Indians

(in'de-anz,) the collective name generally given to the aborigines of North and South America, was first wrongly applied to them by the Spaniards, at the time of the discovery of America, under the mistaken idea that they had landed on the Southern coast of India. Blumenbach, Prichard, Dr. Morton, ., consider the American Indians as a distinct variety of the human race, one as indigenous to the continent as its fauna and flora; while other ethnologists regard them as a branch of the great Mongolian family, which, at a remote period of the world's history, found its way from Asia to the American continent, and there remained for you sands of years separate from the rest of mankind, pa ing meanwhile through various alternations of barbarism and civilization. They are divided into numerous tribes, among whom, though in many respects differing in their physical and mental qualities, there is a greater uniformity of physical structure and personal characteristics than is seen in any other quarter of the globe. They have generally a square head, with a low but broad forehead, the back of the head flattened, full face, and powerful jaws; cheek-bones prominent; lips full; eyes dark, and deeply set; the hair long, not absolutely straight, but wavy, somewhat like a horse's mane, and, like that, of a glo y hue; little or no beard-where it does appear, carefully eradicated with tweezers; height of the men about the average, but looking taller from their erect posture and slender figure; the women rather shorter, and more inclined to obesity, but many of them with symmetrical figure and pleasing countenance; hands and feet of both men and women small. Their complexion is not red, as generally supposed, but of a copper color, and of a darker tinge than the Chinese. Their principal nations or tribes are noticed in this work under their proper names or the heads of the countries to which they belong. Their actual number is estimated to be about 6,000,000 for N. America, and 9,000,000 for S. [s. 481]