the minds of those surviving with consternation, at the destruction of their
countrymen. A great part of the nation died by famine and sickness; and the
wretched remains of this people, willing to save themselves from the common
calamity, sought timely relief to their misfortunes in other countries.”* The
historian then adds, that the Toltecas migrated in large bodies to various parts of
the continent, and extended themselves as far south as Yucatan; and so complete
was the dispersion of these people, that the land of Anahuac (the ancient name of
Mexico) remained solitary and depopulated for nearly a century. Nowit has
been mentioned in the preceding chapter, that the Inca race date their possession
of Peru from about the eleventh century of our era; and as this period corresponds
with the epoch of the migration of the Toltecas, we may reasonably conjecture
that both were of a common origin. This supposition gains strength when we
inquire into the character of the Toltecas.
Of all the nations of the new world they had attained to the highest degree
of civilisation; they lived in society, collecting themselves into cities, under the
government of kings and regular laws. They were not remarkably warlike, and
preferred tile cultivation of the arts to the exercise of arms; they also devoted
themselves to architecture, and cultivated with care various useful plants and
fruits. Nor did they practise those arts only which are considered as necessary
to human comfort, hut those also which minister to luxury; and it is added, that
although their religion wps idolatrous, it does not appear that they practised those
barbarous and bloody sacrifices, which became so common in Mexico after the
Toltecan emigration.f • Now, as we shall heareafter see, these are the leading
features in the character of the modern or Inca Peruvians; and when we take into
consideration that the disappearance of the Toltecas from their, own country, was
simultaneous with the advent of the new dynasty in Peru, may we not look upon
the two as cognate nations? There is, besides, a coincidence in the squared and
conical form of the head in the Toltecas and Peruvians that is very striking, and
which will he more particularly adverted to in a future part of this work.
Whether the preceding inference, which is by no means new, he correct or
not, there can be little doubt that the Inca family was an intruding nation, led
perhaps by a few individnals of the sacerdotal class; and having conquered Peru,
much the same political relations appear to have subsisted between them and the
pre-existing inhabitants, as we at present observe between the modern Greeks and
the Turks.
■ Clavigero, Hist of Mexico, I, p. 118. Cullen's Tr. t Ibid. I, p. 114, 116.
We next proceed to examine into the physical character of the Modern
Peruvians. They differ little in person from the Indians around them, being of
the middling stature, well limbed, and with small feet and hands. Their faces
are round, their eyes small, black, and rather distant from each other; their noses
are small, the mouth somewhat large, and the teeth remarkably fine.* Their
complexion is a dark brown, and their hair long, black, and rather coarse.
The skull in these people is remarkable for its small size, and also, as just
observed, for its quadrangular form. The occiput is greatly compressed, sometimes
absolutely vertical; the sides are swelled out, and the forehead is somewhat
elevated but very retreating. The capacity of the cavity of the cranium, derived
from the measurement of many specimens of the pure Inca race, shows, as we
shall hereafter see, a singularly small cerebral mass for an intelligent and civilised
people. These heads are remarkable not only for their smallness, but also for
their irregularity; for in the whole series in my possession, there is but one that
can be called symmetrical. This irregularity chiefly consists in the greater
projection of the occiput to one side than the other, showing, in some instances, a
surprising degree of deformity. As this condition is as often observed on one«
side as the other, it is not to be attributed to the intentional application of
mechanical force; on the contrary it is to a certain degree common to the whole
American race, and is sometimes no doubt increased by the manner in which the
child is placed in the cradle.
I am in fact convinced, that among the collection of Peruvian skulls alluded
to above, there is not one that has been designedly moulded by art ; and hence it
may be reasonably inferred, that individuals of the royal race, or those forming
the higher classes among the Peruvians, seldom or never flattened their heads.
What to them was natural was imitated by the inferior orders, and especially, it
may be conjectured, by the inhabitants of conquered provinces, and others whose
heads may not have been originally formed on the aristocratic model. While the
early Spanish travellers frequently speak of the flattened heads of the people, they
never mention this condition as applicable to the princes and other dignitaries who
abounded in Peru at the conquest. Let it not be supposed, however, that these
deformities were confined to a single model: on the contrary there were two
* Stevenson, South Araer. I, p. 376.—Ruschenberger, Three Years in the Pacific, p. 380.—
Ulloa, Yoy. to S. Amer. I, p. 267.—The latter author asserts that more natural defects are observed
among the Indians of Quito than in any other race of men. If this be the fact, it must be attributed
to the proximity of civilisation, which is well known to-enervate and debase the Indian.