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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
The word “Essays” appears on the title of this book in the sense in which old Montaigne employed it—attempts, endeavors. The articles which make up the volume have been collected from many scattered sources, to which I have from time to time contributed them, for the definite purpose of endeavoring to vindicate certain opinions about debated subjects concerning the ancient population of the American continent. In a number of points, as for example in the antiquity of man upon this continent, in
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INTRODUCTORY.
INTRODUCTORY.
Ever since America was discovered, the question about it which has excited the most general interest has been, Whence came its inhabitants? The inquiry, Who are the American Indians? has been the theme of many a ponderous folio and labored dissertation, with answers nearly as various as the number of debaters. Few or none of them have reflected on the unphilosophical character of the inquiry as thus crudely put. Take a precisely analogous question, and this will be apparent—Whence came the Afric
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A REVIEW OF THE DATA FOR THE STUDY OF THE PRE-HISTORIC CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICA.[2]
A REVIEW OF THE DATA FOR THE STUDY OF THE PRE-HISTORIC CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICA.[2]
Early in this century the doubt was expressed by Alexander von Humboldt [3] whether it is philosophical to inquire into the origin of any of the human races or sub-species. Although he expressed this doubt with particular reference to the American race, I believe I am right in assuming that the hesitancy he felt in pushing inquiry so far should now diminish in view of new methods of research and a wider range of observations. We may not, in fact we shall not, be able to trace the American or any
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ON PALÆOLITHS, AMERICAN AND OTHER.[32]
ON PALÆOLITHS, AMERICAN AND OTHER.[32]
There has been much talk in scientific circles lately about Palæoliths, and much misunderstanding about them. Let me try to explain in a few words what they are, what they tell, and what mistakes people make about them. Since man first appeared on this planet, his history has been a slow progress from the most rudimentary arts up to those which he now possesses. We know this, because in a given locality those remains of his art which are found undisturbed in strata geologically the oldest are al
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ON THE ALLEGED MONGOLIAN AFFINITIES OF THE AMERICAN RACE.[35]
ON THE ALLEGED MONGOLIAN AFFINITIES OF THE AMERICAN RACE.[35]
Were the question I am about to discuss one of merely theoretical bearings, I should not approach it; but the widespread belief that the American tribes are genealogically connected with the Mongolians is constantly directing and coloring the studies of many Americanists, very much as did at one time the belief that the red men are the present representatives of the ten lost tribes of Israel. It is practically worth while, therefore, to examine the grounds on which the American race is classed b
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THE PROBABLE NATIONALITY OF THE “MOUND-BUILDERS.”
THE PROBABLE NATIONALITY OF THE “MOUND-BUILDERS.”
[The following Essay is reprinted without alteration. It appeared in the American Antiquarian for October, 1881, and has a certain degree of historic value as illustrating the progress of archæologic study in the United States. It is, I believe, the first reasoned argument that the constructors of the mounds of the Ohio Valley were the ancestors of tribes known and resident not remote from the sites of these ancient works. Though this opinion has not yet been fully accepted, the tendency of late
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THE TOLTECS AND THEIR FABULOUS EMPIRE.
THE TOLTECS AND THEIR FABULOUS EMPIRE.
In the first addition of my Myths of the New World [87] published in 1868, I asserted that the story of the city of Tula and its inhabitants, the Toltecs, as currently related in ancient Mexican history, is a myth, and not history. This opinion I have since repeated in various publications, [88] but writers on pre-Columbian American civilization have been very unwilling to give up their Toltecs, and lately M. Charnay has composed a laborious monograph to defend them. [89] Let me state the questi
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INTRODUCTORY.
INTRODUCTORY.
Fashions in the study of mythology come and go with something like the rapidity of change in costume feminine, subject to the autocracy of a Parisian man-modiste. Myths have been held in turn to be of some deep historical, or moral, or physical purport, and their content has been sought through psychologic or philologic analysis. Just now, all these methods are out of fashion. The newest theory is that myths generally mean nothing at all; that they are merely funny or fearsome stories and never
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THE SACRED NAMES IN QUICHE MYTHOLOGY.[126]
THE SACRED NAMES IN QUICHE MYTHOLOGY.[126]
Contents. —The Quiches of Guatemala, and their relationship—Their Sacred Book, the Popol Vuh —Its opening words—The name Hun-Ahpu-Vuch—Hun-Ahpu-Utiu—Nim-ak—Nim-tzyiz—Tepeu—Gucumatz—Qux-cho and Qux-palo—Ah-raxa-lak and Ah-raxa-sel—Xpiyacoc and Xmucane—Cakulha—Huracan—Chirakan—Xbalanque and his Journey to Xibalba. Of the ancient races of America, those which approached the nearest to a civilized condition spoke related dialects of a tongue, which from its principal members has been called the “May
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THE HERO-GOD OF THE ALGONKINS AS A CHEAT AND LIAR.[162]
THE HERO-GOD OF THE ALGONKINS AS A CHEAT AND LIAR.[162]
In the pleasant volume which Mr. Charles G. Leland has written on the surviving aboriginal folk-lore of New England, [163] the chief divinity of the Micmacs and Penobscots appears under what seems at first the outrageously incongruous name of Gluskap, the Liar! This is the translation of the name as given by the Rev. S. T. Rand, late missionary among the Micmacs, and the best authority on that language. From a comparison of the radicals of the name in related dialects of the Algonkin stock, I sh
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THE JOURNEY OF THE SOUL.[171]
THE JOURNEY OF THE SOUL.[171]
I am about to invite your attention to one of the many curious results of comparative mythology. This science, which is still in its infancy, may be regarded by some of you, as it is by the world at large, as one of little practical importance, and quite remote from the interests of daily life and thought. But some of the results it attains are so startling, and throw such a singular light on various familiar customs and popular beliefs, that the time is not far off when it will be recognized as
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THE SACRED SYMBOLS IN AMERICA.[172]
THE SACRED SYMBOLS IN AMERICA.[172]
What I am about to say is, to a certain degree, polemical. My intention is to combat the opinions of those writers who, like Dr. Hamy, M. Beauvois and many others, [173] assert that because certain well-known Oriental symbols, as the Ta Ki, the Triskeles, the Svastika and the Cross, are found among the American aborigines, they are evidence of Mongolian, Buddhistic, Christian or Aryan immigrations, previous to the discovery by Columbus; and I shall also try to show that the position is erroneous
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THE FOLK-LORE OF YUCATAN.[189]
THE FOLK-LORE OF YUCATAN.[189]
Yucatan presents a strange spectacle to the ethnologist. The native race, which in nearly every other part of the American continent has disappeared before the white invaders or else become their acknowledged inferior, has there gained the upper hand. The native language has ousted the Spanish to that extent that whole villages of whites speak Maya only, and the fortunes of war in the last generation have sided so much with the native braves that they have regained undisputed possession of by fa
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FOLK-LORE OF THE MODERN LENAPE.[199]
FOLK-LORE OF THE MODERN LENAPE.[199]
In August 1886, and September 1887, I had many conversations with the Rev. Albert Seqaqknind Anthony, an educated Delaware Indian, then assistant missionary to the Six Nations, in Ontario, Canada. Our immediate business was the revision of the “Lenâpé-English Dictionary,” which has since been published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; but in the intervals of that rather arduous and dry labor, we sought recreation in broader subjects of thought, and our discourse often fell on the ancie
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INTRODUCTORY.
INTRODUCTORY.
The intellectual development of a nation attains its fullest expression in language, oral or written. This “divine art” as Plato calls it, claims therefore from the student of man in the aggregate a prolonged attention and the most painstaking analysis. Too frequently one hears among anthropologists the claims of linguistics decried, and the many blunders and over-hasty generalizations of philologists quoted as good reasons for the neglect or distrust of their branch. The real reason of this att
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THE PHONETIC ELEMENTS IN THE GRAPHIC SYSTEMS OF THE MAYAS AND MEXICANS.[201]
THE PHONETIC ELEMENTS IN THE GRAPHIC SYSTEMS OF THE MAYAS AND MEXICANS.[201]
All who have read the wonderful story of the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America will remember that the European invaders came upon various nations who were well acquainted with some method of writing, who were skilled in the manufacture of parchment and paper, and who filled thousands of volumes formed of these materials with the records of their history, the theories of their sciences, and the traditions of their theologies. Aiming at greater permanence than these perishable materia
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THE IKONOMATIC METHOD OF PHONETIC WRITING.[209]
THE IKONOMATIC METHOD OF PHONETIC WRITING.[209]
All methods of recording ideas have been divided into two classes, Thought Writing and Sound Writing. The first, simplest and oldest is Thought Writing. This in turn is subdivided into two forms, Ikonographic and Symbolic Writing. The former is also known as Imitative, Representative or Picture Writing. The object to be held in memory is represented by its picture, drawn with such skill, or lack of skill, as the writer may possess. In Symbolic Writing, a single characteristic part or trait serve
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THE WRITING AND RECORDS OF THE ANCIENT MAYAS.[215]
THE WRITING AND RECORDS OF THE ANCIENT MAYAS.[215]
One of the ablest living ethnologists has classified the means of recording knowledge under two general headings—Thought-writing and Sound-writing. [216] The former is again divided into two forms, the first and earliest of which is by pictures, the second by picture-writing. The superiority of picture-writing over the mere depicting of an occurrence is that it analyzes the thought and expresses separately its component parts, whereas the picture presents it as a whole. The representations famil
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THE BOOKS OF CHILAN BALAM.[236]
THE BOOKS OF CHILAN BALAM.[236]
Civilization in ancient America rose to its highest level among the Mayas of Yucatan. Not to speak of the architectural monuments which still remain to attest this, we have the evidence of the earliest missionaries to the fact that they alone, of all the natives of the New World, possess a literature written in “letters and characters,” preserved in volumes neatly bound, the paper manufactured from the material derived from fibrous plants, and sized with a durable white varnish. [237] A few of t
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ON THE “STONE OF THE GIANTS.”[248]
ON THE “STONE OF THE GIANTS.”[248]
At the last meeting of this Society, a photograph was received of the Piedra de los Gigantes , or “Stone of the Giants,” now situated at Escamela, near the city of Orizaba, Mexico. It was obligingly forwarded by the Mexican antiquary, Father Damaso Sotomayor, and was referred by the Society to me for a possible interpretation of the figures represented. The sender accompanied the envoy with a copy of a newspaper published in Orizaba, entitled El Siglo que Acaba , which contained a lengthy interp
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NATIVE AMERICAN POETRY.[262]
NATIVE AMERICAN POETRY.[262]
In our modern civilization we are apt to consider that a taste for poetry is a mark of high culture, something which belongs exclusively to trained mental fibre and educated perceptions. It causes us, therefore, some surprise when we study the psychology of savage tribes, to find them almost everywhere passionate lovers of verse and measure, of music and song. This fact, well established by the researches of ethnology, was recognized by more than one keen thinker before ethnology was born. In th
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INTRODUCTORY.
INTRODUCTORY.
The processes, psychical and logical, which lie at the basis and modify the forms of articulate speech, have yet to be defined and classified in a manner to secure the general acceptance of scholars. While these processes are operative and recognizable in all languages, it has ever seemed to me that they are more apparent and transparent in the unwritten tongues of savage tribes. As the stream is more diaphanous near its source, as the problem of organic life is more readily studied in the lowes
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AMERICAN LANGUAGES, AND WHY WE SHOULD STUDY THEM.[263]
AMERICAN LANGUAGES, AND WHY WE SHOULD STUDY THEM.[263]
Contents. —Indian geographic names—Language a guide to ethnology—Reveals the growth of arts and the psychologic processes of a people—Illustration from the Lenâpe tongue—Structure of language best studied in savage tongues—Rank of American tongues—Characteristic traits; pronominal forms; idea of personality; polysynthesis; incorporation; holophrasis; origin of these—Lucidity of American tongues; their vocabularies; power of expressing abstract ideas—Conclusion. I appear before you this evening t
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WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT’S RESEARCHES IN AMERICAN LANGUAGES.[266]
WILHELM VON HUMBOLDT’S RESEARCHES IN AMERICAN LANGUAGES.[266]
Contents. —What led Humboldt toward the American tongues—Progress of his studies—Fundamental doctrine of his philosophy of language—His theory of the evolution of languages—Opinion on American languages—His criterion of the relative perfection of languages—Not abundance of forms—Nor verbal richness—American tongues not degenerations—Humboldt’s classification of languages—Psychological origin of Incorporation in language—Its shortcomings—In simple sentences—In compound sentences—Absence of true f
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SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN LANGUAGES.[286]
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICAN LANGUAGES.[286]
Contents. —Study of the human species on the geographic system—Have American languages any common trait?—Duponceau’s theory of polysynthesis—Humboldt on Polysynthesis and Incorporation—Francis Lieber on Holophrasis—Prof. Steinthal on the incorporative plan—Lucien Adam’s criticism of it—Prof. Müller’s inadequate statement—Major Powell’s omission to consider it—Definitions of polysynthesis, incorporation and holophrasis—Illustrations—Critical application of the theory to the Othomi language—To the
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THE EARLIEST FORM OF HUMAN SPEECH, AS REVEALED BY AMERICAN TONGUES.[329]
THE EARLIEST FORM OF HUMAN SPEECH, AS REVEALED BY AMERICAN TONGUES.[329]
Archæologists tell us that the manufacturers of those rude stone implements called palæoliths wandered up and down the world while a period of something like two hundred thousand years was unrolling its eventless centuries. Many believe that these early artisans had not the power of articulate expression to convey their emotions or ideas; if such they had, they were confined to inarticulate grunts and cries. Haeckel proposed for the species at this period of its existence the designation Homo al
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THE CONCEPTION OF LOVE IN SOME AMERICAN LANGUAGES.[358]
THE CONCEPTION OF LOVE IN SOME AMERICAN LANGUAGES.[358]
“The words which denote love, describing a sentiment at once powerful and delicate, reveal the inmost heart of those who created them. The vital importance attached to this sentiment renders these beautiful words especially adapted to point out the exceeding value of language as a true autobiography of nations.” This quotation is from an essay by a thoughtful writer, Dr. Carl Abel, in which he has gathered from four languages, the Latin, English, Hebrew and Russian, their expressions for this sw
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THE LINEAL MEASURES OF THE SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA.[397]
THE LINEAL MEASURES OF THE SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA.[397]
Positive progress in constructive art can be accurately estimated by the kind and perfection of the instruments of precision employed by the artists. A correct theory of architecture or of sculpture must have as its foundation a correct system of weights and measures, and recognized units and standards of gravity and extension. Where these are not found, all is guess-work, and a more or less haphazard rule-of-thumb. In a study of the art-products of Mexico and Central America, it has occurred to
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THE CURIOUS HOAX OF THE TAENSA LANGUAGE.
THE CURIOUS HOAX OF THE TAENSA LANGUAGE.
One might think it a difficult task to manufacture a new language “from the whole cloth;” but, in fact, it is no great labor. We have but to remember that within the last dozen years more than a dozen “world-languages” have been framed and offered for acceptance, and we at once perceive that a moderate knowledge of tongues and some linguistic ingenuity are all that is required. It is an innocent amusement so long as no fraudulent use is made of the manufactured product; but the temptation to pla
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