THE ORIGIN OF THE MEXICAN CIVILIZATION PRELIMINARY NOTICE

glossy hair; their beard thin, and usually eradicated;⁶⁵ their high cheek-bones, eyes obliquely directed towards the temples, prominent noses, and narrow foreheads falling backwards with a greater inclination than those of any other race except the African.⁶⁶ From this general standard, however, there are deviations, in the same manner, if not to the same extent, as in other quarters of the globe, though these deviations do not seem to be influenced by the same laws of local position.⁶⁷ Anatomists, also, have discerned in crania disinterred from the mounds, and in those of the inhabitants of the high plains of the Cordilleras, an obvious difference from those of the more barbarous tribes. This is seen especially in the ampler forehead, intimating a decided intellectual superiority.⁶⁸ These characteristics are found to bear a close resemblance to those of the Mongolian family, and especially to the people of Eastern Tartary;⁶⁹ so that, notwithstanding certain differences recognized by physiologists, the skulls of the two races could not be readily distinguished from one another by a common observer. No inference can be surely drawn, however, without a wide range of comparison. That hitherto made has been chiefly founded on specimens from the barbarous tribes.⁷⁰ Perhaps a closer comparison with the more civilized may supply still