The Amerind people were living in various stages of progress at the time of the Discovery. The Mexicans, according to Lewis Morgan, were “one stage higher than the Mohawks and one stage lower than the warriors of the _Iliad_.” Accepting this as correct, we would be able to trace human development back of the Greeks through the Amerinds of North America. Morgan suggested the classification of mankind in three broad ethnic stages: Savagery, Barbarism, and Civilisation,[11] the first ending with the acquisition of the bow and arrow, represented here by the Pai Utes; the second ending with the smelting of iron ore, represented by the early Greeks; and the third beginning with a phonetic alphabet, and represented by ourselves. In this scheme the Mexicans would fall in the middle period of Barbarism. This is a fairly good working basis, but, like all generalisations, it is only general. It must not be rigidly adhered to. The conditions on this continent were quite different from those in Europe, and consequently the line of development could not be precisely the same. There seems to be no good argument yet advanced and no archæological data yet exhibited that compel us to seek an outside derivation for the Amerind race; and this being so, it is about as reasonable to search this continent for the original home of the yellow race as to go to Asia for that of the red. That they may have come from there is possible, and so also it is possible that they came from Europe. Nor should we at present exclude even the lost Atlantis,[12] for the geography of the world was not always as it is now, and the elevation and subsidence of lands are still in progress. This, of course, is admitted, as also that there was a land connection across the Atlantic before man appeared in the world; but man may have appeared earlier than we suspect, and this lost land may have been in sunshine later than we believe.[13] [Illustration: MOKI MASK OF PAWIKKATCINA] The Amerinds of North America were practically a people of stone culture, because while some had developed an ability to employ copper to a limited extent, they used stone tools for most of their work; their highest government appears to have been the confederacy, with in some cases perhaps a monarchical tendency; they were without domestic animals; without beasts of burden; without fireplaces or chimneys; without inside stairs; and without wheeled vehicles. There was no mystery about them. They ranged the continent, as has been noted, impelled by food quest and climate. They lived bravely and they died without fear. The following chapters will tell some of the things they did, with the hope that readers may arrive at a better understanding of the people that so long had a half-world to themselves. [Illustration: SPECIMEN OF SCULPTURE ON HIEROGLYPHIC STAIRWAY, COPAN] [Illustration: ESKIMO JADE ADZE] CHAPTER II LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS