SCHOOLCRAFT'S NATIONAL WORK. 133 



i. e." teachings" which prevails among the tribes from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. 

 Having become acquainted with a highly intelligent chief, who was familiar 

 with the use and signification of those characters, Mr. Schoolcraft put himself under 

 his instructions, and subsequently employed him to decipher the inscription on the 

 Dighton Rock. 



Tbis chief (Chingwauk) accordingly took the volume containing the various 

 delineations of those figures to his lodge, and studied it with some of his compa- 

 nions. The next day, he appeared with two of his brethren, one of them acting 

 as his principal assistant, and in the presence of an approved interpreter and two 

 members of Mr. Schoolcraft's family, all well versed in the Chippewa and English 

 languages, the explanation was given. 



The inscription was determined to be of a kind practised by " an ancient class 

 of seers, and termed " Muz-zin-na-bik (i. e., rock writing)," and was attributed to 

 " the ancient YVa-be-na-kies, or New England Indians." It was said to relate to 

 two nations, both Indian, and that none of the figures denoted a foreigner ; but 

 the record had reference to a battle, and was made by the triumphant party. 

 The details of this exposition are minutely illustrated, and the force or meaning 

 given "to each particular mark explained. 



For some reason, which he did not mention, Chingwauk confined himself strictly 

 to the drawing made by Dr. Baylies and Mr. Goodwin, in 1790. There were some 

 characters which he threw out, as having no significancy. Two of these were 

 among the number interpreted by the Danish antiquaries ; three others connected 

 with them could be spared from Chingwauk's reading without impairing its sense ; 

 and Mr. Schoolcraft inferred, at that time, that these were due to the Northmen, 

 and perhaps had given the hint to the natives, at a later period, to record their own 

 traditions on the same stone. (Vol. I. p. 108, et seq.) 



In 1853, a new copy was taken from the rock, under his own supervision, by the 

 daguerreotype process; and from this he decided that the inscription was entirely 

 Indian, without those traces of Runic letters and Roman figures wdiich were thought 

 to be discernible in former drawings. (Vol. IV. p. 120.) 



An inscribed rock on Cunningham's island, near the southern shore of Lake Erie, 

 described as the most extensive and best preserved inscription that has been found 

 (which we imagine to be the same that the missionary Kirkland noticed in 1788) 

 has also been interpreted by Chingwauk. In this case, the events recorded are 

 explained as having occurred since the arrival of Europeans, whose hats are drawn 

 among the figures. (Vol. II. p. 88, Vol. III. p. 85.) 



As these pictorial sculptures have a marked family resemblance wherever they 

 are found, throughout the United States, they may fairly be ascribed to the same 

 people, even if they belong to different eras. 



Mr. Schoolcraft has, in former times, given his opinion very decidedly in favor 

 of the genuineness of the " Grave Creek Stone," having communicated respecting 

 it with various learned societies abroad and at home. He still regards it as 

 belonging to a class which he denominates " Intrusive Antiquities." He says, 

 " An inscription, in apparently some form of the Celtic character, came to light in 

 the Ohio valley in 183S. This relic occurred in one of the principal tumuli of 



