U8 ARCUiEOLOGY OF TOE UNITED STATES. 



and «a plentiful supply of fish and game, are favorable, not to chance passages merely, 

 but to intentional and continuous transits. The opposing shores are in fact occu- 

 pied by divisions of the same tribe j 1 and the neighboring regions of Asia are held 

 by that variety of mankind whose physical characters are nearly identical with 

 those of the American race. These are circumstances that, of themselves, give 

 plausibility to the theories which point to that quarter as the place where inhabi- 

 tants were originally, and have been consecutively, transported to this continent. 

 Those theories also derive some confirmation from the traditions and pictorial records 

 of the southern nations, referring to a pilgrimage of their ancestors from the northwest. 2 



There are also some striking ethnological analogies which seem to connect 

 these distant sections. The Peruvian practice of flattening the skull by 

 compression, as a mark of nobility, is a prominent peculiarity of the tribes on 

 Columbia Kiver. There, too, prevails the singular and inconvenient custom of 

 inserting disks of wood in the lips and ears, found again in Brazil ; 3 and, in the 

 dialects of the Columbians and Nootkas, may be observed that distinguishing 

 characteristic of Mexican words, the terminal tl} 



But beyond a few such coincidences, the evidence of connection does not extend. 

 Though often imagined, vestiges of migration from the north to the south have not 

 been satisfactorily traced. Mr. Bartlett, while at the head of the United States 

 Boundary Commission, gave much attention to this subject ; an inquiry for which 

 his previous ethnological studies had given him interest and preparation. " I have 

 been unable," he says, " to learn from what source the prevailing idea has arisen 

 of the migration of the Aztecs, or ancient Mexicans, from the north into the valley 

 of Mexico, and of the three halts they made in the journey thither. I confess I 

 have seen no satisfactory evidence of its truth." 



" The traditions which gave rise to this notion are extremely vague, and were 

 not seriously entertained until Torquemada, Boturini, and Clavigero gave them 

 currency. But they must now give way to the more reliable results of linguistic 

 comparisons. No analogy has yet been traced between the language of the old 

 Mexicans and any tribe at the North in the district from which they are supposed 

 to have come ; nor in any relics, ornaments, or works of art, do we observe a 

 resemblance between them." 5 



1 The sedentary Tchuktchi. 



9 Mr. Prescott, in his treatise on the origin of Mexican civilization, after considering the weight due 

 to various affinities of arts, customs and dialects, remarks : "The theory of an Asiatic origin for Aztec 

 civilization derives stronger confirmation from the light of tradition, which, shining steadily from the 

 far northwest, pierces through the dark shadows that history and mythology have alike thrown around 

 the antiquities of the country. Traditions of a western or northwestern origin were found among the 

 more barbarous tribes, and by the Mexicans were preserved both orally and in their hieroglyphic maps, 

 where the different stages of their migration are carefully noted. But who at this day shall read them ? 

 They are admitted to agree however in representing the populous North as the prolific hive of the 

 American races." — Conquest of Mexico. Appendix, p. 307. 



3 Mr. Ewbank suggests that the term Oregon or Orejones was bestowed by the Spaniards on account 

 of the custom of prcternaturally enlarging the cars. — Life in Brazil. Appendix, p. 459. 



4 Vatcr thought he detected words of common origin in the vocabularies of these widely separated 

 peoples. — Mithridates, theil III. abtheil. 3. p. 312. 



5 Personal narrative of Explorations, &c, II. p. 283. 



