THE SECRET OF THE PACIFIC.*
THE problem which Mr. Reginald Enock has set out to unravel is the mysterious origin of the races existing in Central and Southern America at the time of the Spanish Conquest—the Toltecs, the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas—and their forerunners.
The most plausible view as yet put forward attributes the origin of the earliest inhabitants of the continent to China. The evidence supporting it is considerable, and in some points startling. It appears, indeed, that the Chinese them- selves consider that America was known to them some hundreds of years before the time of Columbus, and in view of their immemorial civilization and scientific development there is nothing intrinsically impossible or preposterous in the claim, while, as Mr. Enock puts it (p. 339), " The impenetrable barrier the Chinese were always anxious to preserve between themselves and the rest of the nations of the Old World renders it quite possible that they should have kept their knowledge of America to themselves, or, at any rate, from Europe." Elsewhere he observes that the rapid opening up of the unknown regions of Asia and the hoped-for opportunity of access to their ancient records may throw some light on the question. Certainly the present geographical facts are greatly in favour of this theory, which traces the course of Asiatic immigration from the North along the line of least resistance. The practical contact of East and West at the northern extremity of the two continents renders the crossing a comparatively easy matter for even primitive navigation, and at all events dispenses with the doubts and difficulties that any theory which presupposes a direct transoceanic voyage must face. To this day, indeed, there is constant intercommunication between the natives of North-Eastern Siberia and the Indians on the Northern Pacific coast of America. Moreover, the distinctly Mongolian character of the American Indian is a noticeable point in support of this view, and oddly enough the Asiatic type becomes perceptibly more marked as one goes south. The natives of Peru even wear the discarded pigtail. More curious still is the strange sympathy which appears to exist between these natives and the Japanese and Chinese immigrants, so unwel- come elsewhere, suggesting some latent racial affinity. As regards the ancient Mexican and Peruvian civilizations, strong resemblances exist in their customs and relics with those of China. Striking similarities are found in the patterns used for decoration, and in Tarapacd, between Peru and Chile, there are even huge vertical lines of hieroglyphs like Chinese writing. The agricultural basis of society in early Peru has its counterpart in. China, and the ploughing of sacred land by the Inca Emperor at the great • The Secret of the Pacific. By C. Reginald Enoch. London ; T. Fisher tnwin. 1.12s. Sc!. net.4 religious festival of the year is identical with a Chinese rite. Most remarkable perhaps is the use by the Incas of quipos instead of written records—" bunches of cords of wool, knotted and coloured, every knot and colour of which told some tale " (p. 226), a similar system being found in China and Tibet, and among some peoples of Oceania. Possibly, however, the Incas may have derived it from these last only.
At the opposite pole of probability is the theory that Egypt was the fountain-head of Mexican and Peruvian culture. It is true that the ancient pottery of Mexico and Peru has points of resemblance to that found in the Egyptian tombs, notably vessels shaped in the form of birds or animals and so con- structed as to give out sounds appropriate to their originals when blown into or if water is poured from them, as the case may be. But beyond this and the obvious likeness of the perfectly oriented Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan there appear to be no very convincing reasons for accepting this view, still less for following Dr. le Plongeon in his conclusion that the order was reversed and that it was Egypt which owed its early civilization to Mexico. Dr. le Plongeon professed to have found Egyptian letters on the frieze of the nunnery at Chichen Itza, but even assuming the correctness of his supposi- tion, it would obviously require some infinitely more cogent evidence to justify a theory which provokes so many serious objections.
It is more probable that India may have been the starting- point, for complete land communication may conceivably once have existed, as is held, from Indo-Malaysia. Even in the absence of such a bridge or submerged continent, the chain of islands from Easter Island (whose post-Impressionist megalithic remains are one of the most perplexing elements in this huge puzzle) to the Carolines provides a series of relatively easy "stepping-stones " to Asia, as Mr. Enock calls them. " The oceanic isles of the Pacific," he says (p. 267), " undoubtedly have been in remote times the scene of some of the most remarkable migrations by water in the history of the world." Evidence in support of this view is found in the prevalence of swastika throughout Arizona and New Mexico, which is held to indicate Buddhist influence; but it is doubtful whether any definite deductions can be drawn from the presence of so world-wide a symbol. On the other hand, the Aztec calendar includes titles taken without any apparent intervention direct from the Hindu system—one of the many baffling coincidences of this enigmatic land; coincidences because, conflicting as they are, it is impossible that more than a few can be indications of the path along which investigation must travel.
Lastly, there is a strong probability of an early Norm immigration, a view maintained by Dr. Russel Wallace among others. But this migration can only represent a fraction of the truth, and is insufficient to account for the markedly Oriental character of the ancient civilizations in South America.
The almost inherent insolubility of the problem, however, only becomes fully clear when we review the objections to any and every theory of immigration which postulates a date later than pre-civilized times. Yet no theory of pre-civilized immigration will account for the resemblances of which examples have been given above. On the other hand, the immigration theorist is met by the difficulties that the early American peoples knew of no iron tools, sand being used to cut the hardest rocks, and deer horns for excavation in the mines—a fact which makes even more remarkable the perfect fitting of the unmortared polygonal stones in the Inca build- ings: that they had no wheeled vehicles, nor indeed knew of the wheel for any purpose, and the extreme beauty and originality of Inca and pre-Inca pottery were achieved without it : that they were acquainted with no mechanism for hoisting, and had no better means of raising the Cyclopean stones of their buildings than by rolling them up inclined planes of earth, afterwards removed: that they grew no wheat : and lastly, that on the whole coast, from the Eskimos to Patagonia, navigation had not passed the stage of the most primitive canoe, a fact which postulates an inconceivable retrogression if any theory of immigration by sea is to be relied on. In view of these objections—for they can hardly be explained away as mere lapses of memory on the part of these peoples who, if if they had ever known these primary conveniences in another land, could never have forgotten them or have abandoned their use—we must be doubly on our guard against the error of making rash or excessive deductions from the resemblances
with which the subject abounds. Given the proved limitations of the human brain in the imagination of forms, are not such unmotived similarities just what we should naturally expect to find all over the globe, comparative likeness of environment giving for obvious reasons a like bent to the minds of races wholly unconnected, unless at some period so prehistoric end so pre-civilized as in no way to account for the results? To be conclusive, the evidence explaining such resemblances by reference to a common source must be not only strong in quality and quantity, it must be overwhelming. Particularly is this true of inferences drawn from mythological beliefs—in this case a particularly tempting fount of error, for the affinities of the ancient American religions with Asiatic cults ar•e unquestionably striking. But the ubiquitous character of the Creation stories, Flood legends, and other tales of wonder, which had their place in the cults of America as of all other countries, destroys their efficacy as proof of any specific common origin. Most natural of all, and therefore least conclusive, is the Sun-worship of the Incas, though in their case the cult reached an unusually high stage of abstract imaginative devotion, for they regarded the sun as merely the symbol of an " Unknown God " incapable of representation in any tangible form. Yet while in the present state of our knowledge we cannot be too careful of accepting facile conclusions—we might almost say any con- clusions at all—it is essential to bear• in mind, as Mr. Enock neatly remarks in closing what be calls his " survey literally from China to Peru," that
" The position of those who would close America absolutely to prehistoric influence and immigration is as untenable as that of those who would close it against foreign immigrants and influence to-day. America is not, and never has been, a world apart" (1). 348).
Mr. Enock's interesting resume of this fascinating subject —greater detail would have been impossible in the space at his command—is illustrated by excellent photographs.
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