562 THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



entrance. Steps on the side of the wall led to a door closed by a strong 

 slab J the slab lifted and it was easy to enter a vast chamber, the walls 

 of which, in volcanic tufa, were in ledges. On these ledges graves 

 were cut as in the form of troughs. The floor of the tomb was covered 

 with fragments of bone and pottery, and the two funeral rites, burial 

 and cremation, were not infrequently encountered in the same tomb. 

 Two corpses, or the remains thereof, one buried in a coffin of wood, the 

 other cremated and in a cinerary urn, would be found placed almost 

 together on the same ledge. In two tombs the explorers found frag- 

 ments of skulls colored red on the outside by oligist. The bones were 

 so decayed that they could not be measured. The capacity of the 

 skulls was remarkably large. The well evidently belonged to the 

 Phenicians, for this was their habitual mode of burial. Phenician and 

 Eoman lamps were found together. Despite this fact, Dr. Collignon, 

 after a profound study of the bones, did not hesitate to attribute them 

 either to the Phenicians or to the Liby Phenicians.^ Although this 

 conclusion is supported by excellent arguments, it does not appear 

 absolutely demonstrated. I content myself with the opinion that the 

 bones and ashes gathered at Mahedia are of high antiquity. 



If we traverse the Atlantic we find the same facts. Dr. Ten Kate, in 

 a recent exploration in California, gives many examples of human bones 

 colored red by oxide of iron. These abound in the island of the Holy 

 Spirit (Espiritu Santo). M. Diguet reports analogous facts in Lowei- 

 California. Some years ago there were presented to the Society of 

 Anthropology at Paris a mummified head from a burial place in Bolivia.'^ 

 The forehead and back of the head were jDainted red. The explorers 

 declared the rite to have extended throughout the region. 



It is scarcely possible to speak of America without recalling the dis- 

 coveries of Dr. Marcano in the basin of the upper Orinoco.^ ISTotably, 

 he excavated the theretofore unknown cavern d'Ibi-Iboto. He gath- 

 ered skulls of twenty-four males and twenty-five females. The fore- 

 head, he said, is retreating, the orbits are strong and powerful, the 

 glabella voluminous, with heavy projecting eyebrows. Among the 

 masculine skulls twelve were dolichocephalic, eight were mesaticephalic, 

 and two only brachy cephalic. The average cranial capacity was 1,375 

 cubic centimeters. The cephalic index of the female skulls were slightly 

 greater than 80. Several skulls, representing both sexes, were colored 

 red. Others, on the contrary, were without any trace of color. This, 

 therefore, was not a funeral rite common to all the members of the 

 tribe, and we do not know the circumstances which determined its 

 adoption. It is difficult to fix the epoch of these burials. The objects 

 in stone made default, while the pottery was abundant. The urns, 

 often filled with ashes, were well made, the covers surmounted by 



1 L'Anthropologie, 1892, page 163. 



2 Bulletin Society d' Anthropologic, 1891, p. 124. 



^Ethnographie pr6colombienne du Venezuela. Region des Eaudala de I'Orenoque. 



