PROF. SEYFPARTH. INSCRIPTIONS OF THE DAVEXPOllT TABLETS. 77 



which several are eitra;/t'd, and hence preserved for a future time':' 

 What has the elephant to do with North America V I should think 

 these particulars abundantly evidence that our Tal)let is a memorial 

 of the Noachian deluge, and a commentary to all other American tra- 

 ditions confirming the latter. It makes no diffei-ence whether this 

 slab was engraved in America or in that country from which the first 

 Indians emigrated ; whether it was the work of that man in wlujse 

 grave it was discovered, or was a sacred relic preserved from genera- 

 tion to generation. 



According; to another o|)ini()n, this Tablet presents a hunting scene. 

 But in this case we do not understand why no hunting instruments 

 are visible; that a patriarch, holding a cane in his hand, stands (piietly 

 in the midst of thirty animals; that four women sitting on the ground 

 partake in this hvniting scene. 



Plate III. 



This is, no doubt, the most interesting and the most important Tali- 

 let ever discovered in North America. For it represents a planetary 

 configuration, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, known to all nations of 

 old, and the seven planets, conjoined with six ditferent signs. 



First, in the midst of four concentric circles, we see the disk or 

 globe of the earth. The next girdle lietMeen the belt of the Zodiac 

 and the earth is divided into four equal parts, or quadrants, each con- 

 taining three signs, corresponding with the spring, summer, autunm 

 and winter. The twelve signs run, as is the case with the Zodiacal 

 constellations, from the right to the left hand. The figures of the 

 signs are the same which we find depicted on Egyptian, Greek, Ro- 

 man and other monuments, and called Aries (T), Taurus (b), Gem- 

 ini (n). Cancer (S), Leo (ft), Virgo (ilB), Libra (^), Scorpio (Til), 

 Sagittarius (/), Capricornus (V'3), Aquarius (^r), Pisces (~). It is, 

 however, to be borne in mind that these images are represented'on 

 the Tablet as they appear if being contemplated from the earth, c c/., 

 Gemini. Our copy, (PI. I, line 7t,) on the contrary, represents their 

 natural position, being clearer to the spectator. 



The signs, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, are plain enough. Gemini are 

 ex])ressed by two sitting children, like the constellation of Gemini, at 

 present Castor and Pollux. Cancer is expressed by the shears and 

 the head of that animal. Leo and Virgo are likewise naturally delin- 

 eated, and Vu-go, as it seems to me, bears in her hands Spica (Vir- 

 ginis.) The same is to be said of the figures of Libra, Scorpio, and 



