SCULPTURES. 277 



sculpture, excepting that one is plane, the other slightly convex. The material 

 is a very fine cinnamon-colored sandstone, and the style of the sculpture is 

 identical with that displayed in the tablet from the Cincinnati mound already 

 noticed. Tlie original is six inches and a quarter long, one and three eighths 

 broad, and one quarter of an inch thick. The workmanship is delicate, and 

 the characteristic feature of the rattlesnake perfectly represented. It is to be 

 regretted that it is impossible to restore the head, which, so far as it can be made 

 out, has some peculiar and interesting features, — plumes or ornamental figures sur- 

 mounting it. Previous to the investigation of the mound by the authors, an entire 

 tablet was obtained from it by an individual residing near the spot, who represents 

 it to have been carefully and closely enveloped in sheets of copper, which he had 

 great difficulty in removing. Incited by a miserable curiosity he broke the speci- 

 men, to ascertain its composition ; and the larger portion, including the head, was 

 subsequently lost. The remaining fragment, from its exceedingly well preserved 

 condition, confirms the statement of the finder respecting its envelopment. It 

 seems that several of these tablets were originally deposited in the mound ; the 

 greater portions of tour have been recovered, but none displaying the head entire. 

 The person above mentioned affirms that the head, in the specimen which he 

 discovered, was surrounded by " feathers ;" how far this is confirmed by the 

 fragment, the reader must judge for himself. The tablets seem to have been 

 originally painted of different colors : a dark red pigment is yet plainly to be 

 seen in the depressions of some of the fragments ; others had been painted of 

 a dense black color. 



It does not appear probable that these relics were designed for ornaments. On 

 the contrary, the circumstances under which they were discovered render it likely 

 that they had a superstitious origin, and were objects of high regard and perhaps 

 of worship. It has already been observed, in connection with the account of the 

 great serpentine structure in Adams county, Ohio, (Plate XXXV,) that the 

 serpent entered widely into the superstitions of the American nations, savage and 

 semi-civilized, and was conspicuous among their symbols as the emblem of the 

 greatest gods of their mythology, both good and evil. And wherever it appears, 

 whether among the carvings of the Natchez (who, according to Charlevoix, 

 placed it upon their altars as an object of worshij)), among the paintings of the 

 Aztecs, or upon the temples of Central America, it is worthy of remark, that it is 

 invariably the rattlesnake. And as among the Egyptians the cohra was the sign of 

 royalty, so among the Mexicans the rattlesnake was an emblem of kingly power 

 and dominion. As such it appears in the crown of Te:cailipoca, the Brahma of 

 the Aztec pantheon, and in the helmets of the warrior priests of that divinity. The 

 feather-headed rattlesnake, it should be observed, was in Mexico the peculiar symbol 

 of Tezcatlipoca, otherwise symbolized as the sun. 



