\22 Distinctive characteristics of the 



D'Orbigny. This distinguished naturalist passed many months on 

 the table-land of the Andes, which embraces the region of these extra- 

 ordinary people, and examined the desiccated remains of hundreds of 

 individuals in the tombs where they have lain for centuries. M. 

 D'Orbigny remarked that while many of the heads were deformed in 

 the manner to which we have adverted, others differed in nothing 

 from the usual conformation. It was also observed that the flat- 

 tened skulls were uniformly those of men, while those of the women 

 remained unaltered ; and again, that the most elongated heads were 

 preserved in the largest and finest tombs, shewing that this cranial 

 deformity was a mark of distinction. But to do away with any re- 

 maining doubt on this subject, M. D'Orbigny ascertained that the 

 descendants of these ancient Peruvians yet inhabit the land of their 

 ancestors, and bear the name of Aymaras, which may have been 

 their primitive designation ; and lastly, the modern Aymaras re- 

 semble the common Quichua or Peruvian Indians in every thing that 

 relates to physical conformation, not even excepting the head, which, 

 however, they have ceased to mould artificially. 



Submitted to the same anatomical test, the reputed giant and 

 dwarf races of America prove to be the mere inventions of ignorance 

 or imposition. A careful inspection of the remains of both, has 

 fully satisfied me that the asserted gigantic form of some nations 

 has been a hasty inference on the part of unpractised observers : 

 while the so-called pygmies of the valley of the Mississippi were 

 mere children, who, for reasons not wholly understood, were buried 

 apart from the adult people of their tribe. 



Thus it is that the American Indian, from the southern extremity 

 of the continent to the northern limit of his range, is the same ex- 

 terior man. With somewhat variable stature and complexion, his 

 distinctive features, though variously modified, are never effaced ; 

 and he stands isolated from the rest of mankind, identified at a 

 glance in every locality, and under every variety of circumstance ; 

 and even his desiccated remains which have withstood the destroy- 

 ing hand of time, preserve the primeval type of his race, except- 

 ing only when art has interposed to pervert it. 



2. Moral Traits. These are, perhaps, as strongly marked as the 

 physical characteristics of which we have just spoken ; but they have 



