1360 



VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



from the inhabitants of the Old World, who 

 have similar mythical legends in regard to the 

 introducers of their first arts and acquire- 

 ments. 



Abundant evidence is afforded, by architec- 

 tural and other remains still existing, as well 

 as by the accounts of the early Spanish his- 

 torians, of the high degree of civilisation 

 which some of the nations of America had 

 attained, previously to the European immi- 

 gration, especially in the warmer regions of 

 that continent. Thus the natives of Mexico 

 had erected stupendous edifices, which rivalled 

 those of Egypt ; and although they did not 

 attain to the greatest of human inventions, 

 that of symbols representing the sounds of 

 words, they had long aspired after it, and 

 had contrived a method of recording events 

 and of handing down to memory the passages 

 of their ancient history. They had even made 

 great advances in science, and had a solar 

 year with intercalations on the principle of 

 the Roman calendar. They were diligent 

 cultivators of the ground, and also expert 

 miners and workers in metals ; even astonish- 

 ing the workmen of Europe with their skill in 

 setting gems. They appear, too, to have been 

 influenced by a deep sentiment of religion, 

 and to have had a very stately and majestic 

 ceremonial. Nevertheless, they do not seem 

 to have derived from these advances in civi- 

 lisation, any moral improvement, or any miti- 

 gation of that sullen malignity which seems 

 to be the general character of the native tribes 

 of the New World ; and their religion was 

 far from having an exalting influence, since 

 their gods had no attribute of clemency or 

 mercy, but were invested with the worst 

 forms of their own dark passions. In Peru, 

 also, we find remains of Cyclopean structures 

 erected during the government of the Incas, 

 which bear comparison with those of ancient 

 Egypt ; and the wonder is increased when it 

 is recollected, that no beast of burden save 

 the llama existed in Peru before the Spanish 

 invasion. At a time when there were no 

 public highways in Britain but such as were 

 relics of Roman greatness, there were roads 

 of 1500 miles in length in the empire of 

 Peru, carried over heights which overtop the 

 Peak of Teneriffe. The ancient Peruvians 

 were ignorant of the manner of forming an 

 arch ; but they had constructed suspension- 

 bridges over frightful ravines. They had no 

 implements of iron ; but they could move 

 blocks of stone as huge as the Sphinxes and 

 Memnons of Egypt. 



Everything, then, seems to indicate one of 

 two things ; either that the American races are 

 descended from a stock originally distinct from 

 that of any part of the Old World, or that, 

 having had a common origin with the abori- 

 gines of Asia and Europe, they have existed 

 as a separate family of nations from a very 

 early period in the history of the race. This 

 question will be considered hereafter ; but it 

 must not here be left unnoticed, that several 

 of the tribes of the Western coast of America 

 present a striking physical resemblance to the 



Peninsular Mongols ; and that there are in- 

 dications of communication between them, at 

 a comparatively late period.* 



This brief account of the American races 

 would be incomplete, without a notice of one 

 of their most remarkable customs, that of 

 altering the form of the skull by artificial 

 compression which may be traced in dif- 

 ferent parts, both of the northern and southern 

 divisions of the continent. This flattening 

 was vertical in some instances, horizontal in 

 others. Of the former, Dr. Morton figures 

 examples, in his " Crania Americana," from 

 the tribe of Natchez Indians (which appears 

 to have been a branch of the Toltecan family) 

 that was exterminated by the French in the 

 year 1 730. The compression was effected by 

 means of a bag of sand placed upon the fore- 

 head, whilst the occiput lay upon a sort of 

 mould, of which it gradually took the form 

 under the slow but constant influence of this 

 pressure. Some curious bas-reliefs, executed 

 by the Toltecans during their sojourn in 

 Mexico, show that the practice prevailed 

 amongst the most civilised portion of that 

 race. The horizontal flattening is practised 

 at the present time by the Chinooks and other 

 tribes inhabiting the neighbourhood of the 

 Columbia river ; the mode in which it is ac- 

 complished varying considerably in the differ- 

 ent tribes, but the general effect being the 

 same. So highly is this deformity valued by 

 them, that their slaves are not allowed to 

 practise it ; and yet the process by which it is 

 induced often gives rise to ulceration of the 

 scalp, and not unfrequently to death. In one 

 of the skulls figured by Dr. Morton, the ver- 

 tical diameter is reduced to little more than 

 four inches, the top of the cranium presents 

 a flattened arch not far removed from a hori- 

 zontal plane, and the face is protruded until 

 the facial angle is reduced to 60, probably the 

 lowest grade ever observed in a human skull ; 

 the compression has also destroyed in a re- 

 markable degree the lateral symmetry. Yet 

 the capacity of the cranium is not altered by 

 the process ; and the " flat-head " Indians are 

 certainly not deficient in any of the mental 

 qualities of their race. Both kinds of flatten- 

 ing appear to have been practised by the 

 ancient Peruvians ; in whose sepulchres are 

 found vast numbers of crania, presenting such 

 different degrees of departure from what 

 seems to have been the normal form, that it is 

 not easy to find one which can be positively 

 affirmed to be unaltered. A characteristic 

 example of the effect produced by the process 

 of horizontal flattening is given mfigs. 849, 

 850, 851 ; which represents a skull closely 

 resembling that of a flat-head Indian of the 

 Columbia river. It seems not improbable 

 that the horizontal flattening was prac- 

 tised anteriorly to the advent of the Incas, 

 which may be dated at about the year 

 1 100 ; and that the vertical flattening was 

 introduced by them. It seems to have been 



* See Humboldt's " Views of Nature " (Bonn's 

 edition), pp. 131133. 



