l'4 DAVKM'OKI AlADK.Xn' (»K NAIlltAl, SllKNCKS. 



The liidiaii* Inscriptions of Davenport, Iowa. 



H\ PKOF. (i. SEYKKAKTII, I'M. 1)., TH. I). 



The four photogTaphed iiiscri])ti()iis under coiisideiaticju, published 

 in the Proeeediuos of the Academy <jf Sciences of Davenport, Iowa, 

 A'ol. 11, ISTT, p. 1)'^, aiid, a few weeks ao(), transmitted to me for ex- 

 amination, are much nioie important than I e.\))ected. Tlu^v are the 

 first discovered ]ilu)netic and astioiiomic monuments of the primitive 

 inliahitants of this coinitrv, whicli, sooner or later, will cast vmex- 

 pected lioiit upon the oriu-in, the historv, the religion, the lang-uag"e, 

 the science and intellectual facidties of our ancient liulians. For the 

 present, however, it is natmal, no satisfactoiv interpretation of these 

 Indian relics can he performed, because, without a nuich g-reater 

 number of similai- inscri])tions and interior knowledge of related dia- 

 lects, it is inipossil)le to d<^tei'mine the ])honetic values of nearly ^00 

 characters and the lexical signiHcation of a corresponding number of 

 old Indian words. Another dithculty is that many characters, obvious 

 on our Tablets, aie imperfectly represented on the photographic 

 plates, because all lines oi a figure, running parallel to the direction 

 of the light, remain indistinct, whilst sciatches appear like engraved 

 lines. It would, therefore, be a meritorious act to publish, before (dl., 

 exact fac similes of the Tablets, taken from the originals themselves 

 by means of a magnifying glass, as has been done with the Kosetta 

 stone in 1812. Under these circumstances, it will not astonish the 

 leader that the writer confines himself to but a small lumdjer of 

 lemarks, as follows : — 



1. The Tablets, Xos. 1, 111, IV, contain nearly 200 characteis, of 

 which, however, IB occur several times. The remaining 150 or nior6 

 different figures, the human and animal delineations not being* taken 

 into account, demonstrate that the primitive inhabitants of our country 

 did not use the simple Noachian alphabet of ^I'h letters, but a great 

 number of syllable .n</n.s, originated from the said alphabet, as was 

 and is still the case in Egypt, Japan, (3orea, China and central Africa. 

 Livingstonf reports that the people of Bermegai used 280 characters 

 for syllabically expressing the words of their spoken language. From 

 the late Missionary Guitzlaff 1 learned that the 40,000 Chinese types 

 are not idealogic, but syllabic. Hence the city of Cassell was ex- 



* Prof. Seyffarth uses the word " Indian " in this paper in its more general 

 sense, as appljin<>: to all former inhabitants of this continent, and not re- 

 stricted to the modern Indians. — [Editor. 



f Seventeen Years Explorations in Africa, Phila., 1858, page 335. 



