Prehistoric man; researches into the origin of civilization in the Old and the New world

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PREHISTORIC MAN.

VOLUME I.

tma

0

PEEHISTORIO MAN

RESEAKCHES INTO THE ORIGIN OF CIVILISATION
IN THE OLD AND THE NEW WORLD

BT

DANIEL WILSON, LL.D.

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN X7NIVERSITT OOLLBOB, TORONTO ;
AUTHOR OF THE " ARCHiBOLOOT AND FBBHIBTOBIO ANNAIiS OF BOOTLAND/* BTO.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOLUME L

Cambribgt:
MAOMILLAN AND CO.,

AND 23. HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN,

ITosrbosr.
1862.

{The HffM 0/ TrmtkUim i$ ref^r^f^l

Av-wlVOS ,^'L

Harvard College Library

Riant Colhvtlon

Ciilt at J. lii:iuIol|)li C'o<»litl«-o

uml ArililbaKI Cury Cot>liJ^o

1* c i>. 'Ji>, liiCD.

KDIKBDKQH : T. COHHTABLE,
PRIXTBB TO TBB QUBBN, AND TO THE nHIYBRSITY.

IN FOND MEMORIAL

OP A BROTHER'S LIFE-LONG SYMPATHY

IN MANY FAVOURITE RESEARCHES

THESE VOLUMES

DEPRIVED BY DEATH OF THEIR PURPOSED DEDICATION

ARE INSCRIBED WITH THE LOVED NAME OF

GEORGE WILSON, M.D. F.R.S.E.

LATE REGIUS PBOFB880B OF TECHNOLOOT IN THE UNIYEBaiTT OF EDINBUBGH
AND DIRBCrOB OF THE INDU8TBIAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND.

PREFACE.

The object aimed at in the following work is to view
Man, as far OS possible, unaffected by thoBe modifying
influences which accompany the development of nations '
and the maturity of a true historic period, in order
thereby to ascertain the sources from whence such de-
velopment and maturity proceed. These researches into
the origin of civilisation have accordingly been pursued
under the belief which influenced the author in previous
inquiries, that the investigations of the archaeologist,
when carried on in an enlightened spirit, are replete
with interest in relation to some of the most important
problems of modem science. To confine our studies to
mere antiquities is like reading by eamlle-Hght at noon-
day ; but to reject the aid of areh<eology in the progress
of science, and especially of ethnological science, is to
extinguish the lamp of the student when moat dependent
on its borrowed rays. This is impressed on the mind
with renewed force by the novel phases in which the
problems affecting man's being arc reproduced. We
are no longer permitted to discuss merely the diversities
of existing races. It seems as if the whole comprehen-
sive question of man's origin must be reopened, and
determined afresh in its relations to modem science.
To the naturalist who tunis from the study oi interior

L

viii PREFACE*

orders of life, man civilized, or even brought into close
contact with civilisation, seems an essentially artificial
product of many extraneous influences : a being " from
nature rising slow to art/' Nor has the verdict of the
philosopher invariably conflicted with the fancy of the
poet, that man devoid of all civilisation is in a state of
nature, and the true type of man primeval. Against
such an idea, however, all the higher attributes of his
nature seem to cry out Tested by every moral standard
he is found to have deteriorated far below his normal
capacities, and " the noble savage '^ proves at last but a
poet's dream.

But have we then no alternative between man plus
the artificialities of civilisation, and man minus the in-
fluential operation of moral laws which have their effi-
cient equivalents in the instincts of all other animals ;
or can we not realize even in theory an intermediate
normal condition? Such questions are replete with
interest whatever be the value of answers rendered
here to some of the difficulties they suggest. The
ethnologist does indeed study man from the same
point of view as the mere naturalist ; but to do so
to any good purpose this essential difierence between
man and all other animals must be kept in view:
that in him a being appears for the first time among
the multitude of animated organizations, subject to
natural laws as they are, but including within himself
the power of interpreting and controlling the opera-
tion of those laws; of accumulating and transmitting
experience; and, above all, of looking in upon the
workings of his own mind, and recognising as part of
his nature a system of moral government which he may

FREFACE. ix

obey or resist, though not with impunity. Our aim,
therefore, is to isolate him from extraneous influences,
and look, if possible, on man per ae ; or at least where
he can be shown to have attained maturity, exposed
only to such influences as are the offspring of his own
progress. In so far as this is possible may we hope to
rei*over some means of testing man's innate capacity,
and of determining by comparison what is common to
the race.

Where, then, is man to be thus found ? In the days *
of Herodotus, Transalpine Euro|>e was a greater mystery
to the nations on the shores of the Mediterranean than
Central Africai is to us. To the Romans of four cen
turies kter, Britain was still almost another world ; and
the great northeni hive from whence the spoilers of the
dismembered empire of the Caesars were speedily to
emerjje, was wi entirely unknown to them, that, as Dr.
Arnold has remarked in his inaugural lecture : " The
Roman colonies along the Imnks of the Rliine and the
I>anulN> looked out on the countr}' In-yond those rivers
as we l<K)k up at the stars, and actually see with our
eves a world of which we know nothinix." Nevertheless,
the eivilisatitm of the historic centres of i\\v ancient world
around the MediteiTanean was not without some in-
fluence on the ^erms of modem nations, then nursing
the hjinlih<NHl of a vigorous infaney lx*yond the Danuln?
and the Ifadtic. The shores «)f tlu* Athiutic and (lerman
oceans, and the islands of the Britisli si^as had long
before yieldtnl tribute to the Phcvnician mariner ; and as
the arelia*ologirtt and the ethnologist pursue their re-
searches, and n*store to light mem<maLs of Eun»iK**s in-
fancy and early youth, they are more frequently startlwl

X PREFAOE.

with affinities to the ancient historic nations, in lan-
guage, arts, and rites, than by the recovery of evidence
of a wholly unfamiliar past.

But it is altogether different with the New World
which Columbus revealed. Superficial students of its
monuments have indeed misinterpreted intellectual char-
acteristics pertaining to the infantile instincts common to
human thought into fancied analogies with the arts of
Eem^t : and more than one ingenious philosopher has
tS out .fiuuties with the .^ologyLd asLno-i-
cal science of the ancient East : but the western conti-
nent still stands a world apart, with a peculiar people,
and with knguages. arte, and customs essentially ite
own. To whatever source the American nations may be
traced, they had remained shut in for unnumbered cen-
turies by ocean barriers from all the influences of the
historic hemisphere. Yet there the first European ex-
plorers found man so little dissimilar to all with which
they were already familiar, that the name of Indian
originated in the beUef, retained by the great cosmo-
grapher to the last, that the American continent was no
new world, but only the eastern confines of Asia.

Such, then, is a continent where man may be studied
under circumstances which seem to furnish the best
guarantee of his independent development No reflex
light of Grecian or Roman civilisation has guided him
on his way. The great sources of religious and moral
suasion which have given form to mediaeval and modem
Europe, and so largely influenced the pohty and culture
of Asia, and even of Africa, were effectually excluded ;
and however prolonged the period of occupation of the
western hemisphere by its own American nations may

PREFACE. si

tiavc been, man is still seen there in a condition which
flec*m8 to reproduce some of the most familiar phases
ascribed to the infancy of the unhistoric world. The
records of its childhood arc not obscured, as in Europe,
by later chroniclings ; where, in every attempt to de-
cipher the traces of an earlier history, we have to spell
out a nearly obliterated palimpsest Amid the simpli-
city of its pakeography, the aphorism, by which alone
the Roman could claim to be among the world's an-
cient races^ acquires a new force : ^' antiquitas seculi,
juventus mundL* The revolutions of modem history,
and the frequent intercourse of the nineteenth cen-
tury, have indeed conjoined the western continent to
ancient Christendom ; and attracted attention to it
most frequently as an arena whereon old political sys-
tems and religious theories are reproduced and tested
anew by nations of European descent But in the six-
toenth century the absolute isolation of this ''world
apart'' was strongly felt Sir Thomas More was already
in the household of Cardinal Morton, to which he was
admitted in 1495, when the first rumours of the dis-
covery of America reached his ears ; and within twenty
years therrafter he produced his platonic commonwealth
of Utopia, an imaginary isbnd visited by Raphael Uyth>
kxlay, a companion, as he feigned, of Amerigo Ves-
pucci, from whom the wondrous narrative was derived
during a visit to Antwerp. Another century had nearly
completed its cycle since the eye of Columbus beheld
the long-expected land, when in 1590, Eldmund Spenser
crossed the Irish Channel, liearing with him the first
xhxw books of the ** Faerie Queeii^ in the introduction
to the second of which he thus defends the verisimili

xii PREFACE.

tude of the fairy-land in which the scenes of his " famous
antique history" are laid : —

" Who ever heard of th* Indian Peru ?
Or who in venturous vessel measured
The Amazon huge river, now found true ?
Or fruitf ullest Virginia who did ever view ?

Yet all these were, when no man did them know,

Yet have from wisest ages hidden been ;
And later times things more unknown shall show ;

Why then should witless man so much misween

That nothing is but that which he hath seen ?
What if within the moon's fair shining sphere ;

What if in every other star unseen,
Of other worlds he happily should hear ?
He wonder would much more ; yet such to some appear."

It was by the advice of Raleigh, his "shepherd of
the ocean," that the poet visited England with the un-
published poem ; yet it is obvious that to his fancy the
western hemisphere was stiU almost as much a world
apart, aa if the discoverers of Virginia had sailed up
the blue vault of heaven, and brought back the story of
another planet on which it had been their fortune to
alight.

Here then appears to be a point from whence it
seems possible to obtain, as it were, a paraUax of man,
already viewed in Europe's prehistoric dawn ; to look
on him as on the stars seen from Teneriffe above the
clouds ; and to test anew what essentially pertains to
him, and what has been artificially, or even acci-
dentally superadded by external circimistances. Such,
at least, has been the author's aim in turning to account
the opportunities afforded by a prolonged residence on
some of the newest sites of the New World ; and to the

FHKFACK. xui

use made of these must be mainly due whatever value
pertains to the glimpses of a remote past which the
following {)ages attempt to disclose. But though thus
far dependent on American researches, they refer no less
to the origin of man and the beginnings of his history
in the Old World than in the New. The author had
aln^ady familiarized himself with the unwritten chron-
icles of Euroi)e s infancy and youth, when unex|)ectedly
trunsplante<l among the colonists of another continent,
and within reach of alioriginal tribes of the American
forests. "The eye sees what it brings the power to
see;'' and in these he discovered o!)jects of interest on
many grounds, but chiefly from the fact that he soon
perceived he had already reidized much in relation to a
long obliterated past of Britain's and Europe's infimcy,
which was here reproduced in living reality before
his eyes. In 1853, he received the appointment to the
chair of History and English literature in University
College, Toronto, and before the year drew to a close
had commenced observations^ the results of which are
embodied in these volumes. Whatever may 1h5 their
worth, they set forth the fruits of {mtient and con-
scientious investigation, and concentrate into brief s{)ace
deductions arrived at after much laliour and research.
His vacations have afforded opportunities for witnessing
the Red Man as . he is still to be si^en l>eyond the out-
skirtH of modem civilisation, and for exploring the
buried memorials of extinct nations on older sites. He
has also twice visited Philadelphia, and minutely studied
the collections formed by the author of the Crania
Americana^ with the additions ma<le to that valuable
ethnologi(*al department of the Academy of Natural

xiv PREFACE,

Sciencea Repeated references in the following pages in-
dicate other American collections in Washington, Phila-
delphia, Boston, New York, Albany, etc., as well as those
of Canada, which have also furnished useful materials.

In carrying out his researches, the author has been
placed under many obligations to scientific friends. To
Dr. Henry, the learned Secretary of the Smithsonian
Institution at Washington; Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, the
Librarian of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia ; Dr. J. C. White, the Secretary of the Boston
Natural History Society ; Mr. Thomas Fenwick and Dr.
E. H. Davis of the American Ethnological Society ; and
the Hon. George Folsom of the Historical Society of
New York : he is specially indebted for the liberality
with which Museums and Libraries have been placed at
his conmiand. On two different visits to Philadelphia
to examine the Collection of Crania formed by Dr.
Morton, the keys of the cases were freely intrusted to
him, and some of the many liberal services rendered in
furtherance of his investigations by their experienced
curator, Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, are acknowledged in the
following pages. With equally unrestricted freedom, the
collections of the Historical Society of New York, and
the cabinets of the Natural History Society of Boston,
as well as the private collections of Dr. J. Mason War-
ren, Mr. J. H. Blake, Dr. E. H. Davi^ and others re-
ferred to, were thrown open to him ; and repeated expe-
rience confirms hinn in the belief, that in no country in
the world are public and private libraries and collections
made available to the scientific inquirer with the same
unrestricted freedom as in the United States. To J. H.
Blake, Esq. of Boston, the author is specially indebted

PREFACE. XV

for the liberality with which he has placed at his diiqiOBal
notcH of travel in Peru ; drawings of objects observeil
there ; and the valuable collection of mummieSy crania,
and Peruvian antiquities brought home by him, and re-
peatedly referred to in the following pages. To Dr. K H.
Davis, one of the authors of the A ncient Monuments of
the Mississippi Valley, he is under great obligations^
not only for access to the collections from which the
illustrations of that work were derived, but for casta and
photographs of special objects calculated to aid him in
his researchea Among his Canadian friends, he owes
special thanks to his colleague, Professor Croft^ for
carefully executed analyses of Peruvian bronzes ; to Dr.
Bovell and Dr. Hodder, for free use of their collec-
tions of Indian crania ; to Mr. Paul Kane, the author
of Wm^derings of an Artist among the Indians of
North America^ for sketches made during his travels^
as well as for information derived from recollections
of the incidents and observations of a highly-privileged
sojourner among the Indian tribes of the Hudson's Bay
territory ; and to the Hon. G. W. Allan, whose ethno-
logical collections now include the numerous objects
obtained by Mr. Kane during his wanderings. Older
friends at home, and especially Mr. T. R Johnston, the
Treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and
Mr. Rol)ert Cox, W.S., of the Edinburgh Phrenological
Socriety, have largely aide<l in renewed references to the
familiar collections of those Societies.

To the sympathy manifested in the author's n*searclK>8
by his Exci'Uency Sir Edmund W. Heail, Itart., while
Governor-General of the IVovinco, he is indebti'il for
instructions forwardeil to the \'ariouH offirerH and sufier-

xvi PREFACE.

intendents of the Indian Department, whereby he has
been able to obtain valuable statistics illustrating ques-
tions which affect the present condition and future pro-
spects of the Indians of British North America, and which
are discussed here in their relations to the main subject
of investigation.

It only remains to be added, that while the facilities
for research into the origin of civilisation and the condi-
tion of primitive races, afforded by a residence in the
New World, are great, they are accompanied by one
important drawback, in the want of adequate libraries
or books of reference, inevitable in a young colony. As,
moreover, the author has been prevented, by the impedi-
ments which the Atlantic interposes between him and
his publishers from revising the proof-sheets of the fol-
lowing pages, he must crave the intelligent forbearance
of the critic should any notable blunders escape the eye
of the press-reader ; and if, as may not improbably prove
to be the case, some of his observations have been antici-
pated or disproved in recent pubUcations, or even by the
mere lapse of time, it may be added that the MS. was in
the hands of the publishers in January 1861, and the
subsequent delay in the publication of these volumes has
originated in causes lying beyond his control.

Univbbsity Collbob, Toronto,
\2th March 1862.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

rAus

INTRODUCTION, 1

CHAPTER IL
THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW, 17

CHAPTER in.
THE PRIME\*AL OCCUPATION : SPEECH 44

CHAPTER IV.
THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION : INSTINCT, .86

CHAPTER V.
THE PROMETHEAN INSTINCT: FIRE» . 119

CHAPTER VI.
THE MARITIME INSTINCT: THE CANOE. . . 140

CHAPTER VII.
THE TEl.*HNOU)GICAL INSTINCT: TOOLS. . 178

CHAPTER VIII.
THE METALLIRCIC INSTINCT: COPPER, '.Ml

CHAITER IX

THE METALLCRCUC ARTS : ALU)Va -*84i

«>t. I. A

xviii CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.

PAGE

THE AECHITECTURAL INSTINCT : EARTHWORKS, . 316

CHAPTER XI.
THE HEREAFTER : SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS, 360

CHAPTER XIL
PROPITIATION : SACRIFICLA.L MOUNDS, .... 370

CHAPTER XIII.
COMMEMORATION : SYMBOLIC MOUNDS, ... 386

CHAPTER XIV.
PROGRESS : NATIVE CIVILISATION, 408

CHAPTER XV.
THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT : IMITATION, .... 449

;

PREHISTORIC MAIf.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

In the history of modem ages the important results
which have sprung from men merely changing their place
of habitation are not the least remarkable. The Euro-
pean transferred to America looked on all things from a
new point of view ; and though he could not divest him-
self at once, or entirely, of the traditional habita and
thoughts of the father-land, yet Europe begins to recog-
nise the value of some great social truths discovered by
the free outlook which that new world afforded. But
there are other sciences besides those of political and
social economy which may gain an acce^ion of many
important truths by the wise use of that same free oufr-
look ; and none more so than that new science which
makes man its subject, and searches earnestly into the
secret truths of his nature, the history of hie infancy and
youth, and the true attributes of his full development.
In the forests and on the prairies of America we see the
free savage in what it has been customary to call a state
of nature. We witness the same free savage brought
into contact with some of the highest phases of Europciin
civilisation ; while the inheritor of that same civilisation.

VOL. I. A

2 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

divested of its inevitable control, has been left amid the
widening inheritance of his new clearings to develop
whatever tendencies lay, dormant in the artificial Euro-
pean man. The horse, Jbraii^ported to the new world,
roams in magnificent herds over the boundless pampas ;
and the hog, restored to a state of nature, has exchanged
the grovelling degradation of the stye for the fierce
courage of the wild boar. Strange and interesting pro-
blems in natural history have there been solved for us ;
and they help to give an added interest to the question,
" What is man's natural state ? '' while they seem to offer
so^jae novel materials fitted for its solution.

" The friendly and flowing savage, who is he ?
Is he waiting for civilisation, or past it and mastering it ?"i

So asks one of the freest among the poets of the New
World, after more than three centuries of contact and
collision between the two extremes. For the problem is
a most complicated one ; and the materials for its solu-
tion have to be gathered from a complex accumulation,
whereof we know not as yet what to accept as native, or
reject as foreign, to the fully developed man.

In Europe we study man only as he has been moulded
by a thousand external circumstances, foreign to his
blood, his stock, or the social conditions of his being.
The arts and intellectual civilisation, bom at the very
dawn of history in the great river-valley of Egypt, give
form to the social life of England in her nineteenth
century. The Divine law given forth from the light-
nings of Sinai, and the faith and morals nurtured among
the hillft of Judah, while yet the British Isles were
savage-haunted wastes ; the intellect of Greece, tho
miUtary prowess of Rome, with the phases of mediaeval
Christendom and enfranchised modem Europe, have all

* Leaves of QroM. By Walt. Whitman.

L] INTKODi'CTION. 3

inwoven themselves into the warp and woof of the
Saxon Englisliman and the GaUic Frenchman. Celt and
Fmnk, Roman, Breton, and Saracen, Haxon, Dane, and
Norman, have intermingled their blood, their institutions,
their physical, moral, and intellectual being; till in the
European of the nineteenth century it becomes a curious
question how much pei-tains to the man, and how much
to this strange development we term ci\'ilisation, of
which he U in part the author and in part the offspring ?
In vain we strive to detach tlie European man from
elements foreign to him, that we may look on him as he
is or was by nature ; for he only exists for us as the
product of all those multifiirious elements which have
accumulated aJong the track by which the generations of
nineteen centuries have swept " into the younger day."
The very serf of the Kussian stejipea cannot grow freely,
as his nomade brother of Asia does ; but must don the
unfamiliar fashions of the Fi'ank, as strange to him as
the armour of Saul upon the youthful Ephrathite. Yet
grow he must in some way, in that seething caldron of
European eivilisatiou, with its ceaseless change.

Is, then, civilisation natural to man, or is it only a
habit or condition artificially superinduced, and as foreign
. to hm natui-e as the bit and bridle to the horse, or the
truck-cart to the wild ass of the desert 1 Such questions
involve the whole ethnologicid problem reopened by
Lamarck, Agassiz, Dai"win, and others. Whence is maul
What are his antecedents ? What — witlun the compass
of this tcn-estrial arena, with wliich nlone science deals,
— are his future destinies ? Does civilisation move only
through limited cycles, repeating in new centuries the
woi-k of the old ; attaining, under some vaiying phase,
but to the same maximum of our imperfect humanity,
and then, like the wandering comet, returning from thi;
Ijuming Bpli'ndom' of its perihelion back to night ?

4 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

To some of those profoundly interesting questions the
social life alike of the forests and the clearings of the
New World seems to offer fresh replies. There at least
old problems are being wrought out under entirely new
conditions. The very elements of Britain's greatness
seem to lie in her slow maturity, in her progressive col-
lision with races only a little in advance of herself, in the
natural transition through all the stages from infancy to
vigorous manhood. But that done, the old Englander
becomes the New Englander ; starts from his matured
vantage-ground on a fresh career, and displaces the
American red-man by the American white-man, the free
product of the great past and the great present.

The history of civilisation is, in one sense at least, an
inquiry into the development of society, and the progres-
sive growth of man, in his social condition, towards an
ideal perfection of civil life. In the calm, ever-present
eye of God, each whole race is a unit. To the individual
man

*' The drift of the Maker is dark, an Isia hid by the veil."

It would have been poor consolation to the Saxon sub-
jects of the Conqueror to learn that coming generations
should look back on the Norman William as the founder .
of England's greatness and England's freedom. But
from the suflferings of the individual have sprung the
triumphs of the race, alike in Old and New England ;
though still, in both, the march of civilisation is over the
graves of many victims that perish by the way. Chris-
tianity indeed lifts for us the veil of Isis, tells of the
Kighter of all the wrongs of ages ; the Divine one, to
whom man is no scientific abstraction of races, but each
individual the offered heir of an inheritance the worth
of which will make life's greatest sufferings lighter than
forgotten infant-tears. Science cannot supersede the

I.] lyTRODUCTION. 5

work of tlic great Consoler ; but in searching into those
lesser truths with which alone it has to deal, it may
proiH» and iK*er ho|)efully, if still darkly, gladdened by
the faith which rests on *' the evidence of things not
S4^ii.*' Lookinc^, then, ineanwliile, on the race as a unit :
for mcKleni £uro|H!i no less than for the young aspiring
ronnnunities of the New World, this is the great pro-
blem. But hith(frto we have Ik'cu looking, as it were,
fo>m within on the system of which we form a part ;
piuging Eurojxi as our world, and the product of
Eun>i>es jMist, or, at most, of the worlds historic past, as
though it were the absolute ethnic universe ; while in
H'ality we can no more accurately determine the orbit of
man*s 8<x*i;J course and ethnic destiny from such a view, "
than we can judge of the external form of a building
while still within its walls.

While the siuiguine students of social science are gaz-
ing into tliat cloud-land of their visible horizon, wherein.
Its they fancy, they can already discern the dawn of a
golden age of |R»rfected subjection of physical causes to
the higher niond nature of man, there lies beliind us a
long-tnxlden tra<-k, in wliich are still visible many un-
heedeil footprints of the i>ast pointing towanls the siime
goal. Out of what seemingly insignificant causes, lying
far lM*hind the times of Komaniztnl Hritons or Piigan
Saxons, has the social life of the Hritisli Islands sprung I
The simplest germs of their allophylian arts War, it
may l>e, just such a Halation to their present civilisation,
as the unsightly grub cUh's to the |M»rfe<'ted Iwauty of
wingi*d life. But prehistoric resi»arches are slow to com-
nund thems4*lves to the; constTvative Briton, He can
follow the geologist now, with honest faith, fiur behind
till' birth of history into the pnitozoic dawn, or the azoic
night ; but with the ethnologist he insists on ]>ausing
when* alone he feels a (inn foothold, among the R<»manR

G PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

of the Christian era. He is content still, from within,
and in one of its narrow aisles, to determine the form and
proportions of the vast but incompleted structure ; and
by what he can see from thence to ascertain its future
compass and final plan.

It was with a strange and fascinating pleasure that,
after having striven to resuscitate the AUophylian of
Britain's prehistoric ages, by means of his buried arts, I
found myself face to face with the aborigines of the New
World. Much that had become familiar to me in fancy,
as pertaining to a long obliterated past, was here the
living present ; while around me, in every stage of transi-
tion, lay the phases of savage and civilized life. The
nature of the forest, the art of the city ; the God-made
coimtry, the man-made town ; each in the very process
of change, extinction, and re-creation. Here, then, was
a new field for the study of civilisation and all that it
involves. The wild beast is in its native state, and has-
tens, when relieved from artificial constraints, to return
to the forest wilds as to its natural condition. The wild
forest-man, — is he too in his natural condition ? for
Europe's sons have, for upwards of three centuries, been
levelling his forests, and planting their civilisation on the
clearings, yet he accepts not their civilisation as a higher
goal for him. He, at least, thinks that the white man
and the red are of diverse natures ; that the city and the
cultivated field are for the one, but the wild forest and
the free chase for the other. He does not envy the white
man, he only wonders at him as a being of a different
nature. " Broken Arm," the Chief of the Crees, receiv-
ing the traveller Paul Kane and his party into his lodge,
at their encampment in the valley of the Saskatchewan
River, told him the following tradition of the tribe : —
One of the' Crees became a Christian. He was a very
good man, and did what • was right ; and when he died

INTIlObUVriON.

Le was tiikon up to the white man's heaviai, where every-
thing was very btaiitiful. All wei-e happy amongst their
friends and rektives who had gone before them ; liiit the
Indian could not share their joy, for everj'thing was
stnmge to him. He met none of the spirits of his iuieee-
tors to welcome him ; no hunting nor fishing, nor any
of those joya in which he was wont to dehght. Then
the Great Manitou called him, and asked him why he
was joyless in His beautiful heaven ; and the IniUan re-
plied that he sighed for the company of the spirits of his
own people. So the Great Manitou told hira that he
could not send him to the Indian heaven, aa he had,
wliilst on earth, chosen this one ; but as he had been a
very good man, he would send him back to earth again.
The Indian does not even believe in the superiority of
the white man. The difference between them is only
such as he discerns between the sociiU, constructive beaver,
and the soHtaiy, cunning fox. The Great Spirit im-
planted in each his pecuhar faculties ; why should the
one covet the nature of the other ? Hence one of the
great elements of the unhopeful Indian future. The
progress of the white man offers even less incentive to
hia ambition than the wary cunning of the fox, or the
architectural instincts of the beaver. He, at least, does
not overlook, in his sylvan philosophy, that feature in
the physical historj- of mankind, which Agassiz com-
plains of having been entirely neglected by those who
have studied the subject, viz., the natural relations be-
tween the different types of man, and the animals and
plants inhabiting the same regions. The American
philosopher has wi-ought out, as his own scientific creed,
the homely faith of the forest Indian. " The coincidence
Iffitween the circumscription of the races of man, and the
natural Hmita of dilferont zoological provinces, eharac-
terizcd by pecidiar distuiet 8i)eeics of animalr^, is one of

8 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

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 faU 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 modi-
fied by the same laws as that of animals, and that any
general results obtained from the animal kingdom
regarding the organic differences of its various types,
must also apply to man/'^

We call this western hemisphere the New World, and
fancy that, in its savage Indians, whom we designate
Aborigines, we are looking on a primitive condition of
life. But the Indian of the American wilds is no more
primeval than his forests. Beneath the roots of their
oldest giants lie chronicled the memorials of older phases
of a native civilisation ; and while the naturalists of this
continent dwell with peculiar interest on the persistency
of a common type, and of specific and almost instinctive
habits throughout all its widely scattered tribes, they
have been studying only the temporary supplanter of
nations strange to us as the generations of extinct life in
geological periods elder than our own.

In that old East, to which, nevertheless, science as
well as revelation still points as the cradle-land of the
human family, vast areas exist where the physical
characteristics of the earth's surface seem to stamp with
unprogressive endurance the inheritors of the soil We
owe to the Asiatic Researches of Humboldt a clear
understanding of the physical elements which have so
materially influenced the history and progress of that
ancient continent. Along the shores of the Indian
Ocean and the Levant, and stretching from the Persian

* " Natural Provinces of the Animal World," etc., Types of Mankind, p. 75.

1.] INTIiODUCTlON. 9

Uulf into the fertile valleys of the Euphrates and the
Tigriis an» still found the seats of ancient civilisation and
human pmgress cm»xistent with the earliest dawTi of
man s hirttor}\ But beyond these lies the elevated table-
land of Centnd Asia, stretching away northward, and
{xmring its waters into inland seas, or tlirecting their
uncivilizing coui^*s into the frozen waters of the Arctic
cin-le. Abrupt mountain-chains subdivide this elevated
plateau into regions which have been for unrecorded ages
the great hives of wild pastoral tribes, manifesting appa-
n*ntly no intrusion of civilizing arts or settled social
habitjs on their rude nomade life ; until, compelled by
unknown c^iuses to overflow, they have poured southward
over the seats of primitive Asiatic civilisiition, or west-
ward into the younger continent of EurojHj ; as, also,
eastwanl towards the stnuts that present such obvious
facilities for migration to a new continent ; and there,
subjected to novel influences, a change of manners and
new modes of life have been the resiUta

The mt>untain*chains wliich enclose and subdivide the
j^*at tabU»-land of Asia, and stretch westwanl into Europe,
have manifestly exercised an imjtortant influence on the
distribution of the entire fauna of the two continents,
including man himsel£ A remarkable simplicity of
structure is iliscemible in the ammgement of the con-
tinuous lines of greatest elevation, coinciding with such
traces as are recovenible of the routes pursued by succes-
sive waves of |K)pulatiou which have flowed fnim Asia to
Eun>}>e ; and also indicating the eastern route by which
a simihir overil<)W would l>e guided towards the Okhotsk
8ea, and the outlying groujis of volcanic islirnds which
stntch away continuously towanls the Kamschatkau
|H:nin.suL'i, and the Aleutian Island-<*luun, one supiH)sod
:;nd prulxd»le route of migration to the Americmi con-
tinent* The Altai, the Thian shau, and the Kuen-luu.

10 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

constitute continuous lines of abrupt elevation that ap-
pear to have served as natural tracks, within the limits
of which the nomade races were urged onward by as
natural a law as the river is borne seaward in its channel,
so long as the overflow of the unfailing fountain presses
behind.

But, besides the great table-land of Central Asia, there
is also the lesser table-land of Syria and the Arabian
peninsula. From the wandering hordes of the great
Asiatic steppes have como the Huns, the Magyars, and
the Turks, as well as a considerable portion of the Bul-
garians of modern Europe. But the sterile peninsula of
Arabia^ and its wild desert nomades, have given birth to
the germs of the most influential moral revolutions on
mankind : the Hebrew monotheism, with the ampler and
nobler system begotten by it in the fulness of time ; and
also that Mohammedanism which taught the Ottoman
Turk the way to conquest, and stimulated the Semitic
Saracen to an intellectual progress which revolutionized
mediaeval Europe. Yet the capacity for civilisation of the
Magyar or Turk, when transferred to new physical con-
ditions, and subjected to higher moral and intellectual
influences, or the wondrous intellectual vigour of the
Arab of Bagdad or Cordova, aflfords no scale by which to
gauge the immobility of the Tartar on his native steppe,
or the Arab in his desert wilderness. Without agricul-
ture or any idea of property in land, destitute of the
very rudiments of architecture, knowing no written law
or any form of government save the patriarchal expan-
sion to the tribe of the primitive family ties : we can
discern no change or progress in the wild nomade, though
we trace him back for three thousand years. Even the
numerical progression is so partial and intermittent, that
had we no other knowledge to guide us, it would be as
easy to bcheve that these nomades had wandered over

I] ISTHODUCTION. \\

thi*ir (It'scrt liomes for thirty thousand as for three thou
siind yciirs. Mignitory offshoots of the hordes of Central
Asia, and of the wanderers of the Arabian dessert, have
gone forth to prove the capacity for progress of the least
progressive races ; but the great body t^uries still in the
wilderness and on the steppe, to prove wluit an enduring
ca|Ki(*ity man also has to live as a mere gregarious niem-
lier of the wild fauna of the waste.

The Indian of the New World, whencesoever he derived
his origin, presi*nts to us just such a type of unprogres-
sive life as the wild nomades of the Asiatic steppe. The
lii't^l-Indian of the forest of the North-West exhibits no
change from his precursors of the fifteenth century ; and
for aught tluit appears in him of a capacity for develop-
ment, the forest of the Ameriam ccmtinent may liave
»lieltere<l the wild hunting and warring tribes of Indians,
ju.Ht as it lias sheltered mid |)astured its wild herds of
buffalos, for countless centuries since the continent n)8e
fnau \\» ocean IhhL That he is no recent intruder is
indisputably proveil alike by physical and intellectual
evidence. On any theory of human origin, the bh^ndcnl
gnulations of Americas widely diversitied, indigenouii
races, <leniand a lengthened p<*riod for their development;
and iH|ually, on any theory of the origin of languages,
must time l>e prolonged to a<lmit of the mult iplic;it ion of
mutually unintelligible dialects and tonguc*s in the New
WurliL It is estimatctl that tlu^re are nearly six hun-
dn^l languages, and dijdects iiiaturtMl into inde)M*!ident
t4>ngues, in EurojH.' ; the known origin and growth of
some of which may supply a standard whcn^by t4) gauge
the time which such linguistic multiplieatitms of tongues
imply. I>ut the languages of the Amcriraii ct>ntinent«
have Xwmw estimated t4> exceed twelve hundn*<l and sixty :
«'lalNinite, highly infleetcMl, and |N*<uliar in strueture ;
dem^uiding centuries for their tltvelopmeiit, but at th<*

1 2 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

same time singularly suggestive of centuries of nomadc
isolation : of a savage condition of society, multiplying
petty tribes, and fostering the tendency of separated
dialects to become mutually unintelligible. Of the gram-
mar of the Lenni-Lenap^ Indians, Duponceau remarks :
" It exhibits a language entirely the work of the children
of nature, unaided by our arts and sciences, and, what
is most remarkable, ignorant of the art of writing. Its
forms are rich, regular, and methodical, closely following
the analogy of the ideas which they are intended to ex-
press ; compounded, but not confused ; occasionally ellip-
tical in their mode of expression, but not more so than
the languages of Europe, and much less so than those of
a large group of nations on the eastern coast of Asia.
The terminations of their verbs, expressive of number,
person, time, and other modifications of action and ^hs-
sion, while they are richer in their extension than those
of the Latin and Greek, which we call emphatically the
learned languages, appear to have been formed on a
similar but enlarged model, without other aid than that
which was afforded by nature operating upon the intel-
lectual faculties of man."^ At the same time it is no
less important to note, along with a highly elaborate
structure, the limited range of vocabulary in many of the
American languages. These characteristics, taken along
with their peculiar holophrastic power of inflecting com-
plex word-sentences, so as to express by their means
delicate shades of meaning, exhibit the phenomena of
human speech in some of their most remarkable phases.
But the range of the vocabularies furnishes a true gauge
of the intellectual development of the Indian : incap-
able of abstract idealism, realizing few, if any, generic
relations, and multiplying his words by comparisons and
descriptive compounds.

* American Philosophical TransactionSf N. S. vol. iii. p. 248,

L] INTRODrCTloy. 1 3

To whatever cause we attribute such ph(»iioinona, much
is gaiudl hy l)eing ahle to study them aj»art from the
complex derivative elements which trammel the study of
EuroiH*an pliihdogy. Assuming the unity of the human
race, not in the ambiguous sense of a common typical '
structure, but literally, as the descendants of one primid
jMiir : in the primitive scattering of infant nations, the
Mongol and the American went ejistward, while the Indo-
£un){>ean begim his still uncompleted wanderings towards
the far west The ]^Iongol and the Indo-European bive
repeatinlly met and mingleiL They now share, une(|ually,
the Indian |>eninsula and the continent of Europe. But
the American and the In<lo-European only met after an
inter\'al measurable by thoussmds of years, coming from
opposite directions, and liaving made the circuit of the
glol>e.

The Red Man, it thus appears, is among the ancients
of the eartlt How old he may l)e it is im|KXssible to
determine; but among one Americ4in 8ih<x>l of ethnolo-
gistis no historical antiquity is sutiicient for him. The
contributions of the New World to the evidences of
mans antitjuity haive Ik^cu of a singidarly startling
nature. The island of (fua<hdou[H', one of the l-icsser
Antilhns discovered by Columbus in 1403, funush(ul the
first exiimples of fossil man, and of his works of art, em-
IxHldetl in the solid rock. Thcv sch^uumI to the wonder-
injr naturalist to upset all his pnH*onceive<l ideas of the
origin of the human nue ; but later investigations have
greatly <liminished the wouiler. The i*ock proves to Iw
a mmlem concretionary limestone, of common ft»nnation
along the tropical coasts from the <lctritus of corals and
shells. The skeletons thems^'lves an» probiibly by no
UKMUH ancient, even a<*cording to the reckoning of
American histi>ry ; though justly valueil amcuig the
<;cf)lo^riJ tn>asun*H Utth of the Ilritish Mus4*um and the

14 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Jardin des Plantes. The Academy of Sciences of Phila-
delphia treasures a fossil fragment of disputed antiquity,
the OS innominatum of a human skeleton, found beneath
the skeletons of the megalonyx and other fossil mammals.
Dr. Lund, the Danish naturalist, has described fossil
human bones, bearing, as he believed, marks of geolo-
gical antiquity, found, along with many extinct mam-
mals, in the calcareous caves of Brazil. But since his
discoveries were recorded, European geologists have be-
come familiar with similar phenomena, whatever be the
ultimate solution of the difficulties they create.

From those, and other discoveries of a like kind, this
at least becomes apparent to us, that in the New World,
as in the Old, the closing epoch of geology must be turned
to for the initial chapters alike of archaeology and ethno-
logy. According to geological reckoning, much of the
American continent has but recently emerged from the
ocean. Among the organic remains of our Canadian
post-tertiary deposits are found the Phoca, Bakena, and
other existing marine mammals and fishes, along with
the Elephas primigenius, the Mastodon Ohiotictis and
other long-extinct species ; thus proving that the latter
belong to that period in which our planet was passing
through its very latest transitional stage, and the New
World, as well as the Old, was undergoing its final pre-
paration prior to its occupation by man. To the geo-
logist who deals with phenomena of the most gigan-
tic character, this post-tertiary period, mingling the
bones of strangest preadamite giants with contemporary
traces of familiar life, is apt to appear of very inferiw
interest. But to the archaeologist and ethnologist its
records have a profounder significance. Looking on the
fossil human skeleton of the Guadaloupe limestone in
the Museums of London and Paris, — the first examples
of the bones of man in a fossil state, — we cannot fail to

I.] INTRODUCTION, 15

be impressed with, the feeling that, judged of by such
remains, the gradation in form between man and other
animals is such as to present no very important contrast
to the uninstructed eye. Modern, to all appearance,
those rock-embedded skeletons are ; but they lessen our
increduhty as to older traces of fossil human bones
mingling with those of the extinct mammals of the drift,
and present both alike as sharers in a common sepulchre.
But the novel phenomenon of fossil human bones is
the pregnant index of the mightiest change which has
transpired upon our planet since first it became the
theatre of life. Genera and species have come into being,
multiplied through countless ages, and then given place
to others. But now, for the first time, there appears
among the fossil relics of former existence the traces of
that latest creation, when God introduced into earth's
varied life a reasonable soul, the heir of immortality.
That latest creation, man, with his beginning constituting
the oldest conceivable range of historical antiquity, en-
tered on the occupation of this New World in centuries
which stretch backward, as we strive to explore them,
towards such beginnings of time. His early history lies
buried among the treasures of oblivion, for it is not yet
four centuries since the Red man and his westeln world
were made known to us ; and he still exists as he did
then, a being apart from all that specially distinguishes
either the cultivated or the uncultured man of Europe.
His continent too, has become the stage whereon are
being tested great problems in social science, in poUtics,
and in ethnology. Here the civilized man and the savage
have been brought face to face, and have striven to
coalesce, to share together the bounties of nature and
art, to prove that God " giveth to all life, and breath,
and all things ; and hath made of one blood all nations
of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath

16 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

(letennined the times before appoiiit(id, and the bounds
of their habitation." Here, too, the black man and the
red, whose destinies seemed to separate them wide as the
world's hemispheres, have been brought together to try
whether the Africaa is more enduring than the Amen-
can even on his own soil ; to try for us, also, as could
no otherwise be tried, questions of amalgamation and
hybridity, of development and perpetuity of varieties of
a dominant, a savage, and a servile race. In all ways :
in its recoverable past, in its comprehensible present, in
its conceivable future, the New World is a great mystery ;
and even glimpses into its hidden truths reflect some
clearer light on secrets of the older world.

n.] THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. 17

CHAPTER II.

THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW.

The contrast which exists, in a thousand ways, be-
tween the Old World and the New, cannot be described
Words may picture the manifold associations entwined
with every historic scene, but they cannot awaken the
spirit that steals over the least thoughtful mind which
has been nurtured amid the inspirations of a landscape
vital with the memories of his country's history, or
haunted with the poetry of its legends and songs.
Neither can words convey to the old dweller amid
Europe's thousandfold associations and inherited ideas,
the strange sense of freedom that stirs the blood in
the New World's clearings, where there is nothing to
eflface, to undo, to desecrate. The very forests of the
New World have nothing sacred or venerable about
them. The consecrating touch of time is rarely trace-
able on the tall crowded trunks that struggle upwards
to catch the sunshine on their spare topmost boughs.
They seem made for the woodman and the lumberer's
axe ; and the freshest wanderer from the silvan haunts
of England sees without a pang the leafy monarchs
of the primeval forest bow before their stroke. There
is even an exulting sense of triumph as the lofty pine
crashes through the dry branches of the wintry forest,
and lays prone the stately stem. The mind is in a
new atmosphere no less than the body. All old motives

VOL. I. B

18 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

and impulses have suffered a change. It is indeed a
new world, and the contrast between the Old World
and the New must be felt to be fully understood.

Much that awaits the world's future is to be bom of
this fresh freedom, hewn out of America's forest wastes ;
but it is not to be forgotten that along with this the
associations of the Old World still assert their hold on •
the new settler. In spite of himself, the American, even
on his annual Independence-day, speaks of Old England
as " home." Under the yews of its ancient grave-yards
his fathers sleep ; around its wild ruins linger the storied
memories of his past ; and its common law is the code
of his civil wellbeing. He, too, is the child of the past,
and the Old World as well as the New has helped to
make him what he is. Ere we attempt to unravel the
mysteries of both hemispheres in relation to their pre-
historic centuries, let us try to picture some of the
strange elements that render so diverse two separate
spots of our common mother-earth : to contrast the
present before attempting to compare their past.

Standing on the vantage-ground of Europe's old his-
toric soil, the student of antiquity seems to lay hold on
the last link of an unbroken chain stretching away into
the remote and mysterious centuries that lie behind him.
In that insular microcosm of Britain, he finds on every
hand an epitome of the whole, and can select for his
special purpose spots rich in their connected series of
pregnant disclosures of the past. And singularly fas-
cinating is it to linger over such favourite haunts of the
memories of other times, and trace out the footprints of
long-forgotten ages, following the trail until it is lost
amid the vestiges of preadamite life ; fascinating is it to
dwell on any scene of history, and feel there that the
past is present to the mind. Five years of colonial life
ha<l passed over me, busily and pleasantly occupied in

II.] THE OLD WORLD AXD THK NEW, 19

the uDBtoricd capital of Upper Canada, when I first
visite<l Quel>ec, and traced out the scenes of Wolfe s and
Montcalm's last days, and the older haunts of la Nouvelle
France under the viregerents of its Bourbon kings. It
was like the recovery of a lost sense, the revival of a
long-forgotten delight. But what arc all the heart
stirring associations of Quebec when placed alongside of
the memories clustered around some favourite spots, or
the strange associations with ages beyond the reach of
memory which add an interest to other scenes ? Take,
for example, the famous Kent's Hole of Torlxiy. That
well-known Devonshire cavern is a huge chasm some
six hundred feet in length, wliich has proved the most
productive ossiferous cave in England. Some of the
rhoici«t specimens of extinct camivora, the Unms spe-
liFujf, the Machatrodtis latidens, etc., now enriching the
geological galleries of the Briti.sh Museum, were pro-
cured from I)eneath its stahigmitic paving, along with
bones of the fossU elephant, rhinoceros, and other ni(?mo-
rials of pnuulamite times : when the Itritish isles were
still a prolongation of the neighlx>uring continent, imd
the seas had not yet made of their inhabitants Virgils

** Peniiiu toil) <livisos orbe EhUuinoc**

But SO far Kent's Hole differs in no very essential |H)int
from the ossiferous caves of Brazil. Its skeletons are
the rvlii^ of a world of life which, for the most jKirt,
came t^> an end lx»fore our ra<*e had its iK'ginning ; yet
t4» the geologist they are among the most uitKlern of
organi<* remains, and have lost their chief inten»st sinrc
tin* late lK*an of WeslminsttT nnul his recmitation of
till? RelifjfiiiB DilurianfF : so relative a thing is anti-
quity to man with his own span of threescon* years and
ten. But Kent's Hole has other diwlosun^s not h»ss in-
t4*reHtiiig to us ; for the same stalaginitie inenistatioipi

20 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

had enclosed memorials of primitive art of the British
Troglodyte, belonging to a period when the precursors
of Watt and Stevenson had not yet acquired the rudi-
ments of metallurgic arts, or even the knowledge of
metals, but employed their constructive instinct on bone
or flint, and fashioned clay into hand-made pottery as
rude as any gathered on the sites of Indian wigwams in
the Canadian clearings. Thus linking together the last
preadamite and the first of human periods, the chrono-
metry of the Devonshire cavern descends by a regular
gradation to modem centuries. Situated at a peculiarly
attractive spot on the southern coast, Kent's Hole ap-
pears to have been a favourite haimt of England's ^er^
naturce during a long transition between the geological
period of the drift and the primeval era of the archaeo-
logist, when it became a scarcely less favourite resort of
man. Succeeding to rudest primitive weapons and im-
plements of flint and bone, come the more ingenious
fictile ware of Celtic times ; the artistic pottery of the
Koman of the second and third centuries ; the iron spear-
heads and other products of the Saxon artificer of the
sixth and subsequent centuries ; until at length, turning
to the lettered memorials of more recent times graven
on the cavern walls, we trace out from among those of
various dates this simple inscription — "w. hodges of
IRELAND, 1688." For we are on historic ground. In a
mild autumnal noon, on the 5th of November 1688, the
Dutch fleet, sailing under the genial southern breeze,
which so opportunely sprang up to the discomfiture of
Dr. Burnet's predestinarian doubts, roimded the lofty
cape of Berry Head, and cast anchor in the harbour of
Torbay. The spot where William of Orange landed is
still a just object of interest ; and so, too, in its own
degree, is that record of some protestant Irish follower
of the Prince, who, straying into Kent's Hole Cave, left

II.J THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. 21

there the graven memorial of his presence at so momen-
tous a time. " Since WiUiam looked on that harbour/'
writes Macaulay, ** its aspect has greatly changed. The
amphitheatre which surrounils the spacious basin now
exhibits evcrj'where the signs of prosperity and civilisa-
tion. At the north-east extremity has sprung up a great
watering-phice, to which strangers are attracted from the
most remote parts of the island by the Italian softness
of the air ; for in that climate the myrtle flourishes un-
sheltereiU and even the winter is milder than the North-
umbrian April. The inhabitants are about ten thousand
in number. The new*ly-built churches and chapels, the
baths and libraries, the hotels and public gardens, the
infirmary and the museum, the white streets, rising ter-
race above terrace, the gay villas peeping from the midst
of shrublieries and flower-l)edK, present a spectacle widely
difli»n»nt from any that, in the seventeenth century, Elng-
lan«l could show. But Torlmy, when the Dutch fleet
r4ist anchor there, was known only as a haven where
ships sometimes took refuge from the tem{)ests of the
Athintic. Its quiet shores were undisturlxnl by the
Imstle of either commen'e or pleasure ; and the huts of
pl«mghmen and fishennen were thinly scattennl over
wliat is now the site of crowcb^^l marts and of luxurious
(Mivilions." Thus it is amid the storied haunts of the
Old World. L<M>king down here into one of its little
t»<ldies, we catch a glim|)se of the unresting stream of
Time ; and tracing it upwanl by the historic memorials
along its iKinks, as we leave the last of these behind us,
we find them to |>ertain to the same mighty river which
fliws continuously from that mysterious jwist, teeming
with the p(d2Pont4>logical organiziitions of ages seemingly
too countless for the puny re<'koning» of man.

America has her ossiferous cavenis, with their mum-
mie<l inheritors : but onlv on the historic sites of the

22 PRE HISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

Old World can we look for such a curious epitome of
the past as is thus presented to us in that narrow inden-
tation of the English Channel Or let us pause again
over one other and not less familiar scene. When the
lamented Hugh Miller, in that last work of his pen, the
Testimony of the Rocks, aims at reproducing before the
mental eye the actual submergence of man's antediluvian
world, he places the reader on the top of Arthur's Seat,
bids him watch, in fancy, the encroaching ocean-tide
reach its summit, then gather till the highest peaks of
the Pentlands, and then the still visible crest of Ben
Lomond, successively disappear : and the drifting ark
floats away, through a seemingly shoreless sea, towards
the unsubmerged height of the distant Ben Nevis. It is
a scene which has made many geologists ; and on which
the eyes of the poet, the historian, and the philosopher
gaze with kindred rapture. On the slopes of that pic-
turesque hill, from which the geologist assumes his
diluvial observer to look forth, have been dug up, in
very recent years, the stone implements and pottery of
Britain's primeval human era, and the beautiful leaf-
shaped swords, and other specimens of bronze workman-
ship, the artistic products of Britain's infantile metal-
lurgic arts. In the valley below he the Rood Well, the
ruined Abbey, and the Palace of Holjnrood, pregnant
with a thousand scenes of historic romance ; and in the
long picturesque thoroughfare which climbs toward the
height crowned by the ancient castle of Edinburgh —
still bearing on its summit the little oratory of the
Saxon princess, St. Margaret, nearly coeval with the
Norman Conquest ; — may be seen the Roman sculptures
of Severus and his Empress Julia, separated by an
inscription of later times, borrowed fix)m Gutenberg's
first Mentz Bible, of i 45 5.

Looking abroad over the same landscape towai'ds Ben

IL] TIIK OLD WORLD AND THE NEW, 23

Lomond's lofty summit, but with other eyes than those
of the geologist, the ol)server catches, on a clear day, the
distant ramparts of Stirling Castle, with the silver links
of the Forth winding tlirough the broad level carse
lietween. And on no riclier historic landscape did eye
<?ver gaze. Far 1)ack, in distant prehistoric ages— as
modem discoveries have disclosed to us, — the allophylian
savage pursueil there the gigantic cetacean monsters of
the deep, armed with his mile lance of deer's horn, and
his harpoon tip[>ed with flint. The Koman only saw a
very modem generation compared with that primeviU
Caledonian fisherman, whose harpoon — found Ix^side the
stranded whale at the foot of the Gnimpians, which no
tide has hived for three thoussind years,— is now pre-
servetl, with the l>ones of the long-strandeil wliale, in
the museum of Edinburgh University. Time had ^Touglit
his silent changes on that si-rne. The 1)ed of the broad
t^tujuy liad been slowly upheaved, until it lK»came the
alluviid carse-land which now stretches its fertile fiehUi
U^tween the Campsie and the Ochil hills ; where, in the
first century of our era (a.d. 84), Agricola led the Roman
legions across the fonls of the Forth, to the camp at
Anloch, and the famcnl Imttle-field of Mons Grampius.
The flint arrowhead and the stone Imttle-axeof primeval
timoA, as well as the horn lance and haqKxHi, have l>een
turned up on the Carse of Stirling, and many an older
hero tlian the Cahnlonian Galgacus may have thei>3 done
iletfds of valour which were not always unsung ; but for
us that yi*ar, a.d. 84, marks, as it wens the Imptism
of bhxxl which consecrateil the s<rene ti) gallant ileeds
of anus.

Ami so, the eye of the favoureil onlooker, nuiging over
that level carse hind, jMiletl in with its gnmd fringe of
hills, leaves U^liind the «>ld s(*c*ne.s of Roman i^mqui'st,
tilt* Hubject Ihimnonii of Ptolemy s times, and tiie mythi<'

24 FREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

warfare of Picts with Scots, in the dim dawn of later
centuries ; tiQ it rests once more on the authentic frag-
ment of Cambuskenneth Abbey, founded by David i. in
1147, and then on to the thirteenth century, where once
more it revels in the rich succession of historical memo-
ries. There, beyond Cambuskenneth Tower, is the Field
of Stirling Bridge, where the army of the English
Edward, under Warenne and Surrey, was utterly routed
by Wallace with an inferior force ; and there the Field
of Falkirk, where, in the following year, Edward was the
victor, at the head of eighty-seven thousand men. There,
too, lies the world-famous Field of Bannockbum, where,
in the succeeding century, the Bruce was victor over
another Edward ; the Field of Stirling, where, in the
fifteenth centuiy, James iii. perished : his own son, the
chivalrous James of Flodden, among the rebellious vic-
tors. The following centuries have each their battle-
field, haimting the same glorious landscape with the
memories of other times : Montrose's last victory, in his
biilUant campaign on behalf of the descendants of those
Scottish Jameses in 1645 ; and Prince Charles Edward's
bootless triumph a century thereafter, when, on the old
Field of Falkirk, in 1746, fortune gleamed, for the last
time, a parting smile on the fallen Stuarts.

Those only who have dwelt amid scenes without a
history can fully appreciate the unconscious influences of
such a vital historic page. It is the mould from which
the national mind takes shape, be it for good or evil ; the
inheritance in trust, which fashions from the cradle the
moral being of the future man.

" We read the dictate in the infant's eye ;
In the wife's smile ; &nd in the placid sky ;
And at our feet, amid the silent dust
Of them that were before us."^

We cannot overlook the silent influences of a neiv world,

^ Wordsworth : Sonnets to Libtriijy xi.

BL] THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. 25

iu makiBg another man out of the old English stock.
They are strong and ever present ; nor unperceived by
the intelligent American, who yearns for the fond asso-
ciations of the fatherland, amid all his pride in that new
kingdom won for himself from nature. This, too, is a
lesson from the new world to the old. These are ele-
ments gf change for the ethnologist to ponder, before
lending himself to that fatal error which assumes that^
in treating of the natural history of man, the intellectual
element is of no more account than in the history of the
ape or the hog. The ox transported from the old Scottish
carse-land seeks only as rich pastures as he left in that
alluvial valley ; but the herd-l)oy feels that they left
behind them other things besides a fertile soil The
lan<lsca{)e, teeming with such rare historical associations,
would be a glorious one were it barren as the rawest
clearing of the west, that unveils its rough acres to the
strange brightness of the sunshine, and spreads abroad
its widening area, like a clear parchment, for the history
of the future. But the associations of the scene become,
to them to whom it is their birthright, a part of their
being. The very earth Iwnoath their feet is as the ashes
scattered from some sacreil uni, with which in time they
may be well content their own sliall mingle, to rest in
kintired earth.

To gaze on scenes like those, not with the mere curious
liHik of the {Missing tourist, but fondly, as day by day
their familiar asso<.*iations intertwine with the hetut as
well as the wml, is to be elevatinl by a teaching better
than all the wisdom of the schools. But the countr}* so
rich in manly lessons for her chil«lren, grows men to
send them wherever such are neeiled ; luid when, as
with a step dame's voicre, slie tells the young mlven-
turer:

•• Tb«*n not in BhUun miut ymi >iitl«- ! "

26 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

it is with somewhat of the fond loving irony of Imogen
that he replies :

" Where then ?
Hath Britain all the sun that shines ? Day, night,
Are they not but in Britain ? In the world's volume
Our Britain seems as of it, but not in it ;
In a great pool a swan's nest. Prithee think
There's livers out of Britain ! "

And so the wanderer goes forth to help to sow in other
soils what makes historic lands. Taking our stand with

him amid one of the newest scenes of the new world, let

•

us see what it has to oflFer for the mind as well as the
eye. Nor could a greater, or more striking contrast to
the old Scottish metropolis be anywhere found, than is
presented by the young and flourishing capital of the
most flourishing colonial province of the empire.

Built along lie margin of a bay, enclosed by a penin-
sular spit of land running out from the north shore of
Lake Ontario, Toronto, the political and commercial
capital of Upper Canada, rests on a drift formation of
sand and clay, only disturbed in its nearly level uni-
formity by the rain-gullies and ravines which mark the
com-ses of the rivulets that drain its surface. This the
original projectors of the city mapped off into regular
parallelograms, by streets uniformly intersecting each
other at right angles ; and in carrying out their plan
every ravine and undulation is smoothed and levelled,
as with the indiscriminating precision of the mower's
scythe. On a clear day the observer sees directly to the
south a curious vapoury cloud hanging on the horizon,
which marks the scene of Niagara's unresting plunge
into the abyss of waters. A slightly undulating coast
line indicates the State of New York, stretching along
the southern shore of the lake ; but no moimtain, nor
height high enough even to overtop the lofty pines, which
here and there Unger as solitaiy survivors of the natural

IL] TUB OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. 27

forest, exists nearer than the distant shores of Georgian
Bay. The country rises to the north for about twenty
miles, by a gnulual slope, to the water-shed between
Ontario and Lake Simcoe, and then descends by a stiU
more gentle inclination to the level of the northern lake,
and the old hunting grounds of the Hurons. It is a
nearly unvarying eximnw*, a blank : with its Indian tra-
ditions eflfaced ; its colonial traditions uncreated. But
industry already plies there the willing hand Sturdy
entiTprise enlivens its rivers with the noise of the busy
wheel, and fashions anew its forest glades into smiling
viUages and rising towns. Its history is not only all to
write, it is all to act. No country could present a more
striking contrast to that*magniiicent panorama of firth,
and moimtain, and fertile plains, amid which rises the
acrc^polis of the NortL The cities of the old world have
their mythic founders and quaint legends, still com
memorated in heraldic blazonr}'. But there is no mys-
tery al)out the lx*ginning8 of Toronto, and little romance
in its childhoiKl and youtL Upi>er Canada was erected
into a dL$tinct province in 1791, only eight years after,
by the Tn^ity of Fontiiincbleau, France had finally re-
U4iunced all claim on the province of QucIxh; ; and a
few months thereafttT we have re(!onl of the arrival of
General Simax;, the firwt govenior of the new pi-oviure,
at the old French fort, at the mouth of the Niagara
river, and liis selection of the Bjiy of Toronto as the
site of the future capital. (Jovernor Simroc visited the
chosen spot in the month of May 179.H; explon*«l the
swamps and uncleared pint* forest, amid which his miga-
eious eye saw in antici|Kition the city rise, which aln^ady
uumliers upwanls of 50,000 inluibitants ; and gave a
imme to the place i>f his choi(*e. To his pmctical miml
the Indian name of the loadity had no charm. lIimH(*lf
a Yorkshire man, as well as a S4»ldier undrr the I hike, of

28 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

York, he called his new capital York ; and to the
streams which boimd its area east and west, he gave the
familiar names of the Humber and the Don : dear, per-
chance, to the rough soldier by the associations of other
days. Colonel Bouchette, Surveyor-General of Lower
Canada, was selected to lay out the new city and har-
bour ; and from his pen we have a graphic account of
the locality as it existed before the spade of the builder
first wounded its virgin soil The rites, too, by which
the founder consecrated the site of the destined city are
recorded by its surveyor in courtly style. No plough
with brazen share was guided round its limits by the
founder, incinctus ritu Gahino, with careful hand dis-
arming the mystic ploughshare^ at the destined entrance
to the city's gates ; but with rites approved by ancient
Saxon usage, the first clearing from the wild forest was
dedicated to the amenities of civilisation. " It fell to
my lot,'* says Colonel Bouchette, " to make the first sur-
vey of York harbour in 1793. Lieut-Governor the late
General Simcoe, who then resided at Niagara, having
formed extensive plans for the improvement of the
colony, had resolved on laying the foimdations of a pro-
vincial capital. I still distinctly recollect the untamed
aspect which the country exhibited when first I entered
the beautiful basin. Dense and trackless forests lined the
margin of the lake, and reflected their inverted images
in its glassy surface. The wandering savage had con-
structed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxu-
riant foliage, the group then consisting of two families
of Mississagas ; and the bay and neighbouring marshes
were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense coveys
of wild-fowl ; indeed, they were so abimdant as in some
measure to annoy us during the night. In the spring
following, the Lieutenant-Governor removed to the site
of. the new capital, attended by the regiment of Queen's

tt) TUB OLD WORLD AND THE XEW. 29

Rangera^ and commenced at once the realization of his
favourite project His Excellency inhabited, during tlie
summer and through the winter, a canvas house, which
he imported expressly for the occasion ; but, frail as
waa its substance, it was rendered exceedingly comfort-
able, and soon became as distinguished for the social and
urbane hospitality of its venerated and gracious host,
as for the peculiarity of its structure/' ^

The vicissitudes attending the progress of the Canadian
city have been minutely chronicieil ; for already it has
its local historians, who have recorded how many dwell-
ings of round logs, of squareil timber, or more ambitious
frame-houses, the latter alone exceeding a single stoivy,
were in existence at various dates. The first vessel
which belonged to the town, and turned its harbour to
ai^count ; the first brick house, the earliest stone one ;
and even the first gig of an ambitious citizen, siil)se-
quent to 1812: are each and aU chronicled with pious
care. Could we but learn with equal tnithfulness the
first years of the city built by Romulus on the Palatine
Hill, its annals would tell no less homely truths, even
now dimly hinted to us in the Irgend of the scornful
lU^mus leaping over its infant nimparts. Tiber's hill
was once the site only of the solitary hcnlsman s hut ;
BXii\ an cJd citizrn has dcscrilKHl to me his youthful re-
collections of Toronto, as consisting of a few log-huts in
the clearing, and a small Indian village 4»f birch bark
wigwams, m^ar the Don, with a mere trail through the
woods to the old French fort, on the line where now
upwanls of two miles of costly stort^s hotels, and public
buildings mark the principal stn^et of th«» busy city.

AnotluT Indian trail tn^ndrd northwanl from the Iwiv,

*

nearly on the line wlien» Youge Stn»et now stretehes its
undeviating th«>nmglifare, like the old S;ixon Watlinga-

1 TA" liritUh J},nmimionM im A%>rfA Am^rint. I^nd. 1H3*J. V..1 i |». S9

30 PREUISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

straet, some forty miles to Lake Simcoe. The unfathom-
able sloughs of mud in the unpaved streets, are still a
byword among all who remember little York. But in
1813a gi'eat historical event occurred. General Dear-
bom at the head of an army of American heroes, num-
bering some two thousand five hundred men, embarked
on board their fleet at Sacket's Harbour, on the southern
shore of the lake. Their object was the siege of York,
and the conquest of Canada. The little capital, with
its round log, squared timber, and frame-houses, num-
bered scarcely an hundred dwellings in all. These the
heroic invaders set fire to, carried oflF the solitary fire-
engine of the poor little village, and the latter is reported
to be still among the trophies of victory preserved in
the Navy Yard of the United States 1

After such a disastrous erasure of all that the first
twenty years of the infant capital had laboriously ac-
complished, it is easy to see how the abortive city might
have been resigned ere this to forest and swamp, and
scarcely a trace have remained to tell that civilisation
had ever meditated making the site her own. The very
year before York, on being incorporated as a city, re-
sumed its older name of Toronto, M. Theodore Pavi
recorded in his Souvenirs AtlantiqiceSy published at Paris
in 1833, that it was still in the woods, a mere advanced
post of civilisation on the outskirts of a boundless forest
waste. "To the houses of York,'' says he, "succeed
immediately the forests, and how profound must be those
immense forests, when we reflect that they continue
without interruption till they lose themselves in the icy
regions of Hudson's Bay near the Arctic Pole."

A fiiU quarter of a century has elapsed since M. Pavi
noted the growing city of the forest, and that for New-
World cities is an aeon. Every year has witnessed more
rapid strides, alike in the progress of Toronto, and in the

EL] TffB OLD WORLD AND THE NEW, 31

clearing and settling of the surrounding country. Eail-
ways have opened up new avenues of trade and com-
merce, and borne troops of sturdy pioneers into the
wild wilderness behini So rapid has been the clearing
of the forest, and so great the rise in the price of labour,
that fuel, brought from the distant coal-fields of Ohio,
already undersells the cord-wood hewn in Canadian
forestfi ; and even Newcastle coal warms many a luxu-
rious Canadian winter hearth. All is rife with progress.
Onward 1 " is the cry ; a distant and boimdless future
ifl the goal The new past is despised ; the old past is
altogether unheeded ; and for antiquity there is neither
reverence nor faith. These are beginnings of history ;
and are full of significance to those who have wrought
out some of the curious problems of an ancient past, amid
such rich historic scenes as are here contrasted with this
unhifltoric but vigorous youth of the New World. And
yet, as we shall see, it is not altogether new ; though
we thus witness the seeds of future empires taking root
on its virgin soiL The ancient forests which give way
before the axe of the new settler, are not primeval.
Beneath their roots lie the memorials of a living world of
man, not even now so thoroughly eflaced that we must
abandon all hope of recovering the chronicles of that
world before Columbus, and learning something of what
man was, utterly disassociated from everything which
has made of us what we are. It is with the old tilings
of the New World that we propose to deal ; and how old
some of these are is as yet very partially appreciated,
even by some who seek to antedate the birth of the red
man before the first Adam was placed in his eastern
Garden, or " there went up a mist fr'om the earth, and
watered the whole face of the ground."

But recent as is the growing capital of Upper Canada,
it is not one of those chance-formed cities so common in

32 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the New World, dropped seemingly wherever the clear-
ing made room for them, and left to grow and thrive,
like seeds scattered by the wind. Its site was selected
with sagacious foresight by the first governor of the pro-
vince ; and the advantages which then oflfered themselves
to his observant eye, had existed ages before, with the
same ready facilities for a civic centre of civilisation ;
though the tangled thickets of the forests revealed only
the haunts of the wild bear, or the fragile lodges of the
savage. But many a scene as waste and desolate covers ^
the graves of populous cities ; and from underneath the
tread of busier thoroughfares than the streets of Toronto
have been disentombed the civic and national chronicles
of empires that attained their prime, and wasted and-
disappeared, while yet the world of man was in its
youth. To such disclosures the attention of the British
student of antiquities has been recently directed with
peculiar interest. For nearly twenty years, previous
to 1840, an extensive system of drainage carried out
within the ancient limits of the city of London, and be-
yond these throughout the widening area of the modem
British metropolis, disclosed a remarkable series of me-
morials of the Roman Londinium of the first centuries
of the Christian era, as well as many remains of the Saxon
LuNDEN-BURH, and the mediaeval London. A succes-
sion of archaeological strata told the tale of London's
early British, Roman, Saxon, and English history, by
disclosures akin to those whereby the geologist is enabled
to decipher the records of a more ancient life. Digging
down in the very centre of Londinium Augusta, in the
vicinity of the Exchange, the excavator lays bare an
artificial soil of nearly fourteen feet, the Tertiary Straia^
as we may designate it, of its archaeological formations.
Beneath this, which consists of the accumulated factitioiLs
soil and embedded relics of more than a thousand years,

BL) THE OLD WORLD ASD THE XEW, 33

lie the diverae strata of the Upper Secondary formation,
flome two feet tliirk ; composwl chiefly of bric^k, the
buried ruinA of a city long foi^otten. Underneath this
again lie the Carhotii/erous Strata of the London ari'hap-
ologist : the memorials of a town built of wood, and
dedulated by fire ; and Mow all these are found, what
constitute, in the estimation of Roman antiquaries at
least, their Priviary Strata^ enclosing in the rich debris^
the relics of the arts and civilisation of the true Lon-
dinium Augusta. And Iteautiful and full of interest are
the varied disclosures of those Roman stratiu Tesse-
lated {lavements ; arcliiti*ctunil and sc'ulptured marbles ;
fnsrtcotfd plaster, still bright with the pigments of sixteen
trenturies ago ; in?«Tibe<l altai's and tablets, ami im-
presses! I)ricks ; coins, bronzes, glass, and jK>ttcr}' ; the
skulls and Ix^ncs of the Bns luhgi/roHs^ the domcsticattKl
ox of the An^lo-Romans ; the tusks of the boar; the
acrumuhite<l shells of tlie ovstcr, and otiier edible mol-
luscs ; with many another relic of long-buried genera-
tions: the Ciisily decipheivd hien»glyphics of a series of
chapters of Englands early domestic and stnial life, such
as Tacitus never dreamt of n»eording, yet which tt> us
have im interest far In^yond what the lost Inniks of Livy
could poss«*ss. }n> numerous have sueh relies ]»rt»ved,
that the colleetions of one imlefatigable antiquary alone,
Charles Roach Smith, have been s^'CUDmI for the liritish
Mus<*um at a cost of XiMioo, an«l embnue upwanls «»f a
thousiind arlieles: the memorials of manv riMumled, but
of still mon* unnM'onleil events ; of that terrible cata-
stniphe in the reign i»f Nen*, when TO.imm) of the inhaln
itants of Roman Lon<lon |K'rishetl in its niins ; of later
Kiek and eonflagration, uiuler ( Vlt, Siixt»n. l>ane, and
Niinnan, till nearly every n*lie of an oM llriiish me-
tro|M»lis was once mon* swept away, in the wake of a
devastating |K*stilence, by the Great Fire of 1066. ^et
VOL. I. ^'

34 PREHISTOEIC MAN. [Chap.

even this large collection very imperfectly illustrates the
wealth of historic treasure inhumed in the buried debris
of ancient London, Four other large collections of
Roman, Saxon, Norman, and mediaBval articles are re-
ferred to in Mr. C. R Smith's Catalogue, as having been
formed during the same excavations of recent years.

Thousands of coins, Roman, Saxon, and mediaeval, teU
in chronological sequence the annals of the British me-
tropolis. Bronzes and marbles of rare beauty show how
the arts of the Tiber found a home on the Thames ;
and inscribed altars, tablets, and sepulchral slabs, reveal
the evidences of a long-extinct faith, and of griefs and
triumphs stilled alike in the silence of long-buried cen-
turies. Yet what is London's archaeological history,
when compared with the story inumed beneath the
streets of modem Rome or Jerusalem, or hidden under
the shapeless mounds still unexplored in the old eastern
cradle-land of our race ? When the sculptures were
hewn, and the marble palaces built, that lie there en-
tombed, the island-home of the Anglo-Saxon was, in aU
probability, a tangled forest, trackless as the wilds of
America's imexplored west; the centre of the world's
commerce on the Thames, was a savage jungle where the
wild-boar and the wolf disputed possession. Certain it
is that, a thousand years thereafter, the Anglo-Saxon
race was not yet in being. Over one of those cities of
the East, already a ruined grave-moimd, Xenophon led
his ten thousand Greeks, four centuries before oiur era
began ; and, from the same heap of reedy and sepulchral
clay, twenty-two centuries thereafter, have been exhumed
the buried arte of that "exceeding great city" Nineveh,
to which the prophet Jonah was sent, some two thousand
seven himdred years before, to proclaim its threatened
doom. That doom, though averted for a time, was most
fully accomplished. Nineveh, and the vast power of

tt] TUB OLD WORLD AND TUB NBW. S5

Assyria fell Empire moved westward from the Tigris
to tiie Euphrates ; and centuries ere that British London
had its beginning — on the novel scenes of which the
human-headed lions of Nineveh now gaze forth from
their strange stony eyes,— the Euphrates and the Tigris
alike swept southward through desolate wastes. The
great plain which stretches between these ancient rivers,
naturally one of the most fertile areas of the globe, has
been abandoned to the wild Arab nomade, who still
pastures his steed on the grave-mounds of the world's
eldest empires. And he, too, has dropped there some
faint traces of his presence. Turkish Islamite has
feebly struggled ynXh the desolation ; the ancient Greek,
the Hebrew, the Arab, and the modem Tartar, have
alike passed across the waste scene, each leaving some
footprint beliind him ; and thus have been recovered
fnim its choicest spots the accumuhiteil traces of many
successive generations, from times not greatly more
modem than tliat of the first " mighty hunter," down
to the recent centuries of Turkish acquisition and
misrule.

So relative a thing is anticjuityl The ossiferous
cavem relics, and the diluvial disclosures of the geolo-
gist, are his moilem forma tioiw. To the archaEN)logi«t,
they are so old as warcely to be admitted within his
most ancient eraa And so that buried Uoman London,
dis<*los(*<l in recent years in dniining it-s UKKlom huc-
rc«Hor, liecomeH itself a very minhTn thing when placi^l
alongside of the exc;ivateil mound-hea{>s on the luuiks of
the Tigris. Yet for us it lias an interest such as the
marbles of Nineveh cannot |H)Srtess. They indee<l lie-
I«mg to that strangely interesting cnulle-land of the
human family ; but the old I{oman l>»ndinium, the
Saxou London-burgh, antl thr later nuNliiuval I^Hidon,
each and all {>ertuin to the little island home of the

36 PREUISTORIG MAN". [Chap.

Anglo-Celtic and Saxon race, where it was cradled, and
nursed, and trained for conquering and colonizing con-
tinents of unknown western and southern seas.

Turning from the history of the old world's infancy to
the modem scenes of the new world, we seem to return
to primeval times, and to witness anew the birth of
human society. During recent years passed in Toronto,
it has been my fortune to witness on its own scale, the
inauguration of the same process which has revealed
to modem eyes the buried London of Eoman times.
Within that period the first works projected and carried
out to any extent for the purpose of drainage have been
in progress ; and at the same time an esplanade and
railway track have been cut and embanked along the
bay, throughout the entire length of the city's lake shore.
Already familiar with historic disclosures derived from
similar excavations on older sites, I have watched such
trenching of the young city's virgin soil with singular
interest. Trae it is, that the city itself is of most modem
growth, — younger indeed than many of its inhabitants ;
that its history is known in all its simple details, and
that its precursor was but a group of Mississaga wig-
wams in the tangled pine forest. But the Arab who
reared his tent unconsciously over the graves of Assyria's
and Babylonia's mighty empires, is not so greatly the
superior of the Indian of the New World. Humboldt,
indeed, draws the comparison between the roaming Indian
of the Orinoco, and the wandering Arab, as severally the
types of a nomade agricultural and pastoral people, each
occupying a like rank in the social scale. The ephemeral
tents of the Arabs on the Nimroud mounds gave no
indication of the gigantic sculptures below, which so
astonished and terrified them when first brought to light.
The winged human-headed lion, the symbolic type of
the divine intellect, strength, and ubiquity, had awed

n.]

THE OLD WOULD AND THE NEW.

and instructed races that flouiished there three thousand
years before : to the nide Arabs it was an accursed
" Jin," which they spat on and defiled : " One of the
idols which Noah — peace be with him !— cursed before
the flood ! " It was not, therefore, an altogether incon-
ceivable thing that here too, where so recently the ephe-
meral wigwam of the Misaissaga stood, the modem
Canadian eity had but resumed a deserted site of older
civilisation. But the world before the Flood is the only
one which the trenches made by the fresh civilisation of
Canadian cities disclose, A solitary Indian stone axe
and a few flint arrow-heads are all that, after minute
inquiry, I can learn have been found. Kepeatedly, at but
a few inches beneath the public thoroughfare, the charred
or hewn stump of the forest pine reveals itself; or, in
the lower and older paila of the city, towards the lake,
the prostrate trunk and the black swampy soil, show
where the persevering energy of the European settler
has already reclaimed hundi'eds of acres from the marsh
and the lake.

This land conquered from river, lake, and sea. is a
aingxdarly significant featiu'e of the change that has come
over the New World since its soil passed from the hands
of its autochthones to the strangers by whom such re-
clamation has been already wrought. So common and
chMacteristie of the energy of the Eui'opean colonist is
this process, that " water-lots " is a term of universal
acceptance among Anglo-Americans, in reference to spots
mapped ofi" for redemption from river or lake ; and acres
of such fi-eely change hands at constantly increasing
prices ; though, to the inexperienced European, an acre
in dreamland or a bag of moonshine would seem equally
marketable. During the summer of 1855 a long western
ramble, far beyond the regions reclaimed from the wild
forest, terminated at Fond du Liw, at the head of Lake

38 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Superior, Here, at the mouth of the Nemadji river, on
a large bay into which the St. Louis and Aloues rivers
also debouche, the site of the future city of Superior
has been selected. I had traversed nearly four hundred
miles since leaving the Sault Ste. Marie, itself a remote
outpost of civilisation ; and had noted with curious in-
terest, in proof of our wandering into uncultivated wilds,
that part of the freight of the steamer to Eagle Harbour
consisted of compressed bundles of hay, brought from
Detroit on Lake St Clair, upwards of three hundred
miles oflF, for the use of the cattle employed at the
copper mines on Keweenaw Point. Hundreds of miles
of unoccupied land lay between the Nemadji river and
the nearest settlements of Wisconsin or Minnesota, and
countless millions of acres stretched away westward and
northward towards the Eocky Mountains and the pole.
Yet here, on the wild hunting-grounds of the Chippewas,
the future Superior City was being laid oflF with a large
expanse of water-lots, to be redeemed from the Lake.
A plan, already completed, showed them encroaching on
the channel of the Nemadji River, and abridging the
wide expanse of Superior Bay : a singularly characteristic
type, as it appeared to me, of the intrusive race which
is everywhere supplanting the aboriginal Indian on his
native soil A party of Saultaux Indians had con-
structed a Uttle group of birch-bark wigwams on Minne-
sota Point, and their slight canoes gUded noiselessly
over the bay. Such the Indian of the Fond du Lac may
have been a thousand years ago ; as unprogressive and
ephemeral in all his characteristics as he there appeared,
totally indifferent to the schemes of the supplanter, who
was already marking off his birthright for transference
to new heirs. The little spot on which his wigwam
stands suffices for him, as it has done for all his fathers ;
and, for the rest, he claims only a small tribute from the

IL] TUB OLD WORLD AND THE NEW, 39

denizens of lake and forest, wild as himself. But for
the aggressive aspirations of the intruder nothing is too
great ; and it fails to suffice him, though standing at
such a point he can look abroad and hear in no uncertain
voice the fiat which proclaims : " Lift up now thine eyes,
and look from the place where thou art, northwanl and
southward, and eastwanl and w^estward ; for all the land
which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy
seed."

The sagacity and experience of Anglo-American enter
prise has thus " dipped into the future, far as human
eye could see ;" and indeed such is the faith in the groat
future which awaits tliis most western embryo metro-
polis of the lakes, that tw<j rival cities were already pro-
jected within a mile or two of each other. One of
these, at the mouth of the Nemadji river, consisting
of an unfinished fnime house and two or three log-
shanties, was named Supekiou ; the other, if {M>s8ible
in a still more rudimentary condition of development,
hsA alrea<ly engrossed the more ambitious name of
Superior City. Yet one or other of these is uiujues-
tionably the nucleus of a great metropolis, destineil ere
another generation jxisats away, to number its iidiabit-
ants by thousands, where now only the wigwam of the
Indian and the l>ivouac of the hunter are to be st^en.
In the coarse reahties of conflict l)etwei»n riviil H{>ecula-
tors and scheming projectors, it is diitic^ult for us to
realize what maiy be almndantly manifest to other gene-
rations : that here, in the wild west of the New World,
is an event akin to that when Nimnn.!, the primeval
hunter, lx*g:ui to lie a mighty one before the Lonl, and
the iM'ginning of his king<lom was IJabel in the land of
Shinar.

With such ideas present to my mind, interminglcHl
with recollections of many pleasant explorations on

40 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

ancient civic sites, it was with a peculiar interest that I
scanned this locality as the virgin soil already dedicated
to an unborn history ; and seemed in it to realize the
primeval aspect of sites on the Nile and the Tigris, ere
human hands selected them for the arenas of histories
now so rich in mystery and grandeur for all time. Nor
is the chosen site of the civic queen of Lake Superior
devoid of remarkable features, individualizing it from
among the future areas of urban settlement. The ter-
races and ancient beaches of Lake Superior abundantly
prove the vast changes which have taken place in the
relative levels of land and water on this great inland
sea. But besides this, the lake shores present another
series of striking phenomena. The Pictured Eocks, near
the eastern end of the south shore, extend for upwards
of ten miles in a range of lofty cliflFs rarely surpassed
in picturesque magnificence. The north shore is also
marked by many features of great boldness and gran-
deur ; but the general character of the southern shore is
an undulating coast line, covered with the natural forest
down to the water's edge. The rivers and streams ac-
cordingly, of which two hundred and twenty of varying
size and volume are tributaries to this great inland sea,
generally enter it over sandy or alluvial flats ; and the
parallel walls of loose materials formed by the opposing
action of the river currents, and those driven by the pre-
vaiKng winds against the descending flood, present a
series of concentric river-belts, extending over several
miles of the embouchure. Breaking through these bar-
riers at various points, some of the larger rivers have
repeatedly changed their courses, and now wind their
way, among the irregular breaches thus effected by their
swollen spring-torrents, to the lake. Another class of
formations with which the settlers on the shores of the
great lakes are familiar, are the "hooks'' and "spits"

IL] TBB OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. 41

fimced Liy the waves and currents under the action of
winds in certain prevailing directions. The peninsula,
or island, enclosing Toronto Bay, which determined the
ute of the chief city and har})our of Upper Canada, is
an example of the latter class. The more remarkable
ttte of Superior City has been formed by a combination
of the two formations on an imusually gigantic scale.
At the extreme western point of Lake Superior the
northern and southern shores meet in the Fond du Lac ;
within whieh the swollen spring and autumnal torrents
of the Neraadji and the Aloues rivers combine with the
greater volume of the St Louis to build up with their
annual deposits the remarkable system of spits and
llTer-belta referred to. From the converging shores of
tfae lake two long and nan'ow tongues of land project
towards each other, enclosing au area nearly ten miles in
length, and leaving between their extreme points only a
narrow channel for the exit of the waters of a vast terri-
tory, drained by the rivers that empty themselves into
this bay. One of the river-formations, already marked
off for wharf and warehouse lots by the far-sighted city
speculators, forms an irregular projection from the west-
em bank of the Nemadji far across the bay of Superior,
and detaching its western portion, which has received
the separate name of Aloues Bay. The large estuary of
the St. Louis, again, is fenced off by inner peninsular
spits and river-belts of great extent. All, indeed, is on
a scale of magnitude far surpassing anything to be met
with elsewhere along the shores of the great lakes ;
and in some of ita features is rather to be compared
with such oceanic structures as those which, thi-ough
long centuries, the Atlantic currents built up on the
New England coast, that they might at length shelter
the httle " Mayflower " with its precious seeds of
empire.

h

42 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Here, at the mouth of the Nemadji Eiver, is the site
of the future city. Already the axe of the pioneer is
leveUing the forest, and clearing out its destined tho-
roughfares ; while plans have been matured and are in
progress for making it the starting-point of a railway
to the Mississippi, where it rolls its mighty volimie of
waters uninterruptedly to the Gulf of Florida. The
scheme cannot fsdl ; for it is only restoring, with all the
added facilities which civilisation brings in its train, the
ancient route by which, as wiU be seen, the metallic
treasures of Lake Superior were distributed of old through
the vast regions watered by the Mississippi and its tri~
butaries ; and the gigantic tropical shells, and other
rare products of southern latitudes, were transferred
to the shores of the great northern lakes. It is impos-
sible to look with indifference on such an initial stage of
one of the great revolutions begot by civilisation amid
the western wilds. We can only guess at the beginnings
of ancient cities and empires ; but here we are present
at the actual birth, and look on the first clearings, the
rude shanty, the temporary pier and corduroy road for
the city in embryo, destined to be what Chichago has
proved for Lake Michigan, perchance what St. Petersburg
has been for the Neva and the Baltic, or Alexandria once
was> and may yet again be, for the Nile.

Viewed in this %ht, the remarkable features of Su-
perior Bay and its tributary rivers possessed a pecuUar
charm, thus seen, as it were, at the close of one great
cycle of their history, in their natural state, the gradual
formation of ages, and all untouched by the hand of
man. The frail village of wigwams and the tiny fleet
of birch-bark canoes, only added a characteristic feature
to the wild face of nature. In this, as in so many other
respects, no more striking contrast could be presented to
the ancient historic rivers of Europe, with their dykes,

IL] THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW. 43

and piers, and breakwaters, the monuments of enterprise
and engineering skill : pertaining, like the dykes of the
Essex marshes on Old Father Thames, to a date nearly
coeval with the Christian era ; or reaching back, like
those of the Delta of the African Nile, to the birth-time
of history and the infancy of the human race. The
contrast between the new and the old here is sufficiently
striking ; yet the old also was once new ; had even such
beginnings aa this ; and was as devoid of history as the
rawest clearing of the Far West. Guided by the dis-
closures of a New World just entering on the dawn of
its historic life, may we not hope to read more clearly
the traditions of ancient primitive history, and to recover
new light wherewith to illuminate the Old World^s pre-
historic times ?

44 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

CHAPTER III.

THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH

On the busy scene of the Western Canadian capital,
little more than half a century ago, stood, as we have
seen, the primitive wigwams of the Red Man, in a state
of nature ; and the primeval forest swept like a leafy
sea back from the shores of the great lakes to the Arctic
circle. At times a little more remote, within the last
three centuries, the same was the case on every civic ^te
of the New World. We call the forest primeval, and we
speak of the savage as the child of nature. But we do
neither in any very strict or scientific sense. What, in-
deed, is the natural condition of man, is even now by
no means a settled point. Nevertheless we have very
varied sources to which we may turn for a reply. With-
out looking for systems of science in the Bible, which it
was never designed to furnish, either in relation to the
organic or inorganic world, or to man himself : we never-
theless derive from thence incidental notices of the
highest value in reference to the suggested inquiry. The
geologist may turn aside from the Mosaic record as a
book never designed for his aid, but the ethnologist
cannot do so, unless he is prepared entirely to reject its
authority ; for man is its theme, and the earth^s crea-
tion is only considered there in so far aa it relates to
him. Moreover, there, and there only, can he turn for
any authoritative information relative to the origin of

IIL] TUB PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 45

our race. If that is rejected, there remains for us only
the vague inductions of science on a point beyond its
ken ; or the childish fables of tradition, in which the
intellectual Greek and the untutored savage are on a
|)ar. There, then, we learn, in the one written record
possessed of the slightest value, of man primeval as no
savage, but a being of intellectual power and moral
purity ; and all other records of later origin seem to
point towards the same eastern area, there indicated as
the cradle of the world s civilisation, and the birthplace
of the nations. But, also, the further our investigations
are pursued, the more eN^dence do we find, tending to
confirm our belief in certain analogies between the
modem savage, conventionally designated the child of
nature, and primeval man. " Geology is the arclueology
of the ghibe ; ethnology that of its humim inhabit-
ants ;"^ and the more closely the two have l>een brought
in contact, the more clearly does it seem to be forced on
our acceptance, that the primitive condition of man in-
clude<l none of those physical appliances of inventive
skill indissolubly associateil with all oiu: modern ideas of
civilisation and intellectual progress.

The investigation of the imderlying chronicles of
Europe's most ancient human history, have placetl be
yond <iucstion that its historic jjcriod was preceileil by
an unhistoric one of long duration, marked by a slow
pn)gression from arts of the most primitive kind to
others which involved the germs of iUl later develop-
ments. From Euro|H', and the historic lands of Asia
and the Nile Valley, we derive all our ideas of man ; aiul
of the youngest of these continents, on which he has
thus advanced from savage artlessness to the highest
arts of civilisation, we have histoiy, written or tradi-

> Prk-Ujuti, ** Anoivcnary AtldrMS before th« EUmalqgicml Soci«iy of
Uadoa.'* 1S47.

46 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

tional, for at least 2000 years. But in the year 1492,
a New World was discovered, peopled with its own
millions, for the most part in no degree advanced beyond
that primeval starting-point which lies far behind Europe's
oldest traditions. The significance of such a state of
things is worth inquiring into, if it be for nothing else
than the hght which the analogies of such a Uving present
may throw on that curious infancy of Europe's ancient
past; and beyond that, on the primal infancy of the
human race.

Eecent discoveries of rude traces of primeval art in
the dnuviaJ formations both of France and England,
have tended to add a fresh interest to the investigation
of that "primeval stone-period" which underlies the
most ancient memorials of Europe's civilisation. We
know from that oldest of all written chronicles, the first
book of the Mosaic pentateuch, that there existed a
period of some duration in the history of the human
race, during which man tilled the ground, pursued the
chase, and made garments of its spoils, without any
knowledge of the working in metals, on which the
simplest of all our known arts depend. Through such a
stage of primitive art, it had already appeared to me
most probable, that all civilized nations had passed ;
before those disclosures of a human stone-period in the
chroniclings of the drift added new and seemingly in-
disputable confirmation of the term primeval^ in its
application to the non-metallurgic era of Britain's and
Europe's arts.

The incredulity and even contempt with which the
applications of a system of archaeological periods to the
antiquities of Britain was received, a few years ago, by
a certain class of critics, was inevitable, from the almost
exclusive attention previously devoted to Roman and
mediaeval remains. " When will Druidical archaeologists

IIL] TUB PRIMEVAL OCCVPATION : SPEECH. 47

be convinced," exclaims the black-letter anti<iuaiy, " that
menzhir and peul-ven, cromlech and kistvacn, tell us
nothing; and from nothing nothing comea You can
no more judge of their age, than the eye can estimate
the height of the clouds. These shapeless masses impart
but one lesson, the impossibility of recovering by in-
dui:tion any knowledge of the s]>eechless past Waste
not your oiL Give it up, that speechless past ; whether
fact or chronology, doctrine or mythology ; whether in
Europe, Asia, Africa, or America ; at Thebes or Palenque,
on Lyeian shore or Sidisbury plain : lost is lost ; gone
is gone for ever/'* So exclaims the enthusiastic black-
letter scholar, in words alike daunting to geologist and
archaeologist : while himself patiently expending his oil
in the lalxirious effort to recover some chance grains
of historical truth from the credulous but courtierly
chroniclings of Dudon de Saint Queutin ; or from such
tairdy miscellanies of younger tradition as served to
lieguUe the tedium of St Evrouls cloisters to that gentle,
but most uncritical of monkish ]>enmen, Ordericus Vi-
talis. Cromlech and kistvaen have already discloseil to
us thc^ physical characteristics and the primitive arts of
Euro|H} s idlophylian races, in ages long prior to lettera
We may, at times, misread their chroniclings, but they
never wilfidly misleail, never blunder, never whisper
flattery over the dead whose memor}' they have in trust ;
and tlmt is more tlum can l>e said of Dudon de Saint-
Quontin, or any monkisli rhnmicler.

The K<jman antiquary has next his fling at the syste
matizing of primitive archasologicid explorations and in-
ductions, as an attempt "s{)ei*ious and attractive in
apiK*aran(*e, but without foundation in truth." ** Such,**
arconlingly pnNHHHls the explorer of Ilomau Hritain ;
** such, I am (*onvinred, is the system of archaeological

* ralgrmvr's //lifory oj Xvnmnmijf, xnL i. \k 469.

48 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

periods which has been adopted by the antiquaries of
the North, and which a vain attempt has been made to
introduce into this country. There is something we may
perhaps say poetical, certainly imaginative, in talking of
an age of stone, or an age of bronze, or an age of iron ;
but such divisions have no meaning in history, which
cannot be treated as a physical science, and its objects
arranged in genera and species. We iiave to do with
races of mankind, and we can only arrange the objects
which come under our examination according to the
peoples to whom they belonged, and as they illustrate
their manners and history. In fact, the divisions al-
luded to are themselves incorrect, and so far is the
discovery of implements of stone, or of bronze, or of
iron, from being proof of any particular age, that we
often find them together."^ So says the Roman anti-
quary, adding in explanation of such ^ condition of
things that, " in the early period to which the volume
refers, intercommimication was slow and difficult. ... It
was then necessary to use such materials as came to
hand, and there is no possible reason why one man
should not possess a weapon or a tool formed of stone,
while his richer or more fortunate contemporary had one
of iron or bronze f all which only serves to prove the
difficulty of persuading the classic antiquary how very
modem a thing that Roman world was with which alone
he is disposed to deal That which he here calls " the
early period,'^ refers, at the earhest, to the century before
the Christian era ; for the most part the materials for its
illustration, which Britain supplies, belong, like those of
Herculaneimi and Pompeii, to the younger era, and even
to dates two or three centuries later. Instead of being
an early period in the history of man, it is not even an
early period in that of Rome. It belongs rather to what

^ The Celt, the Bomani and the Saxon^ pp. vL viL

Ill] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATIOy : SPEECH, 49

St Paul expressively Btylwl "these last days." The
whole national history of Greece was already completed,
and among the things of former generations ; the elder
eastern monarchies were in being two thousand years
before, and the world had been the arena of human
history, according to the lowest computiition, for upwards
of four thousand years.

It is no disparagement of the lalxmrs of the classic
antiquary to remind him that there were heroes even
before Agamemnon. The researches alike of the Roman
and mediaeval archaeologist are replete with value, sup-
plementing history in a thousand ways, and throwing
light on many puzzling obscurities and errors ; but where
either attempts, from his own recent point of view, to
cliallenge that remoter {mst whi(*h the an*lueologist is
striving in some faint de^^ to elucidate, it might not
lie unmeet to recall the terms of Horace Smith's quaint
address to Belzoni s mummy, — no antetliluvian patri-
areli, but a mere Theban of the Nile, who may have
dropi>ed an ob<»lus when Homer sun<; :-

** I D€<h1 not Mk Uic« if tbjit HaihI, whrn aiumhI,
Hm any K41111JU1 luKlMr oiauIinI or knuckltfil.

For tbou w«*rt deiMi. aiHl hurietl, aaii emlMdmr«l
Kr« Uomulus ati<l U«iuitJi IumI \nxn sufklol ;

Antiquity app^ari t<» hav«* Vm'^h

I^mg after thy |)nin«ival race wa« run \ '*

Hut the attention of the iuitiquar}% as well as the
geologist, is now Uung din^rted to the inrvital>le couclu
sious fonxnl on lioth by the discoveri«*s of the rudely
fashioned flint hat<*het and HjK^ar-heatl in the stratifieil
gravel of post-plioci'ue formations. Of the artificial
origin of these it seems no longer {Missible to doubt, and
the circumstances attending their n'i>eat4»<l discovery
seem e^iually to place tht*ir remote anticiuity Uyond
qut*iitit>u. Sir(*harles Lyell lutn cautiously Hummod up

vou I. i»

50 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the evidence in a manner singularly applicable to our
present purpose, when referring to the fossil implements
and weapons of Abbeville and Amiens. "Although
the accompanying shells are of living species/' he ob-
serves in his address from the chair of the Geological
Section of the British Association, " I believe the anti-
quity of the Abbeville and Amiens flint instruments
to be great indeed, if compared to the times of history
or tradition. I consider the gravel to be of fluviatile
origin, but I could detect nothing in the structure of its
several parts indicating cataclysmal action ; nothing that
might not be due to such river-floods as we have wit-
nessed in Scotland during the last half century. It
must have required a long period for the wearing down
of the chalk which supplied the broken flints for the
formation of so much gravel at various heights, some-
times one hundred feet above the present level of the
Somme, for the deposition of fine sediment, including
entire shells, both terrestrial and aquatic, and also for
the denudation which the entire mass of stratified drift
has undergone : portions having been swept away, so
that what remains of it often terminates abruptly in old
river cliffs, besides being covered by a newer unstratified
drift. To explain these changes, I should infer consider-
able oscillations in th6 level of the land in that part
of France ; slow movements of upheaval and subsidence,
deranging, but not wholly displacing, the course of the
ancient river. Lastly, the disappearance of the elephant,
rhinoceros, aiid other genera of quadrupeds now foreign
to Europe, implies, in like manner, a vast lapse of
ages^ separating the era in which the fossil implements
were framed and that of the invasion of Gaul by the
Romans.'^

Subsequent investigation by experienced geologists
has somewhat modified the ideas here expressed. Prof.

Ill] TUB PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. .M

J. U. liennlow, after minute obeervationa^ comes to the
coDclusicm that " no one can doubt the evidence to be in
favour of a cataclysmic action, and rapid deposition of
the lower and larger portion of the gravel, at the spot
near St Acheul where the hatchets occur/* Neither
does he suppose that the facts witnessed by him, indi-
cate of necessity that the bones of extinct mammals
found alongside of the flint implements were contem-
porary with the unskilled workmen by whom these were
wrought ; or that the evidence carries man altogether
out of the range of human history. The fossil bones
and the human implements are mingled in a gnivel,
formed as a redispositiou by fresh-water agency, out of
older materials probiibly Whmging to very different
perirxls, though the most motlem of them undoubtedly
pertain to a period long prior to the ohlest dates of
Gaulish history/ The most improbable feature about
ihis discovery of traces of human art in the drift has
been the numlxT of 8jH?(rimens found within so limited
an area, in complete contradiction to the ex]K*rience of
archxeologists, with reference to more recent depwits.
Bu^ the incredulous wonder u-ith whirh one reads that
** it is estiinat4Hl that t!i > total numlier of worked flints
exhume<l by tlhiir eminent discoverer, M. Kourher do
Perthes, of Ablieville, excee^ls 1500, and may even ap-
promrh 2000 specimens," is considerably lessi'mnl by an
(examination of the numc*rons plates illustrating these
discoveries, in the " Antiquit6^ (Vltiques et Ant^lilu-
viennes." Certainly ninety jmt rent, appear to the onli-
nary eye mere flint chips 8u<*h as may Ik? gatliereil from
any gravel heap. But aftor njecting every doubtful
specimen there still remain indisputable evidences of
human art, startling us with the n*niote anti<iuity to
which, on any system of inteq>n*tation, we must refer

52 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

such traces of the presence of man in the north of
Europe.

Yet, after all, this is only an old truth confirmed by
additional proofs. Precisely similar evidences of oscil-
lation, upheaval, and derangement of the course of an-
cient rivers had accompanied the attempts to illustrate
a primeval British stone-period before the discoveries of
Abbeville J and Amiens were heard of.^ In the year
1819 there was disclosed in the alluvium of the carse-
land, where the river Forth winds its circuitous course
through ancient historic scenes already referred to, the
skeleton of a gigantic whale, with a perforated lance or
harpoon of deer's horn beside it. They lay together
near the base of Dunmyat, one of the Ochil Hills, and
twenty feet above the highest tide of the neighbouring
estuary. Over this was an accumulation of five feet of
alluvial soil, covered with a thin bed of moss. The
locality was examined at the time, and the levels noted
by scientific observers peculiarly competent to the task ;
and at the same time suflicient traces of the old Roman
causeway were observed, leading to one of the fords of
the Forth, to prove that no important change had taken
place on the bed of the river, or the general level of the
strath, during the era of authentic history.* Nor was
the example a solitary one ; remains of those gigantic
BaJsense have been repeatedly found ; and one skeleton
discovered in 1824, seven miles further inland than the
earlier example, now lies in the Natural History Museum
of Edinburgh University, along with the primitive har-
poon of deer's horn foimd beside it.

With such well-authenticated and altogether indis-
putable evidence already in our possession, what addi-
tion is made to our grounds for belief in the antiquity

* Prehistoric AnnaU of Scotland^ p. 33.

' Edinbunjh Philoaophieal Jovmal, vol. i. p. 395.

THE PRIMEVAL OCCUFATlOy : .•il'HECU. 33

of the preliiatoric human era of Britain or Europe f
Whatever difficiJties may seem to arise from the dis-
coveries at Abbeville and Amiens, or the older ones at
Hoxne in Sufiblk, in relation to tlie age of man, the
chronology whi<;h suffices to embrace the ancient Cale-
donian whaler within the period of human history will
equally answer for the more recently discovered allo-
phylian arts of the French diluvium. And lying, oa
the Scottish relics did, almost beneath the paving of the
Roman causeway : what, it may fairly be asked, have
the discoveries of tJie Koman antiquary relative to the
British Celt of Julius desfu-'s time, or to the Romajiized
Britain of Claudius or Nero, to do with an archaeological
period to which the Dunmyat and Blair-Dmmmond
Moss hai-poons belong ? They have somewliat less to
do ydik it than the American aborigines of the fifteenth
century have to do with the primeval race and period
of the New World ; for Celtic Britain, though insular,
had been subject to no such isolation as the American
Continent. The very question raised anew by the cri-
tical examination of such disclosures as the British drift,
ossiferous caves, gravel mounds, and chance deposits
reveal, is whether the ancient British Celt, on whom
Boman and Saxon intruded, was not himself an intruder
on older allophylian occupants ?' If he was not, we
must ascribe to the language and race of the Celtic
Briton an antiquity without a parallel in the history of
nations ; for when the Boman intruded on his insular
home it was at the close of an epoch which had wit-
nessed such protracted changes as those that elevated
the ancient estuary of the Forth from the ocean-bed, and
buried its giant mammals beneath an accumulation of

' ThiM tjiivKtiun was tint Uroiiglit forward hy the author in Ml In'jvirs into
Iht fJviiUnrf of Ihif KcMeiKf <■/ Primitivf Race* at Seolliind {irior to tht O^k.
—Briiith A^otiaiion Kri-orl. ISfifl.

54 PEEHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

alluvial soil and peat moss, which had spread the broad
carse along the base of the Ochils at the same level as
now, before Agricola, in the first century of our era, led
his Roman legions against the northern Caledonians.
To the mediseval or the Roman antiquary, such traces
of primeval man may be of no account, but to the
ethnologist they are of the profoundest interest and
value.

There is a certain remote epoch in most men's ideas
of the past, by no means uniformly defined, beyond
which all becomes vague antiquity, and whatever it may
disclose is assumed to have been contemporaneous ; just
as the Indian of Central America is content to ascribe
its ruins to the a?itiguos, and the old geologist referred
all organic remains to the Deluge. But this, which was
inevitable at an earlier stage of inquiry, when all our
means for the recovery of a knowledge of the past his-
tory of man seemed exhausted, will resolve itself into
a definite recognition of relative antiquity, in no degree
calculated to diminish the just estimation of those more
modem researches of the Roman or mediseval antiquary
which are essential to the completeness of the whole.
Each new accession of evidence seems to confirm the pro-
bability that all tribes and nations of the human family
have passed through the same preliminary and infantile
stage of arts ; and at a period when the exploded theory
of man s development from some inferior organized type
seems to be revived with renewed favoui-, whatever
tends to harmonize our ideas of primeval man as dis-
closed to us in the records of nature and revelation, is
worthy of the most earnest study. But in this as in so
many other branches of scientific inquiry, the pi*ematurc
efforts to harmonize the first vague glimpses of a half-
seen revelation of science with preconceived interpre-
tations of the sacred cosmogony, threaten to retard the

IIL] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 55

•

inevitable discovery of scientific truths which, when fully
known and appreciated, cannot fail to harmonize with
all other truths, and even to throw new light upon them.
One such investigator of the traces of art in the super-
ficial drift, in his anxiety lest any modification of the
popular opinion of the reoentness of man's introduction
on the earth should seem to conflict with the truths of
8acre<l Scripture relative to his cn»ation, exclaims : —
" We have more [K)aitive evidence that his first appear-
ance was characterized by many [)roofs of high intellec-
tual condition which our sacred iK*liefs attiich to his
origin, and tliat he was not primarily the ignoble crea-
ture that arrow-heails and flint -knives, and ossiferous
i:avem8 woidd so lamentably in<licate. The mighty
ruins spreml over the plains and great river water-shals
of the East clearly indicate his Oriental <Tadle-land,
when, in conjunction with the traditions of all nations
in the most remote times, he dwelt in palaces, luxuriated
in ganlens, worship|>e<l in temples of solemn gnmdeur,
an<l reared towers and pynimids enduring as the n>cks
from which they were hewn. The arts and S4*ience8
and commerce accom{Kinied the pnjgivss of his t4»rre8-
trial occujuition, bringing in their train the elegancies,
luxuries, and jn»rfected implements of defence or attack
which the highest stages of civilisiition imply/'* Such
argimients — advanctsl not in a mere {nipular lecture,
but Hubmitt4*d t4i the wction of the liritish Asso<*iation
to whi(*h Lyell h;ul communicat^Ml the obser\'ations and
n^Hults of hims(*lf an<l other wellH|ualifi(Ml investigators
on the same profoundly interesting and inii>ortant in-
quir}%- are urgtnl as S4>mething niort* significant tlian a
men* rhet4»riral generalizsit ion. Yet their author was
well aware that neither llotta, I^ayanl, Riiwlinson, nor

* RcY. John AmieriMiii. I).|l. "The* (;«Nili»pr \^ »i Maii in ii« Prrarnl
A*|irctii," Atknumm, <kH. I. |AA9.

56 PREUISTORIG MAN. [Chap.

any other explorer of the mighty ruins of the East, pre-
tends to have discovered the works of antediluvian
builders, or even the ruins of very early postdiluvian
generations. The Mosaic narrative, instead of justifying
any such statements as to the intellectual proofs that
characterized man's appearance on earth, tells us ex-
plicitly of the first beginning of kingdoms by the nomade
hunter, Nimrod, at the very lowest computation nearly
two thousand years : or, according to others, still re-
garded as probably erring in deficiency rather than ex-
cess, more nearly four thousand years after the creation
of man. The world's early historic chronology has yet
to be revised ; but meanwhile such arguments retard
• science, while they do a greater wrong to revealed truth :
marshalling the loyal defenders of the sacredness of
the Scriptures, in defence of human interpretations, as
worthy of such misguided loyalty as the zeal of the
Roman Inquisition on behalf of the Ptolemaic system
and orthodox astronomy, in its crusade against Galileo
and the Copemicans of the seventeenth century. What
then are the intellectual conditions pertaining to prim-
eval man, in so far as we can deduce them from the
joint records of science and revealed truth ?

The whole reasoning alike of the antiquary and the
theologian against the characteristics which archaeological
discoveries tend to assign to man in his primeval condi-
tion, originates in an illogical association of the con-
comitants of modem intellectual and social progress with
the indispensable requisites of man's primary condition
as created in the Divine image, a being of intellectual
and moral purity. It is not necessary for the confirma-
tion of a primeval stone-period for man, that we degrade
him from that majestic genesis of our race, when he
heard the voice of the Lord God amongst the trees of
Paradise and was not afraid. Still less is it requisite

UL] THK PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION : 8PEKCH. 67

that we make of him that " extinct species of anthropoid
animal" hastily invented by over-sensitive Mosaic geo-
logists to meet the problematic case of pleistocene
products of art. In that primeval transition of the
ethnologist in whic^h geology draws to a close and
archa^logy has its beginning, when the old orders of
organic life were disap{)earing, to make way for a new
and far higher order of beings : amid strange beasts of
the earth, cattle, and creeping things, we discern

** Two of far nobler thaiie, erect adiI taU,
Ckxllike erect, with native honour cUul
In naked majesty, leeni'd lunU of all ;
And worthy •vt*mM : for in their loolu divine
The image of their glnrioiis Maker ihone.
Truth, wisdom, tanotitude, tevere and pure.
Severe, but in true Hlial freetlom placed ;
Whence true authority in men.'*

But if our mo<lem technological standanls are to be the
only rect*ived tests of intellectual nobility, " his fiiir lai^ge
fnait and eye sublinu*," with all the grand suggestive
picturings of Milton s primeval man, are vain. His
arts, though ample enough for all his wants, by such
mmleni standanls declare him no better than '' the
ignoble creature that arrow hesids and flint knives
would indicate/' He neeiled no wea]M>ns for war or the
ehuM* : implements of hunlmndr}' were scarcely more
8upc*rfluous, amid a profusion far ampler than the luxu-
riant plenty of the islands of the Southern Ocean. The
ueedle ami the l(x>m were as foreign to his wants
as the printing-press or the eliH'tric telegniplL Wliat
dill he want with the {Matter's wheel, or tht* w^ulptor's
chisel, or the mason s tools \ ^Vnd if his simple wants
did suggest the need of some cutting implements, the
flint knives, or

•• Such other ganlrning t«"»U a« art, \rt nnU,
UuiltleM of fire, had f<»niie<l. "

58 PREmSTORIC MAN, [Chap.

harmonize with the simplicity of that piimeval life, and
its easy toils, far more naturally than the most artistic
Shefl&eld cutlery could do, with all its requisite prelimi-
nary processes of mining, smelting, forging, grinding,
and hafting the needless tool.

The idea which associates man's intellectual elevation
with the accompaniments of mechanical skill, as though
they stood somehow in the relation of cause and eflFect ;
and with the intellectual as the oflfspring, instead of the
parent of the mechanical element : is the product of
modem thought. The very element which begets the
unintellectual condition of the ignoble savage is that
his whole energies are expended, and all his thoughts
are absorbed, in providing daily food and clothing, and
the requisite tools by which those are to be secured ; or
where, as in the luxuriant islands of Polynesia^ nature
seems to provide all things to his hand, his degraded
moral nature unparadises the Eden of the bread-fruit
tree. Reasoning without any aid from revelation, it
seems difficult to conceive of man primeval as a being
starting into existence with artificial wants supplied by
fictile, plastic, and metaUurgic arts. Looking on him
merely from the palaeontologist's point of view, we should
be more apt to conceive of him as the infantile Hesiodic
savage, for whom the Titan Prometheus compassionat-
ingly sinned the sin of Lucifer, that he might teach him
mechanical inventions, and the obedient service of fire.
But the true primeval man, clothed in his own inno-
cence, and eating " angel's food," derived his moral and
intellectual nobility from far different characteristics than
those of the classical proto-metallurgists, Hephaestos or
Vulcan. In such a condition of moral purity and free-
dom, a Socrates or Plato, a Bacon or Newton, might
have wrought out their grandest problems.

The sacred narrative is singularly minute in its record

UL] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 59

of the introduction of the metallurgic arts to the human
race, doubtless in full recognition of the mighty revolu-
tions to be wrought by their meiins. Such is the brevity
of the whole antediluvian record that it may be doubted
if many have reflected on the great lapse of time that
intervened between the creation of man and his intro-
duction to a knowknlgc of metallurgy. It is not until
towards the close of the antediluvian era, fully a thousand
years after the expulsion from paradise, that Zillah bare
unto Lamecli, Tubal-Cain, the instructor of every artificer
in brass and iron. It might seem from the tragic song
of Lame<:h — that most ancient of all himian lyrics, —
which immediately follows, as if the first use of the
newly-discovered art had been for homicide. The newly-
cn*ated man had other ends to accomplish for himself
and his nu:e, than those which seem so pre-eminently
esHcntial in tliis era of such wonderful mechanical
triumphs. Wlien at length the mechanical skill of the
first great ship-builder was chilled into requisition, it was
not for the development of maritime enterprise and dis-
cover}', or the creation of a world-wide commerce : but
because Gcni lookcnl on the earth, tmd it rej>ented him
that he hml made man, and he said to Noah, '' The end
of all flesh is come before me ; for the eiulh is filled with
\noleure through them, and l)eliold I will destroy them
from the eartlL*

** And the whole earth was of one language, and of
one sjH»ech ;" but what was the language and 8|HH^ch of
man at the Ix'^inning of that previous non-mechanical
c|MK*h ? The development of s|H?ech into language was,
I conci'ive, a fitter luiil more needful i>ccuj>ation for
primeval man, than antici{>«itiug the wants of remote
generations by a premature birth of mechanical arts, as
superfluous to him as the luxuries of nnHleni fiishionable
life. In reopening the question of the origin of Ian-

60 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

guage, I am well aware that I deal here, once more,
with a question which has fomid its solution in hjrpo-
theses and deductions ranging through the widest con-
ceivable extremes. Nevertheless the remarkable pheno-
mena connected with the languages of the New World,
the elaborate and highly complex grammatical structure
of the speech of savage tribes, devoid of letters, or any
trace of past or present civilisation ; and even the very
existence of language, and its extremely diversified sub-
divisions and peculiar forms as met with on the Western
Continent : all combine to present this subject in novel
aspects, not without their value as helps towards the
solution of a problem so profoimd as the origin of
language.

Was language then, like the living soul, a divine gift
to the first man, and therefore created a mature and
self-consistent whole : latent, but ready without effort
for every new occasion of speech ? Or was man simply
indued with organs of speech, and with an innate per-
ception of relations between specific ideas and articulate
sounds, and thus left, with his mature intellectual powers,
to create words as he stood in need of them? The
answer seems even more explicitly provided to these ques-
tions than to that of the origin of metallurgic arts. The
first evidence we have of the existence and use of human
speech is derived from the exceedingly simple, yet sug-
gestive narrative which immediately follows the genesis
of man > " And out of the ground the Lord God formed
every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and
brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call
them : and whatsoever Adam called every living crea-
ture, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave
names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to
every beast of the field ; but for Adam there was not
found an help meet for him." He was, therefore, alone,

UL] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 61

without need of speech for the interchange of thoughts,
and devoid as yet of a companion with whom he could
hold inti*Iligent conviTse.

The sacred narrative fully accords, in its description
of the first use of siKv<h, with all exi>erience as to the
primar}' elements, and the indigenous or purely native
portions of language. Among these will certainly l)e
found the names of the most familiar fiiuna and flora
pertiiining to the habitat of the race 8i>eaking the hm-
guage. Alwtract or generic tenns, like the class of ideas
they express, are of late growth in every kinguage ; and
in our own are chiefly Iwrrowed from foreign tcmgues.
The names of individual animals are neeiled l>efore any
want of the generic wonl, auimnl, is felt. Even the
al)stra(-t idea of number is ditlicult to be conceived by
the uncultUHMl mind, ai>art from sjwcific obje<*ts enu-
merated ; nor d(K*s the mind necess;irily perceive any
common n4ation between forms, colours, (nlours, or
other ((ualities of objects, noted only for their diversity;
so that even the Anglo-Saxon, after providing an ample
native voi*abulary for the reds, bhu^s, blacks, browns,
and whites, familiar to his eye by their differences, has
at length to lK>rn)W the Uitin ciilot\ when he makes the
tanly dis4!ovcr}' of their conmion n»lation ; as he takes
from the same fort*igii S4)uree that of crime as the
generir t4*nn for the rrim^s with which his own vocabu-
lary is replet«'. This al>s4*ner of such abstract terms, com-
mon to all primitive stages (»f language, is as singuhirly
characti'ristic of the American Indian vocabularies, as
of the undevelope<l and unprogrt*ssive Indian mind. In
this view of language, the first reconknl use of sjieech,
in the naming of the living creatures, is full of signifi-
cance, and strikingly contnists with the Miltonic dia-
logues of our great English epic, lx*tween Bapluiel and
Ailam. A single example will suttice, where the arch-

62 PREUISTORIO MAN, [Chap.

angel describes to the first man the Satanic artillery, b}
the help of similes derived from modem architecture,

'* Which to our eyes discovered, new and strange,
A triple-mounted row of piUars, laid
On wheels ; for like to pillars most they seemed.**

The poet^s fancy of the invention of cannon, gun-
powder, balls, and bombshells, by rebel hosts of angelic
combatants^ ere our terrestrial planet was evoked from
chaos, is not more extravagant than the idea that the
speech of primeval man embraced in its vocabulary such
words as wheels^ pillars^ and all other terms of me-
chanical, artistic, and scientific discovery and invention
of later times.

In the slow migrations of the human family from its
great central hives, language imperceptibly adapted itself
to the novel acquirements of man. But with the dis-
covery of America a new era began in the history of
migration and all its attendant phenomena. Suddenly,
in the maturity of Europe's fifteenth century, another
world burst upon it, and the nations hastened to pos-
sess themselves of the land. But in its novel scenes
language was at fault. Beast, bird, and fish ; flower and
tree ; art, nature, and man himself, were all strange ;
and it seemed as if language had its work to do anew,
as when first framed amid the life of Eden. The same
has been the experience of every new band of invading
colonists ; and it can scarcely fail to strike the European
naturalist on his first arrival in the New World, that its
English settlers, after occupying the continent for up-
wards of three centuries, instead of originating root-
words wherewith to designate plants and animals, as
new to them as the nameless living creatures were to
Adam in Paradise : apply in an irregular and unscien-
tific manner, the old names of British and European

IIL] TUE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 63

fauna and flora. Thus the name of the English par-
tridge {Perdicida) is applied to one American tetranoid
{Tetrao umbellus), the pheasant {Phasianida) to an-
other, Tetrao cnpido ; and that of our familiar British
warbler, the robin, to the Tardus miyratorius, a totally
difiereut American thruslu It is only in a few instances
that anything like a distinct popular nomenclature has
been attempted, as in the designation of the cat bird,
the mocking bird, the blue-bird, or the snow-bird ; while
in other cases the native Indian name has been bor-
rowed.

This l>elongR, in part, to the condition of vitality
manifested by languages at a late sUige of development,
when the power of originating primary radicals has long
Wvn dormant. But it also leads to other ethnological
in(|uiri4*H, in reference to all names of animals, to which
we shxdl recur at a later stage. This much, however,
may \>e noted meanwhile, that looking to names of the
most familiar animals and plants, as they occur in lan-
guages of the Indo-Eurojiean or Semitic stock, each
nation appears to have native etymons for such, only
in so far as they were themselves native to the original
habitat of the nu'e ; and thus there are, to a certain
extent, philological centres of creation, coincident with
the supposed zoological ones ; though these greatly
varj' in their com{Nt>H. The l)eaver, for exiunple, though
now seemingly hiistening to extinction alike in the Old
World and the New, has once Inen a ver}' widely dif-
fused native, as its remains prove ; and this the philo-
l(»gical indie4itions of its name continu, e.g., Sans(*rit^
hiibhru, in all prolwibility an onomatoptuic root-wonl of
the class referreil to hereafter, derivetl from a cry of the
animal. In the Pehle\n branch of the Persian it becomes
6ao(Yf m ; Sclavonic, baber, and Ipobr ; Lithuanic, bebru^
bebrU: Icehindic, bi/r; Danish, bctver; SwediBh^ bd/ver ;

64 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Gennan, hiher ; Anglo-Saxon, befoTy boefer. The trans-
posed Latin form, jfiher, returns in the Italian to be-
vera ; Spanish, bibaro ; French, bidvre. The totally
diverse Koarcop of the Greeks, is a remarkable exception
to this general uniformity. Again the Welsh has its
own independent avaiigh, which, as pronoimced, bears
a suJB&cient resemblance to the Chippewa ajimeck, and
the Odahwah ahmiky to suggest the same origin : not
from any ancient root-word common to British Celt and
American Indian, but independently borrowed from the
animal's own cry. The Irish, again, has its doubly-
derived beavar and kastar ; but all the Celts of the
British Isles, Welsh, Gaelic, and Erse, agreed in a pre-
ference for a descriptive term suggestive of little fami-
liarity with the animal in its native haimts. Welsh,
Lhsthlydan ; Gaelic, dobhran leas-lecUhan ; and Erse,
davaron-lois-leathanj the broad-tailed otter.

In every great migration, or abrupt transition from
one country to another and diverse one, the emigrant is
placed once more in relation to the nomenclature of its
strange fauna and flora, in a position analogous to that
in which we recognise the first origin of speech. But
both the language which he uses, and the intellectual
faculties employing it^ are in a totally diflerent condi-
tion from those in which the linguistic instincts of man
first gave form and utterance to language. As lan-
guages in a late stage give birth to few root-words, so
nations do not as a rule, create original names for
foreign animals or plants, and no voyager or colonist
is found to have invented them even for such strange
objects as the omithorhynchus of New Holland, or the
orycteropus of the Cape. They either apply to them
such modifications of a native term as suflice to express
certain fancied analogies ; or more rarely they borrow
the unfamiliar foreign name, as alone applicable to the

Ill] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. M

unfamiliar object. Hence the strange quaclru{XHl to
which Blumenbach gave the name of Oruithorlnjnchus^
is the malhmgong and the tamhriHit of the natives of
New South Wales, while it is the duck-hilleil platypus of
Dr. Shaw, and the watormole of the English colonists.
So also the Orycteropus Capensis is the goup of the
Hottentot, and the innagu of the CafFre, while . it is
the aard-vark, or earth-pig of the Dutch boer and the
English settler of the Cape of Good Ho|)e.

But one remarkable class of exceptions to this law of
language in its later stage of growth, finds illustration in
certain names of the fauna of new countries, the etjTno-
logies of which are clearly traceable to onomatojKeia, as
in the suggested origin of the l)eavers name. In this
neiirest a{>pn>ximation to verbal cn^ations, the colonist of
the New World carries us back to the ver}' foundations of
language, and helps to solve one of the profoundest pro-
blems in philology. The simfilest of such names are
mere mimetic voice-descriptions ; but they recal to us
that natural significance of sound which seems to lie at
the foundation of all primary intelligent speech. Arti-
culate; sounds have, within a certain range, an ine\itable
association with certain sjiecific ideas. In the compli
cate<l structure of modem languages, the natund signi-
fic4ince of articulate sounds has l)een so overlaid with the
artificial growth of later times, tliat it can only be detecte^l
in fragmenta Yet lUl languages have their ononuitopoeic
t4*rms, and a certain adaptation of sound to sense and
ass<M*iation. The word thunder, like its i^juivalents in
other hinguages, had its origin in the idea of the sound,
the monosyllable liij/u in that of its a)>)H*anince ; and the
mimetic sound is {irem^nt in a thousiuid words des4*ribing
sensible objects, o|)i*rations, and cries. ClojJt, inAw, cut,
tjrunt, buzz, Mnore, ctnajh, ntjuenk, Utmjh, screechy ivrcam,

VOL. I. K

66 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

cry, roaVy etc., all have a significance, which in the infancy
of language must have been traceable over a large por-
tion of the vocabulary, and seems to lie at the very root
of the distinction between the vocal utterances of the
lower animals, and the intelligent speech of man. Even
now it pervades the most refined and artificial languages,
like onr own highly complex and composite English ; so
that the nice discrimination of the true orator manifests
itself in part in the choice of words harmonious to his
thoughts, and the law of the poet is universally re-
cognised : —

" TIs not enough do harehness gives offence,
The sound must seem an echo to the sense. **^

By the simplest adaptation of this imitative association
of ideas, the European settlers in the New World have
added to the stock of root-words. Thus the sloths of
South America {Bradypus communis, and Bradypns
collaris), have received from the Spaniard the name of
ai, in imitation of the plaintive cry they emit when in
motion in the forests. So also the Brazilian eagle {Poly-
bonis vulgaris), is called the caracara, from its hoarse,
peculiar utterance ; and the boruardi, or large toucan
{Ramphastos toco), is the piapoco wherever its voice has
rendered that sound familiar. The whip-poor-will {Cam'-
primulgus vociferus) is heard very distinctly, in the
Canadian and American forests, to utter throughout a
whole summer's night the name by which it is desig-
nated. The pewee {Musicapa rapax), the towhee {Em-
heriza erythroptera), the kittawake {Larms tridactylus),
and many other animals of the New World, have received
local or generaUy accepted names, all clearly illustrative
of words originating in the simplest primitive source of
imitation.

1 Pope*s Essay on CrUicisni, 1. 365.

m.J THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION : SPEECH 67

Such U an interesting illustration of the natural growth
of a vocabuhiry, consequent on migration, which the New
World sup))lie8 ; an<l in this direction we may look for
one, at least, of the primitive sources of language. De-
scriptive names, such as may be represented for our
present purpose by modem terms, like the tumstone,
kingfisher, fly-catcher ; or the white bear, red-poll, indigo
binl, scarlet tanagee, or golden eagle ; or, again, by the
hair}' wood) meeker, {>assenger pigeon, trumpeter swan, or
tell-tale tattler, — those, with corresponding names in any
ancient or mcKlem language, as in the Sanscrit, where
they al>ound, — manifestly imply the previous existence
of names of colour and metals, and the development of
dt-ju-riptive epithets of various kinds. In no sense can
such names l>e reganb^d as primitives ; but such was not
the characterintic of the earliest animal names, as may
{KThafis l)e illustrated by the fiimiliar wonl lion^ common
to nearly all the languages of Europe. It appears to be
an onomat<»p(eic primitive, whether we seek its earliest
root-form in the (J reek Ximv, or elsewhere. The lion was
a native of Macedonia within historic times, and there-
fore nee<led no liorroweil name in a Pehisgic or Hellenic
tongue. The word, though of indeiH.*ndent origin, has
tlie same natural derivation as our Eaiglish /oir, A.-S.
hUoicau^ the cry or liellowing (A.-8. belUxn) of a cow, as
in the Ssinscrit (/o, an ox ; and also our hidloo, as well as
tlie verb to hollo, A. S. ahloicttn: all iiuitations of na-
tural souikLh. Nor is our gain slight in such a pnK!e8s
of analysis, when we thus trace a wonl to a simple
natural origin. It is the only finality tliat b entin^ly
satiHfact4>ry in etymol(»gy ; contnisting in this respect
with many a derivation huntetl through Eiiglisli, Anglo-
Saxon, and all uitermediate stages, to a supiiose<l San-
m*rit root, still as arbitrar}' to us as the latest ftirm with
its associated significance. Such pure root-words^ more-

68 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

over, are formed like primitive points of erystalKzation
in language ; for the capacity of .a living language of
multiplying oflFshoots of the simplest roots is incalculable.
Take, as an example, the hawk, A.-S. hafoc : its name
has a common origin with havoc, a cry of encouragement
to capture and slaughter ; it is related to our primitive
auxiliary verb have, A.-S. hahhaUy to have, to hold ; to
haft, a handle, that by which a thing is held ; and hence,
in A.-S. hcsfty one held, i.e., a captive, a slave. As still
used in the south of Scotland, a haft is a dwelling ; to
haft, to settle in a dwelling, as in another sense we still
use a holding, a hold, a stronghold. Hence, also, a haven,
A.-S. hafen, from which we return to our original root-
word, in its Anglo-Saxon equivalent of hafen-hlcBt, liter-
ally, a haven-bleater, which was applied both to the
sea-gull and the hawk. But the oflfshoots of this simple
root-word have not yet been exhausted. The relation of
hehban, to heave, elevate, or hold up, to the more primi-
tive hahhan, to have, to hold, is not difficult to discern.
From thence, by regular gradations of change, we trace
our way to heqfig, heavy, difficult to hold up ; and so,
tropically, heafiic, heavy, sorrowful ; heavignes, sorrow ;
while in another direction the same hehban, to elevate,
gives origin to hefen, the eaves or elevated part of a
house, and, finally, to heben, heofen, i.e., heaven, the
highest ; just as in Scotland the Danish lofter has
been converted into the lift, i.e., the sky, the visible
heavens.

If the links in this chain are not forged by fancy, they
serve as the clue to a range of etymological wanderings
as widely contrasting the opening with the close, as those
through which the great Italian ranges in the visions
of his Divine Comedy, and ending as if, madder than
Hamlet, we did not " know a hawk from a handsaw''
{i.e., hemshatv, a heron) ; for the hawking cry with

III.] TIIK PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 611

which we set out \a unquestionably the same which
Antony introduces in his apostrophe to the '' bleeding
piece of earth/' when he exchiims : —

'* And Onstf^t tinrit, ranging for rerenge.
With Ate by his aide, come hot from hell,
8haU in theae coniinea, with a monareh'a Toiecv
Cry, IlatMc! and let alip the dug* of war.'*

Returning from this illustrative digression, and the
reflections which the primitive yUmv has suggestetl : with
slightly varying fonms the same word l)t*longH to the
oldest and most mcxleni of tlie Euroi^ean languages, and
has supplied t4) our own su(*h tropical oiTshoots as leonine^
lioHiWy an<l lioiis of that moileni breed for wliich Carlyle
suggests that, " in such liou'Soin'i^ might not each lion
Ih; ticketeil, as wine-decanters are ?" Hut the lion was
also native to the area of the Semitic languages, and has
its Hi*{mrate names, as though it had become kno^ivii to
tht*m a{Mirt fn>m those Eiisteni loi*alities in which the
Ind<»-Euni)K.*an {)arent race and language had their origin*
Tlie Hebrew aryrh or an\ Syriac <H7/'>, an? desiTiptive,
according to their derivation from the Hebrew verb,
cirrf/i, t4) tear, to rend ; th<»ugh this might seem a neetl-
less prticess of inversion, where the sound is not without
its suggestive mimicr}\ But of the origin of the I'optic
tnouee^ a lion, there can l)e no doubt. It is the s:ime
dc*sigmition as hiis had its inde|K*ndent origin in the
Englisli imrserv, fn>m the lowing of a cow; and is indeetl
nearly the n*|>etition of the mimetic X«W, with the labial
inst4*ad of the tlental. Traees of a similar inde)N*nd(*nt
origin of many wonls of the Coptic v«»oabular}' are full
of int4'n\st for us ; for some of these an* reeovennl fn>m
th«' m«>st aneient gniven nronls on the monuments of
Egypt. When Tln»th, who wjis the gixl of letters, first
ap|M*ared on the earth, then* was a tnulition, acconling
to IMutan-h, that the inlmbitants of Eg}'pt had no Lui-

70 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

guage, but only uttered the cries of animals, until he
taught them speech, as well as writing. The cry of the
Egyptian ibis still repeats its ancient name of hippep.
By some curious association of ideas, it furnished to the
Egjrptian the symbol of speech. Thoth, the god of letters,
had the ibis for his sacred animal, and is represented as
the ibis-headed deity ; and from its name come the Coptic
hap, judgment, hop, to conceal, in reference to wisdom,
secret or hidden knowledge. The illustrations of names
imitating the cries of animals, which the language of an-
cient Egypt supplies, are equally numerous and striking.
Take as examples : mcmee, a lion ; e'he, a cow ; htor, a
horse ; eoo, an ass ; tihor, a dog ; chaoo, a cat ; rurr and
eshau, a pig ; phin, a mouse ; croor, a frog ; petepep, a
hoopoo ; Tneni, a swallow ; djadj, a sparrow ; hqff] a ser-
pent. Many other words expressive of actions or qualities
had their origin in the Egyptian language by the same
natural process of imitation, as : owodjioedj, to masticate ;
thophthephy to spit ; omk, to swallow ; kradjkradj, to
grind the teeth ; rodjredj, to rub ; teltel, to let water
drip ; sensen, to sound, etc.

Such illustrations are of peculiar interest to us, derived
as they are from the language of the Egyptian monu-
ments, and one of the most primitive of all known human
tongues. They might be multiplied from many sources ;
and in the comparison of languages, the independent
origin of words of closely corresponding sound and ap-
proximating significance, serves to illustrate how all lan-
guage may have had its being. The Latin tonitru and
taurus are both imitations of grave prolonged sounds,
though the latter is derived and has its counterpart,
whether independently or not, in various languages, —
Greek, ravpo^ ; Syriac, tauro ; Chaldee, tora ; Arabic, taur.
The Sanscrit fvan may be assigned to a like origin, and
thereby also its Latin form cams. So also, as we have

IIL] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 71

the primitive SanBcrit ma^ for mother, Prescott remarkii
i»n the Mama Oello, or Eve of the Puruviaiia, am(»iig
whom mama signified mother, mamcu^vhotf matron ; as
among the Greeks we find the com*sponding wamra ^ikt
of Nausikaa, in the Odysst'i/. Nor is the Peruvian mama
a solitary example of the first simple word of the Eng-
lish nurBer}% independently employed in centuries and
regions ecjually remote. Among the Tlatskani, an Atha-
{Kiscan tribe, mama signifies father, and naa mother ; Imt
in other languages the former retains the feminine signifi-
cation* The Navajo, mah or diO-maJi ; the Weitspek, ma-
mus ; the Arapahoe, naimh ; the Sioux, emth ; Tuscarora,
eiia : Kenay, anna ; Adahi, amanie ; Guinau, amma ;
and the Escjuimaux, amama^ are all suggestive of the
same primitive origin as the English mamma ; for they
are not mere <lialcctic changes of one hmU wonL The
Guiimus are of South Americ^i, the Navajo Indians belong
to New Mexico, the Sioux to the remote North-west, and
the EfM^uimaux to the Arctic circle, while totally diverse
voc^ihularii*s inter\'ene. The natural connexions wliich
the mind still p<*rccivcs lx*tween certiun soun<ls aiul sen-
sations, wert^ doubtless greatly more numerous in the
earlii!8t I'ondition of language ; imd are more re4ulily i>er-
ceived where man lives chiefly in direct c«>nnexion with
the external world. Unimpressible as the Indians ap{H'ar,
I liave lieen int^'restinl in oljserN'ing that the interje<:tionid
value of the lung and short vowel sounds, which 8i*<'ms
t4) l>e instincrtively ap)ire(*iat4Hl in all hmguages, is fully
nxMigniseil by thcuL Ah! Eli! (Ui! Do! helas, alas;
liah, |Kdi, ha-ha, he-he, {whaw, ho-ho, so-so, {m>Ii, umph,
ugh, hugh, t*tc. ; these*, and the like inarticulate miunds,
in wliich the Indians largely indulge when exeiteil, as in
their danc4*tt, are, as it wen*, the raw material (»f language,
with an instinct iv(*ly n*cognLsiHl and unviuying signifi
cance. Some, at least, of the cuUMinantid soumls have

72 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

their distinctive significances no less cleaxly traceable in
the comparison of the representative utterances of wholly
independent languages.

In the illustrations derived from the nomenclature
adopted by the European colonists of the New World, we
see the re- adaptation of the vocabularies of one continent
to the natural objects peculiar to another and essentially
different one. This process is seen reversed, when we
turn to the native Indian languages. In them the ani-
mals introduced from Europe have almost invaiiably
received a descriptive name. The horse is called, in the
Cherokee, saioquili, the pack-carrier, from u-sawqui-la,
he carries a pack. In the Delaware it is nanayanges,
the animal that carries on its back ; in the Chippewa,
paihaizhikogunzhi, the animal with united hoofs ; and in
the Dakota it is rendered by a compound of 'stmgka, a
dog, the only native beast of bmxien. Hence it becomes
'sungkorwakcmg, the spirit-dog, or marvellous beast of
burden. In such terms the contrast is obvious to the
simple original fonns, all probably traceable to an ono-
matopoeic root, e.g., Sanscrit, apvahy Imro^, equusy hwse.
We thus perceive how, by such a process, a nimiber of
words may be called into existence by the presence of a
single new object. The Indian languages abound in de-
Hcrijrtive names, as is the case with many of those of Asia,
and indeed none more so than the Sanscrit, which has a
multitude of names for animals descriptive of their ap-
{icanmce, habits, cries, etc. But examples of self-origi-
giiiuted words, derived from the observation of natural
H^nmdK, no less clearly prove that the New World has its
own native root-words also. The following examples of
l^hip|H^wu, Ottawa, and Mississaga onomatopoeia will
^irtuv to illustrate this part of the subject, as developed
\^ iKo .Vlgouquin dialects : —

IIL] TUB PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION : SPEECH, 73

Shi^Kefb, the duck.

Eeen-en-wn^ the duck. This cry is heard during spring from gnaU

flocks of ducks which then frequent the lakes.
Ah-ah-uan^ a diver, a kind of duck.
CK^t^huK-koo-wan^ the plover.
Koo-koo-koo-oo^ the owL
Oo-oo-me-mt^ the screech-owl.
Mai^mait the rod-crested woodpecker, which repeats this sound about

ten times in quick succession.
Pau-pau-my, the common sfiotted woodpecker ; so called from the

sound it makes in striking a tree with its bill.
Gah kitu-ldn, a small owl, which repeats the cry yahMu in the woods

at night
Tchin-^eet^ the blue jay.
AuHd-a'^oih-htdHy the crow.
Gah-^U'f^e-ikttf, the raven.
Gak-yauMh-ko-nkdn^ the gull
liaMj a night-hawk.
Mooik'kah-o(t^ a kind of crane which fivqucnts marshy places, and

makes this sound, with a choking cry, in the evening.
So'Uo-no caU'Bety the hummingbird.
Shi-M-fftttif the rattlesnake.
Pe-ihfw^ the lynx, or wild-cat
Kfmt knfnk^ the sow.
Pak'kak^h'kw&n^ the cock or hen.
Aukoije-mtn^ the frog.
Dmddaiy the bullfnig.
PitH-itau-ki-natf^ the gnutshopper.

lu uU those names the n hais the Freiic^h pnmuuciatiou,
as in matin. The rorresjwuding evidence of the origin
of expressions for iiKinimate things by the s^une pnx-ess
of imitation, is still mon» interesting, as illustrative of the
in<l(*|K>ndt*nt growth and ex|Kinsion of hmguag(*s. Thus
fpinih, to smoke tol>areo, only oc<'urH in com|N>unil wt>nls,
as piCiih-^jun^ a toliiieeo-pijHi ; inuh'un^pu\th^ I am out of
toliaceo. Thf noiw of wave.H, on the wat4T, or dashing
th(*ms4*lves jigaiinst the rocks, is (*alli*d fiiff/i-</tori-y(ff//(/i-
kiib^ i.e., tlie lake nmm. The imitative siiund, ytrnJi^ is

74 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

sufficiently apparent It is made to form a part of the
name of the gull, the cry of which \& generally accom-
panied by the sound of the waves ; and is modified to
express other noises, as paicsh-ke, it bursts with heat. As
the wind travels through the forest, it produces different
sounds, according to the character of the trees. In the
pine forest it is a melancholy, prolonged gush, and is
thus expressed : mah-divoryaund'ahrgah-shi. This is
applied to the wind when sweeping through all trees the
foliage of which is perpetually green, as the hemlock,
cedar, and pine ; but when it sways the forest branches
of the maple, beech, and oak, it is Tnah-dwahi'mah-gah'
shi. So also the Indian says, gaiis-kwa, it makes a rust-
ling noise ; tchuh-tchu-mo^ he sneezes ; gweesh-gwa-shiy
he whistles ; he makes a noise with the hand on the
mouth, is sah'Sah-qua ; it hails, sah-sahgun ; he coughs,
oo-soo-soO'dum. To laugh is hah-pshy to cr}'-, mtih-w^h ;
and many sounds pertaining to the arts and usages of the
European intruders have given rise, in like manner, to
the requisite additions to the Indian vocabulary ; as ut-
tO'tah^gun, a beU ; paush-ske-zi-gun, a gun.

These examples of self-originated elements of language
may suffice to illustrate the peculiar force of that earliest
notice of the divine gift of speech to man, when every-
thing that had life received from him its name. In this
first employment of human speech, one primeval source
of the root-words of language seems to find its illustra-
tion in full accordance alike with d priori probabilities
and with later experience. For in whatever form that
intellectual endowment was bestowed, it is inconsistent
with all philological analyses to conceive that the pro-
genitors of our race received at the beginning a latent
vocabulary of arbitraiy but definite vocal utterances, fitted
for intuitive adaptation to every subsequent revelation,
alike of the external universe and the world of thought.

UL] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 75

But a very different line of reasoning has been rag-
g(»ted to the mind of the most philosophical of the natur-
alists who have found an adopted home in the New
WorhL *• As for languages," says Agassiz, " their ci)m-
mon structure, and even the anailogy in the sounds of
diiferent languages, far from indicating a derivation one
from anotlier, seem to us rather the necessary result of
that simihirity in tlie organs of speech which causes them
naturally to produce the same sound. Who would now
deny that it is as natural for men to speak as it is for a
dog to liark, for an ass to bniy, for a lion to roar, for a
wolf to howl, when wu> see that no nations are so barbaiv
ous, so deprived of all human chanu;ter, as to be imablc
t4) express in language their desires, their fears, their
ho)»es ? And if a unity of language, any analogy in
sound and structure lietween the languages of the white
races, intlicate a closer coimexion between the ditferent
nations of that race, would not the difierence which has
lK*en oli8er\'ed in the structure of the languages of the wild
racA«— would not the [>ower the"? American Indians have
naturally to utter gutturals which the white can hanlly
imitate, atfonl additional evidence that these races did
not originate from a comnum sto<*k, but are only closi»ly
allieil as men, endowed ecpially with the same intellt*ctujd
|iowt*rH, the same organs of t^iNH^ch, the same Hym|mthies,
only tlevel<»iH.Hl in slightly dilfen*nt ways in the ditfcn>nt
races, [>recis<*ly as we ob8er\'e the fact l>etween closely
allieil siK*<'ics (»f the s;ime genus among UinlsT'^ Here
thf writer fa4*cs lM>ldly the extremest conclusi4»ns ti> which
such pn»muk»s lead. Rave is rmployinl iis the e<[uivait*nt
of ifjpetut'A^ and philoh^cal altiuities in languages are
viewed only as e<|uivalt*nt Ut the similarity <>f intonation
in tlie not4*s of cl<»scly allietl si^ecies of binls or lieasts.
Th€*y did not acquire such com*s{H)nding uttenim^es by

« Badom CkHMkm ExnmUmfr, art. Tfpf^Mmmkmd^ fv 381.

76 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

learning each other's notes ; and so the writer proceeds :
" Why should it be diflFerent with men ? Why should not
the different races of men have originally spoken distinct
languages as they do at present, differing in the same
proportions as their organs of speech are variously modi-
fied ? And why should not these modifications in their
turn be indicative of primitive differences among them ? '^
That man has within himself not only the faculty of
vocal utterance, which is the true equivalent of the voice
of the lower animals : but also that power of evolution
of an intelligent language by which to communicate his
thoughts to other men, which is his grand distinction
among animated beings, is unquestionable. It has been
attempted to be shown, in previous pages, that language
is not primarily the arbitrary association of articulate
soimds with specific ideas, but that probably all primitive
root-words had a recognised relation between sound and
sense. This even extends to the separate phonetic elements
of words ; so that the choice of these appears to have a
certain fitness, only now preserved to us in the mutilated
fragments of primitive speech surviving in existing lan-
guages. From the ideas set forth above, it further fol-
lows that many root-words have been independently
added at later stages, and in younger languages imder
process of development. The innate and primary sig-
nificance of articulate sounds, however, maintains its
influence throughout; and in innumerable cases corre-
sponding sounds have been chosen to express independ-
ent, yet related ideas, in different languages. But it is
a grave error to confound this unity of sound with the
analogies of grammatical structure by which the aflBnities
of languages have been traced ; and it is no less a mistake
to assume that the contrast between the harsh gutturals
of the Ked Indian, and the soft vocal modulations of
the cultured European, presents any true analogy to the

ni]

TUB PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION : SPEECH.

organic differences which produce, on the one hand, the
rough hai-sh cry of the eagle, nnd on the other the melo-
dious trilling of the thrush. And here the mediesval
antiquary comes to our aid. No Indian savage ever ex-
ceeded in ferocity the {)ld Norse vikingr Regner Lodbrok,
or Sidroc the Dane. By such, England and the Scottish
Lowlands, from the Hiimber to the Forth, were chiefly
settled under the Dane-lah conceded by Alfred to Uuth-
ran ; and by the same fierce sons of Odin was that knd
recolonized where, under the Normans of a later genera-
tion, the Langue d'oil acquired its greatest polish and
regularity. The rough guttui-als of the Norseman still
give character to the Northumbrian and Scottish dialects,
where they had no such mellowing element to subdue
them as wooed the continental Norman to the harmoni-
ous language of the Trouvferes. The change was doubtf-
less in part an organic one, such as unfits the White for
imitating the harsh gutturals of the Eed Indian. We
see this illustrated in the Eamiliar alteration of voice
which a alight inilammation of the bronchial glands pro-
duces ; in the permanent change of the male voice at
puberty ; and also in its arrestment by emasculation.
But if the supposed analogies between the notes of the
wild bird of prey and the language of the wild Indian
were true, the organic change shoidd be accompanied not
by the mere roughening of vocal modulations, but by
the development of Indian speech. In England, where
the Danish settlers long retained their native language,
Tkorshy, Askerhy, Coningshy, and many another colo-
nist's name, coupled with his Danish " hye" or abiding-
place, still attest his foimer presence. In France, the
corresponding Tourvillti, TancervilJe, Hagueville, etc.,
show how speedily the rough Thor, Tancred, and Haco,
accepted the Romano-French of their adopted country.
What followed shows wliat change of language can effect

78 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

on the organs of speech ; and once more illustrates how
indispensable it is to keep the intellectual elements ever
before us as an essential part in the natural history, as
weU as in the civil history of man. "The phenomenon
of the organs of speech yielding to social or moral inliu-
encesj and losing the power of repeating certain sounds,
was prominently observable amongst the Normans. No
modem French Gazette writer could disfigure English
names more whimsically than the Doomsday Conmiis-
sioners of William the Conqueror. To the last, the Nor-
mans never could learn to say, * Lincoln ; ' they never
could get nearer than ' Nincol ' or ' NicoleJ " ^

Nevertheless the phenomena presented to the natural-
ist by the American variety of man, as weU as by the
allied species of animals suggesting comparisons with
others of the same genus in Europe and Asia, have taken
strong hold on the mind of the gifted American student
of science above referred to : in whose processes of
induction, philological affinities and the grammatical
structure of languages are of small account. As one
curious collateral illustration of a phase in the organic
elements of language, the arguments of Agassiz claim
special notice here, as the ingenious speculations of the
most distinguished among the scientific naturalists of
America. In his latest contribution on this subject he
observes : " Much importance is attached to the affinity
of languages, by those who insist on the primitive unity
of man, as exhibiting in their opinion, the necessity of a
great affiliation between all men. But the very same
thing might be shown of any natural family of animals :
even of such families as contain a large number of dis-
tinct genera and species. Let any one follow upon a map
exhibiting the geographical distribution of the bears, the
cats, the hoUow-homed ruminants, the gallinaceous birds,

^ Palgrave, UUrtory of Normandy and England, vol. L p. 703.

III.] TUE PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 79

the ilackfly or of any other families^ and he may trace as
satiisfiEu^torily aa any philological evidence can prove it
for the human language, and upon a much larger scale,
that the brumming of the beara of Kamschatka is akin
to that of the bears of Tlul>et, of the East Indies, of the
Sunda Islands, of Nepal, of Syria, of Europe, of Sil>eria,
of the United States, of the Rocky Mountains, and of the
Andes ; though all these bears arc considi^red as distinct
species, and have not any more inherited their voice one
from the other, than tlie ditferent races of man."^ The
same argument is applied throughout the different species
referred to, down to the gay and harmonious notes of the
thrushes, uttered by all "" in a distinct and independent
dialect, neither derived nor inherited one from the other,
even though all sing thnishvi/iJ'

So far as this ingenious analogy affects the question of
innate or inherited voice, it amounts to no more than
this, tliat bears are liears, and men, men. No philologist
imagines the human voi(*e to l)e inherited in any other
sense than every ]wrt of man s organic 8tru(*ture is in-
herited. Rut neither does any philologist d(»ubt that the
language which his orgsins of Hpee<*h enable him to ex-
prcHs is inherited, that is, deprived from others by imita-
tion and memory, in a way that no inferior animals
utteranc(>s are acquired. The affinities thus notetl by
the oliservant naturalist relative to such closely allii^l
systems uf intonations running thnmgh each whole
fiimily are full of interest ; though not from any analo-
gies they present to the affinity of languages. They
rather seem to illustrate the striking contrast betwet^n
the gift of spee4*h and the origin of languages. Each
living being was created with its H{>et*ial organs of voice
and utterani*e, and haa {R*rpetuat4*d thi^ne with all the
other 8{)ecialities of its peculiar organization. The mew

» imd^moms JTmm 4/|A# iSWlA, p^ xv.

80 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

of the cat embraces along with a labial consonant the
whole range of vocalic sounds, mi-a-e-o-u, but so also
does the familiar noise of the door swinging slowly on
its hinges. The vocal sounds of the human voice can be
executed with an organ stop, for they are produced
mainly by the breath being expelled through the
throat and mouth, lengthened or shortened by the
lips according to the required note. So also the same
organs of sound, when employed in whistling, can be
made, like the artificial pipe, to imitate all the varied
notes of singing-birds. But the finch transferred to the
neighbourhood of the lark, or the cuckoo reared in the
nest of the linnet, does not lose its own notes for those
of its companions ; as the English child reared in France
or Italy, or stolen by the wild Indian of the American
forests, acquires the speech of its nurse, and unless
trained in its utterances, loses its own mother tongue.

The bray of the ass, though an act of volition, is no
intellectual effort, such as the most foolish of human
speech is. K the ass will utter its voice it cannot choose
but bray ; and no training, but only a complete change
of its organs of sound, could enable it to low like the ox,
or mew like the cat. There are indeed weU-known ex-
ceptions, for we can teach the parrot, the starling, and
one or two other birds, to imitate certain words, and
even sentences : that is, to utter a few consecutive sounds
of the human voice. In other words, we can so far super-
add speech, in its narrowest sense, to the inarticulate
utterances of their vocal organs ; but we cannot give
them language. Language pertains alone to him who is
not only divinely endued with the breath of life, but the
inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding.
"According to my fullest conviction,'' says William Hum-
boldt, " language must be regarded as naturally inherent
in man, for it is altogether inexplicable as a work of hLs

III.] THE PRIMEVAL OCCUI'ATIOy : SPEECH. fil

uuderstauding in ita simple eousciouaness. We arc nonu
the better for allowing thousands and thousands of yeais
for its invention. There could be no invention of lan-
guage, unless its t)-pe already existed in the human
understanding. Man is man only by means of speech,
but in order to invent speech, he must be already man."
It is only by conceiving an inevitable relation between
the innate faculties or intellectual instincts of the human
mind, and the constructional elements pervading all lan-
guages, that we can account for the remarkable structural
(consistency and comprehensive subjection to giTiminatical
law, recognisable in the languages of rude unlettered
tribes. The vocabularies of languages are complex, in-
consistent, and fequently lawless, and as we trace them
back, they are found to proceed from very diverse
sources ; but the further we follow up any language
towards a conceivable beginning, the more full, com-
plete, and consistent its grammaticid forms prove to be.
This alone seems sufficient to confute the idea of man's
origin by development from any inferior, unintelligent
order of animated beings. Such a conception, to which
some modem theories of science so strongly tend, pre-
supposes an animal devoid of speech ; and as intellect
dawns on it in its first stage of development into the
reasoning and reflecting being, its originally limited
powers of utterance gradually extend their compass, and
language woidd thus Ije the slow product of efibrt, prac-
tice, and culture. On such a theory the detached ele-
ments of a vocabulary would be the first product ; and
the scientific relations of the grammatical forms of lan-
guage would pertain only to its latest stages, and in their
most perfected condition, to wTitten languages. But the
very opposite is the ease ; justifj-ing the inference that
an intelligent mind, and an understanding endowed
with the forms and laws uf structure involved in the

82 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

most perfect condition of language, were endowments
of primeval man : fitting him for developing the
associative relations of sound into a vocabulary ex-
panding with his growing knowledge and intellectual
requirements.

Such, then, appears to be a reasonable conception of
the primeval occupation of man. Preeminent among
created beings, with the full compass of vocal utterance,
the type of language present in the human understand-
ing, and the most delicate sense of association between
his ideas of the external world, its forms and aspects, and
articulate sounds : it was an intellectual instinct for him,
replete with delight, thus to associate his ideas, by a fine
sense of fitness, with articulate speech* Such, accord-
ingly, is the work in which we find the first man engaged,
as the sacred narrative discloses to us the earliest glimpse
of him, entering on his terrestrial domain as the lord of
the whole inferior creation ; before the solitude of Eden
presented to him a companion endowed with correspond-
ing gifts, with whom he could exchange intellectual con-
verse. Such, as it seems to me, is no unmeet occupation
for him who there, surrounded by the exhaustless supplies
of a luxurious climate, needing no superfluous ornament
of dress, no busy loom, nor weapons for war or the
chase ; no palace wherein to dwell ; no temple made
with hands wherein to worship :

'* In naked majesty seemed lord of all.
And worthy seemed."

Looking at the origin of language by the natural pro-
cess here suggested, it is obvious that its unity may be
too strongly insisted on as an inevitable consequence of
unity of race ; for the perception of the natural signifi-
cance of articulate sounds, though blunted, is by no
means lost The exclamatory use of nearly all the vowel
sounds has a universally recognised significance. The

IIL] TllK PRIMEVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH, 83

instinctive and involuntary human utterances, of which
laughing and cr}nng are the most noticeable, though by
no means the only ones, are in like manner universal ;
and aU ears respond to the cultivated utterances of do-
mestiaited animals, and especially to the varying tones
of man's universal compiinion, the dog. There it is, if
at all, that we find any analogy to human hmguagc. Its
whine, its l>ay, its whimper, its bark, its yelp, its growl,
its snarl, its snap, its howl, are each distinct utterances ;
and every one of these names is a word directly derived
from this dog-language. An intelligent dog can be
spoken to, and catches many ideas from the sounds of
its master's voice ; while he, again, can tell by the tone
of his dog's bark, when it is greeting an acquaintance,
threatening an intruder, repelling a l)eggar ; or whether
it is (mly indulging in that lil)erty of fti)eech which Is the
birthright of every civilized dog, and taking an abstract
bark at things in geneniL By the pnK^ess thus referred
to, many considerable |>ortions of national vorabuhiries
must luive originated independently ; nor is the corre-
spondence of wonls of this class in different languages
any pnx)f of a common derivation. They constitute
what may lie called a distinrt sptries of wonls, and Ikv-
long primarily to far older fontiations than the supple-
mentary mlditions l)orn)we<l from foreign languages to
supply the growing necessities which the progress of
civilisation creates ; though thry may liave their origin
at any |)eri<jd of the growth of a language. Derive^!,
however, from such natural sources, each locdity and
region will thus have certain distinctive features of its
own. The very irries of animals, and the mcnlulated
rhythms of the wocMl-songsters, as well as the natural
sounds peculiar to mountain, sea-coast, forest, and prairie,
give origin to terms which Un^ome {Kvuliar native nnit-
wonls of 4*t^rtuin loraJitii»s. Ami, given a single n«»w

84 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

root-word, we have seen to how great an extent the lan-
guage may be enriched by its oflFshoots.

But while this theory of the primary origin of language
is at variance with that idea of unity, which would seek
to trace back the whole multiform vocabularies of the
world to one common source ; it by no means conflicts
with the scientific recognition of the grammatical affinities
of languages, whereby the closest relations may be trace-
able in their construction, with only a smaU percentage
of words in common. Such is the relationship subsisting
between the Anglo-Saxon and Sanscrit, though the latter
was a dead language before the former acquired its in-
sular life ; or again, the contrasting correspondence trace-
able between certain of the languages of India, with a
grammatical structure purely Tamul, and vocabularies
chiefly Sanscritic. Names of things and the vocal equi-
valents of ideas are transitory, when compared with the
grammatical construction of a language. The vocabulary
is exposed to every arbitrary change and foreign intru-
sion. Whatever affects the use of the organs of speech,
be it climate, acquired habits, or imitation of novel arti-
culations, inevitably leads to some change in the words ;
so that instances are common, of mutually intelligible
dialects of one languages becoming in a few generations
independent foreign tongues. The vocabulary has broken
down, with trifling resistance to the transforming influ-
ence of external forces. Among the American Indian
languages this is peculiarly noticeable ; and is commented
upon by the French Jesuit Fathers, as occurring within
their own knowledge among Canadian tribes. But amid
all this instability of the vocabulary, and the seemingly
chance and lawless changes of a language adapting itself
to the commonest wants of the uncultured savage : yet
the grammatical structure survives, as in that of the
Lenni-Lenap^ or Delaware Indians, with its rich, regular,

IIL] TUK PRIMBVAL OCCUPATION: SPEECH. 85

and systematic forms closely following the analogy of the
ideas they arc intended to express ; and adapting them-
selves to the most delicate modulations of thought Here
is an element of language, to which the sweetest har-
monies of modulated wood-note rh}rthms present no ana-
logy. By inflections as truly regulated by the science
of grammatical laws as the language in which Plato
wrote and Pindar sung, the wild, imlettered Indian mo-
difies each root-word, or complex word-sentence, so as to
express number, time, quality, or passion, as if guided
by an intellectual instinct operating upon the reasoning
faculty common to man.

86 PREHISTOMIC MAN. [Chap.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION: INSTINCT.

A PRIMEVAL "stone period,'^ preceding the earliest dis-
coveiy of metaUurgic arts, appears to underlie the most
ancient traces of European civilisation, and according to
recent discoveries carries back the evidence of man's
presence in Europe to ages long prior to the earlfest
glimmering of a historic dawn. Some " invisible things
from the creation of the world, are thereby clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made." And
how grand are the promises of coming revelations in re-
ference to man, which such glimpses disclose. ** To every
thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under heaven." Through the unmeasured vistas of the
past they move onward with measured and beautiful
progression. Man existed in the purposes of God through
countless ages, before the world, with all its teeming life,
was animated with new life by his presence ; and know-
ledge also for man has tarried its appointed time. Let-
ters, arts, numbers, maritime discovery, the invention of
the great mechanical powers, the evolution of the great
intellectual disclosures, astronomy, gravitation, geology,
and ethnology itself, have each had their time to be bom,
and were each an impossibility till then. And what are
these but glimpses of what is yet to be revealed ; stimu-
lants to exertion, encouragements to hope : and also
fresh proofs of man's immortality, since time is so inadc-

IV.] TUB PRIMEVAL TRANSITION: INSTINCT 87

qnate for the study of the universe of God " I know
that whatever God doeth, it shall l)e for ever. Nothing
can be put to it, nor anything taken from it ; and God
doeth it, that men should fear before him."* Like chil-
dren, we receive each new gift of knowledge, each fresh
acquisition of power, withheld from us till we were able
to turn them to some wise account. And why then
should we desfMiir of any conceivable compsiss of the
revekitions that shall be ?

Human intelligence and research have already accom-
plished so much, that ignorance aione can presume to
resign any past event to utter oblivion. Between " the
Beyinning/' spoken of in the first verse of the book called
Genesis, and the creation of man, the most humble and
devout of BibUcal students now acknowledge the inter-
vention of ages, comjMired \iith which man is indeed but
of yi^terday. Our whole written materials C4)nceniing
all tlnise ages are compn^hended in the few introductory
words of the Mosaic narrative, and f4>r thousands of years
man knew no more. Yet all the while, the gwlogical
record Liy there oj)en Iwfore him, awaiting Gods ap-
|iointed time. What so inconceivable as the recovery of
the world 8 history prior to man's creation ; but, indeed
is not ever}'thing im[)08sible until it is done ? iind the
history of man himself, though so much less incoui^eiv-
able, also an impossibility until it has been accomplislied (

But ethnological science bears a much closer relation
to the researches of the geologist than to the investiga-
tions of the antiquary. Hence the value and significance
of its system of classificatioiL In studj-ing the natural
history of man, a great point is g:iin<Hl if we can estab-
lish the fact ttiat in certain st;igi*s of his so<*iid ^levelop-
ment he existed without any knowletlge of metallurgic
lurts, and to these stages we give th«* name* of the '*8toue

III. u

88 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Period.'' Also, it is of value to note the characteriLStics
developed by the introduction of metallurgy ; and as a
very important stage is chiefly marked by the use of
copper and its simplest alloy, this is designated the
" Bronze Period." Finally, the most abundant and prac-
tically useful of all, iron, is discovered and brought into
use ; and the period of transition between that of eth-
nological archaeology and authentic written history is
termed the " Iron Period." But these are ethnological,
not geological periods, and differ widely in their applica-
tion from the latter ; and it is desirable that this should
be fully perceived, in order to avoid needless conflict
with the labours of the antiquary, or any appearance of
slighting his valuable but diverse researches. Each study
has its own legitimate functions, though also they have
necessarily somewhat in common. The Roman antiquary,
as we have seen, admits that there is something poetical
" in talking of an age of stone, or an age of bronze, or
an age of iron, but such divisions have no meaning in
history, which cannot be treated as a physical science."
But neither ethnology nor archaeology advance any pre-
tence to being history ; nor, indeed, can Roman antiqui-
ties claim to be so, though they have a more direct
relation with it in such limited sense.

When we turn to the learned volumes of the classical
antiquary, the main subjects of investigation are inscrip-
tions : religious, military, sepulchral, and miscellaneous.
The very brick has its written record stamped on it.
Then comes the ruined villa, wath its personal ornaments,
domestic utensils, mural paintings, and fictile ware, all
of them occasionally inscribed. Next follow the rich
stores of the numismatist, supplying a consecutive chron-
icle of illustrated historical incidents. These are just as
much written chronicles as any mediaeval manuscript.
For the most part they are more minute, accurate, and

IV.] THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION: INSTINCT. 89

free from the obBcurities begot by credulity or prejudice.
Moreover, these, along with the minuter relics which the
Roman antiquary catalogues and describes, are merely
illustrative appendices and commentaries on histories
already familiar t4) hinL But the ethnologist, and the
primitive archaeologist as such, aim at different results,
and by an essentially different kind of evidence. The
object alike of ethnology and archaeology is to investi-
gate the physical history of man, in {mrt as the highest
branch of natural history, but also as no unimportant in-
troduction to the details of civil and personal histor}*.
Tlie language of all critical iuquir}', prior to the very
rwent period when the example and deductions of the
giH>logist had expandc^l the views of the arelueologist,
and enlarged his means of investigation rekitive to pri-
mitive history, may be aptly summed up in the wonls
<»f a distinguished literary antiquar}' aln»ady referred to.
" We liave no choice," says Sir Francis Palgrave, in his
History of Normandy and England^ "save In^tween the
light and the darkness ; for with respect to the pristine
ages of the world we know nothing historically true be-
yond the facts whereunto Holy Si'riptun* Ix'iir their
witness. The same ineffable wisdom, s{>eaking in them,
lias also anniliilated ever}' other authentic reeonl of those
remote eras ; or covertnl the memoriaK if any exist, with
an i)lj6curity which no acuti^ncns can dUj)eL" But is it
indeed so ? Tliis so-calkn.! ''lujUt"* is, with the student
of mcilio^val history, the era of chn>nielers who often
lie, still oftener blunder, and not unfreciuently add to all
an obscurity whieh acut4»ness is ver}' apt to darken in
the attempt to dispel

The whole religion and philosophy of miui an» com-
prehended in the two gn»at ({Uestions, Whence \ and
Whither \ To the one of these Keligion alone responds
with her divinely authenticated revelations ; t4> the otJier

90 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

ffistx)ry attempts to reply, with her imperfect and frag-
mentary additions to the sacred record of pristine ages ;
but for the world's primeval history Nature also has her
recorded revelations, though for well-nigh six thousand
years they lay unheeded or misread. Yet the records of
that geological history, pertaining to epochs long prior
to the chronologist's date of the beginning of time, are
not less, but more trustworthy than the great mass of
historical chroniclea

It is not the attribute of a large and liberal-minded
student to disparage other branches of study, because
they differ from his own. Geology and archseology are
but successive links in the same great chain of reasoning.
The earliest data of the archaeologist are found, where
those of the geologist draw to a close, in the debatable
land of the later alluvial formations ; and in so far as
history is the social biography of nations, these chapters
of our race's childhood and early youth, which thus fol-
low in uninterrupted sequence after the closing pages of
the geologist, are no less interesting and important to us,
as a race, than the youthful records of the individual
poet, philosopher, or hero, which often supply the key to
all that renders biography most worthy of study. The
further, indeed, our researches are pursued into the pre-
sent, the more are we impelled to aim at an ampler
knowledge of the past ; for ethnology and history alike
affirm, with an authority that will not be gainsaid, that
some races of the human family prove themselves bom
to dominion ; while others seem to have been ever de-
stined to the yoke of servitude, or but to hold possession
of their appointed lease of earth, until some chosen De
6ama or Columbus has revealed their secret, and the
supplanter summons them to give place.

Into some, at least, of the questions which ethnology
and archaeology are originating, it must be the province

IV.] TUE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION: INSTINCT 91

of the historian to inquire. The national individuality
of Egypt, India, or Greece cannot be separated from the
grand results which their histories disclose ; for on these
the ethnological peculiarities of each stamped some of
their most marked distinctions. The diverse elements
commingled in our British race, and their illustrative
arts, languages, and memorials of many kinds, are re-
ceiving an ample, if not always a wise or discriminating
study. Nor, while the ethnic specialities of the ancient
world engage attention, can it be overlooked that Ame~
rica still presents for us a singularly interesting phase of
primitive social life : the life of the forest savage, in-
herited from an ancient past ; wliile beyond it lie, half
obliterated, monuments of an extinct civilisation, with
memorials of rites and mythology, which still tempt
many l>old comparisons with the oldest chn>nicle« of
so< ud life in the African birth-land of arts and i)olity.
It is not altogether for the direct truths which he may
gK*an, tliat the historian finds encouragement in pursu-
uig his investigations beyond the limits of written and
graven annals, to the earliest efforts of intellect and the
primitive traces of human arts. These prehLstoric annals
are guides to secondar}' yet all important trutlis, show-
ing how deeply the sources of human action lie implanted
in the nature of man ; and how essential to the just in-
teq>retation of the external life of a nation is the know-
letlgii of the ethnic elements, and the intellectual germs^
pure or mingleil, out of wlu4*h it lias been evolved. For
such etlmi<^ elements are not {peculiar to ancient nations,
nor liave they wrought only in primitive times. They
survive as vigorously and as vividly now 21s when they
puzzled the obserx'ant credulity of Herodotus, or ilignitied
to Tacitus the chroniclings of Rome's dt*spised barboriau
akuquests.

IteasiUis Iiav4* lieen advauiretl in tlu* pn*vious chapter,

92 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

appearing to justify the belief that the earliest and
true primeval condition of man was a stone-period :
that is to say, one devoid of metallurgy ; and that his
mechanical arts were of the simplest kind. But that
he was, therefore, of necessity, a savage, is, as we have
seen, very far from being a legitimate conclusion. The
degradation of his moral nature, and not the absence of
the arts which we associate with modem luxury and
enterprise, made him a savage. The Arab sheikh, wan-
dering with his flocks over the wild pastures of the
desert, is not greatly in advance of the Indian of the
American forests, either in mechanical skill or artistic
refinement ; yet the Idumean Job was just such a pas-
toral Arab, but, nevertheless, a philosopher and a poet,
far above any who dwelt amid the wondrous develop-
ments of mechanical and artistic progress, in the ancient
cities of the Tigris or the Euphrates. It is not to be
inferred, however, as appears by some writers to be done,
that the whole history of the human race, and each of
its separate divisions, is aflSrmed to disclose a regular
succession of periods — Stone, Bronze, and Iron, or how-
ever otherwise designated, — ^akin to the organic dis-
closures of geology ; or that where their traces are
found, they necessarily or invariably imply such an
order in their succession. The only true analogy be-
tween the geologist and the archaeologist lies in this,
that both find their evidence imbedded in the earth's
superficial crust, and deduce the chronicles of an other-
wise obliterated past by legitimate induction therefrom.
The essential and radical difference between the palaeon-
tologist and the ethnologist lies in this, that the one
aims at recovering the history of an unintelligent and
purely instinctive division of extinct organic life ; the
other investigates all that pertains to a still existent,
intelligent being, capable of advancing from his own

IV.] THE VRIMEVAL TRANSITION: INSTINCT. 93

past condition, or returning to it, under tlie most diverse
external circumstancea Excepting, therefore, the na-
ture of their evidence, and their mode of using it, all is
contrast rather than comparison.

Amid that wondrously diversified series of organic
tieings which perfaiins to the studies of tla* geologist,
there appears at lengtli one, " the beauty of tlie world,
the paragon of animals,"* made in the image of God;
a being capable of high moral and intellectual elevation,
of wondrous design, and with a capacity for transmitting
experience, and working out comprehensive phins by
the combined labours of many successive generations.
In all this there is no analogy to any of the inferior
orders of l)eing. The ant an<l the beaver, the eoral
zoophyte and the bee, display sinji^lar ingenuity and
powers of combination ; and each feathered songster
builds its nest with wondrous forethought, in nature's
appointed season. But the instincts of the inferior
onlers of creation are in vain compared with the dt*vices
of man, even in his siiviige state. Their most ingenious
works cost them no intellectual effort to ac<]uire the
<Taft, and exj)erience adds no improvements in all the
rontinuous lalnmrs of the wonderful me<»hani(ians. The
beaver constructs a dam more jK»rftMtly than all the
best achievements of human ing«»nuity in the formation
of breakwaters, and builds for its4lf a hut whirh the
author of the Derlinr (uul Fall nf Ow Rmnnn Eminrv
justly rimtrasts in arehiteetural skill with tln» ruder
dwelling of the Asiatie Tartar. The U'r, in, forming its
cell, solves a mathematical ]»roblrm whirh has tasked
the labours of acutest analysts. liut carh in^t*nioUH
artificer is practising a craft whirh no master taught,
and to which it lias nothing to add. The wontlnms, in
Htuietive, living machine creates for itsi'lf the highest

i iiamUi, Act ii. ec. *i.

94 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

pleasure it is capable of, in working out the art with
which it is divinely endowed ; and accomplishes it with
infallible accuracy, as all its unfetught predecessors did,
and aB, without teaching, each new-bom successor will
do. To such wondrous architects and artists history
does not pertain, for their arts knew no primeval con-
dition of imperfection, and witness no progress. Of
their works, as of their organic structure, one example
is a suflScient type of the whole. The palaeontologist's
relics of preadamite life have been designated by one
popular geologist, " The Medals of Creation f and the
term, though borrowed from the antiquary, has a signi-
ficance which peculiarly marks the contrast now referred
to between the objects of study of the geologist and the
archaeologist. Like the several medals struck in the
same die, the multitude of examples of an extinct
species, each exquisitely sculptured coral, and every
cast of a symmetrical sigillaria, repeat the same typical
characteristics. One perfect example is an unfailing
type of all, and the cabinets of a thousand collectors
may present the like illustrations of extinct organic life.
The palaeontologist's one perfect example of an extinct
species, is for every purpose of science a specimen of
all examples of such ; even as the naturalist's history
of one specific zoophyte, ant, or beaver, is the history of
all ; and the poet's fancy may be accepted as literally
true, that —

" All the winged habitants of paradise,
\^ose songs once mingled with the songs of angels,
Wove their first nests as curiously and well
As the wood minstrel in our evil day
After the labour of six thousand years." *

But with the relics of human art, even in its most primi-
tive and rudimentary forms, it is far otherwise. Each

^ Montgomery, Pdican Island.

IV.] THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION : INSTINCT. 95

example possesses an individuality of its own, for it is
the product of an intelligent will, capable of develop-
ment, and profiting by experience.

But what experience waa, we know not, nor to what
results it led, in the generations of that antediluvian
worid, the brief biographies of whose jtatriarchs sum up
the records of well-nigh a thousand years in such words
as these : " And all the days of Methuselah were nine
hundred sixty and nine years ; and he died." What-
ever its intellectual and artistic results were, the close
of that first human era indicated a moral degradation,
which experience only tended further to corrupt ; and
when we look on the descendants of the postdiluvian
fathers of a renovated earth, man is still the same in
intellectual and moral capacity, but the days of his years
had been made as an handbreadth. And yet even with
his brief threescore years and ten, how wonderftil is the
accumulated knowledge and experience of a lifetime ;
and with how mournful a sense of in-eparable loss do
we often look upon the gathered knowledge of years
dissipated in a moment by the hand of death : the
casket broken, and the jewels scattered and for ever
lost. 1 had a brother once, a man of noble, genial
nature, and high intellectual capacity, just ripening to
maturity. What he did is not insignificant^ in a eai'eer
so brief and checkered. But what could he not have
done had God spai-ed him ^ But what is the accumu-
hited experience of an Edward Forbes or a Geoi^
Wilson, just attaining their prime, or a Hamilton or
Humljoldt, hoary with the weight of years and honours,
when we attempt to realize the progress of those prim-
eval centuries, the history of which comes to us in bio-
graphies of its great and good men, such as this : " And
Adam lived an hundred and thirty yeai-s, and Eve bare
him a son in hia own likencs.'? after his image, and they

96 . PREUISTORIG MAX. [Chap.

called his name Seth. And to Seth, to him also, after
he had lived an hundred and five years, there was bom
a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men
to call themselves by the name of the Lord. And Seth
lived after he begat Enos eight himdred and seven
years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the
days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years : and
he died."

It is the world before the flood : a mystery to us ;
yet not altogether perhaps without its existing records.
The apparent antiquity of the disclosures of human art
in the drift point to some unperished memorials of a
time coeval with the generations of antediluvian pa-
triarchs ; and when science has recovered so much in
refference to protozoic life, who shall pretend to limit
the possible disclosures relative to eras thus compara-
tively modern ! Works wrought, like the ark, in gopher
wood, and the fragile beauties, perchance, of a luxu-
riously developed art, such as the sensuous refinement
of later generations has begotten amid the grossest
sensualities, have perchance all perished ; but hidden
chronicles have recently been revealed to us, so amply
displacing a seemingly triumphant oblivion of old cen-
turies, that the oldest cannot be undoubtingly asserted
to be utterly beyond recall

But let us now glance at some of those various and
very diverse disclosures relative to man's primitive con-
dition of undeveloped ingenuity in mechanical science
and metallurgic knowledge. And first, in seeming
chronological order are those discoveries pertaining to
the transitional common ground of geology and archaeo-
logy : the human arts in the drift, or in ossiferous caves,
among the bones of strange orders of beings hitherto
supposed to have been extinct long anterior to the ex-
istence of man. In the ancient alluvial deposits — most

IV.] TIIK PRIMEVAL TRANSITION : INSTINCT. 97

mcxlern among the Btrata of the geologist,— lie abundant
traces of extinct animal life, l)elonging to tliat recent
transitional era of the glolN^ in which man was intro-
cluci»d to his terrestrial inheritance. Nevertheless, these
present in nejirly all resjKJCts a contrast to everything
we are familiar with in the history of our earth as the
theatre of human action, sc*arcely less striking than that
old geologicid ejHK*h wh(»n the liassic ocean of simthem
Enghmd swarmeil with strange ammonites, l>elemnite8,
and other C(*]>liidopxla ; and the reptilian saurians
Bj)ort<*d in its waters, or monstrous ptero^lactyles glided
over the surface on their huge l>at-like wings.

To the arcluuologist those dihivial strata arc his pre-
hist4»ric chronicles, rich in precious reconls of that prim
eval transition in which the lK*giniiings of his own history
lie. In a ztM)logiwil jH>int of view tlirse |K)st-tertiary
formations include man luid the existing nices of ani-
mals, JUS well iis the extinct races which apjKMr to have
l)e<*n contem|>oraneous with indigenous sjH»ciea How
early in timt closing geological ejKx;h man ap|)e;ired,
or how late into that juvluiM^logical em the extinct /
foHsil mammals survived, are the two inde|K»ndent pro-
positions which the sister sciences have to estal)lish and
reconcile.

The iiL^ular dmracter of Great Britain rt^ndere it a
peculiarly inten»sting epitome of an»lia^»logical study, a
micrr>cosm complet4» in itfH»lf, and little less ample in the
variety of its records than the great continent, ilivorce<l
fnmi it by the ocean ; yet the question may 1k» nN>|H»niNl,
WiLs it alreadv insular when its earliest alloi)hvlian
nomade first trml its unliistoric soil { The Caledonian
allophylian, as we now know, pursued thegigiintic* liida'ua
in an estuar>' which swc»pt along the l>ase of tlie ftu*-
inland Ochils, and guiilnl his tiny cantK*, above an ocean
betl, which hod to be upheaveil into the suusliine of long

VOK I. il

98 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

centuries before it could become the grand arena of
deeds that live associated on the historic page with the
names of Agricola, Edward, Wallace and Binice, of Mon-
trose, Cromwell, and Mar. Its history dawns in an era
of geological mutation ; yet not more so than such as is
now at work, in the grand solemn march of unwearying
Time in other and neighbouring historic lands. It is a
tjrpe of the changes which were working clsewheixj, and
gradually transforming that strange post- tertiary micro-
cosm into the familiar historic Britain of this nineteenth
century.

From an examination of its detritus and included
fossils, and from the disclosures of the peatmosses, wc
learn that, at the period when the British Isles were
taken possession of by their first colonists, the country
must have been almost entirely covered with forests,
a^^d overrun by numerous and strange races of animals
long extinct. In the deposits of marl that underlie the
accumulated peat-bogs of Scotland and Ireland, are found
abundant remains of the fossil elk, an animal far ex-
ceeding in magnitude any existing species of elk or deer.
Its bones have been found — at Walton, in Essex, for
example, — associated with skeletons of the mastodon,
and in the diluvium at Folkstone, with numerous teeth,
jaws, and detached bones of the extinct rhinoceros, hip-
popotamus, hyena, fossil ox, etc. ; yet little doubt is now
entertained that the elk was contemporaneous with prim-
eval man in the British Isles. Groups of skeletons have
been discovered crowded together in a small area, as at
Curragh, in Ireland, with the antlers lying thrown back
on the shoulders, as if a herd of elks had sought refuge
in the marshes, and perished floundering in the morass.
Some of their bones are still in so fresh a condition, that
the marrow in them has been described as having the
appearance of fresh suet, and burning with a clear flame.

IV.] THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITrON : INSTIXCT. 9!)

Stone hatchets, flint ji.rrow-hea(la, and fragmenta of pot-
tery have been found with these skeletons, under elrcmQ-
stances that have abundantly Siitisfied geologists, as well
as archaeologists, of their contemporaneous deposition ;
and still further evidence seema to exhibit this gigantic
elk as an object of the chase, and a source of primitive
food and clothing. Professor Owen, in \m British Fossil
Mammals, has disputed Dr. Hsvrt's supposed example of
an elli rib niiirked with the wound of an arrow ; but
Professor Jamieson and Dr. Mantell note the more inter-
esting discovery, in the county of Cork, of a human
body exhumed from a marsliy soil, beneath a peat-bog
eleven feet thick. The soft paits were converted into
adipocire, and the body, whitih was thus still in gootl
preservation, was enveloped in a deer-skin of such large
dimensions, as to lead to the opinion that it belonged to
the extinct elk. Whether or not the latter concluiion
can be regarded as more than a probaliility, there appc-ir
to be little just grounds for doubt that this now extinct
species was coeval with the aborigines of the British
Islands. In the stxrae recent formation have been found
abundant traces of animals having a special interest in
relation to our present subject, as not only adapted for
the chase, but suitiible for domestication. Of the ancient
British Bovidie, the remains of the great fossil ox {Bos
primiffeniiui) ,'ire of frequent oecuiTencc, especiidly in
the alluvial deposits of Scotland. One skull, in the
Britisli Museum, from Perthshire, measures a yard in
length, and the span of the homs is forty-two inches.
Sir Henry de la Beche refers, in the Geological Observer,
to the discovery, in various submaiine forests, of foot-
prints mingling \vith those of the deer, and which he
conceives may have Ijcen those of the gi-eat fossil ox.
Of its existence con tempo nmeously with the British abo-
rigines nil doubt can be entertained, for its hones have

100 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chaf.

been found in British tumuli, and even mingling with
Roman remains.

The evidence supplied by the ossiferous caves of Eng-
land, as of the continents of Europe and America, is full
of interest from corresponding revelations. Kirkdale
Cave, near Kirkby Moorside, Yorkshire, has acquired a
special celebrity from the description and illustration of
its contents, given by Dr. Buckland in his ReliquicB
DiluviancBy in connexion with a diluvial theory subse-
quently abandoned. But Kent's Hole, near Torbay, has
been already referred to, not only as one of the richest
depositories of British fossil camivora, but also as having
yielded no less remarkable traces of primitive human
arts. When first examined, its roof was clustered with
the pendant cones of stalactite, and the floor thickly
paved with concretions of stalagmite, beneath which lay,
hermetically sealed, the prized relics of the geologist and
archsBologist, safe alike from disturbance and decay.
These have been minutely described in the Cavern Re-
searches of the Rev. J. MacEnery, by whom it was first
explored. From the accumulated relics of this ossiferous
cavern, so rich in evidence of that common transitional
ground on which the geologist and the archaeologist meet,
have been recovered many of the later palaeontological
specimens which now enrich the British Museum ; and
to its disclosures both Buckland and Owen have acknow-
ledged obligations for some of their most important data.
But the archaeological evidence is not less important.
Intermingled with fossil remains of species of the rhino-
ceros, cave-hyena, great cave-tiger, cave-bear, and other
extinct mammalia in unusual abundance, lay numerous
relics of human art, not only indicating the ancient
presence of man, but proving that he also, as well as
some of these extinct camivora, had found there a home.
His tools of bone, like others found on many primitive

IV.J TUB PBIMXVAL THAXSITION : lySTIA'CT. 101

Biituh BiteB, exhibit the most infmtilc Htagc of nidi-
mtsntoiy art Ftagtncuts of suo-baked uniH, and rouuded
slabs of slate of a plate-like fonn, were aasociatod with
the traces of nidc culinary pnicticcB, illustratiTc of the
habitii and tastes of the primuval savage Broken pottery,
calcined bones, charcoal, and uahcs, showed where the
hearth of the aliupbylion Briton had stood ; and along
with these lay disiicreed the flints, in all conditions, from
the rounded mass as it came out of the chalk, throng
the various stages of progress, on to the finished arrow

ikitwk UuB' tB).

Itpods and hatclirtii ; while nmall flint chips, and partially
used Hint-bl«Kk>s thickly Mcatttrvd thnmgh the? noil, serxod
to indicate that the ancient Itritisli trttplndytc Iind there
his workshop, as well as hi>4 kilt'hcii, and wmuglit the
raw materiiil of that primeval ntniM'-jH-'riiKl into the re-
quixitc tooU and wea{H»nH of the rlinm*. Nor were in<li-
cationn wanting of the si>ecific f<NM] of mnn in the remote
en thus n-<-allMl for us. IWidi's aceumuhited bones,
some at least the spoils of the chjute, near the mouth of
the cave a number of kIiuUs of the musMcl, limpet, and

102 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

oyster, with a palate of the scarus, lay heaped together,
indicating that the British aborigines found their preca-
rious subsistence from the alternate products of the chase
and the spoils of the neighbouring sea.

Such traces of aboriginal life in the British cave-
dwellers of Torbay, closely correspond with those ob-
served in exploring some of the remarkable artificial
caverns, or Scottish Weems. They are minutely de-
scribed in the Prehistoric Annals^ and need not be
further referred to here, except for one more index
they serve to furnish of primitive tastes. A remarkable
example of these subterranean stone-dwellings at Sav-
rock, near Kirkwall, in Orkney, was situated, like the
natural Torbay cavern, close to the sea-shore. The ac-
cumulated remains of the charcoal and peat ashes of the
long-extinguished hearth lay intermingled with bones of
the small northern sheep, the horse, ox, deer, and whale,
and also with some rude implements illustrative of primi-
tive Orcadian arts ; while a layer of shells of the oyster,
escallop, and periwinkle, the common whelk, the pur-
pura^ and the limpet, covered the floor and the adjacent
ground, in some places half a foot deep. Of these, the
limpet, though common on the coast, formed only a very
small proportion of the whole, while the periwinkle was
the most abundant. The relative accumulations of the
other shells — differing as they did from the present ratio
of the various moUusca on the neighbouring shores, — in
like manner furnished some slight index of the culinary
taste of the aboriginal Briton in those long-forgotten
centuries.

It is curious and instructive thus to note even so small
a matter as the tastes of the rude barbarian Briton, for
they supply a means of comparison between the very
divei-se races of the British Islands in remotely ancient
and modem times. The periwinkle is now annually

IV.] THE PlitMBVM TRANSITION : INSTINCT. 103

shipped in lai^e quantities from tlio Scottish coasta t*)
supply the markets of the British metropolis ; and at the
meeting of the British Association at Dublin iu 1857, a
paper was read Iwfore the zoological section, tending to
show that aueh is the demand for that favourite mollusc,
that it is in danger of being estirpatcd on the Irish
coasts.

By such facts the remote past is brought once more
into intimate i-elation with the present; and even in
matters so appiu-cntly tiivial as the nice discrimination
of the palate between the Patella imlgata and the Turho
lilt(yralis, we detect a correspondence between the tastes
of the rude aboriginal savage and the civilized Anglo-
Saxon of the British metropolis ; though even now it is
as a pi^pular favourite, and not as a coveted deUeacy,
that the periwinkle, and also the lai'ger Bttccimim umJa-
ium or waved whelk, are imported into London, and
gathered on the Scottish and Irisli coasts.

At Skara, near the house of Skaill, in the west main
land of Orkney, one of a singular class of early, though
probably only comparatively ancient stone structures,
desigiuited Fid's houses, is remarkable for an immense
aecmnulation of ashes round it, several feet in thickness,
plentifully mixed with shells, and the horns and bones of
deer and other animals. The building itself has been
(inly very piu-tially explored, but many curious relics have
bticn recoveretl from the suiTounding debris. Among
these are circular disks of slate, similar to those found in
Kent's Hole Cave, a large tusk of a wild Iwar, horns of
the red-deer, and numerous implements made of horn
and bone. But not the least curious of those i)rimitive
relics was a box, constructed of stones laid together in
the form of a miniature cist, within which were about
two dozen oyHter-shells, each |ticrted in the centre with
a hole large cnougli (o admit the linger. Oystere, it may

1 04 PREHISTORIC MA N. [Chap.

be remarked, are rare in Orkney. They now occur only
at two places, Deersound and Frith, the nearest of which
is eight miles distant from Skaill ; while the osteological
remains which accompanied them are those of long ex-
tinct Orkney mammals. There is no tradition either of
the deer or the boar in the Orkney Islands, unless the
names of the Deemess headland and the neighbouring
sound be assumed as topographical memorials of the
presence of the former within Norse or Saxon times. It
is scarcely possible, indeed, to conceive of the existence
of such fercB natures for any length of time, within so
small an area, after the occupation of these islands by a
human population.

Such are mere indications of a class of evidence alike
abimdant, and now readily accessible, relative to the
ancient traces of man and his arts, in the British drift
To those have now to be added, without materially
affecting the bearings of the evidence as a whole, dis-
coveries made by Mr. Frere in Suffolk, so long ago as in
1797, of flint weapons in conjunction with elephant re-
mains, imbedded in gravel overlaid by sand and brick -
earth, at a depth of eleven to twelve feet from the surface.
Some of these weapons are preserved in the British Mu-
seum, and in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries,
and are described in a recent communication to that
Society by Mr. Evans, as identical in form with those on
the Continent. " They present no analogy in form,'' he
observes, " to the well-known implements of the so-caUed
Celtic or stone-period, which, moreover, have for the
most part some portion, if not the whole, of their surface
ground or polished, and are frequently made from other
stones than flint. They have indeed every appearance
of having been fabricated by another race of men," and
it may be added are on a much larger scale, as well as
of ruder workmanship. Since renewed attention has

IV.] THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION : INSTINCT. !0S

been directed to the curious but bttle heeded discovery
in the post-pliocene be.ds of Suffolk, by the disclosures
at Abbeville and Amiens, the researches of Mr. Joseph
Prestwich and others liave been rewarded by the recovery
of additional primeval Hint implements on other English
sites, in the same diluvial gravel and clay in which teeth
and bones of the Mephas 'primigenius, the Rhijioceros
tichorhimis, the Hippopotamus viajm; and other extinct
fossil mammals abound. They have been recently found
at Icklingham, a second Suffolk locality, near to Cam-
bridgeshire ; in Kent, on the coast between Heme Bay
and the Reculvers, and at Swalecliff, near Whitatable ;
at Biddenham in Bedfordshire ; and in other post-plio-
cene deposits of the south of England. All of the
specimens present the same remarkable contrast to the
small and more finished implements pertaining to the
earliest sepulchral deposits. Compared with these, they
seem to be the memorials of au age of ruder strength
and still more infantile skill.' Tliis at least they place be-
yond all question, that the occupation of Britain and the
north of Europe by its earliest human population must
be referred to a period, compared with which the era
indicated by Roman, or the earliest ascertained Celtic
arts, is but of yesterday. Let us now leave behind us
that old continent with its confusing elements pertaining
to times when the ambition of Eome's " kurel-locked,
high-ghnsted, Cjesars " so overrode all nationalities, and
obliterated the memories of history, that even now it is
hard to persuade men there was a European world before
that of the CiBsars.

The city of Toronto, on the northern shore of the great
Lake Ontario, is built on the drift clays which have accu-
mulated almve the i-oeks of the Lower Silurian formation
to an average depth of upwards of thirty feet, and in

I QiuirlfHy Jonnfil nf QrtA. Sof.. vol. xVxi. p. 3C2.

106 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

some places are more than seventy feet deep. The con-
struction of an esplanade along the lake shore of the city,
during recent years, has exposed a cutting of upwards
of two miles in length, and averaging seventeen feet in
depth. The operations thus canied on have laid bare
the virgin soil of the most populous site now devoted
to the civilizing processes of European colonization in
Upper Canada. In one case only, so far as I have been
able to ascertain, did any trace of prior human presence
appear. At the depth of nearly two feet from the sur-
face, in front of the Parliament buildings, the bones and
horn of a deer lay amid an accumulation of charcoal and
wood ashes, and with them a inidc stone chisel or hatchet.
There were no precise indications that these relics were
of great antiquity, or indeed, that they were other
than modem ; possibly they may be as old as the time
of Jacques Cartier's discovery of Canada ; not impossibly
they may date beyond the era of Columbus, and the
intrusion of European aggressors on Indian hunting-
grounds. But the travelled fossils of the Toronto drift
are of a very different era, and belong to the Hudson
river group of the Lower Silurian, like the rocks on
which it is superimposed. These casts of Lower Silurian
fossils, however, are no index of the date of the greatly
more modem drift in which they are now enclosed ; and
which, with very varying organic remains embedded in
its clay and gravel, overlies the true fossiliferous rocks
of Western Canada ; and seems to make of its long
stretch of wooded levels and gentle undulations, a coun-
try fitted to slumber through untold centuries under the
shadow of its pine-forests, until the new-bom mechanical
science of Europe, with its novel applications of the
metiiUurgic arts, provided for it the railway and the
locomotive, and made its vast chain of rivera and lakes
a highway for the steamboat. With such novel facilities

p

IV.] TUK I'HtMKVAL TRAX.^ITIOX : IX6TIXCT. 107

adtlcd to the indomitable enei-gy of the intruding occu-
pants, the whole face of the coutinent is in rapid procesfl
of transformation ; and it is well, ere the change is com-
pleted, tliat some note be made of every decipherable
index of tlie ehoracteristics of a past thus dcBtiued to
utttT obliteration.

From the uncleared wilds that still occupy the shores
of Lake Superior, south-eastward through the great lakes
and rivers to the valley of the St. Lawrence, those drift
deposits reveal to tlie geologist marvellous chiinges that
liave transpired in that extensive area of the North
American continent, through a greatly prolonged period
of what to him are recent times. Along the low shores
stretching away from the rapids of Sault Ste. Marie to
the virgin forest of Lake Superior, the huge granitic
boulders lie strewed like the wreck of some Titanic
Babel ; and wherever the waves of the St. Lawrence re-
open the deposits along the lower portion of the valley
in wliich they now he, the sea-bottoms of an ancient
ocean are revealed, frequently with littoral or deep-sea
i*hells imbedded at difl'erent levels in the stratified drift.
But i-emote as m the antiquity, according to all human
chronology, to which the fauna of these beds of marine
detritus belong, the paleontologist detects among their
jJOBt-tertiary fossils the phoca, balieuEe of more than one
species, fishes, articulata, and the shells of many mol-
lusca still inhabiting the neighbouring ocean along the
northern Atlantic coasts. The period, therefore, wliich
embraces those relics of ancient life is the same to which
man belongs, and they mark for it one of the phases of
that last tranfiitional era during which the earth was
being prepared for bis entrance upon it Since the
natica. fusus, turriti:-lla, and other niiirine animals of the
post-pliocene jx-riod, were tlie living oceupnnts of the
St. Liiwreuee valley, Viu^t chitngL's have been wrought

108 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

on the physical geography of the continent. The rela-
tive levels of the sea and land have altered, so as to
elevate old sea-margins to the slopes of lofty hills, and
leave many hundred miles inland the escarpments
wrought by the waves of that ancient sea. The con-
ditions of climate have undergone no less important
changes, developing in a corresponding degree the new
character and conditions of life pertaining to this bed
of an extinct ocean : covered with successive deposits
of marine detritus, and then elevated into the regions
of sun and rain, to be clothed with the imibrageous
forest, and to become the dwelling-place through an-
other dimly- measured period, of the wapiti, the beaver,
and the bison ; and with them, of the Iroquois, the
Huron, and the Chippewa : all alike the fauna of condi-
tions of life belonging to a transitional period of the
New World preparatory to our own.

Marvellous as are those cosmical revolutions belonging
to the period of emergence of the northern zone of Ame-
rica from the great Arctic Ocean : when we look on each
completed whole the process appears to have been cha-
racterized by no abnormal violence. Slowly through
long centuries the ocean shallowed. The deep sea
organisms of a former generation were overlaid by the
littoral shells of a newer marine life, and then the tidal
waves retreated from the emerging sea-beach ; until now
we seek far down in the gulf of the St. Lawrence and
on the coast of Labrador for the living descendants of
species gathered from the post-pliocene drift. Thus we
see in the living natica, fusus, or turritella of the At-
lantic coasts, the lineal representative of an ancestry
reaching back to such antiquity as renders ephemeral
the boasted pedigrees of Europe's oldest Norman or
Roman blood ; while by the corresponding fossils of the
post-tertiary drift — ^which to the common eye seem in-

IV-] THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION: INSTINCT. 109

significant enougli, — the closing epoch of geology in the
New World is brought into contact with that in which
its archaeology begins ; ami we look upon the North
American continent as at length prepared for the pre-
sence of man.

Such records are here noted among the disclosures of
the great valley of the St. LawTence, which drains well-
nigh half a continent ; for it is in the valleys by which
the present drainage of historic areas takes place, that
not only such deposits of recent shells and fossil rehcs of
existing fauna are found : but also that the moat exten-
sive remains of extinct mammalian fauna are disclosed,
in association with objects serving to link them with
^ thcffie of modern eras. In formations of this character
have been foimd, in the lower valley of the Mississippi,
the Elejihas primigenivs, the Mastodon Ohioticus, the
Megalonyx, Megalodon, Ereptodon, and the Equiis curvt-
dens, or extinct American horse ; with many other traces
of an unfamihar fauna, and also a flora, contemporaneous
with those gigantic mammifers, but which also include
both marine and terrestrial representatives of existing
species. Correspontling in its great geographical outr
lines very nearly to its present condition, the American
continent must have presented in nearly all its other
characteristics a striking contrast to its modem aspect :
clothed though it seems to us in primeval forests, and
scarcely modified by the presence of man. In the poat-
pliocene formations of South Carolina, exposed along the
bed of the Ashley River, remains of the megatherium,
megalodon, and other gigantic extinct mammals occur,
not only associated with existing species peculiar to the
American continent, but also apparently with others,
hitherto believed to have been domesticated and intro-
duced for the first time by modem European colonists.
But still more interesting for nur present purpose, as

k^

110 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Caap.

jKKssibly indicating the contemporaneous existence of
Honio of those strange extinct mammals with man, are
notices of remains of human art in the same formation.
Professor Holmes, in exhibiting a collection of fossils
' from the post-pliocene of South Carolina, beforfe the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, remarked :
" Dr. Klipstein, who resides near Charleston, in digging
a ditch for the purpose of reclaiming a large swamp,
discovered and sent to me the tooth of a mastodon, with
the request that I should go down and visit the place, as
there were indications of the bones and teeth of the
animal still remaining in the sands which underlie the
peat-bed. Accordingly, with a small party of gentlemen,
we visited the doctor, and succeeded not only in obtain- ,
ing several other teeth and bones of this animal, but
nearly one entire tusk, and immediately alongside of the
tusk discovered the fragment of pottery which I hold in
my hand, and which is similar to that manufactured at
the present time by the American Indians."^ It would not
be wise to found hasty theories on such strange juxtaposi-
tion of relics, possibly of very widely separated periods.
The Ashley River has channeled for itself a course through
the eocene and post-pliocene formations of South Carolina,
and where these are exposed on its shores the fossils are
wuHhed from their beds, and become mingled with the
runiains of recent indigenous and domestic animals, and
cibj<<(itH of human art. But the discovery of Dr. Klip-
mUmii was made in excavating an undisturbed, and geo-
logically Hj)caking, a comparatively recent formation.
Tlui tUHk of the mastodon lay alongside of the fragment
of ]iot,tt».!y, in a deposit of the peat and sands of the post-
|iliticc»ne beds. Immediately underneath lie marine de-
IHirtili*, v\v\\ with numerous and exceedingly vaiied groups

* /*rin'«f <//;if/«, A radnny of Natural ScieiiceSt PhiUulelphia, July 1859, pp.
I7N. INU.

IV.] THE PRIMEVAL TIIAX.^ITIOX : TXSTTNCT. Ill

of moUuaca., corresjMiudiiig to the recent 8])ccies now
living on the sea-coast of Cai'oliua, but also including two
foBsil species no longer to be met with there, though com-
mon ill the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indian seas.

Here too, in sueli singular juxtaposition, the palseon-
tology of the New World discloses to U3 types of a fauna
pertaining to its latest ti-ansitional period, whii^h serve
to Ulusti'ate the marvellous contrast between its com-
mencement and its close. Until the recent discovery of
teeth of the megatherium in the post-phoeene bed of the
Ashley River, remains of that extinct mammal had been
found only in the state of Georgia, in North America,
while the Mastodon Ohioticus and Elejyhas primifjenim
are already among the well-known fauna of the Canadian
diift. Of these, some North Ameritan localities have
furnished the remains in remarkable profusion, but none
more so than the celebrated morass in Kentucky, known
by its homely but most expressive name of the Big-bone
Lick, Imbedded in the blue clay of this ancient bog,
entire skeletons, or detacJied bones, of not less than one
hundred mastodons and twenty mammoths, have been
found, besides remains of the megalonyx and other ex-
tinct quadrupeds. A magnificent skeleton of the Mas-
todon Ohioticus. now in the British Museum, was dis-
covered, with teeth and bones of many others, near the
banks of La Pomme dc TciTe, a tributary of the Osage
River, Mhisoui'i ; and there once more we seem to come
upon contemponineoua traces of man. " The bones,"
says Mantell, who examined them in the presence of Mr.
Albert Koch, their discoverer, " wei-e imbedded in a
brown Bandy deposit full of vegetable matter, with i-e-
cognisable remains of the cji^ress, tropical cane, and
swamp-moss, stems of the palmetto, etc., and this was
covere<l by lieda of blue clay and gravel to a thickness
of aljovit tift..'en feet. Mr. Knch states, and lie personally

L

1 1 2 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Char.

afisured me of the correctness of the statement, that gn
Indian flint arrow-head was found beneath the leg-bones
of this skeleton, and four similar weapons were imbedded
in the same stratum/'^ Another remarkable account
preserved in the A merican Journal of Science, describes
the bones of a mastodon, with considerable portions of
the skin, found in Missouri, associated with stone spear-
heads, axes, and knives, under circumstances which sug-
gest the idea that it had been entangled in a bog, and
there stoned to death and partially consumed by fire.*
Such contiguity of the works of man with those extinct
diluvial giants, warns us at least to be on our guard
against any supercilious rejection of indications of man's
ancient presence in the New World as well as the Old.
K the evidence ii inconsequential or untruthful, future
discoveries will not fail to bring it to nought ; if, on the
contrary, it involves glimpses of an unseen truth, no
organized scepticism will prevent the ultimate disclosure
of its amplest revelations.

As with the perished herd of the Irish fossil elk in the
Curragh bog, the remains of the American mastodon have
been repeatedly found as if they lay undisturbed since
the death of the extinct giant. None of their bones
recovered from the Big-bone Lick appear to have been
rolled or exposed to friction ; while others, discovered at
the great Osage, which runs into the Missouri, a little
above its confluence with the Mississippi, were in a ver-
tical position, as if the animal had been engulfed in the
mud. Whether or not those huge mammals had been
known to man, during his occupation of the American
continent, as his living contemporaries, their remains
were objects of suflSciently striking magnitude to awaken
the curiosity even of the unimpre&sible Indian ; and tra-

* Mantell's Fossils of the British Museum^ p. 473.

* American Journ, of Science and Arts, vol. xxxvi. p. 199, First Series.

IV 1 THK PRIMEVAL TRAXSITION : IXSTISCT. 113

ditions won* comtnon amoiirr tlir aUirigiiK'rt of the forests
n»lative to the existeiire and di^ntnictioii of the stniiige
monster, whose Inmes lie seattennl over the eontim^nt
from Canachi to the Gulf of Mexieo. M. Fabri, a French
ciftirer, infonned HutTon that they iukTil)eil these bones
to an animal which they named the /Vre anx Bwii/s.
Amonjj th«.' Shjiwnivs, and other southern triln's, the
Mirf was euiTent tluit the mastmlon once oeeupiiMl the
rontini*nt along with a race of giants of corresjMinding
|>n»|Mirtions, and that Iwith jK»rish(Hl together hy the thun
drrlKilts of till* tin»at Spirit. Another Indian tnidition
of Virginia t4»ltl that thesi* monstrous (|uadni|)eds ha<l
2iss4*mM<Ml together, and wvir destroying the henis of
ilvrr and bisons, with the otin'r animals created by the
(JnMt Spirit for the us(» of his n^I ehildren ; wln*ii \\r
sifw tht-m all with his thundrrbolts, excepting the big
bull, who ddiantly pnscntnl his cnonnous forehcatl to
the iNklts, ami sh<M»k tiirm otf as they fell, until, U'ing at
length wounde<l, he lletl to thi* region of th«* gieat lakes,
wlu*re he is to this day.

The first notice in jui English s<ientitie journal, of the
fossil mammals of the Ameriean drifts, furnishes sueh a
rountiTpart to the Shawnee tniditions of the extinct
giants of the New World, as might teach a less4»n to
mtKb'ni speculatoi^ in s<ien<-e, when it is l>onie in re-
menibnince tluit the ditlicidtv now is to reconeile the
fliseover)* of works of human art alongside of the f«»s<il
mammals of xhv tlrift. In 17 12, certain gigantic fossil
Inines, which would now most pr»»bably be n*fi'm<l to
the m;tst4Mlon, weiv fountl near Cluverack, in New Kng-
land. The fundus Dr. Increa--^' Mather soon after i-om-
nmnieatiul the iliscovery to the IJoval S»cietv of Londi»n ;

w • "

and an al^tract in the lMiilt«s4iplii4*al Trans;ictions duly
si'ts forth Ills u|»inion nf theie lia\ing U'cn men (»f pio-
digiou^ ^tatun• in the antedilusian world, a** proved by

VOL. f. M

114 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

the bones and teeth, which he judges to be human, "par-
ticularly a tooth, wliich was a very large grinder, weighing
four pounds and three quarters, with a thigh-bone seven-
teen feet long/'^ They were doubtless looked upon with
no little satisfaction by Dr. Mather, as a striking confir-
mation of the Mosaic record, that " there were giants in
those days." To have doubted the New England philo-
sopher's conclusions might have been even more danger-
ous then, than to believe them now. Possibly, after the
lapse of another century and a half, some of our own
confused minglings of religious questions with scientific
investigations will not seem less foolish than the ante-
diluvian giants of the New England divine.

In all that relates to the history of man in the new
world, we have ever to reserve ourselves for further truths.
There are languages of living tribes, of which we have
neither vocabidary nor grammar. There are nations, of
whose physical aspect we scarcely know anything ; and
areas where it is a moot point even now, whether the
ancient civilisation of central America may not be there
a living thing. The ossiferous caves of England have
only revealed their wonders during the present century,
and the works of art in the French drift lay concealed till
our own day. We cannot, therefore, even guess what
America's disclosures shall be. Discoveries in its ossifer-
ous caverns have already pointed to the same conclusions
as those of Europe. A cabinet of the British Museum is
filled with a valuable collection of fossil bones of mam-
malia, including those of the scelidotherium, glyptodon,
and chlamydotherium, as well as of extinct camivora,
obtained by Dr. Lund and M. Claussen from certain lime-
stone caverns in the Brazils, closely resembling the ossi-
ferous caves of Europe. The relics were imbedded in a
reddish coloured loam, covered over with a thick stalag-

* Philosophical TransaciionSy vol. xxiv. p. 85.

IV.] THE PRIMEVAL TRAXSITION : LVST/XCT. 115

mitic flooring; ; and along with them, in the Hanie on^i-
fenmrt IkmI, lay numerous l>one8 of geneni still inhabiting
the continent, with slu'lLs of the large hidimxis, a common
t<*rre«triiil moUuBc of South Ameri(»a. No clear line of
(lemarcati(m can therefore be tnieeil here l>etween the era
of the extinct carnivora and edent^ita, and those of exist-
ing HiHM'i(»H, iind there i^ then*fore no great<?r cause of
Wonder, than in the anidogous examples of EurojK', to
leani that in the same detritus of these Hnusilian caves.
Dr. Lund found rt^lics of human skeletons, which, from
their condition and the circumstances in which they were
disi'overed, he wjis led to (*onclude l)clonged to an ancient
trilK? coeval with some of the extinct mammalia. Nor
have the first dis<'losures of works of art in the American
drift still to lie made. I have in my poss(*ssi<m an im-
jK^rfect tlint knife, an imquestionabh* reli<* of human art,
given me by P. A. Scott, an intelli^rfnt Canadian, who
found it at a depth of upwards of fourteen ft»et, among
the rolled gravel and goM U^aring (juartz of the Grinell
Leads, in Kansas Teiritory, while engagiil in digging for
gold. The 8iM)t Is in the Blue Rangt* of the Rocky Moun-
tains, in an alluvial l>ott4)m, and distant s<*veml hundn*d
f*H*t from a small stream <alled C'h»;u* Creek. A shaft
was sunk, ]Kissing through four feet «if rich black soil,
and U'hiw this, through upwanls of ten feet of gravel,
n'fldish clay, and roundt*d quartz. Ib're the Hint imple-
ment w:is found, and its unmistakably artificial origin
so impn^ssed the tinder, tliat lu» m»cunM| it, and carefully
Dot4*d the depth at which it lay.

Such then are some of X\w indit*ations of the earlii»st
apiM-arance of man in that tniiisitioual t*ni. durin<>: which
the earth was undergoing its final preparati<»n f«>r his
presence, as a being «'ndowetl nc»t only with the highest
form of orgimit* life, but with a rational si ml and an im-
mortal spirit. The evidenc*'> of his ancient prem*nce on

IIG PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the American continent, accord with the proofs furnished
by the multitude of independent languages, and the
diversity of types of race, ranging from the Arctic circle
to the most southern cape of Terra del Fuego. But it
would be rash to assume from the partial evidence yet
obtained, that the juxtaposition of the flint arrow-heads
with the mastodon of Missouri, the pottery with the bones
and tusk of the same animal in the post-pliocene of South
Carolina, the human bones in the rich ossiferous caverns
of the Brazils, or the flint implement recovered from the
drift of the Rocky Mountains, are unquestionable evi-
dences of man's existence on the American continent
contemporaneously with the extinct mastodon or mega-
therium. Antiquaries of England, and still more of the
continent of Europe, having found tobacco-pipes of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on Roman sites,
along with potteiy and other undoubted remains of
Roman art, have hastily concluded that the peculiar
American custom of tobacco-smoking was a classical in-
stitution ; and on the like evidence it might be caiTied
into far remoter ages. One example, specially noted,
records the discovery of a tobacco-pipe, in sinking a pit
for cool at Misk, in Ayrshire, after digging through many
feet of sand. On evidence not gi-eatly more conclusive,
a New Orleans essayist conceives himself justified in an-
nouncing the startling statement, that " from these data
it appears the human race existed in the delta of the
Mississippi more than 57,000 years ago."^ On the con-
trary, even the startling disclosure of works of art in the
drift of France and England, whatever may be the pre-
cise antiquity they are finally destined to indicate?, still
point to man as the latest among the works of creation.
But looking at the primeval traces of man in another
aspect, they all concur in indicating his earliest arts to

* Dr. IWnnet Dowler, Types of Mankinfly y. 27*2.

IV] TIIK PRIMEVAL TRASSITIOX : iXSTIXCT. 117

hav(' Ihm*!! of the most primitive* kind, aiui in contirniiiig
tiu* idea that our ino<leni HtaiKlarclH of tiK^chaiiical and
artLstir inj^rnuity an^ not Xn Ik? {icceptetl iis the wile tests
of hi.s intellectual development. They show also that
we ean no longer ronoeive of him as the oecuiwrnt, until
riMviit historie times, i)f oiw little central cnnlle huitl, hut
must n*eognise in such widtOy dirtiis*»d n*lies of prim-
evjd art in i>eri<Kls so remote, indications of the dis|KT«ion
of th(* human family at the earliest times " when men
lM»gan to multiply on the face of the earth/* The brevity
of the conipndiensivf narrative containe<l in the intn>-
ductor)' chapters of Cifm»sis lu'lps to exrlutle from the
minds of ordinary reaihrs any just estimate of the extent
of tim«* tluit it cmliracfs; and conflirting versions lend
a«lditinnal counts-nance to huisr cherished tloubts as in
whether tin* p*e<-iveil ehronoln^ry^ deduced from their
•xenealo<rii»;il ilata, do<'s not «rniatlv aliritltre th<i actual
antediluvian human em. I»ut even at the lowest com
putation, the interval hetween the enation of m:in and
the delude was not verv much le>s than th«* whole l*hris
tian era ; it was longer than the whole mediaeval iH'riml
marketl hy th«* riss* of Maht>nietanisni, Feutlalisni, and tlu*
(Vusjides; and the l»rii*f interval sin^e the disi'over)* of
North Anieriea, during whirh our little insular Britain has
pniviMl the nursiTV of nations, is little more than a thini
of the allotti'd years of one of the antsdiluvian patriarehs.
Tluit thr<»ughout the whole of that {xTitnl the human
family continued to cluster around on*- eeiitnd nurlcus
of its old ciistiTn birth land is a wholly ;rnituit*»us as
Mimptioii. Centuries ImToh- the iKdH-l builders wm*
foih'tl in their amiiitious plans, in(*n may havt^ Uen S4*at-
t«nHl abn^ad u|M»n the fart* of all the «*arth. Many naders
Imve Urn channtMl by the graphie antl U'autiful siM-ne in
whieh Hugh Miller <'all.-^ up U'fon* the minds cyv th«»
sup|M>Hcd phen4»ni«'na of the deluge, as liiniteil to a eom-

118 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

paratively circumscribed area ; for, as he says, " It is not
in the least a matter of moral significancy whether or no
the deluge by which the judgment was eflfected covered
not only the parts of the earth occupied by man at the
time, but extended also to Terra del Fuego, Tahiti, and
the Falkland Islands." But, probably more have been
charmed than convinced by the eloquent ingenuity alike
of his " Mosaic vision" and " Noachian deluge." And
now that it seems almost certainly demonstrable on
archaeological, and also on geological grounds, that the
human family was widely dispersed over the face of the
earth at the earliest possible date at which we can recon-
cile chronologies of science and revelation, possibly some
may be tempted to return to their old convictions, that
when " all the fountains of the great deep were broken
up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain
was upon the earth forty days and forty nights ; and the
waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth ; and all
the high hiUs that were under the whole heaven were
covered," that it actually was so. In reality, however,
we must be content meanwhile to accept some only of
the most obvious deductions from what are as yet but
partial glimpses of a half-revealed truth.

v.] THE PHOMETtiEAS ISSTISCTp FIRE, IIU

CHAPTER V.

THE rHOMETIIEAy ISi>TL\CT: FIRE.

No incident atton<linjr the ilis^-overy of the New
World is more Kignitieant than tlie nimple evidence
which first Hatisfied Columhus that his traeklesa path
into the mysterious western mean had not l>een in vain,
Tlic sun had onei» mon* deH<*eniled lx.»neath the waves
as Columbus took his 8tatii)n on the i>oop, and his eye
nin<7(Hl along the dark horizon, when suddenly a light
glimmered in the distance, once and again reapi>eared
to the eyes of Pedro Gutierrez, and others whom he
summoned to confirm his vision, ami then darkness and
douht n^umed their n*igiu Hut to Columlms all was
clear. Not only ilitl tln»st» Hitting gleams of light
n*vi»al to him certain signs of the long wisheil-for
land : they toM him no h*ss clearly that th<* hind w;i8
inhaliitf^L There is something singuhirly significant
in tin* old (.In»ck myth which repres<»nts tin* Titanic
H«in of Ia]N-tus stealing the liiv of Z^*us that he might
confer on the human nice a j)«»w«t over the <"nitle eh^
MH'iits of nature. Man is jM'culiaily fin*-usiiig. The
clement which In'couics in his hands a ]K)Wer that c«in-
triils all the oth<*rs, and subjects them to his us4\ i*^ an
objei't of dn^ad to the lower animals alike amid arctic
siifnrfi :iiid the phadowA of a night-camp in the tropics.
The|mcticc of fire-using is, niori'ovi'r, so universid that
it uuijIh* ivgardeil as tme of the primitive instincts of

120 « PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

man. It is not indeed an indispensable assumption
that man was from the first familiar with its use, or
had devised for himself the art of producing fire. On
the contrary, his supposed ignorance, during the primi-
tive ages of the world, of this important achievement
of human intelligence, has been employed as an argu-
ment in confirmation of the fact that the cradle-land of
the human race must have been situated in a climate
where his unclothed body experienced no discomfort in
the changing seasons, and food was found in sufficient
abundance to supply all his wants without being sub-
jected to artificial preparation. The more elevated
regions of the tropics appear to supply those requisite
conditions alike in the Old and New World ; and the
traces, in the primitive arts of the stone-period, of a con-
dition in the early stages of many nations, during which
the simplest application of fire for any purposes of
metallurgy was unknown, has been thought to confirm
the idea that lengthened periods elapsed before man
acquired the art of producing fire. M. Flourens, in
reasoning on the age of man, affirms that his primi-
tive, natural, and instinctive diet is frugivorous ; and
from this he also infers that his original habitat was in
warm climates, where fruit is abundant at all seasons.
But such a condition of life was incompatible with the
difiusion of man beyond the extremely limited regions
which supply those requisites of primitive life. Human
intelligence accordingly achieved the art of producing
fire, and learned its many uses. By its means both
vegetable and animal productions could be adapted to
his wants and tastes ; and thus, by the introduction of
the art of cooking, man acquii*ed an artificial and omni
vorous diet.^ When, however, we turn to the sacred
narrative for the fii*st glimpses of the condition of

' Flourens, De !a LoHycviU Ilumaiufy p. 127.

V-]

THE rmMETUEAN IKSTINCT : FIRE.

primeval mau, wc find Alitl liiyiug the tiratlingH of his
flock on the altar of sacrifice ; im ouce more, when an
undelugod world Iwcimc the new theatre of human
life, burut-ofi'erings smoked on the altai", and tlie sweet
savour of a typical sacrifice rose up with the ascending
flames, while the covenant of earth's harmonious cycles
and seasons was guaranteed to man.

The wide intei'val which separates man from the
lower animals is scarcely less strikingly manifest when
we draw the comparison hetweeu them and the most
degraded savage, than when we contrast the wondrous
operations of animiil instinct^ with the most mjitured
achievements of human intelligence. It is the intei-val
between instinct and reason, which we cannot measure
from clearly defined points where we cjm assm-edly ssiy
the domain of the one ends and tlie other assumes its
place ; but the distinctions hetweeu which we cannot
mistake, in the imerring but unprogressive rectitude
of instinctive skill, and the erring, blundering, and
wayward, but tentative and finally progressive efforts
of experience and reason. We wonder at the Grave
Creek Mound, an artificial earth-pyramid of seventy feet
in height, wrought by the eoncei'tcd laliour of man in
America's preliistorie times ; and the gi-eat pyritmids
of Gtzeh, most stupendous amf)ng the structures that
human labour has ever accomplished, have been ranked
among the world's wondei-s from the age of Herodotus
to our own. But what ai'c the largest of those works
of w^hich man is vain compared to the ant-hills of
tropical countries, twelve and fifteen feet high, wliich,
in comparison with their builders, arc as if men were
to make a builtUng the height of the Andes or Himalaya
iQtmntains.' In his savage state, indeeil, "from nature
iplow to ait^" man aiipears at each suceeeiling step

' llr...igliuii.'B Jjiahyar.- -• J-i.tiWl. ].. 1110,

122 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

but as the pupil and poor imitator of instinctive skill,
with blunted perceptions and a scantily developed imi-
tative faculty obeying the voice of nature : —

*' Go, from the creatures thy instruction take :
Thy arts of building from the bee receive,
Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave ;
Learn of the little nautilus to sail,
Spread the thin oars, and catch the driving gale ;
Here too all forms of social union find.
And hence let reason, late, instruct mankind/'^

Yet when we have exhausted all our admiration of the
inimitable arts of the bee, the ant, the spider, and silk-
worm ; or even of that which we recognise as intelligence
in the dog, the fox, the horse, or the elephant : we are
nevertheless as fully prepared as ever to concur in the
decision of Columbus that the flaming night-torch of
the Guanahan^ savage was indisputable evidence that
the unknown world which dawn was about to reveal
was the habitation of man.

The lowest form of humanity, alike intellectually and
physically, has been thought to be found among -the
Australian aborigines, yet there human intelligence had
achieved the discovery which lies at the very founda-
tions of all possible civilisation ; though it may be ac-
cepted as a proof of his degraded intellectual condition,
that of the gift which the ancient Greek believed to
have been stolen from heaven, the Australian is content
to trace the derivation from the bandicoot, a small,
sharp-nosed animal, not unlike the Guinea pig. Accord-
ing to the inconsequential account furnished by a native
Australian of the first acquisition of fire by man : —
" A long, long time ago a little bandicoot was the sole
owner of a fire-brand, which he cherished with the
greatest jealousy, carrying it about with him wherever

^ Pope's Essay on Man, Epistle iii.

v.] THE FROMETUKAN INSTINCT: FIRE. 123

he went, and never allowing it out of his own special
care ; so Belfisb was he in the use of his prize, that he
olwtinately refused to share it with the other animals,
his neigli)>ours ; and so they held a general council,
where it was decidcnl that the fire must l>e obtained
fnmi the bandicoot either by force or strateg}\ The
hawk and jiigeon were deputed to carry out tliis resolu-
tion ; and iifter vainly tr}'ing to induce the fire-owner
to share its blessings with his neighl)0ur8, the pigeon,
seizinff, as he thought, an uuguanled moment, made a
dash t4) obtmn the prize The bandicoot saw that affairs
had come to a crisis, and, in desi>eration, threw the tire
towards the water, there to quench it for ever. But,
fortunately for the bla<k man, the shar|>-eyed hawk Wiis
hovering near the river, and seeing the fire falling into
the water, he made a dart towjirds it, and with a stn)ke
of liis win^i: knocked tlie bnmd far ovt^r tlie stn»am into
the long dry grass of tlie op{K)site bank, which imme
diately ignited, and tlie flames spread over the face of
the counlr>'. Tlie bhiek man then felt the fins *^»J **idd

it WilS gOfHl.***

The discover}' of the ail of producing fire by artiH<*ial
means may Ihj eonsi<len»d as one of tlie earliest achieve
ments of the untuton»d intellect of man : and as this is
ctTi^cted among various triln^s in ^liversi* ways, it may
supply one elue wheiiby t4) trace attinities am<»ng triln's
widely st*|Kinit<»<l, in so far as the prfMvss pursmnl is in
«h*IK'mlent of any sjiecial Itxal peculiarities. The do<ile
K-r\'ice of fire u* one of the verj' tirst means by wliirli
man achieves his triumphs over nature. With its aid
his range is no longtT limited to latitudes where the
rt{Nintaneous fruits of the earth alnmnd at evi-r}* st*iison.
The usi* of fire lies at the nM»t of all the industrial arts.
The frieutllv savajxes fnuntl bv ( olumbus on the first-

* Mr JaiDM nrtWBc. Cttmtttimi* JnHrmnt^ v«il i p. MiO.

124 PREHISTORTC MAN, [Chap.

discovered island of the New World were armed with
mere wooden lances, hardened at the end by fire. The
most civilized among the nations conquered on its soil
by Cortes and Pizarro, had learned by the same means
to smelt the ores of the Andes, and make of their alloys
the tools with which to quarry and hew their rocks, to
sculpture the statues of the gods of Anahuac, and the
palaces and temples of the Peruvian children of the sun.
Without fire the imperfect implements of the stone-period
would be altogether inadequate to man's necessities. By
its means he fells the lofty trees, against which his un-
aided stone-hatchet would be powerless, and he must
have been left to gaze with envy on the superior skill of
the beaver s woodcraft. It plays a no less important part
in preparing the log-canoe of the savage, than in pro-
pelling the wonderful steamship, by means of which the
great lakes and rivers of the New World have become
the highways of migrating nations. Yet fire is not an
indispensable thing. Men have lived in ignorance of
the power that lay within their reach, or of the means of
calling forth tliis fire-demon, when known to them, and
making him their obedient slave. The islanders of the
Ladrones, discovered by Magellan in 1521, could not
have been in ignorance of fire, for their islands are mostly
of a volcanic character, and, like the Terra del Fuego of
the same discoverer, their volcanoes have been in activity
in modem times ; yet the savages of the Ladrones, ac-
cording to some of the early Spanish voyagers, thought
fire, which they had never seen before, a devil or god
that l)it fiercely when it was touched, and lived on wood,
which they saw it devour.

The fire-worship of the Ghebirs is but a degraded form
of that homage to visible divinity with which man wor
ships the glorious god of day, and bows down l)efore the
heavenly host. Among the Aztecs and the Peruvians,

v.] THE rROMKTHKAS IXSTISCT FIHK. 12.^

tin- riviliz4»<l nations of tli«» Nt.*\v WorM, arr<inlingly, a
|N»(;uIiar nanrtity wjus assi^ciate^l witli tin; fannliar mtvici*
of fire. At the rlosi.* of thf p^eat cyrlf of tin* AztorH,
when the ealru<lar Wius cuiTwtoJ t<> tnu» solar times at the
eml <>f the fifty-»<*enn<l y<*ar, a \\\0\ relij^ious festival was
held, on tln» eve of whieh tiny broke in |m»ee8 their
lious<*hol«l p<mIs, ile8troye<l their furnitun», antl extin
jrui?*htMl every fire. In tln» n^eon^^tnirtion of tin* ritual
<*al(*n<lar which tht*n t<N)k place, the inten-alatetl days
Were rejrjinh-d as iH'hmjrinj; to no month or year. They
weR* held as though non existent, ami weiv dirilieated U\
no ;;<m1.s, on whirh ac-eount they wen» n*]mtetl unfortunat4\
It was a peritnl of fastinjf and jH*niten«e, durin<; whieh
no fin* smoktMl, antl no warm food cnuhl In* (*aten
thn»u;xliout the wlmlf laiul. At thr < lose of that dn»ary
int«*rval, tlurin;x whi«-h they dn*adrd tin* final extim-tion
of the sun, the r<*n'mony of the lU'W tire was relrbnited.
Aft«r suns4't tin* |»ri«'sts of the ^ri^vwx ti'inpic went forth
to a nriLrhhnurin^ inoinitain. and then*, at midni;xht, tlit*
siirml flanii' was nkindl«*d, which was to \\*i\\X uj) the
national fin-s for another ^acat cycle. The priM-e.^vs hy
which thi* fire was pnH'urctl, hv revolviiii: «»ne piece of
dry wimmI in the li«»llow of anothi-r, is n*|M-ate<lly illun-
tnited in the Mexican |^lintin^r•* of Lnrd Kin;:slMin>u;jhs
preat work. I»ut, true to the l»lo<Mly rites f»f the natituial
faith, the fin* on this sacrnl festival was kindled on the
lireast <»f a human vietim, from whence the reekinjLj
heart w;is immiiliat«lv atterwanls torn out, and <*ast as
a MiNMly offi-rin;; to the ixihU. The period from the ex-
tinetion to the rekindlini^ of the sacred tire was f»ne of
jjreat >us|M-n-e. With a -up«i"stitions fer|in«r^ stnkinirly
in acconlance with the eu-^toiuH and ideas of th«' n<>itliem
Indian-*, the wt>men reni.nned confined to their h«»us4*s,
with their face.-. ct»vered, under the U'lirf that if thev
witncHMMl th«* cen*moiiv thev would Im» forthwith tran-^-

126 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

formed into beasts. Meanwliile, the men gathered on
the terraced roofs, and looked forth in dread suspense
into the darkness. The flames on the summits of the
great teocallis, which lighted up the city at all other
seasons, had been extinguished ; and if the priests failed
to rekindle them, it was beheved that the night must
be eternal, and the world would come to an end. But
dimly, through the darkness, a spark was seen to glimmer
on the summit of the distant mountains, and from thence
it was swiftly borne to the great temple, towards which
the gladdened worshippers turned with renewed hope.
As the sacred flame again blazed up on the high altar,
and was distributed to the other teocallis, and thence
among the people at large, shouts of joy and triumph
ascended with it to the sky. Feasts, joyous processions,
and oblations at the temples, were prolonged through a
festival of thirteen days, devoted to a national jubilee for
the recovered flame, the type of a regenerated world.^
The long interval which transpired between this closing
rite of the great cycle was of itself sufficient to give it
an impressive sanctity in the eyes of the Aztec wor-
shipper. He who witnessed it in youth saw it only once
again as life drew towards a close ; whilst few indeed of
all who rejoiced at the renewed gift of fire could expect
to look again on the strangely significant and awful
rite. Compared with the annual miracle of the Greek
Church in the crypt of the holy sepulchre, to which
it bears some resemblance, the great festival of the
Aztecs was replete with significance and solemn gran-
deur, though stained with the blood of their hideous
sacrifices.

The Peruvian sun-worshippers preserved the harmony
between their recurrent festivals and the true solar time,
by a ruder process of adjustment than that which was

* Clavigero, vol. ii. p. 84.

v.] THE PROM KTIi BAN IXSTISCT : FIRK. 127

do^nsecl hy the rcinnrkable proficiency of the A2te<» prit*8tM
ill iiAtroiioiuieal W'ience. Nevertheletw, they too had their
great tk*cukr fentivid of Itaymi, hehl aumially at the
{XiricMl of the summer eolHtiee. For three chiys previous
a {[general fciHt prevailed, the fire on the great altar of the
sun went out, and in all tiie dwellings of the land no
hearth was kindlinl. As the dawn of the fourth day
appnxiehiHl, the Ine^i, 8UiTounde<l hy his nohles, who
came from all {virts of the country to join in the solemn
celebration, asM*mhled in the gn\at S4{uare of the capital
Xi\ );r(*et the rising sun. Tiie temple of the mitional
<h'ity pri'Si*nte<l its eastern |N»iial to his earliest rays,
emhhusoned with his golden inia<re, thickly Si*t with eme-
ndds and othtT pnM*ioiis stont\s ; and as the first UramH
of the morning were n*flccted kick fn>m this magnificent
cmhlein of the g^nl of day, songs of triumph mingled
with the juliihmt shout of his worshipi^ers. Then, after
varifius riti»s of adonitii»n, prt*p;irations were made for
rekiiulling the siicred fire. But tiiis with the Peruviims,
was done hy a pn^ccss far in advance of tiiat n'taim^l by
the Aztec priests. The rays of the sun, coHecteil int*) a
fm'us by a con(*ave spiierical mimir of polished metal,
were made to infiame a heap of dried cotton, imd a
Ihiimi was sac^rificol as a lainit-t^rcring to the sun. Only
in the ciise of the sky Inking oven'ast did the pri«-stH
resort to friction for n^kiiidling the altar ; but the hiding
of his countenance* on that occasion by th«* g<Nl of day
was only regsmled as less ominous tlian tht* t*xti!ictit»n of
the s;icred fire, wliich it Uranu* the sjicn^d duty of the
virgins of thi* sun to guanl throuuhout the year. A
general shiughter of th«* Ihiina fiiN-ks of the sun furnishiHl
a universal l>:in«iU(*t ; and. whih* tiie go^l was pn^pitiated
by ofirringH i>f fruit and Howcrs, then* ap|N*ar to have
Imh'Ii s<»nie rare <Nva.sit>ns on which the siicrifice of a
human vii'tim, a U*autiful maiden or a child, giivc to

128 PREHTSTORIC MAN. • [Chap.

this graceful anniversaiy a nearer resemblance to the
appalling rites of Aztec worship.

Among the northern Indian tribes some faint traces
of the annual festival of fire are discernible. At the
sacrifice of the white dog, which was the New Year's
festival and great jubilee of the Iroquois, the proceed-
ings extended over six days ; and such were the obliga-
tions wliich these rites imposed on all, that if any
member of a family died during the festival, the body
was laid aside, and the relatives participated in the
games as well as the religious ceremonies. The strang-
ling of the white dog destined for sacrifice was the chief
feature of the first day s proceedings ; while on the
second the two keepers of the faith visited each house,
after which it was open to all, and the significant cere-
mony of the day consisted in stirring the ashes on the
hearth, accompanied with a thanksgiving to the Great
Spirit. On the morning of the fifth day the wliite
dog was ofiered up as a burnt-sacrifice. The fire was
kindled by swiftly revolving, by means of a bow and
cord, an upright shaft of wood with a perforated stone
attached to it as a Hy-wheel. The lower point rested on
a block of dry wood surrounded by tinder, which was
speedily ignited. 'Ais is the ordinary process stiU in
use among many of the Indian tribes, and also by the
Esquimaux. The flame being thoroughly enkindled, the
sacrifice was borne in procession on a bark litter, until
the ofliciating leaders halted, faciug the rising sun, when
the white dog was laid on the flaming wood and con-
sumed, during a solemn address, which included a special
thanksgiving to the sun, for having looked on the eaith
with a beneficent eye.^

There is, perhaps, no connexion traceable between the
various rites and services thus described ; for it woulil

^ League of the /rof/uoh, j»p. 207-2*21.

v.] TUB PROMETHEAN INSTINCT: FIRE. 129

be easy to find their parallels among many ancient and
modem tril>e8 and nations. They pertain to the reli-
gious practices of the ancient Chaldeans^ to the rites of
Haal, and to the earliest and simplest forms of idolatry.
Sabaism is indeed the most natural, and at the same
time the most elevated form of false-worHhip, commend-
ing itself by many visible tokeiLs, as of a divine in-
fluence and iK)wer, to uninstructed man ; and the asso-
ciation of fire with the sun as its soune is scarcely less
natural. "Take ye g(xxl heeil unto yourselves,*' ex-
claims the lawgiver of Israel to the tribes in tlie wilder-
ness, '* for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day
that the Lord H|)ake unto you in Horeb out of the midst
of tlie fire ; lest thou lift up tliine eyes unto heaven,
luid when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the
stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest 1x5 driven
to worship them." This worship of the sun, though
aw((M*iated with the ancient rites of Asiatic nations, is
not therefore necessarily an evidence of the eastern
origin either of the faith or the nations of the New
WorhL But, in the services to wliich it gave rise there,
we have, at least, suggestive hints of the links that bind
together its own ancient and modem triU^s ; and |x»r-
ha[« some clut* also to the inteq>retation (»f the uWure
sculpture.H, with their mysterious hieroglyphics, still re-
maining on the sites of the extinct native civilisation of
Americ:a ; and of the strange rites once pnu*tised amid
the sacred enclosures and altar-grounils which give such
peculiar interest to the river-terraces of the Mississippi
valley. Among the remarkable stmctures of the ancient
Mouud-lluilders, which will come under review in a suIh
se<|uent cliapter, their explonTs have lx,vn stmek by
the peculiarities of a certain t^lass of mounds, erected
on the most elevated summits of the outlying hills.
Concerning these '' there vxm l)e no doubt that the
VOL. L 1

130 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

ancient people selected prominent and elevated positions
upon which to build large fires, which were kept burn-
ing for long periods, or renewed at frequent intervala
The traces of these fires are only observed upon the
brows of the hills ; they appear to have been built
generally upon heaps of stones, which are broken up
and sometimes partially vitrified. In all cases they
exhibit marks of intense and protracted heat."^ It has
been attempted to account for these as signal-stations
by a reference to the primitive telegraphic system still
in use among the native tribes, of sending up columns
of smoke as signals that enemies are at hand. Lieu-
tenant Fremont, as he penetrated into the fastnesses of
Upper California, where his presence excited great alarm,
saw the fire-signal send up its colunm of smoke at scat-
tered intervals ; and the very same practice was noticed
during the Canadian exploring expedition to the Assi-
naboine and Saskatchewan in 1858. But this "puttihg
out fire," as it is called among the Indians of the north-
west, for the purposes of signal, is accomplished by the
simple process of setting the short-tufted bujQFalo grass in
flame ; and presents no analogy to the traces of intense
fires on the ancient hill-mounds, where the amount of
scoriaceous material often covers a large space several
feet deep. Fire, as we shall see, was extensively used in
the sacred as well as the sepulchral rites of the Mound-
Builders, Their strange buried altars have glowed re-
peatedly with the sacred fires, and consumed the ofifer-
ings of their most costly treasures, ere they were finally
covered up, to lie concealed during the long night of
intervening centuries. Accompanied as they are by
traces suggestive of the probability of human sacrifices,
they present analogies to the cruel worship of the Phoe-
nician and Carthaginian Baal, whose temples and altars

* Ancietit Monuments of the MisHmppi Vallej, p. 183.

v.] TUE PROMETUBAS ISSTJSCT : FIRE. 131

were chiefly built on the tops of hills, or ou the summits
of artificial pilea That the Phoenicians and Syrians
worshipped the sun is directly stated by Herodian, and
confirmed by the occurrence of the name of Baal with
that of the sun on Carthaginian coins and Palmyrene
inscriptions, as Bcutl-chamman, Baal-shenieJi^ Baalrsha-
mayim. But there is no need to assume the presence
of Phoenician voyagers and colonists in the New World,
to account for the origin of rites and practices which
rather point to that essential unity, throughout the
whole family of nations, traceable in the independent
origin of the same practices, and the instinctive develop-
ment of like arts and customs wherever man is foun<l
subject to corresjK)nding influences.

Perhaps greater im{>ortau<*e Ls due to the abundant
proofs of the employment of the very same method of
fire-making at the present day among the Indians of the
north-west, as we see illustnitiHl in the ancient Aztec
paintings ; while the suu-wor8hip{)ers of the southern
continent had devised a totallv distinct method, and one
c!orres}N>nding to that by which the ancient liomans
kindled the sacred fire. Mr. Paul Kane thus descrilies
the process employed by the C*hinooks on the Columbia
River. " The fire is obtaint^l by meims of a flat piece
of dry cedar, in which a small hollow is cut with a
channel for the ignited cluut^oal to run over ; this |)ie<'e
the Indian sits on t4> hold it steady, while he rapidly
twirls a round stick of the same wcnkI U'tween the
{NUms of his hands, with the {M>int pn*sse<l into the
hollow of the flat piece. In a very short time S{>ark8
iiegin to ixiW through the channel upm finely frayed
cedar-liark phiced underneath, which they soon ignite.
There is a great deal of knack in doing this, but those
who are used to it will Ught a fire in a very short time.
The men usually carry these sticks about with them, as

132 PREHISTORIC MAN. - [CHAt».

after they have been once used they produce the fire
more quickly/'^ The punk employed in the similar
process of the Iroquois, and in constant use with the
flint and steel, by the Backwoodsman, is a species of
fungus which grows on the maple. Another fungus, of
inferior quaUty, found on the birch, is made use of when
the other cannot be procured. When lighted by a
spark, either from a flint and steel, or by means of
friction, the punk smoulders but will not burst into a
flame. It is therefore wrapped in a quantity of cedar
bark, wrought in the hand to the consistency of tow,
which readily ignites. The method of procuring fire
among the Dacotahs or Sioux is thus described by
Philander Prescott, an Indian interpreter : — ** A piece of
wood was squared or flattened so as to make it lie
steadily, a small hole was commenced with the point of
a stone, then another small stick was made, round and
tapering at one end. This end being placed in the
hole, the Indian put one hand on each side of the round
stick and commenced turning it as fast as possible, back
and forward. Another held the wood with one hand^
and a piece of punk in the other, so that when there
was the least sign of flre, he was ready to touch the
punk, and put it when ignited into a bunch of dry
grass that had been rubbed fine in the hands." With
sUght variations in the application of the principle, this
appears to be the recognised Indian mode ; and there
is no question that among all the Indian tribes not only
was a certain superstitious sanctity attached to fire, but
they look with some distrust on the novel methods
employed by Europeans for its production. Among the
Dacotahs, as with other tribes, at the recurrence of cer-
tain sacred feasts, all the fires are extinguished, and the
ashes removed from the lodge, and no food is taken

^ Wanderings of an Arliet among the Indiana of North America^ p. 188.

v.] TlIK PROMETHEAN INSTINCT: FIRE. ISS

until the fires have been rekiniUed^ with many minnte
rites and observances. The Indian couneil-fire is also
lit on certain great occasions, with ceremonies that have
some remote reseml>lance to those of the Mexican sun-
woreliip ; and the peculiar significance which attaches
to the council-fire is aptly illustrated by the name of the
Pottawattomies or fire-makers, a nation of the Algon-
quin stock. They received this name from the jealousy
of their rivals, who thereby intimated that they were
severers of tiie unity of the Algonquin nation, as a
people who were setting up an independent government^
and kindling their own council-fire. When, in 1811,
Elksatowa, the propliet of tlie Wabash, and the brother
of Tecumseh, the Shawnee warrior, was exhorting his
trilie to resist the deadly encnmcliments of the white
nijui, he (^nclu<led one of his cl<K|urnt warnings by ex-
(*lainung, "Throw away your fire Hteels, and awaken the
sleeping flame as your fathers did l>efore you ; fling
away your wrought coverings and put on skins won
for yourself as was tht'ir wont, if you would escape
the anger of the Great Spirit.'* Nor is there wanting
am(»ng many Indians a conviction that the Ishkoilai-
waulN), or fire-liquid, is a malignant form of the same
mysterious element, mi evil nieilicine wrought for their
derttruction by the white Miuiitou. Hut the fin*-steel,
which the Sliawnw onitor ass<H'iati*d with the foreign
novelties dist^isteful to the CJnuit Spirit, is a native pro-
duct in use among the Fuegians in the far southern
Trrra del Fuego, or so-cidled Land of Fire. There Dr.
Pickering founil the l^Iagelhinic watennen, as he styles
them, occupying a coast indenteil with a labyrinth of
8«»unds antl chaimels, which afl'onl unusually favourable
op|)ortunities for the development (»f maritime skilL
Hut their canoes are smaller and inferior in construc-
tion t4) those of the northern shoruSi and they neither

134 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

venture into the open sea, nor attempt the easy passage
to the neighbouring Falkland Islands. The rude hut
of the Fuegian corresponds with his canoe. In shape it
is hemispherical, having the apex unfinished for the
escape of smoke. A heap of mussel and limpet shells
uniformly encumber the entrance, and indicate the
principal food of its architect ; and the only footpath
traceable led from the rude hut to the water's edge.
As Dr. Pickering observes : the face of nature has there
undergone no change from the presence of man ; and
he adds, " by what means the Fuegians procure fire, so
precious in this chilly and humid climate, I am unin-
formed ; but the process would seem to be difficult,
since they are careful always to take a supply in their
canoes." This, however, an earlier voyager had already
noted. At Terra del Fuego, Weddeil produced the
tinder-box in presence of a party of Fuegians, in order
to ascertain how fire is produced by them, and pre-
sently he discovered that his steel had been purloined
by one of the party. This however he recovered, and
after sending the culprit to his canoe with threats of
punishment, he learned that they procure fire by rubbing
iron pyrites and a flinty stone together, catching the
sparks in a dry substance resembling moss, which is
quickly ignited.^

Thus we trace throughout the western hemisphere
various methods for calling into existence the wondrous
element, so peculiarly distinctive of man. Even in the
simple processes employed, traces of certain common re-
lations of a very wide embracing character are apparent ;
while the Peruvian, with his solar mirror, stands apart
alike from the rude forest Indian and the cultivated
native of the Mexican plateau ; and far to the south of
both, the rude Fuegian finds in the natural products of

» Wedflcirs Voyajge towards the South Pole in 1822-24, p. 167.

v.] TUB PROMETUBAS ISHTINCT : FIHB. 135

his mho8pita])le clime, a means of fire-making analogous
to that which the Shawnee prophet taught his people to
regard us one of the unhallowed pmctices of the white
man.

The rude Indian of the forests and islands of the New
AVurld lias learned for himself that grand invention of
j\ri\ whicii lies at the root of all arts, and is the true
Tuhal-Cain, Ilcphn^htos, Vulcan, and Wayland Smith;
the Quet2alcoatl, divine instructor of the Aztecs in the
use of nietaK and in other arts ; and the Manco Capac,
child of the sun, with his golden wedge, the germ of all
Peruvian civilisation. He had made shive of the heaven-
l)om element, the brother of the lightning, the grand
alch^nnist and artificer of all times, though as yet he
knew not uU the wortii and magical {K>wer that was in
him. By his means the stunly oak, the birth of cen-
turies, which flung ahmad its stalwart arms, and waved
its leafy honours defiant in the fon*st, was made to bow
to the iM'hest of the simple AI)origiues. The massive
trunk shiii>ed its4*lf into a canoe, hollowinl out by the
nagical t^mch of this artificer. The clay, kneaded into
;he simple gounl-like caldnm or jar, became the }iarent
»f all later c(*ramic art ; or burnt into the builders brick
g3ive birth t4) all triumphs of anhite<ture. t*op|>er, the
Peruvian AnUi^ whirh is supinnunl to have given name
to the South .\meri<*an C^inlilleras, where it is found
native in as rich abundance as along the shores 4»f Lake
8u[>erior, and whi<*h had ap|H.*ariHl but a ductile stone :
lxH*ame liquid as the limpid streams bom of the snows
of the cop{M*r-bearing Andes, mid t<K)k sha|»e of use or
l)eautv at the will of the in<:;cni(»us m<Mleller. The white
tin, pliant and of little account, assumtnl a new }K>wer in
the hands of the metallurgist, and winkled to the soft and
ductile cop|K«r, produced the l^eautiful and useful alloy
which marks the grand tnuisiti(»nal eras of the (Ud

i

136 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

World as well as the New : the symbol of that age of
bronze which mingles in the dreams of Hesiod's Theogony,
and illumines the dawn of the prehistoric centuries of
Scandinavia and Britain. Nor could poet long for a more
suggestive allegory than that of bronze, the many-gifted
daughter of copper and tin, tracing back her ancestry
to the Cyclopean sons of Uranos, the fabricators of the
thunder of Zeus. But the magic power of the heaven-
descended artificer was seen only in its infantile sports,
when such feats had been accomplished. The iron ore
lay in mountain heaps, a dark, unsightly, and inert mass ;
and alongside of it, in many contemporaneous strata of
the carboniferous period, the fire-heat of centuries long
buried in the forgotten eras of geological time had been
compacted into vegetable coaL The gynmosperms,
equisetacese, and sigUlaria, the gigantic ferns and palms
of palaeozoic epochs, had been compacted into fuel, and
buried there to await the uncreated intelligences of
coming time. And now Jire was to accomplish its
triumphs, and make the great levels and grand river-
courses of the New World the scenes of a revolution
unequalled since time itself was bom. Coal and iron are
wedded together. The new forgers of the thunderbolts
toil in the roaring forges of Birmingham, Glasgow, Wol-
verhampton, and Woolwich. Watt, Arkwright, Brunei,
Stephenson, are the new Tubal -Cains and Wayland
Smiths of our modem age. The Atlantic is bridged by
their ocean steamers ; and, where the genius of Europe's
sohtary believer in a Far West guided the caravels of
Spain through the dread mysteries of the ocean to another
world beyond : the merchant navies of the nations speed,
defiant of wind and waves, propelled by new powers
that slumbered, abiding their waking time, in that tiny
spark lit by the forest -Prometheus. Tended by this
willing slave, mechanic skill toils, throbbing and panting,

v.] THE PROMETUEAS ISSTJNCT : FIRE. 137

yet unwearied, at ite great ta«k- The work of old cen-
turies is outd|>6d in single years. Everywhere, and in all
sha{K,'s, the new deveiopnients of this primitive element
of science startle us with their novel and exhaustless
|K>wers : —

** The Ulworing fim come oat agminst the dark,
InDamenUile funuu^cs and pita,
Ami gliwniy huUU, in which that bright alave. Fire,
I>uth (laut ami t«»il all day and night fur man.** *

In elder times that seem to us now as though they
were liefore the very days of old, Imt in which, even
then, it was said, ** the phice where we dwell is too strait
for us," a l>and of pioneers went forth into the wilder-
ness, and with tlieir axes hewed doira the forests, even
as now in Americiis far west, t4> make for themselves a
phice wliere tlwy mijijlit dwell ; and there Elisha, the
Israelitish propln*t, put forth his |M)Wfr, and the waters
of the Jordan gave Kick the axe of the wo^nlman, and
** the iron did swim."* liut now amid the blast and
the roar of a hundred fiirges, and the clang of a
thousand sledge -haniinerK, tht*re risers on tiie Iianks of
the Tliames an iron ship, Viist in its proiK)rti(»ns as the
ark tliat rested of old on the |H»ak of Aranit, freighted
with the life of tlur enuTgiNl worM The huge lt*viathan
gn»ws a|iiice, with strangi* toils, whereat the world hxiks
on in sus{H*nse. Its vast hulk is thrust into the waU*ns
and the mighty hulk t)f in»n swims. The gn*at fire-
jMiwers contriliute their engines, rvolve tlu'ir new ally,
stram, and, hn^anting the waves of the Atlantic, the inui
ship, that <'ould earn' a whole fWt of the tiny ('aravels
of (*t»luml»u.s nioves proudly westwanl till it dn>{i6
anchor in thr waters of the Hudson. Antl at the very
time when thous:inds crowd to giize on the vast leviathan

* Alr&amWr South, /Miwmi </ L%f*. * 2 Kings ti. 6.

138 PKE HISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

that commerce has thus commissioned to follow in the
wake of the old Santa Maria of Palos ; and while there
lies inert beneath its keel the dumb Atlantic cable, yet
destined, we trust, to annihilate time and space with the
aid of new forms of the ethereal fire : the fleets of Eng-
land are bearing the heir of her crown to inaugurate the
Victoria Bridge, another of the triumphs of mechanical
power and genius, spanning the broad St. Lawrence with
its free highway, where once the little birch-bark of the
Indian sufiiced for all its traffic. For the great fire-slave
has wrought out still other mighty elements of change.
Northward, southward, and far into the wilds on the
western horizon of civiUsation, run the new iron high-
ways, rush the new iron-horses, snorting and shrieking as
they hasten onward to the Pacific, and pant till, with
the ocean steam-ships of commerce, they shall engirdle
the world.

Thus far has time already realized the fond dream of
Columbus, which, as he believed, he read foretold in holy
writ, and shadowed forth darkly in the mystic revela-
tions of the prophets. The ends of the earth were to be
brought together, and all nations, and tongues, and lan-
guages, united under the banners of the Redeemer.^ Thus
far also has experience confirmed his absolute deduction.
That faint glimmering of light, seen once and again in
passing gleams, was in reality the flashing of intellect in
that still unrevealed world which was to gladden the
weary eyes of the ocean-watchers with the morrow's
dawn. The inhabitants of that western continent had
already achieved the wondrous art of fire-making, and
all else was conceivable of them. They were intelligent
beings, fashioned in the same divine mould as those who
then flattered themselves they were carrying the fight of

* Wasliiugton Irving's L\f€ qf Columbus, book i. chap. v.

v.] TUE PROMETHEAN INSTINCT: FIRE. 139

the true faith into benighted lands ; men within whom
lay, inert or in fullest vigour, the germs of all later tri-
umphs of chemistry, electricity, mechanics : the steam-
engine, the railway, the electric telegraph, and the greater,
grander, mightier tilings than these that exist in unde-
veloped thought for the generations yet to be.

140 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MARITIME INSTINCT: THE CANOE.

Speech is one of the instincts of man, but it is by
the voluntary exercise of his intellectual faculties, as we
conceive, that he is enabled to develop it into language ;
and by the accumulated wealth gathered from the expe-
rience of many generations that it becomes the compre-
hensive vehicle of thoughts that compass the bounds of
his immortal destiny. Made, therefore, only "a little
lower than the angels,'*' and separated by an immeasur-
able interval from the inferior orders of being in which
reason, mind, and will, are all controlled by an infallible
but unprogressive instinct : it has seemed credible on
various grounds, already set forth, that the chief occupa-
tion of man's primal integrity was in the exercise of that
human instinct of speech, out of which language neces-
sarily grew. Joy is ever vocal, and the clear virgin in-
tellect, revelling in the world of wonders that burst on
the delighted gaze, gave articulate utterance to the
wondrous world of thought within.

If science can conceive of man, unendowed with the
experience and the wisdom of ages, but dowered with
intellectual and moral purity, — surely even for the
theories of science not an impossible thing, — it may then
picture to itself the crisis of that transitional period in
which geology draws to a close, when

VL] THE MARITIME INSTINCT: THE CANOE, Ul

*' There wanied y«t tb« niMier-work, Um end
Of all yet done ; a creature, mhit, not pn>ne
And brute at other creattiret, but endued
With tanctitj of reaaon, might erect
His stature, and upright with fmnt serene
Govern the rest, self- knowing.**

But man is not men*ly a reasoning aninuU, endowed
with the instinct of speecL He is also a tool-using, or
as Franklin defined hiin, a tool making animal Whilst^
however, an innate instinct seems to prompt him to
supplement his helplci^sness by means of the helpfulness
of mechimical appliances : mechanical science^ the indus-
trial and the fine arts, are all progressive developments
which his intellect sui>erinduces on that tool-using in-
stinct And tlirough all the countless ages revealed to
the geologist, with ever new orders of successive life ;
with l>eaftt, bird, crustacean, insect, and zoophyte, en-
dowed with wonderful constructive instincts, and |)er-
petuating memorials of anrhitecture and sculpture, of
which the microscope; is alone ade<}uate to reveiU the
exquisite l)eauty and infinite variety of design : yet so
thoroughly is the use of tools the exclusive attribute of
man, that the discovery of a single artificiid &ha{Mxl flint
in the drift or cave-bn^ccia, is sufficient to lead the geo-
logist to infer indisputably tliat man has been there*
The flint implement or weapon lies beside lK)ne8 reveal-
ing a kindred specii^s to the sagacious elephant, or to
those of caniivora allieil to the di»g, with its wonderful
instincts bordering on reason and the forethought of
experience ; yet no theorist dreams of the h}'^K>th€8is
that some wiser Ele})has primigenius^ in advance of hia
age, deviseil the flint s|>ear wherewith to opjHist' more
cflectually the aggressions of the abundant camivora, the
remains and traces of whidi, in the ossiferous caverns,
have revealed t4) us the startling truth, that not only
death, but als4) pain reignetl from the first among inferior

142 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

orders of creation that " had not sinned after the simili-
tude of Adam's transgression/'

Man wa^ created with a tool-using instinct, and with
faculties capable of developing it into all the mechanical
triumphs which not unreasonably command such wonder
and admiration in our day ; but he was also created with
a necessity for such. " The heritage of nakedness, which
no animal envies us, is not more the memorial of the
innocence that once was ours, than it is the omen of the
labours which it compels us to undergo. With the in-
tellect of angels, and the bodies of earth-worms, we have
' the power to conquer, and the need to do it. Half of
the industrial arts are the result of our being bom with-
out clothes ; the other half of our being bom without
tools.''^

With the growing wants of men as they gathered into
communities, novel arts were developed ; and the de-
mands of each new-felt want called into being the means
of its supply. Artificers in brass and iron multiplied,
and the sites of the first cities of the earth were adorned
with temples, palaces, sculptured marbles and cunningly-
wrought shrines. But still it was the lot of the sons of
Adam to journey from that old East. God scattered
them abroad jfrom thence upon the face of all the earth ;
and as they wandered, westward and eastward, the ele-
ments of an acquired civilisation were inevitably left
behind; all but the most indispensable arts were lost
during the process of migration, and when at length the
wanderers found a new home, it might be " a land whose
stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig
brass,'' but no arts so speedily disappear among migratory
tribes as those of metallurgy. The hold of the accumu-
lated wisdom and experience of successive generations

y * What is Technology : an Inaugural Lecture, By Oeorge Wilson, M.D.
Regiiis Professor of Technology, Edinburgh University.

VI.] THE MARITIME INSTINCT: THE CAXOE. 143

must be partial and uncertain among an unlettered
people, dependent on tradition for all knowleilgc except-
ing such as is practically transmitted in the operations
of daily experience ; for how very few of all the wan-
derers from the old centres of European civilisation to
the wilds of the new world bring with them the slightest
knowledge either of the science or the practice of metal-
lurgy ; or can tell how iron is taken out of the earth,
and brass molten out of the stone, or even can distin-
guish the metallic ores. Every chemical analyst knows
what it is to receive iron pyrites for silver, and ochres
for iron or gold. Even now the skill of the American
miner has to lie importer], and the cupper-miners of Lake
Superior an* almost exclusively derived from Cornwall
or the mining districts of (Jemiany.

With all our many artificial wants so promptly sup-
plied, even in the remotest colony in which the nomade
Anglo-Saxon wawlers

** By tbr loDK wash of AustndiuiAD ■««•
Far ofl^ ami hokU his bead to other •tan.
Ami breathes in convene ■eaai>na,**

we are alow to perceive how much wc» owe to the won-
drous appli;mces of moileni civilisation, and its social
division of lalK)ur. Tlie old Dutchman expiirted liis veiy
bricks across the Atlantic, when*with to found his New
Amsterdam on the lianks of the Hudson ; and the Eng-
lish colonist, with cntcr]»riw^ enough to mine the copiier
veins of Lxike Su|K*rior, still seeks a market for the ore
in England, and ini|Nirts fn>m thence both the engineers
and tilt* inui wherewith to bridge his St. Lawrence. With
such facts befon* us in n*lation even to the systematic
colonization of a highly civilizinl and enteqirising com-
menriid nation : it is easy to understand what must have
lieen the condition of the earth's primeval colonists, as
they m-andered forth successively from the gn^at Asiatic

144 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

hive, gradually displacing the savage fauna of the un-
peopled wilds they took possession of, or occupying, as
chance directed them, the far-scattered islands of the sea.
Their industrial arts were all to begin anew ; and thus,
wherever we recover traces of the first footprints of the
old nomade in his wanderings across the continents of Asia
or Europe, or follow him into the new world of America,
or the newer continent of Australia and the islands
of the Southern Ocean, we see that that non-metallurgic
condition of primitive social life which is convenientiiy
designated its stone-period, is not necessarily the earUest
human period, but only the rudimentary condition to
which man had returned, and may return again, in the
inevitable deterioration of a migratoiy era. The world
was all before him, where to choose his place of rest. Its
forests had to be cleared, its fields to be tilled, its veins
of copper to be explored, and the long lost science of
metallurgy to be recovered, and developed anew into
industrial arts. Cast once more on his primal tool-using
instincts, we can nevertheless fi-equently trace the indi-
viduality of the workmaQ, and the germs of original
thought and the novel applications of inventive skill,
even in such infantile human arts. What is frequently
of still more importance to the ethnologist, we can
not only detect in the workmanship some clue to the
psychical character of the originator ; but even more so,
from the materials he employed, and the artistic efforts
at imitation he displayed, we can infer his former geo-
graphical relations, and the physical conditions under
which he wrought.

But all evidence consistent with the Adamic origin of
man points to the cradle-land of the human family to-
wards the western borders of Central Asia, and remote
from its coasts : probably in that range of country
stretching between the head waters of the Indus and the

VI.) THE MsiHITIME IXSTISCT TIIK CASOE 145

TijjnH. Tht» only early histor}' of man that wo ixinneMB
representA the poHtililuvian wanderein journeying cast-
ward, and at length scuttling on a phiin that long after*
wanh^ rcmaineil one of the (thief centres of historj'. But
the arts there devolo|KHl lK»longtHl exclusively to a far-
inland })ei>ple ; and to this day the rude craft of tht'
Tigris an«l the Euphnites l)etrays the totid absence of
maritime instinct or skill in navigation. The highest
effort of their iHwit-huihlers is little more than to con-
struct a temjHiniry nift, on which themselves lunl their
simple freight may flojit in Siifety down the cummt of
the gn»at river. It is the sjime device as JuveniU dt^
H4!rilK\H, evidently without having seen it, as the painte«l
earthenwan* Iioat of the P^jyptians of the Nile : -

** ItiiU-lli' ft itiiittlc viilgim,
Car%niUi ti<-tilil>iiji iMilitiitn tUn* veU iiIiajk^ih,
Et l»n»%*il«iu pitta* n'mia inininilM'iv UiUi*."'

The *• Hctilil)Us phaselLs" of the jXK^t were in reality only
the Nile nifts, such as are in use to this djiy, f*>nniHl of
earthenware jars l)ound together hy withes and e4)nls,
and coveriMl with Imlruslit^s. Like the convsj)ontling
riviT-craft of the Euphrates, these an* steere<l down the
Nile, never to n»tuni : for, on their arrival at Cairo, the
nifts are broken up, and the jars sold in the liiiziuirs.
Such was the nidimentar}' condition of navigiition in
thiit great Asiatic hive of nations, when* man chicHy
dwelt for centuries, remote fnmi the sea. Hut fnmi
thenee the wanden^rs wen* si^atten^^l <»ver the fa<*e of the
whole earth, and by them wen» the nations tlividtul in
the earth, ami the isles of the (ientilt^s dividend in their
lands. The primitive river craft, therefon% found an
(*arly development into sea cnift, antl maritime mignititm
gave a new cliani<*ter t4) the wanderings of the primeval

' Ju%ctud, Ami/. IV
VOl« 1. K

UC PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

nomades, as they went abroad upon the face of all the
eartL Thenceforth, accordingly, those instinctive ten-
dencies began to characterize certain branched of the
human family, as leaders of maritime enterprise, which
may be traced under very diverse degrees of social de-
velopment; as in the Phoenicians, the Northmen, the
Malays, and the Poljoiesians ; while other tribes and
nations, such as the Celts and Feejeeans, representing,
in some respects, opposite extremes of development,
though Uving on the coast, are tempted by no longings
to voyage on the ocean's bosom.

The islands of the Central American archipelago were
the first to reward the sagacity of Columbus, as he
steered his course westward in search of the old East.
The arts of their simple natives accordingly first at-
tracted his attention ; and although he found among
them personal ornaments of gold, sufficient to awaken
the avaricious longings of the Spaniards for that fatal
treasure of the New World, yet practically they were in
total ignorance of aU metallurgic arts ; and, happy in
the luxuriance of an ocean-tempered tropical climate,
they knew not the stimulus to ingenious industry which
the requisites of clothing call forth in less genial climes.
The natives of Guanahan^, or San Salvador, were friendly
and gentle savages, in the simplicity, if not in the inno-
cence of nakedness. Their only weapons were lances of
wood hardened in the fire, pointed with the teeth or
bone of a fish, or furnished with a blade made either of
the universal flint, or more frequently with them, fi-om
the large tropical shells which abound in the West Indian
seas. The native cotton-plant they had learned to turn
to economical account, though heedless of the covering
garments which modesty and luxury weave out of its
useful fibres ; but the chief mechanical ingenuity of the
islanders was expended on the Ught barks to which they

Vr.] TUK MARITIME IXSTINCT : THE CANOE. 147

^ve the now universal name of auioe. Thofle were
fonne<l from the tnmk of a single tree, hollowed by fire,
with the help of their primitive atlz^^s of flint or shell ;
and were of various sizes, from the tiny Inirk only ca-
pable of holtlin^ its 8(»litar}* owner, to the ingenious
galley manned by forty or fifty rowers, who propellwl it
swiftly through the water with their paddles, and baled
it with the invaluable native calabash, which supplied to
them every domestic utensil, and rendered them alto-
gether indifferent to the |K>tter s art.

The canoe has a pe<*uliar inten^st and value in relation
to the archaeology of the New World. To those who
still deem the invention of new human species for the
peopling of America a gratuitous assumption of science,
it is the ty|>e of the older canivel of the primeval
(\ilumbus who first letl the way thither from Asiaitic or
Euro] lean shcires. The American grey s(|uirrel {Sciunui
mif/nUonii4i)^ it is well known, migrates in pni^ligious
numU*r8, not only traversing wide tracts of country, but
rrossing broiul rivers, in search of localities where its
fi:ixl abounds. Acconling to oft-reiK?atiHl popular ac-
comits, it is affirme^l, moreover, to embark on such
cK:casions on a rutle rnift, fonnwl of a stray chip or piece
of the liark of a tn*e, and t<i miss by its means otherwise
im|ittssable hikt>s of great width. The stor}% though itm-
fidently ri'iieati'd, n*<iuires confinnatitm ; but, assuming
its accuracy, had this nidimtait^uy trace of the l>oat-
building instinct develo[NHl iti^*lf into even the rudest
art among inferior animails, the gisigniphical ranges of
many sfiecies might liave lieen materiiJly changed, since
we Si*e tliat it want^Ml only the i^hip which man pnividml
for them, t4i make the hors*', the ox, the sheep, the hog,
as naturally at home in the New World as th<* OKI ; and,
evrn in defiance of man's will, to cairry sui'h jK-sts ivn the
brown rut, the mouse, and alsii the common Iioum* Hy,

148 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

almost into every region to which European civilisation
has penetrated. To man alone, but by no means exclu-
sively to civilized man, pertains the art of navigating
not only rivers, but oceans. With our wondrous steam-
ships, wherewith we have bridged the Atlantic, we are
apt to lose faith in the capacity of uncivilized man for
overcoming such obstacles as the dividing oceans which
had so long concealed the New World from the Old.
About the year 1750, a canoe, now preserved in the
museum of Marischal College, Aberdeen, was picked up
by a ship on the Aberdeen coast, with an Esquimaux in
it, still alive, and surrounded by his fishing gear, though
the poor voyager died soon after, from being allowed to
indulge to excess the voracious appetite which long ab-
stinence had created. This example, though an exceed-
ingly interesting, is not a solitary one ; for Humboldt, in
his Views of NaturCy refers to other well-authenticated
proofs of natives of America, supposed by him to have
probably been Esquimaux from Greenland or Labrador,
having been canied by cun'ents from the Western to
the Eastern Continent. Again, so recently as 1833, a
Japanese junk was wrecked on the coast of Oregon, and
some of its ci'ew were subsequently rescued from capti-
vity among the Indians of the Hudson's Bay Territory.
Other evidences in proof of the probability of such modes
of colonization of the New World will be noticed in a
subsequent chapter ; but these are sufficient to illustrate
the interesting relations between the primitive fleets of
the Indian islands first explored by Columbus, and the
possible sources of the earliest settlers of America. To
Columbus, indeed, with that well-defined faith in the
spherical form of the earth which gave him confidence
to steer boldly westward in search of the Asiatic Cipango,
the Indian canoes suggested no such solution of diffi-
culties of later origin ; for the great Admiral died in the

VI. J THE MARITIME IXSTISCT : TIIM CASOE. 149

lH.*lR*f that he liad reached the eaMteni shoren of the
contiueut of Asia,

Not BO, however, waa it with the Spanish savaiis of
the fifteenth century, to whose judgment the unaccom-
plished purpose of Columbus was referred. In the
ancient city of Sidamanca, there assembled in the Domi-
nican convent of St Stephen, in the year 1486, a learned
and orthodox conclave, summoned by Prior Fernando <le
Talavera, to investigate the nov<»l theory projiounded by
Columbus, and to decide whether, in that most Catholic
of the kingdoms of Christendom, in which the Inqui>ition
liad just been establinhe^l for the eradication of heresy,
it was a i>ermis8ible I relief that the New World of the
West exiated or no. Columbus, studying the wisdom of
a |>iist then ibiiwing to its close, by the clearer light of
his later ihi>^ii, had already demonstrated the certainty
of an ocean highway t*) the Western Hemisphere. The
ccmncil of clerical sages included professors of astronomy,
geography, mathematics, an<l other bmnrhes of science,
as well as learned friars and dignitiiries of the Church :
{)erhai»s as n*s|)ectable an assemblage o{ ch)ister-bred
]NMlantry antl orthodox conser\'atism as that fifteenth
century couhl pnHlure. Philosophiral deductions were
parried by a cpiotation from 8t. Jenmie or St. Augustine,
and mathematical demonstnitions l)y a figunitivi? text of
Scripture ; and in spit*' alike of the nciencf an<l the de
vout religii>us spirit of Columbus, the ortlnslox junto
of Sidamanca divin<»H prouounre^l tlir idea of the earths
spherical form hetcnnlox, and a U'lief in anti|xKh's in-
compatible with the historical traditions of our faith :
sinre to aasert that there were inhabited lands on the
op{M>site side of the gloln*, would l»e to maintain that
then* were nations not des<-en<led from Adam, it In^infj
tmiHtSisihli' fur them to A^nv y/<(x<t'i/ the ihtcrvcnitHj in'eniK
TluB would \k\ theri'fore, to dLscreilit the Bible, which

150 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

expressly declares that all men are descended from one
common parent.^

It may well excite a smile to find the very ethnologi-
cal problem of the nineteenth century thus dogmatically
produced by the sages of Salamanca in the fifteenth cen-
tury, to prove that America could not exist. But we
have not so entirely learned even now to harmonize our
scientific belief and our religious faith, that we can afford
to sneer at the foUies of an age bewildered in the mazes
of crude scientific theories and reUgious controversy.
The bark in which Columbus did at length achieve the
impossibility of reaching a new world beyond the At-
lantic ocean, was in no degree more capable of braving
the ocean's terrors than the navies of the Mediterranean
were a thousand years before. Nevertheless, it seems to
some of our modem scientific theorists an easier thing to
create a score of red, brown, and black Adams and Eves,
wherewith to increase, multiply, and replenish each
** realm,'' or province of the animal world, than to believe
that man was transferred to new regions, and affected by
their physical influences, just as we see the horse, ox,
and hog have been in our own day. Tliroughout the Poly-
nesian archipelago, fragments of foreign vocabularies are
the chief traces of that oceanic migration by which alone
the descendants of a common race could people those
distant islands of the sea The recognition of certain
Malay and Polynesian words in the language of the
remote island of Madagascar, is one of the striking illus-
trations of what such intrusive linguistic elements imply.
" A navigation of three thousand miles of open sea," says
Mr. Crawfurd, "lies between the Indian Islands and
Madagascar, and a strong trade-wind prevails in the
greater part of it. A voyage from the Indian Islands to
Madagascar is possible, even in the rude state of Malayan

* Vide Irving'a Columbus^ cliap. Hi.

VL] THE MARITIME INSTINCT: THE CANOE. \b\

navigation ; but return would )>c wholly impotwible.
Commerce, conquest, or colonization are consequently
utterly out of the question as means of conveying any
|>ortion of the Malayan language to Madagascar. I'here
remains, then, but one way in wliieh this could have
taken place : the fortuitous arrival on the shores of
Madagascar of tempest-driven Malayan 2>^^^- . • • The
occasional arrival in Madagascar of a shipwrecked prau
might not indexed be suiii<*ient to account for even the
smidl |)ortion of Malayan found in the-Malagasi ; but it
is ofTerinfj^ no violence to the manners or history of the
Malay people, to imafi^ine the pn)btibility of a pinitical
fleet, or a flwt carr}'ing one of those migrations of which
then? are examples on n»conl, Inking tempest-driven like a
single jprttu. Such a fleet, well cMjuipjXHl, well stocked,
and well manner], wouhl not only \ye fit for the long and
|>erilous voyage, but n»ach Miulagascar in a U'tter condi-
tion thiui a fishing or trading Inuit. It may sei*m, then,
not an improbalile supi>osition, that it was through one
or more fortuitous adventun»sof this d(^Tiption that the
language of Madagasc^ir n*ceiv(Ml its influx of Malayan."
Dr. Latham, in his Mtni nud his Mujrxitious^ supplements
the remarks of Mr. (Vawfunl, by referring t4> well-authen-
ticate<l voyagi* arc<mipliHheil by es4*ajKHl slaves fn>m
Mauritius. Im[H*lle4l by the stem ne<'e8sity of effecting
their i*S4*a[>e at all hazanls fmm an int4>lerable lN>ndage,
these |KX)r untut4)nHl slaves have bet»n known to seize a
can<H» in the night-time, and with a ealalxisli of water,
and a few nuini<>c <»r cassiula roots, entlwivour t4) reach
Madagascar, or even Africa, a <listanct? of many hundred
mih*s, without comjuiss or guide, thnmgh tlie {mtliless
and stormy oci*an. Many parish in the voyage, but some
^succreed, ami Dr. Lathiim quotes an instance communi-
<*ate<l to him by one who had himsi*lf picki^l up a frail
ranrK*, within alnmt a hundretl miles of the e^mst t>f

153 PREHISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

Africa, containing five runaway slaves, who, with only a
small quantity of water and rice, ajid their fishing-lines,
had fled from a harsh French master at the Seychelles,
and, guided by the stars, were making for the coast fix>m
which they had been kidnapped. The poor voyagers had
notched on the side of their canoe the record of twenty-
one days of weary hope ; but one of them then lay d)dng in
the bottom of the canoe, and the others only escaped the
same fate by theii- timely rescue. We see, however, that
frailer ships than our ocean steamers may have borne the
fathers of nations to remotest isles ; and that when that
disputed proposition of po&sible oceanic migration is
solved, the objections of St. Augustine and the Salamanca
doctors, along with some of those of equally reputable
doubters of modem times, to the possible aflfiliation of
the red man and the white, may prove to rest on no
better foundations than other obstacles to the belief in a
possible new world, which it seemed to the old monkish
impugners of science in Salamanca equally reasonable
to advance. Copernicus, the astronomical revolutionist,
whose solar system was to dethrone this earth from that
usurpation of the centre of the universe, which it had
held unchallenged since the days of Ptolemy, and to
simpUfy in so many ways the conception of our terres-
trial relations in space, was then in his thirteenth year.
Yet, in that year, 1486, Columbus was required gravely
to refute the objection to his proposed voyijge to a trans-
atlantic continent, that, even should a ship succeed in
this way in reaching his proposed goal, the extremity of
India, she could never get back again ; for the rotund-
ity of the globe would present a kind of mountain over
which the vessel might indeed under favourable circum-
sttince^ be carried, as down a rapid, but up which it
would be impossible for her to sail with the most favour-
able wind ! To 8ucli rciisoners the new world of Ame-

YL) TIIR MARITIME INSTINCT: TUE CANOE, 153

nvxx was clearly enough au abBunlity and an im{»06aiblc
tiling.

In tlim view of tlie casi', the canoe of America is the
type of a developed iiifttinet pregnant ^nth many sug-
j^vtive thoughts for uh. And the traces of the primeval
Hhi|>-huilder*8 art accumulate wonderfully so soon as
attention is drawn to it : adding fresh evidence of the
ditfusion (»f the human race in earliest times to remote
outiikirts of the ancient world, and i>f an underlying
history not yet embract»d within our oldest accredited
chroniclingH. On the banks of the Scottish Clyde, the
modem voyager from the New World looks with }ieculiar
interest on the growing fabrics of those huge steamens
with riljH of steel, and phmks, not of iwik, but iron, which
have made the ocean, that proved so im|>assable a barrier
to the men of the fifteenth centurj*, the easy highway of
commerce an<l pli*iusure to us. The nxir of the iron forge,
the clang of the fon;-hammer, the intermittent glare of
the funiaoes, and all the novel applimices of iron ship
building, tell of the mtMlmi era of steam ; but, meanwhile,
underneath these very shiinbuilders' yanls lie the memo-
rials of ancient Clyde fl*rts in which we are lH>me bjick,
up the stream of human historj", far into prt»hist4)ric
times. The earliest nM!onle<l <lisiM>Vfry of a Clyde canoe
took phice in 1780, at a depth of twenty-fivt» fet.»t Inflow
the surfiiee, on a site known by the apt tK*sigiuition of St*
Rii(M*h*s cn>ft, when digging the foundation of a church
dtnlieati'^l, by a stmngely ap|XKsite inisn<»m(T of the
ancient one which <H'cuj>ieil the same sjM»t, to the ante
diluvian father of Methus4*lah. This primitive canoe,
hewn out of a single oak, n^stinl in a horizontal {Nisition
on its keel, and within it, near the prow, then* lay a
curiously suggi»stive nit^morial of the me(*lKUii(*al arts of
the remote em U\ which the ancient shij> of the Clytle
must Ih.* assiguetL This was a iKrautifully tinislietl stone

1-REUISTOKW MAN.

[Chap.I

jixe or ceit, represented here, doubtless one of the simpl6j

iraplementa of the allophylian Caledoiiian to whom th«

- eanoe lielonged, if not indeed the tool

«^Bl with which it had been fashioned iiitofl

J^^H% shape.

^^^^B ■ Subsequent to this at least sixteei

^^^^BM other canoes have l)een broiight

^^^^^PH light. None of them are fiUly equal in

^^^^^H V interest to the earliest discovery of th^

^^^^^^^1 stone implement and equally priraitivd

^^^^^^^^1 bark ; but others have been dug upl

^^^^^^^F at greater distances from the model

river's banks, buried in many feet of"

riu a— ClyilcatoituAift .1-1 1 I -

accumulated sou, underneath sites oc-
cupied by the most ancient structures of the city of
Glasgow, and doubtless the busy scenes of city life for
more than a thousand years. It is difficult to apply any
satisfactory chi-onological test whereby to gauge the lapse
of centuries, since this primitive fleet plied in the f
inland estuary that then occupied the modem
through which the Clyde has wrought it« later channel ^
but that the changes in geological, no less than in teeh-J
nological aspects indicate a greatly prolonged interval,!
cannot admit of doubt ; and primitive man, alike ;
old Africa and in the New World, is still practising thrt
rude ingenuity of the same boat-builder's art, which!
the aUophylian of the Clyde pursued thousands
years ago.

In the interesting narrative of a cruise on the Tan- ]
ganyika Lake of central Aii'ica, by Captain J. H. Speke,J
the simple process there pursued in ffishioning the nativel
canoe, strikingly illustrates the means by which sol
imperfect an implement coidd be turned to account in I
felling the forest oak, jind shaping it into such vessels as I
that in which the Htmio nxc waR found. Writing in his I

VL] TIIK MA HI Tl MM LKSTINCT : TUK CAXOE. 155

jourual on the 3d March 1858, Captain Spekc says: —
" All licing settled, I set out in a long narrow canoe,
hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree. Those vessels
are mostly built from large tim))ers, growing in the dis-
trict of I'guhha, on tlie wcHtem nide of the lake. The
savages fell them, lop otf the branches and ends to the
length n»quired, and then, after covering the upper sur-
face with wet mud as the tret* lit^s ujion the ground, they
set Hre to and smoulder out its interior, until nothing
but a case remains, which they finish up by paring out
with roughly constructed hatchets,"

Fire is thus the d(Ki)e servant of man in all stages of
his pn)gn*ss ; as neeilful to the primeval ship-carpenter
of the Clyde in constructing his rude oak canoe, as to
the moilem ocean shij) buihler in the completion of his
huge iron ste^mi ship for Athmtic or Austndasian voyage.
At c»very stage of human progrt^ss we see wliat subtle
meaning there is in the Promethean myth of the Titan
son of lajK^tus, steiding the fire of Zeus wherewith to
endow the infant human race. Prometheus was to the
ancient Greek the imaniation of {mictical intellect, which
conquers the elements of uatun*, anil makes them subsi^r-
vient to human necessities ; and he was represented as
cliaincHl l>y the Ix^hest of the supreme Zeus, with liolta
forgwl by liepluestos the g<xl of metallurg)', in full ac-
cordance with the n*lative progn»8s in man s acquisition
of arts and me(*hiinii*id skill. The fire ascended from the
sju'rifice of AIk'1, h>ng gcnenitions K*fore it was subduinl
by Tubal-C'aia to the wise ministry of the artificer in
brass and inm ; and no fitter designation of man, in the
des<*riptive distinctions of scientitic chkssification, could
Ikj devised than thxit of the fire usina ufiimal,

ITie islanders of the Soutlu^m Ocean, the natives of
many diverse areas of the Africiui continent, and the
canoe- builders of tin' New World, all employ the agi*ncy

L

PHEinSTOJtW MAX.

[Cb.

of fire to BHppIement tlieir imperfect tools. The stnne a
of the St. Enochs croft cauoe is formed of highly po
iBhed dark greenstoue. It mciisurcs five aud a half Inchd
ill leugth by three aud a lialf inches in breadth, and i

uupoliehed band round the centre shows wlierc it hiU
Ixicu bound to its haft, leaving Iwtb ends disengaged, ;
is frequently the case with the stone hatchets both of th<
American Indiana and the Polynesians. But the acooa

^V

panying wmniutiL .ilmun ;( iiiiiclj lucre ingenious mod^
of hafting the stone adze for hollowing the ehan-ed trunk, 1
and Bhaping it into a canoe. It is drawn from ono I
brouglit by Mr. Paul Kane from the Pacific coast, where I

VI.] THE MARITIME ISSTIXCT: THE CANOE, 157

Kuch implements are in Ufk^ )>y the (Inlam Indians, who
oc<!Upy the Bhon*H of l^uget 8 Sound and the Straiti^ of I)c
Fuca, and construct, out of the hollowe<l trunks of single
trees, large and highly ornamented canoes, in which they
fearlessly fa<e the dangers of the* Pacific ocean.

The lower reaches of the Columbia river, for nearly
forty miles Iwfore it enters the Pacific, c<»nHtitute, strictly
s|RNiking, an estuar)* of the si»a, indented by Imys, and
var)'ing in hreadth from three io stivcn miles. There, at
CajK* FLittcry, and along the neighbouring coasts, the
varicms tril)e8 live to a great extent on the spoils of the
^lu In the lower part of the Columbia river, a small
fish, calle<l by the natives Uhlekun, is caught in immense
numlK'rs, an<l is gn*atly prizeil on account of its oily fat-
ness, which is such that whi*n drit*<l it will bum with
a clear st^wly light like a candlt*. The Uhlekuns are
caught with sistonishing rapidity by means of an instru
ment alxiut seven feet long, the cur\'ed w«Hxli*n bhule of
which, measuring alx>ut four feet, is somewhat the sha{)c
of a sabre. Along the convex cdgi\ at distances of an
inch and a half, are inserted shaq> Ih me teeth alnmt an
iiuh long. Tht; Indian standing in the caucx^ draws this
cilgi'ways with lK)th hands rapiilly through the densi?
shoaLs of fisli, which wxv so thirk that almost ever\' t<H»th
will strike a fisli. One kntn^k acn>ss the thwarts sjifely
dejMisits them in the lH)tt4)m of the canoe ; and this is
done with sut-h ni{»idity that n«'ts are consid<»n*d uselt»ss.
Hut the skill which the fishinfi: triln^s of the North Pacific
e<msts show in thi» managfUH'nt of their cancH*s finds a
U'tter field fur its display than th«' ejisy captun* of the
I'hlekun in the estuar\- of the Columbia river. S«)me of
their canoes, matle out of a single tn»e, measure upwanis
t>f fifty feet long, and an» ca{>able t)f canying thirty as a
crew. They have thwarts from side to side, alnmt three
inches thick, and their gunwales cur\'e ^uitwanls so as to

158 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

throw off the waves. The bow and stem rise in a grace-,
fill sweep sometimes to a height of five feet, and are
decorated with grotesque figures of men and animals.
In managing these canoes, the Indian crew kneel two
and two along the bottom, and propel them rapidly with
paddles from four to five feet long, wielded with the
two hands, without touching the side of the canoe, while
a bowman and steersman sit each with his paddle at
either end. Washington Irving, in describing the Oregon
Indians, remarks : " It is surprising to see with what
fearless unconcern these savages venture in their light
barks upon the roughest and most tempestuous seas.
They seem to ride upon the wave like sea-fowl. Should
a surge throw the canoe upon its side, and endanger its
overturn, those to windward lean over the upper gun-
wale, thrust their paddles deep into the wave, and by
this action not merely regain an equilibrium, but give
their bark a vigorous impulse forward."

To such fearless navigators the violent currents of the
Straits of De Fuca, or the stormy waves of the Pacific,
present little to daunt them ; and one of their most
coveted, though now rarely attained, pmes is the whale.
Since the encroachments of European settlements on
their territories their game has greatly diminished, and
few whales approach the coast ; but, when an opportunity
offers, the Indians are enthusiastic in the chase, and the
process by which they secure their prize furnishes an
interesting illustration of native ingenuity and daring.
Upon a whale being seen blowing in the ofling, they rush
down to their large canoes and push off, furnished with
a number of large, strong seal-skin bags filled with air.
To each bag a barbed spear-head is attached by a cord
about nine feet long, and in the socket of the spear-head
is fitted a handle five or six feet in length. Upon com-
ing up with the whale, the barbed heads, with the

VL] TUB MAHITIMM INSTIXCT : TUFs CAXOE. 1.59

uir-l>ag8 attached, are drivcu into it, and the handles
withdrawn. The attack va eontinunlly renewed in thiB
manner, until the wliale is no longer able to sink from
the hut>yancy of the bagn, when he i» despatehed and
towe<l a8h(»re. The blubber of the whale is wa much
prized amongst the Indiiuis of the Straits of De Fuca as
i)y the Esquimaux. It is cut into stripes alx>ut two feet
long and four inches wide, and eaten generally wnth
their dried fish.

Thus we see, bom the illustrations supplied by the
maritime skill and enterprise of modem tribes, to how
nmch greater extent the ancient canoe may have sullied
for octuuiic ex|HKlitions than our familiarity with the
elaborately perfected nKxlem craft inclines us to believe
(lossible. The old navigators of the estuar}' of the Clyde
were probably not a whit less fearless than the mitive
winders of the Oregon coiist ; and they Imd to face
dangers fully equal to any of those to which the
voyagers of the Pacific are ex|K)scHl, whent*ver they
navigat4*d the lochs and isLmd channels tiiwards its
mouth, or ventured Ix^yond it, to face the gides imd cur-
n»nts of the Irisli Sea, The ancient alluvium of the
river Clyde hiis supplied an unusually rich store of
illustrations of primitive ship ciU^>entr)' ; but the dis-
closures of another Si*ottish locality also merit noti<*e
here. Tlie carse, or alluvial plain of Falkirk, like that
of Stirling, is intimately asrt<MiatcH.l with st»me very
memorable events of Scottish hi.st4>r)\ It is tniverseil
by the vallum and chain of forts n*arcd by Lollius Ur-
bicus, the Roman propnetor of Antoninus Pius in the
early juirt of the second centur)% and is rich in memo-
rials of later incidents alrea<ly refernHl io. Hut untler-
ueath the ancient footprints of Si*ottish patriot and
invader lie reconls of older human histor)*. Acconling
U\ the Statisti<*al Acc^ounts, in the vicinitv of Falkirk an

,» ■ •

158

thro^

ful
deC'

In

an
pti

t\

a

• KT 'K'i*

,^-ir:

-- .*.

K MARITIME ISSTLWT : TUK CdSOE, 161

^liat the skull is im{)erfect in the buflc, and the
\x>ue8 are wanting. It is well developed, according
^ type of omnia of the early Scottish tumuli. But
» confers the 8{>ecial interest on this imperfect human
i> 18^ that it was found in the same alluvial carse-land
le ancient (uinoes, an<l the fossil bones of the Elephas
f^igeniwi, twenty feet l>elow the surface, in a bed of
I and gravel, when digging the area of the laige
llgemouth lock of the Union C^nal, cm the 29th of
m 1843.^ Thus, while in one case we recover traces
Jie ancient to<»Ls of the prehistoric ship-carpenter, in
tlier we seem to alight on evidences of his own phy
1 characteristics, <*orres|K)ndiug in all respects with
■e whic*h have already In^en I'ec^ogiiiseil as ap{)ertain-

to the allophylian of the Scottish 8tone-{>eriod.
rhe Ix-e, acconling to Hul)er, when interrupted in its
i-bailding o(>enitionrt, ailaptcd its structure to the
rel circunistanees inqxwiMl on it, altering the other-
e invari2d>lc hexagon. The bird, in like manner,
omm<Hlates the form of its nest to the }HH*uliarities of

chosen lo<Mdity ; as if making the instinctive process
oen'ient t4) the mtional. We neetl n<>t wonder there-
s to find the primitive arts o{ man, while disclosing a
respondenci* in many resiKM»ts so n*markabk% yet also
ealing constant tnu*es of such adaptation as (lertains
lis higher attributes of ri»as<in and ex}>erienee. Among
ny of the islands of the Southern Oee;in, the boats are
pie w<MNh«n canoes, }>ointeii at either end, and pro
leil through the water with the {uiddle ; but the Imrks
:he true P«»lynesiansan' mon* ehdMirate and ingenious.

Tlie «itMMVrry Attrarti*!! (iinaulrnihlr attrntion «l Uie Umr. UhX «••
■irly (Ii'mtiImmI m •iiniv mirvnt |writMlical — Ckntmhnr»'» Jomnuti wmm
wA Ui Bir, liut no mitiiv i» Ui lir ftiUB*! in iU |*a|C«« : mhI Mr. llnlMrt
Bijrn hail kimlly •rjurhnl othrr Miurv** for iiMf witb«Mit Uriug aIiIc %*•
r«r Um* liur. Iti^ UbrI, b«iw«vrr, atlAa-hnl U> ill* •kiiU r*«i^nU Uii* abitT*
ft mnI <Utr, aimI it autbrnUcaUsI « itk ihv ugnatnrr ** TlioauM WiImir.**

vol.. I. L

{

160 PRBniSTORW MAN. [Chap.

ancient boat was diacovered some thii-ty feet below the
surface of the same carse from wliieh the remains of a
fo88il elephant were exhumed in excavating the Union
_ Canal in 1821. In the earber part of the previous cen-
tury a sudden rise of the river Carron undermined a
portion of its banks, and exposed to view an ancient
canoe of unusually large dimensions, lying imbedded in
the alluvial soil at a depth of fifteen feet, and covered by
successive strata of cLiy, shells, moss, sand, and graveL
Sir John Clerk has described it with great minuteness in
the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica aa an antedi-
luvijin boat ; and in an extract from a contemporary
newspaper it is stated to have been finely poUshed
and perfectly smooth, both inside and outside, and
foimed from a single oak-tree, with pointed stem and
square stern. These traces of primitive human art have
already been referred to in the Prdmtoric Annals of
Scotland, but a further discovery in the same locality
confers a fresh interest upon them. Soon after the
publication of that work, when on a visit to Falkirk,

I was shown by Dr. G. Hamilton a human skull, which
at once attracted my attention from ita marked corre-
spondence to the brachycephalic crania of ancient British
graves. It is figured here, from a drawing executed
with great care at a later date, from which it will be

VL] Tin: MARITIME IXSTISCT : THE CASOE. 161

Heeu that the skull in imperfect in the buflc, and the
facial bc»ue8 are wanting, it is well developed, according
to the type of crania of the early Scottish tumuli But
what confers the special interest on this imperfect human
skull is, that it was found in the same alluvial carse-laud
as the ancient canoes, and the fossil bones of the Elephas
pnmige9niut, twenty feet below the surface, in a bed of
shell and gravel, when digging the area of the large
(irangeniouth lock of the Union C!anal, on the 29th of
June 1843.* Thus, while in one case we rei'over traces
of the am*ient tools of the prehistoric ship-carpenter, in
another we seem to alight on evidences of his own phy
sical characteristics, (*orre8|K)uding in all respects with
thow; which have alnwly W^ni recognised as appertain-
ing to the allophylian of the 8<!ottish stone-{>ericHL

The Ihv, atr<:onling to Hulxfr, when interrupted in its
<*<*11 Imilding openitionn, ailapted its structure to the
novel circumstances im{)ose<l on it, altering the other-
wise* invariable hexag(»n. The bird, in like manner,
arcommcnlates the form of its nest to the ]>eculiarities of
the chosen locality ; as if making the instinctive process
Hulwer\'ient t4) the rational. We netnl not wonder there-
fore to find the primitive arts of man, while disclosing a
i*om»s|K)ndt*nce in many resjK*<*ts so n^markable, yet also
n-ve^ding const«int traees of such adaptation as {H'rtains
to his higher attributes of n*as4in ami e.xjK'rience. Among
many of tlM» ishinds of the Southern Occim, the l)oats are
Himph* wo4MU*n canoes, }M>intiHl at either entl, and pro
{M*lle<l through the water with the ]»iuldle ; but the liarks
nf the true Polynesiims an* mon* ebiln^rate and ingenious.

* Tbr (iwci>vrry attrarinl (^inu«lf*ral»lr Attrniion «l the lime. And «••
minutely driMTilNxl in mmie rurrvnt |irn<Miicnl — Ckatmh^0*0 Jomrmul mmm
■uUDoal to nir, liut no n(»tii'r i« to Im* f(Hin«l in ita |*A4;r« ; anal Mr. Kiilmrt
lluMnlirni Km kin«lly ariiiilirfl ntbrr wiurvrs for mr witlKiut ItrtuK M» !••
rrraver thr clu^. 'Vh» Ubel, h^m^vrr. •ttA<*hnl to Um •kuU rrt-onU thr above
fnrU Mul <U|p, an«l is nutkrnticnt^sl «ith ihv ugnntnrr ** TlioaiM WiUon.'*

VOL. I. I*

162 FREUISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

Frequently they axe double, with a raised platform or
quarter-deck, and they are invariably provided with an
outrigger, an article seemingly of Malay origin. So
essential, indeed, is the latter deemed for the safe navi-
gation of their ocean archipelago, that the most remark-
able characteristic recognised by the Tahitians, when
Captain Cook's vessels first revealed to them the wonders
of European civilisation, was the want of the indispens-
able outrigger. Throughout the mythology of oceanic
Polynesia, Mawai, the upholder of the earth, and the
revealer of the secrets of the future, plays a prominent
part. In one of his prophecies, Mawai foretold that a
canoe such as had never been seen before, a canoe
without outriggers, should in process of time come out
of the ocean. But to the mind of the Tahitian, an ocean
canoe without outriggers was so impossible a thing that
they laughed their prophet to scorn ; whereupon Mawai
launched his wooden dish on the waters, which swam
without outriggers, and the Tahitians thenceforward
looked for the strange marv^el of the outriggerless canoe.
Accordingly when Cook visited the islands, his ship was
regarded as the fulfilment of the prophecy, and still
Enghsh vessels are frequently called Mawai's Canoea
The mythic prophecy seems in reality one of those vague
traditions of ancestral intercourse with other members of
the human family, such as, among the Aztecs, led to the
belief that the ships of Cortes had returned fi'om the
source of the lising sun, with Quetzalcoatl, the divine
instructor of their forefathers in the arts of civilisation.

The proa of the Pacific is a product of the naval
architecture and maritime skill for which the Malays
are specially distinguished among the islanders of its
archipelagos. It is generally formed of two pieces of
wood joined lengthways, and sewed together with bark ;
and is found chiefly within the region of the trade-winds,

VI.) 77//; MARITIME ISSTISCT: TUtl CASOE, 163

fur which it i8 peculhirly adapted. The iudi:i|jeiiMii)iIe
outrigger, the alwence of which conntituted, to the Ta-
hitiann, the grand marvel of Captain Cook'n ship, is a
contrivance for counterbalancing the large saiLn of the
A[alay pn>a, and the pirocjue or monoxylouB umoe of
the Pacitic. In itA moet (*ommon form, it eonsi»ti) of
two sparK fastonecl athwart the vessel, and projeding
alniut half its length U^ windwanl. The ends of the
H|>ars are attached to a heavy beam, sometimes in the
nliape of a small (*anoe ; and to mariners familiar only
with the light proa, the idea of a vessel carrj'ing large
mils on the open si^a without an outrigger, must seem a
mim4*le n-^iuiring Mawais aid. The outrigger is also
use<l in some of the smsdl narrow canoi's of the Pacific :
and pro|)elled by a rude sail of matting, or somf*times
only by the jjaddlc, and protected by this contrivance
against the clanger of u{>setting, the fearlens oce^m
voyagt»rs find their way from ishmd to island, through
the most tenijX'stutms was. We are, in truth, in danger
of forgetting, amid the luxuriant appliances of our ocean
steamshi|)s, how mcxlerate an* the means which, in this,
as in other riMjuirements of man, suHice to supply all the
ne<*essities of his lH»ing.

The ]Mipulati<»n of the gn*at I\>lynesian an-hijK»lago
presents many highly interi'sting and suggestive featun*.**,
bearing clos4»ly «)n the questi<m of cN*eanic migration.
The area of Polynesia pn>p<T is <lefim*<l by Latham to
extend fn>m the small islands westwanl of the Pellews
to K;ister Islan«I, and fn»m the Mariaum*s and the Sand-
wich Islands to New Zealand on the south. The meams
of anjuiring animal f<NMl in m*arly all xiw if^lamls is
almost exclusively limittNl to the si»a. The ciMNui-nut,
the tan>, x\\v lianana, and other Vi-gi»table f<NKl, constitute
their chief diet ; and hence, fiosfdbly, one soun*e of the
tendency to cannilialism so horribly develf»|ie<l among

164 PREUISTOKW MAX. [Chap.

some of the island gi'oup. Id Tonga-tabii and Easter
Island, as well as in the Micronesian Rota, Tinian,
Ualan, and throughout the Caroline group, remains of
massive stone buildings, the origin or use of which is
wholly unknown to the natives, reveal traces of an
extinct civilisation ; and also afford some possible clue
to the strange ethnological phenomena of the Oceanic
Archipelago. Professor Dana, who, as geologist to the
United States' Exploring Expedition, had such abundant
opportunities for observation, came to the conclusion
that an immense area in the Pacific has for ages been
gradually subsiding, and that the numerous Lagoou
Islands maik the spots where what were once the highest
peaks of mountains have finally been submerged. Mr.
Hale, the philologist of the same expedition, gathered
sufficient data from a European who had been resident
for a time on the island of Bonabe, in the Caroline archi-
pelago, and from his own obscr\^ations, to satisfy him
that the remarkable stone structures, both Ualan and
Bonabe, were erected when the sites on which they stand
were at a different level from that they now occupy,
" At present they are actually in the water ; what were
once paths, are now passages for canoes, and when the
waUs are broken down the water enters the enclosure.'*

Such an idea seems like a glimpse of far-reaching
truths relative to the unwritten history of the mysterious
past in that recently explored Southern Ocean. When
Columbus discovered the islands of the New World, he
found them lying in thickly-clustered groups, and ere
long reached the mainland of a great continent, which
lay in close vicinity to its island satelUtes. But it was
altogether different with the Columbus of the Southern
Ocean. A strange Antarctic as well as an Australian
continent lay there also, awaiting new discoverers ; but
far beyond their coasts the Pacific and Southern groups

VI.] TlIK MARITIME IXSTLVCT : THE CAXOE. 16d

dott4Nl the wide expanse of ocean, like the Rtaire that lose
themAclves in the deep abysses of night We read with
wonder, ns strange as that which rewarded the revela-
tions of the Western Ocean in the closing years of the
fifteenth century, of the voyages and discoveries of
BjTon, Wallis, Carteret, and of Cook and later explorers
of the South Pacific Ocean. When Captain Cook reached
the Ca|)e on his return from his si'cond expedition, in
1774, he had sailcnl no less than twenty thousand
leagues, through unknown seas, since he left the same
point twenty months before. His grand quest was in
sean^h of the unknown Term Au/ftralis Ificoynita, a
continent which it was assumed must exist in the
Southern Ocean, as a counterpoise to the hmd ticcupying
so large a {xirtion of the northern hemisphere ; but
instead of tliis, the voyagers rniilrd for tlays and wec*kH
through a vast o<!ean, arriving by clianc^e, now and again,
at some little island, cut off from all the world besidt's,
yet tenanted by human Ixungs. And, as later voyageis
have noted, on sailing once more into the limitless
norizon, after another long interval, in which many
hundreds of miles have l)een |)asse<l, another island
spe<*k appears ; and not only is it also inhabited, but
affinities of speech, mythology, and the primitive in-
g<*nuity of native arts, all concur in proving a community
of origin. To account satisfactorily for so puzzling a
problem of ethnolog}' has taxed the ingi'uuity and skill
of some of our ablest elucidators of the history of man.
llie iKitanist was long in doubt as to the laws which
regulate the distribution of plants over the glolns and
was called on at once to explain the occurrence of a
|ieculiar flora in islands like those of the Pacific, cut (»tf
fnim the rest of the world by a vast expanse of (H*ean :
and again, to reconcile the fact of the same or allieii
«pecies being diffuse<l over areas separate^l from each

166 FREHTSrORlC .VAN. [Chap.

other by the same, or other barriers equally impassable.
But Professor Edward Forbes and Dr. Hooker have
effectually cleared up the difficulties which the botanist
experienced ; and a similar mode of dealing with those
of the ethnologist seems to have passed through the
mind of Darwin, as he explored the peopled islands of
the Southern Pacific, whatever changes may have since
modified his views. Other subjects engaged his atten-
tion, and fill the interesting pages of his Voyage of a
Naiui alisty and it is only as a passing thought that he
observes : " Nor can I quite pass over the probability
of the former existence of large archipelagos of lofty
islands, where now only rings of coral rock scarcely
break the open expanse of the sea, throwing some light
on the distribution of the inhabitants of the other high
islands now left standing, so immensely remote from
each other, in the midst of the great ocean."

Time is the element most frequently required in the
hypotheses of the ethnologist. The geologist, happily
freed from the trammels of diluvial systems, takes to
himself unlimited ages for the working out of the phe-
nomena revealed to him in the earth's crust ; and, with
the command of requisite time, the whole cosmical his-
tory moves onward in calm, majestic progression, under
the operation of laws of nature little difFeiing from those
still in force. The palaeontologist and the botanist,
guided by the same laws, see many mysteries disappear ;
but the ethnologist is restricted from such Ucense by
historical evidence, which he may critically elucidate,
but which he dare not ignore. The very license, how-
ever, which the geologist has thus acquii-ed at so criti-
cal a time for his science, probably tempts him to its
abuse ; and the ethnologist is apt to stumble at assumed
intervals of vast extent in time demanded by the geo-
logist, in relation to those most recent plienomeua in

VI. J THE MARITIMK ISSTISCT: THH CASOK, 167

which he \& chiefly iuteresteil lu this respect it will
probably be fouud that, in many of those post-tcrtiaiy
formations now being aMSf>ciated with tlie traces of man
and his arts, a greater antiquity has been demanded by
the geologist tlian is indis]x*nsable to account for their
deposition. And so idso may it l>e with the theory of
submergence of a southern continent, or great archi-
pelago of thickly-clustering and lofty isknds. That the
c(»ral n^efs i\xv\ atolls of the Southern Pacific prove that
an immense area in that (K:ean has for ages be<*n slowly
sinking beneath itswaven, until large {Nirtions have been
iiubm(*rgiHl and liave disappeareil, is an opinion uni-
versally admitted by geologiHts. Dana assigns such
changes to a (Hiri^Kl '' probably within and since the
tertiarj" ei)och ;*' and the facts note<l in reference to the
minted structures at Bonalw pn>ve that they were pro
Inngetl into modem timtrs, coi^val with human history.
If such a pro<'ess of subsidation were still in progress,
many of the low cond ishuids of the Pacific woidd <lii»-
appear beneath the ocean in the laj>i*e of comparatively
few (*enturies ; and by such natural causes, continuous
island chains may have U*cn en^ulfetl, which once
formed the natural resting places, by means of which
the fleets of Polynesia pilote<i their w*ay to islands now
separated by seemingly iniimssiible ocean I carriers, and
even foun<l their wav to S«)Uthem Amerii-a.

We must not, however, be misled lien\ any more than
in our estimate of {xissible Atlantic* voyagers, by the
undue contempt with which the £uro]K*an is apt to
gauge the capiicity of such island mariners in their
native craft. At Vanikoro, the native C4in«)e Is a mere
rudely-fashioned trunk of a tree, Hutliciently gn>oved to
aflford foot-hold ; yet t4i this the islander attaches an
outrigger, spremls a mat for his sail, and boldly launches
forth into the (x;ean, though probably few Europeans

168 PREHISTORIC MAX: [Chap.

would be induced to venture in such a craft on the
stillest pool. Dr. Pickering, when illustrating the ideas
of oceanic migration which he was led to form from
intimate observations of widely-scattered and very di-
verse branches of the human family, remarks : " Of the
aboriginal vessels of the Pacific, two kinds only are
adapted for long sea-voyages : those of Japan, and the
large double canoes of the Society and Tonga groups.
In times anterior to the impulse given to civilized
Europe, through the noble enterprise of Columbus,
Polynesians were accustomed to undertake sea-voyages
nearly as long, exposed to equal dangers, and in vessels
of far inferior construction. However incredible this
may appear to many, there is sufficient evidence of the
fact. The Tonga people are known to hold intercourse
with Vavao, Samoa, the Feejee Islands, Rotuma, and
the New Hebrides. But there is a document, published
before those seas were frequented by whalers and
trading-vessels, which shows a more extensive aboriginal
acquaintance with the islands of the Pacific. I allude
to the map obtained by Forster and Cook from a native
of the Society Islands, and which has been shown to
contain not only the Marquesas, and the islands south
and east of Tahiti, but the Samoan, Feejee, and even
more distant groups. Again, in regard to the prin-
ciples of navigation, the Polynesians appear to possess
a better knowledge of the subject than is commonly
supposed, as is shown from recent discoveries at the
Hawaiian Islands. One of the Hawaiian headlands has
been found to bear the name of The starting-place for
Tahiti; the canoes, according to the account of the
natives, derived through the missionaries, leaving in
former times at a certain season of the year, and direct-
ing their course by a particular star.*' Thus we per-
ceive, notwithstanding the silence of history, oceanic

VI. 1 TliK MARITIME IXSTLWT: THE CAXOK, 169

migration pn'Aontcd no inimrmountalilc olistacle to the
fcarlcnw and migratory Polynesian, with his naturally
wandering diBponition, and his aptitude for maritime
enterprise. Hence the mar\'el, that each little coral and
volcanic island, widely scattered through the vast ocean
that spreads its expanse of waters between Asia and
America, is found with its human occupants, its abori-
ginal arts, and its little fleet of ocean-canoes.

But leaving such glimpses of <K*eanic migration, there
is another aspect in which the ingenuity of the primitive
IxMtt-builder of the New World is exhibited, which is
highly characteristic in itself, and also worthy of a pass
ing notice from some elements of comparison it affords
with the primeval ingenuity of the ancient world.
Tliroughout the islands of the American archipelago,
and among the southern tril>es, where large and freely
navigidJe rivers abound, the native canoe was made of
various siz<*«, but invariably of the tnmk of a tree hol-
lowed out, and reduced to the requinnl Hliap<'. Such
ap|)ear8 to l)e the universal instinctive tj-pe of the primi-
tive mariners cnift ; but where obstacles interfere with
its accomplishment, the rudest nices devise means t4)
obviate the difliculty. Among the Australians, seem
ingly the most hopelewdy degnule<l of all the human
family, the mitive timl>er is mostly too heavy to float
in water, and the Australian constructs for himst*lf a
liark canoe, suftiirient for l)earing him over a smooth
stream, though not such us to tempt him t4> face the
violence of the open sea. Again, the Califomian c»an«M*
is a mere rude float made of nislit*s, in the fonn of a
hiMhed-up hammock ; while at the op{M>site end of the
wale of such untut4)nHl Hhi|y-cnift, the canfM's of the
Navigator Islands, in the Pacific, — so called by La Pt*-
muse, thfir first discoverer, owing to the gnu^eful sha{H*
and su|>erior workmanship of these vesm^ls, an* formed

170 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

of irregular pieces of wood, sewed together by means of
a raised interior margin. In this the skilful carpenter
is guided by taste or utility, and not by necessity, for
the Navigator Islands are fertile and populous, and
clothed to the summits of their lofty hills with luxuriant
forests and richly-laden fruit-trees.

But across the wide area of the northern continent of
America, which stretches from the Gulf of the St. Law-
rence to the Pacific, a totally different combination of
physical circumstances has given bent to the develop-
ments of Indian ingenuity in the art of boat-building.
In the St. Lawrence itself, and throughout all its prin-
cipal tributaries, navigation is constantly impeded by
waterfalls or rapids, which constitute an insurmountable
barrier to ordinary navigation. In like manner the
whole country along the northern and southern shores
of Lake Ontario, the valley of the Ottawa, reaching
towards Georgian Bay and Lake Superior, and much of
the route between that and the Rocky Mountains, is a
chain of lakes or interrupted river navigation. Hence
all the principal routes of travel consist of lines of lake
and river united by " portages," or carrying-places, over
which the canoe and all its contents have to be borne
by the native boatmen, or the voyageurs, as the French
Canadians and half-breeds of the traders and Hudson's
Bay Company are called. For such mode of transport
the wooden canoe would be all but impracticable, and
accordingly, probably long ages before voyageurs of
European descent had learned to handle such canoes,
the native Indian devised for himself his light and
graceful bark-boat, made from the rind of the Betula
papyrax^eay or canoe-birch. This species of American
birch grows in great abundance, where the soil is good
often acquiring a height of seventy feet. The wood is
of little value, as it soon decays on exposure, but its

VI.] THU MAHJTIMK /.VST/yVT: THE CASOK. 171

tough aud (iumble bark is invaluable to the American
Iniliau, ami scarcely leas indispensable to liis European
suppUnter. The bircli-bark wigwam is the common
residence of most of the tribes from the Atlantic coast
till the region frequented l)y the buffalo is approached,
and its skins supply a superior substitute. But the
most impoitant use of the bark is as the principal
material of the poilable canoe. The skeleton is formed
by constructing a frame, called by the French Canadians
gaharie, which represents the lini of the intended canoe,
and its form is completed in skeleton by a series of light
ribs of cedar-wood, covered with a sheathing of thin,
Bexible slips of the same placed longitudinally. Over
this the covering of birch-bark is laid, generally rising
into a gracefully curved stem and stem ; and the whole
sheathing is sewed together, and to the cedar-frame,
by means of an awl of pointed bone, with thread com-
posed of the fibrous roots of the cedar, or of the white
spruce, soaked in boiling water. The seams are then
caulked mth the prepared resin of the Bidm of Gilead
fir, or the pitch-pine ; and not unfrequeatly the whole
receives an artistic finish by being decorated with figures
of animals, or other Indian pictorial devices. The
voyagers in such canoes kneel in the bottom, and pro-
pel them by a light paddle ; it Ireing indispensable for
safety in such slight fabrics to keep the centre of gravity
as low as possible. They are made of all sizes, from the
small hunting-canoe of twelve feet long, and weighing
only twenty pounds, to the canot de mattre, or large
north-western canoe of the fur trade, which measures
thirty-sis feet, and is propelled by fourteen rowers. On
the Canadian ri\Trs, and in the Hudson's Bay tenitory,
the voyageurs beguile the labour of the piiddle with
simple monotonous songs, of which one takes up the
air and the whole join in chorus ; and, while the novelty

172 PREHISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

of the scene and circumstances reUeves the uniformity
of an endless range of wooded river or lake scenery,
few modes of transport can surpass the swift, noiseless
gliding of the birch-bark canoe, or the hilarious excite-
ment of the voyageurs and half-breeds, when a rapid of
manageable force has to be surmounted by increased
vehemence in plying the paddle, and the cheering stimu-
lus of the noisy chorus.

The portage and portable canoe were not unknown to
the ancient allophylian of the British Isles, though, with
little necessity for the frequent or general use of such,
less skill was applied to the construction of a suitable
vessel In Mr. K P. Shirley's Account of the Dominion
of Famey in Ulster^ a curious and interesting example
of such a portable boat is figured and described, which
was found in a bog in that territory of Ulster. It is
formed of the trunk of an oak-tree, measuring twelve
feet in length by three feet in breadth, and is hoUowed
out, and furnished with handles at both ends, evidently
for facility of transport from one loch to another, in a
district where, like many in Canada, numerous small
lakes cover the surface, such as among the ancient Irish
chiefs frequently formed chosen retreats, where they
constructed their insulated strongholds beyond the reach
of hostile surprise.

A much closer analogy might be traced between the
Indian birch-bark canoe and the coracle of the ancient
Briton described by Julius Csesar, which was made of
wicker-work covered with skins. Such, however, are
rather to be regarded as the ancient British counter-
part of the Esquimaux canoe, which, like it, is formed
of a light frame covered with skin ; and as this is
brought over the top, and made to wrap round the
body of its solitary occupant, it enables the amphibious
navigator, both of the North Pacific and Greenland seas,

VI.] THE MARITIME IXiiTIXCT : THE CASOE. 173

to brave a stormy ocean iu whifh uo opeu boat could
live.

Hamilco, the Carthaginiau, according to Festus Avie-
uua, witnessed the ancient Britoiis " ploughing the ocean
in a novel boat ; for, strange to tell, they constructed
their vessels with skins joined together, and often navi-
gated the sea in a hide of leather." Upwards of four
centuries later, Ciesar found the same stormy sea navi-
gated by the southern Britons in coracles made of a hide
stretched over a light timber and osier fr;ime. When,
in the sixth century, we once more recover, in the livea
of the Irish Saints, some ghmpae of maritime arts, it is
in the same coracles,— sometimes made of a single hide,
and ill other cases, such as the ocean currach of St.
Columba, of several skins sewed together, — that the
evangelists of lona crossed the Ii-ish sea, visited the
Oikney and Shetland Islands, and even, as there is rea-
son to believe, preceded the Northmen in the discovery
of Iceland, The old Scottish historian Bellenden, writ-
ing in the sixteenth century, aaka : " How can there be
greater ingync tlian to make a boat of a bull's hyde
bound with nothing but wands ? This boat is called a
currock, with which they fish, and sometimes pass over
great rivers." Yet this singularly primitive boat is still
to be met with in the river-estuaries of Wales, and on
various parts of the Irish coast ; the counterpart of the
Esquimaux haijdar or skin-canoe, with which the Aleu-
tian Islanders navigate the intervening ocean between
Asia and America. Dr. Pickering remarks, on encoun-
tering it to the north of the Straits of De Fuca : — " From
its lightness, elegance, and the capacity of being rendered
impervious to both air and water, I coidd not but admire
its perfect adaptation to the purjjoses of navigation ; for
it seemed almost to enable man to take a place among
the proper inhabitants of the deep. Such vessels are

174 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

obviously fitted to cope with the open sea, and, so far as
the absence of sails permits, to traverse a considerable
expanse of ocean."

The same intelligent explorer sums up the results of
his opportunities of observation on types, as he believes,
of all the most diverse varieties of mankind, by aflSrm-
ing : " I have seen, in all, eleven races of men, and
though I am hardly prepared to fix a positive limit to
their number, I confess, after having visited so many
different parts of the globe, that I am at a loss where to
look for others." Nevertheless, he unhesitatingly pro-
nounces the aboriginal Americans, — alike as indicated in
the sculptures of Mexico and Yucatan, the carvings of
the ancient mounds of Ohio, and the portraits and liv-
ing features of many existing tribes, — of the Mongolian
race, and therefore of Asiatic origin ; and in speaking of
the ingenious haydar of the Aleutian Islands, he adds :
"The presence of these skin-canoes among the Esqui-
maux of the Greenland Seas, was long regarded as a
proof of the existence of a north-we^t passage ; and it
likewise indicates the course of human migTations. I
have not examined authorities to ascertain whether the
passage across Behring Straits is practicable for a people
in the purely hunter state. But in view of the large
portion of North-west America in contact with maritime
tribes, these tribes have appeared to me the most prob-
able source of the inland population." Dr. Pickering
does not, however, limit his ideas of Asiatic migration to
this single northern source ; but, on the contrary, states
as the result of his peculiarly favourable opportunities
for observation, his reasons for believing in various en-
tirely independent routes of oceanic migration to the
New World. This question is discussed in a subsequent
chapter, but the opinion is one which must carry all the
more weight as coming from one who so entirely dis-

VI.) THE MARITIME ISSTISCT : THE CASOE. Xlfk

cards the iile^i of a common Adamic or Noac*hic origin
for man.

Indi8{>en8able as the means of oceanic migration are
to ever}' theory of American cohmization, excepting that
which ninks the Red Man among the indigenous fauna
of the New Worlil, the i>ecuUar characteristics of its tiny
fleeta are full of interest for us, and none more so than
the baydar of th<.* Pacific Es<iuimaux. The same inge-
nious vessel reappears, under the nann* of the kaiak% in
the Greenland Seas ; and in just such a fragile bark, the
poor Greenlander had crossed the wide, stormy ocean,
when rescued ofl' the IScottisli coast, only to perish on the
long looked-for shore. In such a bark, therefore, the
passage from the Asiatic to tlie American shores is no
impossible feat ; as, indeed, it is prolmble that the bark
of the primeval Columbus, who led the way from the
continent of Euroi^e to the untrixlden wihls of Itrit^iin,
bore a close ^^semblan^•e to it.

It is a curious fact, well worthy of notice, that thnnigh-
out the American continent, st^emingly so deiK»ndent c»n
maritime colonization for its si^ttlement bv man, the use
of sails as a means of pro)»elling ves.^*ls tlm»ugh the
water ap|)ears to have iK.'^^n almost unknown ; an<l, in-
deed, 84) far as North America is »|H\-ially c«aisideivd,
was entirely unknown to the native Indians. Trescott,
when describing the singular susjH'Usitin bridges, made of
the tough fibres of the maguey, with which the IVruvians
spunneil the bn>ad gullies of their mountain streams,
ad<ls : ** The wider and more tranquil waters were cnKssed
on balMtA, a kind of raft still nuirh used bv the natives^
to which sails weiv attached, fumishin<r the onlv instamv
of this higluT kind of navigation among the American
Indians/ ' Thin description of the historian, however, is
apt to convey a fidse impn^ssion : for, alt lu nigh the Tern

1 7 6 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

vians were so essentially an agricultural and unmari-
time people, nevertheless the use of sails in their coasting
trade, constitutes one of their noticeable points of supe-
riority over all the other nations of the New World.
Attention is specially directed to this by an incident
recorded in the second expedition for the discovery of
Peru preparatory to its conquest. Bartholomew Ruiz,
the pilot of the expedition, after lingering on the coast,
near the Bay of St. Matthew, stood out into the wide
ocean, when he was suddenly surprised by the sight of a
vessel in that strange, silent sea, seemingly, in the dis-
tance, like a caravel of considerable size, with its broad
sail spread before the wind. " The old navigator was
not a little perplexed by this phenomenon, as he was
confident that no European bark could have been befoi-e
him in these latitudes, and no Indian nation yet dis-
covered, not even the civilized Mexican, was acquainted
with the use of sails in navigation." As he drew near he
found it a large native haha, formed of huge timbers of
light, porous wood, and with a flooring of reeds raised
above them. Two masts sustained the large, square,
cotton sail, and a movable keel and rudder enabled the
boatmen to steer. This vessel plays a more important
part in the history of the discovery and conquest of Peru,
than the galley, or great canoe of the Indian cacique does
in that of Mexico. Seen by Columbus on his fourth
voyage, off the coast of Honduras, that canoe seemed to
beckon him, though in vain, to the shores of Yucatan,
the discovery of Mexico, and all the triumphs reaped by
Cortes at a later day. It was otherwise with the Peru-
vian balsa. On board of it Ruiz found ornaments dis-
playing great skill, wrought in silver and gold, vases and
miiTors of bm-nished silver, curious fabrics, both cotton
and woollen, and a pair of balances made to weigh the
precious metals. Here were the first undoubted evidences

VL] TUK MARITIME IXSTLVCT: THE CAXOE. 177

of the exiBteucv of tluit strange seat of a iiative American
civilisation, among the lofty valleys of the Southern Andes,
which he was in search of. The balsa s crew included
both men and women, who carried with them provisions
for their voyages <uid had come from a Peruvian port
some degrees to the south. Like older voyagers of the
Mediterranean, the Peruvian pilots were wont to creep
timidly along the shore ; but the Spaniards encountered
them in the open Pacific, where no European prow had
ever sailed. Caught by a sudden gale their bark might
have been lionie far off among the islands that stud the
Southern Ocean, and here was the germ of a race of
islanders, to whom, after a few generations, the memory
of their Peruvian ancestrj' would have sur\ived only as
wmie mythic legend, like tlie Manco Capar of their own
Incas, or the Mawai of the Polynesian aivhipi'hign.

VOL I. M

178 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

CHAPTEK VII.

THE TECHNOLOGICAL INSTINCT: TOOLS.

The earliest character in which God reveals himself to
man is as the Supreme Artificer. In the beginning Grod
created the heavens and the earth ; and, as the increasing
powers of the telescope help us to penetrate ever deeper
into the dark recesses of space, and the progress of the
microscope discloses minuter traces of that invisible
world of order and infinite beauty which lies within the
meanest objects that surround us on every hand, we only
learn to dwell with profounder wonder and admii-ation
on the perfect art with which creation is inwrought.
And, in like manner, at the beginning of a new order of
life, God, who is himself so wondrous an artificer, created
man in his own image, with instincts and faculties for
art, commanding a range compared with which the tool-
bom ant, and spider, and bee seem but as ingenious self-
acting machines, each made to execute perfectly its one
little item in the comprehensive plan of creation.

As industrial artificers, the creatures so far beneath us
in the scale of organization seem often to put to shame
our most perfect workmanship ; yet, provided with no
other instruments than the eye and the hand, but guided
by that intelligent reason which distinguishes man from
the brutes, we see him, even as an artificer, presenting
characteristics of the Divine image, which are altogether
wanting in the lower animals. Labour is for them no

VI L) 77//; TKCUSOLOinCAL ISSTISCT : TOOLS, 179

rttcnily ini|>ose(l nttreusity, but an inevitable pDH^enis
tiaviug otily one poBsilile form of manifestation ; pnKlue-
ing in its cxercifle the highest enjo}^ment the la}x>urer irt
c*a|>.'ible of ; iinil in it8 resulta leading our thoughts from
the wiae, unerring, yet untaught worker, to Him whone
work it is, and of whose wisdom and skill the workman*
ship, not less than the workman, aptx^ars a din^ct mani*
festation. It is not so with man. As the wise pn.*acher
has told, God made him upright, but he has sought out
miuiy inventions. The eapacity of the workman is a
divine gift, but the work is his own, and t4io often he-
tniys, in some of its most ingenious devices and n»8ults.
anything rather than a <livin<* origin.

As Hacon teaches, and as Plato had taught U-fore
llaeon, the min«l brinp^ to evny artion an anteredeiit
iilra ; and so it was after th«» Creator had «»fn tluit all
else, imimate and inanimatt\ was g<MxI, thxit he said :
•• Let us imike man in our image, after our liken«'ss :" and
the Divine idea went onwani to its reiUization. Our
iilanet had been the theativ of lift* in infinite variety for
countless ages ; the on(M* vital structures and minutest
microscopic organisms of that ancient \KtM had Imh^u built
up into carlM)nif<'rt>us, siliciou.^ and rn^tari^ous strata, and
mighty cycles of animal lift* liad fultilltHl their allottetl
<lestinies, and W^'n emiKdmed and entnmlHMl in the living
rock ; but, for the first time, the earth was to liave for
its fHrcu|>ant a Inking cajmble of intelligent progression.
If we «-onceivi? of wime sujH'rior intelligence Heeking
h^Tcafter to arrive at an adiHjuate knowle<lge of man, as
the higher animal, and of his Dilative rank in the s<Mde
of animal life, bv means of his fossil remains : n*markabh*
an are the dilferences which his osti»ological relics pn»s«*nt,
when C4UU{ftan.Hl with tliosi* of any i>thcr of the verte-
brata, a singularly ini|H»rfe4^t conception wouM be former!
of what place man had actually tilled in the economy of

180 FREHISTORIG MAN. [Chap.

life. But for such an observer other than the mere
osteological traces of man are in store. The strange
armaments of Eastern enterprise ; the commercial navies
of the Jasons, the Hirams, and the Ptolemies of old ; the
viking galleys of the Northmen ; the caravels of the
Mediterranean ; the war galleys and merchant ships of
Sidon and Carthage, of Gadir, Massala, Pisa, and Venice ;
the royal argosies and proud armadas of Spain ; the lone
Arctic explorers and the stately fleets of England ; oaken
three-deckers, richly freighted East-Indiamen, and won-
drously constructed ocean steam-ships; with gold, and
gems, and strangely varied stores, have all gone down
into the ocean's depths.

What a treaauiy of art and histoiy is already im-
bedded in the basin of the Mediterranean ! Along the
tracks of commerce in the pathless ocean what marvel-
lous formations are being treasured in the strata that
shall rise to form new continents, when perchance the
submerged coral reefs of the Pacific shall be the summits
of lofty mountains, in the long-sought Terra A vMrali\
Incognitay known and found at last. Stabiae, Hercula-
neum, and Pompeii, show what earthquakes and volcanos
may effect. The cliff* of Guadaloupe, with its fossil
skeletons, pottery, stone arrow-heads, and even carved
wooden relics, all petrified into limestone rock, reveals
the results of one of the ordinary processes by which the
detritus of shells and corals, with the consolidated sand,
solidifies into stone. If ours be not the latest stage of
being, but is to be succeeded by " new heavens and a
new earth,'' marveUous indeed are the revelations which
those posthistoric strata have yet to disclose. But even
they will scarcely suffice to reveal the most striking cha-
racteristics of a being for the first time introduced into
that long chain of organic life, on whom the external
economy of nature reacts in a way it never did on living

VII:] TIJR TEVHSOLOGICAL JXSTINCT: TOOLS. 181

being }K»fore ; while he is capable of releafting himself
altogether from the domination of such external elements
of sensation ; of searching into the past ; anticipating
the fiiture ; of looking inward, and l>eing a law unto
liimself. His nature embraces possibilities of the widest
conceivable diversit}", for his is no longer the law of in-
stinct but of reason : law, then»fore, that brings with it
conscious lil^erty, and also conscious responsibility. If
our present mode of viewing him admitted of the full
(consideration of all that is implied in the probation of a
lieing endowcil, as we are aMsunnl alike by nature and
revelation, with not only life but immortality, a con-
sideration of the moral constitution of thb the latest of
the creations of God, would involve very lofty themos ;
but while we rannot, even fnmi the ethnologist's point
of view, reganl man soli»ly as the zo<»logicid BImanaj and
treat him like the mere zoolopst, " who shows a Newton
as he shows an apt*," we must limit our pn»seut view to
the influenees of his moral and intellectual nature in
their artistic manifestations.

But an imjMirtant mid set^mingly conflicting element
arises out of the cajmcity of man for moral progresKion,
to wliich some etlmologists fail to give due weight, A
suggestive thought of Aga.Hsiz, n»lative to ec^rtain n»al or
Mup|KiHcd analogies l^^tween the giMigraphical distribu-
tion of s^iecies of simia*, and es|NM*iidly the anthro{>oid
monkeys, and certain inferi(»r ty|N\H of man, suflieed as
the nucleUH of niiddous rla)M»nit(* nujukev-ehart in the
ludiijehoHS Racf'H of the Karth, illustnitive of the ge<igni-
phical distribution of monkeys in tht* relation to that of
certain types of men. Notwithstanding the very monkey-
fying pnx'ess to whieh S4»me of the illustrations of inferior
human ty|N*s have tM.*en subjectinl in this piet4»ri;d ehi>-
rogrnphy, the eom*s|N)ndenees are not such jui to earr}"
eonvietion to m<mt niimls. But. assuming, ft»r the s^ike

182 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

of argument, or as a supposed reductio ad ahsurdum,
the descent of all the diverse species of monkeys from a
single pair, Mr. Gliddon thus sums up his final observa-
tions : " I propose, therefore, that a male and female
pair of the * species ^ Cynocephalus HamadryaSy be hence-
forward recognised as the anthropoid analogues of Noah,
Shem, Ham, and Japhet ; and that it must be from these
two individuals that, owing to transplantation, together
with the combined action of aliment and climate, the
fifty-four monkeys represented on our chart have ori-
ginated. It is, notwithstanding, sufficiently strange, that,
under such circumstances, this * primordial organic type '
of monkey should have so highly improved in Guinea,
and in Malayana, as to become gorillas and chimpanzees,
orangs and gibbons ; whereas on the contrary, the de
scendants of ' Adam and Eve ' have, in the same locali-
ties, actually deteriorated into the most degraded and
abject forms of humanity.'' In reality, however, what-
ever may be said about the possibility of such simian
development, the possible human deterioration is an
inevitable attribute of the rational, moral free-agent,
man ; capable of the noblest aspirations and of wondrous
intellectual development, but also with a capacity for
moral degradation such as belongs to him alone of all
created beings. The one characteristic, as well as the
other, separates man by an impassable barrier from all
those other living creatures, that might appear in some
respects gifted with endowments akin to his own.

Man, as a tool-using artificer, seems to have a rival
in the beaver, felling its timber, carrying its clay, and
building its dam ; in the spider weaving its web, more
perfect than any net of human fisher ; and even in the
squirrel with its provident hoard of well-secured winter
store, or the monkey employing the cocoa-nut and other
shell-fruit as missiles. But even in such artificial appli-

XIL] TUK TKCHXOLOOICAL IXSTIXCT : TOOLS, IBS

auces there ir uothiug obnolete, uothiug inveutivts no-
thing progressive ; neither is there any deterioration.
Their most wonderful arts» as the cell of the bee, the
web of the spider, or the l>eaver s dam, are execute<I
without a lesson, and are improve^l by no experience.
The bee emerges into its last stage of perfect life, or the
spider is hatched fnnn its egg, and proceeds to do with-
out any instruction, what we could scarcely attempt
after much training ; whereas the child bom amid the
most highly developed civilisation — the son of a Watt,
a Stephenson, a Brunei, — if reared from infancy to man-
hood, without any knowleclge of mecrhanical science, or
the industrial arts, would start anew from the rudimen-
tary instincts of the tool using animal, and expend his
ingenuity, not perliaj)s without some tra<'es of hereilitary
mechanical genius, on the priniitivr materials of flint,
stone, horn, or shell.

Man de{iendH for all on his teachers ; and when moral
and intellectual deterioration returns him to the t4H>lh*ss
condition of the totally uncivilized nomade, he is thrown
l«ick on the resources of his primar}* instincts, and
reaches that point from which tin* primeval colonist has
had to start anew in all lands, and work his way up
wards, through stone, and bronze, and iron pericxls, into
the full CO o{M'nition of a civilized community, treasuring
the experien<!e of the jwist, and making for itsi'lf a new
and higher future.

The pericnls of the anhteologist, thus designatetl as
The Stoke Period, The Bronze Period, and The Iron-
Period, Iiavt> lieiMi brought intu siune disc*redit, in |>art
by what, as a general systi'in, must 1k» n*garde<l only as a
hypothesis, U^ing iissumi^^l by some who have a<lopte4l it,
as invohnng facts of no U^ss indisputable and universal
application than the periiMls of th<* geologist. In \mn
mlso, they owe their non-arceptanre to wilful emirs of

184 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

their impugners, and to the want of appreciation of the
inevitable characteristics which pertain to transitional
periods, such as chiefly come under the European archaeo-
logist's observation. So far as the aboriginal American
is concerned, the New World is in its earliest transitional
state still : that of a stone period, very partially aflfected
by the introduction of foreign -wrought weapons and
implements, and in no degree indicating, among the
numerous tribes of North America, any traces of the
adoption of a superinduced native metallurgy. Such
therefore has appeared to me an actual condition of
things, the study of which, and its comparison with the
traces of a corresponding stage in the early ages of
Britain, may be of some use in clearing the subject from
much confusion which, from various causes, has gathered
round it.

The special characteristics of the native civilisation,
which the early Spanish adventurers found already ex-
isting in Mexico and Central America, will come under
review at a later stage ; but it cannot admit of question
that throughout the whole Red Indian forest-area metal-
lurgic arts were unknown, as they still are among the
Indians of the North-west after an intercourse of upwards
of three centuries and a half with Europeans. Copper,
indeed, was wrought and used among them, but it was
used without any application of fire, and as what may
be most fitly designated a mere malleable stone. In
Britain, as I have already observed, " it is not impossible
that the working of gold may have preceded the age of
bronze, that is the first true age of metallurgy, and in
reality have belonged to its stone-period. If metal could
be found capable of being wrought and fashioned without
smelting or moulding, its use was perfectly compatible
with the simple arts of the stone-period. Of such use,
masses of native gold, such as have been often found both

VII.] THE TKCiiXOUXHCAL ISSTIXCT : TOOLS. \m

in the Old and the New World, are peculiarly susceptible ;
and some of the examples of Scottish gold personal
ornaments fully correspond with the probable results of
such un anticipatory use of the metals."' The idea thus
formed from an examination of some of the most primi-
tive and artless examples of primeval British goldsmiths'
work, has been amply confirmed by later opportunities
of observing the mode of using the native copper, and
the traces of its former workings, among the American
Indians ; and to this day their highest attainment in
metallurgic skill extends only to grinding the iron hoops
which the Hudson's Bay fur-traders supply them with,
iuto knives, lance and arrow heads, and the like substi-
tutes for the older implements which they cliipped out
of the flint, or ground fnim the broken stone. Further
oppoiiiinities will occur for illustrating this subject ;
which is full of interest to the ethnologist from the light
it throws on the rate of progress of a barbarous people
towards civilisation : or rather on tlie capacity of man in
a certain undeveloped stage, for witnessing the most re-
markable products of the useful arts, without evincing
any desire to master them. To the historian, who has
80 frequently to consider, both in ancient and modem
history, the immediate and remoter results of the contact
of a highly civUi2ed people with one in such a primitive
condition, some of the bearings of this inquiry cannot be
without tlieh- value.

After centuries devoted to the elucidation of Roman
remains, and the assignment to Roman artificers of much
which the more discriminating cla.ssifieation of recent
years awards to totally different workmen, the existence
of a singular class of rude primitive weapons and imple-
ments, made of stone, shell, or bone, in nearly every
ijuai-ter of the globe, has at length excited a vtfry general

' Pnhitloi-h- Annul, uj Sei.ll„„:l. ],, 214.

186 PREHISTORIC MAX, [Chap.

interest among the archaeologists of Europe. Made, as
these simple relics of primitive art are, of the most
readily wrought materials, and by the constructive in-
stincts rather than the acquired skill of their rude arti-
ficers, they belong to one condition of man, in relation
to the progress of civilisation, though pertaining to many
periods of the world's history, and the most widely-
separated areas of the globe. In one respect, however,
though not in this one alone, such relics possess a pecu-
liar value to the ethnologist, when searching into the
primeval condition of our race. The materials of such in-
fantile processes of manufacture have within themselves,
most frequently, the evidences of their geographical
origin, and in some of them also of their chronological
eras. The periods to which numerous ancient sepulchral,
and other British and European reUcs pertain, may fre-
(juently be determined, like those of inferior and older
strata, by their accompanying imbedded or buried fossils.
The bones of the Bos primigenius have been found in-
dented with the primitive stone javelin of the aborigines
of Northern Europe, and dug up alongside of the traces
of British sepulture. Those of the Megaceros Hihemicxt.'i
seem, in like manner, to be traced to a period of ancient
Irish colonization, when stone hatchets and rude pottery
prove the simple character of its native arts ; while
other evidence satisfies the palaeontologist that the same
Irish elk — thus seen, as it were, in its closing epoch, and
immediately before its final extinction, — was contempo-
raneous with the mastodon, the mammoth, and the fossil
camivora of the caverns. The Bos hngifrons, doubtless,
traces its descent from an ancestry not less ancient ; but
from its wild herds the native Briton appears to have
derived his domesticated cattle, and its relics pertain to
an era little later than the Roman times. The orna-
mented tusks of the wild boar, the bones of the l)rowu

Vn.] TIIH TKCllSoWGrVM IX.STLVCr: TOOLS. IH7

bear, the teeth and skulls of the beaver, the cai-vings
wrought from the walrus ivoiy, the fikates foiinecl from
the metatarsal and metacarpal bouea of the red-deer and
small native hoi-se, with numerous kindred relics of palie-
ontology within the era of the occupation of the British
Islands by man, all serve to asaign approximate dates to
the examples of his ancient arts which they accompany.
Thus within the liistoric. period, aa in geological eras
prior to the creation of man, the progress of time is
recorded by the extinction of races. His advent on
our earth was speedily marked by the disappearance of
numerous groups of ancient life which pertain to that
transitional era where geology closes and archaeology
begins : though the more recent discoveries of the traces
of human arts idong with the fossil mammals of the
drift, confirm, by new and more striking evidence, tlie
fact that man entered on this terrestrial stage, not as
the highest in an entirely new order of creation, and
belonging to an epocli detached by some overwhelming
catastrophe from all preceding periods of organic life ;
but that, while the earth moved through ita orbit in calm
obedience to laws which still govern its course, he ap-
peared as the last and best of an order of animated
beings whose line sweeps back into the shadows of an
unmeasured past. And as it was of old, so is it still ;

■' TLi' nil] order chnngftli, yielding lAaiie to now,
And tind fuUils liiiDBulf in maoj ways,
Lert one good oiistom Rliould I'omipt tbe world,"

The disclosures of British tumuli and chance deposits
suggest strongly the belief that the Celtic Briton was
himself an intruder upon older allophylian occupants ;
while the intrusion nf the Roman into Celtic Britain
is recorded for us in the extinction of many of its
iincient fauna, as well as of whole British tribes. Wliat
tlie Rnmiin partially nccomplished, the Saxon, the Dune,

188 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

and the Norman completed ; displacing the Celtic Briton
from all but the fastnesses of Wales, and gradually ex-
tirpating all but such animals as are either perfectly
compatible with the free development of the highest social
refinement, or are worthy of protection as a means of
ministering to man's pleasures. And as it has been in
the Old World, so is it in the New. The progress of
the European colonists not only involves the extirpation
alike of the wild animals and the forests which formed
their natural haunts, but also the no less inevitable dis-
appearance of the aborigines who made of them a prey ;
and thus the grave-mound of the Ked Indian, and the
relics of his simple arts, become the memorials of an
extinct order of things no less clearly defined than the
post-tertiary fossils of the drift.

But while the remains of extinct species thus serve,
like the graven Roman or runic inscriptions on the
sepulchral slab, to determine the periods at which cer-
tain eras had their close, other accompanying objects,
and chiefly the traces of living or extinct fauna, are no
less valuable as fixing the geographical origin of the
ancient colonists, amid whose relics they are found ; just
as the elephants, the camels, the monkeys, and baboons
of the Nimrod obelisk, or the corresponding sculptures
on the walls of Memphis or Luxor, indicate the coun-
tries whence tribute was brought, or captives were
carried off, to aggrandize the Assyrian or Egyptian con-
querors. Among such relics, which serve to fix the
geographical centres of ancient arts, the sources of early
conmierce, or the birthplaces of migrating races, might
be noted the tin and amber of the Old, and the copper
of the New World. So also in minuter analysis, we
recognise among primitive American relics the local
origin of various favourite materials : as the Mexican
obsidian, the clay-slate of the Babeens, the favourite red

VII.] THE TECHSOLOGICAL ISSTLWT : TOOLS. 189

pipe stouts or Catlinite^ of the Couteau deH pniiricH, and
the pyruhe and (lonch-shells of the Gulf of Florida,
found mingling with the" aboriginal relicn of ancient
tribes in the islands and on the north shores of the great
(*anadian lakes, along the southern slope of the sanie
water-shed whence the Moose and the Abbitibl>e pour
their waters into the frozen sea of Hudson's Bay.

Tlie designation applied to the primitive condition of
the economic or industrial arts, pro|)erly signifies, as luis
been already sufficiently clearly indicated, that primeval
c'omlition in whi(*h, in the a)>sence of metaK Aud the
ignoran(*e of the simplest rudiments of metallurg}', man
hiis t4) find materials for the manufacture of his tools,
amil the supply of his mechanical requirements, in the
commoner objects which nature places within his reach,
Tlie mere recognition of the convt»nient uhi»s to which
the malleable native metals <*ould be appliiHl as sulisti-
tuti»s for st<me, can 8<*arccly l>e reganled as even an
initial step in the tnmsition towanls the first true
metallurgic jK'riml. This cannot be considcre<l to Imve
U'en intnxluced until the native copj)er-worker had
lH»rceive<l the wonderful transfonnations which could
lie wrought by fin*, and had Icanied at least to melt
the pun* metal, and to mould the wca{M>ns and imple
ments he re<)uired, if not to hanlcn it with lUloys, and
to quarry and smelt tlu* unfamiliar on*s. Hut in the
gn*at an*hi{K*lago of the C ariblK*an Sea, as well as in
the wi<lely 84'att4*n*<l islands of the Siuthem Pacific, tht*
primeval stage of native art might mon* correctly be
designatinl a shell-{H*ricKl ; for the large 9lu*lls which the
niollus4*a of the neigh))ouring o<i*anM pnKluc** in gn*at
abuncLince, supplie^l the native artifi<'cr with his mofit
convt*nit*nt and easily- wnmght niw material, and in
i-eality left him at no disadvantage as an artiticer, when
compan*il with the Indian of the cup|KT n*gii»ns on the

190 PREHISTORIC MAX, [Chap.

shores of Lake Superior. The ethnographic phases of
conchology, accordingly, present an exceedingly varied
and attractive study, to those by whom such indications
of the initial development of the artistic instincts of
man are recognised as involving not only an important
element in his natural history, but also occasional
glimpses of facts not without their value in the intro-
ductory chapters of civil history.

Among the productions of nature employed as mate-
rials for ornament and use, scarcely any have com-
manded more universal acceptance than the shells which
abound, under such varied forms, on every sea-coast, as
well as in the deposits of fresh-water lakes and rivers.
To the conchologist they present an interesting and
singularly beautiful department of nature, inviting to
research amid their seemingly endless forms, und to
inquiry into the habits of the " living will" that once
tenanted each lovely cell : -

*' Did he stand at the diamond door
Of his house in a rainbow frill ?
Did he push, when he was uncurl'd,
A golden foot or a fairy horn
Thro' his dim water-world?"^

To the geologist the shells of the testaceous molluscs
offer a department in palaeontology of very wide applica-
tion and peculiar value. They constitute, indeed, one of
the most important among those records which the earth's
crust discloses, whereby its geological history can be
deciphered ; and to their value in this respect reference
has already been made. But it is to the special phases
of interest which they possess for the ethnologist and
archaeologist, in their inquiries into the history of man
and his arts, that attention is now directed. The mere
beauty and variety of many marine shells sufficiently

* Tennyson^s Maud,

VIL] TUE TECIISOLOalCAL iNSTlSCT : TOOLS. 191

account for their selection as objects prized for personal
ornament ; while their large and solid structure, and the
readiness with which their substance can be wrought
into a variety of forms, must have suggesteil their em-
ployment in the earliest stages of insular art. Thus
they became the natural su))stitute for the still unknown
commoner metals ; while, like the precious metals, shells
have been used, l>uth in the Old imd New World, not
only for ornament, but as the most primitive forms of a
recognised currency. Of such the Cypniea vwneta is the
most familiar. The cowrie shells used as currency are
procured on the cotist of Congo, and in the Philippine
and Maldive Islands. Of the latter, indeed, they con-
stitute the chief article of exjxirt. At what remote date,
or at what early stage of rudimentary civilisation this
singular n*prt»«entative shell-currency was introduced, it
is {icrhaiis vain to inquire, but the extensive area over
which it has long been n*cognised pn»ve8 its great anti-
quity. The Philippine Islands fonn, in j>art, the eastern
boundary of the Southern Pacific, and the Maldives lie
off the MiUabar coast in the Indiim Ocean ; but their
native shells circulate as cunvncy not only through
Southern Asia, but far into the African continent.

Corres[)Oi)diug to this cowrie-currency of Asia and
Africa, is the use, by the Ameriran Indians of the North-
west, of the loqua, or Ventalium, a sliell fouml on the
neighbouring shores of the Pacific, and employed by them
both for ornament and as ni(miv. Tlie C'hin<K)ks and

m

other Indians of the Northern Pacific Coast wear long
strings of ioqua shells as necklaces and fring(*s to their
robea These are said to be pnM»ured only at Ca]H? Flat
tery, at the entrance of the Stniits of IX» Fuca, where
they are obtained by a process of dretlging, and have a
vidue assigned to them increasing in proportion to their
size. This varies from about nn inch and a half to up-

192 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

wards of two inches in length. They are white, conical,
and slightly curved in form, and taper to a point Theii-
circumference at the widest part does not greatly exceed
the stem of a clay tobacco-pipe, and they are thin and
translucent. Mr. Paul Kane, the author of Wanderings
of an Artist among the Indians of North America,
writes to me in reference to them : " A great trade is
carried on among all the tribes in the neighbourhood of
Vancouver's Island, through the medium of these shells.
They are valuable in proportion to their length, and their
value increases according to a fixed ratio, forty shells
being the standard number required to extend a fathom's
length. A fathom thus tested is equal in value to a
beaver s skin, but if shells can be foimd so far in excess
of the ordinary standard that thirty-nine are long enough
to make the fathom, it is worth two beavers' skins ; if
thirty-eight, three beavers' skins, and so on ; increasing
in value one beaver skin for every shell less than the
standard number."

No evidence appears to indicate the use of the marine
or fresh-water shells of Europe as a species of currency
during its primitive era ; but it is interesting to notice
the fact, that the same simple mode of emplojdng the
spoils of the sea for personal decoration, as is found pre-
valent among the rude Indians of the North-west at the
present day, prevailed among the primitive occupants of
the British Isles in that dim dawn of their primeval
history revealed by the disclosures of their most ancient
sepulchral deposits. Among the personal ornaments
found in early British graves, seemingly pertaining to a
period long prior to the acquisition of the simplest metal-
lurgic arts, ai-e necklaces formed of the small sheUs
abounding on the neighbouring coasts, such as the Nerita
littoralisy the Patella vidgata, and others equally com-
mon at the present day. These are perforated like the

VIL] TIIK TECHNOLOGICAL INSTINCT: TOOLS. 193

ioqua shells of the Chinook Indian, apparently by the
simple pn>cesB of rubbing the projecting point on a stone,
and, thus converted into shell-beads, they were strung
together with a fibre or sinew. It may also be noted
that, as among the Indians of this continent such per-
sonal ornaments arc not confined to the squaws, but more
frequently adorn the |)er8on of the brave, and mingle
with the scaI|>-locks and other war- trophies of the most
(celebrated chief, so was it with the Allophylian of
Britain* The IhmuI necklace occurs alongside of the
stone war-liatchet and flint lance-head, as the property
of the warrior, and one of his most prized decorations.
Piissibly, indeed, such may have constituted symbols
of nmk, an<l the speciiU l)a<lges of office, as considerable
variety marks their forms.

A peculiarly interesting illustnition o{ the use of shells
for such puriKwcH of j)ersonal^ decoration, by the Allo-
phylian of the British Islands, <luring their primitive
stone-pericKl, is furnished by a diwovery made in the
year 1838, during the pn)grerts of improvements in the
Phoenix Park, Dublin* An elevated knoll, known by the
name of Knock-Maraidhe, or the Hill of the Mariners,
was ordered by the sui>erintending officer of the Royal
Engineers to Ik* levelled, when it was discovered tliat it
was an artificial He[ml(*hral mound, one hundnMl and
twenty fi?et in diam«»t<*r, and fifteen ft»et in height, con-
cealing a cromlech, or mcgalithic tomb, com|>ose<l of
massive unhewn stonea Within this si*pul(rhnd cliam-
Iht were found two male skeletoiL^ with traces <>f other
iNmes, including one sup{)oscd to Ik; that of a dog. From
the dimensions of tlu* enclosiHl cliamlK^r, it was manifmt
tliat the* biMlies liad lK»en internal in the ciaitnu'tinl {xisi-
tion common in early British st^pulture : ami iinmc4liately
under e^ich skull lay a quantity of the common littoral
stiells, Neriia liUartdU. These liad been rubbed down

VOL. L N

194 PEE HIS TO mo MAN. [Chap.

on the valve, so as to make a second hole, for the purpose
of being strung together to form necklaces, and the re-
mains of vegetable fibre were discovered aloiig with them,
a portion of which was through the shells. Alongside
of these, also, lay a knife or arrow-head of flint, and a
double-headed pin, neatly formed of bone, but no traces
of metallurgic arts. In the outer verge of the tumulus,
four stone-cists were also discovered, each containing a
small sepulchral vase, and calcined bones. The sepulchre
evidently contained the bodies of one or perhaps two dis-
tinguished chiefs, to whom were accorded the most costly
funeral honours of primitive times. The surrounding
urns with their incinerated remains, and possibly also one
of the skeletons in the megaUthic chamber, point to the
practice of human sacrifice, when the subordinate ofiicer,
the wives, and slaves perished beside the bier of the great
warrior, that they might, pass with him to the world of
spirits, there to renew the same servile offices they had
performed on earth. Such examples of primitive sepul-
ture have been repeatedly brought to light, and amply
correspond with the barbarian ideas of the most lavish
honours to the illustrious dead. Manifestly neither labom*
nor cost was spared. The huge megalithic chamber of
the dead was reared, the ornamental cinerary urns were
prepared, the bodies of the attendant victims were con-
sumed on the pile, and their remains deposited with the
urns in the surrounding cists, and then the earthen pyra-
mid was laboriously piled over the whole, and the costly
structure hidden for ages from the light of day. The
occurrence exclusively of weapons, implements, and orna-
ments of the stone-period in such tombs is one of the
strongest arguments that it was an absolute stone-period,
without even the first transitional traces of metallurgic
arts; and this idea which I was led to form from the^
investigation of primitive British graves, has been strongly

VI I] THE TECnSOLWWAL LWSTINCT : TOOLS. 195

coufinned by the proofn of the lavish expenditure of the
mo6t eoAtly treasures of the American Indian in his
sepulchral depositories. In the Huron grave-mounds of
the Georgian Bay lie the tropical shells of the Gulf of
Florida, the carved pi{>e-head, the stone hatchet, and flint
arrow-head, and along with these the copper kettle, the
iron knife, and other metallic treasures acquired from
the old French traders. So also among the Chinook and
Cowlitz Indians on the Columbia and Cowlitz rivem,
the honoured deiul is de|)osited in his elaborately deco-
rated canoe, with not only his native bow and arrows,
his spear, paddle, and personal ornaments, but with the
iron tomahawk, (!Op|>er kettle, gun, and others of the
most prized objects acc|uinHl from the Hudson's Bay fac*
tors, liiid beside him. It may thereft^re \ye assumed that
it was not In^cause the cop|H*r, brouze,*(i)r iron wea|M)n or
implement was too costly a sacrifice to de[M)sit in the
megalithic tomb, that such so frecjuently discloses only
the stone hammer or celt, the flint lance-head, the shell
uecklaoe, etc., but ))ecxuiS4^ these alone constitutes! the
implements and personal ornaments of the era.

Neither the cromle<*h nor the large tumulus can lie
regarde<i as a common gnive, but as the laborious and
costly monumental structure erectetl over the illustrious
dead. Some of them must have occupitnl the lalnmr of
month^ and engagi*d the ser\'ices of a numenius cor]* of
workmen, not hinxl as mercenary lalM>urers, but either
comiMflled by some commanding authority, or niorp
proljably heartily uniting in a willing ser\'i<v. They
reveal to us interesting glimjiseH of the ideas of a future
state existing among the Allophylians of Britain and the
neighlM>uring continent, in the remote era to whi<*h such
sepulchral memorials pertain, while they disclose striking
analogies in the development of human thought and be-
lief under corres})onding Horial conditions. The oM

196 PREHISTORIC MAN. . [Chap.

pagan Northman anticipated an elysium in which the
joys of endless war-triumphs were to alternate with the
feastings of the Valhalla of the gods; the luxurious
Asiatic dreams of the sensual joys of his Mahometan
Paradise ; while the Red Indian looks forward to the
range of ampler hunting-grounds, and to unfailing vie-
tory on the war-path. AH however anticipate a corpo-
real participation in joys akin to those which constituted
their chief pleasures on earth, and nearly all conceive of
the distinctions of social rank perpetuated beyond the
grave. Hence the slaughter of the dog and horse of the
chief, and their interment beside him ; and hence also
the cruel suttee, which Csesar tells us prevailed among
the Gauls, who consumed on the same funeral pile
with their most honoured dead, not only the objects
they had held in Aost esteem when alive, including their
dogs and horses, but also their favourite retainers. Along
with these were also laid the bow and spear, the sword,
shield, and other indispensable implements of war and
the chase ; but the disclosures of later British, graves
frequently show the beautiful bronze sword broken ere
it was deposited beside the dead, and precisely the same
custom prevails among the American Indians. The cop-
per kettle is perforated, the gun is deprived of its lock
or otherwise rendered unserviceable, and all the objects
destined for use in another state of existence are ren-
dered useless for the life in which their employment has
come to an end. In all this a strangely simple and
child-like confusion of ideas is discernible, presenting
many analogies to those which may still be discerned in
our own rustic legends and popular superstitions. Many
of the most touching passages of homely pathos and ten-
derness to be met with in the old Scottish Ballads, be-
tray the same undefined mixture of primitive supersti-
tion with the difficulty, still experienced by the popular

VII.] THE TECUNOLOQICAL INSTINCT: TOOLS. 197

mind, in conceiving any clear idea of a diisemlxMlied
Bpiriti or of death distinct from the grave. Alike in the
conception of the primeval barbarian, and in the uncul-
tured ruHtic mindi the grave is not only the portal to the
spirit-land, but the sole spirit world

A reference to some of the customs of the Chinook
Indians of the Columbia river will illustrate the prevail-
ing ideas relative to the rites of the deml, and to a future
life, which seem to find nearly universal acceptance
fn)m the l)arbarian mind. The Chinooks are among the
most remarkable of the flat-head Indians, and carry the
strange process of cranial distortion to a great extent.
They are in some resi)ects a HU|>erior race, making slaves
of other tribes, and evincing coiii^iderable skill in such
arts as are required in their wild forest and coast life.
Their chief war implements are Ik)Ws and arrows, the
former made from the yew- tree, antl the latter feathered
and pointed with l>one. Their canoes, hollowed out of
the tnmk of the ceilar-trw», are frequently verj- large, as
the cedar grows to an immense size in the native terri-
tory of the tril)e. They are made exceedingly light, and
omamentecl with much taste and skill In such a ranoe
the dead Chinook chief is de{K>8iteil, surrounde^l with all
the requisites for war, or the favourite (MXUiNitions of
life : presenting a n>markable corres{M)ndence in his
sepulchral rites to those of the ancient piigim viking,
who, as ap(H>ars alike from the contents of the Sc'andi-
imvian Skih^satninger^ and fn»m the namitives i>f the
Sagas, was internnl or consunuMl in his war-g:ill(*y, amd
the fonn of that favourite Mn^ne t)f his ocean triumpiis
pfr|H*tuat<Nl in the earth -work that covennl his ashos.
Tin cups, cop}KT kettles, plates, pie<'es of cott4»n, n*d cloth,
and furs, and in fact ever}'thing which the Chinooks
themselves most value, or which are most diflicult to o)>-
taiu, are hung n>und the canoe. Iteside thi* Ixnly they

198 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

place paddles, spears, bows and arrows, and food, with
everything else which they consider necessary for a very
long journey. Beads, ioqua shells, brass buttons, and
small coins are even placed in the mouth of the dead.
The canoe is then ready to be conveyed to the burial-
place of the tribe, generally selected for its isolated
situation. The two principal cemeteries are rocky
islands in the lower part of the Columbia river, both
of which were visited and sketched by Mr. Paul Kane,
from whom my information on the customs here de-
scribed is chiefly derived. One is called CoflSn Rock
from the appearance it presents, covered with the raised
biers of the deceased members of the tribe. The funeral
cortege has an imposing character. The deceased is
carefully disposed in his canoe-bier, surrounded by the
articles intended for his use in the life beyond the grave.
The attendant mourners then assemble in their canoes,
and that of the deceased is towed to the island cemetery
of the tribe, and there either fastened to the branches of
a tree, or raised on a scaffolding of strong cedar boards
and poles, four or five feet from the groimd. A roll of
bark is placed over it to protect the body from the rain,
and the various offerings to the dead are disposed about
the bier. The final act before leaving is to bore holes in
the bottom of the canoe ; and in like manner every ar-
ticle left with the corpse is mutilated and rendered use-
less. The belief of the Indian is, that while their use on
earth is thereby at an end, the Great Spirit will restore
them to perfection on the arrival of the deceased at their
dysian hunting-grounds. Among the greatest crimes
which an Indian can commit in the eyes of his tribe is
the desecration of one of those canoe-biers ; and its per-
petration, if discovered, is certain to be visited by death.
Instances of such sacrilege are accordingly of rare occur-
rence ; but one happened a few years since, to which

Vri.) THK TECUSOLOQWAL ISSTISCT : TOOLS. 199

attention was directed by the n>bber of the flepulchral
canoe being shot dead within the precincta of Fort Van-
couver, by order of Caaenov, the chief of the Chinook
Indiana.

The favourite son of this chief die<l« and, contrary to
the wonted custom of his tribe, he hml him buried in
the cemetery attached to Fort Vancouver. The sepul-
chral rites, and still more the subsequent proceedings
of the bereaved chief, presented a singular admixture of
Christian sepulture with the ineradicable superstitions
of the wild Indian. The coffin was made sufficiently
large to contain all the necessaries supposed to be re-
quired for his comfort and convenience in the world of
spirits. The chaplain of the Fort read the usual service
at the grave, and after the conclusion of the ceremony,
Casenov returned to his loilge, and the same evening
attempted tl\p life of his boy s mother, who was the
daughter of the great one-eyinl ciiief generally known
as King Comcomly, alludiMl to in Washington Irvings
Astoria. The unfortunate mother had devciteiUy nursed
her son during his sickness, and was moreover the
favourite wife of tlie C*hinook chief But this only fur-
nished additional motives for her destruction ; for, it is
the general belief of the Indians of the North-west, that
the severer the privation they inflict u|X)n themselves
the greater is the manifestation of their grief, and the
more pleasing to the departed npirit. Casenov stated
to Mr. Kane, that as he knew his wife had Imh'u so
UiM*ful to her son, and so necensar}* to his happiness and
a>mfort in this worKl, he wished to »H*nd her with him
as his companion on his long jouniey. The reason thus
assigned by the Chinook chief fur the nmnler of hb
favourite wife over the grave of their son, gives a
curious insight into the motives of such l)ar)iorous sacri-
ficial rites ; exhibiting as they do so strange a mixture

200 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

of good and evil, of generous self-denial and cruel
selfishness. The encircling cists and cinerary urns of
the Knock-Maraidhe, and probably also some of the
contents of the megalithic chamber in its centre, seem
strongly suggestive of the idea of similar sacrifices hav-
ing prevailed among the ancient occupants of the British
Isles. Such a laboriously constructed vault and earthen
pyramid were manifestly parts of one grand mau8o-
leum ; and if we suppose the whole structure, with its
included cromlech, cists,, and urns, to have been com-
pleted together, it is difl&cult to conceive of any other
mode of accounting for such a sepulchral group than
the one suggested, which is so congenial to the ideas of
barbarian rank, and of earthly distinctions perpetuated
beyond the grave.

Looking at the subject, however, from another point
of view, we perceive that the various trib^p of Indians,
who originally possessed only weapons, implements, and
personal ornaments of bone, shell, flint, and stone, or at
most of native copper, rudely hammered into shape, are
seen after an interval of upwards of three centuries of
European colonization and traffic, without the slightest
acquired knowledge of working in metals, but possessed
of numerous metal implements and weapons, which,
as their greatest treasures, they fi:eely lavish on the
loved or honoured dead. Such traces of metallurgy, it
is manifest, afford no proof of an acquired native art.
The copper kettle of the Chinook coffin-bier on the
Columbia river, was in all probability brought, not
from the copper regions of Lake Superior, but from
London or Liverpool, along with the beads, knives,
hatchets, and other objects of barter, by means of which
the fur-traders carry on their traffic with the Indian
hunter. At most these only prove that a nation, still
in its stone-period, and totally ignorant of any further

VII.] THE TECHNOLOGICAL INSTINCT: TOOLS. 201

metalliirgic art than is required to grind an iron hoop
into lance or arrow-heads, has been brought into contact
with a civilized people, famiHar with metallurgy and
many acquired aits, such as the musket and the riile
may most aptly symbolize.

Among the Indian tribes of North America, aa ob-
served in the comparison of others met with in a simi-
larly rude and undeveloped intellectual condition else-
where, considerable diversity of inventive genius and
artistic skill is discernible : some of them showing an
instinctive aptitude for constructive, and others for imi-
tative arts. The mode in which the latter specially
manifests itself among many of the tribes of American
aborigines is well worthy of note, and will come under
review when referring to the pipe manufacture which is
so curiously typical of American art. But meanwhile
an equally instructive illustration of what may thus be
designated eeathctic and constructive instincts may Ik;
selected from the diversely gifted islanders of the South-
em Pacific. On the extreme western verge of the Poly-
nesian archipelago lie the Feejee Islands, occupied by a
people remarkable among the islanders of the Southern
Pacific alike for physical and intellectual peculiarities. Tlie
Feejeean physiognomy is descril)ed as presenting general
characteristics of debasement, when compared with tliat
of the true Polynesian, and the entire proportions and
contour of his figure are markedly ififerior to those of
the Friendly and Navigator islanders. This is the more
remarkable in a people dwelling in the midst of abund-
ance, and enjoying an unusual variety of choice articles
of food. Their ferocious and treacherous habits, how-
ever, and the hideous customs of cannibalism and syste-
matic parricide, with the attendant crimes inevitable
in such a social condition, render the Feejeejm Islands,
which seem fitted by nature to Ik' the aliodes of h;ippi-

202 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

ness, among the most wretched scenes of moral degrada-
tion. Nevertheless it is in this strange island group
that the arts of the South Pacific appear to have their
origin and highest development. Dr. Pickering, after
enjoying abundant opportunities of observation in the
Southern Pacific, appears to look on the Negrillos as the
true inventive race, from whom the Feejeeans, who are
unquestionably allied to them in blood, acquired, elabo-
rated, and greatly improved many applications of art
and skill. But the ingenious Negrillo is altogether un-
social and prone to isolation, and the Feejeean appears
to derive from him a dislike of change, and a disinclina-
tion to leave his island-home. It required, therefore,
the intervention of a migratory or aggressive race to
diflFuse the acquired knowledge and skill of the Feejeeans ;
and this colonizing race of the Southern Pacific and of
the Indian Oceans appears to be the Malayans, who are
found in contact with many diverse and widely-scattered
nations, and are of a roving disposition, the proper
children of the sea. "Naturally," says Dr. Pickering,
" the most amiable of mankind, they are free from anti-
pathies of race, are fond of novelty, inclined rather to
follow than to lead, and in every respect seem qualified
to become a medium of communication between the
diiferent branches of the human family." Such a race
of plastic, amphibious mediators being found, a curious
light is thrown on the difiusion of knowledge and the
primitive arts throughout the widely -scattered island
groups of the Southern Pacific, where almost every Poly-
nesian art, it is said, can be distinctly traced to the
Feejee Islands, while the Feejeean himself is so averse
to roam. But the best and the worst characteristics of
the Feejee islanders are strangely intermingled. They
use the bow and throw the javelin with great dexterity,
but their peculiar and distinguishing weapon is a short

Vir.] THE T EC IIKO LOGICAL lASThVCT . TOOLS: 203

missile club, which they all habitually weai- stuck in
their belt, the symbolic Feejeean tool and national in-
stnimOQt of assassination. Nevertheless it is an error,
which many analogies of history tend to confute, if we
assume the occurrence of monil degradation, as mani-
fested in parricide, cannibalism, and systematic treachery
and assassination, to be necessarily incompatible with such
intellectual development as distinguishes the Feejeean
from other islanders of the Pacific. The ferocious New
Zealauder has proved the most capable of civilisation of
all the aborigines of the Pacific, and is found moreover
to possess a traditional poetry and mythical legends of
a highly striking and peculiar character. And turning
from the primitive and stUl undeveloped races of the
world, we have only to study the chronicles of ferocious
deeds perpetrated by the pagan Saxon, the Hun, or the
later Dane and Norseman, to see in what hideous aspects
the wild energies of a rude i>eople may alone manifest
themselves, who shall nevertheless prove capable of be-
coming the leaders in the civQisation of Europe. To judge
by the monkish clironicles, no Feejee cannibal could
surpass, cither in savage atrocity or in hideousneas of
aspect, the Hungarian or Northman from whom the
proudest of Europe's nobles claim descent. The chroni-
clers of Gemiany, France, and Italy, describe the fury
of the former with dolorous brevity, while popular legend
depicts them as grinning, child-devouring ogres, whetting
their ensanguined tusks over their prey ; and the liturgy
of the GaUican Church of the ninth centur}' preserves
the memorial of the pagan Northmen's ravages in the
new supplication addeil to its litany : A furore Nm'-
tnannonxin libera nos.

It is obvious therefore that all the savage vices of the
Feejeeans are perfectly compatible with considerable
skill in such arts as pertain to their primitive and insular

204 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

condition. Their musical instruments are superior to
those of the Polynesians, and include the Pan-pipe and
others unknown in the islands beyond their range. Their
pottery also exhibits great variety of form, and includes
examples of vessels combined in groups, presenting a
curious correspondence to similar productions of Peru-
vian art. Their fishing-nets and lines are remarkable
for their neat and skilful workmanship, and they carry
cultivation to a considerable extent. " Indeed," remarks
the ethnologist of the United States Expedition, in
summing up the characteristics of the Feejeeans, " we
soon began to perceive that the people were in possession
of almost every art known to the Polynesians, and of
many others besides. The highly-finished workmanship
was unexpected, everything being executed until re-
cently, and even now for the most 'part, without the use
of iron. In the coUection of implements and manufac-
tures brought home by the Expedition, the observer will
distinguish in the Feejeean division something like a
school of arts for the other Pacific islands." In such a
strangely-gifted savage race we see at once the degra-
dation of which human nature is susceptible, and yet at
the same time the germs of constructive and artistic
capacity, capable of development into many marvellous
manifestations, if once subjected to such elevating in-
fluences as changed the cruel pagan, the merciless pirate
of the northern seas, into the refined Norman, the chi-
valrous crusader, and the imaginative troubadour.

The members of the United States Exploring Expedi-
tion were struck, as they approached the extensive coral
archipelago, interposed between the Marquesas, Society,
and Gambier groups of islands, by the small and slight
canoes, seemingly emerging from the sea, with a pro-
jecting beak at stem and stem, and propelled by means
of a paddle remarkable for its curved blade. In these

VII.] THE TECHNOLOGICAL INSTiyCT : TOOLS. 205

smal] low canoes the islanders moved with great rapidity
tlu'ough the water, wliile they foiined such a speck on
its surface that they were close to the ship before they
were observed ; but all idea of rudeueas in the constnic-
tioD of these canoes and paddles gave way to wonder and
admiration of their makei's when the voyagers acquired
possession of the implements with which they wrought
The cocoa-palm aupphe^ them \vith materials for matting
and weaving, and the cassytha stems and cocoa-nut
fibre are plaited into cord. The finer cord ia made of
human hair, and bones of the turtle and of the larger
fish supply them with the means of making fish-spcare
and hooks. But there is no natural production on those
coral islands harder than shell or coral, and from these
the whole constructive tools of the islanders have to be
made. When it is thus seen that a population can eidst
and develop ingenious arts amid such privation of all
that seems indispensable to the rudest attempts at con-
structive ingenuity ; it need not be wondered that we
should find such abundant traces of a non-mctallurgic
European era, during wliich the primitive nomadic colo-
nists appHed their far ampler resom'cea of flint, stone,
horn, and bone, to all the purposes for which the metals
have been adapted in later times, and with no conscious-
ness of privation in the unknown want of mctallurgic
arts. To the absence of such knowledge among the
world's primitive wanderers, or to the want of the metals
themselves, and even their more abundant mineral sub-
stitutes, as among the occupants of the volcanic and
coral islands of the Pacific, may be traced the ingenious
adaptation of sea-shells to many of the economic and
artistic uses to which they have been so extensively
applied. Such applications of the beautiful ocean shells,
in many cases to purposes seemingly so foreign to their
natural use, illustrate in a striking manner the adapta-

206 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

bility of man to the most varied physical conditions of
the globe, and frequently exhibit the imperfectly-deve-
loped reasoning faculties of the savage, working within
narrow limits, akin to the instincts of the lower animals.
Thus we find curious affinities between the rude primi-
tive arts of the European savage in the dim dawn of the
ancient world, the equally rude arts of the Carib or the
Guanche of the Antilles when brought to our knowledge
in the fifteenth century, and the simple devices of the
Polynesians occupying the Volcanic or Coral Islands of
the Southern Pacific Ocean, first visited by Europeans
in the eighteenth century. In the Paumotu group, and
others of the coralline formations of the Pacific, we see
islands crowded with population, while deprived by
nature of aQ the means which seem to us the indispens-
able elements of civilisation, if not, indeed, of existence.
With them, in the absence not only of metals, but even
of stone and wood, marine shells form the most important
available material alike for economic utility and orna-
ment ; and the same appears to have been the case, to a
great extent, among the Indians of the Antilles before
the time of Columbus. The extreme beauty of many of
the marine productions of the tropics and the Southern
Ocean, sufficiently accounts for their adoption for per-
sonal adornment, as in the case of the Gyprcea aurantiay
or Jbeautiful orange cowrie, of which specimens are rarely
to be met with which are not perforated, owing to its
use as a favourite ornament of the natives of the Friendly
Islands. But these spoils of the ocean acquire an addi-
tional value, when, as in Central Africa, or among the
American Indians around the head-waters of the Mis-
sissippi, they have all the added virtues which rarity
confers. Dr. Livingston, when leaving the Belondas
after a brief sojourn among them, thus records his
friendly parting with their chief : " As the last proof of

VIL] TUE TECUNOLOOWAL ISSTISCT: TOOLS. 207

friendBhip, Shinte came into my tent, though it could
Hcarcely contain more than one person, looked at all the
curiosities, the quicksUver, the looking-ghiss, books, hair-
brushes, comb, watch, etc etc., with the greatest interest ;
then closing the tent, so that none of his people might
see the extravagance of which he was about to be guilty,
he drew out from his clothing a string of beads, and the
end of a conical shell, which is considered, in r^ons far
from the sea, of as great vidue as the Lord Mayors
liadge is in London. He hung it round my neck, and
said, * There, now, you have a proof of my friendship.*
My men informed me that these shells— a species of
conid^e,— ^ are so highly valued in this quarter as evi-
dences of distinction, that for two of « them a slave might
be bought, and five would be considered a handsome
price for an elephants tusk worth ten pounds." But
even more curious in it when such sea-wrought treasiunea
are foupd employed not as the ornaments, but as the
substitutes for dn^ss, as among the natives of Damley
Island, an island of volcanic origin, off the coast of New
Guinea, visite<l by Her Majesty s ship "Fly'' in 1842-46.
The natives are describetl as tine, active, well-made fel-
lows, rathex aliove the middle height, of a dark brown or
chocolate colour. "They hml frequently almost hand-
some faces, aquiline noses, rather broad about the nostrilsf
well-«haped heads, and many luid a singularly Jewish
cast of features. They were entirely naked, but fre-
quently wore ornaments made of mother-of-pearl shells,
either circuhir or cn*scent shape^l, hanging round their
necks. Occasionally, also, we saw a {Nirt of a large
shell, ap|>arcntly a cassis, cut into a projiM*ting shield-
Kha[M2, worn in front of the groin.'* Among thetie
islanders also, the larger sea shells have X6 |>erform the
functions which are so abundantly provide<l for, in the
Western Archipelago, by the calabash. Their adapta*

208 PMEUISTORIG MAN. [Chap.

bility for this purpose, indeed, naturally suggests such
an application of them wherever they abound, as in the
case of the Buccinum doUum, frequently used by the
fishermen and mariners of the tropics as a convenient
utensil with which to bale their boats. So in like
manner the graceful trumpet-like form, and richly-
variegated colours, of the larger species of the tritons,
such as the beautiful Triton variegatus, render their
early and independent application as horns or musical
instruments, alike by the islanders of the Pacific and the
Caribbean seas, sufl&ciently natural and obvious.

Though the natives of the Antilles, when first visited
by the Spaniards, possessed some natural advantages
over the inhabitant^ of the volcanic and coral islands of
the Pacific, yet the large marine sheUs with which the
neighbouring seas abound, constituted an important
source for the raw material of their primitive imple-
ments and manufactures. The great size, and the^facility
of workmanship of the widely-diffused pyrvlcB, turbindld,
strombiy and others of the larger shells, have indeed led
to their application, wherever they abound among unciv-
ilized nations, to numerous purposes elsewhere supplied
from other sources. Of such, the Caribs made knives,
lanceSj and harpoons, as well as personal ornaments;
while the mollusc itself was sought for and prized as
food. The Strorribus gigas is still fished for the table off*
the island of Barbadoes ; and numerous ancient weapons
and implements made from its shell have been dug up
on the island. An interesting collection, illustrative of
the character of such primitive manufactures of the
Antilles, has been presented to me by Dr. BoveU, by
whom they were dug up with other Carib relics, on
the island of Barbadoes, where traces of the mixed
blood of aboriginal Caribs continued till very recently
to mark a portion of the coloured population of the

VIL] TIIK TECIiSOLOOJCAL INSTINCT: TOOLS. 209

ialaucL From these the accom|)auyiiig UIuh! rations on^
8electe<l.

Fi«. A Canti Knixr*.

Thi» Carih ahoripinos of the Antilles furnish a striking
example of what the more active manifestations of moral
ile^rrailation really imply. Comi>are<l with the gentle,
(lassive Indians met hy the S|mnianl8 (»n the first islands
<»f the west visit4*<l hy EurojHtan explon'rs, the Carilis
W(*n* a cruel and fierre rare of emuiil»sils, i\a hateful in all
their must sidient rhiiracterirtties as the fiirlier New Zca-
landers or Firjeeans. Yet time has j>roved, even under
very unfavourahh* cinumstanei^ for tlu» devi*Iopment
of I'arih eivili^iition, that the fitreeness ami ag^n^ssive
eruelty of the Caribs of tin* L^shit Antilles eorresj>omletl
to the wild fur)' of the old vikin<j rovers of Eun>iK% and
gave proof of (»nt*rg)' and stamina ra|»«'d»le of stunly en-
durance, and (»f ri|K*ning into a iK^netieent maturity ;
while the g<*nth* and friendly Indiainrt of the largrr An-
tilk'H, without, in reality, any su]H*rior moral attrihutes,
hut only the (diamicteristirs of a wt^ak and passive natun*,
hav«* melt4*d away likf the snows of the jwi^t winter,
with wumvlv a nu^niorial of their txisit^nro Irft. The
C arilis an* the historic* ra«'4» of the Antilh-s, and also of
th«* south<*ni continent of America : tht-ir rhronicK's de-
riving their vitality and enduranc<\ hk«* th<»S4* of ancient
Eun>iH*, from the vi<*isrtitud4*s of war. In all their annals
they preisent tliems44veH as an aggn^ssive |HM>ple ; and

VOL. I. o

210 PREniSTORIC MAN. [Chap.

though long since extirpated or expelled from their an-
cient insular possessions, they still appear on the south-
em mainland as the people of an encroaching area ; and
the marches of their extending frontier ring with the
shouts of border warfare, as fierce and to us not greatly-
less substantial than the Wendish and Bulgarian war-
rings of Henry the Fowler, and his German Markgrafs
of well-nigh a thousand years ago.

In 1851, Sir Robert Schomburgk communicated to
the British Association, the result of recent ethnological
researches in St. Domingo. In this the obseiTant tra-
veUer deplores the fact that of the millions of natives
who at its discovery peopled the island, not a single
pure descendant now exists, though he could trace in the
Indios of mixed blood the peculiar features and other
physical characteristics of the pure Indian still uneradi-
cated. In the absence of a true native population of the
island aborigines. Sir Eobeit Schomburgk remarks : "My
researches were restricted to what history and the few
and poor monuments have transmitted to us of their
customs and manners. Their language lives only in the
names of places, trees, and fruits, but all combine in de-
claring that the people who bestowed these names were
identical with the Carib and Arawaak tribes of Guiana.
An excui^sion to the calcareous caverns of Pommier, about
ten leagues to the west of the city of Santo Domingo,
afibrded me the examination of some picture-writings
executed by the Indians after the arrival of the Span-
iards. These remarkable caves, which are in themselves
of high interest, are situated within the district over
which, at the landing of the Spaniards, the fair Indian
Catalina reigned as cacique." To this district they were
tempted by the news of rich mines in its mountains. In
1496, a fortified tower was erected, called originally San
Aristobal, but so abundant was tlie precious metal, that

VII.] TIIK TECnSOLOaiCAL IXSTLXCT: TOOLS. 211

ft

even the 8t4HH'8 of the fortn»s8 eontain(*<l it, and the
workmen named it the Gol(h*n Tower. But the living of
millions of the miM*ral>le natives were siierilieetl in re-
<'overing the gold fi-oni their mounbdn veins, and then,
the min(*s l>eing exhausted, the eountr}' wjis aUmdoned
to the wild exul>eranre of ti*o]»iral des4>lation, while the
e^iverns whi(*h had i»reviously In^en devoted to ivligious
rites, IxTame j>larf.s of retreat fnmi the S]»aniai*d luid
his frightful hloinlhound. One of the smaller eaves still
4*xhil»its a highly interesting >kv\va of symliolie pictures,
which the Indians had traet^d with tharcoal on the white
and smooth walls, from when<*e it hius n^^eived the name
of the |»ainted ehamUT. WXkv Mailyr of Angleria, the
eontemjH»rary, juid one of the earliest historians of the
discoveries of (Vihnnlms, n*hites in his first decade of the
"Ocean," that the alMaigims of S;into D<miingo held
eaves in gn*at V4»neration, for imt of them they said came
the sun and moon to give light to the wt»rld, and man
kind also issutnl fnun two caves of une^jual height, ac-
conling t<» their ivlativc statun*. On those cavenis Sir
II. Schomhurgk nmarks : "In the general unrertainty
which pn*vails with nganl to thes4* nmnumrnts of hy-
g«»ne races, it was partirularly uratifying to find sculp-
tun^ which atft^nh'*! a chie to th«* |K»ri<xl when they were
c*xecute<l. N*'ar the entranrr of a st*con«l fave cIorc to
the former, I olisiTved s<>ine carvings on x\\v n>ck. The
clumurtiT of thi»sr figures, and their U^ing cut in the luinl
sulirttanri* of st<nie, pn»ve an <»rigin f>f a mt»n' ivmote
dat4* tlmn those* in the oth«*r cave. Ikiron IhnnlH»ldt oIh
s<*r\'es, when alluding to th«» carvings ln» met with on
the lijinks of x\\r (^rin<N'o, that it must not l»e forgotten
that nations of very ditfeix'ut d«*S4*rnt, when in a similar
uncivilizi*4l state, having the s;ime di>)Hisition to simplify
and g«*n«*ndi/.(* outlin<*s, and Uing im|K*lle4l by inheri*ut
m«*ntul diH[>ositions to form rhythmical n*|K*titions and

212 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

series, may be led to produce similar signs and symbols.
But he had only opportunity to view the carved figures
on the Orinoco, but the examination of a great num-
ber of these symbols shows to me that there is a great
difference in their character and execution ; nor is it my
opinion that the idols worked in stone, and the carvings
on the rocks, were executed by the races that inhabited
South America and the West Indies at the time of their
discovery. They belong to a remoter period, and prove
much more skill and patience than the simple figures
painted with charcoal on the walls of the cave near Pom-
mier. The figures carved of stone, and worked without
iron tools, denote, if not civilisation, a quick conception
and an inexhaustible patience to give to these hard sub-
stances the desired forms." From his examination of
the tools and utensils still in use among the existing
tribes in Guiana, Sir Robert doubts such to be the work
of the Caribs ; but he admits that they are only found
where we have sure evidence that the Caribs inhabited
or visited the place, and he under-estimates both the
skill and patience shown by many native artists equally
poorly provided with tools. The carvings of the Polyne-
sians on their elaborately-wrought clubs and paddles,
and the complicated designs of the Babeen and Clalam
sculptors, are frequently the result of many weeks and
even months of labour, desultorily and intermittingly
expended, but nevertheless with a persevering aim
towards the accomplishment of one premeditated design.
Among various evidences of the former presence of the
Caribs in the Santo Domingo, Sir Robert Schomburgk
describes his finding, at the eastern point of the island
called Junto Engano, numerous heaps of conch shells
{Strombus gigas). " These shells have invariably a hole
near the spire, which has been made for the purpose of de-
taching the animal from the shell, to extract it with ease.

VII.] THE TECIISOLOGICAL ISHTIXCT : TOOLS. 215

1 met with a large iiumbtT of Kiniilar i>ih*H at the IhIiuicI
of Aiicgaila, which tlie historiiins of the AntiUeH iiM*nl)c
to thr C'iirihs, who, ou their (h*scc;nt from the Lucuyas to
wagi» war u|kiii the natives of Puerto Rico, toiu*hed first
at Aiiegada in order to pnivisioii thciu^4vi« with couehs
for their ex|K.MlitioiL" Other relies of uative art aud
hintory attracted the attention of the traveller, while
exploring thase islandH, and he 8{H*cially dwells with
intereMt on a |Kived ring of granite, in the vicinity of
San Juan de Maguana, in St. Domingo, which formed,
at the time of itri tirst discover}' by Euroi^eans, a distinct
kingdom, governeil l>y the rari<jue Caonal)o, the most fierce
anil (Kjwerful of the Carib chiefs, and the im'concilable
<!nemy of the Euro|»ean inva^lcix The circle consists of
granitic rock.s from thirty to fnrty {M)unds in weight, and
rt^vniinir, from tlu'ir smooth and water-woni look, to
have lNi»n brought a considerable distance, from the river
Maguana. The ring has the apiHanincc* of a {»iived ntad
twenty-one feet in brca«lth, an<l alnjut 2270 ft»et in cir-
eumferen<*4\ A large granitic m;iss in the centn*, fully
tivc iin<l a ludf feet in length, has lR*en sm<K>thc*il and
ru<lt*ly fashioned into the sliajH.* of a human figun* ; and
c4»m*s|N»nds in ever}' resjHMt to amother rejux-Si'nted by
Tere <'harlev<iix, in his Jlistnirr de nie Esjtfi4jtn»le oh de
Saint'I>inniniq»ie^ which he drs<Til»es as a figun* found
in an Indian gnive. A pathway, of the s;imc breadth
and Workmanship as the riii;:. <xtcnds fn»m it ilu«* west,
and turns aft4*nvanls at a right angle to the north, t*nd
ing at a small briNik. It is calltMl at tlit* pn*x*nt day,
" HI t'crcad«> de liw ln<lios,** but Sir UiilK'rt S'homburgk
4|Ucstions its Inking th** work of tht* inhabitants of the
i^aiid wlirii first visited by the S{Kinianls« an«l assigns it,
along with fi«{ures whi(*h he examinetl cut into nnks in
the interior of Ciuiana, and the s^'ulptunnl figun*s of St.
lK»mingo, t4» a jieople far suiicrior in intellect to tlamc

3U PIIKIII.HTOHIC MAS. [Chap.

Columbus met with in Hispauiola, These he conceives j
to luivo come ham the northern part of Mexico, adjacent 1
to the ancient dietrict of Huastecaa, and to have been [
Douquercd and extU'pateJ Ijy their Carih supplauters,
prior to European t-olomsta diephicing them in their J
turn. In thia opinion, iiowever, perhaps au undue weight I
is (ittached to the imperfect appliances of the insular \
Caribs.

Anaoug the numerous stone weapons or implementa |
whieh have been discovered, and serve to illustrate the I
primitive arts of the New Worlil, throe reniarkalile relics |
from the Buy of Houdur:is, in South America, are de-
sei-ving of specisd attention. They were found, about tho J

i»vl'i?iiyl'"

year 1794, with other examples, in a cave betiivccn twoi
aud three miles inland. One of them wiis presented to I
llie Tirilifih Mnscuin, and two olliem have licen repeatedly I

rffa

Vn.] THIS TKCnSOLOOICAL ISSTIXCT: TOOLS. Xlfl

<-xliiI»itc*l lit nu-otiuj-H i»f ihi- Arelia-ological Iiidtituto.

Tlio iM'conijKiiiyiiiji w<nKlcutii will In-st convey mi i«li;a of

their [MH-uIiar fonns. Oiur U ii Hcrmtir*! wi'«|k>ii, [(oiiitwi

nt liutli cutis, and mt'iutuiniig Hixtcc-ii iiml a liulf liichc-H

[<ni(,'. AnotbiT 18 in the fonu of a rrcHccut, with project

iiig pctiiitM. It ineiiflun-rt Hcveutciii

inchiit ill grvnlotit loiigtli, nml it is con

j<f:tunil may luivo m-ni'<l iw a wuajwn

»f iKinule, liki! tin; xfcito iwrtisau or

luiHiert of Inter timex. The thini,

which is iiniK'rfect, Iui» |>r<>lHi)>Iy iv-

wmlilutl the (>n'vious one in geiienil

forni. The whole un- exaniph-n of

imiilenients wrought iti Hint, of uii-

iisunlly lur<^ jmiitortion.s inul (-hi[>]H.-tl

with extniopilinary n-giilarity iiml skill.

A n-inarkalile (tiH-einn-n of temi-cottJi

ohtiiim-it alKtut the Ninu- |HTiiHl, ami

|»n's<i'Utetl to the S«K'iely of Aiiti- "^^i

ijiurieH of St-othmil in ITUK, \a Hgun'tl ou a Bulwequent

The inhinil of Jaiiiaira has funiixhctl a jM'Culiarly almti-
ilaul wrifH of examjihtt of the Htone ami Hint wea]H>lui
nntl implements of its atK-ieut inhahitimtH ; anti in niauy
of the islantls relics of the in;!eniouH eonverxion of tlh*
eoinli an<l othem of the laip' shi-lls of the CariliU'an Sen,
Iti (lie puqiows of nianufaeture, have Ihvii fn-^jiii-ntly
foutitl Hut while thus noting tlii' varies! uws to which
the gigantic murine sliells of the Antilles weR> applied l»y
the nalivi-s of the An^hijH'lago. a still greater inten<Mt
altaehes to the eviileiiees of an ancient tnule in the siiiuc
pHMlucts of the Gulf of Fhiridit, carne<l on among the
widely -Meat tenil triU-H ami nations of North America,
long iN-fi.re its dis.-overy hy ColumliUH.

Altundant cvidencr exists to pi>.vc that they wei-e

216 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

greatly valued, and even regarded with superstitious re-
verence, both by the more civilized nations of the neigh-
bouring mainland around the Gulf of Florida, and also
by the Indian tribes even so for north as beyond the
shores of the great Canadian Lakes. In one of the sin-
gular migratory scenes of the ancient Mexican paintings,
copied in Lord Kingsborough's Mexican Antiquities^
from the Mendoza Collection, preserved among the Selden
MSS. in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, a native figure is
represented carrying a large univalve shell in his hand.
He is barefooted, and dressed only in a short, spotted
tunic, reaching to hLs loins. In his right hand he bears
a spear, toothed round the blade, it may be with inserted
flints or points of obsidian, while he holds the large shell
in his left hand. A river, which he is passing, is repre-
sented by a greenish stripe winding obliquely across the
drawing, and his track, as indicated by alternate foot-
prints, has previously crossed the same stream. On this
trail he is followed by other figures nearly similarly
dressed, but sandalled, and bearing spears and large fans;
while a second group approaches the river by a different
trail, and in an opposite direction to the shell-bearer.
Other details of this curious firagment of pictorial history
are less easily interpreted. An altar, or a temple, appears
to be represented on one side of the stream ; and a highly
coloured circular figure, like a shield, on the other, may
be the epitomized symbol of some Achaean land or Sacred
Elis of the New World. But whatever be adopted as
the most trustworthy interpretation of the ancient hiero-
glyphic painting, its general correspondence with other
migratory depictions is undoubted ; and it is worthy of
note, that, in some respects, the most prominent of all
the figures is he who is represented as fording the stream,
bearing one of the large tropical univalves in his hand.

^ Mexican A niiquitieSf vol. i. plate 68.

VIL] THE TKCIISOLOGICAL ISSTiyCT : TOOLS. 217

Tho eviiK^uce which 8U<*h a remarknhlt* ixMonl ntf(»nl8
of an iin|M>rtaii(*c attarhcnl to the hir^c* m^a v\\v\\& <»f the
Uulf of Mexico, among the most civilizo<l of the Ame-
rican nations settled iin its shores, is deserving of notice;
but the siinie tn>])ical marine products acquire a new
and more imiK>rUmt signiticance when they are met with
among relics (K^rtaining to ln<lian tril»i*s settleil in the
northern regions of the continent, some of them upwanls
of three thuussmd mih*s distant fn»m the native hahitat
of the moUusca, l»y which these coveted tre^isures of the
ocean are p^kIucihI, and si*jMiratcd l>y hundreds of miles
from the nean'st sea-coast.

Tracing them along the northern n»ute through the
Mississippi and Ohio vall<»ys, thcsi* shells have lx*en
found in the ancient graves of Tciinesm*e, Kentucky,
and Indiana, and northwanl to the rcf^ions of the (in*at
l^kes. Dr. ticranl TnM>st, in a communicati(»n to the
American £thn<»h)gical Society,* has deseril)ed a singu-
larly intcn*8ting series of ancient reli<-s and sepul-
chral n*mains discoventl in Tennessee. The crania of
the graves wen* characterized l»y remarkable artificial
compn*ssion, jis in th«» example tigun^d by Dr. Morton,
phit4» jT*, Cntuin Amrricamt. Thest* ancient gnives
alK>und(Ml with n*lics, '' lares, trinkets, an<l utensils, all
of a ver)' rude coiistnietion, and all fonm**! of some
natund pHnluct, none of mttal.'' From an examinati(»n
of thcsi', Dr. TriMwt was led U} the i*on<dusi«)n lluit the
nice to whom they pertaininl came from s«ime tro[ii-
cal countr)'. Among tlnir stone implements obsi<lian
alxmnde^l. NunuTnus Inad^ were fonni*d of tro|»ical
marine shells of the genus mnnjiitrHn, gn»und s«» as to
mak<* a |H*rft)nition on tht* back, by means of which they
could 1k' stning togetlhT fnr puriHisi-s of |Krs<»nal orna-
ment. Plain Im*;i41s were mad<* fn»ni the etiluniclhu of

218

PREinSTOinC MAS.

the Sti-omhus tjigas; and such coIumelliB were found
worn to a uniform thickness, perforated through the
txmti'c, and in all stages of manufacture, from the rude
stfttc in which such are found on the island shores of
the AVest Indies, to tJiuir eonditiun as perfected beads-
and links of the much-prized loamparn. Similar accu-
onilations of shell-beada are of frequent occuiTcnce ia
the gi-eat mounds of the Ohio valley, and are ngain re
ferred to hi a suhaequent chapter ; but another relic,
formed in part also of the gigantic shells of the tropica,
presents characteristics of still greater interest as illus-
trative of ancient manners and modes of thought. Dr.
Troost describes and figures various rudely modelled
and sculptured idols found in the ajime locality, from
Homt' of which he was
led to assume the ex-
istence of Phallic rites,
among the aaeient
idolaters of the Ohio
valley. One of these
specimca-s of aboriginal
sacre<l sculpture
accidentally discoveredi
in ploughing a piece' of
laud newly reclaimed
from the forestL The
utensils found in tho
Tennessee graves have
all been made of atoue
or obaidiiui ; and the
Fiu, u-T.n„,^.,.nM„i, greater numlier of the

idols are iu like manner sculptured in stone of various
kinds and degrees of hardness. But the figure now
i-cfon-ed t^i is uiadH of clay and poundeil shells, ami,
like oilier ixiimpirs wliirh have been met with, has

VIL] TIIK TKCIINOWGICAL IXSTISCT: TOOLS. il9

InHiD liiinlened in the fire. It repn^sents a uude human
figun.% kneeling, with the handH ehiH]KHl in front ; and
when found, it still occupied, \\a its primitive niche
or Hanctuar}', a large tnipital fA\A\ {Ca.ssis Jlammeti),
from which the interior whorls and columella liad been
removed, with the exception of a small i>ortion at
the base, cut off flat, so as to form a i>edestal for the
idol. The spi^cial application of this example of the
tropicid cassides, thus found so remote from its native
habitat, adds a peculiar interest to it, as manifestly
aHso<*iated with the religious rites of the ancient race
by whom the sjKiils of simtheni seiis were trans{K>rted
inland, and convertttl to [mriMKsc's of ornament and use.
The dlsiMivery i)f exampK-s of similar tropiad relics,
or of articles of {R*rHonal <»rnament fashioned from them,
when found to the n<»rth of the (ireat l^ikes, is still
more eah'ulati^l to exrite surjirist', and, whon first
brought undtT not ire, \v;is ma<le the Iwisis of S4»me very
extmvagant ethnological theories. Mr. John Delafield,
in his Im/uiri/ Into the (hifjin of the Antiquities of
America^ descriU's two large s|K»cimens i»f the Pijruln
;>*Tivn«i, and refers to similar exjmiples fnH|Uently found
in the imeient m(»immental and s(*pul<*hnil mounds of
Ohio. He then ijuotrs from an essiiy n»ad by him lK»fon*
thf Historical and Phil<»s<»phical Socit*ty of Ohio ; but,
ignonint of the true habitat of the Pi/nila jM^nvrs^i^ he
des4*rilN*s it as unknown on tla* eoasts of North (»r
Smith Ameriea, while it :dM»unils, as hv iH'lirves, on the
ciiiist of Hindustan, and licner In* assunx^s that such
reli<'s atlonl no slight cviden<*e of a migrati(»n from
si»utht*rn Asia.' This idea, whirh (or a tinu- was unti*r-
laini^l with niufh favour, is now known tt> U* mtirelv
unfountliMl ; but though wv havi* not in surh relies the
tnu'iv'^ of surh far wandi-rings fn»ni (he tild luist, tin*

220 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

chief interest which the large pynilse of the Florida
Gulf do possess is from the light they are calculated to
throw on the traces of ancient migration, or of traffic
between the north and south, in ages prior to the dis-
placement of the red man by the European. Two of
such large tropical shells, both of them specimens of the
Pyrula perversa, the native habitats of which are the
Antilles and the Bay of Campeachy on the mainland,
have been presented to the Canadian Institute at To-
ronto : not as additions to its specimens of native con-
chology of the tropics, but as Indian relics pertaining
to the great northern chain of fresh-water hikes. The
first of these was discovered on opening an Indian
grave-mound, at Nottawasaga, on the Georgian Bay,
along with a gorget made from tlie same kind of shell.
The second example was brought from the Fishing
Islands, near Cape Hurd, on Lake Huron ; another, from
the Georgian Bay, is in the Museum of the University
of Toronto, and many specimens have come under my
notice which have been procured from grave-mounds
and sepulchral depositories on the shores of the same
Bay. In one pit, about seven miles from Penetangui-
shene, three large conch-shells were found, along with
twenty-six copper kettles, a pipe, a copper bracelet, a
quantity of shell beads, and numerous other relics. The
largest of the shells, a specimen of the Pyi-ula sjnrata^
weighed three pounds and a quarter, and measured
fourteen inches in greatest length; but a piece had
been cut oflf this and another of the large shells, pro-
bably for the manufacture of some smaller ornament for
the person. It exhibited abundant marks of age and
frequent handling, its outer surface being quite honey-
combed, while the inside ret^iined its smooth lamellated
surface. Another sepulchral depository, discovered on
elevated ground in the neighbouring township of Oro,

VIL] TUK T ECU SO LOGICAL INSTINCT: TOOLS. 221

containtNl twenty-nix copp(»r kettlon, uiidmioath one of
wliirh lay another of the large tropieal shells, mn^iningly
carefully ]iaekeil in beaver skinH and liark ; \vhih> in a
thinl cemetery in the Hiime distri^'t, among copper
arrow-heiulR, bracelets, and ear-omament8, pi|K»8 of Htone
an<l clay, lieads of |>orcelain, red pij)e-fitone, etc., sixteen
of the same prizcnl tropi(»aI miivalves lay n>und the
iKittom of the jut amingeil in gnmps of thrt»e or four
together. Numerous skeletons, or detached skulls and
l)ones promis(*uously heaped alongside of these relics,
attest4Nl the m^pulchral character of the de|>08itor}', and
the kettles had lieen n^ndertnl useless bv the blows of a
tomahawk, according ti) the invariable pnictice of the
In<lians with offerings de]x>sited lK«i«le their dead. Ex-
amph*s of corres|xmding discoveries of the tri»pical shells
of the Gulf of Mexico, thus tninsferriNl thousiin<ls of
miles inland, and cherishe<l bv tla* ancient trib«*s anmnd
Lake Hunm with superstitious n»vei*ence, might Ihj
greatly multiplit^l ; but evidence enough has \wv\\ ad-
ducred to prove the friMjueney of their <K.M*urrenee, and
\\\v value atta<*hc*tl to them. From tli«*ir columelhe the
siu^ri'd wampum was ma<hs along with gorgets and other
s|Krial th»4*onitioiis ; and the :ip|M*aran<*c of some of the
exhume<l shells suggests that they may have In^^n handi*<l
down through sueeessivt» generations as gi-eat medieines,
bcfon' their tinal de|Mj.siti(»n among the ran* and costly
offerings in honour of the dead.

The ingt*nious manufactun*s of the islandei-s of the
CaribU^an s«»a, fn>m the large marine slu*lls whirhalM>und
on the cfKists, natundlv attrart our attention as examples
of eonstmeti\e skill adapting the nvidiest mat«*rials to
supply tht* necessity which man has for t«M)ls. Hut the
inten-st which attaches to sueh conchojogii*al relies as
the Pijniht found in the old grave m«>unds and <issuaries
of Canada, manifi*stly de|ii»mls on the fact t>f thus <lis-

222 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

covering, along the shores of the great inland chain of
fresh-water lakes, specimens of the large sea-shells of the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Central America, and of
the West Indian Isles. The attractions ofiered by such
large and beautiful tropical shells are sufficiently appa-
rent, and, as we have seen, are by no means limited to
the untutored tastes of the American Indian, nor to tlie
products of the Mexican coasts. Their employment in
the construction of vessels for ordinary use has already
been referred to ; but other and more important appli-
cations of some of them for special religious services
among the inhabitants of the Old World seem to oflfer
illustrations more in accordance with the discoveries here
referred to. In India, China, and Siam, the Pyi^iUy and
others of the large and beautiful shells of the Indian
Ocean, of the species Turhinella, are highly prized by
the natives of the neighbouring districts ; and this is
especially the case with a sinistrorsal variety found on
the coasts of Tranquebar and Ceylon, and made use of
by the Cingalese in some of their most sacred rites.
Such reversed shells of the species Turhinella, are also
held in special veneration in China, where great prices
are given for them ; and they are often curiously orna-
mented with elaborate carvings, fine specimens of which
are in the British Museum. They are kept in the
pagodas by the priests, and are not only employed
by them on certain special occasions as the sacred
vessels from which they administer medicine to the sick,
but it is in one of those sinistrorsal turbinellae that the
consecrated oil is kept, with which the Emperor is
anointed at his coronation.

While avoiding the error of earlier observers, who
fancied they discovered in the pyrulae of the Ohio grave-
mounds the traces of a remote Asiatic migration to the
New World : such analogies in the clioice of objects of

Vir.] THE TECUNOLOOICAL INST/yCT : TOOLS. 223

veneration or superstitious value, as arc indicated in the
uses to which the pjTulffi of the Indiiin Ocean and of the
Gulf of Florida are applietl, are full of interest to the
ctlmologiat. Nor are such annlogiea confined to the
veneration for gigantic tropical sIicUh. Some of the
pei*sonal ornaments of the modem Kin<Ui, manufactured
from tlie solid poiccllaneoua pyrum, elost'Iy correspond
to the relics of similar conatmction found in ancient
American gi-ave-mounds, and supposed by their first
discoverers to be wrought in ivory. The chief value of
the hitter, however, arises from their discovery in lati-
tudes altogether remote from the native habitat of the
living mollusc, and the consequent traces which they
disclose of ancient migration, or of traffic between widely
separated tribes. But while the tropical shells thus
met with in the regions of the Great Lakes may be aa-
sluned to represent one amoug the treasures of southern
hititudes : the north had its coveted mineral wealth, of
the diffusion of which throughout the whole tribes of
the northern continent we have abundant evidence from
various sourees, imd refening to very different periods,
Among the rehcs entombed in the sacrificial mounds of
the Mississippi valley have been found objects formed
from the mica of the Alleghaniea, and the native copper
of Lake Superior, mingling with others made of the
obeidiaji of Mexico, or modelled from tropical fauna of
the southern continent.

Tnices of imcient migration, and of a widely-extended
traffic, reveal themselves in records derived from very
diverec sources, and indicate extensive wanderings of
the aborigiuid American tribes and nations, while sttU
practising the primitive arts of the American stone-
period. In the Leiujuc of Ote Irvquois, an interesting
contribution to American ethnology and history, written
by Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, front materials gathered in co-

L

224 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

operation with Hasanoanda^ an educated Seneca Indian,
the author observes : " Earthen pots are frequently found
beside the remains of the Iroquois. In these it was
customary to deposit food for the departed while jour-
neying to the realm of the Great Spirit. These earthen
dishes are still found in Indian burial-places, where
perhaps they had lain for centuries, and the fragments
of those which have been broken by the plough are also
mingled with the soil. MetaDic implements were un-
known among them. Rude knives of chert were used
for skinning deer, and similar purposes ; for cutting trees,
and excavating canoes and com mortars ; in a word,
for those necessary purposes for which the axe would
seem to be indispensable, the Iroquois used the stone
chiseL In cutting trees fire was applied at the foot,
and the chisel used to clear away the coaL By a repe-
tition of the process trees were felled and cut to pieces.
Wooden vessels were hollowed out by the same means.
Stone gouges in the form of a convex chisel, were also
used when a more regular concavity of the vessel was
desired. Stone mortars for pounding com, grinding
mineral paint, and for pulverizing roots and barks for
medicines, were also among their utensils. Arrow-heads
of flint were so common that it is scarcely necessary to
refer to them. Occasionally they are found with a
twist to make the arrow revolve in its flight. It is well
known that the Indian always feathered his arrow for
the same purpose. It is not uncommon to find the
places where these arrow-heads were manufactured,
which are indicated by the fragments of chert made by
cleavage.'' The osquesont, or stone tomahawk, is also
described as the ancient weapon of the Iroquois, while
various other equally primitive implements, utensils,
and personal ornaments, very ingeniously wrought, were
in use among the same people.

VIl] TIIK TKCHSOLOaiVAL ly^TIXCT : TOOLS. 32•^

For all the puqioeeH of etlmological oiid historical in
ventigatiou, the IndiaoM of the Iroquois c<»ufederacy are
indeed a singularly interesting people. Their own native
chronicler, while unfailing in his efforts to set forth in
amplest form evt*r}' evi<lence of their superiority over nil
the northern tril)es, acknowledges that metallic wea{>ous
were unknown among them, and that they had no use of
metals. The traditions of the Aztecs at the time of the
Mexican conquest, pointed t4) their origin from among
the warlike and migrator}* Indian tribes of the North-
west ; and here, at the periml of early European contact
with tlie trilies of the North-east, we find an Indian
nation in the most primitive condition as to all know-
leilge of pn)gre8sive arts, hut full of enei-g)', vitality, and
military enter|>rise, and amply endued with the qualities
D'cjuisite for effecting iKnnanent romiuests over a «-ivi-
lizeil hut uuwarlike }>eople. Nor did the primitive arts
of the Inxjuois prevent the development of many inci-
pient germs of civilisation among them. xVgriculture
was practised systematically, and to a considerahle ex
tent ; and their famous league, wisely established, and
maintained unbniken through vt*r}' diversifi(»d |H»riods of
their histor}', exhibits to us a people advancing in many
ways t4>wanls the full initiation of a si'lf-originated civi-
lisation, wh«*n the intrusion of EuroiN*aiut abruptly ar-
resteil its progress, and l>rought them in contact with
the elements of a foreign civilisation pn*gnant only
with the sources of their di'gnulation and final tlestruc-
tion.

The hi8t4»rian of the InM|uois, wht*n des4*ribing tht*ir
simpK* arts and manufactun*s, remarks, that in the
westeni mounds rows of arrow-heads or flint-bhules have
U-en found lying side by sitle, like t^H'tli, the n»w lieiug
aUnit two feet long. " lliis has sugg4*sted the idea that
they Were set in a frame, and fsistenetl with thongs, thus

vou !. r

226 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

making a species of sword." In this description we
cannot fail to recognise the sword of Mexico and Yuca-
tan. In the large canoe with its armed crew, first met
ofi* that coast, Herrera teUs us the Indians had " swords
made of wood, having a gutter in the forepart, in which
were sharped-edged flints strongly fixed with a sort of
bitumen and thread." Among the Mexicans this toothed
blade was armed with the itzli, or obsidian, capable of
taking an edge like a razor ; and the destructive powers
of this formidable weapon are frequently dwelt upon by
the early Spaniards. Among the ruins of Kabah, in
Yucatan, the attention of Stephens was attracted by the
protruding comer of a sculptured plume of feathers,
which led to his laboriously excavating a large sculptured
slab, the basso-relievos on which consist of an upright
figure having a lofty plume of feathers falling to his
heels, while l^fore him kneels another figure holding in
his hands the veiy same weapon, with its flint or obsi-
dian blades projecting fi'om the wooden socket. The
idea it suggests is not necessarily that assumed by Ste-
phens, viz., that the sculptors and architects of the great
ruins of Central America and Yucatan were the same
people whom the Spaniards found there on their land-
ing. The sculptured slab may be of a greatly older date.
On its lower compartment is a row of hieroglyphics ; and
the suppliant attitude of the armed figure is rather sug-
gestive of a record of conquest over some barbarian
chief of the Mexican or more northern tribes, of whom
the flint-edged sword-blade may have been regarded as
the most typical characteristic. Nevertheless, there is a
singular interest in the simple chain of evidence, thus
condBrmatory as it seems of the ancient Aztec traditions
of original migration, which leads us, step by step, from
the rude arts of the Iroquois, and the relics of the
western sepulchral mounds, to the armature of the Mexi-

VII.] THK TECnSOLOGlCAL INSTINCT: TOOLS. 227

cans of the era of the conquest, and the artistic recoitb
of the lettered architects of Yucatan.

The history of the Iroquois, and of the varied applica-
tions of their simple arts, iUustrates with peculiar aptness
the unwritten chronicles of the New World, The In-
dians of the Iroquois, while in that primitive condition,
achieved a more remarkable civil and military organi-
zation, and acquired a more extensive and enduring
influence, than any other nation of native American
lineage, excepting the civilized Mexicans and Peruvians.
Their own traditions pointed to a remote era, when they
migrated from the northern shores of the St. Lawrence
into that region to the south and east of Lake Ontario,
where they dwelt through all the {period of their authen
tic history ; though it must also be noted that the
Sfuecas and Onondagas, two of the mombers of the
league, claimed to Ih3 autochthones, sprung from the soil
of that Iroc^uois territory. The league embraced the
closely-allied nations of the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayu-
gns, Senecas, and Mohawks, all united in a strictly fe<leral
union ; and to this the Tuscaroras were admitted, on
their expulsion from North Carolina in 1715. The claim
of a common origin advanced by a i)eople occupying
territ4»ry H4) far to the soutli, throws an interesting iig^t
on the migrations of the Indiiui triln^H. It is confirmed
by the character of tlieir Unguage, and received pnu'tical
re<*ognition in the assignment of a [lortion of the Oneida
territory for their occu|iatiou. In the st*ventet*nth cen-
tury the Iroquois were the greait aggressive nationality
of the continent, to the north of Mexico. In the verv
l>eginning of that centur}', Captain John Smith, the
founder of Virginia, encounteriMl their canoes on the
upper {Mirt of the Chesapetike liay, liearing a l»and of
them to the territories of the Powhattan confederacy.

228 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

The ShaA^Tiees, Susquehannocks, Nanticokes, Miamis,
Delawares, and Minsi, were, one after another, reduced
by them to the condition of dependent tribes. Even the
Canarse or Long-Island Indians found no protection from
them in their sea-girt home beyond the Hudson ; and
their power was felt from the St. Lawrence to Tennessee,
and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi

How long before the discovery of this vast region
by Europeans, it had been in occupation by those who
claimed to be its autochthones, we have no other know-
ledge than their own traditions of migration. But so
far as arts are any evidence of national progress, they
were then in their infancy. Nevertheless, for nearly two
centuries, the Indians of the Five Nations, as they were
called before the addition of the Tuscaroras, presented a
sturdy and unbroken front to European encroachment,
alike by Dutch, French, and British colonists. But their
uncompromising hostility was concentrated in opposi-
tion to the French nation ; and as the rival colonies of
France and England were long nearly balanced, it is
not unjustly affirmed by the historian of the Iroquois,
that to their league France chiefly owes the final over-
throw of her magnificent schemes of colonization in
North America.

Such are some of the glimpses which the history of
the New World thus affords us, of what man is capable
of achieving through long centuries, independent of all
the arts and appliances of civilisation, which to us
seem almost indispensable to our very existence. But
whatever time might have developed out of the Iro-
quois confederacy, akin to the native civilisation which
had already taken root beyond the verge of their most
southern conquests, in their barbarian condition they
had Kttle to hope from the triumph of either of the

VII.) TIIK TRCHSOUh;JCAL ISSTISVT: TOOLS, «2»

Euro{)ean aggrefwors l)etweon whom they «c) long held
the balance. The inHular European race prove<i the
victor8 ; and when at a hiter date Elnghuid and her
American colonies came into colliiuon, the nations of
the League took different sides, and the Hodenosauuee
finally ceased to ))e the symbol or ideal rallying-point
of a united people. They had run their destine<l
course ; and now the poor scattered remnants of the
once-famous Indian feileral league, serve only to illus-
trate? how irreconcilable are the elements of a highly
developed civilisation with the most vigorous and pro-
gressive energy of a people only maturing the earliest
stages in the progress of nations towards social, moral,
and intellectual elevation. Stone, bronze, and iron
|)eriods, are not indis})ensable links in the progress of
the human race ; but all expi*rien<'e serves to prove that
when such social conditions an* abruptly brought into
contact, as the stone and iron }H*riods mot^t aptly s>Tn-
liolize, the invariable tendemy is t4)wartls the degrada-
tion and tinad extinction of the less advanced nue. It
is a law of wide application. The serf of Poland
and Russia is now in the condition of the Saxon unfree
long prior to the Conquest. It may well l>e doubted
if it either ameliorates his present condition, or aecele-
rati^ his healthful progress, that he has Xi^ work out his
elevation alongside of the advance<l nationalities of
Euroj)es nineteenth centur)'. Fnuiee, amid all her
R'Stlietie c'ivilisation, i.s in |N>int of |>olitical progrem^
wnn^ely in advance of the Knghind of the scventet*nth
«*entur\' ; and mon* tlian one false ntep in her iKist
history is traceable t4> her effort t4) assume the gn*ater
maturity of England without passing through Elugland •
preliminary training. But what«'Vt*r truth there may be
in such applications of the law which seems to control

230 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the influence of nations brought into contact in diverse
stages of progress, the evidences are manifold which
prove that the most powerful savage nations, when forced
into contact with the elements of a highly-matured civi-
lisation, perish hopelessly, like an untimely birth ; or
as the stars fade and disappear before the brightness of
the sun.

VIII.] TUE METALLUEOIC ARTS: COPPER, 231

CHAPTER VIII.

THE METALLVRGIC ARTS: COPPER.

The dawn of America's mctallurgic era is marked by
rcrtain specialities which trace their origin to ph}'8ical
c-auses pertaining to the ditferent regions in which it had
its rise. These regions are widely sepanited, and to all
appc^arance, totally independent of each other. They
illustrate two distinct pluu^^s of incipient (*ivilisation,
each presenting many i^eculimties calculated to throw
new light on the prehistoric chroniclings of the Old
World, as well as to furnish glimpses of America's un-
written liistor}'. To man in the primitive condition of
ru<le arts p(*rtaining to his stone-i)erioil, the facilities
presente<l by the great copper regions of Lake Suiwrior,
for the tirst transitioned steps towards that knowledge
of metallurgic arts whirh in itself is i)ower, were pecu-
liarly aivessible. The forests tliat spread their shadows
along the shon*s of the great lake wen^ the haunts of the
deer, the l>caver, the bear, and other fjivourite objects of
the chasi' ; the rivers and the lake abounded with fish ;
and the rude hunter had t4> manufactun* liis weai)on8
and implements out of such materi;ds as nature plaied
within his reach. The water-w<im stime from the Usu'h,
patiently ground to an e<lge» made his axi* luul t4>ma-
luiwk ; by means of which, with the ever-reaily service
of tin% he rouhl level the giants of the forest, or detach
fn>m them the materials for his cam^e and paildle, his

232 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

lance, club, or bow and arrows. The bones of the deer
pointed his lance, or were wrought into his fish-hooks ;
and the shale or flint was chipped and ground into his
arrow-head, after a pattern which the tool-making in-
stinct of man seems to repeat with little variation, in
all countries, and in every primitive age. But besides
such materials of imiversal occurrence, the primeval
occupant of the shores of Lake Superior found there a
done possessed of some very peculiar virtues. It could
not only be wrought to an edge or point without liabi-
lity to fracture ; but it was malleable, and could be
hammered out into many new and convenient shapes.
This was the copper, found in connexion with the trap-
pean rocks of Lake Superior, in inexhaustible quantities,
and in a pure metallic state. In other rich mineral
regions, as in those of ComwaU and Devon, the prin-
cipal source of the copper is from ores, which requii-e
both labour and skiU to fit them for economic purposes ;
but in the veins of the copper region of Lake Superior
the native metal occurs in enormous masses, weighing
hundreds of tons ; and many loose blocks of consider-
able size have been found on the lake shore, or lying
detached on the surface ; besides smaller pieces, exposed
or mingled with the superficial soil, in sufficient quan-
tities to supply all the wants of the nomade hunter.
This, accordingly, he wrought into chisels and axes, arm-
lets, and personal ornaments of various kinds, without
the use of the crucible, or any knowledge of metallurgie
arts ; and, indeed, without recognising any precise
distinction between the copper which he mechanically
separated from the mass, and the unmalleable stone
or flint out of which he had been accustomed to fashion
his spear and arrow-heads.

Our earliest glimpses of Britain pertain exclusively to
those regions whither the fleets of Tyre were wont to

VIIL] TliK METALLVRGW ARTS: COPFKH. 255

voyagiJ in quest of the metallic ores which they conveye<l
t4i that emporium of the ancient workl ; and not a little
of her later prosperity, and of her greatness among the
nations, has l)een due to tlie same inexhaustible mineral
wealth. To that region, therefore, we have to turn for
the earliest chapters of Britain's story ; and in the copper
n^ons of the New World are also some curious reconls
of an ancient and long-forgotten past. Having visited
and partially explored the ancient mineral regions of
I^ake Sujierior, some notes of its characteristic features
and general as|)e(!ts will not lx» out of place here. Some
idea of the present apjx?arance and condition of the
region is indwnl iudispensahle for prejMiring the reader
t4) appreciate the chanfi:es wrought by time on localities
which are now lieing rcscutnl once more from the wilder-
ness, but where, more pi»rha|>s than on any other spot on
the Ameri<*an continent, may Ih» witnetwcil the incipient
traces of metallurgic! arts and the dawn of an aboriginal
civilisation. The vast inland fresh-water sea, which
constitutes the head reser\-oir of the great chain of lakes
that swt*ep over the falls of Niagara, and find their way
to the (Kean by the river St. I^iwrence, has lx*en as yet
HO slightly encnwiched uiK)n by the pioneers of modem
civilisation, that its genend asjH^ct scarcely differs from
that which it presente<l to the t»ye of its first Euro|)ean
explorers in the sevcntivnth oenturj-, «>r in all pn>l>ability
t4) its Indiiin voyagers at tliat older ejKKh lK*fon» the
S{)aniard first ciNistinl the ishuid shores of the Kahamas,
and o|)ened for Euro|)e the gates of the West. With its
wiile extent of waters, covering an an»a of thirty-two
thousand square miles, a lengthened {MTioil of nojouni
in the regions with which it is surntunded, and many
facilities for their exploration, would l>e retjuireil, in
order to satisfy the curi(»sity of scientific inquirers in
relation to their varieil attractions. But even a brief

234 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

visit discloses much that is highly interesting, and that
serves at once to illustrate, and to contrast with what
comes under the observer's notice elsewhere. Having
employed both pen and pencil in noting the most
striking features which catch the eye from their novelty,
a description of the scenery and present aspects of the
ancient copper region of Lake Superior will help the
reader in some degree to estimate the lapse of time since
its dark forest-glades and its rocky promontories were
enlivened by the presence of the industrious miners of
the centuries before Columbus, The memorials of Time's
unceasing operations reach indeed to periods long prior
to the earliest presence of man, and present certain lake
phenomena, on a scale only conceivable by those who
have sailed on the bosom of these fresh-water seas with
as boundless a horizon as in mid Atlantic ; and who
have experienced the violence of the sudden storms to
which they are liable. But while the broad ocean-like
expanse, and the violence of their stormy moods, alike
characterize Ontario, Erie, Michigan, and Huron, it is
only on Lake Superior that the traveller witnesses the
grandeur and wild ruggedness of scenery commensurate
with his preconceived ideas of such great inland seas.
Along its northern and western shores bold cliffs and
rocky headlands frown in savage grandeur, from amid
the unbroken wastes of forest that reach to the frozen
regions around the Hudson's Bay, while the gentler
coast-lines of its southern shores are varied by some
of the most singular conformations, wrought out of its
rocky walls by the action of the waves or currents of
that magnificent inland sea. Of these, no features are
so remarkable as those presented by a portion of the
extensive range of sandstone cliffs, which rear their
massive fronts and project their jagged and picturesque
cliffs from the southern shore, soon after passing the

VIII.] TUK MRTALLVRGW ARTS: COPPER, 235

Grand Sable : the first feature of commanding interest
which meets the explorer after leaving the RapidH of
Sault Ste. Marie. Hero the rounded and alightly undu-
lating shores, with their coast-line of sand and loose
shingle, are suddenly changed for a long reach of coast,
still rounded in its forms, but rising abruptly in dune*
like masses, to a height of upwards of three hundre<l and
fifty feet At their base the edges of the sandstone
strata are occasionally exposed by the action of the
waves, but the greater portion of their surface is formed
by sand and debris ; and the same materials, loosely
accumulated on their tops, afford only at rare inter\'als
sufficient soil for the trees, which elsewhere line the
whole southern shore of I^ke Superior, with that un
varj'ing monotony so familiar to the eye of the American
traveller. Beyond the Grand Sable, the coast trends
rapidly to the southwanl, until it n^aches the most
southerly {K)int of the lake, in the beautiful and shelterwl
har)>our behind Grande Islan<l. In some respects this
resembles the maguificiait natund harl)Our in the Clyde,
formed by the sheltering Iwirrier of Holy Island and the
bold coast of the Isle of Arran : though in the Holitu<le
of its embayetl waters it presents a striking contrast to
Lambsh Ifciy, towanls whi<*h the merchant tleets «>f the
(lyde, and of the whoh» \xiAx C*hannel, may Ix* seen
crowding all canvas, to escape the daingers of a westerly
gale. In approaching this fine natund har))our fn>m the
east, the coast presents, for upwanls of ten rnih^s, a range
of rwky cliffs of var}'ing character ami elevation, but
rising in some places to a height of fully two hundnMl
fe<»t ; and it is on a portion of this rangi» that the Fnaicli
voyageurs, from one of its {KTuliar featureis conferred
the name " L**s Portails," while they arc mon* gi»nerally
known to the American traveller bv that of " the Pic
ture<l Rocks." Tlie latter tenn is somewhat of a mis-

236 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

nomer, as it is usually applied tx) rocks decorated with
the graven picturings of native artists, whereas the
paintings of " the pictured rocks" have been pencilled
alone by the hand of Nature, which also has hewn them
out into their still more remarkable forms. But a fresh
and wider interest has been given to the remarkable
scene by the introduction of a poetical version of its
native legends into Longfellow's Indian Song of ffia-
locUha, where in his hunting of the Storm Fool, Pau-
Puk-Keewis fleeing from Hiawatha —

" Sped away in gust and whirlwind.
On the shores of Gitche Gumee,
Westward by the Big-Sea- Water,
(^ame unto the rocky headlands,
To the Pictured Rocks of Sandstone
Looking over lake and landscajte.

And the Manito of mountains
Opened wide his rocky doorways.
Opened wide his deep abysses,
Giving Pau-Puk-Keewis shelter
In his caverns dark and dreary.
« • • • •

Then he raised his hands to heaven,
Called imploring on the tempest.
Called Waywassinio, the lightning.
And the thunder, Annemeekee ;
And they came, with night and darkness,
Sweeping down the Big-Sea-Water,
From the distant Thunder Mountains ;
And the trembling Pau-Puk-Keewis
Heard the footsteps of the thunder.
Saw the red eyes of the lightning.

And Waywassimo, the lightning.
Smote the doorways of the caverns,
With his war-club smote the doorways.
Smote the jutting crags of sandstone ;
And the thunder, Annemeekee,
Shouted down into the caverns,
Saying, * Where is Pau-Puk-Keewis !' "

It is something altogether novel to have the spirit of
its own nation<al poetry thus associated with scenes of
the New World, and breathing over them a living soul

VIIL] TUK METALLCHaiC AHTS; LVPFKR, 237

nkin to that which haunts with Huch tlirilliiig uit*niorieft
the cave of Staffa and the n)cky aliores of lona. Thi*
Htriking, and in some casen, singuhirly beautiful formH
which beguiled the Indian imagination into 8uch wildly
fanciful legends, have been hewn out of the Mindstono
cliflGs by the prolonge<l action of the waves and winds,
sweeping from " the dist^uit Thunder Mountains'* of the
far NohIi through unn^cordetl (*rnturies, and exhibit all
the fantastic and picturescjuc variety which is so chara<^-
teristic of the wave wrought s<*ulpturings of Natures
architectun».

The Pictured Rocks lie at the eiisteni end of the lake,
on its southern shore, and are thus placed between the
cop|H?r regions and the ancient portage, which has been
riM'ently 8U|K*r8eded by a <-anal, o|K*ning na>igation for
the largest vesst^ls from I^ikc Hun)n to I^ike Superior.
An interesting indication, however, {H>ints to the ancient
native centres of popuhiti<>n as having lain io the west.
The In<lian name of the cliffs is Schknearchihi-kung, or
" the end of the rocks," manifestly imi>Iying their being
oliser\'ed and named by voya^Ts fnmi the western re-
gions, when sailing eastwaixl towanls the Sault Ste. Marie
rapids and the lower hikes. Exploring their pictun^sque
details in this direction, the voyager on sailing inside
(ininde Islaml, towanis the shore, gradually approaches a
range of cliffs, lMind«Hl in hiyers of whit4», yellow, red, and
de<*p brown strata; and streaked with strongly marked
Veins of |>eqK»ndic*ular ci»Iouring, <K!<iisioncHl by water
<Nizing thn>ugh tht* S4*ams, impn^gnated with metallic
oxidifs, ami distributing them <»ver the brosid ImuuIs of
yellow samdstone which conntitute the main mass, and
he )>etwe<*n tht* thin hiyers of coloun^l riN*k i>r slmle. la
d<-scribing one magnificent S4*gmi*ntal cur%'e of the clitfi<,
to which, from its lofty and ngidar j>roi>orrions, Messrs.
Foster and Whitney, in their *• Ri^jHirt on the fJeolo^y i.f

238 PREHISTORIC MAX, [Chap.

Lake Superior," have given the name of " The Amphi-
theatre/' they remark : " It is in this portion of the series
that the phenomena of colours are most beautifully and
conspicuously displayed. These do not by any means
cover the whole surface, but are confined to certain por-
tions of the clifis in the vicinity of the Amphitheatre ;
the great mass of the surface presenting the natural
Hght-yeUow, or raw-sienna of the rock. The colours are
also limited in their vertical range, rarely extending more
than thirty or forty feet above the water, or a quarter,
or a third of the vertical height of the cliff. The pre-
vailing tints consist of deep-brown, yellow and grey :
burnt-sienna and French grey predominating. There
are also bright blues and greens, though less frequent.
All of the tints are fresh, brilliant, and distinct, and har-
monize admirably with one another; which, taken in
connexion with the grandeur of the arched and cavemed
surfaces on which they are laid, and the deep and pure
green of the water which heaves and swells at the base,
and the rich foliage which waves above, produce an
effect truly wonderful." Many portions of the cliffs are
indented by wedge-shaped recesses, which leave the in-
tervening rock projecting like the wasted round towers
or bastions of an ancient castle, while the loose soil and
shale at top, yielding more freely to the action of the
atmosphere, and of moisture and frost, have most fre-
quently assumed the form of a conical roofing, greatly
adding to the artificial look of the whole. In one group,
especially, a little to the west of the magnificent natural
arch styled " Le Grand Portail," the illusion was for the
time complete, which suggested to the fancy one of the
ancient rains of Roman masonry still to be seen in the
south of England, where the tiers of chalk or stone are
banded by occasional layers of the flat-tile Roman brick.
The cliffs are hoUowed, arched, and perforated into

VIII] THE METALLUMGIC ANTS: COPPKIt 231)

cavcnia, cWdently by the action of the waters when at
much higher, and vatying relative leveh^ Two groups
of these, designated respectively the ''Chapel** and the
'' Miner s Castle," have been excavated into aisles, arched
recesses, and columns, so as to rival the most picturesque
ruins of the castled Rhine ; while overhead the foliage
of the uncleared forest crests their summits, and at one
spot near the Chapel Rock, a beautiful cascade da^es in
white foam over the cliffn into the lake.

*' The rolling ttn^an, the precipice*! gloum.
The foml*t growth, ajmI (Sothic wmlb between.
The wtkl rodu ■hA|M*d m they had tuirvta heen
In OKtckery of niAn'i art."'

Tliis remarkable ninge of hkIcs lies in the centre of
the long indentation, which, Hweeping from Keweenaw
Bay eastward to White Fish Point, forms the bay l>ehind
Grande Island, the coast most distant from the northern
sliores of the lake. Here the cliffs have been exposed
thnmgh unnumbered ages to the action of the northerly
winds, which have materially affecte<l the diameters
of the northern and southern shores of the lake ; while
the process of upheaval, prolonginl probably through
vast periods of time, has contributed no unimportant
share in the o|)enitions by wliich their present forms
have been protluce<i.

Beyond the Grande Island the voyager who pursues his
course up tht» lake, C4>mc« once more on n)cky cliffs in
the vicinity of Marqurtte : so namc^l aftiT the Jesuit
missionary by whom the up{H^r watt^rs of the Mississippi
Wfre reached in 1673. Im{)ortant rhangi»s have been
wrought in the inter%'al since the Jesuit father wanderwl
int4) the i^nld west on his adventurous mission. Mineral
treasures, undreamt of by the ancient miners of I^e
Superior, are now rewanling the industry of the Indians'

* Chikif Hnrokt, cMito ui. §. Ui

240 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

supplanters. The iron-period, with its fully developed
civilisation, is at length invading those western forest
tracks; and when I visited Marquette in 1855, on the
bold trappean rocks which form the landing, abraded and
scratched with the glacial action of a long superseded
era, were piled the rich products of the " Jackson Iron
Mountain," which rears its bold outline at a distance of
twelve miles from the shore. Immediately to the north
of this point the bold promontory of Presque Isle attracts
attention from its rocky outlines, presenting in some re-
spects a striking contrast to the Pictured Rocks, though,
like them, also indented and hollowed out into detached
masses, and pierced with the wave-worn caverns of older
levels of shore and lake. Here the water- worn sandstone
and the igneous rocks overlie or intermingle with each
other, in picturesque confusion ; the symbol as it were of
the great transition between the copper and iron eras.
For it is just at Presque Isle that the crystalline schists,
with their interminghng masses of trappean and quartz
rocks, richly impregnated with the specular and mag-
netic oxide of iron, pass into the granite and sandstone
rocks, which intervene between the ferriferous formations
and the copper-bearing traps of Keweenaw Point ; and
it is of this very locality that the authors of the report
on the geology of the district remark : " It would be
diflficult to select another spot along the whole coast,
where the rocks of so many epochs, from the oldest to
the most recent, are represented. It contains an epitome
of nearly the whole geology of the district." Beyond
this, the rich copper-bearing region of the Keweenaw
Peninsula stretches far into the lake, traversed in a
south-westerly direction by magnificent cliffs of trappean
rocks, presenting their lofty perpendicular sides to the
south-east, and covered even amid the rocky debris with
ancient forest-trees. In this igneous rock ai*e found the

Vm.] THE MKTALLVHGW ABTS: COFFER. 241

copper veiiiH, whicth in rfcciit yeurB Imvr cimfem^^l 8urli
great i^ommercial value cm tlie district of Michigau, to
which tliey )>elong. Having hml opjxirtunities of explor-
ing some of thi> ric'hest mineral diHtricta of Lake Superior,
aiud traversing ita wild natural forcBtA and ateep rocky
tractH : I have felt, while aurroundiMl by the gloom of
the aavage wilderness, how ditUcult it ia to realise the
(umception tliat these coi)|>er-lx!aring regions wen» ever
Itefore ransacked for th(*ir mineral treasures, or explored
by any other but the stray Indian hunt4*r, until the com*
mencement of regular mining ojH'nitions in very nx^ent
years. Yet there I liad the op]M>rtunity not only of wit-
nessing the extensive mining o]K*nitions now in progress,
but of examining for mys4*lf evidences of the ancient
miner^s lalNmrs, wliicli prove* tlie existence, at some re-
mote |N*ri<Hl, of the rudiments of native metidlurgic art&

On hmcling at Eagle river, one of the {M)ints for 8hi|>-
ping the copjier ores, on the wi^st siile of the Keweenaw
Peninsula, the track lies through dense forest, over a rojul
in some ]iarts of rough e^irduroy, and in others travers-
ing the forest in its gnulual lusient over the irregular ex-
{Mjsed suHacte of the cop|>er-lH.*aring trap. After a time
it winds through a gorge, (*ovenMl with immense masses
of trap and crumbling debris, lunid which pine, and tlie
black oak and other hard W(mk1, have contrived to find a
sutticient soil for taking root and growing to their full
pmportions ; while hen* and there the eye lights ui>4m
some giant pine overthrown by the wind, and turning up
its gtvat roots which grasp the severed masses of roun<Ie«l
trap in their convolutions, like gravel clutched from the
ocean's bed in the lumds of a drowned Si*amaiL On the
summit of the ridge, the trap n>ck rises into a nmge of
cliffs, which, judging by the eye, I shouhl supjiose eann«»t
U* less tluin two hundnni f<»et higli, and in front of them
is a sloping tail, tht» aciumulatol «lel>ris of ages, bearing

vou I. V

242 PREHISTORIG MAN. [Ohap.

a close resemblance to Salisbury Crag, excepting that it
is partially wooded, and the trees have in some places
attained to an immense size, notwithstanding the ap-
parent poverty of the rocky soil.

In traversing this route the road lies in part along the
banks of the Eagle river, where, some miles firom its
mouth, a detour has to be made to avoid a beaver dam,
flooding a part of the river banks by means of the inge-
nious structure. No traces, however, give the slightest
indication to the passing traveller that the hand of man
had ever wrought any changes on the aspect of a region
characterized by features so singularly wild and desolate-
looking. Beyond the cliffs, in a level bottom on the
other side of the trap ridge, is the Cliff Mine settlement^
one of the most important of all the mining works in
operation in this region.

I descended the perpendicular shaft by means of lad-
ders, to a depth of sixty fathoms, and explored various
of the levels; passing in some cases literally through
tunnels made in the solid copper. The very richness
and abundance of the metal proves indeed a cause of
diminution of the profits arising from working it. I
witnessed the laborious process of chiselling out masses
from the solid lump, of a size sufficiently small to admit
of their being taken to the surface, and transported
through such tracts as have been described, to the shores
of Lake Superior. The floor of the level was strewed
with the copper shavings struck off in the effort to de-
tach them, and the extreme ductility of the pure native
copper was pointed out as a cause which precluded the
application of any other force than that of slow and per-
severing manual labour, for separating it firom the parent
mass. I saw also beautiful specimens of silver, in a
matrix of crystalline quartz, obtained from this mine,
and the copper of the district is stated to contain on an

Vni] THK MKTALLURGIC ARTS: COPPER. S43

average a))Out 3*10 per cent of silver. One maAS of
copper quarrial from the Cliff Mine has been efltimated
to weigh eighty ton& It was Hufiiriently detached from
itH rocky matrix, without injuring its original formation,
to admit of its dimensions being obtained with consider-
able accuracy, and it was found to measure fifty feet
long, six feet deep, with an average of alN)ut six inches
in thickness. This is indeed by far the richest mineral
locality that has yet been wrought In one year upwards
of sixteen hundreil tons of copi)er have been {injured
from the single mine. Its minenU wealth apfK^ars to have
been known to the ancients, from the traces of their work
which have I)een dis<*>overeil ; but the skill and appli-
anci*s of the mixlem miner give him access to veins en-
tirely bi'yond the reaidi of the primitive metallurgist,
who knew of no hanler material for his tools than the
ductile metal he was in search of, and to whom the
agency of gunpowder was unknown.

At the Cliff Mine are preser\ed some curious speci-
mens of ancient copixT tools of the native met^dlurgists,
found in its vicinity, but it is to the westward of the
Keweenaw IVninsuLi that the most remarkable and ex-
tensive traces of the aboriginal miners' o[>erations are
BcHin. The copjier-bearing tr.ip rock, after crossing the
Keweenaw I^ike, is tniceil onward in a south-westerly
direction till it cnwses the ()nt4>nagon river alNiut twelve
miles from its mouth ; and at ixn elevation of u[)wards of
thn^e hundnnl ft*et above the lake. At this phu*e the
edgi*s of the cop{»er veins ap]>e;ir to crop out in various
{ilaces, ex]N)sing the met^U in imgular |Kitches over a
considerable extent of country. Ilrre, in the neighbour-
hoo<l of the MinneM»ta Mine, the rirhest of all the moilem
works in the district of Ontonagon, are traces of ancient
milling o{>eratious, consisting of extensive trcnchi^s,
which prove that the woriu» must have been carried on

244 PHEHTSTOmC MAN, [Chap.

for a long i^eriod and by considerable numbers. These
excavations are partially filled up, and so overgrown
during the long interval between their first excavation
and their observation by recent explorers, that they
would scarcely attract the attention of a traveller unpre-
pared to find such evidences of former industry and art.
Nevertheless some of them measure from eighteen to
thirty feet in depth, and in one of them a detached mass
of native copper, weighing upwards of six tons, was
found resting on an artificial cradle of black oak, par-
tially preserved by immersion in the water with which
the trenches had been filled in the first long era after
their abandonment. Various implements and tools of
the same metal also lay in the deserted trench, where
this huge mass had been separated from its rocky matrix,
and elevated on the oaken frame, preparatoiy to its re -
moval entire. It appeared to have been raised about
five feet, and then abandoned, abruptly as it would seem,
since even the copper tools were found among the accu-
mulated soil by which it had been anew covered up.
The solid mass measured ten feet long, three feet wide,
and nearly two feet thick ; every projecting piece had
been removed, so that the exposed surface was l^ft per-
fectly smooth, possibly by other and ruder workers of a
date subsequent to the desertion of the mining trench
by its original explorers.

Mr. Charles Whittlesey, who has enjoyed considerable
opportunities of personal observation in the copper
region, discusses, in the Cleveland Annals of SciencCy
various questions connect<3d with the ancient mines, and
remarks in reference to the wood-work found in the old
Minnesota trench : " I had a piece of one of these logs
which was cut from a black oak-tree about six inches in
diameter, showing distinctly the marks of a narrow axe
1| inches wide, and very sharp. The character of the

VIII] TUB METALLURGIC ARTS: COPPER. Hi

cut or stroke mmle by the axe, struck me at once as
such as the copper axes would make that I had sei'D in
Ohio, which were taken from the mounds. Although
the timber Iiene^itli the mass of copper was very soft and
tender, by reason of its age, it hail not rotted from ex-
IKwure, having been always covered by water/ The
marks of the instrument by which it had been cut, ho
lulds, were as plain as on the re<!ently hewn stumi)s in
tile vicinity. Messrs. Whitney and Foster remiu*k on
H]iecimens aajuired by them from the same ancient exca
vations : " This wood, by m long exjKisure to moisture,
is dark coloured, tmd hiis loHt all its consistency. A
knife-blade may be thrust into it as easily as into a

|K5at-lM>g."

It was in the year 1847 that attention was first
dinM>t4*d t4) such traces of ancient mining o])erations, by
the intelligent agent of the MinucsoUi Mining ( om]Miny.
Following up the indications of a continuous deprt*ssion
in tlie soil, he came at length t4) a cuvem where he
ftmnd several ]N)rcupincs had fixed their quarters for
liylieriiation ; but ilctectiiig evi«leni!cs of artificial exca
vatioii, he proceeded t4) clear out the lurumulatcHl soil,
and not only ex]HHHHl t4) view a vein of cop|)er, but found
in the rubbish nunu^nms 8t4)ne mauls and liammers of
the luicicnt workmen. SulwiMjuc^nt oli«'r\'ation bniught
to light ancient exciivatioiis of great extent, fre4juentJy
fnun twenty-five t4) thirty fi^ct di*ep. and sc^iittere^l over
an area of several milen. The rubbish Uikeii from these
is piled up in mtiunils alongside ; while the trenches have
lieeii gradually refilbnl with tin* s<iil and dtN-aying vege-
table-matter gathennl thnnigh the long <vnturit»s since
their desertion ; an<l i»ver all, the giants of the fon*si
liave gniwn, and withere^l, and falh^n t4> tlec^iy. Mr.
Knap]), the agent 4»f the Miiiiies4»ta ('4>ni|»aiiy, C4)unte<l
:i*J5 annular rings on a lieinhnk tree, which ^rcw 4in one

246 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

of the mounds of earth thrown out of an ancient mine.
Mr. Foster also notes the great size and age of a pine-
stump which must have grown, flourished, and died
since the works were deserted ; and Mr. C. Whittlesey
not only refers to living trees now flourishing in the
gathered soil of the abandoned trenches, upwards of
three hundred years old ; but he adds : " on the same
spot there are the decayed trunks of a preceding gene-
ration or generations of trees that have arrived at matu-
rity and fallen down from old age.'' According to the
same writer, in a communication made to the American
Association, at the Montreal Meeting, in 1857, these
ancient works extend over a track from 100 to 150
miles in length, along the southern shore of the lake ;
and Sir William Logan reports others observed by him
on the summit of a ridge at Maimanse, on the north
shore, where the old excavations are surrounded by
broken pieces of vein stone, along with which are fre-
quently found the stone mauls, rudely formed from
natural boulders. The extensive area over which such
works have thus already been traced, the evidences of
their prolonged working, and of their still longer aban-
donment, all combine to force upon the mind convictions
of their remote antiquity.

At Ontonagon river I met with Captain Peck, a
settler whose long residence in the country has afforded
him many opportunities of noting the evidences of its
ancient occupation. Kepeated discoveries had led him
to infer the great antiquity of the works ; and he spe-
cially referred to one disclosure of ancient mining opera-
tions near the forks of the Ontonagon river, where, at
a depth of upwards of twenty-five feet, stone mauls and
other tools were found in contact with a copper vein ;
in the soil above these lay the fallen trunk of a large
cedar, and over all grew a hemlock-tree, the roots of

VUL] THE METALLUROIC ARTS: COPPER. 247

which spread entirely above the fallen tree in the accu-
mulated 8oil with which the trench was filled, and indi-
cated in his estimation a growth of not less than three
centuries. This assumed age nearly corresponds to the
actual number of annuid rings exposed in the sections
of other trees felled in the same locality. But the
buried cedar, which in favourable circumstances is far
more durable than the oak, represents another and
longer succession of centuries, sulisequent to that pro-
tracted period during which the deserted trench was
slowly filled up with accumulations of many winters.
Similar traces extend over a large area. Not only
throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula, and to the west-
wanl and southwanl uf OnU^magon, but also on Isle
RoyiUe, oflf the north-west shore of the lake, ancient
works have been found with like evidence of their great
antiquity. The United States Geologists remark, in
their Ri^ports on the Geology of Lidce Superior : " Mr.
R G. Sliaw |X)inted out to us similar evidences of mining
on Isle Kfjyale, wliic*li c*aii I>e traced lengthways for the
distance of a mile. On opening one of these pits, which
had liecome filled up, he found the mine hml been
workeil through the solid n»ck, to the depth of nine
fiH't, the wiUls lH»ing |HTfei'tly 8m(N>th. At the l)ottom
he found a vein of native copjK^r eighteen inches thick,
including a slieet of pure copjH»r lying against the foot-
widl. The workings ap|H*ar to have Inn^n etfecteil simply
by stone hammers luid winlgcs, s|NM*init*us of which were
found in great abundtuice at the Ixittoni of the pitA.
He found no metallic implements of any description,
and is convincinl, from the apjH»anmce of the wall-
nN'ks, the sulwtiinces n*move<l, imd the multitude of
imnimers found, that the lalnmr of excavating the rock
must liiive lieen perfi^rmiHl tinly with tlie instruments
aliuve iKimetl, with the aid, inThiiiis, of fin\ From the

248 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Ohap.

appearance of the vein and the extent of the workingiB^
he conjectures that an immense amount of labour had
been expended. He endeavoured to find some evi-
dences of the antiquity of these workings^ but could
discover nothing veiy satisfactory to his own mind, ex-
cept that they were made at a remote epoch. The
vegetable matter had accumulated and filled up the
entire opening to a level with the surrounding surface ;
and in a region where it accumulates as slowly as it
does on the barren and rocky parts of Isle Royale, this
filling up would have been the work of centuries. Upon
this vegetable accumidation he found trees growing
equal in size to any in the vicinity.'^

The extent of the works on Isle Royale, and the great
distance of the locality from the mining region on the
southern mainland, add important proofs of the numer-
ous workmen that must once have enlivened the long
silent shores of Lake Superior with the sounds and
scenes of industrious toil ; and confirm by additional
evidence the proofs of the great interval wliich has
elapsed since their works were finally abandoned. There,
as on the mainland, accumulated soil and subsequent
vegetable growth establish unquestionable proofs of a
long-protracted, though still uncertain interval, between
the close of that prehistoric period and the commence-
ment of the New World's definite annals. On Kewee-
naw Point the recovery of the ancient miners' tools has,
in more than one case, led to the disclosure of valuable
lodes of copper. Their abandoned works have been
traced over an area of twelve miles in extent, along the
base of the trap range already referred to, and have
been the first indices to the modem miner of the
mineral wealth below. To the southward, in like
manner, the attention of explorers has l)ccn directed
to the long-abandoned trenches. In the section of

VIII.] TUK METALLUHGIC ARTS: COVVKH, ^49

country lying in the direction of Agozeliec Lake, u flur-
veyor in the employment of the Forest Mining lV>m-
jmuy discovered a series of ancient works of great
extent, excavated along the southeni 8lo]>e of a liill.
The bones of the bear, the deer, and the caribou, have
Inx'n repeatedly found in the m>il with which the exca-
vations are filled. In one of the ]»its the skeleton of a
dc*er restcil on a lieil of chiy, which had been de]Mjsited
to the depth of a ftK)t above the ancient floor, when it
stumbled into the excavatitm and perished there ; and
over all, clay, leaves, sand, and gravel, luul gradually
accumulated to a tlepth of nineteen feet.

The traces of the ancient miners of Lake Sui)erior
liavc not entirely escajHxl the notice of Mr. Henry R.
Schoolcraft, though he is inclined to under\'sUue to a
remarkable extejit the indications they ail'onl tliat acivi
lisiition of no slight or tnuisitor}* character once gave life
to the fon»t wilds, ilesident as he was for a consider-
able time in the lociUity, surroundeil alone by the wild
Indian hunters, and the Algon<|uin half-brecnls, it is {ler
lia]is more ditKcult for him to realize the idea that such
a savage wiMcmess liad ever Iven othen^ise tlian over-
Hhndowixl by the ]>rimeval ft>rest, than it is for thosi* who
have only studied the locality in the narratives of its
exjJorers. My own impressions of its endless tnicts of
unclearetl fon»sts, enlivcne<l as they were by a visit to an
encam]»ment <»f Saultaux Indians in all the simplicity of
wild nature, rendere<l the contrast )»etween its ]»resent
asiNHrt and the ideas which the tnutes of its ancient
mint*rs suggi*sti'd, not less st^irtling than those which
arise fn>m viewing, amid the s<*enes of the nuitmxMl civilisii
tion of Hritain, the disclosures of an allophyliiui cromkvh
with its primitive wea]M>ns and ornaments of stone. Mr.
Sch<Nilcnift, luiwevcr, n*]M»scs an undut* faith in the evi-
dence of impressions produced by hmg familiarity with

260 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the modem Indian and his forest haunts ; such as^ to the
sojourner among the wandering Arabs, feeding their
flocks above the mounds that diversify the solitude of
the great plains of the Euphrates, would have seemed
equal proof that since man first trod its ancient soil, it
has been known only to the wild desert nomade. " There
are/' says he, in speaking of the Lake Superior basin,
" no artificial mounds, embankments, or barrows in this
basin, to denote that the country had been anciently
inhabited ; and when the inquiry is directed to that part
of the continent which extends northward from its
northern shores, this primitive character of the fswe of
the country becomes still more striking. It is something
to affirm that the Mound-Builders, whose works have
filled the West with wonder, — quite unnecessary wonder,
— had never extended their sway here. The country
appears never to have been fought for, in ancient times,
by a semi-civilized or even pseudo-barbaric race. There
are but few darts or spear-heads. I have not traced
remains of the incipient art of pottery, known to the
Algonquin and other American stocks beyond the Straits
of Ste. Marie, which connect Lakes Huron and Superior ;
and am inclined to believe that they do not extend in
that longitude beyond the latitude of 36° 30'. There is
a fresh magnificence in the ample area of Lake Superior,
which appears to gainsay the former existence and exer-
cise by man of any laws of mechanical or industrial power,
beyond the canoe-frame and the war-club. And its
storm-beaten and castellated rocks, however imposing,
give no proofs that the dust of hmnan antiquity, in its
artificial phases, has ever rested on them.'' In this, how-
ever, the historian of the Indian tribes is betrayed into
an exaggerated depreciation of the memorials of earlier
ages, from his disposition to ascribe to the same Red
Indian stock every phase of civilized or savage life which

VIIL] THK MKTALLURGIC ARTS: COPPER. Ml

reveals itself in the past history of the American con-
tinent

It will be seen, moreover, that it is an error to affirm
that artificial mounds, embankments, or traces of earth-
works, suggestive of correspondence with those of the
Mound-Builders, are entirely wanting in the copper
region. Its ancient memorials have as yet been very
partially disclosed ; but thus far we derive, from many
independent obser\'ations, the like confirmation of the
indisputable fact that wliat a[)iK'ar to the eye of the
traveller as the giants of the primeval forest, are the
gro^'th of comi>amtivi'Iy mo<lem centuries^ sulisequent
to the era when the shores of Lake Superior rang with
the echoes of industrial toil, wnmght by an ancient but
hmg-cxtinct population. Two or three centuries would
seem idtogether ina<Iequate to furnish the requisite time
for the most partial accumulation of soil and decayetl
vegetable matter with which the old miners' trenches
have been fiUeil, bc»ft>re the fon»8t lH»g:in to reassert its
ancient sway, jmd clothe in the rich verdun» of nature s
wildest freshness, their aband(»ncd mines. Four centuries
thereafter are indisputably nM-ordwl by rwent surN'ivors
of the fon»st, indejH»n«U*nt of all traces of pn^vious arlK>-
rcscent generations ; and thus we |H»n'eive that in the
mining excavations and the to4»ls of the ci>p[»er regions
of I^ke SuiH*rior, we l(K»k (»n the memorials of a metid-
lurgi<! industr}' h»ng pri«>r t4» tlios4» closing years of the
fiftiHMith centur}% in which the mincnU wealth of the New
World awoke the 8i>aiiish lust for gold. An uncertain,
yet consitlendde {>eri<Ml must Ih* assumed Xo have inter-
veneil U*tween the abandonment of those an<*ient works,
antl their lM>ing n*storiHl to the sluulows of the wild
fon*st's earliest growth, and thus we are thrown Imck into
dim c€»nturit»s com*tiiM>nding to Euro|H^*s early mediivval
era for a |ieriuil to which t4» assign at the very latest

252 FREHISTORIG MAN. [Chap.

those singuliirly interesting relics of a lost American
civilisation.

Owing to the filling up of the ancient mining trenches
with water immediately on their abandonment by their
workers, not only the copper and stone implements of
the miners are found, but also some examples of wooden
tools and timber framing have been preserved, in several
cases in wonderful perfection, and these furnish interest-
ing supplementary evidence of the character of their
industrial arts.

Of the wooden implements found in the abandoned
works, the most noticeable are the shovels, by means of
which the soil was excavated and the copper lode laid
bai'e. The accompanying woodcut rej)resents two of

' »"V-— • — If-lf *^- ' - -*!

-»-nf»iii If- t

Fio. 10. Miners* Slu>v»ls.

thesa They bear some resemblance to an Indian paddle^
but arc frequently worn sideways, as if used for scraping
rather than digging the soil. One, of which Mr. Whittle-
sey gives a drawing, measured three and a half feet long,
and was taken from the loose materials thrown out fix)m
an extensive rock excavation in the side of a hill about
four miles south-east of Eagle Harbour. Part of a
wooden bowl used for baling water, and troughs of cedar-
bark, were also found in the same debris, above which
grew a birch about two feet in diameter, with its lower
roots scarcely reaching through the ancient rubbish to
the depth at which those relics lay. Mr. Foster describes
another wooden bowl found at a depth of ten feet, in
clearing out some ancient workings opened by the agent
of the Forest mine, and which from the splintered pieces

VIII.] THE METALLVHGIC ARTS: COPPER. 253

of nx'k aiul gnivel emlM^UUHl in its rim, nnifit liave \nxi\
ein{>loye<l in lulling wutcT. Similar impl«.*menU liave
lK?en foun<l in otlier workings, but they 8|K?edily j)criHh
on l»cing exposed to the air. All of them ap|x*ar to have
lieen made of white cetlar, the indestructible nature of
which, when kept under water, or in a moist soil, is
abundantly illustrat^Mj l>y the experience of settlers who
liave attempted t4> clear mid cultivate a <Tdar swamp,
and liave discovered that the tiead trunks, exhume<l
undecayed after centuries of immersion, rest al)ove still
older eedar-fon.*sts, si^emingly unaffecteil by the pnwress
which restores alike the oak and the pine to the vegi»-
table mould of the forest soil.

The process of working the ancient mines se<»ms to
Ih5 tolerably clearly inditati'd by the various discoveries
made. The soil having l)een ivniovinl by means of tin*
wocnlen spades, dou1)tless with the aid of cop|)er UhAa to
break up the s<»lid earth and clay, remains of chan*oal
met with in numerous iiLHtaiu*cs on tlit* surface of the
rock show that tin* was an im]MirUint agent for over-
coming the cohesion lietween the coppc»r and its ro<;ky
matrix. Itefore tin* intrtnluction of gunjM>wder, tire was
universally employed in excavating nnk, and when» fut»l
abounds, as in the old Harz antl Altenlierg mining tlis*
tricts of Euro]ie, it is evin now found to lie quit^' as
economical in destn>ying silici(»us nnrks. The rock
having liei*n Hubj<»cte<l io this pnM*4*«s, ston** Immmeni
or mauls wen; next eniployi^l to luvak it in ]»ieceK
These have been found in immense iiuml)i*rs f»n tlie
different mining sites. Mr. Knapp obtaim^l in one
locality upwards of ten cart-loads ; and i was shown a
well in the neighliourhoiMl t>f the Ontonagtui tn*ii(*lie8
constructeil alm«ist entirely of stonr hammers, obtaiiUMl
from ancient workiugH in the imnK^liate virinity. Many
of thcHe mauls an* men* water-wi>ni oblong iNmlden* of

SM PREBISTORW MAN. [Ohap.

greenBtone or porphyry, roughly chipped in the centre, bo
as to admit of their being secured by a withe around
them. But others are well finished, with .a single or
double groove for attaching the handle by which they
were wielded. They weigh from ten to forly pounds.
Many are broken, and some of the specimens I saw were
worn and fractured from frequent use. Besides these a
smaller class of stone chisels or axes are also found,
wrought of porphyry, with a groove towards the thicker
end, and generally weighing from five to six pounds.

But the extent to which co-operation was carried on
by the ancient miners with the imperfect means at their
command is still further illustrated by a discovery de-
scribed by Professor Mather, in a letter to Mr. E. G.
Squier. On a hiU to the south of the Copper Falls
mines, one of the abandoned trenches was explored.
On removing the accumulatioas from the excavation,
stone axes of large size made of greenstone, and shaped
to receive withe handles, and some large round green-
stone masses that had apparently been used for battering-
rams, were found. " They had roimd holes bored in
them to the depth of several inches, which seemed to

VUI.] THB MBTALLUROIC ARTS: COPPBR. Mb

have been designed for wooden plugs to which withe
handles might l)e attached, so that several men could
swing them with sufficient force to break the rock and
the projecting masses of copper. Some of them were
broken, and some of the projecting ends of rock exhi-
bite<l marks of having been battered in the manner here
suggested" *

But the industrious miners of the native copper fully
appreciated the practical utility of the metal they were
in search of ; and it is not to )>e supposed that the old
metallurgists employed themselves thus laboriously in
mining the copiKT, and yet used in such operations only
stone and wooden tools. Copi)cr axes, gads, chisels, and
gouges, as well as knives and 8pe<'ir-heads, of considerable
diversity of form, have l)een re|)eatedly brought to light,
all of them nvTought from the virgin coi)per by means of
the hammer, without smelting, alloy, or the use of fire.
At the Biglow Uouim^ at Ont4)uagou, I had an o[)]K)r-
tunity of examining im interesting collection of copper
rehcs, found a few months Iiefore in the neighbourhood.
These consisted of copper tools described as spear-heads,
one fourteen inches, and the otliers about twelve inches
in length ; and two singuhirly Hhai)ed copjHT gouges
aliout fourteen im-hes long and two inches wide, the
pn*cise use of which it wouhl l)e difficult to determine.
The whole were discovered buried in a be<l of clay on
the iMmks of the river Ontonagim, about a mile above its
mouth, during the process of levelling it for the puqxises
of a brick-field. AImivc the clay was an idluvial de]NMit
of two feet of sand, and in this, and over the relics of
the ancient copjuT wtirkers, a pine tree had grtiwn to
full maturity, its gigantic roots gave ]>roof, in the
estimation of those who witnessetl their removid, of

■ Si|tucr't Ahon^mal MommmemU 1/ lAr Slatt qf Xtw Tort Aniettiiz,
|i. 184.

256 PREHISTORJG MAN. [Chap.

more tluin two centuries' growth ; while the present
ordinary level of the river is such that it would require
a rise of forty feet to make the deposit of sand beneadi
which they lay.

An experienced practical miner, who had been among
the first to open some of the ancient diggings found at
the Minnesota mine, stated that the copper gouges
seemed to him exactly adapted to produce the singular
tool-marks which had then excited his curiosity. Sub-
joined is a rcpresent^ition of one peculiar type of copper

Fi(i. 111. - Copper Iini>Iem« iit.

tools, sketched from the original. It has been repeatedly
met with among the relics of the copper region, the
blade being three-sided like that of a bayonet The
socket is formed by hammering out the lower part flat*
and then turning it over partially at each side. A
smaller spear-head found at the Copper Falls mine,
measures four and a half inches in length, and had the
remains of its wooden handle in it when discovered.
This mode of fitting the blade to the haft, especially in
the Ontonagon tool, presents a correspondence to some
of the more primitive forms of the bronze implements
found in Britain and the north of Europe ; but the latter
are cast of a metallic compound which proves the pos-
session of a skill in metallurgy far in advance of the old
workers of the metallic treasures of Ontonagon. In the
spear-heads wrought from the native copper of Lake
Sui>erior tlie socket formed by the enclosing flange only

VIII. ] 77//; MKTALLVKiJiC AUTS; ropPKH. Vu

mvcri a<l<liti(>iial continuation to thr conrluHions suu
gestvtl by many ilivei-sc* disclosuru**, that the anrient
luinerH, its well an the Mound-BuihlerH, were ignorant of
the arts of weMing and soldering, as well as of smelting
the metallie ores.

The iletiiils of anothiT, and in S4)me reH|K*et8 mon» in-
teri*8ting dis<!Over}% than that at Ontimagon, wen* (*onunu
ni<*ate<l to me in ivply to the inquiries made whih* there.
This t4H>k f)hice, at a still more re^M^nt date, at a hK^ality
lying to the east of Keweenaw Point, in the rieh in»n
district of Manjuette. Then*, not far from the mouth (»f
the river Carj>, in what appeal's to have Iktu the ancient
Im*<1 of the stream, and alH»ut ten f«*et aUive the pi*es«*nt
level 4if its channel, various we^ipons and implements of
ropjKT were n*<'ently found. Lai'ge trees grew over thLs
dejKwit also, ami the evidences of a remote antit{uity
s4t*m<Hl not lefts ohvious than in that of Ontonagon. The
cop|K»r ndies indiult.'d knives, sjR»ar or lance heads, and
arn>w heads, some of whii*h were oniamentinl with silvi^r.
One of the knives was ma<le, with its hamlie, out of a
single piece of eopjK*r. It meiusure<l altop'ther alniut seven
inches lonj^, of which the iilade wa^ nearlv two-thirds of
the entire l<.*ngth, and of an oval .-haiK.*. It was onia.-
mente<l with piecc»s of silver attached to it, and was
inlaiil u'ith a strijH* of the s^ime metal from |H»int to haft.
Along with the.s*' ivlie.s were also fi»und numerous fnig
ments, or chi|w and shavings of eoppi-r. S4»me of wlii«*h
were such as, it was assumed, rouM (»nly have Invu cut
liy a tine .shaq» tool ; antl the whole ^utiictHJ to indicate,
even more markinlly than those at Ontonagon, that n«it
«inly w;is the native cop{K*r wn»ught in ancitiit times in
the i^ike Su])erior regions, hut tlmt along its sh<ires, and
on the Uinks uf itii navignhle rivers, there existeil manu-
fiM'tories where the nativi* artis^in fashioned th«- metal
into tiHiN and wea|Mins for war and the iha-M'.

vol. I. K

258 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

A lively interest is felt throughout the copper regions
in the relics of the ancient miners, and the modem occu-
pants of their works manifest an intelligent appreciation
of the uses of such antique remains as a means of throw-
ing light on the liistory of former ages. I found a pecu-
liar importance attached by the miners and others to the
hardness of the wrought copper implements. This they
contrasted, in more than one case, with the ductility of
the chips and fragments of unwrought copper found
along with them, as well as with the condition of the
mitive copper when first brought from the mine, and
maintained that it afforded proof of a knowledge ac-
quired by the ancient metallurgist of some hardening
process unknown to the modem copper-smith. It is well
known that copper and bronze chisels are frequently
found among the ancient relics of the Nile valley, and
that the paintings of Egypt exhibit her sculptors hewing
out the colossal memnons of limestone and granite by
means of yellow-coloured tools, which may fairly be
assumed to he made of the copper wrought by the Egyj)-
tians in the mines of Maghara, near Sinai, so early as the
reign of Suphis, the l^uilder of the great pyramid, though
with them hardened l)y means of alloys. But though
the bronze, at an early date, superseded the pure copper
in use in Egypt, examples are not wanting of copper
tools. Dr. John Forbes of Edinburgh has in his posses-
sion a large chisel of pure copper, exhibiting abundant
marks of use, which he found, along with a wooden
mallet, in an Egyptian tomb.

In 1 8 5 6, Dr. Thomas Ke3niolds of Brockville exhibited
to the Canadian Institute a collection of copper and other
reKcs discovered in that neighbourhood under singular
circumstances ; and possessing a special interest owing
to the distance of the site from the copper regions of
Lake Superior. They included a peculiarly-shaped chisel

VIIL]

TIIK METALLUROIC ARTS: COPPER.

259

or p^mge, six inchoH in lonjjth, ligurecl hen* lUonj; with a
H{M*;Lr hoiwl, seven inches h>ug, and one or two small (hig-
pfers or knives, all wrought by means of the hammer out
of native cop|)er which had never In^en subjet»te<l to fire,
as is proved by the silver remaining in <h»t4M?he<l crystds
in the co|»|K*r. The H|H)t when* tlu»se n»lies were fouu<l
is at the heiul of L#ert Gido{M li^ipids, on the River St.
I^iwn'uee ; an«l the cinrumstances under which they wen»
met with an» thus narrated by Dr. Ke}7iolds : " All the««'
n*li<-s were found ait a depth of alxnit fourtei»n or fifteen

Pki 15 Br«kMllf CoplxT lllil'lrlii' M-

fw't Ih?1ow the surfiice, in a H«)il com|H)HMl <>f rlay anti
sjind. The shore at the |M»int of haul, which is consi
dtTalJy waslunl l»y tht» action i»f thf nipid stream, pn*-
si*nts a face of large granitr ImuldiTs with <|uartz ('onghn
nirrati* : a fitting nvting-phu-r for tht» stalwart forms of
a si'on* of skeletons, whirh w^n* fountl inhumed in a <'ir-
cuhir sjKU'e with their fcrt to wan Is the crutn*. Smie of
till* skelet4>us w«*n' of gigantir pn»|M»rtii»ns. Tin* lowrr
jaw of onr is sutficii'utly lan^i* to surrouml tin* corn*-
spouding bone of an adult of our prt^si^nt geucnitii»n.

260 I'REHIi^TOUIC MAN. [Chap.

The condition of the bones furnished indisputable proof
of their great antiquity. The skulls were so completely
reduced to their earthy constituents that they were
exceedingly brittle, and fell in pieces when removed and
exposed to the atmosphere. The metallic remains, how-
ever, of more enduring material, as also several stone
chisels, gouges miule of the same durable material, and
some flint arrow-heads, all remain in their original con-
dition, and furnish evidence of the same rude arts which
we know to be still pmctised })y the aborigines of the
far West. Witli reference to the question whether these
copper remains are of European or native origin, their
structure is very rude ; tliey appear to have been wrought
solely by means of the hammer, without the melting-pot
or the aid of fire ; while they were accompanied by stone
and flint tools and weapons, no implements were foimd
made of iron ; and finally, the copper appears to corre-
spond in quality with the specimens of the" native metal
now found in such large quantities on the shores of Lake
Superior. There is also a curious fact, which these relics
appear to confirm, that the Indians possessed the art of
hardening and tempering copper, so as to give it as good
an edge as iron or steel. This ancient Indian art is now
entirely lost."

The reference thus made to the popular theory of some
lost art of hardening the native copper, afforded an op-
portunity of testing it in reference to the Brockville
reUcs. They were accordingly submitted to my col-
league, Professor Henry Croft, of Univei"sity Coll^,
Toronto, with the following results : " The object of the
experiments was to ascertiiin whether the metal of which
those implements are made is identical with the native
copper of the Lake Superior mines, or whether it has
been subjected to some manufacturing process, or mixed
with any other substance, l)y which its hardness might

Vni.J T!!K METALLVnaW ARTS: COPPKi:, 201

iiavr litHii iiicn*aiioil. A careful t*xainiiiatinii rKtal»lihli«\s
tli<' fi»lIowing ronclusionH : — No |H»rc4»j»tihlc <liflV»ri»iicc
c-niild Im* c>l«on'e<l in th«' Imnlnoss of tho imph^ments,
and that of metallic <M)|>|>er from Lake Su|K*rior. Tlu*
kiiifi* or small ila^<X(M* \\i\& cleansiHl an far as {)08rtiMr
from itfl ;^*fn coiiting ; ami it8 H|)ccitic gravity a«*rr-
taim^l a.4 866. A fnigmi»iit, broken off the rml of tli«»
iircNKl, flat implement, deserilKHl a^ a ' eopi)or kiiif<*
nf full hize/ having l:iM»n freed from its (*oating, was
found t4> have a s|MM-irie gravity of 8-58. During the
eieaning of this fnigmmt, a few l>rilliant white H|MH;ks
U^eame visilile on its surfaee ; they ajUH^areil to Ik* silver,
fmni their <!olour and lustre. Tin* stnietun* of the metal
was also highly laminatt^l, as if the instnmient had Ik^^u
l»n»ught to its presi'Ut shajM* hy hammering out a H4>lid
mass of eop|N*r. whirh had either sj>lit up, or had U'en
originally fonn«*(l of si*venil pieees. Thes4» lamimv of
eourw eont:iin«Ml air, and thr mrtal wjis covered with
rust, hence th«* s|M'<-ilir gnivity. The pnM'ess Ky which a
flat piiKN* of eop|H*r has Ihtu overlaj>|HMl, and wnmghl
with th(* hammer into a rude s|H*ar-hrad, is shown in tin*
acr(»mpanying illustnition. A p«»rtion of very soli<l rop-

^<— •<

» •■ 14 II- w ;. • . 1-

|M i\ from Lakr SujMiMr. of alniut th«' >amr w«-ig|it as tin-
fnigmcnt, was weighi-d in wattr, and its gravity ft»unil
to U* s irj ; in this pi«»ce thrn- wi'n* no ravitii> jM^rfep-
tilih*. The >|N*eifir gravity of aliS4»iut<'iy pun* i-oppi r
vari«*s from 8*78 to s«m;, aceonlin;: t«» the gnsitrr or h*ss
tleji^pM' of aggn*gation it hsis received during its nuinufai-
tun*. Th<* .small ilitfen'Uce U^tweeu theaie numU*rH l«'a«U

262 PREUISTORW MAN. [Chip.

to the conclusion that the implements were made of pure
copper. The fragment was completely difisolved by
nitric acid ; and the solution, on being tested for silver
by hydrochloric acid, gave a scarcely perceptible opacity,
indicating the presence of an exceedingly minute trace
of silver. The copper having been separated by hydro-
sulphuric acid, the residual liquid was tested for other
metals. A very minute trace of iron was detected The
native copper from Lake Superior was tested in the same
manner, and was found to contain no trace of silver, but
a minute trace of iron, the quantity being apparently
about the same as in the fragment. From this> it ap-
pears that the implements are composed of copper almost
pure, differing in no material respect from the native
copper of Lake Superior."

The result of the above experiments is sufficient to
show that, in the case of the Brockville relics, the theory
of a lost art of hardening and tempering copper, was a
mere reflex of the prevalent popular fallacy without the
slightest foundation in fact ; and there is no reason for
anticipating a different result in other cases in which the
same theory is tested.

In his account of the discoveiy of those relics. Dr.
Reynolds assumes them to pertain to the present Indian
race. It is obvious, however, that the evidences of an-
tique sepulture are unmistakable, and other proofe sug-
gest a different origin. Mr. Squier, by whom they have
been described, remarks in the Appendix to \i\a Abori-
ginal Monuments of the State of New York : ^ " Some
implements entirely corresi)()nding with these have been
found in Isle Roytde, and at other places in and around
Lake Superior." But besides the copper implements, a
miniature mask of terra-cotta lay in the same deposit, of
pecuhar workmanship, and suggestive rather of relation

* SmUhsanian CotUributiotts, vol. ii. pp. 14, 176.

vin.] ran metallvrgw ahts-. coppkh. s«s

to tlic arts of the Mouml-Builders, or of (VntraJ America.
It i» figured by Mr. Squier from an incorrect drawing,
whirl) intlicatcs u miuut4?r n-prcsontntion of Indian fea-
tures tluui the original justiiien.
It may nitlicr be di'scribod ah a
grot4M(|ue mask, euch an ia by
no means uncommon among
the small ttrm-cottaa of Mex-
ico and Central Amt-ricu. It
is acirurately engmve<l here,
the Hize of tlie original, from
a {)hot4ignt[)]iic ci>py.

'Die mingling of tniees of
H certain amount of artintir
Kkill, 08 here Heen, with tlie
nidt! arts of th<- primitivi-
inetallurgiHt, eiitiix'ly eum.'«|Kiiul with the dirtclosures
of the ancient mounds of the Mi^^insippi ; and, ind<>itl,
agree with other exampk-t* of the partial manifeHtntiuns
of artiittic nkill in an im]x-rfectly dcvelojM'd eiviliiui-
tion. I wiiH litniek, whrn examining the rude mauU of
thf niicieni inimrs of Ontonagon, by tin- eliHO- n>M-m-
bhinee traceable U-twwn lln-ni and wmie whirh 1 have
seen obtJiine<l from ancient eopjier workings diitco^'entl
in North Wales.

In a eonmmnic-ation made to the l>ntish Arehftnilo-
gical Iiistitut*' by the Hon. William Owt-n Stanley, in
1850, In- gives an account nf iin ancient working broken
into at the co|t|H.-r mines of Llandudno, near the (in-at
OnucH Ileai], <.'aniar\'onshin-. In thi.t wen- foinul min-
ing implcmeiitf, connisting of chi.-«4'ls, or picks of bronze,
and a numlH^'r of xtone mauls of varioiiH xizcH, dcwriU-d
nj* Weighing fmm alHiUt 'i IW. to 4(i llw*.. rudely fanh-
ione«l : luiving Imi'U lUI, a.s their ap|Hvinmce HUggeste<l,
tuiul fur brvokiiig, {>oundiiig, or detaching the ore fruin

204 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the rock, and pertaining, it may be presumed, to a period
{interior to the Roman occupation of Britain. These
primitive implements are stated to be gdmilar to the
water-worn stones found on the sea-beach at Pen Mawr,
from wliich very probably those most suitable for the
purpose may have been selected. Mr. Stanley also de-
scril)e8 others of precisely the same character, and corre-
sponding exactly with those found on the shores of Lake
Superior, which had been met with in ancient workings
in Anglesea. Were we, therefore, disposed to generalize
from such analogies, as ingenious speculators on the lost
history of the New World have been prone to do, we
might tmce in this correspondence between the ancient
mining implements of Lake Superior and of North
Wales, a confirmation of the supposed colonization of
America, in the twelftli century, by Madoc, the son of
Owen Gwy^nnedd, king of North Wales, who, according
t(^ the Welsh chroniclers, having been forced by civil
commotions to leave his native countiy, set sail with a
small fleet in 1170, and directing his course westward,
hmded, aftei* a voyage of some weeks, in a country in-
lial)ited by a strange race of beings, but producing in
abundance the necessaries of life. FiC^aving behind him
a colony of settlers, Prince Madoc, according to the same
authorities, returned to Wales, equipped a larger flieet,
and again set sail for tlie new regions of the West ; but
neither he nor any of his followei-s were ever more heard
of. The general storj'^ has nothing improlmble in it. If
a small colony of Welshmen effected a settlement on the
sliores of America at that early date, their fate would be
like that of the still earlier Scandinavian colonists of
Vinland. But the resemblance between the primitive
Welsh and American mining tools, can be regarded as
nothing more than evidence of the (toiTcsponding openi-
tions of the human mind, when phiced under siniihir cir

VIII] THE METALLVRGW AKTS COPPE/: tliUI

cuiDHtaiKCH with the mum* limited meaiiK, which is ilhis
trat<*<l in ho many wayjj hy th«» artn of the Htonc jHTiiHl,
whether of the mo8t ancient or the moBt m(Kh*m <late.
Nor can such numerous correspondences Ik» reganled oa
Rlt4)gcther acci<lental. They confirm the idea of <u'rtain
innate an<l instinctive operations of human injjenuity,
ever present and rea<ly U> Ik* called forth for the acconi
plisliment of similar pur|K)S(^ by the same limited means ;
and which roveiU to us the same ty|)e in the works of
the ancient Mound-Builder, and the replies of the British
Imrrow of ante Christian tim<*s, as among the most re-
cent pnxluctM of the Btnl Indian or the Polynesian
artificer. Yet the inijwrtant fact nmst Ik* lM>nie in re-
memhrancr that the Hint wt'a[H)ns of the drift, so far as
liith(*rto fis^re<l and d(»s<-rilK*d, diHi*r to a n*markaM(*
exti*nt from those* found in th<? anci«-nt Imri'ows. llwy
an* much hirger, nid(*r, and of ditfen'nt fonns : an<l it is
a n^markahlf fact, tin* significanrc of whi<h is not yc*t
fully ap|>ain*nt to us, that the stone axe of thr South S4»a
islander of the eight^M'iith rcntiir)', pn*S4»nts a clos4» n»-
S4'ml>lance to that of the British (»r (iaulish fal)rirat4»r i»f
thr tiwt, or earlitT rrnturit-s ; and the nio<leni flint lanrr
or am)w-h«»ad of thr H<m1 Indian ran S4anrlv Ih» distin-
4nnsh(*4l fnmi that found in th(* ni«»st anrimt British
jfnivi's : whil«* no surh rom*sponden<-i* is tran*ahl(* U*-
twii-n the latt4*r and tin* **till old«*r manufarturtMi weajxuH
in thr undrrlvint; drift.

Fn>m the n'vi«*w tluH mad«* of tin* t^vidfur^s of airu-imt
:ind long aliiind«»n<'d minini; o|N>nition^ on tin* shon*s
and islands of l^ikt* Sii]>4*rior. it rannot admit of t|oul>t
that in tlirs^* work> \vv Itnik on tin* trar«>* of an im|K*r-
f«-<*tly drwlopifl y«'t highly inti*n"<ting native rivilis^i
tion. |M»rtaining ti» rrnturi^s long anterior to that lifting
of \\\v ruilain <*onc<*alin«; Am«*ri<*a fmni tlit- anri«*nt
World, whii'li intnidutrd to tin* t*laldn*n of it^ forests

266 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the products of an exotic civilisation, for them pregnant
only with destruction.

The question naturally arises : By whom were those
ancient mines of the northern copper region wrought ?
Was it by the ancestry of the present Indian tribes of
North America, or by a totally distinct and long-super-
seded race? The whole tendency of opinion among
American writers has latterly been towards a unity and
comprehensive isolation of the races and arts of the New
World ; and hence the theories alike of Morton and of
Schoolcraft, though foimded on diverse and totally inde-
pendent premises, have favoured the idea that the rude
germs of all that is most noticeable even in the civilisa-
tion of Central America may be found among the native
arts and the manners and customs of the forest tribes.
But neither the traditions nor the arts of the Indians of
tlie northern lakes supply any satisfactory link connect-
ing them either with the Coi)per-niiners or the Mound-
Builders. Loonsfoot, an old Chippewa chief, living at
the mouth of St. F^ouis River, where it enters Lake
Superior, is said to trace back his ancestry by name, as
hereditaiy chiefs of his tribe, for upwards of four hun-
cb'cd years. At the request of Mr. C. Whittlesey he was
questioned by an educated half-breed, a nephew of his
own, relative to the ancient copper mines, and his answer
was in substance as follows : — " A long time ago the
Indians were much better off than they are now. They
had copper axes, arrow-heads, and spears, and also stone
axes. Until the French came here, and blasted the
rocks with powder, we have no traditions of the copper
mines being worked. Our forefathers used to build big
canoes and cross the lake over to Isle Royale, where
they found more copper than anywhere else. The
stone hammers that are now found in the old diggings
we know nothing about. The Indians were formerly

VIII.] THE METALLVRaW ARTS: COPPER, 267

much mon* numerous and happier. They hail no Buch
wars and trouWew an they have now/* At I^ P<>inte
on IiSik(» SuiK»rior, it was my jjo<h1 fortune to meet with
Hutlalo, a rugged 8|H'eiraen (»f an old ChipiH»wa chief.
Ht* r(*taini*d all the wild Indiiui idciiA, though aecuA-
tonuMl to fre(ju«»nt intennmrHc* with white men, InxiAt^Hl
of the KaU|>8 he liiul taken, and held to his {>ag]in ennxl
a« the only n»ligion for the Intlian, wliatever the Great
Spirit might bive taught the white man. His grandson,
an eilucated hiUf-hreed, acted as inteqin^ter, and his
reply to similar in<|uirie8 was emlxNliiHl in the following
sententious declanition of Indian philosophy :- " The
white man thinks he is the su]MTior of the Indian, hut
it is not so. The I{ed In4lian was made by the (tn*at
Spirit, who maile tlir forests and tin* gJime, and he nt^^ls
no lessons from the white man huw to livt\ If the
same Un^t Spirit made the white man, he has made
him of a ditfen*nt natun^. Let him aet aeeonlingto his
natUH! ; it is the lH\st for him ; hut for us it is not
g(NKl. We liiid the reil-iron liefon* white men hn>ught
the hlack-iroii amongst us ; Imt if ever su«h works as
you di«4-rilK* were earrieil on along tliesi* I^ike shon-s
U'fore whit«* men eame hen*, then the (Jri'at Spirit
muM onee Ix-fore havt» made men with a ilifferent
natun* fn»m his r\^\ ehildn*n such as vou whitt* men
Imve. As f«>r us, we live as our ft»refatliers have alwavs

liii Point4», or (*ha<|iiam<*gon, wln*n» this inter>'i«»w
tiH>k plan*, was visited by ihf .bsuit Father, Claude
AlloUez, in the month of Orti»lH-r ITiiw;, aiid is des4*rilNil
by him as a lN*autiful l»ay, thf shons of whi«h \\i*t\*
•K'euj)ied by the (*hipjM-was in surh nunilnTs that their
warriors alone amtamteil to ri^ht humlred. In the
jouniiU of his tnivels, he thus rei\*rs to thi* min<*nd n*-
sourees for which the region i> now most fiuueil : "The

2C^S PREHISTORIC MAl^. [Chap.

wivjigos reverence the lake as a divinity, and offer sacri-
fices to it because of its great size, for it is two hundred
loagiiea long and eighty broad ; and also, because of the
nbimdance of fish it supplies to them, in lieu of game,
which is scarce in its environs. They often find in the
lake pieces of copper weighing from ten to twenty
pounds. I have seen many such pieces in the hands
of the savages ; and as they are superstitious, they re-
gard them as divinities, or as gifts which the gods who
dwell beneath its waters have bestowed on them to pro-
mote their welfare. Hence they preserve such pieces of
coppcT wrapped up along with their most prized pos-
session a. By some they have been preserved upwards
of fifty years, and others have had them in their families
from time immemorial, cherishing them as their house-
hold gods. There was visible for some time, near the
shore, a large rock entirely of copper, with its top rising
above the water, which afforded an opportunity for those
j)a8sing to cut pieces from it. But when I passed in
that vicinity nothing could be seen of it. I believe that
the storms, which are here very frequent, and as violent
as on the ocean, had covered the rock with sand. Our
Indians wished to persuade me it was a divinity which
had disappeared, but for what reason they would not
say.-

Such is the earliest notic'c we have of the Indian
ideas of the native copper, and their mode of acquiring
it. It entirely accords with all sul)sequent information
()n the same subject, and is opposed to any tradition of
their ancestors having l)een the workers of the aban
doned copper mines. A secrecy, resulting from the
superstitions associated with the mineral wealth of the
great Lake, appears to have thrown impediments in
the way of the earlier inquirers after the sources of

' Rt'htwnii (ha Jr-suiUs, vol. iii. 1CG6 *'t IGOT.

VlII ) TUK MKTALLCRaiC MiTS : aiVVEll, 2G'J

tilt* copiMT. Father Duhhin, lUiothcr iU(*inlH:r of tlit*
SK'icty of .ledUrt, immitcrt a inarvflloUH acciiunt roin-
iuuiii<!atcd to him, of four Iiuliaiis who, in old tiiiit>,
lH.*fon' the eoiuing t»f the French, \vm\ lo8t their way in
\\ fojr, and ut h*ngth etfeeteil a himlin*^ on Misriipinxia
tong. Thiii wiM iM'Hrved to U* a floating ishinil, and
niyrtt4*rioUHly variaMe in its Kn^iU |M>sition and aH|M*<*t8.
Thi* wanden^rH r<N)ked their meal in Indian fashitin, l>y
heating hUmeri and ai^ting them into a bireh-lNirk {>ail
filliMl with water. The ntones proved to lie lum|w of
etip|K"r, which they carricil otf with them : hut they had
hardly left the shore, when a loud and nngr}' voice,
;wi'rilx?d hy one of them to Missihizi, the gohlin spirit
of the waters, wan heanl exclaiming, ** What thieves an*
tlu'A* tliat carry 4»tl* my <hil<lrcn*s cradles and play-
thing?'* One of the Indians tlird imnunliatelv from
fear, and two otliei-s S4H>n after, while the fourth <mly
Hur\'ived h)ng i^nough to n*ach honit* an<l relate what
hiul hap]N>ne<l, lx*fore he als4) died, having no douht
lH?en |M>isonc«l by the coj>|Mr used in (*«M>king. Ever
after thia the Indians Htefn*d th«»ir counk* far ott' the ^ite
of the haunted island. In the .•>imie n*lation, Fatht*r
Dahlon tells that near the river ()nt<»nagon, or Nant4)-
nagon sut he rails it, is a blutf from whieh ma.sses of
copjM*r fn*ijuenily fall out. One of the>i» was pn'scnted
to him weighing one hundred |Mmnds : and pieees
weighing twi-nty or thirty iwmnds an* stated by him to
Ih^ friNjuently met with by the s^piaws when tligging
holes for their com. Tln» hn-alitv thus eclebnitetl fur
the trarert of its mineral wealth by the earlii*st Fn^neh
miiwionari<*H, is in likt* manner rcfem*<l to by the first
English exploriT, AlexamliT Henry, a IhJiI adventui-er,
who visited till* Ishind of Mackinac, at the entninee of
l«ike Micdiigan, slmrtly lK*f<»n' the Treaty of Tiiris in
17<ii^ and Wiis i»n«» among th«* few who <*s4*a|H*«l a

Il

270 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap

treacherous massaere perpetrated by the Indians or
the whites at Old Fort Mackinac. In his Travels ana
Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories^ hi
mentions his visiting the Eiver Ontonagon, in August
1765. "At the mouth, was an Indian viUage ; and a1
three leagues above, a fall, at the foot of which stui^oi
were at this season so abundant, that a month's sul^ist
ence for a regiment could have been taten in a fei«
hours. But," he adds, "I found this river chiefly re

I markable for tlie abundance of virgin copper which i

on its banks and in its neighbourhood. The copper pre
sented itself to the eye in masses of various weight. Th<
Indians showed me one of twenty pounds. They wew
used to manufacture this metal into spoons and bracelet
for themselves. In the perfect state in which the]
found it, it required nothing but to be beat into shape."
On a subsequent occasion, in the following year, Heni]
again visited the same region. " On my way," he says

' " I encamped a second time at the mouth of the Onto

nagon, and now took tlie opportunity of going ten milci
up the river, with Indian guides. The object which !
went most expressly to see, and to which I had th<
satisfaction of being led, was a miiss of copper, of th^
weight, according to my estimate, of no less than five
tons. Such was its pure and malleable state that witl

- an axe I was able to cut off a portion weighing a hun

dred pounds."^ This mass of native copper which thui
attracted the adventurous European explorer nearly i
century ago, has since acquired considerable celebrity
as one of the most prominent encouragements to th^
mining operations projected in the Ontonagon and sur
rounding districts, and is now preserved at Washington
Those notices are interesting iis showing to wliat exteni

I ^ Henry's Travels and Adrt-nturts, New York, 1809, p. 194.

- IhUl. p, 2(>4.

VIIL] THE MKTALLUHGW ARTS COPPKH, 271

tht! prt»8ent race of IndLons were acruRtome<l to avail
tln'iuHclves of the mineral wv^^ilth of th«» jrn*at co|i|H5r
regions, an<l by what in(*aii8 they aircjuiri^d Huch copiKjr
118 th«y were fouiKl in |N>88<'8Rion of, along with their
wea{Mins and implemeut8 of Btone. IlluHtnitionM of a
like kind might l>e greatly multiplii^, hut they an» all
nearly to the name effect, exhibiting tlie rude Indian
gathering the ehance masses, or hewing otf piiH^es fnan
the t»x|H>»e4l copjKT UnleH, in full aeconlanee with the
Himple art8 of hi8 first stone |H*rio<l ; hut atfonling no
ground for cnHliting him with even the mont |)artiaJ
tniditioimr}' memorialn of any an<*estnd connexion with
tlie induHtriid mining rare that once diligently exeavate<l
the treuehi*A, and hiid IxiR' the miuenU treasures of the
great cop|KT ri'gion.

The evidenei* which tend to prove the gn»at length of
time which lia8 intervtaied since the ancient mincH of
I^ike Su|K*rior Wert* al>iUi<loned, n»ceives further confirm
ation from the tnu'CM i»f a long-j>n>tract4Nl tnittic carried
on by tht* Hu)i84*c|ui*nt oc(*u|Kint8 of thi*ir alKUithmetl
territory. The mineral wealth that htill lay within the
n*a4'h of the n<»ii industrial huntrr of th«* fon*sts which
grew up ami clotluMl tlu» destrted works, in the inter\'al
lM*twei*n their aUindcmment and reHH*cupation, funiisluMl
him with a prize<l material for Iwirter. The hfa^l-waters
of the Mississippi \\k\ within companitivi*ly ciisy n^ach of
an Indian pjirty, carrying their light binh-lmrk canoe
over tin* intervening jMirtagcs, as is pnictis^Ml by tln*m
at the pres4*nt day ; and, nun* launchtMl on its bn>ad
waters, the whole range of tlnr continent thn»ugh twenty
degn*ert t)f hititude is fn*e befi»rc them. Through Like
Hunm and th<* Ottawa into the St. Liwn^nci*, and by
Lsikes Huron, Erit*, and ihitario, into the liuds«»n, other
exteiiHive ]U\*as of native exchange were commantltHl.
Articles wrought in the bn>wn pii»e-st<m«» of the Chip

272 PREUlSTOniC MAN. [Chap.

pcwa river of the Upper Mississippi, the rod pipe-stone of
the Couteau des Prairies, west of St. Peters^ and the
(topper of Lake Superior, constituted the wealth which
the old North had to offer ; and, in return, one of the
most valued exchanges appears to have been the large
tropical shells of the Gulf of Florida and the West
Indian seas ; from which wampum -beads, pendants,
gorgets, and pei*sonal ornaments of various kinds were
manufactured ; while many of them, as we have seen,
were presei'ved entire, and evidently prized, along the
sliores of the northern lakes, Jis among the most mar-
vellous of natural productions.

These conchological relics, and the circimistances under
which they have been discovered, have already been de-
scribed in a former chapter. They are of peculiar value
in tlie present inquiry, from the illustration they afford
^ of the area embraced by the ancient native traflSc be-
tween the North and South. Whatever doubt may l>c
thrown on the derivation of some specimens of ancient
native manufacture, or of the copper found in sepulchral
and other deposits in the Southern Stiites and in Central
America : no question can exist as to the tropical and
marine origin of the large shells exhumed not only in
the inland regions of Kentucky and Tennessee, but in
the northern peninsula lying between the Ontario and
Huron lakes, or on the still remoter sliores and islands
of Georgian Bay, at a distance of upwards of three
thousancl miles from the coast of Yucatan, on the main-
land, the nearest point where the Pyrula pei^ersa is
found in its native locidity.

Such evidence as the habits, tu'ts, and traditions of the
Indian tribes around Lake Superior supply, seems all to
point in the same direction, jmd to be irreconcilable
with the idea that tliey are the descendants of the
ancient ininei-s. The stray lumps of native copj>er, and

VIII.] TUE METALLVHOK ARTS: COPPER. 273

the cxiK>8cd mafiscs from which pieces could remlily ))e
8ei>aratecl, have indeed long supplied them with the
prized miskoj^iciibik^ or red inm ; and the i)eeuliar
maimer in which cr}'8talrt of silver are fnnjuently encKwed
in the copj)er of Lake Superior, enables its source ti) Iw
traced wherever it has l)een wrought exclusively by the
hammer without the application of fire. Copper, how-
ever, is obbiined in its native state still farther north ;
and Mackenzie, in his Second Journey^ mentions its
being in common use among the tribes on the borders
of tlie Arctic Sea ; by whom it is wrought into spear
and arrow heiuls, and a considerable variety of personal
oniaments. Mr. Henry also found the Christinaux of
Lake Winijwigon wearing bnia»lets and other ornaments
of copj>er ; and most of the earli«T voyagers and explorers
descril>e cop|KT implements and personal oniaments
among the widely-scattereil Indiim trilies of the New
World. But in all cases they were ru<lely >^^^ought
with the hammer, and sparingly mingUtl with the more
abundant weapons an<l implonu*nts of stone, made by a
|)eople whiwe sole metallurgic knowle<lgc (MHisisU'^l in
gathering or pn)ouring by barter the native copjH*r, —
just as they procunxl the rvd or brown pipe-stone, —
and hammering the mass into some simple usc'ful fonu.
Silver, procured in like manner, was not unknown to
them, and pii>cs inlaid lK)th with silver and lead are by
no means rare. It is only when we turn to the serenes
of a native-l>om civilisation, in Mexico, (V»ntnd America,
and Peru, tliat we find actual nu'tallurgic arts in use,
and disi'over the crucible and funnier, and copper sujht-
SiMiiNl l)y the more useful alloy, bn>nze. But inter
mi^liately between the copjjer regions of I^ake Suj^erior
and the ancient southern scenes of native American
civilisation, tin* Mississippi and its griMt tributarit^s
drain a countr}* remarkable for monuments (»f a long

VOL. I. s

27^ F RE HISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

forgotten past, not less interesting and mjrsteiious
than the forsaken mines of Keweenaw and Onto-
nagon, or Isle Boyale. These great eardiwoiks are
ascribed to an extinct race, conveniently known by
the name of the Mound-Builders. Extensive and care-
fully executed investigations into their structure and
contents prove these builders to have been a people
among whom copper was in frequent use, but by them
also it was worked from the native metal only by
the hammer. The invaluable service of fire in reduc-
ing and smelting ores, moulding metals, and adapting
them to greater usefulness by well-proportioned alloys,
was entirely imknown ; and the investigation and ana-
lysis of their cold-wrought tools seeiji to prove that the
source of their copper was the Lake Superior mines.
But though the ancient Mound-Builder was thus pos-
sessed of little higher metallurgic skUl than the modem
Indian hunter, he manifested in other respects a capacity
for extensive and combined operations, the memorials of
which perpetuate his monumental skill and persevering
industry in the gigantic earthworks fix)m whence his
name is derived. From these we learn that there was
a period, in the long past epochs of America's unrecorded
history, when the valleys of the Mississippi and its tribu-
taries were occupied by a numerous and settled popula-
tion. Alike in physical conformation — so far as our
very imperfect evidence goes, — and in arts, these Mound-
Builders approximated to races of South America, and
differed from the Red Indian tribes alone known to the
Em*opeans as the occupants of their deserted seats, and
therefore familiarly styled Aborigines. They were not^
to all appearance, far advanced in civilisation. Com-
pared with the people of Mexico or Central America,
when first seen by the Spaniards, their arts and social
state were probably rudimentary. But they had ad-

VIII.) THE METALLURGIC ARTS: COPPER, 37.5

vaiicetl L»eyoDd that stage in which it is posaible for a
people to continue utterly unprngresaive. The initial
fltepH of civiliaation had been inaugurated^ and the
difference between them and the civilized Mexicans is
IcHs striking than the contrast which the evidences of
their settled condition, and the proofs of extensive co
operation in their numerous earthworks supply « when
i*omparc<I with all that pertains to the nomade tribes
by whom the American forests have been exclusively
orcupie<l during the centuries since Columbus. They
were greatly more in advance of the Indian hunter than
lN>hind the civilized Mexican. They had already ac-
quired habits of ccmibined industr}' ; were the settleil
iMxuinmts of a specific territory ; and are proved, by
the numerous ornaments and implements of copin^r de-
|Nisit4Nl in their monuments and Si^pulehres, to have l>een
familiar with the mineral resources of the northern lake
regions, whether by personal enteq)ris4*, or by an ancient
commercial system of exchange. What prolmbilities
there are suggestive of a connexicm Ix^tween the Mound-
Buildt*ni and the ancient miners of Amcriea, will l>e
diM'UHsed in a later chapter, along with other and allie<I
(}uestions ; but to just such a nice, with their imiH'ifect
mechanical skill, their |Nirtially devel(»ped arts, and their
aptitude for continuous ccmibine^l oiH^raticms, may Ix?
ascril»ed, d prinn^ ftu«:h ancient mining works as exist
on the shores of Lake 8u[)erior, ovcnJuuloweil with the
fon'st growth of ct^nturies. The mounds constructed
by the ancient nice are in like manner overgn»wn with
the evidences of their lonjj desertion ; and the couilition
in which recent travellers have found the long- forgotten
cities of Central America, imiy serve to show what even
New York, Washington, and Phihidelphia : what Toronto,
Montreal, and Quel>ec, would bei'ome after a very few
centurif*M, if abandoned, like the desolate cities of Chi-

276 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

chenitza or Uxmal, to the inextinguishable luxuriance of
the American forest growth.

The history of some of the cities of Central America
is known, and the date is well ascertained when the
irruption of a new race extinguished the advancing civili-
sation of Mexico, and threw back into primitive barbarism
the remnant of the ancient race which it fisdled to extir-
pate. It seems no illegitimate assumption to affirm of
the Mound-Builders of the Mississippi, and the ancient
miners of Lake Superior, in like manner, that some great
catastrophe — the intrusion, it may be, of a barbaric but
warlike race, such as the history of some of the great
Indian confederacies illustrate, or the still deadlier influ-
ence of pestilence, such as in the seventeenth century
swept away the Massacheuseuks and Narragansetts of
New England ; — abruptly arrested their labours^ and re-
stored the scenes of their industrious progression to the
silence amid which the later forest-wilderness arose. It
is not necessaiy to assume a very remote antiquity for
the era of this abortive American civilisation. It has
been a favourite theory with some, to trace analogies be-
tween the arts of Central America and those of Egypt's
or Phoenicia's primitive maturity. But those who do so
forget that the era of Montezuma is known, and that to
a past so recent as that, we can assign so much of Aztec,
and even of the latest traces of Toltcc art, that a few
more centuries, such as in Europe would Ciirry us back
to the era of the rise of Moorish civilisation and mediaeval
Christian art, may suffice to embrace nearly all that we
know of in relation to those of the New World. Cer-
tainly, however, no computation will account for the
chronological data deducible from the mines of Lake
Superior or the mounds of the Mississippi valley which
does not considerably antedate the close of their era to
that of the European discovery of the American continent

VIIL] THE MBTALLUROIC ARTS: COPPER, til

In his eonimuniration to the American Afwociation,
Mr. ('. Whittk'Hey cnde^ivoure to assign an approximate
date t4) the era of the ancient miners. From a compari-
son i)f the trees found on the tops of the trenches and
the extent of the works, with the difficulties which the
miners ha<l to encounter in working them, he considers
that an interval of twelve hundred years have ehipsed
since the mines were almndoned, and five hundred years
moTv nmst be alloweil during which they were occupied
and ^Tought. This would carry us l)ack to the second
century of the Christian era, when the ancient Damnonian
of CVirnwall practiseil his ingenious industry by means
of arts not greatly in advan(*e of the miners of Lake
Suj>erior. But the grounds for jisserting such an anti-
quity for the works at Ontonjigon or Keweenaw, are too
vague to carr)' convicrtion t4> the mind. Were we as
ignonint of the histor}' of all the monuments of Mexico
an<l Y'ucatan as of those of Ohio, there are not wanting
ingenious theorists who would sissign to the an*hitei*ture
of Centnd America a tlate still older than the pyramids
of Eg}*pt. Hut whatever lie the dates of their commence
ment or di^sertion, the condition in which some of the
ancient works on Lake SuiK'rior have I teen found, when
n*openiHl in nt'cnt times, is suggi^tive of {Kruliar cir-
cumstances attending their alNUi<lonment. It is difficult
to InJieve that the hugi* injiss of copjKT, upwanls of six
tons in weight, dis<*oven.Hl iH'ne^ith the rubbish t»f cen-
turies in the Minnc.s4>ta mine, n*stingon itsoaktai cnulle,
was aliandoned merely lM*caus4i the workmen, who liiid
thus overi'ome one of the gn*ate.st difficulties in its re
moval, were Ixiffle*! in the 8ul>?<iM|u<'nt stagi»s of their
o|K»nitions, and contenteil themsi»lves by chipping off
any accessible projecting |K»int. Well-hammenHl copjK»r
chis4*ls, such Jis lay alongside of it, and have U-en n^jx^at^tUy
ft»und in the works, wen* abundantly sulficient, with the

278 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Ohap.

help of the accompan3ruig stone hammers^ to enable them
to cut the mass of native copper into portable pieces. I(
indeed, the ancient miners were incapable of doing more
with their mass of copper in the mine, than breaking off
a few projections, to what further use could they have
turned it when transported to the surfEtce ? It weighed
six tons, and measured ten feet long and three feet wide.
The trench at its greatest depth was twenty-six feet;
while the mass of copper was only eighteen feet from the
surface, and in the estimation of the skilled engineer by
whom it was first seen, it had been elevated upwards of
five feet since it was placed on its oaken frame, and sup-
ported by sleepers of the same material The excava-
tions to a depth of twenty-six feet, the dislodged copper
block, and the framework prepared for elevating the
solid mass to the surface, all consistently point to the
same workmen. But the mere detachment of a few
accessible projecting fragments is too lame and impotent
a conclusion of proceedings carried thus far on so dif-
ferent a scale. It indicates rather such results as wouM
follow at the pi:esent day were the barbarian tribes of
the North-west to displace the modem Minnesota miners,
and possess themselves of mineral treasures they are as
little capable as ever of turning to any but the most
simple and rude uses. Such evidences, accordingly, while
they serve to prove the existence, at some former period,
of a mining population in the copper regions of Lake
Superior, seem also to indicate that their labours had
come to an abrupt termination. Whether by some ter-
rible devastating pestilence, like that which nearly
exterminated the native population of New England
immediately before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers ;
or by the breaking out of war; or, as seems not less
probable, by the invasion of the mineral region by a
barbarian race, ignorant of all the arts of the ancient

VIIL] THE METALLUROIC ARTS: COPPER, 279

•

Mound-Builders of the Mississippi, and of the miners of
Lake Superior : certain it is that the works have been
abandoned, leaving the quarried meta^ the laboriously
wrought hammers, and the ingenious copper tools^ just
as they may have been left when the shadows of the
evening told their long-forgotten owners that the labours
of the day were at an end, but for which they never re-
turned. Nor during the centuries which have elapsed
since the forest reclaimed the deserted trenches for its
own, does any trace seem to indicate that a native popu-
lation again sought to avail themselves of their mineral
treasures, beyond the manufacture of such scattered frag-
ments as lay upon the surface.

280 FREUISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

CHAPTER IX.

THE METALLUROIC ARTS: ALLOYS.

The age of bronze in the archaeological history of
European civilisation symbolizes a transitional stage of
very partial development, and imperfect materials and
arts, through which the Old World passed in its progress
towards the maturity of true historic times ; but the
bronze period of the New World is the highest stage of
its self-developed civilisation, prior to the intrusion of Eu-
ropean arts. Whether we regard the bronze implements
of Britain and the North of Europe as concomitant with
the intrusion of a new stock, or only as proofs of the dis-
covery or introduction of a new art pregnant with many
civilizing and elevating tendencies, they constitute an
important element in primitive ethnology. For a time
they necessarily coincide with many mommients and
works of art pertaining in character to the stone period ;
just as the stone implements and weapons still manufac-
tured by the Indians and Esquimaux are contemporane-
ous with the intruding products of foreign metalliugy,
but nevertheless are the perpetuation of processes de-
veloped in a period when metallurgic arts were entirely
unknown. The evidence that the British bronze period
succeeded to that simpler and ruder one of stone is such
as scarcely to admit of challenge, independent of the d
priori likelihood in favour of this order of succession.
The question however suggests itself whether metallurgy

IX.] TUK MBTALLUROIC ARTS: ALLOYS, 281

did uot find itfi natural beginning in the eaay working
of the virgin copper, and so intercalate a copper age
I between Europe's stone and its true bronze period On
this subject, Dr. Latham remarks, in his Ethnology of the
British Islands^ ** Copper is a metal of which, in its
unalloyed state, no relics have been found in England.
Stone and bone first ; then bronze, or copper and tin
combined ; but no copper alone. I cannot get over this
hiatus ; cannot imagine a metallurgic industry beginning
with the use of alloys." It is a mist^ike, however, to say
that no imalloyed British copj)er relics have been found.
No very spivial attention hiiH been directed hitherto to
the distinction. Nearly all the earlier writers who refer
to the metallic weai>ons and t<H>ls of anci<*nt Mexico and
IVntnd America, apply the term **copj)er" to the mixed
metal of which these were made ; while among British
and European anti(|mmes the corre8j>onding relics of the
Old World are no less invariably dedignatinl bronze,
though in many cafk^s thus taking for gnint^^l wliat
analysis could alone determine. It is an error, however,
tluit the later nomenclature of arclueologiral ixriiNls has
tended to 8tn»ngthen ; jmrtly from the hick of appn»ci
ation of the imiK)rtance of the argument thus suggi-stiHl
by Dr. Latham. But examples of British primitive im-
plements of pure copjKjr have aln»ady Inrn nottnl. In a
valuable i>aj)er by J. A. Phillijw, F.(\8., on the metals
and alloys known to the ancifuts, printcMl in the 4th voL
of the Memoirs of the Chemiatl Sinietif, the n*sult8 of
]inalysis of thirty-sc»ven ancient voiua and other bronzes
are given. Among these* are includeil three bronze
swonls, one fn)m the Tluimes, the cithers from Ireland ;
a s|)ear-head, two celts, and two axe-heads ; all of ty\Hm
well known among the weaiMnis of the "bronze jH'riod.**
Yet of th<*«c eight articles, s4*l<*et«Nl as examples of
•* bronze " weaixins, one of tliem, the sjH-ar-head, proved

l>82 PREHISTORIC MAN. [C^p

oil analysis to be of impure but unalloyed copper. Ite
composition is given as copper, 99*71 ; sulphur, 28. In
the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, of February 1822,
there is an account, from the pen of Sir David Brewster,
then one of its editors, of a large battle-axe of pure cop-
per, found at a depth of twenty feet in Ratho Bog, neai
Edinburgh, under circumstances scarcely less remarkable
than some of the discoveries of works of art in the drift.
It differed from all the specimens preserved in the Mu-
seum of the Scottish Antiquaries. The workmen dug
down through nine feet of moss and seven feet of sand,
before they came to the hard black till-clay ; and at a
depth of four feet in the clay the copper axe was found
The author accordingly remarks : " It must have been
deposited along with the blue clay prior to the formatioi)
of the superincumbent stratum of sand, and must have
existed before the diluvial operations by which that
stratum was formed. This opinion of its antiquity is
strongly confirmed by the peculiarity of its shape, and
the nature of its composition."^ When, in 1850, my
J brother, Dr. George Wilson, undertook a series of ana-

\f lyses of ancient British bronzes for me, out of seven spe-

.( cimens selected for experiment, one Scottish axe-head,

t rudely cast, apparently in sand, was of nearly pure cop-

' j per. The iron and silver in it did not amount togethei

1 1 to one per cent, and were, no doubt, naturally present

in the copper. In this case no record was made of the
fact, as the object in view was to compare quantita-
tively the composition of different ancient bronzes, in
order to test the theory of a supposed common source
of the alloy.* Again, during the past year, I procured,
through the kind services of Mr. Thomas Ewbank, of
New York, eight specimens of metal implements, all

* Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, vol. vi. p. 357.
' Prehistoric AnnaU qf Scotland, p. 246.

IX.]

rilE METALLURGW AHTS: ALIOYH.

selerted as examples of Peruvian bronze ; but, on analy-
sis, four of them proved to be of unalloyed copper. The
rich eollectious of the Royal Irish Academy furnish sin-
gularly interesting confirmation to this idea of a transi-
tional copper era. Dr. Wilde remarks, in his Catalogue
nf Antiquities, tliat "upon careful examination, it has
been found that thirty of the rudest, and apparently the
very oldest celts, are of red, almost unalloyed copper."
In addition to these there are also two battle-axes, a
sword-blade, a trumpet, several fibube, and some rudely
formed tools, all of copper ; and now that attention has
been directe<l to the subject, further examples of the
same class will doubtless be noted.

A very important difference, however, distinguishes the
mineral resources of the British and the North American
copper regions. The copper, as we have seen, occurs in
the tmppean rocks of Keweenaw and Ontonagon, in
masaes of many tons weight, and detached blocks of
various sizes lie scattered about in the superficial soil or
exposed along the lake shore, ready for use without any
preparatory skill, or the slightest knowledge of metal-
lurgy. Nature in her own vast crucibles had carried the
metal ores through all their preparatory stages, and left
them there for man to shape into such forms as bis con-
venience or simplest wants suggested. The native silver
had undergone the like preparation, and is of frequent
occurrence as a perfectly pure metal, being found, even
when interspersed in the mass of copper, still in distinct
crystals, and entirely free from alloy with it. But neither
tin nor zinc occurs throughout the whole northern region
to suggest to the native metallurgist the production of
that valuable alloy which is indissolubly associated with
the civilisation of Europe's bronze age. In Britain it is
altogether different. The tin and copper lie together.
ready for alloy, but both occur in the state of impure

284 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Ohap.

ores, inviting and necessitating the development of
metallurgy before they can be turned to economic uses.
Tin is almost entirely obtained in Cornwall, from its
peroxide, and copper occurs there chiefly combined with
sulphur and iron, forming the double sulphuret which is
commonly called copper pyrites or yellow copper ore.
The smelting process to which it has to be subjected is a
laborious and complicated one, and if we are prepared to
believe in the civilisation of Britain's bronze period as a
thing of native growth, the early discovery and use of
alloys very slightly affects the question. The ancient
American miner of Lake Superior never learned to sub-
ject his wealth of copper to the action of fire, and trans-
fer it from the crucible to the shapely mould. No such
process was needed where it abounded in inexhaustible
quantities in a pure metallic state. If he, in the midst
of such readily available metallic resources, was found to
have used tools of bronze or brass, to have transported
the tin or zinc of other regions to his furnaces, and to
have laboriously converted the whole into a preferable
substitute for the simpler metal that lay ready for his
use, it would be difficult indeed to conceive of such as
the initial stage in his metallurgic industry. But Britain
presents no amdogy to this in its development of metal-
lurgic ails. Tin, one of the least widely diffused of
metals, is found there in the greatest abundance, and
easily accessible, not as a pure metaJ, but as an ore which
is readily reduced by charcoal and a moderate degree of
heat to that condition. This was the metallic wealth for
which Britain was sought by the fleets of ancient Phoe-
nicia, and on it we may therefore assimie her primitive
metallurgists to have first tried their simple arts. But
alongside of it, and even in natural combination with it^
as in tin pyi-ites and the double sulphuret, lies the cop-
per, also, in the condition of an ore, and rcquiiing the

IX.] THE METALLURGIC AUTa' : ALLOYS:. 285

application of tho metallurgist's skill before it can be
turned to account We know that at the very dawn of
history tin was exported from Britain. Copper also ap-
peals to have been wrought there from veiy early times,
in North Wales a-s well as in Cornwall. Both metals
were found rarely, and in small quantities, in a native
state, but these may have sufficed to suggest the next
step of supplying them in lai'ger quantities fi'om the ores,
To seek in some unknown foreign source for the origin
of metaJlurgic arts, which had there all the requisite
elements for evoking them, is wholly gratuitous ; and, if
once the native metallurgist learned to smelt the tin and
copper ores, and so had been necessitated to subject them
to preparatory processes of fire, the next stage in pro-
gressive metallurgy, the use of alloys, was to him an
exceedingly simple one. It might further be assumed
that, with the discovery of the valuable results arising
from the admixture of tin with copper, the few pure
copper implements — excepting where already deposited
among sepulchral offerings, — would for the most part be
returned to the melting-pot, and reproduced in the more
perfect and useful condition of the bronze alloy. There
seems, however, greater probability in the supposition
that Britain never had a copper period, or an age of
unalloyed metals, other than of the briefest and most
tnmsitoiy character.

The cassiteron, or tin, which made the British Islands
famous - among Phoenician and Greek mariners, long
before the Roman legions ventured to cross the narrow
seas, was derived, as has been noted, from the eame
south-western peninsula, where rich veins of copper arc
still wrought. The name of Cassiterides, or Tin Islands,
l)estowed on Cornwall and the adjacent isles, seems to
imply that the tin was the chief export, and was trans-
porte<l to the great Mediterranean ports, to be mixed

280 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

with the copper of the Wady Maghaia^ and other
Asiatic mines, to form the E^3rptian, Phoemcian, and
Assjrrian bronze. Tin, therefore, the easiest of all metals
to subject to the requisite processes, first engaged the
skill of the ingenious British metaUurgist ; and that
mastered, the proximity of the copper ore in the same
mineral districts, inevitably suggests all the subsequent
processes of smelting, fusion, and alloy. But Phcenicia
had learned the value of tin, and its application for the
l)urposes of alloy, before her merchantmen sought their
mineral freight at the remote seaports of Cornwall and
UevoiL The native Briton had also acquired his inde-
pendent knowledge of it before the Phoenician trader
visited his shores ; for it is inconceivable that the
mineral treasures of Cornwall and Devon were first
discovered by wandering mariners from the Levant
More probably their ores and metals first reached the
JMediterranean through Gaul ; and the fame of their
mineral wealth tempted the commercial enterprise of Tyre
and Sidon to explore the mysteries of northern seas.

The practical value of the alloy of copper and tin
was already well known both to the Phoenician and
Egyptian. Tin occm-s in considerable abundance, and in
the purest state, in the peninsula of Malacca, and thence,
probably, it was first brought to give a new impetus to
early eastern civilisation. Britain is its next and its
most abundant source ; and since America was embraced
within the world's sisterhood of nations. Chili and
Mexico have become known as productive sources of
the same useful metid.

But the mineral wealth of Mexico and Peru was fami-
liar to the nations of the New World long before it was
made to contribute to European conmierce ; and to the
proximity of the metals best suited for the first stages
of human progress, may be ascribed in part the curious

IX] THE METALLURGIC ARTS: ALLOYS. 287

phases of a native and puiijly aboiigiual civilisation,
which revealed itself to the wondering gaze of the first
European adventurei-s who followed in the steps of
Columbus. Whatever doubts may arise relative to the
native origin of British metallurgy, and the works of
art of the European bronze period, in consequence of
their most characteristic Ulustrations being preserved in
the mixed metal, bronze, and not in pure copper, there
is no room for any such doui>t3 relative to the primitive
metallurgy of the New WorUI, North America appears
to have had its two distinct and entirely independent
centres of self-originated metallurgic aria ; its greatly
prolonged but slightly progressive copper period ; and
apart from this, and probably, in part at least, contem-
poraneou-s with it, ita separate bronze period, with its
distinct centres of more advanced civilisation, and better
regulated metallurgic industry, in which the value of
metallic alloys was practically understood.

The great copper region of North America, with its
rich supplies of pure native metal, accessible to the
rudest effoi-ts of the aboriginal miner, has already been
fully described. It lies along the shores of Lake Su
perior. and on its larger islands between thi.- 46th and
■18th parallels of north latitude ; and from theuce its
metaUic treasures were diffused by barter and primitive
commercial exchanges, throughout the whole vast regions
watered by the Mississippi and ita tributaries ; includ-
ing also the Atlantic states, and the shores of the great
lakes. But southward and westward of this great area
of diffusion, the Rio Grande and its tributaries, with the
Rio Colorado, drain a country modifiotl by verj- diverse
conditions of climate, and having a totally distinct
southern centre of metallurgic wealth and civilizing in-
fluences. In this central region of the twin eontinenta of
America, as well as independently in the more southern

288 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

tropical Peru, a native civilisation had advanced a
considerable way, before it was arrested and destroyed
by the mercenaiy aggressions of foreign intruders. The
peculiar advantages derivable from the native proziniity
of the distinct metals had been discovered, and metal-
lurgy had been developed into the practical arts of a
true American bronze period.

Wlien Columbus, during his fourth voyage, landed on
one of the Guanaja islands, before making the adjoining
mainland of Honduras, it was visited by a large trading
canoe, the size and freight of w^hich equally attracted his
notice. It was eight feet wide, and in magnitude like
a galley, though formed of the trunk of a single tree.
In the centre a raised awning covered and enclosed a
cabin, in wliich sat a cacique with his wives and chil-
dren ; and twenty -five rowers propelled it swiftly
tlu'ough the water. The barque is believed to have
come from the province of Yucatan, then about forty
leagues distant, through a sea the stormy violence of
which had daunted the most hardy Spanish seamen. It
was filled with a great variety of articles of manufacture,
and of the natural produce of the neighbouring con-
tinent ; and among them Herrara specifies " small
hatchets, made of copper, small bells and plates, C7*ucibles
to melt cojypery etc." Here, at length, was the true
answer to that prophetic faith w^hich upheld the great
discoverer, when, peering through the darkness, the New
World revealed itself to his eye in the glimmering
torch, which told him of an unseen land inhabited by
man. Here was evidence of the intelligent service of
fire. Well indeed might it have been for Columbus had
he been obedient to the voice that thus directed his
way. All the accompaniments of the voyagers fur-
nished evidence of civilisation. They were clothed with
cotton mantles. Their bread was made of the Indian

IX.] TUB METALLURGW ARTS: ALLOYS. 28D

corn, anil fi-om it alao tliey had brewed a btvei-age re-
sembling beer. They informed Columbus that they had
just arrived from a country, rich, populous, and indus-
trious, situated to the west, and urged him to steer in
that direction. But his mind was bent on the discovery
of the imaginary strait that was to lead him directly
into the Indian seas. " Well would it have been for
Columbus," exclaims Washington Irving, " had he fol-
lowed their advice. Within a day or two he would
have arrived at Yucatan ; tlie discovery of Mexico, and
the other opulent countries of New Spain, would have
necessarily followed ; the Southern Ocean would have
been disclosed to him, and a succession of splendid dis-
coveriea would have shed fresh glory on his declining
age, instead of its sinking amidst gloom, neglect, and
disappointment," Not Columbus's own future, indeed,
but the whole future of the New World might have been
cliauged. But it was not so to be.

When at length the mainland was reached, the abun-
dance and extensive use of the metals became speedily
apparent ; and as further discoveries brought to the
knowledge of the Spaniards the opulent and idvilized
countries of Yucatan, Mexico, and Peru, which the pro-
ject of reaching the Asiatic mainland had pitvented
Columbus from discovering, they were more and more
astonished by the native metallic wealth. When the
Spaniards first entered the province of Tuspan, they
mistook the bright copper or bronze axes of the natives
for gold, and were greatly mortified after having accu-
mulated them in considerable numbers to discover the
mistake they had made. Bernal Diaz narrates that
" each Indian had, besides his ornaments of gold, a
copper axe, which was veiy highly polished, with the
handle curiously carved, as if to serve equally for an
ornament as for the field of battle. We first thought

VOL. 1. T

290 PREUTSTORIC MAN. [Chap.

these axes were made of an inferior kind of gold ; we
therefore commenced taking them in exchange, and in
the space of two days had collected more than six
hundred ; with which we were no less rejoiced, as long
as we were ignorant of their real value, than the Indians
with our glass beads/'

In the form of copper wedges or axes, as we learn
from the ancient Mexiwrn paintings, the tribute due by
certain provinces of the Mexican empire was paid ; and
Dupaix describes and figures examples of a deposit of
two hundi'ed and seventy-six axe-heads, cast of alloyed
copper, such as, he observes, " are much sought by the
silvei-smiths ou account of their fine alloy." The forms
of these, as well as of the chisels and other tools of
bronze, are exceedingly simple, and indicate no great
ingenuity in adapting the moulded metal to the more
perfect accomplishment of the artificer's or the com-
batant's requirements than had been done in the ruder
implements and weapons of stone. The methods of
hafting the axe-blade, as illustrated by the ancient
Mexican jiaintings, are all of the same rude description
as are employed by the modem savage in fitting a
handle to his hatchet of flint or stone ; and, indeed, the
whole charactciistics of the metallurgic and artistic in-
genuity of Mexico and Peru are suggestive of a civilisa-
tion veiy partially developed ; though, from the nature
of Peruvian institutions, the civilisation of Peru, like
that of China, may have been in existence, with very
slight and intermittent manifestations of progress, during
many centuries. It was indeed, in many respects, the
early transitional bronze period of the New World, in
which not only the inide arts of the elder stone period
had been very partially supei-seded or modified by metal-
lurgic influencjes, Imt in which the stone axe, the sword,
or mcOigHahuitl, made of wood, with blades of obsidian

IX. ] THE MKTA L L CHGIC A HTS . A L LO YS. 29 1

in»erto<l along its o<lg«», the flint or o1>si(1ian arrow-head
an<l the Htone hatchets and other weai>onH, wen? in com-
mon us<», along with those of nn»tal. Yet also, ah)ng
with Hurh tra«»es of the nidest primitive arts, remarkable
progress had In^rn made in some <Iin*ctions. 1{umlN»]dt
n*marks, in his Vues ihs ('nnlilli^frs, on the Rur])riMing
dexterity shown by the Peruvians in cutting the hardest
8t4)neM : *' At ( anar, we fuul ear%'ed gnM)ves hollowetl in
the poq>hyry, to supply the want of liing(\s to the doors.
1^1 Condamine ami ItougUfr s^iw, in old edifirrs Imilt in
the time of the Ineas, ornaments of |H)q>hyr}' repn»-
senting the muzzles of animals, in the jH*iforated nostrils
of whieh were movable riii'T'^ of tin* sime st4>ne. When
I cnwisi^l the C«)rdilleni by thr Paramo of Assuay, and
8:iw the enonnous massc's of stone extniete<l fn»m the
ptiq^liNt}* quarries of Pullal, einployrd in (Constructing
tin* high rojids <»f the In<*a, I ahvady In^g-an t*) d«nibt
whether the I\*nivians were not aequainted with other
tools lM»sides hatchets <if flint. I susjM»cted that grinding
was not thr only mrtlnKl they had employed to siutNith
the stones, or give them a n*gularand unifonn convexity;
and I then adopte<I an opinion c«»ntrary to the ideas
gi'ncndly n^ceivcd. I conjc<tunMl that the I^eruvians
hA4l t4Mils of copjHT, whirh, mixed with a certain pn)iH>r-
tion of tin, mu|uiri»s great hardni»ss. This c*»njerture has
lHM»n justified by the dis<»oviTV of an ancient Peiiivian
chim*l, foumi at Vileakimba, m*ar (*u/eo, in a silv«*r mine
worki^l in the time of the Incas. This valuable instni
ment, for which 1 am indtbted to th«' friendship of the
Patlre Narcissi* (lilltiir, is four and s^'Ven-tenth inches
long, and fimr-fiftlis of an ineh bn»ail. The metal <»f
which it is (*om{N»s«*d has ]ur\\ analys^Ml by M. Vau
cpielin, who found in it «»**»4 «»f ei»p|MT, ami oim; of tin."
Unfortunately, the natun* and eiim|H»sition t«f ^^^\i«'ah
and Peruvian bron/cs have hithrrin atliaeird **•» litt!*

292 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

nttention, tlmt it is impossible to obtain many accurato
records of analyses, or to procure specimens to submit to
chemical tests. Dr. J. H. Gibbon, of the United States
Mint, has favoured me with the analjrsis of another
chisel or crow-bar, brought from the neighbourhood of
(.Hizco by his son, Lieutenant Lardner Gibbon, who
foniied one of the members of the Amazon Expedition.
Tlu'ough tile kind services of Mr. Thomas Ewbank, of
the American Ethnological Society, I have also obtained
ill addition to results determined by himself, eight spe-
<jimens of Peruvmn implements, though only a portion
of these proved to be fonned of metalUc allojrs. They
were submitted to careful analysis by my colleague,
Professor Henry Croft, and the results in reference to
the bronzes are given on a sul^sequent page.^ Mr.
Squier, in the Ai^pendix to his A hoHginal Monuments
of flic State of New York, gives an engraving of an
implement, somewhat of the shape of a shoemaker's
l)ariiig-kiiife, wliich was fomid, with various other Peru-
vian knives and chisels, about the pei-son of a mummy,
tak(?n by Mr. J. H. Blake, of Boston, from an ancient
(M'nu^teiy near Arica. On amilysis, it proved to contain
about four per cent, of tin. Having enjoyed opportu-
nities of iiispccthig the valuable collection of antiquities
brought by Mr. Blake from Peru, including a variety of
bronz(» implements, lie has favoured me with the fol-
lowing results of his investigations in tliis department
of the sulyect : — " Many yeai's ago, I made a series of
analyHes of bronze instraments, knives, chisels, hoes, etc.,
whieJi 1 found in ancient cemeteries in Peru in con-
nexion with embalmed bodies. I have not been able
to find my notes made at the time ; but I know that
they (•onsisted of copper and tin only, and that the
projMU'tion of the latter viuied from upwards of two to

^ Analyses of Ancient American Bronzes, p. 312.

IX.J TllK MRTALLVHdW ARTS: ALLOYS. 293

four i>or cont. After receiving your last lett4*r, I tumle
an unalysiH of a 8nmll knife found by me, with many
4»ther artirleH, with the IxKly of a man, in the ancient
eemeter}* near Arica, in South Peru. The Iiandle in of
the Hame metal as the l>lade, and at right angh'8 with
it, being joined at X\\v mi<Idle. The end is faKhioniHl to
re|)n»8i»nt the hea<l of a llama. ( hi anal)*i4ii», the compo-
nition proveH t4) 1m» : (\>p|H»r, y787 ; tin, 2*1 3." Dr.
(\ T. .Jiu'kflon <!ommunicaU*d another analysis of a
** Chilian bronze inKtnnnent, prolwbly a erowliar," to
the IWt<m Natural Histor}- S<H'iety. it rontaine<l 7*615
|mrt8 of tin, and is (h^ftcrilMHl by him aft a bnmze, well
adapte<I for such infttniments as w<»re to Ik» Iiammer-
hanleUiNl.* The gen(»ral result of the whole is to indicate
a variable ninge of the tin alloy, fnun 213 to 7*615 jH»r
cent. ; whicli, in fto far as any general inference can Ih»
drawn from »o small a imml>er of exjinipU-H, rIiowh a
greatly mon* indet4»nninatc and pjirtially develo|HMl
metallui^' than the analysis of primitive Eun>)H'an
l)ron2«^ liave diftclone^l.

Such i« all the evidem-e I have Immmi able to obtain
relative to the Ci)m|>oftition of Peruvian alloys, and the
progresft indicat4^d thereby in s^icntifi** metallurg}\ It
ift alti>gcthcr insufficient for any |H)«itive generalization ;
but, so far jis it go4»s, it fully ac4*onls with the idea«
other\^'i:H; formtnl of the Peruvians an a j>eople who ha<l
disi'overeil for thcms4»lvc« the nnliments of livilisation,
Imt who hail as vet ver\- iMirtiallv attainnl to anv
maflter}' of the arts whi<*h have In^en matuiiMl in nuHb'ni
irnturies for Euro|>e. This aeconls with the fles4*ription
fumishiMl by Dr. Tschudi of S4>me of the metallurgic
pro<*eftfM*H still practisi^tl in I'eru. '* The (*4)nlinera, in
the m*ighlK>urho<Ml of Yauli," he remarks, •• is exee4»<lingly
ri<*h in h»ad ore, containing silver. Within the circuit

1 rrtif^iim^ R.s as, \«.l V |» fix

294 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

of a few miles above eight hundred shafts have been
made, but they have not been found sufficiently pro-
ductive to encourage extensive mining works. The
difficulties which impede mine-working in these parts
are caused chiefly by the deamess of labour and the
scarcity of fuel. There being a total want of wood,
the only fuel tliat can be obtained consists of the dried
dung of sheep, llamas, and huanacus* This fuel is called
taquia. It produces a veiy brisk and intense flame,
and most of the mine-owners prefer it to coal. The
process of smelting, as practised by the Indians^ though
extremely inide and imperfect, is nevertheless adapted
to local circumstances. All European attempts to im-
prove the system of smelting in these districts have
eitlier totally failed, or in their results have proved less
effective than the simple Indian method. The Indian
furnaces can, moreover, be easily erected in the vicinity
of the mines, and when the metal is not very abundant
the furnaces may be abandoned without any great sacri-
fice. For tlie price of one European furnace the Indians
may build more than a dozen, in each of which, not-
^^itllstanding the paucity of fuel, a considerably greater
quantity of metal may be smelted than in one of
Euroi)ean construction." At tlie village of Yauli, near
the mines referred to, situated at an elevation of 13,100
feet above the sea, from twelve to fourteen thousand
Indians are congi'egated together, chiefly engaged in
mining, after the fashion handed down to them from
generations before the Conquest. Their processes entirely
correspond with the imperfect results disclosed by the
analysis of native alloys ; as well as by the proofs
afforded, on the same evidence, that the Peruvian me-
tallui'gist was accustomed to work the native copper
into his simpler tools and personal omaments, very much
in the same fasliion as the ancient niechimician of the

IX.) TIIK MKTALLVRGIC AHTii : ALLOYS. 205

Ohio vallf»y, t4) whom the procesHcs of Hnifltiii}; luul
alloy injr wrn* wholly unkuown.

Th(* coutnuHt which the civilisiitioii alike of Mexico
aii«l Peril preaentH, when compared with the hi<{lieHt urt«
IM*rtaining to any of the tidlien of North America, is well
ealeiilated to excite Huiprine and adminition. ]}ut the
Wonder of the SpauiMh concjuen^rs at their genw and gold,
the ready credulity of the mis^ioiuir}' priestH in their
anxiety to magnify the gorgc^ous paganism which they
bad overthrown, antl the patriotic exaggeration of Liter
chroniclers of native descent, have all tended to over-
draw the picture of the l)eneticcnt civili/Ail de8]K)tism of
the Incas of IVru ; or the crueller but not less magnifi-
cent rule of the EmjK*rorH of Mexico. With a willing
cn*dulity H]Kini.sh hist4)rians |HrjKtuated wluit the Peru-
vian GarcihiAM) and the M<*\i<'aii Ixtlilxoihitl related, in
their ailaptations of nativtr hist4»ry an«I troilitioiis to
Eun»{M*2in c«>nc4»ptions. Kfligious, iNilitical, and H4K*ial
unalogi(*8to Kuro]N'an ideas and institutions, acconlingly,
8trike the nKMleni student with wonder iintl admiration ;
nor h;w the gift<Ml author of the CnuffNistn nj Mexico ami
Prni always Mitficii^ntly iliseriminated U'twe^^n the glow-
ini' romanci»s In^jrot l»v an alliance In'twivn tlu' l»«irluirouH
magniticence of a rude native <les|H»tUm and the asw.-
eiati^l ii\viiH of Kun»|H'an institutions. The metallic
treasun*M of the |»;dac(*s and the temples af the Iwaa of
iVni an* |>rol>al»ly not exaggfrat^d ; and if so, the pre-
cious metals with which tlitv wen* adt»rned wouM have
iK'i'n the index in any Eurt»pean <\'ipital of a wealth suf-
Hci^'Ut t4M«mploy the im*n*hant-navies of Venice, Holland,
or Kiighmd in the c<»nimerce <»f the worM. But in INtu
this w;ij* the men* evitlence nf the al»undance of the pn*
cious metals in a countrv when* thev wen* iis little the
n^preseiitatives of a C4inuii<-rcial cumin y as the ft*ather»
of the cora<|ueu<|Ue, which wen* n'Si*r\ed exclusively for

296 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

tlie decoration of royalty. The PeruvianB occupied a
long extent of sea-coast, but no commercial enterprise
tempted them to launch their navies on the Pacific, ex-
(^opting for the most partial coasting transit. The great
mass of the people patiently wrought to produce from
their varied tropical climates and fertile soil the agricul-
tural produce on which the entire community depended ;
resembling in this — as well as in their vast structures
wrought by a patiently submissive people at the will of
their absolute i-ulers, — the great orient-al despotisms when
in their earliest and crudest, yet least Ucentious forms.
Their own traditions ti'aced the dawn of their goveni-
mont no further back than the twelfth century ; and
the whole characteristics of their veiy imperfect and
unequally developed civilisation confirm the inference
that they have not in this respect departed from the
invarial)le tendency of historic myth and tradition to
exaggerate the national age. Prescott refers to extensive
ruins still existing on the shores of Lake Titicaca, which
the Peruvians affirm to have existed before the Incas
arrived. But what value can be attached to the tradi-
tions of an unlettered people relative to structures or
events of any kind dating four or five centuries back ?
The authority of Bede is held as of little value relative
to the Jute or Anglo-Saxon colonization leas than three
centuries before his time ; and the modem New Eng-
lander, with deeds and parchments, as well -as abundance
of printed history to help his tradition, cannot make up
his mind as to whether the famous Newport Round
Tower was built by a Norse viking of the eleventh cen-
tuiy or a New England miller of the seventeenth century.
" No account," says Prescott, " assigns to the Inca dynasty
more than thirteen princes before the Conquest. But this
number is altogether too small to have spread over four
hundred years, and would not carry' back the foundations

IX.] THE MRTALLVRGW ARTS: ALLOYS. 297

of the monarchy, on any prolmKle romputation, iM'yond
two centurii'H ami a luilf— an antiquity not incrtnlible in
itH<»lf, and which, it may Ijc n»marke<J, doea not prccedt'
by mon* than half a contur}' thi' alleged foundation of
th(» rapitid of Mexico/* f{umlK)idt, in hii* Vues c/ew Cor-
(lill^^n'M, indicat4'H the UinlerH of the L'lke Titicaca, the
diHtrict of (^dlacs anil the high plainn of Tiahuanaco, an
the theatre of ancient American civilisation : and Prea-
cott, in view of the apparently recent origin of the Inc^us
ausBumcH that they wen* pnM*ed«Hl in Peru hy a nice ad
vanced in civilisation, which, in confonnity with native
traditions, he would derive from thin same enidle-land c»f
South American civilisiiticm an»und the dcHertetl Rhoren
of Lake Titicaca. Ilevond this, however, he diH*8 not
attempt to pi*netnite into tluit unchn>niel(Ml \n\nt. Who
thin people were, and whence they came, may afford a
tempting theme for inquiry to the s|H*culative antiijuarian.
Hut it is a land of darkness that lies far lM*v<md the
domain of histor}'. The 8<'un(* mists that hang n)und tlu^
origin of the Inais continue to settle on their sul»sef|uent
annals ; and H4> im|K*rfect wen» the n^ronls employt^l hy
the Peruvians, and m) confusi»d ami enntradictor}' their
traditions, that tlu* hist4»rian timls no tinn footing on
whi(*h to stand till within a century* of the S|)anish

41»mjU4'St.

In n»ality only a verj* small |H)rtion of what is calle<l
Peruvian histor}' prior to that concpiest can Ih» n»ganle<i
as anything but a historical romane«* ; ami the exagge-
niti^i conceptions n'lative to the completen<*ss and con
sistent development alike of [\'ruvian and Mexican
native civilisation, are IkisimI on xUv old axicmi which has
HO often misled the an*lutN»logist, cjr jH^de Jlen'tilem.

Vieweel, however, without exaggenition, the pn>gn*«i
alremly attaineii in me<*hanical skill and artistic ingenuity
by liotb of the aemi-civilizeil Americ*an nationis is ver)'

298 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

remarkable. The liuacas or tombs of the IncaSy and
also their royal and other depositories of treasure, have
disclosed many specimens of curions and elaborate
metallui'gic skill : bracelets, collars, and other personal
ornaments of gold, vases of the same abundant precious
metal, and also of silver ; mirrors of burnished silver, as
well as of a hard and highly -polished stone; finely
adjusted balances made in silver ; and numerous com-
moner aiticles of copper, or of the more useful alloy of
copper and tin, of which their tools were chiefly made.

The Peruvian mining operations fiilly accorded with
the partial development of their civilisation in other
respects. " Gold," says Prescott, " was gathered by the
Incas from the deposits of the streams. They extracted
the ore also in considemble quantities from the valley of
Curimayo, north-east of Caxamarca, as well as from other
pl.'ices ; and the silver mines of Porco, in particular,
yielded them considerable returns. Yet they did not
attempt to penetrate the bowels of the earth by sinking
a shaft, but simply excavated a cavern in the steep sides
of the mountain, or at most opened a hoiizontal vein of
moderate depth. They were equally deficient in the
knowledge of the best means of detaching the precious
metal from the dross with which it was united, and had
no idea of the virtues of quicksilver — a mineral not rare
in Peru, — as an amalgam to effect tliis decomposition.
Their method of smelting the ore was by means of fur-
naces built in elevated and exposed situations, where
they might be fanned by the strong breezes of the moun-
tains. The subjects of the Incas, in short, with all their
patient perseverance, did little more than penetrate below
the crust, the outer rind as it were, formed over those
golden caverns which lie hidden in the dark depths of the
Andes.'' ^ To the famous C'ordillera of the Andes, with

' Conquest of Pn-u^ book i. chap. v.

IX.] TliK MKTALLIHGIC ARTS: ALLOYS, J99

its j(olclon tn*a.sun»s, the IVruviaim arc lM»lifveil Ui have
givfii thrir nann* of Aii«U*h, from tin* native wonl nuta^
ropjKT. With thi8 metal they also alnjund ; and while
their golden tri*iwun\s 8iT\'etl to enkindle with a useless
hlaze of harlxirie gold their temples an<l {mlace-IuUls, the
m«talhir^ne skill which had alrt*ady taught them to
hanh*n the almndiint eopiHT with its tin aUoy, is the
mo>t promising in<h*x of their immature civilisation.

But while the arts of civilisiition were thus Ijeing
fosteretl on that southern plateau of the Andes ; ap|>a-
rently in total inde]K*mlence of all that the institutions
and the policy of the Incas had achi<'vcHl, another seat
of native American (*ivilis2ition had lK*t*n founded on tho
corn*s|>< aiding plateau of the northern continent, and
the Aztecs were building up an empire even more
mar>'ellous than tlmt of the Iiicas. The site of the
lattiT is among the most ri*markai)le (»f all the scenes
consecrated to mt»mories of the birth of civilisation. On
tin* loftv table-land which lies lx*tween the Gulf of
Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, at an elevation of nearly
seven thousiind live hundn*d feet, the vallcv of Mexico
lies enginUe^l by its rani|»iirts of j>orphyritic DK'k, like a
vast fortn^ss proviiUMl by natun* for guanlin;: the in-
fiuicv of American native civilisiition. Here was the
S4'ene of the half mythical hemic age of Toltec Art,
when* the foundations of all later pn>grt*ss were laitl,
ami ar«hil4-cture arhifve*! its earliest triumphs in the
New WorKl (»n the t^^mples and towers of Tula, tin?
ruined remains of whieh attracted th<* attenti<m of tlu*
S]i;inianls at the time of the ContjUe.st. Hut the history
of the Toltecs and their mined rdiii<*es stands on the
lN>nler lines of n»manci* an«l fable, like that c»f the Hniid
builders of Canuic an<l Aveburv. To them, accimling
t4» tnidition and sueh historieal evi«Ieni^* as is accessible,
suceeeiled their Aztec or Mexican supplanters, along

30<i PREHISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

with tlui Acollmanfl, or Tezcucans, as they were latterly
called from their capital Tezcuco. On the opposite
chorea <yi the siime Mexican lake, the largest of five
inland watera that diversified the surface of that great
table-land valley, 8too<l Tezciu^o and Mexico, the capitals
of the two most important states within which the
native civilisation of the North American continent
developed itself. From the older Toltecans, the en-
noachiug Tezcucans are l)elieved to have derived the
germs of that civilisation, w^hich is best known to us
in connexion with the true Aztec or Mexican state.
IjCgends of the golden age and heroic races of Anahuac
al)()und, and have been rendered into their least extrava-
gant forms by tlie patriotic zeal of Ixtlilxochitl, a lineal
descendant of the royal line of Tezcuco. But the true
Mexicans arc acknowledged to be of recent origin, and
the founding of Mexico — with rites as rude and primi-
tive as those of the Veneti refugees when inaugurating
the Queen of the Adriatic, — is assigned to a.d. 1326.
But the founders of Tenochtitlan, as the new capital was
caUed, ivere a vigorous, enteiprising, and ferocious race.
The later name of Mexico was derived from the Aztec
war-god Mexitli, whose favoui's to his Aztec votaries
enabled them to Imild up a powerful state by conquest,
to enrich themselves with spoil, and to replace the rude
fabrics of their city's founders wAih, sul)stantial and
ornate stiiictures of stone.

Whatever gloze of mild paternal absolutism may
linger around our conceptions of the prehistoric chron-
icles of Peru, a clearer light illuminates the harsh reali-
ties of Mexican sovereignty. The god of war was the
supreme deity of the Aztecs, worshipped with hideous
rites of blood. Their civil and military codes, according
to the narrative of their conquerors, were alike cruel
as that of Draco ; and their religious worship was a

IX.] THE .VETALLVHGIC .UiTS : ALLOYS. 301

system of austere fanaticism, and loathsome butchery
and cannibalism, which seemed to refine the merciless
cruelties of the lied Indian savage into a ritual service
fit only for the devil. But besides theii- hideous war-
gud. the Mexican mythology was graced by a beneficent
lUvinity, Quetzalcoatl, the instructwr of the Aztecs ia
the use of metals, in agiieulture, and in the arts of
govommcut. Tliis and similar elements of Mexican
mythology have been regarded by Prescott and others
as the traces of a milder faitli inherited by the Mexicans
fixtm their Toltecan prcdecessoi-s, and on which they
engrafted their own incongruous creed of unmitigated
ferocity. This idea is one supported by many proba-
bilities, as well as by some evidence. The early hiatoiy
of the Northmen, however, in which we witness the
lilcuding of that rich poetic fancy wherein lay the gei-m
of later Noiinan romance and chivalry, with cruelties
|)crtaiiung to a creed Uttle less bloody than tbit of the
Mexican wanior, sliowa that no such theory is needed
Xo account for the incongruities of the reUgions system
of the Aztecs. In truth, the ferocity of a semi-barbaroua
l^ople is often nothing more than its perverted excess
of energy ; and — as has been ak*eady noted in reference
to the Caribs, — -is more easily dealt with, and turned
into healthful and beneficent action, than the cowardly
craft of the docile slave. It is only when such hideous
rites are consciously engrafted on the usages of a people
already far in advance of such a semi-barbarous child-
hood— as in the Spanish adoption of the Inquisition at
the commencement of its modern history, — tliat they
prove utterly baneful, because the nation is already past
that stage of progress in which it would naturally out-
grow them.

Hideous, therefoi-e, as were the human sacrifices, with
their annual thousands of victims, the offeiings of in-

L

302 PREHTSTORIG MAN. [Chap.

fonts to propitiate Tlaloc, their rain-god, and the loath-
some banquets on the bodies of their sacrificed victims^
— ^if indeed this be not an exaggeration of Spanish cre-
dulity and fanaticism, — it is nevertheless difficult to
concur in the verdict of the gifted historian of The Conr
quest of Mexico, that " it was beneficentiy ordered by
Providence that the land should be delivered over to
another race who would rescue it from the brutish super-
stitions that daily extended wider and wider, with extent
of empire." The rule of the conquerors, with their
Dominican ministers of religion, was no beneficent sway ;
and its fruits in later times have not proved of such
value as to reconcile the student of that strange old
native civilisation of the votaries of Quetzalcoatl, to
its abrupt arrestment at a stage which can only be
paralleled by the earliest centuries of Egyptian pro-
gress.

Both milling operations and metallurgic arts were
carried further by the Mexicans than by the Peruvians.
Silver, lead, and tin were obtained from the mines of
Tasco, and copper was wrought in the mountains of
ZacotoUan, by means of giiUeries and shafts opened with
persevering toil where the metallic veins were embedded
in the solid rock ; and there, as at the Lake Superior
copper regions, the traces of such ancient mining have
proved the best guides to the modem searchers for the
ores. The arts of casting, engraving, chasing, and carv-
ing in metal were all practised with great skill. Vessels
both of gold and silver were wrought of enormous size :
so large, it is said, that a man could not encircle them
with his arms ; and the aliundant gold was as lavishly
employed in Mexico as in Peru, in the gorgeous adorn-
ment of temples and palaces. Ingenious toys, birds and
beasts with movable wings and limits, fish with alter-
nate scales of silver and gold, and personal ornaments

IX.] THE MKTALLVRGIC ARTS: ALLOYS. 303

in great variety, were \^Tought by the Mexican goKl
Hmitlis of the same preeioun metal, with HUeh curioufl
art, that th(t Spaniards aeknowleilged the Kii|H*riority
of the native workmanship over anything they couhl
aehic^ve. When Cortes first entennl the capital of Mon-
tezuma in 151*J, the Mexican Emi>eror re<!eive<l him in
the |>alace built by his fatluT Axayacatl, ami hung rouml
his neck a decoration of the finest Mexic*an workmanship.
The shell of a sjKMies of craw-fish, set in gold, formeil
the centn», and massive links of gold completeil the
collar, from which dc»iK»ndnl eight oniaments of the sjime
metal, and of ddiaite worknmnship, wrought in imita-
tion of the prized sht»ll-fish.

The arttfthus practis^'d on the gn»at plateau extendcnl
Uy the most 84jutheni limits of the North American con-
tinent. The huacits or ancient gravrs of the Isthmus of
Panama, have U^en raiis;ukrd l»y thousjinds in recent
years, from the temptation which the goM wWva they
contain held out to their explon*rs. These* include n*-
preiH*ntations of l^easts, birds, and fishes, frogs, and other
olyects, imitati*<l fn»m natun*, often with gn*at skill an<l
ingenuity. One gold fn>g whirh I cxamiutNl IkuI the
eyes hoHow, with an oval slit in fn»nt, and within each
a detached Imll of gold, whirh ap|M«anHl to have Invn
executed in a single casting. This insertion of detacluHl
IniUs is frecjuently met with in tht- jMJttiTv, as well as in
the goldsmiths work of the Isthmus, and is singularly
cluiracteristic of a |HMuliar phast* of l<N*al art. Human
figun»s arc also foun<l in the sani«» graves wrought in
gohl ; but, so far as my own opjM>rt unities of olw4*r\*a-
tion <*nable me to ju*lgt\ of inferior imitative skill and
ex^H'ution to th«' n»pn*S4ntations of other animate suIh
jettH. But tln*y display almntlant metallurgic art.
Soldering as wi»ll as c;i>ting w;is known to the anrirnt
goldnmith, and the finer s|N*cimens have Uu*n finishtnl

304 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

with the hammer and graving-tooL Judging &om the
condition of the human remains found in those huacas
of the peninsula, they are probably of a much higher
antiquity than the era of Mexican civilisation, and iUus-
trate the source of later Aztec arts.

But while the Mexicans wrought their ingenious toys,
and lavished their inexhaustible resources of gold and
silver in personal decoration, and adorned their public
edifices with scarcely less boundless profusion than the
Peruvians, they had learned to some extent the practical
value of gold and other metals as a convenient currency.
By means of this equivalent for the gold and silver
coinage of Europe, the interchange of commodities in
the great markets of Mexico was faciUtated, and an im-
poitiint step in the progress towards a higher stage of
civilisation secured. This metallic currency consisted of
pieces of tin cut in the form of a T, or stamped with a
similar character, and of transparent quills filled with
gold dust. These were apparently regulated to a com-
mon standard by their size : for the use of scales and
weights, with which the Peruvians were familiiir, ap
pears to have been totally unknown in Mexico.

The natm-e of the Mexican metallic cuiTency fully
accords with the knowledge and experience of a people
among whom the met^Uurgic arts were of comparatively
recent origin. The easily fused tin, and the attractive
and accessible gold-dust, supplied the ready materials
for schooling an ingenious people in the use of the
metals. Co])i)er was probably first used w^hen foimd in
a pure metallic state, as among the old miners of Lake
Superior, w^hile the art of fusing, taught by the Aztec
Tubal-Cain, was tried only on the readily-yielding tin.
\\y tliirt means the ails of smelting and moulding the
n\etallu* ores would be acquired, and applied to copper,
silver, and gold, as well as to the tin. Accident might

IX.] THE METALLVHOW ARTS: ALLOYS. S05

8Ugge»t the next important Htagc of metallic alloys ; but
un<ler the circumstamres alike of Peruvian and Mexican
civilifuition, pn)gre88ing in regions abounding with the
most attractive and easily- wnmght metals, it is easy to
conceive of the ind(*i)endent di.s<!over}' of the useful
bronze alloy. Yet by the standard conii>osition of their
bnmze, far more tlian the ingenious intricacy of their
personal ornaments, ut<'n8ils, and architectural decora-
tions, may fairly Ik; tcsteil the actual progn^ss alike of
the Incas or of the Aztecs. The delight of the savage
in persomd adornment precedes even the most needful
covering of his nake^lness, and the same pro|H*nsity long
mono{M)lize8 the whole inventive ingenuity of a semi-
barliarous people ; while the us4*ful tools of bronze em-
Ix^ly the true germs of incipient civilisation. Tested by
such a standard, the metallurgic arts of Peru furnish
con<*lusive evidence of its very juirtial development, and
suggest the pn)l>ability that its latest stage did not
|K*rtain to any |ieri<Kl very remote from the era of Eun)-
pean discover)". The alloy of copper and tin, when
destine<l for practical use in the manufactun* of weajKins
and implements, is found to |H>ssi*rirt the wv^X S4^r>'iceablt»
qualities when comjHJsiHl of alnmt niin*ty jkt cent, of
cop|>er to ten of tin ; and so near is the appro.ximation
to this theoretical standanl among the bronze n*lics of
the ancient world, tluit the ari'lueologists of Euro|K» have
b«»n dividi^l in opinion as to whether they hhouKl ais-
sume a Pha*nician or oth(T common origin for all the
weapons^ implements, and |K'rH4>nal ornaments of tliat
metal found more or less abundantly over the whole con-
tinent ; or that the mixinl metal was all derivinl fn>m a
common centre, ami that this w:uh manufa«*ture<l in the
various countrii^s of Eun>|K* into the tibjects of <liverse
form and patteni alnmnding in their »i>il, and <le|Mi8it4'<l
vou I. V

306 PREUISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

among the Bepulchral offerings which their barrows and
tumuli reveal That the former idea of a common
origin for the finished implements is untenable, has been
proved, alike by numerous discoveries of moulds of the
prepared metal, and even of the furnaces where the
bronze worker practised his ingenious art ; and also by
the varieties in form and style of ornament, by which
the bronze relics of difierent countries of Europe, mani-
festly belonging to the same period, are distinguishable.
The idea of the bronze itself having been all derived
from some common source is, in like manner, rendered
improbable by a more careful investigation of the evi-
dence on which it has been founded. Mr. Worsaae, the
distinguished Danish antiquary, after conunenting on the
resemblance traceable throughout the many weapons^
implements, and personal ornaments of bronze, which
have been discovered in Greece, Italy, Germany, France,
England, and Scandinavia, adds, "They have all been
cast in moulds, and the metal is of the same composi-
tion, nine tenths copper, and one tenth tin. From this
there would be further reason to suppose that they all
originated with one people. But a careful examination
and comparison of the antiquities themselves from these
various countries will nevertheless show that in different
countries the antiquities of bronze are also somewhat
different." This he proceeds to illustrate from a com-
parison of their forms, patterns, ornaments, and practical
details ; and he accordingly arrives at the conclusion,
" beyond a doubt, that such bronze objects were manu-
factured in those countries, and not imported. The only
thing which was imported being of course the metcJ,
wliich by trade and barter was spread, in different ways,
over the whole of Europe." ^ In an earUer part of the

' Primeml Antiquities of Denmark^ pp. 137, 138.

IX) Tin: MKTALLUHiiW ARTS: ALLOYS. 307

name work, Mr. Wowaae refero to the additional evidence
supplied by numerous discoveriei* of nioulds^ pieces of
unwrought metal, coUectioufl of broken weapons toola,
and ornaments pre[)ared for smelting, and the fragments
of bronze derived from the meUU nmning into the joints
of the mould, and subaccjuently detached in the process
of finishing, which are technically cidled " castings."
From all such evidence it is assumtnl tluit the a<*(iuisition
of weapons and im])lemcnts of metal was spee<lily fi>l-
lowe^l throughout all the countries of Eurojie by the
knowleilge and practice of metallurgic arta Mr. Wor-
KaiM% however, only supjH)8es the latter In have extended
to the amount of skill re<[uisite for melting and mould
ing the useful alloy : and not to the knowlctlge re(juire<l
f<»r iletemiining the most useful combinations of copper
an<l tin. Referring to the Scandinavian anticjuities of
gold, as well as of bronze, he n^nuirks : ** These metals
might eiisily have Ikh-'U intro<luceil, in the rude staite,
either from Russia, from the Und mountains, or fnnu
Eaighuid, where, as is well known, tin luid C4)p|»i*r, the
constituents of bronz«*, oi'cur in considerable (piantitit*^
ami where gold may have Ix^cn found in ancit*nt timt*s:
while we may account for its presence hen* either liy
sup{NJsing that the tninsit t<H»k place direct by si'a, or
that the metal was Hrst transmitteil to (*ountries nearer
EngLuul, and thenc«* by liarter was brought t4) the nortlu
This fiu't, at least, is evident, that almiKHt all bronzes
whii'li are referable to that primeval time, when iron wjis
not genendly known or employinl, are formcil i»f a |h'cu-
liur mixtun* of metals, which is roitstantlv the Kime in
all the eountricH in which they an* f«»unil. It contains, for
instance, about nine tenths of cop{H*r and one tenth «>f tin,
while the more miNleni bmnze whi«*h, suWquent t4i the
knowledge of imn, was useil for ornaments, vi«ss<»ls, and

308 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap,

the like, was usually formed of equal quantities of coppei
and zinc. Hence it is highly probable that the ancient
bronze formed of copper and tin, was dijflfused from on€
spot over the whole of Europe/' This spot he supposes
to be England, famed for its rich mines of copper and tin
from the earliest historic times. But while it is impro-
bable that the tin and copper were separately imported
into each country of Europe, to be there converted by the
native metallurgist into the more useful alloy ; a more
careful investigation of the evidence throws as much
doubt on the idea of any single coumion source for the
bronze, as for the objects of varied form and pattern
made from that alloy.

The reasons for some general approximation to a con-
stant proportion in the elements of European bronze,
when designed for tools and weapons, have been well
illustrated by the report of a series of synthetic experi-
ments of Dr. George Pearson, communicated by him to
the Koyal Society of London in 1796, and printed in
the Philosophical Traiisactions of that year. Having by
a series of analyses determined the relative proportions
of copper, tin, and other metals present in various
Roman and British bronze relics, he next proceeded to
fuse copper and tin in various united proportions^ be-
ginning with one part of tin to twenty parts of copper,
which produced a dark-coloured bronze, with a fracture
inclining in its colour to the peculiar red of the pure
copper. On reducing the copper to fifteen parts of
copper to one of tin, the colour was materially affected,
and the red copper hue was no longer seen when the
product was fractured, but an alloy of greater strength
was produced. The experiments were continued with
twelve, ten, nine, eighty and seven parts of copper to
one of tin ; and when the last fusion of the metals was

IX.] TIIK METALLURGIC AHT8 : ALLOYS. S09

testcnl, the increaBc m hardness and brittleness became
verj" apjMirent. Tlic same chanicteriHtics were still more
marked on Rucrensively nxlucing the proj>ortion8 of
coi)i)i'r to seven, six, five, four, and thn»e ; and when
on alloy wiis made of two j)arts of cojiper to one of tin,
it wa^ a<'(*ording to Dr. Pearson s rejwrt, as lirittle as
glass. Here, then, we see at a glance the whole process
pursued by the old worker in bronze, who ha\dng ascer-
tained tliat he could ])roduee a harder and more useful
eomiM)und than the jmre copper by allo}4ng it with tin,
would not fail to diminish the proportions of the latter
till he hml obtained a sufficiently near approximation to
the well ascertained a<lniixture of the Ijest bronze, to
answer the practical puqx)sea for which it was di^signed.
Arconlingly, without any great ni<cty of ap]M>rtionment
of the two metjds, it is obvious that no inten'ours** or
interi'tiange of experience Wiis necess;iry to lead the
isohite<l metallurgists of the remotest n*gions of Euro])e
t4) the sjime results when deiding with these metals with
similar objects in view ; nor would a closer corresj)ond-
ence lit»tween the pro|)ortionate ingredients of the native
American and £uro|M-an bronze than hiis yet lx»en <le-
te<*te<l, indicate more than similar aims, and the inevitable
ex|H»rience conse<pient on the pn>iH»rtics of the var}'ing
alloy, leading to corresjKinding nviults. The f«illowing
table of the compositions deteeto<l by analys«*s in various
ancient bronze Mies will sutfire to show how little foun-
dation there is for the assumption of a IMianiician, HrittHh,
or any other common origin for the alloy of which th«*y
were made.

310

PREHISTORIC MAX.

[Chap.

ANALYSES OF ANCIENT BRONZES.

No.
1.

Copper.

Tln.

Lead.

Iron. '

Lituufl,

Lincolnshire,

88-

12-

2.

Anglo-Roman patella, „

86-

14-

1

3.

Spear-head,

»

86-

14-

i

4.

Scabbard (Danish ?), „

90-

10-

5.

Axe-head, .

Ireland,

91-

9-

6.

Axe palfltave.

Chimberland, .

91-

9-

7.

Axe-head, .

♦1

88-

12-

8.

Bronze vessel.

Cambridgeshir

e, 88-

12-

9.

Sword,

France, .

87-47

12-53

10.

Caldron,

Berwickshire,

92-89

515

1-78

1

11.

Sword,

Duddingstone,

88-51

9-30

2-30

t

12.

Kettle,

Berwickshire,

88-22

5-63

6-88

13.

Axe-head, .

Mid-Lothian,

88-5

1112

0-78

14.

Caldron,

Duddingstone,

84-8

7-19

8-53

15.

Palstave,

Fifeshire,

8119

18-31

0-75

16.

Sword,

Ireland,

88-63

8-54

2-83

17.

Sword,

»»

83-50

6-16

8-35

3-

18.

Sword,

Thames,

89-69

9-58

• • •

0-33

19.

Sword,

Ireland,

85-62

10-02

• • •

0-44

20.

Celt,

»»

90-68

7-43

1-28

• • •

21.

Axe-head, .

• »i

90-18

9-81

• • •

• • •

22.

Axe-head, .

»»

89-33

9-19

• • •

0-33

23.

Celt,

»»

83-61

10-79

3-20

0-58

24.

Celt,

King's Co., Ire

ihind 85-23

13-11

114

• • «

25.

Drinking-horn,

»»

79-34

10-87

911

• • •

26.

Bronze vessel.

Ireland,

88-

12-

• • •

• • •

27.

Wedge,

• »»

94-

6-9

• • •

0-1

Nos. 1-7. Dr. G. Pearson, F.R.S., PJUloaoph. Tram., 1796.

8. Professor Clarke, M.D. Cantab., ArchoBclogicL, xviii. p. 348.

9. Mongez, M^. de CInstitut,

10-15. George Wilson, M.D., Prehisi, Ann. Scot, p. 246.
16, 17. Professor Davy, Prelnut, Ann. Scot., p. 247.

18-23. J. A. Philips, F.G.S., Mem. Cheni. Soc., iv. p. 288,
24, 25. Dr. Donovan, Chem. Oazette, 1850, p. 176.
26, 27. Dr. J. H. Gibbon, U.S. Mint.

From the varied results which so many independent
analyses disclose, ranging as they do from 79 to 94 per
cent, of copper, or more than the whole amount of the
supposed constant ratio of tin ; besides the variations
in the nature, as well as in the quantity of the other
ingredients, it is abundantly obvious that no greater
uniformity is traceable, than such as might be expected
to result from the experience of isolated and independent

IX.] THE MKTAlsLVRUW ARTS: ALLOYS, 311

metallurgist A, very |>artiaUy aoquaiiited with the che-
mical pro{>ertie8 of the Htandunl alloy, and guided for
the moBt jMirt by the practical experience <lerive<l from
Ruccesaive resultd of their manufacture.

When destined for other uses than such tools and
weapons as those already n'fi^n-ed to, the composition of
bronze is considerably varie<l. The bronze of French
cannons is composed of 100 copper to 11 tin, while for
bell metal it is only 80 ]>er cent, of copper, to tin 10,
zinc 5*6, lead 4*4 ; and for speculum metal, where a
Irnrd alloy, susceptible of the finest polish, is desirable,
while its extn^me brittleness is of no moment^ the copper
is reduced to aliout 66 pr cent, to .'^4 of tin.

We thus iK»rceivc how the various exigencies of the
metallurgist, under the control of a very onlinaiy
amount of practical skill, would gradually lead him to
discover the best proiM)rtions for his useful alloy ; though
it would only lie after the protractcil accumulation of
many fruits of isolated experiment, and the development
of that combined experience which s})ecially ])ertains to
an advanced condition of civilisation, that anything
more than some crude approximation to the lx\Ht com-
position of the alloy would be determined. Hence the
value of analyti(*al evidence in determining the degree
of civilisation of Mexico and P(»ru, as indicatinl by their
metallurgic arts. For the general requirements 4»f a
tool, or weapon of war, where a sufficient hardness must
Ije obtained, without any great liability to fnictun\
accumulate<l exjK»rience detenuine<l the lH»Ht pn»|M)rtions
to l)e about 90 per cent, of cop{K*r to 10 of tin ; or with
a small pro|K>rtion of lead in lieu of |kart of the tin,
which further ex|H»rience taught the primitive worker
in bronze commtmicated to liis cutting instrument a
greater degree of toughness, and consequently ilimi
nished its liability to fracture. But where great hard-

312

PREHISTORIC MAN,

[O

ness was the chief requisite, as in certain engraving,
carving, and gem-cutting tools, then the mere increase
of the proportion of tin in the alloy supplied the requisite
quality, until, carried to excess, the metallurgist was
warned of his error by the excessive brittleness of the
product. In this, I doubt not, lies the whole secret of
Mexican and Peruvian metallurgy which has seemed so
mysterious, and therefore so marvellous to the most
sagacious inquirers. " It is worthy of remark," says
Prescott, "that the Egyptians, the Mexicans, and the
Peruvians, in their progress towards civilisation, should
never have detected the use of iron, which lay around
them in abundance, and that they should each, without
any knowledge of the other, have found a substitute for
it in such a curious composition of metals as gave their
tools almost the temper of steel ; a secret that has been
lost, or, to speak more correctly, has never been dis-
covered by the civilized European.''^ Bearing in re-
membrance the synthetic results already referred to, the
following table will supply a partial contribution towards
the requisite data for testing the skill of the native
American metallurgist.

ANALYSES OF ANCIENT AMERICAN BRONZES.

No.

Copper.

Tin.

In»n.

1.

Chisel from silver mines, Cuzeo,

94-

6-

2.

Chisel from Cuzoo, .

92-385

7-615

3.

Knife from grave, Atacama,

97*87

213

4.

Knife „ „

96-

4-

5.

Crowbar from Chili,

92385

7-615

6.

Knife from Amaro,

95-664

3-965

0-371

7.

Perforate<l axe,

96-

4.

8.

Personal ornament, Tniigilla, .

95 440

4-560

9.

Bodkin from female grave, do..

96-70

3-30

Nos. 1. Huml>oldt.

2. Dr. J. H. (Hbbon.
3, 4. J. H. Blake, Esq.

Nos. 5. Dr. T. C. Jackson.
6, 7. Dr. H. Croft.
8, 9. T. Ewbank, Esq.

' Prescott's Conquest qf Peru, book i. chap. v.

UL] THE MKTALLUHGIC ARTS: ALLOYS. 313

The comporimn of this witli the previous table indi-
cates a smaller amount of tin in the American bronze
than in that of ancient £uroi)e. For some £gy]>tian
sj)ear-hea<U Gmelin gives, copper 77*60, tin 2202 ; and
ancient wea|)ons, armour, vessels, and coins, indicate such
varied pro|)ortions as imply the results of experience in
adapting the alloy for the specific puqM)se in view. A
murh larger numljer of analyses would be desirable as
the data from which to generalize on the metallurgic
skill developeil independently by a native American
civilisation ; but the examples addu(*ed here are suffi-
cient to show tliat there is no lost secret for Eunun? to
discover. The native metallurgist had leameil the won-
derful art of allo}4ng his soft and ductile copjx^r with the
still softer tin, and pnHluciiig by their chemical admix
ture a hanler, tougher metal than either. But he does
not appear to have carried his art so far as to ascertain
the most efficient proportions of the combining metals,
or even to have made luiy very definite approximation
to a fixed rule, further than to use with great moderation
the alloying tin. He hiul dis<!overtHl, but not entirely
mastered, a wonderful secret, such as in the ancient world
had proved to lie on the threshold of (dl other and higher
truths in meclKinical arts. He was undoubtedly advanc-
ing, slowly but surely, on the direct course of natioiuU
elevation ; and the centuries whi(*h have followed since
the comjuests of Cortes and l*iziirro might have witnessed
in the New World triumphs not less mar\'ellous in the
progress of civilisation than those which distinguish the
Elnghmd of Victoria fnim that of the first Tudors. But
it was othen^'lse decreinJ. The con^Ui^sts of native science
and art were abruptly arrest eil by the S])anish comiuis-
tadorn, and it is difficult to n'^ize the conviction that
eitlier Mexico or Peru has gained any equivalent for the
irre|>andJe loss which thuK del>amNl us from the solution

314 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

of some of the most profoundly interestiiig problems
comiected with the progress of the human race. Amid
all the exclusiveness of China, and the isolation of Japan,
there is stiQ an unknown quantity among the elements
of their civilisation derived from the same sources as our
own. But the America of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries was literally another world, guarded almost as
securely from external and foreign influences as the
planets that move around us in their fixed orbits, mem-
bers of the same solar system with ourselves.

X.) AHVUITECTIHAL ISSTISCT : EARTIIWOHKS, 315

CHAPTER X.

THE ARCHITECTURAL /yST/XCT: EARTHWORKS,

The labourH of a zealous and indcfatigalile phalanx
of Ameriraii archa^ologiHts have ai*cuinulated a valuable
amouut of matc^rials iUuHtrative of the hifltory of primeval
architectun*, aa it exiM^ in the form of earthworkH over a
wide extent of the New Wi>rld. Notwitlistanding mme
fine mouut4iin ranges whieh diversify the laudHcape, the
general character of tlu» Unitetl Statics prenenta, in ita
great levels an<l gentle undulating contour, a singular
contrast to the physical as|)ect8 of the Euro{>ean <'on-
tinent ; and to this natund cliaracter of its scener}' may
be ascribecl the multiplication of those earth pyramids
which liave suggesteil the designation of the Mound-
KuilderH, applied to its ancient jMipulation. The great
pyramid of Suphis tninsft^rcd from its original site, with
the far-n*c<Kling horizontal plain, to an Italian or Swiss
valley, l>acke<l by the lofty AjM^nnines or the towering
))eaks of the Alps, would ap|M*ar as incongruous and
insignificant as Silbur}* Hill un<ler the sliadow of Ben
Nevis, or the Great Mound at Miamisburg, Ohio, among
the green mountains of Vennont. An instinctive per
ception of the harmonies <if luitun* and art guides all
primitive Imilders in the development of native architec-
tun*. It is 4)nly in sueh a stnmgi' artifieial condition
of exotic 8o<*ial life as that which now per\'adt*s tlie
ancient site's of the Mound- Builders, tluit the Egyptian

316 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

propylseum, the Greek temple, and the Gothic cathedral,
are adopted at random, and without a sense of incongru-
ity, either in relation to the climate or their special fit-
ness : alike for churches, courts of justice, hospitals^ or
criminal strongholds.

The question as to whether the pyramidal earthworks
of the Mound -Builders originated among the native
aboriginal occupants of the great river-valleys of North
America, or are only ruder reproductions of an architecture
which had its birth in tropical Mexico, under the shadow
of the Andes, may have a considerable influence on the
decision of very important questions relating to primitive
American ethnology. Under any circumstances^ how-
ever, the physical geography of a country necessarily
exercises an important influence on its history ; and the
singular aspect of the widely-extended region throughout
which the earthworks have been traced, is a feature of
no slight importance in its bearing on our present in-
quiries. In one of a series of contributions to the phy-
sical geography of the United States, Mr. Charles EUet
has specially investigated the Mississippi Valley, with a
view to the facilities which its natural advantages and
capabilities afford for modem enterprise.^ Looking to
the general features of the country between the Great
Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, and extending from the
Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains, he describes it as a
great plain inclining gently towards the east, along which
flow all the streams that enter the Lower Mississippi and
the Gulf of Mexico, from the west. Another plain, of
nearly equal extent, and corresponding inclination, de-
scends from the north, along which flow the northern
tributaries of the Ohio and the Mississippi itself, until it

* ** Of the Physical Geography f»f the Mississippi Valley, with Siiggestious
for the Improvement of the Navigation of the Ohio an<l otlier rivers,*' by
C. Ellet, .Tun., C.E. Smit/ifionian ContributionSy vol. ii.

X.] ARCIIiTKCTURAL IXSTINCT : KARTIIWORKS. .^17

uniten with the great Missouri, pursuing the irregular
line which marks the intersection of those vast surfaces ;
wliile another plain, descending fn»m the summit of the
Alleghany range, is drained hy the waters of the C*um-
l^erland and Tennessee, and all the southern tributaries
of the Ohio, and intersects the gn»at plain from the north
in the valley of the Ohio, and the gn^at plain from the
west in the valley of the Lower Mississippi After fur-
ther noting the spreml of another of those great plains
from the Alleghany mountains to the Atlantic coast, Mr.
Ellet adds : ** The wonl plain is a<lopted here for the
convenience of description only, juid is not to be received
in a literal sense. These gn^at surfaces are furroweil by
valleys, and rt»lieved in places l>y hills and even mouu-
t4iins ; yet these mountains an^ of inconsiderable extent
com]»ared with the va-st area of the n»gions descrilied,
and n»st upon the great sloj)t's which descend from the
dividing ranges." Along the great levels draiutKl by the
numerous tributaries of the river-system of this wide
champaign, the ancient traces of America's allophylian
population abound ; and espec^ially on the banks of the
Ohio and its tributaries have the most n^markable monu
ments l)eeu brought to light. The ca|Md)ilities of this
region for nKxlem si»ttlement and the abundant develop-
ment of a compn*ht*nHive commenial enteq»rise, are the
same which made it anciently the n*H4»rt of a numerous
scuttled |H)puhition. " In tnuing the Ohio to its scmnn*,^
Mr. Ellet rt»marks, " we must n^ganl \\\v Alleghany as its
proper continuation. This nolile tributary rises on the
iMirders of I^ke Erie, at an average elevation of 1300
fe«?t alnive the surface of the sea, and nearly TOO fe<»t
alx)ve the level of the lake. The plain along which this
river flows is conn<M*t4Nl with no mountain range at its
northern extn^mity, but continues its rise, with great
uniformity, from the mouth of the Ohio to the brim t>f

318 PREHISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

the basin which encloses Lake Erie. The sources of the
tributary streams are generally diminutive ponds, dis-
tributed along the edge of the basin of Lake Erie, but
far above its surface, and so slightly separated from it
that they may all be drained with little labour down the
steep slope into that inland sea. From these remote
sources a boat may start with sufficient water, within
seven miles of Lake Erie, in sight sometimes of the sails
which whiten the approach to the harbour of Buffalo, and
float securely down the Connewango, or Cassadaga, to the
Alleghany, down the Alleghany to the Ohio, and thence
uninterruptedly to the Gulf of Mexico. In all this
distance of 2400 miles, the descent is so uniform and
gentle, so little accelerated by rapids, that when there is
sufficient water to float the vessel, and sufficient power
to govern it, the do^vnward voyage may be performed
without difficulty or danger in the channels as they were
formed by natiu'e ; and a return trip might be made with
equal security and success, with very little aid from art*'
Here, therefore, is one of the great modem centres towards
which population, agricultural enterprise, commerce, and
wealth, all flow ; and it is a subject of lively interest to
investigate the traces which disclose to us the proof that
this vast area is not now, for the first time, being rescued
from the primeval forest, with its wild fauna, and still
wilder savage man ; but that here, in older centuries,
busy industry, ingenious arts, and civic and military
enteiprise, made it the scene of stirring events that only
wanted their Homer or Herodotus to make the epos of
the Ohio more interesting for us than the legends of the
Scamander or the mythic traditions of the Nile.

In a great level country such as that drained by the
Ohio and its tributaries, and attracting its multipl3ring
population to the broad alluvial terraces overlooking its
smoothly-flowing rivers, it was natural that the building

X) AmmiTECTUliAL lySTINCT : EAETIIWOHKS. ;)19

instinct of man should first employ itaelf on earth-
works, and that the monumental grave-mound, dedicated
to the patriarchal leader or sovereign chief, Uke the
architecture of the primeval builder on the plain of
Shinar, should be a pyramid " whose top may reach
unto heaven." The great mound of Miamisburg, Ohio,
is sixty-eight feet high, and eight hundred and fifty-two
feet ill circumference at its base. The more famous
Grave Creek Mound of Virginia rises to a height of
seventy feet, and measures at its base one thousand feet
in circumference. Other and still larger earthworks
have been noted, such as the truncated pyramid at
Cahokia, lUinois, which occupies an area upwards of
two thousand feet in circumference, and rears its leveJ
summit, of several acres in extent, to a height of ninety
feet. But this last proUably belongs to a iliifercut class :
an earth-pyramid, but not a sepulchral monument ; re-
sembling in this respect the still greater British eartli-
pyramid of Silbury Hill, characteristically reared, remote
from the mountain ranges of Scotland or Wales, on the
level downs of Wiltshire, where it towere to a height of
one hundred and seventy feet, and covers an area of
more than five acres of land. Recent explorations seem
to establish beyond doubt that that great EngUsh earth-
work is not a sepulchral mound, like the earth pyramids
of the American Mound-Builders, and as such there-
fore, the latter are probably among the most gigantic
memorials of their class in the world. " We have seen
mounda," remarks Flint, an American topographer, with
a just appreciation of the relation of these earthworks
to the features of the surrounding landscape, " which
would require the labour of a thousand men employed
on our canals, with all their mechanical aids, and the
improved implements of their labour, for months. We
have more than once hesitated in view of one of those

L

320 PREUISTORIG MAN. [Chap.

prodigious mounds, whether it were not really a natural
hill. But they are uniformly so placed, in reference to
the adjacent country, and their conformation is so unique
and similar, that no eye hesitates long in referring them
to the class of artificial erections." The exploration of
more than one of these huge earth-p3rramids has entirely
set at rest any doubts as to their artificial origin, and
has, moreover, disclosed the fact that they are monu-
mental structures erected to preserve the memory of the
honoured dead in ages utterly forgotten, and by a race
of which they preserve apparently the sole remaining
vestiges.

The earthworks and architectural constructions of the
Mound-Builders are by no means limited to the class of
mounds already referred to, and from which their char-
acteristic name is derived. They are exceedingly varied ;
and extending as they do over a geographical area of
wide extent, and embracing considerable diversity of
climate, they include many other structures besides those
of a sepulchral character ; and disclose special features
of peculiar interest belonging to particular localities.
The original limits assigned to them by Messrs. Squier
and Davis embraced the entire basin of the Mississippi
and its tributaries, from the shores of the great lakes
to the Gulf of Mexico, comprehending alike the fertile
plains along the Gulf, and the whole northern territory,
including the sources of the Alleghany in the western
part of the State of New York. Since the " Ancient
Monuments of the Mississippi Valley" appeared, as the
first of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge^
Mr. Squier has completed a minute series of surveys and
explorations of the aboriginal monuments of the State
of New York, the result of which has been to lead him
entirely to dissociate the rude and comparatively slight
earthworks of that northern region from the remarkable

%] ARCHITECTURAL INSTINCT: EARTHWORKS. 331

ancient mouuments previously explored and illustrated
by him. Rejecting theory, he has, with honest and
painetaJring zeaJ, carefully investigated the evidence
which previously depended on loose, and, aa it appears,
exaggerated accounts, and he thus sums up the results :
" In full view of the facts, I am di'iven to a conclusion
little anticipated when I started upon ray trip of ex-
ploration, tliat the earthworks of western New York
were erected by the Ii'uquois, or their western neigh-
bours, and do not possess an antiquity going very far
back of the discoveiy." Already the plough is fast obli-
terating every ti-ace of those memorial mounds and
defensive works of the frontier tribes, slight and ephe-
meral as their savage builders ; but the convictions
forced on the mind of their explorer by a personal sur-
vey, have not altered his views relative to the great
earthworks previously described by him ; or tempted
him, as they have some other writei-s, to confound these
lasting evidences of the combined operations of a numer-
ous settled population, with the traces of the sUght and
simple defences and other earthworks of the modern
Indians. He aceonlingly sums up his observation by
remarking that " the ancient remains of western New
York, except so far as they throw hght upon the system
of defence practised by the aboriginal inhabitants, and
tend to show that they were to a degree fixed and
agricultural in their habits, have slight bearing upon the
grand ethnological and archEeological questions involved
in the ante-Columbian history of the continent"

The people by whom the great earthworks of the
Mississippi Valley were constructed, and its remarkable
defensive enclosures erected and maintained, must have
been in a condition greatly different from the forest
tribes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Nevertheless, though gathered at many favourite points,

322 PREHISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

in large communities, they were probably isolated by
extensive tracts of dense forests from the country lying
beyond the river-systems in which they were settled.
The earthworks of the Moimd-Builders are of very di-
verse character, and partake in some respects of the
local aspect of their sites ; but they chiefly abound
where the widely extended alluvial flats furnish the
most fertile tracts for cultivation ; and it has been
justly noted as worthy of special remark that the sites
selected for settlements, towns, and cities by the modern
supplanters of the Red Indian, are often those which
were the special favourites of the Mound-Builders, and
the seats of their densest population. Such can rarely
be said of the Indian settlement, which owes the selec-
tion of its site to the convenience of the hunter, and
loses aU its original attractions when the axe of the
settler dissipates the charm. The country lying remote
from the larger tributaiies of the Mississippi and its
main branches, was probably in the era of the Mound-
Builders, as in later times, covered with the primeval
forest, and tenanted by the abundant game of the
hunter ; while on the outlying regions, or beyond the
great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains, perchance the
progenitors of the modern Indian tribes lurked : like
the barbarians of antechristian Europe, who, beyond the
Rhine and the Baltic, nursed the future spoilers of Rome,
and the builders-up of modern Europe out of the ruined
empire of the Caesai-s.

The fertile valley of the Scioto appears to have been
one of the seats of densest population, as indicated by
the numerous ancient works which diversify its surface.
Corresponding evidence preserves the traces of an equally
dense population in the Miamis Valley ; and throughout
the State of Ohio the mounds and earthworks of va-
rious kinds are estimated at between eleven and twelve

X.] ARCUITEVTrnAL LY.sr/.WT : K.UiTHir>>llKS. 323

thousiiml. They are stated to be scarcely less mimeivjus
on the Keiihawus iu Vir^uia thau on the yduto auil
Miarnia, and sue abundant on the WbitK River and
Wabash, aa also upon the Kentucky, Cuml;erhind, Tcn-
ueasee, and the numerous other tributaries of the Ohio
and Mississippi. Works accumulated in such uumbei's,
and, including many of great magnitude, elaborateness
of design, and executed by the combined labour of large
bodies of workmen, afford indisputable evidence of
the presence, througli a greatly protracted period, of a
settled and industrious popidation. Beyond these cai'C-
fuUy explored regions, titices of othet ancient structures
have been observed at ividely separated points, though
caution nuist be exercised in generalizing from data
furnished by casual and inexperienced observers. All
primitive earthworks, whether for defence, scpulchi-al
memorials, or religious rites, have certain features in
common ; and the tendency of the popular mind is
rather to exaggerate cliaucc resemblances into forced
analogies and parallels, than to exercise any criticd dis-
criraination. including, however, all the larger earth-
works, essentially dissimilar from the slighter and ruder
traces of modem Indian workmanship, thoy appear to
stretch away from the upper waters of thi' Oliio to the
westward of Lake Erie, and thence along Lake Michigan,
nearly to the Copper Regions of Lake Superior. Through
Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Nebi-aska Tenitory, tlicy have
been traced extending towai-tls the Rocky Mountains :
while on the south their area is bounded by the shores
of the Gulf of Florida and the Mexican territory, where
they seem gradually to lose their distinctive character,
and pass into the great teoealliB of a higher developed
Mexican architecture. Their affinities are indeed more
Houthern than northern. They are scarcely, if at all, to
he found to the eastward of the watershed between the

324 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

Mississippi and the Atlautic, in the States of Pennsyl-
vania^ New York, or Virginia ; and they have been
rightly designated, from their chief site, the Ancient
Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, including in this
its tributaries, and especially the valley of the Ohio.
There their localities ftdly accord with those which, in
the primitive histoiy of the Old World, reveal the most
abundant traces of an aboriginal population, in their
occupation of the broad alluvial terraces, or *' river
bottoms," as they are styled. To the north, however,
though the memorials of an ancient population are no
less striking, they are of a diflferent character ; and the
earthworks in the vicinity of the Great Lakes must be
classed by themselves, as indicating customs and rites
distinct from those pertaining to the ancient population
of the south.

The remarkable works thus traceable over so large an
extent of the North American continent have been so
carefully explored, and so minutely described, especially
by Messrs. Squier and Davis, and Mi. J. A. Lapham, in
the valuable archaeological monographs printed in the
Smithsonian Gontrihutions to Knowledge^ that little more
is needed for our present pui-pose than to refer to one or
two characteristic types of each of the diflferent classifi-
cations under which they have been grouped. They ad-
mit of being primarily arranged into the two obvious
subdivisions of Enclosures and Mounds, and these
again embrace a variety of works diverse in form, and
evidently designed for very diflferent uses. Under the
first of these heads are included the fortifications or
strongholds ; the sacred enclosures, destined, as is as-
sumed, for religious rites ; and numerous miscellaneous
works of the same class, generally symmetrical in struc-
ture, but the probable use of which it is diflScult to
determine. The second subdivision embraces the true

X.] ARCHITECTURAL INSTINCT : EARTHWORKS. 325

mound-buildings, including what have been designated
sjicrificial mounds, temple mounds, aepulchral mounds,
jinimal mounds, and also various others of diverse charac-
ters and uncertain purpose. All, however, partake of cha-
racteristics specially pertaining to a broad, level country ;
but this is nowhere so strikingly apparent as where
mounds appear to have been purpasely erected as obser-
vatories and points of sight from whence to survey the
works elaborated on a gigantic scale on the level plain,
lu addition to the striking features which tlie estemal
aspect of those ancient memorials exhibits : wherever
they have been excavated many interesting reUcs of the
ancient builders have been disclosed, adding new and
minutely gi'aphic illustrations of their social condition,
and the artistic and industrial arts of the remote period
to which they pertain.

The British hill-forts, the remarkable vitrified forts of
Scotland, and the larger strongholds of the British abo-
rigines, such as the ingenious circumvallations of the
White Caterthun overlooking the Scottish valley of
Strathmore, all derive their peculiar character from the
mountainous features of the country ; while on the low
grounds, under the shadow of the Ochils, the elaborate
earthworks of the Camp of Ardoch show the strikingly
contrasting castrametation of the Roman invadcra. The
ancient military encampments or raths of Ireland, which
abound in the level districts of that country, as well as
on heights where atone is not readily accessible, also fur-
nish highly interesting LUustrationa of earthworks with a
special character derived from the features of theii' local-
ities. An earthen dune or rath, as iu the celebrated
Rath Kcltair at Downpatrick, occupies a commanding
site, where it is strongly entrenched, with a considerable
space of ground encloaed within its outworks. But
neither the Scottish White C'atcrtliun, nor the Irish

L

320 FREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

ilath Keltair, or even the Rath Righ of Tara Hill, can
compare with the remarkable American strongholds of
Fort Hill, Ohio, or Fort Ancient on the little Miami
River, in the same State. The celebrated HUl of Tara,
in the county of Meath, has ceased, according to tradi-
tion, to be the chief seat of the Irish kings^ since its
desertion in the latter part of the sixth century, shortly
after the death of Dermot, the son of Fergus. It appears
to have been the site of a fortified city ; and now, after
the devastations of thirteen centuries, its raths and
dunes, circumvaJlations and trenches, present many in-
teresting points of comparison with the more extensive
earthworks of the Mississippi valley.

The valley of the Mississippi is a vast sedimentary
basin extending from the Alleghani(*» to the ranges of
the Rocky Mountains. Tlirough this the great river and
its numerous tributaries have made their way for count-
less ages, working out shallow depressions in the alluvial
plain, on which are recorded the chronicles of successive
epochs of cliange in the broad teiTaces that mark the de-
serted levels of ancient channels. The edges of these
table-lands bordering on the valleys are indented by
numerous ravines, and the junctions of many lesser
streams with the rivei-s have formed nearly detached
peninsulas, or in some cases tracts of considerable eleva-
tion insulated from the original table-land. Many of
those bluff headlands, peninsulas, and isolated hills with
level summits of considerable extent, presented all the
requisite adaptations for the site of native strongholds
on the river skirts of those fertile table-lands, where so
many traces of the presence of an ancient population
abound. These 2>oint-s have, accordingly, been fortified
with great labour and skill. Embankments and ditches
enclose the whole space, varying in strength according to
the natural resom-ces of the ground. The approaches are

X.] AliCUITJCCTUJiAL IX.STJM'T; KAJtTllWOJtK.H. 327

guarded by trenches aud nver-lapping walla, more or lam
numerous in diifereiit forts ; and have occasionally a.
miiuud alongside of the other defeni«!8 of tlie approach,
Imt rising above the rest of the works, ns if designetl
both for out-look and a<iditional defence. In some few
cases tlie walls of these enelosures are of stone, but if
they weiv ever characterized by any attempt at regular
masomy all traces of it have disappeared, and there seems
littlf reason for supposing that such walls differed in
essential character from the eiirthworks, No cement was
used, and in all probability we have in these only heaps of
stones instead of earth-banks, owing to special local facili-
ties which led to the substitution of the one for the other.
One of the simplest, but most extensive of those
primitive strongholds, ia Fort Hill, Ohio, surveyed and
described by Messi-s. Squier and Davia The defences
occupy the summit of a detached hill, elevated about
tive hundred feet above tlie bed of Bush Creek, whicli
Hows round two sides of it, close to its precipitous
slope. Along the whole edge of the hill a deep ditch
has been i;ut, and the materials taken from it hjive
been piled up mto an embankment, vaiyiug in height
above the bottom of the ditch, from six to fifteen feet.
In its wiiole extent the wall nieasiires eight thousand two
hundred and twenty-four fe<'t, or upwards of a mile and
a hidf in length, and encloses an area of forty-eight acres.
This extensive emJosure is now covered with gigantic
forest-trees. One of them, a chestnut, measured twenty-
one feet, and an oak, though greatly decayed, twentj--
three feet in circumference, while the trunks of immense
trees lay around in every stage of decay. Such was the
aspect of Fort Hill, t)hio, a few years ago, and it is
probably in no way changed now. Lyell mentions in
his Tixtvels in North America, that Dr. Hildreth counted
eight hundred rings of iinnual giowtii in a tree which

328 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Oha]

grew on one of the mounds at Marietta, UMo; an<
Messrs. Squier and Davis, from the age and conditio:
of the forest, ascribe an antiquity to its deserted site c
considerably more than a thousand years. In their pn
sent condition, therefore, the walk of the " Fort Hill
are ruins of an older date than the most venerabl
stronghold of the Normans of England ; and we see a
little of their original completeness, as in the crumblia
Norman keep we are able to trace all the complex syg
tern of bastions, curtains, baileys, buttress-towers, an*
posterns of the military architecture of the twelfth cen
tury. Openings occur in the walls, in some places o:
the steepest points of the hill where access is impossible
and where, therefore, we must rather suppose that plal
forms may have been projected to defend more accessibl
points. The ditch has in many places been cut throug
sandstone rock as well as soil, and at one point the roc
is quarried out so as to leave a mural front about twent
feet high. Large ponds or artificial reservoirs for wate
have been made within the enclosure ; and at the soutt
em point, where the natural area of this stronghoL
contracts into a narrow and nearly insulated projectio]
terminating in a bold bluflf, it rises to a height of thirt
feet above the bottom of the ditch, and has its owi
special reservoirs, as if here was the keep and citade
of the fortress : doubtless originally strengthened wit]
palisades and military works, of which every trace ha<
disappeared before the ancient forest asserted its clain
to the deserted fortalice. At this point the surveyor
noted strong traces of the action of fire on the rocks anc
stones ; though whether remote or recent, they found i
dijfficult to determine.^

Here then, it is obvious we look on no temporarj
retreat of some nomade horde, but on a military worl

* Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, pp. 14, 16.

X.] ARCUITECTUftAL INSTINCT: EARTIIWOUKS. 329

of groat magnitude, which, even with all the appliajices
of moclern engineering skill, would involve the protracted
operationa of a numerous body of laboiu-ers, and when
completed must have requii-ed a no less numerous gar-
rison for its defence. And this may be taken as an
example of the remai-kable military earthworks, though
they necessarily differ greatly in detail from their inge-
nious adaptation to their varying sites. One, called
" Fort Ancient," built on two nearly detached terraces,
rising with precipitous banks two hundred and thirty
feet above the Little Miami River, Ohio, is walled by a
range of embankments, measming at the most accessible
points from eighteen to twenty feet high, and extending
altogether to a length httle short of four miles, besides
detached mounds, parallels, and overlapping curtain-
walls. Professor Locke of Cincinnati, by whom Fort
Ancient was minutely surveyed, with a numerous staff
of assistants, states that " the nnmber of cubic yards of
excavation maybe approximately estimated at 628,800;"
and after discussing various geological and other evi-
dences of the age of the ensulated lulls and their ela-
borate earthworks, he concludes by expressing his aston
ishment " to see a work, simply of earth, after braving
the storms of thousands of years, still so entire and
well-marked." The walls, however, are formed of clay
nearly impervious to water, and at numerous points are
strengthened with large quantities of water-worn stones,
seemingly taken from the bed of the river. Commenting
on the same stronghold, Messrs. Squier and Davis re-
mark : " A review of this magnificent monument cannot
fail to impress us with admiration of the skill which
selected, and the industry which secured this position.
Under a military system, such aa we feel warranted in
ascribing to the people by whom this work was con-
structed, it must have been impi-egnable. In every

330 PREHISTORIC JiAN. [Chap.

point of view it is certainly one of the most interesting
remains of antiquity which the continent aflFords."*

Subsequent explorations conducted by Mr. Squier in
i-eference to the " Aboriginal Monuments of the State of
New Yoik/' led to tlie publication of the report^ already
referred to, on the numerous earthworks scattered
through that and the borders of the adjacent States ;
and to his narrowing the area ascribed to the works of
the Mound-Builders by assigning the origin of all such
more northern remains surveyed by him, to the Iroquois
and other Indian tribes known to have been in occupa-
tion of that region in comparatively recent times. The
conclusions arrived at, on evidence thus cautiously con>
sidered, are of considerable importance in their indirect
bearing on questions suggested by the characteristics of
the more ancient works. Among the Indian tribes who
have come under direct observation of the European
colonists of their ancient possessions, none played a
more prominent part than the united nations of the
Iroquois. At the period of Dutch discoveiy in the
beginning of the seventeenth century, they occupied the
territoiy between the Hudson and the Genesee rivers,
which they continued to maintain possession of for
nearly two centuries thereafter, in defiance of warlike
native foes, and the more formidable aggression of
French invaders. The Iroquois exhibited a capacity
for united action, and a consistent hereditary policy,
without a parallel in Indian history. Their famous
League, or Confederation of the Five Nations, was, as
we have already seen, organized and maintained with
an undeviating fidelity to their federal interests. Their
numbers, at the period of their greatest prosperity, about
the middle of the seventeenth century, have been vari-
uufily estimated from 70,000, which La Hontan assigned

* Ancient Mouumfut^ of the MiHalmjipi VetlUy, p. 21.

X.] AHCIIITEVTURAL ISs-T/XCT: EARTinVoUKS. 331

to them, to Bancroft's calculations, wliicL reduce them
to 17,000. ProbaWy the estimate of the historian of
their League— who conaiders his numhcr of 25,000 as
lower than the data he reasons from would justii}*, —
maybe eonsidered as fair an approximation to the actual
mimbers as can now be made. Veiy exf^gcrated pictures
have been drawn by some modem writers of this Iro-
quois confederacy, as though it were a well-organized
oligarchical government of federal states, not greatly
inferior to the civil institutions of Mexico and Peru.
Such an idea is wholly inconsistent with facts. The
Iroquois, it has been already shown, were a mere nation
of siivage himters, among whom only the earliest germs
of incipient civilisation are traceable. Though still in
the hunter state, they had nevertheless acquired settled
habits, and devoted themselves to some extiant to agri-
culture. Such ii people must be eonsideretl to present
the highest type of the hunter state. But with all the
long-matured arts resulting from such combined action,
in the maintenance of a settled temtory for successive
generations against fierce hostile tribes, and the defence
of an extensive frontier constantly exposed to invasion,
the traces of the Iroquois strongholds are of the slightest
and most ephememl description. After completing his
nuiTey of them, Mr. Squier remarks : — " Fron* the facts
which have fjdlen under my notice, I feel wan-anted in
estimating the number of ancient works which originally
existed in the State at from two hundred to two hunilred
and fifty. Probably one half of these have been oiJi-
temted by the plough, or so much encroached upon as to
be no longer satisfactorily trace<^^l. Were these works of
the general large dimensions of those of the Western
States, their numbeis would i)e a just ground of astonish-
ment. They are, however, for the most part compaiii-
tively small, varj"ing from one to four afrea, — the largest

332 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

not exceeding sixteen acres in area. The embanianents^
too, are slight, and the ditches shallow ; the fonner
seldom more than four feet in height, and the latter of
corresponding proportions ; " and their history is com-
pleted by the fact that the numerous relics found within
their enclosures entirely correspond with the arts prac-
tised by the Indians in the earlier periods of their
intercourse with Europeans.

From all the facts thus presented to our consideration,
it is obvious that the highest estimate we can entertain
of the remarkable powers of combination indicated by
the famous League of the Iroquois, or all the singularly
interesting germs of an incipient civilisation which we
detect in the history of " the Five Nations," furnish no
evidence of a capacity for the construction and main-
tenance of works akin to those selected as illustrations
of the strongholds of the Mound-Builders in the Ohio
valley. Striking as is the contrast which the Iroquois
present to more ephemeral savage tribes, the remains of
their earthworks are not less inferior to those of the
Mound-Builders than the latter are to the elaborate and
ornate architecture of Mexico and Yucatan. There are
indeed points of resemblance between the strongholds
of the two, as there are between them and the British
hiU forts, or any other earthworks erected on similar
sites ; but beyond such general elements of comparison,
— equally interesting, but as little indicative of any
conununity of origin as the correspondence traceable
between the flint and stone weapons in use by the
builders of both, — there is nothing in such resemblances
calculated to throw any light on the origin of those
remarkable monuments of the New World. It is rather
from the striking contrast between the two that we may
turn the remains of Iroquois military engineering to
account, as suggestive of the greatly more advanced

X.] ABCUITECTVHAL INSTINCT: EARTHWORKS. 333

comlitiou of social life and the arts of a Hcttled popula-
tion among the ancient Moiind-BuilderB of the Miasii^-
sippi and \t& trilmtariea

Further proofs of the settled character of this
ancient iH>pulation are furnished by another class of
defensive works whi<*h are assunie^l, with much pro-
Iwbility, to mark the sites of fortitieil towns. One
of these, calleil " (larks Work," on the north fork
of Point Creek, in the Scioto valley, embraces in its
main defiances and a uniform reirtangular outwork,
an an»a of one hundriHl and twenty-seven acres, and
en<*loses within its circumvallations sacrificial moimds
and 8ymmetri<*al earthworks, iu^sumeil with every pro-
Ixibility to have l)een designeil for religious or civic
puqNjses. In this, as in S4»ni4* oth«T examples, a stream
lias Ikh^u turned from its original course into an entin*ly
new cluinnel, in order to admit of the complet4*d circuit
of the walls. Consi<lenible tnices i>f the acti(»n of fire
are apparent on some |M)rtions of the work ; and within
its encloftun*s many of the most interesting relics of
ancient art have In^en dug up, including m»vend coiletl
wqH'nts car\'e<l in stone, and carefully envi'lojKil in slieet
mica and cop|)er ; |)otter)', car\'ed fragments of ivory,
discoidad st4>nes, and numenms fine S4*ulptures in tlie
same material "The amount of hiUmr," Mr. S<iuier
remarks, "ex|N*n<hHl in the construction of this wc»rk, in
view of the im|KTfrct means at the command t»f the
builders, is immnuH*. Thr eml»;uikments me;isun; t4>-
gether nearly thnre miles in length ; and a <ari»ful
computation shows that, in<'luding mounds, not less thiui
thn*e millinn <-ubic feet of eairth wen» usitl in their
com{M)sition."'

It is obvious tliat the {Mipulati(»n ca|»:d»le <»f furnishing
the rcfjuisite lalM>ur for works 4if S4» extensive a nature

334 PREHISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

must have been great, and its resources for the main-
tenance of such a phalanx of workers proportionally
al)uii(lant. The gaiTisons of the great strongholds, and
the population that found shelter within such extensive
mural defences as " Clark's Work/' must also have beer
very large, and requiring for their subsistence the con-
tributions of an extensive district. Such conclusiom
are the manifest and inevitable deductions fi-om the
evidence which the two classes of defensive works afford
and they derive abundant confirmation from those o:
diverse character. " By a minute attention to th(
various details of their defensive works/' the authors ol
the elaborate Report on the Ancient Monuments of the
Mississippi Valley remark, ** we are prepared to estimate
the judgment, skill, and industry of their builders. Nc
one can rise from such an examination except with the
conviction that the race by whom these works wen
erected, possessed no inconsiderable knowledge of the
science of defence, a degree of knowledge much superioi
to that known to have been possessed by the hunt^j
tribes of North America previous to the discovery b}
Columbus, or indeed subsequent to that event. TheL
numl)er and magnitude must also impress the inquire!
with enlarged notions of the power of the people com-
manding the means for their construction, and whose
numbers required such extensive works for their pro-
tiiction." The evidence of many sections of the coimtr)
having once been filled by a dense population is ne
less conclusive, when we turn from the consideratior
of single large works of the class already referred to
and estimate the number and extent of the mounds
symmetrical enclosures, and earthworks of various kind
connected with the aits of peace and the rit^s of re
ligious worship, which give so striking a character t(
the same river valleys and terraces where such extensive

X.] AUCHITECTrHAl. IXSTIXCT : KARTIIWlillHS. .1.15

fortifications crown the insulated heights best iuiapted
by nature for defence.

Tl]e class of eartliworks designated as Sacred En-
closures has been separated from the military works of
the Mound-BuiIdei-3 on very obvious grounds. Instead
of the elaborate fortificationB, adapted in each case
to nil the natural features of the well-chosen site, and
Htrcngtheued by external ditch, mound, and compUcated
approaches : the broad levels on the river terraces have
been selected for their reUgious works. There, on the
great unbroken level, have been constructed groupfl of
symmetrical enclosures, square, circular, elliptical, and
octagonal ; and with long connecting avenues, suggesting
comparisons with the British Avcbury, or the Hebridean
CuUernish ; with the Breton Camac ; or even with the
templea and Sphinx-avenues of the Egyptian Kamak and
Luxor, The embankments or earthwalls m-e generally
slight, varying, in the majority of cases, from three to
seven feet in height ; ;ind where a ditch occurs it is in
the interior. Exceptional cases, however, exhibit the
walls on an imposing scale, as in the gre^tf circle at
Newark, Ohio, which foiTos part of an extensive and
complicated aeries of square, circular, and polygonal
enclosures, with mounds and connecting aveuues, ex-
tending over nearly four square miles. This singular
group, designated " The Newark Work.s," will be best
underetood by a reference to the accompanying engi-avcd
plan, taken fi'oin surveys executed since those of Mr,
Charles Whittlesey, which are engraved in the work of
Messrs. Squier and Davia' They differ in one or two
minor details ; but a comparison of the plans will be found
chiefly interesting fixim showing the changes effected by
modem civilisation in a very few yeare, on a region
which, to all appearance, had previously remained un-

336 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

altered through many centuries. From the plate it will
be seen that the group consists of a complicated series of
works, symmetrical in their principal features^ but con-
structed apparently with reference to a uniform plan, and
connected by long avenues and other subordinate works^
some of which appear to be subsequent additions to the
original design. The engraving, however, conveys a very
imperfect idea of the scale on which the whole is con-
structed. An elliptical enclosure, measuring respectively
twelve hundred and fifty, and eleven hundred and fifty
feet in its diameters, is formed by embankments about
twelve feet in perpendicular height, by fifty feet of base,
and with an interior ditch seven feet deep by thirty-five
feet wide. At the entrance, which, as a nearly invariable
rule, is placed towards the east, the ends of the enclosing
walls curve outwards for a distance of a hundred feet,
with the ditch continued along the inner side of each,
leaving a level way between the edges of the ditch on
either side, like a terraced viaduct, measuring eighty
feet wide. Overhung as it is with the gigantic trees of
a piimitive forest, the surveyors describe their sensations
on first entering the ancient avenue as akin to the awe
with which the thoughtful traveller is impressed when
entering the portal of an Egyptian temple, or gazing
upon the silent ruins of Petra. In the centre of this
enclosure is a remarkable structure, apparently designed
to represent a gigantic bird with expanded wings ; but
on opening it, an " altar" was found under the centre of
the long mound constituting the body ; in which respect
it differs from anything hitherto noted in exploring the
emblematic mounds of Wisconsin. The fact, however,
is an important one, tending as it does to confirm the
idea that the great circle and its group of earthworks all
bore some relation to the strange rites of religion once
practised within those singular circumvallations under the

X.]

AUCIIITECTURAL lA'ST/NCT : SARTUWORk'S. 337

broad canopy of heaven. From the great elliptical en-
closure a wide avenue of two dissiuiilar parts, seemingly
eonstnicted without relation to each other, leads to a
square enclosing an area of twenty acres, with seven
mounds disposed symmetrically within the enclosing walla
Beyond, this avenue is continued in the same direction
till it joins another group of works, including embank-
ments, avenues, mounds, and a grailed way between
elevated parallel walls, leading down to the lower level
where the South Fork joins the Racoon Creek, as it flows
eastward to the Licking river. In the opposite direction
two long avenues leiul westward, one of them ascending
by a graded way from the same lower level, and the other
joining the enclosed square, and leading from a portal in
the centre of its western enclosure. The parallel walla of
these avenues are upwards of a mile long, and two hun-
dred feet apart, and both terminate at an octagonal earth-
work, enclosing upwards of fifty acres, beautifully level,
except where a truncated pyramidal elevation stanils in
front of the gateway opened at each of its angles, From
the widest of these, on its south-western side, parallel
walls, enclosing an avenue sixty feet mde, extend a dis-
tance of three hundred feet, connecting the octagon with
a circular work 2880 feet, or upwards of half a mile, in
circumference ; and notwithstanding its great scale, the
surveyors specially note that they ascertained this work
to be a true circle. Opposite to the junction of the
avenue-parallels with the wall of the circle, coiresponding
parallels are continued a distance of one hundred feet,
and then midway across this an immense oblong mound
intersects and rises above the parallels. It measures 170
feet long, and rises eight feet above the walLs of the circle,
30 as to present a point from whence the whole works
can be overlooked. It has been called the " Observatory"
on this account ; but it is a remarkable and uuique

VOL. I. V

338 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Qua

feature, the original purpose of which it is difficult 1
sunnise. Since the publication of the Smithsanic
Report, a trench has been cut through it, from which
is proved to be entirely constructed of clay ; and the co]
elusion suggested to careful observers appears to be th;
this, as well as others of the more important earthworl
were regularly built of adobes, or sun-dried bricks, tl
external and exposed surfaces of which have gradual
crumbled away, and been clothed with the vegetation
many centuries. From the octagonal enclosure a thi
avenue extending towards the south has been traced f
nearly two miles, where its walls gradually lose then
selves in the plain. They are placed about two hundn
feet apart, and have been ascertained to be parall
throughout. Numerous minor works, mounds, pyramid
and circles of smaller dimensions are included within tl
I : same group of earthworks ; and a number of small circk

{: about eighty feet in diameter, have been supposed, wil

much probability, to mark the sites of ancient circul
dwellings. In one of these a relic, called " the Ohio Ho!
Stone," is affirmed to have been discovered, bearing
Hebrew inscription, which has recently attracted b
amoimt of attention amusingly characteristic of tl
credulous wonder with which the ancient earthworks ai
regarded. Without the accompanying plan, the aboA
description would convey a very vague idea of tl
remarkable works of which the Newark group is selectc
as a type. WhUe presenting certain analogies to tl
mound-groups and enclosures both of Europe and Asi;
in many other respects they are totally dissimilar, an
illustrate rites and customs of an ancient America
people unparalleled in the monumental memorials <
the Old World.

Several striking coincidences between the details <
these works and others of the same class are worthy c

X.] ARCHITECTURAL INSTINCT: EARTHWORKS. 339

notice. The diameter of the circle, the perfect form of
which lias beeii noted, is nearly identical with two others
fonuiug parts of remarkalile gmups in the Scioto valley,
one of them seventy miles distant. The square has also
the same area as a rectangular enclosure belonging to the
" Hopeton Works," where it is attached to a circle 1050
feet in diameter, and to an avenue constructed between
two parallel embankments 2400 feet long, leading to the
edge of a bank immediately over the river-fiat of the
Scioto. A like coincidence in the precise extent of the
area enclosed, is noticed in the octagon of another re-
markable group, called the High Bank Works, on the
same river-terrace ; and in another, at the junction of
the Muskingum and Ohio rivers. A similar agreement
is also observable in the smaller features of the groups ;
and such coincidences acquire additional importance
when taken in connexion with another fact bearing
directly upon the degree of knowledge possessed by the
Mound-Builders. The authora of the elaborate and care-
ful survey of their works remark :— " Many, if not most,
of the circular works are perfect circles, and many of the
rectangular works are accvrate squares. This fact has
l>een demonstrated in nimierous instances by cai-eful
admeasurements, and has been i-emarked in cases where
the works embrace an area of many acres, and whei-e the
embankments or circumvallationa are a mile and upwards
in extent."'

Again, the same minute observers remark : — " The
square or rectangular works attending these large circles
— some of them embracing fifty or more acres, — are of
various dimensions. It has been observed, however, that
certain groups are marked by a great imiformity of size.
Five or six of these are cr«c( squares, each measuring
1080 feet a side, — a coincidence which could not pos-

340 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chai

sibly be accidental, and which must possess some signi
ficance. It certainly establishes the existence of som
standard of measurement among the ancient people, i
not the possession of some means of determining angles/^
It is no less important to note that it establishes witl
equal certainty the use of instruments. A standard o
measurement could not exist, still less be applied, on s
large a scale in geometrical construction, without som
instruments ; and the very simplest of these that w
can conceive of, constitute a no less certain evidenc
of the very diflFerent condition of intellectual develop
ment attained by this ancient people from anythiii
achieved by the most advanced Indian tribes. Variec
moreover, as the combinations of their singular group
of earthworks are, traces are clearly discernible tha
certain well-defined plans of construction, and a pre
portionate scale of parts, guided their builders. I
Liberty township. Boss county, Ohio, a somewhat con]
plicated group occurs, occupying a level terrace on th
east bank of the Scioto river. Of this the surveyoi
remark : — " This work is a very fair typp of a singula
series, occurring in the Scioto valley, all of which hav
the same figures in combination, although occupying dii
ferent positions with respect to each other, viz., a squar
and two circles. These figures are not only accurat
squares and perfect circles, but are in most cases of coi
responding dimensions ; that is to say, the sides of eac
square are 1080 feet in length, and the diameter of eaci
of the hirge and small circles is a fraction over 1700 an<
800 feet. Such were the results of surveys made a
different times, the measurements of which correspond
within a few feet. Although in the progress of investi
gation singular coincidences were observed between thes
works, yet there was at the time no suspicion of th

' Ancient Monuments of the Missis/tippi Valley^ p. 48.

X] ARCHITECTURAL IiVSTIAVT: EARTHWORKS. 341

identity which subsequent comparison had shown to
exist." Juatly estimating the importanee of such coin-
cidences, and the still greater value of the evidence of
the perfect construction of geometric figures on so large
a scale, the authors of the suiTeya have detailed their
method of procedure, in order " to put at once all scepti-
cism at rest, which might otherwise arise aa to the regu-
larity of these works." This important point rests
accordingly on the most satisfactory evidence ;' nor are
even the imperfections observed in the construction of
some of the rectangular figures without their significance,
as a test of the extent to which geometry had been
mastered by the ancient biulders. About five miles
below the town of CMllicothc, on the right bank of the
Scioto river, the terrace spreads out into a beautiful level
plain of great extent, terminating abruptly in a bpld
bank between seventy and eighty feet high, and washed
at its base by the river. On the edge of this river-terrace
a group of enclosures exist, including mounds, avenues,
circles, and other figures in combination ; but the prin-
cipal work consists of an octagon and a circle, the former
measuring 950 feet, and the latter 1050 feet in diameter.
The circle is a perfect one, but the octagon is not strictly
regular, although its alternate angles are coincident and
its sides equal It is joined to the circle by a short
avenue formed by the continuation of the embankments
at one of its angles, and eight mounds are regularly dis-
posed within the angles, so that there can be no doubt
it was designed to be a regular octagon ; and indeed it
is Bufliciently accurate to satisfy the eye, though ite
imperfection thus serves as a gauge of the geometric
accuracy of its constructors. Most probably it was con-
structed on a circle.

Such may suffice to illustrate some of the most strik-

U2 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

ing and significant features of this remarkable class of
ancient earthworks. That they were executed for some
totally different purpose from the strongholds already
described, is obvious : for their site is invariably on a
level terrace ; the embankments are frequently slight ;
where a ditch occurs it is generaUy in the interior ; and
the whole nature of the works is inconsistent with the
supposition of their being designed for purposes of de-
fence. They occur, moreover, in the vicinity of the
defensive enclosures, showing that they are the work of
the same builders; as in the case of the "Newark
Works," Ohio, selected as one of the most elaborate and
characteristic groups. The enclosures extend over the
level terrace, and with outlying structures embrace an
area of several miles in extent ; and on each side of the
Newark Valley, formed by the Racoon Creek, defensive
works occupy two prominent elevations presenting spe-
cial natural advantages for such strongholds. One of
these encloses the summit of a high hill, and its details
leave no doubt of its defensive character ; yet it contains
a small circle with enclosed mounds, covering " altars "
corresponding to those hereafter described, which give
their peculiar character to the sacred mounds of the great
earthworks abounding on the river terraces. There is no
room, therefore, for doubt that the various works referred
to illustrate what may be styled the civil, mihtary, and
ecclesiastical structures of the same ancient people ; and
to the last of these classes must also be assigned another
remarkable work in the same Newark Valley, called
"The Alligator." It belongs to the class of animal
moimds, and its description wiQ, in a subsequent chapter,
serve to illustrate other characteristics of these singular
memorials of an extinct people.

Meanwhile, one of the most important inferences de-
ducible from the peculiar features of the class of works

X,] ARCHITECTURAL INSTINCT: EARTHWORKS. 343

already referred to, la the state of knowledge of theu-
eonatruetors, as shown by the uniform dimensions and
regulai'ity of the figures adopted by thi?m, in what are
here designated their sacred enclosures. The moat skilful
engineer of our own day would find it difficult, without
the aid of instruments, to lay down an accurate square
on the scale of some of those described, enclosing an area
four-fiftha of a mile in circumference. Circles of moder-
ate dimensions might indeed be constructed without the
aid of instruments, so long as it was possible to describe
them by a radius ; but with such works measuring five
thousand four hundred feet, or upwards of a mile in cir-
cumference, the ancient geometiician must have had in-
struments, and minute means of measuring arcs ; for it
seems impossible to conceive of the accurate eonstraction
of figures on such a scale otherwise than by finding the
angle by its arc, from station to station, through the
whole course of their delineation. It is no less obvious
from the correspondence in area and relative proportions
of ao many of the i-eguliir enclosures, that the Mound-
Builders possessed a recognised standard of measure-
ment, and that some jieculiar significance, possibly of an
astronomical origin, was attached to figures of ceilain
forms and dimensions.

An interacting discovery made in 1841, in excavating
an ancient sepulchral mound Tsathiu the limits of the
city of Cincinnati, which has been the subject of some
ingenious speculations by different writers, may possibly
prove to have a special significance in reference to om*
present investigations. In the centre of the mound, and
rather below the level of the surrounding surface, a
skeleton was found greatly decayed, alongside of which
lay two pointed bones, about seven inches long, formed
from the tibia of the elk, and an engraved tablet of fine-
grained sandstone, measm-ing five inches in length, by

I'liEuinTomc M.iy.

two and Bii-tonths across the middle, and three inche!
ill itB greatest Itreadth at the ends. Upon its smooti
surface an elaborate figure is represented, as shown f
the a«eompanying illustration, by sinking the interapaces

witliiu an fncloaing Bquore, so as to produce what lii
Ijeen reganlccl as a hieroglyphic inscription. But
most remarkable features of its graven device are
series of lines by which the plain surface at each end
divided. The ends of tlie stuiie, it will be observed,
curved, and form arcs of circles of diiferent dimension
The gi-eater art; is divided by a series of lines, tweni
seven in number, into equal spaces, and within this
another series of seven oblique lines. The lesser arc
the opposite end is divided in like manner by two serii
of twenty-five and eight lines, similarly arranged,
interesting discovciy has not failed to receive due attei
tion. It has been noted that it bears a " singular resei
blimce to the Egyptian cartouche." Its series of lint
after lieing duly counted and pondered over, were di»-
cnvei-ed to jncld, in the sum of the products of the longer
and shorter lines, a near approximation to the number
of days of the yeai\ Tliis ingenious ri-sult fumishi

led^

X.] AttCniTECTURAL WSTINCT : EARTHWORKS. 345

grouniLs for ascribing to the tablet an astronomical
origin, and ao constituting it an ancient calendar, on
whicb is recorded the primitive approximation of the
Mound-Buildera to the true length of the solar year.
Mr. Squier perhaps runs to an opposite extreme in
suggesting that it is probably nothing more than a
stamp, Bueh as have been found made of clay, both
in Mexico and the Mississippi mounds, and appear
to have been used in impressing ornamental pat-
terns on cloth or prepared skins. Such clay stamps
always betray their purjwse by the handle attached to
them, as in the conesponding bronze stamps of common
occurrence on Roman sites ; whereas the Cincinnati
tablet is about h;df an inch in thickness, with no means
of holding or using it as a stamp, and bears on its
unfinished reverse the grooves apparently made in
sbaipening the tools by which it was engraved. But
whatever theory be adopted as to its original object or
destination, the aeries of lines on its two ends have
justly attracted attention ; for they constitute no part
of the device, and if intended as an ornamental border
would, it may be presumed, have been carried round the
entire tablet Another hypothesis may therefore be ad-
missible, that here, possibly, is a record of certain scales
of measurement. Only for the construction of regular
curves could it be supposed that such minute sub-
divisions were required in the scale of a rude peopla
It has been noted that do two of its curves or lines are
precisely alike. But this has been assumed as evidence
iUike of its imperfection and genuineness : Mr. Guest,
its possessor, shrewdly remarking, that " a person in our
times could scarcely make so perfect an engraving as
this stone, and not make it more perfect." Yet the
seemingly systematic variation of cur\'e and scale in the
two ends is suggestive of the idea that the variation in

346 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the externa] curves is purposely designed. If this idea
be accepted as probable, the discovery of a record per-
taining to the instruments and standards of measurement
of the Mound-Builders is calculated to add a new and
more definite interest to our study of their geometrical
constructions.^

Such may suffice to illustrate the predominant char-
acteristics of one remarkable series of the ancient
American earthworks : the precise objects aimed at in
their construction it must obviously be difficult, if
not, indeed, altogether impossible, to determine with
any certainty. To these structures analogies have been
supposed to be traced in the practice of the Indian
tribes formerly in occupation of Carolina and Georgia,
of erecting a circular terrace or platform on which their
council-house stood. In front of this, a quadrangular
area was enclosed with earthen embankments, within
which public games were played and captives tortured.
To this was sometimes added a square or quadrangular
terrace at the opposite end of the enclosure. Upon the
circular platform it is also affirmed that the sacred fire
was maintained by the Creek Indians, as part of their
most cherished rites as worshippers of the sun. But
even the evidence, thus far, is vague and unsatisfactory.
The scale upon which such southern Indian earthworks
were constructed may compare with those still to be
seen in the country of the Iroquois in the western parts
of the State of New York, but in no degree approxi-
mates to the true works of the Mound-Builders. They
lack, moreover, the avenues and other remarkable ap-
pendages, which constitute in reality the distinctive
features of the great enclosures of the Ohio and Scioto
valleys ; while the evidences which these disclose of

^ The wocKlcut is engraved from a rubbing taken from the originaL

X.] ARCUITECTUHAL INSTINCT: EARrilWORKS. 347

remarkable geometrical skill, the posaesaion of a recog-
nised staudiird of measurement, and a definite means
of determining angles, with the repetition of eartJi-
works of great and uniform dimensions on widely
separated sites, all combine to illustrate a condition
of society utterly incompatible with any character-
istics of the most civilized Indian tribes known to

Much greater resemblances might be traced, without
any great play of fancy, to the classic stadium or circus,
and to the atone avenues of Camae, Avebury, and Cul-
lemiah ; but in any such comparisons we can go but a
little way, without being compelled to make as lai;ge
demands on the imagination as have already served to
swell out bulky quartos of Dniidical antiquarianiam to
so little purpose. What, for example, shall we make of
the graded ways, such as that of Piketon, Ohio, where
a gi'aduated approach has been laboriously excavated

' It ii importaot to benr in remembnuice the nature of the evidence and
authority for this. The remiirkahle group of geometrical curthwurki in
Liberty township, Ohio, indudea a perfect circle, aeventeen hundred feet in
diameter; a smaller ooe, eight hundred feel in diameter; an accniat«
square, teti hundred and eighty feet lung on each side : and the same
figures, with jrrecisely the same dimensioDS, were qnitt unexpectedly found
to occw repeatedly throughont the Scioto Talley. On this Buhject the
Burveyora remark : — '■ To put nt once all scejiticism at rest, which might
otherwise arise as to the regidfirity of these works, it shouU he stated that
they were oU carefully surveyed by the authors in person. Of course, no
diilioulty existed in determining the [lerfect regularity of the squares. The
method of procedure, in respect to the circles, was as follows : — Flags were
raised, at regular and convenient intervals, upon the emhankments, repre-
senting stations. The eomiMus ws« then pUeed alternately at these sta-
tions, and the hearing of the dag next Ijeyond ascertained. U the angles
thus detemiiued proved to he coincident, the regularity of the work was
pUced heyond douht. The supplementary plan A indicates the manner of
survey," etc — Vide Anc Man. Mim. Vallry, p. 07, pL ii. Added to this,
we have the inde(iendent surveys of some of these works by Mr. Charles
Whittlesey, topographical engineer of the State of Ohio, Mr. D. Morton.
Mr. James M'Bride, and other professional surveyors. The later super-

348 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chaf,

and embanked, from one terrace to another, one thou-
sand and eighty feet long by two hundred and fifteen
feet in greatest width? The excavated earth has
been employed, in part, to construct lofty embank-
ments on each side of the ascent, which are now
covered with trees of large size. Beyond this ap-
proach, mounds and half-obliterated earthworks indi-
cate that it was originally only one part of an exten-
sive series of structures. But, viewed alone, it is one
of the most remarkable monuments of prehistoric
times to be found on the whole continent, and cer-
tainly bears not the slightest resemblance, either in
its character or the great scale on which it is exe-
cuted, to any work of the Red Indians. But thus
much these, and other works hereafter described, all
combine to tell us : that, where the western settlers of
the United States are now obUterating the ancient
forests, from whence they have driven out their old

ficial interments of the Indian tribes are of common occurrence in the
mounds, and easily distinguishable from their original contents, lying at a
greater depth. Yet, ignoring all this, Mr. Schoolcraft, in speaking of the
tribe of the AUeghans, says : — " A tumulus raised over the dead, a mound
of sacrifice to the sun, a simple circumvallation, or a confused assemblage
of ditches, mounds, and lines around a village, a ring-fort on a hill, or,
in fine, a terraced platform of earth to sustain the sacred residence of the
priest and ogema, — these must be deemed evidences which accurately
restore, to the mind of the inquirer, the arts of their authors. They
answer, I am inclined to think, the oft-made inquiry. Who erected these
earthworks ? . . . . They (the AUeghans) were, in truth, the Mound-
Builders." — Hist, of Incl. Tribes, voL v. p. 135. Yet it is in the very
same volume that the author revives and accredits the apochryphal " Grave
Creek Mound inscription," and states, " That the ancient Celtic character
has been found in Western Virginia appears incontestable." He accord-
ingly hints at its association with the Welsh Madoc, — a very suitable
parentage for Celtic characters never heard of before by any Celtic scholar.
The era of the mythic Madoc, son of Owen Gwyneth, king of Xorth Wales,
is 1169, about which date, therefore, the AUeghans must have deposited his
incomprehensible Celtic in the Virginia mound? — Vide Hist, of IwL Tribea,
voL V. p. 34.

X.] ARCUITECTURAL INSTINCT: EARTHWORKS. 349

Indian inheritors, there existed, before these forests, a
people far higher in many of the characteristics and
acquirements which tend to the elevation of nations,
than those who have been regarded as the abori-
gines of the country, and the first reclaimers of the
soil from the wild beasts that haunted its trackless
wastes.

350 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

CHAPTER XL

THE HEREAFTER : SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS.

The remarkable characteristics revealed by the careful
surveys of the ancient military and sacred enclosures of the
Mound-Builders, have sufficed to disclose -proofs of great
value ; in corroboration alike of the extent of the popu-
lation by which such works must have been wrought^
and of the progress they had already made in some
departments of knowledge requiring a long period for
their development, and incompatible with anything but
a settled condition of society, in which agriculture and
the arts of civilisation had already made some progress.
From their great earth-mounds, however, as their most
characteristic and remarkable structures, the ancient
people of the Mississippi Valley have received their
name ; and the disclosures resulting from the explora-
tion of these structures have thrown the greatest light on
the arts and social habits of their long-extinct builders.
The raising of memorial and sepulchral mounds of earth
and stone has been practised among many nations in
the earlier periods of their history. Where loose stones
abound, the cairn is the simplest monumental structure,
and has been adopted alike in Asia, Europe, and America
(and, there can be little doubt, in Africa also), both to
commemorate public events, and to mark with special
honours the place of sepulture of some distinguished
chief. But the accumulated materials of such rude

XI.] TBE HEUEAFTER: SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS. 351

pyramids acquire a value as civilisation brings in its
train the arts and settled habits of an agricultural people;
and the caiiTi, converted into a quarry for building ma-
terials, rapidly disappears, while the seemingly slighter
eartii- pyramid, when clothed with its ever-renewing
tui-f, remains almost mdestnietihle. The genn of the
sepulchral earth-mound — the rude type of the pyramids
of Central America and Egypt, — is to be sought for
in the little heap of earth, displaced by interment, which
still to thousands suffices as the most touching memorial
of the dead. In a primitive age, where the tomb of the
great warrior or wise ruler was to be indicated by some
memorable token of his people's veneration, the increase
of the little grave-mound, by their iinited labours, into
a gigantic barrow or earth-pyramid, would naturally
suggest itself as the readiest and most marked distinc-
tion ; and when we add to this the accompanying sepul-
chral rites and sacrifices, so abundantly illustrated by
the practice of many ancient and modern pagan nations,
we have a satisfactory key to the origin and charac-
teristics of one class of the remarkable structures of
America's ante-Columbian era. The earth-pyramids of
the Mound-Builders are not, however, all sepulchral
memorials ; but, as has been already indicated, they
include a numerous ckss manifestly associated with the
religious rites and superstitions of their builders, and
others presenting interesting analogies in form and struc-
ture to the teocallis of ancient Mexico and Yucatan.

In this, as in the previous chapter, our aim ivill be
sufiieiently accompbshcd by selecting one or two of the
most characteristic types of the different classes of
mounds as illustrations of the whole. But those ancient
tumuli have a value of their own totally distinct from
tlie great military, civic, and religious works ah-eady
refeiTed tn. From the latter we are able to deduce

352 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

important conclusions in relation to the probable density
of population, the amount of knowledge in military
architecture and the strategy of defensive warfare, and
their acquirements not only in combined mechanical
operations, but in geometrical knowledge. But within
both the religious and sepulchral mounds are treasured
the memorials of ancient rites and customs, and the
illustrations of the most prized and ingenious arts of
their builders ; while in the latter lie the bones of those
in whose honour such costly piles were reared, disclosing
to us the physical characteristics of a race whose imper-
fect civilisation had been arrested and brought to a close
long before the conquest of Mexico and Peru. Those
great earth-mounds of the Mississippi are for us not
merely the sepulchnil memorials of the ancient race ;
they are the cemetery of an early though partial civili-
sation, from whence we may exhume the chronicles of
lonff-extinct nations ; and recover illustrations of the
life, manners, and ideas of a people over whose graves
the forest had so long resumed its sway, that it seemed
to the Ked Indians' supplanters to have been the first
occupant of the soiL

Tumuli, barrows, dunes, moat-hills, cairns, and earth
or stone mounds of various kinds, abound in many parts
of the Old as well as of the New World, and are nowhere
more abundant than in some districts of the British
Isles. But although the corresponding primitive struc-
tures are scattered over the continent of America from
the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to the Isthmus of Panama,
and beyond it, far into the southern continent, neverthe-
less the tnie works of the Mound-Builders have a cha-
racter of their own altogether peculiar ; and though
numbered by thousands, they are limited to well-defined
areas, leaving a large portion of the territory of the more
recent Red Indian tribes, and the whole of the Atlantic

XL] TUE HEREAFTER: SEPULCURAL MOVXDS. 353

sea-board, without any traces of their presence. The
Mound-Builders were not a maritime people. Their
whole navigation was confined to the great rivers along
the banks of which their ancient traces abound ; and
their commerce and tmliic, though considemble, was
entirely dejjcndent on river navigation, and communi-
cation by long- obliterated overland routes of travel.
Notwithstanding the careful and accurate observations
which have been put on record relative to the mounds
and earthworks of " The West," much yet remains to be
disclosed ; for, happily, the excavation of such earth-
pyramids is a work greatly too laborious and costly to
tempt their investigation by those who are influenced
by mere idle curiosity ; while the contents hitherto re-
vcLtled to theii- explorers, however valuable to the archoeo-
logist, oft'er no such stimulus to cupidity as in Mexico
and Peru has led to the destruction of thousands of the
memorials of their extinct arts and customs. The
mounds of the Mississippi Valley are sometimes com-
posed entirely of clay, though resting on a soil of gravel
or loam. Single mounds of stone, also, occasionally
occur in the midst of a group composed of earth. Of
the stone mounds or cairas, one situated about eight
miles from Newark has acquired a certain factitious
interest in the progress of demolition. It formed oiigi-
nally a conical pyramid forty feet high, and one hundred
and eighty feet in diameter. But the stone of which it
was composed led to its being appropriated as a con-
venient quarry for the construction and repair of a
neighbouiing reservoir, and fifty carts are stated to have
been employed daily for a period of two years in trans-
porting its materials to the new works. Here, in the
fall of 1860, a party of explorers, digging among the
foundations of the nearly levelled cairn, found another
of those mound-inscriptions which bring into huspicioji
VOL, i. z

354 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

all but the most thoroughly authenticated discoveries.
Enclosed within a stone case of about nine inches long
was a slab of hone-stone with a figure in flowing robes,
in low relief, surrounded by an inscription partly in
Hebrew, and partly in unknown characters, but which,
nevertheless, has been interpreted as an abbreviated
version of the whole Decalogue 1

As a general rule, both the earth and stone works ap-
pear to have been constructed of materials derived from
the immediate neighbourhood, so that such differences do
not, in the majority of instances, supply any guide to a
diversity in the enclosed deposits. A special character,
however, appears to pertain to one class of such monu-
ments, designated "HiU Mounds," from the elevated
sites which they occupy. The authors of the Ancient
Monuments of the Mississippi Valley remark : " On the
tops of the hills, and on the jutting points of the table-
lands bordering the valleys in which the earthworks are
found, mounds occur in considerable numbers. The
most elevated and commanding positions are frequently
crowned with them, suggesting at once the purposes to
which some of the mounds or cairns of the ancient Celts
were applied : that of signal or alarm posta It is not
unusual to find detached mounds among the hills back
from the valleys, and in secluded places, with no other
monuments near. The hunter often encoimters them in
the depths of the forests when least expected ; perhaps
overlooking some waterfall, or placed in some narrow
valley where the foot of man seldom enters.'^ One class
of these mounds has abeady been referred to among the
more definite traces of ancient rites and ceremonies per-
formed by means of fire, and of beacon-mounds used
according to the familiar telegraphic system which has
been employed in all ages, and by people in many di-
verse stages of social progress. Our knowledge of all

XI.] THE HEREAFTER: SEPULCIfRAL MOUNDS. 3^5

tLe characteristics of the mounda which crown many
western heights has yet to I)e greatly extended, before
we can assign to them the tj-ue and probably varied
objects aimed at in their coustmetion.

One hiU-raouncl, however, has been excavated with
highly interesting resulta. Among tlic illustrations of
the Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, none
has been more frequently referred to, or made the basis
of more comprehensive generalizations, than the " Scioto
Valley cranium," which is supposed to illustrate the phy-
sical type of the ancient Mound-Buildera. To this, re-
ference is made in a subsequent chapter ; but its locality
belongs to the present department of our subject. It
was obtained from a mound situated on the summit of a
high hni, overlooking the valley of the Scioto, where the
most abundant traces of ancient earthworks Lave been
obsei-ved. It is described as one of the most prominent
and commanding positions in that section of the coun-
tiy. A conical knoll crowns the hill, rising with such
great regidarity as almost to induce the belief that it
also is artificial ; and, on its very apex, covered by the
trues of the primitive forest, is the mound. It ia only
about eight feet high, and on being opened was found to
be composed of tough yellow clay, underneath wliich a
plate of mica rested on an inner mound composed chiefly
of liU'ge rough stones, and below this, a compacted bed
of dry carbonaceous matter contained the skull, with a
few bones hudiUed round it, and some shells of the fresh-
water molluscs from the neighbouring river. Here,
therefore, is one interesting example of a sepulchral
hiU-mound ; and in all probability, judging from the
analogies of the ancient tumuli of Europe, the liill-
mounds will be found in general to correspond in struc-
ture and contents with those of the plain ; and so furnish
evidence of the ancient popnl:ttii>u lliat riowded tlif

h.

356 PRE HISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

great valleys having been diffused in smaller numbeiis,
far inland from the river's banks, in the outlying val-
leys and among the secluded recesses of the hills. There,
perhaps, as among the higher va'leys of the Andes, imder
the rule of the Incas, a pastoral people supplemented the
agiicultural industry of the centi*al provinces, and shared
with them the common rites and superstitions of the
national religion.

In some cases the lofty site of the hill-mound may
have determined its selection as conferring a further pre-
eminence on the honoured dead. Such at least is the
motive which occasionally guides the modem Indian in
his selection of an elevated site for his grave ; and of
this a striking illustration is furnished in the history of
one modern hill-mound on the Missouri. Upwards of
forty years since, Black Bird, a famous chief of the Oma-
ha ws, visited the city of Washington, and on his return
was seized with small-pox, of which he died on the way,
When the chief foimd himself dying, he called his war-
riors around him, and, like Jacob of old, gave commands
concerning his burial, which were as literally fulfilled.
The dead warrior was dressed in his most sumptuous
robes, fully equipped with his scalps and war-eagle's
plumes, and bome about sixty miles below the Omahaw
village, to a lofty bluff on the Missouri, which towers
far above all the neighbouring heights, and conamands
a magnificent extent of landscape. To the summit
of this bluff a beautiful white steed, the favourite
war-hoi-se of Black Bii-d, was led ; and there, in pre-
sence of the whole nation, the dead chief was placed
witli great ceremony on its back, looking towards the
river, where, as he had said, he could see the canoes
of the white men as they traversed the broad waters of
the Missouri. His bow was placed in his hand, his
shield and quiver, with his pipe and medicine-bag, hung

XT.] THE UF.HF.AFTEH: SEl'ULCHHAL MOUND.^. 3.37

\>y his aiJe. His store of pemmicau, and his well-filled
tobacco-pouch were supplied, to sustain him on the loug
journey to the hunting-gromuls of the great Manitou,
where the spirits of his fatliers awaited his coming. The
mediciue men of the trihe perfonnetl their most mystic
charms to secure a happy passage to the laud of the great
departed ; and all else being completed, each warrior of
the chief's own band covered the palm of his right hand
with vermilioD, and stamped its impress ou the white
sides of the devoted war-steed. This done, the Indians
gathered turfs and soil, and placed them around the feet
and legs of the horse. Gradually the p''e rose under the
combined labour of many willing hands, imtil the living
steed and its dead rider were buried together under the
memorial mound ; and high over the crest of the lofty
tumulus which covered the warrior's eagle plumes, a
cedar post was reared to mark more clearly to the voy-
agers on the Miasouri, the last resting-place of Black
Bird, the great chief of the Omahaws. In the old Pagan
barrows on the wolds of Yorkshire, and far northward
towards the Moray Firth, the ancient British and Saxon
charioteers have been exhumed, with the iron wheel-tires
and bronze horse-fumittu'e, the wreck of the decayed
wai--chariot, and the skeletons of the horses : buried
there with the dead chief, that he too might enter the
Valhalla of his gods, proudly borne in the chariot in
which he had been wont to charge amid the ranks of his
foes. For man in all ages and in both hemispheres is
the same ; and, amid the darkest shadows of Pagan
night, he still reveals the strivings of his nature after
that immortahty, wherein also he dimly recognises a
state of retribution.

Among the numerous and minutely-detaUed illustra-
tions of Messrs. Squier and Davis's work on the Ancient
Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, one of the most

358 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

striking evidences of the extent of occupation of the
country, and the denseness of the population in the
forgotten centuries recalled by their ancient works, is
furnished by the map of a section of twelve miles of the
Scioto Valley. Square, circular, and polygonal enclosures,
single and in groups ; parallels, ditches^ and mounds,
occupy every available terrace along the banks of the
Scioto River, and its tributary Paint Creek. Within this
once populous area, accordingly, elaborate surveys and
explorations have furnished many interesting disclosures
relative to the origin and objects of those remarkable
structures, and several of the mounds have been opened
so as thoroughly to illustrate their general structure and
contents. They have been invariably found to cover a
single skeleton : though in one or two exceptional in-
stances in other localities, of which the Grave Creek
Moimd of Virginia is the most remarkable, more than
one body has been deposited under the mound. Numer-
ous as monuments of this class are, their relative numbers^
when compared with the sacred and civic works of the
same districts, abundantly prove that they are not the
common places of sepulture, but monumental memorials
of the distinguished dead. They vary in size from six
to eighty feet in height, but the greater number range
from fifteen to twenty-five feet ; and frequentiy occur in
groups, where smaller mounds are ranged round one of
considerable dimensions. Such is the case with one in
Ross county, Ohio. The group to which it belongs stands
on the third terrace on the east side of the Scioto Valley,
nearly a hundred feet above the river, and about equi-
distant from the High Bank Works, and those of Liberty
township, on the lower terrace, two of the most remark-
able sacred enclosures already referred to. The principal
mound is twenty two feet high ; and on penetrating to
its centre the traces of a rude sarcophagus or framework

Xr.J THE HEREAFTER: SEPULCHRAL .\fOUNDS- 359

of uiihewn logs were founJ, the cast of which still remained
in the compacted earth. The bottom had been laid
with matting or wood, the only remains of which were a
whitish stratum of decomposed vegetable matter; and
the timbers once coveiijig the simple saixiophagus had in
like manner decayed, and allowed the Buperincumbent
earth to fall on the enclosed skeleton. In this, as in moat
others of the opened tumuli, accordingly, the human
Iwnes were found cnished into fragments, which crumbled
to powder mider the lightest touch. Indeed, when it ia
borne in remembrance how frequently crania and other
bones have been recovered from British tumidi and crom-
lechs in a perfect condition, though unquestionably per-
taining not only to the Roman period, but to earlier ages
dating beyond the Christian era : the decayed condition of
the skeletons, thus protected alike from air and moisture
in the centre of the large American mounds, furnishes
a stronger evidence of their great antiquity than any of
the proofs that have been derived either from the age of
a subsequent forest growth, or the changes wrought on
the river terraces where they most abound. Around the
neck of the single skeleton deposited imder this mound,
were several hundred beads, made of the columellje of
marine sheila and of the tusks of some animal ; and,
according to their discoverers, in some cases not only
retaining their polish, but bearing marks which seemed
to iniUeate that they were turned in some machine,
instead of being carved or rubbed into shape by the
hand. They retained their position, forming a triple row,
as originally strung around the neck of the dead. A few
laminee of mica were the only other objects discovered in
the grave. A layer of charcoal, al^out t«n feet square,
lay directly over the sarcophagus, and seemed, from the
rniidition of the carbonized wood, to have been suddenly
quenched by heaping the earth over it while still blazing.

360 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Similar layers of charcoal frequently constitute a
noticeable feature in mounds of this class, and seem to
indicate either that sacrifices were performed over the
bier, or that funeral rites of some kind were celebrated,
in which fire played an important part In these funeral
pyres probably many perishable articles were consumed
without leaving any trace behind, as the beds of charcoal
are intermingled occasionally with fragments of bone,
stone implements, and other evidences of sacrifices and
tribute to the deceased. It is also apparent that the fire
was kindled and allowed to blaze only for a limited time,
when its flames were quenched by heaping the earth
over the glowing embers. The rite may have been
symbolical of the lamp of life quenched for ever by the
grave, and was practised where cremation was not fol-
lowed ; so that, while charcoal occurs beneath as well as
above the skeleton, the bones are found imafiected by
fire. Implements, both of stone and metal, have been
found in those grave-mounds, but for the most part they
are such as indicate a totally difierent condition of society
and mode of thought from what Indian sepulture impliea
Weapons are of rare and exceptional occurrence. The
more common objects are personal ornaments, such as
bracelets, perforated plates of copper, beads of bone,
shell, or metal, and similar decorations worn on the body
at the time of its interment. Among the objects which
appear to have been purposely disposed around the dead,
plates of mica occur most frequently. In some cases the
skeleton has been found entirely covered with this mate-
rial ; and in others the laminae have been cut into regular
figures : disks, ovals, and symmetrical curves. As a
general rule, however, it would appear that reverence for
the dead was manifested in other ways than by deposit-
ing costly gifts in the grave ; nor do the relics found
indicate any superstitious belief akin to that which

XL] THE nEBKAFTEIl : SEPUWHRAL AfOl'Xm. 3r.l

induces the modem Indian to lay beaide his buried chief
the anns and weapons of the chase, for use by him in the
hunting-grounds and war-path of the land of spirits. A
general uniformity is traceable iu the arrangements and
contents of the tumuli. In some cases the simple sarco-
phagus has been constructed of atone instead of wood ;
in othei-s the l)ody appears to have been merely wrapped
in bark or matting. In some of the Southern States both
cremation and um-burial seem to have been practised,
but throughout the valleys of the Ohio and its tribut-
aries a nearly uniform system of sepulchral rites and
observances has been traced. These no doubt bore some
im]X)itant relations to the solemn religious observances
aud superstitious practices indicated by other works of
the same people ; and as it is not in the sepulchral
mounds, but in those which cover the " altars" on which
the sacrificial fires of the ancient worshippers appear to
have often blazed, that the greater number of their works
of art, and even their implements and weapons have been
found : it may be tliat there, rather than at the grave-
mounds, they propitiated the manes of the dead, and
sought by the sacrifices of love and reverence to reach
beyond this world to one unseen.

So far as has hitherto been observed, the sepulchral
mound is generally the memorial of a single interment ;
though the frequent occurrence of groups of four, five,
or six mounds, where a central one of from twenty to
thirty feet high is surrounded by others varying from
four to ten feet in height, suggests a probalile relation
Ijetween the whole gi-oup. Contrary, however, to what
would be expected from a people, whose earthworks are
constructed on so lai^e a scale, and in regular geo-
metrical figures, the sepulchral mound groups appear
never to have been symmetrically arranged. But their
niotle of grouping presents certain analogies to the ar-

362 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

rangements of cists and cinerary urns in ancient British
tumuli, which suggest the probability of human sacri-
fices, and a suttee self-immolation at the grave of the
great cliief, so congenial to the ideas of barbaric rank.
Such cruel rites we know were practised among the
Mexicans and Peruvians on the largest scale; wives,
concubines, and attendants being immolated by the
latter on the tomb of their deceased Inca, in some cases
even to the number of thousands. If, therefore, we
suppose the size of the sepulchral mounds of the West
to indicate the rank or popular estimation of the de-
ceased, then the relative sizes and distances from the
great central mound may have reference to the degrees
of rank in the wife, favourite concubine, or oflicial
attendant ; while the humbler victims, menials, and
slaves, would be left to mingle with the common earth,
with no memorial to perpetuate the costly sacrifice of
their life's blood in celebration of tlie obsequies of their
chief. Such ideas, as we have seen, pertain to the
Indian tribes of the present day, no less than to the
ancient civilized races of the New World ; they are
indeed singularly consonant to the rude conceptions of
a future state which the untutored mind has realized
to itself in all ages, when left to the unaided light of
nature, and which perpetuate in a future life the habits,
duties, and social distinctions of earth. The smallest
of a group of mounds in the Scioto Valley was excavated,
and found to contain the skeleton of a girl, enveloped
in matting or bark, like those of the larger mounds ;
but no systematic exploration of such a group has yet
been recorded. This, if carefully executed, with a
minute record of all the contents of each mound, might
reveal the origin of such groups, and the significance of
their various sizes and relative positions ; which can
scarcely be supposed to be without their meaning among

XL] TUE HEREAFTER: SEPULCUHAL MOUNDS. 363

a people who constructed their sacred and civic enclo-
sures with such geometrical precision.

Among the sepulclu-al monuments of the Ohio Valley,
the Grave Creek Mound, at the junction of Grave Creek
with the Ohio river, in the State of Virginia, commands,
on various accounts, a prominent distinction. It occu-
pies a site on an extensive plain in connexion with
various works now much obliterated ; but its own
gigantic proportions bid effectual defiance to the opera-
tions which are rapidly erasing the less salient records
of the ancient occupants of the soil. In the year 1838,
at a period when various circumstances had combined
to direct an unusual degree of att<?ntion to American
antiquities, Mr. Tomlinaon, the proprietor of the land on
which the Gmve Creek Mound stands, had it explored
at considerable cost. A perpendicular shaft was sunk
from the top, and a tunnel was carried to the centre.
The result of these excavations disclosed two sepulclural
chambers, one at the base, and another thirty feet above.
They had been constructed, as in other cases, of logs,
which had decayed, and permitted the superincumbent
earth, with stones placed immediately over them, to fall
upon the enclosed skeletons. In the upper chamber a
single skeleton was found in an advanced state of decay,
whilst the lower one contained two skeletons, one of
which was believed to be that of a femala With these
were found between three and four thousand shell-beads,
a number of ornaments of mica, several bracelets of
copper, and sundry relics of stone carving, among which
— if its genuineness could be satisfactorily authenticated,
— an inscribed stone disk constitutes perhaps the most
marvellous of all American antiquities. On reaching
the lower vault, after removing its contents, it was de-
t^i-mined to enlarge it into a convenient chamber for
\'isitor.s, and in doing so ten more skeletons were die-

364 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

covered, all in a sitting posture, but in too fragile a
state to admit of preservation. The position of these,
immediately around the sepulchral chamber, in the very
centre of the mound, precludes all idea of subsequent
interment, and scarcely admits of any other mode of
accounting for their presence than that which the human
sacrifices both of ancient and modem American obse-
quies suggest. The works of art contained in this
and other ancient mounds will be referred to more
in detail in subsequent chapters, when we come to
review the characteristics of the Mound-BuUders, as
illustrated in their sculptures, implements, and personal
ornaments.

A tumulus of the gigantic proportions of the Grave
Creek Mound serves emphatically to impress the mind
with the fact that such structures, even when of smaller
dimensions, were not the accompaniments of common
sepulture, but the special memorials of distinguished
chiefs ; or, it may be, at times, of the most venerated
among the priests who presided over the long-forgotten
rites of the sacred enclosures and the buried altars.
Such a monument is the memorial no less of the toil of
multitudes, than of the posthumous honours lavished on
those whom they delighted to honour. But of the busy
population that once thronged the valleys of the West
we have no other sepulchral memorials than those which
commemorate the toil of many to give a deathless name
to one now as nameless as themselves. The investi-
gatoi-s of their works, after describing in detail the
monumental mounds, remark : — " The graves of the
great mass of the ancient people who thronged our
valleys, and the silent monuments of whose toil are
seen on every hand, were not thus signalized. We
scarcely know where to find them. Every day the
plough uncovers crumbling remains, but they elicit no

XL] THE IIEHEAFTEli: ^EPCLCH/iAZ MOI'.YDS. 3G.i

remark ; are passed by and forgotten. The wasting
Iwiiks of our rivera occasionally display extensive ceme-
teries, but sufficient attention has never been bestowed
upon them to enaljle us to speak with any degree of
certainty of their date, or to distinguish whether they
belonged to the Mound- Builders or a subsequent race.
These cemeteries are often of such extent as to give a
name to the locality in which they occur. Thus we
hear, on the Wabaali, of the ' Big Bone Bank' and the
' Little Bone Bank,' from which, it is represented, the
river annually washes many human skeletons, accom-
p:mied'by numei-oua and singular remains of art, among
which are more particularly mentioned vases and othei*
vessels of po.,tery, of remai-kable and often fantastic
form. At various places in the States, north of the
Ohio, thousands of graves are said to occur, placed in
ranges parallel to each other. The extensive cemeteries
of Tennessee and Missouri have often been mentioned,
and it has l)een conjectured that the eaves of Kentucky
and Ohio were grand depositories of the dead of the
ancient people."^ The Ohio and Erie canal is carried
for miles along the river-terrace of the Scioto Valley, in
the vicinity of Chilhcothe, where the ancient works of
the Mound-Bmlders are more abundant than in any
other area of equal Kmits hitherto explored. In some
cases the canal has been cut through the ancient works,
jind it can scarcely admit of doubt that many interesting
traces of the arts and hiibita of the remarkable people
who once filled the long-tleserted scene, must have been
disclosed to heedless eyes. Here and there, doubtless,
a stray relic was picked up, wondered at, and forgotten ;
but no note was taken of the eircumstauees under winch
it was found, and no record made of the discovery.
And so must it ever lie. The jiioneers of civilisation

' Aiieienl Monaiiiml^o/lli' JUiisu'ii'i'i f'-'Hr'/, \'- 171-

366 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

in the uncleared wilds of the West are too entirely pre-
occupied with the present to spare a thought for long
forgotten centuries. To their indomitable energy it
is due that others can enter upon their labours with
leisure for such thoughts ; and that, through a fortu-
nate combination of circumstances, such abundant and
accurate data have been preserved relative to the pre-
historic ages of America.

Various classes of mounds, probably also of a sepul-
chral character, have been subjected to exploration, with
results differing from those which admit of the strict
classification already referred to. More extended and
systematic observations will, in all probability, group
into new classes some that appear at present entirely
anomalous ; but the most noticeable indications hitherto
disclosed by them suggest that cremation may have been
commonly practised among the ancient Mound-Builders ;
or that a custom somewhat analogous to the scaffolding
and final sepulture of the bones of the dead, as practised
among many of the Red Indian tribes, may have pre-
vailed ; and that the bones thus periodically gathered
were burnt, with fitting and solemn rites, and their
ashes heaped together, forming mounds, such as one
opened on the bank of Walnut Creek, in the Scioto
Valley. The principal portion of this consisted seem-
ingly of long-exposed and highly-compacted ashes, inter-
mingled with specks of charcoal, and small bits of burned
bones. Beneath this was a small mound of very pure
white clay, resting on the original soil, without any
traces of the action of fire ; and over this the incinerated
remains had l^een piled into a mound, nine feet in height
by forty in base. The customs of the North American
Indians, however, were, and stiU are very diverse ; and
among the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians also, in-
humation, cremation, urn -burial, and mummification.

XI.] THE HEREAFTER: SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS. 367

accompanied with depoaitiou in artificial vaults and in
caves, were all practised. It need not therefore surprise
us to find many exceptions among the ancient Mound-
BuiJilers to any practice recognised aa most prevalent
among them. Considering the decayed state of most of
the bones recovered from the great sepulchral mounds,
where they were equally protected from external air and
moisture : if the common dead were inhumed under the
ordinary little grave-mound, their bones must, for the
most part, have long since returned to dust, and mingled
with their mother earth. Even if such be the case,
however, the sites of their ancient cemeteries in all pro-
bability abound with many of the more indestructible
relies of stone, metal, etc., repeatedly found in the larger
mounds ; nor must it be overlooked in the latter, that
the extremely comminuted state to which most of their
enclosed skeletons have been reduced, when brought to
light by the modem explorer, is fully as much due to the
falling in of a superincumbent mass of earth and stones
upon them, when the timber i.-eiling of their sarcophagus
had resisted the weight long enough only to render them
the less able to resist its crushing force. The perfect pre-
servation of the " Scioto Mound cranium," described by
Messrs. Squier and Da\'is as "the only skull incontestably
belonging to an individual of the race of the mounds
which has been recovered entire, or sufficiently well pre-
served to be of value for purposes of comparison," was
due to its being entirely embedded in charcoal, over
which a superstructure of large stones enveloped with
tough yellow clay had been piled, without any treach-
erous timber vaults ; and thus it was found in perfect
condition, as when originally deposited. For the mound
in question presented another illustration of the practice
of ci-emation. The skull was foimd in the centre of the
carbonaceous deposit, resting on its face. The lower

II.

368 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

jaw was wanting, and only the clavicle, a few cervical
vertebrae, and some of the bones of the feet lay huddled
around the skull. No relics of ancient art accompanied
it, but it is, in itself, one of the most valuable relics
liitherto recovered from the American mounds.

Such ai*e the traces we are able to recover of the
sepulchral rites of this ancient people. In discussing
the conclusions suggested alike by their disclosures, and
by those which tlie sacrificial mounds, the sacred enclo-
sures, and the buried works of art of their constructors
reveal, we are dealing with the characteristics of a people
pertaining to periods long preceding the earliest era of
written history. For us these are their sole chronicles ;
and yet, even from such data, we are able to recover
some traces of their moral and intellectual character-
istics : their reverence for the dead, their hope beyond
the gi'ave. But perhaps the most important conclusion
to be noted for our present purpose is the general absence
of weapons of war among the sepulchral deposits. It
accords with many other indications of the condition of
the Mound-Builders. They had passed beyond that rude
stage of savage life in which war and the chase are the
only honourable occupations of man, and the only con-
ceivable enjoyments of his barbarian heaven. Their
weapons of war, like their fortresses, were means for the
defence of acquisitions they had learned to prize more
liighly. They had conquered the forests, and displaced
the spoils of the hunter with the wealth of autumn's
golden grain ; and with the habits of a settled agricul-
tural people, many new ideas had taken the place of the
wild imaginings and dark superstitions begotten of the
forest's gloom. As among all agricultural nations, the
seasons of seed-time and harvest doubtless had their
appropriate festivals ; and we can stiU, in imagination,
reanimate their sacred enclosures and long-drawn avenues

XL] THE HEREAFTER: SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS. 369

with the joyous procession bearing its thank-offering of
first-fruits, or laden with the last golden treasures of the
harvest-home. The analogies traceable through the cus-
toms and sacred rites of many nations help to depict for
us such festive scenes ; and in accordance with the
changes of thought which such a social condition begets,
the grave had ceased to be the mere passage from the
chase and the warfare of forest life, to new hunting-
grounds in a land haunted by the shadows of life's
weary toils.

VOL. L 2 A

370 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Cbap.

CHAPTER XII.

PROPITIATION : SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS.

The name of sacrificial mounds has been conferred on
a class of ancient monuments, altogether peculiar to the
New World, and highly illustrative of the rites and cus-
toms of the ancient races of the mounds. From their
contents also we derive many of the most interesting
examples of the arts of that singular people, preserved on
the " altars,'' where they appear to have been deposited,
along with burnt-offerings to the gods of the ancient
faith, or designed as the sacrifices of affectionate devo-
tion to the manes of the dead. This remarkable class of
mounds has been very carefully explored, and their most
noticeable characteristics are : their almost invariable
occurrence within enclosures ; their regular construction
in uniform layers of gravel, earth, and sand, disposed
alternately in strata conformable to the shape of the
mound; and their covering a symmetrical altar of
burnt clay or stone, on which are deposited numerous
relics, in all instances exhibiting traces more or less
abundant, of their having been exposed to the action
of fire.

The most striking feature of the sacrificial mounds,
designated by their explorers " the altar," merits special
attention ; and a sufficient number of this class of
mounds lias been opened to justify the adoption of cer-
tain general conclusions relative to their construction

Xn.] PROPITIATION : SACRIFICJAL MOUNDS. 371

and the purposes for which they were designed. On the
natural surface of the ground, in most cases, a basin of
fine clay appears to have been modelled with great
care, in a perfectly symmetrical form, but varjdug in
shape, and still more in dimensions. They have been
found square and round, elliptical and in the form of
parallelograms ; and, in size, range from a diameter of
two feet, to fifty or sixty feet long, and twelve or fifteen
feet wide. The most common dimensions, however, are
from five to eight feet in diameter. The clay basin, or
altar, invariably exhibits traces of having been subjected
to the action of fire, and frequently of intense and long-
continued or oft-repeated heat. It is, moreover, evident
that in some cases the enclosed altar had not only been
often used ; but tliat after being destroyed by repeated
exposures to intense heat, it had been several times
remodelled before it was finally covered over by the
superincumbent mound. Within the focus or basin of
the altars iire found numerous relics, elaborate carvings
in stone, ornaments cut in mica, copper implements,
tUsks, and tubes, pearl, shell, and silver beads, and vari-
ous other objects, hereafter referred to, but all more or
less injured by the action of fire. In some cases the
carved pipes and other works in stone, have been split
and calcined by the heat, and the copper relies have
been melted, so that the metal lies fused in shapeless
masses in the centre of the basin. Traces of cloth com-
pletely carbonized, but still retaining the structure of the
doubled and twisted thread ; ivory or bone needles, and
other objects destruetilile by fire, have also been ob-
served ; and the whole are invariably found intermixed
with a quantity of ashes. Large accumulations of cal-
cined bones, including fragments of human bones, also
lay above the deposits on the altars, or mingled with
them ; and in other cases a mass of calcined shells, or of

372 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

fine carbonaceous dust, like that fonned by the buming
of some vegetablQ matter, filled up the entire hollow of
the altar. But while it is obvious from a few traces, that
the deposits on the altars had included offerings of objects
which yielded at once to the destructive element to which
they were there exposed, as well as others capable in
some degree of withstanding the intensity of the flame :
there are only the faintest traces of all but the least de-
structible relics of stone or metal. In one mound a por-
tion of the contents were cemented together by a tufa-
like substance of a grey colour, resembling the scoriae of
a furnace, and of great hardness. But subsequent ana-
lyses demonstrated that it was made up in part of phos*
phates, and a single fragment of partially calcined bone
found on the altar was the patella of a human skeleton.
The long-continued, and probably oft-repeated applica-
tion of intense heat had reduced the cemented mass to
this condition. A quantity of pottery, many implements
of copper, and a large number of spear-heads beautifully
chipped out of quartz and manganese garnet, were also
deposited on the altar ; but they were intermixed with
much coal and ashes, and were all more or less melted or
broken up with the intense action of the fire. Out of a
bushel or two of fragments of the spear-heads, and of
from fifty to a hundred quartz arrow-heads, only four
specimens were recovered entire. Fire also had been
employed once more in the concluding rites, ere this altar
was finally buried under the earthen mound, on the
banks of the Scioto : garnering the chronicles of a long-
extinct past, until its recent exhumation to tell its tale
of forgotten rites and religious services practised there
by the ancient occupants of the Ohio Valley. Scattered
over the deposits of earth filling one of the compart-
ments, and resting upon the sides of the altar, were foimd
the traces of a number of pieces of timber, four or five

XII.] FHOtlTlATlON : SACHIFICIAL MOUNDS. 373

f(!et long. They had been somewhat burned, and the
carbonized surface had preserved their casts iu the hard
earth, although the wood had entirely decayed. They
hull been heaped over while glowing, for the eiuth around
them was slightly baked ; and thus, after repeated, and
perhaps long-protracted saciificial rites, some grand final
service liad consummated the religious mysteries ; and
the blazing altar was quenched by means of the tumulus
that was to preserve it for the instruction of future ages.
Its explorers remark in reference to the traces of a tim-
ber scaffolding thus sunnounting the altar at its closing
services : " Tliese pieces had been of nearly unifonn
length ; and this circumstance, joined to the position in
which they occurred, in respect to each other, and to the
altar, would almost justify the inference that they had
supported some funeral or sacrificial pUe."

It thus appears that some of these filtars remained in
use for a considerable period, and were repeatedly re
Hewed ere they were finally covered over by the sepul-
chral mounds. In one case, for example, of an oblong
mound or ban-ow in the Scioto Valley, one hundred and
forty feet in length, by sixty feet in greatest breadth,
and eleven feet in height : already referred to as that in
which so many quartz spear and arrow heads, along with
copper and other relics, were found ; a new and smaller
hearth was observed to have been constmctcd within the
oblong basin of the original altar. Within this smaller
compartment all tlie relics deposited in the mound were
placed, and the outer compartments of the large basin
had been filled up with earth to a uniform level, the
surface of which showed traces of fire. Upon attempting
to penetrate the altar so as to ascertain its thickness, the
task proved one of great difiiculty owing to its extreme
hardness ; and when at length it was effected, the clay
was found tj> be burnt to the depth of twcuty-lwo inches.

L

374 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

As such a result seemed one that could hardly be ac-
counted for by the action of any degree of heat applied
from above, a more minute examination was instituted,
and it was discovered that three successive altars had
been constructed, one above another, in addition to the
smaller hearth or focus which had received the final
sacrificial offerings, ere it was buried under its enclosing
mound. In other examples, however, these altars have
been observed to be very slightly burned ; but wherever
such was the case, they have also been observed to be
destitute of remains.

Along with the manifest evidences of a uniformity of
system and purpose in those remarkable structures, there
is also a considerable variety in some of their details ;
and one group may be selected, as on several accounts
possessing peculiar features of interest. On the western
bank of the Scioto Kiver, an ancient enclosure occupies a
level terrace immediately above the river. In outline it
is nearly square with rounded angles, and consists of a
simple embankment, between three and four feet high,
unaccompanied by a ditch, or any other feature sug-
gestive of its having been a place of defence. It encloses
an area of thirteen acres, within which are twenty-four
mounds, including the large oblong one already referred
to. The whole of these have been excavated, and foimd
to contain altars and other remains, which prove beyond
doubt that they were places of sacrifice, dedicated to
sacred and superstitious rites, and not to sepulture.
Here, therefore, was one of the sacred enclosures of the
Mound-Builders : a temple of their long-forgotten faith,
inroofed only by the azure vault of heaven, like the open
British temples of Avebury and Stonehenge. To this
remarkable enclosure the name of "Mound City" has
been given, and the results of its exploration prove it to
have been one of the most remarkable scenes of ancient

XII.] PROPITIATIOX : SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. 375

ceremonial iu the Scioto Valley. It would almost eoem
as if liere had l>cen reared an altar to each god in the
ancient American pantheon ; for not the least remarkable
featui'c observed in reference to the altars of the mounds
is, that their deposits do not exhibit a misceUaneoua
assemblage of relics, like the eontenta of an Indian
ossuary or grave- mound. On the contrary, the sacrificial
deposits are generally nearly homogeneous. On one
altar sculptured pipes are chiefly found, sometimes to the
number of hundreds ; on another, jiottery, copper orna-
ments, stone implements, or galena ; on others, only jin
accumulation of calcined shells, carbonaceous ashes, or
burnt hones. A few altars have also been noticed, which,
though much burned, have no deposit upon them, except
a thin layer of phosphate of lime, which seems to have
incorporated itself with the clay of which they are com-
posed. Such was the case with three of those explored
within the " Mound City ;" and it appeared to their
explorers that, though repeatedly used, they had been
carefully cleared of all theij' contents before being heaped
over, and buried under the final mound. The altar under
one of the mounds of this enclosure was a piirallelogram
of the utmost regularity, measuring ten feet in length,
by eight in width, and with its basin of the same rect-
angular form. It contained a deposit of fine ashes,
with fragments of pottery, from which the pieces of one
beautiful vase were recovered and restored. With these
also lay a few shell and peail beads. In another oblong
mound, the altar was an equally perfect square, but with
a circtdar basin, remarkable for its depth, and filled with
a mass of calcined shells. Another, though of small
dimensions, contained nearly two hundred pipes, carved
with ingenious skill, of a red porphyritic stone, into
figures of animals, birds, reptiles, and human heads. In
addition to these were also disks, tubes, and oraaments

L

37 G PREUISTORIG MAN. [Chap.

of copper, pearl and Bhell-beads, etc., but all more or less
injured by the heat, which had been sufficiently intense
to melt some of the copper relics. The number and
value of the objects found in this mound exceed any
other single deposit ; and some of them supply illustra-
tions of great importance relative to the arts, habits, and
probable origin of their makers. A like diversity marks
the contents of other mounds, both within the sacred
enclosure here referred to, and in others where careful
explorations have been eflfected. In one, for example,
the whole area was covered with two layers of disks of
horn stone, some round and others oblong. Upwards of
six hundred were taken out, and it was estimated that
the entire deposit numbered little short of four thousand.
From those, and other examples, it appears that bumt-
oflFerings and sacrifices by fire were practised as an im-
portant and oft-repeated part of the sacred rites to which
the altar-mounds were devoted : yet that also certain
specific and varying purposes were aimed at in the
ofierings made on difi'erent altars. AVhile, also, these
altar-mounds are chiefly found within what appear to
have been sacred enclosures, devoted — as has been
assumed from a variety of evidence, — primarily, if not
exclusively, to religious purposes ; they also occur, gener-
ally, as single works, within the military enclosures and
strongholds : where it may be assumed they sufficed for
sacrifices designed to propitiate the objects of national
worship, and to win the favour of their deities when
the ancient garrisons were precluded from access to the
sacred enclosures where the national religious rites were
chiefly celebmted.

Within a quarter of a mile to the south of " Moimd
City " is a work of somewhat similar outline, but of larger
dimensions, and with some of the characteristics of a
defensive rather than of a sacred enclosure. From its

XIL] FHOFITIATWN : SAVRIFICIAL MOUXDS. 377

position, indeed, in relation to that remarkable circum-
vallated group of mounds, and also of other enclosures
and earthworks in the vicinity, the nature of its construc-
tion suggests the i(]ea of a fortified site ; not designed as
a military stronghold, but as a walled town, wherein may
have resided those who officiated at the sacrifices of the
adjacent temple. Unlike the slight enclosure of the
latter, its walls aie further guarded by an outer fosse, and
if sunnounted by a palisade, or other militaiy work, they
were well suited for civic defence. The area thus enclosed
measures twenty-eight acres ; and very nearly, if not
exactly, in the centre tliere is a sacred mound, which was
found, on excavation, to contain an altar of singular con-
struction, and with remarkable tmces of sacrificial rites.
Like other altars of the explored mounds, this one ap-
peared to liave undergone repeated changes throughout
the period intervening between the first rites and cere-
monies performed on the site, and that of its final inhu-
mation. The traces of these are thus minutely recorded
by its intfilligent explorers;- — "This altar is entirely
peculiar. It seems to have been formed at different
intervals of time, as follows : — First, a circidar space,
thirteen feet in diameter and eight inches in depth, was
excavated in the original level of the plain ; this was
filled with fine sand, carefully levelled, and compacted to
the utmost degree. Upon the level thus formed, which
was perfectly horizontal, offerings by firc were made ; at
any rate a continuous heat was kept up, and fatty matter
of some sort burned, for the sand to the depth of two
inches is discoloured, and to the depth of one inch is
burned hard and black, and cemented together. The
ashes, etc., resultiog from this operation were then re-
moved, and another deposit of sand, uf equal thickness
with the former, was placed above it, and in like manner
much compacted. This was moulded into the altar-form,

L

378 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

identical witli that of the circular clay altars already
described, the basin in this case measuring seven feet in
diameter by eight inches in depth. This basin was then
carefully paved with small round stones, each a little
larger than a hen's egg, which were laid with the utmost
precision, fully rivalling the pavior's finest work. They
were firmly bedded in the sand beneath them, so as to
present a regular and uniform surface. Upon the altar
thus constructed was found a burnt deposit, carefully
covered with a layer of sand, above which was heaped
the superstructure of the mound. The deposit consisted
of a thin layer of carbonaceous matter, intermingled
with which were some burnt human bones, but so much
calcined as to render recognition extremely difficult.
Ten well-wrought copper bracelets were also found,
placed in two heaps, five in each, and encircling some
calcined bones, — probably those of the arms upon which
they were worn. Besides these were found a couple of
thick plates of mica, placed upon the western slope of
the altar/' ^

All the results of such investigations thus coincide in
proving that the altars of the Mound-Builders were used
for considerable periods, and repeatedly renewed, before
they were finally covered over. Others undoubtedly
remained to the last uncovered, though their exposure
has necessarily left them in a very different condition
from those now revealed for the first time to human
eyes since the last rites of the ancient worshippers ex-
tinguished the sacred fires on their hearth. These appear
to have been noted from time to time under the name
of "brick-hearths." The hard-burnt clay, cracked and
broken up by the roots of trees, the action of frosty and
other causes, and partially buried by the accumulating
vegetation and deciiy of centuries, when brought to light

^ Ancient Monumcnla of the Mississippi VaUey^ p. 157.

Xir.] PROPITIATION ■- SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. 370

by the plough or the spade, not imuatiirally suggested
the idea of rude biick pavings. One of these, discovered
near thu town of Marietta, in Ohio, was surrounded by
a low bauk, of about one huudi-ed feet in circumference,
seemingly the ground- plan or commencement of a mound,
AU Buch " hearths " or altars were, indeed, it may be as-
sumed, destined to receive their final completion by
means of the incovering moimd. But, by whatever
causes brought about, the day at length came when the
dominion of the Mound-Builders was brought to a close ;
and probably not less abruptly than that of the Aztecs
of Mexico or the Incas of Peru. The sacred fires were
extinguislied, the uncovered altars were desecrated, and
the primeval forest slowly resumed its sway over the
deserted temples and silent cities of the dead. The
exploration of the sacred mounds, however, has sufficed
to show that the covering over of the altar was a work
of no less systematic care than any of the previous rites
and ceremonies. The sepulchral mounds are simple
covers or earth-pyramids, sometimes elliptical or pear
shaped, but exhibiting in their internal Bhoicture no trace
of any further design than to heap over the sarcophagus
of the honoured chief such a gigantic tumulus as should
preserve his name and fame to after times. It is alto-
gether different with the sacred moimds. The uniform
stratification of the materials composing them has nlrcady
been specified as one of their peculiar characteristics,
and will be best illustrated by tnicing the process of
construction as disclosed in one of those of " Mound
City ;" though it is to be noted that while the evidence
of a careful and systematic deposition of the materials
forming the mound is found in all, the differences in
these details are fully as great as in those of tlie enclosed
nltars. In the construction of the mound referred to,
which occupies the north east comer of the sacred en-

380 PREHISTORJG MAN. [Chap.

closure, near the edge of the steep bank immediately
overhanging the Scioto River, the following were dis-
tinctly traceable as the successive stages in its process
towards completion. On the natural level of the soil
an altar or basin of fine clay was constructed, perfectly
circular, and measuring nine feet in diameter. From
the outer edge the clay walls were raised at an angle of
about 40° to the height of twenty inches, and within
this a hollow basin was formed nine inches deep. After
this clay structure had been subjected to long and re-
peated action of intense heat — as is assumed from its
being used as an altar of burnt-sacrifice, — until it had
been burnt throughout to the consistency of the hardest
brick, the basin was filled up evenly with fine dry ashes,
intermingled with which were fragments of pottery, and
a few copper bosses or disks. This deposit having been
carefully levelled to the edge of the altar-focus, a layer
of silvery or opaque mica, in sheets, was laid with great
regularity over it, the mica plates overlapping each other,
and on this was heaped a pile of human bones, reduced
to fragments by the action of fire, but probably the re-
mains of only a single skeleton. Above this, and
extending beyond the outer verge of the altar, a layer
of earth a few inches in thickness was uniformly spread,
presenting, in miniature, the final shape of the mound.
Above this a thin stratum of fine sand was liaid, con-
forming, as all the mound strata do, to the convex outline
of the lower heap. Then followed a deposit of earth
one foot thick, next a thin stratum of sand, then another
layer of eighteen inches of earth, a thin and uniform
layer of sand somewhat more than an inch thick, another
deposit of earth, then a unifoim layer of gravel and
pebbles to the depth of two feet, and over tiie whole a
final layer of coarse gravel and pebbles one foot in
thickness, procured either fi-om the Imnks of the neigh-

XII.] 1-H0PIT!AT!0N : SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. 381

bouring river, or trom deep pits Burrounding the sacred
enclosure ; which, as in others of the ancient earth-
works, show from whence the materials for their con-
struction were procured. Some of the features here
described were peculiar, but the traces of a systanatic
constniction of the sacred mounds in uniform alternate
layers of earth and other materials illustrate a fea-
ture belonging to the whole class, and one to which
nothing analogous in the structure of any of the timiuli
or earth-pyramids of the Old World has hithei-to been
noted.

The investigation of this remarkable class of ancient
works suggests many curious questions to which it is
difficult to fm-nish any satisfactory answer. It is pro-
bable that not only each successive stage in the use and
reconstruction of the altar, but in the building of the
sujjerincumbent mound, had its own significance and
accompanying rites ; and on these future discoveries
may yet tlu-ow further light. In one of the " Mound
City " structures, after penetrating through four aucees-
aive sand-strata, interposed at intervals of little more
than a foot between layers of earth ; and excavating
altogether to a depth of nineteen feet : a smooth level floor
of sUghtly burned clay was found, covered with a thin
layer of sand, and on this a series of round plates of
mica, ten inches or a foot in diameter, were regularly
disposed, overlapping each other like the scales of a fish.
The whole deposit was not uncovered, but sufficient was
exposed to lead the observers to the conclusion that the
entire layer of mica was arranged in the form of a
crescent, the fidl dimensions of which must measure
twenty feet from horn to bom, and five feet at its
greatest breadth. After describing the peculiar features
of this mound, its explorers remark ; " Were we to yield
to the tcmptarion to spoculation which the presence of

382 PREUTSTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the mica crescent holds out^ we might conclude that the
Mound -Builders worshipped the moon, and that this
mound was dedicated, with unknown rites and cere-
monies, to that luminary/' It is obvious, at any rate,
that very diverse rites were practised, and very different
sacrifices offered up to the ancient deities of the Great
Valley. In some, the accumulated carbonaceous matter,
like that formed by the ashes of leaves or grass, might
suggest the graceful offerings of the first-fruita of the
earth, so consonant to the milder forms of ancient sacri-
fice instituted in recognition of the Lord of the Harvest
In others, the accumulation of hundreds of elaborately
car\'^ed stone-pipes on a single altar, is strikingly sug-
gestive of some ancient peace or wiir-pipe ceremonial, in
which the peculiar American custom of tobacco-smoking
had its special and sacred significance, and even perhaps
its origin. In others again, we should perhaps trace in
the deposition under the sacred mound of hundreds of
spear and arrow heads, copper axes, and other weapons
of war, the ancient and amply developed ceremonial
shadowed forth in the rude Indian syml>olism of burying
the tomahawk or war-hatchet. But, looking to the evi-
dence which so clearly separates the sepulchral from the
sacred mounds, it is scarcely possible to avoid the con-
clusion that on some of the altars of the Mound-Builders
human sacrifices were made ; and that within their sacred
enclosures were practised rites not less hideous than those
which characterized the woi-ship which the ferocious Az-
tecs are afiirmed to have regarded as most acceptable to
their sanguinary gods. Among the Mexicans, if we are
to believe the narratives of their Spanish conquerors,
human sacrifices constituted the crowning rites of almost
every festival. That great exaggeration, however, is
traceable in the narratives of the chronicles is admitted
in part even by the enthusiastic modem historian of the

XIL] PROPITIATION : SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. 383

conquest of Mexico ; and the charming historical ro-
mance woven by Prescott, is perhaps even more open to
question in its reproduction of the gross charges of can-
nibalism and wholesale butchery in the superstitious
rites of the Mexicans : than in its gorgeous picturings
of their architectural magnificence, their temples and
palaces, sculptured fountains and floating gardens, and
all the strange blending of Moorish pomp and luxury,
with the refinements of European social manners, and
the unreserved fi^eedom of woman.

Without assuming either an Aztec or Northern Indian
origin to the race of the Mound-Builders ; or discussing
meanwhile the essential points of diflference from both,
which seem to be traceable in such memorials as reveal
their characteristics to us ; it is undoubtedly in the rites
and customs of the various tribes and nations of the New
World that we must look for such analogies as may tend
to throw light on their mysterious mounds of sacrifice,
and other singular remains. In Hariot^s narrative of the
discovery of Virginia in 1584, he describes the use of
tobacco, called by the natives upp6vx)c, and greatly
enlarges on its medicinal virtues. He then adds : " This
uppdwoc is of so precious estimation amongst them that
they think their gods are marvellously delighted there-
with, whereupon sometime they make hallowed fires, and
cast some of the powder therein for a sacrifice." The
discovery of such unmistakable evidences of one of the
sacred altars of " Mound City" having been specially
devoted to nicotian rites and offerings, renders such allu-
sions peculiarly significant. In the belief of the ancient
worshippers, the Great Spirit smelled a sweet savour
as the smoke of the sacred plant ascended to the
heavens ; and the homely implement of modern luxury
was in their hands a sacred censer from which the

384 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

hallowed vapour rose with as fitting propitiatory odours
as that which perfumes the awful precincts of the
cathedral altar, amid the mysteries of the Church's high
and holy days.

It is indeed but a vague and partial glimpse that we
can now recover of the old worshipper, with his strange
rites, his buried arts, and the traces of his propitiatory
sacrifices, which the opening of these sacrificial mounds
reveals. It is nevertheless a glimpse of a condition of
things diverse in many respects from all else that we
know of the former history of the New World ; and on
that account, therefore, the most imperfect disclosures
have a fascinating interest for us, greater in some respects
than any discoveries relating to the modem Indian can
possess. Still more is that interest confirmed by every
indication which seems to present the ancient Moimd-
Builders as in some respects a link between the rude
nomade tribes of the American forests and prairies, and
those nations whom the first Europeans found established
in cities, under a well-ordered Government, and surroimded
by many appUances of civilisation akin to those with
which they had long l)een famihar among the most
ancient nations of southern Asia. To the great centres
of native progress and development which had gathered
under Aztec and Inca rule, and \o the older seats of
American nationality, still abounding with the ruined
memorials of their extinct arts, in Central America and
Yucatan, the attention of the inquirer into the ancient
history of the New World must be finally directed in his
desire for some clear comprehension of whatever was
essentially native to it. But before turning to those
seats of a well-ascertained native ci\dlisation, there still
remains for consideration, one other class of the earth -
works, of a very peculiar character. They too have a

XIT] PROPITIATION : SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. 385

certain value as a possible link in the detached frag-
ments of ancient chroniclings revealed by such means ;
lying as they do in geographical, and perhaps also in
other relations, immediately between the old region
of the Mound-Builders and the miners of the copper
regions in the ante-Columbian centuries of the western
hemisphere.

VOL. T. 2 B

38G PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

CHAPTER XIII.

COMMEMORATION : SYMBOLIC MOUNDS.

After surveying the many remarkable traces of primi-
tive mining, and the germs of native metallnrgic arts,
which confer so vital an interest on the forest solitudes
around the shores of Lake Superior, the attention of the
American archaeologist is inevitably attracted by the ex-
tensive relics of an ancdent population in the great river
valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries. But be-
tween the regions marked by those diverse features of
interest, lies an extensive tract of country, in close con-
tact with th<5 former ; luid constituting the geographical
link that connects it \\4th the area of those ancient
mounds, from which so many implements, wrought ap-
parently from the copper of Lake Superior, have been
recovered. It has l)een long known that this territory,
which stretches westward from Lake Michigan to the
Mississippi, is marked by aborigind earthworks, of a
highly distinctive character and altogether peculiar to the
New World. But of this, iis of other partially explored
regions of the West, the accounts were vague, extravagant,
and contradictory ; and it is only veiy recently that the
characteristics of its remarkable ancient monuments have
been accurately defined. Mr. J. A. Lapham, to whose
Antiquities of Wisconsin surveyed and descrihedy we
owe the minute knowledge of these remarkable earth-
works, claims to have first described the Turtle Mound

Xril.] COMMEMOIUTION : SYMBOLIC MOUXDS. 387

at Waukesha, as well as other animal effigies of the same
territory, so early as 1836. These notices, however, only
appeai-ed in local newspapers ; and general attention was
for the fii-st time direeted to them by a paper on the sub-
ject, ci:immumcated by Mr. R C. Taylor to l\iG American
Journal of Art^ and Sciences, in 1838, accompanied with
illustrations fi-om Im pencil. To this and other early
descriptions it is due, that this novel class of earthworla
at length excited such interest as to lead the American
Antiquiu'ian Society to place funds at Mr. Lapham's dis-
posal for enabling him to cany out the elaborate sui-vey
and drawings, since published in the Smithsonian Con-
tributions to Knowledge.

The occurrence of " Animal Mounds " Is by no means
exclusively confined to the State of 'Wifl<;ousin. Somi
remarkable examples are specially worthy of notice as
mingling among the numerous and varied earthworks of
the Ohio and Scioto Valleys. But the important fact
connected with the aboriginal traces of Wisconsin is that
the Animal Mounds constitute its great distinguishing
characteristic. They do not occur there interspersed, as
in the Ohio Valley, with civic and sacred enclosures,
sepulchral mounds, and works of defence ; but within an
area of wellndefiued limits, extending between the Mis-
sissippi and Lake Michigan, and with its northern and
southern boundaries little less clearly traceable : thou-
sands of examples occur of gigantic basso-relievos of men,
l)cast9, birds, and reptiles, all wrought with jjersevering
labour on the surface of the sod. The vast levels or
slightJy undulating surfaces of that great prairie land,
present pei:uliiuly favourable circumstances for the
colossal relievos of the native artist ; yet not more so
than are to be met with in other localities where no such
mounds occur. It is important therefore to bear in re-
membrance that defensive or military structures, and

388 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

such as are apparently designed for sacrificial rites or
religious ceremonies, are scarcely to be met with in the
tenitory marked by those singular groups of imitative
earthworks. It is, moreover, a country well adapted for
maintaining a large population, in very diverse stages of
social progress. Through the gently undulating surface
of the nearly level territory, numerous rivers and streams
flow in sluggish, yet limpid current, eastward and west-
ward, to empty themselves into Lake Michigan or the
Mississippi. The pools and groups of lakes into which
they expand, furnish abundance of wild rice, which is at
once a means of- sustenance to numerous aquatic birds^
and also constituted an important source of supply to
the aborigines, so long as the Ked Indian held possession
of the territory. The rivers and lakes also abound with
excellent fish ; and where the soil remains uninvaded by
the ploughshare of the intruding settler, numerous traces
of older agricultural labour show where the Indian cul-
tivated the maize, and developed some of the germs of
civilisation, and the industrial arts of a settled people.
Indian grave-mounds also diversify the surface, and, in
their ornaments and primitive weapons and utensils,
disclose traces of the simple arts of the rude nomades
that still linger on the outskii'ts of that western state.
But such slight and inartificial sepulchral mounds are
readily distinguishable from the remarkable structures of
a remoter era which constitute the archaeological charac-
teristic of the region. Here indeed, as elsewhere, the
Indian has selected the ancient mounds as the most
suitable sites for his simpler sepulchral works, thereby
m#re clearly indicating the complete independence of
the two.

In describing some of the earthworks near the town
of Horicon, on the Eock River, Mr. Lapham speaks of
them as at once the most extended and varied groups of

XTIL] COMMEilOHATlON : .SFMBOL/C MOUXD^S. 389

aocient works, and the moat compIirAtcd and intricate.
Of one fonn of moiind whicli he conceives to represent
the otter, seven examples ocem- ; illustrntiona are given
of sixteen cruciform earthworks ; and of the ordinaiy
circular mounds about two hundred have been counted.
While some of those are small, othere are on a gigantic
scale. There is one mound of pccuHar but indeterminate
form, which tapers for a length of five hundred and
seventy feet At its smaller extremity or tail, it sHghtly
curves to the east. At its opposite extremity or head,
there occurs a large cross, and one of the largest circidar
mounds. One figure is named appropriately enough,
" The Tobacco- Pipe Mound," from its obvious resem-
blance to that characteristic American -implement. In
several of the mounds of another group the sm-veyors
noticed recent Indian graves, covered with slabs or stakes,
in accordance with the usual method of Indian burial,
and belonging to the Potawattomies ; and Mr. Lapham
adds ; " The larger and more conspicuous mounds are
generally selected by the Indians for the burial of their
dead."

The sites of these ancient works closely correspond to
those adopted by the Mound-Builders of the more south-
em river-valleys. Within the well-watered region en-
closed by the great lakes, and bounded on the west by
the Mississippi, a numerous population may have long
lain undisturbed, in the enjoyment of the jirofusion which
wood and water and the easily cultivated soil supplied.
On the Ijlufis and terraces surmounting the rivera and
lakes, where game abounded, and by means of which
facihties of communication with the surrounding terri-
tory, and with more distant regions, were commanded,
the earthworks are found in extensive and evidently de-
pendent groups. But, unlike tbe rich memoriid mounds
of the Scioto Valley, the Wisconsin earthworks reveal

390 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

scarcely any enclosed relics to chronicle the history of
their erection, and throw a light on the mysterious race
of artists who laboriously recorded such hierogl3rphic8 on
the broad canvas of the natural landscape. In a few
ctises, human remains have been found in the emblematic
mounds, under circumstances which did not clearly point
to a modem date ; but these are quite exceptional. In
summing up the results of his exploration of the Wis-
consin earthworks, Mr. Lapham remarks : — " So far as I
have had opportunity to observe, there are no original
remains in the mounds of imitative form, beyond a few
scattered fragments that may have gained a place there
by accident. Many of the mounds have been entirely
removed, including the eaith l>eneath for a considerable
depth, in the process of gi-ading streets in Milwaukee ;
and it is usually found that the natural surface had not
been disturbed at the time of the erection, but that the
several layers or strata of mould, clay, gravel, etc., are
continuous below the structure, as on the contiguous
grounds. Great numbers of the smaller conical tumidi
are also destitute of any remains ; and if human bodies
were ever buried under them, they are now so entirely
* returned to dust ^ that no apparent traces of them are
left. If we assume that each mound was a place of
burial, we must infer, from the absence of utensils, that
the common practice of depositing with the dead the
implements to be used m the other world, is of compa-
ratively recent origin, since some of these, at least, would
have resisted decay.'' ^

The great earthwork-figures, wrought in relievo on the
surface of the Wisconsin soil, include among their devices
the lizard, turtle, elk, buffalo, bear, fox, otter, racoon, and
other animals. Such, at least, are the designs which
modern fancy has traced in those novel works of primi-

^ Antiquities t^f Wi^tconsin, p. 80.

XIII.] COMMEMOliATIUX : .SYMBOLIC AfOirND^'. 391

tive art. Tliu frog also appeiirs to be imitated ; biitls
anil fishes are repeatedly represented ; and man himself
figures among the strange groups. Nor aie the imi-
tations confined to animate subjects, tliough the preva-
lence of those has suggested the designation of " animal
mounds," as suitable for the whole. Embankments also
t>cf'ur in the form of crosses, crescents, angles, and straight
fines ; and also seemingly iis the gigantic imitations of
the war-club, tohaeco-pipe, and other familiar implements
or weapons. Some, at least, of the crosses and other
simpler forms, in all probability, originally rt'iiresented
animals, birds, or fishes, with extended wings or fins.
in these, as in the better-defined animal mounds, time
has doubtless obfiterated the minuter and more charac-
teristic touches of the ancient modeller, and effaced the
indications of his original meaning.

One of the most remarkal>Ie groups occurs about
eighteen miles west uf the " Four Lakes," in Dado
County, Wisconsin ; and includes six quadrupeds, six
parallelograma, one circidar tumulus, one human figure,
and a small circle, Tliis conspicuous group is situated
on the great Indian trail from Lake Miclugan to the
Mississippi, and is figured and described in Silliman's
Joumal, by Mr. R C. Taylor, fmm actual survey. It
is again figured and described, idtmgwith other examples
of the monuments of the North-w&st, in Messrs. Squier
and Davis's Ancient MonumeMtn of the Miss^issippi
Valley ! but neither from figures nor description can
any more definite idea be drawn, than that the group
includes representations of quadrupeds, varying in size
from ninety to one hundred and twenty feet, but either
80 rudely executed, or so much defaced, that they may
be " buffalos," or " bears," or indeed any other animals.
They are grouped ui two rows on the smface of a high,
open prairii', on tlie dividing ridge between the Rock

392 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

and Wisconsin Rivers. Midway in the group, an ele-
vated conical mound overtops the whole, and affords the
only point from whence the entire group can be sur-
veyed. It appears probable, indeed, that such a mound
was purposely erected as an observatory from whence to
view the whole. In many of the groups, it can scarcely
admit of doubt that the original relation of the several
members was something more than mere juxtaposition ;
but an ingenious critic, in reviewing the work of Messrs.
Squier and Davis, thus outstrips their attempts at inter-
pretation of the dubious " bears" or " buffalos :** — ^** It
occurs to us that the group is a very intelligible repre-
sentation of a sledge with its rider, and a train of six
dogs, wheeling round the conical mound, which last
action is particularly represented by the last animal
being in a position almost at right angles with the
man, behind whom are the oblongs to represent the
vehicle, and also with the remainder of the animals.
Taking the rudeness of the age and workmanship into
account, the impracticability of the material, and the
scale and material, the whole is really not a bad repre-
sentation of the dog-drawn sledges of the Kamschatdales
of the present day. Supposing their horns to have
been omitted, from the impracticability of raising earth-
works that would stand well, and in proportion to re-
present them, they might have signified the elk or the
reindeer. Whatever animal, however, be taken, it is
perhaps a legitimate inference that we have here the
colossal trophy of a successful super- Atlantic charioteer
at some American race ; why not the ciuious hippo-
drome, or, more correctly here, cynodrome, with its
starting-ccUs, its course, its meta, and road of triumph
to the town V'"^

It was not necessary for the fanciful interpreter of the

* Journal Brit ArchaoL A$8ociaUont vol. v. p. 411.

XIU.] COMMEMOliATION : SYMMOUC MOUND!i. 303

Wisconsin earthworks to resort to remote Kamscbatka
for the model of his dog-drawn sledge, for such are
common enough among the Indians of the North-west ;
but baeso-rehevos thut admit with equal probability of
theii- determination as biiffalos, bears, dogs, or elks,
yield little trustworthy disclosures ; and a general sur-
vey of the earthworks of Wisconsin in no degree tends
to confirm such modes of interpretation. But while
rejecting this classic^il reading of the emblematic mounds
of the West, it is not because of their mde representa-
tions appearing to be unfit memoiials of any triumph
analogous to those for which trophies were reared in the
classic arena. Fully to appreciate the magnitude of
the Dade county group, we must bear in remembrance
the proportions of the supposed charioteer. He is
figured, as is usual in similar mounds, with his Umbs
extended, and with anus of disproportionate length ;
jxissibly owing t-o the design originally representing
some implement in each hand. From head to feet he
measures one hundred and twenty-five fdit, and one
hundred and forty feet from the extremity of one arm
to that of the other. The head alone is twenty-five feet
in diameter, and nearly six feet in highest elevation
from the surroundmg soil. Measuring the whole by
this scale, it is abundantly apparent that a group,
including altogether sixteen different mound-figures,
must have been a work of immense time and labour,
and doubtless owed its origin to some motive or purpose
of corresponding magnitude in the estimation of its
constructors.

Mr. Sehooleraft, to whom no problem of America's
prehistoric times appears to suggest any insoluble diffi-
culties, deals with the emblematical mounds of Wis-
consin in greater seeming consistency with tlie aboriginal
mode of thought of the New World. In the first volume

394 PREHISTORIC MAN. ' [Chap.

of liift History of the Indian Tribes^ he solves the whole
mystery l)y assuming them to be merely the Totems, or
heraldic symbols in use among the Indian tribes, thus
reproduced in earthworks on a gigantic scale. " The
connexion," he remarks, " of the animal mounds of Wis-
consin with the existing totemic system of the Indians
who are yet on the field of action, is too strong to escape
attention. By the system of names imposed on the men
composing the Algonquin, Iroquois, Cherokee, and other
nations, a fox, a bear, a turtle, etc., is fixed upon as a
badg(i or stem, from which the descendants may trace
their parentage. To do this the figure of an animal is
employed as a heraldic sign or surname. This sign is
called in the Algonquin, town-mark or totem. A tribe
could leave no more permanent trace of an esteemed
sachem, or honoured individual, than by the eixiction of
one of these monuments. They are clearly sepulchral,
and have no other object Imt to preserve the names of
distinguished actors in their history."^ Thus by the aid
of superficial resemblances all mystery and difficulty
are evaded. But, meimwhile, thq explorations of Mr.
Lapham seem to prove that the emblematical mounds
of Wisconsin are not sepulchral ; while any correspon-
dence that may be traced between the totemic symbols
of tribes once as widely spread as the Algonquin, Iro-
quois, and Cherokees, only increases the mystery of such
anciciiit symbols, constructed on this colossal scale, and
confined to a territoiy so limited and well defined. So
far indeed is a careful survey from confirming any such
convenient and summary fancy, that IVIr. Lapham states
as the result of his elaborate exploration of the earth-
works of Wisconsin, that he conceives four epochs are
traceable in the histor}'^ of the locality, two of which at
lejust preceded the era of occupation by the Indian tribes.

* Iliston/ of Indian Trtbett, vol. i. p. 52.

I XIII.] COilMEMORATTO^' : SYMBOLIC MOUADS. 39.1

There is the period of the aaimal Moiuiil-BuildeiB,
strangely devoid of works of art, though one or two
exceptional cases have been met with, as at Racine,
wliere Dr. Hoy describes the finiling of a deposit of
disks of homstoue, about thirty in number, which ap-
pear to correspond in description to similar deposits in
the more southern mounds. Again, the extensive works
at Aztalan, on the west branch of the Rock River, pre-
sent considerable analogies to the sacred and civic en-
closures of the Mound-Builders of Ohio. The Aztalan
earthworks constitute, it is bcheved, the only iuieient
enclosure, properly ao called, throughout tlie whole region
of the emblematic mounds ; and, under the name of the
" ancient city of Aztalan," it was long regardetl, from
extravagant and grossly exaggerated descriptions, as one
of the wonders of the western world. The name was
given to it by its first surveyor, N. F. Hyei-, in the
I>elief that here possibly were the rem[iina of a city of
that northern Aztulan, from whence, according to the
ti'atlitions of the Aztecs, the ancestora of the Mexican
people derived tlieir origin. On such a basis, creduUty
and wilful exa^eration soon rcai'ed magnificent western
ruins. Walls of brick still sustained by their solid but-
tivsses ; a subterranean vault and staii'-way discovered
within one of its square moimds ; a subterranean pas-
sage, arched with stone ; ba.stious of. solid masonry, an<l
other features of the like kind, were all made to corre-
spond with the sui>po8ed mother-city of the Aztecs, and
the cradle-land of America's native civilisation. On
being subjected to accurate survey, all these wondrous
features vanish Uke the cloud-eaj^tles of the dawn before
the sun. Freed, however, from such exaggeration and
falsehood, the Aztalan works still present very remarkable
charaeteristicfl. An area of seventeen acres on the J)anks
of the Rock River is enclosed on three sides by earth-

396 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

works ; but the form of these is peculiar^ consisting of a
series of " bastions'' as they have been termed, although
both the construction of the walls, and the site of the
enclosure — commanded as it is by elevated land on
nearly every side, — ^preclude the idea of its having ever
been used as a place of defence. Large, square, terraced
mounds occupy the northern and southern angles within
the enclosure, and in the former of these there was
found, several feet below the surface, what appeared to
be the remains of cloth enveloping portions of a human
skeleton. Its texture was open like the coarsest linen
fabric, but the threads were so entirely rotten as to
make it uncertain of what material they were made. It
is not probable, however, that either this, or numerous
fragments of pottery taken from the mounds at diflferent
times, bear any relation to the original builders of
Aztalan. Careful and elaborate excavations by more
recent explorers have been equally fruitless with those
carried on in the symbolic mounds ; and cuttings made
in some of the largest of a remarkable range of tumuU
outside the enclosures, revealed only ashes, mingled with
charcoal and fragments of human bones, at various
depths ; but brought to hght no single work of art, like
those which confer so graphic an interest on the mounds
of the Ohio Valley.

Assuming the great works of Aztalan and the animal
mounds of Wisconsin to belong to the same period : Mr.
Lapham regards the conical mounds as built for sepul-
chral purposes, and exhibiting, both in construction and
materials, the workmanship of a greatly inferior race of
buildei^s, pertaining to a later era. Next come what are
designated by the modern settlers " ancient garden beds."
They consist of low, broad, parallel ridges, as if com had
been planted in driUs. They average four feet in width,
twenty-five of them having been counted in the space of

XIU.] COMMBMOIiATlON : SYMBOLIC MOUNDS. 397

a hnndred feet, and the depth of the walk between them
is six inches. These appearanres indicate a more perfect
system of agricultural operations than anything known
to have been practised by the modem Indian tribes ;
but, at the same time, they are no less distinctly discon-
nected with the construction of the ancient momida
Whore these occur within a cidtivated area, the parallel
ridges of the old cultivators ai'e oarried across them in
the same manner as over any \mdulation in the adjacent
ground. It is obvious, therefore, that the emblematic
earthworks had neither sacredness nor any special signi-
ficance iu the eyes of those later cultivators of the soil.
Probably, indeed, mich traces of agricultui-al operations
belong to a greatly more modern peiiod than that of
the mounds.

The ancient monuments of this territory, lying imme-
diately to the south of the great copper region of Lake
Superior, present very remai'kable features. If we as-
sume the existence of nations or tribes in Wisconsin
and Ohio contemporary with the Mound-Builders, the
chronicles of that preiiistoric era exhibit them to us in
striking contrast. In the one, every convenient height
is crowned with the elaborate fortifications of a nmnerous
and warlike people ; while, on the broad levels of their
river- terraces, ingenious geometrical stnictures prove
their skill and intellectual development as apphod to the
formation of their civic and temple enclosures. Theii-
saere<l and sepulchral mounds, in like manner, reveal a
highly-cultured artistic skill, and a singular variety in
the rites and customs once exacted in the pcrfoiiuance
of their national worship. Turning to the northern area,
all is changed. Along the river-ten-aces we look in vain
for military structures, and, with one remarkable excep-
tion, for sacred enclosures. The mounds disclose no
altars rich with the metallurgic nnd mimetic arts of

398 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

their builders ; but, on the contrary, the sole traces of
imitative art are exhibited in the external forms of
earthworks, the exploration of which confutes the idea
of their having been constructed over either grave or
altar, and reveals no other purpose connected with their
origin.

When it is considered that the sacred and sepulchral
mounds, abounding throughout the valleys of the Missis-
sippi and its tributaiies, frequently contain the copper
of Lake Sujierior and the mica of the Alleghanies, as
well as the shells of the Gulf of Mexico, and obsidian
from the ancient centre of American civilisation to the
west of that tropical sea : we are tempted to trace some
intimate relations between the warUke occupants of the
Ohio and Scioto valleys, and the singular race who dwelt
in peaceful industry on the well-watered and plentifully
stocked plains to the south of the great copper r^on,
and reared, along its lake and river terraces, the strange
colossal memorials of their imitative art. The country
seems peculiarly adapted by nature as a central neutral
land for the broad continent to the etist of the Rocky
Mountains. On the north it is guarded by the vast
fountain of the great lake and river chain, which, Avith
Lake Michigan on its eastern boundary, sweeps away on
its course of twenty-five hundred miles of lake and river,
over the mighty leap of Niagara, and through the islands
and raj)ids of the St. Lawrence, into the Atlantic ; and
on the west, with its infant streamlets originating almost
from the same source, the Mississippi rolls onward in its
majestic course, receiving ixb its tributaries the great
rivers which rise alike on the western slope of the Al-
leghanies and the eastern decUvities of the Eocky Moun-
tains, and losing itself at length in the Gulf of Mexico.
This wonderful river-system, and the great level contour
of the regions which it drains, exercised a remarkable

XIIL] COMMEMORATION : SYMBOLIC MOUNUX. 3D0

intiuemx! on the extinct civUisiition of America, aa well
as on her later Indian nomade life, making it so different
from any of the old or newer centuries of Europe's
liistory. The Indians who traded with Cartier at Ta-
dousac, on the lower 8t, Lawrence, and those whom
Raleigh met with on the southern coast of Carolina,
obtained their copper from the same northern region
towards which the head-wateis of the Mississippi and
the St. Lawrence convei'ge ; while the world of JEurope
between the Rhine and the Baltic remained, even in its
late Roman era, almost as much apart from that on its
Mediten-aucjin shores as the America of centuries before
Columbus. It seems, therefore, not iucoueeivable that
this central area of the continent derives some of its
archsBologieal characteristics from the ancient recognition
of its relation to the physical geography of the region
between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic. Wiis
it indeed, as has been suggested, a sacred neutral ground
attached to the metallurgic region of Lake Superior,
like the famous ])ipe-stone quarry of the Couteau dcs
Prau'ics ? or wiis it in the possession of a tribe Uke the
Levites of ancient Palestine, recognised by otliers as
consecrated to religious services and the rites of peace 1
Who sliidl venture to lift the curtain, which is itself the
sole picture visible to our eyes ? Future disclosures
may, indeed, greatly enlai-ge our knowledge ; but mean-
while we must be content to limit speculation to the
confines of existing evidence, and aim at cleai^ly discri-
minating between fact and fancy.

While, however, the symbolic or animal mounds are
characteristic of ancient Wisconsin, examples of them
iire intermingled among the other eai-thwoi'ks of the
Mississippi Valley ; and some of them, indeed, present
there their most remarkable specialities. One of these,
in Scioto County, <.thio, is described from a survey and

fe.

400 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Cbap.

notes by Mr. Charles Whittlesey. On a high level terrace
on the west bank of the Scioto River, an oval embank-
ment, approaching very nearly to a true ellipse, has been
constructed with imusual care. Its longest axis is four
hundred and eighty feet, and its conjugate diameter four
hundred and seven feet A single gateway, opening to
the south-east, and about ninety feet wide, breaks the
continuity of the embankment : but it is covered by a
long exterior mound, leaving an approach at either end,
where it overlaps the inner ovaL Within this enclosure
is a large animal-shaped mound, resembling those of
Wisconsin, excepting in this that none of them have
hitherto been observed to be enclosed by corresponding
earthworks. The Ohio Canal passes close to the site,
and its engineer has noted the interesting fact that, in
the progress of its excavation, the workmen found, in
the immediate vicinity of this ancient enclasure, large
quantities of mica in sheets, similar to what has been
met with so abundantly in the sacrificial mounds.

The same canal intersects the works of one^of the most
remarkable of the sacred enclosures already referred to :
the Newark group, in Licking County, Ohio ; and here,
within an elliptic enclosure of 1250 feet in its longest
axis, is the great bird-mound, measuring 155 feet in
length of body, and 200 feet between the tips of the
wings. As already described, it constitutes only one of
many striking features of a remarkable group of geo-
metrical enclosures, mounds, and avenues ; but it is
distinguished from aU the other works around it, covering
an extent of about two miles square, by the great height
of the enclosing walls, and the peculiar feature of an
interior ditch seven feet deep and thirty-five feet wide.
In the centre of an area of thirty acres^ enclosed by
imposing circumvaUations, and under the shadows of
gigantic trees, hoary with the years of many generations,

XIII.] COMMEMOIUTIoy : SYMBOLIC MOUiS'DS. 401

rises this remaikable bird-mouud, with its head pointing
directly to the eastern avenue ; while immediately in its
rear, one hundred feet distant^ ia a semicircular embank-
ment of slight elevation, about two hundred feet ia
length. This bird-mound, as previously observed, has
been opened, and found to cover a sacrificial altar, but
unfortunately no note has been preserved of any rehca
discovered within it. The fact, however, is of great
impoi-tance, in comparing the works of the Mississippi
Valley with those of Wisconsin ; which, in the absence
of any included rcUca of worship or inhumation, seem
but as the tj-pical symbols of the rites and practices of
the southern Mound- Builders.

The Newark Valley abounds with mihtary and sacred
enclosures, embnnkments, altar-mounds, and tumuli of
the ancient people ; and about six miles higher up the
valley, the " Alligator," of Lickiug County, attracts our
attention as a remarkable example of the colossal animal-
mounds of the New World. A hiU or headland, from
150 to 200 feet in height, projects boldly into the valley
of Racoon Creek, and on the rounded summit of thb
headland the huge lizard-mound has Ijecn constructed.
The summit of the hill upon which the efHgy rests is so
regular as to suggest the idea that it has been ai-tificially
rounded ; as is by no means improbable, in the process
of excavating the materials out of which the mound is
formed.

In this, as in other examples of animal-moundK, tJie
probability is suggested that it may have been originally
modelled with a minuteness of detail very imperfectly
preserved in its present condition. The outline of the
figure is clearly defined, Its avemge height is fully four
feet, but the head, shoulders, and rump are elevated in
some parts to a height of six feet, an attempt having
evidently been made to preserve the contour and rela-

VOL. I. 2 C

402 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

tive proportions of the animal represented. The ends of
the paws are broader than the limbs, as if the spread of
the toes had been originally indicated, and the tail curves
off to the left side, so as to give its full length within the
limits of its elevated site. The total length from the
point of the nose to the end of the curved tail is about
250 feet. Upon the inner side of the effigy is a raised
circular space, covered with stones which have been much
exposed to the action of fire ; and from the summit of
this, which is designated the altar, a graded way, ten feet
broad, leads to the top of the Alligator Mound. Exca-
vations made at various points of the figure have only
sufficed to show that its framework is composed of stones
of considerable size, upon which the superstructure has
been modelled in fine clay.

The site of this remarkable ancient monument com-
mands a view of the entire valley for eight or ten miles,
and is by far the most conspicuous point within that limit
It overlooks a beautiful circular enclosure in the valley im-
mediately opposite. An ancient fortified hQl stands about
three -fourths of a mile distant on a spur of the same
range of heights ; and another entrenched hill nearly
faces it on the opposite side of the vaUey. Numerous
mounds are seen from it both on the lull-tops and in the
level bottom ; and it is only the luxuriant growth of the
still uncleared forest which conceals the great Newark
group, with its numerous geometrical enclosures, paral-
lels, and mounds. It is apparent, therefore, that the site
of this singular symbolic earthwork was selected as the
most prominent natural feature, in a valley abounding
with traces of the military, civic, and religious structures
of that strange extinct race to whom we give the name
of the Mound-Builders ; and in one of the most populous
centres of ancient settlement. It is not, therefore, with-
out good reason that its surveyors have assumed that the

Xiri.l GOMilEMOIUTION : SYMBOLIC MOVNDS.

Alligjitor Mouml of Newark Valley had its origin m
the superstitiona of its makers ; and that it was per-
haps the high place where sacrifices were made on stated
or extraordinary occasions, when that ancient people
gathered to celebrate the rites of their now unknown
worship.

But by far the most remai'kable of all the symbolic or
imitative earthworks hitherto discovered is " the Great
Serpent," of Adams' County, Ohio. At the junction of a
small rividet with Bush C^eek, a tributary of the Ohio,
a crescent-formed spui- of land has been left between the
two water-qom-ses, rising abruptly from the level of the
stream to a height of 150 feet. At the extreme point of
the promontory is an oval earthwork of perfectly regular
outline, measuring 160 feet in greatest diameter, and
eighty feet, or exactly one-half, in least diameter. A cir-
cular heap of large stones, marked strongly by the action
of fire, formerly occupied the centre, but its site is now
indicated only by a slight elevation. The point of the
hill on which this oval earthwork rests appears to have
been cut to a conformity with its outline, leaving a
smooth external platform ten feet wide, with an inclina-
tion towards the embankment on every side. Immedi-
ately outside the inner point of this oval enclosure is the
Great Serpent's head, with distended jaws, as if in the
act of swallowing what, in comparison with its huge di-
mensions, is spoken of as an egg, though it measures, as
has been said, 160 feet in length. Conforming to the
summit of the hill, the body of the serpent winds back
for 700 feet, in graceful undulations, terminating with a
triple coil at the tail The figure is clearly and boldly
defined, the earth-wrought relievo being upwards of five
feet in height by thirtj- feet in base at the centre of the
body, and diminishing towai-ds the hemi and tail. The
entire length, following its convolutions, cannot measure

^

A

404 PREHISTORIC MA N. [Chap.

less than a thousand feet On either side of the serpent s
head two small triangular elevations extend, looking on
the ground-plan like external gills, but they are so much
obliterated as to render their original form uncertain.
Unlike the great Alligator Moimd, this remarkable monu-
ment stands alone. With the exception of a single mound
of moderate dimensions in the centre of the isthmus,
connecting its elevated site with the table-land beyond,
the spectator looks forth from the commanding point it
occupies over an extensive prospect, with broad alluvial
terraces spread out below, but all unoccupied by the
ancient works which generally aboimd in that region on
similar sites.

This singular monument of extinct rites and faith,
though classed here with the symbohc animal-mounds of
Wisconsin, has no analogue among the numerous basso-
relievos wrought on the broad prairie-lands of that ex-
tensive region. It is indeed altogether unique among
the ancient earthworks of the New World, and without
a parallel in the Old, though it has not unnaturally fur-
nished the starting-point for a host of speculations rela-
tive to the serpent-symbols of Egjrpt, Assyria, and
Greece ; the supposed symbolism of Celtic superstitions
in the monolithic temples of Avebury and Camac ; and
the serpent in combination with the circle, egg, and
globe, among the predominant symbohc devices on the
most ancient temples of Egjrpt and India, as well as on
those of Central America. Mr. Squier has devoted a
special volume to the working out of this fascinating
subject of "the Serpent Symbol'' in its New World
aspects; but his ingenious speculations do not lead to
more tangible results than those which employed the fan-
ciful pen of Stukely, or delighted Toland and Davis in
the belief that they were fathoming the mysteries of
the Celtic Druids.

XIII.] COMMEMORATION: SYMBOLIC MOUNDS. 40S

One other class of imitative works occiire among the
strange symbolic mounds of Wisconsin, presenting some
analogy to those still remaining among the primitive
monuments of the Eiitish Isles. The earthworks hitherto
described are in bold relief, and among the more import-
ant groups there fi-equently occurs an elevated mound or
observatory from whence to overlook and take in the full
design of the whole. But on the Indian prairie, a few
miles from the city of Milwaukee, amid an interesting
aeries of imitative and other mound-works, there occur
five others, wrought — to use the terms of European
art^ in intaglio. Instead of the representations of
animals being here executed by modelling them in relief
on the level surface of the soil, the process has been
reversed, and after formmg them by excavation, the earth
removed by this means has been piled in regular mounds
around the edge. A few other examples of this intaglio
work have been noted ; but such a process, if ever very
extensively used, must have been muoh more liable to
efiacement in the process of time, unless protected and
preserved, like the famous " "White Horse" of Berkshire,
by a periodical " scouring," which has there smrvived as
a custom long after less faitliful tradition has preserved
with any ceilainty the memory of the events it was
designed to commemorate. The chalk hills of southern
England present peculiar faeilitiea for such effective
colossal intaglio work. Another White Horae, ascribed
to Sajton victors of the Danes, accompanies an interest-
ing group of British earthworks on Braddon Hill, Wilt-
shire ; and the colossal human figure, armed with a club,
at Ceme, ui Dorsetshire, preserves a curious counterpart
to those scattered over the prmrie lands beyond the
western shores of Lake Michigan.

It is difficult to convey by mere description, even
though accompanied with minutCBt measurements, a de-

406 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

finite conception of the great scale upon which the
American earthworks are executed, and the consequent
labour involved in their construction. One of the cruci-
form mounds, for example, measures 420 feet between the
extreme points of its limbs. Lizard and other animal-
mounds range from 80 to 150 feet in length, and are
met with in groups, involving altogether long and con-
tinuous labour. The native American tribes that have
come under the direct observation of Europeans^ are as
diverse in habits, arts, and religious rites as in language ;
but none of them have manifested the capacity for con-
tinuous labour involved in the construction of monu-
ments which more nearly resemble the great embank-
ments and viaducts of modern railway engineering. The
extent of such works, like those in the more southern
valleys, indicates a settled condition of society, with a
systematic agricultural industry, very difierent from that
of the Iroquois Confederacy. Agriculture must have
been sufficiently developed to maintain a considerable
population ; and though in all this there is nothing abso-
lutely incompatible with the idea of the modem Indian
being the degenerate descendant of such a people, yet it
is a mere idea, alike improbable and unsupported by
proof. No modem tribe hitherto discovered preserves
any trace of such ancestral constractive habits ; and
while the animal-mounds appear to be regarded with
superstitious reverence by the Indians, and are never
disturbed by them except for purposes of sepulture, they
lay no claim to them as the work of their fathers. Their
only theory of the origin of such structures is, that they
are the work of the great Manitou, and were made by
him to reveal to his red children the plentiful supply of
game that awaits them in the world of spirits. The idea
is a consoling one to the tribes whose hunting-grounds
have there been invaded and laid desolate; and it is

XUL] GOMMEMORA TION : SYMBOLIC MO UNDS. 407

fully as philosophical as the theory gravely propounded,
in my hearing, before one of the sections of the American
Scientific Association, that the cruciform and curvilinear
earthworks intermingled with the animal-mounds, include
various characters of the Phoenician alphabet, and are
half-obUterated inscriptions commemorative of the an-
cient exploration of the American lake regions by the
great voyagers of antiquity !

408 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

CHAPTER XIV.

PROGRESS: NATIVE CIVILISATION

The name of the Toltecs plays a part in the initial
pages of the New World^s story akin to that of the fabled
Cyclops of antiquity. It belongs to that vague era which
lias beyond all definite records, and furnishes a name for
the historian and the ethnologist alike to conjure with :
like the Druids or the Picts of the old British antiquary,
or the Phoenicians of his American disciple. Yet it is
not without its value thus to discover, among the nations
of the New World, even a fabulous history, with its pos-
sible fragments of truth embodied in the myth. Mr.
Gallatin has compiled a laborious digest of the successive
migrations and dynasties of Mexico, as chronicled from
elder sources, by Ixtlilxochitl, Sahagun, Veytia, Clavi-
gero, the Mendoza Collection, the Codex Tellurianus, and
Acosta.^ The oldest dates bring the Toltec wanderers to
Huehuetlapallan, A.r>. 387, and close their dynasty in the
middle of the tentli century ; when they are superseded
by Chichimecas and Tezcucans, whose joint sovereignty,
by the unanimous concurrence of authorities, endures till
the sixteenth century. But, meanwhile, the same autho-
rities chronicle the foundation of Mexico or Tenochtitlan,
variously in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, by the
Aztec conquerors, and profess to supply the dynastic
chronology of Aztec power. The earliest date is not too

^ Avuerkan Ethnological Society's Transactions^ vol i. p. 162.

F

XrV.] PROGRESS: NATIVE CIVILISATION. 409

remote for the eommenceraent of a civilisation that has
left such evidences of its later maturity ; but unfortu-
nately the various authorities differ not by years only,
hut by centuriea Ixtlilxochitl cames back the founding
of Mexico upwards of a century farther than any other
authority ; and in the succeeding date, which profeaaea
to fix the election of ita king, Aeamapichtii, the discre-
pancies between him and other authorities vary from two
to considembly more than two and a half centuries ; and
leave on the mind of the critical studentj impressions
nearly as substantial as those pertaining to the regal
dynasties of Alban and Sabine Rome. Spanish chroui-
clera, and modern historians and ethnologists, have
striven to piece into coherent details the successive
migrations into the Vale of Anahuac from the north, and
the desertion of the mythic northern Aztalan for the
final seat of Aztec empire in the lake of Tezcuco ; but
their shadowy history marshals before us only shapes
vague and immaterial as those which Turner's pencil
called into being in response to the poet's dream, " from
many an age withheld," of kingly splendours of the en-
gulfed Atlantis/

There is something at once amusing, and aingularly
suggestive of doubt relative to much else that is greatly
more modem, to find the gifted American historian of
the Conquest of Mexico tracing down the migrations
and the conquests of the Tolteca from the seventh till
the twelfth century, when the Acolhuana or Tezcucana,
the Aztecs, and others, superseded them in the Great
Valley. We turn to the foot-notes, so abundant in the
carefully elaborated narrative of Prescott, and we find
his chief or sole authority is the christianized half-breed
of Tezcuco, De Alva, or Ixtlilxochitl, who held the ofiiee
of Indian interpreter of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in

' Rogers' Vogiigr o/ Cotumt/iu,

L

4 1 0 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the beginning of the seventeenth century.^ Compared
with such an authority, Bede should be indisputable as
to the details of Hengist and Horsa's migrations^ and
GeoflFrey of Monmouth may be quoted implicitly for the
history of Arthur's reign.

But the Aztecs or ancient Mexicans, at any rate, are
no mythic or fabulous race. The conquest of their land
belongs to the glories of Charles v., and is contemporary
with what Europe reckons as part of its modem history.
The letters of its great conqueror are still extant ; the
gossiping yet graphic marvels of his campaigns^ ascribed
to the pen of Bemal Diaz, a soldier of the Conquest^
have been diligently ransacked for collation and supple-
mentary detail ; and the ecclesiastical chroniclers of
Mexican conquest and colonization, have all contributed
to the materials out of which Prescott has woven his
fascinating picture of Fernando Cortes and his great life-
work. It is a marvellous historical panorama, glittering
with a splendour as of the gorgeous mosques and palaces
of Old Granada ; but a growing inclination is felt to

^ By a clerical error in the notes appended to Prescott, Congueti of Mexico,
B. I. ch. vi., Ixtlilxochitl is spoken of as belonging to the beginning of the
sixteenth century ; but the error is obvious. The American historian folly
acknowledges at times the utter worthlessness of his authorities. Neverthe-
less tliis has not prevented him from constructing, out of the materials they
have furnished, a coherent narrative of ancient migrations, and the relative
civilisation of primitive races, from the seventh to the fifteenth century ;
although of so much of the corres|>onding era of Europe we have still to
speak of centuries of vague or fabulous obscurity. "Clavigero," says Prescott,
" txdks of Boturini*s having written * on the faith of the Toltec historians.*
But that scholar does not pretend to have ever met with a Toltec manuscript
himself, and had heard of only one in the ^lossession of IxtlilxochitL Tlie
latter writer tells us that his account of the Toltec and Chichemec races was
' derived from interpretation ' (probably of the Tezcucan paintings), * and
from the traditions of old men ; ' iK>or authority for events which had passed
centuries before. Indeed, he acknowledges that their narratives were so full
of absunlity and falsehood, that he was obliged to reject nine-tenths of them.
The cause of truth would not have suffered much, probably, if he had rejected
nine-tenths of the remainder." — Conquest of Mwco^ b. I. ch. i. note 12.

/•JiOGHE.'iS : XATIVK CJVILISATIOX.

teat the Spanish chroniclers hy the surviving relics of
that past which they have clothed for ua in more than
oriental magnificence. Specially do we deaire to look
with clear, critical viaion on that curioua phase of native
American civilisation, which waa abruptly arrested and
quenched, like an extinguiahed torch, under the heel of
the conqueror. Yucatan and Central America stiU reveal
to us indisputable memorials of a long-extinct era of
native architectural skill, and to these monuments of a
mysterious past our attention must be directed with
earnest care. But, meanwhile, it is important to note
that a correspondence in probable origin, and in actual
style and characteristics, between much of the architec-
ture of Central America and that which ia affirmed or
assumed to have existed in Mexico at the time of the
Conquest, is made to constitute the liasia of many falla-
cious arguments on the nature and extent of Aztec
civilisation in the era of the second Montezuma. Again,
the conflicting elements apparent between the barbarous
rites and cannibalism afliiTned by their conquerors to
have been practised by the Aztecs, and the evidences of
matured arts and high civilisation ascribed to them,
have been the plentiful source nf theories as to Toltecan
and other earlier derivationa, for aU that pertained to
such manifestations of intellect, taste, and inventive
genius. But what we are specially desirous of testing
at present, is the character of Mexican architecture.
The mysterious works of the extinct Mound-BuUdera
are full of wonder for us, but the magnificence of the
capital of Montezuma throws their simple earthworks
into the shade ; and, while reading with implicit faith
the narrative of its conqueror, we feel that the age of
America's infancy and childhood lies all buried in the
older mounds. Before, however, this conclusion can be
accepted, it is indispensablu that we test, Ity existing

4 1 2 PREHISTORIC MAIf. [Chap.

evidence, the descriptions of Mexican art and architecture
handed down to us by the chroniclers of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries.

A peculiar style is recognised as pertaining to the
native architecture of America^ which, if not indepen-
dently originating on the soil of the New World, it has
been the favourite fancy of American antiquaries to
trace to an Egyptian or a Phoenician source. Alike in
their general character and mode of construction, in the
style of sculpture and the hieroglyphic decorations which
enrich their walls : the ruined palaces and temples of
Mexico, as well as of Yucatan and Central America,
have been supposed to reproduce some of the most
striking characteristics of the Nile valley. But the
experienced eye of Stephens saw only elements of con-
trast instead of comparison ; and while Prescott sums
up his history of Mexican conquest with this conclusion,
" that the coincidences are sufficiently strong to authorize
a belief that the civilisation of Anahuac was, in some
degree, influenced by that of eastern Asia," he adds^ that
the discrepancies are such as to carry back the communi-
cation to a period so remote as to leave its civilisation,
in all its essential features, peculiar and indigenous.
Searching, on an earlier page, for any specific proofs
that seemed to justify the analogies which conunand
the greatest popularity, the historian remarks : — " The
points of resemblance will probably be found neither
numerous nor decisive. There is, indeed, some analogy
both to the Egyptian and Asiatic style of architecture,
in the pyramidal, terrace-formed bases on which the
buildings repose, resembling also the Toltec and Mexican
teocalli. A similar care also is observed in the people
of both hemispheres to adjust the position of their build-
ings by the cardinal points. The walls in both are
covered with figures and hieroglyphics, which, on the

XIV.] PROGUESS: NATIVE CIVILISATION. 413

American as on the Egyptian, may be designed perhaps
to record the laws and hiatorical annals of the nation.
These figures, as well as the buildings themBelves, are
found to have been stained with various dyes, principally

, vermilion ; a favoxuite colour with the Egyptians also,
who painted their colossal statues and temples of granite.
Notwithstanding these points of sinularity, the Pidenquo

I architecture has httle to remind us of the Egyptian or
of the Oriental."' And we must add, that even these
analogies are very partially true, and can only be carried
so far by ascribing to Mexican civilisation works which
probably had a totally distinct origin. For if the gifted
historian of the Conquest of Mexico had to employ otfier
eyes to give to the world the attractive and glowing
pictures wrought by his fancy and judgment from manu-
script treasures, gathered alike from the old colonial
empire of Spain, and from the public archives of the
Peninsula : we may feel the less hesitation in testing,
by a severe standard of criticism, the proofs on which
80 many of our ideas are founded relative to the native-
bom civilisation of Mexico, and of America at lai'ge. It
is indeed difficult to determine what we are to believe
relative either to the foiTner or the present characteristics
of some of the most famous monuments of Mexican art.
The ruined city of Aztalan, on the western prairies, after
filling the imagination with glowing fancies of a desert
Biialbek or Palmyra of the New World, from whence the
Aztecs had transplanted the arts of an oblitemted civili-
sation to the Mexican plateau ; shrunk before the critical
gaze of a truthful surveyor into a mere group of mounds
and earthworks : curious, indeed, and replete with sti-ange
interest ; but presenting no other analogies than those
which class them with the works of the American Mound-

K^-'-^iB. Yet it is strange how eudiiring such cloud-
' PwBeott'* Coa'piei't o/ Mexieo. Append, ('art I.

4 1 4 PREHISTORIC MA N. [Chap.

built structures will often prove^ The pride of local
prejudice becomes enlisted on behalf of the current
bile of exaggeration ; the stereot3^d phraseology which
speaks of earthen mounds and clay ramparts as pyramids,
bastions, and buttressed walls, perpetuates the extrava-
gant hyberboles of their first discoverers ; and, but for
some timely and well-authenticated survey, it is left to
later generations to sift painfully the vague and contra-
dictory fables of a past that never had a present. The
literal Aztalan, on the banks of the Rock River of Wis-
consin, but poorly corresponds to the received ideas of
that northern Aztalan, to which Mexican traditions and
hieroglyphical maps alike pointed as the bright abode of
a warlike ancestry, glorious as the sons of the Titans^ or
the offspring of the Teutonic Odin. It may be, however,
that a like critical survey will reveal to us such traits
in the later Aztecs of Anahuac, as to render such an
ancestral birth-land less inconsistent with their actual
condition when brought into fatal contact with the higher
civilisation of Europe. Such at least seems to be the
tendency of modem disclosures, if, indeed, they do not
point to the possibility that much even of the latest
phase of Mexican civilisation may present some closer
analogies to the actual ruined Aztalan of the Wisconsin
prairies, than to the fancied mother-city of the Aztecs.

Midway across the continent of North America, where
it narrows towards a point between the Gulf of Mexico
and the Pacific, the civilisation of the New World appears
to have converged at the close of the fifteenth century.
Here the traveller from the Atlantic coast, after passing
through the gorgeous tropical flowers and aromatic
shrubs of the deadly tierra calieiite, emerges at length
into a pure atmosphere. The vanilla, the indigo, and
flowering cacao -groves arc gradually left behind. The
sugar-cane and the banana next disappear ; and he looks

XIV.] !'R0GJi£6-S: NATIVE CIVILISATION. 41.1

down through the gorges of the elevated tierra templada
on the vegetation of the tropica, carpeting, and scenting
with its luseioua but deadly odours, tlie burning region
which stretches along the Mexican Gulf. Higher still,
he climbs into regions where the wheat and other grains
of Europe's temperate zone replace the tall native maize
or Indian com ; until at length he enters the tierra/na:
climbing up through a snccession of terraces representing
every zone of temperatui-e, till he rests on the summit of
the Cordillera, Beyond this the volcanic peaks of the
Andes tower into the regions of peipetual snow ; while
the traveller crosses the once thickly-wooded table-land
into the celebrated valley of Mexico : an oval basin about
sixty-seven leagues in circumference, jind elevated be-
yond the deadly malaria and enervating heat of the coast
into a temperate and fertile climate, nearly seven thou-
sand five hundred feet above the equidistant Atlantie
and Pacific Oceans. Here, encompassed lay the salt
marshes of the Tezcucan Lake, stood the ancient Tenoch-
titlan or Mexico, " The Venice of the Aztecs."

In the month of October 1519, Don Diego de Ordaz
effected the ascent of the volcanic Popocatepetl, which
stands with Iztaccihuatl,— regarded in the simple fancies
of the Mexican Indians as man and wife, — like two
giant sentinels guarding the portal of the Mexican val-
ley. Reaching the summit of the burning mountain, De
Ordaz stood at an elevation upwards of two thousand
feet higher than the lofty monarch of Europe's Alpine
chain. Marked as Popocatepetl then was by the cha-
racteristics of an active volcano, it was regarded with
superstitious terror by the natives aa the dread abode of
departed spirits, the ghosts of death-deposed tyrants,
whose fiery agonies reproduced there the convulsions of
the classic Titans. From this awful height, De Ordaz
was the first European who beheld the valley of Mexico

416 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

with its curious chain of lakes, and in its midst the £eu^
famed capital of Montezuma, with its white towers and
pyramidal teocalli rising from their walled enclosures,
reflecting back the sun from their stuccoed walls, till, as
Bemal Dia2 reports on another occasion : " The buildings
of Cempoal having been lately whitewashed and plastered,
one of our horsemen was so struck with the splendour of
their appearance in the sun, that he came back in full
speed to Cortes to tell him that the walls of the houses
were of silver."

The men of that generation which witnessed the dis-
coveries of mighty empires, and an El Dorado beyond
the known limits of the world, had their imaginations
expanded to the reception of any conceivable wonders.
Sir Thomas More constructed his Utopia out of one of
those supposed traveller's tales; and Othello styles his
wonderful relations a " traveller's history :''

" Wherein of antres vast and desarts idle.
Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven.
It was my hint to speak.*'

The fine poetical imagination of Columbus was one of
the sources of his pecuhar power, whereby he anticipated
with an undoubting faith the realization of his grand life-
work. But from the position in which Cortes was placed,
it was his interest rather to give currency to the highly-
coloured visions of his first pioneers, than to transmit to
Eui'ope the colder narrative of more matured experience.
Approaching the Mexican capital, he exclaims in his first
burst of enthusiasm : " We could compare it to nothing
but the enchanted scenes we had read of in Amadis de
Gaul, fi-om the great towers and temples^ and other edi-
fices of lime and stone which seemed to rise up out of
the water/' To achieve the recognised mastery of this
scene of enchantment, he had not only to conquer its
Mexican lords, but to defeat his Spanish foes, and to win

XIV.] PROGRESS: NATIVE CIVILISATION, 417

to his side that Emperor who, while giving shape to
Europe's histoiy in one of its mightiest revolutions, could
control the destinies of the New World. When reading
his accounts of the gorgeous treasures of Montezuma's
palaces which he transmitted to the Emperor, we have
to bear in remembrance that the treasures themselves
perished in the dread retreat of the tioche triste^ as the
city itself vanished in the final siege and capture. The
very dreams of an excited imagination could become
realities of the past to the narrators themselves, when
every test of their truth had been swept away.

On the 9th of November 1519, Cortes made his first
entry into the capital of Montezuma, and from thence
he wrote to the Emperor Charles v., giving an account
of the Indian metropolis, with the palaces of its nobles
and the stately mansions of its wealthy citizens, far sur-
passing in grandeur and beauty the ancient Moorish
capital of Cordova. The palaces of Montezuma he de-
scribed as so wonderful that it was hardly possible to
exaggerate their beauty and extent. Conduits of solid
masonry supplied the city with water, and furnished
means of maintaining hanging-gardens luxurious as
those of ancient Babylon. "There is one place," says
Cortes, " somewhat inferior to the rest, attached to which
is a beautiful garden with balconies extending over it,
supported by marble columns, and having a floor formed
of jasper elegantly inlaid;" and he adds, "Within the
city, the palaces of the cacique Montezuma are so won-
derful that it is hardly possible to describe their beauty
and extent. I can only say that in Spain there is no-
thing equal to them." The population of ancient Mexico,
" the greatest and noblest city of the whole New World,"
as Cortes styles it, amounted, according to the lowest
computation of its conquerors, to three hundred thousand ;
and its streets and canals were illuminated at night by

VOL. I. 2d

418 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the blaze from the sacred altars of numberless teocallis
that reared their pyramidal summits in the streets and
squares of what Prescott fitly calls " this city of enchant-
ment.'' Vast causeways, defended by drawbridges, and
wide enough for ten or twelve horsemen to ride abreast,
attracted the admiring wonder of the Spaniards^ by the
mechanical skill and geometrical precision with which
they were constructed of huge masses of stone laid in
cement. " The great street facing the southern causeway
was wide, and extended some miles in nearly a straight
line through the centre of the city. A spectator stand-
ing at one end of it, as his eye ranged along the deep
vista of temples, terraces, and gardens, might clearly
discern the other, with the blue mountains in the dis-
tance, which, in the transparent atmosphere of the table-
land, seemed almost in contact with the buildings.''*
Near the centre of the city rose a huge pyramidal pile,
dedicated to the war-god of the Aztecs, the tutelary
deity of the city ; second in size only to the great pyra-
mid-temple of Cholula, and occupying the area on which
now stands the Cathedral of modem Mexico. Beyond
the Lake of Tezcuco stood the rival capital of that name,
resplendent with a corresponding grandeur and mag-
nificence ; and the whole Mexican valley burst on
the eyes of the conquerors as a beautiful vision, glitter-
ing with towns and villages, with rich gardens, and
broad lakes crowded with the canoes of a thriving and
busy populace.

Less than three centuries and a half have intervened
since Cortes entered the gorgeous capital of Montezuma ;
and what remains now of its ancient splendour, of the
wonders of its palaces, the massive grandeur of its
temples, or the cyclopoean solidity of its conduits and
causeways ? Literally, not a vestige. The city of Con-

* Prescott's Compiest of Mexico, B. in. cb. ix.

XIV.] PROGRESS : NA TI VE CI VILISATION. 4 1 9

stantine has preserved, in spite of all the destructive
vicissitudes of siege and overthrow, enduring memorials
of the grandeur of the Byzantine capital more than a
thousand years ago. Rome, too :

'' The Gotli, the Christian, time, war, flood, and fire,
Have dealt upon the seven-hilled city's pride ;
She saw her glories, star by star expire,
And up the steep barbarian monarchs ride.
When the car climb*d the Capitol ; far and wide
Temple and tower went down, nor left a site :
Chaos of ruins ! *'

Yet Rome has her memorials not only of three or four
centuries, but of generations before the Christian era ;
and even Jerusalem appears to have some stones of her
ancient walls still left one upon another. In spite,
therefore, of the narrative of desolating erasure, which
describes to us the final siege and capture of Mexico, we
must assume its edifices and causeways to have been for
the most part greatly more slight and fragile than the
description of its conquerors implies, or evidences of such
extensive and solid masonry must have survived to
our time.

But one trustworthy memorial of native civilisation
and mechanical skill has been preserved in the famous
Calendar Stone : a huge circular block of dark porphjny,
disinterred in 1790 in the great square of Mexico, which
discloses evidences of progress in astronomical science
altogether wonderful in a people among whom civilisa-
tion was in other respects so partially developed, but
which finds further confirmation from their paintings.
The Mexicans had a solar year of 365 days divided into
eighteen months of twenty days each, with the five com-
plementary days added to the last. The discrepancy
between the actual time of the sun's annual path through
the heavens and their imperfect year, was regulated by
the intercalation of thirteen days at the end of every

430 ■ PREUISTOnW MAN. [CfB4P.

fifty-second year. According to Gama, who differs from
Humboldt on this point, the civil day was divided into
sixteen parts ; and he conceives the Calendar to have
been constructed as a vertical sun-dial. Mexican draw-
ings also indicate that the Aztecs were acquainted with
the cause of cchpaes. But beyond this, our means of
ascertaining the extent of their astronomical knowledge

fflil ; while we have proofs that their inquiries were
zealously directed to the more favoured speculations of
the astrologer, which have supplanted true science in all
primitive stages of society. Mr. Stephens has drawn
attention to certain points of notable correspondence
between the boldly sculptured central device on the
Calendar Stone, and a hideous mask, with widely-
expanded eyes and tongue hanging out, which forms a

XIV.] PROGRESS: NATIVE CIVILISATIOy. 421

prominent feature in the curious scene of sjicrifiee or
offerings seulptunnl in relief in the C'iuui <U* Piinlm at
Palen^iue. But the eorres|H)n<lence amounts to Httle
mon^ than this, that each is a gigantic mask with pro-
tnnlin*' ton«nie. That of the C'iilen<lar Stone is cn^jravetl
hen* from the ciist brought home hy Mr. Bullock, and
now in the Collection of the Society of Anticjuarics of
Scotland. The statues <lug up al«>ng with the Calendar
Stone fn)m among the n»mains of the great teocalli of
Mexico, wen* buried in the court of the University, to
phice them lH*y<md n*ach of the iclolatrous rites which
the IndiaiLs were inclincnl to pay to the gcnls of their
ancestors ; hut at the solicitation of Mr. Bullock they
w(»n» agaiin disinterred, to admit of his obtaining Ciista
of them : and h«' furnishes this interesting account of
the wnsjition excite«l by the restoration to light of the
largest and m«>st <-elebnited of the Mexican dciti<»s : —
" During the time it was cxjhjsimI, the court of tlu? Uni-
versity was cn>wded with jKH>ple, most of whom ex
pn»ssed the most decideil anger ami contempt. Not so,
however, all the Indians. I attentively marki^l their
count«»nanees. Not a smile es<*ajKHl them, or even a
word. All Wiis silence and attention. In n*ply t4> a
joke of one of the students, an old Indian remark(*d, *It
is ver>' true we have thn*e very giNnl S{Kinish ginls, but
We might still have Ijeen allowed to keep a ft»w of thos4»
of our a!u-«*stors !* And I w;us infonne*! that clmplets of
tlowers hail U^en plact^l on the figure by natives who luid
stolen thither uus^mmi in the evening/**

The figure which thus reawaken«il {mtriotit* sym{Kithi<'H
in the degenerate ih'seendants of the subjt»cts of Monte-
zuma, is a rude dispro{Nirtion(Ml idol, strikingly con
tra.sting with the <-laU»rate hien»gly|»hii'al d«*vices and
well-pn»|M>rti<»n<Hl tiguri.*« autl decoratii»ns which accom-

* ItiilL^k < Stx Mnmikn m M^J*.". pill

422 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

pany the grotesque mask in the Casa de Piedra of
Palenque. In the latter, the principal human figures
present the remarkable profiles of the ancient Central
American race, with the prominent nose, the retreating
forehead and chin, and the protruding under-lip, so
essentially difierent from the features either of the
Mexicans or northern Indians. The subject race on
whom they tread are characterized by a diverse profile,
with overhanging brows, a Eoman nose, and a well-
defined chin ; while their costume is equally indicative
of a different origin.

But rude as is the sculpture of the Mexican Calendar
Stone, it embodies evidence of an amount of knowledge
and skill not less interesting for us than the mysterious
hierogljrphics of the Palenque tablets ; and was believed
by Humboldt to indicate unmistakable relations to the
ancient native science of south-eastern Asia. Mr. Ste-
phens has printed a curious exposition of the chronology
of Yucatan, derived from native sources by Don Juan
Pio Perez. From the correspondence of their mode of
computing time with that adopted by the Mexicans, he
assumes that it probably originated with them ; but at
the same time he remarks that the inhabitants of Maya-
pan, as the Peninsula was called at the period of Spanish
invasion, divided time by calculating it almost in the
same manner as their ancestors the Toltecs^ differing
only iQ the particular arrangement of their great cydea
Their year commenced on the 16 th of July, an error
of only forty-eight hours in advance of the precise day
IQ which the sun returns there to the zenith, on his
way to the south, and suflSciently near for astronomers
who had to make their observations with the naked eye.
Their calendar thus presents evidences of native and
local origin. According to Humboldt, the Mexican year
began in the corresponding winter half of the year,

XIV.] PROGRESS : NA TIVE CI VI LISA TIOS, 423

ranging from the 9tli to the 28th of Jiinuar}% Imt Chi-
vigi^ro places it** commencement from the 14th to the
2Cth of February. If my ideas a8 to evi(h»nce of a
marked inferiority in the terra-cottaa and nculptures of
the Mexi(*an8, and the very questionable and vague
natuixj of the proofs of their architectural achievements
jire correct, thc»y tend to confirm the inferencre, that not
to the Aztecs, but to their peaceful and more civiliziil
Toltec predecessors, must lie ascril^ed tliat remarkable
astnmomic^d knowledge and accunicy in the arrange-
ment of their adendar, which exhibits a pnunsion in the
ailjustment of civil to solar time, su<*h as only a few of
the mori! civilized nations of the OKI WorKl liad att^iinetl
to at tliat date. So far, therefore, as a native and indi-
giMious American civilisiition is ronc4»nied, it nuittem
little whether it l)e as^Tilxnl to Tolter or Aztec origin.
Of its existen^re no doubt can 1k» entertaineil, an<l there
is little mt)re nM)ni for questioning, that luuong nices
who had c^irrieil civilisation so far, there existeil the
ca|Micity for its full development, indejH»ndcntly of «dl
lK>m>wiMl aid from the scien<*e or the philoH4»phy which
(■HHM'e (-idkHl into Inking, and mcxlem Eurojie had ma-
turi'd. The fierce l>.me and the haughty Normiui seemed
to offer eijually little proniisi^ of intellectual pn>gn*«s in
their first encnMU'hments on the insular S;ix<»n, but out
of su<*h combiueil elements have spning the mo<h»ni
rare, whirh has outstrip{K*d the S|)auiaril in making of
the liUid of Columbus a New World ; ami, left Xo its
own luitunU pn)gn?HK, the vidley of Analiuar, with its
mingling races, might have proved the fountain fnim
whence intelltHiual Ufe should flow to the nations of the
W(«t Hut the modem Mexico has disphiciHl the ancient
rapital of Montezuma ; cathe«lral, convents, antl chun*heH,
liave usur]HNl the sit<*s of x\\v Aztec tt*^M*4illis ; its eanals
liave disap|H.*are<l, and its famous causi*ways an* no

424 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

longer laved by the waters of the Tezcucan Lake. It is
even denied by those who have personally surveyed the
site, that the waters of the lake can ever have overflowed
the marshes around the modem capital, or stood at a
much nearer point to it than they do at present^ Fresh
doubts seem to accumulate around its mythic story.
The ruined masonry of its vanished palaces and temples
may be assumed to have been all swallowed up in the
edifices, which combine to make of the modern capital
so noble and striking an object, amid the strange scenery
of its remarkable elevated tropical valley. But Mexico
was not the only city, nor even the only great capital,
of the valley.

In attempting to trace back the history of the remark-
able population found in occupation of the Mexican ter-
ritory when first invaded by the Spaniards, we learn, by
means of various sources of information already referred
to, but chiefly on the dubious authority of Ixtlilxochitrs
professed interpretations of picture-writings, no longer in
existence ; and of traditions of old men of other gener-
ations, concerning events reaching back from seven or
eight, even to twelve centuries before their own time :
that the Toltecs, advancing from some unknown region
of the north, entered the territory of Anahuac, " probably
before the close of the seventh century." They were,
according to their christianized half-blood historian,
already skilled in agriculture and the mechanical arts,
familiar with metallurgy, and endowed with all the
knowledge and experience out of which grew the native
civilisation of Anahuac in later ages. In the time of the
Conquest, extensive ruins are said to have still indicated
the site of their ancient capital of Tula, to the north of
the Mexican valley. The tradition of such ruined cities

' Tojiographical View of the Valley, Wilson'B New History of Mexko,
p. 452.

XIV.) PHOaiiKSS : XA Tl VE CI VI L ISA TIOS. 4 25

adtls ronfinnation to the infiTeuccs (lerivo<l from tlio«e
more recently exploriMl in n*ji[ions to the south ; ami
Htill the mmie of Toltee in New SjKiin is KynoiiymoiiH
with architect: tlie mythic ile«igmitiou of a nhailowy
rae(% sueh i\h {rhmccH fitfully across the first traditional
chapters of legendaiy histor}' amonpf the most ancient
nations of EurojMx liut 8uhst»<|uent to thost* IVlasj^ of
thi* New \Vi>rUl, there followed from the unknown regions
of the far north the Chichimecas, theTejwnecs, the Acol
huans or Tezcucans, the Azti*cs or Mexicmis, and other
inferior trilH.\s ; so that, as we appnuich a more definite
jH*ri(Hl of histor}', we learn of a league Ix'tween the States
i»f Mexico and Tezcui-o, and the kingdom of Tlacojmn*
un<ler which Ten<H'htithin or Mexico, the Aztec capital,
gn*w into the marvelhrns city of temples ami {Kilac(.*8
<ic»s<TilH'd l>y rort4»8 and his followers. liut Ixtlilx(K*hitl,
or Don Fernando dt» Alva, clainKnl di's^-cnt on his mothers
side fn>m the Im|H»rial race of TeZi'Uco, the Athens, as
IVes<*ott styles it, of the western Wi>rld ; and he has not
faihnl to pn»scrve, or to create the niemoriiUsof tlie glory
of that ini{H*rial city of the lagumL It containe<l upwanls
of four hundnnl stately edifices for the noMcs. The mag-
nificent palace of theTez<'Ucan em|K»ror ** extended, fn>m
east to west, twelve hundn*il and thirtv-four vanis, and
from north to s<mth, nine hundn^I and S4*venty-4*ight.
It was encompassed hy a wall of unhurnt Iirick^ and
cement, six fi*et wide and nine high, for one lialf of the
circumfen'Uce, and fifteen feet high fi»r the other half.
Within this enclosure were two courts. The nutiT one
wjis us*h1 as the great markct-phuH* of the city, ami con-
tinued to Ih» so until long after the (onquest, Tlie
interior <M>urt wjw surrounded liy the couneil-chamU*ni
and halls of ju.^tice. Tlu'n» wen* als4> accommodations
then* for the fon*ign andKi>sadi»rs : and a s|mcioussal«N)n,
with a{iiirtm«*nts o|H'ning into it, for men of science and

426 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

poets^ who pursued their studies in this retreat^ or met
together to hold converse under its marble porticos."^
Such is the style in which the historian of the CJonquest
describes the glories of ancient Tezcuco, from the records
left by Spanish and native chroniclers. A lordly pile,
provided for the fitting acconmiodation of the sovereigns
of Mexico and Tlacopan, contained three hundred apart-
ments, including some fifty yards square. Solid mate-
rials of stone and marble were liberally employed both
on this and on the apartments of the royal harem, the
walls of which were incrusted with alabasters and richly
tinted stucco, or hung with gorgeous tapestries of varie-
gated feather - work. Some two leagues distant, at
Tezcotzinco, was the favourite residence of the sovereign;
on a hill, " laid out in terraces, or hanging gardens, hav-
ing a flight of five hundred and twenty steps, many of
them hewn in the natural porphyry. In the garden on
the summit was a reservoir of water, fed by an aqueduct
carried over hill and valley for several miles on huge
buttresses of masonry. A large rock stood in the midst
of this basin, sculptured with hieroglyphics representing
the years of Nezahualcoyotl's reign, and his principal
achievements in eacL On a lower level were three other
reservoirs, in each of which stood a marble statue of a
woman, emblematic of the three estates of the empire.
Another tank contained a winged lion," — but here the
historian grows incredulous, and appends a (?) before
proceeding in accordance with his historical authorities
to add — " cut out of the solid rock, bearing in his mouth
the portrait of the emperor." The authority for all this
lived and wrote in the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury. His narrative appears to receive some confirmation
from architectural remains still visible on the hill of Tez-
cotzinco, and referred to by Latrobe and Bullock as relics

* Prescott's Conquetd of MexicOf b._ i. chap. vi.

XJV.] FROGRE^S- NATIVE CIVILISATION, 427

of an era greatly more remote than tliat of Aztec civili-
I sation. But where are now the magnificent remains of
|i the imperial city of Tezcuco ? The spirit of Spanish
I romance and Sloorish fable seems to beset modem as
I well as ancient niuratora, as if a spell of enchantment
I still guarded the legends of Aztec and Tezcucan empire.
Bullock, in his Six Months in Mexico, desaubes the
remains of the royal fountain of Tezcotzinco, witnessed
by him, as a " beautiful basin, twelve feet long by eight
wide, having a well five feet by fom* deep in the centre ;"
but Latrobe, in his Rambles in Mexico, reduces the
dimensions of the royal bath to " perhaps two feet and a
half in diameter, not lai'ge enough for any monarch
bigger than Oberon to take a duck in," This agrees
with other authorities, and witii accounts received by
Prescott from persons resident on the spot. It is sug-
gestive, therefore, of grave doubts relative to the firsts
mentioned traveller's observation of ancient terraces still
entire, and numerous remains of the sculptured blocks of
the Tezcucan temples and palaces visible in its modem
buildings,

Of Tezcuco, a recent traveller tells us that its sole
memorial is an insignificant mud viUage. "There are
no remains of ancient aqueduct or hanging garden, nor
of its magnificent palaces and surrounding villas, nor of
its halls of justice. Even the walls of its vast enclosures
have left no trace."' Friar Thomas Gage, writing within
a century of the Conquest, with no increduHty as to the
former greatness and high civilisation of the Mexican
Valley, speaks of Tezcuco as but a poor village of some
three hundred Indians, and one hundred Spaniards, whose
subsistence mainly depended on the herbs they took daily
in their canoes to the Mexican market ; while in passing

Kr famed or fabled scene of ancient native grandeur,
' WQboii-s X',t llhtora ofih' r.m^„„t »/ M'llto- \'. .17,

428 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

he remarks : " We passed the Mexicalzingo, which for-
merly was a great town, but has now not above one
hundred inhabitants."^ But the extravagant character
of the whole romance of the Spanish conquistadors seems
to be summed up in the criticism of the former writer,
based on topographical evidence as noted by himself. He
shows, that owing to the relative levels, Mexico never
can have been surrounded by the lake, which now lies
distant from its marshy site ; while the multitudes,
crowding the great cities of the VaUey at the era of the
Conquest, vanish like the porphyry of their temples, and
the marbles of their palaces, when we read of "three
imperial capitals, and thi-ee crowned heads of the empire,
within a space of sixteen miles, in a mountain valley
twenty miles in extent, and more than half that space
filled with salt marsh." ^

Of the great Mexican pyramid or teocalli of Huitzilo-
potchli, no vestige now remains, unless such as is reputed
to lie buried under the foundations of the cathedral which
occupies its site. But time and fate have dealt more
tenderly with the scarcely less famous pyramid of Cho-
lula. The ancient city of that name was said to include,
within and without its walls, when first seen by Cortes,
about forty thousand houses, or according to ordinary
rules of computation, two hundred thousand inhabitants.
But whatever its ancient population may have been,
time and the fruits of Spanish conquest have advanced
it to the rank of the capital of the republic of Cholula,
though they have left only sixteen thousand as the
number of the modem occupants. StiU, Cholula was
unquestionably one of the most ancient and famous of
the cities of the New World : the sacred Mecca for
the pilgrims of Anahuac.

* (i age's New Sarrnj of (fie Indians^ j). 90.
^ Wilson's Xeic JI'iHtory of Mexico^ \\ 48.

XIV.] PROGRESS : XA TI VB CI VI LISA TIOS. 429

Quet/jilcoiitl, the niiMor g<Kl of the Azte<» pantheon,
whoHO original wornhip wa.s perfonn(»<l by offerings of
fniitH and flowers in thi'ir w^ason, was veneratcil as the
< 11 vine* teaehtT of the arts of |H*art». His reign on earth
was the; golden age of Anahuae, when its jieople learned
fn>m him agriciiltun*, metallurgy, and the art of goveni-
nicnt. But thrir divine In^nefactor, aeconling to the
sarn'd tradition han<led down to thf Aztees by an ehler
jieople whom they had su|H*rseded, ineurretl the wrath of
anoth(*r of the gtnls ; and as he passed on his way to
al)and(»n the land to the nde of the terrible Huitzilo-
potchli, he i>ausi»d at the rity of (/holula, and while he
tarrird there, the gn»at teoealli wjis rt»are<l and dt^licated
to his worship, liut tin* In^ufvolent clcity rould nt)t n*-
main within n*aeh of the avenger. Aeconling to the
universjdly received tradition of tln» plateau, after sjH»nd-
ing twenty years among them, teaching to the jH*t»ple
the arts of civilis:ition, he ]»as8e<l onwanl till he n*a4*hed
the shores of the great cK'ean, and there emliarking in a
vessel, made of seq)4'nts' skins, his followers watched his
^'treating bark on its way io the sacn^d isle of Tla|Mdlan.
Hut the tradition livinl on iimong the Mexicans tliat the
liark i>f the goo<l deity wimld revisit their shores ; and
this fondly cherislunl U*lief materially ecmtributiNl to the
success of the 8]mnianls, when their huge winginl shi|iA
l)orc the U'ings of another world to the mainland of the
Mexican (tulf. Th«* legen<l Invars all the marks (»f an-
ciently derived hero-worship, in which the love for a lost
lM*nef{u*tor wove for its^'lf a Ix^nevolent deitied emlMxli-
ment of his virtues. This, however, is im|H>rtant to note,
that the Aztec tntditions toM that the pyramiil of Cho-
lula U*long4^l to an oldtT rare and em than their own.
It was th«*n* when th<*y entered the plateau, an<l the arts
of the divint* metallurgist were taught, not to them but
t4) the Toltees, whom they supt»rs«iled. Nevertheless, the

430 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

deity shared in their worship ; his image still occupied
the shrine on the summit of the pyramid of Cholula, re-
splendent with gold and jewels, when the Spaniards first
visited the holy city of Anahuac ; and the undying flame
flung its bright radiance far into the night, to keep alive
the memory of the good deity, who was one day to re-
turn and restore the golden age.

The present appearance of the great teocalli very par-
tially justifies the reference made by Prescott to it as
" that tremendous mound on which the traveller still
gazes with admiration as the most colossal fabric in New
Spain, rivalling in dimensions, and somewhat resembling
in form, the pyramidal structures of ancient Egypt." If
it ever was a terraced pyramid, time and the elements
have wholly effaced the traces of its original outline. On
the high authority of Humboldt, it is described as a
pyramidal mound of stone and earth, deeply incrusted
with alternate strata of brick and clay, which " had the
form of the Mexican teocallis, that of a truncated pyra-
mid facing with its four sides the cardinal points, and
divided by the same number of terraces.'* But the adobe
of the Mexican, which is frequently styled brick, is no-
thing more than a mass of unbaked clay, or even mud.
If such, therefore, is the supposed brick which alternated
with the other materials of the mound, we can the more
readily reconcile the seeming contradictions of observers.
One of the latest thus describes the impression produced
on his mind : " Right before me, as I rode along, was a
mass of trees, of evergreen foliage, presenting in^tinctly
the outline of a pyramid, which ran up to the height of
about two hundred feet, and was crowned by an old
stone church, and surmounted by a tall steeple. It was
the most attractive object in the plain ; it had such a
look of uncultivated nature in the midst of grain fields.
It would have lost half its attractiveness had it been the

XIV.] PHOORESS : XA Tl VE CI VI LISA TIOX. 4 3 1

stiff and clumBy thing which the |)ictiire reprcaents it to
be. I had admired it in pictures from my childhood,
for what it was not ; but I now mlmircil it for what it
really was: the finest Indian mound on this continent/'*
Such is the conclusion arrived at by Mr. RolK?rt Ander-
son Wilson, as the result of |)er8onal oliscrvation ; and
the deductions ultimately suggested to him from further
investigation, have since l>een embodied in his New
History of the ComjueM of Mexico. He there conmicnts
on the obserwitions of HumlK)ldt, and compares them
with his own, an<l with the disclosures made suljsequently
to the great travellers visit. Recent excavations had
exposed abundant traces of Indian sepulture, with the
familiar and rude relics of their primitive arts ; and tht»se
suggest to him th«» rt*mark : " HumlK>ldt says that the
pyramid of CholuLi is com|)Osed of altenmte stnita of
brick and clay ; another, more exact, says, where the
roa<l was cut through its Imse, that it pnsents the ap
peanuice of alternate layers of earth, two inches in thick-
ness, with layers of brirk one inch. To the author,
looking at it su|R'rficially, it had the appearance simply
of different s(^>ils. Hut time has been busy on this mass
of earth sin<*e Ilumlioldt was there. The cypresses he
mentions aiv gone, an<l a hirge |>art of the chun-hyard
wall has also fallen." Accordingly the mound, which is
engniveil in IIumlN»ldt s Vues de Cordill^res as a series
of four successive terraces, rising to an elevation of Kvs
tlian a sixth of the length of its Imisi* line, is (iguriNl by
Mr. It. iV« Wilmm from sketches taken on the s|K>t, as a
lofty ci>nical mound, of greater elcvati<»n tluin breadth of
luise, overgn>wn with shrulis, and without any trace of
terraces.' Ejich is surmountetl with a church, but then»
is no other recognisable feature of resemblanci* between

s .V^ HJtotyofMrjnttM, |>. 381.

432 PREHISTORIC MAX. [Chap.

the two. Both time and human hands have been busy
on the ancieut pile ; and doubtless in earlier years and
centuries both have wrought many changes on its origi-
nal surface. The church on the simunit of the mound is
now the only appearance of art about it, and no doubt
lias somewhat to do witJi its absence elsewhere ; for if
the clergy found the teocalli cased, like the pyramidal
terraces of Central America, with cut stone steps and
facings, there can be little doubt they would go no
further for a quarry for their intended church.

But after making every allowance for the influence of
time's effacing an<l defacing touch, it is difficult to believe
that the sacred city of Cholula ever realized the magni-
ficent picturings of its Spanish conquerors, with its
hundreds of moscjues and towers, its lofty white temples,
and its picturesque exterior, more beautiful than any
city of Spain. Of the solidly built houses, the numerous
and large pyramidal temples, and all the substantial
magnificence which is said to have struck the Spaniards
with such wonder, not a vestige remains. The only
traces of ruins are those of several deserted convents ;
and the town is described as a mere collection of adobe
or mud huts. But the mutilated earthen pyramid still
exists, and on its truncated sunmiit is the temple of the
newer faith, the construction of the approach to which
must have still further contributed to efface the original
features of the mound. " By going round to the north
side,'' says Mr. R A. Wilson, '* I obtained a fine view of
the modern improvements constructed upon this Indian
pile. I rode up a paved carriage-way into the church-
yard that now occupies the top, and giving my horse to
a squalid Indian imp, who came out of the vestry, I
went in and took a survey of the tawdry images, through
which God is now worshipped by the baptized descend-
ants of the builders of this pyramid." It was upon this

XIV.] rmoHKss; xativb civilisation. n?.

occasion that " the discovery of a common flint arrow-
head— an indispensable part of the usual weapons of a
North Ameriwin Indian, — upon the pyramidical mound
of Cholula, first aroused BUapiciou, and set the author
upon the inquiry into the pretended civilisation of Mon-
tezuma and hia Aztecs."' The reasoning, however, i»
equally falLocious which assumes either from the flint
arrow-head on the surface, or the Indian graves with
corresponding relics disclosed by superficial excavations,
that therefore the Cholula pyramid is a mere Indiim
mound. The great mounds of Ohio, and the singular
oarthworks of Wisconsin, in like manner disclose super-
ficial interments of a comparatively recent date, and of
a totally distinct character from the genuine sepulchral
depositories of the ancient Mound-Builders. But it may
not perhaps be without some significance to note another
correspondence suggested by " the alternate layers of
difierent coloured soils " exposed in the cutting made in
the pyramid, and the striking peculiarity of a like kind
which universally characterizes the excavated sacrificial
mounds of the Mississippi Valley. The determination
of the extent of resemblance between the two must be
reserved for future exploration. Theory and superficial
oliservation are of little avaiL On the same lofty plat-
form, where Cortes converted the half -burned temple of
the great teocalli to the purposes of a Christian church,
now stands a more modem ecclesiastical stmctiue, dedi-
cated to Our Lady f/« los Remedios, whose shrine is
tended by an Indian priest of the blood of the ancient
Cholulans ; and still more, the same magnificent land-
scape greets the eye, as was first gazed on by the
conqueror from that elevated summit.

To the north of the Mexican valley jmcient ruins
arrest the gaze of the tniveller, onward even to Cali-

1 .\W tlU-n, o/'ht CV,i7»t« u/Mfjiiro. |.. 78,

434 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

fomia. On the Rio Colorado and its tributaries, numer-
ous ruins of great extent have been surveyed by recent
exploring parties, and are described as built with large
stones, nicely wrought, and accurately squared. But
nothing in their style of architecture suggests a common
origin with the ruins of Mexico or Central America
They are large and plain structures, with massive walls,
evidently constructed for defence, and with no traces
of the ornamentation which abounds on the ruins of
Yucatan. The Moqui Indians, the supposed remnant
of the ancient builders, still construct their dwellings of
stone with a great deal of art and skilL They are a
gentle and intelligent race, small of stature, with fine
black hair ; and differ essentially from the Indians of
the North-west. Their villages are included in one com-
mon stone structure, generally of a quadrangular form,
with solid, unpierced walls externally, and accessible only
by means of a ladder. These hive-like colonies are usually
placed, for further defence, on the smnmit of the lofty
plateaus, which in the region of New Mexico are de-
tached by the broad canons with which that remarkable
region is intersected. By such means the remnant of
this ingenious people seek protection from the wild
Indian tribes with which they are surrounded. Thus
permanently settled, while exposed to the assaults of
marauding nomades, the Moquis cultivate the soil, raise
corn, beans, cotton, and more recently some vegetable
derived from intercourse vith the Mexicans. They have
also their flocks of sheep and goats ; and weave their
dyed wools into a great variety of substantial and hand-
some dresses. But of this interesting people only a
small remnant now survives, occupying seven villages
on the range of the Rio del Norte.^ Throughout New

^ Dr. Latham speaks of the Moqui as a people that " no living writer
seems to have seen." — Varieties of Man^ p. 394. But the above information

PROGRSSA-: NATIVE CIVHJSATIOS.

California mined atruetures of stone, and aomctimea of
clay abound. The Casas grandes, as they are called,
api>ear to have been defensive structiu-es like the Moqui
villages. Captain Johnston describes one, called the
Casa de Montezuma, on the river Gila, which measured
fifty feet by forty, and had been four storeys high. It
is indeed worthy of note that while we find throughout
the continent, from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic,
scarcely a vestige of ante-Columbian stone architecture :
traces of it increase upon us with every new exploratiou
of the country that lies between the Kocky Mountains
and the Pacific, and merges towarils the south into the
Beats of ancient native civilisation and matured archi-
tectural skill.

But the Southern Continent of America had also its
seat of a remarkable native civilisation, deriving, like
that of Mexico, some of its most atiiking characteristicB
from the physical aspects of the country in which it
originated, and from the peculiar natural advantages
resulting from the settlemeut of a people on the lofty
plateaus of the Andes, but within the tropics, where at
each successive elevation a different cfimate was secured.
Such products as the mercantile navies of Northern
Europe gather from many distant shores, were there
brought within the compai5S of the industrious popula-
tion, who fed their flocks on the cold crests of the sierra,
cultivated their gardens and orchards on its higher
plateaus, and galJiered the luxuriant products of the
tropics from the country that for them lay, for the most
part, beneath the clouds, and spread away fi^m the
lowest slopes of the Andes to the neighbouring shores

commnaicntecl tn me by Profeeiinr Newberry, is the result ot iiia nwa fee-
nonai oboeirvationB. He iliuweil me olao Hpeoimena of their woven dressei,
manifestiDg coDBiderabl(> ilull, anil exliibitinf' great taste in the arrange-
ment of tUeir bright ooloura. Tliey have recently iieeu greatly redueed by
small -|H)T,

436 PREHIiiTORIG MAN, [Chap.

of the Pacific. The character of the people, and the
nature of the civilisation of this remarkable country
presented many striking contrasts to the customs and
institutions of the Mexicans, and these have generally
been assumed as of totally independent origin.

Peru has her historic traditions^ no less than Mexico,
and her native historian, Garcilasso de la Vega> a de-
scendant, through his mother, from the royal line of the
Incas ; who plays for them the part which Fernando de
Alva did for his Tezcucan ancestry. Seen through such
a medium, the traditions of the Inca race expand into
gorgeous scenes of romance ; and the institutions of
European chivalry and mediaeval polity are grafted on
the strange usages of an Indian nation, remarkable for
its own well-matured commonwealth, and unique phases
of native-born civilisation. Sabaism constituted the essen-
tial element of Peruvian religious faith, and gave form
and colour to the national rites and traditions. Manco
Capac and Mama Oello Huaco, their mythic instructors
■ in the arts of agriculture, weaving, and spinning, were
the Children of the Sun ; their high religious festivals
were determined by the solstices and equinoxes^ which
marked the great stages of its annual progress ; and
Quito, the sacred city, which lay immediately under the
Equator, had within it the sacred pillar of the sun, where
his vertical rays threw no shadow at noon, and they
believed the god of light to seat himself in full efiulgence
in his temple. The sacred pillar stood in the centre of a
circle described within the court of the great temple,
traversed by a diameter drawn fix)m east to west, by
means of which the period of the equinoxes was deter-
mined ; and both then, and at the solstices, the pillar was
hung with garlands, and offerings of fruit and flowers
were made to the divine luminary and parent of man-
kind. The title of the sovereign Inca was the Child of

XIV.] I-ROURESS: NATIVE CIVILISATIOS. 437

the Sun ; imA the territory of the empii-e was divided
into three portions, of which one, constituting the lands
of the Sun, maintained the costly ceremonial of public
wor^ip, with the temples and their numerous priests
and vestal virgins. Tlie national traditions pointed to
the '\''alley of Cuzco as the original seat of native civili-
sation. There their mythic Manco Capac founded the
city of that name ; and on the high lands ai-ound it a
number of columns wei-e reared which sei'ved for taking
azimuths, and by meaauiing their shadows the precise
time of the solstices were determined.

Besides the divine honours paid to tiie sun, the Peru-
vians worshipped the host of heaven, and dedicated
temples to the thunder and lightning, and to the rain-
Ix>w, the WTatliful and benign messengers of the supreme
solar deity. It might naturally be anticipated that a
nation thus specially devoted to astronomical observa-
tions, and maiutaining a sacred caste exclusively for
watching solar and stellar phenomena, would have at-
tained to great knowledge in that branch of science.
Apparently, however, the facilities which their equatorial
position afforded for determining the few indispensable
periods in their calendar, removed the stimulus to further
progress ; and not only do we find them surpassed iji
this respect by tlie Muyscas, occupying a part of the same
great southern plateau, who regulated their calendar on
a system presenting considerable points of resemblance
to that of the Aztecs; but they remained to the last in
total ignorance of the true causes of echpses, and re-
garded such phenomena with the same superstitious and
apprehensive wonder as has aflected the untutored savage
mind in all ages. One hLstorian, indeed, affirms that
they recognised the actual length of the solar year, and
regulated their chronology by a series of cycles of decades
of years, centuries, and decades of centuries, the liist of

L

438 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

which constituted the grand cycle or great year of the
sun/ This is only confuted by a reference to the silence
of earlier authorities, and the absence of their evidence
on the subject ; and may serve to remind us how very
imperfect is all the knowledge we possess of the intellec-
tual development of this singularly interesting people,
among whom science was essentially esoteric, and sys-
tematicaUy excluded from the vulgar. It is a presump-
tuous assumption, that whatever we cannot now recover
the proofs of, never existed. Prescott, indeed, suggests
that the very imperfect nature of the astronomical science
of Peru may be explained, in part at least, by the fact,
that the Peruvian priesthood were drawn exclusively
from the body of the Incas : a privileged order of nobility
who claimed divine origin, and were the less tempted
thereby to seek in the adventitious attributes of superior
learning the exclusive rights of an intellectual aristocracy.
Such, however, very imperfectly accounts for the infer-
iority of those "children of the sun," and worshippers
of the stars, in the knowledge and practical application
of astronomy. Other reasons may at least help us to
explain this singular intellectual condition of a nation,
which had in so many other directions made remarkable
progress in civilisation. The very fact that astronomy
constituted, as it were, the national religion, placed it
beyond the reach of scientific speculation, among a people
with whom blasphemy against the sun, and malediction
of the Inca, were alike punished with death. The im-
pediments to Galileo's astronomical discoveries were
trifling indeed when compared with those which must
have beset the presumptuous Inca priest who ventured
to deny the diurnal revolution of the sun round the
earth ; or to explain, by the simple interposition of the
moon between themselves and the sun, the mysterious

^ Montesino*8 Mem. Antiquas MS.^ lib. ii. cap. 7 ; cited by Prescott.

XIV.]

PROGRESS: NATIVE CIVlUSATIOy.

and malign infirmities with which it constituted a part
of the national creed to believe their supreme deity was
afflicted during the progress of a solar echpse. But
another cause also tended to retard the progress of the
Peruvians in the intelligent solution of astronomical
phenomena. Among the ancient Egyptians we find the
division of the year determined by the changes of tlie
Nile ; and their vague year of 365 days abandoned for
a civil year regulated by applications of astronomical
science, minutely interwoven with all theii- sacred as well
as civil institutions. But the phenomena of the seasons,
which have fostered with every other civilized nation the
accurate observation of the astronomical divisions of
time, and the determination of the recurring festivals
dependent on seed-time and harvest : were almost in-
operative, where, among a people specially devoted to
agiicidture, each season and every temperature could be
commanded by a mere change of elevation under the
vertical sun of the Equator.

The Peruvians, however, must be tried by tJieir own
standards of excellenee. Manco Capac, their mythic
civilizer, was no war-god, like the Mexitli of the fero-
cious Aztecs. Agriculture wjis the special art of civilisa-
tion introduced by him ; and husbandry was pursued
among them on principles which modem science has
only recently fully developed in Europe. There alone,
in all the New World, the plough was in use ; and the
Inca himself, on one of the great annual festivals, con-
secrated the labours of the husbandman by turning up
the earth with a golden ploughshare. Artificial irriga*
tiou was ciirried out on a gigantic scale by means of
aqueducts and tunnels of great extent, the ruins of which
still attest the engineering skill of their constructors.
The virtues of guano, which are now so well appreciated
by the agriculturists of Europe, were faniUiar t^ the

L

440 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Peruvian fanner ; and as the country of the Incas in-
cluded, at its various levels, nearly all varieties of climate
and production, from the cocoa and palm that fringed
the borders of the Pacific, to the pasture of their moun-
tain flocks on the verge of the high regions of perpetual
snow : a systematic succession of pubHc fairs, regulated,
like all else, by the supreme government^ afforded abun-
dant opportunities for the interchange of their diverse
commodities.

Such a country, if any, could dispense vs^ith commerce,
and attain to considerable advancement without any
representative currency or circulating medium. Gold,
which was so abundant, served only for barbaric pomp
and decoration. Silver was accessible in such quanti-
ties, that Pizarro found in it a substitute for iron to shoe
the horses of his cavahy. Copper and tin in like
manner abounded in the mountains ; and the Peruvians
had learned to alloy the copper both with tin and silver,
for greater utility in its application to the useful arts.
The discovery of well-adjusted silver balances in some of
the tombs of the Incas, shows that they made use of
weights in determining the value of their commodities ;
and thus were in possession of a systematic mode of
exchange, which, for their purposes, was superior to that
of the recognised currency of the Mexicans, in the
absence of any such means of ascertaining the exact
apportionment of commodities produced for sale or
exchange.

The progress of the Peruvians in agriculture was
accompanied by a corresponding development of the re-
sources of a pastoral people. Vast flocks of sheep
ranged the mountain pastures of the Andes, under the
guidance of native shepherds ; while the Peruvians
alone, of all the races of the New World, had attained
to that important stage in civilisation which precedes

PROGkUSS: NATIVE CIVIL/.'iAT/OS.

the employment of machineiy, by the use of the lower
animala in economizing human labour. The native
llama, employed as a beast of burden, carried its light
load along the ateep paths of the rocky CordiUems, or
on the great highways of Peru, As the mythic Manco
Capac was the instructor of the nation in agriculture, Bo
the divine daughter of the Sun introduced the arts of
weaving and spinning. Such traditions indicate the
favourite directions of the national taste and skill, which
were specially displayed in the manufacture of a great
variety of woollen articles of the utmost delicacy of
texture.

Numerous examples of the woven textures of the
Peruvians have been recovered from their ancient graves
at Atacama and elsewhere, though it cannot be assumed
that in these we have specimens of the rare and costly
fabrics which excited the wondering admiration of the
eai'ly Spaniards. In the arid soil and tropical climate •
of the great desert of Atacama, articles which prove the
most perishable in our northern latitudes are found, after
the lapse of centuries, in perfect preservation. Of these
I had an opportunity of examining a collection recovered
by Mr. J. H. Blake from their ancient huacas, and now
preserved in his cabinet at Boston. They include spe-
cimena of woven cloth, wrought in dyed woollen thread,
into ingenious and tastefid patterns, and sewed in re
gular and ornamental designs. Each piece is woven of
the exact size which was required for the purpose in
view, and some of them furnish proofs of ingenious skill
in the art of weaving. The threads consist of two or
more strands of dyed llama wool twisted together ; and
elaborate patterns are woven of them into a soft and
delicate web. The accompanying figure, though gro-
tesque, is nevertheless a good specimen of a complicated
feat a<;hJeved in dyed woollen threads on the ancient

442 PREHISTORIC MA^. [Chap.

Peruvian loom. It was found, along with many other
relics, in a Peruvian grave, described minutely in a
subsequent chapter. Mr. Bl^e re-
marks, in reference to the discoveries
of this class which rewarded his re-
searches in Peru : — " In forming an
opinion of the degree of skOl displayed
in the arts of spinning and weaving^
by these specimens, it should be borne
in mind that the implements in use
were of the simplest contrivance. The
only ones which have been discovered
are simple distaffs, and among the
articles obtained from the Atacama
graves were several formed of wood
and stone, such as are still in use
among the Indians of Peru at the
• present day. Weaving on the loom has not been in-
troduced among them. The warp is secured by stakes
driven into the ground, and the filling in is inserted by
the slow process of passing it by hand over and under
each thread alternately." It would be a grave error,
however, to assume that we possess in such relics, re
covered from the ordinary graves formed in the loose
sand of the desert, the highest achievements of ancient
Peruvian skiU. On the contrary, regarding them, as
wc must, as fair specimens of the common woollen
tissues of the country, they amply confirm the proba-
bility that the costly hangings, and beautifully wrought
robes of the Inca and his nobles, fuUy justified the
admiration with which they are referred to by the
Spanish writers of the sixteenth century. We read of
marvellous specimens of ceramic art made by the ancient
Peruvian, surpassing anything found in the common
cemeteries of the race ; but abundant proofs exist of

XIV.] PROGRESS: NATIVE CIVILISATION, 443

the ingenuity of the ancient potter expended on the
utensik in daily use by the people at large, to render
probable the accounts of such rare chef dctuvres wrought
by their cunningcst workmen for the imperial service.
So also we read of the native animals and plants inge-
niously executed, with wonderful delicacy, in gold and
silver ; and scattered with profuse and wanton magnifi-
rence about the apartments of the Peruvian princes and
nobles. Such specimens of goldsmiths' work no longer
survive ; but still the huacas of the ancient race are
ransacked for golden ornaments, which prove consider-
al)le metallurgic skill, and leave no room to doubt that
gold and silver were moulded and graven into many
ingenious forms. Science and art had indeed made
wonderful advances among this remarkable people ;
though with them, as with the Chinesi», they were more
freijuently expended in the gratification of a craving for
dispby, than in realizing the practical triumphs in which
their true value consists. Nevertheless, in all those
resi)ects Peruvian civilisation had already wrought out
for itself the most essential elements of progress adapted
to its native soil. Its astronomical science admits of
no comjMirison with that of Mexico ; and in lieu of the
artistic picture-writing of the Mexiams, it employetl its
i/uijfus, an artificial system of mnemonics not givatly in
advance of the Red Indiim wampum, to which it bears
so close a resembhintre ; and strikingly contnisting witli
the matun*<l hieroglyphical insc*riptions, which pn*ser\'e
on the ruineil walls of the cities of CVntral Amerira and
Yu(*atan the evidenct^s of an intellectual pn^gn^ss alike
in advance of the highest civilisation of the Aztecs and
the Incas, and of all but the most civilized nations of
ancient or nuMleni centuries.

Hut tlu* n^nuirkalile system of national |H>lity, when
taken into consideration along with the docile, gentle

444 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

nature still manifested by the descendants of the Peru-
vian people, furnishes some key to the peculiar charac-
teristics of their native civilisation. Their government
waa a sacerdotal sovereignty, with an hereditary aria-
tocracy, and a system of castes more absolute seemingly
than that of the Egyptians or Hindus. Something of
the partial and unprogressive development of the Chinese
mingled in the ancient Peruvians among numerous other
traits of resemblance to that singular people. Unlike the
Mexicans, we see in their whole polity, arts, and social
life, institutions of indigenous growth. It would be
difficult to limit the centuries during which such a people
may have passed on from generation to generation the
slowly brightening torch of their self-developed civilisa-
tion. Their own traditions, preserved with the help of
quipus and national ballads, are valueless on this point.
But their institutions reveal some of the most remarkable
evidences of a primitive people, preserving many of the
traits of man's social infancy, alongside of such highly
matiu'ed arts and habits as coxild only grow up together
around the undisturbed graves of many generations.
Offerings of fruits and flowers took the place, among that
gentle race, of the bloody human sacrifices of Aztec
worship ; but the suttee rites, which disclose their traces
ever}'i^here in the sepulchral usages of primitive nations,
were retained in full force. The simple solidity of a
pure megalithic art gave an equally primitive character
to their architecture, notwithstanding its extensive appli-
cation to all the most important practical purposes of
life ; and the precious metals, though existing in un-
equalled profusion, were retained to the last solely for
an unproductive contribution to barbaric splendour. The
habits of that pastoral life, by means of which the fore-
most nations of the Old World appear to have emerged out
of primitive barbarism, were with them modified by the

XIV.] PHOaHESS : XA TI VE CI VI USA TIOX. U.^

isolated haunts of flocks altogether peculiar to the strange
region of mountain and plateau, where also they carried
the next step in the scale of human progression, that of
agriculture, to a d^ree of perfection proljably never sur-
I>assed. They had advanced metallurgy through all its
stages, up to that which preceded the use of iron ; and,
with the help of their metal tools, dispbyed a remark
able skill in many mechanical arts. They did no more,
liecause under their peculiar local circumstances, and the
repressive influences of the mild despotism of Inca rule,
they had achieved all that they required. A gentle
people found abundant occupation in tilling the varied
soil, without l)eing oppressed by a labour which was
lightened I)y the frecjuently recurring festivals of a joy-
ous, an<l, in some res]H*cts, elevating nationad faith ; nor
is it diflicult to conceive of such a people continuing to
pursue the same even tenor of their way, with scarcely
I>erceptible progn*ssion, through all the sulisetjuent cen-
turies since their diM;overy to £uro])e, had not th<* hand
of the conqueror ruthlessly overthrown the structure
reared by countless generations, and quenched the lamp
of native civilisation which lighted them on their way.
The conquerors of the sixteenth centur}' have given ex-
pression to the astonishment with which they liehckl
everywhere the evidences of onler, contentment, plenty,
and prosperity ; and while the architectural magnificence
of Montezuma's capital lias so utterly disappeared as to
suggest the doubt if it ever existed : the traveller along
the ancient routes of Peruvian iudustr}* still meets on
every hand the ruins, not only of temples, ]Ndaci*s, and
strongholds, but of terraced declivities, military roads,
causeways, aciueducta, and other public works, that
astonish him by the solidity of their constniction and
the grandeur of their design.

Reflecting on the striking contrasts which are apparent

446 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

between the two great nations thus found at the highest
stage of progress in Northern and Southern America,
Prescott has remarked : " The Mexicans and Peruvians,
so diJSerent in the character of their peculiar civilisation,
were, it seems probable, ignorant of each other's existence ;
and it may appear singular that, during the simultaneous
continuance of their empires, some of the seeds of science
and of art, which pass so imperceptibly from one people
to another, should not have found their way across the
interval which separated the two nations. They furnish
an interesting example of the opposite directions which
the human mind may take in its struggle to emerge
from darkness into the Hght of civilisation.'' Whilst,
however, there seems little room for doubt that those
two nations were ignorant of each other at the period of
the discovery of America : there are traces in some of
their arts strongly suggestive of an earher intercourse
between the northern and southern continent, which finds
singular confirmation from the correspondence in cranial
type, artificial conformation of the head, and other traits
suggestive of a common origin, or subjection to some com-
mon influences, which reveal themselves in monuments
and remains of the region lying to the north of the Isthmus,
and repeat themselves from time to time in one or otiier
of their more salient aspects, along the line of geogra-
phical transmission between the great mountain range
and the shores of the Pacific. Neither the architecture,
the astronomical science, the letters, nor the languages of
Peru or Central America find a counterpart among any
traces of incipient civilisation discernible in the great
eastern plain between the Eocky Mountains and the
Atiantic ; imless we look for them among the buried
records of the Mound-Builders. Yet there, amid the
tribes familiar to the European in modem times, is the
stock from which on many grounds it appears to me

XIV.] PROGRESS: NATIVE CIVILISATIO-V. 447

moat reasonable to trace the predoininaut Mexican race
of the era of the Conquest : the inheritors, but not the
originators of the civilisation of the plateau. Such an
idea can only be advanced, in the present state of our
knowledcre, with a view to further inquiry, and in some
of its aspects it is glanced at in other chapters of these
volumes; but while the traditions of the Aztecs ail
pointed to a migration from the north, the Toltecs whom
they displaced can be assigned on no tangible evidence
to a similar origin. Amid the many diversities of ethnic
characteristics recognisable among the tribes and nations
of the New AVorld, the forest and prairie tribes, now
clustering chiefly in the North-west, are the representa-
tives of one great subdivision, whose origin may be
sought in the northern hive which stretches westwards
towards Behring Straits and the Aleutian Islands, with
their possible suggestion of on Asiatic origin. But for
the more intellectual tribes and nations whose ancient
monuments be to the south of the Eio Grande del Norte,
not without intermingling some faint traces of theii"
influence along the more northern regions of the Pacific ;
and perhaps also, even for the strange and mysterious
race of the Mound-Builders : the most probable hive of
America's civilized and semi-civilized nations appeal" to
me to be sought for in the rich plateaus of the Peruvian
Cordilleras, where the country rises through every change
of climate under the vertical rays of the Equator ; and
its rocky steeps are veined with exhaustless treasures of
metallic ores, in such a condition as to lead man on step
by step from the infantile perception of the native metal
as a ductile stone, to the matured inteUigence of the
skilled metallurgist, mingling and fusing the diverse ores
into his most convenient and useful alloys. The theories
of migration which the evidence now pi-oduced suggests
are reserved for the close, and will have to be revised

448 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

with every subsequent acquisition of knowledge. It may
be that, though time seems to have thrown an impene-
trable veil over those centuries which lie behind the era
of Columbus's adventurous voyage, yet at leaat a comer
of that veil may be lifted, permitting us to gaze upon
the generations over whose ashes we tread, while seeking
to interpret the significance of their memorials.

XV.] THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION. 449

CHAPTER XV.

; THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION,

In turning to the consideration of the primitive works
of art of the American Continent, whether pertaining to
the ancient race of the Mound-Builders, or to modem
Indian tribes, the criticid observer cannot fail to be
struck with the peculiar manifestations of an ingenious
imitative skill. Such is by no means confined to the
aboriginal artists of the New World ; nevertheless it is
a very noticeable characteristic of them, in which they
present a striking contrast to the primitive artists of
Europe. To this remarkable intellectual characteristic
of the American Indian, the author's attention was
drawn, long before he had opportunities of studying the
red man in his native forests. In adopting the term
archaic, as that which seemed the most suitable defini-
tion for the era of primitive British metaUurgic art, cor-
responding to the " Bronze Age " of the north of Europe,
in the nomenclature of continental archaeologists, it was
selected because of its peculiar applicability to the
artistic productions of the period. Many of these are
exceedingly graceful in form, and some of them highly
ornamented, but there is scarcely a trace of imitative
design. So also, though the peculiar form of one pri-
mitive class of gold ornaments, found in the British
Isles, has suggested a name for it derived from the calyx
of a flower, which the cups of its rings seem in some

VOL. I. 2 F

450 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

degree to resemble, yet it is a mere fanciful analogy, for
no example bears the slightest trace of ornament which
would suggest that such similarity was present to the
mind of the ancient British goldsmith. Where incised
or graven ornaments are wrought upon the flower-like
forms, they are the old chevron, or herring-bone, and
saltire patterns, which occur on the rudest clay pottery,
alike of northern Europe and of America^ though exe-
cuted on the finer gold work with considerable delicacy
and taste. The correspondence between the forms and
ornamentation of the rudest classes, both of domestic
and sepulchral pottery of the Old and New World,
appears, at first sight, remarkable ; but it is only the
inevitable correspondence of the inartistic simplicity
inseparable from all infantile art. The ornamentation
is almost without exception only an improvement on the
accidents of manufacture. The aboriginal British and
American potters appear both alike to have produced
their first decorations by simply passing twisted cords
round the soft clay. More compUcated patterns were,
in like manner, produced by plaited or knitted cords^
though more frequently imitated in ruder fashions with
the point of a bone-lance or bodkin. But it is only
among the allophylian arts of Europe that such arbitrary
patterns are perpetuated with improving* taste and skilL
The European vase and cinerary urn become more
graceful in contour, and more delicate in material and
construction, as they accompany the beautiful forms of
weapons and personal ornaments wrought in bronze.
But in no single case is any attempt made to imitate
leaf or flower, bird, beast, or any simple natural object ;
and when in the bronze work of the later Iron period,
imitative forms at length appear, they are chiefly
the snake and dragon shapes and patterns, borrowed
seemingly by Celtic and Teutonic wanderers, with the

THE ARTISTIC INSTIXGT: IMITATION.

wild fancies of their mythology, from the far Eastern
cradle-land of their birth.

Tliis total absence of every trace of imitation in the
forms and dccowtions of primitive British art, and, so
far as my observation extends, of the whole archiiic art
of northern Europe, is curious and noteworthy : for it
is by no means an invariable characteristic of the pri-
mitive arta of man. In the simplest forma of ancient
weiipons, implements, and pottery, mere utility waa the
aim. The rude savage, whether of Europe or America,
had neither leisure nor thought to spare for decorative
art His Besthetic faculty had not yet begun to influence
his constructive instincts. Ideas of comparison, which
enter so largely into the spirit of modem artistic design,
and also form so prominent an element in the more arti-
ficial compositions of the modem orator and bard, were
altogether latent in those elder times. Art was the child
of necessity, and borrowed its first adjuncts of adorn-
ment from tho same sources from whence it had received
its convenient but arbitrary fonna.

But the moment wo get beyond this primitive and
mere utilitarian epoch of rudest art, the contrast between
the pro<lucts of early European and American artistic
skill is exceoilingly striking ; and their value to the eth-
nologist and archaeologist becomes great, from the insight
they give into the a8{>ecta of mental expression, and the
intellectual phases of social Ufe, among those unhistoric
generations of men. The useful arts of the British
allophylian progressed until they superinduced upon
themselves tho decorative and fine arts. But the oma- -
mentation was inventive, and not imitative ; it was
arbitrary, conventional, and singularly persistent in style.
It wrought itself into all his external expressions of
thought, and whatever his religious worship may have
lieen, wc look in vain for proofs of lua idolatry among

452 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

all the innumerable relics which have been recovered
from the supposed Druidical fanes, or the older cromlechs
and tumuli of the British Isles.^ The very opposite cha-
racteristics meet the eye the moment we turn to the
relics which illustrate the primitive arts of the New World.
There, indications of imitative design meet us on every
hand. Even the rude tribes of the North-west, though
living in the simplest condition of nomade savage life,
not only copy the familiar animal and vegetable forms
with which they are surrounded : but also represent,
with curious ingenuity and skill, the novel objects which
European enterprise introduces to their notice. Even
their plaited and woven grass and quill- work is made to
assume a pictorial aspect ; and the decorated Indian
pottery is not only frequently ornamented with patterns
suggestive of their being derived from flowers and other
natural objects, but the more elaborated examples are
occasionally moulded into the forms of animals. Still
more is this the case with the tubes, masks, and personal
ornaments, but, above all, with the pipe-heads of the
ancient Mound-Builders. Nor does it stop with those
smaller productions of art ; but, as we have seen, this
same remarkable imitative faculty finds expression in the
great earthworks both of Wisconsin and Ohio, where the
ingenious artist has wrought out his representations of
natural objects with the same material with which his
enduring pyramids are reared ; and on a scale akin to
the colossal sphinx, that has looked forth from its stony
eyes on the memorial pyramid of old Cheops, while that
gnomon of the Nile's desert sundial has traced, with its
unresting shadow, the revolutions of thirty centuries of
time.

And invaluable are the chronicles of America's ancient
history recorded for us by means of this same imitative

1 Vide Prehistoric AnruUs of ScoUand^ pp. 339-342.

XV.] THE AUTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION 453

art. The walls of Central American ruins are covered
with voiceless hieroglyphics, and the costly folios of Lord
Kingsborough's Mexican A ntiquities have placed at the
command of the scholars of both hemispheres the dubious
ideography of native historians ; but the records of a
long-obliterated past revealed to us by means of the
examples of imitative art brought forth from the sealed
depositories of the Mound-Builders, disclose chroniclings
which all may read ; or of the interpretation of which,
at least, all are qualified to judge. The picture-writing
and the sculptured symbolism are dark to us as were the
hierogl)rphics of Egypt to a thousand generations, and
no new ChampoUion appears to illumine their mystery ;
but in these we have America's demotic wiitings, brief
and fragmentary, but inteUigible through idl their extent.
The revelations of the sacrificial mounds have been spe-
cially ample and valuable in this respect. These are
" the chambers of imagery '' of the Western World ;
wherein are every form of creeping things, and beasts,
and all the idols of their ancient worship. But foremost
among all the piimitive, and nearly all the more recent
illustrative relics of native American art, is the tobacco-
pipe. It is the peculiar and distinctive symbol of
America ; as its narcotic usages have been the strange
gift diffused by it to nearly every tribe and nation of
the Ancient World.

In attempting to determine elements of classification
for the diverse t)rpes or varieties of man, there are certain
minute yet prominent characteristics which, alike among
ancient and modem races, supply at least convenient
tests of classification ; while some of them merit the
special consideration of the archaeologist and the ethno-
logist, as indicating far-reaching principles, or derived
customs which may furnish the clue to a continuous
chain of relations. Of this class is the remarkable and

454 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

persifitent rite of circumcision, which constitutes a pecu-
liarly distinctive dement of isolation with the Jew and
his Semitic congenera Again, the ancient epithet " bar-
barian" pointed to a distinctive mark of culture and
refinement, which this nineteenth century of Christian
civilisation seems at length disposed to abandon, alike
in the Old World and the New. With the native Ame-
rican Indian, the beardless features have been invariably
aimed at : in part because of the scanty natural growth
of hair on the face, but also partly because of a universal,
immemorial custom ; for the sculptured figures of Pa-
lenque and Uxmal, the portrait pipe-heads and masks of
the Mississippi mounds, the carving of the great Calendar
Stone, and the depictions of the Mexican picture-writings^
all concur in representing the aboriginal American as
beardless. Again, the artificial flattening of the head, a
widely diffused, though by no means universal custom
among American tribes : also had its existence among
ancient nations of the Old World ; and is proved by
early sculptures to have been practised in those remote
times when native American art and architecture appear
to have achieved their highest efforts. And not less
distinctive than any of those, are the scalp war-trophy
and the peace-pipe of the American Indian : the charac-
teristics still, not of a tribe or nation, but of a whole
continent. Herodotus refers to scalping as one of the
most characteristic war-customs of the Scythians, and
to the Scythic practice of hanging the scalp-trophies
to the warrior's bridle-rein. Hence the onroaKuOifyw of
Euripides, quoted by Rawlinson, when remarking the
resemblance of such ancient Asiatic customs to those
of the Red Indians. The correspondence is worthy of
note, in what is otherwise noticeable only as the Ameri-
can counterpart to Eg3rptian and Oriental accumulations
of trophies of the slain — the skulls, the hands, the ears,

I XV.] THE AUTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION. 455

I' or even the foreskins, — repeatedly referred to in the Old
Testament Scriptures, and recorded with minute detail

I in the paintings of Egypt, and the sculptm-es of Nimroud
and Khorsabiid. But the pipe is associated with the
most solemn rites of the native American ; with the
lavish sacrifices of the ancient worshipper, laid on the
buried altfljs of bis long-fleserted mounds ; aud with the
sacred credentials of the ambassador of the tribe, the
inspired medicine-man and priest, or the accredited
leader, exercising absolute authority for war or peace.

The origin and difi'usion of the singular practice of
smoking tobacco and other narcotic herbs will come
under consideration, in a subsequent chapter, in relation
to existing arts and customs of the American abori^nes.
It is only referred to here, because of the prominent
place which the implements of this practice occupy
among the works of art of which the sacrificisd mounds
are the principal depositories. In accordance with the
almost universid custom of barbarous and semi-civilized
nations, the Mound-Builders devoted to their dead the
implementa of their favourite or familiar occupations,
their pipes and vessels, along with peisonal ornaments,
aud objects prized for their worth or valuable for some
taliamanic charm. Hence the mounds uf America dis-
close to us the same kind of evidence of the past as
Wilkinson has deduced from the catacombs of Egypt,
or Dennis from the sepulchres of Etruria. But in addi-
tion to this, while the altars of Egypt and Etruiia have
been long overthrown ; the remarkable rehgious rites of
the American Mound-Builders have preserved not only
their altars, but the ofierings laid upon them, before the
first seedling fell from whence grew the ancient monarchs
of those forests now styled primeval. The perishable
garments of the dead have necessarily disappeared ; and
of instruments or utensils of wood or other combustible

L

456 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Ohjip.

materials it is vain to expect a trace, where even metal
has melted and the stone been calcined in the blaze of
the sacrificial fires ; but articles of copper and stone, of
fictile ware, and even of shell, ivory, and bone, have
escaped the destructive flame, and withstood the action
of time ; and it is in those enduring characters that the
inscriptions upon the altars of the Mound-Builders are
legibly graven. Let us try to read these inscriptions,
and translate their records into the language of modem
thought.

What they record for us in regard to progress in the
mechanical arts and in metallurgy, we have already
attempted to decipher. The Mound-Builders were ac-
quainted with several of the metals. Implements and
personal ornaments of copper abound in the tombs and
on their altars ; and the mechanical combination of
silver with the native copper of which they are made,
while proving their ignorance of the art of smelting
metals or reducing them from their ores, tends also very
clearly to indicate that they derived their masses of
native copper from Lake Superior, where alone the two
metals have hitherto been found in the singular me-
chanico- chemical combination of included crystals of
silver in a copper matrix. The accidental, or at least
unpremeditated results of their sacrificial fires, have in
some cases fused the metaUic offerings on the altars into
a mass of molten copper ; but the Mound-Builder had
very imperfectly learned the old arts of Tubal -Cain.
He did not smelt the ores, or melt the native copper
and cast it into such moulds as his imitative skill, and
his ability in modelling the potter's clay, abundantly
fitted him to produce. Neither did he attempt the
simpler process of welding, much less the valuable art
of alloying the metals : although silver is found shaped
into pei-sonal ornaments, and the sulphuret of lead was

THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION.

familiarly known to him, and is found in considerable
quantities along with hia other metallic remains.

Thus far, therefore, those insi'riptions tell us that
directly, or through some intermediate source, the
Mound-Builders shared in the metallurgic wealth of the
great copper region of Lake Superior. We are reminded,
accordingly, that the broad undulating prairie-lands of
Wisconsin, with their remarkable symbolic earthworks,
lie directly between the shores of Lake Superior and the
great region of tlio Mound-Builders in Ohio and Illinois.
The monuments of tie latter abound with deposits of
the works of art of their builders, and are surrounded
with varied proofs of settled occupation, civic and reli-
gious structures, and permanent defensive military works ;
while within the era of Wisconsin the symbolic mounds
stand almost alone, and have hitherto l>een found to
contain no relics of their buOders. Neither sacred earth-
works adapted to religioas rites, nor the military defences
of a settled people, attest that the region of Wisconsin
was anciently occupied by a numerous population such
as its many natural advantages fitted it to sustain.
Hence the conjecture that the mineral country on the
southern shores of the Great Lake was permanently
occupied by no settled tiibe, but that its mines were the
recognised source of supply for the whole population
norti of the Gulf of Mexico ; and that the different tribes
and nations throughout the vast basin of the Mississippi
and its tributaries were wont to send their working par-
ties there, as to a common region of the nations. Such
an idea well accords with tlie furtlier conjecture that the
numerous symbolic mounds of Wisconsin may bo the
memorials of sacred rites, or pledges of peace and neu-
trality among nations from tlie various tributaries of the
great river, as they annually met on this border-land of
the common metallic storehouse. It is obvious that the

458 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

Mound-Builders were a highly religious people. Their
superstitious rites were of frequent occurrence^ and ac-
companied with costly sacrifices ; while in the numerous
symbolic mounds of Wisconsin, the labour alone is the
sacrifice, and the external form preserves the one idea at
which their builders aimed.

So far, this theory of a sacred neutral ground and
common mineral region is to a great extent conjectural
Nevertheless, it involves certain undoubted facts to be
borne in view for comparison with others of a diverse
kind. In the once densely-peopled regions of Ohio and
Illinois, where the works of the Mound-Builders abound,
the river-valleys were occupied by an ingenious, indus-
trious agricultural population, skilftd in the execution
of a peculiar class of works of art ; who, if not aggres-
sive and warlike, employed their constructive skill on
extensive works for military defence. Whencesoever the
danger existed that they had thus to apprehend and
guard against, there is no trace of its locality within the
region lying immediately to the south of Lake Superior,
through which their path lay to the great copper coimtry.
More probably offensive and defensive warfare was carried
on between tribes or states of the Mound race settled on
different tributaries of the same great water-system. But
the growing civilisation of the nations of the Mississippi
valley was also exposed to the aggression of barbarian
tribes of the North-west ; for if the Mound-Builder dif-
fered in culture, in blood, and race fi:om the progenitors
of the modem Red Indian, the evidences chronicled for
us in his sacred muniment chambers seem to place the
fact beyond doubt that the Red Indian was not unknown
to him.

So far, then, we connect the race of the Mounds with
the shores of Lake Superior, and thus trace out for them
a relation to regions of the North. But in this we have

I

XV.] TUE ARTJST2C INSTINCT: IMITATION. 459

no necessary indication of the birth-land or of the course
of migration of the Mound race. " It cannot have
escaped notice," Measra. Squier and Davda remark, in
drawing their great work on the ancient monuments of
the Mississippi Valley to a close, " that the relics found
in the mounds— composed of materials peculiar to places
separated as widely as the ranges of the Alleghaniea on
the east, and the sierras of Mexico on the west, the
waters of the great lakes on the north, and those of the
Gulf of Mexico on the south, — denote the contempora-
neous existence of communication between these ex-
tremes. For we find, side by side in the same mounds,
native copper from Lake Superior, mica from the Alle-
ghanies, shells from the Gulf, and obsidian (perhaps
porphyry) from Mexico."'

These facts the authors regard as seriously conflicting
with tlie hypothesis of a migration either northward or
southward. They at least warn us agjiinst any hasty
conclusion from partial or one-sided evidence. But
moimwhile it appears legitimate to infer from them the
proofs of an extensive traffic ; and to assume, as at least
exceedingly probable, the existence of widely-extended
commercial relations as one of the accompaniments of
civilisation among that singular race. It must not be
inferred, from the use of teims specifically applied to
modern trade and commerce, that they are supposed to
imply the possession of a currency and exchanges, of
banking agencies, or manufacturing corporations. But,
without confounding the traces of a rudimentary civili-
sation with the latest chai-acteristies of its mature de-
velopment, there are proofs suflicient to justify the
inference that the Mound-Buildera of Ohio traded with
the copper of Lake Superior for objects of necessity and
luxury brought from widely-separated regions of the con-

' Ani-knl mn;»i(«U a/ the Mi>,i«,ipi>i Vathry, y. SOS.

460 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

tinent. By many intennediate agencies, rather than
by any direct traffic, such exchanges may have been
effected. But the river system of the Mississippi has
furnished facilities for such interchanges under the far
less favourable circumstances of the later forest tribes ;
and such a systematic trade among an ingenious and
settled people may have materially contributed to the
progress of civilisation in the populous valleys of Scioto
and Ohio.

Turning next to the consideration of facts recorded
for us in the sculptures of their sacrificial and sepulchral
mounds, we find our study directed to a varied class of
objects of singular interest, some of which, at leasts
fully merit the designation of works of art. Compared,
indeed, with the sculptures in porphyry, and the great
Calendar Stone of Mexico ; the elaborate fa9ades and
columned terraces of Uxmal, Zayi, and Kabah ; and the
colossal statues and basso-relievos of Copan and Pal-
enque, with their mysterious symbols and tablets of
hierogljrphics : the art of the Mound-Builders, which
found its highest object in the decoration of a tube, or
the sculpture of a pipe-bowl, may appear insignificant
enough. But the imagination is too apt to be impressed
by mere size, and requires to be reminded of the supe-
rior excellence of a Greek medal or a Koman gem to
all the colossal grandeur of an Egyptian Memnon. The
architecture and sculpture of Central America and Yuca-
tan preserve to us the highest intellectual efforts of the
New World, and are animated by a historical signifi-
cance which cannot be over-estimated. Nevertheless,
there are examples among the miniature works of art of
the Ohio Valley unquestionably admitting of comparison
with them in some essential elements of artistic skill.
The colossal statues of Copan are marvellous specimens
of elaborate barbaric sculpture ; but apart from the

XV.]

THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION.

significance of the hieroglyphics with which some of
them jire graven, they are only admissible in a conven-
tional sense among works of art : whereas some of the
sculptures taken from the inhumed altars of " Mound
City" are examples of imitative art and portrait -sculpture
full of character and individuality.

The simplicity, variety, and minute expression in those
miniature sculptures, their delicacy of execution and
evidence of considerable imitative skill, all render them
just objects of intei-est and careful study. But foremost
of all in every trait of value for the elucidation of the
history or characteristics of their workers, are the
examples of eeidptured human heads : some of them
presenting striking traces of individual portraiture.
Alike from the minute accuracy of many of the sculp-
tures of animals, hereafter referred to, and from the
correspondence to well-known features of the modern
Red Indian suggested by some of the human heads,
these miniature portraits may be assumed, with every
probability, to include faithful representations of the
predominant physical features of the ancient people by
whom they were executed. What would the ethnologist
not give for such well-authenticated portraiture of the
old Umbrian or Pelasgian, for example? It would solve
some of the knottiest problems of his science, better
than all the obscure disquisitions that the aboriginal
population of Greece and Italy has given rise to.
American ethnologists, accordingly, have not failed to
appreciate the value of such iconographic evidence rela-
tive to the ante-historical population of their own con-
tinent ; and have turned it to even more account than
legitimate inductive reasoning wiU sustain, in support
of their favourite argument for the indigenous unity of
the whole ancient and modem aborigines of the New
World. The facts, however, are independent of all such

462 PRE HISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

deductions, and are deserving of the minutest and most
impartial consideration.

It is, indeed, in these two respects, as records, first,
of the physical characteristics of the Mound- Builders
and the contemporary tribes or nations known to them ;
and secondly, of the fauna, native, and foreign to the
country occupied by them, with which they were fami-
liar, that the mound sculptures are chiefly to be valued.
After an opportunity of carefully inspecting the origi-
nals, now in the collection of Dr. E. H. Davis of New
York, I cannot avoid the conclusion that their artistic
merits have been somewhat overrated. The accuracy
with which some of the objects of natural history are
copied in every minute detail is indeed remarkable ; yet
it is only a stage in advance of the imitative faculty so
strikingly apparent in similar, though inferior specimens
of modem Indian sculpture. Were those miniature
works of art the sole memorials of the Mound-Builders,
there would be no reason for regarding them as other
than ancestors of the forest tribes, among whom the
artistic faculty had been developed, in all probability,
along with other corresponding elements of incipient
ci\T.lisation. But, as we have already seen, the evi-
dence by which both their civilisation and their essen-
tial difierence are demonstrated, rests on independent
grounds, and would be slightly affected by the ab-
sence of this interesting but wholly subsidiary class of
illustrations.

In one of the smaller mounds of the remarkable group
already referred to, within the sacred enclosure on the
west bank of the Scioto Kiver, called "Mound City/'
discoveries were made of a varied and singularly inter-
esting nature, which are thus described by the explorers :
" Intermixed with much ashes, were found, not far from
two hundred pipes carved in stone, many pearls and

XV.] THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION 463

shell-beads, numerous disks, tubes, etc., of copper, and
a number of other ornaments of copper covered with
silver, etc. etc. The pipes were much broken up, some
of them calcined by the heat, which had been sufficiently
strong to melt copper, masses of which were fused to-
gether in the centre of the basin. A large number have,
nevertheless, been restored at the expense of much
labour and no small amount of patience. They are
mostly composed of a red porphyritic stone, somewhat
resembling the pipe-stone of the Coteau des Prairies^
excepting that it is of great hardness, and interspersed
with small, various-coloured granules. The fragments
of this material which had been most exposed to the
heat were changed to a brilliant black colour resembling
Egyptian marble. Nearly all the articles carved in
limestone, of which there had been a number, were cal-
cined. The bowls of most of the pipes are carved in
miniature figures of animals, birds, reptiles, etc. All
of them are executed with strict fidelity to nature, and
with exquisite skilL .... But the most interesting
and valuable in the list are a number of sculptured
human heads, no doubt faithftdly representing the pre-
dominant physical features of the ancient people by
whom they were made. We have this assurance in the
minute accuracy of the other sculptures of the same
date/'^

Of these invaluable examples of ancient American
iconography, one (Fig. 19.) has attracted special atten-
tion, not only as the most beautiful head of the series,
but fi:om its supposed correspondence to the type of the
modem North American Indian. "The workmanship
of this head,'* Messrs. Squier and Davis remark, "is
unsurpassed by any specimen of ancient American art
which has fallen under the notice of the authors, not

^ Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 152.

464 PREHISTORIC MAlf. [Chap.

excepting the best productions of Mexico and Peru."' In
the well-executed illustration which accompanies these
remarks, the Red Indian features are unmistakably re-
presented ; nor has thb failed to receive abundant
attention, and to have ascribed to It even more than
its due importance. Mr. Francis Fulszky, the learned
Hungarian, thus comments on it in his Iconograjthic
Researches on Human Races and their Art :—" k meet

Portnit MODDd Pipe.

characteristic, we may say artistically beautiful head, the
workmanship of these unknown Mound-Builders, dug
up and published by Squier, exhibits the peculiar Indian
features so faithfiilly, and with such sculpture perfec-
tion, that we cannot withhold our admiration from their
artistical proficiency. It proves three things : lat, That
these Mound-Builders were American Indian in Type ;
2d, That time (age ante-Columbian, but otherwise un-
known) has not changed the type of this indigenous
group of races ; and 3d, That the Mound-Builders were
probably acquainted with no other men but them-
selves."" Such are the sweeping deductions drawn
from the premises supplied by a single example of
mound-sculpture : or rather from the depiction of it in

1 Anatnt Monnmtnls t^ the Xiuiwippi Valley, p. 24ft, fig. 14fi.
* Indigenou* Baeet oftht Earth, p. 183.

XV.J Tits ARTISTIC ISSTLWT : 1311TATI0S. 4fi5

MesHTs. Squicr and DavU'H volume ; for after a careful
exominatiun of the original, ite ethnic characteristics
appear to me to be nusa'prescnted in the illuHtration
referred to. The artist has, no doubt undesignedly,
g^ven to his drawing much more of the typical Indian
features than arc traceable in tlie original The nose,
instead of having the salient Roman arch there rcprc-
Bcntcd, is [KSrfoctly straight, as shown in the profile here

riu n IN«tnJt Muud npr.

given (Fig. 20.), and is neither very prominent nur
dilated.

The mouth, though protulterant, is small ; and insteail
of the characteristit: ponderuux maxillary region of the
true Indian, the chin and the upper lip arc both short :
and the lower jaw, without any marked width between
the condyles, id small, and tajHTS gnulually t4>wanls the
chin. PerhaiH it \a owing to this smallness of the lower
portion of the hi-ail and face, that it won supptiscd to
represent a female. Uut such an idea is not suggeiitetl
by any marked churai-tcrittic either in the feature's or
head-drvss. The cheek -Ixtnes, though high, ore by no
m(>:ms HO promin<-iit m In thv engmving. lndee«l, the
projection iit alni(>!«t entirely in front, giving a protu-
U'rant cheek imnieiliately under the eye. I doubt if
any impartial ob«er\-er, familiar with Indian physio-

VOL. 1. 2 o

466 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

gnomy, would ossigD this head to die same lype, if shown
to him without any knowledge of its history.'

It is apparent, therefore, that the inferences drawn
from the representation of a single example of mound-
sculpture, are open to question on account of the inac-
curacy of the premises. But even supposing the head
to be as represented in the eDgraving in the Monuments
of the Mississippi Valley, oi: to reproduce, beyond all
doubt, the features of the modem American Indian ; it
would by no means prove the three propositions deduced
from its discovery : since it is not the only example of
sculptured portraiture discovered in the mounds, and we
look in vain in other examples for those points of In-
dian physiognomy which would first attract the eye of
the imitative modeller or sculptor. The salient and di-
lated nose, the prominent cheek-
bones, the massive jaw, and
large mouth, may be assigned
as the most noticeable charac-
teristics ; but all or nearly all
of them are wanting in most
of the other sculpttured heads
or masks from the mounds.
The character of these may be
seen in the head engraved here
F.o....-Po«™itMoandP,. ^pj^ gi), derived from the
same rich depository opened in "Mound City.' It is
cut in a compact yellowish stona The nose is nearly

' ThU head hag ulready been mttXe the basis of such sweeping genenliza-
tions thftt the accuracy of its descriptioD antl representation becomes of great
importance. Through the kiDdiieu of Dr. Davis, I have not only had oppor-
tunitiea of carefiJly examining the original ; but I poaseaa a cast of it, from
which the drawingB have been made, and subsequently compared with the
original. A comparisou of Fig. 19 with the corresponding view of the same
object, aa figured in Vol. I. of the Smitlmoaiaa ConlTibvtioiu io KiunnUdgt,
will show how much the American Indian characteristics of the latter are
due to the iieocil of the modem draughtsman.

XV. J THE ARTISTIC ISSTLWT: /M/TAT/OX. 467

in u line with the forehead, excepting at the point, which
projects in a manner certainly liy n<) meanH cliaracterintic!
of Indian features ; and thouf^h the li])8 protruile, as in
the previous hea^l, they are delicate, and the mouth is
snudl. The ears in )K)th are large, and in the latter are
{K'rforati^l with four small lioles around their up[>er
Cilgea In this case, from the delicacy of the features, it
is suggested with greater prolwibility tlian in the former
example, that it was designe<l after a female model.
Another example engraved in the Aucietit Monuments
of the AtisiiUfsippi Valley (No. 143) is executed in the
same material, hut much altertnl l)y fire. It has not,
like the previous examples, Iwen designed for a pipe
head, l)ut is ))n)ken off from a complete human figure,
or other larger pitn^e of canning. It is mu<*h inferior as
a work of art, and indee<l approaches the grotes(]ue or
rari<*ature. Nevertheleas it has considerable cliaracter
in its expression ; and no one familiar with the Indian
rast of countenance would readily assign either to it or
the previous specimen of mound sculpture any aim at
such representation, if unaware of the circumstances of
their disi*overy. In this, as in others of the heails, the
face is tatto(H*d, and the ears have U»en |K»rfonitcHl ;
and from the strongly attaehetl oxide of cop|)er at those
[N)ints, there can l>e little doubt they were decorated
with rings or |H*nilants of tliat metal ; but the action
of the saerificiid tires has only hft an uncertain trace of
the eluiractor of such anricnt mcMU*s of {M*rm»nal aibim-
mcnt. Various other iMirtniit-wulptures and terra-
cottas, either found in the mtmnds, or discoven^I within
the n»gii»n where they rhietly abound, an* figurwl in the
works of Sjuier, Shotilcraft, an«l others, and in the
American Ethmilogical 8<K-ietys Transactions. The
majority of them are inferior t4> those already deacrilKHl,
as works of art. Hut if they {kisscss any value as indi-

468 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

cations of the physiognomical type of ancient American
races, they tend to confirm the idea of a prevailing
diversity, instead of a uniformity of cranial form and
features.

From the examples thus referred to, it is obvious that
the discovery of a sculptured head of the most strongly
marked Indian features, among so many of a different
type, in the mounds of the Mississippi Valley, would
only correspond with another interesting fact, that ani-
mals foreign to the region, and even to the North
American continent, are found figured in the mound-
sculptures. It presents a parallel to well-known examples
of Etruscan vases, moulded in the form of negros' heads ;
and of Greek pottery, painted with the characteristic
negro features and woolly hair. Specimens of both are
preserved among the collections of the British Museum,
and furnish interesting evidence, alike of the permanency
of the negro type, and of the familiarity both of Gredc
and Etruscan artists with the African features^ long
prior to the Christian era. Similar examples of foreign
portraiture have attracted attention, on the still older
monuments of Egypt, and among the basso-relievos of
the tomb of Darius Hystaspes at Persepolis : supplying
varied and interesting illustrations of imitative art em-
ployed in the perpetuation of ethnic peculiarities of
physiognomy. Supposing, therefore, the Moimd-Bmlders
to have been a settled semi -civilized population, as
essentially distinct from a contemporaneous barbarous
race, analogous to the living descendants of such among
the Indian tribes of the North-west, as the classic nations
of antiquity differed from the barbarian tribes beyond
the Rhine and the Baltic : it is no more surprising to
trace the genuine Indian features depicted in the mound-
sculptures, than to discover those of the Dacian or the
Gaul on the colimm of Trajan. It proves that the

XV.] TUB AUTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION. 409

Mound-Buildera were familiar with the American Indian
type, but nothing more. The evidence indeed tends
very distinctly to suggest the idea that they were not
of the same type ; since the majority of sculptured
human heads hitherto recovered from their ancient de-
positories do not reproduce the Indian features.

The physical type of the Mound-Builders will again
come under consideration in a subsequent chapter ; but
it is interesting meanwhile to observe that even in tlie
style and art-characteristics of this portrait -sculpture,
there are traces of peculiar and distinctive qualities.
The imitative art stLl] manifests itself in varied and
expressive varieties of style, iu the works of the rude
Indians : some tribes, such aa the Algonquins, confining
themselves to literal reproductions of natural objects,
while others, such as the Babeens, indulge in a grotesque
and ingeniously diversified play of fancy. But the in-
tellectual development implied in individual portraiture
goes far beyond this, and is rare indeed among nations
considerably advanced in the earlier stages of civilisation.
Even among the civilized Mexicans, the imitation of the
human face and figure does not appear to have advanced
beyond the grotesque ; and although the sculptors of
Centnd America and Yucatan manifested all the fine
artistic power whicli accords with the civilisation of a
lettered people, yet in the majority of their statues and
reliefe, we see the subordination of the human form and
features to the cmde symbolism of theii' mythology, or
the mere omamentaJ requirements of decorative artv
The peculiar characteristics of native American art at-
tracted at an early period the notice of the Spanish
colonists, though unfortunately for us, their supei'stitious
bigotry led in many cases to the destruction of its most
interesting and valuable examples. The following curious
criticism nn the sculptures of the pagan Mexicans, from

470 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

the pen of Torquemada, is not the less valuable from the
trait of Franciscan prejudice which tinges all the reflec-
tions and narrations of his Indian Monarchy : — " It
appears," he says, " as if God permitted that the figures
of their idols should be the hideous semblances of their
own souls ; nor was it till after they had been converted
to the Christian faith that they were ever able to model
the figure of a man."^ Again, the ingenious and learned
Hungarian, Francis Pulszky, after comparing Indian,
Mexican, Peruvian, and Central American works of art,
remarks : " The hunter tribes of America evince no
feeling for plastic beauty. Yet withal, like the Turks
and the Celts, they have a considerable talent for deco-
rative designs, and some perceptions of the harmony of
colours. The originality and ornamental combination of
their bead- work and embroidery are sufficiently known,
but they always fail in rendering the human form. Far
higher was the civilisation of that race which preceded
them in the trans-Alleghanian States.''* It thus seems
that, amid the general prevalence of a peculiar aptitude
for imitative art, alike among the ancient and modem
nations of the American continent, the Mound-Builders,
though confining their art, so far as we can now judge,
within a narrow range, developed a power of appre-
ciating the minuter delicacies of plastic truth and
beauty, such as is only traceable elsewhere among
the choicest productions of the sculptors of Uxmal and
Palenque.

To the fruits of this cultivated imitative skill we owe,
in like manner, another class of sculptures which have
an important significance in relation to the ethnological
problems affecting the ancient and ante-Columbian popu-
lation of the New World. In describing the remarkable

* Monarcftia Indiana^ b. xiii. c. 34.

^ Iconographic Researches ; Indigenous BaceSf p. 182.

XV.] TUK ARTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION. 471

deposit of 8{)cciinen8 of miniature sculpture, imrluding
examples of human portraiture fouml on the altars of one
of the sacrifi(*ial mounds in the Scioto Valley, reference
has already l)ei*n made to the (*uriou8 collection of stone
pipes found there, with the bowls of most of them can*eil
into figures of Ix*asts, hirds, and reptiles : all, as descril)ed
hy their intelligent discoverers, executed with striking
fidelity to natun^- On these represcmtations of objects
of natural history, indeed, along with those of the humxm
head and figun», the anc*ient sculptors apjHjar to have
lavishetl their artistic skill, with a <legree of care and in-
genuity l^estowed on none other of the less perisliable
Wi>rks, from which alone we ran now ju^lge of their in-
tellectual development, or the progress they had attaineil
in the arts of civilisation. " Not only," as Messrs. Sijuier
and Davis ol>sen'e, "are X\w features of the various ob-
jects represented faithfully, but their |HM-uliarities and
habits are in S4>me <legree exhibit^^^l. The ott4»r is shown
in a chanicteristic attitude, holding a fish in his mouth ;
tlie henm also holds a tish ; and the hawk gras{is a small
)>ird in its talons, whi(*h it tears with its U^ak. The
imnther, the U^ar, the wolf, the In^aver, the otter, the
8(iuim»l, the racoon, the liawk, the hen>n, crow, swidlow,
buz/jird, the [>anM|uet, toucan, and other indigt*nous and
southern birds ; the turtle, the fn»g, toad, rattli*snake,
etc., are recognised at first ghuice,"* To this ccanpre-
hensive list, Mr. S<iuier makes further additions in a
work of hiter date. Contrasting the truthfulm«s of the
car\ungs fn»m the mounds with tin; monstrosities or cari
catures of nature usuidly pnxIuciHl by the savage sculp
tor, he r«*marks : ** They display nf)t only the gi*neral
form and features of the objwts sought \o lie n*pn'S4'nte<l,
but to a suqirising degn*e their ehanicteristie expression
and attitude, in sonn» instances thi*ir ver)* habits are

472 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

•

indicated. Hardly a beast, bird, or reptile, indigenous
to the country, is omitted from the list;" and in addition
to those named above, he specifies the elk, the opossum,
the owl, vulture, raven, duck, and goose, and also the
alligator/ In describing specific examples, the authors
remark in reference to one pipe-head carved in the shape
of a toad : the knotted, corrugated skin is well repre-
sented, and the sculpture is so very truthful, that if
placed in the grass before an unsuspecting observer, it
would probably be mistaken for the natural object ; and
they further add : " those who deem expression in sculp-
ture the grand essential, will find something to amuse as
well as to admire, in the lugubrious expression of the
mouths of these specimens of the toad." In so far as
these miniature works of art represent indigenous faima,
they are chiefly remarkable for the evidence they furnish,
not only of an imitative talent of a high order, but of a
command of the individual phases of character and ex-
pression truly artistic. The wild cat, for example, is
figured in a variety of characteristic attitudes, and with
a corresponding acuteness of expression, worthy of
Audubon.

Various spirited examples of such sculptures are in the
collection of Dr. Davis, and drawings of some of them
have been given in the Smithsonian volume, to which
he so largely contributed. One of those from " Mound
City," a highly expressive head, difiering from other '
examples, bears a close resemblance to that of the cougar.
The sculptures of birds are much more numerous than
those of beasts, and comprise between thirty and forty
different kinds, of which nearly one hundred specimens
have been found. Of these the explorers observe : " We
recognise the eagle, hawk, heron, owl, buzzard, toucan (?),
raven, swallow, paroquet, duck, grouse, and numerous

» Antiquities of the State of New York, p. 338.

THE AUTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION.

other land and water birds. There are several varieties of
the same species ; for instance, among the owls, we find
the great owl, the horned owl, ;md the little owl ; there
are also several varieties of the rapacious birds." Of one
example, it is remarked, " the engraving in point of spirit
falls far short of the original." The writers further ob-
serve : " It will be readily recognised as the tufted heron,
the most indefatigable and voracious of all the fisher
varieties. The small body, long wings, extending to the
extremity of the short tail, long thin neck, sharp bill, and
tufted head, are unmistakable features. He is repre-
sented in the attitude of striking a fish, which is also
faithfully executed. Nothing can surpass the truthful-
ness and delicacy of the sculpture. The minutest fea-
tures are shown ; the articulations of the legs of the bird,
as also the gills, fins, and scales of the fish, are represented.
It is carved from the red, speckled porphyry, already
several times mentioned aa constituting the material of
many of these sculptures. As a work of art it is incom-
parably superior to any remains of the existing tribes of
Indians." ' Around one pipe-bowl a rattlesnake is coiled ;
other representations of various serpents have been found,
coiled in like manner round the bowla of stone pipes.
One represents a variety now unknown, or not hitherto
described. It has a broad, flat head, and the body is sin-
gularly marked. The ingenuity and fancy of the ancient
sculptors are also displayed in miniature carvings,
executed seemingly, like the sportive sketches of tlie
modem artist, with no other object than their own
gratification. The head of a goose, for example, is cut
in a hard, black stone, three and a half inches long, and
with a human skull or " death's-head " carved on the
back of it. Unfinished carvings have also been found,
showing in some degree the pracess by which they were

' Anr-iral Monum-TtU o/Ihe Missifippi Vrdlry. p. 25!i.

474 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Ohap.

wrought A toad, in a characteristic attitude, but only
roughly shaped out, " very well exhibits the mode of
workmanship. While the general surface appears covered
with striae running in every direction, as if produced by
rubbing, the folds and lines are clearly cut with some
sort of graver. The marks of the implement, chipping
out portions a fourth of an inch in length, are too dis-
tinct to admit the slightest doubt that a cutting tool was
used in the work.'' Again, it is remarked of another
pipe-head, blocked out into the form of a bird : " This
specimen is unfinished, and plainly exhibits the process
adopted by the ancient artist in bringing it to its present
state. None of the more minute details have as yet re-
ceived any attention. The base and various parts of the
figure exhibit fine striae, resulting from rubbing or grind-
ing ; but the general outline seems to have been secured
by cutting with some sharp instrument, the marks of
which are plainly to be seen, especially at the parts
where it would be difficult or impracticable to approach
with a triturating substance. The lines indicating the
feathers, grooves of the beak, and other more delicate
features, are cut or graved on the surface at a single
stroke. Some pointed tool appears to have been used,
and the marks are visible where it has occasionally
slipped beyond the control of the engraver. Indeed,
the whole appearance of the specimen indicates that the
work was done rapidly by an experienced hand, and that
the various parts were brought forward simultaneously.
The freedom of the strokes could only result from long
practice; and we may infer that the manufacture of
pipes had a distinct place in the industrial organization
of the Mound-Builders.'' But this, though full of inter-
est, need not surprise us, since it is undoubted that the
art of the arrow -maker, which required both skill and
experience, was pursued among the forest-tribes as a

XV.] THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION. 47fi

special ci'aft ; uoi" is, even now, that of the pipe-maker
wholly abandoned.

So far, therefore, we are enabled to lift the curtain,
and look back into that remote past. We see the indus-
tiious sculptor at hia task ; and holding silent converse
with him over his favourite works, we learn somewhat of
his own physical aspect, of the range of his geographical
experience and knowledge, and form our judgment of his
mental capacity and intellectual developmeut : even as
we do of a Benvenuto Cellini, by the examination of
some of the exquisite productions of his art, aud the
perusal of the lively chroniclings of his graphic autobio-
graphy. The pottery of the mounds, in like manner,
adds to our knowledge of the art and civilisation of the
ages in which it was produced. But, next in importance
to the evidence thus famished of the physical charac-
teristics of the ancient race, the miniature sculptures of
the Scioto mounds derive their chief value from the indi-
cations they supply of the extent and nature of the geo-
graphical relations of the remarkable people by whom
they were executed ; whatever may be the theory finally
accepted as that which may most satisfactorily account
for the facts thus brought to light. By such speci-
mens of imitative skill we learn psychological facts con- "
ceming the ancient population of America, not without
their importance in the history of its incipient eivi-
lisatiou, or the discussion of some of its more obscure
ethnological problems. But these ingenious products
of the ancient sculptor's studio have a still more im-
portant significance in relation to those inquiries which,
embrace the migrations of aboriginal mces. By the
fidelity of the representations of so great a variety of
subjects copied from animal life, they fimiish evidence
of a knowledge in the Mississippi Valley, of the fauna
iwculiar not only to southern but to trnpi'^al latitudes,

k.

476 PREHISTORIC MAN. {Chap.

extending beyond the Isthmus into the southern conti-
nent ; and au^estive eidier of arts derived from a foreign
source, and of an intimate intercourse maintained -with
the central regions where the civihsation of ancient Ame-
rica attained its highest development : or else indicative
of migration, and an intrusion into the northern conti-
nent, of the race of the ancient graves of Central and
Southern America, bringing with them the arts of the
tropics, and models derived from the animaJs familiar to
their fathers in the parent-land of the race.

Of one of the most interesting of these exotic models,
the Lamantin or Manatee, seven sculptured figures have

— Hanst«, Plpe-Bcnlptnie.

been taken from the mounds of Ohio. This ph3rtophag-
ous cetacean, which, when full grown, measures fitim
fifteen to twenty feet in length, is found only in tropical
waters. Species haunt the estuaries and large rivers of
Central and intertropical South America ; as also those
of both the eastern and western aides of tropical Africa :
'and sometimes ascend the rivers to a great distance from
the sea. Examples were seen by Humboldt in the Rio
Meta, a branch of the Orinoco, one thousand miles above
it« mouth. They are also found among the Antilles, and
on the coast of the Florida peninsula. All the noted
external details of the manatee are faithfully and mi-

XV.] TUB ARTISTIC INSTINCT : IMITATION, ill

nutely reproduced in the sculptures fnim the mounds
The most remarkable feature is the external fore paw,
occupying the usual place of the cetacean fin, and
which, from its supposed resemhhmce to a hand, led the
8{mniards to give it the name of Manati. To the earliest
European voyagers, fancy helixxl to exaggerate the pecu-
liar novelty of this strange animal, and it receive<l from
them the name of the Siren. The fli^h of the manatee
is extensively used among the inhabitants of St Christo-
pher s, Guadaloupe, and Martinique ; and in Southern
America it is in great request during Lent, as its flesh
supplies a savoury substitute for the prohibited animal
food of that season : the manatee )>eing classed, accord-
ing to the system of ecclesiastical natural history, among
fishes. The form, therefore, of this animal must be fa-
miliar to the Indians of South America, and was once
e<|ually well known to the luitives of the Antilles, and
probably to the ancient <*oa0tmen of the Gulf. But we
must account by other means for the discovery of accu-
rate miniature representations of it among the sculp-
tures of the fiu- inland mounds of Ohio; and the same
remark (M|ually appli<>s to the jaguar or panther, the
crougar, the toucan ; to the buzzanl, possibly, and also to
the {Nir(K{uet. The majority of these animals are not
known in the United States ; some of them arc totally
unknown within any jmrt of the North American conti-
nent. Others may be chiswMl with the |)anK|uet, which,
though <\sHentially a southern )>inl, and c*ommon in the
(tulf, does <Mvasio|ially make its apjiearance inland ; and
might [K)ssibly )HH*ome known t4> the untravelKnl Mound-
Buikler, among the fauna of his own northeni home.

ITif im[H>rtanee of such evidences of a knowletlge of
tropical animals, and even of those now confim'<l cxrlu-
sivi*ly to the sxiutheni continent, jKNisesscHl by the ancient
dwellers in the Scioto Valley, lui.*< not escapeil the notice

478 PBEHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

of the intelligent explorers of the mounds. It has even
induced them, with becoming caution, to hesitate in as-
signing with absolute certainty, the name of the toucan
to sculptures, concerning the aim of which there could be
no other reasonable ground for doubt. On this subject,
accordingly, they remark, in special reference to the
manatee sculptures : " These singular relics have a direct
bearing upon some of the questions connected with the
origin of the mounds. That we find marine shells or
articles composed from them, in the mounds, is not so
much a matter of surprise, when we reflect that a sort of
exchange was carried on even by the unsympathizing
American tribes, and that articles from the mouth of the
Columbia are known to have found their way, by a sys-
tem of transfer, to the banks of the Mississippi ; their
occurrence does not necessarily establish anything more,
than that an intercourse of some kind was kept up be-
tween the builders of the mounds on the banks of the
Ohio and the sea. There is, however, something more
involved in the discovery of those relics. They are un-
distinguishable, so far as material and workmanship are
concerned, from an entire class of remains found in the
mounds, and are evidently the work of the same hands
with the other eflSgies of beasts and birds ; and yet they
faithfully represent animals found (and only in small
numbers) a thousand miles distant upon the shores of
Florida, or — if the birds seemingly belonging to the
zygodactylous order be really designed to represent the
toucan, — found only in the tropical regions of South
America. Either the same race, possessing throughout
a like style of workmanship, and deriving their materials
from a common source, existed contemporaneously over
the whole range of intervening territory, and maintained
a constant intercommunication ; or else there was at
some period a migration from the south, bringing with it

XV.] THE AUTISTIC INSTINCT: IMITATION. 47S

cliaracterietic remains of the laud from which it ema-
natetl. The sculptures of thu manateea are too esact to
have been the production of those who were not well
acquainted with the animal and its hahits." Of the re-
presentations of the toucan, the accompanying woodcut
(Fig. 23) will furnish a sufficient illustration, It is
imitated with considerable accuracy, though inferior to
some of the finer specimens of mound-sculjitm-e. The
most important dcNTation from correctness of detail is,
that it has three toes instead of two before, although the
two are correctly represented behind. It is also figured
stooping its head to take food from a human hand ; and

as it i« kiiuwii tliiit tliu Lnlliaut plumage of the toucan
leads to its being prized, and frequently tamed by the
natives of Guiana and Brazil, this tends not only to
confirm the idea of the sculptures in question being re-
presentations of the toucans of the southern continent ;
but to suggest that the Mound-Builders may have had
their aviaries, like those in which the Aztec mouarchs
assembled birds of splendid plumage and beautifiil form
from every part of the Mexican empire.

The questions, then, submitted here for our consider-
ation, as legitimate deductions from such archieological
evidence, are these : — Was the whole geographical area,
indicated by such a fauna, occupied contemporaneously,
in tliose ages when the altars of the Ohio mounds still
blazed with sacrificial fires, by a common race, maintain-

480 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Ch^.

ing constant intercourse and commercial relations, for
the interchange of manufactures and commodities ? — or
must we recognise in such evidences of a familiarity with
the natural history of the tropics, and even of the south-
em continent of America, a proof that that very people,
who derived all their metal from the great northern re-
gions of Lake Superior, had themselves emigrated from
southern latitudes no less rich in metaUic ores ?

That such a migration, rather than a contemporaneous
existence of the same race over the whole area thus
indicated, and maintaining intimate intercommunication
"^and commercial intercourse, is the more probable infer-
ence, is suggested on various grounds. If the Mound-
Bmlders had some of the arts and models, not only of
Central but also of Southern America^ and perhaps of
Peru : we have seen that they also employed in their
ingenious manufactures the gigantic tropical shells of the
Gulf of Mexico ; mica believed to have been brought
from the Alleghanies ; and the copper, and probably the
silver of Ontonagon and the Keweenaw peninsula. The
fact indeed that among the specimens of their most
elaborate carving, some of the objects represent birds and
quadrupeds belonging to latitudes so far to the south,
naturally tends to suggest the idea of a central region
where arts were cultivated to an extent imknown in the
Mississippi VaUey ; and that those objects, manufactured
in the locaUties where such models are furnished by the
native fauna, remain only as the evidences of ancient com-
mercial relations maintained between these latitudes and
the localities where now alone such are known to abound.
But in opposition to this, full value must be given to the
fact that neither the relics, nor the customs which they
indicate, appear to pertain exclusively to southern lati-
tudes ; nor are such found to predominate among the
singular evidences of ancient and more matured civilisa-

XV.] THE ARTISTIC INSTINCT : IMITATION 481

tion either in Central or Southern America ; while the
varied nature of the materials employed in the arts of
the Mound-Builders, indicate a very wide range of rela-
tions ; though it cannot be assumed that these were
maintained in every case by direct intercourse.

The earlier students of American archaeology, like the
older Celtic antiquaries of Britain, gave full scope to a
system of theorizing which built up comprehensive eth-
nological schemes on the very smallest premises ; but in
the more judicious caution of later writers there is a ten-
dency to run to the opposite extreme. Perhaps Messrs.
Squier and Davis indulge at times in an exaggerated
estimate of the merits of the remarkable works of art
discovered and published as the result of their joint
labours ; but subsequent critics have either unduly de-
preciated them, or solved the difficulties attendant on
such remarkable discoveries, by ascribing their manu-
focture to an undetermined foreign source ; as though
the mere transference of their origin to some unknown
people, in a locality equally vague and undefined, could
tend in any satisfactory degree to account for the inge-
nious skill of their ancient American artists. Mr. School-
craft certainly manifests a disposition to underrate the
artistic ability unmistakably discernible in some of the
works of the Mound-Builders ; while Mr. Haven, who
fully admits their skilful execution, derives from that
very fact the evidence of their foreign manufacture.
After describing the weapons, pottery, and personal orna-
ments obtained from the mounds, the latter writer adds,
" and, with these were found sculptured figures of animals
and the human head, in the form of pipes, wrought with
great delicacy and spirit from some of the hardest stones.
The last-named are relics that imply a very considerable
degree of art, and if believed to be the work of the people
with whose remains they are foimd, would tend greatly
to increase the wonder that the art of sculpture among

VOL. I. 2 H

482 PREHISTORIC MAN, [Chap.

them was not manifested in other objects and places.
The fact that nearly all the finer specimens of workman-
ship represent birds, or land and marine animals belong-
ing to a different latitude ; while the pearls, the knives
of obsidian, the marine shells, and the copper equally
testify to a distant, though not extra-continental origin,
may, however, exclude these from being received as proofs
of local industry and skill/' But a reconsideration of the
list already given of animals sculptured by the ancient
pipe-makers of the mounds, cannot fail to satisfy the
inquirer that it is quite an over-statement of the case to
say that nearly aU belong to a different latitude. The
real interest and difficulty of the question lies in the fact
of discovering, along with so many spirited sculptures of
animals pertaining to the locality, others represented with
equal spirit and fidelity, though belonging to diverse lati-
tudes. To those who are familiar with early Scandinavian
and British antiquities, such an assignment of all the
sculptures of the mounds to a foreign origin, on accoimt
of their models being in part derived from distant sources^
must appear to be a needless assumption which only
shifts without lessening the difficulty. On the sculptured
standing stones of Scotland — ^belonging apparently to the
closing era of Paganism, and the first introduction of
Christianity there, — may be seen the tiger or leopard, tlie
ape, the camel, the serpent, and as supposed by some, lie
elephant and walrus, along with other representations or
symbols, borrowed, not like the models of the Mound-
Builders, from a locality so near as readily to admit of
the theory of direct commercial intercourse, or recent
migration, but some of them from remote districts of
Asia, or from Africa. The most noticeable difference
between the imitations of foreign fauna on the Scottish
monuments, and in the ancient American sculptures^ is
that the former occasionally betray, as might be expected,
the conventional characteristics of a traditional type ;

XV.] TJIE AKTI.STIC IXiSTlXCT . IMITATlOy. 481

while the latter, if they fiimish evidence of migration,
would in so far tend to prove it more recent, and to a
locality not so distant as to preiilude all renewal of iuter-
com-se with the ancestral birth-land. But traces of the
same reproduction of unfamiliar oiyecta are apparent in
the mound sculptures. The objects least truthfully re-
presented, in some eases, are animals foreign to the
region where alone such works of art have been found.
But the South American toucan of the mound sculptor,
figured on a previous page, is certainly not inferior to
the accompanying specimens of the Peruvian modeUer's
imitative skill, wrought on a vessel of black ware (Fig.
24), now in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries

of Scotland ; though it will be remembered that thfi
latter are the work of an artist to whom the original
may be presumed to have been familiar. Notwith-
standing tlie great spirit displayed in many of tliose
miniature sculptures, the difference in point of fidelity
of imitation between them and the carvings of foreign
subjects on the Scottish standing-stones, is not so great
aa the descriptions of American archaeologists would
suggest ; while both are alike accompanied by the re-
presentations of monstrosities or ideal creations of the

484 PHEHISTORIC man. [Chap.

fancy, which abundantly prove that the ancient sculptors
could work without a model. Some of the human heads
of the American sculptures, for example, if regarded as
portraits, must be supposed to be designed in the style
of PuTich ! and several of the animals engraved in the
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley fall far
short of the fidelity of imitation ascribed to them in the
accompanying text. But after making every requisite
deduction, there are still sufficiently remarkable evi-
dences of imitative skill and artistic ingenuity to justify
the wonder, that a people capable of such beautiful
miniature sculpture, should have left no larger monu-
ments of their art Whilst, however, we cannot recog-
nise in this any sufficient ground for transferring their
origin to a foreign locality, we may still look for analo-
gies among the works of art in the different centres of
native American civilisation. Works precisely similar
to the mound sculptures do not occur, except in one or
two stray specimens, in any other locahty , but a curious
class of stone rehcs found m Peru present a resem-
blance to the sculptured mound pipes too striking to lie

overlooked. Of the two examples given here (Fig. 25),
the one is a llama, brought from Huarmachaco, in Peru,
and now in the collection of the Historical Society of

XV.] THE ARTISTIC ISSTISCT : IMITATIUS, 48:>

Now York. It is cut in a close-graiiUHl hhurk Ht4ine,
and measures four inchcA long. The t)ther, which in
somewhat smaller, and of darkish l»rown schist, Ls fn)m
a drawing made hy Mr. Thomas Ewlmnk, while in INru.
The gn»ater immber of thos<» seen by him n*i»re-ent
the llama and its congeners, the alpai^, giianoco, and
vicuna. They are all hollowed j>re<»isely like the bowl
of th<» sculjiturtnl mound-pil>es, but they have no hiteral
{HTfomtion or mouth-piece. Their most prolwble use
was as mortars in which the IVruviiuis were wtmt to
rub the tobacco into powder, working it with the small
jK»>tle until it lx»came heated with the friction, when it
was taken as simff. The transition from this pnictice
to that of inhaling tin* buniing fumes se<*ms equally
simple* ami natund ; and the com-si^ondence l>etween
the ancient Peruviam tobacco mortar and the stone pi]H;
i»f the Mound- Builder is well worthy of note, when taken
into consideration ahmg with the imitations of binls
of the southeni continent f(»und among the sculptun's
of tlu' northern mounds. Dr. Ts4-hudi de.Hcrilies four
t>f thesi* Peruvian relics pn»ser\'e<l at Vii'iina, can'etl in
IMUphyr}', Imsalt, and gnmite ; and he adtls : ** How
the ancient Peruvians, without the aid of inm t<K»ls,
wen* able t4> <*ar\'e stone so U^autifuUv, is incon-
(livable."

A further reason than anv hen^t^jfore noticed, tends
to give additional inten*st to the aliS4*n(*e (»f any but th«*
miniatun* carvings in tlu* n«irthern mounds. ld«)latr}',
in its nxKst striking, and als4) in some of its mi»st luir-
kirous forms, prevaih^l, as we know, among the nations
of the M(*.xi<*an Valley, at the |K*ri<Hl t»f the t'onejuest.
The monuments of Yu(*atan and Centnd America als4)
Iravt* no ro4mi to «loubt that the worship of surh visible
im|K*rsonations of Divim* attrilmtt^s as thrir sculptors
could devi-e, formeil a pn>min<*nt |Kirt of their n*ligious
mT\'ico8. Reference has ako Iie<»n made in a previous

486 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap.

chapter to rudely modelled and sculptured idols, accom-
panying numerous other ancient remains, in sepulchral
deposits in Tennessee. Others have also been found
in the Huacals of Chiniqui, on the Isthmus of Panama,
along with numerous gold relics, and many fine speci-
mens of pottery. But it is a singular fact that, amid
so many traces of imitative sculpture, no relics obviously
designed as idols, or objects of worship, have been dug
up in the mounds, or found in such circumstances as to
connect them with the religious practices of the Mound-
Builders. The remarkable characteristics of their elabo-
rately sculptured pipes, and their obvious connexion
with services accompanying some of the rites of sacrifice
or cremation, tend, however, to suggest very different
associations with the pipe of those ancient centuries
from such as now pertain to its familiar descendant.
Embodying, as these highly-finished implements did, the
result of so much labour, as well as of artistic skill :
there are not wanting highly suggestive reasons for the
opinion, that the elaborate employment of the imitative
arts on the pipe-heads found deposited in the mounds,
may indicate their having played an important part in
the religious solemnities of the ancient race.

It is well worthy of note, in connexion with this, that
various of the earlier writers on the customs of the
American Indians, refer to expiatory sacrifices performed
by them, which present some striking, though rude
analogies, to the ancient oflcrings by fire on the moimd-
altars. Heame describes a custom among the Chippe-
was, after the shedding of blood, of throwing aU tiieir
ornaments, pipes, etc., into a common fire, kindled at
some distance from their lodges ; and Winslow narrates
of the Nanohiggansets of New England, that they have
a great house ordinarily resorted to by a few, whom he
likens to priests ; but he adds, " Thither, at certain
times, resort all their people, and oflcr almost all the

XV.) THE AHTI8TIC IS^TINCT : IMITATION. 487

richrs they have to their ginlH, 218 kettlcB, skins, hatchets,
bea^K knives, etc., all which arc c^ist hy the jirieflte into
a great fire that they make in the midst of the house."*
The analogies, however, wlii<*h appiNir to Ik* tniocable in
such practices of modem tribes remote from the locali-
ties of the old Mound-Builders, are after all slight, and
may U^ accidental. They lack the most im{)ortant ele-
ments which give their ])eculiar character to the ancient
mound -altars, with their s])tMrific objects on each, their
n*newe<l f<K*i, amd the final inhumation of all under the
elevated heap. It may 1m>, rather, that in the strange
moile of indulging in the favourite narcotic bestowal by
America o\\ the (Jld World, we have {)erpctuateil into a
common practice of men* sensual indulgence, what was
once a solemn rite associatiMl with the mysterious worship
of the sai-riMl i*n<dosun*s and the altar-mounds of the
Mississi])pi Vallry. Nor is su<-h an idea altogether
devoid <»f illustration among the practices indulgt^l in
by the native Indian, in latitudes which we may asso-
ciate with greater prol»ability with the nativity of the
Mound-Builders tlum the northfni region i»f the rhij>-
|R*w«is or that of the New England NanohiggaiuM*ts.
Dvietlo, who is our t>arliest authority, at lesust for any
minute a<'count of tolKicco smoking among the native
triU's, s|N*ak.s of it as an evil custom practis^tl among
the Indians of HisiNiniola to pnnluce insc^nsibility ; and
gn*atly prizt^l by the Carriliees, who "called it kohiha^
and imagined, wh<*n th«*y wi*n* drunk with the fumes of
it, the dn-ams tlu-y had were in some sint iiLspinil.***
Again, Ciin»lamo Itenzoni namitrs, in his tnivds in
America, n^cwitly tran>lat«Ml fn»m the eilition of 17r»3
by K(*ar-Admiral Smyth : *' In bi Es|mnoLi, and the
other islaniLs wht-n thfir doctors wanttnl to cure a si«*k
nuin, they went to the place when* they w^n* to ad

i jr<M«. tlUi, Totf., Scc«iaa SrtMik vuL i&. p- M.
' ii'ttittrin (t^ttenti th /a« /a«lMt«, M>(«iOt| ff«lii. |i. 74.

488 PREHISTORIC MAN. [Chap. XV.

minister the smoke, and when he was thoroughly in-
toxicated by it the cure was mostly effected. On
returning to his senses, he told a thousand stories of his
having been at the council of the gods, and other high
visions.

Many legends among the Indians ascribe a divine
origin to tobacco. A chief of the Susquehanna Indians
told of two hunters of the tribe sharing the venison they
had cooked with a lovely squaw, who suddenly appeared
to them ; and on returning to the scene of their feast
thirteen moons after, they found the tobacco-plant grow-
ing where she had sat. Harriot, who sailed in Sir
Walter Raleigh's expedition of 1584, teUs that the
Indians of Virginia regarded tobacco as a means of
peculiar enjoyment, in which the Great Spirit was wont
freely to indulge, and that he bestowed it on them that
they might share in his delights. Repeated allusions
also refer to its intoxicating effects as an influence analo-
gous to that which produced the visions and inspirations
of the fasting dreams. It seems, therefore, by no means
improbable, that the original practice of inhaling the
fumes of tobacco was associated exclusively with super-
stitious rites and divination ; so that the tobacco-phmt
may have played a part in the worship of the ancient
MouDd- Builders, analogous to that of the inspiring
vapour over which the Delphic tripod was placed, when
the priestess of ApoUo prepared to give utterance to the
divine oracles.

* History of the New World. By Girolamo Beuzoni. Hakluyt Society,
1857.

END OF VOLUME FIRST.