Aboriginal Race of America. 211 



ming the body, at others placing it in a tower above ground. 

 Garcilaso de la Yega informs us, that in the year 1560 he saw 

 five embalmed bodies of the royal family, all of whom were 

 seated in the Indian manner, with their hands crossed upon 

 the breast, and their heads bent forward. So also the Mexi- 

 cans from the most ancient time had adopted the same usage, 

 which was equally the privilege of the king and his people. 

 The most remarkable exception to the practice in question, is 

 that in which the body is dissected before interment, the 

 bones alone being deposited in the earth. This extraordinary 

 rite has prevailed among various tribes from the southern to the 

 northern extremity of their range, in Patagonia, Brazil, Flor- 

 ida and Missouri, and indeed in many intervening localities ; 

 but even in these instances the bones are often retained in 

 their relative position by preserving the ligaments, and then 

 interred in the attitude of a person seated. An example 

 among very many others is recorded by the Baron Humboldt, 

 in his visit to a cavern-cemetery of the Atures Indians, at the 

 sources of the Orinoco ; wherein he found hundreds of skele- 

 tons preserved each in a separate basket, the bones being held 

 together by their natural connections, and the whole disposed 

 in the conventional posture of which we are speaking. 



I am well aware that this practice has been noticed by 

 some navigators among the Polynesian islands ; the instances, 

 however, appear so few as rather to form exceptions to the 

 rule, like those of the Nassamones of northern Africa : but I 

 have sought for it in vain among the continental Asiatics, who, 

 if they ever possessed it, would have yet preserved it among 

 some at least of their numberless tribes. 



After this rapid view of the principal leading characteris- 

 tics of the American race, let us now briefly inquire whether 

 they denote an exotic origin ; or whether there is not internal 

 evidence that this race is as strictly aboriginal to America as 

 the Mongolian is to Asia, or the Negro to Africa. 



And first, we turn to the Mongolian race, which, by a 

 somewhat general consent is admitted to include the Polar 

 nations, and among them the Eskimaux of our continent. It 

 is a very prevalent opinion that the latter people, who obvi- 



