OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 71
the relic bears to the Egyptian cartouche,” it will be suffi- cient to direct attention to the reduplication of the figures. —those upon one side corresponding with those upon the other, the two central ones being also alike. It will be observed that there are but three distinct scrolls or figures, ~—four of one kind and two of each of the others. Probably no serious discussion of the question, whether or not these figures are hieroglyphical, is needed. They more resemble the stalk and flowers of a plant than any thing else in na- ture. What significance, if any, may attach to the peculiar markings or graduations at the ends, it is not undertaken to say; the sum of the products of the larger and shorter lines exhibits this result: (247168) + (25x8 =200)—368, three more than the number of the days of the year; upon which the suggestion has been advanced that the tablet had an astronomical origin, and constituted some sort of a calendar! We may perhaps find the key to its purposes in a very humble, but not therefore less interesting class of Southern remains. Both in Mexico and in the mounds along the Gulf, have been found stamps of burned clay, the faces of which are covered with figures, fanciful or imitative, all in low relief, like the face of a stereotype plate. These were used in impressing ornaments upon the cloths or prepared skins of the people possessing them. They exhibit the concavity of the sides to be observed in the relic in question, and also a similar reduplication of the ornamental figures,—all betraying a commen purpose. This explanation is offered hypothetically, as being entirely consistent with the general character of the mound re- mains.
The accompanying relic, from the frequency with which it has been presented, is doubtless familiar to most persons who have paid attention to American antiquities. It pur- ports to have been found in the upper vault of the great mound at Grave Creek, by the side of the skeleton therein contained. With this skeleton, according to the published ac-
