Transcriber's Note A number of typographical errors have been maintained in this version ofthis book. They have been marked with a [TN-#], which refers to adescription in the complete list found at the end of the text. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. BY SAMUEL GEORGE MORTON, M.  D. , Author of the Crania Americana, Crania Æygptiaca, &c. EXTRACTED FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, VOL. II, SECOND SERIES. NEW HAVEN: PRINTED BY B.  L. HAMLEN, Printer to Yale College. 1846. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND ARCHÆOLOGY OF THE AMERICANABORIGINES. Nothing in the progress of human knowledge is more remarkable than therecent discoveries in American archæology, whether we regard them asmonuments of art or as contributions to science. The names of Stephensand Norman will ever stand preëminent for their extraordinaryrevelations in Mexico and Yucatan; which, added to those previously madeby Del Rio, Humboldt, Waldeck and D'Orbigny in these and other parts ofour continent, have thrown a bright, yet almost bewildering light, onthe former condition of the western world. Cities have been explored, replete with columns, bas-reliefs, tombs andtemples; the works of a comparatively civilized people, who weresurrounded by barbarous yet affiliated tribes. Of the builders we knowlittle besides what we gather from their monuments, which remain toastonish the mind and stimulate research. They teach us the value ofarchæological facts in tracing the primitive condition and cognaterelations of the several great branches of the human family; at the sametime that they prove to us, with respect to the American race at least, that we have as yet only entered upon the threshold of investigation. In fact, ethnography and archæology should go hand in hand; and theprincipal object I have in view in giving publicity to the following toodesultory remarks, is to impress on travellers and others who arefavorably situated for making observations, the importance of preservingevery relic, organic or artificial, that can throw any light on the pastand present condition of our native tribes. Objects of this nature havebeen too often thrown aside as valueless; or kept as mere curiosities, until they were finally lost or become so defaced or broken as to beuseless. To render such relics available to science and art, theirhistory and characteristics should be recorded in the periodicals of theday; by which means we shall eventually possess an accumulated mass offacts that will be all-important to future generalization. I grant thatthis course has been ably pursued by many intelligent writers, and theAmerican Journal of Science is a fruitful depository of suchobservations. [4-*] With every acknowledgment to these praiseworthyefforts, let us urge their active continuance. Time and the progress ofcivilization are daily effacing the vestiges of our aboriginal race; andwhatever can be done to rescue these vestiges from oblivion, must bedone quickly. We call attention in the first place, to two skulls from a mound aboutthree miles from the mouth of Huron river, Ohio. They were obtained byMr. Charles W. Atwater, and forwarded to Mr. B. Silliman, Jr. , throughwhose kindness they have been placed in my hands. These remains possessthe greater interest, because the many articles found with them presentno trace of European art; thus confirming the opinion expressed in Mr. Atwater's letter:--"There are a great many mounds in the township ofHuron, " he observes, "all which appear to have been built a long timeprevious to the intercourse between the Indians and the white men. Ihave opened a number of these mounds, and have not discovered anyarticles manufactured by the latter. A piece of copper from a smallmound is the only metal I have yet found. " The stone utensils obtained by Mr. Atwater in the present instance, were, as usual, arrow heads, axes, knives for skinning deer, sling-stones, and two spheroidal stones on which I shall offer someremarks in another place. The materials of which these articles areformed, are jasper, quartz, granite stained by copper, and clay slate, all showing that peculiar time-worn polish which such substances acquireby long inhumation. The two skeletons were of a man and a woman. "They had been buried onthe surface of the ground and the earth raised over them. They lay ontheir backs with their feet to the west. " The male cranium presents, inevery particular, the characteristics of the American race. The foreheadrecedes less than usual in these people, but the large size of the jaws, the quadrangular orbits, and the width between the cheek bones, are allremarkably developed; while the rounded head, elevated vertex, verticalocciput and great inter-parietal diameter, (which is no less than 5·7inches, ) render this skull a type of national conformation. (Fig. 1. ) [Illustration: Fig. 1. ] The female head possesses the same general character, but is moreelongated in the occipital region, and of more delicate proportionsthroughout. [5-*] Similar in general conformation to these are all the mound and otherskulls I have received since the publication of my work on AmericanCrania, viz. Five from the country of the Araucos, in Chili, from Dr. Thomas S. Page of Valparaiso; six of ancient Otomies, Tlascalans andChechemecans, from Don J. Gomez de la Cortina of the city of Mexico;three from near Tampa, in Florida, from Dr. R.  S. Holmes, U. S.  A. ; onefrom a mound on Blue river, Illinois, from Dr. Brown of St. Louis; andfour sent me by Lieut. Meigs, U.  S. A. , who obtained them from theimmediate vicinity of Detroit, in Michigan. To these may be added twoothers taken from ancient graves near Fort Chartres, in Illinois, by Dr. Wistlizenus of St. Louis; a single cranium from the cemetery of Santiagode Tlatelolco, near the city of Mexico, which I have received throughthe kindness of the Baron von Gerolt, Prussian minister at Washington;and another very old skull from the Indian burying grounds at Guamay, in Northern Peru, for which I am indebted to Dr. Paul Swift. Last butnot least, I may add the skull obtained by Mr. Stephens[6-*] from avault at Ticul, a ruined aboriginal city of Yucatan, and some mutilatedbut interesting fragments brought me from the latter country, by myfriend Mr. Norman. [6-+] These crania, together with upwards of four hundred others of nearlysixty tribes and nations, derived from the repositories of the dead indifferent localities over the whole length and breadth of both Americas, present a conformable and national type of organization, showing theorigin of one to be equally the origin of all. To this prevading[TN-1] cranial type I have already adverted. Even thelong-headed Aymaras of Peru, whom, in common with Prof. Tiedemann, I atfirst thought to present a congenitally different form of head from thenations who surrounded them, are proved, by the recent discoveries of M. Alcide D'Orbigny, to have belonged to the same race as the otherAmericans, and to owe their singularly elongated crania to a peculiarmode of artificial compression from the earliest infancy. [6-++] But there is evidence to the same effect, but of more ancient date thanany we have yet mentioned. The recent explorations of Dr. Lund in thedistrict of Minas Geraes, in Brazil, have brought to light human boneswhich he regards as fossil, because they accompany the remains ofextinct genera and species of quadrupeds, and have undergone the samemineral changes with the latter. He has found several crania, all ofwhich correspond in form to the present aboriginal type. [6-§] Even the head of the celebrated _Guadaloupe skeleton_ forms no exceptionto the rule. The skeleton itself is well known to be in the BritishMuseum, but wants the cranium, which however is supposed to have beenrecovered in the one more recently found in Guadaloupe by Mr. L'Hérminier, and brought by him to Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Moultrie, who has described this very interesting relic, makes thefollowing observations:--"Compared with the cranium of a Peruvianpresented to Prof. Holbrook by Dr. Morton, in the museum of the state ofSouth Carolina, the craniological similarity manifested between them istoo striking to permit us to question their national identity. There isin both the same coronal elevation, occipital compression, and lateralprotuberance accompanied with frontal depression, which mark theAmerican variety in general. "[7-*] [Illustration: Fig. 2. ] There is additional proof of identity, not only of originalconformation, but of conventional modification of the form of the head, which I may be excused from reverting to in this place, inasmuch as thematerials I shall use have but recently come to my hands. The first ofthese subjects is represented by the subjoined wood-cut, (fig. 2. ) Itwas politely sent me by Dr. John Houstoun, an intelligent surgeon of theBritish Navy, with the following memorandum: "From an ancient towncalled Chiuhiu, or Atacama Baja, on the river Loa, and on the westernedge of the desert of Atacama. The bodies are nearly all buried _in thesitting posture_, [the conventional usage of most of the Americannations from Patagonia to Canada, ] with the hands either placed on eachside of the head, or crossed over the breast. "[7-+] This cranium (and another received with it) has that remarkablesugar-loaf form which renders them high and broad in front, with a shortantero-posterior diameter, both the forehead and occiput bearingevidence of long continued compression. They correspond precisely withthe descriptions given by Cieza, Torquemada and others among theearliest travellers in Peru, who saw the natives in various parts of thecountry with heads rounded precisely in this manner. [8-*] [Illustration: Fig. 3. ] The second head figured, (fig. 3, ) is that of a Natchez Indian, [8-+]obtained from a mound not far from that city by the late Mr. JamesTooley, Jr. , and by him presented to me. The face in this, as in theformer instance, has all the characteristics of the native Indian; andthe cranium has undergone precisely the same process of artificialcompression, although these tribes were separated from each other by thevast geographical distance of four thousand miles! Could we discover the cranial remains of the older Mexican nations, weshould doubtless find many of them to possess the same fanciful type ofconformation;[8-++] for if either of the skulls figured above could beagain clothed in flesh and blood, would we not have restored to us thevery heads that are so abundantly sculptured on the monuments of CentralAmerica, and so graphically described by Herrera, when he tells us thatthe people of Yucatan _flattened their heads and foreheads_? The following diagrams are copied, on an enlarged scale, from Mr. Stephens's Travels, [8-§] and will serve in further illustration of thisinteresting subject. They are taken from bas-reliefs in the _Palace atPalenque_. The personage fig. 4, (whose head-dress we have partlyomitted, ) appears to be a king or chieftain, at whose feet are twosuppliants, naked and cross-legged, of whom we copy the one thatpreserves the most perfect outline, (fig. 5. ) [Illustration: Fig. 4. ] [Illustration: Fig. 5. ] The principal figure has better features and expression than the other, but their heads are formed on the same model; whence we may infer thatif the suppliant is a servant or a slave of the same race with hismaster, the artificial moulding of the cranium was common to allclasses. If, on the other hand, we assume that he is an enemy imploringmercy, we come to the conclusion that the singular custom of which weare speaking, was in use among other and surrounding nations; whichlatter inference is confirmed by other evidence, that, for example, derived from the Natchez tribe, and the clay effigies so abundantlyfound at the ruined temples of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan, near thecity of Mexico. [9-*] I can aver that sixteen years of almost daily comparisons have onlyconfirmed me in the conclusions announced in my _Crania Americana_, thatall the American nations, excepting the Eskimaux, are of one race, andthat this race is peculiar and distinct from all others. The first ofthese propositions may be regarded as an axiom in ethnography; thesecond still gives rise to a diversity of opinions, of which the mostprevalent is that which would merge the American race in the Mongolian. It has been objected to a common origin for all the American nations, and even for those of Mexico, that their _monuments_ should present sogreat a variety in the configuration of the head and face; a fact whichforcibly impresses every one who examines the numerous effigies in bakedclay in the collection of the American Philosophical Society; yet theyare all made of the same material and by the same national artists. Thevarieties are indeed endless; and Mr. Norman in his first work, hasarrived at a reasonable conclusion, in which we entirely agree with him, "that the people prepared these _penates_ according to their respectivetastes, and with little reference to any standard or canon. "[10-*] They appear to have exercised much ingenuity in this way, blendingalmost every conceivable type of the human countenance, and associatingthis again with those of beasts, birds, and various fanciful animals, which last are equal in uncouthness to any productions of the Gothicartists of the middle ages. Mr. Norman in his late and interesting volume of travels in Cuba andMexico, discovered in the latter country some remarkable ruins near thetown of Panuco, and among them a curious sepulchral effigy. "It was ahandsome block or slab of stone, (wider at one end than the other, )measuring seven feet in length, with an average of nearly two and a halffeet in width and one foot in thickness. Upon its face was beautifullywrought, in bold relief, the full length figure of a man, in a looserobe with a girdle about his loins, his arms crossed on his breast, hishead encased in a close cap or casque, resembling the Roman helmet (asrepresented in the etchings of Pinelli) without the crest, and his feetand ankles bound with the ties of sandals. The figure is that of a tallmuscular man of the finest proportions. The face, in all its features, is of the noblest class of the European or Caucasian race. "[10-+] Mr. Norman was himself struck "with the resemblance between this, andthe stones that cover the tombs of the Knights Templar in some of theancient churches of the old world, " but he thinks that neither this norany other circumstance proves this effigy to have been of Europeanorigin or of modern date. "The material, " he adds, "is the same as thatof all the buildings and works of art in this vicinity, and the styleand workmanship are those of the great unknown artists of the westernhemisphere;" and he arrives at the conclusion, as many ingenuous mindshave done before him, that these and the other archæological remains ofMexico and Yucatan, "are the works of a people who have long sincepassed away; and not of the races, _or the progenitors of the races_, who inhabited the country at the epoch of the discovery. "[11-*] With the highest respect for this intelligent traveller, I am not ableto agree with him in his conclusion; but I should not now revive mypublished opinions or contest his, were it not that some new lightappears to me to have dawned on this very question. In the first place, then, we regard the effigy found near Panuco asprobably Caucasian; so does Mr. Norman; but instead of referring it to avery remote antiquity, or to some European occupancy of Mexico longbefore the Spanish conquest, we will venture to suggest, that even ifthe town of Panuco was itself older than that event, (of which indeed wehave no doubt, ) it is consistent with collateral facts to infer, thatthe Spaniards may have occupied this very town, in common with, orsubsequent to, the native inhabitants, and have left this sepulchralmonument. That the Spaniards did sometimes practice this jointoccupancy, is well known; and that they have, in some instances, lefttheir monuments in places wherein even tradition had almost lost sightof their former sojourn, is susceptible of proof. Mr. Gregg, in a recent and instructive work on the "Commerce of thePrairies, " states the following particulars, which are the more valuablesince he had no opinions of his own in reference to the Americanaborigines, and merely gives the facts as he found them. Mr. Gregg describes the ruins called _La Gran Quivira_, about 100 milessouth of Santa Fé, as larger than the present capital of New Mexico. Thearchitecture of this deserted city is of hewn stone, and there are theremains of aqueducts eight or ten miles in length leading from theneighboring mountains. These ruins "have been supposed to be the remainsof a _pueblo_ or aboriginal city;" but he adds that the occurrence ofthe Spanish coat of arms in more than one instance sculptured andpainted upon the houses, prevents the adoption of such an opinion; andthat traditional report (and tradition only) mentions this as a citythat was sacked and desolated in the Indian insurrection of 1680. [12-*]Now had it not been for the occurrence of the heraldic paintings, thiscity might have been still regarded as of purely Indian origin andoccupancy; as might also the analogous ruins of Abo, Tagique and Chililiin the same vicinity; for although these may have been originallyconstructed by the natives, yet as they are supposed to be near theancient mines, it is not improbable that the conquerors in these, as inmany other instances, drove out the rightful owners, and took possessionfor themselves;[12-+] for that they did possess and inhabit the townsabove enumerated is a fact beyond question. Why may not events of an analogous character have taken place at Panuco?Was it not probably an Indian city into which the Spaniards had intrudedthemselves, and having left traces of their sojourn, as at _La GranQuivira_, subsequently, owing to some dire catastrophe, or some newimpulse, abandonded[TN-2] it for another and preferable location? This, we suggest, is a reasonable explanation of the presence of the Caucasianeffigy found by Mr. Norman among the deserted ruins of Panuco. Mr. Stephens has, I think, conclusively proved that the past and presentIndian races of Mexico were cognate tribes. I had previously arrived atthe same conclusion from a different kind of evidence. What was manifestin the physical man is corroborated by his archæological remains. Thereiterated testimony of some of the early Spanish travellers, andespecially of Bernal Diaz and Herrera, is of the utmost importance tothis question; and all that is necessary in the chain of evidence, issome link to connect the demi-civilized nations with the presentuncultivated and barbarous tribes. These links have been supplied by Mr. Gregg. Those peculiar dwellings and other structures, with inclined orparapet walls, [12-++] and with or without windows, which are common toall epochs of Peruvian and Mexican architecture, are constructed andoccupied by the Indians of Mexico even at the present day. Afterdescribing the general character of these modern domicils, Mr. Gregggoes on to observe, that "a very curious feature in these buildings, isthat there is most generally no direct communication between the streetand the lower rooms, into which they descended from a trap-door from theupper story, the latter being accessible by means of a ladder. Even theentrance at the upper stories is frequently at the roof. This style ofbuilding appears to have been adopted for security against theirmarauding neighbors of the wilder tribes, with whom they were often atwar. "Though this was their most usual style of architecture, there stillexists a Pueblo of Taos, composed, for the most part, of but twoedifices of very singular structure--one on each side of a creek, andformerly communicating by a bridge. The base story is a mass of nearfour hundred feet long, a hundred and fifty wide, and divided intonumerous apartments, upon which other tiers of rooms are built, oneabove another, drawn in by regular grades, forming _a pyramidal pile_ offifty or sixty feet high, and comprising some six or eight stories. Theouter rooms only seem to be used for dwellings, and are lighted bylittle windows at the sides, but are entered through trap-doors in the_azoteas_ or roofs. Most of the inner apartments are employed asgranaries and storerooms, but a spacious hall in the centre of the mass, known as the _estufa_, is reserved for their secret councils. These twobuildings afford habitation, as is said, for over six hundred souls. There is likewise an edifice in the Pueblo of Picuris of the same class, and some of those of Moqui are also said to be similar. "[13-*] The Indian city of Santo Domingo, which has an exclusive aboriginalpopulation, is built in the same manner, the material being, as usual, sun-burnt bricks; and my friend Dr. Wm. Gambel informs me, that in alate journey from Santa Fé across the continent to California, heconstantly observed an analogous style of building, as well in thedwellings of the present native inhabitants, as in those older andabandoned structures of whose date little or nothing is known. Who does not see in the builders of these humbler dwellings, thedescendants of the architects of Palenque, and Yucatan? The style is thesame in both. The same objects have been arrived at by similar modes ofconstruction. The older structures are formed of a better material, generally of hewn stone, and often elaborately ornamented withsculpture. But the absence of all decoration in the modern buildings, isno proof that they have not been erected by people of the same race withthose who have left such profusely ornamented monuments in other partsof Mexico; for the ruins of Pueblo Bonito, in the direction of Navajo, and those of the celebrated Casas Grandes on the western Colorado, whichwere regarded by Clavigero as among the oldest Toltecan remains inMexico, are destitute of sculpture or other decoration. In fact, theselast named ruins appear to date with the primitive wanderings of thecultivated tribes, before they established their seats in Yucatan andGuatimala, and erected those more finished monuments which could onlyresult from the combined efforts of populous communities, acting underthe favorable influence of peace and prosperity. Every race has had itscenter or centers of comparative civilization. The American aborigineshad theirs in Peru, Bogota and Mexico. The people, the institutions andthe architecture were essentially the same in each, though modified bylocal wants and conventional usages. Humboldt was forcibly impressed bythis archæological identity, for he himself had traced it, withoccasional interruptions, over an extent of a thousand leagues; and wenow find that it gradually merges itself into the ruder dwellings of themore barbarous tribes; showing, as I have often remarked, that there is, in every respect, a gradual ethnographic transition from these into thetemple-builders of every American epoch. [14-*] I shall close this communication by a notice of certain _discoidalstones_ occasionally found in the mounds of the United States. Of theserelics I possess sixteen, of which all but two were found by my friendDr. Wm. Blanding, during his long residence in Camden, South Carolina. These disks were accompanied, as usual, by earthern[TN-3] vessels, pipesof baked clay, arrow-heads and other articles, respecting which Dr. Blanding has given me the following locality:--"All the Indian relics, save three or four, which I have sent you, were collected on or near thebanks of the Wateree river, Kershaw district, South Carolina; thegreater part from the mounds or near the foot of them. All the moundsthat I have observed in this state, excepting these, do not amount to asmany as are found on the Wateree within the distance of twenty fourmiles up and down the river, between Lancaster and Sumpter districts. The lowest down is called Nixon's mound, the highest up, Harrison's. " "The discoidal stones, " adds Dr. Blanding, "were found at the foot ofthe different mounds, not in them. They seemed to be left, where theywere no doubt used, on the play grounds. " The disks are from an inch and a half to six inches in diameter, andpresent some varieties in other respects. [Illustration] Fig. 1 represents a profile of the simplest form and at the same timethe smallest size of these stones, being in diameter about an inch andthree quarters. The upper and under surfaces are nearly plane, withangular edges and oblique margin, but without concavity or perforation. Fig. 2. A similar form, slightly concave on each surface. Fig. 3. A large disk of white quartz, measuring five inches in diameterand an inch and three fourths in thickness. The margin is rounded, andboth surfaces are deeply concave though imperforate. Fig. 4 is another specimen four inches in diameter, deeply concave fromthe margin to the center, with a central perforation. The margin itselfis slightly convex. The concave surface is marked by two sets ofsuperficial grooved lines, which meet something in the form of abird-track. This disk is made of a light-brown ferruginous quartz. Fig. 5 is a profile view of a solid lenticular stone, much more convexon the one side than the other, formed of hard syenitic rock. Besides these there are other slight modifications of form which it isunnecessary to particularize. These disks are made of the hardest stones, and wrought with admirablesymmetry and polish, surpassing any thing we could readily conceive ofin the humbler arts of the present Indian tribes; and the questionarises, whether they are not the works of their seemingly extinctprogenitors?--of that people of the same race, (but more directly alliedto the Toltecans of Mexico, ) who appear in former times to haveconstituted populous and cultivated communities throughout the valley ofthe Mississippi, and in the southern and western regions towards thegulf of Mexico, and whose last direct and lineal representatives werethe ill-fated Natchez? I have made much inquiry as to the localities of these and analogousremains, but hitherto with little success. I am assured that they havebeen found in Missouri, perhaps near St. Louis; and in very rareinstances in the northern part of Delaware. Dr. Ruggles has sent me theplaster model of a small, perforated, but irregularly formed stone ofthis kind, taken from an ancient Indian grave at Fall River in RhodeIsland; but Dr. Edwin H. Davis, of Chilicothe, in a letter recentlyreceived from him, informs me that he had obtained, during hisexcavations in that vicinity, no less than "two hundred flint disks in asingle mound, measuring from three and a half to five inches indiameter, and from half an inch to an inch in thickness, of threedifferent forms, round, oval and triangular. " These appear, however, tobe of a different construction and designed for some other use thanthose I have described; and Dr. Davis himself offers the probablesuggestion, that "they were rude darts blocked out at the quarries foreasy transportation to the Indian towns. " The same gentleman speaks ofhaving found other disks formed of a micaceous slate, of a dark colorand highly polished. These last appear to correspond more nearly tothose we have indicated in the above diagrams. Besides these disks, I have met with a few spheroidal stones, aboutthree inches in diameter. One of these accompanies the disks from SouthCarolina, and is marked with a groove to receive the thumb in throwingit. A similar but ruder ball is contained among the articles found byMr. Atwater in the mound near Huron, Ohio. What was the use of the disks in question? Those who have examined theseries in my possession have offered various explanations; but the onlyone that seems in any degree plausible, is that of my friend Dr. Blanding, who supposes them to have been used in a game analogous tothat of the quoits of the Europeans. It is a curious fact that discoidalstones much resembling these have been found in Scandinavia;[17-*]whence I was at first led to suppose it possible, especially inconsideration of their apparently circumscribed occurrence in thiscountry, that they might have been introduced here by the Northmen; aconjecture that seems to lose all foundation since these relics havebeen found as far west as the Mississippi. * * * * * _Note. _--Since the preceding remarks were written, I have received frommy friend, Mr. William A. Foster, of Lima, ten skulls and two entiremummied bodies from the Peruvian cemetery at Arica. "This cemetery, "observes Mr. Foster, "lies on the face of a sandhill sloping towards thesea. The external surface occupied by these tombs, as far as weexplored, I should say was five or six acres. In many of the tombs threeor four bodies were found clustered together, always _in the sittingposture_, and wrapped in three or four thicknesses of cloth, with a matthrown over all. " These crania possess an unusual interest, inasmuch as, with twoexceptions, they present the horizontally elongated form, in everydegree from its incipient stage to its perfect development. By what contrivance has the rounded head of the Indian been moulded intothis fantastic shape? I have elsewhere[17-+] offered some explanationsof this subject; but the present series of skulls throws yet more lighton it, and enables me to indicate the precise manner in which thissingular object has been attained. It is evident that the forehead was pressed downwards and backwards bytwo compresses, (probably a folded cloth, ) one on each side of thefrontal suture, which was left free; a fact that explains the cause ofthe ridge, which, in every instance, replaces that suture by extendingfrom the root of the nose to the coronal suture. To keep thesecompresses in place, a bandage was carried over them from the base ofthe occiput obliquely forwards; and then, in order to confine thelateral portions of the skull, the same bandage was continued by anotherturn over the top of the head, immediately behind the coronal suture, and probably with an intervening compress; and the bandaging wasrepeated over these parts until they were immovably confined in thedesired position. Every one who is acquainted with the pliable condition of the cranialbones at birth, will readily conceive how effectually this apparatuswould mould the head in the elongated or cylindrical form; for, while itprevents the forehead from rising, and the sides of the head fromexpanding, it allows the occipital region an entire freedom of growth;and thus without sensibly diminishing the volume of the brain, merelyforces it into a new though unnatural direction, while it preserves, atthe same time, a remarkable symmetry of the whole structure. Thefollowing outline of one of these skulls, will further illustrate mymeaning; merely premising that the course of the bandages is in everyinstance distinctly marked by a corresponding cavity of the bonystructure, excepting on the forehead, where the action of a firmcompress has left a plane surface. [Illustration] This conformation, as we have already observed, was prevalent among theold Aymara tribes which inhabited the shores and islands of the Lake ofTiticaca, and whose civilization seems evidently to antedate that of theInca Peruvians. I was in fact at one time led to consider this form ofhead as peculiar to, and characteristic of, the former people; but Mr. Foster's extensive observations conclusively prove that it was as commonamong some tribes of the sea coast, as among those of the mountainousregion of Bolivia; that it belonged to no particular nation or tribe;and that it was, in every instance, the result of mechanicalcompression. In my Crania Americana I have given abundant instances of a remarkablevertical flattening of the occiput, and irregularity of its sides, amongthe Inca Peruvians who were buried in the royal cemetery of Pachacamac, near Lima. These heads present no other deviation from the natural form;and even this irregularity I have thought might be accounted for by acareless mode of binding the infant to the simple board, which, amongmany Indian tribes of both North and South America, is a customarysubstitute for a cradle. It is probable, however, that even thisconfiguration was intentional, and may have formed a distinctive badgeof some particular _caste_ of these singular people, among whom aperfectly natural cranium was of extremely rare occurrence. We are now acquainted with _four_ forms of the head among the oldPeruvians which were produced by artificial means, viz: 1. The horizontally elongated, or cylindrical form, above described. 2. The conical or sugar-loaf form, represented in the precedingdiagrams. 3. The simple flattening or depression of the forehead, causing the restof the head to expand, both posteriorly and laterally; a practice yetprevalent among the Chenooks and other tribes at the north of theColumbia river, in Oregon. 4. A simple vertical elevation of the occiput, giving the head in mostinstances a squared and inequilateral form. A curious decree of the ecclesiastical court of Lima, dated A.  D. 1585, and quoted by the late Prof. Blumenbach, alludes to at least fourartificial conformations of the head, even then common among thePeruvians, and forbids the practice of them under certain specifiedpenalities. [TN-4] These forms were called in the language of thenatives, "Caito, Oma, Opalla, &c. ;" and the continuance of them at thatperiod, affords another instance of the tenacity with which thePeruvians clung to the usages of their forefathers. FOOTNOTES: [4-*] See more particularly the communications of Mr. R.  C. Taylor, invol. Xxxiv, of Mr. S. Taylor, in vol. Xxxiv, and of Prof. Forshey invol. Xlix. [5-*] We take this occasion to observe, that skulls taken from themounds, should at once be saturated with a solution of glue or gum, orwith any kind of varnish, by which precaution further decomposition iseffectually prevented. [6-*] Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, I, p. 281. [6-+] Rambles in Yucatan, p. 217. [6-++] L'Homme Americain, Tome I, p. 306. I corrected my error before Ihad the pleasure of seeing M. D'Orbigny's very interesting work. Amer. Jour. Of Science, vol. Xxxviii, No. 2. Jour. Acad. Nat. Sciences ofPhiladelphia, vol. Viii; and again in my Distinctive Characteristics ofthe Aboriginal Race of America, p. 6. [6-§] See Proceedings of the Acad. Of Nat. Sciences of Philadelphia forDec. 1844. [7-*] Amer. Jour. Of Science, xxxii, p. 364. [7-+] See Proceedings of the Acad. Of Nat. Sciences of Phila. , vol. Ii, p. 274. If I mistake not, I was the first to bring forward this _mode ofinterment_ practiced by our aboriginal nations, as a strong evidence ofthe unity of the American race. "Thus it is that notwithstanding thediversity of language, customs and intellectual character, we trace thisusage throughout both Americas, affording, as we have already stated, collateral evidence of the affiliation of all the Americantribes. "--Crania Americana, p. 246, and pl. 69. Mr. Bradford in hisvaluable work, _American Antiquities_, has added some examples of thesame kind; and the Chevalier D'Eichthal has also adduced this custom, inconnexion with some traces of it in Polynesia, to prove an exotic originfor a part at least of the American race. See _Mémoires de la SociétéEthnologique de Paris_, Tome II, p. 236. Whence arose this conventionalposition of the body in death? This question has been often asked andvariously answered. It is obviously an imitation of the attitude whichthe living Indian habitually assumes when sitting at perfect ease, andwhich has been naturally transferred to his lifeless remains as a fitemblem of repose. [8-*] Crania Americana, p. 116. [8-+] I have been looking to Dr. Dickerson, of Natchez, for morecomplete details derived from the tumuli of that ancient tribe whichformed a link between the Mexican nations on the one hand, and thesavage hordes on the other. Dr. Dickerson is amply provided withinteresting and important materials for this inquiry, which we trust hewill soon make public. [8-++] The skull brought me from Ticul by Mr. Stephens, is that of ayoung female. It presents the natural rounded form; which accords withthe observation of M. D'Orbigny, (L'Homme Americain, ) that theartificial moulding of the head among some tribes of Peruvians waschiefly confined to the men. [8-§] Travels in Central America, vol. Ii, p. 311. [9-*] Crania Americana, p. 146. [10-*] Rambles in Yucatan, p. 216. [10-+] Rambles by Land and Water, p. 145. [11-*] Rambles by Land and Water, p. 203. [12-*] Commerce of the Prairies, I, p. 165. [12-+] Ibid. I, [TN-5] 270. [12-++] I am aware that the walls of the ancient Mexican and Peruvianedifices are often vertical; but where this is the case the pyramidalform is attained by piling, one on the other, successive tiers ofmasonry, each receding from the other and leaving a parapet or platformat its base. [13-*] Commerce of the Prairies, I, p. 277. [14-*] See my Inquiry into the Distinctive Characteristics of theAboriginal Race of America, 2d edit. , Philad. 1844. [17-*] See Journal of the Antiquarian Society of Denmark, published inCopenhagen in the Danish language, vol. I, tab. 2, figs. 52, 53. [17-+] Jour. Acad. Nat. Sciences of Philad. , vol. Viii. Transcriber's Note The following misspellings and typographical errors were maintained. Page Error TN-1 6 prevading should read pervading TN-2 12 abandonded should read abandoned TN-3 14 earthern should read earthen TN-4 19 penalities should read penalties TN-5 fn. 12-+ Ibid. I, 270. Should read Ibid. I, p. 270.