SCULPTURES. 273 



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 untinished state, wiiich exhibit 

 fully the mode of workmanship. These show that the makers had also sharp cut- 

 ting 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 liigh value when finished. Hence we find a great deal of inge- 

 nuity 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 com- 

 munication. 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 earth- 

 works, 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-Avriting of the savage tribes, is a 

 question open to discussion. It would be unwarrantable therefore to assign to tlie 

 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. 



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