[92] _American Ethnological Society’s Transactions_, vol. i. p. 162.
[93] Prescott’s _Conquest of Mexico_, B. III. ch. ix.
[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.
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.