The Indian and antiquities of America

Front matter

V

0/ ^

$9* \ y o , x

Preface

Impressed with a belief that many persons had an erroneous idea regarding the tumuli of America, I undertook to show, by giving accounts of similar works scattered over Europe and Asia, that such monuments were not peculiar to America. The collection of these facts led me to other considerations, and I conceived the idea of a comparison of the tumuli and ancient monuments of the Old World with those of the New World, and so I collected descriptions of some of the most remarkable tumuli and ancient monuments of America. As I advanced the prospect enlarged, and, considering the material I had collected would serve to illustrate history, I gathered additional facts of a different character to use in connection with the preceding, to demonstrate that an intercourse existed between the two hemispheres in very remote ages, and to show the probable origin of the peoples who inhabited North America when it was last discovered by Europeans.

The title of this book, though expressing the principal subjects of which the most of this volume consists, yet neither of Indians nor of Antiquities does it give a full account, and it is the same of the other subjects, viz. : the remarkable tumuli and monuments of remote antiquity ; the most ancient navigation, navies, vessels, voyages, colonies, and commerce of the Old World.

The information on the great variety of subjects of which this book treats has been derived from divers sources ; some from the works of men eminent in science; some from the narratives of distinguished and reliable travellers ; some from the histories of celebrated authors, both ancient and modern ; and, finally, some from the accounts of recent travellers confirming what has been related by those who had preceded them. With this notice, and a reference to the table of contents, a correct idea can be formed of the plan and object of this work.

iv

PREFACE.

When we consider the grandeur and power of the nations of antiquity, of the people of Babylonia (of whom there is now abundant written evidence that they existed and were civilized seven thousand years before the Christian era), and that India was, probably, at the height of its prosperity when Egypt and Assyria were but in their infancy, we are deeply impressed with a consciousness of how little we know of the past. But the events recorded in this book lead me to believe that in very remote ages the Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews, and the Carthaginians had, at different times and intervals, intercourse with the nations of the New World ; that when this intercourse ceased it was, in the course of time, so far forgotten that the vague recollection of it became the myth of the lost Atlantis ; and that when the Mongols overran Asia and a part of Europe, or, ever later, when these Mongol conquerors were expelled from China, and probably from Northeastern Asia, Tartar hordes sought refuge in North America, exterminated its inhabitants, and took possession of this continent.

Barnard Shipp.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1897.

Chapter I. Page

The word Tumulus — Derivation of the word Tepe — The Ancient Uses of Tumuli — Superstition in Regard to Them — Serpent Mounds — Serpent Worship — Sacred Fires — The Earliest and the Latest Tumulus— Different Kinds of Tumuli — Their Multitude, 1

Chapter II

The Burial of Patroclus— The Burial of Hector — The Tumuli at Platea — The Tumuli at Marathon— Modern Accounts of those at Marathon — The Burial-place of the Lydian Kings — The Tumulus of Alyattes, the Father of Crcesus — Herodotus's Account of It — Dr. Chandler's Account of It— Ancient Customs of the Greeks in Regard to Tumuli, ... 8

Chapter III

Chevalier's Visit to the Plains of Troy — The Tumulus of Eesyetes — Alexander's Visit to the Plains of Troy— The Tumulus of Protesilaus — Alexander Erects- " Altars," Tumuli, .at Eleus and at Sigeum — The Tumulus of Demaratus — Alexander Erects Twelve "Altars" in India — The Scythian Tumuli on the Borysthenes — Herodotus's Account of Them — De Hell's Account of Them — Edmund Spencer's Account of the Museum at Kertch — The Opening of a Tumulus in the Crimea — Tumuli in the Crimea, . . . . . . . . .13

Chapter IV

The Miletian and Heraklean Settlements in the Crimea — Description of Kertch— Tumuli Several Rows Deep, for Two-thirds of a Mile, Near Kertch — Particular Description of Two Great Tumuli Near Kertch, and of Their Contents, ' . .17

Chapter V

The Plain of Urmia— Tumuli Near the Village of Dgalu — Description of a Temple of the Ghebers — Fire-worshippers on the West Coast of the Caspian Sea, Near Bakoo, in 1824 — Topes, Tepes, or Tumuli Numerous in Afghanistan — The Word "Tepe" Used in Many Parts of Asia for Tumulus — The Turkoman Tepes —Turkoman Customs — Mounds on the Euphrates — Mound of the Emperor Gordian — The Emperor Julian Buried at Tarsus, in Cilicia, ....... 35 vi

CONTENTS.

Chapter VI. Page

A Siberian Tumulus and its Contents— The Tumuli of Bouchtarma — Tumuli in Chinese Tartary — Tumuli in the Region of the Lepsou River — Marco Polo's Account of the Burial of the Grand Khans — The Great Plain of Central Asia — Two Remarkable Tombs— The Region of the Karatau — An Immense Ancient Earthwork and Tumuli on the Lepsou — Grand Mountain Scenery of the Karatau and the Alatau — Fort Kopal — Huge Blocks of Stone Erect on the Kora — A Remarkable Stone Tumulus — The Mineral Springs and Baths at Arasan — The Pass of Karatau — The Kirghis Ranges — Large Tumuli — An Area of One Mile by Four Covered with Tumuli, 39

Chapter VII

The Tumuli of Europe — Human Sacrifices — The Burial Laws of Odin — The Tumuli of Ireland — The Tumulus of New Grange — The Tumulus of Thyre Danebod— The Skip's iElunger or Ship's Tumulus — The Buried Ship of Gokstad, in Norway — Tumuli of Britain, of Stonehenge, of Dorsetshire — The Age of Celtic Tumuli — Tumuli of Canterbury ; of Cracow, Poland — The Tumulus of Kosiusko, ... 48

Chapter VIII

Stonehenge — Avebury — The Gaelic Monuments of France — Carnak, , . 56

Chapter IX

The Serpent Mound of Oban, Scotland — Prehistoric Remains Near the Serpent Mound of Ohio — The Kistvean — The Loggan, or Rocking Stone, of Fordham, New York — Druidical or Sabian Circles in Central Arabia — Monumental Stones of Algeria, of Constantine and Tripoli in Africa— Menhirs of Setiff — Monumental Stones of Hindustan, of the

Dekkan, and of Southern India, 69

Chapter X

Tumuli of America — Peru : Religion — Deities — Huacas — Academies — Astronomy— Division of Time — Festivals —Sacrifices — Navigation of the Peruvians, of the Yucatans, of the Floridians, . . . 75

Chapter XII

Mexico : Aztec Migration— Teocallis — Description of the Great Temple of Mexico, by Bernal Diaz — Mexican Cannibals — The Teocalli of Cozumel and Sempoalla— The Victims of Sacrifice — The Teocallis of Cholula — Their Destruction — The History of Cholula — Its Great Temple — Teocallis as Forts— The Capture of the Great Temple of Mexico — The Capture of the Teocallis of Sempoalla, 99

CONTENTS.

VI 1

CHAPTEK XIII.

• PAGE

Mexico : The Founding of the Great Temple — Description of It by ('la v igero — Description of the Temples of Teotihuacan by Brantz Mayer — Humboldt's Account of Teotihuacan, Xochicalco, Mitla and Papantla — The Mexican Hierarchy, Monasteries, Nunneries, Sacrifices, Offerings, Penances and Funerals — Fortifications, . . . . .121

CHAPTER XIV. The Toltecas — Their Migration, Character, Knowledge of Astronomy

Their National Extinction — Their Dispersion, 144

CHAPTER XV. Mexican Chronology — The Abbe Don Lorenzo Herva's Letter to the Abbe

Don Francisco Severio Clavigero, on the Mexican Calendar, . .148

Chapter XVI

Mexican Festivals — The Worship of Fire — Father Garces and Font's Visit to the Gila and the Moqui Country in 1773— The Rio Grande Basin — The Pueblos of the Rio Grande, Rio Verde and Rio Gila — Casa Blanca or Montezuma and Casa Grande of the Gila — The Casas Grandes of the Rio Casas Grandes — New Mexico, when First Discovered — The Journey of Espejo Through New Mexico in 1582 — Its Cities and Peoples in 1782, 158

CHAPTER XVII. The Abbe Rrasseur de Bourbourg's Observations on the Civilized Nations

of Mexico and Central Amei'ica, . . . . . . . .173

Chapter XVIII

The American Indian, by Ulloa, Croghan, Carver and Charlevoix — The Opinions of Fathers Gregorio Garcia, Joseph de Acosta, John de Laet, Emanuel de Moraez, George de Huron — Charlevoix's Method to Discover the Earliest and the Latest Emigrants, 1S4

Chapter XIX

Tumuli — LTcita — Cafaciqui — Cartersville Mounds and Idols — Casquin — Capaha — Breckenridge's Description of Capaha — The Tensas Mounds — Tonti and the Tensas Indians — The Destruction of their Temple, . 194

Chapter XX

The Home of the Natchez — Tonti' s and La Salle's Visit to the Tensas ami the Natchez, in 1682 — Iberville's Visit to the Natchez in April, 1700 — Penicaut's Account of the Natchez in 1700 — Du Pratz's Account of the Funeral of the Great Female Sun — The Religion of the Natchez — Their Government — Their Feasts — Their Temples, and the Funeral of the Stung Serpent, .......... 206

Vlll

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE XXI. page The Sultzertown Mounds— The Macon Mounds— The Flat Heads, . . 224

CHAPTEE XXII.

Views of a Member of the First Congress — The Works on Little Eiver, in the State of Georgia — Bartram's Account of Them — Cullsate, Sticoe and Keowee — Ancient Tombs and Fortifications on the Eiver Huron, or Bald Eagle — Ancient Works near Newark, Ohio — Ancient Fortifications at Marietta, Ohio — The Ancient Works at Grave Creek, Virginia

—Schoolcraft's Visit to Them, 231

CHAPTEE XXIII.

Breckenridge's Description of the American Bottom, and the Mounds of Cahokia and Saint Louis — The Mummies of Tennessee — The Mounds near St. Charles, Missouri — The Trinity Mounds of Louisiana, . .251

CHAPTEE XXIV.

Bartram's Account of the Cherokees, Muscogulges and Choc taws, . . 260

CHAPTEE XXV.

Indian Burials, Idols, Mounds, Terraces and Avenues, .... 267

CHAPTEE XXVI.

Effigy Mounds — The Mounds of Wisconsin— The Elephant Mound — Elephants' Eemains at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, 1735, . . . 275

CHAPTEE XXVII.

Captain James G. Swan's Account of the Chanooks and Chahalis of " the Northwest Coast" of the United States — The Antiquity of the American Continent — How Long Inhabited by Man — Origin of the Human Eace — The Jargon Language — Peculiarities of Indian Pronunciation, 279

CHAPTEE XXVIII.

The Caraibs the Most Expert in Maritime Affairs of all the Savage Inhabitants of America — Their Vessels — Their Navigation — The Caracoli —

The Caraibs' Skill in Manufactures — Toulola or Arrow-root Their Cure for Wounds Made by Poisoned Arrows — The Destruction of the Caraibs, 286

CHAPTEE XXIX.

The Mummies of Tennessee and of Kentucky — Where Found — How

Dressed and How Buried, ........ 297

CONTENTS.

ix

CHAPTER XXX.

PAGE

Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell on the Varieties of the Human Race — The Settlement of America — The High Rock Spring of Saratoga, New York, an Evidence of the Antiquity of Man — Lewis H. Morgan on Indian Migration, 30 1

CHAPTER XXXI.

Captain John Dundas Cochran's Account of Xiskney Kolymsk — Amusements— Weather — Occupations — Animals — Baron Wrangel's Trip to the Fair on the Aniuy — The Yukagiri — The Fortress — The Chukche — The Fair — Chess — Articles of Trade — Chukche Chiefs — Reindeer — The Chukche Peninsula— Chukche, 312

CHAPTER XXXII.

The Voyage of the Vega — The Northern Coast of A*sia — Chukches — The Northernmost Capes of Asia — The Onkilon — The "Winter Quarters of the Vega — Chukche Settlements — Chukche Trade and Travel — Mammoth Remains, . . • - .• • • ■' • • • • 322

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Division of the Chukches— Their Population — Their Burials, Tents,

CHAPTER XXXIV.

St. Lawrence Bay — Port Clarence — Eskimos — Their Implements, Burials, etc. — Xephite — Ocean Currents — The Behring Strait Channel — Konyan Bay — Geological Features — Lawrence Island Eskimo — The Discovery of Kamschatka — Peter the Great — Expeditions to Kamschatka — The First Voyage of Behring, 341

CHAPTER XXXV.

The Voyage of Marco Polo in 1291, a.d. — Jewish and Egyptian Types Among Indians in America — The Voyages of the Norsemen, S60-1000 a.d. — Their Route to America — Their Relics on Baffin's Bay — The Voyage of Leif Eirekson — The Viking's Vessel of Gokstad, Norway — The Voyage of Captain Magnus Andersen to America on the " Viking," 1893 a.d., 353

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Ancient Navigation, Navies, Vessels, Crews and Voyages — The Shipwreck of St. Paul — Egyptian, Indian and Carthaginian Ships — Their Construction— The Extent of Carthaginian Navigation, .... 365

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Ancient Settlements — Idumeans — Omerites — Chuseens — Eastern and Western Sabians — Arabia Felix — Ophir — Diodorus's Account of the Sabians— Tartessa, or Tarsis of Cilicia, and of Tberia, .... 382

X

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEK XXXVIII.

PAGE

Ancient Voyages — Canaanites or Sidonians— Voyages from Elath and Ezion-Geber to Tarsis — Josephus on Solomon and Hiram — Phoenician Colonies — Diodorus's Description of the Country of Elath and Ezion- Geber, and the Sinus JElanitticus— The Phoenicians and Carthaginians — Necho — Necho's Canal —Phoenicians Sail from the Red Sea Around Africa to Egypt — Commerce Between Egypt and India — The Voyage of Scylax from India to Egypt, ........ 389

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Alexander Prepares to Leave India — The Voyage of Xearchus from the Indus to the Euphrates — The Ichthyophagi — Whales — The Coast of Suza — Alexander Sails Up the Tigris — His Great Naval Preparations at Babylon — His Grand Scheme of Conquest, Commerce, Colonies, Expeditions — Ptolemy Philadelphus— The Indian Voyage and Trade, 401

CHAPTER XL.

Alexander's Plans — The Voyage of Hanno — Bougainville's Comments on the Voyage of Hanno — Carthaginian Colonies in Africa — Carthaginian Traffic in Africa — The Gold Mines in the Regions of the Senegal and Rio-d'-Ouro — The Voyages and Vessels of Columbus— The Xina— The Storm — The Hurricane — The Duration of the Voyages of Columbus Across the Atlantic Ocean — Humboldt's Account of the Route from the Canaries to Cumana — The Voyage of Bligh in a Launch, . .417

CHAPTER XLI.

Migrations, and Transmission of Names — The Phoceans — Massalia— The Samians — Tartessus — The Caravan Route from Yarkand to Kara- Korum — The Country of the Mongols and Toltecans— The Kalkas Tartars — Kara-Korum — Indian Offshoots from Mexico — The Aztec Route — Jefferson's "Views in Regard to Indians" — Tepe — Mateo Tepe — Volney's Account of Indians — Volney and Mishikiuakwa, or Little Turtle — Dr. Barton on Indian Languages — Jefferson on Languages— President D. S. Jordan on the Urgent Xeed of a National University, 432

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

From copies Drawn by Mr. WILLIAM TRABUE, of Louisville, Kentucky.

NO.

PAGE

Peninsula of Kertch or Panticapreum.

Plan of Kertch.

Interior of the Great Tumulus at Kertch.

..Frontispiece.

..Scythian Kelics found in the Tumulus.

1 Great Tumulus near Kopal.

. 6

Kopal and Tumuli.

..Stonehenge.

, .Adoratorie of Cavambe.

,The Callo Palace of the Incas.

..The Palace and Citadel of the Tncas.

103!!..

. . The Great Temple of Mexico.

, The Ruins of Teotihuacan.

..The Casa Grande of the Gila.

..The Pueblo of Hun go Pavie.

..The Tumuli of Cofacique.

..The Tumuli near Cartersville, Georgia.

..The Tumuli near Macon, Georgia.

..The Earthworks on the River Huron, Michigan.

..The Earthworks at Newark, Ohio.

..The Earthworks at Marietta, Ohio.

..Beh ring Strait.

. . The Viking, Model of the Vessel Buried at Goksl

..The Nina, of the Squadron of Columbus on his '.

America.

THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA.

Chapter I

The Tumuli — Derivation of the word Tepe — The Ancient Uses of Tumuli — Superstitious Ideas in Regard to Them — Serpent Mounds — Serpent Worship— Sacred Fires — The Earliest and the Latest Tumuli — Different Kinds of Tumuli — Their Age and Multitude.

Tumuli, a name generally given to those hillocks or mounds of earth which were anciently erected over the bodies of deceased heroes or persons of distinguished character, are considered by a learned antiquarian as the most ancient sepulchral monuments. This mode of interment may be traced to remotest antiquity, and the religion of those times had much to do with the erection of these monuments, as the earliest records of these times plainly indicate. And as religious ideas are the most tenacious and most durable that possess the human mind, so have they been transmitted from generation to generation through many thousands of years ; and it is by reference to these religious rites that some knowledge can be acquired of their construction, and the motives and purposes of their erection, and that the relations of different and distant nations in past ages may be traced through many centuries.

Bryant, in his "Analysis of Ancient Mythology," treats of religious rites and customs in their relation to the tumuli of the Old World. He says :

" Lower Egypt being flat, and annually overflowed, the natives were forced to raise the soil on which they built their principal edifices, in order to secure them from the inundation ; and many of their sacred towers were erected upon conical mounds of earth. But there were often hills of the same form constructed for religious purposes, upon which there was no building. These were very common in Egypt. Hence we read of Taphanes, Taph-Osiris, Taph-Osiris-Parva, and contra Taphias, in Antoninus, all of this country. In other parts Taphiousa, Tape, Taphusa Tapori, Taphus, Taphorus, Taphitis. [Though here the word Tape — Tepe

[CHAP. I.

— is derived from taphos, yet it is probable that Tepe is an aboriginal word.] All these names relate to high altars, upon which they used oftentimes to offer human sacrifices."

Typhen, compounded of Tuph-On, which signifies the hill or altar of the Sun, was one of these. Tophet was a mount of this form. " They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnon, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire." " They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal."* These cruel operations were generally performed upon mounts of this sort, which from their conical figure were named Tuph and Tupha. It seems to have been a term current in many countries.

"The Amonians, when they settled in Greece, raised many of these Tupha or Tapha in different places. As it was usual in ancient times to bury persons of distinction under heaps of earth formed in this fashion, these Tapha came to signify tpmbs ; and almost all the sacred mounds, raised for religious purposes, were looked upon as monuments of deceased heroes. Hence Taph- Osiris was rendered Taphos, Totpoq, or the burying-place of the God Osiris ; and, as there were many such places in Egypt and Arabia sacred to Osiris and Dionusus, they were all by the Greeks esteemed places of sepulture. The tumulus of the Latines was mistaken in the same manner. It was originally a sacred hillock, and was often raised before temples as an altar. In process of time the word tumulus was in a great measure looked upon as a tomb ; and tumulo signified to bury. The Greeks speak of numberless sepulchral monuments, which they have thus misinterpreted."

" These supposed places of sepulture were so numerous that Clemens Alexandrinus tells us they were not to be counted. But after all, these Taphoi were not tombs but conical mounds of earth, on which, in the first ages, offerings were made by fire."

These learned remarks of Bryant are interesting and instructive. They show the great age and the great multitude of ancient artificial mounds. Some were erected for religious purposes, and others as tombs and monuments of heroes and illustrious men. At the tombs of these heroes religious ceremonies were sometimes performed, and sometimes the hero was even deified ; so it may be said some of these mounds partook of both a religious and a sepulchral character. Bryant himself says " that it was usual in ancient times to bury persons of distinction under heaps of earth in this fashion," that is, under a 11 conical mound of earth." Cheva-

Chap. I.] Of America

Her, in his " Description of the Plains of Troy," says : " Mr. Bryanl has endeavored to prove that the Greeks were mistaken in supposing what were sacred mounds to be the tombs of heroes. But the concurrent testimony of Homer and all antiquity is sufficient to convince us that they had no other way of preserving their ashes than by depositing them under these hillocks. Barrows of a similar shape and of the same sort are to be found in all cemeteries, and wherever any trouble has been taken to ransack them, the remains of human bones have always been found within them. Some few of them might be particularly consecrated to the ceremonies of religion, but it cannot be denied that the greatest number was destined to the purpose of containing the ashes of heroes and other great men."

Bryant says, " When towers were situated upon eminences fashioned very round they were, by the Amonians, called Tith, which answers to Tt T6rj and Tt T0oq of the Greeks. They were so denominated from their resemblance to a woman's breast and were particularly sacred to the deities of light. Mounds of this nature are often termed from their resemblance fxaffroetd/x- Xo<poq.

" These mounds, tophoi mastoides, were not only in Greece, but in Egypt, Syria, and most parts of the world. They were generally formed by art ; being composed of earth raised very high, which was sloped gradually and with great exactness : and the top of all was crowned with a fair tower. The situation of these buildings caused them to be looked upon as places of great safety, and the reverence in which they were held added to their security. On these accounts they were the repositories of much wealth and treasure. There were often two of these mounds of equal height in the same enclosure. The Mezraim called these hills Typhon. In these temples the sun was principally adored, and the rites of fire celebrated. The ground set apart for such use was generally oval, and towards one extremity of the long diameter, as it were in the focus, were these mounds and towers erected. They were termed Tarchon, which by corruption was in later times rendered Trachon. There were two hills of this denomination near Damascus. These were hills with towers. Solomon takes notice of a hill of this sort upon Lebanon looking towards Damascus.* The term Trachon seems to have been still further sophisticated by the Greeks, and expressed Dracon, from whence in a great measure arose the notion of treasures being guarded by Dragons. Such are the poetical representations ; but the history at bottom relates to

* Canticles, c. 7, v. 4.

[CHAP. I sacred towers, dedicated to the symbolical worship of the serpent, where there was a perpetual watch, and a light ever burning. The Titanian temples were stately edifices erected, in Chaldea, as well as in Lower Egypt, upon mounds of earth.

"The ancients sometimes wilfully misrepresented things, in order to create wonder. Iphicrates relates that in Mauritania there were dragons of such extent that grass grew upon their backs. It is said of Taxiles, a mighty prince of India, and a rival of Porus, that upon the arrival of Alexander the Great, he showed him everything that was in his country curious, and which could win the attention of a foreigner. Among other things, he carried him to see a dragon, which was sacred to Dionusus, and itself esteemed a god. It was of a stupendous size, being in extent equal to five acres; and resided in a low deep place, walled to a great height. The Indians offered sacrifices to it, and it was daily fed by them from their flocks and herds, which it devoured at an amazing rate : that it was treated rather as a tyrant than a benevolent deity. Two dragons of a like nature are said to have resided in the mountains of Abisares, or Abiosares, in India ; the one was eighty cubits in length, the other one hundred and forty.* Similar to the above is the account given by Posidonius of a serpent which he saw in the plains of Macra, a region in Syria ; and he says it was about an acre in length, and of a thickness so remarkable that two persons on horseback, when they rode on the opposite sides, could not see one another. Each scale was as big as a shield, and a man might ride into its mouth. What can this description allude to but the ruins of an ancient Ophite temple, which is represented in this enigmatical manner to raise admiration. The plains of Macra were not far from Mount Lebanon and Hermon, where the Hevites resided, and where serpent worship particularly prevailed. The Indian dragon seems to have been of the same nature. It was probably a temple and its environs, where a society of priests resided, and worshipped the Deity under the semblance of a serpent. The python of Parnassus is well known, which Apollo is supposed to have slain. After all, this dragon was a serpent temple ; a tumbos formed of earth."

Plutarch takes notice that in the temple of Anion there was a light continually burning. The like was observable in the temples of the Egyptians. Pausanias mentions the lamp of Minerva Polias, at Athens, which never went out ; the same custom

CHAP. I.]

OF AMERICA.

was kept up in most of the Prutaneia * The Chaldeans and Persians had sacred hearths on which they preserved perpetual fire. In the temple of Apollo Carneus, at Cyrene, the fire upon the altar was never suffered to be extinguished. A like account is given by Said Ebn Batrick of the sacred fire which was preserved in the great temple at Aderbain in Armenia. A nation in India called Caimachitae had large Puratheia, and maintained a perpetual fire. According to the Levitical law a constant fire was to be kept up upon the altar of God.f The Roman Catholics keep lights continually burning before their altars.

" Towers of this sort were often consecrated to the Ophite deity called Opis and Oupis. The temple was called Kir-Upis, which the Greeks abridged to Grupes ; and finding many of the Amonian temples in the north with the device of a winged serpent upon the frontal, they gave this name to the hieroglyphic. Hence, probably, arose the notion of Gryphons — Grupes, which like the dragons were supposed to be guardians of treasures, and to never sleep. The real conservators of the wealth were the priests. They kept up a perpetual fire, and an unextinguished light in the night. From Ker Upis, the place of his residence, a priest was named Grupes. The poets have represented grupes as animals of the serpentine kind, and supposed them to have been in countries of the Arimasphians, Alazonians, Hyperboreans, Scythic nations of the same family, and other northern regions which the Amonians possessed."

This name, Amonian, Bryant applies to the descendants of Ham. He says : " They were all of the line of Ham, who was held by his posterity in the highest veneration. They called him Anion, and have in process of time raised him to a divinity ; they worship him as the sun, and from his worship they were styled Amonians. Under this denomination are included all of this family ; whether they were Egyptians or Syrians, of Phenicia, or of Canaan. There once existed a wonderful resemblance in the rites, customs and terms of worship among nations widely separated. This similitude of terms, and the religious system which was so widely propagated, were owing to one great family who spread themselves almost universally. Their colonies went abroad under the sanction of their priests, and carried with them both the rites and the records of their country. "J

* Prutaneia, Temple of Yesta, where the sacred fire was kept. Puratheia, Persian fire temple. t Leviticus, c. 6, v. 13.

X Bryant's "Analysis of Ancient Mythology."

6 THE INDIAN AND ANTIQUITIES [CHAP. I.

This opinion of Bryant that one family and its colonies and descendants spread their religious ideas and rites over the whole world may appear plausible to many, but the nature of man has been the same in all ages, and in all climes. The same sun that shone for the Persians shone also for the Peruvians, and they both worshipped it. There is no more perfect symbol of the sun than fire, and they both adopted it.

Earthern pottery has been made by nearly all the nations of the world, and in all ages, but it is not necessary to refer all these to one and the same origin. The same necessity and the same material were the origin of the earthern utensils of the Old World and of the New.

Because a god of war was worshipped in Mexico, it is not necessary to trace its origin to Mars, in order to account for the idolatry of the Mexicans.

But notwithstanding all this, religious ideas, rites, and ceremonies have been transmitted from nation to nation through a long succession of ages. While we find in the Old World the historical record of these facts, the New World presents the material evidence of a similar transmission.