‡ Field Columbian Museum. ¶ U. S. National Museum. NOTE The cover, designed and drawn by the author, has for its central feature a sketch of a stone animal head removed from one of the buildings at Copan and brought to the Peabody Museum by Saville. The sacred butterfly of the Mokis fills the four corners of the space around this, and above and below an arrangement of Puebloan scrollwork completes the composition. On the back is a figure representing the terra-cotta statue shown more exactly on page 113, with a further arrangement of scrollwork and some minor Moki symbols. THE NORTH-AMERICANS OF YESTERDAY [Illustration: TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URN FOUND IN FRONT OF A TOMB AT CUILAPA, MEXICO Height: 2 feet 3¾ inches. Shows traces of four colours: white, yellow, red, and blue Marshall H. Saville ] [Illustration:GARGOYLE—SERPENT HEAD From débris of temple, Copan] THE NORTH-AMERICANS OF YESTERDAY CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY When those rapacious enthusiasts, the Spaniards of the sixteenth century, had unfolded some of the mysteries of the great half-world that the resolution and daring of Columbus had opened to them, they found it everywhere already peopled, though often sparsely, by a race strange to the other half, with totally different ideas and customs, existing in various degrees of sylvan felicity, or in the budding promise of a civilisation. They also found imposing ruins that told of the long previous departure of some of the occupants of this land into the vaster unknown, and indeed evidences of still earlier hosts that had travelled the dim pathway through the outer darkness. These new lands were believed to be some part of India, and because of this first error the inappropriate title of “Indians” was bestowed on the natives, and this name continued to cling after the mistake was discovered, growing more and more confusing as intercourse increased with the real Indians, till now in our day it is exceedingly troublesome, and we are compelled to differentiate, when accuracy is desirable, by saying “East Indian,” “Red Indian,” or “American Indian,” etc. To add further to this confusion, many persons persist in considering the Algonquin and Iroquois as the type specimens of “Indians,” and exclude all who do not accord with this limited and erroneous standard. The natives of the Western Hemisphere appear all to have been of one race, for there are only minor differences, which will be shown in following pages, and there is therefore a necessity for a broad designation for all these people. When these words were first written I had determined to adopt the term “Redskin” for use in this book, but learning that Amerind,