THOMAS.) SIMILAR MANUFACTURES. 701 



It is apparent to every one who will inspect the figures that in all 

 their leading characters the designs are suggestive of Mexican or Cen- 

 tral American origin. In fact there can be no doubt that they were 

 derived in some way from these more civilized countries either directly 

 or, as is more probable, indirectly. While there is n(jthing to be found 

 in the designs or workmanship of the shells suggestive of European 

 influence, the same can not be said of the copper plates. First, the 

 wings arise from the back as angel wings, and do not replace the arms, 

 as in Mexican designs; second, the stamping seems to have been done 

 with a harder metal than the aborigines were acquainted with. But 

 the decision of this question is not essential to the point at pi'eseut 

 under discussion. What bears more directly on this point, and is cor- 

 roborative of the theory here advanced, is that the only other copper 

 articles similar to those described which have been obtained, were found 

 at the following points : 



Fragments in a stone grave at Lebanon, in middle Tennessee, by Prof. 

 Putnam; ' fragments in a stone grave in a mound at Mdl creek, south- 

 ern Illinois, by Mr. Earle; in a stone grave in Jackson county, Illinois, 

 by Mr. Thing; in a mound of Madison county, Illinois, by Mr. H. R. 

 Howland; and in a small mound at Peoria, Illinois, by Maj. J. W.Pow- 

 ell. All except the specimens found by Prof. Putnam and Mr. H. E. 

 Howland were obtained by the Bureau of Ethnology and are now in the 

 National Museum. 



There can be but little doubt that the specimens obtained from the 

 simple stone graves by Prof. Putnam and Mr. Thing are to be attribu- 

 ted to Indian burials, but surely not to Indian manufacture. We have 

 therefore two unbroken chains connecting the Indians of historic times 

 with the " veritable mound-builders," and the facts which form the links 

 of these chains throw some additional light on the history of that some- 

 what mysterious people, the Shawnees. The engraved shells also form 

 another link which not only connects the mound-biulders with historic 

 times, as heretofore intimated, but tends to corroborate what has been 

 advanced in regard to the Shawnees. 



ENGRAVED SHELLS, STONE PIPES, COPPER ARTICLES, STONE IMAGES. 



ENGRAVED SHELLS. 



These form another link connecting the Indians of historic times 

 with the mound-builders, and, what is of still more importance, their 

 presence in a given locality appears to be an almost certain indication 

 that that particular locality was occupied at some time by one of two 

 tribes. There are probably some exceptions to this rule, but it is be- 

 lieved they are few. 



The following list of localities where specimens have been found, 



I Fifteenth Kep. Peaboily Mus., 1882, Fig. 13, p. 102. 



