The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1884-10-11
A CURIOUS STONE.
A Remarkable Grouping of the Divine,
the Human and the Brute.
Philadelphia Record.

Philadelphia Record
An animated discussion is going on
concerning the gcnuineness of alleged
Indian markings on stone in the pos
session of Henry ID. PaXson, of Doyles-
town. The matter is an important one
for geologists, since if the stone could
be proved genuine it would settle in. the
affirmative the question of the coeXist-
ence of man and the mammoth. This
stone, known as the Lenape stone, is an
Indian tablet about seven inches long,
and belonged to some of the tribe of
Delawares. There is engraved upon it
and it is this work that causes the
dispute-the figure of an Indian shoot
ing mammoth with an arrow, while
the sun, represented as a face, sends
forth its divergent rays. A cluster of
thunderbolts, arranged as the Greeks
represented them darting from the
hand of Jove, completes the picture.
1t is uniting the brute, the human,
and the divine groups into one picture
that is regarded by geologists as re-
markable achievement for primitive
man.
A portion of the stone which has been
the subject of controversy was plowed
up ten years ago by a farmer named
Hensel, near Doylestown; and last fall
the remaining piece was found, and the
two parts were placed together, COM
pleting an undoubted Indian relic.
No one disputes the genuiness of the
stone itself, nor that it had marks upon
it when found. Mr.. Paxson purchas-
ed it of farmer for a small sum, and
Prof. H. Carville Lewis, of the city,
hearing through Mr.. j. S. Bailey of the
stone and the drawings upon it, asked
to be permitted to see it. Accordingly
Mr. Paxson loaned it to him. On eX-
animation Prof, Lewis pronounced the
work upon the stone a forgery of recent
execution.
DR.. ID. G. Brinton, the eminent eth |
and other gentlemen distin-
guished in scientific researches, ex-
pressed the same belief. Mr.. PaXson
asserts the antiquity of tn.
on his tablet, and indig-
nantly resents the imputations of
forgery.
Several reasons are given by the
for this conclusion. The most
perhaps, is the fact that a
piece of ivory discovered some ten years
since in the cave of La Madeline, in
France, the genuineness of which is not
Questioned, had on it sketch of
so like the mammoth of the
oaxson tablet that the latter is be-
ieved to be a copy. The tusks are
ormed in the same manner, the legs
ire in identically the same position,
precisely the same number of hairs
orm the tail, and the same number of
ines are drawn across the back. Prof.
lewis says it is inconceivable that two
.borigines so many thousands of years
go should have formed exactly the
anne figure in representing an animal
hen existing.
Dana's mineralogy contains a picture
f the La Medelaine ivory, and copy
ould easily be made. 1t is claimed
lrther that grouping was unknown to
he aborigines, and was beyond their
overs of conception. The lines on
ne stone are said to bear evidence of
aving been made by sharp instru-
lent and not by flint, as would nee
ssarily be the case were the tablet i
enuine.
The work on the stone is cleverly eX- !
,uted, and if forgery it is bold at
mpt to impose upon scientists what |
ould, if accepted, be considered a {
ost important discovery, and which J
ould have become of great pecuniary |
llue. 1