ERRORS A>TD FRAUDS. 



No large amount of space need be occupied in the mention of recog- 

 nized pictographic frauds, their importance being small, but much more 

 than is now allowed would be required for the discussion of contro- 

 verted cases. 



There is little inducement, beyond a disposition to hoax, to commit 

 actual frauds in the fabrication of rock-carvings. The instances where 

 inscribed stones from mounds have been ascertained to be forgeries or 

 fictitious drawings have been about equally divided between simple 

 mischief and an attempt either to increase the marketable value ot 

 some real estate, supposed to contain more, or to sell the specimens. 



With regard to the much more familiar and more portable material 

 of engraved pipes, painted robes and like curios, it is well known to 

 all recent travelers in the West who have had former experience that 

 the fancy juices paid by amateurs for those decorations have stimulated 

 their wholesale manufacture by Indians at agencies (locally termed 

 "coffee-coolers'"), who make a business of sketching upon ordinary 

 robes or plain pipes the characters in common use by them, without 

 regard to any real event or person, and selling them as curious records. 



This pictorial forgery would seem to show a gratifying advance of 

 the Indians in civilization, but it is feared that the credit of the inven- 

 tion is chiefly due to some enterprising traders who have been known 

 to furnish the unstained robes, plain pipes, paints, and other materials 

 for the purpose, and simply pay a skillful Indian for his work, when 

 the fresh antique or imaginary chronicle is delivered. 



Six inscribed copper plates were said to have been found in a mound 

 near Kinderhook, Pike County, Illinois, which were reported to bear a 

 close resemblance to < ihinese. This resemblance seemed not to be so 

 extraordinary when it was ascertained that the plate had been en- 

 graved by the village blacksmith, copied from the lid of a Chinese tea- 

 ehest. 



Mica plates were found in a mound at Lower Sandusky, Ohio, which, 

 after some attempts at interpretation, proved to belong to the material 

 known as graphic or hieroglyphic mica, the discoloratious having been 

 caused by the infiltration of mineral solution between the lamina?.. 



The following recent notice of a case of alleged fraud is quoted from 

 Science, Vol. Ill, No. 58, March 14, 1884, page 334: 



Dr. N. Roc Bradner exhibited [at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 

 Pennsylvania,] an inscribed stone found inside a skull taken from one of the ancient 

 mounds at Newark, Ohio, in 1865, An exploration of the regiou had been undertaken 



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