ne, (fig. 5.)

[Illustration: Fig. 4.]

[Illustration: Fig. 5.]

The principal figure has better features and expression than the other,
but their heads are formed on the same model; whence we may infer that
if the suppliant is a servant or a slave of the same race with his
master, the artificial moulding of the cranium was common to all
classes. If, on the other hand, we assume that he is an enemy imploring
mercy, we come to the conclusion that the singular custom of which we
are speaking, was in use among other and surrounding nations; which
latter inference is confirmed by other evidence, that, for example,
derived from the Natchez tribe, and the clay effigies so abundantly
found at the ruined temples of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan, near the
city of Mexico.[9-*]

I can aver that sixteen years of almost daily comparisons have only
confirmed me in the conclusions announced in my _Crania Americana_, that
all the American nations, excepting the Eskimaux, are of one race, and
that this race is peculiar and distinct from all others. The first of
these propositions may be regarded as an axiom in ethnography; the
second still gives rise to a diversity of opinions, of which the most
prevalent is that which would merge the American race in the Mongolian.

It has been objected to a common origin for all the American nations,
and even for those of Mexico, that their _monuments_ should present so
great a variety in the configuration of the head and face; a fact which
forcibly impresses every one who examines the numerous effigies in baked
clay in the collection of the American Philosophical Society; yet they
are all made of the same material and by the same national artists. The
varieties are indeed endless; and Mr. Norman in his first work, has
arrived at a reasonable conclusion, in which we entirely agree with him,
"that the people prepared these _penates_ according to their respective
tastes, and with little reference to any standard or canon."[10-*]

They appear to have exercised much ingenuity in this way, blending
almost every conceivable type of the human countenance, and associating
this again with those of beasts, birds, and various fanciful animals,
which last are equal in uncouthness to any productions of the Gothic
artists of the middle ages.

Mr. Norman in his late and interesting volume of travels in Cuba and
Mexico, discovered in the latter country some remarkable ruins near the
town of Panuco, and amon