56 ON THE OEIGIN AITD MIGEATIONS OF THE POLTlSrESIAN NATION. 



I shall tlien show that the phenomena of language in America 

 point directly to a Polynesian origin ; and I shall conclude by 

 showing that the same singular manners and customs prevail 

 among the wild and uncivilized tribes of both nations. 



I. The peculiar type of the civilization of the Indo- American 

 nations is exhibited in some measure at least in the very remark- 

 able architectural remains that are scattered in great profusion 

 over both the American continents. These consist of pyramidal 

 erections, of temples, of tumuli, and of fortifications. I have 

 already observed that the pyramidal and colossal style of the 

 architecture of the earlier postdiluvian nations was in all likelihood 

 a relic of the civilization of the antediluvian world. There can be 

 no doubt, however, of its universal prevalence in that early period 

 of the history of our race ; and wherever we can trace its exist- 

 ence we may rest assured that the civilization of which it is the 

 sign was derived from the ages immediately succeeding the deluge. 

 Now there is nothing more remarkable than the prevalence of 

 this peculiar type of civilization, this pyramidal and colossal 

 style of architecture, in the ruined cities of America. Humboldt, 

 as I have already shown, compares those of Mexico with the 

 pyramids of Egypt ; and in all the recently-discovered ruins of 

 Indo-American cities in Guatimala and Yucatan — in Copan, in 

 Quirigua, in Palenque, and in TJxmal — pyramidal buildings are 

 uniformly found, sometimes in great numbers, together with 

 monolith statues, in some instances upwards of 20 feet high. 

 "The pyramid of Papantla," says Humboldt, "is built entirely 

 with hewn stones of an extraordinary size, and very beautifully 

 and regularly shaped ; three staircases lead to the top."* Stephens 

 also, in his " Incidents of Travel in Central America," thus 

 describes a ruin he had seen in the ancient Indo-American city 

 of Copan in G-uatimala : " This temple is an oblong enclosure. 

 The front or river wall extends on a right line north and south 

 624 feet, and is from 60 to 90 feet in height. It is made of cut 

 stones, from 3 to 6 feet in length, and a foot and a half in 

 breadth. * * * 'j'j^g other three sides consist of ranges of 

 steps and pyramidal structures, rising from 30 to 140 feet in 

 height on the slope. "t Now each of these remarkable buildings, 

 to which there is nothing at all similar either in ancient or modern 

 Europe, or even in Asia, consists of a pyramid vsdth steps up to 

 its top on three of its sides, while the fourth forms the wall for 

 a temple enclosure. But the structure described, on the 

 authority of Mr. Ellis — the temple and pyramid of Atehuru in 

 Tahiti — is precisely of the same character, and might have been 

 erected by the same architect from the same plan ; while in 

 Easter Island, the supposed point of departure from Polynesia to 



* Humboldt's Kesearches, i., 89. 



t Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Central America, page 87. 



