The Progress of Ethnology. John Bartlett

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СКАЧАТЬ in getting upwards of a hundred fine specimens to Philadelphia, which are deposited with his other Indian relics and fossils, in the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences.

      Dr. Dickeson has kindly furnished me a catalogue of his collection of relics, from which I have selected the following to give an idea of the extent and variety of the objects found:

      6000 Arrow points of jasper, chalcedony, obsidian, quartz, &c., &c.

      150 Arrow points, finely polished, under one inch in length.

      25 Arrow points, finely polished, under half an inch in length.

      1600 Unfinished Arrow and Spear points.

      250 small stone Axes.

      40 Quoits, Weights, &c.

      20 Paint mullers.

      1 °Corn grinders.

      3 large stone Mortars.

      14 small earthen Heads of men, women and boys.

      6 stone Statues, erect and sitting.

      A great variety of personal ornaments of jasper, chalcedony, pottery, beads, pearls, war clubs, war axes, mica mirrors, carved ornaments, arm bracelets, bone carvings, earthen plates, handled saucers, earthen lamps, a variety of vessels for culinary purposes, stone chisels, two copper medals, the tusk of a Mastodon, six feet long, elaborately carved with a serpent and human figures; cylindrical tubes of jasper perforated, ornaments in pumice, (lava), seals, bricks, jars, cups and vases in every variety.

      In addition to these, Dr. Dickeson has made a collection of upwards of sixty crania of the ancient mound builders, out of many thousand skeletons discovered by him in his several explorations. These possess much interest in an Ethnographic point of view, for the rigid test to which all his results have been subjected, have satisfied him that these skulls belong to the ancient race. Like the gentlemen in Ohio, whose labors have been noticed, the Doctor can at once detect the mounds and remains of the ancient, from those of the modern race. Some mounds he has found to be the work of three periods. At the top were the remains of the present race of Indians; digging lower he found these remains accompanied by ancient Spanish relics, of the period of the earliest Spanish visit to these parts; and below these, he discovered the remains and relics of the ancient race.

      The inscribed tablet discovered in the grave-creek mound, Virginia, and which was noticed by Mr. Schoolcraft in the first volume of the Transactions of the American Ethnological Society, continues to excite much interest. Mr. Jomard of the French Institute, read a second paper on that subject last year, before the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-lettres at Paris, a copy of which he has transmitted to the Society.4 He distinctly shows, that the letters of this curious inscription are identically the same as those of the Libyan on the monument of Thugga,5 and of the Tuarycks used at this day. It is worthy of remark, that Mr. Hodgson in his "Notes on Africa,"6 arrived at the same conclusion, without the knowledge that Mr. Jomard, some years previously, had asserted the Libyan character of this inscription, in a first note on the subject.7 Such a coincidence gives force to the views adopted by both these gentlemen. The results to which the French savant has arrived, in his enquiry into this engraved stone or tablet, possess much interest, as it is the only relic yet discovered in North America, of an inscription bearing alphabetic characters,8 which have been satisfactorily identified as such. This Numidian inscription, which title we may now apply to the engraved tablet in question, will be again alluded to, when we come to speak of the philological discoveries in Northern Africa, and of the Libyan alphabet.

      In conclusion Mr. Jomard observes, that at a remote period the Libyan language was spoken by various tribes in Northern Africa, and that it was a language written with characters, such as we now find on the Thugga edifice and other monuments; that it is still written with the same characters, particularly in the vicinity of Fezzan and in the deserts traversed by the Tuarycks, although this method of writing has been to so great an extent supplanted by Arabic letters that we must consider the Berber language, the language of Syouah, Sokna, Audjelah, and Gherma, as representing the remains of the ancient Libyan language in use in the most remote period; and finally, that in the interior of America, on a monument of which the age is unknown, but anterior to the settlement by Europeans, we find an engraved stone, bearing signs perfectly resembling the characters traced by the modern Tuarycks and by their ancestors, upon the rocks of Libya. Mr. Jomard's pamphlet contains an engraved table, in which are given, in parallel columns, the characters on the American tablet, the Tuaryck alphabet, the Thugga characters, and their value in Hebrew and Arabic.

      In connexion with this subject it may be added, that M. Berthelot, a learned traveller, states that there exists a striking affinity between the names of places and of men in the ancient language of the Canaries and certain Carib words.9 The contiguity of the Canaries to the African continent is such, that we can readily suppose their ancient inhabitants to have had communication with it, whereby the Libyan language became known to them. A new field of enquiry is thus opened to philologists, and we may here seek for the means to unravel one of the most difficult questions connected with the origin of the American race, and the means by which they reached this continent, for we never have been among those who believed that America derived the mass of her population, her men and animals, from Asia, by the way of Behring's Straits.

      The author of a late work on California, New Mexico, &c., brings to our notice a tribe of Indians known as the Munchies (Mawkeys) or white Indians.10 "This remarkable nation occupies a valley among the Sierra de los Mimbros chain of mountains, upon one of the affluents of the river Gila, in the extreme northwestern part of the province of Sonora. They number about eight hundred persons. Their country is surrounded by lofty mountains at nearly every point, is well watered and very fertile. Their dwellings are excavated in the hill-sides, and frequently cut in the solid rock. They subsist by agriculture, and raise great numbers of horses, cattle and sheep. Among them are many of the arts and comforts of civilized life. They spin and weave, and make butter and cheese, with many of the luxuries known to more enlightened nations. Their government is after the patriarchal order, and is purely republican in its character. In morals they are represented as honest and virtuous. In religion they differ but little from other Indians. Their features correspond with those of Europeans, with a fair complexion and a form equally if not more graceful. In regard to their origin, they have lost all knowledge or even tradition; neither do their characters, manners, customs, arts or government savor of modern Europe."

      Another tribe of Indians called the Navijos, of whom we know but little, except that they have long had a place on the maps, is noticed by the same author. They occupy the country between the Del Norte and the Sierra Anahuac, in the province of Sonora, and have never succumbed to Spanish domination. "They possess a civilization of their own. Most of them live in houses built of stone, and cultivate the ground – raising vegetables and grain for a subsistence. They also raise large numbers of horses, cattle and sheep – make butter and cheese, and spin and weave."

      The blankets manufactured by these Indians are superior in beauty of color, texture and durability to the fabrics of their Spanish neighbors. Their government is in strict accordance with the welfare of the whole community. Dishonesty is held in check by suitable regulations, industry is encouraged by general consent, and hospitality by common practice. As warriors they are brave and daring, making frequent and bold excursions into the Spanish settlements, driving off herds of cattle, horses and sheep, and spreading terror and dismay on every side. As diplomatists, in imitation of their neighbors, they make and break treaties whenever interest and inclination prompts them.СКАЧАТЬ