248 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



had some adorned with wings and feathers like the Huns 

 and early Turks. The nations of the plateau of Mexico 

 had all a practice of fixing several ensigns or banners, 

 stuck in ferula, at the back of a warrior, like the earlier 

 Chinese, or they attached them to their shields ; which 

 was likewise not unexampled in Asia. Symbolical de- 

 vices, almost amounting to real heraldry, designating 

 even at this time many tribes of North America, were 

 thoroughly understood in Mexico, and are likewise well 

 known to all the Tahtar nations of Asia. They had, it 

 is asserted, the use of a peculiarly Chinese instrument, 

 the well-known gong ; but more likely it was a great 

 drum, audible, according to Bernal Diaz, to the distance 

 of two leagues ; the same as the Nakara of Southern 

 Asia. In common with Tahtar nations, nuptials were 

 symbolized by the ceremony of tying the garments 

 together of the two contracting parties ; and, like them, 

 there was only one lawful wife, though there might be 

 a plurality of concubines. In very ancient graves, not 

 far distant from Niagara, human debris have been 

 detected, having with them a reversed shell of the 

 whilk (Buccinum) exactly similar to the Shonk found 

 in the tumuli of ancient Ceylon.* 



Peru, with its Palta people, instinctively builders, 

 has left ruins of huge walls, surpassing the Cyclopean 

 and Pelasgian structures of the older continent in bulk, 

 and superior to them in artistic skill. From the insti- 



* The fact was communicated to us by Captain Chapman, 

 late Royal Engineers, who had examined both instances on 

 the spot. 



