HENBHAW.] 



CINCINNATI TABLET. 



133 



otters or not, the main point in the present connection being that they 

 cannot have been intended as manatees. 



Before leaving the subject of the manatee, attention may be called 

 to a curious fact in connection with the Cincinnati Tablet, "of which 

 a wood-cut is given in The Ancient Monuments " (p. 275, Fig. 195). 

 If the reverse side as there shown be coin]>nrfd with the same view as 

 presented by Short in The North 

 Americans of Antiquity, p. 45, or 

 in MacLean's Mouud-Buiklers, i). 

 107, a remarkable discrepancy Ix 

 twecn the two will be observed. 



In the former, near the top, is in- 

 dicated what appears to be a shape 

 less depression, formless and un- 

 meaning so far as its resemblance 

 to any special object is concerned. 

 The authors remark of this side of 

 the tablet, " The back of the stone 

 has three deeiJ longitudinal grooves, 

 and several depressions, evidently 

 caused by rubbing, — probably pro- 

 duced in sharpening the instrument 

 used in the sculpture." This ex- 

 ])lauatiou of the depressions would 

 seem' to be rc^asonable, although il 

 has been disputed, and a "peculiar 

 significance" (Short) attached to 

 this side of the tablet. In Short's 

 engraving, while the front side cor- 

 responds closely with the same view given by Squier and Davis, 

 there is a notable difference observable on the reverse side. For the 

 formless depression of the Squier and Davis cut not only occupies a 

 somewhat different position in relation to the top and sides of the tab- 

 let, but, as will be seen by reference to the figure, it assumes a distinct 

 form, having in some mysterious way been metamorphosed into a figure 

 which oddly enough suggests the manatee. It does not appear that the 

 attention of archfeologists has ever been directed to the fact that such 

 a resemblauce exists ; nor indeed is the resemblance snfSciently close 

 to justify calling it a veritable manatee. But with the aid of a little 

 imagination it may in a rude way suggest that animal, its earless head 

 and the flipper being the most striking, in tact the only, point of like- 

 ness. Conceding that the figure as given by Short affords a rude hint 

 of the manatee, the question is how to account for its presence on this 

 the latest representation of the tablet which, according to Short, Mr. 

 Guest, its ownei', pronounces " the first correct representations of the 

 stone." The cast of this tablet in the Smithsonian Institution agrees 



Fig. 12 



-CinciDnati Tablet. (Back.) From Squire 

 and Davis. 



