INTRODUCTION. 65 



t:cas from Mexico ; hence it has been supposed these were of com- 

 mon origin. At any rate, the Incas are supposed to have been an 

 intruding nation. The Inca skull is remarkable for its small size, 

 its quadrangular and unsymmetrical form, its prominent vertex, its 

 compressed and often vertical occiput projecting to one side or the 

 other, and its consequent great parietal diameter, He thinks this 

 flatness of the occiput, commpn to the whole American race, may 

 be increased by the manner of treating their children in the cradle. 



The heads of the ancienl \\> deans resemble, both in size and 

 form, the unaltered heads of the ancient Peruvians, with considera- 

 ble lateral swell, and shortened longitudinal diameter. While the 

 ms were superior to other American nations in intellectual 

 character, their moral perceptions were as much inferior. All their 

 institutions, civil and religious, were calculated to debase th 

 feelings of human nature ; among these was the custom of sacrificing 

 human victims. The difference between the ancienl Mexicans and 

 their modern descendants, where the race is unmixed, is no greater 

 than that between the ancient Egyptians and the present < "»>j>t . 



The traditions of the Natchez Indians state that they migrated 

 from Mexico. The analogies between them and the Toltecas are, 

 the worship of the sun. human sacrifices, hereditary distinctions, 

 and Sxed institutions, in which they also differed from all the other 

 Florida nations. They hid also the singular custom of compressing 

 their heads from before backwards, giving to them a great height 

 and width. 



He a satisfied that the American Indians, the Toltecan family, 

 ami the builders of the mounds, belong to one and the same 

 race, indigenous to America; and that they are not Mongols, Hin- 

 doos, or Jews. He thinks the Toltecan family were the only build- 

 ers of mounds. 



In a subsequent paper* Dr. Morton gives Ins reasons for consid- 

 ering all the American nations, except the Esquimaux, as of one 

 race, peculiar and distinct from all others. The Indian physiog- 

 nomy he considers "as undeviatingly characteristic as that of the 

 Negro; for, whether we see him in the athletic Charib or the 

 stunted Chayma, in the dark < 'alifornian or the fair Borroa, he is an 

 Indian still, and cannot he mistaken for a being of any other race." 



From the comparison of 400 crania, from tribes inhabiting every. 

 region of both Americas, he finds the same osteological structure in 

 all, viz., squared head, flattened occiput, high cheek-bones, heavy 

 maxillae, large quadrangular orhits, and low, receding forehead. 



* Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. 4, p. 190, ct seq. 

 G' 



