STONE FORT AND OTHER ABORIGINAL REMAINS. 121 



stone-grave race of Tennessee on the one hand, and to the Toltecs and Peruvian 

 Incas on the other, should be considered. Fortunately the history of the Natchez 

 has been preserved, and they form, as it were, a connecting link with the Toltecs 

 of the past. 



' The Natchez cranium figured by Dr. Morton (Plates XX and XXI, p. 160-162, 

 Crania Americana) resembles, in its flattened occiput, short antero-posterior 

 diameter, great parietal diameter, and high crown, many of the Tennessee crania. 



The Natchez practised the custom of distorting the head by compression, in the 

 following manner, as described by Du Pratz.' 



" When one of the women of the natives is delivered, she goes immediately to 

 the water and washes herself and the infant ; she then comes home and lies down, 

 after having disposed her infant in the cradle, wliich is about two feet and a half 

 long, nine inches broad, and a half foot deep, being formed of straight pieces of 

 cane bent up at one end to serve for the foot or stay. Between the canes and the 

 infant is a kind of mattress of the stuffed herb called S2)anisJi Beard, and under 

 its head is a little skin cushion, stuff"cd with the same herb. The infant is laid on 

 its back in the cradle, and fastened to it by the shoulders, the arms, the legs, the 

 thighs, and the hips ; and over the forehead are laid two bauds of deerskin, which 

 keep its head to the cushion, and render that part flat." 



Garcillasso De La Vega^ states that the Spaniards, during the invasion by Fer- 

 dinand De Soto, met with some Indians whose heads were moulded in the manner 

 just described. " Their heads are incredibly long and pointed upwards, owing to 

 a custom of artificially compressing them from the period of the child's birth 

 until it attains the age of nine or ten years." Dr. Morton' remarks on these 

 observations by Garcillasso, that the people thus described are said to inhabit the 

 province of Tula ; and it is curious to observe that this name was also that of the 

 Toltecan capital of Anahuac, and signified a place of reeds. The same name is 

 found in Texas and Guatemala, indicating the migrations of the Toltecan nation. 



It is therefore a reasonable presumption that the Natchez were a colony of the 

 old Toltecan stock. Mr. Nuttall thinks tliat the place called Quigalta in De Soto's 

 narrative, where he expired, was within the Natchez territory. 



Several other tribes of southern Indians practised the art of changing the form 

 of the skull. In this respect, as well as in their traditional wanderings from the 

 west, and in certain religious ceremonies, they appear to have been related to tlie 

 Natchez. 



Among the southern Indians, as well as in Peru and the West Indies, two 

 distinct methods of flattening the cranium were employed ; the one apparently 

 identical with that of the ancient Peruvians, the Caribs, and the Chinooks of the 

 present day; and the other, similar to that practised by the Toltecs, the Natchez, 

 and the stone-grave race and mound builders of Tennessee. 



Bryan Edwards,^ in his " History of tlie West Indies," quotes Oviedo, to the 

 eff"ect that the warlike nation of cannibals (Caribbees, or Charaibes) alter tlie 



' History of Louisiana, vol. ii, p. 1G2. ' Hist, de la Florida, lib. Iv, cap. 13. 



s Crania Americana. * Yol. i, p. 45. 



16 May, 1876. 



