Generally the physical characteristics of the American Indians are as follows: a square. head, with a low but broad forhead, the back of the head flattened, full face, and power ful jaws; cheek-bones prominent; lips full; eyes dark, and deeply set; the hair not absolutely straight, but wavy, something like a horse's mane, and like that, of a long, hue; little or no beard—where it does appear, carefully eradicated with tweezers; color of the skin reddish or copper; height of the men about the average, but looking taller from their erect posture and slender figure; the women rather shorter, and more inclined to obesity, but many of them with symmetrical figure and pleasing countenance; hands and feet of both men and women small.
As before said, however, there being some hundreds of tribes among the American Indians, there are many departures from these general characteristics, not only in individu als, but entire septs. " The Americans," says Prichard, " are not all of the hue denominated red, that is, of a copper color; some tribes arc as white as many European nations; others brown or yellow ; others arc black, or, at least, they arc described by travelers as very much resembling in color the negroes of Africa. Anatomists have distinguished what they have termed the American form of the human skull: they were led into this mistake by regarding the strongly marked characteristics of some particular tribes as univeral. he American nations are spread over a vast space, and live in different climates, and the shape of their heads is different in different parts. Nor will any epithet derived their habits of life apply to all the tribes of this department. The native Americans are not all hunters: there are many fishing tribes among them; some are nomadic; others cultivate the earth, and live in settled habitations; and of these a part were agriculturists before the arrival of the Europeans; others have learned of their conquerors to till the soil, and have changed the ancient habits of their race, which, as we may hence infer, were not the necessary result of organization or congenital and instinctive propensity." Dr. Morton's views on this subject substantially agree with those of Prichard ; and both concur in adopting the test of language as a proof of one common origin for the various native tribes of both North and South America. The linguistic conclusion, now generally acquiesced in, is thus briefly stated by Mr. Albert Gallatin: "Amidst that great diversity of American languages, considered only in reference to their vocabularies, the similarity of their structure and grammatical forms has been observed and pointed out by the American philologists. The result appears to confirm the opinions already entertained on that subject by Mr. Du Poneeau, Mr. Pickering, and others; and to prove that all the languages, not only of our own Indians, but of the native inhabitants of America, from the Arctic ocean to cape Horn, have, as far as they have been investigated, a distinct character common to all, and apparently differing from any of those of the other conti nents with which we arc most familiar." The next question that comes under consideration is: Whence does it arise that, with all this similarity of physical conformation and language, there should have been only two nations among so many millions—namely, the Mexicans and Peruvians—who attained to any high degree of civilization? When the Spaniards entered Mexico they found in it a rich, powerful, and warlike nation, living in walled cities, in which were palaces and other sumptuous residences. They were ruled over by an emperor or king, whose sway extended over many other nations besides his own. They worshiped the sun, and had an organized hierarchy; they had also fixed laws, were acquainted with many of the arts and sciences, especially astronomy; they practiced agriculture, worked mines, and dis played considerable skill in manufactures, both industrial and ornamental. The nation thus discovered was th'at, of the Aztecs, who professed to have among them evidences of antiquity dating as far back as the year 554 of our era. A few years later, in Peru, the
Spaniards found another nation, also exceedingly rich, numerous, and powerful, with a civilization fully as much extended as that of the Aztecs, yet differing from that in many essential particulars. This was the nation of the Quichuas, frequently termed Incas (more correctly Yneas), associated with whom were the Aymaras, whose country had been subjugated by the Incas two or three centuries before the arrival of Pizarro in Peru. Each of these nations—the Mexicans and Peruvians—is supposed to have slowly devel oped its own civilization during a long process of ages. In every other part of America European settlers and explorers have found only complete or semi-barbarism. Such was the case in Virginia; such in New England, Canada, the Hudson's bay territory, Califor nia, and Patagonia. In Central America, however, there have been extensive remains of architecture and other traces of civilization, which would seem to date back to even a more remote period than that of the Mexican or Peruvian empires. Immense artificial mounds also exist in the valley of the Mississippi and elsewhere throughout America, supposed to be the work of the ancestors of the present wandering tribes. If so, there may be some truth in the theory of Dr. Martins, a distinguished German ethnol ogist, "that the nations of the new world are not in it state of primitive barbarism or living in the original simplicity of uncultivated nature, but that they are, on the con trary, the last remains of a people once high in the scale of civilization and mental improvement, now almost worn out and perishing, and sunk into the lowest stage of decline and tlegradation." , Dr. Prichard appears inclined to the same view, adding. " Attentive observers have been struck with manifestations of greater energy and mental vigor, of more intense and deeper feeling, of a more reflective mind, of greater fortitude, and more consistent perseverance in enterprises and all pursuits, when they have com pared the natives of the new world with the sensual and volatile, and almost animalized savages who arc still to be found in some quarters of the old continent. They have been equally impressed by the sullen and unsocial character, by the proud apathetic endur ance, by the feeble influence of social affections, by the intensity of hatred and revenge, and the deep malice-concealing dissimulation so remarkable amid the dark solitudes of the American fOrests." Dr. Robert Brown adopts a geographical classification of the American tribes, which is, on the whole, the least unsatisfactory. There are Arctic tribes; north-western tribes inhabiting the region w. of the Rocky mountains. between California and Alaska; Cali fornian tribes; Indians of the central plains; prairie tribes; north-eastern Indians; Cana dian Indians; and Central American Indians. The chief existing tribes are: Eskimo, Cowichans, Tsongeisths, Nanaimos, Quakwolths, Nuchultaws, Koskeemos, Seshahts, Nittinahts in Vancouver island; Hydahs (Queen Charlotte islanders); Tsimpsheans, Bellacoolas, Chilcoatins, Shuswaps in British Columbia; Cyuse, Snakes, Klamaths in Oregon; the Digger or Californian Indians, the most degraded of all the tribes; the Comanches, Apaches, Navajos, Hualpais, Yarnpas iu the central plains; the Mogul, Pueblos, Pimas, Papagos in New Mexico, Utaths, Pahutas, Pahides, Soshones, Loo-coo rekahs, Goships, Cheyennes, Arrapahoes, Kwivas,, Arickarees, Poncas, Yanktons, Gros Ventres, and Sioux or Dakotahs, Assiniboines, Blackfeet, Crows, Ottoes, Pawnees, etc., are all prairie tribes; the. Delawares, Mo-hee-con-neuglis (Mohicans), Onei das, Tuskaroras, Senecas, Shawnees, Cherokees, Chocktaws, Creeks, Seminoleg, Osages, Kaskias, Weeahs, Potowatomies, Quapaws, Peorias, Kanzans, Sauks, Foxes, Puncas, etc., in the north-eastern states; the Crees, Santeux or Ojebways, Chippewayans, the Sacliss or Shewhapmuch in Canada; Tehuantepecs, Mosquitos, Smoos, Twaka,s, Toonglas, Pay-as, Ramas, and Cookras in Central America.