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diff --git a/old/52406-0.txt b/old/52406-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index aa3740a..0000000 --- a/old/52406-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12754 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Prehistoric Man, by Daniel Wilson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Prehistoric Man - Researches into the Origin of Civilization in the Old and the New World - -Author: Daniel Wilson - -Release Date: June 25, 2016 [EBook #52406] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PREHISTORIC MAN *** - - - - -Produced by Larry Harrison, Cindy Beyer and the online -Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at -http://www.pgdpcanada.net with images provided by The -Internet Archives-US - - - - - - P R E H I S T O R I C M A N - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - -[Illustration: KASKATACHYUH. - A CHIMPSEYAN CHIEF. - Drawn by D. Wilson LL.D. from sketches by Paul Kane. - Cooper & Hodson Lith. 188, Strand, London, W.C.] - - - - - P R E H I S T O R I C M A N - - - Researches into the Origin of Civilisation - in the Old and the New World. - - - BY - - DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., F.R.S.E. -PROFESSOR OF HISTORY & ENGLISH LITERATURE IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO; - AUTHOR OF THE ‘PREHISTORIC ANNALS OF SCOTLAND,’ ETC. - - - - THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED, - WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - - LONDON: - M A C M I L L A N A N D C O . - 1876. - - [_The right of translation is reserved._] - - - - - Edinburgh University Press: - - THOMAS AND ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY. - - - - - IN FOND MEMORIAL - - OF A BROTHER’S LIFE-LONG SYMPATHY - - IN MANY FAVOURITE RESEARCHES - - THESE VOLUMES - - DEPRIVED BY DEATH OF THEIR PURPOSED DEDICATION - - ARE INSCRIBED WITH THE LOVED NAME OF - - GEORGE WILSON, M.D. F.R.S.E. - - LATE REGIUS PROFESSOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH - AND DIRECTOR OF THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND. - - - - - P R E F A C E . - -THE subject primarily treated of in the following pages is the man of -that new hemisphere which was revealed to Europe in 1492. There through -all historic centuries he had lived apart, absolutely uninfluenced by -any reflex of the civilisation of the Ancient World; and yet, as it -appears, pursuing a course in many respects strikingly analogous to that -by means of which the civilisation of Europe originated. The recognition -of this is not only of value as an aid to the realisation of the -necessary conditions through which man passed in reaching the stage at -which he is found at the dawn of history; but it seems to point to the -significant conclusion that civilisation is the development of -capacities inherent in man. - -The term used in the title was first employed, in 1851, in my -_Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, where evidence was adduced in proof of -man’s presence in Britain “long anterior to the earliest indications of -the Aryan nations passing into Europe.” It was purposely coined to -express the whole period disclosed to us by means of archæological -evidence, as distinguished from what is known through written records; -and in this sense the term was speedily adopted by the Archæologists of -Europe. But the subject thus defined is a comprehensive one; and in its -rapid growth, distinctive subdivisions have been introduced which tend -to narrow the application of the term. Nevertheless it is still a -legitimate definition of man, wherever his history is recoverable solely -by means of primitive arts. - -The first edition of _Prehistoric Man_, published in 1862, was followed -in 1865 by another, carefully revised in accordance with later -disclosures. Since then I have availed myself of further opportunities -for study and research in reference both to existing races, and to the -arts and monumental remains of extinct nations of the New World. Within -the same period important additions have been contributed to our -knowledge not only of the arts, but of the physical characteristics of -primeval man in Europe. In the present edition, accordingly, much of the -original work has been rewritten. Several chapters have been replaced by -new matter. Others have been condensed, or recast, with considerable -modifications and a new arrangement of the whole. - -The illustrations have been correspondingly augmented; and some of them -engraved anew from more accurate drawings. In the first edition they -numbered seventy-one. They now amount to one hundred and thirty-four, -including several for which I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. John -Evans, F.R.S., to the publishers of _Nature_, and to the Council of the -Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. - - D. W. -UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TORONTO, - _18th November 1875_. - - - - - C O N T E N T S - - CHAPTER I. - INTRODUCTION. - The Influence of the Discovery of America—The Old World and the - New—American Phases of Life—The Term Prehistoric—Influence of - Migrations—What is Civilisation?—Domestication—Indian - Philosophy—Aborigines—The Tartar; The Arab—Languages of - America—Wanderings of the Nations—Fossil Man—Occupation of the - New World, 1 - - CHAPTER II. - THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION. - The Latest Migrations—Founding a Capital—Beginnings of - History—Prehistoric Phases—Non-Metallurgic Eras—Oscillations of - the Land—The Glacial Period—Conditions of Climate—Fossil - Mammalia—The Flint-Folk of the Drift—Advent of European Man—The - Drift Implements—Scottish Alluvium—Preceltic Races—Their - Imitative Arts—Man Primeval—His Intellectual - Condition—Instinct—Accumulated Knowledge—Primeval Britain—Its - Fossil Fauna—Ossiferous Caves—Brixham Cave—Food—Scottish - Reindeer—American Drift—Relics of Ancient Life—Extinct - Fauna—Man and the Mastodon—Indian Traditions—Giants—Drift - Disclosures—Large Ovoid Discs—Cave Disclosures—American Cranial - Type—Antiquity of the American Man, 17 - - CHAPTER III. - THE QUARRY. - The Quarry—Brixham Cave—Brixham Flint Implement—Flint Ridge, - Ohio—Flint Pits—Drift Quarry Deposits—Traces of Palæolithic - Art—Lanceolate Flints—Almond-shaped Flints—The Shawnees—The - Colorado Indians—Caches of Worked Flints—Sepulchral - Deposits—Cave Drift Disclosures—Illustrative - Analogies—Cincinnati Collections—Hornstone Spear-heads—American - Neolithic Art—Flint Drills—Modes of - Perforation—Flint-Knives—Razors and Scrapers—Arrow-head - Forms—Discoidal Stones—Sinkers and Lasso Stones—Cupped - Stones—Archæological Theories—Georgia Boulders—Hand - Cup-stones—Neolithic Grindstones—Archæological Enigmas—Ancient - Analogies, 64 - - CHAPTER IV. - BONE AND SHELL WORKERS. - Bone and Ivory Workers—Substitutes for Flint—Proofs of Relative - Age—Domestic Bone Implements—Rude Palæolithic Art—Whalebone - Workers—Primitive Working Tools—Fish-spears and - Harpoons—Artistic Ingenuity—Drawing of the Mammoth—The - Madelaine Etchings—Righthanded Workers—Deer-horn Quarry - Picks—Bonebracer or Guard—Birthtime of the Fine Arts—Innuit - Carvers of Alaska—Troglodytes of Central France—Post-Glacial - Man—Symmetrical Head-Form—Intellectual Vigour—Evidence of - Latent Powers—Tawatin Ivory Carving—Lake-Dwellers’ - Implements—Cave Implements—Arts of the Pacific Islanders—Carib - Shell-Knives—Aborigines of the Antilles—Caribs of St. - Domingo—Cave Pictures and Carvings—Prized Tropical - Shells—Ancient Graves of Tennessee—Shell Manufactures—Huron and - Petun Graves—Sacred Shell-Vessels—Primitive Shell - Ornaments—American Shell Mounds—A Shell Currency—Ioqua Standard - of Value, 96 - - CHAPTER V. - FIRE. - The Fire-using Animal—Esquimaux use of Fire—Fuegian - Fire-making—Modes of producing Fire—Australian Fire-myth—Men of - the Mammoth Age—Hearths of the Cave-Men—Pacific Root-Word for - Fire—Great Cycle of the Aztecs—Rekindling the Sacred - Fire—Peruvian Sun-Worshippers—Sacrifice of the White Dog—Sacred - Fires of the Mound-Builders—Indian Fire-making—Sanctity of - Fire—Tierra del Fuego, 135 - - CHAPTER VI. - THE CANOE. - The use of Tools—Tool-using Instinct—Rudimentary stage of - Art—Primitive River-Craft—The Guanahanè Canoe—Ocean - Navigation—African Canoe-making—Oregon Cedar Canoes—Native - Whalers of the Pacific—Prehistoric Boat-Builders—Mawai’s - Canoes—The Polynesian Archipelago—The Terra Australis - Incognita—Canoe-Fleets of the Pacific—Primitive - Navigation—Portable Boats—The Coracle and Kaiak—The Peruvian - Balsa—Ocean Navigators, 151 - - CHAPTER VII. - TOOLS. - Man the Artificer—The Law of Reason—Indigenous Races—Man’s - Capacity for Deterioration—What is a Stone Period?—Materials of - Primitive Art—Succession of Races—Indications of Ancient - Trade—The Shoshone Indian—Texas Implements—Modes of - Hafting—Deer’s-horn Sockets—Stone Knives—Thlinkets of - Alaska—Metals of a Stone Period—Arts of the South - Pacific—Malayan Influence—Fijian Constructive Skill—Fijian - Pottery—Slow Maturity of Races—The Flint-edged Sword—The League - of the Five Nations—Iroquois Predominance—Work in Obsidian and - Flint—Honduras Flint Implements—Sources of the - Material—Collision of Races—Fate of Inferior Races, 170 - - CHAPTER VIII. - THE METALS. - Dawn of a Metallurgic Era—Primitive Copper-Working—Copper Region - of Lake Superior—The Pictured Rocks—Jackson Iron Mountain—The - Cliff Mine—Copper Tools—Ancient Mining Trenches—Great extent of - Works—Mines of Isle Royale—Their estimated Age—Ancient Mining - Implements—Stone Mauls and Axes—Ontonagon Mining Relics—Sites - of Copper Manufactories—Native Copper and Silver—Brockville - Copper Implements—Lost Metallurgic Arts—Chemical - Analyses—Native Terra-Cottas—Ancient British Mining Tools—The - Race of the Copper Mines—Chippewa Superstitions—Earliest - notices of the Copper Region—Ontonagon Mass of Copper—Ancient - Native Traffic—Native use of Metals—Condition of the - Mound-Builders—Mineral Resources—Antiquity of Copper - Workings—Desertion of the Mines, 198 - - CHAPTER IX. - ALLOYS. - The Age of Bronze—An intermediate Copper Age—European Copper - Implements—Native Silver and Copper—Tin and Copper Ores—The - Cassiterides—Ancient Sources of Tin—Arts of Yucatan—Alloyed - Copper Axe-Blades—Bronze Silver-Mining Tool—Peruvian - Bronzes—Primitive Mining Tools—Native Metallurgic - Processes—Metallic Treasures of the Incas—Traces of an Older - Race—Peruvian History—The Toltecs and Mexicans—Adjustment of - Calendar—Barbarian Excesses—Native Goldsmith’s Work—Panama Gold - Relics—Mexican Metallic Currency—Experimental Processes—Ancient - European Bronzes—Tests of Civilisation—Ancient American - Bronzes—The Native Metallurgist, 229 - - CHAPTER X. - THE MOUND-BUILDERS. - Earth Pyramids—Monuments of the Mound-Builders—Seats of Ancient - Population—Different Classes of Works—Ancient - Strongholds—Natural Sites—Fort Hill, Ohio—Iroquois - Strongholds—Analogous Strongholds—Fortified Civic Sites—Sacred - Enclosures—Newark Eagle Mound—Geometrical Earthworks—Plan of - Newark Earthworks, Ohio—A Standard of Measurement—Diversity of - Works—Evidence of Skill—The Cincinnati Tablet—Scales of - Measurement—Traces of Extinct Rites, 256 - - CHAPTER XI. - SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS. - Sources of Information—Hill Mounds—The Scioto Mound—The Taylor - Mound—The Issaquina Mound—The Elliot Mound—The Lockport - Mound—Black Bird’s Grave—Scioto Valley Mounds—Symbolical - Rites—Human Sacrifices—The Grave Creek Mound—Common - Sepulchres—Cremation—Scioto Mound Cranium—Sacred Festivals, 277 - - CHAPTER XII. - SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. - Mound Altars—Altar Deposits—Quenching the Altar Fires—Mound - Hearths—Mound City—Military Altar Mounds—Their Structure and - Contents—Significance of their Deposits—Analogous Indian - Rites—Transitional Civilisation, 293 - - CHAPTER XIII. - SYMBOLIC MOUNDS. - The Wisconsin Region—Animal Mounds—Symbolic Mounds—Big Elephant - Mound—Dade County Mounds—Magnitude of Earthworks—Enclosed Works - of Art—Rock River Works—The Northern Aztalan—Ancient Garden - Beds—The Wisconsin Plains—A Sacred Neutral Land—The Alligator - Mound—The Great Serpent, Ohio—Serpent Symbols—Intaglio - Earthworks—Suggestive Inferences—The Ancient Race—A Sacerdotal - Caste—Antiquity of the Race—Inferiority of the Indian Tribes, 303 - - CHAPTER XIV. - NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILISATION. - The Toltecs—Ixtlilxochitl—The Aztecs—American - Architecture—Aztalan—The Valley of Mexico—Montezuma’s - Capital—Its Vanished Splendour—Mexican Calendar—The Calendar - Stone—Mexican Deities—Toltec Civilisation—Race Elements—The - Toltec Capital—Tezcucan Palaces—Their Modern - Vestiges—Quetzalcoatl—The Pyramid of Cholula—The Sacred - City—The Moqui Indians—The Holy City of Peru—Worship of the - Sun—Astronomical Knowledge—Agriculture—The Llama—Woven - Textures—Science and Art—Native Institutions—Metallurgy—Origin - of the Mexicans—Mingling of Races, 324 - - CHAPTER XV. - ART CHRONICLINGS. - Imitative Skill—Archaic European Art—Conventional - Ornamentation—Imitative Design—Analogies in Rites and - Customs—Altar Records—Smelting the Ores—Wisconsin Prairie - Lands—The Race of the Mounds—Mound Carvings—Portrait - Sculptures—American Iconography—Deductions—Non-Indian - Type—Other Examples—Antique Iconographic Art—Peculiar Imitative - Skill—Animals represented—Extensive Geographical - Relations—Knowledge of Tropical Fauna—Deductions—The Toucan and - Manatee—Traces of Migration—Assumed Indications—Analogous - Sculptures—Peruvian Imitative Skill—Carved Stone - Mortars—Nicotian Religious Rites—Indian Legends—The Red - Pipe-stone Quarry—The Leaping Rock—Mandan Traditions—Sioux - Legend of the Peace Pipe—The Sacred Coca Plant—Knisteneaux - Legend of the Deluge—Indications of Former Migrations—Favourite - Material—Pwahguneka—Chimpseyan Customs—Chimpseyan Art—Babcen - Carving—The Medicine Pipe-stem—Indian Expiatory - Sacrifices—Nicotian Rites of Divination, 355 - - - - - I L L U S T R A T I O N S - - FIG. - Portrait of Kaskatachyuh, A CHIMPSEYAH CHIEF. - 1. Flint-Knife, Grinell Leads, - 2. Lewiston Flint Implement, - 3. Flint Disc, Kent’s Cavern, - 4. Brixham Cave Flint Implement, - 5. Lanceolate Flint, Flint Ridge, Ohio, - 6. Almond-shaped Flint, Flint Ridge, Ohio, - 7. Leaf-shaped Flint, Sharon Valley, Ohio, - 8. Flint Implement, Licking County, Ohio, - 9. Flint Hoe, Kentucky, - 10. Flint Spear-head, Indiana, - 11. Flint Awl, Mayville, Kentucky, - 12. Flint Drill, Cincinnati, - 13. Stone Drill, Cincinnati, - 14. Flint-Knife, Cincinnati, - 15. Flint Razor, Kentucky, - 16. 17.Flint Scrapers, Ohio, - 18. Foliated Arrow-head, - 19. Lasso Stone, Kentucky, - 20. Cupped-stone, Ohio, - 21. Cupped Boulder, Tronton, Ohio, - 22. Bone Spatula, Keiss, - 23. Bone Comb, Burghar, - 24. Bone Comb, Burghar, - 25. Whale’s Vertebra Cup, - 26. to 30. Fish-spears and Harpoons, - 31. Harpoon, Kent’s Cavern, - 32. Bone Spear-head, Dordogne Caves, - 33. Fuegian Harpoon, - 34. Fish-spear, Kent’s Cavern, - 35. Fish-spear with bilateral barbs, La Madelaine, - 36. Fish-spear with unilateral barbs, La Madelaine, - 37. Carved Baton, or Mace, Dordogne Caves, - 38. The Mammoth, engraved on ivory, La Madelaine, - 39. Scottish Stone Bracer, - 40. Hunter’s Tally, Deer’s-horn, Cro-Magnon, - 41. Skull of Old Man of Cro-Magnon—Profile, - 42. Skull of Old Man of Cro-Magnon—Front View, - 43. Skull of Old Man of Cro-Magnon—Vertical View, - 44. Tawatin Ivory Carving of Whale, - 45. Tawatin Ivory Carving, - 46. Hog’s Tooth Chisel, Concise, - 47. British Bone Implements, - 48. Carib Shell-Knives, - 49. Tennessee Idol, - 50. Clyde Stone Axe, - 51. Clalam Stone Adze, - 52. Grangemouth Skull, - 53. Texas Stone Axe, hafted, - 54. Texas Flint Implement, - 55. Chisel and deer’s-horn socket, Concise, - 56. Stone Knife, Concise, - 57. South Pacific Stone Implements, - 58. Stone Adze, New Caledonia, - 59. Fijian Pottery, - 60. Honduras serrated Flint Implement, - 61. Honduras State Halberd, flint, - 62. Honduras Flint Implement, - 63. Miners’ Shovels, Lake Superior, - 64. Miners’ Stone Mauls, - 65. Ontonagon Copper Implement, - 66. 67. Brockville Copper Dagger and Gouge, - 68. Brockville Copper Spear, - 69. Terra-cotta Mask, - 70. Newark Earthworks, Ohio, - 71. Cincinnati Tablet, - 72. Stone Pipe, Elliot Mound, Ohio, - 73. Lake Washington Disk, - 74. Mask, Mexican Calendar Stone, - 75. Ticul Hieroglyphic Vase, - 76. Peruvian Web, - 77. Portrait Mound Pipe, full face, - 78. Portrait Mound Pipe, profile, - 79. Portrait Mound Pipe, - 80. Manatee, Pipe-Sculpture, - 81. Toucan, Pipe-Sculpture, - 82. Peruvian Black Ware, - 83. Peruvian Stone Mortars, - 84. Chippewa Pipe, - 85. Babeen Pipe, - 86. Babeen Pipe-Sculpture. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - INTRODUCTION. - - - THE INFLUENCE OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA—THE OLD WORLD AND THE - NEW—AMERICAN PHASES OF LIFE—THE TERM PREHISTORIC—INFLUENCE OF - MIGRATIONS—WHAT IS CIVILISATION?—DOMESTICATION—INDIAN - PHILOSOPHY—ABORIGINES—THE TARTAR—THE ARAB—LANGUAGES OF - AMERICA—WANDERINGS OF THE NATIONS—FOSSIL MAN—OCCUPATION OF - THE NEW WORLD. - -The recent development of archæology as a science is due in no slight -degree to the simplicity which characterises the prehistoric disclosures -of Scandinavia, Ireland, and other regions of Europe lying beyond the -range of Greek and Roman influence. But the same element presents itself -on a far more comprehensive scale alike in the archæology and the -ethnology of the western hemisphere. America may be assumed with little -hesitation to have begun its human period subsequent to that of the old -world, and to have started later in the race of civilisation. At any -rate it admits of no question that its most civilised nations had made a -very partial advancement when, in the fifteenth century, they were -abruptly brought into contact with the matured civilisation of Europe. -Hence the earlier stages of human progress can be tested there freed -from many obscuring elements inevitable from the intermingling of -essentially diverse phases of civilisation on old historic areas. In the -days of Herodotus, Transalpine Europe was a greater mystery to the -nations on the shores of the Mediterranean than Central Africa is to us. -To the Romans of four centuries later, Britain was still almost another -world; and the great northern hive from whence the spoilers of the -dismembered empire of the Cæsars were speedily to emerge, was so -entirely unknown to them, that, as Dr. Arnold remarks, “The Roman -colonies along the banks of the Rhine and the Danube looked out on the -country beyond those rivers as we look up at the stars, and actually see -with our eyes a world of which we know nothing.” Nevertheless, the -civilisation of the historic centres around the Mediterranean was not -without some influence on the germs of modern nations then nursing the -hardihood of a vigorous infancy beyond the Danube and the Baltic. The -shores of the Atlantic and German oceans, and the islands of the British -seas, had long before yielded tribute to the Phœnician mariner; and as -the archæologist and the ethnologist pursue their researches, and -restore to light memorials of Europe’s early youth, they are startled -with affinities to the ancient historic nations, in language, arts, and -rites, no less than by the recovered traces of an unfamiliar past. - -But it is altogether different with the New World which Columbus -revealed. Superficial students of its monuments have indeed -misinterpreted characteristics pertaining to the infantile instincts -common to human thought, into fancied analogies with the arts of Egypt; -and more than one ingenious philosopher has traced out affinities with -the mythology and astronomical science of the ancient East; but the -western continent still stands a world apart, with a peculiar people, -and with languages, arts, and customs essentially its own. To whatever -source the American nations may be traced, they had remained shut in for -unnumbered centuries by ocean barriers from all the influences of the -historic hemisphere. Yet there the first European explorers found man so -little dissimilar to all with which they were already familiar, that the -name of Indian originated in the belief, retained by the great -cosmographer to the last, that the American continent was no new world, -but only the eastern confines of Asia. - -Such, then, is a continent where man may be studied under circumstances -which seem to furnish the best guarantee of his independent development. -No reflex light of Grecian or Roman civilisation has guided him on his -way. The great sources of religious and moral suasion which have given -form to medieval and modern Europe, and so largely influenced the polity -and culture of Asia, and even of Africa, were effectually excluded; and -however prolonged the period of occupation of the western hemisphere by -its own American nations may have been, man is still seen there in a -condition which seems to reproduce some of the most familiar phases -ascribed to the infancy of the unhistoric world. The records of its -childhood are not obscured, as in Europe, by later chroniclings; where, -in every attempt to decipher the traces of an earlier history, we have -to spell out a nearly obliterated palimpsest. Amid the simplicity of its -palæography, the aphorism, by which alone the Roman could claim to be -among the world’s ancient races acquires a new force: “antiquitas -seculi, juventus mundi.” - -The discovery of America was itself one of the great events in the most -memorable era of the world’s progress. It wrought a marvellous change in -the ideas and opinions of mankind relative to the planet they occupy, -and prepared the way for many subsequent revolutions in thought, as well -as in action. The world as the arena of human history was thenceforth -divided into the Old and the New. In the one hemisphere tradition and -myth reach backward towards a dawn of undefined antiquity; in the other, -history has a definite and altogether modern beginning. Nevertheless no -great research is needed to show that it also has been the theatre of -human life, and of many revolutions of nations, through centuries -reaching back towards an antiquity as vague as that which lies behind -Europe’s historic dawn; and the study alike of the prehistoric and the -unhistoric races of America is replete with promise of novel truths in -reference to primeval man. Some of the oldest problems in relation to -him find their solution there; and, amid the novel inquiries which now -perplex the student of science, answers of unexpected value are rendered -from the same source. - -The study of man’s condition and progress in Europe’s prehistoric -centuries reveals him as a savage hunter, armed solely with weapons of -flint and bone, frequenting the lake and river margins of a continent -clothed in primeval forests and haunted by enormous beasts of prey. -Displaced by intrusive migrations, this rude pioneer disappears, and his -traces are overlaid or erased by the improved arts of his supplanters. -The infancy of the historic nations begins. Metallurgy, architecture, -science, and letters follow, effacing the faint records of Europe’s -nomadic pioneers; and the first traces of late intruders acquire so -primitive an aspect, that the existence of older European nations than -the Celtæ seemed till recently too extravagant an idea for serious -consideration. - -After devoting considerable research to the recovery of the traces of -early arts in Britain, and realising from many primitive disclosures -some clear conception of the barbarian of Europe’s prehistoric dawn, it -has been my fortune to become a settler on the American continent, in -the midst of scenes where the primeval forests and their savage -occupants are in process of displacement by the arts and races of -civilised Europe. Peculiarly favourable opportunities have helped to -facilitate the study of this phase of the New World, thus seen in one of -its great transitional eras: with its native tribes, and its European -and African colonists in various stages of mutation, consequent on -migration, intermixture, or collision. In observing the novel aspects of -life resulting from such a condition of things, I have been impressed -with the conviction that many of the ethnological phenomena of Europe’s -prehistoric centuries are here reproduced on the grandest scale. Man is -seen subject to influences similar to those which have affected him in -all great migrations and collisions of diverse races. Here also is the -savage in direct contact with civilisation, and exposed to the same -causes by means of which the wild fauna disappear. Some difficult -problems of ethnology have been simplified to my own mind; and opinions -relative to Europe’s prehistoric races, based on inference or induction, -have received striking confirmation. Encouraged by this experience, I -venture to set forth the results of an inquiry into the essential -characteristics of man, based chiefly on a comparison of the theoretical -ethnology of primitive Europe, with such disclosures of the New World. - -Man may be assumed to be prehistoric wherever his chroniclings of -himself are undesigned, and his history is wholly recoverable by -induction. The term has, strictly speaking, no chronological -significance; but, in its relative application, corresponds to other -archæological, in contradistinction to geological, periods. There are -modern as well as ancient prehistoric races; and both are available for -solving the problem of man’s true natural condition. But also the -relation of man to external nature as the occupant of specific -geographical areas, and subject to certain influences of climate, food, -material appliances and conditions of life, involves conclusions of -growing importance, in view of many novel questions to which the -enlarged inquiry as to his true place in nature has given rise. If races -of men are indigenous to specific areas, and controlled by the same laws -which seem to regulate the geographical distribution of the animal -kingdom, the results of their infringement of such laws have been -subjected to the most comprehensive tests since the discovery of -America. The horse transported to the New World roams in magnificent -herds over the boundless pampas; and the hog, restored to a state of -nature, has exchanged the degradation of the stye for the fierce courage -of the wild boar. There also the indigenous man of the prairie and the -forest can still be seen unaffected by native or intruded civilisation; -while the most civilised races of Europe have been brought into contact -with the African savage; and both have been subjected to all the novel -influences in which the western continent contrasts no less strikingly -with the temperate than with the tropical regions of the eastern -hemisphere. The resultant changes have been great, and the scale on -which they have been wrought out is so ample as to stamp whatever -conclusions can be legitimately deduced from them with the highest -interest and value. - -The consequences following from changes of area and climate play a -remarkable part in the history of man, and have no analogies in the -migrations of the lower animals. The Frank, the Anglo-Saxon, and the -Norman; the Hungarian, the Saracen, and the Turk: are all to a great -extent products of the transplanting of seemingly indigenous races to -more favouring localities; but the change to all of them was less than -that to which the colonists of the New World have been subjected. There -the old process was reversed; and the offspring of Europe’s highest -civilisation, abruptly transferred to the virgin forest and steppes of -the American wilderness, was left amid the widening inheritance of new -clearings to develop whatever tendencies lay dormant in the artificial -European man. - -Here then are materials full of promise for the ethnical student:—the -Red-Man, indigenous, seemingly aboriginal, and still in what it is -customary to call a state of nature; the Negro, with many African -attributes uneffaced, systematically precluded until very recent years -from the free reception of the civilisation with which he has been -brought in contact, but subjected nevertheless to novel influences of -climate, food, and all external appliances; the White-Man also -undergoing the transforming effects of climate, amid novel social and -political institutions; and all three extreme types of variety or race -testing, on a sufficiently comprehensive scale, their capacity for a -fertile intermingling of blood. The period, moreover, is in some -respects favourable for summing up results, as changes are at work which -mark the close of a cycle in the novel conditions to which one at least -of the intruded races has been subjected for upwards of three centuries. - -In Europe we study man only as he has been moulded by a thousand -external circumstances. The arts, born at the very dawn of history, give -form to its modern social life. The faith and morals nurtured among the -hills of Judah, the intellect of Greece, the jurisprudence and military -prowess of Rome, and the civil and ecclesiastical institutions of -medieval Christendom, have all helped to make of us what we are: till in -the European of the nineteenth century it becomes a curious question how -much pertains to the man, and how much to that civilisation, of which he -is in part the author and in part the offspring? In vain we strive to -detach European man from elements foreign to him, that we may look on -him as he is or was by nature; for he only exists for us as the product -of all those multifarious elements which have accumulated along the -track of countless generations. The very serf of the Russian steppes -cannot grow freely, as his nomad brother of Asia does; but must don the -unfamiliar fashions of the Frank, as strange to him as the armour of -Saul upon the youthful Ephrathite. - -Is, then, civilisation natural to man; or is it only a habit or -condition artificially superinduced, and as foreign to his nature as the -bit and bridle to the horse, or the truck-cart to the wild ass of the -desert? Such questions involve the whole ethnological problem reopened -by Lamarck, Agassiz, Darwin, Huxley, and others. Whence is man? What are -his antecedents? What—within the compass with which alone science -deals,—are his future destinies? Does civilisation move only through -limited cycles, repeating in new centuries the work of the old; -attaining, under some varying phase, to the same maximum of our -imperfect humanity, and then, like the wandering comet, returning from -the splendour of its perihelion back to night? - -Perhaps a question preliminary even to this is: What is civilisation? He -who has seen the Euromerican and the Indian side by side can be at no -loss as to the difference between civilised and uncivilised man. But is -he therefore at liberty to conclude that the element which so markedly -distinguishes the White- from the Red- man of the New World is an -attribute peculiar to the former, rather than the development of innate -powers common to both, and in the possession of which man differs from -all other animals? DOMESTICATION is, for the lower animals, the -subjection of them to artificial conditions foreign to their nature, -which they could not originate for themselves, and which they neither -mature nor perpetuate: but, on the contrary, hasten to throw off so soon -as left to their own uncontrolled action. CIVILISATION is for man -development. It is self-originated; it matures all the faculties natural -to him, and is progressive and seemingly ineradicable. Of both -postulates the social life alike of the forest and of the clearings of -the New World seems to offer proofs; and to other questions involved in -an inquiry into the origin of civilisation and man’s relations to it, -answers may also be recovered from the same source. There the latest -developments of human progress are abruptly brought face to face with -the most unprogressive phases of savage nature; and many old problems -are being solved anew under novel conditions. The race to which this is -chiefly due had been isolated during centuries of preparatory training, -and illustrates in some of the sources of its progress the impediments -to the civilisation of savage races brought in contact with others at so -dissimilar a stage. The very elements for Britain’s greatness seem to -lie in her slow maturity; in her collision with successive races only a -little in advance of herself; in her transition through all the stages -from infancy to vigorous manhood. But that done, the Old Englander -becomes the New Englander; starts from his matured vantage-ground on a -fresh career, and displaces the American Red-man by the American -White-Man, the free product of the great past and the great present. - -It was with a strange and fascinating pleasure, that, after having -striven to resuscitate the races of Britain’s prehistoric ages, by means -of their buried arts,[1] I found myself face to face with the aborigines -of the New World. Much that had become familiar to me in fancy, as -pertaining to a long obliterated past, was here the living present; -while around me, in every stage of transition, lay the phases of savage -and civilised life: the nature of the forest, the art of the city; the -God-made country, the man-made town: each in the very process of change, -extinction, and re-creation. Here, then, was a new field for the study -of civilisation and all that it involves. The wild beast is in its -native state, and hastens, when relieved from artificial constraints, to -return to the forest wilds as to its natural condition. The -forest-man—is he too in his natural condition? for Europe’s sons have, -for upwards of three centuries, been levelling his forests, and planting -their civilisation on the clearings, yet he accepts not their -civilisation as a higher goal for him. He, at least, thinks that the -white man and the red are of diverse natures; that the city and the -cultivated field are for the one, but the wild forest and the free chase -for the other. He does not envy the white man, he only wonders at him as -a being of a different nature. - -Broken-Arm, the Chief of the Crees, receiving the traveller Paul Kane -and his party into his lodge, at their encampment in the valley of the -Saskatchewan, told him the following tradition of the tribe. One of the -Crees became a Christian. He was a very good man, and did what was -right; and when he died he was taken up to the white man’s heaven, where -everything was very beautiful. All were happy amongst their friends and -relatives who had gone before them; but the Indian could not share their -joy, for everything was strange to him. He met none of the spirits of -his ancestors to welcome him: no hunting nor fishing, nor any of those -occupations in which he was wont to delight. Then the Great Manitou -called him, and asked him why he was joyless in His beautiful heaven; -and the Indian replied that he sighed for the company of the spirits of -his own people. So the Great Manitou told him that he could not send him -to the Indian heaven, as he had, whilst on earth, chosen this one; but -as he had been a very good man, he would send him back to earth again. - -The Indian does not believe in the superiority of the white man. The -difference between them is only such as he discerns between the social, -constructive beaver, and the solitary, cunning fox. The Great Spirit -implanted in each his peculiar faculties; why should the one covet the -nature of the other? Hence one element of the unhopeful Indian future. -The progress of the white man offers even less incentive to his ambition -than the cunning of the fox, or the architectural instincts of the -beaver. He, at least, does not overlook, in his sylvan philosophy, that -feature in the physical history of mankind, which Agassiz complained of -having been neglected: viz., the natural relations between different -types of man and the animals and plants inhabiting the same regions. Yet -the Indian of the American wilds is no more primeval than his forests. -Beneath the roots of their oldest giants lie memorials of an older -native civilisation; and the American ethnologist and naturalist, while -satisfying themselves of the persistency of a common type, and of -specific ethnical characteristics prevailing throughout all the -widely-scattered tribes of the American continent,[2] have been studying -only the temporary supplanters of nations strange to us as the extinct -life of older geological periods. - -In that old East, to which science still turns when searching for the -cradle-land of the human family, vast areas exist, the characteristics -of which seem to stamp with unprogressive endurance the inheritors of -the soil. Along the shores of the Indian Ocean and the Levant, and -stretching from the Persian Gulf into the fertile valleys of the -Euphrates and the Tigris, are still found seats of civilisation -coexistent with the earliest dawn of man’s history. But beyond these -lies the elevated table-land of Central Asia, stretching away northward, -and pouring its waters into inland seas, or directing their uncivilising -courses into the frozen waters of the Arctic circle. Abrupt -mountain-chains subdivide this elevated plateau into regions which have -been for unrecorded ages the hives of pastoral tribes, unaffected by any -intrusion of civilising arts or settled social habits; until, impelled -by unknown causes, they have poured southward over the seats of -primitive Asiatic civilisation, or westward into the younger continent -of Europe. - -From the wandering hordes of the great Asiatic steppes have come the -Huns, the Magyars, and the Turks, as well as a considerable portion of -the Bulgarians of modern Europe; while the sterile peninsula of Arabia -has given birth to moral revolutions of the most enduring influence. Yet -the capacity for civilisation of the Magyar or the Turk, transferred to -new physical conditions, and subjected to higher moral and intellectual -influences; or the wondrous intellectual vigour of the Arab of Bagdad or -Cordova: affords no scale by which to gauge the immobility of the Tartar -on his native steppe, or the Arab in his desert wilderness. Without -agriculture or any idea of property in land, destitute of the very -rudiments of architecture, knowing no written law, or any form of -government save the patriarchal expansion to the tribe of the primitive -family ties: we can discern no change in the wild nomad, though we trace -him back for three thousand years. Migratory offshoots of the hordes of -Central Asia, and of the wanderers of the Arabian desert, have gone -forth to prove the capacity for progress of the least progressive races; -but the great body tarries still in the wilderness and on the steppe, to -prove what an enduring capacity man also has to live as one of the wild -fauna of the waste. - -The Indians of the New World, whencesoever they derived their origin, -present to us just such a type of unprogressive life as the nomads of -the Asiatic steppe. The Red-Man of the North-West exhibits no change -from his precursors of the fifteenth century; and for aught that appears -in him of a capacity for development, the forests of the American -continent may have sheltered hunting and warring tribes of Indians, just -as they have sheltered and pastured its wild herds of buffaloes, for -countless centuries since the continent rose from its ocean-bed. That he -is no recent intruder is indisputably proved alike by physical and -intellectual evidence. On any theory of human origin, the blended -gradations of America’s widely diversified indigenous races, demand a -lengthened period for their development; and equally, on any theory of -the origin of languages, must time be prolonged to admit of the -multiplication of mutually unintelligible dialects and tongues in the -New World. It is estimated that there are nearly six hundred languages, -and dialects matured into independent tongues, in Europe. The known -origin and growth of some of these may supply a standard whereby to -gauge the time indicated by such a multiplication of tongues. But the -languages of the American continents have been estimated to exceed -twelve hundred and sixty, including agglutinate languages of peculiarly -elaborate structure, and inflectional forms of complex development. Of -the grammar of the Lenni-Lenapé Indians, Duponceau remarks: “It exhibits -a language entirely the work of the children of nature, unaided by our -arts and sciences, and, what is most remarkable, ignorant of the art of -writing. Its forms are rich, regular, and methodical, closely following -the analogy of the ideas which they are intended to express; compounded, -but not confused; occasionally elliptical in their mode of expression, -but not more so than the languages of Europe, and much less so than -those of a large group of nations on the eastern coast of Asia. The -terminations of their verbs, expressive of number, person, time, and -other modifications of action and passion, while they are richer in -their extension than those of the Latin and Greek, which we call -emphatically the _learned_ languages, appear to have been formed on a -similar but enlarged model, without other aid than that which was -afforded by nature operating upon the intellectual faculties of man.”[3] -At the same time it is no less important to note the limited range of -vocabulary in many of the American languages. Those characteristics, -taken along with their peculiar holophrastic power of inflecting complex -word-sentences, and expressing by their means delicate shades of -meaning, exhibit the phenomena of human speech in some of their most -remarkable phases. But the range of the vocabularies furnishes a true -gauge of the intellectual development of the Indian: incapable of -abstract idealism, realising few generic relations, and multiplying -words by comparisons and descriptive compounds. - -To whatever cause we attribute such phenomena, much is gained by being -able to study them apart from the complex derivative elements which -trammel the study of European philology. Assuming for our present -argument the unity of the human race, not in the ambiguous sense of a -common typical structure, but literally, as descendants of one stock: in -the primitive scattering of infant nations, the Mongol and the American -went eastward, while the Indo-European began his still uncompleted -wanderings towards the far west. The Mongol and the Indo-European have -repeatedly met and mingled. They now share, unequally, the Indian -peninsula and the continent of Europe. But the American and the -Indo-European only met after an interval measurable by thousands of -years, coming from opposite directions, and having made the circuit of -the globe. - -The Red-Man, it thus appears, is among the ancients of the earth. How -old he may be it is impossible to determine; but with one American -school of ethnologists, no historical antiquity is sufficient for him. -The earliest contributions of the New World to the geological traces of -man were little less startling, when first brought to light, than any -that the European drift has since revealed. The island of Guadaloupe, -one of the lesser Antilles, discovered by Columbus in 1493, furnished -the first examples of fossil man, and of works of art imbedded in the -solid rock. They seemed to the wondering naturalist to upset all -preconceived ideas of the origin of the human race. But more careful -investigation proved the rock to be a concretionary limestone formed -from the detritus of corals and shells. The skeletons are probably by no -means ancient, even according to the reckoning of American history; -though supplying a curious link in the palæontological treasures both of -the British Museum and the Jardin des Plantes. Dr. Lund, the Danish -naturalist, has described human bones, bearing, as he believed, marks of -geological antiquity, found along with those of many extinct mammals, in -the calcareous caves of Brazil. Fossil human remains have also been -recovered from a calcareous conglomerate of the coral reefs of Florida, -estimated by Professor Agassiz to be not less than 10,000 years old;[4] -and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia treasures the _os -innominatum_ of a human skeleton, a fragment of disputed antiquity, dug -up near Natchez, on the Mississippi, beneath the bones of the -megalonyx.[5] - -From those, and other discoveries of a like kind, this at least becomes -apparent, that in the New World, as in the Old, the closing epoch of -geology must be turned to for the initial chapters of archæology and -ethnology. According to geological reckoning, much of the American -continent has but recently emerged from the ocean. Among the organic -remains of Canadian post-tertiary deposits are found the _Phoca_, -_Balœna_, and other existing marine mammals and fishes along with the -_Elephas primigenius_, the _Mastodon Ohioticus_, and other long-extinct -species. Looking on the human skeletons of the Guadaloupe limestone in -the Museums of London and Paris,—the first examples of the bones of man -in a fossil state,—the gradation in form between him and other animals -presents no very important contrast to the uninstructed eye. Modern -though those rock-imbedded skeletons are, they accord with older traces -of human remains mingling with those of extinct mammals, to which more -recent speculations have given so novel an interest in relation to the -question of the antiquity of man. The origin and duration of the -American type still remain in obscurity. Man entered on the occupation -of the New World in centuries which there, as elsewhere, stretch -backward as we strive to explore them. His early history is lost, for it -is not yet four centuries since its discovery; and he still survives -there, as he then did, a being apart from all that specially -distinguishes either the cultivated or the uncultured man of Europe. His -continent, too, has become the stage whereon are being tested great -problems in social science, in politics, and in ethnology. There the -civilised man and the savage have been brought face to face to determine -anew how far God “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and -hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of -the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed, and the -bounds of their habitation.” There, too, the Black man and the Red, -whose destinies seemed to separate them wide as the world’s hemispheres, -have been brought together to try whether the African is more enduring -than the indigenous American on his own soil; to try for us, also, as -could no otherwise be tried, questions of amalgamation and hybridity, of -development and perpetuity of varieties, of a dominant, a savage, and a -servile race. In all ways: in its recoverable past, in its -comprehensible present, in its conceivable future, the New World invites -our study, with the promise of disclosures replete with interest in -their bearing on secrets of the elder world. - ------ - -[1] Vide _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_. - -[2] Morton: _Crania Americana_; Nott: _Indigenous Races_, etc. - -[3] _American Philosophical Transactions_, N. S. vol. iii. p. 248. - -[4] _Types of Mankind._ P. 352. - -[5] _Proceed. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad._ Oct. 1846. P. 107. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - THE PRIMEVAL TRANSITION. - - - THE LATEST MIGRATIONS—FOUNDING A CAPITAL—BEGINNINGS OF HISTORY— - PREHISTORIC PHASES—NON-METALLURGIC ERAS—OSCILLATIONS OF THE - LAND—THE GLACIAL PERIOD—FOSSIL MAMMALIA—THE FLINT-FOLK OF THE - DRIFT—ADVENT OF EUROPEAN MAN—THE DRIFT IMPLEMENTS—CHRONOLOGY - OF THE FRENCH DRIFT—SCOTTISH ALLUVIUM—PRECELTIC RACES—THEIR - IMITATIVE ARTS—MAN PRIMEVAL—HIS INTELLECTUAL CONDITION— - INSTINCT—ACCUMULATED KNOWLEDGE—PRIMEVAL BRITAIN—ITS FOSSIL - FAUNA—OSSIFEROUS CAVES—BRIXHAM CAVE—SCOTTISH REINDEER— - AMERICAN DRIFT—RELICS OF ANCIENT LIFE—EXTINCT FAUNA—MAN AND - THE MASTODON—INDIAN TRADITIONS—GIANTS—DRIFT DISCLOSURES— - AMERICAN CRANIAL TYPE—ANTIQUITY OF THE AMERICAN MAN—PRIMITIVE - ARTS. - -The striking contrasts which the New World presents, in nearly every -respect, to the Old, are full of significance in relation to the origin -of civilisation, and its influence on the progress of man. Viewed merely -as the latest scene of migration of European races on a great scale, -America has much to disclose in illustration of primitive history. There -we see the land cleared of its virgin forest, the soil prepared for its -first tillage, the site of the future city chosen, and the birth of the -world’s historic capitals epitomised in those of the youngest American -commonwealths. Taking our stand on one of the newest of these civic -sites, let us trace the brief history of the political and commercial -capital of Upper Canada. - -Built along the margin of a bay, enclosed by a peninsular spit of land -running out from the north shore of Lake Ontario, the city of Toronto -rests on a drift formation of sand and clay, only disturbed in its -nearly level uniformity by the rain-gullies and ravines which mark the -courses of the rivulets that drain its surface. This the original -projectors of the city mapped off into parallelograms, by streets -uniformly intersecting each other at right angles; and in carrying out -their plan, every ravine and undulation is smoothed and levelled, as -with the indiscriminating precision of the mower’s scythe. The country -rises to the north for about twenty miles, by a gradual slope to the -water-shed between Ontario and Lake Simcoe, and then descends to the -level of the northern lake and the old hunting-grounds of the Hurons. It -is a nearly unvarying expanse of partially cleared forest: a blank, with -its Indian traditions effaced, its colonial traditions uncreated. The -cities of the old world have their mythic founders and quaint legends -still commemorated in heraldic blazonry. But there is no mystery about -the beginnings of Toronto. Upper Canada was erected into a distinct -province in 1791, only eight years after France finally renounced all -claim on the province of Quebec; and a few months thereafter General -Simcoe, the first governor of the new province, arrived at the old -French fort, at the mouth of the Niagara river, and in May 1793 selected -the Bay of Toronto as the site of the future capital. The chosen spot -presented a dreary aspect of swamp and uncleared pine forest; but amid -these his sagacious eye saw in anticipation the city rise, which already -numbers upwards of 60,000 inhabitants; and rejecting the old Indian -name, since restored, he gave to his embryo capital that of York. -Colonel Bouchette, Surveyor-General of Lower Canada, was selected to lay -out the projected city and harbour; and he thus describes the locality -as it then existed: “I still distinctly recollect the untamed aspect -which the country exhibited when first I entered the beautiful basin. -Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the lake, and reflected -their inverted images in its glassy surface. The wandering savage had -constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage, -the group then consisting of two families of Mississagas; and the bay -and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense -coveys of wild-fowl; indeed, they were so abundant as in some measure to -annoy us during the night.”[6] - -The vicissitudes attending the progress of the Canadian city have been -minutely chronicled by local historians, who record how many dwellings -of round logs, squared timber, or more ambitious frame-houses exceeding -a single story, were in existence at various dates. The first vessel -which belonged to the town, and turned its harbour to account; the first -brick house, the earliest stone one; and even the first gig of an -ambitious citizen, subsequent to 1812, are all duly chronicled. Could we -learn with equal truthfulness of the first years of the city built by -Romulus on the Palatine Hill, its annals would tell no less homely -truths, even now dimly hinted at in the legend of the scornful Remus -leaping over its infant ramparts. Tiber’s hill was once the site only of -the solitary herdsman’s hut; and an old citizen has described to me his -youthful recollections of Toronto as consisting of a few log-huts in the -clearing, and an Indian village of birch-bark wigwams, near the Don, -with a mere trail through the woods to the old French fort, on the line -where now upwards of two miles of costly stores, hotels, and public -buildings mark the principal street of the busy city. - -M. Theodore Pavi describes Toronto, in his _Souvenirs Atlantiques_, -published at Paris in 1833, as still in the woods, a mere advanced post -of civilisation on the outskirts of a boundless waste. “To the houses -succeed immediately the forests, and how profound must be those immense -forests, when we reflect that they continue without interruption till -they lose themselves in the icy regions of Hudson’s Bay near the Arctic -Pole.” Upwards of forty years have since elapsed, and that for New-World -cities is an æon. Every year has witnessed more rapid strides, alike in -the progress of Toronto, and in the clearing and settling of the -surrounding country. Railways have opened up new avenues of trade and -commerce, and borne troops of sturdy pioneers into the wilderness -behind. So rapid has been the clearing of the forest, and so great the -rise in the price of labour, that fuel, brought from the distant -coal-fields of Pennsylvania, already undersells the cord-wood hewn in -Canadian forests; and even Newcastle coal warms many a luxurious winter -hearth. All is rife with progress. The new past is despised; the old -past is unheeded; and for antiquity there is neither reverence nor -faith. These are beginnings of history; and are full of significance to -those who have wrought out some of the curious problems of an ancient -past, amid historic scenes contrasting in all respects with this -unhistoric but vigorous youth of the New World. The contrast between the -new and the old is here sufficiently striking. Yet the old also was once -new; had even such beginnings as this; and was as devoid of history as -the rawest clearing of the Far West. - -There are other aspects also in which a New World, thus entering on its -historic life, is calculated to throw light on the origin of -civilisation. Though neither its forests nor its aborigines are -primeval, they realise for us just such a primitive condition as that in -which human history appears to begin. In all the most characteristic -aspects of the Indian, as well as in the traces of native American -metallurgy, architecture, letters, and science, we find reproduced the -same phases through which man passed in oldest prehistoric times; and -when, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, we witness the mineral -wealth of the Andes tempting European colonisation beyond the Atlantic, -we only see the expeditions of new Argonauts; and realise incidents of -the first voyage to the Cassiterides; or the planting of the infant -colonies of Gadir, Massala, and Carthage by Phocian and Punic -adventurers of the historic dawn. But the speculations of modern science -carry us far beyond any dawn of definite history, even when research is -directed to the evidence of man’s primitive arts, and the origin of his -civilisation. - -The investigation of the underlying chronicles of Europe’s most ancient -human history has placed beyond question that its historic period was -preceded by an unhistoric one of long duration, marked by a slow -progression from arts of the rudest kind to others which involved the -germs of all later development. From Europe, and the historic lands of -Asia and Africa, we derive our ideas of man; and of the youngest of -these continents, on which he has thus advanced from savage artlessness -to the highest arts of civilisation, we have history, written or -traditional, for at least two thousand years. But in the year 1492 a New -World was discovered, peopled with its own millions, for the most part -in no degree advanced beyond that primeval starting-point which lies far -behind Europe’s oldest traditions. To have found there beings strange as -the inhabitants of Swift’s Houyhnhnm’s Land, or the monsters conjured up -in the philosophic day-dreams of Sir Humphry Davy for the peopling of -other planets,[7] would have seemed less wonderful to the men of that -fifteenth century than what they did find: man in a state of savage -infancy, with arts altogether rudimentary; language without letters, -tradition without history, everything as it were but in its beginning, -and yet himself looking back into a past even more vast and vague than -their own. The significance of this state of things is worth inquiring -into, if it be for nothing else than the light which the analogies of -such a living present may throw on the infancy of Europe, and beyond -that, on the primal infancy of the human race. - -Recent discoveries of primitive art in the diluvial formations both of -France and England have tended to add a fresh interest to the -investigation of that “primeval stone-period” which underlies the most -ancient memorials of Europe’s civilisation. The oldest of all written -chronicles assigns a period of some duration in the history of the human -race, during which man tilled the ground, pursued the chase, and made -garments of its spoils, without any knowledge of the working in metals, -on which the simplest of all known arts depend. Through such a primitive -stage it had already appeared to me probable that all civilised nations -had passed,[8] before disclosures of a still older flint-period in the -chroniclings of the drift added new significance to the term _primeval_, -in its application to the non-metallurgic era of Europe’s arts. - -The incredulity and even contempt with which the application of a system -of archæological periods to the antiquities of Britain was received, in -recent years, by a certain class of critics, was inevitable, from the -exclusive attention previously devoted to Roman and medieval remains. -But the attention of the antiquary, as well as the geologist, is now -being directed to conclusions forced on both by the traces of man in the -stratified gravel of post-pleiocene formations. The circumstances -attending their repeated discovery place their remote antiquity beyond -question. The difficulty indeed is to bring the phenomena illustrated by -palæolithic relics of the quaternary period into any conceivable harmony -with the limits of chronology as hitherto applied to man. The pre-Celtic -architects of the British long-barrow, and the allophyliæ of the -European stone age, are but men of yesterday in comparison with the -=Flint-Folk of the Drift=. They belong to a lost -Atlantis,—another continent, now in part at least buried beneath the -ocean; and compared with which the Old World of history is as new as -that found for it by Columbus. - -The disclosures of geology have familiarised us with the conviction that -the “stable land,” the “perpetual hills,” and the “everlasting -mountains” are but figures of speech. But the idea forces itself on -reluctant minds that man himself has witnessed the disappearance of -Alpine chains and the submergence of continents. The Pacific -archipelagos are but the mountain-crests of a southern continent, which -in earlier ages may have facilitated the wanderings of the nations. The -startling discoveries in the French and English drift are results of -oscillations of the northern hemisphere, which, in times nearer to -historic centuries, depressed the bed of the Baltic in the era of the -Danish kjökkenmöddingr, and made dry land of the upper estuaries of the -Forth and Clyde. It is doubtful, indeed, if the shallowing of Danish and -Scottish seas by the rise of their ocean-beds is altogether a work of -prehistoric times. The rise still going on in parts of the Swedish coast -is a phenomenon long familiar to geologists; and the upheaval of the -Scottish region, embracing the valleys of the Forth and Clyde, it now -appears probable, has been protracted into historic times, and has even -affected the relative levels of sea and land since the building of the -Roman wall. - -The changes thus witnessed on a comparatively small scale, on familiar -areas, help us in some degree to estimate the vast physical revolutions -that have taken place throughout the northern hemisphere within that -recent geological period which succeeded the formation of the pleiocene -strata. One of the most remarkable phenomena now recognised as affecting -the conditions of life in recent geological epochs is the prolonged -existence, throughout the whole northern hemisphere, of a temperature -resembling that of the Arctic regions at the present time. After a -period more nearly assimilating in climatic character to the tropics, -though otherwise under varying conditions, the temperature of the whole -northern hemisphere gradually diminished towards the end of the tertiary -epoch, until the highlands of Scotland and Wales—then at a much higher -elevation,—resembled Greenland at the present time, and an Arctic -temperature extended southward to the Pyrenees and the Alps. Glaciers -formed under the influence of perpetual frost and snow descended into -the valleys and plains over the greater portion of Central Europe and -Northern Asia, and an Arctic winter reigned throughout. - -This condition of things, pertaining to what is known as the glacial -period, was unquestionably of long duration. But after some partial -variations of temperature, and a consequent advance and retrocession of -the glacial influences along what was then the border lines of a north -temperate zone, the first period of extreme cold drew to a close. -Between the Alps and the mountain ranges of Scotland and Wales, the -winter resembled that which even now prevails on the North American -continent, in latitudes in which the moose, the wapiti, and the grizzly -bear, freely range over the same areas where during a brief summer of -intense heat enormous herds of buffalo annually migrate from the south. -A similar alternation of seasons within the European glacial period can -alone account for the presence, alongside of an Arctic fauna, of animals -such as the hippopotamus and the hyæna, known only throughout the -historical period as natives of the tropics. The range of temperature of -Canadian seasons admits of the Arctic skua-gull, the snow-goose, the -Lapland bunting, and the like Arctic visitors, meeting the king-bird, -the humming-bird, and other wanderers from the gulf of Mexico. - -Such conditions of climate may account for the recovery of the remains -of the reindeer and the hippopotamus in the same drift and cave-deposits -of Europe’s glacial period. The woolly mammoth and rhinoceros, the -musk-ox, reindeer, and other Arctic fauna, may be presumed to have -annually retreated from the summer heats, and given place to those -animals, the living representatives of which are now found only in -tropical Africa. A period of depression followed, during which, -throughout an extensive area, all but the highest levels was submerged -beneath an Arctic ocean, and the drift and boulders of the highlands of -Norway and Scotland were dispersed by means of icebergs over the low -levels of what was then an archipelago, in which only the higher peaks -of Britain rose out of the sea. Far to the south of the Thames and the -Seine, the drift of this Arctic ocean was then accumulating the evidence -which now reveals to us the fauna and the arts of quaternary Europe; -just as the overlying boulders of the American drift far south in the -Ohio valleys show their derivation from the Laurentian mountains of -Canada. With the elevation of the old ocean-bed there appears to have -been a renewal of an Arctic temperature indicated by the traces of local -glaciers in the mountains of Scotland, Cumberland, and Wales; and so the -glacial period drew to a close. A gradual rise of temperature carried -the lines of ice and perpetual snow further and further northward, -excepting in regions of great elevation, as in the Swiss Alps. This was -necessarily accompanied with the melting of the glaciers accumulated in -the mountain valleys throughout the protracted period of cold. The -broken rocks and soil of the highlands were swept into the valleys by -torrents of melted ice and snow; the lower valleys were hollowed out and -reformed under this novel agency; and the landscape assumed its latest -contour of valley, estuary, and river-beds. - -This is what the elder geologists, including Dean Buckland, accepted for -a time as the evidence of the Mosaic deluge. It is now universally -recognised as the product of no sudden cataclysm, but the result of -operations carried on continuously throughout periods of vast duration, -during which the memorials of animal and vegetable life of the pleiocene -and pleistocene epochs were slowly imbedded in the accumulated débris of -this diluvian reconstruction. The characteristics of the fossil mammals -of the post-glacial period differ in many respects so widely from all -that we are accustomed to associate with the presence of man, that they -help to suggest even an exaggerated idea of antiquity. Nevertheless, -there is no break of continuity. Animals still living have their fossil -representatives alongside of the pleiocene mastodon, cave-lion, and -bear: if indeed the latter be not itself the _ursus ferox_, or grizzly -bear of North America, the claws of which are still worn as the proudest -trophy of the Red Indian hunter. - -Of twenty-one species of post-glacial mammals identified in the deposits -of Brixham Cavern, only four are regarded as extinct species, and these -include the _ursus spelæus_ and _hyæna spelæa_. But their habitats have -been widely changed in the climatic and geographical revolutions which -have intervened. Some have to be sought for within the Arctic circle; -others in low latitudes, and on continents lying wholly outside of that -world which was alone known to Aristotle and Pliny. Every thing -indicates a revolution slowly wrought through unnumbered ages, during -which the ancient fauna was being supplanted by novel species, including -those which belong to the historical period of temperate Europe. So far -as appears from present evidence, man himself has to be included among -the new additions to the European fauna. To this post-glacial period -must, at any rate, be assigned the advent of the Flint-Folk of the -Drift: a race of hunters and fishers not greatly differing in their rude -arts from the more immediate precursors of the Historic races in -Europe’s Stone Age; but who were contemporaneous with the Siberian -mammoth and other extinct elephants, the woolly rhinoceros, the musk-ox, -and the reindeer of France; and with numerous extinct carnivora of -proportions corresponding to the gigantic herbivora on which they -preyed. - -The regions in which remains of the Flint-Folk have hitherto chiefly -occurred embrace the valleys of Northern France and Southern England, -where now the vine and the hop clothe the sunny slopes with their -luxuriance. But as fresh evidence accumulates, corresponding indications -are found to extend to the shores and islands of the Mediterranean. -Traces of Europe’s neolithic artificers have been found in the caves of -Gibraltar; and among a singularly interesting accumulation of -flint-flakes, polished stone axes, rude pottery, etc., lying beside the -skeletons of their owners, in the same caves of Andalusia from one of -which a golden tiara of primitive workmanship has been recovered.[9] -Among remoter traces in the Maccagnone, Sicilian cave, Dr. Falconer -could discover nothing suggestive of a different period for the rude -flint implements and the numerous bones of the hippopotamus, mammoth, -cave-lion, and other fossil mammals with which they were conjoined; -while far eastward, near Beyrout, the Rev. H. B. Tristram reports the -occurrence, in the stalagmitic flooring of a limestone cave, of bones -and teeth assigned to a fossil ox, the red-deer, and the reindeer, -alongside of the flint-knives or flakes which the prehistoric cave-men -of Lebanon had used when feasting on such prey.[10] But though such -traces occur on ancient historic sites, we search in vain for any -connecting link between the oldest historic races and those belonging to -an era which one distinguished geologist has designated as “The Second -Elephantine Period”;[11] when, according to his reconstruction of the -physical geography of the region, the Thames was a tributary of the -Rhine; the English Channel was not yet in being, and Britain existed -only as part of a continent which stretched away uninterruptedly -northward towards the Arctic circle. - -It thus appears that the advent of man in Northern Europe is assignable -to a period when the mammoth and the tichorine rhinoceros still roamed -its forests, and the great cave-tiger and other extinct carnivora -haunted its caverns; when the gigantic Irish elk, the reindeer, the -musk-ox, and the wild horse were objects of the chase; and the -hippopotamus major was a summer visitor to the Seine and the Thames. -When first employing the term _prehistoric_ which has since obtained -such universal acceptance, I remarked, in reference to Scottish -aboriginal traces: “There is one certain point in this inquiry into -primitive arts which the British antiquary possesses over all others, -and from whence he can start without fear of error. From our insular -position it is unquestionable that the first colonist of the British -Isles must have been able to construct some kind of boat, and have -possessed sufficient knowledge of navigation to steer his course through -the open sea.”[12] It then seemed a postulate on which the most cautious -adventurer into the great darkness which lies behind us might -confidently take his stand. But the point was no certain one after all. -The fauna of the later Elephantine period still roamed over a wide -continent unbroken by the English Channel or the Irish Sea; and the -valley of the Rhine stretching northward through the still unsubmerged -plain of the German Ocean, received as tributaries the Thames and the -Humber, perhaps also the Tweed and the Forth. Measured therefore by the -most moderate estimate of geological chronology, the historical period -is, in relation to the interval since the first appearance of man, -somewhat in a ratio with the superficial soil and vegetable mould, as -compared with the whole deposits of the stratified drift: in other -words, it is so insignificant as, in a geological point of view, to be -scarcely worth taking into account. - -Whatever be the consequences involved in such comprehensive inductions, -proofs appear to accumulate, with every renewed search, of the wide -diffusion throughout the bone-bearing drift of the post-glacial period, -of symmetrically-formed flints, bearing indubitable traces of -intelligence and primitive mechanical skill. - -It is the old argument of Paley, reproduced in a form undreamt of in his -philosophy. “If,” he might have said, “in digging into a bank of gravel -we find a flint, we do not pause to ask whence it came; but if our spade -strike on a watch?”——In the age of the Flint-Folk mechanical ingenuity -expended itself for other purposes than the manufacture of -time-measurers; but if the artificial origin of the implements of the -drift, and their consequent indications of the presence of man, be -acknowledged, our greatest difficulty is the remoteness of the period -which they seem to indicate. Worked flints and other assumed human -industrial remains have now been recovered from caverns, in various -countries of Europe, as in the caves of Engis and Chokier, near Liége; -at Mont Salève, Geneva; in the south of France, in Belgium, and in -England: in every case so mingled with remains of the mammoth, -rhinoceros, hyæna, and other extinct mammals, as to lead to the -conviction of their contemporaneous deposition. Recent carefully -conducted explorations in the Devonshire caves have resulted in -seemingly indisputable proof that English flint-implements of the Amiens -type are coeval with the extinct fauna; and that consequently the -presence of their manufacturers must be assigned to periods prior to the -successive inundations and depositions by which Brixham cave was -gradually filled with layers of water-worn gravel, silt, or cave-earth, -bone breccia, and solid floorings of carbonate of lime. - -The rudeness of many of the worked flints has suggested the idea of -their accidental origin; but the most diligent search in the heaps of -chalk-flints broken for the roads, in France or England, or crushed _in -situ_ by subterranean movements, as in the Isle of Wight, has failed to -recover a single specimen resembling even the rudest implements of the -drift; whereas, in the ancient flint pits of the Shawnees, and probably -of the Mound-Builders of Ohio,—to which I shall again refer,—I have -collected fractured flints of precisely the same types as those familiar -to us among the rudest drift implements. They differ for the most part -in size, and also in type, from those found in early British or Danish -grave-mounds; but artificial origin and inventive design are as obvious -in the one as in the other. - -That forgery of drift implements has been practised latterly, especially -by the French workmen, is indisputable, but this need not affect the -question. The facts connected with their discovery had been on record -for nearly a century and a half before their significance was perceived; -and specimens lay unheeded in the British Museum and in the collection -of the Society of Antiquaries of London, with their human workmanship -undisputed, so long as their origin was ascribed to Celtic art.[13] In -reality the explorers of the drift have been perplexed by the very -abundance of the traces of art which it discloses. Dr. Rigollot states -that in the pits of St. Acheul alone, between August and December 1854, -upwards of four hundred specimens were obtained. The lowest estimate of -the number recovered in the valley of the Somme is 3000; but this is -exclusive of the more dubious flint-flakes, styled knives, estimated by -Sir Charles Lyell at many thousands more.[14] In England flint -implements of the same peculiar type have already rewarded research in -many localities; so that Mr. Evans justly remarks: “The number found is -almost beyond belief.”[15] Some reasons tending to account for their -accumulation in such localities are discussed in the following chapter, -in the light of analogous discoveries in the New World. But while it is -no longer possible to question their artificial origin, and the -consequent evidence of the presence of man in those localities where -they abound, the haunts of those primeval hunters and fishers were the -river-valleys of an elder world; and any attempt at estimating the time -required for changes of climate, extinction of fauna, the succession of -races implied in the phases of palæolithic and neolithic arts, and the -gradual introduction and development of metallurgy, involves so many -unknown quantities, that at present it must suffice to recognise as no -longer disputable that the whole historic period of Northern Europe is -insignificant when compared with the time requisite to account for all -the phenomena in question. The relative chronology of the French drift -is: _1st_, superficially, tombs and other remains of the Roman period, -scarcely perceptibly affected in their geological relations by nearly -the whole interval of the Christian era; _2d_, in the alluvium, -seemingly imbedded by natural accumulation, at an average depth of 15 -feet, remains of a European stone-period, corresponding to those of the -recently discovered pfahlbauten, or lacustrine villages of the Swiss -Lakes; and, _3d_, the tool-bearing gravel, imbedding works of the -Flint-Folk, wrought seemingly when the rivers were but beginning the -work of excavating the valleys which give their present contour to the -landscapes of France and England. - -With such indications of the remoteness of the era of the Drift-Folk it -scarcely calls for special notice, that their tools correspond to some -of those found in cave-deposits, as in Kent’s Hole, Devonshire; but that -they are readily distinguishable from the smaller implements and weapons -of the same material wrought by the primitive Barrow-Builders of Europe, -or by modern savage tribes still ignorant of metallurgy. From whatever -point we attempt to view the facts thus presented to our consideration, -it becomes equally obvious that we are dealing with the traces of a -period irreconcilable with any received system of historic chronology; -but within which, nevertheless, we are compelled to recognise many -indications of the presence of man. - -By evidence of a like character, the intermediate but still remote -periods of prehistoric centuries are peopled with successive races of -men. Proofs of oscillation, upheaval, and derangement of the course of -ancient rivers, had furnished indications of the enormous lapse of time -embraced within the British stone-period before the discoveries of -Abbeville and Amiens were heard of.[16] In the year 1819 there was -disclosed in the alluvium of the carse-land, where the river Forth winds -its circuitous course through ancient historic scenes, the skeleton of a -gigantic whale, with a perforated lance or harpoon of deer’s-horn beside -it. They lay together near the base of Dunmyat, one of the Ochil Hills, -twenty feet above the highest tide of the neighbouring estuary. Over -this an accumulation of five feet of alluvial soil was covered with a -thin bed of moss. The locality was examined by scientific observers -peculiarly competent to the task; and at the same time sufficient traces -of the old Roman causeway were observed, leading to one of the fords of -the Forth, to prove that no important change had taken place on the bed -of the river, or the general features of the strath, during the era of -authentic history.[17] Nor was this example a solitary one. Remains of -gigantic Balænæ have been repeatedly found; and one skeleton discovered -in 1824, seven miles further inland, was deposited in the Museum of -Edinburgh University, along with the primitive harpoon of deer’s-horn -found beside it, which in this instance retained some portion of the -wooden shaft by which it had been wielded. Among antique spoils -recovered at various depths in the same carse-land, the collection of -the Scottish Antiquaries includes a primitive quern, or hand-mill, -fashioned from the section of an oak,—such as is still in use by the -Indians of America for pounding their grain,—and a wooden wheel of -ingenious construction, found with several flint arrow-heads alongside -of it. - -With such well-authenticated and altogether indisputable evidence -already in our possession, the additions made to our grounds for belief -in the antiquity of the prehistoric dawn of Britain or Europe do not -materially affect the conclusions thereby involved, though they add to -the apparent duration of the human era. Whatever difficulties may seem -to arise from the discoveries at Abbeville and Amiens, or the older ones -at Gray’s Inn Lane, Hoxne, and elsewhere, in relation to the age of man, -the chronology which suffices to embrace the ancient Caledonian whaler -within the period of human history will equally adapt itself to more -recent disclosures. And lying, as the Scottish relics did, almost -beneath the paving of the Roman causeway, they suffice to show that -discoveries relative to the British Celt of Julius Cæsar’s time, or to -the Romanised Briton of Claudius or Nero, which have hitherto seemed to -the antiquary to illuminate the primeval dawn, bear somewhat less -relation to the period to which the Dunmyat and Blair-Drummond Moss -harpoons belong, than the American aborigines of the fifteenth century -do to primeval generations of the New World. The very question raised -anew by such disclosures as the British drift, ossiferous caves, -grave-mounds, and chance deposits reveal, is whether the ancient Celt, -on whom Roman and Saxon intruded, was not himself a very recent intruder -on older allophylian occupants?[18] If he was not, we are left to -imagine for his race an antiquity and a history, compared with which the -dreams of Merlin and the fables of Geoffrey of Monmouth are credible -things. - -With the advent of man antedated in geological eras, the Roman period -becomes, in truth, a part of very modern history; and the vast ages -computed to have intervened between the two periods baffle the fancy in -its efforts to comprehend the links by which they are connected. But -crude as are the arts of that primeval age, it will be seen that they -compare favourably with those of uncultured man at any later period. -Recent explorations, and especially those of the Dordogne caves of -Central France, disclose carvings in bone, and engravings on ivory and -slate, hereafter referred to, revealing an imitative skill, and powers -of observation in the delineation of characteristic details of form and -action, such as have rarely, if ever, been equalled in the art of modern -uncultured races. If by the aid of those singularly interesting -disclosures, we do indeed recover traces of the Flint-Folk belonging to -an era estimated by some scientific chronologists as antedating our own -by hundreds of thousands of years, it is of no slight importance to -perceive that the interval which has wrought such revolutions on the -earth as are recorded in the mammaliferous drift, show man the same -reasoning, tentative, and inventive mechanician, as clearly -distinguished then from the highest orders of contemporary life of the -Elephantine or cave periods, as he is now from the most intelligent of -the brute creation. In truth, so far from arriving by such disclosures -any nearer an anthropoid link between man and the brute, the oldest -art-traces of the palæotechnic men of Central France not only surpass -those of many savage races, but they indicate an intellectual aptitude -in no degree inferior to the average Frenchman of the nineteenth -century. - -Much of the reasoning relative to the characteristics which -archæological discoveries assign to man in his primeval stage originates -in an illogical association of the concomitants of modern intellectual -and social progress with the indispensable requisites implied in man’s -primary condition as a rational being. It is not necessary for the -confirmation of a primeval Stone or Flint Period, that we degrade man -from that majestic genesis of our race, when he heard the voice of the -Lord God amongst the trees of Paradise and was not afraid. Still less is -it requisite that we make of him that “extinct species of anthropoid -animal” hastily invented by over-sensitive Mosaic geologists to meet the -problematic case of pleistocene products of art. In that primeval -transition of the ethnologist in which geology draws to a close, and -archæology has its beginning, amid all the rudeness of palæolithic art, -we may still recognise the rational lord of creation, the being endowed, -not with physical but moral supremacy; in whom intelligence and -accumulated experience were to prove more than a match for all the brute -force of those gigantic mammalia so familiar to us now in fossil -disclosures of the drift-gravels and cave-earth. Even if no more is -claimed for primeval man than a condition akin to that of many modern -uncivilised races, we can still discern the new and higher order of -beings for which all others were to make way. - -But if our modern technological standards are to be the only received -tests of intellectual nobility, “his fair large front and eye sublime,” -with all the suggestive picturings of Milton’s primeval man, are vain. -His arts, though ample enough for all his wants, if tested by such -standards, declare him no better than “the ignoble creature that -arrow-heads and flint-knives would indicate.” He needed no weapons for -war or the chase; implements of husbandry were scarcely less -superfluous, amid a profusion ampler than the luxuriant plenty of the -islands of the Southern Ocean. The needle and the loom were as foreign -to his requirements as the printing-press or the electric telegraph. -What use had he for the potter’s wheel, or the sculptor’s chisel, or the -mason’s tools? And if his simple wants did suggest the need of some -cutting implement, the flint-knife, or - - “Such other gardening tools as art, yet rude, - Guiltless of fire, had formed,” - -harmonise with the simplicity of that primeval life, and its easy toils, -far more naturally than the most artistic Sheffield cutlery could do, -with all its requisite preliminary processes of mining, smelting, -forging, grinding, and hafting the needless tool. - -The idea which associates man’s intellectual elevation with the -accompaniments of mechanical skill, as though they stood somehow in the -relation of cause and effect, and with the intellectual as the -offspring, instead of the parent, of the mechanical element, is the -product of modern thought. The very element which begets the -unintellectual condition of the savage is that his whole energies are -expended, and all his thoughts are absorbed, in providing daily food and -clothing, and the requisite tools by which those are to be secured; or -where, as in the luxuriant islands of Polynesia, nature seems to provide -all things to his hand, his degraded moral nature unparadises the Eden -of the bread-fruit tree. - -A primeval “Stone period” appears to underlie the most remote traces of -European civilisation; and not only to carry back the evidence of man’s -presence to times greatly more remote than any hitherto conceived of, -but to confirm the idea that his earliest condition was one not only -devoid of metallurgy, but characterised by mechanical arts of the very -simplest kind. But it does not necessarily follow that he was in a -condition of intellectual dormancy. The degradation of his moral nature, -and not the absence of the arts which we associate with modern luxury -and enterprise, made him a savage. The Arab sheikh, wandering with his -flocks over the desert, is not greatly in advance of the Indian of the -American forests, either in mechanical skill or artistic refinement; yet -the Idumean Job was just such a pastoral Arab, but, nevertheless, a -philosopher and a poet, far above any who dwelt amid the wondrous -developments of mechanical and artistic progress in the cities of the -Tigris or the Euphrates. It is not to be inferred, however, that the -whole history of the human race is affirmed by the archæologist to -disclose a regular succession of periods—Stone, Bronze, and Iron, or -however otherwise designated,—akin to the organic disclosures of -geology; or that where their traces are found they necessarily imply -such an order in their succession. The only true analogy between the -geologist and the archæologist is, that both find their evidence -imbedded in the earth’s superficial crust, and deduce the chronicles of -an otherwise obliterated past by legitimate induction therefrom. The -radical difference between the palæontologist and the ethnologist lies -in this, that the one aims at recovering the history of unintelligent -divisions of extinct life; the other investigates all that pertains to a -still existing, intelligent being, capable of advancing from his own -past condition, or returning to it, under the most diverse external -circumstances. - -Amid that strangely diversified series of organic beings which pertains -to the studies of the geologist, there appears at length one, “the -beauty of the world, the paragon of animals”;[19] a being capable of -high moral and intellectual elevation, fertile in design, and with a -capacity for transmitting experience, and working out comprehensive -plans by the combined labours of many successive generations. In all -this there is no analogy to any of the inferior orders of being. The -works of the ant and the beaver, the coral zoophyte and the bee, display -singular ingenuity and powers of combination; and each feathered -songster builds its nest with wondrous forethought, in nature’s -appointed season. But the instincts of the inferior orders of creation -are in vain compared with the devices of man, even in his savage state. -Their most ingenious works cost them no intellectual effort to acquire -the craft, and experience adds no improvements in all the continuous -labours of the wonderful mechanicians. The beaver constructs a dam more -perfect than the best achievements of human ingenuity in the formation -of breakwaters, and builds for itself a hut which the author of the -_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_ justly contrasts in architectural -skill with the ruder dwelling of the Asiatic Tartar. The bee, in forming -its cell, solves a mathematical problem which has tasked the labours of -acutest analysts. But each ingenious artificer is practising a craft -which no master taught, and to which it has nothing to add. The -wondrous, instinctive, living machine creates for itself the highest -pleasure it is capable of in working out the art with which it is -endowed; and accomplishes it with infallible accuracy, as all its -untaught predecessors did, and as, without teaching, each new-born -successor will do. To such architects and artists history does not -pertain, for their arts knew no primeval condition of imperfection, and -witness no progress. Of their works, as of their organic structure, one -example is a sufficient type of the whole. The palæontologist’s -materials have been designated by one popular geologist, “the Medals of -Creation”; and the term, though borrowed from the antiquary, has a -significance which peculiarly marks the contrast now referred to between -geology and archæology. Like medals struck in the same die, the -multitude of examples of an extinct species, each exquisitely modelled -coral, and every cast of a symmetrical sigillaria, repeat the same -typical characteristics; and the poet’s fancy may be accepted as -literally true, in relation to the most ingenious arts which engage the -study of the naturalist:— - - “All the winged habitants of paradise, - Whose songs once mingled with the songs of angels, - Wove their first nests as curiously and well - As the wood minstrel in our evil day - After the labour of six thousand years.”[20] - -But with the relics of human art, even in its most primitive stage, it -is otherwise. Each example possesses an individuality of its own, for it -is the product of an intelligent will, capable of development, and -profiting by experience. - -Accumulated knowledge is the grand characteristic of man. Every age -bequeaths some results of its experience; and this constitutes the -vantage-ground of succeeding generations. The deterioration which -follows in the wake of every impediment to such transmission and -accumulation of knowledge no less essentially distinguishes man from the -ingenious spinners, weavers, and builders, who require no lesson from -the past, and bequeath no experience to the future. Man alone can be -conceived of as an intelligent mechanician, starting with the first -rudiments of art, devising tools, initiating knowledge, and accumulating -experience. Whatever, therefore, tends to disclose glimpses of such a -primitive condition, and of his earliest acquisitions in mechanical arts -and metallurgic knowledge, helps to a just conception of primeval man. -Let us then glance at the evidence we possess of such an initial stage -of being. And first in seeming chronological order are those traces of -human arts in the drift, or in ossiferous caves among the bones of -strange orders of beings hitherto supposed to have long preceded the -existence of man. In the ancient alluvial deposits—most modern among -the strata of the geologist,—lie abundant traces of extinct animal -life, belonging to that recent transitional era of the globe in which -man first appears. In nearly all respects they present a contrast to -everything we are familiar with in the history of our earth as the -theatre of human action. In a zoological point of view they include man -and the existing races of animals, as well as extinct races which appear -to have been contemporaneous with indigenous species. To the -archæologist they are rich in records of that primeval transition in -which the beginnings of history lie. How early in that closing -geological epoch man appeared, or how late into that archæological era -the extinct fossil mammals survived, are the two independent -propositions which the sister sciences have to establish and reconcile. - -The insular character of Great Britain renders it a peculiarly -interesting epitome of archæological study, a microcosm complete in -itself, and little less ample in the variety of its records than the -great continent, divorced from it by the ocean; yet the question, as we -have seen, is reopened: Was it already insular when its earliest nomad -trod its unhistoric soil? The Caledonian allophylian, as we now know, -pursued the gigantic whale in an estuary which swept along the base of -the far-inland Ochils; and guided his tiny canoe, above an ocean-bed, -which had to be upheaved into the sunshine of many centuries before it -could become the arena of deeds that live associated on the historic -page with the names of Agricola, Edward, Wallace and Bruce, of Montrose, -Cromwell, and Mar. Its history dawns in an era of geological mutation; -yet not more so than is now at work in other and neighbouring historic -lands. It is a type of the changes which were gradually transforming -that strange post-tertiary microcosm into the familiar historic Britain -of this nineteenth century. - -From an examination of the detritus and included fossils, and the -disclosures of peat-mosses, we learn that, when the British Isles were -in possession of their first colonists, the country must have been -almost entirely covered with forests, and overrun by animals long since -extinct. In the deposits of marl that underlie the accumulated peat-bogs -of Scotland and Ireland occur abundant remains of the fossil elk, an -animal far exceeding in magnitude any existing species of deer. Its -bones have been found associated with skeletons of the mammoth and other -proboscidians, and with numerous teeth, jaws, and detached bones of the -extinct rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hyæna, fossil ox, etc.; yet no doubt -is now entertained that the elk was contemporaneous with man in the -British Isles. Stone hatchets, flint arrow-heads, and fragments of -pottery have been recovered alongside of its skeleton, under -circumstances that satisfy geologists, as well as archæologists, of -their contemporaneous deposition; its bones have been found with the -tool-marks of the flint chisel and saw; and evidence of various kinds -seems to exhibit this gigantic deer as an object of the chase, and a -source of primitive food, clothing, and tools. - -Professor Jamieson and Dr. Mantell note the discovery, in the county of -Cork, of a human body exhumed from a marshy soil, beneath a peat-bog -eleven feet thick. The soft parts were converted into adipocere, and the -body, thus preserved, was enveloped in a deer-skin of such large -dimensions, as to lead them to the opinion that it belonged to the -extinct elk. In 1863, Professor Beete Jukes exhibited to the geological -section of the British Association the left femur, with a portion of one -of the tines of an antler, recently dug up in the vicinity of -Edgeworthstown, lying in marl, under forty feet of bog. A transverse cut -on the lower end of the femur corresponded with another on the antler, -by which they appeared to have been adapted for junction. After -carefully examining this bone, I entertain no doubt of its having been -cut by a sharp tool, and purposely prepared as the haft of the horn -blade which lay beside it. When the two were fastened together, they -must have made a formidable weapon. Other bones of this fossil deer have -been observed to bear marks of artificial cutting; but one of the most -interesting evidences of their use was produced at a meeting of the -Archæological Institute, June 3, 1864, when the Earl of Dunraven -exhibited an imperfect Irish lyre, found in the moat of Desmond Castle, -Adare, the material of which was pronounced by Professor Owen to be bone -of the Irish elk. The improbability of the recovery of a musical -instrument coeval with the Irish elk has been greatly lessened by more -recent discoveries. Among the carved bone and graven ivory relics of the -Troglodytes of the Dordogne valley was a reindeer bone pierced at one -end by an oblique hole, reaching to the medullary canal. By blowing upon -this, as on a hollow key, a shrill sound is produced; and to this -instrument accordingly M. Paul Broca applies the name of the rallying -whistle. But a later discovery furnishes more definite evidence of -ancient musical art. In 1871 M. E. Piette explored the cavern of Gourdan -(Haute-Garonne), and there in a layer of charcoal and cinders, -intermingled with flint implements, he found what he describes as a -neolithic flute. It also is formed of bone, but pierced with holes at -the side: an undoubted example of the art of one of Jubal’s primitive -disciples. - -The evidence supplied by the ossiferous caves of England, as of the -continents of Europe and America, is full of interest from corresponding -revelations. Kirkdale Cave, Yorkshire, has acquired a special celebrity -from the description and illustration of its contents, given by Dr. -Buckland in his _Reliquiæ Diluvianæ_, in connection with a diluvial -theory subsequently abandoned; and Kent’s Hole, Devonshire, one of the -richest depositories of British fossil carnivora, yielded no less -remarkable traces of primitive mechanical arts. Intermingled with -remains of the rhinoceros, cave-hyæna, great cave-tiger, cave-bear, and -other extinct mammalia in unusual abundance, lay not only worked flints -and the like traces of human art, but also numerous implements wrought -from their bones; and subsequent investigations of ossiferous caves in -various localities, by competent scientific explorers, guided by the -accumulated knowledge and experience of upwards of thirty years, have -given precision to the ideas already entertained of the coexistence of -man with the extinct fauna of the caves. - -In those instances, as well as in similar disclosures in Belgium and -Southern France, where the remains of man himself, as well as his -handiwork, have been found associated with the fossil mammalia, the -facts were for a time discredited, or explained away, as irreconcilable -with long-accepted conclusions relative to the age and early condition -of man. But in 1858 another ossiferous limestone cave was accidentally -discovered at Brixham, in the vicinity of the famous Kent’s Hole, and -negotiations were soon after entered into with a view to its thorough -exploration for purposes of science. Unlike Kent’s Hole Cavern, after a -succession of prolonged alternations of occupation by the carnivora of a -late quaternary epoch; of submergence by local floods, with the -deposition of their detrital accumulations in beds of varying character -and contents; and the formation over all, at favourable points, of a -flooring of carbonate of lime upwards of a foot thick: the falling in of -a portion of the roof closed up the entrance of Brixham Cave, except to -the smaller rodents and burrowing animals. Its history as the resort of -the older mammalia, and of man himself, was thus abruptly closed, and it -thenceforth remained intact, until its recent exploration. Thus, though -in its indications of the presence of man, its evidence is meagre when -compared with Kent’s Hole, it is wholly free from any confusing elements -such as in that remarkable cavern manifestly pertain to Celtic, Roman, -and even Saxon times. - -Brixham Cave appears to have long been the resort of hyænas, who dragged -their prey into its main passages, and left there the gnawed bones of -the rhinoceros, the fossil horse and ox, the reindeer, roebuck, great -red-deer, etc. It included unmistakable traces of the mammoth, or other -huge proboscidian, was visited by the cave-tiger (_Felis spelæa_), and -finally became a favourite haunt of the great cave-bear (_Ursus -spelæus_), as well as of two other species of bears, one of which seems -to correspond to the _Ursus arctos_, or brown bear, and another has been -supposed to be identical with the _Ursus ferox_, or grizzly bear. From -time to time it was also visited, and some of its remote recesses -explored by man. Thirty-six flints in all have been recovered in the -different strata of the cave beds. A few of those are simply unworked -flints; but twenty-three of them betray traces of human workmanship and -use; and include knives and oval and lanceolate blades, closely -analogous to implements found in the Cavern of Aurignac, in the -Pyrenees, and in that of Le Moustier, in the Dordogne. Others, though -mere flint-flakes, bear decided marks of use as scraping tools. Another -implement is a round pebble of siliceous sandstone, weighing 1 lb. 3 -oz., which must have been brought from a distance, and shows on the side -opposite to that by which it is most readily grasped by the hand -distinct evidence of its use as a hammer stone. One, and only one, -object wrought from animal substance, a small cylindrical pin, or rod of -ivory, accompanied the more durable flints. Some of those indications of -the presence of man were found in the bottom, or shingle-bed, overlaid -by undisturbed cave-earth rich in mammalian remains; and the entire -succession of beds was overlaid by a layer of stalagmite in which bones -of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and other fossil mammals occurred. - -It does not appear that Brixham Cave had at any time been inhabited by -man. It has no accumulation of split bones or broken tools, nor any -traces of the hearth, as in Kent’s Hole, or in the Caves of Dordogne and -the Pyrenees. But the men of the mammoth period had resorted thither -occasionally,—for hiding, it may be, or in pursuit of their prey; and -thus dropped the worked flints which now reveal the evidence of their -presence. There is no trace of human bones, or any indication that man -fell a prey to the powerful wild animals which chiefly haunted the cave. -But he explored its recesses, in one case at least, to a distance of -seventy-four feet from the entrance; and unless we suppose him to have -groped his way thither, when in search of a more effectual hiding-place -from some human foe, it seems no unfair surmise that he carried with him -the illuminating torch. The extinguished hearths of the French Caves, as -at Aurignac and the Vezère, leave no room to question man’s early -acquaintance with fire. Nor does it seem to me probable that, under the -rigorous climate to which he was exposed in that remote post-glacial -period, he could fail, as man, to employ the art of fire-making to -alleviate his necessities, even as is now done under corresponding -exigencies by the Arctic Esquimaux. Nevertheless it is to be noted that -the flint implements found in Brixham Cave are of the rudest character; -and like other specimens of the worked-flints of the men of the Drift or -Cave periods, indicate a very slight development of constructive skill: -unless, as hereafter shown from analogous American examples, there may -be reason to regard many of them as merely in the first stage of -manufacture into weapons or tools. - -Kent’s Cavern yielded a greatly more varied illustration of primitive -arts, such as barbed harpoon heads, bodkins, awls, and needles of bone. -Like others found in the French Caves, they suggest comparison with the -ingenious arts of the Esquimaux: and may also justify the inference that -in milder regions, and under other favouring circumstances, contemporary -man, then as now, manifested a higher intellectual vigour when free from -the exhausting strain involved in the battle for life, either of the -modern hyperborean, or of the post-glacial artificer of the cave period. - -At an epoch which, though still prehistoric, is modern when compared -with the latest traces of post-glacial or cave periods, the worked -flints and implements of bone, found in many European primitive -deposits, in caverns, chambered cairns, barrows, and among the chance -disclosures of the agriculturist, continue to exhibit the most infantile -stage of rudimentary art. Fragments of sun-baked urns, and rounded slabs -of slate of a plate-like form, are associated with indications of rude -culinary practices, illustrative of the habits and tastes of savage man. -Broken pottery, calcined bones, charcoal ashes, and other traces of -cooking operations, have been noted under similar circumstances, alike -in England and on the continent of Europe; showing where the hearth of -the Allophylian had stood. Along with those, in Kent’s cavern -especially, the flints lay dispersed in all conditions, from the rounded -mass as it came out of the chalk, through various stages of progress, on -to finished arrow-heads and hatchets; while small flint-chips, and -partially used flint-blocks, thickly scattered through the soil, served -to indicate that the British troglodyte had there his workshop, as well -as his kitchen, and wrought the raw material of that primitive -stone-period into the requisite tools and weapons of the chase. Nor were -indications wanting of the specific food of man in the remote era thus -recalled for us. Besides accumulated bones, shells of the mussel, -limpet, and oyster, lay heaped together near the mouth of the cave, -along with a palate of the scarus: indicating that the aborigines found -their precarious subsistence from the products of the chase and the -spoils of the neighbouring sea. - -The same fact is further illustrated by similar relics of a subterranean -stone dwelling at Saverock, near Kirkwall, in Orkney, situated, like the -natural caverns of Torbay, close to the sea-shore. Accumulated remains -of charcoal and peat ashes lay intermingled with bones of the small -northern sheep, the horse, ox, deer, and whale, and also with some rude -implements illustrative of primitive Orcadian arts; while a layer of -shells of the oyster, escallop, and periwinkle, the common whelk, the -purpura, and the limpet, covered the floor and the adjacent ground, in -some places half a foot deep. - -In the interval since I first drew attention to such traces of -Scotland’s prehistoric centuries, this class of remains has excited -special interest. Ancient shell-mounds, analogous to the kjökkenmöddingr -of Denmark, discovered on the coasts of Elgin and Inverness-shire, have -yielded similar results; and the explorations of other mounds, -especially that of Keiss, in Caithness, have proved beyond question that -the natives of North Britain were familiar at a comparative late period -with the Reindeer. Specimens of its horns have been found not only -associated with flint implements, cups and personal ornaments of stone -and shale, the miscellaneous heaps of fish-bones, littoral shells, and -other débris of a kitchen-midden; but with the masonry of the Scottish -Broch, or primitive round tower. Some of the reindeer horns thus found -show marks of sawing and cutting, apparently with metal tools. How old -they are may not be strictly determinable; but they serve to place the -Scottish Reindeer Period in a very modern era, compared with that -assigned to the “Reindeer Period” of France; and remove all grounds for -rejecting the statement of Torfæus that, so recently as the twelfth -century, the Jarls of Orkney were wont to cross the Pentland Firth, to -chase the roe and the reindeer in the wilds of Caithness. - -But recent discoveries replete with interest and value, which thus -extend the resources of the European archæologist and anthropologist, -are only known to me through the ordinary channels of information; and I -turn therefore to another field of study and research, rendered valuable -by the contrast which it presents in all ways to that of historic -Europe, with its confusing elements pertaining to times when the -ambition of Rome so overrode all nationalities, and obliterated the -memories of history, that even now it is hard to persuade some men there -was a European world before that of the Cæsars. - -The city of Toronto, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario, is built on -the drift clays which have accumulated above the rocks of the Lower -Silurian formation to an average depth of upwards of thirty feet, and in -some places to more than seventy feet. The same overlying beds of -boulder clay and drift-gravel extend with monotonous uniformity eastward -from Lake Huron to the Ottawa; and throughout the lower valley of the -St. Lawrence to Labrador. The traces of ancient life recovered from -those Canadian glacial deposits, with very few exceptions, correspond to -living species,—including Radiata, Mollusca, Articulata, and -Vertebrata, now found in other latitudes. As might be anticipated, the -older glacial beds indicate a more Arctic condition of life; and thus -accord with other evidence in pointing to a gradual amelioration of -climate in Northern America. But it is only in the boulder clay of the -lower St. Lawrence that the palæontologist finds the fossils by means of -which such conclusions are formed; and alongside of which it would be -reasonable to anticipate traces of the presence of man. The construction -of an esplanade along the margin of the Bay of Toronto, during recent -years, exposed a cutting of upwards of two miles in length, and laid -bare the virgin soil of the most populous site now devoted to the -civilising processes of European colonisation in Upper Canada. The same -drift clay and gravel have been exposed in numerous other excavations, -but hitherto without disclosures of interest to the archæologist. In two -cases only, so far as I have been able to ascertain, did any trace of -prior human presence appear. At the depth of nearly two feet from the -surface, in front of the Parliament buildings, the bones and horn of a -deer lay amid an accumulation of charcoal and wood ashes, and with them -a rude stone chisel or hatchet. More recently, to the west of the same -spot, at a depth of eight or nine feet, one of the cervical vertebræ of -the Wapiti (_Cervus Canadensis_), was found along with a rude stone -hatchet and a lance-head of flint. But the travelled fossils of the -Toronto drift are of a very different era, and belong to the Hudson -river group of the Lower Silurian, like the rocks on which it is -superimposed. With varying organic remains imbedded in its clay and -gravel, the same formation overlies the true fossiliferous rocks of -Western Canada; and seems to make of its long stretch of wooded levels -and gentle undulations a country fitted to slumber through untold -centuries under the shadow of its forests, a type of the earth of -primeval man, until the new-born mechanical science of Europe provided -for it the railway and the locomotive, and made its vast chain of rivers -and lakes a highway for the steamboat. With such novel facilities added -to the indomitable energy of the intruding occupants, the whole face of -the continent is in rapid process of transformation; and it is well, ere -the change is completed, that some note be made of every decipherable -index of the characteristics of a past thus destined to speedy -obliteration. - -From the uncleared wilds that still occupy the shores of Lake Superior, -south-eastward through the great lakes and rivers to the valley of the -St. Lawrence, those drift deposits reveal to the geologist marvellous -changes that have transpired in this extensive area of the North -American continent. Along the low shores stretching away from the rapids -of Sault Ste. Marie to Lake Superior, huge granitic boulders lie strewed -like the wreck of some Titanic Babel; raised beaches at various levels -on the shores of Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, show traces of other -revolutions; and wherever the waves of the St. Lawrence reopen the -deposits along the lower portion of the valley, the bottoms of an -ancient ocean are revealed, frequently with littoral or deep-sea shells -imbedded at different levels in the stratified drift. But remote as is -the antiquity, according to all human chronology, to which the fauna of -these beds of marine detritus belong, the palæontologist detects among -their post-tertiary fossils the phoca, balænæ of more than one species, -fishes, articulata, and the shells of many mollusca still inhabiting the -neighbouring ocean along the northern Atlantic coasts. The period, -therefore, which embraces those relics of ancient life is the same to -which man belongs; and they mark for it one of the phases of that last -transitional era during which the continent was being prepared for his -entrance upon it. Since the natica, fusus, turritella, and other marine -animals of the post-pleiocene period, were the living occupants of the -St. Lawrence valley, vast changes have been wrought on the physical -geography of the continent. The relative levels of the sea and land have -altered, so as to elevate old sea-margins to the slopes of lofty hills, -and leave many hundred miles inland escarpments wrought by the waves of -that ancient sea. The conditions of climate have undergone no less -important changes, developing in a corresponding degree the new -character and conditions of life pertaining to this bed of an extinct -ocean: covered with successive deposits of marine detritus, and then -elevated into the region of sun and rain, to be clothed with the -umbrageous forest, and to become the dwelling-place through another -dimly-measured period of the wapiti, the beaver, and the bison; and with -them, of the Iroquois, the Huron, and the Chippewa: all alike the fauna -of conditions of life belonging to a transitional period of the New -World preparatory to our own. - -Marvellous as are those cosmical revolutions belonging to the period of -emergence of the northern zone of America from the great Arctic Ocean, -when we look on each completed whole the process appears to have been -characterised by no abnormal violence. Slowly through long centuries the -ocean shallowed. The deep-sea organisms of a former generation were -overlaid by the littoral shells of a newer marine life, and then the -tidal waves retreated from the emerging sea-beach; until now we seek far -down in the gulf of the St. Lawrence and on the coast of Labrador for -the living descendants of species gathered from the post-pleiocene -drift. Thus the closing epoch of geology in the New World, as in the -Old, is brought into contact with that in which its archæology begins; -and we look upon the North American continent as at length prepared for -the presence of man. - -Such records are here noted among the disclosures of the great valley of -the St. Lawrence, which drains well-nigh half a continent; for it is in -the valleys by which the present drainage of historic areas takes place, -that not only such deposits of recent shells and fossil relics of -existing fauna occur, but also that the most extensive remains of the -extinct mammalia are disclosed, in association with objects serving to -link them with those of modern eras. In formations of this character -have been found, in the lower valley of the Mississippi, the _Elephas -primigenius_, the _Mastodon Ohioticus_, the _Megalonyx_, _Megalodon_, -_Ereptodon_, and the _Equus curvidens_, or extinct American horse: with -many other traces of an unfamiliar fauna, and also a flora, -contemporaneous with those gigantic mammifers, but which also include -both marine and terrestrial representatives of existing species. -Corresponding in its great geographical outlines very nearly to its -present condition, the American continent must have presented in nearly -all other characteristics a striking contrast to its modern aspect, -clothed though it seems to us in primeval forests, and scarcely modified -by the presence of man. In the post-pleiocene formations of South -Carolina, exposed along the bed of the Ashley River, remains of the -megatherium, megalodon, and other gigantic extinct mammals occur, not -only associated with existing species peculiar to the American -continent, but also apparently with others, hitherto believed to have -been domesticated and introduced for the first time by modern European -colonists. But more interesting for our present purpose, as possibly -indicating the contemporaneous existence of some of those strange -mammals with man, are notices of remains of human art in the same -formation. Professor Holmes, in exhibiting a collection of fossils from -the post-pleiocene of South Carolina before the Academy of Natural -Sciences of Philadelphia, remarked: “Dr. Klipstein, who resides near -Charleston, in digging a ditch for the purpose of reclaiming a large -swamp, discovered and sent to me the tooth of a mastodon, with the -request that I should go down and visit the place, as there were -indications of the bones and teeth of the animal still remaining in the -sands which underlie the peat-bed. Accordingly, with a small party of -gentlemen, we visited the doctor, and succeeded not only in obtaining -several other teeth and bones of this animal, but nearly one entire -tusk, and immediately alongside of the tusk discovered the fragment of -pottery which I hold in my hand, and which is similar to that -manufactured at the present time by the American Indians.”[21] It would -not be wise to found hasty theories on such strange juxtaposition of -relics, possibly of very widely separated periods. The Ashley River has -channeled for itself a course through the eocene and post-pleiocene -formations of South Carolina, and where these are exposed on its shores -the fossils are washed from their beds, and become mingled with the -remains of recent indigenous and domestic animals, and objects of human -art. But the discovery of Dr. Klipstein was made in excavating an -undisturbed and, geologically speaking, a comparatively recent -formation. The tusk of the mastodon lay alongside of the fragment of -pottery, in a deposit of the peat and sands of the post-pleiocene beds. -Immediately underneath lie marine deposits, rich with varied groups of -mollusca, corresponding to species now living on the sea-coast of -Carolina, but also including two fossil species no longer to be met with -there, though common in the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indian seas. - -Here the palæontology of the New World discloses to us types of a fauna -pertaining to its latest transitional period, which serve to illustrate -the marvellous contrast between its commencement and its close. Until -the discovery of teeth of the megatherium in the post-pleiocene bed of -the Ashley River, remains of that extinct mammal had been found only in -the state of Georgia, in North America, while the _Mastodon Ohioticus_ -and _Elephas primigenius_ are among the well-known fauna of the Canadian -drift. Of those, some North American localities have furnished remains -in remarkable profusion, but none more so than the celebrated morass in -Kentucky, known by its homely but expressive name of the Big-bone Lick. -Imbedded in the blue clay of this ancient bog, entire skeletons, or -detached bones, of not less than one hundred mastodons and twenty -mammoths, have been found, besides remains of the megalonyx and other -extinct quadrupeds. A magnificent skeleton of the _Mastodon Ohioticus_, -now in the British Museum, was discovered, with teeth and bones of many -others, near the banks of La Pomme de Terre, a tributary of the Osage -River, Missouri; and there once more we seem to come upon -contemporaneous traces of man. “The bones,” says Mantell, who examined -them in the presence of Mr. Albert Koch, their discoverer, “were -imbedded in a brown sandy deposit full of vegetable matter, with -recognisable remains of the cypress, tropical cane, and swamp-moss, -stems of the palmetto, etc., and this was covered by beds of blue clay -and gravel to a thickness of about 15 feet. Mr. Koch states, and he -personally assured me of the correctness of the statement, that an -Indian flint arrow-head was found beneath the leg-bones of this -skeleton, and four similar weapons were imbedded in the same -stratum.”[22] Some of the deductions of Mr. Koch were extravagant, and -tended to bring discredit on his statement. But there appear to be no -just grounds for doubting the main facts. A full-sized view of the large -arrow-head is given in the Smithsonian Report of 1872. Another, but more -dubious account, preserved in the _American Journal of Science_, -describes the discovery in Missouri of the bones of a mammoth, with -considerable portions of the skin, associated with stone spear-heads, -axes, and knives, under circumstances which suggest the idea that it had -been entangled in a bog, and there stoned to death and partially -consumed by fire.[23] Such contiguity of the works of man with those -extinct mammals warns us at least to be on our guard against any -supercilious rejection of indications of his ancient presence in the New -World as well as in the Old. - -Whether or not the mammoth and mastodon had been contemporary with man, -their remains were objects of sufficiently striking magnitude to awaken -the curiosity even of the unimpressible Indian; and traditions were -common among the aborigines relative to their existence and destruction. -M. Fabri, a French officer, informed Buffon that they ascribed those -bones to an animal which they named the _Père aux Bœufs_. Among the -Shawnees, and other southern tribes, the belief was current that the -mastodon once occupied the continent along with a race of giants of -corresponding proportions, and that both perished together by the -thunderbolts of the Great Spirit. Another Indian tradition of Virginia -told that these monstrous quadrupeds had assembled together, and were -destroying the herds of deer and bisons, with the other animals created -by the Great Spirit for the use of his red children, when he slew them -all with his thunderbolts, excepting the big bull, who defiantly -presented his enormous forehead to the bolts, and shook them off as they -fell; until, being at length wounded, he fled to the region of the great -lakes, where he is to this day. - -The first notice in an English scientific journal of the fossil mammals -of the American drift furnishes such a counterpart to the Shawnee -traditions of extinct giants as might teach a lesson to modern -speculators in science; when it is borne in remembrance that the -difficulty now is to reconcile with preconceived beliefs the discovery -of works of human art alongside of their remains. In 1712, certain -gigantic bones, which would now most probably be referred to the -mastodon, were found near Cluverack, in New England. The famous Dr. -Increase Mather soon after communicated the discovery to the Royal -Society of London; and an abstract in the _Philosophical Transactions_ -duly set forth his opinion of this supposed confirmation of the -existence of men of prodigious stature in the antediluvian world, as -proved by the bones and teeth, which he judged to be human, -“particularly a tooth, which was a very large grinder, weighing four -pounds and three-quarters, with a thigh bone seventeen feet long.”[24] -They were doubtless looked upon with no little satisfaction by Dr. -Mather, as a striking confirmation of the Mosaic record, that “there -were giants in those days.” To have doubted the New England -philosopher’s conclusions might have been even more dangerous then than -to believe them now. Possibly, after the lapse of another century and a -half, some of our own confused minglings of religious questions with -scientific investigations will not seem less foolish than the -antediluvian giants of the New England divine. - -In all that relates to the history of man in the New World, we have ever -to reserve ourselves for further truths. There are languages of living -tribes, of which we have neither vocabulary nor grammar. There are -nations of whose physical aspect we scarcely know anything; and areas -where it is a moot point even now, whether the ancient civilisation of -central America may not be still a living thing. The ossiferous caves of -England have only revealed their wonders during the present century, and -the works of art in the French drift lay concealed till our own day. We -cannot, therefore, even guess what America’s disclosures will be. -Discoveries in its ossiferous caverns have already pointed to the same -conclusions as those of Europe. A cabinet of the British Museum is -filled with fossil bones of mammalia, obtained by Dr. Lund and M. -Claussen from limestone caverns in the Brazils, closely resembling the -ossiferous caves of Europe. The relics were imbedded in a -reddish-coloured loam, covered over with a thick stalagmitic flooring; -and along with them lay numerous bones of genera still inhabiting the -continent, with shells of the large _bulimus_, a common terrestrial -mollusc of South America. - -No clear line of demarcation can be traced here between the era of the -extinct carnivora and edentata, and those of existing species; and there -is therefore no greater cause of wonder than in the analogous examples -of Europe, to learn that in the same detritus of those Brazilian caves -Dr. Lund found human skeletons, which he believed to be coeval with some -of the extinct mammalia. Nor have the first disclosures of works of art -in the American drift still to be made. I have in my possession an -imperfect flint-knife (Fig. 1), to all appearance as unquestionable a -relic of human art as the most symmetrical of those assigned to a -similar origin by the explorers of the French and English drift-gravels. -It was given to me by Mr. P. A. Scott, an intelligent Canadian, who -found it at a depth of upwards of fourteen feet, among the rolled gravel -and gold-bearing quartz of the Grinell Leads, in Kansas Territory, while -engaged in digging for gold. In an alluvial bottom, in the Blue Range of -the Rocky Mountains, distant several hundred feet from a small stream -called Clear Creek, a shaft was sunk, passing through four feet of rich -black soil, and below this, through upwards of ten feet of gravel, -reddish clay, and rounded quartz. Here the flint implement was found, -and its unmistakably artificial origin so impressed the finder, that he -secured it, and carefully noted the depth at which it lay. - -[Illustration: FIG. 1.—Flint-Knife, Grinell Leads.] - -It is difficult at present to test such chance evidence accurately. The -discovery of the palæolithic implements of Europe had been recorded -upwards of half a century before their true significance was recognised; -whereas the American explorer is on the look-out for similar -disclosures, and evinces at times a feeling as though the honour of his -country is imperilled if he fail. It will be seen, moreover, from the -narrative of a subsequent chapter, that the abundance of flint and stone -implements in the virgin soil of the New World is almost marvellous. The -discovery, therefore, of stray specimens in modern river-gravels, the -washings of gold-drift, or in any excavations liable to be affected by -surface admixtures, must be viewed with the utmost caution. Several -flint implements from the auriferous gravel of California were produced -at the Paris Exposition of 1855. According to the geological survey of -Illinois, for 1866, the bones of the mastodon and other fossil mammals -have been found in a bed of “local drift” near Alton, underlying the -Loess; and at the same depth stone axes and flint spear-heads were -obtained.[25] - -But such disclosures of worked flints or polished implements of stone -are cast into the shade by the reputed discovery of human remains in the -auriferous drift of California. In 1857 Dr. C. F. Winslow produced a -fragment of a human skull found eighteen feet below the surface, in the -“pay drift,” at Table Mountain, in connection with the bones of the -mastodon and fossil elephant. A later disclosure brought to light a -complete human skull, reported to have been discovered in auriferous -gravel, underlying five successive lava formations. Professor Whitney, -after satisfying himself of the genuineness of the discovery, produced -the skull at the Chicago meeting of the American Association for the -Advancement of Science, in 1869, to the manifest delight of some who -were prepared at once to relegate American man to a remoter epoch than -the Flint-folk of the Abbeville and Amiens gravel drift. More recently a -highly polished plummet of syenite, in the form of a double cone -perforated at one end, was produced before the Chicago Academy of -Sciences, as an implement found at a depth of thirty feet, in the -drift-gravel of San Joaquin, California, by some workmen engaged in -digging a well. In this case also Professor Whitney appears to have had -no hesitation in assigning it to the age of the fossil elephant and -mastodon. It does not seem to have been recognised how much more -probable it is that a highly finished stone implement like the San -Joaquin plummet should fall from the surface, in the process of -excavation, and so be perhaps no older than the era of the Mexican -conquest, than that it is a choice specimen of post-pleiocene art. - -Much of the evidence hitherto adduced for the antiquity of the American -man has a singularly modern aspect. The human skulls are of the -predominant Indian type of the present day, though that need not -surprise us. Dr. Usher only notes this in the case of the “human -fossils” from the Brazil Caves, to add: “this consideration may spare -science the trouble of any further speculation on the _modus_ through -which the New World became peopled from the Old; for after carrying -backwards the existence of a people monumentally into the very night of -time, when we find that they have also preserved the same type back to a -remote, even to a geological, period, there can be no necessity for -going abroad to seek their origin.”[26] The question of this fancied -American type will come under review hereafter. But on a par with this -evidence are fragments of baskets and clay vessels submitted to the New -Orleans Academy of Sciences in 1867, as contemporary with the elephant -and other fossil mammals, the bones of which were found in digging the -same salt-pits in which the pottery and basket-work were met with; or a -fragment of cane-matting presented to the Smithsonian Institution in -1866 by Mr. J. F. Cleu, along with portions of tusks and teeth of the -fossil elephant which lay above it, at a depth of thirteen feet in a -Louisiana salt mine. Matting, or basket-work, of split cane is as common -among the contents of southern Indian graves as fragments of pottery; -and both may be reasonably suspected to carry with them evidence -inconsistent with any geological antiquity. - -[Illustration: FIG. 2.—Lewiston Flint Implement. (5/7).] - -Mr. Charles C. Jones notes a discovery of a more suggestive character, -due also to the search for gold. In the state of Georgia the river -Chattahoochee flows through an auriferous region of the Nacoochee -valley. From time to time the gold-diggers have made extensive cuttings -through the soil and underlying drift-gravel, down to the slate-rock -upon which it rests. During one of these excavations, at a depth of some -nine feet, intermingled with the gravel and boulders of the drift, three -large flint implements were found, measuring between three and four -inches in length, and “in material, manner of construction, and -appearance so nearly resembling some of the rough so-called flint -hatchets belonging to the drift-type that they might very readily be -mistaken the one for the others.”[27] With those may not unfitly be -classed a large implement of hornstone, now in the collection of the -Scottish Antiquaries, obtained by me from a dealer in Indian curiosities -at Lewiston in the State of New York, where it was said to have been -found at a great depth when sinking a well. Its form, though common -enough among the implements of the American Mound-Builders, rarely, if -ever, occurs on so large a scale in Europe, except among palæolithic -remains. Ovoid discs of the same class attracted the attention of the -Rev. J. MacEnery in his early explorations of Kent’s Cavern, and have -anew been brought to light in the recent systematic researches there. -Mr. Evans figures one found there in 1866 (Fig. 3), somewhat smaller, -and more ovoid in outline, but of the same type. The Lewiston implement -is shown in Fig. 2. It has been reduced to the present shape by -comparatively few strokes; and on the reverse side it appears as if -broken off by a final ill-directed blow. One edge is worn and fractured -as if by frequent use. Unfortunately more minute information of the -locality and the circumstances attendant on its discovery could not be -obtained. But even if it be regarded as only a stray relic of the same -class as those hereafter described among the ancient mound deposits of -Wisconsin and Ohio, it possesses a novel interest from its discovery -near the banks of the Niagara River, where no traces of the -Mound-Builders or their arts occur. Mr. Evans permits me to introduce -here the analogous example from Kent’s Cavern. It is of grey cherty -flint, and chipped on both faces with more than wonted care. Though -smaller than the Lewiston implement, the difference is only about half -an inch; the larger of the two being a little over five inches long. I -have purposely engraved the Lewiston disc on a large scale, in order to -suggest more clearly the proportions of this class of implements; and to -show the close analogy traceable between those of the American -continent, and the European disclosures of the river and cave drift. - -[Illustration: FIG. 3.—Flint Disc, Kent’s Cavern. (½).] - -Such, then, are some of the indications which have been assumed to point -to the ancient presence of man in the New World. If we estimate this by -historical, and not by geological periods, whatever proofs of his -antiquity archæology may supply will be found to accord with other -evidence; and especially with proofs furnished by the multitude of -independent languages, and the diversity of types of race, ranging from -the Arctic circle to Tierra del Fuego. But it would be rash to assume -from the partial evidence yet obtained, that the juxtaposition of flint -arrow-heads with the mastodon of Missouri, the pottery with bones and -tusk of the same animal in the post-pleiocene of South Carolina, the -human bones in the rich ossiferous caverns of the Brazils, or the flint -implements, and human remains recovered from Californian and other -auriferous drifts, unquestionably prove the existence of man on the -American continent contemporaneously with the fossil elephant or the -mastodon. - -The proofs hitherto adduced have been at best only suggestive of further -research. There is no question that Dr. Lund visited that portion of -Brazil lying between the Rio das Velhas and the Rio Paraopeba, with very -important palæontological results. He there found a mountain chain of -limestone rock, abounding with fissures and caverns; and from some of -these calcareous caves he recovered, not only the bones of numerous -fossil mammals imbedded in red earth, but also human bones which he -pronounced to be fossil. The remains included not only those of sloths -and armadillos of gigantic size, but also extinct genera of monkeys, all -assumed to have been contemporaries of the fossil cave-men. But -experience is teaching the palæontologist that the mere recovery of -bones or implements from the same cave is no proof of contemporaneity. A -cave which had been filled with cave-earth and bone breccia, together -with extinct animals of the period of the _glyptodon_ and the _mylodon_, -may in a long subsequent era have become the shelter or the place of -sepulture of Indians. - -Nearly forty years have elapsed since Dr. Lund’s discovery. Since then -the lamented Agassiz has visited Brazil with valuable results to -science; but no additional light has been thrown on the significance of -the disclosures of this interesting locality. One important fact, -however, has not only been admitted, but insisted upon. The crania of -the fossil men of Brazil betray no traces of approximation to that of -the fossil monkey, but on the contrary differ in no respect from the -predominant American Indian type; and the same has since been affirmed -of a set of human skulls now in the Smithsonian collection, which were -found incrusted with stalagmite, in a limestone cave in Calaveras -County, California. Their fossil character and extreme antiquity were at -first assumed to be indisputable. In this other respect they correspond -with the Brazilian fossil remains. Professor Jeffreys Wyman reported of -them that they present “no peculiarities by which they could be -distinguished from other crania of California.”[28] - -Here then might seem to be additional proofs “that the general type of -races inhabiting America at that inconceivably remote era was the same -which prevailed at the period of the Columbian discovery”;[29] and that, -therefore, Dr. Morton’s assumed uniform cranial type pertains to the -American man from remotest geological time. There seems more reason, -however, for believing that the Calaveras Cave was a place of interment -of the present race of Indians; and that its crania are very modern -compared even with the fossil Caribs of Guadaloupe. But the increasing -evidence of the remote antiquity of the European man has naturally -suggested a revision of the evidence adduced in confirmation of his -ancient presence in the New World. - -Sir Charles Lyell latterly regarded with greater favour than he had once -done, the possible coexistence of man with the mastodon, megalonyx, and -other extinct species, among bones of which, in the loam of the -Mississippi valley, near Natchez, a human pelvic bone was recovered, and -made the basis of very comprehensive theories. In the delta of the same -river, near New Orleans, a complete human skeleton is reported to have -been found, buried at a depth of sixteen feet, under the remains of four -successive cypress forests; and this discovery furnished the data from -which Dr. Bennet Dowler has assigned to the human race an existence in -the delta of the Mississippi 57,000 years ago.[30] - -Evidence of this exceptional nature requires to be used with modest -caution. Antiquaries of Europe having found tobacco pipes of the -sixteenth and seventeenth centuries alongside of pottery and other -undoubted remains of Roman art, have hastily antedated the use of -tobacco to classic times.[31] On equally good evidence it might be -carried back to those of the mammoth, as the discovery of a similar -relic has been recorded at a depth of many feet, in sinking a coal-pit -at Misk, in Ayrshire.[32] - ------ - -[6] _The British Dominions in North America._ Lond. 1832. Vol. i. p. 89. - -[7] _Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher._ - -[8] _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, vol. i. p. 41. - -[9] _Antiguedades Prehistoricas de Andalusia_, Madrid, 1868. - -[10] _The Land of Israel: a Journal of Travels in Palestine_, 1865, p. -11. - -[11] J. Trimmer: _Jour. Geol. Soc._, vol. ix. - -[12] _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, 1851, 1st Ed. p. 29. - -[13] _Archæologia_, vol. xiii. p. 206; vol. xxxviii. p. 301. - -[14] _Antiquity of Man_, 4th Ed. p. 190. - -[15] _Archæologia_, vol. xxxviii. p. 296. - -[16] _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, 1st Ed. p. 33. - -[17] _Edin. Phil. Jour._, i. 395. - -[18] This question was first brought forward by the author in an -“Inquiry into the Evidence of the existence of Primitive Races in -Scotland prior to the Celtæ.”—_British Association Report_, 1850. - -[19] _Hamlet_, Act ii. sc. 2. - -[20] Montgomery, _Pelican Island_. - -[21] _Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia_, -July 1859, pp. 178, 186. - -[22] Mantell’s _Fossils of the British Museum_, p. 473. - -[23] _American Journ. of Science and Arts_, vol. xxxvi. p. 199, First -Series. - -[24] _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. xxiv. p. 85. - -[25] _Geol. Survey of Illinois_, by A. H. Worthen, vol. i. p. 38. - -[26] _Types of Mankind_, p. 351. - -[27] _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, p. 293. - -[28] _Smithsonian Report_, 1867, p. 407. - -[29] Dr. Usher, _Types of Mankind_, p. 351. - -[30] _Types of Mankind_, p. 272. - -[31] _La Normandie Souterraine_, p. 76. - -[32] _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 505. - - - - - CHAPTER III. - THE QUARRY. - - - THE QUARRY—BRIXHAM CAVE—BRIXHAM FLINT IMPLEMENT—FLINT RIDGE, - OHIO—FLINT PITS—DRIFT QUARRY DEPOSITS—TRACES OF PALÆOLITHIC - ART—LANCEOLATE FLINTS—ALMOND-SHAPED FLINTS—THE SHAWNEES—THE - COLORADO INDIANS—CACHES OF WORKED FLINTS—SEPULCHRAL DEPOSITS— - CAVE-DRIFT DISCLOSURES—ILLUSTRATIVE ANALOGIES—CINCINNATI - COLLECTIONS—HORNSTONE SPEAR-HEADS—AMERICAN NEOLITHIC ART— - FLINT DRILLS—MODES OF PERFORATION—FLINT KNIVES—RAZORS AND - SCRAPERS—ARROW-HEAD FORMS—DISCOIDAL STONES—SINKERS AND - LASSO-STONES—CUPPED STONES—ARCHÆOLOGICAL THEORIES—GEORGIA - BOULDERS—HAND CUP-STONES—NEOLITHIC GRINDSTONES—ARCHÆOLOGICAL - ENIGMAS—ANCIENT ANALOGIES. - -If mere rudeness is to be accepted as the indication of the first -artless efforts of man to furnish himself with tools, the investigator -into primeval history may assume that in the rudest of the drift and -cave implements he has examples of the most infantile efforts in the -industrial arts. He may even indulge the fancy that in the large, -unshapely flint implements recovered from ossiferous caves and alluvial -deposits, alongside of remains of the extinct fauna of a palæolithic -period so dissimilar to any historical era, he has traced his way back -to the first crude efforts of human art, if not to the evolutionary dawn -of a semi-rational artificer. It is a significant fact that no such -clumsy unshapeliness characterises the stone implements of the most -degraded savage races. Examples may indeed be produced, selected for -their rudeness, from among the implements of modern savages. But -Bushmen, Patagonians, Mincopies, Australians, or whatever other race be -lowest in the scale of humanity, each display ingenuity and skill in the -manufacture of some special tools or weapons. Nor is it less worthy of -note that the commoner implements and weapons of flint and stone -recovered from ancient Scandinavian, Gaulish, and British graves, from -the lake-dwellings of Switzerland, the Danish shell-mounds, and other -European depositories of prehistoric industrial art, are scarcely -distinguishable from the flint-knives, scrapers, lance and arrow-heads, -or the stone gouges, axes, and mauls, of the Red Indians, or of the -Islanders of the Pacific. Peculiar types do indeed occur; and the -materials abounding in special localities, such as the obsidian of -Mexico, or the greenstone of Tasmania, give a specific character to the -implements of some regions; but, on the whole, the arts of the stone -periods of different races, however widely separated alike by space and -time, present so many analogies that they seem to confirm the idea of -certain instinctive operations of human ingenuity finding everywhere the -same expression within the narrow range of non-metallurgic art. Few -facts, therefore, related to this branch of the subject have impressed -me more than the essentially diverse types characteristic of the massive -and extremely rude implements of the caves and river-drift. They seem to -point to some unexplained difference between the artificer of the -Mammoth or Reindeer period, and the tool-maker of Britain’s neolithic -era, or the Indian savage of modern times. - -[Illustration: FIG. 4.—Brixham Cave Flint Implement. (Evans). (½).] - -Sufficient correspondence is traceable between the implements of the -cave-earth and the river-drift to assign them to the same era; and so to -justify us in testing its arts by their combined disclosures. The -ossiferous cave of Brixham, which has recently been subjected to an -exhaustive scientific investigation, consists of a series of galleries -and passages in the Devonshire limestone. They are partly natural -fissures, and partly chambers hollowed out by the action of running -water. Those have been refilled with gravel, red cave-earth, and layers -of stalagmite, which were in process of deposition while the _ursus -spelæus_, or great cave-bear, still haunted their recesses, and when the -reindeer was a native of the neighbouring region. Though visited from -time to time by man, Brixham cave had never been made his dwelling-place -or workshop; and so it has revealed only his rudest tools. Of these, -Fig. 4 is a characteristic example of a rude lanceolate implement, which -embodies within itself some very significant glimpses of the era to -which it belongs. The great valleys were excavated and refilled with the -rolled gravel of the drift during the prolonged operations of ice and -floods. But it is here seen that the violence of the floods extended -even to the recesses of the caves. The implement has been broken into -three pieces, evidently at the period of the original filling up of the -cave. One portion was recovered buried in the cave-earth of the -flint-knife gallery; another fragment lay far apart, under three and a -half feet of earth, in a neighbouring gallery; while a third portion has -escaped even the careful and discriminating search which resulted in the -recovery of those long-dissevered fragments. It has to be borne in -remembrance that every fragment of flint found in the cave-earth was -preserved, whether showing traces of human workmanship or not. -Thirty-two fragments were discovered in all; with an interval of nearly -a month between the finding of the first and second portions of the -implement figured here. A still longer period elapsed before it was -noticed that they fitted to each other as parts of the same worked -flint. Most of the fragments so found have undergone great alteration in -their structure, and have become absorbent and brittle. How little -chance, therefore, is there that any delicately formed flint-tool should -be recovered in the rolled gravel-beds! - -But the comparatively virgin soil of the New World has examples of like -primitive workmanship in reserve, to illustrate the significance of some -of those amorphous flints which bear the evidence of art, and yet seem -almost too artless for any purpose of man. The valleys of the Ohio and -its tributaries have a special attraction as the sites of numerous -earthworks and other remains of a prehistoric race, known, from one -prominent class of their structures, as the Mound-Builders. In more -recent centuries, within the period of European intercourse with the New -World, the same valleys have been occupied by warlike tribes of the Red -Indian race; and now that an industrious population has supplanted their -ephemeral lodges with the cities and farmsteads of the Anglo-American -settler, the traces even of the latest aborigines seem primitive as -those of Europe’s neolithic era. During the summer of 1874 I devoted -part of the long vacation to an inspection of some of the most -remarkable earthworks and other ancient remains of this interesting -locality; and among other objects illustrative of its past history, I -visited the Flint Ridge, a siliceous deposit of the carboniferous age, -which extends through the State, from Newark to New Lexington, and has -been worked at various points to furnish materials for native -implements. Here I had an opportunity of exploring the ancient pits from -which it is assumed that the constructors of the gigantic earthworks of -the neighbouring valleys procured the flint, or hornstone, of which -their weapons and implements were chiefly made. The point visited is on -the summit of an undulating range of hills about ten miles distant from -the city of Newark and its remarkable earthworks, hereafter described. -At various points along the ridge, both there and in other parts of the -State, numerous funnel-shaped pits occur, varying from four or five to -fifteen feet deep; and similar traces of mining may be seen in other -localities, as at Levenworth, about three hundred miles below -Cincinnati, where the grey flint, or chert, abounds, of which large -implements are chiefly made. The sloping sides of the pits are in many -cases covered with the fractured flints, broken up, and partially shaped -as if for purposes of manufacture. There for the first time I looked -upon true counterparts of the drift implements; and in the course of an -hour or two had no difficulty in procuring specimens closely repeating -many forms familiar among those common to the cave-earth and the -drift-gravel of France and England. - -We are apt to think of the old flint and stone-workers as merely picking -up the chance materials suited to their simple craft. But the use of -flint in the manufacture of sling-stones, arrow-heads, and other missile -weapons, as well as of all ordinary household implements, and those of -war and the chase, involved a constant demand for fresh materials, -frequently procurable only from distant localities. It is what might be -assumed, therefore, apart from any direct evidence, that a regular -system of quarrying for flint nodules best fitted for the tool-makers’ -art was pursued; and that a trade or barter in the raw material -furnished supplies to tribes remote from the flint-bearing chalk or -gravel. But also it appears from the interesting explorations of Colonel -A. Lane Fox at Cissbury, near Worthing,[33] and from those of the Rev. -W. Greenwell, at Grime’s Graves, near Brandon, in Norfolk,[34] that the -flint nodules were not only quarried, but prepared on the spot; so that -the miner carried off with him, not a mere load of flint nodules, as the -modern manufacturer might burden himself with the iron ore: but flints -of the required dimensions, roughly shaped for the final operation which -was to fashion them into knives, scrapers, arrow and lance-heads, -hatchets, etc. Precisely the same process is manifest in the remains -found in the pits of Flint Ridge, Ohio. Flakes or spawls, knives, -scrapers, almond and lanceolate blocks, abound in the first crude stage -of manufacture. In studying those on the spot, I was strongly impressed -by the similarity of many of them to the ruder implements of the drift; -and hence was led to surmise that in the latter also we have in many -cases, not the artless implements which fitly suggest a maker -correspondingly deficient in even such skill and reasoning as guides the -modern tool-making savage; but only rudely-blocked flints, fresh from -the quarry, and in a condition least susceptible of injury in the -violence to which the tool-bearing gravels have necessarily been -subjected. May it not be, moreover, that in some of the richest deposits -of such worked flints in the gravels of France and England, we have -really the dispersed materials of such quarry accumulations, and not the -stray implements of individual hunters? In this way only can we -satisfactorily account for the fact that such traces of primeval man are -now successfully sought for on purely geological evidence. The -archæologist digs into the Celtic or Saxon barrow, and finds as his -reward the implements and pottery of its builder. But English -geologists, having determined the character of the tool-bearing gravel -of the French drift, have sought for flint implements in corresponding -English strata, as they would seek for the fossil shells of the same -period, and with like success. They have now been obtained in Suffolk, -Bedford, Hartford, Kent, Middlesex, and Surrey.[35] So entirely indeed -has the man of the drift passed out of the province of the archæologist, -that in 1861 Professor Prestwich followed up his “notes on further -discoveries of flint implements in beds of post-pleiocene gravel and -clay,” with a list of forty-one localities where gravel and clay-pits, -or gravel-beds occur, as some of the places in the south of England -where he thought flint implements might also by diligent search possibly -be found, and subsequent discoveries have confirmed his anticipations. - -It has been felt by many as an element which in some degree detracted -from the otherwise incontrovertible force of this accumulated proof, -that where the wrought flints are discovered _in situ_, they occur in -beds of gravel and clay abounding in unwrought flints in every stage of -accidental fracture, and including many which the most experienced -archæologist would hesitate whether to classify as of natural or -artificial origin. But on the assumption of regular quarrying and -working in the flint-bearing strata, such traces of palæolithic art may -be expected to occur in the river-gravels, as a geological formation in -which the requisite material abounded; and which, moreover, in its -latest reconstruction belongs to the river-valleys best adapted to be -the habitat of post-glacial man. They are, in fact, the localities to -which the experience of the archæologist would direct him when in search -of the traces of rude hunting and fishing tribes; but also they are the -same mammaliferous strata to which the geologist turns when looking for -remains illustrative of the extinct fauna of the post-glacial age. - -[Illustration: FIG. 5.—Lanceolate Flint, Flint Ridge, Ohio, (2/3).] - -In and around the pits of Flint Ridge, Ohio, are now to be seen the -accumulated results of centuries of mining and quarrying, extending in -all probability from the era of the Mound-Builders to the extinction of -the Miamis, Shawnees, and other recent occupants of the Ohio valley. -Swept by floods into the lower valleys, the smaller fragments would be -broken up and disappear; and only such specimens would survive unchanged -as in the valley of the Somme have startled archæologists by their -numbers; and tempted sceptics to assign their origin to accidental -fracture in the beds of gravel and unwrought flints in which they -chiefly occur. In Fig. 5 a worked flint is shown, picked up in one of -the pits on Flint Ridge, in Licking County, Ohio. A small piece has been -broken off the point by recent fracture. Its analogy to one familiar -type of drift implements can scarcely admit of question. This, it will -be remembered, had never been removed from the pit, and doubtless -represents the material thus roughly blocked out, from which the old -artificer designed to fashion a finished tool. Another common type is -shown in Fig. 6, roughly chipped into the crude form of an almond-shaped -blade. Some of the specimens acquired by me are weather-stained from -long exposure, and others discoloured and brittle; but many of them -exhibit little traces of the effect of time. It may be doubted, indeed, -if any of them can be regarded as of remote antiquity; though, -doubtless, the ancient Mound-Builders - -[Illustration: FIG. 6.—Almond-shaped Flint, Flint Ridge, Ohio. (2/3).] - -derived the materials for their stone implements from this inexhaustible -source; and specimens of the same class of worked flints are frequently -met with in the vicinity of the mounds, and even among their contents. -Flint-flakes, and rudely-fashioned knives and scrapers, are so common in -the ploughed fields, that they are spoken of generally throughout Ohio -and Kentucky by the name of “spawls.” It is difficult, indeed, to make a -selection from the abundant materials illustrative of this part of the -subject. The supply of flint, or its hornstone and chert equivalents, -was inexhaustible; and its natural fracture and cleavage resulted in -forms which frequently required little labour to convert them into -useful household implements. The examples thus far figured were obtained -directly from the Flint Ridge pits; but equally characteristic specimens -lie intermingled with the finished axes and arrow-heads turned up by the -plough, or recovered from the mounds. In the example figured here (Fig. -7), from the original ploughed up in Sharon Valley, Licking County, -Ohio, in the vicinity of a large mound, the reader cannot fail to -recognise an analogy to a familiar class of implements of the drift. - -[Illustration: FIG. 7.—Leaf-shaped Flint, Sharon Valley, Ohio. (2/3).] - -The Shawnees, who last occupied the region now referred to, were a -numerous and warlike tribe, who according to Indian tradition had come -from Georgia and West Florida into the Ohio Valley. But they became -involved in the French wars, joined in the famous conspiracy of Pontiac -in 1763, and were nearly exterminated in a battle fought within two -miles of the city of Newark. To them must, no doubt, be ascribed many of -the flint and stone implements so abundant in the neighbouring valleys, -as well as the partially worked flints in the numerous pits along Flint -Ridge. But the material for the largest implements is here -inexhaustible; and the natural lines of conchoidal fracture equally -controlled the workmanship of the Troglodyte of the Drift, and the most -recent Shawnee or Chippewa arrow-maker. - -In the great mounds which abound throughout the region watered by the -Ohio and its tributaries, delicately-wrought knives and arrow-heads, -prized axe-heads, plummets and hemispheres of hæmatite, elaborately -carved pipes, and even pins and bodkins of bone, lie buried along with -the largest lanceolate and oval-shaped flints; or blocks of the same -material, rough-hewn, as brought from the pits. A general and -well-founded idea prevails that the old Mound-Builders, and, in some -cases also, the modern Indians, were in the habit of making caches of -flint-blocks, so as to protect the material from exposure to the -atmosphere. The modern English gun-flint makers entertained the same -idea, believing that a certain amount of moisture present in the flint -was necessary for working it with ease, and that it lost this by long -exposure. Professor J. W. Powell, in his report of explorations of the -Colorado of the West, made in 1873, thus describes the method pursued by -the Colorado Indians in the manufacture of their stone implements: “The -obsidian, or other stone of which the implement is to be made, is first -selected by breaking up larger masses of the rock, and choosing those -which exhibit the fracture desired, and which are free of flaws; then -these pieces are baked or steamed, perhaps I might say annealed, by -placing them in damp earth covered with a brisk fire for twenty-four -hours; then with sharp blows they are still further broken into flakes -approximating to the shape and size desired. For the more complete -fashioning of the implement a tool of horn, usually of the mountain -sheep, but sometimes of the deer or antelope, is used. The flake of -stone is held in one hand, placed on a little cushion made of untanned -skin of some animal, to protect the hand from the flakes which are to be -chipped off, and with a sudden pressure of the bone-tool the proper -shape is given. They acquire great skill in this, and the art seems to -be confined to but few persons, who manufacture them, and exchange them -for other articles.”[36] No doubt some of the simple bone implements -found in the mounds were used for this purpose. I was shown recently, in -Cincinnati, some well-made arrow-heads, the work of Dr. H. H. Hill, who -informed me that his sole implement was the bone handle of a -tooth-brush. - -Among the many interesting disclosures due to the researches of Messrs. -Squier and Davis, was the discovery in a mound of “Clark’s Work,” one of -the largest earthworks in the Scioto Valley, of what may fairly be -regarded as a magazine of such flint-blocks, fresh as from the quarry. -Many of them are half a foot in length, but they vary in size and shape. -Out of an excavation six feet long by four wide, nearly six hundred were -taken. They lay regularly stacked, edge-ways, in two layers, one above -the other; and the explorers estimated that the whole deposit might -amount to four thousand discs of hornstone, roughly prepared for future -manufacture. - -[Illustration: FIG. 8.—Flint Implement, Licking County, Ohio. (1/1).] - -Blocks of flint from ten to twelve inches in length, fashioned in like -manner into the nucleus of a lance or spear-head, have occurred from -time to time in Denmark, France, and Belgium; and are to be looked for -elsewhere: since implements of flint are common in many localities where -the material out of which they are fashioned is wholly unknown. Those -are rightly conjectured to be the raw material, which, like pig-iron, -was thus ready to be turned to the special uses of the artificer. No -doubt, by barter and traffic in various ways, such material for the -flint-workers of Europe’s and America’s different stone periods was -disseminated from centres where native flint occurs; just as in the -later copper and Bronze periods of both continents the prized metals -were diffused through remote areas. But it is only in localities where -the flint abounds that implements, or even blocks or nuclei, of the -largest size are of common occurrence. Fig. 8 represents one of the -class of smaller rudely shaped flint implements recovered from a large -mound in the vicinity of Newark. It indicates, alike in the -discoloration and the change of the dulled surface, characteristic -evidences of considerable antiquity. Thus buried in the mounds, or -scattered about in the furrows of every ploughed field, slender -flint-chips, knives, or spawls, with arrow-heads, axes, and other relics -both of the Mound-Builders and their Indian successors, abound. The huge -rough-hewn block of flint or hornstone takes its place as fittingly -beside the delicately finished implements, as the prized lump of -unwrought hæmatite, the large pyrula, or even the mass of copper or -galena. Possibly they were deposited in the sepulchral mound to furnish -to the dead the materials from which to fashion implements adapted to -the new life on which he was about to enter. More probably, however, -they were laid there simply as part of the ordinary furnishings adapted -to the daily experiences of life. But if the Palæolithic tool-maker -fashioned anything akin to the more delicate implements, the -vicissitudes of diluvial and other geological changes have left few and -partial illustrations of such finished handiwork of the Drift-folk. -Their cave-dwellings did indeed admit, under specially favouring -circumstances, of the occasional preservation of bone implements, the -smaller knives and lances of flint, and other comparatively delicate -objects used in indoor work; and the value of these as illustrations of -the habits and usages of the ancient Troglodytes can scarcely be -exaggerated. But even those owe their preservation to processes akin to -that which fractured and dispersed the fragments of the Brixham Cave -implement; and which, in the more violent rearrangement of the -river-gravels, must have generally reduced any carved bone or delicately -worked flint to indistinguishable fragments. The exceptions indeed are -exceedingly rare of finding in the gravel-beds a single bone of any -animal so small as man. - -The caves also undoubtedly embody in the contents of their silt and -stalagmite the industrial implements of a later period than that of the -river-gravels; and, as in the case of Kent’s Cavern, even preserve the -evidence of a succession of occupants belonging to distinct eras, and -probably to essentially diverse races of men. But it is only in -exceptional cases of special interest that the cave-drift discloses -traces of actual habitation, the refuse heaps of the kitchen, the broken -or stray tools, and even the flint-cores, hammer-stones, and -flint-chips, which indicate the workshop of the ancient tool-maker. Mr. -Evans figures hammer-stones of various kinds, made of diverse pebbles -and of chipped flint; and others from the French caves consist of -flint-cores with the prominent surfaces worn round by their use as -hammer-stones in the process of chipping the flint into the desired -forms. One of this class of implements now in my possession, of light -grey flint, and bearing manifest traces of long use, was turned up in a -ploughed field in Licking County, Ohio. Another example in my collection -was presented to me by Mr. W. L. Merrin, who picked it up in the -vicinity of one of the pits on Flint Ridge, among the broken flakes and -nodules which showed where the old flint miner had been at work. The -cave deposits embedded animal remains and human implements in part by -the same processes which in neighbouring river-valleys were burying the -works of man alongside of the bones of the largest fossil mammalia. In -the former, at times, the silting up was by a process sufficiently -gentle to preserve unharmed the minuter traces of the cave-dweller and -his arts; but as a rule there have remained to us from that remote -Palæotechnic era, only the larger and ruder implements, corresponding as -it were to the axe of the woodman, and the mattock or plough of the -field labourer, which were alone capable of withstanding the violence of -floods, and the like elements of geological reconstruction. - -Enough survives to us, from the disclosures of a different character in -the actual cave-dwellings of the Men of the Drift, to confirm the idea -that we have as yet obtained a very partial glimpse of the arts of that -remote dawn; and that we may watch with interest every fresh disclosure -calculated to lessen the wonder excited by the large lanceolate or ovate -worked flints of that era: rude enough at times to be ascribed to some -irrational Caliban, rather than to a human artificer. It may perhaps be -thought that I have yielded too ready credence to a fanciful analogy; -but as I explored the deserted flint pits of the Shawnees, and the -ancient quarry of the Ohio Mound-Builders, or picked up in the furrows -of their desecrated earthworks huge half-formed ovate and spear-shaped -blocks of hornstone akin to those of the European drift, it seemed to me -like a glimpse of light illuminating the obscurity of that remote dawn. - -The whole region of Ohio and Kentucky is rich in remains of the old -flint-workers. In the Granville, the Cherry, Sharon, Hanover, and other -valleys around Newark, in the vicinity of Dayton, and at Fort Ancient, -in Warren County, Ohio, all of which I had special facilities for -exploring, as well as in numerous other localities throughout the State, -flint and stone implements abound. In Cincinnati I examined large -collections, chiefly obtained by searching along the banks of the Ohio -and its tributaries after the spring floods. Occasionally fine specimens -may be observed _in situ_, projecting from the eroded bank, at a depth -of about twenty inches from the surface; but the greater number are -picked up in the silt and gravel left by the falling river, while many -more must be buried in its bed: to form, perchance, a subject of study -for future generations, in the reconstructed river-valleys of a newer -world. Their number indeed is astonishing, in the contrast which the -virgin soil of the New World thus presents to the rare traces of -Europe’s neolithic arts. One enthusiastic collector, Dr. Byrnes, of -Cincinnati, told me that his most successful gleaning had been at a -point near the junction of the Little Miami and Ohio rivers, where in -one day he found upwards of seventy stone implements of various kinds, -exposed by the ice and spring floods, on the river banks. - -[Illustration: FIG. 9.—Flint Hoe, Kentucky. (1/3).] - -Many of the flint implements are finished with exquisite delicacy, to -the finest serrated edge; while, no doubt owing to the abundant -material, they are frequently on a scale considerably surpassing those -of the European neolithic period. In the collections of Dr. Hill, Dr. -Byrnes, and Mr. Hosea, of Cincinnati, I made drawings of flint-knives, -spear-heads, and hoes, measuring nearly eleven inches in length. Fig. 9 -shows an example of the latter implement, reduced to one-third, linear -measure. It was found by Dr. Hill, on the river edge of the Ohio, near -Smithland, Kentucky, and fully illustrates the character of the flint -hoe. The broad end has been worked to an edge, and is fractured from -use; while the narrow end terminates in a flat unworked surface, showing -the natural texture of the nodule from which it has been made. The same -collections above referred to include spear-heads of dark hornstone, -from 6½ to 7 inches long, of which upwards of fifty were found on a farm -in Casey County, Kentucky. On another farm in Jackson County, Indiana, -the owner’s curiosity was excited by the large size of two or three -spear-heads of dark grey hornstone turned up by the plough; and on -digging down he found about ninety stacked edge-ways, one tier above -another. Specimens of them examined by me in different collections -measured from 4½ to 5 inches long. One of the smallest of them is -figured here full size, Fig. 10. Along with some of these large -spear-heads, Dr. Hill produced several beautifully finished leaf-shaped -blades, chipped to a fine edge, measuring upwards of 5 inches long. They -are worked in a pale grey hornstone speckled with white. Twelve of these -were ploughed up in a level between two large mounds, near Brookville, -Indiana; and ten perfect, with numerous broken specimens of a rarer type -of large arrow-head, equally well finished, were found in the vicinity -of another mound, near Anderson’s Ferry, a few miles below Cincinnati. -The number of such implements in this region is astonishing; and -frequently the beauty of a piece of milky-quartz, yellow chert, or pure -rock crystal, appears to have stimulated the workman to his utmost -dexterity in the manufacture of serrated, dentated, and elaborately -finished blades of various forms. - -[Illustration: FIG. 10.—Flint Spear-head, Indiana. (1/3).] - -In the collections I have named, as well as in those of Mr. Cleneay and -Mr. James of Cincinnati, and of Mr. Merrin and Mr. Shrock of Newark, the -examples of flint and stone implements number many hundreds, and would -require a volume not less ample than Mr. John Evans’s comprehensive -monograph of _The Ancient Stone Implements_, _Weapons, and Ornaments of -Great Britain_, to illustrate their details. I shall limit myself here -to a few examples selected from among those peculiar to the neolithic -art of the New World which offer any suggestive hint relative to the -origin or use of objects already familiar to the archæologist. -Perforated teeth of bears and other animals occur among the mound -relics; shell beads are still more abundant; bone and horn pins and -lance-heads, and a peculiar class of stone implements, most frequently -made of a striated, grey or blue shale, perforated with two or more -holes, are all of common occurrence. The chief varieties are shown in -the _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, Fig. 136, p. 237. -Some of them bear so near a resemblance to the bracers, or guards, found -in British graves, and supposed to have been worn on the left arm to -protect it from the recoil of the string in the use of the bow, that I -am inclined to ascribe the same purpose to them. But others are curved -at the edges, and frequently of too large a size for this purpose. The -latter are also occasionally formed of copper. One example of this class -of implements, or personal decorations, obtained from the Lockport -mound, and now in the possession of Mr. Merrin, measures 5·30 by 3·80 -inches. - -[Illustration: FIG. 11.—Flint Awl, Mayville, Kentucky. FIG. -12.—Flint Drill, Cincinnati.] - -The frequent occurrence of drilled and perforated stone and shell -implements, tubes, pipes, etc., accounts for the finding of a variety of -awls, or drills, made of flint and stone. Not only perforated -shell-gorgets, stone tablets or guards, plummets, and the like relics, -but also beads, bears’ teeth, and other pendants or personal ornaments -of various kinds, have been found in the mounds. They correspond to some -extent to a class of perforated shell and bone implements met with in -the ancient cave deposits of France and England; and the flint awls or -borers by which they were drilled have been recognised among the rarer -objects of the neolithic period found in England, France, Denmark, and -in the Swiss Lake-dwellings.[37] Figs. 11, 12 are good examples of two -types of such tools in use by the ancient flint-workers of the Ohio -Valley. Fig. 11 was found by its present owner, Mr. James Pierce, near -Mayville, Kentucky. The square butt which forms the handle retains the -natural shape of the block of yellow chert of which it is made, while -the chipped surfaces of the blade show the dark grey colour of the core. -Fig. 12 is a larger and ruder example of the flint drill, from the -collection of Dr. Hill, of Cincinnati, probably designed to be attached -to a wooden haft, and used for operations on a larger scale. A more -carefully finished small flint-awl, with a neatly worked handle, but -unfortunately broken at the point, was presented to me by Mr. Merrin, of -Newark, who picked it up in a field in that vicinity. A drill of a -different kind is shown in Fig. 13, also from the collection of Dr. -Hill. - -[Illustration: FIG. 13.—Stone Drill, Cincinnati. FIG. -14.—Flint-Knife, Cincinnati.] - -It is of diorite, and at the first glance might be taken for a stone -arrow-head. But it is worn perfectly smooth along its two edges, -especially towards the point, evidently from continuous use in the -perforation of some hard substance, such as might result in the -hollowing out of the bowl of a stone pipe: though such an instrument -would be called into use in many operations of the old flint-workers. -Knives and razors of diverse forms, and some of them finished with great -care, at times in very fantastic shapes, are also of frequent -occurrence. Their unusual shapes are probably in part due to the chance -fracture of the flint-flakes, specimens of which abound in the pits on -Flint Ridge, frequently requiring little manipulation to convert them -into cutting implements. Fig. 14 is a small knife of this class, -selected from several in the collection of Dr. Hill. It is made of -yellow chert, and has a keen cutting edge. But there is another class of -flint-knives not unfamiliar to European archæologists, of which -interesting examples occur. A good American specimen of the flint-core, -such as has been found in Kent’s Cavern, and elsewhere on British sites, -and is common among the neolithic relics of Denmark, is now in my -possession. It was picked up in the Granville valley, Licking county, -Ohio, not far from the famous Alligator Mound; and shows the facets from -which long curved flakes have been struck off. The curved form which the -flake naturally assumes is frequently retained in the finished -implements, along with three facets, forming an acute triangular blade, -coming to a sharp edge. - -[Illustration: FIG. 15.—Flint Razor, Kentucky.] - -The Mexican obsidian is characterised by the same fracture; and some of -the early Spanish writers enlarge on the keenness of the edge of the -obsidian razors, as scarcely inferior to those of steel, though they -speedily lose their edge. A good example of the flint razor is shown in -Fig. 15, from the collection of Mr. James Pierce of Mayville, Kentucky. -It is one of the outer flakes of the core, coming to a good edge on the -one side, and chipped to a broad back. Fitted with a wooden haft, it -would form a convenient cutting implement for many purposes. It is shown -here nearly 5-6ths of the original size. The natural cleavage of the -flint, thus controlling the forms which the fractured nodules assume, -has tended to beget certain classes of implements common to all the -stone periods of which we have any trace, from the palæolithic era of -the drift and cave-men to that of the flint-workers among savage tribes -of our own day. Horse-shoe, pear-shaped, oval, discoidal, and other -scrapers abound among the more familiar implements of the old American -flint-workers, reproducing all the forms common to the early stone -periods of Europe, and which have been minutely illustrated by Mr. -Evans.[38] But there is another type of scraper, of a more finished -character, - -[Illustration: FIG. 16-17.—Flint Scrapers, Ohio.] - -which frequently occurs among American flint implements, of which I am -not aware that any example has hitherto been noted in Europe. In its -more common form it might be mistaken at the first glance for a broken -arrow-head. But the repeated occurrence of examples of this type, with -the well-finished edge invariably inclining, with a curve, to the one -side, leaves no room for doubt as to its purpose as a scraper, designed -to be fastened to a haft, and used for fashioning needles, bodkins, -lance-heads, and other implements of ivory, bone, or horn. This type is -shown in Fig. 16, picked up in the neighbourhood of Newark. Fig. 17 is -another common form, with the edge wrought to one side, but with -slighter curve, or inclination otherwise to the side. Both of these are -figured the full size; but many specimens occur of larger sizes, and -varying curves of the blade, from a long horse-shoe to a broad crescent -shape. There are also arrow-heads of analogous forms, but with no curve -in the blade. Similar arrow-heads are now made by the Blackfeet Indians -out of iron hoops obtained from the Hudson Bay fur traders, and it is -said that with those a skilful marksman will behead a bird on the wing. -Others of the rarer forms of flint implements include foliated, -flamboyant, or fantastically-shaped arrow-heads, and the like -implements, of which an example is shown in Fig. 18, and for which it is -difficult to assign any specific use. Some of them, indeed, look like -the sports of an ingenious workman tempted by chance forms of the -fractured flint to try his hand at some fanciful knife, arrow-head, or -other implement of unwonted design. - -[Illustration: FIG. 18.—Foliated Arrow-head.] - -Discoidal stones, somewhat varying in form and size, are common in the -valley of the Ohio, and throughout the Southern States. Messrs. Squier -and Davis figure two examples found by them along with an unusually rich -deposit of choice relics, including several coiled serpents carved in -stone, and carefully enveloped in sheet mica and copper, under a mound -within the great earthwork of Paints Creek. The discoidal stones found -there are made of a very dense ferruginous stone, of a dark brown ground -interspersed with specks of yellow mica. Others are of granite, -porphyry, jasper, greenstone, and quartz, sometimes with concave -surfaces, or perforated with a funnel-shaped hollow on either side; but -always of a hard stone, and highly polished. One fine specimen in the -collection of Dr. Byrnes is of polished novaculite, and another of -quartz. The largest are about six inches in diameter, and are generally -finished with great symmetry. There is no doubt that such implements -were employed among the Southern Indians, subsequent to their being -visited by Europeans, in certain favourite games. Adair describes their -use; and adds that they were so highly valued “that they were kept with -the strictest religious care from one generation to another; and were -exempted from being buried with the dead.” It may be that in some of -them we have implements used in the games which formed a prominent part -in the sacred festivities, for which it is assumed that the great -geometrical earthworks were constructed. Indeed the perfect symmetry of -form in the majority of this class of relics seems to accord with the -idea of their having been fashioned by the race who have left such -gigantic memorials of their regard for geometrical configuration. One -perforated discoidal stone, of polished granite, which I examined at -Cincinnati, was dug up by Dr. J. H. Hunt, within a large earthwork at -Cleves, near the great Miami River; and another in the possession of Dr. -Byrnes was found in the vicinity of one of the great mounds on the Ohio. - -Among the rarer stone implements which occur among the relics of -Europe’s neolithic arts are certain objects which, though of small size, -otherwise so closely resemble the most highly finished mining hammers -that they have been generally designated hammer-stones. A more careful -and discriminating study of them, however, has led to the assignment of -them to a totally different purpose. An example found near Ambleside, -Westmoreland, and figured in the _Archæological Journal_,[39] shows a -well-finished ovoid implement of stone, with a deep groove round the -middle. Others have been repeatedly found in the neighbourhood of the -English lakes, as well as in other localities; and as they show no -traces of being battered or worn from use in hammering, and are -frequently made of sandstone or other material unsuited for such a -purpose, they are now generally regarded as sinkers for nets or fishing -lines. Objects of nearly similar form, but most frequently made of -diorite, granite, or other equally hard rocks, occur among the stone -implements of the Ohio Valley. Many of them measure from 3 to 4 inches -long. But while in them also the absence of any marks of abrasion or -battering serves to show that they were not used as hammers, a hard and -heavy material appears to have been preferred in their construction. -Hence it has been surmised that they were the weights attached to a -hunting thong, or lasso; though they would equally serve as sinkers for -the fisherman’s nets. One of them, from a mound in Kentucky, is shown in -Fig. 19. It is of granite, and carefully finished, but a hard siliceous -concretion at one end has resisted the efforts of the workman to reduce -it to perfect symmetry. The attempt to determine the uses for which -implements were made, under circumstances so wholly different from -everything we are familiar with, is at best guesswork. But it seems -unlikely that so much labour and skill would be expended in fashioning -such intractable material into symmetrical shape for a mere net-sinker. -In the collection of Mr. Merrin is a large implement of the same form, -weighing fully eighteen pounds. It was found on the site of the Lockport -Mound, at Newark, along with numerous other stone, shell, mica, and -copper relics. Its size and weight at once suggest the idea of its use -as a miner’s maul; but it is made of sandstone, and retains no traces of -use as a hammer. It is equally inapplicable for the hunter’s lasso and -the fisher’s net; and if designed for a weight, must have been for some -very different purpose. - -[Illustration: FIG. 19.—Lasso Stone, Kentucky.] - -Among various novel relics of the Ohio Valley which attracted my notice -from their resemblance to others familiar to European archæologists, was -a class of cupped stones, very abundant in many localities. In 1867 Sir -James Y. Simpson published an elaborate and nearly exhaustive -disquisition on “Archaic stones and rocks in Scotland, England, and -other countries”; and about the same time Algernon, Duke of -Northumberland, undertook the illustration of the same class of relics -in his own district. The work was projected on a large scale, and did -not appear till after his death, when a large imperial folio was -produced, entitled “_Incised Markings on Stone found in the County of -Northumberland, Argyleshire, &c._” The simplest types of this class of -archaic sculpturings consist of rounded depressions, or “cups,” formed -in the surface of rocks and standing-stones, and varying from 1 to 3 -inches in diameter. Those are scattered irregularly over the surface. -But another class has the cups surrounded by concentric rings, and with -lines leading from one group to another, with so much apparent system as -to have suggested the idea of their being specimens of primitive -chorography, not unlike the delineations which I have seen made by an -Indian on a bit of birch-bark, in order to indicate the geography of a -locality. They have, in fact, been supposed to be maps, whether of the -Celtic Britons, or of some older people, and to represent the chief -towns, or intrenched strongholds, and neighbouring villages or -encampments, with the roads leading from one to another. But while the -cup-like hollows constitute their main features, the accompanying linear -marks vary sufficiently to afford antiquarian fancy and conjecture ample -scope in assigning their origin or use. They have accordingly been -described as Phœnician, Druidical, Mithraic; as originating in the -worship of Baal, or of the Persian Sun-god; as the blood-focuses of -Druid altars; emblems of female Lingam worship; Sabean astronomical -devices; or as in some way or other recognisable as possessing a sacred -or religious character. - -[Illustration: FIG. 20.—Cupped-stone, Ohio.] - -Attention had not been long directed to the cup sculpturings in Britain, -when Professor Nilsson reported their occurrence on Scandinavian -standing-stones; Dr. Keller recognised their presence on the rocks and -boulders of Switzerland; and now it appears that they are no less common -in Ohio and Kentucky, and extend southward into Georgia and other states -of the Gulf. Fig. 20 represents a cupped sandstone block on the banks of -the Ohio, a little below Cincinnati. Others, much larger, were described -to me by Dr. Hill. One above Mayville has thirty-nine cups, and another, -close to the river’s bank, eighty of the same characteristic hollows, -with other linear and circular carvings. Mr. Charles C. Jones figures, -in his _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, a sculptured boulder of -fine-grained granite in Forsyth county, Georgia, which in more than one -respect is the precise counterpart of ancient British ring and cup -sculpturings. Like the cap-stone of the Bonnington Cromlech, the Old -Bewick block described by Sir J. Y. Simpson, and the Lancresse Cromlech -in the Channel Islands: the Georgia boulder has a row of cups, or -drilled holes, running along one side, while its surface is indented -with cup-like hollows from a half to three-quarters of an inch deep, -with concentric rings and connecting lines closely resembling the -sculpturings on some of the ancient Scottish stones. In Georgia they are -assumed to be the work of the Cherokees; but Mr. Jones adds: “No -interpretation of these figures has been offered, nor is it known by -whom or for what purpose they were made.”[40] But besides the large rock -sculptures, numerous small stones occur in the ploughed fields with -similar cups wrought in them. They are mostly of rough-grained -sandstone, frequently with several holes irregularly disposed on more -than one surface; and closely corresponding to examples figured by Dr. -Keller, some of which were procured from the lake-dwellings of -Neuchâtel. I gathered several specimens, and could have obtained many -more on Ohio farms, including both the smoothly hollowed cups, from one -to two and a half inches in diameter, and those where the hollow is -roughly picked out, or only partially worn into a smoothly rounded cup. -Some of those examples were found in neighbouring fields, while engaged -in excavating the Evans Mound, in Sharon Valley, near Newark, where also -I obtained both polished axes and mullers. The cupped stones were of a -coarse-grained sandstone, with the depressions occurring irregularly on -both sides, and occasionally so close as to run into each other. Into -these the rounded ends of the stone axes and pestles fitted, and the two -classes of objects seemed complements of each other. Here was the -roughly picked hollow, gradually worn into a smooth rounded depression, -in the process, as I conceive, of grinding the ends of stone axes, -maize-crushers, pestles, and the like implements, some of which fitted -exactly into the cups. As the hollow gradually wore too large, a new one -was made. The edges of the smaller cup-stones also frequently show -evidence of their use in grinding down the surfaces of such stone -implements. Such, however, is not the theory which finds favour in the -Ohio Valley. There the hickory, or native walnut, abounds, with its hard -shell, defying all ordinary efforts to reach the tempting kernel. But -the boys have learned to hunt up a cupped stone, and placing the nut in -its hollow, it is fractured at a blow with another stone, and its -contents secured. Hence such objects are called nut-stones; and Mr. C. -C. Jones, in his _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, has adopted both -the name and the idea implied in it, in spite of the occurrence of the -same cups or depressions on rocks and boulders altogether inapplicable -for such a purpose.[41] - -[Illustration: FIG. 21.—Cupped Boulder, Tronton, Ohio.] - -Whatever may have been the purpose of the cupped stones, they were not -unknown to the ancient Mound-Builders. Messrs. Squier and Davis state -that “in opening one of the mounds, a block of compact sandstone was -discovered, in which were several circular depressions, in all respects -resembling those in the work-blocks of coppersmiths, in which plates of -metal are hammered to give them convexity.” These accordingly they -suppose to have been the moulds in which the copper bosses and discs -were formed, of which numerous examples have been obtained from the -mounds. - -A highly characteristic example of what may not inaptly be styled a -neolithic grindstone was found near Tronton, Ohio, in the summer of -1874. It is a large sandstone boulder, as shown in Fig. 21, covered with -cups, or pits; and also, as will be seen, with long grooves, which -suffice to prove its use as a stone for shaping and polishing tools. -This adds confirmation to the probable origin of the cups from a like -cause. Since I drew attention to the subject, I have been informed of -the discovery of numerous similarly indented and grooved rocks along the -shores of the Ohio river, including some of the hard granite, or -Laurentian boulders. But gritty sandstone rocks appear to have been -preferred. - -The supposition that the cups on large boulders and small sandstone -grinders may alike be referred to the manipulations of the stone -tool-maker, leaves the more elaborate accompaniments of concentric rings -and linear devices unaccounted for; though it seems to me less -improbable that these additions—which are thus found among other traces -of the Cherokees and Shawnees of the new world, as well as amid the -remains of Europe’s prehistoric races,—may be no more than supplements -of an idle fancy added to the hollows which originated in the needful -grinding of flint and stone implements into their required forms, than -that they are mysterious religious symbols. Yet there is a fascination -in the idea that they are “archæological enigmas”: Phœnician, Mithraic, -Sabean, or Druidical; “lapidary hieroglyphics and symbols,” as Sir J. Y. -Simpson assumes, “the key to whose mysterious import has been lost, and -probably may never be regained.”[42] “They are,” he again says, “too -decidedly ‘things of the past’ for even the most traditional of human -races to have retained the slightest recollection of them”; and, as in -his attempt to determine the race to which to refer them he follows up -the glimpses of their occurrence beyond the British Isles, he asks: “Are -they common in countries which the Celtic race never reached? still -more, are they to be found in the lands of the Lap, Finlander, or -Basque, which apparently neither the Celt nor any other Aryan ever -occupied? Do they appear in Asia within the bounds of the Aryan or -Semitic races? Or can they be traced in Africa, or in any localities -belonging to the Hamitic branches of mankind? Do they exist upon the -stones or rocks of America or Polynesia?”[43] If my theory is correct, -they may be looked for in all. It is with tender memories of a dearly -valued friend that I render the response, that such sculptured cups do -exist upon the stones and rocks of America, and amply justify the -reference of those of the Old World to Europe’s neolithic age, when the -men of its polished Stone Period were grinding and working into -perfected form the most prized relics of their laborious art. - -The explanation thus derived from the traces of America’s native savage -arts, in possible elucidation of a class of archaic European sculptures -which have been made the subject of such learned speculation and -research, may seem too artless to be substituted for theories of -religious symbolism or rites of worship. But the ancient evidences of -artistic labour in either hemisphere accord with the idea that man’s -earliest arts were of the most practical kind. He did, indeed, find -leisure to ornament the tools designed for common uses; and gave play to -his imitative faculty in drawings and carvings which answered no other -end than the pleasure the draughtsman in all ages has derived from the -manifestation of his skill in the arts. But the grafting of recondite -theories of symbolism and ritualistic devices either on such -delineations, or on the simpler evidences of his handiwork, is apt to -lead us astray into fanciful and profitless speculations, wholly apart -from the true significance of such traces of primitive mechanical -ingenuity as reveal the presence of man even on the skirts of ancient -glaciers, and among the drift-gravels, of Europe’s post-pleiocene dawn. - ------ - -[33] _Archæologia_, vol. xlii. p. 68. - -[34] _Journ. Ethnol. Soc. N.S._, vol. ii. p. 419. - -[35] _Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond._, vol. xvii. pp. 322, 368; vol. xviii. p. -113, etc. - -[36] _Report of Explorations of the Colorado of the West and its -Tributaries_, p. 27. - -[37] _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_, p. 289. - -[38] _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_, pp. 270-277. - -[39] _Archæol. Journ._, vol. x. p. 64. - -[40] _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, p. 378. - -[41] _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, p. 315-320. - -[42] _Archaic Sculpturings_, p. 92. - -[43] _Ibid._, p. 147. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - BONE AND IVORY WORKERS. - - - BONE AND IVORY WORKERS—SUBSTITUTES FOR FLINT—PROOFS OF RELATIVE - AGE—DOMESTIC BONE IMPLEMENTS—RUDE PALÆOLITHIC ART—WHALEBONE - WORKERS—PRIMITIVE WORKING TOOLS—FISH-SPEARS AND HARPOONS— - ARTISTIC INGENUITY—DRAWING OF THE MAMMOTH—THE MADELAINE - ETCHINGS—RIGHT-HANDED WORKERS—DEERHORN QUARRY PICKS— - BONE-BRACER OR GUARD—BIRTHTIME OF THE FINE-ARTS—INNUIT CARVERS - OF ALASKA—TROGLODYTES OF CENTRAL FRANCE—POST-GLACIAL MAN— - SYMMETRICAL HEAD-FORM—INTELLECTUAL VIGOUR—EVIDENCE OF LATENT - POWERS—TAWATIN IVORY CARVING—LAKE-DWELLERS’ IMPLEMENTS—CAVE - IMPLEMENTS—ARTS OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDERS—CARIB SHELL-KNIVES— - ABORIGINES OF THE ANTILLES—CARIBS OF ST. DOMINGO—CAVE PICTURES - AND CARVINGS—PRIZED TROPICAL SHELLS—ANCIENT GRAVES OF - TENNESSEE—SHELL MANUFACTURES—HURON AND PETUN GRAVES—SACRED - SHELL-VESSELS—PRIMITIVE SHELL ORNAMENTS—AMERICAN SHELL MOUNDS - —A SHELL CURRENCY—IOQUA STANDARD OF VALUE. - -The nearest type which we can now conceive of to the Drift-Folk of -Europe’s post-glacial era is the Esquimaux. It is even possible that, -like them, they may have occupied winter snow-huts; and only retreated -to their cave-dwellings during the brief heat of a semi-arctic summer. -Among a people so situated the industrial arts are called into utmost -requisition, alike for clothing and tools; and the simplest experience -of the hunter directs him to the produce of the chase for the most easy -supply of both. The pointed horn of the deer furnishes the ready-made -dagger, lance-head, and harpoon; the incisor tooth of the larger rodents -supplies a more delicately edged chisel than primitive art could devise; -and the very process of fracturing the bones of the larger mammalia in -order to obtain the prized marrow, produces the splinters and pointed -fragments which an easy manipulation converts into bodkins, hair-pins, -and needles. The ivory of walrus, narwhal, or elephant is more readily -wrought into many desirable forms, and is less liable to fracture, than -the intractable flint or stone; and all those materials are abundant in -the most rigorous winters, when flint and stone are sealed up under the -frozen soil. Tools and weapons of bone and ivory may therefore be -assumed to have preceded all but the rudest stone implements; and -although, owing to the indestructible nature of their material, it is -from the latter that our ideas of earliest post-glacial art are chiefly -derived, enough has been found in contemporary cave-deposits to confirm -this inference from the analogous hyperborean arts of our own day. - -Flint, indeed, though so widely used as the primitive tool-maker’s -material, is unknown in many localities. We are familiar with regions at -the present time, where man not only subsists, but supplies himself with -implements and weapons adapted to his need, though neither flint nor -stone is available. This fact has been practically ignored in the -accepted terminology of the science. As now reduced to system, it -proceeds in retrospective order thus:—Historic, prehistoric, neolithic, -palæolithic, with a possible protolithic period of still older -geological epochs. An awkward misnomer inevitably results from this -assumption of stone as the sole basis of primitive art: as where the -archæologist speaks of palæolithic bone implements, or neolithic -pottery. I have therefore substituted here the more comprehensive terms -palæotechnic and neotechnic. They suffice equally for the classification -of implements and personal ornaments of flint, stone, bone, ivory, or -even of metal: as in the neotechnic gold and bronze work; and also for -those made from marine shells. Many of the latter have been recovered -under circumstances which establish their claim to be classed with other -examples of primitive art; and even find illustration among the rarer -disclosures of the ancient cave-drift. In the great Archipelago of the -Caribbean Sea, as well as in widely scattered islands of the Pacific -Ocean, the primeval stage of native art might indeed be more correctly -designated a shell period; for until their discovery by Europeans, the -large shells which the mollusca of the neighbouring oceans produce in -great abundance, furnished to the native artificers the most convenient -and easily wrought material. For the natives of the coral islands of the -Pacific especially, marine shells supplied the want not only of copper -and iron, but of flint and stone; and left them at little disadvantage -when compared, for example, with the Indians of the copper regions of -Lake Superior. - -[Illustration: FIG. 22.—Bone Spatula, Keiss. FIG. 23.—Bone Comb, -Burghar. FIG. 24.—Bone Comb, Burghar.] - -Alike in the ivory and bone carvings of the modern Esquimaux, and in the -rare but invaluable evidences of primitive art furnished by those of the -ancient Cave-Folk of the Dordogne and other oldest human dwellings, it -is seen how favourable such easily wrought material was to the -development of a mechanical skill and artistic ingenuity such as must -have lain dormant had the primitive artificers been wholly limited to -flint and stone. The same result is traceable, though in a less degree, -to the analogous material of the Islanders’ shell-period. But implements -and ornaments made of marine shells have a further interest from the -evidence they occasionally afford of distant traffic, or interchange of -foreign commodities. - -Tools of horn, bone, and ivory possess a value of another kind. With -them, as on a common ground, the palæontologist and the archæologist -meet and determine the relative ages of the primitive artist and his -materials. In the Glamorganshire cavern at Paviland Dr. Buckland found -the skull of a mammoth, or other fossil proboscidian, and beside it the -remains of cylindrical rods and armlets made from its ivory. In the -famous Aurignac cave, on the northern slope of the Pyrenees, were arrows -and other implements of reindeer horn, a bodkin fashioned out of the -horn of the roedeer, and a tusk of the _ursus spelæus_, perforated and -carved in imitation of the head of a bird. The Dordogne caves in like -manner reveal the natives of Southern France in its old post-glacial -era, hunting the aurochs and reindeer, and fashioning their horns and -bones into lances, bodkins, needles, clubs, ceremonial or official -batons, and other implements of varied purpose and design. Among the -“prehistoric remains of Caithness,” which rewarded the explorations of -Mr. Samuel Laing in the mounds at Keiss, were numerous implements made -from the horns and bones of the reindeer, red-deer, ox, horse, and -whale. Some of them are of the rudest character; and all indicate a -condition of life akin to that of the tribes of the Labrador, or the -Alaska coast at the present day. Fig. 22 is a spatula roughly formed -from the bone of an ox; unless, as Mr. Joseph Anderson has suggested, it -be the first stage in the process of fabricating a comb, of the type -shown in Figs. 23, 24. The latter, found at Burghar, in Orkney, is a -precise counterpart of the long-handled combs still in use by the -Esquimaux for separating the sinew-threads, which supply them with one -important resource in making their clothing. Those relics point to times -when the fauna differed even more than the men of this era from those of -the present day. In the mounds of the Ohio Valley, on the other hand, -the bone implements and animal remains appear to be referable to -existing species; and so supply evidence in contradiction of the extreme -antiquity assigned by some to the mounds and their builders. One special -value of primitive tools of horn, bone, and ivory is thus manifest. They -embody glimpses of truth in relation to climate, native fauna, culinary -practices, and special objects of the chase; and to this easily worked -material we owe disclosures of an æsthetic faculty, and of artistic -capabilities pertaining to the Troglodytes of the Dordogne, to whom, but -for such evidence, might, and probably would have been assigned a rank -in humanity as far below the standard of the modern savage as the -Patagonian or Australian falls short of that of the average European of -our own day. - -The artificial origin of many of the rudest of the worked drift-flints -has been challenged. But of the human workmanship of the large flint -implement found alongside of the bones of a fossil elephant in the -quaternary gravels of the London basin, near Gray’s Inn Lane; or of the -spear-heads which lay under similar fossil bones in the drift of the -valley of the Waveney, at Hoxne, in Suffolk, no doubt has ever been -suggested. Both were discovered upwards of a century before the idea of -man’s contemporaneous existence with the mammals of the drift had been -mooted; but if such specimens of his art are to be made the sole test of -human capacity in that primeval era, they might justify the idea of some -lower type even than the wretched Patagonian or Australian. But -contemporary cave deposits check our conclusions from such partial -evidence; and suggest that in those rudest specimens of palæolithic art -we have only the most indestructible relics of an epoch by no means -destitute of inventive ingenuity or artistic skill. - -All the cave deposits referred to were accompanied with human remains. -In the Glamorganshire Cavern a female skeleton lay in close proximity to -the skull of the fossil elephas, embedded in a mass of argillaceous -loam. Adapting his deductions to the ruling idea which then guided the -author of the _Reliquiæ Diluvianæ_, Dr. Buckland refers to the -cylindrical rods and rings of ivory as “made from part of the -antediluvian tusks that lay in the same cave; and,” he adds, “as they -must have been cut to their present shape at a time when the ivory was -hard, and not crumbling to pieces as it is at present on the slightest -touch, we may from this circumstance assume to them a high antiquity.” -Dr. Buckland’s idea of the antiquity implied by such cave remains was -very different from what is now universally accepted. But it is not to -be overlooked that here, as in the Aurignac, and other sepulchral -caverns, the interment may belong to an epoch long subsequent to that of -the fossil mammals. The tusk of a mammoth from the Carse of Falkirk, now -in detached pieces in the museum of the University of Edinburgh, was -rescued from the lathe of an ivory-turner; and the fossil ivory of -Siberia is a regular article of commerce. - -But in other examples of a like character we are left in no doubt. The -deer’s-horn harpoons of the whalers of Blair-Drummond Moss are -unquestionably contemporaneous with the fossil whales; and although the -implements are rude enough, they will class with harpoons and -fish-spears here described, some of which have been found associated -with works in bone and ivory of great ingenuity and skill. The Greenland -whale undoubtedly haunted the northern shores of Scotland within -historic times. Its bones occur in Scottish brochs and kitchen-middens; -and among the many traces of prehistoric arts and habits of life -disclosed by the contents of the Scottish subterranean dwellings, one of -the most interesting is a large drinking-cup fashioned from the vertebra -of a whale. It was found in a weem on the Isle of Eday, in Orkney, along -with a bone scoop, bone pins, combs, and other primitive relics, -including some of metal. The cup measures 4½ inches high; and, as shown -in Fig. 25, is a very simple adaptation of the natural form of the bone -by sawing off the protruding spinous processes. - -[Illustration: FIG. 25.—Whale’s Vertebra Cup.] - -The ancient workman had his knife, saw, adze, chisel, drill, and -scraper,—or plane, as we may term it,—all made of flint. The worn and -triturated edges of many of those flint-tools show abundant evidence of -their use in fashioning some hard substance. He had also his file, made -of grit-stone; of which various examples have been found in the caves. -They are generally styled whetstones; but their purpose was probably the -very same as that of a modern file. Some are of coarse-grained stone, -and others of a finer grit. Without some such tools it would have been -impossible to bring the more elaborate implements of bone and ivory to -the state of finish which they present. Among such, the harpoons and -fish-spears furnish a variety of types, diversified by the ingenuity of -the workman, and the necessities of his craft. Examples of such -primitive fishing implements of widely different eras are here grouped -together. The three-pronged fish-spear, Fig. 26, illustrates the art of -the Esquimaux fisherman: that living race of Arctic seas, which alike in -arts and in condition of life, realises for us in so many ways the men -of Europe’s post-glacial age. Alongside of it are a hook, or spear-head -of deer’s-horn, Fig. 27, and a barbed fish-spear of the same material, -Fig. 28, both the work of the ancient Lake-dwellers - -[Illustration: FIG. 26-30.—Fish-spears and Harpoons.] - -of Neuchâtel. They present interesting analogies to the most familiar -types of bone or ivory fish-spears of the French and English -post-glacial era, of which Figs. 29, 30 are examples from the Dordogne -Caves. Fig. 31, though worn and fractured, illustrates a form of the -cave harpoon-blade, barbed only on one side. It is from Kent’s Cavern, -where other, though less perfect, examples have been found. One of -these, figured by Mr. Evans,[44] is specially noticeable for its curved -form. Similar implements have repeatedly occurred in the cave-deposits, -as in those of the Dordogne, and at Bruniquel, where also serrated -flints or saws were found in unusual abundance. Fig. 36, from the cave -of La Madelaine, is a good example of the unilateral fish-spear, much -superior in workmanship to the similar implement of the modern Fuegian, -shown in Fig. 33, and well adapted to the wants of a river-fisherman. -But the form of the Kent’s Cavern type rather suggests that it was one -of the blades of a large two-pronged, or three-pronged spear, similar to -examples still in use among the Esquimaux: - -[Illustration: FIG. 31.—Harpoon, Kent’s Cavern.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 32.—Bone Spear-head, Dordogne Caves.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 33.—Fuegian Harpoon.] - -of which one, now in the museum of the University of Toronto, shown in -Fig. 26, illustrates the probable design of the curved blades. In the -caves of the Dordogne and Garonne valleys repeated discoveries of bone -needles, in association with the barbed fish-spear, have been noted. -They are objects of delicate manipulation, the value of which is proved -by the occurrence of examples accidentally broken, and drilled with a -new eye. The caves of the Dordogne pertained, even in the remote era of -the mammoth or reindeer periods, to a race of inland hunters and -fishermen to whom such a harpoon would have been cumbrous, if not wholly -unsuited to their requirements. But the Kent’s Hole Troglodyte had -probably more formidable prey to encounter, and so adapted the -implements of the chase to his special requirements. Of the bilateral -barbed fish-spear, a good, though imperfect example is shown, the -natural size, in Fig. 32, from Laugerie Basse, in the Dordogne. Another, -Fig. 34, was found imbedded in the red cave-earth of Kent’s Cavern, -underneath a bed of black earth, containing flint-flakes and bones of -extinct mammals, over which the stalagmitic flooring had accumulated to -a thickness of a foot and a half. Similar implements have been recovered -from other Dordogne Caves. Fig. 35, from La Madelaine, is a variation of -the latter type, in which the barbs are disposed alternately on either -side. - -[Illustration: FIG. 34.—Fish-spear, Kent’s Cavern.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 35.—Fish-spear with bilateral barbs, La Madelaine.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 36.—Fish-spear with unilateral barbs, La -Madelaine.] - -It is alike interesting and highly suggestive of the characteristics of -man as a rational being, thus to find his ingenuity, when stimulated by -similar necessities, begetting closely analogous results in ages -separated by intervals so vast that we vainly strive to measure them by -any standards of historical chronology. But the ingenuity manifested in -the construction of his fishing and hunting gear very inadequately -reveals to us the aptitudes of the men of the drift or the cave periods. -In those remote epochs, as now, man was an intelligent being, gratifying -his taste in many ways by works often involving great labour, and -leading to no other practical results than many labours of the carver -and house-decorator, the painter, sculptor, and engraver of our own day. -Among the works of art, for example, of the cave-men of the Dordogne, -contemporary with the mammoth and the reindeer of Central France, -various incised drawings of animals, executed both on bone and slate, -apparently with a flint stylus or graver, have excited an unusual -interest. They include representations of the fossil horse, as on a -carved baton, or mace, Fig. 37; of the reindeer, in groups, and engaged -in combat; of the ox, fish of different kinds, flowers, ornamental -patterns, and some ruder attempts at the human form. Carvings in bone -and ivory illustrate the same ingenious mimetic art. But the most -remarkable of all is the portraiture of the mammoth, Fig. 38, outlined -on a plate of ivory, and to all appearance drawn from the life. It -represents the extinct elephant, sketched with great freedom and even -artistic skill; and not only compares favourably with the best specimens -of modern savage delineation, but exhibits so much freedom of handling -as to look more like the sketch of an artist skilled in the use of his -pencil. I can recall no example of savage art exhibiting such freedom; -and none but an experienced draughtsman could execute with pencil or -etching-needle anything approaching to the expression and character -given by means of a few lines, executed with no laboured effort, but -evidently dashed off by one who had full confidence in his powers. - -[Illustration: FIG. 37.—Carved Baton, or Mace (1/3).] - -This most ancient example of imitative art was found in the Madelaine -Cave, on the river Vézère, by M. Lartet, when in company with M. -Verneuil and Dr. Falconer. The circumstances of the discovery, -therefore, no less than the character of the explorers, place its -genuineness beyond suspicion. Its worth is great as a piece of -contemporary portraiture of an animal known to us only by its fossil -remains. But this sinks into insignificance in comparison with its value -as a gauge of the intellectual capacity of the men of the reindeer age -of central Europe. Many of their carvings ornament the horn or ivory -handles of implements and weapons; but the etching referred to was -manifestly executed with no other aim than the gratification of the -artistic taste of the draughtsman, and resembles the free sketches -thrown off by an artist in an idle hour. - -[Illustration: FIG. 38.—The Mammoth, engraved on ivory.] - -But there is another point worthy of notice here, the interest of which -is greatly increased by the undoubted antiquity of the relic. This -palæographic tablet is a right-handed drawing; and the same may be -affirmed of the group of reindeer, and of others of the Madelaine -etchings. They are executed in profile, looking to the left, as any -right-handed draughtsman naturally does, unless he has some special -reason for deviating from the direction which the facility of his pencil -suggests. - -The question of right-handedness, as a natural or acquired practice -peculiar to man, has a special interest when viewed in relation to his -innate instincts or attributes in the remote dawn of human intelligence -thus anew brought to light. The universality of right-handedness as a -characteristic of man has been assumed, partly on the concurrent -evidence of language, which shows the general habit of using one hand in -preference to another. But the prevalence of the use of the right hand -among savage nations is still a mere assumption. The statistics have yet -to be collected, and are by no means readily accessible. Any evidence of -the prevalence of right-handedness among a people still in the primitive -stage of stone implements must be exceedingly vague. In the rude -manipulations of a purely savage life, with the imperfection of the -tools and the general absence of combined operations, the distinction in -the use of one hand rather than the other is of little importance. In -digging roots, climbing rocks or trees, in the rude operations of the -primitive boat-maker or hut-builder, in hunting, flaying, cooking, or -most other of the operations pertaining not only to the hunter, but even -to the pastoral stage, there is little manifest motive for the use of -one hand more than the other; and on the supposition of either becoming -more generally serviceable, it would neither attract notice, nor -interfere in any degree with the arts of life, though some gave a -preference to the right hand, and others to the left. Hence the -difficulty of determining the prevalence of right-handedness among -savage nations. Its manifestations in the rude arts of the isolated -workman are obscure, and any uniformity of action becomes apparent only -in those combined operations which are comparatively rare in savage -life. Yet even in the languages of the Hawaiians, Fijians, Maoris and -Australians, terms are met with showing the preferential use of one -hand. In the rudest state of society, man as a tool-using animal has -this habit engendered in him; and as he progresses in civilisation, and -improves on his first rude weapons and implements, there must arise an -inevitable tendency to give the preference to one hand over the other, -not only in combined action, but from the necessity of adapting certain -tools to the hand.[45] - -An interesting episode relating to this assumed speciality of man is -introduced in a communication by the Rev. W. Greenwell to the -Ethnological Society of London, on the opening of some ancient Norfolk -flint pits, popularly known as “Grime’s Graves.” In these were found not -only implements of flint, a hatchet of basalt, hammers, stones of -quartzite and other pebbles, and numerous clippings and cores of flint, -along with a bone-pin, and another implement of bone which Mr. Greenwell -supposes to have been used in detaching the flakes of flint for knives -and arrow-heads; but also a number of primitive deer-horn picks, which -had been used by the ancient quarrymen by whom the flint was thus -procured, and fashioned into tools. - -The picks made from the antlers of the red-deer were constructed simply -by detaching the horn at a distance of about sixteen or seventeen inches -from the brow end, and then breaking off all but the large brow-tine, -with the help of fire and rude cutting implements of flint. They had -been used both as picks and hammers, the point of the brow-tine serving -for a pick, and the broad flat part opposite to it as a hammer for -breaking off and detaching the flint from the chalk; while excavations -through the solid chalk were effected by means of hatchets of basalt. -The marks of both tools were abundant on the walls of the galleries; and -many of the rude picks, including the two specially referred to, were -coated with an incrustation of chalk, bearing the impress of the -workmen’s fingers. Here, as in the Brixham cavern, an accident, which -brought the ancient operations to an abrupt close, sealed up the -evidence of them beyond reach of all obscuring interpolations, until -their discovery in recent years. In clearing out one of the subterranean -galleries excavated in the chalk, it was found that “the roof had given -way about the middle of the gallery, and blocked up the whole width of -it. On removing this, it was seen that the flint had been worked out in -three places at the end, forming three hollows, extending beyond the -chalk face of the end of the gallery.” In front of two of these hollows -lay two picks, corresponding to others found in various parts of the -shafts and galleries, made from the antler of the red-deer. But in this -case the writer notes that the handle of each was laid towards the mouth -of the gallery, the tines, which formed the blades of the tools, -pointing towards each other, “showing, in all probability, that they had -been used respectively by a right and a left-handed man. The day’s work -over, the men had laid down each his tool, ready for the next day’s -work; meanwhile the roof had fallen in, and the picks had never been -recovered,” until their reproduction in evidence of the supposed habits -of the right and left-handed workmen, by whom they were employed at the -close of that last day’s labour, in the prehistoric dawn.[46] - -[Illustration: FIG. 39.—Scottish Stone Bracer.] - -Mr. Evans, in discussing the use of certain perforated plates of stone -frequently found in British graves, adopts the idea that they were -bracers, or guards, to protect the left arm of the archer against the -recoil of the string in shooting with the bow. But, he adds, “unless -there was some error in observation, plates of this kind have been -occasionally found on the right arm”; and he refers to a skeleton -observed by Lord Londesborough, on the opening of a chambered barrow at -Driffield, the bones of the right arm of which were laid in a very -singular and beautiful armlet, made of some large animal’s bone, set -with two gold-headed bronze pins or rivets, most probably to attach it -to a strap which passed round the arm, and was secured by a small bronze -buckle found underneath the bones. This also Mr. Evans supposes to have -been the bracer, or guard of an archer; and he adds, “possibly this -ancient warrior was left-handed.” A Scottish example, from a large -tumulus on the shore of Broadford Bay, Isle of Skye, is here shown, Fig. -39. These plates, or guards, are most frequently made of a close-grained -green chlorite slate; and in various cases flint arrow-heads have been -noted among other contents of the same grave. But the cist in which the -supposed left-handed warrior lay contained a bronze dagger, some large -amber beads, and a drinking-cup; but no arrow-heads to confirm the idea -that he had been laid to rest with his bow beside him, and the guard -ready braced on his arm, like one of the seven hundred left-handed -Benjamites, every one of whom could sling stones at a hair’s breadth, -and not miss. Possibly the novel and richly finished armlet occupied its -proper place on the right arm as a personal decoration suited to the -rank of the wearer. - -But bronze pins and daggers carry us into later times than those of the -Troglodytes of the Dordogne. Ancient though the Driffield barrow -unquestionably is according to ordinary chronology, it is a very recent -sepulchre compared with the catacombs of the French reindeer period, the -drawings from which undoubtedly suggest the right-handedness of the -draughtsmen who used the stylus and graver so dexterously in that -birthtime of the fine arts in transalpine Europe. - -But similar traces of primitive art, assigned to a still earlier epoch, -have been recently reported from the vicinity of the Dardanelles. Mr. -Frank Calvert describes the discovery of numerous stone implements, some -of them of large size, and much worn, imbedded in drift two or three -hundred feet thick, underlying stratified rocks, as he believes, of the -miocene period. Flint implements are rare, and the most common material -is red or other coloured jasper. Among fossil bones, teeth, and shells -from the same formation, remains of the Dinotherium, and the shell of a -species of Melania pertaining to the miocene epoch, have been -identified; and Mr. Calvert writes to the _Levant Herald_:—“From the -face of a cliff composed of strata of that period, at a geological depth -of 800 feet, I have myself extracted a fragment of the joint of a bone -of either a dinotherium or a mastodon, on the convex side of which is -deeply incised the unmistakable figure of a horned quadruped, with -arched neck, lozenge-shaped chest, long body, straight forelegs, and -broad feet. There are also traces of seven or eight other figures, -which, together with the hind quarters of the first, are nearly -obliterated. The whole design encircles the exterior portion of the -fragment, which measures nine inches in diameter, and five in thickness. -I have also found, not far from the site of the engraved bone, in -different parts of the same cliff, a flint flake, and some bones of -animals fractured longitudinally, obviously by the hand of man, for the -purpose of extracting the marrow, according to the practice of all -primitive races.”[47] - -These traces of primitive art Mr. Calvert recognises as “conclusive -proofs of the existence of man during the miocene period of the tertiary -age.” They at least furnish additional illustrations of his intellectual -activity, however remote the antiquity to which he is traced; and show -the same ideas of comparison which enter so largely, not only into -modern artistic design, but into much of the rhetoric and poetry of -later times. - -Among living races the Innuit of Alaska, within three degrees of -Behring’s Strait, are skilful carvers in ivory. They chiefly use the -teeth of the Beluga, a small white whale common in their seas, and from -this they carve birds, fish, seals, deer, and other animals, as well as -bodkins, needles, awls, and other implements, with considerable skill. -They obtain the walrus tusks in barter from more northern tribes; and -from those they make fish-spears, harpoons, and other larger implements. -They also amuse themselves with graving, on plates of bone or ivory, -dances, hunting-scenes, and other familiar incidents. Of the latter, Mr. -W. H. Dall remarks, in his interesting narrative of _Alaska and its -Resources_: “These drawings are analogous to those discovered in France, -in the caves of Dordogne.”[48] They are so, in so far as both are -attempts at representing contemporary animal life by untutored man; but -the accompanying illustrations of Innuit art show how greatly the work -of the modern savage draughtsman falls short of that of the artist of -the Mammoth epoch of Europe. - -[Illustration: FIG. 40.—Hunter’s Tally Deer’s-horn.] - -Fortunately our knowledge of the men of that remote era is supplemented -by evidence of a still more direct kind. In 1868 the construction of a -railroad led to the removal of an extensive talus on the left bank of -the river Vézère, at Cro-Magnon, exposing a cave, or shallow recess in -the face of the rock, within which were found a succession of strata, -with traces of the action of fire, and including flint scrapers, bone -bodkins, arrow-points, and other implements, along with bones of the -_Elephas primigenius_, _Felis spelæa_, the reindeer, fossil-horse, and -ivory tablets and tynes of deer-horn, marked with a series of notches, -supposed to be hunters’ tallies recording the produce of the chase. One -of the latter, interesting as an illustration of these earliest efforts -at numerical notation, is shown in Fig. 40. But most valuable of all -were the human skeletons, including those of an old man, a woman, and -portions of others of two young men, and a child. Beside them lay nearly -three hundred marine shells, chiefly the _Littorina littorea_, some -perforated teeth, and—as if to determine the era of the Troglodytes of -Cro-Magnon,—several implements made of reindeer horn. - -Evidence of a similar kind accumulates with the interest which it has -excited. To the south of the Alps the caverns of Baoussé Roussé have -yielded a singularly rich series of implements and personal ornaments of -flint, ivory, bone, and shell; and more important than all, a nearly -perfect human skeleton, brought to light in the Mentone Cave, with the -skull still decorated with its ornamental head-gear of perforated shells -(_Cyclonassa neritea_) and canine teeth of the _Cervus elaphus_, -originally strung, as is supposed, on a net for the hair. Across the -forehead lay a large bone hair pin, made of the radius of a stag, with -the natural condyle retained as its head.[49] The correspondence between -the Mentone skull and those of Cro-Magnon is considerable. Already, -therefore, sufficient remains of the ancient cave dwellers have been -recovered to enable us to form some definite idea of their physical -characteristics. - -[Illustration: FIG. 41.—Skull of Old Man of Cro-Magnon—Profile.] - -The Cro-Magnon men and women are large of stature. Their skulls, like -that of the Mentone Cave, are of a dolichocephalic type, and so far -accord with the Esquimaux, rather than with any Turanian head-form. But -it is important to note that in no other respect do they yield the -slightest countenance to the theory favoured by some, that the cave-men -of palæolithic Europe bore an affinity to the Esquimaux, and that in the -latter we have the living representatives of post-glacial, if not still -older man. If indeed the Cro-Magnon and Mentone skulls are, as they have -been assumed to be, those of contemporaries of the mammoth and reindeer -of Southern Europe, Dr. Pruner-Bey remarks of the race: “If we consider -that its three individuals had a cranial capacity much superior to the -average at the present day; that one of them was a female, and that -female crania are generally below the average of male crania in size; -and that nevertheless the cranial capacity of the Cro-Magnon woman -surpasses the average capacity of _male_ skulls of to-day, we are led to -regard the great size of the brain as one of the more remarkable -characters of the Cro-Magnon race. This cerebral volume seems to me even -to exceed that with which at the present day a stature equal to that of -our cave-folks would be associated: whether the skulls from the Belgium -caves are small, not only absolutely, but even relatively in the rather -small stature of the inhabitants of those caves.”[50] Along with this -ample cerebral development, the general form of the head is graceful and -symmetrical. Alike in the Cro-Magnon and Mentone examples the total -absence of prognathism is noted. An expressive, though strongly marked -orthognathic profile with ample forehead, prominent nose, moderately -developed superciliary ridges and maxillaries, and a well-formed chin, -all compare favourably, not only with the foremost savage races, but -with many civilised nations of modern times. - -[Illustration: Skull of Old Man of Cro-Magnon. - FIG. 42.—Front View. FIG. 43.—Vertical View.] - -Of the age of those Troglodytes of France, M. Lartet remarks: “The -presence of the remains of an enormous bear, of the mammoth, of the -great cave-lion, of the reindeer, the spermophile, etc., in the -hearth-beds, strengthens in every way the estimation of their antiquity; -and this can be rendered still more rigorously, if we base our argument -on the predominance of the horse here, in comparison with the reindeer, -on the form of the worked flints, and of the bone arrow and -dart-heads.”[51] This argument, however, overlooks the possibility of -the interments long after the accumulation of the hearth-beds with their -included relics. Assuming this cavern period of Central France as the -later subdivision of the palæolithic age of Europe, its drawings and -carvings represent the arts of a remote era, compared even with the -polished stone-hammers and chipped flints contemporary with the oldest -implements of bronze. It is obvious, therefore, that a comparison -between the rude worked flints of the cave-men of Southern France, and -the highly finished stone implements of the Bronze Period of Northern -Europe, is no true gauge of any intermediate progress or development. -The artist to whose pencil or graving-tool we owe the only authentic -portraiture of the mammoth, unquestionably possessed skill and -intellectual vigour adequate to the production of any stone implement or -personal ornament pertaining to the arts of Western Europe at the -commencement of its metallurgic period. In truth it is far easier to -produce evidences of deterioration than of progress, in instituting a -comparison between the contemporaries of the mammoth, and later -prehistoric races of Europe, or savage nations of modern centuries. They -had advanced, as M. Paul Broca says, “to the very threshold of -civilisation.” They possessed arts, industry, and apparently such a -degree of social organisation as their external circumstances admitted -of. But then, as at many subsequent periods, the elements of progress -were arrested at this stage, and the whole work of civilisation had to -be begun anew. - -A careful study of the native arts of the American continent, in -subsequent chapters, will bring under our notice the intellectual -efforts of man in a purely savage state, and so help to a determination -of what is implied in certain partial manifestations of mimetic design. -This is the true corrective of any tendency to an undue estimate of the -general progress implied by such evidence. It will be seen that a rare -aptitude is shown among certain tribes for mimetic drawing and carving; -yet it is of limited application, and accompanied by little superiority -to surrounding tribes in the employment of the arts for the general -requirements of savage life. Even in such cases, however, it is an -evidence of latent powers, capable of development under favourable -circumstances. The Esquimaux have been stimulated by the necessities of -Arctic life to great ingenuity in the fashioning of their weapons, and -in all other appliances of the chase, on which their very existence -depends; but they are skilful, as a savage people, in the ornamental, as -well as the useful arts. Their skin and fur dresses are fashioned and -decorated with great taste; and many of their ivory and bone implements -are beautifully carved. There is in the Museum of the University of -Toronto a set of Esquimaux children’s toys, including miniature men, -dogs, sledges, and objects of the chase, all carved in ivory with -ingenious skill. The Thlinkets of Alaska, lying on the borders of the -true Esquimaux region, make ladles and spoons from the horns of the -deer, the mountain sheep, and the goat, which are special objects of the -chase, and carve them with elaborate ingenuity. Grotesque masks of wood, -paddles, knife handles of bone, bodkins, combs, and other personal -ornaments, chiefly of walrus ivory, are all carved with great variety of -design, though scarcely in a style of high art. - -[Illustration: FIG. 44.—Tawatin Ivory Carving of Whale.] - -Among the tribes lying immediately to the south, the Tawatin Indians of -British Columbia specially excel in ivory carving. Their personal -ornaments are lavishly decorated; and many of their carvings resemble in -so far the mammoth portraiture of the Madelaine artist, that they are -simply efforts of skill, having no other end in view than the pleasure -derived from their execution. It will be seen, however, in the -conventional representation of the whale, as shown in Fig. 44, how far -they fall short of the ancient workers in ivory in literal truthfulness -of delineation. In one respect indeed this piece of Tawatin carving -recalls a characteristic of early Christian art. Trifling as the -correspondence is, it is curious thus to find the modern Indian carver -of the Pacific coast giving to the monster of the deep the same barbed -tongue which forms the conventional attribute of the dragons and -leviathans of medieval Europe. But it is greatly more interesting to -note, not only the thoroughly native style of art of their more -elaborate carvings; but to recognise in many of them certain traits -which recall characteristics of the finished sculptures on the ruins of -Central America and Yucatan. This is strikingly shown in another of -their carvings, Fig. 45, where some of the points of resemblance help to -confirm other traces, hereafter indicated on different grounds, of early -intercourse, if not of a common relationship, between savage tribes of -the North-West, and ancient civilised nations of Central America and the -Mexican plateau. - -[Illustration: FIG. 45.—Tawatin Ivory carving.] - -In times still prehistoric, though apparently recent in comparison with -the mammoth or reindeer period of France, the works of the ancient -Lake-dwellers of Switzerland furnish illustrations of the application of -horn, bone, and ivory to many useful purposes for which the metals are -now considered as alone suitable. The site of the pfahlbauten at -Concise, on Lake Neuchâtel, has been peculiarly rich in the -illustrations it has yielded of implements in flint, stone, bone, horn, -and also in bronze. The skulls, horns, and bones, both of domesticated -animals, and of those procured in the chase, are also abundant; and -among the latter, the red deer and the wild boar appear to have -predominated as articles of food. - -The Natural History Museum of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which owes its -existence to the indefatigable zeal of the lamented Professor Agassiz, -is enriched by a collection of remains of the ancient Swiss -Lake-dwellers, obtained under peculiarly favourable circumstances. The -father of the distinguished naturalist was for a period of fifteen years -the clergyman of Concise; and it chanced that the son revisited his -native canton at a time when the construction of a railway viaduct -across part of the neighbouring lake led to the discovery of numerous -traces of its ancient population. He was accordingly able to secure a -choice collection illustrative of aboriginal arts, including some -characteristic specimens of horn and bone implements, from which some -illustrative examples are here selected. Fig. 46 may be described as a -chisel made of a hog’s tooth inserted in a haft of deer’s-horn, -precisely after a fashion familiar to the Red Indian, of converting the -incisor of the beaver into a useful cutting tool. The same collection -includes knives, daggers, bodkins, or awls, made of bone or ivory, and -hafted in like manner with horn; as well as implements of flint and -stone hereafter referred to.[52] - -[Illustration: FIG. 46.—Hog’s Tooth Chisel, Concise.] - -Among the tools and personal ornaments wrought of mammoth ivory, which -Dean Buckland describes as found in the Goat Hole Cavern at Paviland, is -a skewer made of the metacarpal bone of a wolf, flattened at the edge at -one end, and terminated at the other by the natural rounded condyle of -the bone. Implements of this type are by no means rare. The original -disclosures of Kent’s Cavern included arrow and lance-heads, bodkins, -pins, hair-combs, netting-tools, and other implements, all made of bone. -Similar objects have been repeatedly found in Scottish weems and brochs, -and in the kitchen-middens of Britain, Denmark, and other European -accumulations of the like kind. Fig. 47 represents a group of such -objects, chiefly from one of the primitive subterranean dwellings, at -Skara, in Orkney. It includes a small perforated ivory pin, and a bodkin -made after the fashion of the Goat Hole wolf-bone implement from the -metatarsal bone of a small ox. Implements of this simple character are -common to the arts of many periods and states of society; and like the -flint and stone implements of nearly every age and country, help to -illustrate the tool-making instinct peculiar to man. - -[Illustration: FIG. 47.—British Bone Implements.] - -Isolated in the little island-worlds of the Pacific Ocean, man is found -again and again, in a condition which seems to involve all but absolute -privation of the materials on which his constructive faculty can -operate. The extensive archipelago interposed between the Society and -Gambier Islands and the Marquesas, consists exclusively of coral -islands. There the native arts are mostly of an inferior character; -though their small and slight canoes are propelled with great rapidity -by means of a paddle ingeniously formed with a curved blade. But every -idea of rudeness in their arts gives way to wonder and admiration on -discovering the limited materials at the command of the workmen. The -cocoa-palm furnishes supplies for matting and weaving, and the cassytha -stems and cocoa-nut fibre are plaited into ropes. A finer cord is made -of human hair; and bones of the turtle and the larger kinds of fish -supply the only material for fish-hooks and spears. There are no natural -productions on the islands harder than shell or coral; and from these -accordingly the native tools are made. Here, therefore, we see what -reason is capable of achieving in the development of ingenious arts, -amid a privation of nearly all that seems indispensable to the first -efforts at constructive skill. Compared with such inadequate means, the -flint, stone, horn, and bone of Europe’s stone-period seem little less -ample, than the contrast of her later metallurgic riches with the -resources of that primitive era. - -Though the natives of the Antilles possessed some natural advantages -over the inhabitants of the volcanic and coral islands of the Pacific: -yet the abundance of large and easily-wrought shells invited their -application to many useful purposes; and accordingly when first visited -by the Spaniards, the large marine shells with which the neighbouring -seas abound, constituted an important source for the raw material of -their implements and manufactures. The great size, and the facility of -workmanship of the widely-diffused _pyrulæ_, _turbinella_, _strombi_, -and other shells, have indeed led to a similar application of them among -uncivilised races, wherever they abound. Of such, the Caribs made -knives, lances, and harpoons, as well as personal ornaments; while the -mollusc itself was sought for and prized as food. In Barbadoes the -_Strombus gigas_ still furnishes a favourite repast; and numerous -weapons and implements made from its shells have been dug up on the -island. The accompanying illustrations (Fig. 48) are selected from -specimens illustrative of the primitive manufactures of the Antilles -presented to me by Dr. Bovell. They were dug up with other relics, in -the island of Barbadoes, where traces of the aboriginal Carib blood -continued till very recently to mark a portion of the coloured -population. The Christy collection includes various examples of axes -believed to be of Carib workmanship, from Porto Rico, St. Juan, and St. -Thomas. They are worked in greenstone, mottled jade, green jasper, and a -hard light green slate, mostly in wedge-form. But the most -characteristic specimen of local art is an axe of coral rock, 7½ inches -long, semi-cylindrical, and tapering at both ends, which was found in -the cave of Cuevetas, twenty miles from Puerto del Principe, Cuba. - -[Illustration: FIG. 48.—Carib Shell-Knives.] - -The Carib aborigines of the Antilles furnish a striking example of what -the more active manifestations of moral degradation among a savage -people really imply. Compared with the gentle, passive Indians met by -the Spaniards on the first islands visited by European explorers, the -Caribs were a cruel and fierce race of cannibals, as hateful in all -their most salient characteristics as the New Zealanders or Fijians. Yet -time has proved, even under very unfavourable circumstances, that the -fierceness and aggressive cruelty of the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles -corresponded to the wild fury of the old viking rovers of Europe, and -gave proof of energy and stamina capable of sturdy endurance; while the -gentle and friendly Indians of the larger Antilles, without, in reality, -any superior moral attributes, but only the characteristics of a weak -and passive nature, have disappeared, leaving behind them scarcely a -memorial of their existence. The Caribs are the historic race of the -Antilles. Their chronicles derive vitality and endurance, like those of -ancient Europe, from the vicissitudes of war. Those show them as -restless aggressors; and though long since expelled from their ancient -insular possessions, they still appear on the southern mainland as the -people of an encroaching area; and the marches of their extending -frontier ring with the shouts of border warfare, as fierce, and to us -not greatly less substantial than the Wendish and Bulgarian warrings of -Henry the Fowler, and his German Markgräfs of well-nigh a thousand years -ago. - -In 1851, Sir Robert Schomburgk communicated to the British Association -the results of recent ethnological researches in St. Domingo. In these -the observant traveller deplored the fact that of the millions of -natives who at its discovery peopled the island, not a single pure -descendant now exists, though he could trace in the Indios of mixed -blood the peculiar features and other physical characteristics of the -Indian still uneradicated. In the absence of a true native population, -Sir Robert Schomburgk remarks: “My researches were restricted to what -history and the few and poor monuments have transmitted to us of their -customs and manners. Their language lives only in the names of places, -trees, and fruits, but all combine in declaring that the people who -bestowed these names were identical with the Carib and Arawaak tribes of -Guiana. An excursion to the calcareous caverns of Pommier, about ten -leagues to the west of the city of Santo Domingo, afforded me the -examination of some picture-writings executed by the Indians after the -arrival of the Spaniards. These remarkable caves, which are in -themselves of high interest, are situated within the district over -which, at the landing of the Spaniards, the fair Indian Catalina reigned -as cacique.” To this district they were tempted by the news of rich -mines in its mountains. In 1496, a fortified tower was erected, called -originally San Aristobal; but so abundant was the precious metal, that -even the stones of the fortress contained it, and the workmen named it -the Golden Tower. But the lives of millions of the miserable natives -were sacrificed in recovering the gold from their mountain veins; and -then, the mines being exhausted, the country was abandoned to the -exuberance of tropical desolation, while the caverns which had -previously been devoted to religious rites, became places of retreat -from the Spaniard and his frightful bloodhounds. One of the smaller -caves still exhibits a highly interesting series of symbolic pictures, -which the Indians had traced on its white and smooth walls. Near the -entrance of a second cave, Sir R. Schomburgk discovered decorations of a -more enduring character carved on the rock, and of these he remarks: -“They belong to a remoter period, and prove much more skill and patience -than the simple figures painted with charcoal on the walls of the cave -near Pommier. The figures carved of stone, and worked without iron -tools, denote, if not civilisation, a quick conception and an -inexhaustible patience, to give to these hard substances the desired -forms.” From his examination of the tools and utensils still in use in -Guiana, Sir Robert doubted such to be the work of the Caribs; but he -admitted that they are only found where we have sure evidence of their -presence; and he under-estimated both the skill and patience shown by -many native artists equally poorly provided with tools. - -Other relics of native art and history attracted the attention of the -traveller, and he specially dwelt with interest on a paved ring of -granite, upwards of 2200 feet in circumference, with a human figure -rudely-fashioned in granite occupying the centre. It stands in the -vicinity of San Juan de Maguana, in St. Domingo, which formed, at the -time of its first discovery, a distinct kingdom, governed by the cacique -Caonabo, the most fierce and powerful of the Carib chiefs, and an -irreconcilable enemy of the European invaders. It is called at the -present day, “El Cercado de los Indios,” but Sir Robert Schomburgk -questioned its being the work of the inhabitants of the island when -first visited by the Spaniards, and assigned it, along with figures -which he examined cut on rocks in the interior of Guiana, and the -sculptured figures of St. Domingo, to a people far superior in intellect -to those Columbus met with in Hispaniola. These he conceived to have -come from the northern part of Mexico, adjacent to the ancient district -of Huastecas, and to have been conquered and extirpated by their Carib -supplanters, prior to European colonists displacing them in their turn. - -The roving Caribs supplied themselves with axes and clubs of jade, -greenstone, and others of the most prized materials of the mainland; but -they turned the easily wrought shells of the neighbouring seas to -account in much the same way as the natives of the coral islands of the -Pacific to whom any harder material is unknown. But while noting the -varied uses to which the shells of the Caribbean Sea were applied by the -natives of the archipelago, a greater interest attaches to the -indications of an ancient trade in these products of the Gulf of -Florida, carried on among widely-scattered tribes of North America, long -before its discovery by Columbus. - -Abundant evidence proves that the large marine shells were regarded with -superstitious reverence, alike by the more civilised nations of the land -around the Gulf, and by others even so far north as beyond the shores of -the great Canadian Lakes. In the latter case it is not difficult to -account for the origin of such a feeling among tribes familiar only with -small native fresh-water shells. But in one of the singular migratory -scenes of the ancient Mexican paintings, copied from the Mendoza -Collection,[53] in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, a native, barefooted, -and dressed in a short spotted tunic reaching to his loins, bears in his -right hand a spear, toothed round the blade, it may be presumed with -points of obsidian, and in his left hand a large univalve shell. A -river, which he is passing, is indicated by a greenish stripe winding -obliquely across the drawing, and his track, as shown by alternate -footprints, has previously crossed the same stream. On this trail he is -followed by other figures nearly similarly dressed, but sandalled, and -bearing spears and large fans; while a second group approaches the river -by a different trail, and in an opposite direction to the shell-bearer. -Other details of this curious fragment of pictorial history are less -easily interpreted. An altar or a temple appears to be represented on -one side of the stream; and a highly-coloured circular figure on the -other, may be the epitomised symbol of some Achæan land or Sacred Elis -of the New World. But whatever be the interpretation of the ancient -hieroglyphic painting, its general correspondence with other migratory -depictions is undoubted; and it is worthy of note, that, in some -respects, the most prominent of all the figures is the one represented -fording the stream, and bearing a large tropical univalve in his hand. - -The evidence thus afforded of an importance attached to the large -sea-shells of the Gulf of Mexico, among the most civilised of the -American nations settled on its shores, deserves notice in connection -with the discovery of the same marine products among relics pertaining -to Indian tribes upwards of three thousand miles distant from the native -habitat of the mollusca, and separated by hundreds of miles from the -nearest sea-coast. - -[Illustration: FIG. 49.—Tennessee Idol.] - -Tracing them along the northern route through the Mississippi and Ohio -valleys, these shells have been found in the ancient graves of -Tennessee, Kentucky, and Indiana, and northward to the regions of the -Great Lakes. Dr. Gerard Troost, in a communication to the American -Ethnological Society,[54] describes an interesting series of sepulchral -remains discovered in Tennessee. The crania were characterised by -remarkable artificial compression, as in an example figured by Dr. -Morton (plate 55, _Crania Americana_), and the graves abounded with -relics, “lares, trinkets, and utensils, all of a very rude construction, -and all formed of some natural product, none of metal.” From an -examination of those, Dr. Troost was led to the conclusion that the race -to whom they pertained came from some tropical country. Among their -stone implements obsidian abounded. Numerous beads were formed of -tropical marine shells of the genus _marginella_, ground so as to make a -perforation on the back, by means of which they could be strung together -for purposes of personal ornament. Plain beads were made from the -columellæ of the _Strombus gigas_; and such columellæ were found worked -to a uniform thickness, perforated through the centre, and in all stages -of manufacture, to that of perfected beads and links of the much-prized -_wampum_. Similar accumulations of shell beads in the great mounds of -the Ohio valley are referred to in a subsequent chapter; but another -relic has an additional value from the light it throws not only on early -native arts, but on ancient manners and modes of thought. Dr. Troost -describes and figures various rudely sculptured idols, from some of -which he was led to assume the existence of Phallic rites among the -ancient idolaters of Tennessee. The greater number of the idols were of -stone, but the one figured here (Fig. 49) has been modelled of clay and -pounded shells, and hardened in the fire. It represents a nude human -figure, kneeling, with the hands clasped in front; and when found, it -still occupied, as its primitive niche or sanctuary, a large tropical -shell (_Cassis flammea_), from which the interior whorls and columella -had been removed, with the exception of a small portion at the base, cut -off flat, so as to form its pedestal. The special application of this -example of the tropical cassides adds a peculiar interest to it, as -manifestly associated with the religious rites of the ancient race by -whom the spoils of southern seas were transported inland, and converted -to purposes of ornament and use. - -The discovery of similar relics to the north of the Great Lakes is still -more calculated to excite interest; and, indeed, when first brought -under notice they gave rise to extravagant ethnological theories, based -on the assumption of their East Indian origin.[55] But though they -furnished no evidence of such far wanderings from the old East, they -throw considerable light on ancient migrations of native American races, -and illustrate the extent of traffic carried on between the north and -south, in ages prior to the displacement of the Red-man by the European. -Two large tropical shells, both specimens of the _Pyrula perversa_, have -been presented to the Canadian Institute at Toronto: not as examples of -the native conchology of the tropics, but as Indian relics pertaining to -the great northern chain of fresh-water lakes. The first was discovered -on opening a grave-mound at Nottawasaga, on the Georgian Bay, along with -a gorget made from the same kind of shell; the second was brought from -the Fishing Islands, near Cape Hurd, on Lake Huron. Thirteen other -examples from the Georgian Bay are in the Museum of Laval University; -and many more have come under my notice procured from grave-mounds and -sepulchral depositories in different parts of Western Canada. Recently, -in the summer of 1874, a large ossuary of the Tiontonones, or Petuns, -was accidentally opened at Lake Medad, in the county of Wentworth, -within which were found evidences of extensive sepulture, numerous clay -and stone pipes of curious workmanship, shell and stone implements, and -a number of the same tropical shells, both whole and in pieces, most of -which are now in the possession of Mr. B. E. Charlton of Hamilton, -Ontario. Similar ossuaries have been repeatedly opened in the Huron -Country, between Lake Simcoe and the Georgian Bay. In one pit, about -seven miles from Penetanguishene, three large conch-shells were found, -along with twenty-six copper kettles, a pipe, a copper bracelet, a -quantity of shell beads, and numerous other relics. The largest of the -shells, a specimen of the _Pyrula spirata_, weighed three pounds and a -quarter, and measured fourteen inches in length; but a piece had been -cut off this, as well as another of the large shells, probably for the -manufacture of some smaller ornament. In another cemetery in the same -district, among copper arrow-heads, bracelets, and ear-ornaments, pipes -of stone and clay, beads of porcelain, red pipe-stone, etc., sixteen of -the same prized tropical univalves lay round the bottom of the pit -arranged in groups of three or four together. From such shells the -sacred wampum, official gorgets, and other special decorations were -made; and the appearance of some of those found in northern graves -suggests that they may have been handed down through successive -generations as great medicines, before their final deposition, with -other rare and costly offerings, in honour of the dead. - -The attractions offered by such products of tropical seas are by no -means limited to the untutored tastes of the American Indian. In India, -China, and Siam, the _Pyrum_, and other large and beautiful shells of -the Indian Ocean, are no less highly prized by the natives, not only as -an easily wrought material for implements and personal ornaments; but in -some cases, as vessels employed in their most sacred rites. A -sinistrorsal variety found on the coasts of Tranquebar and Ceylon, is -devoted by the Cingalese exclusively to such purposes. Reversed shells -of the species _Turbinella_, are held in like veneration in China, where -great prices are given for them; and are often curiously ornamented with -elaborate carvings, as shown on several fine specimens in the British -Museum. They are kept in the pagodas, and are not only employed by the -priests on special occasions in administering medicine to the sick; but -the vessel for holding the consecrated oil, with which the Emperor is -anointed at his coronation, is made from one of them. - -Such analogies in the choice of materials, and in objects set apart for -the sacred rites of different nations, are full of interest in reference -to characteristics common to man in all ages, and in regions the most -remote. But when they are met with in the arts and customs of the same -continent, they point with greater probability to borrowed usages, and -often help the ethnologist to track the footprints of migrating nations -to their earlier homes. But the use of shells for personal ornaments has -been traced back, along with other evidence of the antiquity of man, -almost to what seems the primeval dawn. In the caves of southern France -and Italy, along with mammoth and reindeer bones and ivory, and in the -sepulchral deposits at Aurignac, lay shell necklaces or bracelets made -of the _Littorina littorea_, still abundant on the shores of the -Atlantic, along with perforated shells of the miocene period, evidently -gathered in a fossil state to be converted to purposes of personal -decoration. So also in a later, but still prehistoric age, the -megalithic tomb, brought to light, in 1838, under the Knock-Maraidhe -Cromlech in the Phœnix Park, Dublin, disclosed two male skeletons, -underneath the skulls of which lay a number of the common _Nerita -littoralis_, perforated, evidently for the purpose of being strung -together as neck ornaments. An ornamental bone-pin, with a knob carved -at each end, and a rude flint-knife, constituted the only other contents -of this primitive tomb which had been constructed with such costly toil. - -Other British cists and cairns have disclosed similar relics of the -shell necklace and bracelet, made of the oyster, limpet, and cockle -shells, the contents of which supplied an important source of food. For -not only in the ancient kitchen-middens of northern Europe, but mingling -with more ancient cave deposits, as in Kent’s Cavern, lay heaps of the -shells of such edible molluscs, the refuse of the table of the old -cave-men, which shows one resource on which they depended for -subsistence. America, too, had its ancient shell and refuse heaps, as at -Cannon’s Point, St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, where a vast mound of -oyster and mussel shells, intermingled here and there with a mediola or -helix, and with flint arrow-heads, stone axes, and fragments of pottery, -covers an area of not less than ten acres. But they abound upon all the -sea islands of the Southern States, and in many cases constitute regular -sepulchral mounds or shell cairns. One of these singular cairns on -Stalling’s Island, in the Savannah river, more than two hundred miles -from its mouth, is an elliptical mound measuring nearly three hundred -feet in length, and enclosing, along with human skeletons, bones of -large fish, deer, and other wild animals, accompanied with broken -pottery, arrow-heads, axes, flint-knives, and charred wood. On the -islands, and along the coast of Georgia and Florida, the inexhaustible -supplies of oysters, conches, and clams, furnished an abundant supply of -food. Around the Indian villages the shells accumulated in waste heaps; -and even now, at times, show the circular hollow where the native hut -had stood. With a mild climate, abundant game and indigenous fruits, in -addition to the inexhaustible spoils of the sea, the Southern Indians -had little temptation to roam; and the numerous shell-mounds and cairns -afford proof of their settled occupation of many localities. A large -drinking-cup, made of the conch-shell, was one of the special attributes -of the Indian cacique; and such cups are frequently found deposited -beside the buried skeleton. - -Fresh-water shell heaps also abound; and Professor Jeffries Wyman made -those of East Florida the subject of an interesting paper in _The -American Naturalist_. Such memorials of the encampments of the -aborigines are historical records of the habits and customs of ancient -native tribes. The fresh-water mussels, which constituted an important -article of food, and also supplied the pearls which they prized for -decoration, enter largely into the contents of the heaps. Intermingled -with them are “numerous fragments of pottery, stone axes, chisels, -crushing-stones, awls, mortars, net-sinkers, arrow and spear points, -flint-knives, shell beads, soapstone ornaments, pipes, and the bones of -deer, buffalo, alligators, turtles, racoons, and other animals.”[56] -Many of the bones have been split, like those found in the ancient -mounds and caves of Europe, for the purpose of extracting the marrow; -and along with such evidences of culinary arts are piles of chipped -flint and stone, with broken or unfinished axes, spear and arrow-heads, -and other traces of the Indian tool-maker’s workshop. In all ways we -thus recognise, amid diversities of race, climate, and other external -circumstances, many minute analogies between the men of palæolithic and -neolithic ages of Europe, and those of the new world’s more recent -centuries, in regions apart from its singular centres of a native -civilisation. - -But also the convenient form and beauty of various marine shells have -led to their use, not only as a substitute for the flint and stone of -other localities, or the unknown bronze and iron of later ages, but even -for the precious metals as the medium of a recognised currency, and this -from times of unknown antiquity, alike in the old world and in the new. -Of such substitutes for a metallic currency the _Cypræa moneta_ is the -most familiar. The cowrie shells used as currency are procured on the -coast of Congo, and in the Philippine and Maldive Islands. Of the -latter, indeed, they still constitute the chief article of export. At -what remote date, or at what early stage of rudimentary civilisation, -this singular representative shell-currency was introduced, it is -perhaps vain to inquire; but the extensive area over which it has long -been recognised proves its great antiquity. The Philippine Islands form, -in part, the eastern boundary of the Southern Pacific, and the Maldives -lie off the Malabar coast in the Indian Ocean; but their shells -circulate as currency not only through Southern Asia, but far into the -African continent. - -Corresponding to this cowrie currency of Asia and Africa is the American -Ioqua, or _Dentalium_, a shell found chiefly at the entrance of the -Strait of De Fuca, and employed both for ornament and money. The -Chinooks and other Indians of the Northern Pacific coast wear long -strings of ioqua shells as necklaces and fringes to their robes. These -have a value assigned to them, increasing in proportion to their size, -which varies from about an inch and a half to upwards of two inches in -length. Mr. Paul Kane thus wrote to me: “A great trade is carried on -among all the tribes in the neighbourhood of Vancouver’s Island, through -the medium of these shells. Forty shells of the standard size, extending -a fathom’s length, are equal in value to a beaver’s skin; but if shells -can be found so far in excess of the ordinary standard that thirty-nine -are long enough to make the fathom, it is worth two beavers’ skins, and -so on, increasing in value one beaver skin for every shell less than the -first number.” - -But as the New World has thus its disclosures and illustrations of -native arts and usages full of interest to the student of primeval man, -so also the first glimpse of a western hemisphere revealed its -aborigines already familiar with that distinctive evidence of reason, -the art of fire-making, earliest of all the practical sciences, and the -indispensable precursor of every higher art of civilisation. - ------ - -[44] _Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain_, Fig. 405, p. 460. - -[45] For a detailed discussion of this subject in its general bearings, -_vide_ “_Right-handedness_,” _Canadian Journal, N.S._, vol. xiii. p. -193. - -[46] _Journ. Ethnol. Soc., N. S._, vol. ii. p. 419. - -[47] _Athenæum_, April 5, 1873. - -[48] _Alaska and its Resources_, p. 237. - -[49] _Découverte d’un Squellette humain de l’époque Paléolithique dans -les cavernes des Baoussé Roussé_, par Emile Rivière, p. 31. - -[50] _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ._ VII. Account of the human bones found in the -cave of Cro-Magnon in Dordogne, by Dr. Pruner-Bey. - -[51] _Reliquiæ Aquitanicæ._ M. Louis Lartet, p. 70. - -[52] For a more detailed account, _vide_ _Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot._, vol. -vi. p. 376. - -[53] Lord Kingsborough’s _Mexican Antiquities_, vol. i. plate 68. - -[54] _Transactions_, _American Ethnological Society_, vol. i. pp. -355-365. - -[55] _Inquiry into the Origin of the Antiquities of America_, p. 162. - -[56] _Antiquities of the Southern Indians_, p. 200. - - - - - CHAPTER V. - FIRE. - - - THE FIRE-USING ANIMAL—ESQUIMAUX USE OF FIRE—FUEGIAN FIRE-MAKING - —MODES OF PRODUCING FIRE—AUSTRALIAN FIRE-MYTH—MEN OF THE - MAMMOTH AGE—HEARTHS OF THE CAVE-MEN—PACIFIC ROOT-WORD FOR FIRE - —GREAT CYCLE OF THE AZTECS—REKINDLING THE SACRED FIRE— - PERUVIAN SUN-WORSHIPPERS—SACRIFICE OF THE WHITE DOG—SACRED - FIRES OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS—INDIAN FIRE-MAKING—SANCTITY OF - FIRE—TIERRA DEL FUEGO. - -No incident attending the discovery of America is more suggestive than -the evidence which first satisfied Columbus that his exploration of the -mysterious western ocean had not been in vain. The sun had descended -beneath the waves as his eye ranged along the horizon in search of the -long expected land, when suddenly a light glimmered in the distance, -once and again reappeared to the eyes of Pedro Gutierrez and others whom -he summoned to confirm his vision, and then darkness and doubt resumed -their reign. But to Columbus all was clear. Not only did those flitting -gleams reveal to him certain signs of the long-wished-for land; they -told him no less clearly that the land was inhabited by man. - -There is something singularly significant in the old Greek myth which -represents the Titanic son of Iapetus stealing the fire of Zeus that he -might confer on the human race a power over the crude elements of -nature. Man is peculiarly fire-using. The element which becomes in his -hands a power that controls all the others, and subjects them to his -use, is an object of dread to the lower animals, alike amid arctic snows -and the shadows of a night-camp in the tropics. Its use, moreover, is so -universal as to admit of its being regarded as one of the primitive -instincts of man, and so peculiarly his own that he may be appropriately -designated the _fire-using animal_. Nevertheless, his supposed ignorance -of fire during primitive ages has been employed as an argument in -confirmation of the idea that the first habitat of man must have been a -climate where his unclothed body experienced no discomfort from the -changing seasons, and where fruit was found in sufficient abundance to -supply his wants without need of artificial preparation.[57] - -Yet it is in climates where the torrid sun presents itself as the -life-giving force that, alike in the old and the new world, the worship -of fire, and the rites associated with its use, have been found most -fully developed. It is noticeable, moreover, that fire is less used in -the frigid than in the temperate zones as the direct source of heat. The -Esquimaux in his snow-hut would find a fire productive only of -discomfort. Even in the adaptation of animal food to his use cookery is -less indispensable than in other latitudes; and fire is more prized by -him in his brief summer as a protection against the myriads of noxious -insects then warmed into life, than as a means of counteracting the -rigour of a polar winter. He depends for warmth on his fur clothing, and -still more on the heat-producing blubber and fat which constitute so -large a portion of his food. Yet the lamp, generally made of stone, with -its moss wick, and the stone kettle, play an important part among the -implements and culinary apparatus of an Esquimaux’s hut. On those he -depends for his supply of water from melted snow, for thawing and drying -his clothes, and for cooking; and without the light of the lamp the -indoor life of the long unbroken arctic night would be spent as in a -living tomb. The Esquimaux generally possess a piece of iron pyrites and -of quartz. These serve them for flint and steel, with which they ignite -a tuft of dried moss frayed in the hand. But they are also familiar with -the more laborious fire-making process by means of friction, which is in -general use throughout America. - -At the opposite extremity of the Continent lies Tierra del Fuego, the -natives of which are exposed to still greater privations, and have been -pronounced by observant voyagers as among the most degraded of savage -races. Yet the Fuegians exhibit considerable ingenuity in constructing -their fishing tackle, slings, bows and stone-tipped arrows, stone -knives, and javelins pointed with bone. A bone harpoon in use by them, -barbed only on one side (Fig. 33), resembles examples already referred -to found in the Dordogne and other caves of the era when the mammoth and -its hunters existed together in Southern France. M. Lecoq de -Boisbeaudrau suggests that the deflection of the harpoon so formed -serves as an equivalent for the refraction of the fish in the water, and -thus the fisherman secures an unerring aim. If so, it furnishes an -ingenious application of the fruits of experience directed to rectify a -difficulty common to the modern Fuegian and to the Troglodyte of -post-glacial times. - -The canoes of the Fuegians are rudely constructed of bark sewed together -with prepared sinews. In the bottom a hearth of clay is made, on which -they habitually keep a fire alight. They too have learned the value of -iron pyrites, and with its help readily obtain the spark required for -igniting their prepared tinder of dried moss or fungus. Captain Weddell -states that he produced the tinder-box in presence of a party of -Fuegians, in order to ascertain how fire is obtained by them, and -presently he discovered that his steel had been purloined. This, -however, he recovered, and after sending the culprit to his canoe with -threats of punishment, he learned that they procure fire by rubbing iron -pyrites and a flinty stone together, catching the sparks in a dry -substance resembling moss.[58] - -The ancient use of pyrites for fire-making is supposed to be embodied in -its etymology (πῦρ). Mr. John Evans has pointed out that the lower beds -of the same English chalk in which the flint abounds are prolific of -pyrites; and he makes the suggestion that the use of a nodule of pyrites -for a hammer-stone in the process of manufacturing flint implements, may -have led to the discovery of this method of producing fire. But if so, -it is a discovery of remote antiquity, for such nodules have been found -both in French and Belgian caves, associated with the bones of fossil -mammals and worked flints of the palæolithic era. They also occur in the -Swiss lake-dwellings, as at Robenhausen, along with neolithic -implements. - -But pyrites is not always available; and Esquimaux, Fuegians, and -Australians practise also the more usual, and probably the more ancient, -method of producing fire by friction. The process among the Tahitians -and South Sea islanders is pursued in the laboriously artless fashion of -rubbing one piece of wood against another; though it is said that, with -perfectly dry wood, they obtain fire in this way in two or three -minutes. Australian fire-making is effected in nearly the same way; but -the American Indians have improved on the process by the use of the bow -and drill. Among the Iroquois and other tribes, the drill was provided -with a stone whorl, or fly-wheel, to give it momentum; and when rapidly -revolved by means of a bow and string, with the point resting on a piece -of dry wood, surrounded with moss or punk, sparks are produced in a few -seconds, and the tinder is ignited. - -The art of fire-making is thus found in use among savage nations, even -in the most degraded state: as among the Fuegians, whose wretched -condition and repulsive appearance and habits have led travellers to -describe them as scarcely human. They are indeed in every way inferior -to the Esquimaux. Yet their implements and weapons display remarkable -ingenuity and skill; and the origin of the name of their desolate region -is traced to the numerous fires seen by the first Spanish discoverers -who navigated its coasts. - -The aborigines of Australia rival the Fuegians alike in physical and -intellectual degradation; but, like them also, have achieved or -perpetuated the discovery which lies at the very foundation of all -possible civilisation. According to the inconsequential account -furnished by a native Australian of their first acquisition of fire:—“A -long, long time ago a little bandicoot[59] was the sole owner of a -fire-brand, which he cherished with the greatest jealousy. So selfish -was he in the use of his prize, that he obstinately refused to share it -with the other animals. So they held a general council, where it was -decided that the fire must be obtained from the bandicoot either by -force or strategy. The hawk and pigeon were deputed to carry out this -resolution; and after vainly trying to induce the fire-owner to share -its blessings with his neighbours, the pigeon, seizing, as he thought, -an unguarded moment, made a dash to obtain the prize. The bandicoot saw -that affairs had come to a crisis, and, in desperation, threw the fire -towards the river, there to quench it for ever. But, fortunately for the -black man, the sharp-eyed hawk was hovering near, and seeing the fire -falling into the water, with a stroke of his wing he knocked the brand -far over the stream into the long dry grass of the opposite bank, which -immediately ignited, and the flames spread over the face of the country. -The black man then felt the fire, and said it was good.”[60] - -The discovery of the art of fire-making, prefigured in this rude myth, -is intimately associated in the minds of the Australian aborigines with -their distinctive ideas of man. According to the mythology of the -Booroung tribe, inhabiting the Mallee country, on Lake Tyrill, they were -preceded on the earth by a race of Nurrumbunguttias, or old spirits, who -had the knowledge of fire; but these were translated to heaven before -the black man came into existence. One of them, named _War_, or the -Crow,—the Australian Prometheus,—is now the star Canopus; and he it -was who first brought fire back to earth, and gave it to the black -men.[61] - -It is a noticeable fact that, while the Maoris of New Zealand use the -same word, _ahi_, for fire, which under slight modifications is employed -through widely severed island groups of the Pacific: different -Australian tribes use distinct names for it, as _darloo_ at Moreton Bay, -_koyung_ at Lake Macquarrie, and _kaubi_ at Bathurst. In the Kamilarai -of Wellington Valley it is called _koyan_; while in the Wiradurei, -spoken about 200 miles inland from Lake Macquarrie, it is _win_. Such -diversity of names for the common acquisition proves that fire is no -recent novelty derived from a single source by the savage tribes of that -strange southern continent. - -Amid all the remarkable evidence recently disclosed relative to the -antiquity and the rude arts of primitive man, nothing has yet appeared -suggestive of a condition inferior to the savages of Tierra del Fuego or -Australia; while much tends to an opposite conclusion. Alike in physical -development and in arts, the Troglodytes of the Dordogne caves were -undoubtedly far in advance of either; and yet they were the -contemporaries of the mammoth, the Siberian rhinoceros, the cave- lion -and bear, the gigantic Irish elk, the reindeer, and the fossil horse of -Central Europe,—the men of a period separated from our own by epochs -the duration of which can be gauged by no standards of historical -chronology. It could scarcely admit of doubt that such men were capable -of achieving the art of fire-making. It might even be questioned if they -could have subsisted under the conditions of life marking that -post-glacial epoch without the use of fire. But on this subject we are -not left to conjecture. - -The contents of the Aurignac cavern, in the department of the -Haute-Garonne, at the foot of the Pyrenees, were at first supposed to -disclose a singularly interesting example of sepulture contemporaneous -with the fossil mammals of the drift; and accompanied not only with -implements and personal ornaments fashioned from their bones and tusks, -as well as others of flint; but with the ashes of the funeral fires and -the débris of the funeral feast which formed a part of the last rites to -the dead. Unfortunately some discredit has been cast on the evidence -which seemed to indicate that the remains of extinct mammalia, and those -of the entombed dead, were contemporaneous; and the importance of the -deductions which this discovery seemed to justify render it all the more -needful that the proof should be indisputable. But the practice of -regular interment of the dead, accompanied with some funeral rites, by -the men of the post-glacial age, is suggested by the contents of the -sepulchral recess of Cro-Magnon, in the valley of the Vézère. No ashes -of funeral fires can be pointed to, but the traces of the use of fire -are abundant. - -Throughout the floors of various caves in this district which have been -rich in disclosures of primitive art, particles of charcoal abound at -every level where broken bones occur, suggesting that fires were in -daily use, and were employed for cooking much more than for warmth. -Possibly, indeed, those caverns were only the summer dwellings of the -Drift-Folk of post-glacial times; and with them, as with the Esquimaux, -and the Indians of North America generally, fire may have been valued as -a protection against the noxious insects which, especially in the brief -summer of a rigorous climate, render life intolerable. Fire is the -universal servant of man. The Esquimaux and the Red Indian ward off the -mosquito, the black-fly, and the sand-fly by means of a “smudge” made -with the smoke of grass and green-wood; while the Hottentot or Bushman -kindles his night-fire in the tropics as the most effectual guardian -against beasts of prey. Everywhere, and at all epochs, fire appears as -one of the most characteristic indices of rational man; and as we study -such traces of him as reappear for us in the works of art and the -extinguished fires of the Moustier and Madelaine cave-dwellings, or -those of the neolithic, if not an earlier period of the Aurignac -catacomb, we see the unmistakable evidences of human intelligence; and -anew concur in the decision of Columbus, that the night-torch of the -Guanahanè savage was indisputable proof that the unknown world which lay -before him was the habitation of man. - -It may be doubted if man has anywhere existed without the knowledge of -fire. By means of it some of his earliest triumphs over nature have been -achieved. With its aid his range is no longer limited to latitudes where -the spontaneous fruits of the earth abound at every season. The use of -fire lies at the root of all the industrial arts. The friendly savages -found by Columbus on the first-discovered island of the New World were -armed with wooden lances, hardened at the end by its means. The most -civilised among the nations conquered by Cortes and Pizarro, had learned -by the same means to smelt the ores of the Andes, and make of their -metallic alloys the tools with which to quarry and hew the rocks, to -sculpture the statues of the gods of Anahuac, and the palaces and -temples of the Peruvian children of the sun. Without fire the imperfect -implements of the stone period would be altogether inadequate to man’s -necessities. By its help he fells the lofty trees, against which his -unaided stone hatchet would be powerless. It plays a no less important -part in preparing the log-canoe of the savage, than in propelling the -wonderful steamship, by means of which the great lakes and rivers of the -New World have become the highways of migrating nations. - -A common root-word for fire serves to connect numerous scattered insular -races of the great Pacific archipelagos, through their intercourse with -the Malay voyagers. Yet while the Malay word _ápi_ may be taken as the -source of many diversified forms of the insular term for fire, the -Papuans, rather than the Malays, present the ethnical peculiarities -predominant throughout Polynesia, and characteristic of the Maoris of -New Zealand; and distinct roots in many intermediate island vocabularies -prove the independent knowledge of fire. The Vitian is rich in terms for -light, warmth, shining, kindling, burning, boiling, etc. _Aundre_, to -shine or flame, becomes _oundreva_, to kindle, and _vakaundre_, to cause -to burn. From _yame_, the tongue, is made, by a familiar analogy, -_yame-ni-mbuka_, a flame of fire. _Ilgatu_, fire, begets a group of -words, including _ilgilaiso_, charcoal, and _ilgilaisongawa_, hot -cinders. _Liva_, a flash of lightning, gives _lavi_, to bring fire, -_lovo_, a furnace, a native oven; and recalls one familiar source of the -knowledge of fire: as the _asa_, the sun; _atua_, a deity, probably the -sun-god; _asu_, smoke, etc., of the Rotuma dialect suggest another -association of ideas common to the Old and New World. - -The fire-worship of the Ghebirs is but a degraded form of that homage to -visible divinity with which man worships the god of day, and bows down -before the heavenly host. Among the civilised nations of the New World, -accordingly, a peculiar sanctity was associated with the familiar -service of fire. At the close of the great cycle of the Aztecs, when the -calendar was corrected to true solar time at the end of the fifty-second -year, a high religious festival was held, on the eve of which they broke -in pieces their household gods, destroyed their furniture, and -extinguished every fire. In the reconstruction of the ritual calendar, -the intercalated days were held as though non-existent, and dedicated to -no gods: on which account they were reputed unfortunate. At the end of -that dreary interval of fasting and penitence, during which no hearth -smoked, and no warm food could be eaten throughout the land, the -ceremony of the new fire was celebrated. After sunset the priests of the -great temple went forth to a neighbouring mountain, and there, at -midnight, the sacred flame was rekindled, which was to light up the -national fires for another cycle. The process by which it was procured, -by revolving one piece of dry wood in the hollow of another, is -repeatedly illustrated in the Mexican paintings of Lord Kingsborough’s -work. But, true to the bloody rites of the national faith, at this -sacred festival the fire was kindled on the breast of a human victim, -from whence the reeking heart was immediately afterwards torn out, and -cast as a bloody offering to the gods. The period from the extinction to -the rekindling of the sacred flame was one of great suspense. With a -superstitious feeling, in striking accordance with the customs and ideas -of the northern Indians, the women remained confined to their houses, -with their faces covered, under the belief that if they witnessed the -ceremony they would be forthwith transformed into beasts. Meanwhile, the -men gathered on the terraced roofs, and looked forth in dread suspense -into the darkness. The flames on the summits of the great teocallis, -which lighted up the city at all other seasons, had been extinguished; -and if the priests failed to rekindle them, it was believed that the -night must be eternal, and the world would come to an end. But dimly, -through the darkness, a spark was seen to glimmer on the distant summit -of the mountain, and from thence it was swiftly borne to the temple, -towards which the worshippers turned with renewed hope. As the sacred -flame again blazed on the high altar, and was distributed to the other -teocallis, shouts of triumph ascended with it to the sky. Feasts, joyous -processions, and oblations at the temples followed, and were prolonged -through a festival of thirteen days, devoted to a national jubilee for -the recovered flame, the type of a regenerated world.[62] The long -interval which transpired between this closing rite of the great cycle -was of itself sufficient to give it an impressive sanctity in the eyes -of the Aztec worshipper. He who witnessed it in youth saw it only once -again as life drew towards a close; whilst few indeed of all who -rejoiced at the renewed gift of fire could expect to look again on the -strangely significant rite. Compared with the annual miracle of the -Greek Church in the crypt of the Holy Sepulchre, to which it bears some -resemblance, the great festival of the Aztecs was replete with -significance and solemn grandeur, though stained with the blood of their -hideous sacrifices. - -The Peruvian sun-worshippers preserved the harmony between their -recurrent festivals and the true solar time, by a ruder process of -adjustment than that which was devised by the remarkable proficiency of -the Aztec priests in astronomical science. Nevertheless, they too had -their secular festival of Raymi, held annually at the period of the -summer solstice. For three days previous a general fast prevailed, the -fire on the great altar of the sun went out, and in all the dwellings of -the land no hearth was kindled. As the dawn of the fourth day -approached, the Inca, surrounded by his nobles, who came from all parts -of the country to join in the solemn celebration, assembled in the great -square of the capital to greet the rising sun. The temple of the -national deity presented its eastern portal to the earliest rays, -emblazoned with his golden image, thickly set with precious stones; and -as the first beams of the morning were reflected back from this emblem -of the sun-god, songs of triumph mingled with the jubilant shout of his -worshippers. Then after various rites of adoration, preparations were -made for rekindling the sacred fire. But this, with the Peruvians, was -done by a process far in advance of that retained by the Aztec priests. -The rays of the sun, collected into a focus by a concave mirror of -polished metal, were made to inflame a heap of dried cotton; and a llama -was sacrificed as a burnt-offering to the sun. Only in the case of the -sky being overcast did the priests resort to friction for rekindling the -altar; but the hiding of his countenance by the god of day was regarded -as little less ominous than the extinction of the sacred fire, which it -became the duty of the virgins of the sun to guard throughout the year. -A slaughter of the llama flocks of the sun furnished a universal -banquet; and, while the god was propitiated by offerings of fruit and -flowers, there appear to have been some rare occasions on which the -sacrifice of a human victim—a beautiful maiden or a child,—gave to -this graceful anniversary a nearer resemblance to the appalling rites of -Aztec worship. - -Among the northern Indian tribes some faint traces of the annual -festival of fire are discernible. At the sacrifice of the white dog, the -New Year’s festival of the Iroquois, the proceedings extended over six -days; and such were the obligations which its rites imposed on all, that -if any member of a family died during the period, the body was laid -aside, and the relatives participated in the games as well as the -religious ceremonies. The strangling of the white dog destined for -sacrifice was the chief feature of the first day’s proceedings. On the -second day the two keepers of the faith visited each house, and -performed the significant ceremony of stirring the ashes on the hearth, -accompanied with a thanksgiving to the Great Spirit. On the morning of -the fifth day the fire was solemnly kindled by friction; and the white -dog was borne in procession on a bark litter, until the officiating -leaders halted, facing the rising sun, when it was laid on the flaming -wood and consumed, during an address, which included a special -thanksgiving to the sun, for having looked on the earth with a -beneficent eye.[63] - -There is, perhaps, no connection traceable between the various rites -thus described; for it would be easy to find their parallels among -ancient and modern nations. They pertained to the religious practices of -the Chaldeans, to the rites of Baal, and to other early forms of -idolatry. Sabaism is indeed the most natural form of false worship, -commending itself by many visible tokens, as of a divine influence and -power, to uninstructed man; and readily suggests the association of fire -with the sun as its source. “Take ye good heed unto yourselves,” says -the lawgiver of Israel to the tribes in the wilderness, “for ye saw no -manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb -out of the midst of the fire; lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, -and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the -host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them.” This worship of the -sun, though associated with ancient rites of Asiatic nations, is not -therefore necessarily an evidence of the eastern origin either of the -faith or of the nations of the New World. But, in the services to which -it gave rise there, we have, at least, suggestive hints of the links -that bind together its own ancient and modern tribes. Perhaps also they -may supply a clew to the interpretation of some of the obscure -sculptures still remaining on sites of the extinct native civilisation -of America, and of rites once practised amid the sacred enclosures, and -on the altar-mounds which give such peculiar interest to the -river-terraces of the Mississippi valley. - -Among the remarkable structures of the Mound-Builders, reviewed in a -subsequent chapter, their explorers have been struck by the -peculiarities of a certain class of mounds, erected on the most elevated -summits of outlying hills. Concerning these “there can be no doubt that -the ancient people selected prominent and elevated positions upon which -to build large fires, which were kept burning for long periods, or -renewed at frequent intervals. They appear to have been built generally -upon heaps of stones, which are broken up and sometimes partially -vitrified. In all cases they exhibit marks of intense and protracted -heat.”[64] Such indications have been supposed to mark ancient -signal-stations adapted to the telegraphic system still in use among -native tribes, of sending up columns of smoke as a warning that enemies -are at hand. But this “putting out fire,” as it is called among the -Indians of the north-west, for the purposes of signal, is now -accomplished by the simple process of setting the short-tufted buffalo -grass in flame, and presents slight analogy to the traces of intense -fires on the ancient hill-mounds, where the amount of scoriaceous -material often covers a large space several feet deep. - -Perhaps greater importance is due to the employment of the same method -of fire-making at the present day among the Indians of the north-west, -as we see illustrated in ancient Aztec paintings; while the -sun-worshippers of the southern continent had devised a totally distinct -method, corresponding to that by which the Romans kindled the sacred -fire. Mr. Paul Kane thus describes the process employed by the Chinooks -on the Columbia River:—“The fire is obtained by means of a flat piece -of dry cedar, in which a small hollow is cut, with a channel for the -ignited charcoal to run over; on this the Indian sits to hold it steady, -while he rapidly twirls a round stick of the same wood between the palms -of his hands, with the point pressed into the hollow. In a very short -time sparks begin to fall through the channel upon finely frayed -cedar-bark placed underneath, which they soon ignite. There is a great -deal of knack in doing this, but those who are used to it will light a -fire in a very short time. The men usually carry these sticks about with -them, as after they have been once used they produce the fire more -quickly.”[65] I witnessed the process successfully employed under the -most unfavourable circumstances, on one occasion when camping out with -Chippewa guides on the Lake of Bays, in Western Canada. We had struck -our tents, and were making our way down the river, when a steady rain -set in, which continued throughout the day. We had to pass several long -portages, involving in each case the unloading, and carrying over them, -our canoes and baggage; and on one of these occasions, finding myself -alone with my Indian guide at the foot of a portage where we must -necessarily be detained a considerable time, I suggested to him by words -and signs, whether it were possible to kindle a fire. Rain was falling -in torrents, the trees were dripping, and the grass and fallen leaves -resembled a soaked sponge. But Kineesè set to work in Indian fashion, -hunted out a pine-knot, such as are of common occurrence in the Canadian -forest, where the tree itself has rotted away and left the cores of its -oldest branches like pins of iron. Having secured this, and a piece of -half-burned wood from under the remains of an old camp-fire, he next -stripped off the bark from the lee-side of a birch tree, and collecting -a heap of the dry inner bark, thin as paper, he carefully disposed it -under a cover of pine-bark, and placed over all a pile of chips cut with -his axe from the centre of a pine log. All being now ready, he frayed a -handful of the birch-bark into the consistency of tow, and placing this -on the charred wood, he made the hard point of the pine-knot revolve in -the wood by means of a cord, while his bent position, pressing the other -end to his breast, protected it from the rain. In a surprisingly short -time he blew the tinder into a flame, applied it to the pile he had -prepared, and nursing this with chips and dry twigs, we were able to -welcome our companions to a blazing log fire, kindled under -circumstances which, even with the aid of flint and steel, would have -seemed impossible to the European woodsman. - -The knowledge of this simple process, however acquired, constitutes -perhaps the oldest of all human traditions relating to the arts of life. -A mode of obtaining fire nearly equivalent to that of flint and steel -has already been referred to as in use both among the Fuegians and -Esquimaux; but the process of friction is also resorted to by the -latter, and with slight variations in the application of the principle, -it appears to be the recognised Indian mode of procuring fire. Among all -the Indian tribes not only was a certain superstitious sanctity attached -to fire, but they looked with distrust on the novel methods employed by -Europeans for its production. When, in 1811, Elksatowa, the prophet of -the Wabash,—a brother of Tecumseh, the Shawnee warrior,—was exhorting -his tribe to resist the deadly encroachments of the white man, he -concluded one of his eloquent warnings by exclaiming: “Throw away your -fire-steels, and awaken the sleeping flame as your fathers did before -you; fling away your wrought coverings, and put on skins won for -yourselves as was their wont, if you would escape the anger of the Great -Spirit.” Nor is there wanting among many Indians a conviction that the -Ishkodaiwaubo, or fire-liquid, is a malignant form of the same -mysterious element; an evil medicine wrought for their destruction by -the white Manitou. - -Various methods are thus traceable throughout the western hemisphere for -calling into existence the wondrous element, so peculiarly distinctive -of man. Yet even in these, common relations of a very comprehensive -character are apparent; while the Peruvian, with the solar mirror, -stands apart alike from the rude Indian and the cultivated native of the -Mexican plateau; and far to the south of both, the Fuegian finds in the -natural products of his inhospitable clime a means of fire-making -analogous to that which the Shawnee prophet taught his people to regard -as one of the unhallowed practices of the Whites. All alike exhibit man, -even in the rudest stage, master of the same secret; and turning to many -useful, and even indispensable purposes, that which no other animal can -be taught to use, or scarcely even to look upon without dread. - ------ - -[57] Floureus, _De la Longévité Humaine_, p. 127. - -[58] Weddell’s _Voyage towards the South Pole in 1822-24_, p. 167. - -[59] A small sharp-nosed animal, not unlike the Guinea-pig. - -[60] _Canadian Journal, N.S._, vol. i. p. 509. - -[61] _Trans. Philosoph. Institute, Victoria_, vol. i. - -[62] _Clavigero_, vol. ii. p. 84. - -[63] _League of the Iroquois_, pp. 207-221. - -[64] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 183. - -[65] _Wanderings of an Artist among the Indians of North America_, p. -188. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - THE CANOE. - - - THE USE OF TOOLS—TOOL-USING INSTINCT—RUDIMENTARY STAGE OF ART— - PRIMITIVE RIVER-CRAFT—THE GUANAHANÈ CANOE—OCEAN NAVIGATION— - AFRICAN CANOE-MAKING—OREGON CEDAR CANOES—NATIVE WHALERS OF THE - PACIFIC—PREHISTORIC BOAT BUILDERS—MAWAI’S CANOES—THE - POLYNESIAN ARCHIPELAGO—THE TERRA AUSTRALIS INCOGNITA— - CANOE-FLEETS OF THE PACIFIC—PRIMITIVE NAVIGATION—PORTABLE - BOATS—THE CORACLE AND KAIAK—THE PERUVIAN BALSA—OCEAN - NAVIGATORS. - -The discovery of fire, and its application even to such simple purposes -of art as the hardening of the wooden spear, or the hollowing of the -monoxylous canoe, suffice to illustrate the characteristics of man, not -merely as a reasoning, but also as a tool-using, or, as Franklin defined -him, a tool-making animal. Whilst, however, an innate instinct seems to -prompt him to supplement his helplessness by such means, mechanical -science, the industrial and the fine arts, are all progressive -developments which his intellect superinduces on that tool-using -instinct. And through all the countless ages revealed to the geologist, -with ever new orders of successive life; with beast, bird, crustacean, -insect, and zoophyte, endowed with wonderful constructive instincts, and -perpetuating memorials of architecture and sculpture, of which the -microscope is alone adequate to reveal the exquisite beauty and infinite -variety of design: yet so thoroughly is the use of tools the exclusive -attribute of man, that the discovery of a single artificially shaped -flint in the drift or cave-breccia, is deemed proof enough that man has -been there. The flint implement or weapon lies beside bones revealing -species kindred to the sagacious elephant, or to those of carnivora -allied to the dog, with its wonderful instincts bordering on reason and -the forethought of experience; yet no theorist dreams of the hypothesis -that some wiser _Elephas primigenius_, in advance of his age, devised -the flint-spear wherewith to oppose more effectually the aggressions of -the gigantic carnivora, whose remains abound in the ossiferous caverns. - -But if man was created with a tool-using instinct, and with faculties -capable of developing it into all the mechanical triumphs which command -such wonder and admiration in our day, he was also created with a -necessity for such. “The heritage of nakedness, which no animal envies -us, is not more the memorial of the innocence that once was ours, than -it is the omen of the labours which it compels us to undergo. With the -intellect of angels, and the bodies of earth-worms, we have the power to -conquer, and the need to do it. Half of the industrial arts are the -result of our being born without clothes; the other half of our being -born without tools.”[66] - -With the growing wants of men as they gathered into communities, novel -arts were developed; and the demands of each new-felt want called into -being means for its supply. Artificers in brass and iron multiplied, and -the sites of the first cities of the earth were adorned with temples, -palaces, sculptured marbles, and cunningly-wrought shrines. But whenever -communities were broken up and scattered, the elements of an acquired -civilisation were inevitably left behind. All but the most indispensable -arts disappear during the process of migration; and although the -wanderers might at length find a home in “a land whose stones are iron, -and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass,” no arts are so speedily -lost among migratory tribes as those of metallurgy. The hold of the -accumulated wisdom and experience of successive generations must be -partial and uncertain among an unlettered people, dependent on tradition -for all knowledge excepting such as is practically transmitted in the -operations of daily experience. Few indeed of all the wanderers from the -old centres of European civilisation to the wilds of the New World bring -with them the slightest knowledge either of the science or the practice -of metallurgy. Every chemical analyst knows what it is to receive -pyrites for silver, and ochres for iron or gold. Even now the skill of -the American miner has to be imported, and the copper-miners of Lake -Superior are chiefly derived from Cornwall, Norway, or the mining -districts of Germany. - -With all our many artificial wants so promptly supplied, even in the -remotest colony, we are slow to perceive how much we owe to the wondrous -appliances of modern civilisation, and its division of labour. The -Dutchman exported his very bricks across the Atlantic, wherewith to -found his New Amsterdam on the banks of the Hudson; and the English -colonist, with enterprise enough to mine the copper and iron of Lake -Superior, still seeks a market for the ores in England, and imports from -thence both the engineers and the iron wherewith to bridge his St. -Lawrence. With such facts before us in relation even to the systematic -colonisation of a highly civilised and enterprising commercial nation, -it is easy to understand what must have been the condition of the -earth’s primeval wanderers. Their industrial arts were all to begin -anew; and thus we see that the non-metallurgic condition of primitive -social life which is designated its Stone Period, is not necessarily the -earliest human period, but only the rudimentary state to which man had -returned, and may return again, in the inevitable deterioration of a -migratory era. - -Evidence of various kinds still points to a cradle-land for the human -family towards the western borders of Central Asia, and remote from its -coasts: probably in that range of country stretching between the -head-waters of the Indus and the Tigris. The earliest history of man -that we possess represents the postdiluvian wanderers journeying -eastward, and at length settling on a plain that long afterwards -remained one of the chief centres of history. But the arts there -developed belonged exclusively to a far inland people; and to this day -the rude craft of the Tigris and the Euphrates betrays a total absence -of maritime instinct or skill in navigation. The highest effort of their -boat-builders is little more than to construct a temporary raft, on -which themselves and their simple freight may float in safety down the -current of the great river. Similar rafts are still in use by the -Egyptians, formed of earthenware jars bound together by withes and -cords, and covered with bulrushes. Like the corresponding river-craft of -the Euphrates, these are steered down the Nile, never to return; for, on -their arrival at Cairo, the rafts are broken up, and the jars sold in -the bazaars. Such was the rudimentary condition of navigation in that -great Asiatic hive of nations where man chiefly dwelt for centuries -remote from the sea. But from thence the wanderers were scattered over -the face of the whole earth. The primitive river-craft, therefore, found -an early development into sea-craft; and oceanic migration gave a new -character to the wanderings of the primeval nomads. Thenceforth, -accordingly, those instinctive tendencies began to characterise certain -branches of the human family, as leaders of maritime enterprise, which -may be traced under very diverse degrees of social development: as in -the Phœnicians, the Northmen, the Malays, and the Polynesians; while -other tribes and nations, such as the Celts and the Fijians, though -living on the coast, are tempted by no longings to voyage on the ocean’s -bosom. - -The islands of the Central American archipelago were the first to reward -the sagacity of Columbus, as he steered his course westward in search of -the old East. The arts of their simple natives accordingly attracted his -attention; and although he found among them personal ornaments of gold, -sufficient to awaken the avaricious longings of the Spaniards for that -fatal treasure of the New World, yet practically they were in ignorance -of metallurgic arts, and lacked that stimulus to ingenious industry -which the requisites of clothing call forth in less genial climes. The -natives of Guanahanè, or San Salvador, were friendly and gentle savages, -in the simplicity, if not in the innocence, of nakedness. Their only -weapons were lances of wood hardened in the fire, pointed with the teeth -or bone of a fish, or furnished with a blade made either of the -universal flint, or more frequently, with them, from the large tropical -shells which abound in the West Indian seas. They had learned to turn -the native cotton-plant to economical account; but their chief -mechanical ingenuity was expended on the light barks to which they gave -the now universal name of _canoe_. These were formed from the trunk of a -single tree, hollowed by fire, with the help of their primitive adzes of -flint or shell, and were of various sizes, from the tiny bark only -capable of holding its solitary owner, to the galley manned by forty or -fifty rowers, who propelled it swiftly through the water with their -paddles, and baled it with the invaluable native calabash, which -supplied every domestic utensil, and rendered them indifferent to the -potter’s art. - -The canoe has a peculiar interest and value in relation to the -archæology of the New World. With our wondrous steamships, wherewith we -have bridged the Atlantic, we are apt to lose faith in the capacity of -uncivilised man for overcoming such obstacles as the dividing oceans -which had so long concealed America from the ancient world. But the bark -in which Columbus first crossed the Atlantic was in no degree more -capable of braving the ocean’s terrors than the navies of the -Mediterranean had been a thousand years before; and the primitive canoes -of the American archipelago far more nearly resembled the Pinta, or the -Niña with its lateen sails, than the smallest of our modern ocean craft. - -Throughout the Polynesian archipelago, fragments of foreign vocabularies -are the chief traces of that oceanic migration by which alone the -descendants of a common race could people those distant islands of the -sea. The recognition of certain Malay and Polynesian words in the -language of the remote island of Madagascar is one striking illustration -of what such intrusive linguistic elements imply. We can thus trace the -primitive voyagers, in their _praus_, or slight Malayan vessels, -navigating an ocean of three thousand miles; and perceive how, even by -such means, the ocean highway was open to the world’s grey fathers in -remotest prehistoric times. - -[Illustration: FIG. 50.—Clyde Stone Axe.] - -In this view of the case, the canoe of America is the type of a -developed instinct pregnant with many suggestive thoughts for us; and -the traces of the primeval ship-builder’s art accumulate wonderfully so -soon as attention is drawn to it. On the banks of the Clyde, the voyager -from the New World looks with peculiar interest on the growing fabrics -of those huge steamers, which have made the ocean, that proved so -impassable a barrier to the men of the fifteenth century, the easy -highway of commerce and pleasure for us. The roar of the iron forge, the -clang of the fore-hammer, the intermittent glare of the furnaces, and -all the novel appliances of iron ship-building, tell of the modern era -of steam; but, meanwhile, underneath these very ship-builders’ yards lie -the memorials of ancient Clyde fleets, in which we are borne back, up -the stream of human history, far into prehistoric times. The earliest -recorded discovery of a Clyde canoe took place in 1780, at a depth of -twenty-five feet below the surface, on a site known by the apt -designation of St. Enoch’s croft. It was hewn out of a single oak, and -within it, near the prow, lay a beautifully finished stone axe or celt, -represented here (Fig. 50), doubtless one of the simple implements with -which this primitive ship of the Clyde had been fashioned into shape. At -least sixteen other canoes have been since brought to light; some of -them buried many feet underneath sites occupied by the most ancient -structures of the city of Glasgow. It is difficult to apply any -satisfactory test whereby to gauge the lapse of centuries since this -primitive fleet plied in the far-inland estuary that then occupied the -area through which the Clyde has wrought its later channel; but that the -changes in geological, no less than in technological, aspects indicate a -greatly prolonged interval, cannot admit of doubt. Yet primitive man, -alike in Africa and in the New World, is still practising the rude -ingenuity of the same boat-builder’s art which the allophylian of the -Clyde pursued in that remote dawn. - -The vessel in which Captain Speke explored Lake Tanganyika was a long -narrow canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree. “These -vessels,” he says, “are mostly built from large timbers, growing in the -district of Ugubha, on the western side of the lake. The savages fell -them, lop off the branches and ends to the length required, and then, -after covering the upper surface with wet mud as the tree lies upon the -ground, they set fire to, and smoulder out its interior, until nothing -but a case remains, which they finish by paring out with roughly -constructed hatchets.” - -[Illustration: FIG. 51.—Clalam Stone Adze.] - -The islanders of the Southern Ocean, the natives of many parts of the -African continent, and the canoe-builders of the New World, all employ -the agency of fire to supplement their imperfect tools. The stone axe of -the St. Enoch’s croft canoe is formed of highly polished dark -greenstone. It measures five and a half inches in length by three and a -half in breadth; and an unpolished band round the centre indicates where -it had been bound to its haft, leaving both ends disengaged, as is -frequently the case with the stone hatchets of the American Indians and -the Polynesians. But the accompanying woodcut (Fig. 51) drawn from one -brought by Mr. Paul Kane from the Strait of De Fuca, shows a more -ingenious mode of hafting the stone adze. Such implements are in use by -the Clalam Indians for constructing out of the trunks of cedar trees, -large and highly ornamented canoes, in which they fearlessly face the -dangers of the Pacific Ocean. Some of their canoes, made out of a single -tree, measure upwards of fifty feet long, and are capable of carrying -thirty as a crew. They have thwarts from side to side, about three -inches thick, and their gunwales curve outwards so as to throw off the -waves. The bow and stern rise in a graceful sweep, sometimes to a height -of five feet, and are decorated with grotesque figures of men and -animals. The Indian crew kneel two and two along the bottom, and propel -the canoe rapidly with paddles from four to five feet long, while a -bowman and steersman sit, each with his paddle, at either end, and thus -equipped these savages venture in their light bark upon the most -tempestuous seas. One of their most coveted prizes is the whale, the -blubber of which is eaten along with dried fish, and esteemed no less -highly by them than by the Esquimaux. Since the encroachments of -European settlements on their territories their game has greatly -diminished, and few whales approach the coast; but, when an opportunity -offers, the Indians are enthusiastic in the chase, and the process by -which their prize is secured furnishes an interesting illustration of -native ingenuity and daring. When a whale is seen blowing in the offing, -they rush to their canoes and push off, furnished with a number of large -sealskin bags filled with air, each attached by a cord to a barbed -spear-head, in the socket of which is fitted a handle five or six feet -long. Upon coming up with the whale, the barbed heads are driven into -it, and the handles withdrawn; until the whale, no longer able to sink -from the buoyancy of the air-bags, is despatched and towed ashore. By -just such a process may the whale have been stranded at the base of -Dunmyat, in times when an ancient ocean washed the foot of the Ochil -hills, and the old Scottish whaler revelled in spoils such as now reward -the enterprise of the savages of the North Pacific coast. - -[Illustration: FIG. 52.—Grangemouth Skull.] - -It is thus seen to how large an extent the primitive canoe may have -sufficed for remote ocean expeditions. The old navigators of the Clyde -were probably not a whit less fearless than the native whalers of the -Oregon coast; and they had to face dangers fully equal to any of those -to which voyagers of the Pacific are exposed, whenever they navigated -the lochs and island channels towards its mouth, or ventured beyond it, -to face the gales and currents of the Irish Sea. The Clyde has supplied -an unusually rich store of illustrations of primitive ship-carpentry; -but the disclosures of another Scottish locality also merit notice here. -The carse of Falkirk is intimately associated with some very memorable -events of Scottish history. It is traversed by the vallum and chain of -forts reared by Lollius Urbicus the Roman proprætor of Antoninus Pius in -the early part of the second century, and is rich in memorials of many -later incidents. But underneath lie far older records. In the year 1726, -a sudden rise of the river Carron undermined a portion of its banks, and -exposed to view a canoe of unusually large dimensions, fashioned with -care from a single oak tree, and lying at a depth of fifteen feet -beneath successive strata of clay, shells, moss, sand, and gravel. The -Statistical Accounts record the discovery, in the vicinity of Falkirk, -of another ancient boat buried thirty feet below the surface, in the -same carse from which the remains of a mammoth were exhumed in -excavating the Union Canal in 1821. Those traces of primitive human art -have already been referred to in the _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, -but a further discovery in the same locality confers a fresh interest -upon them. Soon after the publication of that work, when on a visit to -Falkirk, I was shown by Dr. G. Hamilton a human skull, which at once -attracted my attention from its marked correspondence to the -brachycephalic crania of ancient British graves. It is figured here, -Fig. 52, from a careful drawing executed at a later date. The facial -bones and the whole of the base are wanting, but enough remains to show -that it is well developed, according to a type of crania of the early -Scottish tumuli. But what confers a special interest on it is, that it -was found in the same alluvial carse-land as the ancient canoes and the -fossil bones of the _Elephas primigenius_, twenty feet below the -surface, in a bed of shell and gravel, when digging the area of the -large Grangemouth lock of the Union Canal, on the 29th of June 1843. -Buried at such a depth in the detritus of the river-valley, it may be -regarded as a record of the men of the period when the valleys of the -Forth and Carron were navigable arms of the sea; and may even belong to -the epoch when their shores were peopled by a race of fishermen -contemporaneous with the whalers of Dunmyat and Blair-Drummond Moss, and -with the monoxylous boatmen of the Clyde. - -Among many of the islands of the Southern Ocean the boats are simple -wooden canoes, pointed at either end, and propelled through the water -with the paddle; but the barks of the true Polynesians are more -elaborate and ingenious. They frequently are double, with a raised -platform or quarter-deck; and are invariably provided with an outrigger, -an article seemingly of Malay origin. So essential, indeed, is the -latter deemed for safe navigation, that the most remarkable -characteristic recognised by the Tahitians, when Captain Cook’s vessels -first revealed to them the wonders of European civilisation, was the -want of the indispensable outrigger. Throughout the mythology of oceanic -Polynesia, Mawai, the upholder of the earth, and the revealer of the -secrets of the future, plays a prominent part. In one of his prophecies, -Mawai foretold that a ship such as had never been seen before, a canoe -without outriggers, should in process of time come out of the ocean. But -to the mind of a Tahitian, an ocean canoe without an outrigger was so -impossible a thing that they laughed their prophet to scorn: whereupon -Mawai launched his wooden dish on the waters, which swam without -outrigger, and the Tahitians thenceforward looked for the strange marvel -of the outriggerless canoe. Cook’s ship was regarded as the fulfilment -of Mawai’s prediction, and still English vessels are frequently called -Mawai’s canoes. The mythic prophecy seems in reality one of those vague -traditions of ancestral intercourse with other members of the human -family, such as, among the Aztecs, led to the belief that the ships of -Cortes had returned from the source of the rising sun with Quetzalcoatl, -the divine instructor of their forefathers in the arts of civilisation. - -The population of the great Polynesian archipelago presents many highly -interesting and suggestive features, bearing closely on the question of -oceanic migration. The area of Polynesia proper extends from the small -islands westward of the Pelews to Easter Island, and from the Mariannes -and the Sandwich Islands to New Zealand on the south. In Tongatabu and -Easter Island, as well as in the Micronesian Rota, Tinian, Ualan, and -throughout the Caroline group, remains of massive stone buildings, the -origin or use of which is wholly unknown to the natives, reveal traces -of an extinct civilisation, and afford some possible clew to the strange -ethnological phenomena of the Oceanic archipelago. Professor Dana, who, -as geologist to the United States Exploring Expedition, had abundant -opportunities for observation, came to the conclusion that an immense -area in the Pacific has for ages been gradually subsiding; and that the -numerous Lagoon Islands mark the spots where what were once the highest -peaks of mountains have finally been submerged. Mr. Hale, the -philologist of the same expedition, gathered sufficient data from a -European who had been resident for a time on the island of Bonabe, in -the Caroline archipelago, and from his own observations, to satisfy him -that the remarkable stone structures, both Ualan and Bonabe, were -erected when the sites on which they stand were at a different level -from what they now occupy. “At present they are actually in the water; -what were once paths, are now passages for canoes, and when the walls -are broken down the water enters the enclosure.” - -Such an idea seems like a glimpse of far-reaching truths relative to the -unwritten history of that recently explored Southern Ocean. When -Columbus discovered the islands of the New World he found them lying in -thickly clustered groups, and ere long he reached the mainland of a -great continent, which lay in close vicinity to its island satellites. -But it was altogether different with the Columbus of the Southern Ocean. -A strange Antarctic, as well as an Australian continent lay there also, -awaiting new discoverers; but far beyond their coasts the Pacific and -Southern groups dotted the wide expanse of ocean like the stars that -lose themselves in the abysses of night. We read with wonder, as strange -as that which rewarded the revelations of the Western Ocean in the -closing years of the fifteenth century, of the voyages and discoveries -of Byron, Wallis, Carteret, and of Cook and later explorers of the South -Pacific Ocean. When Captain Cook reached the Cape on his return from his -second expedition, in 1774, he had sailed no less than twenty thousand -leagues, through unknown seas, since he left the same point twenty -months before. His grand quest was in search of the _Terra Australis -Incognita_, a continent which it was assumed must exist in the Southern -Ocean, as a counterpoise to the land occupying so large a portion of the -northern hemisphere; but instead of this, the voyagers sailed for days -and weeks through vast seas, arriving by chance, now and again, at some -little island, cut off from all the world besides, yet tenanted by human -beings. And, as later voyagers have noted, on sailing once more into the -limitless horizon, after another long interval, in which many hundreds -of miles have been passed, another island-speck appears; and not only is -it inhabited, but affinities of speech, mythology, and the primitive -ingenuity of native arts, all concur in proving a community of origin. -The idea suggested to the sagacious naturalist is now very familiar to -the scientific mind. The Pacific Ocean is pre-eminently an area of -subsidence, where already not only implements of shell and stone, but -probably carvings, sculptures, and even architectural structures, lie -buried under the coral breccia of a modern cretacean formation, destined -it may be, to puzzle the intelligent research of a remote future, when -the northern hemisphere shall once more become the area of subsidence; -and the islands of the Pacific will constitute the summits of -mountain-chains in the _Terra Australis_ of that coming time. - -We must not be misled here, any more than in our estimate of possible -Atlantic voyagers, by the undue contempt with which the European is apt -to gauge the capacity of primitive island mariners. At Vanikoro, the -native canoe is a mere rudely-fashioned trunk of a tree, sufficiently -grooved to afford foot-hold; yet to this the islander attaches an -outrigger, spreads a mat for his sail, and boldly launches forth into -the ocean, though few Europeans would be induced to venture in such a -craft on the stillest pool. Dr. Pickering, when illustrating the ideas -of ocean migration which he was led to form from intimate observations -of widely-scattered and very diverse branches of the human family, -remarks: “Of the aboriginal vessels of the Pacific, two kinds only are -adapted for long sea-voyages: those of Japan, and the large double -canoes of the Society and Tonga groups. In times anterior to the impulse -given to civilised Europe through the noble enterprise of Columbus, -Polynesians were accustomed to undertake sea-voyages nearly as long, -exposed to equal dangers, and in vessels of far inferior construction. -However incredible this may appear to many, there is sufficient evidence -of the fact. The Tonga people are known to hold intercourse with Vavao, -Samoa, the Fiji Islands, Rotuma, and the New Hebrides. But there is a -document, published before those seas were frequented by whalers and -trading-vessels, which shows a more extensive aboriginal acquaintance -with the islands of the Pacific. I allude to the map obtained by Forster -and Cook from a native of the Society Islands, and which has been shown -to contain not only the Marquesas, and the islands south and east of -Tahiti, but the Samoan, Fiji, and even more distant groups. Again, in -regard to the principles of navigation, the Polynesians appear to -possess a better knowledge of the subject than is commonly supposed, as -is shown from recent discoveries at the Hawaiian Islands. One of the -Hawaiian headlands has been found to bear the name of _The -starting-place for Tahiti_: the canoes, according to the account of the -natives, derived through the missionaries, leaving in former times at a -certain season of the year, and directing their course by a particular -star.” - -But leaving such glimpses of oceanic migration, there is another aspect -in which the ingenuity of the primitive boat-builder of the New World is -exhibited, which is highly characteristic in itself; and also worthy of -notice from some of its elements of comparison with the primeval -ingenuity of the ancient world. Throughout the islands of the American -archipelago, and among the southern tribes, where large and freely -navigable rivers abound, the native canoe was made of various sizes, but -invariably of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and reduced to the -required shape. Such appears to be the normal type of the primitive -mariner’s craft; but where obstacles interfere with its accomplishment, -the rudest races devise means to obviate the difficulty. The Californian -canoe is a mere float made of rushes, in the form of a lashed-up -hammock; while those of the Navigator Islands, in the Pacific,—so -called by La Perouse, their first discoverer, owing to the graceful -shape and superior workmanship of their canoes,—are formed of pieces of -wood sewed together by means of a raised margin. In this the skilful -carpenter is guided rather by utility or taste, than by necessity, for -the Navigator Islands are fertile and populous, and clothed to the -summits of their lofty hills with luxuriant forests and richly laden -fruit-trees. - -But across the wide area of the northern continent of America, which -stretches from the Gulf of the St. Lawrence to the Pacific, a different -combination of circumstances has given bent to the development of native -ingenuity in the art of boat-building. In the St. Lawrence itself, and -throughout all its principal tributaries, navigation is constantly -impeded by waterfalls or rapids, which constitute an insurmountable -barrier to ordinary navigation. In like manner the country along the -northern and southern shores of Lake Ontario, the valley of the Ottawa, -reaching towards the Georgian Bay and Lake Superior, and much of the -route between that and the Rocky Mountains, is a chain of lakes or -interrupted river navigation. Hence all the principal routes of travel -consist of lines of lake and river united by “portages,” or -carrying-places, over which the canoe and all its contents have to be -borne by the native boatmen, or voyageurs, as the French Canadians and -Half-breeds of the traders and Hudson’s Bay Company are called. For such -mode of transport the wooden canoe would be all but impracticable; and -accordingly, probably ages before voyageurs of European descent had -learned to handle such canoes, the native Indian devised for himself his -light and graceful bark-boat, made from the rind of the _Betula -papyracea_, or canoe-birch, which grows in great abundance, and where -the soil is good often acquires a height of seventy feet. - -Portable boats were not unknown to the ancient tribes of the British -Isles. In Mr. Shirley’s _Account of the Dominion of Farney_ in Ulster, a -curious example of a portable boat is described, formed of the trunk of -an oak tree, measuring twelve feet in length by three feet in breadth, -hollowed out, and furnished with handles at both ends, evidently for -facility of transport from one loch to another. The district is one -abounding with small lakes, such as the ancient Irish chiefs frequently -selected as chosen retreats in which to construct their crannoges, or -other insulated strongholds, beyond the reach of hostile surprise. But a -closer analogy may be traced between the Indian birch-bark canoe and the -coracle of the ancient Briton described by Julius Cæsar as a frame of -wicker-work covered with skins. The same kind of canoe is in use at the -present day on the lakes in the interior of Newfoundland, where the -Montagnars from the Labrador coast frequently spend the summer. Their -birch canoes are carefully secured for the return voyage to the -mainland; and a deer-skin stretched over a wicker frame supplies all the -requisites for inland navigation. But the true counterpart to the -British coracle is the Esquimaux kaiak, which consists of a light frame -covered with skin; and as this is brought over the top, and made to wrap -round the body of its occupant, it enables the amphibious navigator, -both of the North Pacific and the Greenland seas, to brave a stormy -ocean in which no open boat could live. - -Hamilco, the Carthaginian, according to Festus Avienus, witnessed the -ancient Britons “ploughing the ocean in a novel boat; for, strange to -tell, they constructed their vessels with skins joined together, and -often navigated the sea in a hide of leather.” Upwards of four centuries -later, Cæsar found the same stormy sea navigated by the southern Britons -in their coracles. When, in the sixth century, in the lives of the Irish -Saints, we once more recover some glimpse of maritime arts, it is in the -same coracles—sometimes made of a single hide, and in other cases, such -as the ocean currach of St. Columba, of several skins sewed -together,—that the evangelists of Iona crossed the Irish sea, visited -the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and even, as there is reason to -believe, preceded the Northmen in the discovery of Iceland. The old -Scottish historian Bellenden, writing in the sixteenth century, asks: -“How can there be greater ingyne than to make a boat of a bull’s hyde -bound with nothing but wands? This boat is called a currock, with which -they fish, and sometimes pass over great rivers.” This primitive boat is -even now to be met with in the river-estuaries of Wales, and on various -parts of the Irish coast: the counterpart of the Esquimaux _kaiak_, or -the _baydar_ with which the Aleutian Islanders navigate the intervening -ocean between Asia and America. Dr. Pickering remarks, on encountering -the latter to the north of the Strait of De Fuca:—“From its lightness, -elegance, and the capacity of being rendered impervious to both air and -water, I could not but admire its perfect adaptation to the purposes of -navigation; for it seemed almost to enable man to take a place among the -proper inhabitants of the deep. Such vessels are obviously fitted to -cope with the open sea, and, so far as the absence of sails permits, to -traverse a considerable expanse of ocean.” - -It is a curious fact, well worthy of notice, that throughout the -American continent, seemingly so dependent on maritime colonisation for -its settlement by man, the use of sails as a means of propelling vessels -through the water appears to have been almost unknown. Prescott, when -describing the singular suspension bridges, made of the tough fibres of -the maguey, with which the Peruvians spanned the broad gullies of their -mountain streams, adds: “The wider and more tranquil waters were crossed -on _balsas_, a kind of raft still much used by the natives, to which -sails were attached, furnishing the only instance of this higher kind of -navigation among the American Indians.”[67] This statement of the -historian is too comprehensive; for, although the Peruvians were so -essentially an agricultural and unmaritime people, the use of sails in -their coasting trade constitutes one of their noticeable points of -superiority over other nations of the New World. Attention is specially -directed to this by an incident recorded in the second expedition for -the discovery of Peru preparatory to its conquest. Bartholomew Ruiz, the -pilot of the expedition, after lingering on the coast, near the Bay of -St. Matthew, stood out into the ocean, when he was suddenly surprised by -the sight of a vessel in that strange, silent sea, seemingly like a -caravel of considerable size, with its broad sail spread before the -wind. “The old navigator was not a little perplexed by this phenomenon, -as he was confident that no European bark could have been before him in -these latitudes; and no Indian nation yet discovered, not even the -civilised Mexican, was acquainted with the use of sails in navigation.” -As he drew near, it proved to be a native _balsa_, formed of huge -timbers of light, porous wood, and with a flooring of reeds raised above -them. Two masts sustained the large, square, cotton sail; and a moveable -keel and rudder enabled the boatman to steer. On board of it Ruiz found -ornaments displaying great skill, wrought in silver and gold, vases and -mirrors of burnished silver, curious fabrics, both cotton and woollen, -and a pair of balances made to weigh the precious metals. Here were the -first undoubted evidences of the existence of that strange seat of a -native American civilisation, among the lofty valleys of the Southern -Andes, which he was in search of. The balsa’s crew included both men and -women, who carried with them provisions for their voyage, and had come -from a Peruvian port some degrees to the south. Like older voyagers of -the Mediterranean, the Peruvian pilots were wont to creep timidly along -the shore; but the Spaniards encountered them in the open Pacific, where -no European prow had ever sailed. Caught by a sudden gale their bark -might have been borne far off among the islands that stud the Southern -Ocean, and here was the germ of a race of islanders, to whom, after a -few generations, the memory of their Peruvian ancestry would have -survived only as some mythic legend, like the Manco Capac of their own -Incas, or the Mawai of the Polynesian archipelago. - ------ - -[66] _What is Technology? an Inaugural Lecture._ By George Wilson, M.D., -Regius Professor of Technology, Edinburgh University. - -[67] _Conquest of Peru_, vol. i. B. I. ch. ii. - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - TOOLS. - - - MAN THE ARTIFICER—THE LAW OF REASON—INDIGENOUS RACES—MAN’S - CAPACITY FOR DETERIORATION—WHAT IS A STONE-PERIOD?—MATERIALS - OF PRIMITIVE ART—SUCCESSION OF RACES—INDICATIONS OF ANCIENT - TRADE—THE SHOSHONE INDIAN—TEXAS IMPLEMENTS—MODES OF HAFTING— - DEER’S-HORN SOCKETS—STONE KNIVES—THLINKETS OF ALASKA—METALS - OF A STONE PERIOD—ARTS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC—MALAYAN INFLUENCE - —FIJIAN CONSTRUCTIVE SKILL—FIJIAN POTTERY—SLOW MATURITY OF - RACES—THE FLINT-EDGED SWORD—THE LEAGUE OF THE FIVE NATIONS— - IROQUOIS PREDOMINANCE—WORK IN OBSIDIAN AND FLINT—HONDURAS - FLINT IMPLEMENTS—SOURCES OF THE MATERIAL—COLLISION OF RACES— - FATE OF INFERIOR RACES. - -As the type of oceanic migration, the canoe claims a prominent place -among the primitive arts of man. In it we see the germs of commerce, -maritime enterprise, and much else that is indispensable to any progress -in civilisation. But the primitive ship implies the existence of tools; -and, as we have seen, probably owed its earliest fashioning to the -useful service of fire. Intelligent design was working out the purposes -of reason by processes which, even in their most rudimentary stage, -reveal the characteristics of a new order of life, compared with which -the tool-born ant, the spider, and the bee, seem but as ingenious -self-acting machines, each made to execute perfectly its one little item -in the comprehensive plan of creation. - -As industrial artificers, the creatures so far beneath us in the scale -of organisation seem often to put to shame our most perfect workmanship; -yet provided with no other instruments than the eye and the hand, but -guided by that intelligent reason which distinguishes man from the -brutes, we see him, even as an artificer, presenting characteristics -which are altogether wanting in the lower animals. Labour is for them no -sternly imposed necessity, but an inevitable process, having only one -possible form of manifestation; producing in its exercise the highest -enjoyment the labourer is capable of; and in its results leading our -thoughts from the wise, unerring, yet untaught worker, to Him whose work -it is, and of whose wisdom and skill the workmanship, not less than the -workman, appears a direct manifestation. It is not so with man. The -capacity of the workman is a divine gift, but the work is his own, and -too often betrays, in some of its most ingenious devices and results, -anything rather than a divine origin. - -If ours be not the latest stage of being, but is to be succeeded by “new -heavens and a new earth,” marvellous indeed are the revelations which -posthistoric strata have yet to disclose. But even they will scarcely -suffice to reveal the most striking characteristics of a being on whom -the economy of nature reacts in a way it never did on living being -before; in whom all external influences are subordinated to an inner -world of thought, by means of which he is capable of searching into the -past, anticipating the future, of looking inward, and being a law unto -himself. His nature embraces possibilities of the widest conceivable -diversity, for his is no longer the law of instinct, but of reason: law, -therefore, that brings with it conscious liberty, and also conscious -responsibility. - -But an important and seemingly conflicting element arises out of the -capacity of man for moral progression, to which some ethnologists fail -to give due weight. A suggestive thought of Agassiz, relative to certain -real or supposed analogies between the geographical distribution of -species of simiæ, and especially the anthropoid apes, and certain -inferior types of man, sufficed as the nucleus of Gliddon’s elaborate -monkey-chart, in the _Indigenous Races of the Earth_, illustrative of -the geographical distribution of monkeys in relation to that of certain -types of men. Notwithstanding the very monkeyfying process to which some -of the illustrations of inferior human types have been subjected in this -pictorial chorography, the correspondences are not such as to carry -conviction to most minds. But, assuming, as a supposed _reductio ad -absurdum_, the descent of all the diverse species of monkeys from a -single pair, Mr. Gliddon thus sums up his final observations: “I -propose, therefore, that a male and female pair of the ‘species’ -_Cynocephalus Hamadryas_, be henceforward recognised as the anthropoid -analogues of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japhet; and that it must be from these -two individuals that, owing to transplantation, together with the -combined action of aliment and climate, the fifty-four monkeys -represented on our chart have originated. It is, notwithstanding, -sufficiently strange, that, under such circumstances, this ‘primordial -organic type’ of monkey should have so highly improved in Guinea, and in -Malayana, as to become _gorillas_ and _chimpanzees_, _orangs_ and -_gibbons_; whereas on the contrary, the descendants of ‘Adam and Eve’ -have, in the same localities, actually deteriorated into the most -degraded and abject forms of humanity.” In reality, however, whatever -may be said about the possibility of such simian development, possible -human deterioration is an inevitable attribute of the rational, moral -free-agent man: capable of the noblest aspirations and of wondrous -intellectual advancement, but also with a capacity for moral degradation -such as belongs to him alone. The one characteristic, no less than the -other, separates man from all those other living creatures that might -appear in some respects gifted with endowments akin to his own. - -Man, as a tool-using artificer, seems to have a rival in the beaver, -felling its timber, carrying its clay, and building its dam; in the -spider weaving its web, more perfect than any net of human fisher; and -even in the squirrel with its provident hoard of well-secured winter -store, or the monkey employing the cocoa-nut and other shell-fruit as -missiles. But in such artificial appliances there is nothing obsolete, -nothing inventive, nothing progressive; whereas the child born amid the -most highly developed civilisation,—the son of a Watt, a Stephenson, a -Brunel,—if reared from infancy to manhood without any knowledge of -mechanical science or the industrial arts, would start anew from the -rudimentary instincts of the tool-using animal, and expend his -ingenuity, not perhaps without some traces of hereditary mechanical -genius, on the primitive materials of flint, stone, horn, or shell. - -Man depends for all on his teachers; and when moral and intellectual -deterioration return him to the toolless condition of the uncivilised -nomad, he is thrown back on the resources of his infantile reason and -primary instincts, and reaches that point from which the primeval -colonist has had to start anew in all lands, and work his way upwards, -through stone, and bronze, and iron periods, into the full co-operation -of a civilised community, treasuring the experience of the past, and -making for itself a new and higher future. - -The subdivisions of the archæologist designated =The Stone -Period=, THE BRONZE PERIOD, and THE IRON PERIOD, have been brought -into some discredit, in part by what, as a general system, must be -regarded only as a hypothesis, being assumed as involving facts of no -less indisputable and universal application than the periods of the -geologist. In part, also, their non-acceptance is due to wilful errors -of their impugners; and to the want of appreciation of the inevitable -characteristics which pertain to transitional periods, such as chiefly -come under the European archæologist’s observation. So far as the -American Indian is concerned, the New World is in the first transitional -stage still: that of a stone-period, very partially affected by the -introduction of foreign-wrought weapons and implements; and scarcely -indicating, among the numerous tribes of North America, any traces of -the adoption of a superinduced native metallurgy. Such therefore appears -to be a condition of things, the comparison of which with traces of a -corresponding stage in the early ages of Britain, may be of use in -clearing the subject from much confusion. - -The special characteristics of the native civilisation which the early -Spanish adventurers found already existing in Mexico and Central -America, will come under review at a later stage; but it cannot admit of -question that throughout the whole Red Indian forest-area metallurgic -arts were unknown, as they still are among the Indians of the North-west -after an intercourse of upwards of three centuries and a half with -Europeans. Copper, indeed, was wrought among them, but it was used -without any application of fire, and as what maybe most fitly designated -a mere malleable stone. In Britain, as I have already observed, “the -working of gold may have preceded the age of bronze, and in reality have -belonged to the Stone Period. If metal could be found capable of being -wrought and fashioned without smelting or moulding, its use was -perfectly compatible with the simple arts of the Stone Period. Masses of -native gold, such as have been often found both in the Old and the New -World, are peculiarly susceptible of similar application by the workers -in stone; and some of the examples of Scottish gold personal ornaments -fully correspond with the probable results of such an anticipatory use -of the metals.”[68] The idea thus formed from an examination of some of -the most artless examples of primeval British goldsmiths’ work, has been -amply confirmed by observing the mode of using the native copper, and -the traces of its former working, among the American Indians. Even now -their highest attainment in metallurgic skill extends only to grinding -the iron hoops with which the Hudson’s Bay fur-traders supply them, into -knives, arrow-heads, and the like substitutes for the older implements -chipped out of flint, or ground from the broken stone. Further -opportunities will occur for illustrating this subject; which is full of -interest to the ethnologist, from the light it throws on the rate of -progress of a barbarous people towards civilisation; or rather on the -capacity of man in a certain undeveloped stage, for witnessing the most -remarkable products of the useful arts, without evincing any desire to -master them. - -After centuries devoted to the elucidation of Roman remains, and the -assignment to Roman artificers of much which more discriminating -classification now awards to totally different workmen: the discovery of -weapons and implements of stone, shell, or bone, in nearly every quarter -of the globe, has at length excited a lively interest among the -archæologists of Europe. Made, as these primitive relics are, of the -most readily wrought materials, and by what may be styled the -constructive instincts, rather than the acquired skill of their rude -artificers, they belong to one condition of man, in relation to the -progress of civilisation, though pertaining to many periods of the -world’s history, and to widely separated areas. In one respect, however, -those relics possess a peculiar value to the ethnologist. The materials -employed in their manufacture have within themselves, most frequently, -the evidence of their geographical origin, and in some of them also of -their era. The periods to which numerous European relics pertain may -frequently be determined, like those of older strata, by the -accompanying imbedded or buried fossils. The bones of the _Bos -primigenius_ have been found indented with the stone javelin of the -aborigines of Northern Europe, and dug up even in places of regular -British sepulture. Those of the _Megaceros Hibernicus_ seem, in like -manner, to be traced to a period of ancient Irish colonisation, when -flint-knives and stone hatchets prove the simple character of the native -arts; though even then they furnished the material for constructing one -of the earliest musical instruments. Yet other evidence shows that the -same gigantic Irish deer was contemporary with the woolly rhinoceros, -the mammoth, and the fossil carnivora of the caverns. The _Bos -longifrons_, doubtless, traces its descent from an ancestry not less -ancient; but from its wild herds the native Briton derived his -domesticated cattle, and its most recent relics pertain to an era later -than the Roman times. The ornamented tusks of the wild boar, the bones -of the brown bear, the teeth and skulls of the beaver, carvings wrought -from the walrus ivory, skates formed from the metatarsal and metacarpal -bones of the red-deer and small native horse, with numerous kindred -relics of palæontology within the era of the occupation of the British -Islands by man, all serve to assign approximate dates to the examples of -his ancient arts which they accompany. - -Thus within the historic period, as in prior geological eras, the -progress of time is recorded by the extinction of races. The advent of -man was speedily marked by the disappearance of numerous groups of -ancient life which pertain to that transitional era where archæology -begins; though the most recent discoveries of works of art along with -the fossil mammals of the drift, confirm, by new and striking evidence, -the fact that man entered on this terrestrial stage, not as the highest -in an entirely new order of creation, and belonging to an epoch detached -by some overwhelming catastrophe from all preceding periods of organic -life: but as the last and best of an order of animated beings whose line -sweeps back into the shadows of an unmeasured past. - -The disclosures of British tumuli, along with rarer chance deposits, -show that the Celtic Briton was an intruder upon older allophylian -occupants; while the presence of the Roman is recorded for us by the -extinction of an ancient fauna, as well as of whole British tribes. What -the Roman partially accomplished, the Saxon, the Dane, and the Norman -completed: displacing the Briton everywhere but from the fastnesses of -Wales; and gradually extirpating all but such animals as are either -compatible with the development of social refinement, or are worthy of -protection as a means of ministering to man’s pleasures. And as it has -been in the Old World, so it is in the New. The progress of the European -colonists not only involves the extirpation alike of the wild animals -and the forests which formed their haunts; but also the no less -inevitable disappearance of the aborigines who made of them a prey. Thus -the grave-mound of the Red Indian, and the relics of his simple arts, -become the memorials of an extinct order of things no less clearly -defined than the post-tertiary fossils of the drift. - -But while the remains of extinct species thus serve to determine the -periods at which certain eras had their close, the traces of living or -extinct fauna are no less valuable as fixing the geographical origin of -the ancient colonists, amid whose relics they are found: just as the -elephants, the camels, the monkeys, and baboons of the Nimrod obelisk, -or the corresponding sculptures on the walls of Memphis or Luxor, -indicate the countries whence tribute was brought, or captives were -carried off, to aggrandise their Assyrian or Egyptian conquerors. Among -relics which help to fix the geographical centres of ancient arts, the -sources of early commerce, or the birthplaces of migrating races, might -be noted the tin and amber of the Old, and the copper of the New World. -So also the Mexican obsidian, the clay-slate of Columbia, the favourite -red pipe-stone, or _Catlinite_, of the Couteau des prairies, and the -pyrulæ and conch-shells of the Gulf of Florida, indicate varied sources -of ancient trade or barter, and lines of migration extending over fully -twenty degrees of latitude. Objects wrought in the favourite materials -brought from such remote sources have been found mingling with relics of -ancient tribes in the islands and on the north shores of the great -Canadian lakes, along the southern slope of the same water-shed whence -the Moose and the Abbitibbe pour their waters into the frozen sea of -Hudson’s Bay. - -The designation of any primitive stage of industrial arts as a Stone -Period signifies, as has been already sufficiently indicated, that -condition in which, in the absence of metals, and the ignorance of the -simplest rudiments of metallurgy, man has to find materials for the -manufacture of his tools, and the supply of his mechanical requirements, -in the commoner objects which nature places within his reach. - -Nothing can well be conceived much more artless than some of the stone -implements still in use among savage tribes of America. Yet it is worthy -of note that it is not amid the privations of an Arctic winter, but in -southern latitudes, with a climate which furnishes abundant resources -for savage man, that the crudest efforts at tool-making are found. In -the report of the United States Geological Survey for 1872, which -embraces Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah, Professor Joseph Leidy -furnishes an interesting account of numerous implements of art, rude as -any found in the drift, met by him during a survey of the Bridgers Basin -at the base of the Unitah Mountains, in Southern Wyoming. “In some -places the stone implements are so numerous, and at the same time are so -rudely constructed, that one is constantly in doubt when to consider -them as natural or accidental, and when to view them as artificial.”[69] -But with them are mingled implements of the finest finish. The Shoshones -who haunt the region have no further knowledge of them than is indicated -in their belief that they were a gift of God to their ancestors. But -many are sharp, and fresh in appearance, as if recently worked from the -parent block; and though others are worn, and decomposed on the surface, -Professor Leidy does not assume more than a date of “centuries back” for -the oldest of them. For, indeed, he found that the Shoshone Indians had -in use a stone implement of so simple a character that he says, “had I -not observed it in actual use, and had noticed it among the materials of -the buttes, or horizontal strata of indurated clays and sandstone, I -would have viewed it as an accidental spawl. It consists of a thin -segment of a quartzite boulder, made by striking the stone with a smart -blow. It is called a _teshoa_, and is employed as a scraper in dressing -buffalo skins.” Subsequently he discovered a precisely similar -implement, together with some perforated tusks of the elk, in an ancient -Indian grave. - -[Illustration: FIG. 53.—Texas Stone Axe, hafted.] - -No such rude implements are found among the productions of the arctic -tool-makers. The necessities of the Esquimaux, in their clothing and -hunting, beget systematic habits of industry and matured skill. The -elaborate decorations of their skin and fur dresses, the carving of -their ivory and bone implements, and the ingenuity lavished upon their -children’s toys, all prove how thoroughly the æsthetic, as well as the -industrial arts, are developed by the stimulus which man’s necessities -create. In Fig. 53, an axe, or war-club, is shown, procured from the -Indians of the Rio Frio, in Texas. The blade is a piece of trachyte, so -rudely chipped that it could scarcely attract attention as having been -subjected to any artificial working, but for the club-like haft into -which it is inserted. I am indebted to Mr. Evans for the use of the -woodcut. He describes the haft as formed of some indigenous wood, which -has evidently been chopped into shape by means of stone tools. Nothing -ruder has been brought to light among the earliest disclosures of drift -or cave deposits. Another Texas implement in the Smithsonian collection -at Washington is a roughly shaped flint blade, which, as shown of the -full size in Fig. 54, closely resembles a familiar class of oval -implements of the river-drift. It is curious, indeed, to note the -undesigned correspondence between the implements of races equally widely -separated by time and space. Several examples of stone celts or hatchets -attached to their handles have been recovered in British and Irish bogs, -and in the submerged lake-dwellings of Switzerland. - -[Illustration: FIG. 54.—Texas Flint Implement. (1/1).] - -All alike show a wooden haft pierced so as to admit of the insertion of -the stone blade, which must have been secured by a withe or thong -tightly bound round it, according to a fashion still practised in -America, and among the islands of the Pacific. But in spite of this -ligature, the wedge-like form of the axe must have had a tendency to -cleave the haft, and so to loosen its hold. The experience of the -ancient Lake-dwellers led them to counteract this by inserting the stone -blade in a socket of deer’s-horn, the end of which is usually cut into a -squared tenon designed to fit into a mortice in the handle. This must -have accomplished the desired purpose, as examples of such deer’s-horn -sockets are common on the sites of lake-dwellings. During the last visit -of Professor Agassiz to his native Swiss Canton, and the village -parsonage of Concise where his early years were passed, he obtained from -Lake Neuchâtel a valuable collection of stone implements, along with -pottery and other illustrations of the arts and habits of the -Lake-dwellers, already referred to. Some of those are specially -interesting as examples of the mode of hafting implements of flint and -stone. - -[Illustration: FIG. 55.—Chisel and deer’s-horn socket, Concise.] - -Fig. 55 shows a perforated deer’s-horn socket with a chisel of -greenstone inserted in it. The exposed part of the blade measures nearly -two inches in length. It must have been secured in its haft by a strong -cement, such as some of the Pacific Islanders employ at the present day -in fastening their axe-heads to bone and wooden handles. In some cases a -tine of the deer’s antler has been left so as to form the handle of the -hammer or hatchet. A rare example of this type is described by Dr. -Clement, among numerous varieties recovered from different localities on -Lake Neuchâtel. The horn of the stag was also at times converted into a -formidable weapon by retaining the brow-antler as the offensive weapon, -and detaching the rest, so as to leave only the main portion of the horn -as a handle. Fig. 56, also from Lake Neuchâtel, may be described as a -stone knife. The blade, which is of polished serpentine, measures 3½ -inches in the exposed part, and is still secure in its horn haft. In the -collection of Mr. J. H. Blake of Boston are flint implements recovered -from an ancient Peruvian tomb on the Bay of Chacota, attached to their -hafts by a tough green cement. - -[Illustration: FIG. 56.—Stone Knife, Concise.] - -It is remarkable to notice how rarely the simple process of perforating -the blade for the reception of the handle was resorted to, even where -the workmen were in the habit of perforating both bone and stone -implements for other purposes. This was no doubt partly due to the -frangible character of much of the material in which they wrought; but -even after the primitive metallurgist had mastered the art of alloying -and casting his bronze, it seems to have been long before he learned to -fit a handle to his axe or hammer by perforating the blade or -hammer-head. Some of the most usual modes of attaching the axe or -hatchet to a haft of wood or bone, in use among the islanders of the -Pacific, are shown in a group of implements from the collection of the -Scottish Antiquaries, Fig. 57. They bear a close resemblance to others -described by Mr. William H. Dall as pertaining to the Thlinkets, a coast -tribe of Alaska, not far to the south of Behring’s Strait.[70] But tools -and weapons of stone, as well as of native copper, are already becoming -rare among the tribes of the North Pacific Coast, owing to the -introduction of iron by the Russian and Hudson’s Bay traders. Previous -to this change, the Alaskans knew metal only in the form of cold-wrought -native copper, as among all the native tribes north of the Mexican Gulf. -Such a recognition of some convenient uses to which the malleable native -metals could be applied as substitutes for stone, can scarcely be -regarded as even an initial step in the transition towards the first -true metallurgic period. This cannot be considered to have been -introduced until the native copper-worker had perceived the wonderful -transformations which could be wrought by fire, and had learned at least -to melt the pure metal, and to mould the weapons and implements he -required; if not to harden it with alloys, and to quarry and smelt the -unfamiliar ores. To this stage the savage tribes of the New World have -not even now attained, after intercourse with Europeans for more than -three centuries and a half. There, on the contrary, the Indians, who -originally possessed only weapons, implements, and personal ornaments of -bone, shell, flint, and stone, or at most of native copper rudely -hammered into shape, are still seen after an interval of upwards of -three centuries of European colonisation and traffic, without the -slightest acquired knowledge of working in metals. They do, indeed, -possess numerous metal implements and weapons, which, as their greatest -treasures, they freely lavish on the loved or honoured dead; but such -traces of metallurgy afford no proof of acquired native art. The copper -kettles of the ancient Huron graves on the Georgian Bay, or the Chinook -coffin-biers on the Columbia river, were brought, not from the copper -regions of Lake Superior, but from France, London, or Liverpool, along -with the beads, knives, hatchets, and other objects of barter, by means -of which the fur-traders still carry on their traffic with the Indian -hunter. At most this only proves that a race, still in its stone-period, -and possessing no greater skill than is required to grind an iron hoop -into lance or arrow-heads, has been brought into contact with a -civilised people, familiar with metallurgy and many acquired arts, such -as the musket and the rifle may most aptly symbolise. - -[Illustration: FIG. 57.—South Pacific Stone Implements.] - -The same diversity of inventive power and artistic skill is discernible -among the Indians of North America as has been already referred to in -comparing the arts of other uncivilised races. In some constructive -skill predominates, while others manifest a peculiar aptitude for -imitative art. The powers of imitation common to the barbarous and the -civilised nations of the New World, are specially worthy of note; and -will again come under review when referring to the pipe manufacture, so -curiously typical of American art. But meanwhile an equally instructive -illustration of what may thus be designated æsthetic and constructive -instincts may be selected from the diversely gifted islanders of the -Southern Pacific. On the extreme western verge of the Polynesian -archipelago lie the Fiji Islands, occupied by a people remarkable among -the islanders of the Pacific alike for physical and intellectual -peculiarities. The Fijian physiognomy is described as presenting general -characteristics of debasement, when compared with that of the true -Polynesian, and the entire proportions and contour of their figure are -markedly inferior to those of the Friendly and Navigator islanders. This -is the more remarkable in a people dwelling in the midst of abundance, -and enjoying an unusual variety of choice articles of food. Their -ferocious and treacherous habits, however, and the hideous customs of -cannibalism and systematic parricide, with attendant crimes inevitable -in such a social condition, have rendered the Fijian Islands, which seem -fitted by nature to be abodes of happiness, among the most wretched -scenes of moral degradation. Nevertheless it is in this strange -island-group that the arts of the South Pacific have their highest -development. - -The Papuans, or Negrillos, appear to be the true inventive race, from -whom the Fijians, who are unquestionably allied to them in blood, -acquired, elaborated, and greatly improved many applications of art and -skill. The Papuans of New Caledonia, though superior in physical -characteristics to other islanders of the Negrillo type, present some -curious analogies to the Australian, especially in their mode of -sepulture. Fig. 58 is an example of their ingenuity in adapting a simple -stone chisel to its haft, so as to serve as a boat-carpenter’s adze. But -the ingenious Negrillo is altogether unsocial and prone to isolation, -and the Fijians manifest an equally strong disinclination to leave their -island-home. It required, therefore, the intervention of a migratory or -aggressive race to diffuse their acquired knowledge and skill; and this -is supplied by the Malayans, who are found in contact with many nations, -and are of a roving disposition, the proper children of the sea. -“Naturally,” says Dr. Pickering, “the most amiable of mankind, they are -free from antipathies of race, are fond of novelty, inclined rather to -follow than to lead, and in every respect seem qualified to become a -medium of communication between the different branches of the human -family.” Such an impressible race of mediators being found, a curious -light is thrown on the diffusion of knowledge and the primitive arts -throughout the widely-scattered island groups of the Southern Pacific, -where almost every Polynesian art, it is said, can be distinctly traced -to the Fiji Islands, while the Fijian himself is so averse to roam. - -[Illustration: FIG.58.—Stone Adze, New Caledonia.] - -Mr. Wallace, in reviewing the races of the Malay archipelago, dwells on -the marked differences, physically, intellectually, and morally, between -the Papuan and the Malay. The central home of the Papuans is New Guinea -and some of the adjacent islands; but the same ethnical characteristics -are traceable over the islands to the east of New Guinea, as far as the -Fijis. “The Papuan,” Mr. Wallace remarks, “has a greater feeling for art -than the Malay. He decorates his canoe, his house, and almost every -domestic utensil, with elaborate carving; a habit which is rarely found -among tribes of the Malay race.” In the affections and moral sentiments, -on the contrary, the Papuans compare unfavourably with the Malays, who -are gentle and passive in all their social relations. But this is -properly traced to their listless, apathetic character; while the vigour -of the uncivilised Papuan manifests itself in the unrestrained display -of every emotion and passion, even among the women and children, and in -violent collisions, inevitable in the social life of this savage race. -Among such a people the best and the worst characteristics are often -strangely intermingled. The Fiji Islanders use the bow and throw the -javelin with great dexterity; but their peculiar and distinguishing -weapon is a short missile club, which all habitually wear stuck in the -belt, the symbolic national instrument of assassination. Many analogies -of history tend, however, to refute the error of assuming the occurrence -of moral degradation, even when manifested in parricide, cannibalism, -and systematic treachery and assassination, to be necessarily -incompatible with such intellectual development as distinguishes the -Fijians from the Malays or other islanders of the Pacific. Of all the -aborigines of the Pacific, the ferocious New Zealander has proved most -capable of civilisation; and is found moreover to possess a traditional -poetry and mythical legends of a highly striking and peculiar character. -And turning from still undeveloped races of the world, we have only to -study deeds perpetrated by the pagan Saxon, the Hun, or the later Dane -and Norseman, to see in what hideous aspects the energies of a rude -people may be manifested, who are nevertheless capable of becoming -leaders in the civilisation of Europe. To judge by the monkish -chronicles, no Fiji cannibal could surpass, either in savage atrocity or -in hideousness of aspect, the Hungarian or Northman from whom the -proudest of Europe’s nobles claim descent. The chroniclers of Germany, -France, and Italy, dwell on the savage fury of the Huns; and the liturgy -of the Gallican Church of the ninth century preserves the memorial of -the pagan Northmen’s ravages, in the supplication added to its litany: -_A furore Normannorum libera nos_. - -[Illustration: FIG. 59.—Fijian Pottery.] - -It is obvious therefore that the savage vices of the Fijians are -perfectly compatible with considerable skill in such arts as pertain to -their primitive and insular condition. Their musical instruments are -superior to those of the Polynesians, and include the Pan-pipe and -others unknown in the islands beyond their range. Their pottery also -exhibits great variety of form, and includes examples of vessels -combined in groups, presenting a curious correspondence to similar -productions of Peruvian art. Their fishing-nets and lines are remarkable -for neat and skilful workmanship, and they carry cultivation to a -considerable extent. “Indeed,” remarks the ethnologist of the United -States Expedition, in summing up the characteristics of the Fijians, “we -soon began to perceive that the people were in possession of almost -every art known to the Polynesians, and of many others besides. The -highly-finished workmanship was unexpected, everything being executed -until recently, and even now for the most part, without the use of iron. -In the collection of implements and manufactures brought home by the -Expedition, the observer will distinguish in the Fijian division -something like a school of arts for the other Pacific islands.” Fig. 59 -shows two characteristic specimens of their pottery selected from the -Smithsonian collections at Washington. They are extremely well burnt, -and finished with a bright glaze. One of them illustrates a class of -double vessels suggestive of certain analogies with a familiar style of -Peruvian pottery; and the prevailing characteristics of the whole -collection confirm the superiority ascribed to the Fijian artificer. In -such a strangely-gifted savage race we see the degradation of which -human nature is susceptible; and at the same time recognise germs of a -constructive and artistic capacity capable of development into many -marvellous manifestations, if once subjected to such influences as those -which changed the merciless pirate of the northern seas into the refined -Norman, the chivalrous crusader, and the imaginative troubadour. - -The native races of America are neither devoid of energy nor ingenious -artistic skill; and the progress attained by the Mexicans and Peruvians, -as well as by the nations of Central America, proved their capacity for -advancement in the arts of civilisation. But the fate which has -everywhere befallen the Red Indians when brought into direct contact -with European settlers, shows how impossible it is to abruptly bridge -over the gulf which separates the infancy of nations from a maturity -like that to which the rude Saxon and Northman attained through the -schooling of many centuries. The Aztecs at the time of the Mexican -conquest were probably not ruder than the first Angle and Saxon -colonists. They were certainly no crueler than the Northmen of the -eighth century. But they were far in advance of the northern tribes from -which, according to Aztec traditions, they traced their descent. - -Among the barbarous races of the northern continent, the tribes of the -Iroquois confederacy, though scarcely rising above the hunter stage, -offer a subject of study of peculiar value in reference to the ethnology -of the New World. In the great valley of the St. Lawrence, at the period -of earliest European contact with its native tribes, we find this -confederacy of Indian nations in the most primitive condition as to all -knowledge of progressive arts; but full of energy, delighting in -military enterprise, and amply endued with the qualities requisite for -effecting permanent conquests over a civilised but unwarlike people. Nor -did the primitive arts of the Iroquois prevent the development of -incipient germs of civilisation among them. Agriculture was -systematically practised; and their famous league, wisely established, -and maintained unbroken through very diversified periods of their -history, exhibits a people advancing in many ways towards the initiation -of a self-originated civilisation, when the intrusion of Europeans -abruptly arrested its progress, and brought them in contact with -elements of foreign progress pregnant for them only with sources of -degradation and final destruction. - -The historian of the Iroquois,[71] when describing their simple arts and -manufactures, remarks, that in the western mounds rows of arrow-heads or -flint-blades have been found lying side by side, like teeth, the row -being about two feet long. “This has suggested the idea that they were -set in a frame, and fastened with thongs, thus making a species of -sword.”[72] In this description we cannot fail to recognise the -_mahguahuitl_, or native sword of Mexico and Yucatan. In the large canoe -with its armed crew, first met off the latter coast, Herrera tells us -the Indians had “swords made of wood, having a gutter in the forepart, -in which were sharp-edged flints strongly fixed with a sort of bitumen -and thread.” Among the Mexicans this toothed blade was armed with the -_itzli_, or obsidian, capable of taking an edge like a razor; and the -destructive powers of this formidable weapon are frequently dwelt upon -by the early Spaniards. Among the ruins of Kabah, in Yucatan, the -attention of Stephens was attracted by the protruding corner of a huge -sculptured slab, the basso-relievos on which consist of an upright -figure having a lofty plume of feathers falling to his heels; while -another figure kneels before him holding in his hands the very same -weapon, with its flint or obsidian blades projecting from the wooden -socket. The idea it suggests is not necessarily that assumed by -Stephens: that the sculptors and architects of the great ruins of -Central America and Yucatan were the same people whom the Spaniards -found there on their landing. The sculpture may be of a greatly older -date. On its lower compartment is a row of hieroglyphics; and the -suppliant attitude of the armed figure is rather suggestive of a record -of conquest over some barbarian chief of Mexican or more northern -tribes, of whom the flint-edged sword-blade was the most typical -characteristic. Nevertheless, there is a singular interest in the simple -chain of evidence, thus confirmatory of the Aztec traditions of original -migration, and the subjugation of the elder civilised race of Anahuac by -northern warriors: which leads us, step by step, from such rude arts as -those of the Iroquois, and relics of other barbarous tribes in western -sepulchral mounds, to the Mexican armature of the era of the conquest, -and artistic records of the lettered architects of Yucatan. - -The history of the Iroquois and their simple arts, illustrates with -peculiar aptness the unwritten chronicles of the New World. In their -rude state they achieved a remarkable civil and military organisation, -and acquired more extensive and enduring influence than any nation of -native American lineage, excepting the civilised Mexicans and Peruvians. -Their own traditions pointed to an era when they migrated from the -northern shores of the St. Lawrence into that region to the south and -east of Lake Ontario, where they dwelt through all the period of their -authentic history; though two members of the league, the Senecas and -Onondagas, claimed to be autochthones, sprung from the soil of that -Iroquois territory. The league embraced the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, -Senecas, and Mohawks, all united in a strictly federal union; and to -this the Tuscaroras were admitted, on their expulsion from North -Carolina in 1715. The claim of a common origin advanced by a people -occupying territory so far to the south, throws an interesting light on -the migrations of Indian tribes. It is confirmed by the character of -their language, and received practical recognition in the assignment of -a portion of the Oneida territory for their occupation. In the -seventeenth century the Iroquois were the great aggressive nationality -of the continent to the north of Mexico. In the very beginning of that -century, Captain John Smith, the founder of Virginia, encountered their -canoes on the upper part of the Chesapeake Bay, bearing a band of them -to the territories of the Powhattan confederacy. The Shawnees, -Susquehannocks, Nanticokes, Miamis, Delawares, and Minsi, were, one -after another, reduced by them to the condition of dependent tribes. -Even the Canarse or Long-Island Indians found no protection from them in -their sea-girt home beyond the Hudson; and their power was felt from the -St. Lawrence to Tennessee, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. - -How long before the discovery of this vast region by Europeans, it had -been in occupation by those who claimed to be its autochthones, we have -no other knowledge than their own traditions of migration. But so far as -arts are any evidence of national progress, they were then in their -infancy. The region they occupied offered no advantages for the -inauguration of a copper or bronze era, such as those of Lake Superior -or the Southern Andes supplied to their ancient possessors. Of working -in metals they knew nothing; and only supplemented their primitive -implements, wrought in stone, flint, horn, bone, and wood, by barter -with the European intruders. Nevertheless, for nearly two centuries, the -Indians of the Five Nations, as they were called before the addition of -the Tuscaroras, presented a sturdy and unbroken front to the -encroachments alike of Dutch, French, and British colonists. But their -hostility was concentrated in opposition to the French nation; and as -the rival colonies of France and England were long nearly balanced, it -is not unjustly affirmed by the historian of the Iroquois, that France -owed the final overthrow of her magnificent schemes of colonisation in -North America to their uncompromising antagonism. - -Among the Mexicans the arts of a true stone-period had been carried to -the highest perfection, along with a development of those of their -bronze age. On the northern frontier of Mexico, towards the head-waters -of the Great Barauca, is the Cerro de Navajas, the “Hill of Knives,” -where, before the conquest, obsidian was mined for manufacturing -purposes: like the chert and hornstone of the Flint Ridge pits of -Kentucky and Ohio. Examples of elaborately-worked obsidian and flint, -and of polished implements and ornaments of stone, executed by Mexican -artificers, rival the finest specimens recovered among the relics of -Europe’s neolithic period. The Christy collection is specially rich in -objects of this class. One flame-shaped arrow-head chipped with the -nicest art, is evidently executed as a display of lapidary skill. -Another fine spear-blade, made of a semi-opalescent chalcedony which -occurs as concretions in the trachytic lavas of Mexico, measures eight -inches long, and is supposed to have served as a state halberd, as it is -much too delicate for actual warfare. But it is obvious that a finer -material than usual frequently tempted the worker in flint or obsidian -to an unwonted display of his art. In various private collections in -Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, I have seen choice specimens of spear -and arrow-heads, and other objects, made of jasper, milky-quartz, and -rock crystal; some of them wrought into fantastic or purely ornamental -forms. - -A state battle-axe in the Christy collection made of green quartzose -avanturine, measures 11 inches in length. It is a thick wedge, with the -upper part carved as the head of a Mexican idol or king, and the arms -outlined on the blade. Jade, green serpentine, grey granite, agate, and -obsidian of different colours, were all worked into various shapes for -ornament or use, with a care often prompted by the attractive character -of the material, and with a skill no longer known to the native Mexican -artificers. - -[Illustration: FIG. 60.—Honduras serrated Implement.] - -In the southern continent also examples of mastery in the manufacture of -flint and stone implements survive, in some cases as the sole memorials -of races which have perished; and traces of the arts of savage tribes in -the primitive condition of a purely stone-period lie everywhere outside -of the remarkable centres of Peruvian civilisation. Three such relics -from the Bay of Honduras are deserving of special notice, from their -unusually large size and peculiar forms. They were found, along with -other implements, about the year 1794, in a cave between two and three -miles inland. One of them is now preserved in the British Museum, and -the others have been repeatedly exhibited at meetings of the -Archæological Institute. The accompanying illustrations will best convey -an idea of their peculiar forms. One (Fig. 60) is a serrated weapon, -pointed at both ends, and measuring sixteen and a half inches long. -Another (Fig. 61), in the form of a crescent, with projecting points, -measuring 17 inches in greatest length, may have served as a weapon of -parade, like the state partisan or halberd of later times. The third, -which is imperfect, is shown in Fig. 62. The whole are examples of flint -implements of unusually large proportions, and chipped with -extraordinary regularity and skill. A well-executed head of a warrior, -in terra-cotta, obtained about the same period, if not indeed along with -these implements, was presented to the Society of Antiquaries of -Scotland in 1798, and is figured on a subsequent page. The unwonted size -of those Honduras implements attracted special notice when first -produced; but this ceases to excite surprise when it is seen that blocks -of flint or hornstone adequate for the largest of them are readily -procurable throughout extensive regions of North America, as in Ohio and -Kentucky. To the north of Ohio, where the material is rare, flint -implements and weapons are mostly of small size. The larger implements -are of stone; and among the Iroquois, the Hurons, the Chippewas, and -other tribes on the shores of the great lakes, the copper of Lake -Superior seems to have been recognised, and sought for, as a fitter -material for large hatchets and spear-heads. - -[Illustration: FIG. 61.—Honduras State Halberd.] - -[Illustration: FIG. 62.—Honduras Implement.] - -In this respect we see the very privations of those Indian tribes -forcing on their notice the resources of the copper region, which might, -among so energetic a people as the Iroquois proved themselves to be, -have at length led to such a mastery of the metallurgic arts as was -achieved by the nations of Mexico and Peru. But their energies were -diverted into far different channels by the very advent of races already -familiar with all the highest acquirements of civilisation; and whatever -time might have developed out of the Iroquois confederacy, akin to the -native civilisation which had already taken root beyond the verge of -their southern conquests, they had little to hope from the triumph of -either of the European aggressors between whom they so long held the -balance. In the rivalry of the French and English colonists the insular -race proved the victors; and when at a later date England and her -American colonies came into collision, the nations of the League took -different sides, and the Hodenosaunee[73] finally ceased to be the ideal -rallying-point of a united people. They had run their destined course; -and now the poor scattered remnants of the once-famous Indian federation -serve only to illustrate how irreconcilable are the elements of high -civilisation with the most vigorous and progressive energy of a people -only maturing the first stage in the progress of nations. They lacked -the qualities which protect an inferior race from extinction when -brought into contact with a long matured civilisation. Passive and -naturally submissive races, like the Malay or the Negro, survive the -intrusion of a dominant race, and are protected by their docility, as -the natural serfs of the intruders. But an energetic people, who find -their chief employment in war and the chase, can be subjected to no -useful servitude. They are separated by too wide a gulf from their -rivals to claim any equality in the rights of civilisation. The only -alternative left for them is to drive out the intruder, or to be -exterminated by him like the bear and wolf. Stone, Bronze, and Iron -Periods are not indispensable steps in the advancement of the human -race; but all experience proves that when such extreme social conditions -are abruptly brought into contact as stone and iron periods aptly -symbolise, the tendency is towards the degradation and final extinction -of the less advanced race. - ------ - -[68] _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, 2d Ed. vol. i. p. 331. - -[69] _U. S. Geological Survey_, 1872, p. 652. - -[70] _Alaska and its Resources_, p. 418. - -[71] Lewis H. Morgan: _League of the Ho-dé-no-sau-nee, or Iroquois_. - -[72] See footnote 71. - -[73] _Ho-dé-no-sau-nee_, or People of the Long House, expressive of the -numerous assembly in the Council of the Confederacy. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - THE METALS. - - - DAWN OF A METALLURGIC ERA—PRIMITIVE COPPER-WORKING—COPPER REGION - OF LAKE SUPERIOR—THE PICTURED ROCKS—JACKSON IRON MOUNTAIN—THE - CLIFF MINE—COPPER TOOLS—ANCIENT MINING TRENCHES—GREAT EXTENT - OF WORKS—MINES OF ISLE ROYALE—THEIR ESTIMATED AGE—ANCIENT - MINING IMPLEMENTS—STONE MAULS AND AXES—ONTONAGON MINING RELICS - —SITES OF COPPER MANUFACTORIES—NATIVE COPPER AND SILVER— - BROCKVILLE COPPER IMPLEMENTS—LOST METALLURGIC ARTS—CHEMICAL - ANALYSES—NATIVE TERRA-COTTAS—ANCIENT BRITISH MINING-TOOLS—THE - RACE OF THE COPPER MINES—CHIPPEWA SUPERSTITIONS—EARLIEST - NOTICES OF THE COPPER REGION—ONTONAGON MASS OF COPPER—ANCIENT - NATIVE TRAFFIC—NATIVE USE OF METALS—CONDITION OF THE - MOUND-BUILDERS—MINERAL RESOURCES—ANTIQUITY OF COPPER WORKINGS - —DESERTION OF THE MINES. - -The same rational instinct which prompted man in his first efforts at -tool-making, guided him in a discriminating choice of materials; and to -this the discovery of metals, and the consequent first steps in -metallurgy and the arts, may be traced. The Bronze Age of Europe derives -its name from the predominance of relics illustrative of a period which, -though old compared with that of definite history, belongs to a -comparatively late era, characterised by many traces of artistic skill, -and of mastery in the difficult processes of smelting ores and alloying -metals. But the dawn of the metallurgic era in the New World is marked -by phases which derive their distinctive character from two widely -separated regions; and of which one supplies an important link in the -history of human progress, at best but partially indicated in the -disclosures of European archæology. - -To untutored man, provided only with implements of stone, the facilities -presented by the great copper regions of Lake Superior for the first -step in the knowledge of metallurgy were peculiarly available. The -forests that flung their shadows along the shores of that great lake -were the haunts of the deer, the beaver, the bear, and other favourite -objects of the chase; the rivers and the lake abounded with fish; and -the rude hunter had to manufacture weapons and implements out of such -materials as nature placed within his reach. The water-worn stone from -the beach, patiently ground to an edge, made his axe and tomahawk: by -means of which, with the help of fire, he could level the giants of the -forest, or detach from them the materials for his canoe and paddle, his -lance, club, or bow and arrows. The bones of the deer pointed his spear, -or were wrought into his fish-hooks; and the shale or flint was chipped -and ground into his arrow-head, after a pattern repeated with little -variation, in all countries, and in every primitive age. But besides -such materials of universal occurrence, the primeval occupant of the -shores of Lake Superior found there a _stone_ possessed of some very -peculiar virtues. It could not only be wrought to an edge without -liability to fracture; but it was malleable, and could be hammered out -into many new and convenient shapes. This was the copper, found in -connection with the trappean rocks of that region, in inexhaustible -quantities, in a pure metallic state. In other rich mineral regions, as -in those of Cornwall and Devon, the principal source of this metal is -from ores, which require both labour and skill to fit them for economic -purposes. But in the veins of the copper region of Lake Superior the -native metal occurs in enormous masses, weighing hundreds of tons; and -loose blocks of various sizes have been found on the lake shore, or -lying detached on the surface, in sufficient quantities to supply all -the wants of the nomad hunter. These, accordingly, he wrought into -chisels and axes, armlets, and personal ornaments of various kinds, -without the use of the crucible; and, indeed, without recognising any -precise distinction between the copper which he mechanically separated -from the mass, and the unmalleable stone or flint out of which he had -been accustomed to fashion his spear and arrow-heads. This is confirmed -by philological evidence. The root of the names for iron and copper in -the Chippewa is the same abstract term, _wahbik_, used only in compound -words. Thus _pewahbik_, iron; _ozahwahbik_, copper: lit. the yellow -stone; _metahbik_, on the bare rock; _oogedahbik_, on the top of a rock; -_kishkahbikah_, it is a precipice; etc. - -The earliest references to Britain pertain exclusively to the peninsula -of Cornwall and the neighbouring islands, whither the fleets of the -Mediterranean were attracted in ages of vague antiquity, and the traders -from Gaul resorted in quest of its metallic wealth. The mineral regions -of the New World disclose some corresponding records of its -long-forgotten past; and some idea of their present condition is -indispensable for preparing the mind to appreciate the changes wrought -by time on localities which are now being rescued once more from the -wilderness. The vast inland sea, which constitutes the reservoir of the -chain of lakes whose waters sweep over the Falls of Niagara, and find -their way by the St. Lawrence to the ocean, has been as yet so partially -encroached upon by the pioneers of modern civilisation, that the general -aspect of its shores differs but little from that which they presented -to the eye of its first European explorers in the seventeenth century: -or indeed to its Indian voyagers before the Spaniard first coasted the -island shores of the Bahamas, and opened for Europe the gates of the -West. With its wide extent of waters, covering an area of thirty-two -thousand square miles, a lengthened period of sojourn in the regions -with which it is surrounded, and many facilities for their exploration, -would be required, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the scientific -inquirer. But even a brief visit discloses much that is interesting, and -that serves at once to illustrate, and to contrast with what comes under -the observer’s notice elsewhere. - -In tracing out the evidence of ancient occupation of the shores of Lake -Superior, I have, on repeated visits, coasted its shores for hundreds of -miles in canoes; and camped for weeks in some of its least accessible -wilds. The force of the evidence is slowly appreciated, even by careful -personal observation; but some description of the ancient copper region -may help the reader to estimate the lapse of time since its -forest-glades and rocky promontories were enlivened by the presence of -industrious miners. The memorials of Time’s unceasing operations reach -indeed to periods long prior to the earliest presence of man, and -present certain lake phenomena, on a scale only conceivable by those who -have sailed on the bosom of these fresh-water seas with as boundless a -horizon as in mid-Atlantic; and who have experienced the violence of the -sudden storms to which they are liable. But while the same broad -ocean-like expanse, and the violence of their stormy moods, characterise -Ontario, Erie, Huron, and Michigan: it is only on Lake Superior that the -traveller witnesses the grandeur and wild ruggedness of scenery -commensurate with his preconceived ideas of such inland seas. Along its -northern and western shores bold cliffs and rocky headlands frown in -savage grandeur, from amid the unbroken wastes of forest that reach to -the frozen regions around the Hudson Bay, while the gentler coast-lines -of its southern shores are varied by some of the most singular -conformations, wrought out of its rocky walls by the action of the -waves. Among such rock-formations, no features are so remarkable as -those presented by a portion of the extensive range of sandstone cliffs, -which project in jagged and picturesque masses from the southern shore, -soon after passing the Grand Sable; and to which fresh interest has been -given by the interweaving of the Algonquin legends of the locality into -Longfellow’s Indian _Song of Hiawatha_. - -The Pictured Rocks are situated between the copper regions and the -ancient portage, which has been recently superseded by a canal opening -navigation for the largest vessels from Lake Huron to Lake Superior. -They lie in the centre of the long indentation, which, sweeping from -Keweenaw Peninsula eastward to White Fish Point, forms the coast most -distant from the northern shores of the lake. Here the cliffs have been -exposed through unnumbered ages to the waves under the action of -northerly winds; while a contemporaneous upheaval, prolonged probably -through vast periods of time, has contributed no unimportant share in -the operations by which their striking forms have been produced. Beyond -those the voyager comes once more on rocky cliffs in the vicinity of -Marquette: so named after the Jesuit missionary by whom the upper waters -of the Mississippi were first reached two centuries ago, in 1673. -Important changes have been wrought in the interval. Mineral treasures, -undreamt of by the ancient miners, are now rewarding the industry of the -Indians’ supplanters. The iron period, with its fully developed -civilisation, is invading those forest tracks; and when I first visited -Marquette in 1855, on the bold trappean rocks which form the landing, -abraded and scratched with the glacial action of a long superseded era, -were piled the rich products of the “Jackson Iron Mountain,” which rears -its bold outline at a distance of twelve miles from the shore. -Immediately to the north of this point the promontory of Presque Isle -presents in some respects a striking contrast to the Pictured Rocks; -though, like them, also indented and hollowed out into detached masses, -and pierced with the wave-worn caverns of older levels of shore and -lake. Here the water-worn sandstone and the igneous rocks overlie or -intermingle with each other in picturesque confusion: the symbol, as it -were, of the transition between the copper and iron eras. For it is just -at Presque Isle that the crystalline schists, with their intermingling -masses of trappean and quartz rocks, richly impregnated with the -specular and magnetic oxide of iron, pass into the granite and sandstone -rocks, which intervene between the ferriferous formations and the -copper-bearing traps of Keweenaw Point. Beyond this, the rich -copper-bearing region of the Keweenaw Peninsula stretches far into the -lake, traversed in a south-westerly direction by magnificent cliffs of -trappean rocks, presenting their perpendicular sides to the south-east, -and covered even amid the rocky débris with ancient forest-trees. In -this igneous rock are found the copper veins, which in recent years have -conferred such great commercial value on the district of Michigan; and -there I not only witnessed extensive mining operations in progress, but -have investigated evidences of the ancient miners’ labours which prove -the prolonged practice there, at some remote period, of native -metallurgic arts. - -On landing at Eagle river, one of the points for shipping the copper -ores, on the west side of the Keweenaw Peninsula, the track lies through -dense forest, over a road in some parts of rough corduroy, and in others -traversing the irregular exposed surface of the copper-bearing trap. -After a time it winds through a gorge, covered with immense masses of -trap and crumbling débris, amid which pine, and the black oak and other -hard wood, have contrived to find a sufficient soil for taking root and -attaining their full proportions; and beyond the cliffs, in a level -bottom on the other side of the trap ridge, is the Cliff Mine -settlement, one of the most important of all the mining works in -operation in this region. Here I descended a perpendicular shaft by -means of ladders, to a depth of sixty fathoms, and explored various of -the levels: passing in some cases literally through tunnels made in the -solid copper. The very abundance of the metal proves indeed, at times, -an impediment to its profitable working, owing to the labour necessarily -expended in chiselling out masses from the solid lump, to admit of their -being taken to the surface, and transported through such tracts as have -been described, to the Lake shore. The floor of the level was strewed -with copper shavings: for the extreme ductility of the native copper -precludes the application of other force than manual labour for -separating it from the parent mass. I saw also beautiful specimens of -silver, in a matrix of crystalline quartz, obtained from this mine; and -the copper of the district is stated to contain on an average about 3·10 -per cent. of silver. This is indeed by far the richest mineral locality -that has yet been wrought. In a single year upwards of sixteen hundred -tons of copper have been procured from the Cliff Mine, and one mass was -estimated to weigh eighty tons. Its mineral wealth was known to the -ancient miners; but the skill and appliances of the modern miner give -him access to veins entirely beyond the reach of the primitive -metallurgist, who knew of no harder material for his tools than the -native rock and the ductile metal he was in search of. - -At the Cliff Mine are preserved some curious specimens of ancient copper -tools found in its vicinity, but it is to the westward of the Keweenaw -Peninsula that the most extensive traces of the aboriginal miners’ -operations are seen. The copper-bearing trap, after crossing the -Keweenaw Lake, is traced onward in a south-westerly direction till it -crosses the Ontonagon river about twelve miles from its mouth, at an -elevation of upwards of three hundred feet above the lake. At this -locality the edges of the copper veins crop out in various places, -exposing the metal in irregular patches over a considerable extent of -country, many of which have been partially wrought by the ancient -miners. Here, in the neighbourhood of the Minnesota Mine, are extensive -traces of trenches and other mining operations, which prove that they -must have been carried on for a long period. These excavations are -partially filled up, and so overgrown in the long interval between their -first excavation and their observation by recent explorers, that they -scarcely attract attention. Nevertheless some trenches have been found -to measure from eighteen to thirty feet in depth; and one of them -disclosed a detached mass of native copper, weighing upwards of six -tons, resting on an artificial cradle of black oak, partially preserved -by immersion in the water with which it had been filled. Various -implements and tools of the same metal also lay in the deserted trench, -where this huge mass had been separated from its matrix, and elevated on -the oaken frame, preparatory to its removal entire. It appeared to have -been raised about five feet, and then abandoned, abruptly as it would -seem: since even the copper tools were found among the accumulated soil -by which it had been anew covered up. The solid mass measured ten feet -long, three feet wide, and nearly two feet thick; every projecting piece -had been removed, so that the exposed surface was left perfectly smooth, -possibly by other and ruder workers of a date subsequent to the -desertion of the mining trench by its original explorers. - -The mining operations of upwards of a quarter of a century have done -much to efface the traces of the ancient works, as every indication of -them is eagerly followed up by the modern miner, as the most promising -clew to rich metalliferous deposits. But towards the close of 1874 Mr. -Davis, an experienced old miner of Lake Superior, recovered from another -ancient trench, in the same region, a solid mass of nearly pure copper, -heart-shaped, and weighing between two and three tons. It lay at a depth -of seventeen feet from the surface, as when originally detached from its -bed by the ancient miners. Alongside of it were a number of smaller -pieces, from a single ounce to seventeen pounds in weight, evidently -broken off the large mass by the original workers of the mine. Numerous -stone mauls and hammers also, weighing from ten to thirty pounds, lay -scattered through the lower débris with which the trench was refilled. -But the absence of any copper tools seemed to point to the final -desertion of the mine, from some unknown cause, at the very time when -its resources were most available. - -Attention was first directed to such traces of ancient mining -operations, by the agent of the Minnesota Mining Company in 1847. -Following up the indications of a continuous depression in the soil, he -came at length to a cavern where he found several porcupines had fixed -their quarters for hybernation; but detecting evidences of artificial -excavation, he proceeded to clear out the accumulated soil, and not only -exposed to view a vein of copper, but found in the rubbish numerous -stone mauls and hammers of the ancient workmen. Subsequent observation -brought to light excavations of great extent, frequently from -twenty-five to thirty feet deep, and scattered over an area of several -miles. The rubbish taken from these is piled up in mounds alongside; -while the trenches have been gradually refilled with soil and decaying -vegetable matter gathered through the long centuries since their -desertion; and over all, the giants of the forest have grown, withered, -and fallen to decay. Mr. Knapp, the agent of the Minnesota Company, -counted 395 annular rings on a hemlock-tree, which grew on one of the -mounds of earth thrown out of an ancient mine. Mr. Foster also notes the -great size and age of a pine-stump which must have grown and died since -the works were deserted; and Mr. Whittlesey not only refers to living -trees upwards of three hundred years old, now flourishing in the -abandoned trenches; but he adds: “on the same spot there are the decayed -trunks of a preceding generation or generations of trees that have -arrived at maturity and fallen down from old age.” The deserted mines -are found at numerous points extending over upwards of a hundred miles -along the southern shore of the lake; and reappear beyond it, in -extensive excavations on Isle Royale. Sir William Logan reports others -observed by him on the summit of a ridge at Maimanse, on the north -shore, where the old excavations are surrounded by broken pieces of -vein-stone, with stone mauls rudely formed from natural boulders. The -extensive area over which such works have thus been traced, the -evidences of their prolonged working, and of their still longer -abandonment, all combine to force upon the mind convictions of their -remote antiquity. - -At Ontonagon river I met with Captain Peck, a settler whose long -residence in the country has afforded him many opportunities of noting -the evidences of its ancient occupation. Repeated discoveries had led -him to infer the great antiquity of the works; and he specially referred -to one disclosure of ancient mining operations near the forks of the -Ontonagon river, where, at a depth of upwards of twenty-five feet, stone -mauls and other tools were found in contact with a copper vein; in the -soil above these lay the trunk of a large cedar, and over all grew a -hemlock-tree, with its roots spread entirely above the fallen cedar, in -the accumulated soil with which the trench was filled, and indicating a -growth of not less than three centuries. But the buried cedar, which in -favourable circumstances is far more durable than the oak, represents -another and longer succession of centuries, subsequent to that -protracted period during which the deserted trench was slowly filled up -with accumulations of many winters. In another excavation a bed of clay -had been formed above the ancient flooring to the depth of a foot. On -this lay the skeleton of a deer which had stumbled in and perished -there; and over it clay, leaves, sand, and gravel had accumulated to a -depth of nineteen feet. Not only are such indications frequent -throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula, and to the westward and southward of -Ontonagon; but on Isle Royale the abandoned mines disclose still -stronger evidence of their great antiquity. The United States Geologists -remark: “Mr. E. G. Shaw pointed out to us similar evidences of mining on -Isle Royale, which can be traced lengthways for the distance of a mile. -On opening one of these pits, which had become filled up, he found the -mine had been worked through the solid rock, to the depth of nine feet, -the walls being perfectly smooth. At the bottom he found a vein of -native copper eighteen inches thick, including a sheet of pure copper -lying against the foot-wall.” Stone hammers and wedges lay in great -abundance at the bottom of the trenches, but no metallic implements were -found: a proof perhaps that the mines of Isle Royale continued to be -wrought after their workers had been hastily compelled to abandon those -on the mainland. Mr. Shaw adopted the conclusion, from the appearance of -the wall-rocks, the multitude of stone implements, and the material -removed, that the labour of excavating the rock must have been performed -solely with such instruments, with the aid, perhaps, of fire. But the -appearance of the vein, and the extent of the workings, furnished -evidence not only of great and protracted labour, but also of the use of -other tools than those of stone. Accumulated vegetable matter had -refilled the excavations to a level with the surrounding surface, and -over this the forest extended with the same luxuriance as on the natural -soil. In this barren and rocky region the filling up of the trenches -with vegetable soil must have been the work of many centuries; so that -the whole aspect of the deserted mines of Isle Royale confirms the -antiquity ascribed to them. - -What appear to the eye of the traveller as the giants of the primeval -forest, are the growth of comparatively modern centuries, subsequent to -the era when the shores of Lake Superior rang with the echoes of -industrial toil. Two or three centuries would seem altogether inadequate -to furnish the requisite time for the most partial accumulation of soil -and decayed vegetable matter with which the old miners’ trenches have -been filled. Four centuries thereafter are indisputably recorded by -recent survivors of the forest, independent of all traces of previous -arborescent generations; and thus in the excavations and tools of the -copper regions of Lake Superior, we look on memorials of a metallurgic -industry long prior to those closing years of the fifteenth century, in -which the mineral wealth of the New World awoke the Spanish lust for -gold. An uncertain, yet considerable interval must be assumed between -the abandonment of those ancient works, and the forest’s earliest -growth; and thus we are thrown back, at latest, into centuries -corresponding to Europe’s mediæval era for a period to which to assign -those singularly interesting traces of a lost American civilisation. - -Owing to the filling up of the abandoned mining trenches with water, not -only the copper and stone implements of the miners are found, but -examples of wooden tools and timber framing have also been preserved, in -several cases in wonderful perfection; and these furnish interesting -supplementary evidence of the character of their industrial arts. - -[Illustration: FIG. 63.—Miners’ Shovels.] - -Of the wooden implements, the most noticeable are the shovels, by means -of which the soil was excavated. The accompanying woodcut represents two -of them worn away to the one side, as in most of the examples found, as -if used for scraping rather than digging the soil. Mr. Whittlesey gives -a drawing of one which measured three and a half feet long, recovered -among the loose materials thrown out from an extensive rock excavation -in the side of a hill about four miles south-east of Eagle Harbour. Part -of a wooden bowl used for baling water, and troughs of cedar-bark, were -also found in the same débris, above which grew a birch about two feet -in diameter, with its lower roots scarcely reaching through the ancient -rubbish to the depth at which those relics lay. Mr. Foster describes -another wooden bowl found at a depth of ten feet, in clearing out some -ancient workings opened by the agent of the Forest Mine; and which, from -the splintered pieces of rock and gravel imbedded in its rim, must have -been employed in baling water. Similar implements have been met with in -other workings, but they speedily perish on being exposed to the air. -All of them appear to have been made of white cedar. The indestructible -nature of this wood, when kept under water, or in a moist soil, is -abundantly illustrated by the experience of settlers who, on attempting -to clear and cultivate a cedar swamp, discover that the dead trunks, -exhumed undecayed after centuries of immersion, rest above still older -cedar-forests, seemingly unaffected by the influences which restore -alike the oak and the pine to the vegetable mould of the forest soil. - -[Illustration: FIG. 64.—Miners’ Stone Mauls.] - -The process of working the ancient mines seems to be tolerably clearly -indicated by the discoveries referred to. The soil having been removed -by means of wooden spades, doubtless with the aid of copper tools to -break up the solid earth and clay: remains of charcoal, met with in -numerous instances on the surface of the rock, show that fire was an -important agent for overcoming the cohesion between the copper and its -matrix. Before the introduction of gunpowder fire was universally -employed in excavating rock; and where fuel abounds, as in the old Harz -and Altenberg mining districts of Europe, it is even now found to be -quite as economical in destroying siliceous rocks. Stone hammers or -mauls were next employed to break up the metalliferous rock. These have -been found in immense numbers on different mining sites. Mr. Knapp -obtained in one locality upwards of ten cart-loads; and I was shown a -well at Ontonagon constructed almost entirely out of stone hammers, -obtained from ancient workings in the immediate vicinity. Many of these -are mere water-worn boulders of greenstone or porphyry, roughly chipped -at the centre, so as to admit of their being secured by a withe around -them. But others are well-finished, with a single or double groove for -attaching the handle by which they were wielded. They weigh from ten to -forty pounds; but many are broken, and some of the specimens I saw were -worn and fractured from frequent use. - -The extent to which co-operation was carried on by the miners, with the -imperfect means at their command, is illustrated by the objects -recovered on exploring one of their trenches, on a hill to the south of -the Copper Falls mines. On removing the accumulations from the -excavation, stone axes of large size made of greenstone, and shaped to -receive withe-handles, and some large round greenstone masses that had -apparently been used for battering-rams, were found. “They had round -holes bored in them to the depth of several inches, which seemed to have -been designed for wooden plugs to which withe-handles might be attached, -so that several men could swing them with sufficient force to break the -rock and the projecting masses of copper. Some of them were broken, and -some of the projecting ends of rock exhibited marks of having been -battered in the manner here suggested.”[74] - -But the industrious miners fully appreciated the practical utility of -the metal they were in search of; and it is not to be supposed that they -employed themselves thus laboriously in mining copper, and yet -themselves used only stone and wooden tools. Copper axes, gads, chisels, -and gouges, as well as knives and spear-heads, of considerable diversity -of form, have been brought to light, all of them wrought from the virgin -copper by means of the hammer, without smelting, alloy, or the use of -fire. At Ontonagon, I had an opportunity of examining an interesting -collection of mining relics, found a few months before. These consisted -of copper tools, with solid triangular blades like bayonets, one -fourteen inches, and the others about twelve inches in length; a chisel, -and two singularly shaped copper gouges about fourteen inches long and -two inches wide, the precise use of which it would be difficult to -determine. The whole were discovered buried in a bed of clay on the -banks of the river Ontonagon, about a mile above its mouth, during the -process of levelling it for the purposes of a brick-field. Above the -clay was an alluvial deposit of two feet of sand, and in this, and over -the relics of the ancient copper workers, a pine-tree had grown to full -maturity. Its gigantic roots gave proof, in the estimation of those who -witnessed their removal, of more than two centuries’ growth; while the -present ordinary level of the river is such that it would require a rise -of forty feet to make the deposit of sand beneath which they lay. - -[Illustration: FIG. 65.—Ontonagon Copper Implement.] - -An experienced practical miner, who had been among the first to reopen -some of the ancient works at the Minnesota mine, recognised in the -copper gouges implements adapted to produce the singular tool-marks -which then excited his curiosity. Subjoined is a representation of a -peculiar type of copper tools, sketched from one of those found at -Ontonagon. The socket, formed by hammering out the lower part flat, and -then turning it over partially at each side, corresponds to some -primitive forms of bronze implements found in Britain and the north of -Europe; but the latter are cast of a metallic compound, and prove a -skill in metallurgy far in advance of the old metal-workers of -Ontonagon. - -Another, and in some respects more interesting discovery, was made at a -point lying to the cast of Keweenaw Point, in the rich iron district of -Marquette, in what appears to have been the ancient bed of the river -Carp. About ten feet above the present level of its channel, various -weapons and implements of copper were found. Large trees grew over this -deposit also, and the evidences of antiquity seemed not less obvious -than in that of Ontonagon. The relics included knives, spear or -lance-heads, and arrow-heads, some of which were ornamented with silver. -One of the knives, made, with its handle, out of a single piece of -copper, measured altogether about seven inches long, of which the blade -was nearly two-thirds, and of an oval shape. It was ornamented with -pieces of silver attached to it, and was inlaid with a stripe of the -same metal from point to haft. Numerous fragments and shavings of copper -were also found, some of which were such as, it was assumed, could only -have been cut by a fine sharp tool; and the whole sufficed to indicate, -even more markedly than those at Ontonagon, that not only was the native -copper wrought in ancient times in the Lake Superior regions, but that -manufactories were established along its shores, and on the banks of its -navigable rivers. The recognition of silver as a distinct metal by the -present race of Indians is proved by the specific term _shooneya_, by -which it is designated in Chippewa; whereas gold is only known as -_ozahwah-shooneya_, or yellow silver. - -[Illustration] - - FIG. 66. FIG. 67. - Brockville Copper Gouge. - Dagger. - -In 1856, Dr. Thomas Reynolds of Brockville exhibited to the Canadian -Institute a collection of copper and other relics discovered in that -neighbourhood under singular circumstances; and possessing a special -interest owing to the distance of the site from Lake Superior. They -included a peculiarly-shaped chisel or gouge, six inches in length, -(Fig. 67), a rude spear-head, seven inches long (Fig. 68), and two small -daggers or knives, one of which is shown in Fig. 66, all wrought by -means of the hammer, out of native copper which had never been subjected -to fire, as is proved by the silver remaining in detached crystals in -the copper. They were found at the head of Les Galops Rapids, on the -river St. Lawrence, about fifteen feet below the surface, along with -twenty skeletons disposed in a circular space with their feet towards -the centre. Dr. Reynolds remarks of them: “Some of the skeletons were of -gigantic proportions. The lower jaw of one is sufficiently large to -surround the corresponding bone of an adult of our present generation. -The condition of the bones furnished indisputable proof of their great -antiquity. The skulls were so completely reduced to their earthy -constituents that they were exceedingly brittle, and fell in pieces when -removed and exposed to the atmosphere. The metallic remains, however, of -more enduring material, as also several stone chisels and gouges, and -some flint arrow-heads, all remain in their original condition; and -furnish evidence of the same rude arts which we know to be still -practised by the aborigines of the far West.” After discussing the -possibility of their European origin, Dr. Reynolds adds: “There is also -a curious fact, which these relics appear to confirm, that the Indians -possessed the art of hardening and tempering copper, so as to give it as -good an edge as iron or steel. This ancient Indian art is now entirely -lost.” - -The reference thus made to the popular theory of some lost art of -hardening the native copper, afforded an opportunity of testing it in -reference to the Brockville relics. They were accordingly submitted to -my colleague, Professor Henry Croft, of University College, Toronto, -with the following results: The object of the experiments was to -ascertain whether the metal of which the implements are made is -identical with the native copper of the Lake Superior mines; or whether -it has been subjected to some manufacturing process, or mixed with any -other substance, by which its hardness might have been increased. A -careful examination established the following conclusions:—No -perceptible difference could be observed between the hardness of the -implements and that of metallic copper from Lake Superior. The knife or -small dagger was cleansed as far as possible from its green coating; and -its specific gravity ascertained as 8·66. A fragment, broken off the end -of the broad, flat implement, described as a “copper knife of full -size,” having been freed from its coating, was found to have a specific -gravity of 8·58. During the cleaning of this fragment, a few brilliant -white specks became visible on its surface, which appeared, from their -colour and lustre, to be silver. The structure of the metal was also -highly laminated, as if the instrument had been brought to its present -shape by hammering out a solid mass of copper, which had either split -up, or had been originally formed of several pieces. These laminæ of -course contained air, and the metal was covered with rust, hence the -specific gravity. The process by which a flat piece of copper has been -overlapped, and wrought with the hammer into a rude spear-head, is shown -in the accompanying illustration. A portion of very solid copper, from -Lake Superior, of about the same weight as the fragment, was weighed in -water, and its gravity found to be 8·92. The specific gravity of -absolutely pure copper varies from 8·78 to 8·96, according to the -greater or less degree of aggregation it has received during its -manufacture. The fragment was completely dissolved by nitric acid; and -the solution, on being tested for silver by hydrochloric acid, gave a -scarcely perceptible opacity, indicating the presence of an exceedingly -minute trace of silver. The copper having been separated by -hydro-sulphuric acid, the residual liquid was tested for other metals. A -very minute trace of iron was detected. The native copper from Lake -Superior was tested in the same manner, and was found to contain no -trace of silver, but a minute trace of iron. From this, it appears that -the implements are composed of copper almost pure, differing in no -material respect from the native copper of Lake Superior. - -[Illustration: FIG. 68.—Brockville Copper Spear.] - -It is thus apparent that, in the case of the Brockville relics, the -theory of a lost art of hardening and tempering copper was a mere reflex -of the prevalent popular fallacy; and there is no reason for -anticipating a different result in other cases in which the same theory -is tested. - -More recently a well-finished dagger of hammered copper, nine inches -long, and a smaller copper gouge, have been turned up by the plough: the -former at Burnhamthorpe, and the latter at Chinguacousy, in Ontario; and -from time to time similar discoveries suffice to show the ancient -diffusion of the native copper throughout the whole region of the great -lakes. In his account of the discovery of the Brockville relics, Dr. -Reynolds assumes them to pertain to the present Indian race. The -evidences of antique sepulture, however, are unmistakable; and other -proofs suggest a different origin. Mr. Squier, by whom they had been -previously described, remarks in the Appendix to his _Aboriginal -Monuments of the State of New York_:[75] “Some implements entirely -corresponding with these have been found in Isle Royale, and at other -places in and around Lake Superior.” But besides the copper implements, -there lay in the same deposit a miniature mask of terra-cotta of -peculiar workmanship, suggestive rather of relation to the arts of the -Mound-Builders. Mr. Squier has figured it from an incorrect drawing, -which indicates a minuter representation of Indian features than the -original justifies. It is engraved here, the size of the original, from -a photographic copy, and, as will be seen, is a rude mask, such as is by -no means uncommon among the small terra-cottas of Mexico and Central -America. This mingling of traces of a certain amount of artistic skill -with the arts of the primitive metallurgist, entirely corresponds with -the disclosures of the ancient mounds of the Mississippi; and, indeed, -agrees with other partial manifestations of art in an imperfectly -developed civilisation. - -[Illustration: FIG. 69.—Terra-cotta Mask.] - -I was struck, when examining the rude stone mauls of the miners of -Ontonagon, by their resemblance to some which I have seen, obtained from -ancient copper workings of North Wales. In a communication made to the -British Archæological Institute by the Hon. William Owen Stanley, in -1850, he gave an account of an ancient shaft broken into at the copper -mines of Llandudno, Carnarvonshire. In this were found mining -implements, consisting of chisels, or picks of bronze, and a number of -rudely-fashioned stone mauls of various sizes, weighing from about 2 -lbs. to 40 lbs. Their appearance suggested that they had been used for -breaking, pounding, or detaching the ore from the rock; and the -character both of the bronze and stone implements seems to point to a -period long prior to the Roman occupation of Britain. These primitive -mauls are stated to be similar to water-worn stones found on the -sea-beach at Pen Mawr. Mr. Stanley also describes others, corresponding -in like manner to those found on the shores of Lake Superior, which had -been met with in ancient workings in Anglesea. Were we, therefore, -disposed to generalise from such analogies, as ingenious speculators on -the lost history of the New World have been prone to do, we might trace -in this correspondence a confirmation of the supposed colonisation of -America, in the twelfth century, by Madoc, the son of Owen Gwynnedd, -king of North Wales. But the resemblance between the primitive Welsh and -American mining tools, can be regarded only as evidence of the -corresponding operations of the human mind, when placed under similar -circumstances, and with the same limited means, which is illustrated in -so many ways by the arts of the stone-period, whether of the most -ancient or of modern date. Nor can such correspondences be regarded as -altogether accidental. They confirm the idea of certain innate and -instinctive operations of human ingenuity, ever present and ready to be -called forth for the accomplishment of similar purposes by the same -limited means. - -From this review of the evidences of long-abandoned mining operations on -the shores and islands of Lake Superior, it cannot admit of doubt that -in them we look on the traces of an imperfectly developed yet highly -interesting native civilisation, pertaining to centuries long anterior -to the discovery of America in the fifteenth century. The question -naturally arises: By whom were those ancient mines wrought? Was it by -the ancestry of the present Indian tribes of North America, or by a -distinct and long-superseded race? The tendency of opinion among -American writers has been towards a unity and comprehensive isolation of -the races and arts of the New World. Hence the theories alike of Morton -and of Schoolcraft, though founded on diverse premises, favour the idea -that the germs of all that is most noticeable even in the civilisation -of Central America may be found among the native arts, and the manners -and customs of the forest tribes. But neither the traditions nor the -arts of the Indians of the northern lakes supply any satisfactory link -connecting them with the Copper-Miners or the Mound-Builders. Of -Loonsfoot, an old Chippewa chief of Lake Superior, the improbable -statement is made that he could trace back his ancestry by name, as -hereditary chiefs of his tribe, for upwards of four hundred years. At -the request of Mr. Whittlesey he was questioned by an educated -half-breed, a nephew of his own, relative to the ancient copper mines, -and his answer was in substance as follows:—“A long time ago the -Indians were much better off than they are now. They had copper axes, -arrow-heads, and spears, and also stone axes. Until the French came -here, and blasted the rocks with powder, we have no traditions of the -copper mines being worked. Our forefathers used to build big canoes and -cross the lake over to Isle Royale, where they found more copper than -anywhere else. The stone hammers that are now found in the old diggings -we know nothing about. The Indians were formerly much more numerous and -happier. They had no such wars and troubles as they have now.” At La -Pointe on Lake Superior, it was my good fortune to meet with _Beshekee_, -or Buffalo, a rugged specimen of an old Chippewa chief. He retained all -the wild Indian ideas, though accustomed to frequent intercourse with -white men; boasted of the scalps he had taken; and held to his pagan -creed as the only religion for the Indian, whatever the Great Spirit -might have taught the white man. His grandson, an educated half-breed, -acted as interpreter, and his reply to similar inquiries was embodied in -the following sententious declaration of Indian philosophy:—“The white -man thinks he is the superior of the Indian, but it is not so. The Red -Indian was made by the Great Spirit, who made the forests and the game, -and he needs no lessons from the white man how to live. If the same -Great Spirit made the white man, he has made him of a different nature. -Let him act according to his nature; it is the best for him; but for us -it is not good. We had the red-iron before white men brought the -black-iron amongst us; but if ever such works as you describe were -carried on along these Lake shores before white men came here, then the -Great Spirit must once before have made men with a different nature from -his red children, such as you white men have. As for us, we live as our -forefathers have always done.” - -La Pointe, or Chaquamegon, where this interview took place, was visited -by the Jesuit Father, Claude Alloüez, in 1666, and is described by him -as a beautiful bay, the shores of which were occupied by the Chippewas -in such numbers that their warriors alone amounted to eight hundred. In -the journal of his travels, he thus refers to the mineral resources for -which the region is now most famed:—“The savages reverence the lake as -a divinity, and offer sacrifices to it because of its great size, for it -is two hundred leagues long and eighty broad; and also, because of the -abundance of fish it supplies to them, in lieu of game, which is scarce -in its environs. They often find in the lake pieces of copper weighing -from ten to twenty pounds. I have seen many such pieces in the hands of -the savages; and as they are superstitious, they regard them as -divinities, or as gifts which the gods who dwell beneath its waters have -bestowed on them to promote their welfare. Hence they preserve such -pieces of copper wrapped up along with their most prized possessions. By -some they have been preserved upwards of fifty years, and others have -had them in their families from time immemorial, cherishing them as -their household gods. There was visible for some time, near the shore, a -large rock entirely of copper, with its top rising above the water, -which afforded an opportunity for those passing to cut pieces from it. -But when I passed in that vicinity nothing could be seen of it. I -believe that the storms, which are here very frequent, and as violent as -on the ocean, had covered the rock with sand. Our Indians wished to -persuade me it was a divinity which had disappeared, but for what reason -they would not say.”[76] - -Such is the earliest notice we have of Indian ideas relative to the -native copper. It accords with all later information on the same -subject, and is opposed to any tradition of their ancestors having been -the workers of the abandoned copper mines. A secrecy, resulting from the -superstitions associated with the mineral wealth of the great Lake, -appears to have thrown impediments in the way of inquirers. Father -Dablon narrates a marvellous account communicated to him, of four -Indians who, in old times, before the coming of the French, had lost -their way in a fog, and at length effected a landing on Missipicooatong. -This was believed to be a floating island, mysteriously variable in its -local position and aspects. The wanderers cooked their meal in Indian -fashion, by heating stones and casting them into a birch-bark pail -filled with water. The stones proved to be lumps of copper, which they -carried off with them; but they had hardly left the shore when a loud -and angry voice, ascribed by one of them to Missibizi, the goblin spirit -of the waters, was heard exclaiming, “What thieves are these that carry -off my children’s cradles and playthings?” One of the Indians died -immediately from fear, and two others soon after, while the fourth only -survived long enough to reach home and relate what had happened, before -he also died: having no doubt been poisoned by the copper used in -cooking. Ever after this the Indians steered their course far off the -site of the haunted island. In the same relation, Father Dablon tells -that near the river Ontonagon, or Nantonagon as he calls it, is a bluff -from which masses of copper frequently fall out. One of these presented -to him weighed one hundred pounds; and pieces weighing twenty or thirty -pounds are stated by him to be frequently met with by the squaws when -digging holes for their corn. The locality thus celebrated by the -earliest French missionaries for its traces of mineral wealth, is in -like manner referred to by the first English explorer, Alexander Henry: -a bold adventurer, who visited the island of Mackinac, at the entrance -of Lake Michigan, shortly before the Treaty of Paris in 1763, and was -one among the few who escaped a treacherous massacre perpetrated by the -Indians on the Whites at Old Fort Mackinac. In his _Travels and -Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories_, he mentions his -visiting the river Ontonagon, in 1765, and adds, “I found this river -chiefly remarkable for the abundance of virgin copper which is on its -banks and in its neighbourhood. The copper presented itself to the eye -in masses of various weight. The Indians showed me one of twenty pounds. -They were used to manufacture this metal into spoons and bracelets for -themselves. In the perfect state in which they found it, it required -nothing but to be beat into shape.”[77] In the following year, Henry -again visited the same region. “On my way,” he says, “I encamped a -second time at the mouth of the Ontonagon, and now took the opportunity -of going ten miles up the river with Indian guides. The object which I -went most expressly to see, and to which I had the satisfaction of being -led, was a mass of copper, of the weight, according to my estimate, of -no less than five tons. Such was its pure and malleable state that with -an axe I was able to cut off a portion weighing a hundred pounds.” This -mass of native copper which thus attracted the adventurous European -explorer upwards of a century ago, has since acquired considerable -celebrity, as one of the most prominent encouragements to the mining -operations projected in the Ontonagon and surrounding districts. It is -now preserved at Washington, and is believed to be the same to which -Charlevoix refers as a sacrificial block held in peculiar veneration by -the Indians; and on which, according to their narration, a young girl -had been sacrificed. The Jesuit father did not obtain access to it, as -it was the belief of the Indians that if it were seen by a white man, -their lands would pass away from them. Those various notices are -interesting as showing to what extent the present race of Indians were -accustomed to avail themselves of the mineral wealth of the copper -regions. Illustrations of a like kind might be multiplied, but they are -all nearly to the same effect, exhibiting the Indian gathering chance -masses, or hewing off pieces from the exposed copper lodes, in full -accordance with the simple arts of his first Stone Period; but affording -no ground for crediting him with any traditionary memorials of -connection with the race that once excavated the trenches, and laid bare -the mineral treasures of the great copper region. - -The evidence indicative of the great length of time which has intervened -since the miners of Lake Superior abandoned its shores, receives -confirmation from traces of a long protracted traffic carried on by the -subsequent occupants of their deserted territory. The mineral wealth -that still lay within reach of the non-industrial hunter of the forests -which grew up and clothed the deserted works, in the interval between -their abandonment and re-occupation, furnished him with a prized -material for barter. The head-waters of the Mississippi are within easy -reach of an Indian party, carrying light birch-bark canoes over the -intervening portages; and, once launched on its broad waters, the whole -range of the continent through twenty degrees of latitude is free before -them. Through Lake Huron and the Ottawa into the St. Lawrence, and by -Lakes Huron, Erie, and Ontario, into the Hudson, other extensive areas -of native exchange were commanded. Articles wrought in the brown -pipe-stone of the Upper Mississippi, the red pipe-stone of the Couteau -des Prairies, west of St. Peters, and the copper of Lake Superior, -constituted the wealth which the old north had to offer. In return, one -of the most valued exchanges appears to have been the large tropical -shells of the Gulf of Florida and the West Indian seas: from which -wampum-beads, pendants, gorgets, and personal ornaments of various kinds -were manufactured. - -Copper is obtained in its native state still farther north; and -Mackenzie, in his _Second Journey_, mentions its being in common use -among the tribes on the borders of the Arctic Sea; by whom it is wrought -into spear and arrow-heads, and a considerable variety of personal -ornaments. Mr. Henry found the Christinaux of Lake Winipagon wearing -bracelets and other ornaments of copper; and most of the earlier -explorers describe copper implements and personal ornaments among -widely-scattered Indian tribes of the New World. But in all cases they -appear to have been rudely wrought with the hammer, and sparingly -mingled with the more abundant weapons and implements of stone, of a -people whose sole metallurgic knowledge consisted in gathering or -procuring by barter the native copper,—just as they procured the red or -brown pipe-stone,—and hammering the mass into some simple useful form. -Silver, procured in like manner, was not unknown to them; and pipes -inlaid both with silver and lead are by no means rare. But it is only -when we turn to the scenes of a native-born civilisation, in Mexico, -Central America, and Peru, where metallurgic arts were developed, that -we discover evidence of the use of the crucible and furnace, and find -copper superseded by the more useful alloy, bronze. - -But intermediately between the copper regions of Lake Superior and the -ancient southern scenes of native American civilisation, the Mississippi -and its great tributaries drain a country remarkable for monuments of a -long forgotten past, not less interesting and mysterious than the -forsaken mines of Keweenaw and Ontonagon, or Isle Royale. Those great -earthworks are ascribed to an extinct race, conveniently known by the -name of the Mound-Builders. Careful investigations into their structure -and contents prove these builders to have been a people among whom -copper was in frequent use, but by them also it was worked only by the -hammer. The invaluable service of fire in reducing and smelting ores, -moulding metals, and adapting them to greater usefulness by -well-proportioned alloys, was unknown; and the investigation and -analysis of their cold-wrought tools seem to prove that the source of -their copper was the Lake Superior mines. But though the ancient -Mound-Builder was thus possessed of little higher metallurgic knowledge -than the Indian hunter: he manifested in other respects a capacity for -extensive and combined operations, the memorials of which perpetuate his -monumental skill and persevering industry in the gigantic earthworks -from whence his name is derived. From these we learn that there was a -period in America’s unrecorded history, when the valleys of the -Mississippi and its tributaries were occupied by a numerous settled -population. Alike in physical conformation—so far as very imperfect -evidence goes,—and in some of their arts, these Mound-Builders -approximated to races of Central and South America, and differed from -the Red Indian occupants of their deserted seats. They were not, to all -appearance, far advanced in civilisation. Compared with the people of -Mexico or Central America when first seen by the Spaniards, their social -and intellectual development was probably rudimentary. But they had -advanced beyond that stage in which it is possible for a people to -continue unprogressive. The initial steps of civilisation had been -inaugurated; and the difference between them and the civilised Mexicans -is less striking than the contrast which the evidences of their settled -condition, and the proofs of extensive co-operation in their numerous -earthworks supply, when compared with all that pertains to the tribes by -whom the American forests and prairies have been exclusively occupied -during the centuries since Columbus. - -The Mound-Builders were greatly more in advance of the Indian hunter -than behind the civilised Mexican. They had acquired habits of combined -industry; were the settled occupants of specific territories; and are -proved, by numerous ornaments and implements of copper deposited in -their monuments and sepulchres, to have been familiar with the mineral -resources of the northern lake regions, whether by personal enterprise, -or by a system of exchange. What probabilities there are suggestive of a -connection between the Mound-Builders and the ancient Miners will be -discussed in a later chapter, along with other and allied questions; but -to just such a race, with their imperfect mechanical skill, their -partially developed arts, and their aptitude for continuous combined -operations, may be ascribed, _à priori_, such mining works as are still -traceable on the shores of Lake Superior, overshadowed with the forest -growth of centuries. The mounds constructed by the ancient race are in -like manner overgrown with the evidences of their long desertion; and -the condition in which recent travellers have found the ruined cities of -Central America, may serve to show what even New York, Washington, and -Philadelphia: what Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec, would become after a -very few centuries, if abandoned, like the desolate cities of -Chichenitza or Uxmal, to the inextinguishable luxuriance of the American -forest growth. - -The accumulations of vegetable mould, the buried forests of older -generations, and the living trees with their roots entwined among the -forsaken implements of the miners, all point to the lapse of many -centuries since their works were abandoned. Changes wrought on the -river-courses and terraces in the Ohio valleys suggest an interval of -even longer duration since the construction of the great earthworks with -which that region abounds. But to whatever period the working of the -ancient copper mines of Lake Superior be assigned, the aspect presented -by some of them when reopened in recent years is suggestive of peculiar -circumstances attending their desertion. It is inconceivable that the -huge mass of copper discovered in the Minnesota mine, resting on its -oaken cradle, beneath the accumulations of centuries, was abandoned -merely because the workmen, who had overcome the greatest difficulties -in its removal, were baffled in the subsequent stages of their -operations, and contented themselves by chipping off any accessible -projecting point. Well-hammered copper chisels, such as lay alongside of -it, and have been repeatedly found in the works, were sufficient, with -the help of stone hammers, to enable them to cut it into portable -pieces. If, indeed, the ancient miners were incapable of doing more with -their mass of copper, in the mine, than breaking off a few projections, -to what further use could they have turned it when transported to the -surface? It weighed upwards of six tons, and measured ten feet long and -three feet wide. The trench at its greatest depth was twenty-six feet; -while the mass was only eighteen feet from the surface; and in the -estimation of the skilled engineer by whom it was first seen, it had -been elevated upwards of five feet since it was placed on its oaken -frame. The excavations to a depth of twenty-six feet, the dislodged -copper block, and the framework prepared for elevating the solid mass to -the surface, all consistently point to the same workmen. But the mere -detachment of a few accessible projecting fragments is too lame and -impotent a conclusion of proceedings carried thus far on so different a -scale. It indicates rather such results as would follow at the present -day were the Indians of the North-west to displace the modern Minnesota -miners, and possess themselves of mineral treasures which they are as -little capable as ever of turning to any but the most simple uses. - -Such evidences, accordingly, while they serve to prove the existence, at -some remote period, of a mining population in the copper regions of Lake -Superior, seem also to indicate that their labours came to an abrupt -termination. Whether by some devastating pestilence, like that which -nearly exterminated the native population of New England immediately -before the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers; by the breaking out of war; -or, as seems not less probable, by the invasion of the mineral region by -a barbarian race, ignorant of all the arts of the ancient Mound-Builders -of the Mississippi, and of the miners of Lake Superior: certain it is -that the works have been abandoned, leaving the quarried metal, the -laboriously wrought hammers, and the ingenious copper tools, just as -they may have been left when the shadows of the evening told their long -forgotten owners that the labours of the day were at an end, but for -which they never returned. Nor during the centuries which have elapsed -since the forest reclaimed the deserted trenches for its own, does any -trace seem to indicate that a native population again sought to avail -itself of their mineral treasures, beyond the manufacture of such -scattered fragments as lay upon the surface. - ------ - -[74] Squier’s _Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York_. Appendix, -p. 184. - -[75] _Smithsonian Contributions_, vol. ii. pp. 14, 176. - -[76] _Relations des Jésuites_, vol. iii. 1666 _et_ 1667. - -[77] Henry’s _Travels and Adventures_, New York, 1809, p. 194. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - ALLOYS. - - - THE AGE OF BRONZE—AN INTERMEDIATE COPPER AGE—EUROPEAN COPPER - IMPLEMENTS—NATIVE SILVER AND COPPER—TIN AND COPPER ORES—THE - CASSITERIDES—ANCIENT SOURCES OF TIN—ARTS OF YUCATAN—ALLOYED - COPPER AXE-BLADES—BRONZE SILVER-MINING TOOL—PERUVIAN BRONZES— - PRIMITIVE MINING TOOLS—NATIVE METALLURGIC PROCESSES—METALLIC - TREASURES OF THE INCAS—TRACES OF AN OLDER RACE—PERUVIAN - HISTORY—THE TOLTECS AND MEXICANS—ADJUSTMENT OF CALENDAR— - BARBARIAN EXCESSES—NATIVE GOLDSMITH’S WORK—PANAMA GOLD RELICS - —MEXICAN METALLIC CURRENCY—EXPERIMENTAL PROCESSES—ANCIENT - EUROPEAN BRONZES—TESTS OF CIVILISATION—ANCIENT AMERICAN - BRONZES—THE NATIVE METALLURGIST. - -The age of bronze in the archæological history of European civilisation -symbolises a transitional stage of very partial development, and -imperfect materials and arts, through which the Old World passed in its -progress towards the maturity of true historic times; but the Bronze -Period of the New World is the highest stage of its self-developed -civilisation, prior to the intrusion of European arts. Whether we regard -the bronze implements of Britain and the North of Europe as concomitant -with the intrusion of new races, or only as proofs of the discovery or -introduction of a new art pregnant with many civilising and elevating -tendencies, they constitute an important element in primitive ethnology. -For a time they necessarily coincide with many monuments and works of -art pertaining in character to the stone-period; just as the stone -implements and weapons still manufactured by the Indians and Esquimaux -are contemporaneous with many products of foreign metallurgy, but -nevertheless are the perpetuation of processes developed in a period -when metallurgic arts were entirely unknown. The evidence that the -British Bronze Period followed a simpler and ruder one of stone is such -as scarcely to admit of challenge, independent of the _à priori_ -likelihood in favour of this order of succession. The question however -suggests itself whether metallurgy did not find its natural beginning -there, as elsewhere, in the easy working of the virgin copper, and so -intercalate a copper age between Europe’s stone, and its true Bronze -Period. On this subject Dr. Latham remarks, in his _Ethnology of the -British Islands_, “Copper is a metal of which, in its unalloyed state, -no relics have been found in England. Stone and bone first; then bronze, -or copper and tin combined; but no copper alone. I cannot get over this -hiatus; cannot imagine a metallurgic industry beginning with the use of -alloys.” It is a mistake, however, to say that no unalloyed British -copper relics have been found. No very special attention was directed -till recently to the distinction. Nearly all the earlier writers who -refer to the metallic weapons and tools of ancient Mexico and Central -America, apply the term “copper” to the mixed metal of which these were -made; while among European antiquaries the corresponding relics of the -Old World are no less invariably designated bronze, though in many cases -thus taking for granted what analysis can alone determine. It is an -error, however, that the later nomenclature of archæological periods has -tended to strengthen: partly from the lack of appreciation of the -importance of the argument in favour of the first use of the metals in a -condition corresponding to the most primitive arts, and the discovery of -scientific processes at later stages. - -This peculiar interest attaches to the metallurgy of the New World, that -there all the earlier stages are clearly defined: the pure native metal, -wrought by the hammer without the aid of fire; the melted and moulded -copper; the alloyed bronze; and then the smelting, soldering, graving, -and other processes resulting from accumulating experience and matured -skill. But examples of British implements of pure copper have also been -noted. In a valuable paper by Mr. J. A. Phillips, on the metals and -alloys known to the ancients,[78] the results of analyses of -thirty-seven ancient bronzes are given. Among these are included three -swords, one from the Thames, the others from Ireland; a spear-head, two -celts, and two axe-heads: all of types well-known among the weapons of -the “Bronze Period.” Yet of the eight articles thus selected as examples -of “bronze” weapons, one, the spear-head, proved on analysis to be of -impure but unalloyed copper. Its composition is given as copper, 99·71; -sulphur, ·28. In 1822, Sir David Brewster described a large battle-axe -of pure copper, found at a depth of twenty feet in Ratho Bog, near -Edinburgh, under circumstances scarcely less remarkable than some of the -discoveries of works of art in the drift. The workmen dug down through -nine feet of moss and seven feet of sand, before they came to the hard -black till-clay; and at a depth of four feet in the clay the axe was -found. The author accordingly remarks: “It must have been deposited -along with the blue clay prior to the formation of the superincumbent -stratum of sand, and must have existed before the diluvial operations by -which that stratum was formed. This opinion of its antiquity is strongly -confirmed by the peculiarity of its shape, and the nature of its -composition.”[79] In 1850, my brother, Dr. George Wilson, undertook a -series of analyses of ancient British bronzes for me, and out of seven -specimens selected for experiment, one Scottish axe-head, rudely cast, -apparently in sand, was of nearly pure copper.[80] Of eight specimens of -metal implements selected for me by Mr. Thomas Ewbank, of New York, as -examples of Peruvian bronze; four of them, on analysis, proved to be of -unalloyed copper. The rich collections of the Royal Irish Academy -furnish interesting confirmation of this idea of a transitional copper -era. Dr. Wilde remarks, in his Catalogue of Antiquities, “Upon careful -examination, it has been found that thirty of the rudest, and apparently -the very oldest celts, are of red, almost unalloyed copper.” In addition -to those there are also two battle-axes, a sword-blade, a trumpet, -several fibulæ, and some rudely formed tools, all of copper; and now -that attention has been directed to the subject, further examples of the -same class will doubtless accumulate. - -A very important difference, however, distinguishes the mineral -resources of the British and the North American copper regions. Copper, -as we have seen, occurs in the trappean rocks of Keweenaw and Ontonagon, -in masses of many tons weight; and detached blocks of various sizes lie -scattered about in the superficial soil or exposed along the lake shore, -ready for use without any preparatory skill, or the slightest knowledge -of metallurgy. Nature in her own vast crucibles had carried the metal -ores through all their preparatory stages, and left them there for man -to shape into such forms as his convenience or simplest wants suggested. -The native silver had undergone the like preparation, and is of frequent -occurrence as a perfectly pure metal, being found, even when -interspersed in the mass of copper, still in distinct crystals, entirely -free from alloy with it. But neither tin nor zinc occurs throughout the -whole northern region to suggest to the native metallurgist the -production of that valuable alloy which is indissolubly associated with -the civilisation of Europe’s Bronze age. In Britain it is altogether -different. The tin and copper lie together, ready for alloy, but both -occur in the state of impure ores, inviting and necessitating the -development of metallurgy before they can be turned to economic uses. -Tin is obtained in Cornwall almost entirely from its peroxide; and -copper occurs there chiefly combined with sulphur and iron, forming the -double sulphuret which is commonly called copper pyrites or yellow -copper ore. The smelting process to which it has to be subjected is a -laborious and complicated one; and if we are prepared to believe in the -civilisation of Britain’s Bronze Period as a thing of native growth, the -early discovery and use of alloys very slightly affects the question. - -The ancient American miner of Lake Superior never learned to subject his -wealth of copper to the action of fire, and transfer it from the -crucible to the shapely mould. No such process was needed where it -abounded in inexhaustible quantities in a pure metallic state. If, in -the midst of such readily available metallic resources, he was found to -have used tools of bronze or brass, to have transported the tin or zinc -of other regions to his furnaces, and to have laboriously converted the -whole into a preferable substitute for the simpler metal that lay ready -for his use, it would be difficult indeed to conceive of such as the -initial stage in his metallurgy industry. But Britain presents no -analogy to this in its development of metallurgy arts. Tin, one of the -least widely-diffused of metals, is found there in the greatest -abundance, and easily accessible, not as a pure metal, but as an ore -which is readily reduced by charcoal and a moderate degree of heat to -that condition. This was the metallic wealth for which Britain was -sought by the ancient traders of Massilia, and the fleets of the -Mediterranean; and on it we may therefore assume her primitive -metallurgists to have first tried their simple arts. But alongside of -it, and even in natural combination with it, as in tin pyrites and the -double sulphuret, lies the copper, also in the condition of an ore, and -requiring the application of the metallurgist’s skill before it can be -turned to account. We know that at the very dawn of history tin was -exported from Britain. Copper also appears to have been wrought, from -very early times, in North Wales as well as in Cornwall. Both metals -were found rarely, and in small quantities, in the native state, but -these may have sufficed to suggest the next step of supplying them in -larger quantities from the ores. To seek in some unknown foreign source -for the origin of metallurgic arts, which had there all the requisite -elements for evoking them, seems wholly gratuitous; and, if once the -native metallurgist learned to smelt the tin and copper ores, and so had -been necessitated to subject them to preparatory processes of fire, the -next stage in progressive metallurgy, the use of alloys, was a simple -one. It might further be assumed that, with the discovery of the -valuable results arising from the admixture of tin with copper, the few -pure copper implements—excepting where already deposited among -sepulchral offerings,—would for the most part be returned to the -melting-pot, and reproduced in the more perfect and useful condition of -the bronze alloy. There seems, however, greater probability in the -supposition that if Britain had a copper period, or age of unalloyed -metals, it was of brief duration. - -The _cassiteron_, or tin which made the British Islands famous among -Phœnician and Greek mariners, long before the Roman legions ventured to -cross the narrow seas, was derived, as has been noted, from the same -south-western peninsula, where copper is still wrought. The name of -Cassiterides, or Tin Islands, bestowed on Cornwall and the adjacent -isles, seems to imply that tin was the chief export, and was transported -to the Mediterranean, to be mixed with the copper of the Wady Maghara, -and other Asiatic mines, to form the Egyptian, Phœnician, and Assyrian -bronze. Tin, therefore, the easiest of all metals to subject to the -requisite processes, first engaged the skill of the British -metallurgist; and that mastered, the proximity of the copper ore in the -same mineral districts, inevitably suggests all the subsequent processes -of smelting, fusion, and alloy. - -The practical value of the alloy of copper and tin was well-known both -to the Phœnicians and the Egyptians. Tin occurs in considerable -abundance, and in the purest state, in the peninsula of Malacca, and -thence, probably, it was first brought to give a new impetus to early -eastern civilisation. Britain is its next and its most abundant source; -and since America was embraced within the world’s sisterhood of nations, -Chili and Mexico have become known as productive sources of the same -useful metal. But the mineral wealth of Mexico and Peru was familiar to -nations of the New World long before it was made to contribute to -European commerce; and to a proximity of the metals best suited for the -first stages of human progress, corresponding in some degree to that to -which Britain’s ancient metallurgy has been traced, the curious phases -of a native and purely aboriginal civilisation may be ascribed, which -revealed itself to the wondering gaze of the first European adventurers -who followed in the steps of Columbus. Whatever doubts may arise -relative to the native origin of British metallurgy, and the works of -art of the European Bronze Period, in consequence of their most -characteristic illustrations being preserved in the mixed metal, bronze, -and not in pure copper: there is no room for any such doubts relative to -the primitive metallurgy of the New World. The American continent -appears to have had its two entirely independent centres of -self-originated metallurgic arts: its greatly prolonged but slight -progressive Copper Period; and apart from this, and in part at least -contemporaneous with it, a separate Bronze Period, with its distinct -centres of more advanced civilisation and better regulated metallurgic -industry, in which the value of metallic alloys was practically -understood. - -The great copper region of North America lies along the shores of Lake -Superior, and on its larger islands between the 46th and 48th parallels -of north latitude; and from thence its metallic treasures were diffused -by primitive commercial exchanges, throughout the whole vast regions -watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries: including also the -Atlantic states, and the shores of the great lakes. But southward and -westward of this area of diffusion, the Rio Grande and its tributaries, -with the Rio Colorado, drain a country modified by very diverse -conditions of climate, and having a totally distinct centre of -metallurgic wealth and civilising influences. In this central region of -the twin continents of America, as well as independently in tropical -Peru, native civilisation had advanced a considerable way, before it was -arrested and destroyed by the aggressions of foreign intruders. The -peculiar advantages derivable from the proximity of the distinct metals -had been discovered, and metallurgy had been developed into the -practical arts of a true American Bronze Age. - -When Columbus, during his fourth voyage, landed on one of the Guanaja -islands, before making the adjoining mainland of Honduras, it was -visited by a large trading canoe, the size and freight of which equally -attracted his notice. It was eight feet wide, and in magnitude like a -galley, though formed of the trunk of a single tree. In the centre a -raised awning covered and enclosed a cabin, in which sat a cacique with -his wives and children; and twenty-five rowers propelled it swiftly -through the water. The barque is believed to have come from the province -of Yucatan, then about forty leagues distant, through a sea the stormy -violence of which had daunted the most hardy Spanish seamen. It was -freighted with a great variety of articles of manufacture, and of the -natural produce of the neighbouring continent; and among them Herrara -specifies “small hatchets, made of copper, small bells and plates, -_crucibles to melt copper_, etc.” Here, at length, was the true answer -to that prophetic faith which upheld the great discoverer, when, peering -through the darkness, the New World revealed itself to his eye in the -glimmering torch, which told him of an unseen land inhabited by man. -Here was evidence of the intelligent service of fire. Well indeed might -it have been for Columbus had he been obedient to the voice that thus -directed his way. All the accompaniments of the voyagers furnished -evidence of civilisation. They were clothed with cotton mantles. Their -bread was made of Indian corn, and from it also they had brewed a -beverage resembling beer. They informed Columbus that they had just -arrived from a country, rich, populous, and industrious, situated to the -west; and urged him to steer in that direction. But his mind was bent on -the discovery of the imaginary strait that was to lead him directly into -the Indian seas, and it was left to Cortez to discover the singular -seats of native civilisation of Mexico and Central America. - -When at length the mainland was reached, the abundance and extensive use -of the metals became apparent; and as further discoveries brought to the -knowledge of the Spaniards the opulent and civilised countries of -Yucatan, Mexico, and Peru, they were more and more astonished by the -native metallic wealth. When the Spaniards first entered the province of -Tuspan, they mistook the bright copper or bronze axes of the natives for -gold, and were greatly mortified after having accumulated them in -considerable numbers to discover the mistake they had made. Bernal Diaz -narrates that “each Indian had, besides his ornaments of gold, a copper -axe, which was very highly polished, with the handle curiously carved, -as if to serve equally for an ornament, as for the field of battle. We -first thought these axes were made of an inferior kind of gold; we -therefore commenced taking them in exchange, and in the space of two -days had collected more than six hundred; with which we were no less -rejoiced, as long as we were ignorant of their real value, than the -Indians with our glass beads.” - -Ancient Mexican paintings show that the tribute due by certain provinces -of the Mexican empire was paid in wedges of copper; and Dupaix describes -and figures examples of a deposit of two hundred and seventy-six -axe-heads, cast of alloyed copper, such as, he observes, “are much -sought by the silversmiths on account of their fine alloy.” The forms of -these, as well as of the chisels and other tools of bronze, are simple, -and indicate no great ingenuity in adapting the moulded metal to the -more perfect accomplishment of the artificer’s or the combatant’s -requirements. The methods of hafting the axe-blade, as illustrated by -Mexican paintings, are nearly all of the same rude description as are -employed by the modern savage in fitting a handle to his hatchet of -flint or stone; and, indeed, the whole characteristics of the -metallurgic and artistic ingenuity of Mexico and Peru are suggestive of -immature development; though, from the nature of Peruvian institutions, -the civilisation of the latter, like that of China, may have long -existed, with slight and intermittent manifestations of progress. It was -indeed, in many respects, the transitional Bronze Period of the New -World, in which not only the arts of an elder stone-period had been very -partially modified by metallurgic influences, but in which the sword, or -_mahguahuitl_, made of wood, with blades of obsidian inserted along its -edge, the flint or obsidian arrow-head, the stone hatchet, and other -weapons, were still in common use, along with those of metal. - -Yet such traces of primitive arts are accompanied with remarkable -evidence of progress in some directions. Humboldt remarks, in his _Vues -des Cordillères_, on the surprising dexterity shown by the Peruvians in -cutting the hardest stones; and, after reference to the observations of -other travellers, he adds:—“I conjectured that the Peruvians had tools -of copper, which, mixed with a certain proportion of tin, acquires great -hardness. This conjecture has been justified by the discovery of an -ancient Peruvian chisel, found at Vilcabamba, near Cuzco, in a silver -mine worked in the time of the Incas. This valuable instrument, for -which I am indebted to the friendship of the Padre Narcisse Gilbar, is -four and seven-tenth inches long, and four-fifths of an inch broad. The -metal of which it is composed has been analysed by M. Vauquelin, who -found in it 0·94 of copper, and 0·06 of tin.” Unfortunately, the -composition of Mexican and Peruvian bronzes has hitherto attracted so -little attention, that it is impossible to obtain many accurate records -of analyses, or to procure specimens to submit to chemical tests. Dr. J. -H. Gibbon, of the United States Mint, favoured me with the analysis of -another chisel or crowbar, brought from the neighbourhood of Cuzco by -his son, Lieutenant Lardner Gibbon, who formed one of the members of the -Amazon Expedition. Through the kind services of Mr. Thomas Ewbank, of -the American Ethnological Society, I also obtained, in addition to -results determined by himself, eight specimens of such Peruvian -implements, though only a portion of them proved to be of metallic -alloys. They were submitted to careful analysis by my colleague, -Professor Henry Croft, and the results in reference to the bronzes are -given on a subsequent page. Mr. Squier, in the Appendix to his -_Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York_, engraves an implement -found with various Peruvian knives and chisels, about the person of a -mummy, taken by Mr. J. H. Blake, of Boston, from an ancient cemetery -near Arica. On analysis, it proved to contain about four per cent. of -tin. More recently I inspected a valuable collection of antiquities -brought by Mr. Blake from Peru, including a variety of bronze -implements; and he has favoured me with the following results:—“Many -years ago, I made a series of analyses of bronze instruments, knives, -chisels, hoes, etc., which I found in ancient cemeteries in Peru in -connection with embalmed bodies. I have not been able to find my notes -made at the time; but I know that they consisted of copper and tin only, -and that the proportion of the latter varied from upwards of two to four -per cent. After receiving your last letter, I made an analysis of a -small knife found by me, with many other articles, with the body of a -man, in the ancient cemetery near Arica, in South Peru. The handle is of -the same metal as the blade, and at right angles with it, being joined -at the middle. The end is fashioned to represent the head of a llama. On -analysis, the composition proves to be: Copper, 97·87; tin, 2·13.” Dr. -C. T. Jackson communicated another analysis of a “Chilian bronze -instrument, probably a crowbar,” to the Boston Natural History Society. -It contained 7·615 parts of tin, and is described by him as a bronze, -well adapted for such instruments as were to be hammer-hardened.[81] The -general results indicate a variable range of the tin alloy, from 2·130 -to 7·615 per cent.; which, in so far as any general inference can be -drawn from so small a number of examples, shows a more indeterminate and -partially developed metallurgy than the analyses of primitive European -bronzes disclose. - -Such is all the evidence I have been able to obtain relative to the -composition of Peruvian alloys, and the progress indicated thereby in -scientific metallurgy. It accords with other evidence of their mining -operations. During a recent visit to Peru Mr. James Douglas obtained for -me a set of primitive stone mining implements recovered from an ancient -shaft, exposed in working the Brillador mine, in the Province of -Coquimbo, Chili. They consist of a maul of granite, eight inches long, -with a groove wrought round the centre and over the thicker end; one of -diorite, also with a groove about one-third from the thicker end; a -conical hammer of granite; and another implement made of diorite, -apparently designed for pounding the copper ore. It has indentations -worked in the sides for the fingers and thumb; and when found was -covered at one end with green oxide of copper, as if from use in -pounding the ore. Near the mine are ancient graves indicated by circles -of stones; within which the skeletons are disposed in a sitting posture, -accompanied by conical bones and rude pottery. Such mining implements -were, no doubt, supplemented with others of metal; but so far as they -illustrate the progress of the ancient miners of Chili, the evidence -fully accords with the ideas otherwise formed of the Peruvians as a -people who had discovered for themselves the rudiments of civilisation, -but who had as yet very partially attained to any mastery of the arts -which have been matured in modern centuries for Europe. This agrees with -the description furnished by Dr. Tschudi of some of the metallurgic -processes still practised in Peru. “The Cordillera, in the neighbourhood -of Yauli,” he remarks, “is exceedingly rich in lead ore containing -silver. Within the circuit of a few miles above eight hundred shafts -have been made, but they have not been found sufficiently productive to -encourage extensive mining works. The difficulties which impede -mine-working in these parts are caused chiefly by the dearness of labour -and the scarcity of fuel. There being a total want of wood, the only -fuel that can be obtained consists of the dried dung of sheep, llamas, -and huanacos. This fuel is called _taquia_. It produces a very brisk and -intense flame, and most of the mine-owners prefer it to coal. The -process of smelting, as practised by the Indians, though extremely rude -and imperfect, is adapted to local circumstances. All European attempts -to improve the system of smelting in these districts have either totally -failed, or in their results have proved less effective than the simple -Indian method. The Indian furnaces can, moreover, be easily erected in -the vicinity of the mines, and when the metal is not very abundant the -furnaces may be abandoned without any great sacrifice. For the price of -one European furnace the Indians may build more than a dozen, in each of -which, notwithstanding the paucity of fuel, a considerably greater -quantity of metal may be smelted than in one of European construction.” -At the village of Yauli, near the mines referred to, situated at an -elevation of 13,100 feet above the sea, from twelve to fourteen thousand -Indians are congregated together, chiefly engaged in mining, after the -fashion handed down to them from generations before the Conquest. Their -processes correspond with the imperfect results disclosed by the -analysis of native alloys; as well as by other proofs that the Peruvians -were also accustomed to work the native copper into tools and personal -ornaments for common use, very much in the same fashion as the ancient -metallurgists of the Ohio valley. - -The contrast which the civilisation alike of Mexico and Peru presents, -when compared with the highest arts pertaining to any of the tribes of -North America, is well calculated to excite admiration. But the wonder -of the Spanish conquerors at their gems and gold, the ready credulity of -the missionary priests in their anxiety to magnify the gorgeous paganism -which they had overthrown, and the patriotic exaggeration of later -chroniclers of native descent, have all tended to overdraw the picture -of the beneficent despotism of the Incas of Peru; or the crueller but -not less magnificent rule of the Caciques of Mexico. With a willing -credulity Spanish historians perpetuated what the Peruvian Garcilasso -and the Mexican Ixtlilxochitl related, in their adaptations of native -history and traditions to European conceptions. Religious, political, -and social analogies to European ideas and institutions, accordingly, -strike the modern student with wonder and admiration; nor has the gifted -author of the _Conquests of Mexico and Peru_ always sufficiently -discriminated between the glowing romances begot by an alliance between -the barbarous magnificence of a rude native despotism and the associated -ideas of European institutions. The metallic treasures of the Incas of -Peru are probably not exaggerated; and if so, the precious metals with -which their palaces and temples were adorned would have been the index, -in any European capital, of a wealth sufficient to employ the -merchant-navies of Venice, Holland, or England in the commerce of the -world. But in Peru this was the mere evidence of the abundance of the -precious metals in a country where they were as little the -representatives of a commercial currency as the feathers of the -coraquenque, which were reserved exclusively for the decoration of -royalty. - -The Peruvians occupied a long extent of sea-coast, but no commercial -enterprise tempted them to launch their navies on the Pacific, excepting -for the most partial coasting transit. The great mass of the people -patiently wrought to produce from their varied tropical climates and -fertile soil the agricultural produce on which the entire community -depended; resembling in this, as well as in the vast structures wrought -by a patiently submissive people at the will of their absolute rulers, -the great oriental despotisms when in their earliest and least -licentious forms. Their own traditions traced the dawn of their -government no further back than the twelfth century; and the -characteristics of their imperfect and unequally developed civilisation -confirm the inference that they have not in this respect departed from -the invariable tendency of historic myth and tradition to exaggerate the -national age. Extensive ruins still existing on the shores of Lake -Titicaca are affirmed by the Peruvians to have existed before the Incas -arrived. But slight importance can be attached to the traditions of an -unlettered people concerning events of any kind dating four or five -centuries back. The authority of Bede is of little value relative to -Jute or Anglo-Saxon colonisation less than three centuries before his -time; and the modern New Englander, with deeds and parchments, as well -as abundance of printed history to help his tradition, cannot make up -his mind as to whether the famous Newport Round Tower was built by a -Norse viking of the eleventh, or a New England miller of the seventeenth -century. “No account,” says Prescott, “assigns to the Inca dynasty more -than thirteen princes before the Conquest. But this number is altogether -too small to have spread over four hundred years, and would not carry -back the foundations of the monarchy, on any probable computation, -beyond two centuries and a half—an antiquity not incredible in itself, -and which, it may be remarked, does not precede by more than half a -century the alleged foundation of the capital of Mexico.” Humboldt, in -his _Vues des Cordillères_, indicates the borders of Lake Titicaca, the -district of Callao, and the high plains of Tiahuanaco, as the theatre of -ancient American civilisation; and Prescott, in view of the apparently -recent origin of the Incas, assumes that they were preceded in Peru by -another civilised race, which, in conformity with native traditions, he -would derive from this same cradle-land of South American arts. Beyond -this, however, he does not attempt to penetrate into that unchronicled -past. Who this people were, and whence they came, may afford a tempting -theme for inquiry to the speculative ethnologist; but it is a land of -darkness lying beyond the domain of history. The same mists that hang -round the origin of the Incas continue to settle on their subsequent -annals; and so imperfect were the records employed by the Peruvians, and -so confused and contradictory their traditions, that the historian finds -no firm footing on which to stand till within a century of the Spanish -conquest. - -In reality only a very small portion of what is called Peruvian history -prior to that conquest can be regarded as anything but a historical -romance; and the exaggerated conceptions relative to the completeness -and consistent development alike of Peruvian and Mexican civilisation, -are based on the old axiom which has so often misled the archæologist, -_ex pede Herculem_. - -Viewed, however, without exaggeration, the progress in mechanical skill -and artistic ingenuity attained by both of the semi-civilised American -nations, is very remarkable; and seems to find its nearest analogy among -the modern Chinese and Japanese. Small mirrors of polished bronze now in -use in Japan exactly reproduce some of those found in the royal tombs of -Peru. These tombs of the Incas, and also their royal and other -depositories of treasure, have disclosed many specimens of curious and -elaborate metallurgic skill: bracelets, collars, and other personal -ornaments of gold, vases of the same abundant precious metal, and also -of silver; mirrors of burnished silver and bronze, as well as of -obsidian; polished masks, rings, and cups of the same intractable -material; finely adjusted balances made in silver; bells both of silver -and bronze; and numerous commoner articles of copper, or of the more -useful alloy of copper and tin, of which their tools were chiefly made. - -But while the arts of civilisation were being fostered on those southern -plateaux of the Andes, another seat of native American civilisation had -been founded on the corresponding plateaux of the northern continent, -and the Aztecs were building up an empire even more marvellous than that -of the Incas. The site of the latter is among the most remarkable of all -the scenes consecrated to such memories. On the lofty table-land which -lies between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, at an elevation -of nearly seven thousand five hundred feet, the valley of Mexico lies -engirdled by its ramparts of porphyritic rock, like a vast fortress -provided by nature for guarding the infancy of American civilisation. -Here was the scene of the heroic age of Toltec Art, where the -foundations of all later progress were laid, and architecture achieved -its earliest triumphs in the New World on the temples and towers of -Tula, the ruined remains of which attracted the attention of the -Spaniards at the time of the Conquest. But the history of the Toltecs -and their ruined edifices stands on the border lines of romance and -fable, like that of the Druid builders of Carnac and Avebury. To them, -according to tradition and such historical evidence as is accessible, -succeeded their Aztec or Mexican supplanters, along with the Acolhuans, -or Tezcucans, as they were latterly called from their capital Tezcuco. -Mr. Edward B. Tylor describes an ancient arch which still stands there. -It is a skew-bridge of twenty feet span, built with slabs of stone set -on edge in the form of a roof resting on two buttresses; and is an -ingenious approximation to the true arch.[82] On the opposite shores of -the same Mexican lake, the largest of five inland waters that -diversified the surface of that great table-land valley, stood Tezcuco -and Mexico, the capitals of the two most important states within which -the native civilisation of the North American continent developed -itself. From the older Toltecans, the encroaching Tezcucans are believed -to have derived the germs of that progress, which is best known to us in -connection with the true Aztec or Mexican state. Legends of the golden -age and heroic races of Anahuac abound, and have been rendered into -their least extravagant forms by the patriotic zeal of Ixtlilxochitl, a -lineal descendant of the royal line of Tezcuco. But the true Mexicans -are acknowledged to be of recent origin, and the founding of Mexico is -assigned to A.D. 1326. Among the special evidences of their civilisation -is their calendar. By the unaided results of native science the dwellers -on the Mexican plateau had effected an adjustment of civil to solar -time, so nearly correct that when the Spaniards landed on their coast, -their own reckoning, according to the unreformed Julian calendar, was -nearly eleven days in error, compared with that of the barbarian nation -whose civilisation they so speedily effaced. But the difference thus -noted represented in the European calendar the accumulated error of -upwards of sixteen centuries; so that the approximation of Mexican -computation to true solar time is probably only a proof of the recent -adjustment of their calendar; and so confirms the probability of the -founding of the Mexican capital within two centuries of its overthrow. -But the founders of Tenochtitlan, as the new capital was called, were a -vigorous, enterprising, and ferocious race. The later name of Mexico was -derived from the Aztec war-god Mexitli, whose favours to his votaries -enabled them to form a powerful state by conquest, to enrich themselves -with spoil, and to replace the rude structures of their city’s founders -with substantial and ornate buildings of stone. - -Whatever gloze of mild paternal absolutism may linger around our -conceptions of the prehistoric chronicles of Peru, a clearer light -illuminates the harsh realities of Mexican sovereignty. The god of war -was the supreme deity of the Aztecs, worshipped with hideous rites of -blood. Their civil and military codes, according to the narrative of -their conquerors, were alike cruel as that of Draco; and their religious -worship was a system of austere fanaticism and loathsome butchery, which -seemed to refine the cruelties of the Red Indian savage into a ritual -service fit only for the devil. But besides their hideous war-god, the -Mexican mythology was graced by a beneficent divinity, named -Quetzalcoatl, the instructor of the Aztecs in the use of metals, in -agriculture, and in the arts of government. This and similar elements of -Mexican mythology have been regarded as traces of a milder faith -inherited from their Toltecan predecessors. The idea is one supported by -many probabilities, as well as by some evidence. The early history of -the Northmen, however, in which we witness the blending of a rich poetic -fancy, wherein lay the germ of later Norman romance and chivalry, with -cruelties pertaining to a creed little less bloody than that of the -Mexican warrior, shows that no such theory is needed to account for the -incongruities of the religious system of the Aztecs. In truth, the -ferocity of a semi-barbarous people is often nothing more than its -perverted excess of energy; and, as has been already noted in reference -to the Caribs, is more easily dealt with, and turned into healthful and -beneficent action, than the cowardly craft of the slave. It is only when -such hideous rites are consciously engrafted on the usages of a people -already far in advance of such a semi-barbarous childhood, as in the -adoption of the Inquisition by Spain at the commencement of its modern -history, that they prove utterly baneful; because the nation is already -past that stage of progress in which it can naturally outgrow them. - -Hideous, therefore, as were the human sacrifices, with their annual -thousands of victims; the offerings of infants to propitiate Tlaloc, -their rain-god; and the loathsome banquets on the bodies of their -sacrificed victims:—if indeed this be not an exaggeration of Spanish -credulity and fanaticism;—it is nevertheless difficult to concur in the -verdict of the gifted historian of _The Conquest of Mexico_, that “it -was beneficently ordered by Providence that the land should be delivered -over to another race who would rescue it from the brutish superstitions -that daily extended wider and wider, with extent of empire.” The rule of -the conquerors, with their Dominican ministers of religion, was no -beneficent sway; and its fruits in later times have not proved of such -value as to reconcile the student of that strange old native -civilisation of the votaries of Quetzalcoatl, to its abrupt arrestment, -at a stage which can only be paralleled by the earlier centuries of -Egyptian progress. - -Metallurgic arts were carried in some respects further by the Mexicans -than by the Peruvians. Silver, lead, and tin were obtained from the -mines of Tasco and Pachuca; copper was wrought in the mountains of -Zacotollan, by means of galleries and shafts opened with persevering -toil where the metallic veins were imbedded in the solid rock; and -there, as at the Lake Superior copper regions, the traces of such -ancient mining have proved the best guides to modern searchers for the -ores. The arts of casting, engraving, chasing, and carving in metal, -were all practised with great skill. Vessels both of gold and silver -were wrought of enormous size: so large, it is said, that a man could -not encircle them with his arms; and the abundant gold was as lavishly -employed in Mexico as in Peru, in the gorgeous adornment of temples and -palaces. Ingenious toys, birds and beasts with moveable wings and limbs, -fish with alternate scales of silver and gold, and personal ornaments in -great variety, were wrought by the Mexican goldsmiths of the precious -metals, with such curious art, that the Spaniards acknowledged the -superiority of the native workmanship over anything they could achieve. -When Cortes first entered the capital of Montezuma in 1513, the Mexican -ruler received him in the palace built by his father Axayacatl, and hung -round his neck a decoration of the finest native workmanship. The shell -of a species of craw-fish, set in gold, formed the centre, and massive -links of gold completed the collar, from which depended eight ornaments -of the same metal, delicately-wrought in imitation of the prized -shell-fish. - -The arts thus practised on the great plateau extended to the most -southern limits of the North American continent. The ancient graves of -the Isthmus of Panama have been ransacked by thousands in recent years, -from the temptation which the gold relics they contain hold out to their -explorers. Those include representations of beasts, birds, and fishes, -frogs, and other objects, imitated from nature, often with great skill -and ingenuity. One gold frog which I examined had the eyes hollow, with -an oval slit in front, and within each a detached ball of gold, which -appeared to have been executed in a single casting. This insertion of -detached balls is frequently met with in the pottery, as well as in the -goldsmith’s work of the Isthmus, and is singularly characteristic of a -peculiar phase of local art. Human figures, and monstrous or grotesque -hybrids wrought in gold, with the head of the cayman, the eagle, and -other animals, attached to the human form, are also found in the same -graves; but, so far as my own opportunities of observation enable me to -judge, the human figure generally exhibits inferior imitative skill and -execution to the representations of other animate subjects. But all -alike display abundant metallurgic art. Soldering as well as casting was -known to the ancient goldsmith, and the finer specimens have been -finished with the hammer and graving-tool. Judging from the condition of -the human remains found in those huacas of the peninsula, they are -probably of a much higher antiquity than the era of Mexican -civilisation; and lying as they do in the narrow isthmus between the -twin continents, they suggest the probability of a common source for the -origin of Peruvian and Aztec arts. - -But while the Mexicans wrought their ingenious toys, lavished their -inexhaustible resources of gold and silver in personal decoration, and -adorned their public edifices with scarcely less boundless profusion -than the Peruvians, they had learned to some extent the practical value -of gold and other metals as a convenient currency. By means of this -equivalent for the gold and silver coinage of Europe, the interchange of -commodities in the great markets of Mexico was facilitated, and an -important step in the progress towards a higher stage of civilisation -secured. This metallic currency consisted of pieces of tin cut in the -form of a =T= or stamped with a similar character, and of transparent -quills filled with gold dust. These were apparently regulated to a -common standard by their size: for the use of scales and weights, with -which the Peruvians were familiar, appears to have been unknown in -Mexico. - -The nature of the Mexican currency accords with the knowledge and -experience of a people among whom metallurgic arts were of comparatively -recent origin. The easily fused tin, and the attractive and accessible -gold-dust, supplied ready materials for schooling the ingenious -metallurgist in the use of the metals. Copper was probably first -employed when found in a pure metallic state, as among the old miners of -Lake Superior; while the art of fusing, taught by the Aztec Tubal-Cain, -was tried only on the readily-yielding tin. By this means the arts of -smelting and moulding the ores would be acquired, and applied to copper, -silver, and gold, as well as to tin. Accident might suggest the next -important stage, that of metallic alloys; but under the circumstances -alike of Peruvian and Mexican civilisation, progressing in regions -abounding with the most attractive and easily-wrought metals, it is not -difficult to conceive of the independent discovery of the useful bronze -alloy. Yet by the standard composition of their bronze, far more than by -the ingenious intricacy of their personal ornaments, utensils, and -architectural decorations, the actual progress of the Incas or of the -Aztecs may fairly be tested. The delight of the savage in personal -adornment precedes even the needful covering of his nakedness, and the -same propensity long monopolises the whole inventive ingenuity of a -semi-barbarous people; while the useful bronze tools embody the true -germs of incipient civilisation. Tested by such a standard, the -metallurgic arts of Peru furnish evidence of very partial development. - -The alloy of copper and tin, when destined for practical use in -manufacture, is found to possess the most serviceable qualities when -composed of about ninety per cent. of copper to ten of tin; and so near -is the approximation to this theoretical standard among the bronze -relics of the ancient world, that the archæologists of Europe have been -divided in opinion as to whether they should assume a Phœnician or other -common origin for the weapons, implements, and personal ornaments of -that metal found over the whole continent; or that the mixed metal, -derived from a common centre, was manufactured in various countries of -Europe into the objects of diverse form and pattern abounding in their -soil, or deposited among their sepulchral offerings. - -But the approximation to a uniform alloy is no more than would -inevitably result from the experience of the extreme brittleness -resulting from any undue excess of the tin. Accident, or the natural -proximity of the metals or ores, as they occur in the mineral regions of -England, may have furnished the first disclosure of the important -secret. But that once discovered, the subsequent steps were inevitable. -Having ascertained that he could produce a harder and more useful -compound than the pure copper by alloying it with tin, the native -metallurgist would not fail to vary the proportions of the latter till -he had obtained a sufficiently near approximation to the best bronze, to -answer the purposes for which it was designed. No interchange of -experience was necessary to lead the metallurgists of remote regions to -similar results; nor would a closer correspondence between the -proportionate ingredients of the native American and European bronze -than has yet been detected, indicate more than common aims, and the -inevitable experience, consequent on the properties of the varying -alloy, leading to corresponding results. - -The following table of analyses of ancient European bronze relics will -suffice to show how little foundation there is for the assumption of any -common origin for the alloy of which they were made; and the -corresponding evidence of proportionate ingredients disclosed by -analyses of native American bronzes, disproves the theory of any -European or other foreign source for the metallurgic arts of the New -World. - - ANALYSES OF ANCIENT BRONZES. - -No.│ │Coppe│Tin. │Lead.│Iron.│Silve - │ │ r. │ │ │ │ r. - 1.│Caldron, Berwickshire, │92·89│ 5·15│ 1·78│ │ - 2.│Sword, Duddingston, │88·51│ 9·30│ 2·30│ │ - 3.│Kettle, Berwickshire │88·22│ 5·63│ 5·88│ │ - 4.│Axe-head, Mid-Lothian, │88·05│11·12│ 0·78│ │ - 5.│Caldron, Duddingston, │84·08│ 7·19│ 8·53│ │ - 6.│Palstave, Fifeshire, │81·19│18·31│ 0·75│ │ - 7.│Vessel, Ireland, │88·00│12·00│ │ │ - 8.│Wedge, ” │94·00│ 5·09│ │ 0·01│ - 9.│Sword, ” │88·63│ 8·54│ 2·83│ │ -10.│Sword, ” │83·50│ 5·15│ 8·35│ 3·00│ -11.│Lituus, Lincolnshire, │88·00│12·00│ │ │ -12.│Roman patella, ” │86·00│14·00│ │ │ -13.│Spear-head, ” │86·00│14·00│ │ │ -14.│Scabbard, ” │90·00│10·00│ │ │ -15.│Axe palstave, Cumberland, │91·00│ 9·00│ │ │ -16.│Axe-head, ” │88·00│12·00│ │ │ -17.│Vessel, Cambridgeshire, │88·00│12·00│ │ │ -18.│Axe-head, Ireland, │91·00│ 9·00│ │ │ -19.│Sword, Thames, │89·69│ 9·58│ │ 0·33│ -20.│Sword, Ireland, │85·62│10·02│ │ 0·44│ -21.│Celt, ” │90·68│ 7·43│ 1·28│ │ -22.│Axe-head, ” │90·18│ 9·81│ │ │ -23.│Axe-head, ” │89·33│ 9·19│ │ │ -24.│Celt, ” │83·61│10·79│ 3·20│ 0·58│ -25.│Celt, King’s Co., Ireland,│85·23│13·11│ 1·14│ │ -26.│Drinking-horn, ” ” │79·34│10·87│ 9·11│ │ -27.│Celt, Co. Cavan, ” │86·98│12·57│ │ │ 0·37 -28.│Celt, ” │98·74│ 1·09│ │ 0·08│ 0·06 -29.│Celt, Co. Wicklow, ” │88·30│10·92│ 0·10│ │ -30.│Celt, Co. Cavan, ” │95·64│ 4·56│ 0·25│ │ 0·02 -31.│Spear-head, ” │86·28│12·74│ 0·07│ 0·31│ -32.│Spear-head, ” │84·64│14·01│ │ │ -33.│Scythe, Roscommon, ” │95·85│ 2·78│ 0·12│ 1·32│ -34.│Sword-handle, ” │87·07│ 8·52│ 3·37│ │ -35.│Sword, ” │87·94│11·35│ 0·28│ │ -36.│Dagger, ” │90·72│ 8·25│ 0·87│ │ -37.│Chisel, ” │91·03│ 8·39│ │ │ -38.│Caldron, ” │88·71│ 9·46│ 1·66│ 0·03│ -39.│Sword, France, │87·47│12·53│ │ │ -40.│Spear-head, Northumberland, │91·12│ 7·97│ 0·77│ │ - - Nos. 1-6. Dr. George Wilson. - 7-8. Dr. J. H. Gibbon, U.S. Mint. - 9-10. Professor Davy. - 11-18. Dr. Pearson, _Philosoph. Trans._ 1796. - 19-24. J. A. Philips, _Mém. Chem. Soc._, iv. p. 288. - 25, 26. Dr. Donovan, _Chem. Gazette_, 1850, p. 176. - 27-38. Mr. J. W. Mallet, _Transactions R. I. A._ vol. - xxii. p. 325. - 39. Mongez, _Mém. de l’Institut_. - 40. Dr. E. Macadam, _Proceed. S. A. Scot._ viii. 300. - - In No. 31 is also Cobalt, ·09; in No. 37, Antimony, ·04; and in - No. 41, Arsenic, ·03. - -From the varied results which so many analyses disclose, ranging as they -do from 79 to 98 per cent. of copper; as well as from the diversity of -the ingredients: it is abundantly obvious that no greater uniformity is -traceable, than might be expected to result from the operations of -isolated metallurgists, very partially acquainted with the chemical -properties of the standard alloy, and guided for the most part by the -experience derived from successive results of their manufacture. It is -thus apparent that the various exigencies of the metallurgist, under the -control of a very ordinary amount of practical skill, would lead to the -determination of the best proportions for this useful alloy; though it -would only be after the accumulated fruits of isolated experiment had -been combined, that anything more than some crude approximation to the -best composition of bronze would be determined. Hence the value of -analytical evidence in determining the degree of civilisation of Mexico -and Peru, as indicated by their metallurgic arts. For the general -requirements of a tool, or weapon of war, where a sufficient hardness -must be obtained without any great liability to fracture, the best -proportions proved to be about 90 per cent. of copper to 10 of tin; or -with a small proportion of lead in lieu of part of the tin: which, as -further experience taught the primitive worker in bronze, communicates -to the cutting instrument a greater degree of toughness, and -consequently diminishes its liability to fracture. But where great -hardness is the chief requisite, as in certain engraving, carving, and -gem-cutting tools, the mere increase of tin in the alloy supplies the -requisite quality: until the excessive brittleness of the product gives -warning that the true limit has been exceeded. In this, I doubt not, -lies the whole secret of Mexican and Peruvian metallurgy, which has -seemed so mysterious, and therefore so marvellous to the most sagacious -inquirers. - -The following table furnishes the results of analyses of various ancient -American bronzes. Few as the examples are, they afford definite -illustration of the subject under review, and supply some means of -comparison with the data already furnished relative to the ancient -bronzes of Europe. - - ANALYSES OF ANCIENT AMERICAN BRONZES. - - No.│ │Copper. │ Tin. │ Iron. - 1.│Chisel from silver mines,│94· │6· │ - │Cuzco, │ │ │ - 2.│Chisel from Cuzco, │92·385 │7·615 │ - 3.│Knife from grave, │97·87 │2·13 │ - │Atacama, │ │ │ - 4.│Knife ” ” │96· │4· │ - 5.│Crowbar from Chili, │92·385 │7·615 │ - 6.│Knife from Amaro, │95·664 │3·965 │0·371 - 7.│Perforated axe, │96· │4· │ - 8.│Personal ornament, │95·440 │4·560 │ - │Truigilla, │ │ │ - 9.│Bodkin from female grave,│96·70 │3·30 │ - │do., │ │ │ - - Nos. 1. Humboldt. - 2. Dr. J. H. Gibbon. - 3, 4. J. H. Blake, Esq. - 5. Dr. T. C. Jackson. - 6, 7. Dr. H. Croft. - 8, 9. T. Ewbank, Esq. - -The comparison of this with the previous table indicates a smaller -amount of tin in the American bronze than in that of ancient Europe. For -some Egyptian spear-heads Gmelin gives, copper 77·60, tin 22·02; and the -composition of ancient weapons, armour, vessels, and coins, seems to -indicate such a systematic variation of proportions as implies the -result of experience in adapting the alloy for the specific purpose in -view. A much larger number of analyses would be desirable as data from -which to generalise on the metallurgic skill developed independently by -native American civilisation; but the examples adduced seem to show that -there is no lost secret for Europe to discover. - -The native metallurgist had learned the art of alloying his ductile -copper with the still softer tin, and producing by their chemical -admixture a harder, tougher metal than either. But he does not appear to -have carried his observation so far as to ascertain the most efficient -proportions of the combining metals; or even to have made any very -definite approximation to a fixed rule, further than to use with great -moderation the alloying tin. He had discovered, but not entirely -mastered, a wonderful secret, such as in the ancient world had proved to -lie at the threshold of all higher truths in mechanical arts. He was -undoubtedly advancing, slowly but surely, on the direct course of -national elevation; and the centuries which have followed since the -conquests of Cortes and Pizarro might have witnessed in the New World -triumphs not less marvellous in the progress of civilisation than those -which distinguish the England of Victoria from that of the first Tudor. -But native science and art were abruptly arrested in their progress by -the Spanish conquistadors; and it is difficult to realise the conviction -that either Mexico or Peru has gained any adequate equivalent for the -loss which thus debars us from the solution of some of the most -interesting problems connected with the progress of the human race. Amid -all the exclusiveness of China, and the isolation of Japan, there is -still an unknown quantity among the elements of their civilisation -derived from the same sources as our own. But the America of the -fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was literally another world, securely -guarded from external influences. Nevertheless while all appears to have -been self-originated, we meet everywhere with affinities to the arts of -man elsewhere, and trace out the processes by which he has been guided, -from the first promptings of a rational instinct to the intelligent -development of many later steps of reason and experience. - ------ - -[78] _Méms. Chemical Society_, vol. iv. p. 288. - -[79] _Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_, vol. vi. p. 357. - -[80] _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_ (2d ed.), vol. i. p. 319. - -[81] _Proceedings_, _B. N. H. S._, vol. v., p. 63. - -[82] Anahuac, p. 153. - - - - - CHAPTER X. - THE MOUND-BUILDERS. - - - EARTH-PYRAMIDS—MONUMENTS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS—SEATS OF ANCIENT - POPULATION—DIFFERENT CLASSES OF WORKS—ANCIENT STRONGHOLDS— - NATURAL SITES—FORT HILL, OHIO—IROQUOIS STRONGHOLDS—ANALOGOUS - STRONGHOLDS—FORTIFIED CIVIC SITES—SACRED ENCLOSURES—NEWARK - EAGLE MOUND—GEOMETRICAL EARTHWORKS—PLAN OF NEWARK EARTHWORKS, - OHIO—A STANDARD OF MEASUREMENT—DIVERSITY OF WORKS—THE - CINCINNATI TABLET—A GEOMETRICAL INSTRUMENT—TRACES OF EXTINCT - ARTS. - -The progress hitherto noted has related chiefly to the tools of the -workman. In Mexico, and still more in Central America and Peru, those -were applied both to sculpture and architecture on a grand scale. But -some of the most singular memorials of the primitive architecture of the -New World survive in the form of gigantic earthworks, perpetuating in -their construction remarkable evidence of geometrical skill. - -Along the broad levels drained by the Mississippi and its numerous -tributaries traces of America’s allophylian population abound; and the -Ohio valley is pre-eminently remarkable for the number and magnitude of -such works. The Ohio and its tributary streams flow through a fine -undulating, fertile country, which now forms one of the great centres of -population; and the evidence of modern enterprise and skill which -abounds there gives additional interest to traces which disclose to us -proof that this vast area is not now rescued for the first time from the -primeval forest, with its wild fauna, and still wilder savage man. - -In a region such as this, attracting population to the broad alluvial -terraces overlooking its smoothly-flowiug rivers, it was natural that -the building instinct of man should first employ itself on earthworks; -and that the monuments should assume a pyramidal form. The great mound -of Miamisburg, Ohio, is sixty-eight feet high, and eight hundred and -fifty-two feet in circumference at its base. The more famous Grave Creek -Mound of Virginia rises to a height of seventy feet, and measures at its -base one thousand feet in circumference. Other and still larger -earthworks have been noted, such as the truncated pyramid at Cahokia, -Illinois, which, while it remained intact, occupied an area upwards of -two thousand feet in circumference, and reared its level summit, of -several acres in extent, to a height of ninety feet. But this last -belongs to a different class from the sepulchral mounds which appear to -be unsurpassed by any known works of their kind. “We have seen mounds,” -remarks Flint, an American topographer, with a just appreciation of the -relation of these earthworks to the features of the surrounding -landscape, “which would require the labour of a thousand men employed on -our canals, with all their mechanical aids, and the improved implements -of their labour, for months. We have more than once hesitated in view of -one of those prodigious mounds, whether it were not really a natural -hill. But they are uniformly so placed, in reference to the adjacent -country, and their conformation is so unique and similar, that no eye -hesitates long in referring them to the class of artificial erections.” -The exploration of these huge earth pyramids has set at rest any doubts -as to their artificial origin; and has, moreover, established the fact -that they are structures erected to perpetuate the memory of the -honoured dead in ages utterly forgotten, and by a race of which they -preserve almost the sole remaining vestiges. - -The works of the Mound-Builders extend over a wide area, and include -many other structures besides those of a sepulchral character. The -people by whom they were executed must have been in a condition very -different from the forest tribes of the seventeenth and eighteenth -centuries. Nevertheless, though congregated at many favourite points in -large communities, they may have been isolated by extensive tracts of -forest from the regions beyond the river-systems on which they were -settled. The country lying remote from the larger tributaries of the -Mississippi was probably in the era of the Mound-Builders, as in later -times, covered with forest; while perchance on outlying regions, or -beyond the great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains, the progenitors of -modern Indian tribes lurked: like the barbarians of ante-Christian -Europe, beyond the Rhine and the Baltic. - -The fertile valley of the Scioto appears to have been one of the seats -of densest population, as indicated by the numerous works which -diversify its surface. Corresponding evidence preserves the traces of an -equally numerous population in the Miami Valley; and the mounds and -earthworks of various kinds throughout the state of Ohio are estimated -at between eleven and twelve thousand. They are stated to be scarcely -less numerous on the Kenhawas in Virginia than on the Scioto and Miamis, -and are abundant on the White River and Wabash, as also upon the -Kentucky, Cumberland, Tennessee, and numerous other tributaries of the -Ohio and Mississippi. Works accumulated in such numbers, and, including -many of great magnitude and elaborateness of design, executed by the -combined labour of large bodies of workmen, afford indisputable evidence -of a settled and industrious population. Beyond those carefully explored -regions, traces of other ancient structures have been observed at widely -separated points; though caution must be exercised in generalising from -data furnished by casual and inexperienced observers. All primitive -earthworks, whether for defence, sepulchral memorials, or religious -rites, have certain features in common; and the tendency of the popular -mind is rather to exaggerate chance resemblances into forced analogies -and parallels, than to exercise any critical discrimination. Including, -however, all large earthworks essentially dissimilar from the slight -structures of the modern Indian, they appear to stretch from the upper -waters of the Ohio to the westward of Lake Erie, and thence along Lake -Michigan, nearly to the Copper Regions of Lake Superior. Examples of a -like character have been traced through Wisconsin, Iowa, and the -Nebraska Territory; while in the south their area is bounded by the -shores of the Gulf of Florida and the Mexican territory, where they seem -gradually to lose their distinctive character, and pass into the great -teocallis of a higher developed Mexican architecture. Their affinities -are indeed more southern than northern. They are scarcely, if at all, to -be found to the eastward of the water-shed between the Mississippi and -the Atlantic, in the States of Pennsylvania, New York, or Virginia; and -they have been rightly designated, from their chief site, the Ancient -Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, including those of its tributaries, -and especially of the valley of the Ohio. There their localities fully -accord with those which, in the primitive history of the Old World, -reveal the most abundant traces of an aboriginal population, in their -occupation of the broad alluvial terraces, or “river bottoms,” as they -are styled. To the north the memorials of an ancient population are of a -different character; and the earthworks in the vicinity of the Great -Lakes must be classed by themselves, as indicating distinct customs and -rites. - -The remarkable works thus traceable over so large an extent of the North -American continent admit of being primarily arranged into the two -subdivisions of Enclosures and Mounds, and those again embrace a variety -of works evidently designed for very different uses. Under the first of -these heads are included the fortifications or strongholds; the sacred -enclosures, destined, as is assumed, for religious rites; and numerous -miscellaneous works of the same class, generally symmetrical in -structure, but the probable use of which it is difficult to determine. -The second subdivision embraces the true mound-buildings, including what -have been specially designated sacrificial, sepulchral, temple, and -animal-mounds. All partake of characteristics pertaining to a broad -level country; but this is nowhere so strikingly apparent as where -mounds seem to have been purposely erected as observatories or points of -sight from whence to survey the works elaborated on a gigantic scale on -the level plain. In addition to the striking features which their -external aspect exhibits: wherever they have been excavated interesting -relics of the ancient builders have been disclosed, adding many graphic -illustrations of their social condition, and of the artistic and -industrial arts of the period to which they pertain. - -The British hill-forts, the remarkable vitrified forts of Scotland, and -the larger strongholds of the British aborigines, such as the ingenious -circumvallations of the White Caterthun overlooking the valley of -Strathmore, all derive their peculiar character from the mountainous -features of the country; while on the low ground, under the shadow of -the Ochils, the elaborate earthworks of the Camp of Ardoch show the -strikingly contrasting castrametation of the Roman invaders. The ancient -raths of Ireland, which abound in the level districts of that country, -as well as on heights where stone is not readily accessible, also -furnish highly interesting illustrations of earthworks with a special -character derived from the features of their localities. An earthen -_dune_ or _rath_, as in the celebrated Rath Keltair at Downpatrick, -occupies a commanding site, where it is strongly entrenched, with a -considerable space of ground enclosed within its outworks. The -celebrated Hill of Tara, in the county of Meath, ceased, according to -tradition, to be the chief seat of the Irish kings, since its desertion -in the latter part of the sixth century, shortly after the death of -Dermot, the son of Fergus. It appears to have been a fortified city; and -now, after the devastations of thirteen centuries, its dunes, -circumvallations and trenches, present many interesting points of -comparison with the more extensive earthworks of the Mississippi valley. -But neither the Scottish White Caterthun, nor the Irish Bath Keltair, or -even the Rath Righ of Tara Hill, can compare with the remarkable -American stronghold of Fort Hill, Ohio, or Fort Ancient on the Little -Miami River, in the same State. - -The valley of the Mississippi is a vast sedimentary basin extending from -the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains. Through this the great river and -its numerous tributaries have made their way for countless ages, working -out shallow depressions in the plain, on which are recorded successive -epochs of change in the terraces that mark the deserted levels of -ancient channels. The edges of these table-lands bordering on the -valleys are indented by numerous ravines; and the junctions of many -lesser streams with the rivers have formed nearly detached peninsulas, -or in some cases tracts of considerable elevation insulated from the -original table-land. Many of those bluff headlands, peninsulas, and -isolated hills presented all the requisite adaptations for native -strongholds. They have, accordingly, been fortified with great labour -and skill. Embankments and ditches enclose the whole space, varying in -strength according to the natural resources of the ground. The -approaches are guarded by trenches and overlapping walls, more or less -numerous in different forts; and have occasionally a mound alongside of -the other defences of the approach, but rising above the rest of the -works, as if designed both for out-look and additional defence. In some -few cases the walls of these enclosures are of stone, but if they were -ever characterised by any attempt at regular masonry all traces of it -have disappeared, and there seems little reason for supposing that such -walls differed in essential character from the earthworks. No cement was -used, and in all probability we have in them only the substitution of -stone-heaps instead of earth-banks, owing to special local facilities. - -One of the simplest, but most extensive of those primitive strongholds, -is Fort Hill, Ohio. The defences occupy the summit of a height, elevated -about five hundred feet above the bed of Bush Creek, which flows round -two sides of the hill, close to their precipitous slope. Along the edge -of this hill a deep ditch has been cut, and the materials taken from it -have been piled up into an embankment, rising from six to fifteen feet -above the bottom of the ditch. In its whole extent the wall measures -eight thousand two hundred and twenty-four feet, or upwards of a mile -and a half in length; and encloses an area of forty-eight acres, now -covered with gigantic forest-trees. One of them, a chestnut, measured -twenty-one feet, and an oak, though greatly decayed, twenty-three feet -in circumference, while the trunks of immense trees lay around in every -stage of decay. Such was the aspect of Fort Hill, Ohio, a few years ago, -and it is probably in no way changed now. Dr. Hildreth counted eight -hundred rings of annual growth in a tree which grew on one of the mounds -at Marietta, Ohio; and Messrs. Squier and Davis, from the age and -condition of the forest, ascribed an antiquity to its deserted site of -considerably more than a thousand years. In their present condition, -therefore, the walls of “Fort Hill” are ruins of an older date than the -most venerable stronghold of the Normans of England; and we see as -little of their original completeness, as in the crumbling Norman keep -we are able to trace all the complex system of bastions, curtains, -baileys, buttress-towers, and posterns, of the military architecture of -the twelfth century. Openings occur in the walls, in some places on the -steepest points of the hill, where access is impossible; and where, -therefore, we must rather suppose that platforms may have been projected -to defend more accessible points. The ditch has in many places been cut -through sandstone rock as well as soil; and at one point the rock is -quarried out so as to leave a mural front about twenty feet high. Large -ponds or artificial reservoirs for water have been made within the -enclosure; and at the southern point, where the natural area of this -stronghold contracts into a narrow and nearly insulated projection -terminating in a bold bluff, it rises to a height of thirty feet above -the bottom of the ditch, and has its own special reservoirs, as if here -were the keep and citadel of the fortress: doubtless originally -strengthened with palisades and military works, of which every trace had -disappeared before the ancient forest asserted its claim to the deserted -fortalice. Here then, it is obvious we look on no temporary retreat of -some nomadic horde, but on a military work of great magnitude; which, -even with all the appliances of modern engineering skill, would involve -the protracted operations of a numerous body of labourers, and when -completed must have required a no less numerous garrison for its -defence. The contrast is very striking between such elaborate works and -the most extensive of those still traceable in Western New York the -origin of which appears to be correctly assigned to Iroquois and other -tribes known to have been in occupation of their sites in comparatively -recent times. - -Among the native Indian tribes who have come under direct observation of -Europeans, none played a more prominent part than the Iroquois. At the -period of Dutch discovery in the beginning of the seventeenth century, -they occupied the territory between the Hudson and the Genesee rivers, -of which they continued to maintain possession for nearly two centuries, -in defiance of warlike native foes, and the more formidable aggression -of the French invaders. Their numbers, at the period of their greatest -prosperity, about the middle of the seventeenth century, have been -variously estimated from 70,000, which La Hontan assigned to them, to -the more probable estimate of 25,000 given by the historian of their -League. Very exaggerated pictures have been drawn by some modern writers -of the Iroquois confederacy. It was a union of tribes of savage hunters, -among whom only the germs of incipient civilisation are traceable. They -had indeed acquired settled habits, and devoted themselves to some -extent to agriculture. But with all the matured arts resulting from -combined action in the maintenance of their territory for successive -generations against fierce hostile tribes, and the defence of an -extensive frontier constantly exposed to invasion, the traces of the -Iroquois strongholds are of so slight a description that many of them -have already been obliterated by the plough. - -From the facts thus presented to our consideration, it is obvious that -the highest estimate we can entertain of the powers of combination -indicated by the famous League of the Iroquois, furnishes no evidence of -a capacity for the construction and maintenance of works akin to the -strongholds of the Mound-Builders in the Ohio valley. Striking as is the -contrast which the Iroquois present to more ephemeral savage tribes, the -remains of their earthworks present in some respects a greater contrast -to those of the Mound-Builders than the latter do to the elaborate -architecture of Mexico and Yucatan. There are indeed points of -resemblance between the strongholds of the two, as there are between -them and the British hill-forts, or any other earthworks erected on -similar sites; but beyond such general elements of comparison,—equally -interesting, but as little indicative of any community of origin as the -correspondence traceable between the flint and stone weapons in use by -the builders of both,—there is nothing in such resemblances calculated -to throw any light on the origin of those remarkable monuments of the -New World. It is rather from the contrast between the two that we may -turn the remains of Iroquois defences to account, as suggestive of a -greatly more advanced condition of social life and the arts of a settled -population among the Mound-Builders of the Mississippi and its -tributaries. - -Further proofs of the settled character of this ancient population are -furnished by another class of defensive works, supposed to mark the -sites of fortified towns. One of these, called “Clark’s Work,” on the -north fork of Point Creek, in the Scioto valley, embraces an area of one -hundred and twenty-seven acres; and encloses within its circumvallations -sacrificial mounds, and symmetrical earthworks assumed with every -probability to have been designed for religious or civic purposes. A -stream has been turned into an entirely new channel, in order to admit -of the completed circuit of the walls. “The embankments measure together -nearly three miles in length; and a careful computation shows that, -including mounds, not less than three million cubic feet of earth were -used in their composition.”[83] Within the enclosures thus laboriously -executed, many of the most interesting relics of ancient art have been -dug up, including several coiled serpents of carved stone, carefully -enveloped in sheet mica and copper; pottery, fragments of carved ivory, -discoidal stones, and numerous fine sculptures. - -It is obvious that the population capable of furnishing the requisite -labour for works of so extensive a nature must have been numerous, and -its resources for the maintenance of such a phalanx of workers -proportionally abundant. The garrisons of the great strongholds, and the -population that found shelter within such mural defences as “Clark’s -Work,” must also have been very large, requiring for their subsistence -the contributions of an extensive district. But this only accords with -other proofs of the condition of the Mound-Builders as a settled people. -When we turn from the consideration of single large fortifications -crowning the insulated heights, and estimate the number and extent of -mounds, symmetrical enclosures, and works of various kinds connected -with the arts of peace and the rites of religious worship, which give so -striking a character to the river-valleys and terraces, it is no longer -possible to doubt that many sections of this fertile region were once -before filled by an industrious, settled population. - -The Sacred Enclosures have been separated from the military works of the -Mound-Builders on very obvious grounds. Their elaborate fortifications -occupy isolated heights specially adapted for defence; whereas the broad -river-terraces have been selected for their religious works. There, on -the great unbroken levels, they form groups of symmetrical enclosures, -square, circular, elliptical, and octagonal, with long connecting -avenues, suggesting comparisons with the British Avebury, or the -Hebridean Callernish; with the Breton Carnac; or even with the temples -and Sphinx-avenues of the Egyptian Karnak and Luxor. - -The predominant impression suggested by the great military earthworks of -the Mound-Builders is that of the action of a numerous population, -co-operating under the guidance and authority of approved leaders, with -a view to the defence of large communities. Elaborate fortifications -such as that of “Clark’s Work” in the Scioto Valley, or “Fort Ancient” -on the Little Miami River, are constructed on well-chosen hills or -bluffs, and strengthened by ditches, mounds, and complicated approaches; -but the lines of earthwork, like those of the great Scottish hill-forts, -are everywhere adapted to the natural features of the site. With the -sacred enclosures it is wholly different. Some of these also do, indeed, -impress the mind with the imposing scale of their embankments. On first -entering the great circle at Newark, and looking across its broad trench -at the lofty embankment overshadowed with full-grown forest-trees, my -thoughts reverted to the Antonine vallum, which by like evidence still -records the presence of the Roman masters of the world in North Britain. -But after driving over a circuit of several miles embracing the -remarkable group of earthworks of which this is only a single feature, -and satisfying myself by personal observation of the existence of -parallel avenues which have been traced for nearly two miles; and of the -grand central oval, circle, and octagon, the smallest of which measures -upwards of half-a-mile in circumference: all idea of mere combined -labour is lost in the higher conviction of manifest skill, and even -science. The angles of the octagon are not coincident, but the sides are -very nearly equal; and the enclosure approaches so closely to a perfect -figure that its error is only demonstrated by actual survey. Connected -with it by parallel embankments 350 feet long, is a true circle, -measuring 2880 feet in circumference; and distant nearly a mile from -this, but connected with it by an elaborate series of earthworks, is the -circular structure above referred to. Its actual form is an ellipse, the -respective diameters of which are 1250 feet, and 1150 feet, -respectively; and it encloses an area of upwards of 30 acres. - -At the entrance of this great circle the enclosing embankment curves -outward on either side for a distance of 100 feet, leaving a level way -between the ditches, 80 feet wide. The earthen mound, which is here -higher than at any other point, measures about 30 feet from the bottom -of the ditch to the summit. The area of the enclosure is so nearly a -perfect level that Mr. J. M. Dennis, to whose intimate local knowledge I -was indebted for a thorough survey of the works, informed me that he had -observed during the rains of the previous spring the water stood at a -uniform level nearly to the edge of the ditch. In the centre of this -enclosure is an earthen mound, still called “The Eagle.” Mr. Squier says -of it: “It much resembles some of the animal-shaped mounds of Wisconsin, -and was probably designed to represent a bird with expanded wings.” It -has been opened and found to contain a hearth, or “altar.” The fact is -important; as it distinguishes it in this respect essentially from the -emblematic mounds of Wisconsin, and tends to confirm the idea that the -great circle and its related groups of earthworks all bore some -reference to sacred games, or other strange rites of religion, once -practised within their circumvallations. But successive excavations have -greatly marred the original contour of the mound; and now that, with a -view to the preservation of the principla earthwork, it has been secured -as the Licking County fair ground, the erection of a grand stand on the -summit of the Eagle Mound has contributed still further to obscure the -traces of its primary form. - -From the elliptical enclosure a wide avenue of two dissimilar parts, -seemingly constructed without relation to each other, leads to a square -of twenty acres, with seven mounds disposed symmetrically within the -enclosing walls, and numerous other works occupy hundreds of acres with -their geometrical configurations. But in spite of the intelligent -interest which prevails in reference to those remarkable monuments of an -ancient people, the industrial operations of the modern occupants of -their sites are fast obliterating all but the most prominent works. In -the great octagon I noticed a difference of nearly five feet between the -height of the embankments still standing on uncleared land, and those -portions which have been long under the plough. But for the aid of my -intelligent guide I should have found it impossible to trace out the -indications of the parallel ways; and already many of the smaller mounds -and enclosures have entirely disappeared. Roads, railways, and a canal, -have successively invaded the sacred enclosures, and wrought more -changes in a single generation than had been effected in all the -previous interval since the discovery of America. But the accompanying -plan (Fig. 70), derived from surveys executed while the chief earthworks -could still be traced in all their integrity, will enable the reader to -comprehend their character; and if he clearly realises the scale on -which these geometrical figures are constructed, he can be at no loss in -recognising their essential difference from the ephemeral earthworks -which mark the sites of Indian stockades or sepulchral mounds. While -they present certain analogies to mound-groups and enclosures both of -Europe and Asia, in many other respects they are totally dissimilar: and -illustrate rites and customs of an ancient American people without a -parallel among the monumental memorials of the Old World. - -[Illustration: FIG. 70.—Newark Earthworks, Ohio.] - -Several striking coincidences between the details of these works and -others of the same class are worthy of notice. The diameter of the -circle, the perfect form of which has been noted, is nearly identical -with two others forming parts of remarkable groups in the Scioto valley, -one of them seventy miles distant. The square has also the same area as -a rectangular enclosure belonging to the “Hopeton Works,” where it is -attached to a circle 1050 feet in diameter, and to an avenue constructed -between two parallel embankments 2400 feet long, leading to the edge of -a bank immediately over the river-flat of the Scioto. A like coincidence -in the precise extent of the area enclosed has been noticed in the -octagon of a group, called the High Bank Works, on the same -river-terrace; and in another, at the junction of the Muskingum and Ohio -rivers. The authors of the elaborate surveys embodied in the Smithsonian -Contributions to Knowledge, remark generally that the figures of the -Scioto valley earthworks are not only accurate squares and perfect -circles, but are in most cases of corresponding dimensions; each square -being 1080 feet a side, and the diameter of each of the larger and -smaller circles a fraction over 1700 and 800 feet. This they observe is -“a coincidence which could not possibly be accidental, and which must -possess some significance. It certainly establishes the existence of -some standard of measurement among the ancient people, if not the -possession of some means of determining angles.”[84] It is no less -important to note that it establishes the use of instruments. A standard -of measurement could not otherwise exist, still less be applied, on so -large a scale in geometrical construction; and the very simplest -instruments that we can conceive of, constitute no less certain evidence -of a condition of intellectual development attained by this ancient -people very different from anything achieved by the most advanced Indian -tribes. Varied, moreover, as the combinations of their singular groups -of earthworks are, traces are clearly discernible that certain -well-defined plans of construction, and a proportionate scale of parts, -guided their builders. Justly estimating the importance of such -coincidences, and the still greater value of the evidence of the -construction of geometric figures on so large a scale, the authors of -the surveys have detailed their method of procedure, in order “to put at -once all scepticism at rest, which might otherwise arise as to the -regularity of these works.” This important point rests accordingly on -the most satisfactory evidence;[85] nor are even the imperfections -observed in the construction of some of the rectangular figures without -their significance, as a test of the extent to which geometry had been -mastered by the ancient builders. - -That this remarkable class of earthworks originated in some totally -different purpose from the strongholds already described, is obvious. -Their site is invariably on a level plateau, and their avenues are -connected with the neighbouring flats by laboriously constructed -approaches, as if to facilitate the solemn march of processions. The -embankments are frequently slight; where a ditch occurs it is generally -in the interior; and their whole construction is in striking contrast to -the defensive enclosures in their vicinity. At Newark they extend over -the level terrace, and, with outlying structures, embrace an area of -several miles in extent; while on each side of the Valley, formed by the -Racoon Creek, military works occupy prominent elevations presenting -special natural advantages for defence. One of those, obviously of a -defensive character, encloses the summit of a high hill; but it also -contains a small circle with tumuli, covering “altars” corresponding to -those hereafter described, which give their peculiar character to the -sacred mounds. There is no room, therefore, for doubt that the various -works referred to illustrate what may be styled the civil, military, and -ecclesiastical structures of the same people, including in the latter -public games, such as among many ancient nations constituted one special -feature of their religious festivals. - -One important inference deducible from the peculiar features of the -works here referred to, is the state of knowledge of their constructors. -The most skilful engineer of our own day would find it difficult, -without the aid of instruments, to lay down an accurate square on the -scale of some of those described, enclosing an area four-fifths of a -mile in circumference. Circles of moderate dimensions might indeed be -constructed, so long as it was possible to describe them by a radius; -but with such works measuring five thousand four hundred feet, or -upwards of a mile in circumference, the ancient geometrician must have -had instruments, and means of measuring arcs: for it seems impossible to -conceive of the accurate construction of figures on such a scale, -otherwise than by finding the angle by its arc, from station to station, -through the whole course of their delineation. It is no less obvious -from the correspondence in area and relative proportions of so many of -the regular enclosures, that the Mound-Builders possessed a recognised -standard of measurement; and that some peculiar significance, possibly -of astronomical origin, was attached to figures of certain forms and -dimensions. - -[Illustration: FIG. 71.—Cincinnati Tablet.] - -The city of Cincinnati occupies a remarkable site, within a fine basin -of hills, on the Ohio river, which had for its older occupants the -remarkable people now referred to. But the growth of the modern city has -swept away every vestige of their old earthworks; and no definite record -of their details has been preserved. One memorial, however, survives, -which was discovered in 1841, when excavating a large mound within the -limits of the city. It has been the subject of ingenious speculations; -and may have some bearing on our present investigations. In the centre -of the mound, slightly below the level of the natural surface, a -skeleton was found greatly decayed, alongside of which lay two pointed -bones, about seven inches long, formed from the tibia of the elk, and -the engraved tablet shown in the accompanying illustration (Fig. 71). It -is made of fine-grained sandstone, and measures five inches in length, -by two and six-tenths across the middle, and three inches at the ends. -Upon its smooth surface an elaborate figure is represented, by sinking -the interspaces within a rectangular border, so as to produce what has -been regarded by some as a hieroglyphic inscription. But the most -remarkable feature of its graven device is the series of lines by which -the plain surface at each end is divided. The ends of the stone, it will -be observed, form arcs of circles of different dimensions. The greater -arc is divided by a series of lines, twenty-seven in number, into equal -spaces, and within this is another series of seven oblique lines. The -lesser arc at the opposite end is divided in like manner by two series -of twenty-five and eight lines, similarly arranged. This tablet has not -failed to receive due attention. It has been noted that it bears a -“singular resemblance to the Egyptian cartouche.” Its series of lines -were discovered to yield, in the sum of the products of the longer and -shorter ones, a near approximation to the number of days of the year. An -astronomical origin was accordingly assigned to it; and it has been -surmised to be an ancient calendar, recording the approximation of the -Mound-Builders to the true length of the solar year. Mr. Squier perhaps -runs to an opposite extreme in suggesting that it is nothing more than a -stamp, of which specimens have been found made of clay, both in Mexico -and in the Mississippi mounds; and which were probably used in -impressing ornamental patterns on cloth or prepared skins. Such clay -stamps always betray their purpose by the handle attached to them, as in -the corresponding bronze stamps common on Roman sites; whereas the -Cincinnati tablet is about half an inch in thickness, with no means of -holding or using it as a stamp, and bears on its unfinished reverse -grooves apparently made in sharpening the tools by which it was -engraved. But whatever theory be adopted as to its original object or -destination, the series of lines on its two ends have justly attracted -attention: for they constitute no part of the device; and can scarcely -be regarded as an ornamental border. Possibly in them we have a record -of certain scales of measurement in use by the Mound-Builders; and if -so, the discovery is calculated to add fresh interest to our study of -the geometrical structures, which, far more than their great mounds, are -the true characteristics of that mysterious people.[86] - -The precise objects aimed at in the construction of the remarkable -series of American earthworks here referred to must obviously be -difficult to determine with certainty. Analogies to these structures -have been traced in the works of Indian tribes formerly in occupation of -Carolina and Georgia. They were accustomed to erect a circular terrace -or platform on which their council-house stood. In front of this, a -quadrangular area was enclosed with earthen embankments, within which -public games were played and captives tortured. To this was sometimes -added a square or quadrangular terrace at the opposite end of the -enclosure. Upon the circular platform it is also affirmed that the -sacred fire was maintained by the Creek Indians, as part of their most -cherished rites as worshippers of the sun. But even the evidence, thus -far, is vague and unsatisfactory; and any recognisable analogies point, -at best, only to the possibility of some of the Indian tribes having -perpetuated on a greatly inferior scale some maimed rites borrowed from -their civilised precursors. The scale upon which the Southern Indian -earthworks were constructed may compare with those of the Iroquois in -the State of New York, but in no degree approximates to the erections of -the Mound-Builders. What, for example, shall we make of the graded ways, -such as that of Piketon, Ohio, where an approach has been laboriously -formed from one terrace to another, one thousand and eighty feet long by -two hundred and fifteen feet in greatest width? The excavated earth has -been employed, in part, to construct lofty embankments on each side of -the ascent, which are now covered with trees of large size. Beyond this -approach, mounds and half-obliterated earthworks indicate that it was -only part of an extensive series of structures. But, viewed alone, it is -one of the most remarkable monuments of prehistoric times to be found on -the whole continent, and certainly bears not the slightest resemblance, -either in its character or the great scale on which it is executed, to -any known work of the Red Indians. - ------ - -[83] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, pp. 26-29, plate x. - -[84] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 48. - -[85] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 57. - -[86] The woodcut is engraved from a rubbing taken from the original. Mr. -Whittlesey has included this tablet among his “Archæological Frauds”; -but the result of inquiries made by me during a recent visit to -Cincinnati has removed from my mind any doubt of its genuineness. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS. - - - SOURCES OF INFORMATION—HILL MOUNDS—THE SCIOTO MOUND—THE TAYLOR - MOUND—THE ISSAQUINA MOUND—THE ELLIOT MOUND—THE LOCKPORT MOUND - —BLACK BIRD’S GRAVE—SCIOTO VALLEY MOUNDS—SYMBOLICAL RITES— - HUMAN SACRIFICES—THE GRAVE CREEK MOUND—COMMON SEPULCHRES— - CREMATION—SCIOTO MOUND CRANIUM—SACRED FESTIVALS. - -When the significance of the military and sacred enclosures of the -Mound-Builders has been fully estimated as memorials of a remarkable -people belonging altogether to prehistoric ages of the New World, their -sepulchral mounds acquire a new value. In the former we see unmistakable -indications of a settled condition of society greatly in advance of -anything attained by the Red Indian, and of populous communities devoted -to agriculture and other industrial arts. From the latter we may hope to -recover some traits of ethnical character; to find in the gifts to the -dead illustrations of their arts and customs; and to catch by means of -their sepulchral rites some glimpses of the nature of that belief which -stimulated the Mound-Builders to the laborious construction of so many -sacred earthworks. Their great mounds are for us not merely the -sepulchres of an ancient race; they are the cemetery of an early though -partial civilisation, from whence we may derive illustrations of the -life, manners, and ideas of a people over whose graves the forest had so -long resumed its sway, that it seemed to the Red Indians’ supplanters to -have been the first occupant of the soil. - -Barrows, dunes, moat-hills, cairns, and earth or stone mounds of various -kinds, abound in many parts of the Old as well as of the New World, and -are nowhere more abundant than in some districts of the British Isles. -But although corresponding primitive structures are met with from the -Gulf of the St. Lawrence to the Isthmus of Panama, and beyond it, far -into the southern continent: nevertheless the works of the -Mound-Builders have a character of their own altogether peculiar; and -though numbered by thousands, they are limited to well-defined areas, -leaving a large portion of the continent, including the whole of the -Atlantic sea-board, without any traces of their presence. The -Mound-Builders were not a maritime people. Their whole traffic was -confined to the great rivers, along the banks of which their ancient -traces abound, and to communication by long-obliterated overland routes -of travel. Notwithstanding the careful observations which have been put -on record relative to the mounds and earthworks of “The West,” much yet -remains to be disclosed; for, happily, the excavation of such -earth-pyramids is a work greatly too laborious and costly to tempt those -who are influenced by mere idle curiosity; while their contents, however -valuable to the archæologist, offer no such stimulus to cupidity as, in -Mexico and Peru, has led to the destruction of thousands of the -memorials of extinct arts and customs. - -As a general rule, the earth and stone works appear to have been alike -constructed of materials derived from the immediate neighbourhood; so -that such differences do not, in the majority of instances, supply any -indication of diversity in the enclosed deposits. A special character, -however, appears to pertain to one class, designated “Hill Mounds,” from -the sites they occupy. Of these Mr. Squier remarks: “The most elevated -and commanding positions are frequently crowned with them, suggesting at -once the purposes to which some of the mounds or cairns of the ancient -Celts were applied: that of signal or alarm posts. It is not unusual to -find detached mounds among the hills back from the valleys, and in -secluded places, with no other monuments near. The hunter often -encounters them in the depths of the forests when least expected: -perhaps overlooking some waterfall, or placed in some narrow valley -where the foot of man seldom enters.” Similar structures crown many -western heights; but some at least are of Indian origin; and our -knowledge of the characteristics and contents of those of an earlier -race must be greatly extended, before we can assign the true and -probably varied objects aimed at in their erection. - -But it is to the exploration of one of the smaller hill-mounds that we -owe the recovery of the most characteristic illustration of the physical -type of the ancient Mound-Builders. The “Scioto Mound Cranium,” -described in a later chapter, was obtained from a mound erected on the -summit of a commanding height overlooking the valley of the Scioto, with -its numerous earthworks. A conical knoll, crowning the hill, rises with -such regularity as almost to induce the belief that it is artificial; -and on its apex stands the tumulus overshadowed by the trees of the -primitive forest. Here under a covering of tough yellow clay, impervious -to moisture, a plate of mica rested on an inner cairn, composed chiefly -of large rough stones; and within this, a compacted bed of carbonaceous -matter contained the skull, with a few bones, and some shells of -fresh-water molluscs, disposed irregularly round it. This, therefore, it -will be seen, confirms the idea that cremation played an important part -in the ancient sepulchral rites. - -More recently Professor O. C. Marsh explored the Taylor Mound, another -of the hill-mounds, about two and a half miles south of Newark. -Apparently a cemetery had been excavated on the summit of the ridge, -within which lay the remains of at least eight skeletons, chiefly of -women and children, all huddled together, and some of them showing -evidence of long exposure. Along with those were found nine lance or -arrow-heads of flint, six small axes, one of them made of hematite, and -the remainder of diorite or compact greenstone, a small wedge or hatchet -of hematite, a flint chisel, a scraper, numerous implements of bone and -horn, including needles, a spatula or modeller’s tool, and a whistle -made from the tooth of a black bear. Above this ossuary a number of dead -had been disposed: some of them evidently interred with care, others as -if slaughtered and flung upon the heap of dead; while a mass of -incinerated human remains left no doubt on the minds of the explorers -that cremation had taken place directly over the dead, and before the -regular interment was completed. Hence they were led to the conclusion -that the funeral rites had probably included a suttee sacrifice. - -Directly under the apex of the mound upwards of one hundred beads of -native copper, intermingled with a few shell beads, lay in contact with -portions of the cervical vertebræ of a young child, showing that they -had been worn as a necklace. The shell beads are about half an inch -long, and have been carefully polished. The copper beads are only half -this length, and wrought with the hammer out of the native copper; but -with so much skill, that in most of them it is difficult to detect the -joining. Only two of the skulls were sufficiently preserved to indicate -their true form. Both were small, and showed the vertical occiput and -large parietal diameter, supposed to pertain to the Mound-Builders, but -which are characteristic of many American crania. - -The contents of the two hill-mounds are thus seen to differ widely; and -so far furnish no clew to any special mode of burial or funeral -ceremonies. But the interment of a detached skull, as shown in the -Scioto Mound, is no solitary case. I was shown by Mr. L. M. Hosea, of -Cincinnati, a large bowl-shaped vessel of steatite, capable of holding -about two gallons, discovered by the blowing down of a tree which stood -on the summit of a mound on the borders of Lincoln and Casey Counties, -Kentucky. It had been inverted over a human skull, beside which lay a -number of shell beads, and a quantity of mica. In the same mound was a -large conch-shell, hollowed out, and filled with bone implements, -including two large, well-finished whistles, several deers’ horn -hammers, and about thirty bone pins and awls. A perforated copper plate, -and some well-finished stone and flint implements, completed the -contents of the mound. Unfortunately the skull was too much decayed to -admit of preservation. - -I am indebted to Mr. W. Marshall Anderson for some curious disclosures -of the contents of another mound recently opened by him at Issaquina, -Mississippi. The first remarkable discovery was the exposure of three -skeletons disposed vertically, as if they had been buried with their -heads above ground. On reaching the natural level, a heap of ashes, with -numerous fragments of bone, showed where cremation had taken place. Over -this were three skeletons disposed at length, side by side, with a -drinking vessel and a wide-mouthed bowl of native pottery close to the -head of each. Numerous implements, including tools of copper, -well-finished celts of jasper and lignite, and a grotesque clay-pipe -representing a human head with dog’s ears, and a frog’s mouth, lay -alongside of them. But most noticeable of all was the discovery of two -inverted bowls in the centre of the mound, underneath each of which lay -a human skull. One of them is described by Mr. Anderson as “a beautiful -skull, worthy of a Greek.” But on being exposed to the sun, as they -dried, they crumbled to ashes, “literally,” as he says, “disintegrating -before my eyes, whilst I was busy gathering up copper and stone -implements which would have waited for ever unharmed.” - -The only skeletons exposed in the Evans Mound,—a large mound, near -Newark, Ohio, at the opening of which I was present, were in a similar -condition of extreme decay. Among the contents of the Taylor Mound, in -the same locality, the curious fact was communicated to me, that the -fractured quarter of a nearly spherical mass of hematite was found, -which at the time attracted less notice than a well-finished wedge and -hatchet of the same material. But on subsequently opening the Elliot and -Wilson Mounds, situated about five miles apart, in the same valley, each -of them was found to include among its contents a corresponding fragment -of hematite, which on being placed in juxtaposition, proved to be -portions of the same broken sphere, or nodule of hematite, valued in all -probability for some wonder-working power. Meteoric stones and pieces of -hematite have been repeatedly found in the Mounds; and were evidently -objects of special regard. The Elliot Mound furnished another object of -interest, in a pipe 7½ inches long, neatly carved in grey limestone, -with the bowl finished in the form of a bear’s head. As shown in Fig. -72, it is of an unusual style of design. - -[Illustration: FIG. 72.—Stone Pipe, Elliot Mound, Ohio.] - -The establishment of the village of Lockport, on the outskirts of -Newark, and the more recent erection of extensive ironworks there, have -swept away a curious group of mounds in that neighbourhood, including a -truncated pyramid, the contents of which appear to have been of unusual -interest. I examined in the collection of Mr. Wm. L. Merrin, a solid -copper armlet, a pair of remarkable objects like double cymbals, a -sheath subdivided into three tubes, supposed to be a quiver, a polished -axe, and several perforated plates, all of copper; a perforated lead -amulet, a polished chisel of diorite, numerous large shell beads, and -large plates of mica cut into a horse-shoe shape: all of which were -found at the base of the Lockport Mound, along with a number of -skeletons. Subsequently other objects of interest, including a large, -well-finished stone maul, of oval shape, with a deep groove round its -centre, and a mass of pure lead weighing upwards of four pounds, have -been found on its site, in opening up a road. But it is obvious that in -this, as in so many other cases, we have to regret the destruction of a -valuable memorial of the past, without any adequate record of its -disclosures being preserved. Happily a more intelligent interest has now -been awakened in the subject; the rarer objects of antiquity in stone -and in metal are highly prized, and are therefore likely to be preserved -as marketable articles even by those who can see in them no other value; -and as each mound or earthwork discloses some novel feature, further -research may be expected to add materially to our knowledge. - -The remoter hill-mounds may reveal similar analogies in structure or -contents to those of the plains; and so furnish evidence that the -population which crowded the great centres, was diffused in smaller -numbers, far inland from the river’s banks, in outlying valleys and -among the secluded recesses of the hills. There, perhaps, as among the -higher valleys of the Andes under the rule of the Incas, a pastoral -people supplemented the agricultural industry of the central provinces, -and shared with them the common rites and superstitions of the national -religion. - -In some cases the lofty site of the hill-mound may have determined its -selection from the same motive which occasionally guides the modern -Indian in his choice of a spot for his grave. Of this a striking -illustration is furnished in the history of one modern tumulus on the -Missouri. Upwards of half a century has elapsed since Black Bird, a -famous chief of the Omahaws, visited the city of Washington, and when -returning was seized with small-pox, of which he died on the way. When -the chief found himself dying, he called his warriors around him, and, -like Jacob of old, gave commands concerning his burial, which were as -literally fulfilled. Dressed in his most sumptuous robes, and fully -equipped with his scalps and war-eagle’s plumes, he was borne about -sixty miles below the Omahaw village, to one of the loftiest bluffs on -the Missouri, which commands a magnificent extent of river and -landscape. His favourite war-horse, a beautiful white steed, was led to -the summit; and there, in presence of the whole nation, the dead chief -was placed on its back, looking towards the river, where, as he had -said, he could see the canoes of the white men as they traversed the -broad waters of the Missouri. His bow was placed in his hand, his shield -and quiver, with his pipe and medicine-bag, were hung by his side. A -store of pemmican and a well-filled tobacco-pouch were supplied, to -sustain him on the long journey to the hunting-grounds of the good -Manitou, where the spirits of his fathers awaited his coming. The -medicine-men of the tribe performed their most mystic charms to secure a -happy passage to the land of the great departed; and all else being -completed, each warrior of the chiefs own band covered the palm of his -right hand with vermilion, and stamped its impress on the white sides of -the devoted war-steed. This done, the Indians gathered turfs and soil, -and placed them around its feet and legs. Gradually the pile rose with -the combined labour of many willing hands, until the living steed and -its dead rider were buried together under the memorial mound; and high -over the crest of the lofty tumulus which covered the warrior’s -eagle-plumes, a cedar post was reared to mark more clearly to the -voyagers on the Missouri, the last resting-place of Black Bird, the -great chief of the Omahaws. - -One of the most striking evidences of the extent of occupation of the -country, and the denseness of its ancient population, is furnished by a -map in the _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, showing a -section of twelve miles of the Scioto Valley. Square, circular, and -polygonal enclosures, single and in groups, parallels, ditches, and -mounds, occupy every available terrace along the banks of the Scioto -River, and its tributary Paint Creek. A group of mounds in Ross county, -Ohio, occupies the third terrace on the east side of the Scioto Valley, -nearly a hundred feet above the river, and about equidistant from two -remarkable sacred enclosures. The principal mound is twenty-two feet -high; and on penetrating to its centre the traces of a rude sarcophagus -of unhewn logs were indicated by the cast which still remained in the -compacted earth. The bottom had been laid with matting or wood, the only -remains of which were a whitish stratum of decomposed vegetable matter; -and the timbers of the sarcophagus had in like manner decayed, and -allowed the superincumbent earth to fall on the skeleton. Alongside of -it were several hundred beads, made of the columellæ of marine shells -and the tusks of some animal, several of them bearing marks which seemed -to indicate that they were turned, instead of being carved, or ground -into shape by the hand. They retained their position, forming a triple -row, as originally strung round the neck of the dead; and, with the -exception of a few laminæ of mica, were the only objects discovered in -the grave. A layer of charcoal, about ten feet square, lay directly -above the sarcophagus; and seemed, from the condition of the carbonised -wood, to have been suddenly quenched by heaping the earth over it while -still blazing. - -Similar layers of charcoal constitute a noticeable feature in mounds of -this class, and seem to indicate either that sacrifices were performed -over the bier, or that funeral rites of some kind were celebrated, in -which fire played an important part. On these funeral pyres probably -many perishable articles were consumed; as the beds of charcoal are -intermingled occasionally with fragments of bone, stone implements, and -other evidences of sacrifices and tribute to the deceased. It is also -apparent that the fire was kindled and allowed to blaze only for a -limited time, when its flames were quenched by heaping the earth over -the glowing embers; so that while charcoal occurs beneath as well as -above the skeleton, the bones are unaffected by fire. The rite was -practised where cremation was not followed; and may have been symbolical -of the lamp of life quenched for ever in the grave. Implements, both of -stone and metal, have been found in these grave-mounds, but for the most -part their contents indicate a different condition of society and mode -of thought from what Indian sepulture implies. Weapons are of rare and -exceptional occurrence. The more common articles are personal ornaments, -such as bracelets, perforated plates of copper, beads of bone, shell, or -metal, and similar decorations worn on the body at the time of its -interment. Among the objects which appear to have been purposely -disposed around the dead, plates of mica occur most frequently. In some -cases the skeleton has been found entirely covered with this material; -and in others the laminæ have been cut into regular figures: disks, -ovals, and symmetrical curves. As a general rule, however, it would -appear that reverence for the dead was manifested in other ways than by -depositing costly gifts in the grave; nor do the relics found indicate -any belief akin to that which induces the modern Indian to lay beside -his buried chief the arms and weapons of the chase, for use by him in -the future hunting-grounds or on the war-path. In a few cases the simple -sarcophagus has been constructed of stone instead of wood; in others the -body appears to have been merely wrapped in bark or matting. In some of -the Southern States both cremation and urn-burial seem to have been -practised; but throughout the valleys of the Ohio and its tributaries a -nearly uniform system of sepulchral rites has been traced. These no -doubt bore some important relation to the solemn religious observances -indicated by other works of the same people; and as it is not in the -sepulchral mounds, but in those which cover the “altars” on which the -sacrificial fires of the ancient worshippers appear to have often -blazed, that the greater number of their works of art, and even their -implements and weapons have been found: it may be that there, rather -than at the grave-mounds, they propitiated the manes of the dead, and -sought by sacrifices of love and reverence to reach beyond this world to -one unseen. Other indications, however, present analogies to the -arrangements of cists and cinerary urns in ancient British tumuli, which -suggest no less clearly the probability of human sacrifices, and a -suttee self-immolation at the grave of the great chief, so congenial to -the ideas of barbaric rank. Such cruel rites we know were practised -among the Mexicans and Peruvians on the largest scale; wives, -concubines, and attendants being immolated by the latter on the tomb of -their deceased Inca, in some cases even to the number of thousands. - -The Grave Creek Mound, at the junction of Grave Creek with the Ohio -river, in the State of Virginia, commands, on various accounts, a -prominent distinction among the sepulchral monuments of America. It -occupies a site on an extensive plain in connection with works now much -obliterated; but its own gigantic proportions bid effectual defiance to -the operations which are rapidly erasing less salient records of the -ancient occupants of the soil. In the year 1838, when various -circumstances combined to direct an unusual degree of attention to -American antiquities, Mr. Tomlinson, the proprietor of the land, had it -explored at considerable cost. A shaft sunk from the top, and a tunnel -carried to the centre, disclosed two sepulchral chambers, one at the -base, and another thirty feet above. They had been constructed, as in -other cases, of logs, which had decayed, and permitted the -superincumbent earth, with stones placed immediately over them, to fall -upon the skeletons. In the upper chamber a single skeleton was found in -an advanced state of decay, whilst the lower one contained two -skeletons, one of which was believed to be that of a female. Beside -these lay between three and four thousand shell beads, a number of -ornaments of mica, several bracelets of copper, and sundry relics of -stone carving, referred to, along with works of art from other ancient -mounds, in a future chapter. But among them was included an inscribed -stone disc, which constitutes one of the marvels of American -antiquities. On reaching the lower vault, after removing its contents, -it was determined to enlarge it into a convenient chamber for visitors, -and in doing so ten more skeletons were discovered, all in a sitting -posture, but in too fragile a state to admit of preservation. The -position of these immediately around the sepulchral chamber, in the very -centre of the mound, precludes all idea of subsequent interment, and -scarcely admits of any other mode of accounting for their presence than -that which the human sacrifices both of ancient and modern American -obsequies suggest. - -A tumulus of the gigantic proportions of the Grave Creek Mound serves -emphatically to impress the mind with the conviction that such -structures, even when of smaller dimensions, were no accompaniments of -common sepulture, but the special memorials of distinguished chiefs; or, -it may be, at times, of venerated priests. Of the busy population that -once thronged the valleys of the West we have no other memorials than -those which commemorate the toil of many to give a deathless name to one -now as nameless as themselves. The investigators of their works, after -describing in detail the monumental mounds, remark: “The graves of the -great mass of the ancient people who thronged our valleys, and the -silent monuments of whose toil are seen on every hand, were not thus -signalised. We scarcely know where to find them. Every day the plough -uncovers crumbling remains, but they elicit no remark; are passed by, -and forgotten. The wasting banks of our rivers occasionally display -extensive cemeteries; but sufficient attention has never been bestowed -upon them to enable us to speak with any degree of certainty of their -date, or to distinguish whether they belonged to the Mound-Builders or a -subsequent race. These cemeteries are often of such extent as to give a -name to the locality in which they occur. Thus we hear, on the Wabash, -of the ‘Big Bone Bank’ and the ‘Little Bone Bank,’ from which, it is -represented, the river annually washes many human skeletons, accompanied -by numerous and singular remains of art, among which are more -particularly mentioned vases and other vessels of pottery, of remarkable -and often fantastic form.”[87] I have been fortunate enough to obtain an -interesting example of the latter class of pottery, from Big Bone Bank, -figured on a subsequent page, which is specially valuable from the -striking analogy it suggests to familiar forms of Peruvian pottery. - -The Ohio and Erie canal traverses the river-terrace of the Scioto Valley -in the vicinity of Chillicothe, where the ancient works of the -Mound-Builders are more abundant than in any other area of equal limits -hitherto explored. In some cases the canal has been cut through them, -and it can scarcely admit of doubt that many interesting traces of the -arts and habits of the remarkable people who once filled the -long-deserted scene, must have been disclosed to heedless eyes. Here and -there, doubtless, a stray relic was picked up, wondered at, and -forgotten; but no note was taken of the circumstances under which it was -found, and no record made of the discovery. And so must it ever be. The -pioneers of civilisation in the uncleared wilds of the West are too -entirely preoccupied with the present, to spare a thought for long -forgotten centuries. Happily, however, this state of things is passing -away, and every year shows increasing evidence of intelligent zeal in -the recovery and preservation of whatever is calculated to throw light -on the prehistoric ages of America. - -The contents of the Scioto Valley Mound, as well as of others described -above, prove that the human remains were deposited in them long after -the body had gone to decay; and while numerous indications serve to show -that cremation was extensively practised by the Mound-Builders, it is -not improbable that a custom may have prevailed analogous to the modern -Indians’ scaffolding and subsequent sepulture of the bones of their -dead. The remains thus periodically gathered were sometimes deposited in -a common ossuary, as in that of the Taylor Mound; and in other cases -were burnt, with fitting rites, and their ashes heaped together, forming -mounds, such as one opened on the bank of Walnut Creek, in the Scioto -Valley. The principal portion of this consisted seemingly of -long-exposed and highly-compacted ashes, intermingled with specks of -charcoal, and small bits of burned bones. Beneath this was a small mound -of very pure white clay, resting on the original soil, without any -traces of the action of fire, over which the incinerated remains had -been piled into a mound, nine feet in height by forty in base. The -customs of the North American Indians, however, were very diverse; and -among the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians inhumation, cremation, -urn-burial, and mummification, accompanied with deposition in artificial -vaults and in caves, were all practised. It need not therefore surprise -us to find exceptions among the ancient Mound-Builders to any practice -recognised as most prevalent among them. Considering the decayed state -of most of the bones recovered from the great sepulchral mounds, where -they were equally protected from external air and moisture: if the -common dead were inhumed under the ordinary little grave-mound, their -bones must, for the most part, have long since returned to dust. Nor -must it be overlooked that the extremely comminuted state to which most -of the skeletons in the larger mounds have been reduced, when brought to -light by modern explorers, is due, in part at least, to the falling in -of a superincumbent mass of earth and stones upon them, when the timber -ceiling of their sarcophagus had sustained the weight long enough only -to render them the less able to resist its crushing force. The perfect -preservation of the “Scioto Mound cranium” was due to its being imbedded -in charcoal, over which a superstructure of large stones enveloped with -tough yellow clay had been piled, without any treacherous timber vaults. -It lay in the centre of the carbonaceous deposit, resting on its face. -The lower jaw was wanting, and only the clavicle, a few cervical -vertebræ, and some of the bones of the feet were huddled around it. -Unaccompanied though it was by any relics of art, it is, in itself, one -of the most valuable objects hitherto recovered from the American -mounds. - -Such are some of the traces we are able to recover of the sepulchral -rites of this people. In discussing the conclusions suggested alike by -their disclosures, and by those which the sacrificial mounds, the sacred -circumvallations, and the buried works of art reveal, we are dealing -with characteristics of a race pertaining to periods long preceding any -written history. For us these are their sole chronicles; and yet, even -from such data, we are able to deduce some traits of moral and -intellectual character. Perhaps the most important fact for our present -purpose is the rarity of weapons of war among the sepulchral deposits. -It accords with other indications of the condition of the -Mound-Builders. They had passed beyond that rude stage of savage life in -which war and the chase are the only honourable occupations of man. -Their weapons of war, like their fortresses, were means for the defence -of acquisitions they had learned to prize more highly. They had -conquered the forests, and displaced the spoils of the hunter with the -wealth of autumn’s harvestings; and with the habits of a settled -agricultural people, many new ideas had taken the place of the wild -imaginings and superstitions of the savage. As among all agricultural -nations, the vernal and autumnal seasons doubtless had their appropriate -festivals; and we can still, in imagination, reanimate their sacred -enclosures and avenues with the joyous procession bearing its -thank-offering of first-fruits, or laden with the last golden treasures -of the harvest-home. - ------ - -[87] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 171. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - SACRIFICIAL MOUNDS. - - - MOUND ALTARS—ALTAR DEPOSITS—QUENCHING THE ALTAR FIRES—MOUND - HEARTHS—MOUND CITY—MILITARY ALTAR MOUNDS—THEIR STRUCTURE AND - CONTENTS—SIGNIFICANCE OF THEIR DEPOSITS—ANALOGOUS INDIAN RITES - —TRANSITIONAL CIVILISATION. - -The name of sacrificial mounds has been conferred on a class of -monuments peculiar to the New World, and highly illustrative of the -rites and customs of the ancient race of the mounds. From their contents -also we derive many of the most interesting examples of the arts of that -singular people. The most noticeable characteristics of the sacrificial -mounds are: their almost invariable occurrence within enclosures; their -regular construction in uniform layers of gravel, earth, and sand, -disposed alternately in strata conformable to the shape of the mound; -and their covering a symmetrical hearth or altar of burnt clay or stone, -on which are deposited numerous relics, in all instances exhibiting -traces, more or less abundant, of their having been exposed to the -action of fire. - -A sufficient number of sacrificial mounds has been opened to justify the -adoption of certain general conclusions relative to their construction -and the purposes for which they were designed. On the natural surface of -the ground, in most cases, a basin of fine clay appears to have been -modelled with care, in a perfectly symmetrical form, but varying in -shape, and still more in dimensions. They have been found square, round, -elliptical, and in the form of parallelograms; and, in size, range from -a diameter of two feet, to fifty or sixty feet long, and twelve or -fifteen feet wide. The most common dimensions, however, are from five to -eight feet in diameter. The clay basin, or “altar,” as it has been -designated, invariably exhibits traces of having been subjected to the -action of fire, and frequently of intense and long-continued or -oft-repeated heat. It is, moreover, evident that in some cases it had -not only been often used; but, after being destroyed by repeated -exposures to intense heat, it had been several times remodelled before -it was finally covered over by the superincumbent mound. - -Within the focus or basin of the altars are found numerous relics: -elaborate carvings in stone, ornaments cut in mica, copper implements, -disks, and tubes, pearl, shell, and silver beads, and various other -objects, hereafter referred to, but all more or less injured by fire. In -some cases the carved pipes and other works in stone have been split and -calcined by the heat, and the copper relics have been melted, so that -the metal lies fused in shapeless masses in the centre of the basin. -Traces of cloth completely carbonised, but still retaining the structure -of the doubled and twisted thread; ivory or bone needles, and other -objects destructible by fire, have also been observed; and the whole are -invariably found intermixed with a quantity of ashes. Large -accumulations of calcined bones, including fragments of human bones, -also lay above some of the deposits, or mingled with them; and in other -cases a mass of calcined shells, or of fine carbonaceous dust, like that -formed by the burning of vegetable matter, filled up the entire hollow. -But while it is obvious from a few traces, that the deposits on the -altars had included offerings of objects which yielded at once to the -destructive element to which they were there exposed, as well as others -capable in some degree of withstanding the intensity of the flame: there -are only faint traces of all but the least destructible relics of stone -or metal. In one mound portions of the contents were cemented together -by a tufa-like substance of a grey colour, resembling the scoriæ of a -furnace, and of great hardness. But subsequent analyses demonstrated -that it was made up in part of phosphates; and a single fragment of -partially calcined bone found on the altar was the patella of a human -skeleton. The long-continued, and probably oft-repeated application of -intense heat had reduced the cemented mass to this condition. A quantity -of pottery, many implements of copper, and a large number of spear-heads -chipped out of quartz and manganese garnet, were also deposited on the -hearth; but they were intermixed with much coal and ashes, and were all -more or less melted or broken up with the intense action of the fire. -Out of a bushel or two of fragments of the spear-heads, and of from -fifty to a hundred quartz arrow-heads, only four specimens were -recovered entire. Scattered over the deposits of earth filling one of -the compartments, were traces of a number of pieces of timber, four or -five feet long, supposed by the explorers to have supported a funeral or -sacrificial pile. They had been somewhat burned, and the carbonised -surface preserved their casts in the hard earth, although the wood had -entirely decayed. They had been heaped over while glowing, for the earth -around them was slightly baked; and thus, after repeated, and perhaps -long-protracted sacrificial rites, some grand final service had -consummated the religious mysteries; and the blazing altar was quenched -by means of the tumulus that was to preserve it for the instruction of -future ages. - -The evidence that some of the altars remained in use for a considerable -period, and were repeatedly renewed ere they were finally covered over, -has suggested the idea that they are no more than the hearths of the -ancient Mound-Builders’ dwellings. But in some cases a single -altar-hearth has been found within extensive circumvallations. When in -groups their enclosures are slight demarcations, as of places sacred to -religious observances, and not defensive embankments with outer ditch. -Their contents cannot be regarded as mere miscellaneous deposits, either -like the waste heap of an Indian hut, or the contents of the modern -Indian’s ossuary; and it is obvious that those hearths have been -systematically overlaid with mounds constructed with great care, even -where they were devoid of other traces than the ashes of their final -fires. In one large mound, for example, one hundred and forty feet in -length, by sixty feet in greatest breadth,—already referred to as that -in which so many quartz spear and arrow-heads, with copper and other -relics, were found;—a new and smaller hearth was observed to have been -constructed within the oblong basin of the original altar. In this all -the relics deposited in the mound were placed, and the outer -compartments of the large basin had been filled up with earth to a -uniform level, the surface of which showed traces of fire. A more minute -examination led to the discovery that three successive altars had been -constructed, one above another, in addition to the smaller hearth or -focus which had received the final offerings, ere it was buried under -its enclosing mound. In other examples the altars have been observed to -be very slightly burned; but wherever such was the case, they have also -been destitute of remains. - -Along with the evidences of a uniformity of system and purpose in those -structures, there is also considerable variety in some of their details; -and one group may be selected, as on several accounts possessing -peculiar features of interest. On the western bank of the Scioto, an -ancient enclosure occupies a level terrace immediately above the river. -In outline it is nearly square with rounded angles, and consists of a -simple embankment, between three and four feet high, unaccompanied by a -ditch, or any other feature suggestive of its having been a place of -defence. It encloses an area of thirteen acres, within which are -twenty-four mounds, including the large oblong one already referred to. -The whole of these have been excavated, and found to contain altars and -other remains, suggestive of places of sacrifice, and not of sepulture. -Here, therefore, it may be assumed, was one of the sacred enclosures of -the Mound-Builders. The name of “Mound City” has been given to it; and -the results of its exploration prove it to have been one of the most -remarkable scenes of ancient ceremonial in the Scioto Valley. It would -almost seem as if here an altar had been reared to each god in the -American pantheon; for not the least remarkable feature observed in -reference to this class of mounds is, that they do not disclose a -miscellaneous assemblage of relics, like the Indian’s ossuary or -grave-mound. On the contrary, the sacrificial deposits are generally -nearly homogeneous. On one altar sculptured pipes are chiefly found, to -the number of hundreds; on another pottery, copper ornaments, stone -implements, or galena; on others, only an accumulation of calcined -shells, carbonaceous ashes, or burnt bones. One mound of this enclosure -covered a hearth in the form of a parallelogram of the utmost -regularity, measuring ten feet in length, by eight in width, and -containing a deposit of fine ashes, with fragments of pottery, from -which the pieces of one beautiful vase were recovered and restored. With -these also lay a few shell and pearl beads. In another oblong mound, the -altar was an equally perfect square, but with a circular basin, -remarkable for its depth, and filled with a mass of calcined shells. -Another, though of small dimensions, contained nearly two hundred pipes, -carved with ingenious skill, of a red porphyritic stone, into figures of -animals, birds, reptiles, and human heads. In addition to these were -also disks, tubes, and ornaments of copper, pearl and shell beads, etc., -but all more or less injured by the heat, which had been sufficiently -intense to melt some of the copper relics. The number of the objects -found in this mound exceed any other single deposit. Some of them supply -illustrations of great importance relative to the arts, habits, and -probable origin of their makers; and that they were objects of value -purposely exposed to the destructive element can scarcely admit of -doubt. A like diversity marks the contents of other mounds, both within -the enclosure referred to, and in others where careful explorations have -been effected. From one, for example, upwards of six hundred disks of -hornstone were taken, and it was estimated that the entire deposit -numbered little short of four thousand. - -It thus appears that sacrifices by fire were practised as an important -and oft-repeated part of the sacred rites of the Mound-Builders; and -also that certain specific and varying purposes were aimed at in the -offerings. The altar-mounds are chiefly found within what appear to have -been enclosures devoted primarily, if not exclusively, to religious -purposes; but they also occur, generally as single works, within the -military strongholds: where it may be assumed they sufficed for -sacrifices designed to propitiate the objects of national worship, and -to win the favour of their deities, when the garrisons were precluded -from access to the sacred enclosures where national religious rites were -chiefly celebrated. - -Within a quarter of a mile of “Mound City” a work of somewhat similar -outline, but of larger dimensions, suggests the idea of a fortified -site: not designed as a military stronghold, but as a walled town, -wherein those who officiated at the sacrifices of the adjacent temple -may have resided. Unlike the slight enclosure of the latter, its walls -are guarded by an outer fosse; and if surmounted by a palisade, or other -military work, they were well suited for defence. The area thus enclosed -measures twenty-eight acres; and nearly, if not exactly, in the centre -is a sacred mound, which covered an altar of singular construction, and -with remarkable traces of sacrificial rites. It had undergone repeated -changes before its final inhumation. Upon the altar was found an -accumulation of burnt remains, carefully covered with a layer of sand, -above which was heaped the superstructure of the mound. “The deposit -consisted of a thin layer of carbonaceous matter, intermingled with -which were some burnt human bones, but so much calcined as to render -recognition extremely difficult. Ten well-wrought copper bracelets were -also found, placed in two heaps, five in each, and encircling some -calcined bones,—probably those of the arms upon which they were worn. -Besides these were found a couple of thick plates of mica, placed upon -the western slope of the altar.”[88] - -All investigations coincide in proving that the altars of the -Mound-Builders were used for considerable periods, and that their final -incovering was effected with systematic care. In this respect they -present a striking contrast to the sepulchral mounds of the Indians, the -largest and most imposing of which are no more than huge grave-mounds, -or earth-pyramids, sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped, but exhibiting -in their internal structure no trace of any further design than to heap -over the sarcophagus of the honoured chief such a tumulus as should -preserve his name and fame to after times. - -The investigation of this class of ancient works suggests many curious -questions to which it is difficult to furnish any satisfactory answer. -It seems probable that not only each successive stage in the use and -reconstruction of the altar, but in the building of the superincumbent -mound, had its own significance and accompanying rites. In one of the -“Mound City” structures, after penetrating through four successive -sand-strata, interposed at intervals of little more than a foot between -layers of earth; and excavating altogether to a depth of nineteen feet: -a smooth level floor of slightly burned clay was found, covered with a -thin layer of sand, and on this a series of round plates of mica, ten -inches or a foot in diameter, were regularly disposed, overlapping each -other like the scales of a fish. The whole deposit was not uncovered, -but sufficient was exposed to lead the observers to the conclusion that -the entire layer of mica was arranged in the form of a crescent, the -full dimensions of which must measure twenty feet from horn to horn, and -five feet at its greatest breadth. In some mounds the accumulated -carbonaceous matter, like that formed by the ashes of leaves or grass, -might suggest the graceful offerings of the first-fruits of the earth. -In others, the accumulation of hundreds of elaborately carved stone -pipes on a single altar, is suggestive of some ancient peace- or -war-pipe ceremonial, in which the peculiar American custom of -tobacco-smoking had its special significance, and even perhaps its -origin. In others again, we should perhaps trace in the deposition under -the sacred mound of hundreds of spear and arrow-heads, copper axes, and -other weapons of war, a ceremonial perpetuated in the rude Indian -symbolism of burying the tomahawk or war-hatchet. But looking to the -evidence which so clearly separates the sepulchral from the sacred -mounds, it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that on some of -the altars of the Mound-Builders human sacrifices were made; and that -within their sacred enclosures were practised rites not less hideous -than those which characterised the worship which the ferocious Aztecs -are affirmed to have regarded as most acceptable to their sanguinary -gods. Among the Mexicans, if we are to believe the narratives of their -Spanish conquerors, human sacrifices constituted the crowning rite of -almost every festival. That great exaggeration is traceable in the -narratives of the chronicles is admitted in part even by the -enthusiastic historian of the conquest of Mexico; and the charming -historical romance woven by Prescott, is perhaps even more open to -question in its reproduction of the gross charges of cannibalism and -wholesale butchery in the superstitious rites of the Mexicans: than in -its gorgeous picturings of their architectural magnificence, their -temples and palaces, sculptured fountains, floating gardens, and all the -strange blending of Moorish luxury, with the refinements of European -life, and its unreserved freedom of women. - -Nothing corresponding to the geometrical enclosures or altar-mounds of -the Mississippi Valley appears among the works of any Indian nation -known to Europeans. Nevertheless in searching for evidence of their -ethnical affinities, we are naturally led to inquire if no traces of -their peculiar rites and customs can be detected in the ruder practices -of savage nations found in occupation of their deserted sites; and some -of those in use by different Indian tribes undoubtedly suggest ideas -such as may have animated the ancient people of the valley in the -construction and use of their mounds of sacrifice. One class of mound -relics, for example, is thus illustrated in Hariot’s narrative of the -discovery of Virginia in 1584. He describes the use of tobacco, called -by the natives _uppówoc_, and greatly enlarges on its medicinal virtues. -He then adds: “This _uppówoc_ is of so precious estimation amongst them -that they think their gods are marvellously delighted therewith, -whereupon sometime they make hallowed fires, and cast some of the powder -therein for a sacrifice.” The discovery of unmistakable evidence that -one of the sacred altars of “Mound City” was specially devoted to -nicotian rites and offerings, renders such allusions peculiarly -significant. In the belief of the ancient worshippers, the Great Spirit -smelled a sweet savour in the smoke of the sacred plant; and the homely -implement of modern luxury became in their hands a sacred censer, from -which the vapour rose with as fitting propitiatory odours as that which -perfumes the awful precincts of the cathedral altar, amid the mysteries -of the Church’s high and holy days. - -It is indeed a vague and partial glimpse that we recover of the old -worshipper, with his strange rites, his buried arts, and the traces of -his propitiatory sacrifices. But slight as it is, it reveals a condition -of things diverse in many respects from all else that we know of the -former history of the New World; and on that account, therefore, its -most imperfect disclosures have an interest for us greater than any -discoveries relating to the modern Indian can possess. Still more is -that interest confirmed by every indication which seems to present the -ancient Mound-Builders as in some respects a link between the rude -tribes of the American forests and prairies, and those nations whom the -first Europeans found established in cities, under a well-ordered -government, and surrounded by many appliances of civilisation akin to -those with which they had been long familiar among ancient nations of -southern Asia. To the great centres of native progress still manifest in -the ruined memorials of extinct arts in Central America, and illustrated -by so many evidences of national development attained under Aztec and -Inca rule, attention must be directed with a view to comprehend whatever -was essentially native to the New World. But before turning southward to -those seats of a well-ascertained native civilisation, there still -remains for consideration one other class of earthworks of a very -peculiar character. The mineral regions from whence the Mound-Builders -derived their stores of copper have been described; but between them and -the populous valleys of the Ohio, an extensive region intervenes, -abounding in monuments no less remarkable than some of those already -referred to; and valuable as a possible link in the detached fragments -of such ancient chroniclings. Lying as they do in geographical, and -perhaps also in other relations, immediately between the old regions of -the Mound-Builders and the Miners of ante-Columbian centuries, they -cannot be overlooked in any archæological researches into the history of -the New World. - ------ - -[88] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 157. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - SYMBOLIC MOUNDS. - - - THE WISCONSIN REGION—ANIMAL MOUNDS—SYMBOLIC MOUNDS—BIG ELEPHANT - MOUND—DADE COUNTY MOUNDS—MAGNITUDE OF EARTHWORKS—ENCLOSED - WORKS OF ART—ROCK RIVER WORKS—THE NORTHERN AZTALAN—ANCIENT - GARDEN BEDS—THE WISCONSIN PLAINS—A SACRED NEUTRAL LAND—THE - ALLIGATOR MOUND—THE GREAT SERPENT, OHIO—SERPENT SYMBOLS— - INTAGLIO EARTHWORKS—SUGGESTIVE INFERENCES—THE ANCIENT RACE—A - SACERDOTAL CASTE—ANTIQUITY OF THE RACE—INFERIORITY OF THE - INDIAN TRIBES. - -The well-watered region which stretches westward from Lake Michigan to -the Mississippi, was occupied until recently by a comparatively dense -Indian population; and even now affords shelter to the remnants of -native tribes. But besides the traces of their ephemeral dwellings and -graves, it abounds with earthworks of a distinctive character, peculiar -to the New World. But of this as of other partially explored regions of -the west, the earlier accounts were vague and contradictory; and it is -only very recently that the characteristics of its monuments have been -accurately defined. Mr. J. A. Lapham, to whose _Antiquities of Wisconsin -surveyed and described_, the minute knowledge of these remarkable -earthworks is chiefly due, claims to have first described the Turtle -Mound at Waukesha and other animal effigies of the same territory, so -early as 1836. These notices, however, only appeared in local -newspapers; and general attention was for the first time directed to -them by Mr. R. C. Taylor in the _American Journal of Arts and Sciences_, -in 1838. Their peculiar character was thereby perceived, and such -general interest awakened, that the American Antiquarian Society was -induced to place funds at Mr. Lapham’s disposal for carrying out the -elaborate surveys since published. - -The occurrence of “Animal Mounds” is by no means exclusively confined to -the State of Wisconsin. Some examples are specially worthy of notice -among the varied earthworks of the Ohio and Scioto Valleys. But the -important fact connected with the aboriginal traces of Wisconsin is that -its Animal Mounds do not occur interspersed, as in the Ohio Valley, with -civic and sacred enclosures, sepulchral mounds, and works of defence; -but within its well-defined limits, thousands of gigantic basso-relievos -of men, beasts, birds, and reptiles, all wrought with persevering labour -on the surface of the soil, constitute its distinguishing -characteristic; and disclose no evidence of their construction with any -other object in view than that of perpetuating their external forms. The -vast levels or slightly undulating surfaces of prairie land present -peculiarly favourable conditions for the colossal relievos of the native -artist: yet not more so than are to be met with in other localities -where no such mounds occur. It is important therefore to bear in -remembrance that defensive or military structures, and such as are -apparently designed for sacrificial rites or religious ceremonies, are -scarcely to be met with in the territory marked by those singular groups -of imitative earthworks. The country, moreover, is well adapted for -maintaining a large population, in very diverse stages of social -progress. Through its gently undulating surface numerous rivers and -streams flow in sluggish, yet limpid current, eastward and westward, to -empty themselves into Lake Michigan or the Mississippi. The pools and -groups of lakes into which they expand, furnish abundance of wild rice, -which is at once a means of sustenance to numerous aquatic birds, and -also constituted an important source of supply to the aborigines, so -long as they held possession of the territory. The rivers and lakes also -abound with excellent fish; and where the soil remains uninvaded by the -ploughshare of the intruding settler, numerous traces of older -agricultural labour show where the Indians cultivated the maize, and -developed some of the industrial arts of a settled people. Indian -grave-mounds diversify the surface, and enclose ornaments and weapons of -the rude nomads that still linger on the outskirts of that western -state. But such slight and inartificial mounds are readily -distinguishable from the remarkable structures of a remoter era which -constitute the archæological characteristic of the region. Here, indeed, -as elsewhere, the Indians have habitually selected the ancient -earthworks as places of sepulture; and as a rule have given the -preference to the larger and more conspicuous mounds. On some of these -the surveyors recognised recent graves of the Potowattomies. But their -irregular position shows that they bear no relation to the original -design. In their superficial character they correspond to the slight -grave-mounds made with the imperfect implements of the modern Indians; -and they contrast in all other respects with the laborious construction -of the gigantic animal-mounds. - -The symbolic earthworks of the Wisconsin plains are not confined to the -representation of animals, though the predominance of animal-mounds has -suggested that name for the whole. Embankments occur in the form of -crosses, crescents, angles, and straight lines; and also seemingly as -gigantic representations of the war-club, tobacco-pipe, and other -familiar implements or weapons. Some of the crosses and other simpler -forms probably originally represented animals, birds, or fishes, with -extended wings or fins. But in those, as in the better-defined -animal-mounds, time has obliterated the minuter touches of the ancient -modeller, and effaced indications of his meaning. Yet fancy still -recognises among the best preserved relievos the elk, buffalo, bear, -fox, otter, and racoon. The lizard is of frequent occurrence; the turtle -and frog also appear; birds and fishes are repeatedly represented; and -man himself figures among the ancient relievos. Of one form of mound -which Mr. Lapham identifies as the otter, seven examples occur. Sixteen -cruciform earthworks are described, and the ordinary examples, of all -sizes, are counted by hundreds. - -It is not without reason that some of the larger mounds in the midst of -those emblematic earthworks have been designated observatory mounds, and -assumed to have been constructed in order to afford a view of the -laborious devices. Ordinarily the mound builder is tempted to give -greater prominence to his tumulus by erecting it on the summit of a hill -or bluff; but on the prairie land of Wisconsin, such natural elevations -are wanting; and hence the construction of a class of works for which -the lowest levels were preferred. The “Big Elephant Mound,” which -measures 135 feet in length, is constructed in a valley gently sloping -to the Mississippi, a few miles below the junction of the Wisconsin -River. The ridges on both sides offered a choice of elevated sites; but -the bottom land nearly on a level with the Mississippi at high water, -has been purposely chosen, so that the device might be surveyed from the -neighbouring heights. Fancy is prompt to assign a meaning to the old -modellers’ works. In this example, the prolonged snout, or proboscis, -has led to its designation as the “Big Elephant Mound”; and the -delineator of it, in the Smithsonian Report for 1872, so confidently -relies on its purposed significance that he asks: “Is not the existence -of such a mound good evidence of the contemporaneous existence of the -mastodon and the Mound-Builders?” The figure, though comparatively -large, is surpassed by many. Some indeed are on a gigantic scale. One -mound of peculiar, but indeterminate form, tapers for a length of five -hundred and seventy feet. At its smaller extremity or tail, it slightly -curves to the east. At the opposite extremity are a large cross, and one -of the largest circular mounds. Its device can no longer be recognised; -but much ingenuity and still more labour, have been expended on its -construction. Another remarkable group in Dade County, includes six -quadrupeds of indeterminate species, six parallelograms, a large -tumulus, a circle, and a human figure. The animals are grouped in two -rows; and the tumulus seems as though it had been erected as an -observatory from which to view the elaborate design. An ingenious -English critic recognises in it the possible memorial of a triumph like -that of the ancient Greek charioteer in the national games, with the -appropriate substitution of a sledge for the chariot, and a train of -dogs for the fleet racers of the hippodrome. “Taking,” he says, “the -rudeness of the age and workmanship into account, the impracticability -of the material, and the scale and material, the whole is really not a -bad representation of the dog-drawn sledges of the Kamschatdales of the -present day. Supposing their horns to have been omitted, from the -impracticability of raising earthworks that would stand well, and in -proportion to represent them, they might have signified the elk or the -reindeer. Whatever animal, however, be taken, it is perhaps a legitimate -inference that we have here the colossal trophy of a super-Atlantic -charioteer at some American race; why not the curious hippodrome, or, -more correctly here, cynodrome, with its starting-cells (carceres), its -course, its meta, and road of triumph to the town?”[89] - -It was not necessary for the fanciful interpreter to resort to remote -Kamschatka for the model of his dog-drawn sledge, for such are common -enough among the Indians of the North-west. But a general survey of the -earthworks of Wisconsin in no degree tends to confirm this -interpretation, unless in so far as such animal-mounds may have been -monumental memorials, and trophies of achievements in wars and the -chase. As such they are executed on a scale which gives evidence of the -systematic expenditure of an enormous amount of labour; and as the -opinion has latterly found favour with some that the great mounds are -simply the result of many successive interments; and the marks of -regular stratification in some of them have been adduced in confirmation -of this idea: the corresponding proportions of the animal-mounds are -significant. In them at least a preconceived design has guided the -builders from the outset; and some adequate idea of the magnitude of the -Dade County group will be formed from a correct estimate of the -proportions of the supposed charioteer. He is figured, as is usual in -similar mounds, with his limbs extended, and with arms of -disproportionate length; possibly owing to the design originally -representing some implement in each hand. From head to foot he measures -one hundred and twenty-five feet, and one hundred and forty feet from -the extremity of one arm to that of the other. The head alone is a mound -twenty-five feet in diameter, and nearly six feet in highest elevation -from the surrounding soil. Measuring the whole by this scale, it is -abundantly apparent that a group, including altogether fifteen -mound-figures, must have been a work of immense time and labour, and -doubtless owed its origin to some motive or purpose of corresponding -magnitude in the estimation of its constructors. - -Mr. Schoolcraft attempted to solve the mystery of the emblematic mounds -by assuming them to be the Totems, or heraldic symbols, in use among the -Indian tribes, thus reproduced in earthworks on a gigantic scale. The -fox, the bear, the eagle, turtle, or other animal, is selected among -them as the sign of the tribe or family. This usage prevailed among the -Iroquois, Hurons, Algonquins, Cherokees, and other nations occupying -very extensive areas; and, accordingly, guided by the superficial -resemblance of the Animal Mounds to such totemic signs, Mr. Schoolcraft -says: “A tribe could leave no more permanent trace of an esteemed -sachem, or honoured individual, than by the erection of one of these -monuments. They are clearly sepulchral, and have no other object but to -preserve the names of distinguished actors in their history.”[90] But -exploration seems to prove that the emblematical mounds of Wisconsin are -not sepulchral; while any correspondence that may be traced between them -and the totemic symbols of tribes once so widely spread as the -Algonquins, Iroquois, and Cherokees, only increases the mystery of -symbols constructed on this colossal scale, and confined to a territory -so limited. So far indeed is a careful survey from confirming any such -convenient and summary fancy, that Mr. Lapham states, as the result of -elaborate explorations, that he conceives four epochs are traceable in -the history of the locality, two of which at least preceded the era of -occupation by the Indian tribes. The period of the animal-mound builders -strikingly contrasts with that of the earthworks previously described, -in the rarity of enclosed works of art. But the few implements -discovered are full of interest from their obvious resemblance to those -of the Mound-Builders. Several of the large hornstone discs which I have -seen are of the same type as those found in immense numbers in the Ohio -Mounds; and Mr. Albert H. Hoy of Racine, Wisconsin, describes in a -letter to me the discovery of about thirty of the same relics, in that -vicinity, under circumstances suggestive of great antiquity. They lay at -a depth of eight feet in undisturbed soil, under a thin bed of peat, in -what appeared to have been the ancient bed of the Rock River. - -The sites of the symbolic earthworks of Wisconsin correspond to those -adopted by the Mound-Builders for their sacred enclosures; though others -of their works, and especially the most remarkable of their -animal-mounds, were constructed on prominent heights. Within the fertile -region bounded by the great lakes and the Mississippi, a numerous -population may have long dwelt undisturbed, in the enjoyment of the -profusion which wood and water and the easily cultivated soil supplied. -On the bluffs and terraces surmounting the rivers and lakes by which -facilities of communication with the surrounding territory, and with -more distant regions, were commanded, the earthworks are found in -extensive and evidently dependent groups. But, unlike the rich memorial -mounds of the Scioto Valley, they reveal few enclosed relics to -chronicle the history of their erection, and throw light on the race of -artists who laboriously diversified the natural landscape with such -devices. In a few cases, human remains have been found in them, under -circumstances which did not clearly point to a modern date; but in -summing up the results of his explorations, Mr. Lapham remarks:—“So far -as I have had opportunity to observe, there are no original remains in -the mounds of imitative form, beyond a few scattered fragments that may -have gained a place there by accident. Many of the mounds have been -entirely removed, including the earth beneath for a considerable depth, -in the process of grading streets in Milwaukee; and it is usually found -that the natural surface had not been disturbed at the time of the -erection, but that the several layers or strata of mould, clay, gravel, -etc., are continuous below the structure, as on the contiguous grounds. -Great numbers of the smaller conical tumuli are also destitute of any -remains; and if human bodies were ever buried under them, they are now -so entirely ‘returned to dust’ that no apparent traces of them are -left.”[91] - -The extensive works at Aztalan, on the west branch of Rock River, -present analogies of a different kind from the sacred and civic -enclosures of the Mound-Builders. They constitute, it is believed, the -only ancient enclosure, properly so called, throughout the whole region -of the emblematic mounds; and, under the name of the “ancient city of -Aztalan,” were long regarded as one of the wonders of the western world. -Early explorers were on the look-out for the mother city of the Aztecs, -and the first surveyor of the earthworks on Rock River named them -Aztalan, in the full belief that the long-sought city of Mexican -tradition had at length been found. The name was a stimulus to credulity -and wonder; and proved the source of much extravagant exaggeration. -Walls of brick still sustained by their solid buttresses; a subterranean -vault and stairway discovered within one of its square mounds; a -subterranean passage, arched with stone; bastions of solid masonry, and -other features of the like kind: were all made to correspond with the -supposed mother-city of the Aztecs, and the cradle-land of America’s -native civilisation. On being subjected to accurate survey, those -wondrous features vanish. Freed, however, from exaggeration and -falsehood, the Aztalan works still present remarkable characteristics. -An area of seventeen acres on the banks of the Rock River is enclosed on -three sides by a vallum with regular “bastions,” as they have been -termed; although both the construction of the walls, and the site of the -enclosure—commanded as it is by elevated land on nearly every -side,—preclude the idea of its having been a place of defence. Large, -square, terraced mounds occupy the northern and southern angles. In one -of them a human skeleton was found; and in others of the mounds coarse -pottery occurs; but both may have been deposited long subsequent to the -completion of the earthworks of Aztalan. With these exceptions, nothing -has yet rewarded the careful and elaborate excavations of its explorers -tending to throw light on the original builders. Its bastions have been -tunnelled in vain; and cuttings made in some of the largest of a -remarkable range of tumuli outside the enclosures revealed only ashes, -mingled with charcoal and fragments of human bones, unaccompanied by a -single work of art, like those which confer so graphic an interest on -the mounds of the Ohio Valley. - -Assuming the works of Aztalan and the animal-mounds of Wisconsin to -belong to the same period: Mr. Lapham assigns the conical mounds to a -later era. These he regards as built for sepulchral purposes, and -exhibiting, both in construction and materials, the workmanship of a -greatly inferior race of builders. Next come what are designated by the -modern settlers “ancient garden beds,” consisting of low, broad, -parallel ridges, as if corn had been planted in drills. They average -four feet in width, and the depth of the space between them is six -inches. These appearances indicate a more perfect system of agricultural -operations than anything known to have been practised by the modern -Indian tribes; but, at the same time, they are no less distinctly -disconnected with the construction of the ancient mounds. Where these -occur within a cultivated area, the parallel ridges of the old -cultivators are carried across them in the same manner as over any other -undulation of the ground. It is obvious, therefore, not only that the -emblematic earthworks preceded them, but that they had neither -sacredness nor any special significance in the eyes of the cultivators -of the soil. Probably, indeed, such traces of agricultural operations -belong to a greatly more modern period. - -What, then, are the inferences to be drawn from the ancient monuments -peculiar to the territory lying immediately to the south of the great -copper region of Lake Superior? They are mostly of a negative character, -yet not on that account without significance. If we assume the existence -of contemporary nations in Wisconsin and the Ohio Valley in the period -of the Mound-Builders, the chronicles of that era exhibit them to us in -striking contrast. In the one region every convenient height is crowned -with the elaborate fortifications of a numerous and warlike people; -while, on the broad levels of the river-terraces, ingenious geometrical -structures prove their skill and intellectual development as applied to -the formation of civic and temple enclosures. Their sacred and -sepulchral mounds, in like manner, reveal considerable artistic skill, -and a singular variety in the rites and customs exacted in the -performance of their national worship. Turning to the northern area, all -is changed. Along the river-terraces we look in vain for military -structures. The mounds disclose no altars rich with the metallurgic or -mimetic workmanship of their builders; but, on the contrary, the sole -traces of imitative art occur in the external forms of earthworks, the -exploration of which confutes the idea of their having been erected over -either grave or altar, and reveals no other purpose of their -construction. - -When it is considered that, along with the mica of the Alleghanies, the -shells of the Gulf of Mexico, and obsidian from the ancient centre of -American civilisation, the copper of Lake Superior is one of the most -abundant materials found in the Mississippi mounds: we are tempted to -trace some intimate relation between the warlike occupants of the Ohio -and Scioto valleys and the singular race who dwelt in peaceful industry -on the well-watered and plentifully stocked plains to the south of the -copper region, and there constructed their strange colossal memorials of -imitative art. The country seems peculiarly adapted by nature as a -central neutral land for the continent to the east of the Rocky -Mountains. On the east it is guarded by Lake Michigan, and on the north -by the great inland sea which constitutes the fountain of the whole lake -and river chain that sweeps away on its course of twenty-five hundred -miles, over Niagara, and through the islands and rapids of the St. -Lawrence, to the Atlantic. On the west, with its infant streamlets -originating almost from the same source, the Mississippi rolls onward in -its majestic course, receiving as its tributaries the great rivers which -rise alike on the western slope of the Alleghanies and the eastern -declivities of the Rocky Mountains, and loses itself at length in the -Gulf of Mexico. This wonderful river system, and the great level contour -of the regions which it drains, exercised a remarkable influence on the -extinct civilisation of America, as well as on later Indian nomad life, -making its primitive eras so different from any phase of Europe’s -history. The Indians who traded with Cartier at Tadousac, on the lower -St. Lawrence, and those whom Raleigh met with on the coast of Carolina, -obtained their copper from the same northern region towards which the -head-waters of the Mississippi and the St. Lawrence converge; while the -world of Europe between the Rhine and the Baltic remained, even in its -late Roman era, almost as much apart from that on its Mediterranean -shores as the America of centuries before Columbus. It seems, therefore, -not inconceivable that the prairie land of Wisconsin derives some of its -archæological characteristics from its relation to the physical -geography of the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic, -possibly as a sacred neutral ground attached to the metallurgic region -of Lake Superior, like the famous pipe-stone quarry of the Couteau des -Prairies. - -This idea of some peculiar relations connecting the symbolic architects -of Wisconsin with the Mound-Builders of the Ohio, derives confirmation -from the few but remarkable animal-mounds of the latter, in which their -connection with the religious rites of the ancient race is borne out. -One example of an animal-mound, upwards of 250 feet in length, and -probably designed to represent a bear, occupies a high level terrace on -the west bank of the Scioto river. Unlike any of the symbolic mounds of -Wisconsin, it is surrounded by an oval embankment measuring four hundred -and eighty feet in greatest diameter. On the south side a space of about -ninety feet wide breaking the continuity of the embankment, is covered -by a long exterior mound, leaving two avenues of approach where it -overlaps the inner oval. This mound has not been opened; but in the -process of excavating the Ohio canal, large quantities of mica, similar -to what occurs so abundantly in the sacrificial mounds, were found in -its immediate vicinity. - -The same canal intersects Newark earthworks; and there, within another -elliptic vallum, is the Eagle Mound, measuring 155 feet in length of -body, and 200 feet between the tips of the wings. It is only a minor -feature of the remarkable group, already described, which includes -geometrical enclosures, mounds, and avenues; but it is distinguished -from all the others, by the great scale of its enclosing walls, and -interior ditch. Unfortunately it was opened by a former proprietor in -search of treasure; and no further record of its contents has been -preserved, except that it covered a hearth of a similar character to the -altars already described as characteristic of the sacrificial mounds. -The fact, however, illustrates the contrast between works bearing so -much external resemblance to each other as the symbolic mounds of the -Mississippi Valleys and those of Wisconsin. In the absence of all -included relics of worship or inhumation, the latter seem but as symbols -of the rites practised by the southern Mound-Builders. - -About six miles higher up the same valley, the “Alligator,” of Licking -County, attracts attention as another remarkable colossal animal-mound. -It occupies the summit of a lofty hill or spur, which projects into the -Racoon Creek Valley. The outline and general contour of this huge -lizard-mound are still clearly defined, though agricultural operations -have obliterated some of the minuter traces noted by early visitors. The -average height is four feet; but the head, shoulders, and rump, are -elevated in parts to a height of fully six feet. The tail curls off to -the left side, and is now so indefinite, as it tapers towards a point, -that the precise measurement is uncertain; but the total length of the -“Alligator” may be stated at about 220 feet. Excavations made at various -points have only shown that the figure has been modelled in fine clay -upon a framework of stones of considerable size. But when I visited it, -a rain gully had exposed part of the side of the hill, showing this to -consist to a large extent of loose stones; so that the mound is no doubt -constructed with materials obtained on the spot. A raised circular -structure, designated the altar, and covered with stones which had been -much exposed to the action of fire, is described by former observers as -standing on the right side, and connected with the summit of the mound -by a graded way ten feet broad; but the traces of this feature are now -very slight. - -The site of this remarkable monument commands a view of the entire -valley for eight or ten miles, and is by far the most conspicuous point -within that limit. An ancient fortified hill stands about three-fourths -of a mile distant on a spur of the same range of heights; and another -entrenched hill nearly faces it on the opposite side of the valley. -Numerous mounds occupy both the hill-tops and the levels in surrounding -valleys; and it is only the luxuriant growth of the forest which -conceals the great Newark group, with its geometrical enclosures, -parallels, and mounds. The Alligator Mound may, therefore, be assumed to -symbolise some object of special awe or veneration, thus reared on one -of the chief high-places of the nation, where the ancient people of the -valley could witness the celebration of rites of their unknown worship. -Its site was obviously selected as the most prominent natural feature in -a populous district abounding with military, civic, and religious -structures. Yet its imposing proportions are surpassed by another -symbolic work constructed on a height remote from any traces of ancient -settlement. - -The Great Serpent of Adam’s County, Ohio, occupies the extreme point of -a crescent-formed spur of land formed at the junction of two tributary -streams of the Ohio. This elevated site has been cut to a conformity -with an oval circumvallation on its summit, leaving a smooth external -platform ten feet wide, with an inclination towards the embankment on -every side. Immediately outside the inner point of this oval is the -serpent’s head, with distended jaws, as if in the act of swallowing -what, in comparison with its huge dimensions, is spoken of as an egg, -though it measures 160 feet in length. Conforming to the summit of the -hill, the body of the serpent winds back, in graceful undulations, -terminating with a triple coil at the tail. The figure is boldly -defined, the earth-wrought relievo being upwards of five feet in height -by thirty feet in base at the centre of the body; and the entire length, -following its convolutions, cannot measure less than a thousand feet. - -This singular monument stands alone, and though classed here with the -symbolic animal-mounds of Wisconsin, it has no analogue among the -numerous basso-relievos wrought on the broad prairie-lands of that -region. It is indeed altogether unique among the earthworks of the New -World, and without a parallel in the Old; though it has not unnaturally -furnished the starting-point for a host of speculations relative to -serpent-worship. Among the miniature sculptures of the Mound-Builders, -repeated examples of the serpent occur. On one of the altars of “Mound -City” was a pipe of the form peculiar to the mounds, with a rattlesnake -coiled round the bowl. From another mound of the same earthwork several -sculptured tablets were recovered, representing the rattlesnake, -delicately carved in fine cinnamon-coloured sandstone; and one of them -carefully enveloped in sheets of copper. The character of these -sculptures, and the circumstances under which they were discovered, -suggested to the explorers that they were not designed for ornaments; -but had some relation to superstitious rites. Other serpents are -represented by the Mound-Sculptors; but the rattlesnake is the favourite -type. I recently examined, in the Peabody Museum of Archæology at -Cambridge, Mass., a series of eighteen engraved circular plates made -from the shell of the _Pyrula_, which were obtained from the Brakebill -and Lick Creek Mounds, in East Tennessee. Thirteen of them bear the same -device of a rattlesnake. Among the Mexicans it was the symbol of -royalty; and this helps to give a special interest to a remarkable -tablet figured here, in the same style of art, so suggestive of Mexican -affinities. It is a disk of fine-grained sandstone, nearly 8½ inches in -diameter, and three-quarters of an inch, thick, on which is graven the -elaborate device of two intertwined rattlesnakes, as shown in Fig. 73. -On the back a slight ornament runs round the border; and a fractured -mortice-hole, somewhat out of the true centre, shows where a handle has -been attached to it. It was found in two pieces, near Lake Washington, -Issaquina County, Mississippi; and is now in the possession of Mr. W. -Marshall Anderson, of Circleville, Ohio. - -[Illustration: FIG. 73.—Lake Washington Disk.] - -The imitative mounds of Wisconsin hitherto described are in bold relief; -but on the Indian Prairie, a few miles from the city of Milwaukee, there -occur five designs, wrought—to use a term of European art,—in -intaglio. Instead of the representations of animals being executed in -relief, the process has been reversed, and the outline has been -completed by piling the excavated earth round the edge. A few similar -examples have been noted at other points; but such a process is more -liable to effacement in the progress of time, unless renewed like the -famous “White Horse” of Berkshire, by a periodical “scouring.” The chalk -hills of southern England present peculiar facilities for effective -colossal intaglio work. Another White Horse, ascribed to Saxon victors -of the Danes, accompanies a group of British earthworks on Braddon Hill, -Wiltshire; and the colossal human figure, armed with a club, at Cerne, -in Dorsetshire, preserves a still closer counterpart to those scattered -over the prairie lands beyond the western shores of Lake Michigan. - -But for our present purpose the comparison of these ancient earthworks -with others clearly traceable to modern Indian tribes, is more important -than any analogies between the antiquities of the two hemispheres. One -fact of obvious significance is the great scale on which the prehistoric -races of America wrought, and the consequent evidences of numbers, and -of combined labour perseveringly applied to the accomplishment of their -aim. It is difficult to convey any definite conception of this by mere -description, even though accompanied with minute measurements. A single -cruciform mound measures four hundred and twenty feet between the -extreme points of its limbs. Lizard and other animal-mounds ranging from -eighty to a hundred and fifty feet in length occur in extensive groups; -and by their systematic arrangement, impress the mind with the idea of -protracted toil carried on under the control of some supreme rule, or -stimulated by motives of paramount influence. The Indian tribes that -have come under observation are as diverse in habits, arts, and -religious rites as in language; but none of them have manifested any -capacity for the combination involved in the construction of monuments -which more nearly resemble the great embankments and viaducts of modern -railway engineering. The extent of such works indicates a settled -condition of society, and industry far beyond that of the Iroquois -Confederacy. In all this there may be nothing absolutely incompatible -with the idea of the Indians being degenerate descendants of such a -people, yet it is unsupported by proof. No modern tribe preserves any -traces of such ancestral constructive habits; and while the -animal-mounds appear to be regarded with superstitious reverence by the -Indians, and are rarely disturbed except for purposes of sepulture, they -lay no claim to them as the work of their fathers. The only theory of -their origin is, that they are the work of the great Manitou, and were -made by him to reveal to his red children the plentiful supply of game -that awaits them in the world of spirits. The idea is a consoling one to -tribes whose hunting-grounds have been invaded and laid desolate; and it -is fully as philosophical as a theory gravely propounded to the American -Scientific Association, that the cruciform and curvilinear earthworks -intermingled with the animal-mounds include characters of the Phœnician -alphabet, and are half-obliterated inscriptions commemorative of -explorations by the great voyagers of antiquity. - -What then are the inferences thus far deducible as to the races of -Northern America in ante-Columbian centuries? Assuming a community of -arts, and certain intimate relations in race and social condition, among -the ancient people who worked the mines on Lake Superior, and -constructed the varied earthworks that reach southward into Indiana, -Ohio, and Kentucky: there is no reason to suppose that they were united -as one nation. While coincidences of a remarkable kind in the -construction, and still more in the dimensions of their great -earthworks, point to a common knowledge of geometrical configuration, -and a standard of measurement: no two earthworks so entirely correspond -as to show an absolute identity of purpose. The marked diversity between -the truncated, pyramidal mounds of the states on the Gulf, the -geometrical enclosures of Ohio, and the symbolic earthworks of -Wisconsin, indicate varied usages of distinct communities. A dense -population must have centred in certain favourite localities, still -marked by evidence of the combined labours of a numerous people; and -some supreme rule, like that of the Incas of Peru, must have regulated -the operations requisite for the execution of works planned on so -comprehensive a scale. - -The Scioto and the Ohio valleys, it may be presumed, were the seats of -separate states, with frontier populations living in part on the produce -of the chase; but depending largely on agricultural industry for the -sustenance of the communities crowded on the flats and river-valleys -where their monuments abound, and for the supply of the workmen by whose -combined labour they were constructed. The religious character and uses -ascribed to one important class of their earthworks, in which scientific -skill is most clearly manifested, points to the probable existence of a -sacerdotal order, such as played an important part in the polity both of -Mexico and Peru. There is indeed so great a discrepancy between the -remarkable combination of science and skill in the execution of the Ohio -earthworks, and the crude state of the arts otherwise associated with -them, as to suggest the idea of a sacerdotal caste, like the Brahmins of -India, distinct in race, and superior in intellectual acquirements to -the great mass of the people. - -Of the physical characteristics of the Mound-Builders, notwithstanding -the ransacking of many sepulchral mounds, we possess as yet very partial -evidence. This department of the subject will come under review in a -subsequent chapter; and it will then be seen that while the accepted -Mound-Builders’ type of head has been largely based on the very specimen -selected by Dr. Morton, as “the perfect type of Indian conformation,” -with its undoubted traces of compression, and of the use of the -cradle-board, so characteristic of the Indian hunter: it seems not -improbable that a systematic exploration of the mounds may disclose -evidence of a ruling class differing physically as well as -intellectually from the mass of the community by whose toil the enduring -monuments of their singular rites and customs have been perpetuated. - -But, while the Mound-Builders are essentially prehistoric, according to -all New World chronology, there is nothing in the disclosures hitherto -made calculated to suggest for them an extremely remote era. The -marvellous traces of geometrical skill in their great earthworks, more -than anything else, separate them from every known race north of Mexico. -The indications of antiquity in the mines of Lake Superior, and the -mounds of Ohio, suggest no such enormous intervals of time as perplex us -in attempting to deal with the relics of the caves and river-valleys of -Europe. The refilled trenches on the barren rocks of Isle Royale -manifestly demand centuries for the slow accumulation of sufficient soil -and vegetable matter to refill the excavations. Dr. Hildreth ascribes -eight hundred years of growth to a tree felled on one of the mounds at -Marietta; and other trustworthy authorities, including Messrs. Squier -and Davis, furnish similar evidence for lesser periods of four, five, -and six centuries. The longest term thus indicated would be little -enough for the filling up of the deserted trenches of Isle Royal. But -however far back we carry the era of the Mound-Builders, the chief -change which the regions occupied by them have since undergone, is the -clothing of their valleys, and the earthworks erected there, with the -forests which help us to some partial guess at the intervening centuries -since their disappearance. The animal remains hitherto found in their -mounds are those of the existing species of deer, bears, wolves, and -other fauna, not even now wholly extirpated from Ohio; and while their -ingenious sculptures prove that they were familiar with a more southern, -and even a South-American tropical fauna: nothing has yet been -discovered to connect them with an extinct, much less a fossil mammalia, -such as the mastodon. The probability rather is that the ruins of -Clark’s Work, or Fort Ancient, may match in antiquity with those of -England’s Norman keeps, and even that their builders may have lingered -on into centuries nearer the age of Columbus. - -The Zuñi, Moquis, Pimos, and other tribes of New Mexico, have left -curious evidences of a people of gentle skill in agriculture, in ceramic -art, and above all, in architecture, beyond anything pertaining to the -northern Indians, or even in some respects to the Mound-Builders. But -there still remains the distinct and perplexing element of a people so -partially civilised, and comparatively rude; yet able to construct -squares, circles, ellipses, and other geometrical figures on a seale -which would tax the skill of many a well-trained civil engineer of the -present day. - -Other characteristic traits of the Mound-Builders, especially as shown -in their ingenious sculptures, and illustrated by their mimetic art, -have yet to be considered. But this at least is apparent, that the most -advanced among the Indian tribes of North America within its historical -period represent a phase of life essentially inferior to that which had -preceded it. Before the great river-valleys were overshadowed with their -ancient forests, nations dwelt there practising arts and rites which -involved many germs of civilisation. Their defensive military skill, -their agricultural industry, and even their ideas of the relations of -man to some supreme spiritual power, are suggested by evidence, which, -though inadequate for any detailed chronicle, discloses glimpses of an -unwritten history full of interest even in this tantalising form. We -have still to consider other characteristics of the ancient race, -including their geographical and ethnical relations. But before doing -so, it is desirable to review the history of other ancient American -races among whom civilisation attained a higher development, and of whom -we have historical evidence, as well as the chronicles which archæology -supplies. - ------ - -[89] _Journ. Brit. Archæol. Ass._ vol. v. p. 411. - -[90] _History of Indian Tribes_, vol. i. p. 52. - -[91] _Antiquities of Wisconsin_, p. 80. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILISATION. - - - THE TOLTECS—IXTLILXOCHITL—THE AZTECS—AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE— - AZTALAN—THE VALLEY OF MEXICO—MONTEZUMA’S CAPITAL—ITS VANISHED - SPLENDOUR—MEXICAN CALENDAR—THE CALENDAR STONE—MEXICAN DEITIES - —TOLTEC CIVILISATION—RACE ELEMENTS—THE TOLTEC CAPITAL— - TEZCUCAN PALACES—THEIR MODERN VESTIGES—QUETZALCOATL—THE - PYRAMID OF CHOLULA—THE SACRED CITY—THE MOQUI INDIANS—THE HOLY - CITY OF PERU—WORSHIP OF THE SUN—ASTRONOMICAL KNOWLEDGE— - AGRICULTURE—THE LLAMA—WOVEN TEXTURES—SCIENCE AND ART—NATIVE - INSTITUTIONS—METALLURGY—ORIGIN OF THE MEXICANS—MINGLING OF - RACES. - -The Toltecs play a part in the initial pages of the New World’s story -akin to the fabled Cyclops of antiquity. They belong to that vague era -which lies beyond all definite records, and furnish a name for the -historian and the ethnologist alike to conjure with: like the Druids or -the Picts of the old British antiquary, or the Phœnicians of his -American disciple. Yet it is not without its value thus to discover -among the nations of the New World, even a fabulous history, with its -possible fragments of truth embodied in the myth. Mr. Gallatin has -compiled a laborious digest of the successive migrations and dynasties -of Mexico, as chronicled from elder sources, by Ixtlilxochitl, Sahagun, -Veytia, Clavigero, the Mendoza Collection, the Codex Tellurianus, and -Acosta.[92] The oldest dates bring the Toltec wanderers to -Huehuetlapallan, A.D. 387, and close their dynasty in the middle of the -tenth century; when they are superseded by Chichimecas and Tezcucans, -whose joint sovereignty, by the unanimous concurrence of authorities, -endured till the sixteenth century. But, meanwhile, the same authorities -chronicle the foundation of Mexico or Tenochtitlan, variously in the -thirteenth or fourteenth century, by Aztec conquerors; and profess to -supply the dynastic chronology of Aztec power. The earliest date is not -too remote for the commencement of a civilisation that has left such -evidences of its later maturity; but unfortunately the various -authorities differ not by years only, but by centuries. Ixtlilxochitl -carries back the founding of Mexico upwards of a century farther than -any other authority; and in the succeeding date, which professes to fix -the election of its king, Acamapichtli, the discrepancies between him -and other authorities vary from two to considerably more than two and a -half centuries, and leave on the mind of the critical student -impressions as unsubstantial as those pertaining to the regal dynasties -of Alban and Sabine Rome. Spanish chroniclers and modern historians have -striven to piece into coherent details the successive migrations into -the Vale of Anahuac, and the desertion of the mythic Aztalan for the -final seat of Aztec empire on the lake of Tezcuco; but their shadowy -history marshals before us only shapes vague as the legends of the -engulfed Atlantis. - -There is something suggestive of doubt relative to much else that is -greatly more modern, to find the historian of the Conquest of Mexico -tracing down the migrations and conquests of the Toltecs from the -seventh till the twelfth century, when the Acolhuans or Tezcucans, the -Aztecs, and others, superseded them in the Great Valley. We turn to the -foot-notes, so abundant in the carefully elaborated narrative of -Prescott, and we find his chief or sole authority is the christianised -half-breed Don Fernando de Alva, or Ixtlilxochitl, who held the office -of Indian interpreter of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the beginning -of the seventeenth century. Compared with such an authority, Bede should -be indisputable as to the details of Hengist and Horsa’s migrations, and -Geoffrey of Monmouth may be quoted implicitly for the history of -Arthur’s reign. - -But the Aztecs, at any rate, are no mythic or fabulous race. The -conquest of their land belongs to the glories of Charles V., and is -contemporary with what Europe reckons as part of its modern history. The -letters of its conqueror are still extant; the gossiping yet graphic -marvels of his campaigns, ascribed to the pen of Bernal Diaz, a soldier -of the Conquest, have been diligently ransacked for collation and -supplementary detail; and the ecclesiastical chroniclers of Mexican -conquest and colonisation, have all contributed to the materials out of -which Prescott has woven his fascinating picture of Hernando Cortes and -his great life-work. It is a marvellous historical panorama, glittering -with a splendour as of the mosques and palaces of Old Granada. But a -growing inclination is felt to test the Spanish chroniclers by surviving -relics of that past which they have clothed for us in more than oriental -magnificence; and, for this purpose, to relume that curious phase of -native civilisation which the Conquest abruptly ended. Yucatan and -Central America still reveal indisputable memorials of an era of native -architectural skill, to which attention must be directed. But, -meanwhile, it is important to note that an assumed correspondence -between the architecture of Central America and that which is affirmed -to have existed in Mexico at the time of the Conquest constitutes the -basis of many fallacious arguments on the nature and extent of Aztec -civilisation in the era of the second Montezuma. Again, the conflicting -elements apparent between the barbarous rites and cannibalism ascribed -to the Aztecs, and the evidences of their matured arts and high -civilisation, have been the plentiful source of theories as to Toltecan -and other earlier derivations for all that pertained to such -manifestations of intellect and inventive genius. It is important, -therefore, to determine the actual character of Mexican architecture. -The remains of the extinct Mound-Builders are full of wonder for us; but -the reputed magnificence of Montezuma’s capital throws their earthworks -into the shade, as things pertaining to America’s childhood. Before, -however, this conclusion can be accepted, it is indispensable that we -test, by existing evidence, the descriptions of Mexican art and -architecture handed down to us by chroniclers of the sixteenth and -seventeenth centuries. - -A peculiar style is recognised as pertaining to the native architecture -of America, which it has been the favourite fancy of American -antiquaries to trace to an Egyptian or Phœnician source. Alike in -general character and mode of construction, in the style of sculpture, -and the hieroglyphic decorations which enrich their walls: the ruined -palaces and temples of Mexico, as well as of Yucatan and Central -America, have been supposed to reproduce striking characteristics of the -Nile valley. But the experienced eye of Stephens saw only elements of -contrast instead of comparison; and while Prescott sums up his history -of Mexican conquest with this conclusion, “that the coincidences are -sufficiently strong to authorise a belief that the civilisation of -Anahuac was, in some degree, influenced by that of eastern Asia,” he -adds, that the discrepancies are such as to carry back the communication -to a period so remote as to leave its civilisation, in all its essential -features, peculiar and indigenous. - -It is not always easy to determine the characteristics of some of the -most famous monuments of Mexican art. The ruined city of Aztalan, on the -western prairies: after filling the imagination with glowing fancies of -a Baalbek or Palmyra of the New World, from whence the Aztecs had -transplanted the arts of an obliterated civilisation to the Mexican -plateau, shrunk before the gaze of a truthful surveyor into a mere group -of mounds and earthworks, presenting no other analogies than those which -class them with the works of the American Mound-Builders. It may be, -however, that a critical survey will reveal traits in the later Aztecs -of Anahuac, rendering such an ancestral birth-land not wholly -inconsistent with their actual condition when brought into contact with -the civilisation of Europe. Such at least seems to be the tendency of -modern disclosures; if, indeed, they do not point to the possibility -that much even of the latest phase of Mexican civilisation may present -closer analogies to the actual Aztalan of the Wisconsin prairies than to -the fancied mother-city of the Aztecs. - -Midway across the continent of North America, where it narrows towards a -point between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific, the civilisation of -the New World appears to have converged at the close of the fifteenth -century. Here the traveller from the Atlantic coast, after passing -through gorgeous tropical flowers and aromatic shrubs of the deadly -_tierra caliente_, emerges at length into a purer atmosphere. The -vanilla, the indigo, and flowering cacao-groves are gradually left -behind. The sugar-cane and the banana next disappear; and he looks down -through the gorges of the elevated _tierra templada_ on the vegetation -of the tropics, carpeting, and scenting with its luscious but deadly -odours, the region which stretches along the Mexican Gulf. Higher still -are regions where the wheat and other grains of Europe’s temperate zone -replace the tall native maize; until at length he enters the _tierra -fria_: climbing a succession of terraces representing every zone of -temperature, till he rests on the summit of the Cordillera. Beyond this -the volcanic peaks of the Andes tower into the regions of perpetual -snow; while the traveller crosses the once thickly-wooded table-land -into the valley of Mexico: an oval basin about sixty-seven leagues in -circumference, and elevated beyond the deadly malaria and enervating -heat of the coast, into a temperate climate, nearly seven thousand five -hundred feet above the sea. Here, encompassed by the salt marshes of the -Tezcucan Lake, stood the ancient Tenochtitlan or Mexico, “The Venice of -the Aztecs.” - -In the month of October 1519, Don Diego de Ordaz effected the ascent of -the volcanic Popocatepetl, from whence he beheld the valley of Mexico -with its curious chain of lakes; and caught a glimpse of the far-famed -capital of Montezuma, with its white towers and pyramidal teocallis -reflecting back the sun from their stuccoed walls. The scene seemed to -realise such a dream of romance as Bernal Diaz reports of Cempoal: “The -Buildings,” he says, “having been lately whitewashed and plastered, one -of our horsemen was so struck with the splendour of their appearance in -the sun, that he came back in full speed to Cortes to tell him that the -walls of the houses were of silver!” The men of that generation which -witnessed the discoveries of mighty empires, and an El Dorado beyond the -known limits of the world, had their imaginations expanded to the -reception of any conceivable wonders. Sir Thomas More constructed his -_Utopia_ out of such materials; and Othello styles his wonderful -relations “of antres vast and deserts idle,” a “traveller’s history.” - -The poetical imagination of Columbus was one of the sources of his -power, whereby he anticipated with undoubting faith the realisation of -his grand life-work. But from the position in which Cortes was placed, -it was his interest to give currency to the highly-coloured visions of -his first pioneers, rather than to transmit to Europe the colder -narrative of matured experience. Approaching the Mexican capital, he -exclaims in his first burst of enthusiasm: “We could compare it to -nothing but the enchanted scenes we had read of in _Amadis de Gaul_, -from the great towers and temples, and other edifices of lime and stone -which seemed to rise up out of the water.” To achieve the recognised -mastery of this scene of enchantment, he had not only to conquer its -Mexican lords, but to defeat his Spanish foes, and to win to his side -that Emperor who, while shaping Europe’s history in one of its mightiest -revolutions, could control the destinies of the New World. When reading -the accounts transmitted to Spain of the gorgeous treasures of -Montezuma’s palaces, we have to bear in remembrance that the treasures -themselves perished in the retreat of the _noche triste_, as the city -itself vanished in the final siege and capture. The very dreams of an -excited imagination could become realities of the past to the narrators -themselves, when every test of their truth had been swept away. - -On the 9th of November 1519, Cortes made his first entry into the -capital of Montezuma, and from thence he wrote to the Emperor Charles -V., giving an account of the Indian metropolis, with its palaces and -stately mansions, far surpassing in grandeur and beauty the ancient -Moorish capital of Cordova. Conduits of solid masonry supplied the city -with water, and furnished means of maintaining hanging-gardens luxurious -as those of ancient Babylon. “There is one place,” says Cortes, -“somewhat inferior to the rest, attached to which is a beautiful garden -with balconies extending over it, supported by marble columns, and -having a floor formed of jasper elegantly inlaid”; and he adds, “Within -the city, the palaces of the cacique Montezuma are so wonderful that it -is hardly possible to describe their beauty and extent. I can only say -that in Spain there is nothing equal to them.” The population of ancient -Mexico, “the greatest and noblest city of the whole New World,” as -Cortes styles it, amounted, according to the lowest computation of its -conquerors, to three hundred thousand; and its streets and canals were -illuminated at night by the blaze from the altars of numberless -teocallis that reared their pyramidal summits in the streets and squares -of what Prescott fitly calls “this city of enchantment.” Vast causeways, -defended by drawbridges, and wide enough for ten or twelve horsemen to -ride abreast, attracted the admiring wonder of the Spaniards by the -skill and geometrical precision with which they were constructed. “The -great street facing the southern causeway was wide, and extended some -miles in nearly a straight line through the centre of the city. A -spectator standing at one end of it, as his eye ranged along the deep -vista of temples, terraces, and gardens, might clearly discern the -other, with the blue mountains in the distance, which, in the -transparent atmosphere of the table-land, seemed almost in contact with -the buildings.”[93] Near the centre of the city rose a huge pyramidal -pile, dedicated to the war-god of the Aztecs, the tutelary deity of the -city: second in size only to the great pyramid-temple of Cholula, and -occupying the area on which now stands the Cathedral of modern Mexico. -Beyond the Lake of Tezcuco stood the rival capital of that name, -resplendent with a corresponding grandeur and magnificence; and the -whole Mexican valley burst on the eyes of the conquerors as a beautiful -vision, glittering with towns and villages, with rich gardens, and broad -lakes crowded with the canoes of a thriving and busy populace. - -Three centuries and a half have intervened since Cortes entered the -gorgeous capital of Montezuma; and what remains now of its ancient -splendour, of the wonders of its palaces, the massive grandeur of its -temples, or the cyclopean solidity of its conduits and causeways? -Literally, not a vestige. The city of Constantine has preserved, in -spite of all the destructive vicissitudes of siege and overthrow, -enduring memorials of the grandeur that pertained to the Byzantine -capital more than a thousand years ago. Rome has been sacked by Goth, -Hun, Lombard, and Frank; yet memorials not only of three or four -centuries, but of generations before the Christian era, survive. Even -Jerusalem appears to have some stones of her ancient walls still left -one upon another. In spite, therefore, of the narrative of desolating -erasure which describes to us the final siege and capture of Mexico, we -must assume its edifices and causeways to have been for the most part -more slight and fragile than the description of its conquerors implies, -or some evidences of such extensive and solid masonry must have survived -to our time. Yet if we look in vain for its architectural remains, -evidence of another kind shows what its civilisation really was. Mr. -Tylor describes the ploughed fields around it as yielding such abundance -of obsidian arrow-heads, pottery, and clay figures, that it is -impossible to tread on any spot where there is no relic of old Mexico -within reach. He left England full of doubts as to the credibility of -the historians of the conquest; but personal observation inclines him -rather “to blame the chroniclers for having had no eyes for the -wonderful things that surrounded them.”[94] - -One trustworthy memorial of this native civilisation is the famous -Calendar Stone: a huge circular block of dark porphyry, disinterred in -1790 in the great square of Mexico, which discloses evidence of progress -in astronomical science altogether wonderful in a people among whom -civilisation was in other respects so partially developed. The Mexicans -had a solar year of 365 days divided into eighteen months of twenty days -each, with the five complementary days added to the last. The -discrepancy between the actual time of the sun’s annual path through the -heavens and their imperfect year, was regulated by the intercalation of -thirteen days at the end of every fifty-second year. According to Gama, -who differs from Humboldt on this point, the civil day was divided into -sixteen parts; and he conceives the Calendar to have been constructed as -a vertical sundial. Mexican drawings also indicate that the Aztecs were -acquainted with the cause of eclipses. But beyond this our means of -ascertaining the extent of their astronomical knowledge fail; while -there is proof that their inquiries were zealously directed to the more -favoured speculations of the astrologer, which have supplanted true -science in all primitive stages of society. Mr. Stephens drew attention -to - -[Illustration: FIG. 74.—Mask, Mexican Calendar Stone.] - -points of correspondence between the central device on the Calendar -Stone, and a mask, with widely expanded eyes and tongue hanging out, -prominent in the curious sacrificial scene sculptured on the Casa de -Piedra at Palenque. But the correspondence amounts to little more than -this, that each is a gigantic mask with protruding tongue. That of the -Calendar Stone is engraved here from a cast brought home by Mr. Bullock, -and now in the Collection of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. The -statues dug up along with it on the site of the great teocalli of -Mexico, were buried in the court of the University, to place them beyond -reach of the idolatrous rites which the Indians were inclined to pay to -them. At the solicitation of Mr. Bullock they were again disinterred, to -admit of his obtaining casts; and he furnishes this interesting account -of the sensation excited by the restoration to light of the largest and -most celebrated of the Mexican deities:—“During the time it was -exposed, the court of the University was crowded with people, most of -whom expressed the most decided anger and contempt. Not so, however, all -the Indians. I attentively marked their countenances. Not a smile -escaped them, or even a word. All was silence and attention. In reply to -a joke of one of the students, an old Indian remarked, ‘It is very true -we have three very good Spanish gods, but we might still have been -allowed to keep a few of those of our ancestors!’ And I was informed -that chaplets of flowers had been placed on the figure by natives who -had stolen thither unseen in the evening.”[95] - -[Illustration: FIG. 75.—Ticul Hieroglyphic Vase.] - -The figure which thus reawakened patriotic sympathies in the descendants -of Montezuma’s subjects is a rude disproportioned idol, strikingly -contrasting with the elaborate hieroglyphical devices and -well-proportioned figures and decorations which accompany the grotesque -mask in the Casa de Piedra of Palenque. In the latter, the principal -human figures present the remarkable profile of the ancient Central -American race, as shown on a vase dug up among the ruins of Ticul (Fig. -75), with the prominent nose, retreating forehead and chin, and -protruding under-lip, so essentially different from the features either -of the Mexicans or northern Indians. The subject race on whom they tread -are characterised by a diverse profile, with overhanging brows, a Roman -nose, and a well-defined chin; while their costume is equally indicative -of a different origin. - -But the sculpture of the Mexican Calendar Stone embodies evidence of an -amount of knowledge and skill not less interesting for us than the -mysterious hieroglyphics of the Palenque tablets; and was believed by -Humboldt to indicate unmistakable relations to the ancient science of -south-eastern Asia. Mr. Stephens has printed a curious exposition of the -chronology of Yucatan, derived from native sources by Don Juan Pio -Perez. From the correspondence of their mode of computing time with that -adopted by the Mexicans, he assumes that it probably originated with -them; but at the same time he remarks that the inhabitants of Mayapan, -as the Peninsula was called at the period of Spanish invasion, divided -time by calculating it almost in the same manner as their ancestors the -Toltecs, differing only in the particular arrangement of their great -cycles. Their year commenced on the 16th of July, an error of only -forty-eight hours in advance of the precise day in which the sun returns -there to the zenith, on his way to the south, and sufficiently near for -astronomers who had to make their observations with the naked eye. Their -calendar thus presents evidence of native and local origin. According to -Humboldt, the Mexican year began in the corresponding winter half of the -year, ranging from the 9th to the 28th of January; but Clavigero places -its commencement from the 14th to the 26th of February. - -If my ideas as to a marked inferiority in the terra-cottas and -sculptures of the Mexicans, and the very questionable proofs of their -architectural achievements, are correct, they tend to confirm the -inference, that not to the Aztecs, but to their more civilised Toltec -predecessors, must be ascribed that remarkable astronomical knowledge in -the arrangement of their calendar, which exhibits a precision in the -adjustment of civil to solar time, such as only a few of the most -civilised nations of the Old World had attained to at that date. But, so -far as an indigenous American civilisation is concerned, it matters -little whether it be ascribed to Toltec or Aztec origin. Of its -existence no doubt can be entertained; and there is little more room for -questioning, that among races who had carried civilisation so far, there -existed the capacity for its further development, independently of all -borrowed aid. The fierce Dane and Norman seemed to offer equally little -promise of intellectual progress in their first encroachments on the -insular Saxon. But out of such elements sprung the race which -outstripped the Spaniard in making of the land of Columbus a New World; -and, left to its own natural progress, the valley of Anahuac, with its -mingling races, might have proved a source of intellectual life to the -whole continent. But modern Mexico has displaced the ancient capital of -Montezuma; cathedral, convents, and churches, have usurped the sites of -Aztec teocallis; its canals have disappeared, and its famous causeways -are no longer laved by the waters of the Tezcucan Lake. It is even -denied by those who have personally surveyed the site, that the waters -of the lake can ever have overflowed the marshes around the modern -capital, or stood at a much nearer point to it than they do at -present.[96] Fresh doubts seem to accumulate around its mythic story. -The ruined masonry of its vanished palaces and temples may be assumed to -have been all swallowed up in the edifices which combine to make of the -modern capital so striking an object, amid the strange scenery of its -elevated tropical valley. But Mexico was not the only city, nor even the -only great capital, of the valley. - -In attempting to trace back the history of the remarkable population -found in occupation of the Mexican territory when first invaded by the -Spaniards, we learn, by means of various sources of information already -referred to, but chiefly on the authority of Ixtlilxochitl’s professed -interpretations of picture-writings, no longer in existence; and of -traditions of old men, concerning events reaching back from seven or -eight, even to twelve centuries before their own time: that the Toltecs, -advancing from some unknown region of the north, entered the territory -of Anahuac, “probably before the close of the seventh century.” They -were, according to their historian, already skilled in agriculture and -the mechanical arts, familiar with metallurgy, and endowed with all the -knowledge and experience out of which grew the civilisation of Anahuac -in later ages. In the time of the Conquest, extensive ruins are said to -have indicated the site of their ancient capital of Tula, to the north -of the Mexican valley. The tradition of such ruined cities adds -confirmation to the inferences derived from those more recently explored -in regions to the south; and still the name of Toltec in New Spain is -synonymous with _architect_: the mythic designation of a shadowy race, -such as glances fitfully across the first chapters of legendary history -among the most ancient nations of Europe. But subsequent to those -Pelasgi of the New World, there followed from unknown regions of the -north the Chichimecas, the Tepanecs, the Acolhuans or Tezcucans, the -Aztecs of Mexicans, and other inferior tribes; so that, as we approach a -more definite period of history, we learn of a league between the States -of Mexico and Tezcuco and the kingdom of Tlacopan, under which the Aztec -capital grew into the marvellous city of temples and palaces described -by Cortes and his followers. But Don Fernando de Alva claimed descent on -his mother’s side from the Imperial race of Tezcuco; and he has not -failed to preserve, or to create the memorials of the glory of that -imperial city of the laguna. It contained upwards of four hundred -stately edifices for the nobles. The magnificent palace of the Tezcucan -emperor “extended from east to west, twelve hundred and thirty-four -yards, and, from north to south, nine hundred and seventy-eight. It was -encompassed by a wall of unburnt bricks and cement, six feet wide and -nine high for one-half of the circumference, and fifteen feet high for -the other half. Within this enclosure were two courts. The outer one was -used as the great market-place of the city, and continued to be so until -long after the Conquest. The interior court was surrounded by the -council-chambers and halls of justice. There were also accommodation -there for foreign ambassadors; and a spacious saloon, with apartments -opening into it, for men of science and poets, who pursued their studies -in this retreat, or met together to hold converse under its marble -porticoes.”[97] In this style the native historian describes the glory -of ancient Tezcuco. A lordly pile, provided for the fitting -accommodation of the sovereigns of Mexico and Tlacopan, contained three -hundred apartments, including some fifty yards square. Solid materials -of stone and marble were liberally employed both on this and on the -apartments of the royal harem, the walls of which were incrusted with -alabasters and richly tinted stucco, or hung with gorgeous tapestries of -variegated feather-work. Some two leagues distant, at Tezcotzinco, was -the favourite residence of the sovereign; on a hill, “laid out in -terraces, or hanging-gardens, having a flight of five hundred and twenty -steps, many of them hewn in the natural porphyry. In the garden on the -summit was a reservoir of water, fed by an aqueduct carried over hill -and valley for several miles on huge buttresses of masonry. A large rock -stood in the midst of this basin, sculptured with hieroglyphics -representing the years of Nezahualcoyotl’s reign, and his principal -achievements in each. On a lower level were three other reservoirs, in -each of which stood a marble statue of a woman, emblematic of the three -estates of the empire. Another tank contained a winged lion,”—but here -the modern historian grows incredulous, and appends a (?) before -proceeding in accordance with his authorities to add—“cut out of the -solid rock, bearing in his mouth the portrait of the emperor.” - -The authority for all this wrote in the beginning of the seventeenth -century; but his narrative receives some confirmation from architectural -remains still visible on the hill of Tezcotzinco. They are referred to -by Latrobe and Bullock as relics of an era greatly more remote than that -of Aztec civilisation; and more recently Mr. Tylor describes the hill of -Tezcotzinco as terraced, and traversed by numerous roads and flights of -steps cut in the rock. It is connected with another hill by an aqueduct -of immense size constructed with blocks of porphyry, and with its -channel lined with a hard stucco, still very perfect. Baths also remain, -cut out of the solid rock; and on the summit of the hill, overlooking -the ancient city, sculptured blocks of stone furnish evidence that the -tales of architectural magnificence are not wholly fabulous. Mr. -Christy, his travelling companion, made excavations in the neighbouring -mounds, and was rewarded by the discovery of some fine idols of hard -stone, and “an infinitude of pottery and small objects.” But the spirit -of Spanish romance still asserts its influence. Bullock, in his _Six -Months in Mexico_, describes the remains of the royal fountain of -Tezcotzinco as a “beautiful basin, twelve feet long by eight wide, -having a well five feet by four deep in the centre”; while Latrobe, in -his _Rambles in Mexico_, reduces the dimensions of the royal bath to -“perhaps two feet and a half in diameter, not large enough for any -monarch bigger than Oberon to take a duck in!” - -Of the great pyramid or teocalli of Huitzilopotchtli in old Mexico, no -vestige now remains, unless such as is reputed to lie buried under the -foundations of the cathedral which occupies its site. But time and fate -have dealt more tenderly with the scarcely less famous pyramid of -Cholula. The ancient city of that name, when first seen by Cortes, was -said to include, within and without its walls, about forty thousand -houses, or according to ordinary rules of computation, two hundred -thousand inhabitants. But whatever its ancient population may have been, -while the fruits of Spanish conquest have advanced it to the rank of -capital of the republic of Cholula, they have left only sixteen thousand -as the number of its occupants. Still, Cholula was unquestionably one of -the most famous of the cities of the New World: a sacred Mecca for the -pilgrims of Anahuac. - -Quetzalcoatl, the milder god of the Aztec pantheon, whose worship was -performed by offerings of fruits and flowers in their season, was -venerated as the divine teacher of the arts of peace. His reign on earth -was the golden age of Anahuac, when its people learned from him -agriculture, metallurgy, and the art of government. But their -benefactor, according to the tradition handed down to the Aztecs by an -elder people whom they had superseded, incurred the wrath of another of -the gods. As he passed on his way to abandon the land to the rule of the -terrible Huitzilopotchtli, he paused at the city of Cholula; and while -he tarried there, the great teocalli was reared and dedicated to his -worship. But the benevolent deity could not remain within reach of the -avenger. After spending twenty years among them, teaching the people the -arts of civilisation, he proceeded onward till he reached the ocean; and -there embarking in a vessel, made of serpents’ skins, his followers -watched his retreating bark on its way to the sacred isle of Tlapallan. -But the tradition lived on among the Mexicans that the bark of the good -deity would revisit their shores; and this fondly cherished belief -materially contributed to the success of the Spaniards, when their -huge-winged ships bore the beings of another world to the mainland of -the Mexican Gulf. The legend bears all the marks of anciently derived -hero-worship, in which love for a lost benefactor framed for itself a -deified embodiment of his virtues. This, however, is important to note, -that Aztec traditions assigned the pyramid of Cholula to an older race -and era than their own. It was there when they entered the plateau; and -the arts of the divine metallurgist were taught, not to them but to the -Toltecs, whom they superseded. Nevertheless, the deity shared in their -worship; his image occupied a shrine on the summit of the pyramid of -Cholula when the Spaniards first visited the holy city; and the undying -flame flung its radiance far into the night, to keep alive the memory of -the good deity, who was one day to return and restore the golden age. - -The present appearance of the great teocalli very partially justifies -the reference made by Prescott to it as “that tremendous mound on which -the traveller still gazes with admiration as the most colossal fabric in -New Spain, rivalling in dimensions, and somewhat resembling in form, the -pyramidal structures of ancient Egypt.” If it ever was a terraced -pyramid, time and the elements have nearly effaced the traces of its -original outline. On the authority of Humboldt, it is described as a -pyramidal mound of stone and earth, deeply incrusted with alternate -strata of brick and clay, which “had the form of the Mexican teocallis, -that of a truncated pyramid facing with its four sides the cardinal -points, and divided by the same number of terraces.” But the _adobe_ of -the Mexican, which is frequently styled brick, is nothing more than a -mass of unbaked clay, or even mud. If such, therefore, is the supposed -brick which alternated with the other materials of the mound, we can the -more readily reconcile the seeming contradictions of observers. One of -the latest thus describes the impression produced on his mind: “Right -before me, as I rode along, was a mass of trees, of evergreen foliage, -presenting indistinctly the outline of a pyramid, which ran up to the -height of about two hundred feet, and was crowned by an old stone -church, and surmounted by a tall steeple. It was the most attractive -object in the plain; it had such a look of uncultivated nature in the -midst of grain fields. It would have lost half its attractiveness had it -been the stiff and clumsy thing which the picture represents it to be.” -It is accordingly described by Mr. R. A. Wilson, in his _Mexico and its -Religion_, as no more than “the finest Indian mound on this continent,” -rising to a height of about two hundred feet, and crowned by an old -stone church. But careful examination satisfied Mr. Tylor that it still -retains the traces of a terraced teocalli. The church on its summit, -dedicated to Our Lady _de los Remedios_, is served by a priest of the -blood of the Cholulans; and the masonry and architectural skill which it -displays have no doubt somewhat to do with their absence elsewhere; for -if the clergy found the teocalli cased like the pyramidal terraces of -Central America, with cut stone steps and facings, there can be little -doubt they would go no further for a quarry for their intended church. - -To the north of the Mexican valley ancient ruins arrest the gaze of the -traveller, onward even to California. On the Rio Colorado and its -tributaries, ruins of great extent, surveyed by recent exploring -parties, are described as built with large stones, nicely wrought, and -accurately squared. But nothing in their style of architecture suggests -a common origin with the ruins of Mexico or Central America. They are -large and plain structures, with massive walls, evidently built for -defence, and with no traces of the ornamentation which abounds on the -ruins of Yucatan. The Moqui Indians, the supposed remnant of the ancient -builders, still construct their dwellings of stone with considerable art -and skill. They are a gentle and intelligent race, small of stature, -with fine black hair; and differ essentially from the Indians of the -North-west. Their villages are included in one common stone structure, -generally of a quadrangular form, with solid, unpierced walls -externally, and accessible only by means of a ladder. These hive-like -colonies are usually placed, for further defence, on the summits of the -lofty plateaus, which in the region of New Mexico are detached by the -broad cañons with which that remarkable region is intersected. By such -means this ingenious people seek protection from the wild tribes with -which they are surrounded. Thus permanently settled, while exposed to -the assaults of marauders, the Moquis cultivate the soil, raise corn, -beans, cotton, and more recently vegetables derived from intercourse -with the Mexicans. They have also their flocks of sheep and goats; and -weave their dyed wools into a variety of substantial and handsome -dresses. But only a small remnant now survives, occupying seven villages -on the range of the Rio del Norte.[98] - -Throughout New California ruined structures of stone, and sometimes of -clay abound. The _Casas grandes_, as they are called, appear to have -been defensive structures like the Moqui villages. Captain Johnston -describes one, called the Casa de Montezuma, on the river Gila, which -measured fifty feet by forty, and had been form storeys high. It is -indeed worthy of note that while we find throughout the continent, from -the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic, scarcely a vestige of -ante-Columbian stone architecture: traces of it increase upon us with -every new exploration of the country that lies between the Rocky -Mountains and the Pacific, and merges towards the south into the seats -of ancient native civilisation and matured architectural skill. - -But the Southern Continent had also its seat of a remarkable native -civilisation; which, like that of Mexico, derived some of its most -striking characteristics from the physical aspects of the country in -which it originated. The peculiar natural advantages of Peru resulted -from the settlement of a people on the lofty plateaus of the Andes, but -within the tropics, where at each successive elevation a different -climate was secured. Such products as the mercantile navies of Northern -Europe gather from many distant shores, were there brought within the -compass of an industrious population: who fed their flocks on the cold -crests of the sierra; cultivated their gardens and orchards on its -higher plateaus; and gathered the luxuriant products of the tropics from -the country that for them lay, for the most part, beneath the clouds, -and spread away from the lowest slopes of the Andes to the neighbouring -shores of the Pacific. The character of the people, and the nature of -the civilisation of this remarkable country, presented many striking -contrasts to the customs and institutions of the Mexicans, and they have -generally been assumed as of totally independent origin. - -Peru has her historic traditions, no less than Mexico; and her native -historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, a descendant, through his mother, from -the royal line of the Incas: who plays for them the part which Fernando -de Alva did for his Tezcucan ancestry. Seen through such a medium, the -traditions of the Inca race expand into gorgeous pages of romance; and -the institutions of European chivalry and medieval polity are grafted on -the strange usages of an Indian nation, remarkable for its own -well-matured commonwealth, and unique phases of native-born -civilisation. Sabaism constituted the essential element of Peruvian -religious faith, and gave form and colour to the national rites and -traditions. Manco Capac and Mama Oello Huaco, their mythic instructors -in the arts of agriculture, weaving, and spinning, were the Children of -the Sun; their high religious festivals were determined by the solstices -and equinoxes; and Quito, the holy city, which lay immediately under the -Equator, had within it the pillar of the sun, where its vertical rays -threw no shadow at noon, and they believed the god of light to seat -himself in full effulgence in his temple. The sacred pillar stood in the -centre of a circle described within the court of the great temple, -traversed by a diameter drawn from east to west, by means of which the -period of the equinoxes was determined; and both then, and at the -solstices, the pillar was hung with garlands, and offerings of fruit and -flowers were made to the divine luminary and parent of mankind. The -title of the sovereign Inca was the Child of the Sun; and the territory -of the empire was divided into three portions, of which one, -constituting the lands of the Sun, maintained the costly ceremonial of -public worship, with the temples and their numerous priests and vestal -virgins. The national traditions pointed to the Valley of Cuzco as the -original seat of native civilisation. There their mythic Manco Capac -founded the city of that name; on the highlands around it a number of -columns were reared which served for taking azimuths, and by measuring -their shadows the precise time of the solstices were determined. - -Besides the divine honours paid to the sun, the Peruvians worshipped the -host of heaven, and dedicated temples to the thunder and lightning, and -to the rainbow, as the wrathful and benign messengers of the supreme -solar deity. It might naturally be anticipated that a nation thus -devoted to astronomical observations, and maintaining a sacred caste -exclusively for watching solar and stellar phenomena, would have -attained to considerable knowledge in that branch of science. -Apparently, however, the facilities which their equatorial position -afforded for determining the few indispensable periods in their -calendar, removed the stimulus to further progress; and not only do we -find them surpassed in this respect by the Muyscas, occupying a part of -the same great southern plateau, who regulated their calendar on a -system presenting considerable points of resemblance to that of the -Aztecs; but they remained to the last in ignorance of the true causes of -eclipses, and regarded such phenomena with the same superstitious and -apprehensive wonder as has affected the untutored savage mind in all -ages. One historian, indeed, affirms that they recognised the actual -length of the solar year, and regulated their chronology by a series of -cycles of decades of years, centuries, and decades of centuries, the -last of which constituted the grand cycle or great year of the sun.[99] -This is only confuted by a reference to the silence of earlier -authorities, and the absence of all evidence on the subject; and may -serve to remind us how partial is the knowledge we possess of the -intellectual development of this singularly interesting people, among -whom science was essentially esoteric. - -Prescott seeks to account for the very imperfect nature of the -astronomical science of Peru, by the fact, that the Peruvian priesthood -were drawn exclusively from the body of the Incas: a privileged order of -nobility who claimed divine origin, and were the less tempted to seek in -superior learning the exclusive rights of an intellectual aristocracy. -But other reasons help to explain this singular intellectual condition -of a nation, which had in so many other directions made remarkable -progress in civilisation. The very fact that astronomy constituted, as -it were, the national religion, placed it beyond the reach of scientific -speculation, among a people with whom blasphemy against the sun, and -malediction of the Inca, were alike punished with death. The impediments -to Galileo’s astronomical discoveries were trifling compared with those -which must have beset the presumptuous Inca priest who ventured to deny -the diurnal revolution of the sun round the earth; or to explain, by the -simple interposition of the moon between themselves and the sun, the -mysterious and malign infirmities with which it constituted a part of -the national creed to believe their supreme deity was afflicted during a -solar eclipse. But another cause also tended to retard the progress of -the Peruvians in the intelligent solution of astronomical phenomena. -Among the ancient Egyptians we find the division of the year determined -by the changes of the Nile; and their year regulated by applications of -astronomical science, minutely interwoven with their sacred and civil -institutions. But the phenomena of the seasons, which have fostered with -every other civilised nation the accurate observation of the -astronomical divisions of time, and the determination of the recurring -festivals dependent on seed-time and harvest, were almost inoperative, -where, among a people specially devoted to agriculture, each season and -every temperature could be commanded by a mere change of elevation under -the vertical sun of the equator. - -The Peruvians, however, must be tried by their own standards of -excellence. Manco Capac, their mythic civiliser, was no war-god, like -the Mexitli of the ferocious Aztecs. Agriculture was the special art -introduced by him; and husbandry was pursued among them on principles -which modern science has only recently fully developed in Europe. There -alone, in all the New World, the plough was in use; and the Inca -himself, on one of the great annual festivals, consecrated the labours -of the husbandman by turning up the earth with a golden ploughshare. -Artificial irrigation was carried out on a gigantic scale by means of -aqueducts and tunnels of great extent, the ruins of which still attest -the engineering skill of their constructors. The virtues of _guano_, -which are now so well appreciated by the agriculturists of Europe, were -familiar to the Peruvian farmer; and as the country of the Incas -included, at its various levels, nearly all varieties of climate and -production, from the cocoa and palm that fringed the borders of the -Pacific, to the pasture of their mountain flocks on the verge of the -high regions of perpetual snow: a systematic succession of public fairs, -regulated, like all else, by the supreme government, afforded abundant -opportunities for the interchange of their diverse commodities. - -Such a country, if any, could dispense with commerce, and attain to -considerable advancement without a representative currency or -circulating medium. Gold, which was so abundant, served only for -barbaric pomp and decoration. Silver was accessible in such quantities, -that Pizarro found in it a substitute for iron to shoe the horses of his -cavalry. Copper and tin in like manner abounded in the mountains; and -the Peruvians had learned to alloy the copper both with tin and silver, -for greater utility in its application to the useful arts. Bartholomew -Ruiz, it will be remembered, found on board the _balsa_ first met by him -off the Peruvian coast, a pair of balances for weighing the precious -metals; and the repeated discovery of well-adjusted silver balances in -tombs of the Incas, confirms the evidence that they made use of weights -in determining the value of their commodities. The Peruvians were thus -in possession of a mode of exchange, which, for their purposes, was -superior to that of the currency of the Mexicans, in the absence of any -such means of ascertaining the exact apportionment of commodities -produced for sale. - -Progress in agriculture was accompanied by a corresponding development -of the resources of a pastoral people. Vast flocks of sheep ranged the -mountain pastures of the Andes, under the guidance of native shepherds; -while the Peruvians alone, of all the races of the New World, had -attained to that important stage in civilisation which precedes the -employment of machinery, by their use of the lower animals in -economising human labour. The llama, trained as a beast of burden, -carried its light load along the steep paths of the Cordilleras, or on -the great highways of Peru. - -[Illustration: FIG. 76.—Peruvian Web.] - -As the mythic Manco Capac was the instructor of the nation in -agriculture, so also the divine daughter of the Sun introduced the arts -of weaving and spinning. Such traditions serve at least to indicate the -favourite directions of the national taste and skill, which were -displayed in the manufacture of a variety of woollen articles of -ingenious patterns and the utmost delicacy of texture. Numerous examples -of the woven textures of the Peruvians have been recovered from their -ancient graves at Atacama and elsewhere; though it cannot be assumed -that in these we have specimens of the rare and costly fabrics which -excited the wondering admiration of the early Spaniards. In the arid -soil and tropical climate of the great desert of Atacama, articles which -prove the most perishable in northern latitudes are found, after the -lapse of centuries, in perfect preservation. Of these I had an -opportunity of examining a collection recovered by Mr. J. H. Blake from -ancient huacas explored by him, and now preserved in his cabinet at -Boston. They include specimens of cloth, wrought in dyed woollen thread, -and sewed in regular and ornamental designs. Each piece is woven of the -exact size which was required for the purpose in view, and some of them -furnish proofs of ingenious skill in the art of weaving. The threads -consist of two or more strands of dyed llama-wool twisted together; and -elaborate patterns are woven into a soft and delicate web. The -accompanying figure, though grotesque, is a good specimen of a -complicated feat achieved in dyed woollen threads on the ancient -Peruvian loom. It was found in a grave at Atacama, along with many other -relics described in a subsequent chapter. Mr. Blake remarks, in -reference to the discoveries of this class which rewarded his -researches:—“In forming an opinion of the degree of skill displayed in -the arts of spinning and weaving, by these specimens, it should be borne -in mind that the implements in use were of the simplest contrivance. The -only ones which have been discovered are simple distaffs; and among the -articles obtained from the Atacama graves were several formed of wood -and stone, such as are still in use among the Indians of Peru at the -present day. Weaving on the loom has not been introduced among them. The -warp is secured by stakes driven into the ground, and the filling-in is -inserted by the slow process of passing it by hand over and under each -thread alternately.” It would be a grave error, however, to assume that -we possess in such relics, recovered from the ordinary graves formed in -the loose sand of the desert, the highest achievements of Peruvian -skill. On the contrary, regarding them, as we must, as fair specimens of -the common woollen tissues of the country, they confirm the probability -that the costly hangings, and beautifully wrought robes of the Inca and -his nobles, fully justified the admiration with which they are referred -to by Spanish writers of the sixteenth century. - -Marvellous specimens of ceramic art are also noted among the -manufactures ascribed to the Peruvians before the conquest, surpassing -anything found in the common cemeteries of the race; but the proofs -which exist of the ingenuity expended by the ancient potter on utensils -in daily use, render probable the accounts of such rare _chef-d’œuvres_ -executed by their cunningest workmen for the imperial service. So also -we read of animals and plants wrought with wonderful delicacy, in gold -and silver; and scattered with profuse magnificence about the apartments -of the Peruvian nobles. Such specimens of goldsmiths’ work no longer -survive; but still the huacas of the ancient race are ransacked for -golden ornaments, which prove considerable metallurgic skill, and leave -no room to doubt that gold and silver were moulded and graven into many -ingenious forms. Science and art had indeed made wonderful advances -among this remarkable people; though with them, as with the Chinese, -they were more frequently expended in the gratification of a craving for -display, than in realising triumphs of much practical value. -Nevertheless, Peruvian civilisation had wrought out for itself many -elements of progress adapted to its native soil. Its astronomical -science admits, indeed, of no comparison with that of Mexico; and in -lieu of the artistic picture-writing of the Mexicans, it employed the -quipus, an artificial system of mnemonics not greatly superior to the -Red Indian wampum, to which it bears considerable resemblance. In this -it contrasts with the matured hieroglyphical inscriptions of Central -America and Yucatan, which preserve evidences of progress in advance of -the highest civilisation of the Aztecs and the Incas, and indeed of all -but the most civilised nations of ancient or modern centuries. But this -higher phase of intellectual development must be reserved for -consideration in its relations to the psychology of the whole continent. - -The remarkable system of national polity doubtless originated in part -from the docile nature still manifested by the descendants of the -Peruvian people; and, when viewed in this connection, it furnishes some -key to the peculiar characteristics of their civilisation. Their -government was a sacerdotal sovereignty, with an hereditary aristocracy, -and a system of castes more absolute seemingly than that of the -Egyptians or Hindus. Something of the partial and unprogressive -development of the Chinese mingled in the ancient Peruvians along with -numerous other traits of resemblance to that singular people. Unlike the -Mexicans, we see in their whole polity, arts, and social life, -institutions of indigenous growth. It would be difficult to limit the -centuries during which such a people may have handed on from generation -to generation the slowly brightening torch. Their own traditions, -preserved with the help of quipus and national ballads, are valueless on -this point. But their institutions reveal some remarkable evidences of a -people preserving many traits of social infancy, alongside of such -matured arts and habits as could only grow up together around the -undisturbed graves of many generations. Offerings of fruits and flowers -took the place of the bloody human sacrifices of Aztec worship; but the -suttee rites, which disclose their traces everywhere in the sepulchral -usages of primitive nations, were retained in full force. The simple -solidity of megalithic art gave an equally primitive character to their -architecture, notwithstanding its application to many practical purposes -of life; and the precious metals, though existing in unequalled -profusion, were retained to the last solely for their contribution to -barbaric splendour. The habits of pastoral life, by means of which the -foremost nations of the Old World appear to have emerged out of -barbarism, were with them modified by the haunts of flocks peculiar to -the strange region of mountain and plateau, where also they carried the -next step in human progression, that of agriculture, to a degree of -perfection probably never surpassed. They had advanced metallurgy -through all its stages, up to that which preceded the use of iron; and -with the help of their metal tools, displayed a remarkable skill in many -mechanical arts. They did no more, because, under their peculiar local -circumstances and the repressive influences of the mild despotism of -Inca rule, they had achieved all that they required. - -A gentle people found abundant occupation in tilling the soil, without -being oppressed by a labour which was lightened by the frequently -recurring festivals of a joyous, and, in some respects, elevating -national faith. Nor is it difficult to conceive of such a people -continuing to pursue the even tenor of their way, with scarcely -perceptible progression, through all the subsequent centuries since -their discovery to Europe: had not the hand of the conqueror ruthlessly -overthrown the structure reared by many generations, and quenched the -lamp of native civilisation. The conquerors of the sixteenth century -have given expression to the astonishment with which they beheld -everywhere evidences of order, contentment, and prosperity; and while -the architectural magnificence of Montezuma’s capital has so utterly -disappeared as to suggest the doubt if it ever existed: the traveller -along the ancient routes of Peruvian industry still sees on every hand -ruins, not only of temples, palaces, and strongholds, but of terraced -declivities, military roads, causeways, aqueducts, and other public -works, that astonish him by the solidity of their construction and the -grandeur of their design. But between these two great divisions of the -western hemisphere, in the curiously insulated region of Central -America, traces of ancient civilisation abound, with evidences of a -higher, if not longer enduring development than either. The closing -annals both of Mexico and Peru have acquired a vivid interest from the -incidents of Spanish conquest; and retain many romantic associations -connected with the lustre of their conquerors. But the interest which -attaches to Central America and Yucatan derives little value from -history. There, under the luxuriant forests of that tropical region, may -still be studied the monuments of a lettered people, and the sculptures -and symbolic inscriptions of an extinct faith, amid ruins which appear -to have been already abandoned to decay before Cortes explored the -peninsula in his lust of conquest. Their basso-relievos preserve the -physiognomy of a race essentially diverse from the Mexicans; and their -sculptured hieroglyphics show a process of inscription very far in -advance of the picture-writing of the Aztecs. The magnitude and solidity -of the ruins of Peru still attest the practical aim of works wrought -there on a grand scale, and for purposes of more obvious utility than -those of the Central American peninsula; and the characteristics of some -of the Peruvian crania suggest striking analogies with the peculiar -physiognomy of the northern basso-relievos, such as are no longer -recognisable when we turn to the Mexican race. - -Nothing pertaining to the northern continent east of the Rocky Mountains -presents any counterpart to Peruvian architecture, sculpture, or the -ingenious modelling of the potter’s art; or suggests affinities in -language or astronomical science, to Peru or Central America; unless it -be the remarkable remains of the Mound-Builders. But with Mexico it is -otherwise. In the region between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic -the stock is to be sought, from which on many grounds it appears most -reasonable to trace the predominant Mexican race of the era of the -Conquest. They were inheritors, not originators of the civilisation of -the plateau. But while the traditions of the Aztecs appear to point to a -migration from the north, the Toltecs whom they displaced can be -assigned on no tangible evidence to a similar origin. Amid many -diversities recognisable among the nations of the New World, the forest -and prairie tribes, now clustering chiefly in the North-west, are the -representatives of one great subdivision, the source of which may be -sought in that northern hive stretching westward towards Behring Strait -and the Aleutian Islands, with possible indications of an Asiatic -origin. But for the more intellectual nations whose ancient monuments -lie to the south of the Rio Grande del Norte, the most probable source -appears to be the southern plateaus of the Peruvian Cordilleras. In the -copper regions of the north the abundant metal supplied all wants too -readily to stimulate to further progress; but the southern region rises -through every change of climate under the vertical rays of the equator; -and its rocky steeps are veined with exhaustless treasures of metallic -ores, in such a condition as to lead man on step by step from the -infantile perception of the native metal as a ductile stone, to the -matured intelligence of the metallurgist, mingling and fusing the -contiguous ores into his most convenient and useful alloys. A branch of -the same race, moving northward along the isthmus, may account for the -abundant architectural remains of the central peninsula, consistently -with its ethnographic traces; while beyond this, to the northward, we -see in the conflicting elements of Mexican civilisation, the confluence -of races from north and south, and the mingling of their diverse arts -and customs under the favouring influences which the vale of Anahuac -supplied. - ------ - -[92] _American Ethnological Society’s Transactions_, vol. i. p. 162. - -[93] Prescott’s _Conquest of Mexico_, B. III. ch. ix. - -[94] _Anahuac_, p. 147. - -[95] Bullock’s _Six Months in Mexico_, p. 111. - -[96] Topographical View of the Valley, Wilson’s _New History of Mexico_, -p. 452. - -[97] Prescott’s _Conquest of Mexico_, B. I. chap. vi. - -[98] Dr. Latham speaks of the Moquis as a people that “no living writer -seems to have seen.”—_Varieties of Man_, p. 394. But the above -information communicated to me by Professor Newberry, is the result of -his own personal observations. He showed me also specimens of their -woven dresses, manifesting considerable skill, and exhibiting great -taste in the arrangement of their bright colours. They have recently -been greatly reduced by small-pox. - -[99] Montesino’s _Mém. Antiquas MS._, lib. ii. cap. 7; cited by -Prescott. - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - ART CHRONICLINGS. - - - IMITATIVE SKILL—ARCHAIC EUROPEAN ART—CONVENTIONAL ORNAMENTATION - —IMITATIVE DESIGN—ANALOGIES IN RITES AND CUSTOMS—ALTAR - RECORDS—SMELTING THE ORES—WISCONSIN PRAIRIE LANDS—THE RACE OF - THE MOUNDS—MOUND CARVINGS—PORTRAIT-SCULPTURES—AMERICAN - ICONOGRAPHY—DEDUCTIONS—NON-INDIAN TYPE—OTHER EXAMPLES— - ANTIQUE ICONOGRAPHIC ART—PECULIAR IMITATIVE SKILL—ANIMALS - REPRESENTED—EXTENSIVE GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS—KNOWLEDGE OF - TROPICAL FAUNA—DEDUCTIONS—THE TOUCAN AND MANATEE—TRACES OF - MIGRATION—ASSUMED INDICATIONS—ANALOGOUS SCULPTURES—PERUVIAN - IMITATIVE SKILL—CARVED STONE MORTARS—NICOTIAN RELIGIOUS RITES - —INDIAN LEGENDS—THE RED PIPE-STONE QUARRY—THE LEAPING ROCK— - MANDAN TRADITIONS—SIOUX LEGEND OF THE PEACE PIPE—THE SACKED - COCA PLANT—KNISTENEAUX LEGEND OF THE DELUGE—INDICATIONS OF - FORMER MIGRATIONS—FAVOURITE MATERIAL—PWAHGUNEKA—CHIMPSEYAN - CUSTOMS—CHIMPSEYAN ART—BABEEN CARVING—THE MEDICINE PIPE-STEM - —INDIAN EXPIATORY SACRIFICES—NICOTIAN RITES OF DIVINATION. - -In studying the elaborate sculptures of Central American architecture, -one of the first of its peculiar characteristics to strike the eye is -the predominance of representations of natural objects, alike in its -decorative details and in the symbolism of its hieroglyphic tablets. The -human form, the head, the heart, the skull, the hand and foot, along -with familiar objects of animate and inanimate nature, supplied the -readiest architectural devices, and the most suggestive signs for -attributes and ideas. In the imitation involved in such a style of art, -resemblances may be traced to the productions of many partially -civilised nations both of ancient and modern times. But in reviewing the -primitive art of the New World, whether pertaining to extinct nations, -like the Mound-Builders of Ohio and the architects of Yucatan, or to -Indian tribes still occupying their old hunting grounds, the critical -observer can scarcely overlook many peculiar manifestations of imitative -skill. Though by no means to be regarded as an exclusive distinction of -the American races, this is a characteristic in which they present a -striking contrast to the primitive races of Europe. Many of the -implements and personal ornaments of the ante-Christian era of European -art, designated the “Bronze Period,” are exceedingly graceful in form, -and some of them highly ornamented, but there is rarely a trace of -imitative design. So also, though the peculiar form of one primitive -class of gold ornaments, found in the British Isles, has suggested a -name derived from the calyx of a flower, which the cups of its rings -seem in some degree to resemble, it is a mere fanciful analogy; for no -example bears the slightest trace of ornament calculated to suggest that -such similarity was present to the mind of the ancient goldsmith. Where -incised or graven ornaments are wrought upon the flower-like forms, they -are the same chevron, or herring-bone and saltire patterns, which occur -on the rudest clay pottery, alike of northern Europe and of America: -though executed on the finer gold work with considerable delicacy and -taste. - -The correspondence between the forms and ornamentation of the rudest -classes of pottery of the Old and New World, appears, at first sight, -remarkable; but it originates in the inartistic simplicity inseparable -from all infantile art. The ornamentation is only an improvement on the -accidents of manufacture. The first decorations of the aboriginal -potters of Europe and America appear to have been an undesigned result -of the twisted cords passed round the clay to retain its form before it -was hardened in the fire. More complicated patterns were produced by -plaited or knitted cords, or imitated in ruder fashion with the point of -a bone-lance or bodkin. But it is only among the allophylian arts of -Europe that such arbitrary patterns are perpetuated with improving taste -and skill. The European vase and cinerary urn become more graceful in -contour, and more delicate in material and construction, when they -accompany the beautiful weapons and personal ornaments wrought in -bronze. But no attempt is made to imitate leaf or flower, bird, beast, -or any simple natural object; and when in the bronze work of the later -Iron Period, imitative forms at length appear, they are chiefly the -snake and dragon patterns, borrowed seemingly by Celtic and Teutonic -wanderers, with the wild fancies of their mythology, from the eastern -cradle-land of their birth. - -This absence of every trace of imitation in the forms and decorations of -the archaic art of northern Europe, is curious and noteworthy: for -remarkable traces, already referred to, pertaining to its palæotechnic -era, prove that it is by no means an invariable characteristic of -primitive art. In the simplest forms of ancient weapons, implements, and -pottery, mere utility was the aim. The rude savage, whether of Europe or -America, had neither leisure nor thought to spare for decorative art. -His æsthetic faculty had not begun to influence his constructive -instincts. Art was the child of necessity, and borrowed its first -adjuncts of adornment from the sources whence it had received its -convenient but arbitrary forms. But the moment we get beyond this -utilitarian stage, the contrast between the products of European and -American art is exceedingly striking; and their value to the ethnologist -and archæologist becomes great, from the insight they give into the -aspects of mental expression, and the intellectual phases of social -life, among unhistoric generations. The useful arts of the British -allophylian progressed until they superinduced the decorative and fine -arts. But the ornamentation was inventive, and not imitative; it was -arbitrary, conventional, and singularly persistent in style. It wrought -itself into all his external expressions of thought; and whatever his -religious worship may have been, we look in vain for proofs of idolatry, -among the innumerable relics which have been recovered from supposed -Druidical fanes, or the older cromlechs and tumuli of the British -Isles.[100] The very opposite characteristics meet the eye the moment we -turn to the primitive arts of the New World. There, indications of -imitative design meet us on every hand. The rude tribes of the -North-west, though living in the simplest condition of savage life, not -only copy the familiar animal and vegetable forms with which they are -surrounded: but represent, with ingenious skill, novel objects of -European art introduced to their notice. Even their plaited and woven -grass and quill-work assume a pictorial aspect; and the pottery is not -only ornamented with patterns derived from flowers and other natural -objects, but more elaborated examples are occasionally moulded into the -forms of animals. Still more is this the case with the tubes, masks, -personal ornaments, and, above all, the pipe-heads, alike of the -Mound-Builders, and of living races. Nor does it stop with such -miniature productions of art. The same imitative faculty reappears in -the great earthworks of Wisconsin and Ohio: where the artist has wrought -out representations of natural objects on a colossal scale. - -The chronicles recorded by such means are invaluable. The walls of -Central American ruins are covered with voiceless hieroglyphics; and the -costly folios of Lord Kingsborough’s _Mexican Antiquities_ have placed -at the command of the scholars of both hemispheres the dubious -ideography of native historians. But the artistic representations -preserved alike in the bas-reliefs and statues of Palenque, or in the -characteristic pipe-sculpture of the Ohio mounds, are as significant and -easy of interpretation as those on the Ramesian tablets of Abbosimbul in -Nubia, which demonstrate the existence, in the era of Rameses, of -Semitic and Ethiopian races, with ethnical diversities as clearly -defined as now. - -Among the characteristics of ancient and modern nations discernible in -peculiar rites and customs, or disclosed in their arts, there are some -that indicate widely-diffused hereditary influences, and so furnish a -clew to remote affinities of race. The practice of circumcision, for -example, which prevails both in Asia and Africa, wherever the influence -of Semitic nations can be traced, strikingly illustrates the value of -such indices. Another ancient custom, that of systematic cranial -distortion, was common to nations of both hemispheres, and is proved by -the evidence of ancient sculpture to have been in use at the period of -highest architectural art in Central America. The Indian war-trophy of -the scalp, and its singular counterpart, the peace-pipe, are also -significant usages of the New World; though the former appears to have -been equally common among ancient Asiatic nations. Herodotus refers to -scalping as one of the most characteristic war-customs of the Scythians, -and to their hanging the scalp-trophies to the warrior’s bridle-rein. -Hence the ἀποσκυθίζειν of Euripides, quoted by Rawlinson, when remarking -on the resemblance of such ancient customs to those of the Red Indians. -The correspondence is worthy of note, in connection with others -afterwards referred to, as possibly indicative of something more than a -mere American counterpart to Egyptian and Oriental accumulations of -trophies of the slain—the skulls, the hands, the ears, or even the -foreskins,—repeatedly referred to in the Old Testament Scriptures, and -recorded with minute detail on the paintings of Egypt, and the -sculptures of Nimroud and Khorsabad. But no such analogies throw light -on the singular usage of the peace-pipe. The ethnical relations which it -indicates belong exclusively to the New World, where it seems to -perpetuate a significant symbolism derived from an extinct native -civilisation. As such, it is worthy of study by the American -ethnologist, as the most curious of the many practices connected with -the use of the strange nicotian stimulant. The pipe appears to have been -associated with solemn religious rites and civic ceremonials, both in -ancient and modern times. It bore a prominent part in the worship of the -old Mound-Builders; and still retains its place among the paraphernalia -of the inspired medicine-man or priest, and the most sacred credentials -of the ambassador or war-chief. - -The implements designed for the use of tobacco or other narcotic herbs, -occupy a prominent place among the works of art of which the sacrificial -mounds are the principal depositories. In accordance with the almost -universal custom of barbarous and semi-civilised nations, the -Mound-Builders devoted to their dead whatever had been most prized in -life, or was deemed valuable for some talismanic charm. Hence the -Mississippi mounds, and the ancient tombs of Mexico and Peru, disclose -the same kind of evidence of the past as Wilkinson has deduced from the -catacombs of Egypt, or Dennis from the sepulchres of Etruria. But in -addition to this, the remarkable religious rites of the American -Mound-Builders have preserved not only their altars, but the offerings -laid upon them. The perishable garments of the dead have necessarily -disappeared; and of instruments or utensils of wood or other combustible -materials it is vain to expect a trace, where even metal has melted, and -the stone been calcined in the blaze of sacrificial fires; but articles -of copper and stone, of fictile ware, and even of shell, ivory, and -bone, have escaped the destructive flame, and withstood the action of -time. In such enduring characters inscriptions are legibly graven upon -the altars of the Mound-Builders. Let us try to translate their records -into the language of modern thought. - -What such relics record in reference to metallurgy has already been -seen. The Mound-Builders were acquainted with several of the metals. -They had both the silver and lead of Iowa and Wisconsin in use. -Implements and personal ornaments of copper abound on their altars; and -the mechanical combination of silver with the native copper of which -those are made, indicates that they derived their supplies from Lake -Superior, where alone the metals have hitherto been found in the -singular mechanico-chemical combination of crystals of silver in a -copper matrix. Their sacrificial fires have in some cases fused the -metallic offerings on the altars into a mass of molten metal, so that -the Mound-Builders had thus presented to them this all-important lesson -of metallurgy. Mr. F. S. Perkins, of Burlington, Wisconsin, whose -collection of native copper implements numbers upwards of sixty -specimens, has arrived at the conclusion that some of those from the -ancient mounds have been cast in moulds; and Mr. J. W. Foster concurs in -the belief that the Mound-Builders had learned to smelt the ores.[101] -This still requires further proof. At Cincinnati, I saw in the -collection of Mr. Cleneay, a choice specimen of a copper axe, found on -the banks of Hog Creek, a tributary of the Great Miami. It measures -fifteen inches long, and weighs 5 lb. 5½ oz.; but though -well-proportioned, and finished with unusual care, it is entirely the -work of the hammer. Only in one case, of an axe from the Lockport Mound, -have I seen indications which seem to suggest a process of casting. But -specimens of accidentally melted copper repeatedly occur; and Mr. Jas. -B. Skinner, of Cincinnati, showed me a melted mass of pure silver, of 4 -lb. weight, found lying on a heap of charcoal, in cutting through the -embankment surrounding a large mound at Marietta. Nothing further was -needed than the practical sagacity by which similar accidents have been -turned to account, to lead the Mound-Builders one step beyond this, to -the use of the crucible and the mould. It would not, therefore, surprise -me to find partial traces of the use of both. Their imitative skill, and -ability in modelling, had already taught them the use of the mould when -working in clay. But they had, at best, a very rudimentary knowledge of -metallurgy; they do not appear to have acquired, by barter or otherwise, -any specimens of the alloyed metals; and only mechanically combined -their copper with silver. Hematite, though prized by them, was used -simply as a stone. They were familiar with silver, and shaped it into -many personal ornaments. The sulphuret of lead was also known to them; -and was turned to account both for use and ornamentation. - -Thus far, then, it appears that the Mound-Builders shared in the -metallurgic wealth of the great copper region. We are reminded, -accordingly, that the broad undulating prairie-lands of Wisconsin, with -their remarkable symbolic earthworks, lie directly between the shores of -Lake Superior and the region occupied by the Mound-Builders. The -monuments of the latter abound with examples of their builders’ arts; -and are surrounded with varied proofs of settled occupation, civic and -religious structures, and permanent defensive military works. Throughout -Wisconsin, on the contrary, the symbolic mounds stand alone, and have -hitherto been found, with a few rare exceptions, to contain no relics. -Neither earthworks adapted to religious rites, nor military defences, -attest that that region was occupied by a numerous population, such as -its many natural advantages fitted it to sustain. Hence the conjecture -that the mineral country on the southern shores of the Great Lake was -the recognised source of supply for the whole population north of the -Gulf of Mexico; and that different tribes throughout the vast basin of -the Mississippi and its tributaries were wont to send working parties -thither, as to a region common to all. Such an idea accords with the -further conjecture that the symbolic mounds of Wisconsin may be -memorials of sacred rites, or pledges of neutrality among nations from -the various tributaries of the great river, as they annually met on this -border-land of the common metallic storehouse. It is obvious that the -Mound-Builders were a highly religious people. Their superstitious rites -were of frequent occurrence, and accompanied with costly sacrifices; -while in the numerous symbolic mounds of Wisconsin, labour alone is the -sacrifice, and the external form preserves the one idea at which their -builders aimed. - -So far, this theory of a sacred neutral ground and common mineral region -is conjectural. Nevertheless, it involves certain facts to be borne in -view for comparison with others of a diverse kind. In the once densely -peopled regions of Ohio and Illinois, where the works of the -Mound-Builders abound, the river-valleys were occupied by an ingenious -and industrious agricultural population: who, if not aggressive and -war-like, employed their constructive skill on extensive works for -military defence. Whencesoever the danger existed that they had thus to -apprehend and guard against, there is no trace of its localisation -within the region lying immediately to the south of Lake Superior, -through which their path lay to the great copper country. More probably -offensive and defensive warfare was carried on between tribes or states -of the Mound Race settled on different tributaries of the same great -water-system. But the growing civilisation of the nations of the -Mississippi valley was also exposed to the aggression of barbarian -tribes of the North-west; for if the Mound-Builders differed in culture -and race from the progenitors of the modern Red Indian, some of their -arts and customs render it probable that the latter were not unknown to -them. - -So far, then, we connect the race of the Mounds with the shores of Lake -Superior, and thus trace out for them a relation to regions of the -North. But the objects wrought by their artistic skill reveal no less -certainly their familiarity with animals of southern and even tropical -latitudes; and the materials employed in their manufactures include mica -of the Alleghanies, the obsidian of Mexico, and jade and porphyry -derived probably from the same region, or from others still farther -south. Such facts warn us against any hastily constructed hypothesis of -migrations for a people to whom the resources of so many dissimilar -regions were partially known. We see in them, however, proofs of an -extensive traffic; and may assume, as at least exceedingly probable, the -existence of widely extended relations among that singular race. It is -not to be inferred from the use of terms specifically applied to modern -trade, that they are intended to suggest the possession of a currency -and exchanges, of banking agencies, or manufacturing corporations. But, -without confounding the traces of a rudimentary civilisation with -characteristics of its mature development, there are proofs sufficient -to justify the inference that the Mound-Builders traded with the copper -of Lake Superior for objects of necessity and luxury brought from -widely-separated regions of the continent. Such exchanges may have been -effected by many intermediate agencies, rather than by any direct -traffic. But the river system of the Mississippi has furnished to the -later forest tribes facilities for interchange under far less favourable -circumstances; and such a systematic trade among an ingenious and -settled people may have materially contributed to the progress of -civilisation in the populous valleys of the Ohio. - -Turning next to the carvings in stone recovered from the mounds, they -include objects of singular interest, some of which, at least, fully -merit the designation of works of art. Compared, indeed, with the -sculptures in porphyry and the great Calendar Stone of Mexico; the -elaborate façades and columned terraces of Uxmal, Zayi, and Kabah; and -the colossal statues, basso-relievos and hieroglyphics of Copan and -Palenque: the art of the Mound-Builders, which expended its highest -efforts on the decoration of a tube, or the sculpture of a pipe-bowl, -may appear insignificant enough. But the imagination is apt to be -impressed by mere size, and requires to be reminded of the superior -excellence of a Greek medal or a Roman gem to all the colossal grandeur -of an Egyptian Memnon. The architecture and sculpture of Central America -preserve to us the highest intellectual efforts of the New World, and -are animated by a historical significance which cannot be overestimated. -Nevertheless, examples among the miniature works of art of the Ohio -Valley admit of comparison with them in some essential elements of -artistic skill. Apart, indeed, from the significance of the -hieroglyphics with which the colossal statues of Copan are graven, they -might rank with the monstrous creations of Hindu art; whereas some of -the objects taken from altars of “Mound City” furnish specimens of -imitative design and portrait-sculpture full of character and -individuality. - -The simplicity, variety, and minute expression in many of the miniature -mound-sculptures, their delicacy of execution and imitative skill, -render them just objects of interest. But foremost in every trait of -value for the elucidation of the history or characteristics of their -workers, are the human heads, which, when the accuracy of many of the -miniature sculptures of animals is considered, it can scarcely be -doubted, perpetuate faithful representations of the ancient people by -whom they were executed. Equally well-authenticated portraiture of -Umbrian, Pelasgian, or other mythical races of Europe would be -invaluable to the ethnologist. It would solve some of the knottiest -problems of his science, better than all the obscure disquisitions to -which the aboriginal population of Greece and Italy has given rise. -American ethnologists, accordingly, have not failed to turn such -iconographic evidence to even more account than legitimate induction -will sustain, in support of their favourite argument for an indigenous -unity of the whole ancient and modern races of the New World. - -By means of such artistic relics we can determine the physical -characteristics of the Mound-Builders, and of contemporary tribes or -nations known to them. We also learn the character of fauna, native and -foreign to the region occupied by them, with which they were familiar. I -have had an opportunity of carefully inspecting the valuable collection -of mound-sculptures in the possession of Dr. E. H. Davis of New -York.[102] In some cases, perhaps, their artistic merits have been -overrated. Nevertheless the minute accuracy with which many of the -objects of natural history have been copied is remarkable; and confirms -the reliance to be placed on the ethnical portraiture perpetuated in -their representations of the human head. - -[Illustration: FIG. 77.—Portrait Mound Pipe.] - -Of these invaluable examples of ancient American iconography, one (Fig. -77) has attracted special notice, not only as the most beautiful head of -the series, but from its supposed correspondence to the type of the -modern North American Indian. The workmanship of this head is described -by its discoverers as “unsurpassed by any specimen of ancient American -art which has fallen under the notice of the authors, not excepting the -best productions of Mexico and Peru.”[103] In the well-executed -illustration which accompanies these remarks, the Red Indian features -are unmistakably represented; nor has this failed to receive abundant -attention, and to have ascribed to it even more than its due importance. -Mr. Francis Pulszky, the learned Hungarian, thus comments on it in his -_Iconographic Researches on Human Races and their Art_:—“A most -characteristic, we may say artistically beautiful head, the workmanship -of these unknown Mound-Builders, dug up and published by Squier, -exhibits the peculiar Indian features so faithfully, and with such -sculptural perfection, that we cannot withhold our admiration from their -artistic proficiency. It proves three things: 1st, That these -Mound-Builders were American Indian in type; 2d, That time (age -ante-Columbian, but otherwise unknown,) has not changed the type of this -indigenous group of races; and 3d, That the Mound-Builders were probably -acquainted with no other men but themselves.”[104] Such are the sweeping -deductions drawn from premises supplied by a single example of -mound-sculpture: or rather by the depiction of it in Messrs. Squier and -Davis’s volume; for after a careful examination of the original, its -ethnic characteristics appear to me to be mainly due to the pencil of -the draughtsman, who has, no doubt undesignedly, given to his drawing -much more of the typical Indian features than are traceable in the -original. Of this Figs. 77 and 78 are more accurate copies; and from -these it will be seen that the nose, instead of having the salient Roman -arch there represented, is perfectly straight, and is neither very -prominent nor dilated. - -[Illustration: FIG. 78.—Portrait Mound Pipe.] - -The mouth, though protuberant, is small; the lips are thin; instead of -the characteristic ponderous maxillary region of the true Indian, the -chin and the upper lip are both short; and the lower jaw, without any -marked width between the condyles, is small, and tapers gradually -towards the chin. Perhaps it is owing to this smallness of the lower -portion of the head and face, that it was supposed to represent a -female. But such an idea is not suggested by any marked characteristic -either in the features or head-dress. The cheek-bones, though high, are -by no means so prominent as in the original engraving. Indeed, the -projection is almost entirely in front, giving a tumid cheek immediately -under the eye. I doubt if any competent observer, ignorant of the -history of this relic, would assign it to an Indian type. - -[Illustration: FIG. 79.—Portrait Mound Pipe.] - -It is apparent, therefore, that the inferences drawn from the -representation of a single example of mound-sculpture are based on -inaccurate premises. But even supposing the head to reproduce the -features of the modern Indian: it would by no means prove the three -propositions deduced from its discovery; since it is not the only -specimen of sculptured portraiture discovered in the mounds, and we look -in vain in other examples for these points of Indian physiognomy which -would first attract the eye of the imitative modeller or sculptor. The -salient and dilated nose, prominent cheek-bones, massive jaw, and large -mouth, may be assigned as the most noticeable characteristics; but all -or nearly all of those are wanting in most of the other sculptured heads -or masks. The character of these may be seen in the head engraved here -(Fig. 79), derived from the same rich depository opened in “Mound City.” -It is cut in a compact yellowish stone. The nose is nearly in a line -with the forehead, excepting at the point, which projects in a manner -certainly by no means characteristic of Indian features; and though the -lips protrude, they are delicate, and the mouth is small. The ears in -both are large, and in the latter are perforated with four small holes -around their upper edges. In this case, from the delicacy of the -features, it is suggested with greater probability than in the former -example, that it has been designed after a female model. Another -head,[105] executed in the same material, is much altered by fire. It -has not, like the previous examples, been designed for a pipe-head, but -is broken off from a complete human figure, or other larger piece of -carving. It is much inferior as a work of art, and indeed approaches the -grotesque or caricature. Nevertheless, it has considerable character in -its expression; and no one familiar with the Indian cast of countenance -would readily assign either to it or the previous specimen of -mound-sculpture any aim at such representation, if unaware of the -circumstances of their discovery. In this, as in others of the heads, -the face is tattooed, and the ears have been perforated; and from the -strongly attached oxide of copper, there can be little doubt that they -were decorated with rings or pendants of that metal. Other portrait -sculptures and terra-cottas, either found in the mounds, or discovered -within the region where they chiefly abound, are figured in the works of -Squier, Schoolcraft, Lapham, Foster, Jones, and in the American -Ethnological Society’s Transactions. The majority of them are inferior -as works of art to those already described. But if they possess any -value as indications of the physiognomical type of ancient American -races, they tend to confirm the idea of a prevailing diversity instead -of a uniformity of cranial form and features. - -The discovery of a sculptured head betraying traces of Indian features, -among many of a different type, corresponds to another interesting fact, -that animals foreign to the region, and even to the North American -continent, are figured in the mound-sculptures. It presents a parallel -to well-known examples of Etruscan vases moulded in the form of negroes’ -heads; and of Greek pottery painted with the same characteristic -features and woolly hair. Specimens of both are preserved among the -collections of the British Museum, and furnish interesting evidence, -alike of the permanency of the negro type, and of the familiarity both -of Greek and Etruscan artists with the African features, long prior to -the Christian era. Similar examples of foreign portraiture have -attracted attention on the older monuments of Egypt, and among the -basso-relievos of the tomb of Darius Hystaspes at Persepolis: supplying -interesting illustrations of imitative art employed in the perpetuation -of ethnic peculiarities of physiognomy. Supposing, therefore, the -Mound-Builders to have been a settled population, as distinct from a -contemporaneous Indian race as the classic nations of antiquity differed -from the barbarian tribes beyond the Alps and the Rhine: it is no more -surprising to trace the genuine Indian features in mound-sculptures, -than to discover those of the Dacian or the Gaul on the column of -Trajan. It proves that the Mound-Builders were familiar with the -American Indian type, but nothing more. The evidence indeed tends very -distinctly to suggest that they were not of the same type; since the -majority of sculptured human heads hitherto recovered from their ancient -depositories do not reproduce the Indian features. - -The physical type of the Mound-Builders will again come under -consideration in a subsequent chapter; but it is interesting meanwhile -to observe that even in the characteristics of this portrait-sculpture -distinctive qualities appear. The imitative faculty manifests itself in -expressive varieties of style, in modern Indian art. Some tribes, such -as the Algonquins, confine themselves to literal reproductions of -natural objects, while others, such as the Babeens, indulge in a -grotesque and ingeniously diversified play of fancy. But the -intellectual development implied in individual portraiture goes beyond -this, and is rare indeed among nations in the earlier stages of -civilisation. Even among the civilised Mexicans, imitations of the human -face and figure appear to have seldom passed beyond the grotesque; and -although the sculptors of Central America and Yucatan manifested an -artistic power which accords with the civilisation of a lettered people: -yet in the majority of their statues and reliefs, we see the -subordination of the human form and features to the symbolism of their -mythology, or to mere decorative requirements. It thus seems that, amid -the general prevalence of an aptitude for imitative art, alike among the -ancient and modern nations of the American continent, the -Mound-Builders, though working within a narrow range, developed a power -of appreciating its minuter delicacies such as is only traceable -elsewhere among the choicest sculptures of Uxmal and Palenque. - -To this imitative skill we owe other works which have an important -significance in relation to ethnological problems affecting the ancient -population of the New World. Reference has already been made to the -curious collection of stone pipes, recovered from one of the smaller -tumuli of “Mound City.” They included some of the sculptured human -heads; but the bowls of most of them were carved into figures of beasts, -birds, and reptiles. On these the ancient sculptors appear to have -lavished their artistic skill with a degree of care bestowed on none -other of the less perishable works, from which alone we can now judge of -their intellectual development. “Not only,” as Messrs. Squier and Davis -observe, “are the features of the various objects represented -faithfully, but their peculiarities and habits are in some degree -exhibited. The otter is shown in a characteristic attitude, holding a -fish in his mouth; the heron also holds a fish; and the hawk grasps a -small bird in its talons, which it tears with its beak. The panther, the -bear, the wolf, the beaver, the otter, the squirrel, the racoon, the -hawk, the heron, crow, swallow, buzzard, the paroquet, toucan, and other -indigenous and southern birds; the turtle, the frog, toad, rattlesnake, -etc., are recognised at first glance”;[106] and in addition to those, -the jaguar or panther, the cougar, the elk, the opossum, the alligator, -and numerous land and water birds, including several varieties of the -owls, herons, and other species, have all been recognised among more -recent disclosures. Many of those are represented in characteristic -attitudes, and with much skill and fidelity of portraiture. The -exuberant fancy of the ancient sculptors also displays itself at times -in humorous masks, and incongruous devices, such as a goose’s head cut -in a hard black stone, which on looking to the back becomes a human -skull. Some of those works appear to have been executed, like the -sportive sketches of the modern artist, with no other object than the -carver’s own gratification. - -Unfinished carvings show the process by which they were wrought. A toad, -in a characteristic attitude, but only roughly shaped out, “very well -exhibits the mode of workmanship. While the general surface appears -covered with striæ running in every direction, as if produced by -rubbing, the folds and lines are clearly cut with some sort of graver. -The marks of the implement, chipping out portions a fourth of an inch in -length, are too distinct to admit the slightest doubt that a cutting -tool was used in the work.” Again, in another pipe-head, blocked out -into the form of a bird, “the lines indicating the feathers, grooves of -the beak, and other more delicate features, are cut or graved on the -surface at a single stroke. Some pointed tool appears to have been used, -and the marks are visible where it has occasionally slipped beyond the -control of the engraver. Indeed, the whole appearance of the specimen -indicates that the work was done rapidly by an experienced hand, and -that the various parts were brought forward simultaneously. The freedom -of the strokes could only result from long practice; and we may infer -that the manufacture of pipes had a distinct place in the industrial -organisation of the Mound-Builders.” But this, though full of interest, -need not surprise us, since the art of the arrow-maker, which required -both skill and experience, was pursued among the forest-tribes as a -special craft; nor is that of the pipe-maker even now wholly abandoned. - -[Illustration: FIG. 80.—Manatee, Pipe-Sculpture.] - -So far, therefore, we are enabled by such means to look back into that -remote past. We see the industrious sculptor at his task; and holding -silent converse with him over his favourite works, we learn somewhat of -his own physical aspect, of the range of his geographical experience, -his mental capacity and intellectual development. The pottery of the -mounds, in like manner, adds to our knowledge of the art and -civilisation of the age in which it was produced. But, next in -importance to the evidence thus furnished, the miniature sculptures of -the mounds derive their chief value from indications they supply of the -extent and nature of the geographical relations of their owners. By the -fidelity of the representations of so great a variety of subjects copied -from animal life, they furnish evidence of a knowledge in the -Mississippi Valley of fauna peculiar not only to southern but to -tropical latitudes, extending beyond the Isthmus into the southern -continent: and suggestive either of arts derived from a foreign source, -and intercourse maintained with regions where the civilisation of -ancient America attained its highest development; or else indicating -migration into the northern continent of the race of the ancient graves -of Central and Southern America, bringing with them the arts of the -tropics, and models derived from animals familiar to their fathers in -the parent-land of the race. - -Of one of the most interesting of those exotic models, the _Lamantin_ or -_Manatee_, seven sculptured figures have been taken from the mounds of -Ohio. This phytophagous cetacean, which, when full-grown, measures from -fifteen to twenty feet in length, is found only in tropical waters. -Species haunt the estuaries and large rivers of Central and -intertropical South America; as also those of both the eastern and -western sides of tropical Africa: and sometimes ascend the rivers to a -great distance from the sea. Examples were seen by Humboldt in the Rio -Meta, a branch of the Orinoco, one thousand miles above its mouth. They -are also found among the Antilles, and on the coast of the Florida -peninsula. The most characteristic details in their form which chiefly -attracted attention when the Manatee was first brought under the notice -of Europeans, are faithfully reproduced in the Mound sculptures. Fancy -helped to exaggerate the peculiarities of this strange animal to the -earliest European voyagers, and from them it received the name of the -Siren. But its most remarkable feature is the fore paw, occupying the -usual place of the cetacean fin, but bearing so close a resemblance to a -human hand that the name Manatee is generally supposed to have been -conferred on it by the first Spanish explorers on this account.[107] It -is ranked according to ecclesiastical natural history as a fish; and its -flesh is in special request at St. Christopher’s, Guadaloupe, -Martinique, and in various South American localities, during Lent. Its -form is therefore familiar to the natives of South America, and was once -equally well known to those of the Antilles, and probably to the ancient -coastmen of the Gulf. But we must account by other means for the -discovery of accurate representations of it among the sculptures of the -far-inland Ohio mounds; and the same remark applies to the jaguar or -panther, the cougar, the toucan; to the buzzard possibly, and also to -the paroquet. The majority of those animals are not known in the United -States; some of them are totally unknown within any part of the North -American continent. Others may be classed with the paroquet, which, -though essentially a southern bird, and common around the Gulf, does -occasionally make its appearance inland; and so might become known to -the untravelled Mound-Builder in his northern home. - -The importance of such evidence that the ancient dwellers in the Scioto -Valley had some knowledge of tropical animals, and even of those -confined exclusively to the southern continent, has not escaped the -notice of the explorers of the mounds. It has even induced them to -hesitate in assigning the name of the toucan to sculptures concerning -the design of which there could be no other reasonable ground for doubt. -Referring to the manatee sculptures, they remark: “These singular relics -have a direct bearing upon some of the questions connected with the -origin of the mounds. They are undistinguishable, so far as material and -workmanship are concerned, from an entire class of remains found in -them, and are evidently the work of the same hands with the other -effigies of beasts and birds; and yet they faithfully represent animals -found (and only in small numbers), a thousand miles distant upon the -shores of Florida, or—if the birds seemingly belonging to the -zygodactylous order be really designed to represent the toucan,—found -only in the tropical regions of South America. Either the same race, -possessing throughout a like style of workmanship, and deriving their -materials from a common source, existed contemporaneously over the whole -range of intervening territory, and maintained a constant -intercommunication; or else there was at some period a migration from -the south, bringing with it characteristic remains of the land from -which it emanated. The sculptures of the manatees are too exact to have -been the production of those who were not well acquainted with the -animal and its habits.” Of the representations of the toucan, the -accompanying woodcut (Fig. 81) will furnish a sufficient illustration. -It is imitated with considerable accuracy, though inferior to some of -the finest specimens of mound sculpture. The most important deviation -from correctness of detail is, that it has three toes instead of two -before, although the two are correctly represented behind. It is -stooping its head to take food from a rudely outlined human hand; and as -it is known that the brilliant plumage of the toucan leads to its being -frequently tamed by the natives of Guiana and Brazil, this tends not -only to confirm the idea of its representation by the sculptures in -question: but to suggest that the Mound-Builders may have had aviaries, -like those in which the Aztec caciques assembled birds of splendid -plumage and beautiful form from every part of their Mexican empire. - -[Illustration: FIG. 81.—Toucan, Pipe-Sculpture.] - -Unless we assume such a lapse of time as may suffice for important -changes in the climate and fauna of the Ohio Valley, the evidence thus -far adduced suggests the inference either that the whole extensive -regions thus indicated were occupied at some remote period by a common -race; or we must recognise in such indications of familiarity with the -natural history of the tropics, and even of the southern continent, -proof that that very people, who derived all their metal from the great -northern regions of Lake Superior, had themselves migrated from southern -latitudes rich in metallic ores. - -Various considerations tend to favour the idea of such a migration, -rather than the maintenance of intercommunication and exchange, among a -people of the same race, throughout regions so extensive and so -geographically distinct. If the Mound-Builders had some of the arts and -models, not only of Central but of Southern America: they also employed -in their ingenious manufactures pearls and shells of the Gulf of -Florida; obsidian from Mexico; mica believed to have been brought from -the Alleghanies; jade, such as that described by Humboldt among the rare -materials of ancient manufacture in Chili; the lead of Wisconsin; and -the copper, and probably the silver, of Ontonagon and the Keweenaw -peninsula. The fact indeed that some of their most elaborate carvings -represent birds and quadrupeds belonging to latitudes so far to the -south, naturally tends to suggest the idea of a central region where -arts were cultivated to an extent unknown in the Mississippi Valley; and -that those objects, manufactured where such models are furnished by the -native fauna, remain only as evidences of ancient intercourse maintained -between these latitudes and the localities where now alone such are -known to abound. But in opposition to this, full value must be given to -the fact that neither the relics, nor the customs which they illustrate, -pertain exclusively to southern latitudes; nor are such found to -predominate among the singular evidences of ancient and more matured -civilisation which abound in Central and Southern America. The varied -nature of the materials employed in the arts of the Mound-Builders, we -must also remember, indicates a wide range of relations; though it -cannot be assumed that these were maintained in every case by direct -intercourse. - -The earlier students of American archæology, like the older school of -British antiquaries, gave full scope to a system of theorising which -built up comprehensive ethnological schemes on the very smallest -premises; but in the more judicious caution of later writers there is a -tendency to run to the opposite extreme. Perhaps Messrs. Squier and -Davis indulge at times in an exaggerated estimate of the merits of the -remarkable works of art discovered and published as the result of their -joint labours; but subsequent critics have either unduly depreciated -them, or solved the difficulties attendant on such discoveries, by -ascribing their manufacture to an undetermined foreign source. Mr. -Schoolcraft specially manifested a disposition to underrate the artistic -ability discernible in some of them; while Mr. Haven, who fully admits -their skilful execution, derives from that very fact the evidence of -foreign manufacture. After describing the weapons, pottery, and personal -ornaments obtained from the mounds, the latter writer adds, “and, with -these were found sculptured figures of animals and the human head, in -the form of pipes, wrought with great delicacy and spirit from some of -the hardest stones. The last-named are relics that imply a very -considerable degree of art; and if believed to be the work of the people -with whose remains they are found, would tend greatly to increase the -wonder that the art of sculpture among them was not manifested in other -objects and places. The fact that nearly all the finer specimens of -workmanship represent birds, or land and marine animals belonging to a -different latitude; while the pearls, the knives of obsidian, the marine -shells, and the copper equally testify to a distant, though not -extra-continental origin, may, however, exclude these from being -received as proofs of local industry and skill.”[108] - -[Illustration: FIG. 82.—Peruvian Black Ware.] - -A reconsideration of the list already given of animals sculptured by the -ancient pipe-makers, cannot fail to satisfy the inquirer that it is an -over-statement of the case to say that nearly all belong to a different -latitude. The real interest and difficulty of the question lie in the -fact of discovering, along with so many sculptured figures of animals -pertaining to the locality, others represented with equal spirit and -fidelity, though belonging to diverse latitudes. To those familiar with -early Scandinavian and British antiquities, such an assignment of the -mound sculptures to a foreign origin, on account of their models being -in part derived from distant sources, must appear a needless assumption -which only shifts without lessening the difficulty. On the sculptured -standing stones of Scotland—belonging apparently to the closing era of -Paganism, and the first introduction of Christianity there,—may be seen -the tiger or leopard, the ape, the camel, the serpent, and as supposed -by some, the elephant and walrus, along with other representations or -symbols, borrowed, not like the models of the Mound-Builders, from a -locality so near as to admit of the theory of direct commercial -intercourse, or recent migration, but from remote districts of Asia, or -from Africa. The most noticeable difference between the imitations of -foreign fauna on the Scottish monuments, and in the ancient American -sculptures, is that the former occasionally betray, as might be -expected, the conventional characteristics of a traditional type; while -the latter, if they furnish evidence of migration, would in so far tend -to prove it more recent, and to a locality not so distant as to preclude -all renewal of intercourse with the ancestral birth-land. Traces of the -same reproduction of unfamiliar objects are, indeed, apparent in the -mound sculptures. The objects least truthfully represented, in some -cases, are animals foreign to the region where alone such works of art -have been found. But the South American toucan of the mound sculptor, -figured on a previous page, is certainly not inferior to the -accompanying specimens of the Peruvian modeller’s imitative skill, -wrought on a vessel of black ware (Fig. 82), now in the collection of -the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland: though it will be remembered -that the latter are the work of an artist to whom the original may be -presumed to have been familiar. Several of the animals engraved in the -_Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_ fall far short of the -fidelity of imitation ascribed to them in the accompanying text: but the -characteristic individuality of others displays remarkable imitative -power. The lugubrious expression given to more than one of the toads is -full of humour; and some of the ruder human heads may be described as -portrait-sketches in the style of _Punch_. But after making every -requisite deduction from the exaggerations of enthusiastic observers, -abundant evidence of artistic skill and ingenuity remains to justify the -wonder that a people capable of executing such works should have left no -large monuments of their art. While, however, this affords no sufficient -ground for transferring their origin to another region, we may still -look with interest for the discovery of analogous productions in some of -the great centres of native American civilisation. - -[Illustration: FIG. 83.—Peruvian Stone Mortars.] - -With one or two stray exceptions, objects precisely similar to the mound -sculptures have not hitherto been met with, beyond the valleys where -other traces of the Mound-Builders abound; but the points of resemblance -between the sculptured mound-pipes and numerous miniature stone mortars -found in Peru are too striking to be overlooked. Of the two examples -given here (Fig. 83), the one is a llama, from Huarmachaco, in Peru, in -the collection of the Historical Society of New York. It is cut in a -close-grained black stone, and measures four inches long. The other, of -darkish brown schist, is from a drawing made by Mr. Thomas Ewbank, while -in Peru. The greater number of those seen by him represent the llama and -its congeners, the alpaca, guanoco, and vicuna. They are all hollowed -precisely like the bowl of the sculptured mound-pipes, but have no -lateral perforation or mouth-piece. Their probable use was as mortars, -in which the Peruvians rubbed tobacco into powder, working it with a -small pestle until it became heated with the friction, when it was taken -as snuff. The transition from this practice to that of inhaling the -burning fumes is simple; and the correspondence between the ancient -Peruvian tobacco-mortar and the stone pipe of the Mound-Builder is -worthy of note, when taken into consideration along with the imitations -of birds of the southern continent found among the sculptures of the -mounds. Dr. Tschudi describes four of the Peruvian mortars preserved at -Vienna, carved in porphyry, basalt, and granite; and he adds: “How the -ancient Peruvians, without the aid of iron tools, were able to carve -stone so beautifully, is inconceivable.” - -The absence of any but such miniature carvings in the northern mounds -may also merit notice when viewed in connection with the ideas of -religious worship suggested by the contents of the mound altars. -Idolatry, in its most striking, and also in some of its most barbarous -forms, prevailed, as we know, among the nations of the Mexican Valley, -at the period of the Conquest. The monuments of Yucatan and Central -America leave no room to doubt that the worship of such visible -impersonations of Divine attributes as their sculptors could devise -formed a prominent part of their religious services. Reference has also -been made in a previous chapter to rudely modelled and sculptured idols, -accompanying other ancient remains, in sepulchral deposits in Tennessee. -Others have been found in the huacals of Chiriqui, on the Isthmus of -Panama, along with numerous gold relics and many fine specimens of -pottery. Those facts render it the more singular that, amid so many -traces of imitative sculpture, no relics obviously designed as objects -of worship have been dug up in the mounds, or found in such -circumstances as to connect them with the religious practices of the -Mound-Builders. But the remarkable characteristics of the elaborately -sculptured pipes, and their obvious connection with services -accompanying some of the rites of sacrifice or cremation, may indicate -their having played an important part in the religious solemnities of -the ancient race; and on this the arts and customs of modern tribes help -to throw some curious light. - -So far as we can now infer from evidence furnished by relics connected -with the use of the tobacco-plant, it seems to have been as familiar to -the ancient tribes of the North-west, and the aborigines of the Canadian -forests, as to those of the American tropics, of which the _Nicotiana -tabacum_ is a native. No such remarkable depositories indeed have been -found to the north of the great lakes as those disclosed to the -explorers of the tumuli in the Scioto Valley; but even now the -tobacco-pipe monopolises the ingenious art of many tribes; and some of -their most curious legends and superstitions are connected with the -favourite national implement. Among them the dignity of time-honoured -use has conferred on it a sacredness, which survives with much of its -ancient force; and to this accordingly the student of American -antiquities is justified in turning, as a link connecting the present -with that ancient past. But it is worthy of note that the form of the -mound-pipes differs essentially from the endless varieties of pattern -wrought by Indian ingenuity. Some consideration, therefore, of the arts -of the modern pipe-sculptor, and of native customs and traditions -associated with the use of tobacco, is necessary, as a means of -comparison between ancient and modern races of the New World. - -In the Old World, the ideas connected with the tobacco-pipe are prosaic -enough. The chibouk may, at times, be associated with the poetical -reveries of the oriental daydreamer, and the hookah with pleasant -fancies of the Anglo-Indian reposing in the shade of his bungalow; but -its seductive antique mystery, and all its symbolic significance, -pertain to the New World. Longfellow, accordingly, fitly opens his _Song -of Hiawatha_ with the institution of “the peace-pipe.” The Master of -Life descends on the mountains of the prairie, breaks a fragment from -the red stone of the quarry, and, fashioning it with curious art into a -pipe-head, he fills it with the bark of the red willow, chafes the -forest into flame with the tempest of his breath, and kindling it, -smokes the calumet as a signal to the nations. The tribes gather at the -divine summons from river, lake, and prairie, to listen to the warnings -and promises with which the Great Spirit seeks to guide them; and this -done, and the warriors having buried their war-clubs, they smoke their -first peace-pipe, and depart:— - - “While the Master of Life, ascending, - Through the opening of cloud-curtains, - Through the doorways of the heaven, - Vanished from before their faces - In the smoke that rolled around him, - The pukwana of the peace-pipe!” - -In this, as in other passages of his national epic, the American poet -has embodied cherished legends of the New World: placing the opening -scene of _Hiawatha_ on the heights of the red pipe-stone quarry of -Coteau des Prairies, between the Minnesota and Missouri rivers. - -On the summit of the ridge between these two tributaries of the -Mississippi rises a bold cliff, beautifully marked with horizontal -layers of light grey and rose or flesh-coloured quartz. From the base of -this a level prairie of about half a mile in width runs parallel to it; -and here it is that the famous red pipe-stone is procured, at a depth of -from four to five feet from the surface, in a ravine at the head of the -Pipe-stone Creek, a tributary of the Big Sioux River. Numerous -excavations indicate the resort of Indian tribes to the locality. “That -this place should have been visited,” says Catlin, “for centuries past -by all the neighbouring tribes, who have hidden the war-club as they -approached it, and stayed the cruelties of the scalping-knife, under the -fear of the vengeance of the Great Spirit who overlooks it, will not -seem strange or unnatural when their superstitions are known. That such -has been the custom there is not a shadow of doubt, and that even so -recently as to have been witnessed by hundreds and thousands of Indians -of different tribes now living, and from many of whom I have personally -drawn the information.”[109] - -The enterprising traveller speaks elsewhere of thousands of inscriptions -and drawings observed by him on the neighbouring rocks; while the -feeling in which they originate was thus illustrated by an Indian whose -portrait he painted when in the Mandan country:—“My brother,” said the -Mandan, “you have made my picture, and I like it much. My friends tell -me they can see the eyes move, and it must be very good; it must be -partly alive. I am glad it is done, though many of my people are afraid. -I am a young man, but my heart is strong. I have jumped on to the -Medicine Rock; I have placed my arrow on it, and no Mandan can take it -away. The red stone is slippery, but my foot was true; it did not slip. -My brother, this pipe which I give to you I brought from a high -mountain; it is towards the rising sun. Many were the pipes we brought -from thence, and we brought them away in peace. We left our totems on -the rocks; we cut them deep in the stones; they are there now. The Great -Spirit told all nations to meet there in peace, and all nations hid the -war-club and the tomahawk. The Dahcotahs, who are our enemies, are very -strong; they have taken up the tomahawk, and the blood of our warriors -has run on the rocks. We want to visit our medicines. Our pipes are old -and worn out.” - -The Medicine or Leaping Rock, here referred to, is a detached column -standing between seven and eight feet from the precipitous cliff; and -the leap across this chasm is a daring feat which the young warriors are -ambitious of performing. It was pointed out to Catlin by a Sioux chief, -whose son had perished in the attempt. A conical mound marked the spot -of his sepulture; and though the sanctity of this ancient neutral ground -has been invaded, and the Sioux now refuse to permit other tribes to -have access to it, this is of quite recent occurrence. The memorials of -many tribes on the graven rocks; numerous excavations, sepulchral -mounds, and other earthworks in the vicinity; and the recovery from time -to time, in chance excavations, or in ancient ossuaries and -grave-mounds, of pipes wrought in the favourite material: all confirm -the Indian tradition that this had been recognised as neutral ground by -the tribes to the west, and many of those to the east of the -Mississippi, to which they have made regular pilgrimages to renew their -pipes from the rock consecrated by the footprints of the Great Spirit. -The marks of his footsteps are pointed out, deeply impressed in the -rock, and resembling the track of a large bird! - -Mandan traditions respecting this sacred spot have a special interest; -for the migrations of that once powerful Indian nation have been traced -from the country lying between Lake Erie and Cincinnati, down the Valley -of the Ohio, over the graves of the ancient Mound-Builders, and thence -up the western branch of the Mississippi, until the extinction of nearly -the whole nation, by the ravages of the small-pox, in the year 1838, at -their latest settlements on the Upper Missouri. The site of their last -homes lies to the north of the Sioux’s country, in whose possession the -pipe-stone quarries are now vested by the law of the strongest. To the -Sioux, accordingly, the guardianship of the traditions of the locality -belongs. For, although they have thus set at defiance its most sacred -characteristic, and so slighted the mandate of the Great Spirit, they do -not the less strongly hold by the superstitious ideas associated with -the spot. - -One of these legends is connected with the peculiar features of the -scene. Five large granite boulders form prominent objects on the level -prairie in the vicinity of the pipe-stone quarries; and two holes under -the largest of them are regarded by the Sioux as the abodes of the -guardian spirits of the spot. Catlin, who broke off and carried away -with him fragments of these sacred boulders, remarks: “As for the poor -Indian, his superstitious veneration of them is such, that not a spear -of grass is broken or bent by his feet within three or four roods of -them, where he stops, and, in humble supplication, by throwing plugs of -tobacco to them, solicits permission to dig and carry away the red stone -for his pipes.” For here, according to Indian tradition, not only the -mysterious birth of the peace-pipe, but the postdiluvian creation of -man, took place. - -The institution of the peace-pipe is thus narrated by the Sioux: “Many -ages after the red men were made, when all the tribes were at war, the -Great Spirit called them together at the Red Rocks. He stood on the top -of the rocks, and the red nations were assembled on the plain below. He -took out of the rock a piece of the red stone, and made a large pipe. He -smoked it over them all; told them that it was part of their flesh; that -though they were at war, they must meet at this place as friends; that -it belonged to them all; that they must make their calumets from it, and -smoke them to him whenever they wished to appease him or get his -goodwill. The smoke from his big pipe rolled over them all, and he -disappeared in its cloud. At the last whiff of his pipe a blaze of fire -rolled over the rocks and melted their surface. At that moment two -Indian maidens passed in a flame under the two medicine rocks, where -they remain to this day. The voices of Tsomecostee and Tsomecostewondee, -as they are named, are heard at times in answer to the invocations of -the suppliants, and they must be propitiated before the pipe-stone is -taken away.” - -An offering of tobacco is the usual gift, and it appears to have been -employed in similar acts of worship from the earliest period of -intercourse with Europeans. In the narrative of the voyage of Drake, in -1572, it is stated that the natives brought a little basket made of -rushes, and filled with an herb which they called _tobak_. This was -regarded as a propitiatory offering; and the writer subsequently notes: -they “came now the second time to us, bringing with them, as before had -been done, feathers and bags of _tobak_ for presents, or rather, indeed, -for sacrifices, upon this persuasion that we were gods.” Harriot in like -manner tells, in his “Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of -Virginia,” of a plant which the Spaniards generally call _tobacco_, but -there named by the natives _uppówoc_. “This _uppówoc_ is of so precious -estimation among them, that they think their gods are marvellously -delighted therewith, whereupon sometime they make halowed fires, and -cast some of the powder therein for a sacrifice. Being in a storme upon -the waters, to pacifie their gods they cast some up into the aire, and -into the water; so a weare for fish being newly set up, they cast some -therein and into the aire; also after an escape of danger, they cast -some into the aire likewise; but all done with strange gestures, -stamping, sometime dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of hands, and -staring up into the heavens, uttering therewithal and chattering strange -words and noises.” - -Such practices and ideas of propitiatory offerings among southern Indian -tribes of the sixteenth century, show that the offerings of tobacco -still made by the Sioux to the spirits that haunt the pipe-stone quarry, -are of no merely local origin, but were anciently as universal as the -peace-pipe itself. Nor were such religious associations confined to the -favourite narcotic of the northern continent. Among the Peruvians the -coca-plant took the place of tobacco; and Dr. Tschudi states that he -found it regarded by the Indians as something sacred and mysterious. “In -all ceremonies, whether religious or warlike, it was introduced for -producing smoke at the great offerings, or as the sacrifice itself. -During divine worship the priests chewed coca-leaves; and, unless they -were supplied with them, it was believed that the favour of the gods -could not be propitiated.” Christianity, after an interval of upwards of -three hundred years, has not eradicated the Indian’s faith in the -virtues of the sacred plant. In the mines of Cerro de Pasco, masticated -coca is thrown on the hard veins of metal to propitiate the gnomes of -the mine, who, it is believed, would otherwise render the mountains -impenetrable; and leaves of it are secretly placed in the mouth of the -dead, to smooth the passage to another world. Thus we find, in the -superstitions perpetuated among the Indians of the southern Cordilleras, -striking analogies to those which survive among the Sioux, and give -character to the strange rites practised by them at the red pipe-stone -quarry, on the Coteau des Prairies. - -One of the Indian traditions connected with that locality, which seems -to perpetuate the idea of a general deluge, was thus narrated by a -distinguished Knisteneaux on the Upper Missouri, on the occasion of -presenting to Catlin a handsome red-stone pipe: “In the time of a great -freshet, which took place many centuries ago, and destroyed all the -nations of the earth, all the tribes of the red men assembled on the -Coteau des Prairies, to get out of the way of the waters. After they had -gathered here from every part, the water continued to rise, until at -length it covered them all in a mass, and their flesh was converted into -red pipe-stone. Therefore, it has always been considered neutral ground; -it belongs to all tribes alike, and all were allowed to get it and smoke -it together. While they were all drowning in a mass, a young woman, -Kwaptahw, a virgin, caught hold of the foot of a very large bird that -was flying over, and was carried to the top of a high cliff not far off, -that was above the water. Here she had twins, and their father was the -war-eagle, and her children have since peopled the earth.” The idea that -the red pipe-stone is the flesh of their ancestors is a favourite one -among different tribes. When Catlin and his party attempted to penetrate -to the sacred locality, they were stopped by the Sioux, and one of them -addressing him, said: “This red-pipe was given to the red men by the -Great Spirit. It is a part of our flesh, and therefore is great -medicine. We know that the whites are like a great cloud that rises in -the east, and will cover the whole country. We know that they will have -all our lands; but if ever they get our red-pipe quarry they will have -to pay very dear for it.” Thus is it that even in the farthest West the -Indian feels the fatal touch of that white hand; and to the intrigues of -interested traders is ascribed the encroachment of the Sioux on the -sacred neutral ground, where, within memory of living men, every tribe -on the Missouri had smoked with their enemies, while the Great Spirit -kept the peace among his red children. - -Apart, then, from such indications of an artistic power of imitation, by -which the ancient pipe-sculptors are distinguished, it becomes an object -of interest to observe other elements, either of comparison or contrast, -between the memorials of the Mound-Builders’ skill, and numerous -specimens of pipe-sculpture produced by modern tribes. - -Notwithstanding the endless variety which characterises the ancient -Mound-Builders’ pipes, one general type is traceable through the whole. -A curved base forms the stem and handle, from the centre of which rises -the bowl, as shown in Fig. 78, so that it is complete as found; whereas -the modern Indian generally employs a pipe-stem, and ascribes to it the -peculiar virtues of the implement. The medicine-man decorates it with -his most elaborate skill, and it is regarded with awe and reverence by -the whole tribe. The stem would seem, therefore, to be characteristic of -the modern race; if indeed it be not the distinguishing memorial of an -origin of the Northern tribes diverse from Toltecan and other ancient -nations. One idea which such comparisons suggest is that in the sacred -associations with the pipe of the Mound-Builders, we have indications of -contact between a migrating race of Central or Southern America, where -no superstitious pipe-usages have been found, and one of the Northern -tribes among whom such superstitions are most intimately interwoven with -all their sacred mysteries. - -The utmost variety distinguishes the pipes of the modern Indians: -arising in part from the local facilities they possess for a suitable -material, and in part also from the special style of art and decoration -which has become traditional with the tribe. The easily wrought red -pipe-stone has been generally sought after, from the beauty of its -colour and texture, as well as the mysterious virtues attached to it. -But the pipe-sculptures of many tribes can be distinguished no less -certainly by the material, than by the favourite conventional pattern. - -Among the Assinaboin Indians a fine marble, much too hard to admit of -minute carving, but susceptible of a high polish, is cut into pipes of -graceful form, and made so extremely thin, as to be nearly transparent. -When lighted the glowing tobacco shines through, and presents a singular -appearance at night, or in a dark lodge. Another favourite stone is a -coarse species of jasper, also too hard to admit of elaborate -ornamentation. But the choice of material is by no means invariably -guided by the facilities which the position of the tribe affords. Mr. -Kane informed me that, in coming down the Athabaska river, when near its -source in the Rocky Mountains, he observed his Assinaboin guides select -the favourite bluish jasper from among the water-worn stones in the bed -of the river, to carry home for the purpose of pipe manufacture, -although they were then fully five hundred miles from their lodges; and -my own Chippewa guides carried off pieces from the pipe-stone rock, at -the mouth of the Neepigon river, though they had several hundred miles -to traverse before they would reach their homes. Such traditional -adherence to the choice of materials peculiar to a remote source, as -well as the perpetuation of special forms and patterns, are of value as -clews to former migrations, and indications of affinity among scattered -tribes. - -[Illustration: FIG.84.—Chippewa Pipe.] - -The Chippewas, at the head of Lake Superior, carve their pipes out of a -dark close-grained stone procured from Lake Huron; and frequently -introduce groups of animals and human figures with considerable artistic -skill. _Pabahmesad_, or the Flier, an old Chippewa, still living on the -Great Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, is generally known as -_Pwahguneka_, the Pipe Maker, literally “he makes pipes.” Though brought -in contact with the Christian Indians of the Manitoulin Islands, he -resolutely adheres to the pagan creed and rites of his fathers, and -resists all encroachments of civilisation. He gathers his materials from -the favourite resorts of different tribes, using the -_muhkuhda-pwahgunahbeck_, or black pipe-stone of Lake Huron; the -_wahbe-pwahgunahbeck_, or white pipe-stone, procured on St. Joseph’s -Island; and the _misko-pwahgunahbeck_, or red pipe-stone of the Coteau -des Prairies. His saw, with which the stone is first roughly blocked -out, is made of a bit of iron hoop; and his other tools are -correspondingly rude. Nevertheless the workmanship of Pabahmesad shows -him to be a master of his art; as will be seen from a characteristic -illustration of his ingenious sculpture, engraved here (Fig. 84) from -the original, in the museum of the University of Toronto. - -[Illustration: FIG. 85.—Babeen Pipe.] - -But the most elaborate and curious specimens of pipe-sculpture are those -executed by the Chimpseyan or Babeen Indians, who also carve skilfully -in wood and bone. They display much ingenuity in grass-plaiting for hats -and waterproof baskets, or kettles; and in the manufacture of -basket-nets of wicker-work, with which they catch the ulikon, a kind of -smelt abundant in the rivers along their coast. They are, indeed, -pre-eminent among the savages of the North Pacific coast for artistic -skill; yet to all appearance, in the collision with the whites, their -extermination is inevitable at no distant date. The frontispiece, Plate -1. illustrates the characteristic physiognomy of this people. It is the -portrait of Kaskatachyuh, a Chimpseyan chief, from sketches taken by Mr. -Paul Kane, while travelling in their country. He wears one of the native -hats made of dyed and plaited grass. The Chimpseyans belong to the -Thlinket stock, tribes of which extend as far north as Behring Bay. They -do not feast on the whale, because it is one of their tribal totems; but -the blubber of the porpoise and seal is a favourite delicacy. The -Babeens or big-lip Indians,—as the Chimpseyans are most frequently -called,—have received this name from the deformation of the under-lip -in the women of the tribe, produced by the insertion of a piece of wood -into a slit made in infancy, and increased in size until the lip -protrudes like the bill of a duck; and among the wooden masks which they -carve of life-size, this protruding lip is the invariable characteristic -of those of the women. Other and not less singular customs mark the -distinction between the sexes, and are perpetuated even after death. -Their women are wrapped in mats and placed on an elevated platform, or -in a canoe raised on poles, while the bodies of the males are invariably -burned. The Chimpseyans and the Clalam Indians, occupying Vancouver’s -Island and the coasts in the neighbourhood of Charlotte’s Sound, carve -bowls, platters, and other utensils out of a blue claystone or slate, -from which also they make their pipes, and decorate them with many -ingenious and grotesque devices. One of the smaller and simpler of these -pipes, shown in Fig. 85, is placed here alongside of a _chef-d’œuvre_ of -Pabahmesad, the Chippewa artist. Nothing could better serve to -illustrate the contrast between the ingenious imitative art of Algonquin -pipe-sculpture and the exuberant fancifulness of the Babeen carvings. -Large and complicated designs are common, sometimes inlaid with bone or -ivory, and embracing every native or foreign object adapted to the -sculptor’s fancy. The same talent for carving finds room for its display -on their ivory combs; and on ladles and spoons made from the horns of a -mountain goat, which is one of the principal animals that they hunt on -land. The claystone carvings of strictly native design chiefly occur on -their pipe-sculptures, and consist of human figures, and of strange -monstrosities intermingling human and brute forms, in which curious -analogies may frequently be traced to the sculptures of Central America. -But the powers of observation and imitation are most strikingly -illustrated in claystone carvings of objects of foreign origin. The -collections formed by the United States Exploring Expedition, now at -Washington, include numerous specimens of this class, representing -European houses, forts, boats, horses, and fire-arms; and reproducing in -minute detail the cords, pulleys, and other minutiæ of the shipping -which frequent the coast. The example shown in Fig. 86 is a curious -combination of native and foreign elements; and may be regarded as the -conventional representation by the native artist of a bear hunt in the -vicinity of one of the Hudson Bay Company’s stations. The animal-heads -on some of the human figures represent the grotesque masks already -referred to as among their favourite carvings, and a special branch of -native art. They are executed in wood, the size of life, and brilliantly -coloured; and are worn in the grand dances of the tribe. - -[Illustration: FIG. 86.—Babeen Pipe-Sculpture.] - -In some of the larger pipes, the entire group presents much of the -grotesque exuberance of fancy, mingled with imitations from nature, -which constitute the charm of ecclesiastical sculptures of the -thirteenth century. Figures in the oddest varieties of posture are -ingeniously interlaced, and connected by elaborate ornaments; the -intermediate spaces being perforated, so as to give great lightness to -the whole. But though well calculated to recall the quaint products of -the medieval sculptor’s chisel, such comparisons are not suggested by -any imitation of European models. Their style of art is thoroughly -American; and traits of the same peculiar devices and modes of thought -which mark some of the most finished sculptures of Yucatan are replete -with interest, when thus recognised in regions so remote, and in the -productions of rude Indian tribes. - -But while the modern Indian thus rivals in the elaborateness of his art -the ingenious pipe-sculpture of the mounds, all his superstitious -reverence is reserved for the pipe-stem. On it depends the safety of the -tribe in peace, and its success in war. It is guarded accordingly with -jealous care, and produced at the medicine dance or the war-council with -mysterious ceremonies. Even on such great occasions, so long as the -medicine pipe-stem is used, it is a matter of indifference whether the -bowl attached to it be of the richest carving, or a common trader’s -clay-pipe. Many special privileges and honours pertain to its bearer. It -is not only disrespectful, but unlucky, to pass between him and the -fire. An ornamental tent is provided for his use, and his other official -accoutrements are so numerous that frequently he requires to maintain -several horses for their transport. A bear-skin robe is employed for -wrapping up the consecrated pipe-stem, and thus enveloped, it is usually -borne by the favourite wife of the dignitary. But it is never allowed to -be uncovered in her presence; and should a woman, even by chance, cast -her eyes on it, its virtues can only be restored by a tedious ceremony. - -Among the Indian portraits executed by Mr. Paul Kane, is one of -Kea-keke-sacowaw, head chief of the Crees, whom he met on the -Saskatchewan, engaged in raising a war-party against the Blackfeet. He -had with him eleven medicine pipe-stems, the pledges of different bands -that had joined him. The grim old chief appears decorated with his -war-paint, and holding in his hand one of the pipe-stems adorned with -the head and plumage of an eagle. Before beginning his work, the artist -had to witness the ceremony of “opening the medicine pipe-stem,” in the -course of which he smoked each of the eleven pipes; and, thus enlisted -in the cause, his painting was esteemed a great medicine, calculated to -contribute materially to the success of the war-party. - -A young Cree Half-breed confessed to the painter that, in a spirit of -daring scepticism, he had once secretly thrown down the medicine -pipe-stem and kicked it about; but soon after, its official carrier was -slain, and such misfortunes followed as left no doubt on his mind of the -sanctity pertaining to this guardian and avenger of the honour of the -tribe. - -But all the ideas and superstitions which such usages illustrate, are -peculiar to the modern Indians. The pipes of the Mound-Builders show -that they used no pipe-stem; and the same appears to have been the case -with the Mexicans before the Conquest. Throughout the whole of Lord -Kingsborough’s great work, traces of the use of the tobacco-pipe are -rare; and where they do occur they tend to confirm the idea that it was -not invested, either in Mexico or Central America, with such sacred -attributes as were attached to it by the ancient race of the Mississippi -Valley: and which, under other but no less peculiar forms, are -maintained among the Indian tribes of the North-west. - -Various early writers on the customs of the American Indians refer to -expiatory sacrifices, which present striking, though rude analogies, to -the ancient offerings by fire on the mound-altars. Hearne describes a -custom among the Chippewas, after the shedding of blood, of throwing all -their ornaments, pipes, etc., into a common fire, kindled at some -distance from their lodges; and Winslow narrates of the Nanohiggansets -of New England, that they had a great house ordinarily resorted to by a -few, whom he supposes to be priests; but he adds, “Thither, at certain -times, resort all their people, and offer almost all the riches they -have to their gods, as kettles, skins, hatchets, beads, knives, etc., -all which are cast by the priests into a great fire that they make in -the midst of the house.”[110] The analogies, however, which appear to be -traceable in such practices of tribes remote from the localities of the -old Mound-Builders, are after all slight, and lack the most important -elements which give a special character to the ancient mound-altars. The -use of tobacco is no longer a characteristic peculiar to the New World; -but it may be that in the mode of indulging in its favourite narcotic, -we have perpetuated as a practice of mere sensual indulgence, what was -once a solemn rite associated with the mysterious worship of the sacred -enclosures and the altar-mounds of the Mississippi Valley. Oviedo, who -is the earliest authority, at least for any minute account of -tobacco-smoking among the native tribes, speaks of it as an evil custom -practised among the Indians of Hispaniola to produce insensibility; and -greatly prized by the Carribees, who called tobacco _kohiba_, and -“imagined, when they were drunk with the fumes of it, the dreams they -had were in some sort inspired.”[111] Again, Girolamo Benzoni narrates -in his travels in America, recently translated from the edition of 1753 -by Rear-Admiral Smyth: “In La Española, and the other islands, when -their doctors wanted to cure a sick man, they went to the place where -they were to administer the smoke, and when he was thoroughly -intoxicated by it the cure was mostly effected. On returning to his -senses, he told a thousand stories of his having been at the council of -the gods, and other high visions.”[112] - -Many Indian legends ascribe a divine origin to tobacco. A chief of the -Susquehannas told of two hunters of the tribe sharing the venison they -had cooked with a lovely squaw, who suddenly appeared to them; and on -returning to the scene of their feast thirteen moons after, they found -the tobacco plant growing where she had sat. Harriot, who sailed in Sir -Walter Raleigh’s expedition of 1584, states that the Indians of Virginia -regarded tobacco as a means of peculiar enjoyment, in which the Great -Spirit was wont freely to indulge, and that he bestowed it on them that -they might share in his delights. Repeated allusions also refer to its -intoxicating effects as an influence analogous to that which produced -the visions and inspirations of their fasting dreams. It seems, -therefore, by no means improbable, that the original practice of -inhaling the fumes of tobacco was associated exclusively with -superstitious rites and divination; so that the tobacco-plant may have -played a part in the worship of the ancient Mound-Builders, analogous to -that of the inspiring vapour over which the Delphic tripod was placed, -when the priestess of Apollo prepared to give utterance to the divine -oracles. - ------ - -[100] Vide _Prehistoric Annals of Scotland_, vol. i. pp. 496-498. - -[101] _Prehistoric Races of the United States_, p. 293. - -[102] This collection has since been acquired for the Blackmore Museum. - -[103] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 245, fig. 145. - -[104] _Indigenous Races of the Earth_, p. 183. - -[105] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_ (No. 143). - -[106] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 152. - -[107] This derivation from the Spanish _Mano_ is rejected by some -etymologists for a native Carib one, _Manattoüi_. - -[108] _Archæology of the United States_, p. 122. - -[109] _Illustrations of the Manners, etc., of the North American -Indians._ By Geo. Catlin. Eighth edition. Vol. ii. p. 167. _Vide -Proceed. Amer. Philosoph. Soc._, vol. x. p. 274. - -[110] _Mass. Hist. Coll._, Second Series, vol. ix. p. 94. - -[111] _Historia General de las Indias_, second edit. p. 74. - -[112] _History of the New World._ By Girolamo Benzoni. Hakluyt Society, -1857. - - THE END - - PRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY, - AT THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS. - - - - - TRANSCRIBER NOTES - -Misspelled words and printer errors have been corrected. Where multiple -spellings occur, majority use has been employed. - -Some illustrations were moved to facilitate page layout. - -[The end of _Prehistoric Man: Researches into the Origin of Civilization -in the Old and the New World_, by Daniel Wilson.] - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Prehistoric Man, by Daniel Wilson - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PREHISTORIC MAN *** - -***** This file should be named 52406-0.txt or 52406-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/4/0/52406/ - -Produced by Larry Harrison, Cindy Beyer and the online -Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at -http://www.pgdpcanada.net with images provided by The -Internet Archives-US - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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