He confined himself to the tribes north of Mexico, a difficult portion of the field, and at that time not very well known.

The notion of a state of primitive civilization prevented Dr.Jarvis from forming any correct estimate of the native religions, as it led him to look upon them as deteriorations from purer faiths instead of developments.

Thus he speaks of them as having "departed less than among any other nation from the form of primeval truth," and also mentions their "wonderful uniformity" (pp.

219, 221).
The well-known American ethnologist, Mr.E.G.Squier, has also published a work on the subject, of wider scope than its title indicates (The Serpent Symbol in America, New York, 1851).

Though written in a much more liberal spirit than the preceding, it is wholly in the interests of one school of mythology, and it the rather shallow physical one, so fashionable in Europe half a century ago.