There has been an error, I believe, in considering the glacial period as of the remote past. It does not seem to have yet closed. It influences our climate now, and probably a thousand years ago its meteorological effects were marked as far south as Yucatan. The glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere everywhere appear to be slowly disappearing, and not so slowly either, if the Muir can be taken as a gauge, for it has been for twenty years receding at the rate of 500 feet per annum, and probably at the same rate before that. However this may be, it is probably less than 5000 years since the ice front was at Lake Erie. Eminent geologists have estimated it at less than 7000, based on the erosion at Niagara; but as the erosion immediately following the disappearance of the ice is extremely rapid, it seems safe to cut down the estimate. The subtleties of meteorology are far from being understood also, and the theories as to the causes of the cold seem mere guesses. Considerable heat there must have been during the glacial period, or there would have been no glaciers. On the theory of the ethnic unity of the Amerind people, I have briefly brought together in chapters notes on their chief habits, products, languages, etc., so that the reader may be able to compare. In collecting material that is now obtainable, but which will shortly be gone forever, much remains to be done, and to be done quickly. If this book helps to arouse a deeper public interest in the gathering of this material, and in the general study of the subject, I shall feel it needs no apology. +F. S. Dellenbaugh+ +New York+, January 31, 1900. [Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF THE SUN] [Illustration: TERRA-COTTA FUNERAL URNS FROM A MOUND, VALLEY OF OAXACA, MEXICO. Average height, 15 inches. This is a complete series preserved in the order in which they were found. The usual number of these urns in a series was five. Nothing was put in them and they were not placed inside the burial chambers but in front of the door, on the roof, fastened into the façade, or in niches over the door. See _Funeral Urns from Oaxaca_, Marshall H. Saville, _American Museum Journal_, vol. iv. pp. 49–60, and _Explorations in Zapotecan Tombs_; same author, _American Anthropologist_, N. S., vol. i. April, 1899. ] [Illustration: MOKI DRAWINGS OF SQUASH-BLOSSOMS] CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE +Preface+ iii I—+Introductory+ 1 II—+Languages and Dialects+ 17 III—+Picture Writing, Sign-Language, Wampum, Cupped-Stones+ 39 IV—+The Mexican and Central-American Writing, Inscriptions, and Books+ 68