Writers in the sphere of Mexican and Peruvian myth have been few.
If human interest is craved for by any man, let him turn to the narratives of Garcilasso el Inca de la Vega and Ixtlilxochitl, representatives and last descendants of the Peruvian and Tezcucan monarchies, and read there the frightful story of the path to fortune of red-heeled Pizarro and cruel Cort s, of the horrible cruelties committed upon the red man, whose colour was "that of the devil," of the awful pageant of.
The real interest of American mediaeval history must ever circle around Mexico and Peru, her golden empires, her sole exemplars of civilisation; and it is to the books upon the character of these two nations that we must turn for a romantic interest as curious and as absorbing as that bound up in the history of Egypt or Assyria.
There remains the romance of old America.
It is earnestly hoped that the publication of this volume may prove the means of leading many English students to the study and consideration of American archaeology.
What has Great Britain accomplished in this new and fascinating field of science? If the lifelong and valuable labours of the late Sir Clements Markham be excepted, almost nothing.
But progress is being made in this branch of the subject, and several scholars are working in whole-hearted co-operation to secure final results.
The question of the alphabets of ancient America is perhaps the most acute in present-day pre-Columbian archaeology.
The remarks of mythologists who are not also Americanists upon the subject of American myth must be accepted with caution.
He has been followed by Payne, Schellhas, Seler, and Rrstemann, all of whom, however, have confined the publication of their researches to isolated articles in various geographical and scientific journals.
The first to attack the subject in the light of the modern science of comparative religion was Daniel Garrison Brinton, professor of American languages and archaeology in the University of Philadelphia.
Writers in the sphere of Mexican and Peruvian myth have been few
