Abundant evidence is afforded, by architec tural and other remains still existing, as well as by the accounts of the early Spanish his torians, of the high degree of civilisation which some of the nations of America had attained, previously to the European immi gration, especially in the warmer regions of that continent. Thus the natives of Mexico had erected stupendous edifices, which rivalled those of Egypt ; and although they did'not attain to the greatest of human inventions,— that of symbols representing the sounds of words, — they had long aspired after it, and had contrived a method of recording events and of handing down to memory the passages of their ancient history. They had even made great advances in science, and had a solar year with intercalations on the principle of the Roman calendar. They were diligent cultivators of the ground, and also expert miners and workers in metals ; even astonish ing the workmen of Europe with their skill in setting gems. They appear, too, to have been influenced by a deep sentiment of religion, and to have had a very stately and majestic ceremonial. Nevertheless, they do not seem to have derived from these advances in civi lisation, any moral improvement, or any miti gation of that sullen malignity which seems to be the general character of the native tribes of the New World ; and their religion was far from having an exalting influence, since their gods had no attribute of clemency or mercy, but were invested with the worst forms of their own dark passions. In Peru, also, we find remains of Cyclopean structures erected during the government of the Incas, which bear comparison with those of ancient Egypt ; and the wonder is increased when it is recollected, that no beast of burden save the llama existed in Peru before the Spanish invasion. At a time when there were no public highways in Britain but such as were relics of Roman greatness, there were roads of 1500 miles in length in the empire of Peru, carried over heights which overtop the Peak of Teneriffe. The ancient Peruvians were ignorant of the manner of forming an arch ; but they had constructed suspension bridges over frightful ravines. They had no implements of iron; but they could move blocks of stone as huge as the Sphinxes and Memnons of Egypt.
Everything, then, seems to indicate one of two things ; either that the American races are descended from a stock originally distinct from that of any part of the Old World, or that, having had a common origin with the abori gines of Asia and Europe, they have existed as a separate family of nations from a very early period in the history of the race. This question will be considered hereafter ; but it must not here be left unnoticed, that several of the tribes of the Western coast of America present a striking physical resemblance to the Peninsular Mongols ; and that there are in dications of communication between them, at a comparatively late period.* This brief account of the American races would be incomplete, without a notice of one of their most remarkable customs, — that of altering the form of the skull by artificial compression — which may be traced in dif ferent parts, both of the northern and southern divisions of the continent. This flattening
was vertical in some instances, horizontal in others. Of the former, Dr. Morton figures examples, in his " Crania Americana," from the tribe of Natchez Indians (which appears to have been a branch of the Toltecan family) that was exterminated by the French in the year ]730. The compression was effected by means of a bag of sand placed upon the fore head, whilst the occiput lay upon a sort of mould, of which it gradually took the form under the slow but constant influence of this pressure. Some curious bas-reliefs, executed by the Toltecans during their sojourn in Mexico, show that the practice prevailed amongst the most civilised portion of that race. The horizontal flattening is practised at the present time by the Chinooks and other tribes inhabiting the neighbourhood of the Columbia river ; the mode in which it is ac complished varying considerably in the differ ent tribes, but the general effect being the same. So highly is this deformity valued by them, that their slaves are not allowed to practise it ; and yet the process by which it is induced often gives rise to ulceration of the scalp, and not unfrequently to death. In one of the skulls figured by Dr. Morton, the ver tical diameter is reduced to little more than four inches, the top of the cranium presents a flattened arch not far removed from a hori zontal plane, and the face is protruded until the facial angle is reduced to probably the lowest grade ever observed in a human skull ; the compression has also destroyed in a re markable degree the lateral symmetry. Yet the capacity of the cranium is not altered by the process ; and the " flat-head " Indians are certainly not deficient in any of the mental qualities of their race. Both kinds of flatten ing appear to have been practised by the ancient Peruvians ; in whose sepulchres are found vast numbers of crania, presenting such different degrees of departure from what seems to have been the normal form, that it is not easy to find one which can be positively affirmed to be unaltered. A characteristic example of the effect produced by the process of horizontal flattening is given in figs. 849, 850, 851 ; which represents a skull closely resembling that of a flat-head Indian of the Columbia river. It seems not improbable that the horizontal flattening was prac tised anteriorly to the advent of the Incas, which may be dated at about the year 1100 ; and that the vertical flattening was introduced by them. It seems to have been continued among the Peruvians for some time after their conquest by the Spaniards ; for the Ecclesiastical Court of Lima passed a decree in the year 1585, forbidding parents, under certain specified penalties, to compress or distort the heads of their children in the various modes which were then in vogue. The practice still exists among certain tribes of South American Indians ; and seems to be regarded in much the same light with the artificial compression of the foot by the Chinese, or of the waist by the French and English, —namely, as an artificial develop ment of a natural beauty.