TRANSiACTION'S OF SECTION II. 



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institution it expropses. In this voginn tlieiv wcro found Irtxiuois, Algonqnii -, 

 Dakotus, sepftratt! in lanfruai.''', and yet wlioso social life was iv^nilatwl by tli- 

 luatrinrclial totem struct ure. .May it not be infcrrt'd from sucli a state of thini.''-, 

 thftt social inHtitutions I'onn a deeper-lyini,' element in man tlian laiijruajjre or ev. .1 

 physical race-type:' Tiiis is a problem which (a-esents itself for serious discussion 

 fflien the evidence can be broufjlit more completely ton^ether. 



It is obvious that in tliis speculation, as in'other jiroblems now presenting 

 tlii'ins-elvos in anthropolo^^y, the question of the anti(iiiity of man lies at the basi-v 

 Of lute no f.'reat projjress luis been made toward lixin^r a' scale of calculation of the 

 huiann period, but the arniiraents as to time required for alterations in valley- 

 1,'Vfls, chanj^es of fauiui, evolution of races, lan^ruages, and cidture, 8eeu->, t > 

 converfro more conclusivi'ly than ever toward a human period short indeed as a 

 fraction of ^ri'olofrical time, but loii},' as com])ared witli historical or chronolopricul 

 time. While, however, it is felt tliat length ol' time need not debar the anthr j- 

 polofrist from hypotheses of develo])n\ent and mifrration, there is more caution as 

 ID ni'sumptions of millions of years where no arithmetical basis exists, an<l l -•• 

 tendency to treat everything,' prehistoric as necessarily of extreme antiquity, 

 such as, for instance, the Swiss laK'e-dwellinn's and the I'entral American tempi.'*. 

 There are certain problems of American anthrop(3lo<ry which an? not the kss 

 interest infr for involvinfr no considerations of hi^di antifjuity; indeed, they have tljo 

 advantage of being within the check of histcn-y, though not themselves' belonging 

 t'l it. 



Humboldt's argument as to traces of Asiatic intluence in Mexico is one of thesr. 

 The four ages in tle^ Aztec picture-writings, ending with catastrophes fif the fo.ir 

 elements, earth, lire, air, water, comparetl by him with the same scheme among 

 the Banyans of Surat, is a strong piece of evidence which would bt^come yet stronger 

 if the Hindu book could be t'ouud from which the account is declared to have bee.! 

 taken. Not less cogent is his comparison of the zodiacs or calendar-cycles 01 

 .Mexico and Central America with Ihost! of .l']astern Asia, such as that by which 

 the Japanese reckon the Sixty-year cycle by combining the elements seriatim wit'i 

 tbe twelve animals, .Mouse, iJull, Tiger, JIare, &c. ; tlie present year is, I suppos", 

 the second water-ape year, and the time of day is the goat-hour. Humboldt s case 

 may be reinforced by the consideration of the magical employment of these zodiacs 

 ill the Old and New World. Tin; description of a ^lexican astrologer, sent for t>> 

 make the arrangements for a marriage by comparing the zodiac animals of the 

 liirthdays of bride and bridegroom, might have been written almost exactly of the 

 modem Kalmuks ; and in fact it seems connected in origin with similar rules iu 

 our own books of astrology. Magic is of great value in thus tracing communicatio?!. 

 direct or indirect, between distant nations. 'J'he power of lasting and travellir.-- 

 whicli it possesses may be instanced by the rock-pictures I'rom tiie sacred Roch»s 

 Percees of Manitoba, sketched by Dr. IJawson, and published in bis father's 

 Tolume on ' Fossil IMan,' with the proper caution that the pictures, or some of 

 them, may be modern. Besides the rude pictures of deer and Indians and their 

 liuts, one sees with surprise a pentagram more neatly drawn than that defective on- 

 which let Mephistopheles pass Faust's threshold, though it kept tiie demon in wli-n 

 he had got there. Whether the Indians of Manitoba learnt the magic figure from 

 the white man, or whether the white man did it himself in je.st, it proves a line ol 

 intercourse stretching back 2,600 years to the time when it was first drawn as a 

 geometrical diagram of the school'of Pythagoras. To rettn-n to Humboldt's argu- 

 ment, if there was communication from Asia to Mexico before the Spanish Con- 

 luest, it ought to have brought other things, and no things travel more easily tli.in 

 Jfames. I noticed some years ago that the Aztecs are described by the old Spanisii 

 witers as playing a game called pafoUi, where they moved stones on the squares 

 of a cross-shaped mat, according to the throws of beans marked on one side. The 

 description mmutely corresponds with the Hindu game of jmchm, played in like 

 manner with cowries instead of bea.iS; this game, which is an early variety of 

 iisckgammon, is well known iu Asia, whence it seems to have foiuid its way into 

 America. From Mexico it passed into Sonora and Zacatecas, mncii broken down 

 kut retaining its name, and it may be traced still further into the game of plum- 



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