28 



THE TOLTECS. 



The main features of the story seem correct. The Toltecs 

 seem to have been allied to the Peruvians. Their skulls seem 

 of the Brachycephalic type. The Toltecs were agriculturists, 

 were mechanical, industrial, and constructive. In Mexico, and 

 further south in Nicaragua, as well as northward, large 

 mounds remain which are traced to them. According to the 

 Aztec story the Toltecans spread in Mexico from the seventh 

 to the twelfth century at which latter day they were swept 

 away. My theory is that it was this race — which must have 

 been very numerous — which either came from Peru in South 

 America, capturing Mexico and then flowing northward ; or 

 perhaps came from New Mexico, the American Scythia of that 

 day, and sending one branch down into Mexico, sent another 

 down the Rio Grande, which then spread up the Mississippi 

 and its tributaries. The mounds mark the course of this race 

 migration. They are found on the Mississippi. One part of 

 the race seems to have ascended the Ohio to the great lakes 

 and the St. Lawrence, another went up the Mississippi, while 

 another ascended the Mississippi proper and gained communi- 

 cation from its head waters with the Rainy and Red Rivers. 

 When then did the crest of this wave of migration reach its 

 furthest northward point? Taking the seventh century as the 

 date of the first movement of the Toltecs toward conquest in 

 Mexico, I have set three or four centuries as the probable time 

 taken for multiplication and the displacement of former tribes, 

 until they reached and possessed this northern region of " The 

 Takawgamies," or far north Mound Builders. This would 

 place their occupation of Rainy River in the eleventh century. 

 Other considerations to which I shall refer seem to sustain 

 this as the probable date. The Grand Mound is by far the 



LARGEST MOUND 



on Rainy River. It is likewise at the mouth of the Amrican 

 River, which is its largest tributary and affords the readiest 

 means of access from the Mississippi up which the Toltecan 

 flood of emigration was surging. My theory is that here in 

 their new homes, for three centuries they multiplied, cultivated 

 the soil, and built the mounds which are still a monument to 

 their industry. Here they became less warlike because more 

 industrious, and hence less able to defend themselves. I have 

 already stated that the 



