. 
1877. ] Concerning Two Divisions of Indians. 735 
hereafter visit the plains, since the bite of the rabid skunk has 
proved fatal to man in more than nine cases out of ten, and 
there are more than fifty fatal cases on record. In this connec- 
tion may be mentioned another danger which must be incurred 
by the collector of insects upon the plains. I refer to the bite 
of the rattlesnake, which venomous reptile abounds in Western 
Kansas and Eastern Colorado, and was encountered nearly every 
day by some member of our expedition. 
poen 
REMARKS CONCERNING TWO DIVISIONS OF INDIANS 
INHABITING ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, UTAH, AND 
CALIFORNIA. 
BY DR. EDWARD PALMER. 
| ae traveled extensively in that part of the United 
States acquired from Mexico, and having examined the so- 
called ancient graves and mounds, as well as studied the Indians 
now living in the same region, I have come to the conclusion 
that this region was formerly inhabited by two divisions or 
classes of Indians, distinguishable by their modes of burial— one 
burning, the other inhuming, the corpses —and by their dwell- 
ings and domestic arts. In the same region are to be found 
graves which do not belong to the Indians now living there, and 
containing either the bodies or ashes of human beings whose 
epoch we have no means of determining. 
The Indians found in the city of Mexico, and said by the 
Spanish historians to offer up human sacrifices to their gods, were 
only observing their usual custom of burning their dead. The 
Spaniards killed them in great numbers, and the Indians in 
burning the dead afforded their enemies, the Spaniards, the 
grounds for notions out of which to make religious capital. So 
the priests and officers magnified this simple custom, and by de- 
claring the Indians to be idolaters and sacrificers of human be- 
ings they did them a grave injustice. 
The Spaniards in their conquests always kept in view the 
maxim that the means justify the end. To ascribe the burning 
of the dead to offering up human sacrifices to gods was sufficient 
to gain the desired object, as the church would be aroused at 
once to send out missionaries to convert the heathen - estab- 
lish religious orders among them. 
- Concluding that the Indians found living in the city of Mex- 
ico at the time of the Spanish conquest were Aztecs or crema- 
