MIGKATION OK TIIE NAHUAS

their gênerai ténor. If on the circumvallations of old forts trees hâve been found of a reputed âge of from 400 to 600 years, this fact would force us to date baok their abandonment to nearly the time of the Azte.3 migrations, i-e. to the eleventh century. While on the other hand, no reason whatever exists, to assign désertion to an earher period. Skulls and bones crumbhng to dust, as soon as unearthed, are witnesses only of their own great antiquity, but prove nothing against a later occupancy of the country by the same people. The « garden beds » which still exhibit the traces of former regular agriculture can scarcely be supposed to hâve survived the levelling influence of frost, rain, wind and later vegetable mould for a much longer period than 800 years.

We consider then, that Aztlan is the home of the Mound- Builders, and more particularly the région of the prairies on the Ohio and the Mississipi. Andthe great river, which Aztec tradition (1) says, they had to cross annually in order to take part in the yearly festivals at their capital, may quite probably be the Mississipi itself where the présent sites of Saint- Louis, near the mouth of the Missouri and of Mound City, opposite the mouth of Ohio, hâve shown by their extensive remains of pyramids etc., etc. that they were also centres of trade and power, when the Mound-Builders cultivated the fertile river bottoms of the neighborhood.

Nothing remains then but to look for the original a Gulhuacan » of Aztec tradition, the island home whence their mythical ancestor set out to fînd the « Paxil cayala », where maize was discovered. Direct évidence as to its whereabouts cannot indeed be found. But the gênerai traditions not only of the Popol Vuh, that most valuable of ail aboriginal documents, wich locates the cradle of the race, whence their ancestors emigrated to the happy eastern land of Tulan,

'i; Brassour. Hist. Nat. Civ. II. 295.

^18 f;OXGRÈS DES AMKRICANISTES. 24

which ^ve liopc to hâve shown is the Mississipi valley, in llio Far West, but also of ail the aboriginal tribes found in the United States, ^vhich unanimously point towards the Northwest, encourages us to continue the search in that direction.

In doing so, wefollowagainthenatural road, which a wandeiing tribc, devoid of any other means of transportation, than simple canoës or rafts, would be apt, nay, would alraost be forced to follow^ namely : the river valleys. And a single glance at the map exhibits a natural highway of this nature, than which none better can be found, forming an unbroken Une of communication betweenthe very centre of the Mound- Builders civilization in the American botlom near the mouth of the Missouri River, to the sources of that stream. Along this route almosl midway are located the remarkable villages of the Mandans, which Catlin thought a véritable oasis of compamtive civilization in themidst ofbarbarism. Further on, about the mouth of the Yellowstone, distinct traces of ruins of entirely the same character, than those of the Mound-Builders of tho Mississipi valley are reported (1) to bave been discovered. Finally, on the head of (canoë) navigation wefmd, what is known as « portages ». Thèse are dépressions in the continuons range of the Rocky Mountains of such a nature, that they fairly invite a travelling tribe to cross from the river System of the upper Golumlna, emptying in the Pacific Océan to that of the Missouri, on which a canoë need but be floated, in order to arrive in the far distant Gulfof Mexico. Canoës can easily be carried from one river system to the other (2).

(1) A. Barrandt's Paper, in Smithsonian Report. 1870.

(2) Nowhere else on the continent can similar great valleys, such as the Missouri and the Colurabia be found, meeting ailvantageously at a common point on the main dividing backbone, which séparâtes the continental waters flowing east and west to the two

-^ Mir.UATIOX OF TIIK XAHUAS. 8 i9

Nothing like it exists in the wholo mouiitain range soiithward, until we arrive at Nicaragua lake in central America. It is absolutely certain that no tribe or population of any superiority or enterprising spirit, coulcl for a long time livo in the Pacific-Coast country, forming the watershed of the Golumbia and Frazer rivers, without extending their settlements and shifting their growing nunibers more speedily accross thèse portages and down the Missouri river, than in any other direction. For the nature of the country does not favor progress southward. High glaciercapped mouatains form a bar, shutting off tlie Sacramento and San Joaquin river of California, wliile dry and barren désert highlands of the most forbidding aspect interpose between the snowy heights ofthe Sierra Nevada and the eastern Rocky Mountain ranges, getting wilder and more inaccessible as they trend southward. Even the Coast-country of California, though favored by a most delicious climate south of the 36"' degree of Northern latitude, is so dry, as to resemble a véritable désert, and as to be valuelessfor purpose of cultivation to any people, which has not already attained that stage of civilization, required to apply systematical irrigation. Hence, I reiterate, that the Missouri river is the natural outlet for a population becoming superabundant, in what following the example of M. Bancroft, I shall call the « Golumbian » région.

If we now look at the aboriginal tribes peophng this country, we shall iind some slriking analogies between them and the civilized races of socalled American aborigènes. The deceptive similarity as Buschmann calls it, between the language of the Nootka tribes on Puged Sound and that of the

Océans. The heads of thèse main valleys are hère only iVom thi-ee to four thousand feet abovo the sca, while the great treelos.s plains .... further south.... are elevated more than 6000 feet. Gen. Milnor in Traijs. Anif i-ioan Geogr. Societv. 1874. ^ '

350 C.ONGHÈS DKS AMÉHir.ANISTES» "2i)

Aztec-Nahuas lias attonished ail observers. Quite as striking is the fact denied with unnecessary emphasis in the Gongressional compilation on the Indian tribes, by its compounder, M. Schoolcraft, but established beyond areasonable doubtby the information presented by Bancroft (1) : that the same style of mounds found in the Mississipi valley, is also found in this torritory, and especially in the Puget Sound région and on ^\^ncouver's Island. Just as important is the singular agreenienl of cusloms, manners and skill in mechanical handicraft existing between the Golimibian tribes and the civilized races of the Gulf-coasL of the United States, Mexico and central America. Hereditary caste distinction, long obsolète — if it ever did exist among the roaming tribes of the East — is still niaintained among thèse populations as it \vas among allthe civilized nations. And overlooking the manilbld minor coïncidences, such as the traces of the vingiutesimal System of numération and of the month of twenty days, gênerai among the central American people, the most striking custom of ail, a badge of distinction and nobility in Peru, Mexico and among the southern tribes of the United States, the custom of head flattening prevails hère also. Gatlin bas already remarked, and with perfect truth, we should think, that so singular and apparently inexplicable a custom could not very well be supposed to bave originated independently among tribes, thousands of miles apart.

M. Lucien Adam dépose, sur le bureau, un ouvrage intitulé Chronologie hiérocflyphico-phonétiqiie des rois Aztèques de i352 à i522, dont l'auteur M. Madiei* de JSSoBitjau, président de la Société Américaine de France, fait hommage au Congrès .

M. Peterke», dans une improvisation rapide et ani-

n^ Bancroft. YI. 735-40.

27 CORRIEN'TES. 351

mée, entretient le Congrès des observations ethnographiques qu'il a faites dans la province argentine de Gorricnles. Il rend hommage à l'héroïsme dont les femmes du Paraguay ont fait preuve durant la terrible guerre que ce petit pays a soutenue contre les Etats voisins. Il termine en contant gaiement une anecdote dans laquelle le rôle principal appartient à la veuve consolée d'un cacique glouton et jaloux.

M. de Hellwald, président, annonce que l'abondance des communications relatives à l'histoire de l'Amérique et de sa découverte, nécessite une séance supplémentaire qui aura lieu le lendemain matin de dix heures à midi.

La séance est levée à cinq heures.

«tO«'-ï= V. ■-.-..., V

852 CO^'GRKS des AMÉIUCAMSTE?-