The Myths of the North American Indians — John Shaqi
The Myths of the North American IndiansSpence, Lewis
History
The Myths of the North American Indians
Spence, Lewis
Indian mythology -- North America; Indians of North America -- Folklore
That this migration occurred before the Glacial period is proved by the
circumstance that chipped {7} flints and other implements have been
discovered in ice-drift at points in Ohio, Indiana, and Minnesota, to
which it is known that the southern margin of the ice-sheet extended.
This proves that man was driven southward by the advancing ice, as were
several Old World animal species which had migrated to America.
However, it is difficult in many cases to accept what may seem to be
evidence of the presence of prehistoric man in North America with any
degree of confidence, and it will be well to confine ourselves to the
most authentic instances. In the loess of the Mississippi at Natchez
Dr. Dickson found side by side with the remains of the mylodon and
megalonyx human bones blackened by time. But Sir Charles Lyell pointed
out that these remains might have been carried by the action of water
from the numerous Indian places of burial in the neighbourhood. In New
Orleans, while trenches were being dug for gas-pipes, a skeleton was
discovered sixteen feet from the surface, the skull of which was
embedded beneath a gigantic cypress-tree. But the deposit in which the
remains were found was subsequently stated to be of recent origin. A
reed mat was discovered at Petit Anse, Louisiana, at a depth of from
fifteen to twenty feet, among a deposit of salt near the tusks or bones
of an elephant. In the bottom-lands of the Bourbeuse River, in
Missouri, Dr. Koch discovered the remains of a mastodon. It had sunk
in the mud of the marshes, and, borne down by its own ponderous bulk,
had been unable to right itself. Espied by the hunters of that dim
era, it had been attacked by them, and the signs of their onset--flint
arrow-heads and pieces of rock--were found mingled with its bones.
Unable to dispatch it with their comparatively puny weapons, they had
built great fires round it, the cinder-heaps of which remain to the {8}
height of six feet, and by this means they had presumably succeeded in
suffocating it.
In Iowa and Nebraska Dr. Aughey found many evidences of the presence of
early man in stone weapons mingled with the bones of the mastodon. In
California, Colorado, and Wyoming scores of stone mortars, arrow-heads,
and lance-points have been discovered in deposits which show no sign of
displacement. Traces of ancient mining operations are also met with in
California and the Lake Superior district, the skeletons of the
primitive miners being found, stone hammer in hand, beneath the masses
of rock which buried them in their fall. As the object of these
searchers was evidently metal of some description, it may reasonably be
inferred that the remains are of comparatively late date.
The Calaveras Skull
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