FACULTY IN ABOEIGINAL EACES. 8B 



trunks are seen the wigwams of an Indian A'illage." The snn, moon, and the forked light- 

 ning overhead, complete a design which could scarcely deserve serious notice, so palpable 

 is the evidence of the fabrication, were it not for the uumistakeable sincerity with 

 which the author sets forth the narration ; and assures us that after the most careful 

 inquiry " nothing has occurred to shake his faith in the unimpeachable evidence of an 

 honest discovery." ' The figure of the mammoth has a suspiciously near resemblance in 

 all but one respect, to the La Madeleine graving on mammoth ivory. It charges its assail- 

 ants with lowered trunk and erect tail; but instead of presenting, as in the ancient cave- 

 dweller's drawing, evidence of aptitude in the free use of the pencil or graving tool, 

 the scratchings on the Lenape Stone are crude and inartistic, even if tried by the rudest 

 standard of Indian art. It may, perhaps, be worth noting that — if the design has not been 

 purposely reversed in order to evade comparison with the genuine European example, — it 

 is a left-handed drawing. The forgery of palœolithic implements has become a systematic 

 branch of manufacture in Europe ; and the "Grave Creek Stone," the "Ohio Holy Stone," 

 and other similar prodixctions of perverted American ingenuity are familiar to us. It need 

 not, therefore, excite any special wonder to find a like activity in the production of ficti- 

 tious examples of pictorial art. 



But North America has its own ancient artistic race, which, though claiming no such 

 antiqiiity as that of Aquitaine, is in the primary sense of the term, essentially prehistoric. 

 Among the iTsthetic productions of older races of this continent, the carvings and sculp- 

 tures of the Aligéwi, or ancient Mound-builders of Ohio, not only admit of comi)arison 

 with those of Europe's primitive workers in bone and ivory, but even, in one respect, sur- 

 pass them. For it is curious to observe that the palfeolithic artists, whose carvings and 

 drawings manifest such a capacity for appreciating the grace of animal form, and for repro- 

 ducing with such truthfulness objects and scenes familiar to them in the chase, seem to 

 have invariably failed, or at least shown a surprising lack of skill, in their attempts to 

 delineate the human face and figure. Professor de Quatrefages notes of one such carving : 

 '" M. Masséuat has brought from Laugerie Basse a fragment of reindeer's horn, on which 

 is graven a male aurochs fleeing before a man armed with a lance or javelin. The animal 

 is magnificent ; the man, on the contrary, is detestable, devoid alike of proportion and 

 true portraiture." - Some beautiful Mexican terra-cotta human masks have been preserved ; 

 and, amid the endless A'arieties of quaint and whimsical device in Peruvian pottery, singu- 

 larly graceful portrait-vases occur. But, as a rule, even among the civilized Mexicans, imi- 

 tations of the human face and figure seldom passed beyond the grotesque ; and, although 

 the sculptors of Central America and Yucatan manifested an artistic power which accords 

 with the civilization of a lettered people : yet, in the majority of their statues and reliefs, the 

 hviman form and features are subordinated to the symbolism of their mythology, or to 

 mere decorative rec[uirements. In the carvings of the old Mound-builders, as in those of 

 of the Tastly more ancient artists of paheolitliic Europe, we have to deal with miniature 

 works of art ; but both include productions meriting to be so designated. The variety 

 and expressiveness of many of the mound-sculptures their careful execution, and the evi- 

 dence of imitative skill which they furnish, all combine to render them objects of interest. 



' The Lenaiie Stone, or tlie Indian and tlie Mammotli : by H. C. Mercer. New York, 188.5, pp. .5, 17. 

 ' Hommes fossiles et Hommes sauvages, p. 49. 



