FARQUH ARSON ON INSCRIBED TABLETS. 109 



with the radius of one inch, and the spaces between the outer cii'cles 

 average nearly three-quarters (f ) of an inch. This certainly has a mod- 

 ern look, but the apparent agreement with modern measures of 

 length may be, after all, merely a coincidence. For in an elaborately 

 carved shell ornament, found by Dr. Jones in a sacrificial or sepulchral 

 mound near Nashville, Tenn.,* and figured in this work, I find very 

 nearly the same measures, the central circle being first of one (1) inch 

 radius, and the distances between the outer circles being about a quarter 

 (i) of an inch. If we consider this a calendar stone, and the twelve (12) 

 signs as marking the divisions of the year, then it does not in the least 

 resemble the Mexican and Maya calendars. If again we consider it as 

 zodiacal, the signs in the outer circle being symbols of the constellations 

 along the sun's path, then, though the signs are different, yet the resem- 

 blance to the common zodiac is so great as to suggest contact with one 

 of the many nations or races which have adopted that very ancient 

 delineation of the sun's pathway through the heavens. 



It is very difficult, if not impossible, to inake out the animals and other 

 figures on this stone. I can decipher but one, which seems to be the 

 cross-l)ones surmounted by a flame, the former being found quite fre- 

 quently in Maya sculpture, but always accompanied, as in modern times, 

 with the figure of a skull. 



THE SACRIFICIAL OR CRE^IATION SCENE, AND THE LETTERS OR 

 HIEROGLYPHICS (PLATE l). 



There is a general agreement that this represents a burning of the 

 dead. That the mound builders practiced cremation we have abundant 

 evidence in the burnt human bones in the altar mounds, though Bancroft 

 thinks their presence suggests human sacrifice. That they collected a 

 number of bodies, or rather skeletons, for cremation, seems quite prob- 

 able ; this would account for the three bodies present. 



La Hon tan says : " The savages on the Long River (Mississippi) burn 

 their dead, reserving the bodies until there are a sufficient number to 

 burn together, which is performed out of the village, in a place set apart 

 for the purpose." 



We come now to what is, no doubt, to most of you, the most interest- 

 ing part of the subject— the consideration of the letters or figures occu- 

 pying the two scrolls above the cremation scene, and also the corners 

 above the scrolls. I must, in the first place, confess my utter inability to 

 throw any light on the subject, the mastery of languages requsite for such 

 a purpose being entirely beyond my power. The following observations 

 may, however, enable you to see the mode and direction of my groping 

 in the dark : Counting the total number of figures, I make ninety-eight 

 (98), twenty-four (24) in one line, twenty (20) in the other, and fifty-four 

 (54) above the lines, deducting twenty-four (24) repetitions, and there 

 remains seventy-four (74) separate figures. 



♦Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee, p. 43. 



