114 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



the "Cincinnati Tablet," and is here believed to be a 

 genuine a iind," though Mr. Whittlesey, before quoted, 

 pronounces it a fraud. The genuineness of the stone 

 has this in its favor, that it was picked up by honest 

 hands, and the act was witnessed by those whose word 

 has never been questioned. The history of the find- 

 ing of the Tablet, together with an able description 

 of the ancient earthworks that once existed on the 

 plateau where Cincinnati now stands, was prepared 

 and published by Robert Clarke, in a pamphlet whose 

 title page bears the following words : " The Pre-His- 

 toric Remains which were found on the site of the 

 City of Cincinnati, Ohio; with a Vindication of the 

 * Cincinnati Tablet,' 1876." 



While I have no reason to question the genuine 

 character of the Cincinnati Tablet, I do not see as 

 much in its engraved fltitings to convince me that a 

 written or pictorial language existed among the 

 Mound Builders, as I find in other sources. Mr. 

 Mercer, a dealer in archseological goods of this city, 

 possesses a vase in good state of preservation which 

 has figures upon its outer surface that were molded 

 there when the utensil was made. The figures are of 

 a different colored clay from the main part of the 

 vase. The vessel will hold a gallon or more ; is trun- 

 cated at the base, bulges in the middle, is constricted 

 in the neck, and flaring a little at the mouth. The 

 decoration may be tortured into a bird with a long neck 

 extended over the wretched outline of a man, the feet 

 of the bird reaching in a circular sweep toward the 

 beak. The ancient artist may have had no intention 

 of representing any such thing, but merely meant to 

 lay on the red clay in a fantastic manner, chiefly de- 

 signing to have the vessel ornamented. 



