268 NATI RAI HIST0B1 "I 



and early Turk--. The nations of the plateau of Mexico had 

 all a practice of fixing several ensigns or banners, Muck in 

 ferula, at the hack of a warrior, like the earl: ( se, or 



they attached them to their shields; which was lib 

 unexampled in Asia. Symbolical devices, almost amounting 

 to real heraldry, designating even at this time many tribes of 

 North America, were thoroughly understood in Mexico, and 

 are likewise well known to all the Tab tar nations ol 

 Tiny had, it is asserted, the use of a peculiarly Chin< 

 ment, the well-known gong; but more likely it was a great 

 drum, audible, according to Beroal Diaz, to the distance of 

 two leagues; the same as the Nakara of Southern Asia. In 

 common with Tahtar nations, nuptial- were symbolized by the 

 ceremony of tying the garments together of the two contract- 

 ing parties; and, like them, there was only one lawful wife, 

 though there might be a plurality of concubines. In very an- 

 cient graves, not far distant from Niagara, human debris have 

 been detected, having with them a reversed shell of the whilk 

 (Buccinum) exactly similar to the Shonk found in the tumuli 

 of ancient Ceylon.* 



Peru, with its Paha people, instinctively builders, has left 

 ruins of huge walls, surpassing the Cyclopean and Pelasgian 

 structures of the older continent in bulk, and superior to them 

 in artistic skill. From the institutions, religious, humane and 

 moral, the legislator of the Incas has rarely been considered 

 by the learned to be of indigenous origin, but more generally 

 as a Japanese or a Brahmin philosopher, who, if he were an 

 Asiatic, certainly did not traverse the Pacific alone. Several 

 nations in both parts of the continent, had, like the Oceanians 

 of the South Sea, and of the north-east of Asia, a bone thrust 

 through the cartilage of the nose ; they had also swords with 

 tassel handles, like the 3Ialays, feather mantles, and decora- 



* The fact was communicated to us by Captain Chapman, late Royal 

 Engineers, who had examined both instances on the spot. 



