AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY. 115 



Vases ornamented with turtle's feet and head are 

 not uncommon. The outlines of birds, frogs, and of 

 the human figure, are frequently found wrought in pot- 

 tery, as well as in stone pipes, and other implements. 



The language of a savage people is largely made 

 up of animal forms, and ideas associated with their 

 nature. If Sitting Bull were to construct his auto- 

 biography, he would take a dressed buffalo skin, and 

 paint its entire surface with pictures of birds, snakes, 

 beavers, wolves, bears, antelopes, panthers, and such 

 animals as he conceived to represent his authority, his 

 achievements, his ambition, his revenge, his victories, 

 and his defeats. If asked to read this pictorial life 

 history or autobiography, he might be an hour in put- 

 ting these symbols of extended thought into words, and 

 he would declare that what he said was all embraced 

 in the signification he gave these animal forms. 



If the Mound Builders ever employed figures to 

 represent ideas, so much was left to the imagination 

 to supply, that the knowledge could not be conveyed 

 to a stranger, nor handed down from one generation 

 to another, except that the figure of an eagle, a bear, 

 a wolf, or a snake was the heraldic emblem of the 

 family. All savage races possess a disposition to or- 

 nament their weapons and utensils ; and some of them 

 tattoo their persons. A Cannibal Islander may have 

 his skin covered with ornamental figures, yet none ot 

 them may represent an idea. 



I believe it to be unreasonable to expect the dis- 

 covery of any thing that can be dignified with the 

 name of a written language among the relics of the 

 Mound Builders. They were in the habit of fashion- 

 ing weapons, implements, and utensils from stone and 

 other imperishable materials they grooved, drilled, 



