A Botanical and Economic Study. 105 



lized tribes ever produced. The Mayas excelled in many 

 particulars: for instance, the Incas recorded their ideas by 

 quippas, or knotted cords, a much cruder and less satisfactory 

 method than the Maya glyphs. This indicates a much greater 

 antiquity for the civilization in Yucatan and Guatemala than 

 for that along the Pacific coast of the Cordilleras in South 

 America. We conclude that from the archaeological data it 

 seems very likely that maize originated north of the Isthmus 

 of Tehuantepec, and was carried south by barter or trade. 



D. Ethnological Proofs. 



The American race, as a whole, is singularly uniform in 

 phvsical traits, and individuals from one part of the continent 

 might easily be mistaken for individuals from other parts. 

 This uniformity is due, without a doubt, to the conformation 

 of the continents, which are within themselves geographical 

 units, the trend of the mountains and the situation of the 

 plains being identical in both North and South America. 

 The direction of the mountain chains from north to south 

 permitted a free and easy communication between the tribes 

 along the meridians of longitude. 



Attempts have been made to classify the American 

 Indians by their ethnic traits, but the attempt so far has 

 proved a failure. Language affords a more satisfactory 

 method. We can, however, use ethnologic facts as a test of 

 the correctness of results obtained in other ways. 



The mound-builders were a puzzle to students, and it is only 

 within the last few years that light has been thrown upon 

 their ethnic relationship. Scholars previously assigned a 

 great age to the works in the Mississippi Valley, but later 

 research shows this opinion to be erroneous. The consensus 

 of opinion points to the relative modernness of these tribes. 

 Our most distinguished ethnologists and archaeologists agree 

 that the mound-builders were Indians. Cyrus Thomas, 

 Powell, Hale, Brinton, Mooney, all state that the Indians 

 made mounds of greater or less size, and that after the white 

 settlers came the custom still prevailed. 



