on the Original Population of America. 17 
Howler monkeys, Pumas, Alligators, and the Electrical Eel, 
the principal zoological objects of America, are distinctly 
traced around. On other faces of the box are a Gothic pa- 
lace, probably the first Spanish edifice raised at Cusco, also 
a circus, and a European hog; but the two end compart- 
ments represent a solar worship with the planetary system, 
and the dragon within the rays of the sun in the centre, and 
the other a lunar mythus, with the goddess of nature in the 
form of woman within the moon’s horns, both having Peruvian 
Yneas or high priests on each side, and shewing that the na- 
tional worship was not yet forsaken by the artist who made 
it.* The light thus thrown upon a Peruvian mythological 
representation, by means of a North American legend, is one 
of many proofs of the nomadic character of the ancient popu- 
lation, and that they have had their periods of swarming as 
well as the ancient nations of Asia. The time of duration 
when these great movements in the human families took 
place in both countries, synchronise sufficiently to warrant a 
conclusion of their cause being the same. It may be sur- 
mised that they were the effect of some law in nature, which 
on some occasions affects man, as others in many known in- 
stances influence the brute creation; but concerning which 
we, as yet, know nothing more than that the successful pas- 
sions of warriors and conquerors are not sufficient to pro- 
duce similar continuous results. They may be the sign, but 
cannot be the cause. 
To our general conclusion, that the population of America 
consists in a partial mixture of human beings from different 
stocks and quarters, the objection that all the tribes have 
more or less characteristics which connect them with the 
Mongolic, is of little weight, when we consider that by far 
the greater proportion of the existing races are known to 
have proceeded from the north-west angle of North America, 
and are, therefore, in all likelihood, of the beardless or Mon- 
golic variety, and, as all the nations of the American conti- 
nent have practised the admission of grown men in their 
* This box is now, we believe, in the British Museum. 
VOL. XXXVIII. NO. LXXV.—JAN. 1845. B 
