PART I.

ETHNOLOGIC AND ARCHÆOLOGIC.

INTRODUCTORY 17–19

A REVIEW OF THE DATA FOR THE STUDY OF THE PRE-HISTORIC CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICA 20–47

Classification of Data. I. _Legendary_: of northern tribes; of Peruvians, Mexicans and Mayas; limited range. II. _Monumental_: pueblos of New Mexico; stone and brick structures of Mexico, Central America and Peru; ruins of Tiahuanaco; artificial shell heaps; the _sambaquis_ of Brazil. III. _Industrial_: palæolithic implements; early polished stone implements; dissemination of cultivated food plants. IV. _Linguistic_: multitude and extension of linguistic stocks; tenacity of linguistic form; similarities of internal form; study of internal form. V. _Physical_: racial classifications; traits of the American type; permanence of the type. VI. _Geologic_: date of the glacial epochs in North and South America; the earliest Americans immigrants; lines of migrations. Importance of archæological studies.

ON PALÆOLITHS, AMERICAN AND OTHER 48–55

The cutting instrument as the standard of culture; the three “Ages” of Stone, Bronze and Iron; subdivisions of the Age of Stone into Palæolithic and Neolithic; a true “Palæolith”; subdivision of the Palæolithic period into the epochs of “simple” and “compound” implements; palæolithic finds along the Delaware river; the glacial period in America; earliest appearance of man in America.

ON THE ALLEGED MONGOLIAN AFFINITIES OF THE AMERICAN RACE 56–66

A practical question; Cuvier’s triple division of the human species; alleged Mongolian affinities in language; supposed affinities in culture; imagined physical resemblances, as color, cranial analogies, the oblique or “Mongoloid” eye, etc. Insufficiency of all these.

THE PROBABLE NATIONALITY OF THE “MOUND-BUILDERS.” 67–82

Who were the “Mound-builders”? Known tribes as constructors of mounds, the Iroquois, Algonkins, Cherokees and Chahta-Muskoki family. Descriptions from De Soto’s expedition; from Huguenots in Florida; from French writers on Louisiana; great size of the southern mounds; probable builders of Ohio mounds.

THE TOLTECS AND THEIR FABULOUS EMPIRE 83–100

Statement of the question; the current opinion; the adverse opinion; Tula as an historic site; the Serpent-Hill; the Aztec legends about Tula; date of the desertion of Tula; meaning of the name Tula or Tollan; the mythical cyclus of Tula; birth of Huitzilopochtli; myth of Quetzalcoatl at Tula; his subjects, the Toltecs; purely fabulous narratives concerning them.