towards the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and an expression of
gentleness in the mouth strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe look.”*
The same author adds, that the Mexicans, especially of the Aztec and Ottomite
races, have more heard than any other American nation. “ Almost all the Indians
in the neighborhood of the capital, (Mexico),” says he, “ wear small mustaches,
and it is even a mark of the tributary cast.”t
This account of the physical character of the Mexicans is chiefly derived
from Clavigero, who well knew the people of whom he wrote, not only from
having studied all the works that have been written respecting them, but especially
from having resided thirty-six years among them. This author, however, states
that the Mexicans have narrow foreheads; which may be in general true of the
existing tribes, hut the remark does not apply to the ancient nations, as is proved
both by their sculpture and their crania.
On the Heads o f the Ancient Mexicans.—I have not succeeded in obtaining
an adequate series of Mexican skulls, and of those in my possession but eight are
older than the conquest. No one of them is altered by art, and they present a
striking resemblance, both in size and configuration, to the heads of the Ancient
Peruvians, In examining the delineations in Del Rio’sJ account of Palenque, I
observed in the corner of his fifth plate, a small, inverted skull, which is so completely
characteristic of these nations that I have had it drawn on a larger scale,
preserving, however, the exact proportions of the original. On comparing this
skull with those of the Peruvians^ already figured, a striking resemblance is
manifest in the great lateral swell of the head, the rather expanded forehead, and
the prominent aspect of the vertex or crown.
* Political E ssay on New Spain, p. 105.—N. York ed. t Loco citât.
% Description of the Ruins of an Ancient City in Guatemala.
§ See more particularly the skull from the Temple of the Sun, plate XI.—C, and compare this
again with the Natchez heads. The Palenquian relic is a medium between the two.
In fact, these features are so decided that they appear to result in part from
the application of mechanical pressure. This drawing has great interest from the
circumstance of its being an authentic copy from an antique Toltecan bas-relief,
and probably represents the configuration of the head in that nation; for it is
obvious from the symmetry and accuracy of the figure, that the artist accomplished
his task with a skull before him.
With respect to the many heads figured by Del Rio, they present a striking
resemblance to each other. They have a conical form, very narrow from front to
hack,’ and consequently very broad from side to side. The forehead retreats, the
brow is low, the nose large and aquiline, the mouth wide and the lips somewhat
tumid. There can be no question that some of these features are exaggerated;
but they no doubt preserve the leading traits in the physiognomy of the people
they represent. The two following illustrations are faithfully transcribed from
the work of Del Rio, merely omitting such parts of the elaborate head-dresses as
are unnecessary to the present purpose.
Were it not for the evidence^ of undeniable facts, such configuration of the
head would be pronounced altogether ideal. But when the reader has examined
the real skulls figured in this work, and especially those of the Natchez tribe
(who appear to have been of the Toltecan stock,) he will perceive in them a
distortion similar in kind to that represented in the bas-reliefs of Palenque, but
in a much more exaggerated degree. With respect to the extravagantly dispro-
portioned noses of the Toltecan sculpture, Humboldt observes that they might at
first sight appear to indicate a race very different from that which now inhabits
these countries; but, he adds, “ it is possible that the Mexican people might have
37