36 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



selves in the country south of Lake Ontario. There the Tartars or Samoiedes found 

 them ; and having first exterminated the Malays, who had advanced along the Ohio 

 and its tributaries, had a harder task to subdue the warlike Europeans entrenched 

 and fortified in the country. The Scandinavians, he thinks, were ultimately over- 

 powered in New York, and finally retreated to Labrador. 



The theory that the mound-builders came from India, or were of a common origin 

 with the Hindoos, was greatly strengthened by the discovery in Kentucky of a 

 piece of pottery, fashioned in the form of three human heads united at their backs 

 with a vase, which they supported. It was commonly called the " Triune idol, or 

 vessel." " Does it not represent the three chief gods of India — Brahma, Vishnoo, 

 and Siva ?" is the exclamation of Mr. Atwater. Moreover, no less than nine murex 

 shells had been found in the same State, within twenty miles of Lexington. Shells 

 so highly esteemed in India, and consecrated to the god Mahadeva, corresponding 

 to the Neptune of the Greeks and Romans. 



These articles had been collected by Mr. John D. Clifford, of Lexington, a rival, 

 and sometimes antagonist of Mr. Atwater, in the field of archseological research ; 

 who, while the latter was preparing his notes for the press, was aiming, in a series 

 of articles in the " Western Review," to demonstrate the proposition that the mound- 

 builders were the ancestors of the Mexicans, and descended from the ancient Hindoos. 



Mr. Clifford's argument, and his investigations, were both suddenly arrested by 

 his death ; yet they doubtless had an influence in strengthening the views of his 

 contemporary. 



Mr. Atwater's opinions are expressed in the following extracts : — 



" The Scythians, from whom the Tartars are descended, in all probability first 

 peopled the British Isles. The fact that our works are in all respects like those in 

 Britain, and that similar works may be found all the way from this part of America 

 to Tartary, furnishes no contemptible proof that the Tartars were the authors of 

 ours also. But were the ancestors of our North American Indians the authors of our 

 works ? Had not such an opinion been advanced by some great and good men in 

 the United States, the foundation on which it rests is so frail, that I certainly should 

 •not trouble myself or my readers to refute it." 



" Have our present race of Indians ever buried their dead in mounds ? Have 

 they constructed such works as are described in the preceding pages ? Were they 

 acquainted with the use of silver, or iron, or copper ? All these, curiously wrought, 

 were found in one mound at Marietta. Did the ancestors of our Indians burn the 

 bodies of distinguished chiefs on funeral piles, and then raise a lofty tumulus over 

 the urn that contained their ashes ? Did the North American Indians erect any- 

 thing like the 'walled town' on Paint creek? Did they ever dig such wells as are 

 found at Marietta, Portsmouth, and above all such as those on Paint creek ? Did 

 they manufacture vessels from calcareous breccia, equal to any now made in Italy ? 

 Did they ever make and worship an idol representing the three principal gods of 

 India?" 



" An idol found in a tumulus near Nashville, Tennessee, and now in the museum 

 of Mr. Clifford, of Lexington, Kentucky, will probably assist us in forming some 

 idea as to the origin of the authors of our western antiquities. Like the ' Triune 



