THE AMERICANISTS IN CONGRESS. 691 



garded as related to tlie Aztecs ; in fact, lie liad often found among 

 them tlie peculiar, dreamy, melancholy facial expression which is 

 ascribed to the ancient Mexicans. In the light of the later re- 

 searches, Colombia, the country of the Chibchas, the third most 

 important people in pre-Columbian America, obtains a special 

 significance, because it was the region which at the time of the 

 discovery prevented contact between Mexican and Peruvian civili- 

 zations. The speaker produced linguistic evidence that the Chib- 

 chas, who were resident in the heart of Colombia, were not an 

 immemorially isolated people in the sense in which they had 

 formed one of the puzzles of the New World. They had near 

 relatives in the people of Costa Rica and northern Colombia. 

 People of Chibcha and Mexican origin met in Costa Rica. 

 According to these evidences the dispersion of the Chibcha peo- 

 ple may be historically conceived by assuming that originally 

 dwelling near Cundinamarca, they afterward spread out, and 

 were still later scattered by the influx of wild Brazilian tribes and 

 driven to the mountains, where they lost their connections. A 

 paper was also presented by Herr Uhle on the primitive history 

 and wanderings of the Chibchas. 



Other papers were read by Messrs. Borsari, on the construc- 

 tions of the ancient Peruvians ; Miiller, on the Sambakis of Bra- 

 zil, a people who had a prehistoric civilization ; Von den Steinen, 

 on his second journey to the Xingu, in which certain conclusions, 

 particularly those respecting the relationship of the Tupi and the 

 Caribs, which he had formed in his former journey, were con- 

 firmed ; and on the Calendar-stone and various antiquities, statu- 

 ettes, and potteries of Mexico and Central America. M. Hamy 

 made some remarks at the close of the meeting on the falsifica- 

 tion of American antiquities, which had reached a great height, 

 and exhibited an album containing specimens of the counterfeits. 

 — Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from Humboldt. 



The importance of educating youth for the duties of citizenship is made more 

 obvious at every general election. As indicated by Prof. Woodward, of St. Louis, 

 some months ago, a course of civics in the public schools should embrace an analy- 

 sis of our scheme of government, national, State, and municipal, with a general 

 statement of the functions of each ; the necessary expenses of each of the govern- 

 ments, with a detail of the institutions that must be supported by taxation ; the 

 methods in use of levying and collecting taxes ; and the duties of citizenship — such 

 as the maintenance of individual independence; the contribution of one's share in 

 taxes to the necessary expenses of government ; participation in all measures 

 necessary to secure the selection of faithful and competent servants to discharge 

 the duties of government ; the cultivation of a proper public opinion in favor of 

 honesty, temperance, and the refinements of civilized life ; and the contribution of 

 something, small or great, to the common weal, beyond the duties specially named, 

 whereby the world may be the better for one's having lived in it. 



