130 ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



These collectanea are necessarily of a miscellaneous, and not always entirely 

 consistent character, and are liable to a good deal of repetition. Whether they are 

 to have no other than their present documentary form, or are to be digested in a 

 future volume, has not been announced. In the mean time, through the various 

 communications and compilations of which the work is composed, a current of 

 editorial opinion is permitted to flow, that, to a careful reader, may sufficiently 

 indicate the general conclusions which the aggregate of information is deemed to 

 justify. 



Under the title of Antiquities, some new surveys have been registered, and fresh 

 information collected, especially respecting remains at the South, and relating to 

 rocks bearing sculptured marks and figures. Implements, utensils, ornaments, and 

 fabrics, are minutely described and illustrated ; and, in this and other connections, the 

 number and variety of archaeological elements embodied in the volumes are too great 

 to be particularized. They comprehend comparisons of ancient and modern arts and 

 customs; the traditionary legends of the natives; the scientific deductions of natu- 

 ralists; philological analyses and classifications; and, in brief, whatever else has 

 been supposed in any way to pertain to the subject. Throughout all departments 

 of the work admitting of exemplification, the artist and the engraver have profusely 

 distributed the highest efforts of their illustrative skill. 



It has been less necessary, and less desirable, to notice particularly, in previous 

 pages, the numerous publications of Mr. Schoolcraft during his protracted study of 

 Indian history, because the wide range of these national volumes may be presumed 

 to embrace his latest knowledge, and his matured reflections, on all points to which 

 his attention has at any time been directed. We may gather, from the different 

 connections in which his views are expressed, some prominent examples that will 

 disclose their general nature and tendency. 



While frequently admonishing the reader of the little reliance to be placed upon 

 Indian traditions, they are still received as legitimate, if sometimes deceptive, 

 elements of opinion; and generally, in the hypotheses that are framed, have more or 

 less of weight attached to their evidence. As they have played no part of much 

 importance in our narrative thus far, it is of more interest to observe the degree of 

 consideration they receive from Mr. Schoolcraft. 



Speaking of the origin of the natives, he says : " Thus we have traditionary 

 gleams of a foreign origin of the race of the North American Indians; from separate 

 stocks of nations, extending, at intervals, from the arctic circle to the valley of 

 Mexico. Dim as these traditions are, they shed some light on the thick historical 

 darkness which shrouds the period. They point decidedly to a foreign, to an 

 oriental, if not a Shemitic origin." (Vol. I, p. 26.) 



On page 199 of Vol. IV. he says, in reference to the Erics : " The veil that 

 conceals their history is lifted in a curious, ill-digested, and obscure pamphlet of 

 Indian traditions, by a semi-educated Tuscarora (Cusic), which was printed in the 

 ancient country of the Iroquois in 1825. ' n 



In adverting to the Iroquois traditions recorded by Cusic, that refer to the 



1 Sketches of the Ancient History of the Six Nations. Dy David Cusic. 



