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diff --git a/29215-8.txt b/29215-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a40086 --- /dev/null +++ b/29215-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1119 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Observations on the Ethnography and +Archaeology of the American Aborigines, by Samuel George Morton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Some Observations on the Ethnography and Archaeology of the American Aborigines + +Author: Samuel George Morton + +Release Date: June 24, 2009 [EBook #29215] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS ON AMERICAN ABORIGINES *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from scans of public domain material produced by +Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +A number of typographical errors have been maintained in this version of +this book. They have been marked with a [TN-#], which refers to a +description 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 AMERICAN +ABORIGINES. + + +Nothing in the progress of human knowledge is more remarkable than the +recent discoveries in American archæology, whether we regard them as +monuments of art or as contributions to science. The names of Stephens +and Norman will ever stand preëminent for their extraordinary +revelations in Mexico and Yucatan; which, added to those previously made +by Del Rio, Humboldt, Waldeck and D'Orbigny in these and other parts of +our continent, have thrown a bright, yet almost bewildering light, on +the former condition of the western world. + +Cities have been explored, replete with columns, bas-reliefs, tombs and +temples; the works of a comparatively civilized people, who were +surrounded by barbarous yet affiliated tribes. Of the builders we know +little besides what we gather from their monuments, which remain to +astonish the mind and stimulate research. They teach us the value of +archæological facts in tracing the primitive condition and cognate +relations of the several great branches of the human family; at the same +time 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 the +principal object I have in view in giving publicity to the following too +desultory remarks, is to impress on travellers and others who are +favorably situated for making observations, the importance of preserving +every relic, organic or artificial, that can throw any light on the past +and present condition of our native tribes. Objects of this nature have +been too often thrown aside as valueless; or kept as mere curiosities, +until they were finally lost or become so defaced or broken as to be +useless. To render such relics available to science and art, their +history and characteristics should be recorded in the periodicals of the +day; by which means we shall eventually possess an accumulated mass of +facts that will be all-important to future generalization. I grant that +this course has been ably pursued by many intelligent writers, and the +American Journal of Science is a fruitful depository of such +observations.[4-*] With every acknowledgment to these praiseworthy +efforts, let us urge their active continuance. Time and the progress of +civilization are daily effacing the vestiges of our aboriginal race; and +whatever can be done to rescue these vestiges from oblivion, must be +done quickly. + +We call attention in the first place, to two skulls from a mound about +three miles from the mouth of Huron river, Ohio. They were obtained by +Mr. Charles W. Atwater, and forwarded to Mr. B. Silliman, Jr., through +whose kindness they have been placed in my hands. These remains possess +the greater interest, because the many articles found with them present +no trace of European art; thus confirming the opinion expressed in Mr. +Atwater's letter:--"There are a great many mounds in the township of +Huron," he observes, "all which appear to have been built a long time +previous to the intercourse between the Indians and the white men. I +have opened a number of these mounds, and have not discovered any +articles manufactured by the latter. A piece of copper from a small +mound 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 some +remarks in another place. The materials of which these articles are +formed, are jasper, quartz, granite stained by copper, and clay slate, +all showing that peculiar time-worn polish which such substances acquire +by long inhumation. + +The two skeletons were of a man and a woman. "They had been buried on +the surface of the ground and the earth raised over them. They lay on +their backs with their feet to the west." The male cranium presents, in +every particular, the characteristics of the American race. The forehead +recedes less than usual in these people, but the large size of the jaws, +the quadrangular orbits, and the width between the cheek bones, are all +remarkably developed; while the rounded head, elevated vertex, vertical +occiput and great inter-parietal diameter, (which is no less than 5·7 +inches,) render this skull a type of national conformation. (Fig. 1.) + +[Illustration: Fig. 1.] + +The female head possesses the same general character, but is more +elongated in the occipital region, and of more delicate proportions +throughout.[5-*] + +Similar in general conformation to these are all the mound and other +skulls I have received since the publication of my work on American +Crania, viz. five from the country of the Araucos, in Chili, from Dr. +Thomas S. Page of Valparaiso; six of ancient Otomies, Tlascalans and +Chechemecans, 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.; one +from a mound on Blue river, Illinois, from Dr. Brown of St. Louis; and +four sent me by Lieut. Meigs, U. S. A., who obtained them from the +immediate vicinity of Detroit, in Michigan. To these may be added two +others taken from ancient graves near Fort Chartres, in Illinois, by Dr. +Wistlizenus of St. Louis; a single cranium from the cemetery of Santiago +de Tlatelolco, near the city of Mexico, which I have received through +the 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 but +not least, I may add the skull obtained by Mr. Stephens[6-*] from a +vault at Ticul, a ruined aboriginal city of Yucatan, and some mutilated +but interesting fragments brought me from the latter country, by my +friend Mr. Norman.[6-+] + +These crania, together with upwards of four hundred others of nearly +sixty tribes and nations, derived from the repositories of the dead in +different localities over the whole length and breadth of both Americas, +present a conformable and national type of organization, showing the +origin of one to be equally the origin of all. + +To this prevading[TN-1] cranial type I have already adverted. Even the +long-headed Aymaras of Peru, whom, in common with Prof. Tiedemann, I at +first thought to present a congenitally different form of head from the +nations who surrounded them, are proved, by the recent discoveries of M. +Alcide D'Orbigny, to have belonged to the same race as the other +Americans, and to owe their singularly elongated crania to a peculiar +mode of artificial compression from the earliest infancy.[6-++] + +But there is evidence to the same effect, but of more ancient date than +any we have yet mentioned. The recent explorations of Dr. Lund in the +district of Minas Geraes, in Brazil, have brought to light human bones +which he regards as fossil, because they accompany the remains of +extinct genera and species of quadrupeds, and have undergone the same +mineral changes with the latter. He has found several crania, all of +which correspond in form to the present aboriginal type.[6-§] + +Even the head of the celebrated _Guadaloupe skeleton_ forms no exception +to the rule. The skeleton itself is well known to be in the British +Museum, but wants the cranium, which however is supposed to have been +recovered 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 the +following observations:--"Compared with the cranium of a Peruvian +presented to Prof. Holbrook by Dr. Morton, in the museum of the state of +South Carolina, the craniological similarity manifested between them is +too striking to permit us to question their national identity. There is +in both the same coronal elevation, occipital compression, and lateral +protuberance accompanied with frontal depression, which mark the +American variety in general."[7-*] + +[Illustration: Fig. 2.] + +There is additional proof of identity, not only of original +conformation, but of conventional modification of the form of the head, +which I may be excused from reverting to in this place, inasmuch as the +materials I shall use have but recently come to my hands. The first of +these subjects is represented by the subjoined wood-cut, (fig. 2.) It +was politely sent me by Dr. John Houstoun, an intelligent surgeon of the +British Navy, with the following memorandum: "From an ancient town +called Chiuhiu, or Atacama Baja, on the river Loa, and on the western +edge of the desert of Atacama. The bodies are nearly all buried _in the +sitting posture_, [the conventional usage of most of the American +nations from Patagonia to Canada,] with the hands either placed on each +side of the head, or crossed over the breast."[7-+] + +This cranium (and another received with it) has that remarkable +sugar-loaf form which renders them high and broad in front, with a short +antero-posterior diameter, both the forehead and occiput bearing +evidence of long continued compression. They correspond precisely with +the descriptions given by Cieza, Torquemada and others among the +earliest travellers in Peru, who saw the natives in various parts of the +country 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. James +Tooley, Jr., and by him presented to me. The face in this, as in the +former instance, has all the characteristics of the native Indian; and +the cranium has undergone precisely the same process of artificial +compression, although these tribes were separated from each other by the +vast geographical distance of four thousand miles! + +Could we discover the cranial remains of the older Mexican nations, we +should doubtless find many of them to possess the same fanciful type of +conformation;[8-++] for if either of the skulls figured above could be +again clothed in flesh and blood, would we not have restored to us the +very heads that are so abundantly sculptured on the monuments of Central +America, and so graphically described by Herrera, when he tells us that +the 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 this +interesting subject. They are taken from bas-reliefs in the _Palace at +Palenque_. The personage fig. 4, (whose head-dress we have partly +omitted,) appears to be a king or chieftain, at whose feet are two +suppliants, naked and cross-legged, of whom we copy the one that +preserves 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 that +if the suppliant is a servant or a slave of the same race with his +master, the artificial moulding of the cranium was common to all +classes. If, on the other hand, we assume that he is an enemy imploring +mercy, we come to the conclusion that the singular custom of which we +are speaking, was in use among other and surrounding nations; which +latter inference is confirmed by other evidence, that, for example, +derived from the Natchez tribe, and the clay effigies so abundantly +found at the ruined temples of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan, near the +city of Mexico.[9-*] + +I can aver that sixteen years of almost daily comparisons have only +confirmed me in the conclusions announced in my _Crania Americana_, that +all the American nations, excepting the Eskimaux, are of one race, and +that this race is peculiar and distinct from all others. The first of +these propositions may be regarded as an axiom in ethnography; the +second still gives rise to a diversity of opinions, of which the most +prevalent 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 so +great a variety in the configuration of the head and face; a fact which +forcibly impresses every one who examines the numerous effigies in baked +clay in the collection of the American Philosophical Society; yet they +are all made of the same material and by the same national artists. The +varieties are indeed endless; and Mr. Norman in his first work, has +arrived at a reasonable conclusion, in which we entirely agree with him, +"that the people prepared these _penates_ according to their respective +tastes, and with little reference to any standard or canon."[10-*] + +They appear to have exercised much ingenuity in this way, blending +almost every conceivable type of the human countenance, and associating +this again with those of beasts, birds, and various fanciful animals, +which last are equal in uncouthness to any productions of the Gothic +artists of the middle ages. + +Mr. Norman in his late and interesting volume of travels in Cuba and +Mexico, discovered in the latter country some remarkable ruins near the +town of Panuco, and among them a curious sepulchral effigy. "It was a +handsome 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 half +feet in width and one foot in thickness. Upon its face was beautifully +wrought, in bold relief, the full length figure of a man, in a loose +robe with a girdle about his loins, his arms crossed on his breast, his +head encased in a close cap or casque, resembling the Roman helmet (as +represented in the etchings of Pinelli) without the crest, and his feet +and ankles bound with the ties of sandals. The figure is that of a tall +muscular 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, and +the stones that cover the tombs of the Knights Templar in some of the +ancient churches of the old world," but he thinks that neither this nor +any other circumstance proves this effigy to have been of European +origin or of modern date. "The material," he adds, "is the same as that +of all the buildings and works of art in this vicinity, and the style +and workmanship are those of the great unknown artists of the western +hemisphere;" and he arrives at the conclusion, as many ingenuous minds +have done before him, that these and the other archæological remains of +Mexico and Yucatan, "are the works of a people who have long since +passed 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 able +to agree with him in his conclusion; but I should not now revive my +published opinions or contest his, were it not that some new light +appears to me to have dawned on this very question. + +In the first place, then, we regard the effigy found near Panuco as +probably Caucasian; so does Mr. Norman; but instead of referring it to a +very remote antiquity, or to some European occupancy of Mexico long +before the Spanish conquest, we will venture to suggest, that even if +the town of Panuco was itself older than that event, (of which indeed we +have no doubt,) it is consistent with collateral facts to infer, that +the Spaniards may have occupied this very town, in common with, or +subsequent to, the native inhabitants, and have left this sepulchral +monument. That the Spaniards did sometimes practice this joint +occupancy, is well known; and that they have, in some instances, left +their monuments in places wherein even tradition had almost lost sight +of their former sojourn, is susceptible of proof. + +Mr. Gregg, in a recent and instructive work on the "Commerce of the +Prairies," states the following particulars, which are the more valuable +since he had no opinions of his own in reference to the American +aborigines, and merely gives the facts as he found them. + +Mr. Gregg describes the ruins called _La Gran Quivira_, about 100 miles +south of Santa Fé, as larger than the present capital of New Mexico. The +architecture of this deserted city is of hewn stone, and there are the +remains of aqueducts eight or ten miles in length leading from the +neighboring mountains. These ruins "have been supposed to be the remains +of a _pueblo_ or aboriginal city;" but he adds that the occurrence of +the Spanish coat of arms in more than one instance sculptured and +painted upon the houses, prevents the adoption of such an opinion; and +that traditional report (and tradition only) mentions this as a city +that was sacked and desolated in the Indian insurrection of 1680.[12-*] +Now had it not been for the occurrence of the heraldic paintings, this +city might have been still regarded as of purely Indian origin and +occupancy; as might also the analogous ruins of Abo, Tagique and Chilili +in the same vicinity; for although these may have been originally +constructed by the natives, yet as they are supposed to be near the +ancient mines, it is not improbable that the conquerors in these, as in +many other instances, drove out the rightful owners, and took possession +for themselves;[12-+] for that they did possess and inhabit the towns +above 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 intruded +themselves, and having left traces of their sojourn, as at _La Gran +Quivira_, subsequently, owing to some dire catastrophe, or some new +impulse, abandonded[TN-2] it for another and preferable location? This, +we suggest, is a reasonable explanation of the presence of the Caucasian +effigy found by Mr. Norman among the deserted ruins of Panuco. + +Mr. Stephens has, I think, conclusively proved that the past and present +Indian races of Mexico were cognate tribes. I had previously arrived at +the same conclusion from a different kind of evidence. What was manifest +in the physical man is corroborated by his archæological remains. The +reiterated testimony of some of the early Spanish travellers, and +especially of Bernal Diaz and Herrera, is of the utmost importance to +this question; and all that is necessary in the chain of evidence, is +some link to connect the demi-civilized nations with the present +uncultivated and barbarous tribes. These links have been supplied by Mr. +Gregg. Those peculiar dwellings and other structures, with inclined or +parapet walls,[12-++] and with or without windows, which are common to +all epochs of Peruvian and Mexican architecture, are constructed and +occupied by the Indians of Mexico even at the present day. After +describing the general character of these modern domicils, Mr. Gregg +goes on to observe, that "a very curious feature in these buildings, is +that there is most generally no direct communication between the street +and the lower rooms, into which they descended from a trap-door from the +upper story, the latter being accessible by means of a ladder. Even the +entrance at the upper stories is frequently at the roof. This style of +building appears to have been adopted for security against their +marauding neighbors of the wilder tribes, with whom they were often at +war. + +"Though this was their most usual style of architecture, there still +exists a Pueblo of Taos, composed, for the most part, of but two +edifices of very singular structure--one on each side of a creek, and +formerly communicating by a bridge. The base story is a mass of near +four hundred feet long, a hundred and fifty wide, and divided into +numerous apartments, upon which other tiers of rooms are built, one +above another, drawn in by regular grades, forming _a pyramidal pile_ of +fifty or sixty feet high, and comprising some six or eight stories. The +outer rooms only seem to be used for dwellings, and are lighted by +little windows at the sides, but are entered through trap-doors in the +_azoteas_ or roofs. Most of the inner apartments are employed as +granaries and storerooms, but a spacious hall in the centre of the mass, +known as the _estufa_, is reserved for their secret councils. These two +buildings 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 aboriginal +population, is built in the same manner, the material being, as usual, +sun-burnt bricks; and my friend Dr. Wm. Gambel informs me, that in a +late journey from Santa Fé across the continent to California, he +constantly observed an analogous style of building, as well in the +dwellings of the present native inhabitants, as in those older and +abandoned structures of whose date little or nothing is known. + +Who does not see in the builders of these humbler dwellings, the +descendants of the architects of Palenque, and Yucatan? The style is the +same in both. The same objects have been arrived at by similar modes of +construction. The older structures are formed of a better material, +generally of hewn stone, and often elaborately ornamented with +sculpture. But the absence of all decoration in the modern buildings, is +no proof that they have not been erected by people of the same race with +those who have left such profusely ornamented monuments in other parts +of Mexico; for the ruins of Pueblo Bonito, in the direction of Navajo, +and those of the celebrated Casas Grandes on the western Colorado, which +were regarded by Clavigero as among the oldest Toltecan remains in +Mexico, are destitute of sculpture or other decoration. In fact, these +last named ruins appear to date with the primitive wanderings of the +cultivated tribes, before they established their seats in Yucatan and +Guatimala, and erected those more finished monuments which could only +result from the combined efforts of populous communities, acting under +the favorable influence of peace and prosperity. Every race has had its +center or centers of comparative civilization. The American aborigines +had theirs in Peru, Bogota and Mexico. The people, the institutions and +the architecture were essentially the same in each, though modified by +local wants and conventional usages. Humboldt was forcibly impressed by +this archæological identity, for he himself had traced it, with +occasional interruptions, over an extent of a thousand leagues; and we +now find that it gradually merges itself into the ruder dwellings of the +more barbarous tribes; showing, as I have often remarked, that there is, +in every respect, a gradual ethnographic transition from these into the +temple-builders of every American epoch.[14-*] + +I shall close this communication by a notice of certain _discoidal +stones_ occasionally found in the mounds of the United States. Of these +relics I possess sixteen, of which all but two were found by my friend +Dr. Wm. Blanding, during his long residence in Camden, South Carolina. +These disks were accompanied, as usual, by earthern[TN-3] vessels, pipes +of 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 the +banks of the Wateree river, Kershaw district, South Carolina; the +greater part from the mounds or near the foot of them. All the mounds +that I have observed in this state, excepting these, do not amount to as +many as are found on the Wateree within the distance of twenty four +miles 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 of +the different mounds, not in them. They seemed to be left, where they +were no doubt used, on the play grounds." + +The disks are from an inch and a half to six inches in diameter, and +present some varieties in other respects. + +[Illustration] + +Fig. 1 represents a profile of the simplest form and at the same time +the smallest size of these stones, being in diameter about an inch and +three quarters. The upper and under surfaces are nearly plane, with +angular 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 diameter +and an inch and three fourths in thickness. The margin is rounded, and +both surfaces are deeply concave though imperforate. + +Fig. 4 is another specimen four inches in diameter, deeply concave from +the margin to the center, with a central perforation. The margin itself +is slightly convex. The concave surface is marked by two sets of +superficial grooved lines, which meet something in the form of a +bird-track. This disk is made of a light-brown ferruginous quartz. + +Fig. 5 is a profile view of a solid lenticular stone, much more convex +on the one side than the other, formed of hard syenitic rock. + +Besides these there are other slight modifications of form which it is +unnecessary to particularize. + +These disks are made of the hardest stones, and wrought with admirable +symmetry and polish, surpassing any thing we could readily conceive of +in the humbler arts of the present Indian tribes; and the question +arises, whether they are not the works of their seemingly extinct +progenitors?--of that people of the same race, (but more directly allied +to the Toltecans of Mexico,) who appear in former times to have +constituted populous and cultivated communities throughout the valley of +the Mississippi, and in the southern and western regions towards the +gulf of Mexico, and whose last direct and lineal representatives were +the ill-fated Natchez? + +I have made much inquiry as to the localities of these and analogous +remains, but hitherto with little success. I am assured that they have +been found in Missouri, perhaps near St. Louis; and in very rare +instances in the northern part of Delaware. Dr. Ruggles has sent me the +plaster model of a small, perforated, but irregularly formed stone of +this kind, taken from an ancient Indian grave at Fall River in Rhode +Island; but Dr. Edwin H. Davis, of Chilicothe, in a letter recently +received from him, informs me that he had obtained, during his +excavations in that vicinity, no less than "two hundred flint disks in a +single mound, measuring from three and a half to five inches in +diameter, and from half an inch to an inch in thickness, of three +different forms, round, oval and triangular." These appear, however, to +be of a different construction and designed for some other use than +those I have described; and Dr. Davis himself offers the probable +suggestion, that "they were rude darts blocked out at the quarries for +easy transportation to the Indian towns." The same gentleman speaks of +having found other disks formed of a micaceous slate, of a dark color +and highly polished. These last appear to correspond more nearly to +those we have indicated in the above diagrams. + +Besides these disks, I have met with a few spheroidal stones, about +three inches in diameter. One of these accompanies the disks from South +Carolina, and is marked with a groove to receive the thumb in throwing +it. A similar but ruder ball is contained among the articles found by +Mr. Atwater in the mound near Huron, Ohio. + +What was the use of the disks in question? Those who have examined the +series in my possession have offered various explanations; but the only +one that seems in any degree plausible, is that of my friend Dr. +Blanding, who supposes them to have been used in a game analogous to +that of the quoits of the Europeans. It is a curious fact that discoidal +stones much resembling these have been found in Scandinavia;[17-*] +whence I was at first led to suppose it possible, especially in +consideration of their apparently circumscribed occurrence in this +country, that they might have been introduced here by the Northmen; a +conjecture that seems to lose all foundation since these relics have +been found as far west as the Mississippi. + + * * * * * + +_Note._--Since the preceding remarks were written, I have received from +my friend, Mr. William A. Foster, of Lima, ten skulls and two entire +mummied bodies from the Peruvian cemetery at Arica. "This cemetery," +observes Mr. Foster, "lies on the face of a sandhill sloping towards the +sea. The external surface occupied by these tombs, as far as we +explored, I should say was five or six acres. In many of the tombs three +or four bodies were found clustered together, always _in the sitting +posture_, and wrapped in three or four thicknesses of cloth, with a mat +thrown over all." + +These crania possess an unusual interest, inasmuch as, with two +exceptions, they present the horizontally elongated form, in every +degree from its incipient stage to its perfect development. + +By what contrivance has the rounded head of the Indian been moulded into +this fantastic shape? I have elsewhere[17-+] offered some explanations +of this subject; but the present series of skulls throws yet more light +on it, and enables me to indicate the precise manner in which this +singular object has been attained. + +It is evident that the forehead was pressed downwards and backwards by +two compresses, (probably a folded cloth,) one on each side of the +frontal suture, which was left free; a fact that explains the cause of +the ridge, which, in every instance, replaces that suture by extending +from the root of the nose to the coronal suture. To keep these +compresses in place, a bandage was carried over them from the base of +the occiput obliquely forwards; and then, in order to confine the +lateral portions of the skull, the same bandage was continued by another +turn over the top of the head, immediately behind the coronal suture, +and probably with an intervening compress; and the bandaging was +repeated over these parts until they were immovably confined in the +desired position. + +Every one who is acquainted with the pliable condition of the cranial +bones at birth, will readily conceive how effectually this apparatus +would mould the head in the elongated or cylindrical form; for, while it +prevents the forehead from rising, and the sides of the head from +expanding, it allows the occipital region an entire freedom of growth; +and thus without sensibly diminishing the volume of the brain, merely +forces it into a new though unnatural direction, while it preserves, at +the same time, a remarkable symmetry of the whole structure. The +following outline of one of these skulls, will further illustrate my +meaning; merely premising that the course of the bandages is in every +instance distinctly marked by a corresponding cavity of the bony +structure, excepting on the forehead, where the action of a firm +compress has left a plane surface. + +[Illustration] + +This conformation, as we have already observed, was prevalent among the +old Aymara tribes which inhabited the shores and islands of the Lake of +Titicaca, and whose civilization seems evidently to antedate that of the +Inca Peruvians. I was in fact at one time led to consider this form of +head as peculiar to, and characteristic of, the former people; but Mr. +Foster's extensive observations conclusively prove that it was as common +among some tribes of the sea coast, as among those of the mountainous +region of Bolivia; that it belonged to no particular nation or tribe; +and that it was, in every instance, the result of mechanical +compression. + +In my Crania Americana I have given abundant instances of a remarkable +vertical flattening of the occiput, and irregularity of its sides, among +the 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 a +careless mode of binding the infant to the simple board, which, among +many Indian tribes of both North and South America, is a customary +substitute for a cradle. It is probable, however, that even this +configuration was intentional, and may have formed a distinctive badge +of some particular _caste_ of these singular people, among whom a +perfectly natural cranium was of extremely rare occurrence. + +We are now acquainted with _four_ forms of the head among the old +Peruvians 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 preceding +diagrams. + +3. The simple flattening or depression of the forehead, causing the rest +of the head to expand, both posteriorly and laterally; a practice yet +prevalent among the Chenooks and other tribes at the north of the +Columbia river, in Oregon. + +4. A simple vertical elevation of the occiput, giving the head in most +instances 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 four +artificial conformations of the head, even then common among the +Peruvians, and forbids the practice of them under certain specified +penalities.[TN-4] These forms were called in the language of the +natives, "Caito, Oma, Opalla, &c.;" and the continuance of them at that +period, affords another instance of the tenacity with which the +Peruvians clung to the usages of their forefathers. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4-*] See more particularly the communications of Mr. R. C. Taylor, in +vol. xxxiv, of Mr. S. Taylor, in vol. xxxiv, and of Prof. Forshey in +vol. xlix. + +[5-*] We take this occasion to observe, that skulls taken from the +mounds, should at once be saturated with a solution of glue or gum, or +with any kind of varnish, by which precaution further decomposition is +effectually 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 I +had the pleasure of seeing M. D'Orbigny's very interesting work. Amer. +Jour. of Science, vol. xxxviii, No. 2. Jour. Acad. Nat. Sciences of +Philadelphia, vol. viii; and again in my Distinctive Characteristics of +the Aboriginal Race of America, p. 6. + +[6-§] See Proceedings of the Acad. of Nat. Sciences of Philadelphia for +Dec. 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 of +interment_ practiced by our aboriginal nations, as a strong evidence of +the unity of the American race. "Thus it is that notwithstanding the +diversity of language, customs and intellectual character, we trace this +usage throughout both Americas, affording, as we have already stated, +collateral evidence of the affiliation of all the American +tribes."--Crania Americana, p. 246, and pl. 69. Mr. Bradford in his +valuable work, _American Antiquities_, has added some examples of the +same kind; and the Chevalier D'Eichthal has also adduced this custom, in +connexion with some traces of it in Polynesia, to prove an exotic origin +for a part at least of the American race. See _Mémoires de la Société +Ethnologique de Paris_, Tome II, p. 236. Whence arose this conventional +position of the body in death? This question has been often asked and +variously answered. It is obviously an imitation of the attitude which +the living Indian habitually assumes when sitting at perfect ease, and +which has been naturally transferred to his lifeless remains as a fit +emblem of repose. + +[8-*] Crania Americana, p. 116. + +[8-+] I have been looking to Dr. Dickerson, of Natchez, for more +complete details derived from the tumuli of that ancient tribe which +formed a link between the Mexican nations on the one hand, and the +savage hordes on the other. Dr. Dickerson is amply provided with +interesting and important materials for this inquiry, which we trust he +will soon make public. + +[8-++] The skull brought me from Ticul by Mr. Stephens, is that of a +young female. It presents the natural rounded form; which accords with +the observation of M. D'Orbigny, (L'Homme Americain,) that the +artificial moulding of the head among some tribes of Peruvians was +chiefly 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 Peruvian +edifices are often vertical; but where this is the case the pyramidal +form is attained by piling, one on the other, successive tiers of +masonry, each receding from the other and leaving a parapet or platform +at its base. + +[13-*] Commerce of the Prairies, I, p. 277. + +[14-*] See my Inquiry into the Distinctive Characteristics of the +Aboriginal Race of America, 2d edit., Philad. 1844. + +[17-*] See Journal of the Antiquarian Society of Denmark, published in +Copenhagen 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. 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