STONE FORT AND OTHER ABORIGINAL REMAINS. 125 



"Natural History of Man," remarks upon the Flat-heads, that, what is more 

 interesting, are the signs of remote affinity wliich both display to the Aztec, 

 a fact which recalls the tradition that the Nahuatlacas originated from a resrion 

 to the north. Anderson observed, long ago, that the language of Nootka bears a 

 strong resemblance to tlie Mexican, in the termination of words, and in the frequent 

 recurrence of the same consonants. The same phenomena have fallen under the 

 notice of Humboldt, who remarks that, on a careful comparison of the vocabularies 

 collected at Nootka Sound and at Monterey, he was astonished at the resemblance 

 of the sound and terminations of words to those of the Mexican; as, for example, 

 in the language of Nootka, apquixitl is to embrace; temextixitl, to kiss; hitltzitl, 

 to sigh ; tzitzimitl, earth ; Imcoatzimetl, the name of a month. 



We have now presented various facts bearing on the singular custom of flatten- 

 ing the head, and, although some of the nations practising it occupied North 

 America, and some of them South America, and were separated thousands of 

 miles from each other, at the same time, there appears to be no reasonable proba- 

 bility that any two widely separated savage tribes would have hit upon precisely 

 the same singular mode of altering the configuration of the cranium. Therefore 

 we are justified in the conclusion that, at some former period, they were parts of 

 the same family. 



The weight of testimony would seem to show that this custom was practised at 

 a remote period in the history of North America by the Toltecs, and was, most 

 probably, widely disseminated at the time of their dispersion into various parts of 

 the Continent. 



The once powerful but now extinct nation of the Natchez, in their hereditary 

 distinctions, their fixed institutions, in the practice of human sacrifices on the 

 death of eminent persons, in the Avorsliip of the sun, and in the peculiar form and 

 characteristics of the cranium, bore obvious analogies with tlie Toltecs. 



If the tradition of the Natcliez, corroborated, as it is, by the testimony of the 

 followers of De Soto, by the statements of the early explorers on the Mississippi 

 between 1682 and 1695, and by Du Pratz, who enjoyed tlie confidence and 

 esteem of their great men and suns, be true, this nation once reigned over all 

 that territory in which the mounds are now discovered, and they and their 

 associated nations should be considered as the mound builders. 



At the time of their greatest power, the Natchez are said to have had from 500 

 to 800 suns or sachems of the nation. Du Pratz, who resided amongst the 

 Natchez, and enjoyed every means of gaining full and accurate information, says 

 that, " according to their traditions, they were the most powerful nation of all North 

 America, and were looked upon by the other nations as their superiors, and on 

 that account were respected by them. To ri'ive an idea of iJuir jMU'er, I shall 

 only mention, that formerly they extended from tlie river Manchac, or Iberville, 

 ivhich is aboiU 50 leagues from the sea, to the river Wabash, lohich is distant from 

 the sea about 460 leacjues ; and that they had about 800 suns or princes. From 

 these facts we may judge how populous this nation formerly lias been ; but the pride 

 of their great suns, or sovereigns, and likewise of their inferior suns, joined to the 

 prejudices of the people, lias made greater havoc among them, and contributed 



