OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 45
the minor arts. From these original sour¢es the illustrations which follow were chiefly derived.
The necessity of a careful discrimination between the various remains found in the mounds, resulting from the fact that the races succeeding the builders in oceupation of the country often buried their dead in them, has probably been dwelt upon with sufficient force, in another connection. Aside from the distinctive features of the relics themselves, attention to the conditions under which they are discovered, and to the simple rules which seem to have governed the mound-builders in making their deposits, can hardly fail to fix, with great certainty, their date and origin. Their true position satisfactorily determined, we proceed with confidence to comparisons and deductions, which otherwise, however accurate and ingenious they might be, would nevertheless be invested with painful uncertainty. From want of proper care in this respect, there is no doubt that articles of European origin, which, by a very natural train of events, found their way to the mounds, have been made the basis of speculations concerning the arts of the mound- builders. To this cause we may refer the existence of the popular errors, that the ancient people were acquainted with the use of iron, and understood the art of plating. gilding, &c.*
The relics found in the mounds are such only as, from the nature of the materials of which they are composed, have been able to resist the general course of decay :— articles of pottery, bone, shell, stone, and metal. We can,
- A silver cup is said to have been found, many years ago, ina mound
near Marietta, Ohio, which, “ though simple in its form, was smooth and regu- lar, and had its interior finely gilded.” (Schoolcraft's View, p. 276.) This statement has been gravely quoted by several writers, as illustrating the advance of the mound-builders in the arts. Assuming the fact to be as stated, there is nothing very extraordinary in the discovery. What more likely than that this cup fell, in course of barter or by accident, into the hands of some savage, with whom, in accordance with the Indian custom, it was buried at his death?
