I98 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s. f l, 1899
particular region are due to one people and belong to the same era. The results also tend to strengthen the belief that the builders of these works were related to the builders of those in Kanawha valley. The additional statistics in regard to the number, character, and distribution of the mounds given in the latter pages are worthy of notice. It is hoped that financial aid to continue this work will be furnished liber- ally, as these ancient monuments are rapidly being obliterated. It may not be out of place to suggest that it would perhaps be best to confine the work of a season to a more limited district, thus making the explorations more thorough and complete.
Cyrus Thomas.
Rare Indian Books Found — Within the last year there have come to light three rare books of interest to students of American Indian linguistics. One of these is the anonymous Primer for the Use of the Mohawk Children (sq. 24 , 97 pp.), printed by Fleury Mesplet at Montreal in 1781, which hitherto was supposed to be unique, the only copy believed to exist being in the British Museum library. This little volume was formerly the property of Rev. Samuel Kirkland (1741- 1808), who for more than forty years was a missionary among the Iro- quois ; but through a collateral branch of his family it found its way to California, where, about a year ago, it came in possession of Mr P. J. Healy, a book collector of San Francisco. Special interest attaches to the little primer from an historical point of view, as it was doubtless the product of the first printing-press set up at Montreal.
Of no less importance was the discovery, a few months ago, in the library of the late Horatio Hale, of Clinton, Ontario, of a copy of the 1 73-? reprint of the anonymous Indian* Primer, in the Massachuset dialect, printed at Boston by B. Green in 1720, the only other copy extant being in the Lenox library, New York City. Both the known copies are imperfect, the Lenox copy lacking 38 of the 84 leaves, while from the Hale copy 10 leaves are missing. Neither volume contains the title-page, hence the exact date of this reprint still remains unknown. The original edition was printed in 1720.
The third of the rarer books alluded to is a copy of the whole Eliot Bible of 1685, an elaborate description of which, based on fifty-five copies known to Pilling, appears in the Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages. This newly discovered copy has been acquired by Mr William Wallace Tooker, of Sag Harbor, Long Island, and while not perfect, it is as nearly complete as twenty-six of the copies hitherto known. Many marginal notes in Indian, with the names of several Indian owners, make the book of special interest. For sixty-five years
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