Such is the general character of the sculptures found in the mounds. It is unnecessary to say more than that as works of art, they are immeasurably beyond anything which the North American Indians are known to produce, even at this day, with all the suggestions of European art and the advantages afforded by steel instruments. The Chinooks, and the Indians of the North-western Coast, carve pipes, platters, and other articles, with much neatness, from slate. We see in their pipes, for instance, a heterogeneous collection of pulleys, cords, barrels, and rude human figures, evidently suggested by the tackling of the ships trading in those seas. Their platters, too, are copies of English ware, differing only in material and ornaments. The utmost that can be said of them is, that they are elaborate, unmeaning carvings, displaying some degree of ingenuity. A much higher rank can be claimed for the mound-sculptures; they combine taste in arrangement with skill in workmanship, and are faithful copies, not distorted caricatures, from nature. They display not only the figures and the characteristic attitudes, but in some cases, as we have seen, the very habits of the objects represented. So far as fidelity is concerned, many of them deserve to rank by the side of the best efforts of the artist-naturalists of our own day.

The Mexicans and Peruvians were very skilful in their representations of animals, and the early historians are profuse in praise of their workmanship, extolling it beyond that of the old world. Says La Vega of the Peruvians:

“They fashioned likewise all beasts and birds in gold and silver; namely, conies, rats, lizards, serpents, butterflies, foxes, mountain cats (for they have no tame cats in their houses); and they make sparrows and all sorts of lesser birds, some flying, some perching in trees; in short, no creature that was either wild or domestic, but was made and represented by them according to its exact and natural shape.”[171]

Clavigero says of the exceeding skill of the Mexicans in the arts, that their works “were so admirably finished, that even the Spanish soldiers, all stung with the same wretched thirst for gold, valued the workmanship more than the materials.” And Peter Martyr, noticing the works of the people along the coasts of the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Mexico, exclaims,—“If man’s art or invention ever got any honor in such like arts, these people may claim the chief sovereignty and commendation.”[172]

The method practised by the makers of the articles above mentioned, in reducing them to shape, seems to have been the very obvious one resorted to by all rude nations unacquainted with the use of iron; namely, that of rubbing or grinding upon stones possessing a sharp grit. The Mexicans, it is said, used tools of obsidian in their sculptures; and the Peruvians, although possessing implements of p273 hardened copper, according to La Vega, “rather wore out the stone by continued rubbing, than cutting.” Most of the mound-sculptures have been so carefully smoothed and are so highly polished, as to show few marks of rubbing; but some have been found, as has already been shown, in an unfinished state, which exhibit fully the mode of workmanship. These show that the makers had also sharp cutting instruments, which were used in delineating the minor features. The lines indicating the folds in the skin of animals, and the feathers of birds, are not ground in, but cut, evidently to the entire depth, at a single stroke. Sometimes the tool has slipped by, indicating that it was held and used after the manner of the gravers of the present day. The time and labor expended in perfecting these elaborate works from obstinate materials, with no other than these rude aids, must have given them a high value when finished. Hence we find a great deal of ingenuity exhibited in restoring them when accidentally broken. This was accomplished by drilling holes diagonally to each other in the detached parts, so that by the insertion of wooden pegs or copper wire, they were, in technical phrase, “bound together.” This attachment was further strengthened, in some cases, by bands of sheet copper; occasionally the entire pipe, when much injured, seems to have been plated over with that metal. When the fracture was such as materially to injure the tube, a small copper tube was inserted within it, restoring an unbroken communication. Many interesting facts of this kind, which perhaps may seem trivial and unimportant to most minds, might be presented. They illustrate how highly these remains were valued by their possessors. The manner in which the drilling was probably accomplished has already been indicated.

TABLETS.—A few small sculp­tured tab­lets have been found in the mounds. Some of these have been regarded as bearing hieroglyphical, others alphabetic inscriptions, and have been made the basis of much speculation at home and abroad. Nothing of this extraordinary character has been disclosed in the course of the investigations here recorded; nor is there any evidence that anything like an alphabetic or hieroglyphic system existed among the mound-builders. The earthworks, and the mounds and their contents, certainly indicate that, prior to the occupation of the Mississippi valley by the more recent tribes of Indians, there existed here a numerous population, agricultural in their habits, considerably advanced in the arts, and undoubtedly, in all respects, much superior to their successors. There is, however, no reason to believe that their condition was anything more than an approximation towards that attained by the semi-civilized nations of the central portions of the continent,—who themselves had not arrived at the construction of an alphabet. Whether the latter had progressed further than to a refinement upon the rude picture-writing of the savage tribes, is a question open to discussion. It would be unwarrantable therefore to assign to the race of the mounds a superiority in this respect over nations palpably so much in advance of them in all others. It would be a reversal of the teachings of history, an exception to the law of harmonious development, which it would require a large assemblage of well attested facts to sustain. Such an array of facts, it is scarcely necessary to add, we do not possess. p274

It is true, hardly a year passes unsignalized by the announcement of the discovery of tablets of stone or metal, bearing strange and mystical inscriptions,—generally reported to have a “marked resemblance to the Chinese characters.” But they either fail to withstand an analysis of the alleged circumstances attending their discovery, or resolve themselves into very simple natural productions when subjected to scientific scrutiny. It will be remembered that some years ago it was announced that six inscribed copper plates had been found in a mound near Kinderhook, Pike county, Illinois. Engravings of them and a minute description were published at the time, and widely circulated. Subsequent inquiry has shown that the plates were a harmless imposition, got up for local effect; and that the village blacksmith, with no better suggestion to his antiquarian labors than the lid of a tea-chest, was chiefly responsible for them. Within the past two years an announcement was made of the discovery, in a mound near Lower Sandusky, Ohio, of a series of oval mica plates, inscribed with numberless unknown characters, which, in the language of the printed account, probably “contained the history of some former race that inhabited this country.” These plates were found, upon examination, to be ornaments of that variety of mica known as “graphic” or “hieroglyphic mica,”—which is naturally marked with figures somewhat regular in their arrangement.

The Grave creek mound was also said to have contained a small stone, bearing an alphabetical inscription, which has attracted the attention of a number of learned men both in this country and in Europe. A critical examination of the circumstances attending the introduction of this relic to the world is calculated to throw great doubt upon its genuineness. The fact that it is not mentioned by intelligent observers writing from the spot at the time of the excavation of the mound, and that no notice of its existence was made public until after the opening of the mound for exhibition, joined to the strong presumptive evidence against the occurrence of anything of the kind, furnished by the antagonistic character of all the ancient remains of the continent, so far as they are known,—are insuperable objections to its reception. Until it is better authenticated, it should be entirely excluded from a place among the antiquities of our country.[173]

A small tablet was discovered, some years ago, in a mound at Cincinnati, of which Fig. 194 presents a front, and Fig. 195 a reverse view.