36 
THE SCIENI IST. 
of the pygiiUnm, also by the lateral lobes 
and the niari^iii, being separated by a 
shallow but distinct furrow. 
For the Scikntist. 
Tlie WaliiFii Oliim. 
Some years a;^o Dr. Brintoii issued as 
a portion of his '-Library of Aboriginal 
American Literature"' a volume entitled 
'•The Lenape and their Leo-ends,''--one 
of the most valuable of these mono- 
graphs. 
The raison cTetre of this book is the 
Walam Olum, or Red Score, of the Del- 
awai-es, which is reproduced in fac simile 
with the Indian text and a new transla- 
tion by the learned editor. It is preceded 
and followed by introductions, linguistic 
discu-^sions and vocabularies that equip 
the reader, or rather the student, for the 
task of extracting both instruction and 
pleasure from this- aboriginal chronicle 
of America. 
What is Walam Olum? Its history, 
were it tirst put forth in our day, would 
condemn its authenticity at once among 
the self-constituted censors of such things 
at Washington. It was first made public 
by an outcast scientist named Kafinesque. 
He was, or claimed to be, intensely inter- 
ested in American archjiaology and li- 
guistics; but being poor, eccentric, slov- 
enly in person, ci'anky in his views and 
a predecessor of Dr. Koch in the manu- 
facture of a curative nostrum for phthisis, 
he was looked at askance by learned so- 
cieties and compelled to pursue his in- 
vestigations without the countenance or 
sympathy of scientific men. Moreovei-. 
when he publishid the Walam Olum his 
iiccount of the manner by which it came 
into his possession was extremely un- 
satisfactory. "Having obtained," said he, 
'•through the late Dr. AVard, of Indiana, 
some of the original A¥alam-01um 
(Painted record) of the Linapi Tribe of 
W.apahoni or Wliite River, the transbi- 
tion will be given of the songs annexed 
to each."" Now it so happened that no 
such pei'son as Dr. AVard is known in 
the early medical annals of Indiana and 
this was the occasion of doubts on the 
part of Dr. Brinton and his predecessors 
as to the veracity of R^finesque and 
therefore as to the authenticity of his dis- 
covery. Rafinesque claimed in a later page 
that tlie Olum. or pictographs were ob- 
tained in 1820 "as a reward for a medical 
cure, deemed a curiosity and were inex- 
l)licable. In 1822 were obtained from 
another individual the songs annexed 
thereto in the original language ; but no 
one coul 1 be found by me able to 
translate them." This seems to be a dif- 
ferent account of the origin of the Walam 
Olum and threw an additional cloud of 
doubt over its genuineness. Besides this 
the copy possessed by Rafinesque was 
then, and remains stiU, unique among 
Indian relics. Surely a find so discredited 
in every wav, (I.) By the character of its 
discover3^ (2.) By tlie vague and con- 
flicting account he gave of its discover3^ 
(3.) By the absence of any other coi>y 
either entire or fragmenary, and of all 
allusion to such a remarkable specimen 
of aboriginal literature in the writings 
of other investigators much better situ- 
ated to have seen it than Rafinesque; was 
scarcely worth the attention of scientific 
men ! The doubts thrown on the authen- 
ticity of the Davenport elephant pipes 
seem trivial in comparison. Yet Dr.Brin- 
ton set about, in the true spirit of science, 
to examine these doubts and to decide, 
once for all, whether the Walam Olum 
was a forgery concocted by Rafinesque 
or a genuine Indian product. Perhaps 
he would have been justified in ignoring 
th3 subject altogether, on the prin- 
ciple that what appears to be false a 
pr^■or^ is miwort^hy of an examination a 
■posteriori; but becoming interested in a 
