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APPENDIX. 



not originating a new practice, but acting in conformity with usages well known 

 and established. The stone set up by Joshua under the oak at Shechem, was 

 assuredly an evidence and memorial of the covenant into- which he had entered 

 with God. The incidental references to stones of this kind, in the Bible, show 

 that they were numerous. Thus, there is "the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben" 

 (Josh, xviii.), and the great stone known as " the stone of Abel," upon which the 

 ark was placed in returning from the Philistines. — (1 Sam. vi.) The Hebrews 

 also set up stones as monumerits of victories ; such was the Ebenezer, " the stone 

 of help," set up by Samuel. — (Sam. vii.) Greek historians inform us that a similar 

 custom existed among that people, derived from their ancestors. Every memora- 

 ble field of battle throughout Greece has its tumulus or polyandrio?i. 



Among the aborigines of America, stones were sometimes erected for precisely 

 similar purposes. We have an instance, mentioned by Col. Emory, in which an 

 erect stone was raised by some of the Indians of Northern Mexico, in commemora 

 tion of a treaty or compact. He says : " At this point (on the plains bordering the 

 Moro River, New Mexico), we were atti-acted to the left by an object which we 

 supposed to be an Indian ; but on coming up to it, we found it to be a sandstone 

 block standing on end, sui-mounted by another shorter block. A mountain man, 

 versed in these signs, said it was in commemoration of a talk and friendly smoke 

 between some two or three tribes of Indians." — (Military Reconnoissance from the 

 U. S. to California.^ 



The superstitions of the Indians exhibit themselves in a thousand forms, and 

 extend to almost every remarkable object in nature. A stone which, from the 

 action of natural causes, has assumed the general form of a man or an animal, is 

 especially an object of regard; and the fancied resemblance is often heightened 

 by artificial means, as by daubs of paint, indicating the eyes, mouth, and other 

 features. Mr Schoolcraft has presented the public with sketches of a number of 



these rude idols, all of which were found to the north-west of the Great Lakes. 

 No. 1 in the cut was brought to the Indian Office at Mackinaw, in 1839 ; number 

 2 was found on Thunder Bay Island, in Lake Huron, in 1 820, where it had been 

 set up under a tree. The island is small and barren, and in its solitary, desolate 

 aspect furnished a place eminently appropriate, according to the Indian supersti- 



