April 'i, 1875] 



NATURE 



443 



taller stature. It is possible, however, that on close exa- 

 mination three or four distinct types may be made out, 

 for while some of the Califomians are deep brown almost 

 to blackness, the Thlinkeets are described as being fair 

 as many Europeans, and sometimes with blue eyes. Such 

 differences may partly result from original intermixture of 

 races in the country, but partly also may be due to climate, 

 food, and habits. The following passage, relating to the 

 Indian tribes of New Mexico (p. 477), contains facts of 

 interest in this respect : — " The disparity in physical 

 appearance between some of these nations, which may be 

 attributed for the most part to diet, is curious. While 

 those who subsist on mixed vegetable and animal food 

 present a tall, healthy, and muscular development, hardly 

 excelled by the Caucasian race, those that live on animal 

 food, excepting perhaps the Comanches, are small in 

 stature, wrinkled, shrivelled, and hideously ugly. All the 

 natives of this family, with the e.xception of the Apaches 

 proper, are tall, well-built, with muscles strongly deve- 

 loped, pleasing features, although at times rather broad 

 faces, high foreheads, large, clear, dark-coloured eyes, 

 possessing generally extraordinary powers of vision, black 

 coarse hair, and, for a wonder, beards. Taken as a whole, 

 they are the most perfect specimens of physical manhood 

 that we have yet encountered. While some, and parti- 

 cularly females, are of a light copper colour; others again 

 approach near to the dark Californian. Women are 

 generally plumper, inclining more to obesity than the 

 men. Some comely girls are spoken of among them, but 

 they grow old early. In contradistinction to all this, the 

 Apaches proper, or Apache nation, as we may call them, 

 are slim, ill-developed, but very agile. Their height is 

 about five feet four to five inches ; features described as 

 ugly, repulsive, emotionless, flat, and approaching the 

 Mongol cast, while the head is covered with an unkempt 

 mass of coarse, shocky, rusty black hair, not unlike 

 bristles. The women are not at all behind the men in 

 ugliness, and a pleasing face is a rarity. A feature com- 

 mon to the family is remarkably small feet; in connection 

 with which may be mentioned the peculiarity which 

 obtains on the Lower Colorado, of having the large toe 

 widely separated from the others, which arises probably 

 from wading in marshy bottoms. All the tribes whose 

 principal subsistence is meat, and more particularly those 

 that eat horse and mule flesh, are said to exhale a peculiar 

 scent, something like the animals themselves when heated." 

 Among American tribes of the tropics it would be inte- 

 resting to ascertain whether there is a real foundation for 

 the accounts of a fair tribe, with light hair and blue eyes, 

 in Costa Rica, the so-called Guatusos, said to be de- 

 scendants of English mutineers from Sir Francis Drake 

 (p. 748). 



It is not less difficult to form an opinion from how 

 many centres the civilisation of these races has originated. 

 Two points suggest themselves to the reader. One is, 

 that the Columbian tribes of the Pacific coast have much 

 in common with the American Indians east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, as the following examples show : — " The Pend 

 d'Oreille, on approaching manhood, was sent by his father 

 to a high mountain and obliged to remain until he dreamed 

 of some animal, bird, or fish, thereafter to be his medicine, 

 whose claw, tooth, or feather was worn as a charm " 

 (p. 283), This is a custom often described among the 



Algonquin tribes on the other side of the continent. The 

 same may be said of the games played by the Columbian 

 Indians with bits of wood, which count like dice accord- 

 ing to the side turned up, or arc passed rapidly from 

 hand to hand, the gamester having to guess which hand 

 ;p. 19S). These and other matters may have travelled 

 across from the Atlantic tribes. The other point is, that 

 wild tribes, though at a considerable distance from Mexico, 

 have adopted thence some of their customs. The IMexican 

 rubbing-stones for grinding corn {metlatl and mctlalpilli) 

 are used alike among the tribes of the Isthmus (p. 765) 

 and the Apaches (p. 4S9). The Mosquito Indians even 

 practise the well-known Mexican customof drawing blood 

 from their tongues, ears, and other parts of the body, by 

 way of sacrifice (p. 740). 



Mr. Bancroft's information is collected from so many 

 and often little-known books, that almost every ethno- 

 logist will find in it some new or overlooked facts in his 

 particular department. Col Lane Fo.\'s "Catalogue of 

 Weapons " contains no mention of a boomerang, or at 

 least a crooked stick thrown boomerang-fashion, among 

 the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico (see p. 541), which is 

 referred to here on the authority of Colyer (Report of 

 Indian Affairs, 1869, p. 91). Possibly, however, it may 

 turn out on further inquiry to be only a common throw- 

 ing-cudgel, and not properly a boomerang. Again 

 (p. 761), there is a description of a " throwing-stick" used 

 by the Coiba and other Indians of the Isthmus of 

 Panama. " Their javelins are thrown with much force 

 and dexterity by means of a stick slightly grooved to 

 hold the projectile. It is called estorka, and is held 

 between the thumb and two fingers, there being a small 

 loop on the side near the centre, in which the forefinger 

 is placed ; the dart is cast straight from the shoulder, 

 while the projector is retained in the hand." The occur- 

 rence of this weapon here is also not mentioned in 

 Col. Fox's Catalogue, but it affords an interesting geo- 

 graphical link between the nearest districts in North and 

 South America where it has hitherto been noticed, viz., 

 Mexico in the north, and on tributaries of the River 

 Amazons in the south. While on this subject of weapons, 

 another passage may be added as to the tribes of the 

 Isthmus : " They had also javelins with holes pierced in 

 them near the end, so that when cast into the air a loud 

 whistling noise was produced " (p. 774). Unless our 

 memory deceives us, some similar device is known in 

 Central Asia. 



Among curious points of savage manners and customs 

 from Mr. Bancroft's summary, the following may be noted. 

 The Chinook Indians in their marriages acted on a prin- 

 ciple not unknown among peasants in Russia, who will 

 marry a boy to a woman old enough to be his mother. 

 " It has been noticed that there was often great disparity in 

 the ages of bride and groom, for, say the Chinook, a very 

 young or very aged couple lack either the experience or 

 the activity necessary for fighting the battles of life " 

 (p. 241). Among the Comanche Indians, when a man's 

 wife deserts him, the mode of reparation for his wounded 

 honour is to wipe out the disgrace by killing somebody — 

 anybody whom he may chance to meet (p. 513). We 

 often hear of savages baking pigs in pits dug in the 

 ground to serve as ovens, but the inhabitants of Oueretaro 

 may be the only people who thus bake themselves. They 



