Fig. 97. general form. Some are considerably larger and heavier than that here represented; one found near Chillicothe weighed not less than one and a half ounces. They will readily be recognised as of European origin. The enterprising French passed frequently through the Mississippi valley, from a very early day, and maintained a constant intercourse with the natives, distributing amongst them vast numbers of these crosses, brooches, and other ornaments of silver; which, in accordance with the aboriginal custom, were buried with the possessor at his death. Numbers of these relics have been found in the mounds and Indian graves of the South. They are perhaps oftener composed of brass than of silver.
The instance first mentioned, it is believed, is the only one in which silver has been found in the mounds under such circumstances as to establish conclusively that it pertained to the builders. It is clear that, so far as the specimens here obtained are concerned, they did not understand the art of plating, in the proper meaning of the term. They had taken but the first step towards it. That art is certainly one which follows, instead of preceding, the knowledge of welding and of working metals through the assistance of fire, which knowledge does not seem to have been possessed by them. Their acquaintance with metallurgy appears to have been confined to working the native metals in a cold state; in which, it must be admitted, they evinced considerable skill. Further than this, little can be claimed for them.
From the presence of galena in the mounds, it seems almost impossible that the builders could have been ignorant of the manufacture of lead. None of that metal has, however, been discovered under such circumstances as to place it beyond doubt that they were acquainted with it. A rude article, of pure lead, of the following form, and weighing about half a pound, was discovered, not long since, in sinking a well within the trench of the ancient works at Circleville. It was found about two feet p209
Fig. 98. below the surface, and was thickly encrusted with a carbonate. We shall not undertake to ascribe a date to it. Upon one of the altars within a mound in “Mound City,” (see page [149],) a quantity of galena was found. It had been exposed, in common with all articles found on the altars, to the action of fire, which had not, however, been sufficiently strong to reduce it, though some pieces seem to have been partially fused. Perhaps it may have been prized only for its brilliancy, and finally deposited, with other articles of use or ornament, as an offering.
- FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER XII.
- [131] RIBAULDE, who visited the shores of Florida in 1562, speaks of a chief who “had hanging about his neck a round plate of red copper well polished, with one other lesser one of silver, in the midst of it, and at his ear a little plate of copper wherewith they use to stripe the swete from theyer bodyes.” Sir WALTER RALEIGH mentions, that the tribes, with which he held communication on the shores of North Carolina, wore copper plates on their heads, which were badges of authority and indicated the chiefs. These plates were so highly polished that they were, at first, mistaken for gold. It is not impossible that those found in the mounds were worn in a like manner by the ancient people. The one described in the text was found beneath the head of the skeleton with which it was buried.
- [132] Dr. DRAKE, in his “View of Cincinnati,” describes several ornaments or instruments found in a mound at Cincinnati, which are somewhat analogous to those described in the text, if not identical with them. “Several copper articles were discovered, each consisting of two sets of circular, concavo-convex plates; the interior one of each set connected with the other by a hollow axis, around which had been wound some lint.” Articles, answering to this description, were found, a few years since, in removing a mound on Paint creek, ten miles distant from Chillicothe. In this case, we are assured by the individual who discovered them, that the axis was wound round with a well-twisted and compact thread, resembling fine linen pack-thread, which was stained green by the salts of the copper, to which its preservation is entirely attributable. It is possible that some of the larger discs, above described, were originally thus connected.
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CHAPTER XIII. IMPLEMENTS OF STONE, ETC.
In the absence of a knowledge of the metals, the ingenuity of man contrives to fashion from the different varieties of stone, from the tusks and bones of animals, and the harder kinds of wood, such rude implements as his necessities demand, and such ornaments as his fancy suggests. And even among nations who have a limited knowledge of the metals, we find these characteristic implements of a ruder state still adhered to. In Mexico and Peru, where the use of most of the metals, except iron, was well understood, the stone axe and flint-tipped arrow and lance were in common use, at the period of the discovery. The early explorers found all the American nations, from the squalid Esquimaux, who struck the morse with a lance pointed with its own tusks, to the haughty Aztec, rivalling in his barbaric splendor the magnificence of the East, in possession of them. We are not surprised, therefore, at their occurrence in the mounds. We find them with the original and with the recent deposits, and the plough turns them up to light on every hand. And so striking is the resemblance between them all, that we are almost ready to conclude they were the productions of the same people. This conclusion would be irresistible, did we not know that the wants of man have ever been the same, and have always suggested like forms to his implements, and similar modes of using them. The polished instrument with which the pioneer of civilization prostrates the forest, has its type in the stone axe of the Indian which his plough the next day exposes to his curious gaze. In the barrows of Denmark and Siberia, in the tumuli on the plains of Marathon, and even under the shadow of the pyramids themselves, the explorer finds relics, almost identical with those disclosed from the mounds, and closely resembling each other in material, form, and workmanship. We have consequently little whereby to distinguish the remains of the mound-builders, so far as their mere implements of stone are concerned, except the position in which they are found, and the not entirely imaginary superiority of their workmanship, from those of the succeeding races. We have, however, in the different varieties of stone of which they are composed, the evidences of a more extended intercourse than we are justified in ascribing to the more recent tribes.