ANTIQUITIES AND INDIAN HISTORY.
SOME ARTICLES OF CURIOUS WORKMANSHIP FOUND IN AN ANCIENT BARROW.
An opinion is entertained by many well-informed persons in the United States, that the country has, at some remote period, been inhabited by a civilized people, prior to its settlement or subjugation by the savages. To the many evidences furnished to strengthen this opinion, by the remnants of fortifications, tumuli, &c., may be added the discovery of several articles of antiquarian value, and of singular workmanship, of glass, or antique enamel, lately made on the eastern shores of lake Erie.
I have had an opportunity of examining a specimen of these antique glasses, and, on the authority of my informant, am enabled to remark that they were taken up about two months ago, from an ancient barrow in the town of Hamburg, where they were found deposited in an earthen pot. Contiguous to this pot were also found a skull, and some other human remains, thought to be of an unusual size. This mound, or supposed repository of the dead, is situated in an uncultivated part of the town, and several trees were growing upon it at the time the excavation was made; some of which were judged to be upwards of two feet in diameter.
The glass relic which I had an opportunity to examine, (and I am told they are all alike,) is in the form of a large barrel-shaped bead, consisting of a tube of transparent green glass, covered with an opaque coarse red enamel. Its length is nine-tenths of an inch, its greatest width six and a half tenths of an inch, and the bore of the tube two-tenths of an inch. Near the circle of the bore of this tube, is an aperture of the size of a large needle, perforating the tube from one end to the other. The enamel which covers the tube of transparent glass appears to have been ornamented with painting, in figures resembling a spindle, or two inverted sections of a circle; but they are now hardly perceptible, as the bead appears to have been considerably worn.
But the circumstance most indicative of art in the making of this bead, is a species of enamelling which has been performed both on the external and internal surfaces of the tube, previous to its being covered by the coarse red enamel. This second enamel is white, and, as the external surface of the tube was not smooth, but in parallel strie or veins, exhibits the appearance of a white vine between the green tube and the red enamel. This enamelling appears to have been done, not by melting on any vitreous composition, as is practised at the present day, but by the effect of calcination for some time in a low red heat. This, it is known, will deprive glass, especially green glass, of its transparency, and render the surface white to a certain depth.
The composition of the tube of glass, I have judged to be simply a silicious sand and an alkali, probably with a small addition of lime or vegetable ashes. It is hard, and will not receive scratches like the lead glasses; and I conclude from this circumstance that there is no lead in the composition. Its color seems also owing to the impurity of the materials employed, like the common window and bottle glass, and is probably caused by a minute portion of iron, in the state of an oxide, combined with the sand and alkali.
The red enamel covering the tube, and the pot in which these glasses were found, seem to have been constructed of similar materials, as they differ very little in color, texture, or other external character. Probably a very fusible brick-clay, highly impregnated with the oxide of iron, and pulverized fragments of green glass, are the principal ingredients of both. The earthen pot is manifestly constructed of different materials from those employed for brown pottery at the present period. It is a more imperishable substance, of a close texture, and vitreous appearance.
I shall not presume to speculate in opinions which discoveries of this interesting nature are calculated to create; it may, however, here be added, that the fabrication of these glasses would suppose a perfection in the arts, which none of the Indian tribes inhabiting this country at the period of its discovery, had arrived at. That if introduced by the French from Canada, in their earliest communications with the Indians inhabiting the western parts of the State of New York, a sufficient time would hardly have elapsed for the growth of trees of such size as were found upon the mound from which these relics were taken. And that, if not introduced by the French at the period alluded to, we must refer their manufacture back to a very remote date, and one on which Indian tradition is wholly silent.
Since visiting the western country, I have had occasion to notice a similar discovery on Big river, in the Territory of Missouri. On opening an Indian grave (or what was considered such) on the bank of this river, several beads of glass, of a similar character, were found. They were accompanied by many bones of the human frame, of extraordinary size, and which indicated, to common observation, a stature of seven or eight feet in height. The person appeared to have been deformed, either by birth or accident, as the right jaw-bone ran in a straight line from the mouth back, while the left preserved the usual curve. The excavation was made near the edge of the stream, where the soil is a rich alluvion, and covered by a heavy growth of forest trees, such as are peculiar to the richest Ohio and Mississippi bottom-lands. We may add, that it corresponds best with history and probability to attribute these relics to the early period of the fur-trade.
ANCIENT INDIAN CEMETERY IN THE VALLEY OF THE MARAMEC RIVER.
In the autumn of 1818, the existence of a number of small tumuli, or antique Indian graves, was made known in the valley of the Maramec. This discovery was made about fifteen miles south of St. Louis. Curiosity led several persons to visit the spot and examine them, and my attention was thus called to the subject. It was conjectured that the bones found in these graves were the remains of a race of beings much smaller than those of the present day.
The essential facts connected with these discoveries, are these:—The tumuli, which are small, occupy a wood near the dwelling of a Mr. Long. The attention of this gentleman was arrested by this smallness of cemeterial dimensions, or place of burial. Drs. Walker and Grayson, of St. Louis, proceeded to the spot, opened several of the graves, and examined their contents. The length of the stature of the interred persons, measured by their stony casings, varied from twenty-three inches, to four feet two or three inches. But the skeletons, with the exception of the teeth, were reduced to a complete limy substance, and their forms destroyed. The graves had originally been cased with rude flat stones at the sides, and also at the head and feet. A flat stone had also, in some instances, been laid over the top, and earth piled on the grave, above the surface of the ground, to the general height of three feet. This was a characteristic feature, and seemed designed to mark the locality. In this stony coffin, all the softer and destructible parts of the body had submitted to decay, with the exception before mentioned—the teeth. The examination of these became, therefore, the principal source of interest. They found the enamel perfect, and were surprised to discover that they were the teeth of rather young persons, who had, however, passed the age of puberty. The molars and incisors were of the ordinary dimensions and character of second teeth. The jaw-bone of the first specimen examined, appeared to have its full complement, except the dentis sapienta, which physiologists do not generally recognize until after the ages of eighteen to twenty-three.
Many graves were examined, which differed more or less in length, between the extremes stated, but agreed in their general conformity of parts; from all which, these gentlemen came to the conclusion that the remains denoted a stature of inferior size, while appearances indicated a remote antiquity as the epoch of burial, which might as well be supposed to be five centuries as one. This antiquity was inferred, as well from the reduction of the bones to their elements, as from the growth of large trees upon the graves, the roots of which penetrated into their recesses.
Upon this exhibition of facts, a legal gentleman[21] of intelligence calls attention, with great pertinency, to the ancient manners and customs of the Indians, in the burial of their dead.
"As yet, I have seen no attempt to account for the size and appearance of these skeletons, upon any other supposition than that they are the remains of a people far less in size than any known at the present day. Unwilling to adopt a belief so contrary to the general order of nature, and to the history of the human species, so far as it has been transmitted to us, I shall hazard some conjectures upon the subject, which I think will, in some measure, tend to dissolve the mystery that hovers over these bones, and to reconcile their appearance with the general history of our race. To be sure, Nature, in her sport, has now and then produced monsters. A taste for the marvellous among travellers and historians, has occasionally conjured up a race of giants, or a nation of pigmies; but when the light of truth has reached us from the distant corners of the earth, where they were said to dwell, we have found them to assume the size, shape, and attitude of men, and nothing more. So far as observation or history extends, we find the species nearly the same in all ages and in all countries. Climate has had some effect upon the size, and upon the complexion. The excessive cold of the north has shortened an inch or two the necks of the Esquimaux, and the heat of the south has colored the African. But what, in this genial climate, should make dwarfs? It is here, if anywhere, that we should naturally expect to find giants! All the other productions of nature are here brought forth in the highest perfection. And shall man here grow a pigmy? Unless we are ready to adopt the opinion of certain naturalists, that the human species are the legitimate descendants of the apes, and that they once wore tails, and were of their diminutive size—unless we are ready to believe the history of the Lilliputians, and of Tom Thumb—I think we shall discard the idea of a nation of dwarfs, as wholly preposterous. But how, on any other supposition, shall we account for the appearances upon the farm of Mr. Long?
"None of the graves found there exceed four feet in length, many of them fall short of three, and the teeth found in all of them show that they contain the remains of human beings who had arrived at years of maturity. The manners and customs of the Indians with respect to the treatment of their dead, will, I think, solve all difficulties, and satisfactorily account for these appearances, without doing violence to nature. According to the testimony of travellers and historians, it has been the custom among many tribes of Indians to hang their dead in baskets upon trees and scaffolds, until their flesh was consumed, and then to take them down, clean their bones, and bury them. There existed an order of men among them called bone-pickers, with long nails like claws, whose business and profession it was to clean the unconsumed flesh from the bones, previous to burial. This custom still exists among the Indians on the waters of the Missouri, and rationally accounts for the appearances upon the farm of Mr. Long. The bones of a skeleton of the ordinary size, when separated, would naturally occupy a grave of three or four feet in length. It appears that in all the graves which were opened, the bones, except the teeth, were reduced to a chalky substance, so that it would be impossible to know, with any certainty, in what state, condition, or form, they were deposited there. These skeletons are said to rest on their sides. Taking this fact to be true, it goes to strengthen my ideas on this subject. In burying a corpse, it is natural, and, so far as we are acquainted, universally the custom, to bury them with the face upwards. We can look upon our dead friends with a melancholy complacency—we cast a long and lingering look after them until they are completely shut from our view in the grave; and nothing is more hard and heart-rending than to tear our last looks from them. It is natural, then, that the body should be placed in such a position as most to favor this almost universal desire of the human heart. But, in burying a skeleton, it would be as natural to avert the horrid grin of a death's-head from us. To face the grinning skeleton of a friend, must fill us with horror and disgust. 'Turn away the horrid sight,' would be the language of nature. If we adopt my supposition as correct in this case, all the facts correspond with nature. But if we adopt the opinion of a recent writer, our conclusions will be at war with nature, reason, and universal observation."
The following observations by the Rev. J. M. Peck, of St. Louis, may also here be added:
"One grave was opened which measured four feet in length; this was formed by laying a flat stone at the bottom, placing one on each side, one at each end, and covering the mouth with another. In the last circumstance, this grave differed from the others that were opened; the contents were a full-grown skeleton, with the head and teeth, part of the spine, the thigh and leg bones, in a tolerable state of preservation. The leg-bones were found parallel with the bones of the thighs, and every appearance indicated, either that the corpse had been entombed with the legs and thighs placed so as to meet, or that a skeleton had been deposited in this order. The first opinion seems the most probable, from the fact that a large stone pipe was found in the tomb, which I understand is now in the possession of Mr. Long."
Both implements of war, and of domestic use, are buried with the dead bodies of the Indians; but it admits of a query if they are ever deposited with the mere skeleton.
"It is a well-known fact," says Bishop Madison, while writing on the supposed fortifications of the western country,[22] "that, among many of the Indian tribes, the bones of the deceased are annually collected and deposited in one place, that the funeral rites are then solemnized with the warmest expressions of love and friendship, and that this untutored race, urged by the feelings of nature, consign to the bosom of the earth, along with the remains of their deceased relatives, food, weapons of war, and often those articles they possessed, and most highly valued, when alive."
This fact is substantiated from various respectable sources. The pious custom of collecting the relics of the dead, which accident, or the events of a battle, might have dispersed through the wilderness, easily accounts for the graves on the Maramec, as well as explains the origin of the artificial mounds in the vicinity. If these were opened, there would be found promiscuously deposited the bones of the aborigines, which pious veneration, from year to year and from century to century, industriously collected. The cemetery alluded to, on the plantation of Mr. Long, may be viewed as the public burial-place of some powerful nation of the same size, and similar customs, with other Indians.
OSAGES.
This tribe claims, as original possessors, the territories of the Ozarks, over which my journeys have chiefly laid. They claim all the country north of the Arkansas, to the Maramec. The term Ozark appears to me to be compounded from Osage and Arkansas.
They are manly, good-looking, stout-limbed men, erratic in their mode of life, living a part of the year in fixed villages, and roving with their families through the forests, in search of game, the remainder. Their territories are immense.
The Osages, if we may judge from popular opinion, are very much in the condition of the sons of Ishmael—"Their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against them." It is remarkable that they possess so much skill as they do in public negotiations, which they manage with address, with a bold, direct air, employing enlarged thoughts and phrases, which are calculated to impress the hearer favorably as to their mental abilities.
But little opportunity has been had of personal observation on their manners and customs. Their mode of encampment has been seen, and is so arranged as to place the chiefs of the village, or camp, in the position of honor. It is stated that, at daybreak, a public crier makes proclamation of the expected events and duties of the day, which, to ears uninitiated, sounds like a call to prayer. I fancy the prayer of Indians, if they pray at all, is for deer and buffalo.
It appears from the manuscript records of General William Clark, at St. Louis, which I have been permitted to see, that they have a tale, or fiction, of their origin from a snail and beaver. If this is an allegory, we are to suppose that persons bearing these names were their progenitors. I avail myself of the public interpreter of the language to submit the following vocabulary of it.[23]
FOOTNOTES:
[21] Rufus Pettibone, Esq., of St. Louis.
[22] See American Philosophical Transactions, Vol. VI.
[23] Omitted.