HOLMES.) THE qfiOSS OF THK MOUNU-IiUlLDERS. 209 



to the pages of the great archiBologic record, where we find that it ociaipies 

 a place iu aiicieut American art so intimately interwoven with concep- 

 tions peculiar to the continent that it cannot be separated from them. 

 It is found associated with other prehistoric remains throughout nearly 

 the entire length and breadth of America. 



I have the pleasure of presenting a few new examples of this emblem, 

 obtained from the district at one time occui)ied by the mound-builders. 

 The examples are carved in .shell or engraved upon disks of shell which 

 have been employed as pendant gorgets. In the study of these particu- 

 lar relics, one important fact in recent history must be kept constantly iu 

 mind. The first explorers were accompanied by Christian zealots, who 

 spared no effort to root out the native superstitions and introduce a 

 foreign religion, of which the cross was the all-important symbol. This 

 emblem wasgenerallyacceptedby the savages as the only tangible feature 

 of a new system of belief that was tilled with subtleties too i)rofound 

 for their comprehension. As a result, the cross was at once introduced 

 into the regalia of the natives; at first probably in a European form 

 and material attached to a string of beads in precisely the manner that 

 they had been accustomed to suspend their own trinkets and gorgets; 

 but soon, no doubt, delineated or carved by their own hands ui)on tab- 

 lets of stone and coi>per and shell, in the place of their own peculiar con- 

 ceptions. From the time of La Salle down to the extinction of the sav- 

 age in the middle Mississippi province, the cross was kept constantly be- 

 fore him, and its presence may thus be accounted for in such remains as 

 post-date the advent of the whites. Year after year articles of European 

 manufacture are being discovered in the most unexpected places, and 

 we shall find it impossible to assign any single example of these crosses 

 to a prehistoric period, with the assurance that our statements will not 

 some day be challenged. It is certainly unfortunate that the American 

 origin of any work of art resembling European forms must rest forever 

 under a cloud of suspicion. As long as a doubt exists in regard to the 

 origin of a relic, it is useless to employ it in a discussion where import 

 ant deductions are to be made. At the same time it should not be for- 

 gotten that the cross was undoubtedly used as a symbol by the prehis- 

 toric nations of the South, and consequently that it was probably also 

 known in the North. A great majority of the relics associated with it 

 in ancient mounds and burial places are undoubtedly aboriginal. In 

 the case of the shell gorgets, the tablets themselves belong to an Ameri- 

 can type, and are highly characteristic of the art of the Mississippi Val- 

 ley. A majority of the designs engraved upon them are also charac- 

 teristic of the same district. 



We find at rare intervals designs that are characteristically foreign; 

 these, whether Mexican or European, are objects of special interest and 

 merit the closest i)Ossible examination. That ihe design under con- 

 sideration, as well as every other engraved upon these tablets, is sym- 

 bolic or otherwise significant, I do not for a moment doubt; but Ihe 



