Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-06-02
An Intercsting Relic.
Knoxville Chronicle.I

hHVAN "a NhlOhiOAo'l
We have at our Office a handsome
specimen of the 'discoidal stone" a
kind of stone implement that has
very rarely been found outside of
East Tennessee and adjoining Sec
tions. These relics deserve a passing
notice on account of the rapidly
growing interest in archaeology and
especially in American antiquities.
The name is given to this type of
relic by the scientists from its shape
that of a double convex disc.
They are usually made of the hard
est quartz, very symmetrical, and
beautifully polished, and the manu-
f%acture ola single one, without the
use Of metallic tools, must have cost
the ancient workman the labor Of
months. The origin of these imple-
mentS is involved in mystery, and for
what purpose they were used is en-
tirely conjectural.
The traditions of the Cherokees do
not reach back to the origin of these
implements, but only say that their
first people found them here and made
use Of them in playing "chungke"
a game described by early writer's as
being somewhat similar to tenpins.
Like many relics of the stone age
whose use cannot be accounted for,
the discoidal stone is ascribed to the
mound builders, that indefinite peo-
pie, Of whom these mute stones and
their mysterious mounds are the only
historians.
The present specimen was recently
piowed up in a field near Kington.
1t is made Of beautiful variegated
quart1ite, polished smooth as the
finest marble, and 50 hard that it
would turn the edge Of the best tenn
pered steel drill, Whatever its orig
inal purpose was, it must have been
something the owner considered very
important. IL was probably connected
with some superstition, or some re.
ligi0us belief or ceremony.
Upon its possession, no doubt, the
owner thought depended his success
in this world, and his welfare in the
happy hunting ground.
The labor and patience required to
make this relic must have rendered
it exceedingly valuable, and it could
only have been owned by some person
of consequence. No common, scrub
mound builder could have afforded
the distinction ola "chungke' stone.
The implement gave its owner
prestige among his fellows. He was
an a%ristocrat, a "big Ike among the
mound. builders. Maybe he presided
over a bank, where the common herd
deposited their wampum. he
helda contract from the great sachem
OF all the tribes, giving him the exclu-
slve right to construct all the mounds
along the Tennessee river, and Il
specimen is the result of some great
job" whereby he became rich out of
the pockets of the poor taxpayers: or.
it may be that the controlled system
of trails through the Tennessee valley
was the original proprietor of the
Emory gap route, or held the monopo-
ly ola line Of birch-bar canoes over
the Clinch river-or maybe he vas
chairman Of the national executive
committee, and instructed tribes to
vote as a unit for his warrior. He
might have been a paper-mill proprie-
tor and charged the dear Indians
TWEEN. y cents a pound for paper upon
which to inscribe the boat race, or the
ball match, or a sonnet to Laughing
Music's left eyebrow, or the cipher
dispatches. Maybe the original per
son was the great cipher man himself,
for there is a popular idea among
those not present at the birth Of s. j.
L. that he is over a thousand a
old. But when a mar begins to spec
ulate on what character Of M. B.
owned this stone, he might 90 on to
the end Of his day engaged in that
business, so we will cease. Our part
ing advice shall be: puzzle thou not
over it, for it is not harder to tell the
truth about it than it is to decide who
will be the Chicago nominee"