There is a prevailing tendency among ethnologists of to-day to underrate the psychology of savage life. This error arises partly from an unwillingness to go beyond merely physical investigations, partly from judging of the ancient condition of a tribe by that of its modern and degenerate representatives, partly from inability to speak its tongue and to gain the real sense of its expressions, partly from preconceived theories as to what a savage might be expected to know and feel. As against this error I have essayed to show that among very rude tribes we find sentiments of a high character, proving a mental nature of excellent capacity in certain directions. Several of the Essays have not previously appeared in print, and others have been substantially re-written, so as to bring them up to the latest researches in their special fields. Nevertheless, the reader will find a certain amount of repetition in several of them, a defect which I hope is compensated by the greater clearness which this repetition gives to the special subject discussed. _Philadelphia, February, 1890._ CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE iii, iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v-xii PART I. ETHNOLOGIC AND ARCHÆOLOGIC. INTRODUCTORY 17–19 A REVIEW OF THE DATA FOR THE STUDY OF THE PRE-HISTORIC CHRONOLOGY OF AMERICA 20–47 Classification of Data. I. _Legendary_: of northern tribes; of Peruvians, Mexicans and Mayas; limited range. II. _Monumental_: pueblos of New Mexico; stone and brick structures of Mexico, Central America and Peru; ruins of Tiahuanaco; artificial shell heaps; the _sambaquis_ of Brazil. III. _Industrial_: palæolithic implements; early polished stone implements; dissemination of cultivated food plants. IV. _Linguistic_: multitude and extension of linguistic stocks; tenacity of linguistic form; similarities of internal form; study of internal form. V. _Physical_: racial classifications; traits of the American type; permanence of the type. VI. _Geologic_: date of the glacial epochs in North and South America; the earliest Americans immigrants; lines of migrations. Importance of archæological studies. ON PALÆOLITHS, AMERICAN AND OTHER 48–55