Pi;OF. SKYFFAKTII. TXSCRIPTIOXS OF THE DAVFXPOKT TABLETS. 7o 



pressed by two types, ol" which one sounded ks, the other si. Hence 

 it is pi"oliable that the American Indians eniio-rated from a country 

 where a sylla1)ic method of writing prevailed. 



2. If we compare the characters on the Davenport slabs with those 

 preserved on Mexican and South American monuments, we notice 

 itistantly that many of them agree with each other, as the adjoined 

 PUite (PI. 1, lines (7, 6',/",) abundantly evidences. Little discrepancies 

 (PI. I, lines cy, b, c, ) make no difference, because different hands draw 

 the same letters differently. In comparing- the Davenport signs with 

 Mexican and South American ones I followed Prof. Wuttke's "Ent- 

 stehung cler Schrift," 1872, ■which however does not represent a great 

 many of American inscriptions. The harmon}- of the Iowa, Mexican 

 and South American characters jiuts beyond question that all the prim- 

 itive inhal)itants of i\.merica must have descended from the same ab- 

 origines. 



3. It is self-evident that America must have Ijeen po{)ulated by 

 the next nations, of course by the Japanese, Coreans, and Chinese. 

 This conclusion is justified by the 15 Indian letters, corresponding 

 with Chinese, Corean, and Japanese ones, (PI. I, lines r/, A, /, /•, /,) 

 found in Wuttke's aforesaid work. I do not doubt that scholars, be- 

 ing familiar with Japanese and (yhinese literature, will find a hundred 

 other antitypes of our Indian characters. The Northmt^n, it is true, 

 discovered North America prior to Columbus, but the Indian charac- 

 ters on the Davenport monuments point us clearly to the Chinese 

 syllabic figures, and not to the alphabetic runes. 



4. It would be interesting in the extreme to read a graunnatical 

 translation of the Iowa inscriptions ; but as long as Indian [jaleogra- 

 phy, just l)eing born, is in its infancy, nobody will ex})ect interpreta- 

 tions of texts, of which tlie underlying language and the pronuncia- 

 tion of the elements are not yet made out. Nevertheless, the Chinese 

 and Japanese paleography and lexicograplw will help to determine, 

 sooner or later, the phonetic value of the letters and the nature of the 

 dialect of the ancient Indians in our country. Besides, since it is not 

 to be expected to discover Indian ])ilingual inscriptions, like the Ro- 

 setta and Tanis stones, the single words of the Iowa inscriptions are 

 to be translated acconhng to the context ; but it is extremely difficult 

 to correctly translate the single groups of an inscription, written in 

 unknown characters, without having a great many similar inscriptions 

 at hand, where the same groups return in other connections. 



5. In addition, it is to be mentioned, that our slaljs cast unex- 

 [Proc. D. A. N. S., Vol. III.] 10 [July 1, 1881.] 



