Literature and Religion of the Mound Builders. 131 



The next grand effort should be to disinter more of this buried 

 literature, and see whether by the study of it, some genuine 

 knowledge of the past can be made to rise from these tombs. 

 It is also necessary to make a thorough study of the dialects of 

 those tribes, who seem to be descended from the Mound Builders,, 

 for they will furnish a necessary stepping stone to the interpreta- 

 tion of the inscriptions, just as the study of Coptic was an essential 

 pre-requisite to the translation of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. 



Ko. 6, Sixteenth street, Chicago, Feb. 8, 1877. 



