Crania Americana; or a comparatif view of the skulls of various aboriginal nations of ... America

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1839 Excerpt: ...kingdoms as in France. The Peruvians were ignorant of the art of forming an arch, but they Quoted in M'Culloh's Researches, p. 366. t Monuments, I, p. 241. f Robertson, Hist. Amer. II, p. 110. Jim. erf.--Pinkerton, Essay on the Goths, p. 68.--De Pauw, passim. had constructed suspension bridges over frightful ravines: they had no implements of iron, but their forefathers could move blocks of stone as huge as the Sphinxes and Memnons of Egypt." It is remarked by Dr. M'Culloh that in astronomy the Peruvians appear to have been far behind the Mexicans. "As the Peruvians," says he, "made, by means of towers, constant azimuth observations on the sun's rising and setting, and also upon the shadows cast by pillars at the times of the equinoxes and solstices, I cannot easily perceive a reason for the great inaccuracy of their year as it has been represented to us; and I am therefore inclined to think that only some grosser part of their calendar has been preserved. In this opinion I am further seemingly strengthened by not finding the Spanish writers to describe any cycle of years to have been used by them, which the nature of their observations would hardly have permitted them to dispense with."f "Their year," says Herrera, "was divided into twelve months, distinguished by their several names; and particular festivals appointed in each of them. The year began in January, till one of the Incas ordered it should begin in December, at which time they celebrated their great festival." "The Peruvians," adds Dr. M'Culloh, "unlike the Mexicans, were ignorant of the causes of eclipses, for they supposed the planets at such times to be sick. They particularly distinguished the planet Venus, some of the brighter fix...