PREFACE. 



It lias been my endeavor to refrain in tlie following monograph fi'om 

 advancing any vicAvs incompatible with the data at my command. Such a 

 course was imperatively demanded, in consideration of the strangely diverging 

 opinions now current with regard to the former state of civilization in Mexico 

 and Central America. While there prevails in certain quarters a disposition 

 to overrate the culture of the ancient inhabitants of those countries, the adhe- 

 rents of another school, in their eagerness to support favorite theories, evidently 

 err in the opposite direction. Neither of these modes of procedure will lead 

 to a just appreciation of the conditions they purport to elucidate. 



The thanks of the Smithsonian Institution and my own are due to Mr. 



H. H. Bancroft for the loan of the electrotypes of Figures 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 



14, 15 and 17, which are among the illustrations of his " Native Races of the 



Pacific States." The frequent allusions to that work in this publication are 



the tribute I pay to its value. 



. C. R. 



