CHAPTER II.
Professor Wyman.—Indian Antiquities.—Concord.—Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson.—Margaret Fuller.—Note upon a visit to Mr. Longfellow.—Saturday Club.—Dinner at Harvard University.—Shell Mounds at Concord and Damariscotta.—Note upon the Ancient Inscription upon the Dighton Rock.
Upon the day arranged for my visit to Cambridge, I found Professor Wyman prepared to employ several hours in examining the Indian collections. He proposed that we should begin by looking carefully over the contents of a case within which was placed everything that had been discovered in a burial mound in Illinois. The mound had contained the bones of nine adults, several fragments of rude stone implements, and some arrowheads. The skulls had been flattened and shaped by pressure.
We then examined the collections of human skulls that had been received from all parts of the continent. Amongst these, were several of an important character, obtained by Mr. Squier in Central America. They were long and flattened upon the top, and were supposed to have belonged to the race that built the stone temples in Yucatan. Other groups were then compared. It was observable that some tribes had the custom of pressing in the back of the head to such an extent as to make it nearly perpendicular. Others pressed the skulls so as to give them great length. In a few instances, they were given a tall, oval form. The Californian Indians appear to have given their children a high, receding forehead. This method of shaping the head is still followed by the Flathead Indians in the West. It is done by the pressure of boards tied together in such a manner that the infant gets its skull shaped when it is in the cradle.
A question arose as to the effect of the artificial shapes of the head upon the character of the tribes; and particularly, whether, in accordance with certain theories, there was any known difference in disposition between the tribes who flattened the forehead and those who flattened the skull at the back. The Professor said that the matter had been the subject of inquiry. It was considered, as far as could be ascertained, that the alterations in shape made no difference in the character, and that the Indians, whether with long, high, or flat heads, were similar in their savage nature.
Amongst the Mexican antiquities were a number of terra-cotta figures which were thought to be emblematic of the worship of serpents, lizards, and other reptiles. There were also idols carved out of hard, volcanic stone. After having seen these, and also quantities of rudely shaped stones, which were probably used by the Indians on the north-east coast for sinking their nets, the Professor began to examine the various things that had been taken from the American shell mounds.
First, in order, were the collections that had been brought from Maine and Massachusetts. There were oyster shells, the bones of wolves, deer and birds, fragments of coarse pottery, layers of charcoal, and bone awls. In the shell heaps at Concord there had been discovered various stone weapons and flint arrowheads. In the Florida mounds there were found the remains of crocodiles, implements made of stone, the bones of deer, and numbers of small sharp needles, made from bird bones, which had been used by hand.
It appears from the evidence obtained by the investigation of the shell banks, that tribes of similar habits dwelt on the cold coasts of New England and the almost tropical shores of Florida. It is also clear, that in many of their customs and methods of obtaining food they resembled the races that formed the kitchen middens in Denmark. Their stone and flint implements and their bone awls and needles were of the same shapes as those used by the prehistoric people who lived upon the shores of the Swiss lakes.
Many of the stone axes and arrowheads that have been found in the burial mounds, or in the neighbourhood of the ancient Indian encampments in North America are of the same type, and show the same system of workmanship as those that were made by the aboriginal tribes in Western Europe. The similarities in form, size and methods of adaptation for use are remarkable, for, although it may be expected that men, in an uncivilised condition would, in all parts of the world, have the same wants or necessities, yet it must be considered surprising that in the construction of the implements for war and for domestic purposes, the methods of design should be so singularly alike amongst the savages of the old and new continents.
Upon a subsequent occasion, when the doubtful question of the influence of the formation of the skull upon the mind was discussed, Mr. Ticknor mentioned the singular fact that the head of Daniel Webster[7] grew larger after he had passed middle age. His attention had been drawn to this circumstance by observing a change in the likeness of that statesman, and, as he knew Webster intimately, he asked him about the matter, and Webster said, “Yes, I find that I have constantly to increase the size of my hats.”