ANTIQUITIES IX SOUTHERN STATES. 3G7 



presented by the American natives will doubtless excite rlie interest of 

 the student, and every ojiportunity be sought of gathering- up their 

 remains. How many languages which have arisen since primeval man 

 first trod the earth have perished from its face, each indicating, to a 

 certain extent, in its mere words and forms, not only the outvfard cir- 

 cumstances in which those races moved, but the degree of their mental 

 culture and the character of their thoughts. Ethnology has no surer 

 basis than an intelligent philology. One of the least functions of the 

 latter is to bring together or distinguish races. 



There is one important point on which I have said nothing. I mean 

 the alphabetic system to be adopted. I am clearlj^ of opinion that the 

 Eoman and Italic letters should be used wherever practicable, and that 

 they are in most cases suflicient. The alphabet prepared by Professor 

 Whitnej' for the Smithsonian Institution is simple and intelligible, 

 though in particular cases it needs supplementing. Foreign characters 

 and redundancy of diacritical marks are objectionable on many grounds. 

 It is the difficulty with most systems, as with that of Lepsius, that they 

 are beyond the comprehension of any but their inventors, or at least 

 require too varied a knowledge and too great nicety for any practical use. 

 When a work is undertaken by a European, other than an Englishman, 

 it is better, perhaps, that he should write as in his own tongue. That 

 will carry a definite meaning at least to those who understand its ])ro- 

 nunciation, and will insure a degree of certainty not otherwise to be 

 relied upon. The explanation, in writing, of unusual sounds is always 

 a hazardous experiment. 



The preparation and publication of such a vocabulary, phrase-book, 

 and grammatical guide as I have indicated would, it seems to me, pro- 

 perly come within the objects of the Smithsonian Institution, and I feel 

 assured, from the interest you liave always manifested in original i)hilo- 

 logical research, that the subject will at least meet with consideration. 



OX AXTIQUITIES IN S03IE OF TEE SOUTIIERX STATES. 

 By H. C. Williams. 



Near Vienna, Virginia, December 30, ] 8G9. 



Agreeably to i^romise, I send to the Institution a few specimens of 

 Indian arrow-heads, all that I have been able to collect. I regret that 

 the number of perfect ones is so small. 



In Eranklin County, Tennessee, in the days of my youth, when the 

 country was fast filling up by emigrants from the older States, Indian 

 relics, such as broken pieces of pottery, pestles, axes, heads of war- clubs, 

 and arrow-points, were of frequent occurrence. There was no memorial 

 in that part of the country to indace a belief that it had been inhabited 

 by any race of aborigines, but '^ ' ^ ?euer^I diffusion of the articles above 



