Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/339

260 We are thus, in all probability, for ever stopped in our investigations of the origin of these races;—either from their Monuments or their written Records. We are left to trace national relations by similar buildings, similar dresses, similar traditions, similar worship, similar governments, or similar faith; but all these identities are not inconsistent with the idea arrived at by Mr. Bradford in his Researches on the Origin and History of the Red Race, that the Aborigines of America may have been "a primitive branch of the human family."

I confess, when I recollect the Mexican tradition, that the original tribes came to their beautiful valley, after many years and vicissitudes of a dreary pilgrimage from the north, I have not thought it fanciful to believe, that they may have belonged to one of the two races described by Mr. Wirt, as extinct before the origin of the present Red Men of our forests and prairies. Wave after wave of the flowing tide of humanity may have beaten gradually along this Continent from north to south, each urging on the preceding. Tired of the hunter life at the inhospitable north, they wandered off to the south. A straggler now and then returned with a tale of the genial climate, shady groves, and prolific soil of the central regions;—and, thus, family after family, colony after colony, tribe after tribe, was induced to quit its colder homes, and settle in the south. As in the Old World, that south became the centre of civilization. Men were modified by climate. The rude savage, who depended upon the chase for subsistence at the north, and dwelt in caves or sheltered under the forest leaves, awoke to a new idea of life in his newer home. The energy of his character was not yet lost;—he saw the magical power of agriculture, and a new idea was revealed to him through its mysterious agency. There was no need of excessive toil in the fields or in the forests. His spirit became less warlike, and more social, as men congregated in populous neighborhoods. While in the north, the merest and fewest necessaries—his weapon, his breastwork, his fireplace, his cave for a dwelling, and a mound for a grave—sufficed the Indian, his whole purposes and instincts assumed a different character in the south.

The warrior and hunter loved the hardships taught him at the north, by his wandering habits from infancy;—but, the burning sun and milder climate of the south, while they inclined to peace and longevity, induced him to build tasteful and sheltering edifices for himself and his posterity. The adoration of his gods, became an enthusiasm, under more fervid skies;