PROF. SEVFFARTH. INSCRIPTIONS OF THE DAVENPORT TABLETS. 75 



two inscribed talilets of coal slate, of which one bears an inscription 

 on each side. 



Although the time has not yet come, as was confessed in the prem- 

 ises, to explain the said graphic monuments of the primitive inhabit- 

 ants of our country satisfactorily, nevertheless, I shall pronounce my 

 ideas concerning the representations on the Tablets, hoping that they 

 will contribute a share to the final solution of the problem. 



Plate I,* 



of which PI. II is the reverse, obviously shows a sacrificial festivity of 

 an Indian tribe. The fire and the flame upon a hill are apparent. 

 The toj) of the hill is encompassed l)y a stone wall, probalily forming 

 the altar or the enclosure of that tem])le. Remember that the pagan 

 temples in Germany were situated upon natural or artificial hills.f 

 Subsequent to the introduction of Christianity in Germany Christian 

 churches were built upon such hills instead of the pagan temples. A 

 great many of similar Indian hills are to be found in America, e. c/., 

 the big mound in St. Louis, the Teocallis of Mexico, and similar 

 ones.J All such hills were, as is the case with that on our Tablet, 

 Indian temples, or sacrificial mounds. 



Further, near the fire, three fettered men, lying on the ground, are 

 conspicuous, obviously the victims. Since the whole of the tribe, in- 

 cluding the lower part of the slab liroken off, — about fifty men,— are 

 dancing and shouting round the fire, it is probable that the victims 

 were the captured chiefs of another tribe, being conquered. 



The sacrifice, moreover, is offered to the sun and the moon and the 

 twelve great gods on the starry heaven. For the little orbs between 

 the sun and the moon are the stars, and the two curves above them 

 represent the Zodiac and the heavenly fiimament. Thus it is evident 

 that the North American Indians formerly worshipped the seven plan- 

 ets and twelve signs of tlie Zodiac, /. f-., the twelve great gods of all 

 nations of anti(juity. This result will ])e put l^eyond question by the 

 Tablets, represented on Plates III and VII. 



According to another interpretation, our slab signifies a cremation 

 scene ; but the Indians of our country, as is well known, did not burn 

 their dead, but interred them, and on such occasions no entire tribe 



* These references are to Plates I, II, III. VII, in the Proceedings, Vol. ii. 

 + See Seyjfarth, Ueber Opferpliitze und Religion der alten Deutsclien, mit 

 2 lithogr. tafelu, 1842. < Neues Lausitzer Magazin. B. vi, H. 2, p. 151. 

 X See Transactions of the Acad, of Sci. of St. Louis, Vol. i, pp. 36. 07, 700. 



