Palace at Palenque. 'The personage fig. 4, (whose head-dress 
we have partly omitted,) appears to be a king or chieftain, at 
whose feet are two suppliants, naked and cross-legged, of whom 
we copy the one that preserves the most perfect outline, (fig. 5. ) 
” Fig. 4. : Fig. 3 
_. The principal figure has better features and expression than the 
other, but their heads are formed on the same model; whence 
we may infer that if the suppliant is a servant or a slaye of the 
same race with his master, the artificial moulding of the cranium 
was common to all classes: If, on the other hand, we assume 
that he is an enemy imploring mercy, we come to the conclusion 
that the singular custom of which we are speaking, was in use 
among other and surrounding nations; which latter inference is 
confirmed by other evidence, that, for example, derived from the . 
Natchez tribe, and the clay effigies so abundantly found at the 
ruined temples" of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan, near the 
city of Mexico.* 
I can aver that sixteen years of almost daily comparisons have 
only confirmed me in the conclusions announced in my Crania 
Americana, that all the American nations, excepting the Eskimaux, 
are of one race, and that this race is peculiar and distinct from all 
others. The first of these propositions may be regarded as an 
axiom in ethnography ; ; the second still gives rise to a diversity 
of opinions, of which the most prevalent is that which would 
merge the American race in the Mongolian. 
It has been objected to a common origin for all the American 
nations, ee. even for those of Mexico, that their monuments 
* Ceinih Americana, p- 146. 
