Litchfield enquirer., 1829-03-12

AsN~S O1SCOVA cred and first raised the body, and traus- verse cut across the abdomen, of some length, tbesmuscular system was entire. and the skin unbroken. The feet were partially drawn up, and the hands crossed over the breast, on which was found fan. apparently constructed of the tail feathers of some bird of considerable size. The hair was of a fine and glossy texture, cfa bright auburn color, and of length not distinctly recollected and respecting the face particularly, it is a remarkable fact. and scarcely credible, that the echseks were full and the eye-lids prominent as in life. In thu. publication originally made in the" '" Examiner" ," from the crude s.ate- mentst contained in the manuscript before noticed, and from which I did not consid- er,myself at liberty to depart, it was alle- ged, that, as in life, the eye balls occupied their sockets. that the eyes wereRunusally ] full, and of a bright blue color. The fact. however, was otherwise, and I soon dis 1 covered the causes 1.-the error. On sep. arating the lids with the blade ofa knife.I found, as might be expected, that the eye balls had entirely disappeared, and that their orbicular cavities were completely fil- led with blue Or greenish ymould. which had been mistaken by the author of the manuscript, probably in moment of tre. pidation for the humors--coats-and ha- tive color of the eye.
 On contemplating these mute andlinan. innate remains, which had probably slept undisturbed through long lapse of ages,. it is to be presumed, thatlneither my feel-> / ings nor emotions were ofa very ordinary. character. Here was frail memorial of the mysterious, solemn, and unfathomablhA destinies ofmankind, raised as itwere from the abyss of ages long gone by, and from the oblivious silence of a tomb, to which it had been consigned by the hand of coniu. gal affection or parental love; for it will not be questioned, bysthose who aretac- quainted with the cold and negligent fane. ral rites observed ty the present Indian nations, & will contrast them with the con,- paratively rich appendages of this body, that it must have been inferred by very ancient people, and consecrated to refined and tender recollections. by no ordinary sentiments of veneration for the memory of the dead.
 Unwilling that these monuments of an. tiquity should only survive in the reeollec- ton of two persons, whose authority for representing their existence might even be questioned, l took sample of the shroud-
 ing which immediately enyeloped tho bo. dy of the female, and also another, about a foot square, from the mantle of feathers : then, ,amputating one oftlo feet at the ancle joint, taking care to obtain as large por- ton of the Tendon of Achilles as would be drawn out without much violence, wrap ped the whole carefully in paper, togeth- sher with lock of the hair, and prosecu. ted my journey. I had business with MT. Jefferson, and was compelled to take his place of residence in my route. From his character aud writings, knew him to be a man of an investigative and philosophic mind one of Johnson's great men, whose mental existence and researches were not confined to the present time, but embraced the past and future. Alter contemplating these vestiges of antiquity with much att tention, and exhibiting them to the Russian Ambassador, the resident under his roof, he remarked in substance :-that they wore highly worthy of attentive preservation that they bespoke the existence of a peo- pie entirely unconnected with the known aborigines of this country, and of whom, as far as he knew, the extraordinary History of the present Indian tribes was entirely silent; that ho could not suppose them to be of either Indian or Spanish origin that the color of the hair forbid such a supposi- sition. as respected the Spaniards, and that the aborigines of the country, were pro- verbal for black hair, and knew nothing. to his knowledge, of such manufacturer s and that had they beon Spaniards, their collins would have been of very different materials and construction, and their shrouding of thoir bodies of different character, &c. And will here remark, from my own observations of the modes of burial, practised by the Indian nations of this country, many of whose graves I have opened and examined, that they were very simple--consisting of flat rocks, lispo- sed in something ofreguiar order; bottom. sides, and tops of the graves, without any shrouding, or any other covering than a little earth.
 On my arrival at New-York, consider- ing it duty to take measures for the pres- ervation of these antiquities, and for the