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THE

NORTH AMERICANS

ANTIQUITY

THEIR ORIGIN, MIGRATIONS, AND TYPE OF
CIVILIZATION CONSIDERED

By JOHN T, SHORT

THIRD EDITION

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS

FRANKLIN SQUARE

1882

Ell

Sssz

PREFACE

rp HE growing interest in the origin, migrations and life of
-■- the races of American Antiqmty has led me to believe that
the subjects considered in these pages would meet with the favor-
able attention of the public and of the specialist in this field.
With such a conviction I present this volume, realizing the
difficulties which attend any efforts to elucidate such dark
problems. Yet I cannot conceal my satisfaction that the age
pf North American Antiquity is not all darkness, but on the
contrary is rapidly growing radiant with light, while a host of
patient searchers for its truths roll up the obscuring curtain.
The recent discoveries by Geo. Smith, Cesnola, and Schliemann
naturally cause us to turn with national pride to the rich anti-
quarian fields in our own land. Very satisfactory results have
been obtained within a few years in the exploration of Mound-
works and the Cliff-dwellings of the West. A just view of the
civilization of the builders of these remains, however, requires
that it be considered in connection with the traditional history
and civilization of the ancient races of Mexico and Central
America, so marked was the influence of the ancient peoples of
this continent upon each other.

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PREFACE.

npHE growing interest in the origin, migrations and life of
-^ the races of American Antiquity has led me to believe that
the subjects considered in these pages would meet with the favor-
able attention of the public and of the specialist in this field.
With such a conviction I present this volume, realizing the
difficulties which attend any efforts to elucidate such dark
problems. Yet I cannot conceal my satisfaction that the age
pf North American Antiquity is not all darkness, but on the
contrary is rapidly growing radiant with light, while a host of
patient searchers for its truths roll up the obscuring curtain.
The recent discoveries by Geo. Smith, Cesnola, and Schliemann
naturally cause us to turn with national pride to the rich anti-
quarian fields in our own land. Very satisfactory results have
been obtained within a few years in the exploration of Mound-
works and the Cliff-dwellings of the West. A just view of the
civilization of the builders of these remains, however, requires
that it be considered in connection with the traditional history
and civilization of the ancient races of Mexico and Central
America, so marked was the influence of the ancient peoples of
this continent upon each other.

viii PREFACE.

Kegarding this to be important, I have endeavored to present
a comprehensive view of the civilization of the Mound-builders,
Cliff-dwellers, and Pueblos, and to bring to the attention of the
reader the traditional history and architectural remains of the
Mayas of Yucatan and the Nahuas of Mexico. Only the proba-
ble origin and the most remote period of the growth of these
latter peoples could receive attention within the limits prescribed
for this work, since it is my design that this volume shall serve
as a manual of information relating to the earliest period of
North-American Antiquity, and as an introduction to Ancient
American History. My material relating to the Mound-builders
has been drawn almost entirely from the Smithsonian Keports,
the Proceedings of scientific societies, and private memoirs. Still
it is but justice to one honored co-laborer in the same field,
Col. J. W. Foster, to say that his excellent work. The Pre-
Historic Races of the U. S., has been of great service in our
investigation of this subject. Although his sources of informa-
tion have been, with few exceptions, before me, my appreciation
of his work is attested by my constant reference to it. Never-
theless, the wonderful advances which have been made in Mound-
exploration since the issue of the Pre-Historic Races, called for
a fresh treatment of the subject.

On the Mayas and Nahuas the following manuscript works
in the possession of the Congressional Library at Washington
were consulted, and yielded valuable material :

Las Casas : Historia Apologetica de las Indias occidentales,

4 vols, folio.
Las Casas : Historia de Indias, 4 vols, folio.
Panes (D. Diego): Fragmentos de Historia de Nueba Espana,

folio.

PREFACE. ix

Echevarria y Veitia : Historia del origen de gentes que poblaron
la America Septentrional, 1755, 3 vols, folio (about one-
fourth of the work is published in Kingsborough's Mex.
Antiq., vol. viii).

Escalante in Teniente {Jose Cortes): Memoria sobre las Pro-
vincias del Norte de Nueva Espaha 1799, folio.

Duran [Diego): Historia Antigua de la Nueva Espaiia 1585,
3 vols, folio (part of the work has been published in Mexico).

These, together with the large number of printed books re-
lating to America in the Congressional Library added to works
in my possession, afforded an ample field for research.

1 must express my appreciation of the courteous attentions
of the accomplished Librarian of Congress, the Hon. A. R. Spof-
ford, who together with his assistants did everything possible
to facilitate my investigations. To the uniform and friendly
interest which Mr. Spofford has manifested in my work, its suc-
cessful completion is largely due. The substantial assistance
which I received from the lamented Professor Joseph Henry —
the record of whose kindly offices to his fellowmen can never be
written — was invaluable to me. Besides placing the latest mate-
rial at my disposal, he generously furnished most of the engrav-
ings in this work relating to the Mound-builders. Dr. Charles
Rau, also of the Smithsonian Institution, has placed me under
obligations for valued services. To Professor F. V. Hay den and
to the painstaking offices of Mr. James Stevenson of the U. S.
Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, I am
indebted for the engravings as well as the sources of information
relating to the Cliff-dwellers. The Hon. J. R. Bartlett, of Provi-
dence, R. I., with equal generosity has conferred like favors.
Prof. F. W. Putnam, of the Peabody Museum of American

PREFACE.

Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge, Mass., and his cour-
teous assistants, Mr. Carr and Miss Smith, have provided me
with valuable engravings and reports. Robert Clarke, Esq., and
Mr. E. Gest, of Cincinnati, have also sent me engravings, and
the former in particular has conferred frequent favors. Professor
Ph. Valentini, of Albion, N. Y., with rare liberality, contributed
interesting material relating to the Nahua Calendar. To Mr.
Stephen Salisbury, Jr., of Worcester, Mass., Dr. R. J. Farqu-
harson, of the Davenport Academy of Sciences, Rev. S. D. Peet,
editor of the American Antiquarian, Cleveland, 0., and to
A. J. Conant, Esq., of St. Louis, Mo., I am indebted for the
interest they have manifested, and for the material which they
have brought to my attention.

Senor Orozco y Berra, of the City of Mexico, the distin-
guished author of the Geografia de las lenguas Mexicanas, has
from time to time freely made important suggestions concerning
some of the problems under consideration. To my friend the
Rev. John W. Butler, of the City of Mexico, whose intelligent
efforts in my behalf have been unremitting, I have special reason
to be thankful. To all these generous friends I must be per-
mitted here to express my deep sense of gratitude for their favors.

However, this pleasant task would be but half performed
were I to omit the recognition of the unselfish friendship of the
justly eminent author of the Native Races of the Pacific States.
Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft, whose rare erudition and breadth
of thought are only surpassed by his magnanimity of nature and
manliness of spirit, with a liberality which has scarce a parallel
in authorship, sent me the majority of the engravings illustrative
of the Maya and Nahua architecture and sculpture, used in the
fourth volume of the Native Races. To this I may add the no
less valuable encouragement which he so heartily gave during

PREFACE. xi

the progress of my work. Although some of my investigations
were prosecuted before the publication of the Native Baces, and
though all of Mr. Bancroft's sources relating to subjects which
have received our mutual attention were before me and under-
went a critical examination at my hands, it is but fair to state
that the assistance which I derived from the Native Baces has
been of incalculable service in the preparation of this volume.
If in any place I hare omitted to render full credit to Mr. Ban-
croft, and to that imperishable monument of learning and indus-
try, his great work, the omission has been due to inadvertence
rather than intention. My obligations to Mr. Bancroft can
never be discharged, nor can the kind attentions of Mr. Henry L.
Oak, of the Bancroft Library, San Francisco, be forgotten.

Still my examination of the sources has not always led me
to the same conclusions as were reached by the author of the
Native Baces. This may be owing to our different standpoints
of observation, or possibly to an inappreciable bias in my own
mind. It is, however, but justice to myself to say that this
work has been prosecuted to its completion with the spirit of
inquiry rather than of advocacy, and is the embodiment of an
honest search for the truth,

THE AUTHOR

Columbus, 0., November, 1879.

PREFACE TO THIRD EDITIOK

n|"^HIS, the third edition of "The North Americans of An-
tiquity," has been carefully revised and new facts incorpo-
rated. In this connection I take the opportunity of thankfully
acknowledging the kindly reception and marked consideration
which this work has enjoyed at the hands of specialists, of
learned Societies in both America and Europe, and from the

University of Leipzig.

J. T. S.

Columbus, Ohio, September, 1881.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

AkCIENT IlTHABITANTS OF THE UkITED StATES.

Pagb

The Aborigines — Antiquity of the Red Indian — The Mound-builders —
Geographical Distribution of Mound-works — Frontier Defences of the
Mound-builders — Michigan Mounds — Mounds in the North-west — On
the Upper Missouri — In Dakota — Animal Mounds of Wisconsin — Ele-
phant Mound — Discoveries at Davenport, Iowa — Davenport Tablet —
Heart of the Mound- builder Country — Cahokia — Resemblances to
Mexico — St. Louis and Cincinnati Works — Cincinnati Tablet — Works
in Ohio — Fortified Places — Fort Ancient — Signal Systems — Works
at Newark — The Ohio Valley — Explorations in Tennessee— Burial
in Stone Coffins — Mound Colonies in the South-east — Mr. Anderson's
Calendar Stone — Mounds of the Lower Mississippi Valley — Seltzer-
town Mound — Alabama and Georgia Mounds — Pyramid of Kolee-
Mokee — Explorations in Missouri— Sun-dried Bricks— Remains in the
South-west — Direction of the Migration — Architectural Progress —
Altar Mounds — Mounds of Sepulture — Ancient Copper Mines — Astro-
nomical Knowledge, 21

CHAPTER n.

Aktiquity of Mait 01^ THE Westeri^ Continen't.

Antiquity of the Mounds — No Tradition of the Mound-builders — Vege-
tation Covering the Mounds — Age of Mound Crania — Probable Date of
the Abandonment of the Mounds — Ancient Shell-heaps — Man's Influ-

xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VII.
The Anciekt Pueblos akd Cliff-Dwellers.

Page
The Casas Grandes of Cliihuahua — Ruins in tlie Casas Grandes and Janos

Valleys — Casa Grande of tlie Rio Gila — Ruins iu.the Gila Valley — Also

in the Valley of the Rio Salado — Ruins in the Canon of the Colorado —

In the Valley of the Colorado Chiquito — Pueblos of the Zuni River —

Zuui and the " Seven Cities of Cibola "— " El Moro "—Pueblos of the

Chaco Valley — Cliff-dwellers — Mr. Jackson's Discoveries in the Valley

of the Rio San Juan— Cliff-houses of the Rio Mancos — Cliff-dwellings

on the McElmo — Traditional Origin and Fate of the Cliff-dwellers —

Ancestors of the Moquis — Remarkable Discoveries by Mr. Holmes —

The Seven Moqui Towns— The Montezuma Legend, .... 275

CHAPTER VIII.

Ancient Amekican Civilization and Supposed Old
World Analogies. — Architecture, Sculpture, and
Hieroglyphics.

Analogies, Real and Fancied — Maya Architecture- The American Pyra-
mid — The Palace of Palenque — The French Roof at Palenque — The
Trefoil Arch — Yucatan ic Architecture — Uxmal — The Casa de Monjas —
Kabah— Casa Grande of Zayi— Quiche Architecture— Copan — Cir-
cus of Copan — Description by Fuentes — Utatlan — Nahua Architec-
ture — Remains in Oajaca — Mitla — Grecques at Mitla — Remains in the
State of Vera Cruz — Choi ula — Pyramid of Xochicalco — The Temple of
Mexico — Teotihuacan — Los Edificios of Quemada — Maya and Nahua
Architecture Compared — Old World Analogies — Sculpture — Of the
Mounds — At Palenque — At Uxmal — Of the Nahuas — Ancient Ameri-
can Art and its Old World Analogies — Egyptian Tau at Palenque —
Serpent Sculpture — Nahua Symbolism probably Asiatic — Hiero-
glyphics — Maya MSS. and Books — Landa's Alphabet — Attempts at
the Interpretation of Maya MSS, by Bollaert, Charencey, and Rosny —
Rosny's Classification of the Hieroglyphics — Hopes that a Key has been
Discovered — The Mexican Picture-writing — Aztec Migration Maps, . 338

CHAPTER IX.

Chronology, Calendar Systems, and Religious
Analogies.

No Mound-builder Chronology Known — Maya Calendar — Landa on the
Calendar — Maya Days — Maya Months — The Katun — The Ahau Katun
or Great Cycle — The Maya System Adjusted to our Chronology — The

CONTENTS. xvii

Page
Adjustment by Perez — Intercalary Days — The Nahua Calendar — The
Sources — Divisions of the Mexican Calendar — The Aztec Year — The
Nemontemi — Aztec Months — Aztec Days — Nahua Ritual Calendar —
Mexican Calendar Stone — Sources of Interpretation — History of the
Stone — Its Interpretation — Date of the Origin of the Calendar Stone —
Date of the Nahua Migration — Analogies with the Nahua Calendar —
Religious Analogies — Jewish Analogies — Deluge Traditions — Sup-
posed Parallels in Jewish and Mexican History — Analogies of Doctrine
— Analogies of Ceremonial Law — Yucatanic Trinity Myth — Mexican
and Asiatic Analogies — Buddhism in the New World — Scandinavian
Analogies — Mexican and Greek Analogies — Brasseur de Bourbourg's
Comparisons, 435

CHAPTER X.

Lakguage and its Relatioi^ to Nokth American'
Migrations.

Diversity of Languages in America — Causes of Diversity — Richness of
American Languages — Polysynthesis — Grimm's Law — The Maya-
Quiche Languages — Stability of the Maya — Oldest American Language
— The Maya compared to the Greek, the Hebrew, the North European,
the Basque, West African, and the Quichua Languages — Epitome of
Maya Grammar — The Mizteco-Zapotec Languages — The Nahua or
Aztec — The Classic Tongue— Ancient and Modern Nahua — Epitome of
Aztec Grammar — Geographical Extension of the Aztec — In the South
— In the North-west — Buschmann's Researches — The Sonora Family —
Opata-Tarahumar-Pima Family — Moqui and Aztec Elements— Aztec
in the Shoshone and in the Languages of Oregon and the Columbian
Region — Line of Aztec Elements — The Nahua probably the Language
of the Mound-builders — The Otomi — Supposed Chinese Analogies— Jap-
anese Analogies — Geographical Names,

CHAPTER XL

Probabilities that America was Peopled from the
Old World Considered Geographically and
Physically.

Legends of Atlantis— Brasseur de Bourbourg's Theory— The Subject Exam-
ined in the Light of Science — Retzius' View — Le Plongeon's Observa-
tions — Identity of European and American Plant Types — Revelations

xviii CONTENTS.

Paoh

of the Dolphin and Challenger Expeditions— The Atlantic Floor —
Challenger and Dolphin Ridges — " Challenger Plateau " probably once
Dry Land — Identity of European and South American Fauna — Eleva-
tion and Depression of Coast Level — Of Greenland, the United States,
and South America — The Gulf Stream — Equatorial Current — The
Trade- Winds — Accidental Discovery of Brazil — America Probably
Reached by Ancient Navigators — The Caras — Atolls of the Pacific
Ocean — A Pacific Continent — Contiguity of the Continents at the North
— Aleutian Islands — The Kuro-Suvo — Behring's Straits — Inviting Ap-
pearance of the American Shore — Remoteness of the Migration — Prof.
Grote's View — Prof. Asa Gray's Observations — Conditions Favorable
to a Migration — Mr. John H. Becker's Observations, . . . . 498

CHAPTER XII.

COKCLUSIOK, 515

APPENDIX.

A. MADISONVILLE EXPLORATIONS, 523

B. ELEPHANT PIPE, 530

C. CHARNAY EXPLORATION, 531

D. HOUSE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOUND - BUILDERS

AND PUEBLOS, 532

INDEX, 537

THE

NORTH-AMERICANS

ANTIQUITY.

CHAPTER I.

ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The Aborigines — Antiquity of the Red Indian — The Mound-builders — Geo-
graphical Distribution of Mound- works — Frontier Defences of the Mound-
builders — Michigan Mounds — Mounds in the North-west — On the Upper
Missouri — In Dakota — Animal Mounds of Wisconsin — Elephant Mound —
Discoveries at Davenport, Iowa — Davenport Tablet — Heart of the Mound-
builder Country — Cahokia— Resemblances to Mexico — St. Louis and Cin-
cinnati Works — Cincinnati Tablet — Works in Ohio — Fortified Places —
Fort Ancient — Signal Systems — Works at Newark — The Ohio Valley —
Explorations in Tennessee— Burial in Stone Coffins — Mound Colonies in
the South-east — Mr. Anderson's Calendar Stone — Mounds of the Lower
Mississippi Valley — Seltzertown Mound — Alabama and Georgia Mounds —
Pyramid of Kolee-Mokee — Explorations in Missouri — Sun-dried Bricks-
Remains in the South-west — Direction of the Migration — Architectural
Progress — Altar Mounds — Mounds of Sepulture — Ancient Copper Mines —
Astronomical Knowledge.

ON that eventful morning nearly four centuries ago, when
the spell of uncertainty and mystery which enshrouded the
Atlantic was broken, and the darkness of the deep vanished with
the darkness of the night, the illustrious admiral discovered a
world populated with beings like himself. They were male and
female, with all the physical characteristics common to the rest
of mankind, and differed from the Spaniards only in that their
skin was of a copper hue, and their cheek bones more prominent.
They were tattooed and wore their straight black hair, cut short
above the ears, with a few unshorn locks falling upon their
shoulders.^ These naked uncivilized men and women were the

^ Las Casas : Historia de Indias, lib. I, cap. 40, torn. I, MS. Irving : Colum-
his, vol. I, p. 158 (N. Y., 1851 ed,). Navarrete : Coleccion de los viajes, torn. I,
p. 176. Grynaeus : Novus Orbis, p. 66, Basil, 1555, fol. Herrera : Historia
General, Dec. I, lib. I, cap's ii et vi, Madrid, 1730.

22 THE RED MAN AND HIS ANTIQUITY.

same in their physical type with those discovered subsequently
on the islands and the main land by the Cabots, Yespucius,
Yerrezano, and Cartier. To rehearse their descriptions of the
natives whom they first met would be but to repeat the expe-
rience and observations of Columbus. Nearly five centuries
earlier the Norse adventurer Thorwald Ericson (1002 a. d.)
encountered natives on the New England coast, corresponding
in appearance, habits, and condition to those who occupied the
country when colonized by the first settlers. To these natives
they gave the name of Skrellings, from slcruehja, a name which
they had previously applied to the Eskimo, meaning to cry
out} Thorfin Karlseihe, who also reached the New England
coast four years later than Thorwald, describes the natives as
sallow-colored and ill-looking, having ugly heads of hair, large
eyes and broad cheeks. They came in canoes to his ships for
the purposes of trade, and though peaceable at first, soon ex-
hibited hostility and treachery." It is probable that these Skrel-
lings were North American Indians, who had interbred with the
Atlantic Coast Eskimo. How long the red man's occupation
of the country antedated its discovery by the Scandinavians is
uncertain. His traditions are worthless on that subject. His
chronology of moons and cycles is an incoherent and contradic-
tory jumble. Nor does he know any more certainly from whence
he came. It would seem that his race came by installments, if
it came at all, and that he was just as far advanced in the arts
of hunting and war and domestic life on the day in which he
first possessed himself of the soil, as on that in which he was
driven from it by the European. Only under the fostering
care of the white man has he shown any improvement, and
that has been of such an uncertain character as to amount
to proof of his incapacity for self -civilization. The Indian,

' Raf n : AntiquUates Americans, p. 45, note. Rafn : Op. cit., pp. xxx-
xxxiii.

2 Rafn : Historia Thorfinni EarUefnii (in Ant. Am.), pp. 149, 181 ; also,
De Costa : Pre-Golumhian Discovery of America, pp. xxxii, xxxiii, 21, 41, 57,
58, 69, 70, 73, 74, 110 ; Gravier : Decowcerte de VAmerique par les Normanda
au X" Siecle, p. 83. Paris, 1874, 4to.

THE RED MAN AND HIS ANTIQUITY.

Arrow Heads in the National Museum (Washington).

measured by his low condition in the scale of progress from the
extremest barbarism towards semi-civilization, belongs to what
is known as the flint age (old-stone or Palaeolithic) in Europe,
in which the rudest flint implements seem to have been the
chief auxiliaries which he possessed with which to supplement
and assist his hands in securing a livelihood or to protect his
person and family from ferocious beasts. Perhaps we may more
properly place him in a position midway between the flint and

24 THE INDIAN'S PLACE IN THE SCALE OP PROGRESS.

the stone ages (new-stone or Neolithic), for he no doubt was
possessed of polished stone implements of a limited number and
variety. Whether made by his own hands or by those of his
predecessors is imcertain.^ In thus assigning the Indian his

Methods Employed by Indians of Hafting Stone Weapons.

place in the scale by which man's state of barbarism or degree
of civilization has been measured by scholars in Europe, we do
not pretend to claim for him the antiquity of the man of the
flint age in any other part of the globe.^

^ Prof. Jos. Leidy, in Eayden's 6th Ann. Report of the TJ. 8. Oeological
Survey of the Territories (1872), pp. 652-3, describes the stone implements
found in the Bridger basin in southern Wyoming. He remarks, " The ques-
tion arises, who made the stone implements and when, and why should they
occur in such great numbers in tlie particular localities indicated. My friend,
Dr. J. Van A. Carter, residing at Fort Bridger, and well acquainted with the
language, history, manners, and customs of the neighboring tribes of Indians,
informs me that they know nothing about them. He reports that the Shoshones
look upon them as the gift of God to their ancestors. They were no doubt
made long ago, some probably at a comparatively late date, that is to say, just
prior to communication of the Indians with the whites, but others probably
date centuries back."

' It would be foreign to the object of this work to enter upon a discussion
of the antiquity of man in Europe. Were we to follow the example of several
writers on the antiquities of America, we might present a resume of the splendid

THE INDIAN'S PLACE IN THE SCALE OF PROGRESS. 25

Indian and Mound-builder Spear heads.

26 THE INDIAN'S PLACE IN THE SCALE OF PROGRESS.

Dr. Abbott, of New Jersey, in an extended treatment of the
Stone Age in bis own State, has shown many evidences of the
protracted occupancy of the Atlantic States by a people whose
weapons resemble those of ancient man in Europe. Col. Charles
Whittlesey has called attention to the discovery of Indian remains
in the " Shelter Cave," near Elyria, Ohio, and also in a cave near
Louisville, Kentucky, where the conditions seemed to point to
an interment as long ago as two thousand years, but the evi-
dences both as to the remains having been those of the red
man and the period of burial are too uncertain to be of any
service in the construction of a theory.^

achievements of science in determining tlie approximate age of man, as an
inhabitant of different portions of the old world, but such condensed accounts
at best are unsatisfactory and often detrimental to science because of their
very slenderness. The evidences of man's antiquity being far more remote
than the generally accepted historic period, antedating its beginning by several
thousand years, no doubt exist. The discoveries in the Liege caverns, in the
caves of Languedoc and in the cave of Engihoul in Belgium ; in the Neander-
thal and Engis caves ; at Abbeville and Amians ; the valley of the Somme ;
the basin of the Seine ; of the Thames ; and of the lake dwellers of Switzer-
land, as well as the shell-heaps of Denmark, point to an antiquity which half
a century ago it would have been heresy to have dreamed of. We have but to
refer to the admirable work of Sir Charles Lyell : TJie Antiquity of Man (Phil.,
1863), and to the well-known works of Lubbock, Ty lor, Vogt, and others. A
good treatment of the subject in brief will be found in Foster : Pre-Hlstoric
Baces of the TJ. 8. (1873), and a pointed and popular reference to it in Bryant's
History of the U. 8., vol. I. N. Y., 1876.

^ Evidences of the Antiquity of Man in the U. 8., by Col. Charles Wliittlesey.
A memoir of 20 pp. Perhaps the chief importance of the above-cited cave dis-
coveries is derived from the eminence of the antiquarian who cites them,
rather than in their real value to science. In the case of the Elyria cave —
examined by Dr. E. W. Hubbard, Prof. J. Brainerd, and the author of the
memoir — " the grindstone grit," resting on shale, formed a grotto of consider-
able size. Four feet of the floor of the cave, consisting of charcoal, ashes and
bones of the wolf, bear, deer, rabbit, squirrels, fishes, snakes and birds (" all
of wliich existed in this region when it became known to the whites "), was
removed and three human skeletons discovered. The author states that the
three had been crushed by a large slab of the over-hanging sandstone falling on
them, but fails to state how much of the overlying material consisted of this
sandstone slab. He remarks: "Judging from the appearance of the bones,
and the depth of the accumulations over them, two thousand years may have
elapsed since the human skeletons were laid on the floor of this cave." Tlie

THE MOUND-BUILDERS. 27

The eras or ages which have been observed to mark the dif-
ferent stages of the development of pre-historic man in Europe
(in the manufacture of implements and the construction of places
of abode), are apparently reversed in America.

The Neolithic and Bronze ages preceded the Palaeolithic at
least in the Mississippi Basin — not that the last inhabitants
deteriorated and lost the higher arts which are well known to
have been cultivated upon the same soil occupied by them, but
that they were preceded by a race possessed of no inferior civili-
zation, who were not their ancestors, but a distinct people with
a capacity for progress, for the exercise of government, for the
erection of magnificent architectural monuments, and possessed
of a respectable knowledge of geometrical principles. The re-
mains of this mysterious people known as the mound-builders
are spread over thousands of square miles of the United States,
and it is a question whether the antiquarian is more surprised
at the greatness of their number than in many instances at the
immensity of their proportions. The entire valley region of the
Missouri, Mississippi and Ohio rivers with that of their affluents
was occupied by this remarkable people — presenting us with a
parallel to the ancient civilization which flourished in the earliest
times on the watercourses of the old world. The geographical
distribution of these mounds may be described in general terms
with a view to the territory occupied by them in the United
States, as central, western, and southern.

The publication of the valuable works of Squier and Davis,

Louisville cave discovery is no more satisfactory tlian the above. It is scarcely
necessary to remark tliat all the evidences are of a comparatively recent inter-
ment, and much less than two thousand years would have been sufficient to
produce the conditions described. See also discoveries at High Rock Spring,
Saratoga, N. Y., cited by Col, Whittlesey, p. 10, and more fully treated by
Dr. McGuire in the " Proceedings of the Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist.," vol. xii,
p. 398, May, 1839, in which the latter claims to find traces of the Red man 5470
years ago. It is not probable that Dr. McGuire's traces are those of the Indians,
nor is it certain that they were left by human beings at all, since the pine tree
(found at a considerable depth and worn as he supposes by the feet of Indians)
was as liable to have been worn by the feet of animals as of men. See also
Dr. Abbott, The Stone Age in New Jersey, Smithsonian Report, 1874, p. 246
et seq. See this work, pp. 127-8.

28 NO MODND REMAINS IN NEW ENGLAND.

of Dr. Lapham and those of Mr. Squier alone, in which the
remains of these regions are described, was like a revelation
which brought to light the wonders of an entombed civilization.^
In treating of the mounds geographically, we find no evidences
of this people having reached the Atlantic seaboard, unless we
except the great shell-heaps found in various localities on the
coast, and of which we will speak further on. It is true that in
South Carolina a few vestiges of their residence are found on the
Wateree River near Camden, and in the mountainous regions of
North Carolina,^ where they wrought mica mines for the mineral
which they prized as precious, and which so often accompanies
the remains of their dead. No authentic remains of the Mound-
Builders are found in the New England States, nor even in the
State of New York. In the former, we have an isolated mound
in the valley of the Kennebec in Maine, and dim outlines of
enclosures near Sanborn and Concord in New Hampshire, but
there is no certainty of their being the work of this people.^ In
the latter, it was at first supposed that the remains found in the
western portion of the State were uniform in their plan of con-
struction with the works of the Ohio valley ; but Mr. Squier
pronounces them to be purely the work of Red Indians. This
conclusion should not be viewed as final, even though Cusick's
vague statement (in Schoolcraft, vol. v) that the Iroquois " were

^ Squier and Davis : Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, Wash-
ington, 1848, 4to, 1st vol. of Smithsonian Contributions ; Dr. J. A. Lapham :
Antiquities of Wisconsin, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 1855. More
recently — The Upper Mississippi, by George Gale, Chicago, 1868 ; The Missis-
sippi Valley, by Dr. J. W. Foster, Chicago, 1869, Svo, and his Pre-Historic
Races of the U. 8., Chicago, 1873, Svo. We might add a list of names scarcely
less eminent, of authors who have written upon special fields and examined
particular works. A reliable bibliography of literature on the Mound-builders
is a desideratum which we trust some entei-prising Americanist may soon
supply.

2 Described by Dr. Wm. Blanding in a letter to Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia.
Foster : Pre-Historic Races of the U. S., p. 148, and Ancient Monuments of the
Mississippi Valley, p. 105. Foster : p. 151.

3 Squier : Antiquities of Western Kew York, vol. ii, Smithsonian Contribu-
tions, 1851. See an interesting account of the Antiquities of Orleans County,
New York, by F. H. Cashing, in Smithsonian Report for 1874, p. 375.

MICHIGAN MOUNDS.

compelled to build fortifications in order to save themselves
from the devouring monsters" lends it an air of plausibility.
Either people may have been their builders. Col. Whittlesey
would assign these fort-like structures, differing from the more
southern enclosures in that they were surrounded by trenches
on their outside, while the latter uniformly have the trench on
the inside of the enclosure, to a people anterior to the Red
Indian and perhaps contemporaneous with the Mound-builders,
but distinct from either.' A quite reasonable view is that of
Dr. Foster, that they are the frontier works of the Mound-
builders, adapted to the purposes of defence against the sudden
irruptions of hostile tribes. He remarks, " If our country were
to become a desolation, the future antiquary would find the sea-
coast studded with fortifications of a complex form, and as he
penetrated to the interior they would disappear altogether." ^
It is probable that these defences belong to the last pferiod of
the Mound-builders' residence on the lakes, and were erected
when the more warlike peoples of the North who drove them
from their cities first made their appearance. Passing along the
boundary of the Mound-builders' teiritory towards the west, we
find the great lakes in all cases to have served as its limit on the
north. Mr. Henry Gillman has described in several publications ^
his exploration of mounds in Michigan and the lakes. One of
the richest mounds in relics and human remains is known as
" the Great Mound of the River Rouge," situated on the stream
from which it takes its name, near the Detroit River and about
four and a half miles from the centre of the city of Detroit. The
mound now measures twenty feet in height, and must originally
have measured 300 feet in length by 200 in width, though the
removal of large quantities of sand from it has greatly reduced
its proportions and destroyed many valuable relics. Many other

* Antiquity of Man in U. 8., p. 12 ; also, Ancient Earth Forts of tJie Cuya-
hoga Valley, Ohio, by Got. Charles Whittlesey, Cleveland, O., 1871, pp. 40 and
plates.

' Pre-Historic Races of the XT. S. , p. 145.

' Smithsonian Fteport for 1873, p. 364 et seq., from which we draw the above.
The Proceedings of the American Ass. for the Adv. of Science for 1875.

30 WORKS OF THE NORTH-WEST.

mounds surrounding it have also been removed. The most
remarkable result of the exploration was the discovery of tibiae
flattened to an extreme degree, such as is peculiar to platycnemic
man. A circular mound in the vicinity yielded even more
remarkable specimens of this singular flattening or compression.
Two specimens presented unprecedented proportions ; the trans-
verse diameter of one shaft being 0.42 and the other 0.40 of the
antero-posterior diameter. The circular mound yielded eleven
skeletons besides a large number of burial vases and stone im-
plements of all descriptions peculiar to the mounds. Of the
crania from this mound we shall speak in Chapter IV. In 1872,
Mr. Gillman examined a remarkable group of tumuli situated at
the head of St. Clair River. These mostly stand on the shores
of Lake Huron. The relics, besides human remains, consisted of
pieces of mica, and necklaces of beads of the teeth of the moose
alternating with well-wrought beads of copper. The same pecu-
liarity of flattened tihice was markedly prominent in the remains.^
The same investigator has examined mounds at Ottawa Point,
Michigan, near the mouth of the Oqueoc River, at Poin.t La
Barbe in the Straits of Mackinac, and at Beaver Harbor on
Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. Excepting ancient copper
mines, no known works extend as far north as Lake Superior
anywhere in the central region. Farther to the North-west,
however, the works of the same people are comparatively numer-
ous. Dr. Foster quotes a British Columbia newspaper, without
giving either name or date, as authority for the discovery of a
large number of mounds, seemingly the works of the same
people who built farther east and south.^ On the Butte Prairies

' See Mr. Gillman's in Sixth Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody
Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, p. 12 e« seq., Cambridge, 1873, and Am.
Jour, of Arts and Sciences, 3d ser., vol. vii, pp. 1-9, Jan., 1874.

^ Foster's Pre- Historic Races, p. 151. " There is a large mound, three hun-
dred feet high and three hundred yards in diameter at the base, at the southern
end of the prairie, about twenty-five miles from Olympia ; and scattered over
the prairie for a distance of fifteen miles are many smaller mounds, not more
than four feet high and twenty or thirty in diameter. * * * A few days ago
one of the engineers of the Northern Pacific Railroad opened one of them and
found the remains of pottery ; and a more thorough examination of others

LEWIS AND CLARKE'S DISCOVERIES. 31

of Oregon Wilkes and his exploring expedition discovered
thousands of similar mounds.^

Lewis and Clarke, in the Journal of their expedition up the
Missouri River, describe the remains of fortifications on Bon-
homme Islands at as early a date as 1804-5-6, but until recently
their statements have been received with a degree of doubt.^
This doubt has, however, been fully set at rest by the members
of the United States Geological Surveying Expedition of 1872.
Not only has it been shown that works exist at Bonhomme's
Island, but all the way up through the Yellowstone region and
on the upper tributaries of the Missouri mounds are found in
profusion.^ Dr. C. Thomas, of the above-named expedition,

revealed other curious relics, evidently the work of human hands ; in fact, in
every mound that has yet been opened there is some relic of a long- forgotten
race discovered." In quoting the above,- Dr. Foster remarks that the great
mound was no doubt a natural eminence artificially rounded oflf.

^ Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition during the Tears 1838-42.
Phila., 1844. Tom. IV, p. 334. " We soon reached the Butte prairies (on
Columbia River) which were extensive, and covered with tumuli or small
mounds, at regular distances asunder. As far as I could learn there is no
tradition among the natives relative to them. They are conical mounds thirty
feet in diameter, about six to seven feet high above the level, and many
thousands in number. Being anxious to ascertain if they contained any relics,
I subsequently visited these prairies, and opened three of the mounds, hut
found nothing in them but a pavement of round stones."

^Baldwin {Ancient America, pp. 31-3) remarks: "Lewis and Clark re-
ported seeing them on the Missouri River a thousand miles above its junc-
tion with the Mississippi River ; but this report has not been satisfactorily
verified."

3 See Mr. A. Barrandt in Smithsonian Beport, 1870, for an account of dis-
coveries on Clark's Creek in Dakota; on the Bighorn River; on the Yellow-
stone ; on the Morean and the banks of the Great Cheyenne. See Foster's
Pre-Historic Races, pp. 153-4. The proof is conclusive that the head- waters
of the Missouri was one of their ancient seats. The same gentleman (Mr. Bar-
randt) describes a remarkable mound in Lincoln County, Dakota, situated
Bighty-five miles north-west of Sioux City, on the west fork of the Little Sioux
of Dakota or Turkey Creek. The mound is known as the " Hay Stack." Its
dimensions are 337 feet in length at the base on the north-west side, and 390
on the south-east side, and 130 feet wide. It slopes at an angle of about 50°,
fs from thirty- four to forty feet in height, the north-east end being the higher.
To the summit, which is from twenty-eight to thirty-three feet wide, there is a
well-beaten path. The remarkable feature of the mound is the fact that part

32 JAMES RIVER MOUNDS.

made interesting discoveries in Dakota Territory, near the North-
ern Pacific Railroad crossing of the James River. Mounds were
examined giving evidence of perhaps greater antiquity than
those common in the interior of the country, if their contents be
depended upon as furnishing a means of test.^ The Missouri

of the north-east side is walled up with soft sandstone and limestone, brought
a distance of at least three miles from an ancient quarry. The remainder of
the surface is pronounced to be of calcined clay. The mound contained a large
interior circular chamber, in which the bones of animals, thirty-six pieces of
pottery, and a mass of charcoal and ashes were found. — Smithsonian Report
for 1872, pp. 413 et seq.

' Since this is a contested point, both as to the presence of the works of the
Mound-builders in the North-west and as to their great antiquity, I subjoin a
portion of a report on these mounds made by Gen, H. W. Thomas, U. S. A,, to
Dr, Thomas of the Surveying Expedition, in the Sixth Annual Report of tlie
U. S. Geological Surmy under Dr, Hayden in 1873, pp. 656-7 :

" * Lewis and Clarke reported seeing Indian mounds 1000 miles above the
confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri, but this report is not verified.' So
says Mr. John D, Baldwin, A, M., in his work entitled ' Ancient America.'

" I now and here propose to contribute m.y mite toward the verification of
the statement of Lewis and Clarke.

"The few men whom duty or wild inclination have from time to time
brought into this, for the most part, uninhabited region of treeless prairie, have
all known of the existence of thousands of artificial mounds. What was in
them they knew not, and but two or three, to my knowledge, have ever been
opened. On August 16, 1873, I opened one on the high tablelands that spread
out on both sides of a little stream called the James. The point is about 47°
north latitude, and 98° 38' longitude west from Greenwich. It is within three
miles of the line of the North Pacific Railroad. The mound is circular in form,
30/^ feet in its shorter, and 351=^^ feet in its longer diameter, and five feet high,
I opened four trenches, three feet wide, from the outer edge, meeting in the
centre, forming a cross when finished. I then excavated the entire mound
from the centre outward, until there was nothing more to find. For results I
had several two-bushel bags full of bones, eight skulls, many pieces of skulls
too small to be of value (there must have been at least twenty-five bodies buried
there), a rough-hewn stone ten inches high and five and a half inches in diam-
eter, in shape resembling closely a conical shell, a cutting half an inch deep
around the centre. (This was evidently tied with thongs to a stout handle,
and used in pulverizing their maize.) A portion of a shell necklace, two fiints,
two heads of beaver, and some bones of animals unknown, and a large quantity
of bivalves, much like the clam {Mya dblongata) of our Atlantic coast, but
thicker, and the interior surface much more pearly.

" The mounds and their contents are apparently of great antiquity. They
are, in every case, on the very highest point in their immediate neighborhood.

ANIMAL MOUNDS IN WISCONSIN. 33

valley seems to have been one of the most populous branches of
the wide-spread Mound-builder country. The valleys of its
affluents, the Platte and Kansas rivers, also furnish evidence that
these streams served as the channels into which flowed a part of
the tide of population which either descended or ascended the
Missouri. The Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, however,
formed the great central arteries of the Mound-builder domain.
In Wisconsin we find the northern central limit of their works ;
occasionally on the western shores of Lake Michigan, but in great
numbers in the southern counties of the State, and especially on
the lower Wisconsin Kiver. The peculiar and fantastic forms
of most of these mounds have led some writers to suppose that
they belonged to a difierent race from that which occupied the
valleys to the south. Instead of the usual type of the pyramid
and circle, these remains mostly represent animals, or birds, or
men. Still Dr. Lapham, who has described them fully in his
admirable work^ on the Antiquities of Wisconsin, concluded
that sufficient resemblances between these remains and those of
the south exist to ascribe to them a common origin. A few
instances of the circle and square are found in association with
the animal mounds, while in Ohio, on Brush Creek in Adams

and perfectly drained. The climate is excessively dry ; so dry that the James
River is entirely dry at a point about 500 feet above the contemplated railroad-
bridge across the river. Notwithstanding this, many of the bones crmnbled into
white dust on being brought to the air, like those found in Herculaneum and
Pompeii, and it was absolutely impossible to get out a single one in anything
like perfection. Around and over these bodies stones and sticks were placed,
doubtless to preserv^e the remains from the coyote and the fox. The wood
could be rubbed into fine yellow-brov/n dust between the thumb and forefinger.
Any trace of excavation around the mound for dirt to heap it with had been
entirely obliterated. The upright position of the skulls also indicated that the
bodies were buried in a sitting posture. The leg-bones, however, lay lower
and horizontal.

" The number of mounds indicates a denser population than ever has been
known here, or than the natural resources of this region can now support by
the chase. At the same time the number of dry lakes scattered all over would
indicate that at some remote period the country may have been a better one
than now, and supported a larger population."

' ''Antiquities of Wisconsin," Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. vii,
1855.

THE "GREAT SERPENT" AND THE "ALLIGATOR.

County, the "Great Ser-
pent," and the "Alligator''
in Licking County furnish
proof that either the same
people built them or at least
the same impulses, religious
or otherwise, actuated the
people of both districts. The
former of the above figures
is well described by its name,
" with its head conforming
to the crest of a hill, and
its body winding back for
700 feet in graceful undu-
lations, terminating in a
triple coil at the tail/' The
length of the latter "from
the point of the nose follow-
ing the curves of the tail to
the tip, is about 250 feet,
the breadth of the body
forty feet and the length of
the legs or paws each thirty-
six feet. " ^ Until recently
no effigy mounds were believed to exist further south than

Great Serpent, Adams Co., O.

' Squier and Davis : Ancient Monuments, pp. 97-99. Recent and possibly
more exact surveys of tbe Alligator give the figures as somewliat less than the
above. Isaac Smucker, a very reliable antiquarian of Licking Co., Ohio, in an
address before the Ohio State Archaeological Convention, held at Mansfield in
September, 1875, corrects the figures in the following statement : '• The Alliga-
tor mound is upon the summit of a hill or spur, which is nearly 200 feet high,
six miles west of Newark, and near the village of Granville. The outlines of
the Allijrator (or Crocodile) are clearly defined. His entire length is 205 feet.
The breadth of the body at the widest part, twenty feet, and the length of the
body between the fore-legs and hind-legs is fifty feet. The legs are each about
twenty feet long. The head, fore-shoulders and rump have an elevation vary-
ing from three to six fset, while the remainder of the body averages a foot or
two less."

ELEPHANT MOUND. 35

Ohio ; however, Mr. C. C. Jones, Jr., in the Smithsonian
Report for 1877 has shown this to be a mistake. Mr. Jones
describes an eagle-shaped stone mound north of Eaton ton, in
Putnam Co., Georgia, of the following dimensions : Height of
tumulus at the breast of the bird, seven or eight feet ; length
from the top of the head to the extremity of the tail, 102 feet ;
distance from tip to tip of the wings, 120 feet ; greatest expanse
of tail, 38 feet. A careful regard to the proportions of the bird
are shown. A similar stone mound, of nearly the same propor-
tions, was found near Lawrence Ferry on the Oconee Kiver in
Putnam County. In this instance a circle of stones encloses the
effigy. At Trenton, Wisconsin, and in many other places ex-
amined by Dr. Lapham, cruciform works were found, some of
which were constructed with the arms extending toward the
cardinal points.^ Instances of extinct or unknown animal forms
occur occasionally : one instance is that of an animal somewhat
resembling a monkey, having a body of about 160 feet in length,
while the tail describes a semicircle and measures alone 320 feet.^
The most remarkable instance of the kind, however, is that of
the big elephant mound found a few miles below the mouth of
the Wisconsin Eiver, so perfect in its proportions and complete
in its representations of an elephant that its builders must have
been well acquainted with all the physical characteristics of the
animal which they delineated.^ This fact suggests the inquiry
whether these people were Asiatic in origin and penetrated to
the interior of the country before their recollections of the ele-
phant were forgotten, or whether they were contemporaneous with

^ Lapham' s Antiquities of Wisconsin, pp. 18, 20, 36, 37, 39, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57,
62, 69.

* W. H. Canfield's Sketches of Sauk County, Wisconsin; Foster's Pre-His-
toric Races, p. 101. On the copper remains of tlie Mound-builders, see Pre-
Historic Wisconsin, by Prof. James D. Butler, LL.D., annual address before
the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Feb. 18, 1876. "Wisconsin Hist. Col.,
vol. vii. Privately printed,

2 Smithsonian Report for 1872, figured and described on p. 416 by Jared
Warner of Patch Grove, Wis. (Oct. 1872). A further description of mounds in
the same locality, by Moses Strong, M. E., will be found in Smithsonian Report
for 1876, p. 424

ELEPHANT MOUND.

Scale ."54 feet to the incli..

Elephant Mound, Wisconsin.

the mastodon of North America ? In the remarkable works at
Aztalan, Dr. Lapham finds not only resemblances to the Ohio
antiquities, but striking analogies with those of Mexico.^

^ Antiquities of Wisconsin, pp. 42-5 : " The main features of these remains is
the enclosure or ridge of earth (not brick, a? has been erroneously stated), ex-
tending around tbree sides of an irregular parallelogram ; the west branch of
Rock River forming the fourth side on the east. The space thus enclosed is
seventeen acres and two-thirds. The corners are not rectangular, and the em-
bankment or ridge is not straight. The earth of which the ridge is made was
evidently taken from the nearest ground, where there are numerous excava-
tions of very irregular form and depth ; precisely such as may be seen along
our modern railroad and canal embankments. These excavations are not to le
confounded with the hiding-places (caches) of the Indians, being larger and more
irregular in outline. Much of the material of the embankment was doubtless
taken from the surface without penetrating a suflScient depth to leave a trace
at the present time. If we allow for difference of exposure of earth thrown up
into a ridge and that lying on the original flat surface, we can perceive no differ-
ence between the soil composing the ridge and that found along its sides. Both
consist of a light yellowish sandy loam. The ridge forming the enclosure is
631 feet long at the north end, 1419 feet long on the west side, and 700 feet on
the south side ; making a total length of wall 2750 feet. The ridge or wall is
about twenty-two feet wide, and from one foot to five in height." * * ^^ After

DISCOVERIES AT DAVENPORT, IOWA. 37

Across the Mississippi in Minnesota and Iowa, the predomi-
nant type of circular tumuli prevail, extending throughout the
latter State to the Missouri. There are evidences that the
Upper Missouri region was connected with that of the Upper
Mississippi by settlements occupyiug the intervening country.
Mounds are found even in the valley of the Ked Kiver of the
North.^

Eastern Iowa, especially in the neighborhood of Davenport,
has furnished some of the most interesting mounds that have
yet been examined. Several gentlemen— especially Rev. Mr.
Gass — of the Davenport Academy of Sciences have within a
couple of years recovered a number of fine specimens of copper
axes, nearly all wrapped in Mound-builder's cloth. This cloth
had been "preserved by the antiseptic action of the salts of
copper, in all probability of the carbonates. In all specimens
one thread of the warp is double or twisted, and there are about
four to the one-fourth of an inch.'' ^ Stone pipes of excellent
workmanship carved to represent various animals were found.
Pottery, copper beads in considerable numbers, mica and sea-
shells (Pyrula and Cassis), one which had an internal capacity
of 152 cubic inches, or five and one-half pints, were among the
relics recovered. Most of the human remains were much de-
cayed ; although some, among them a skull, were preserved. The
character of the Altar mound in this group is rather unusual.
Within the mound hewn rectangular stones were laid upon one
another with perfect regularity, so as to break joints, forming
something resembling the exterior appearance of a chimney.

describing one of the mounds of this enclosure, he remarks : " The analogy
between these elevations and the ' temple mounds ' of Ohio and the Southern
States, will at once strike the reader who has seen the plans and descriptions.
They have the same square or regular form, sloping or graded ascent, the
terraced or step-like structure, and the same position in the interior of the
enclosure. This kind of formation is known to increase in numbers and im-
portance aa we proceed to the south and south-west, until they are represented
by the great structures of the same general character on the plains of Mexico."

' D. Gunn in Smithsonian Report for 1867.

2 Dr. Farquharson in Proceedings of Am. Ass. for the Adv. of Science^
vol. xxiv, p. 305.

38 THE DAVENPORT TABLET.

We are not aware of any similarly shaped altar ever having been
discovered in the mounds. The most remarkable discovery of
all, however, was made January 10, 1877^ by Eev. Mr. Gass
and his assistants in one of the mounds which previously had
been examined in part. Two tablets of coal slate covered
with a variety of figures and hieroglyphics were found. ^ One

' Througli the courtesy of Dr. R, J. Farquharson I am enabled to append
the original report made by Mr. Gass to the Davenport Academy, Jan. 26, 1877.
It is as follows :

" We broke the surface on the north-east slope of the mound about ten or
twelve feet from the opening on the west side made in 1874. The earth was
frozen to a depth of about three and a half feet. Five or six inches below the
surface we came upon a layer of shells one or two inches in thickness, which
sloped downward toward the south-east, reaching a depth of two feet or rather
more below the surface, and extending for a distance of ten or twelve feet.
Between the surface and this first layer of shells a number of small fragments
of human bones were found scattered through the soil. Under this shell layer
was a stratum of earth of from t\/elve to fifteen inches in thickness, resting on
a second layer of shells, from three to four inches in thickness. Both shell
layers sloped downward nearly parallel with each other.

" Below the second shell layer the earth was of the nature of a light mould,
darker in color than the earth above and thickly interspersed with fragments
of human bones. These circumstances arrested my attention and caused me to
proceed from this time on with the greatest caution. At a depth of about
fifteen inches under the lowest part of the shell layer exposed in this excava-
tion — the shell stratum at this point being five or six inches thick — the inscribed
slates were found. The slate is the same as that usually found overlying coal
beds in this vicinity, and is such as is frequently seen cropping out from the
hill-sides or in isolated slabs in the beds of streams. Both plates lay close
together on the hard undisturbed clay bottom of the mound.

" The engraved side of the smaller tablet was upward, and also that side of
the larger one presenting the heavenly bodies, hieroglyphics, etc. The larger
plate being partially divided by natural cleavage, its upper layer was unfor-
tunately broken in two by a slight stroke of the spade. The two plates were
closely encircled by a single row of weathered limestones. These stones are
irregular in shape, but almost of the same size, their dimensions being about three
by three by seven or eight inches, and the diameter of the circle about two feet.

"In the immediate vicinity were found a number of fragments of human
bones, one being a portion of a skull saturated with carbonate of copper. A
small piece of copper was found ; also many fragments of slate and a piece of
bone artificially wrought. "

Also see Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences for
Account of the Discovery of Inscribed Tablets, by Rev. J. Gass, with A Descrip-
tion by Dr. R. J. Farquharson. Davenport, Iowa, July, 1877. Cuts and views.

THE DAVENPORT TABLET.

of these, the larger, is of a most interesting character. On
one side, as will be seen in the accompanying cut, a number of
persons with hands joined have formed a semicircle around a
mound, upon which a fire has been kindled, probably for the
purpose of sacrifice, or for converting into a hardened and water-

The Davenport Tablet.

proof covering the layer of clay which may have been spread
over the remains of some distinguished personage beneath. The
presence of a layer of baked clay above human remains in so
many Ohio mounds leads to this conjecture. The three pros-
trate human figures may be those of wives or servants of the
deceased, to be sacrificed upon his grave, as has been the custom
from the remotest times in India and among many savage tribes.
The conspicuousness of the sun, moon, and stars, suggest even

40 CAHOKIA MOUND.

a sadder thought, that perhaps it may be purely a religious
ceremony in which liuman victims are being ottered to the
heavenly bodies. Sabine worship, which spread throughout the
entire length of the continent, is known to have been accompanied
with the most horrid rites. Above the arch of the firmament
are hieroglyphics which if deciphered no doubt would tell of the
nature of this and other similar scenes. On the reverse side of
the tablet is a rude representation of a hunting scene in which
various animals, such as the buffalo cow, deer, bear, etc., etc., are
figured. It has been conjectured that a large animal in the upper
left-hand comer may be a mammoth, but there is little ground
for the supposition. The scene is probably a representation of
the exploits of the person buried in the mound. The smaller
tablet is evidently a calendar stone with signs of the zodiac
regularly marked upon it ; of this calendar we shall speak in a
future chapter. The above conjectures as to the significance of
the representations on these tablets are based upon the suppo-
sition that they are genuine and not the work of an impostor, of
which we cannot refrain from expressing a slight suspicion. That
Rev. Mr. Gass has given a true account of his discovery there
cannot be the slightest doubt — that he and his co-laborers in the
work of excavation believe them to be genuine is equally certain.
Descending to the interior, we find the heart of the Mound-
builder country in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. It is uncertain
whether its vital centre was in Southern Illinois or in Ohio —
probably the former because of its geographical situation with
reference to the mouths of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers. To
enter upon a detailed description of the antiquities of this remark-
able region would alone more than occupy the entire limits which
we have prescribed for this work. This undertaking has already
been well performed by Atwater, Squier and Davis, Foster,
Baldwin, and many others. We shall therefore confine our
remarks to notices of the most conspicuous remains and the
general peculiarities of Mound-builder architecture. This people
possessed a due appreciation of the physical advantages of certain
localities for their cities. The site of St. Louis was formerly
covered wdth mounds, one ,of which ^vas thirty-five feet high,

ANALOGIES WITH MEXICO.

Drilled Ceremonial Weapons. (Nat. Mus.)

while in the American bottom on the Illinois side of the river
their number approximates two hundred. In a group of sixty
or more, lying between Alton and East St. Louis, stands the
most magnificent of all the Mound-builders' works, the great
Mound of Cahokia, which rises to a height of ninety-seven feet
and extends its huge mass in the form of a parallelogram, with
sides measuring 700 and 500 feet respectively. On the south-

42 RECENT EXPLORATIONS IN THE AMERICAN BOTTOM.

west there was a terrace 160 by 300 feet, reached by means of a
graded way. The summit of the pyramid is truncated, afford-
ing a platform of 200 by 450 feet. Upon this platform stands a
conical mound ten feet high. Dr. Foster remarks : ^' It is prob-
able that upon this platform was reared a capacious temple,
within whose walls the high-priests gathered from different
quarters at stated seasons, celebrating their mystic rites, whilst
the swarming multitude below looked up with mute adoration." ^
When we consider the analogy between the general features of
this pyramid and that on which the temple of Mexico was
situated, it is not unnatural to reflect that Cahokia may have
served as the prototype of the more magnificent structure which
was so often deluged with the blood of its thousands of human
victims. The temple of Mexico and many others of its type may
have been the embodiment of the same principles of architecture
employed at Cahokia, but carried to greater perfection under the
more favorable conditions afforded in the valley of Anahuac, or
precisely the reverse may be true. Such speculations are, how-
ever, more easily set forth than sustained. Dr. Foster, through
a mistake, states that the monster mound has been removed.
This, we are happy to say, is not the case.^

Numerous interesting explorations have been conducted re-

* Pre-Historic Baces of the U. S., p. 107. See especially 12th Annual Report
Peahody Museum.

2 In a paper, A Deposit of Agricultural Flint Implements Found in Bouthern
Illinois, Smithsonian Report, 1868, Dr. Chas. Rau treats the subject of Aboriginal
Agriculture at considerable length. In the Smithsonian Mejyort for 1873, p. 413
et seq.. Dr. A. Patton describes the exploration of several remarkable mounds in
Lawrence Co., Illinois. In the Smithsonian Report for 1874, p. 351, Taylor
McWhorter describes a number of mounds in Mercer Co., Illinois. He estimates
tlie number in the county at one thousand, mostly on the Mississippi River bank.
The Antiquities of Whiteside County, 111., by W. H. Pratt, of Davenport, Iowa,
printed in the same Report, p. 354 et seq., is a most valuable contribution to our
knowledge of the mounds. The first mound examined yielded eight skulls, two
of which were preserved. Tbe third mound opened yielded the skeletons of
four adults and several articles of interest, such as pieces of mica, a lump of
galena and a dove-colored arrow-head. From the fifth mound opened, a remark-
ably well-preserved skeleton was recovered. Dr. Farquliarson, of the Daven-
port Academy of Sciences, has contributed one of the most valuable tables of
mound-cranial measurements ever published.

THE ROCKFORD TABLET. 43

cently in Illinois with rich results. Among the most notable of
these are the discoveries of Mr. Henry K. Howland, reported in
a paper read before the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences,
March,^1877 {Bulletin of the Buffalo Soc. of Nat. Sc, vol. iii.,
p. 204 et seqX In January, 1876, Mr. Howland witnessed the
removal of a mound near Mitchell Station in the American
Bottom. In a stratum four or five feet from the base, composed
chiefly of human bones, a large quantity of matting and a num-
ber of copper relics were disclosed to view. The matting was a
coarse vegetable cane-like fibre simply woven, without twisting.
Among the articles wrapped in the matting were several minia-
ture tortoise shells formed of copper. They were of beaten copper
of one sixty-fourth of an inch in thickness, the largest being but
two and one-eighth inches in length. " A narrow flange or rim,
about five thirty-secondths of an inch in width, is neatly turned at
the base, and over the entire outer surface the curious markings
peculiar to the tortoise shell are carefully produced by indenta-
tion — the entire workmanship evincing a delicate skill of which
we have never before found traces in any discovered remains of
the arts of the Mound-builders." These shells were covered
with several wrappings, the first and nearest to the shell proving
to be of vegetable fibre, the second of a dark-brown color ; when
placed under the microscope and examined by Dr. G. J. Engle-
man and Sir Joseph Hooker, proved to be a very fine cloth woven
from animal hair — of the rabbit and possibly of the deer. The
third envelope was made from the intestine of some animal. The
lower jaws of deer were discovered in which the forward part
containing the teeth were encased in thin copper and wrapped
in the fine hair-cloth just described. From holes bored in the
back of each jaw, it is inferred that the articles were suspended
from the neck as totems or badges of authority. Three wooden
spool-like objects were found in the same place, partially plated
with thin copper. Copper rods or needles from fourteen to
eighteen inches in length, a beautiful shell necklace, and a spear
head of chert a foot long, were also discovered. Among the rest
were several sea-shells {Busy con Perversum)^ evidently brouscht
from the Gulf a thousand miles distant. In the summer of 1874,

44 CINCINNATI TABLET.

Mr. H. R. Enoch, of Bockford, 111., discovered a tablet in a
mound situated on the bank of Rock River, five miles south of
Rockford. The "Rockford Tablet'' created quite a sensation
at first because it was thought to bear upon its face several sym-
bols found upon the Mexican Calendar stone. However, a
thorough investigation of its claims prove it to be a fraud, no
doubt placed in the mound where discovered for the purpose of
deception. Mr. J. Moody of Mendota, 111., in referring to the
twelve symbols of the tablet said to be Mexican, remarks : " Six
are nearly exact counterparts of that number of Lybian charac-
ters which I find represented in Priest's American Antiquities.
¥: =k % From a comparison of the Rockford Tablet with the
plates in the work referred to above, the inference is almost
irresistible that the engraver had a copy of Priest's American
Antiquities before him while doing his work." (See Congres
International des Americanistes, Luxembourg, 1877. Tome ii,
p. 160.)

The same sagacity which chose the neighborhood of St. Louis
for these works, covered the site of Cincinnati with an. extensive
system of circumvallations and mounds. Almost the entire
space now occupied by the city was utilized by the mysterious
builders in the construction of embankments and tumuli built
upon the most accurate geometrical principles, and evincing
keen military foresight.^ Dr. Daniel Drake described these
works in 1815, and many others subsequently.'^ The most im-
portant discovery made among these remains was that of the
"Cincinnati Tablet" in 1841. This singular relic was taken
from a large mound formerly thirty-five feet high, removed at
the above date from the extension of Mound Street across Fifth

* The best and most exhaustive treatment of the above is by Mr. Robert
Clarke : The Pre- Historic Remains icMch were Found on the Site of Cincinnati,
Ohio, with a Vindication of the Cincinnati Tablet. Cincinnati, 1876. 8vo, 34 pp.
It is to be regretted that this valuable discussion of the genuineness of one of
the most important Mound-builder relics is only "privately circulated." Mr,
Clarke has fully accomplished the design for which he wrote.

2 Dr. Daniel Drake's Picture of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, 1815. Squier and
Davis in Ancient Monuments. Gen. Harrison : Ohio Hist, and Phil. Society
Trans., vol. i, and others.

THE CINCINNATI TABLET.

Cincinnati Tablet. (Front.)

Street. When found, it was lying on a level with the original
surface under the skull of a much decayed skeleton, with two
polished, pointed bones about seven inches long, and a bed of
charcoal and ashes. This stone in all probability served the
double purpose of a record of the calendar and a scale for

THE CINCINNATI TABLET.

Cincinnati Tablet. (Back.)

measurement.^ Mr. E. Gest, the courteous owner of the tablet,

^ Br. Daniel Wilson's Pre-Hutoric Man, 3d ed., 1876, vol. i, pp. 274-5. The
following description is given in Squier and Davis's Ancient Monuments of the
Mississippi Valley : " The material is fine-grained, compact sandstone of a light-
brown color. It measures five inches in length, three in breadth at the ends,

MODND-WORKS IN OHIO. 47

provided the accompanying cuts expressly for this work, regarding
them as the first correct representations of the stone.

The vast number as well as the ma2:nitude of the works found

Dagger % Size. (Nat. Mus.)

in the State of Ohio, have surprised the most careless and indif-
ferent observers. It is estimated by the most conservative, and
Messrs. Squier and Davis among them, that the number of tumuli

and two and six-tentlis at tlie middle, and is about half an inch in thickness.
The sculptured face varies very slightly from a perfect plane. The figures are
cut in low relief (the lines being not more than one-twentieth of an inch in
depth), and occupy a rectangular space four inches and two-tenths long by two
and one-tenth wide. The sides of the stone, it will be observed, are slightly
concave. Right lines are drawn across the face near the ends, at right angles,
and exterior to these are notches, twenty-five at one end and twenty-four at the
other. The back of the stone has three deep longitudinal grooves, and several
depressions, e\'idently caused by rubbing — probably produced by sharpening
the instrument used in the sculpture." [Mr. Gcst, however, does not regard
these as tool marks, but thinks they are of peculiar significance.] " Without
discussing the singular resemblance which the relic bears to the Egyptian
CartoucJi, it will be sufficient to direct attention to the reduplication of the
figures, those upon one side corresponding with those upon the other, and the
two central ones being also alike. It will be observed that there are but three
scrolls or figures — four of one and two of each of the others. Probably no
serious discussion of the question whether or not these figures are hieroglyphical
is needed. They more resemble the stalk and flowers of a plant than anything
else in nature. What significance, if any, may attach to the peculiar markings
or graduations at the end, it is not undertaken to say. The sum of the pro-
ducts of the longer and shorter lines (24 x 7 + 25 x 8) is 368, three more than the
number of days in the year ; from which circumstance the suggestion has been
advanced that the tablet had an astronomical origin, and constituted some sort
of a calendar." We may here add tbat Col. Chas. Whittlesey published at
Cleveland, Ohio, in Hutorical and Archcpolngicnl Tract No. 9 (Feb. 1872) of the
Western Reserve Historical Society, a statement that the " Cincinnati Tablet "
was a fraud. But we are informed that he is sinc3 convinced of its genuineness.

WORKS NEAR LIBERTY, OHIO.

Works in Liberty Township, Ross County, Ohio.

in Ohio equals 10,000, and the number of enclosures 1000 or
1500. In Ross County alone, 100 enclosures and upwards of
500 mounds have been examined. Some of the works exhibit
fine engineering skill ; such, for instance, are those near Liberty,
Ohio, where two embankments, each forming a perfect circle, are
found in conjunction with a perfect square. The larger circle
measures 1700 feet in diameter and contains forty acres, while
the smaller has a diameter of 800 feet. The square contains
twenty-seven acres and measures 1080 feet on each side. One

GEOMETRICAL EXACTNESS DISPLAYED. 49

set of works in Pike County consists of a circle enclosing a square,
the four corners of which each touch the circular embankment.
The opening or doorway through the circle is opposite the open-
ino- in the square. Prof. E. B. Andrews found a conical mound
enclosed by a circle, the base of the mound reaching to the edge
of the ditch outside of which is the circular wall. The mound
was located on the Hocking Eiver, nine miles northward of
Lancaster, Ohio (see Teiitli Ann. Rep. of Peahody Mus. of Arch.

Celts. (Nat. Mus.)

The large celt, upper line, from a mound (Tenn.). The others Surface Finds.

and Eth.y p. 51). The works at Hopetown, near Chillicothe,
present several combinations of the square and circle. The
two principal figures of these works are a square and circle —
each containing exactly twenty acres. The discovery of these
geometrical combinations — executed with such precision — in
many parts of the country, lead to the belief that the Mound-
builders were one people spread over a large ten'itory, possessed
of the same institutions, religion, and perhaps one government.
These facts are highly important as shedding light upon the
4

FORTIFIED PLACES.

degree of their civilization. The evidence is ample that they
were possessed of regular scales of measurement, of the means
of determining angles and of computing the area to be enclosed
by a square and circle, so that the space enclosed by these
figures standing side by side might exactly correspond. In a
word, their scientific and mathematical knowledge was of a
very respectable order.

Aboriginal Chisels, Gouges and Adzes. (Nat. Mus.) Surface Finds.

The military works of the Mound-builders, other than those
previously mentioned as existing on the Lakes and in Western
New York State, are of a twofold character, consisting first of
fortified eminences, of which an instance is found in Butler
County, Ohio, where 16^^^ acres are walled in on the summit of
a hill, and the entrance to the enclosure guarded by a compli-
cated system of covered ways. On Paint Creek, Eoss County,
a remarkable stone work encloses 140 acres, in the centre of
which was an artificial lake, probably to supply water in case of
a siege. Perhaps the most remarkable fortification left by the

FORT ANCIENT, OHIO. 51

Mound-builders is that known as Fort Ancient, Ohio, on the
Little Miami River, forty-two miles north-east of Cincinnati.
The specialist is already familiar with the oft-quoted description
of the Survey by Prof. Locke, made in 1843. We will therefore
only refer to a few of the measurements contained in that
description. " The work occupies a terrace on the left bank of
the river, two hundred and thirty feet above its waters. The
place is naturally a strong one, being a peninsula defended by
two ravines, which, originating on the east side, near to each
other, diverging and sweeping around, enter the Miami, the one
above, the other below the work. The Miami itself, with its
precipitous bank of two hundred feet, defends the western side."
* « * "The whole circuit of this work is between four and
five miles. The number of cubic yards of excavation may be
approximately estimated at 628,800. The embankment stands
in many places twenty feet in perpendicular height. The most
interesting and valuable paper on this work is that by Mr. L. M.
Hosea, of Cincinnati, in the Quarterly Journal of Science (Cin-
cinnati), October, 1874, p. 289 et seq. This writer observes that
it has often been remarked that the form of Fort Ancient resem-
bles a rude outline of the continent of North and South America.
None of the mounds contained in the enclosure have yielded any
relics of special interest. The greatest possible diversity of
opinion exists concerning the antiquity of the abandonment of
the works. Judges Dunlevy and Force, the latter in his memoir
on the Mound-builders,^ estimate the period as a thousand

' Judge M. F. Force: Mound-Builders. Cincinnati, 1872. Rev. S. D. Peet
iu the American Antiquarian for April, 1878, refers to the visit of the Ohio
Archaeological and the National Anthropological Conventions to Fort Ancient
in September, 1877, and states that during the visit the significance of the walls
of the lower enclosure was discovered. " They bear a resemblance," he remarks,
" to the form of two massive serpents, which are apparently contending with
one another. Their heads are the mounds, which are separated from the bodies
by the opening which resembles a ring around the neck. They bend in and
out and rise and fall, and appear like two massive green serpents rolling along
the summit of this high hill. Their appearance under the overhanging forest
trees is very impressive"— p. 50. See also Mr. Peet's memoir on a Double-
walled Earthwork in Ashtabula County, Ohio, in Smithsonian Report for 1876,
pp. 443-4.

52 SIGNAL SYSTEMS— MIAMISBURG MOUND.

years, while Mr. Hosea thinks several thousand years would be
required to produce the numerous little hillocks and depressions
which mark the spot where trees have grown, fallen and decayed.
Reasoning from other data, we are inclined to the more conser-
vative opinion of Judge Force as altogether the safer. Fort
Ancient, which could have held a garrison of 60,000 men with
their families and provisions, was one of a line of fortifications
which extend across the State and served to check the incursion
of the savages of the North in their descent upon the Mound-
builder country.

The second class of military works, which are exceedingly
numerous on all the watercourses — existing not only on the Ohio
and Mississippi, but on all their tributaries, especially on the
Muskingum, Scioto, Miami, Wabash, Illinois, Kentucky, and
minor streams — are mounds which served as outlooks. These were
always placed in positions to command extended views, and from
which signals could be given to still others of the same character,
or probably to settlements remote from the watercourses.

A system of these works, no doubt formerly existed on the
Great Miami River extending north of Dayton, Ohio, southward
to the Ohio River, and connected with the great settlement on
the site of Cincinnati and with the high blufis on the Kentucky
shore. The great Mound at Miamisburgh, ten miles south of
Dayton, formed a part of this chain. This monster mound is
sixty-eight feet high and 852 feet in circumference, and may
have served the double purpose of a signal station and the base
of a small edifice devoted to astronomical or religious purposes.
There is little doubt that the Mound-builders in the latter
period of their occupancy of this region, when apprehensive of
danger from their enemies, employed a system of signal telegraph
by which communication was had, through means of the watch-
fire or the torch, between localities as distant as those now
occupied by Cincinnati and Dayton. Only a few minutes were
necessary by means of such a perfected system in which to trans-
mit a signal fifty or one hundred miles. Squier and Davis
remark on this subject : " There seems to have existed a system
of defences extending from the sources of the Alleghany and

WORKS AT NEWARK. 53

Susquehanna in New York, diagonally across the country, through
Central and Northern Ohio to the Wabash. Within this range
the works which are regarded as defensive are largest and most
numerous." The signal system we have reason to believe was
employed throughout the entire extent of this range of works.
The majority of the enclosures found in the Ohio and Mississippi
valleys are presumed not to have been designed for military pur-
poses, since the trench is usually inside of the embankment.
However, instances of the trench being outside of the parapet
occur in Southern Ohio.^ The most magnificent Mound-builder
remains in Ohio are the extensive and intricate works near
Newark in Licking County. The survey made by Col. Whit-
tlesey and published in the Ancient Monuments of the Missis-
si2^pi Valley, is the most reliable as well as the fullest source of
our information concerning their magnitude, though the plan
has been corrected considerably by more recent surveys. These
works occupy an area of two miles square, and formerly consisted
of tAvelve miles of embankment. The spacious gateways — one
of which has embankments on both sides measuring thirty-five
feet in height from the bottom of the interior trench — the
labyrinthine system of avenues, the strangely-shaped mounds,
one of which resembles a huge bird-track with a middle toe
155 feet in length and the remaining two each 110 feet in length
— together with the solitude of the ancient forest which entombed
this buried city, we confess impressed us with a sense of wonder-
ment and that strange perplexity which an insoluble mystery
exercises over the mind. We can appreciate the remark of
Mr. Squier in his description : " Here covered with the gigantic

* Dr. Foster, Pre-Historic Races, p. 145, cites a letter from Prof. E. B,
Andrews, of the Ohio Geological Survey, describing an earthwork discovered
by him in Vinton County with the ditch outside the parapet. In his Report of
Explorations of Mounds in Southern Ohio, published in Tenth Ann. Report of
the Peahody Museum of Am. Arch, and Eth., p. 53 (Camb., 1877), the Professor
remarks : " On a spur of a ridge about two miles east of Lancaster is an earth
wall, evidently for defence. The ditch is on the outside of the wall, where it
should be according to modern ideas of defence. In this particular the earth-
work differs from all the circles and so-called ' forts,' either circular or square,
which I have seen, these having the ditch on the inside."

MARIETTA WORKS.

trees of a primitive forest, the work truly presents a grand and
impressive appearance ; and in entering the ancient avenue for
the first time, the visitor does not fail to experience a sensation
of awe, such as he might feel in passing the portals of an Egyp-
tian temple, or in gazing upon the ruins of Petra of the Desert."
It is estimated that a force of thousands of men assisted by

modem aj^pliances and
implements as well as
horse-power, w^hich the
Mound-builder did not
possess, would require
several months in which
to construct these w^orks.^
At Marietta a most inter-
system of works
covering an area
three-fourths of a mile
long and half a mile broad.
These occupy the river
terrace or second bottom
at the confluence cf the

estmg

'^ exist

Square Mound, Marietta.

Muskingum Kiver with the Ohio, and present analogies with the
works further south and with those of Mexico.^ Two irre2:ular
squares inclose fifty and twenty-seven acres respectively. The
walls of the larger are between five and six feet high and from

* Foster's Pre-Historic Races, p. 128 : " No one, I think, can view the com-
plicated system of works here displayed and stretching away for miles without
arriving at the conclusion that they are the result of an infinite amount of toil
expended under the direction of a governing mind, and having in view a definite
aim. At this day, with our iron instruments, with our labor-saving machines,
and the aid of horse-power, to accomplish such a task would require the labor of
many thousand men continued for many months. These are the work of a peo-
ple who had fixed habitations, and who, deriving their support in part at least
from the soil, could devote their surplus labor to the rearing of such structures.
A migratory people dependent upon the uncertainties of the chase for a living,
would not have the time, nor would there be the motive, to engage in such
a stupendous undertaking."

- Foster's Pre-Historic Races, p. 129.

GRADED WAY NEAR PIKETON. OHIO.

twenty to thirty feet wide at the base. Within an enclosure are
four truncated pyramids or platforms, one of which, the largest,
is 188 feet long, 132 feet w^ide, and only 10 feet high, with
a graded way reaching to its summit, as have also two of the
other pyramids. No one can look at these structures without
seeing the force of Lewis H. Morgan's Pueblo theory,^ which

Graded Way near Piketon, Ohio.

makes these mounds or flattened pyramidal elevations the foun-
dation for edifices of a perishable nature ; constructed perhaps
of hewn wood, but not of a combination of the adobe and wood
as he supposes, since no material for such a combination is found
in the Ohio valley.^ The most elevated of the Marietta works is
an elliptical mound thirty feet high, enclosed by an embankment.
The most recent and satisfactory exploration of mounds in
Ohio, was that conducted by Prof. E. B. Andrews for the Pea-

^ N'orth American Review, July, 1876.

^ Robert Clarke's Pre-Historic Remains at Cincinnati, p. 18 : *' I believe I
am correct in saying that there is no clay in Ohio which could be applied in
this way and resist for any leng-th of time the washing rains and sudden winter
chanrjes of temi)erature of our climate," et sea.

56 ANDREWS' EXPLORATIONS IN SOUTHERN OHIO.

body Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, and
published in the Tenth Annual Report of the Trustees (^Cam-
bridge, 1877). The mounds examined are in Fairfield, Perry,
Athens, and Hocking Counties. In Fairfield County they were
all located upon hills and commanded extensive views. Their
contents indicated great age, being much decayed. At New
Lexington in Perry County, ancient flint diggings, unquestion-
ably worked by the Mound-builders, were examined, many of the
pits being six to eight feet deep. In Athens County, on Wolf
Plain, situated in Athens and Dover Townships, several circles
and nineteen conical mounds are found. One of the latter
measures forty feet high, with a diameter of 170 feet, and con-
tains 437.742 cubic feet. Another, known as the Beard Mound,
was excavated, and the interesting fact discovered that in its
construction the dirt had been ^' thrown down in small quan-
tities — averaging about a peck — as if from a basket." Prof.
Andrews is of the opinion that the mound was a long time in
building, " for we find," he remarks, " at many different levels,
the proof that grasses and other vegetation grew rankly upon
the earth heap and were buried by the dirt." In a neighboring
mound known as the George Connett Mound, under a bed of
charcoal ^ve feet below the summit, a skeleton was found in a
box or coffin, enclosed by timbers. The upper part of the coffin
and middle of the body had been destroyed by fire. A circle of
five hundred copper beads was found around the body. A cop-
per instrument resembling a calker's chisel, measuring 141 mm.
in length, width at flattened end, 52 mm., diameter of cylin-
drical part, 20 mm. The instrument was formed from sheet
copper, beaten with such care that no traces of the hammer are
visible. "The edges are brought together and united very
closely by a slight overlap." Professor Andrews describes and
figures a piece of leather ornamented with oval copper beads
taken from a point eight feet below the surface of a mound
designated as the "school-house mound." The original piece
measured eight or ten inches square, but unfortunately fell into
the hands of bystanders, who tore it in pieces for relics. The
Professor regards the curiosity as of Mound builder origin, and

GRAVE CREEK MOUND. 57

thinks it belonged to an ornamented dress. We cannot detail
these interesting explorations here, and must dismiss them with
the deduction that in certain cases the cremation of the bodies
found in mounds was accidental, caused by the heat penetrating
through a layer of earth on which a fire had been kindled. In
other instances, the body seems to have been burned intention-
ally, and the ashes and charred bones heaped together in the
centre of the mound. Some clay and stone tubes of fine work-
manship were obtained. The same document above cited con-
tains a valuable paper by Mr. Lucian Carr on his interesting
exploration of a mound in Lee County, Virginia.

Grave Creek . Mound, situated twelve miles below Wheeling
in West Virginia, is the Monster work of the Ohio Valley. It
measures seventy feet in height and nine hundred feet in cii'cum-
ference. Its form is that of a truncated cone, the flattened area
on the top being fifty feet in diameter.^ The States of Indiana^
and Illinois formed with Ohio a portion of the great centre of
the Mound-builder country, as the remains found on the water-

^ See A. B. Tomlinson's Qrave Greek Mound (1838). Schoolcraft in American
Ethnological Soc. Transactions, vol. i. Especially Squier and Davis.

^ Dr. Patton lias described some interesting mounds near Vincennes, Indiana.
A giant mound, wliicli towers above many otbers of considerable proportions,
is called the Sugar-loaf Mound, and stands on a promontory which over-
looks the rich valley of the Wabash. The height of the Sugar-loaf is seventy
feet, with a circumference at the base of one thousand feet. Dr. Patton in
June, 1873, sank a shaft in this mound to the depth of forty-six feet. The
composition of the mound was of siliceous sand, nowhere found in the region
except in other mounds. At ten feet below the summit bones were found, but
much decayed. Immediately below them was a layer of charcoal and ashes.
Thirty feet deeper the same conditions were repeated, and the bones again were
so brittle as to render it impossible to save them. A bed of calcined clay was
next entered which could not be penetrated with the instruments ac command.
One mile south of the Sugar-loaf is a pyramidal mound forty-three feet high,
with a circumference of 714 feet at the base and a platform on top fifteen feet
wide and fifty feet in length. Others of as great proportions are described.
SmitJisonian Report, 1873, pp. 411 et seq. See also Antiquities of La Porte
County, Indiana, by R. S. Robertson in Smithsonian Beport for 1874, pp. 877
et seq. A very low type of cranium was exhumed from one of the mounds in
this county. Also see Mounds at Merom and Hutsonmlle on the Wabash, by
F. W. Putnam — Proceedings of the Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist. , vol. xv, 1873.
Fifty-nine mounds were examined, and three stone graves discovered.

EXPLORATIONS IN TENNESSEE.

courses of both States testify. The valleys of the Wabash,
Kankakee, Illinois and Saline Rivers were the once populous
dwelling-places of a thrifty and industrious people who have left
thousands of structures behind them,^ The Alleghany Moun-
tains, the natural limit of the great Mississi})pi basin, appears
to have served as the eastern and south-eastern boundary of

Pendants and Sinkers, (Nat. Mas.) Surface Finds.

the Mound-builder country. In Western New York, Western
Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and in all of Kentucky and
Tennessee, their remains are numerous and in some instances
imposing. In Tennessee especially, the works of the Mound-
builders are of the most interesting character. Prof. Joseph
Jones, of the University of New Orleans, has by his thorough

' For an excellent treatment of this part of tlie subject, see Foster's Pre-
Historic Races, pp. 130-144 inclusive.

STONE FORT NEAR MANCHESTER.

and recent explorations under the patronage of the Smithsonian
Institution, brought to light very interesting materials for the
study of the history of this people. The works of defence in the
shape of stone forts, by some thought to be peculiar to New York
and the lake boundaries, with occasional exceptions in the Ohio
Valley, have been found to abound in Coffee and other counties.

One very perfect example of this kind of fortification, but very
imperfectly described and figured by Haywood,^ is that known
as the stone fort near Manchester, Tenn. This enclosure, con-
taining over fifty-four acres, has been minutely described by
Prof. Jones.^ In the accompanying cut the reader will obtain a

* In Ancient Monuments of Mississippi VaUey.
2 Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee,
tribution m. 259. Oct. 1876, p. 100.

Smithsonian Con-

60 RUDE STONE COFFINS.

pretty clear idea of the form of this fort. The wall, which varies
from four to ten feet in height, is composed of loose rocks
gathered apparently from the bed of the streams below, and the
vicinity. The ditch shown in the cut at the rear of the works
was probably designed to convey water from one creek to the
other. The entrance is quite complicated and constitutes the
most remarkable feature of the fortification.

One peculiarity of burial noticeable in this locality, and one
whi«h evidently indicates progression when we come to compare
these people with those farther north, is the fact that the ancient
race of Tennessee buried their dead in rude stone coffins or cists,
constructed of flat pieces of limestone or slaty sandstone which
abound in the central portions of the State. In most of the
mounds this mode of burial prevailed, but was not confined to
them, for outside of the mounds in many enclosures a large
number of stone graves occur. Of the class of "Stone-grave
Burial Mounds," one situated twelve miles from Nashville, near
Brentwood, is worthy of mention. This mound was about forty-
five feet in diameter by twelve feet high, and contained one hun-
dred skeletons. These were mostly in stone graves, which were
constructed in ranges one above another, three or four deep.
The lower graves were short and square, containing bones that
had apparently been deposited after the flesh had been removed.
The upper graves were full length and contained remains in
which the bones occupied their natural relation to each other.
The workmanship both of the mound and stone cists was of
the most perfect character. The lids .of the upper stone cists
were so arranged as to present a perfectly rounded, sloping
rock surface. The mound was situated on the eastern slope
of a beautiful hill, covered with a heavy growth of the native
forest. In a large and carefully constructed stone tomb. Prof.
Jones discovered the skeleton of an aged individual of immense
length, having toothless jaw bones. In a grave occupied by a
skeleton of a female, a small compartment or stone box was
found near the head, separated from the main coffin by stone
slabs, in which was the skeleton of an infant. It should be
added that in the square or short graves so often met with, the

RUDE STONE COFFINS.

skull was placed in the centre and the other
bones arranged around it.^ Numerous stone
graves not covered by mounds were found on
the Cumberland River opposite the mouth
of Lick Branch, surrounding a chain of four
mounds. A similar graveyard was found on
the same bank of the Cumberland, a mile
and a half farther down. Others were met
with on White Creek, nine miles from Nash-
ville, at Sycamore in Cheatham County; at

Clay Image from a Stone Grave in Burial
Mound near Brentwood, Tennessee.

Brentwood, in White County near Sparta,
and along the tributaries of the Cumberland
and Tennessee Rivers at short intervals. At
Oldtown on the Big Harpeth, is an extensive
and remarkable collection of stone graves.
All these burial grounds seem to be those of
the people who constructed the mounds, for
most of the mounds examined contained stone

' Antiquities of Tennessee, p. 39, and other i^laces.

TEMPLE BASE NEAR NASHVILLE.

graves, not in their upper strata, but on the level of the sur-
rounding land. A mound opposite Nashville, on the east bank
of the Cumberland Kiver, of great interest, was examined. Prof.
Jones is convinced that it formerly served as the site or base of
a temple. Its dimensions were one hundred feet in diameter by
only ten feet high. In the centre of the mound and only three
feet from its surface the Professor uncovered a large sacrificial
vase or altar, forty-three inches in diameter, composed of a mix-
ture of clay and river-shells. The rim of this flat earthen vessel
or sacrificial altar was three inches in height and appeared

Shell Ornament from the Breast of a Skeleton found in a carefully

CONSTRUCTED StONE CoFFIN IN A MOUND NEAR NaSHVILLE, TenN.

mathematically circular. The surface of the " altar " was cov-
ered by a layer of ashes about one inch in tliickness. The
antlers and jawbone of a deer were found resting on the surface
of the altar, and it is probable that part of the animal had been
consumed as a sacrifice. The whole had been carefully covered
with three feet of earth and the ashes preserved. In this mound
rude sarcophagi were ranged around this sacred centre with the
heads toward the altar and the feet toward the circumference of
the circle, while the directions of the bodies were those of radii.
Those bodies near the altar were ornamented with numerous
beads of sea-shell and bone. In a carefully constructed stone

OLDTOWN, TENNESSEE.

sarcophagus, in which the face of the skeleton was turned
toward the setting sun, the beautiful shell ornament shown in
the cut, measuring 4.4 inches in diameter, was found lying on the
breast-bone of the skeleton. It was made from some large shell
derived from the sea-coast. Of the numerous interesting places
examined by Prof. Jones, the site of Oldtown, on the Big Har-
peth River, about six miles south-west of Franklyn, Tennessee,
is worthy of special attention. The plan of the works and their
general dimensions will be seen in the cut. At present, the

SctOe 330 fUo inch

Plan of Oldtown Works.

crescent-shaped wall of 2470 feet in extent is but from two to
six feet in height, having been reduced to its present condition
by the plowshare. Thirty years ago it is said to have been so
steep that it was impossible to ride a horse over it. Within the
enclosure are two pyramidal mounds ; the larger is one bundred
and twelve by sixty-five feet and eleven feet high, and the
smaller, seventy by sixty feet by nine feet high ; also a small
burial mound measuring thirty by twenty feet and 2.5 feet high.
Another burial mound is covered by the residence of the owner,
Mr. Thomas Brown. Many curiously-shaped clay vessels were
obtained at these works by the explorers. Some of the vases
were fashioned into effigies of frogs and various animals, and one

OLDTOWN ART.

vase obtained by Mr. Brown in excavating for the foundation
for his residence, had a neck terminating in two human heads.
Some of the vessels from Oldtown are figured in the cut

Stoine Pipe, Murfreesboro, Tenn. ^^ Natural Size.

Pottery from Oldtown, Tenn.

The art of painting seems to have been extensively practised
by the mound people of Tennessee, not only in the decoration
of pottery, but in representing ideal conceptions, which they
spread out in extensive pictures upon the smooth faces of rocky

PROFESSOR PUTNAM'S EXPLORATIONS.

walls overhanging the rivers. The material generally used was
red ochre. Prof. Jones says : " The painting representing the
sun on the rocks overhanging the Big Harpeth Kiver, about
three miles below the road which crosses this stream and con-
nects Nashville and Charlotte, can
be seen for a distance of four miles,
and it is probable that the worship-
pers of the sun assembled before this
high place for the performance of
their sacred rites." ^ The Professor's
vast collection of relics in stone and
clay, including several images, we
cannot here describe. We refer the
reader to the Memoir itself. The
Professor has clearly shown that the
Mound-builder people and the Indians

were distinct, and has set at rest a

Black Vase from an Abo-
riginal Cemetery, Nine
Miles from Nashville.

question upon which some few doubts
were still entertained by a certain

school of Archaeologists, which has really never been very strong.
The connection with or identity of the Mound-builders and the
Toltics or the same family of people is also shown satisfactorily.
We will add that the Professor is disposed to consider the
Natchez as the connecting link between the Mound-builders and
the Nahuas. We regard the Memoir one of the most impor-
tant which has ever appeared on the subject of mound explora-
tion. The rich collection of crania will be referred to in a future
chapter.

In September, 1877, Prof. F. W. Putnam and Mr. Edwin
Curtiss, also a party under Major Powell excavated a large num-
ber of mounds and stone graves, mostly in the neighborhood of
Nashville, Tennessee. The results were substantially the same
as those obtained by Prof. Jones. Prof. Putnam found within
an earthwork near Lebanon, in Wilson County^ sixty miles east
of Nashville, what he considers to be the remains of dwell-

Antiquities of Tennessee, p. 138.

PROFESSOR PUTNAM'S EXPLORATIONS.

Painted Jar from Child's Grave (Tennessee).
(Prof. Putnam's Exploration.)

ings of the Mound-builders. There were circular ridges of earth
varying from a few inches to a little over three feet in height,
with diameters ranging from ten to fifty feet. Within these
enclosures, a few inches below the surface, hard floors, upon
which fires had been made, were discovered. Under these floors,
in many instances, infants and children had been buried, while
the adults had been interred in a neighboring mound. Accom-
panying the skeletons of the children, many beautiful vessels of
strange and artistic forms were found (cuts of three of these were

PROFESSOR PUTNAM'S EXPLORATIONS. QJ

kindly furnished by Prof. Putnam for this work), all evincing
the tenderness with which the offspring of this people were
regarded. Prof. Putnam examined nineteen of the earth-circles,
which he adds, " proved to my satisfaction that the ridges were

Dish from Child's Grave (Tennessee).
(Prof. Putnam's Exploration.)

formed by the decay of the walls of a circular dwelling.
These houses had probably consisted of a frail circular structure,
the decay of which would only leave a slight elevation, the
formation of the ridge being assisted by the refuse from the
house." ^

Colonies of Mound-builders seem to have passed the great
natural barrier into North Carolina and left remains in Marion
County, while still others penetrated into South Carolina and
built on the Wateree Kiver. In March, 1873, Mr. Jas. R. Page
examined several mounds in Washington and Issaquena Coun-
ties in the State of Mississippi. One mound explored in Wash-

' Eleventh Anm/al Report ofPeabody Museum, pp. 348-360. Cambridge, 1878.
See also Antiquities of Jackson County, Tenn., by Rev. Joshua Hale, in Smithso-
nian Reports for 1874, p. 384. Very interesting and valuable explorations bave
been conducted in Tennessee by Mr. E. 0. Dunning for the Peabody Museum
of Am. Arch, and Etli. See Reports, 3d, p. 7 ; 4th, p. 7 ; 5th, p. 11.

MOUND COLONIES.

Jar from Child's Grave (Tennessee).
(Prof. Putnam's Exploration.)

ington County on the old bank of the Mississippi River, was a
truncated cone eighty feet in diameter by forty feet high. A
mound in the neighborhood, only eleven feet high, yielded rich
returns for the labors of excavation. A white oak on its summit
measured thirty-six inches in diameter. This mound yielded
twelve skeletons with their crania. The group was in a sitting

MISSISSIPPI MOUNDS.

posture around a circle, with their faces looking toward its
centre. Directly in front of the mouth of each skeleton were
placed two or three vessels of pottery, beautifully ornamented
with etchings and graceful lines. The object of the vessels, placed
in such near proximity to the mouths of the buried remains,

Works in Washington County, Miss.

can only be conjectured. We regret that no measurements of
the crania are given, and what is more, we deplore the loss of
most of the crania in the course of their transportation.^ Mr.
W. Marshall Anderson, of Circleville, Ohio, examined Mounds in
Issaquena County, Miss., with interesting results ; in one mound

' Mr. Jas. R. Page's Results of Investigations of Indian Mounds, in Transac-
tions of 8t Louis Acad, of Science, vol. iii, p. 226, and copied in Cincinnati
Quar. Journal of Science, Oct. 1875, vol. ii, No. 4, pp. 371 et seq.

70 THE SERPENT SYMBOL.

opened, not far from its outer edge, three skeletons were found
buried in a standing position, as though they had acted as the
guards of a more distinguished person deposited in the centre.
Penetrating the mound still farther by means of a trench, Mr.
Anderson reached a large deposit of ashes and burnt earth.
Near the centre of the mound and five feet above the level of
the earth, upwards of twenty-five unbroken specimens of fine
pottery were discovered. At the very centre three individuals
had been buried apparently in great state, with all the insignia
of their important positions in life. These were ornaments,
urns, vases, beads, and arrow-points ; while adjoining the heads
of each were food and drinking vessels. Not fer removed from
these, two skeletons were found with bowls placed upon their
heads like helmets. Mr. Anderson is the possessor of a very
remarkable stone disk obtained for him by Dr. Kobinson from a
Issaquena mound near Lake Washington, Miss. The disk is
nearly eight and a half inches in diameter and three-quarters of
an inch thick, of fine-grained sandstone. The device which it
bears upon its face is composed of two entwined rattlesnakes.
A trifling ornamental border is graven on the reverse side of the
disk. When found it was broken in two pieces. Mr. Anderson,
in comparing its strange device to the Aztec Calendar Stone,
remarks : " Here are the eighteen pipes of the border corres-
ponding to the eighteen months of the year, but the twenty
days of the month and the five intercalaries are not to be found.
The thirteen hieroglyphical figures, and the four zodiacal signs,
which as multiples give the fifty-two years of the Aztec cycle,
are also absent on the Mississippi stone." ^ The serpent-symbol
appears to have played its part among the Mound-builders, as
well as in Mexico and Central America. The great serpent of
Adams County, Ohio, is the most extensive delineation of the
all-important symbol on the continent. Out of eighteen engraved
circular plates made of the shell of the Pyrula and taken from
Brakebill and Lick Creek Mounds in East Tennessee (and now
deposited in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology) thirteen bear

' In Cincinnati Quar. Journal of Science, Oct. 1875, p. 378. Also see WU-
son's Pre-Eistoric Man, vol. i, p. 318.

MOUNDS OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.

the device of a rattlesnake. In one of the mounds of " Mound
City," Ross County, Ohio, several small tablets representing the
rattlesnake were unearthed, while other mounds in the same
locality yielded pipes bearing the same representation.^

On the Southern Mississippi, in the area embraced between
the termination of the Cumberland Mountains near Florence and
Tuscumbia in Alabama and the mouth of Big Black River, this
people left numerous works, many of which were of a remarkable
character.^ The whole region bordering on the tributaries of the
Tombigbee, the country through which the Wolf River flows

Aboriginal Shuttle-like Tablets. (Nat, Mus.) Surface Finds.

and that watered by the Yazoo River and its affluents, was
densely populated by the same people who built mounds in the
Ohio Valley. Mr. Fontaine describes the mounds of this region
and of the Tennessee River Valley as being most frequently of
the truncated pyramidal type, and refers to one (seen by him
in 1847) seventy feet high, covering an acre of ground. It is
remarkable that the entire valley of the great river from Cairo
to the mouth of Pointe a la Hache, fifty miles below New
Orleans, is thickly studded with mounds.^ As at Cahokia the

^ See WUsotCs Pre-Ristoric Man, vol. i, p. 317.

2 Fontaine's How the World was Peopled, p. 378, and Foster's Pre-Mstoric
RoMS, pp. Ill et seq.

* How the World was Peopledy p. 278.

72 ALABAMA AND GEORGIA MOUNDS.

Monarch Mound occupied a space equal to six acres, so at
Ssltzertown, Mississippi, we have another immense mound cover-
ing nearly the same area. Its dimensions are : length, about six
hundred feet ; breadth, four hundred feet at the base ; height,
forty feet, with a summit nearly four acres in area, reached by
means of a graded way. The structure lies with its greatest
length nearly due east and west. Upon the platform summit
are three conical mounds, one at each end and the third in the
centre. The mound at the •western extremity of the summit
rises to a height of nearly forty feet, while the one at the oppo-
site extreme does not fall far short of the same altitude. This
would give a total height of eighty feet above the level of the
base. Both of these mounds are truncated. Eight other mounds
of minor proportions are observable. The most remarkable
feature connected with this mound is a wall of sun-dried bricks,
built two feet thick, as its support on the northern side. These
were filled with grass rushes and leaves, while some of the bricks
of great size used in angular tumuli which mark the corners of
the mound, retain the impressions of human hands.^ The Mound-
builders were certainly numerous in the Gulf States east of the
Mississippi. On the Etowah Eiver in Alabama a mound seventy-
five feet high and twelve hundred feet in diameter at the base,
has a graded avenue leading to its flattened summit. It has
close affinities to the Mexican and Yucatan mounds.^ M. F.
Stephenson describes a group of ten mounds near Cartersville,
Georgia, on the Etowah River, the principal one of which is
eighty feet high and one hundred and fifty feet square on the
top. A stone idol, gold beads, mica mirrors, translucent quartz
beautifully wrought, and many relics of interest were here dis-
covered. He also describes three chambers hewn out of the
solid rock at the falls of Little River, near the Alabama line ;
while at Kacooche the crest of a conical hill was cut off at
fifty feet from its base, leaving a platform top with an area

^ Squier and Davis's Ancient Monuments, pp. 117 et seq. Foster's Pre Historic
Maces, p. 112.

® E. Cornelius in Silliman's Journal, vol. i, p. 333, and Foster's Pre-Historic ^
Races, p. 133.

PYRAMID OF KOLEE MOKEE. 73

of an acre and a half. Two sides are quite precipitous, but the
others are protected by a ditch and wall. Two other instances
of the stone wall are mentioned. First at Yond Mountain, four
thousand feet high of solid granite, and perpendicular on all sides
except a small space which is protected by a stone wall of arti-
ficial construction. The second instance is quite similar, occur-
ring at Stone Mountain, which reaches a height of 2360 feet.^
These natural eminences no doubt were utilized for the purposes
of worship or observation, just as many natural hills in Mexico
were graded and shaped symmetrically to serve similar uses.

Wm. McKinley, Esq., has described and surveyed additional
works in Georgia of quite a remarkable character, on Sapelio
Island in Mcintosh County and on Dry Creek in Sacred Grove,
Early County. But the most lofty work of all, the giant of the
mounds, is the pyramid of Kolee Mokee in the same county,
reaching a height of ninety-five feet and having a circumference
at its base of 1128 feet. Its form is that of a parallelogram,
350 feet long and 214 wide. The plane on the summit measures
181 feet in length by 82|- feet in width.^ In Florida the works
of the Mound-builders have been extensively examined by Prof.
Jeffries Wyman, to whose labors we shall refer in the next chap-
ter. Dr. A. Mitchell made some interesting explorations in 1848
on Amelia Island, and was rewarded by the recovery of some
well-marked mound crania.^

Keturning to the confluence of the Missouri with the Missis-
sippi, the point at which we left the western boundary of the
Mound-builder country in order to treat the characteristics of its
central region, we find mounds, as we previously stated, in great
numbers in the neighborhood of St. Louis. In the valley of the
St. Francis River, mounds that have been explored have yielded

^ 8mith8onia)i Report, 1870, and Foster's Pre-Eistoric Races, p. 123. A
further description of works on Etowah River in Bartow Co., Ga., by Mr.
Stephenson in Smithsonian Report for 1873, p. 421. A full and elaborate treat-
ment is also that by Charles C. Jones, Jr., entitled Monumental Remains of
Georgia. Savannah, 1861. 13mo, pp. 118.

2 Smithsonian Report, 1873.

^ Smithsonian Report, 1874, pp. 390 et aeq.

74 GREAT MOUND, WASHINGTON COUNTY, MISSOURI.

many rich relics, artistic water vessels, vases and statuettes.
In Green County, Missouri, N. Lat. 37° 20' and 16° Long,
west of Washington City, is a very remarkable truncated conical
mound which has only been externally surveyed. This mound
is 60 feet high, 3.50 feet in diameter at the base, and 130 feet in
diameter on the top. It is surrounded by a trench (except about
twenty feet at the north) about two hundred feet wide and four
feet deep. On the north the excavation is seven or eight feet
deep.^ These trenches served a double purpose — that of furnish-
ing material for the construction of the mound, and when com-
pleted, of providing an impassable moat filled with water, that
neither enemies nor the rabble might approach the sacred mount.^

' These measurements were carefully made by Dr. S. H. Headlee, of St.
James, Missouri, and communicated to the editors of the Cincinnati Quar.
Jour, of Science, published in January number, 1875, pp. 94^5.

- A sensational description of this mound which appeared in the St. Louis
Times is used by Mr. S. M. Hosea as the basis of an article on Sacrificial Mounds
in the above number of the Cincinnati Quarterly Jour, of Science, p. 62. The
account contains some wonderful statements, which are evidently made by some
unscientific j^rson, and hence are utterly worthless. Although, judging from
internal evidence, we have little faith in the reliableness of the correspondent,
we give a paragraph for what it is worth : " The approach or causeway which
leads across the trench from the north is ten feet in width. Ascending from
this causeway to the summit of the mound are the remains of a rude flight of
stairs, constructed originally of roughly-hewn stones. T.Iost of these steps are
now displaced, and quite a number have rolled down into the trench below, but
there is unmistakable evidence that they were at one time arranged in regular
order of ascent, and could doubtless be again replaced in position by an intelli-
gent architect." "By a series of investigations, I found that about a foot
beneath the surface there was a regular solid platform of stone covering the
entire top of the mound. This platform, though constructed by rude and
unmechanical hands, is placed in position with a precision and firmness that
might well defy the ravages of the elements in all coming ages. About twelve
feet from the northern edge of the mound, and directly on a line with the
approach and stairway, I noticed a very perceptible elevation of the earth,
covering an area of about twenty by fifteen feet ; and driving a pick into the
elevated ground, the point struck upon solid rock a few inches below the surface.
* * * Pushing our work, we soon unearthed a piece of workmanship that an
antiquarian would have worked a week to bring to light. The newly-discovered
curiosity consisted of a flat rock twelve feet long, ten feet wide, and eleven
inches thick. The centre of the stone was hollowed to a depth of six inches,
with a margin of about one foot around the edge. " " At the south end of the

MOUNDS AT NEW MADRID, MISSOURI. 75

In Phillips County, Prof. Cox discovered an ancient fortification
near Helena, built like a part of the Seltzertown mound, of sun-
dried bricks ; stems and leaves of the cane were used instead of
straw in making the bricks.^

Professor Swallow, in company with a number of scientific
gentlemen, opened a large mound in Lewis' Prairie, west of New
Madrid, Missouri (in December, 1856), in which he found a
great collection of earthen dishes and vases. The mound was
elliptical in form, measuring 900 feet in periphery at the base,
570 feet at the top and twenty feet in height. The remarkable
feature of the mound was that it contained a room formed of
poles, lathed with split cane and plastered with clay both inside
and out, forming a solid mass. " Over this room was built the
earthwork of the mound, so that when it was completed the
room was in its centre. The earthwork was then coated with,
the plaster, and over all nature formed a soil. This mud plaster-
ing was left rough on the outside of the room, but smooth on
the inside, which was painted with red ochre." ^ Some of the
plastering was burned as red and hard as brick, while other parts
were only sun-dried. Professor Swallow believes the mounds
of the region to be very ancient. On mounds and neighbor-
ing embankments a sycamore tree twenty-eight feet in circum-
ference, three feet above the ground, a black-walnut twenty-six
feet in circumference, a white ash twelve feet and a chestnut
oak eleven feet in circumference were observed. In addition to
these evidences of age, the Professor states that six feet of strati-
fied sands and clays have formed around the mounds since they
were deserted. (See Eighth A nnual Beport of Peahody Museum,
pp. \(S et seq. Cambridge, 1875.)

stone, a round hole five inches deep and four in diameter was drilled. Amongst
the dirt taken out of this place hewn in the stone, was a large fossil tooth and a
piece of small broken stone column, and several bits of pottery ware." This
description is very suggestive of the Mexican Temple or Teocalli, but unfor-
tunately for the facts. Dr. Headlee, who made the measurements given in the
text a short time subsequently, failed to find any certain evidences that either
a stairway or temple had existed on the mound.

' Report on the Geology of Arkansas, vol. ii, p. 414 — cited by Foster.

2 See on chambered mounds similar to English barrows, Curtiss in Pea-
hody Museum Reports, vol. ii, p. 71 7; Broadhead in Smithsonian Report for 1879,
pp. 350 et seq. (with cuts).

76 MR. CONANT'S INVESTIGATIONS.

Mr. A. J. Conant, in a very able paper published in the
Transactions of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences for April 5,
1876j has more fully described the mound works near New-
Madrid. On the western bank of the Bayou St. John, partly in
a cypress swamp covered with heavy timber and partly on adja-
cent prairie land, an earthwork encloses an area of about fifty
acres. In this enclosure are three large mounds, one of which
is pyramidal in form and still has traces of a graded way. An
ancient well is discernible near it. A circular mound at the
opposite end of the enclosure is estimated by Mr. Conant to
have afforded a place of burial for a thousand individuals. The
bodies were buried with their heads pointing toward the centre
of the mound. A gourd-shaped vase, a small jug or drinking
vessel, and an earthen pan or platter was found with each
skeleton. The mouths of the vases were fashioned into the
form of the head of some bird or the figure of some animal
or of a human female. In depressions about three feet deep,
within the enclosure, remains of burnt clay ovens were found.
Fire-places were disclosed, as well as fragments of earthen
vessels capable of holding ten or twelve gallons. The veritable
kitchens of the Mound-builders, with their furniture, seem to
have been brought to light. In front of the enclosure and pro-
jecting out into the bayou, are tongues of land about thirty feet
long by ten or fifteen feet in width, and about the same distance
apart, " resembling upon a small scale the wharves of a seaport
town." Mr. Conant pronounces them artificial, and that when
employed by these builders, the present cypress swamp was the
channel of a river. The multitude of mound works which are
scattered over the entire south-eastern portion of Missouri indi-
cate that the region " was once inhabited by a population so
numerous, that in comparison its present occupants are only as
the scattered pioneers of a newly-settled country." ^

^ " Within the State, from Pulaski County to Arkansas, in all the little
valleys which wind in and out among- the flint-crowned hills of the Ozarks, are
seen what may be termed garden niounds. These are elevated about two or
three feet above the natural surface of the land, and are from fifteen to fifty
feet in diameter, varying thus in size according to the amount of richer soil

REMAINS m THE SOUTH-WEST.

Prof. C. G. Forshey in Foster's Pre-Historic Races, presents
most valuable information relative to the mounds in the south-
west. His observations convince us that the State of Louisiana
and the valleys of the Arkansas and Red Rivers were not only the
most thickly populated wing of the Mound-builder domain, but

DiscoiDAL Stones. (Nat. Mus.)

Central figure, upper line, from Illinois Mound.

also furnish us with remains presenting affinities with the great
works of Mexico so striking that no doubt can longer exist that
the same people were the architects of both. He describes works,
some of them of immense proportions, on the Mississippi fifty

which could be scraped together. Their presence may always be detected in
fields of growing grain by its more luxuriant growth and deeper green." — A. J.
Conant in the Transactions cited above, p. 354. The same writer has treated
the subject more fully in a recent work published at St. Louis, entitled, "The
Commonwealth of Missouri ."

78 LOUISIANA MOUNDS.

miles above Vicksburg ; on Walnut Bayou ; the soutb-west
bend of Lake St. Joseph, and at Trinity in the parish of Cata-
hoola, Louisiana. On the east bank of the Little Eiver, a couple
of miles above its mouth, where it empties into Lake Ocalohoola,
stands a bluff walled with roughly hewn stone. The same writer
observed a mound near Natchez twenty-five feet high, standing
isolated in a swamp. This mound is one among many in dif-
ferent parts of the lower Mississippi region surmounted by com-
paratively younger trees than are found on the remains farther
north. Works occur in the Atchafalaya basin, in the rear of
Baton Rouge, on the uplands of Lake Pontchartrain and on the
banks of Bayou Gros Tete. A remarkable group of truncated
pyramids, peculiarly Mexican in their style of architecture, exist
in Madison Parish, Louisiana, and are figured in Squier and
Davis and copied by Foster.^ It is needless to discuss the fact
that the works of the Mound-builders exist in considerable num-
bers in Texas, extending across the Rio Grande into Mexico,
establishing an unmistakable relationship as well as actual union
between the truncated pyramids of the Mississippi Valley and
the Tocalli of Mexico and the countries further south.^ There
can be no doubt as to the unity of the origin of the works in
both countries. There are evidences also that the most recent
works of Louisiana and Texas do not compare in antiquity with
any found in the Ohio Valley, showing it to be altogether proba-
ble that the Mound-builders occupied the Lower Mississippi
Valley and Gulf coast for a considerable period after they were
driven from the northern and central region by their enemies.^

* Andent Monuments, p. 115, and Pre-ffistoric Races, p. 120.

' Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 72.

3 Prof. Forsliey, in Foster's Pre-Historic Races, pp. 121, 123, remarks :
" There is a class of mounds west of the Mississippi Delta and extending from
the Gulf to the Arkansas and above, and westward to the Colorado in Texas,
that are to me, after thirty years' familiarity with them, entirely inexplicable.
In my Geological Reconnoissance of Louisiana in 1841-2, 1 made a pretty thorough
report upon them. I afterwards gave a verbal description of their extent and
character before the New Orleans Academy of Sciences. These mounds lack
every evidence of artificial construction based on implements or other human
vestigia. They are nearly all round, none angular, and have an elevation

ARCHITECTURAL PROGRESS. 79

Several recent writers, with no more proof than that obsidian
from Mexico has been found in the mounds, have confidently-
expressed the belief that the Mound-builders entered the Missis-
sippi Valley and the Central Kegion from the South. This was
based also on the assumption that no remains were found in the
North-west. It, however, is proper to note here the marks of
architectural progression observable in the geographical distri-
bution of ancient works. Men all around the world have been
mound or pyramid builders. To attempt to demonstrate this
well-known fact to an intelligent reader by citing the customs
of antiquity and the works of the present great Asiatic nations,
would seem little less than pedantry rather than the work
of serious investigation. The religious idea in man, whether
observed in the darkest heathenism or partially enlightened
civilization, has always associated a place of sanctuary with the
conditions of elevation and separateness. It matters not whether
you apply the rule to the practices of the most obscure antiquity,
where a hill or natural eminence was the sanctuary of an idol,
the residence of a god, or examine the motives which prompt

hemisplieroidal of one foot to five feet, and a diameter from thirty feet to one
hundred and forty feet. They are numbered by millions, In many places, in
pine forests and upon the prairies, they are to be seen nearly tangent to each
other as far as the eye can reach, thousands being visible from an elevation of
a few feet. On the gulf-marsh margin, from the Vermillion to the Colorado,
they appear barely visible, often flowing into one another, and only elevated a
few inches above the common land. A few miles interior they rise to two and
even four feet in height. The largest I ever saw were perhaps one hundred
and forty feet in diameter and five feet high. These were in Western Louisiana.
Some of them had abrupt sides, though they are nearly all of gentle slopes.
There is ample testimony that the pine trees of the present forests antedate
these mounds. The material for their construction is like that of the vicinity
everywhere, and often there is a depression in close proximity to the elevation."
We can make no conjecture concerning the use of those mounds described by
Prof. Forshey, except to suggest that they in all probability served as founda-
tions for dwellings in a low country, which at that time may have been moister
and more marshy than at present. If such was the case, the whole region must
have presented the appearance of a continuous community instead of the proper
proportion of country and village. This crowded state of affairs could have
been produced by the pressure from enemies in the north, and the lack of agri-
cultural lands evidently was suflBcient alone to cause a migration to the south.

80 OBSERVATIONS OF PLACES OF SANCTUARY.

the erection of the dome of a St. Paul or a St. Peter's, or coming
nearer home, analyze the reasons for the constniction of the
ordinary church spire, the same inexplicable intuition is found
at the bottom of them all. The simple mound so common in
the northern and central region of the United States, represents
probably the first attempts at the imitation of nature in pro-
viding a place of worship. In the absence of hills and natural
eminences on great plains like the prairies of the North-west
(for instance in such cases as are cited on pages 28 and 29),
nothing would be more natural than the construction of an arti-
ficial hillock, especially if the elements and nature were the
objects of worship. The next step might have been again a
copy or an imitation, but instead of choosing a subject from
inanimate nature, an advance is made in the artistic scale, and
the animal kingdom furnishes not only one but varied models
for reproduction. The custom among savage tribes of personi-
fying the deity, of dressing him up in some form, tangible and
visible, was especially characteristic of the mythology of the
Nahua nations of Mexico. It is not necessary to go to Egypt,
or India, or China to find animals of various kinds dedicated to
and associated with the national gods, for in the Maya and
Nahua mythologies, as well as in the traditions of some of the
wild tribes of the Pacific coast, the serpent, the coyote, the
beaver and the buzzard play an active part. The erection of
religious structures representing animals no doubt sacred to the
Mound-builders, was carried on to a remarkable extent in Wis-
consin. These strange works probably indicate the second step
in their scale of architectural progression. In the Ohio Valley,
while the ordinary mound is found in great numbers, and a few
instances of animal mounds occur, three new architectural fea-
tures present themselves in marked prominence, all of which are
artistically in advance of those existing in the North and North-
west. These are the enclosures, the truncated mounds, and
principally the truncated pyramids, all of which are a departure
from the strict imitation of nature, and exhibit the gradual
growth of the architectural idea and the outcropping of the
notion of utility. South of the Ohio Valley the animal mounds

CLASSIFICATION OF MOUNDS.

disappear altogether and the truncated mounds grow less com-
mon, while the truncated pyramid, the highest artistic form,
with its complicated system of graded ways and its nice geomet-
rical proportions, becomes the all predominant type of structure.
In the Lower Mississippi Valley, in some cases, as we have
observed, dried brick were used in the walls and angles of

Stone Plates.

The left and central figures from an Alabama Mound.

pyramids of the most perfect type. Stone was also employed in
a few instances. Here we find the transition to Southern Mexico
complete. No break exists in the architectural chain.

Squier and Davis (and Foster as well as most other writers
have followed their example) classified the works of the Mound-
builders as follows :

f For Defence,
I. Enclosures \ Sacred.

^ Miscellaneous.

Of Sacrifice.

II. Mounds . . J ^^^ Temple-Sites.
Of Sepulture.
Of Observation.
To this some have added mounds for residence.

It does not fall within the scope of this work to treat of the
specific character and uses of the works of the Mound-builders,
6

82 CLASSIFICATION OF MOUNDS.

but rather to ii.ote their extent and indications of age with rela-
tion to their bearing on the antiquity of man in this country.
Some of the arts and manufactures of the Mound-builders are
set forth in the illustrations interspersed throughout the chap-
ter.^ A few of the cuts figure objects found upon the surface.
Yet it is not improbable that a due proportion of these objects
were of Mound-builder origin.

The domestic arts appear the most advanced of any among
this ancient people. Pottery of respectable quality and of va-
ried patterns is abundant among their remains. Coarse cloth
woven of vegetable fibre, and in some instances partly made of
hair, has been discovered in mounds in several localities. Shell
and copper beads for the purposes of ornamentation were made
in great numbers. Copper axes of good quality have occasion-
ally been exhumed. Copper and bone needles with well-drilled
eyes were made by them. They wove baskets and coarse mat-
ting. They carved pipes in stone or moulded them in clay, some-
times in fantastic forms, while again they fashioned them with
rare skill into the perfect effigies of animals and birds, or possi-
bly ornamented them with likenesses of their own faces. With

* A number of the cuts in this chapter illustrative of the Arts of the
Mound-builders, are copies of those used by Dr. Charles Rau in his Cata-
logue of the ArchcEological Collection of the National Museum, Washington,
Smithsonian Contribution No. 287 (1876), granted me through the courtesy of
Professor Henry. A few also are from the memoir by Prof Jos. Jones on the
Aboriginal Bemains of Tennessee. Smithsonian Contribution No. 259 (1876).
For an able classification of these Mound Relics (a work which I could not
undertake in a volume not devoted exclusively to the Mound-builders), I refer
the reader to Rau's Memoir above cited, as being altogether the most satisfac-
tory attempt of the kind of which I have any knowledge. For a classification
of works in Ohio, see Antiquities of Ohio : Report of the Committee of the State
Archaeological Society to the Centennial Commission of Ohio (Columbus, Ohio,
1877, 8vo). The incompleteness of the work is to be regretted. Ohio, out of
its vast fund of material, certainly ought to furnish a more satisfactory contri-
bution to the subject of archaeology. The work comprises seven chapters, of
which the last is tlie least satisfactory of all, for while bearing the title " Loca-
tion of Ancient Earthworks in Ohio," it enumerates only one hundred and
sixteen out of the ten thousand mound-works in the State. Still the memoir
is not without value. Its chapters on Stone Relics, Copper Relics, and Insignia
and Ornaments are comparatively thorough.

ALTAR MOUNDS.

the exception of a few observations on the altar and sepulchral
mounds, we refrain from a further treatment of the works above
classified, as having no particular bearing on the question in
hand, and refer the reader to the works of Squier and Davis, and
also to that of Dr. Foster, already often quoted. Of the Altar or
Sacrificial Mounds, the first-named authors remark : The general

Pestles and Mullers. (Nat. Mus.) Surface Finds.

characteristics of this class of mounds are : 1. That they occur
only within the vicinity of the enclosures or sacred places ;
2. That they are stratified; 3. That they contain symmetrical
altars of burned clay or stone, on which were deposited various
remains which iu all cases have been more or less subjected to
the action of fire.^ The same authors present the following

' Ancient Monuments, p. 143. Prof. E. B. Andrews has shown that the
supposed uniformity of stratification in altar mounds is a fallacy. In many
instances the earth has been dumped together indiscriminately.

ALTAR MOUNDS.

section of a mound examined by them at Mound City, near
Chillicothe, Ohio, which is a fair sample of the usual stratifica-
tion observed in altar, mounds.^ The altar which this mound
contained was a parallelogram measuring 8 x 10 feet at its base
and 4x6 feet at its top. It was only eighteen inches in height,
and contained a basin with a dip of nine inches. In this basin

Section of Altar Mound. (After Squier and Davis.)

were found fine ashes, fragments of pottery and shell beads. A
reference to the figure shows that the sand-stratum is semicir-
cular, with its extremities resting on the outer sides of the altar.
The skeleton shown in the figure designates a point three feet
below the apex of the mound where two well-preserved skeletons
were found. The strata were disturbed for their burial evidently

* Ancient Monuments, p. 143, the following general description is given :
" The altars or basins found in these mounds are almost invariably of burned
clay, although a few of stone have been discovered. They are symmetrical,
but not of uniform size or shape. Some are round, others elliptical, and others
square or parallelograms. Some are small, measuring barely two feet across,
while others are fifty feet long by twelve or fifteen feet wide. The usual
dimensions are from five to eight feet. All appear to have been modelled of
fine clay brought to the spot from a distance, and they rest on the original sur-
face of the earth. In a few instances a layer or small elevation of sand had been
laid down, upon which the altar was formed. The height of the altars, never,
theless, seldom exceeds a foot or twenty inches above the adjacent level. The
clay of which they are composed is usually burned hard, sometimes to the
depth of ten, fifteen, and even twenty inches. This is hardly to be explained
by any degree or continuance of heat, though it is manifest that in some cases
the heat was intense. On the other hand, a number of these altars have been
noticed which are very slightly burned ; and such, it is a remarkable fact, are
destitute of remains."

CONTENTS OF OHIO MOUNDS.

at a considerable period after the construction of the mound.
This is a fair example of the " intrusive burial '' practised in the
mounds by Red Indians. The same authors found some of these
altars rich in relics ; one especially in the vicinity of the above-
described mound contained nearly two hundred pipes carved in
stone. Also a considerable number of pearl and shell beads and
copper ornaments covered with
silver. It is quite probable that
the copper was from their Lake
Superior mines, as they alone are
known to yield deposits of silver
with copper. The same pecu-
liarity was observed with refer-
ence to the copper ornaments and
implements found in the Marietta
works. The pipes secured in this
mound were much calcined by
heat, and considerable copper had
been fused in the basin of the
altar. In some of the mounds

examined large collections were obtained, and in some instances,
articles made of obsidian, which it is believed could be pro-
cured nowhere nearer than the Mexican mountains of Cerro
Gordo, or the region west of the Rocky Mountains.^

The evidences are abundant that some mysterious rites were
performed at the altar mounds ; cremation only may have been
practised, but we fear that even more awful and heart-sickening
ceremonies took place upon these altars as well as upon the high
temple sites in which human victims may have been offered to
appease the elements or the sun or moon by their death agonies.
What splendid ceremonial, what mystic rites administered by a
national priesthood in the presence of a devout multitude may
have accompanied these horrible sacriiices, are beyond even the
limits of cdnjecture. Besides cremation, inhumation was also

Vase from an Ohio Mound.

* Charles Rau in Smithsonian Beport, 1872, p. 357. Baldwin's Ancient
America, p. 41.

CONTENTS OF OHIO MOUNDS.

Stone Pipes from Ohio Mounds.

practised extensively. Multitudes of mounds were devoted either
partly or exclusively to such uses, Mr. Tomlinson, the owner

GRAVE CREEK MOUND. 87

of the Grave Creek Mound, who sank a shaft from its original
summit to its centre, and intercepted it by a tunnel along the
surface of the ground, speaking of the latter excavation, remarks :
" At the distance of one hundred and eleven feet we came to a
vault, which had been excavated before the mound was com-
menced, eight by twelve feet and seven in depth. Along each
side and across the ends, upright timbers had been placed, which
supported timbers thrown across the vault as a ceiling. These
timbers were covered with loose unhewn stone, common to the
neighborhood. The timbers had rotted and tumbled into the
vault. * ^ ^ In this vault were two human skeletons, one of
which had no ornaments, the other was surrounded by six hun-
dred and fifty ivory (shell) beads, and an ivory ijbone) ornament
six inches long.'' Thirty-five feet above the bottom vault
another was found containing a skeleton decorated with copper
rings, plates of mica and shell disks. The number of disks cut
from the shell known as the Buscycon perversum and collected
by the excavators was 2350 ; of mica 250 specimens, and of the
little shell known as Marginella apicina, 500 ; all of which had
been pierced and strung as beads. Ten skeletons were subse-
quently found together upon enlarging the horizontal tunnel.
Ashes, charcoal and burnt bones were also discovered in large
masses. Though this was the largest of this class of mounds,
still the general characteristics of the contents are the same in
all of them, and are usually disposed in the same relative posi-
tion to each other.^ One of the most interesting explorations
of sepulchral mounds was that conducted in the autumn of 1865
by Professor 0. C. Marsh, assisted by Mr. Geo. P. Kussell, of
Salem, Mass., in what is known as the " Taylor Mound," situated
two and a half miles south of Newark, Ohio. The mound was
ten feet high and eighty feet in diameter, and was surmounted
by a forest of oak trees ranging from two and a half to eight

^ Squier and Dams: Op. Cit., pp. 169-70. Foster: Op. Oit, pp. 188-196.
Schoolcraft in vol. i, Trans. Am. Etknol. Soc. M. C. Read in American Anti-
quarian, vol. ), p. 139, Jan. 1879. Dr. Clemens in Morton's Crania Americana,
p. 331. Mr. E. 0. Dunninnr in Foster, p. 194.

88 THE "TAYLOR MOUND," LICKING COUNTY, OHIO.

feet in thickness, while the decaying trunks of a former growth
were lying upon the ground. The mound was excavated from
the apex downward. Five feet from the surface a pipe and a
tube of stone unknown in Ohio were found. Seven feet from the
top, in a thin white layer of earth, a string of more than one
hundred beads of native copper were found around the neck of a
child about three years old. The salts of the copper had pre-
served the cord of vegetable fibre on which they were strung.
The beads were about one-fourth of an inch in length and one-
third in diameter. They evidently had been hammered out of
the metal in its original state, and the workmanship displayed
no inferior skill. One foot deeper the remains of two adults,
male and female, were found carefully buried in layers of bark,
their heads towards the east, and the body of the female resting
upon that of the male skeleton. Immediately above these were
found a considerable number of charred human bones and the
evidences of cremation or human sacrifice in honor to the couple
(probably man and wife) below. The Professor even expresses
the fear that the wife — who appears to have been about thirty
years of age — may have been put to death and buried above the
remains of her deceased consort. A foot deeper the party found
another layer of charcoal, ashes and charred bones, similar to
the above, and immediately beneath it a carefully-buried skeleton,
much decomposed, lying in a white layer of earth, and with its
head toward the east. A few inches below this skeleton several
carelessly-buried skeletons were found near the natural level of
the earth. Below the natural surface a cist six feet long, three
feet wide and two feet deep was found containing the remains
of eight or more skeletons, which seem to have been imperfect
when buried. The remains had been thrown into the grave in a
careless and perhaps hasty manner. In the grave were found
nine lance and arrow-heads of flint. Six small hand-axes, one
of them of hematite and the others of compact greenstone or
diorite, a small hatchet of hematite, a flint chisel and scraper,
fine needles or bodkins made of the metatarsal bones of the com-
mon deer, a whistle made from the tooth of a young bear, and
spoons cut from the shells of river mussels. A rude vessel of

ANCIENT COPPER MINES. 89

clay was found, but broken, while several bones of animals, all
but two of existing species in Ohio at present, were discovered ;
though it is worthy of remark that the remains of the deer were
of a size seldom attained by the species at the present day.
All the skulls found in the mound were broken, and all but two
so badly decayed that no effort was made to preserve them.
These two were of small size showing the vertical occiput, promi-
nent vertex and large interparietal diameter. There is abundant
evidence that the mound had never been disturbed by Indians.^

One of the best evidences which we have of the systematic
government and habits of the Mound-builders, together with the
comparatively advanced state of the practical arts among them,
is found in the ancient copper mines of the Lake Superior Region
so extensively operated by them at quite a remote period.^
These were first discovered by Mr. S. 0. Knapp, agent of the
Minnesota Mining Company, in 1848. One excavation explored
by this gentleman was thirty feet deep, filled with clay and a
mass of mouldering vegetable matter. Eighteen feet from the
surface he found a mass of copper ten feet long, three feet wide
and two feet thick, weighing over six tons. By digging around
this great lump of metal, he observed that it was resting on " a
cob- work of round logs or skids six or eight inches in diameter,
the ends of which showed plainly the strokes of a small axe or
cutting tool about two and a half inches in width. The wood,
from its exposure to moisture, had lost all its consistency, and
opposed no more resistance to a knife-blade than would ordinary

^ Description of an Ancient Sepulchral Mound near Newa/rh, OJiio, by
O. C. Marsh, F. G. S., in American Journal of Science and Arts for July, 1866.
Second Series, vol. xlii.

2 See Dr. Charles T. Jackson's Geological Report to the United States Oovern-
ment, 1849. Foster and Wliitney' s Report on the Geology of the Lake Superior
Region, Part I. Published by authority of Congress in 1850, and substan-
tially reproduced in Foster's Pre-Historic Races of the U. S., chap, vii, in 1873.
The most elaborate treatment is by Col. Charles Whittlesey, Ancient Mining on
the Shores of Lake Superior. Published in the SmitTisonian Contribution to
Knowledge in 1863, vol. xiii. Swineford's History and Review of the Mineral
Resources of Lake Superior, Marquette, 1876. Containing Ancient Copper
Mines of Lake Superior ly Jacd) Houghton.

ANCIENT COPPER MINES NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR.

peat. After having raised the mass of copper over five feet
along the foot wall of the lode on the timbers by means of
wedges, the ancient miners had abandoned the task. The walls
of the mine still show the marks of fire ; charcoal and stone

Aboriginal Stone Axes. Surface Finds.

Stone Mauls and Hammers. Surface Finds.

mauls were taken from this and similar excavations. The largest
of these mauls weighed thirty-six pounds and was encircled by
a double groove around its centre. "Withes were probably wound
in these grooves by which two men could wield the maul very

ANCIENT COPPER MINES NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR. 91

effectively. The number of smaller hammers of greenstone and
porphyry removed from these works by Mr. Knapp exceeded ten
cart-loads. In one of the pits a rude oak ladder was found,
made by trimming the branches of a tree at a distance from the
trunk to leave a sufficient foothold. Wooden levers, preserved
beneath the water, were also of frequent occurrence. A copper
maul, shaped by pounding in a cold state, and weighing upwards
of twenty pounds, was found in this locality, as well as many
well-formed copper implements designed for various purposes.
Upon a mound of rubbish near one of the excavations, Messrs.
Foster and Whitney saw a pine stump ten feet in circumference
— the trunk having been broken fifteen feet from the ground —
which must have grown and died after the earth was thrown up.
Mr. Knapp mentions a hemlock which he found growing on a
heap of rubbish which had 395 rings of annual growth. Fallen
and decayed trees of a previous generation were found lying
across the pits. In front of the Waterbury mine are blocks of
stone weighing two and three tons which had been removed by
the ancient miners from the shaft, and when observed by Colonel
Whittlesey, they were covered by a forest growth of the full size
and kind common to the neighboring region. Under a pile of
rubbish the remains of a trough of cedar bark was brought to
light and had been used to carry off water baled from the mine
by means of wooden bowls, some of which were preserved by
water in the mines. Mr. S. W. Hill communicated to Dr. Foster
in 1872 the discovery of mining pits in Isle Royal, measuring
fifty feet in depth. ^ In the Ontonagon region for thirty miles
traces of the ancient miners abound. The idea that the Indians
formerly worked these mines was abandoned shortly after their
discovery. They possess no tradition of copper mines, nor did
their ancestors visited by the Jesuit Fathers in the early part of

' Foster's Pre-Historic Races, p. 268. For a further account, see Mr. Henry
Gillman in an article printed in Appleton's Journal, August 9, 1873, and entitled
Ancient Works at Isle Royal ; also to a paper printed in the Smithsonian Report
for 1873, and in the Proceedings of the Amer. Ass. for the Advancement of
Science, 1875 meeting, p. 330. Also A. C. Davis in Smithsonian Report for
1874, p. 369.

92 ACCOUNTS OF THE JESUIT FATHERS.

the seventeenth century obtain any intelligence of mines, though
they penetrated this region in 1660. They often mention the
occurrence of loose masses of copper found in the shape of boul-
ders, but could learn nothing from the Indians as to their origin.
It is quite certain that no traditions were current among them
on the subject. " Instead," says Col. Whittlesey, " of viewing
copper as an object of every day use, they regarded it as a sacred
Manitou, and carefully preserved pieces of it wrapped up in skin
in their lodges for many years ; and this custom has been con-
tinued to modern times." ^ Father Allouez, in his Relation^ has
described this custom.^ Father Dablon, who shortly afterward
visited the Lake Superior tribes, has described their super-
stitions concerning an island where the missionaries first met
with copper.^ That the Mound-builders were these ancient

^ Ancient Mining on tlie Shore of Lake Superior, p. 2.

^ " L'on trouve souvent au fond de I'eau, des pieces de cuivre tout forme, de
la j)esanteur de dix et vin^ livres ; i'en ay veu plusieurs fois entre les mains
des Saiivages, et comme ils sont superstitieux, lis les gardent comme autant de
divinites, ou comme des presents que les dieux qui sont au fond de I'eau leur
ont faits |X)ur estre la cause de leur bonlieur ; c'est pour cela, qu'ils conservent
ces morceaux de cuivre envelopes parmi leurs meubles les plus pretieux, il y en
a qui les gardent depuis plus de cinquante ans; d'autres les ont dans leurs
families de temps immemorial, et les cherissent comme des dieux domes-
tiques." — Relations des J^suites, en V Annie 1667, p. 8. Quebec reprint, 1858.
Tome iii.

3 En y entrant par son embouchure, que se decharge au Sault, le premier
endroit que se presente ou se retrouve du cuivre en abondance, est une Isle que
est eloignee de quarante on cinquante lieues, scituee vers le cote du Nord, vis
a vis d'un endroit qu'on appelle Missipicoiiatong. Les sauvages racontent que
c'est une Isle flottante, que est quelquefois loing, quelquefois proche, selon les
vents qui la poussent, et la promenent de cote et d'autre. lis ajoutent qu'il
y a bien longtemps que quatre sauvages y furent par rencontre, s'etans egarez
dans la brume, dont cette Isle est presque toujours environnee. C'etoit du temps
qu'ils n'avoient point encore eu de commerce avec les Francois, et n'avoient
aucun usage ny des cliaudieres ny des baches. Ceux-cy done voulans se preparer
a manger, firent a leur ordinaire : prenant des pierres qu'ils trouvoient au bord
de I'eau, les fai?aient rougir dans le feu et les jettaient dans un plat d'ecorce
plein d'eau pour la faire boiiillir et faire cuire par cette Industrie leur viande.
Comme ils choisissoient ces pierres, ils trouvoient, que c'e-toient presque tous
morceaux de cuivre ; ils se servirent done des unes et des autres, et apres avoir pris
leur repas, ils songerent a s'embarquer au plustost, craignant les Loups Cerviers

JESUIT RELATIONS. 93

miners, there is abundant evidence. Col. Whittlesey has de-
scribed a collection of copper implements from Carp River con-
taining pieces of native silver, such as have often been found in
the Ohio mounds.^ We have already referred to this peculiarity
of the Lake Superior copper. The use of copper by the Mound-
builders was very general all the way from Wisconsin to the
Gulf, and the labor involved in a journey of a thousand miles
from the Ohio Valley to the copper regions, the toil of the
summer's mining, and the tedious transportation of the metal
to their homes upon their backs, and by means of an imper-
fect system of navigation, indicates either industry and resolu-
tion such as no savage Indian ever possessed, or a condition
of servitude in which thousands occupied a position of abject
slavery.

No permanent abodes were erected by the miners in this
region, no mounds were constructed, but the indications all point
to a summer's residence only and a return to the south with the
accumulation of their toil when the severities of winter ap-
proached. Frederick von Hellwald expresses it as his opinion
that the Mexicans obtained all their copper from the Lake Supe-

et les Lievres, qui sont en cet endroit grands comme des Cbiens, et qui venoient
manger leurs provisions et meme leur Canot. Avant que de partir, ils se
chargerent de quantite de ces pierres grosses et menues, et meme de quelques
plaques de cuivre ; mais ils ne farent pas bien eloignez du rivage, qu'une puis-
sante voix se fit entendre a leurs oreilles, disant tout en colere : Qui sont ces
voleurs qui m'emportent les berceaux et les divertissemens de mes enfans ? Les
plaques de cuivre sont les berceaux, parce que parmy les sauvages ils ne sont
faits que d'un ou deux aix joints ensemble, sur lesquels ils couchent leurs
enfans ; et ces petits mor(jeaux de cuivre qu'ils enlevoient, sont les jouets et les
divertissemens des enfans sauvages, qui joiient ensemble avec des petites pierres."
The voice which the savages heard was believed to be that of a spirit called
Missibizi, a certain water-god. "Quoy qu'il en soit, cette voix etonnante jetta
tellement la frayeur dans I'esprit de nos Voyageurs, qu'un des quatre mourut
avant que d'arriver a terre ; peu de temps apres un second fut enleve, puis le
troisiema ; de sorte qu'il n'en resta qu'un, lequel s'etant rendu en son Pays,
raconta tout ce qui s'etoit passe, pues mourut fort peu apries." The Father
adds that the savages never afterward could be induced to approach the island
for fear of being seized by the Genii presiding over its treasures. — Relations des
Jesuites Vannee 1670, p. 84, tome iii. Quebec reprint, 1858.
' Ancient Mining, p. 22 et seg.

ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE.

rior mines, and adds that no evidences exist that copper was
mined in Mexico or Central America prior to the Spanish Con-
quest.^ Humboldt affirms that various metals were mined by the
Mexicans, but does not specify copper.- Col. Whittlesey and Prof.
Andrews estimate that in the ancient Lake
Superior mines worked by the Mound-builders,
the removed metal would aggregate a length of
one hundred and fifty miles in veins of varying
thickness. This fact certainly indicates that
great supplies w^ere transported southward.

This remarkable people was evidently pos-
sessed of the beginnings of science ; at least
if the Davenport and Cincinnati tablets are
genuine, astronomy must have received con-
siderable attention at their hands. In the
former tablet we observe a cycle divided
into twelve months (which, however, is so
m3dern and coincides so strictly with our
division as to excite suspi-
cion of fraud), w^hile in the
latter w^e have the number
368 as the sum of the pro-
ducts of the longer and
shorter lines, suggestive of
an approximation to the
number of days in a year.
Other supposed astronomical
instruments have been dis-

COpper Celts — the smaller from a
Mound near Savannah, Tennessee.
(Nat. Mus.)

' Congres International des Americanistes. Luxembourfr. 1877, torn, i,
pp. 51-2.

2 Essai Politique (Paris, 1825-27), vol. iii, p. 114. Dr. Charles Rau has
courteously furnished me the following references on ancient mining in Mexico :
Clavignro's History of Mexico, Phil., 1817, vol. i., p. 20. Prescott's Mexico, vol. i,
p. 138 ; Despatches of Hernando Cortes addressed to the Emperor Charles V
(trans, by Folsom, New York, 1842), p. 412. Memoirs of Bernal Diaz (trans, of
Lockhart, London, 1844), vol. i, p. 36. Dr. Rau remarks : " We are forcibly led
to the conclusion that the Mexicans obtained copper by the mining process." —
Letter to the Author, Aug. 24, 1878.

VESSELS FROM MOUNDS IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 95

Clay Vessels from Mounds in the Mississippi Valley. }^ Size. (Nat. Mus.'

96 ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE.

covered in the mounds of Ohio, and several of these, antique tubes,
telescope devices, were discovered in the course of excavations
made in 1842 in the most easterly of the Elizabethtown group,
West Virginia. Mr. Schoolcraft makes the following statement
concerning them : " Several tubes of stone were disclosed, the
precise object of which has been the subject of various opinions.
The longest measured twelve inches, the shortest eight. Three of
them were carved out of steatite, being skillfully cut and polished.
The diameter of the tube externally was one inch and four-tenths ;

Clay Tube from an Ohio Mound. ^ Natural Size. (Peabody Mus.)

the bore eight-tenths of an inch. By placing the eye at the
diminished end, the extraneous light is shut from the pupil, and
distant objects are more clearly discerned.''^ A silver figure found
in Peru represents a man in the act of studying the heavens
through one of these tubes, and Captain Dupaix saw a stone in
Mexico bearing the figure of a man sculptured on its side in the
act of using a similar tube.^

With reference to the civilization of the Mound-builders,
however much writers may differ, we think the following con-
clusions may be safely accepted : That they came into the

' Colonel Whittlesey in the Report of the State ArchcBological Society to the
Centennial Commission of Ohio, Cliap. IV, pi. 10, has figured several symmetrical
tubes of stone from Ohio Mounds. The most perfect of these he thinks may-
have served "as telescopic helps for distant views." The most general use to
which most of them were applied, it is believed, was the making of signals, or
possibly rude music. One of the tubes taken from the Tippet Mouud near
Newark, Ohio, and figured in the report, has its upper end flattened like a whistle
or flute, and has a hole penetrating it just below the mouthpiece, which indi-
cates that it may have been a musical instrument. The Huron slates were
most frequently employed in the manufacture of tubes, as they were in the
production of the class of objects known as ceremonial relics.

* Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 42, and Dupaix, quoted on pp. 123-3.

CONCLUSIONS. 97

country in comparatively small numbers at first (if they were not
Autochthones, and there is no substantial proof that the Mound-
builders were such), and during their residence in the territory
occupied by the United States they became extremely populous.
Their settlements were widespread, as the extent of their re-
mains indicate. The magnitude of their works, some of which

Large Clay Vessel from Milledgeville, Georgia. Size 14 Inches High
AND 13 Inches across Aperture. (Nat. Mus.)

approximate the proportions of Egyptian pyramids, testify to tho
architectural talent of the people and the fact that they had
developed a system of goveniment which controlled the labor of
multitudes, whether of subjects or slaves. They were an agri-
cultural people, as the extensive ancient garden-beds found in
Wisconsin and Missouri indicate. Their manufactures afford
])roof that they had attained a respectable degree of advance-
ment, and show that they understood the advantages of the
7 •

98 CONCLUSIONS.

division of labor. ^ Their domestic utensils, the cloth of which
they made their clothing, and the artistic vessels met with every-
where in the mounds, point to the development of home culture
and domestic industry. There is no reason for believing that
the people who wrought stone and clay into perfect effigies of
animals have not left us sculptures of their own faces in the
images exhumed from the mounds.

They mined copper, which they wrought into implements of
war, into ornaments and articles for domestic use. They quarried
mica for mirrors and other purposes.^ They furthermore worked
flint and salt mines. They probably possessed some astronomical
knowledge, though to what extent is unknown.

Their trade, as Dr. Rau has shown, was widespread, extend-
ing probably from Lake Superior to the Grulf, and possibly to
Mexico.^ They constructed canals by which lake systems were

^ Dr. Rau has shown that division of labor and its advantages was recog-
nized among the aborigines ; that certain individuals who were qualified to
manufacture particular implements devoted themselves exclusively to that
work. He bases his conjecture " on the occurrence of manufactured articles of
a homogeneous character in mounds or in deposits below the surface of the soil.
There is little doubt, for instance, that there were persons who devoted their
time chiefly to the manufacture of stone arrow-heads and of other articles pro-
duced by chipping, among which may be mentioned those remarkable large
digging tools described by me several years ago, and the oval or leaf-shaped
implements made of the peculiar hornstone of 'Flint Ridge' in Ohio." See
Stock-in-trade of an Aboriginal Lapidary, by Charles Rau, Smithsonian Report
for 1877.

* Dr. S. S. Schoville, in the Cincinnati Quarterly Journal of Science, April,
1875, p. 164, describes the discovery of numerous mica plates in a mound on the
east bank of the Little Miami River, about twenty-five miles east of Cincinnati,
He states, that at the base of the mound, on a level with the surrounding coun-
try, the remains of several skeletons were found, placed with their heads
together and lying in a horizontal position. "Lying upon or immediately over
the cranial debris, were found plates of mica, some a foot in diameter. These
plates were disposed in such a way as to cfjver an area somewhat larger than
that occupied by the crania beneath. However, it could not definitely be deter-
mined whether the design had been to make a continuous or common roof over
the faces as a group, or whether each face had a covering of its own." The
writer ventures the rather fanciful conjecture that the mica in this and many
other cases served the purpose of exhibiting temporarily the features of the
dead in the manner that glass is now used on caskets.

^ See a most interesting and extensive memoir on Abongmal Trade in

COPPER RELICS FROM WISCONSIN.

Copper Relics from Wisconsin.
(From photos furnished by Prof. Butler.)

100 CONCLUSIONS.

united, a fact which Mr. Conant has recently shown to be well
established in Missouri.^ Their defences were numerous and
constructed with reference to strategic principles, while their
system of signals placed on lofty summits, visible from their
settlements and communicating with the great water-courses at
immense distances, rival the signal systems in use at the begin-
ning of the present century. Their religion seems to have been
attended with the same ceremonies in all parts of their domain.
That its rites were celebrated with great demonstrations is
certain. The sun and moon probably were the all-important
deities, to whom sacrifices (possibly human) were offered. We
have already alluded to the development in architecture and art
which marked the possible transition of this people from north
to south. Here we see but the rude beginnings of a civilization
which no doubt subsequently unfolded in its fuller glory in the
valley of Anahuac, and spreading southward engrafted a new
life upon the wreck of Xibalba. Though there is no evidence
that the Mound-builders were indigenous, we must admit that
their civilization was purely such — the natural product of climate
and the conditions surrounding them.^

North America, bj Charles Rau, first publislied in vol. iv of the Ardiu fur
Anthropologie (Braunschweig, 1873), and translated in Smithsonian Report for
1872, pp. 249-394.

' Mr. A. J. Conant in the Commonwealth of Missouri, pp. 77-8 (St. Louis,
1877), refers to ancient canals fifty feet wide and twelve feet deep observed by
Dr. G. C. Swallow. He quotes a pretty full account from Geo. W, Carleton,
Esq. Mr. Conant considers some of the southern bayous of artificial origin.

2 For further material on the Mound-builders, see the documents cited
throughout the chapter. No less important is Dr. Foster's admirable work so
often quoted, and which we must add has been of great service in the prepara-
tion of this chapter. A very good paper on the Mound-builders is that by Robert
S. Robertson of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the Congres International des Ameri-
canistes Compte-Rendu de la Sec. Ses. Luxembourg, 1877, tom. i, pp. 39-50, though
we do not fully agree with the author's views as to the colonization of the Mis^
sissippi valley from the south. The classification of Mound-works by Rev.
Stephen D. Peet in the same document, r>. 103, is very satisfactory, and corre-
sponds to that adopted in this chapter. The learned article by Judge Force of
Cincinnati in the same document, vol. i, pp. 121-156, is full of interest. For
recent moimd explorations, see Appendix.

CHAPTER II.

ANTIQUITY OF MAN ON THE WESTERN CONTINENT.

Antiquity of the Mounds — No Tradition of the Mound-builders — Vegetation
Covering the Mounds — Age of Mound Crania — Probable Date of the Aban-
donment of the Mounds — Ancient Shell-heaps — Man's Influence on Nature
— Supposed Testimony of Geology — Agassiz on the Floridian Jaw-bone —
Remains on Santos River — The Natchez Bone — Remains on Petit Anse
Island — Brazilian Bone-caves — Dr. Koch's Pretended Discoveries — Ancient
Hearths — Age of the Mississippi Delta — Dr. Dowler's Discovery at New
Orleans — Dr. Abbott's Discoveries in New Jersey — Discoveries in Cali-
fornia — Inter-Glacial Relics in Ohio — Crania from Mounds in the North-
west — No Evidences as yet Discovered Proving Man's Great Antiquity
in America.

AT the opening of the preceding chapter we made some allu-
. sions to the supposed antianitj of the Red Indian, a subject
of growing archseological significance, though as yet it affords
us rather unsatisfactory evidence, scientifically considered, rela-
tive to the problem of man's antiquity on this continent. Quite
different, however, is the estimate which we place on data left
us by the people of the mounds. The question of the antiquity
of the Mound-builders is one which cannot be accurately deter-
mined ; no chronometric scale can be applied to the uncertain
record which they have left behind them. Their history is a
sealed book, and the approximate date of their first occupancy of
the Mississippi Basin is as uncertain as the period of man's origin.
However, certain data present themselves for our consideration
which lead us to conclude that a few thousand years, three or
four perhaps, and possibly even less time, is all that is required in
which to account for their growth into a nation and the moderate
advancement which they made toward civilization. As to when
the Mound-builders left this country, is another question, and

102 NO TRADITION OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

can be approximated more closely. It is a well-known fact that
no tradition was ever found among the Indians as to the origin
or the purpose for which the mounds were constructed. They
described them as having been found by their ancestors in the
same condition in which we now see them, and clothed, if not
with the same, at least with a growth of vegetation similar to
that which covers them to-day. It is true the Iroquois, who are
supposed to have reached the lake regions and the Ohio Valley
some time previous to the Algonquins, had certain vague tradi-
tions of a people whom they called the " Allighewi ; " but
there seems to be nothing in those indefinite allusions which
would associate that unknown people with the mounds. Still,
Indian tradition is nearly valueless in determining this question,
since any fact, however grave, was soon forgotten by a people so
savage and unsettled. The tribes of the lake region, says Dr.
Lapham in his Antiquities, so soon forgot the visit of the Jesuit
Fathers that their descendants a few generations later had no
tradition of the event. The same is true of the Indians of the
Mississippi Valley with reference to De Soto's expedition, " which
must,'' remarks Dr. Foster, "have impressed their ancestors
with dread aj; the sight of horses ridden by men, and the sound
of fire-arms, which they must have likened to thunder.. Sir
John Lubbock states that the New Zealanders at the time of
Captain Cook's visit had forgotten altogether Tasman's visit,
made less than one hundred and thirty years before." ^ Another

^ Pre-Historic Times, p. 425. Also cited by Foster. In this connection I
refer tlie reader to the argument of Mr. John H. Becker of Berlin, in the
Gongres International des Americanistes, Luxembourg, 1877, tom. i, pp. 345-6 :
" These northern nations * * * have not quite forgotten the former exist-
ence and the exodus of these Nahua Mound-builders in and from the western
prairie country. Cusick's remarkable history of the Iroquois (Schoolcraft,
vol. v) states again and again that ' their hunters were opposed by big snakes/
that the ' great homed snake appeared on Lake Ontario,' that the ' lake serpent
traversed the country, and they were compelled to build fortifications in order
to save themselves from the devouring monsters,' that ' a snake with a human
head prevented the intercourse of their several villages, as it had settled near
the principal path of communication,' also ' that it retreats,' etc., etc. Now, in
order to understand the force of these passages, it is necessary to remind the
reader that the Nahua race were perhaps even more properly and generally

ANTIQUITY OF MOUNDS. 103

argument for the construction of the mounds at a remote period,
and which is certainly of little more value than Indian tradition,
is that which supposes the Mound-huilders to have erected works
on the lowest of the river terraces existing at the time of their
occupancy of the country. Much stress has been laid on the fact
that no works have been found on the lowest-formed of the river
terraces which mark the subsidence of the western rivers. "And
as there is no good reason," remarks Mr. Baldwin, " why their
builders should have avoided erecting them on that terrace while
they raised them promiscuously on all the others, it follows, not
unreasonably, that this terrace has been formed since the works
were erected." ^ To any one familiar with the great rise and fall
which takes place annually in the water-level of the Ohio and
Mississippi and all of their tributaries, the fallacy of such an
argument is at once apparent. We must at least allow that the
Mound-builders learned by experience, just as animals do, even
if we could deny them a very high order of intelligence. Little
time could have elapsed after their advent to these valleys before
they observed the impracticability of erecting mounds or enclo-
sures on most of the alluvial bottoms bordering these streams.
The raging torrents which sometimes sweep through the valleys
of the central basin, uprooting the largest trees, carrying away
natural embankments, forming immense deposits of new allu-
vium, submerging miles of adjacent country, and in many ways
changing its physical conformation, would in a few years oblit-

designated as the ' Culhua ' tlie ' Snake ' race, and one branch, remotely con-
nected with them in blood and language, though WofuUy degenerated, the
Snakes or Shoshones of Oregon, etc., carry the name to this very day. * * *
* An expedition was sent towards the Mississippi River ; they crossed it, reached
an extensive meadow ; they discovered a curious animal, a winged fish ; it flew
about the tree, it moved like a humming bird' * * * the humming bird was
the totem of the last tribe of Nahuas. arriving in Anahuac from Aztlan. The
Cherokee tradition, told by Timberlake, is equally significant : ' The prince of
rattlesnakes lives in the glens of the mountains. His palace is guarded by
obedient subjects. * * * And in the myth of the Algonquins, the god-hero
Michabo is in conflict with the shining prince of serpents who lives in the lake ;
he destroys the reptile with a dart ; clothes himself with the skin of his foe,
and drives the rest of the serpents to the south.' "
^ J. D. Baldwin's Ancient America, p. 47.

104 AGE OF VEGETATION.

erate any traces of earthworks built within their reach.^ Far
more certain data, however, is furnished in the arborescent vegeta-
tion whicb covers many of the works, with which to measure
part of the period during which they have remained unoccupied,
though we are left in uncertainty as to the remoteness of their
abandonment. The annular rings of a tree present us indisputa-
ble evidence as to its age.^ It is evident that the forests which
cover these remains have grown up since they were vacated, as
no difference exists between them and the suiTounding vegeta-
tion — no break exists in the density of the forests in the imme-
diate vicinity of the works. The oldest of the trees found upon
the works present eight hundred annual rings, indicating as
many years of growth.^ This cannot, however, be set down as
the limit of the period of their abandonment, since, as it seems
that this country was open and mostly unwooded in the sections
thickly settled by the Mound-builders, a considerable time would
be requisite for the slow encroachments of a forest, even when
the trees which now stand upon the mounds may have been pre-

1 Foster, pp. 172-3, remarks : " Squier and Davis hastily stated that none
of these works occupied the alluvial bottoms (an error which Mr. Squier
subsequently corrected), and from this statement the most erroneous conclu-
sions as to their antiquity have been drawn. There is nothing to indicate but
that those works were constructed after the surface had assumed its present
configuration, and that the chmate had become essentially as it is now. That
they should not occur as abundantly on the bottoms as on the river terraces is
not to be wondered at, when we consider the great fluctuations of the Missis-
sippi and its tributaries. The extreme range between low and high water of
the Upper Mississippi at its mouth is thirty-five feet ; that of the Missouri at
its mouth about the same ; and that of the Ohio at Louisville, forty-two feet.
Hence, during the flood time a greater portion of the bottom lands are subject
to overflow, and it would be natural for the Mound -builders to shun such
situations. Where the immediate valleys lie above high water, we find their
works. Of this the ' American Bottom ' is a notable instance."

2 See Dr. Lapham's communication in Foster's Pre-Historic Races, pp. 373-5,
in which he shows the possibility of finding the average increase of wood each
year by measuring annual rings of growth.

3 Sir Charles Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 41, says : " When I visited
Marietta in 1843, Dr. Hildreth took me to one of the mounds, and showed me
where he had seen a tree gromng on it, the trunk of which when cut down
displayed eight hundred rings of annual growth."

GREAT AGE OF MOUND CRANIA. 105

ceded by trees of other species or by two or three generations of
their own.^ The age of the trees on the mound-works in the
Ohio Valley or farther north, rarely exceeds five hundred or six
hundred years, and such cases as that cited by Sir Charles Lyell
are the exceptions. Farther south, in the Mississippi Valley
and near the Gulf, they are still younger than those at the
north.'^ So noticeable is this that we are led to think the Gulf
coast may have been occupied by the Mound-builders for a couple
of centuries after they were driven by their enemies from the
country north of the mouths of the Missouri and Ohio Rivers.
The condition of skeletons found in the mounds indicate an
antiquity which they furnish us no means of measuring. It is
not to be presumed that all human remains discovered in exca-
vating the works were interred immediately previous to the
abandonment of the country. Some of them may belong to the
middle or beginning of the period of their residence in the terri-
tory occupied by the United States. Human remains taken from
the mounds, perhaps furnish us better evidence of the long resi-
dence of the Mound-builders in this country than any other data
in our possession. It suffices to say that few Mound-builder
crania have been recovered in a condition to be of any service
to science ; although of late years, several valuable collections

^ See Prof. Asa Gray in Foster's Pre-Historic Baces, p. 392 ; also Lvell's
Antiquity of Man, p. 41, where the opinion of President Harrison is quoted as
follows : " We may be sure that no trees were allowed to grow so long as
the earthworks were in use ; and when they were forsaken, the ground, like
all newly-cleared land in Ohio, would for a time be monopolized by one or two
species of tree, such as the yellow locust and the black or white walnut.
When the individuals which were the first to get possession of the ground had
died out one after the other, they would, in many cases, instead of being
replaced by other species, be succeeded, by virtue of the law which makes a
rotation of crops profitable in agriculture, by other kinds, till at last, after a
great number of centuries (several hundred years perhaps), that remarkable
diversity of species characteristic of North America, and far exceeding what is
seen in European forests, would be established."

2 Foster's Pre-Historic Races, pp. 118, 119, 122, and M. Stronck, Reperes
chronologiques de Vhistoire des Jfound-builders in Congres des Americanistes,
Luxembourg, tom. i, pp. 316-18, catalogues the record of the age of trees
found on mounds.

106 KITCHEN-MIDDENS, OR SHELL-HEAPS.

have been made. The preservation of the skeletons depends
greatly on the composition of the soil in which they are found.
The Loess has afforded well-preserved remains, however, with
the gelatinous matter leached out. The crania of the sandy
loam of river bottoms, on the other hand, are in all cases so far
decayed upon discovery that the greatest precautions fail to pre-
vent them from crumbling to dust when exposed to the light
and air. Mastodon bones, on the contrary, recovered from peat
swamps, and much older than any of the remains of the Mound-
builders, are found to have retained so much of their gelatinous
matter as to furnish a nourishing soup.^ To these evidences may
be added the testimony derived from the ancient ruins which
points to long-continued occupation and to a considerable lapse
of time since their abandonment.

How long the Mound-builders occupied the country north of
the Gulf of Mexico it is impossible in the present state of science
to determine. Some authors conjecture that they were here two
thousand years ; that we think would be time enough, though
after all it is but conjecture. It seems to us, however, that the
time of the abandonment of their works may be more closely
approximated. A thousand or two years may have elapsed since
they vacated the Ohio Valley, and a period embracing seven or
eight centuries may have passed since they retired from the Gulf
coast. As an evidence of a large population having existed in
this country at a former period, we have immense shell-heaps
artificially collected, extending along the Atlantic coast from
Nova Scotia to Florida, on the Gulf coast and up the river
valleys through nearly all of the Southern States. It is difficult
to assign the formation of these vast remains to any definite
period or to any particular people. Though of the same charac-
ter as the Kjokken-Moddings (Kitchen-Middens) of the Danish,
they furnish no indications of so great an antiquity. This has
been shown by Dr. Jeffries Wyman in his researches in Maine
and Massachusetts.^ Sir Charles Lyell made an examination of
a shell-bank on St. Simon's Island, near the mouth of the Alla-

^ Foster's Pre-Eistoric Races, p. 370.
' American Naturalist, Jan. 1868.

KITCHEN-MIDDENS, OR SHELL-HEAPS. 107

maha River, Georgia, so extensive that it covers ten acres to a
depth varying from five to ten feet.^ Dr. Brinton has described
immense accumulations in Florida. On Amelia Island, shells
exist to the depth of three feet over an area 150 yards wide and
a quarter of a mile long. Notable instances of a similar kind
are Turtle Mound near Smyrna — a mass of oyster shells thirty
feet thick — and a shell-bank on Crystal River four miles from
its mouth, reaching a height of forty feet.^ Dr. Wyman care-
fully examined many of the fresh-water shell-heaps of Florida and
obtained pretty satisfactory results.^ Near the Silver spring upon
a shell- heap covering nearly twenty acres, stand several live-oaks
of immense size, the largest of which measured between twenty-
six and twenty-seven feet in circumference. Excavations under
this monster, taken together with its position on the side of the
shell-bank, proved it to be of more recent origin than the latter.
Prof. Wyman, by allowing twelve rings to the inch and granting
it a semi-diameter of fifty inches, estimated that it was not less
than six hundred years old. Of course the shell-bank may have
existed a long time before any vegetation appeared upon it. The

' Second Visit to the United States, vol. i, p. 352.

2 Dr. Brinton's j^otes on the Floridian Peninsula.

3 From the immense heaps distributed over an area of 150 miles between
Pilatka and Salt Creek Dr. Wyman made some collections of interest. The banks
were composed mostly of the Ampullaria Depressa, the Paludina MultUineata
and Unio Buckleyi. The bank at King Phillip's Town, 450 feet long by 120
feet wide, and in some places eight feet thick, yielded fragments of pottery
and decayed animal bones. At Black Hammock, on the St. Johns, a mound
900 feet long and from 100 to 150 in width, yielded the following : such marine
shells as the strombus-gigos, pyrula carica and P. perversa. These had been
shaped into hatchets, gouges and chisels. Scarcely any stone implements were
found in any of the mounds examined. A chisel and twenty-five arrow-heads
were collected in the vicinity of the above shell-bank. The following animal
remains were found : bear, deer, raccoon, opossum, terrapin, turtle, alligator,
cat-fish and garpike. But few bones of birds were found. Prof. Wyman can
only explain the presence of so many of the now scarce 'species, the Ampulla-
rius and Paludinas, on the supposition that they were much more plentiful and
are now becoming extinct, or that the heaps where so abundantly found were
made by slow accumulation, through the lapse of an indefinitely long period. —
American Naturalist, vol. ii, Nos. 8 and 9, and Fifth Annual Report of Peabody
Museum, pp. 22-25. Also First Report of Peabody Museum, pp. 11, 18.

108 FRESH-WATER SHELLr-HEAPS.

crania of the shell-banks of Florida differ from those of the
Mound-builders in greater thickness as well as greater mean
capacity.^ In his Fresh-water Sliell-3Iounds of the St. John's
Biver, and in his memoir on Human Remains in the Shell-heaps
of the St. John's River {Seventh Annual Report of Peahody
Museum J pp. 26 et seq.), Dr. Wyman reports having discovered
the startling fact that cannibalism prevailed among the barbarous
people of the shell-banks. In the Peabody Museum a collection
of human bones taken from the shell-banks by Dr. Wyman are
arranged to illustrate this sad discovery. It is possible that this
people had some relationship to the Caribs. Prof. Forshey has
described in brief the vast extent and proportions of the marine
shell-banks of the Gulf coast, and the shores of the bayous, lakes
and lagoons where Gruathodon shells are found. Those of
Louisiana, especially near New Orleans, are remarkable, but
have yielded no remains, except broken pottery, flint flakes and
stone hatchets. A shell-bank at Grand Lake, on the Teche,
however, upon which great live-oaks are growing, situated fifteen
miles inland, from which the sea has receded since its formation,
"yielded unique specimens of axes of hasmatitic iron-ore and
glazed pottery.''^ Probably the most remote shell-bank from
the sea containing marine shells, occurs on the Alabama River,
fifty miles inland.^ Fresh-water shell-banks, other than those
examined in Florida, furnish evidences of slow accumulation and
indicate a comparatively remote antiquity for their origin. On
Stalling's Island, in the Savannah River, two hundred miles
above its mouth, is a shell -bank three hundred feet in length by
one hundred and twenty feet in width, with an average depth of

^ A small sand-mound near Cedar Keys yielded peculiarly massive skulls ;
the capacity being 1375 cubic centimetres, or nearly 84 cubic inches. They
show no distortion, and the average thickness of eight of them through the
parietal bones measured 10.5 millimetres, or 0.42 of an inch. The heaviest
weighed 995 grams, 'and notwithstanding the loss of its organic matter, is
heavier than any of the three hundred skulls in the collection (Peabody
Mnsexim).— Fourth Annual Report of Peabody Museum, p. 13. Also see Fos-
ter's Pre-Historic Races, p. 170.

' Foster's Pre-Historic Races, p. 159.

3 Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, p. 272.

THE FORMATION OF SHELL-HEAPS. 109

over fifteen feet.^ In the American Bottom and on many of the
tributaries of the Mississippi, shell-banks occur, composed of
varieties of the Unios and Anodons. A remarkable example of
such accumulation is the well-known shell-bank a mile and a
half south of New Harmony, Indiana, and situated on a high
hill 170 feet above the level of an arm of the Wabash Kiver.
The bank covers an area of a quarter of an acre, and has attracted
the attention of eminent scientists like Leasure, Say^ Lyell and
others, but nothing of value was developed that would refer the
construction of this and similar banks to any people more ancient
than the Mound-builders.^ On the Pacific coast, great numbers
of shell-banks exist, but contain nothing difierent from those in
other parts of the country. (See Researches in the Kjcikken
Moddings of the Coast of Oregon and of the Santa Barbara Islands
and Adjacent Mainland, by Paul Schumacher. Bulletin of U. S.
Geol. and Geog. Survey, vol. iii. No. 1.) There can be little doubt
but these strange and vast accumulations indicating the presence
of an extinct population, had a remote beginning, and have been
added to from time to time by difierent peoples, removed from
each other both by the diversities of race and the lapse of time.

A trifle more than a decade ago the treatment of the sub-
ject of this chapter would have called for a discussion of the
antiquity of the magnificent architectural remains of Southern
Mexico, and of the still older ruins of the Maya civiliza-
tion in Yucatan, and the branches of that people in Central
America ; but the indefatigable labor which has been bestowed
by several eminent antiquarians upon the ancient history of the
civilized nations of the New World previous to its discovery by
Europeans, has transferred this part of the subject to another
field ; has elevated it from the uncertain position it occupied in
archaeology to a place in the realm of history. It is true that it
is difficult to draw the line between tradition and history, and
especially so in this case ; but as tradition does not conflict with

^ C. C. Jones, Jr., Antiquities of the Southern Indians.

2 Further consult. Second Indiana Report, p. iii ; SmitJisonian Report for
1870 ; Humphreys and AblDot's Physics and Hydraulics of the Mississippi Valley,
p. 89, and Foster's Pre-Historic Races, Chap. IV.

110 MAN'S INFLUENCE UPON NATURE.

archasology in its bearing on the ancient civilization of Tropical
America, it is better than nothing ; certainly archaeology thus
far has amounted to little more than nothing in revealing the
approximate period of the origin of these remains. While it has
done much towards verifying tradition and assisted largely in
its interpretation, it has not been adequate to the task of solving
the age of these remains. Tradition, on the contrary, and we
might almost say history, carries us back three thousand years,
if not farther, as the period when man — whether the first here
or not — appeared upon the Western Continent. The discussion
of this part of our subject will be given in a future chapter.
Too much doubt exists with reference to the stupendous remains
of Peru, especially in the neighborhood of Lake Titicaca, Tiahua-
naco. Old Huanaco, and Grau-Chimu, as to whether they ante-
dated the arrival of the Incas by a great lapse of time, to admit
of a serious discussion here. Nothing of a scientific character is
available as yet upon which even to base conjecture. Kivero
and Tschudi, it is true, have treated the subject, and their work
has been often quoted, but after all it amounts to but little more
than a description of the remains, which serves the good end of
exciting interest in the subject. The antiquities and legendary
history of the Peruvians have so recently been treated with such
ability by Mr. E. G. Squier, that the South American civiliza-
tion needs no attention in this connection.

In considering the question as to how long man has inhabited
this continent, his influence upon nature cannot be overlooked.
In the animal kingdom, certain animals were domesticated by
the aborigines from so remote a period that scarcely any of their
species, as in the case of the lama of Peru, were to be found in a
state of unrestrained freedom at the advent of the Spaniards.
In the vegetable kingdom more abundant testimony of the same
nature is presented. A plant must be subjected to the trans-
forming influences of cultivation for a long time before it becomes
so changed as no longer to be identified with the wild species,
and infinitely longer before it becomes entirely dependent upon
cultivation for propagation. Yet we find that both of these
facts have been accomplished with reference to the maize, tobacco,

MAN'S INFLUENCE UPON NATURE. HI

cotton, quinoa and mandico plants ; and the only species of
palm cultivated by the South American Indians, that known as
the Gulielma speciosa, has lost through that culture its original
nut-like seed, and is dependent upon the hands of its cultivators
for its life.^ Alluding to the above-named plants, Dr. Brinton
remarks : " Several are sure to perish unless fostered by human
care. What numberless ages does this suggest ? How many
centuries elapsed ere man thought of cultivating Indian com ?
How many more ere it had spread over nearly a hundred degrees
of latitude and lost all resemblance to its original iorm?"^ Cer-
tainly this class of evidence, though furnishing no chronometric
scale, points us to an antiquity for man on this continent more
venerable than that suggested either by tumuli or architectural
remains. The peculiar value of this argument rests in the fact
that with the exception of cotton, none of the plants indicated

^ Martius : Von dem Bechtszustande unter den Ureinwohner Brasiliens, p. 80,
and reprinted in his Beitrdge zur Ethnographie, "etc. , Leipzig, 1867, quarto.
" Der dennalige Zustand dieser Naturwesen beurkundet, dass die amerikanische
Natur sclion seit Jalirtausenden den Einfluss einer verandernden und umge-
staltenden Menschenhand erfabren liat. Auf den Antillen und dem Festlande
fanden die ersten Conquistadores den stummen Hund als Hausthier und auf
der Jagd dienend, ebenso das Meerscbweinchen in St. Domingo in einem heimi-
schen Zustande . . . Das Llama war in Peru schon seit undenklicber Zeit als
Lastthier beniitzt worden, und kam niclit mebr im Zustand der Freiheit vor;
ja sogar das Guanaco und die Vicunna scbeinen damals nicbt ganz wild, son-
dern in einer beschrankten Freiheit den Urbewohnern befreundet, gelebt zu
haben, da sie, um geschoren zu werden, eingefangen, so dann aber wiedej frei-
gelassen wurden. . . , Die Cultur dieser Pflanze (Maize) aus welcher die Perua-
ner auch Zucker bereiteten, ist uralt ; man findet sie, und die Banane, den
Baumwollenstrauch, die Quinoa- und die Mandioca-Pflanze ebenso wenig wild
in America als unsere Getreidearten in Asien, Europa und Africa. Die einzige
Palme, welche von den Indianern angebaut wird, hat durch diese Cultur den
grossen, steinharten Saamenkern verloren, der oft in Fasem zerschmolzen, oft
ganzlich aufgelost ist. Ebenso findet man die Banane, deren Einfuhr nach
America geschichtlich nicht nachgewiesen werden kann, immer ohne Saamen.
Man weiss aber aus anderen Erfahrungen, welch' lange Zeit nothwendig ist,
um den Pflanzen einen solchen Stempel von der umbildenden Macht mensch-
lichen Einflusses aufzudriicken. Gewiss, auch in America sind die dort heimi-
schen Nutz-Pflanzen der Menschheit seit undenklichen Zeiten zinsbar unter-
worfen."

^ Brinton's Myths of the New World, p. 37.

112 AGASSIZ AND THE HUMAN JAW.

have ever been cultivated by any other people than the aborigines
of America, and could not have matured their characteristics of
dependence in the old world, and been brought hither through
the channel of immigration.

Back of the age of man's monuments of an architectural
character, beyond the beginning of the first existing shell-heap,
and at a time probably more remote than the first cultivation of
maize, it has been supposed that man occupied the Western Con-
tinent as a contemporary with the mastodon, megalonyx and other
extinct animals. Our information in this department is entirely
dependent upon the revelations of geological science. Unfor-
tunately very little data which may be termed truly scientific
has been brought to light. While considerable seeming testi-
mony to man's antiquity on this continent has been produced
from a geologic quarter, still it mostly has been of an unscientific
character. Fossils and human remains are said to have been
discovered in localities and in associations that if the statements
of those who found them could be relied on, would give man an
antiquity here as great as in the valley of the Somme or in the
bone caves of Belgium, France, and England. In the instances
alluded to, it is not so often feared that the veracity of discov-
erers is doubtful as that their general lack of acquaintance with
the science should make them liable to error. Where a com-
petent geologist is not present to examine a fossil in situ, and
report intelligently upon its position and surroundings, the case
mu^t remain open to suspicion. Unfortunately for science, this
is precisely the weak point in most of the reputed "finds"
which are cited as evidence in this field. In 1848, Count Pour-
tales found in Florida, according to Agassiz, a human jaw and
teeth, and bones of the foot, embedded in a calcareous con-
glomerate forming a part of a coral reef This reef, according to
Agassiz, may be 135,000 years old, and the human remains at
least ten thousand years.^ This statement has been accepted as
reliable by Sir Charles Lyell,^ Daniel Wilson,^ and other noted
scientific gentlemen. Count Pourtales, however, makes a state-

* Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, p. 352.

' Antiquity of Man, p. 44. ^ Pre-Historic Man, p. 12.

REMAINS AT SANTOS RIVER, BRAZIL. 113

ment which materially alters the case. He says : " The human
jaws and other bones found by myself in Florida in 1848, were
not in a coral formation, but in a fresh- water sandstone on the
shore of Lake Monroe, associated with fresh-water shells or species
still living in the lakes (Paulina, Ampullaria, etc.). No date can
be assigned to the formation of that deposit, at least from present
observation." ^ Human remains were found a number of years
ago embedded in the solid rock in the island of Guadaloupe.
" But more careful investigation proved the rock to be a con-
cretionary limestone formed from the detritus of corals and
shells."' ^ This rock was ascertained to have been one of very
rapid formation.

Sir Charles Lyell, in his Travels in America in 1842, ex-
pressed the opinion that certain human remains found embedded
in the solid rock near the town of St. Paul on the Santos Kiver,
Brazil, were of great antiquity.^ Subsequently referring to the
memoir of Dr. Meigs on the shell-heap of which the rock was a
part,"^ he expresses the opinion that shells were brought to the
place and heaped up over the remains, and " were bound together
in a solid stone by the infiltration of carbonate of lime, and the
mound may therefore be of no higher antiquity than those above
alluded to on the Ohio." ^ In a few instances it has been alleged
that the remains of man have been found associated with the
remains of the mastodon and other extinct animals. More than
thirty years ago Dr. Dickson of Natchez discovered the pelvic
bone of a man, the os innominatum, mingled with the bones of
extinct animals (megalonyx and mylodon). This discovery was
made two and one-half miles from Natchez, at the bottom of
what is known as Bernard's Bayou, an immense ravine from
thirty to sixty feet deep and several miles long, formed by the
convulsions of the earthquake of 1811-12. This bone is now in
the possession of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia. Sir Charles Lyell visited the spot where it was discovered

^ American Naturalist, vol. ii, p. 434, 1838. Also quoted by Foster, Pre-
Historic Races, p. 77.

2 Daniel YfWmn'^Pre-Historic Man, p. 12. » Vol. i, p. 200.

* Meigs : Trans. Am. Phil Soc, 1828, p. 285. ^ Antiquity of Man, p. 42.
8

114 THE NATCHEZ 08 INNOMINATUM.

in 1846, and made a careful examination of the bone then in the
possession of Dr. Dickson, and also explored the " Mammoth
Ravine." He discusses the case as follows : " It appeared to he
quite in the same state of preservation and was of the same
black color as the other fossils, and was believed to have come
like them from a depth of about thirty feet from the surface.
In my Second Visit to America in 1846,^ 1 suggested as a
possible explanation of this association of a human bone with
remains of a mastodon and megalonyx, that the former may
possibly have been derived from the vegetable soil at the top of
the cliff, where, as the remains of extinct mammalia were dis-
lodged from a lower position, and both may have fallen into the
same heap or talus at the bottom of the ravine, the pelvic
bone might, I conceived, have acquired its black color from having
lain for years or centuries in a dark superficial peaty soil common
in that region. I was informed that there were many human
bones in old Indian graves in the same district stained of as
black a dye." * ^ * " ']^q doubt, had the pelvic bone belonged
to any recent mammifier other than man, such a theory would
never have been resorted to ; but so long as we have only one
isolated case, and are without the testimony of a geologist who
was present to behold the bone when still engaged in the matrix,
and to extract it with his own hands, it is allowable to suspend
our judgment as to the high antiquity of the fossil.^ Both
Dr. Joseph Leidy^ and Prof C. G. Forshey,'^ who have examined
the case, agree with the above. A few years ago a fragment of

» Vol. ii, p. 197. 2 Antiquity of Man, p. 203.

* Extinct Mammalia of North America, p. 365 : " The specimen may have
been contemporary with the remains of extinct animals, with which it is said to
have been found, though it appears to me equally if not more probable that it
may have fallen into the formation from an Indian grave above at a compara-
tively recent date, and become stained like the true fossils from ferruginous
infiltration."

4 Foster : Pre- Historic Bares, p. 61. ''A dozen plantation burial places and
Indian mounds and camps had been exposed above for centuries ; and in recent
years since uninhabited by the whites (for a hundred years), the drains had cut
through the surface to the depth of twenty and even forty feet of the bluff
loam-beds. The probabilities are a hundred to one that this bone was not of
the bluff (mastodon) formation but of the recent era."

REMAINS AT PETIT ANSE ISLAND. 115

matting composed of the outer bark of the southern cane (Arun-
dinaria macrosperma) was discovered on Petit Anse Island in
Vermillion Bay, Louisiana, in connection with the remains of a
fossil elephant. This island, containing about five thousand
acres, is the locality of an extraordinary mine of rock salt, dis-
covered and worked considerably during the late rebellion. The
salt is found in nearly all parts of the island at the depth of
fifteen or twenty feet below the surface of the soil. The matting
was discovered near the surface of the salt, and about two feet
above it were the remains of an elephant, including the tusks.
Prof Henry was the first to call public attention to the matter
in a notice based on the verbal statements of T. F. Cleu, Esq., who
presented a specimen of the matting to the Smithsonian Institu-
tion.i In 1867, Prof E. W. Hilgard and Dr. E. Fontaine, secretary
of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences, examined the locality.
We regret to say that the report made by the latter is so confused
in its use of terms and so conflicting in its statements as to be
of no service to science.^ Prof. Hilgard is, on the contrary, clear
on the subject. He considers the heap in which the matting,
elephant bones, and subsequently pottery in great profusion, were
found, " A mass of detritus washed down from the surrounding
hills." " The pottery," he remarks, " at some points form verita-
ble strata three and six inches thick." He then adds in a note
that "it is very positively stated that mastodon bones were
found considerably above some of the human relics. In a detrital
mass, however, this cannot be considered a crucial test." ^ Dr.
Foster, after citing the above, interposes the objection, " That
in an island whose area is less than eight miles square, there
would be few floods of sufficient power to transport such heavy
bones as the tusks and molars of mastodons to any considerable
distance."^ Certainly the question is an open one, and in its

^ Foster in Transactions of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, vol. i, part ii.

2 Fontaine's How the World was Peopled, pp. 67-69. A book with many
good points, but obscure as to this particular case.

^ On the Oeology of Lower Louisiana and the Salt Deposit on the Petit Anse
Island, p. 14, in Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, No. 248.

* Foster's Pre-Historic Maces, p. 58.

IIQ BONES AT MINAS GERAES, BRAZIL.

present unsettled status proves nothing. The same uncertainty
attaches itself to the discoveries of Dr. Lund, the distinguished
Swedish naturalist, made many years ago in the bone caves of
Minas Geraes, Brazil. This indefatigable investigator examined
more than eight hundred caverns, and in only six were human
remains found. In one instance out of the six, the remains were
associated with the bones of animals now extinct, but the original
stratification had been disturbed, and the presumption is that it
was a case of comparatively recent interment.^

The most remarkable instance of the supposed, or we might
be allowed in this case to say pretended discovery of human
remains in association with those of extinct animals, is that set
forth by Dr. Koch. This collector of curiosities described his
discovery of a mastodon giganteus in 1839 in Gasconade County,
Missouri, at a spot on the Bourbeuse Kiver, first in a newspaper
article of January 1839, and cited in the American Journal of
Science and Arts^^ And a second time in the St. Louis Com-
mercial Bidletin of June 25, 1839, which article was also
noticed in the above Journal.^ This article was signed " A. Koch,
Proprietor of the St. Louis Museum." Subsequently he pub-
lished descriptions in pamphlets, which unfortunately did not
always convey the same impressions.^ Dr. Koch, after referring
to the discovery of a back and hip bone of this remarkable animal,

' Brinton's Myths of the New World, p. 35. ^ Vol. xxxvi, p. 198.

3 Vol. xxxvii, p. 19L

* J. D. Dana : Koch's Emdence on the Contemporaneity of Man and the Mas-
todon in Missouri, in tlie Am. Jour, of 8ci. and Arts, Art. xxxv. May, 1875,
gives tlie title of two of these pamphlets as follows : 1. Description of the Mis
sourium or Missouri Lemathan, together icith its Supposed Habits ; Indian Tra-
ditions Concerning the Location from, which it was Exhumed ; Also, Comparisons
of the Whale, Crocodile, and Missourium with the Leviathan, as described in
the Forty-first Chapter of the Book of Job : by Albert Koch, 16 pp. octavo, St.
Louis, 1841 (1840 on the cover, indicating that the copy is from a second edition).
2. Description of the Missourium Theristocaulodon {Koch) or Missouri Lemathan
{Leviathan Missouriensis), together with its Supposed Habits and Indian Tradi-
tions ; Also, Comparisons of the Whale, Crocodile, and Missourium with the
Leviathan, as described in the Forty-first Chapter of the Book of Job : by Albert
Koch. Fifth edition enlarged, 28 pp. octavo. Dublin, 1843. (A third edition
of twenty -four pages appeared in London in 1841.)

DR. KOCH'S MASTODON AND ARROWHEAD. 117

gives the following description : " I immediately commenced
opening a much larger space ; the first layer of earth was a
vegetable mould, then a blue clay, then sand and blue clay. I
found a large quantity of pieces of rocks, weighing from two to
twenty-five pounds each, evidently thrown there with the inten-
tion of hitting some object. It is necessary to remark that not
the least sign of rocks or gravel is to be found nearer than, from
four or five hundred yards, and that these pieces were broken
from larger rocks, and consequently carried here for some express
purpose. After passing through these rocks I came to a layer
of vegetable mould ; on the surface of this was found the first
blue bone, with this a spear and axe ; the spear corresponds
precisely with our common Indian spear ; the- axe is difierent
from any I have seen. Also on this earth were ashes nearly from
six inches to one foot in depth, intermixed with burned wood
and burned bones, broken spears, axes, knives, etc. The fire
appeared to have been the largest on the head and neck of the
animal, as the ashes and coals were much deeper here than in
the rest of the body ; the skull was quite perfect, but so much
burned that it crumbled to dust on the least touch ; two feet
from this was found two teeth broken off from the jaw, but
mashed entirely to pieces. By putting them together, they
showed the animal to have been much larger than any heretofore
discovered. It appeared by the situation of the skeleton, that
the animal had been sunk with its hind feet in the mud and
water, and, unable to extricate itself, had fallen on its right side,
and in that situation was found and killed as above described ;
consequently the hind and fore-feet on the right side were sunk
deeper in the mud, and thereby saved from the efiects of the
fire ; therefore I was able to preserve the whole of the hind foot
to the very last joint, and the fore foot, all but some few small
bones that were too much decayed to be worth saving. Also
between the rocks that had sunk through the ashes, were found
large pieces of skin that appeared like fresh-tanned sole leather,
strongly impregnated with the lye from the ashes ; and a great
many of the sinews and arteries were plain to be seen on the
earth and rocks, but in such a state as not to be moved except

118 DR. KOCH'S SECOND DISCOVERY.

in small pieces the size of a hand, which are now preserved in
spirits." " Should any doubts arise in the mind of the reader
of the correctness of the above statement, he can be- referred to
more than twenty witnesses who were present at the time of
digging." ^ Subsequent accounts agree substantially with the
above except that we never again hear of the " large pieces of
skin/" the " sinews and arteries," " which are now preserved in
spirits." The presumption is that the author, upon mature
reflection, arrived at the conclusion that in reality he had seen
nothing of the kind, and in fact had never preserved such relics
in spirits.

Dr. Koch made a second discovery about one year subse-
quently in Benton County, Missouri, in the bottom of the
Pomme-de-Terre Kiver, at about ten miles above its junction
with the Osage Kiver. His description is as follows : " The
second trace of human existence with these animals I found
during the excavation of the Missourium. There was embedded
immediately under the femur or hind-leg bone of this animal,
an arrow-head of rose-colored flint, resembling those used by the
American Indians, but of larger size. This was the only arrow-
head immediately with the skeleton ; but in the same strata, at
a distance of five or six feet, in a horizontal direction, four more
arrow-heads were found. Three of these were of the same
formation as the preceding. The fourth was of very rude work-
manship. One of the last-mentioned three was of agate, the
others of blue flint. These arrow-heads are indisputably the
work of human hands. I examined the deposit in which they
were embedded, and raised them out of their embedment with
my own hands. The original stratum on which this river flowed
at the time it was inhabited by the Missourium tJteristocaulodnn
and up to the time of its destruction, was of the upper green
sand. On the surface of this stratum, and partly mingled with
it, was the deposit of the before-described skeleton. The next
stratum is from three to four feet in thickness, and consisted of

^ American Journal of Science and Arts, 1830, Art. xxxvi, p. 198, and copied
by Mr. J. D, Dana, in Ws article before cited, May, 1875.

DR. KOCH'S SECOND DISCOVERY. 119

a brown alluvium of the Eocene region, and was composed of
vegetable matters of a tropical production. It contained all the
remainder of the skeleton." " Most of these vegetables were in a
great state of preservation and consisted of a large quantity of
cypress burs, wood and bark, tropical cane, ferns, palmetto leaves,
several stumps of trees, and even the greater part of a flower of
the strelitzia class, which, when destroyed was not full blown.
There was no sign or indication of any very large trees ; the
cypresses that were discovered being the largest that were grow-
ing here at the time. These various matters had been torn up
by their roots and twisted and split into a thousand pieces
apparently by lightning combined with a tremendous tempest
or tornado ; and all were involved in one common ruin. Several
veins of iron pyrites ran through the stratum." " The next
over this formation was a layer of plastic clay of the Eocene
region, also with iron pyrites. It was three feet in thickness ;
over this a layer of conglomerate from nine to eighteen inches in
thickness ; over this a layer of marl of the Pliocene region,
from three to four feet in thickness; next, a second conglomerate
from nine to eighteen inches in thickness. This was succeeded
by a layer of yellow clay of the Pliocene; over this a third layer
of conglomerate from nine to eighteen inches in thickness, and
at last the present surface, consisting of brownish clay mingled
with a few pebbles, and covered with large oak, maple, and elm
trees, which, were, as near as I could ascertain, from eighty to
one hundred years old. In the centre of the above-mentioned
deposit was a large spring which appeared to rise from the very
bowels of the earth, as it was never affected by the severest rain,
nor did it become lower by the longest draught." ^ The preced-
ing accounts were presented to the St. Louis Academy of
Sciences in a special paper several years later (1857).^

Dr. Foster is inclined to believe that Dr. Koch was not mis-
taken in his claimed discovery, having arrived at that opinion
by pointedly questioning him on the subject a short time before

^ Dr. Koch's Pamphlet of 1843, pp. 13, 14, 27, copied by J. D. Dana.

^ Transactions of St. Louis Academy of Sciences, vol. i, 1857.

120 J. I>- DANA VS. DR. KOCH.

his (Koch's) death.^ Charles Rau is also of the opinion that he
was truthful.^ Mr. J. D. Dana, however, discusses the case as
follows : " In the account of the second case above cited Dr.
Koch says that the Missourium was embedded in a brown
alluvium of the Eocene region resting on the ^ upper green
sand; ' that next over it was plastic clay of the ' Eocene region'
and beds of the ' Pliocene region.' He thus makes his Missou-
rium to have come from the lower tertiary, and from a bed just
above the green sand (cretaceous) when actually from quartenary
beds ; and he uses the terms Eocene and Pliocene, as if he had
no familiarity with geological facts or language. The earlier
pamphlet of 1840 avoids this bad geology, ^ the upper green
sand,' in that being called simply quicksand and the other beds
merely beds of clay and conglomerate. All the pamphlets
sustain the conclusion that Dr. Koch knew almost nothing
of geology, and that what he gradually picked up from inter-
course with geologists, he generally made much of but seldom
was able to use rightly." ^ The same critic says : "In zoologi-
cal knowledge he was equally deficient," and cites the fact of
the discoverer recognizing the resemblance to the mastodon, still
makes the animal an inhabitant of the watercourses like the
hippopotamus ; states that his food " consisted as much of
vegetables as of flesh, although he undoubtedly consumed a
great abundance of the latter," and makes the marvelous revela-
tion that he 'hoas capable of feeding hims If with his fore- foot
after the manner of the heaver or otter." Mr. Dana continues :
" He says that one arrow-head lay ' immediately under the femur
or thigh-bone,' and he further states in his later article of
1857, that ^he carefully thought to investigate the point as to
its having been brought thither after the deposit of the bone '
and decided against it. The observation and conclusion would
have been more satisfactory had the author been a better ob-

^ Foster's Pre- Historic Races, p. 62.

2 Smithsonian Report, 1872, p. 396, in a note to liis article on North Ameri-
can Stone Implements.

8 J. D. Dana in American Journal of Science and Arts, May, 1875, p. 340.

KOCH A MISTAKEN ENTHUSIAST. 121

server." " The descriptions of the deposits in Grasconade County
containing the remains of an animal the principal part of which
was consumed by fire is a still more unsatisfactory basis for a
safe conclusion as to age. But in the article of 1857, he says
that the layer of ashes, etc., ' was covered by strata or alluvial
deposits consisting of clay, sand and soil, from eight to nine
feet thick, forming the bottom of the Bourbeuse (River) in
general,' which seems to make it almost certain that the beds
were of quite recent origin." ^ Mr. Dana considers Dr. Koch's
evidence as ^^ very doubtful''^ Dr. Foster has figured a fossil
which, for a better name, he has designated as a " stone
hatchet," from the modified drift of Jersey County, Illinois.^
He is positive as to the position in which it was found, but has
doubt as to its human origin. The probabilites are that its
peculiar shape is due to its exposure to atmospheric agents. He
remarks, however : " On the whole, I will not positively assert
that this specimen is of human workmanship, but I affirm that
if it had been recovered from a plowed field I should have un-
hesitatingly said it was an Indian hatchet." In the Proceedings
of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences for July, 1859, Dr.
Holmes describes the occurrence of fragments of pottery in close
proximity with the bones of the mastodon and megatherium,
on the Ashley River in South Carolina. The case, however, has
not been considered authentic by scientific men. Dr. Holmes is
possibly mistaken.^ Col. Charles Whittlesey, in 1838, saw at

^ Article cited, p. 344.

2 Tliough the above argument by so eminent a specialist must satisfy any
one that Dr. Koch's claim, as it now stands, is valueless to science ; still, it is
due to the memory of the latter, to admit that he was the most indefatigable
and successful- collector in liis department in this country. Though unscientific
himself, his service to science must ever be recognized. The great Mastodon
in the British Museum is a monument to his persevering research. Perhaps
the disposition to acknowledge his services, has unduly biased the judgment of
many in favor of Ms groundless claim.

3 Pre-Historic Races, p. 67.

^ " But it is one of those isolated cases which require further investiga-
tion before full credence can be attached to it." — Foster's Pre-Historic Races,
p. 71.

122 ANCIENT HEARTHS.

Portsmouth, Ohio, on the Ohio Kiver, remains of ancient fire-
places situated eighteen to twenty feet above low water and about
fifteen feet below the surface. He states, "at low water and
thence up to a height of twelve or fifteen feet is a bed of sand
and transported gravel, containing pebbles of quartz, granite,
sandstone and limestone, derived partly from the adjacent
Carboniferous and Devonian rocks and partly from the northern
drift, the upper part much the coarsest. On this is a layer of
blue quicksand from one to five feet thick, in which is a timber-
bed including large numbers of the trunks, branches, stumps
and leaves of trees, such as are now growing on the Ohio, princi-
pally birch, black-ash, oak and hickory. Over the dirt-bed is
the usually loamy yellow clay of the valley, fifteen to thirty feet
thick, on which are very extensive works of the Mound-builders.
In and near the bottom of this undisturbed homogeneous river-
loam I saw two places where fire had been built on a circular
collection of small stones, a part of which were then embedded
in the bank." ^ Near these fire-places the writer of the above
found the membranous covering of common river shells (the
Unios). We think that no geologist familiar with the constant
changes of the Ohio River bed, will consider that the conditions
surrounding these ancient fire-places warrant us in assigning
them a much greater antiquity than we attach to the Mound-
builders' works in the neighborhood. In 1846, Sir Charles
Lyell, when at New Orleans, made an estimate of the time
required to account for the immense annual deposit of the Mis-
sissippi River in the neighborhood of its delta. From a compu-
tation based on certain data, which assumed the area of the
alluvial plain which is the result of those deposits, to equal
30,000 square miles, several hundred feet thick in some places,
he estimated that probably 100,000 years would be requisite.^
Subsequently, during the process of excavating for the New
Orleans Gas Works, it was found necessary to cut through four

^ Antiquity of Man in the United States, Transactions of American Asso-
ciation for Advancement of Science. Chicago, 1869.
2 Second Visit to the United States-

AGE OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA. 123

buried cypress forests. At the depth of sixteen feet and on the
fourth forest level, a human skeleton distinctly of the Indian
type/ was found under the roots of a cypress tree, together with
burnt wood Dr. Dowler, dividing the history of the delta into,
1. The epoch of grasses or aquatic plants ; 2. That of the cypress
{Taxodium distichum) basins, and 3. That of the live-oak
platform, tabulates the age of the strata overlying the skeleton
as follows :

Epoch of aquatic plants 1,500 years

Epoch of the cypress basin, in which he assumes

only two successive growths 11,400 "

Epoch of live-oak platform 1,500 "

Total. . .- 14,400 years

The basis for his estimate of the age of the cypress basins
was the computed age of the trees of the fourth level, ten feet in
diameter and probably reaching 5,700 years. ^ Sir Charles Lyell
in a later work, though still adhering to his former estimate of
the time required in which to form the delta, cannot accept Dr.
Dowler's great antiquity for the remains.^ The question in hand
of course involves the question of the antiquity of the deposit
where the skeleton was found, which is well-nigh identical with
the vexed question of the age of the delta. The very diversity
of opinion on this subject precludes the possibility of its con-
sideration here. We will content ourselves by citing two esti-
mates in addition to those already given. Professor Edward
Hitchcock calculated that the entire delta embraced a bulk of
matter equal to 2,720 cubic miles, for the deposit of which he
thought 14,204 years necessary.^ Humphries and Abbot think
that both the area and thickness of the deposit have been over-
stated, and instead of 30,000 square miles for the former, they

^ Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, p. 336, and Lyell's Antiquity of
Man, p. 43.

' Tableau of New Orleans, 1852, cited by Foster, Pre-Historic Races, p. 73.

^ Antiquity of Man, p. 43.

* Surface Geology, p. 93, Smithsonian Conti^utlons to Knowledge, vol. ix.

124 THE NEW ORLEANS SKELETON NOT VERY ANCIENT.

claim only 19,450. As to the latter, they estimate the thickness
of the alluvial matter as but twenty-five feet on the river banks
along the St. Francis swamp ; thirty-five along the Yazoo swamp,
and continuing of uniform thickness to Baton Rouge ; while
the artesian well at New Orleans showed it in that locality to
reach a point forty feet below the level of the Gulf. These
authors base their calculations as to the age of the deposits on
the following ascertained facts : the total yearly contributions
of the river equal a prism two hundred and sixty-eight feet in
height, with a base of one mile square ; two hundred and sixty-two
feet is the supposed mean yearly advance of the river ; the original
mouth of the Mississippi was near the afflux of the Bayou Plaque-
mine, and has hence progressed two hundred and twenty miles
since it began to empty its deposits into the Gulf. Supposing
these data to be correct, they estimate that only four thousand
four hundred years have elapsed since that period.^ This would
give the skeleton alluded to a comparatively recent origin. We are
inclined to believe that the above estimate assigns a period for the
formation of the delta as much too short as that of Sir Charles
was too long. As to the antiquity of the skeleton, probably Dr.
Foster's solution of the question is as near correct as any that ever
may be proposed : " Thus, then, with these carefully-observed
computations before us, we are not prepared to accept the high
antiquity assigned by Dr. Dowlor to the human remains found
beneath the surface at New Orleans. What he regards as four
buried forests which once flourished on the spot, may be nothing
more than driftwood brought down the river in former times
which became embedded in the silts and sedimc nts which were
deposited on what was then the floor of the Gulf."' ~

If all the indications were verified, we should be justified in
assigning man a much greater antiquity in the Rocky Mountain
region and on the Pacific slope than in any other part of North
America. Mr. E. L. Berthoud collected numerous stone implements
in what he considers to be tertiary gravel on Crow Creek and
in the region of the South Platte River, Lat. 40 N., Long. 104 Wo

' Phydcs and Hydraulics of the Mississippi, pp. 150 et seq., and 435.
* Pre-Historie Baces, p. 76.

PROFESSOR WHITNEY'S TESTIMONY. 125

Two shells secured in the same locality by him have been pro-
nounced a corhicula and a rangia respectively, and are thought
to belong to the older Pliocene or possibly to the Miocene.^ The
evidence in this case is, however, unsatisfactory, and cannot be
admitted to be of scientific value without further authentication.
In 1857 a portion of a human cranium was found associated
with bones of the mastodon at the depth of one hundred and
eighty feet below the surface in a mining shaft at Table Moun-
tain, California. Dr. C. F. Winslow sent this fragment to the
Boston Natural History Society, but no importance was attached
to it, since no other evidence other than that furnished by work-
men in the mine could be obtained. Subsequently, when an
entire skull was reported to have been found in the gold drift
near Angeles in Calaveras County, in a shaft one hundred and
fifty feet deep, the intelligent portion of the community pro-
nounced the finder guilty of a scientific fraud, and it is not yet a
certainty tliat their decision was incorrect. However, Professor
Whitney, of the State Geological Survey, upon hearing of the
case examined the mine, and found that the shaft passed through
five beds of lava and volcanic tufa and four beds of auriferous
gravel. It was in one of these beds that the skull was said to
have been found. Some of the cemented gravel was still adhering
to the skull when it came into the Professor's possession, and
Professor Wyman, to whom it was submitted subsequ^ntly,
refers to the difficulty which he had in removing the incrustation.
Professor Whitney, on the testimony of the possessor of the skull,
pronounced it an authentic "find," and while his decision has
been acquiesced in by a number of scientific gentlemen of repute,
Professor Wyman among them, still the great majority, we
believe, are unwilling to rest their faith on such slender evidence.
Though no crack was apparent through which the skull might
have fallen from the surface, such might have existed at an
earlier period. In a region which is the product of volcanic
action there is room for suspicion, especially in cases like both
of these, where, as Sir Charles Lyell has said, no geologist was

' Philadelphia Acad, of Natural Sciences. Proceedings, Part 1, 1872. Also
Foster, pp. 69-71.

126 INTER-GLACIAL RELICS IN OHIO.

present at the moment of discovery to see the fossil in situ and
extricate it with his own hands from the matrix which con-
tained it.

President Edward Orton, of the Ohio State University,
recently called our attention to the discovery of relics of human
workmanship found many years ago near Waynesville, Ohio, at
the depth of over twelve feet below the surface. Dr. Robert
Furnas, a clergyman of the Society of Friends, courteously
furnished us the following statement : " The relic was obtained
about the year 1824. It was in the process of digging a well
for my grandfother. My father, then twenty-one years of age,
was performing the work of excavation, when at the depth of
thirteen or fourteen feet he came to a dark mould about two feet
deep, on the top of which was lying a tliimhle and a piece of
coarse cloth six inches wide and a yard long. The outer edge
containing the fringe showing the end of the chain or warp at
the end of the fabric and point of fastening in weaving." "The
removal above after passing through the soil consisted of solid
clay of a yellowish-brown color. The farm was purchased by
my grandfather in 1803, and occupied by him to the time of his
death in 1863. He was the pioneer of the place, having settled
there in an unbroken forest. The location is on the top of
the hill on the east side of the Little Miami River forty or fifty
feet above the level of the stream. The cloth soon lost all traces
of texture on coming in contact with the air. The thimble was
in a pretty good state of preservation." ^ Professor Orton, who
has examined the locality and studied the case in hand, expressed
the opinion to us that it was not only authentic, but (while not
amounting to absolute proof) seemed to associate man's works
with a deposit which has furnished remains of the mastodon.
The Professor considers the dark mould referred to as that upon
which the relics were lying to be of an inter-glacial vegetable
deposit peculiar to Southern Ohio, and once constituting an
ancient surface of the land inhabited with animal life.^ The

^ This letter bears date December 24, 1876, written from Waynesville, Ohio,
and signed by Robert F. Furnas, M.D.

2 Prof. Orton in Geology of Highland County in " Progress of the Ohio

INTER-GLACIAL MAN IN NEW JERSEY. 127

cloth from its coarse character bears a resemblance to that of the
mounds, while its length of just a yard is suggestive of more
modern measurements.^

Dr. C. C. Abbott has unquestionably discovered many palaeo-
lithic implements in the glacial drift in the valley of the Dela-
ware River near Trenton, New Jersey. Among a number of
rude implements from the undisturbed gravel of the region is
a spear-head, found six feet from the surface, on the site of the
Lutheran Church, Broad Street, Trenton, N. J. The circum-
stances surrounding it were such as to justify the conclusion that
the weapon had not gotten into its position where found " sub-
sequently to the deposition of the containing layer of pebbles."
Subsequent investigation has brought to light sixty well fin-
ished flint implements, all of them from what appears to be
undisturbed drift. Some of the relics have as many as from
twenty to forty planes of cleavage, all equally weathered. The
specimens are not unlike their neolithic counterparts taken from
the aboriginal graves and stone cists of Tennessee.^ Dr. Ab-
bott concludes that the gravel, boulders, and rude implements
associated with them were deposited by ice-rafts on the descent
of a glacier down the valley, and that man more rude and
ancient than the red Indian dwelt at the foot of the glacier,
being driven south by its advance and following it again to the

Geological Survey in 1870" published 1871, and in vol. i. of State Geological
Eeport, p. 443.

* Prof. Winchell remarks : " The very general interest that is being excited
in this country in the problems that invest the history of the drift is my only
excuse for calling your attention to the prevalence of vegetable remains in the
Drift of the North-west, and to the wide divergence of high authorities on the
relative position of those remains in respect to the boulder clay." — See Proceed-
ings, p. 56, Aju. Ass. for Adi\ Sci , 1875, 24th Meeting.

2 Eleventh Annual Report of the Pedbody Museum, p. 226, Cambridge, 1878.
Dr. Abbott concludes his interesting report by citing a letter from Mr. Thomas
Belt, dated Grant, Colorado, June 29, 1878, in which the writer reports the
discovery of "a small human skull in undisturbed loess, in a railway cutting
about two miles from Denver, near the watershed between the South Platte
and Clear Creek. All the plains are covered with a drift deposit of granitic
and quartzose pebbles, overlaid by a sandy and calcareous loam closely resem-
bling the diluvial clay and the loess of Europe." The skull was found at a
point three and a half feet from the surface.— /W(?, p. 257.

128 INTER-GLACIAL MAN IN NEW JERSEY.

north upon its return.^ Professors Shaler and Pumpelly, how-
ever, while considering the deposit as of glacial origin, think it
was subsequently modified by water-action. Dr. Abbott, with
great fairness, admits that, "Inasmuch as such subsequent action
may have occurred long after the final deposition of the gravel,
as true glacial drift, the antiquity of the contained stone imple-
ments is proportionately lessened." Professor Shaler, after a
partial examination of the locality, remarks that " if these re-
mains are really those of man, they prove the existence of inter-
glacial man on this part of our shore." ^ Dr. Abbott and Prof.
Aug. R. Grote believe that the Eskimo is the surviving rep-
resentative of paleolithic and glacial man in North America.
The latter believes that man reached this continent during the
Pliocene, and before the ice-period had interfered with a warm
climate in the north.^ Eecently Dr. Abbott has said: "It may
be that, as investigations are carried further, it will result not so
much in proving man of very great antiquity, as in showing how
much more recent than usually supposed was the final disappear-
ance of the glacier."* On page 30 we referred to mounds exam-
ined in the Northwest, N. lat. 47°, W. long. 98° 38', by General
H. W. Thomas.^ In these mounds crania indicating a very low
type of intelligence were discovered — in form resembling skulls
of the great Gibbon monkey.^ From the standpoint of the de-

* Tenth Annual Bepoi't of Peabody Museum, Cambridge, 1877, vol. ii, pp.
30-43; American Naturalist, ^une,\^lQ,^.%2i9.

2 Tenth Annual Report of Peabody Museum, p. 47.

3 Grote, The Peopling of America, American Naturalist, April, 1877.

* Primitive Industry, by C. C. Abbott, M.D., 1881, p. 551. A truly scientific
work.

^ Siicth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey, under Dr.
Hayden in 1872, p. 657.

6 General Thomas gives the following account of this form of skull discov-
ered by him, p. 657 : " It is unlike that of any human being to-day alive on
this continent ; the frontal bone being low, receding, growing narrow and
pinched from the brows up ; the top of the head depressed in the centre. The
cavity of the cranium is full seven inches long, and a scant four and a half
inches wide. The orbital ridges or eyebrows are excessively developed, like
those of the great Gibbon monkey. In fact the whole skull resembles that
of the great Gibbon monkey. The malar or cheek bones run down very low
and deep toward the lower jaw, are set very far to the front, and are not wide
at top, but widen very much toward the bottom. The nose, and here is the

ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN THE NORTH-WEST. 129

velopment theory (and by this we do not mean evohition,bat tliat
progression which takes place when a savage advances from his
low state toward civilization), the evidences are abundant that
man is older by far on the Western side of the continent and
perhaps in the Northwest, than elsewhere in the new world.
Though this discovery by General Thomas does not reach back
in antiquity to geologic times, still it cannot be denied that a
considerable period must have elapsed before low-type crania
of the Northwest could have developed into the crania of the
Ohio Valley Mounds. Professor James Orton, in commenting
on the investigations of Wilson on the coast of Equador, refers
to the discovery of gold, copper and stone vestiges of a former
population in the system of terraces traced from the coast
through the province of Esmeraldas to Quito. He remarks:
" In all cases these relics are situated below high-tide mark, in
a bed of marine sediment, from which he (Wilson) infers that
this part of the country formerly stood higher above the sea. If
this be true, vast must be the antiquity of these remains, for
the upheaval and subsidence of the coast is exceedingly slow." ^
The antiquity of man in Europe is an established fact, but how

anomaly, is much more aquiline than that of the Indian. The superior
maxillary is one-third deeper and much more prominent than the Indian's.
The inferior maxillary is of uncommon prominence, depth, and power, far
exceeding that of the Indian. The mouth is narrow and long, more dog-
shaped than the Indian's. The foramen magnum or aperture at base of skull,
where the spinal cord enters the bead, is peculiarly small. The condyloid pro-
cesses are full, oblong, flat on the working surfaces, and at such an angle as to
set the head upward and back more than any race we know to-day on this con-
tinent. Set one of these skulls, without the lower jaw, on the table, and a line
drawn from the upper jaw perpendicularly upward would be a good inch and a
half in front of the forehead. Set on the lower jaw and it would be two inches.
Mr. R. D. Guttgisal, formerly an engineer on the Mexican Central Railroad, in
connection with some friends, opened a mound at Chihuahua, on the line
of that railroad. The skulls resembled those I have described (so he informs
me) in every particular. He especially remembers the somewhat bird-shaped
head, and the excessively small foramen magnum. The bodies were not
interred horizontally there, but leaning backward as if in a rocking-chair.
Professor H. H. Smith, University of Pennsylvania, has one of the skulls.

' Professor James Orton, The Andes and the Amazons, third ed., p. 109,
New York, 1876.

130 MAN OF RECENT ORIGIN IN AMERICA.

remote is a question which science as yet fails to answer. When
geologic research opens up Central Asia, no doubt man will be
found to have existed there a long period anterior to his advent
in Europe. But for the decadence of Arabic glory and learning
we should now probably be in possession of a fund of information
concerning that region as well as of man's early history. Were
the discovery of the human skull in the gold drift of California
an authentic case, we should have strong reasons for supposing
a remote intercourse existed between Asia and the Pacific coast.
It is quite certain the crania of the North-west Mounds, as com-
pared with those of the Mississippi region, clearly point to that
fact. We have seen that as yet no truly scientific proof of man's
great antiquity in America exists. This conclusion is concurred
in by most eminent authorities.^ At present we are probably
not warranted in claiming for him a much longer residence on
this continent than that assigned him by Sir John Lubbock,
namely, 3,000 years. Future research may develop the fact
that man is as old here as in Europe, and that he was contem-
poraneous with the Mastodon. As the case stands in the
present state of knowledge, it furnishes strong presumptive
evidence that man is not autochthonic here, but exotic, having
originated in the old world, perhaps thousands of years prior to
reaching the new.

^ Sir John Lubbock, alluding to the changes that have transpired in tlie
condition of man from his first appearance in America, says : " But even if we
attribute to these changes all the importance which ever has been claimed for
them, they will not require an antiquity of more than three thousand years. I
do not, of course, deny that the period may have been very much greater, but
in my opinion, at least, it need not be greater."— Pre-Historic Times, p. 234,
London, 1865.

Dr. Foster, after giving many of the reputed proofs of man's antiquity
here, sums up the argument in the following language : " The evidence, it
must be confessed, rests, in most cases, upon the testimony of a single observer,
and besides, there has not been a recurrence of * finds ' in the same deposit
(except in the gravel beds of Colorado and Wyoming, which require further
investigation to command an unqualified belief), as in the valley of the Somme
and in the European caves, which is so conclusive as to the existence of man as
contemporary with the great Pachyderms."— i^osier's Pre-Eistoric Races, p. 71.

CHAPTER III.

DIVERSITY OF OPINION AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT

AMERICANS.

Conflict of Discovery and Dogmatism — Antipodes — Arabic Learning in the 8tli
Century — Spirit of Early Writers on America — Common Opinion as to the
Origin of the Americans — Father Duran — Lost Tribes of Israel — Garcia —
Lascarbot — Villagutierre — Torquemada — Pineda, etc. — Abbe Domenech—
Modern Views — Pre-Columbian Colonization — Plato's Atlantis — Kings-
borough— The Book of Mormon — Phoenicians— George Jones— Greek and
Egyptian Theories — The Tartars — Japanese and Chinese Theories — Fusang
— The Mongol Theory— Traces of Buddhism — White-Man's-Land— The
Northmen— The Welsh Claim.

VARIOUS perplexing problems presented themselves to the
minds of the discoverers of the new continent for solution,
as well as to their immediate successors, which were greatly
intensified by the dogmatic teaching of the times. The status
of science in the Middle Ages was defined from time to time by
some ecclesiastical utterance without any reference to the phe-
nomena of nature or the revelations of accidental discovery. We
say accidental, for no designed or systematic investigation was
so much as tolerated, much less encouraged by friendly recogni-
tion. This unfortunate antagonism to progress had its founda-
tion chiefly in ignorance, and its origin in the misinterpretation
and perversion of Sacred Scripture.

Two questions, especially in view of the dogmatic utterances
of the day, presented grave difficulties to the minds of the dis-
coverers and their successors in the New World. " Is the world
a sphere ? " " Are the Inhabitants of the Indias of a common
origin with the rest of mankind .? " These were the most serious
problems that forced themselves upon their consideration. As

132 ANTIPODES.

long ago as 280 b. c, the investigations of Aristarchus of Samos,
though not accepted by antiquity, suggested an affirmative
answer to the first question. But the Fathers of the Church
had spoken authoritatively on this subject at quite an early day,
and consequently left no room for speculation. St. Augustine
discusses the question as follows : " But as to the fable that
there are antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the
earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with
their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. And,
indeed, it is not affirmed that this has been learned by historical
knowledge, but by scientific conjecture, on the ground that the
earth is suspended within the cavity of the sky, and that it has
as much room on the one side of it as on the other ; hence they
say that the part which is beneath us must also be inhabited.
But they do not remark that although it be supposed or scien-
tifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical
form, yet it does not follow that the other side of the earth is
bare of water ; or even though it be bare, does it immediately
follow that it is peopled. For Scripture, which proves the truth
of its historical statements by the accomplishment of its prophe-
cies, gives no false information ; and it is too absurd to say that
some men might have taken ship and traversed the whole wide
ocean, and crossed from this world to the other, and that thus
even the inhabitants of that distant region are descended from
that one first man." ^

Though, during the kalifate of Al-Mamoun (a. d. 813-833)
Arabic learning had well-nigh demonstrated the globular form
of the earth and determined its circumference, according to their
measurements, to be about 24,000 miles, still not a man in Chris-
tendom ventured to advocate the theory for almost half a dozen

' De Civitate Dei, lib. xvi, cap. 9. Above I have availed myself of the
admirable translation by Rev. Marcus Dods, vol. ii, p. 118. Edinburgh, 1871.
On the subject of Antipodes we may refer the reader to the view of Cosmas
Indicopleustes, an Egyptian of the middle of the 6th century. See Draper's
Conflict between Religion and Science, p. 65, and the opinion of the Venerable
Bede, cited by the same author. See further Bancroft's Native Races of the
Pacific States, vol. v, pp. 1-8, and Ogilby's America, pp. 6-7.

ARABIC LEARNING IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY. I33

centuries, such was the power of the ban put upon investigation
which ran counter to the pre-expressed opinions of a dark age.
The theories of Tascanelli and the observations of Columbus on
the pohir star prepared the way for the great triumph achieved
by De Gama in 1497-8, in his voyage around the Cape of Good
Hope ; and the question of the globular form of the earth was
forever set at rest twenty-two years afterwards by the voyage
of Magellan.^ When it was definitely determined that America
was a continent of itself and not the eastern extremity of India,
the fact that it was inhabited gave rise to speculations which
have since been often repeated. Through an unaccountable
misapprehension, not only the questions of the origin of the
Americans, but the manner of their separation from the rest of
the race, together with the routes they pursued in reaching the
new world — all were thought to be capable of solution by the
light of Scripture. The education of the early writers enables
us to account for the intolerance with which they looked upon
any other solution of the problem than that which alone would
conform to the teachings of the church.^

It is true that the natural nobility of character possessed by
such writers as Las Casas, Duran and a few others, tempered the
fanaticism which had been inculcated by education, and enabled

^ R. H. Major's Prince Henry of Portugal, chap. xxi. London, 1868, 8vo.
Draper's Conflict, pp. 163-5.

2 The narrowness of the attainments of the " educated " in Spain in the
17th century is portrayed by Buckle : " Books, unless they were books of devo-
tion, were deemed utterly useless ; no one consulted them, no one collected
them ; and until the 18th century, Madrid did not possess a single public
library. * * * De Torres, who was himself a Spaniard, and was educated at
Salamanca early in the 18th century, declares that he had studied in the uni-
versity for five years before he had heard that such things as the mathematical
sciences existed. So late as the year 1771, the same university publicly refused
to allow the discoveries of Newton to be taught ; and assigned as a reason, that
the system of Newton was not so consonant with revealed religion as the system
of Anstotle."— History of Civilization in England, vol. ii, pp. 72-3. New York,
1861. Of course these remarks apply to Spain's period of misfortune and decline,
but it must also be remembered that the spirit of intolerance which alone
brought about that condition was at its height about the time of the discovery
of America.

134 OPINION AS TO THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICANS.

them to furnish invaluable information concerning the real con-
dition and traditions of the so-called Indians. But, upon the
other hand, tliere were great numbers of blind, unscrupulous
ecclesiastics who either destroyed outright the manuscripts and
picture-^\Titing of the natives, committing them to the flames,
or so warping tradition in order that it might conform to their
mistaken theology, that in many cases the most precious infor-
mation is irretrievably lost. Such men could hardly be expected
to have treated calmly and with any degree of liberality the
question before us — one which has so often been asked, but as
yet never satisfactorily answered, and one which in the present
state of knowledge cannot be.'

The unanimity with which the most celebrated writers on
the Americans during three centuries following the discovery,
fixed upon a solution of the problem, will be best illustrated in
the following pages : One of the most ingenious and at the
same time most calmly expressed opinions on the origin problem
IS that recorded by Father Duran, a native of Tezcuco in
Mexico, in his History of New Sjmin, written in the year 1585.^

^ Mr. Bancroft has illustrated tlie spirit of this latter class by quoting a
passage from Garcia's Origen de Los Indios, Madrid, 1729, p. 248. It is certainly-
one of tlie most venomous and narrow-minded utterances on record. See Ban-
croft's Natim Races, vol. v, p. 4.

2 Historla Antigua de la Nueva Espana con Noticias de las Ritos y Costum-
bres de los Indios y ExpUcacion del Galendario Mex-icano, por F, Diego Duran,
Escrita en el aiio de 1585 ; MS. in three vols, folio of upwards of 1000 pp.
each. On p. 507, torn, iii, we find notice of December, 1579, as the date at
which that stage of the work was reached. Copy in the library of Congress at
Washington. From Beristain's BihUoteca Hispnno- Americana, Septentrional,
tom. i, p. 442, Mexico, 1816, we quote the following : " Duran (F. Diego)
a quien el Illmo. Eguara, p. 324, de su Biblioteca da equivocadamente el
nombre de Pedro, y a quien el Jesuita Clavigero llama Fernando con igual
equivocacion. Fue natural de Tezcuco, antigua corte de los Emperadores
Megicanos ; y Profeso el Orden de Santo Domincro, en el Convento Imperial de
Megico, a 8 de Margo de 1556. Era varon Docto en Theologia, y de vasta
erudicion en la historia antigua de los Indios ; pero molestado de enfermeda-
des en sus anos ultimos, no pudo dar a luz publica los bellos libros, que tenia
compuestos^ los mas amenos y gustosos, que hasta entonces se habian escrito
sobre las cosas de Indias, como se exj^lica el Illmo. Daila Padilla, y repetieron
despues los criticos franceses Querif y Ecliard. El referido Arzo-Bispo anade,

LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL. 135

He was convinced that the natives had a foreign origin, and that
they performed a long journey of many years duration in their
migration to the new world. He arrived at these conclusions on
account of several considerations, some of which are as follows :
The natives had no definite knowledge of their origin, some
claiming to have proceeded from fountains and springs of water,
others that they were natives of certain caves, and others that
they were created by the gods, while all admit that they had
come from other lands. Furthermore, they preserved in their
traditions and pictures the memory of a journey in which they
had suffered hunger, thirst, nakedness and all manner of afflic-
tions, "with which," he adds, "my opinion and supposition is
confirmed that these natives are of the ten tribes of Israel that
Salmanasar, king of the Assyrians, made prisoners and carried
to Assyria in the time of Hoshea, king of Israel, and in the
time of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, as can be seen in the
fourth Book of the Kings, seventeenth chapter, where it says
that Israel was carried away from their land to Assyria, etc.,
from whence, says Esdras, in Book Fourth, chapter third, they
went to live in a land, remote and separated, which had never
been inhabited, to which they had a long and tedious journey
of a year and a half, for which reason it is supposed these
people are found in all the islands and lands of the ocean consti-
tuting the Occident." ^ The preceding opinion was concurred in

que el P. Juan de Torar, Jesuita Megicano, en cuyo poder paraban los manu-
scritos de su paisano Duran, se los dio al P. Jose de Acosta a quien servieron
mucho para su Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias, en lo qual convienen
Pinelo y D. Nicolas Antonio. Los dichos MSS. eran : Historia de los Indios
de la N. E. AntigiJMlas de los Indios de la JV. E.

^ " Cuanto a lo primero tendremos por principal fundamento el ser esta
Nacion y Gente Indiana advenediza de estranas y remotas regeiones, y que eu
su venida a poseer esta Tierra hizo un largo y prolijo caraino, en el cual gasto
mnchos meses y anos para llegar a ella, como de su relacion y pinturas se
colige, y como de algunos viejos ancianos de muclios dias he procurado saber
para sacar esta opinion en limpio ; y dado caso que algunos cuenten algunas falsas
fabulas conviene a saber, que nacieron de unas fuentes y manantiales de agua ;
otros, que nacieron de unas cuebas ; otros, que su generacion es de los Dioses ;
lo cual clara y abiertamente se ve ser fabula, y que alios mismos ignoran su
origen y principio, dado caso que siempre confiessan bavre venido de tierras ; y

136 LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL.

by many Spanish writers ; but the first English writer to sup-
port the theory was Thorowgood, in his work entitled, Jewes in
America} L'Estrange, who replied to this work, controverted
the theory of the lost tribes of Israel, but concluded that Shera
was the progenitor of the Americans ; that he was ninety-eight
years old at the time of the flood, and was not present at the
building of Babel.^ " Thus far," he quaintly remarks, " have I
offered my week conceptions, first, how America may be collected
to have bin first planted, not denying the Jewes leave to goe
into America, but not admitting them to be the chief or prime
planters thereof, for I am of opinion, that the Americans origi-
nated before the captivity of the ten tribes, even from Sem's near
progeny." ^ Garcia presents an argument in favor of the same
theory, based upon the presence of Scripture names in Peru and
Yucatan. He is positive that the word Peru has the same
meaning as Ophir, the name of the grandson of Heber, from
whom the Hebrews derive their name. In Yucatan he also
finds the name loctan, identical with that of Ophir's father.*

asi lo he hallado pintado en sus antiguas pinturas, donde senalan grandes
trabajos de hambre, sed, y desuudez, con otras inuumerables aflicioues que en
61 pasiiron hasta llegar a esta tierra y poblada ; con lo cual coufirmo mi opinion
y sospecha de que estos Naturales sean de aquellas diez Tribus de Isrrael que
Salmanasar, Rey de los Asirios cautivd y transmigro de Asiria en tiempo de
Ozeas, Rey de Isrrael, y en tiempo de Ozequias, Rey de Jerusalem, como se prodra
ver en el cuarto Libro de los Reyes, capitulo diez y siete, donde dice que fue
transladado Isrrael de su tierra ^ los Asirios hasta el dia de hoy,etc.; de las cuales
dice Esdras en el Libro cuarto, capitulo trace, que se pasaron a vivir a una tierra
remota y apartada que nunca habia sido habitada ; a, la cual habia largo y pro-
lijo camino de ano y medio, donde agora se hallan estas Gentes de todas las
Islas y Tierra firma del mar oceano hacia la parte de occidente. — Historia
Antigua de la Niieva Espafla, torn, i., pp. 1-2, MS.

' London, small quarto, 1650 ; we have both this and the edition of 1660
before us.

'^ Harmon L'Estrange, Kt., Americans No Jewes ; or Lnprdbabilities that the
Americans are of that Race, p. 4. 1652 ; quarto, London. ^ Id., p. 13.

* " De suerte que aviendose conservado este nombre Pirn, que es lo mismo
que Ophir, en aquellas tierras, y hallandose que los moradores dellas parecen a
los Hebreos en muchas cosas, bien se signe que a quellos Indios, y los demas
proceden de Ophir nieto de Heber de quien los Hebreos, y su lengua tomaron el
nombre. Tambien se halla el nombre de lectan padre de Ophir en la provincia

GARCIA AND HIS SUCCESSORS. 137

However, with a determination not to be surpassed by any other
theorist who might assume the unity of the race as the basis
of his conjectures, he offers a plan for populating the new world
so comprehensive that no room was left for originality in any
who might follow him in the same field. Hispaniola, Cuba and
neighboring isles, he believed to have been peopled by the Car-
thaginians. The natives of other parts proceeded from the ten
lost tribes ; others from the people whom Ophir commanded to
colonize Peru; others from the people living in the isle Atlantis;
others from regions adjoining that island, and by means of it
passed to America ; others from the Greeks ; others from the
Phoenicians, and still others from the Chinese and Tartars.^
Lescarbot cites ^we opinions on the subject, all based more or
less on scriptural authority, and adds his own that the Ameri-
cans were the descendants of Noah. He thinks it not impossible
for voyagers to have reached the western continent when Solo-
mon's ships were sent on voyages of three years' duration.^
Herrera, with characteristic soberness, states that because of the
lack of knowledge concerning the proximity of the continents at
the " ends of the earth " he is unable to say positively from
whom the natives were descended, but it seems most reasonable
to him to suppose that they are the descendants of men who
passed to the West Indies by the proximity of the land.^ Vil-
lagutierre reiterates the same opinion, believing that Noah's
descendants were able to reach the new world either by land in
some unknown quarter, or by swimming, or by embarking in
canoes and balsas, for short distances. He supposes that animals
reached the new continent in the first two ways.^ Torquemada,
after a long discussion of the subject, falls in with this view,

que oy se llama Yucatan, en la Nueva Espana, que no es peqneno fundemeuto
para provar que ya que no pusiesse aquel nombre lectan, por no haver ido a
aquella tierra, pudo ser que lo diesse su hijo Ophir." — Origen de los Indios,
p. 323. Ed., Valencia, 1607.

' Origen de los Indios, ( Valencia, 1607), p. 485.

2 Hist, de la Nouvelle France, lib. i, cap. iii, p. 25. Paris, 1611.

3 Risto^ia General de los Heches de los CasteUanos, Madrid, 1728-30, fol.
decada 1 , lib. i, cap. vi.

* Historia de la Conquista Itza, p. 27, Madrid, 1701, fol.

138 ECHE7AERIA Y VEITIA.

adding, however, the opinion that, because of their color, they in
all probability were descended from the sons and grandsons
of Ham.^ Pineda adopts substantially the preceding opinion,
but improves upon it somewhat by pointing out the particular
branch of the family of Ham, to which we may trace the origin
of the first Americans. For some reason, perhaps no more
apparent to himself than us, he designates Naphtuhim, son
of Mezraim and grandson of Ham, as their progenitor. He
thinks that the colonization was accomplished soon after the
confusion of tongues, and may have been effected in any of the
numerous ways we have previously mentioned. He cites the
tradition of Votan as a proofs Siguenza y Gongora and Sister
Agnes de la Cruz, according to Clavigero, were the authors of
this opinion, who further designated Egypt as the starting-point
for that important expedition of colonists.^

Echevarria y Veitia treats the subject fully, tracing it through
the traditions of the people. He cites their creation and flood
myths, their account of the building of the Tower of Babel and
the confusion of tongues, their dispersion upon the face of the
earth, and the passage of seven families to the new world (to
Hue hue Tlappalan) by means of balsas, with which they crossed
rivers and arms of the sea which they encountered in their jour-
ney. Though minute in his details, he does nothing more in
this respect than other important writers to whom we shall refer
in a further chapter, except that his computations by means of
the Mexican calendar have enabled him to assign dates to some of
these occurrences, which, though they probably are not accurate,
are at least interesting. His study of the Mexican paintings con-
vinces him that the natives had a foreign origin.^ The same author

^ Aimque la verdad es que ellos,por Lablar mas propriamente y los otros de
qnien descendieron, por Generacion Natural, son de los Hijos de Noe * * *
y Begun lo que tenemos dicho, en otra parte, acerca de el color de estas gentes,
no tendria por cosa descaminada, creer que son descendientes de los Hijos, u
Nietos de Cham, tercero Hijo de Noe. — Monarquia Ind., tom. i, p. 30.

2 Pineda in 8oe. Mex. Geog. Boletin, 1852, p. 343 ; see tradition of Votan,
tliis work, chap. v.

^ Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. Iv, p. 17 ; cited by Bancroft.

* HUtoria del origen de oentes que poblaron la America Septentrional que

ABBE DOMENECH. 139

in a part of his work refers to the giants as the first inhabitants of
the country, but fails to state whether they came from the old
world or not.^ Ulloa thinks Noah's long and aimless voyage in
the ark was not without fruit to the science of navigation. It
gave confidence to his immediate descendants, who no doubt
were enterprising enough to construct similar vessels and under-
take voyages in them. These, falling in with adverse winds and
treacherous currents, were driven to strange islands and even to
the new world, and being unable to return, became the first
colonists in these remote regions. He thinks the custom of eat-
ing raw fish, common to the American tribes, was acquired during
long sea voyages.^ The Abbe Domenech's opinion has been
cited by Mr. Bancroft in his summary of the views of this class
of writers ; we presume, however, only for the amusement of the
reader.^ The Abbe, less than a score of years ago, committed
himself to the ludicrous and antiquated theory that Ophir had
colonized Peru.* Clavigero considers the creation, flood, and

llaman la Nueta Espana eon noticia de los primeros que establecieron la Monar-
quia, que en ella florecio de la Na^iion Tolteca, y noticias que alcanzaron de la
Creadon del Mundo (date at end of first vol. 1755, and end of third YiW),poT
M. Fer. de Echevarria y Veitia, pp. 24-30, cliap. i, torn, i, MS. Three vols,
folio, in Library of Congress at Washington. About one-fourth of the work is
published in Kingsborough's Mex. Ant., torn. viii.

^ RiMtoria, cap. xii, torn, i, p. 92, MS. ; of Kingsborough's Mex. Ant.,
torn, viii, p. 189.

® Noticias Americanas, pp. 391-5, 405-7. Cited by Bancroft, Natvoe Races,
vol. V, p. 10.

^ Native Races, vol. v, p. 11.

^ Deserts, vol i, p. 26. But what else could be expected of the editor of that
curiosity of Americo-Germanic literature executed by some German school-boy
and unearthed in the Arsenal Library at Paris, entitled Manuscript Picto-
graphique Americain precede d'une notice sur V IdeograpTiie des Peaux-Rouges,
par I'Abbe Em. Domenech, Paris, 1860. Published under the auspices of the
Minister of State and of the Emperor Napoleon III. See also Le Litre des
Saumges au Point de Vue de la Clmlization Frangaise, Brussels, 1861. The
internal evidences of this remarkable MS. being the work of a German boy are
plain to any one having the slightest knowledge of the German language.
How the Abbe and the Emperor could have been so blinded to its real character
we cannot imagine ; however, it would be unfair to leave the impression that,
because of the theory of Ophir's colonization and because of this literary blun-
der, the Abbe's work entitled Seven Tears Residence in the Great Deserts of

140 COMPARATIVELY MODERN VIEWS.

Babel myths of the natives sufficient evidence of unity of origin.
He, however, believes that the migration to this continent began
at a very early period.^

These few writers pretty well represent the opinions of their
numerous contemporaries who, though they wrote voluminously
enough on this subject, added nothing to what we have noted.
The opinions of modern writers are as diverse as those of Garcia,
and only surpass him in the ingenuity with which they press
their favorite theories. Very little has been done in this field

I^orth America is without value. On the contrary, it contains much useful
information. The following passage occurs on p. 66 of the above work : " The
most careful study concerning the origin of the red-skins, made on the spot, has
confirmed us in the belief that there is nothing in science to contradict the Bible,
which represents Adam as the sole stock whence sprung the three great races
which form the principal types of the human family."

1 Stoi'ia Ant. del Messico, tom. iv, p. 15. We quote the following from the
translation by Cullan, London, 1807 : " We do not doubt that the population of
America has been very ancient, and more so than it may seem to have been to
European authors : 1. Because the Americans wanted those arts and inventions,
such, for example, as those of wax and oil for light, which on the one hand
being very ancient in Europe and Asia, are on the other most useful, not to say
necessary, and when once discovered are never forgotten. 2. Because the
polished nations of the new world, and particularly those of Mexico, preserve
in their traditions and in their paintings the memory of the creation of the
world and of the building of the Tower of Babel, the confusion of languages
and the dispersion of the people, though blended with some fables, and had no
knowledge of the events wliich happened afterwards in Asia, in Africa, or in
Europe, although many of them were so great and remarkable that they could
not easily have gone from their memories. 3. Because neither was there among
the Americans any knowledge of the people of the old continent, nor among the
latter any account of the passage of the former to the new world." He then cites
Votan. See further on early views, Gottfried Wagner's De Originibus Amer.
Disertatio Lipsim, 1669 ; Hugo Grotius's Dissertatio de Origine Gentium Ameri-
canorum Amstelodami, 1642 ; Jean De Laet's Jfotce ad Diss. H. Orotii de Origi-
nine Gent. Americ., 1643 ; Jean De Laet's Responsio ad H. Grotii Diss, de Origine
Gent. Americ., 1644 ; Poisson's Animadversiones in Originem Peruvianorvm et
Mexicanoruni, Parisiis, 1644; Georgius Hornius's De Originibus Americanis
HagcB, 1652 ; Rocha's Tratado JJnico y Singulare del Origin de los Indios Occi-
dentales, del Peru, Mexico, Santa Fe, y Chile ; Lima, 1681 ; Engel's Essai sur
Cette Questidn : Commet VAmerique est-elle ete Peuplee d'Hommes et d'Ammaux,
Amsterdam, 1767 ; Corn. De Pauw's Recherclie sur VAmerique et les Ameri-
cains, Berlin, 1774; Vater's Untersuchungen Ober America' s Bewlkerung ausdem
alien Continent, Leipzig, 1810.

PRE-COLUMBIAN COLONIZATION CLAIMS. 141

with a true scientific spirit. Each has been an advocate rather
than an inquirer ; has had his theory to prove sometimes at the
expense of reason and fact, and it is remarkable that the majority
of works written by such advocates have presented the familiar
anomaly of more learning than of probability. It is scarcely the
province of this work to discuss these well-known productions
of imaginative and too often credulous writers. To more than
refer to them would be to lose sight for the time of the object
before us.

The claims for the Pre-Columbian colonization of this conti-
nent of course include most of those already mentioned, and
properly are of two classes : First, those which fix the period of
colonization remote enough to account for the old civilization or
some phases of it. Second, those which avowedly are too recent
to have accomplished that civilization. - Of the first-named class
there are about a dozen thoroughly elaborated claims, while of
the second there are less than half that number. Mr. Warden
years ago treated them all in a manner and with a fullness which
has not been excelled by any more recent writer.^ Though it is
due to Mr. Bancroft to say that never before has the subject
been so exhaustively handled in our own language as by him.^
As nothing new has been developed in this field of speculation
since Mr. Bancroft, and we might add since Mr. Warden treated
it, and as nothing could be contributed either to the sciences of
ethnology or archaeology by a repetition of the old discussion
here, for we have our doubts whether any of the claims can ever
be substantiated at all, we will content ourselves with the simple
enumeration of the theories. A theory which rivals in antiquity,
if Egyptian chronology is reliable, the claims of the Fathers
that the immediate descendants of Noah peopled the new world
shortly after the deluge, is that which seeks to establish the
truth of the tradition told to Solon by the Egyptian priests of
Psenophis, Sonchis, Heliopolis and Sais concerning the ancient

^ D. B. Warden's Recherches sur les Antiqvitcs de VAmerique du Nord, in
Antiquites Mexicaines, torn, ii, div. ii, Paris, 1834, quarto.

^ Native Races, vol. v, cliap. i. The literary apparatus contained in the
notes accompanying the chapter is remarkably full and valuable.

142 THE PLATONIC ATLANTIS.

island Atlantis. Critias, whose grandfather had heard the tra-
dition from Solon, communicated it to Socrates. Plato first
committed it to writing, and states that the events which it
described occurred nine thousand Egyptian years before Solon
heard it. After speaking of the " Atlantic Sea," the priest adds
" that sea was indeed navigable, and had an island fronting that
mouth which you call the Pillars of Hercules ; and this island
was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and there was a
passage hence for travellers of that day to the rest of the islands,
as well as from those islands to the whole opposite continent
that surrounds the real sea. For as respects what is within the
mouth here mentioned, it appears to be a bay with a kind of
narrow entrance, and that sea is indeed a true sea, and the land
that entirely surrounds it may truly and most correctly be called
a continent." The priest concludes his account with the state-
ment that an earthquake in a single night buried the entire
island and its inhabitants. This mysterious island has been
sought for in every quarter of the globe ; but the fact that part
of the description seems applicable to the West Indies and the
Gulf of Mexico, has led theorists to place its submerged shores
between that locality and the Cape Verde or Canary groups. It
is claimed that this imaginary land bridge, this backbone of
earth and rock, may have once been the connecting link between
the two continents. The claim has had many champions, but
none so celebrated as the lamented Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg.
The labors of this learned Americaniste are too well known to
require comment.^ The Codex Chimalpopoca, a Nahua MS. of
anonymous authorship, which served the Abb J as the chief

^ "I know of no man better qualified than was Brasseur de Bourbourg, to
penetrate the obscurity of American primitive history. His familiarity with
the Nahua and Central American languages, his indefatigable industry and
general erudition, rendered him eminently fit for the task, and every word writ-
ten by such a man on such a subject is entitled to respectful consideration.
Nevertheless there is reason to believe that the Abbe was often rapt away from
the truth by the excess of enthusiasm, and the reader of his wild and fanciful
speculations cannot but regret that he has not the opportunity or the ability to
criticise by comparison the French savant's interpretation of the original docu-
ments."— Bancroft's Native Races, p. 127.

THE JEWISH THEORY. 143

authority for the Toltec Period of his Histoire des Nations
Civilisees, is the basis upon which he rests the advocacy. of his
" Atlantic Theory." This singular Codex, which appears to the
eyes of the uninitiated to be only "A History of the Kingdoms of
Culhuacan and Mexico," he considers susceptible of an allegor-
ical interpretation, in which he reads the history and fate of
that first of the continents, on whose soil originated all civiliza-
tion and whose inhabitants were the genii of the arts, the origin
of which are without even a tradition.^

The popularity of the Jewish theory at an early date has
been indicated by our citations from some of the Spanish mis-
sionaries. Garcia, after a seven years residence in Peru, wrote
his work for the purpose of proving conclusively that the Jews
had been the chief colonists of the continent at an early date.
He elaborated the argument set forth by Father Duran,^ which
is founded on passages in Esdras, but proceeded to prop up this
theory with a catalogue of analogies between the Jews and
Americans, some of which are so remote from each other that
the very attempt to assimilate them is simply puerile. Garcia
has had many disciples, some of whom have been no more critical
than himself'^ The illustrious advocate of the Jewish coloniza-
tion of America was that indefatigable antiquary. Lord Kings-
borough. No more masterly, no abler and more exhaustive
defence was ever made in behalf of a hopeless and even baseless
claim than his ; and as the result, the historian and antiquary
has placed at his disposal fac-simile prints of most of the impor-
tant hieroglyphic MSS. of Mexican authorship deposited in the
various libraries of Europe, as well as pictures of the architecture
and stone records common to ancient America. We must con-
fess that the work itself, with its curious plates, its maze of

^ The work in which he repudiates his first interpretation of the Codex
Chimalpopoca, and in which he advocates the allegorical meaning together with
the theory of Atlantis, is entitled Quatre Lettres sur le Mexique, Paris, 1868.

2 This work, p. 135.

^ Among these we may cite Adair's History of the American Indians ; Jones'
History of Ancient America ; Giordan's Tehiiantepec ; Rossi's Souvenirs d'un
Voyage en Oregon, pp. 276-7; Ethan Smith's Views of the Hebrews; Thorow-
good's Jewes in America ; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i, and Simon's Ten Tribes.

144 THE BOOK OF MORMOX.

notes and references, its masterly and novel discoveries of analo-
gies, though many of' them are imaginary, is to us, after pro-
longed examination, as much of a riddle as the great and
improbable theory which it seeks to establish.^ Closely allied to
the theory of the ten lost tribes, is the claim set forth in that
pretentious fraud, the Book of Mormon, which attributes the
colonization of North America, soon after the confusion of
tongues, to a people called Jaredites, who, by divine guidance,
reached our shores in eight vessels, and developed a high state
of civilization on our soil. These first colonists, however, be-
came extinct about six centuries B. c, because of their social
sins. The Jaredites were followed by a second colony, this time
of Israelites, who left Jerusalem in the first year of the reign
of Zedekiah, King of Juda. They reached the Indian Ocean
by following the shores of the Ked Sea, where they built a vessel
which bore them across the Pacific to the western coast of South
America. Having arrived in the new land of promise, they sepa-
rated into two parties, called Nephites and Laminites respec-
tively, after their leaders. They grew to be great nations and
colonized North America also. Keligious strife sprang up be-
tween the two nations because of the wickedness of the Lami-
nites ; the Nephites, however, adhered to their religious traditions
and the worship of the true God. Christ appeared in the new
world and by his ministrations converted many of both peoples
to Him. But towards the close of the fourth century of our era,
both Laminites and Nephites backslid in faith and became
involved in a war with each other which resulted in the exter-
mination of the latter people. The numerous tumuli scattered
over the face of the country cover the remains of the hundreds
of thousands of warriors who fell in their deadly strife. Mormon
and his son Morani, the last of the Nephites who escaped by
concealment, deposited by divine command the annals of their
ancestors, the Book of Mormon written on tablets, in the hill
of Cumorah, Ontario County, New York, in the vicinity of which
the last battle of these relentless enemies took place.- The

' Mexican Antiquities, London, 1831-48, 9 vols, imperial folio.

2 The tablets remained in their place of concealment until discovered by

PHGENICIANS AND CARTHAGINIANS. 145

claiiUj of course, merits mention only on the ground of its
romantic character, and not on the supposition for a moment
that it contains a grain of truth. The Phoenician and Cartha-
ginian colonization of this continent has been much discussed
and credited by a larger number of Americanists than any other
theory, except that which refers the original population to
those parts of Asia adjacent to Alaska. This claim is based on
the maritime achievements of that nation of navigators. The
three-year voyages of Hiram and Solomon's fleet to Ophir and
Tarshish, has often been made to do service for this theory.
Ophir has most frequently been placed by its advocates in Hayti
or Peru.^ Such speculations, however, are incapable of proof,
and are scarcely deserving of sober consideration. The theory
itself is one of the few that command respectful attention,
since tradition, history, and many facts in natural science, seem
to point to its probability.'^ Mr. Bancroft refers at some length
to the voyage of Hanno, a Carthaginian navigator, whose exploits
beyond the pillars of Hercules, with a fleet of sixty ships and
thirty thousand men, is recorded in his Periplus.^ With true
critical insight, Mr. Bancroft rejects the opinion that Hanno
reached America, and thinks he only coasted along the shores
of Africa.^ The only tradition preserved by the Americans is
that of the mysterious Votan, whom some have sought to
assign to a Phoenician nativity.^ Of late years the theory
of the Phoenician colonization has failed to receive its share
of support from new writers. This is owing probably to the
fact that the labors of Mr. George Jones, embodied in his

Joseph Smith, September 23, 1827. Mr. Bancroft, Native Races, p. 97 et seq.
(from which we draw the above), has translated a full account of this wonder-
ful claim from Bertrand's Memoirs, pp. 32 et seq.

1 Pineda's De Rebus Solomonis, but especially Horn's Be Origine Gentium
Americanarum.

® Some of these features will receive attention in a following chapter.

3 Hudson's GeograpTim Veteris Scriptores Greed Minores, 1698-1712, 8vo,
and Rev. Thos. Falconer's Voyage of Hanno, translated, etc., Oxford,
1797, 8vo.

* Native Races, p. 66.

^ Chap, v.; see Tradition and Literature.

146 GEORGE JONES.

Original History of Ancient America Founded on the Ruins
of Antiquity ; the Identity of the Aborigines with the Peojole of
Tyrus and Israel, and the Introduction of Christianity ly the
Apostle St. Thomas,^ may have rendered all such support un-
necessary. It is more probable, however, that the assumption
and credulity displayed in this extraordinary work have dis-
couraged any critical writer from aspiring to the honor of
having his name transmitted to posterity as an advocate of
the Phoenician theory, side by side with that of the author
of the Original History. We have no space to devote to so
positive a writer, except to state that he colonizes America with
a remnant of the inhabitants of Tyre who escaped from their
island-city when it was besieged by Alexander the Great in 332
B. c. They sailed out beyond the Pillars of Hercules to their
colonies in the Canaries, whence the trade- winds bore them
across the Atlantic to the shores of Florida. Ezekiel xxvii. 26,
is quoted as proof : " Thy rowers have brought thee into great
waters ; the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the
seas." ^ The theory that the ancient Americans descended from
the Greeks has been incidentally advocated by several authors,
most of the arguments being based upon supposed Greek inscrip-
tions. Two advocates of the theory are, however, quite decided in
its defence, namely, Mr. Pidegeon ^ and Mr. Lafitau.^ The latter

* Bj George Jones, R. S. I.; M. F, S. V,, etc.; dedicated by permission to the
Archbishop of Canterbury and to Frederick William the Fourth, King of Prus-
sia. London, 1843.

2 Mr. Jones states in his preface that to furnish a list of the works from
which he drew his material would be pedantic, and adds : " Yet being
professedly an original work, the volume of the brain has been more largely
extracted from than any writer whose works are already before that public —
to whose final judgment (upon its merits or demerits) the present author
submits the first history of ancient America with all humility ; but he will
yield to none in the conscientious belief in the truth of the startling proposi-
tions and the consequent conclusions." With such convictions there is no
opportunity for unbiased investipration.

^ Traditions of Decoodah and Antiquariaii Researches, p. 16. New York,
1858, 8vo.

^ Mceurs des Sauvages Ameriquains Comparees aux Mcsurs des Premiers
Temps. Paris, 1724.

THE GREEK AND EGYPTIAN THEORIES. 147

believing that the ancient inliabitants of the Grecian archi-
pelago were driven from their country by Og, king of Bashan,
supposes the inhabitants of the new world descended from that
people, and cites numerous analogies of a political and social
nature.^ No claim has been advanced, we believe, which advo-
cates an actual Egyptian colonization of the new world, but
strong arguments have been used to show that the architecture
and sculpture of Central America and Mexico have been in-
fluenced from Egypt, if not attributable directly to Egyptian
artisans. These arguments are based on the resemblance between
the gigantic pyramids, the sculptured obelisks, and the numerous
idols of these pre-historic countries and those of Egypt. It
requires no practised eye to trace a resemblance in general
features, though it must be said that the details of American
architecture and sculpture, are peculiarly original in design.^
The principal advocate of the theory, Delafield, has furnished
many comparisons, but we think no argument has been presented
sufficiently supported by facts to prove that American architec-
ture and sculpture had any other than an indigenous origin.^
Turning westward our attention is arrested by the probability
of the theory which claims that this continent was peopled
with the Tartars and nations occupying the regions of North-
western Asia. No one can consider the natural certainty of
long-continued communication between the two continents at
Behring's Straits without being impressed with the truth that
that narrow channel served probably as the first highway be-
tween the old world and the new, and vice versa. Certainly a
part of the ancient population of America came upon our soil at
that quarter. Mr. Bancroft remarks : " The customs, manner

1 See Bancroft's Wativ3 Races, p. 122 ; the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg's
discovery of the Greek Gods in America {Landa, Relacion, pp. Ixx-lxxx) will
be considered further on.

2 Bancroft's Native Races, pp. 55 et seq.\ M'Culloch's Researches, pp. 171-2 ;
Mayer's Mexico as it Was, p. 186; Humboldt's Vues, torn, i, pp. 120-4, and
Stephen's Central America, vol. ii, p. 441 ; Jones' Eist. Anc. Am., pp. 122
et seq.

^ Delafield's Inquiry into the Origin of the Antiquities of America, Cincinnati,
1839, quarto.

148 JAPANESE AND CHINESE THEORIES.

of life, and physical appearance of the natives on both sides
of the straits are identical, as a multitude of witnesses testify,
and it seems absurd to argue the question from any point. Of
course, Behring's Strait may have served to admit other nations
besides the people inhabiting its shores into America, and in such
cases there is more room for discussion." ^ Nearly as plausible
is the theory which claims that if the original population of this
continent were not Japanese, at least a considerable infusion of
Japanese blood into the original stock has taken place from time
to time, either by intentional colonization or by the accidents
incident to navigation. The great number of shipwrecks which
are continually being cast upon our Pacific coast by the Japanese
current or Kuro-suvo are constant and substantial witnesses to
the reasonableness of the claim.^

The Chinese colonization theory, unfortunately, does not date
far enough back to account for the oldest American civilization.
It is nevertheless remote enough, were it proven true, to con-
siderably antedate the Aztec and Inca periods. Upwards of a
century ago the learned French sinologist Deguignes announced
that he had found in the writings of early Chinese historians the
statement that in the fifth century of our era certain adventurers
of their race had discovered a country which they called Fusang.^
He further expressed it as his opinion that the country described
must be Western America, and probably Mexico. The original
document on which the Chinese historians base their statements
was the report of a Buddhist missionary named Hoei-Shin, who
in the year 499 a. d., claims to have returned from a long journey
of discovery to the remote and unknown east. This report,
whatever may be its intrinsic value, was accepted as true by the
Chinese, and found its way into the history of Li yan tcheon —
written at the beginning of the seventh century of our era. In

^ Native Baces, vol. v, p. 54. In a note an excellent collection of autliorities
is quoted.

2 Colonel Kennon in Leland's Fusang, pp. 65 et seq. Also C. W. Brooks on
Japanese Race in Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, p. 51.

3 In Memoires de VAcademie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, vol. xxviii,
1761.

FUSANG AND HOEI-SHIN. 1^1:9

1841, Dr. Neumann, Professor of Oriental Languages and History
at Munich, after a residence of a couple of years at Canton, pub-
lished a translation of the narrative of Hoei-Shin with comments
upon it.^ A few of the most striking passages of the account
given by this Buddhist missionary are as follows : " Fusang is
about 20,000 Chinese li in an easterly direction from Tahan and
east of the Middle Kingdom.^ Many Fusang trees grow there
whose leaves resemble the Dryanda cordifolia ; the sprouts, on
the contrary, resemble those of the bamboo tree, and are eaten
by the inhabitants of the land. The fruit is like a pear in form,
but is red. From the bark they prepare a sort of linen which
they use for clothing, and also a sort of ornamental stuff. The
houses are built of wooden beams ; fortified and walled places
are there unknown. They have written characters in this land,
and prepare paper from the bark of the Fusang. The people
have no weapons and make no wars, but in the arrangement of
the kingdom, they have a northern and southern prison. Trifling
offenders are lodged in the southern prison, but those confined
for greater offences in the northern. The name of the king is
pronounced Ichi. The color of his clothes changes with the
different years. The horns of the oxen are so large that they
hold ten bushels. They use them to contain all manner of
things. Horses, oxen, and stags are harnessed to their wagons.
Stags are used here as cattle are used in the Middle Kingdom,
and from the milk of the hind they make butter. No iron is
found in the land ; but copper, gold, and silver are not prized,
and do not serve as a medium of exchange in the market. Mar-
riage is determined upon in the following manner : the suitor
builds himself a hut before the door of the house where the one
longed for dwells, and waters and cleans the ground every even-

' English by Chas. G. Leland : Fusang, or the Chinese Discovery of America.
1875. New York.

* Bancroft, Native Races, vol. v, p. 84, note, says : " A Chinese li is about one-
third of a mile " — English, we suppose, but upon what authority we are unable
to say. Klaproth adopted 850 li to a degree, while D'Eichthal fixes it at 400 to
a degree in the sixth century, though at present it is 350 li to a degree.
Deguignes' Memoir es de V Academic des Inscriptiones et Belles Lettres, vol.
xxviii, 1761, and Leland's Fusang, pp. 128 and 140.

150 FUSANG AND HOEI-SHIN.

iiig. When a year lias passed by, if the maiden is not inclined
to marry him he departs ; should she be willing it is completed.
In earlier times these people lived not according to the laws of
Buddha, but it happened that in the second year — named ' Great
Light ' of Song (a. d. 458) — ^^vq beggar-monks from the kingdom
of Kipiu went to this land, extended over it the religion of
Buddha, and with it his early writings and images. They
instructed the people in the principles of monastic life, and so
changed their manners." ^ Dr. Neumann does not claim that the
Chinese Fusang tree is identical with the Maguay plant, but
that the resemblance between it and the great numbers of the
latter found in Mexico suggested a name for the country to the
discoverer. Tha uncertainty as to the distance, arising out of
our inability to determine what was considered the length of a
Chinese li in the fifth century, is of course an obstacle to the
satisfactory solution of the question. The amusing and pre-
posterous statement as to the size of the horns of oxen is no
argument against the general truth of the narrative, since we
have no data from which to determine the capacity of the
measure, the name of which is here translated bushel, since the
widest possible difference exists between the ancient and modern
Chinese tables of measurement. The references to horses and
oxen are perplexing, and give the narrative the air either of im-
posture or mistake, since both were brought to America first by
the Spaniards.^ The argument by the opponents of this theory
that Fusang was Japan stands on a very slender foundation,
since at a very early period, centuries before our era, Japan
afforded naval stations for Chinese ships.^ Klaproth, and later
Dr. E. Bretschneider, designated the island of Tarakai, known
as Saghalien on our maps, as the Fusang of Hoei-Schin.^

' Leland's Fusang, pp. 25 et seq. This translation was revised by Professor
Neuraan himself, and is more literal than that by Klaproth.

2 Klaprotli's Recherches, in Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 1831, torn, li,
pp. 57 et seq. Humboldt's Examen Critique, torn, xi, pp. 65-6.

' Sr. Jose Perez in Revue Orientale et Americaine, No. 4, pp. 189-195.

^ Dr. E. Bretschneider in the fifth number of the Chinese Recorder and Mis-
sionary Journal, vol. iii, published at Foochow, October 1870. The article
entitled Fusang, or Wlio Discovered America, is copied in full in Leland's

THE MONGOL THEORY. 151

M. D'Eiclitlial and Professor Neumann have both made able
arguments in defence of the authenticity and reasonableness of
this claim, but there are too many uncertainties about it to
admit of its unqualified acceptance. We are more disposed to
give credence to the theory that the Chinese discovered America
at a very early day, than to attach much importance to the par-
ticular account of that discovery by Hoei-Shin. The theory is
a good one, with an abundance of geographical and ethnological
testimony in its favor. ^

Closely allied to the Chinese theory is that so enthusiastically
advocated by Ranking, who maintains that the Mongol emperor
Kublai Khan, in the thirteenth century sent a large fleet against
Japan, but that the vast armada was destroyed by a tempest,
and a portion of its ships were wrecked on the shores of Peru.^
The first Inca he believes was the son of Kublai Khan. It is
a well-known fact that the Mongol fleet was dispersed by a
storm, but there are grave objections to the opinion that any of
the vessels were cast upon the shores of South America. No
tradition was found among the Peruvians only three centuries
later concerning the Incas or any other people having reached
their shores by the accident of shipwreck, or who could be identi-
fied as of Asiatic origin. It is true the Incas may have designed
to keep their human origin as well as their misfortunes a secret,
that they might the better set up their claim to imperial and
divine honors among the people whom they sought to subjugate
by that most powerful ally to ambition — superstition. Mr.
Ranking wrote a very plausible book, but often fell into errors
of credulity and unrestrained enthusiasm which leaves many of
his statements open to suspicion. The theory cannot be accepted

Fusang, pp. 165 et seg. See also Dr. Neumann's Ost-Asien und West Amerika;
in Zeitschrift fur Allgemeirie Erdkunde for April, 1864. See B'Eichtlml in
Bevue Archeologique, 1862, vol. ii, and Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, pp. 33
et seq.

^ The strongest proof upon which the Chinese theory rests is that of physical
resemblance, which on the extreme north-western coast of America is very
marked. Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, p. 37.

2 John Banking's Historical Researches on the Conquest of Peru, Mexico, etc.,
by the Mongols. London, 1827.

152 BUDDHISM IN AMERICA.

without additional and more satisfactory proof.^ Should it
prove to be true, it certainly cannot throw light upon the origin
of the population, but only on a phase of civilization. Humboldt,
Tschudi, Viollet-le-Duc, Count Stolberg and other writers have
pointed out striking analogies between the religion of Southern
Asia, especially of India and that of Mexico.^ If the argument
from analogy is to be relied on, there is abundant reason to believe
that Buddhism in a modified form had permeated the religious
systems of the new world with its mystic element besides grafting
upon them some of its better and more humane institutions.

These are all the colonization claims worth mentioning,
which date back far enough to account for the ancient civiliza-
tion. Of the second class (those too recent to have made much
impression on the existing state of things) there are three. The
earliest of these as to date, is the claim which credits the Irish
with the colonization of the Atlantic coast from North Carolina
to Florida. "White-Man's Land," so often located in this
country, is no doubt imaginary. The obscure and unsatis-
factory chronicle which forms the basis of this claim destroys
its own authority by the statement that White-Man's Land was
six days' sail from Ireland.^ Another legend set forth by
Broughton, which claims that St. Patrick preached the Gospel
in the " Isles of America," carries its own refutation upon its

^ Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, pp. 44-50, contains a good review, but
Ranking himself must be examined to be appreciated.

2 Native Races, vol. v, pp. 40 et seq., gives a brief review. The subject will
be fully treated in its proper place.

3 In the Landnama-book, No. 107, is found a narrative of Are Makson, in
Hvitramanna Land. Prof. Rafn {Antiquitates AmericanoB, pp. 210 et seq.), trans-
lates it as follows : " Ulvus Strabo, filius Hognii Albi, totum occupavit Rey-
kjanesum inter ThorskaQordum et Hafrafellum ; uxorem habuit Bjargam,
filiam Eyvindi CEstmanni, sororem Helgii Marci. Eorum filius Atlius Rufus,
qui uxorem habuit Thorbjargam, sororem Steinolvi Humilis ; horum filius erat
Mar de Reykholis, qui uxorem habuit Thorkatlam, filiam Hergilsis Hnapprassi
(natibus globosis). Eorum filius fuit Arius, qui tempestate delatus est ad
Hvitramannalandiam (Terram alborum hominum), quam nonnulli Irlandiam
Magnum appellant, qui in oceano occidentali jacet prope Vinlandiam Bonam,
sex dierum navigatione versus occidentem ab Irlanda." On Hvitramannaland,
see Antiquitates Americans, pp. 162, 163. 183, 210, 212, 214, 447, 448, and De
Costa's Pre-Columbian Discovery of America, pp. lii, 86, 63, 70, 87, 88.

WHITE MAN'S LAND. I53

face by the use of the word America in its text.^ The Scandina-
vian discovery of America is a well-known fact, and requires no
discussion here. The Codex Flatioiensis, as expounded by the
learned Prof. Rafn in the Antiquitates Americance, has, no
doubt, set at rest the whole matter. Humboldt, in reviewing the
evidence upon which the claim is founded, sums it up in these
words : "The discovery of the northern part of America by
the Northmen cannot be disputed. The length of the voyage,
the direction in which they sailed, the time of the sun's rising
and setting, are accurately given. While the caliphate of Bag-
dad was still flourishing under the Abbassides, and while the
rule of the Samanides, so favorable to poetry, still flourished in
Persia, America was discovered about the year 1000 by Lief, son
of Eric the Red, at about 41 J° north latitude." No evidence
of a substantial character has been produced to show that the
Scandinavians left any impress upon the American civilization. It
is true, Brasseur de Bourbourg, when he first began his labors in
the field of American archaeology expressed such an opinion, but
we believe he never repeated it in the latter years of his life.^
The learned Abbe was guilty of many contradictions, and this
may be considered one of them. The most positive claims in
this direction are advanced by two recent authors, M. Gravier^
and Prof. Anderson,^ the former attributing the Aztec civilization
to Norse influence. He cites the discovery in Brazil of an ancient
city near Bahia, in which was found the statue of a man point-
ing with his forefinger to the North Pole ; of course, according
to M. Gravier, he was a Northman.^ Several authorities for

1 Monastikon Brltannicum, pp. 131-2, 187-8. Cited by De Costa, Pre-Col.
Bis. of Am., p. xviii.

2 On this subject see Brasseur de Bourbourg in tbe 16th vol. of the sixth
series of Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, pp. 263, 281-9 ; also 3d vol. of same work,
sixth series, 1855, pp. 156-7, and in New York Tribune for November 21, 1855.

3 Decouverte de VAmeriqne par les Normands au X« decle, par Gabriel
Grravier, Paris, 1864, 4to.

* America Not Discovered by Columbus, by R. B. Anderson, Chicago, 1874,
16mo.

5 Gravier, Decouverte de VAmerique, p. 235, quotes Dr. Schuck as author-
ity, 8ociete Boyale des Antiquaires du Nord, 1840-43, pp. 26-7 ; also 1844, p. 181.

154 DISCOVERY BY THE NORTHMEN.

the discovery of Norse remains in the United States might be
cited, but the unwarrantable arguments of most of them add
nothing to the already established fact of Norse colonization in
the tenth century of our era. Another pre-Columbian claim to
the discovery of America is that which declares Madoc-Ap-owen
and his Welsh countrymen to have reached this continent in
1170 A. D. The chronicle on which the claim is based, is want-
ing in authority. A translation of it, taken from a history
of Wales by Dr. Powell, was published by Hakluyt, in 1589.
As this claim can have no relation to our subject, we refrain
from a discussion of it here.^ The only remaining theory, and
probably the most important of all, because of its purely scien-
tific character, which presents itself for our consideration, is
that which not only considers the civilization of ancient America
to have been indigenous, but also claims the inhabitants them-
selves to have been autochthonic ; in a word, that by process
of evolution or in some other way, the first Americans were
either developed from a lower order in the animal kingdom or
were created on the soil of this continent. As the latter theory
involves a denial of the unity of the race, it requires a separate
and critical examination.

1 Hakluyt's PiHncipal Navigations, Voyages, etc., vol. iii, pp.1 et seq.; see a
good discussion of the Welsh claim in Bancroft's Native Races, \o\. v, pp.116
et seq.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICANS AS VIEWED FROM THE
STANDPOINT OF SCIENCE.

Origin Theories — Indigenous Origin — Separate Creation Theory— Dr. Morton's
Theory — Agassiz's Views — Dr. Morton's Cranial Measurements Classified
— Prof. Wilson's Measurements — Dr. Morton's Theory of Ethnic Unity
Groundless — Ethnic Relationships — Typical Mound-skull — Crania from
the River Rouge — Dr. Farquharson's Measurements — Crania from Ken-
tucky — Researches in Tennessee by Prof. Jones — Measurements — Prof.
Putnam's Collection of Crania from Tennessee Mounds — Low Type Crania
from the Mounds — Development Observable in Mound Crania — Head-
Flattening Derived from Asia — Diseases of the Mound-builders — Physiog-
nomy of the Ancient Americans — Languages — Evolution and its Bearing
on the Origin of the American — Darwin and Haeckel on the Indigenous
American — The Autochthonic Hypothesis Groundless — Unity of the
Human Family — Accepted Chronology Faulty.

THE want of evidence for the theories which designate par-
ticular nations as the first colonizers of the Western Conti-
nent, long ago produced a feeling of distrust, which led some to
repudiate all claims for the foreign origin of the first inhabi-
tants of this continent. This theory, which claims for the most
ancient inhabitants an autochthonic origin, has had from time
to time among its advocates some of the most respectable
ethnologists. The character of their attainments, and in many
cases their arguments in behalf of this most remarkable hypoth-
esis, command the respect of all who are interested in this
fascinating field of speculation.

At first it was maintained that the Creator had placed an
original pair of human beings here, as Scripture teaches that He
did in the old world.^ Other writers equally confident that the

^ " I think, therefore (as mentioned before), we do not at all derogate from
God's greatness, nor in any ways dishonor the sacred evidence given us by His

156 THEORIES FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE AMERICANS.

first ancestors of the American race were indigenous, have not so
definitely expressed themselves as to the manner of their origin.^
The most recent phase of the autochthonic theory is that which
designates evolution as the means by which the continent was
populated with human beings, developed from its own fauna.
This latter question is now the most absorbing of all that occupy

servants, when we think that there were as many Adams and Eves (every one
knows these names to have an allegorical sense), as we find different species
of the human genus * * * * God has created an original pair here as
well as elsewhere." — Roman's Concise Nat. Hist, of E. and W. Florida, p. 55,
New York, 1775. " We will candidly confess that we could never understand
why philosophers have been so predisposed to advocate the theory which
peoples America from the Eastern hemisphere. We think the supposition that
the Red man is a primitive type of a family of the human race, originally
planted in the Western Continent, presents the most natural solution of the
problem ; and that the researches of physiologists, antiquaries, philologists
and plulosophers in general, tend irresistibly to this conclusion." — Norman'' s
Rambles in Yucatan, p. 251, New York, 1843, 8vo. "My own belief is that,
whatever was the origin of the different tribes or families, the whole race
of American Indians are native and indigenous to the soil. There is no proof
that they are either the lost tribes of Israel or emigrants from any part of the
old world. They are a separate and as distinct a race as either the Ethiopian,
Caucasian, or Mongolian. In the absence of all proof to the contrary, it seems
to me to be both rational and consistent to assume that the Creator placed the
Red race on the American Continent as early as He created the beasts and
reptiles that inhabit it." — Swan's Northwest Coast, p. 206, New York, 1857.
"Dieu a cree plusieurs couples d'^tres humains differant les uns des autres
interieurement et exterieurement ; chacun de des couples a ete place dans le
climat approprie a son organisation." — Lo)'d Karnes in Warden's RecJierches,
p. 203.

^ The reader who has not given special attention to this phase of the subject,
will be surprised to learn how generally received has been the autochthonic
theory among writers in this field. Mr. Bancroft has given several quotations
to illustrate this fact. See Morelet's Voyage, vol. i, p. 177, Paris, 1857 ; Evens'
Our Siftter Republic, p. 332 ; Catlin's North American Indians, vol. ii, p. 232.
We prepared extracts for insertion at this point, but the limit of our space will
not permit a full consideration of the question.

Mr. Bancroft says of the theory, " If we may judge by the recent results
of scientific investigation, [it] may eventually prove to be scientifically correct.
To express belief, however, in a theory incapable of proof, appears to me idle.
Indeed such belief is not belief, it is merely acquiescinor in or accepting a
hypothesis or tradition until the contrary is ■pTOwed."~Native Races, vol. v,
pp. 130-1.

SEPARATE CREATION THEORY. 157

the attention of the American Anthropologists. But to go back
to the separate creation view, we find it expressed in general and
unscientific utterances at first, mostly based on the hasty obser-
vation of travellers who, in many cases, had little knowledge
of anthropologic or ethnic principles. In fact, the subject was
not fairly discussed and its advocacy based on satisfactory in-
vestigation until the justly celebrated Dr. Samuel G. Morton,
of Philadelphia, issued his Crania Americana, containing the
results of the most diligent researches on the skulls of the Mound-
builders, Mexicans, Peruvians, and many of the known tribes
of the Red Indians. In the face of abundant proof among the
crania of his own splendid collection, and contrary to the testi-
mony of his numerous measurements, which have often since been
used against his theory, this diligent investigator amved at
the conclusion that the Americans were a distinct race, origi-
nated in this continent, having a uniform cranial type (excepting
only the Eskimo), from the Arctic Circle to Patagonia.

A division, however, of this supposed homogeneous race was
made by this author into Toltecan and Barbarous nations ; the
former appellative comprising all the semi-civilized peoples,
while the latter embraced the wild tribes. All were believed to
have had the same origin and to belong to the same cranial type.
" It is curious to observe, however," remarks Dr. Morton, " that
the Barbarous nations possess a larger brain by five and a half
cubic inches than the Toltecans ; while, on the other hand, the
Toltecans possess a greater relative capacity of the anterior
chamber of the skull in the proportion of 42.3 to 41.8. Again the
coronal region, though absolutely greater in the Barbarous tribes,
is rather larger in proportion in the semi-civilized tribes ; and
the facial-angle is much the same in both, and may be assumed
for the race at 75°." ^ In conclusion, the author is of the opinion
that the facts contained in his work tend to sustain the follow-
ing propositions : (1) " That the American race differs essen-
tially from all others, not exeepting the Mongolian ; nor do the
feeble analogies of language, and the more obvious ones in civil
and religious institutions and the arts, denote anything beyond
* Crania Americana, p. 260. Philadelphia, 1839. Folio.

158 CORRESPONDENCE OF PHYSICAL LIFE TO NATURE.

casual or colonial communication with the Asiatic nations ; and
even these analogies may perhaps be accounted for, as Humboldt
suggested, in the mere coincidence arising from similar wants and
impulses in nations inhabiting similar latitudes." (2) " That the
American nations, excepting the Polar tribes, are one race and one
species, but of two great families which resemble each other in
physical, but differ in intellectual character." (3) " That the
cranial remains discovered in the mounds, from Peru to Wiscon-
sin, belong to the same race and probably to the Toltecan
family." ^ Among the several ethnologists and naturalists who
accepted without question the conclusions reached by Morton,
the chief was Agassiz, who adopted them as auxiliary to his
theory of the correspondence of human life with certain associa-
tions in the animal kingdom.'^ They served as a sure foundation,

^ Dr. Morton gives the following comparative table showing the internal
capacity and dimensions of the crania of different races :

RACES.

Caucasian.
Mongolian
Malay ....
American .
Ethiopian .

Number
of Skulls.

Mean

Internal

Capacity

in cubic in.

Series.

Smallest
in the
Series.

109

147

100

^ After presenting several arguments together with accompanying proofs,
Agassiz says : " This coincidence between the circumscription of the races of
man and the natural limits of different zoological provinces characterized by
peculiar distinct species of animals, is one of the most important and unexpected
features in the Natural History of Mankind, which the study of the geographical
distribution of all the organized beings now existing upon earth has disclosed to
us. It is a fact which cannot fail to throw light at some future time upon the
very origin of the differences existing among men, since it shows that man's
physical nature is modified by the same laws as that of animals, and that any
general results obtaiijed from the animal kingdom regarding the organic dif-
ferences of its various types must also apjily to man. Now there are only two
alternatives before us at present : 1st. Either mankind originated from a com-
mon stock, and all the different races with their peculiarities, in their present
distribution, are to be ascribed to subsequent changes — an assumption for which
there is no evidence whatever, and leads at once to the admission that the diver-

THE "AMERICAN RACE" DOES NOT EXIST. 159

SO far as this continent is concerned, for his opinion that the
races originated in nations. " We maintain/' says the eminent
naturalist, "that, like all organized beings, mankind cannot
have originated in single individuals, but must have been created
in that numerical harmony which is characteristic of each species.
Men must have originated in nations, as the bees have originated
in swarms, and as the different social plants have covered the
extensive tracts over which they have naturally spread.'' ^ This
view has been enlarged upon by Messrs. Nott and Gliddon, who
argue that, " if it be conceded that there were two primitive pairs
of human beings, no reason can be assigned why there may not
have been hundreds."^ The uniqueness of the so-called Ameri-
can race not only fails of proof, but is positively disproven by
the measurements of crania accompanying Morton's plates, and
any thoughtful person cannot avoid surprise that so distinguished
a scholar as Agassiz should have committed himself to a theory
without first submitting it to a crucial test. That there is a
great variety of type observable among the crania figured by
Morton, even a superficial examination will show, while a more
careful classification presents several facts of interest. For this
classification we consider the simple division of the crania into
long and short skulls sufficient. The question of other divisions
has been often discussed, but with Mr. Huxley we content our-
selves with the simplest classification. Keferring to a particular
instance, he says, " taking the antero -posterior diameter as 100,

sity among animals is not an original one, nor their distribution determined by
a general plan established in the beginning of the creation ; or 2d, we must
acknowledge that the diversity among animals is a fact determined by the will
of the Creator, and their geographical distribution part of the general plan
which unites all organized beings into one great organic conception ; whence it
follows that what are called human races down to their specializations as
nations are distinct primordial forms of the type of man." * * * He concludes
in these words : " The laws which regulate the diversity of animals and their dis-
tribution upon earth apply equally to man idthin the same limits and in the
same degree ; and all our liberty and moral responsibility, however spontaneous,
are yet instinctively directed by the All-wise and Omnipotent to fulfill the great
harmonies established in Nature." — Types of Mankind, pp. Ixxv and Ixxvi.
* Agassiz in Nott and Gliddon's Types of Mankind, p. 78. ^ Ibid.

160 CEPHALIC INDEX OF CRANIA.

the transverse diameter varies from 98 or 99 to 62. The number
which thus expresses the proportion of the transverse to the
longitudinal diameter of the brain-case is called the cephalic
index. Those people who possess crania with a cephalic index of
80 and above are called hrachycephali (short-skulled), those with
a lower index are dolichocephali (long-skulled)."^ Dr. Meigs,
while accepting the classification into long and short skulls,
admits that it is open to the objection that it forces into either
and opposite classes crania closely related to each other in type
and measurement."^ Yet it must be admitted, that in propor-
tion as arbitrary divisions are increased, these difficulties are
multiplied, and that this simple, twofold classification presents
the fewest.^ In the follomng tables, which contain all the
measurements accompanying the plates in the Crania Ameri-
cana, the cephalic index is placed in the left-hand column.
That a wide difference of type is apparent between the extremes
of the dolichocephalic and brachycephalic measurements, cer-
tainly cannot be denied.

It wiU be observed that the widest range is found between
the proportions of the skull of the Cayuga chief 100 years old
(Plate XXXV) with a cephalic index of only 65.4, and those
of some of the Peruvian crania having a cephalic index of over
98. The supposed Natchez skull (Plate LIV) is so artificially
flattened as to exclude it from the calculation. The mean
cephalic index of each of the tables exhibits a well-defined type

* Manual of the Anatomy of the Veriebrated Animals, p. 430. N. Y., 1872.

2 Note to Retzius' article in 8mit?isoniaii Beport, .1859, p. 264.

3 As an illustration of complex classification, we have the following :
" From an old and well-filled European graveyard may be selected specimens
of klimocephalic (slope or saddle skull), conocephalic (cone-skull), Iraehycephalie
(short-skull), dolichocephalic (long-skull), platycephalic (flat-skull), leptocephalic
(slim -skull), and other forms of crania equally worthy of penta or hexa-syllabic
Greek epithets."— Oz/?e7Z. {R.), Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. ii, p. 570. London,
1866, 8vo. Foster, in Pre-Historic Races of the United States, in addition to
the long and short skulls, adopts also the orthocephalic (erect-head), with the
longitudinal diameter 100; he assumes the transverse diameter for dolicho-
cephalae to be less than 73 ; for orthocephalse, to range between 74 and 79, and
for brachycephalae, 80 and upwards.

DR. MORTON'S MEASUREMENTS.

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DR. MORTON'S MEASUREMENTS.

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164

MORTON'S MEASUREMENTS CLASSIFIED.

of the long and the short skull respectively. The former 74.7
and the latter 87 are both far enough removed from the divid-
ing line (80) to leave no doubt that the types are distinct and
separate. Additional data, materially strengthening the conclu-
sion of the variety of types found among American crania, has
been furnished by that eminent authority Dr. Daniel Wilson.^
The following table of measurements in inches is based upon his
extensive researches :

Crania
in each
Class.

Description of Crania.

Mean
Longitu-
dinal
Diameter.

Mean
Parietal
Diameter.

Cephalic
Index.

12
29
16
8
7
31
22
12
39

Mound Crania (two from Morton, four un-
doabtedly from the mounds)

6.54

6.62
5.97
6.49
7.05
6.56
7.24
6.62
7.25
7.39

5.67
5.78
5.12
4.95
5.41
5.51
5.47
5.45
6.00
5.50

86.7
85.7
85.7
76.2
76.7
84.0
75.5
82.3
82.7
74.4

Peruvian Bracliyceplialic Crania

Peruvian Doliclioceplialic Crania

Mexican Dolichoceplialic Crania

Mexican Bracliy cephalic Crania

Dolichocephalic Crania of Am. Indians

Brachy cephalic Crania of Am. Indians

Living Alpfonquins, Brachy cephalse

West Canadian Hurons (male)

It requires no careful examination of these figures to observe
that the type of skull among the American aborigines, ancient
or modern, was in no sense constant, since among the same tribes
long and short skulls occur in almost equal numbers. This fact
is especially true among the savage Indians. Among the semi-
civilized nations, however, as among the Peruvians and Mexicans,
the long and short skulls mark the successive existence and
destruction of distinct peoples having physiological characteris-
tics peculiar to themselves. The Peruvian elongated crania are
always found with large-boned skeletons having strong hands,
while the short or rounded crania accompany very small bones,
such as were unable to endure labor like the building of pyra-
mids and the erection of such edifices as are found in Peru.^

' Pre-Historic Man, chap. xx. 3d ed. London, 1876. 2 vols. 8vo.
2 Dr. Wilson's American Cranial Type in Smithsonian Report, 1862, pp. 250
et seq. Dr. Wilson clearly shows that in one set there is the characteristic

RELATIONSHIP OF ANCIENT AMERICAN PEOPLES. 165

It is with the utmost deference to the genius, and with full
recognition of the valuable researches of Dr. Morton, that we dis-
agree with his conclusions and pronounce his theory without
foundation in fact. There is no evidence furnished by the
measurement of crania that an American race, as unique in itself
and distinct from the rest of mankind, ever existed.^ One of the
most interesting studies connected with these tables, as well as
other measurements made more recently, is the question of rela-
tionship between the various semi-civilized peoples of the ancient

Mongol auxiliary of prominent cheek bones, while in the other the bones of the
face are small and delicate. In twenty-six measurements he finds proof that the
Peruvians were distinct from the Mexicans. Thirty-one dolichocephalic crania
as compared with twenty- two brachyceplialic crania convince him of the error of
Morton and establish a diversity among'the tribes of the North-east. He thinks
analogies are traceable between the Esquimaux and the type of elongated skull ;
at all events he is satisfied that the form of the skull is as little constant among
the tribes of the new world as among those of the old.

V This author (Dr. Morton), who has given us such numerous and valuable
facts, as well as the linguists who have studied these American languages with
indefatigable zeal, have arrived at the conclusion that both race and language
in the new world are unique. I am obliged to avow that the facts advanced by
Morton himself, and that the study of numerous skulls with which he has
enriched the museum of Stockholm, have conducted me to a wholly different
result. I can only explain the fact by surmising that this remarkable man has
allowed the views of the naturalist to be warped by his linguistic researches.
For, if the form of the skull has anything to do with the question of races, we
cannot fail to see that it is scarcely possible to find anywhere a more distinct
distribution into dolichocephalse and brachycephalse than in America. It would
be only necessary, in order to show this, to direct attention to certain of the
delineations in his own work, where the skull of the Peruvian infant (PI. 2), the
Lenni-Lenape (PI. 32), the Pawnee (PI. 38), the Blackfoot (PI. 40), etc., as clearly
present the dolichocephalic form as on the other hand his Natchez (PI. 30 and 31)
and the greater part of his representations of the skulls of Chili, Peru, Mexico,
Oregon, etc., are distinct types of the brachyceplialic. Conclusive, however, as
the plates are, I should scarcely have ventured to advance these remarks, if the
rich series of our own collection, and the numerous and excellent figures of
Blumenbach, Sandifort, Van der Hoeven, etc., did not declare in favor of my
opinion. {Retzius in Smithsonian Report, 1859, p. 264.)

Latham, in Natural History of the Varieties of Man, p. 452, says : "As to
the conformation of the skull, a point where (with great deference) I differ with
the author of the excellent Crania Americana, the Americans are said to be
brakhy-'keiplmVic, the Eskimo doUkho-ke^haMc." He quotes Morton's tables to
contradict his (Morton's) conclusions.

166 TYPICAL MOUND SKULL.

period. First and most naturally the type of the mound crania
attracts attention, and calls for comparisons with the Indian
type and with that of the remarkable people of the more southern
civilization.

The " Scioto Mound " skull figured by Dr. Davis in Plates
xlvii and xlviii of The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi
Valley^ was pronounced by Dr. Morton in Dr. Meigs' catalogue
of the human crania in the collection of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia, as " perhaps the most admirably formed
head of the American race hitherto discovered.''

The most important measurements are as follows :

Longitudinal diameter Qt.5 inches.

Parietal " 6.0 "

Vertical " 6.2 "

Inter-mastoid arch 16.0 "

Horizontal circumference 19.8 "

Cephalic index 92.3 "

The chief features as pointed out by the above-named author,
are : the elevated vertex, flattened occiput, great inter-parietal
diameter, ponderous bony structure, salient nose, large jaws and
broad face. These he pronounces to be characteristics of the
American cranium. Dr. Wilson has shown that Dr. Morton has
contradicted his own previous definition of what that type is as
well as the description given by Humboldt.^ The propriety of
selecting any single cranium as typical of the Mound-builders
would be as questionable in this connection as it was for Dr.
Morton and the authors of the Types of Mankind to designate
the Scioto Mound skull as a type of the American cranium.
Until within a few years but few genuine mound skulls were

1 " Tried by Dr. Morton's own definitions and illustrations, the Scioto Mound
skull diflfers from the typical cranium in some of its most characteristic features.
Instead of the low, receding, unarched forehead,, it has a finely-arched frontal
bone with corresponding breadth of forehead. The wedge-shaped vertex is
replaced by a well-rounded arch curving equally throughout ; and with the
exception of the flattened occiput, due to artificial though probably undesigned
compression in infancy, the cranium is a uniformly proportioned example of an
extreme brachycephalic ^^xAiy^Pre-Eistoric Mariy voL ii, p. 127.

CRANIA FROM THE RIVER ROUGE. 1G7

accessible, and considerable suspicion was reasonably attached
to the genuineness of several, including three or foui* of the so-
called mound skulls in the Crania Americana. Recent explora-
tions have brought to light a large number, of unquestioned
genuineness. The Peabody Museum alone possesses 300, and of
these 200 were exhumed by Prof. F. W. Putnam.

From a number of measurements only is it possible for us
to approximate the type of the mound skull. We have already
referred to the low type skulls secured by Gen. H. W. Thomas
from a mound in Dakota TeiTitory.^ Unfortunately we are
without measurements, but from the description we observe that
the forehead is decidedly receding, and the orbital ridges are
excessively developed. The inferior maxillary is of unusual
prominence and much more massive, as is the entire bony struc-
ture, than in the common Indian cranium. Another cranium
of similar characteristic was exhumed from the great mound on
the River Rouge near its junction with the Detroit River, Michi-
gan, by Mr. Henry Gillman. From this mound several crania
were taken, of which one (though evidently adult) presented the
hitherto, I think I may say, unprecedented feature of its capacity
being only fifty-six cubic inches. The mean given by Morton
and Meigs of the Indian cranium is eighty-four cubic inches,
the minimum being sixty-nine cubic inches. This cranium, for-
warded with other relics to the Peabody Museum, presents
(though in no wise deformed) the further peculiarity of having
the ridges for the attachment of the temporal muscle only .75 of
an inch apart, in this respect resembling the cranium of the
chimpanzee. It is rarely that in human crania those ridges
approach each other within a distance of two inches, while they
vary from that to four inches apart.- Eight crania were ex-
humed by Mr. Gillman from the great mound on Rouge River,
which furnished him the following measurements :

» Chapter II, p. 137.

2 Henry Gillman, The Ancient Men of the Oreat Lakes, in Proceedings of
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 24th meeting, at
Detroit, 1875, p. 317 ; also American Journal of Arts and Science, 1874, vol. cvii,
p. 1 et seq., and Sixth Annual Beport of Pealody Museum, pp. 13-20.

168

CRANIA FROM THE RIVER ROUGE.

-"sssw

6.60

""ff>^

■*

4.86
4.10

■*

4.60
4.90

-mmm^v^toj

■»

11%

14.86
18.90

-ifur prntfisoo

11,00
11.80

•vurm'ijmd

18.16
18.80

ifxirroptmt

11.10
11.60
11.90

§ i

.897
.478
.606

T^fiimAfiapiir

i i. 1

TM»Mff/»«W

ill

ass

1 7*«Mr

6.68
6.60
6.66

§
O

^
•^

6.80
6.63
6.08

.6.80
7.60
6.86

-xnoMfimtAtlO

§ : 8

18.38
18.83
15.98

No.

^•

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RESEABCHES OF DR. FAEQUHABSON,

169

We observe that only three of these crania are brachycephalic,
while the remaining live, and the mean of all, fall under the
class of dolichocephalic crania, according to our classification.
Mr. Gillman would call gome of them Orthocephalic, and the
mean of the eight crania giving a cephalic index of .786 and .802
as an index of height might properly be so classified. The same
gentleman exhumed from an ancient mound on Chambers Island,
Green Bay, Wisconsin, six crania, which as to ty|)e were equally
divided into long and short skulls, while the mean cephalic
index, .817, assigned them to the brachycephalic class. The
long skulls were not far removed, however, from the dividing
line between the classes (.80). The energetic and intelligent
labors of Dr. K. J. Farquharson of the Davenport, Iowa, Academy
of Sciences, has placed within our reach measurements upon
twenty-five mound crania,' The following are the most impor-
tant measurements in inches :

CRANIA.

Mean of Nine Crania from Albanj, HI. ,
Mean of Eleven from Bock Biver, III. .
Mean nf Fonr from Henry Oionty, III. ,
One from Darenport. ,^ ,

19.8
20.15
19.9
19.5

63
7.0
7.0
7.0

5.1
5.4
5.2
5.25

74.48

74.47
76.20

This table introduces a new feature into the investigation in
hand ; the brachycephalic or the near approximation to the
short skull is displaced by a mean cephalic index of .758, indi-
cating the well-marked dolichocephalic type. The mean internal
capacity 73.3 inches fells considerably below the mean of mound
cTania as measured by Squier and Davis, Wilson and oth^T*?,
from localities ferther south.

* B^^^erU Exploratioiu of Mo^/ndi near Davenport, Idwa, In Proceeding* cf
Arrt^tU-un Ahuodaium for tJie AdvaneemerU of Science, 24th meeting, 1075,
pp. 297 et uq.

170

RESEARCHES BY DR. FARQUH ARSON.

The mean results of Dr. Farquharson's measurements^ show
a greater vertical than transverse diameter, a peculiarity of most
Mississippi mound skulls, distinguishing them from Peruvian
crania. In the Ohio Valley the brachycephalic type is quite
decided, though the general features of high receding forehead,
flattened occiput, and great transverse diameter, establish their
relationship to all other North American mound crania yet dis-
covered. Three Ohio Valley mound skulls, as to the genuine-
ness of which no suspicion can be entertained, namely the Scioto
Mound cranium and two crania from the Grave Creek Mound,
give the following measurements in the mean : Longitudinal

^ Dr. Farquharson considers that some of his measurements in inches are
scarcely accurate enough, and gives the following table in the decimals of a
metre :

MEASUREMENTS OF MOUND SKULLS; ALSO OP SIOUX SKULLS IN DECIMALS

OF A METRE.

PORAMmAIi DISTANCE

TAKEN WITH WTMAN'S INSTRUMKXT.

N-Q.

1 i

Capacity in
Centimetres.

Mounds.

.&46

.200

.120

.140

1190

.600

Albany, IlL

.483

.162

.128

.140

1190

062

■.382

.790

Albany, 111.

.495

.174

.130

.135

1020

077

.442

.752

Albany, 111.

.508

.170

.140

.125

.823

Albany, 111.

.495

.175

.135

.140

1249

.065

■.370

.771

Davenport, Mound No. 9.

.508

.171

.140

1334

062

.362

.818

Rock River, 111.

.503

.167

.148

.140

1135

070

.419

.886

Rock River, 111.

.533

.180

.150

.145

1362

.8;33

Rock River, Jll.

.457

.167

.128

.140

1021

.766

Rock River, HI.

.522

.185

.130

.150

1362

089

'.427

.702

Rock River, 111.

483

.171

.138

.140

1192

079

.460

.807

Henry County, 111.

.503

.185

.138

.145

1306

081

.443

.745

Henry County, 111,

.457

.170

.130

.140

ll;35

or8

.448

.764

Henry County, 111.

.533

.185

.135

.140

1249

072

.389

.703

Henry County, 111.
Rock River, 111.

.508

.180

.140

.533

.196

■.i46

.140

'.704

Rock River, HI.

.200

.128

.640

Rock River, 111.

.'.'.

.180

.137

.761

Henry County, HI.

....

.178

.140

■.146

073

■.4i6

.730

Albany, ill.
Rock River. HI.

.184

.139

.150

088

.478

.755

.200

Shell Bed, Rock Island.

'.482

.170

.125

■.146

"936

076

'.388

'.735

Albany, El.

.177

.135

.140

.762

Albany, HI.

■.507
.503

.177

.130

.145

il37

088

.440

.734

Albany, 111.

.179

.134

.140

1188

.075

.432

.755

Mean.

No. of skulls measured.

RESEARCHES OF PROF. JONES IN TENNESSEE. 171

diameter, 6.5 inches ; parietal diameter, 6 inches ; vertical
diameter, 5.5 inches, and 90.7 as their cephalic index. The
mean internal capacity, though not obtainable with any degree
of accuracy, in this instance is no doubt from eight to ten
cubic inches greater than in the Davenport crania. With the
general characteristics alike, minor differences may in most
instances be attributed to artificial pressure. A valuable collec-
tion of mound crania was made in Kentucky for the Smithsonian
Institution and the Peabody Museum, by Mr. S. S. Lyon, and
is thoroughly reliable as a basis for measurements. Professor
Wyman, in the Fourth Annual Report of the Peabody Museum,
describes them as follows : " The twenty-four crania measured
(Table YIII) show a mean capacity of 1313 cubic centimetres,
which is greater than that of the Peruvians, but less than that
of the North American Indians generally (viz., 1376 cubic centi-
metres, or 84 cubic inches). They differ also from those of the
ordinary Indians in being lighter, less massive, in having the
rough surfxce for muscular attachments less strongly marked.
■^ * * In proportions they present a very considerable varia-
tion among themselves. Assuming the length of the skull to
be 1.000, the breadth ranges from 0.712 to 0.950 of the length.
The average proportion is 0.857, which places them in the
short-headed group."

We have already called attention to the extensive and thor-
ough work performed by Professor Joseph Jones in Tennessee,
the report of which was published in 1876 by the Smithsonian
Institution in a "contribution" entitled Explorations of the
Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee. Professor Jones secured
above a hundred mound and stone grave crania, mostly in the
valley of the Cumberland and on the banks of the Big Harpeth
Kiver. Some of the skeletons accompanying these crania were
of gigantic stature, a fact which is at variance with the opinion
that they were related to the diminutive race of Inca Peruvians.^
On the contrary, however, a strong argument for the relationship

^ Dr. Jones found skeletons six feet, and in one instance seven feet in length.
{Antiquities of Tennessee, pp. 44 and 53.)

172

PROFESSOR JONES' MEASUREMENTS.

between the Mound-builders and the Peruvians is found in the
frequent occurrence of the Inca-bone (os inca) so-called, on the
mound crania.^ Mr. Henry Gillman found this same bone in
one of the crania exhumed by him from the great mound of
Rouge River, Michigan, with a disposition to its formation in
several others.^ Professor Jones is convinced of the unity of
the mound race throughout the entire Mississippi Basin. The
following table of measurements, published in the Antiquities
of Tennessee, is one of the most valuable which has yet been
prepared :

"^^

»^r*^

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

21
Max.
Min.

76.5

80.

75.

77."
76.
81.
80.
78.
81.
80.
77.
82.

75.

82.
82.
75.
78.8

75.

78.
78.
82.
84.
68.
103.
80.
79.
76.
90.
80.
81.
92.
79.

79.2
81.4
80.5
103.
68.
81.44

IP
|5

6.1

6.2

6.5

6.4

6.6

6.3

6.9

6.1

7.2

6.1

6.5

6,7

6.5

6.4

7.2

6.5

«l

5.4

5.6

5.7

5.8

4.9

5.9

5.6

5.2

5.6

5.5

6.4

5.8

5.7

5,5

5.8

5.5

5.7

5.9

6.4

4.9

5.68

4.3

4.4

4.3

4.1

4.4

3.9

4.8

4.3

3.9

4.4

4.3

4.1

4.3

4.4

4.6

4.1

4.5

4.2

4.6

4.8

3.9

4.21

5.5

5.4

5.6

5.5

5.8

5.5

6.4

5.5

5.8

5.4

5.8

5.7

5.5

5.9

4.5

4.6

5.5

5.6

5.7

6.4

4.5

5.56

15.

14.6

15.

15.2

15.5

13.9

16.8

15.

14.7

15.7

15.

16.5

15.

16.

14.

15.

14.4

15.

16.8

13.9

15.0

5.1

5.2

5.4

5.2

4.5

5.3

4.6

4.8

4.7

4.8

5.4

4.8

4.6

4.4

4.9

5.4

4.4

4.57

13.5
13.2
13.

14.

14.3

13.8

15.7

13.8

15.2

13.8

14.8

14.4

14.

13.8

13.4

15.2

13.6

'l3.5

13.3

14.

15.7

13.

13.88

19.

18.9

19.

19.9

18.2

20.8

19.3

19.5

19.4 I
20.3 I

19.5 I

19.6 i
19.8
18.9
20.8
19.
19.4
19.1
19.2
19.
20.8
18.2
19.8

7.5
7.2
7.3

'7.4
7.1
7.8
7.2
7.4
6.8
7.6
7.8
7.8

7.8
7.1

7.3

7.8
6.8

7.4

5.1

5.2

5.3

4.6

5.5

5.2

5,3

5.5

5.2

5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
4.6
5.2

The most noticeable feature in the table aside from the mean
cephalic index .874 is the great internal capacity of cranium
No. 7, which was found in a stone grave in a mound near Nash-
ville, with a skeleton over six feet long. The occiput is but
slightly flattened, and the general contour of the head is sym-

^ Antiquities of Tennessee, p. 72 ; also note other similarities on p. 119.
2 Ancient Men of the Great Lakes. Proceedings of the American Associa-
tion for Advancement of Science, meeting of 1875, pp. 322-3.

PROFESSOR PUTNAM'S CRANIA FROM TENNESSEE.

173

metrically oval. Morton gives as the mean internal capacity of
fifty-two Caucasian skulls 87 cubic inches ; the largest of the
series measured 109 cubic inches, and the smallest 75 cubic
inches. This remarkable cranium gives an internal capacity of
103 cubic inches, vastly above the mean European skull, and
only falling six cubic inches below the largest measured by
Morton. As we observed a considerable increase in capacity in
the Scioto Mound cranium, with its ninety cubic inches, over the
crania of the north-west and north, of Michigan and Davenport,
so here a most remarkable advance upon the capacity of the
Scioto cranium is presented. The evidence of considerable
development in the size of the cranium in this same race is clear ;
and taken with other testimony, such as the great improvement
in art and architecture, indicates probably a movement from
north to south, and that the mound race was older in the former
region than in the latter.

In September, 1877, Prof. F. W. Putnam and Mr. Edwin
Curtiss exhumed sixty-seven crania from stone graves located
in the neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee. These crania
were measured by Miss Jennie Smith and Mr. Lucian Carr, and
the latter has tabulated and described them in the Eleventh
Annual Report of the Peahody Museum (pp. 361 et seq., Cam-
bridge, 1878). As some interesting features occur in the tables,
we insert here Mr. Carr's mean measurements. It will be
observed that the classification in this instance is threefold,
besides the distinct position assigned to the " much flattened "
crania.

MEAN MEASUKEMENTS

OF SIXTY-SEVEN CRANIA FROM STONE GRAVES
IN TENNESSEE.

•^

}

1
•^^

Index of
Breadth.

1
2

DolichocephaU....

Orthocephali

Brachycephali

Much Flattened. . .

5
18
29
15

1325

6
1.346

15
1284

7
1461

184
18
172
2!)
163
15
156

1.32
16
1.34
2S
141
15
152

142
11

141
18

142
8

145

.716
.775
.856
.973

.775
.819
.865
.907

94
18
89
29
90
15
98

.730 and under.
.740 @, .800
.800 @ .900
.900 and over.

174 MOUND CRANIA UNLIKE THOSE OF RED INDIANS.

Mr. Can calls attention to the fact that while the classified
crania as a whole are Lrachycephali, still from twenty-three to
thirty-three per cent, of the whole cannot be considered as falling
within that group. Whether the five dolichocephali in the table
belonged to the same race cannot be determined. They were
buried together, for Prof Putnam found a long and a short
skull side by side in the same grave. Mr. A. J. Conant (see
Commonwealth of Missouri, St. Louis, 1877, 8vo, pp. 106-7)
discovered in a mound in South-eastern Missouri two crania
belonging to skeletons buried in regular order, with a large
number of other skeletons at the bottom of the mound, which
difiered strangely from all others found in that locality. The
forehead was entirely wanting, and the contour of the top of one of
the skulls was almost flat. It closely resembles the Neanderthal
skull. Mr. Conant thought it at first to be an intrusive burial,
but careful examination proved it to have been placed in posi-
tion before the building of the mound, and to have been interred
with as much care as was bestowed upon any of the other occu-
pants of the mound. Vases, drinking vessels and food-pans
accompanied it as they did all the other skeletons.

Mr. Carr thinks such crania as he has pointed out belonged
to individuals who were conquered in war, or adopted or intro-
duced into the tribe by intermarriage. Mr. Conant considers
that the low type cranium which he discovered belonged to a
very ancient race, the predecessors of the Mound-builders, and
not far removed from the palseolithic races of Europe.

The mound skulls are readily distinguishable from those of the
Red Indian. Only in the Davenport crania and the five dolicho-
cephali from Tennessee do we see any approximation as to form.
However, the remaining characteristics of the Davenport crania
establish the fact that they belonged to people of the mounds.
In our classification of Dr. Morton's measurements, it will be
observed that only two supposed mound skulls appear among
the dolichocephali (long skulls, A), and too much doubt is
attached to their genuineness to admit of their use in drawing
inferences. All the remainder belong to the savage tribes except
three Peruvians of the ancient race of the region of Titicaca.

COMPARISON OF CRANIA. 175

In the table of brachycephali but few of the savage tribes are
represented, except those which practice artificial compression
to the extent of deformity. The mound skull as compared with
the Inca Peruvian presents few resemblances, except that both
generally belong to the brachycephalic class, and the singular
and important fact already mentioned that the Inca bone has
been found in North American mound crania. It is possible
that when more extensive research is made, this distinguish-
ing feature may lead to the conclusion that the races were
one or closely related. On the other hand, the massive bony
structure of some of the mound crania does not correspond with
the facial bones of the Inca crania, which are very light and
delicate. Prof. Wilson has pointed out the additional fact that
the vertical diameter of the Peruvian short crania is not so great
as that of the mound and Mexican short skulls, but a reference
to the Professor's own tables shows that the mean difference
amounts only to thirty-seven-hundredths of an inch, altogether
too small a variation to serve as the basis for ethnic generaliza-
tions.^ Few if any similarities can be traced between the doli-
chocephali of Peru and the brachycephalic Mound-builders,
the only resemblances being the heavy bony structure possessed
in common by both races. The crania of the dolichocephali of
Peru are pronounced of a Mongol cast and form, and are in every
respect unlike the mound crania. Turning our attention, how-
ever, to the ancient Mexican crania, we find, so far as we are
able to judge from the limited number of skulls which have
come into the possession of ethnologists, a parallelism in meas-
urements and resemblance in the various distinctive features,
such as flattened occiput, broad transverse diameter, retreating
forehead, strong bony structure, and a remarkable agreement in
vertical diameter with those of the mounds of the Mississippi
Basin, which point unmistakably to the closest relationship.
Seven Mexican brachycephali measured by Prof. Wilson in the
Boston and Philadelphia collections previously referred to, gave
a mean vertical diameter of 5.55 inches.^ Four Mound-builder

^ Pre-Historic Man, vol. ii, cliap. xx, pp. 145, 158, 165.

" The Aztecs are represented in our museum by three skulls found in an

175 COMPARISON OF CRANIA.

crania measured by the same investigation gave precisely the
same result, while the remaining measurements varied from each
other but slightly. In confirmation of this result it is worthy
of notice that the mean vertical diameter of the twenty-one
mound and stone grave crania from Tennessee varied from that
of the Mexican crania by only one one-hundredth of an inch [5.56).
When Dr. Morton began his investigations, he was disposed
to recognize the existence of distinct races, represented by the
dolichocephalic and brachycephalic crania of Peru.^ But in
later years, and at a period subsequent to the issue of his justly
celebrated work, he concluded that the Peruvian elongated head
was the product of artificial compression and not the distinguish-
ing mark of an ancient race which long antedated the Incas.^
Prof. Wilson has thoroughly discussed this subject, and from a
series of investigations, conducted on a much more extensive
scale than those of Dr. Morton, he has shown conclusively that
the distinguished craniologist was quite mistaken as to the facts
upon which he based his later views.^ Much valuable informa-
tion was afforded Prof. Wilson by the researches and collections
of John H. Blake, Esq., made during that gentleman's residence
in Peru, as well as the extensive collection of Dr. J. C. Warren
of Boston. Prof. Wilson points out the essential difference
between the compressed and the naturally dolichocephalic cra-
nium in these words : " Few who have had extensive opportunities
of minutely examining and comparing normal and artificially
formed crania, will, I think, be prepared to dispute the fact that
the latter are rarely, if ever, symmetrical. The application of

ancient cemetery near Mexico, which was uncovered in digging intrenchments
to protect the Mexican capital against the armies of the United States. They
are remarkable for the shortness of their axis, large flattened occiput, obliquely
truncated behind, the height of the semicircular line of the temples, the short-
ness and trapezoid form of the parietal plane. They present an elevation or
ridge along the sagittal suture ; the base of the skull is very short, the face
slightly prognathic, as among the Mongol Kalmucs. (Retzius in SmWisonian
Report, 1859, p. 268.)

^ Crania Americana, p. 98.

2 See Dr. Morton in I^ott & Oliddon.

3 Pre-Historic Man, vol. ii, chap. xx.

REVIEW OF THE FACTS. 177

pressure on the head of the living child can easily be made to
change its natural contour, but it cannot give to its artificial pro-
portions that harmonious repetition of corresponding develop-
ments on opposite sides which may be assumed as the normal
condition of the unmodified cranium. But in so extreme a case
as the conversion of a brachycephalic head averaging about 6.3
inches longitudinal diameter by 5.3 inches parietal diameter into
a dolichocephalic head of 7.3 by 4.9 inches diameter, the re-
tention of anything like the normal symmetrical proportions is
impossible. Yet the dolichocephalic Peruvian crania present
no such abnormal irregularities as could give plausibility to the
theory of their form being an artificial one, while peculiarities
in the facial proportions confirm the idea that it is of ethnic
origin and not the product of deformation.'^ Besides these
difierences there are peculiarities of a structural nature sufficient
in themselves to distinguish the Peruvian long from the short
crania. The former is small, narrow and decidedly long ; the
forehead is low and retreating, and two-thirds of the brain-
cavity lies behind the occipital foramen. The superior maxillary
is protruding and holds the incisor teeth obliquely. The weight
of the bony structure also exceeds that in the brachycephalic.
Though both classes are found artificially compressed, yet they
are always distinguishable from each other. One of the best illus-
trations of this fact, and one already used by Prof. Wilson, is
afibrded in contrasting two dolichocephalic crania, both obtained
by Mr. Blake in his explorations of the ancient cemeteries of
Arica and Atacama. Both are evidently of children ; one is in
its normal condition, symmetrical, and when viewed from above
presents the outlines of a graceful oval form, while the other was
subjected to such compression as to throw the volume of the
brain backward and to greatly deform the frontal bone.^ A
slight tendency to assume the dog-shaped head of the Chinooks
of the Columbia Kiver is manifest, where deformation is carried to
such an extent as to produce monstrosities. However, even then,
the normal brachycephalic type of skull of the Chinooks is not

^ See especially Eleventh AnnvM Eeport Pcabody Museum, pp. 294-304.
12

178 ARTIFICIAL HEAD FLATTENING.

transformed to the dolichocephalic, since the base of the cranium
remains comparatively unaffected while distension takes place in
a posterior and upward direction. Mr. Squier in his Peru
(p. 580, Appendix), has shown that circular compression pro-
duces a symmetrical effect in the same direction.

The custom of artificially flattening the head has, upon inves-
tigation, been shown not to be peculiar alone to the aborigines of
America, but to have been practised by many of the semi-civilized
peoples of antiquity in different parts of Europe and Asia. Hip-
pocrates, in his treatise Be Aere, Aquis, et Zocis, has described
this savage practice among a people whom he calls Machrocephali,
supposed to have inhabited the region near the Palus Meeotis,
in the vicinity of the Caucasus. He says, " The custom stood
thus : as soon as the child was born, they immediately fashioned
its soft and tender head with their hands, and by the use of
bandages and proper arts, forced it to grow lengthwise, by which
the spherical figure of the head was prevented and the length
increased." Strabo refers to a people occupying a portion
of Western Asia, who were addicted to the same custom and
had foreheads projecting beyond their beards.^ Pliny places
them in Asia Minor,^ while Pomponius Mela places the Machro-
cephali on the Bosphorus.^ Blumenbach has figured in his first
decade, a compressed skull obtained by him from Kussia and
probably originally from one of the tumuli of the Crimean
Bosphorus, where it is supposed to have been exhumed during
the Russian occupation. In 1843, Eathke figured and described
in Miiller's ArcJiiv fur Anatomie, another example of the com-
pressed human crania, obtained from an ancient grave near
Kertsch in the Crimea. In 1820, Count August von Brenner
obtained on his estate at Fuersbrunn near Grafenegg in Austria,
a skull of similar characteristics. This was, upon examination,
decided to have belonged to an Avarian Hun. Prof. Retzius
described it in the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of
Sciences of Stockholm in 18Jf.Jf,, adducing arguments to

' Oeography, book i, chap, ii, § 35, and book xi, chap, xi, § 7.

2 Natural History, book vii, chap. iv.

3 Be Situ Orbis, lib. i, chap, xix, 1. 78 (ed. 1783).

HEAD FLATTENING. 179

strengthen that supposition. Dr. Tschudi, however, conceived
the idea that it might have been a Peruvian skull which had
been brought to Europe as a curiosity during the reign of
Charles V. and afterwards thrown aside. His communication
appeared in Miiller's Archiv fur Anatomie. The opinion of the
learned traveller was, however, subsequently reversed by the
discovery at Atzgersdorf, near Vienna, of another and similar
cranium. More recently others have come to light at the
Village of St. Koman in Savoy, and in the Valley of the Doubs
near Mandense. Dr. Fitzinger has probably investigated this
subject with more thoroughness than any other writer, and has
shown in his articles in the Trmisactions of the Imperial Academy
of Vienna, that this custom was native to the Scythian region
in the vicinity of the Moetian Moor, and prevailed in the Cau-
casus and along the shores of the Black and Caspian seas and
the Bosphorus. Among the most interesting relics cited as sus-
taining his views is an ancient medal struck in commemoration
of the destruction of Aquileia by Attila the Hun in a. d, 452,
and bearing the bust of that " Scourge of God." The head
represented in profile is of precisely the same shape as those
of the other Avir skulls, having a flattened form in a vertical
and oblique direction. Thierry in his Attila has traced the
origin of the custom of flattening the skull, to the Huns, who,
descending from their home upon the steppes of Northern Asia,
left their remains upon many a field in Europe. One of these
deformed skulls was discovered in 1856 by J. Hudson Barclay,
in a large cavern near the Damascus Grate at Jerusalem. The
skeleton was of unusually large size and decayed, but the skull,
which was pretty well preserved, was brought to this country
and is preserved in the collection of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia.^ Dr. J. Atkinson Meigs concluded,
upon careful examination, that its occiput had been flattened by
pressure during childhood. The testimony of Dr. Tschudi, ren-

' Description of a Deformed Fragmentary Skull found in an Ancient
Quarry-cave at Jerusalem, by Dr. J. A. Meigs, Transactions of Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Sciences, 1859.

180 HEAD FLATTENING.

dered undesignedly, amounts to the best of evidence of the
transition of this custom from the eastern shores of Asia to
Peru, and this isolated instance has been strengthened beyond
question or doubt by the abundant proof which has been brought
to light since attention was directed to the subject.^

In referring to the methods by which artificial compression
was brought about in America, Prof. Wilson remarks : "Trifling
as it may appear, it is not without interest to have the fact
brought under our notice by the disclosures of ancient barrows
and cysts, that the same practice of nursing the child and carry-
ing it about, bound to a flat cradle-board, prevailed in Britain
and the North of Europe long before the first notices of written
history reveal the presence of man beyond the Baltic or the
English Channel, and that in all probability the same custom
prevailed continuously from the shores of the German Ocean to
Behring Straits." ^ Dr. L. A. Gosse testifies to the prevalence
of the same custom among the Caledonians and Scandinavians
of the earliest times,^ and Dr. Thurman has treated the same
peculiarity of the early Anglo-Saxon.* It is a matter of no
little surprise to the inquirer in this field to learn that this
system of skull distortion introduced into Southern Europe by
the Asiatic hordes which overran it in the fifth century has been
perpetuated, though somewhat modified, and at present is in

^ We can no longer doubt, then, that this practice of giving an artificial
form to the skull has subsisted from a remote epoch among the Oriental nations.
As Thierry, moreover, pronounces it to be a Mongol usage, I have submitted the
question in the memoir before spoken of, whether this fact does not speak in favor
of an ancient communication between the old and the new world ? Such a com-
munication seems, indeed, to be now placed beyond doubt by the proofs which
have been accumulated from time to time, through the efforts of numerous and
zealous inquirers. It would seem likely that the usage in question has been
introduced by the Mongols into America, where it has become diffused even
among tribes not of the Mongol stock. (Retzius in Smithsonian Report, 1859,
p. 270 ; also the same author in Arch, des Sciences Naturelles, Geneva, 1860 ;
Proceedings of American Association for Advancement of Science, 1867, and
Edinburgh Phil. Journal, new series, vol. vii.)

* Smithsonian Beport, 1862, p. 286.

2 Msai sur les Deformations Artificielles du Grdne, p. 74

^ Crania Britannica, chap, iv, p. 38.

HEAD FLATTENING. 181

vogue in the south of France.^ The distinguished Dr. Foville,
in charge of the Asylum for Insane in the Department Seine-
Inferieure and Charenton, has figured this process in his work
on the Anatomy of the Nervous System, as well as a number of
skulls which have striking Peruvian resemblances. The artificial
form in this case is produced by the use of peculiar head-dresses
or bandages.^ The Egyptians placed a pillow under the neck
and not for the head ; hence the elongated crania characteristic
of the race, and it is not a little remarkable that the Feejee
Islanders have the same custom at the present day. The Kan-
kas of the Sandwich Islands produce the flattened occiput by
supporting the infant's head always in the palm of the hand.^
The South Sea Islanders have a flattened occiput, as Pickering
describes it, projecting but slightly beyond the line of th^ neck.^
Prof. Wilson comments upon this fact -as follows: " Traces of
purposed deformation of the head among the islanders of the
Pacific, have an additional interest in their relation to one possi-
ble source of the South American population by Oceanic migra-
tion, suggested by philological and other independent evidence.
But for our present purpose the peculiar value of these modified
skulls lies in the disclosures of influences operating alike unde-
signedly, and with a well-defined purpose, in producing the very
same cranial conformation among races occupying the British
Islands in ages long anterior to earliest history, and among the
savage tribes of America and the simple islanders of the Pacific
in the present day."^ It is a well-known fact that flattening the
skull has prevailed from the earliest times in most parts of the
American Continent, especially on the Pacific coast. From the
extreme north to Southern Peru, flattening the skulls was re->
garded as an artistic improvement on nature and was practised

* Retzius, Smithsonian Report, 1859, pp. 269-70.

2 Prof. Wilson, Pre-Historic Man, vol. ii, p. 221, and Retzius in the Reviews
referred to in note 1, p. 180.

2 J. B. Davis in Crania Britannica, decade iii.

^ Races of Man (Bohn), p. 45 ; Dr. Nott in Types of Mankind, p. 436 ;
Wilson's Pre- Historic Man, vol. ii, p. 221.

5 SmitJisonian Report, 1862, p. 291.

182

AMERICAN HEAD FLATTENING.

with a maternal solicitude, if we judge from the customs of the
modern Chinooks, deserving of a higher aim. More centrally
and toward the Atlantic border the custom was not so carefully
and generally practised, unless we may except the case of the
Natchez, who carried it to almost the extreme reached at present
by the Columbia River tribes. The object of this strange
transformation is believed to have been twofold, " to give," as
Torquemada supposes, in referring to the Peruvians, "a fierce
appearance in war," and to obtain the mark of a royal and domi-
nant race, a fashion which seems to have been transmitted

Chinooks (Flat-Heads), after Catlin.

without a variation, from its Mongol source. The Chinooks
consider it the mark of superiority, and will not permit the
tribes subject to them to practise it. Mr. Paul Cane, has
illustrated this subject with drawings made during his visit
to the Columbia and Vancouver's Island, while Dr. Picker-
ing, Mr. Hale and others, have described the hideous and
beastly aspect of the singular people practising the deformation.
Skull flattening among the American tribes may be classified
as intentional and unintentional. To the class of intentionally

AMERICAN; HEAD FLATTENING. 183

flattened skulls we may assign those of the twenty or more
tribes of the North-west coast, the Natchez, the ancient Mayas,
the Peruvians, and some of the more central and eastern South
American tribes. The North-western flatheads subject the
head of a child during the first eight or ten months of its
life to pressure produced by means of a cradle or cradle-board,
provided with a board which rests upon the forehead and tied
down upon it by means of cords extending to the foot of the
cradle, while the other end is connected to the head of the
cradle with a hingelike attachment.

The Natchez produced the artificial form by bandaging the
infant's head to a well-cushioned cradle-board by means of strips
of deer-skin.^ The Caribs bandaged the head with pieces of
wool, and gave it a very quadrangular shape. The Choctaws
produced artificial compression by means of a bag of sand.^ The
unintentional flattening of the skull arose from the quite general
use of the cradle-board without any board for pressure, or the
custom common among many American tribes of the mother
suckling the child over her shoulder, a practice widely prevalent
in Africa and among savage nations. In the former instance it
is but reasonable to suppose that the form of a tender and pliable
skull would be modified more or less by the shape of the hard
cradle-board, and by the position in which it was placed upon
its rest. This fact accounts for the slight occipital compression
of the mound skulls and also for the irregularity of the flattening
in many cases. The latter process, that of nursing the child
from its position on the shoulder or back would no doubt subject
the head to a slight pressure, perhaps in most cases in a lateral
direction.

The general prevalence of the unnatural custom of flattening
the skull on the eastern border-land of Europe and among the
numerous tribes of the western coast of America, together with
its presence in Polynesia as a connecting link, we think justifies
us in concluding that it originated among the wild hordes of the
northern steppes of Asia, from which centre it spread in lines of

^ Du Pratz's History of Louisiana, vol. ii, p. 163.
' Adair's History of American Indians, p. 284.

184 DISEASES OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

radiation until it reached the remote localities in which recent
research has found it.^ This fact is suggestive of a remote inter-
com*se between peoples separated by seas and mountains, if it
does not serve as an argument for the unity and common origin
of the human family.

A careful examination of the remains of the pre-historic races
other than the measurement of crania has contributed largely to
our fund of information concerning their life and habits. Science
has rendered us pretty familiar with some of the diseases to which
they were subject. Dr. Farquharson has described a singular
manifestation of disease of the cervical vertebraB, shown in a pecu-
liar roughening of the articular surfaces, and also by a true or
bony anchylosis of these points. He concludes that the people of
the mounds must have been possessed of a considerable degree of
civilization and facilities for the care of the sick during a long
period, in order to have effected the cure which the condition of
the bones indicate had taken place.^ One of the most alarming
discoveries, however, is that which apparently shows the general
prevalence of syphilis. That this loathsome disease was common

' On skull flattening, see Wilson's Pre-Historic Man, vol. ii, chap. xxi.
Prof. Jones' Antiquities of Tennessee, Smithsonian Contributions, 1876, pp. 118
et seq. Landa's Eelacion, p. 181. Catlin's Worth American Indians, vol. ii,
p. 40 and other places. Townsend's Tour to the Columbia River, pp. 178 et seq.
Bancroft's Native Races as follows: I, 151, 158, 180, 310, 226-8, 256-7 ; Among
the Mexicans, I, 651 ; II, 281 ; Central Americans, I, 717, 754 ; II, 681-2, 731-2,
802 ; IV, 304, and the accompanying literary apparatus.

2 "This is certainly not a common disease now, and although rare, the
instances of cure by bony anchylosis (the only way in which a true cure can
take place), are even yet more rare. Nelaton, in his Pathologic Chirurgicale,
has only been able to note twenty-five recorded cases of such an event. Now,
as the space of one year is the shortest possible time allowed by authorities for
such a cure to take place, and as during all this time the parts must be kept
absolutely at rest, and the person so afflicted being entirely helpless, the infer-
ence is a strong one that these people were not in a savage state. They must
necessarily have been in such a state, in the progress of advancement in civili-
zation, as to be possessed of an accumulation of food, the requisite leisure of
persons nursing the sick, and of dwellings sufficiently comfortable to protect
them from inclemency of the weather in this latitude ; without those elements
of civilization those persons would inevitably have perished." — Br. Farquharson
in Proceedings of Am. Association for Advancement (f Science, vol. xxiv, p. 314.

PLATYCNEMISM. 185

among the various tribes of Equinoctial America is attested to by
the discoverers and their successors, and has been much com-
men ted upon, and held by some authors to have been of Amer-
ican origin. The most recent supporter of this view is Professor
Jones, to whom we have already referred.^ He found in most of
the mounds which he explored in Tennessee bones bearing syphi-
litic nodes, and believes them to be the oldest traces of the disease
in existence. Dr. Farquharson made similar discoveries in the
Iowa and Illinois mounds. Prof. Putnam, however, attributes the
nodes to other diseases. That flattening of the leg-bone or tibia,
peculiar to pre-historic man in Europe, and perhaps the result
of rugged exertion in climbing mountains and traversing the
country with that rapidity which the chase required where the
horse is wanting, is more noticeable in the remains of some of
the Mound-builders than in any other people. This peculiarity
of the tibia called platycnemism, is probably a provision of
nature, securing a firmer and better defined process upon which
the muscles of the leg could fasten themselves, and its promi-
nence among the people of the mounds indicates the possession
of great pedestrian powers.^

The singular custom of perforating the skull after death (and

^ Prof. Jones, Antiquities of Tennessee, gives a good summary of the discus-
sion from the first writers to the present time, p. 65 et seq.

■^ "This flattening of the leg-bone was of a degree unheard of — I might
almost say undreamt of — in any other part of this country or of the world. In
many of the more extreme cases of those flattened tibiae with sabre-like curva-
ture which I had exhumed at the Rouge, the transverse diameter was only 0.48
of the antero-posterior, less than half, while in that most marked and isolated
case recorded by Broca, from the cave at Cro-Magnon, France, it was 0.60. In
the chimpanzee and gorilla the compression is 0.67. Shortly afterward, even
this extreme degree of compression was cast in the shade by my bringing to
light from a mound on the Detroit River, rich in relics, among a number of the
flattened tibiae, two specimens of this bone in which the latitudinal indices
were respectively 0.42 and 0.40." — Henry OiUman in Proceedings American
Association for Advancement of Science, vol. xxiv, pp. 316-17. TTie Sixth
Annual Report of the Peahody Museum of Archmology and Ethnology, Dr.
Jeffries Wyman. The American Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3d series, vol. vii,
January 1874. Qillman in Smithsonian Report for 1873, and Dr. Farquharson
in Proceedings of A. A. A. S., vol. xxiv, p. 313. 1875.

186 COLOR OF THE HAIR.

possibly during life) is shown to have been in vogue by the dis-
covery of a number of cran^ at the Kiver Rouge Mound in Michi-
gan with artificial apertures. No light as yet has been thrown
upon the significance of this strange practice.^ The nearest ap-
proach to the natural condition and characteristic physiognomy of
the pre-historic inhabitants of this continent, is observable in the
Peruvian mummies collected in latitude 18° 30' S., on the shore
of the Bay of Chacota, near Arica, by Mr. Blake, and transferred
by him to Boston. Many others have since been exhumed, and
though embalmed and buried in a climate which preserves the
brightest colors of the garments with which they were enshrouded,
still the shrivelled condition of the corpses furnishes us the
assurance that their type of features can never be truly recovered
from nature. Dr. Morton has figured the head of one of these
mummies in Plate I of the Crania Americana, from which the
physiognomy may be partially restored by the aid of a vivid
imagination. Notwithstanding the temptation which presents
itself, and one which has been sufficiently indulged already, it
would certainly be idle to speculate as to what that type might
have been. However, one feature of the Peruvian mummies has
been preserved true to life, and is of the greatest value in deter-
mining ethnic relations. The silicious sand and marl of the
plain southward of Arica, where the most remarkable cemeteries
are situated, is slightly impregnated with common salt as well
as nitrate and sulphate of soda. These conditions, together with
the dry atmosphere rivalling that of Egypt, and in which fleshy
matter dries without putrefaction, the human hair has been per-
fectly preserved, and comes to us as one of the best evidences of
the diversity of the American races yet produced. In general
it is a lightish brown, and of a fineness of texture which equals
that of the Anglo-Saxon race.^ Straight, coarse, black hair is

* Gillman in American Naturalist for August, 1875, and Proceedings of
A. A. A. Science, 1875, p. 327.

2 Prof. Wilson has pathetically described the disinterment of a Peruvian
family, consisting of the father, mother and child, and has especially dwelt
upon the color and qualities of the hair as distinguishing them from the Red
Indians. {Pre-Historic Man, pp. 440 et seq.)

MOUND SCULPTURES. 187

universally characteristic of the Red Indians, and is known to be
one of the last marks of race to disappear in intermarriage with
Europeans. The ancient Peruvians appear, from numerous
examples of hair found in their tombs, to have been an auburn-
haired race. Garcilasso, who had an opportunity of seeing the
body of the king Yiracocha, describes the hair of that monarch
as snow-white.^ Haywood has described the discovery at the
beginning of this century of three mummies in a cave on the
south side of the Cumberland River, near the dividing line of
Smith and Wilson Counties in Tennessee. They were buried in
baskets, as Humboldt has described some of the Peruvians to
bury, and the color of their skin was said to be fair and white,
and their hair auburn and of a fine texture.^ The same author
refers to several instances of the discovery of mummies in the
limestone and saltpetre caves of Tennessee with light yellowish
hair.^ Prof. Jones supposes that the light color of these so-called
mummies of Tennessee and Kentucky was due to the action of
lime and saltpetre."*

We have every reason to believe that the men of the mounds
were capable of executing in sculptures reliable representations
of animate objects. The perfection of the stone carvings, as well
as the terra-cotta moulded figures of animals and birds obtained
from the mounds, have excited the wonder and admiration of
their discoverers. It was evidently a favorite pastime for those
primitive artists to reproduce the human features, for effigies
and masks have often been exhumed together with other sculp-
tures. The perfection of the animal representations furnish us
the assurance that their sculptures of the human face were
equally true to nature.^ The accompanying figures of sculpture

^ Commentarios Reales, book v, chap, xxix ; book iii, chap. xx.

2 Haywood's Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee, p. 191.

8 Haywood, OTp. cit., pp. 163-6, 169, 100, 148-9, 338-9. On the mummies of
Lexington, Kentucky, see At water's ArcJuBologia Americana, p. 318. Mam-
moth Cave, p. 359, et passim. ^ Antiquities of Tennessee, p. 5.

* Squier and Davis' Ancient Monuments of Mississippi Valley, pp. 243 et seq.
Wilson's Pre-Historic Man, vol. 1, pp. 365 et seq. Charles Rau, Smithsonian
Contributions No. 287, 1876, pp. 84, 55. Prof. Joseph Jones' Aboriginal Re-
mains of Tenn^sssee, passim, Smithsonian Contributions, No. 259,

188

MOUND SCULPTURES.

Mound Sculptures : upper left-hand figure from a shell-heaj) near Mobile, Ala.,
the others from Tennessee mounds.

and masks together with those found in the sculpture of the
Mayas and Nahuas, shown in a future chapter, furnish us with
a twofold argument : first, that an American type of physiog-
nomy as such did not exist ; that, upon the contrary, it was as
variable and diversified as can now be found among the peoples

COLOR OF THE ANCIENT AMERICANS. 189

of Europe or elsewhere ; ^second, that a strong resemblance
between some of the sculptures of the mounds and those of
Mexico exist. It is a remarkable fact that those of Palenque fur-
nish the most striking likeness to those of the Mississippi Valley.^
There is, perhaps, no means of ascertaining of what color the
pre-historic Americans were, certainly not of the Mound-builders ;
but judging from the great variety of tints and shades that pre-
vail among the wild tribes of North America alone, we may
conclude tbat no argument in favor of an American race can be
based upon color.^

The Menominees, sometimes called the "White Indians,"
formerly occupied the region bordering on Lake Michigan, around
Green Bay. The whiteness of these Indians, which is compared
to that of w^hite mulattoes, early attracted the attention of the
Jesuit missionaries, and has often been commented upon by
travellers.^ While it is true that hibridy has done much to
lighten the color of many of the tribes, still the peculiarity of
the complexion of this people has been marked from the first
time a European encountered them. Almost every shade, from
the ash color of the Menominees, through the cinnamon red,
copper and bronze tints, may be found among the tribes formerly
occupying the territory east of the Mississippi — the remnants of
some of which are now in the Indian Territory and others in the
North-west — until we reach the dark-skinned Kaws of Kansas,
who are nearly as black as the negro. The Indians in Mexico
are known as the " black people," an appellation designed to be

^ Bryant's History of United States, vol. i, chap. ii.

2 Pricliard, Researches into the PhysicaJ, Hist, of Mankind, 4tli ed., 1841, vol. i,
p. 269, after reviewing the question of the unity of the American race, remarks :
" It will be easy to prove that the American races, instead of displaying a uni-
formity of color in all climates, show nearly as great a variety in this respect
as the nations of the old continent ; that there are among them white races
with a florid complexion inhabiting temperate regions, and tribes black or of
very dark hue in low and inter-tropical countries ; that their stature, figure and
countenances are almost equally diversified. Of these facts I shall collect suffi-
cient evidence when I proceed to the ethnography of the American nations."
He fulfils this promise ably enough in vol. v, pp. 289, 874, 542, and other places.
We respectfully refer the reader to the facts there accumulated.

^ Wilson's Pre-Historic Man, vol. ii, p. 189.

190 VARIETY OF LANGUAGES.

descriptive of their color. Yiollet le Due is of the opinion that
the builders of the great remains in Southern Mexico and
Yucatan belonged to two different branches of the human fiimily,
a light-skinned and dark-skinned race respectively.^ The variety
of complexion is as great in South America as among the tribes
of the northern portion of the continent.

Probably one of the most incontrovertible arguments against
American ethnic unity is that which rests upon the unparalleled
diversity of language which meets the philologist everywhere.
The monosyllable and the most remarkable polysyllables known
to the linguist ; synthetic and analytic families of speech, sim-
plicity and complexity of expression, all seem to have sprung up
and developed into permanent and in some cases beautiful and
grammatical systems side by side with each other until the Babel
of the Pentateuch is realized in the indescribable confusion of
tongues. The actual number of American languages and dialects
is as yet unascertained, but is estimated at nearly thirteen hun-
dred, six hundred of which Mr. Bancroft has classified in his third
volume of the Native Races of the Pacific States. It is true that
the American languages present a few features quite peculiar to
themselves (which will be treated hereafter), but as language is
never constant, is not a pyramid with its unchanging architectural
plan, but is a plant which passes through such transitions in
the process of its growth as to lose entirely some of the elements
which it possessed at first, so we may as reasonably expect that
in the course of time certain peculiarities incident to certain
climatic conditions, certain phases of nature and certain types
of civilization, should develop themselves as distinguishing fea-
tures of the speech of the continent. The very flict that lan-
guage is unstable — ^is a matter of growth — renders the argument
that these peculiarities indicate unity of the American race
valueless ; while, on the other hand, the fact that here we have
a greater number and variety of languages than is to be found
in any of the other grand divisions of the earth, is strong evi-
dence of a diversity more radical than that which simply arises

^ See Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 262, note, where reference is made to Cliarnay,
Muines Amer., pp. 32, 45, 97, 103.

VIEWS OF HELLWALD. 191

from tribal affiliations. In view of the wide differences existing
between the native Americans themselves in every feature which
admits of being subjected to a scientific test, we are forced to
the conclusion, solely resting on the evidence in the case, that
the theory of American ethnic unity is a delusion, an infatuating
theory which served only to blind its advocates as to the plain
facts, and led them into grave errors which will become all the
more palpable as scientific investigation progresses.

As yet no substantial reason for considering the ancient
occupant of this continent as peculiar in himself, and as unlike
the rest of mankind, has been set forth. Nothing in the Amer-
ican's physical organization points to an origin different from
that to which each of the species of the genus homo may be
assigned. Whatever truth there may be in the diverse origin
of the black and white race, the separate creation theory, in so
far as it maintains that the Creator originated upon the soil of
this continent a peculiar and separate race of men, must in the
eyes of this age of criticism lack evidence, and be assigned to its
place with thousands of others which from time immemorial
have been contributing to the construction of a foundation reef
which will ultimately rise like a bold headland above the dark
waters of uncertainty into the realm of truth.

A few students of American Anthropology have solved the
question of the origin of the ancient population upon the hy-
pothesis of its having developed from a lower order in the animal
kingdom, itself indigenous to the Western Continent. One of
the most distinguished representatives of this school, perhaps, is
Frederick von Hellwald of Vienna, who states his views as
follows : "I am unable to give in my adhesion to the theory
which assumes that the original seat of the human races must
be sought in higher Asia or somewhere else, whence mankind
are supposed to have spread themselves gradually over the whole
globe ; an assumption which is contradicted in the most decisive
manner by the peopling of the new world. It is impossible to
enter here into all the hypotheses which have been framed for
the explanation of a iact so perplexing to the Biblical students
of the sixteenth century, and of course later times ; it is enough

192 AUTOCHTHONIC ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES.

to say that thus far not one of them have been found to corres-
pond even ap23roximately to the demands of science, and that
theory is probably in every point of view the most tenable and
exact which assumes that man, like the plant, a mundane being,
made his appearance generally upon earth when our planet had
reached that stage of its development which unites in itself the
conditions of man's existence. In conformity with this view, I
regard the American as an Autochthon." ^ This subject resolves
itself into two questions : (1) Is the origin of the human race
by the processes of development from a lower order of animal an
ascertained fact ? (2) If so, does the American continent fur-
nish any species of ape or any known fauna from which man
could have developed ? It is taken for granted that the reader
is fully familiar with Darwinism (the origin of species by means
of natural selection, the joint result of the independent researches
of Darwin and Wallace) and Lamarckism (the theory of man's
descent from the ape),^ both of which have been so enthusias-
tically advocated by Spencer, Huxley, Hseckel and many others.
Their works and the magnificent array of facts which their
patient researches have accumulated command our admiration,
even if full assent cannot be given to all their conclusions.

The first question : Is the origin of the human race hy the
processes of development from a lower order of animal an
ascertained fact ? would at first seem to require a lengthy dis-
cussion at our hands. But in a special work on a subject
altogether foreign to the question, such a discussion would cer-
tainly be out of place. Even if this were not true, the above
question as stated requires no discussion. We believe that no
advocate of the hypothesis of evolution could be found so
sanguine or so unguarded, who would come forward and answer
the question in the affirmative. On the contrary, we believe the
question would call forth an honest negative from the great body
of scientists who hold to the hypothesis of evolution. Obstina-

^ The American Migration, by Frederick von Hellwald. Smithsonian Report
for 1866, pp. 329, 330.

2 Jean Lamarck, Philosophie Zoologique, etc., Paris, 1809, 2 vols., and Hist.
Nat. des Animaux sans Vertehres, 1815.

AUTOCHTHONIC ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES. 193

cy alone could deny that the groups of facts which have been
brought to our knowledge, the occasional well-marked transi-
tional forms ^ which are turning up, the unquestionable tendency
in species to vary, and possibly of their varieties slowly to form
new species under modified surroundings, point to a principle, a
law in nature, which may be characterized as the law of develop-
ment or evolution. But on the other hand, the hypothesis that
such a law exists, or, if you please, the fact that it exists, docs
not imply that it is universal in its application or that it has
extended through all the realm of nature. Indeed, pure justice
to the advocates of the hypothesis requires the statement that
they have never made such a claim.' The fact that such emi-
nent scientists as Mivart and Wallace deny the development of
man from a lower order, is sufficient evidence that the hypothesis
in its widest bearing is not accepted by all, much less is an ascer-
tained " fact." It appears, therefore, that the first question being
unsettled, and as yet incapable of solution, the argument turns
upon the second question : Does the American Continent furnish
any species of ape or any known fauna from which man could
have developed? Before answering the question in the light
of present knowledge, it will be of interest to note the reply
made by the late Professor Joseph Henry to the view of Freder-
ick von Hellwald, quoted on a preceding page. His estimate
of the probabilities of man developing from the lower orders of
animals in more than one locality on the globe is expressed as
follows : '^ The spontaneous generation of either plants or ani-
mals, although a legitimate subject of scientific inquiry, is as yet
an unverified hypothesis. If, however, we assume the fact that
a living being will be spontaneously produced when all the
physical conditions necessary to its existence are present, we
must allow that in the case of man, with his complex and refined
organization, the fortuitous assembly of the multiform conditions

' See Hseckel, History of Creation, vol. ii, pp. 255-6, and Professor Huxley's
reference to the genus Eqitus (embracing the horse, ass and zebra from speci-
mens collected by Prof. Marsh). New York Lectures, September, 1876.

^ Dr. McCosh in Popular Science Monthly, November, 1876, p. 88 ; Darwin's
Descent of Man, vol. i, p. 192 (New York ed.).
13

194 AUTOCHTHONIC ORIGIN OF THE ABORIGINES.

required for his appearance would be extremely rare, and from
the doctrine of probabilities could scarcely occur more than at
one time and in one place on our planet ; and further, that this
place would most probably be somewhere in the northern tem-
perate zone. Again, the Caucasian variety of man presents the
highest physical development of the human family ; and as we
depart either to the north or south, from the latitude assumed as
the origin of the human race in Asia, we meet with a lower and
lower type until at the north we encounter the Esquimaux, and at
the south the Bosjesman and the Tierra Fuegian. The deriva-
tion of these varieties from the original stock is philosophically
explained on the principle of the variety in the offspring of the
same parents, and the better adaptation and consequent chance
of life of some of these to the new conditions of existence in a
more northern or southern latitude." ^ As a direct answer to the
question, however, we can do nothing more than refer to the
opinions of the two greatest advocates of evolution. " In order
to form a judgment on this head," says Mr. Darwin, " with
reference to man, we must glance at the classification of the
Simiadae. This family is divided by almost all naturalists into
the Catarhine group, or old world monkeys, all of which are
characterized (as the name expresses) by the peculiar structure
of the nostrils, and by having four pre-molars in each jaw ; and
into the Platyrhine group or new world monkeys (including two
very distinct sub-groups), all of which are characterized by
differently constructed nostrils and by having six molars in each
jaw. Some other small differences might be mentioned. Now
man unquestionably belongs, in his dentition, in the structure
of his nostrils, and in some other respects, to the Catarhine or
old world division ; nor does he resemble the Platyrhines more
closely than the Catarhines in any characters, excepting in a few
of not much importance and apparently of an adaptive nature.
Therefore, it would be against all probability to suppose that
some ancient new world species had varied, and had thus pro-
duced a man-like creature with all the distinctive characters

' Smithsonian RepoH, 1866.

THE AUTOCHTHONIC HYPOTHESIS GROUNDLESS. 195

proper to the old world division, losing at the same time all its
own distinctive characters. There can, consequently, hardly be a
doubt that man is an offshoot from the old world Simian stem,
and that under a genealogical point of view he must be classed
with the Catarhine division." ^ Such was Mr. Darwin's opinion in
1871; and that the views of evolutionists have not changed since
that time as to this question, we call attention to the words of the
distinguished Professor Hgeckel in his History of Creation, which
are as follows : ^'Probably America was first peopled from North-
eastern Asia by the same tribe of Mongols from whom the Polar
men (Hyperboreans and Esquimaux) have also branched. This
tribe first spread in North America, and from thence migrated
over the isthmus of Central America down to South America, at
the extreme south of which the species degenerated very much
by adaptation to the very unfavorable - conditions of existence.
But it is also possible that Mongols and Polynesians emigrated
from the west and mixed with the former tribe. In any case the
aborigines of America came over from the old world, and did
not, as some suppose, in any way originate out of American
apes. Catarhine or narrow-nosed apes never at any period
existed in America." ^ The same argument holds good if it be
ascertained that both man and apes developed from a common
ancestor. With these authoritative utterances from the most
celebrated representatives of the development school, we shall
rest the fanciful hypothesis of the autochthonic origin of the
ancient American population. Some who may not concur in our
opinion as to the question of man's development from lower
animal forms, may be willing to admit that the Americans had
an old world origin, which certainly, in the light of facts, is the

^ Descent of Man, vol. i, p. 188. Also, " The Simiadae then branched off into
two ^reat stems, the new world and old world monkeys, and from the latter,
at a remote period, man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded." —
Descent of Man, vol, i, p. 204. Again, " We thus learn that man is descended
from a hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail and pointed ears, probably
arboreal in its habits and an inhabitant of the old world" — Descent of Man,
vol. ii, p. 373.

2 History of Creation, (N. Y. ed.), 1876, vol. ii, p. 318.

193 UNITY OF STYLE IN SAVAGE ART.

only rational view.^ The unity of the human family is a theory,
if not a fact, which is supported by a mass of testimony of the
most diversified character. The habits and customs, the sympa-
• thies, the wants and fears, the simpler arts, as well as most
bodily proportions, point to a relationship which finds its easiest
explanation in a unity of origin. It is chiefly, however, in the
ruder arts that this correspondence of style or type is observable.
No better illustration of this offers itself than the similarity of
form or forms in which flint arrow-heads are found in all parts
of the world. It would be impossible for the most expert
archasologists to assign a promiscuous collection of flint weapons to
the various quarters of the globe from which they may have been
gathered, simply on the ground of characteristic forms.-^ The com-
mon methods of producing fire by means of friction, employed with
but slight variation among people the most remotely separated,^ is
an inexplicable fact, except on the ground of an early community
of residence or identical inventive genius. The universality of
certain architectural forms such as the pyramid, and the singular
fact that they have generally been used for places of sepulture,
offers an argument in the same direction. The fact indicates
either an early community of residence or identity of mental
organization. The physical resemblances of all races in certain
stable features which have never been known to change, indicate
a divergence from a common centre — from one type. The slight
differences in the type of skull which characterize some nations

^ *' Nowhere can lines of demarcation be so clearly drawn, so imperceptibly
do the families of mankind blend at their circumferences. The various classi-
fications which have been attempted are so many proofs of unity of origin ; and
their confliction shows the fallacy of the theory of diversity. * * * * We
cannot admit that mankind can have diversity of origin while so united by one
great plan. If a species or variety of the genus homo sprang up in Europe and
another in America by agency of conditions existing in those localities, it would
be beyond probability that they should both be formed on the same plan."—
H. Tuttle's Origin and Antiquity of Physical Man Scientifically Considered,
pp. 34-5. Boston, 1866, 12mo.

2 Darwin's Descent of Man, vol. i, p. 224, and Nilsson's TJie Primitive In-
habitants of Scandinnvia, Lubbock's trans., 1868, p. 104.

3 See Early History of Fire, by Prof. N. Joly of the Faculty of Toulouse in
Popular Science Monthly, November, 1876, p. 17 ; also Darwin, as above cited.

DIFFERENCES IN COLOR AND THEIR ORIGIN. 197

from others, is no argument against original unity, since those
peculiarities are certainly of more recent origin than the un-
known events which at a remote period scattered men over the
face of the earth. ^ Probably no difference between the races of i
men has been considered so essential as that of color, for none
has furnished such reasonable ground for the views of polygen-
ists as the marked contrast between the African and Caucasian
types. Years ago the view that color was the result of tropi-
cal climate was abandoned,^ for the Eskimo and Lapps are
almost as dark as many Africans, and their residence under the
arctic circle has continued from a remote antiquity. Upon the
other hand every variation in color, from the darkest to the light-
est possible shades, exist among African tribes. The antiquity
of the negro type as we now see it, is unquestionably consider-
able. As proof of this we have the oft-referred to argument
from Egyptian paintings. In a temple at Beyt-el-Welee, in
Nubia, constructed in the reign of Rameses II, is a jlainting
which has been reproduced by Bonomi, in which a negro kneels
at the feet of Sethos I, father and predecessor of Rameses IL
All the peculiarities of the Negroid type are conspicuous ; the
blackness of the color, the thickness of lips, flatness of nose and
woolliness of hair which pertain to the African of to-day are
unquestionably present.^ The painting representing this re-
markable ethnic fact is 3200 years old, dating from 1400 years
before Christ. The Duke of Argyll, on the authority of Prof.
Lepsius, states that in earlier representations of the negro,
referable to the "Twelfth Dynasty " or about 1900 B.C., the
negro color is strongly marked, but not the negro features.^ It
is a question whether this fact indicates a transition from one type
to another, or whether the painting is a true representation of

^ Waitz's Anthropology, Eng. trans., pp. 236-28.

'■^ Pallas was the first to show the fallacy of the theory in Act. Academic St.
Petersburg, 1780, Part II, p. 69 ; followed by Rudolphi in his Beytrage zur
Anthropologia, 1812, and especially by Godron, Be I 'Espece, 1859, vol. ii, p. 246
et seq. ; see Darwin's Bescent, vol. i, p. 232.

' Nott and Gliddon's Indigenous Races ; Duke of Argyll's Primeml Man, p. 99.

* Primeval Man, p. 100.

198 SURV'IVAL OF THE FITTEST.

the Nubians, vvho are known not to have flat noses or projecting
lips. It is supposed also that the unskillfulness of the artists
may account for the absence of the typal lines. ^ Hieroglyphic
« writings have been found dating about 2000 years B. c, in which
mention is made of the employment of Negro or black troops by
an Egyptian king in the prosecution of a great war.^ At that
remote period, when Abraham was almost the sole representative
of the Jewish race, the negro type had multiplied and developed
into strong tribes, which were important factors in the military
contests of the oldest of powers — the Egyptian.

Notwithstanding this seeming permanence of type, it is well
known that of all physical conditions, color is the most liable to
change in every organism. Many animals under domestication
change their color entirely.^ In our Southern States it was
observed that house-slaves of the third generation presented
quite a markedly different appearance from field slaves.^ This
was owing as much, no doubt, to different food and different
habits of life as to protection from the sun, though many dif-
ferent races have quite the same color while their habits of life
are as different as well could be imagined. Of this class, the
Eskimo, Chinese, and Fuegeans are examples. However, the
fact that color is variable even in a slight degree, indicates that
considerable if not radical changes might be brought about
during a great length of time. Mr. Darwin has furnished the
most rational solution of the question, which he describes briefly

1 " We ourselves, when visiting the famous cavern of Abou Simbel, were far
from finding all that the writings of certain anthropologists and partisans
of Egyptian art, such as Gliddon, Nott, etc., had promised us. Doubtless one
can perfectly distinguish certain types, that is indisputable ; but to desire to
find a 'people in each portrait — Scythians, Arabs, Philistines, Lydians, Kurds,
Ilindoos, Jews, Chinese, Tyrians, Pelasgians, lonians, etc. — is it not to give too
great an influence to the Egyptian artists, who were copyists without skill, and
but clumsy inventors ? " — Pouchet's Plurality of the Human Race, Eng. trans.,
p. 50. London, 1864.

2 Duke of Argyll's Primeval Man, p. 101.

2 Darwin's Variation of Animals under Domestication, vol. ii, pp. 237-335,
and many places.

^ Harlan's Medical Besearches, p. 532, and Quatrefanges ( Unite de VEspece
Humaine, 1861, p. 138), cited by Darwin, Descent, vol. i, p. 337.

ACCEPTED CHRONOLOGY FAULTY. 199

as follows : " Various facts which I have elsewhere given, prove
that the color of the skin and hair is sometimes correlated in a
surprising manner with a complete immunity from the action
of certain vegetable poisons and from the attack of parasites.
Hence it occurred to me that negroes and other dark races might
have acquired their dark tints by the darker individuals escaping
during a long series of generations from the deadly influence of
the miasmas of their native countries." ^ This doctrine of the
survival of only the fittest, while all the weaker and perhaps
lighter complexioned individuals of a race gradually succumbed to
the deadly influence of climate, no doubt will explain the origin
of the dark races, known to enjoy a special immunity against
yellow and other fevers.'^ At all events, the formation of the
distinctive features of races requires a great lapse of time. The
geologist asks for time in which to account for the formation of
strata^ and the intelligent world now grants it to him without
limit, and just as reasonably may the ethnologist ask for time in
which to account for the formation of racial types.^ Nor need
the most literal interpreter of Grenesis object to this demand on
the ground of any conflict with the letter even of the historic
narrative of the Pentateuch. The accepted chronology, based
on Archbishop Usher's interpretation, is no part of the text of
Genesis. It is purely the product of his inadvertence and the
blindness of many others of his school of Biblical chronologists.
It is evident that the rules of interpretation applied to the tenth

* Descent, vol. i, p. 233, Bradford (A. W. ) discusses the origin of color and
other racial peculiarities, and attributes to the tendency of a species to vary, and
cites the production of Albinoes, Xanthous, and Sedigidi or six-fingered indi-
viduals. " It must be admitted," he says, " that this theory is sufficiently sup-
ported by an irrefragable mass of testimony to establish the original unity of
the human race, and to indicate that varieties of mankind are descended from
the same primitive stock." — American Antiquities, pp. 238-9.

2 See instances in Darwin's Descent, vol. i, p. 234 ; Nott and Gliddon's Types
of Mankind, p. 68, and especially Pouchet's Plurality of the Human Bace
(trans.), p. 60.

' " I doubt not that there will be found continuous and uninterrupted causes
which shall explain all the diversities of the different branches of the human
family -without the necessity of resorting to independent creations." — Foster's
P re-Historic Races, p. 355.

200 ACCEPTED CHRONOLOGY FAULTY.

chapter of Genesis, according to which the names of the descend-
ants of Noah's sons are taken to represent individuals only, can-
not hold. The probabilities are that they represent considerable
tribes or nations.. This probability is an established fact in the
sixteenth and subsequent verses. In the fifteenth verse we
learn that Canaan, the grandson of Noah, "begat Sidon, his
first-born, and Heth." Here the writer seems to refer to indi-
viduals, but it is probable that he alludes even to the origin of
tribes. In the sixteenth verse we are not left in doubt on the
subject, for there he no longer speaks of individuals or genera-
tions but of the growth of nations. He immediately adds after
the above quotation, " and [begat] the Jebusite, and the Amor-
ite, and the Girgasite, and the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the
Sinite," etc., etc.^ The account makes no pretensions at chro-
nology or at furnishing data for any system, and the constructions
put upon its condensed account of the origin and growth of
nations during an indefinite lapse of time by short-sighted inter-
preters, are unwarranted and certainly do injustice to the oldest
of our histories. When we go back of the birth of Christ two
thousand years — to the time of Abraham — this is as far as we
can tread with certainty in the light of History. This period
has been aptly designated by the Duke of Argyll as ^' Time
absolute." But when we go back of 2000 B. c, we are compelled
to walk in a twilight glimmer, with only the dim rays from occa-
sional cuneiform inscriptions, and the condensed accounts con-
tained in Genesis, falling across our uncertain pathway. This
period the above able writer has chosen to call " Time relative,"
and the probabilities are that its measure is double if not treble
that of the portion of " Time absolute " which precedes the
Christian Era. An additional fact in this connection which
strengthens the preceding is, that the three most ancient versions
of the Pentateuch — the Hebrew, the Samaritan and the Septua-
gint — vary considerably in their statements as to the ages of many
of the patriarchs at the birth of their sons. So wide is the difier-

' See an excellent treatment of this subject by the Duke of Argyll, Primeval
Man, pp. 94 e< aeq.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PRECEDING. 201

ence in this respect between the Hebrew and Septuagint versions
that their chronologies cannot be reconciled at all, the latter
allowing a period of eiglit hundred years more than the former
from Adam to Abraham ; such being the case, it is impossible
to arrive at the time of the flood or the origin of the race. These
contradictions in versions, however, do not in any way impeach
the historic authority of the Pentateuch, since it is in no sense a
chronology any more than it is a work on geographic or astronomic
science. The known antiquity of Egypt and China, to say
nothing of the facts revealed by geology concerning man's an-
tiquity, can never be reconciled with Usher's system, which is
in no sense the true chronology of any known version of the
Pentateuch.^

In this chapter we have seen that there is nothing to indicate
that the Americans owe their origin to a special act of creation,
and further, if they originated by the process of development
(for which there is no sufficient evidence), that it was not upon
the American continent. We are supported in these conclusions
by the most respectable writers on American Ethnology^ and

* " When speaking in a former work of the distinct races of mankind, I
remarked that if all the leading varieties of the human family sprang originally
from a single pair (a doctrine to which then, as now, I could see no valid objec-
tion), a much greater lapse of time was required for the slow and gradual
formation of such races as the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Negro, than was
embraced in any of the popular systems of chronology." — Si?' Charles LyelVs
Antiquity of Man, p. 385. Dr. J. P. Thompson says : " For such works
[alluding to Babel] and especially for founding such an empire as was ancient
Egy{)t, there was need of centuries for the growth of a population in numbers
and resources, equal to the gigantic structures that crown the banks of the Nile.
The less than two centuries between Archbishop Usher's date of the cessation
of the flood, and Piazzi Smith's calculation of the date of the great pyramid, was
far too short an interval for results upon a scale so magnificent. * * * Either
then we must place the flood much farther back upon the chronological scale, or
must admit not only that it was not universal in territorial extent, which is alto-
gether probable, but that it was not universal in the destruction of mankind,
which would seem to contradict both the letter and the spirit of the sacred
record." — Man in Genesis and Geology, p. 100. New York, 1870. 12mo.

^ See Humboldt's Essai Polit., vol. i, p. 79, Paris, 1811. ^ He considers not
only the Red Indians, but the Toltecs and Aztecs, to be of Asiatic Origin. See
Brasseur de Bourbourg's Nat. Civil. Ant., tom. i, p. 37. McCullough's Researches,

202 CONCLUSIONS.

Antiquities. That the American population is of old world
origin there can be little doubt ; but from whence it came, and to
what particular people or peoples it owes its birth, is quite
another question.^ That view seems open to least objections
which maintains that the Western Continent received its popu-
lation at a comparatively early period in the history of the race,
before the peoples of Western Europe and Eastern Asia had
assumed their present national characteristics or fully developed
their religious and social customs.^

PhU. and Ant, pp. 175 et seq. Crowe, TJie Gospel in Central America, p. 61.
Bradford, American Antiquities^ in chapter xii, ^ves his reasons for declaring
the Americans to have been a "primitive and cultivated branch of the human
family." Mayer (Brantz) in Mexico as it Was, p. 260, expresses his agreement
with the opinion entertained by Bradford. Carver, in Tramls through the Inte-
rior Parts of North America, repeats the opinion of Charlevoix, that the Amer-
icans are of old world origin. Tylor, Anahuac, London, 1861, p. 104, says:
" On the whole, the most probable view of the origin of the Mexican tribes
seems to be the one ordinarily held, that they really came from the old world,
bringing with them several legends, evidently the same as the histories recorded
in the book of Genesis."

' La teoria de la diversidad especifica de razas es tan intenible, que sin mas
decir podemos, dejar esta cuestion, la cual ultimamente, en especial en Norte-
America, ha escitado alguna controversia. Quedanos, pues, un origen primor-
dial para toda la raza humana y entonces la cuestion es, saber de que tronco
6 familia del antiguo continente se poblo el nuevo, 6 bien vice-versa, que tam-
bien es possible, aunque improbable, que del' que llamamos nuevo se haya
poblado el viego continente." — Ezequiel Uricoechea in Soc. Mex. Bol. 2d. ep. iv,
1854; p. 128. " For my own part I have long been convinced of the consan-
guinity between the brachycephalsB of America and those of Asia and the Pacific
islands, and that this characteristic type may be traced uninterruptedly through
the long chain of tribes inhabiting the west coast of the American Continent
from Behring Straits to Cape Horn." — Retzius, Smithsonian Report, 1859, p. 267.

2 " The era of their existence as a distinct and isolated race must probably
be dated as far back as that time which separated into nations the inhabitants
of the old world, and gave to each branch of the human family its primitive
language and individuality." — J. C. Prichard's Natural Histoj-y of Man, p. 356.
London, 1845.

CHAPTER V.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE MAYA NATIONS.

Ancient Civilization of Tabasco and Chiapas— The Tradition of Votan— The
First Emigrants to America — City of Nachan — The Votanic Document —
Ordonez — Brasseur and Cabrera on the Tzendal Document— The Empire of
the Chanes— The Oldest Civilization— The Earliest Home of the Mayas—
The Quiches— Their Origin Tradition — The Quiche Cosmogony — The Crea-
tion of Man — The Quiche Migration — Tulan— Mt, Hacavitz — Human Sacri-
fices instituted— Four Tulans — Association of the Mayas and Nahuas—
Heroic Period of the Quiches— Xibalba and its Downfall— Exploits of the
Quiche Chieftains — War of the Sects — Xibalba and Palenque the same —
Mayas of Yucatan and their Traditions — Culture Heroes— Zamna and
Cukulcan — Christ Myth.

THE most ancient civilization on this continent, judging
from the combined testimony of tradition, records, and
architectural remains, was that v/hich grew up under the favor-
able climate and geographical surroundings which the Central
American Kegion southward of the Isthmus of Tehuan tepee
afforded. The great Maya family with its numerous branches,
each in time developing its own dialect if not its own peculiar
language, at an early date fixed itself in the fertile valley of the
River Usumasinta, and produced a civilization which was old
and ripe when the Toltecs came in contact with it. Here in this
picturesque valley region in Tabasco and Chiapas we may look
for the cradle of American civilization. Under the shadow of the
magnificent and mysterious ruins of Palenque a people grew to
power who spread into Guatemala and Honduras, northward
toward Anahuac and southward into Yucatan, and for a period
of probably twenty-five centuries exercised a sway which, at one
time, excited the envy and fear of its neighbors. We are fully

204 THE TRADITION OF VOTAN.

aware of the uncertainty which attaches itself to tradition in
general, and of the caution with which it should be accepted in
treating of the foundations of history ; but still, with reference to
the origin and growth of old world nations, nothing better offers
itself in many instances than suspicious legends. The histories
of the Egyptians, the Trojans, the Greeks, and of even ancient
Kome rests on no surer footing. It is certain that while the
legendary history of any nation may be confused, exaggerated,
and besides full of breaks, still there are some main and funda-
mental facts out of which it has grown, and this we think is
especially true of the new world traditions. Clavigero says ;
" The Chiapanese have been the first peoplers of the new world,
if we give credit to their traditions. They say that Votan, the
grandson of that respectable old man who built the great ark
to save himself and family from the deluge, and one of those
who undertook the building of that lofty edifice which was to
reach up to heaven, went by express command of the Lord to
people that land. They say also that the first people came from
the quarter of the north, and that when they arrived at Soco-
nusco, they separated, some going to inhabit the country of
Nicaragua and others remaining in Chiapas." ^ The tradition
of Votan, the founder of the Maya culture, though somewhat
warped, probably by having passed through priestly hands, is
nevertheless one of the most valuable pieces of information which
we have concerning the ancient Americans. Without it our
knowledge of the origin of the Mayas would be a hopeless blank,
and the ruins of Palenque would be more a mystery than ever.
According to this tradition, Votan came from the East, from
Valum Chivim, by the way of Valum Votan, from across the
sea, by divine command, to apportion the land of the new conti-
nent to seven families which he brought with him. It appears
that he had been preceded in Arnerica by two others named
Igh and Imox, if the researches of the Abbe Brasseur de Bour-
bourg can be relied upon. In the Tzendal calendar, Votan's
name appears as that of the third day, while Igh and Imox are

* Hist. Ant. del Messlco (Eng. trans., 1807), vol. i.

THE CITY OF NACHAN. 205

the first and second respectively. If, as is supposed, the names
represent the true succession of the Maya chiefs, there is some
ground for the Abbe's view.^ The doubtful- portions of the
tradition which may be interpolations are the ambiguous asser-
tions that he saw the Tower of Babel, and was present at the
building of Solomon's temple. Probably the remains only of
the former structure may be referred to.

With these contradictions we have nothing to do, as they do
not in any way afiect the subsequent history of the Votanites, or
interfere with the probability of their old world origin. To at-
tempt to designate the point from which Votan started or the
means by which he reached the new world, would be the height
of folly. Votan is said to have made four journeys to the land
of his nativity. His achievements in the new world were, how-
ever, as great as those of any of the heroes of antiquity. His
great city was named " Nachan," (city of the serpents), from his
own race, which was named Chan, a serpent. This Nachan is
unquestionably identified with Palenque. The date of his jour-
ney is placed at 1000 years b. c.^ The kingdom of the serpents

1 " Quoique Votan soit le veritable fondateur de la civilisation et de I'empire
des Qui dies, le Codex CMmalpopoca, attribue neanmoins la fondation de I'em-
pire a son Igli ou Ik, appele par les Mexicains Ehecatl ou Cipactonac, parceque
ce prince vint le premir amener une colonie sur le continent americain. Cipatonac
est compose de CipactU, et de Tonacayo. Le premier vient de ce un, Ipan, sur
ou au-dessus, et tlactU, qui est le corps bumain, c'est-a-dire, Un homme superieur
aux autres hommes, ou encore de notre race, toutes choses qui conviennent par-
faitement au pere de la race des cb^nes. Tonacayo, veut dire notre chair ou le
corps humain, le mot tout entier Cipactonac ayant la significacion suivante :
' Celui qui est sorti du premier de notre race.' Ehecatl est en mexicain I'air,
ou le souflfle, Igb ou Ik, en langua maya et tzendale. Dans les calendriers
d'Oxaca, Soconusco, Cbiappas et d'Yucatan, il suit immediatemet le nom de
Nin, Imos ou Imox, comme celui d'Eliecatl suit dans le mexicain celui de
Cipactli." — Brasseur de Bourbourg, Cartas, note, p. 71. He then proceeds to
sustain bis conclusions by citing: analogies between the name and its signifi-
cance among the Egyptians.

2 CMmalpopoca, MS., Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Yuh., p. Ixxxviii ; see
also Memorias para la Historia del Antiguo, Reyno de Guatemala, por Franc,
de Paula Garcia Pelaez (Guatemala, 1851). Pelaez states that Votan founded the
ancient Culhuacan, now known as Palenque, in the year 3000 of the world and
in the tenth century b. c.

206 THE VOTANIC DOCUMENT— ORDONEZ.

flourished so rapidly that Votan founded three tributary mon-
archies whose capitals were Tulan, Mayapan, and Chiquimuia/
The former is supposed to have been situated about two leagues
east of the town of Ococingo ; Mayapan is well-known to have
been the capital of Yucatan, and Chiqimula is thought to have
been Copan in Honduras.^ One of the great works of this hero
was the excavation of a tunnel or ' snake hole ' from Zuqui to
Tzequil. He also deposited a great treasure at Huehuetan, in
Soconusco, which he left under the vigilant care of a guard,
directed by one of the most honorable women of the land.
Finally, he wrote a book in which he recorded his deeds and
ofiered proof of his being a Chane (or serpent). This ancient
document, which is claimed to have been written by one of
Votan's descendants, of the eighth or ninth generation and not
by himself,^ was in the Tzendal language, a dialect or branch
of the Maya, spoken in Chiapas and around Palenque. Its
history is, however, quite checkered, and the information which
it contained comes very indirectly. For generations the Votanic
document was scrupulously guarded by the people of Ta-
coaloya, in Soconusco, but was finally discovered by Francisco
Nunez de la Vega, Bishop of Chiapas. In the preamble of his
Constituciones, § xxx,'* he claims to have read this document, but
it is probable that only a copy, still in the Tzendal language but
written in Latin characters, had come into his possession.^ He
fails to give any definite information from the document except
the most general statements with reference to Votan's place in
the calendar, and his having seen the Tower of Babel, at which
each people was given a new language. He states that he could
have made more revelations of the history of Votan from this

* Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh., p. Ixxxx, on the authority of Ordonez.
2 Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, p. 1 59.

8 Ordoflez, Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. Ixxxvii.

* Constituciones Diocesanes dd OUspado de Ghiappas. Rome, 1702.

5 Bancroft's Native Maces, vol. v, p. 160: "It is not altogether improbable
that a genuine Maya document similar to the Manuscript Troano or Dresden
Codex, preserved from early times, may have found a native interpreter at the
time of the Conquest, and have escaped in its disguise of Spanish letters the
destruction which overtook its companions."

NUKEZ BE LA VEGA. 207

document but for bringing up the old idolatry of the people and
perpetuating it. With the zeal of a true Vandal, the bishop
committed the dangerous documents, together with the treasure
which he claims Votan to have buried in the dark-house, to the
flames in 1691. There seems to have been other copies, however,
of this remarkable manuscript, for about the close of the eighteenth
century, Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera was shown a document in the
possession of Don Ramon de Ordonez y Aguiar, a resident of
Ciudad Real in Chiapas, which purported to be the Yotanic
memoir.^ Ordonez, at the time, was engaged upon the compo-
sition of his work on the " History of the Heaven and Earth." ^
It appears that Cabrera was admitted to the confidence of Ordo-
nez, and availed himself of a few facts communicated to him by
the latter, which he supplemented by drawing from his imagi-
nation for the rest of his account.^ Brasseur de Bourbourg
accuses Cabrera of seriously misrepresenting Ordonez and of
warping his account.* The following, which is Cabrera's ac-

' " The memoir in his possession consists of five or six folios of common
quarto paper, written in ordinary characters in the Tzendal language, an evident
proof of its having been copied from the original in hieroglyphics, shortly after
the Conquest. At the top of the first leaf, the two continents are painted in
different colors, in two small squares, placed parallel to each other in the angles ;
the one representing Europe, Asia and Africa is marked with two large S'S
upon the upper arms of two bars drawn from the opposite angles of each square,
forming the point of union in the centre ; that which indicates America has two
S'S placed horizontally on the bars, but I am not certain whether upon the
upper or lower bars, but I believe upon the latter. When speaking of the
places he had visited on the old continent, he marks them on the margin of each
chapter with an upright S and those of America with a horizontal S. Between
these squares stands the title of his history : ' Proof that I am Culebra
(a Snake),' which title he proves in the body of the work by saying that he is
Culebra because he is Chivim." — Cabrera, Teatro Critico Amer., pp. 33-4.

2 Title of Ordonez in brief : Historm de la Creadon del Cielo y de la Tierra^
Conforme al 8i sterna de la Gentilidad Americana.

^ See his Teatro Critico Americano, p. 32 et seq., in Rio's Description of
the Ruins of an American City. London, 1822, quarto.

* " Mais il y defigura completement I'ouvrage d'Ordonez qu'il ne connaissait
pas assez et auquel il ajouta des opinions extr^mement hasardees. D. Ramon se
plaignit amerement de ce plagiat et des fausses idees que Cabrera donnait de
son travail, obtint centre lui un jugement, ou le plagiaire fut condamne par le
tribunal de I'audience royale de Guatemala, le 30 Juin, 1794. Mais Cabrera,

208 BRASSEUR AND CABRERA ON TZENDAL DOCUMENT.

count maybe of interest to the reader: " He (Yotan) states that
he conducted seven families from Valum Votan to this continent
and assigned lands to them; that he is the third of the Votans;
that having determined to travel until he arrived at the root
of Heaven, in order to discover his relations, the Culebras, and
make himself known to them, he made four voyages to Chivim
(which he expressed by repeating four times from Valum Votan
to Valum Chivim, from Valum Chivim to Valum Votan); that
he arrived in Spain, and that he went to Kome ; that he saw the
great house of God building ; that he went by the road which
his brethren, the Culebras, had bored ; that he marked it, and
that he passed by the houses of the thirteen Culebras. He
relates that in returning from one of his voyages he found seven
other families of the Tzequil nation who had joined the first in-
habitants, and recognized in them the same origin as his own,
that is, of the Culebras. He speaks of the place where they
built the first town, which, from its founders, received the name
of Tzequil ; he affirms the having taught tliem refinement of
manners in the use of the table, table-cloth, dishes, basins, cups,
and napkins; they taught him the knowledge of God and of his
worship ; his first ideas of a king and of obedience to Him ; that
he was chosen captain of all those united families." It is not
necessary for us to point out the hand of the interpolator in this
account ; it is sufficiently apparent. However, its obnoxious
prominence need not destroy our faith in the general facts of the
account. The interpretation of the document we submit to the
reader with the simple reminder that the symbol of life and
power among the Central Americans and Mexicans has ever
been a serpent, a fact which may have derived its significance
from the meaning of the name of the Votanites together with
the power attained by Palenque.^ Vo tan's followers were called

tout en pillant les idees da savant antiquaire, n'en rendait pas moins justice a
son talent et a son merite." — Brasseur de Bourbourg on Ordoflez MS. Cartas, p. 8.
1 The explanation given by Cabrera is as follows : " Let us suppose then,
with Calmet and other authors whom he quotes, that some of the Hivites who
were descendants from Heth, son of Canaan, were settled on the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea and known from the most remote parts under the name of

KINGDOM OF THE CHANES OR SERPENTS. 209

Tzequites by their predecessors, probably by the descendants
of Igh and Imox, the signification of which term is ^ men with
petticoats/ The Tzendal traditions refer always to the city of
Nachan as the capital of the kingdom of the Chanes or Serpents,
and the most significant feature of the traditional names of this
people is the fact that the name Culhua, applied by the Nahua
nations and especially by the Toltecs to a powerful people who
had preceeded them at the south, is the exact equivalent of
Chanes ; the same is true of Culhuacan/ The Abbe Brasseur
de Bourbourg obtained a copy of the fragmentary MS. of Ordo-
nez, which he informs us was written in two separate parts in
'quarto, at different times. The first or mythological part exists in
a copy owned by the Abbe."^ The second or historical part, if ever
written, has never reached the light, and from the description

Hivim or Givim, from which region they were expelled, some years before the
departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, by the Caphtorirns or Philistines, who,
according to some writers, were colonists from Cappadocia, others considering
them to be from Cyprus, and more probably, according to a third opinion, from
Crete, now Candia ; that to strengthen their native country Egypt, and to pro-
tect themselves from all assault, they built five large cities, viz.: Accaron,
Azotus, Ascalon, and Gaza [fifth wanting in account], from whence they made
frequent sallies upon the Canaanite towns and all their surrounding neighbors
(except the Egyptians, whom they alvyays respected), and carried on many wars
in the posterior ages against the Hebrews, The Scriptures (Deuteronomy^
chap, ii, verse 23, and Joshua, chap, xiii, verse 4) inform us of the expulsion
of the Hivites (Givim) by the Caphtorims, from which it appears that the latter
drove out the former, who inhabited the countries from Azzah to Gaza. Many
others were settled in the vicinity of the mountains of Eval and Azzah, among
whom were reckoned the Sichemites and the Gabaonites ; the latter by stratagem
made alliance with Joshua, or submitted to him. Lastly, others had their
dwellings about the skirts of Mount Hermon, beyond Jordan to the eastward of
Canaan (Joshua, chap, ii, verse 3). Of these last were Cadmus and his wile
Hermione or Hermonia, both memorable in sacred as well as profane history, as
their exploits occasioned their being exalted to the rank of deities, while in
regard to their metamorphosis into snakes (Culebras) mentioned by Ovid,
Metam., lib. 3, their being Hivites may have given rise to this fabulous trans-
mutation, the name in the Phoenician language implying a snake, which the
ancient Hebrew writers suppose to have been given from this people being ac-
customed to live in caves under ground like snakes." — Cabrera, Teatro Critico,
pp. 47-8. On p. 95 he reaches the conclusion that the Votanites were Cartha-
ginians.

' Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, p. 163. ' Cartas, p. 12.

210 KEY TO THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST CIVILIZATION.

of its contents found in the first part, we should think that the
author might have made a rather imaginative historian.^ While
some of the details of the Votanic tradition are not worthy
of a moment's consideration, it is quite certain that in the
general facts we have a key to the origin of what all American-
ists agree in pronouncing the oldest civilization on this continent,
one which was gray and already declining when the Toltecs
entered Mexico. There is not the slightest evidence that it
originated in any other place than in Chiapas, where it is found,
and extended itself into Guatemala, Yucatan, and possibly
branched northward in a colony as remote as Culhuacan. Sr.
Orozco y Berra has found fifteen languages or dialects to be re-
lated to the Maya language, a fact which indicates the age and
extent of that remarkable civilization.^ Sr. Orozco is convinced
from linguistic and other researches, that the inhabitants
of Cuba and others of the West India Islands were Mayas, and
points out the intermediate location of Cuba between Florida
and Yucatan. He thinks the earliest home of the Mayas on this

^ The description of its contents drawn by Brasseur de Bourbourg from the
Xmrt in his possession is briefly as follows : The second volume of Ordonez com-
prised the history of the ancestors of Votan, a descendant of Shem by the
Hivo-Phcenician line; of their emigration from the Eastern Continent to the
Occident ; of their voyage with their first legislator by the Usumasinta River
and its affluents to the Plain Palenque ; the foundation of the great monarchy
of the Quiches as well as that of Nachan, which was the capital ; of the found-
ing of the three royal cities of Mayapan, Tulha, and Cliiquiniula. The Abbe
finds allusion to this work in Torquemada, Juarros, Cogolludo, Lizana, and par-
ticularly in Sahugun, book iii of his Hist. Gen., where it is claimed to treat of the
original inhabitants of Palenque. He then states that the work was written in
Guatemala at the close of the eighteenth century, and was sent to Spain or taken
thither by its author for publication. In 1803 it was found in the hands
of Sr. Gil Lemos of Madrid, where it had been left for publication. Its con-
tents becoming known to the Council of the Indias, it was suppressed like many
others on the early history of America. Ordonez, who for ten years afterwards
was canon of the Cathedral at Ciudad Real, died without seeing his work pub-
lished. See Brasseur de Bourbourg, Cartas, p. 13 et scq.

■^ These areas follows: Cliontal, Quiche, Zutugil, Kachiquel,Mam, Pokoman,
Pokonchi, Caichi Coxoh, Ixil, Tzendal, Tozotzil, Choi, Huaxteco, and Totonaco ;
besides those of the islands of Cuba and Hayti, Borquia and Jamaica. —
Oeografia de los Linfjims, p. 98. Mexico, 1864, 4to.

FORMER HOME OF THE MAYAS. 211

continent was on the Atlantic coast of the United States,
from whence they emigrated to Cuba and thence to Yucatan.^
Though we are not fully satisfied that the Mayas ever occupied
Florida, it is quite likely that the islands of the Gulf were in-
habited by them at an early day. The culture hero Votan is a
mystery, and to arrive at his true character or office is simply an
impossibility. For those disposed to speculate, there is abun-
dant opportunity.- The most interesting traditionary history
which has been discovered is that of the Quiches of Guatemala.
By the name Quiche, in this immediate connection, we do not
mean to speak of that people after they became amalgamated
with the Nahua nations from Central Mexico, but as a branch
of the great Maya monarchy, in all probability located at first
at Tulha or Tula, which, it is believed, was situated near
Ococingo. At first, we think, the Quiches developed their own
institutions, dialects, etc., as one of the allied powers asso-
ciated with the capital city Nachan, but gradually assumed an
individuality which became distinctive, until a rivalry between
the capital and its allied neighbor sprang up, which ultimately
ended in the overthrow of the former. Sr. Pimentel, on the
authority of an ancient author, states that the name Quiche was
applied to the first empire of Palenque and signified many trees.
It was employed by the "innumerable families of diflerent
nations which composed it, to symbolize its various branches." ^
The tradition of their origin states that they came from the far
East, across immense tracts of land and water ; that in their
former home they had multiplied considerably and lived without
civilization, and with but few wants ; they paid no tribute, spoke
a common language, did not bow down to wood and stone, but
lifting their eyes toward heaven, observed the will of their

1 Hid, p. 128.

2 " n y a plus d'un trait de ressemblance entre le personnage mysterieux qui
panit a Carthagre et le Votan des Tzendales. Les chemins souterraines ou. celui-
ci fut admis, lesquels traversent le terre pour arriver a la racine du ciel, indiquent
une suite d'epreuves qui rappellent les initiations fegyptiennes et dont on trouve
des traces jusqu'a I'epoque meme de la conquete dans les epreuves de la
chevalerie Mexicaine." — Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. cviii.

* Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico^ torn, ii, p. 124. Mexico, 1865, 8vo.

212 QUICHE ORIGIN TRADITION.

Creator, they attended with respect to the rising of the sun, and
saluted with their invocations the Morning Star; with loving
and obedient hearts they addressed their prayers to Heaven for
the gift of offspring. "Hail, Creator and Maker! regard us, at-
tend us. Heart of Heaven, Heart of the Earth, do not forsake us,
do not leave us. God of Heaven and Earth, Heart of Heaven,
Heart of Earth, consider our posterity always. Accord us re-
pose, a glorious repose, peace and prosperity, justice, life and our
being. Grant to us, Hurakan, enlightened and fruitful. Thou
who comprehendest all things great and small." ^ In the Fopol
Vuli, the sacred book of the Quiches, we are enabled to arrive
more closely at the cosmogony and worship of that remarkable
people.^ The reader may not be prepared for the irreconcilable
contradictions and for the obscure and figurative language in which

^ MS. Quiclie de Chichicaetenango in Brasseur de Bourbourg's Hist. Nat.
Civ., vol. i, pp. 105-6. See also Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, p. 21.

' The Popol Vuh was first published by Dr. Scherzer in Vienna, in 1857,
Tinder the title of Las Histurias del Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de
Ouatemala, traducidas de la Lcrigua Quiche al Gastellano para mas Comodidad
de los Ministros del 8. Emngelio, por el R. P. F. Francisco Ximenez, cura
doctrinero por el real patronato del Pueblo de S. Thomas, Chuila, — Exacta-
mente segun el texto espanol del manuscrito original que se halla en la biblio-
teca de la Universidad de Guatemala, publicado por la priraera vez, y aumentado
con una introduccion y anotaciones por el Dr. C. Scherzer. Father Ximinez, a
Dominican and curate of Chichicastenango of Guatemala, wrote about 1720, and
subsequently. His work, because of its condemnation of the oppression of the
Indians, was suppressed, but was finally discovered in June, 1854, in the library
of the University of San Carlos, in Guatemala, by Dr. Scherzer. Father
Ximinez describes the work as a literal copy of an original Quiche book, made
in Roman letters by Quiche copyists, after the introduction of Christianity into
Guatemala. The copy is stated ambiguously to have been made to replace the
original Popol Vuh — national book — which was lost. How a book which had
been lost could be copied literally, the Father fails to tell us. Internal evidence,
however, sustains the claim that it was written by native Quiches. In 1860,
Brasseur de Bourbourg undertook a new translation of the Papol Vuh, from the
Ximinez document (containing the Quiche and Spanish). This he did among
the Quiches and with the aid of the natives, and as a result it is believed that
a much more literal translation than that made by Ximinez was obtained. In
our examination of Quiche history we have compared both translations and
shall draw from them directly, but shall also take advantage of the excellent
condensations and renderings which Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft has made. See
Native Races, vol. iii, p. 42, note, for the leading facts as we have stated them.

THE QUICHE COSMOGONY. 213

this work abounds ; but with the remembrance that all nations of
antiquity delighted in the use of figures, parabolic disguises and
personifications under which the truth was couched, we may be
able to profit by even the seeming foolishness and confusion of the
Quiche record. The strange, wild poetry of the Quiches, can only
be fully enjoyed by pursuing the unabridged accounts for which
we regret we have not space. ^ In the order of the Quiche creation,
the heavens were first formed and their boundaries fixed by the
Creator and Former, by whom all move and breathe, by whom
all nations enjoy their wisdom and civilization. At first there
was no man or animal or bird or fish or green herb — nothing but
the firmament existed, the face of the earth was not yet to be
seen, only the peaceful sea and the whole expanse of heaven.
Silence pervaded all ; not even the sea murmured ; there was
nothing but immobility and silence in the darkness — in the
night.- The Creator, the Former, the Dominator — the feath-
ered serpent — those that engender, those that give being, moved
upon the water as a glowing light. Their name is Gucumatz,
heart of heaven — God. " Earth," they said, and in an instant it
was formed and rose like a vapor cloud ; immediately the plains
and mountains arose and the cypress and pine appeared. Then
Gucumatz was filled with joy, and cried out, " Blessed be thy
coming, Heart of Heaven, Hurakan, thunderbolt !"^ Animals
were next formed, but because they could not praise their
Maker they were doomed to become objects of prey. Four crea-
tions of men then followed. The first man was made of clay,
but he had no intelligence and he was consumed in the water.
Upon a second trial a man and a woman were made of a sort
of pith, but they too were unsatisfactory experiments ; though
they had life and peopled the earth, they were very inferior,

' We must refer the reader either to the originals or to that treasure-house
of American traditional lore, Mr. Bancroft's third volume, which is a repository
of poetic renderings as well. Nor have we endeavored in every instance to avoid
the use of that author's incomparable terminology, so expressive of the spirit
of the original.

^ Brasseur de Bourbourg, Popol Vuh, p. 7 ; Ximinez, Hist. Ind. Guat,
pp. 5-6 ; Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iii, p. 44.

^ Mr. Bancroft's rendering, Native Races, vol. iii, p. 45.

FOUR CREATIONS OF MAN.

living like beasts and forgetting the Heart of Heaven. The
Creator then destroyed them with a flood of resin, allowing only
a few to escape, that now exist as little apes in the woods. The
persons of the Godhead, enveloped in the darkness which en-
shrouded a desolated world, counseled concerning the creation
of a more perfect order, and as a result they formed four perfect
men named : Balam-Quitze, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and Iqi-
Balam. These men were miraculously formed of white and yel-
low maize, and the Creator was content with his labors. ^' Verily,
at last, were there found men worthy of their origin and their
destiny; verily, at last, did the gods look upon 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 star — sole light as yet of the primeval world — stood up
and looked. Their great clear eyes swept rapidly over all; they
saw the woods and rocks, the lakes and the sea, the mountains
and the valleys, and the heavens that were above all ; and they
comprehended all and admired exceedingly. Then they returned
thanks to those who had made the world and all therein was :
we offer up our thanks, twice — yea, verily, thrice ; we have re-
ceived life, w^e speak, we walk, we taste, we hear and understand,
we know both that which is near and that which is far off, we
see all things, great and small, in all the heaven and earth.
Thanks, then, Maker and Former, Father and Mother of our
life, we have been created — we are." ^ These four creatures were
considered too perfect by the gods, and in order that their omni-
science might be destroyed, they breathed a cloud of mist over
their vision. To each of these men wives were made while they
slept. A fourth creation seems to have taken place by which
the ancestors of other races were formed.

The account which the Popol Vuh furnishes of the migra-
tions of the ancient Quiches is somewhat confused, and it is
scarcely possible to hope that the locations named should ever
be fully identified. Their worship was at first purely spiritual.

* Mr. Bancroft's graceful and truly poetic rendering. Native Races, vol. iii,

pp. 47, 48.

MT. HACAVITZ. 215

" Only they gazed up into heaven, not knowing what they had
come so fer to do." In their original home, wherever that might
have been, they grew weary of this kind of service — of watching
for " the rising of the sun " — by which it seems they meant the
coming of temporal power. The four men then forsook their
abode and journeyed to Tulan-Zuiva, the seven caves or seven
ravines. Here they found gods ; to each of the four men a
different deity was assigned. To Balam-Quitze the god Tohil
was given ; to Balam-Agab the god Avilix ; and to Mahucutah,
the god Hacavitz ; and though the fourth man Iqi-Balam
also received a god, no special account is taken of him, since
the latter of the four men left no progeny. The journey to
Tulan is said to have been a very long one. Doubtless in this
account we have an allusion to one of those modifications in
religious notions which seems to have often attended a change
of residence in early times. The abstract worship of the Creator
is supplanted by the more material and ceremonial worship of
intermediate deities (demi-gods). Tulan is described as a much
colder climate than the eastern and tropical land which they had
forsaken, and the god Tohil came to their relief by the creation
of fire. But incessant rains, accompanied with hail, extinguished
all their fires, which were again kindled repeatedly by the fire-
god. Tulan was an unfavorable locality for permanent abode —
rains, extreme cold, dampness, famine prevailed, and the peculiar
misfortune of the confusion of tongues there befell them. No
longer were the brother propagators of the race able to communi-
cate with each other. " At Tulan there was as yet no sun," is
the significant but perplexing language of the narrative. At
last Tulan, the mysterious land of the " seven-caves," was for-
saken, and under the leadership of Tohil the people began a
migration which was attended with indescribable hardships and
famine itself. Their way led through dense forests, over high
mountains, a long sea passage, and by a rough and pebbly shore.
We are, however, told that the sea was parted for their passage.
Their tribulations were at an end when at last they arrived at a
beautiful mountain, which they named after their god Hacavitz.
Here they were informed that the sun would appear, and, as a

216 HUMAN SACRIFICES INSTITUTED.

consequence, the four progenitors of the race and all the people
rejoiced. Here was everything heauteous and gladdening. The
morning star shed forth a resplendent brightness, and the sun
itself at last appeared, though then it had not the warmth which
it possessed at a later day. Before the light of the sun, how-
ever, the gods Tohil, Avilix and Hacavitz, together with the tiger
and lion and reptiles, were changed into stone. To interpret
this paragraph, which is greatly condensed, is a difficult under-
taking, still there are certain facts which seem to serve as
the basis of intelligent speculation. The language is extremely
figurative throughout the entire narrative, and especially so here.
Their worship of the morning star at an early period seems to
connect them with the Mediterranean peoples of the old world.
The allusions to the sun not yet having come may be retro-
spective, indicating that the worship of the sun had not been
adopted at that early day, or it may indicate that the period of
national strength had not dawned. The fact that the morning
star shone more brilliantly on Mt. Hacavitz than at Tulan (the
seven caves), may mean either that the worship of the star was
more splendidly celebrated, or it may have reference to an astro-
nomical fact, that the star itself was more luminous, and furnish
evidence in harmony with the statements of the narrative that
Mt. Hacavitz was a more southern location than the tempestuous
Tulan. The petrifaction of the three tribal gods may have been
the result of an age of peace and prosperity which offered an
opportuility for developing their cultus ; or, upon the other
hand, if the coming of the sun refers to the advent of a new
religion, that which is known to have prevailed among the
Nahuas, the old gods may have been sculptured in stone, that
their national character and deeds might not be forgotten before
the increasing importance of the new faith. There they insti-
tuted sacrifices of beasts to the three stone gods Tohil, Avilix
.and Hacavitz ; they even drew blood from their own bodies
and offered it to them. Finally, not content with these, the
first four men, led by Balam-Quitze, instituted human sacri-
fices. Captives were taken from neighboring tribes, kidnapping
was practised extensively, until the hostility of their neighbors

THE FOUR TULANS. 217

broke forth into open war. The contest, however, resulted favor-
ably to the Quiches, and the surrounding tribes became subject
to the victorious power. In Hacavitz they composed a national
song called the Kamucu (" we see ") — a memorial of their mis-
fortunes in Tulan — a lament for the loss of so many of their
people in that unfortunate locality. This loss is described as
occasioned by a portion of their race being left behind, rather
than as the result of the misfortunes which attended them there.
At last, at the noon-day of their national glory, it came to pass
that the ancestors of their race, Balam-Quitze, Balam-Agab,
Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam, died — the men who came from the
east, from across the sea, died — and their remains were enveloped
in a great bundle and preserved as memorials of the ancestors of
the race.^ Then the Quiches sang the sad Kamucu, and mourned
the loss of their leaders and that portion of their race which they
left behind them in Tulan.

The definite location of Tulan is almost out of the question ;
it may only be conjectured. We have already stated, on the
authority of Ordifiez, that there was a Tulan near Ococingo.^
The Cakchiquel MS., known only through the writings of Bras-
seur de Bourbourg, but evidently a document containing the
same facts as those stated in the Popol Vuh, gives the following
information concerning Tulan: "Four persons came from Tulan,
from the direction of the rising sun — that is one Tulan. There
is another Tulan in Xibalbay, and another where the sun sets,
and it is there that we came ; and in the direction of the setting
sun there is another, where is the god ; so that there are four
Tulans ; and it is where the sun sets that we came to Tulan,

1 See Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iii, p. 54. Brasseur de Bourbourg,
Nouvelles Annales des Voyages 1858, tome iv, p. 268, and Hist, de Tlaxcallan m
the same, tome xcix, 1843, p. 179, where reference is made to these bundles.

2 Popol Vuh, p. Ixxxv, note, et Ihid, p. ccliv. The Abbe places that Tulan
among the ruins of the valley of Palenque near the modern town of Comitan in
the state of Chiapas. He adds : " Siege principal des princes de la race Nahuatl,
cette ville aurait ete fondee a une epoque contemporaine de la capitale des
Xibalbides, plusieurs siScles avant I'^re chretienne, et au rapport de toutes les
traditions, elle aurait ri valise constamment avec sa metropole dont elle cherchait
a se rendre independante. "

218 THE FOUR TULANS.

from the other side of the sea where this Tulan is ; and it is
there that we were conceived and begotten by our mothers and
our fathers." ^ From this it appears that two of these Tulans
were not upon the continent at all ; one in the east across the
sea, the birthplace of the race ; another an imaginary locality
somewhere toward the region of the setting sun, where the deity
dwells ; another Tulan is pretty certainly located in Chiapas
near the capital of Xibalba ; with this place, however, they do
not state that they had any relationship, but another Tulan
where the sun sets is designated as the locality to which they
came from across the sea. Mr. Bancroft confounds the Tulan
of their misfortunes with that which was located near Xibalba ;
but this view is plainly wrong, since the climatic surroundings
of the Chiapan Tulan are quite the opposite of those described
as prevailing at that Tulan where fire was so necessary. In the
Tulan to which they journeyed they suffered from cold, and their
god Tohil, whom they received there, gave them fire. Seflor
Orozco y Berra quite positively identifies this Tulan with the
Toltec capital ToUan, north of Anahuac, and certainly with
reason.^ There their tongues were changed, there the Nahua
language was encountered. No doubt that in the first period
of the Toltec power in Tollan, the Maya-Quiche^s who had
migrated northward from some locality in the Usumacinta region
and intermingled with the Nahuas, sharing in their worship
and appropriating certain elements of language, migrated south-
ward to the elevated regions of Vera-Paz and founded a Quiche
power in Gruatemala.

Upon the downfall of the Toltec monarchy in the eleventh
century, no doubt many noble Toltec families forsook the unfor-
tunate and fallen capital and founded in Guatemala the Quiche-
Cakchiquel monarchy, composed of Maya and Toltec elements,
which spread itself southward in colonies and branches into
various parts of Central America, and flourished with such

' Popol Vuh, notes, pp. xci-ii. We have used Mr. Bancroft's rendering of
the passage.

* Geografia de las Lingaas Mexicanas, pp. 96-8 and pp. 127-29. A linguistic
argument.

QUICHES AND NAHUAS AS NEIGHBORS. 219

power and fame at the time of the Conquest. It is not the
province of this work to take up the annals of this or any other
people, but only to treat of their most primitive period. The
gap in Quiche history between that which we have been treating
and the period of the Annals is considerable, and no document
has yet been discovered wliich will fill it with the wanting record.
Mr. Bancroft has placed the annals within the reach of the
English reader in his fifth volume. Mt. Hacavitz was the point
at which the scattered tribes collected and formed the nucleus
of the subsequently powerful monarchy in Guatemala of which
Utatlan was the capital. The two places may have been iden-
tical. Several facts point to the early association of the ances-
tors of the Quiches with the Nahuas who subsequently figure so
conspicuously as Toltecs and Aztecs. The tribes which migrated
north w^ard were called Yaqui (according to the Popol Vuh), and
the name ethnographically has the same meaning as Nahuatl.^
The Quiches applied the name to the inhabitants of Mexico.
The god Tohil was called by the Yaqui tribes Yolcuat Quitzal-
cuat while the Quiches were in Tulan. Quetzalcoatl, of whom
we shall speak more fully hereafter, was the greatest of the
Nahua divinities.- The Aztecs and Toltecs as well as the Quiches
came from the " Seven Caves," that Tulan which seems to have
been the early home of the two great families speaking radically
different languages — the Maya and the Nahua. The statement
so often met with that Tulan was across the sea is perplexing.
Can we look for it upon some of the islands of the Gulf or
Caribbean Sea ? or are we to look upon the reference to the sea
passage as an earlier event in the history of both peoples, which
because of the lack of records has been confounded with some of
the adventures of the march toward the northern Tulan, which
was undertaken at least by the Mayas and possibly by the
Nahuas from their common home in the Usumacinta valley ?
We are inclined, in the light of a large margin of testimony, to
accept the latter view, and consider the Tulan of the Chiapan
region to have been the early home of both peoples — the primi-

^ Brass8ur de Bourbourg is the authority cited by Mr. Bancroft, vol. v, p. 188.
2 Bancroft, Native Races, vol. v, p. 188.

220 XIBALBA AND ITS POWER.

tive one of the Mayas and the adopted one of the Nahuas — after
leaving Hue Hue Tlappalan, the accidental centre to which in
their wanderings they converged, and in which they met ; here
in an age of simpler manners they lived in the enjoyment of
peace, preserving each their own institutions and language,
though considerably influencing each other's customs. The
Tulan of this Central American region may have been con-
founded in name and characteristics with the original home of
each race " across the sea."

The Quiche record furnishes us with the account of an epoch
in the early Quiche history which we are justified in character-
izing as their heroic period. It occupies the same place in their
history as the Trojan war in the history of Greece. The tradition
of the fall of Xibalba, the terror of its neighbors, the power which
by its enemies was called infernal, is a heroic composition founded
on a combination of events as mysterious and wonderful as those
contained in the Iliad itself. To locate the events in their
proper place, to assign them their true period, is attended with
as many difficulties as attend the Homeric history. The author-
ities differ as to the proper chronologic order of the record. The
Popol Vuh, both in the Ximinez and Brasseur editions, give the
narrative to which we have reference immediately after the
destruction of the men made of pith or wood— the result of the
first creation. Mr. Bancroft is somewhat indifferent about the
order and follows the narrative. Brasseur de Bourbourg, how-
ever, considers that chronologically the narrative follows the
third creation, that of the four founders of the Quiche race.^ If
we look upon the so-called creations as simply tribal origins and
not as mythical accounts of the origin of man, there is room for
the heroic period before the days of the four ancestors of the
Quiches ; but if, on the contrary, the two creations preceding
that of Balam-Quitze and his associates are mythical, are the
legendary accounts of a fancied order in creation and not the
origin of tribes, the view taken by the Abbe is the only one
which can be accepted. The question cannot at present be
definitely settled. If we resort to the latter view, that of the

* Popol Vuh, p. 195. Bancroft, vol. v, 172-80.

EXPLOITS OF THE QUICHfi CHIEFTAINS. 221

Abbe, it is necessary for us to suppose that the long reign of
Balam-Quitze, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah and Iqi-Balam is that
of a line, a dynasty, and not of individuals — which is altogether
probable. Brasseur supposes the time of which the tradition
speaks to have been about fifteen centuries before the Spanish
conquest, and thinks Copan was the capital of a province called
Payaqui {'' in the Yaqui," which we have seen was the name of
the Nahuas), and that this capital, otherwise known as Chiqui-
mula, owed its origin to a warrior known as Balam, who intro-
duced human sacrifices. His authority is the Isagoge Historico
MS. cited by Pelaez, to whose work we have already referred.^ To
attempt to determine upon the time definitely would be a hope-
less undertaking. The mysterious tradition with its confused
statements and allegorical allusions we will attempt to condense
into intelligible shape. Tbis has already been accomplished by
Mr. Bancroft, and his version greatly facilitates our efforts in the
same direction.

The second division of the Popol Vuli contains the account
of two attempts at the overthrow of the great Xibalban mon-
archy, founded by Votan. The first of these proved unsuccess-
ful and fatal to the enemies of the great power; the second,
undertaken by the descendants of the defeated chieftains, resulted
in the downfall of the empire of the Serpents or Votanites, and
in the revenge of the death of the unsuccessful warriors. The
account is provokingly figurative ; different allies of each of the
powers being spoken of as owls, wild beasts, rabbits, deer, rats,
lice, ants, etc., a custom which has always prevailed among
savage and semi-civilized nations. Savages of the forests are
usually referred to as wild beasts in early tradition. Xibalba is
so hated by its enemies that its usual title is the "infernal
regions." ^ Torquemada refers to it as hell, and its king as the
king of the " shades." ^ The hatred was intense, and the worst

^ Popol Vuh, p. cclvi. Bancroft, vol. v, p. 545. The Abbe has largely drawn
upon his imagination in this instance as in some others, and the opinion is only
interesting because of its authorship.

^ Las Casas, Hist. Apologetica, MS., torn, iii, cap. cxxiv et cxxv.

2 Torquemada, tom. ii, pp. 53-4. Ximinez renders the word Xibalby " Inferno."

222 HUNAHPU AND XBALANQUE.

invectives were mild in the estimation of the enemies of the no
doubt oppressive power. We have already given the account
of creation in which Gucumatz (the Plumed Serpent) figured
conspicuously. He, however, is seen to have acted at the word
of Hurakan ("Heart of Heaven''). The closing paragraphs of
the first division of the Popol Vuh give some of the exploits of
the young heroes Hunahpu and Xbakmque, who figure as the
defendants of the worship of the Heart of Heaven. A certain
Vucub-Cakix, who assumed to be the sun and god of the people,
and who in his pride offended the Heart of Heaven, fell at their
avenging hands. His sons Zipacna and Cabrakan, whose pride
was as offensive to Hurakan as had been their father's, shared
the same fate ; though the brothers lost four hundred of their
allies in the undertaking, by Zipanca toppling over a house upon
them while they were rejoicing at his supposed death in a pit in
which they had buried him.

The second division of the account reverts to events which
preceded those in the closing paragraphs of the first division by
one or more generations. The exploits of the ancestors of the
brothers are narrated. Xpiyacoc and Xmucane, grandparents
of the sun and moon, had two sons, Hunhunahpu and Vukub
Hunahpu. The former of these sons married, and to him were
born also two sons, Hunbatz and Hunchouen, who grew up to
be wise and skillful and great artists. With all these persons
Hurakan, the Heart of Heaven, communicated through his
messenger Voc. At last Hunhunahpu and Vukub Hunahpu
undertook a journey toward Xibalba, playing ball as they went,
by which we understand that they set out upon a march of con-
quest. Upon hearing of their approach, Hun Camo and Vukub
Came, kings of Xibalba, sent them a challenge to a game of ball
by four messengers who were called owls. From the ball-ground
of Nimxab Carchah (now the name of an Indian town in Vera
Paz), they followed the messengers down the steep road to
Xibalba, crossing rivers and ravines and a bloody stream. After
arriving at the royal palace, and during the process of arranging
for the contest in which their strength should be tried, they were
so unfortunate as first to be made the subjects of ridicule for the

THE CONQUERORS OF XIBALBA. 223

whole court, then put to torture, and afterwards were cruelly
and it seems treacherously murdered. The head of Hunhunahpu
was hung upon a tree, which at once became overgrown with
gourds so as to hide the head of the unfortunate chief. Not-
withstanding the royal decree that no one should approach the
tree, Xquiq, a virgin princess, a Xibalban, determined to taste
its forbidden fruit, and in an hour of solitude was in the act of
reaching forth to pluck it, when Hunhunahpu spat into her
hand and she immaculately conceived. Her condition was dis-
covered by her father, who delivered her to the owls, the royal
messengers, to be put to death. By bribing her executioners she
escaped and went to the dwelling of the old grandmother Xmucane,
who upon the death of Hunhunahpu's wife had taken charge of
his Sons, the youthful Hunbatz and Hunchouen. Xquiq, by
miraculous performances, satisfied Xmucane that Hunhunahpu
was the father of her unborn children, and was received into her
home. The Xibalban virgin brought forth twin sons in the
house of the enemies of her country. These she named Hunahpu
and Xbalanque. From the very first their lot with their great-
grandmother was a hard one. Their half-brothers Hunbatz and
Hunchouen treated them harshly, but in time the twins revenged
themselves by changing the former into monkeys, and succeeding
to their artistic skill and musical fame.

Various exploits of the twin brothers are narrated, chiefly —
as we would interpret the figurative language — with the more
savage tribes of the forests and mountains,. From one of their
captives whom they call a rat, they learned of the expedition of
their father and uncle, and were brought into possession of their
ball implements. The old ball-ground (probably battle-ground)
of their fathers was resorted to by Hunahpu and Xbalanque, and
when the Xibalban monarchs, Hun Came and Vukub Came,
heard of their purposes, they were angered and sent a challenge
to them as they had done to their ancestors. The message was
delivered at the great-grandmother's home, and the two chief-
tains, upon being acquainted with the news, returned to bid both
mother and grandmother farewell. Before taking final leave,
they planted in the centre of the house (probably the court) each

224 THE CONQUERORS OF XIBALBA.

a cane, which was endowed with the singular attribute of reveal-
ing to the family the fortunes of each of the brothers. The life
and fate of each cane was inseparably connected with that
of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. On their route to Xibalba the
bloody river was passed and a stream called Papuhya ; but, more
wise than their predecessors, they took cunning precautions not
to be deceived and sacrificed by the Xibalban monarchs. For
this purpose, it is said, they sent an animal called Xan before
them, equipped with a hair from Hunahpu's leg, with which he
pricked the princes and by their exclamations learned their names.
Thus they detected the artificial wooden men whom we are told
deceived their ancestors and made them the objects of ridicule.

By this strange personification we think we may understand
that the father and the uncle of the two young heroes had ti^ated
with a couple of irresponsible Xibalbans who had been sent out
to meet them, with the pretence that they were the kings, and
when they had induced their enemies to enter the city, the true
monarchs seized them and repudiated the action of the so-
called wooden men, avowing no responsibility for their pledges.
Hunahpu and Xbalanque avoided two other artifices of which
their ancestors were the victims ; one of these was a seat on a
red-hot stone under the pretence that it was the seat of honor ;
the other was an ordeal in the " House of Gloom." ^ The angry
Xibalban kings then met them in a game of ball, but sufiered a
defeat. Hun Came and Vukub Came then requested the victors
to give them four bouquets of flowers, which request was granted,
the fortunate brothers themselves bearing them to the defeated
kings. At their instance, however, the guards of the royal gar-
dens committed Hunahpu and Xbalanque to the house of
lances — the second of five ordeals common at Xibalba. Scarcely
had this been done before a swarm of ants— allies of the brothers
— came to their rescue, entered the royal gardens, bribed the
lancers, released their leaders and punished the owls— guards of
the Xibalban kings— by splitting their lips. The defeated

» It will be remembered that Votan deposited bis treasure in tbe " bouse of
gloom " or '* darkness."

THE FALL OF XIBALBA. 225

monarchs began to realize the seriousness of the contest which
was being waged against them. Hunahpu and Xbalanque were
then subjected to ordeals in the houses of cold, of tigers, and of
fire respectively, but without suffering harm. As we proceed,
the account becomes more figurative than ever. In the next
ordeal in the house of bats, we are told that Hunahpu's head
was cut off by the ruler of the bats, who, it seems, was recog-
nized as of super-terrestrial origin. Strange to say, this violent
proceeding did not prove fatal to Hunahpu ; the animals assem-
bled, came to the heroes' relief, and by the strategic skill of the
turtle and rabbit, at a great game of ball, the brothers came out
of all the Xibalban ordeals unharmed.

The next act was designed as the beginning of the end of the
great struggle. Xibalba had failed because the brutes were not
its allies. The brothers were determined to show the haughty
rival their personal greatness, and resorted to the use of their
magical arts. After proper instructions to their sorcerers, Xulu
and Pacara, Hunahpu and Xbalanque mounted a funeral pyre
and endured a voluntary death. But their ashes and bones which
were thrown into a river, rose instantly into life, assuming the
shape of young men. Five days subsequent to this wonderful
event they appeared in the form of man-fishes ; and on the day
following, the sorcery was complete, for the brothers now pre-
sented themselves in the form of "ragged old men, dancing,
burning and restoring houses, killing and restoring each other to
life, and performing other wonderful things. They were induced
to exhibit their skill before the princes of Xibalba, killing and
resuscitating the king's dog, burning and restoring the royal
palace. Then a man was made the subject of their art. Hu-
nahpu was cut in pieces and brought to life by Xbalanque.
Finally the monarchs of Xibalba wanted to experience perso-
nally the temporary death ; Hun Came the highest was first
killed, then Vukub Came, but life was not restored to them." ^
The twin sons of the unfortunate Xibalban virgin, an outcast
from her home, triumphed, their father and uncle were avenged,
the warlike Xibalbans — the fierce, frightful-looking, owl-like,

* Mr. Bancroft's rendering of the paragraph. Vol. v, p. 179.

226 A WAR OF RELIGION.

faithless, hypocritical tyrants, black and white, and with painted
faces, as they are described — were overthrown forever. The
ancestors of the victorious chieftains were then deified and given
places in the sun and moon ; while their allies, the enemies of
Xibalba, were made stars in the firmament.

To interpret fully this figurative account requires further
knowledge, which it is hoped ultimately may come to light.
The beheading of Hunahpu in the house of bats may signify the
loss of the most important division of his army ; for when the
" animals " came to his relief — by which we understand the less
civilized tribes of the country — ^he obtained a victory. The
closing paragraphs of the account indicate that a long and tire-
some warfare brought the brothers repeated victories, but not the
entire overthrow of Xibalba ; and that stratagem was resorted
to — a stratagem no more improbable or difficult to understand
than that of the wooden horse said to have been used by the
Greeks at Troy. The stratagem was at last successful, and
Xibalba, of the Votanites — we suppose the empire of the Chanes
— fell. The war seems to have been one of religion in part, for
Hurakan, " Heart of Heaven," inspired the contest, and Gucu-
matz, " the Plumed Serpent," one of his associate though minor
deities, w^as the god of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. The wicked
Xibalbans were pufled up against the Heart of Heaven, would
not accept the true faith, and hence their overthrow before the
advancing power of a new religion.^ It is certain that the con-
querors of Xibalba (which was no doubt Palenque) were near
neighbors, who had been closely allied to the great power. Ban-
croft is of the opinion that they were the Tzequiles, who arrived
during Votan's absence and introduced new ideas of government
and religion among his people.^ Garcia Pelaez, in his Memorias,
agrees with Juarros in calling them Carthaginians, and states
that they arrived in that region about four hundred years before
Christ, founded Tulan, the present Ococingo, and overthrew
ancient Culhuacan or Palenque.^ Brasseur de Bourbourg says

1 See Bancroft, vol. v, p. 184. * Ibid, vol. v, p. 187.

3 Memorias para la Historia del Antiguo Beyno de Ouatemala. Guatemala,
1857.

THE ENEMIES OF XIBALBA. 227

that the Nahuas, coming into Mexico by sea at the south
[i. e., in the south central region] slowly moved toward the
north, to the regions bordering on California, and also spreading
their civilization across the Usumacinta River, went into Yucatan
and even Guatemala. This he thinks occurred in the year 174
of our era ; Xibalba was at the height of her power, but was
overthrown in the revolution and conquest.^ While we do not
attach much certainty to the Abbe's date, still we think that
the fall of Xibalba was due to Nahua influences brought to bear
upon the ancestors of the Quiches. The old religion and civil-
ization of the Votanites were compelled to yield to the vigorous
and warlike power which brought with it a religion which has
ever commended itself to the senses and impulses of semi-
civilized peoples. The worship of the sun-symbol of the Heart
of Heaven was destined to supplant all other faiths.

It will be remembered that Quetzalcoatl was the leader and
deity of the Nahuas, and that in their language his name signi-
fied *' plumed serpent," while Gucumatz, leader and patron deity
of the Xibalban conquerors has precisely the same significance
in the Quiche language. Utatlan upon the Guatemalian high-
lands was doubtless the point from which the allied forces under
the brothers descended the precipitous road to the Usumacinta
region below. It is probable that the Nahuas had lived for some
time in the country, had reached it in their migrations by water
along the Gulf coast, and spread their population to quarters

* Nations Cinlisees, torn, i, p. 126. Also see the following from the Popd
Vuh, p. clx : "Quant aux evtnements dont Tulan fut le theatre h cette epoque,
on ne saurait se dissimiiler. en comparant I'ensemble des details qu'on trouve
dans ce chaos, qu'il ne se fut opere alors un vaste mouvement parmi les popu-
lations de I'empire de Xibalba, mouvement cause sans doute par les efforts d'une
caste souveraine pour garder le pouvoir et par I'invasion de races nouvelles,
sorties des memes contrees, ssptentrionales, d'ou «^taient venus les Nahuas, on
des regions plus sauvages du nord-ouest ; barbares ou civilisees, il y eut
naturellement de leurs essaims qui s'amalgamerent aux nations soumises n
I'empire, tandis que d'autres, continuant leur route vers 1' Amerique meridionale,
y porterent, sinon les institutions entieres des Quinames et des Nahuas, au
moins les symboles qui les avaient le plus frappes au passage ou qui convenaient
davantage a leur genie."

228 XIBALBA AND PALENQUE THE SAME.

both north and south of the point at which they entered. They
may have been permitted to settle in the country without moles-
tation, and in time to have united their forces with the rivals of
Xibalba for the overthrow of a power which was the dread of the
entire Central American region. The crumbling though wonder-
ful ruins of Palenque are the sole vestiges which are left to us of a
grand capital and noble empire, and these offer us nothing but the
sealed histories which are graven in hieroglyphics upon its walls.
Subsequently the Maya-Quiche nations divided and extended
their language in three directions ; one division journeyed toward
Guatemala, another toward Mexico, and another into Yucatan ;
the latter region has ever remained a peculiarly Maya country.
Las Casas states that some of the Guatemalians had a legend
of their origin, to the effect that a divine pair of beings had
thirteen sons (but by comparison with other authors, namely,
Roman in Garcia, and Bancroft, vol. iii, pp. 74-5, it is clear that
the writer designed to write three — tres — instead of thirteen —
treee), or rather three sons. The eldest was pufied up in his
own conceit, and attempted to create man against the will of his
parents, but failed, except that he was able to produce vessels
of the meaner sort. The younger sons, who exhibited quite a
different spirit, were granted the privilege, and after creating
the sun and moon and stars, created the first man and woman,
the progenitors of the human race.^ Las Casas adds, " They

1 " De la creacion, pues, tenien esta opinion. Decian que antes de ella ni Labia
cielo ni tierra ni sol, ni luna ni estrellas. Ponian que hubo un marido j una
muger divines que lamaron Aeliel Atcamma. Estos liabian tenido padre y
madre los cuales engendaron trece bijos, y que el mayor con algunos con el se
ensoberbecieron y guiso bacer criaturas contra la voluntad del padre y madre ;
pero no pudieron por que lo que hicieron fueron unos vasos viles de servicio corao
jarros y ollas y semejantes Los hijos menores que se llamaban Huncheven
bunaban, pidieron licencia a su padre y madre para bacer creaturas, y con-
cedieransela, diciendoles que saldrian con ellos por que se babian bumillado.
Y asi lo primero bicieron los Cielos y Planetas, luego Ayre, Agua y Tierra.
Despues dicen que de la tierra formaron al bombre y ^ la mnger. Los otros que
fueron soberbios presumieudo bacer criaturas coutra la volimtad de los padres
fueron en el infierno lanzados." — Las Casas, Historia Apologetica, MS., cap. 235,
p. 324 ; see also Torqaemada, Monarq. Ind., torn, ii, p. 53-4 ; Help's Spanish

MAYAS OF YUCATAN. 229

have among them knowledge of the flood and of the end of the
world. They call it ^ butic/ a name which signifies a flood of
many waters. They also believe that another ' butic ' and judg-
ment will come, not of water but of fire. They hold that
certain persons who escaped from the flood populated their
land ; these were called the Great Father and Great Mother." ^
In Yucatan the origin traditions point directly to an eastern and
foreign source for the population. The early writers report that
the natives believed their ancestors to have crossed the sea by a
passage which was opened for them.^ It was also believed that
part of the population came into the country from the West.
Lizana says that the smaller portion of the population, the
" little descent," came from the East, while the greater portion,
" the great descent," came from the West.^ Cogolludo disagrees
with this view, and considers the eastern colony as the larger;
a view which is not likely to be true. The author himself is
not quite certain as to what he thinks upon the subject, and con-
tradicts himself squarely on the same page, as to the direction
from which Zamna, the Yucatanic culture-hero, is said to have
come.^ Senor Orozco y Berra, thinks that the Yucatanic popu^
lation came from the northeast (from Florida), by way of Cuba
and the islands adjacent.^ The culture-hero, Zamna, the author
of all civilization in Yucatan, is described as the teacher of
letters and the leader of the people from their ancient home,
His relation to the people and his office of priest and deity com-
bined — the fact that he was the leader of a colony from the East,
that he named all the divisions of the land, all the towns, coasts,
bays and rivers — identifies him with Votan or rather with one
of his disciples or associates. Cogolludo's statement, first that

Conquest, vol. ii, p. 140 ; Garcia, Origen de los Indios, p. 519, Valencia ed., 1607,
and Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Ci'cil., torn, ii, pp. 74-5.

^ Historia Apologetica, MS., cap. 235, p. 327.

'^ Landa's Relacion, p. 28, and Herrera, Dec. iv, lib. x, cap. ii.

^ " Y antiguamente dezian al oriente cen-ial, pequena-baxada, j al puniente
nohen-ial, la grande-baxada." — Lizana's Devocionario, p. 354, in Landa's ReUicion.

■* Cogolludo's Historia de Yucatan, lib. iv, cap. iii, p. 178.

® Oeografia de las Linguas, p. 128.

230 CULTURE-HEROES— ZAMNA AND CUKULCAN.

he came from the West, may be true of the direction from which
he came into Yucatan ; and the statement that he came from
the East, may refer to the original migration by which he in
company with Votan reached Chiapas and from thence entered
the peninsula on the north-east. He was the founder of the
capital city of Mayapan, and after a long life died and was buried
at Izamal.^ This became a shrine for pilgrims and was visited
for centuries afterwards by religious devotees in large numbers.
Zamna is supposed to have founded the oldest royal house in
Yucatan — that of the Cocomes.^ The second culture-hero, of
whom mention is made by all the early writers, was Cukulcan
(meaning plumed serpent, precisely the same as Quetzalcoatl),
who entered the country from the West and settled at Chichen-
Itza.^ Landa is not certain whether he preceded or followed the
Itzas. His celibacy, general purity of morals, and the ad-
vanced character of his teachings, seem to identify him with the
Nahua culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl, and it is believed, with reason,
that he appeared in Yucatan after his mysterious disappearance
in the province of Goazacoalco. For some unknown reason,
Cukulcan left Chichen-Itza after a residence there of ten years.
Herrera states that he had two brothers who remained in
Chichen-Itza, while Cukulcan went to Mayapan. He describes
all as practising the purest asceticism. After the disappearance
of Cukulcan, temples were erected to his memory and he was
worshiped as a god.^ The date of his residence in Yucatan is
a matter of considerable dispute, Cogolludo placing it in the
twelfth century, Herrera in the ninth, Brasseur de Bourbourg in
the eleventh, and Bancroft in the second. To fix dates on no

* Bancroft's N'otive Races, vol.v, p. 618.

' Bancroft, vol. iii, p. 463 ; Lizana in Landa's Reladon, p. 356 ; Cogolludo's
Hist, de Tuc., p. 197; Brasseur de Bourbourg's Hist. Nat. Civ., torn, i, p. 76^
torn, ii, pp. 10-13.

3 Landa, pp. 35-9, and 300-1.

^ See Brasseur de Bourbourg's Hist. Nat. Civ., torn, ii, p. 18 ; Torquemada's
Movarq. Ind., torn, ii, p. 52 ; Herrera's Hist. Gen. Dec, iv, lib. x, cap. ii ; Landa's
Reladon, pp. 35-9, 000 et seg.; Ech^narria y Veitia, MS., cap. 19, p. 116 €^ seq.,
and Las Casas' Hist. Apologetica, MS., cap. cxxiii.

CHRIST MYTH FROM LAS CASAS. 231

better data than such legends is folly. It is probable, however,
that Cukulcan was the culture-hero Quetzalcoatl, who was the
teacher of the Nahua nations and figured as the introducer of
the fine arts, of purity of morals, of confessional ceremonies
and a humane and enlightened system of religion at Cholula,
and afterwards disappeared toward the East upon the waters
of the Gulf. With the rule of the Cocomes and the annals
of that remarkable branch of the Chiapan family, composed of
Maya and Nahua elements known as the Tutul Xius, we have
nothing to do in this work.^ Las Casas, in examining the doc-
trine of Hunab Ku, "the only God" among the Yucatecoes,
who is described as the father of Zamna, discovered a most
striking Christ myth ; one which conforms so closely to the
gospel account of Christ's birth and ministry that we must con-
clude that either some foreigner* must have been cast upon the
coast after the Christian era began, bringing the gospel with him,
or that one of two views is true, namely, that the Fathers fabri-
cated the story, or that the natives, expecting favor of their
conquerors, endeavored to harmonize their belief with that
which was being taught them. Las Casas tells us of their belief
in a Trinity consisting of Izona, the Father ; Bacab, the Son,
and Echuah, the Holy Ghost.^ The Son was born of the Vir-
gin Chibirias, and was rejected of men, was scourged and cruci-
fied on a tree with cross-arms ; he descended into the regions
of the dead, but rose again on the third day, and finally ascended
to heaven. In fact the story is the Apostles' Creed without the
" Credo," and is probably as much the work of the credulous
and imaginative Spanish Fathers as of the designing natives.
The story ought to be repudiated without question. It only
remains for us to submit the question to the reader, whether the
Maya peoples are not of transatlantic origin, as we believe the
facts in this chapter indicate.

^ See for tliose annals the Perez document in Stephen's Yucatan, vol. ii,
pp. 465-9 ; Brasseur de Bourbourg in Landa, pp. 120-0, and Bancroft, vol. ii,
pp. 762-5, and vol. v, p. 624 et seq.

2 Las Casas, Hist. Apohgetica, MS., cap. cxxiii, p. 10, CogoUudo's Mst.
Yuc, p. 190 ; Torquemada's Monarq. Ind., torn, iii, p. 133.

CHAPTEE VI.

TRADITIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE NAHUA
NATIONS.

The Early Inhabitants of Mexico — Quinames — Miztecs and Zapotecs — Totonacs
and Huastecs — Olmecs and Xicalancas — Tlie Nahuas — The Cliolula Pyra-
mid — Its Origin Explained in the Duran MS. — No Relation to a Flood —
Ixtlilxochitl's Deluge Tradition — The first Toltecs — The Codex Chimal-
popoca Account — The Discovery of Maize — Sahagun's Origin of the Nahuas
— They came from Florida — Their Settlement in Tamoanchan — Their
Migrations — Hue Hue Tlapalan — Its Location, according to the Sources —
Not Identical with Tlapallan de Cortes— Not in Central America — Probably
in the Mississippi Valley — Beginning of the Toltec Annals — The Chichimecs
not Nahuas — The Nahuatlacas — The Aztecs — Aztlan — As Described by
Early Writers — Aztec Migration — Aztec Maps — Senor Ramirez on Migra-
tion Maps — The Seven Caves — Three Claims for the Location of Aztlan —
The Culture Hero — Quetzalcoatl.

IN considering the origin of the Nahua nations, especially of
the Toltecs and Aztecs, it is common to look upon the former
as the first inhabitants of Mexico. Such a conclusion is, how-
ever, erroneous, since the Toltecs were preceded in Central-
Southern Mexico, and even in Anahuac, both by people of dif-
ferent extraction from themselves and by scattering tribes of
their own linguistic family, the Nahua. Of the former class, the
most conspicuous are the so-called Quinametin (or Quinames),
otherwise known as giants. These fierce and powerful people
were encountered by the Olmecs, the first Nahuas to colonize
the region north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. All the early
writers refer to them in terms which indicate that they were
disposed to accept the existence of a race of giants as a fact.
Veytia and Clavigero, however, are convinced that the report is
not to be accepted literally. The widest possible difference of
opinion as to their origin and relationship to existing tribes pre-

MIZTECS AND ZAPOTECS. 233

vails with differeot authors. All agree, however, that they
were tlie first inhabitants of the country. These cruel monsters,
addicted to the most disgusting vices, the terror of the immi-
grating peoples, at last met their fate, according to Ixtlilxochitl,
in a great convulsion of nature which shook the earth and caused
the mountains and volcanoes to swallow up and kill them.^ It
is probable that this account was figurative. Duran says they
were destroyed by the Tlascaltecs while eating.^ Veytia attrib-
utes the destruction to the Olmec chiefs, who made a feast for
their enemies and when they were stupid and drunken fell upon
them and slew them. We think that in this allusion to the
giants, " the first inhabitants of the land," we see the Yotanic
colonists from Xibalba that are supposed to have penetrated
Anahuac at an early day. They may not have carried any
special degree of refinement with them from their old home, and
if they did, they probably lapsed into a state of semi-barbarism.
Their power as a people, their enmity to the immigrants, and
their traditional connection with the hated and all-powerful
Xibalba, may have won for them the name of giants because of
the fear that was entertained of them ; or, as Mr. Bancroft
thinks, they may not have been savages at all, but a civilized
branch of the Xibalbans, carrying on the warfare in the North
which had been waged farther South.^ It is quite probable that
we have here a figurative allusion, from a Nahua standpoint, to
the fall of the Xibalban power itself — the new-world Babylon,
which, like the old, may have met its fate during a drunken
revel.'*

' Ixtlilxochitl, Reladones, in Kingsborough's Mexican AnUquUies, vol. ix,
p. 322.

2 Historia Antigua, MS., torn, i, cap. ii.

3 Bancroft's Native Races, vol, v, p. 199.

* Ixtlilxochitl fixes the date of the destruction in the year 229 A. d., Veytia
in 107. See further on the Quinames, Echevarria y Veitia, Historia del Origen
de Gentes, MS., torn, i, p. 33, and Kingsborough's Mex. Ant., vol. viii, cap. iii,
p. 179. Mendieta's Hist. Eccl,, p. 96, Mexico, 1870. Pineda in Sac. Mex. Geog.
Boletin, torn, iii, p. 346. Brasseur de Bonrbourg, Popol. Vuh, pp. Ixviii, ana
Hist. Nat. Civ., torn, i, p. 66. Oviedo's Hist. Gen., torn, iii, p. 539. Clavigero,
Storia Ant. del Messico, torn, i, p. 125. Boturini, Idea de Una Nueva Historia,

234 OLMECS AND XICALANCAS.

To the tribes which figured conspicuously in Mexico prior
to the Toltecs and not related to the Nahuas, we may add the
Miztecs and Zapotecs, whose language, though not Maya, is in
some respects similar to it, while the architectural remains and
traditional origin of this people associates them with the Nahuas.
Their civilization in Oajaca rivalled that of the Aztecs in its
degree of advancement.^ The Totonacs were formerly, according
to Torquemada, of Nahua extraction ; hut the authority in the
face of linguistic difficulties is doubtful.^ According to Torque-
mada's claim, they were the builders of the temple of the sun
and moon at Teotihuacan near Lake Tezcuco.^ The Huastecs
of northern Vera Cruz were a Maya branch of the power at the
south ; they mark the most northern point reached by the Maya
tongue. Of the Nahua predecessors of the Toltecs in Mexico
the Olmecs and Xicalancas were the most important. They were
the forerunners of the great nations which followed. According
to Ixtlilxochitl, these people — which are conceded to be one —
occupied the new world in the third age ; they came from the
East in ships or barks to the land of Potonchan, which they com-
menced to populate, and on the shores of the Kiver Atoyac,
between the Ciudad de los Angeles and Cholula, they found
some giants who had escaped the calamity which overtook that
race in the second age of the world.^ Here then comes the
destruction of the giants referred to above. The first settlement
of the Olmecs and Xicalancas in Mexico is supposed to have
been on the site of the ancient city of Xicalanco at the point
which still bears the name, at the entrance of the Laguna de
Terminos, while a second city, built probably a little later, was

pp. 130-5. Humboldt, Vues des Gordilleres, p. 205, and Orozco y Berra,
Oeografia de las Lenguas, pp. 119-34.

' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., lib. iii. cap. vii. Bancroft, vol. v., p. 206.
Orozco y Berra, Oeografia, pp. 120, 125, 133. Brasseur de Bourbonrg's Hist.
Nat. Civ., torn, i, p. 154.

2 Orozco y Berra, Geografia, p. 127. Pimentel, Lenguas Lidigenas de
Mexico, torn, i, p. 223. Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, p. 204.

3 Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., torn, i, p. 278. Brasseur de Bourbonrg's Hist.
Nat. Civ., tom. i, pp. 151-61.

* Historia Chichimeca, cap. i, in Kingsborougli's Mex. Ant., vol. ix, p. 205.

CHOLULA— THE MEXICAN BABEL. 235

situated on the coast a short distance below Vera Cruz ; the
entire region bore the name of Anahuac Xicalanco.^ The first
great exploit of the Olmec chiefs, the destruction of the giants,
we observe was performed at some distance from their earliest
settlement. The state of Puebla became their chosen ground,
and quite soon after the above achievement they undertook the
building of the famous tower of Cholula, which is so closely-
allied in its traditional history with the Tower of Babel. Several
authors state that the erection of the pyramid of Cholula was
done in memory of the erection of the tower of Babel, at which
it is claimed the ancestors of the Olmec chiefs were present.
Boturini is probably one of the most sanguine advocates of this
view.^ Others consider that the knowledge which the ancestors
of this people transmitted to them with reference to Babel, in
time became associated with the Cholula. edifice and confounded
with its history.

The Toltecs possessed a deluge tradition, which we will
notice hereafter, which unquestionably had reference to a very
general and devastating flood ; perhaps the scriptural one, but
it is clear, as we think we have the authority to show, that
the Cholula pyramid and its origin had no relation to that tradi-
tion, though so often confounded with it and the tower referred
to by the Nahua chroniclers. The generally accepted origin of
the pyramid is as follows : from the great cataclysm which
destroyed the giants, seven of that race of monsters escaped by
shutting themselves up in a mountain cavern. After the waters
subsided, Xelhua, one of their number, went to Cholula and
began the construction of this pyramid "to escape a second
flood, should another occur," according to Kingsborough, or as
a " memorial of the mountain called Tlaloc which had sheltered

' Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, p. 196, and vol. ii, p. 113. Torquemada,
Moiiarq. Ind., torn, i, p. 33. Mendieta's Hist. Eccl., p. 146.

2 " Celebraron assimismo los Indios su dicho origen en antiguos cantares, y
tuvieron tan viva la memoria de la torre de Babel, que la quisieron imitar en
America con varies monstruosos edificias." He then cites the Pyramid of
Cholula as having been built in commemoration of the Tower of Babel. See
Boturini, Idea de Una Nueva Historia, p. 113.

236 CHOLULA LEGEND FROM DURAN'S MS.

him," according to Pedro de los Kios. The bricks which were
manufactured at the foot of the Sierra de Cocotl were transported
to Cholula by being passed through the hands of a file of men
extending between the two localities. But the angered gods
seeing the presumption of mortals, smote both the tower and its
architects with thunderbolts and stopped their work.^ Lord
Kingsborough so intimately connects the erection of the tower
with the Toltec deluge legend as to derive Xelhua, the builder
of the tower, from the Toltecs rather than from the race of giants,
by claiming that he escaped from the deluge with Paticatle the
Mexican Noah in an ark, and adds that when the tower was
destroyed and the tongues of the builders confounded, Xelhua
led a colony to the new world. This last will serve as a speci-
men of how the Cholula legend has been misunderstood and
confounded with the tower of Babel. Father Duran in his MS.,^
Historia Antigua de la Nueva Espana, 1585 a. d., quotes from
the lips of a native of Cholula, over an hundred years old, a
version of the legend which assigns quite a different object for
building the Pyramid, one which shows that it never was erected
as a memorial of Babel nor ever had any reference to an escape
from any flood either past or in anticipation. It is as follows :
"In the beginning before the light of the sun had been created,
this land was in obscurity and darkness and void of any created
thing ; all was a plain without hill or elevation, encircled in
every part by water without tree or created thing ; and imme-
diately after the light and the sun arose in the east, there
appeared gigantic men of deformed stature, and possessed the
land, who desiring to see the nativity of the sun as well as his
Occident, proposed to go and seek them. Dividing themselves
into two parties, some journeyed toward the West and others
toward the East ; these travelled until the sea cut off their road,
whereupon they determined to return to the place from which

' Boturini's Idea, p. Ill et seq. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, torn, i,
pp. 139-31, et torn, ii, p. 6. Kingsborough's Mex. ^?i^.,especiall.y vol, vi, p. 401,
and Spiegazione delle Tavole del Codice Mexicano, tav. vii, in Mex. Ant.^ vol. v,
pp. 164-5, and Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iii, p. 67 ; vol. v, p. 200 et seq.

2 A portion of the work lias been printed at Mexico.

CHOLULA NOT CONNECTED WITH A FLOOD. 237

they started, and arriving at this place (Cholula), not finding the
means of reaching the sun, enamored of his light and beauty,
they determined to build a tower so high that its summit should
reach the sky. Having collected material for the purpose, they
found a very adhesive clay and bitumen, with which they speedily
commenced to build the tower, and having reared it to the
greatest possible altitude, so that they say it reached to the sky,
the Lord of the Heavens, enraged, said to the inhabitants of the
sky, ' Have you observed how they of the earth have built a high
and haughty tower to mount hither, being enamored of the
light of the sun and his beauty ? Come ! and confound them ;
because it is not right that they of the earth, living in the flesh,
should mingle with us/ Immediately at that very instant the
inhabitants of the sky sallied forth like flashes of lightning ;
they destroyed the edifice and divided and scattered its builders
to all parts of the earth/' ^ This account, the most ancient on
record, makes no reference to a fiood, and is quite distinct from
the Mexican deluge tradition. Its value as an interpreter of
the tendency of the American tribes not only of the United
States and Mexico, but of both Americas, to erect mounds and
truncated pyramids is not inconsiderable, since it confirms the
opinion long entertained that they were connected with sun-
worship. The great culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl, the white saintly
personage from the East, said to have been the leader of the
Nahuas, appeared during the Olmec rule, and to his honor the
Cholulans erected a temple upon the pyramid which their coun-
trymen or predecessors had failed to complete.- Quetzalcoatl
was, however, no tribal hero, but was so intimately identified with
the institutions and civilization of the entire Nahua race that we
purposely defer a consideration of his character at present in order
that we may hasten to the traditional origin of the Toltecs.

^ Historia Antigua de la Nueva Espafia, MS., torn, i, cap. i, pp. 6-7.

2 Alcedo (Diccionario Geografico Historico, torn, iii, p. 374) says that the
Olmecs subsequently migrated southward and settled Guatemala. While this
statement may be true in part, still it is not probable that any general migration
took place, and Guatemala was certainly populated long before the Olmec power
existed.

238 THE SEVEN ORIGINAL TOLTEC CHIEFS.

It is not our purpose to go back to the several traditions of
the creation of man, preserved in as many localities in Mexico,
each with its own variations, but simply to take up tradition
where it first relates to the Toltec families. We are fully aware
of the wide range of opinion with reference to what properly
constitutes this tradition, and of the irreconcilable variations in
dates and numeric details among the several Spanish writers.
Probably all will agree that the native writer Ixtlilxochitl, who
inherited the rich collection of royal archives and hieroglyphic
paintings belonging to his ancestors (and which fortunately
escaped the wholesale vandalism of the conquerors), though both
contradictory and negligent, has furnished us the most reliable
narrative which has yet been brought to light. Without at-
tempting to correct or unravel his chronology, we simply trans-
late his account of the origin of the Toltecs. Speaking of the
first age of the world, the pre-diluvial period, he says : " It is
found in the histories of the Toltecs that this age and first world
as they call it, lasted 1716 years ; that men were destroyed by
tremendous rains and lightning from the sky, and even all the
land without the exception of anything, and the highest moun-
tains, were covered up and submerged in water ' caxtolmoletlti,'
or fifteen cubits, and here they add other fables of how men came
to multiply from the few who escaj)ed from this destruction in a
* toptlipetlacali,' that this word nearly signifies a close chest ; and
how after men had multiplied they erected a very high 'zacuali,'
which is to say a tower of great height, in order to take refuge
in it, should the second world (age) be destroyed. Presently
their languages were confused ; and not able to imderstand each
other, they went to different parts of the earth. The Toltecs,
consisting of seven friends with their wives, who understood the
same language, came to these parts, having first passed great
land and seas, having lived in caves, and having endured great
hardships in order to reach this land, which they found good and
fertile for their habitation ; and relate that they wandered one
hundred and four years through different parts of the world
before they reached Hue hue Tlapalan, which was in Ce Teopatl,
five hundred and twenty years after the flood. Seventeen hun-

SCRIPTURAL ANALOGIES. 239

dred and fifteen years after the flood, there was a terrible hurri-
cane that carried away trees, mounds, houses and the largest
edifices, notwithstanding which many men and women escaped
principally in caves and places where the great hurricane could
not reach them. A few days having passed, they set out to see
what had become of the earth, when they found it all covered
and populated with monkeys. All this time they were in dark-
ness without seeing the light of the sun nor the moon that the
wind had brought them. The Indians invented a fable which
says that men were changed into monkeys. * * * One hun-
dred and fifty-eight years after the great hurricane and 4994 from
the creation of the world, there was another destruction of this
land, which was of the Quinametin, giants who lived in New
Spain, which destruction was a great trembling of the earth,
which swallowed up and killed them, the mountains and vol-
canoes burst upon them, that for a certainty none should escape.
At the same time many of the Toltecs perished and the Chichi-
mecs their neighbors. That was in the year Ce Tecpatl ; and
this age they call Tlachilonatnip, that is to say, sun [or age] of
earth." ^ Here follows an account of the construction of the
calendar by the assembly of Lords in Hue hue Tlapalan in the
year 5097 of the creation of the world and 104 after the destruc-
tion of the giants.

The singular agreement of this account with the Mosaic
description, in some of its details, such as the height attained
by the waters above the mountains, the escape of certain per-
sons in an ark, and the erection of a high tower, together with
the subsequent confusion of tongues. Lord Kingsborough is con-
vinced furnishes proof that the Toltecs were of Jewish descent.-
While we are not prepared to believe the sanguine speculations
of that eminent author in this case, still one of two views must
be true : either the Toltecs were of old world origin, and at a
remote period treasured up among their traditional histories
notices of the Mosaic deluge, traditions of which are so generally

' Ixtlilxochitl, Belaciones, in Kingsborough's Mex. Ant., vol. ix, pp. 321-2.
^ Kingsborough's Mex. Ant., vol. viii, p. 25.

240 IXTLILXOCHITL'S CHRONOLOGY.

current among the Asiatic nations, or the Mexican traditions of
local inundation were warped by the teachings of the Spanish
priests in a degree beyond any precedent in history or reasonable
expectation, and that within a comparatively few years after the
conquest. Our authority in this case is a native of Tezcuco, a
son of the queen ; and because of his acquaintance with both the
hieroglyphic writings and the Castilian, served as interpreter to
the viceroy. His Relacions were composed from the archives of
his family and compared with the testimony of the oldest and
best informed natives. It does not seem to us that the sense of
historic integrity cultivated to so nice a point at Tezcuco, where
the censorial council, just prior to the advent of the conquerors,
punished with death any who should willfully pervert the truth,
could have so sadly degenerated that Ixtlilxochitl and the
venerable natives who were conscious of the representations con-
tained in his work, should proclaim a falsehood which would not
meet with contradiction.^ We are aware that this author's
chronology is an inextricable maze of contradictions which can-
not be unravelled or reconstructed. The Toltec families, seven
in number, are, however, said to have reached Hue hue Tlapalan
five hundred and twenty years after the flood. The journey,
however, occupied only one hundred and four years of that time.
Their wanderings, attended with severe experiences, nakedness,
and hunger and cold, were over many lands, across expanses of
sea and through untold hardships.^

The date of the migration to Hue hue Tlapalan cannot be
approximated from available data, but it is evident that Ixtlil-
xochitl fixes it at 520 years after the flood, or 2236 years after
the creation — a period which must have antedated the Christian
era by a score of centuries or more, even if we accept his chro-
nology, which (on p. 322 of his Relacions), implies that more than
^YQ thousand years elapsed between the creation and the birth

' See Prescott's Conq. Mexico, vol. i, p. 171, on the Censorial Council ; also
Ixtlilxochitl, Clavigero and Veytia as cited by him.

2 Echevama y Veitia, Hist. Gentes, MS., torn, i, p. 29, and Kingsborough,
vol, viii, p. 176. Panes, Fragmentos de Historia, MS., p. 3 (copy in Congres-
sional Library, Washington), as well as several other authorities.

CODEX CHIMALPOPOCA ACCOUNT. 241

of Christ. The Codex Cliimalpopoca, a Nahua record written
in Spanish letters, which occupies probably the same relation to
early Mexican history that the Popol Vuh does to the Maya
history, has been made known to us through the writings of
Brasseur de Bourbourg, but as yet it has not been published.
Ixtlilxochitl was the copyist of this document, and of course
used it in composing his Relacions. Mr. Bancroft has attempted
to collect from scattered passages, taken from the Codex Cliimal-
popoca and found in Brasseur's writings, a continuous narrative,
but with little success. " The division of the earth," by the
sun, " six times four hundred, plus one hundred, plus thirteen
years ago to-day, the twenty-second of May, 1558;" in other
words, in the year 955 b. c, is a date obtained which seems to
refer to the division of the land among the followers of Votan.^
In the Popol Vuh, Gucumatz (whose name signifies plumed
serpent) is described as going in search of maize, while the Codex
Cliimalpopoca describes Quetzalcoatl, whose name is identical in
meaning with that of Gucumatz, as entering upon the same
undertaking, though under somewhat difierent circumstances,
and states that when he had found it, he brought it to Tamoan-
chan.^ We shall see hereafter that Sahagun locates Tamoanchan
in Tabasco, a fact of considerable value in studying the Toltec
migration. The reader will not, however, associate Quetzalcoatl
with the above date, since such is not the purport of the record.
The Chimalpopoca implies that Quetzalcoatl afterwards becom-
ing obnoxious to his companions forsook them, a statement noted
by Mr. Bancroft, though its full value does not seem to have
been observed by that author.^ The account clearly refers to
the role of Quetzalcoatl among the Quiches, when he was known
as Gucumatz, and prior to his appearance among the Olmec
(Nahua) tribes. It indicates that the Codex Chimalpopoca
account of the discovery of maize is purely Quiche, and has no
reference to the Nahuas whatever. The search for maize by the

' Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, pp. 193-5.

2 Codex CJiimalpopoca in Brasseur's Hist. Wat. Civ., torn, i, pp. 53, 71.
^ Codex Chimal. in Brasseur's Hist. Nat. Civ., torn, i, p. 117, and Bancroft's
Native Races, vol. v, p. 194.

242 QUETZALCOATL'S DISCOVERY OF MAIZE.

plumed serpent, call him by either his Quiche or Nahua name
if you wish, was prior to the advent of that remarkable person-
age among the Nahuas. The reputed discovery we consider
nothing more than a figurative allusion to the introduction
of agriculture by this culture-hero, the knowledge of which he
afterwards communicated to the Nahuas at Tamoanchan. If
these inferences are true, the Codex Chimalpopoca, so far as we
are acquainted with its contents, can render us no assistance
with reference to the question in hand. We will now return to
the beginning of the subject and cite additional authorities,
chief among them Sahagun. In the introduction to his His-
toria General, in speaking of the origin of this people, he
expresses the opinion that it is impossible to definitely deter-
mine more than that they report "that all the natives came
from seven caves, and that these seven caves are the seven ships
or galleys in which the first populators of the land came/' He
adds, " The first people came to populate this land from towards
Florida, and came coasting and disembarked at the port of
Panuco, which they called Panco, which signifies a place to
which they come who pass the water. This people came in
quest of the terrestrial paradise, and were known by the name
Tamoanchan, by which they mean, * we seek our home/ They
settled around the highest mountains that they found. In com-
ing toward the midday to find the terrestrial paradise, they did
not err, because it is the opinion of the knowing that it is under
the equinoctial line/'^ The above account is rendered more
definite in the following passage from his third volume:^
" Countless years ago the first settlers arrived in these parts
of New Spain — which is nearly another world — coming with
ships by sea, approached a port at the North, and because they
disembarked there, it is called Panutla or Panaoia, place where
they arrive who come by the sea ; at present it is corruptly
called Pantlan. From that port they commenced to journey by

^ Sahap^un, Historia General de las Cosas de Wueva Espaila, p. xviii, torn, i,
Mexico, 1829.

- Hist. Gen., torn, iii, lib. x, p. 139 et seq. A translation and summary of
facts is also given by Bancroft, Native Maces, vol. v, p. 189 et seq.

THE TOLTECS IN TAMOANCHAN. 243

the shores of the sea, ever beholding the snow-capped Sierras
and the volcanoes, until they came to the province of Guatemala,
being guided by their priest who carried with him their god,
with whom he always counseled concerning what he should do.
They settled down in Tamoanchan, where they were a long
time, and never ceased to have their wise men or prophets,
called Amoxoaqui, which signifies ' men learned in the ancient
paintings,' who, although they came at the same time, did not
remain with the rest in Tamoanchan, for leaving them there,
they re-embarked and took with them all the paintings of the
rites and mechanic arts which they had brought." The account
continues by stating that the priests informed their companions
before, leaving them, that their God had made them masters
of the land, and that they should inhabit it and await his
return. The priests then departed towards the East with their
idol wrapped in blankets. Whereupon the people invented
judicial astrology and the art of interpreting dreams. They
there also constructed the calendar which was followed during
the time of the Toltecs, Mexicans, Tepanecs and Chichimecs.
The first migratory movement was to Teotihuacan, where they
erected two mountains in honor of the sun and moon. Here
they elected their rulers and buried their princes, erecting
mounds over their graves. This seems to have become their
holy city. The main power which had remained for a long
time in Tamoanchan was changed to Xumiltepec. From this
latter place they, however, at the instance of their priests, started
again on their migrations. First going to Teotihuacan in order
to choose their wise men. Notwithstanding the remarks of
Sahagun that the seven caves were the seven ships in which the
first settlers came to New Spain, he here affirms that in the
course of their migration they came to the valley of the seven
caves. How long they remained in this national centre we
have no means of knowing, but eventually their god told them
to retrace their steps, which they did, going to Tollancingo
(Tulancingo) and finally to Tulan (ToUan). Ixtlilxochitl, if he
can be relied upon (and if he is unreliable we might as well give
up the task of tracing the early history of this or any other

244 THEIR MIGRATIONS — HUE HUE TLAPALAN.

Mexican people) shows clearly that the ancestors of the Toltecs
were possessed of certain traditions which point to an Asiatic
origin ; that at a remote period they set out from that common
home of so many peoples, possessing the same traditions, in
search of a suitable country in which to live ; that after one
hundred and four years occupied in traversing broad lands and
seas, they arrived in a country called Hue hue Tlapalan. This
event, according to his chronology, must have occurred upwards
of twenty centuries before Christ. He tells us also that in Hue
hue Tlapalan, the Toltecs regulated their calendar. Sahagun
says that countless years ago the first inhabitants of the country
(Mexico) came by sea from the direction of Florida on the
North, and landing at Panuco, journeyed down the coast to
Gruatemala (which is supposed to have embraced Chiapas and
perhaps Tabasco, though such is only the conjecture of an ear-
nest advocate of the Southern location of Hue hue Tlapalan, i. e.,
Mr. Bancroft) where they established a city called Tamoanchan
— there the calendar was regulated or corrected. Whether this
was the same construction of the calendar referred to by Ixtlil-
xochitl as having taken place in Hue hue Tlapalan is ques-
tionable. If positive proof of the identity of these occurrences
could be produced, the identity of Tamoanchan and Hue hue
Tlapalan would be complete, and the disputed location of the
latter would be fixed in the Chiapan region or the country of the
Xibalbans. The fact that Quetzalcoatl brought maize to Ta-
moanchan seems to indicate a comparative proximity of that
country to the Southern region where that culture-hero figured
so conspicuously under the Quiche name of Gucumatz. If no
other testimony need be introduced the disputed locality might
be fixed as above indicated. However, the contradictory records
of Ixtlilxochitl, which we are now about to cite, unsettle this
conclusion. The Toltec migration from Hue hue Tlapalan is
briefly as follows : Three hundred and thirty-eight years after
Christ a revolt occurred among the Toltecs in Hue hue Tlapa-
lan, in which two rebel princes attempted to depose the legiti-
mate successor to the throne. These rebel chiefs, named
Chalcatzin and Tlacamihtzin respectively, were unsuccessful, and

THE TOLTEC MIGRATION. 245

together with five other chiefs and their numerous allies and
people, were driven out of their city Tlachicatzin in Hue hue
Tlapalan. After a journey of sixty leagues, they arrived at a
place which they called Tlapallanconco, or Little Tlapalan.
Their departure from their old home did not occur till they had
withstood a contest of eight years — or, according to Veytia,
thirteen years — duration.^ At Tlapallanconco they lived three
years, at the end of which time there arose among them a great
astrologer, named Hueman or Huematzin, who counseled them
to forsake the land of their misfortunes and journey toward the
rising sun, where there was a happy land formerly occupied by
Quinames, but now depopulated. This advice seeming good
they set out on their journey at the end of the three years, or
eleven years after leaving Hue hue Tlapalan. After traveling
twelve days and accomplishing seventy leagues they arrived at
Hueyxalan, and remained there four years. From thence a
twenty days journey toward the East, or according to Veytia,
toward the West, and of one hundred leagues in length, brought
them to Xalisco, near the sea-shore. Here they remained eight
years. Twenty days journey and 100 leagues more brought
them to Chimalhuacan on the coast opposite certain islands,
where they resided ^ve years. Eighteen days or 80 leagues
traversed toward the East, and they arrived at Toxpan, where
they dwelt five years more. Proceeding eastward twenty days'
journey or 100 leagues, they came to Quiyahuitztlan Anahuac,

^ Bancroft, Native Races, vol. v, p. 211, in a note has summarized the dates
of departure from Hue hue Tlapalan, as given by diflPerent authors, with the
following result: Date of departure according to Veytia (torn, i, p. 208), 596 a.d. ;
Clavigero (tom. iv, p. 46), 544 A. d.; but in the 1st torn., p. 126, he gives 596,
agreeing with Veytia ; Miiller {Reisen, tom. iii, p. 94 et seq., 439 a. d.; Brasseur
de Bourbourg {Popol Vuh, p. civ), last of the fourth century ; Cabrera (r<ea^?'c>,
pp. 90-1), 181 B. c. The commonly accepted date is that of Clavigero— 544 A. D.
But after comparing these authors and considering the grounds upon which they
base their calculations, we are convinced that it is useless to attempt to arrive
at the true date, just as it is impossible to determine any date with certainty in
all the ancient American chronology. We will not go so far as Mr. Bancroft,
who says that " the departure from Hue hue Tlapalan seems to have taken
place in the fifth or sixth century." The claims for the fourth century, we
think, are just as good as for the others, if not better.

246 THE TOIiTEC MIGRATION.

situated on the coast. Here they were obliged to pass inlets of
the sea in boats. During a six years' sojourn at this point, they
suffered many hardships. An eighteen days' journey or 80
leagues brought them to Zacatlan where they dwelt seven years.
From thence they journeyed eighty leagues to Totzapan and
dwelt there six years. They next journeyed to Tepetla, distant
twenty-eight days, or 140 leagues, where they dwelt seven years.
Eighteen days' journey or 80 leagues brought them to Mazatepec,
where they remained eight years, and a similar journey brought
them to Ziuhcohuatl where they tarried also eight years. Turn-
ing northward from this unknown point, they journeyed twenty
days or 100 leagues and halted at Yztachuexucha, where they
dwelt twenty-six years. At last, after a journey of eighteen days
or eighty leagues, they amved at Tulancingo (Tulantzinco,
or Tollantzinco) a name already familiar to us. Here the
Toltecs emerge from what has been to us an unknown wilder-
ness without geographic guide-post or even a polar star by
which to reckon. Their itinerary, full of so many gaps and in-
consistencies, its frequent omission of the directions traversed,
with its starting-point so indefinitely located, is meaningless and
confusing, and so far as the reader is concerned, practically begins
nowhere and ends in nothing. At Tulancingo they remained
eighteen years, living in a house sufficiently large to accommo-
date them all. Their knowledge of architecture must have been
quite advanced to have enabled them to construct such an
edifice. The third year after their arrival at Tulancingo, marked
a Toltec age of 104 years from the time they left their home in
Hue hue Tlapalan. Finally, eighteen years having elapsed,
they transferred the capital to Tollan, afterwards the centre
of the Toltec empire. Tollan is stated to have been eastward
of Tulancingo (in all probability a mistake).^ In this migration

' On the migration see Ixtlilxochitl's Belacions, in Kingsborough's Mex. Ant. ,
vol. ix, pp. 321-4 ; Brasseur de Boarbourg's Hist. Nat. Civ., torn, i, p. 100, 136,
and Popol Vuh, p. civ, clix-xi : Veytia's Hist. Ant. Mej. Tom. 1st passim ;
Clavigero's Btoria Ant. del MessicOy torn, i, p. 426 ; torn, iv, pp. 46, 51 ; Muller's
Reisen in den Vereinigten-8taaten,Canada und Mexico, Bd. ill, ss. 91- T, Leipzig,
18G4 ; Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, pp. 192-223.

CONFUSION OF THE DISCUSSION. 247

we have a distance of 1150 leagues traversed ; the first two
moves, aggregating 130 leagues, is in an unknown direction ; the
next advance is 100 leagues in an easterly direction, according
to one author, and westerly according to another ; however, it
is agreed that the point was on the sea-shore. The next move
of 100 leagues is still along the sea-shore, but the direction is
not stated. We then have two advances amounting to 180
leagues, in an easterly direction. The confusion is completed in
the following advances, aggregating 460 leagues in unknown
directions. Of the remaining 180 leagues, 100 were traveled in a
northern direction, while the remaining 80 leagues were taken
toward an unknown quarter. It is quite plain to any one, that
the distances traversed in the directions stated could not be
traced consistently with the geography of Mexico and Central
America, upon the assumption that Tamoanchan and Hue hue
Tlapalan are identical and situated in the Rio Usumacinta
region. The itinerary would carry the emigrants far out upon
the Gulf of Mexico. It is evident that a broader territory than
that of Southern Mexico and Central America is required for
the realization of such distances. The account of the migration
is no doubt faulty ; but even if we disregard the gaps, it pre-
sents insuperable difficulties when applied to the South-Mexican
region. It is manifest that Sahagun and Ixtlilxochitl refer to
different migrations. The former to the Olmecs, who came by
sea to Panuco and thence to Tabasco, from which they migrated
north to Teotihuacan. The latter narrates the wanderings of the
Toltecs who subsequently came into Mexico by land. If this dis-
tinction is borne in mind, much of the obscurity attending the
subject is cleared away. We are inclined to think that the ac-
counts of the two distinct migrations have become confused, and
the details of one substituted for the details of the other. Every
one familiar with the study of traditional histories is aware
of this danger, or even more, this tendency among semi-civilized
peoples. No better illustration of this fact can be presented
than the sad confusion which has been wrought by nearly every
writer who has attempted to describe the two distinct personages
in Mexican history, known by the name of Quetzalcoatl. Only

248 INDEFINITENESS OF THE ACCOUNTS.

Sahagun of all the early writers has seemed to have any clear
concej)tion of their individual and independent attributes. The
demi-god, and the Toltec king, and the achievements of each,
have been made to change places so often by Spanish writers,
that the result has, with each new treatment of the subject,
been confusion worse confounded. Sahagun's account of the
arrival of the Nahuas in ships, from the direction of Florida,
their landing in Panuco, their journey toward Guatemala, their
residence in Tamoanchan (probably somewhere in the Chiapan
region) and their subsequent migration northward to Teotihua-
can with its well-known pyramids, and finally their removal to
Tollan, north of the City of Mexico, by the way of Tolancingo,
is a straightforward account which finds support in the best
of evidence, both of a material and linguistic character. Sr.
Orozco y Berra has clearly shown by linguistic testimony that
the Nahua nations entered the country somewhere between the
nineteenth and twenty-first degrees of north latitude, on the
Gulf coast, migrated southward to a point seventeen and one-
half degrees north latitude, almost to the Chiapan region, and
then retracing their steps northward, almost to a point opposite
Vera Cruz, they crossed Mexico to the Pacific coast, along which
they extended their language northward nearly to the twenty-
seventh degree north latitude.^ Sahagun says nothing of Hue
hue Tlapalan in his account of the migration from Tamoanchan
to Tollan or from Chiapas to Anahuac, for his account refers to
the Olmecs, the first Nahuiis to reach Mexico.

Mr. John H. Becker, of Berlin, in an able paper addressed to
the Congres des Americainistes at Luxembourg {Gompte Rendu
de la Seconde Session, tom. i, pp. 325-50), after offering plau-
sible arguments for the identification of Tulan Zuiva of the
Quiches, Hue hue Tlapalan of the Toltecs, Amaquemecan of
the Chichimecs, and Oztotlan of the Aztecs, with the region
of the upper Rio Grande del Norte and Rio Colorado — the
land of the ravines, of grottoes, and of cations — attempts to

* See Geografia de las Lenguas de Mexico, the Carta ethnografica aflBxed, and
the text, pp. 1-76.

MR. BECKER ON THE MIGRATION. 249

trace the Toltec migration as given by Ixtlilxochitl. His in-
teresting solution of the difficult problem is as follows: "The
Toltecs driven out of Hue hue Tlapalan by civil wars (towards
the end of the fourth century of our era ?) move in a westerly
direction sixty leagues to Tlapalanconco (northern Sinaloa and
Sonora on the Rio Yaqui, where distinct traces of the Nahua
language exist ?) ; thence, after eleven years, they go to Huey-
xalan, seventy leagues distant (perhaps the northern part of
Durango, where the Tepehuana language shows strong Nahua
affinities) ; thence to Xalisco on the coast, one hundred leagues
distant ; thence to Chimalhuacan Atenco on the coast opposite
some islands, one hundred leagues (opposite the islands in the
southern end of the Gulf of California) ? In that case they did
undoubtedly suffer a reverse in Xalisco (where they touched
upon the more thickly populated and civilized country, and by
which they were forced to retire) ; thence eastward eighty
leagues to Toxpan (in the neighborhood of the Laguna de
Tlahuila and on the upper Sabina River). In that country
there is even now a tribe of Tochos, and the Tarahumara lan-
guage there spoken, shows distinct affinities to the Nahua
tongue ; thence eastward one hundred leagues to Quahuitzlan
Anahuac, on the coast with inlets — the coast-land of the state
of Tamaulipas, on the Gulf of Mexico ? About this locality
there can scarcely be a doubt, since this eastern coast country
and the eastern plateau bore the general name Quetzalapan or
Huitzilapan, until the Nahuas took possession of them, when
the plateau was designated as Huitznahuac, and the name above
given would be the natural one to apply to the coast, since while
nahuac {an) means simply the Nahualand, Anahuac {an) means
the ' Nahua land on the water,' while Quahuitzlan is the old
name retained in order to distinguish this Anahuac on the Gulf
coast from the Anahuac around the Mexican lakes. Here they
'suffered great hardships,' and finally went westward eighty
leagues to Zacatlan (the northern part of the State of Zacatecas.?);
from there eighty leagues to Totzapan, probably again in the
neighborhood of Toxpan before mentioned (where the Tusanes
are located even to-day) ; thence one hundred and forty leagues to

250 MR. BECKER ON THE MIGRATION.

Tepetla (the extraordinary distance shows that at last they gained
a decisive victory, and broke through the frontier of the more
civilized country which they had hitherto felt). Tepetla, moun-
tainland, must consequently be sought in the neighborhood of the
high mountains of Anahuac ; thence eighty leagues to Mazatepec
(the mountain of the Mazahuas, skirting the valley of Mexico
towards north and west) ; thence eighty leagues to Ziuhcohuatl,
where they probably suffered another defeat, for they move full
one hundred leagues northward to Yztachuechucha, and stop
there twenty-three years, a sufficient time to raise another gen-
eration of warriors ; thence eighty leagues to ToUantzingo, and
then finally to ' ToUan,' the capital of their future empire, which
if Ixtlilxochitl's dates can be trusted, they built about 500 p. c,
on the site of a former city of the Otomis." This ingenious and
thoughtful review of the route commends itself to all who are
interested in this subject. Mr. Becker considers that one great
argument for the correctness of the starting-point which he has
chosen is "the fact that even the distances as given by Ixtlilxo-
chitl agree with the actual situation of the various localities here
indicated." Ixtlilxochitl, obscure as he is, gives in another part of
his work an additional account, besides the one we have already
quoted, which greatly strengthens our conviction that the Toltecs
came into Mexico from the north, and confirms the investigations
of both Mr. Becker and of Sr. Orozco. The account is as follows :
" In this fourth age there came to this land of Anahuac, which
is at present called New Spain, those of the Toltec nations who,
according to the accounts of their histories, were expelled from
their land, and after having navigated and coasted on the South
Sea along various lands as far as the present California, they came
to what is called Huitlapalan, that which at present they call
after Cortes. This locality they passed in the year called Ce
Tecpatl, which was in the year 387 of the incarnation of our
Lord. Having coasted the land of Xalisco, and all the coast of
the south, they set out from the port of Huatulco, and went
through various lands as far as the province of Tochtepec,
situated on the coast of the North Sea, and having traversed
and viewed it they came to stop in the province of Tulantzinco,

HUE HUE TLAPALAN AND TLAPALLAN DE CORTIIS. 251

having left some people in most of their stopping-places in order
to populate them/' ^

It will be observed that in this migration part of the same
general route above referred to, along the Pacific coast nearly
opposite the extremity of the California peninsula, and then
returning southward and inland, is clearly marked out. The
Pacific ocean, called the South Sea, seems to have facilitated
their movements northward. Xalisco was coasted, and the
entire width of Mexico traversed, the Gulf of Mexico reached
(Sea of the North), and finally Tolancingo chosen as a suitable
home. It will be observed that the Huitlapalan named above
is not identical with Hue hue Tlapalan, the earliest home of
the nations. Mr. Bancroft has apparently confounded the two
names, and endeavors to find in the Tlapallan de Cortes (so
named because of Cortes' expedition to a Tlapallan) the ancient
Hue hue Tlapalan.^ The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg attempts
precisely the same thing. The investigations of both these
writers on this point are interesting, though without any result,
unless unintentionally to strengthen the above distinction be-
tween Huitlapalan and Hue hue Tlapalan. Substantially the
facts are as follows : Pedro de Alvarado, writing from Santiago
or old Guatemala to Cortes in 1524, refers to Tlapallan as fifteen
days march inland, and Mr. Bancroft thinks that the name must
have been applied to a region corresponding to either Honduras,
Peten or Tabasco. Cortes' name was affixed to a Tlapallan said
to lie towards Ihueras or Ibueras, the former name of Honduras,
because of his expedition to that country. The Abbe says the
name was applied to a region between the tributaries of the Rio
Usumacinta and Honduras. Finally, the fact that the second
Quetzalcoatl, when he embarked on the Gulf coast near the
Goazacoalco River, announced his intention of going to Tlapallan,
is cited as proof that the name was applied to a southern locality.^

' Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. GJiicliimeca, cap. ii. Kingsborough, Mex. Ant., vol. ix,
p. 206. On page 450 see also another and different account.

^ Native Races, vol. v, p. 214.

3 See Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, pp. 214-15 ; Brasseur de Bourbourg,
Popol Vuh, pp. Ixiv, cxii, cxxvi-viii, clix ; Ixtlilxochitl in Kingsborough's

252 FOUR TLAPALANS.

The entire argument is perfectly satisfactory in locating a Tla-
pallan in the XJsumacinta region, but it does not have the slightest
value in proving that Hue hue Tlapalan was identical with that
locality. On the other hand, Cabrera, in referring to the ancient
country of the Toltecs, calls it Hue Hue Tlapalan, and states
that the simple name was Tlapallan, but that it was called Hue
hue — old — to distinguish it from three other Tlapalans which
they founded in the new districts which they came to inhabit.
This statement is confirmed by Torquemada.^ It is therefore
probable that Bancroft's and Brasseur's investigations were all
expended on one or more of these three Tlapalans. The un-
doubted residence of a tribe of the Nahuas (Olmecs) in the
Tabasco region for a considerable period — one which is measured
relatively in the language of Sahugun between the " countless
years ago when they arrived from towards Florida " and their
departure towards Anahuac in the fourth or fifth century — ^has
led many writers to suppose that they were of southern origin,
notwithstanding the statement of Sahagun, Ixtlilxochitl and all
the early writers to the contrary. Supposing that the sweeping
assumption of the northern origin so persistently adhered to by
native and Spanish writers is nothing but a priestly fabrication,
be admitted, simply that our attention may be turned to other
testimony, still the evidence is against the southern origin theory.
The material relics of Honduras and Nicaragua absolutely dis-
prove the positive supposition that they were ever the work of
the people who figured in Anahuac, and no transition from one
style of sculpture to the other has ever been discovered, nor
could be imagined. An examination of the first few chapters of
Mr. Bancroft's fourth volume and the works from which it has
been drawn will fully satisfy the reader of this fact. The evi-
dence from the linguistic standpoint is even more satisfactory,
since the Nahua language as spoken in Central America, in the
states of San Salvador and Nicaragua, is dialectic, indicating a
fragmentary migration southward.^

Mex. Ant., vol. ix, p 446 ; Alvarado in Ternaux-Compam Voy., serie i, torn, x,
p. 147. ' Baldwin's Ancient Am., p. 202.

2 See E. Q. Squier, Nicaragua, its People, Scenery, etc. Arclimology and

HUE HUE TLAPALAN PROBABLY THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 253

It has been the common custom of Spanish writers and those
who followed them down to the middle of this century, to locate
Hue hue Tlapalan on the Californian coast. Vater and Hum-
boldt from their standpoints of investigation fell in with this
view. The former, basing his convictions on seeming linguistic
affinities in the north-west, which, while they are quite signifi-
cant, indicative of Nahua influences if not of Nahua residence,
are too few to prove any lengthy sojourn. Humboldt based his
opinion chiefly on the traditions and certain ethnological and
geographical facts. Buschmann^ has completely overthrown the
arguments of Vater in his series of works on American languages,
while Mr. Bancroft has shown conclusively that there are no
material remains assignable to the Toltecs to be found on the
Californian coast or the adjoining region.^ When he asserts,
how^ever, that there are no remains farther north than California,
he overlooks a well-known fact. We refer to the mounds of
Oregon and their extension eastward into the Yellowstone and
North Missouri River region. The most reasonable conjecture
as to the locality of Hue hue Tlapalan is that which places it
in the Mississippi Valley, and assigns the works of our Mound-
builders to the Nahua nations. In previous chapters we have
shown the close resemblance of the mound crania to the ancient
Mexican, and have pointed out the gradual transition from the
rude and simple mounds of the north to the truncated pyramid
of the south, constructed on strict geometrical principles, having
one or more graded ways, and so closely resembling the Mexican
teocallis. Besides the testimony of Sahagun that the first
settlers of Mexico came from towards Florida, and the universal
report of a northern origin prevalent among the Aztecs at the
time of the conquest, there are other evidences of a racial identity
common to Mound-builders and Mexicans, such as pottery, sculp-

Ethnology of Nicaragua, part i, vol. iii, Trans, of Am. Ethnol. Soc, and Wotes
on Cent. Am., chap. xvi.

^ Buschmann (Johann Carl Ed.), especially his Die Spuren der Aztekischen
Sprachen im Nordlichen Mexico und Hohern Amerikanischen Norden. Berlin,
1859. Quarto.

* Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 688 et seq. ; vol. v, p. 215, and numerous places. .

254 BEGINNING OF TOLTEC HISTORY.

tured portraitures of the facial type, indications of commercial
intercoui-se between the two countries, such as the discovery of
Mexican obsidian in the mounds of the Ohio Valley, and the
probability that both worshipped the sun and offered human
sacrifices.^

With the Toltec annals proper we have nothing to do ; only
the most primitive period of the growth of this people concerns
us here, and that period is conceded to have closed with the
establishment of the great capital at Tollan, on the site of the
present village of Tula, thirty miles northwest of the city of
Mexico. Seven years after the arrival of the Toltecs in Tollan,
the government was a theocratic republic, with the seven chiefs
who had conducted them thither acting as their rulers, under
the advice of the venerable Huemen. Finally, in the beginning
of the eighth century, somewhere between 710 and 720 a. d., the
republic was changed into a monarchy and the throne given to
the son of their dreaded enemies and former neighbors, the war-
like Chichimecs, as a peace-offering, on condition that the
Toltecs should always be a free people and in no way tributary
to the Chichimecs. The history of the Toltec monarchy during
the three and a half centuries of its duration to the final over-
throw of Tollan (1062 A. d.) as w^ell as the power of the remark-
able people who built the ancient capital, has often been sketched,
and for us to repeat what has been recorded in almost every
language of modern Europe, would add nothing to the cause of
science. This part of ancient American history, so replete with
the romantic and marvellous, so confusing at times, because of
our ignorance of many geographic and archseologic features
entering into it (which, in time, will probably bo brought to
light), so saddening because of its stories of wholesale mis-
fortunes to a people whose civilization rivalled that of Europe
in the middle ages ; and yet, after all, so fresh and novel, must

* " All around tlie lakes of Mexico there are traces of ancient potteries, and
I noticed that the bits of broken red earthenware scattered about them are
identical in composition and color with those I have picked up in the valley of
the Mississippi, and supposed to be relics of the ancient Mound builders." —
Ecena {A. S.), Our Sister Hepublic, p. 330. Hartford, 1870. Octavo.

INCURSIONS OF THE CHICHIMECS. 255

continue to receive increased attention, if only as a means of
recreation to the student of history, wearied with the beaten
paths from Rome to Greece, and from Greece to Rome. Mr.
Bancroft has given an excellent resume of the annals of the
Toltec period, accompanying it with an ample literary apparatus
in the notes. During the last century of the Toltec power,
Anahuac was overrun by the incursions of a fierce and dreaded
people — the Chichimecs. These semi-barbarians, taking advan-
tage of the internal dissensions in the Toltec monarchy, became
a powerful factor, either on their own part or in the hands of
the enemies of ToUan, in the overthrow of the empire. In the
Toltec traditions we read of the Chichimecs being their neigh-
bors in Hue hue Tlapalan.^ In the annals as given in Ixtlil-
xochitl, Torquemada and many writers, the Chichimecs are
represented as having pursued and annoyed the Toltecs, to have
followed them up in their wanderings. This probably is not
literally true, but their arrival upon the borders of Anahuac,
soon after its occupation by the Toltecs, is quite certain. It has
been common to consider the Chichimecs as a Nahua people,
and even so critical a writer as Mr. Bancroft adopts this popu-
lar error. As long ago as 1855, Sr. Francisco Pimentel under-
took to show the mistake into which many had fallen, and in
his Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico (published in 1862), has
furnished conclusive proof that the Chichimecs originally spoke
a different language from the Nahua nations, but subsequently
adopted the Nahua tongue, on the principle set forth by Balbi :
" It is not the language of the conquering people that invariably
dominates, but that which is most regular and cultured." On
the testimony of Torquemada,^ Ixtlilxochitl ^ and Juan Bautista
Pomar,^ Sr. Pimentel shows that the Chichimec language was
once distinct and different from the Nahua, and that these people
came under the civilizing influences of the Toltecs during their
golden age, but in their declining period availed themselves

* Ixtlilxochitl's Reladones, Kingsborougb's Mexican Antiquities, vol. ix, p. 333,
^ Monarq. Ind., lib. i, cap. 19.

^ Relaciones, in many places, and in Hist. Chichimecs, cap. 13.

* Relacion, MS. written 1583 in Sr. Icazbalceta's collection.

256 THE CHICHIMECS.

of the opportunity of possessing their country and advanced
civilization.^ If the Chichimecs were the neighbors of the
Toltecs in Hue hue Tlapalan, it is reasonable to expect some
light on the situation of that disputed locality in the Chichimec
traditions ; but in this expectation we are disappointed. There
is no mention of that ancient home of the Nahuas, nor of any
route pursued in their migrations. Amaquemecan is the only
name which is applied to their most primitive land or history ;
one of the cities which they occupied at some remote period
seems to have borne the name. When the Toltecs sent to the
Chichimecs for their first king, they were, according to Ixtlil-
xochitl, in the neighborhood of Panuco. Panes describes them
as having passed the sea, and, according to their reckoning, in
the year Five Tolti to have arrived at the seven caves. Thence
they journeyed to Amacatepeque, and certain persons left that
province to go to Tepenec, which is to say "the Mountain of
Echo.'" ^ Ixtlilxochitl and some other authors derive them from
Chicomoztoc, a rendezvous of the nations, which has been located
by Clavigero at about twenty miles south of Zacatecas but is
considered by Duran and Acosta as identical with Aztlan in the
region of Florida.^ It is impossible to determine either the
starting-point or route of this people, who subsequently became
amalgamated with the scattered Toltecs after the fall of Tollan,
and whose rule in Anahuac may properly be dated from the (1062)
middle of the eleventh until nearly the middle of the fifteenth
(1431) century.

A few years after the Chichimec power was established there
came from the North (at least their last move is admitted to
have been from that quarter) six tribes of Nahuatlacas, who
arrived in the country adjoining Tollan. There were altogether
seven tribes, namely, the Xochimilcos, Chalcas, Tepanecs, Tlahui-
cas, Acolhuas, Tlascatecs and Aztecs or Mexicans. The latter
people, however, had separated themselves from the remaining

^ Lenguas Indigenas de Mexico, torn, i, p. 154.

2 Fragmentoa de Historia de Nueba Espafla, MS., p. 45, Library at Wash-
ington.

^ Duran's Historia Antigua, torn, i, cap. i, p. 9, MS.

THE NAHUATLACAS. 257

six tribes at Chicomoztoc and did not reach Anahuac until
about 1196 A. D. These people all acted as tributary to the
Chichimecs at first ; and of the seven tribes, two eventually arose
to great political importance, the Tlascatecs who founded an
independent republic, and the Aztecs whose empire has been the
wonder of students of antiquity and the subject of histories as
romantic as the purest fiction. Some authors add a number of
tribal names to those already given as belonging to fragments
of tlie Nahuatlaca family, but the probability is that these minor
and unimportant tribes were offshoots from the others, after their
arrival on the central plateau. The representative branch of all
the Nahuatlacas was the Aztec nation, who separated from their
brethren in Chicomoztoc, and whose arrival at the Lake region
of Mexico, is dated subsequent to that of the other tribes. All
of these tribes are said to have come from the unknown Aztlan,
their early home. The question of its locality has been as much
a subject of controversy as the location of Hue hue Tlapalan,
since, in fact, the question is possibly one and the same, for the
Nahua speaking people who migrated into Mexico at intervals,
extending over a period of a thousand years, must have had a
common origin. Aztlan is described by Duran as a most attract-
ive land and the presumption is that the Nahuas were forcibly
driven from their fair heritage by the gradual encroachments of
their enemies. The account of this delightful country given by
Cueuhcoatl to the elder Montezuma, is as follows : " Our fathers
dwelt in that happy and prosperous place w^hich they called
Aztlan, which means " whiteness." In this place there is a
great mountain in the middle of the water, which is called
Culhuacan, because it has the point somewhat turned over to-
ward the bottom, and for this cause it is called Culhuacan,
which means " crooked mountain." In this mountain were some
openings, or caves or hollows, where our fathers and ancestors
dwelt for many years ; there, under this name Mexitin and
Aztec, they had much repose ; there they enjoyed a great plenty
of geese ; of all species of marine birds and water fowls ; en-
joyed the song and melody of birds with yellow crests ; enjoyed
many kinds of large and beautiful fish ; enjoyed the freshness
17

258 ^ DESCRIPTION OF AZTLAN.

of trees that were upon those shores, and fountains enclosed
with elders, and savins (junipers) and aldertrees, both large and
beautiful. They went about in canoes, and made furrows in
which they planted maize, red-peppers, tomatoes, beans and all
kinds of seed that we eat." ^ The location of Aztlan is not a
philosophical question for our consideration, since scarcely
sufficient data of a definite character are available on which to
base a process of reasoning. The report common among the
Aztecs was that they had come from the North, and this was no
doubt true of the final move prior to their settlement in Ana-
huac, but whether it was true of their starting-point and the
general course of the Aztec migration, is a question which can-
not be satisfactorily answered. Most Spanish writers and others
of the earlier school, locate Aztlan directly north of the present
boundary line of Mexico,^ others again California,^ while some
favor the Northwestern Mexican States.'^ A recent school of
Americanists assign Aztlan a southern location, placing it in
the Central American region.^ Duran and Brasseur de Bour-

^ Duran's Historia Antigua, MS., torn, i, cap. 27 ; also cited in the Spanisli by
Bancroft, vol. v, p. 306. Aztlan, translated " whiteness " above, may be rendered
" colorless " with equal propriety. Hue hue Tlapalan, on the contrary, is trans-
lated ancient red-land, or land of color, just the opposite of Aztlan, a fact which
may serve to prove that they were two quite different localities.

2 Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. i, pp. 156-9 (north of Colorado
River) ; Humboldt, Vues, u, p. 179, and Essai Pol., tom. i, p. 53 (north of 42°
north latitude); Orozco y Berra, Oeografia, pp. 81-2, and 136-7; Prichard's
Nat. Hist of Man, vol. ii, pp. 514-16 (Arazonia) ; Pimentel, Lenguas Indig. Mex.,
tom. i, p. 158. Most writers indefinitely assign the name to a region in the
North, without attempting to designate the locaity.

3 Acosta, Hist, de las Ltd., p. 454 ; Schoolcraft's Archives of Ah. Knowledge,
vol. i, p. 68 ; M. Aubin places it in Lower California ; Brasseur de Bourbourg's
Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii, p. 292 ; Pickering's Races in U. 8. Ex. Ex., vol. ix,
p. 41.

-» Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., p. 144 (Xalisco); Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej. (Sonora);
Mollhausen, Reise.n in d. Felsengehirge N. Am., tom. ii, p. 143 et seq.

^ Chief among these we may cite ; Squier's Notes on Central Amer., p. 349 ;
Waldeck's Toy. Pitt., p. 45, and Bancroft's Natim Races, vol. v, pp. 221, 305-6,
322-5 ; Miiller, Oeschichie der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, pp. 530-4, the
latter, though inclined to assign Aztlan to a southern locality, still recognizes
the fact that the Nahua family was originally a northern people.

THE AZTEC MIGRATION. 259

bourg, both celebrated authorities, on the other hand locate
Aztlan in the United States ; the former in Florida, by which
we are to understand the region of the Gulf States,^ while the
latter simply expresses the conviction that Aztlan was situated
to the north-east of California.^

The Aztec migration and the itinerary as generally accepted
demands consideration before forming any judgment on the loca-
tion of Aztlan. In this primitive abode we are told that each
year the Aztecs crossed a great river or channel to Teo-Culhuacan
for the purpose of offering sacrifices in honor of their god
Tetzauch. But it happened that a bird appeared to Huitziton,
one of the greatest of their chiefs (whom Bancroft thinks was
identical with Mecitl or Mexi — hence the name Mexicans), and
constantly reiterated the word tiliui, tihui, meaning "let us
go, let us go." This singular occurrence was interpreted by
Huitziton as a command from the gods for them to seek a new
country, and after persuading the chief Tecpatzin to his view,
the divine oracle was announced to the people. Accordingly, in
the year 1064, according to some authors,^ or in 1090 according
to others,^ or a century later than the first-named date accord-
ing to some of the interpreters of the Aztec migration maps, the
Nahuatlaca tribes left their ancient home and entered upon one
of those strange and aimless journeys so characteristic of semi-
civilized and superstitious peoples. The Aztec migration as
given by several authorities is scarcely more satisfactory than
that of the Toltecs, nor can any additional light be thrown on
the route pursued until Sr. Orozco y Berra publishes the results
of his critical examination of the subject.^ The unimportance of
the itinerary in the solution of any question is apparent, since it
contributes but little to our knowledge of the location of Aztlan.

* Historia Antigua, MS., torn, i, cap. i, p. 9.

" Hist. Nat. Civ., torn, ii, p. 293.

3 Chief among whom are Gallatin, Gama and Veytia, who suppose that the
adjustment of the calendar took place in 1090 a.d., and that the yearCe Tochtli
corresponds with that date.

^ Bancroft's Native Maces, vol. v, p. 324, and seems to be the opinion of
Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii, pp. 293-5.

^ Garcia Cubas' Bepvblic of Mexico in 1876 (Eng. trans.), p. 58.

260 AZTEC STATIONS.

Mr. Bancroft has greatly facilitated the comparison of the lists
of stations as given by different authors, in a note of great
length on pp. 322-4, thus presenting to the eye at a glance the
diversity of opinion which meets the reader of this subject. As an
example, we select two or three of the itineraries, simply to show
the wide range that opinion has taken on the subject. Accord-
ing to Veytia, the tribes left Aztlan in I Tecpatl, 1064 a. d., and
one hundred and four years afterwards reached Chicomoztoc,
where they dwelt nine years ; the subsequent stations and the
duration of their sojourn in each as follows : Cohuatlicamac three
years, Matlahuacallan six, Apanco ^yo, Chimalco six, Pipiol-
comic three, Tollan six, Cohuactepec (Coatepec) three, Atlitlala-
cayan two, Atotonilco one, Tepexic five, Apasco three, Tozonpanco
seven, Tizayocan one, Ecatepec one, Tolpetlac three, Chimal-
pan four, Cohuatitlan two, Huexachtitlan three, Tecpayocan
three, Tepeyacac (Guadalupe) three, Pantitlan two, and thence
to Chapul tepee, arriving in 1298, after a journey of one hundred
and eighty-five years, reckoning an additional forty-nine years
for their stay at Michoachan.^ According to Tezozomoc, the
stations are as follows : Aztlan, Culhuacan, Jalisco, Mechoacan,
Malinalco (Lake Patzcuaro), Ocopipilla, Acahualcingo, Coatepec
(in Tonalan), Atlitlanquin, or Atitalaquia, Tequisquiac, Atengo,
Tzompan, Cuachilgo, Xaltocan, and Lake Chnamitl, Eycoac,
Ecatepc, Aculhuacan, Tultepetlac, Huixachtitlan, Tecpayuca
(in two Calli), Atepetlac, Coatlayauhcan, Tetepanco, Acolnahuac,
Popotla (Tacuba), Chapultepec in two Tochtli.^ Clavigero states
that they left Aztlan in 1160, crossed the Colorado River, stayed
three years in Hueicolhuacan, went east to Chicomoztoc, reached
Tula in 1196, and finally Chapultepec in 1245." Acosta, Herrera
and Duran state that Nahuatlaca tribes left Aztlan in 820 A. D.,
and eighty years later reached Mexico ; that the Aztecs, how-
ever, did not start until 1122 A. D.^ Duran identifies Aztlan

' Veytia, torn, ii, pp. 91-8, and as summarized by Bancroft, vol. v, p. 323.
- Kingsborough's Mex, Ant., vol. ix, pp. 5-8, and Bancroft, vol. v, p. 323.
' Storia Ant. del Messico, torn, i, pp. 156-63.

* See Acosta, ffist. Nat. Ind., pp. 454-62. Herrera, Eistor. Gen., dec. iii,
lib. ii, cap. x-xi. Duran, MS., M'«^. J.^i%., cap. i, ii, iii of torn. i.

THE TABASCOS. 261

with Teo-Culhuacan, and locates it towards our Mississippi
Valley. He in common with other writers identifies Chicomostoc
with the seven caves. ^

The Tarascos, though speaking a different language, are said
to have separated from the Nahuatlacas at Michoacan. They
describe the route to the seven caves as across a sea, which they
passed in balsas and the trunks of trees.^ This statement may
be of some value in locating that disputed rendezvous of so many
tribes ; and certainly is more important than a mass of ground-
less speculation. The next source of interest in this connection is
the much perverted and sadly misunderstood migration map first
published by Gemelli Carreri, in Churchill's collection of voyages
(vol. iv). Humboldt has given an interpretation which, with
the exception of that part which connects it with a deluge and
Colhuacan, " the Ararat of the Mexicans," is generally received.^

' " Pero porque la noticia que tengo de su origen y principio no es mas, ni
ellos saben dar mas relacion sino desde aqullas siete cuebas donde habitaron tan
largo tienipo, las cuales desampararon para venir a vuscar esta Tierra iinos
primero que otros, otros despues, otros muy despnes hasta dejarlas desiertas,
Estas cuebas son en Teo-culhuican, que por otro nombre le llaman Aztlan, tierra
de que todos tenemos noticia caer hacia la parte del Norte j Tierra-firma con la
Florida ; por tanto desde este lugar de estas cuebas dare verdadera relacion de
estas Naciones y de sus su<jessos. * * * Salieron pues siete Tribus de Gentes
de aqudlas cuebas donde habitaban para venir a vuscar esta Tierra, a las cuales
llamaban Chicomostoc, de donde vienen a fingir que sus Padres nacieron de unas
cuebas, no teniendo noticia de lo de atras de la salida." — Duran, Hist. Antig ^
MS., tora. i, cap. i, p. 9.

2 The Fragmetitos de Historia de Nueba Espaflo, MS. (Congressional Library)
of Diego Panes alludes to this event. "Como los Tarascos se adelautaron
luego que pasaron el estrecho de mar, en los troncos de Arboles, y balsas, y
otros instrumentos del pasaje y se metieron ^ vida y avitar en las siete cuebas
espelniicas, y Tabernas de la Tierra, hasta que hicieron abitaciones, y mor;ulas
y conio desde alii fueron crescieudo, y tomnado, el tiento de 1m Tierra y dis-
posicioues de ella para poblarla."

3 We quote Bancroft's rendering from the Vues, tom. ii, p. 176 et seq.:
" From Colhuacan, the Mexican Ararat, fifteen chiefs or tribes reach Aztlan,
'land of flamingoes,' north of 42% which they leave in 1038, passing through
Tocolco, ' humiliation,' Oztotlan, ' place of grottoes,' Mizquiahuala, Teotzapotlan;
'place of divine fruit,' Iluicatepec, Papantla, 'large-leaved gra^s,' Tzompanco,
' place of human bones,' Apazco, ' clay vessel,' Atlicalaguian, ' crevice in which
rivulet escapes,' Quauhtitlan, 'eagle grove,' Atzcapotzalco, 'ant hill,' Chalco,

262 RAMIREZ ON THE MIGRATION MAPS.

Gemelli Carreri, Humboldt and many others were quite cer-
tain that they could read in this map the account of the Mosaic
deluge.^ Don Jose Fernando Ramirez, of the Mexican Museum,
however, pointed out the fact that the Gemelli Carreri map,
copied from one owned by Sigiienza, and published by Hum-
boldt, Clavigero and Kingsborough, was in each case incorrectly
represented, and states that the copy contained in the Atlas of
Garcia y Cubas is the first correct reproduction of the original
presented to the public.^ Sr. Ramirez explains away the illu-
sion of the Mexican Ararat and deluge in a manner both simple
and conclusive.^ The dove with commas proceeding from its

' place of precious stones,' Pantitlan, ' spinning-place,' Tolpetlac, * rush mat/
Quaub tepee, ' eagle mountain/ Tetepanco, ' wall of many small stories,' Chico-
moztoc, ' seven caves,' Huitzquilocan, ' place of thistles,' Xaltepozauhcan, ' place
where the sand issues,' Cozcaquauhco, ' a vulture,' Techcatitlan, ' place of
obsidian mirrors,' Azcaxochitl, 'ant flower,' Tepetlapan, 'place of tepetate,'
Apan, ' place of water,' Teozomaco, ' place of divine apes,' Chapoltepec, ' grass-
hopper hill.' "—Native Races, vol. v, p. 334, note.

' The following account is from Franc. Gemelli Carreri's Voyage Round the
Wi>rld, Churchill's Voyages, London, 1732, 6 vol. fol. (book iv, cap. iii), p. 485 :
•' The ancient histories of Mexico make mention of a flood, in which all men
and beasts perished, and only one man and woman were saved in a boat, which
in their language they call Acalle. The man, according to the character by
which his name is expressed, was called Cox-cox, and the woman Chichequetzal.
This couple coming to the foot of the mountain, which, according to the picture,
was named Culhuacan, went ashore, and there they had many children, all
born dumb. When they multiplied to a great number, one day a pigeon came,
and from the top of a tree gave them their speech, but not one of them under-
stood the others' language, and therefore they divided and dispersed, every one
going to take possession of some country. Among these they reckoned fifteen
heads of families who happened to speak the same language, joined together
and went about to find some land to inhabit. When they had wandered one
hundred and four years they came to the place they call Antlan,and continuing
their journey thence, came first to the place called Capultepec, then to Culhuacan,
and lastly to the place where Mexico now stands."

- See communication in Garcia y Cubas' Atlas Geografico, Estadistico e His-
torico de la RepuUica Mejicana, April 1858, entrega 29, and Bancroft, iii, p. 68,
note.

3 We should be guilty of a fault if we were to convey the idea that no deluge
legend other than this was current among the Aztecs. The Codex Chimal-
popoca records a flood in which mankind were drowned and turned into fishes.
In Mr. Bancroft's graceful rendering we learn that "the waters and sky drew

BANCROFT ON THE STORY OF COX-COX. 263

beak, is not talking, nor giving tongues, but is repeating the
word tihui, " let us go," referring to the legend already cited,
of the bird in Aztlan incessantly uttering this word in the hear-
ing of Huitziton the chief. A little bird called tihuitochan is
still heard in Mexico, having a note which is interpreted by the
common people to mean the same as their ancestors interpreted it
in Aztlan. Sr. Kamirez is convinced that the map referred to is
only a record of the wanderings of the Aztecs among the lakes of
the Mexican Valley, and that it has no reference whatever to any
deluge, not even to one of the former traditional destructions of
the world found in the Nahua cosmogony. Mr. Bancroft has
added the valuable argument that the story of Cox-cox and the
deluge is only the product of false interpretation, or else some
of the earlier writers would have been acquainted with the
legend. On the contrary, Olmos, Sahagun, Motolinia, Mendieta,
Ixtlilxochitl, and Camergo are all silent with regard to it. The
mountain and boat and their several adjuncts are found to be
nothing but hieroglyphics for proper names.

near each other ; in a single day all was lost, the day Four Flower consumed
all that there was of our flesh. And this was the year Ce-Calli ; on the first
day, Nahui-Atl, all was lost. The very mountains were swallowed up in the
flood, and the waters remained, lying tranquil during fifty and two spring-
times. But before the flood began, Titlacahuan had warned the man Nata and
his wife Nena, saying : Make now no more pulque, but hollow out to yourselves
a great cypress, into which you shall enter when, in the month Tozoztli, the
waters shall near the sky. Then they entered into it, and when Titlacahuan
had shut them in, he said to the man : Thou shalt eat but a single ear of maize,
and thy wife but one also. And when they had finished eating, each an ear of
maize, they prepared to set forth, for the waters remained tranquil and their log
moved no longer ; and opening it they began to see the fishes. Then they lit a
fire by rubbing pieces of wood together and they roasted fish." The account
states that the deities then descended and transformed the fishes into dogs.
(Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hiat. Nat. Civ., torn, i, pp. 425-7. Bancroft, vol. iii,
pp. 69, 70.) We cannot with gravity give the Tezpi legend preserved in Mjchoa-
can. If the reader will refer to the Mosaic account of the flood, he will only
need to substitute the name of Tezpi for Noah, a vulture for the raven, and a
humming-bird for the dove, and the Tezpi legend substantially will be before
him. Of course the detail of the Mosaic account is wanting; nevertheless it is
certain that the Tezpi legend is the product of the fancy of some over-zealous
priest, who thought he could see a stricter analogy between the Nahua deluge
tradition and the Scriptural account than really exists.

264 IS AZTLAN IN THE NORTH?

Chalco Lake is, in the opinion of Senor Kamirez, the point
of departure for the fifteen chiefs at the end of their first cycle.
His interpretation of the Boturini map of the migration results
in the same conclusion. The fifteen chiefs left their island home,
passing through Coloacan (Colhuacan, according to Gondra's
interpretation) as their second station. It appears that the first
move and point of departure are both unknown, and no satis-
factory solution of the question has yet been ofiered. The pre-
vailing tradition that it is in the north has been perplexing,
since no material remains undoubtedly attributable to the Aztecs
are found north of the central plateau of Mexico, nor indeed in
the territories of the United States. If we adopt the general
theory that the Aztecs came from the Mississippi Valley, possibly
the original home of the Nahuas, occupied by the Olmecs prior
to their arrival at Panuco and their descent into the Chiapan
region, and by the Toltecs before their migration to Anahuac,
we have a theory which agrees with the testimony of Duran and
Sahagun, and seems to find support in the pyramidal mounds
of the Lower Mississippi, which we have already seen are almost
as perfect in their plan and construction as those found in
Mexico, which do not furnish evidence of as great antiquity as
those of the Ohio and Missouri Valleys. According to most
accounts, a considerable period elapses between their departure
and their arrival at Chicomoztoc — the seven caves. According
to Veytia it was 104 years, but Brasseur adopts twenty-six years,
which is also the opinion of the majority of writers. Chicomoztoc
has some features which remind us of the Tulan Zuiva of the
Quiches — their seven caves, from which so many tribes derived
their origin. Chicomoztoc is the point at which the six Nahu-
atlaca tribes separated from the Aztecs, and thence proceeded to
the Mexican lake region. It is quite probable that a consider-
able distance may have been traversed in this interval of twenty-
six years, a distance which could have brought the Aztecs from
a comparatively northern latitude to the Chiapan region. Op-
posed to this, however, is the fact that the Tulan Zuiva of
the Quiches was in a cold, inhospitable region, no doubt at the
North. Mr. Bancroft suggests that the first part of the migra-

SUMMARY OF VIEWS AS TO LOCATION OF AZTLAN. 265

tion tradition may refer vaguely back to the events which
followed the Toltecs' destruction.^ We have already referred
to the tendency to confusion in histories that are chiefly tra-
ditional. In opposition to the view that Aztlan and Chico-
moztoc were remote from each of these, we have the statement
of Duran'^ that these caves are in Teo-Culhuacan, otherwise
called Aztlan, which implies that both Teo-Culhuacan and
Chicomoztoc were points in the region of Aztlan. Every year
it was the custom of the Aztecs, while in Aztlan, to cross a
river or channel to Teo-Culhuacan in order to sacrifice to their
god Tetzauh, and after their arrival at Chicomoztoc they con-
tinued the occupation of boatmen, which they had followed
while in Aztlan.^ By way of summary, then, we may venture
the following : 1. Viewed from the standpoint of Sr. Ramirez,
Aztlan may be located somewhere not far distant from Chalco
Lake. The islands which it encircles may correspond to the
description of the ancient home of the Aztecs, given by Duran
as quoted on page 257 and described as Culhuacan. Teo-Cul-
huacan, where the Aztecs sacrificed yearly, may be the city of
Culhuacan situated in that neighborhood. As additional testi-
mony we have the fact that most of the stations named in the
migrations can be located in the Central Mexican region. The
report that they came from the north may refer only to the
scattering of the Nahua or Toltec people from Tollan, just north
of the valley. 2. The statements of all the writers that the
Aztecs came from the north, the fact that Duran and Sahagun
assign the primitive Nahua home to the region of Florida, and
the prevalence of mounds and shell-heaps in great numbers in
the Gulf States, together with the extension of those mounds
through Texas into Mexico, may warrant the opinion that Aztlan
was in the Mississippi Valley, or, looking in another direction,
the rock or cave dwellings recently discovered in Southern Utah
and the Rocky Mountain region (of which we shall give a
description in the next chapter) may indicate the locality of the

* Native Races, vol. v, p. 325. « g^e note 1, page 261, tliis chapter.

3 Bancroft, vol. v, p. 325.

266 SUMMARY OF VIEWS.

ancient and much-sought-for land. The identity in meaning
of Chicomoztoc (seven caves) and Tulan Zuiva (seven caves)
together with the fact that both places in Quiche and Nahua
history were the point of separation for many tribes, is a
singular coincidence, if they are not one and the same. In the
preceding chapter we have seen that Tulan Zuiva of the Quiches
was in a northern or at least a colder climate, where they
suffered greatly for want of fire, a fact of no little significance.
On the other hand Teo-Culhuacan, the place of yearly sacrifice,
may have been a city of the Chiapan region, since Sahagun
located Tamoanchan the first city of the Nahuas (Ohiiec) after
their arrival from Florida in Mexico, somewhere in the Usuma-
cinta Valley. It is possible that a large number of the immi-
grants remained behind the company which migrated northward
to Teotihuacan and thence to the seven caves, subsequently
uniting with the Toltecs at Tollan. This view has had quite a
number of advocates.^ We will not undertake, in the present
state of knowledge on the subject, to decide which of these

' E. G. Squier in Notes on Cent. Am., p. 349, makes the following remark :
" It is a significant fact, that in the map of their migrations, presented by Gemelli,
the place of the origin of the Aztecs is designated by the sign of water (Atl
standing for Atzlan), a pyramidal temple with grades, and near these a palm-
tree. This circumstance did not escape the attention of the observant Hum-
boldt, who says, ' I am astonished at finding a palm-tree near this teocalli. This
tree certainly does not indicate a northern origin.'" We might add that we are
equally surprised that so generally able a writer as Mr. Squier should resort to
so absolutely weak an argument. Sr. Ramirez has clearly explained that all
the figures and their adjuncts are but hieroglyphic parts of proper names. The
palm-tree no doubt plays its part. M. Waldeck ( Voyage Pitt., p. 45) maies
the same remark as Mr. Squier — that it indicates a southern origin, Gondra
(Prescott's Historia Gonq. Mex., cited by Bancroft, vol. v, p. 306, note) replies that
this may be a thoughtless insertion of the painter. The possibility that an
unskillful artist should unintentionally represent a tree of which he had no
knowledge is so great, that any argument dependent upon it hangs upon a
slender thread. Over against Mr. Squier's claim we desire to place the simple
inquiry, Does the Elephant Mound of Wisconsin indicate that its constructors
were natives of Asia, where the elephant is common, or that they lived in the
epoch of the American Mastodon ? It is well-known that the latter phase of
the question could not be true, since the condition of the mound contradicts
such great antiquity.

INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A DECISION. 267

three claims is the true one, if either one of them is correct.
Our only wish is to furnish the reader a margin for his
choice. It seems to us that it would be unscientific to attempt
to decide a question based upon such slender and contradictory
data.

It is unnecessary for us to follow the Aztecs farther in their
history. The magnificent empire of the Montezumas, with its
advanced civilization, but at the same time cursed with its
horrid worship, in which thousands of human victims bathed the
altars of Mexico yearly with their life-blood, has been described
and its glory handed down to history by that most graceful and
romantic of American writers, William H. Prescott. We cannot,
however, dismiss this the most primitive period of the growth
of the Nahua nations without a reference to the reputed author
of the higher phases of their civilization. We refer to that semi-
mythical and semi-divine personage, Quetzalcoatl. The numer-
ous legends concerning this culture-hero, scattered chronologically
over hundreds of years of Nahua history, may have originated in
the life and character of some noted personage — the leader and
civilizer of the most ancient branches of the Nahua family, or in
the personification of an ideal deity, a nature-god whose chief
attribute, whose distinguishing office, was the fertilization of the
earth, the revivification of the slumbering forces in nature and
consequently the author of prosperity, agriculture, and the arts
of peace. In either case the name of the original Quetzalcoatl,
were he either man or deity, was eventually inherited by a line
of individuals who became the priests of his worship, or the
representatives of his teachings, and the inculcators of the most
humane and noble principles which entered into the ancient
civilization. Without entering into a lengthy discussion of the
probabilities in the case, we give the substance of the tradi-
tions, aiTanged in what appears to us not only the most con-
sistent, but also the proper order. We have already acquainted
the reader with the meaning of Quetzalcoatl, namely, " plumed
serpent.''

From the distant East, from the fabulous Hue hue Tlapalan,
this mysterious personage came to Tulla, and became the patron

268 QUETZALCOATL.

god and high-priest of the ancestors of the Toltecs.^ He is
described as having been a white man, with a strong formation
of body, broad forehead, large eyes, and flowing beard. He wore
a mitre on his head, and was dressed in a long, white robe,
reaching to his feet, and covered with red crosses. In his hand
he held a sickle. His habits were ascetic ; he never married,
was most chaste and pure in his life, and is said to have endured
penance in a neighboring mountain, not for its effects upon him-
self, but as an example to others. Some have here found a
parallel for Christ's temptation. He condemned sacrifices, except
of fruits and flowers, and was known as the god of peace ; for
when addressed on the subject of war, he is reported to have
stopped his ears with his fingers.^

Quetzalcoatl was skilled in many arts, having invented gem-
cutting and metal-casting. He furthermore originated letters
and invented the Mexican calendar. The legend which describes
the latter states that the gods, having made men, thought it
advisable that their creatures should have some means of reckon-
ing time, and of regulating the order of religious ceremonies.
Therefore two of these celestial personages, one of them a god-
dess, called Quetzalcoatl to counsel with them, and the three
contrived a system which they recorded on tables, each bearing
a single sign. That sign, however, was accompanied with all
necessary explanations of its meaning. It is noticeable that the
goddess was assigned the privilege of writing the first sign, and
that she chose a serpent as her favorite symbol.

Some accounts represent that Huemac was the temporal king,
or at least associated with Quetzalcoatl in the government ; the
latter occupying the priestly as well as the kingly office. Sahagun

' Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., torn, i, p. 345 et seq., states that a band of
people came from the north by way of Panuco, dressed in long black robes ;
that they thence went to Tulla, where they were well received, but that region
being already thickly populated, they went to Cholula. They were great
artists, were skilled in working metals ; with them was Quetzalcoatl, with a
fair and ruddy complexion and a long beard. ' He was their leader,'

2 Mendieta, Hist. Eel, pp, 82, 86, 92. 397-8 ; also cited by Bancroft, vol. iii,
pp, 250-2, and Clavigero, Hist. Ant. Del. Messico, pp. 1 1-13.

QUETZALCOATL'S DEPARTURE FROM TULLA. 269

calls the associate ruler Veraac. At all events, Quetzalcoatl
had an enemy, the deity Tezcatlipoca, whose worship was quite
opposite in its character to that of Quetzalcoatl, being sanguine
and celebrated with horrid human sacrifices. A struggle ensued
in Tulla (Tollan) between the opposing systems which resulted
favorably to the bloody deity and the faction who sought to
establish his worship in preference to the peaceful and ascetic
service of Quetzalcoatl.

Tezcatlipoca, envious of the magnificence enjoyed by Quetzal-
coatl, determined upon his destruction. His first appearance at
Tulla was in the role of a great ball-player, and Quetzalcoatl,
being very fond of the game, engaged in play with him, when
suddenly he transformed himself into a tiger, occasioning a panic
among the spectators, in which great numbers were crowded
over a precipice into a river, where they perished. Again the
vicious god appeared at Tulla. This time he presented himself
at the door of QuetzalcoatFs palace in the guise of an old man,
and asked permission of the servants to see their master. They
attempted to drive him away, saying that their god was ill.
At last, because of his importunities, they obtained leave to
admit him.

Tezcatlipoca entered, and seeing the sick deity, asked about
his health, and announced that he had brought him a medicine
which would ease his body, compose his mind, and prepare him
for the journey which Fate had decreed that he must undertake.^
Quetzalcoatl received the sorcerer kindly, inquiring anxiously as
to the journey and the land of his destiny. His deceiver told
him that the name of the land was Tullan Tlapalan, where his
youth would be renewed, and that he must visit it without
delay. The sick king was moved greatly by the words of the
sorcerer, and was prevailed upon to taste the intoxicating medi-
cine which he pressed to his lips. At once he felt his malady
healed, and the desire to depart fixed itself in his mind.

"Drink again ! " exclaimed the old sorcerer ; and again the

' SahagTin, Hist. Gen., torn, i, lib. iii, p. 345, and Torqueraada, torn, ii, p. 47
et seq., do not a^ree fully as to the details.

270 QUETZALCOATL AT CHOLULA.

god-king pressed the cup to his lips, and drank till the thought
of departure became indelible, chained his reason, and speedily
drove him a wanderer from his palace and kingdom.

Upon leaving Tulla, driven from his kingdom by the vicious
enmity of Tezcatlipoca, he ordered his palaces of gold, and silver,
and turquoise, and precious stones, to be set on fire. The myriads
of rich-plumed songsters that made the air of the capital melo-
dious with song accompanied him on his journey, pipers playing
on pipes preceded him, and the flowers by the way are said to
have given forth unusual volumes of perfume at his approach.

After journeying one hundred leagues southward, he rested,
near a city of Anahuac, under a great tree, and as a memorial
of the event, he cast stones at the tree, lodging them in its trunk.^

He then proceeded still farther southward in the same valley,
until he came to a mountain, two leagues distant from the city
of Mexico. Here he pressed his hands upon a rock on which he
rested, and left their prints imbedded in it, where they remained
visible down to a very recent date. He then turned eastward to
Cholula, where he was received with greatest reverence.^ The
great pyramid was erected to his honor. With his advent the
spirit of peace settled down upon the city. War was not known
during his sojourn within it. The reign of Saturn repeated
itself. The enemies of the Cholulans came with perfect safety
to his temple, and many wealthy princes of other countries
erected temples to his honor in the city of his choice.^

Here the silversmith, the sculptor, the artist, and the archi-
tect, we are led to believe, from the testimony of both tradition
and remains, flourished under the patronage of the grand god-
king.

However, after twenty years had elapsed, that subtile, fever-
ish draught received from the hand of Tezcatlipoca away back
in Tulla, like an old poison in the veins, renewed its power.
Again his people, his palaces, and his pyramidal temple were

^ Torquemada, Monarq. Ind,, torn, ii, p. 47 et seq., and Sahagun, torn, i,
chap, iii, p. 245 et seq.

* lUd. ^ Mendieta, Hist. Ed., p. 83 et seq.

QUETZALCOATL AT CHOLULA. 271

forsaken, that he might start on his long and final journey.^
He told his priests that the mysterious Tlapalla was his destina-
tion, and turning toward the East, proceeded on his way until
he reached the sea at a point a few miles south of Vera Cruz.
Here he bestowed his blessing upon four young men, who accom-
panied him from Cholula, and commanded them to go back to
their homes, bearing the promise to his people that he would
return to them, and again set up his kingdom among them.
Then, embarking in a canoe made of serpent-skins, he sailed
away into the East.^

The Cholulans, out of respect to Quetzalcoatl, placed the
government in the hands of the recipients of his blessing. His
statue was placed in a sanctuary on the pyramid, but in a
reclining position, representing a state of repose, with the under-
standing that it shall be placed upon its feet when the god
returns. When Cortes landed, they believed their hopes real-
ized, sacrificed a man to him, and sprinkled the blood of the
unhappy victim upon the conqueror and his companions.^

Father Sahagun, when on his journey to Mexico, was every-
where asked if he had not come from Tlapalla.'^ No wonder
when the fleet of Cortes hove in sight on the horizon, almost in
the same place where Quetzalcoatl's bark had disappeared, that
the Mexican, who had been waiting centuries for the prince of
peace to return, believed his waiting to be at an end. No won-
der that he inquired of the distant and mysterious Tlapalla. In
this state of expectancy we find a most natural and fruitful soil
for the operations of the Spanish conquerors.

Such is the form into which the mass of legends concerning

^ Goatzacoalco, described as a province near the sea, one hundred and fifty
leagues from Cholula (Torquemada, torn ii, pp. 48-52). The same author
traces him to Yucatan and identifies him with Cukulcan. See preceding
chapter.

2 On a raft, according to Sahagun.

' See Miiller, OescMcMe der AmerikaniscJien TTrreligionen, p. 599.

^ Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., torn, ii, p. 50. In presenting thes^^ legends
we have employed nearly the same language which we used in treating the
same subject in an article entitled "Culture-Heroes of the Ancient Americans,"
published in Appkton's Journal for March 1877.

272 ORIGIN OF THE QUETZALCOATL LEGEND.

Quetzalcoatl have been woven. There is scarcely a doubt, how-
ever, that it is a matter of growth — is the accumulation of several
centuries. • The name Quetzalcoatl (Nahua), Gucumatz (Quiche)
and Cukulcan (Maya), translated "feathered'" or "plumed'' or
" winged " serpent, may originally have been applied to an intel-
ligent princely foreigner who was cast upon the shores of the
Central American region, and who introduced the art of casting
metals, and especially taught agriculture. His doctrines of
peace and virtue may have been sufficiently wide-spread to have
brought about the prosperity which is ascribed to his age. From
this standpoint we would consider him at first to have cast his
lot among the descendants of Yotan, otherwise known as the
" Serpents," from which occurrence he may have received his
name of " Feathered Serpent." On pages 241-42 we referred to
the statements of the Codex Chimalpopoca, that Quetzalcoatl,
becoming obnoxious to his companions, who seem to be Quiches,
forsook them. The account also states that he afterwards
brought maize to Tamoanchan (the city of the Nahuas). Our
next account of him describes him as figuring among the Olmecs
at Cholula. This realistic view of the tradition aj)plies to the
first Quetzalcoatl, who may have been an actual man. While
entertaining this view, we must not forget that centuries prior
to this peHod (which we may as well assign to the first or second
century as to any other date), the Quiches possessed the ideal
of such a personage whom they considered a deity, who figures
so actively in their cosmogony under the name of Gucumatz.
This deity was the vivifying force in nature, the bringer of the
gentle south winds, the god of the harvest and of the air. He
was best symbolized to the mind of the savage by the vernal
shower and the return of spring.

The serpent was everywhere considered an emblem of the
vernal shower, and was thought to be in some way instrumental
in bringing it, together with its refreshing and fructifying
influences. So here, in the name of Quetzalcoatl, we find a
progressive step indicated in the workings of the mind, an ad-
vance from the lower figure of the serpent alone to that of an
aerial combination, which, whiJe it contained all the virtues of

A CULTURE-HERO. 273

the serpent, is lifted to a higher element — that from which the
shower falls. The feathery vapor-clouds of summer are but the
plumes or wings of the shower which the serpent symbolized.

At last when a teacher of agriculture and the mechanic arts,
so conducive of prosperity and plenty, appeared — an individual
who discovers maize and directs the process of its reproduction
and guards an improvident people against want and famine, the
attributes of the god are recognized as dwelling in him, the ideal
vaguely represented by the vernal shower is concreted, is become
incarnate, is presented in a shape more comprehensible to the
untaught mind, and at once the name, reverence and worship of
the god are attached to the man, the culture-hero. This we
believe to be the simplest interpretation of the origin of the
worship of Quetzalcoatl. A priesthood appears to have been
founded who perpetuated the doctrines of this deified man.
That part of the legend which relates to Tulla (Tollan) with the
expulsion of the king and that which followed, properly be-
longs to Ceacatl, surnamed Quetzalcoatl, Toltec king of Tollan,
who ascended the throne about 873.^ The father of this
monarch had been cruelly murdered, and in his early boyhood
Ceacatl is said to have wreaked a terrible vengeance on the
murderer of his father, after which he concealed himself for about
twenty years. At about the above-named date he reappeared,
and established his claims to the throne. He espoused the
religion of Quetzalcoatl, and the peace which followed brought
great prosperity. Human sacrifices were forbidden, and a golden
age seemed to dawn in which Tollan exceeded all the cities of the
Mexican valley in importance and wealth. But a rivalry at once
sprang up between the priests of the bloody god Tezcatlipoca,
worshipped in Culhuacan and at Teotihuacan, and those of the
peaceful and humane Quetzalcoatl, which resulted in the volun-
tary departure of the Pontiff king, to whom the name of his
god was attached. The contest between the two sects is sym-
bolized in the legend by the tricks of Tezcatlipoca. Quetzalcoatl
was received at Cholula, where he remained some years, but was

^ See Bancroft, vol. v, p. 356, and the authorities cited.

274 INTERPRETATION OF THE LEGEND— TOLTEC KING.

at last driven away before the leader of the Tezcatlipoca faction,
namely, King Huemac, who advanced upon the peaceful king
with a strong army. Quetzalcoatl again voluntarily withdrew,
rather than occasion the bloodshed of his subjects. It is prob-
able that he ultimately reached Yucatan and figured there in his
old character under the name of Cukulcan.^

* The sources of the Quetzalcoatl legends have been cited in connection
with our version of the fables applying to the name. On the relation of Ceacatl
Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec king, to the subject, see Sahagun, Hist. Oen., torn, ii,
lib. viii, p. 366, but especially see Bancroft, vol. v, p. 256 et seq., for a fuller
account. The same author has treated the subject with an unprcedented
fullness in his third volume, chap. vii. The able examination of Quetzalcoatl's
character by Mtiller, in his GescMchte d. Am. Urreligianen (pp. 577 et 8eq.\ has
been of great value to us in the preparation of this sketch.

CHAPTER VIL

THE ANCIENT PUEBLOS AND CLIFF-DWELLERS.

Casas Grandes of Chihuahua — Ruins in the Casas Grandes and Janos Valleys —
Casa Grande of the Rio Gila — Ruins in the Gila Valley — Also in the Valley
of the Rio Salado — Ruins in the Canon of the Colorado — In the Valley of
the Colorado Chiquito — Pueblos of the Zuni River — Zuni and the •* Seven
Cities of Cibola "— " El Moro "—Pueblos of the Chaco Valley- Cliff-Dwell-
ers — Mr. Jackson's Discoveries in the Valley of the Rio San Juan — Cliff
Houses of the Rio Mancos— Cliff-Dwellings on the McElmo— Traditional
Origin and Fate of the Cliff-Dwellers — Ancestors of the Moquis — Remark-
able Discoveries by Mr. Holmes — The Seven Moqui Towns — The Monte-
zuma Legend.

IN the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, and in our Territories of
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and the State of Colorado, a
class of remains are found, wholly unlike those of the Mayas,
Nahuas, or Mound-builders, though in some instances they are
associated with earth-works resembling those of the latter race.
The style of architecture is unlike that of any other people on
either continent, and though varying considerably in its indi-
vidual examples, still present certain marked and general features
which leave little room for doubt that the peoples of the Pueblos
and the Cliffs were the same. The earliest discovered of this
class of. remains are known as the Casas Grandes, situated at
about half a mile from the modem town of the same name, in
the fertile valley of the Casas Grandes or San Migual River
in Northern Chihuahua. These ruins have often been described
second-hand and their nature is well-known to persons interested
in this field of inquiry. Of the above-named class of descrip-
tions, the latest and best is by Mr, Bancroft, who has added a

276 CASAS GRANDES OF CHIHUAHUA.

bibliographical apparatus to his account.^ We will, therefore,
confine our discussion of this group of remains to the essential
facts as given by Mr. J. R. Bartlett, whose account of his
researches is quite full and satisfactory.^ These facts we will
give as briefly as possible, preferring to devote our space to
the new material composing the latter part of the chapter.
Several of the early writers refer to the Casas Grandes as
one of the Aztec stations ; but a little intelligent study of the
characteristics of the ruins, especially in the light of recent
explorations in the Territories, is likely to dissipate such an
opinion. The first examination of the ruins of which any
reliable record is left, was by Sr. Escudero, in 1819, published
in his Noticias Estadisticas del Estado de Chihuahua. A con-
tributor to the Album Mexicano (tom. i, pp. 374-5) furnished
a good account of the ruins as he found them in 1842. None
of the hasty sketches subsequently made by several writers are
worth a reference until we come to the excellent description
written by Mr. Bartlett in 1851, while acting as United States
Commissioner, in fixing the United States and Mexican boun-
dary line. The Casas Grandes, according to Mr. Bartlett, are
built of adobe or mud, in large quadrangular blocks measuring
about twenty-two inches in thickness by three feet or more
in length. The irregularity of the length of the blocks, how-
ever, seemed to indicate that they had been formed on the wall,
in situ, by means of a box open at the ends, which, when
the block dried, was moved along to mould a fresh block. The
mud is filled with coarse gravel from the plateau, which gives
greater hardness to the material. The Casas face the cardinal
points and consist of erect and fallen walls, ranging from five to
thirty feet in height. The accumulation of rubbish is, however,
considerable, and if the highest standing walls rest upon a com-
mon level with the lowest, they will measure from forty to fifty
feet in height. The edifice was discovered in ruins by the con-
querors, and could not have been occupied for a century, at the

' Native Itace&, vol. iv, pp. 404 et seq.

2 Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico,
California, 8onora, and Chihuahua. New York, 1854, vol. ii, pp. 348 et seq.

FORMER PROPORTIONS. 277

least calculation, prior to its discovery. It is, therefore, reason-
able to presume that all the walls now standing were originally
much higher than at present. It appears that the outer portions
of the edifices were the lowest, and not more than one story in
height, while the central ones were from three to six stories^
The central or inner walls are better preserved, partly by their
greater thickness — five feet at the base — and partly by the
heaps of ruined walls which have fallen around them. Once
prostrate, the blocks absorb the water, and in a few years are
reduced to a mass of mud and gravel. It was with difficulty
that Mr. Bar tie tt traced all the outlines of the buildings ;
but close examination revealed the fact that three lofty edifices
were connected into one by means of a low range of buildings,
one story high, which may have merely inclosed intervening
courts. The total length of this continuous edifice was at least
800 feet by 250 feet wide. A regular and continuous wall w^as
observed on the south side, while the eastern and western fronts,
with their projecting walls, were very irregular. The question
of the exact number of stories is not capable of solution, as no
vestige of timbers or wood now remains. The explorer could
not even detect a trace of any cavities where the floor-timbers
had been inserted in the walls, so decayed and washed was their
condition. Many doorways remained, but the lintels having de-
cayed, the tops had fallen in. Clavigero states that the edifice
had " three floors with a terrace above them and without any
entrance to the under floor, so that a scaling ladder is neces-
sary." Garcia Conde confirms this statement as to the three
stories besides a roof,^ while both authors consider this to have
been a station on the Aztec migration. Certainly, no architec-
tural analogies with the remains farther south justify this opinion.
Mr. Bartlett was unable to obtain but a par-
tial plan of the Casas Grandes. One class

of apartments, however, attracted his especial L J_ X J.

i- 7 7 f PART OF GROUND PLAN OF CA-

attention, from the fact that they were evi- '^' grandes chihuahua.
dently designed for granaries. They were arranged along one

* Ensayo sobre Chihuahua, p. 74

278 ADJACENT STRUCTURES.

of the main walls, and measured twenty feet in length by ten in
breadth. They were connected by doorways " with a small
inclosure or pen in one corner, three or four feet high." Numer-
ous long and narrow apartments, too contracted for sleeping or
dwelling-rooms, lighted by circular apertures in the upper walls,
are supposed to have been devoted to the same use. Large in-
closures, too extensive in their dimensions ever to have been
roofed, evidently were used as courts. Two hundred feet west
of the Casas, on the plateau, are the remains of a building
about 150 feet square, divided into compartments, as shown in
the accompanying plan : Between this

Uliiiili-I

edifice and the main building, are three
mounds of loose stones about fifteen feet
high, which the explorers did not have time
to oj^en. For a distance of twenty leagues
and covering an area of ten leagues wide
TTTTTTT" — I ^^^^o *^® Casas Grandes and Janos Kivers,
I I I I I I I 1 accordinsr to Garcia Conde, are ruins resem-

UROUND FLAN UK ONE OF TiiE *=' '

CASAS GEANDEs AT cHiHnAHUA. j^iij^g gmall mouuds, from whlch jars, pot-
tery in various forms, painted with white, blue and scarlet colors,
corn-grinders (metates), and stone-axes have been taken. If this
region was ever occupied by 'the Aztecs, even temporarily, this
latter class of remains might more properly be attributed to
them, than the Casas Grandes. Innumerable fragments of pot-
tery, superior to that now manufactured by the Mexicans, are
strewn everywhere in the neighborhood of the Casas Grandes.
The decoration is in black, red or brown, on a white or reddish
ground. Several graceful and highly artistic vases have been
collected about the ruins, and stone metates, nicely hewn, have
been recovered in perfect condition. On the summit of the
highest mountain, ten miles southwest of the ruins, stands an
ancient fortress of stone, the walls of which are said by the
writer in the Album Mexicano to have been from eighteen to
twenty feet thick. The fort, which is attributed to the occu-
pants of the Casas Grandes, was two or three stories, and in the
centre had a high mound for the purposes of observation. Clavi-
gero, who describes the fort and all of the ruins from hearsay,

CASA GRANDE OF THE RIO GILA. 279

falls into the error of supposing the Casas to have also been con-
structed of stone. A short distance from the point where the
111° (meridian) of longitude crosses the Gila River, in Southern
Arizona, in the valley occupied farther westward by the Pima
villages, stands the most famous ruin of all the Western remains.
The Casa Grande, otherwise named the Casa de Montezuma, has
attracted the attention of and furnished a fruitful subject for most
writers on Mexican antiquity, the majority of whom, however,
have contributed nothing to our knowledge of the history or
uses of the edifice. Of describers at second-hand, Mr. Bancroft
has cited thirty-four authors, according to our reckoning, and to
this number the reader must add that authors account and ours.
This fact is an admonition to us to confine ourselves to the
briefest possible statement of facts, for certainly the thirty-
sixth repetition of the accounts furnished by two or three original
explorers would be altogether inexcusable, were it not for the
inseparable relation of the Gila Casas to the remains to be de-
scribed farther on. Mr. Bancroft has treated the bibliography
of the subject in his usually comprehensive manner,^ and it only
remains for us to refer the reader to the original descriptions^
The first of these was written by Padre Mange, the secretary of
Padre Kino, on the latter's tour of visitation to the missions
of the region in 1697.^ Lieutenant C. M. Bernal, of the same
expedition, adds also a description.^ Padre Sedelmair, who
visited the ruin in 1744, copies literally Mange's description in
his account of the Casas.^ Father Font, who, in company with
Father Garces, made an expedition conducted by Captain Anza
to the Gila and the missions farther north, left a diary — now
preserved in the original, in the archives at Guadalajara — from
which Mr. Bartlett translated and published an extensive de-

^ Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 621 et seq.

2 Published in Doe. Hist. Hex., serie iv, torn, i, pp. 283 et seq., translated in
Schoolcraft's Hist, and Condition of Indian Tribes, vol. iii, pp. 300 ^< «€5'., and
Bartlett's Pers. Narrative, vol. ii, pp. 281-2. Quoted in Native Races, vol. iv,
pp. 632-23.

' Bernal in Doc. Hist. Mex., eerie iii, torn, iv, p. 804.

^ Sedelmair, Relacion, in Hoc. Hist. Mex., serie iii, torn, iv, p. 847, copied by
Orosco y Berra, Qeografia, pp. 108-10. Also cited by Bancroft.

280 DESCRIPTION OF THE CASAS.

scrip tion of the Casas.^ Of later writers, only four wrote from
personal observation, namely, Emory ^ and Johnston,^ of General
Kearney's Military Expedition to California in 1846 ; Bartlett *
in 1852, and Ross Browne in 1863.^ These are the only original
sources of information on the Casa Grande of the Gila, of
which Bartlett's account may be said to be the best. However,
Bancroft has contributed much to facilitate the study of the
subject by his addition of a full literary apparatus.

From all of these we draw the facts without further citation.
Two and a half miles south of the Gila, on a slightly elevated
plateau, stands the remains of the Casa Grande surrounded with
a growth of mesquite trees. The ascent from the river bottom
is so slight and gradual that its former inhabitants had con-
structed acequias between the river and the buildings. Mr.
Bartlett found three edifices within a space of one hundred and
fifty yards. The larger one only was in a fair state of preserva-
tion. Its four outer walls and most of the inner ones were
standing. Three stories were plainly marked by the ends of the
beams remaining in the walls or by the cavities which they once
occupied. No doubt the building was one story, at least, higher
than this indicated, as the upper walls have crumbled away
considerably and filled the first story with disintegrated adobe
and a mass of rubbish. The central portion or tower further-
more rises eight or ten feet higher than the outer walls, and may
have formed another story above the main building. At their
base, the walls are between four or ^ve feet in thickness, rising
perpendicular on the inside, but on the outside tapering towards
the top in a curved line.

The material of the walls consists of blocks of adobe, pre-
pared as in the Casas Grandes of Chihuahua, in position on the
walls, probably in boxes two feet high and four feet long ; after
the mud had dried sufficiently, the box was moved further along
the walls and refilled. Some difierence of opinion has existed as

* Pers. Narrntirse, vol. ii, pp. 278-80.
' Emory's Reconnoissance, pp. 81-3.

3 Johnston's Journal in lUd, pp. 567-600.

* Pers. Nar., pp. 271-284. ^ Browne's Apache Country, pp. 114-24.

AGE OF THE CASA. 281

to the color of the mud employed, though all admit it to be that
of the surrounding valley. Mr. Bancroft gives some attention to
this point, and observes that Bernal pronounced it " white clay,"
and that according to Johnston it is also white with an admix-
ture of lime from the vicinity. Mr. Hutton, a civil engineer
who had thoroughly examined them, reported to Mr. Simpson
that the surrounding earth was of a reddish color, but the ad-
mixture of pebbles with the mud gave the Casa a whitish appear-
ance in certain reflections. Mr. Bancroft seeks by this argument
to identify this building with Castaneda's Chichilticale, which is
described as having been built of red earth. ^ The outer sides of
the walls were finished with a plaster similar to that which com-
posed the blocks, but the inner side was covered with hard finish
of such fine quality that when visited they still retained their
polish after centuries of exposure. It is estimated that the
edifice must have stood a hundred years at least prior to its dis-
covery by the Spaniards. The inner walls are slightly thinner
than the outer ones, and divide the building into ^ve apart-
ments, as shown in Mr. Bartlett's ground plan. The building
measures fifty feet in length by forty in
width. The three central rooms indicated
are each about eight by fourteen feet, while
those at each end of the edifice are ten by
about thirty-two feet. The doorways in-
dicated in the plan are three feet wide by
five feet high, except that in the western

\S\

fagade, which is only two feet wide and

seven or eight feet high. The main part of the edifice was

' Coronado, on his trip from Culiacan to the " seven cities of Cibola " in 1540,
saw a roofless building called Chichilticale, or " red house." Castaneda says it
was built of red earth and had formerly been occupied by people from Cibola.
This is of interest, especially since it is quite certain that the seven cities
visited were identical with the Pueblo towns around old Zuni on the Zuni
River in New Mexico (see Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 673-4, and Morgan in JSTorth
American Review, April, 1869). The best treatment of Coronado's march is by
Simpson in Smithsonian Report, 1859, pp. 309 et seq. See further Castaneda, in
Ternaux-campans, Voy., serie i, tom. ix, pp. 40-1, 161-2. Gallatin in Am,
Ethnol. Soc. Trans., vol. ii, and Whipple in Fac. R. R. Report, vol. iii.

282 RUINS OF THE GILA VALLEY.

probably thirty feet high, while the tower rose still ten feet
higher. Padre Kino found a floor in an adjoining ruin still
perfect, the supporting timbers of which were round and about
five inches in diameter, while the floor proper was formed
by placing cross-sticks on the joist and covering them with a
laysr of adobe. Mr. Browne observed the marks of a blunt axe
still plainly visible in the timbers of cedar or sabine which had
been thus employed, while their charred ends furnish the only
clue to the cause of the ruin of the edifice, a fact suggestive of
the ravages of the savage Apaches. No stairways or other means
of ascent were discovered, and it is inferred that ladders were
employed upon the outside as among the modern Pueblos.
Near the main building, to the south-west, Mr. Bartlett dis-
covered another Casa in ruins, and with difficulty traced its
ground plan ; while a. third was so completely decayed as to
leave no certain outline of its form. To the north-west about
two hundred yards, was a circular embankment eighty or one
hundred yards in circumference, which Mr. Bartlett supposes to
have been used as a stock inclosure. A few yards farther north
Mr. Johnston observed a terrace, two hundred by three hundred
feet and five feet high, and having a summit platform seventy-
two feet square, from which an excellent view of the valley is
afi"orded. This monument is unlike any other found among the
New Mexican remains. The entire valley is strewn with heaps
of rubbish and ruined adobe edifices, which indicate that once
the whole region was thickly populated by this remarkable
people. Mr. Bartlett found broken metates (corn-grinders), and
innumerable fragments of pottery painted tastefully with red,
white, lead color, and black. The figures were geometrical,
and many of the vessels had been decorated on the inside —a
practice not in vogue with the modern peoples of the Gila Valley.
The finish was also far superior to that of modern pottery. The
Casa Grande, when last observed by Mr. Browne, was fast going
to pieces, the moisture having undermined some parts of the
outer walls, which were only kept erect by their great thickness.
In 1873, Mr. Bancroft learned that the edifice was still standing,
but it is evident that it must soon share the fate of its fallen

RUINS OF THE GILA VALLEY.

283

neighbors. It is certain that this Pueblo civilization spread
itself over a large tract of country north of the Gila Valley in
the basin of the Rio Salado or Salinas, the principal tributary
of the Gila. Numerous buildings similar to those previously
described, have been noticed by different writers on the Rio

Casa Grande of the Gila Valley.
(As sketched by Ross Browne in 1863.)

Salado and its tributaries. The ruins of large edifices surrounded
by smaller ones are described by Sedelmair (discovered in 1744)
as standing between the Gila and Salado.^

Velarde has also cited the remains of similar structures at
the junction of Salado and Verde and of the Salado and Gila.^
We cannot refer to all of the remains reported in this region,

' Relacion in Doc. Hist. Mex., serie iii, torn, iv, p. 847. Bancroft's Native
Races, vol. iv, p. 634.

2 Velarde in ibid., serie iv, torn, i, p. 363, and Native Races, vol. iv, p. 634.

284 TRANSITION FROM THE ADOBE TO STONE STRUCTURES.

especially since most of them are indescribable and shapeless
heaps of ruins. One edifice, however, was observed by Mr. Bart-
lett, two hundred feet in length by sixty or eighty feet in width ;
and from the accumulation of debris, it is estimated that the
edifice must have been three or four stories in height. This was
but one of several similar heaps of ruins observed in the immediate
vicinity. This locality, distant thirty-five miles from the river's
mouth, was evidently at one time the site of a populous city.
The remains of numerous works, probably of a public character,
such as irrigating canals — one of which is now more than twenty
feet wide and four feet deep and several miles long, in the con-
struction of which it was necessary to cut down the bank of the
plateau — occur in considerable numbers. The whole region is
strewn with fragments of broken pottery of fine workmanship.^
M. Leroux, in 1854, discovered on the Rio Verde ruins of
stone houses and regular fortifications which did not appear to
have been occupied for centuries. The walls were of solid
masonry of rectangular form, usually from twenty to thirty paces
in length, and the style of architecture similar to that of the
Casa Grande of the Gila. Still there was suflScient resemblance
to the Pueblos of the Moquis to indicate a transition from the
southern to the northern style of Pueblo dwelling. The sudden
change in the material employed — that from adobe to stone in
large blocks, well hewn — is rather remarkable. The ruins are
found with more or less continuity between Fort McDowell and
Prescott.^ Mr. Bancroft, after citing the above, expresses regret
at his inability to secure information in the possession of officers
in the Arizona service.^

Lieutenant Whipple describes extensive ruins on the small
streams forming the head-waters of the Rio Verde. Both stone
and adobe structures were numerous, and the walls usually were
found to be about Rve feet thick.^ Emory has described some

' Bartlett's Pers. Nar., vol. li, pp. 242-8. Johnston in Emory's Reconnois-
sance, pp. 596-600. Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, p. 636.

2 Whipple, Ewbank and Turner, in Pacific R. R. Report, vol. iii, pp. 14, 15.

3 Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, p. 636.

* Whipple in Pacific R. R. Report, vol. iii, pp. 91-4.

RUINS IN THE GRAND CANON. 285

Pueblo buildings of singular structure on the upper Gila and
its tributaries ; most interesting of these is one with a laby-
rinthine plan of inner circular walls. The region also abounds
in rock inscriptions of a rude though no doubt conventional
character.^ It is quite natural to suppose that remains of this
ancient people would have been found extensively on the greatest
river of the region — the Colorado. Mr. Bancroft passes the sub-
ject with the statement that " no relics of antiquity are reported
by reliable authorities/' and fitly explains that it is unlikely, in
view of the peculiarity of the region, that none will ever be
found in the immediate vicinity of the river.^ Whipple and his
associates state that " upon the lower part of the Rio Colorado
no traces of permanent dwellings have been discovered." ^

Since the publication of Mr. Bancroft's fourth volume, the
public has been made acquainted with the details of Major J. W.
Powell's exploration of the Grand Canon of the Colorado.^ The
descent of the river was accomplished by the Major and his com-
panions in the summer of 1869, amid dangers so appalling and
privations so distressing, that we need not hesitate in pro-
nouncing it an exhibition of heroism having few parallels in
the history of exploration. The Major has since repeated his
perilous journey of which we have enjoyed the pleasure of a
verbal description in part from the explorer himself. Groups
of ruins were discovered in the gloomy depths of the Grand
Canon at three different points. In referring to them we will
reverse the order in which they were discovered. A hundred or
more miles (for we are unable to estimate the distance from the
account) above the Virgen River, where the granite walls rise
perpendicularly from the water's edge thousands of feet, the
canon widened somewhat and a considerable group of ruined
buildings were discovered on a terrace of trap. There had evi-

' Emory's Reconnaissance, pp. 63-9, 80, 133-4. Hid., pp. 581-96. Bancroft,
Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 638-9, has copied three plans.

* Native RojCcs, vol. iv, p. 640.

' Whipple, Ewbank and Turner, in Pacific; R. R. Report.

^ First published in ScHImer's Monthly, vol. ix, Nos. 3, 4 and 5, for January,
February and March, 1875.

286 EXPLORATION OF THE CANON OF THE COLORADO.

dently been quite a village in that solitary spot, shut in by hun-
dreds of miles of granite walls either up or down the river's
course. Mealing stones and fragments of broken pottery were
scattered about the ruins, and so many beautiful flint chips that
the discoverers conjectured that it might have been the home of
an ancient arrow-maker. Major Powell found on a natural shelf
in the rock, back of the ruin, a globular basket, badly broken,
and so decayed that when taken up it fell to pieces.^ Some dis-
tance farther up the river, the grim walls of more than a mile in
height parted to admit the clear waters of a stream named by
the explorers " Bright Angel River." In a little gulch above
the creek the foundations of two or three Pueblo houses were
discovered. They were built of irregular cut stones, laid in
mortar. An old, deeply-worn mealing stone and a great quan-
tity of pottery were found, and old trails were observed worn
into the rock.^

It cannot fail, however, to excite the wonder of the reader to
learn that Major Powell found ruined pueblos hundreds of miles

^ "Canons of the Colorado," in Scribner's Monthly, voL ix, p. 528. Powell's
Explorations of the Colorado Ruer of the West. Washington. 1875. 4to.

2 "It was ever a source of wonder to us why these ancient people sought
such inaccessible places for their homes. They were doubtless an agricultural
race, but there were no lands here of any considerable extent which they could
have cultivated. To the west of Oraiby, and of the towns of the Province of
Tusayan, in northern Arizona, the inhabitants have actually built little terraces
along the face of the cliflf, where a spring gushes out, and there made their site
for gardens. It is possible that the ancient inhabitants of this place made their
lands in the same way. But why should they seek such spots ? Surely the
country was not so crowded with population as to demand the utilization of a
region like this. The only solution which suggests itself is this : We know
that for a century or two after the settlement of Mexico, many expeditions were
sent into the country now comprising Arizona and New Mexico for the purpose
of bringing the town-building people under the dominion of the Spanish govern-
ment. Many of their villages were destroyed, and the inhabitants fled to
regions at that time unknown, and there are traditions among the people who
now inhabit the pueblos which remain, that the canons were these unknown
lands. It may be that these buildings were erected at that time. Sure it is
that they had a much more modern appearance than the ruins scattered over
Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico." — Major Powell in Scribner,
vol. ix, p. 525. Id.y Explorations of the Colorado River of the West, pp. 87, 88.

ANCIENT STAIRWAY IN COLORADO CANON. 287

farther up that dismal, almost subterranean river. Not far be-
low the foot of the Cataract Cation, and a considerable distance
above Escalante River, in Southern Utah, the explorers discov-
ered on a wall two hundred feet above the river, but removed
from the water by a narrow plain, an old stone house of good
masonry. The stones were laid in mortar with much regularity.
It had been a three-story building, the first of which still re-
mained in good condition, the second being much broken, and
but little being left of the third. Flint chips, beautiful arrow-
heads and broken pottery abounded in the vicinity. The faces
of the clifi's were also covered with etchings. Fifteen miles
farther down the river another group was discovered, the princi-
pal building of which was in the shape of an L, with five rooms
on the ground floor ; one in the angle and two in each wing. In
the centre of the angle there was a deep excavation, doubtless
an underground chamber for religious services, known as an
Estufa. Major Powell considers these remains the work of a
branch of the people now occupying the province of Tusayan in
northern Arizona. These Moqui peoples will be noticed farther
on. In the neighborhood of the last-named ruin, the Major
found a tall, pyramidal work of nature, formed by smooth rock-
mounds, rising one above another. On climbing this he ob-
served that this natural eminence had been used as an outlook
by the people of the Pueblo. A stairway cut in the rock by
human hands and an old ladder resting against a perpendicular
rock were discovered.^

The Colorado Chiquito and its tributaries flows through
the very heart of the Pueblo country. One hundred miles
above its junction with the Rio Colorado, Whipple, Sitgreaves
and others, found numerous ruins, crowning nearly every
prominent point in the valley. The pottery of the region is
unlike that usually met with, in that it is ornamented with

^ Caflons of tJie Colorado, in ScrOmefs Monthly, vol. ix, p. 402 ; Powell's
Exploration of the Colorado Rimr of the West, pp. 68-9. Major Powell on the
125tli page of his report on the Colorado, gives a brief description of remains
in a side canon, a few miles from the great river.

288 REMAINS IN VALLEY OF THE COLORADO CHIQUITO.

impressions and raised work, instead of being painted.^ Forty
miles farther up the river colossal ruins were discovered standing
on the summit of a sandstone bluff. The walls, such as remained
standing, were ten feet thick, while the building measured 360
feet in length by 120 in width.' With the exception of the
remains of stone-houses, at the junction of the Rio Puerco with
the Colorado Chiquito, the only aboriginal remains reported are
pottery, scattered arrow-heads and numerous rock inscriptions.
The next tributary of the Colorado Chiquito — the Zufii River —
is celebrated because of its ancient and modern Pueblo struc-
tures. For fifty miles from the mouth of the Zuili, the anti-
quarian who could, might read the history of this ancient people,
spread out upon the imperishable cliffs — the parchment of
Nature's children. Within eigh't miles of the inhabited Pueblo
towns, numerous ruins are encountered.^ Here, within a few
miles, the almost mythical " seven cities of Cibola," described
by Coronado in 1540, and by Marco de Niga the year previous,
are demonstrated to have been situated.^ Zuni itself is the
Granada of the devoted and romantic conquerors. In the centre
of a plain upon a commanding eminence, stands the inhabited
Pueblo of Zuni. Its frontage is upon the river of the same
name, while but a short distance in the background, the mesa
terminates in tall cliffs of metamorphic rock several hundred
feet high. The town is built in blocks, with terrace-shaped
houses, usually three stories high, in which the lower stories do
service as the platform for those immediately following them.
Access is obtained by means of ladders reaching to the roof
or terrace, formed upon the first story of each of the houses.
The town is very compactly built, many of the streets passing
under the upper stories of houses. The whole is divided into
four squares, and the houses in each are continuously joined

' Sitgreaves' Report, Zufii and Colorado Rivers, pp. 8-9 ; Whipple, Pacific
R. R. Report, vol. iii, pp. 46-50 ; Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 642-3.

* Whipple, Pacific R. R. Report, vol. iii, pp. 76-7.

^ Sitgreaves, Zuni Ex., p. 6 ; Whipple, in Pacific R. R. Report, vol. iii,
pp. 39, 71 ; Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 645, 673.

* See authorities cited on page 281, note 1, of this chapter.

ZUNI. 289

together. The building material employed is stone, plastered
with mud.^ A little more than two miles south-east of Zuni,
the ancient ruined Pueblo of the same name is situated on an
elevated mesa of a mile in width, the precipitous descent from
which, upon all sides, measures a thousand feet. The ruins of
old Zuni are surrounded with a growth of cedars, and cover
several acres of ground. The walls, constructed of small sand-
stone blocks laid in mud-mortar, are only eighteen inches thick
and are sadly dilapidated from age, only twelve feet marking
their highest point of present elevation. Still, there is a deeper
mystery about this antiquated ruin, for beneath the walls now
standing, others are found of a more ancient city, whose walls
w^ere six feet thick, which perished either of age or by the hand
of the destroyer, before the present was begun. The ascent to
the ruin is a winding and difficult path, guarded with stone
battlements at different points. At a sacred spring near Zuni,
Whipple found vases standing inverted upon an adobe wall.
" Many of these were white, well-proportioned, and of elegant
forms. Upon their inner and outward surfaces they were curi-
ously painted to represent frogs, tadpoles, tortoises, butterflies,
and rattlesnakes." The tufted snakes on one of the vases are
pronounced almost unique in America.^ Twelve miles above
Zuni, at Ojo del Pescado, four or five ruined towns are found,
but so badly decayed as to furnish little clue to their plan. Two
of them, however, are constructed elliptically around a spring,
and present a circumference of about 800 to 1000 feet. Two-
thirds of a mile down the river, ruined pueblos in a fair state
of preservation, with two stories standing, are described as
covering an area of 150 by 200 yards. At the time of Mollhau-
sen's visit, the roofs and fire-places were in quite good condition.^

^ See Whipple, in Pacific B. JR. Report, vol. iii, p. 67, with beautiful full
page view. Simpson's Jour, of Mil.Recon., pp. 90-3 ; Bancroft's Native Races,
vol. iv, pp. 645, 667, 673.

2 Whipple in Pacific R.R. Report, vol. iii, pp. 68, 70, 66, 40-8, views of old
Zuni, and sacred spring ; Mollhausen, Reisen in die Felsengebirge N. Am.,
torn. ii. pp. 196, 402 ; Id., Tagebuch, pp. 283-4, 278, with cut ; Bancroft, vol. iv,
pp. 645-7, with cut.

3 Mollhausen's Journey, vol. ii, p. 83 : Whipple et (d., in Pacific R. R. Report^

290 RUINS AT OJO DEL PESCADO.

A square estufa, still under roof, and numerous rock inscrip-
tions, were observed. In this instance we are furnished with
abundant evidence that the destruction of this people never
was a wholesale one, but that gradually they are succumbing
to their unpropitious surroundings — a land which is fast be-
coming a howling wilderness, with its scourging sands and
roaming savage Bedouin — the Apaches. One more locality in
this region merits attention. Eighteen miles south-east of
the sources of the Zuni Eiver, stands a sandstone rock three
hundred feet high, which at a distance resembles a Moorish
fortress. The Spaniards named it El More. It is also known as
" Inscription Kock," because of the Spanish and Indian inscrip-
tions which cover its smooth face. Simpson has copied some of
them, which is quite fortunate, since later explorers have found
many of them almost effaced. The ruins of two buildings are
found on the summit, which is reached by a difficult path. The
large group is in the form of a rectangle, measuring 307 by 206
feet. The walls, faced with sandstone blocks, remain standing to
the height of six and eight feet. The other group is separated from
the first by a deep ravine, and is found upon the very brink of
the outer precipice. A circular estufa thirty-one feet in diameter
was also noticed. Cedar timbers were found in the walls, and
broken pottery in abundance.^ About one hundred miles in a
north north-easterly direction from Zuni, in longitude 108 ° and
latitude 36°, the most remarkable of the pueblo ruins are sit-
uated. These are on the north bank of the Chaco Eiver, a
tributary of the Rio San Juan, a stream the affluents of which
are noted for a greater number of pueblo and cliff-dwellers' ruins
than are found elsewhere. Lieutenant Simpson has described
the ruins of the Chaco, eleven in number, occurring within a
distance of twenty-five miles. The first of these met with in

vol. iii, p. 39 ; Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 95-7 ; Bancroft's Nathe Races,
vol. iv, pp. 647-8.

' Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 89-109, 60-1, 65-74, 100, with cuts, views
and plans ; Whipple, Ewbank and Turner, in Pacific R. R. Report, vol. iii,
pp. 22, 52, 63-4 ; see also Mollhausen's Tageimch and Journey; Bancroft, vol. iv.
pp. 645-50.

PUEBLOS OF THE CHACO VALLEY. 291

coming from the south is called at present (we presume in the
absence of the knowledge of the true name) the Pueblo Pintado.
The most remarkable feature of this great structure is the
beauty and precision of the masonry. The fine, hard gray sand-
stone blocks are quite uniformly three inches in thickness and
are laid without mortar, always breaking joints. The crevices
between the ends of the blocks are filled with very thin pieces
of stone, not over a quarter of an inch thick. The walls of the
pueblo now standing, are at their greatest height, thirty feet,
and furnish evidence from the marks of the floor-timbers that
the building was three stories. The walls are between two and
three feet thick at the base, though this is diminished with each
succeeding story by a jog of a few inches, upon which the
flooring timbers rest. These are from six to eleven inches in
diameter, always of uniform size in the- same room. On these
beams small round sticks are laid transversely, and these in
turn covered with thin cedar strips, lying transversely of the
round sticks. In some rooms the chinks in the floor were filled
with small stones and the whole covered with a layer of mortar.
One room, however, had a floor of smooth cedar boards, seven
inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick. The edges and
ends were squarely cut, and their smooth suriiices indicate that
they were polished by being rubbed with flat stones. The size
of these ruins may be better understood when we state that five
buildings measured in circumference respectively 872, 700, 1700,
1300 and 1300 feet ; while the number of rooms, still well-defined
on the ground floor of each, is 72, 99, 112, 124 and 139. Some
of these buildings undoubtedly had as high as a thousand rooms,
while the smallest of them probably contained half that number.
The smallest apartments are five feet square, while the largest
are eight by fourteen feet. The ground plan of the buildings
of this valley have three tiers of rooms, while one building, the
Pueblo Bonito, has four tiers of apartments. The usual form
of the buildings coiTesponds to three sides of a rectangle, w^ith
the fourth (one of the long sides of the figure) left unbuilt
(except that in some cases it was inclosed by a semi-circular stone
wall), thus afibrding a partially enclosed court of large dimen-

292 PUEBLO ARCH.

sions. The exterior walls are in all cases perpendicular, tlius
differing from the pueblos farther south. The terracing in the
Chaco structures is upon the inside (court side) of the buildings.
In some of the buildings, however, the angles of the quad-
rangle are rounded, and in one instance — that of the Penasca
Blanco — the structure is elliptical. From the nature of the
plan of any of these buildings it is evident that many of the
apartments on the ground floor were dark, and were probably
used for granaries and store-rooms. There are no doors what-
ever in the outer walls, and no windows except in the upper
stories. Windows and doors opening into the courts are, on the
contrary, numerous in all the stories but the first. The doors
are quite small, in many cases not exceeding two and a half feet
square. The lintels of the doors and windows are in most cases
stone slabs, but in some instances are small round timbers tied
together with withes. A remarkable feature of the construction
is the presence of the Yucatan arch formed of overlapping stones,
illustrations of which may be seen in our next chapter. Dr.
Hammond, a companion of Lieutenant Simpson, has minutely
described a room of very perfect finish.^ Each edifice was pro-
vided with the sacred estufa, and some of the houses had as
many as seven, circular in form, excavated several feet deep in
the earth and enclosed with circular walls. One in the Pueblo
Bonito was of remarkable size, having been sixty feet in diameter,
extending twelve feet below the surface and rising two or three
stories high. Lieutenant Simpson found in close proximity to
one of the ruins an excavation in the cliff which had been
enclosed with a front wall of well-laid stone and mortar, thus
associating one of the simplest of the cave-dwellings to which
we shall refer presently, with one of the most extensive and per-
fect of the Pueblo buildings ; a fact of no little value in identi-
fying the architects of both as one and the same.^ This intro-

1 In Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 131-3, and copied in a note by Ban-
croft, vol. iv, p. 657.

■^ See on Chaco ruins, Simpson's Jour. Mil. Recon., pp. 34-43, 131-3. Dome-
nech's DeseHs, vol. i, pp. 199-200, 379-81. 385. Baldwin's Anc. Am., pp. 86-9,
cut ; Bancroft's Natim Races, vol. iv, pp. 65.2-62, which we have found of valu-

THE CLIFF-DWELLERS. 293

duces us to another class of ruins, which, with a couple of
exceptions, were not discovered prior to the summer of 1874.
We refer to the cliff-dwellings, the most remarkable habitations
ever occupied by man. The descriptions of them seem more
suitable to form parts of the most romantic works of fiction
than of sober and scientific memoirs from the pens of govern-
ment explorers. One hundred miles westward from the ruins
of the Chaco lies the Chelly Valley or Canon. The Chelly is
one of the tributaries of the Hio San Juan from the south,
having its source in the Navajo country. The Chelly Canon is
described as from one hundred and fifty to nine hundred feet
wide, with perpendicular sides between three hundred and five
hundred feet high. Simpson in 1849 found several caves built
up in front with stone and mortar in a side canon. About four
miles from its foot or mouth he observed on a shelf fifty feet
high, accessible only by ladders, a stone ruin, the plan of which
resembles that of the Chaco Valley pueblos, except that it was
constructed on a considerably smaller scale. Three miles fur-
ther up the canon a double ruin of an extraordinary nature was
discovered. At the base of the cailon stood an ancient pueblo
in ruins, but with parts of the first and second stories still erect.
Fifty feet in a perpendicular line, above and immediately back
of the first edifice, in a shelf, or in the mouth of a cavern in the
cation's walls, stood another building constructed of sandstone
and mortar, and measuring one hundred and forty-five by forty-
five feet, with walls eighteen feet high still standing. Broken
pottery was plentiful, as around all the ruins we have described.
The building was lighted by square windows and provided with
a circular estufa.^

The most surprising results in all the history of archaeological
exploration in this country were obtained in September, 1874,
by a party connected with the United States Geological and

able assistance ; especially see Ruins of the Chaco Caflon, examined in 1877, by
W. H. Jackson, in Tenth Annual Beport of U. 8. Oeol. Survey. Washington,
1879. Best account.

' Simpson's Jour. Mil. Becon. , pp. 74-5, plates 53-4, copied by Bancroft,
vol. iv, p. 652 ; also see Domenech's Deserts, voL i, p. 201, and Annual Scienc.
Biscov., 1850, i>.dQ2.

294 CANON OF THE RIO MANGOS.

Geographical Survey Corps. This party was composed of only
three persons, Mr. W. H. Jackson and Mr. Ingersoll with their
guide, Captain John Moss, a resident of La Plata, who possessed
both a knowledge of the country and an acquaintance with the
language of the Indians. In the south-western corner of Colorado,
the canons of two of the tributaries of the San Juan were exam-
ined, namely, the valleys of the Rivers Mancos and McElmo.^ The
former stream rises among the western foothills of the Sierra La
Plata, and flows south-westerly through fertile valleys to a great
table-land known as the " Mesa Yerde," thence to the San Juan
near the crossing of the boundary lines of the four territories.
In the upper valley of the Mancos, between the mountains and
the mesa, groups of undistinguishable ruins were discovered in
great numbers. An examination of the shapeless heaps revealed
foundations composed of great square blocks of adobe. The
great multitude of these heaps of masonry overgrown with pines
indicates a general and unsparing destruction of the houses of
the people who once inhabited the valley, at the hands of their
enemies. The canon through the Mesa Yerde is quite uniformly
two hundred yards wide, with perpendicular walls of grayish
cretaceous sandstone ranging from six hundred to one thousand
feet in height. Numbers of the mounds of ruined adobe were
met with at each advance into the canon, and upon promontories
jutting out towards the stream, remains of stone walls were
seen as high as fifty feet from the river's bed. Every step revealed
great quantities of broken pottery, and with this statement we
will let the subject of these fragmentary relics of the by-gone
civilization rest for the present.

One of the first clifi" houses discovered by the explorers is a
most interesting structure, the position of which, over six hun-
dred feet from the bottom of the caiion in a niche of the wall,

* W. H. Jackson in Bulletin of U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the Terri-
tories, 2d series, No. 1, Washington, 1875, and in the Annual Repoi^t of the same,
Wasliington, 1876, pp. 369 et seq. A condensed though excellent account is
furnished by Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 718 et seq. Also a condensed account by
Prof. Edwin A. Barber in Gongres des Americanistes, Luxembourg, 1877.
Sec<mde Session, torn, i, pp. 23-38. Also Ibid., The Ancient Polios, or Huins
of the Valley of the Rio San Juan. Parts I, II.

CLIFF-HOUSE OF THE RIO MANGOS.

295

furnishes a significant commentary on the straits to which this
sorely-pressed people were driven by their enemies. Five hun-
dred feet of the ascent to this aerial dwelling was comparatively
easy, but a hundred feet of almost perpendicular wall confronted
the party, up which they could never have climbed but for the
fact that they found a series of steps cut in the face of the
rock leading up to the ledge upon which the house was built.

Cliff-House in the Ca:S^on of the Mangos.

This ledge was ten feet wide by twenty feet in length, with a
a vertical space between it and the overhanging rock of fifteen
feet. The house occupied only half this space, the remainder
having been used as an esplanade, and once was inclosed by a
balustrade resting on abutments, built partly upon the sloping
face of the precipice below. The house was but twelve feet
high and two-storied. Though the walls did not reach up to the
rock above, it is uncertain whether it ever had any other roof.
The ground plan showed a front room of six by nine feet in
dimensions, in the rear of which were two smaller rooms, each

296 CLIFF-HOUSE OP THE RIO MANGOS.

measuring five by seven feet. The left-hand room projected
along the cliff, beyond the front room, in the form of an L.
The rock of the cliff served as the rear wall of the house. The
cedar beams upon which the upper floor had rested had nearly
all disappeared. The door opening on the esplanade was but
twenty by thirty inches in size, while a window in the same story
was but twelve inches square. A window in the upper story,
which commands an extended view down the canon, corresponded
in dimensions and position with the door below. The lintels
of the window were small straight cedar sticks laid close to-
gether, upon which the stones rested. Opposite this window
was another and smaller one, opening into a semicircular cistern,
formed by a wall inclosing the angle formed by the side wall of
the house against the rock, and holding about two and a half
hogsheads. The bottom of the reservoir was reached by descend-
ing on a series of cedar pegs about one foot apart, and leading
downward from the window. The workmanship of the structure
was of a superior order ; the perpendiculars were true ones and
the angles carefully squared. The mortar used was of a grayish
white color, very compact and adhesive. Some little taste was
evinced by the occupants of this human swallow's nest. The
front rooms were plastered smoothly with a thin layer of firm
adobe cement, colored a deep maroon, while a white band, eight
inches wide, had been painted around the room at both floor and
ceiling. An examination of the immediate vicinity revealed the
ruins of half a dozen similar dwellings in the ledges of the cliffs,
some of them occupying positions the inaccessibility of which
must ever be a wonder, when considered as places of residence
for human beings. Half-way down the canon, one of Mr. Jack-
son's party discovered a rather remarkable watch-tower, which,
because of the accumulations of debris, he was not able to ac-
curately measure, though approximate figures were given. Since
his visit, the tower has been thoroughly examined by Mr. W. H.
Holmes, to whose work in this field we will refer on a future
page. Mr. Holmes' measurements and ground-plan are, there-
fore, substituted for those of Mr. Jackson.

The diameter of the outer wall is forty-three feet, that

WATCH-TOWER OF THE MANGOS.

297

of the inner, twenty-five feet. The outer wall is still standing
to the height of twelve feet at one point, and is in a fair state
of preservation, with a thickness of twenty-one inches, and has
the stones dressed to the curve. The ring-shaped space be-
tween the inner and outer wall is estimated to have contained
ten compartments, two of which at present have complete walls.

Ground Plan of Tower in the Mangos Cai^on.

No door or window was observed in the outer wall, and it is
supposed that access was obtained by means of a ladder. Two
nearly rectangular openings were found connecting the outer
apartments with the central part of the tower, which no doubt
was used as an estufa.^ Mr. Jackson, after leaving the tower
which Mr. Holmes has so fully described (of which the above is
but a condensed account), saw similar towers on a somewhat

' BuUetin No. 1, vol. ii, pp. 11, 12.

298

NEST-LIKE DWELLINGS.

smaller scale. His next discovery in the face of the vertical
rock, which here ran up from the bottom of the canon and at a
height of from fifty to one hundred feet, were a number of nest-
like habitations, one of which is figured in the cut.

The cliff-house in this case was reached by its occupants
from the top of the canon. The walls are pronounced as firm as
the rock upon which they were built. The stones were very

Cliff-Dwelling of the Mangos Canon.

regular in size, and the chinking-in of small chips of stone
rendered the surface of the wall remarkably smooth and well
finished. The dwelling measured fifteen feet in length, ^ve feet
in width, and six feet in height. A short distance below this little
dwelling, five or six cave-like .crevices were found walled up in
front with very perfect walls, rendered smooth by chinking.
Three miles farther down the canon, the party discovered at
heights ranging from six hundred and eight hundred feet above
their heads, some curious and unique little dwellings sandwiched
in among the crevices of the horizontal strata of the rock of

CLIFF-DWELLINGS OF THE MANGOS CANON.

299

Cliff-Dwelling of the Mangos
Canon.

which the bluff was composed. Access to the summit of the
bluff, a thousand feet high, was obtained by a circuitous path
through a side canon, and the houses themselves could only be
reached at the utmost peril — of being precipitated to the bottom
of the dizzy abyss — by crawl-
ing along a ledge twenty
inches wide and only high
enough for a man in a creep-
ing position. This led to
the wider shelf on which the
houses rested. The perfection
of the finish was especially
noticeable in one of these
houses, which was but fifteen
feet long and seven feet
high, with a side wall run-
ning back in a semicircular sweep. In every instance the party
found the elevated cliff-houses situated on the western side of
the canon with their outlook toward the east, while the build-
ings at the bottom of the caiion were indiscriminately built on
both sides of the river.

A circular watch-tower, which may be said to serve as a fair
type of others met with at irregular intervals, is shown in the cut
(p. 300). The tower remained standing to a height of twenty feet.
Its diameter measured twelve feet and the thickness of the wails
sixteen inches, the stones being of uniform size and smoothly
dressed to the curve of the circle, A rectangular structure,
divided into two apartments, each about fifteen feet square,
once joined the tower, but now is in ruins, all but the founda-
tion. It is supposed that this edifice was built over a large sub-
terranean keep or place of defence. The exploring party here
emerged from the caiion, and could discern, as they glanced
down the valley of the Kio Mancos, which now turned towards
the west, mounds of shapeless ruins at short distances from one
another as far as the eye could reach.

Bearing around the Mesa to the west, the party encamped
upon the site of the most extensive mass of ruins yet found in

300

CIRCULAR WATCH-TOWER.

United States territory, "known as the Aztec Springs/' As
Mr. Jackson's description is but partial, we defer the treatment
of this locality until we take up the explorations of Mr. Holmes,
already mentioned. Four miles distant from "Aztec Springs/'
the party reached a river-bed, dry during most of the year, and
known as the McElmo, which, when it flows at all, empties into
the San Juan farther to the west. On the mesa, above this
river-bed, a tower resembling that first met in the Mancos was

Watch-Tower of the CaS'on of the Mancos.

observed, but of much greater size, having a diameter of fifty
feet. Adjoining the tower were the ruins of large subdivided
buildings resembling the community dwellings of the Moquis
and the old ruins of the Chaco. This group of ruins was very
extensive and complicated, literally occupying all the available
space in the vicinity.

Half a dozen miles down the canon of the McElmo, several
of the little nest-like dwellings peculiar to the Mancos were seen
perched forty or fifty feet above the valley. A couple of miles
beyond these, the tower shown in the cut (p. 301) was discovered
standing on the summit of a great block of sandstone forty feet
high, and detached from the bluff back of it.

SQUARE TOWER ON THE McELMO.

301

The building which surmounts this rocky pedestal is square
and about fifteen feet high at present. Windows open toward
the north and east, the directions from which the enemies of this
people, according to tradition, came down upon them. A wall at
the base of the rock is mostly in ruins and covered with debris
from the building above. Immediately beyond this point the
boundary line into Utah was crossed, and two or three miles
distant the party came upon a very interesting group, a historic

Square Tower on the McElmo.

spot in the career of this ancient race. In the centre of the
widening valley stands a solitary butte of dark-red sandstone,
upon a perfectly smooth floor of the same, dipping gently towards
the centre of the valley. This butte or cristone is about one
hundred feet high and three hundred feet in length, of irregular
form. All around the rock are remains of stone walls which
indicate an extensive structure and complicated system of walls
and towers. At the back of the rock two remains attract
special attention. One wall forming the corner of a building
near the base of the rock, seems to have served as an approach

302

ORIGIN AND FATE OF THE CLIFF-DWELLERS.

to the larger house up in the side of the butte. This structure
is about eighteen feet in length and twelve feet in height, nearly
reaching to the top of the rock. Part of the walls have fallen,
but those standing show a finish surpassing those of any struc-
ture previously discovered in the region. In front is a single
aperture eighteen by twenty- four inches. On top of the rock are
remains of masonry, but too badly ruined to indicate their original
form. All the crevices and irregularities in the faces of the

Cliff House in the Ca^on of the McElmo.

butte had been smoothly walled up ; it is supposed, to make
its ascent impossible. In the vicinity a tower with a rounded
corner and twelve feet in diameter by twenty feet high stood
in a dry creek bed.

We remarked that this was a historic locality, as certainly
it was if the legend obtained by Captain Moss from an old man
among the Moquis is reliable. Mr. Ingersoll has rendered it
in the New York Tribune for November 3d, 1874, as follow^s :
"Formerly, the aborigines inhabited all this country we had been
over as far west as the head- waters of the San Juan, as far north
as the Rio Dolores, west some distance into Utah, and south and
south-west throughout Arizona and on down into Mexico. They
had lived there from time immemorial — since the earth was a

THEIR TRADITION. 303

small island, which augmented as its inhabitants multiplied.
They cultivated the valley, fashioned whatever utensils and tools
they needed very neatly and handsomely out of clay and wood
and stone, not knowing any of the useful metals ; built their
homes and kept their flocks and herds in the fertile river-
bottoms, and worshipped the sun. They were an eminently
peaceful and prosperous people, living by agriculture rather than
by the chase. About a thousand years ago, however, they were
visited by savage strangers from the North, whom they treated
hospitably. Soon these visits became more frequent and annoy-
ing. Then their troublesome neighbors— ancestors of the present
Utes — began to forage upon them, and, at last, to massacre them
and devastate their farms ; so, to save their lives at least, they
built houses high upon the cliffs where they could store food and
hide away till the raiders left. But one summer the invaders
did not go back to their mountains as the people expected, but
brought their families with them and settled down. So, driven
from their homes and lands, starving in their little niches on the
high cliffs, they could only steal away during the night, and
wander across the cheerless uplands. To one who has traveled
these steppes, such a flight seems terrible, and the mind hesitates
to picture the suffering of the sad fugitives. At the Cristone
they halted and probably found friends, for the rocks and caves
are full of the nests of these human wrens and swallows. Here
they collected, erected stone fortifications and watch-towers, dug
reservoirs in the rocks to hold a supply of water, which in all
cases is precarious in this latitude, and once more stood at bay.
Their foes came, and for one long month fought and were beaten
back, and returned day after day to the attack as merciless and
inevitable as the tide. Meanwhile, the families of the defenders
were evacuating and moving south, and bravely did their pro-
tectors shield them till they were all safely a hundred miles
away. The besiegers were beaten back and went away. But
the narrative tells us that the hollows of the rocks were filled
to the brim with the mingled blood of conquerors and conquered,
and red veins of it ran down into the cation. It was such a
victory as they could not afford to gain again, and they were glad.

304

RUINS OF THE HOVENWEEP.

when the long fight was over, to follow their wives and little
ones to the south. There, in the deserts of Arizona, on well-nigh
unapproachable isolated bluffs, they built new towns, and their
few descendants, the Moquis, live in them to this day, preserv-
ing more carefully and purely the history and veneration of their
forefathers than their skill or wisdom. It was from one of their
old men that this traditional sketch was obtained." In a side
canon, a tower eighteen feet high was seen perched on a huge
block of sandstone which had fallen from the top of the mesa
and lodged on a projecting shelf of rock, midway from top or
bottom. Eight or ten miles westward of the McElmo, Mr.

Ruins of the H oven weep.

Jackson and his party discovered on a stream known as the
Hovenweep, the ruins of a city. Mr. Jackson's description is as
follows : " The stream referred to sweeps the foot of a rocky
sandstone' ledge, some forty or fifty feet in height, upon which is
built the highest and better-preserved portion of the settlement.
Its semicircular sweep conforms to the ledge, each little house
of the outer circle being built close upon its edge. Below the
level of these upper houses some ten or twelve feet, and within
the semicircular sweep, are seven distinctly marked depressions,
each separated from the other by rocky debris, the lower or first
series probably of small community houses. Upon either flank,
and founded upon rocks, are buildings similar in size and in
other respects to the large ones on the line above. As paced off,

ADDITIONAL EXPLORATIONS BY MR. JACKSON. 305

the upper or convex surface measured one hundred yards in
length. Each little apartment is small and narrow, averaging six
feet in width and eight feet in length, the walls being eighteen
inches in thickness. The stones of which the entire group is
built are dressed to nearly uniform size and laid in mortar. A
peculiar feature here is in the round corners, one at least appear-
ing upon nearly every little house. They are turned with consid-
erable care and skill, being true curves solidly bound together."

Here the labors of Mr. Jackson's party ended for the year
1874, but the work was again resumed in July of the following
year with even richer results. Two parties were put in the field
by the Government Surveying Corps, one headed by Mr. Jack-
son and the other by Mr. W. H. Holmes, geologists of the San
Juan division of the survey for 1875. I am indebted to Prof.
Hayden, United States geologist-in-charge, for the memoirs pre-
pared by these gentlemen, with the accompanying illustrations.'
The reader has already become acquainted with the general
character of the remains of the clifi-dwellers, and it will not be
necessary to repeat the descriptions of buildings or ruins similar
to those already described in these pages. We shall therefore
cite only the more remarkable ruins discovered by the above-
named explorers. Mr. Jackson was accompanied on his second
tour, by Mr. E. A. Barber, naturalist and correspondent of the
New York Herald, with HaiTy Lee as guide and interpreter.
The party resumed their labors in the arid, waterless region
around the Hovenweep, and in fact the same barren charac-
teristics are peculiar to the whole basin of the San Juan. The
whole region is rapidly drying up and fast becoming a desert.
Down the canon from the pueblo of the Hovenweep, broken towers
and rock shelters were passed in rapid succession. Seven miles
distant from their starting-point, they found on the western side
of the valley three elevated benches ranging one above another
in the face of a jutting promontory, each of which contained

' Published in Bulletin of the Oeological and Geographical Survei/ of the
Territories, vol. ii, No. 1. Washington, 1876. Mr. Bancroft's account in the
Native Races, necessarily terminates with the close of Mr. Jackson's labors in

1874.

306

NICHE STAffiWAY OF THE HOVENWEEP.

Niche Stairway of
Chelly CaSon.

houses (see illustration, pagj V
307). The fii-st bench wus
reached by climbing over a
sloping mass of debris to a
height of one hundred feet
from the base of the cliff,
while the upper benches were
only accessible by means of
a niche stairway similar to
the one shown in the fiornre.
Euius and masses of char-
coal were found at the base
of the rock. Numerous adobe
foundations, prolmbly of wood-
en buildings, always circular
in form and Hanging from fif-
teen to twenty-five feet in
diameter, were met with a
short distance down the canon.

^Ss\^

CLIFF-HOUSE OF THE HOVENWEEP.

307

Near the junction of the Hovenweep and McElmo canons an
inscription covers sixty feet of the face of a large rock. The
figures are those of men, goats, lizards, and hieroglyphic signs.
As the party proceeded
in the canon they met
rock shelters and enclos-
ures, the latter on the top
of the mesa in which
slahs of stone three by
five feet in size were set
on end. Mr. Jackson re-
ports that a party con-
nected with the survey
corps discovered near the
head of the Hovenweep,
on a ledge three hundred
feet long by fifty feet wide,
one-third of the distance
from the top of the canon,
some forty houses crowded
along the shelf all in a
row. On the San Juan
west of the mouth of the
Montezuma Caiion, upon
a bench fifty feet high, Mr.
Jackson found a quad-
rangular structure of pe-
culiar design, as shown
in the cut on page 308.

" We see that it is arranged very nearly at right angles to the
river, its greatest depth on the left, where it runs back one hun-
dred and twenty feet ; the front sweeps back in a diagonal line,
so that the right-hand side is only thirty-two feet in depth.
The back wall is one hundred and fifty-eight feet long, and at
right angles to the two sides. In the centre of the building,
looking out upon the river, is an open space seventy-five feet
wide, and averaging forty feet in depth, its depressed centre

Cliff-House of the Hovenweep.

308

RUINS UPON THE SAN JUAN.

divided nearly equally by a ridge ruiming through it at right
angles to the river. We judged it to have been an open court,
because there was not the least vestige of a wall in front, or on
the ridge through the centre, while upon the other three sides
they were perfectly distinct ; although it is difficult to explain
why it should have been hollowed out in the manner shown in
the plan. Back of this court is a series of seven apartments of
equal size, springing in a perfect arch from the heavy wall facing
the court, leaving a semicircular space in the centre, forty-five
feet across its greatest diameter. Each one is fifteen feet in

II RUINS UPON THE
11 RIO SAN JUAN

\\iiiiiiiiiiiiiii/iii/<///<

^//ktufifSO ft. in height,
ntaning a row oi
small buildings

length, and the same in width across its centre, the walls some-
what irregular in thickness, but averaging twenty inches, com-
pact, and well laid. On the left are three rooms extending
across the whole width of the building, each averaging forty-five
by forty feet square ; on the right only one was discernible.
Back of the circle, our impression was that the walls diverged in
the manner shown in the plan, although there is so much con-
fusion resulting from the heaping up of the debris that much
must be left to conjecture. There is also a slight shadow of
doubt in regard to the wall facing the river on the right ; it is
barely possible that it extended somewhat farther out, although

ROCK-SHELTERS ON THE RIO SAN JUAN.

309

there is here a steep inclination to the brink of the bluff, and
that it has become entirely obliterated by its foundations giving
way. The remains of the wall above, however, led us to believe
that it had been originally built in the way it is shown in the
plan. Extreme massiveness is indicated throughout the whole
structure by the amount of debris about the line of the walls,
forming long rounded mounds four to five feet high, with the
stone-work cropping out, twenty to twenty-four inches in thick-
ness."

In the face of the bluff
immediately under this ruin
and upon a recessed bench
three hundred feet long was
a row of little rock-shelters,
with just enough room on
the ledge in front of them
to admit of a promenade the
entire length of the shelf.
All down the valley of the
San Juan, rock shelters and
dwellings similar to the
group shown in the cut,
were met with.

In this instance the
houses were situated sixty
feet above the trail without
any visible means of access.

If ladders were used, they were made of timber taller than any
of the trees now growing in the valley. Twelve miles below the
Montezuma the party discovered really one of the most pictur-
esque and wonderful of all the cliff dwellings. On the opposite
side of the river, where the bluff was two hundred feet high,
near the top of the cliff, they observed a deeply receding cave
with an opening nearly circular " two hundred feet in diameter,
divided equally between the two kinds of rocks, reaching, within
a few feet, the top of the bluff above and the level of the valley
below. It runs back in a semicircular sweep to a depth of one

Rock-Shelters of the San Juan CaSon.

310

GREAT ECHO CAVE, RIO SAN JUAN.

hundred feet ; the top is a perfect half dome, and the lower half
only less so from the accumulation of debris and the thick brushy
foliage, the cool dampness of its shadowed interior, where the
sun never touches, favoring a luxuriant growth. A stratum of
harder rock across the central line of the cave has left a bench
running around its entire half circle, upon which is built the
row of buildings which caught our attention half a mile away."

HORIZONTAL SECTION

of the

GREAT ECHO CAVE
on the
.RIO SAN JUAN jjq^ ^f J J Rooms, one story in height, from 4 to 10 feet in width, by 130 feel

"It will be seen that the houses occupy the left-hand or
eastern half of the cave, for the reason, probably, that the ledge
was wider on that side, and the wall back of it receded in such a
manner as to give considerable additional room for the second
floor, or for the upper part of the one-story rooms. It is about
fifty feet from the outer edge in to the first building, a small
structure sixteen feet long, three feet wide at the outer end, and
four at the opposite end ; the walls, standing only four feet on
the highest remaining corner, were nearly all tumbled in. Then
came an open space eleven feet wide and nine deep, that served
probably as a sort of workshop. Four holes were drilled into
the smooth rock floor, about six feet equidistantly apart, each
from six to ten inches deep and five in diameter, as perfectly
round as though drilled by machinery. We can reasonably

GREAT ECHO CAVE.

311

assume that these people were familiar with the art of weaving,
and that it was here they worked at the loom, the drilled holes
supporting its posts. At 6, in this open space, are a number of
grooves worn into the rock in various places, caused by the
artificers of the little town in shaping and polishing their stone
implements. The main building comes next, occupying the
widest portion of the ledge, which gives an average width of ten

Great Echo Cave.

feet inside ; it is forty-eight feet long outside, and twelve high,
divided inside into three rooms, the first two thirteen and a half
feet each in length, and the third sixteen feet, divided into two
stories, the lower and upper five feet in height. The joist holes
did not penetrate through the walls, being inserted about six
inches, half the thickness. The beams rested upon the sloping
back-wallj which receded far enough to make the upper rooms

312 CASA DEL ^0.

about square. Window-like apertures afforded communication
between each room, all through the second story, excepting
that which opened out to the back of the cave. There was also
one window in each lower room, about twelve inches square,
looking out toward the open country, and in the upper rooms
several small apertures not more than three inches wide were
pierced through the wall, hardly more than peep-holes. The
walls of the large building continued back in an unbroken line
one hundred and thirty feet flirther, with an average height of
eight feet, and divided into eleven apartments, with communi-
cating apertures through all. The first room was nine and a
half feet wide, the others dwindling down gradually to only four
feet in width at the other extremity. The rooms were of unequal
length, the following being their inside measurements, com-
mencing from the outer end, viz. : 12. J, 9 J, 8, 7^, 9, 10, 8, 7, 7,
8, 31 feet; the ledge then runs along, gradually narrowing, fifty
feet farther, where another wall occurs across it, after which it
soon merges into the smooth wall of the cave. The first of these
rooms had an aperture leading outward large enough to crawl
through ; the wall around it had been broken away so that its
exact size could not be determined ; all the others, of which
there were about two to each room, were mere peep-holes,
about three inches in diameter, and generally pierced through
the wall -at a downward angle." The apartments were well
plastered, and in one or two places even the delicate lines
on the thumbs and fingers of the plasterers had been j)lainly
retained. At one point an entire hand had left its impress in
the cement.

All these marks indicated that the hands of these people
were much smaller than those of the explorers, and it is sup-
posed that they were those of women and children. A circular
hollow place, all begrimed and blackened by smoke, seemed to
indicate the locality of a common kitchen. The surroundings
of this little community of that ancient people indicated that
they were well-to-do, and were probably the lords of the neighbor-
ing country. From their home in this elevated gallery, under

CAVE-VILLAGE ON THE CHELLY.

313

nature's arching roof of rock, they were in a position to give
defiance to their enemies and enjoy the pursuit of their pastoral
occupations. This unique residence was named by the explorers
the Casa del Eco. Over the plateau westward, the remains of
this ancient people were numerous and of the same general
character as already described. The party after reaching the
Canon of the Chelly (the stream flowing, as already stated, into

y^/cj"

Cave-Village in the Valley of
THE Rio Chelly.

the San Juan from the south) found several circular caves averag-
ing about one hundred feet in diameter and containing the ruins
of old houses.

About five miles southward from the San Juan, and in a
valley of the Chelly, a cave -village of considerable extent was
discovered, perched upon a recessed bench about seventy feet
above the valley, and overhung by a solid wall of massive
sandstone, extending up over two hundred feet farther. Mr.

314 CAVE-VILLAGE ON THE CHELLY.

Jackson describes it in detail as follows : '^ The left-hand side
of the bench supporting the buildings sweeps back in a sharp
curve about eighty feet under the bluff, and then gradually
comes to the front again until, on the extreme right hand, the
buildings are built upon a mass of debris, but partially pro-
tected overhead. The total length over the solidly built por-
tion of the town is five hundred and forty-five feet, with a
greater width in no place of more than forty feet. There are
somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy-five rooms upon the
ground-plan, with some uncertainty existing as to many of the
subdivisions on the right ; but in the cave-built portion every
apartment was distinctly marked. Midway in the town is a
circular room of heavily and solidly built masonry, that was
probably meant for an estufa or council-hall ; that is, if we
can reasonably assume any similarity in the methods of build-
ing or worship to those of the pueblos of New Mexico. Start-
ing from this estufa is a narrow passage running back of the
line of houses on the left to a two-story group, where it ends
abruptly, further access being had through the back row of
rooms, or over the roofs of the lower front row, probably the
latter, for it is likely that these roofs served as a platform from
which to enter the rooms back of it. At the extreme end a
still higher ledge occurs, with the overhanging wall coming
down close over it, its outer edge enclosed by a wall, and a
little store-room in its farther corner ; it was reserved, prob-
ably, as an out-door working-room. All the buildings of this
half are of one story, with the exception of one group, the
residence probably of the chief or of some other important
family in the community. The rooms just back of it are the
store-rooms of the family, where the corn and squashes were
put away for the winter's consumption. Near these store-rooms,
there are two half-round enclosures of stone- work, that are
very likely .the remains of small reservoirs or springs. The
rock back of them is dug out beneath, and had, even in the
dry season, when we were there, a damp appearance, as though
water was not far removed, and might easily be coaxed to the
surface. The front line of wall of this left side of the town is

EPSOM CREEK AND THE SAN JUAN VALLEYS. 315

built upon a steep angle of smooth rock, with the interior of the
apartments filled up with earth so as to make their floors level,
bringing them a little below the passage way. In two or three
instances the front wall has given way, precipitating all but
the back wall to the bottom of the cliffs. Holes have been
drilled into the rock in a few places beneath the walls, evidently
to assist in retaining them in their places. The whole front
of this portion of the town is without an aperture, save very
small windows, and is perfectly inaccessible, both from the
solidity of the wall and the precipitous nature of the founda-
tion-rock beneath it. Admittance was probably gained from
near the circular building in the centre, by ladders or any other
well-guarded approach over the rocks."

Two miles down the Canon of the Chelly, below the mouth
of the fertile Canon Bonito Chiquito, the house figured on page
306 was found with its niched stairway cut in the face of the
rock. The house is tv/o-storied, twenty feet in height, the lower
story of which is eighteen by ten feet square, divided into two
rooms. A natural reservoir of water was found in the rock only
twenty rods distant. Eight miles up the Chelly they came to
the cave Pueblo, seen by Simpson and mentioned on page 293.
From this point it was but forty miles to the inhabited Moquis
town Tegua. The explorers after visiting that interesting place
returned northward again to the San Juan, reaching Epsom Creek,
a tributary of the same from the north, a short distance from
the mouth of the Chelly Canon. Among a number of remains
found in the Canon of Epsom Creek, one in particular is of
interest ; this was the remnant of a square tower, of most per-
fect masonry, built upon a point of rock entirely inaccessible to
the explorers.

A few miles farther up the Epsom Valley, the ruins of quite
a town were discovered. " It lay upon both sides of a small, dry
ravine, some twenty or thirty rods back from the bed of the
creek, and consisted of a main rectangular mass sixty by one
hundred feet, occupying quite an elevation, dominating all the
others. Just below it and close upon the edge of the ravine,
w^as a round tower, twenty-five feet in diameter ; and seventy-

316

ELEVATED TOWER ON EPSOM CREEK.

five below that, and also close to the ravine, was a square build-
ing, twenty-feet across, nearly obscured by a thicket of pinon-
trees, growing about it. On the opposite bank were two small

round towers, each fifteen
feet in diameter, with two
oblong structures between,
twelve by fifteen feet square;
at right angles to these
four, which were arranged
in a straight line, another
square building occurred,
the same size as the one
just opposite on the other
bank." The surroundings
of this ancient village are de-
scribed as truly picturesque
and the valley fertile, con-
trasting considerably with
the Chelly Canon. The ex-
ploring party followed the
Epsom to a point thirty miles above the San Juan, and in the
head canons between it and the Montezuma found themselves in
the midst of ruins which mark the former presence of a dense
population. No ruins were found near the Sierra Abajo nor in
the great basin lying between it and the Sierra La Sal. In the
deep canon of the Montezuma (fifteen hundred feet deep), cliff-
dwellings and other remains were found in great numbers.
Cave-shelters, with the orifice of the oval and circular crevices
in the rocks walled up with neat masonry and accessible by
means of niche-steps for the hands and feet, leading up the
perpendicular cliff to the little nest-like houses above, were
especially numerous. In one of these a skeleton was found, but
examination proved it to be that of a Navajo, and quite certainly
not that of one of the ancient residents. At different points
midway down the canon, narrow promontories jut out into the
valley a hundred yards or more, ranging from twenty to one
hundried feet in height. Within a distance of sixteen miles,

Elevated Tower on Epsom Creek.

DWELLINGS ON THE MONTEZUMA.

317

eighteen of these were observed, covered with ruins of massive
stone-built structures. They were rectangular in form, ranging
from one hundred by two hundred feet, down to thirty by forty
feet in size. We cannot devote further attention to the vast
number of ruins found by Mr. Jackson and party in the Monte-
zuma Valley, except to note the curious little house shown in
the cut.

Among a colony of these cave-dwellings, occurring at the first
bend of the West Montezuma, a dozen miles above its junction
with the east fork, this one commands attention as much for the
neatness and perfection of
its masonry as for the snug
little cave in which its
architect lodged it. A block
of sandstone resting on the
edge of the mesa bench fifty
feet above the valley, had a
deep oval hole worn in it by
the winds and sands. This
was occupied by the little
house, ten feet long, six feet
high and five feet deep ; a
space, however, was reserved
at one end to serve as a
platform from which to
enter.

In addition to the ex-
plorations of Mr. Jackson
and party, Mr. W. H.
Holmes of the Geological
and Geographical Survey,
was also assigned the duty of examining ancient remains in the
valley of the Upper San Juan, during the summer of 1875.^ ,

Cave-Dwelling in the Montezuma
Valley.

' See A JVotice of the Ancient Ruins of South-'uiestern Colorado, examined
during the summer of 1875, hy W. H. Holmes, in Bulletin of the Geological and
Geographical Survey of the Territories, vol. ii, No. 1. Washington, 1876.

318 EXPLORATIONS BY MR. HOLMES.

Mr. Holmes and party examined an area of nearly six thousand
square miles, chiefly in Colorado on the San Juan and its tribu-
taries. Most of the ruins met with were of the same general
character and description as those examined by Mr. Jackson, and
to repeat in detail the majority of descriptions contained in Mr.
Holmes' memoir, would be to weary the reader with repetitions
without affording additional advantage. However, a few remark-
able ruins described by Mr. Holmes command our attention.
The first of these which may be pronounced unique in this
section of the country, and quite unlike anything met with thus
far in the exploration, is situated on the Eio La Plata, about
twenty-five miles above its junction with the San Juan. The
remains of an extensive village with structures of various forms,
are scattered upon a terrace some twenty feet above the river-
bed. The distribution of the works viewed in connection with
plans upon which they were constructed are suggestive of the
remains of the mound-builders of the Ohio valley. The forms
are chiefly rectangular and circular, one or two seem to have
been elliptical while a number have consisted of irregular groups
of apartments. All now lie in ruins with their outlines marked
by ridges of debris composed of earth, water- worn pebbles, and
small fragments of sandstone. The walls of the main structure
are still prominently defined, while those of a circular enclosure,
used probably as an estufa, are standing to the height of four
feet. Three hundred feet directly north of this enclosure is a
truncated rectangular mound nine feet high, measuring fifty
by eighty feet. In one of the angles of the east end are the
remains of what may have been a tower rising above the plat-
form of the mound. One hundred feet north of this mound is a
rectangular enclosure measuring sixty by one hundred feet. Its
wall rano;es from four to six feet in heio:ht. The ruins of a wall
extending between the mound and the enclosure, indicate that
they were once connected. A system of works joined these to a
range of low hills, lying to the north. Southward from the
large central circle are earthworks and ruins covering an area
of fifteen thousand square feet. A large number of small circles
and mounds occupy the southern extremity of the terrace. It

CAVE-SHELTERS AND TOWERS OF THE SAN JUAN. 319

is impossible to account for the sudden change in the plan of
works so contiguous to those of a well-marked pueblo origin.
On the San Juan River, thirty-five miles below the mouth of
the La Plata and ten miles above the Mancos, Mr. Holmes ob-
served an interesting combination of cave-shelters and towers
united in a system for giving signals upon the approach of the
enemy. In the face of a vertical bluff thirty-five feet high and
about half way from the trail below, caves had been quarried or
weathered in considerable numbers in the shales which consti-
tute one of the strata in the bluff. A hard platform of rock
formed the floor, and afibrded sufficient protection for a narrow
platform in front of these openings. Immediately above these
caves upon the summit of the bluffs, a system of ruined circular
towers, enclosed by semicircular walls with the open side of the
semicircle facing the precipice, was observed. The caves were
accessible from the valley below only by means of ladders, and
the towers in turn only by ladders from the caves through the
open side of their semicircular enclosures. The walls of these
enclosures presented no openings to the plateau above, and it is
inferred that the towers which they enclosed served as outlooks
from which the sentinel could signal the people who were
engaged in tilling the valley below to flee to their cave-shelters
at the approach of the enemy, and when too closely pressed by
an enemy upon the plateau the sentinel himself could make his
retreat by means of his ladder to the caves beneath.

The most remarkable clifF-dwellings, discovered by Mr.
Holmes, are shown in the cut.

These extraordinary fortresses, lodged in caves eight hundred
fact above the level of the valley, are situated in the canon of the
Mancos, a few miles from its mouth. The first five hundred feet
of the ascent from the level of the stream, is over a rough clifi'-
broken slope, the remainder of massive sandstone, full of niches
and caves. The upper house is situated in a deep cavern with
overhanging roof about one hundred feet from the cliff's top.
The front wall of the house is built upon the very edge of the
giddy precipice. The larger house is lodged in a niche or cave
thirty feet below. The lower house was easily accessible. The

320

CAVE-DWELLINGS ON THE RIO MANGOS.

Cave-Fortresses of the Rio Mangos.

wall was built flush with the precipice and remained standing
to a height of fourteen feet at the highest point, though other
portions had crumbled away considerably. The house occupied
the entire floor of the niche, which measures sixty feet long by
fifteen feet wide. Mr. Holmes described these structures as fol-
lows ; of the first he says :

322 CAVE-DWELLINGS OF THE MANGOS.

" The arrangement of the apartments is quite complicated
and curious, and will be more readily understood by a refer-
ence to the ground-plan (figure 1). The precipice line or front
edge of the niche-floor, extends from a to h. From this the
broken cliffs and slopes reach down to the trail and river, as
shown in the accompanying profile (figure 3). The line bed
represents the deepest part of the recess, against which the walls
are built. To the right of h, the shelf ceases, and the vertical
face of rock is unbroken. At the left, beyond a, the edge is not
so abrupt, and the clifis below are so broken that one can ascend
with ease. Above, the roof comes forward and curves upward,
as seen in the profile.

" The most striking feature of this structure is the round-
room, which occurs about the middle of the ruin and inside
of a large rectangular apartment. - "^ * Its walls
are not high and not entirely regular, and the inside is curiously
fashioned with offsets and box-like projections. It is plastered
smoothly, and bears considerable evidence of having been used,
although I observed no traces of fire. The entrance to this
chamber is rather extraordinary, and further attests the peculiar
importance attached to it by the builders, and their evident
desire to secure it from all possibility of intrusion. A walled
and covered passage-way, /, /, of solid masonry, ten feet of
which is still intact, leads from an outer chamber through the
small intervening apartments into the circular one. It is possible
that this originally extended to the outer wall, and was entered
irom the outside. If so, the person desiring to visit the estufa
would have to enter an aperture about twenty-tw^o inches high
by thirty wide, and crawl, in the most abject manner possible,
through a tube-like passage-way nearly twenty-feet in length.
My first impression was that this peculiarly-constructed doorway
was a precaution against enemies, and that it was probably the
only means of entrance to the interior of the house ; but I am now
inclined to think this hardly probable, and conclude that it was
rather designed to render a sacred chamber as free as possible from
profane intrusion. The apartments I, k, m, n, do not require any
especial description, as they are quite plain and almost empty.

CAVE-DWELLINGS OF THE MANGOS. 323

The partition walls have never been built up to the ceiling
of the niche, and the inmates, in passing from one apartment to
another, have climbed over. The row of apertures indicated in
the main front wall are about five feet from the floor, and were
doubtless entered for the insertion of beams, although there is no
evidence that a second floor has at any time existed. In that
part of the ruin about the covered passage-way, the walls are
complicated, and the plan can hardly be made out, while the
curved wall enclosing the apartment e is totally overthrown.
* * * ^ The rock-face between this ruin and the one
above is smooth and vertical, but by passing along the ledge a
few yards to the left a sloping face was found, up which a stair-
way of small niches had been cut ; by means of these, an active
person, unincumbered, could ascend with safety. On reaching
the top, one finds himself in the very doorway of the upper
house (a, figure 2) without standing-room outside of the wall,
and one can imagine that an enemy would stand but little chance
of reaching and entering such a fortress if defended, even by
women and children alone. The position of this ruin is one of
unparalleled security, both from enemies and from the elements.
The almost vertical cliff" descends abruptly from the front wall,
and the immense arched roof of solid stone projects forward
fifteen or twenty feet beyond the house (see section, figure 3).
At the right the ledge ceases, and at the left stops short against
a massive vertical wall. The niche-stairway affords the only
possible means of approach.

" The house occupies the entire floor of the niche, which is
about one hundred and twenty feet long by ten in depth at the
deepest part. The front wall to the right and left of the door-
way is quite low, portions having doubtless fallen off. The
higher wall/^ is about thirty feet long, and from ten to twelve
feet high, while a very low rude wall extends along the more
inaccessible part of the ledge, and terminates at the extreme
right in a small enclosure, as seen in the plan at c.

" In the first apartment entered, there were evidences of fire,
the walls and ceiling being blackened with smoke. In the
second, a member of the party, by digging in the rubbish,

324 TRIPLE-WALLED TOWER ON THE McELMO.

obtained a quantity of beans, and in the third a number of
grains of corn ; hence the names given. There are two small
windows in the front wall, and doorways communicate between
rooms separated by high partitions.

" The walls of these houses are built in the usual manner,
and average about a foot in thickness.

" The upper house seems to be in a rather unfinished state,
looking as if stone and mortar had run short. And when one
considers that these materials must have been brought from far
below by means of ropes, or carried in small quantities up the
dangerous stairway, the only wonder is that it was ever brought
to its present degree of finish."

Triple-Walled Tower on the McElmo.

The ruins of a triple- walled tower with fourteen sectional
apartments between the outer and second walls were examined
near the McElmo. One of these sectional apartments was still
standing to the height of twelve feet.

We have already referred to the group of ruins at Aztec
Springs near the divide between the McElmo and the lower
Mancos tributaries. " These ruins," says Mr. Holmes, " form
the most imposing pile of masonry yet found in Colorado. The
whole group covers an area of about four hundred and eighty
thousand square feet, and has an average depth of from three to
four feet." The accompanying plan, with the measurements and

10}

zzllffF

IDDDDbf
PDDQr

11:0 by 200 :

326 CLIFF-DWELLER AND MOQUI POTTERY.

dimensions indicated upon it, precludes the necessity of a detailed
description.

The walls are twenty-six inches thick, and in some cases are
built double. The whole resembles in plan one of the ruined
pueblos of the Chaco, with the addition that it was designed to
be an impregnable fortress.

The plate from Mr. Jackson's memoir shows specimens of
pottery collected during his explorations among the cliff-dwell-
ings. The pieces a and h are of modern make, and were obtained
among the Moquis of Tegua. The ware and finish of both these
vessels are far inferior as compared with the ancient fragments.

We have quoted on a previous page Mr. IngersolFs rendering
of the romantic legend which tells in few words the sad his-
tory of the ancient architects of these aerial abodes. We have
observed that, according to this account, the remnant of this
people who escaped the destruction visited upon the cliff-dwellers
by the warlike Utes fled to the South — to the deserts of Arizona
— and built the present Moqui towns. We have already stated
that Mr. Jackson's party found it necessary to travel forty miles
due southward from the ruins of the Chaco Canon in order to
reach Tegua, the nearest of the Moqui settlements.

It may be a matter of some interest to the reader, after
having studied the cliff architecture, to be introduced into one
of the habitations now occupied by the descendants of that
remarkable people. Lieutenant Ives, who visited the Moqui
towns in 1858, has furnished an interesting account of their
general characteristics, from which we take condensed extracts :
" As the sun went down," says Lieutenant Ives, " and the con-
fused glare and mirage disappeared, I discovered with the spy-
glass two of the Moqui towns eight or ten miles distant, upon
the edge of a high bluff overhanging the opposite side of the
valley. They were built close to the edge of the precipice. The
outlines of the closely-packed structures looked in the distance
like the towers and battlements of a castle, and their command-
ing position enhanced the picturesque effect." "The face of
the bluff, on the summit of which the town was perched, was
cut up and irregular. We were led through a passage that

CLIFF-DWELLER AND MOQUI POTTERY.

327

wound among some low hillocks of sand and rock that extended
half-way to the top. It did not seem pos-
sible, while ascending through the sand-hills,
that a spring could be found in such a dry-
looking place ; but presently a crowd was
seen collecting upon a mound before a small
plateau, in the centre of which was a circular
reservoir fifty feet in diameter, lined with
masonry and filled with pure cold water
The basin was fed by a pipe connecting with
some source of supply upon the summit of
the mesa. Continuing to ascend, we came
to another reservoir, smaller, but of more
elaborate construction and finish. From this
the guide said they got their drinking water,

Cliff and Moqui Pottery.

328 INTERIOR OF A MOQUI DWELLING.

the other reservoir being intended for animals. Between the two
the face of the bluff had been ingeniously converted into terraces.
These were faced with neat masonry, and contained gardens, each
surrounded with a raised edge so as to retain water upon the sur-
face. Pipes from the reservoir permitted them at any time to be
irrigated. Peach trees were growing upon the terraces and in
the hollow below. A long flight of stone steps with sharp turns
that could be easily defended was built into the face of the
precipice, and led from the upper reservoir to the foot of the
town. The scene, rendered animated by the throngs of Indians
in their gayly-colored dresses, was one of the most remarkable I
had ever witnessed." " Without giving us time to admire the
scene, the Indians led us to a ladder planted against the centre
of the front face of the pueblo. The town is nearly square and
surrounded by a stone wall fifteen feet high, the top of which
forms a landing extending around the whole. Flights of stone
steps led from the first to a second landing, upon which the
doors of the houses open. Mounting the stairway opposite to
the ladder, the chief crossed to the nearest door and ushered us
into a low apartment, from which two or three others opened
towards the interior of the dwelling."" " The room was fifteen
feet by ten ; the walls were made of adobes ; the partitions of
substantial beams, the floor laid with clay. In one corner were
a fireplace and a chimney. Everything was clean and tidy.
Skins, bows and arrows, quivers, antlers, blankets, articles of
clothing and ornament, were hanging from the walls or arranged
upon shelves. Vases, flat dishes, and gourds filled with meal or
water, were standing along on one side of the room. At the
other end was a trough divided into compartments, in each of
which was a sloping stone slab two or three feet square, for
grinding corn upon. In a recess of an inner room was piled a
goodly store of corn in the ear. I noticed, among other things,
a reed musical instrument with a bell-shaped end like a clarionet
and a pair of painted drum-sticks tipped with gaudy feathers."

*^ We learned that there were seven towns ; that the name
of that which we were visiting was Mooshahneh. A second
smaller town was half a mile distant ; two miles distant was a

MOQUI, ONE OF THE SEVEN PUEBLOS.

329

MOQUI (WOLPI), ONE OF THE SeVEN PuEBLOS.

(From a photo taken by the U. S. exploring party in 1875.)

third. - * * Five or six miles to the north-east a bluff was
pointed out as the location of three others ; and we were informed
that the last of the seven, Oraybe, was still further distant on
the trail towards the great river."

'' Each pueblo is built around a rectangular court, in which
we suppose are the springs that furnish the supply to the reser-
voirs. The exterior walls, which are of stone, have no openings,

330 ORAYBE.

and would have to be scaled or battered down before access
could be gained to the interior. The successive stories are set
back one behind the other. The lower ones are reached through
trap-doors from the first landing. The houses are three rooms
deep, and open upon the interior court. The arrangement is as
strong and compact as well could be devised, but as the court is
common and the landings are separated by no partitions, it
involves a certain community of residence."

In describing the gardens of Oraybe, distant eight or nine
miles, he remarks :

" At the foot [of the bluff] was a reservoir and a broad road
winding up the steep ascent. On either side the bluffs were cut
into terraces, and laid out into gardens similar to those seen at
Mooshahneh, and like them irrigated from an upper reservoir.
The whole reflected great credit upon Moqui ingenuity and skill
in the department of engineering. The walls of the terraces
and reservoirs were of partly-dressed stone, well and strongly
built, and the irrigating pipes conveniently arranged. The little
gardens were neatly laid out. "^ * * The walls of the terraces
and the gardens themselves are kept in good order and preserva-
tion. The stone and earth for construction and repairs they
carry in blankets upon their shoulders from the valley below." ^

Mr. Bancroft has furnished the reader descriptions of several
of the New Mexican group of pueblos, which he has extracted
from the reports of various travelers. We do not consider it
necessary to repeat accounts so generally accessible.^ The New
Mexican group, situated on the Rio Grande del Norte and its
tributaries, is the most numerous in inhabited pueblos, but as
they differ little if at all from those of the Moquis, further
treatment of them is unnecessary. The pueblos which are and
have been inhabited during the nineteenth century number about
twenty, some of which are well known to have been occupied by
the ancestors of their present inhabitants when first visited by

' Ives' Colorado River of the West, pp. 119-26, with plates. The same
extract condensed into nearly the same form as above is given by Bancroft,
Natite Races, vol. iv, pp. 667-80.

2 Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 663 et seq , and the authors cited therein.

PECOS. 331

the Spaniards. The best specimen of inhabited pueblos is that
of Taos, situated on one of the northern forks of the river which
gives it its name. There are two large houses, each between
three and four hundred feet long by one hundred and fifty wide,
situated on opposite sides of a small creek, and tradition states
that formerly they were connected by a bridge. They are five
and six stories high.

Besides the inhabited towns there are a number now unoccu-
pied and fast going to decay. The names of these are given
with slight variations by difierent writers ; the following, how-
ever, are generally agreed upon : Pecos, Quivira, Valverda, San
Lazaro, San Marcos, San Cristobal, Socorro, Senacu, Abo,
Quarra, Kita, Poblazon, old San Filipe, and old Zuiii.^ The
most important of all these ruins is Pecos, one of the sacred
cities of the pueblos. Here the everlasting fire dedicated to their
god Montezuma was kept burning from time immemorial down
to the abandonment of the town, which occurred some time
during the second quarter of the present century. The reader
will remember, however, that the culture-god of the Pueblos
and the Aztec monarch are in no sense to be associated with
each other, since it is quite certain that they were not con-
founded in the mythology of the worshippers of the deity.
Whether the Pueblos, Clifi'-dwellers, etc., were ever in any way
related to the Aztecs or any Nahua people is difficult to deter-
mine. Certainly there is no architectural nor traditional evi-
dence that they were. When the Spaniards under Coronado
traversed the region in 1540 a. d., no reports of inter-com-
munication between the two peoples seem to have been current.
Father Escalante, who in 1776 visited many of the pueblos, and
mentions many ruins not since located, as well as many inhabited
towns now in ruins, found nothing to really substantiate the
" Aztec theory." ^ On the contrary, substantial arguments can

' Native Baces, vol. iv, p. 663, and Simpson's Journal Mil. Recon.y p. 114.

^ I have carefully examined Father Escalante's Diario in the MS. copy
deposited in the Congressional Library at Washington, but find nothing to
contradict the opinion of recent explorers. The reader will also see Dominguez
and Escalante's Diario y Derrotero Sante Fe d Monterey, 1776, in Doc. Hist.
Mex. Serie ii, tom. i.

332 MR. BECKER ON THE PUEBLOS.

be presented for the intimate relationship of the Nahuas and
some of the Pueblos.

In the tenth chapter of this work will be found the basis of
linguistic affinities between the Nahua and Moqui languages,
though none is claimed between the Nahua and New Mexican
Pueblos. Mr. Becker, in his memoir addressed to the Congres
des Americanistes at Luxembourg, refers to Camergo's account
of the migration of the Teo-Chichimecs, the allies of the Toltecs,
and to his statement that they came from Amaquttepic (" the
mountains of the Amaques "), and expresses the belief that the
words Amaques and Moquis are identical. Mr. Becker considers
the "A" prefix of the former to be an abbreviation of the Nahua
"atl" water, and Amaqui would mean the Maqui or Moqui
living by the water, just as Acolhuas means Culhuas near the
water and Anahuac, the Nahua land on the water. The tradition
of the Moquis distinctly states that they formerly lived on the
river at the north-east of their present home. The reader will
remember that the Quiches called the Nahuas Yaqui, the name
of a river of Sinaloa and Sonora where marked traces of the Nahua
language are found, and the supposed locality of the first Toltec
station. Is it not possible that Yaqui is a dialectic modification
of Maqui or Moqui ? It has been observed in the pages of this
chapter that in more than one instance ruined pueblos were com-
posed of either red adobe or had been painted, a circumstance
which had won for them such a designation as " Red-house "
or "Pueblo-pintado," etc. Furthermore, the red glare of the
desert north of the Moqui settlements has received the name of
the " Painted desert." The fact that Hue hue Tlapalan signifies
"old red land" is suggestive that this locality may have been
the mysterious rendezvous of the Toltecs. The Moquis like
the Nahuas are sun-worshippers, though the ceremonial of both
people difier considerably.

Besides the mound- works observed on the upper San Juan by
Mr. Holmes associated with the work of the Cliff-dwellers, recent
exploration has shown that combinations of mound and pueblo
features of architecture exist in Utah, Dr. C. C. Parry found in
a mound on the St. Clara River in Southern Utah very fine

THE CULTURE-HERO MONTEZUMA. 333

specimens of Pueblo pottery, and other articles which clearly
identify its architects with the people of the cliffs or with the
village builders at the South. ^ The recent exploration of several
mounds in southern Utah by Dr. Edward Palmer fully confirms
this conclusion. In Kane County, Utah, the same explorer dis-
covered among a number of articles of apparent Moqui make
in a cave-shelter, a shovel of horn having a blade fourteen inches
long by five inches wide. Among the articles was a pair of shoes
made of the fibre of the Yucca, which in style, shape, manner
of braiding, etc., closely resemble shoes made of the leaves of the
Typa found by Prof F. W. Putnam in a cave in Kentucky.^

The mound examined by Mr. Barrand on the west fork of
the Little Sioux of Dakota, and found to contain a large interior
circular chamber, probably was the work of the ancestors of this
western branch of the mound-building people.^ The circular
chamber was much like an estufa.

The many-sided culture-hero of the Pueblos, Montezuma,
is the centre of a group of the most poetic myths found in
Ancient American Mythology. The Pueblos believed in a
supreme being, a good spirit, so exalted and worthy of rever-
ence that his name was considered too sacred to mention, as,
with the ancient Hebrews, Jehovah's was the " unmentionable
name." Nevertheless Montezuma was the equal of this great
spirit, and was often considered identical with the sun. The
variety of aspects in which Montezuma is presented to us is due
to the fact that each tribe of Pueblos had its particular legends
concerning his birth and achievements. Many places in New
Mexico claim the honor of his nativity at a period long before
those village builders were acquainted with the arts of archi-
tecture, which have since given them their distinguishing name.
In fact, this culture-god was none other than the genius who
introduced the knowledge of building among them.^ Some tradi-

' Ninth Annual Report of Peabody Museum, p. 12. Cambridge, 1876.
- EleventJi Annual Report of Peabody Museum, Cambridge, 1878, pp. 198-
200, 267-80.

^ Smithsonian. Report for 1872, pp. 413 et seq.; and this work, chapter I.
^ The facts claimed in the following account are drawn from Bancroft's

334 THE CULTURE-HERO MONTEZUMA.

tions, however, make him the ancestor and even the creator of
the race ; others, its prophet, leader and lawgiver. Mr. Bancroft
says, " Under restrictions, we may fairly regard him as the Mel-
chizedek, the Moses, and the Messiah of these Pueblo-desert
wanderers from an Egypt that history is ignorant of, and whose
name even tradition whispers not. He taught his people how
to build cities with tall houses, to construct Estufas, or semi-
sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire."
It has been aptly remarked by Mr. Tyler, that Montezuma was
the great " somebody " of the tribe to whom the qualities and
achievements of every other were attributed.

Fremont gives an account of the birth of the hero, in which
his mother is declared to have been a woman of exquisite beauty,
admired and sought for by all men. She was the recipient of
rich presents of corn and skins from her admirers, yet she
refused the hands of all her suitors. A limine soon occurred,
and great distress followed. Now the fastidious beauty showed
herself to be a lady of charitable spirit and tender heart. She
opened her granaries, in which all her presents had been stored,
and out of their abundance relieved the wants of the poor. The
offerings of love were made to perform their mission a second
time. At last, when the pure and plenteous rains again brought
fertility to the earth, the summer shower fell upon the Pueblo
goddess, and she gave birth to a son, the immortal Montezuma.
The intelligent chief of the Papagoes, whose people occupy the
territory between the Santa Cruz River and the Gulf of California,
related a legend of the origin and offices of Montezuma, which,
while it surprises the reader with its close resemblances to some
leading points in the Hebrew and Chaldean genesis and deluge
accounts, still is conspicuous for its inconsistencies, and in its
closing statements for the absence of any knowledge of time or
order. ^

Native Races, vol. iii., pp. 171-74 and 75-7. Ward, in Ind. Aff. Report, 1864,
pp. 192-3. Brinton's Myths of the New World, p. 190. Ten Broeck in School-
craft's History and Condition of the Indian Tribes, vol. iv, p. 73, and Tyler's
Primitive Culture, vol. ii, p. 384.

' Davidson, in Ind. Af. Report, 1805, pp. 131-3, and Bancroft's Native
Races, vol. iii, pp. 75-77.

THE CULTURE-HERO MONTEZUMA. 335

In substance it is as follows : The Great Spirit, having
made all things — sky, earth, and the living creatures which in-
habit it — descended into the earth for the purpose of creating
man also. Digging in the earth, he found clay, such as a potter
uses ; this he carried back with him to his celestial abode, and
dropped it again from the sky into the pit from which he had
dug it. Instantly Montezuma, the genius of life, sprang from
the pit, and became a partner in the creation of other men.
The Apaches were the next formed, and were so wild that they
severally ran away as fast as created. Those were golden days
which followed the birth of the race ; the sun was very much
nearer the earth than now, and his grateful presence rendered
clothing useless. A common language between all men, shared
even by beasts, was one of the strongest possible bonds of peace.

But at last this paradisiacal age was ended by a great deluge
in which all men and living creatures perished. Only Mon-
tezuma and his friend, the coyote — a prairie-wolf— escaped.
This wonderful animal, with semi-divine attributes, plays a
remarkable part in the religion of many of the Pacific tribes,
and furnishes us a parallel in our Occidental mythology with the
half-human, half-brute combinations of Greco-Roman myth-
ology. The coyote, gifted with prophetic powers, had foretold
the approach of this great calamity, and Montezuma, heeding
the warning, had built him a boat, which he kept in readiness on
the summit of Santa Rosa. His sagacious friend, the coyote,
also escaped in an ark made from a gigantic cane which grew by
a river's side ; having gnawed it down and crawled into it, he
stopped up the ends with gum, and escaped. When the waters
subsided, the two met again on dry ground. Montezuma then ^
employed the coyote on several wearisome excursions in order to
discover the extent of the land, which developed the fact that
upon the east and south and west the water yet remained. Only
on the north was there land.

The Great Spirit and Montezuma again created men and
animals, and the former committed to his partner in the work
the duties of governing the new race. These were, however,
neglected by Montezuma, who became puffed up with pride, and

336 THE CULTURE-HERO MONTEZUMA.

permitted all manner of wickedness to prevail. The Great Spirit
remonstrated with him, even descending to the earth for the
purpose of moving his faithless and haughty vicegerent to
restore order, but with no avail. Then, returning to his abode
in heaven, he pushed the sun back to a remote part of the sky
as a punishment on the race. At this, Montezuma became
enraged, collected the tribes around him, and set about the con-
struction of a house which should reach heaven. The builders
had already completed several apartments, lined with gold and
silver and precious stones, and progressed to a point which
encouraged all to believe that their defiant purpose would be
accomplished, when the Great Spirit smote it to the earth amid
the crash of his thunder. Here the account becomes very con-
fused — a great leap is made from Montezuma the culture-hero
to Montezuma the emperor, and the two become confounded.

The legend states that upon the defeat of his rebellious
scheme, Montezuma still hardened his heart, and caused the
sacred images to be dragged through the streets for the derision
of the villagers ; the temples were desecrated, and defiance to
the Supreme declared. As a punishment, the Great Spirit
caused an insect to fly toward the east to an unknown land, to
bring the Spaniards, who utterly destroyed him.

The post-diluvian part of this story presents the hero in
quite another light than that generally accepted by most of the
Pueblo tribes, in which he is represented as having been the
very model of goodness and beneficence — the founder of their
cities, of which Acoma was the first and Pecos the second.
Before taking his departure from his people, he prophesied that
they should suffer from drought and from the oppressions of a
strange nation, but promised them to return as their deliverer.
He then planted a tree upside down, and bade them preserve the
sacred fire notwithstanding their misfortunes, until the tree fell,
at which time he would return with a white race, who would
destroy all their enemies and bring back the fertile showers.

It is said that this tree fell from its place as the American
army entered Santa Fe, in 1846. In the cramped, subterranean
estufa, the Pueblo fed the sacred fire burning in the basin of a

THE CULTURE-HERO MONTEZUMA. 337

small altar. It was a warrior's vigil, for by turns their heroes
descended into its suffocating atmosphere, thick with smoke, and
charged with carbonic acid, to wait often for two successive days
and nights without refreshment, often even until death relieved
the guard. ^

For generations these strange architects and faithful priests
have waited for the return of their god — looked for him to come
with the sun, and descend by the column of smoke which rose
from the sacred fire. As of old the Israelitish watcher upon
Mount Seir replied to the inquiry, "What of the night?"
" The morning cometh," so the Pueblo sentinel mounts the
house-top at Pecos, and gazes wistfully into the east for the
golden appearance, for the rapturous vision of his redeemer, for
Montezuma's return ; and, though no ray of light meets his
watching eye, his never-failing faith, with cruel deception,
replies, " The morning cometh." ~

' This feature of the legend is beautifully developed by Mr. Bancroft.

2 In this account of Montezuma I have used, with few variations, the same
language employed by me in treating the subject in an article entitled, " Culture-
Heroes of the Ancient Americans," published in Appleton's Journal for March,
1877, pp. 275-6.

Explorations among the Pueblos.— In the summer of 1879 the Smith-
sonian Institution undertook a thorough and extensive examination of the
Pueblo civilization of New Mexico and Arizona. Major Powell sent an expe-
dition to New Mexico in charge of Mr. James Stevenson, and a large collection
illustrative of the manners and customs of the Pueblos was made, Mr, F, H.
Cushino- was especially fortunate in obtaining minute information concerning
their traditions, rites, and ceremonies. The work of investigation is still in
progress, and at this writing (September, 1881) an expedition is in the field, A
full report will ultimately be published. During the latter half of the year
1880 Mr. Baudelier, the eminent Mexican scholar, visited Taos, and prepared a
paper on that interesting locality for the Archaeological Institute of Anierica,
under whose patronage his exploration was conducted. During a residence
of two months in the Pueblo of Cochiti, occupied by a branch of the Queres
tribe, Mr. Baudelier made a thorough study of the institutions of that interest-
ing people. See Second Ann. Report of Arch. Inst, of Arner.

CHAPTER VIII.

ANCIENT AMERICAN CIVILIZATION AND SUPPOSED OLD WORLD
ANALOGIES — ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE AND HIERO-
GLYPHICS.

Analogies, Real and Fancied — Maya Architecture— The American Pyramid
—The Palace of Palenque— The French Roof at Palenque— The Trefoil
Arch — Yucatanic Architecture — Uxmal — The Casa de Monjas — Kabah—
Casa Grande of Zayi — Quiche Architecture — Copan — Circus of Copan —
Description by Fuentes — Utatlan — Nahua Architecture — Remains in
Oajaca — Mitla — Grecques at Mitla — Remains in the State of Vera Cruz —
Cholula — Pyramid of Xochicalco — The Temple of Mexico — Teotihuacan
— Los Edificios of Quemeda — Maya and Nahua Architecture Compared —
Old World Analogies— Sculpture— Of the Mounds — At Palenque — At
Uxmal — At Chichen-Itza — On the Isla Mujeres — Of the Nahuas — Ancient
American Art and its Old World Analogies — Egyptian Tau at Palenque —
Serpent Sculpture — Nahua Symbolism probably Asiatic — Hieroglyphics
— Maya MSS. and Books — Landa's Alphabet — The Attempts at the Inter-
pretation of Maya MSS. by Bollaert, Charencey, and Rosny — Rosny's Clas-
sification of the Hieroglyphics — Hopes that a Key has been Discovered —
The Mexican Picture-writing — Aztec Migration Maps.

"TTTITHOUT pretending to furnish an exhaustive treatment
VV of the subject proposed for this chapter, we desire to make
observations on some phases of the development of American
civilization in the Pre-Historic period. One of the most natural
fruits of the study of the arts and customs of any people, is a
disposition on the part of the investigator to institute a com-
parison with corresponding features of civilization in all parts
of the world. Unfortunately this disposition has led many
writers on America into wild and fanciful speculations, which
tend only to deceive the reader and add nothing to true investi-
gation. In a few instances pronounced old world analogies have

ANALOGIES REAL AND FANCIED. 339

been proven to exist in ancient American institutions and arts,
but their number bears a small ratio to the multitude of fancied
analogies which never existed, except in the imaginations of
their discoverers. To discuss the subject in hand without tran-
scending the limits of the period which is treated in previous
chapters, namely, the Primitive period — that which antedates
the era of the annals of those ancient peoples, is a somewhat
difficult task, since the question of dates is a very uncertain one
in the absence of any sufficient key to the hieroglyphic and
picture records. The customs and political organization, to-
gether with the Aztec civilization, have been often treated, and
by none better than our own Prescott and Bancroft. The
repetition of their labors here would be highly superfluous. We
shall, however, ask the attention of the reader to some considera-
tions upon the following divisions of the subject :

1. Architecture. 2. Sculpture and Hieroglyphics.
3. Chronological and Astronomical Knowledge. 4. Re-
ligious Analogies.

Architecture. — The works of the Mound-builders and Pueblos
have already been described and their transitional forms or stages
noted. To seek for parallelisms or analogies between the Mound-
builders and the people of Asia because mounds are common
to both continents, or to seek to identify them with the people
of Northern Europe because the shell-heaps of our sea-board
resemble those of Denmark, would certainly be an unjustifiable
use of the imagination, in anything like a serious discussion of
the question. We have no disposition to speculate on this sub-
ject, since such speculation cannot furnish any satisfactory
results. Certain resemblances between American and Hindoo-
mounds have been supposed to exist, but the resemblance, if any,
proves nothing.^ That more fruitful and wonderful field of
ancient architecture in Central America, Yucatan and Mexico,
furnishes abundant opportunity for the discussion of our subject.
Detailed descriptions of the remains found in different localities

' Hindoo Mounds, see Squier's observations on Dr. Westerman in Am.
Ethnol. Soc. Trans., April, 1851 ; and Atwater, in Am. Ethnol. 80c. Trans.,
vol. i, pp. 196-267.

340 MAYA ARCHITECTURE— PALENQUE.

have been given by travelers, artists and authors, the latter
availing themselves of several accounts and instituting com-
parisons between the statements of different explorers. Such
works, savoring somewhat of the critical, cannot be under-
rated, since their development of the true facts has contrib-
uted largely to our knowledge of the subject. It has been
generally the rule for writers to undertake the description
of remains in a particular locality and treat them in detail,
thus presenting to the mind a pleasant picture of the whole,
together with the relation of parts. This is certainly a satis-
factory plan to many readers, but it seems to us that such a
course is unnecessary, after it has been once pursued by the
explorer. By repetitions nothing is gained, unless the work of
classification (by which certain architectural forms and methods
are woven into a style and their variations noted) receives atten-
tion. In preceding chapters we have treated of the Maya, the
Quiche, and the Nahua peoples, and in this, it is our purpose to
briefly note the main features of their styles of architecture,
sculpture, etc., as indicated in the divisions above laid down.

Maya Architecture furnishes evidence of growth, and may
be classified into the Chiapan or ancient and the Yucatanic or
modified styles. The Chiapan or ancient style is exhibited in
the imposing remains of Palenque, with which the reader is
supposed to be already familiar, from the descriptions of several
explorers.^ Palenque is situated in the Usumacinta River region
in Chiapas, on a small stream sometimes called the Otolum, a
tributary of the Tulija, which is itself a branch of the Usuma-
cinta. The ruins are situated in a small valley of the foot-hills,
from which rise the high table-lands of the interior. They are
known as the Palace, with a pyramidal base measuring two
hundred and sixty by three hundred and ten feet and forty feet
high ; Temple of the three Tablets ; Temple of the Beau
Relief; Temple of the Cross, and Temple of the Sun. The

* Chief among whom are Dupaix, in 'Kmg^ooroMgla's Mexican Antiquities \
Waldeck (exploration performed in 1833-3), Pub. 1866 fol.; Stevens and Cather-
wood in 1840 : M. Morelet in 1846, and Charney in 1858 ; for best bibliographical
treatment, see Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 289-294, note.

THE AMERICAN PYRAMID. 341

most conspicuous feature of the architecture employed, and seen
in most of the Central American structures, is the massive
pyramidal foundation The sides of the pyramid of the Pa-
lenquo palace are faced with regular blocks of hewn stone, with
extensive flights of stairs, upon the east and north leading to
its summit.^ Mr. Bancroft has analyzed the structure of the
American pyramid in a philosophical way, and no doubt has in
part explained its object. " I think," he remarks, " that per-
haps with a view to raise this place or temple above the waters
of the stream, four thick walls, possibly more, were built up
perpendicularly from the ground to the desired height ; then,
after the completion of the walls, to strengthen them, or during
the progress of the work to facilitate the raising of the stones,

Mode of Constructing Pyramid.

the interior was filled with earth, and the exterior graded with
the same material, the whole being subsequently faced with hewn
stone." '^

In the above cut Mr. Bancroft illustrates his opinion.
Stephens and Waldeck, who excavated from the summit down-
wards, imply that the interior D is of earth. Twenty years later
Charnay found a perpendicular wall on the eastern side, quite
contrary to the observations of all previous travelers. Mr. Ban-
croft accounts for this on the supposition that the stone facing,
loosened by the growth of trees which covered it, had fallen from
B to F, and that the earth which filled the sides at E E had
been washed away by the rain and left the perpendicular wall

' Stepliens, vol. ii, p. 310; Waldeck's Palenque, p. 2, and Brassenr in Tbid^
p. 17 ; Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 300.
2 Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 300-1.

342

THE PALACE OF PALENQUE.

exposed at B. Such a supposition we consider to be perfectly
probable in view of the rapid dilapidation of the ruins since
Dupaix's visit in 1806. The ancient model thus established in
the construction of this, perhaps oldest of existing American
cities, may have determined the style of many similar edifices.
A plan of the palace has been furnished by several authors.^ The
accompanying restoration from Armin's Das Heutige Mexiko^

The Palace Restored.

employed by Mr. Bancroft, may serve to give an idea of the
proportions of the structure. The edifice occupies the entire
summit platform of the pyramid except a narrow passage-way
around the edge, and measures 228 feet by 182, and about 30
feet in height. The doorways, of which there are forty in the
outer wall, are wider than the piers intervening between them,
and were constructed originally with flat wooden lintels, all of
which have disappeared. The main architectural features will

• Waldecb's Palenque, pi. vii. See also Stephens, vol. ii, p. 310 ; Dupaix.
pi. xi.; Kingsborough, vol. iv, pi. xiii ; Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 307.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AT PALENQUE.

343

be observed in the accompanying plate from Waldeck. The
lower right-hand figure shows the angle of the foundations of
one of the interior buildings and the manner in which the stones
were laid. The left-hand figure afibrds a sectional view of the
eastern stairway descending from the principal corridor into the
grand court. It will be observed that the height of the steps

Architectural Features at Palenqub.

considerably exceeds their width. Waldeck illustrates this sin-
gular disproportion by a diagram in which a native is represented
as sitting upon the stairway. The perpendicular face of a step
is shown to be considerably higher than the Indian's knee, and
must have measured two feet. The upper left-hand figures
represent the forms of niches, which are of frequent occurrence.
The T shaped niche is the representative of a numerous class
so resembling the Egyptian tau or cross as to excite no little
interest in its origin. M. Waldeck found the marks of lamp-
black upon the tops of some of them, and supposes them to have

344 PALENQUE ROOFS.

held torches which illuminated the corridors ; others, which
extend through the walls, may have served for the purposes of
ventilation ; while others perhaps contained idols.^ The right-
hand upper figures represent the highly artistic double cornices
employed. Nothing of a definite nature is known of the style of
roof with which the palace was covered, since every vestige of it
has disappeared. Castaiieda represents it as sloping and plas-
tered, while Dupaix refers to it as consisting of large stone flags,
carefully joined together.^

The neighboring buildings, such as the Temple of the Three
Tablets, the Temple of the Cross, and the Temple of the Sun,
each have well-preserved roofs of masonry, which are quite
remarkable. The first of these stands upon its lofty pyramidal
base, measuring one hundred and ten feet on the slope, with
continuous steps on all sides. The temple, which is thirty-five
feet high, is crowned with a sloping ornamental roof of great
beauty. Stephens illustrated the temple in several views, sub-
sequently copied by Bancroft.^ The roof is divided into three
parts ; the lower section recedes from the cornice with a gentle
slope, and resembles the corresponding section of a French or
Mansard roof. The stucco decorations of this lower section,
which is also painted, add considerably to the general efiect.
Five solid square projections with perpendicular faces suggestive
of the attic windows of a modem French roof are found on this
section, corresponding to the several doors of the temple imme-
diately below. The second section, which slopes back at a more
acute angle, is of solid masonry. The crowning section seems to
have been purely ornamental, consisting of a line of pillars of
stone and mortar, eighteen inches high and twelve inches apart,
surmounted by a layer of flat stones with projecting sides. The
Temple of the Cross and Temple of the Sun both have roof-
structures which may be described as resembling a lattice-work
of stone.

The most interesting feature of Palenque architecture is

' Hid., Native Races, vol. iv, p. 312. ^ Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 303.

8 Stephens, vol. ii, pp. 339-43, and Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 323-27.

THE PALENQUE ARCH.

345

the arch, of which there are two styles, if one of them may-
be classed as an arch at all ; of this we have doubts. The
style to which we aUude is that which has been designated as
the Yucatan arch. A section of the double corridor of the
palace lurnishes an example as shown in the cut from Mr. Ban-
croft's work.

This so-called arch is nothing more than the approach of
two walls toward each other in straight lines, nearly forming an
acute angle at the top. These inclining walls are constructed

of overlapping stones, with
a small surface of exposed
ceiling, produced by a lin-
tel-like covering. The prin-
cipal doorway, which is
eighteen feet high, is con-
structed in the form of a
trefoil arch, while niches
or depressions of the same
trefoil form are ranged
along the inclined face of
the gallery on each side of
the entrance. This arch
is suggestive of the Moorish pattern, though the latter probably
is the more modern. The accompanying cut — a photographic
reduction from Waldeck— will convey a clear idea of its form.

The tower situated in the southern court is considered by
Waldeck as the crowning work of all. The frontispiece is a
photographic reduction from Waldeck's drawing, and no doubt
indicates the true number of its stories, as well as the remarkable
growth of vegetation upon its roof. The descent of the little
roots and tendrils of the trees above in quest of nourishment,
furnish a striking illustration of the luxuriant vegetable growth
which pervades the region. The very air is laden with life,
though the remains of man's handicraft and power are but the
lifeless monuments of his vanished glory. The gentle evening
breeze which plays upon the tendrils stretching themselves down
the tower's wall, produces a soft melodious sound, resembling

Section of Palace Corridor.

346

THE TREFOIL ARCH, PALENQUE.

that of the ^olian harp, and gives rise to the apprehension in
the minds of the natives that the place is enchanted.^

^//oro.^/y*r£ Co ^ ,y

Trefoil Arch, Palenque.

The second division of Maya architecture, namely, the Yuca-
tan or modified style, presents some variations from the ancient

^ On the tower, see Waldeck's Palenque, p. iii, pi. xviii, xix. Morel et's
Voyage, torn, i, p. 266. Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 315, and Brasseur de Bourbourg.
Hut. Nat. Civ., torn, i, pp. 86-7.

CASA DEL GOBERNADOR, UXMAL. 347

or Chiapan. Probably tbe most remarkable group of ruins in
that richest of American architectural fields — Yucatan — is
situated at Uxmal, in Lat. 20° 27' 30", thirty-five miles south
of Merida. The reader is of course acquainted with the detail
of the survey of this remarkable city of antiquity through the
work of Stephens and Catherwood.^ These indefatigable ex-
plorers examined about forty ruined cities, nearly all of which
were previously unknown to others than the natives, and many
of them were unknown at Merida, the capital of the country.
While these travelers are pre-eminently the explorers of Yuca-
tan, there are others whose services have been of great value in
the same field.^

Mr. Bancroft has divided tbe architectural remains in Yuca-
tan into four groups, classifying them geographically. We
do not consider it necessary to follow such a course, nor enter
into the detailed description of any group, but will content
ourselves by simply noting any variations from the Palenque
models. At Uxmal our attention is at once arrested by the
irregular pyramidal base of the building known as the Casa
del Gobernador. The base of the pyramid is a figure of an
irregular rectangular form. The northern and eastern sides of
the base are equal, and measure about six hundred feet each ;
the southern and western are, however, irregular. As all the
angles are right angles, and two contiguous sides are equal, it
will be, understood that the figure of the base would have been
a square, but for the irregularity of the remaining two sides.
These irregularities fall within the figure of the square. The
pyramid is terraced, the first promenade when observed being
but three feet from the ground. The second terrace rises from

' Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. New York (1st ed. 1843, and
others subsequently).

2 Waldeck, Voyage Pittoresque et Archeologique dans la Province d* Yucatan,
Paris, 1838, large fol., 22 illustrations. Norman, RamUes in Yucatan, New
York, 1843, 8vo, illustrated. Baron von Friederichstal, Les Monuments de
I' Yucatan, in Nouvelles Annates des Voyages, 1841, torn, xcii, pp. 297, 314.
Charnay, Cites et Ruines Americaines, Paris, 1863, large folio. Of many general
notices made up from these sources we consider Bancroft's as the most critical
and satisfactory. His note on the bibliography of the subject is also of interest.

348

CASA DEL GOBERNADOR, UXMAL.

this to a height of twenty feet, and supports a platform with
sides 545 feet in length. A trifle west of the centre of this
platform rises the third terrace, nineteen feet high, and sup-
porting the summit platform, measuring about iOO by 360 feet,

Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal.

with an elevation above the ground of upwards of forty feet. ^
The pyramid is composed of fragments of limestone thrown
together, but with the terraces substantially faced with walls
of regular and smoothly-hewn limestone-blocks, laid in mortar

' We have followed the measurements of Stephens ; seeming to us most
accurate. (See Yucatan, vol. i, p. 165 et seq.) Norman, Charnay and Waldeck
all differ in their measurements. Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 154-5 has given a good
condensation of the description.

UXMAL ARCHES. 349

which has become intensely hard. The corners of the pyramid
differ from those usually met with in that they are rounded.
The terrace walls incline slightly toward the centre of the pyra-
mid. The second platform was reached by a long inclined plain
on the south side one hundred feet wide. A regular stairway
with thirty-five steps, and one hundred and thirty feet wide,
furnished the means of ascent from the second platform to the
summit. The crowning feature of the structure is the Casa del
Gobernador, a characteristic Yucatan building, measuring three
hundred and twenty-two feet long but only thirty-nine feet wide.
The Casa is surrounded by a promenade thirty feet wide, and
in its interior contains two parallel rows of apartments (a plan
of which is given by Mr. Stephens).^ A sectional view of the
Casa resembles the sectional view of the palace corridors at
Palenque, except that in the arches conspicuous in the latter,
the irregularities produced by the square overlapping stones
(which are filled up to an even surface by mortar and plastering),
are avoided in Yucatan, by the overlapping stones of the arch
being dressed carefully to the angle of inclination of the wall
or ceiling, thus presenting a smooth surface. The roof is formed
by filling in the space between the tops of the arches and between
the arches and the outer walls with stone, up to the desired
level ; after which a perfectly flat covering of well-cut stones
is laid over the whole, having a neat though small projecting
cornice, as will be observed in the accompanying cut from Ban-
croft's work. The rear wall is about nine feet thick and perfectly
solid. The comparative modernness of the building may be real-
ized when we state that Mr. Stephens found the top of each
doorway supported by a heavy beam of zapote-wood. One of
these, which was elaborately and beautifully carved, and meas-
uring ten feet long and ten by twenty inches wide, he brought
to New York, where, unfortunately, it was destroyed by fire with
the remainder of his collection. It is presumed that the zapote-
wood was prized for its rarity, as it is not found at present

' Yucatan, vol. i, p. 175. Reproduced in Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 156, and Bald-
win, Anc. America, p. 132.

350

SECTION OF CAS A DEL GOBERNADOR.

near Uxmal. Inside of and above the doors of the Casa were
stone rings, which occur frequently in Yncatec structures, and
are supposed to have supported curtains for closing the doorw^ays.
Stephens presents in a cut (page 347) a view of the imposiug
and elegant front looking toward the south.^

Of the several Uxmal edifices, one especially demands atten-
tion as representing the highest state of ancient architecture and
sculpture in America. This is known as the Casa de Monjas, or

Section of Casa del Gobernador.

Nunnery, and is situated nearly three hundred yards north of
the Casa del Gobernador, on a pyramid with three terraces, and
measuring three hundred and fifty feet square at its base. On
the summit platform, only nineteen feet above the level of the
ground, stand four of the characteristic Yucatan buildings upon
four sides of a nearly square court. The northern building does
not stand quite parallel to the building on the opposite side of
the court. The plan from Stephens will present clearly the
arrangement of the apartments, in which it will be observed
that of the eighty-eight rooms contained in the Casa de Monjas,
not more than two apartments open into each other, except in

' Yucatan, vol. i, p. 174 Reproduced by Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 160, and Bald-
win, Anc. America, p. 132.

GROUND PLAN OF THE NUNNERY.

351

one instance, which occurs in the eastern front.^ The court
formed by these long narrow edifices measures 258 by 214 feet,
and according to M. Waldeck was paved with 43,660 blocks of

Ground Plan of the Nunnery.

stone six inches square. In the centre stood the fragments of a
rude column similar to others observed in the Casa del Gober-
nador.^

A cut of one of the beautifully sculptured fa9ades of the Casa

' Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i, p. 301. Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 176-7. Bald-
win's Anc. America, p. 136.

^ Waldeck reports that a turtle was sculptured upon each of the blocks of
the pavement. See Voy. Pitt., pi. xii, where four are figured. Stephens, how-
ever, found no traces of them. See Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 175.

352 KABAH.

de Monjas will be found on a future page. Near the Casa de
Monjas stands the pyramid and edifice generally known as the
Casa del Adivino or Prophet's house, and named by M. Waldeck
the Pyramid de Kingsborough. The pyramid rises to a height of
80 feet from a base of 155 by 235 feet. The corners are rounded,
and the sides, which are carefully faced with cubical blocks of
stone, rise so steep that the ascent and descent by the grand
stairway on the eastern face is giddy and dangerous. The stair-
way measuring one hundred and two feet on the slope is inclined
at an angle of eighty degrees.^

About a dozen miles south-eastward from Uxmal are the
remains of the ancient city known as Kabah, wliere ruins quite
similar and nearly as extensive as those already described are
found. However, new architectural features here meet the ob-
server. In one instance the structure which surmounts a terraced
pyramid is square, instead of long and narrow as at Uxmal.
The inner rooms of the edifice have floors two feet higher than
the floors of the outer rooms, and are entered by two stone steps.
In one instance these were cut from a single block with the lower
step in the form of a scroll. At Kabah we meet with an entirely
new feature in Maya architecture, and the reader's acquaintance
with the terraced casas, of the New Mexican region, will supply
the lack of an illustration at this point. In the style of building
referred to, the pyramid instead of serving as a foundation for
the building, serves as a central support around which the house
with its receding stories, one above another, is built. The first
story of the building referred to is built upon the ground, with the
perpendicular sides of a mound for its rear wall. Just above, on
a level with the roof of the first story on the platform of the first
terrace of the mound, stands the second story, with the roof of the
first serving as a promenade in front of it, while the third story
rests upon the second platform of the mound The platforms or
roofs of the first and second stories are reached by means of a stone

' Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i, p. 313. Waldeck's Yoy. Pitt., pp. 95-6, pi. ix,
X, xi. Stephens' Gent. Amer., vol. ii, pp. 425 et seq. Charnay's Ruines Americ,
pp. 70 et seq. Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 192 et seq.

"ELEPHANT TRUNK." 353

stairway supported upon a half arch. The first story is acces-
sible from the ground by doorways. The interior apartments
are constructed on the model of the Yucatec arch. Here,
however, lintels of stone are met with, supported in the centre
by rude stone columns surmounted by square capitals. These
buildings are of large proportions, equalling any we have thus
far described. The decorations of the edifices were considered
by Mr. Stephens equal to those of any known era, even when
tried by the severest rules of art.^ At Zayi, one of the finest
illustrations of this style of architecture is to be seen in what is
known as the Casa Grande. The dimensions of the Casa Grande
are as follows : lower story, 120 by 265 feet ; the second story,
60 by 220 feet ; and the third, resting on the summit platform
of the mound, 18 by 150 feet ; a stairway thirty-two feet wide
furnishes a means of ascent to the third story on the front, while
a narrow stairway leads to the second story at the rear. Round
columns both in doorways and the fa§ade constitute the chief
variation from the styles already observed. An "elephant trunk"
ornament protruding from the cornice (also found on Casa del
Gobemador and the Casa de Monjas at Uxmal) is a marked
feature of decoration. It is unnecessary for us to say that its
presence has given rise to much speculation as to its origin. M.
Waldeck has given the figure the name which we have applied
to it, and perhaps with some reason.^

At Labna ruins of a curious and extraordinary nature exist,
though far gone in decay. The accompanying cut, employed in
Stephens', Baldwin's and Bancroft's works, will serve to show
the extravagant decoration lavished upon the cornices of the
edifices. At Chichen-Itza, the so-called "Nunnery" is sup-
ported by a solid mass of masonry, with perpendicular walls.

* Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i, p. 397, view of Kabah edifice. See a sectional
view in Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 207.

' D'abord j'ai ete frappe de la ressemblance qu'oflfrent ces etranges fig'ures
des edifices mayas avec la tete de I'elephant. Cet appendice, place entre deux
yeux et depassant la bouche de presque toute la longueur, m'a semble ne
pouvoir §tre autre chose que I'image de la trompe d'un proboscidien, car le
museau charnu et saillant du tapir n'est pas de cette longueur. — Waldeck,
Voy. Pitt., p. 74, pi. xiv, xv. Also Humboldt, Vues, ed.1810, p. 93.
23

354

RUINS AT LABNl.

Corner at Labna.

CIRCULAR STRUCTURES AT MAYAPAN. 355

The dimensions of this base are one hundred and twelve by-
one hundred and sixty feet and forty-two feet high. This was
crowned by a building having two receding stories. The great
pyramid of Chichen is celebrated for the solid stone balustrade
which guards its northern stairway of ninety steps, forty-four
feet wide. These balustrades terminate in colossal serpent
heads, ten feet long.^ Both at Chichen and at Mayapan circular
structures are met with and are figured by Stephens.^ The
same author has described the rectangular watch-towers of
Tuloom, which rise majestically amid the extensive ruins of the
ancient city of the same name, situated upon the eastern coast in
latitude 20° 10'. At Tuloom, Mr. Stephens (its only describer),
found the first walled city in Yucatan. He believes it to have
been occupied long after the conquest, and probably was one of
the cities whose many towers met the gaze of the wondering
Spaniards, who beheld them as they coasted along the shore.^

Quiche Architecture. — The propriety of classifying the great
ruins of Honduras and Guatemala as Quiche in their origin and
style, may be questioned by some of our readers. It must be
admitted that great contrasts in style are found in this region,
which was occupied by the powerful kingdom of the Quiches
and Cakchiquels, at the time of the conquest. However, it is
probable that the ancient Quiches (who, as we have already
seen, at an early day developed a religion and literature), were
the authors of the more ancient cities, like Copan and Quirigua.
The Quiche-Cakchiquels of more modern times were quite
another people, whose institutions, language, and no doubt their
architecture, had been largely influenced by Nahua people from
the Mexican plateau. Utatlan, the magnificent capital of this
modern and mixed people, was in the height of its glory just
before the blighting power of the conquerors laid it in ruins.
As ours is not an attempt at the history of discovery, we omit
entirely that interesting feature in the treatment of antiquities,

■ Stephens' Yucatan, vol. ii, pp. 311-17 ; Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 320-36, with
plans and cuts from Stephens' and Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 140.
^ Yucatan, vol. i, pp. 130-9 ; Baldwin, Anc. Amer., p. 129.
' Stephens' Yucatan, vol. ii, pp. 387 et seq.; Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 254-9.

356 QUICH^ ARCHITECTURE.

and call attention at once to the features conspicuous in Quiche
architecture. The ancient city known as Copan, on the eastern
bank of a river of the same name, in latitude 14° 45' and longi-
tude 90 ° 52 ' in Honduras, and four leagues from the Guatemala
line, is interesting in furnishing material for study in this de-
partment. It is probably the most ancient city on the continent.
Copan no doubt could successfully contend with Palenque for
the palm of antiquity. It is again to the indefatigable Stephens
and the skillful Catherwood that we are most indebted for
our knowledge of these ruins. ^ The period of the abandon-
ment of Copan is a question with reference to which we possess
too few data to render an intelligent decision concerning it.
Following the example of Stephens and Bancroft, we first intro-
duce the account of Fuentes contained in Juarros.^ "In the
year 1700, the great circus of Copan still remained entire.
This was a circular space, surrounded by stone pyramids about

1 The original accounts furnislied by actual explorers of Copan are as fol-
lows : 1st, by the Licenciado Diego Garcia de Palacio, who prepared an
account of his duties and their performance, for the king, Felipe II of Spain,
dated March 8, 1576, and preserved in the Munoz collection of MSS. The ac-
count has been published several times, at least once in the United States, in
Palacio, Carta Dirijida al Rey, Albany, 1860, and translated into English by
E. G. Squier ; 2d, an account by Fuentes y Guzman, in a MS. dated 1689.
However, so much as related to Copan was published in 1808 in Juarros,
Compendio de la Hist, de la Ciudad de Guatemala, trans, in English in 1823 ;
3d, by Col. Juan Galindo, an officer in Central American service (explorations
made in 1835), published communication in Am. Antiq. Soc. Trans., vol. ii,
pp. 545-50, and in Antiq. Mex., torn, i, div. ii, pp. 73, 76 ; 4th, Stephens and
Catherwood in 1839, published in Incidents and Travels in Central America,
vol. i, pp. 95-160. New York, 1841.

The ruins have been visited by two or three persons since described by
Stephens, but the public has not enjoyed the benefit of their researches, as we
believe nothing has since been published on Copan. Brasseur de Bourbourg,
who visited the ruins in 1863 and 1866, testifies to the perfect accuracy of the
descriptions and plates in Stephens' and Catherwood's work. A considerable
number of notices of Copan have been made up by difierent writers from these
sources. The latest and best of such notices is that by Mr. Bancroft, Native
Races, vol. iv, pp. 77-105, from whose bibliographical note we have drawn
somewhat for the above facts.

* Juarros, Hist. Gnat., pp. 56-7; Stephens' Central America, vol. 1, p. 144,
and Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 82-3.

CIRCUS OF COPAN— FUENTES' ACCOUNT. 357

six yards high and very well constructed ; at the base of these
pyramids were figures, both male and female, of very excellent
sculpture, which then retained the colors they had been enam-
eled with ; and what was not less remarkable, the whole of
them were habited in the Castilian costume. In the middle
of this area, elevated above a flight of steps, was the place of
sacrifice. The same author (Fuentes) relates that, a short dis-
tance from the circus, there was a portal constructed of stone,
on the columns of which were the figures of men, likewise
represented in Spanish habits, with hose, rufi" round the neck,
sword, cap, and short cloak. On entering the gateway there are
two fine stone pyramids, moderately large and lofty, from which
is suspended a hammock that contains two human figures, one
of each sex, clothed in the Indian style. Astonishment is forci-
bly excited in viewing this structure, because, large as it is, there
is no appearance of the component parts being joined together ;
and although entirely of stone and of an enormous weight, it
may be put in motion by the slightest impulse of the hand. Not
far from this hammock is the cave of Tibulca ; this appears like
a temple of great size hollowed out of the base of a hill, and
adorned with columns having bases, pedestals, capitals and
crowns, all accurately adjusted according to architectural prin-
ciples ; at the sides are numerous windows faced with stone
exquisitely wrought. All these circumstances lead to a belief
that there must have been some intercourse between the in-
habitants of the old and new world at very remote periods."
The swinging stone hammock is probably a work of the fancy
rather than that of the artistes hand, though the padre at
Gualan told Stephens that he had seen it, and an Indian remem-
bered to have heard his grandfather speak of it. None of these
remarkable remains have been identified with certainty, though
it is not improbable that they might be discovered if the heavy
growth of vegetation were removed by a conflagration and ex-
plorers to extend their observations farther from the banks of
the Rio Copan. According to Stephens' survey, a wall encloses
a rectangular area measuring about nine hundred by sixteen
hundred feet. The principal group of buildings is designated

358 STEPHENS' SURVEY.

as the temple. It is built of heavy blocks of cut stone, with
walls of about twenty-five feet in thickness, and when examined
they were between sixty and ninety feet high on the river's
bank. The temple measured six hundred and twenty-four feet
north and south by eight hundred and nine feet east and west.
The general feature of the ruin is that of an immense pyramidal
terrace, with a platform elevated about seventy feet above the
ground. The river side of the terrace is perpendicular, while
the remaining sides are sloping ; viewing the ruin from this
general platform seventy feet high, depressions such as amphi-
theatre-like courts descend from it in some instances thirty or
forty feet, or about half way to the level of the ground, while
above the level of the general platform pyramidal structures rise
to a considerable height, in one instance one hundred and twenty-
two feet. It is difficult to conceive of what might have been
the nature of the superstructure, if any surmounted the general
platform. It is probable that for the purposes of assembly the
amphitheatres with their sloping sides may have answered every
purpose, while the pyramids may have been surmounted by
temples now in ruins. Of the sculptured columns of this
locality we will speak farther on. Utatlan, the former capital
of the modern Quiche kingdom, would naturally be selected as
a point at which to seek for remains of the newer Quiche styles
of architecture. The conquerors, however, left little that can
serve as the basis for architectural study. The city was sur-
rounded by a deep ravine or barranca, which can be crossed at
only one point, and there long lines of stone fortifications still
guard the passage. A fortress, called El Kesguardo, is among
these works. It rises one hundred and twenty feet high in the
form of a terraced pyramid, with a stone wall plastered with
cement enclosing its summit platform, on which a circular
tower provided with a stairway was built. Only fragmentary
walls of the Quiche palaces remain ; their dimensions were
eleven hundred by twenty-two hundred feet, and nothing but
their cement covered floors have survived the vandalism of the
conquerors and the architects of the modern town ; the latter
having carried away the upper portions for building purposes.

NAHUA ARCHITECTURE. 359

A pyramidal structure near by, known as El Sacrificatorio, pre-
sents no architectural contrasts to pyramids already described.
Its stairway, composed of nineteen steps each eight inches broad
and seventeen inches high, is characteristically Central Amer-
ican.^ In the province of Vera Paz, especially in the Rabinal
Valley, Brasseur de Bourbourg observed numbers of tumuli,
resembling those of the Mississippi Valley both in material
and structure. These were especially prevalent in the neighbor-
hood of the villages, and sometimes were associated with pyra-
midal structures equal in finish to any we have described.
The name cakhay, " red houses," is generally applied to these
tumuli.'^

Nahua Architecture. — It would be quite impossible for us to
devote that space to this subject which the number of remains
would justify, and the presentation' of the typal features of the
architecture of that interesting family of nations will be all that
we shall here attempt ; of geographical and detailed treatments
there are several on the different departments of the subject.^
In the pages which follow we will select a few examples of
Nahua architecture in order to illustrate our subject, but we
would state that many equally important works, though per-
haps presenting no new features, have been purposely passed
by unnoticed. In a preceding chapter we referred to those
intermediate nations which occupied the transition position-
between the Mayas and Nahuas. The Miztecs, Zapotecs and
others, were probably a mixed people, related in different
degrees to both of the great families on the north and south
of them. Oajaca and Guerrero were the homes of these peoples,
where they developed their own civilization and styles of art in
channels distinct from those of their neighbors. The isthmus
of Tehuantepec presents some interesting remains, chief among

1 Stephens' Central America, vol. ii, pp. 171, 182-8, and Bancroft, Native
Races, vol. iv, pp. 124-8.

^ Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., torn, i, p. 15, and cited bj Bancroft,
vol. iv, p. 131.

^ The only comprehensive and satisfactory treatment of the entire field in
detail is that by Mr. Bancroft, Native Baces, chaps, vii, viii, ix, x.

360 REMAINS OF TEHUANTEPEC.

which we may cite two stone pyramids situated three leagues
west of the city of Tehuantepec. One of these measures fifty-
five by one hundred and twenty feet at the base and thirty by
sixty-six feet on the summit. A grand stairway composed of
forty steps and thirty feet in width leads up the western slope.
The summit is also made accessible by smaller stairways on the
north and south sides. The lower of the four terraces compos-
ing the structure, is perpendicular; the others have inclined
walls. On the face of the second terrace were four ranges of
flat stones, one above another, extending entirely around the
pyramid and furnishing a series of shelves, devoted no doubt
to some sacred or sacrificial use. The whole structure was
plastered with a cement, colored brilliantly by red ochre. The
adjoining pyramid presents an architectural novelty in its grace-
fully curved sides. Castaneda has sketched and Dupaix de-
scribed it. The height of the pyramid is over fifty feet while
its general dimensions are about the same as those of its neigh-
bor. In close proximity to the pyramids, altar-like structures
were observed, one of which was composed of eight circular
stones, like mill-stones, placed one above another. The base
measured ten and a half feet, but the summit only four and a
half feet ; the height measures twelve feet.^ Numerous earthen
tumuli resembling those of the Mississippi Valley were observed
by the German traveler Miiller, scattered over the region, espe-
cially to the southeast.^ The most important group of ruins in
Oajoca is that at Mitla, situated about thirty miles southeast
of the capital of the State. This is probably the finest group
of remains north of the isthmus of Tehaun tepee. Still they
are not purely Nahua in their style, being, according to tradi-
tion, the work of the Zapotecs. This group has been described
several times by explorers, whose accounts have differed consider-
ably in value. The most important of these are the descriptions

^ Dupaix, Third Expedition, pp. 6-7, pi. iii-v, fig. 6-9 ; Kingsborough, Mex.
Ant., vol, vi, p. 469, and Mayer's Observations on Mexican History and Arclmology,
pp. 25-6, and cuts (Smithsonian contribution. No, 86), 1856 ; Bancroft, Native
Races, vol. iv, pp. 368-71, with cuts.

^ Reisen, torn, ii, p. 282, and Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iv, p. 375.

REMAINS IN OAJACA— MITLA. 361

and drawings by Dupaix and Castaneda, made in 1806, and the
description and valuable photographs by Charnay, the latest
explorer of this group, whose work was performed in 1859.^

The mitla ruins are distributed into four groups of buildings
(generally called palaces or temples) and two pyramids. The
principal edifice is described as follows : three low oblong mounds
only six or eight feet high but surmounted by stone buildings,
enclose a court. The court measures 130 by 120 feet. The
eastern and western buildings are in a fallen and ruined condition.
The northern building, however, presents a singular example of
ancient grandeur. The southern portion measures 36 by 130
feet, and the northern 61 feet square. The edifice is about
eighteen feet high, having walls varying from four to nine feet in
thickness. The accompanying cut, a photographic reduction of
Charnay's photograph, gives a correct idea of the western facade
of the northern building.^

The walls of this edifice are constructed in a somewhat novel
manner, their interior portions being nothing more than clay
intermixed with stones, thus furnishing a poor substitute for the
cement and stone filling in the inner parts of Yucatanic walls.
However, the exterior facing of the walls is of hewn stone blocks

^ Dupaix, Seconde Expedition, published in Kingsborough, vol. v, pp. 255-68,
vol. vi, pp. 447-56, vol. iv, pi. xxvii-xli, fig. 81-95, and in Antiq. Mex.; Seconde
Expedition, pp. 30-44, pi. xxix-xlvl, figs. 78-93.; Charnay, Cites et Ruines
Americaines, pp. 361-9, photographs ii-xviii, and VioUet-le-Duc in Ibid, pp. 74-
104 ; Humboldt obtained his information and plates from the survey and draw-
ings of Don Luis Martin and Col. de la Laguna, who visited the ruins in 1802 ;
see Vues, torn, ii, pp. 278-85, pi. xvii-xviii, and in his other works on the same
subject. The remaining original works are Miihlenpfordt in the Ilustradon
Mejicana, tom. ii, pp. 493-8 ; Tempsky's Mitla, pp. 250-3, with plates ; Garcia,
in Soc. Mex. Qeorg. Boletin, tom. ii, pp. 271-2 ; Sawkins in Mayer's Observa-
tions ; Fossey in his Mexique, pp. 365-70, and Midler, Reisen, tom. ii, pp. 279-81.
We might append a large number of notices made second-hand from the above,
but as they contain nothing original we omit them, and refer the reader who is
desirous of examining them, to Bancroft's note in Native Races, vol. iv. p. 391.
Our examination of the subject has been confined to the accounts of Dupaix,
Humboldt, and Charnay, together with Mr. Bancroft's critical review of the
field. From the latter we draw some of our bibliographical material.

* Charnay, Mexique, Phot, iv ; also Cites et Ruines Amer., Phot, v, vi. Other
views in Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 396-405.

362

MITLA EDIFICES.

cut in different forms and sizes, and so set in relation to each
other as to present examples of perhaps the finest variety of
grecques found in any structure in the world. ^ Two layers of
large stone blocks form the base of the palace, from which rises
buttresses and a framework of stone, filled in with panels of
mosaic, in patterns as described. We pronounce these grecque
patterns mosaics, because of the manner of their structure.
They are not of the nature of sculpture, since each pattern, with

Western Facade of the Palace at Mitla.

all its regularity, is composed of small brick-shaped blocks of
stone built into the wall, mosaic-like, thus forming the graceful
patterns shown in the cut. No trace of mortar has been found
at Mitla. The inner surface of the wall in the northern building
was smoothly plastered without any ornament. Six round stone
columns standing in line occupy the centre of the apartment,
and no doubt supported a roof of wood or stone, but more
probably of the former.^ The cut in Baldwin's work, copied by

' Fossey, Mexique, p. 367, finds twenty-two different styles of grecques in
this front, while Milhlenpfordt gives ciits of sixteen difierent styles in llustracion
Mej., torn, ii, p. 501.

- See full discussion by VioUet 13 Due in Chamay's Ttidnes Amer., pp. 78-9

GRECQUES AT MITLA.

363

Bancroft showing the interior of the apartment and the six
columns, conveys an incorrect impression as to the form of
the columns and the character of the walls, as is proven by
Charnay's photograph.^ The facades of the inner court of the
northern wing of the palace are finished with mosaics of great

beauty. Four or five feet of the wall
is plain at the bottom except that the
plastering was evidently frescoed in
various colors. The remainder of the
wall is decorated with bands of mo-

"JiW^:.

saic grecques, as shown in the cut,
which is a fac-simile of Charnay's
photograph engraven for Mr. Ban-
croft's work. We should not fail to
note the use of immense stones in
the base, framework and lintels of
the southern wing of the building.
One of these is of granite, sixteen or
nineteen feet long, with the pattern
of the adjacent gi'ecques sculptured
on its face. None of the other build-
ings at Mitla present any architectural
contrasts to the one already described,
and require no special attention. Un-
der a temple on the south-west side
of the one we have just referred to,
is a subterranean gallery, constructed
in the form of a cross. The opening
is at the base of the mound upon which the temple stands,
The arms of the cross pointing toward the East, North and
West, are each twelve feet long, five and a half feet wide, and
six and a half feet high. The southern arm is, however, about
twenty feet long, and not more than four feet high through-
out most of its length. Near the centre of the cross (which

Grecques of ax interior
Room at Mitla.

' Cljarnay, phot, x. Mr. Bancroft was not ignorant of this error. Temp-
sky's plate served as the guide for Baldwin's cut.

364 REMAINS IN VERA CRUZ.

lies directly under the centre of the temple above) a flight
of four steps descends in the southern arm of the cross to a
lower level, so that the southern arm of the passage is somewhat
lower than the others. The entire subterranean chamber was
roofed with large flat stones reaching from side to side. The
walls, besides being painted red, were ornamented with panels of
mosaic, but of a ruder style than that of the superstructure,
which is suggestive of an earlier period in the growth of the art.
A circular pillar resting on a square base, and called by the
natives " the pillar of death,'' because of the belief entertained
among them that whoever embraced it would immediately die,
supports the large flagstone which covers the intersection of the
galleries. An immense fortification over a mile in circumference
and with stone walls six feet thick and eighteen feet high crowns
the summit of a hill, which stands three-fourths of a league
south-west of Mitla. The place was inaccessible except on the
side toward the village where the wall was double. Castaneda
has delineated and Bancroft copied the plan of this fortress.^

Passing into the state of Vera Cruz, the attention of the
observer is arrested by great numbers of mounds of all the varie-
ties peculiar to the Mississippi Valley. Excavations have yielded
pottery of burnt clay, idols, and flint and stone weapons, as well
as implements of agriculture, but no trace of iron or copper is
recorded. As the Nahuas are said by Duran and Sahagun to
have landed on the Gulf coast not far north of this region, and
to have traversed it in their wanderings southward, and since
the tradition derives them from Florida, it is not improbable
that here we see the continuation of the works of the lower
Mississippi.^

Of several interesting specimens of ancient architecture in the
state of Vera Cruz we have selected a few examples. At Puente

^ Dupaix, 8eco7ide Exped., pp. 40-1, pi. xliv-v, fig. 93-4. Kingsborough, vol. v,
p. 265 ; vol. vi, p. 455 ; vol. iv, pi. xl-i, fig. 95, and Bancroft's Native Baces,
vol. iv, p. 413.

^ See especially a communication from Mr. Hugo Finck, for twenty-eight
years a resident of the region, published in the Smithsonian Report for 1870,
an extract from which is published in Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 431-3.

PYRAMIDS OF PUENTE NACIONAL AND CENTLA.

365

Nacional the remarkable pyramid shown in the cut is situated.
It was described by J. M. Esteva in the Museo Mexicano in
1843. The pyramid is six stories high, and the eastern side is
faced by a grand stairway in the form of a cross. Mr. Bancroft
has described it, employing the accompanying cut. At Centla,
twenty-five or thirty miles north of Cordova, a series of remark-
able fortifications were
discovered in 1821,
which have been most
thoroughly described
by Sr. Sartorius, who
visited the locality in
1833, but whose ac-
count was not pub-
lished until 1869.1

The most notable
fortification is situ-
ated at a narrow pass
between two ravines,
with perpendicular
walls several hundred
feet deep. The dis-
tance between the
precipices at this point
is only twenty-eight feet. The defensive works consist of several
pyramidal structures built of stone and mortar. The largest of
these has three terraces rising from the rear until they approach
a perpendicular wall, fronting a narrow passage-way only three
feet wide. This perpendicular wall is surmounted with parapets
and loop-holes for defence. A pyramid on the opposite side of
the passage-way, the platform of which is reached by a single
flight of steps, is possessed of the same defensive features, with
the addition of a ditch at its front eleven feet wide excavated
in the solid rock to a depth of five and a half feet. The object

' Sr. Gondra received considerable information concerning these ruins from
some unnamed person, whicli he published in Mosaico Mexicano , torn, ii,
pp. 368-72.

Pyramid near Puente Nacional.

366

TYPE OF PYRAMIDS AT CENTLA.

of the fortress seems to have been the protection of an oval-
shaped tract of fertile land containing about four hundred acres,
lying between the barrancas. At the opposite end of the oval
tract, the precipices approach so closely to each other as to
leave a narrow passage of only three feet in width, which also is
guarded by stone walls. Of numerous pyramids in the region,
the one figured in the cut (from Bancroft's work) is pronounced
by Sr. Sartorius as typical of all of them.^

Type of Pyramids at Centla.

Half a league below the town of Huatusco, Dupaix discov-
ered a remarkable pyramid crowning a hill on a sloj^e of w^hich
was also a group of ruins called the Pueblo Yicjo. This struc-
ture known as El Castillo, measures sixty-six feet in height,
though there is some uncertainty as to the size of the base.^
Dupaix's text states it to be two hundred and twenty-one feet
square, but Mr. Bancroft calls attention to the fact that Casta-
nedas' drawing makes it about seventy-five feet square. The
pyramid in three terraces measures thirty-seven feet high. The
superstructure is in three stories, with a single doorway in the
lowest. This seems to have been the only opening through the
walls of the castle, which were eight feet thick; we presume,
how^ever, only at their base, as their exterior shows a sloping
rather than a perpendicular surface. The lowest story forms a
single apartment wdth three pillars in the centre supporting the

' Bancroft, Natixie Races, vol. iv, p. 442. This author lias given quite a
full description of the fortification, and two plates,

^ Dupaix's First Expedition, pp. 8-9, pi. ix-xi, fior. 9-12 ; Kingsborough,
vol. V, pp. 215-16 ; vol. vi, pp. 425-6, pi. v-vi, fig. 11-15; an account in Ban-
croft's Nati'oe Races, vol. iv, pp. 368-72 and cut.

TUSAPAN. 367

beams of the floor above. Portions of the beams were visible
when Dupaix visited the locality. The walls of the castle are
of rubble made of stone and mortar, as in the Yucatan struc-
tures, having stone facings. The exterior of the castle proper was
coated with polished plaster and ornamented with panels con-
taining regular rows of round stones embedded in the coating.
Some unimportant fragments of sculpture in stone and terra-
cotta were found in the ruin. El Castillo is of special interest
because of the well-preserved condition of its superstructure.
About one hundred and fifty or sixty miles northwest of the
city of Vera Cruz, the German artist Nebel found a group of
ruins known as those of Tusapan^ buried in a dense forest at
the foot of the Cordillera. The only structure which remains
standing closely resembles the pyramid above described, except
that the walls of the pyramid are hot terraced, and the tower
surmounting the pyramid is built with a single story. The
only opening in the tower is the doorway at the head of the
stairway. The interior contains a single apartment twelve feet
square. The ceiling is said to have been arched or pointed,
but Herr Nebel has failed to furnish definite information as
to whether the arch was of overlapping stones or not, an over-
sight of an unpardonable character, since it would be of greatest
interest to know whether the Maya arch existed so far north.
The pyramid is described as thirty feet square, and built of
irregular blocks of limestone, which was probably covered with
a coat of the plastering generally employed and so polished
in its appearance.^ One remaining structure in the State of
Vera Cruz merits special attention, namely, the pyramid of
Papantla. This pyramid, known as El Taj in, "the thunder-
bolt," is situated in a dense forest near the modern town
of Papantla, which lies about forty miles east of Tusapan.
There is a wide divergence of expression as to the dimensions
of the pyramid. Herr Nebel, however, makes the base some-

^ Nebel, Viaje Plntoresco y Arqueolojico sdbre la Rep'QMica Me^icana, 1829-
34, Paris, 1839, fol. ; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, vol. ii, pp. 199-300; Ibid, Mexico
As it Wa^, pp. 347-8, and Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 47, 55-8, with
two illustrations. We have cited Nebel from the latter.

368 CHOLULA.

thing over ninety feet square and the height fifty-four feet.
The pyramid is seven stories high and apparently solid, except
the topmost story which contained interior departments. This
crowning structure is now sadly dilapidated. Dupaix's state-
ment, copied by Humboldt, that the material of the pyramid is
porphyry, cut in immense blocks, appears to be an error, since
later exploration has revealed the fact that the pyramid was
constructed of regularly cut blocks of sandstone laid in mortar,
and coated with a hard, smooth cement, three inches thick. A
stairway on the eastern front is divided as well as being guarded
by solid stone balustrades.^

For Nahua monuments of the purest type we naturally turn
to Anahuac the home of Toltec and Aztec art during its most
advanced period of development. But alas ! the hand of the con-
queror and the zeal of the fanatic have robbed irretrievably the
antiquarian and the student of the history of architecture and art,
of the best and noblest remains of that strangely interesting civil-
ization. Our attention is naturally directed to the architecture of
that ancient religious centre — Cholula — the origin of which, to-
gether with that of its great pyramid, we have described in a pre-
vious chapter. We have already seen that the prime object for
erecting the immense pile, according to Duran, was the worship
of the sun, and not to afford a refuge from a deluge as has been
generally supposed. The pyramid of Cholula is situated in the
eastern portion of a village to which it has given its name, and is
reached by a ride of about ten miles westward from the city of
Puebla de los Angelos. The magnificent temple upon its summit
dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, fell a prey to the destroying vengeance
of Cortez, who no doubt was enraged at the stubborn resistance

' The original describers of Papantla are Diego Ruiz, in Oaceta de Mexico,
July 12, 1785, torn, i, pp. 349-51, copied in Diccionario Univ. Geog., torn x,
pp. 120-1 ; also Nebel, Viaje Pintoresco. Humboldt states that Dupaix and
Castaneda visited the locality, but they published no description, his own
description may have been from information received from them ; Vues, torn, i,
pp. 102-3 ; Ibid, Essai Pol., p. 274; lUd, in Ant. Mex., tom. i, div. ii, p. 12.
Of the many descriptions drawn from these sources, those of Mayer, Mex. Aztec,
vol. ii, pp. 196-7 ; Ibid, Mexico As it Was, pp. 248-9, and Bancroft's Native
Races, vol. iv, pp. 452-4, with cut from Nebel, are probably the best.

HUMBOLDT'S EXPLORATIONS. 369

with which he was met by the devoted natives, in a hard-fought
battle at the foot and upon the slopes of the pyramid. Of the large
number of descriptions, either made from personal observation
or written from a comparison of accounts, none surpass that of
Humboldt, which was the result of a careful survey, performed in
1803. Humboldt's drawing, however, was a restoration and not
a picture of the condition of the shrub-grown hill as he saw it.^
The pyramid, according to Humboldt, measures at the base six
hundred and thirty-nine metres or a trifle more than fourteen
hundred and twenty-eight feet square ; in other words, about
forty-four acres. The base is shown by Humboldt to be more
than twice as large as that of Cheops. Humboldt and Dupaix
give its height as fifty-four metres or one hundred and seventy-
seven feet : Mayer says it is two hundred and four feet ; Tylor,
two hundred and five feet, and Heller ^ states that its summit
platform covers an area of 13,285 square feet. Its height is
somewhat greater than that of the pyramid of Mycerinus.
Humboldt compares it to a mass of brick, covering a square four
times as large as the Place Vendome and twice the height of
the Louvre. He considers it of the same type as the temple
of Jupiter Belus — the pyramids of Meidoim Dahchour, and the
group of Sakharah in Egypt. This great monument was con-
structed in four equal terraces of small sun-dried bricks, laid
in a mortar which has been pronounced by some a mixture of
clay with fragments of stones and pottery, by others a cement
intermixed with small pieces of porphyry and limestone. Herr
Heller discovered that the entire structure had been covered

' Of a large number of notices of Cholula, the most important of the original
class are those of Humboldt, Essai Pol, pp. 239-40 ; Ihid, Vues, tom. i, pp. 96-
124, fol. 2d, pi. vii-viii ; Dupaix's First Expedition, p. 2, pi. xvi, fig. 17, and
Kingsborough, vol. v, p. 218, vol. iv, pi. viii, fig. 20 ; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del
Messico, tom. ii, pi. 33-4 ; Mayer, Mexico As it Was, p. 26, and Mex. Aztec, etc,
vol. ii, p. 228, cuts. For most recent reference, though not very scientific, see
Evens' Our Sister Republic, pp. 428-32 (1869), and Haven's Mexico, Our Next
Boor Neighbor, pp. 109-202, 1875. Mr. Bancroft has given a short, though
satisfactory notice, especially valuable for its citation of authorities. In a
note (11) vol. iv, p. 471-2, a full list of the authors who have written on Cholula
will be found. Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 469-77.

« Reisen, pp. 131-2.
24

370 MATERIAL OF THE CHOLULA PYRAMID.

with a coating of cement composed of lime, sand and mortar.^
The present appearance of the pyramid is suflSicient to induce the
opinion that it was originally a natural eminence faced up with
adobes in terraces, in accordance with the architectural idea, but
its position in the centre of a plain, together with the revelations
as to its contents, disclosed by the construction of the Pueblo
road through one comer of its base, furnish partial if not con-
clusive proof that it was entirely of artificial construction. The
excavation revealed the perfect regularity with which the bricks
were laid in the interior, and brought to light a tomb containing
two skeletons, two basalt figures, a collection of pottery and other
articles not described. Humboldt has fully described this cham-
ber, which was constructed with stone walls supported by cypress
timbers. No doorway could be found opening into the tomb.

At Xochicalco, the "hill" or "castle of flowers," situated
seventy-five miles south-west from the city of Mexico and dis-
tant from Cuernavaca fifteen miles in nearly the same direction,
are found the most remarkable specimens of ancient Mexican
architecture north of the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The most
important descriptions of the ruins are by Alzate y Ramirez,^
Humboldt,^ Dupaix and Castaneda,'* Nebel,^ and one prepared
by the authority of the Mexican government.^

* Heller, Reisen, pp. 131-3, cited by Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iv, p. 473.

' Exploration performed in 1777, and account published in Oaceta de Litera-
tura, November, 1791, also tom. ii, p. 127 of the same.

2 Copied the proceedings to a considerable extent in Vues^ tom. i, pp. 129-37,
pi. ix, and in Essai Pol., pp. 189-90.

4 Dupaix's First Expedition, pp. 14-18, pi. xxxi-li, figs. 33-6 ; Kingsborough,
vol. V, pp. 222-4, vol. iv, pi, xv-vl.

5 Nebel, Viaje Pintoresco, pi. ix-x, xix-xx.

* The Government exploration report in Revista Mexicana, tom. i, pp. 539-
50, and in Deccionario Univ. Oeog., tom. x, pp. 938-42 ; Mayer's Mexico As it
Was, pp. 185-7 ; lUd, Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii, pp. 283-5, with cuts ; Tyler's
Andhuac, pp. 183-95. To these original accounts many compiled notices might
be added, Mr, Bancroft's critical review of the sources, supplemented with
full bibliographical notes, is valuable and should receive the attention of the
reader. See Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 483-98, with several cuts after Nebel.
We have found this writer's summary of facts of great service in making up the
following description.

TERRACES AT XOCHICALCO. 371

These ruins are both beneath and upon a natural hill of oval
form measuring about two miles in circumference and from three
hundred to four hundred feet in height, authorities differing
considerably on this point. At the foot of the hill on its northern
side, are the entrances of two tunnels, one of which extends to a
point eighty-two feet from the edge of the hill, where it termi-
nates abruptly. The second tunnel penetrates the solid lime-
stone of the hill in the form of a square gallery nine and a half
feet high and broad, extending inward for several hundred feet
and branching into several auxiliary galleries, which terminate
in some instances abruptly. The floors are paved with small
blocks of stone, to a thickness of a foot and a half ; masonry in
some places support the sides, and all the interior surface shows
traces of red paint upon the polished cement coating with which
it was finished. The principal gallery, after turning a right
angle toward the left and extending some hundred feet in a
straight line, enlarges into a subterranean chamber eighty feet
long by about sixty feet in width. Two circular columns of
living rock were left in making the excavation as supports for
the roof. The most singular feature connected with the chamber
is the perfectly circular excavation found at its south-east angle,
or that corner of the room diagonally opposite to the comer at
which the passage-way enters it. This circular apartment is
only about six feet in diameter, and while it is no deeper than
the adjoining chamber, rises above its ceiling in a dome-shaped
roof, lined with stones hewn in curved blocks. The curve of
this dome-like ceiling corresponds with that of a well-propor-
tioned Gothic arch. At the apex of the dome, a round hole ten
inches in diameter extends vertically upwards ; some suppose
to the pyramid above, but a moment's calculation suffices to
show that in view of the considerable diameter of the hill and
the comparatively short distance from the chamber to its exte-
rior slope, such is impossible. The exterior of the hill presents
a most wonderful display of masonry. Its entire circuit is com-
passed with five terraces of well-laid stone and mortar, faced
with perpendicular w^alls. Each terrace of masonry is about
seventy feet in height, and is constructed in an irregular line,

372 THE PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO.

forming sharp angles, like the bastions of a fortress ; each wall
supi3orting the terraces rises above the level of their respective
platforms in parapets, evidently for defence. The pavements of
the platforms are of stone and inclined slightly toward the south-
west, with a view to draining off the rainfall. Dupaix is the
only explorer who mentions the means of ascent, which he
describes as a roadway eight feet wide, leading to the summit.
The summit platform measures 285 by 328 feet, and is surrounded

Pyramid at Xochicalco.

by a wall which is perpendicular on the inside, and on the out-
side conforms to the slope of the terrace wall of which it is an
extension. This parapet, built of stones without mortar, rises
five and a half feet above the plaza, and is two feet and nine
inches thick, we presume at its top, since the outer slope of the
terrace would make a difference between the top and bottom.
Near the centre of the plaza stands the base of a pyramid which
presents some remarkable architectural contrasts from anything
we have thus far described. Its sides face the cardinal points.

THE PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. 373

«
and measure sixty-five feet from east to west, and fifty-eight feet
from north to south. One of the fa9ades, the northern, according
to Nebel, and the western, according to the Mexican Government
Survey in the Bevista, is cut in two in the centre by an opening
twenty feet wide, where it is supposed a stairway formerly led
to the superstructure. The cut from Nebel, and reproduced
by Mr. Bancroft, shows the facade to the left of the opening,
as the observer faces the pyramid.

The great granite or porphyritic stones which constitute the
facing of the pyramid, some of them eleven feet in length and
three feet in height, must have been brought to the summit of
the hill at the expense of great labor, especially since they must
have been transported from a considerable distance, no such ma-
terial being found within a circuit of many leagues. The stones
were laid without mortar, and so nicely that it is said the joints
are scarcely perceptible. Fragments of a ruined superstructure
surmount the pyrami(J. The foundation walls of the second
story were two feet and three inches from the edge of the cornice
below it, except on the west where the space was four and a half
feet wide. In 1755, so say the inhabitants of the vicinity, the
structure was yet complete, having ^ve receding stories like the
first, and probably reaching a height of sixty-five feet. On its
crowning summit, on the eastern side, stood a large throne-like
block of stone, ornamented with elaborate sculptures. The
second story foundations indicate the position of three doorways
at the head of the grand stairway, and the account in the
Bevista describes an apartment twenty-two feet square observ-
able at the summit of the first story, but now filled with frag-
ments of stone. Mr. Bancroft suggests that from this apartment
there may have been some means of commimication with the
subterranean galleries already described. The colossal sculp-
ture on the face of the pyramid will receive our attention on a
future page.^

^ The vandalic destruction of this Acropolis of Mexican architecture is due
to the vulgar cupidity of a neighboring sugar manufacturer, who despoiled it
in order to build the furnaces of his refinery.

374 THE TEMPLE OF MEXICO.

The general description given above, together with the re-
ported character of the superstructure of this magnificent monu-
ment, calls to mind the main features of the great teocalli dedi-
cated to the bloody god Huitzilopochtli in the Aztec capital
called Tenochtitlan or Mexico. This blood-stained temple upon
whose altars smoked the hearts of countless human victims, is
supposed to have occupied the site of the cathedral fronting the
Plaza Mayor of the modem city of Mexico. Not a vestige of
that terraced pyramid has survived the destructive hand of
fanaticism and the transforming work of man and nature which
have been going on ever since upon the old site of the capital of
the Montezumas. It is said to have been built in ^\e stories,
with flights of steps affording access to the summit ; but each
flight was so constructed with reference to the platform at its
top, as to require almost a complete circuit of the building before
the next flight could be reached. It was necessary, therefore,
in order to reach the summit platform, to pass four times around
the pyramid. It is supposed that this was intended to display
to better advantage the solemn processions of the priests as their
long train mounted gradually the sides of the edifice. The
specialist is already familiar with the descriptions by Bernal
Diaz, whose particular extravagance of statement renders his
work altogether unreliable. Also with the accounts by Tor-
quemada, Gomera, Cortez and Clavigero. The reader has no
doubt acquainted himself with the main facts in the writings
of the graceful and imaginative Prescott, whose seeming romance.
The History of the Conquest of Mexico, has been proven by
recent and reliable investigation to have approached much nearer
to fact than to fiction. Mr. Tylor, after careful exploration, has
expressed in his "Anahuac" his surprise and satisfaction at
what he considers to be the proof of Mr. Prescott's general cor-
rectness of statement as to the extent of the Aztec capital and
the probable character of its edifices.^

For a description of the palaces of Mexico and Chapul tepee,
the museums, mansions of the nobles, the pavements and aque-

* See Tylor, Anahuac, p. 149, and on the subject in hand.

TEOTIHtJACAN COMPARED WITH EGYPT. 375

ducts of that buried city, we refer the reader who has not access
to the sources, to the admirable account by Prescott, especially
since it more properly belongs to the province of history (now
that all traces of them have disappeared) than to that of
archaeology.^

Of many interesting localities where architectural remains
still exist, we select one more in the Central region, to illustrate
our subject. The ancient religious city of the early Nahuas,
Teotihuacan, with its famous pyramids — the traditional origin
of which we have already noted ^ — deserves our attention. The
city of the gods has had many describers, from the illustrious
Humboldt to the observant and philosophical Mr. Tylor. The
most complete description, however, is that given in the report
of a scientific commission appointed by the Mexican' government
in 1864, containing accurate plans and views. ^ Sr. Antonio
Garcia y Cubas, a member of the commission, subsequently
published a most interesting memoir on the pyramids of Teoti-
huacan, entitled Ensayo de uii Estudio comparativo entre las
Pirdmides Egipcias y Mexicanas (Mexico, 1871). The analo-
gies between Teotihuacan and Egyptian pyramids receive the
greater share of attention, though some valuable facts not
mentioned in the report of the commission are here made known.
Mr. Bancroft has reproduced the main features of the report
of the Mexican Commission and compared it with previous
researches, thus presenting the reader with probably the best
critical version of the exploration of Teotihuacan, to be found in
any language.* The cut reduced from Almaraz for Mr. Ban-
croft's work shows the plan of the Teotihuacan monuments on a
scale of about twenty-five hundred and fifty feet to an inch.

The pyramid marked A in the plan is known as Metztli
Itzacual, which is interpreted " House of the Moon." It meas-

^ See Prescott, book iv, caps, i, ii, vol. ii, Kirk's ed. of 1875, pp. 100-51.

2 See chapter vi, p. 243, this work.

« Almaraz, Apuntes sobre las Pirdmides de San Juan Teotihuacan. Mexico,
1864.

4 Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 529-44, and a good bibliographical
note on p. 530.

376

PLAN OF TEOTIHUACAN.

ures 156 metres or 512 feet from east to west by 130 metres or
426 feet from north to soutli. According to Almarez, its height
is 42 metres or 137 feet, but Sr. Garcia y Cubas, who took his

measurement on the opposite side
of the pyramid from that measured
by Almaraz, says that it is 46 metres
or 150 feet high. The summit plat-
form, according to Garcia y Cubas,
is six metres or nineteen and a half
feet square ; quite a discrepancy is
here observable between the esti-
mated area given by Beaufoy and
copied by Mr. Bancroft as thirty-
six by sixty feet, and this actual
measurement. The sides of the
pyramid nearly face the cardinal
points. The eastern slope is 31°
30', while the southern is somewhat
steeper, being 36°. The slope on
the east seems to have been un-
broken except by a zigzag roadway,
leading to the summit. The remain-
ing sides are plainly marked by

the remains of three terraces, one
Plan of Teotihuacan. ^^ ^^^^^ -g g^jn ^^^^^ ^^^^^ f^^^

wide. Humboldt and Tylor both speak of remains of stairways
of which no mention is made by the Government Commission.
Most observers have described the pyramids as faced with hewn
stone, but the commissioners on the contrary found them coated
with successive layers of different conglomerates as follows :
" 1st, small stones from eight to twelve inches in diameter, with
mud forming a layer of about thirty-two inches ; 2d, fragments
of volcanic tufa, as large as a man's fist, also in mud, to the thick-
ness of sixteen inches ; 3d, small grains of tetzontli (a porous
volcanic rock) of the size of peas, with mud, twenty-eight inches
thick ; 4th, a very thin and smooth coat of pure lime mortar.

HOUSE OF THE SUN. 377

These layers are repeated in the same order nine times and are
parallel to the slopes of the pyramid, which would make the
thickness of the superficial facing about sixty feet." ^ On the
southern slope, sixty-nine feet from the base, according to Almarez,
a gallery large enough to admit a man crawling on hands and
knees, extends inward on an incline, a distance of twenty-five
feet, and terminates in two square wells or chambers, each five
feet square, and one of them fifteen feet deep. Mr. Lowenstern,
according to Mr. Bancroft, states that " the gallery is a hundred
and fifty-seven feet long, increasing in height to over six feet
and a half, as it penetrates the pyramid ; that the well is over six
feet square, extending apparently down to the base and up to the
summit ; and that other cross galleries are blocked up by debris ! "
It is probable that these remarkable galleries never existed, except
in Mr. Lowenstern's imagination, since Sr. Almaraz in the report
of the official survey pronounces the tunnel already described as
simply excavations by treasure-hunters. The pyramid B of the
plan, situated ^yq hundred and seventy-five yards south of the
House of the Moon, is called Tonatiuh Itzacual, or " House of
the Sun." This pyramid requires no description, except to give
its dimensions, since in all other respects it is precisely similar

' Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, p. 533. On page 543, the same author in
a note translates the following interesting' passagre from Sr. Garcia y Cubas :
" Tlie pyramids of Teotihuacan, as they exist to day, are not in their primitive
state. There is now a mass of loose stones whose interstices covered with
vegetable earth have caused to spring up the multitude of plants and flowers
with which the faces of the pyramids are now covered. This mass of stones
differs from the plan of construction followed in the body of the monuments^
and besides the falling of these stones, which has taken place chiefly on the
eastern face of the Moon, has laid bare an inclined plane perfectly smooth,
which seems to be the true face of the pyramid. This isolated observation
would not give so much force to my argument if it were not accompanied by
the same circumstances in all the monuments." This inner smooth surface has
an inclination of 47°, differing from the angle of the outer faces. Sr. Garcia y
Cubas, conjectures that the Toltecs, the descendants of the civilized architects
of these monuments, fearing that they would be despoiled by the savages who
followed them, covered up their sacred places with the outer coatings de-
scribed. See Appendix.

378 THE CITADEL,

to the House of the Moon. The House of the Sun, according to
the measurement of Sr. Garcia y Cubas, which is the most recent,
is at the base 232 metres or 761 feet by 220 metres or 722 feet.
Its height is 66 metres or 216 feet, while the summit platform
measures 18 by 32 metres or 59 by 105 feet. Both this pyramid
and the preceding have each a small mound on one of their sides
near their base. In the latter instance this mound seems con-
nected with an avenue of mounds just west of it. An embank-
ment marked a, b, c, d, one hundred and thirty feet wide on the
summit and twenty feet high, widening out at the extremities
into platforms, extends around three sides of the " House of the
Sun.'' Across the Rio San Juan, and at the distance of twelve
hundred and fifty yards southward of the " House of the Sun,"
stands the Texcalpa or " citadel." This is a quadrangular en-
closure, measuring on its exterior twelve hundred and forty-six by
thirteen hundred and thirty-eight feet. The embankments are
of enormous strength, being two hundred and sixty-two feet thick
by thirty- three feet high, except on the western side, which is
but sixteen feet high. The enclosure is divided unequally by
a wall as strong as that upon the sides. On the centre of this
wall stands a pyramid ninety-two feet high. At its base are
two small mounds besides one in the western enclosure, while
fourteen others averaging twenty feet in height are arranged with
regularity upon the summit of the enclosing wall. An avenue
two hundred and fifty feet wide formed by mounds and measur-
ing two hundred and fifty rods in length, extends from a point
south of the " House of the Moon " to the river, as is shown
from C to D, in the plan. The avenue is cut up into compart-
ments by six cross embankments, a rather strange feature for
which no explanation has been afforded. These mounds are
mostly conical, built of fragments of stone and clay, and some
of them reach a height of thirty feet. The native traditions
call it Micaotli, which may indicate that they were designed for
the purposes of sepulture. Almaraz, who excavated one of the
multitude of mounds or tlalteles in the vicinity, found four walls
meeting at right angles, though a little inclined and forming a
small square. Connected with this were steps, at the top of

LOS EDIFICIOS OF QUEMADA. 379

which four other walls enclosed a little room, supposed to have
been a tomb. The natives describe the discovery of a stone box
in one of the mounds containing a skull, with about such a col-
lection of trinkets as is commonly met with in the stone graves
of Tennessee. Mayer describes a massive stone column, ten feet
long and four feet square, cut from a single block. This resem-
bles the elaborate capitol of a column resting on a base with
scarcely a shaft intervening. It is called the fainting stone by
the natives, who believe that whoever sits on it is sure to faint
instantly.

One additional group of ruins, as yet unclassified with any
of the types we have described, merits our attention. This
group is known as Los Edificios of Quemada, situated in south-
ern Zacatecas north of the Central plateau and probably the
home of the Chichimecs.^ Mr. Bancroft has attempted to re-
construct the unsatisfactory accounts of the several explorers of
Quemada, but with little success. We therefore decline adding
another comparative failure to the list of literature on these
ruins. Some general observations, however, may not be out of
place. The Cerro de los Edificios is a natural eminence about
half a mile long and between one hundred and two hundred yards
wide, except at its southern extremity where it increases to a
width of five hundred yards. The authorities difi'er as to its
height, one saying from two to three hundred feet, and another
eight to nine hundred feet above the plain. Ancient roads well
paved radiate in various directions from the hill, some of them

* Quemada was at first mentioned by early writers as one of the stations in
the Aztec migration. Captain Lyon published in his Journal^ vol. i.pp. 225-44,
the result of explorations performed by him at Los Edificios in 1826. Another
report was made by Sr. Esparza from data furnished him by Pedro Rivera in
1830, which appeared in Esparza's Informe presentado cd Oohierno, pp. 50-8,
and Museo Me.x., torn, i, pp. 185 et seq. Herr Berghes made a pretty good survey
of the ruins in 1831 ; his observations were published by Nebel. Herr Burkart, a
companion of Berghes, published a description in his Aufenthalt und Reisen in
Mexico, tom. ii, pp. 97-105. Nebel published his observations in his Viaje,
Several authors have made up notices from these sources without adding any
original information. A list of these, as well as those given above, may be
found in Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 578-9.

380 ROUND COLUMNS AND TRACES OF PORTICOES.

extending a distance of five or six miles. The northern brow of
the hill, where the descent is not so precipitous as at the other
points, is guarded by a stone wall, as are all other points where
the precipitous sides do not ofier a sufficient barrier to an intruder
from without. The surface of the hill is quite uneven, and these
irregularities have been formed into terraces supported by stone
walls. Foundations have thus been secured for a multitude of
structures, some of them perfectly pyramidal and others consist-
ing of quadrangular enclosures or squares, terraced and having
steps descending to the court within, where pyramidal structures
of stone are found. On the eastern terrace of the Cerro, a round
pillar, eighteen feet high and nineteen feet in circumference,
stands in proximity to a wall of as great height as the pillar.
Traces of nine similar pillars are visible, and the probability is
that they formed part of a balcony or perhaps a portico. Adjoin-
ing this wall is an enclosure measuring 138 by 100 feet, in which
are eleven pillars in line, each seventeen feet in circumference
and as high as an adjacent wall, namely eighteen feet. The
distance from the waU is twenty- three feet, and the presumption
is that the pillars supported a roof. There are no doorways,
properly so called, since the doorways are large quadrangular
openings extending to the full height of the halls. No windows
were discovered anywhere. The material is gray porphyry from
hills across an intervening valley, and the mortar is reddish clay,
mixed with straw, and is of poor quality. Sculpture, hierogly-
phics, pottery, human remains, idols, arrowheads, and obsidian
fragments are totally wanting, thus presenting a strange contrast
with all other Mexican ruins. Nevertheless, the massiveness of
the fortifications, the height and great thickness of the walls,
none of which are less than eight feet thick and in one instance
over twenty, the extensive system of paved roads, besides great
elevated stone causeways running through the city, the size of
the enclosed squares, one of which contains six acres, all indicate
that this might have been the capital city of a powerful people,
a people whose architectural affinities with all others that we
are acquainted with are very few, and whose contrasts are numer-
ous. Certainly the type and execution of the masonry, though

MAYA AND NAHUA ARCHITECTURE COMPARED. 381

massive, is more primitive than found elsewhere in Mexico. We
do not mean that it is more ancient, for such cannot be true, but
inferior to that in other parts of Mexico and the Central Ameri-
can region. The arch of overlapping stones is entirely wanting,
and but for the round columns without either base or capitol,
the steps toward advancement in the art would only be those
common to that generally vigorous and warlike period which, in
the history of every people, has preceded a higher civilization.
Mr. Bancroft has published Burghes' plan of Quemada but to
little purpose, since the descriptive matter available does not
contain a reference to more than one-fourth of the many struc-
tures indicated.

In the course of the chapter, we have indicated the principal
resemblances and contrasts between the various styles treated.
The pyramidal structure we have found employed by both Mayas
and Nahuas, with certain modifications and with such resem-
blances as would seem to indicate that both peoples had been
originally, or at an early day, near neighbors, and that the
younger people, at least the more recent in their occupancy of
Mexico and Central America, the Nahuas, may have copied the
pyramid in its perfected form from the Mayas. We have noted
some difference between the ancient and modern Maya styles.
In the ancient or Chiapan, the irregularities in the face of the
pyramid caused by constructing it of tiers of rectangular stones
were filled with mortar, and an even surface produced. In the
modern or Yucatec style the blocks of stone-facing are bevelled
to the angle of the slope. Furthermore, in some instances
the corners of the pyramids were rounded. At Palenque the
superstructures were of only one story, while Yucatec struc-
tures were often formed of three receding stories. Of the Copan
ruins little can be said intelligently, except that the pyramid
combined with the terrace is all-pervading, but still is not
unlike the Palenque style in its main features. The Nahua
architecture offers a great variety of styles, but at the same time
the pyramidal structure is the fundamental feature of all kinds
of structures. Mitla offers an exception to this rule, but there
are doubts as to whether Mitla may be classified as a Nahua

382 TEOTIHUACAN AND EGYPT.

ruin at all. The early writers devoted much of their attention
to seeming old world resemblances in ancient American archi-
tecture, but their speculations in most cases were puerile and
trivial. Mr. Stephens, with the experience which the careful
study and observation of old world monuments afforded him,
strongly denies that any such analogies are to be found among the
Maya groups.^ M. Viollet-le-Duc considers the monuments of
Mexico, especially those of Maya origin, to have been influenced
by white and yellow races, the former of the Aryan from the
north-east, the latter the Turanian from the north-west. He
seems to find some analogy between ancient Japanese temples
(and quotes a description from Charlevoix, Hidoire du Japan,
ed. 1754, tom. i, chap, x, p. 171) and those of ancient America.
He thinks that the style of architecture at Uxmal indicates
clearly that the first structures were of wood and resembled the
style prevalent in Japan. However, the wooden structures more
properly originated with the white races, while the use of stucco
is characteristic of the Turanian or Yellow races of the north-
west. He thinks it certain that Mitla and Palenque were
influenced by a white race.^ Senor Garcia y Cubas has at-
tempted to prove in a careful argument that the pyramids of
Teotihuacan were built for the same purposes as were the pyra-
mids of Egypt. He considers the analogy established in eleven
particulars, as follov/s : the site chosen is the same ; the struc-
tures are oriented with slight variation, the line through the
centres of the pyramids is in the astronomical meridian ; the
construction in grades and steps is the same ; in both cases the
larger pyramids are dedicated to the sun ; the Nile has a " valley
of the dead," as in Teotihuacan there is a " street of the dead ; "
some monuments of each class have the nature of fortifications ;
the smaller mounds are of the same nature and for the same
purpose ; both pyramids have a small mound joined to one of
their faces ; the openings discovered in the Pyramid of the Moon
are also found in some Egyptian pyramids ; the interior arrange-

* Stephens' Central America, vol. ii, pp. 438 et aeq.

2 Viollet-le-Duc in Charnay's Cites et Ruines, Introduet., pp. 28 et seq.

SCULPTURE AND HIEROGLYPHICS. 383

ment of the pyramids is analogous.^ Mr. Delafield by a less
systematic argument advocates the same theory. However, his
capability to discern analogies is not confined to a single struc-
ture, since in the pyramid of Cholula and the teocalli of the city
of Mexico he finds a counterpart to the temple of Belus at
Babylon, as described by Herodotus. The walls around the hill
at Xochicalco explain the use of similar embankments at Circle-
ville and Marietta in Ohio, while the order of the apartments at
Mitla bears a striking analogy to the arrangements of apart-
ments in the temples of upper Egypt. This and much more Mr.
Delafield has been able to discover, but unfortunately only with
certainty to his own mind.^ Lowenstern is equally certain that
the American monuments were not constructed by a nation
analogous to that which built the pyramids of Egypt.^ Ranking,
on the other hand, finds that Teotih'uacan was named after the
illustrious dead buried beneath its pyramids, as was the custom
in Egypt, but in this instance the name is analogous to that of
Thiautcan or Khan, the name of the grand Khan of the Monguls
and Tartars who occupied the throne of China at the time of
Sir John Mandeville's visit to Pekin in the fourteenth century ;
and as at Teotihuacan and among the Monguls the sun and
moon were worshipped, so, according to Ranking, those American
monuments are attributable to Mongul architects."* It would be
easy for us to continue the citation of these fancied analogies,
but it is no doubt already apparent to the reader that they are
generally of too trivial a character to serve the ends of science,*
and we therefore dismiss their further consideration.^

Sculpture and Hieroglyphics. — The mound sculpture, as has
been observed in the cuts illustrating a previous chapter of this

^ Garcia y Cubas, Ensayo de un Estudio comparativo entre las Pirdmides
Eijipcias y Mexicanas ; Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iv, pp. 543-4, and vol v,
pp. 55-6. See Appendix.

'^ Delafield, Inquiry into the Origin of American Antiquities, pp. 57-Cl.
1839. 4to.

3 Mexique, pp. 274-5. Leipsic, 1843. "* Historical Researches, p. 355.

5 See further, Clavigero, Storia del Messico, torn, iv, pp. 19-20; Jones,
Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 122 ; Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 474 ; Prescott, Mex., torn, iii,
p. 407 ; Humboldt, Essai Pol., torn, i, p. 265 ; Tylor's Early History, p. 206.

384

MOUND-SCULPTURE— PALENQUE SCULPTURE.

work, though comparatively rude in most cases, still, in a few
instances, is quite remarkable as affording true representations
of animals and possibly of the human face. Considerable pro-
gress in the art of ornamentation in terra-cotta is displayed on
many of the vases and burial urns exhumed from the mounds.
Many of the lines, figures and borders traced in relief and some-
times in taglio on those
vessels indicate not only
that a sense of the beau-
tiful was present, but
that it had been culti-
vated to a considerable
extent. The same re-
marks apply to the pot-
tery of the Pueblos and
Cliff-dwellers. At Pa-
lenque, however, the stu-
dent of art meets with
no mean attempts at
delineating the human
form — in fact, the success
obtained in this difficult
field alone characterized
the work of the Palen-
que artists. It is pre-
sumed that nearly all of
the piers separating the
doorways in the eastern
wall of the palace were
ornamented with stucco
bas-reliefs. Two out of
six of the best preserved
are shown in the following cuts. The most remarkable feature
of the first (Fig. 1, reduced from Waldeck for Bancroft's work) is
the cranial type, deformed to a shocking degree, probably by
artificial pressure, so generally employed by the ancient Ameri-
can races. Possibly it is but a caricature.

Stucco Bas-relief in the Palace.
Fig. 1.

ELEPHANT TRUNK SCULPTURE.

385

Stucco Bas-relief in the Palace.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 (a photographic reduction from Waldeck) presents
us with a subject which has called forth no little discus-
sion. The " elephant's trunk " which protrudes from the elab-
orate head-dress of the priest has been thought to indicate
25

386 GIGANTIC HUMAN SCULPTURES.

an Asiatic influence.^ We have already referred to the frequent
occurrence of the " elephant trunk " ornament in Yucatan. The
hieroglyphic signs at the top and on the faces of these reliefs no
doubt hold locked up in their mysterious symbols the history of
the scene.

In all of these reliefs the flattened cranial type is present, and
no doubt represents the ideal of beauty among those ancient
people. The stuccoes appear to have been moulded upon the
undercoating of cement after it had become hard. The brush
of the painter was then employed in its final embellishment.'-
Adjacent to the eastern stairway leading downward into the main
court of the palace are great stone slabs, forming a surface on each
side of the steps fifty feet long by eleven feet high. Waldeck,
Stephens and Bancroft furnish views of gigantic human figures
sculptured in low relief upon these surfaces. Both the attitudes
and expressions portrayed indicate that the groups represented
are either captives or possibly victims for sacrifice.^ On the
opposite side of the court, and on the stone face of the balustrade
of a stairway, two figures, male and female, are sculptured,
which, according to Waldeck, are of the Caucasian type. The
same artist has shown the beautiful grecques which adorn the
panels of the cornice.^ Waldeck and Bancroft have figured a
remarkable stone tablet of elliptical form, in which a princely
personage is represented as sitting cross-legged on a chair formed
of a double-headed animal, pronounced by Stephens to resemble
a leopard. Catherword's plate, in Morelet's Travels, shows an
ornament suspended from the neck of the chief figure resembling
an effigy of the sun, while in Waldeck's drawing the Egyptian

^ Humboldt, Vue8, p. 92 (fol. ed., 1810), considers that this people was
originally from Asia and preserved some remembrance of the elephant, or that
in their traditions they had accounts of the mammoth of the American con-
tinent.

* Waldeck, p. v, pi. xii, xiii. Stephens, Cent. Am., vol. ii, pp. 311, 116-17.
Dupaix, pp. 20, 37, 75-6, pi. xiv-xxii. Kingsborough, vol. iv, pi. xxvi. Ban-
croft, Native Races, vol iv, pp. 304-6.

^ Waldeck's Palenque, pi. xiv, xv, shows both groups. Bancroft, vol. iv,
p. 313. Dupaix, pi. xxiii-iv.

* Waldeck, pi. xiv.

ELLIPTICAL STONE TABLET. 387

Tau is graven upon the ornament.^ The accompanying cut
shows Waldeck's drawing (employed by Mr. Bancroft).

Four hundred yards south of the palace stands the ruins of a
pyramid and temple, which, at the time of Dupaix's and of
Waldeck's visits were in a good state of preservation, but quite
dilapidated when seen by Charnay. The temple faces the east,

Sculptured Tablet in the Palace.

and on the western wall of its inner apartment, itself facing the
eastern light, is found (or rather was, for it has now entirely
disappeared) the most beautiful specimen of stucco relief in
America. M. Waldeck, wdth the critical insight of an expe-

' Waldeck, pi. xvii. Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 317-18. Stephens, vol. ii, p. 318.
Morelet, p. 97.

388

THE BEAU RELIEF IN STUCCO.

Beau Relief in Stucco.

rienced artist, declares it " worthy to be compared to the most
beautiful works of the age of Augustus." He therefore named
the temple the Beau Belief The above cut is a reduction
from Waldeck's drawing used in Mr. Bancroft's work, and is very

TABLET OF THE CROSS. 389

accurate. However, the peculiar beauty of Waldeck's drawing
is such that it must be seen in order to be fully appreciated.

It is scarcely necessary for us to call the reader's attention
to the details of this picture, in which correctness of design and
graceful outlines predominate to such an extent that we may
safely pronounce the beautiful youth who sits enthroned on his
elaborate and artistic throne, the American Apollo. In the
original drawing the grace of the arms and wrists is truly match-
less, and the chest muscles are displayed in the most perfect
manner. The embroidered girdle and folded drapery of the
figure, as well as the drapery around the leopards' necks, are
arranged with taste. The head-dress is not unlike a Koman
helmet in form, with the addition of numerous plumes. The
sandals of the feet are secured by a cord and rosette, while orna-
ments on the animals' ankles seem secured by leather straps.
The engraving does not do justice to the face-like ornament
suspended by the string of pearls upon the youth's breast. In
the original drawing it is quite beautiful, and of a female cast.^

The next subject of interest to the student of sculpture is
found in the Temple of the Cross, in the inmost sanctuary of all,
and is known as the Tablet of the Cross. Three stones cover
most of the surface of the rear wall of the sanctum sanctorum,
and present an area six feet four inches high by ten feet eight
inches wide. The central of the three stones bears the cele-
brated sculpture of the cross which has excited so much interest
and comment, to say nothing of speculation as to its origin.
The cut is a photographic reduction from Waldeck's drawing.
A priest and priestess appear to be offering an infant to an ugly
bird which stands perched upon the cross. The infant's face
is completely hid by a fantastic mask or cap. The expression
of pain on the faces of the officiating personages is very marked.
The symmetry of proportion employed in the sculpture is con-
ceded by all observers. The two lateral stones (the left-hand
one being shown in our cut) are covered with hieroglyphics.

^ Waldeck's Pcdenque, p. iii, pi. 42. Dupaix, pi. xxxiii, Fig. 37. Kings-
borough, pi. XXXV, fig. 37, Stephens, vol. ii, p. 355. Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 328-30.

390

TABLET OF THE CROSS.

V- — ^ ' j|r^' = v^

Tablet of the Cross.

whicli begin at the left-hand upper corner with a large capital
letter. Some one had removed the central stone from its posi-
tion prior to Waldeck's visit, and conveyed it to a point in the
forest not far distant. Stephens also found it in the same locality.
By referring to the hieroglyphic tablet at the left of the cross

A PALENQUE STATUE.

391

it will be observed that just below the
large initial letter or word is a three-
fold hieroglyphic, while seven others
in the same column are double.
This would indicate, we should
think, that the characters were read
from the top downwards, though it
is possible that the lines were read
horizontally, each line beginning
with a capital as in poetry.^

On either side of the doorway
opening to the inner sanctuary of
the Cross, were originally two male
figures sculptured in low-relief on
stone ; one of them, which appears
to represent an aged royal person, is
beautifully clad in a leopard's skin,
while the opposite figure, designed
probably to represent youthful man-
hood, is arrayed in what may be an
elaborate military dress and plumed
crest of magnificent character. He
wears what appears to be a cuirass
about his shoulders and chest. These
tablets were removed to the village
of Santo Domingo years ago and
set up in a modern house, where they
were ofiered to M. Waldeck on the
sole condition that he should marry
one of the proprietresses, though
he at the time was more than sixty-
four years of age. Stephens could
have obtained them by purchas-
ing the house in which they had

Palenque Statue.

* Waldeck, p. vii, pi. xxi-ii. Stephens, vol. ii, pp. 345-7. Charnay, p. 419,
pi. xxi. Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 332-6. Especially see Rau's Palenque Tablet
(Smithsonian Contrib., No. 331), for the best account of Tablet of the Cross.

392 TABLET OF THE SUN.

been placed, but did not.^ On the slope of the pyramid of the
Cross, M. Waldeck found two statues just alike, one of which
was unfortunately broken ; the other, subsequently sketched
by Catherwood, is shown in the cut, a photographic reduction
from Waldeck. These statues were ten and a half feet high,
though two and a half feet of their length, not shown in the
cut, formed a tenon by which they were embedded in the floor of
the pyramidal surface, where Waldeck supposes they stood sup-
porting a platform about twenty feet square, in front of the
central doorway. These are the only statues ever found at
Palenque ; but it is doubted whether they can be technically
called statues, since the back is of rough stone, and unsculptured.
They probably rested against a wall and served as supports for
an upper roof or floor, as indicated by Waldeck. The head-
dress has been pronounced Egyptian by all who have seen it.^

In the temple of the Sun, in a position precisely correspond-
ing to that occupied by the tablet of the cross, stands a some-
what similar tablet cut in low-relief on three slabs covering an
area of eight by nine feet. The figure of the cross in this instance
is displaced by a hideous face or mask supposed to represent
the sun, supported by a framework resting on the shoulders
of crouching men. The priest and priestess occupy the same
positions as occupied by them in the tablet of the cross. Each
is in the act of presenting a child with masked face to the sun,
and each is standing upon the back of a kneeling slave. The
lateral tablets are covered with columns or rows of hieroglyphics,
as in the tablet of the cross.^ The stuccoed roofs and piers of
both the temples— Cross and Sun — may be truly pronounced
works of art of a high order. On the former, Stephens observed
busts and heads approaching the Greek models in symmetry of
contour and perfectness of proportion. M. Waldeck has pre-

' Waldeck, pi. 23-24 ; Stephens, vol. ii, p. 352 ; Dupaix, p. 24, pi. xxxvii-
viii ; mention in Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 332-3.

2 Waldeck, pi. 25 ; Stephens, vol. ii, pp. 344, 349 ; Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 336-7.
with cut.

3 Waldeck, pi. xxvi-xxxii ; Stephens, vol. ii, pp. 351-4; Bancroft, vol. iv,
pp. 338-41.

SCULPTURE AT UXMAL. 393

served in his magnificent drawings some of these figures, which
are certainly sufficient to prove beyond controversy, that the
ancient Palenqueans were a cultivated and artistic people. In
passing to Uxmal the transition is from delineations of the
human figure to the elegant and superabundant exterior orna-
mentation of edifices, and from stucco to stone as the material
employed. The human figure, however, when it is represented,
is in statuary of a high order. The artists of Uxmal did not
improve upon the Palenque models so much in the design as in
the execution of their subjects. Uxmal statuary approximates
more closely to what properly may be called statuary, being cut
more nearly " in the round " and having less unfinished back
surface than the Palenque statue. The elegant square panels
of grecques and frets which compose the cornice of the Casa del
Gobernador, delineated in the works of Stephens, Baldwin and
Bancroft, are a marvel of beauty, which must excite the ad-
miration of the most indifierent student of this subject. The
ornamentation of this great cornice, equal to one-third the
height of the building, is cut on blocks of stone and inserted in
the wall with the utmost precision, so that every line matches,
and the graceful arabesques and bas-reliefs, which sometimes
cover several blocks with a single figure, are unbroken by appar-
ent joints. The grandest specimens of American ornamental
sculpture are, however, to be seen on the inner fronts of the four
buildings of the Casa de Monjas, a plan of which is given on
page 350 of this work. It will be remembered that these fronts
face the court around which the buildings were constructed.
The court front of the- eastern building is probably one of the
most tasteful and interesting specimens of sculpture to be met
vdth in America.^ M. Waldeck considers that it presents an
appearance of grandeur of which it would be difficult to give
an idea, while Stephens considers its chasteness of design a great
relief from the gorgeous masses of other fagades. The cornice
over the central doorway and the corners of the eastern court

^ Plates, Waldeck's Voy. Pitt., pi. xv-xvii ; Chamay's photographs have
attested the accuracy of Waldeck's drawings ; Waldeck's views reproduced in
Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 183-3.

394 SCULPTURED FACADES OF THE CASA DE MONJAS.

fa9ade are ornamented wilh ugly masks and " elephant trunks "
protruding from them, as in the Governor's home.^ If the pre-
ceding fagade is the most generally admired of those at Uxmal,
" the most magnificent and beautiful front in America " is that
of the Serpent Temple, or western court fa9ade of the Nunnery,
as is shown in the accompanying engraving, which is a photo-
graphic reduction of Waldeck's drawing employed in Mr. Ban-
croft's work.

"""■nlflM,

vmm

iliViiiiiJiVini'i!nWviViiVi'?n]'iniVi(|ii I'lii/Vi^'iiMniiVij^

Western Court Facade — Casa de Monjas.

The marked feature of the sculpture is the formation of
square panels by the intertwined bodies of two huge stone ser-
pents with monster heads, surmounted by plumes and enclosing
between the jaws of each a human face. A head and tail as
shown above occupy opposite extremes of the front. This may
be a representation of the plumed serpent of the Central Amer-
ican mythology. The stone lattice-work (a feature of Uxmal
sculpture) underlying the serpents and covering the panels

' Stephens' Tuc., vol. i, p. 306 ; Waldeck's pi. xvi ; also see Cliarnay's
phot. 39 ; Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 182-4 ; Viollet-le-Duc's drawing in Charnay,
p. 65.

THE SERPENT TEMPLE.

395

Sun Symbol.

formed by their folds, is more complicated and beautiful than
any other in America. At regular intervals large grecques or
arabesques, with their connecting bars lengthened to the width
of the entire sculptured portion of the facade, are distributed.
Several panels are ornamented with life-sized human figures,
while each panel contains a human face, some of which are as
beautiful as the Greek models. The upper
cornice is ornamented, as are all the other cor-
nices of the N unnery, with what are supposed
to be , Sun symbols, one of which is shown in
the cut, reduced photographically from Wal-
deck's drawing. The appended "feathers''
are almost Assyrian in their type, while the
double triangle within the circle is certainly
an ancient symbol in the old world. "

The "elephant trunks" and rude masks
employed as ornaments above the doorways of
the other fronts, are also numerous here.
Since M. Waldeck's visit portions of this
wonderful example of ancient decorative art
have fallen.^ The northern building of the
court offers no sculptured contrasts with the
other buildings, except that above the upper
cornice, thirteen turrets, each seventeen feet
high and ten feet wide, are distributed at
regular intervals, and are also covered with
sculpture resembling the grecques of the Serpent temple. Most
of the sculptures at Uxmal were probably painted, as traces of
various colors were observed in sheltered localities. The rich
sculptures of the prophet's house were painted blue, red, yellow
and white, according to M. Waldeck. The Mayas no doubt
employed the brush freely, and in some instances with skill. In
the gymnasium at Chichen-Itza, Stephens grew enthusiastic

'Elephant Trunk.'

' Cut from Waldeck's Voy. Pitt., pi. xiii-xviii and p. 100 ; reproduced by
Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 185, of which ours is an electrotype copy. See also Stephens*
Yucatan, vol. i, pp, 302-3 ; Chamay, Buines Amer., phot. 40, 41, 44 ; Norman's
Bambles in Yucatan, p. 162.

396 DR- LE PLONGEON IN YUCATAN.

over the exceedingly fine series of paintings in bright colors,
which cover the walls of one of the chambers. Many of the
pictures have been destroyed by the falling of the plaster upon
which they were painted. In this series of pictures, battles,
processions, houses, trees and a variety of objects are represented
— blue, red, yellow and green are the colors employed, though
the human figures are painted reddish brown.^ At Chichen, as
elsewhere, the favorite subject for the Maya sculpture was the
serpent. A colossal serpent balustrade is one of the wonders of
this interesting place.

Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon, during the last quarter of the
year 1875, made an extensive exploration of Chichen-Itza. The
reports of his discoveries seem at first well-nigh fabulous, though
their authenticity is so well attested as to leave no room for
doubt. Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., of Worcester, Massachu-
setts, has in several memoirs of intense interest and unusual
scientific value, communicated the progress and results of Dr.
Le Plongeon's exploration in Yucatan to the American An-
tiquarian Society. Mr. Salisbury has also presented the ex-
plorer's original memoirs, accompanied by photographs made
at Chichen-Itza and on the Islands of Cozumel and Mugeres.
These valuable documents have reached the public in Mr. Salis-
bury's publications entitled, (1.) The Mayas, the Sources of their
History (Worcester, 1877, with heliotype reproductions of the
photos) ; (2.) Maya Archaeology (Worcester, 1879, with heliotype
reproductions of photos and drawings).^ In these pages we are
impressed with the fact that the darkness which has so long
enveloped the antiquity of Yucatan is soon to be displaced- by
the noon-day of scientific investigation. Still we cannot refrain
from expressing the regret that Dr. Le Plongeon's enthusiasm is
so apparent in his reports. A judicial frame of mind, as well as
the calmness which accompanies it, are requisites both for scien-

' Stephens' Yucatan, vol. ii, pp. 303-11 ; Charnay's Ruines Amer.,
pp. 140-1, phot. 33, 34 ; Bancroft's Native Races, voh iv, pp. 220-36.

^ Mr. Salisbury, with the most liberal courtesy, has furnished the heliotypes
and photos from which the accompanying engravings were made. We take this
opportunity of expressing publicly our thanks for this rare favor.

STATUE OF CHAAC MOL. 397

tific work and the inspiration of confidence in the reader. Not-
withstanding this, our views have been most happily expressed
by the committee of the American Antiquarian* Society, to
whom was entrusted the publication of Dr. Le Plongeon's
memoirs. Their statement is as follows : " The successes of Du
Cbaillu, Schliemann, and of Stanley, are remarkable instances
of triumphant results in cases where enthusiasm had been sup-
posed to lack the guidance of wisdom. If earnest men are
willing to take the risks of personal research in hazardous
regions, or exercise their ingenuity and their scholarship in
attempting to solve historical or archaeological problems, we
may accept thankfully the information they give, without first
demanding in all cases unquestionable evidence or absolute
demonstration."

Dr. Le Plongeon says of the columns at Chichen, " the base
is formed by the head of Cukulcan, the shaft by the body of the
serpent, with its feathers beautifully carved to the very chapter.
On the chapters of the columns that support the portico, at the
entrance of the castle in Ohichen-Itza, may be seen the carved
figures of long bearded men, with upraised hands, in the act
of worshipping sacred trees. They forcibly recall to mind the
same worship in Assyria." In consequence of the successful
interpretation of certain hieroglyphic inscriptions at Chichen,
the explorer and his wife (who accompanied him in his perilous
enterprise), learned that the statue of Chaac Mol, or Balam,
(the tiger king), the greatest of the Itza monarchs, had been
buried below the surface of the ground at a certain point, dis-
tant four hundred yards from the palace. The first result of
excavation in the locality indicated was the discovery of a sculp-
tured tiger of colossal size, having a human head, which, un-
fortunately, was broken off. Several slabs bearing sculptures of
tigers and birds of prey in relief were unearthed. A pedestal
supporting the sculptured tiger apparently had once occupied
the spot, and its destruction had left a mound of debris. Seven
metres below the surface of this mound a rough stone urn contain-
ing a little dust was secured, and upon it an earthen cover. This
was near the head of the statue of Chaac Mol, which w^as next

398

SCULPTURED SLABS AT CHICHEN-ITZA.

disclosed. The statue is of a white calcareous stone, one metre
fifty-five centimetres long, one metre fifteen centimetres in
height, and eighty centimetres wide, and weighed fifty kilos.
The statue represents the reclining figure of a man, who is naked

Sculptured Slab pound at Chichen-Itza.

except that he is adorned with a head-dress, with bracelets,
garters of feathers, and sandals similar to those found upon the
mummies of the ancient Guanchies of the Canary Islands.

The statue of Chaac Mol was seized by Mexican officials and
sent to the capital. Our friend, the Rev. John W. Butler, of

SCULPTURED SLABS AT CHICHEN-ITZA.

399

the city of Mexico, writes to us (letter received October 10,
1878) concerning the statue : " It is just as represented. It
may be seen in the National Museum, just opposite its exact

Sculptured Slab found at Chichen-Itza.

duplicate, which was found under the Plaza of the city of
Mexico, some years ago. What is the meaning of this ? The
tribe whose king ( or god ? ) it was, must have migrated south-
ward, for the one excavated in Mexico shows greater age than
the one from Yucatan." In reply we would say that the evi-

400

STATUE OF CHAAC MOL.

dences are sufficient that the Maya civilization once extended
farther north than the city of Mexico, but the conquests of the
Nahuas drove that ancient people no doubt to abandon their
northern territory and to confine themselves to their lands
farther south.

Dr. Le Plongeon, in speaking of the historical value of the
statue, says Chaac Mol was one of the three brothers whom tra-

Statue of Chaac Mol.

dition declares were the co-rulers of Yucatan at a very ancient
period. Chaac Mol and his beautiful queen Kinich-Kakmo
were the powerful sovereigns of the kingdom of Chichen-Itza.
Aac, one of the brothers, becoming enamored of his sister-in-law
Kinich-Kakmo, slew Chaac Mol that he might make her his
wife. The funeral-chamber, the mural paintings, the statues,
and the monument of the murdered king found by the explorer,
were memorials of the sad event which the faithful queen
caused to be executed by the artisans and artists of the royal

MURAL PAINTING FROM CHAAC MOL MONUMENT. 401

city. Dr. Le Plongeon remarks : " In the funeral-chamber,
the terrible altercation between Aac and Chaac Mol, which had
its termination in the murder of the latter by his brother, is
represented by large figures, three-fourths life size. There Aac is
painted holding three spears in his hands, typical of the three
wounds he inflicted on the back of his brother. These wounds
are indicated on the statue of the dying tiger (symbol of Chaac
Mol) by two holes near the lumbar region, and one under the
left scapula, proving that the blow was aimed at the heart from
behind. The two wounds are also marked by two holes near
each other in the lumbar region, on the has-relief of the tiger
eating a human heart that adorned the Chaac Mol mausoleum
(see sculptured slab on page 399)." ^

Mr. Stephen Salisbury, Jr., in his Maya Archceology, has
reproduced one of Dr. and Mrs. Le Plongeon's tracings of a
mural painting in the funeral-chamber of the Chaac Mol monu-
ment at Chichen-Itza. Through the courtesy of Mr. Salisbury
we have been permitted to copy it for this work. The Doctor
interprets it as representing the queen Kinich-Kakmo when a
child consulting an H-Men, one of the Maya wise men or astrol-^
ogers, in order to know her destiny. The prediction is based
upon the lines produced by fire on the shell of an annadillo or
turtle, and is expressed in the colors of the elaborate scroll pro-
ceeding from the throat of the H-Men. Keferring to his tracings
of mural paintings at Chichen-Itza, Dr. Le Plongeon says
" they represent war scenes with javelins flying in all directions,
warriors fighting, shouting, assuming all sorts of athletic posi-
tions, scenes from domestic life, marriage ceremonies, temples
with complete domes, proving that the Itza architects were
acquainted with the circular arch, but made use of the triangular
probably because it was the custom and style of architecture of
the time and country." ^ Besides the sculptures of long-bearded
men seen by the explorer at Chichen-Itza mentioned on a pre-

' ArcTKBological Communication on Yucatan, by Dr. Le Plongeon in Salis-
bury's Maya ArchoBology, p. 65, and Proceedings of Am. Antiq. Soc, October
21, 1878.

^ Maya Archceology, p. 61. «

402

MURAL PAINTING FROM CHAAC MOL MONUMENT.

TERRA-COTTA FIGURE FROM ISLA MUGERES.

403

ceding page, were tall figures of people with small heads, thick
lip^, and curly short hair or wool, regarded as negroes. " We
always see them as standard or parasol bearers, but never en-
gaged in actual warfare/'^ He pronounces the features of the
long-bearded men pictured
on the walls of the queen's
chambers to be Assyrian
in their type. On the Isla
Mugeres (in the latter part
of the year 1876), Dr. Le
Plongeon exhumed por-
tions of a female figure in
terra-cotta, which indicate
an advanced state of art
among the ancient Mayas.
The fragments of the statue,
consisting of the head and
feet, were probably attached
to the front of a brasero or
incense-burner used at the
shrine of the Maya Venus,
located on the southern ex-
tremity of the island. It
was immediately in front
of this shrine, visited by
Cordova in 1516,^ that the
remains of the statue were
found buried in the sand.
The expression of the face
is cruel and savage, the nos-
trils are perforated and also the pupils of the eyes. The teeth
are filed as those of the statue Chaac Mol are said to be. The
head is surmounted by a head-dress eight inches high. The

Terra-cotta Figure from Isla Mugeres.

' Ibid., p. 62.

' See Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, lib. iv, cap. 3, and Herrera, Hist.
Gen. Ind., decade ii, lib. iv, cap. 17, quoted by Salisbury, Maya Archceology,
pp. 33-35.

404

THE CARA GIGANTESCA.

fragments of this statue are now in the possession of Mr. Salis-
bury/

Through the courtesy of the owner we are enabled to present
a photographic reduction of the relics in the preceding cut.

At Izamel, the burial-place of the culture-hero Zamna, a
remarkable example of aboriginal sculpture is found upon the

side of a mound now enclosed
in a private court-yard. This
specimen of art, known as
the Cara gigantesca, or gigan-
tic face, measures seven feet
in width and seven feet eight
inches in height. " The fea-
tures were first rudely formed
by small rough stones, fixed
in the side of the mound by
means of mortar, and after-
wards perfected with a stucco
so hard that it has success-
fully resisted for centuries the
action of air and water." The
accompanying cut from Mr.
Bancroft's work will show the type of features.

The subject of Maya sculpture is almost a limitless one, but
we trust that the above-cited .examples may give the reader a
comprehensive acquaintance with the existing types. The sculp-
ture of Copan is no less remarkable than its architecture. In
fact, every object bore the skillful marks of the graver's chisel.
The great number of sculptured obelisks, pillars and idols have
been the wonder of every reader of Mr. Stephens' description.
Since his work is so generally known, we refrain from presenting
more than one example of Copan art. In the accompanying cut
employed in Mr. Bancroft's work the elaborateness of the sculp-
ture will be observed, and may well be pronounced a marvel of
aboriginal art.

The Cara Gigantesca.

' See Terra-cotta Figure from Ida
in Maya ArchcBology (heliotypes).

Mugeres, by Stephen Salisbury, Jr.,

COP AN SCULPTURE.

405

But for the perfectly hori-
zontal position of the eyes,
the aspect of some of the
faces represented by Stephens
would strike us as having a
Mongolian cast. The mag-
nificently sculptured hierogly-
phics which cover the sides
and backs of these huge idols,
no doubt could tell the sealed
story of Copan's greatness
and the attributes of its many
gods, were the key once discov-
ered. Everything is covered
with these significant sym-
bols, differing slightly from
those at Palenque ; but who
will read them ? In the court
of the temple, a solid block
of stone six feet square and
four feet high, resting on four
globular stones was sketched
by Catherwood, and pronounc-
ed an altar by Stephens. Six-
teen figures in profile, with
turbaned heads, breast-plates,
and each seated cross-legged
on hieroglyphic-like cushions,
are sculptured in low-relief,
four figures being on each
side of the block. The top
of the altar is covered with
thirty-six squares of hierogly-
phics, shown in a cut on a
future page. Besides num-
bers of masks, effigies and
rows of death's heads at Co-

CoPAN Statue.

406

NAHUA SCULPTURE.

pan, there are sculptures of the face which we may believe to
have been portraits. The Copan sculpture is generally admitted
to be of a high order, and Stephens thinks it unsurpassed in
Egypt. The receding forehead of most of the portraits have
excited general interest, and are believed to be delineations of
the priestly or aristocratic type. No weapons are sculptured at
Copan, but on the contrary altars abound in considerable num-
bers, especially in front of the sculptured obelisks or idols. The
presumption is therefore strong that this was a rehgious centre,
unmolested by any enemy, and undisturbed by the alarm of war.^
Nahua Sculpture. — The Nahua sculpture is not of as high
an order nor of as frequent occurrence as that of the Mayas. At
Monte Alban in Oajaca, in a gallery within a mound, Castaiieda
sketched the sculptured profile shown in the accompanying

cut, employed in Mr. Bancroft's

>*— — ^ -^v^^ifc^ work. It is cut upon the face of

\j^t7 /C~^^^^}\ a granite block about three feet

]mo^. \ (&(o\ \ square, and is interesting be-

cause of the Chinese-like queue
which hangs from the figure's
head. At Mitla the grecques
and arabesques which cover the
fagades of the several edifices
are not sculptured, except in
cases where large stones serve as
lintels over doorways. On them
the running borders are sculp-
tured in low-relief, while the remainder of the profuse orna-
mentation is of the nature of mosaic work, being built into the
wall.

Several minor objects of sculpture found in the States of
Oajaca and Vera Cruz might be cited, but their interest for the
reader would be too insignificant to justify a description.^ One

Figure from Monte Alban.

' Stephens, Gent. Amer., vol. i, pp. 103-4, 134-43 with plates ; Foster, Pre-
Historic Races, pp. 303-322, 338-9 ; Galindo in Amer. Antiq. Soc. Trans.,
vol. ii, pp. 548-9 ; Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 89-105, \%ith cuts.

» Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 371, 381, 385, 387, 414, 415, 421, 427, 428, 435, 436,

SCULPTURED FOUNTAIN AT TUSAPAN. 407

of the principal objects of this class and much superior to any
of the others is a grotesque fountain cut in the living rock at
Tusapan. The statue is that of a woman in a kneeling posture,
and measures nineteen feet in height. The waters of a neigh-
boring spring formerly ran into a basin formed among the
plumes of the female's head-dress, from which it found its
way through the entire length of the figure, and flowed forth
from beneath her skirts.^ At Panuco the traditional point of
the arrival of the Nahuas, several rude limestone statues were
found, some of which have been figured in the Journal of the
London Geographical Society , by Mr. Yetch, one of which is
copied by Mr. Bancroft.^ The marked features of these statues
is the elaborateness of the style of head-dress worn. We cannot
see that they are far removed in their style from similar statues
dug from mounds in the Mississippi Valley. In the State of
Puebla, at various points, especially at Tepexe el Viejo, at
Tepeaca, and at Quanhquelchula, minor sculptures of animals,
birds, reptiles, monsters, etc., were observed by Dupaix.^ Bat-
tlesnakes were found plentiful both in sculptures and in a state
of nature. At Cuemavaca, in the State of Mexico, numerous
boulder-sculptures, finely executed in low-relief, exist. Dupaix
has figured and Bancroft copied one in particular, showing a
beautiful coat-of-arms, sculptured on the smooth face of a huge
boulder. A circle of arrows and Maltese cross which compose
them, are all symbolical of power.^ Similar coats-of-arms were

455, 457, 462, has figured some of these, but all indicate an order of art inferior
to the Maya.

^ Nebel, Viaje Pintoresco ; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, vol. ii, pp. 199, 200; Ban-
croft, vol. iv, pp. 457-8.

2 Vetch, in London Oeog. Soc. Jour., vol. vii, pp. 1-11, plate ; Bancroft,
vol. iv, p. 462.

3 Dupaix, Third Expedition, p. 5, pi. i-ii ; Ibid, First Expedition, pp. 3-4,
pi. i-ii, fig. 1, 2 ; p. 10, pi. xii ; pp. 12-13, pi. xvii-xxii, fig. 19, 24 ; Second
Expedition, p. 51, pi. Ixi, fig. 117 ; Kingsborough, vol. v, pp. 285-6 ; vol. iv,
pi. i-ii, fig. 1-3 ; vol. vi, p. 467 ; vol. v, pp. 209-10 ; vol. vi, pp. 421-2 ; vol. iv,
pi. i, fig. 1-4 ; vol. V, p. 217 ; vol. iv, p. vi, fig. 16, and Bancroft, vol. iv,
pp. 467-69.

4 Dupaix, First Expedition, p. 14 ; Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 481.

408 XOCHICALCO SCULPTURE.

observed in the State of Puebla. Probably the most remarkable
sculpture found in the country occupied by the Nahuas, is that
upon the walls of the pyramid of Xochicalco, illustrated on a
preceding page.^ Most of the sculptures are of colossal dragons'
heads, which occur at each of the corners. Human figures,
seated cross-legged and holding something like the Assyrian
sun symbol in the left are found on the frieze, though some
observers have considered this figure to be that of a curved
cross-hilted sword, a weapon never employed by the Nahuas.
The elaborate head-dresses and strings of enormous pearls worn
by the seated figures bear a striking resemblance to the stuccoes
of Palenque. At Xochimilco on the western shore of Lake
Chalco, Dupaix found several interesting specimens of ancient
sculpture.^ The most celebrated article of Aztec sculpture,
unquestionably, is the calendar-stone, which, together with the
so-called sacrificial stone and the idol Teoyaomiqui, was in
December, 1790, dug up in the Plaza Mayor, in the city of
Mexico, on the supposed site of the great teocalli, destroyed
by the conquerors. The calendar-stone, now built into the wall
of the cathedral, where it can be seen by all passers-by^ is a
rectangular block of porphyry, thirteen feet one inch square and
three feet three inches thick, and of the enormous estimated
weight of twenty-four tons. The sculptured portion of the
block, on the exposed face, is contained in a circle, eleven feet
one inch and four-fifths of an inch in diameter. The regularity
and geometrical precision with which the figures are executed
called forth enthusiastic admiration from Humboldt, and has
been the source of equal wonderment to many later observers.
Our cut is a reproduction of Charnay's photograph, by means
of the photo-engraving process, and may be relied upon as
absolutely correct. Prescott considers that the original weight
of the block before it was mutilated must have been nearly fifty
tons ; and as no similar stone is found within a radius of twenty-
five miles of Mexico, that it must have been brought from the
mountains beyond Lake Chalco.^ Some remarks upon the

* This work, p. 372. - Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 499, has reproduced some of tliem.

* Humboldt, Vues, tom. i, pp. 332 et seg.; torn, ii, pp. 1 et seq. and 84-5,

CALENDAR-STONE.

409

Aztec calendar will be found in the following chapter. The
sacrificial stone is a cylindrical block of porphyry, nine feet ten
inches in diameter and three feet seven inches thick, and is now
lying in the courtyard of the University of Mexico. If the
reader will imagine the border of the calendar-stone outside

Aztec Calendar Stone in its Present Condition.

of the eight triangular points removed entirely, will substitute a
concave basin in the place of the central face or sun, also instead
of all the calendar signs intervening between the face and the
circle, upon which the base of the four principal triangular
figures rest, will imagine the existence of several concentric

pi. viii, (fol. ed. pi. xxiii) ; Mayer, Mexico As it Was, pp. 126-8 ; Prescott,
Conq. Mex., vol. i, pp. 126, 145-6 ; vol. ii, pp. 112, ed. 1875 ; Bancroft, vol. iy
pp. 505-9, and cut.

410

SCULPTURED BURIAL VASE.

circles not unlike strings of beads, he will have a general idea
of the top of the stone. We should not omit to state that a
groove or channel leads from the central basin to the outer cir-
cumference. The use of the stone is a matter of controversy,

Humboldt considering it the gladia-
torial stone, Gama a calendar-stone,
and Tylor that it was an altar on
which animals were sacrificed. Fif-
teen groups of two human figures,
each dressed in the insignia of royalty,
are sculptured around its circumfer-
ence. Bancroft, as well as several
others, give cuts of the stone and
sculptm'es. The horrid monster Teo-
yaomiqui — goddess of death — is sculp-
tured in high-relief on a block of
porphyry ten feet high and six feet
wide and thick. Probably no myth-
ology nor all the mythologies of the
world besides could produce so hideous
and unsightly a combination of reptile,
human and infernal forms, as make
up the three sides of this idol.^ Mr. Bancroft first figured the
beautiful earthen burial vase dug up in the Plaza Tlatelulco and
sketched by Col. Mayer. It is twenty-two inches high and fifteen
and a half inches in diameter ; a closely fitting lid most chastely
sculptured covered it, as will be seen in the accompanying cut.

Among the elegant sculptures upon one of its sides is a comely
face surmounted by a crown, from each side of which project
wings of the same character as were employed to symbolize the
sun among the Assyrians.^ The original is pronounced one of the

Burial Urn from Mexico.

^ Humboldt, Vues, torn, ii, pp. 148-61 (fol. ed., pi. xxix) ; IUd,Antiq. Mex.,
torn, i, div. ii, pp. 25-7, suppL pi. vi ; Nebel, Viaje, with large plate ; Mayer,
Mex. Aztec, vol. i, pp. 108-11 ; Ibid, Mexico As it W(^s, pp. 109-14 ; BuUock'a
Mexico, pp. 337-42 ; Leon j Gama, Bos Piedras, pt. i, pp. 1-3, 9, 10, 34, and
five plates latterly cited by Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 512-15, four plates.

2 Bancroft, vol. iv, p. 517 ; Mayer, Mexico As it Was, pi. 100-1 ; Ibid, Mex.
Aztec, vol. ii, p. 274.

VASES FROM WALDECK.

411

Vases from Waldeck.

finest relics preserved in the Mexican Museum. M. Waldeck
has figured many beautiful examples of Mexican ceramic art pre-
served in the above collection as well as in others. The finest
specimens of ancient terra-cotta work of which we have any

412

MOSAIC KNIFE.

knowledge are shown in the cut, photographically reduced from
Waldeck's plate. ^

No description can convey any idea of their beauty. The
upper left-hand vase, it will be observed, is supported on three
feet, each perforated by a perfect Maltese Cross. The central
lower vase, of remarkable symmetry, is distinguished by the per-
fect crux ansata which adorns its side. The lower right and
left hand figures are different views of a swinging lamp. These
vases cannot but command the admiration of all who see them.

Mosaic Knife— Christy Collection.

M. Waldeck has delineated with remarkable artistic skill three
specimens of Mexican mosaic work now in the Christy collection
in London. One of these beautiful relics is shown in the cut,
reduced from Waldeck's colored plate for Mr. Bancroft's work.

However, the cut conveys but a faint idea of its beauty,
especially of the handle. The blade is of semi-translucent
chalcedony from the volcanic regions of Mexico, while the handle
is a most artistic mosaic of bright green turquoise, malachite,
and white and red shells. The blade is of a light straw-colored
tint, and is mortised in the handle, which is wTapped nearest to
the blade with what appears to be a golden braid. Mr. Bancroft
remarks "it is certainly most extraordinary to find a people still
in the stone age, as is proved by the blade, able to execute so
perfect a piece of work as the handle exhibits." ^ Among the few

' Waldeck's Palenque, pi. 55.

« Waldeck's Palenque, p. viii, pi. xliv. Tylor's Anahuae, pp. 110, 337, for
infonnation concerning the masks. Also Bancroft, vol. iv, pp. 557-9.

COLUMN FROM TULA. 413

relics recovered at Tula, the ancient Toltec capital Tollan, the
culumn shown in the cut (from Mr. Bancroft's work) is very-
interesting, both for its sculpture and for the exhibition it affords
of the manner in which the Toltecs formed their columns,
namely, by fistening the sections together by means of circular
tenons. The largest block measures four feet long by two and a
half in diameter.

A Column prom Tula.

Our National Museum at Washington contains numerous
fine specimens of Mexican terra-cotta ware, some of which have
been figured recently in Dr. Charles Rau's "Archaeological Col-
lection of the U. S. National Museum." ^ Two large vases in
particular demand attention. These were brought to the United
States by General Alfred Gibbs at the close of the Mexican war,
and are shown in the cut.

The upper vase, which is thirteen and a half inches high,
is very elaborately wrought, being surrounded with ten female
figures in relief, each alternate figure bearing a child on the
left arm. It is noticeable that the head-dresses of the figures
holding the children are more elaborate than those of the re-
maining figures. The second or lower vase. Dr. Rau considers
equal to many Etruscan or Greek vases in gracefulness of out-
line. "The vessel may be compared to a pitcher with two
handles, standing opposite each other, and with two mouths
projecting between them." Among the terra-cotta images of
Mexican origin in the National Museum the two shown in the
cut are of interest. The left-hand figure is that of a woman
pressing her hands upon her ears. The face represents an aged

* Smithsonian ContrOmtimi, No. 287, pp. 83-7 (1876).

Mexican Vases in the National Museum.

STATUETTES IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.

415

individual. The Museum possesses almost an exact duplicate
of this image. The right-hand figure is much smaller and is
hollow, enclosing a clay ball, and was probably used as a rattle.
It is scarcely necessary for us to remark that the seeming analo-

Statuettes in the National Museum.

gies between the Maya (Central American) sculpture and that
of Egypt have often been noted. Juarros, in speaking of
Palenque art, says : " The hieroglyphics, symbols and emblems
which have been discovered in the temples, bear so strong a
resemblance to those of the Egyptians, as to encourage the
supposition that a colony of that nation may have founded the

416 EGYPTIAN TAU AT PALENQUE.

city of Palenque or Culhiiacan." ^ Giordan found, as lie thought,
the most striking analogies between the Central American
remains, as well as those of Mexico, and those of the Egyptians.
The idols and monuments he considers of the same form in both
countries, while the hieroglyphics of Palenque do not differ from
those of ancient Thebes.^ Senor Melgar, in a communication
to the Mexican Geographical Society, has called attention to the
frequent occurrence of the (T) tan at Palenque, and has more
studiously advocated the early relationship of the Palenqueans
to Egypt than any other reliable writer.^ He cites Dupaix's
Tliird Expedition^ page 77 and plates 26 and 27, where in the
first figure is a goddess with a necklace supporting a tau like
medallion to which the explorer adds the remark that such is
" the symbol in Egypt of reproduction or abundance." In the
second plate he finds an altar dedicated expressly to the tau.
He considers that the cultus of this, the symbol of the active
principle in nature, prevailed in Mexico in many places. Seiior
Melgar also refers to two idols found south of the city of Mexico,
" in one of which two symbols were united, namely, the Cosmo-
gonic Qggj symbolical of creation, and two faces, symbols of the
generative principle. The other symbolized creation in the
bursting forth of an egg. These symbols are not found in the
Aztec mythology, but belong to the Indian, Egyptian, Greek,
Persian, Japanese and other cosmogonies." This, the Seiior
considers proof that these peoples were the primitive colonists of
that region, and seeks to sustain his views by references to the
Dharma Sastra of Manou and the Zend Avesta. The reader
has no doubt been surprised at the frequent occurrence of the
T-shaped niches in the Palenque palace, and has observed the
same symbol employed on some of the hieroglyphics of the
Tablet of the Cross. The Egyptian tau, one of the members
of the Crux ansata, is certainly present at Palenque, but whether
it was derived from any one of the Mediterranean peoples who

^ Hist. Kingdom Guatemala, p. 19. Lond,, 1823.

' P. Giordan, Description et colonization de VIsthme de Teliuantepec, p. 57.
Paris, 1838.

* Melgar in Mex. Oeog. Soc. Bolletin, 2d epoca, torn, iii, p. 112 et aeq.

CRUX ANSATA. 417

employed it, cannot be ascertained. Among the Egyptians it
signified "life," as is shown by the best Egyptologists.^ The
tau was usually surmounted by a roundlet, though such was not
always the case. On a stele from Korasabad, an eagle-headed
man is depicted as holding the oval in one hand and the cross
in the other.^ M. Mariette recently, while exploring the ancient
temple of Denderah, discovered the sacred symbol in a niche of
the holy of holies. It is probable that this emblem was the
central object of interest in these inner precincts of the temple,
as it was preserved with scrupulous care as the hidden wisdom.^
Macrobius tells us that the crux ansata was the hieroglyphic
sign of Osiris or the Sun,^ but other writers inform us that it
was an ancient symbol of majesty and divinity, and so employed
in a modified form in the hands of Brahma, Vishnu and Siva.^
The associations of the tau in Central America are such as to
lead us to believe that it may have had a significance analogous
to that which it possessed on the shores of the Mediterranean,
the Nile, and the Ganges. The Palenque Cross tablet is a most
singular work of American antiquity, and though Mr. Stephens
attempted to prove that no analogy exists between it and Egyp-
tian sculptures, still Mr. Bancroft has shown that the former
was unfortunate in his selection of Egyptian specimens for the
purpose of comparison, since marked analogies between the sculp-
ture of the Vocal Memnon of Thebes and the top of the fallen
obelisk at Carnac and the Palenque Tablets exist.^

^ Dr. Max Ulilmanii, Handhuch der gesamten ^gypUschen Alterthumskunde,
I Theil. Geschichte der Egyptologie, p. 108. Leipzic, 1857.

2 Botta, Mon. de Ninive, vol. ii, pi. 58, and Ediriburgh Review for Jan. 1870i
p. 231.

3 John Newton in Appendix to Inman's Ancient Pagan and Modem GhrU^
tian Symbolism, p. 116. London, 1874.

^ Saturn, lib. i, cap. 20.

^ Zoeckler, Das Kreutz Christi, p. 9, Gilterslo, 1875, and Ediriburgh Review,
Jan. 1870, p. 332.

* Mr. Bancroft remarks, " He happens, however, here to have selected two
Egyptian subjects which almost find their counterparts in America. In the
preceding volume of this work, page 333, is given a cut of what is caUed the
' Tablet of the Cross ' at Palenque. In this we see a cross and perched upon it

418 PALENQUE INFLUENCED FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN.

It has been argued that the Egyptian and Palenque sculp-
ture resemble each other in that both are generally in profile ;
but the trivialness of the reasoning will be at once ^apparent.
On the contrary, Mr. Bancroft remarks, " Sculpture in Egypt is
for the most part in intaglio, in America it is usually in relief."
Notwithstanding the oft-repeated assertion that a resemblance
between Egyptian and Maya hieroglyphics exist, no one of the
Egyptologists so successful in their chosen field have been able
to decipher the Maya writing. It is not improbable that the
Palenque and Copan civilization received its first impulse from
some of the peoples of the southern or eastern shores of the
Mediterranean, but from which it would be impossible to say
even if we were certain that such was the case. Whatever of a
foreign character it may have had at first has been mostly lost
in the independent development of new and original charac-
teristics, the natural outgrowth of new wants and new condi-
tions, arising through the lapse of many centuries. The latter
remark we think may be applied with even more certainty to the
Nahua civilization as displayed in its sculpture. All through
Mexico the favorite subject for the Toltec or Aztec sculptor
was the serpent, generally the rattlesnake. Mr. Bancroft in his

a bird, to whicli (or to the cross) two human figures in profile, apparently
priests, are making an offering. In Mr. Stephens' representation from the
Vocal Memnon we find almost the same thing, the differences being, that
instead of an ornamented Latin cross, we have here a crux commissa, or pa-
iibulata ; that instead of one bird there are two, not on the cross but imme-
diately above it, and that the figures, though in profile and holding the same
general positions, are dressed in a different manner, and are apparently binding
the cross with the lotus instead of making an offering to it ; in Mr. Stephens'
representation from the obelisk of Carnac, however, a priest is evidently mak-
ing an offering to a large bird perched upon an altar ; and here again the
human figures occupy the same position. The hieroglyphics, though the
characters are of course different, are, it will be noticed, disposed upon the stone
in much the same manner. The frontispiece of Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. ii,
described on p. 352, represents the tablet, on the back wall of the altar, Casa
No. 3 at Palenque. Once more here are two priests clad in all the elaborate
insignia of their office, standing one on either side of a table or altar, upon
which are erected two batons, crossed in such a manner as to form a crux decus-
sata, and supporting a hideous mask. To this emblem they are making an
offering." — Bancroft's Native Races, vol. v, pp. 60-1, note.

HIEROGLYPHICS. 419

fourth volume has given numerous examples of this fact. Ser-
pent sculpture was also common among the Mayas, but to a less
extent, and it is not improbable that the symbol entered into
their art through the Quiches — a mixed people composed of
Maj^as and Nahuas. We have already observed the same dis-
position to sculpture the rattlesnake among the Mound-builders.
In the great serpent upwards of a thousand feet in length on
Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio, we find a striking analogy
to the tendency of Mexican art. Furthermore, the great ser-
pent grasps in its jaws (if they may be so called) an immense
oval figure of precisely the shape of an egg, and " the combined
figure is regarded as a symbolical illustration of the Oriental
cosmological idea of the serpent and the egg" We have seen
in the remarks of Senor Melgar that two examples of the egg
possessing precisely the same significance which is attached to it
in Eastern Asia were found near the City of Mexico. The part
which the serpent symbol plays in the south and east Asiatic
sculpture and mythology is probably well known to the reader ;
and if not, a perusal of Maurace's Indian Antiquities or Moor's
Hindu Pantheon will satisfy him that it occupied a place equally
important among Nahuas and Hindoos. The great serpent in
Ohio may be a connecting link between the art of both Mexicans
and Asiatics. In the course of independent development which
the Nahuas underwent during thousands of years, the cosmo-
logical symbol of the egg may have been lost and supplanted by
that of the serpent alone, the emblem of the life principle in
both America and Asia. However, we may safely close these
speculations with the conclusion that though the Mayas and
Nahuas were probably descendants of foreign stock, their civil-
ization, so far as we are able to judge from their arts, was
indigenous — developed upon our soil, and offering but few anal-
ogies to any other.

Hieroglyphics. — No well authenticated Mound-builder hiero-
glyphics have as yet come to light. The Grave Creek Mound
tablet we believe is now shown unquestionably to be an archseo-
logical fraud. The Cincinnati tablet figured in our first chapter
seems to bear some symbolic signs upon its face, but no resem-

420 HIEROGLYPHICS.

blance can be traced between them and any other known hiero-
glyphic signs. The Davenport tablet if genuine is of great
interest in that it abounds in hieroglyphics, some of which are not
unlike some of the signs employed by the Aztecs ; besides, the ele-
ment of picture-writing so common to that people plays a promi-
nent part on both sides of that mysterious stone. Col. Cliarles
Whittlesey, in the second chapter of his Report to the Centennial
Commission of Ohio (already cited), has figured and described
rock sculpture near Barnesville, Newark, Independence, Amherst
and Wellsville, most of which are of the lowest grade of savage
art, and we think can only be attributed to the red Indian.

Mr. W. H. Holmes has furnished specimens of picture-
writing of a rude character found engraven in the rocks of the
canon of the Rio Mancos and San Juan, but there is no evidence
that they are or are not the work of the Cliff-dwellers whose
works abound upon neighboring rocks. ^ We have already called
attention to the tablets of hieroglyphics at Palenque, Copan
and in Yucatan, a specimen of which is shown in a cut on
page 390. The accompanying cut, employed by Stevens, Bald-
win and Bancroft, show the thirty-six squares of hieroglyphics
engraven upon the top of a Copan altar.

In addition to these stone and stucco records, the Mayas had
books, which Bishop Landa describes as written on a large leaf
doubled in folds and enclosed between two boards which they
ornamented ; they wrote on both sides of the paper, in columns
accommodated to the folds ; the paper they made from the roots
of trees, and coated it with a white varnish on which one could
write well. These books were called Analtees, a word which,
according to Villagutierre, signifies the same as history.^ Bishop
Landa confesses to having burned a great number of the Maya
books because they contained nothing in which were not supersti-
tions and falsities of the devil. ^ Bancroft has quoted from Peter
Martyr a description of these books, which conveys the additional

* W. H. Holmes in Bulletin of the Oeog. and Oeol. Barmy of the Territories,
Vol. n, No. I, p. 20, PI. 11 and 12.

2 Landa, Relacion, p. 44 Villagutierre, Conq. Itza, pp. 393-4. Bancroft,
vol. ii, p. 768. 3 Beladon, p. 316.

HIEROGLYPHICS ON THE COPAN ALTAR.

421

information that they were written on many leaves joined together
but folded so that when opened two pages are presented to view.^
Three of the Maya manuscripts are known to have escaped the
vandalism of the early Fathers. These are, first, the Mexican
MS. No. 2 of the Imperial Library at Paris, called by Rosny the
Codex Peresianus, which has been photographed by order of

Hieroglyphics on the Copan Altar.

the French government, but we believe is still unedited. The
second, the Dresden Codex, in the Royal Library at Dresden, a
complete copy of which was published by Lord Kingsborough.
It is a Maya, and not an Aztec MS., as is proven by its marked
resemblance to the tablets of Palenque and Copan, a fact pointed

* Peter Martyr, Dec. iv, lib. viii. Bancroft, vol. ii, pp. 769-70.

422 MS. TROANO.

out by Mr. Stephens, though at the date of his exploration
everything was pronounced Aztec. ^ The third, the Manuscript
Troano, found by Brasseur de Bourbourg at Madrid in 1865 in
the possession of Senor Tro y Ortolano, from whom it derives its
name, is a Maya MS. of unknown origin and history. The French
government and the Commission Scientifique du Mexique repro-
duced it in fac-simile by means of chromo-lithography, and
Brasseur, with the expenditure of great labor, attempted to
translate part of it, which he has published ; but in a subsequent
work he confesses that he began his reading at the wrong end of
the manuscript, w^hich, as Mr. Bancroft humorously remarks, was
a " trifling error perhaps in the opinion of the enthusiastic Abbe,
but a somewhat serious one as it appears to scientific men." ^
Mr. Bancroft has reproduced a page of the MS. Troano in his
work, and accompanied it with a condensed account from the
Abbe's description as follow^s: "The original is written on a strip
of maguey paper about fourteen feet long and nine inches wide,
the surface of which is covered with a whitish varnish, on which
the figures are painted in black, red, blue and brown. It is
folded fan-like in thirty-five folds, presenting when shut much the
appearance of a modern large octavo volume. The hieroglyphics
cover both sides of the paper, and the writing is consequently
divided into seventy pages, each about five by nine inches, having
been apparently executed after the paper was folded, so that the
folding does not interfere with the written matter. * * * The
regular lines of written characters are uniformly in black, while
the pictorial portions, of what may perhaps be considered repre-
sentative signs, are in red and brown, chiefly the former, and
the blue appears for the most part as a background in some of
the pages." ^ Notwithstanding the bigoted spirit exhibited by

' Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. ii, pp. 342, 453-5.

2 Bancroft's Native Races, vol. ii, p. 780. Brassenr's admission will be found
in the BibUotheque Mexico-Guntemalunne, Paris, 1871, p. xxvii. The transla-
tion, prefaced with 136 quarto pages devoted to a consideration of the Maya
characters, is published under the title, MS. Troano : Etudes sur le systeme
graphique et la langue des Mayas. Paris, 1869-70. 4to, 3 vols., 70 colored plates.

3 Bancroft, vol. ii, p. 773, plate, p. 774.

LANDA'S ALPHABET. 423

Bishop Landa in his destruction of the native Maya books in the
presence of their sorrowful and helpless owners, he did one act
of service for the antiquarian, which will ever entitle him to the
gratitude of every student of ancient American civilization.
That act was the record which he made of the Maya hiero-
glyphic alphabet. The Bishop has left us scarcely two and a
half octavo pages (of his work as edited by Brasseur de Bour-
bourg) upon this important subject, yet it is the only known key
to the mysteries of Palenque, Copan and the numerous inscrip-
tions found in Yucatan. His explanation of the manner in which
letters are combined into words is not clear, and though Mr.
Bancroft has translated it literally and introduced parenthetic
explanations, still the sense is not very apparent. Brasseur de
Bourbourg in his French translation has not succeeded much
better, and complains of Landa's style as being untranslatable.
One important fact, however, is deducible from the Bishop's
remarks and example, namely, that the Maya letters were formed
into words in much the same order as in the English and other
languages which read from the left to the right. ^ Landa's
alphabet is given in the accompanying cut which is an exact
photographic reproduction of the original.

Landa adds nothing after this table except the remark :
" Of the letters which here fail, this language is wanting and has
others added of ours, for other things of which they have need,
and already they do not use these characters of theirs, especially

^ The original of Landa's explanation is as follows : *' De sus letras pome
aqui un a, b, c, que no permite su pesadumbre mas porque usan para todas las
aspiraciones de las letras de un caracter, y despues, al puutar de las partes otro,
y assi viene a hazer in infinitum, como se podra ver en el siguiente exemplo :
Le, quiere dezir la(jo y ca^ar con el ; para escrivirle con sus carateres, haviendoles
nosotros lieclio entender que son dos letras, lo escrivian ellos con tres, puniendo
a la aspiracion de la I la vocale e que antes de si trae, y en esto no hierran,
aunque usense, si quisieren ellos de su curiosidad, exemplo : e L e LS. Despues
al cabo le pegan la parte junta. Ha que quiere dezir agua, porque la hacM tiene
a, h, antes de si la ponen ellos al prinicipio con a, y al cabo deste manera, ha.
Tambien lo escriven a partes pero de la una y otra manera, yo no pusiera aqui
ni tratara dello sino por dar cuenta entera de las cosas desta gente. Ma in kati
quiere dezir no quiero, ellos lo escriven a partes desta manera : ma i n ka tiy-—
Landa, Belacion, p. 318, translated by Bancroft, Native Maces, vol. ii, p. 778,

3 g a

4- (liD b

7.
8.
9.

10.
11.

i 19,
ca 20.

S. (oo) b 14,

t 16. ^ n
'•^ ^ 17. c2>

.i :

18.

(Variation of a lul)

ffi)

P
PP

12. i."^ k 21 ^..^Ku

13 fel ) 1 22.

1 23.

IS- /ffl m 24.

25.
26.

?■

27. ?p .

o-fLo ma me ormo.

tZj (Variatiaii of ^)

I ha

^ ^

Landa's Alphabet.

sign of aspiration?

LANDA'S HIEROGLYPHICS. 425

the young people who have learned ours/'^ Landa has left us
other hieroglyphic signs, relating to the Maya months and days,
which will he given in the next chapter. Many of the hiero-
glyphics in his alphabet are plainly recognizable in the three
Maya MSS. which we have named, though it is quite certain
that other signs, which are wanting in his list, are found not
only in the MSS. but also among the inscriptions of the several
localities we have already described. Besides the attempts made
by Brasseur de Bourbourg to decipher the Maya writing, three
Americanistes in particular have bestowed labor upon the sub-
ject. These are Mr. Wm. Bollaert,^ M. Hyacinthe de Charencey,^
and M. Leon de Rosny,^ the latter of whom is the honorable
president of the Societe Americaine de France.

By means of Landa's key, Mr. Bollaert obtained encouraging
results from hieroglyphics figured in Stephens' works. In that
author's Yucatan, vol. ii, page 292, is seen a sculptured figure
with hieroglyphics represented on the upper part of the door
called Akatzeeb at Chichen-Itza. This tablet is examined by
Mr. Bollaert with the following result : " The figure (male) is
nude ; the cap is like those on the figures at Kabab, and has an
ornament round the neck ; the large crucible-form before him
contains fire, in which some small animal is being burnt or
sacrificed. Comparing the hieroglyphs on either side of the
figure with the Maya key, I get the following words : Ahau,
'king'; oc, 4eg'; Muluc, Ho unite'; ik, 'courage'; cih,
' copal ' ; eznab, ' magician ' ; no, ' frog ' ; which may mean
that the magician has in the crucible a frog to be sacrificed, in
which copal as incense is used. The two lines of hieroglyphs
give something like the following : Kings must die — they have

^ Relacion, p. 322.

* Bollaert, Examination of Central American Hieroglyphs, in Memoirs of
Anthropological Soc. of London, vol. iii, pp. 288-314. London, 1870.

^ Charencey, Bssai de Dechiffrement d'un fragment d'inscription palen-
queenne, in Actes de la Societe Philologique, torn. i. March, 1870.

* Rosny, Essai s^ir le Dechiffrement de Vtcriture Hieratique de UAm^rique
Centrale, Paris, 1876, folio, with large colored plates and fac- similes. In three
parts, two of which only have as yet appeared (Oct. 1878). The author informs
me (Feb. 1879) that a fourth part will be required to complete the work.

426 BOLLAERT'S INTERPRETATIONS.

courage, and after death are united to those who went before
them. The king is with his fathers ; the chief and his family
burn copal and mourn for his death." ^ On the tablet of the cross
at Palenque, Mr. Bollaert found in squares ezTiah, "magician"; dz,
"a hand"; the "aspiration sign" U ; and a part of zip, "tree."
Among the hieroglyphs he traced ahau, "king"; zip, "tree";
ahbal, "a plant"; pax, "a musical instrument." Mr. Bollaert
has attempted to read several other inscriptions with no more
satisfactory results.^ One or two of the same scholar's attempts
with the Dresden Codex yield the following : We come to thy
presence to implore. The yo ung female implores before the deity,
she weeps hut has courage. In a group representing a king and
a young female, he reads : She has made a vow about the king to
the magician, the king is happy. Again : The sacred bird chel
is sacrificed, there is weeping ; the bride weeps for the bird, she
makes a vote or prat/s for the king, she offers a tortoise, a
great feast is given.^ M. de Charencey translates the hieroglyph
found just above the child which is being offered to the bird on
the tablet of the cross at Palenque, by the word Hunabku, " the
only holy one." He also finds the name of Kukulcan and
eznab, " magician," the name of a month.** M. de Kosny in his
able essay on the decipherment of the hieratic writings of
Central America has undertaken the solution of this interesting
and perplexing problem in a scientific manner, and we have the
fullest confidence that his system constructed on Landa's key
will open to us the books and inscriptions of the Mayas. But
two of the four parts which constitute the work have been
published, still we think sufficient data has been placed at the
hands of scholars by M. de Kosny to justify the opinion that if
the remainder of his essay should never appear, the work of
interpreting some of the Maya writings might be carried on
with reasonable certainty. Landa's key contains seventy-one
signs (twenty for the days, eighteen for the months, and thirty-

' Bollaert in Memoirs of Anthropol. Soc. of London, vol. iii, p. 298.
2 Ibid, p. 301. 3 75j-^^ p 307.

* See a review of these attempts in Rosny's Essai, pp. 12-13, and remarks
on Charencey in Appendix D of Baldwin's Ancient America. ^

M. DE ROSNY'S KEY. 427

three in the alphabet.) M. de Kosny, by a careful exaraination
of all the hieratic texts of the Mayas which are known, has
discovered more than seven hundred different signs. Of this
number he has deciphered and classified four hundred and thirty-
nine as follows : Alphabetic signs, including Landa's (of which
all the others are but varieties), two hundred and sixty-two ;
signs of the days, one hundred and fifty-nine ; and the eighteen
signs of the months given by Landa. All these signs are classi-
fied in a double folio plate (PL XIII) which we believe deserves
to be regarded as the larger portion of the much-sought-for
Maya Rosetta stone. Considerable difference of opinion has
existed as to the direction in which the hieroglyphics should be
read. Brasseur held the view that the proper order was from
right to left, and that the beginning of a book was where our
books end. This mistake brought down the ridicule of scholars
upon the Abbe's head, when it was discovered that he had
begun at the wrong end to translate the Troano MS. Mr.
Bollaert says, "I have read from the bottom upwards and from
right to left.'' ^ Dr. Brinton ^ has suggested some such order as
the following arrangement of the word marvellous :

o 11 m

u e a

s V r
M. de Rosny has shown that the statement of Landa and
the fact that the human faces shown in the hieroglyphs look
toward the left, indicate that the signs should be read from left to
right.^ In rare cases this order is reversed, as is seen on a couple
of leaves of the Codex Peresianus. There are, no doubt, numer-
ous instances in which the signs are arranged in perpendicular
columns, and the order in which such columns are to be read is
not the same in all manuscripts. In the Maya inscriptions and
manuscripts, the "illustrations" or pictorial figures are inter-

' ExamiTuition of Gent. Am. Bier., p. 306.

2 The Andent PJionetic Alphabet of Yucatan, p. 6, N. Y., 1870, cited by
Rosny, Essai, p. 25.

3 Essai, p. 30 ; Rosny cites Bancroft's opinion to the same effect, Native
Baces, vol. ii, p. 783.

428 M- DE ROSNY'S KEY.

woven with the alphabetic signs forming an important part of
the writing. In many cases a page of MS. (as shown in Rosny's
plates) is divided into sections or squares, in which the hierogly-
phics are inseparably connected with grotesque figures which
accompany them and form a part of the writing. M. de Rosny
has undertaken the classification and interpretation of all these
figures which are found in the existing Maya MSS. This
doubtless will prove an important auxiliary to the table of
signs already alluded to. We may reasonably expect that since
M. de Rosny has shown the extensive character of the Maya
phonetic and symbolic alphabet, he will furnish us examples of
its application in the practical interpretation of the hierogly-
phics, in the latter part of his work. Recently Dr. Ph.Yalen-
tini has pronounced the Landa alphabet a Spanish fabrication,
of later date than the conquest. See Proceedings of Amer.
Antiquarian Soc. for April, 1880.

We do not deem it necessary to assure the reader that while
the Aztec picture-writing was not as far advanced in the scale of
graphic development as the system employed by the Mayas, still
it was an accurate means of communication and of recording
events. The " scribes" of the Mexicans were an educated class of
men, who with strictest accuracy painted in hieroglyphic symbols
the record of national, historic and traditional affairs, as well as
the tribute rolls, the calendar with its feast days, the stated ser-
vices of the gods, the genealogical tables of noble and royal per-
sonages, and even the customs of the humble classes. No doubt
many educated persons who did not belong to the priestly and
lettered class, were acquainted with the system employed, and
many others understood it sufficiently to recognize calendar and
feast signs. The Aztec books were painted mostly on cotton
cloth, prepared skins and maguey paper, and when not rolled
were folded fan-like and bound with thin wooden covers, like the
Maya books. The priests who accompanied the conquerors and
immediately followed them, mistook the pictured figures painted
in these books to be representations of heathen deities, and con-
sequently inaugurated a system of wholesale destruction of all
the picture-writing. Las Casas informs us that they were

DESTRUCTION OF THE MEXICAN MSS. 429

actuated by the fear that in matters of religion the existence
of these books would be injurious. The infamous crime com-
mitted against the cause of knowledge and the irreparable
injury done to the natives, their successors, and to students of
history for all time, by the destruction of those valuable MSS.,
must ever remain an unerasable blot upon the name of the early
church in Mexico, and must be ranked with the worst deeds of
Goths and Vandals. Juan de Zumarraga, the chief of these
sacrilegious destroyers who committed the annals of the Mexican
States publicly to the flames in his tour of the principal cities
of the country, will ever be remembered with proper contempt.
Fortunately, many of the MSS. were hidden by their owners
and have since come to light ; the greater number of these, how-
ever, were tribute rolls, which, down to the last century, played
an important part in the Mexican courts of justice. Prescott in-
forms us that " until late in the last century, there was a professor
in the University of Mexico especially devoted to the study of
the national picture-writing. But as this was with a view to
legal proceedings, his information probably was limited to de-
ciphering titles." In the course of time the priests became
acquainted with the harmless nature of the hieroglyphics,
through their use by the natives in their making confessions and
in recording the Lord's prayer. Many documents written since
the conquest were provided by their authors with a Span-
ish translation or with an explanation in Aztec written with
Spanish letters. Many of these are in existence, and with a
few authentic documents, written previous to the conquest, are
preserved in public and private libraries of Europe and this
country, the finest collection of which is that of the National
Museum of the University of Mexico. The reader is no doubt
already familiar w^ith the splendid fac-similes of several Mexican
MSS. published in Lord Kingsborough's work. Mr. Bancroft
has concisely narrated the events and vicissitudes which have
attended the transmission of some of these documents through
the hands of successive owners to their present depositories.^

' Native Races, vol. ii, pp. 539-33.

430 MEXICAN SYSTEM THREEFOLD.

Several writers on hieroglyphic systeros, and the above author
among them, have classified the progressive steps of picture-
writing into representative, symbolic, and phonetic. Of these,
the first is by far the simplest, and has invariably preceded the
others in the development of the graphic art. It was natural
for the savage to represent an object by a picture, in which that
object was surrounded with certain conditions ; at first the entire
object was pictured, but subsequently only a portion of the ob-
ject, as in the case of a bird, the head or foot or wing in the
more advanced stages of art, would be substituted for the object
itself. In symbolic picture-writing, we find an attempt at
representing abstract ideas and actions. Some quality or attri-
bute of a person is portrayed by means of the representative
process, by symbols which would naturally seem to suggest the
distinguishing characteristic of the person or occasion. A cer-
tain Aztec festival might be symbolized by the conventional
calendar sign, an altar, a flint knife held by a human hand, and
a smoking human heart. Phonetic picture-writing is, of course,
dependent upon the sounds of the language for which it is
designed. Its province is to represent those sounds by pictures
of objects in whose names the sounds occur. Words, syllables
and elementary sounds which are represented by alphabets, are
thus gradually evolved in the progression which follows. Mr.
Bancroft, by a most ingenious example, has illustrated this
principle as applied to our own language. " According to this
system," he says, "the k signifies successively the word ^hand,'
the syllable ^ hand ' in handsome, the sound ^ ha ' in happy, the
aspiration 'h' in head, and finally, by simplifying its form
or writing it rapidly, the ^ becomes ^ and then the ^h' of
the alphabet." ^ The Aztecs never reached the last stage of
phonetic development, namely, the alphabet. They, however,
employed the system in the syllabic formation of words to a
very considerable extent. The priests soon found the natives
applying their art of writing to the record of the standard
expressions employed in teaching the new faith. Amen was

^ Native Maces, vol. ii, p. 537.

SYMBOLIC WRITING. 431

expressed by the sign of water, ail associated with a maguey
plant, metl which united gave the word atl-metl, or after the
ever present Aztec termination tl is stricken off, we have a-me,
an approximation to our word Amen. Mr. Bancroft gives also
the following example of the manner in which the name Teo-
caltitlan was expressed by this syllabic-phonetic writing : " It
is written in one of the manuscripts of the Boturini collection
by a pictured pair of lips, tentU, for the syllable te ; footsteps,
symbolic of a road, otli for o ; a house, calU for cal ; and teeth,
tlantli for tlanti, being a common connective syllable." We
think the reader will find a clearer illustration in the word
Chapultepec, which literally means " hill of the grasshopper."
By reference to the Aztec migration map which has been pub-
lished by several authors ^ (the most correct copy accessible to
the general reader is that by Bancroft).^ A hill surmounted by
a grasshopper will be observed among the figures. The same
representation in different form will be seen in Boturini's picture-
map of the migration. Chapultepec is well known as the royal
hill, a short distance west of the city of Mexico, celebrated as
the country residence of Montezuma. Numerous similar exam-
ples might be selected from the migration maps of this combi-
nation of the three methods employed. Proper names were
always expressed in a similar manner. An example of the
representative and symbolic stages of the picture-writing of
the Aztecs has been given by Mr. Bancroft from the Codex
Mendoza in Kingsborough." We here reproduce the plate used
in the Native Races. It describes four steps or periods in the
education of children ; each period is supposed to refer to a
particular year. In the upper left-hand group we see a father
(fig. 3) punishing his son by holding him over the fumes of
burning chile (fig. 5) ; in the right-hand group the mother
threatens her daughter with similar punishment. In the second
group (figs. 12-13), a father j)unishes his son by exposing him

^ Gamelli Careri, Humboldt, Kingsborough, Ramirez in Garcia y Cubas, and
Bancroft ; see this work, chapter vi, p. 262. ^ Vol. ii, pp. 544-5.

3 Mex. Antiq., vol. i, pi. Ixi ; explanation, vol. v, pp. 96-7 ; Bancroft, vol. ii,
pp. 538-40.

432

CODEX MENDOZA PICTURE-WRITING.

Education of Children according to the Codex Mendoza.

bound hand and foot on the damp ground. A bad boy twelve
years of age, according to Aztec custom was always punished in
this way, and his punishment lasted during an entire day. A

CODEX MENDOZA PICTURE-WRITING. 433

disobedient girl of the same age was obliged to rise in the night
and sweep the whole house, as is shown in the right-hand group,
or, as no tear is seen in her eye, she may be learning. At the age
of eight years children were only shown the instrument of pun-
ishment ; at ten they were pricked with maguey thorns, or if
still unruly, were whipped. The above groups show the methods
employed during the eleventh and twelfth years, after which
age a child was supposed to be pretty well disciplined. In
the third group a father directs his boys (fig. 21) how to trans-
port wood, both upon the back and in the canoe, while the
mother teaches the daughter (fig. 23) to make tortillas and use
the mealing stone and other utensils (figs. 25, 26, 28) ; the tor-
tillas are also represented (fig. 27). In the fourth group the son
learns the use of the fish-net and the daughter that of the loom.
The allowance of tortillas apportioned' to the children at the ages
represented are shown in figs. 2, 8, 11, 16, 20, 24, 30 and 34.
The remaining figures are not representative, but symbolic. The
small circles (figs. 1, 10, 19, 29) are numerals indicating that
the child was successively eleven, twelve, thirteen and fourteen
years of age. A circle or dot was always used for a unit. The
comma-like figure issuing from the mouth of the parent is the
symbol of speech. The tears in the children's eyes need no
explanation. The singular figure (17) above the girl in the
second group is said to be symbolical of night, and to indicate
that the sweeping was required in the night.

For most interesting specimens of Aztec picture-writing as
well as their supposed explanation, we refer the reader to the
Gemelli Careri and Boturini Migration maps in the Atlas of
Garcia y Cubas, or in the second volume of Mr. Bancroft's work,
which are the only places where they are to be found correctly
reproduced. Mr. Delafield sought to find an analogy between
the Aztec and Egyptian hieroglyphic systems on no other ground
than that both were representative, symbolic and phonetic, a
most wonderful discovery indeed.^ Notwithstanding this fact,

^ Delafield, Antiq. of Am., pp. 43-7. M. Ed. Madierde Montjau has recently
added much to our understanding of Aztec picture-writing in his Chronologie

434 MEXICAN MIGRATION MAP.

and many similar eiForts, no marked analogy between the Aztec
picture-writing and the hieroglyphic systems of any other peo-
ples has yet been pointed out.^

hieroglyphico-phonetic des rois AztSques de 1352-1523 retrouvee dans di verses
mappes americaines antiques, expliquee et precedee d'une introduction sur
I'Ecriture mexieaine. A valuable article on the same subject is found in the
Congrh des Americanistes, Luxembourg, 1877, torn, ii, pp. 346-362, by M. I'Abbe
Jules Pipart, entitled Elements phonetiques dans les Ecritures liguratives des
anciens Mexicains.

* An excellent account of the various collections of Aztec picture-writing
will be found in the introduction to Domenech's Manuscrit PictogTnphique,
Paris, 1860, 8vo ; a book which would be valueless but for that feature. See
also account of M. Aubun's collection in Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ.,
tom. i, pp. Ixxvi-lxxviii. For general description of hieroglyphic principles
see Tylor, Researches, pp. 89-101, and Humboldt, Vues, tom. i, pp. 177-9, 162-
202. See also Boturini, Idea de una Hist., pp. 5, 77, 87, 96, 112, 116. Prescott,
Conq. Mex. (Kirk's ed., 1875), vol. i, pp. 94, 99, 107-9. Clavigero, Storia Ant.
del Messico, tom. ii, pp. 187-94. Mendoza, in 8oc. Mex. Qeog. Boletin, 2d epoca,
tom. i, pp. 896-904. Gallatin in Amer. Ethno. Soc. Transact., vol. i, pp. 126,
165-69. Kingsborough's Mex. Ant., vol. vi, p. 87, and Ixtlilxochitl's ^i«?.
(Jhich. in Kingsborough, vol. ix, p. 201. Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i,
p. 149. Bancroft's Native Races, vol. ii, pp. 521-53.

Map op Yucatan.— We have found it impossible in this chapter to convey any adequate
idea of the number and extent of the ruins scattered over Central America and Mexico. Only
by reference to an accurately prepared map, having distinctness and detail, can a proper niuler-
standing of this interesting tield be reached. Maps of Northern and Central Mexico alone,
meeting the requirements, have for some time been accessible, but a reliable map of Yucatan
and of neighboring States has long been a desideratum. This great want has recently been
supplied by the pul)lication in New York of a rare specimen of cartography, bearing the title,
Mapa de la Peninsula de Yucatan, compilado por Joaquin Hubbe y Andres Azuar Perez y re-
visado y aumentado con datos importantes por C. Hermann Berendt, 1S78— size, 28X36 inches.
Stephens, in his work on Tticatan, indicated the sites of many remains discovered by him ;
but Seflor Perez has for the first time brought before us a view of the whole field, including
Yucatan and Campeachy, together with the greater part of Tabasco and Belize, and portions
of Guatemala and Chiapas, showing, by means of appropriate symbols, the great number of
known ruins. The map has met with merited approval from the American Antiquarian So-
ciety, and has been reproduced in J>r.A. Petermann-8 Mittheilungen aus Jiistus Perthes Geogra-
phische Anstalt, Gotha, Band 25, No. VI, 1879.

CHAPTER IX.

CHRONOLOGY, CALENDAR SYSTEMS AND RELIGIOUS ANALOGIES.

No Mound-builder Chronology known — Maya Calendar — Landa on the Calendar
— Maya Days — Maya Months — The Katun — The Ahau Katun or Great
Cycle — The Maya System Adjusted to our Chronology — The Adjustment
by Perez — Intercalary Days — The Nahua Calendar — The Sources — Divi-
sions of Mexican Calendar — The Aztec Year — The Nemontemi — Aztec
Months — Aztec Days — Nahua Ritual Calendar — Mexican Calendar Stone —
Sources of Interpretation — History of the Stone — Interpretation of the
Stone — Date of the Origin of the Calendar Stone — Date of the Nahua
Migration — Analogies with the Nahua Calendar — Religious Analogies —
Jewish Analogies — Deluge Traditions — Supposed Parallels in Jewish and
Mexican History — Analogies of Doctrine — Analogies of Ceremonial Law —
Yucatanic Trinity Myth — Mexican and Asiatic Analogies — Buddhism in
the New World — Scandinavian Analogies — Mexican and Greek Analogies
— Brasseur de Bourbourg's Comparisons.

Chronology and Calendar Systems. — No tablet or relic of
Mound-builder origin has yet been discovered, which can be
said to give any clue to the system of chronology employed by
that people. Several supposed calendar stones have been found,
such, for instance, as the Cincinnati Tablet referred to in Chap-
ter I, and the Tablet from Mississippi in the possession of Wm.
Marshall Anderson, Esq., of Circleville, Ohio. However, their
character is only a matter of conjecture, since no progress what-
ever has been made toward evolving any system from them.
Farther south, on the soil where a higher civilization flourished,
we meet with two calendar systems, which, while they have
several points of resemblance, are quite distinct from each other.

The first of these, the Maya, is probably the most ancient
Bishop Landa is our chief authority in this field, though Don
Juan Pio Perez, a more recent writer, also familiar with the

436

LANDA ON THE CALENDAR

Maya language, has furnished us some material.^ Bishop Landa
informs us that the Mayas had a year of 365 days and 6 hours
divided into months (a month being called a U) in two ways,
first into months of thirty days each, and second, into eighteen
months of twenty days each. As the Bishop makes no explana-
tion of the former statement, we are unable to determine whether

Cteian.

Cuni.

The Maya Days.

the months of thirty days each were employed in Yucatan prior
to the conquest, or not, but we are rather inclined to the opinion
that they were not.

The month of twenty days was called the Uinal-Hun-eheli,
and might commence on any of the days represented by the
hieroglyphics, in the left-hand column of the table of days. These
months were eighteen in number, thus making a year of 360 days.
The Mayas, however, corrected the error by adding five inter-

' Landa, Relacion, pp. 204-316, and tlie -work by Perez, entitled Cronologia
Antigua de Yucatan, with Brasseur's translation into French in the above
work, pp. 366-429. Also see English translation in Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i,
pp. 434-59. See also Orozco y Berra, Oeografia, pp. 104-8, and an able dis-
cussion in Bancroft's Native Races, vol. ii, pp. 755-67.

LANDA'S MAYA MONTHS.

437

Tzee.

Chen.

Xul.

Yax.

Kayab.

Vaxkir

Zac.

CuiTihu.

The Maya Months.

Tzoz.

Mol.

Ceh.

Pax,

calary days and six hours to the 360 days ; and once every fonr
years, Landa informs us, they counted 366 days a year. The five
supplementary days were considered unlucky, and were known
as the " nameless days " because they were never called by any

438 LANDA'S MAYA MONTHS.

particular designation. The accompanying cut is a photographic
reproduction of Landa's plate, and shows accurately the Maya
days in their proper order. ^ (Page 436.)

Though the intercalary days were " nameless " and character-
ized as the " bed or chamber of the year/' " the mother of the
year," " bed of creation/' " travail of the year/' '' lying days,"
or " bad days," etc., still ^ve of the above twenty were reckoned
for them in regular order.

The year began on a day corresponding to our 16th of July —
" a date," as Mr. Bancroft observes, " which varies only forty-
four hours from the time when the sun passes the zenith — an
approximation as accurate as could be expected from observation
made without instruments." ^

The Maya months as figured in Landa's work are shown in
the accompanying photo-engraving. (Page 437.)

The translation of the names of the days and months is some-
what uncertain. The following equivalents are the same as those
given by Senor Perez, except in a few instances where Brasseur
and Rosny have made corrections.

TRANSLATION OF THE DAYS.

1. Kan, "string of twisted hemp" (yellow).

2. Chicchan, signification unknown.

3. Cimi, preterit of cimil, to kill = " dead."

4. Manik, " wind that passes " (? t)

5. Lamat, signification unknown.

6. Muluc, " reunion " (? ?)

7. Oc, " that which may be held in the palm of the hand.**

8. CAwew,'* board "(??)

9. El, " ladder."

10. Ben, " to distribute with economy " (? ?)

11. Ix, "fish-skin" (Rosny), "witch, witchcraft" (Brasseur), "roughness"

(Perez).

12. Men, "hmlder."

13. Gib, " gum copal."

14. Caban, " heaped up " (Brasseur).

15. Ezanab, " flint " (Brasseur).

^ Landa's Relacion, p. 204. Bancroft's Natwe Races, vol. ii, p. 756.
^ Bancroft's Native Races, vol. ii, p. 757.

THE KATUNES. 439

16. CauaCy signification unknown.

17. Ahau, " king, or period of twenty-four years."

18. Tmix, signification unknown. " Corn " (V ?)

19. Ik, " wind," "spirit," according to Rosny, one of the symbols of Kukul-

can or Quetzalcoatl.

20. AkbcU, " approach of night " (Brasseur).

TRANSLATION OF THE MONTHS.'

1. Pop, " mat of cane."

2. Uo, " frog."

3. Zip, " a tree " (Perez), " fault, error " (Brasseur).

4. Tzoz, '' & hsit:'

5. Tzec, signification unknown.

6. Xul, " end or conclusion."

7. Yaxkin, signification unknown. " Summer " (? ?)

8. Mol, " to re-unite, to recover."

9. Chen, " a well."

10. Tax, " first," or Taax, ** blue."

11. Zac, "white."

12. Ceh, " a deer."

13. Mac, " a lid or cover."

14. Kankin, "yellow sun," " because in this month of April the atmosphere

is charged with smoke," owing to the work of clearing the soil.

15. Jf ?/n! 7?, " cloudy weather" (Brasseur).

16. Pax, " musical instrument."

17. Kaydb, "singing."

18. Gumhu, " thunder-clap," " detonation." '

Though these translations may seem uninteresting by them-
selves, they are of great value when taken in connection with
Landa's alphabet and M. de Rosny's interpretations. They must
ever be important factors in attempts to translate the inscriptions
and codices.

Another division of time among the Mayas of a complicated
character was the Katun or Cycle of 52 years. The Katun was
composed of four periods (indictions or weeks) of 13 years
each, enumerated by a system of reckoning kept simultaneously
with the current reckoning of days, months and years. The
mode of computing, the Katunes was, according to Landa and

' See Perez's Appendix to Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i, pp. 458-59, and in
Landa's Rdacion, Appendix, pp. 370-382, and Brasseur in the same. Especially
'Ro&njy.Essai sur le Deck, de Vtcvit. Hierat. de L'Amer. Cent., pp. 15-24.

440 THE KATUNES.

PereZj briefly as follows : ^ The year was divided into twenty-
eight periods of thirteen days each. These periods for con-
venience have been called weeks, and the number of days of
which each is composed may have been suggested by the num-
ber of days embraced in the moon's increase and decrease^
twenty-six days constituting about the actual time in which
the moon is seen above the horizon during each lunation.^ The
weeks were divided off by counting thirteen days from the begin-
ning of the list of days shown on page 436, Kan constituting
the first day of the first week and according to usage applying
its name to the weeks. The week was consequently called by
the name of the day on which it began. Caban being the four-
teenth day of the current month, became the first day of another
w^eek; but as not enough days remain to complete it, the enumera-
tion is begun again and continued down to Muluc, the sixth day
of the next month. Oc, the seventh day, then becomes the start-
ing point for another w^eek, which assumes its name, and thus the
computation is carried on ad infinitum. A numeral preceded
each day designating its position in the week. The people of
Yucatan painted a small circle in which they placed the four
hieroglyphics of the initial days which constitute the left-hand
column of signs given on page 436. Kan was placed in the east,
Muluc in the north, Ix in the west and Cauac in the south.
These signs were termed the '^carriers of the years" because no
month or year could begin on any of the twenty days, but on one
of these. Since twenty days constitute a current month, it is
apparent that every month in a given year must begin with the
same day. However, the introduction of the five intercalary
days at the end of the year, changed the initial day on which
the months of the different years began. In reckoning the
Katun it is further observed that the numeral which indicates
the day of the week (of thirteen days) which falls upon the first
of a given month, varies. Supposing the month to begin on Kan
and the numeral of the first day to be 1, the numerals indicative

' Landa, Relacion, p. 234. Perez in Landa, pp. 394 et seq., and in Stephens'
Yucatan, vol. i, p. 489 ; also see Bancroft, vol. ii, pp. 759 et seq.

2 Perez in Landa, Relacion, pp. 36G-8 ; also cited by Bancroft, vol. ii, p. 759.

THE AHAU KATUN OR GREAT CYCLE. 441

of the days of the week (composed of thirteen days) falling on
Kan throughout the eighteen months, would be, 8, 9, 3, 10, 4,
11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7, 1, 8, 2, 9, 3.

The Katun year consisted, as we have seen, of twenty-eight
weeks of thirteen days each, and one additional day, making
in all 365 days. If the year commenced with number one of the
week, the additional day (the 365th) caused it to end on the
same number. The ensuing year would then begin with number
two, and so on through the thirteen numbers of the week, as
follows : 1. Kan, 2. Muluc, 3. Ix, 4. Cauac, 5. Kan, 6. Muluc,
7. Ix, 8. Cauac, 9. Kan, 10. Muluc, 11. Ix, 12. Cauac, 13. Kan,
thus completing an indiction or week of years.. The same com-
bination of names and numerals can only occur after the lapse
of the Katun or cycle comprising four of these indictions or
fifty-two years. Not only the years of the week, but also the
indictions themselves were named by the four initial symbols.
The first indiction of each Katun being named Kan, the second
Muluc, the third Ix, and the fourth Cauac. The completion of a
Katun or fifty-two years was celebrated with feasts and rejoicings
as an event of great moment. A monument was reared as a
memorial of the event. It is not impossible that the great num-
ber of pillars, observed by Stephens at Chichen-Itza were of
this character, serving as landmarks to Maya chronology.^

A third division of time employed by the Mayas was the
great cycle of 312 years, composed, according to Senor Perez,^
of thirteen periods of time, each embracing twenty-four years.
Each of these thirteen periods was called an Ahau Katun, and
was divided into two parts. The first part, embracing twenty
years, was enclosed in a square and called Amaytum lamayte, or
lamaijtum; and the other part of four years, which formed as it
were a pedestal for the first, was called Chek oc Katun, or lath
oc Katun, meaning " stool " or " pedestal." He affirms that the
latter were intercalated, therefore believed to be unfortunate as
were the five supplementary days of the year. This may account

' Stephens' Yucatan, vol. ii, pp. 318-19. Stephens was unable to assign any
use to the pillars referred to. He counted upwards of 880. Dr. Le Plongeon
accords with our view. 2 gtepliens' Yucatan, vol. i, pp. 441 et seq.

442

SUCCESSION OF THE AHAU KATUNES.

for their not being reckoned with the Ahau Katun by any other
writer. Just here lies the discrepancy which has created most
of the confusion in the investigation of this subject. However,
if we accept the statement of Senor Perez, that the Ahau Katun
embraced twenty-four years instead of the testimony of every
other writer that it included but twenty years, we shall have
moderately fair sailing until we split upon the rock of his inac-
curacies as to dates. He tells us that these periods took their
name from Ahau, the second of those years that began in Cauac,
and from the order of the numerals accompanying those days
would succeed each other according to the numbers 13, 11, 9,
7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2. The Indians established the num-
ber 13 Ahau as the first, because some great event happened in
that year. If the 13 Ahau Katun began on a second day of the
year, it must have been the year which began on 12 Cauac, and
the 12th of the indiction. The next or the 11 Ahau would com-
mence in the year 10 Cauac, which combination in its rotation
would happen after a lapse of twenty-four years. The third or
9 Ahau would begin in 8 Cauac twenty-four years later, in illus-
tration of which we follow out the rotation of the four names of
the years, Kan, Muluc, Ix and Cauac, through the indictions of
thirteen years each, until we have noted the numerals accom-
panying them during twenty- four years. Our starting point
will be the commencement of the second Ahau Katun on the
second day of 10 Cauac.

Year of
13 Year
Indiction

I^ame of Year.

Year of
Period or
2U Years.

Year of

13 Year

Indiction.

N^anie of Year.

Year of
Penod of
2k Years.

Cauac

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

10
11
12

Cauac

13
14
15

16 i

17 1
18

19
20
21
22
23
24
1st of a new
period.

Kan

Muluc

Cauac

Kan

Muluc

Cauac

Kan

Muluc

Cauac

MAYA SYSTEM ADJUSTED TO OUR CHRONOLOGY. 443

As above stated the new Ahau Katun begins in the year 8
Cauac, and as it invariably began on the second day of the
year, that day would be 9 Ahau, as Ahau is the next letter in
the alphabet after Cauac. An extension of the table will show
that the next period will begin in 6 Cauac on 7 Ahau, and so
on in the order of the numerals given above. Thirteen Ahau
Katunes, as previously stated, constituted a great cycle of three
hundred and twelve years. Sr. Perez states that according to
all sources of information, confirmed by the testimony of Don
Cosme de Burgos, one of the conquerors and a writer (but whose
observations have been lost), the year 1392 a. d. corresponded to
the Maya year 7 Cauac, and as the second day of that year was
the beginning of an era of twenty-four years, it must have been
8 Ahau Katun. By dividing off the time between that date
and the beginning of the present century into periods of twenty-
four years each, and extending a table of the rotation of the four
names of the years, the reader will observe that 13 Ahau will
fall in the year 1800 ; 11 Ahau in 1824 ; 9 Ahau in 1848 ; 7
Ahau in 1872, and 5 Ahau in 1896, three hundred and twelve
years intervening before this, and any similar combination of
Ahau Katunes either have occurred or can be repeated. This
would be highly satisfactory if Sr. Perez could be relied upon
in this particular, which is doubtful. We are sorry to say that
he is certainly chargeable with inaccuracies, which impair the
value of his whole system. Most conspicuous of these is one
pointed out by Mr. Bancroft, to which we refer the reader
below. Senor Perez sets about the verification of his system
by citing the death of a notable personage named Ahpula. He
states that Ahpula died in the sixth year of 13 Ahau, when
the first day of the year was 4 Kan, on the day 9 Imix, the
eighteenth of the month Zip. It is seen that 13 Ahau is the
second day of the year 12 Cauac which falls in the year 1488,
also that the year 1493 is the sixth from the beginning of
13 Ahau, and that its first day is 4 Kan, which is the title
of the year. The day is the eighteenth of the month Zip, cor-
responding to the eleventh of September. The statement is
also made that this date fell on 9 Imix. This is tested as fol-

444 THE ADJUSTMENT BY PEREZ.

lows : The first month of that year comraenced on 4 Kan,
which combination names the year. The number (of the week
of thirteen days) is found by adding seven to the number of
the first day of each month successively. The number of the
first day of the first month, Pop, in this case being 4, the
number of the first day of the second month (Uo) would be

4 -f 7 = 11, and that of the first day of the third month (Zip)
would be 11 + 7= 18, but as the week consists of but thirteen
days, that number must be substracted, leaving 5 Kan as the
first day of Zip. If Zip begins on the twenty-fifth of August,
the day 9 Imix will be found to correspond both with the eigh-
teenth of Zip and the eleventh of September, if the Katun
week of thirteen days is counted off regularly, beginning with.

5 Kan. Sr. Perez is correct enough in his calculations, but un-
fortunately his system of twenty -four years to the Ahau Katun
or his informant as to the correspondence of the Ahau Katunes
with our chronology (no doubt the latter) is incorrect, since the
Maya manuscript furnished and translated by Perez and pub-
lished in the works of Stephens and Landa, states explicitly
that Ahpula died in a. d. 1536, instead of 1493 (incorrectly
printed 1403 in Bancroft's work), a date which is irreconcilable
with the system of twenty-four years to the Ahau, reckoned
from 1392 as a starting point. Neither will the statement of
Landa that the year 1541 corresponded with the beginning
of 11 Ahau relieve the difficulty, but rather increases it, since
it will neither harmonize with the date of Ahpula's death given
in the MS. nor with the system by Perez. Furthermore, while
Landa gives the same succession of numerals for the recur-
rence of the Ahaus, he states that they embraced but twenty
years each, thus making it impossible for the combinations of
names and numerals to correspond to the order which he lays
down for their succession. Landa is no doubt incorrect in his
statement. Sr. Perez is at least consistent in his adaptation of
the length of the Ahau Katun to the order of numerals given
by Landa and others. Recently, M. Delaporte, a member of the
Societe Americaine de France, has, by a series of extended calcu-
lations, vindicated tlie correctness of the statement of Sr. Perez,

INTERCALARY DAYS. 445

that the Ahau Katun embraced twenty-four years. M. de
Kosny agrees with M. Delaporte in his conclusions. The fault
of Perez, probably, lies in his adaptation of the Ahaus to
our chronology, and in carelessness. Amidst these discrepan-
cies it is impossible to fix accurately the dates of the Maya
history, though they can be approximated.^ Senor Perez cites
Boturini as stating that the day introduced every four years to
compensate for the annual loss of six hours, was observed by
counting the symbol for the three hundred and sixty-fifth day
twice, as the Komans did with their bissextile days, thus leaving
the order undisturbed.^

The Naliua Galndar system closely resembles that of the
Mayas, a fact which adds to the abundant proof that both
civilizations had grown up under nearly the same influences, and
that they had largely affected each other. If the trifling differ-
ences of a few writers concerning some of the details of the
Aztec calendar be overlooked, and the best authorities (together
with a little exercise of judgment) be followed, the system be-
comes comparatively simple. Sahagun, Leon y Gama, Hum-
boldt, Veytia, Galatin, McCulloch, Miiller, Bancroft, Chavero,
and Prof. Valentini, are the authorities to whom we refer the
reader.^

' See Landa, Relacion, pp. 313, 400-413 ; Stephens, Yucatan, Perez, vol. i,
pp. 441-447, MS. cited in vol. ii, pp. 465-469 ; Bancroft, Native Races, vol. ii,
pp. 763-765 ; M. Delaporte, Le Calendricr Tucateque, MS. cited by Rosny,
Essai sur le decMffrement de L'Ecriture Hieratique, p. 25.

2 Perez in Stephens' Yucatan, vol. i, p. 447.

3 Sahagun, Hist. Gen., torn, i, lib. ii, pp. 49-76 ; lib. iv, pp. 283-310, gives
a partial though very satisfactory account. Leon y Gama, Bos Piedras,
is critical and learned, but often incorrect. Humboldt, Vues, furnishes an
elaborate account, which is very valuable though complicated. Veytia's ex-
planation is the result of thorough research. Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. i. Gallatin
is extremely clear and reliable in Amer. Ethno. Soc. Transactions, vol. i.
McCulloch's Researches in Amer., pp. 201-25. Bancroft's Native Races, vol. ii,
pp. 502-33, furnishes us an account, clear and full, as are all of his discus-
sions. Several cuts enhance the value of the chapter. We especially refer the
reader to his rich bibliography of the subject, appended in notes. A number
of additional authors are before us : Ixtlilxochitl, Mullcr, Herrera, Clavigero,
Brasseur de Bourbourg, Boturini, Prichard, but last and best is the ingenious
and masterly Vortraj uber den Mexicanischen Calender stein gehalten von Prof.

446

THE AZTEC YEAR.

The Mexican Calendar contains divisions as follows : The
age, called hueliuetiliztli, embraced two cycles of fifty-two years
each, thus equalizing one hundred and four years. The cycle
of fifty-two years was named xiuhmolpilli^ xiuhmolpia, and
xiuhtlaljoilli, signifying the " binding up of the years " and con-
sisted of four periods of thirteen years each. These periods or
indictions were called "knots," while the single years were
called xiJiuitl or " new grass," because anciently, before the in-
vention of the calendar, the Nahuas were only able to distinguish
the revolution of the years by the annual appearance of fresh
vegetation and new grass. The age was but little used, the
cycle being the common measure for long periods. The years in
a given cycle were designated as among the Mayas, by means
of the consecutive rotation of four signs, each accompanied
with a numeral. The signs were tochtli, " rabbit " ; acatl, " cane " ;
tecpatl, " flint," and calli, " house." The following table illus-
trates the rotation occurring in one cycle :

IsT Tlalpilli.

2d Tlalpilli.

So Tlautixi.

4th Tlalpilu.

Name* of Years.

Samesnf

Years

Trans ated.

Nametof Years.

A^ame* of

Years
Translated.

Names of Years.

Xames of

Years
Translated.

Xametof Years.

Name, of
TransuLd.

Ce TochtU . . ,

Rabbit.

Ce Acatl ....

Cane.

Ce Tecpatl . . .

Flint.

Ce Cam

House.

Ome AcaU . . .

Caoe.

Ome Tecpatl . .

Flint.

Ome CaUl. . . .

House,

Ome TochtU . .

Rabbit-

Yey Tecpatl . .

Flint.

Yey CaUi. . . .

House.

Yey TochtU . .

Rabbit

Yey AcaU . , .

Cane.

Nahui CaUi. . .

House.

Nahui TochtU .

4. Rabbit.

Nahui AcaU . .

Cane.

Nahui TecpaU .

FUnt.

Macailli I
Tochtli ) • • •

Rabbit.

Macuilli 1
Acatl f • • •

Cane.

MacuiUi j
Tecpatl ) ■ • •

Flint.

MacuiUi (
CaUi S '"

House.

Chicoace j
AcaU ) ■ • ■

6. Cane.

Chicoace ^
Tecpatl ) ■ ■ ■

nint.

Chicoace )
CaUi ) ' ■ •

House.

Chicoace (
TochtU )■"•••

Rabbit.

Chicome \
Tecpatl r • •

Flint.

Chicome )
CaUi f • • •

House.

Chicome |
Tochtli f ■ "

Rabbit.

Chicome )
Acatl S ' '

Cane.

Chico y Calli ,

House.

Chico y Tochtii.

Rabbit.

Chico y Acatl .

Cane.

Chico y Tecpatl

FUnt

Chico Nahui 1
TochtU )

Rabbit.

Chico Nahui j
AcaU. f

Cane.

Chico Nahui)
TecpaU f

Flint.

Chico Nahui 1
CalU f

House.

Matlactll )
Acatl ■ ' ' '

10.

Cane.

MatlactU 1
Tecpatl ) • • •

10.

Flint.

MatlactU )
CalU S" '

10.

House.

MatlactU \^
Tochtli ) • ■ •

10.

Rabbit

MaUactli occe |
Tecpatl

11.

Flint.

Matlactli occe )
Calli )

11.

House.

MatlactU occe )
TochtU j

11.

Rabbit.

MatlacUi occe |
AcaU j

11.

Cane.

MatlactU om- )
ome Calli

12.

House.

MatlacUi om- j
ome Tochtli

12.

Rabbit.

MatlacUi om- 1
ome Acatl. j

12.

Cane.

MatlactU om- )
ome Tecpatl j

12.

Flint.

Matlactli cm- )
ey TochtU j

13.

Rabbit.

MatlactU om- |
ey Acatl J

13.

Cane.

MaUactU om- \
ey TecpaU J

13. Flint.

Matlactli om- 1
ey CalU (

13.

House.

Ph. Valentini, am 30 April, 1S78 (in Republican Hall, New York), vor dem
Beutsch ges. iciaaenschaftlkhen Verein, 32 pp. 8vo, recently translated and pub-
lished by Stephen Salisbury, Jr.

THE AZTEC YEAR. 447

As in the Maya rotation of years no confusion could occur, so
with the Mexican, as the same combination could be made only
once in fifty-two years. The cycles themselves were distinguished
by numbers. Confusion is liable to arise in studying the early
writers, since the Toltecs and Aztecs began their reckoning on
different signs, the former on Tecpatl, and the latter on Tochtli.
The year consisted of eighteen months of twenty days each, to
which were added five days called nemontemi or " unlucky days.''
Every superstition seemed to centre in the nemontemi, for no
business of importance nor enterprise of the most insignificant
character would be undertaken upon these days. Both the
names of the months and the particular month which served to
begin the year, as well as the date of the first day of the year,
have been fruitful subjects of controversy between authors.
Mr. Bancroft has tabulated the names given by twenty-one
writers, and shown the disagreements existing between them.^
The dates for the first day of the year range between the ninth
of January and the tenth of April. Gama, Humboldt and
Gallatin, by careful calculations, have shown that the first year
of a Nahua cycle commenced on the thirty-first day of Decem-
ber, old style, or on the ninth day of January, new style, with
the month Titill and the day Cipactli.-

The names and order of the months, together with their
etymologies, as adopted by Mr. Bancroft, are as follows :
1. Titill, meaning "our mother," according to Boturini, or
" fire," according to Cabrera ; 2. Itzcalli, translated " regenera-
tion " by Boturini, "skill'' by the Codex Vaticanus, and the
" sprouting of the grass " by Veytia ; 3. Atlcahualco, meaning
the " abating of the waters." Another name (Quahuillehua)
applied to *his month signified "burning of the mountains,"
referring to the forests ; 4. Tlacaxipehualiztli, is translated
"the flaying of the people." Another name applied to this
month, Cohuailhuitl, means the "feast of the snake"; 5. Toz-
oztontli is rendered " small fast " or " penance "; 6. Hueytozoztli,

^ Bancroft's Natme Races, vol. ii, p. 508.

^ Mr. Bancroft also follows tlie opinion that tlie above date is the correct
ouQ.— Native Races, vol. ii, p. 515.

448 AZTEC WEEKS— DAYS.

means "great fast'' or "penance''; 7. Toxcatl, a "necklace";
8. Etzalqualiztli, "bean stew" or "maize gruel"; 9. Tecuilhu-
itzintli, "small feast of the Lord"; 10. Hueytecuilhuitl, " great
feast of the Lord"; 11. Miccailhuitzintli, translated "small
feast of the dead"; 12. Hueymiccailhuitl, "great feast of the
dead"; 13. Ochpaniztli, "cleaning of the streets"; 14. Teo-
tleco, "arrival of the gods." The names Pachtli, "moss
hanging from trees," and Pachtontli, " humiliation," were often
applied to this month ; 15. Hueypachtli, " great feast of
humiliation," sometimes called Tepeilhuitl, " feast of the moun-
tains"; 16. Quecholli, "peacock"; 17. Panquetzaliztli, "the
raising of flags and banners"; 18. Atemoztli, means the "dry-
ing up of the waters."

The month, consisting of twenty days, was divided into four
weeks of five days each. Mr. Bancroft states that each of the
weeks began with one of the four signs — Tochtli, Calli, Tecpatl
or Acatl, used to designate the years ; but his own engraving of
the Aztec month, and the order of the days on the Calendar-
Stone, contradict this statement.^ The following are the days
in their proper order, with their translations affixed : 1. Cipactli,
" sea-animal," " sword-fish," or " serpent with harpoons."
2. Ehacatl, "wind." 3. Calli, "house." 4. Cuetzpalin, "lizard."
5. Coatl, "snake." 6. Miquiztli, "death." 7. Mazatl, "deer."
8. Tochtli, "rabbit." 9. Atl, "water." 10. Itzcuintli, " dog."
11. Ozomatli, " monkey." 12. Mollinalli, " brushwood " or " tan-
gled grass." 13. Acatl, "cane." 14. Ocelotl, "tiger." 15. Quanhtli,
"eagle." 16. Cozcaquauhtli, "vulture." 17. Ollin, "move-
ment." 18. Tecpatl, "flint." 19. Quahuitl, "rain." 20. Xo-
chitl, "flower."

The day was divided into sixteen hours.^ Sfihagun and
several authors state that the loss of six hours in each Aztec
year was counterbalanced by the addition of a day every four
years. Gama demonstrates this to be a mistake, and states that
they added twelve and a half days at the close of every cycle of

^ Bancroft's Native Maces, vol. ii, p. 512.
' Prof. V^alentini, Vortrag, p. 16,

DIVISIONS OF THE RITUAL TEAR. 449

fifty-two years. Mr. Bancroft cites this fact, and states the time
added to have been thirteen days.^

The Nahuas had also a ritual calendar, for the purpose of
reckoning their religious feasts, which was altogether different
from the civil system, except that it employed the twenty days,
the year of 365 days, and at the end of a cycle added the thirteen
days to compensate for the time lost during that period.^ The
year consisted of two parts, the first composed of twenty weeks
of thirteen days each (for there were no months in the ritual
year) making 260 altogether. This portion of the year was
called Meztli poliualli or the "lunar computation," from the fact
that half of the time during which the moon is visible is thirteen
days. The smaller part, composed of 105 days reckoned by a
continuation of the periods of thirteen days, was called Toual-
pohualli or " solar computation." ^ The days were numbered
from one up to thirteen, the fourteenth day of the first solar
month being counted the first of another lunar week, and thus
the reckoning continued. However, it will be observed that the
same number would fall twice on one name in the course of a
year ; accordingly accompanying signs were provided for the
regular names of days. The duplication could not occur if the
second division embraced 104 days instead of 105.

The distinguishing signs were nine in number, called quecJiolU,
"lords of the night." They were as follows: Tletl, "fire";
Tecpatl, "flint"; Xochitl, "flower"; Centeotl, "goddess of
maize"; Miquiztli, "death"; Atl, "water"; Tlazolteotl, "god-
dess of love"; TepeyoUotli, "a mountain deity"; Quiahuitl,
" rain," the god Tlaloc. The lords of the night, though reck-
oned from the first of the year, were not mentioned except in
connection with the 105 days of the second division.

The reader will more clearly understand the relation of the

^ Native Races, vol. ii, p. 513.

' Mr. Bancroft incorrectly states that thirteen days were intercalated at the
end of each tlalpilli (13 years). It is plain that if 365 days constitute a year,
the lost time would not amount to thirteen days before fifty-two years.

^ Prof. Valentini quotes the terms given above, and Mr. Bancroft states that
the same process of computation was pursued in both divisions.

450 MEXICAN CALENDAR STONE.

two systems to each other by constructing a table of four paral-
lel columns. In the left-hand column place the months of one
year, numbering the days of each month in order, but beginning
on the ninth day of January. In the second column place the
names of the Mexican months, numbering the days of each month
from one to twenty in regular order. In the third column place
the names of the Mexican days, twenty in number, repeating
them in their regular rotation throughout the year, but in addi-
tion prefix to the names such numerals as will fall opposite to
each in the process of dividing them oflf into thirteens. These
divisions into thirteens represent the ritual weeks. Acatl being
the 13th day of the month will end the first week of the year,
and Ocelotl being the 14th day of the month will constitute the
1st day of the second week. In the fourth column place the
nine signs of the " lords of the night " in regular order. Divide
the year into periods of nines, and it will be found that the
same combination of days of the month (twenty days), of days
of the week (thirteen days), and the " lords of the night,^' will
not recur for a considerable period.

The most remarkable embodiment of this complex system is
found in the symbols and concentric zones graven upon the face
of the Calendar Stone, described in the last chapter. The inter-
pretation of its mysterious disk was partly accomplished by the
learned antiquarian Leon y Gama ; Gallatin, and after him Ban-
croft presented those investigations to the public. In 1875
(Nov.), Don Alfredo Chevero, of the Liceo Hidalgo of Mexico,
published his Calendar io Azteca, in which it was shown that many
of Gama's interpretations would have to be abandoned. It was
proven that the " Calendar Stone " was a sun-disk or stone of
sacrifice, and that Gama had pursued his investigations wdth a
mistaken view of its character. Chevero's account of the history
of the stone is full and satisfactory, Duran being the authority
cited. An interpretation of some of the concentric zones," two
in particular, is attempted with a result somewhat difierent
from that obtained by any other investigator. Recently, Prof
Ph. Valentini, by the light of his extensive researches into Nahua
literature, has compelled the sun-disk to give up its secrets. The

MEXICAN CALENDAR STONE.

451

The Mexican Calendar Stone.

452 HISTORY OF THE STONE.

illustration on the preceding page is a reproduction of a pen-and-
ink drawing made by the Professor from the most recent and
correct photograph which has been made of the Calendar Stone.
It was kindly furnished for this work. The same conclusion
concerning the character of the stone was reached independently
by both Chevero and Valentini. The latter's account of the
stone and its history is drawn from Tezozomoc, and though
agreeing in the main facts with Duran's account as rendered by
Chevero, bears the evidence upon its face of independent re-
search.^ The originality of Prof. Valentini is vindicated in his
masterly interpretation of all the zones of the Calendar Stone.
Whether the interpretation will ever give way to some other is a
question of the future, though it is probable that it will not.

We are indebted to Professor Valentini for a communication
on the History of the Calendar Stone, condensed from his unpub-
lished MS. Description and Interpretation of the Mexican Cal-
endar Stone. An extract from the communication is as follows :
"King Axayacatl of Mexico, 1466-1480, the builder of the
large pyramid, at the approach of the last year of the national
cycle (1479), ordered the altar standing on the platform of the
pyramid to be covered with a stone disk, the surface of which
was to be sculptured with the image of the Sun-god, and, as the
text says, 'to be surrounded by all the national deities' (see
Alvaro de Tezozomoc, 1598, Clironica Mexicana, Ternaux-Com-
pans, vol. i, chap, xlvii, pp. 249 et seq.). A large slab, carried for
the purpose from the quarries of Cuyoacan, when rolled over the
bridge of Xoloc, crushed this structure, fell to the bottom of the
lake and remained there. Another slab was broken and a new
bridge built, and 50,000 Indians succeeded in transporting the
slab to the foot of the pyramid, where the sculptor accomplished
his task to the satisfaction of the king. The cyclical festival of
the sun (1479) was celebrated, and on the disk which now had
been inserted into the surface of the sacrificial altar, thousands of
captives were slaughtered. The king is said to have overworked

^ See The Nation for Aug. 8, 1878, p. 84, and for Sept. 19. 1878. Also Mr.
Salisbury's translation of Valentini's Vortrag, Worcester, 1879.

INTERPRETATION OF THE DISK. 453

himself, slaying one hundred of the victims, and feasting upon
their flesh and blood — that very soon after he died in conse-
quence of these exertions. In the year 1512, Montezuma II,
for reasons unknown, expressed the wish to replace the altar
cover, which his father had consecrated, by a new and still
larger one. The people, horrified and out of patience with the
bloody proceedings connected with these consecration festivals
of sacrificial disks, contrived to let the slab, brought expressly
for the purpose, fall into the lake again, pretending as an excuse,
that the stone had spoken and said that it was to go back to the
quarry. Montezuma, superstitious as he was, took the accident
for a bad augury, desisted from his plan, and left the stone in its
place. We may thus infer that it was our disk on which, in the
year 1520, those Spaniards of Cortes' troops which were made
captives had been immolated, and the screams and cries of whom
reached the ears of their comrades, and as Bernal Diaz narrates,
^filled their hearts with the most awful forebodings.' Cortez
demolished the pyi-amid, and with its debris filled the canals of
the city. The disk was preserved, for we know from Duran,
who wrote a Historia de la N. Espana, 1588, that he and many
of his fellow-citizens had often been standing before this disk
admiring it, until the Archbishop Montufar, scandalized by the
existence of such a barbarous relic, caused it to be buried in the
immediate neighborhood of the Metropolitan cathedral in the
year 1551. This procedure was forgotten ; so much so, that
when this disk was disinterred in the year 1790, even Gama the
archaeologist and its later interpreter, had not the remotest idea
what purpose it could have served, for the manuscript chronicles
of Duran and Tezozomoc still slumbered in the dust of the
archives. The viceroy, Eeviellagigedo, ordered the disk to be
fitted into the outer wall of one of the towers of the cathedral.
There it is to this day."

We now ask your attention to the stone itself. The central
circle contains the face of the Sun-god bedecked with ornaments,
earrings, and jeweled lip. In the next zone we observe four large
parallelograms containing hieroglyphic signs : Nahui Ocelotl,
Nahui Ehecatl, Nahui Quahuitl and Nahui Atl. Between the

454 INTERPRETATION OF THE DISK.

upper and lower enclosures on both sides of the central disk are
circular figures containing hieroglyphics resembling claws, said
to represent two ancient astrologers, man and wife, who, according
to the early writers, invented the calendar. These four signs are
identical with the days on which, according to the traditions, the
world was destroyed at four difierent times. These destructions
mark four ages represented by the signs of the day on which
they occurred. These ages were also called suns. The first
destruction occurred in Ce Acatl, and is represented by the sign
Nahui Ocelotl, or 4 Tigre, seen in the upper right-hand tablet.
The small figure above and towards the left is the sign for
1. Tecpatl, a feast-day kept by the Aztecs in memory of the first
destruction. The second tablet bears the symbol for Ehecatl or
Wind, in memory of the destruction of the world by hurricane,
which occurred in the year Ce Tecpatl or Nahui (4) Ehecatl.
Between the tablet and the triangular figure to the right is a
sculpture in which a broken wall with towers appears. The
sign 1. CaUi is associated with it, indicating a ritualistic feast-
day kept on that sign. The third tablet bears the symbol of
the rain-god Tlaloc, in memory of the destruction of the world
from frequent rains. The last tablet represents the fourth
destruction by a flood on Nahui Atl in the year Ce Calli.

The faces of Cox Cox, the Mexican Noah, and his wife are
delineated in the picture. The symbol for water is seen imme-
diately below the faces. Between the two lower tablets, two
small quadrilateral enclosures will be observed, each containing
five round points, supposed to mean 10 Ollin (the sun being
called ollin tonatiuh). Below the lower tablets and almost in
contact with the next concentric circle are the hieroglyphics
1. Quiahuitl and 2. Ozomatli. The first, namely 10 Ollin, cor-
responds with our twenty-second of September in the first year
of a cycle, and its hieroglyphic on this astronomical disk repre-
sents the autumnal equinox. At the extreme top of the Calendar
Stone is a central figure, well known to be the hieroglyphic for
13 Acatl. This fact known, the interpretation of the two
remaining symbols is easy. In the year 13 Acatl, the day
1. Quiahuitl would correspond to our twenty-second of March,

ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE AZTECS. 455

and represent the vernal equinox. In the same year 2. Ozomatli
would correspond with our twenty-second of June, or summer
solstice. Thus it is that the stone speaks and testifies to the
astronomical knowledge of the Aztecs, the accuracy of which
casts into the shade the imperfect Julian Calendar in use hy
Europeans at the time of the conquest. In the next zone, encir-
cling that which contains the tablets of the cosmological ages, are
twenty enclosures, containing the symbols of the twenty days.
The triangular pointer which extends upwards from the crest of
the sun-face indicates the dividing line between the first and
last days of the month. Cipactli, whose hieroglyphic stands
at the left of the pointer is unquestionably distinguished as the
first day of the month. The second symbol to the left is that of
the second day Ehecatl, wind, the third Calli, house, the fourth
Cuetzpalin, lizard, the fifth snake, and so on to the end of the
list. In the next zone we find a succession of small squares, each
enclosing five round points. The circle is divided into four parts
by four large triangular pointers or gnomons. In each division
of the zone are ten squares containing five points each, or in the
four, we have 200 points. Gama states that the space for sixty
additional points is occupied by the feet or curves of the large
indices; By experiment it is found that the mean of the space
occupied by the feet of the pointers is equal to the width of
one and a half of the square enclosures. Eight times this space
gives us twelve squares with sixty points. Thus we have the
ritualistic division or lunar reckoning (Metzli pohualli) of 260
days. In the next zone the symbols of the remaining 105 days
or solar reckoning of the ritualistic year is found. Eight pointers
divide the circle ; the six upper divisions of which contain each
ten figures resembling a grain of maize, while the two lower
divisions have but five figures in each. This gives us seventy
figures. Under each limb of the pointers is space for one and a
half of the figures, giving twenty-four more or ninety-four in all.
The space of ten additional figures is occupied by the helm-
plumes of the heads which are figured at the lower margin of the
stone. This gives us 104 figures, or one less than the required
number. It will be remembered that the five intercalary days

456 FESTIVAL OF THE MEXICAN CYCLE.

called the nemontemi, or unlucky days, though reckoned in regu-
lar order at the close of each year, were considered separate and
apart from it. The artist who executed the Calendar Stone has
carried out this custom in placing the figures of the nemontemi
between the tablets of the two last destructions of nature, where
they will be found by themselves. It will be observed that four
of the signs correspond to those wanting under the lower pointer
and the adjacent plumes, with this further departure from the
general plan of the design, that the central figure or maize grain
corresponds to the space between the limbs of the great pointer
below. Here, then, we have the missing symbol, and are able to
find the 105 hieroglyphics of days for the lesser division of the
year. The two zones consequently represent the complete year
of 365 days.

The most conspicuous of the remaining zones is the outer,
and last of all. The attention is asked to one of the twenty-
four quadrangular figures composing it. The Mexican Codices
in the Kingsborough collection furnish similar symbols for the
cycle of 52 years.^ The ancient Mexicans had a superstition
that in the last night of the 52d year of their cycle the sun would
destroy the world. Consequently, at every recurrence of the
eventful night, all fires were extinguished, the people clothed
themselves in mourning, and forming a long procession, repaired
to a neighboring mountain, where at midnight a priest sacrificed
a man in their presence. A second priest placed a round block
of dry wood over the ghastly wound from which the heart had

^ Prof. Valentini cites Codex Vaticanus, pi. 91, Codex Boturini, pi. 10, Codex
TeUerianus, pi. 6 and 8. The Professor in making the comparison, remarks :
" Aiif beiden senkt sicli ein Schaft in ein rundes Loch, von welchem aus sicli
etwas volutenahnliches hervorwindet. Wir gewahren auf den gremalten Bil-
dem, dass jede der Voluten in 2 Halften getheilt ist, die eine grau die andere
roth gemalt. Dieselbe Abtheilung finden wir auch auf der Sculptur. Was
dieses Symbol bedente, wird uns aus der Beobachtuncr klar. dass wir es in den
gemalten Jahrestafeln immer nur dann wiederkehrend finden, sobald 53 Jahre
verflossen sind. Wir sehen es immer gerade an das Symbol dieses 52ten Jahres
angehangt, an einer Stelle, in Cod. Tell. IV, PI. 8. 1. Kingsb. Coll., vol. i, es
erscheint auch mit einem erklarenden Texte. Er lautet : "Dieses ist das Zeichen
fur die ZusammenMndung der 52 Jahre''— Yortrag, pp. 23. 24.

THE SERPENT ZONE. 457

been torn ; while a third, kneeling over the corpse, rested a hard
shaft or stick upon the block, revolving it between his two hands
with pressure until the friction produced fire. This was con-
sidered a promise from the god that the destruction of the world
would be postponed until another cycle had elapsed.^ A mo-
ment's observation will disclose the fire symbol in the hiero-
glyphics for the cycle as delineated on the stone ; the pef-pen-
dicular shaft with handles, surrounded by flames and smoke,
rising from a hole below. In the same zone, above, we have two
groups of pleats or bow-like figures, which are clearly proven to
be the symbol for the binding of two 52-year cycles into an age.^

The zone immediately within the one we have been consider-
ing, contains the symbols of the rain-god Tlaloc. No writer has
as yet given a satisfactory explanation of the plumed head at
the bottom of the stone. It will be readily seen that the two
serpent heads, plumed, and with extended jaws, armed above
and below with great fangs, enclose two human faces. These
are but the heads of the serpents whose bodies constitute the
outer zone of the disk and terminate in the triangular points
above.

If the reader will but turn to our cut of the serpent temple
at Uxmal (p. 394), the same symbol of Cukulcan or Quetzal-
coatl, the fisathered serpent, will be seen. Dr. Le Plongeon, in
his recent researches, is convinced that Uxmal was built, or more
properly rebuilt, by Nahua invaders, who afterwards became
amalgamated with the Mayas.^ Most of the Mexican historians
represent Quetzalcoatl as the founder of the Nahua civilization.
Torquemada states that he was their leader when they first
arrived in Mexico.'^ If the "Feathered Serpent" was the founder

' Prof. Valentini, Yortrag, pp. 24, 25, cites Codex Selden, pi. 10, Codex
Laud, pi. 8, and Codex Veletri, fol. 34.

' Prof. Valentini cites a Codex from the Squier collection, where the symbol
occurs accompanied with the word Molpiynxihuitl, which translated means " the
binding of the years." He also cites Codex Boturini, pi. 10, Kingsborough
Collection. — Yortrag, pp. 25, 26.

3 Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, by Stephen Salisbury, Jr., p. 83. Worces-
ter, 1877.

* Monarq. Ind., torn, i, pp. 254 et seq.

458 DATE OF THE CALENDAR STONE.

of their institutions, it was not inappropriate for the Aztec
artist to place the hero's face at the bottom of the stone, and
represent the symbols of the cycles as huge scales upon his body,
since the influence of the civilization which he established had
been felt throughout their entire history. To return to Prof.
Valentini's investigations, it will be observed that there are
twenty-four of the cycle symbols, two of which are nearly hidden
under the helm-plumes. The product of 24 and 52 gives us a
period of 1248 years. But what have we to do with this result ?
The triangular-shaped figures which point to the central tablet
cut at the top of the stone, indicate that we must make a calcula-
tion, and it remains for us to interpret that symbol. It is recog-
nizable as the sign Acatl accompanied by the number thirteen ;
a year which, according to the authentic tables of reduction,
corresponds to the year 1479 a. d. ; a date which is confirmed as
being the year in which the Calendar Stone was finished and set
up in the great pyramid of Mexico by the statement of the native
writer Tezozomoc, that its author, King Axayacatl, became ill
from his exertions at the tragic celebrations of the completion
of the temple and lived scarcely a year, at the same time fixing
the date of his death in 1480. If we subtract 1248 years from
the known date 1479 A. d., we have the year 231 A. d.; a date
which no doubt marks the beginning of the national era of the
Nahuas, and probably designates the year of their arrival in
Mexico by the ports of Tampico, Xicalanco and Bacalar. Thus
it is that the uncertainty of the traditions relating to the obscure
events of early Nahua history is removed, and we are enabled to
settle upon the third century of our era as the period when the
great migration took place. We will say more than Professor
Valentini or his predecessor ; we believe this to be the date of
the migration from Hue hue Tlapalan, the country of the Mound-
builders of the Mississippi valley, and we further think we are
sustained in this view both by the early writers and by the con-
dition of the mounds and shell-heaps of the United States. At
first thought, it would seem that the year 231 might be the
date in which the astrologers assembled in Hue hue Tlapalan
for the correction of the calendar (a fact to which we have pre-

ANALOGIES WITH THE NAHUA CALENDAR. 459

viously referred), but it is distinctly stated that the assembly
convened in the year 1 Tecpatl ; a date which, according to the
received reduction tables, corresponds to the year 29 b. c.

Humboldt by an elaborate discussion has satisfactorily shown
the relative likeness of the Nahua Calendar to that of Asia.
He cites the fact that the Chinese, Japanese, Calmouks, Mongols,
Mantchoux and other hordes of Tartars have cycles of sixty
years duration, divided into five brief periods of twelve years
each. The method of citing a date by means of signs and num-
bers is quite similar with Asiatics and Mexicans.^ He further
shows satisfactorily that the majority of the names of the twenty
days employed by the Aztecs are those of a zodiac used since the
most remote antiquity among the peoples of Eastern Asia.^ Ca-
brera thinks he finds tmalogies between the Mexican and Egyp-
tian calendars. Adopting the view of several writers (Acosta,
Clavigero and others) that the Mexican year began on the
26th of February, he finds the date to correspond to the begin-
ning of the Egyptian year. He also observes that both peoples
intercalated five days at the close of their year.^ M. Jomard,
quoted by Delafield, denies that the Egyptians intercalated, but
believes sufficient analogies exist to prove a common origin for
the Theban and Mexican calendars ; ^ his argument, however, is
worthless, as are many others of a similar character.

Religious Analogies. — In contrast with the obscure subject
of the calendar requiring such close attention, we present to the
reader a few of the analogies supposed to exist between Mexican
and other religious systems. The majority of our references will
be made more with a view to satisfying curiosity than for the
establishment of a theory. Argument from analogy is at best
unscientific — it proves nothing. It is a matter of surprise how
much has been written to establish the theory that the Mexicans

' Humboldt, Vnes, pp. 148 et seq. (Ed. 1810.)

'-^ Vaea, p. 152. On page 150 be furnisbes tables of comparison which show
unmistakably the analogy between the Mexican Calendar and that of the people
of Eastern Asia.

3 Cabrera, Teatro in Bio's Description, pp. 103-5.

* Delafield's American Antiquities, pp. 53-3.

460 DELUGE ANALOGIES.

were descendants of the Jews both in race and religion. Mr.
Bancroft has collected many of Lord Kingsborough's arguments
in proof of the theory to which he devoted his fortune and
sacrificed his life. We have done a similar work with a some-
what different arrangement, and call the attention of the reader
to some of the fanciful and we must add mirth-provoking anal-
ogies to which the great Americanist attached so much impor-
tance. " The Mexicans spoke of their god as the invisible and
incorporeal Unity, and they furthermore believed man to be
created in his image." ^ He states further that the doctrine of
the trinity was also held by them.^ He considers that Eden
and the temptation were portrayed by the American artists."
'^The Toltecs had paintings of a garden with a single tree
standing in the midst, one especially drawn on coarse paper of
the Aloe, round the root of which tree is entwined a serpent,
whose head appearing above the foliage displays the features
and countenance of a woman. ^ * * Torquemada admits the
existence of this tradition amongst them, and agrees with the
Indian historians who affirm this was the first woman in the
world who had children, and from whom all mankind are de-
scended." ^

Lord Kingsborough is no doubt warranted in holding that
the Nahuas were of old world origin at a very remote period
prior to their having developed any special tribal characteristics,
because of their singular and we think certain knowledge of the
Mosaic deluge ; but he is not justified in claiming for jthem any
particular relationship to the Jewish or any Shemitic people.*

^ Mexican Antiquities, voL vi, pp. 174, 182.

"^ Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi, p. 163.

^ Mexican Antiquities, vol. viii, p. 19.

^ " It is impossible on reading what Mexican mythology records of the war
in heaven, and of the fall of Zoutemoque and the other rebellious spirits ; of the
creation of light by the word Touacatecutli, and of the division of the waters ;
of the sin of Yztlacohuhqui, and his blindness and nakedness ; of the tempta-
tion of Suchiquecal and her disobedience in gathering roses from a tree, and
the consequent misery and disgrace of herself and all her posterity — not to
recognize scriptural analogies. But the Mexican tradition of the deluge is that
which bears the most unequivocal marks of having been derived from a Hebrew

PARALLELS IN JEWISH AND MEXICAN HISTORY. 461

In a preceding chapter we have given the deluge tradition
from Ixtlilxochitl, who states that the waters rose fifteen euhits
(caxtolmoletltli) above the highest mountains, and that a few
escaped in a close chest (toptlipetlacali), and after men had mul-
tiplied, they erected a very high zacuali or tower, in order to take
refuge in it should the world be again destroyed. He further
states that then their speech was confused, so that they could
not understand each other, and that they dispersed to different
parts of the earth.^ Whether the native historian of Tezcuco
who gives us this account, so remarkable for its similarity to the
Mosaic, was influenced by Spanish priests and warped from the
truth, we are not prepared to affirm at this distant day, since
such an assumption would strike the very keystone from the
arch upon which all historical evidence rests. Much of the
aversion to the view that the Mexican deluge legends are authen-
tic and of old world origin, has been generated by the unscientific
and presumptuous style of most of its advocates. Lord Kings-
borough himself is ever ready to catch at a straw, and out of
customs the most remote to evolve an analogy. Nevertheless, we
are not at liberty to reject the Mexican deluge legend as a fable
without assuming the burden of proofs Remarkable parallels (?)
in the history of both Jews and Mexicans are thought to be dis-
covered by the sanguine Kingsborough. Of a number, two or
three specimens will suffice. Hue hue Tlapalan is claimed to
have been situated on the Californian coast since the Gulf of
California until a late period was called the red river or gulf, a

source. This tradition records that a few persons escaped in the Ahaehuete,
or ark of fir, when the earth was swallowed up by the deluge, the chief of
whom was named Patecatle or Cipaquetona ; that he invented the art of making
wine ; that Xelua, one of his descendants, at least one of those who escaped
with him in the ark, was present at the building of a high tower, which the
succeeding generation constructed with a view of escaping from the deluge
should it again occur; that Tonacatecutli, incensed at their presumption,
destroyed the tower with lightning, confounded their language and dispersed
them ; and that Xelua led a colony to the New World. "—Jfe^. Antiq., torn, vi,
p. 401.

' Ixtlilxochitl's Belaciones in Mex. Ant., vol. ix, and this work, chap. vi.

* See Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iii, pp. 66, 68.

462 ANALOGIES OF CEREMONIAL LAW.

name they brought with them." ^ Again : " As the Israelites
were conducted from Egypt by Moses and Aaron who were
accompanied by their sister Miriam, so the Aztecs departed
from Aztlan under the guidance of Huitziton and Tecpalzin, the
former of whom is named by Acosta and Herrera, Mixi, attended
likewise by their sister Quilaztli, or as she is otherwise named
Chimalman or Malinatli, both of which names have some resem-
blance to Miriam as Mixi has to Moses." ~ " The destruction of
the rebellious Kohra (G-en. xvi) is repeated after the arrival of the
Mexicans at Tulan, who, enchanted with the land, were unwill-
ing to go further in search of their promised land. They mur-
mured at Huitzilopochtli, and suffered a dreadful punishment
at his hands that night by the death of every one who had
rebelled against his will." ^

Lord Kingsborough discovers in a Mexican painting in
the Bodleian library, a symbol resembling the jaw-bone of an
ass, from the side of which water flows forth. This, of course,
commemorated the story of Sampson.^ Among the conspicuous
doctrines held by both Jews and Mexicans, we note that the
latter believed their children to be the gift of Tezcatlipoca as the
former ascribed them to the favor of Jehovah.^ The doctrine of
sin and atonement was held by the Mexicans. Confession and
sacrifice of atonement were common, for " half the offerings
represented in the Mexican paintings were trespass-offerings, or
sacrifices for the commission of sins." ^ '^ The Mexicans, like the
Jews, were accustomed to do penance by sitting on the ground,
in which posture their priests are often represented in the Mexi-
can paintings."'^ "The Mexicans were as punctilious about
washings and ablutions as the Jews."^ Baptism was consid-
ered the means of regeneration in Yucatan,^ and was practised
by the Mexicans as a religious ceremony.^^ Both peoples had

* Mex. Antiq., vol. viii, p. 27. ^ ]^fg^ Antiq., vol. vi, p. 246.
' Mex. Antiq., vol. vi, p. 258. * Mex. Antiq., vol. vi, p. 361.
" Mex. Antiq., vol. viii, p. 67. " lUd, vol. viii, p. 137.

' lUd, vol. viii, p. 382.

* Hid, vol. viii, p. 238 ; washing of hands after meals, see p. 53, Appendix.

* Ibid, vol. vi, p. 414 ; vol. viii, p. 18.

*® The following is Kingsborough's account of the Mexican baptism : " The

ANALOGIES OF CEREMONIAL LAW. 463

devils and the leprosy/ both considered women who died in
child-bed as worthy of honor as soldiers who fall in battle.-
The doctrine of hell, according to the most orthodox theology,
was held by the Mexicans.^ Both Jews and Mexicans believed
in the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul.^
The latter people sprinkled the face of a corpse with water as a
baptism after death.^ Numerous analogies are found to exist
between the Mosaic and the religious code of the Mexicans, as
in profanity, sabbath-keeping, disobedience to parents, the smit-
ing of a servant to death, and in the punishment by stoning of
persons guilty of fornication and adultery." Kingsborough
maintains that circumcision was performed on the eighth day,
declaring it to have " prevailed thousands of leagues along the
coast of the Atlantic, amongst nations very remote from each
other, and who spoke very different languages." '^ Both peoples
had a mutual disgust for swine flesh, and refused to eat the

midwife took the infant in her. arms naked, and carried it into the court of the
mother's house, in which court were strewed reeds or rushes, which they call
Tule, upon which was placed a small vessel of water, in which the said midwife
bathed the said infant ; and after she had bathed it, three boys being seated near
the said rushes, eating roasted maize mixed with boiled beans, which kind of
food they named Yxcue, which provision or paste they set before the said
boys, in order that they might eat it. After the said bathing or washing, the
said midwife desired the said boys to pronounce the name aloud, bestowing a
new name on the infant which had been thus bathed; and the name which they
gave it was that which the midwife wished." — Mex. Antiq., vol. vi, p. 45.

* Mex. Antiq., vol. vi, p. 248. ^ Ibid, vol. viii, p. 69.

3 Ibid, vol. vi, pp. 163 et seq. * Ibid, vol. vi, p. 167.

^ Ibid, vol. viii, p. 248.

^ Mex. Antiq., vol. vi, p. 125; Codex TeUeriano-Remensis, pi. xix; Mex.
Antiq., vol. vii, pp. 240-1, and Duran, MS., part ii, cap. 20 ; see further, Mex.
Antiq., vol. vi, pp. 135-218.

' Mex. Antiq., vol. vi, pp. 121-2. He cites several authors to prove this
sweeping statement, and is not content with finding it among the Indians, but
is provoked by his zeal to discover the practice of the same rite among the Hot-
tentots. See Ibid, vol. vi, pp. 272, 383-5 ; vol. viii, pp. 143, 391, 20. On page
393, vol. vi, he makes this remarkable statement : *' From an examination of
some of the Mexican paintings, it would appear that circumcision among
the Indians was not confined to the human species." Also vol. viii, p. 155 :
*' The head of the Totonac high-priest, was anointed by the blood of circumcised
children."

464 PROPHECY.

blood of any animal.^ The latter statement is altogether un-
warranted in fact. The ceremonial of both peoples have many
featui'es in common. As the Jews killed the paschal lamb in
the evening, so the Mexicans offered up their sacrifices at night.^
The Jews in Mexico substituted llamas for sheep in their sacri-
fices.^ Both Jews and Mexicans worshipped toward the east, or
toward their chief temples, and both called the south by the
designation of " right-hand of the world.'' * Both burned in-
cense toward the four corners of the earth.^ As David leaped
and danced before the ark of the Lord, so did the Mexican
monarch s before their idols.^ Both peoples had an ark, and
Duran states that in the ark of the Aztecs which figured so
prominently in their migration, was the image of their invisible
god.''' Numerous analogies relating to astrology, omens, witch-
craft, dreams, etc., are recorded.^ « Keferences to prophecy are
not wanting : Quetzalcoatl predicted the destruction of the temple
of Cholula, furnishing a parallel to Christ's prophecy of the de-
struction of the temple.^ In the Mexican mythology, by means
of an active imagination, he finds an allusion to the " stone
which was carved without hands." ^^ A tiger represented in the
Bologna MS. he supposes to be the lion of the tribe of Juda —
the Jews of the New World having metamorphosed it into a
tiger. ^^ Kingsborough supposes that the crosses found in Mexico
may have been carried there by Irish monks, " especially," he
adds, "as M. de Humboldt informs us that the first Spanish
monks and missionaries gravely discussed the question of whether
Quetzalcoatl was an Irishman." ^^ The fanaticism of the emi-
nent Americanist, however, reaches its culmination in his sup-
posed discovery of analogies to Christ in Mexican mythology.
The story of the virgin, the annunciation, and the identity of

' Mex. Antiq., vol. vi, p. 273 ; vol. viii, pp. 157, 236, 160.

2 lUd, vol. vi, p. 504. 3 j^i^^ vol. vi, p. 361.

4 lUd, vol. vi, p. 257. ^ j^^^ ^qJ^ yj p, 222.

« Ihid, vol. vi, p. 142. ' lUd, vol. viii, p. 258.

8 Ihid, vol. vi, pp. 301, 312 ; vol. viii, pp. 23-58.

» Ihid, vol. viii, p. 27. ^o lUd, vol. viii, p. 32.

" Ihid, vol. viU, pp. 26-7. '« Ihid, vol. vi, p. 190.

NAHUA AND ASIATIC ANALOGIES. 465

Christ and Quetzalcoatl, are clearly discernible to his practised
eye.^ Christ stilled the tempest, and, like Quetzalcoatl, was
god of the air.~ In Yucatan, in the priestly fable of Bacab, he
finds a complete and true account of the trinity.^ It is hardly
necessary for us to remark that these ingenious comparisons,
tinged with a coloring of fanaticism and yet so full of interest,
are useless to the cause of science and prove nothing. With
the single exception of the remarkable tradition of the deluge
and its literal correspondence in detail to the Mosaic account, we
must dismiss the multitude of supposed analogies between
Mexican and Hebrew traditions, customs and religion, which
Kingsborough and others have discovered, as either imaginary
or accidental.^

The hypothesis that the Nahua religion may have received
some of its characteristics from India is altogether plausible
and not without support in resemblances. The cosmological
conception of the egg and serpent is found, as previously stated,
on Brush Creek, in Adams County, Ohio. It certainly comes
to us from Asiatic India. Serpent worship, not only among
the people of the mounds but especially of Mexico, is the

1 IMd, vol. vi, pp. 207-8. 2 75^^^ ^oi, yj^ p 2Qt.

8 Me.r. Antiq., vol. vi, pp. 207-8. He thinks the gospel must have been
preached at an early day in Yucatan, and in proof cites from the sixth chapter
of the Fourth Book of Cogolludo's History the following : " A certain ecclesiastic
wrote to a priest commissioned by Las Casas, that he met a principle-lord, who,
on being questioned respecting the ancient religion which they professed, told
him that they knew and believed in the God who was in Heaven, and that this
God was the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and that the Father was named
Tzona, who had created man ; and that the Son was called Bacab, who was bom
of a virgin of the name of Chiribirias, and that the mother of Chiribirias was
named Yxchel ; and that the Holy Ghost was named Echvah. Of Bacab, the
Son, they said he was put to death and scourged and crowned with thorns and
placed with his arms extended upon a beam of wood, to which they did not
suppose that he had been nailed, but that he was tied, where he died and re-
mained dead during three days, and on the third day came to life and ascended
into heaven, where he is with his Father ; and that immediately afterwards
Echvah, who is the Holy Ghost, came and filled the earth with whatsoever it
stood in need of."

^ Mr. Bancroft in his fifth vol., pp. 84-89, has collated a great number of
Lord Kingsborough's analogies. Our limited space forbids further treatment.

466 MEXICAN AND GREEK ANALOGIES.

most patent fact revealed to us in ancient American sculp-
ture. " Humboldt thinks he sees in the snake cut in pieces,
the famous serpent Kaliya or Kalinaga, conquered by Vishnu,
when he took the form of Krishna, and in the Mexican Toua-
tiuh, the Hindu Krushna, sung of in the Bhagavata-Purana." ^
Count Stolberg and Tschudi have both made arguments in favor
of this view.^ Humboldt characterizes Quetzalcoatl as the
Buddha of the Mexicans, the founder of the monastic estab-
lishments resembling those of Thibet and Western Asia.^ He
further considers the flood of which they speak, identical with
that of which traditions are preserved by the Hindoos, the
Chinese, and the Shemitic peoples.

Advocates of Scandinavian analogies in religion are not
wanting. Although VioUet-le-Duc finds parallels existing be-
tween the Brahmanistic ideas of divinity and passages of the
Popol Vuh, still he i& of the opinion that the strongest resem-
blances have been found to exist between the religious customs
of the Scandinavians and those recorded in the Popol Vuh}
Humboldt remarks, " we have fixed the special attention of our
readers upon this Yotan or Wodan, an American who appears
of the same family with the Wods or Odins of the Goths and
of the peoples of Celtic origin. Since, according to the learned
researches of Sir William Jones, Odin and Buddha are prob-
ably the same person, it is curious to see the names of Bond-
var, Wodansdag and Votan designating in India, Scandinavia,
and in Mexico, the day of a brief period/' ^

Lafitau, in his Moeurs ds Sauvages, is as enthusiastic in his
advocacy of the theory that the ancient Americans derived their
religion from the Greeks, as Kingsborough is certain that it was
of Jewish origin. He devotes his fourth chapter, and furnishes
numerous illustrations, in support of his view.^ Our limited
space precludes the possibility of presenting in full the analo-

' Bancroft, Native Races, vol. v, p. 41 ; Humboldt^s Yues, torn, i, p. 236.
^ Bancroft, Native Races, vol. v, p. 41 ; Humboldt, Vues, p. 256 ; Tschudi,
Permian Antiq., p. 211. s Vues, p. 230 (ed. 1810).

* Viollet-le-Duc in Charnay's Ruins, pp. 41-2. Paris, 1863.
^ Vues, p. 148 (ed. 1810). « Mo&urs des Sauvages, pp. 108-455.

BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG'S COMPARISONS. 467

gies discovered by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg between the
Mexican deities and those of Greece and Egypt. If we hesitate
sometimes in accepting his conclusions, we cannot but wonder at
his erudition and his zeal in research. He calls attention to the
fact that the cult of Pan and Hermes were identical in Greece,
and refers to Maia, a personification of the earth, and the
mother of the Hermes having been the consort of Zeus or Pan
himself. So in Mexico he finds Pan in the person of Cipactoual,
who, under the name of Cuextecatl, has for his consort Maia or
Maiaoel. This god was adored in all parts of Mexico and
Central America, and at Panuco or Panco, literally Panopolis,
the Spaniards found upon their entrance into Mexico, superb
temples and images of Pan.^ The names of both Pan and
Maia enter extensively into the Maya vocabulary, Maia being
the same as Maya, the principal name of the peninsula, and pan,
making Mayapan, the ancient capital. In the Nahua language
pan or pani signifies " equality to that which is above," and
Pantecatl was the progenitor of all beings. The Abbe has
little difficulty in proving the identity of Zamna, Hunab-ku and
other Maya die ties, with the gods of Greece.'^ In the name of
the Egyptian god Horus, he finds the significance of hurricane,
or in the dialects of the Antilles, liuracan or iirogan, the god
Hurakan of the Quiches. Also in the Egyptian hieroglyphic
symbol which Salvolini found equivalent to the phonetic K,
namely, the singular reptile Uraeus, which resembles a serpent
in an erect position with an enlarged body, and employed ex-
tensively as a decoration in hair of the Egyptian deities and
the Pharaohs ; he sees the emblem of Quetzalcoatl (Ketzal-
cohuatl) the feathered-serpent, called Gukumatz in Quiche, and
Kukulcan in Maya. The same symbol is represented on the
Egyptian monuments with a feather rising from the serpent's
crest.^ It would be easy to pursue these ingenious comparisons
through a number of pages, but we question their value in throw-
ing any light on the subject in hand. The reader will find them

^ Brasseur in Introduction to Landa's Belacion, pp. Ixx-i.
2 Landa's Belacion, Introduc, pp. Ixxi et seq.
' Brasseur de Bourbourg in Landa, pp. Ixvi-ix.

468 BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG'S COMPARISONS.

scattered in profusion through the voluminous writings of the
learned Abbe. It is sufficient to say that most of the seeming
analogies between the new and old world religions cannot be
other than accidental, since it is probable that the aborigines
entered our continent at a very remote antiquity, long before the
religions with which theirs have been so persistently compared,
took on their distinctive features. If after they were separated
from the rest of the world by seas and mountains, the Ameri-
cans developed religious systems presenting analogies to those
of other lands, it furnishes us but another proof of the com-
mon parentage and brotherhood of the race, of the universal
outgoing of the human mind after the deity, and the sameness
of mental operations and processes under the same given condi-
tions.^

^ We have not thought it necessary to treat the mythology or religious
systems of the Mayas and Nahuas in any formal manner, but only incidentally
to call attention to some salient features, cropping out in connection with the
subject in hand. The religions of the ancient Americans have been so often
and so admirably treated, that anything relating to them in this connection
would be superfluous. See especially Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iii ; Mliller's
Geschichte der Amerikunischen JJrreligionen ; Squier's Serpent Symbol in Amer-
ica ; Brinton's Myths of the New World, and Ihid, Religious Sentiments in
the New World.

CHAPTEE X.

LANGUAGE AND ITS RELATION TO NORTH AMERICAN
MIGRATIONS.

Diversity of Languages in America — Causes of Diversity — Richness of American
Languages — Polysynthesis — Grimm's Law — Tlie Maya-Quiche Languages
— Stability of the Maya — Oldest American Language — The Maya compared
to the Greek, the Hebrew, the North European, the Basque, West African,
and the Quichua Languages — Epitome of Maya Grammar — The Mizteco-
Zapotec Languages — The Nahua or Aztec — The Classic Tongue — Ancient
and Modern Nahua — Epitome of Aztec Grammar — Geographical Extension
of the Aztec — In the South — In the North-west — Buschman's Researches —
Sonora Family — Opata-Tarahumar-Pima Family — Moqui and Aztec Ele-
ments — Aztec in the Shoshone and in the Languages of Oregon and the
Columbian Region — Line of Aztec Elements — The Nahua probably the
Language of the Mound-builders — The Otomi — Supposed Chinese Analogies
— Japanese Analogies — Geographical Names.

LANGrUAGE in aboriginal America may be pronounced a
^ mystery of mysteries and a Babel of Babels. Mr. Bancroft
has catalogued nearly six hundred distinct languages, existing
between northern Alaska and the Isthmus of Panama. Many of
these, however, scarcely deserve to be called more than dialects ;
while each has its individuality, it is true that all have certain
characteristics in common, a fact which by some has been con-
sidered sufficient ground for belief in the unity of the American
race, a hypothesis which is by no means tenable. The geo-
graphical division and intermixture of languages, for instance, in
California, is without a parallel elsewhere in the world. By the
accidents attendant upon savage life, resulting from ceaseless
hostilities and the frequent inroads of tribes upon their neighbors,
a nation has often been scattered in fragments, and its refugees,
separated into small bands, have taken up their residence in the

470 SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST A LAW OF LANGUAGE.

midst of other tribes at localities far removed from their central
home. In a generation or two a modification of the parent
speech has been brought about by the surrounding influences, all
of which vary in the several localities in which the refugees have
found their new homes. New tribes thus formed, soon become
unintelligible to their brothers, who have developed a dialect
under different influences from theiis. When we consider that
for thousands of years this wholesale division and subdivision
of tribes and languages has been going on, as the result of cease-
less hostilities, we can easily account for the multitude of lan-
guages and dialects on the one hand, and the existence of a thread
of unity or similarity on the other, said to run through them all.
Supposing the continent to have received its population from
several different quarters, the natural expectation would be that
in the course of time this process of general intermixture would
result in developing in each language much that was common to
the others — hence the foundation for the hypothesis of their
unity of origin. In the study of American languages it has often
been a matter of surprise that their structure and expressiveness
indicates a degree of perfection far in advance of the civilization
out of which they had sprung. This superiority, we think, can
be accounted for on the principle, first, that the evolution of
languages on this continent has been more active and constant
here than elsewhere, though unforturately not always operating
under favorable conditions ; and second, that in the frequent
catastrophes which have resulted from inter-tribal warfare, even
in language, the law of the survival of the fittest is apparent,
in the preservation of those etymological forms and principles
of structure which are most useful. We by no means agree with
the eminent philologist Dr. W. Farrar, F.R.S., chaplain to the
Queen, and others who, taking but a partial and second-hand
view of American languages, pronounce their elaborateness a
childish excess, and their vaunted wealth a concealment of their
poverty.^ An examination of the poems of Nezahualcoyotl,
king of Tezcuco, recorded by Ixtlilxochitl, will afford sufficient

' Families of Speech, pp. 134-6. London, 1873. 12mo.

GRIMM'S LAW. 47]

proof of the expressiveness and richness of the Aztec language.^
The song on the " Mutability of Life " and the ode on the tyrant
Tezozomoc have often been translated and admired.^ One of the
leading characteristics of American language, it has been said, is
''agglutination," but we must add that the term employed is
not sufficiently comprehensive. " Agglutination/' says Farrar,
" may be described as that principle of linguistic structure which
consists in the mere placing of unaltered roots side by side ; as
when to express ^discipline' the Chinese say ^law-soldier,' or for
^elders' 'father-mother,' or for 'enjoyment' 'luxury-play-food-
clothes.' " ^

The term poly synthesis, the synthesis of many words into one,
with a little explanation will describe the characteristic, so promi-
nent, to which we allude. In their polysynthesis, the syllables
or words which are compressed into one long word, no longer
retain their individual forms, but are clipped and altered so as
to be scarcely recognizable. A sentence by this process of fusion
is compressed into a single long word. Dr. Farrar cites the
following example from the Aztec ; achichillacachocan, means
" the place where people weep because the water is red." The
component parts are: atl "water," chichiltic "red," ilacatl
"man," chorea " weep," all of which have nearly lost their iden-
tity in the inflection and contraction necessary in the synthesis.^
As in the Aryan and other families, Grimm's system of Lautver-
schiebung — sound changing, or shunting — better known by Prof.
Max Miiller's designation as "Grimm's law" prevails, so there are
groups or families in northern Mexico pointed out by Buschman
to which this law is clearly applicable. No doubt the number
of relationships already established between aboriginal languages,
as the result of classification, will be greatly augmented when,

\ Spanish, in Kingsborougli's Mex. Antiq., vol. viii, pp. 110-15.

- English translation in Prescott's Mexico, vol. iii, and Bancroft's Native
Races, vol. ii, pp. 494-97. « Families of Speech, pp. 125-26.

^ The same author refers to the classification of languages adopted by Prof.
Steinthal in his Gharakteristik der hcmptsdcJilichsten Typen des Sprachhaues.
Languages are divided into cultivated and uncultivated, and each again are sub-
divided into isolating and inflectional. The American languages are classed aS
uncultivated and inflectional by incorpoTSi.t'ion.^Families of Speech, p. 127.)

472 CLASSIFICATION OF THE MAYA-QUICHI: LANGUAGES.

if ever, the subject receives special attention.^ Mr. Bancroft
classifies the languages in his catalogue under three great fami-
lies, namely, the Tinneh, Aztec and Maya. The first, ^vhich
covers the territory around the northern extremity of the Kocky
Mountains, and sends its ofishoots as far south as northern
Mexico, only concerns us incidentally in treating the ancient
languages of North America.^ The two families (and their far-
reaching branches) in which we are interested, are the Maya and
the Aztec, the latter the survivor of the speech of the Nahuas.

To the Maya, or rather, the Maya-Quiche stock, no doubt
belongs the greatest antiquity assignable to any language or
languages on the continent. The mother tongue, the Maya,
prevails throughout all of Yucatan, and together with its dia-
lects extends itself over Tabasco, Chiapas and Guatemala, and
is even present in the states of Tamaulipas and Vera Cruz, in
the Huastic and Totonac languages. Numerous catalogues of
the branches of this family have been made, but the most recent,
and we think the most complete, is one constructed in 1876 on
Senor Pimenters classification by the Mexican scholar, Seiior
Garcia y Cubas. It is as follows : 1. Yucateco or Maya ;
2. Punctunc ; 3. Lacandon or Xochinel ; 4. Peten or Itzae ;
5. Chanabal, Comiteco, Jocolobal ; 6. Choi or Mopan ; 7. Chorti
or Chorte. 8. Cakchi, Caichi, Cachi or Cakgi ; 9. Ixil, Izil ;
10. Coxoli ; 11. Quiche, Utlatec ; 12. Zutuhil, Zutugil, Atiteca,
Zacapula ; 13. Cachiquel, Cachiquil ; 14. Tzotzil, Zotzil, Tzin-
anteco, Cinanteco ; 15. Tzendal, Zendal ; 16. Mame, Mem,
Zaklohpakap ; 17. Poconchi, Pocoman ; 18. Atche, Atchi ;
19. Huastic, and probably 20. the Haytian, Quizqueja or Itis,
with their affinities, the Cuban, Boriguan and Jamaican lan-
guages.^

' See Bancroft's Native Races, voL iii, pp. 559, 670-2. See on the latter
page especially a vocabulary of resemblances.

- We refer the reader who is interested in the aboriginal languages of the
North-west to the Contributions to North American Ethnology, published by
the Department of the Interior, under the direction of Major J. W. Powell,
Washington, 1877. 3 vols. 4to.

3 Garcia y Cubas, The Republic of Mexico in 1876. A political and ethno-
graphical division of the population, etc., translated by Geo. F. Henderson, p. 66.

GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT OF THE MAYA. 473

The author of the above list has compensated us for its
length by giving each of the names with its variation in orthog-
raphy according to different writers. The classification is alto-
gether superior to any other. The Maya is of peculiar interest
to us, especially since within the territory over which it extends
are found the most celebrated architectural remains known to
Central American archseology. The majority of the sculptured
tablets which are preserved are no doubt in the Maya or some
of its dialects. What is most satisfactory to us, is the proba-
bility that the language is spoken to-day by the mass of the
native population of Yucatan as it was anciently, for says Sefior
Pimentel, " the Indians have preserved this idiom with such
tenacity that to this day they will speak no other," and he adds
that it is necessary for the whites to a-ddress them in their own
tongue in order to communicate with them.^

Seiior Orozco y Berra furnishes us evidence that little change
has taken place in the language since the earliest times, in the
statement that all the geographical names of the peninsula are
Maya, which is considered proof in his judgment that the Mayas
were the first occupants of the country.^ It is but a reasonable
expectation, therefore, that at no distant day, by the aid of
Landa's alphabet, the inscriptions will be compelled to reveal
their mysterious contents. The Tzendal, the language in which
Votan is said to have written a history of the foundation of his
city, and still spoken near the ruins of Palenque, is said to have
been the oldest of American languages, but linguistic investiga-
tions have proven that it is an offshoot from the Maya, the
mother tongue.^ It is probable that the Maya was first jdanted
at some point in the territory which it now occupies, and gradually
extended its domain until its colonies reached northern Vera
Cruz and southern Nicaragua. Whether at any time it was the

Mexico, 1876. Most of the above names are cited by Mr. Bancroft, Native Races,
vol. iii, p. 760 ; by Orozco y Berra, Oeografia, pp. 18-25 et passim, and by
Pimentel, Lenguas Indigenas de Mex., vol, ii, p. 5 et seq.

' Leng. Indig. de Mex., vol. ii, p. 3.

^ Geograjia de las Lenguas de Mex., pp. 129.

3 See Bancroft's Native Maces, vol. iii, p. 760, and the literary apparatus
appended.

474 THE MAYA COMPARED WITH THE GREEK.

language of a people inhabiting central and southern Mexico at
a date anterior to the arrival of the Nahuas, is unknown though
probable. Seiior Orozco y Berra has shown by linguistic studies
that probably the Mayas occupied the Atlantic seaboard of the
United States, having in their migration passed from the Flo-
ridian peninsula to Cuba and thence to the other Caribbean isles,
and to Yucatan. He states that the Mayas possess traditions
of a northern home from which they passed by means of the
islands of the Gulf to Yucatan. Both he and Senor Pimentcl
agree that the languages of the West Indies belong to the Maya
family.^

The characteristics of the Maya-Quiche languages are ; flexi-
bility, expressiveness, vigor, approximating harshness, yet on
the contrary rich and musical in sound. The Maya itself has
more than once been compared to the Greek, and even said to be
derived from it. Dr. Le Plongeon, who for four years has been
exploring the ruins of Yucatan and especially of Chichen-Itza,
writes thus in connection with the discovery of a well-sculptured
bear's head at Uxmal : "When did bears inhabit the peninsula ?
Strange to say, the Maya does not furnish the name for bear.
Yet one-third of this tongue is pure Greek. Who brought the
dialect of Homer to America ? Or who took to Greece that of
the Mayas ? Greek is the offspring of the Sanscrit. Is Maya ?
Or are they coeval ? A clue for ethnologists to follow the
migrations of the human family on this old continent. Did the
bearded men whose portraits are cai'ved on the massive pillars of
the fortress at Chichen-Itza, belong to the Mayan nations ?
The Maya is not devoid of words from the Assyrian." ^ He does
not hesitate to say that "the Maya, containing words from
almost every language, ancient or modern, is well worth the at-
tention of philologists," a statement which might with but little
breach of propriety be made as well concerning almost any other
language. In referring to its antiquity, the writer says, " I must

' Orozco J Berra, Geografta, pp. 23, 128.

- Communication of Dr. Le Plongeon to the Hon. John W, Foster, minister
of the United States at Mexico, dated Island of Cozumel, May 1, 1877, in Salis-
bury's Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, p. 83,

MAYA COMPARED TO HEBREW.

475

speak of that language wliich has survived unaltered through
the vicissitudes of the nations that spoke it thousands of years
ago, and is yet the general tongue in Yucatan — the Maya.
There can he no doubt that this is one of the most ancient lan-
guages on earth. It was used by a people that lived at least
6000 years ago, as proved by the Katuns, to record the history
of their rulers, the dogmas of their religion, on the walls of their
palaces, on the fagades of their temples." ^ The Mexican scholar,
Senor Melgar, is convinced that he sees resemblances between
the names employed by the Chiapenecs in their calendar, and the
Hebrew, and furnishes comparative lists to sustain his hopeless
theory.'^

^ Dr. Le Plongeon, communication to Stephen Salisbury, Jr., Esq., dated
Island of Cozumel, June 15, 1877. He remarks : " Notwithstanding a few
guttural sounds, the Maya is soft, pliant, rich in diction and expression, even
every shade of thought may be expressed." "Strange to say the language
remained unaltered. Even to-day, in many places in Yucatan the descendants
of the Spanish conquerors have forgotten the native tongue of their sires, and
only speak Maya, the idiom of the vanquished." — Communication above cited in
Salisbury's Le Plongeon in Yucatan y pp. 95 et seq.

2 The following is Senor Melgar's comparative list with the Spanish trans-
lated into English.

Hebrew.

English.

Chiapenec.

Ben,

Son,

Been.

Bath,

Daughter,

Batz.

Abba,

Father,

Abagh.

Chimah,

Star in Zodiac ? the creator of rain.

Chimax.

Maloc,

King,

Molo.

Abah,

Name applied to Adam,

Abagh.

Chanan,

Afflicted,

Chanam.

Elab,

God,

Elab.

Tischiri,

September,

Tsiquin.

Chi,

More,

Chic,

Chabic,

Rich,

Chabin.

Enos,

Son of Setb,

Enot.

Votan,

To give,

Votan.

Lambotus,

River of Arica,

Lambat.

He adds : " Todas estas coincidencias hacer suponer que en epocas muy
remotas existeron communicaciones entre el viejo y el nuevo mundo." He then
refers to Plato's Atlantis. — Melgar in Sociedad Mex. de Geog. Boletin, iii, ^poca^
p. 108.

476 MAYA COMPARED TO THE NORTH-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES.

The speculations of the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg are
none the less remarkable and about equally as plausible as those
of Dr. Le Plongeon or Senor Melgar. The Abbe after years of
study among the peoples of Central America, was convinced
beyond a doubt that a marked relationship existed between the
Quiche-Cakchiquel and Zutugil and the languages of the north
of Europe. He considers the evidence sufficient that peoples
speaking the Germanic and Scandinavian languages migrated to
Central America and infused their idioms into the Maya.^

With Mr. Bancroft we agree that no value can be attached
to these speculations, until impartial comparisons are made by
scholars who have no theories to substantiate. It is worthy of
note that several eminent scholars have observed the remarkable
similarity of grammatical structure between the Central Amer-
ican and certain transatlantic languages, especially the Basque ^

' Brasseur's letter to M. Rafn in Nouvelles Annates des Yoy., 6tb series, vol.
xvi, p. 263. He tliinks tlie Scandinavians may have reached those remote parts
at an early day. On pp. 281-9 he gives a list of words chosen from the Quiche,
Cakchiquel and Zutohil, showing analogies with languages of Northern
Europe, especially with the Scandinavian. Also see the same author in the
NowD. Ann. des Voy., 6th series, vol. iii, 1855, pp. 156-7. The Abbe in a letter
to the New York Tribune, November 21st, 1855, in referring to the early inhab-
itants of Vera Paz, says ; " They came from the east — not from the south-east,
hut from the noi'theast. I speak only of the tribes of Quiche-Cakchiquel and
Zutohil. They came from the north-east, certainly passed through the United
States, and as they say themselves, they crossed the sea in darkness, mist, cold
and snow. I suppose they must have come from Denmark and Norway. They
came in small numbers, and lost their white blood by their mixture with the
Indians whom they found — whether in the United States or in these regions,
certainly there must have been a Tula in our northern European countries.
But what is more convincing of this migration or passage, I find the same result
by a comparison of the languages. I cannot speak of the structure of them,
but by what I have observed is that the fundamental forms and words of the
languages of these regions (except the Mexican) are intimately connected with
the Maya or Tzendal, and that all the words that are neither Mexican nor Maya
belong to our languages of Northern Europe, viz. : English, Saxon, Danish,
Norwegian, Swedish, Flemish and German, some even appear to belong to the
French or Persian."

2 Dr. Farrar, referring to the Basque, says : ** What is certain about it is,
that its structure is polysynthetic, like the language of America. Like them,
and them only, it habitually forms its compounds by the elimination of certain

EPITOME OF MAYA GRAMMAR. 477

and some of the languages of Western Africa.^ Dr. Le Plongeon,
after several years spent amid the antiquities of Peru and in the
study of the Quichua language, says, " The Quichua contains
many words that seem closely allied to the dialects spoken by the
nations inhabiting the regions called to-day Central America,
and the Maya tongue/' In referring to the mural paintings at
Chichen-Itza, he further remarks, "By comparing them with
those of the Quichuas, I cannot but believe that Manco's ances-
tors emigrated from Xilbalba or Mayapan, carrying with them
the notions of the northern country/'^ Interesting as these
speculations are, they must be received with allowance and viewed
with doubt, until thorough linguistic researches test their value.
The most important features of Maya grammar are as fol-
lows : The letters of the alphabet are, a b c o e, ch, c^, h, i, k,
1, m, n, 0, p, p, 6, pp, t, th, tz, u, x, y, y, z. The letter o is
pronounced like the English dj, h is not aspirated, th is hard,
and the k guttural. Much of the beauty of the pronunciation
depends on the elision of certain vowels and consonants, as for
instance instead of ma in kati they say min kati, or instead of
ti ca otoch they would say ti c otocli. The plural is distinguished
from the singular by the addition of oh (those). Verbs ending
in an take tac in the plural. The masculine of rational beings

radicals in the simple words ; so that, e. g., ilhun, twilight, is contracted from
hill, dead, and egun, day ; and lelhaua, the knee, from helhar, front, and oin,
leg. It was this fact that made Larramendi give to his treatise on Basque
grammar the title of ' The Impossible Overcome.' The most daring of all the
hypotheses which have been suggested points to the conceivable existence of
some great Atlantis ; to the possibility of the ' Basque area being the remains
of a vast system, of which Madeira and the Azores are fragments belonging to
the Miocene period.' Be this as it may, the fact is indisputable and is emi-
nently noteworthy that, while the affinities of the Basque roots have never been
conclusively elucidated, there has never been any doubt that this isolated lan-
guage, preserving its identity in a western comer of Europe between two
mighty kingdoms, resembles in its grammatical structure the aboriginal lan-
guages of the vast opposite continent, and those alone." — Families of Speech,
pp. 132-3. Also see Alfred Maury in Nott and Gliddon's Indigenous Races of
the Earth, p. 48.

^ See Maury in Nott and Gliddon's Indig. Races, pp. 81-84.

2 Salisbury's Le Plongeon in Yucatan, p. 96.

478

EPITOME OF MAYA GRAMMAR.

is denoted by the prefix ah, the feminine by ix. The words xihil
and chupul, signifying male and female respectively, are used to
express the gender of animals. The case of nouns is determined
by their position in the sentence and their relation to the prepo-
sitions, the most frequent of the latter being ti, which has various
significations. Adjectives accompanying substantives always pre-
cede them, but the number is only expressed by the substantive.
The comparative is formed by adding I to the adjective, some-
times il, and prefixing u or y the pronoun of the third person.
The superlative is formed by prefixing hack to the positive.
The Maya pronouns are as follows :

Personal Pronouns.

Ten, en, I

Tech, ech, Thou.
Lay, laylo, lo. He, that.
Toon, on, We.

Teex, ex, You.

Loob, ob. They, those.

In, u. Mine

A, aa. Thine.

U, i. His, of that.

Ca, Ours.

Aex, auex, Yours.

Uob, yob, Of those.

Reciprocals.

Inba, Myself.

Aba, Thyself.

Uba, Himself.

Caba, Ourselves.

Abaex, Yourselves.

Ubaob, Themselves.

The verb has four conjugations and that of the auxiliary
teni, to be, the present tense of which is the same as the per-
sonal pronouns given in the left hand column. Ten, Tech, etc.
The other cases are as follows : Imperfect, Ten cuchi; Perfect,
Ten hi; Pluperfect, Ten hi-ilic2ichi; Future, Bin ten-ac; Future
perfect, Ten hi-ili coshom; Imperative, Ten-ac; Subjunctive
present, Ten-ac en; Imperfect, Hi ten-ac.

The verb Nacal, to ascend, of the first conjugation, is in-
flected as foUows :

Present Indicative.

Singular, 1st per., Nacal in cah; 2d per., Nacal a cah; 3d
per., Nacal u cah.

Plural, 1st per., Nacal ca cah; 2d per., Nacal a-cah-ex; 3d
per., Nacal-u-cah-oh.

The Imperfect, Nacal in cah-cuchi; Perfect, Nac-en; Plu-
perfect, Nacen Hi cuchi; Future, Bin nacac-en; Future per-
fect, Nacen ili-cuchom; Imperative, Nacen.

LORD'S PRAYER IN MAYA. 479

The Lord's Prayer in Maya.

Cayum ianeeli ti caanuob cilicbthantabac akaba ; tac a

Our Father who art in Heaven blessed be Thy name ; it may come

ahaulil c' okol. Mencahac a nolah uai ti luum bai ti caane.

Thy kingdom us over. Be done Thine will as on earth as in heaven.

Zanzamal uah ca azotoon heleae caazaatez c' ziipil he bik c' zaatzic
Daily bread us give to-day us forgive our sins as we forgive

uziipil ahziipiloobtoone, ma ix appatic c' lubul ti tuntah caatocoon ti
their sins to sinners, not also let us fall in temptation us deliver from

lob.» ^

evil.

In the state of Oajaca and occupying the western portion
of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in a position intermediate be-
tween the Maya on the one hand and the Nahua on the other,
is found the ancient family of languages known as the Mizteco-
Zapotec, the various dialects of which are spoken to this day by
the natives occupying those regions. No tradition throws any
light on the origin of this group, nor do any affiliations in vocab-
ulary or grammmatical structure seem to exist between them
and any other family, American or foreign. The Miztec lan-
guage is exceedingly difficult to acquire, being characterized by
words of extraordinary length. The Zapotec on the contrary,
with its several dialects, is elegant, sonorous, and less difficult.^

The language pre-eminent above all others in Mexico for its
territorial extent, for the refinement and civilization which it

* See on the Maya, Ruz, Oram. Yucateca ; Pimentel, Quadro Leng. Indig.,
tom. ii, pp. 5 et seq., whose grammar we have followed above. Also vol. ii,
pp. 119, 221 ; vol. i, p. 229, for idioms ; Gallatin in Am. Ethnol. Soc. Transact.^
vol. i, pp. 252 et seq.; Vater, Mithridates, tom. iii, pt. iii, pp. 4-24 ; Brasseur de
Bourbourg, Grammaire in Landa's Reladon, pp. 459 et seq., also Maya and
French Vocabulary ; Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iii, pp. 759-82, quotes prayer
as above. Further see literature cited in Ludewig's Literature of American
Aboriginal Languages, ed. of Trlibner. London, 1858, pp. 102-3.

^ Full accounts of the grammatical structure of the languages of this family
may be found in Pimentel's Quadro, tom. i, pp. 35-78, 321-60 ; Orozco y Berra's
Qeografia, pp. 25 et seq.; Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iii, pp. 748-58.

480 THE NAHUA OR AZTEC.

represented, and its own inherent beauty and elegance, is known
as the Nahua or Aztec, or more modernly the Mexican. It was
the language of the Toltecs and of their advanced civilization
and after them of the seven tribes of Nahuatlacas, that in the
year 1196 established themselves in the Mexican plateau. The
Aztecs, one of these tribes, in the course of events gaining the
ascendency, gave their name to the language which their con-
quests speedily extended over a territory four hundred leagues
in length, and in width from the Gulf to the Pacific, in the
latitude of the capital. The Aztec tongue prevailed continu-
ously from a point on the Gulf of California, under the twenty-
sixth parallel of latitude south-easterly to Eios Goatzacoalco
and Tobasco ; and southward to the fifteenth parallel, extending
along the coast of San Salvador and appearing in the interior
of Nicaragua. Its dialectical extension north of Mexico we
will consider on a future page. Twenty languages besides the
Aztec are said to have been spoken throughout Montezuma's
empire, but the Aztec alone was recognized as the official and
classic tongue. The Chichimecs are said to have spoken a lan-
guage of their own, until the ruler Techotlalatzin commanded
them to learn the Mexican.^ Mr. Bancroft is of the opinion
that the Nahna was the original language of the Chichimecs,
and consequently does not agree with Seiior Pimentel who ad-
vocates the opposite view, and, we think, sustains it.^ The
copiousness and grace of the Aztec has furnished a theme for
many Spanish writers whose praises have found an echo in the
works of our most able scholars and historians. If the Maya
has been compared to the Greek, the Aztec has often been
likened to the Latin, not in structure or vocabulary, but in its
relation to ancient American civilization, in its expressiveness,
politeness, its capacity for the sublime, and for the romantic
coloring with which it is able to clothe that which is humble
and even insigmficaDt. " It was the court language," says Mr.

' Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Ghk. in Kin^borough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix, p. 217, and
cited by Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iii, p. 724.

2 Natwe Races, vol. iii, pp. 724-5 ; Pimentel, Qiiadro Leng. Indig. de Mex ,
torn, i, pp. 154-8, and our discussion in this work, chapter vi, p. 255.

ANCIENT AND MODERN NAHUA. 481

Bancroft, " of American civilization, the Latin of medieval and
the French of modern times/' ^

The Nahua attained its highest development during the
century preceding the conquest in the schools of oratory, poetry
and history, established at Tezcuco, to which the sons of nobles
were sent, as much to acquire the purity of the idiom as the
science which they taught.^ SeSor Orozco y Berra says that
the difference existing between the ancient Nahua and the
modern, may be compared to that difference observed between
the Castilian of the Romance of the Cid and that of the present
day.^

The outlines of the Aztec grammar are briefly as follows :
The alphabet contains the letters a, ch, e, h, i, k, 1, m, n, o, p,
t, tl, tz, u, V, X, y, z, but lacks our consonants b, d, f, r, g, s.
No word commences with 1. The a is clear ; ch before a vowel
is pronounced as in Spanish, but before a consonant or when
final it differs somewhat ; e is clear ; h is moderately aspirated
and soft, but strong when it precedes u) t \^ omitted except
when it comes between two Vs. The tl in the middle of a
word is soft as in Spanish, but at the end is pronounced tie, the
e being half mute. The pronunciation of tz is similar to the
Spanish s, but stronger. The v is pronounced by the women as
in Spanish and French, but by the men like liu in Spanish ; x,
soft like the English sA, and z like the Spanish s, but not quite
so hissing.''

' Native Races, vol. iii, pp. 726-7. The same author refers to the Natural
History of Dr. Hernandez, written in the Aztec, as proof of its copiousness.
** Twelve hundred different species of Mexican plants, two hundred or more
species of birds, and a large number of quadrupeds, reptiles, insects and metals,
each of which is given its proper name in the Mexican language." (Quoted by
Pimentel, Quadro., vol. i, p. 168.)

2 See Prescott's Conq. of Mex., vol. i, p. 174 (ed. of 1875). " Tezcuco," says
Boturini, " where the noblemen sent their sons to acquire the most polished
dialect of the Nahuatlac language, and to study poetry, moral philosophy, the
heathen theology, astronomy, medicine and history." {Idea, p. 142, cited by
Prescott.)

^ Oeografia de las Leiiguas, p. 9.

* Pimentel, Qnadro, Lenguas Indig., p. 165, also copied by Bancroft, Naime
Races, vol. iii, p. 731. From Pimentel we draw our extract of Aztec Grammar.
31

482 AZTEC CONSTRUCTION.

By composition, words containing sixteen syllables are formed,
though many simple words are quite long. We have already
explained the process of polysynthesis or compounding by means
of clipping the syllables and words with a view to brevity and
euphony. The following example furnished by Pimentel and
copied by Mr. Bancroft, further illustrates the principle : tlazotli,
esteemed or loved ; maviztik, honored or reverenced ; teopixhi,
priest ; tatli^ father, and nOj mine, furnishes as a result : not-
lazomavkteopixkatatzin, " my esteemed father and reverend
priest." An example of the termination tzin, signifying respect,
is presented in this word. Several illustrations of the same
principle are furnished by Senor Pimentel, showing that often a
sentence is compounded into a single word. Indeed a great
many of the component parts of these long words, though words
in themselves, are incapable of being used separately. In com-
position' the verb succeeds the nominative and is placed at the
end of the sentence. The adverb precedes the verb, as does the
adjective the substantive.

The Aztec is rich in terminations for the formation of the
plural. Generally no change is required for inanimate objects, as
multiplicity is expressed by means of numerals or the adverb miek
(much), e. g., ze tetl, one stone ; yei tetl, three stones ; miek tetl,
many stones, though often the terminations used for the plural
of persons is applied to inanimate objects, particularly when
they are connected with persons, as zoquitl, mud ; tizoquime, we
are earth ; however, there are exceptions to the rule, as in the
Aztec words for the heavens, the mountains and the stars.
Furthermore, the first syllable is often doubled in order to form
the plural of inanimate things. Seiior Pimentel has embraced
the entire subject of the formation of the plural in six rules.

1. Primitive words fomi their plural in me tin or ke, as
ichkatl, a ewe, a sheep ; icJikame, sheep ; zolin, a quail ; zoltin,
quail ; kokoxki, sick ; kokoxke, sick (plural).

2. Derivatives form their plural as follows : the so-called
" reverentials " in tzintli, have the plural in tzitzintin ; the
diminutives in tontli form the plural totontin, and the dimin-
utives in ton and pil, augmentatives in jpol and reverentials in

THE CASES. 483

tzin double the final syllable ; as, tlahatzintli, person ; tlakatzi-
tzintin, persons, etc.

3. Words either primitive or derived into which the posses-
sive pronouns enter, form the plural in van Qiuan according to
the common orthography) ; as, noichkavan^ my sheep, noichka-
totonvan, my little sheep.

4. The words tlakatl, person ; zivatl, woman ; terms of gen-
tilitious character or expressive of office and profession, form
their plural by the omission of the final letters, as Mexicatl, a
Mexican ; Mexika, Mexicans ; in which case the final vowel is
accented.

5. Some words form the plural by omitting the terminals
and by doubling the first syllable, while others double the first
syllable without omitting the terminal ; as, teotl, god ; teteo,
gods ; zoUn, quail ; zozoUin, quails ; telpochtU and ichpochtli,
double the syllable ^o.

6. Some adjectives have various plurals, as miek, much ;
whose plural is miektin, miekintin or miekin.

In most cases the adjective and its substantive agree in num-
ber. The only means of expressing gender is by adding the
words okiclitli, male, and zivatl, female.

In the absence of a regular declension the cases are formed
as follows : The genitive is indicated by the possessive pronoun
or by the juxtaposition of the words, the dative by means of
verbs called applicatives, the accusative by certain particles
accompanying the verb or by juxtaposition, the vocative by
adding e to the nominative or by the change of i into e in words
ending in tli or li and the in into e in words ending in tzin.

The ablative is indicated by various particles and prepositions.
The language surpasses the Italian in the number of its augmen-
tatives and diminutives. The former take the syllable pol, the
latter to7itl{ and ton. The Aztec is richer in verbal nouns than
any other language. Those derived from active, neuter, passive,
reflective and impersonal verbs, terminate in ni, oni, ya^ ia, yan,
kan or ianj tli, li, liztli, oka, ka, ki, k, i, o, tl.

484

CONJUGATIONS.

Table of Pronouns.

Peksonals.

POSSESSIVES.

Nevatl, neva, ne,

No,

Mine.

Tevatl, tern, te.

Thou.

Mo,

Thine.

Temtl, yem, ye,

He, or somebody.

His.

I'emntin, tern.

We.

To,

Ours.

Amemntin, amemn,

You.

Amo,

Yours.

Temntin, yemn.

They.

In or im

, Theirs.

Te,

Of or belonging to others.

" The possessives," says Pimentel, " are always used in com-
position, and change the final syllable of the word to which they
are joined ; as, teotl, God, noieuh, my God," etc.^

The modes of the verb are : the indicative, imperative, opta-
tive and subjunctive. The indicative has the following tenses :
present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, future. The subjunctive
has one tense which is translated by the imperfect.

The following example of the conjugation is given from

Pimentel :

Indicative.

We make.
You make.
They make.

Present.
Ni-cJiiva, I make. Ti-cMva,

Ti-cTiiva, Thou makes t. An-chiva,

Chiva, He makes. Chivd,

Imperfect.
Ni-cMva-ya, I made.

Perfect.
Oni-chi-uh, I have made.

Pluperfect.
Oni-cM-uhka, I had made.

Future.
Ni-chiva-z, I shall make.

Imperative.
Present : Ma xi-cMva, Make thou.
Future : Ma ti-chiva-z, Make thou presently.

Qiiadro, Leng. Indig., torn, i, p. 183.

THE LORD'S PRAYER IN AZTEC. 485

Optative.

Imperfect : Ma ni-chiva-ni, Would that I should make.
Perfect : Ma oni-chi-uh, Would that I have made.

Subjunctive.

Imperfect : Ni-chiva-zMa, or ) mL i. t i ^^ ^
^ -^ TiT. 7 . 7 . c That I should make.

JSi'Chiva-zkiayo, )

There is no infinitive in the conjugation, it being expressed
by the future indicative. Only verbs in liztli have this mode.
The passive voice, save in a few exceptional cases, is formed as
follows : lo is added to the present indicative of the active voice.
In the perfect tense, h is added to the previously affixed o in the
singular and Tee in the plural. The other modes and tenses form
their passive voice by adding to the present indicative passive
their own final termination, as, for instance, we have nichiva, I
make, nichivalo, I am made, onichivaloh, I was made, onichi-
valoka, that I should be made, etc. The Aztec contains only
six irregular verbs.

The Lord's Prayer in Aztec.

Totatzine in ilvikak timoyetztika ma yektenevalo in motokatzin

Our reverend Father who heaven in art be praised ( ) thy name

mavallauh in motlatokayotzin ma chivalo in tlaltikpak in motlanekilitzin in
may come ( ) thy kingdom be done ( ) earth above ( ) thy will ( )

yuh chivalo in ilvikak. In totlaxkal mo moztlae totech moneki
as is done ( ) heaven in. ( ) our bread every day to us is necessary

ma axkan xitechmomakili, ivan ma xitechmopopolvili in totlatlakol in yuh
to-day give us and forgive us ( ) our sins ( ) as

tikintlapopolvia intechtlatlakalvia ivan makamo xitechmomakavili inik
we forgive those who us offend and not lead thou us that

amo ipan tivetzizke in teneyeyekoltiliztli, zanye ma xitechmomakixtili in
not in we fall ( ) temptation, but deliver us ( )

ivikpa in amo kualli.'
against ( ) not good.

' It will be observed in some portions of this abstract, I have used almost
the same words as are employed by Mr. Bancroft. This is owing to the fact

486 SUPPOSED TRACES OF AZTEC AT THE NORTH.

Language has ever been an important factor in determining
the original home and the migrations of peoples. With this view
the Aztec has received the attention of some of the best scholars
of both continents. The most prominent results merit attention.
The Nahua language is unquestionably spoken far to the south,
in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and this fact has been
persistently cited as conclusive proof of the southern origin of the
Nahuas ; but even Mr. Bancroft, the most eminent of the advo-
cates of this hypothesis, admits that there " it is dialectic rather
than aboriginal in appearance, so that the testimony of language
is all in favor of the plateau of Anahuac having been the primal
centre of the Aztec tongue." ^

The reports of several of the adventurers into the unex-
plored north, were to the efiect that the aborigines whom they
encountered spoke Aztec. Father Roque of Onate's expedition
into New Mexico at the close of the sixteenth century, and
Father Geronimo de Zarate subsequently at the Rio del Tizon,
are authority for the most positive statements that the Mexican
was encountered. Mr. Anderson, a companion of Captain Cook in
1778, discovered the Aztec terminal I tl or z of frequent occur-
rence among the Nootkas of the Northwest coast. With this
data and the traditions of the Aztecs, which all point to the
north as their ancient home, sufficient basis was found for a gen-
eral belief that the Mexican peoples had migrated down the coast
of California and left an unbroken linguistic line along the entire
route of their wanderings. At the beginning of the present
century, the great German philologist, Yater, sought to establish
this line by his extensive investigations, published in his Mitliri-
dates? Unfortunately for his labors, later researches have shown
his generalizations too sweeping. Wilhelm von Humboldt
considered the Cora, under the twenty-second degree of latitude

that both he and I have translated certain passages literally from Seiior Pimen •
tel, from whose work I have drawn this account throughout. See Quadro,
Lenguas Indig. de Mex,, torn, i, pp. 164-216 ; Gallatin in Amer. Ethnol. Soc.
Trans., vol. i, pp. 214-246 ; Vater, Mithridates, vol. iii, pt. iii, pp. 85-106, and
Bancroft's JSfatim Races, vol. iii, pp. 721-37.

^ Native Races, vol. iii, p. 726.

^ Mithridates, torn, iii, pt. iii, pp. 75 et seq.

DR. BUSCHMANN'S RESEARCHES. 487

on the Kio de Santiago, to be a mixture of Aztec and some older
and rougher language.^ In 1855-59, Dr. Buschmann of Berlm
issued two celebrated works,^ in which the subject was critically
examined, and as far as possible, with the data at hand, the true
proportion of Aztec elements entering into all the languages
spoken north of the Mexican plateau, was indicated. The
researches were systematically made, beginning with the North
Mexican languages and proceeding northward in the supposed
line of the Aztec migration. In four languages of Northwestern
Mexico in particular, did Dr. Buschmann find the conspicuous
presence of Aztec elements. These are the Cora of Jalisco,
referred to above ; the Tepehuana of northern Sinaloa, Durango
and southern Chihuahua, spoken between the twenty-third and
twenty-seventh parallels, in a crescent-shaped territory the
points of which touch the Aztec on the west, intervening be-
tween it and the Gulf of California ; the Tarahumara, spoken
in the Sierra Madre, of the State of Chihuahua and Sonora,
and fourthly, the Cahita occupying the east coast of the Gulf
of California between the twenty-sixth and twenty-eighth paral-
lels. By a liberty in classification, Buschmann calls this group
the Sonora family, although the languages are entirely different
from each other, with the exception that they are all pervaded
by the Aztec element. This is their only bond of union. They
contain about two hundred Aztec words, and about eight hun-
dred words derived from the Aztec in the several idioms.^ " The
Aztec tl, and tli in the Cora, are found changed in ti, te and t; in
the Tepehuana into de, re and set; in the Tarahumara into ki,
Ice, ca and la, and in the Cahita, into ri. In all four of the
languages substantive endings are dropped, first, in composition
when the substantive is united with the possessive pronoun ;
secondly, before an affix ; thirdly, in the Cora alone, before the
ending of the plural and before affixes in the formation of

' Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iii, pp. 663-70, our authority for the facts stated
on p. 486. See his sketch of the theory and the reaction under Buschmann.

* Die Lautverdndernng Aztekischer Worter in der Sonorischcn Sprnchen.
Berlin, 1855, 4to, and Die Spuren der Aztekischen Sprachen. Berlin, 1859, 4to.

3 Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iii, p. 669.

488 BUSCHMANN'S SONORA FAMILY.

words." ^ Northeast of the Tarahumara and reaching to the
Eio Grande is the Cnocho, and directly to the east of the Cnocho,
is the territory of the Toboso, also bounded on the north by the
Rio Grande. It is uncertain whether the Aztec was ever the
language of these large districts, though testimony is not want-
ing that it was understood by both peoples.^ In fact throughout
all northera Mexico, the Aztec was understood, and, in some
instances, entered prominently into the languages of the north-
western tribes. Grimm's law of Lautverdnderung , sound chang-
ing or shifting, is as conspicuous in its application to the Aztec-
Sonora family of Buschmann as it is to the members of the
Aryan family, and often far more so. Occupying the north-
western extremity of Mexico are the Pima-Alto and Bajo, and
the Opata, the principal dialect of the latter being the Eudeve.
Here again the Aztec appears both in the identity of words and
the similarity of grammatical structure. These languages are
recognized as branches of the Aztec-Sonora family, so much so
that Orozco y Berra has classified them together under the name
of the Opata-Tarahumar-Pima. He accounts for the presence
of the Aztec element upon the supposition that the language and
civilization of Mexico once extended over this region, but were
subverted and displaced by the incursions of northern peoples
toward the close of the twelfth century." Not only is this
probable, but, on the other hand, it would be a matter of
surprise if traces of the Aztec were not found in languages
bordering upon so vast and powerful an empire as that of Mon-
tezuma. Still this fact alone is scarcely sufficient to account for
the prominence of the Aztec element in the northern languages,
while it is almost totally wanting in others more central and
southern. Crossing into the United States territory, we first
encounter the Moqui of the pueblo towns of Arizona ; to the
west in southeastern California, we meet the Cahuillo, Cheme-

' Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iii, pp. 667-8; William von Humboldt in
Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Spr. pp. 48-50 ; Orozco y Berra, Geografia, p. 39.

* Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Spr., p. 173 ; Orozco y Berra, Geografia,
pp. 33 i-5 ; Bancroft, Native Races, vol. iii, p. 714.

3 Geografia, pp. 53, 147-8.

THE MOQUI AND AZTEC. 489

huevi, Kizh, Netela and Kechi ; at the other extreme on the
east, we have the Comanche of New Mexico and Texas, while
to the north, in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Oregon, we have
the great Shoshone and Utah families. But why group these
languages in such a wholesale manner ? Is it because of inter-
linguistic affinities? No. Simply because of the Aztec element
(though insignificant it is true), which unquestionably pervades
them all.^ Six of the Moqui towns speak the language which
bears their name. But, strange to say, Harno the Seventh uses
the Tequa, a language of one of the New Mexican Pueblos.
The Moqui language contains much that is Aztec, and because
of its substantive endings in pe and he, etc., is considered by
Buschmann a branch of his Shoshone-Comanche family of
the Sonora idiom.^ Coupling this fact with the traditions of
the Moquis (see, pages 302-304) descriptive of their migra-
tions from the North under the pressure of the hordes of
savages who deprived them of their cultivated lands and
slaughtered their families, we are at a loss to account for this
infusion of Aztec elements, except on the hypothesis that at a
remote day large numbers of Nahuas came in contact with the
ancestors of this people in their ancient home. Equally con-
spicuous is the Aztec element in south-east California lan-
guages and the great Shoshone and Utah families, which occupy
the great central basin and stretch away into Idaho and Oregon.
Grimm's law of sound-shifting is seen in their adjective and

' " As regards this Aztec element, I do not mean to say tliat these languages
are related to the Aztec language in the same sense that other languages are
spoken of as being related to each other, for this might lead those who are
searching for the former habitation or fatherland of the Aztecs, to suppose that
it has been found. This element consists simply in a number of words identi-
cal or reasonably approximate to the like Aztec words, and in the similarity,
perhaps, of a few grammatical rules. How this Aztec word-material crept into
the languages of the Shoshones, whether by intercommunication, or Aztec
colonization, we do not know. Nor do I wish to be understood as attempting
to sustain the popular theory of an Aztec migration from the North ; on the
contrary, the evidences of language are all on the other side." — BancrofVa
Native Races, vol. iii, pp. 660-1 .

- Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Spr. , -p. 290 ; Bancroft, Native Races, yo\.
iii, pp. 673-4.

490 TRACES OF AZTEC IN OREGON.

substantive endings, p, pa, pe, pi, he, wa, ph, pee, rp, and rpe.
The Shoshone and Utah still retain ts, tse, and tsi, all of which
are but variations of the Aztec tl, tli, according to the law above
named. Buschmann pronounces this group the capstone of his
Sonora edifice.^ In Western Oregon, from the source to the
mouth of the Willamette Kiver, the Yamkally and Calapooya
languages preserve traces of the Aztec both in words and ter-
minal sounds.^ The same is even more evident concerning the
Chinook, of the lower Columbia River, in which the Aztec thl
and tl is a regular termination.^ Tliroughout the entire region
drained by the Columbia and its tributaries, Dr. Buschmann
found well-marked Aztec elements. The Clallum and Lummi
languages of the great Salish or Flathead family, which touches
the coast opposite Vancouver's Island and extends into the in-
terior, have the tl termination and other phonetic resemblances
to the Aztec.^ Furthermore, Mr. Gibbs has discovered that the
cardinals employed by the Clallam and Lummi in their system
of enumeration are of a threefold character, and, as Mr. Gallatin
has shown, are similar to those of the Mexicans and Mayas.^

^ Spur en der Aztek. ;^.,pp. 349-51,391, 648-52 et seq.; Bancroft, Natim
Bac€8, vol. iii, pp. 661-79, comparative table compiled from Busclimann, Turner,
Molina, Ortega, and others, on p. 678.

2 Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Spr., p. 629, and Bancroft, Native Races,
vol. iii, pp. 630-1.

2 " The Chinook language is spoken by all the nations from the mouth of the
Columbia to the Falls. It is hard and diflBcult to pronounce for strangers,, being
full of gutturals like the Gaelic. The combinations tJil or tl are as frequent in
the Chinook as in the Mexican." — Franchere, Narratim of a Voy. to N. W. Coast
ofN. Am, p. 262. Swan, speaking of the Chinook, says : " The peculiar clucking
sound is produced by pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and
pronouncing the word ending with tl as if it were the letter k at the end of the
tl; but it is impossible in any form or method of spelling that I know of, to
convey the proper guttural clucking sound. Sometimes they will, as if for
amusement, end all their words in tl ; and the effect is ludicrous to hear three
or four talking at the same time with tliis singular sound, like so many sitting-
hens." — North West Coast, p. 315.

^ Buschmann, Spur en der Aztek. Spr., pp. 628-9 ; Bancroft, Native Races,
vol. iii, p. 619.

^ Gibbs' Alphabetical Vocab. of Clallam and Lummi Lang., p. 6 ; Gallatin,
in Trans. Am. Eth. Soc, vol. i, p. 54.

BUSCHMANN ON THE VANCOUVER LANGUAGES. 491

Whether the Aztec is represented in the language of the
Nootkas on Vancouver's IsUmd is uncertain. Certainly strong
marks of similarity are observable. Buschmann, while admitting
the existence of resemblances, thinks that hardly enough of them
exist to warrant relationship.^ The inquiry naturally arises,
how came this Aztec element which, three and a half centuries

1 Busclimann, Die Volker und Spr<ichen NevrMexico'Sy p. 370, calls attention
to the great resemblance of

Aztec Nutka.

tepuztli = copper = chipuz j

tetl = stone = tenetscliok

and adds that Esquiates the name of a society is entirely Mexican. We append
the result of liis investigations :

"Von ahnlicher Art, gleich den Spanisch gemodelten Gestalten Mexican-
ischer Worter, sind viele Nutka- Worter der Spanischen Sammlung : nur mit
dem Unterschiede, dass sie auf keinen vorhandenen mexicanischen Wortern
beruhen (da zufallig diese Buchstaben-combinationem in der Azt. Sprache nicht
vorkommen, aber ihren Wesen nach recht gut vorkommen konnten). Solche
Worter sind : iztocoti — Muschel (dazu Eigenname iztocoti No. 923) ; majati =
jagd (caza), mamati = Hof, muztati = Regenbogen : cucustlati = Nasenloch,
natlaycazte = Rippen ; otniquit — Jungfrau ; mamatle = Schiff; oumatle =
Leib; aguequetle = Hunger; capitzitle = Dieb; tnhechitle = larga : temextixitle
— Kuss ; cuachitle = reisen ; cvchitle = pincher ; meyali = Schmerz. Es
giebt noch eine hcJhere Gattung von Nutka-Wortern (der Span. Reise), welche
(besonders durch die Aechtheit ihrer Endung von der vorigen verschieden)
ganz und gar wie mexicanische Worter aussehen, und (so weit sie substantiva
sind) mexicanische sein wiirden, wenn es der Sprache beliebt hatte diese
bestimraten Lautgestalten zu bilden : inapatl = Riicken ; tlexatl — Matte ;
tzahuacatl = 9 ; chamiehtl = Iris ; naguatzitl = Zwerg ; nascMtl = Tag ;
jacamltl = viereckig ; haatzacchitl = Husten ; nectzitl = trinken ; pugxitl =
heben : cocotl = Seeotter ; amanutl = espinilla ; apactzutl = Bart ; ictlatzutl
= Mund ; iniyutl = Kehle ; jayutl = Fluth ; tlatlncastzeme = Blatter (wie ein
Mex. Plural in me) ; coyactzac = Fuchsbalg. Noch mehr Worter finden sich,
wenn man fiir die Mex. Sprache unnatiirliche und zu harte Consonanten —
Verbindungen tibersieht. Diese letzte hohere Gattung vorzilglich, doch auch
die erstere meint Alexander von Humboldt in der obigen Stelle (S. 363). So
gawinnt die Nutka-Sprache durch eine reiche Zahl von Wortern und durch
grosse Ziige ihres Lautwesens, einzig von alien anderen fremden, die ich habe
aufdecken kounen, in einem bedeutenden Theile eine tSuschende Aehnlichkeit
mit der Aztekischen oder Mexicanischen ; und so wird die ihr schon frilher
gewidmete Aufmerksamkeit vollstandig gerechtfertigt. Ihrer Mexicanischen
Erscheinrung fehlt aber, wie ich von meiner Seite hier ausspreche jede Wirk-
lichkeit."— /M?.,p.371.

492 NAHUA THE LANGUAGE OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

after the overthrow of the Aztec empire, we observe in faint,
though unbroken lines running from the centre of Mexico to the
vicinity of Vancouver's Island to find its way into a multitude
of languages, some of which are separated from others by a vast
region more than two thousand miles in width ? How did it
come to be the only bond of union between so many languages
in all other respects so dissimilar ? It has been suggested that
this wide-spread dissemination of the Aztec is owing to the trade
probably carried on between Mexico and the North. However,
this is merely conjecture and is incapable of proof. It wdll be
observed that the linguistic line is faintest in the central basin
among the Shoshones and Utahs, where the relationship is estab-
lished mainly by the sound-shifting of the terminals according to
Grimm's law, but in the languages of the Columbia Kiver and
its tributaries, and especially of the Salish or Flathead family
bordering on the strait of Juan de Fuca, the Aztec terminal is
actually present and in constant use. The most critical re-
searches have established this as an incontestable fact. In this
connection it is worthy of note (as shown in our first chapter)
that the works of the Mound-builders abound in this region
in great numbers, extending into the interior, appearing upon
the upper Missouri and its tributaries, and continuing to the
Mississippi Valley and thence into Mexico instead of following
the coast or the central basin at the west. Whether the Nahua
was the language of the Mound-builders of the United States, we
are unable to determine, but the probabilities that it was are con-
siderable ; because (1) the people of the mounds built structures
similar to those which prevail all over Mexico, though in a less
degree of perfection ; (2) they carried obsidian from Mexico to
the North Mississippi Valley, showing both regions to have
enjoyed intimate commercial relations. This is no evidence that
the Mound-builders were colonists sent out from Mexico, since
it is improbable that colonists would have penetrated into the
extreme North-west by way of the Missouri River. Further-
more we have the valuable argument of Baron von Hellwald
made at the Luxembourg session of the Congres International
des Aiuericanistes in favor of a migration from nortli to south, in

THE ANCIENT NAHUA. 493

his reply to Mr. Robert S. Robertson's paper on " the Mound-
builders/' namely, that no evidence exists of the Mexicans or
Central Americans having worked copper mines anterior to the
conquest ; hence it follows that since copper was employed by
both Mexicans and Mound-builders, it must have been carried
southward by the latter.^ (3) We have testimony of the early
writers that the Nahuas came from the North-east ; Sahagun
says from the direction of Florida, which then embraced the
Mississippi Valley. (4) We have the statements of Acosta and
Sahagun that the Apalaches occupying the region east of the
Mississippi extended their colonies far into Mexico. According
to Acosta the Mexicans called them Apalaches, Tlautuics or
Mountaineers. " Sahagun speaking of them says : ' They are
Nahuas and speak the Mexican language.' This is by no means
improbable, as the Aztec is found eastward in the present states
of Tamaulipas and Coahuila, and thence the distance to the
Mississippi is not so fir." ^ In their search for the Aztec element
in the North, every investigator — Buschmann among the rest —
has made a great oversight. They have expected to find resem-
blances to the Aztec as it was spoken at the time of the con-
quest after centuries of culture had been bestowed upon it in
the schools of Mexico and Tezcuco. It appears never to have
occurred to these scholars, that if Mexican similarities exist at
the North they are with the ancient form of the Nahua, which
Orozco y Berra tells us "differs as much from the modern Nahua
or Aztec as the Spanish of the Romance of the Cid from the
Spanish of to-day,'' or coming nearer home, we may say that it
probably differed as much as the Anglo-Saxon of King Alfred
and the English of the present. The linguistic researches
referred to have certainly been made over a wide chasm of time
and change, as viewed in this light, and when we consider the
instability of language in America, the wonder is that any

' Compte-Rendu Seconde Ses. Cong. Internat. des Americanistes, Luxembourg,
vol. i, pp. 51-2.

2 Bancroft's Native Races, vol. iii, p. 727. Acosta, Hist. Nat. Ind., p. 600.
Sahagun, j&w^ Oen., torn, iii, lib. ix, cap. 9.

494 OTOMI AND CHINESE COMPARED.

Nahua traces exist at the North-west at this late date.^ This
phenomenon can only be accounted for on the supposition that,
at a remote period, large numbers of Nahua-speaking people
resided for a considerable length of time in those regions. The
presence of the mounds in such numbers in Washington and the
British possessions north of it, leads to this view, provided it can
be established that the Mound-builders were Nahuas. The fact
that the line of mounds is toward the interior precludes the
expectation that the Nahua is to be found prominently present
west of the Kocky Mountains. It is plausible to consider the
Moquis a branch from the Nahuas, separating from them at an
early day and establishing themselves in Southern Oregon and
Utah, w^hence, according to their tradition, they were driven by
the Utes. In the course of time, their language, which contains
a Nahua element, may have become changed and lost much of
its original character. To their residence, migration, and the
possible captivity of many of their number, the traces of Aztec
found in the Shoshone and Utah tongues may be due.

Analogies between tbe Nahua and all the other languages of
the world have been assiduously sought for, and supposed affilia-
tions advocated by theorists, but in the present unsatisfactory
state of philological science it would be presumptuous for us to
pretend that any claim for linguistic analogies with the old world
could be sustained. There is no doubt that strong analogies
are observable between the Otomi and the Chinese. Senor
Najera, to whom the former is vernacular, has appended to his
excellent grammar of the Otomi a comparative table of Chinese
and Otomi words, which while it shows strong resemblances, is
not sufficient in itself to establish relationship.^

' " To show how languages spring np and grow, Vancouver, when visiting
the coast in 1792, found in various places along the shores of Oregon, Washing-
ton and Vancouver's Island, nations that now and then understood words and
sentences of the Nootka and other tongues, some of which had been adopted
into their own language. When Lewis and Clarke, in 1806, reached the coast,
the jargon [Chinook] seems to have already assumed a fixed shape, as may be
seen from the sentences quoted by the explorers." — Bancroft's Native Races,
vol. iii, p. 633.

^ I append a partial list from Senor Najera's JDisertacion sobre la lengua

MONOSYLLABISM.

495

Warden has treated the grammatical resemblances, which
in many respects are striking.^ It is one of the most singular
phenomena met with in the whole range of ethnography and
philology, that a monosyllabic language should be found in the
very heart of Mexico surrounded by the most remarkable poly-
syllabism in the world, touching the capital on the south-east
and extending north-west into San Luis Potosi and over portions
of Queretaro and Guanajuato. It is no doubt a language of
great antiquity, and whether Chinese in origin is not fully
determined.^ Numerous claims have been set forth that some
of the Californian languages bear a striking resemblance to the
Chinese, and that Indians and Chinese in some cases have found
so much in common in their respective languages as to be able
to hold conversations with each other. These claims have in
most instances been supported by persons having little knowl-

Othomi, Mexico, 1845, fol., pp. 87-8.

I have rendered the Sp

anish list into

English.

Chinese.

Othomi.

English.

Chinese.

Othomi.

English.

Cho.

To.

The, that.

Pa.

Da.

To give.

N-y.

A wound.

Tsun.

Nsu.

Honor.

Ten.

Gu, Mu.

Head.

Hu.

Hmu.

Sir, Lord.

Siao.

Sui.

Night.

Na.

That.

Tien.

Tsi.

Tooth.

Hu.

He.

Cold.

Ye.

Yo.

Shining.

Ye.

He.

And.

Ky.

Hy (ji).

Happiness.

Hoa.

Hia.

Word.

Ku.

Du.

Death.

Nugo.

Nga.

Po.

Yo.

No.

Ni.

Nuy.

Thou.

' Na.

Ta.

Man.

Hao.

Nho.

The good.

, Nin.

Nsu.

Female.

Ta.

Da.

The great.

1 Tseu,

Tsi, Ti.

Son.

Li.

Ti.

Gain.

Tso.

Tsa.

To perfect.

Ho.

To.

Who.

uan.

Khuani.

True.

Pa.

To leave.

Siao,

Sa.

To mock.

Mu, Mo.

Me.

Mother.

^ Warden, in Antiquites Meodcaines, tom. ii, div. ii, pp. 125 ei seq. The same
author has furnished many linguistic analogies, though without following any
scientific classification. Ampere, Promenade en Amerique, vol, ii, p. 301, fur-
nishes a list of Chinese and Otomi resemblances.

2 Orozco y Berra, Oeografia, p. 17. Pimentel, Leng. Indig. de Mex., tom. i,
p. 118. Bancroft, vol. iii, p. 737. Vater, Mithridates, tom. iii, pt. iii, p. 113.
Malte-Brun (V. S.), in Congres des Amencanides, Luxembourg, Seconde Ses., torn..
ii, pp. 16-18.

496

JAPANESE ANALOGIES.

edge of the principles of philology, and who are scarcely aware of
the difficulty of comparing two monosyllabic languages in which
the finest shade of pronunciation carries with it the greatest
significance.^ Japanese claims have been urged with some rea-
son by ethnologists no less eminent than Latham, who is confi-
dent that the "Kamskadale, Koriak, Aino-Japanese and the
Korean are the Asiatic languages most like those of America."^
Comparisons of the Indian languages with those of the old
world have often been made, most frequently in a haphazard
manner and to little purpose. Recently, however, Herr Forch-
hammer of Leipzig published a truly scientific comparison of
the grammatical structure of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Musko-
gee and Seminole languages, with the Ural-Altaic tongues, in

• " In 1857, a gentleman named Henley, a good Chinese scholar, who acted
as an interpreter of this state for some time, published a list of words in the
Chinese and Indian languages to show that they were of the same origin.
From tliis we make an extract supporting our remarks :

Indian.

Chinese.

English.

Indian.

Chinese.

English.

Nang-a,

Nang,

Man.

A-pa,

Father.

Ti-soo,

Soa,

Hand.

A-ma,

Mother.

Keoka,

Keok,

Foot.

Ko-le,

A-ko,

Brother.

Aek-a-soo,

Soo,

Beard.

Ko-chae,

To-chae,

Thanks.

Yuet-a,

Yuet,

Moon.

Nagam,

Yam,

Drunk.

Teeta,

Yat,

Sun.

Koolae,

Ku-kay,

Her.

Utyta,

Hoto,

Much.

Koo-chue,

Chue-koo,

Hog.

Lee-lum,

Ee-lung,

Deafness.

Chookoo,

Kow-chi,

Dog."

Ho-ya-pa,

Ho-ah,

Good.

We have no means at hand of testing the following statement from the same
author : " The Chinese, who have become so numerous in California since the
discovery of gold, bear a striking resemblance to the Indians, and are known to
be able to converse with them in their respective languages to an extent that
cannot be the result of mere coincidence of expression." — Gronaise, Tlie Natural
Wealth of California, p. 31. Probably a mistake.

* " Unhesitatingly as I make this assertion — an assertion for which I have
numerous tabulated vocabularies as proof — I am by no means prepared to say
that one-tenth part of the necessary work has been done for the parts in ques-
tion ; indeed, it is my impression that it is easier to connect America with the
Kuirle Isles and Japan, etc., than it is to make Japan and the Kiiirle Isles, etc.,
Asiatic." — Latham, Man and His Migrations^, pp. 195-6. Barton, Neio Yieim,
is certain that the languages of America originated in Asia ; see pp. Ixxxviii-
xcii. On p. 28 of Appendix he furnishes a comparative list of Japanese and
Indian words.

ANALOGIES IN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES. 497

which he has developed many interesting points of resemblance.'
Prof. Valentin! has called attention to the fact that Ptolemy
(Geography, Asia Minor, Chapter X, Armenia Major) gives in his
list of cities belonging to the Roman province in his time (a. d.
140), the names of five cities situated in the region of the historic
Ararat, which have nearly their counterpart in five proper names
applied to localities in Mexico by its ancient colonists. The cities
of Armenia Major, according to Ptolemy, are : Choi, Colua,
Zuivana, Cholima, Zalissa. " The first name Choi is contained
in Cholula; the second, Colua, in Coluacan; the third, Zuvana,
in Zuivan, which is the ancient name of the Yucatanic province
of Bacalab (see Perez in Stephens' Yitcalan, Appendix, vol. ii,
Chronology of Yucatan). Cholima is to-day written Colima,
Zalissa is contained in Xalisco, the Spanish x sounding in the
Nahua language like the Englisli sh." ~ Generally we have been
disposed to pronounce all such coincidences accidental, as most
of them certainly are. In this case we leave the decision to the
reader. In this chapter we have noticed two prominent families
of languages, (1) the Maya-Quiche, having such transatlantic
affinities as to furnish presumptive evidence that if it did not
originate from, it was at least influenced by the West European
or African languages. (2) The great Nahua family, which lin-
guistic researches, together wdth the circumstantial evidence
furnished by architectural remains, commercial intercourse and
the testimony of early writers, assign to at least a temporary
occupancy of the Columbian region on the North-west coast.
Concede this fact, and you must look elsewhere, possibly to the
opposite continent, for the early beginnings of a language so
ancient and polished.

While the proof is not conclusive, yet we think it is pre-
sumptive that both of these families, as well as some other
American languages, are of old world origin.

' Vergleicliung; der Amerikaniscben Sprachen mit den Ural AJtaischen liin-
sichtlich ihrer Grammatik. {Congres dcs Amerkanistes, Luxembourg, 1877,
torn, ii, p. 56 et seq.) Also see E. L. O. Roehrig " On tbe Language of tbe Dakota
or Sioux Indians," Smithsonian Beport, 1872.

2 Prof. ValentAni's communication to tbe autbor.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PROBABILITIES THAT AMERICA WAS PEOPLED FROM THE
OLD WORLD, CONSIDERED GEOGRAPHICALLY AND PHYSI-
CALLY.

Legends of Atlantis — Brasseur de Bourbourg's Theory — The Subject Examined
Scientifically — Retzius' View — Le Plongeon's Observations — Identity of
European and American Plant Types — Revelations of the Dolphin and
Challenger Expeditions — The Atlantic Floor — Challenger and Dolphin
Ridges — Challenger Plateau probably once Dry Land — Identity of
European and South American Fauna — Elevation and Depression of Coast
Level of Greenland, United States, and South America — Gulf- Stream —
Equatorial Current — The Trade- Winds — Accidental Discovery of Brazil —
America Probably Reached by Ancient Navigators — The Caras— Atolls of
the Pacific Ocean — A Pacific Continent — Contiguity of the Continents at
the North — Aleutian Islands — Kuro-Suvo — Behring's Straits — Inviting
Appearance of the American Shore — Remoteness of the Migration — Prof.
Grote's View — Prof, Asa Gray's Observations — Conditions Favorable to a
Migration — John H. Becker's Observations.

"TTTE have observed that traditional and linguistic evidence
V V seems to point to a trans -Atlantic origin for some of the
American peoples. In a preceding chapter fiii), we quoted the
story of the Platonic Atlantis, as recorded in the Critias, and
alluded to the advocacy by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg of
the hypothesis that the submerged continent of Egyptian tradi-
tion was a reality. In support of this view, the Abbe has cited
the opinions of geologists and the remarkable traditions preserved
by the Central Americans, the Mexicans, and the Haytians,
concerning the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions which sub-
merged beneath the ocean a continent, of which the Antilles are
but its mountain summits. Attach as little importance as we
may to these ancient legends, which no doubt refer to some
extraordinary cataclysm, the memory of which was preserved

LEGENDS OF ATLANTIS. 499

for ages by periodic feasts and religious celebrations/ in which
the gods were besought by princes and people for security
against a similar calamity, still our minds naturally associate
them with the story of the Platonic Atlantis.^

^ Brasseur, in Landa's Belacion, p. xxi, and Popol Vuh, chap. iii. Brasseur,
in Quatre Lettres, p. 24, speaking of the Codex Chimalpopoca, says : " Oui, Mon-
sieur, si ce livre est en apparence I'histoire des Tolteques et ensuite des rois des
Colhuacan et de Mexico, il presente, en realite, le recit du cataclysme qui boule-
versa le monde, il y a quelques six on sept mille ans, et constitua le continents
dans leur etat actuel," pp. '40-41. He expresses his belief that the Cod. Ghim.
has a double meaning, and that many names and symbols possessed by the
natives refer to the cataclysm which occurred six or seven thousand years
ago. ** C'est le recit de ces bouleversements, c'est Thistoire du cataclysme, dont
tous les peuples ont garde la memoire, que racontent tous mes documents."

2 The following are the legends, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg: "Ac-
cording to the tradition of the Sacred Book {Popol Vuh), water and fire con-
tributed to the universal ruin, at the time of the last cataclysm which preceded
the fourth creation. ' Then,' says the author, ' the waters were agitated by the
will of the Heart of Heaven, and a great inundation came upon the heads of
these creatures. * * * They were engulfed, and a resinous thickness
descended from heaven. * * * The face of the earth was obscured
and a heavy darkening rain commenced, rain by day and rain by night.
* * * There was heard a great noise above their heads as if produced by
fire. Then were men seen running, pushing each other, filled with despair;
they wished to climb upon their houses, and the houses tumbling down fell to
the ground ; they wished to climb upon the trees, and the trees shook them
oflf ; they wished to enter into the grottoes, and the grottoes closed themselves
before them.' In the Codex CMmalpopoca, the author, speaking of the destruc-
tion which took place by fire, says : ' The third sun is called Quia-Tonatiuh, sun
of rain, because there fell a rain of fire ; all which existed burned, and there fell
a rain of gravel.' They also narrate that whilst the sandstone which we now
see scattered about, and the tetzontU (amygdaloide poreuse) boiled with great
tumult, there also rose the rocks of vermillion color. Now this was in the year
Ce Tecpactl, One Flint, it was the day Nahui-Quiahuitl, Fourth Rain. Now, in
this day, in which men were lost and destroyed in a rain of fire, they were trans-
formed into goslings ; the sun itself was on fire, and everything, together with
the houses, was consumed." Brasseur recounts a Haytian legend concerning the
origin of the sea and isles : " There was, they say, a powerful man called laia.
who, having murdered his only son, wished to bury him ; but not knowing
where to put him, enclosed him in a calabash, which he placed afterwards at
the foot of a high mountain, situated a little distance from the place where he
lived ; on account of his affection for his son he often went to the spot. One
day, having opened it (the calabash), there came out whales and other very
large fishes, of which laia. full of fear, having returned home, told his neighbors

500 BRASSEUR DE BOURBOURG'S THEORY.

Until receDtly the mere expression of belief in the former
existence of an Atlantic continent lias been the signal for criti-
cism, and has called forth the smile of pity, if not of contempt.
Such, however, is no longer true, since scientific investigation,
consisting chiefly in deep-sea soundings and the study of the
I'auna and flora of the opposite shores of the Atlantic, call for
the respectful attention of all who are interested in the ancient
history of this continent. Prominent among the men of science
who have expressed confidence in this hypothesis is Prof. Andres
Retzius of Stockholm, who was convinced 'from a study of com-
parative craniology, that the primitive dolichocephalic skulls of
America, especially of the ancient Caribs of the Antilles, were
nearly related to the Guanches of the Canary Islands.^

Dr. Le Plongeon observed that the sandals upon the feet of
the statue of Chaacmol, discovered at Chichen-Itza, and of the
statue of a priestess found on the island of Mugeres, "are

what had happened^ saying that this calabash was filled with water and innu-
merable fishes. This news being spread abroad, four twin brothers, desiring to
obtain fish, went to the place where the calabash was. Just as they had taken
it in their hand to open it, laia came, and they seeing him, threw the calabash
on the ground, in their fear of him. This (the calabash) having burst, on
account of the great weight which was enclosed in it, the waters gushed forth,
and the interminable plain, which stretched farther than the eye could reach,
was flooded and covered with water. The mountains alone, because of their
great height, were not submerged in this great inundation. So they believed
that these mountains were the islands and the other divisions of the earth
which we see in the world." — Brasseiir de Bourhourg, in Landa's Belacion,
pp. xxi-iv.

^ " With regard to the primitive dolichocephalse of America, I entertain an
h}"pothesis still more bold, perhaps, namely, that they are nearly related to the
Giianches in the Canary Islands and to the Atlantic populations of Africa, the
Moors, Tauricks, Copts, etc., which Latham comprises under the name of
Egyptian-Atlantidse. * * * We find, then, one and the same form of
skull in the Canary Islands, in front of the African coast, and in the Ca rib-
Islands, on the opposite coast which faces Africa. * * * The color of the
skin OQ both sides of the Atlantic is represented in these populations as being
of a reddish-brown. * * * These facts involuntarily recall the tradition
which Plato tells us in hi& TimoBUS was communicated to Solan by an Egyptian
priest respecting the ancient Atlantis. * * * This tradition deserves
attention in connection with facts which seem to point in the same direction."
—Retzius, in SmitTisonian Report for 1859, p. 266.

DR. LE PLONGEON'S OBSERVATIONS. 501

exact representations of those found on the feet of the Guanclies,
the early inhabitants of the Canary Islands, whose mummies
are yet occasionally met with in the caves of Teneriife and the
other isles of the group." ^ The great number of American
plant-types in the Miocene flora of Switzerland, led Prof Unger
to espouse the view that a continent formerly existed in the
present Atlantic ocean.^ Professor Heer, the celebrated bota-
nist of Zurich, for the same reasons promulgated this hypothesis,
and in his Flora Tertiaria Helvetice, defines the location of the
continent, which he believes to have been as wide as Europe.^
In opposition to this view, it is urged by Professors Oliver and
Asa Gray, that the flora of America and Europe are united by
means of a former overland communication at Behring's Straits.'*
The conformation of the ocean-bed is the next matter of impor-
tance in examining the subject. The deep-sea soundings taken
for the submarine cable between Newfoundland and Ireland,
led to the impression that the Atlantic floor was comparatively a
level, forming but one great trough between the continents. The
United States exploring ship Dolphin, however, subsequently
dispelled this illusion, by revealing the fact that sl great sub-
marine plateau or mountain chain which has been denominated
the " Dolphin Rise," divided the North Atlantic into two longi-
tudinal troughs running north and south. This is described as
a seal-shaped ridge with its tail joining a connecting ridge at
the south in 15^ North Lat. and 45^ West Long., while its body
widens as it runs towards the north, reaching its maximum
width under the forty-fifth parallel, and finally tapering to a
narrow isthmus at 52^ North Lat. and 30° West Long., which

^ Salisbury, Br. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, pp. 57-61.

2 Unger, Die Versunkene Insel Atlantis, cited by Lyell, Antiquity of Han,
p. 440. .

3 Published in Winterthal, 1854-58, 3 bde. Also by the same author, see
Urwelt der Schweiz, Zurich, 1865, and ErgdmungMdtter, bd. ii (Hildburgh),
1867. See Meyer's Konversations-Lexicon, 3. Aujl., bd. viii, p. 603 ; bd. ii,
p. 125, where the above are cited. Dr. Otto Ule, Die Erde, bd. i, p. 27, concurs
with the above ; work published in Leipzig, 1874, 2 vols, large 8vo.

^ See Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 440, and Oliver, Lecture at the Royal
Institution, March 7, 1862, cited by LyelL

502 DEEP-SJEA SOUNDING EXPEDITIONS.

connects the ridge with the great northern submarine table-
land.i

This work was prosecuted further by the German frigate
Gazelle, and by H. M. shi^s Lightning and Porcupine, with con-
firmatory results.^ The most thorough and satisfactory work
of this character, however, was performed during the cruise of
H. M. ship Challenger, from December 30, 1872, until May 24,
1876, inclusive. Sir C. Wyville Thomson, the director of the
expedition, in his excellent work, The Atlantic, has contributed
much exact information relative to the contour of the sea-bed.
The frontispiece to his second volume is a chart illustrative of
the relative depths of different localities in the Atlantic ocean.
Almost its entire length from north to south, the great chain
whose loftiest summits tower above the sea in the Azores
Islands, St. Paul's Rocks, Ascension and St. Helena Islands, is
indicated by a white irregular belt representing a depth of one
thousand fathoms, but shading off into the blue, indicative of
the depths on either hand. Professor Thomson says, " Com-
bining our own observations with reliable data which have been
previously or subsequently acquired, we find the mean depth
of the Atlantic is a little over 2000 fathoms. An elevated ridge
rising to an average height of about 1900 fathoms below the
surface, traverses the basin of the North and South Atlantic, in
a meridional direction from Cape Farewell, probably as far south,
at least, as Gough Island, following roughly the outlines of the
coasts of the old and new worlds. A branch of this elevation
strikes off to the south-westward, about the parallel of 10°
North, and connects it with the coast of South America at Cape
Orange ; and another branch across the eastern trough, joining
the continent of Africa, probably about the parallel of 25°
South." 3

' Sir C. Wyville Thomson, The Atlantic (voyage of the Challenger), vol. i,
pp. 190, 208, 213 ; vol. ii, 23, 232. New York, 1878. Also see Scientijic Ameri-
can for July 28th, 1877.

2 Depths of the Sea, by Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S., J. G. Jeffreys, F.R.S., and
Dr. Wyville Thomson, F.RS., London, 1873.

' The Atlantic, Exploring Voyage of H. M. S. Challenger, vol. ii, pp. 248-9.

THE "CHALLENGER PLATEAU" ONCE DRY LAND. 503

The width of the great land ridge as well as its relation to
the North Atlantic islands is indicated in the following : " One
of the most remarkable differences between the Azores and Ber-
muda is, that while Bermuda springs up an isolated peak from
a great depth, the Azores seem to be simply the highest points
of a great plateau-like elevation, which extends for upwards of a
thousand miles from west to east, and appears to be continuous
with a belt of shallow water stretching to Iceland in the north
and connected probably with the ' Dolphin Rise ' to the south-
ward, a plateau which in fact divides the North Atlantic longi-
tudinally into two great valleys, an eastern and a western." ^ A
member of the Challenger staff, in a lecture delivered in London
soon after the termination of the expedition, expressed the
fullest confidence that the great submarine plateau is the
remains of the "lost Atlantis," citing as proof the fact that
the inequalities, the mountains and valleys of its surface, could
never have been produced in accordance with any laws for the
deposition of sediment nor by submarine elevation, but, on the
contrary, must have been carved by agencies acting above the
water level.^ The volcanic character of the Azores and Philip-
pines, together with the prevalence of volcanic deposits found
upon the entire ridge by the officers of the Challenger, lend
probability to the Egyptian and American legends of a tremen-
dous catastrophe in which a continent was submerged beneath
the waves.'^

Sir C. Wyville Thomson found that the fauna of the coast of
Brazil brought up in his dredging machine, were similar to that
of the western coast of South Europe.^ This is of particular
interest, since at a short distance north of the Amazon an arm
of the central ridge connects the sunken plateau with the coast
of South America. Mr. J. Starke Gardner, the eminent English
geologist, is of the opinion that in the Eocene period a great
extension of land existed to the west of Cornwall. The extra-
ordinary mingling of American, Asiatic, Australian and African

* The Atlantic, vol. ii, p. 23. ^ Scientific American, July 28, 1877.

» T/ie Atlantic, vol. ii, p. 354. * Ibid, vol. U, p. 388.

504 ELEVATION AND DEPRESSION OF COAST LEVEL.

genera in all European floras of the Tertiary period leads him to
the conviction that at a remote time they were all connected.
Referring to the locations of the Dolphin and Challenger ridges,
he asserts that a great tract of land formerly existed where the
sea now is, and that Cornwall, the Scilly and Channel islands,
Ireland and Brittany are the remains of its highest summits.^
The question at once arises, " What ground have we for believing
that the great Atlantic ridges ever occupied a higher altitude
than at present ? " The answer is found in the comparison of
facts with the following theory set forth by Prof. Joseph Le
Conte : " Any increase in the height and extent of the whole
amount of land on the globe must be attended with a corre-
sponding depression of the sea-bottoms, and therefore an actual
subsidence of the sea-level everywhere. Hence if it be true, as is
generally believed, that the continents have been, on the whole,
increasing in extent and in height, in the course of geological
history, then it is true also that the seas have been subsiding,
and that therefore the relative changes are the sum of tlie two." ^
It cannot be denied that the processes of elevation and depression
are now actively going on along the eastern coast of both the
Americas. The coast of Greenland is sinking along a distance of
600 miles so markedly that ancient buildings on low rock-islands
are now submerged, and the Greenlander has learned by expe-
rience never to build near the water's edge.^ The subsidence
along our Atlantic seaboard is slowly going on, being most
marked on the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, while on the
other hand the elevation of the eastern coast of South America
has been accomplished by the hidden forces, volcanic or other-
wise, on a stupendous scale. "Raised beaches" have been traced
1180 miles down the eastern shore and 2075 miles along the
western, ranging from 100 to 1300 feet above the sea, and Alex-
ander Agassiz has recently identified them afc a height of 3000
feet above the present sea-level by means of corals found adher-

• Popular Science Review, July 1878, cited by Scientific American of August
24, 1878, vol. xxxix, p. 114.

2 Le Conte, Elements of Geology, New York, 1878, p. 131.
^ Le Conte, Geology, p. 139.

THE GULF STREAM. 505

ing to the rocks.^ In view of these facts, so familiar to any
student of geology, it is not difficult to conceive of the former
existence of Atlantis where the Dolpliin and Challenger locate
the mid-Atlantic ridge, described as 1000 miles in width in the
latitude of the Azores. Supposing the existence of an Atlantic
continent in the Tertiary period conceded, we have no means at
present of determining the approximate time of its subsidence,
unless we associate it with the dim and uncertain legends of the
Egyptian priests and the ancient Americans. Whether the
Atlantidas who threatened to overthrow the earliest Greek and
Egyptian states, but who were swallowed up by the sea in the
engulfment of their island continent, were the inhabitants of the
Dolphin and Challenger ridges and. the colonists of Eastern
America, must for the present at least remain in doubt, though
strong probahilities point to the conclusion that they were.^

The colonization of America hy transatlantic peoples, it seems
to us, did not depend upon the existence of a land bridge at a
remote period, but could have been accomplished without the
aid of the compass, either intentionally or accidentally, through
the agency of the equatorial current and the trade-winds, two
mighty forces perpetually tending toward the shores of the new
world. The return current of the Gulf Stream which describes
a semicircle in the east Atlantic washes in its sweep the Azores,
the Madeira, the Canary and Cape Yerde Islands, approaching
in its southern course the shores of Portugal, Morocco, and the
Sahara Desert, and finally uniting with the stronger equatorial
cun-ent which rushes up the coast of Africa, crosses the Atlantic
under the equator, and skirts the coast of South America until it
reaches the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.^ The north-
east trade-winds blowing perpetually from the coast of Europe
in a belt from eighteen to twenty degrees in width (or from
1245 to 1275 miles) reach the coasts of the American continent
over an area which extends from the mouth of the Amazon to

' lUd, pp. 127-33. Dr. Otto Ule, Die Erde, bd. i, ss. 496-502.
- See Plato's Gritias and Timceaa. Also Aristotle, De Mundo, cap. iii, and
Prince Hewry the Navigator, chap, vii, by Major, Lond., 1868.
3 See Reclus, The Ocean, pp. 70-82. New York, ed. 1873.

506 AMERICA PROBABLY REACHED BY ANCIENT NAVIGATORS.

the northern boundary of Florida. Through the agency of these
mild but almost unvarying forces Columbus was steadily borne on
to the accomplishment of the greatest event of modern history.
The companions of the Admiral were dismayed by the per-
sistency with which they were wafted beyond the bounds of the
known world, and ascribed the unceasing east wind, which they
supposed offered them no hope of return to their homes, to a
device of the devil. In one of the houses on the island of Gua-
daloupe Columbus on his second voyage saw the stern-post of a
vessel, supposed to have been the fragment of some ship that had
drifted across the Atlantic and been cast, together with the crew,
upon unknown shores. How often and how long this same pro-
cess had operated it is impossible to conjecture.^ The accidental
discovery of Brazil by Cabral furnishes an additional reason for
believing that anciently vessels may have reached the new world.
Pedro Alvarez de Cabral was dispatched by the Portuguese on
the 9th of March 1500, with a fleet of thirteen vessels on a voyage
around the Cape of Good Hope, to Calicut. After passing the
Cape Verde Islands he bore away to the west, in order to avoid
the calms prevailing on the Guinea coast. On the 25th of April,
to his surprise he discovered what proved to be the South
American continent, at a point which he named Porto Securo.^
When we consider that the distance from the coast of Africa to
Cape Frio, Brazil, is but 1530 miles, and realize that twelve
centuries b. c. the Phoenicians and probably other maritime
peoples of the Mediterranean visited Britain at the north
and coasted Africa to the south, the probabilities are strong
that, through the natural agency of the Atlantic currents and
the trade-winds, some ancient mariners reached the American
coast.^

* Irving's Columbus, vol. i, chap, iii ; vol. ii, p. 308. Reclus, Ocean, pp.
223, 229.

2 Irving's Columbus, vol. ii, p. 279. Lafiteau, Conquestes des Fortugais,
lib. ii, cited by Irving.

3 See Martins, Beitrage, etc., p. 180, for the origin-tradition of the Tupis
or Brazilians, where it is narrated that two brothers with their families landed
at a remote period on Cape Frio. The brothers Tupi and Guarani gave their
names to the two great South American families.

THE CARAS. 507

Brasseur de Bourbourg, on the authority of Baron cle Eck-
stein and his own researches, points to the fact that the Barba-
rians who are alluded to by Homer and Thucydides, are a race
of ancient navigators and pirates called Cares or Carians, who
occupied the islands of Greece and a part of the coast of the
Peloponnesus, Arcanania and Illyria, before the Pelasgi. They
ruled in Phrygia and other states of Asia Minor, antedating the
Phoenicians in their sovereignty of the sea and the Indo-European
peoples in their domination of the land. The same people
extended their borders into Nubia and Libya and became the
ancestors of the nations of the Barbary States. The Abbe, to all
appearances, easily identifies them with Caracars or Caribs of the
Antilles, the Caras or Cariarl of Honduras, and even with the
Gurani of South America. We submit the question for the
investigation of the student, rather than with our endorsement.^
Whether a great continent ever existed in the Pacific Ocean since
man's appearance on the earth, or.whether the great area occupied
hj Oceanica and the Coral Islands of the Central Pacific was
once a continent, are questions which cannot now be determined.
It is certain, howeyer, as Professor Dana has shown in his study
of the atolls and barriers of the Pacific, that if not a continent,
at least a great archipelago measuring 6000 miles in length by
from 1000 to 2000 miles in breadth, has subsided to a depth
ranging from 3000 to 6000 feet. Professor Dana states that
two hundred islands have thus been lost.^ Professor Le Conte
estimates the loss of land to equal 20,000,000 square miles, and
defines its boundaries by the Hawaiian and Feejee groups, north

^ Brasseur in Landa's Belacion, pp. lii-lxv ; Eckstein, Les Cares or CaiHens
de r AntiquUe, 2d part, vi, dans la Revue Archeologique, XV* annee ; Brugsch,
Die Geogr. der Nachbarlaender EgypUns, pp. 84-88, cited by Brasseur. "En
ces vieux jours du monde, dit encore M. d'Eckstein, ou Iberes et Libyens,
Laliabini et Plioutim s'enlacaient plus ou moins a travers I'Europe occidentale,
et poussaient jusqu'au sein de I'lrlande et de la Grande Bretagne, les monuments
de Mizraim semblent reveler des rapports maritimes de ces Libyens et probable-
ment de ces Ibdres avec les Cares et avec les autres races ante-pelasgiques des
cotes de la GrSce et de I'ltalie, ainsi que des iles de rArcliipel."-f-jBra««ewr de
Bourbourg in Landa's Belacion y pp. Ivii-lviii.

2 Manual of Geology, second ed., p. 583.

508 A PACIFIC CONTINENT.

and south, and the Paumotu group and Pelews, east and west.
He fixes the extreme subsidence at 1000 feet, since the average
height of the high islands of the Pacific at present is not less
than 9000 feet above the sea level, while some of them reach
14000 feet.^ Professor Dana is of the opinion that this vast area
has subsided since the Tertiary age. Whether such is the case
or not is a matter of conjecture, but it is certain that much of it
has been accomplished within the human era. That a higher
civilization once prevailed throughout Polynesia we need only
cite the remains found on Easter Island by Captain Cook, and
refer to the Appendix of Mr. Baldwin's work, where ruins of
a high order are named as existing on Ascension, Marshall, Gil-
bert, Kingsmill, Ladrones, Swallow, Strong's, Navigators and Ha-
waiian Islands. A quadrangular tower forty feet high and several
stone-lined canals are to be seen at the harbor at Strong's
Island. On the adjoining isle of Lele, cyclopian walls forming
large enclosures are overgrown by forests. ^' These walls are
twelve feet thick, and within are vaults, artificial caverns, and
secret passages." "Not more than five hundred people now
inhabit these islands ; their tradition is that an ancient city
formerly stood around this harbor, mostly on Lele, occupied by
a powerful people whom they called ' Anut,' and who had large
vessels, in which they made long voyages east and west, ' many
moons' being required for these voyages."'^ It is altogether
probable that not only a higher civilization once prevailed in
Polynesia, but that within the history of man, the greater
extent of land, now submerged, made the passage to America
comparatively easy. If we turn to the North Pacific, all doubts
vanish in the presence of the most favorable conditions for a
migration from our continent to the other. With Latham, we
believe that if America had first been discovered from the west,
and Alaska and the northwest coast been as \vell known as our
Atlantic coast, Northeastern Asia would have naturally passed
for the fatherland of Northwestern America.^ It is scarcely

* Le Conte, Elements of Geology^ pp. 145-149.

2 Baldwin's Ancient America, Appendix C, pp. 288-293.

* Man and His Migrations, pp. 123-30.

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 509

necessary to occupy space in pointing out the facilities which the
Aleutian Islands offer for a migration even in inferior boats, and
at all seasons of the year. The climate, though cool, is not
severe, owing to the proximity of the warm current of the Kuro-
suvo, and it only requires an inspection of the map to convince
the most conservative. Col. Barclay Kennon, formerly of the
United States North Pacific Surveying Expedition, after refer-
ring to the conspicuousness of the volcano Petropaulski on the
shores of Kamtschatka, says : " Proceeding along this coast to
Cape Kronotski, which lies north of Petropaulski, the distance t
to Behring's Island is about one hundred and fifty miles — course
east. Fifteen miles only from it is Copper Island, and about
one hundred and fifty miles south-west of it is Attou Island,
the most westerly of the Aleutian group, which is an almost
unbroken chain, connecting the American continent to the
peninsula of Alaska."'^ It is evident that the voyage from the
Asiatic to the American coast can bo made as far south as the
Aleutian Islands without losing sight of land but a few hours
at a time — a matter of no consequence to the intrepid navigators
found everywhere among the aborigines upon the islands and
coast.^ The Kuro-suvo or Japan current sweeps along the
Asiatic coast, bears away to the east, and describing a semicircle,
bends its course southward to the shores of California and
Mexico, until it reaches about the tenth parallel of north lati-
tude, when it returns to the Japanese coast.

' Kennon in Leland's Fasang, p. 68.

2 '• From tlie result of the most accurate scientific observation, it is evident
that the voyage from China to America can be made without being out of sight
of land more than a few hours at a time. To a landsman, unfamiliar with
long voyages, the mere idea of being ' alone on the wide, wide sea ' with noth-
ing but water visible, even for an hour, conveys a strange sense of desolation,
of daring and adventure. But in truth it is regarded as a mere trifle, not only
by regular seafaring men, but even by the rudest races in all parts of the world ;
and I have no doubt that from the remotest ages, and on all shores, fishermen in
open boats, canoes, or even coracles, guided simply by the stars and currents,
have not hesitated to go far out of sight of land. At the present day, natives
of the South Pacific islands undertake, without a compass, and successfully,
long voyages which astonish even a regular Jack-tar, who is not often aston-
ished at anything." — Ke:inon in Leland's Fuscing, pp. 71-2.

510 BEHRING'S STRAITS.

This Gulf Stream of the Pacific, which nearly every season
casts wrecks of Japanese junks upon our shores, no doubt has
been an active agent in giving character to our ancient popula-
tion.^ Added to these twofold facilities for communication — of
currents and an almost continuous chain of islands — we have a
third in the narrow channel at Behring's Straits. These straits,
according to Sir John F. Herschel, are now " only thirty miles
broad where narrowest, and only twenty-five fathoms in their
greatest depth." ^ Sir Charles Lyell, in alluding to the above
fact, remarks : " Behring's Straits happen to agree singularly
in width and depth with the Straits of Dover, the difference in
depth not being more than three or four feet."^ With this
statement before us while standing upon the deck of a vessel
midway between Calais and Dover, with the shores of France
and England in full view, we felt, as never before, how absurd
is the opinion which has been advanced more than once, that
no general migration was likely to take place across Behring's
Straits. As well say that no general migration was likely to
take place across the Straits of Dover ; yet we learn that Britain
was known to be inhabited as early as the twelfth century B. c*
The weather at Behring's Straits, though cold even in summer,
is not nearly as cold as the winters of Japan. ^ In winter the

^ See Bancroft, Natme Races, vol. v, pp. 51-54, where the paper of the
Japanese Consul, Mr. Brooks, read before the Californian Academy of Sciences
in March, 1875, is cited, detailing forty-one instances in which Japanese junks
were cast upon our coast since 1782. Mr. Brooks states that he has a record
of over one hundred similar disasters. Wbymper, in his Alaska (N. T. 18691,
p. 250, refers to other Japanese wrecks, and especially to one which, after
drifting ten months, reached the Sandwich Islands. The Hawaiians, on seeing
the crew, said, " It is plain now, we came from Asia." See also M. de Roque-
feuil. Journal d'un Voyage autour du Monde, pendant les annes, 1816-1819 ;
Smith's Human Species, p. 238.

2 Physical Geography, p. 41, cited by Lyell, Antiquity of Man, p. 367.

^ Antiquity of Man, p. 367.

* " There is as much reason to believe that America was peopled from Asia,
as that the primitive races of Europe and Africa should derive their origin from
an Eastern source." — Macfie, Vancouver Island and British Columbia. London,
1865.

^ " The weather is, it is true, cold at Behring's Straits, even in summer.

AMERICAN SHORE INVITING. 511

waters of the straits are frozen over generally as late as April,
furnishing a continuous connection between the continents, while
in summer the communication at present between the abo-
rigines inhabiting opposite shores is continuous.^ Frederick
von Hellwald furnishes an argument for the naturalness of a
migration to the American shores the fact that, " while the
Asiatic projection near Behring's Straits is almost a sterile rocky
waste, the opposite coast presents a much more inviting appear-
ance, abounding in trees and shrubs. Moreover, the climate
when we pass southward of the peninsula of Alaska, is of a
genial character, the temperature continuing nearly the same
as far down as Oregon/' ^ The difference in the two shores is
owing to the fact that the cold current from the Ai'ctic Ocean
passes southward along the Asiatic coast, while a portion of
the water of the warm current passes up the American shore. ^
It is impossible to approximate the period of the world's history
in which the migration must have taken place. No doubt it was
in a remote age, before the old world peoples had developed their
present or even historic peculiarities and types of civilization.

but not on,e-fourtli as cold as at Matsumai, Japan, in winter." — GoL Kennon in
Lelandfs Fusang, p. 74.

1 Frederick von Hellwald in Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 345. *' Open
skin canoes, capable of containing twenty or more persons with tlieir effects,
and hoisting several masts and sails, are now frequently observed among the
seacoast Tebuktchis, and the inhabitants of northern Alaska." — Whymper,
Alaska, p. 246-7.

2 He continues his statement that the Gulf Stream of the Pacific is the
wanning agent, and adds the argument that "the present inhabitants of tbe
countries contiguous to Behring's Straits on the two sides, in manners, cus-
toms, and physical appearance are almost identical." — Smithsonian Report,
1886, p. 345.

3 Gallatin, p. 156. Bancroft, in assuming the certainty of a migration by
Bahring's Straits, says " it seems absurd to argue the question from any point,"
vol. V, p. 54. Venegas, Noticia de la California, Madrid, 1757, vol. i, p. 71,
and London ed., 1759, p. 61, says the Californians at that date had clear tradi-
tions of having come from the north. Fontaine, Him the World ims Peopled,
(N.Y. 1872), pp. 147-9, thinks that the march of Genghis with 1,400,000 Tartars
caused the flight of his enemies in large numbers across the Aleutian arclu-
pelago and Behring's Straits. Warden, Rech^rches, pp. 118-36, makes an argu-
ment for a migration through Behring's Straits from Tartary and Cliiua.

^22 PROFESSOR GROTE'S CONJECTURES.

If this be true, the futility of all old world comparisons, and the
unceasing search for analogies which has been going on since the
discovery of the continent, is at once apparent.^

Prof. Grote thinks the first migration may have taken place
in the Tertiary period in Pliocene time, and that the subsequent
advent of the ice period cutting off all communication with the
old world until recent times, produced a modification in the race,
and that man retired with the glacier on its return to the north,
where we see his descendants in the Eskimo.^ If Prof. Croll's
theory of climatic change resulting from the maximum eccen-
tricity of the earth's orbit be true, or even if the ordinary time at
which the American glacial period is supposed to have occurred
be taken into consideration, we hardly think the evidences of
man's pre-glacial residence on this continent are sufficient on
which to base a safe hypothesis.^ Of course Prof Grote would
assign a comparatively recent migration to the civilized nations.
Whether a continuous land communication ever existed between
the continents at the Aleutian Islands * or at Behring's Straits
cannot be determined, though the probabilities seem to favor the
view that they were once united.^

^ Gallatin, in Amer. Ethnol. Soc. Trans., vol. i, p. 158, says : " That America
was first peopled by Asiatic tribes is higlily probable ; but after the lapse of
several thousand years, the memory of that ancient migfration was lost." He
inquires as to what we knew of Gaul or Britain before the Roman invasion.
Mr. W. H. Dall, in his thoughtful Memoir on the Origin of the Innuit, says :
"I see no reason for disputing the hypothesis that America was peopled from
Asia originally, and that there were successive waves of emigration. The
northern route was clearly by way of Behring Strait ; at least, it was not to
the south of that, and especially it was not by way of the Aleutian Islands." —
Iri Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. i, p. 95. Washington,
1877. 4to.

' Aug. R. Grote, The Peopling of America, in American Naturalist, April
1877.

* Croll, Climate and Time, New York, 1875, 12mo. Prof. McFarland in Am.
Jour, of Sci. and Arts, June 1876, p. 456. Newcomb on CroU's TJieory in same
journal for April 1876, p. 363.

* Whymper, Alaska, pp. 246, 247, discusses the volcanic nature of the Aleu-
tian Islands, mentioning the fact that " There are records of very severe shocks
of earthquake felt by the Russian traders and nations dwelling on them."

^ Sir Charles Lyell, Antiquity of Man, pp. 273 et seq., has shown that

CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO A MIGRATION. 513

Prof. Asa Gray has satisfactorily shown the intimate rela-
tionship between the North American and Asiatic vegetation,
while many of our fauna are clearly of Asiatic origin.^ How-
ever, it is of little moment in this discussion whether the land
bridge ever existed ; the conditions for migration from one con-
tinent to the other are now, and no doubt ever have been favor-
able, and that different peoples at different times have availed
themselves of those conditions is equally certain. We have
already alluded to the climatic conditions south of Alaska which
would naturally allure a migrating tribe down the coast to
Oregon and the Columbian region. Once there, however, a
tribe of considerable numbers and enterprise would soon" be
stimulated to push farther, because of the demands for a more
ample support than could be found on the Pacific coast in the
region of the Columbia and Frazier Elvers. Still, progress to
the south is practically cut off, since the dryness and sterility of
the Californian coast, the ice-capped mountains intervening
between the north and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers
and the desert highlands which rise with bleak and forbidding
aspect between the Sierra Nevada and the eastern Rocky Moun-
tains, combine in forming a barrier sufficient to turn the course
of a migration.^ Add to this the fact that the country south of
Oregon rises over 2000 feet above the head of the waters of the
Columbia and Missouri rivers, and it is apparent that an outlet
must be sought in another direction. Nature has provided the
highway. Alluding to this fact and to the unbroken line of
mounds from the north and west down the Missouri valley, Mr.
Becker remarks : " On the head of (canoe) navigation we have

Great Britain was separated from the continent by subsidence and glacial action,
thus producing the English Channel which, we have already seen, corresponds
singularly with Sehring's Straits in width and depth, and formerly, no doubt,
both corresponded more nearly in climatic conditions. It is not unreasonable to
suppose that both passages were produced by the same agencies.

' Presidential Address to the Am. Association for Adv. of Sci., 1872, and
published in his Barwiniana, pp. 203 et seq.

2 John H. Becker, TJie Migration of the Nahuas, Gongres des AmericanUtes,
Luxembourg, ses., tom. i. p. 349. Altogether the most enlightened treatment
of the subject yet published.

514 MR. BECKER'S OBSERVATIONS.

what is known as ' portages/ These are depressions in the con-
tinuous range of the Rocky Mountains of such a nature that
they fairly invite a travelling tribe to cross from the river system
of the upper Columbia, emptying into the Pacific Ocean to that
of the Missouri, on which a canoe need but be floated in order
to arrive in the far distant Gulf of Mexico. Canoes can easily
be carried from one river system to the other. Nothing like it
exists in the whole mountain range southward, until we arrive at
Nicaragua Lake in Central America." ^ It will not require long
for the matter of fact reader, who comprehends the well nigh
insurmountable difficulties which lie in the way of populating
America in tropical or southern latitudes, and compares with
them the facilities which the proximity of the continents and
the topography of our country afford, to determine from what
quarter America received the greater part of its inhabitants.

' Becker in P}id, pp. 348-9. The same author cites from the Trans, of
Am. Geog. Soc., 1874, the following interesting statement made by Gen. Mil-
nor: "Nowhere else on the continent can similar great valleys such as the
Missouri and Columbia be found, meeting advantageously at a common point
on the main dividing backbone which separates the continental waters floveing
east and west to the two oceans. The heads of these main valleys are here only
from three to four thousand feet above the sea, while the great treeless plains
— ^further south — are elevated more than six thousand feet."

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

THE dim uncertainty which envelopes the most ancient period
of American antiquity, like that which obscures the begin-
nings of Egyptian, Assyrian and Trojan history, to say nothing
of the origin of the venerable Asiatic civilizations, renders much
of the effort in this field unsatisfactory. Still the results are of
surpassing interest. A new cosmogony, mythology and traditional
history full of weird poetic inspiration, an inspiration such as is
begotten in contemplating the struggles of nature's children after
a higher development, is added to the fund of human knowledge.
The poetry of the Quiche cosmogony must some day find expres-
sion in verse of Miltonic grandeur. The fall of Xibalba will
no doubt afford the materials for a heroic poem which will stand
in the same relation to America that the Iliad does to Greece,
The doctrines of the benign and saintly Quetzalcoatl or Cukul-
can must be classed among the great faiths of mankind, and their
author, alone of all the great teachers of morals except Christ
himself, inculcating a positive morality, must be granted a pre-
cedence of most of the great teachers of Chinese and Hindoo
antiquity. It is the custom of many Europeans to regard Amer-
ica as having no heroic or legendary period, no heroes like Achil-
les, ^neas, Sigfried, Beowolf, Arthur and the Cid ; but who
will review the romance of American antiquity and longer enter-
tain this view ? A few years ago, writers dated North Ameri-
can history from the discoveries made by Columbus and his
immediate successors. Now they go back to the Northmen for a
starting-point. May not the beginning be pushed even farther
back, and the ancient history of America receive the attention
of the historiographer ?

516 THE RELATIONSHIP OF AMERICA AND ASIA.

The origin of the North American population cannot be
positively settled at present, though the probabilities are that
new facts will be brought to light establishing the relationship
of the ancestors of the Nahuas with some ancient Asiatic race, as
the Eskimo have clearly been proven to belong to the Arctic race
which encircles the globe near the North pole.^ We have seen
that groups of facts unquestionably point to Northern Asia as
the ancient home of a large share of the tribes of North America,
civilized and savage. The autochthonic hypothesis which had
its first great advocate in Dr. Morton, receives no support from
his mistaken argument for the unity of the American race. We
think we have shown, as did Prof. Wilson before us, that no
such fict as ethnic unity exists in America. Dr. Morton's own
measurements of crania which we have classified, and the recent
measurements of mound skulls, disprove the argument which he
sought to establish. The autochthonic hypothesis owed much
of its popularity to the support which it received from Prof
Agassiz's doctrine of the separate creations of races of men, a
hypothesis which has rapidly lost ground since the decease of its
eminent advocate. It is impossible to determine whether the
people of the mounds of the United States were preceded in
this country by any other people. Certainly they had inter-
course with some race having a cranial type quite difierent from
their own, as several low- type skulls taken from the mounds
testify. If the rude weapons found in New Jersey are as old as
Dr. Abbott supposes ^ — belonging to the inter-glacial age — the
question of man's antiquity on this continent may have to be
viewed in a difierent light from that in which it has hitherto
appeared. It is conjectured that this supposed inter-glacial race
were the ancestors of the Eskimo of to-day, and retired or were

* The expedition which the German government and the Berlin Geograph-
ical Society is about to send to the North Pacific under the intelligent direction
of my friend Dr. Van der Horck, will no doubt contribute largely to our infor-
mation concerning the ethnographical relationship of America to Asia.

2 Second Report on the Implements found in the Glacial Drift of New Jersey,
by C. C. Abbott in Eleventh Annual Report of Peahody Museum, pp. 225-57.
Cambridge, 1878.

THE NAHUA MIGRATION. 517

driven to the Arctic regions, where their racial characteristics
became permanent. The traditional history of both Mayas and
Nahuas seem to indicate an old world origin. The former peo-
ple clearly claim an origin which, if their traditions are worth
anything, must be assigned to some Mediterranean country.
While, on the contrary, the Nahuas persistently state that they
came from the north or north-west. It is certain that many of
their cosmological traditions closely resemble those of Central
and Western Asiatic peoples. Why should the traditions of the
ancient Americans be less reliable than those of the most ancient
Egyptians, Greeks, or Hindoos ? ^

Tradition, language and architectural remains furnish us the
data by which to trace the migrations of peoples. In addition
to the testimony of tradition, the languages of the Mayas and
Quiches present affinities to the west European and African
languages ; also to the languages of the West Indies and
the Antilles. Whether the Quiche traditions concerning their
ancient home have reference to the Atlantic coast of the United
States is uncertain, though Seiior Orozco y Berra believes their
ancestors to have migrated from Florida to Cuba and thence to
Yucatan. Linguistic and architectural evidences show that the
Maya-Quiche family extended its civilization north as far as
Panuco, and south as far as Honduras.

The Nahua migrations are more numerous and their accounts
somewhat obscure. It is not improbable that while few in num-
ber the Nahuas arrived on our north-western coast, where they
found a home until they had become a tribe of considerable
proportions. Crossing the watershed between the sources of the
Columbia and Missouri Kivers, a large portion of the tribe proba-
bly found its way to the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, where it
laid the foundations of a wide-spread empire, and developed a
civilization which reached a respectable degree of advancement.

^ Mr. Becker remarks : " Why should the Aztec priesthood and nobility, a
class bred and educated in the understanding of traditional lore and an elabo-
rate system of picture-writing, be considered as a set of metaphysical lunatics
who did not know or did not mean what they said." — Migration of the NahudS
in Cong, des Americanistes, Luxembourg, 1877, torn, i, p. 342.

518 HUE HUE TLAPALAN— AZTLAN— TULAN ZUIVA.

The remainder of the Nahuas, we think, instead of crossing
the Kocky Mountains, migrated southward into Utah, and estab-
lished a civilization the remains of which are seen in the cliff-
dwellings of the San Juan Valley and such extensive ruins as
exist at Aztec Springs. It must be conceded that this hypothesis
rests on linguistic and traditional evidence, as no affinity between
the architecture of the Cliff-dwellers and either the Mexicans or
Mound-builders is traceable. We have in a preceding chapter
summarized our reasons for considering the Mound-builders to
have been Nahuas. The Olmecs, the first Nahuas to reach
Mexico, came in ships from the direction of Florida, landed at
Panuco, and journeyed southward until they came in contact with
the advanced and already old civilization of the Mayas. The
Toltecs came into Mexico by land from the North. The Chichi-
mecs, their former neighbors in Hue hue Tlapalan, whether
Nahuas or not originally, followed them and adopted their lan-
guage. The Nahuatlaca tribes, speaking the same language,
arrived centuries afterward from the same quarter — the North.
Finally the Aztecs, the last of the Nahuas, reached Anahuac
four centuries before the Spanish conquest. Mr. Becker has con-
jectured that Aztlan (land of whiteness) was the name applied
to the southern Mississippi Valley and the region of the Gulf
States; that Hue hue Tlapalan (old red land), the ancient
empire of the Nahuas, was situated on the great plains of the
west and in the region occupied by the Cliff-dwellers and
Pueblos, and further, that the " seven caves " or " ravines," the
Tulan Zuiva of the Quiches, is the region of the Colorado Kiver,
the land of caiions.

At best these can be but conjectures, yet the probabilities
are that Hue hue Tlapalan bordered upon the great Mississippi
Valley. Traditional and architectural evidence lead us to this
conclusion. The linguistic argument is wanting, except the
statement of the historians that the people of the Floridian
region spoke Nahua. It remains for some one to compare the
Aztec with the languages of the southern Indians before the
investigation is complete. While the probability is pre-eminent
that the ancient Americans are of old world origin and that the

PERFECTION OF THE NAHUA CALENDAR. 519

Mayas and Nahuas reached this continent from opposite direc-
tions, it is certain that the civilization developed by each people
is indigenous — that it grew up on the soil where we find it, and
was shaped by the wants of man as influenced and modified by
the conditions of nature and physical surroundings. The most
persistent investigation has failed to disclose any marked resem-
blance between the architecture, art, religion and customs of the
North Americans considered as a whole and of any old world
people. It is true that occasional analogies suggest intercourse
and even relationship with particular races, as for instance the
serpent and phallus worship common to the aboriginal Amer-
icans and the people of India. Sun-worship, so wide-spread, may
also indicate an ancient community of residence for those peoples
who practise it. The Calendar systems of Mayas and Nahuas
present analogies to the systems employed by the Persians,
Egyptians and certain Asiatic nations, and the presumption is
very strong that the latter furnished the ground-plan upon
which the Nahua system was constructed. The accuracy of the
Aztec calendar must ever be a monument to their intellectual
culture, and an undeniable proof of the advanced state of ancient
Mexican civilization. The fact that Cortez found the Julian
reckoning, employed by his own and every other European nation,
to be more than ten days in error when tried by the Aztec sys-
tem — a system the almost perfect accuracy of which was proven
by the adjustments which took place under Gregory XIII in
1582 A.D. — excites our wonder and admiration. How the Nahuas,
whether Toltec or Aztec we kno\y not, were able to approximate
the true length of the year within two minutes and nine seconds,
thus almost rivalling the accuracy of the learned astronomers of
the Caliph Almamon, is a mystery. The venerable civilization
of the Mayas, whose forest-grown cities and crumbling temples
hold entombed a history of vanished glory, no doubt belongs to
the remotest period of North American antiquity. It was old
when the Nahuas, then a comparatively rude people, first came
in contact with it, adopted many of its features, and engrafted
upon it new life. Like Rome, overwhelmed by the Teutons of
the North, it no doubt succumbed to the vigorous aggressions

520 THE AMERICANS OF OLD WORLD ORIGIN.

of the invaders, and was compelled to resign the dominion of
much of its northern territory. The powerful empire of the
Quiche-Cakchiquels was the result of the union of the old and
new races. The otherwise inviting picture of ancient Amer-
ican civilization is marred by the introduction of human sacri-
fices which in each instance occurred in the period of the political
decadence of the people practising it, and no doubt was the most
potent factor in the downfall of both Toltec and Aztec mon-
archies. Still, when w^e reflect upon the Druidical horrors of
the Britons at the time of the Koman conquest, and realize that
our Anglo-Saxon ancestors in the sixth century sold their rela-
tives and even their own children into slavery, and were but
slightly removed from the condition of cannibals if they were
not actually such, the ancient American civilization with its
many humane features and advanced culture rises up in splen-
dor before us, in marked contrast with our barbarous origin.
Although this civilization was indigenous and peculiar to itself,
we find all of the American tribes possessed of certain arts
and traditions which seem common to mankind in all parts
of the world. The character of flint weapons and implements
are the same among all primitive peoples. The modes of pro-
ducing fire by friction and of grinding grain differ little, if any,
in America, from those employed by ancient peoples elsewhere.
The first efforts toward the development of the architectural
idea all round the globe, seem to find expression in the rude
mound and then in the more perfect pyramid. These and other
considerations which have been noted in the preceding pages,
lead us to the conclusion that at a remote period, before racial
and national characteristics had been well defined, this continent
received its population from the old world, at different times
and from different quarters.

The uniformity with which the human mind operates in all
lands for the accomplishment of certain ends, has in many
instances resulted in the independent development of institutions
common to several peoples. This fact, together with the proba-
bility that occasionally foreigners were cast upon the American
shores, will be sufficient to account for many features which have

THE AMERICANS OF OLD WORLD ORIGIN. 521

been discovered in Mexican and Central American architecture,
art, and religion, presenting analogies with the old world. The
fact that civilizations having such analogies are developed in
isolated quarters of the globe, separated from each other by
broad seas and lofty mountains, and thus indicating a uniformity
of mental operation and a unity of mental inspiration, added to
the fact that the evidence is of a preponderating character that
the American continent received its population from the old
world, leads us to the truth that God "hath made of one blood
all nations of men."

APPENDIX.

MADISONVILLE EXPLORATIONS.

SINCE the greater part of this work was put in type, the
exploration of ancient mounds in several localities in the
United States has yielded gratifying results. Most conspicuous for
rich returns, both in pottery and human remains, are the researches
which have recently been prosecuted with such rare intelligence
and vigor by the Literary and Scientific Society of Madisonville,
Ohio, in the aboriginal burying-grounds and among the mound-
works of the Little Miami Valley. Through the liberality of the
society and the courtesy of its secretary, Mr. Frank W. Langdon,
we are enabled to present an authorized account of the explora-
tions. We take this opportunity of expressing our obligations to
the society, and especially to Mr. Langdon, who has kindly pre-
pared' the following report :

Notice of Some Eecekt Arch^ological Discoveries in the
Little Miami Valley. By Frank W. Langdon^ Secretary
of the Literary and Scientific Society of Madisonville, Ohio,

The valley of the Little Miami River, in Southwestern Ohio,
has long been noted for the number and extent of its pre-historic
earthworks, which, distributed on either side of the river, from its
confluence 'with the Ohio to the well-known Fort Ancient and
beyond, form an almost continuous chain of mounds, forts, circles,
and embankments, extending for more than fifty miles, and consti-
tuting an important division of the great earthworks system of the
Mississippi Valley.

Of the few publications relating more especially to the ancient
works of this series, one of the most important, perhaps, is the
paper by Dr. Charles L. Metz, entitled "The Prehistoric Menu-

524 MADISONVILLE EXPLORATIONS.

ments of the Little Miami Valley," * accompanied by a chart show-
iug the location and character of more than forty of these earth-
works, situated in Columbia, Spencer and Anderson Townships of
Hamilton County. The Hon. Joseph Cox, H. B. Whetsel, Esq.,
Mr. Charles F. Low, and the several other gentlemen composing
the organization known as the Literary and Scientific Society of
Madisonville, have also, at various times, given considerable atten-
tion to archaeological investigations in this vicinity, and the valua-
ble and interesting collections of objects of prehistoric art accumu-
lated by these gentlemen afford abundant evidence of the long-
continued occupation of this region by a numerous and somewhat
intelligent people of whom we have no historic record.

A renewed interest in the subject has been recently developed
by the discovery, near Madisonville, of one of the cemeteries of this
unknown people, and the explorations therein by the above-named
society, are perhaps among the most interesting that have ever been
conducted in the Mississippi Valley.

This cemetery, which is distant about one and one-half miles
southeast from Madisonville, occupies the western extremity of an
elevated plateau overlooking the Little Miami Eiver, and situated
from eighty to one hundred feet above the water-line. It is bounded
on the south by the river " bottom "; on the north and west by a deep
ravine, through which flows a small stream known as Whisky Run ;
on the east the plateau slopes gradually up to the general level of the
surrounding country, of which it is in fact a continuation or spur,
its character of an isolated plateau being derived from its position
between the eroded river valley and the deep ravine above referred
to. The precipitous but well-wooded bluff which forms the southern
limit of this plateau extends eastward, facing the river, for perhaps
half a mile, and distributed along its edge are a number of mounds
and other earthworks ; at its base are the Cincinnati and Eastern
and Little Miami Railways, the nearest station being Batavia Junc-
tion, distant about half a mile east of the cemetery.

The original forest still covers the site of the cemetery, and
measurements of some of the principal trees are recorded by Dr.
Metz in his paper before mentioned, as follows : a walnut, 15^ feet
in circumference; an oak, 12 feet; a maple, 9^ feet; an elm, 12

* Vide Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, Vol. I, No. 3,
October, 1878.

NORTH AMERICANS OF ANTIQUITY. 525

feet. The locality has long been known to local collectors and
others interested in arch geological matters, as the " Pottery Field,"
so called on account of the numerous fragments of earthenware
strewn over the surface ; and it was until recently supposed to be
a place where the manufacture of pottery had been carried on by
the ancient inhabitants of the valley, the fragments found being
considered the debris. A few scattered human remains had also
been found in the adjoining ravines, but it was not until some time
in March, 1879, that its true character and extent as a cemetery
were brought to light.

It then became apparent that some concerted action would be
necessary, in order to secure the best scientific results from the
discovery ; and early in April excavations were begun under the
auspices of the before mentioned organization, the proprietors of
the premises, Messrs. A. J. and Charles K. Ferris, having kindly
granted to it the exclusive privilege of making a thorough and
systematic exploration of the ground. From that time until the
present (July 19, 1879) excavations have been continued with a
force varying from one to three men, assisted by members of the
society, every foot of the ground gone over being thoroughly
explored, and full notes taken as the work progressed.

The following brief outline of the results, taken from the records
of the society, will but serve to convey an idea of the general
features of the discovery and of its importance to archaeological
science, time and space not permitting a detailed account in the
present connection.

Of the four or five acres of ground over which the cemetery is
believed to extend, only a small segment of the south-western por-
tion has been explored. The exploration, however, has been exceed-
ingly thorough and comprises an extent of perhaps half an acre of
ground, from which have been exhumed in all one hundred and
eighty-five skeletons. Of these, however, but a small proportion
are in a good or even tolerable state of preservation, as with the
utmost care only about forty crania could be preserved sufficiently
well for measurement. The preservation of even this number
must probably be attributed to the favorable character of the soil,
a compact gravelly drift, as the various surroundings, position of
some skeletons under large trees, etc., all indicate for these inter-
ments a remote antiquity.

526 MADISONVILLE EXPLORATIONS.

With respect to the mode of burial, this is far from being uni-
form. A large majority of the skeletons are found at a depth of
from two to three feet, in a horizontal position, face upwards ; but
exceptions to this rule are numerous, many interments being made
in a sitting position, and some in groups of from three to six indi-
viduals irregularly disposed. There has been no attempt in any
instance at the construction of a stone coffin, but in one case the
skeleton was covered with a layer of small flat limestone from the
adjacent stream. The heads of those in the horizontal position are
generally directed to the east or south-east ; but this rule is not con-
stant, several being found at right angles to these. It is worthy of
note, however, that, with scarcely an exception, those skeletons
accompanied by the finer vases, pipes and other choice relics, have
their heads directed east or south-east.

During the progress of the work on April 12, a cranium, unac-
companied by other bones, was exhumed ; in searching for the rest
of the skeleton, a circular excavation, three and a half feet in
diameter and four and a half feet in depth, was made, from which
were taken bones sufficient to represent twenty-two skeletons. But
two of the crania, both evidently those of females, could be pre-
served ; they are remarkable for their whiteness and smooth texture
as compared with the average crania from this cemetery. A sacrum
taken from this pit has imbedded in its anterior surface, near the
promontory, one of the small triangular flints known as "war
arrows," which had passed obliquely from above downwards, and
to the right, necessarily penetrating the abdominal walls and viscera
in order to reach its final lodging place. The bottom of the pit
was paved with the common river mussel shells {unios), and there
appeared to have been some attempt at a natural disposition of the
bones, those of the lower extremities being placed at the bottom,
the crania at the top.

Among the human remains from this cemetery are many pos-
sessing features of surgical and anatomical interest, as, for in-
stance, an adult male cranium in which complete anchylosis of the
atlas to the condyles has occurred, the posterior arch remaining
free. Other crania show evidences of severe injury with subsequent
repair, and among the long bones are several showing characteristic
lesions strongly indicative of rachitis and of syphilis, a fact of
considerable interest in its relation to the geographical distribution

NORTH AMERICANS OP ANTIQUITY.

527

of the latter disease, and also as bearing on the theory of its intro-
duction into Southern Europe from America in the fifteenth cen-
tury.

Among the graves opened are several of children, who are
usually buried in close proximity to adults, and with them are
found various ornaments or toys of perforated shell, bone, etc., as
well as small earthen vessels.

The pottery ware which accompanies the skeletons is usually
situated near the head and presents many features of special inter-
est. It is made of clay,
finely tempered with
pounded unio shells, and
much care has evidently
been bestowed upon its
maiiuf acture, some pieces
being scarcely thicker
than an ordinary teacup.
Many specimens are in
a perfect condition, or
nearly so, and they usu-
ally contain a single unio
shell when found, the
shell being evidently in-
tended for use as a spoon.
The vessels range in ca-
pacity from a third of a
pint, or even smaller, up
to a gallon or more, the
smaller ones, as before
stated, being usually
found in the graves of children.

Bowl from Ancient Cemetery, Little

Miami Valley.

(Collection of W. C. Rogers, Madisonville, O.)

They are symmetrical in shape
and varied in design, some being artistically ornamented with scroll
work, handles representing lizards, human heads, etc., and are
almost invariably provided with four handles. Among the few
exceptions to this latter rule is an eight-handled bowl (see cut),
in the collection of W. C. Rogers, Esq., which is a two-story
affair, apparently made by combining two distinct vessels, and
then removing the bottom of the upper one. Vessels having
but two handles occasionally occur, and others with holes in

528 MADISONVILLE EXPLORATIONS.

lieu of handles; but these are exceptions to the general rule as
above noted.

The total number of vessels taken from the cemetery to date is
eighty-eight. There is good reason to believe, however, that each
interment has been originally accompanied by a vessel, the present
disparity between the number of vessels and the number of skele-
tons being accounted for by the fragments thickly strewn over the
surface and intermingled with the surrounding soil, which have
doubtless at one time constituted portions of the missing burial
urns. To the growth of trees, action of frost and rooting of hogs,
the destruction of so much of this valuable ware must be attrib-
uted, and to the latter cause, irregularities observed in the disposi-
tion of some of the skeletons are probably due.

Among the other articles of utility or ornament found in the
graves are twelve pipes, of various patterns, three of them being
made from the Minnesota Catlinite or Red Pipestone ; also stone
disks, axes and chisels, flint knives and spear-heads, and many
ornaments and implements of bone, such as beads, awls, needles,
perforated teeth, etc., together with others of unknown uses. Two
small cylinders of rolled copper, about two inches in length, and
two flat pieces of the same metal an inch or more square, are among
the collections, as are also two stones bearing inscriptions as
follows: one, an irregular piece of sandstone, measuring about
3x2x1 inches, on the flat surface of which are cut two parallel
figures made of straight lines and apparently intended to represent
arrows ; this specimen is now in the writer's collection. The other
stone, which is in the collection of E. A. Oonkling, Esq., is a flat-
tened dark-green boulder measuring about 3| x 2|- inches, one side of
which is completely covered with a network of lines from ^ to J of
an inch apart and crossing each other at nearly right angles, thus
forming quadrangular divisions of various sizes.

An interesting feature of these excavations has been the dis-
covery of what may be designated as "ashpits"; being circum-
scribed deposits of ashes, shells, sand, etc., from two to three feet
in thickness, placed at varying distances below the surface. A per-
pendicular section made of one of these pits answers to the follow-
ing description, which will serve to convey a fair idea of them all.
Diameter of pit, three feet ; the first eighteen inches consisted of
leaf mold and sandy soil ; then followed nine inches of clay, burnt

NORTH AMERICANS OF ANTIQUITY. 529

earth and charcoal; next, ashes and charcoal, twelve inches ; clay,
three inches ; white ashes, two inches ; sand and unio shells, six
inches; pure ashes, twelve inches; total deptli, five feet two inches.

Of these ashpits, more than fifty have been opened, situated in
continuous rows near the edge of the bluff. They are quite uniform
in size, measuring from three to four feet in diameter and from
four to six feet in depth, and with one or two exceptions have not
been found in any other than the above mentioned situation. In-
termingled with the ashes are pipes, implements of bone, shell, and
stone, a mastodon's tooth, bones of various wild animals, including
birds and fishes, and in some of them large sherds of pottery-ware in-
dicating vessels of from ten to twelve gallons capacity or even larger.
With the exception of a single dorsal vertebra no human remains
have yet been found in these pits, unless the ashes be so considered.

From the uncharred condition of the above articles it is evident
that the ashes has been placed in the pits as ashes, after having
been burned elsewhere, as in no case do the relics or the walls of
the pits show any traces of the action of fire.

With respect to the length of time that has elapsed since these
interments, mention has already been made of the situation of some
of the skeletons under large trees, an instance of which may be
cited: On Saturday, April 5, the ground was visited by Judge
Cox and Mr. Low, in company with Dr. Metz, and in excavating
beneath an oak tree, six feet two inches in circumference, a skele-
ton was discovered, its lower extremities extending under the tree ;
overlying the lower extremities of this skeleton was another, its
body situated directly under the trunk of the tree and the skull so
surrounded and penetrated by roots as to prevent its removal except
in fragments. The bones of both skeletons were much decayed
and exceedingly fragile.

In forming an estimate as to the probable antiquity of these
interments, the time that must necessarily have elapsed between
the abandonment of the cemetery and the springing up of the
forest ; the age of the trees now present and of others that have
fallen and decayed ; the advanced state of decay in which the
human remains are found ; the character of the pottery- ware ; and
lastly, the total absence of any evidences of communication with
civilization, in the shape of glass beads or other trinkets, must all
be taken into account ; and it does not appear at all unreasonable
34

530 IOWA ELEPHANT PIPE.

to conclude that the use of this ground as a cemetery probably
antedates the discovery of America by Columbus.

As regards the particular race to which this people belonged, —
whether they were identical with, or related to, the celebrated
"stone-grave people" of Tennessee,* as some of their pottery-ware
and the shape and dimensions of their crania would seem to indi-
cate ; or whether they were the last remnants of the once powerful
nation that erected Fort Ancient and other gigantic works in this
region, — these and similar queries remain as yet unanswered. More
extended investigations and a careful comparison of large amounts
of material from this and other localities, may be expected to assist
in the solution of these obscure but interesting problems.

At the present writing excavations are still in progress, with
new developments daily, and a publication of the entire results,
with full details and illustrations, may be looked for in due season.

Madisonville, Hamilton County, Ohio, July 19, 1879.

Note. — An illustrated report of the continuation of the Madisonville exploration, so remarkable
in results, will be found in the Journal of the Cincinnati Society of Natural History, vol. iii, Nos. 1,
2, and 3 ; also a sketch by F. W. Putnam in Harvard University Bulletin for June 1, 1881.

THE question as to whether man and the mastodon were con-
temporaneous in America, has long been a matter of dispute
as the reader is aware after the perusal of our second chapter and

other sources. The "ele-
phant pipe " figured in the
accompanying cut has been
the means of calling fresh
attention to the subject.
Dr. R. J Farquharson, of
the Davenport Academy of

Sciences, who kindly far-
Elephant Pipe from Louisa Co., Iowa. -it .i ^ l ^

nished us the photo from

which our illustration is a reduction, states that six or seven years

ago Mr. Peter Mare, a farmer (whose estate was situated on both

* Vide Archmologicnl Explorations in Tennessee, by F. W. Putnam. Eleventh
Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology,
Cambridge, Mass., 1878.

NORTH AMERICANS OF ANTIQUITY. 531

sides of the line dividing Muscatine and Louisa Counties, Iowa)
found the elephant pipe while plowing corn on his land in Louisa
County. The finder, who had no idea of its archaeological value,
kept it with a number of " Indian stones," as he termed them, until
last year (1878), when it became the property of the Davenport
Academy. Dr. Farquharson says : " The ancient mounds were
very abundant in that vicinity (Louisa Co.), and rich in relics
which are deposited on the surface of the soil (not in excavations),
as we found in exploring a number. In such a case it is not strange
that a mound having been gradually removed by long cultivation,
the relics so deposited should be reached and turned up by the
plow." * * * "The pipe, which is of a fragile sandstone, is of
the ordinary Mound-builder's t3^e, and has every appearance of
age and usage. Of its genuineness I have no doubt. Together
with the " Elephant mound " of Wisconsin, the elephant head of
Palenque (depicted in Lord Kingsborough's great work), our pipe
completes the series of what the French would call 'documents'
proving the fact of the contemporaneous existence on this con-
tinent of man and the mastodon."* The above facts, as stated
by Dr. Farquharson, were substantially embodied in a paper read
by Mr. Pratt before the Davenport Academy, April 25, 1879.

THE CHARNAY EXPLORATION.

THE exploring expedition under French and American patronage, led
by M. Desire Charnay, began its labors in Mexico, May 1st, 1880, and
continued them nearly a year. During this time a large number of ruins,
scattered over the area extending from Teotihuacan and Tollau, on the
north, and Palenque, on the south, are reported to have been examined.
How thorough the examination was, or how scientifically accurate were
the published reports, it would at present (September, 1881) be impossi-
ble to determine. Suffice it to say that they are generally viewed with
distrust, partly on account of the disjointed, hap-hazard form in which
they have appeared in the North American Review (September, 1880-
June, 1881 — doubtless without blame on the part of the editor), where
the splendid heliotype illustrations have been rendered nearly valueless
by the frequent omission, from the text and elsewhere, of descriptive
reference; and partly on account of the over-confident style of . the
* Letter to the author, dated Davenport, Iowa, May 24, 1879.

532 THE CHARNAY EXPLORATION. ^

writer. It is to be hoped that the ground for criticism may be removed
when M. Charnay shall formally publish his reports.

It would be superfluous in this connection to summarize his work,
since his papers are accessible to all.

It is worthy of note, however, that he reports Teotihuacan, on the
authority of several authors, to have contained twenty-seven thousand
dwellings, besides its temples, and that the heaps of ruins which remain
justify the statement. The whole area of five or six miles in diameter
was found covered with heaps of ruins. Cement roadways, containing
broken pottery, seemed to afford evidence of occupancy in even a more
ancient epoch than that in which Teotihuacan was founded. Excava-
tions revealed two halls of a supposed temple at the base of one of the
pyramids. One of these halls is reported to be nearly fifty feet square,
in the middle of which stood six pillars which had served to sustain the
roof. At Tula, the ancient capital of Tollau, north-west of the city of Mex-
ico, hitherto so fruitless of archaeological, and especially of architectural
remains, M. Charnay made remarkable discoveries of pyramids, and sev-
eral Toltec houses of immense proportions, one of which contained forty-
three apartments, besides corridors and a staircase. Sculptures were nu-
merous, and bricks of burnt clay, twelve inches long by five inches wide,
were found to have been used in constructing stairways* .

Near the village of Comalcalco, thirty-five or forty miles north-west
of San Juan Bautista, the capital of Tabasco, vast ruins were discovered,
particularly pyramids, towers, and edifices, all forest-grown, equalling and
even surpassing in proportions those at Palenque. Upon a pyramid 115
feet high an edifice of brick and mortar 234 feet in length was explored.

At the village of Palenque, M. Charnay found the two bas-reliefs seen
by Waldeck and Stephens a half century ago, now built into the outer
wall of a church (see this work, p. 391).

At the ancient city itself the explorer discovered the ruins to be
more extensive than ever heretofore supposed, and estimates that it
would require the labor of five hundred men for six months, under the
direction of a corps of topographers, simply to determine the general
plan of the city. Eight hundred and sixty-one square feet of casts of
bas-reliefs were taken. It was ascertained at Palenque, by breaking off
portions of the vesture upon the stucco reliefs, that the human body had
in all cases been first carefully modeled, and that the drapery had subse-
quently been superposed. Whether this fact throws light simply upon
the process employed, or indicates a reaction or evolution in art, is
equally interesting and uncertain.

NORTH AMERICANS OF ANTIQUITY. 533

HOUSE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND PUEBLOS.

\ MONO- the Mnsolved problems of American archaeology is that of
-^-^- the use to which the extensive systems of embankments attributed
to the Mound-builders were put. The Newark (Ohio) system of works,
now covering two miles square, but formerly presenting twelve miles of
embankment, reaching at some points a height of thirty -five feet, with
sufficient width for a carriage-way on top, has been a veritable sphinx
to all inquirers. Nor does it stand alone in an architectural aspect. Its
square is precisely of the dimensions of a similar figure found at Hope-
town, in the Scioto Valley. Its circles are connected with squares or
octagons, a typical combination of features generally prevalent in mound
structures. Furthermore, its trenches are all within the enclosures. The
probability is that the clew to the solution of the problem has come to
light. The discovery of what are pronounced to be mound-works, in
connection with the Pueblo ruins of Colorado and New Mexico and
Arizona, has given us the hint. Mr. Wm. H. Holmes in " A Notice of
the Ancient Ruins of South-western Colorado, examined during the
Summer of 1875,"* shows us the Mound and Pueblo ruin in close prox-
imity. In describing a ruined village on the Rio La Plata, he says:
" North of this, about 300 feet, is a truncated rectangular mound, 9 or
10 feet in height and 50 feet in width by 80 in length. On the east
end, near one of the angles, is a low, projecting pile of debris that may
have been a tower. There is nothing whatever to indicate the use of
this structure. Its flat top and height give it more the appearance of
one of the sacrificial mounds of the Ohio Valley than any other ob-
served in this part of the West. It may have been, however, only a
raised foundation, designed to support a superstructure of wood or
adobe. . . . South of this, and occupying the extreme southern end of
the terrace, are a number of small circles and mounds, while an undeter-
mined number of diminutive mounds are distributed among the other
ruins." Mr. W. H. Jackson, in the same document (p. 29) that con-
tains Mr. Holmes' report, mentions the remains of " many circular towns"

* Bulletin of U. 8. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories,
voL ii.,No. i., p. 6.

534 HOUSE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

on a high plateau between the Montezuma and the Hovenweep. The
year following, the lamented scholar, Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, acting on
the suggestion or originating a hypothesis of his own, announced in the
North American Review for July, 1876, what has since been called his
" Pueblo Theory." A fuller exposition of his views were embodied in
his paper "On Houses of the American Aborigines," published in the
Report of the Archaeological Institute of America for 1879-1880. Mr.
Morgan illustrates the prevalence of communal houses among the abo>
rigines east of the Mississippi, citing the long houses of the Iroquois;
and west of the river the communal lodges of the Minnitares and Man-
dans, and of Columbia River Indians seen by Lewis and Clark in 1805.
The writer further illustrates the communal architecture of the aborigi-
nes by discussions relating to the joint tenement houses of the Pueblos
of New Mexico and Arizona. Having thus laid his foundation, he ap-
plies the communal idea and its expression in the Mandan and Pueblo
structures in a conjectural restoration of the mound villages. He sup-
poses that, as adobe would not withstand the frosts and rains of the
Ohio Valley, the Mound -builder people resorted to the structure of
wooden edifices. He says : " They might have raised these embankments
of earth, enclosing circular, rectangular, or square areas, and construct-
ed their long houses upon them." Mr. Morgan would build upon the
squares and circles houses having a wooden framework, upon which turf
and grass were placed both upon roof and sides. In order that this
should be possible, the sides are supposed to have been inclined at the
same angle with the embankment, the superstructure being a continua-
tion of the earthern foundation so far as outline and geometrical figure
is concerned. To preserve analogy with the closed, windowless ground-
story of New Mexico Pueblos, Mr. Morgan supposes that the outer side
or sides of the edifice were closed, presenting only blank walls of heavy
turf or gravel to view ; while the walls facing within the enclosure were
windowed, and pierced with doors. The entrances to the enclosures, he
supposes, were guarded with palisades. There the defensive feature of
the Pueblo house was preserved. In his elaborate work, the " Houses
and House Life of the American Aborigines,"* that last touch of a van-
ished hand, the author has discussed at length the development of the
joint tenement house among the Mound-builders. After illustrating the

* Contributions to Noi'th American Ethnology, vol. iv. — U. S. Geographical
and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, J. W. Powell in charge.
Washington, 1881 : especially chap. ix.

NORTH AMERICANS OF ANTIQUITY. 535

principle, as applied in the restoration of High Bank works (Ross County,
Ohio), he adds : " These embankments, therefore, require triangular houses
of the kind described, and long houses as well, covering their entire
length. But the interior plan might have been different ; for example,
the passage-way might have a long exterior wall, and the stalls or apart-
ments on the court side, and but half as many in number ; and, instead
of one continuous house, in the interior, 450 feet in length, it might
have been divided into several, separated from each other by cross par-
titions. The plan of life, however, which we are justified in ascribing
to them, from known usages of Indian tribes in a similar condition of
advancement, would lead us to expect large households formed on the
basis of kin, with the practice of communism in living in each house-
hold, whether large or small." The plausibility of Mr. Morgan's hy-
pothesis is, to say the least, striking. However, his supposition that the
Mound -builders and Pueblos were of the same race, is not unattend-
ed with difficulties. Conspicuous among them is the marked dissimi-
larity of the ceramic ornament employed by the two peoples. Nothing
is more stable than the art of a race or age. Nothing more truly re-
veals the inner life of a people than its pottery. The Mound-builders
and Pueblos each had their ceramic types. But they were wholly un-
like — apparently the work of unrelated races. Yet, community of burial,
as well as community of residence, to which may be added similarity of
cranial type, are facts that declare for Mr. Morgan's hypothesis as to the
relation of the peoples in question.*

* In addition to the work by Mr. Morgan above cited, the student of Mound-
builder and Pueblo arch£Eology should not fail to consult vol, vii. of the Report
upon JJ. S. Geographical Surveys west of the one hundredth meridian, in charge
of Lieutenant Wheeler. Washington, 1879. The volume bears the above date,
but did not appear until near the close of 1881. The editing of this valuable
work was committed to the discriminating care of Professor F. W. Putnam,
who was assisted by an able corps of specialists, among others Dr. C. C. Abbott
and Albert S. Gatschet. The Second Part is devoted to papers on the Pueb-
los. The magnificent fund of materials here presented, accompanied by full-
page heliotypes of ruins and implements, vastly enlarges our knowledge of that
interesting people. Still another work, of more than ordinary importance to
ethnological and archaeological students, is Dr. Charles Rau's Observations on
Cup-shaped and otJier Lapidarian Sculptures in the Old World and in America.
Contributions to Ethnology, vol. v. Washington, 1881. Last, but not least,
is Professor Otis T. Mason's Account of recent Progress in Anthropology, in
Smithsonian Report for 1880.

INDEX.

Abbott, discoveries in New Jersey, 127-8 ;

view of Eskimo, 138.
Aboriginal painting of sun, 65 ; trade, 98 ;

Ran on, 98.
Aborigines, American, 21.
Acolhuas, Nahua tribe, 256.
Agassiz on Floridian jaw-bone, 112; on
origin of nations, 158-9; on physical
life and nature, 158 ; views of untena-
ble, 159, 516.
Ages of stone and bronze in Mississippi

valley, 27.
Age of trees on mounds, 104.
Agglutination in languages, 471.
Alabama mounds, 71-72.
Alaska, climate of, 511.
Alleghany Mts., boundary of Mound

country, 58.
Alligator mound, 34.
Allighewi, 102.
AUouez, Father, on aboriginal copper,

92—3.
Al-Mamoun, state of learning during

kalifate of, 132.
Altar mOunds, 37 ; Squier and Davis on,
83-87 ; stratification of, 83-84; Prof. An-
drews on, 83, n. 1.
Alton, mounds at, 41.
Aleutian islands, .509 ; migration by, 509.
Amaquemecan, Chichimec home, 248, 2.56.
American civilization (ancient) contrasted
with that of Britons, 520.
"Bottom," recent discoveries in,

43-44.
languages, number and variety of,

190 ; instability of, 190.
race not unique, 165; of old world
origin, 201-2.
Anahuac, 249.

Analogies in geographical names, 497.
in religion, 459-68.
of ceremonial law, 463.
Scandinavian and Mexican, 464.
Hindoo and Mexican, 465.
Greek and Mexican, 466.
Egyptian and Mexican, 467.
Anchylosis (bony) observed in mound-
builder remains, 184.
Ancient copper mines, 89-94.
Ancient forts of New York, 28 ; of Lake
Erie, 28; Col. Whittlesey on, 28; Dr.
Foster on, 28.
Anderson' s,W. M., " Calendar Stone," 70.
Andrews, E. B., explorations by, 55.

Antiquity of man, chap. ii. ; testimony of

geology, 102 ; in Europe, 24, n. 1.
Antiquity of mounds, 101, 103, 104.

Red man, 22.
Antipodes, St. Augustine on, 133; Aris-

tarchus of Samos on, 133.
Apes, American group of, 194.
Ararat, Mt., 497.

the Mexican, 361-63.
Arch, pueblo, 892.

Architecture, analogies in, real and fan-
. cied, 339.
Maya, 340-55.
classification of styles, 340.
Palenque, 340; Yucatan style, 346;

Uxmal, 347.
Kabah, 352 ; Zayi, 353 ; Labna, 354,
Quiche, 355-59.
Nahua, 359-83 : Mitla, 360-64.
Maya and Nahua compared, 381.
Architectural progress in mound works,

79-80.
Argyll, Duke of, on Negroid type, 197.
Art, unity of style in savage, 196.

high order at Palenque, 389, 392 ; at

Uxmal, 393, 395; at Copan, 404.
Palenque and Egyptian compared,
418.
Astronomical knowledge of Aztecs, 455.

Mound-builders, 94-6.
Atlantic Ocean, floor of, 502, 505.
submerged land ridge of, 503.
mean deoths of, 502.
sea-board, changes ua level of, 504.
continent, 505.
Atlantis, Platonic, tradition of, 142, 498-
.505.
Brasseur de Bourbourg ou, 498-500.
Legends of from Ibpol Vuh and Co-
dex Chimalpopoca, 499.
Retzius on, 500; Unger, 501; Heer,.501.
Atolls of the Pacific, 507 ; Dana and Le

Conte on, 507-8.
Atoyac, Mexican river, 334.
Autochthenes, mound-builders not, 97.
Autochthon, the American an, 192.
Autochthonic origin of Americans, 155.
Axayacatl, Mexican king, 452.
Azores, volcanic character of, .503.
Aztec calendar, 446-.59; year, 447; months,
447 ; weeks and days, 448 ; inter-
calation, 448 ; Ritual year, 449, 455 ;
Lords of night, 449.
Stone, 450 ; lunar reckonmg, 455.
chronology, 458.

538

INDEX.

Aztec language, richness of, 471, 480, 481 ;
extent of, 480, 492.
the classic tongue, 480 ; ancient and

modern, 481.
grammar, 481-85 ; Lord's prayer in,

485.
traces of north of Mexico, 486-90, 491.
elements in Nootka languages, 491.
Aztec picture-writing, 42S-'6S.
Aztec springs, 300, yji4-3(> ; Aztec-Sonora

languages, 487-8.
"Aztec theory," the, 331.
Aztecs, migrations of, 259-263 ; date of,
259; stations, 260-61; southern origin
of considered, 266, n. 1.
Aztlan, Nahua home, 257-9, 518 ; location
of, 257-9, 264-«5.
description of by Duran, 258.
Aztlan, Wis., mound works at, 36.

Babel myths, 140 ; tower of, 205 ; Cholu-

la, 235-37.
Bacab myth, 465.

Balam-Agab, Quiche progenitor, 214.
B|ilam-Quitze, Quiche progenitor, 214.
Baldwin, J. D., on mounds of North-west,

31, 32.
Bancroft, H. H., on Hue hue Tlapalan,
251-53.
resume of Toltec annals by, 255.
observations on Cox-cox myth, 263.
on Maya chronology, 438.
on Aztec language, 476, n. 2.
Baptism, Mexican, 462.
Barber, E. A., 305.
Barrandt on Dakota mounds, 31.
Basque and Maya languages compared,

476 ; Dr. Farrar on, 476, n. 2.
Bartlett's exploration of Casas Grandes,

276-83.
Bayou St. John, earthworks on, 76.
Beard mound, 56.
Bearded men at Chichen-Itza, 401.
Beau Relief in Stucco, 388.
Becker, J. H., on traditions of Nahua
Mound-builders, 102, n. ; on ancient
home of Nahuas, 248 ; on Toltec migra-
tion, 24a-50.
Behring's Straits, Bancroft's remarks on,
147.
width and depth of, 510 ; Lyell and
Herschel on, 510 ; Hellwald on mi-
gration by, 511 ; Dall, W. H., on
migration via, 512, n. 1.
Berthoud, E. L., stone implements col-
lected by, 124.
Big Harpeth valley works, 60-65.
Blake, J. H., collection of Peruvian skulls

by, 176-7.
olla

Bollaert's interpretation of hieroglyphics,

Books used by Mayas, 420.
by Aztecs, 438.

Bourbeuse River, mastodon discovered

at, 116.
Brasseur de Bourbourg, estimate of by
Bancroft, 142, n. 1.
on the Platonic Atlantis, 142, 498-500 ;
on Igh and Imox, 205, n. 1; on
Maya hieroglyphics, 421-25 ; on re-
ligious analogies, 467-8; on Scan-
dinavian and Maya languages, 476.
Brachycephalic crania classified, 162-3.
Brazil, accidental discovery of by Cabral,

506.
Brentwood, Tenn., stones graves at, 60.
Brick, sun-dried, from mounds. 72-75.
Brinton, Dr., phonetic alphabet, 427;
Buddha and Quetzalcoatl compared by,
466,
Brown, Thos., mounds of, 63-^.
Browne, Ross, explorations by, 282-3.
Buckle, on learning in Spain, 133, n. 2.
Buddhist missionaries in America, 148--50.
Burial, " intrusive " in mounds, 85 ; cer-
emony, 40 ; in stone coffins, 60 ; vase
from Mexico, 410.
Butler, J. W., on Chaac-Mol, 399.
Buschmann's researches on American
languages, 487-88.
Sonora family, 487 ; on Aztec ele-
ment in Nootka language, 491.

Cabots, 22.

Cabral, discovery of Brazil by, 506.

Cabrera on the origm of the Votanites,

208-9 ; on Votanic document, 207.
Cahita, language of New Mexico, 487.
Cahokia mound, 41.
Calapooya language, traces of Aztec in,

490.
Calaveras Co. (Cal.) cranium, 125; views
of Whitney, Wyman and others on, 125.
Calendar systems, mound-builder, 40.
Maya, 435-45 ; days, 4i36 ; months,
437 ; the Katun, 439-40 ; Ahau Ka-
tun, 441 ; succession of, 442.
Nahua or Mexican, its construction,
243, 446-59; perfection of, 519;
year, 447 ; days and weeks, 448 ; in-
tercalation, 448 ; Ritual year, 449 ;
lords of night, 449 ; Calendar Stone,
408-9 ; interpreted by Gama, Che-
vero and Valentini, 450-58 ; history,
452-3, 457.
California, traces of antiquity of man in,

125.
California languages and their affinities

to Chinese, 495 ; Japanese, 496.
Canals constructed by Mound-builders,

98-100.
Caras or Carians ancient navigators, 507 ;

Brasseur on, 507.
Carr's Measurements of Crania, 173 ; on

low-type mound crania, 174.
Carter, 22; Carter, Dr. J. Van A., on
stone implements, 24, n. 1.

INDEX.

539

Carthaginian colonization of America,
145-6.

Cara Gigantesca, 404.

Casa del Eco, 312.

Gobernador (Uxmal), 347-50.

Grande of Zayi, 353.

de Monjas, sculptures of, 394.

Casas Graudes, Chihuahua, 376 ; Aztec
station at, 277.
of the Gila, 284.

Cataclysm, traditions of a, 499.

Cave explorations, 26.

dwellings, 292-311, 313.
village of Rio Chclley, 313.
shelters of San Juan, 319,
fortresses of Rio Mancos, 320.

Ceacatl Quetzalcoatl, Toltec king, 272.

Cerae:ery, aboriginal, 65.

Centennial Report of Ohio Arch. Asso., 82.

Ceutla, pyramid of, 365-6.

Cephalic index of crania, 160.

Ceremonial law, analysis of, 463.

Chaac-Mol, statue of, 397-400.

Chaco Valley, ruined pueblo in, 291 ; pe-
culiarity of architecture, 292.

Chalcas, Nahua tribe, 256.

Chalco, lake, 264.

Challenger, voyage of, 502; "Challenger
plateau," 502-3.

Chalcatzin, Toltec chief, 244.

Chamber, interior in mound, 75.

Chanes, ancient races, 206,

Chareneey, 4,25.

Chelly Canon, antiquities of, 293; cave
village of, 313-14 ; house in, 315.

Chevero, interpretation of Mexican Cal-
endar Stone by, 450-2.

Chiapan architecture, 340.

Chiapas, ancient civilization of, 203.

Chichen-Itza, antiquities of, 353-5, 397-
403 ; mural paintings at, 401.

Chichilticale, ''red house," 281,

Chichiniecs, Mexican nation, 243 ; dynas-
ty of, 254 ; language of, 255, 480 ; Pi-
mentel on, 255-6,

Chicomoztoc (Chichimostoc) Nahua
home, 256-7; identical with "seven
caves," 261, n.; 264-66,

Chihuahua, Casas Grandes of, 275 ; origi-
nal descriptions of, 276 ; material and
dimensions of, 276-77.

Children's graves in Tennessee, 66-8.

Chiraalhuacan, Toltec station, 245.

Chinook language, traces of Aztec in,
490, n. 3.

Cholula pyramid, 235 ; not related to a
flood, 23o, 237 ; origin according to Du-
ran: 236, 368-70.

Christ myth in Yucatan, 231, 464.

Christy collection. Mosaic knife from, 412.

Chinese colonization of America, 148.

Chronology, accepted faulty, 199, 200:
Duke of Argyll on, 200.
Maya, 435-45 ; adjusted to ours, 443-

Cibola, seven cities of, 288.

Cincmnati mound-works, 44r-6; tablet,

44-ej.
Circumcision, 463.
Cists, stone, 60.
Civilization, American contrasted with

that of ancient Britons, 520.
Clallam and Lummi languages, Aztec ele-
ment in, 490.
Clarke, Robert, on Cincmnati Tablet,44r-6.
on Morgan's Pueblo theory, 55, n. 2.
Classification of crania, 160-3.

of mound- works by Squier and Davis,

and Foster, 81.
of mound relics by Ran, 82, n. 1.
Clavigero, views on origin of Americans,
140, n. 1,
on first colonists of America, 204.
Cliff-dwellers, 293 ; their traditional his-
tory, 302.
Cliff-dwellings of the Mancos Canon, 298
-99, 319.
McElmo Canon, 302.
Hovenweep: 305-7.
San Juan, 307, 808, 319.
and Rock Shelters on San Juan, 309.
house of Chelly Caiion, 315.
in Montezuma Canon, 316.
Cloth from mounds, 37, 43.
Coast level, elevation and depression of,

405.
Coflans, stone, 60.
Columbus, 22; stem-post of ship seen

by, 506.
Colonists, first in Mexico, 242.
Color, variety in human races, 197, 198 ;

Darwin on origin of, 199.
Color of ancient Araerican8,189; Pritchard

on, 189, n. 2.
Colorado River, ruins in Grand Caiion of,
285.
Major Powell's exploration, 285-87.
Colorado Chiquito, antiquities of, 287.
Columbia River languages, 492.
Conant, A. J., explorations by, 76, 77;

on ancient canals, 98, 100.
Conflict of science and dogmatism, 131.
Confusion of tongues, 238.
Connett mound, o6.
Conquest of Xibalba, 222-5.
Copan, 221 ; ruins of, 356-59 ; sculpture

of, 404-5.
Copper in mounds, 85 ; ancient mines of,
89-94: theory of Mexican supply,
93,493,
relics from Wisconsin, 99.
Cora language and its relation to Aztec,

48(i-7.
Cosmogonic eggy 416, 419, 465.
Coronado's journey to New Mexico, 281,

n. 1.
Cox, Prof., discoveries cited, 75.
Cox-cox, Mexican Noah, 262, n. 1.
Cox-cox, Bancroft's observations on, 363,
454.

540

INDEX.

Crania Americana, measurements of, clas-
sified, 101-3.
Cranial measurements, 159-60.
Crania from mounds, testimony of, 105-6.
River Rogue, 167 ; measurements by

Gillman, 168.
Davenport, Farquharson's measure-
ments, 169-70; from Ohio, 170;
from Kentucky, 171 ; from Tennes-
see, 171; comparison, 174; com-
pression of common, 178, 184;
among Chinooks, 182 ; among other
American tribes, 183,
Cranium, low type, discovered by Co-

nant, 174.
Cremaiion probable, 85.
Cristone of McElmo Canon, 301.
Cross, subterranean temple of, 363.

Tablet of, 390.
Cruciform works at Trenton, Wis;, 35.
Crux Ansata at Palenque, 416-17.
Cukulcan culture hero, 230-31, 272, 394,

457.
Culhuacan, 226.
Culhuas (Nahuas) sometimes applied to

Mayas, 209.
Curtiss, Ed., explorations by, 65.

Dablon, Father, on aboriginal use of cop-
per, 92-3.

Dakota mounds, 31, n. 2.

Dall, W. H., on migration by Behring's
Straits, 512, n. 1.

Dana, J. D., review of Dr. Koch's dis-
coveries, 120.

Darwin on old world origin of Americans,
194.

Davenport Academy, explorations con-
ducted by, 37-40.

Davenport Tablet, 38, 40.

Davenport mound crania, 169-70.
elephant pipe, Appendix B.

Days, Maya, 436-38.

Deguignes, 148.

Demge myths, Mexican, 262-3, notes.
Tezpi, 263, n. ; Analogies, 460.

Development of American Race (see Evo-
lution).

Dickson, Dr., examination of "Mammoth
Ravine" by, 11:3-14.

Diseases of Mound-builders, 184.

Dogmatism and science, 131.

Dolechocephalic crania classified, 161.

" Dolphin Rise," the, 501.

Domenech, Abbe, note on works, 139,
n. 4.

Dowler, Dr., skeleton discovered by, 123 ;
estimate of antiquity, 123.

Drake, account of works at Cincinnati
by, 44.

Drift (modified), fossil from, 121.

Dwellings of Mound-builders, 67.

Earth, globular form discovered, 133.

Echevarria y Veitia on the origin of the
Americans, 138.

Eckstein, Baron de, on the Caras, 507.

Eden, Mexican analogies with, 460.

Edificios de Quemada, 379.

Education of Aztec children, 432.

Eflfigy mounds of Wisconsin, 33-36 ; of
Ohio, 34 ; of Georgia, 35.

Egypt and Teotihuacan compared, 383.

Egyptian influence on American civiliza-
tion, 147.

Egyptian painting, 197.

Egyptian Tau at Palenque, 416.

El Castillo, pyramid, 366.

Elephant mound. 35-6; "Trunk," 385,
395 ; pipe, 530.

El Moro, ruins on, 290.

Elyria cave, Whittlesey on, 26.

Engleman, Dr. J. G., 43.

Enoch, H. R., discovery by, 44.

Epsom Creek, antiquities of, 315 ; eleva-
ted tower on, 316.

Eric the Red, 153.

Eric son, 32.

Eskimo, the first occupants of America,
512.

Estufa (Pueblo sanctuary), 292 ; entrance
peculiar, 322.

Etowah valley mounds, 72.

Europe, antiquity of man in, 24, n. 1.

Evolution, origin of the Americans by,
191; views of Hellwald on, 191; re-

garded improbable by Haeckel and
•arwin, 195,

Fanaticism of early writers on America,
133.

Farquharson, Dr., reports by, 38.

Farrar, Dr. W., on American language,
470.

Feathered Serpent (Quctzalcoatl, Gucu-
matz Cukulcan), 272, 394, 457.

Festival of the Mexican Cycle, 456.

Flood myths of the Mexicans, 262, n. 1,
499 ; of Pueblos, 335-6.

Floors of burnt clay, 66.

Florida, ancient home of Mayas, 517.

Floridian jaw-bone, Agassiz and Pour-
tales on, 112-13.

Fontaine, Mr., on Tennessee valley
mounds, 71.

Forchhammer on Indian languages, 496.

Forest growth on mounds, 104.

Forshey, Prof. C. G., on southern mounds,
77-79.

Foster's i^-e-Aistonc Races, importance of,
100, n. 2.

Foster, Dr. J. W.. on Cahokia mound, 42 ;
classification of mound-works by, 81:
on Indian traditions, 102; on age of
"New Orleans skeleton," 124.

INDEX.

541

Fort Ancient, 51 ; Judges Dunlevy and

Force on, 51, 53.
Foi'titi cations (ancient) in New York, on

the Lakes, and in Butler Co., Ohio, 50 ;

in Miami vallev, 51, 75.
Fossil from drift, Jersey Co., 111., 121;

Foster's observations on, 121.
Fremont, Montezuma legend by, 334.
Frio, Cape, distance from Africa, 506.
Fuentes, description of Copan by, 356.
Funeral ceremony, 39, 40.
Fusang, 148-51 ; views of Neuman on,

149 ; Bretschneider, 150 ; Klaproth, 150;

D'Eichthal, 151.

Gama, Leon y, on Mexican Calendar
Stone, 450-55.

Garcia on origin of Americans, 136-7.

Gardner, J. Starke, on Dolphin and Chal-
lenger ridges, 503.

Gass, Rev. J., discoveries of, 37, 40.

Geraelli Carreri, migration map of, 261-3.

Geometrical knowledge of Mound-build-
ers, 49.

Geographical names, analogies in, 497.

Gest, Mr. E., 46.

Giants, race of, 232 ; destruction of, 235.

Gila river, Casa Grande of, 279.

accounts of, 279 ; ground plan of, 281.
view of, 283.

Gillman, Henry, explorations of, 29.
on crania from River Rogue, 167-8.
on crania from Chamber's Island, 169.

Goazacoalco (various spellings) river and
province, 251.

Gobernador, Casa del, 347-50.

Grammar of Maya language, 477-9.
Aztec language, 481-85.

Grave Creek mound, 87.

Gravier on Northmen, 153.

Gray, Asa, on American and European
flora, 501 ; on Asiatic flora, 513.

Graphic systems, see Hieroglyphics.

Great Serpent, mound-work, 34, 70.

Grecques at Mitla, 363.

Greek analogies of religion, 466.

Greek colonization of America, 146 ; ad-
vocates of, 146.

Greek gods in Yucatan, 467.

Green County, Missouri, mound, 74.

Greenland, subsidence of coast, 504.

" Grimm's Law," 471-488.

Grote, Prof. A. R., observations on Eski-
mo, 128, 512.

Guatemalians, origin and flood myths of,
228-9.

Gucumatz, Quiche, deity, 213, 222, 226,
227.
search for maize by, 241, 272.

Gulf Stream, 505.

Hacavitz, mountain and deity, 215-16.
Haeckel, on origin of Americans, 195.

Hair of ancient Americans, 186.

Hair cloth from mounds, 43.

Hanno's naval expeditions, 145.

Hands, printa of ancient cliff-dwellers,
312.

Haywood, mummies described by, 187.

Head-flattening, history of, 178-80 ; prac-
ticed in America, 180-84; Pi-of. Wilson
on, 180 ; among the Chinooks, 182 ;
among Mouud-Duilders, 183.

Headlee, Dr., cited, 75, n.

Hearths (ancient) in Ohio valley, 122.

Helena, Missouri, sun-dried bricks at, 75.

Hellwald, F. von, and copper in Mexico,
93.

Herrera on origin of Americans, 137.

Heroic period of American history, 515.

Hieroglyphics, from the mounds, 419.
of cliff-dwellers, 420 ; of Mayas, 420-

28 ; Landa's key to, 223-25.
Mexican, 429-34.

Hill, S. W., on ancient copper mines, 91.

Hindoo and Mexican analogies, 465.

Hiram and Solomon's fleet, 154.

Hitchcock, Prof. Ed., on age of Missis-
sippi delta, 128.

Hivites, ancestors of Votanites, 208-9, n.

Hot'i-Shin, report on Fusang, 148.

Holmes, W. H., explorations of, 297, 305,
317.
on Rio de la Plata, 318 ; mound-works
reported, 318 ; discoveries on San
Juan, 319.
in Mancos Canon, 320-24.

Hooker, Sir Joseph, 43.

Hopetown works, 49.

Hosea, S. M., on sacrificial mounds, 74,
n. 2.

Houses of Mound-builders, 67.

Hovenweep. ruined city of, 304; niche
stairway of, 30(5 ; cliff-house of, 307.

Howland, H. R., discoveries by, in ''Amer-
ican bottom," 43-4.

Huastecs, Maya nation, 234.

Hueman (Huematzin), Toltec astrologer
and leader, 245, 253.

Hue hue Tlapalan, ancient Nahua home,
238, 240, 248; date of migration
from, 240, 241, 244, 245, n., 458 ; lo-
cation of, 244, 518.
in Mississippi Valley, 253; not in
North-west. 253.

Huehuetan, in Chiapas. 206.

Huemac, Toltec king, 268.

Hueyxalan, Toltec station, 245.

Humboldt, William von, on Aztec lan-
guage, 486.

Humphries and Abbott's estimate of age
of Mississippi delta, 124.

Hunahpu, Quiche, hero, 222 ; exploits of,
222-3.

Hunab Ku (only god), 231.

Hunbatz, 223.

Hun Came, 222-24.

Hunchouen, 223.

542

INDEX.

Hunhunahpu, Quiche, chief, 222-3.
Hurakan, Quiche, deity, 212, 222, 226.

laia, tradition of, 499, n.

Igh, one of the first colonists of Chiapas,

20i.
Imox, one of the first colonists of Chiapas,

20i.
Inca-bone, 173.
India and Mexico, reli^ous analogies of,

Indiana mounds, 57, n. 2.

Indigenous Americans, 155.
views of writers on, 156.

Infant burial in Tennessee, 60, 66.

IngersoU, Mr., tradition of cliff-dwellers
recorded by, 302-4.

Intercalary days, 445, 455.

Interglacial race, 512-^16.

relics from Waynesville, Ohio, 126 ;
President Orton on, 126-7.

Interglacial man in New Jersey, 127-8.

Iqi-Balam, Quiche, deity, 214-15.

Irish colonists of America, 152.

Israel, lost tribes of in America, 135-6 ;
views of Duran on, 135 ; Thorowgood.
136 : L'Estrange, 136 ; Garcia, 137 ; Pin-
eda, 138; Echevarria y Veitia and
Kin<4Rborough, 143.

Isle Royal, copper mines on, 91 ; Henry
Gillman 91, n. 1; Foster on, 92-3;
Aboriginal use of copper, 92-3.

Issaquena County, Mississippi, mounds,
70 ; Anderson's Calendar Stone from, 70,

Ixtlilxochetl's Helaciones, 240, 250.

Jackson, W. H., discoveries by in the
McElmo and Mancos canons, 294.
in the Hovenweep, 305-7.

Janos river, antiquities of, 278.

Japanese and American affinities, 496.
colonization of America, 148.

Jaredites, colonists of America, 144.

Jaw-bone from Florida, Agassiz and
Count Pourtales on, 112-13.

Jewish theory of colonization, 143.

Jewish and Mexican hi8toric9l analogies,
461.

Jones, George, on Phoenician colonization
of America, 146 ; estimate of his work,
146, n. 2.

Jones, Prof. Joseph, Mound explorations
in Tennessee, 171-3 ; cranial measure-
ments by, 172.

Kabah, peculiarity of architecture at, 352.
Kamucu, Quiche national song, 217.
Kennebec valley mound, 28.
Kennon, Col., on Aleutian islands, 509.

Kentucky mound crania, 171.

Kinich-Kakmo, queen of Chichen-Itza,
400.

Kingsborough's fancied analogies, 460-
65.

Kitchens of the Mound-builders, 76.

Kitchen-middens, see Shell-heaps.

Knapp, S. O., discovery of ancient copper
mines by, 89.

Koch, Dr., discoveries of, 116-121; J. D.
Dana on, 120-21; Koch, valuable ser-
vices of, 121, n. 2.

Kuro-suvo, or Japan current, 509.

Labna, architecture of, 353.
Lake Superior copper mines, 90-92.
Lamuites, colonists of America, 144.
Landa's Alphabet, 4"io-25.

Maya days and months, 436-7.
Languages (American), multiplicity of,
190, 469 ; instability of, 493-4, n. 1.
survival of the fittest, 470.
the Maya-Quiche, 472 ; classification
of, 472 ; stability of the Maya, 473.
the oldest American, 473 ; Orozco y
Berra on, 473, 493 ; Maya-Quiche
characteristics, 474; Dr. Le Plon-
geon on, 474.
the Aztec, 479-90 ; epitome of gram-
mar, 481-85 ; affinities to Asiatic,
495-96 ; bearing on migrations, 486.
Laphara, Dr., survey of niound-works in

Wisconsin, 34-5.
Lascarbot on origin of Americans, 137.
Las Casas, on origin of Guatemalians,
228.
on flood myth, 228 ; on creation myth,
228, n. ; on Christ myth, 231.
Latham on Morton's theories, 165, n.
Lautverschiebung, 471, 488.
Leather relic from mound, 56.
Le Conte, Prof., on changes of coast

level, 504.
Legendary period of American history,

515.
Leidy, Prof. Joseph, on stone imple-
ments, 24.
L'Estrange on origin of Americans, 136.
Leroux, M., discoveries of, 284.
Le Plongeon, Dr., explorations in Yuca-
tan, 396-403 ; on Maya language, 474-
77 ; on analogies between Yucatan and
Canary Islands, 500.
Liberty, Ohio, works at, 48.
Lief, Norse discoverer of America, 153.
Lord's prayer in Maya, 479.

in Aztec, 485.
Louisiana mounds, 77-79.

Prof. C. G. Forshey on, 77; pyra-
midal mounds, 78.
Low type crania from mounds, 174.
Lund, Dr., explorations by, 116.

INDEX.

543

Lyell, Sir Charles, on remains at Santos
River, Brazil, 113 ; observations on Nat-
chez bone, 113-14 ; on age of Missis-
sippi delta, 123 ; on New Orleans skele-
ton, 123.

McElmo Canon, cliff-dwellings of, 300,
302.
square tower in, 301; triple-walled
tower of, 224.

McGuire on antiquity of Red man, 27, n.

McKinley, William, mounds described
by, 73.

Madisonville explorations, 523.

Mahucutah, Quiche progenitor, 214.

Maize, discovery of, 241.

Man, antiquity of in South America, 109-
10, 129 ; four creations of. 214.

Man's influence on nature, 110-11 ; meas-
ure of antiquity, 110 ; Martins on, 111,
n. ; Dr. Brinton on, 111 ; Dr. Meigs on
Santos River remains, 113.

Man of recent origin in America, 130 ;
Lubbock's remarks on, 130 ; Foster on,
1.30, n.

Manchester stone fort, 59.

Mancos Canon, cliff-houses of, 294, 295,
298, 299; watch-tower of, 290-97, 300;
cave fortresses of, 320-24.

Manuscripts of Mayas, 421 . Troano MS,
422.
of Mexicans, 429; Mendoza Codex,
431-33.

Maps, Aztec migration, 261-63.

Marietta mounds, 5i.

Marsh, Prof. O. C, exploration by, 87-0.

Mastodon discovered by Dr. Koch, 116-18.

Mayas, traditional origin of, chap. v. ;
earliest home, 210 ; venerable civiliza-
tion, 519 ; architecture of, 340-55 ;
sculpture, 384-403 ; compared to Egyp-
tian, 415 ; calendar of, 435-45 ; Katun
or Cycle, 439-40; Ahau Katun, 442;
intercalary days, 445 ; system adjusted
to our chronology, 443-45 ; observa-
tions of Landa, Perez, Bancroft and
Delaport on, 443-45.

Maya-Quiche languages classified, 472 ;
stability of, 473; antiquity of, 474-5.,

Maya Grammar, 477-79; Maya, Lord's
prayer in, 479.

Maya and Hebrew compared, 475.

compared to Scandinavian languages,

476.
compared to the Basque, 476; to
West African languages, 477.

Maya writing, see Hieroglyphics.

Mazatepec, Toltec station, 246.

Mecitl (or Mixi), Aztec leader, 259.

Meigs on mean of Indian cranium, 167.

Melgar on two idols near Mexico, 416 ; on
Maya language, 475.

Menominees, ' White Indians," 189.

Mexican baptism. 462-3 ; crania, 175.
Calendar, divisions of time, 446; the
Cycle, 446 ; festival of, 456 ; months,
447 ; New Year, 447.
Calendar Stone, 450 ; its interpreters,
450 ; dates furnished by, 458 ; Lunar
reckoning, 455.
Mexican language, see Aztec language.
Mexico, pyramid of, 374 ; sculpture from,
408-11 ; vases from, 410 ; vases in the
United States National Museum, 413-
415.
Miami Valley, aboriginal cemetery in, 523.
Mamisburg mound, 52.
Mica, use of by Mound-builders, 98.
Michigan mounds, 29.
Migration, the first to America, 512.

conditions favorable in North-west,

513.
Becker on, 513-14.
of the Quich6s, 215.
of the Toltecs, 244-2.51.
of the Aztecs, 259-63; of Tarascos,
261.
Migration map of Boturini, 433.
of Gemelli Carreri, 261-63, 433.
Gemelli interpreted by Ramirez, 262.
Minas Geraes, caves of. 116. '
Mississippi delta, age of, 122-24 ; estimate
by Lyell, 122 ; by Dr. Dowler, 123 ; by
Dr. Hitchcock, 123 ; by Humphries and
Abbott, 123.
Mississippi mounds, 69-70, 71.
Mitchell, Dr. A., explorations cited, 73.
Mitla, antiquities of, 361-62.
Mixteco-Zapotec languages, 479.
Miztecs, Mexican tribe, 234.
Mongol colonization of America, 151.
Monjas, Casa de, 350.
Montezuma Canon, cliff -dwellings of, 316.
Montezuma, culture-hero, 333 ; legend of
his birth, 334 ; legend concerning by
Papagoes chief, 3^5; Moniezuma II.,
Mexican emperor, 453 ; languages of
his empire, 480.
Months, Maya, 437-39.
Monosyllabism, 495.

Moq'ii towns, Becker on origin, 332 ;
name, 332 ; Lieutenant Ives' description
of, 320-30; pottery, 327; interior of
dwellings, 328.
Moqui language, Aztec traces in, 489.
Mooshahueh, Moqui town, 328.
Morgan, L. H., Pueblo theory of, 55;

Robert Clarke on, 53, n.
Mormon colonization of America, 144;

Bancroft on, 144.
Morton, Dr., classification of American
races by, 157-59 ; table of cranial meas-
urements by, 158, n. 1 ; views untena-
ble, 159-165, 516 ; measurements of
Crania Amencana classified, 161-63.
Moody, J., on Rockford Tablet, 44.
Moss, Captain, 302.
Mosaics at Mitla, 362-3.

5^4

INDEX.

Mosaic knife, 412.

Mosaic deluge, Mexican analogies with,
460.

Mound-builders, geographical distribu-
tion of works, 27 ; Mica mines of,
28 ; copper mines of, 92-94.
no tradition of, 102-3 ; Mound-build-
ers and Indians distinct, (55.
language of, 492 ; diseases of, 184.

Mound-works at St. Clair river, 30; in
British Columbia, 30 ; in Oregon, 31 ;
Bonhomme's island, 31 ; Missouri val-
ley, 31, 33; on Butte prairies, 31, n. 1 ;
in Dakota, 31, n. 2 ; in Wisconsin, 33 ;
at Davenport, 37 ; heart of country, 40 ;
St. Louis and American bottom, 41 ;
in Ohio, 48 ; at Newark, 53-55 ; in Wa-
bash valley, 57, n. 2 ; in Tennessee, 5S-
68 ; in North and South Carolina, 67 ;
in Mississippi, 67 ; in Alabama, 71 ; in
Georgia, 72, 73 ; in Missouri, 74r-77 ; in
Louisiana, 77-79 ; in Texas, 78 ; antiqui-
ty of, 101 ; abandonment, 101-5, 458-9 ;
age of vegetation on, 104; of Mancos
Canon, 294 ; in Vera Paz, 359 ; in Tehu-
antepec, 360 ; in Vera Cruz, 364.

Mound crania, condition of a measure of
antiquity, 105-6 ; typical mound skull,
166.

Mound sculptures, 187-9.

Mugeres Isla, statue from, 403.

MuUer, Max, 471.

Mummies from Peru, 186.
. from Tennessee, 187.

Mural paintings at Chichen-ltza, 401.

Nachan, " city of serpents," 205.
Nahua architecture. 359-83.

sculpture, 406-15.
Nahua Calendar, 445-459.
writers on, 445, n. 3.
analogies with calendars of Asia and
Egypt, 459.
Nahua language, see Aztec language,
ancient and modem, 480, 481, 486,

493-4, n.l.
elements of in