt o( bt« compuiy. In Ibe gnat 
tfatp. cuutnl «ln«i| the canern •tiuie. Tlief wrtc drtvai atamn » accic nj 
UimI ■di] tbi kecJ w*i tttiihan iM. Then witl TharwAld to bu coaipiniMM^ 
'Lei Us "i up Uu! o'd heel no ibl* neck of Uwl. and call this place KiUr> 
hcm" {Ctpf ol tbc K«cl>. Harinf dme a> J]« iletind. tbev uiled aiooe 
lh« coaii. Ituivibir ibal neck tPihc call van). Tltotwftld aji4 hl« cuoipaitloiii 
■rcni on ifaute, and then tald Tborwatd : "Tb4i u a itleaaaal place. I *buuld 
like tu lit uiy liabitaiuiu ttcte." Tbcy iben walbeii lo ibc ahip, aiul n* oa 
Ibc Mndi tbtre htlliickk, and KDinc htibcr thci aair ibne tVlo-bnaU and 
under ach three metL Tliey ihen divided Uwir force* and aeiied them all 
«icri>l «ne, who eacaped witb bii btut. Thcr Villcd nffai. and ibea wmlted 
back to tb« of'C and iav toTtrdt the Intier pax "I the \»y •cirml liilluthj 
■rhtch tbcy suppoaed to lie d«vllin|[«. Here the? all (ell aaleeii, l>ai a cry 
lirukc upon ibeit cat* ami ihey iill awiihc. Then fniin ihc timer pan oil 
the Uav iionnllcM iktn Uiau ap|>cainl and iMie ilowB ttpoB ihcm. Then 
md Tbofwaid: "Let ut advance tlic battle-cn*era to Ibc Kuawalc a&d de- 
fend our»elve» a« l>c*i we may. ttui bm attack them.'' Etui Ibc Sfcraelitifa 
•biH upon them awhile, .itid ibcn Aed t«cb ai bcal hccoald. Aoanvwflcw 
bvtween Ihc jiunvalc and ibe tbiekl and lodc^ ■" Tborwatd'i attnptl and 
rjiu*cdhU death. He r iNitnaiided that be ibimid be hailal anon the bawl- 
laiHl. a cTota placed ■! htt hsitd aiul UMMhct al bu ItM, and ilic pla« fa* 
railed Kmataneta, iti Cape <il Crotae*. Here, theit. we have the fini reCMrrf 
of the mecUiif wiib ihv naiivct. 



THOHriN!) KAAI 



VI MR L AMD. 



mall .• 





^/ifltiiM ■^^I'O^X.tiAi^*^ 



ALLEGORICAL PICTURE FROM HENNEPIN'S EDITION- 1702. 



THE BEGINNINnS OF HISTORY. 283 

no abode !^t man or beast; but upon an island far toward the west they 
found a t-om-barn construcUd of wood. They found no other trace of 
human work, and came back in autumn tu Leif's houses. 



Such arc the stones which were told by the Scandinavians in 
their northern homes, and which fotmed an import^int part of 
their traditionary lore. They were afterwards preserved in the 
archives and embodied in the early literature ol the people. 
They open to its a view of the American continent which is five 
hundred years earlier than that furnished to us by the discoveries 
of Columbus, and actually make the beginnings of our history 
to date about the year about the year A. D. looo instead of 1492. 
They furnish to us a fragment of aboriginal history, or at least 
present a glimpse of the aborigines, which has every evidence 
of being correct. It is not essential that we decide as to the 
locality which was reached, for the result would be the same. A 
door has opened between the historic and the prehistoric, which 
has disclosed to our vision a picture of a portion of the continent, 
with its capes and bays, and various products which grew upon 
the shore. There is here brought before us a picture of the 
aborigines, with their physical appearance, their dress and man- 
ners of life clearly drawn. We see that they were a very rude 
people, dwelling in huts and using boats of a peculiar shape. We 
learn something about the habits of the people and are able to 
compare them with the people which dwelt upon the coast after 
the advent of the white man. We have also a history of the 
early discoverers which is v^ry interesting, for it reveals to us 
the hardy character of the first navigators and their singular 
habits and ways. By comparing the stories with others which 
are furnished by the literature of the times, we find that every- 
thing about them is truthful, and there is nothing which we need 
to reject as drawn from imagination or creations of fancy. We 
regard these stories of the Norsemen as fragments of American 
history, and as furnishing substantial foundation for all the future 
history to rest. The special feature to which we would call 
attention is the fact that tlie aborigines form so important a part 
in the picture. Who these so-called Skraelings were, to what 
tribe they belonged, will be one point which we shall endeavor 
to clear up. The colonization of New England or any other 
part of the American coast was not permanent, yet wc see no 
reason why the events which are put on record should not be 
regarded as a part of American history. 

It will be very profitable if we examine these stories a little 
more closely, analyze them and consider their different parts. As 
the descriptions are in accord with the times and correspond with 
those which come to us from other sources, we must regard 
them as correct, and do not need any other evidence to substan- 
tiate or confirm. It matters not whether there are any remains 
of the settlement, nor even any survivors of the people which 



»u 



THE A»BRrCAK AWTIQUARIAV. 



were se«n ; (at in the counc ol five hundred yean all of theae 
may have dlfappcared. Other lribc« may have cerate in and 
occupied the placci which were filled by the SlcraelingK. The 
chonKcs uf popuUtiuo and the mt|;ratio(U nf unknown tribes 
would nccount for the difTercncca between thii record and that 
which MfAi made by the disoivcrcrs five hundrtd years later. We 
shall place the Dorics contained in the Sjk^ between the Cinci- 
ful traditions and theories which have occupied our attcotiuo, 
and those substantial records which are nkcn as the loundolioas 
of our history and claim an important {tarl of the prnto- historic 
records, but shall compare them with the timet to show thdr 
entire correctness. 

III. Let us ukc up the study of geofn^phy and see what ev>- 
licncc is furnished by the maps. We shall Rnd much mfnrma* 
tion from thc«c, and will be surprised at (he i^nenit resemblance 
between the description of the coaM contained m the Sogaa oad 
that which ia ^ivcn by the early explorers. 

It appean that In the early Icelandic school geogntphy therv 
was a Vineland as distinctly marked ai cither Greenland or Ice- 
lat>d. and thai the position of ihia Vineland was plainly marked 
on the map, Greenland and Ici'land were settled about lODo 
A. D., ihuuch the native*, at the time, were rapidly ehnilian- 
Ued. School* and even univentitict were establUhed among 
them There were two in*titutiifn« of learninj; in Iceland, one 
at Skalholt. the other at Holum. One of the most learned and 
renowned fifficers of instruction at Skalholt was Steplianiua, 
who. lo a»itst him in teaching hi> cUmci the history of Ice- 
landic ili*cijveiic3. preparvd ,\ m-ni which ha* been preserved. 
Tin* map Kivcs u* three |' ■■ 'in nt, ant) their lucce*- 

sion an<) (general diri^v:i. :>'l wilh ihcir names 

wliicli were ulfcn Imm ''i n ilic (»oini* These 

potnti may have been na M.^ ...,.: ■. ......^.utor. but by studying 

the modem maps and comiMnntt lim on^ taken from ttie 
Sai^ai, ProlciMir Horsford thinks he can identify in them New- 
foundland, Nova Scotia, and Cape OxI. and make thf^ni comu- 
pi-tdd with McllLiland, Markland, and Vineland. We tray say of 
this niap. tliat though it was dniwn frum the ncammotion of 
thc«e Saf-a^i wtihout any lines of lutitudc or loa|;ilodc, yvf it 
•jmre correct than many rii thtise wliii:h were based no tlw 
\*i ol the early discoverer*. Wc have only to compare 
unique and pcculiarty shaped map made by the Out- 
raphe^r, Johann Kuywh, contained in the olilion of 

ludiva rtotcmy's geography, printed at Rumr in i$<~A Tli^ 

the earliest engraved chart on which appear^ tbc field of 4i^ 

'tfovery, m the wrstcm hcniisphcre, enteral bv G>lumbu». Cabot, 

~ rtereol, Vcrratano. Vespucci, and other early cmplorcr* of tbc 

if the new conlineoL The lhror>- wtitch nilMl 'he carlfr 

icovcrert was that the continent nf Amrnca •»» an eatten 




THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. 385 

extremity of the Asiatic continent, that the West Indies were a 
part of the East Indies, and that the natives were Indians. 

Let us consider the nationality of the people which were 
seen by the Norsemen. Were they Eskimos, or Atgonkins, or 
an unknown race? This is an important point, for there are 
back of it certain problems concerninfj the ethnic changes on 
the continent and other subjects. VVe are aware that in the 
neighborhood of the St. Lawrence River there w-is the meeting 
place of three diffurcnt tribes or races. The Eskimos, even in 
late times, have covered the coast of Labrador. The Algonkins 
from the earliest tinicF of history occupied the coasts of New 
England, and the supposition is that an unknown raci:, probably 
a member of the Tinneh or Athapascan stock, reached as far 
south as Montreal, It appears from the account that they dwelt 
in houses which appeared like hillocks, that they had skin-boats 
and u.sed arrows for their weapons. Judging from the descrip- 
tion, we conclude that they were Eskimos, for no other tribe 
Uved in such houses or used such boats in the same manner as 
the Eskimos, and had the JJamc general appearance, for they 
had coarse hair and broad faces. Their habits of sleeping 
stupidly under the boat is similar to the Eskimo. The boats 
themselves were made of skin and were such as are still conmion 
in the north. The boats held several persons, and were furnished 
with masts and poles. They were not the Kaiaks, but were the 
large, skin-covered, open boats, which were the chief means of 
conveyance by water for traveling, hunting, und fishing. Such 
boats are still used at Point Barrow. There is no essential 
difference between them and the Greenland boats called umiaks. 
Some of these are twenty yards long. These are generally 
made with a frame and cross pieces, with highly ornamented 
ivory crotches at the bow. In this the heavy harpoon rests, 
especially when they are approaching a whale. They are fast- 
ened together with lashing, without any nails. They were fur- 
nished with paddles, short and broad, like a shovel, fastened to 
the side with a strap of seal leather, so as to act as oars. Sails 
and oars made of entrail were quite ancient inventions, for 
Frohisher speaks of skin-boats with sails of entrail as early as 
1589. The head of the sail is laced to a light yard, hoibted to a 
mast by a halyard. The mast is a stout, square pole, ten or 
twelve teet long, and is set well forward. The Greenlanders set 
up the mast in the bow of the umiak, as a sailor would say, "in 
the very eyes of her." The gunwales are fastened to the stern 
post in the same w.iy as to the stem, from a low rait which pro- 
jects five or six Inches. Walrus hide is used, and sometimes 
the skin of the polar bear, which makes a beautifully white 
cover. Six of these .skins were required to cover one umiak or 
boat. They are sharp at each end and low at the bow and stern 
These boats differ entirely from those which were used by the. 



aH THE AMERICAN ANTIIJUARIAN, 

Daiiv» of New Engbtiil at the time of the discovery. Tliose 
dtAcribcd by the Saga5, and which wrre utcd by the SIcmcIingfl, 
were then cviUcntly the Mtnc kind u* arc Mill ia uk by the 
EAkinin*. They di/Ter iUo Irom ihoM- vrhtch weie io um; by the 
n^ivcs of New n.n|;Uod in ihc time of the discovery, (or we 
have picture! ofthcie, lu nell a^i duchpttona, which show to ui 
ejuctly their (ntnu. 

Let U4 now turn to the condition ol the aboriginm who 
were dwi^Utii^ on the same coaat after the lime a( Columbui, 
In icfcrencc to this {Krinl, wc shall hnd mLich th»t i> nugi^estiw 
if wc talte up the study of the maps which were lurnisbrd at a 
later period, namely, at the time of the discovery, and specially 
ibc de»cf iptii idi given by the early njtigator*. The following 
is the account of \'er(axano's voyage: lie passed along the 
Atlantic coast, landing; '0 various places — first in North Carn- 
Uiu, second in Narra|;an»ctt Bay, and third on the coast of 
Labrador, but came upon a diflercat cIass uf Indians at each 
point. Ilii description of the appearance, dress, weapons, and 
physical traits of tnese various tribes is the first one which was 
p'ven. It n very sug^ettivc. for it rcvealt the changes which 
bad occurred in the location of the oattvct. 

TbcT (T" neatly (uiknl, woulnc aa\j abimi the loias itmc ihtiM i4 RnaR 
aaioals omtlui tn (lie m»ririu. A ([inlls of wtirsD |[nss cuctrctc* Av hnif, 
10 whirl] ibcy fuien Ihe Ull> id 4iiiinaU, *hich haiiK dowD ■* fat a* IM 
kiyrr* All itif irM ol tiM- l—lv t. nn "- ..-.-. = __....__ 



ontr eireptiui) to ibnr cocmI ioohi 19 iii 
a( Ihein, lot «c (>■> iruajr who tuiij all.'' 



I t<.-(ly l[om niixk laUnd the lUiiAA cAplorcr 
f the mainland and anchored the Diupttinc in 



m 



* th* frm M Mm VbA. 



THE BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY. 287 

They exceed us in size and arc of a. very fair complexion (sono di colore 
bianchis simo). Some of them incline more to a white and others to a tawny 
color. Their fzLces are sharp; their hair is long itnd black, on the adorn- 
mom of which they bestow great care. Their eyes are black and keen; 
their demeanor is gentle and attractive, very much like that of the ancients. 
I ^ay nothinj; to your majesty of the body that are all in ^ood proportion as 
belong lo well-furraed men. The women resemble them m sue and are 
very f;racefiil and handsome itnd (|uite attractive in dress and manners. 
They had no other clothing except a deer skin, ornamented, as were the 
skins worn by the men. Some had very rich lynx skins upon their arms, 
and wore various ornaments upon their heads, braided in their hair, which 
hung down upon their brensis. Others wore dilfcrent ornaments, such as 
those of the women of Egypt and Syria. The older and ihe married peo- 

SIc, both men and women, wore many ornaments in their ears, hanging 
own in Oriental fashion. We saw on them pieces of wrought copper, whicE 
is more esteemed by them than gold, the latter heme deemed the most 
ordinary of metals, yellow being a color much disliked By them. Blue and 
red are the colors which Ihey value most highly," 

As to the weapons it will be noticed that they differed from 
those; used by the people which Vcrrazano discovered in Narra- 
gansett Bay, They differ from those of the people described in 
the Sagas as seen by the Norsemen in Massachusetts Bay as 
much as did the dress and boRts. Their arrows are beautifully 
made. For points they use emery, jasper, hard marble and other 
hard stones, instead of iron. They also use the same kind of 
sharp stones in cutting down trees, and with them construct their 
boats of single logs, hollowed out with admirable skill, and 
sufficiently commotlious to seat ten or twelve persons. Their 
oars are short with broad blades, and are rowed by the force of 
the arms with thi. greatest care and as rapidly as they wish. 

"We saw their dwellings, which are circular in form, about ten or twelve 
paces in circumference, made of logs split in half, without any regularity of 
archictecture, and covered with roofs of straw, nicely put on, which protect 
them from wind and rain. The father and the whole family dwell together 
in one house. In some of their houses we saw twenty-five or thirty persons. 
Their food is pulse, as that of the other people, which is here better than 
elsewhere, a 00 more carefully cultivated. In Ihc time of sowing thcy are 
governed by the moon, which they think effects the sprouting of the grain. 
They have many other ancient customs. Thcy live by hunting and fishing 
and they are long lived. 

I'assin'T still furth<:r north to the coast of Labrador, Vcrrazano 
came upon the Eskimos. 

The pf-o]ile were entirely different from the others we hail seen, whom 
wc had found kind and gentle; but these were mi rude and harbanius that we 
were unable, bv any sigii.s we could make, 10 hold any communication with 
thcni. Thcy clothe thcmsL-Ives with the skins of bears, wolves, lynx, ma- 
rine and other animals. Their food, which wc inferred from several visits 
to their dwellings, is obtained by hunting ami fishing. Thcy have certain 
vegetables which are roots of spontaneous growth. They have no pulse. 
and we saw no signs of its cultivation. The land appears sterile ana unfit 
for the growth of fruils or grain of any kind. 

The conclusion is that the people which wore discovered by 
the Norsemen were either farther north than New England or 
that the population of New England underwent a remarkable 
change between the times of the Norsemen and the times of 
Columbus, 



288 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

This conclusion is confirmed by the maps, especially the one 
accompanying Ramusio's Collection of Voyages, published in 
1554.'^ In this map we find the natives tall and welI*formed, 
carrying bows and arrows in their hands. Others are in boats, 
drawing fish by lines or poles, into the boat. We find them 
occupying the houses and booths, but receiving the white man 
cordially. The map cor^'esponds remarkably well with the 
descriptions given by Verazano, but differs entirely from that 
which was contained in the Sagas. The boats arc short, sharply- 
curved coracles, resembling in shape the crescent of the new moon. 
They have no masts, and were probably made of bark. The 
dress of the natives seems to be of buckskin and differs entirely 
from the fur dress of the Eskimos. The weapons corresponded 
to those described by Verrazano, but are entirely different from 
those seen by the Norsemen. 

Of course we could draw the line between Narragansett Bay 
and Massachusetts Bay, and .say that the Eskimos dwelt on one 
side of the line and the Algonkms on the other, but the fact that 
on the maps which were made after the time of Columbus the 
natives of New England arc always represented as tall and well 
formed and carrying bows and arrows in their hands, and are 
surrounded by wild animal-s — deer and elk — shows that the 
hunters had taken the place of fishermen, and so confirms the 
evidence furnished from other sources. 



♦Tliis map is rallod lia'-tal-li*''. It ri'pu-.'ici-it? tin- coa<t ot New l-!ii(;land, under the 
title of La Nuva KraiiLiii, sub-titic, 'J'on.i Nuc\.i, Xi»rumli:ua. 



THE MYSTERY OF THE NAME PAMUNKEY. 



THE MYSTERY OF THE NAME PAMUNKEY. 
By William Wallace Tookek* 

A mystery unrevcaled — that intangible and illusive element 
which environs the nomenclature, myths, customs and tradi- 
tions of the American Indian will always remain a fount of the 
deepest interest and closest study to the cultured mind of the 
critical student of the science of man. The secret societies 
and sacred rites or mysteries of the priesthood of the red men 
has been the theme of many explorers into the wilderness of 
anthropolo|;ical investigation for the past two decades or more. 
It is not my purpose at this time to single out, to compare, or 
to elaborate upon the symbolic customs or shamanistic cere- 
monies of the various stocks, tribes or clans, which have been 
the basis for these essays. They can be found in the works of 
many noted specialists, where they may be read and studied in 
their entirety far better than in any brief abstract which I 
might (juote. Many points of similarity can be traced, espe- 
cially among the tribes of Algonquian stock, revealing identity 
of thought, occurring through hereditary transmissions and 
tribal borrowings in symbolizing animate and inanimate ob- 
jects, also natural phenomena, in order to enable the priests to 
retain their supremacy over the superstitious minds of both 
the initiated and uninitiated members of the tribe. Every 
tribal family or clan undoubtedly had its society and priesthood, 
and it is my intention to demonstrate by historic and linguistic 
facts that in the n:imc Pamu/iiiej', now <iesignating a small tribe 
of Indians and a river of Virginia, we have a survival to our 
times of one of the reminders of an esoteric system which ex- 
isted among the Powhatan tribes of Virginia at the commence- 
ment of the seventeenth century. Not only does it hide a 
mystery, but the true interpretation or signification of the name 
itself has been and still regains a thing unknown— a mystery, 
which I shall endeavor to dispel, I trust satisfactorily, so that it 
shall no longer exist as a problematical quantity in the syn- 
onomy of the tribes of the American race. 

It has long been desirous, for the purposes of anthropolog- 
ical and historical research, that the long- forgotten meaning or 
true application of the term Pamuiikcy should be recovered 
from the obliterating depths of the centuries, which have con- 
cealed it; but hitherto it has seemed too deeply buried to be 
capable of being brought into the light of the present. 

^[a^y philologists have attempted to solve the riddle cm- 
bodied in the name, without arriving at a conclusion satisfac- 

• kcail I'cluic Ihc A. A. A. S.. !)cclian IL at SprlnRfiuld, Mk.4?., Augiiat 30, iRg^. 



IQD YHC AUERICAV ANTIQUAItlAN. 

lory (o thetn«elvc9 itnci to othcnt. Coii^cquently t 
this (tvlicular initancc, have been in vain. This ■• not at all 
slmngc, |iruviilc(i ihcj- ncyicclcj or were unable lo go back to 
the time of bc»to»al k>r their niAtcrixl, and study the early 
notation*, and glcftn laclH from the lincii of coniemponry hi«- 
Inry, in order to weld the missing links into a pcrlcct chain; 
which now the nccurrence ol Prof. Edward Atbcr'« Eni[li«h 
uitoIar'« edition of Smith's wuriu will en^ibtc them to do tno»i 
thoroui;hly. 

An interpretation and su^r^cstcd ori|;tn of the term, which 
has been freiguenily iiiiotcd. ii that of llcclicwelder's. civen in 
hu "Names uhich tnc Lcnni Lennape or Delaware Indians 
gave to River*. Stream* and LocaJlties within the States ol 
T'cnns^'U'ania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virijinia. with their 
Sienincaiions." vijt-: ramunky. corrupted from Pikpnfmga, sig 
ni^inK "where we sweat." Thin is a dcnv'alitin that noald 
naturally di"ii.;iist any one who niii>ht desire In retain the nanie. 
and in (act would lead them to abandon iL But, like many or 
in truth the yrcaler nnmbcr of llccWcwelder's other con)ectural 
ety-mologics-for that i* all they setm to be -it ii far fetched 
in its ci}m[>arative phomiliiRy and decidedly a most i-hcvous 
error in its application, a^ trvcalcd in the hiMnric facU we And 
accompanyini' its early (oims; and, being tucb. it dc»cr\'ct no 
further consideration. 

Captain John Smith, the prcfcrvct of the Jaincstawa colony 
— wh')«c works ate a perfect mine of abiiri^nal history— is the 
one to uhoni wc iiitf't apply f'^r all our data rrlatinir to the 
localiiy where ihc name wa* first applied. • "n hi'i well-known 
map ul \'ii^itiia, and a« tiandcd down from the «a me source, 
the nan)c di-ounatrn a nvt-r Itut he f>ays m rDntradictioo to 
thi> mcorrcct bestowal (p. j4"). "Fourtceoe niyles Nurthward 
from the river I'owhaUn ( Jame* ) it the nver P^ttuntthe. which 
ta navigable 60 or ;^> myle^. but with catches and small Harko 
JO or 40 myle« (arthcf ■. at the ordinary- flowing ot aalt water, it 
divideth ilselfc into two [gallant linnche^ <.>n the MXilh side 
inhabit YtuigktaHiHii. who luvc ubonl 60 men for warrea, on the 
N>^rth branch .tfaOit^mfn/. who have thirty men. where thfi 
river i* divided the country i« called PumitktJter and nourisheth 
ncare joo itbic men," Thcrk-lorc, a* will be noticed, the term, 
ill Its aboriginal srnw:. did not desifna^e a stream; and oa 

rcfcrrmg to Smt'i- - ■" ■■■ i-- '--- ■• • ' •-■ '■'■''■■■ tn'an- 

fjular peninsula ■ ';ver, 

one being callc^i ■ ^>ey, 

and thr ii!ti.i ^1. i,^i>Hf, 

while Sii lis*] 

note tti tri 

't^^n, ;;;;:f: 

tion tn rc^cacil tu ihij village- a dcicr.iJliun ll,it isati'i ijuoted 
by William Strachey in bis "Misione of Travaille into Vintinia*' 
(p. 90). as follows: "lo cver>' Territory of a IfViwMMv h 9 



tHE MYSTERY OF THE NAME PAMUNKEY. 391 

Temple and a Priest, two or three or more. Their principal 
Temple or place of Superstition is at UOantuisak in Pamaunkre, 
nearo unto which is a house, Temple or place of Powhatans. 
Upon the top of certain red sandy hils in the woods, there are 
three great houses filled with images of their kings and Devcls 
and Tombes of their Predecessors. Those houses are neare 
sixtie foot in iength, built arbour-wise, after their building. This 
place they count so holy as that [none] but the Priests and kings 
dare come into them, nor the Salvages dare not goe up the 
river in boats by it, but they solemnly cast some peece of cop- 
per, white beads, or Pocones into the river, for feare their Okce 
should be offended and revenged of them. 



In this place commonly arc resident seavcn Priests. The 
chiefe differed from the rest in his ornaments, but inferior 
Priests could hardly be knowne fromthe common people, but 
that they had not so many holes in their eares to hang their 
jewels at." 

Smith further describes some of the events of his capture at 
the swampy wilderness among the headwaters of the river 
Chickahominy by Opcchankanough (p. 398): "Then they led 
him • • • overall those rivers, and backeagaine by divers 
other several Nations, to the king's habitation at Pamaunkee; 
where they entertained him with mo.st strange and fearcfull 
conjurations, 



Not long after, early in a .'norning, a great fire was made in 
a long house, and a mat spread on one side, as on the other; on 
the one they caused him to sit, and all the guard went out of 
the house, and presently came skipping in a great grim fellow, 
all painted over with coalc, mingled with oyle; and many 
snakes and wcscis skins stuffed with niossc, and all their tayles 
tyed together, so as they met on the crownc of his head in a 
tassell; and round about the tasscll was as a coronet of feathers, 
the skins hanging round about his head, backc and shoulders, 
and in a manner covered his face; with a hellish voyce, and a 
rattle in his hand, with most strange gestures and passions he 
began his invocation, and environed the fire with a circle of 
meale: which done three more such like dcvels came rushing 
in with like antique tricks, painted halfe blacke, halfe red; but 
all their eyes were painted white, and some red stroakcs like 
Mutchato's .ilong their cheeks; round about him those fiends 
dnunced a pretty while, and then came in three more as ugly 
as the rest, with red eyes and white stroakcs over their blacke 
faces; at last they all sat downe right against him; three of 
them on the one hand of the Chiefe Priest and three on the 
other. Then all with their rattles began a song; which ended 



THE AMERICAS" ASTIQtTARMW. 



theChiefc Priest layJ do 



whctUcnroFSi theo stnyniiiK 



1 haoUs with nuch viulcncr that he tweal, and hw 
i Bwellcd, he beftin a nhon Orations at the conclusion 
|lc>' all Rave a short i^rnanc; and then Liyd iluwii« three f^niiites 
' ■ ■ ■ (d then 



iting againe, am 



^more. Alter thai tj)*:y be^an Ihci 
Mother Oratitia, ever laying; dowue su iiiony corne* as before, 
till they hvi twice incirculcd the fire; thai <J<^>ne, the)- tooke 
a bunch of little atickcs prepared for that purpose, coatinuine 
still their devotion, and at tlie end uf every *(>n^ and Oration 
they layd downe a stickc betwixt the divtsions of cornc. Till 
ni(tht. neither he nor they did cither cat or ilrtnke, and then 
they feasted merrily, with the bn\ provision* they could uukc 
Three dayca they uicd this ceremony, the meaning whereof 
they told him wat to know if he intended them well or nn. 
Tlie circle of mcale signified their country, the circle* nl come 
the bounds of the >ca. and the iiicltcs hi* rounlry. Tlicy im- 
agined the world to be flat and round tike a trencher, aiw they 
in the midst." 

In this extiad we have, from l%n);litilt %ntirce% what ift prob- 
ably the earliest account of the secret cuotums nr shomuiisttc 
rites of the Indian medicine tnen of the Al(;>mkin tribes. I 
htive (-iven Smith't stor)' at length because in it I find the clue 
to the meanini; .ind the te%un\M for the ori|;in of (he term 
ramaiinkce. Ah >mith remark.*, and at I have before iiuoied: 
"Thnr ^wipal Tfmf4f pr fUft of Sti^mtitum is af Vttitiiutttt 
M fammmnktt. mtarf unln n'ti.A n a ktftur, TtmfU' cr Nstf #/ 
/Vti'AiiAwi.*' 

The constant and invariable hat)it of the K.njlish rxplorerv 
and settlers, who, when ha*m|; but a very impcrlect knuwledye 
of the language, wo* to molten or to abbreviate all detcriptive 
terms to tncir use and speech, without any regard whatever u 
to the sen^c or iiieaninf: in which it wa« uttered by the Indian* 



themselves. Therefore I believe "P-iri' 
troetion id the dt*c-riptive a(i|' I' 
Indians living on the Jainci and i 
hi- a*».»ciatc*, .ind that the whul- 
the iMiotation from Smith and ^' 
Ponvsunkee " Taking Ihi* as nur Kmd'". 
correct concluiifin, and Icavin); out the I- : 
which I believe wa^ undoubtedly err- 
Smith's amanuensi* and copied vervatim ft 
we then have the compound term or i:lu«; 
llive the form n' 



> he a ciMi- 

■ ■, the 




timt< occurring. 'I'tMiiin-uli 
^u) interpret a% i' 
"" or iwe in AIi; 
jbod. la wh: 

■hip. sitjnifyini; '^,: 

or mnuti. n mvcn by .Suiitli o^ 
"ccnert. orjplice of iccrccy." 
a iddcd. Tne terminal "ponti 



unl 



TirF. MYSTEKV IIK Till': SAMl-l I'AMISKKV. iq.i 

"to liiili-."' u><.-il l>y Kliot a- :m .iilK'i.'lival in llu- (orm "pirimkiiin:" 
lu-iKf wi- liinir ntl-amiiss'itii''/iamiiiiid;r. "M placi- <if si-crvcv 
ill thr vvi.ini>;"' .ir, lo In- in aiCun! with Smith, -a pKuo o'f 
■iupL-rsliticiii in tin: wi.o.l-.." 

S|n.-lman. hIio was ;i prisoiicr anion;; llu- V'ii'nini,! Hibi-s fur 
siitni' years, ami Ijicanu- an fxpcri in their l.iiii^iia^i', in his 
■kilatiim" (AHiit's Smith, |i. livj varii-s ihi- naim- as "I'tm-- 
miinkey;" Win-lk-lii in lii- ■■Oiso.urM-." i ll-M.. p. Ixxvi, | as 
•■I'amaonchc" 111 "I'aniainiki.;" rinil.iU i>ri his chart ( itmwns 
(icnois i.f the Initi;*! Mate*, p. i;Ol •I'aiiuiike;" wliile even 
Smith hini-elf is nnt alwa\s emislant in his spelliiit,' i)f the 
same. Tin: woni is pr>>l>aiily iilated U\ llie Ilelaware A'i>«- 
tvfiUiH. "lo steal awa\;" (ltclii]me. (,im,',Uk-. niv^teries, "it 
is a secret;" Cree, A7//i<7i//, ",i secret." The stroii;iest cormb- 
urati.m ot this stmly. h-.vicvei-. i> loutui al.iin.iantly .lisplayol 
in that store -hmise nf Ali^^oiiiiiiiaii knowleii^ie. Mliol'.s In/lian 
Hihle. vvliire it is i;i\cn in various grammatical forms, ami in 
its phonctie elements is .ilmost iilentieal with the whole I'ow- 
liatan cluster wur.i. I'or inst/mce, Eliot uses it in Isaiah 32: 2. 
in the ailjectival loriii ii( '■asiinipaniiikqne ayeiion;,fanit,"' a 
hitlinj; iilace; the sictiml word, ayiuonj^iinil. licinn of frc- 
i|iiiiit use liy Kliot, ami ileni-Its "a ilwelliii^f-placc." front aycu. 
"t-i .hvell," ivith the locative <i«j;rf/M/ In jol. ^o; :!i. he makes 
use ot nis,inif<imuhpitit, as an ttjvLivalont tor "in the cuvfrt." 
In Joli ju: jii. it ai»].ears with the prefix -if tin* third piTson 
singular ami the terminal of theeirhof niotiim in its simple 
(onii alsu in the third iierson singular. ;t'M/-<;jj(;w/^w«^'i/H(»A :';Ma/, 
■'where or when he is j,'oin;,' in his secret places." ISalnis J7; 5, 
Willi the hicative prefix ..r preposition before referred to. u't- 
iiSMimf-jmnkiiuoiitHl. "in the secret of:" wliile lastly I t'in<l it 
used as a verbal noun in I. tor. i;; ;i, in the fi>rm of ,ti,im/>ii- 
mid:/HM-, as the i-<iuiv.i!ent ti)r "a niysUTy. a secret thin^;." 
Thus, with this linguistic eviderue before us, ihe I'ouhatdii term 
may be treelv tr.mslate.i "at his place uf mystery," as such 
(h-s,-ribcs I'liwh-itaii's "plai-e ot superstition in the woods." as 
lulcd ovi r by the priisis ,<( the mystic nimibcr >cven. 



I 
t 



• 



t. 



i 



I 



294 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



Correspondence. 



MT. TAYLOR. 

Editor American Antiquarian: 

In the frontispiece (View from Mount Taylor) of The Amer- 
ican Antiquarian for July, 1895, X^" have, unknowingly I sup- 
pose, published a suitable illustration for an article of mine, 
which appeared over twelve years ago (April, 1883) in your 
periodical. The article is entitled "A Part of the Navajo's My- 
thology.*' After describing the destruction of the giant, 
Yeitso, by the warjgods. it says: "His head was chopped off and 
thrown to a distance, where it was transformed into a hill which 
stands to-day among the foot-hills of San Mateo." And later 
it says: "The only instruments of the first woman's vengeance 
now left were the followers of Veifso, the giantof San Mateo. They 
were numerous, and to effect their destruction was no easy task. 
After a long consultation the twins decided to try to raise a 
great storm. They took the wind-charm they had received in 
the house of the sun. This they put in a particular place, desig- 
• nated by the sun, and performed over it dances and incanta- 

.; tions. As a result of their devotions, a great tempest arose which 

t uprooted the highest trees and tossed, as if they were pebbles, 

■ the greatest rocks of San Mateo. In this tornado all the fol- 
: lowers of Yeitso perished." 

I San Mateo, as it is called by the Mexicans, Mount Taylor, as 

; it has been named by our people. Tsotsil, (Great Peak) as it 

; is known to the Navajos, is one of the sacred mountains of the 

■ Navajo country. It is 11,389 feet high. The map of the U. S. 
] Geological Survey limits the name Mount Taylor to the high- 
; est peak and preserves the name "San Mateo mountains" for 
j the whole mountain mass; but other authorities do not do this. 
J In your picture to which I refer, may be seen represented in 

the middle distance three hills, two conical and one a trun- 
cated one. They are of black lava rock, very distinct in appear- 
ance from the bluffs and mesas of stratified rock which sur- 
round them. There are many more such pinnacles around the 
base of Mount Taylor. 

These lava hills are believed by the Navajos to be the heads 
of Veitsj and his followers, who were destroyed by the war- 
gods. The largest of all is called £t Cabczon (the Great Head) 
by the Mexicans, and this is the one which the Navajos think 
is the head of Yeitso himself. Respectfully yours, 

W.ASHINGTON MaTTHEWS. 



I 
■ I 



MUSEUMS AND COLLICCTIONS. 2r^ 



Editorial. 



MUS!:UMS AND COLLECTIONS. 

The editor of TiiK Amkrican Anthjuakian had the oppor- 
tunity of visiting several museums and libraries during; the 
month of September, and noticing tlie progress which has been 
made. The following notes are the results of this visit: Cleve- 
land was thr first place which was reached. Here is the His- 
torical Society of the Western Reserve, which has long been 
known lor its activity in the arch;i!ological field, the veteran 
archarologist, Col. C. Whittlesey, having been for a long time 
the president, and Judge C. C. Baldwin, the ethnologist, the 
secretary, both of them now deceased. One of the problems 
which has been before this society and betore the archaeologists 
was in reference to the lories, and the sites which they occupied. 

The society has recently received a large number of relics 
which were exhumed near the mouth of the Chagrin River, at 
Willoughby. Ohio. Tiiey were taken from beneath the surface 
by Mr. Joseph Worden. .\m\ consisted c f hammers, chisels, 
rude axes, tablets, tubes, thumb and finger stones, arrow-sharp- 
eners, bunc fish-hooks, beads, pottery, rude pipes with faces en- 
graved upon them, bone awls, and perforated shells. Most of 
these are verv similar to those which were taken from the shelter 
caves at Klyria a few years ago by Mr. Baldwin, but the engrav- 
ings on the pipes and pottery are similar to those which are 
common in New York state. The faces are like Iroquois faces. 
The Lries were known to be a branch of the Iroquois stock. 
This >hows th.it the relics were left here bv the Eries, and s<) 
helps us \t) identify twu of the localities where they had their 
villages. Prof Warren L'[)liam, who is at present the custodian, 
is very mui'h inlereNted in the find ami in the fact that the Eries 
can be identified. 

At Muffdii a discussion hcis been going on as to the loca- 
tion of the ship-yard where the (iriflfin was built. Mr. Rem- 
mingt«)n and nthrrs have been studying the subject and have 
published pamphlets. There :rits a design on toot to erect a 
monument mu the >p"t. Certainty ha-^ not been reached and the 
monument i-i delayeil. bit tlu* literature is accumulating. The 
rooms t»f the Acadeniv ol .science and of the Historical So- 
cicty were unfortunately «.l«)scd. tiro>vcnor Library was just 
moving into a beautiful am! roomy building and was already as- 
suming a very elegant appearance. There is in this library a 



■ 



296 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

fine collection of early maps, which, through the courtesy of the 
librarian, was laid open for inspection, notwithstanding the un- 
settled condition of the books. 

At Albany there is a fine collection of relics in the Geolog- 
ical and Agricultural buildings. Some of the relics are from the 
Iroquois country, but the largest part are from the Pacific Islands, 
and from China and Alaska, and called the Wilier collection. 
There is need of an ethnologist here, for a Fiji war club with its 
round head, sharp point, and curved handle, ought not to be 
classed with the Iroquois weapons ot war; nor should the image 
of the Egyptian god Bes be placed among the Chinese idols. 
The Iroquois mask in the cabinet is a duplicate o^ the one which 
has often been portrayed, but has some new symbols. The 
nucleus of a fine collection of Iroquois stone relics and of the 
ancient costumes of the Indians may be seen here. What is 
needed is an appropriation from the state and the appointment of 
a first-class custodian. The library in the capitol building, how- 
ever, atones for all neglect in the museum. The arrangement of 
the books in this library speaks well for Mr. Melville Dewey's 
system, and the large collection of books on Americana speaks 
well also for the liberality of the state. Mr. Bisco, the assistant 
librarian, was very polite and opened up the treasures in a won- 
derful manner. 

The University of Vermont, situated at Burlington, has a fine 
local collection of stone relics, which has been gathered by the 
industry of Prof. W. S. Perkins. Descriptions of these relics 
have been published through the American Naturalist Along 
with this should be mentioned the smaller collection at Platts- 
burgh, N. Y., which Dr. H. S. Kellogg has been gathering. 

At Springfield, Mass., there is a fine library of 95 ,000 vol umes, and 
j a beautiful art building, both under the charge of Dr. Rice, the 

I city librarian. At Worcester there are two buildings devoted 

to antiquities. The oldest one is full of a fine collection of books, 
maps, and manuscripts owned by the American Antiquarian 
Society, which is the oldest society of the kind in America. In 
i this collection may be found a copy of the very valuable reprint 

by Dr. Forstermann, of the Dresden Codex. This is the most 
interesting object, for there were only about fifty copies pub- 
lished — and there are but a iew copies in this country. Stephen 
Salisbury is a liberal patron, and has done much toward building 
up this unique collection ot books. Mr. E. M. Barton, a very 
courteous gentleman, is the librarian. The Museum of Local 
Antiquities is in a building by itself. There is not much 
ethnology and scarcely any prehistoric archrcology in this col- 
lection; but for the relics of early historical days it is very 
valuable. Mr. Salisbury is also a patron of this institution. 
The Free Public Library, of which Mr. S. S. Green is the librarian, 
and the library of the Clark University should be mentioned in 



MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS. 397 

this connection. At Boston the Public Library, with its mass of 
books hidden from sight, and its large reading rooms and stately 
halls, is the first place geneially visited. The art building, with 
its fine collection of paintings and statuary and l-ric-a brae, will 
be the next. The Athenaeum, with its cosy reading-room, sur- 
rounded by book.s and maps on all sides, and polite attendants 
everywhere present, will be the place where one will want to 
stay. It is both reslfuU and full of work. The Geneaological 
Society and the Congregational Library rooms should be visited 
by the antiquarian, for there are treasures here which can be 
found nowhere else. At Harvard there is the finest collection 
of old maps in America. The one who gains access to the room 
in which they are kept will want weeks and months — even years 
instead of hours — to learn what depths of information can be 
found. Fortunately Dr. Justin Winsor has been engaged in 
"deep sea sounding" here, and has given us the result in his various 
books. 

The crowning place of all is, however, in the Peabody Museum, 
Archasology reigns supreme. The words of the Queen of 
Sheba to King Solomon after she had visited his palace arc 
appropriate here — "The half has not been told me." There are, 
in this museum, splendid collections of statues and fragments 
of sculptured blocks from Honduras, casts of altars, gateways 
and faijades from the ancient cities, specimens of art, grotesque, 
^//oH/iV/faces, but finely wrought and genuine surprises. The col- 
lection from the Northwest Coast is also very fine. Such spears 
made from obsidian as one rarely sees — a spk-ndid and typical col- 
lection of carved specimens. The relics from the stone graves and 
from the mound.s are very numerous and very systematically 
arranged. The costumes and ethnological tokens which have 
been gathered from the living tribes arc very numerous. The 
sacred pole of the Omahas described by Miss Fletcher in this 
number is here for safe keeping. Everywhere in these rooms one 
is reminded of the wonderful diversity which existed among the 
Indian tribes. We speak of the Indians as if they were all alike. 
There is indeed a unity amid diversity, but the diversity is very 
impressive. Prof F. W. Putnam is the soul of this institution. 
He has done a splendid work during the last twenty-five years 
— a work which has been felt throughout the entire country. 
The nucleus of the Field Museum was gathered by him. He 
is doing much toward the building up of the ethnological depart- 
ment of the Museum of Natural History in New York, but his 
best work is in the Peabody Museum. 



THE AMEKICAN ANTIQUARIAN 



THK MEETING OF THE AMKRICAN .\SSOCIATION AT 
SPRINGFIELD. 

The last session of the American Auociation was held aX 
Sptianfield, Mass., from AuguM iflth to September 4th. It 
proved to be very intercrting. but was not very largely attended, 
as many of the piomincnt ecologivls anJ archxulogiM* wen 
oonaplciious by their absence. Tlte prcjtdcnt's addrc» vru pre* 
pared by l>r. Itnntun, who was in Europe, beini; unrorlunalety 
detained by the illness of his tvife, but il Was read in a masterly 
way by the secretary-, Henry flowr.and atade a marked imprcs* 
tion on the targe and iatelligcnt audjeticc. The general acaf tons 
were held in Itic hall of the V, M. C A. buildiof;, which is a fine 
structure and conveniently located. The »e3*ioni of Section 
II (Anlhropolog>') were held in thi* hall, while the other sections 
had ihcir mrelin;;» in the Art bmldinc the StAte St. Baptist 
Church, the Hifih SthooMiiiildioK. the I'ansh House of Chrirt 
Church Atiil the Kvsngcltil Hall, all nf which were convenient of 
acccas. It was manifat at the outset that anthropology would 
be in the aicenilency, as it was at the last meeting at Maduoo. 
Mr. P. H. Cuthing was ihe presiding officer, and Mr. Stewart 1 
CulJn, of Philadelphia, the secretary of Section H. The pro- 
gram was very full and the papers read were very interesling. noe 
only to (he members of the Section, but to (he targe audience 
which continued lo fill the hall through the entire week. The 
Rrat paper read wa\ by Mr. F. H Curbing on tlie DynaMy of ibe 
Arrow, which wa* followed by three papers read by Stewart 
Culin; one on ihe Origin of Playing Cards, antriher 4m tbe 
Origin of Money in China, and another on the Muitach Stick* 
of the Ainui Tt»r«< pa{>er« seemeii to dove tail lotctbcr, and 
drew out the comment thjt they proved a prc-hi5lonc contact 
between lite inluhilant* u( the tiitcnor and (be eaily people oC 
Northe.i'^tcrn Aiia and China, si Ihe symbiihsm w-is very simi- 
lar on both ctintincnts The arrow was treated 6rst in its me- 
chanical dcvclopmcni. second in its social influence, and third ki 
its symbolic significance. Under ibc last head there wa* coosid*^ 
erabic discussion, hut a very important point was crowded out 
intrusively. The arrow, the lightning, anH the serprol arc 
identical in their symbolism, and so the Arrow DynaHy intro* 
duces Ihtee cult* — the serpent being the moat sigmAcaot Mud i 
moit beset wiih clbnological problems. Tlte paper by Mr. Joha ' 
C. Eioufkc on some Arabic SutMi,!- in iiu- I^im/...!-- jh.I f'n" 
usage of the Rio Grande ^ 
of "contact" There are som 
qucvliod of coouet which arc ' 



MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 299 

notice of the archaeologists, but they are as constantly explained 
away to make room for the theory of parallel development. 

The papers on the Sacred Pole of the Omaha Tribe, by Miss 
C. Fletcher, and on the Mystery of the Name Pamunkey, by 
William Wallace Tooker, were read on Monday and gave very 
excellent satisfaction. These two papers are published in the 
present number. Our readers will enjoy the opportunity of 
studying them at their leisure. A very curious and interest- 
ing paper was also read on Monday. In it the engravings 
contained in the bone implements which were exhumed from 
the Hopewell Mounds, but which have never been analyzed, 
were explained. This paper was by Prof. Putnam. He exhibited 
a number of diagrams which, presented the minute, finely 
wrought figures on a very large scale. By this means the striking 
resemblances were easily recognized between those figures and 
symbols, which are common, both on the northwest coast 
and among the mounds of the Gulf states. His theory is that 
the same race had spread through the west and south, carrying 
their symbols with them. - This race differed from the aborigines 
of the north and east. On Tuesday morning a very learned 
paper on the Sociological Statistics of Europe as a branch of 
anthropomorphism of geography, was read by Wm. C. Ripley, 
of the School of Technology of ISoston. The paper by Miss 
Alice C. Fletcher on Indian Songs and Music, and the one by 
F. H. Gushing on Spider Goddess and the Demon Snare were in 
the direct line of American mythology and anthropology. The 
one by Mr. R. G. Haliburton on the Influence of Pre-historic 
I'igmy Races on Earth Calendars and Cult?i carried the audience 
afield. The account ol the Discovery of a Ciiippcd Chert Imple- 
ment in Undisturbed Glacial Gravel near Steubenville, Ohio, by 
F, G. Wright, drew in a large audience Tuesday afternoon, as it 
was expected that there would be considerable discussion, Sec- 
tion E. having adjourned and many of the geologists being pres- 
ent. The specimen was brought in, the location of the find was 
shown by Prof. Wright. Prof Putnam examined the relic and 
pronounced it paiaeolithrc, as it was covered with the patina, and 
had the form characteristic of palaeolithic relics. The members 
of the Section did not see the specimen and consequently no dis- 
cussion was held. Prof. Sjjencer stated that in his opinion the 
gravel in which it was found was older than that of the Trenton 
in which so many relics have been found. According to the pro- 
gram this paper should havcl)cen followed by another upon a kin- 
dred topic, viz; The Paleolithic Cult, its Characteristic Variations 
and Tokens. This would have brought in the whole subject of 
palcolithics, which should havebeendiscusscd, the two sides being 
presented; but the order w.is chin;jed and two long papers in- 
tervened which occupied the remainder of the day. These papers 
were interesting in themselves, but as they treated of subjects 



300 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

which were not consecutive they failed to carry the thought as 
far along as was designated or expected. This is the fault with 
the Section on Anthropology — the subjects are not arranged and 
discussed on days accorded to different departments. On Wednes- 
day morning the paper on the Characteristic of the Palaeolithic 
Age was read and discusssed at considerable length. The 
papers following this were as follows : A Study in Child Life, 
by L. O. Talbot. The Indians of Southern California, by Franz 
Boas. The Cosmogonic Gods of the Iroquois, by J. W. B. 
Hewitt. Word Formation in the Kootenay Language, by Alex. 
F. Chamberlain. Kootenay Indian Personal Names, by Alex. 
F. Chamberlain. 

The Section was fortunate in having so able and courteous a 
presiding ofHcer as Mr. Cushing was. His resources of thought 
and facts are very great, but it is not often that they are drawn 
out so fully for the benefit of the specialists. We shall hope to 
give our readers the article on the Spider Goddess and the 
Demon Snare in a future number. We have the promise also 
of articles from Mr. Stewart Culin. The chief advantage of the 
session at Springfield was that so many from the other sections 
came in and took part in the discussion on anthropology — all 
of them in a very friendly spirit. Prof. E. D. Cope, who was 
elected president for next year, honored the Section by coming 
frequently into the room and giving the result of his knowledge 
as to the extinct animals in America. In fact Section H could 
boast the honor of having the president of the association and 
the permanent secretary among its members, and having the 
the president-elect present in special discussions. 

The discussions took a wide range and it was sometimes 
interesting to see how many points would come in from the 
diflFerent specialists; Mythology, sociology, biology or natural 
history, philology, ethnology, all having a share in the depart- 
ment of anthropology, but all blended together beautifully as 
one took in the whole program and got a perspective at a dis- 
tance. It is a grand science and is growing apace. The city of 
Springfield is elegant and beautiful. The entertainment was 
princely. The excursions to Northampton, Amherst, and Mt. 
Holyoke, were very delightful. The opportunity of meeting the 
citizens in their homes, and in their churches and public places, 
and enjoying the hospitality of the people was very gratifying. 

The only sad feature was that so,many of our noble workers in 
various departments have dropped away, one after another, within 
a few years. The vice-president of the Madison meeting. Rev. 
J. O. Dorsey, has gone during the year. Col. Garrick Mallery, 
who has always been so courteous and so instructive, was greatly 
missed. We have been saddened since the meeting by the 
tidings of the accident which occurred to Professor Riley, the 
entemologist, who was one of the first to arrive, the last to leave» 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. 



and seemed unusually kindly in his bearing. This has happened 
several times, for it was after the Boston meeting that Hon. L. H. 
Morgan and Prof. S. S. Haldeman suddenly ceased their work. 
And so after the Madison and Springfield meetings beloved 
co-workers have taken their departure. 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES. 
By Alhrrt S. Gatschkt, Washinoton, D. C. 

Jo.SRPH NicOLAR was an Indian of the Penobscot tribe settled on islands 
in the Penobscot River, Maine, and counting about 400 people. These 
Indians are quite industrious and inventive; they construct birch bark 
canoes and manufacture basketry of very neat patterns, which they sell 
either at the neighboring town of Old Town, or at the watering places of 
the seaside of the New England coast. The Penobscot Indians adhere to 
the Roman Catholic faith, which was planted among them in the beginning 
of the eighteenth century. Mr. Nicolar bad made it a life-task lo study, 
publish and propagate the folklore of hts own people and in 1893 published 
to this effect "The Life and Traditions of Iht Red Man." It is an interesting 
collection of 147 pages, which for graphic (jualities and duency of style 
rivals any similar production of the white man. It descr:bes the ancient 
cifsioms and beliefs, not of the Indian in general, as the title would make 
us believe, but only of the Abn^ikis or Xew England Indians of Algonkin 
race and language, who ate subdivided into Penobscots, Passama(|uoddieg, 
Micmacs and St. Francis Indians. The main figure in these stories is 
Gluikap, their chief deity and law-giver, who unites with his divine power 
and oratory the qualities of a clown, liar and deceiver. Several aboriginal 
religions have their main deities clothed in this sa-.ic ragamuflinar FalslafF 
garb, and instances of these are Manabo^ho or Ninebush— the great rabbit 
— of the OjibwC, Sinti among the Kiowas, and Kmukdmtch among the 
Klamaths of Oregon. There is no doubt but that they are delHcalions of 
the sun and sky, of the winds and storms, and of the seasons of the year. 
The name of Gluskap is the usual Abn.lk' term for liar and dereiver, but it 
is rather difKcult to discover his real appellation when Nic >lar writes him 
'Klos-kur-beh.' The book shows a remarkable effort on the part of an 
Indian to explain to the white man his peculiar manners and ways in life 
and religion, and the face of the author, of whom a goad portrait is addeil 
as frontispiece, shows the earnestness of his purposes. The preface is 
dated Old Town, Maine, but the book was printed at Bangor. The gified 
author is no longer among the living, for he exchanged this sublunar world 
for a better one in the month of February, 1894. 

Dr. Edward .Srlek has just published an important antiquarian illus- 
trated sketch on remains recently discovered in Guatemala, and the 
Mexican state of Chiapas. These anii(|uities are ruins of buildings, picio- 
graphs, tombs or pyramids and sculptural objects, ornaments on buildings, 
etc. Some of the localities are Sacule-u, Masapa, IximchL-, Kalamle, 
Pasojon, Comitancillo, Zacualpa.l.as Mercedes, andsiiforth, the article hav- 
ific aoneared in Vol. W . No. i. of ihe"\'err)ffcntlichun)cen aus dem Konier- 



302 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

lichen Museum (iir Voikerkunde, Berlin, Reimer, 1895. This splendid period- 
ical appears in large folio size and contains articles of the l^est scientists 
only. In the first number is also printed the catalogue of a collection of 
idols, fetishes and priestly paraphernalia of the Zuni of New Mexico by 
our Frank H. Cushing^ (pp. 10, profusely illustrated) and translated into 
German. Follows an account by the specialist Dr. Carl Sapper, on " An- 
cient Indian Settlements m Guatemala and Chiapas/' with map and ten 
plates, all described from personal inspection and surveys. 

Languages of Brazil. — During the last decennium the Indian 
languages of Central Brazil have been assiduously studied by native as well 
as by foreign linguists, who have conducted expeditions into these "dark" 
countries. The grammar of the Bakairi language by the famous 
explorer, Dr. Karl von den Steinen, is described as a model of 
Indian linguistics by those who have seen and studied it. Dr. Paul 
Ehrenreich, of Berlin, has in his numerous trips been busy to collect all 
information he was able to obtain on the long and short stops' among the 
aborigines which time allowed him to make. A. The Carayd language of 
the state of Goyaz is the subject of one of his articles and is published in 
the "Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie," 1894, on thirty-two pages. This people is 
the most important nation of the middle Araguaya river and does not be- 
long to the family of the Ges languages, as was formerly supposed. The 
syllables are built up on the principle, that of its two components a consonant 
is always followed by a vowel. From the doctor's notes it appears that the 
noun distinguishes no gender, case, nor number, and has no real adiectives. 
Substantives are verbified by appendmg ne or na, and the distinction 
between noun and verb is more accurate here than in many other South 
American languages. The printed vocabulary is rather considerable and 
IS remarkable through the difference observed between the dialect of the 
men and the women. B, Cayapo is spoken in many countries extending 
between the Araguaya and the Tocantins as far as Par^ and the middle 
course of the Parana River. Most of them live in entire independence 
from the white population, and in the Cayapo we have to recognize the 
most important portion of the Gcs race. Many Cayapo tribes have not yet 
been visited by explorers. The grammatic structure appears to show 
similarity with that of Caraya. Ehrenreich secured an extensive vocabu- 
lary of the Cradaho tnbe, which pertains to the northern portion of the 
nation; a few words of the Ushikrin and of a dialect of the southern 
Cayapo. Printed in the "Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologie, 1894," pp. 35-57. C 
Another fascile of the same periodical, 1895, PP- 61-88. contains notes upon 
the languages of the Chavantes and Cherentes Indians, who call them- 
selves Akuii and belong to the Ges linguistic family. The former live on 
the shores of the Rio das Mortes, the latter on the middle Tocantins. Fol- 
low vocabularies of the Guajajara and Anambc of the state of Para and 
differing but little from the lingua gcral or colloquial form of the Tupi. A 
few notes on the Apiac:'i of the same state, who belong to the CaraTb con- 
nection, close this interesting series. 

From Samukl Lafone Quevedo, M. A., the Argentinian investigator, 
we have a linguistic study of the Lule language spoken in a part of the 
Chaco. This tongue is frequently mentioned along with the Tonocote. It is 
spoken in the same portion of territory and resembles it in its remarkable 



ETHNOGRAPHIC NOTES.] 303 

modeof aulfixation. Quevedohas made bis researches not from these Indians 
themselves, but from the writings of the grammarian Antonio Machoni, a 
Jesuit (aiher. Quevedo's treatise is not what we may cail a gram'nar, but 
consi-ts tather of grammatic notes based on his system of radicals. This 
study is followed by a Lule-Spanish dictionary of considerable extent and 
by a short catechism with interlinear translation in Spanish. The book was 
primed in Buenos Ayres, i8<}4, holds 14; pages and Is entitled: Loi Lulrs- 
Estiidio filologico y Calepino Lule-Castellano, seguido del catecismo. 
Vademecum para el arte y vocabular del P. A. Machoni. Separately printed 
(mm the "Boletin del Instituto GeograAco Argentine, tomo .W., pp. 183 sq. 

"Etknologisches Notizblatt" is a periodical issued by the direction 
of the Royal Museum of Ethnology in Berlin and destined to inform the 
literary public of the doings of that institution. Number second, which lies 
before us, contains fourteen partly illustrated articles and communications 
made to the museum, e. g., canoe -sculptures from New Zealand, Mount 
Meru, list of Siamese books and manuscripts received, antiquities of Gua- 
temala (by Dr. E. Seler), latest news of African exploration, correspond- 
ence of Ur. Ubie. The report contains )5g pages, with plates, and is 
published by A. Haack, Berlin. Another publication by the director of the 
museum, Adolf Bastian, Is "Ethniscbe Elementargedanken", Berlin, Weld- 
inann, i8q;, octavo. Two sections of it have appeared up to the present 
day. 

Ornamentation qv tkr Evifs is customary among several people of 
foreign parts, and frequently they transfer these ornaments from Iheir facial 
traits to the sculpture and carvings intended to represent the human form. 
The present incumbent to tl^e directorship of the civic museum of eth- 
nography in Bremen, German Empire, has made a special study of this 
pictorial and sculptural feature and has gathered his notes in an article 
published in the Transact, Royal Society of Sienccs of Saxony, philoso- 
phic-historic class, Vol. ijth, 1895, illust., No. 11, on ninety-seven page? 
under the title: rlinrich Schurlz, Dai Augenoniamenl unil ver-aiandU 
probleme. Polynesia and the northwest coast of America are especially rich 
in the most fanciful forms of this sort of artistic display. 

Although the literature of hypnotism seems extensive already it 
increases every year through the rapid advance in hypnotic discovery. 
The best book composed on it in iS(j4 is by Dr. Otto Stoll, professor in 
Zurich, who, in his "Suggestion und Hypnotismus in der V'ilkerpsychol- 
ngie," published by K. F. Koehter, Leipzig, '189A, pp. jzj, has attempted 
a complete survey of this class oE disorders among all the nations of 
the globe, with frequent historic retrospects. The oracles of Greece, 
the Eleusinian and other mysteries, the suggestive effect of dreammg 
and of sleeping in templei and tombs, the ravings of the Maenads and 
Bacchantes are minutiously described and their influence traced upon the 
lite and religion of the people. On North America Sioli's sketches arc 
rather exhaustive — he speaks of the excitement produced by camp and bush 
meetings, the laughing epidemics of the Wesleyans, the "rolling exercise" 
and the "jerks" of the Puritans— all these phenomena prove the close con- 
nection between religious and sexual sensuality. Space is too small to say 
more, but those who try to gauge the value of ihe Dook should read lirsl 
what Stoll says about the Muckers of Kiinigsbetg, the Italian fanatic Laz- 
zaretti. the Morelsichiki and the Skopzi of Russia. 



THC AMCKICAl* MmOVAItlAM. 



IHMJK REVIEWS. 
Cknmttlii !•/ H^t^tr U'jr/art , a Hittnry ri ibe AeuJemeni by U»e Ulilia 
fit Kotibvetieto Virginia, and «( ibe ladiut W^n kftd MuMcrc* ib 
Uwt Srctwn of th< HiMt: with R«A«clttiin«, AMCd«tn, Elc- by Alct- 
kodcr ScMl Wiihen. A new cililloo, atHod uid Acnateied liy Reubm 
Gohl TfcwailM, SerielBfy uf the WiKiibtiti IIi«idnaI Society, editur 
of Witi-OBfin HMiatfcal ColltcilAni, ■nd Auibor [>( "Tbi ColiintM, <«us- 
I7JO." "HitlorlG Watemri,'* ■•SiAfrot WiK-i'ciin,- «c. With Ui< wA- 
ditiaa ai a memoir oi the auihw. amj teirefnl ilJuMiative sotet, bv the 
Ula L)Biui C«p«Uim1 Draptr. autbur of "Kinc'* MobduId umI lu 
Hrraei," "Antoinipb Collectiont a( ibe Siincrt, etc. R rn, 167 p*(«i> 
Clutb, li-sa 1m Rplicrl CLuhi CooifMBy. 

Tht* hiuarT ftl the wcucra hniiler was onginaJly pahllibed at Oatke*- 
bury in nonhiaiwnTi V'lrftnia. in i0ji, and at tbt tlinccrvainl wtdctprcad 
alieniitin. Il wa* read al tnan^ a country Are-vxle iniHl everr copy waa 
wain out I1T OHisUnl uk. It tua be«n far a lonR tlnie uul >•( prini, iMt i% 
republiibtd ttr Ibe Robert Clarke Co, with • metninr of the aolbor fay Dr. 
Lytnan C. Draper. an<l ontcf b; Renhea fJoM Tbwaitc*. The anlbor be- - 
^R« with the reeoaniinit u( tbc vatimi* Ibeorie* In reference la the oriflnaf 
ibclndtaiH. He ibeti KXrciaa analy>ti til the lo«lUn chatacicf , Ixu tti«' . 
bo*]/ of tbe Imih k taken np with dnrripiinnt ut iBdi'ri'liLali and fatniUci 
wh(> lived on thr (funlMi >idJ eipenenccd many hard*blpt and danftrv, 
and witli a <lctailr<l n>frjtiirr of the vanons Irafeilie* Ibou^b wbich ibcf 
pBkMd. Thit nuf rarive i» Kiven tn a verv jfraphtr nyk. Il boI ooly pre- 
■caii (be CbroakiM oi nordc* Warfare, b«( all the laodenU. It n 
cipcciaDr itrapbic wben tbe rrvelilva of U»e iDdiao* arc broafbt «uL Tha 1 
faraih U (aid lo be auibenlk, ibi>u«h winie \A the talea «t cnMllr aeeni toM 
hontblc for belief. I'hcre 1* very lutlc In tbi boob wtaicb can be nfatdwl 
aa apolaeeiic lot ib« Indun. and wbai i* a tiitlc mrprlt^ ibcM la bmA 
m (li« note* wbicb reJ>caei tti« ilatkncM nf ilt« pirtut. Kvcn Ibfl i ciilh t i 
■laugblcT iif the M'Hinaa Indtam by the white men (■ aptiken of Id a WSf ' 
(opaiually e*caw Ibi actnl Iba wfatic tdtlen wbo VHHcd tbaw nc*ttpMt> 
an innocent party ol Chritiian lodtana. Sitit there i* fa bank nt cbmm 
tbdt b«» fitcn a cicam new ol ib« ■uuf f !«• tbivu<b w^cb ibt M/lf mUI 
p — m J, and peibapa no book that contained a better tBonMary of die an 
«4ild> Bccmtn). Tbc namaa af ib« pmaniocot aaora in ihnaa ibwiii « 
fortncfly lika b»ue-hnld worda^ and have a ckanu for many a bd rd di^ ^ 
ptvaaal un«-. Tbe bravery ol Daniel Itonnt, llM daitn* ■( J«e 
Rtifet* Clatk, Uw Mitettao ol Col. Crawford, the imchery and miliw 
nf SiiBuo Tilny, tbc tirai* dnd* ut Gen. ADlboay Wayne at* htn^fcl 
fw nair adnuraiioB, wbite in ibe back -frmind tbcic laauy nnntbcr ■! [iili w rf' J 
iiidlTttlnal* and noMe cbaracicn wbkti w««M bare ranalnod ■nkjin— 
orpi lor tbe pctlence ol ibii auhor tn Marchuif ooi ihoi biatury Mid f^ j 
cmuiiinK thtif capliHi* and aMtlettnfA II in ptafanbla iknl ib« abMcb* al ' 
tW B«r>l •:hancieT>. u ««!) a* tbe r«ciMinttB< at tbc iTajt*>l'*n> *(U cmm ~ 
tbi* bwok to (i« taken ap ata«i and rend oitb ai BMcfa atufity aa it w«i 
(Uly and <iiiy T«Br« i^iL TU|» if itaboold vcrar. would p>T>L)at>'r 1e»d Ad ■ 
proem ccncimitoe U> apfpfectatc tbc cAwia W the cult witleraiJ ll 



BOOK REVIEWS. .wj 

MisBiMippi valley, and to cherish their names and memories. The portraits 
of these individuals who constitute the ancestors of many of the families 
which still make their home in this valley arc worthy of study. 



Evolution," "The Chain of Life in GenloRical Time." Flemin(t H. 
Kevell Company, New York, Chicago, Toronto; The Religious Tract 
Society, London, 218 pages. 

The meeting place of two sciences is defined by the author, who say^, 
"We have now very complete data for tracing the earth from its original 
formless or chaotic stale through a number of formative and preparatory 
Stages up to its modern condition, but perhaps the parts of its history least 
clearly known, especially to general readers, are those that relate to the be- 
];innii][; and the end of the creative work." He also says the science of 
roan covers both the old prehistoric ages as revealed by geology and arch- 
Eology and the more modem world which is still present and of which we 
have written records, but its date is acknowledged to be uncertain, for little 
is known concerning it. The history of the earth before the human period 
and its condition at man's introduction Is very obscure. The earliest traces 
of man are still in dispute. Flints, supposed to be worked, have been 
found in France in the upper and midd e miocene. There are instances of 
human bones in the pleiocenc. Ills mamtained that the skulls found in 
the auriferous gravels in Western America are genuine and belong to ihe 
pleiocene age. These, however, are still all in dispute. The autlior grants 
that man appeared in Western Asia and Kurope at the clo^c of the glacial 
period, for it is proven by the remains of paleocosmic men in river beds, in 
caves and in other localities, and especially in the association with the 
bones oE extinct animals. An illustration is found in the cave of Goyet in 
Belgium. Here the bones of the cave lion and the cave bear were found 
on the lowest layer; on the second layer hyenas, wolf, rhinoceros, mam- 
moth, wild horse, wild ox, Irish stag and a few human bones gnawed l>y the 
hyenas. The remaining surfaces presented work-flinis, ornaments and evi- 
dence of the use of fire. Thus man was contemporary with the extinct ani- 
mals m Europe. Other cases arc referred to and the names are given. To 
illustrate: Tbe Old Man of Cromagnon was said to be of great stature, 
being nearly six feet higli; he had an enormous thigh bone, long akull, 
broad face and projecting cheek bones. The interments of men of the Ci>n- 
siadt race at Spy, Belgium, described by Fraipont and Lohesi, are pm- 
nounced palaeolithic and palii^anihropic by Sir William Dawson. The end 
of the palosolithic age, he thinks, was convulsive and marked by great 
geological vicissitudes, and its submergence, le.iding to the vast destruction 
of animal life, changes and climate and new conditions, in which tbe 
paleolithic or neanthropic age was introduced. At the beginning of this age 
man lived in caves and the reindeer still existed. The caves of Furfooi 
and of Frontal in Belgium are specimens. 

Sir William Dawson identifies the antcdeluvians of Genesis with tbe old- 
est men of geological and arcb^vological science and inclines to the opinion 
that the deluge was universal in the sense of being a submersion of the 
whole of the land, cither by subsidenceor by elevation oE the ocean bed. In 
this respect he aiirees with, and perhaps anticioates, Ihe oositions of Pro- 



it; 



306 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

fessor Prestwich, who holds that this submergence occurred between the 
paleolithic and neolithic age and accounts for the contrasts between the < 
skulls and the skeletons and the works of art by this means. This also is a 
position which many of the American naturalists are reaching, although the 
bones of extinct animals are found here in lower strata, but without the 
presence of man, the bones and remains of man in the caves being pro 
nounced by all as very modern, in fact resembling the modem Indian. This 
book furnishes a good resume of the whole subject and will undoubtedly be 
sought for as the latest work published. It is illustrated by a number of 
wood cuts presented in a convenient form. 

The Gospel of Buddha, According to Old Records, told by Paul Cams. 
Third revised edition. The Open Court Publishmg Co., 324 Dearborn 
street, Chicago. 

When Arnold's "Light of Asia" first appeared it was criticised as present- 
mg the system of Buddhism under the garb of Christianity, Buddha him- 
self being made to appear very much like Christ — the Savior of the world. 
The author of this book says in the preface that " all the essential moral 
truths of Christianity are deeply rooted in the nature of things. Buddha 
also bases his religion upon man's knowledge of the nature of things. A 
comparison of the many striking agreements will, in the end, only help to 
mature our insight into the essential nature of Christianity. It will bring 
out the nobler Christianity which aspires to be the cosmic religion of uni- 
versal truth." 

The quotations and selections from the sacred books are evidently with 
this point in view. The author endeavors to present the "Gospel of Buddha'* 
as perhaps nearly equal to that of Christ. The question, however, is 
whether the book properly represents the system of Buddhism and 
whether the system as it really exists can be compared to Christianity. 
There is certainly no revelation of the future in Buddhism, and so it can 
not properly be called a "Gospel." The life and character of Buddha» 
whether presented in the poem of Arnold or the prose of this author seem 
very beautiful and striking, but the teachings about the supernatural and 
eternal world are very different from those contained in the Scriptures. 
One is charmed in reading the book, but he will, after all, turn to the life 
and teachings of Christ as far more satisfactory and nearer to the standard 
of thought which has been reached by the enlightened minds of those 
living in christian countries. Sectarianism is an objection to Christianity, 
but there are many sects among the Buddhists. We are not persuaded to 
accept Buddha as a teacher, notwithstanding the charming manner in 
which his teachings are compiled and presented by the able and learned 
author. 

Lakes of North America. A reading lesson for students of geography and 
geology. By Israel C. Russell, Professor of Geology University of 
Michigan. Boston, U. S. A., and London: Ginn & Co. 1895. 

The first chapter of this book gives a summary of the causes which hare 
produced lakes, as follows: Depressions in new land areas; atmospfieric 
agencies; aqueous agencies; glacial agencies, especially moratns; volcanic 
agencies; impact of meteors, earthquakes, landslides, chemical actioft. 
The third chapter speaks of the lake shores under the name of sea-cltffs; 
terraces, embankments, deltas, ice-built walls. The fourth chapter speaks 



BOOK REVIEWS. 307 

of the diGFerent kinds of Ulces — the Uurentian, the mounUin, the uline, 
and among these mention is made of Lake Superior, Lake Tahoe, Lake 
Chelan, the Great Salt Lake. The pleistocene lakes are treated of in the 
sixth chapter aod their geological history is portrayed. Among these are 
the lakes of Laurentian Ba«a, also Lakes Agassii, Bonneville and Labon- 
tan. This part of the book is the most iotereslinf and the most valuable, 
for it bringt out man)* new facts. There is in it a brief review of the the- 
ories that have been held as to the former drainage oF the Great Lakes, and 
the changes produced bjr the glacial period. In reference to the scenery ' 
of the region around the borders ot Lake Lahontan, the author says "there 
is an unsolved mystery connected with the tufa deposits that start out as 
Stranfce, gigantic forms from the desert haze, as one slowly traverses those 
bitter alkaline lands." This sentence shows the style of the book. The most 
striking fact brought out by the author is the lack of vegetable fossils in 
the lake beds of the far west. The remains of the mastodon, mammoth, ox, 
camel, horse have been found in the sediments of Lake Lahontan. The 
author says we are led to believe that the climate of the lake period was 
cold and changeable, uacoDgenial to either plant or animal life. The large 
animals whose bones have been discovered were perhaps only temporary 
visitors; they succumbed to adverse conditions. The camel and the horse 
have become extinct. The mastodon and mamoioih were extinct before 
the coming of the white man; but the presence of the bones of these ani- 
mals in the sediments of the lakes leads one to look further back into 
earth's history to th : period preceding the great geological winter, when 
under genial climate, varied and beautiful vegetation prevailed, and the 
animals whose bones are found made their homes along the lake shores 
and on the neighboring forest-covered hills. "Of the presence of man on 
the shores of Lakes Bonneville and Lahontan the records are silenl:." 

The publishers have furnished a number of full-page plates, which very 
forcibly illustrate the subjects treated by the author. They have also given 
the volume a very neat form and furnished a good index. 



The author of this book has undertaken to present in a series of portraits 
the character of the Mohammedan rulers of flindustan in an entirely new 
light. The general impression has been that Tamerlane, Timul, Uarbar 
and the other Mohammedan kings were luxurious oriental despots, dis- 
tinguished for their cruelty more than any other traits. The impression is 
not radically changed by the reading of this book, though the author has 
set forth the other side of the Mohammadan character. Their taste for 
letters has been shown by Sir William Jones, and many specimens ol 
poetry are quoted by him. The taste for art is showo by Prof. E. S. 
Holden. The dark things which have been recorded against the name of 
these monarchs are surrounded by wreaths cf flowers and embellished iritb 
Ihe adornments of art, so that a rose-colored view of their hfe is given. The 
surroundings of these emperors were, indeed, magnihcent, and there wasan 
air of luxury in their palaces which rarely prevailed elsewhere. This, how- 
ever, is so contrary to the Puritan way of living thai it of itself makes the 
contrast between the Mohammedan and the Christian religion very stttk - 



3o8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Iroquois, or Six Nations, of New York. And it is the roost 
enlightened and progressive of all the five civilized tribes in the 
Indian Territory — viz., the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chick- 
asaws and Seminoles, who are the most advanced of any North 
American tribes. 

The genesis of the Cherokees is involved in the mists of pre- 
historic times. They were first known to the early white settlers 
and down to the year 1830, as occupants ot the upper valley of 
the Tennesse river, the valleys of the Alleghany range, and the 
headwaters of the Savannah and Flint. They form a family by 
themselves, connected, possibly, remotely with the Iroquois. 
According to their own traditions they came from the west 
earlier than the Muskogees, and displaced a moon-eyed p)eople 
unable to see by day. It is almost certain, from records made 
by one of his followers, that they were reached by the adven- 
turous De Soto in 1540; but, from their interior location, they 
came but slightly into contact with the Spanish, English and 
French for many years after settlements began. From their 
position they were also divided into two sections, separated by 
the great Unaka or Smoky mountains, viz: Otari (the mountain) 
and Erati (below) — the Otari dwelling in the mountainous dis- 
tricts and the Erati occupying the lower lands; but they were 
further divided into seven clans, each of which prohibited inter- 
marriage between its own members. They adhered to the 
English in colonial times, tormally recognizing the king in 1730, 
and in 1755 ceded territory and permitted the establishment of 
English forts. The tribe was considerably advanced in civiliza- 
tion when the war of the revolution began. They clung to the 
royalist side, and in consequence, their country was laid waste 
by American forces. They were subjugated after a few years of 
intermittent war, during which they lost much territory, and, by 
the treaty of Hopewell November 28, 1785, they acknowledged 
the sovereignty of the United States and were confirmed in the 
possession of their hunting grounds. Then began the ever re- 
curring story ot the white man's encroachment and the red man's 
resistance, with the ultimate advantage on the side of the intrud- 
ers. By treaties in 1791 and 1798, portions of their territory 
were surrendered and many of their people emigrated beyond 
the Mississippi. In 1817 the Cherokees on the Arkansas num- 
bered 3,000. Those who remained in their old territory aban- 
doned hunting and the greater portion of them lived by agricul- 
ture. 

But the white men of Georgia, who coveted their lands, de- 
manded the removal of the remaining Cherokees, notwithstanding 
the tribe had rendered great service in the war with England in 
181 2 to 1814, and though the Indians were entirely peaceable, 
generally industrious, and were fast becoming Christianized by 
the efforts of Moravian missionaries, and those of the American 



THE CHEROKEES AND THEIR NEIGHBORS. 309 

board, the clamor for their removal prevailed, and in July, 18 17, 
they were forced to exchange their eastern lands for territory 
west of the Mississippi. 

The end was not effected, however, without much trouble and 
bloodshed. Georgia passed laws extending over the territory 
of the Cherokees, by which the Indians were practically out- 
lawed, deprived of citizenship, and prohibited from being 
witnesses. They appealed to the United States Supreme Court, 
and that body — which long afterward decided that a negro had 
no rights that a white man was bound to respect — refused the 
Indians the right to bring an action; and, finally, the general 
government confessed its inability to fulfill its own treaty obli- 
gations. But this inability did not prevent the federal govern- 
ment in 1835 from making a treaty with a small portion of the 
tribe for the removal of the whole of them, and three years later 
an armed force was sent into their country to compel the re- 
moval. At that time the whole number of Indians in their old 
home was about 27,000. 

The Indians were themselves divided; one section, led by 
John Ross, at first opposed but afterwards directed the removal. 
Within a few years, after much difficulty and many murders, the 
removal was effected. 

Since their occupation of a part of the Indian Territory the 
Cherokees have greatly advanced in learning and material pros- 
perity. About 1 82 1 Sequoyah, a member of the tribe, invented 
an alphabet, and books and newspapers in their own language 
have been printed for nearly three quarters of a century. 

In the war of the rebellion the Cherokees at first favored the 
Confederates, but the majority of them soon came over to the 
Union side. Between the two armies their territory suffered 
severely, and they were compelled to emancipate their slaves, of 
whom they were large owners. When the war broke out 
the tribe numbered something over 22,000; but the casualities of 
the struggle and the sufferings of their families, incident thereto, 
reduced the number to about 14,000, and put them back in 
wealth and material progress as much as ten years. In 1873 
they numbered 17,217 and they had sixty-three schools with 
1,884 pupils. 

The territory of the Cherokees now amounts to about 5,000,000 
acres, about one third of which is susceptible of cultivation, the 
remainder being mostly timber and grazing lands. The United 
States holds in trust for the tribe something over g 1,000,000 of 
school and orphan funds, but their greatest revenue comes from 
^2,625,842.37 of five per cent United States Government bonds, 
the interest upon which is ^137,469.01, and which is paid 
annually and divided pro rata. Besides this, it is said that about 
;g 1, 200,000 is now due them on account of their cession of the 
"Cherokee Strip" some months ago. 



3IO . THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

They now have 2,500 scholars attending eighty schools, es- 
tablished and supported by themselves at an annual expense to 
the nation of about ;$ 100,000. To-day 13,000 of their people can 
read and 18,000 can speak the English language. To-day 5,000 
brick, frame and log houses are occupied by them, and they 
have sixty-five churches with a membership of several thousand. 
They cultivate upwards of 200,000 acres of land, and have an 
additional 100,000 fenced. They raise annually 100,000 bushels 
of wheat, 800,000 of corn, 100,000 of oats and barley, 27,500 of 
vegetables. 1,000,000 pounds of cotton, 500,000 pounds of 
butter, 12,000 tons of hay, and saw a million feet of lumber. 
They own 20,000 horses, 15,000 mules, 200,000 cattle, 100,000 
swine and 12,000 sheep. 

They have a constitutional form of government predictated 
upon that of the United States. As a rule their laws are just, 
wise and beneficent, and are enforced with strictness and justice. 
Political and social prejudice has deprived the former slaves, in 
some instances, of the full measure of justice guaranteed to them 
by the treaty of 1866, and the amended constitution of the 
nation, but time is rapidly softening these asperities, and will 
eventually solve all difficulties of the situation, if the tribe is not 
dispossessed of the territory it now occupies and forced to re- 
move to a new location. 

The present Cherokee population is of a composite character. 
Remnants from other tribes have from time to time been ab- 
sorbed and admitted to full participation in the benefits of 
Cherokee citizenship. The various classes may be enumerated 
as follows : 

1. The full blood Cherokees. 

2. The mixed blood Cherokees. 

3. The Delawares. 

4. The Shawnees. 

5. White men and women intermarried with the foregoing. 

6. A few Creeks who broke away from their own tribe and 
have been citizens of the Cherokee nation for a good many years. 

7. A few Creeks who are not citizens, but who have taken up 
their abode in the Cherokee country without any rights. 

8. A remnant of the Natchez tribe who are citizens. 

9. The freedmen adopted under the treaty of 186^. 

10. Freedmen not adopted, but not removed as intruders, 
owing to an order from the war department forbidding such re- 
moval pending a decision upon their claims to citizenship. 

The Cherokees are governed by a national committee and 
council elected for two years, and a chief who is chosen for four 
years. Tahlequa is their capital and chief town. In visiting 
that place you would almost imagine you were in a small but 
thriving Kansas town, did you not come into contact with a few 
half-bloods and full-bloods of the tribe whose color would betray 



THE CHEROKEES AND THEIR NEIGHBORS. 3" 

their race. It is sometimes very difficult to distinguish the 
quarter-bloods from the pure whites and they nearly all speak 
English as fluently as it is spoken anywhere. 

The Cherokee elections are held in the summer time. The 
judges are usually seated at a table in the shade of a tree. No 
ballots are used. The voter is not allowed to come nearer than 
fifty feet of the table when he votes. He calls out in a loud 
voice the names of the candidates of his choice, and the judges 
keep the tally. 

Some of the leading men of the five tribes are exceptionally 
adroit and able, and frequently the political pot of a tribe boils 
as furiously as does a like vessel in a Kansas campaign. 

In the spring of 189 1 I had occasion to see one of the prom- 
inent men of the Creek Nation, a member of their "Upper Coun- 
cil," as it is called, and a noted politician. Learning that he 
would probably be at Okmulgee, the capital, the next day, at a 
convention of the tribe to nominate a chief, or governor, I drove 
over from Muskogee, a distance of forty miles. The convention 
was held in the council house of the nation. I attended, and it 
was not until nearly the close of the second day that Mr. 
Ferryman, the present chief, was nominated. Partisan spirit ran 
high, and although most of the proceedings were in the native 
language, I could see that the usual methods of the white man 
prevailed. On the second day, late in the afternoon, my man 
came in, with a large additional force of delegates and immedi- 
ately the nomination was made. Evidently the proceedings had 
been delayed until his arrival. He was a full-blood Creek 
named Hotelka Fixico, and the designation is certainly not a 
misnomer. He is a **fixer" of the highest order. 

After the convention I had a conversation with the nominee 
and found him to be a man of good intelligence, and I should 
say of large capacity for business. He speaks English fairly well. 

I also met at Sasakwa, where he resides, John F. Brown, chief 
of the Seminoles. Like Chief Ferryman, of the Creeks, he is 
a very able man, a quarter-blood Seminole, and he conducts his 
executive business systematically and successfully, as he docs his 
private affairs But the best informed man, the most of a states- 
man that I saw in any of the tribes, was ex-Chief William F. 
Ross, of the Cherokees, living at Fort Gibson, but who has since 
died. 

As early as 1776 William Birtram, an Flnglishman, who 
traveled among the eastern Cherokees, says of them in a book he 
published : **The Cherokees in their dispositions and manners 
are grave and steady, dignified and circumspect in their deport- 
ment, rather slow and reserved in conversation, yet frank, cheer- 
ful and humane; tenacious of the liberties and natural rights of 
man ; erect, deliberate and dotcrmined in their councils ; honest, 
just and liberal, and al^vays ready to sacrifice every pleasure and 



312 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

gratification, even their blood, and life itself, to defend their ter- 
ritory and maintain their rights." And they seem to have re- 
tained all these characteristics, in large measure, down to the 
present time. 

This is the tribe, or people, with whom the United States gov- 
ernment, during the past one hundred and twenty years, has 
made no less than twenty-two distinct and separate treaties, 
ostensibly to secure to the Indians their rights, but in many cases 
really to deprive them of their lands or annul or abrogate exist- 
ing treaties. 

The Indian Bureau of the government is said to be honey- 
combed with dishonesty and thievery. But the trouble is not so 
much personal as it is a general outgrowth of the vicious and 
demoralizing system under which the affairs of the bureau are 
conducted. It crops out in every direction, in the furnishinjg of 
supplies, and in the payment of annuities to the Indians ; in the 
appointment of the army of Indian agents, storekeepers, physi- 
cians, teachers and others to carry on its work; and in a thousand 
other ways that will suggest themselves to every intelligent mind. 

It is such a condition of public affairs, especially in the Indian 
Bureau, that would seem almost to justify the statement attri- 
buted to "Parson Brownlow" that "the man in the moon never 
passes over Washington without holding his nose," 

I recall a case in which a man had a government contract to 
supply some Dakota Indians with beef. He had one or two 
hundred head of cattle in Iowa, and in driving them across a 
stream on the ice they were all drowned. The bodies of these 
drowned cattle — some of them after having been in the water for 
ten days — were taken out, dressed, and the beef issued to the 
Indians. Some strange epidemic caused the death of a good 
many of the tribe the next summer, and sometime afterwards an 
investigation of the matter was ordered, but as the Indians had 
eaten the meat and the contractor had received his pay for it and 
even died before the investigation was concluded, it came to 
naught so far as punishing the real offender was concerned. 

There is an Indian agent at Muskogee, in the Creek nation, 
who is in charge of what is known as the "Union agency for the 
five civilized tribes." The live stock, tools and agricultural im- 
plements ot these tribes are of about the same character as those 
of the average white people of Missouri and Arkansas. And 
these Indians wear the ordinary white man's dress, except now 
and then there is a "blanket Indian" among them who refuses to 
depart from the ancient customs of the race. Most of the tribes 
outside of the civilized nations are "blanket Indians." It is a 
matter of some doubt whether a wild Indian of pure blood has 
ever been thoroughly and permanently civilized. 

Father Shoemaker, of the Osage Mission, said "it took him 
fifteen years to get the blanket off of Joseph Pawneopasshe, 



THE CHEROKEES AND THEIR NEIGHBORS. 313 

afterwards chief of the Osage tribe, and it took Joseph just 
(ifleen minutes to get it back on him again.*' 

The population of the Five Civilized Tribes by the census of 
liS<^0 was i78,o;7, of which 45,494 were Indians living in their 
own tribes, and 4,561 Indians hving in tribes other than their 
own. Total Indians, 50.059, the balance being whites, 128.042. 
But these figures cannot be regarded as strictly accurate, owing 
to the distrust of the people of anything that savors of an in- 
quiry into their aflairs. 

The same census also gives the total population of the Chero- 
kee nation as 56,309, divided as follows: Males, 29,781 ; females, 
26.528; Indians in the tribe, 20,624; Indians out of the tribe, 
t.39i ; of negro descent, including claimants, 5,127 ; whites, in- 
cluding claimants. 29.166; Chinese. 13. There is an apparent 
gain in population of 5,642 from 1880 to 1890, as shown by the 
Cherokee census. 

The lands of the Five Civilized Tribes, except those of the 
Seminoles, are covered by patents of the United States, and all 
of these tribes, except the Seminoles. owned slaves prior to the 
war. In i860 the four tribes referred to held 7,369 slaves. The 
Seminoles held no slaves, but have intermarried with the negroes. 
The immigration of colored people from the old slave states, 
since the war, has been large. The equities and rights of the 
negroes in the lands of the five tribes — and as to citizenship, 
h.ive yet to be properly settled. The people of the African 
race in these tribes do most of the work. In the Creek nation 
they predominate and fairly control affairs. The chief, Mr. 
Tcrryman, is about one-fourth negro I should say. The native 
negroes in that nation have the same tribal rights as the Indian 
and the two races intermarry, but to the Choctaw nation it is 
(!oUh to marry a negro. 

Members of the five tribes mav become citizens of the United 
States under Sec. 43 ot the act of May 2, i8</). without losing 
any ot their tribal rights and many of them have done so. Hut 
citizenship in the tribes named is regulated by tribal laws — a 
function conceded to them by the general government, and all 
of the five tribes, except the Seminoles, have published laws. 
.\s a rule they promptly punish crimes committed by citizens, 
but by the treaty of i8<>6 the Indian courts [)unish only Indian 
criminals for felonies and for offenses less than felonies. The 
Unitid States courts at Fort Smith, Ark., and Paris, Texas, also 
have jurisdiction in the trial of felony cases where Indian citizens 
are the (Ktendants and in all trials for crimes committed in the 
territoiy by non-citizens. At Fort Smith about one hundred 
muiflerers have been hanged, having been found guilty by the 
United States court located there. Hut I was assured by Judge 
Tarker that over So per cent of llie<e mufilers were committed 
by intruders or non-citizens. Judge Parker's court is in session 



3H THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

the larger portion of the time. The expenses of the court are 
something enormous. For example, they were $242,813.41 in 
1890. Maledon, the executioner, who is also a deputy United 
States marshal, personally hanged most of these one hundred 
men — on two occasions six at a time. The last time they were 
all Indians. 

When an Indian is condemned to death by an Indian court he 
chooses shooting as the mode of execution, goes home un- 
guarded, fixes up his affairs, bids his friends good bye, returns 
at the appointed time and is promptly shot. Not an instance of 
failure to do so, up to 1890, is recorded and none since 1890 
that I have found reported. 

The title of the Cherokees to their lands is not the ordinary 
Indian title "by occupancy," but is a qualified, determinable fee, 
with only the possible reversion to the United States, and the 
tribe may cut, sell and dispose of timber, and permit mining and 
grazing by their own citizens within the limits of their tribal 
tracts. In a message delivered in 1 890 Chief Mayes said: "Our 
people should feel proud and thankful that such distinguished 
men as Senators Butler, Teller, Ingalls, Dawes and others have 
the manhood to openly declare on the floor of the United States 
senate that this land is the property of the Chorokee nation, and 
that we have the right to live upon it and keep it forever, and if 
we choose to sell it that we are entitled to its value. 

The members of the tribe hold the lands in common, but 
occupation gives possession or occupancy title, which can be de- 
fended in the tribal courts. A citizen running a furrow around 
a tract of land holds all within the same, and if it covers a high- 
way the road must be changed and pass around the tract. Large 
tracts are devoted to grazing, one tract alone comprising 50,000 
acres. The holders of large tracts are opposed to the allotment 
of lands in severalty to the people of the tribe. Such action 
would mean the sale of the surplus lands and these cattlemen 
would be unable to lease large tracts for grazing purposes after 
white settlers had occupied the country and improved it. Here- 
tofore there have been many intruders upon these lands. In 
some instances ihcy have kept their cattle upon them by armed 
herdsmen and it would seem that neither the United States nor 
the tribe itself is able to effectually keep them off. 

In 1893 Congress provided for the appointment of a com- 
mission to negotiate with the five civilized tribes for an allotment 
of their lands, and an exchange of their tribal for a territorial 
i;overnnient. This commission, known as the "Dawes Commis- 
sion," was in session nearl}' all last year at one point or another 
in the T^ve Tribes conferring with the chosen representatives of 
those tribes. The commission this winter submitted its report 
to congress. It seems that it reached no definite result in its 
conferences with the tribes named. To each it submitted a 



THE CHKKOKKES AND THKIR NEIGHIIORS. 31s 

written proposition, but all substantially upon the same (general 
linos. The Indians propose to ''make haste slowly'* in the mat- 
ter of ceilin{T their lands. The regular councils of nearly all 
these tribes have been in session since the committee's proposal 
was received, but none of them have made any response thereto. 
No favorable response is expi'Cted. as the commission found the 
sentiment of the tribes adverse to the changes contemplated. 

The second paragraph of the proposal made by the commis- 
sion to the Cherokees contains the gist of the proposal to all 
the tribes. It reads thus: "To divide all lands now owned by 
the Cherokee nation, not including town sites and minerals for 
sale under special agreements. Sufficient land for a good home 
for each citizen, to be made inalienable for twenty-five years, or 
such longer period as may be agreed upon." Then follow pro- 
visions for the settlement of all claims between the y;overnment 
and the tribe, a division per capita and payment of the same of 
all money found to be due the tribe from the United States, etc. 

There is nothing said about the amount that shall be paid for 
the surplus lands of the tribe — nor how the value of said lands 
shall be ascertained. This omission is, I take it an almost in- 
surmountable b.irricr to a settlement with the Five Tribes of the 
(]uestion at issue between them and the government. And who 
can blame them in view of former treaty- making experiences? 

The surplus lands of the Cherokees after the propo.sed allot- 
ments shall have been made, would averajje in value SlO per 
acre, and it makes a vast difference to these people whether they 
are to recei\e that sum, or from fifteen to twenty-five cents of it 
onlv. 

A writer in the Century sums up the whole question so per- 
tinently, it seems to me — and withal sc justly — that I will (juote 
his words in closing. He says: 

•'The first necessity of the situation is to strengthen, f)erfect 
and make uniform the land titles of the territory. This can 
most safely and successfully be accomplished, it is believed, 
by allotting lands to the Indians in severalty, at the rate, 
s.iy, of one hundred and sixty acres per head — and giving 
them personal title thereto, inalienable for a stipulated num- 
ber of years; and providing i.if they will consent) f»r the 
ilisposal at government prices of the unallotted and remaining 
}» »rti')ns of their reservations for their benefit to white settlers. 
Such .illotment and issuance of individual patents wouKl involve, 
of course, the dissolution of tribal relations — another desirable 
>tep in the adjustment of the general question, and the Indian 
would thus be put upon an even f«)oting with tlie white man as 
to the opportunities and advantages of personal independence. 
At the same time the laws common throughout the states 
should be extended over the territory and courts established to 
admini.ster them. In short, the flimsy theory of tribal sovereignty 



3i6 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

should be extirpated, the reservation system replaced by fee- 
simple grants in severalty, the surplus lands opened to white 
settlement and the Indians placed under the restraint and pro- 
tection of ordinary and impartial laws with a view to making 
them self reliant and self supporting. It would redeem the 
Indian Territory and its inhabitants from their present anomalous 
and equivocal position and put them in harmony with their 
environment. 

The Five Civilized Tribes are already sufficiently advanced to 
take care of themselves in every way, and they number nearly 
two-thirds of all the Indians in the terrtory and would probably 
be the predominant class there for many years to come. 

The instruction of all Indian children in good schools during 
a given portion of the year should be made compulsory. In 
that direction lies the one great hope of modifying and amelior- 
ating the Indian character. It is uncertain, to say the most, 
whether the adult members of the wild tribes can ever be 
induced or constrained to raise themselves from their abject 
savagery to a level of any fixed idea of education. Some im- 
pression may be made upon them, doubtless, by patient years 
of experiment, and the experiment is worth pursuing, but it is 
manifestly idle to predict any very shining results." 



ANCIENT MOUNDS IN NORTHERN MINNESOTA. 

By T. H. Lewis. 

From time to time, during the past ten or twelve years, it has 
been asserted that the works of the Mound-builders existed 
along the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Apparently the 
earliest mention of these mounds was in a paper written by 
Honorable C. N. Bell, the well knov/n writer of Winnipeg, Mani- 
toba. This interesting paper was read at the monthly meeting 
of the Hamilton Association, and appeared in the Hamilton 
(Canada) Z?rt/7>' Spectator of December i8th, 1885. His state- 
ment is that "scattered along the banks of the Mibsissippi River 
and its tributaries, from the Gulf of Mexico to its sources in the 
north, are to be found an immense number of earthworks and 
mounds of various sizes and shapes. In another paper read at 
the annual meeting of the Geographical Society of the Pacific, 
January 1 8th, 1886, Mr. Bell says: " Leaving the mound dis- 
tricts of the northern states, I desire to show that the mound 
system of the Mississippi extends not only to its headwaters, but 
can be identified and carried far to the north, merging into what 
may be denominated the Red River and Rainy River systems." 



ANCIKNT MOINUS IN NORTHKKN MINNKSOTA. 3»7 

I lonorabic J. V. Browcr, the commissioner of the Itasca State 
Park, (Minnesota) states in his report to Governor Nelson 
that on October 27th, iiS94, he discovered the remains of an 
ancient village site «it the north end of Itasca Lake, and that 
nearly 300 specimens had been excavated at that point. This 
statement is tollowcd by a description of the site, and illustra- 
tions of the relics found thereon. 

During the latter part of last April and the month of May, in 
company with Mr. Hrower, I made an examination of the coun- 
try immediately around Itasca I^ke, and also along the Missis- 
sippi River from a point some seven miles north of the lake to 
the west end of Cass I^ke. 

The plateaux and hills around Itasca and on both sides of the 
river for two or three miles below the outlet were pretty thor- 
oughly explored for mounds and other remains. Divided along 
the usual topographical Ines, the remains of at least eight village 
sites were examined, and mounds were found at two points with- 
in the territory above described. The amount of debris found 
upon the village sites was comparatively small and consisted 
principally ot fragments of broken pottery, chips and a few im- 
plements of various kinds, perhaps thirty or forty in number, 
less than half of which were perfect. 

Mr. Hrower found a lone mound on the west side of the north 
arm of the lake, which was twenty-lour feet in diameter and two 
tcet in hei^^ht. The point of the low ridge on which it is situ- 
ated is about one mile from the outlet and is located on the east 
half of the southwest (juarter ot section 2. town 143. range 36 
west, in Heltrami County. 

There is a group of ten mounds situated on a plateau about a 
(jiiarter of a mile east of the river and about the same distance 
north of the lake. They are located on the east half of the 
southwest quarter of section 35, town 144. range 36, in Hjltrami 
County. These were surveyed on April 3uth, and on May 1st 
nine of them were excavated with the following results : 

Mound No. I was eighteen feet in diameter, one foot in height, 
and was ci>mposed of sandy loam. At the bottom, scattered 
over the natural surface ot the ground, a few human bones and 
some fra;;ments were found, which includes two femurs, one 
Mil i us and one section of vertebra. 

No. 2. — .Vn embankment eighty-three feet in length, sixteen 
leet rn uulth at the east end, twenty -one feet in width at the west 
end. and two feet in hei;^ht. w.is not excavated. 

No. 3. — .All elliptic.il mound thirty-eight feet in length, twenty- 
four feet in wi«kh and three feet in height, was composed 
princip.illy of black sandy loam. A little to the west of the 
Center the loam of the n.itural surface had been removed, and 
ri"*ting upon the gravel was a he.ip t)f calcined human bones 
mostly broken int<j small fragments. There were five skulls 



3i8 THE AMERICAN ANTIQIARIAN". 

recognizable, the fragments being grounded together, and pieces 
of as many more were intermingled with them. At the north 
ed^^e of the calcined heap was a human skull, which was in a 
fairly good state of preservation. Just above the heap, and 
almost resting upon it, were six skulls and a number of human 
bones, which were more or less decomposed and broken into 
fragments by the pressure of the earth around them. Still above 
the latter and near the top suriace of the mound was the remains 
of an intrusive Indian burial, v.hich had evidently been covered 
over with birch bark. The bones of this skeleton were much 
more decomposed than any of the other ones found within the 
mound and were almost black in color. Only small fragments 
of the birch bark were found, but from the number of pieces 
and the position it was very evident that the bark had been used 
merely as a covering and not as a wrapper. East of the center 
and just above the gravel six skulls in a natural state, one cal- 
cined skull and a few human bones were found, but nothing else 
of interest. A careful examination of these remains and of 
their relative positions demonstrated the fact that no system had 
been used in their interment, but that they had been placed in the 
mound in a promiscuous manner. In different sections of the 
mound two small beds of gravelly sand and two of charcoal and 
^ were found. The latter were evidently a part of the ma- 
ed in construction, as there was not the sli^hest evidence 
of heat around or beneath them. It will be noted that nineteen 
skulls were positively identified and an estimate of five additional 
ones was made, based upon the shape of the other fragments ex- 
humed, so that twenty-four skulls is a fair estimate for the num- 
ber of oric;inal burials found within this mound. 

No. 4 was seventeen feet in diameter, one and one-half feet 
in height and composed of black sandy loam. Only one small 
frai/nicnt of a human skull was found and that near the bottom 
of the mound. 

No. 5. — An egg-shaped mound, was forty-three feet in length, 
twenty- four feet in width at the east end, sixteen feet in width at 
the west cm], two feet in height and composed of a light sandy 
loam. Near the east end a small pit five feet in diameter had 
been excavated in the gravel to the depth of one and one-half 
fc'.t beneath the natural surface. Within this pit three skulls 
and a few human bones were lound. 

No, 6 was twenty-six feet in diameter, three feet in height and 
coni[)oscd of sandy loam. On the bottom near the center were 
parts of two skeletons, which included a few fragments of a skull. 

No. 7 was twenty-two feet in diameter, three feet in height 
and conii)osecl of a sandy loani. Only one small fragment of 
I)i)ttery was found in this mound. 

No. 8 was twcnty-ei^^ht feet in lenj:;th, eighteen feet in width, 
two and one-half feet in height and composed of sand and sandy 




ANCIKNT M01;NI)S IN NORTHKRN MINNKSOTA. 3ig 

loam. Two small beds of ashes — which had been used in con- 
struction — and a few fraj^ments of human bones were found 
upon tile natural surface near the center. 

No. 9 was sixteen feet in diameter, two and one-half feet in 
height and composed of sandy loam — the sand predominatinj:^. 
No remains of original burials were found, and, in fact, nothing 
that would indicate that the mound was constructed for sei)ulchral 
purposes. Near the top surface were two intrusive Indian 
burials, male and female. These were badly decomposed and 
had evidently been covered over with birch bark. The form of 
burial differed somewhat from that in No. 3. In this case it was 
very evident that the skeletons had been plactd in the mound 
after the tiesh had decayed and while the ligaments still held the 
major ])ortion of the bones together, for some of them were not 
only out of place, but had been reversed as regards their natural 
position. Whether these intrusive burials are to be attributed 
to the Ojibways, Dakotas. Christinos, or the Assiniboins is a 
mooted (]uestion. 

No. 10 was forty- four feet in length, eighteen feet in width 
and two and one half feet in height. TiiC western part was 
compj)sed of sandy clay and the eastern part of black sandy 
loam. Near the center of the embankment, but in the loamy 
section, two skulls and parts of three skeletons were exhumed. 
These were resting upon the gravel and were original burials. 

Commencing near the center of the group and extending to 
the southward for some three hundred yards are the remains of 
an oKl village site, as is evidenced by the broken pottery, chert 
chips, etc.; but doubtless this site was not occupied until long 
after the mounds were erected. 

The most interesting group of mounds yet discovered in 
Northern Minnesota is situated on a low bluff on the north side 
of the Mississippi River, and are distant about one-half mile in 
a direct line fnun Ta^codiac Lake. There is a grand view to be 
had from tlie bluff, whirli takes in the meadows, the lake, and 
the country for several miles to the south waril. Special interest 
attaches itself to these mounds from the tact that they are of the 
imitative or effigy class, and that they occupy the most northern, 
as wi II as the most northwestern limit of such works — so far as 
surveys haxe been made. This group is located on the south- 
east of the ^«>utlKast quarter of section J^ town I4<'), range 3 J, 
ill Heltrami County, anil was surveyed on May 15th, l8<;5. 

Nm. I is seventy eight feei in length, following the curves, two 
ami i»ne half teel in height, and pr»»bab!y represents a fish with 
npeii mouth. 

N'». 2 l^ Mile hundred feet in length, two feet in height, and 
evuliiitlv belMH^'s to the s.uile class. 



320 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

No. 3 is one hundred and thirty feet in length, two and 
half feet in height, and probably represents a serpent. 

No. 4 is a nondescript, ninety-six feet in length and three feet 
in height. 

The mounds extend along the edge of the bluff eighty to one 
hundred feet from and thirty-five to fifly-five feet above the river. 

The mounds along the Mississippi River from Itasca to Cass 
Lake are but few and from this fact, taken in connection with the 
scant remains to be found upon the old village sites, it is very 
evident that the country was but sparsely settled at best and 
could not have been occupied for any great length of time. 

MOLNDS AND MINING TITS. 

As but little is known as regards the archaeology of Northern 
Minnesota, a statement of what has been reported by surveyors, 
land-examiners and others may be of interest in a general way. 

Heltrami County, in addition to the five groups already sur- 
veyed, has eleven groups of unsurveyed mounds and one enclosure. 

Itasca County is reported as having twelve unsurviyed groups, 
two groups of stone mounds, two enclosures and two localities 
where there are inscribed boulders. One of the above mentioned 
groups of mounds is located at Cut Foot pass, and on the au- 
thority of Ur. IV I). Winship, of Park Rapids, it is stated that 
one of the mounds of this group represents a turtle. 

Cass County has, in addition to nine surved groups, fifteen 
unsurveyed groups and one enclosure. 

St. Louis County has twelve groups, and ancient mining pits 
are reported as existing in three localities. Within recent years 
a nun)her rf mounds have been explored in the vicinity of 
Tower and l^ly. 

Lake County has five groups of stone mounds, two stone 
enclosures and some ancient mining pits. 

Cook C'ounty has two groups, containing seventeen mounds in 
all, ami five groups of ancient mining pits. 

Assuniin;^ that there arc 9.000 mounds within the limits of the 
state of Minnesota, over 7,500 have been surveyed, leaving le.ss 
than i,-;<x) to be accounted for. Surveys anil examinations have 
been made in every county excepting three, and antiquities of 
one kind or another are to be found in seventy-nine out of a total 
«if eighty counties — Cailton being the exception. 

St. I'.iul, Mir.n., .Sej)t. •>. 1H95. 



INDIAN NATIONS OK THE GREAT LAKES. 321 



INDIAN NATIONSOI' TlIK (iRKAT LAKES. 

Hv \V. M. Bi:.\L't*iiAMr. 

Tliis paper is intcn<ic(I to j^ive a brief view of tlic ^coj^rapli 
ical (listribiition of tlie several Indian nations helon^'in^ to tlie 
country of the ^reat lakes during part of tlie sevcnteentli 
century. It will he exhaustive, and the chief sources of infor- 
mation are the Jesuit Relations and S(»me early ina])S. The 
C(»untry east of Montreal and the Hudson River is outside of 
its design. 

One of the earliest nnj>s of interest is the Dutch chart of 
Un.j. (N. V. Col. Doc.) which much resembles one j)repared 
two years later. The maker of this map had his information 
from Kleynties and his comrades, who had j^one from the Mci- 
hawks westward and southward, and adds: "In deliberately 
considerinj^ how I can best reconcile this one with the rou^h 
drafts communicated. I find that the places of the tribes of the 
Sennecas. (iacho<»s. Capitanasses and Jottecas ouj^ht to be 
marke<l <lown eonsiilerably farther west into the country." On 
I <ith the Ma<|uaas, or Mt>hawks. have their proper place, but 
with the siitlix of "CanK)makers." Tiie .Senecas appear farther 
southwest, lor the Dutch for a lon^ time distin^uisheil oidy the 
Mohawks .ind Senecas. callin*^ both by Alj^'oUijuin names. On 
the •^outh ot the la^t. on the earlier map. are the (iachoos; the 
Ca|>itan.is>es are smith west of these, and farther on are the 
lottecas. while the .Min<piaas are on the h)wer Sustpiehanna. 
The homes <if all can be fairly identifieii. 

The maj) ot ifnd varies from this. ''Hef Meer \'and Iroc<»i- 
>en" appears in nj)rthern New Mn^land, an<I part of Canada is 
introduced. The Minquaas are placed farther north than be- 
fi»re. beinj^ the Auda^toc of the French, the Susquehannas or 
Ciinestoj^as of the KiiLjIish. The other names, south of the 
Seiucas, were |)rob.ibly tribal divisions of the Andastes, the 
b«ttecas bein;^ omitted. Cham])lain ])Iaceil the Carantouan- 
iLii^. (ireat Tree Teopie. on the Sus<|uehanna below KImira.and 
in the key to hi^ map of \*^},2 tliey are described as bein^ three 
• l.i\N south »it the Antouhonaroiis, aj^ainst whom they fou^^ht, 
althiiU'li ot the same familv. It was tor them he waited when 
he attacked the Iroipiois' fort in 1^)15. In his narrative of his 
e\priliti<>n to Lake Cham])Iain in Ko^. the Indians tell him 
that \'ermont belonL;> tt> the Iro«|uois. 

1 he I'i\e Nati«»ns of New \\)rk were first clear I >' distinj^uished 
in the lesuil Relation ot i^V", where thcv are called Sonon- 
ti»» rihi'ii()ns or Senecas, ( )r.(»ntaerrhonons or < )n(inda^os, 
( )i:iMi-ni!i.)iu)ns or Ca>'ui^Ms. Onni<»chrhonons or ( )neidas, and 
the .X^'uierrhonons or Mohawks, Kofufn is the Iroquois word 



322 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

for people. In the list of 1640 the Cayugas are more properly 
called Oniouenhronon, the first being a mistake. For a few 
years their country was called Onioen, but this may have been 
merely its Huron name, as the later designation of Cayuga 
soon prevailed. On Sanson's map they appear as Sovouaronon, 
and on that of Creuxius, they are Oionenii, while their proper 
nane is given to the Oneidas. On that map Oneida Lake is 
also called Lacus Oiogoenronius. Later the Cayugas were 
known as the Goyoo^ouins. The whole Iroquois country has 
been accurately examined. A journal of Arendt Von Curler, 
recently discovered and published, narrates his journey to the 
Oneidas, 1634-5, and mentions all the western Iroquois by 
name, but includes all under the general name of Senecas. 
Their castles were Onneyatte, Onaondage, Koyockure, and the 
two Seneca castles of Hanotowany and Senenehalaton, appar- 
ently forms of Sonontouane and Tiotohaton. 

Antouhonorons, as given by Champlain, seems the same as 
Sonontouhonorons, the Senecas. He describes them merely as 
allies of the Iroquois, for the league had not long been formed, 
as having fifteen strong villages. At that time they were at 
peace with the Neutrals. Like the Dutch, he may have included 
all but the Mohawks under this name. The Konkhandeenhronon 
are placed between the Onondagas and Cayugas in the list of 
1640, taken from Father Ragueneau's map, but while they 
appear in the list of 1635, they are not called Iroquois, though 
speaking the Huron tongue. Otherwise they might have been 
thought a division of the Senecas, who have always formed two 
bands. They were south of Lake Ontario, apparently, and 
quite likely were part of the Andastes, perhaps the Carantouan- 
nais. 

Among the others mentioned as speaking Huron in 1635, 
were the Neutrals or Attiwandaronks, a language a little different. 
These were on the north bide of Lake Erie and took no part in 
the war between the Hurons and Iroquois. They were after- 
wards subdued by the latter and were made up of several so- 
called nations. One division was the Onguiarahronon, (mis- 
spelled Ongmarahronon in the Relation of 1640,) and may have 
been the Niagagarega, a nation destroyed, in the Neutral coun- 
try, which is mentioned in the same way as Atiragcnrek, in the 
Relation of 1656. South of this and nearer Lake Erie appear 
the Antouaronons, a nation destroyed. These may have been 
the Ahouenrochron of 1635, the Ouenrohronon of 1639. De la 
Roche Daillon visited the Ouaroronon, a separate people, in 1627. 
They lived in New York, a day's journey from the Iroquois, but 
were attached to the Neutrals. The Andowanchronon may 
have been there, as they follow the Senecas in the list of 16^0. 
The Ouenrohronon were at first among the Eries, then fled to 
the Neutrals, and then took refuge with the Hurons. 

On Marquette's map appears also the Ka Kouagoga, a nation 
destroyed, probably Neutrals, as they once had a few villages 
cast of Niagara River, and some consider these the Kah 



l-' 



INDIAN NATIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES. 323 

Kwahs, of Seneca traditions. The Aondironon of 1640, were 
mentioned as a nation destroyed in 1656, and the Ondisronu 
;ire placed just east of Niagara River, on Creuxius, map of 
1660. They were Neutrals, nearest to the Hurons and were 
destroyed by the Senecas in 1648. The Atiaonrek, another 
destroyed nation mentioned in 1656, may also have been an- 
other Neutral tribe. 

The Khionontaterrhonons were the Petun Nation, afterwards 
known as Tionontates. They were southwest of the Hurons. 
The Rhuerrhonons of 1635, ^^^ ^^^ Erichronon of 1640, pro- 
bably included some nations found in the latter list. They are 
variously placed, having occupied much territor>'. The Rela- 
tions make them sometimes quite near the Irocjuois, and some- 
times comparatively distant. At first they were on the south- 
ern shore of Lake Erie, but rctin d inland quite a time before 
their overthrow, on account of their western enemies. Their 
place on the map comes merely from conjecture. Sanson's 
map, 1656, locates them southwest of Lake Erie; Creuxius, 
1660. places them southwest of that lake, while one of La 
Hontan's has them south and west of it; and Hennepin, 1689, 
between two large rivers in Ohio. It seems proper to consider 
the Massawomckes as a southern division of this numerous 
people. Not improbably the most western nation speaking the 
Huron tongue, was another branch. The Schahentoarrhonon 
of 1635, were probably the Skcnchiohronon of 1640. They 
were friends of the Hurons, speaking their language, and ap- 
pear at the west ot Lake Erie, as the Scjuencjuioronon, on San- 
son's map. Creuxius places P. Onnonderetius there, making 
Latin of Indian words. 

An accurate and discriminating survey of the Erie country is 
greatly to be desired, but a number ot well known sites not far 
from the lake, may properly be assigned to them. Most of 
those in Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, N. Y., seem to 
have belonged to this numerous people at some time, as well 
as others in Pennsylvania. They were utterly destroyed in 

16545- 

In the list of 1640 the Hurons were called by the generic 

name of Ouendat. (Wyandot,) but the Kontareahronon is men- 
tioned specifically, Iving on the eastern border and perhaps 
being distinct from the four great nations. The Totontaraton 
is also mentioned as an Algontjuin nation which had tied to them 
from the St. Lawrence, where its name appears at Otondiata 
on .Sanson's nia[) The four nations of the Hurons were the 
Attignaouantan, the Attigneengnahac, the Arendahronons and 
the Tohontaenrat. The first two were the ancient inhabitants, 
coming there about A. I). 1400, according to their traditions. 
The third nation was received about 1590. and the fourth about 
16 10. They probably left the lower St. Lawrence about the 
time the Mohawks did, or soon after. The Huron and Petun 
territory has been accurately examined and the history of both 
is well known. 



I 



324 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

These comprise the Huron-Iroquois nations definitely known 
at that day. The Algonquins of the great lakes will be more 
briefly treated, many being nomadic. It was usual for the 
Jesuits to follow the Indian custom of calling all the small 
bodies of savages by proper names, so that the number of these 
is large as compared with the territory occupied. Creuxius, 
with his Latin terminology, more clearly distinguishes between 
nations and settlements or towns. One of the most prominent 
of these nations was that of the Nipissiriniens, near the lake of 
that name and north of the Hurons. It appears on Sanson's 
map under this name, but was at first called the Sorcerers by the 
French. Its Huron name was Askicouanehronons, and it was 
more wandering than settled. Other nations north of Lake 
Huron, as given by him, were the Aouechissaronon, being the 
Ehressaronon of 1640; the Elsouataironon, which may be the 
Houattaehrorionof the same year, and the Eaehiriouachaoronon, 
Enchek and Aossondi. 

On the northeast shore of Lake Superior, on this map, from 
northwest to southeast, were the Ironinidonsand the Kiristinous 
or Kilistinous, a number of people reaching to Hudson's Bay. 
The Nadouessouc or Sioux were next to these, being s* ill east 
of the Mississippi on Marquette's map of 1673. Astakouan- 
kacronons followed, and the Skiaeronons, otherwise the Paw- 
ichtigouek, were at the Sault Ste. Marie. Creuxius called them 
the Pagittoecii. They are the Oscouarahronon of 1640. At- 
tracted by the fine fishing many small tribes joined them there, 
and from that vicinity came the Mississogas at a later day. 

On the east side of the Lac des Puants, now Green Bay, on 
Sanson's map, were the Oukouakanaronons, apparently the 
Puants. The Hurons usually called them the Aoucatsiwaenh- 
ronons, their Algonquin name being Winnipegon, afterwards 
VVinnebagos. Their name was connected with their origin. 
Much farther south were the Assistaeronons, the powerful Fire 
Nation, called Mascoutench or Mascoutins by the Algonquins. 
Although the missionaries explained that their popular name 
came from a mistaken interpretation, Mr. W. W. Tookcr has 
given some good reasons for thinking they might have worked 
copper by the aid of fire. On Hennepin's map of 1C97, they 
are placed cast of Lake Michigan. They were known to 
Champlain, and the Neutrals fought against them. Still later 
they were attacked by the Iroquois, who knew them as the 
Ontonagannha, and these seem to have been the Onontiogas, 
afterwards found among the Scnecas, in their Huron town. 
A tribe of this nation, called the Ouchawanag, has led some to 
think they might have been connected with the Shawnees. 

In Michigan, Sanson's map had the Ariatoeronon at the 
north, being the Ahriottaehronon of 1640. On the east side 
were the Couaeronon, or the Akhrakouaeronon of 1640; and 
the Aictaeronon were farther south. In Canada, between the 
Ottawa and Otonabee Rivers, were the Quionontareronnon 
or Ehonkehronon, being the Ontarahronon of 1640. This was 



INDIAN NATIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES. 325 

a small body of Al^onquins, commonly known as the Little 
Nation ot the Isle, advantageously posted on the Ottawa rivef. 
Tiie other AlL;on(}uins called them the Kiciiesi])iiriniwek. 
Other Alj;oni|uins lay to the south of these, hut were of little 
account. West of all those were the Hurons, Neutrals and 
reluns. 

Champlain j)laced the Cheveux Relevcz north of Lake Krie. 
and Creuxius on the (jreat Manitoulin Island. They soon 
became knovvn as the Outaouacs or ( )ttawas, and included sev- 
eral nations. Other naticms naturally come into \iew\ the 
Maloumines or Wild Rice Indians, near the Puants, beinj; vis- 
itfd in 1640. The Illinois were first mentioned in 1O56. It has 
been conjectured that the Irinionsof 1642 were the I Ilin iis, but 
a careful reatlin^ of that Relation makes it clear that these 
were the Ironmidons of Sanson's man. The Kickapoos and 
Miamis were reached in 1O70. The llurons had some Al^on- 
(piin allies in ih^H, south of Lake Huron, called Ontaneek, and 
there were other obscure Alj^onquin tribes. One far down the 
St. Lawrence must not be forjj[Otten, becau.se often confounded 
with the Iroquois family. It had its name of lro(]uet from that 
of its princi])al chief. He was the one who rcfu.sed to show the 
Neutrals the way to the .St. Lawrence. Its proj)er name was 
Onnontchataronon in the Huron tongue, and it .once had its 
home in Montreal. 

If om* were to include in this all the nations against whom the 
Iro(|U(»is fought we wi»uld reach the Mississipj)i, Hudson's Bay 
and the Carolinas. No ilistance was too j^reat for these terrible 
warri<»rs. After the Huron war they [ ad to seek even more 
ilistant foes. Amon^ these was the Amicouck, or Beaver 
nation, better known as the Nez IVrces, three days north of the 
llurons. while the remote tribes of New England trembled at 
their name and presence. But in most of the country now 
ct»nsi<lered scarcely a tribe was left out of the many menticmed. 
A populous land became their mere hunting jjrounds. They 
made a desert and called it j)eace. 



326 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



THE FRESCOES OF MITLA. 

By Phillip J. Valentini. 

A large folio volume, containing forty-nine pages of text and 
thirteen photographic illustrations, bearing the title Wandmaler- 
eieti von Mitlci, has appeared. It is devoted to describing and 
explaining a scries of pictures painted al fresco on the inner walls 
of a chamber in the famous but now somewhat dilapidated 
palace of Mitla, Mexico. 

Dr. Edward Seler, who is at the head of the American de- 
partment of the Ethnologic Museum of Berlin, on an explora- 
tion tour in 1888 was the fortunate discoverer of them. The 
discovery was accidental and took place when he was led to 
house his horses in the curate's stable that was roughly 
adjusted for this purpose in one of the chambers of the named 
ruins. It took him and Mrs. Amelia Seler, the latter being the 
faithful companion, everywhere, of her laborious husband, as 
much as eleven days to secure an exact copy from these paint- 
ings, which on account of the height were accessible only by 
the way of ladders and the construction of a scaffold, and it is 
but now, after the lapse of seven years, employed in collecting 
the material necessary for giving an accurrate idea of the historic 
find, that the author finds himself ready to publish the results. 
In doing so, he dedicates the volume to the well known promoter 
of American archaeology, the Duke of Loubat, who liberally 
bore the expenses connected with a luxury edition. 

Here then, and not without a new feeling of perplexed 
astonishment, we stand again before the revelation of a quite 
unknown fact. That the ancient American artists were con- 
summate architects and sculptors we need not be told. That 
they knew how to emblazon their horoscopic calendars, drawn 
on vellum or on maguey paper, with a wealth of most beautiful 
and lasting colois, we have learned from the pages of those 
fifteen so-called Mexican Codices, which were edited some 
fifty years ago, by the munificence of Lord Kingsborough. 
But that like the advanced Egyptians, the Greeks and the 
Romans, our mysterious prehistoric artists should have also 
viewed their chamber-walls in the light of a national "poikile" 
and had chosen these walls as a ground upon which to per- 
petuate "al fresco" the exploits of their heroes, and that they 
knew how to represent them pictorially and as intelligibly to 
the sense of sight as it is possible without the employment of 
the phonetic medium — this fact, indeed, has been a new addition 
to the store of that miscellaneous and enigmatic knowledge 
which accummulates year after year, and the threads of which 
to the present day have withstood all efforts made in the line 
of logical and therefore acceptable connection. 



THE FRESCOES OF MITLA. 327 

In would take more space than is allowed here to enumerate 
in detail all the arguments by which the author of the volume 
was enabled to reach the final result of his investigation con- 
cerning the very subject matter as it is represented in the 
frescoes. Dr. Seler comes to the conclusion that the story told 
in them is nothing else than that of Quetzatlcoatl, the culture 
hero of the Toltecs, a story which oral as well as written tra- 
dition is told in unconnected fragments and in such legendary 
disguise as was that of ancient Osiris, the culture hero of the 
Nile River. Again, however, fate has intervened to transmit 
the story as complete as Dr. Seler assumes it was depicted. 
Almost all the lower portions of the frescoed panels are ob- 
literated and effaced by the hands of white-washers, and other 
breaks were caused by rain leaking through a rotten roof. 
Thus, the otherwise so welcome a find is but a fragment, sug- 
gestive enough, indeed, but not conclusive, inviting to study 
and challenging all the powers of trained imagination, but also 
ever ready to enrapture the lover into the realms of hazardous 
speculation. 

The text is divided into six parts. In Part I the reader is 
introduced into the locality of Mitla itself, and a description is 
given of the sundry palaces; of their chambers and the purposes 
they served. The upper chambers were accommodated for the 
living of the high priest and his acolytes; the subterranean were 
destined for abodes of deceased kings and priests, with an addi- 
tional sacrarium in which the idols and all the other parapher- 
nalia connected with the cult of the dead were preserved. 
(Pages S-ii). 

In Part II we are informed of all that is known of the 
Zapotecan nation, to which Mitla owes its construction, which 
is but little, and this little only as far as it is connected with 
the continuous war in which they were engaged with their 
neighbors, the Aztecs. (Pages 12-16). 

Part III embraces an ingenious comparison made of the 
Zapotecan calendar, and that of the Aztecs, and the mythology 
of both nations is shown as mutually interlaced. (Pages 17-22). 

Part IV represents the special Zapotecan conception as 
regards religion, their pantheon and the organization of their 
priesthood. (Pages 23-27). 

Part V gives the sculptured and pictorial representations of 
the Zapotecan gods. (Pages 28-39). 

Part VI concludes the text with the detailed description and 
interpretation of the wall frescoes themselves. P^agaged in 
this work. Dr. Seler has an occasion to prove what advantages 
he enjoys in having acquired absolute control over that multi- 
form and ever changing Proteus of Mexican mythology. With- 
out this aid, he would scarcely have succeeded in identifying, 
and beyond all dispute, that it is the image of Quetzatlcoatl. 
which offers the clue for disclosing the burden of the pictorial 
text. We may not find ourselves in agreement with him as 
regards several other identifications and the conclusions drawn 



328 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

from it, the ground being that we cannot sec neither so deep 
nor so far as he does. But, in principle, we adopt this essence 
of his theory. (Pages 40-49). 

On pages 51-56 an alphabetic glossarium is given of the 
words and objects occurring in the text. Thirteen splendid 
photographs, showing the Mitla-Mausoleum out and in doors, 
its hall of massive columns, a surprising and novel variety of 
mosaic samples with which the walls are covered, the plan of 
the black and colored buildings, and illustrations of remark- 
ably fine pottery dug out in the environ- of Mitla conclude the 
pages of the highly interesting work. 

Dr. Seler, in company with his wife, is presently again en- 
route for explorations to be made in Mexico and Guatamala. 



-0- 



FLINT IMPLEMENTS OR THUNDER STONES. 

A French scientific expedition has recently returned from 
Cochin, China, to Paris, bringing with it valuable collections. 
Among these were a large number of wrought and polished 
flint implements, some of the most interesting of which are 
illustrated in the accompanying cut, reproduced from La Nature 
and described as follows in Popular Scieiice News: 

These flints are finely worked and polished, and if found in 
Europe would have been attributed to the Neolithic period of 
the human race. At present there is no way of estimating their 
age, which may be comparatively modern as compared with 
that of the similar implements found in Europe or America. Ic 
is very remarkable that the forms of these flint implements are 
practically the same in whatever part of the world they may be 
found. The prehistoric man of Cochin, China, worked the 
lumps of flint into the same forms, and probably by the same 
process, as did the men who settled in northwestern Europe 
after the melting of the glaciers, or those mysterious progeni- 
tors or predecessors of the American Indians, whose remains 
are so abundant in this country. 

A still more curious fact is that all over the world the same 
origin is attributed to these stones by the people of the present 
day. The name of thunder stones is universally applied to 
them by the savage races of the East Indies, the South Sea 
Islands, Africa and South America, as well as by the more 
civilized people of China and India, and the ignorant peasantry 
of P^urope. In Italy alone a curious exception occurs in some 
localities, where the long, flat implements arc known by the 
remarkable name of "the tongues of St. Paul". All recollec- 
tions of the people who made them, or the use for which they 
were designed, seems to have been lost; and this would either 
indicate their great antiquity or that they were fashioned by 
another and different race before the imigration of the present 
inhabitants of the countries where they occur. 



THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN. 329 



THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN. 

By Hon. James Wickersham. 

With the discovery of America by Columbus, the circum- 
navigation of the globe, the discovery, exploration and the 
settlement of the South Sea Islands and his entrance into east- 
ern A«ia, the Anglo-Saxon began the subjugation of the world. 

In the past four centuries he has subdued and colonized 
America and established great empires in places formerly oc- 
cupied by Indian tribes; has wrested the islands of the Pacific 
from the aborigines; has conquered ancient India, whose tem- 
ples, schools and civilization were grown gray with age before 
the ancestors of the conqueror had emerged from barbarism; 
and is now, through diplomacy and force, advancing against 
the splendid empire of Japan and the tottering civilization of 
China. It is the boast of the English nation that the sun never 
ceases to shine upon its flag; soon the boast will be that the 
English speaking people govern the world. 

This march of the conqueror has been so sudden and accom- 
panied with such strange new battle forces that the Indian 
races have been thrown prostrate before him; they have con- 
tended against him valiantly; the Peruvians and Aztecs stood 
before the Spanish invader with a degree of courage, heroism 
and fortitude which has challenged the admiration and sym- 
pathy of the world; they were slain by thousands, when addi- 
tional thousands sprang to their places, only to yield up their 
lives in the useless struggle; the mailed and heavily armed 
cavaliers destroyed nations, burned their literature and temples, 
razed their cities and reduced entire populations to abject obe- 
dience or slavery. 

From Plymouth Rock, Virginia and the Carolinas the Indian 
of our land has been forced westward to rapid extermination, 
ever bravely fighting for his country, his home and the graves 
of his people. Phillip, the Mohican, after warring valiantly 
against the New Englanders, was treacherously betrayed and 
slain. His head was sent to Plymouth and exposed on a gib- 
bet, where it was exhibited twenty years, and one of his hands 
to Boston, where it was exhibited in triumph, and his mangled 
body was denied the right of sepulture. His wife and infant 
son were, with many other equally innocent Indians, shipped 
to Jamaica by the colony of Massachuesetts and sold into 
slavery. One of his most valiant ca])tains was captured and 
barbarously executed on Boston Commons, "where his head 
was cut off and put upon a pole upon the gallows opposite to 
his son's, that was there formerly hanged." Civil and religious 



330 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

liberty may have been born at Plymouth Rock, but so likewise 
was contempt for the rights, liberties and lives of the Indians: 
if free and constitutional government in America had a begin- 
ning in the articles signed by the pilgrims on board the **May- 
flower," equally true is it that the mistaken and un-American 
Indian system within the United States dates from the same 
moment. 

From the first settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts to 
the present date wars have followed the encroachments of the 
white man upon the Indian fields and hunting grounds. The 
superior martial powers of the Anglo-Saxon have enabled him 
to vanquish the Indians, although they have exhibited bravery 
and heroism of the highest order; warriors of renown have time 
and again flung their naked and defenceless followers against 
the heavily armed and well drilled batallions of the white man; 
native statesmen have repeatedly formed compacts of Indian 
tribes with the vain hope of staying the oncoming destruction. 
The names of Weatherford the Creek, Osceola the Seminole, 
Logan the Mingo, Pontiac the Ottawa, Little Turtle the Miami, 
Tecumseh the Shawnee, Red Jacket the Seneca, Black Hawk 
the Winnebago, Sitting Bull the Sioux, Joseph the Nez Perce. 
Kamiskin the Yakima and Leschi the Nisqually are worthy of 
preservation in classic history. 

But their bravery, courage and heroism were in vain; they 
have fallen before the superior powers of the white man; their 
lands have been seized and parceled out to strangers; the buf- 
falo and herds of game upon which they subsisted, like the 
. Indians themselves, have been exterminated, and the few re- 
maining Indians arc now confined to a prison ground or reser- 
vation, which they cannot leave except with the consent of the 
conqueror. 

The wrongs inflicted upon these people in the past three 
centuries excite our warmest sympathies; at the mention of 
instances of particular flagrant acts of cruelty we are justly in- 
dignant; we weep with them over the loss of homes, kindred 
and country; we are moved with feelings of sympathy at the 
history of their heroic endeavors'; at the contemplation of their 
present condition a sense of duty impels each lover of justice, 
liberty and law to extend to thcni a helping hand for their 
present and future protection. Our sympathies, however, are 
unavailing; our indignation cannot repair past wrongs; grief 
cannot restore lost homes, kindred or country; piide in the 
efforts and achievements of their dead heroes cannot restore 
their freedom or lormcr tribal glory. Our duty to the living 
remnants, however, r(*mains; wc may ameliorate their suffering, 
protect their liberties and property, and by a faithful perform- 
ance of present duty prevent any further injustice and wrong 
to a helpless and dependent class of native born residents of 
the United States. Fo do this, however, we must accept the 
condition as we find it; his wrongs are of the past; a contem- 
plation of them may be inseparable from an examination of his 



THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN. 331 

legal status as an individual or as a member of a tribe, for out 
of these wrongs and disregard for his natural rights grew his 
unique position in this iiation of constitution and laws; we have 
permitted the abnormal grov/th of a class within the nation 
which IS not of the nation; this growth must be cut from the 
body politic; we must abolish the Indian office, officials, reser- 
vations and schools; naturalize the Indian, make him a citizen, 
and then let him alone, 

TRIBAL OR NATIONAL RKJHTS. 

England and France and Spain while in possession of por- 
tions of the United States managed Indian affairs each in its 
own way. Out of these diverse ways were gradually evolved a 
few fundamental rules that have continued for a century as the 
basis of our unique system of Indian management. The first 
colonists in Virginia and Massachusetts found it necessary foF 
their protection to recognize the right of the Indian tribes to the 
region occupied by them. The Indian idea of ownership is 
communal. The community or tribe owned the fields and hunt- 
ing grounds. No such a title as an individual ownership of a 
particular field or tract was ever made by the members of any 
tribe, nor even by the tribe itself; but a general community 
right to the occupancy by the entire tribe of a vague and un- 
defined area over which they scattered to fish, hunt or raise 
fields of corn, was recognized and necessarily respected from 
the settlement of Jamestown and Plymouth. Such tracts of 
territory as the early colonists desired were purchased from 
the tribes, upon an agreement with the sachems or chiefs, and 
thus early began the system of contracts or treaties which con- 
tinued for three centu-ries. 

The colonizing nations of Europe parceled the new world 
out between them, claiming the right to do so by virtue of dis- 
covery. The territorial claims of the F^nglish, French and 
Spaniards were not based upon the purchase of small areas 
from small tribes of Indians, but upon what seemed to them a 
higher and more satisfactory title — that of discovery and 
agreed partition. Upon the various discoveries of her seamen 
England claimed the undefined New England, Virginia and 
Carolina regions, without obtaining the consent by purchase or 
even subjection of the many different and widely scattered 
tribes inhabiting them. But when the weak and small bands 
of colonists settled in the wilderness in the immediate prox- 
imity to a tribe of Indians, which in comparison to the colony 
was numerous and therefore inclined to rule and be dangerous, 
it became a matter of extreme importance to conciliate them as 
a means of protection. The colonists knew of the European 
claim of title by discovery, and knew that between the coloniz- 
ing nations it was recognized as superior to the Indian title by 
occupancy, but the Indian had no conception of such an owner- 
ship and promptly put in his claim to the soil. In the im- 
mediate presence of this claimant, able to back up his title by 



332 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

an appeal to war, the colonist had no other escape than to 
supplement his nation's alleged title by discovery by purchasing 
another from the Indian tribe. Beginning in this necessity the 
title by occupancy has ever since been recognized in the Indian 
tribes and is now an established doctrine of our jurisprudence. 

Another, and the next prominent feature of our Indian sys- 
tem arose at the same time and from nearly the same necessity. 
Into the great uninhabited areas claimed by the different Eu- 
ropean nations each imported the body of its civil and criminal 
laws. These laws reached into the depth of the wilderness to 
any distance that the citizens of thxt power extended their set- 
tlements. The whole body of these laws rested over the whole 
area, so that all persons of European blood, residing within the 
area claimed by England, were subject to the laws of England, 
whether living in settled communities or scattered among the 
Indians. But it was impossible to bring the Indian tribes, or 
the members thereof, under the operation of these foreign laws. 
The Indians had a system of government and laws, rude and 
unstable, and yet of such a character that it, too, has been rec- 
ognized by civilized nations; but the theory of the white man's 
laws he could not appreciate, and any effort to regulate his 
conduct or property rights by such laws would have invoked 
instant and bloody war. For these reasons the laws of Enj^- 
land were never attempted to be extended over the Indian, and 
right of tribal self-gove 'nment was conceded to him. The con- 
dition of the area claimed for colonizing purposes by England 
may be likened to a sea containing many islands, the sea rep- 
resenting the body of English law, and the many small islands 
the distinct Indian communities governed by their own rude 
system. It would have been impossible for the English laws 
to have been enforced as between individual Indians, without 
the use ot an army and the widest ramifications of a police de- 
I)artment. All of this was, of course, impossible in the early 
settlements of our colonies, or even later, on a wide and thinly 
settled frontier, and from this impossibility and from necessity 
sprang the second great principle of our national Indian policy; 
the right of the tribe or Indian nation to govern in its own do- 
mestic affairs. Without a just recognition of this principle an- 
archy must have prevailed, where, by its rude aid, a partial se- 
curity to life and property was obtained within the territory 
occupied by Indian nations. 

The colonizing European power, claiming title by discovery, 
must of necessity go a step farther and deny in the Indian 
tribe a right to convc}' title in the soil to any one. The gov- 
ernment claimed title as a land owner, and conceded occupancy 
in the Indian as a tenant. Were the Indian tribes permitted to 
convey the sui' to pui chasers great confu ion must of necessity 
arise; under the Englisii system the crown was the source of 
all title; sales l)v the tribe or members thereof would have re- 
suited in frauds upon the Indian, disputes over titles, and wars 
between tribes an.xious to secure payment for disputed terri- 



^ 



THE INDIAN AS A CITIZEN. 338 

tory. While having no interest in the sales the government 
would be obliged to maintain armies for the preservation of 
the peace, and see the Indians over-reached and wronged by 
designing white men. Tt might even see its territory sold to 
and occupied by a hostile and foreign people. As between its 
own people and foreign nations then, the colonizing govern- 
ment claimed and exercised the right to dispose of the entire 
body of Indian lands, after settling and removing the Indian 
claim by occupancy. This doctrine is now the set led policy 
of our government, sustained by a decision of our highest 
courts, and is the basis of our national land system 

The United S ates government, either by conquest, revolu- 
tion or purchase, has succeeded to all the claims of England, 
France and Spain to the area within her borders. The Su- 
preme Court of the United States has examined each of the 
principles herein discussed and has fully sustained the right of 
our government to exercise them. Whatever right either of 
these foreign colonizing nations obtained by the discovery 
of our lands now resides in our national government; the In- 
dian right of occupancy has been conceded; the right of the 
United States to dispose of the public domain after extin- 
guishing the Indian title is fixed and beyond question; but 
in the growth of our nation, and the gradual extinction of 
the Indian race, the right of local self-government in the 
Indian tribe is likely to be lost. In the Indian territory, 
where the civilized tribes maintain a constitutional form of 
government, it may continue for many years, but throughout 
the length and breadth of our land it exists, if at all, only as a 
fiction of law. 

On March 3, 1871, congress passed an act which reads as 
follows: "No Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the 
United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an inde- 
pendent nation, tribe or power with whom the United States 
may contract by treaty" — saving, however, the obligation of 
previous treaties. Whatever may be said of this act of con- 
gress from a legal standpoint, in view of the prior legislation 
of congress and the decisions of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, it nevertheless finally and effectually extinguished 
all future national claims of the Indians within the United 
States. It reduced their status, except when protected by 
prior treaties, from nations or tribes to that of individuals. 
Theoretically the former conditions must be referred to in de- 
termining the Indian's rights; his rights as a member of any 
tribe, claimed through an existing treaty or contract, will un- 
doubtedly be enforced, for the Constitution of the United 
States declares an Indian treaty to be one of the supreme laws 
of the land; all such treaty rights, however, for judicial deter- 
mination. The contract is made, it binds both parties, and the 
sole question is: What arc the rights of each party under this 
contract? With the determination of that question the Indian 
department employee can have but litle to do; it is wholly for 



334 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

the judicial department if any dispute arises; the Indians' rights 
are fixed and cannot be varied by any department officer or 
employee. 

Treaties are expiring by limitation. What shall be done for 
the Indians who have no treaties, as well as those whose treaties 
have expired? What rights will these people have before our 
law? Can they protect their persons and property as the law 
now stands? What additional legislation is necessary for the 
honor of our country? 



-O" 



EXPLORATION OF THE TEMPLE OF BEL. 

By Prof. Herman V. Hilprfxht. 

Thanks to the gracious protection which his majesty the 
sultan has always and eminently extended to the Babylonian 
Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, and to the 
lively and cordial interest which Hamdy Bey, the director- 
general of the Imperial Museum in Constantinople, has shown 
in it. the interrupted excavations could be resumed in the fall 
of the same year, 1889, as soon as cold weather set in, and 
pressed on with energy and fresh confidence. As a basis of 
operations had been marked out in the first campaign, there 
was, of course, less need for the assistance of the Assyriologist 
in the field than at home, where the sifting of the material and 
the preparations for the publication of the cuneiform discov- 
eries, claimed his entire attention. Only the director, the 
business manager, and the dragoman returned to Babylonia, 
while the architect made use of his studies to complete, in 
Paris, a plan in relief of the body of ruins at Niffur. 

The valuable experience which the members of the expedi- 
tion had acquired the first year, the comprehensive oversight 
of the central committee in Phi'adelphia (Mr. E. W. Clark, 
chairman), and of the director in the field, and the powerful 
support of the Ottoman government, insured a complete suc- 
cess to the second campaign also. Ever deeper the explorers 
penetrated into secrets and riddles of the huge mound of ruins. 
Hundreds of graves, clay coffins, and urns were opened, and 
the ruins of demolished habitations and storehouses, along with 
the contents of their chambers, were explored. In this way 
thousands of documents, inscribed bricks, vases, and votive 
tablets were collected. The active life and motion which once 
inilsate 1 in the streets of the city, and in the forecourts of its 
temple, on the })alni and corn laden banks of the great canal, 
unfolded itselt before the eyes of the restless explorers. 

The second campaign came to a more peaceful ending than 
(lid the first. At its close, both Dr. Peters and dragoman re- 
turned to America, and Mr. Haynes, who had labored with so 



EXPLORATION OF THE TEMPLE OF BEL. 335 

much skill in Niffur for the object of the expedition, was 
unanimously chosen its director to continue the explorations. 
He went alone to the field of labor, and since that time has 
exposed himself to the rains of winter and the heat of summer 
almost continuously. He has had merely the temporary help 
and company of another American named Meyer, who has 
rendered ^reat service by his excellent drawings of the ruins 
and of objects found in them. But Meyer's weakened frame 
fell a victim, in December last, to the malaria on the border of 
the marsh, where even before this the Syrian physician and the 
present writer had absorbed the germs of typhus. In the 
European cemetery in Bagdad, on the banks of the Tigris, he 
rests, having fallen a stanch fighter in the cause of science. 
Even if the sand-storms of the Babylonian plains should efface 
his solitary grave, what matters it? His bones rest in classic 
soil, where the cradle of the race once stood, and the history of 
Assyriology will not omit his name from its pages. 

The terraces of the temple of Ekur (that is, mountain house) 
rose ever more distinctly out of the rubbish mass which had 
grown above it through milleniums. The impressive ruins 
stood about one hundred feet above the level of the surround- 
ing plain, while its toundation lay hidden in the earth's bosom 
more than sixty feet below that level. The platform of the 
first king of Ur, who built here some 2800 B. C, was soon 
reached. But deeper still sank the shafts of the Americans. 
"What for ages no king among the kings had ^een" — to speak 
with King Nabun'id — "the old foundation of Naram-.Sin, that 
saw I." The numerous bricks bearing the name of the great 
Sargon, who, 3800 B. C, had extended his powerful empire to 
the shores of the Mediterranean, came forth to the light of 
day under pickax and shovel. By this the expedition supplied 
irrefutable proof of the historical character of this primitive 
Semitic kingdom, which has often been doubted. The curse 
of the king, which he had engraved in cuneiform characters in 
the door-sockets of the entrance. "Whosoever removes this 
inscribed stone, may Bel. Shamash and Ninna root him out, 
and destroy his posterity," had no terrors for the science of the 
nineteenth century. New trenches were cut. At times the 
waters of the god Ea, and the Anunaki, the Babylonian spirits 
of the depths, sprang up, and tried to frighten away the bold 
explorers; all in vain, however. 

Under the buildings of Sirgon and Xaram-Sin one of the 
largest and most important finds rewarded the labor that had 
been expended. An arch of brick, in splendid preservation, 
and of nearly the same form as is found in the later monu- 
ments of the second Assyrian empire, was laid bare, and most 
carefully photographed. By this the question long discussed 
by the historians of architecture, as to the antiquity of the 
arch, entered upon a new stage, and its existence in Babylonia 
about the end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth mil- 
lenium before Christ was proven. But, although the excava- 



336 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

tions have gone already twenty-three feet below the platform 
of King I'r-Gur of L'r (about 2800 B. C. ), not yet have they 
reached the deepest foundations of this venerable sanctuary*, 
whose influence for over four thousand years had been felt by 
all classes of the Babylonian people. But in the presence of 
this fact we bec^in to have some notion why Nippur is spoken 
of as the oldest city of the earth in the old Sumerian legends 
of the creation. 

Close upon seventy thousand dollars has been spent on the 
excavations in Nuffar, to say nothing of the loss of life and 
the endurance of trouble by those who have borne the burden 
and heat of the day on its fields of ruins. Great sacrifices of 
time, money and personal devotion will be needed to carry the 
exploration to its end. But what the University of Pennsyl- 
vania and its friends have begun will be finished. 

The classification and editing of the numerous and import- 
ant results of the expedition has been entrusted by the Com- 
mittee of Publication (C. H. Clark, chairman) to Professor 
Hilprecht, who has planned their publication in four series of 
from ten to fifteen volumes each.. Other Semitic scholars of 
America have been invited to take part in their publication 
and have promised their assistance for the near future. Two 
volumes, prcpariid by the editor-in chief, have appeared al- 
ready, and three are in the press, while seven others are in 
preparation, one of them containing the histor>' of the expe- 
dition by Dr. Peters and Dr. Haynes. It may be worth while, 
at this point, to summarize the most noteworthy results. 

About thirty thousand cuneiform tablets form the bulk of 
what has been recovered. Many of these are of the time of 
the earliest dynasty of Ur (about 2800 B. C), and of the period 
of the Cassitc kings (about 1725 to 1 140 B. C), which hitherto 
were not represented by dated documents. Of the manifold 
character of these documents — syllabaries, letters, chronologi- 
cal lists, historical fragments, astronomical and religious texts, 
inscriptions referring to buildings, votive tablets, dedications, 
inventories, contracts, etc. — nothing less than an exhausive 
examination can give a clear idea. Most of the early rulers of 
Babylon, who were known to us only by name, and nine whose 
very names had been lost, have been restored to history by 
this expedition. Through the abundance of the recovered 
texts of the earliest Semitic rulers, Aluharshid, Saagon I., and 
Naram-Sin, comprising hundreds of inscribed bricks, door- 
sockets, marble vases, and clay stamps for bricks, our concep- 
tion of the power and extent of the Semitic race about 3800 
h. C. had to undergo a radical transformation. 

Of especial value are the hundred and fifty fragments of 
inscribed sacrificial vessels and votive objects belonging to 
rulers already known to us through Tcllo. as they promise to 
cast entirely new light upon the chronology of a difficult 
period. Besides this, the first publication showed the Publica- 
tion Committee of Philadelphia to be determined to clear up 



1 XPLORATION OF THK TKMPLE OF BEL. 337 

the entangled (|ucsti()ns of Habyloiiian paleography hy tivatin^ 
thcni on scientific principles. 

Those who have stuilicil the exph»rations of Loftiis and Lay- 
ani know what indescribable pains they have taken to save f<»r 
the Hritish Museum three clay sarcopha^^i. even thou^di they 
crumble J to pieces on contact with the air. Thanks t<» the pa- 
tient efforts of Ilaynes, nine clay sarcophajji have already been 
exc.ivated at Nuffar. and conveyed in ^ood condition to the 
Imperial Museum at Constantinople, an(i twenty five nu)re 
stand packed, ready to leave the heUls of ruins. Amonj^ tlie 
^rcat number of seals anil seal-cylinders, such as the Babylo- 
nians emph>yed in business transactions, there are some of 
every period t»f their history, and several belon^'ed to kin^s 
and governors. Two hundred clay bowls, closely inscribed in 
Aramaic Hebrew, and Mandean, allow us a wi'lcominj^ j^limpse 
into the wizarilry of Habylonia. which e.xerted considerable in- 
lluence on the relij^ious teachinj^s of the later, post-bliblical lit- 
erature of the Jews, rhousands of enameled and plain vases 
of clay of all sorts. playthinj»s, weapons, wei. hts. ^old and sil- 
ver ornaments, objects in stone. brt>nze. and iron, toj^^et her with 
a collection of human skulls, offer us help in the study of the 
piebal ethnological relations nf Habylonia. 

With reiiard to the wealth of its results and the .scientific 
treatment of the documents it has published, this Philadelphia 
expiilition takes eijual rank with the best sent out from Vav^- 
land (»r 1*' ranee. 



338 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



THE MENHIRS OF MEUDON. 

Translated from the French by R. G. Abbott. 

N. Berthelot, the erudite chemist and perpetual secretary of 
the Academy of Sciences, has brought to notice the existence 
of two Menhirs near Paris, in the fore.«t of Meudon. 

Menhirs are especially numerous in the north and west of 
France, in the departments of LaManche TOrne, Calvados, 
Morbihan, etc. Skeletons are found near the stones, from 
which fact certain archctjologists conclude that the menhirs 
were funeral monuments. Others surmise the menhirs to have 
been an emblem of the force and the fecundity of nature. 

The disposal of the menhirs in a single straight line or in 
several parallel lines is termed alignments, The best known 
are those of Carnac in Morbihan, where the lines extend for 
three kilometres and the menhirs exceed the number of 1900. 

Sometimes the menhirs are arranged in a circle, semi-circle 
or oval, with closed curves, or polygonal contours. In this 
case the enclosures receive the name of Cromlech: from the 
Celtic terms Crom, curve; and lech, stone. The finest cromlech 
of Morbihan is that of the isle of Monks: but the most cele- 
brated is that of Avebury, which has been reconstructed by 
Britton, and which we present in perspective view to our 
readers. The cromlechs were probably the temples, or places 
of reunion for military assemblies or the courts of justice. 

Dolmens are altars formed of enormous flat stones, from 30 
centimetres to i metre 25 centimetres in thickness, placed 
horizontally upon other stones of 1 me re in height, which are 
driven into the earth. 

The two menhirs to which M. Berthelot directs attention 
have been recently brought to light by the felling of the sur- 
round. ng forest timber. One of them was still standing, the 
other had fallen over. The upright menhir is a table of trape- 
zoidal sandstone 60 centimetres thick, and 50 centimetres high. 
The base measures 2 metres 50 centimetres, and the summit 
65 centimetres. It weighs about 10,000 kilogrammes. The two 
blocks are of sandstone, and appear to have been excavated 
from an abandoned quarry situated from 1,500 to 2,000 metres 
distant. M. Berthelot thinks their object was to designate the 
region of streams which feed the lakes of Chalaisand Villebon. 
and recalls the discovery forty years ago of a dolmen in the 
avenue of the Chateau of Meudon. 

These monuments have no inscriptions, signs or figures. In 
other localities remains bearing inscriptions have been un- 
earthed, but such inscriptions or signs are undoubtedly the 
production of a subsequent epoch, instead of being a direct 
message from the Celts, our remote ancestors. 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE PUEBLOS. 339 



I 



THK DISCOVERY OF THE PUEBLOS. 

liy SiKi'MKN U. ruin, Ph.D. 

In writing the history of the explorations which led to the 
discovery of the pueblos and cliff dwellinj^^s, we shall have to 
{▼o back to the lime when Narvacz was wrecked upon the Florida 
coast. This occurred in the year 1528, near Tampa Hay. Those 
of the party who were not drowned remained on an island or 
on the mainland for six years, and endured from the Indians the 
greatest indignities. At length, four of them — three Spaniards 
and a negro — under the lead of Cabeca de Vaca. escaped, and 
took their flight towards the mountains of Northern Alabama.* 
Thence their course was westerly across the Mississippi, "the 
great river coming from the north," across the Arkansas River 
to the headwaters of the Canadian, and thence southwesterly 
through New Mexico and Ari/.ona to Culiacan, or Sonora, which 
they reached in the spring of 1536. Culiacan was a province 
which had been visited by the Spaniards under Nuno de Guz- 
man, and a colony settled therc.f When these fugitives arrived 
at Culiacan they told marvelous stories concerning the things 
which they had seen and heard ; and, among other things, they 
mentioned the groat and powerful cities, which contained houses 
of four and five stories, thus confirming the report of the Indian 
slave. When these tales were communicated to the new gov- 
ernor. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, in his home in Mexico, 
he set out with haste to the province of Culiacan, taking with 
him three Franciscan friars. J whom he dispatched with the negro 
Estevanico on a journey of discovery, with orders to return and 
report to him all they could ascertain about the "seven celebrated 
cities." The monks, when they came near the province, sent 
the negro in advance The negro, however, as soon as he 
reached the country of the *' seven cities of Cibola," demanded 
not only their wealth, but their women. The inhabitants, not 
relishing this, killed him and sent back all those who had accom- 
panied himS This disheartened the monks, and they returned 

• \hf na!iir*> ••( lli# Spari.ird* wtre Alvnr Nunez, Caber* de Vaca, Andre* I>oiantcK 
an ] At 'ii/o 'Irl ra^tili>i .%ialil>iii.i lo. and that of the ncKru wa« K»trv«olcii iSlephen). 

* " n.>- <•■ ■ ,iN.,iii ul vis:tinK ihisi prii\iiKe >ka« the ri'p 'it which «a« brought l>v an 
In t .ill. .1 ^la%-v, ili.it ihfd* w* rr -Diiuwhi'ie north of Moxiio, citu-«. M-\cn in nunihrr, as 
l.itk;e a- t>.i i it\ nf >!• xi«i> it's.fli. Mho>c ^-troett were i'\(.lu«>i%rly iKCiipirtl l>y worki-rs in 
K"M .tnd - !v( r. and t>i ii<ai Ii ihrni a jmirni'V ot forty day^^ tliruuxh a dt-9ert wait reciuirvtl." 

I hr tuunnol Coniiiii>tt*!ln, Culiacan. Ctnaloa. anil Smora are laid down on the niili- 
tarv niapot the Cnitea States and as gi\i*n m ihr map by (ienrral Simpson, are placed 
aluni; the i-a*<t i:ifa«t id the tiuK of California. 

t I'hr nanir ol one ot the priests wa.* Marcos de Nica. rnmnionly called Friar Marcos. 
Ca^taiicda'- Kclatii>n<i are the sources of information at)Out the joumev. 

i VUv niarr which the monks visited and where the negro was killed has been identified 
I > 1-'. W. llkxigc. 2»i-v American Anthropologist. 



340 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

to Culiacan; but in their report to Coronado they gave a glowing 
description of all that had been discovered of the seven cities, 
as well as of the "islands filled with treasure, which they were 
assured existed in the Southern Sea." 

Arriving at Mexico, the friars proclaimed, through their pul- 
pits, the marvelous discoveries, and Coronado busied himself 
with preparing an expedition to the region. Many gentlemen 
of good family were enlisted, and probably there had not been an 
expedition in which there was such a large proportion of persons 
of noble birth. It was also arranged that two vessels should 
take supplies and follow the army along the coast of the "South- 
ern Sea." The army reached Culiacan, which was the last town 
inhabited by the Spaniards, and was two hundred and ten 
leagues from the City of Mexico. After resting a couple of 
weeks, Coronado led the advance of his army, consisting of 
fifty cavaliers, a few infantry, his particular friends and the 
monks, leaving the rest of the army to follow two weeks after. 
Passing out of the inhabited region, he came at the edge of a 
great desert, to a place called Chichilticale, and could not suppress 
his sadness at what he saw. The place of which so much had 
been boasted was only a ruined, and roofless house, which at one 
time seemed to have been fortified and was built of red earth.* 

On quitting the place they entered the desert and at the end 
of fifteen days came within eight leagues of Cibola. There the 
first Indians of the country were discovered. On the following 
day they entered the inhabited country, but as the army came 
in sight of the village they broke forth into maledictions. The 
following is Castaneda's description of the place: 

Cibola is built on a rock and this villaee is so small that in truth there 
are many farms in New Spain that make a better appearance. It may con- 
tain two hundred warriors. The houses are built in three or four stories; 
they are small, not spacious and have no courts, as a single court serves 
for a whole quarter. The inhabitants ot the province were united there. It 
is composed of seven towns, some of which are larger and better fortified 
than Cibola. These Indians, ranged in good order, awaited us at some dis- 
tance from the village. They were very loth to accept peace; when they 
were required to do so by our interpreters, they menaced us by their gestures. 
Shouting our war cry of Sant lago, we charged upon and quickly caused 
them to fly. Nevertheless, it was necessary to ^et possession of Cibola, 
which was no easy achievement, for the road leading to it was both narrow 
and winding. The general was knocked down by the blow of a stone as he 
mounted in the assault, and he would have been slain had it not been for 

•This was the work of civilized people who had "come from afar." It has been thought 
by some to be Casa Grande on the Gila— a building which is far famed because it represents 
one class of structures which was common in this region and was supposed to have belonged 
to the ancient Pima Indians, who formerly built pueolos, but of a ainferent type from those 
which were inhabited by the Moquis and Zunis. Mr. A. F. Bandelicr thinks that the red 
house may possibly have been Casa Grande, though the ruin is perfectly white at present. He 
says that this kind of village includes a much larger and more substantial structure. It 
grows more conspicuous as we ascend the course of the Otonto Creek. It consists of a 
central building, into which, in some cases, all the buildings are merged; sometimes en- 
closed by broad quadrangular walls, while transverse walls connect the enclosure with a 
central hill. In some cases there are indications that the house was erected on an artificial 
platform. He says that the Fimas claim all the ruins north of the Gila to the "Superstition 
Range" as those of their own people. 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE PUEBLOS. 341 

Garci Lopez de Cardenas and Hernando d*Alvarado, who threw themselves 
before him and received the blows of the stones which were designed for 
him and fell in large numbers; nevertheless, as it was impossible to resist the 
first impetuous charge of Spaniards, the village was gained in less than an 
hour. It was found filled with provisions, which were much needed, and, 
in a short time, the whole province was forced to accept peace." 

In this connection it may be interesting to giye an account of 
the discovery of the Rio Colorado. It will be remembered that 
the vessels were ordered to follow the march of the army along 
the coast of the Southern Sea. The vessels put to sea from La 
Nativitad on May 9, 1540. They put into the ports of Xalisco 
and Culiacan, but finding Coronado and his army gone, they 
sailed northwardly until they entered the Gulf of California, 
which they experienced great difficulty in navigating. After in- 
credible hardships they managed to get the vessels to the end of 
the gulf, where they found "a very great river, and the current of 
which was so rapid that they could scarcely stem it." Taking 
two shallops with some guns they commenced the ascent of the 
liver by hauling the boats with ropes.* 

The general, Fernando Alarcon, reached a point on the river 
as far north as about the 34°, where he planted a cross and de- 
posited letters at the foot of a tree, which were afterwards found 
by Melchior Diaz.t This discovery of the Gulf of California 
and the Colorado River is important, for it is connected closely 
with the discovery of "the seven cities." The same river was 
reached by a party consisting of twelve men, under Don Garci 
Lopez, who were sent out by Coronado after his return to Cibola. 
Alter a journey of twenty days through the desert they reached 
the river, whose banks were so high ''they thought themselves 
elevated three or four leagues in the air." ** Their efforts to 
descend were all made in vain." 

From Cibola the general sent out Alvarado with twenty men, 
who, "five days after, arrived at a village named Acuco." 

"This village was strongly posted, inasmuch as it was reached by only 
one path, and was built upon a rock precipitous on all its other sides, and 
at such a hei5>^ht that the ball from an arquebuse could scarcely reach its 
summit. It was entered by a stairway cut by the hand of man, which began 
at the bottom of the declivitous rock and led up to the village. This stair- 
way was of suitable width for the iirst two hundred steps, but after these 
there were a hundred more much narrower, and when the top was finally to 



*The rcfi:ion at the moutlt of the Colorado is a flat expanse of mud, and the channels at 
the entrance from tlie gulf are shifting and changeable. The navigation is rendered 
periodically dangerous by the strength of the spring tides. Fort Vuma is 150 miles from 
the mouth, and to this point the principle obstructions are sand bars. Above Fort Yuma 
for i$o miles the river passes through a chain of hills and mountains, forming gorges and 
canons. There are many swift rapids and dangerous sunken rocks. The made Canon is 
twenty-five miles long. 

t Melchior Diaz, who had been left at Sonora. placed himself at the head of twenty-five 
men, under the lead of guides, and followed up the coast one hundred and fifty leagues, 
until he arrived at the river called Kio del Tizon, whose mouth was two lesLgues wide. He 
reached the spot fifteen leagues from its mouth and found the tree marked by Alarcon, dug 
and found the letters. The party crossed the Rio del Tizon on rafts and turned toward the 
southeast, thus goin^ around the Gulf of California. No ruins were discovered by this 

Barty. The spot which this party reached was much nearer its source than where Melchior 
>isLZ had crossed, though the Indians were the s ame which Diaz had seen. 



342 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

be reached it was necessary to scramble up the three last steps by placiDg 
the feet in holes scraped in the rock, and as the ascender could scarcely 
make the pomt of his toe enter them he was forced to cling to the precipice 
with his hands. On the summit there was a great arsenal of huge stones, 
which the defenders, without exposing themselves, could roll down on the 
assailants, so that no army, no matter what its strength might be, could 
force this passage. There was on the top a sufficient space of ground to 
cultivate and store a large supply of corn, as well as cisterns to contain 
water and snow." 

Three days' journey thence Alvarado reached a province 
called Tiguex, where he was received very kindly, and was so 
well pleased that he sent a messenger to Coronado inviting him 
to winter there. Five days' journey thence Alvarado reached 
Cicuye (Pecos), a village very strongly fortified, whose houses 
had four stories. '*Here he fell in with an Indian slave, who was 
a native of the country adjacent to Florida, the interior of which 
Ferdinan de Soto had lately explored.'* The Indian, whom 
they called the Turk, spoke of certain large towns and of large 
stores of gold and silver in his country and also the country of 
the bisons. Alvarado took him as a guide to the bison country, 
and after he had seen a few of them he returned to Tiguex, the 
Rio Grande, to give an account of the news to Coronado. 

While the discoveries above mentioned were being made, some 
Indians, living seventy leagues toward the east arrived at Cibola. 
They offered gifts of tanned skins, shields and helmets, and 
spoke of the cows whose skins were covered with a frizzled hair 
resembling wool, showing they were bufialoes. 

Coronado, who had remained at Cibola, hearing of a province 
composed of eight towns, took with him thirty of die most 
hardy of his men and set out to visit it on his way to Tiguex or 
Rio Grande. In eight or eleven days he reached the province 
called Tutahaco, which appears to have been situated below the 
city of Tiguex. The eight villages comprising this province 
were not like those of Cibola, built of stone, but of earth. He 
learned of other villages still further down the river. In the 
meantime the army moved from Cibola toward Tiguex. The 
first day they reached the handsomest and largest village in the 
province, where they lodged. "There they found houses of 
seven stories, which were seen nowhere else. These belonged 
to private individuals and served as fortresses. They rise so far 
above the others that they have the appearance of towers. There 
are embrasures and loop-holes from which lances may be thrown 
and the place defended. As all these villages have no streets, 
all the roofs are flat and common for all the inhabitants; it is 
therefore necessary first of all to take possession of those houses 
which serve as defenses." 

The army passed near the Great Rock of Acuco (Acoma), 
already described, where they were well received by the inhabit- 
ants of the city perched on its summit. Finally it reached 



THE DISCOVERY OK THE PUEBLOS. 343 

Tijjuex, where it was well recieved and lodged. It was found, 
however, that the whole province was in open revolt, and the 
army was obliged to lay siege to the city and capture it anew. 
After the siege the general dispatched the captain to Cia. which 
was a large and populous village four league^ west of the Rio 
Grande. Six other Spaniards went to Quirix, a province com- 
posed of seven villages All these villages were at length 
tranquilized by the assiduous efforts of the Spaniards. The 
army spent the winter here, but earlv in the next seasjn. May, 
1 541, they took up the march to Cjuivira in search of the gold 
and silver which the Turk sa»d could be found there. The 
rt)Ute w.is via Cicuye (Pecos), twenty five leagues distant. After 
leaving Cicuye (Pecos) and crossing some mountains they reached 
a large and deep river which passed near to Cicuye, and was 
therefore called the Rio de Cicuye 1 Pecos). Here they were de- 
layed four days to build a bridge. Ten days after, on their march, 
they discovered some tents of tanned bufTalo skins inhabited by 
Indians who were called Qucrechaos. 

Continuing their march in a northeasterly direction they came 
to a village which Cabeca de Vaca had passed on his way from 
Florida to Me.xico. The army met with and killed an incredible 
number of buffaloes ; but reached a point 850 miles from Tiguex. 
Here, the provisions giving out, Coronado with thirty horsemen 
and six foot soldiers continued his march in search of Quivira. 
while the rest of the army returned. The guides conducted the 
general to (Juivira in forty-eight days. Here they found neither 
gold nor silver, though the Cacique wore on his breast a copper 
plate, of which he made a great parade. The army, on its re- 
turn from the prairies, came to four large villages and reached a 
place where the river plunged beneath the ground. In the 
beginning of 1542 Coronado returned by the way of Cibola and 
Chichilticale to Culiacan,and finally reached the City of Mexico. 

Thus ended the great expedition which for extent and distance 
traveled, dunition m time (more than two years) and for the 
multitiuie of its discoveries, and the many branch explorations, 
excelled any land ex()edition that has been undertaken in 
modern times. 

It was the first expedition which was ever led into the south- 
west interior, but did more to bring to light the wonderful vil- 
lages or cities located there than any other that has ever taken 
place. To us the narrative of the expedition is of very great 
value, for it reveals the exact condition of the country as it v/as 
three hundred and fifty years ago. It is to be remembered that 
this expedition took place less than fifty years after the discovery 
and only fifteen years after the exj>edition by Ferdinan de Soto, 
and eighty years before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. It 
rrsulted in disappointment to the leaders, for they h<id expected 
to find cities filled with gold, similar to those which had been 



344 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

discovered by Cortez in Mexico and by Pizarro in Peru; but, 
instead, they found solitary buildings in ruins, and such villages 
as were inhabited were, situated on barren rocks, and were per- 
fectly destitute of gold or silver or the precious metals. The 
region which they went so far to reach was inhabited by wild 
tribes, who dwelt in huts or wigwams, and chased the buffalo 
for subsistence. 

There were two motives which ruled the Spaniards wherever 
they went — the thirst for gold and the conversion of the natives. 
The thirst for gold was not satisfied, but the opportunity for 
christianizing the Indians was great. So the country continued to 
be occupied by the Spanish missionaries. From this time on, 
the history is one of missions rather than of discovery or con- 
quest, though there were various military expeditions and many 
fierce battles. The revolts of the natives against the dominion 
of the priests required the presence of armed hosts, and only 
ended with the subjugation of the people by military force. 
New Mexico was brought altogether under Spanish rule by Juan 
de Onate in 1595. In 1680 the natives threw off the yoke, 
but were again subdued fifteen years later. The archives of the 
missions were destroyed in the revolt, and the history previous 
to that date is only known in outline. The diaries kept after 
this date show that the authors visited manv of the ruins which 
have attracted the attention of later explorers, and also that they 
found many of the towns inhabited which now exist only as ruins. 

We shall not dwell further upon the history of the region, 
nor shall we at the present time speak of the discoveries which 
have taken place since the region came into the possession of 
the United States government; but shall proceed at once to the 
question whether these various localities visited by the Spaniards 
under Coronado can be identified. This is an important ques- 
tion, for it brings out the changes which have occurred in three 
hundred and fifty years, and at the same time throws light upon 
the relative age of the different ruins. 

We shall first speak of the distribution of the pueblos. 
On this point we shall quote the words of Dr. Washington 
Matthews, who long resided at Fort Wingate, and is familiar 
with the whole region. He says: "Along the great Cordillera 
of the American Continent, on both sides of the equator, from 
Wyoming to Chili extends a land abounding in ancient ruins. 
A large part of this land lies in the boundary of the United 
States. It contains the Territory of Arizona, most of Utah, more 
than half of New Mexico, extensive parts of the states of Colo- 
rado and Nevada, with small portions of Texas and California. 
The great rivers which drain it into the ocean are the Colorado on 
the west, and the Rio Grande on the east; the former flowing 
toward the Pacific, the latter toward the Atlantic. It is an arid 
region, but not an absolute desert, for there is no part of it on 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE PUEBLOS. 345 

which rain does not fall some time during every year, but it is 
on the high mountains only that it descends abundantly, while 
on the lower levels the moisture is scanty, and irrigation is nec- 
essary to successful agriculture. The ruins have been known to 
the world for three centuries and a half; they have been in the 
possession of the United States for over forty years. Yet it is 
only within the past few years that any attempt at systematic 
exploration or excavation has been made among them.'*' 

A. F. Bandelier says: "The northern limits of the House-build- 
ers remains yet to be definitely established. Taos seems to be 
the northernmost Pueblo. The eastern limits seem to be the 
meridian of the Pecos River; the western, the great Colorado, 
and the dismal shores of the Gulf of California ; the southern 
limits, the ruins found in southern Colorado and in southern 
Utah. Within the area thus defined the villages were scattered 
very irregularly, and in fact their inhabitants occupied and used 
but a small quantity of the ground. Extensive desert tracks 
often separated the groups and these spaces were open to the 
roving Indians, who prowled in and about the settlements much 
to the detriment ot the inhabitants. Thus, Acoma, is separated 
from the Zuni group by at last seventy miles of waste, and the 
Navajos raided over this space at will, endangering communica- 
tions from the Tehuas, while both tribes were some distance 
away from the Rio Grande and the side valley. From Acoma 
to the Rio Grande another forty miles of desert intervened. Be- 
tween the latter and Tiguex the uninhabited region is from 
thirty to forty miles, and here the Apaches could lurk and assault 
at any time. A desert stretch of twenty miles separated the 
pueblo of Picuries from the Tahuas; and a stretch of thirty 
miles separated them from Taos. Twenty-seven miles to the 
southwest of Santa Fe is Cochiti, and three miles east of the 
stream is the old pueblo of Santa Domingo; on the same side 
but directly on the river bank stood Katishtya, the antecessor 
of the present Felipe. Farther west on the Jemez River the 
Quirquires inhabited several cities. Here was a cluster of the Cia 
towns, and northwest of Cia began the range of the Jemez who 
inhabited a number of pueblos along the Jemez River.f The 
Pueblos, far from being masters of New Mexico previous to the 
coming of the Spaniards, were hemmed in and hampered on 
all s»des by tribes which were swift in their movements, and 
had a great advantage over the Pueblos in number. 

It must not be supposed that the area indicated is uniformly 
covered, for there are many districts utterly devoid of ruins. 



*See Seventh Memoir National Academy of Science. Vol. VI, Human Bones of theHcm- 
enway Collection, by Dr. Washington Matthews, U. S. A. Introduction p. 142. 

fThe total number of pueblos, as stated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, does 
not at all agree with that number as it stands at the present time. It is much larger and 
varies from forty-six (Escalante. from reports at the time of the rebellion.) to over one hun- 
dred, f Onatc, in the Acts ef Submission of 159^.) 



346 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Ver)' few are found in the high f:;rests, for it is useless to look 
for ruins at an altitude exceeding 8,000 feet — climate, lack of 
space for cultivation, together with the steepness of slopes for- 
bid. The lower limits of the ruins seem mostly dependent on 
natural features. On the side of Arizona, but not on the sea- 
coast the ruins ascend within 1,000 feet of the sea level. There 
are said to be traces of the succession of ruins along the Canadian 
River far across the great plains."* 

"There is nothing in the natural resources oi New Mexico that 
could maintain a large number of people whose industrial means 
of support were those which belonged to the "stone age." The 
water supply of the territory is remarkably scant, and, while the 
Indian knew and used springs which the present settler is 
sometimes unacquainted with, the value of such springs was not 
very great. They might suffice for the wants of one or a few 
families, some times for a small village. To such watering 
places the Indian was limited, outside of the river bottoms of 
larger streams. But the larger streams are few and far between, 
and only portions of their course are suitable for cultivation. 
Only the Rio Grande, the San Juan, the Chama. parts of the 
Pecos, Jemez, Puerco and Upper Gila irrigate large valleys."f 

Mr. L. H. Morgan says that "New Mexico is a poor coun- 
try for civilized man, but quite well adapted to the sedentary 
Indians, who cultivated about one acre out of every hundred 
thousand. This region and the San Juan immediately north of 
it possessed a number of narrow, fertile valleys, containing 
together possibly 50,000 inhabitants, and it is occupied now by 
their descendants (excepting the San Juan) in manner and form 
as it was then. The region is favorable to the communistic mode 
of life, cultivation of, the soil by irrigation being a necessity." 

The disappointment of the Spaniards, who came from the 
mountain city and were familiar with the luxuriant growth of 
the southern coasts, and found this region so destitute of forests 
and so silent and lonely, must have been great, for it was a new 
experience to them. So it is with every one who traverses the 
region. The scenery is entirely different from that which pre- 
vails elsewhere, and the life is as different as the scenery. 

As to the age of the pueblos very little can be said. One sup- 
position is that the people formerly dwelt in one-story houses, 
which were clustered together in a circle with a court in the cen- 
ter, something like those in Arizona Territory, which Bandelier 
says has the *'checker-board" appearance; but the attack of the 
wild tribes, which were the Navajos and Apaches, compelled 

*The plains of San Augustine in Southwestern New Mexico, the plateau of the Nataaes 
in Eastern Arii?ona. the banks of the Rio Grande from the San Louis Valley to the end of 
the gorge appear not to have been settled in ancient times. 

tA line from Taos in the extreme north as far south as where San Marcial now stands, 
or a length of nearly 230 miles; from east to west they spread f.om longitude 105° lo', (Taos 
and Pecos) to nearly iio° 30', (the Moqui villages.) (See Final Report, Fart I., p. 119.) 
Lieut. Simpson makes the distance east and west 360 miles. 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE PUEBLOS. 347 

them to build their houses in terraces, making them resemble 
modern flats, except that the lower stories were closed. The 
upper stories were reached by ladders, each story having a ter- 
race or platform in front of it. The relative age of the Pueblos 
and Cliff-dwellers is a mere matter of conjecture. Some think 
the Cliff-dwellers the older; others regard them as later, though 
no cliff-dwelling has yet been found occupied. It is a common 
impression that the pueblos are all very ancient; but recent in- 
vestigations have proved the contrary. The majority of the 
villages which were visited were occupied, and were probably 
built by the people who dwelt in them, but their history could not 
be carried back to a certainty more than five or six hundred 
years.* The buildings which are now standing, and are at 
present occupied, are not the ones visited by the Spaniards. 
The villages have been moved and new structures have been 
erected several times over during the three hundred and fifty 
years which have elapsed, though they are in the same vicinity 
and their architecture and mode of life may be very similar. 
This makes it more difficult to identify the exact spots which 
were visited of which we have the descriptions, though it gives 
us a better idea of the people and the persistency of their cus- 
toms, if we take the later accounts and compare them with the 
earlier. 

Taking the localities through which the Spaniards passed, let 
us now see how many of the ruins can be identified. We shall 
begin with the place called Chichilticalli. The question is 
whether the Casa Grande was actually the building which was 
reached. On this point we shall quote first from Father Font, 
who saw it in 1775, and says it was known by the name of 
Montezuma, and was one league from the Rio Gila. "The Casa 
Grande, or palace of Montezuma, must have been built five hun- 
dred years previously (in the thirteenth century), if we are to 
believe the accounts given by the Indians; for it appears to have 
been constructed by the Mexicans at the epoch of their emigra- 
tion when the devil, conducting them through different countries, 
led them to the promised land of Mexico.'* This was the Span- 
ish conception of the ruins. 

Various American travelers have visited this region — Emory 
and Johnson in 184O, Bartlett in 1852, Ross Brown in 1863, 
Leroux in 1854. Bandelier in 1880-1885. F. H. Gushing and 
Washington Matthews in 1887. Emery's description is as follows: 

It was the remains of a three story mud house sixty feet square, pierced 
for doors and windows. The whole interior of the house had been burnt 
out and the walls much defaced. The site of the house is flat on all sides; 
and the ruins of the houses which compose the town extend more than a 



♦Certain pueblos wore mentioned to Frav Marcos of Ni/a, under the name of Toton- 
teac. a Zuni term applied to a cluster of twelve pueblos lyiUK in the direction of Moquis, 
which were abandoned before the sixteenth century, but tne reminiscence of which still re- 
mained in the name. : ec Bandelier, Vol. Ill, Fart I, p. 114. 



348 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN 

league toward the east. All the land is partially covered with pieces of 
pots, jugs and plates painted in different colors — white, blue and red — very 
different from the work of the Pimas. The house forms an oblong square 
facing exactly the four cardmal points; and round about there are ruins in- 
dicating a fence or wall, which surrounded it. In the corners there appears 
to have been some edifice like a castle or watch tower. The interior of the 
house consists of five halls — three middle ones of one size, twenty-six feet 
by ten feet; the extreme ones longer, thirty-eight feet by twelve feet; all 
eleven feet high. The inner doors are of equal size, two feet by five feet; 
the outer doors are double width. The inner walls are four feet thick; the 
outer walls six feet thick. All of the buildincr is of earth, and according to 
appearances is built in boxes or moulds of different sizes. A trench leads 
from the river at a great distance, by which the town is supplied with water. 
It is now nearly buried up. The house is seventy feet from north to south, 
and fifty from east to west. The interior walls are four feet in thickness; 
they are well constructed; the interior walls are six feet thick. The edifice 
is constructed of earth, in blocks of different thickness and has three 
stories. We found no traces of stairways. We think they must have been 
burnt when the Apaches burnt this edifice."* 

Bandelier describes Casa Grande and the cities adjoining, as 
well as the canals. He says : 

" The careful study of documents is indispensable for successful explor- 
ation of the antiquities of the country. Numerous notices of ruined villages 
are scattered throughout the voluminous archives of Spanish rule in the 
Southwest. I will refer here only to the descriptions of the Casa Grande 
by Father Rino and Father Sedelmair; of the Casa Grand, by Rivera; 
Northwestern New Mexico, by Father Escalante. Their descriptions, 
dating back, enables us to restore much in these edifices to which their 
present conditions gives no clue." 

"Between Casa Grande and Florence the distance eastward is nine long 
miles, and the country shows no change. Several ancient irrigating ditches 
are seen on the road, some of which are quite deep. Nowhere did I notice 
any trace of a lining or casing, as at Tule; the raised backs or rims seemed 
to be only of the soil. Ruins in scattered clusters are numerous, all of the 
same character. In one place I found an elliptical tank almost as large as 
the one at Casa Grande and presenting a similar appearance. Wherever 
walls protruded the walls were the same, only thinner. This may be due 
to the fact that that they were merely partitions, and that I nowhere could 
measure the outer ones, which have crumbled. In short, from Casa Blanca 
in the west— and probably son^e distance beyond— a I'ne of ruins extends 
to east of Florence, and probably as far as Riverside, or a stretch of more 
than sixty miles. These ruins, however, do not reach very far inland,^ 
although some are scattered throughout Papaeneria. At this day Casa 
Grande shows two stories with vertical walls on atll four sides, and from the 
center rises a third story like a low tower. Whether the latter originally 
extended over t^e whole building or not, I am unable to determine." 

Dr. Washington Matthews' account is more complete and 
full, and includes many new localities. It appears that the Hem- 
enway Expedition arrived in the valley of the Salt River, a trib- 
utary of the Gila, in Arizona, and began excavating some stone 
ruins on the uplands, but were attracted by some earth mounds 
on the flood. The result was the discovery of an extensive col- 
lection of habitations — a city it might be called — some six miles 
in length and from half a mile to a mile in width. The mound 

•Notes of a military reconnoissance made by Lientenant Colonel William A. Emory, 
Corps of Topographical Engineers, in 1846-47, with the advance guard of the Army of the 
West. p. 82 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE PUEBLOS. 349 

proved to be the debris of a great earthen house, of many stories 
and many chambers, and analagous in structure to the stiU- 
standing Casa Grande, before referred to, which is distant from 
the mound to the southeast less than thirty-five miles in a direct 
line. In the course of excavation at this place so many skele- 
tons were found under the floors of the houses that Mr. Gushing 
devised for it the Spanish name of Pueblo de los Muertos, or, 
briefly, Los Muertos, the town of the dead; and this name was 
retained for it. although he subsequently found other ruined 
cities in the vicinity where skeletons were as common as here. 

The party discovered the remains of six other large cities 
within ten miles. Of these three were named: First, Los 
Acequias, from the number, size and appearance of the old can- 
als or irrigated ditches through which the inhabitants conducted 
water to their fields ; second, Los Hornos, the ovens, from the 
number of earthen ovens found there; third, Los Guanacos, be- 
cause in it were found small terra-cotta images of animals 
thought to resemble the llama of South America. In these 
ruined cities the remains of buildings like the Casa Grande were 
found. They were of four kind: i, temples; 2, estufas; 3, com- 
munal houses; 4, ultramural houses. Of the temples there was 
only one to each city and this was centrally located; though in 
one of the cities there were seven such buildings, the largest of 
which was in the center. Each building was surrounded by a 
high wall from five to ten feet thick. The lower story of each 
was divided into six departments, which were used as store 
rooms for the priests. The other stories were used as priestly 
residences. The entire building served as a fortress in times of 
danger. 

The sun temples, or estufas, were built of earth on a great 
basket frame of hurdles, elliptical in shape, were roofed with a 
dome made of spiralling, contracting coils of reeds, which were 
heavily covered on the outside with mud, and resembling an 
elongated terra cotta' bowl inverted, reminding one ot the Mormon 
temple. The dimensions were about 150 ieet in width, 200 teet 
in length. The floor within was elevated so as to form a sort of 
ampitheater. It is thought that in these buildings public rites 
of the esoteric societies were performed, as they were in close 
proximity to the priests' dwelling. 

The communal houses were the principal dwelling places. 
They were built of mud without the hurdles. These contained 
many ruins on the ground floor and are thought to have been 

♦Dr. Washington Matthews speaks of figures inscribed on the rocks representing ani- 
mals which resemble the Llamas of Peru and hunters throwing lassos at them These may 
possibly have been elks, for they are associated with other animals with horns like the deer, 
and there is no evidence that the people knew anything about the Llamas. There are tur- 
keys inscribed upon the rocks. These were probably the domestic fowls, for tame turkeys 
were common among the pueblos. 

*This illustrates the superstition about the six houses of the sky: 4 for the cardinal 
points; 2 for the /enith and nadir, 



350 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

the homes of separate clans. Each was surrounded by a high 
earthen wall and generally by a separate canal or acequia. Each 
had its single appropriate water reservoir with a branch canal 
leading into it, its own separate Pyral mound, or place of crema- 
tion, and its one great underground oven for the preparation of 
food. In Los Muertos at least fifty of these great buildings were 
unearthed. 

The ultra mural houses were small low huts made of sticks 
and reeds, and were situated outside the limits of the earthen 
houses and formed separate groups. Each contained a central 
fire-place. In one place they constituted a town of considerable 
size, which contained a sun temple, but no priest temple. They 
may have belonged to the Pimas or some later modern tribes.* 

The acequias or irrigating canals are noteworthy. The explor- 
ers in the Salado Valley have traced over one hundred and fifty 
miles of the larger canals. They varied in width from ten to 
thirty feet; and in depth from three to twelve feet. Their banks 
were terraced in such a form as to secure a central current. This 
device was to facilitate navigation; and it is thought that the 
canals were used not only for irrigation, but for the transporta- 
tion of the produce of the fields and of the great timbers from 
the mountains which the people must have needed in the con- 
struction of their tall temples and other houses. 

In various parts of our arid region the old Indian canals may 
be still easily traced where they are cut through hard soil or 
where they are so exposed and situated with regard to the pre- 
vailing winds, that the sand is blown out of them rather than 
drifted into them. There are places in Arizona where the Amer- 
ican settlers utilize old canals for wagon roads. But in most 
cases the canals have been filled with sand and clay to the level 
of the surrounding soil, and, to the ordinary observer, no vestige 
of them remains. Yet, Mr. Gushing, guided by his knowledge 
of a custom which exists among the Zuni Indians, was able to 
trace the course of these obliterated channels. The ancients con- 
structed great reservoirs to store the excessive water when the 
river was high. The present occupants have no such works. 
The canals of the moderns follow straight lines; those of the 
ancients were tortuous. In the old canals the tall was about one 
foot to the mile, in the new it is two feet to the mile. The 
ancient people used the water to a greater advantage than the 
moderns and covered a wider territory with their system. A 
Mormon community made use of the prehistoric cut and saved 
$20,cxx) by this means. The ancient people had also a system 



♦Mr. IJ.iiulolicr speaks ol the enclosures found apart from tlie houses, rectaiiKular 
spaces surr(»undod hy upright small stones. The Pima Indians assert that these were 
pardfti-lu'ds. They an; now very numerous in Arizona. He says that the scattered rc- 
main*' «d inTTnanent villages with artificial tanks, mounds of houses constructe«l of marl — 
sometime.^ more than one story high met here and there are evidences of a period of rela- 
tive (luiet that has long sine •' disai)i)eared; though he thinks the Pimas may have built 
these canaU. The Vumas and the Papagocs contmue to occupy the region. 



352 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

of rainwater irrigation. For conserving the waters of the sudden 
rains on the mountains and hills the people built dams in the 
ravines and large reservoirs in the neighboring foot hills. From 
these reservoirs the waters were* allowed to flow gradually over 
the fields. 

The groups which have always gone by the name of "seven 
cities of Cibola" will next be considered. The description given 
by Friar Marcos de Nizza is the first one. It dates back to 1538. 
There has been some discussion as to which one of the seven 
cities he saw. He did not enter any of the pueblos, but the 
principal men led him to a place where he could see Cibola from 
afar. His description is as follows. *'Cibola lies in a plain on a 
slope of a round height Its appearance is very good for settle- 
ment — the best that I have seen in these parts. The houses are 
as the Indians told me — all of stone with their stories and flat 
roof. As far as I could see from a height where I placed myself 
to observe I could see that the city was larger than the City of 
Mexico itself. The Indian guides reiterated the statement that 
the village now in view was the smallest one of the seven ; and 
that Totonteac (Tusayan) was much more important than the 
so-called seven cities. Here he raised a wooden cross * naming 
the new land the New Kingdom of Saint Francis, and turned 
back with much more fright than food." 

The latest description is the one given by Victor Mindelef?, of 
the Ethnological Bureau, who says: "It has been the custom to 
give the name of Old Zuni to a group of small and ruined 
pueblos which lie at the summit of the great mesa called by the 
Indians Thunder Mountain, Ta-a-ya-la-na, and that the six vil- 
lages on that formidable height \^ere the original ones of the 
Zunis. This much is certain, that it was the place of refuge — 
the citadel or safety place — of the Zuni, the center of many re- 
ligious performances, and the object of many myths. Three 
times, according to the records, did the Zuni flee to the plateau 
of this gigantic n-.esa within the course of two centuries. Each 
time they were induced to return to the valley below in a peace- 
able manner. This Thunder Mountain rises to the height of 
one thousand feet above the plain, and is almost inaccessible. 
There are two foot trails, each of which in places traverses abrupt 
slopes of sandstone where holes have been pecked into the rock. 
From the northeast side the summit of the mesa can be reached 
by a tortuous burrow trail. All the rest of the mesa is too abrupt 

*Bandelicr thinks that Kiakima was the place where the negro was killed and where 
Niza erected the cross. This has been disputed bv Hod ^e, who thinks that Kuikawkuk 
w as the first-discovered city of Cibola. The early Spanish names of the towns are Maca- 

?uia (Masaki), Coquimo (KMakinia), Aquico (Hawikuh), Canabi (Kianawe), and Alona 
Halona). (See American Anthropologist Vol. VIII No. 2, P. 142-149.) 

The following names are ^iven by Mr. Gushing and by Mr. Bandclicr: Halona on the 
site of the present one, Kiakima, south of the gigantic mesa, Matzaki; north of the same 
mesa, the place where the negro, Estevan, was killed; Pianaua, three miles south of the 
actual Zuni; Huhauien, Zuni hot springs; (Jhanahue, the same vicinity. BandelierVol. Ill, 
Part 1 P. 133. 



THE DISCOVERY OF THE PUEBLOS. 353 

to be scaled. The top of the mesa was an irregular figure, one 
mile in width, and surrounded on all sides by perpendicular 
cliflFs."* 

"The narrative of Castaneda describes Cibola as built on a rock. 
The road leading to it was both narrow and winding. It was 
no easy achievement to get possession of it. The village of 
Zuni, as it now stands, is built upon a small knoll on the bank of 
the Zuni river, three miles west of the conspicuous Mesa. It is 
the successor of all the original seven cities of Cibola, and is the 
largest of the Pueblos. At this point the river is parennial, it 
has no special advantages for defense, but the convenience to 
large areas of tillable soil led to the selection of the site. It 
displays a remarkable compact arrangement of dwellings, some 
of which have been carried to a great height. Five distinct 
terraces may be seen on the south side of the cluster, though 
the highest point is said to have reached a height of seven ter- 
races at one time. The arrangement of dwellings about a court, 
characteristic of the ancient pueblos, is not seen ; for the original 
building had been covered with rooms of later date. The old 
ceremonial kivas in rooms for the meeting of the various orders 
or secret societies were crowded into the innermost recesses of 
this innermost portion.t" 

General Simpson says that it is far more compact than Santa 
Domingo — its streets being narrow and in places presenting the 
appearance of tunnels, or covered ways, on account of the houses 
extending over them.J 

Acoma, whose remarkable situation on the top of a high rock 
has made it the most conspicuous object in New Mexico for 
nearly three centuries, is easily identified. The case is, how- 

♦See Plate, Eighth Annual Report, P. 89. 

tSce Eighth Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 97. 

tThc villages of the Moquis were situated northwest from the Zunis, twenty-five leagues 
but Coronado seems to have passed by them on his way to Cibola. 

This Cibola was the first pueblo which Coronado reached on his way eastward and the 
last one which he left on his return. Kspejo in is^l visited the same region and after leav- 
ing Acoma turned toward the west to a certain province called by the inhabitants of Zuni, 
and by the Spaniards, Cibola; in which province Coronado had erected many crosses 
which yet remain standing. 

The American Atlas by Thomas Jetfcrys, London, 1773, gives Zuni and Cibola as 
synonimous names. 

Bandelier gives the following evidence that the Zuni and Cibola have been properly 
identified. He quotes Castaneda. (i.) "Twenty leagues to the northwest is another pro- 
vince which contains seven village's the inhabitant? have the same costumes, customs and 
religion" as "those of Cibola.'' '^ucayan '' This was called by "Jaramillo Tucayan to the 
left of Cibola, about five days' marcfi. West of them is the river called "Rio tiel Ti/on" 
or Gila River. (2.) Five days journey to the east there was a village called .Xcuco. jara- 
millo says: "A village in a very strong situation on a precipitous rock called Tutanaco. 
(3.) This village "futahaco,"' .Acoma, lay between Ciboia and the stream runnincr to the 
southwest, according to laramillo, "entering the sea of the north." (4.) Jaramillo says: 
•'All the water courses which we met whether they were streams or rivers, until that of 
Cibola, and I believe in one or two joumeyings beyond, flow into the South Sea." (5.) "All 
the writers from Antonio del Espejo, 1584, down to Gen. J. H. Simpson, 1871, have identified 
Zuni with Cibola " 

In regard to the identity of the Moqui district with the Tusayan, he says. It was 
first made known under the name of Mohoce in ii;83t by Antonio de Kspejo, "Four 
journeys of seven leagues each westward from Cibola." One of its pueblos was called 
*'Aguato," Awatobi. Fifteen years later in 1588, Juan de Onate founa a pueblo Mohoce 
twenty leagues westward of the first one of Zuni. (See papers of A. I. A. Page 12, Vol. I.) 



{ 354 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

ever, different with Tiguex. It is mentioned as lying three days 
r from Acoma, but the direction is not given. The belief has been 

I expressed that Santa Fe stands on the old site of Tiguex. W. 

; H. Davis locates it on the Rio Puerco, and Cicuye on the Rio 

Grande some where near the valley of Guadalupe. Gen. Simp- 
\ son places it at the foot of Socorro Mountains on the Rio Grande 

j and Cicuye at Pecos. Bandelier places Tiguex near Bernalillo, 

and identifies Tutahaco four leagues to the south of Tiguex with 
Isleta, and says that this was on the same river as Tiguex. From 
j it Coronado ascended the stream to Tiguex. Castaneda says 

I that "Tigeux is the central point." 

i An expedition was sent from it which discovered in succes- 

' sion Quirix on the river, with seven villages, the Quires district 

; including San Domingo, Cochiti, San Felipe, Santa Ana and 

I Cia, near the Rio Grande, Aguas, Calientes, three villages, 

Acha Picurics to the northeast, and "Braba" Taos far to the 
northeast. Bandelier says it is unmistakable and refers to Cas- 
taneda and Jean Bleau.* 

Recent investigation has thus enabled us to locate at the time 
r-^^-— ^''' of the first discovery a large number of the principal pueblos, or 

j ' groups of pueblos, of New Mexico and Arizona. The pueblo of 

! Casa Grande appears to have occupied at that time the identical 

' position in which it is found to-day. The pueblo of Zuni occu- 

pies the ground claimed by the cluster to which the name of 
i "Cibola," or **Seven Cities," was given, but it is the only remain- 

i ing one of the seven, and is probably a recent construction. The 

j Moqui towns appear to be the same which the Spaniards found 

! three hundred and fifty years ago. It is probable also that Isleta 

is the same as Tutahaco, which Coronado reached in " eight or 
eleven days," and Acoma the same as Acuco. Pecos was situated 
on the Tiguex Rio Grande, and is the same as Cicuye. 

* Simpson says: There were a number of villages visited by Coronado which were situ- 
ated on the Rio Grande or its tributaiies— Oulrix unquestionably, San Felipe. De Queres. 
In the Snow mountains, seven: Kimena. three; Chia, one; Silla <Cia). Hemes, lemmes, 
Aguas, Calientes, the ruins which I have seen at Ojos Calientes, twelve miles above the 
Hemes on the Rio dc Hemes and Braba Taos. The last town on the Rio, Tiguex. was 
built on the two banks ol a stream, which was crossed by bridges built of nicely squared 
pine timber.) 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 355 



EGYPTOLOGICAL NOTES. 

By William C. Winslow, Ph. D. 

The Hyksos god Sutekh, or Set, has long been as much of a 
puzzle to Egyptologists as the orign of evil to the theologians. 
Professor Sayce, always alert, now writes that he has discovered 
to what language and people the name of that deity (?) be- 
i ongs. It is Kassite; and the suggestion of Dr. Brugsch is thus 
confirmed, which brought the Hyksos from the mountains of 
Elam. A Babylonian seal cylinder (No. 391) in the Metro- 
politan Museum of New York bears an inscription which shows 
that it belonged to *'Uzi-Sutakh, son of the Kassite {Kassu), 
the serv^ant of Burna-buryas," a king of the Kassite dynasty, 
who ruled over Babylonia B. C, 1400. The name of Sutakh is 
preceded by the determinative of divinity. We can now under- 
stand why it is that the name has never been found in Syria or 
in the lists of Babylonian divinities, and we can further infer 
that the Hyksos leaders were of Kassite origin. The Hyksos 
invasion of Egypt, accordingly, would have formed part of that 
general movement which led to the rise of the Kassite dynasty 
in Babylonia. 

Dr. BoTi'i claims to have made discoveries at the site of the 
Serapeum in Alexandria. He has found inscriptions of the 
time of Hadrian and Severus, dedicated to "Serapis, and the 
deities worshiped with him in the temple." It must have 
been for them that the empty shrines described by Aphthonius 
had been built. Tacitus {Hist. iv. 84) tells us that the Sera- 
peum stood upon the site of an ancient sanctuary of Isis and 
Osiris in the old Egyptian town of Racotis, the western division 
of the later Alexandria; and it is just here that Pompcy's Pillar 
is situated. Bruchium, the eastern division of the city, was 
destroyed in A. D., 275, forty years before Aphthonius wrote. 
Besides the inscriptions, Dr. Botti has found remains of gilded 
ornaments and a bull of fine workmanship, all of which come 
from the great central court. He has also found a few tombs, 
and, above all, long subterranean passages cut through the rock 
under the site of the ancient building, and once accessible from 
the court. The passages are broad and lofty, and were origin- 
ally faced with masonry. Here and there are niches in the rock 
for the lamps which illuminated them. Nothing has been 
found in the passages except some broken pottery, but at the 
entrance of one of them are two proskynemata scratched on the 
rock by pious visitors. The passages, therefore, must have 
been used for religious worship; and we are reminded of the 
fact that similar subterranean passages were needed for the 



356 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

Mysteries of Serapis, and that Rufinus informs us that they 
actually existed under the Serapeum at Alexandria. 
Dr. Botti enthusiastically asserts: 

"The secrets of the Serapeum are at last about to be disclosed! We are 
upon the threshold of the venerable sanctuary which Alexander the Great 
visited, where Vespasian the sceptic performed miracles, and where Had- 
rian, Sabinus, Caracalia, and Zenobia sacrificed." 

As Cairo is to have a new and splendid museum, this account 
of the fine building at Alexandria recently dedicated by the 
Khedival government will be doubly interesting. 

"The collection of objects, which includes many things of great interest, 
has been skilful! arranged by the curator. Dr. Botti, and the system of 
lighting shows everything to advantage. It has lately been enriched by 
valuable donations of jewels, gold ornaments, etc., from the collection of 
the late Sir John Antoniadis SLnd of coins from Mr. Glymenopoulo; and, the 
director-general of the Anuquities Department having promised to fill up 
all disposable space with contributions of Greek and Roman relics now 
lying in the Ghizeh Museum at Cairo, its interest and value will shortly 
become largely increased. The present building, specially constructed, is 
all on one floor; it covers an area of about 960 square yards, and is planned 
with a view to enlargement when necessary. The municipality and the 
Alexandria Archaeological Society are making excavations in the city and 
neighborhood, hoping to discover the exact site of some one of the famous 
monuments of antiquity, and so throw light upon the topography of the 
ancient citv; but hitherto their researches have proved only negative, and 
the great extension of building, especially during the last thirty years, has 
much diminished the field for excavation, and entirely obliterated many 
promising sites. It is expected that the museum, with the public library 
containing 7000 to 8000 volumes, will prove a sufficient source of attraction 
to induce tourists and archaeologists to make some stay in Alexandria, 
instead of merely rushing through it, as is their wont.** — Times, 

An Early Reservoir. — Dr. Schwcinfurth has discovered the 
remains of an early reservoir in the Wadi Gerrawi In order to 
preserve the rainwater due to occasional thunderstorms in the 
desert, a great dyke of large stones was built across the mouth 
of the Wadi, at a distance of some miles from the bank of the 
Nile. The dyke was sixty-six meters in length at its base, and 
eighty meters in its upper part. Dr. Schweinfurth's further 
explorations showed that it had been constructed for a colony 
of stone-cutters, who worked in the alabaster quarries he 
discovered in the neighborhood, and for whose use a road, of 
which he found the traces, was made. In an alabaster quarry, 
three and one-half miles to the northwest, he came across a 
figure of "Ptah, the lord," rudely engraved on a bl jck of stone. 
The figure takes us back to the time when Memphis, with its 
patron-god Ptah, was the capital of Egypt; and in the great 
stone dyke we may therefore see a relic of the building opera- 
tions of the Old Empire. 

Dr. Charles Dudley Warner, just from London, tells me 
this week that he attended a meeting of the Egypt Exploration 
Fund Committee where the remark made, **We have only 
just begun to scratch Egypt as yet," met with amen from all. 
We may expect news from M. de Morgan this winter, whose 



THE PAL/KOLITHIC AGE IN AMERICA. 357 

brilliant disclosures the past season or two justify the above 
comment on inexhaustablc K^ypt. Deir El-Bahari /., on a 
s|)lendi(I scale, is n(»\v in press. The preliminary volume was 
comjiaratively small. Kvcry public library of the land should 
possess it. 



o - 



Editorial. 



THK PAL/KOLITHIC AGE IN AMERICA. 

A |)aper was read before the A. A. A. S. by the editor, which 
received favorable notices at the time and has been called for by 
several since. As no abstract was furnished the Secretary for 
publication, it is given here in brief. The title as given was the 
Pal.'colithic Age, its characteristics and the tests by which we 
may determine it. I. The palaeolithic age is destitute of all 
architectural ruins. 2. The art of this age varies greatly, for 
rude specimens are found in the gravels, and finely wrought 
imitations ate found in the caves. Rude art alone then is not a 
proof of the age. 3. The horizon is generally determined by 
the j^coloj^ical tests. rTther than by archaeological, but really 
requires an agreement between the two to be satisfactary. 4. The 
best test of the paheolithic age and the chief characteristic is the 
presence of the bones of extinct animals. 5. The discovery of 
human bones in connection with certain rude relics is .some- 
times regarded as decisive, but is, after all, an uncertain test. 
(). The character of the bones and skulls is thought by some 
to determine the age. There is, however, no fossil man which 
can be identified as the '*{)aIiL'olithic man." certainly not in 
America. 7. Changes of climate and great geological changes 
are supposed to have intervened between the palaeolithic and 
neolithic ages IVestwich and iJawson are authorities for this. 
Cope thinks the same changes can be recognized in the caves of 
Ann rica. as the bones of e.xtinct animals are at a lower depth, 
but hum.in remains or tokens have not been found in that hori- 
zon. S. A very wiiie gapexi.sts between the two horizons. The 
tokens of man in the caves are modern Indian. The discovery 
of a nule relic in a gravel bed does not by any means establish 
the paleolithic age. It may be a hint, but is not a proof, as the 
proof is accumuKitive only. The discovery of the arrow-head, 
which w.is reported by Prof F. G Wright, is important, but it 
does not establish the paIx*olithic age in America, for six out of 
the eight tests are lacking, viz: The bones of extinct animals; 
human bones associated with skulls of a low type; the succession 
of horizons, and the evidences of change of climate, and of sub- 



358 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

sidence since the deposit of the rude relic. Two are present 
— the location of the find in the gravel, and the rude form and 
appearance of the relic. The remains of old soil and ancient 
forest beds are numerous, in fact two horizons of them at the 
west, one thirty feet down and the other sixty feet. No relics 
have been found in these showing human handiwork. 

The following is the report of the paper which appeared in 
the daily newspapers. It is given here for the sake of the points 
which were brought out in the discussion : 

**Dr. Peet believes more fully than most of the modern school of 
anthropologists in a distinction between the ruder pal.xolithic 
and the neoh'thic implements, as distinguished by the character 
of the workmanship, whether roughly pounded out and chipped 
or nicely polished. He is a skeptic as to the existence of palae- 
olithic man in America, thinking that the existence of four doubt- 
ful implements is not a suflTicient proof. The paixrr pointed out 
the fact that a great gulf seems to intervene between pahi>o!ithic 
and neolithic man, such as might be accounted for by a great 
flood or other geological catastrophe. It is very singular, he 
said, that while in I'^urope the remains of paLxolithic man are 
very numerous, there should be so few in North America, and 
that there should be no remains of habitation." 

The paper was discussed at great length by Dr. Gushing, 
who called Professor K. 1). Cope to take the chair during his 
remarks. Dr. Gushing endeavored to emphasize the importance 
of the tlistinclions which Dr. IVet had dra.vn between the paheo- 
lithic cults of Kuropc and America, and also to show that the 
evidences ot palaeolithic man in America were not sufficiently 
strong to warrant their tmqualitied acceptance. Mr. Gushing 
then sketched the hypotechnical man of earlier years in America 
in a very realistic manner. He began by pointing out as a fact 
of infjnite mt>ment in the history of civilization that Kurope is 
the only country in the world possessing true flmt, the most 
perfect possible material for a primitive people, and often shaping 
itself to the needs of the hunter or the artisan. In this country 
only two substitutes .it all approaching flint in excellence are 
found, antl these only in scattered localities, obsidian, a gl.iss- 
like rock, and chert, a bl.ick flinty rock. The absence of remains 
of dwellinj^s he paralleled by the case of the Kskimos. I le ijavc 
a ma-^terly and suj^'^e^tive outline of the >up|)ositious history of 
primitive man a^ he: made hi^ way .ilon;^ the retreating glacial 
beach, findini^ food ready to hi^ hand and moving as the glaciers 
move. He drew a parallel between the d.iwn of civilization in 
the desert of southwestern Asia and the similar development in 
southwe'^t Anuric.i. showinj^ h«»w man "gradually acipiired the 
power to ailvance to the mastery of the forests, while another 
race took the place of lhos<; who had mij^rate<l. One race 
followed another, the Mound-builders giving way t»» the Indian, 



THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE. 359 

and the latter steadily climbing up till his .growth was ruthlessly 
arrested by the hand of the white man. Prof. Cope showed the 
importance of studying the bones of extinct animals as a guide to 
the history of prehistoric man. In this sense the work of the 
palseontologist must have the final word to say. It is a curious 
fact that in the Champlain period which is now the battle-ground 
of the students of primitive man, the eastern part of the country 
had plenty of elephants but no mastodons, while the reverse was 
the case on the Pacific Coast. 



THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE. 

Different theories have been advanced as to the character of 
the Deluge by the British savans, and extreme views are still 
held. They will be illustrated by the papers read by Prof. W. 
J. Sollas and Prof. Jos. Prestwich before the British association 
in 1894. Prof. Sollas's opinion will be learned from the follow- 
ing extract: He endeavored to show that, although a local 
phenomenon, it was yet on a grand scale, and, in plain terms, a 
genuine historic catastrophe. The Chaldean story of the 
Deluge, discovered now some twenty years ago by George 
Smith on the tablets brought by Layard from Nineveh, con- 
t;^ined the remarkable statement that the ship of Sitnapistim. 
the Chaldean Noah, grounded on the mountains of Nizir, which 
are situated inland about 240 miles up the Tigris Valley; while 
its starting-place was Surippak, a very ancient city even at the 
time of the Flood, supposed to be situated near the mouth of 
the Euphrates. This pointed to a journey up stream totally 
inconsistent with the supposed pluvial origin of the Deluge. 
Suess consequently looked for its cause in a great sea-wave 
produced partlv by an earthquake, partly by a hurricane, which, 
rising in the Persian Gulf, was driven up the Mesopotamian 
Valley. Suess's explanation appeared improbable when it was 
considered that the floor of the Tigris Valley stands at a height 
of at least 600 or 700 feet above the sea-level, where the lower 
Zab cuts through the Nizir hills. The waves produced by 
cyclones rarely exceed forty-five feet in height, so that it would 
require an exceptionally bad one to bring the sea to Bagdad, 
which is one hundred and fifty-four feet above the sea-level, not 
to speak of the Nizir hills. Under these circumstances it be- 
came incumbent to acquaint ourselves more closely with the 
historical character of the Deluge story. Its occurrence as an 
episode in the Gizdubar epic, full ot obviously unveracious 
i^tatcments, was not reassuring, and if we said that its language 
was that of poetic exaggeration the judgment would seem mild. 
Yet this was all that was required to reduce the story to com- 
monplace proportions. The identification of the Gizdubar 
legend with that of Heracles was a matter of great importance, 



36o THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

for if the Greeks had borrowed the epic they would not be 
likely to neglect the episode, and accordingly we found them 
in possession of the Deluge legend of Deucalion. The Egyp- 
tians had sun-stories of their own, but as they were without that 
of Gizdubar, so they were silent about the Deluge. The Nile 
docs not cause calamitous overflowings like those of the Tigris, 
and consequently the Egyptians possessed no Deluge legends 
of native growth. In China the case was different. The Yellow 
River, **The Curse of China,*' had always produced disastrous 
deluges, and in the third Schu of the Canon of Yao, who reigned 
somewhere about 2357 B. C, we read: •*The Ti said, 'Prince of 
the Four Mountains, destructive in their overflowing are the 
waters of the flood. In their wide extension they enclose the 
mountains and cover the great heights, threatening the heaven 
with their floods, so that the lower people is unruly and mur- 
mur. Where is a capable man whom I can employ this evil to 
overcome?'" Khwan was engaged, but for nine years he 
labored in vain, whereupon another engineer, Yu, was called 
in. Within eight years he completed «^rcat works; he thinned 
the woods, regulated the streams, dammed them and opened 
their mouths, provided the people with food, and acted as a 
great benefactor of the State. It was refreshing thus to pass 
from the ornate deceptions of legend to the sober truth of 
history, and if the famous Chaldean fable could be reduced to 
equally simple language, we should probably find it describing 
very sinilar events, or events just as little astonishing as those 
of the Chinese Schu. History fails to furnish evidence of any 
phenomenon which in the geologic sense of the word could be 
called '"catastrophic", and geology has no need to return to the 
cataclysms of its youth; in becoming evolutional it did not 
cease to remain essentially uniformitarian. 



o- 



ARCH.KOLOGICAL NOTES. 

Gr^ek Coins. — Among the recent students of early Greek 
coins no one has been more successful than M. Jean N Svoronos. 
His study of the coins of Gortyna bearing the nym.ph, Britomartis, 
seated on the branches of a budding tree, and more recently the 
devices accompanied by stars, have been published. Another 
paper on a certain coin of Mantinea represents Ulysses at an 
eventful point in his history. This theory that Arcadian myths 
were embodied in the symbols contained in the coins is a novel 
one, but is very suggestive. Ulysses is represented as armed 
with a javelin, with an oar in his left hand, which is planted in 
the ground. Th^ myth is that on the visit to Hades the shade 
of Tiresias foretells to Ulysses how difficult and dangerous will 
be his return to Ithaca, because of the anger of Poseidon. "You 
will return again to Ithaca after traveling through many lands, 



ARCH.1.0LOGICAL NOTES. 361 

carryinfj a shipsly oar. but will reach a people who have never 
seen a ship with its painted sidjs, nor the shapely oirs. the wings 
rf a vessel who shall say. "vou are carryinjj on your white 
shoulder a winnowing fan." When you do, plant your shapely oai 
into the earth and make a solemn sacrifice to Poseidon, the ruler 
of the sea. Then turning homeward offer to the immortal gods, 
who ruled the sky, the sacred hecatombs. Other scenes in hi» life 
have been placed on coins, and among them is that when Ulysses 
escapes from Polyf^hcmus by clinging to the fleece of the sheep, 
and riding under the bellies of the sheep out of the cave, thus 
avoiding the giant. This is represented by the figure ol a ram. — 
American yournal of Xumismatics^ /ios/ofi, October, iSi^^. 

KN(;i\r.KKiN<i TunLs AT PtiMrKii — Professor Goodman de- 
livered a lecture at Yorkshire College, Leeds, England, on the 
results of a recent visit to Pompeii. He said he was not 
only charmed by the great beauty of the works of the ancient 
Romans, but by their extreme ingenuity as mechanics. The 
streets were paved, and in many places deep ruts had been worn 
by the chariot wheels. The water supply was distributed by 
means of lead pipes laid under the streets. There were many 
public drinking fountains. The bronzes found revealed great 
skill. Mvvers and urns have been discovered with internal tubes 
and furnaces similar to the arrangement now used in modern 
boilers. .Several very strong metal safes have been found. Locks 
and ktys were very ingenious. Sickles, billhooks, rakes, forks, 
a.xes, spades, blacksmith's tongs, hammers, soldering irons, 
planes, shovels, etc.. are remarkably like those used to-day; but 
certainly the most marvelous instruments found are the surgical 
instruments, beautifully executed, and of design exactly similar 
to some recently patented and reinvented. Incredible as it may 
ap[)ear, yet it is a tact that the Pompeiians had wire ropes of 
perfect construction. The richest and most complete bath yet 
found in the ruins ot Pompeii has recently been discovered. It 
is a large buildmg, with sculptured basms, heating apparatus, 
lead pipes and bronze faucets. The walls and floors are tiled. 
Kverylhing is in an almost perfect state of preservation, owing to 
the roof havin;: remained intact when the citv was buried in the 
year Jn 

Nkw --I' vrKR Ri:i'« »r r^ — The newspapers are sometimes valuable 
to arch.L*')logists, but they have to be read with a great deal of 
caution, for the tendency is to substitute sensation for science. 
To iilustr.ite: The Chicago Kecorii recently gave one column to 
the (leN«:ription of some gigantic remains of human beings lound 
in Cihtornia. The acc»)unt may have been correct, but on the 
same page two colunms were given to some remarkable dis- 
C'»v',"ries in Minnesota, which to an archaeologist would have been 
more plausible it they had been reported in the Gulf States or 



362 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

among the Pueblos or in Central America. The trouble with these 
fancy writers for the newspapers is that they make mistakes in 
geography. Vases covered with sphinxes may be found in 
Egypt, but. not in Michigan; so pottery vessels covered with 
beautiful raised handles in imitation of animals are found in the 
Gulf States, but not in Minnesota. It is probable that an eflfigy 
mound in the shape of a bird was found, and it is not impossible 
that some copper relics were contained in the mound; but that a 
dainty pitcher, as thin as an egg-shell, with a delicate vein in the 
raised blue figure which could not be scratched with a knife, was 
found, is doubtful. Men nine feet high and women eight feet 
and four inches do not grow in Minnesota any more than ani- 
mals resembling the modern horse, with skulls larger than 
elephants. This article is taken from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 
We would advise our friends of the Chicago Record to be careful 
what they quote from the latter paper, for that paper is always 
sensational and seldom reliable. 

Ancient Cemetery. — A surveyor, Mr. M. C. Cowen, recently 
came upon a prehistoric cemetery in Milfred, Ohio, covering 
many acres, and thousands of graves. The curator of the state 
museum opened them and found pipes, beads, pearls, spear- 
heads, and other relics. 

Another Find in Arizona. — J. Walter Fewkes, who has 
recently returned from Arizona, reports the discovery of many 
cliflT dwellings in the southern part. These people were the 
ancestors of the present Moqui Indians. They were of the 
Pueblo tribe, which reached a remarkable stage of civilization, 
building permanent cities rather than temporary wigwams. "I 
came across in Southern Arizona a great buttress, which was 
known to the Indians as Red Rock. Built at the top of a slope 
leading to the foot of the precipice I found a row of small pro- 
tuberances built against the steep wall. These appeared in the 
distance like a collection ot swallows* nests. On approaching I 
found them to be an abandoned settlement of an ancient race. 
On entering I found the floors covered with a thick alkaline 
dust, which alone suggested their age. The only living inhabi- 
tants were numerous birds, bats, and, in one case, a rattlesnake, 
which guarded the door against me. They might be described 
as resembling six rudely formed bay windows, built out from the 
solid rock, under a ledge of overhanging cliffs. The entrance 
to each house was usually through a hole near the floor, large 
enough for one man to crawl through. On either side was 
generally a small peephole, or window. Going south of Red 
Rock I passed through a valley, which doubtless had been 
trodden by but few, if any, white men before. Steep rocks 
hemmed us in on either side, while the rocky ground was almost 
impassable. About midway in the dismal valley, on the left 



ARCH-KOLOC.ICAL NOTES. ^3 

bank of the Rio Verde, I came across the greatest of all these 
cliff settlements. The side of a steep rock, several hundred feet 
high, was completely honeycombed with these chambers, filled 
with valuable stone implements, pottery and other relics." 

Ruined CiriKS t».N the Gila. — The Scuftfific Afncrican con- 
tains a very good description of these ancient ruins, and closes 
with a conjecture that the entire city had been shaken by an 
earthquake, for deep digging has brought to light large quanti- 
ties of bone dust lying in what appears to be at one time a trench, 
some seventy feet long and nine feet below the surface. Usually 
urns containing ashes of the dead and jars filled with corn and 
beans in a remarkable state of preservation are found, but these 
deep diggings reveal something unusual. 

Masti)IK)N Tusks. — A gang of men boring for water at Bur- 
lington, Iowa, struck sand, seashells and seaweed at a depth of 
1 50 feet, it being evidently the bed of a one-time inland sea. 
A short distance farther the drill and six-inch casing were bent 
and broken by a hard substance, which, on investigation, proved 
to be large pieces of pure ivory tusks, hard as flint, but perfectly 
preserved. 

An Ancient Vessel has been unearthed in the Mississippi 
River shore near Winona. It was four feet underground and 
made of heavy oak planks nailed together with hand-forged 
spikes. It is supposed to have been the property of N. Perrot, 
a French explorer, who early in the seventeenth century built a 
fort near this lake, on the cast side. 

Fossil Hlman Footprints. — One of the commonest fallacies 
of archaeologists is one which consists in taking an accidental 
circumstance for a general principle, or as logicians express it, 
taking the minor premise for the major and drawing conclusions 
from it. It is well illustrated in the case of a young man whoie 
portrait appears in the last nwmbcv o{ Popular Siieme Xcu^s. In 
New York State there are rock markings which have the resem- 
blance of footprints of men and animals. Tbese markings arc 
found at the side of a brook which is dry in summer but flows 
in winter. The supposed footprints all lie lengthwise in 'the 
current of the stream, and were probably made by |>ebbles which 
were lodged in the depressions of the silurian rock. The infer- 
ence wiiicli will be drawn is that all so-called fossil human foot- 
prints were made '\\\ the same way. Here is the fallacy — a 
dispute mi^ht arise as to what constitutes a **fossil human foot- 
print, but if any one infers that all of the footprints which have 
been found on the rocks in the Mi.ssissippi \'alleyand which are 
soTiutinus called "fossil footprints," were made in this way he 
uill c( rt.iinly be mistaken. That veteran in arch;eology and 
^eoI<>;.^y. Col. Charles Whittlesey, has described these rock mark- 



1 1. — ^. 



364 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

ings with great care. He made squeezes of them and drew 
patterns of the prints which were engraved. The engravings 
have been published. No one knows why these footprints were 
pecked into the rocks, but that they were pecked, there is not a 
shadow of doubt. Fossil human footprints were discovered by 
Mr. Earl Flint in the tufa beds, near Lake Nicaragua. The 
tufa may have been of recent origin, but the footprints were 
genuine. 

The Missing Link. — At the third International Congress of 
Geologists, which met in Dayton, Dr. E. Dubois described his 
discovery of the **missing link," and defended his views. It is 
ealled Pithecanthropus ercctus, a transitional, man-like form. Dr. 
Dubois described the locality in Java where the remains were 
found, and mentioned as occurring near them a tooth oi Hyccna, 
bones of Ccrous^ etc. No complete skeleton was found. The 
speaker then desciibed the cranium and femur; of which he had 
maintained thc^t they belong to a man-like creature. He had 
compared the thigh-bone with 150 different femora of Malays, 
negroes, Europeans, and other races, but could establish no sim- 
ilarity. Virchow's view of the greater resemblance of this femur 
to that of the apes (especially Hylobates) is correct. It is re- 
markable that the zoologists maintain the skull to be human, 
while the human anatomists refer it to the apes. 



BOOK REVIEWS. 

Commemoration of the Fourth Centenary of the Discovery of America, 
Columbian Historical Exposition, Madrid. Report upon the Collec- 
tions Exhibited at the Columbian Historical Exposition. By Daniel G. 
Brtnton, M. D., LL. D., D. S. C. Washington. 1895. 

The arrangement of this report is according to the countries, and repre- 
sents the relics, both historic and prehistoric, which were sent. They are 
as follows: In the Mexican department — a stone representing a human head, 
supposed by some to represent a race foreign to that which inhabited the 
region. It marks extreme age and was found near Jacona. A collection 
of thirteen hundred and twenty-five relics, in some of which we find articles 
ornamented with Greek patterns. These were domestic utensils and tools 
from Michoacan. Among the domestic tools were corn mills or metates; 
also spindle whorls, ear-rings, mirrors of obsidian, bells of copper, vases 
made from alabaster and lava, some of which represent human figures in 
attitudes which show the religious experiences of the native, and a number 
of amulets. They were taken from mounds which contained the remains 
of ancient temples. Ei^ht native calendars were shown; also a large 
number of manuscripts, painted records, and two codices called by the 
name Porfirio Diaz and Baranda : the reproduction in wood of the temple, 
sacred edifices and enclosure of an ancient city near Vera Cruz, visited by 
Cortez; also the temp'e of Tajin, near Papantla. These resemble those 
found at Teotihuacan, in Mexico. A nuuber of castes from Mexico in- 



BOOK REVIEWS. 365 

eluded the famous calendar stone, the sacrificial stone, the statue of Tlaloc. 
Several stones represent a number of rods — fifty- two in number, symboliz- 
ing the tying together of the years, evidently symbolic. In the department 
from Guatemala were autograph letters of Columbus, and a manuscript 
ascribed to leather Ximenes, extracts from the book called Popol Veuh. 
There were idol portraits or statues, a number of vases of terra cotta which 
present the form of familiar animals, a stone monkey scratching himself, a 
monkey with the head and tail of an owl. A few objects which present 
the glyphs painted upon their sides are very valuable as throwing light 
upon the Maya character. From Nicaragua and Lake Managua many 
articles in pottery — urns, dishes, plates, cups, whistles, flutes, shoe-shaped 
urns, funerary urns, human figures, arrow points, and knives of obsidian. 
The pottery from Nicaragua is brilliant and of many colors. From Costa 
Rica was a collection of small images in gold, representing the human 
figure, birds, frogs, symbolic animals. A bird holding a man in its beak is 
supposed to be a symbol of the creation. Other articles in copper and gold 
represent eagles, lions, and images of special deities. There were also 
chisels and war-clubs made from stone. The Republic of Colombia fur- 
nished many articles. They were arranged in three groups, independent 
of each other. Those from Chibcha contained objects of gold, consisting 
of sixty-nine human figures, six masks, twenty-three animal figures, and 
nineteen instruments; in copper, twenty-four animal and human figures; in 
pottery, thirty-eight vases. From another district are about one thousand 
objects — some of them in gold — consisting of diadems, crowns, scepters, 
collars, ear-rings, ornaments, rings, bells, fiutes, whistles, gold vases of 
graceful form and varied size. These are different from the Chibcha relics. 
In the third region, Antioquia, are four hundred and eighty-three pieces, 
showing that the tribes were rich in gold and were very skillful. There 
were also from here articles from Chinqui, many of them being gold. Mr. 
A. L. Pinart. in 1890, published a photographic album containing ten plates 
of inscriptions from the isthmus of Panama. Examples of inscriptions 
and engravings on stone were shown at Madrid. The Chibcha numeral 
system, astronomic calendar and mythology are very interesting. The 
department of Ecuador contains many art products of the Kechua people 
— a mortar with large ears, bearing the figure of an animal cut upon it; a 
musicafstone used as a bell; circular stones used to attach to the ends of 
clubs; several specimens of copper in the form of axes or hatchets; a num- 
ber of vases in pottery were pointed at the end, like Greek vases, others 
were upon feet. From Peru there were a few objects in silver and gold, 
some idols in wood, textile materials and some fifty specimens of pottery. 
Many of these were from the vicinity of the famous Temple of the Sun at 
Pachamac. From Bolivia were two idols in stone found among the ruins 
of Tiahuanaco, several idols in wood, various textile materials. From 
Uruguay were relics taken from "village sites," utensils, weapons, burnt 
stones, remains of hearths, bones of animals, and a few human bones; 
teshoas, used for cutting; more than nine thousand specimens of arrow- 
heads and lance-heads made of jasper or quartz; sling-stones, hammer 
stones, hand stones, with depressions for the fingers. The Argentine Re- 
public has a great variety of relics depicted in water colors, representing 
painted vases of clay, also human figures, animals, and especially the 



366 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

serpent. East of the Andes are walls of cut stone and edifices of great 
extent, showing the influence of ancient Peru. These were represented by- 
charts. 

The Mammoth Hunters, By Willis Boyd Allen, author of "Lost on 
Umbaeo/* "Pine Cone Stories." "John Brownlow's Folks," "The Lion 
City of Africa." etc. Boston: Lathrop Publishing Company. 1895. 
Illustrated by Joseph H. Hattield. 12 mo., cloth, 150 pp., 75 cents. 

The Department of Archaeology has at last been invaded by the story- 
teller. The mammoth, whose bones have given rise to some strange myths 
among the aborigines, is taken as the subject of a story after the style of 
James Mayne Reid. The scene is laid on the Yukon, and a picture of 
Sitka is given. A wonderful discovery of some mammoth teeth follows, 
hardly sufficient to warrant so long a journey. A cow moose is also seen, 
ducks were plentiful and genuine fossils in the shape of elephas primigenius,. 
the true mammoth of scientists were found. The book may develop a taste 
for archaeology among the boys, and be useful in this way, though there is 
not much science in it. 

The Early Navajo and Apache, By Frederick Webb Hodge. From the 
American Anthropologist, July, 1895. Washington, D. C. 

The effort to trace back the history of the Navajo is difficult, and yet the 
author of this pamphlet has succeeded remarkably. It appears that great 
changes in language, customs, style of building, and organization, as well 
as location, have occurred. The creation, according to the mythology of 
this tribe, was not so very long ago. It was only fifty-two years after the 
creation that the tribe moved to the San Juan. They had no herds, and 
made their clothes mostly of cedar bark. This was not earlier than the 
fifteenth century. They acquired their first flocks and herds through the 
Pueblos soon after 1542 They found the Apaches occupying portions of 
New Mexico — ^a wild people. They were orisfinally a cliff-dwelling people,, 
but regarded the Pueblos as far superior. Their myths speak of the agri- 
cultural cliff-dwellers as gods. They, however, united with the Apaches in 
attacking the Pueblos about the time of the advent of the Spaniards. The 
villages of the Jemez had been abandoned in consequence of the forays of 
the Navajos. although not many years afterward the Apaches appear in the 
role of allies of the Jemez. Tewa and Pecos against the Spaniards. The 
pueblos in closest prox mity were naturally the first prey of the Apaches 
and Navajos. viz.: the westernmost of the Rio Grande villages. Previous 
to this time the village Indians, such as the Jemez, Zuni and Sia, dwelt in 
several sca'tered towns, situated mainly with reference to convenience to 
the fields. Seven villages had been visited and destroyed prior to 1540. by 
Indians who painted their eyes and lived in the same region as the buffaloes, 
and had "houses of straw and corn" — probably the Comanches. The raids 
of the Navajos commenced about 1622, and the Jemez were compelled to 
abandon their villages, and from that time until the subjection of the 
Apaches and Navajos pueblo architecture and selection of sites became 
seriously affected. The tribes who occupied separate villages now erected 
and dwelt in a large communal structure. For nearly two hundred years 
after the coming of Onate (1680) the history of the pueblo tribes is one of 
Apache rapine. To-day, with but two exceptions, no pueblo in New Mex- 
ico occupies the site it held in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth 



BOOK REVIEWS. 367 

century, or before, let us say, the inception of the Apache invasion. The 
exceptions are Acoma and Isleta. The former pueblo occupies the mesa 
which it held when Coronado passed through the country. The reason is 
plam — the mesa was not continuously occupied on account of its impreg- 
nable character, but because of the inexhaustible water supply for domestic 
use in a natural cliff near the summit. While Isleta stands on its prehis- 
toric site, as determined by Mr. Lummis, the habitancy of the pueblo has 
not been continuous. 

NoUs on Shifpo, A Sequel to Japanese Enamels. By James L. Bowes, 
author of '"Japanese Pottery," etc. London: Keg an, Paul, Trench, 
TrUbner & Co., Limited, Paternoster Row, Charing Cross Road. 

The Japanese enamels described in this book are marvels of art and are 
very ancient. They are of two kinds — the cloisonne, in which the designs 
are formed upon metal, by fine ribbons of the same material being soldered 
upon the base, and the champleve, in which the enamels are hollowed out 
of the hollow base. They belong to three periods— ancient, middle and 
modern, the ancient period dating from 660 to 781; the middle period from 
782 to 1 183; the modern from 1184 to 1868. The Japanese enamels are in 
contrast with the Chinese, though they are supposed to have been intro- 
duced from China rather than from Corea. Glass makmg, under the title 
of shippo work, was common in Japan from the fourth to the tenth cen- 
turies, and was revived in the sixteenth century. Mirrors are made of 
glass, also beads. It appears that this style of art has required a great 
deal of experience, as well as skill, as only a few have been able to acquire 
it. The modern workers have found their models in the middle period. It 
is stated that the form of the vases lacked grace in common with most of 
the other art works of the country. Still the beauty and delicacy of the 
enamels of the Hirata works are beyond compare. The book is full of 
photographic plates, and is of itself a work of art. The author, Mr. James 
L. Bowes, is evidently a man of fine taste, and is fortunate also in securing 
such excellent publishers. 

Annual Report of the U. S. National Museum for the year endinj^ fune 
JO, i8jQ. Washington. 1895. 

The articles which will interest archaeologists in this report are as follows: 

A description of the Models of Human Figures, given by the Assistant 

Secretary; Chinese Games, Dice and Dominos, by Stewart Culin; Primitive 

American Armor, by Walter Hough, Ph. D.; Notes on the Ethnology of 

Thibet, by W. W. Rockhill; A Description of two Castes, A Plea for 

Museums to Illustrate Human History, by Cyrus Adler, and an article of 

Public Libraries, why not Public Museums, by E. F. Morse. We learn from 

the first article the following facts: For fifteen years the National Museum 

has been constructing models of human beings for exhibition. These 

figures show the peculiarities of the different races, also their costumes, 

weapons, instruments and handicrafts. The following may be mentioned: 

A Congo warrior with shield and spear, a Japanese man and woman with 

the usual dress, a Yankton Sioux with costume as a female, also a Choctaw 

squaw, a Samoan youth, a Dyak warrior, a Xivard Indian in feather costume, 

Zuni bread-makers, Indian woman dressing hides, a Bushman, Matabale 

warriors, Zulus of Zambezi. We learn from the second article that dominos, 

cards and dice are common all over the globe, and are very similar in their 



368 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

• 

making. This suggests contact and it is accounted for on the law of parallel 
development. The most interesting article is the one on Shields and Body- 
Armor. We learn from this that these were very common among the 
natives of America. The volume is too thick and heavy to last well and 
would have been better if it could have been put into two volumes and the 
material classified according to the departments. 

Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences , Arts and Letters. 
Vol. X. 1804-1895. Edited by the Secretary. Published by authority 
of law. Madison, Wisconsin: Democrat Printing Company, State 
Printer. 

This bulky volume of 620 pages contains articles on mathematics, birds, 
banks, geology ot Conanicut Island, spider, carbon compounds, the erosive 
action of ice, economics, on Crustacea^ on bowlder trains, geological services, 
and the origin of the Dells, but not a word about archaeology or ethnology. 
The proposed Natural History Survey also leaves both of these depart- 
ments out, notwithstanding the fact that the State of Wisconsin has a most 
interesting series of pre-historic works, and a very interesting aboriginal 
history. Is it because there is no competent person in the state to advocate 
or superintend these departments? Have not the universities and colleges 
a responsibility in the matter? Aad the science of anthropology is certainly 
important enough to be recognized by the state which is so distinguished 
for its high grade of scholarship; and the academy which has been so 
distinguished for ability and thorough work should have some representative 
of the department among its members. 

The Literary Digest, Funk & Wagnall Co. Publishers. New York. 

This journal contains the portraits of Dr. A. H. Sayce, Prof. Francis A. 
March, and several other distinguished philologists. Its articles on archae- 
ology are well selected and valuable. 

Voyages des Pelerins Bouddhistes, Les Religieux Eminents. Qui Allerent 
Chercher La Loi Dan Les Pays D'Occident. Memoire Compose A 
L'epoque de La Grande Dynastie T*aDg. Par I-Tsing. Traduit en 
Francais. Par Edouard Chavannes. Paris. 1894. 

This is a book of 217 pages. It treats of the voyages of the Buddhist 

priests in China during the epoch of the great Tang Dynastie, 618-906 A. D. 

The volume contains many Chinese characters, and is very learned in the 

history of the period. 

Maieriaux Pour V Historic de V Homme Revue d' Anthropologic — Revue 
d' Ethnographic Reunis. V Anthropologic, Paraissant tous les deux 
mois sous la Direction de MM, Cartailhac, Hamy, Topinard, Paris: 
G. Masson, Editeur. 1894. 

"The Feminine Divinity and the Sculptures upon the Menhirs," by E« 
Cartailhac, is a very interesting article. It is followed by The Sculp- 
tures in Europe, showing the influence of Greek and Roman, by Salomon 
Reinach. These articles should be read together, for the figures and sym- 
bols are very similar. 

Minnesota Historical Collections. The Mississippi River and its Source. 
By Hon. J. V. Brower. 

The Report of the Survey of the Source of the Mississippi, by Hon. J. V. 
Brower fills 360 pages. It is attended with many plates and wood cuts. 
Some of them portraits, others maps. The half-tone cuts, taken from 



BOOK REVIFAVS. 369 

photographs, illustrate the scenery. The maps are valuable, for they give 
the history of discovery. The portraits are also interesting, for they bring 
down the record to modern times. It is a volume which will go down to 
posterity as a monument of patient literary investigation and personal 
explorations, which will perpetuate the name of the author. 

The American Historical Register. Genealogy, Hiograpby. History and 
Heraldry. The Historical Register Publishing Co., Philadelphia. 

This is very elegant in its style and is mainly devoted to the "old colony" 
period. The August num)>er contains an article on Lafayette's visit in 
1824. and one on Old Kentucky Watering Place, by Sallie £. Marshall 
Hardy. 

Palestine Exploration FumL I'atron— The y^cen. (Quarterly Statement, 
London: Hanover Square. W.; and by A. P. Watt & Son, Hastings 
House. Norfolk Street. Strand, W. C. 

The explorations and excavations of Jerusalem by F. J. Bliss, Ph. D., 
form a most interesting part of this report. There are others on the Stoppage 
of the River Jordan in 12^7, by Rev. Canon Dalton and W. K. Stevenson, 
Es<).. which explains the miracle in the time of Joshua. The Identifying of 
the Cave of Adullam, by Rev. W. F. Birch, and The City of David, by Rev. 
O. L. Pitcaim. also Lapping of the Water, by Rev. A. Moody Stuart. A 
Journey in the Hauran. 

rrOieedings of the A merit an .lnti</uartan Society /or '<?/ V.-)- 

The Past and the Present in A^ia, The New-found Journal of Chas. FU»yd, 
The Abori^^ino n( the West Indies. Rival Claimants for North America, by 
Justin Winsor; Analysis of the Pictoral Text Inscribed on the two Palen<{ue 
Tablets, by Philipp I. J. X'alentini; Scotch-Irish in America, by Samuel 
S. (irecn; and the Story of Chcquamegon Hay, by R. (J. Thwaites; The 
Food of Certain .Ainencan Indians, by Lucien Carr. These are the most 
notable articles. 

Si.xt\ fifth Year of the lUhhi-^the^a Sacra. A Religi<ius and Sociological 
<^)iiiirtcrly. conducted by (j. Freilerick Wright and /. Swift Holbrook. 
( >t>crlin. ( >hio: Bil)liotheca Sacra Company. 

The article by Prof. d. K. Wrikjht. entitled Prestwich on the Deluge, and 
that on the 'friumph of .\ssynology in the October number are well worth 
reailiii)^. 

liullcttn of the A men, an tf'e(\'ra/>/it.al .Vi\ />/j-. Published (Quarterly. 
New Vnik. 

The first number contains an article on Korea and the Koreans, by Wm. 
I lliiit <iritt'is. 1). I).; the second. A Journey up the Yukon River, by Israel 
('. Kusseil: the third contains The Coast Desert of Peru, by Alfred F. 
Sears, C. 1.. .All ot these arc scholarly and interesting. 

f/ie /'t'/.v/i/r Scicn. e Monthly. Kdited by William Jay Voumans. New 
Vi»rk: I.). Appleton A Co. 

Many artiiilc^ on arch.rology and anthropology will be found in this 
popular inaga/ine. The following are specially worthy of mention: The 
Beginning of Agriculture, by .M. Louis Bourdeau. Archa'ology in Den- 
mark, by Prof. I' rederick Starr. Race Mixture and National Character, by 
L. R. llarley. A. M. Professional Institutions, by Herbert Spencer. Sur- 



370 THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 

vivals of Sun-worship, by Fanny D. Bergen. Trades, and Faces, by Dr. 
Louis Robinson. Ancestor Worship Among the Fijians, by Basil H. 
Thomson. Primogenial Skeletons, the Flood, and the Glacial Period, by 
H. P. Fitzgerald Marriott. The Aims of Anthropology, by Prof. Daniel G. 
Brinton. 

The Atlantic Monthly. Devoted to Literature, Science, Art anH Politics. 
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. The Riverside Press, Cambridge. 

There have been many articles during the year in this valuable magazine 
which will interest our readers. Among these we will mention the follow- 
ing: The Secret of the Roman Oracles, by Rudolfo Lanciani, in the March 
number. Flower Lore of New England Children, by Alice M. Earle, in the 
I % April number. A Pilgrimage to the Great Buddhist Sanctuary of North 

I \ China, by William Woodville Rockhill, in the June number. John Smith in 

! (; Virginia, by John Fiske, in the September number. 

t ii 

I \ The History of Greece. For Colleges and High Schools. By Philip Van 

1 \ Ness Myers, L. H. D. Ginn & Co. Publishers. Boston. 

< I'- ■ This is an excellent text-book and has the merit that it is up to date. 

The chapters are short, but comprehensive. The style is terse and forcible. 
The numerous wood-cuts illustrate the text. Some of them represent the 
treasures of Priam and Schliemann's discoveries; others, the battles of the 
Trojans, as depicted upon the ancient vases. We get a good view of the 
dififerent styles of architecture from the wood-cuts, as well as various 
portraits and coins. The ancient temples were taken by photograph and 
were, therefore, correct. The restorations of the temples are, however, not 
so satisfactory. There is always a charm about Greek history. It differs 
from all other history in this respect — one never tires of reading it. The 
book is really a work of art, and is valuable for the cuts, if for nothing else; 
but the letter press is excellent. 

The Indian Antiquary. A journal of Oriental Research in Archaeology, 
Epigraphy, Ethnology, Geography, History, Folk Lore, Literature, 
Numismatics, etc. Edited by Richard Temple, C. L. E. Major, 
Indian Staff Corps. Bombay; London. 

Notes on the Spirit Basis of Belief and Custom. By J. M. Campbell, 

Viv. \~*. £.. 1. v«. o. 



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