The Red Cloud chief., 1877-04-19

f's'
Lucy Loycom. In SC. Ntcolas.
Prehistoric America.
Extraordinary Archaeological Discovery In
Missouri-WoDders OF tho Lowlands OF
the Mississippi.
In StOddard County, Mo-, strange arch
biological discoveries have been made
and unique relics Of a forgotten race
exhumed. ] have written to the World
already Of inscriptions on a tablet Of
stone inserted in the inner wall of q
ruined temple in GuanajuatO. The wri-
ting is in the same characters, IL my
memory be not previously at fault, as
those used by the sun wOrshippers of
the old temple of stone in Western Mex.
leo. The tablet exhumed in StOddard
county is of glazed terra. Gotta, and is
almost as perfect as when deposited in
the mound from which it was taken a
few days ago. 1t is lO1a inches wide
and thirteen inches long, and covered
with characters clearly cut, bearing a
suggestive resemblance to Sanscrit let
tiers. On both sides Of the tablet appear
these unique hieroglyphs. The tracing
was evidently executed when the clay
was yet soft and thin; it was dried,
hardened, and glazed. The whole ap-
pearance Of this undeciphered leaf from
the Continents remOtest history has
many characteristics of the library tab
lets of the Assyrian King Assur. bani-
pal recently dug from the mounds of
Nineveh, and when I remember how
near the likeness is to the inscriptions
in the old Mexican temple, I am DER.
shaded that some explorer will yet have
photographs made of all these draw
ings ard of that discovered on a stone
not far from Tuscaloosa, Ala, and, COM
pairing the strange records of the I'M
known races, ascertain their origin, and
determine perhaps the vexed question
of unity. The characters on this Mis-
souri, tablet are arranged in regular
lines or rows and are clear and distinct
in outline. A key to solve the myste-
ries involved in these two "pages" of
prehistoric lore would be an "Open ses-
anne" to the profoundest mystery that
affects the fortunes of the human race.
Is there no Champollion to make stones
eloquent, dead centuries l~Oquacious, and
to invest mummies with habiliments of
ancient lifep Were tie Mound-build-
ers of the valley Of the Mississippi of
the same race with those who reared
temples at Chichen and Copan and Oto-
lum and Palenque? Were the bearded
Natchez Indians the descendants, as thew
claimed, of this race. whose power was
coterminous with the two oceans and
extended, as their raconteurs told the
followers of Bienville and La Sale.
even to Africa?
They said that when the continent
was cOnvulsed, as never before or since.
their brOadest, richest domain east of
Florida and South America was sub
merged and the West was upheaved.
The French fOrefatters of the writer
of this said further that the Natcbez
Indians were never beaten until their
priests were made drunk, and sacred
fires that burned perennially on the
great mound below Natchez were suf.
fered to become extinct When this
cataclysm befell the the hapless race no
further serious resistance was encoun.
tered by the French invaders. The
Natchez were destroyed or dispersed.
and this was the end of the latest and
very remote descendants of the Mound-
builders that left traces of their toll
everywhere, from the great lakes to
the Gulf, in the valley of the Mississip-
pi. Whether the writer of the strange
glyphs on the Stoddard County stone
was OF the Colhuas of Toltecs, or a VA.
derer from the Orient, a voyager with
Hanno or some Ph@nician who passed
beyond the Pillars of Hercules tn 70
turn no more-these are inquiries to be
solved by him who translates the story
inscribed on this tablet and on that in
the old temple of Guanajuato. If Con-
gress should appoint a commission to
survey the lowlands of the Mississippi
not only with reference to the poesibil-
ity OF controlling its floods, much might
be done in the way of exploring the
hidden mysteries of the swamps, once
the seat of this unique and ancient civ.
ilization.
The Stoddard County tablet has been
forwarded to the learned Orientalist of
Harvard University. Though the sim.
ilarity between the characters employed
by the Mound builders and the Sanscrit
"letters" is striking. it is perhaps only
fanciful, and a careful analysis Of the
structural forms of these glyphs may
reveal no likeness whatever to an al.
phabetic language. In fact tho in
scription may be wholly Geographic,
and the language employed by the
writer may not have been developed
into photographic unity. If this be
time, speculative psychologists may
again infer that this was the oldest of
inhabited continents and the seat of the
earliest civilization of our race-Aus.
tin, TerGs, Con. N. 2. World.
The Manufa cture Of the Ottar OF Roses
rvur;o,,o pohvlon Ia fho 6rof nooa,ln