OF THE OLD AND NEW WOBXD. 263 



fauna of the Scottish and the ancient American monuments, is that 

 the former occasionally betray, as might be expected, the conventional 

 characteristics of a traditional type,* while the latter, if they furnish 

 evidence of migration, prove it to have been recent, and to a locality 

 not so distant as to preclude all renewal of intercourse with their 

 ancestral birth-land, t Notwithstanding the great spirit displayed 

 in many of the miniature sculptures of the Mound Builders, however, 

 the difference in point of fidelity of imitation between them and the 

 carvings of foreign subjects on the Scottish standing stones though 

 unmistakeable, is not so great as the descriptions of American 

 Archaeologists would suggest ; while both are alike accompanied by 

 the representations of monstrosities or ideal creations of the fancy, 

 which abundantly prove that the ancient sculptors could work with- 

 out a model. Some of the human heads of the American sculptures 

 for example, if regarded as portraits, must be supposed to be design- 

 ed in the style of Punch \% and several of the animals figured in 

 " The Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," e. g. the wild 

 cat, Fig. 158 ; the " very spirited, though not minutely accurate head 

 of the Elk," Fig. 161, and the supposed " cherry birds," Figs. 174, 

 175, of one of which it is remarked : "nothing can exceed the life- 

 like expression of the original;" fall far short of the fidelity of imita- 

 tion ascribed to them in the accompanying text. 



It has been noted by more than one American Archaeologist as a 

 singular fact that no relics obviously designed as idols, or objects of 

 worship, have been dug up in the mounds, or found in such circum- 

 stances as to connect them with the religious practices of the Mound 

 Builders. But the very remarkable characteristics of their elaborately 

 sculptured pipes, and the obviously important part they appear to 

 have played in the services accompanying the rites of sacrifice or 

 cremation, and the final construction of the gigantic earth-pyramids 



* It is worthy of note that the objects least truthfully represented among the sculptures 

 of the Mound Builders, also, in some cases at least, appear to be those of animals foreign to 

 the region, e. g. the Toucan (?) " Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley;" Fig. 169 , 

 page 260 ; which might have been better described as a Raven ; and Fig. 178, also a Toucan, 

 but much more of a traditional than truthful portraiture . 



t Vide Archaeology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland. Page 501, and Dr. Wise's Notes 

 on Buddhist Opinions and Monuments. Transactions of R.S.E. Vol. XXI. Page 255. 



J Vide Davis and Squier's Ancient Monuments. Fig. 145, described as the most 

 beautiful of the series, and a head, the workmanship of which is unsurpassed by an5 speci- 

 men of ancient American Art, not excepting the best productions of Mexico and Peru, — 

 fully bears out these remarks. But in contrast with it may be placed Figs. 143, 146 and 148 . 

 and as a still stronger illustration of how far the enthusiasm of the most careful observers 

 may lead them compare Fig. 75, page 193, with the description which says of it : " the atti- 

 tude is alike natural and spirited I" 



