Prehistoric Races of the United States of America |
Common terms and phrases
American animals antiquity Archæology arrow-heads axes Bayou beds bones bronze burial Central America character charcoal chert Chicago civilization clay climate continent copper crania deposit described diameter earth elephant Epoch Europe European evidence excavation existence extinct feet high feet in height fifty figure flint foramen magnum fossil fragments Grave Creek Mound head Herodotus human hundred Illinois implements inches Indians indicate inferred island Lake Lake Superior layer Löess mastodon material ments Merom Mexico miles Miocene Mississippi Missouri Mound-builders mounds musk-ox Natchez nearly northern observed occipital occur Ohio origin ornaments period Perry County Pliocene portion pottery Pre-historic Professor pyramid race region reindeer relics remains represented ridge River seen shell-heaps shells side skeletons skull soil species specimens Squier and Davis stone structure superciliary ridges surface temple thick tion traced trees tribes tumuli walls Wisconsin wrought zygomatic arches
Popular passages
Page 391 - Gaul, from the great towers and temples, and other edifices of lime and stone which seemed to rise out of the water.
Page 65 - The layer of ashes, etc., was covered by strata of alluvial deposits, consisting of clay, sand, and soil, from eight to nine feet thick...
Page 182 - Jupiter, which is the name they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They likewise offer to the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from ancient times.
Page 313 - Here bring the last gifts ! — and with these The last lament be said ; Let all that pleased, and yet may please, Be buried with the dead. ' Beneath his head the hatchet hide, That he so stoutly swung ; And place the bear's fat haunch beside — The journey hence is long...
Page 366 - While we maintain the unity of the human species, we at the same time repel the depressing assumption of superior and inferior races of men.* There are nations more susceptible of cultivation, more highly civilized, more ennobled by mental cultivation than others, but none in themselves nobler than others.
Page 262 - I have seen several such pieces in the hands of savages; and since they are very superstitious, they esteem them as divinities, or as presents given to them to promote their happiness by the gods who dwell beneath the water. For this reason they preserve these pieces of copper wrapped with their most precious articles.
Page 313 - And many a barbarous form is seen To chide the man that lingers there. By midnight moons, o'er moistening dews, In vestments for the chase arrayed, The hunter still the deer pursues — The hunter and the deer a shade.
Page 317 - In order to strip the skull of its covering, he makes a cut round the head above the ears, and laying hold of the scalp shakes the skull out ; then with the rib of an ox he scrapes the scalp clean of flesh, and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin.
Page 65 - ... which was covered by twenty feet in thickness of alternate layers of sand, clay, and gravel, one of the arrow-heads lay underneath the thigh-bone of the skeleton, the bone actually resting in contact upon it; so that it could not have been brought thither after the deposit of the bone...
Page 20 - Palaeolithic" period. II. The later or polished Stone Age; a period characterized by beautiful weapons and instruments made of flint and other kinds of stone; in which, however, we find no trace of the knowledge of any metal, excepting gold, which seems to have been sometimes used for ornaments. This we may call the "Neolithic