The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-09-29
Frederick Haskin's Letter
The ArrnaA
A Ba1ker-EthnoIogist.

7 glass beads and othe -ticles
which the Indians had ,,3tained
from the white men in trade. More
over, the nound-building habit,
though largely abandoned, still as
serts itself occasionally. Ameri-
can ethnologists have witnessed
the building of several mounds by
| modern Indians.
The great number of mounds,
which seems at first to prove a nu-
merous people, is explained by the
fact that war, pestilence and fam
inc always cause primitive men to
change their habitats at frequent
intervals II is probable that only
small percentage of the mounds
were occupied at any one time.
/ The same phenomenon is observed
in the southwest, where there are
hundreds of ruins for one occupied
pueblo, including clifT DWELLINGS,
and other types of habitation which
have been abandoned because they
are no longer necessary.
The Scientific View.
All of the information unon
which this view of the mound
builders is based was gathered BY
the bureau of ethnology and pub
lshed in huge volume in its 18th
annual report in 1890. Any one who
Is interested may examine all the
evidence and form his own opin-
ion. The government etbnologists
spent some $4,000 in blowing I'D
mounds, collected an enormous
amount of stuff and subjected it TO
scientific scrutiny. They seem to
have proved their case pretty wen.
In spite of this fact, the old be-
lief in a vanished race is still the
popular one. Mr.. Payne could find
many who agreed with him.
The mounds were first noticed
about a hundred years ago and as
far back as 1897 a book was writ
ten setting forth Mr.. Payne's the
DRY of vanished race. It was fol-
lowed by many more of the same
tenor, and these were widely read
Mongus, Egyptians, Mayas and AZ
tees were variousIy ascribed as the
ancestors of the vanished race Mr.
Payne holds 10 the belief in the
Mongol origin of the mound-build-
ers, and points to many crescents
in his collection, beautifully
wrought from stone. as-eEideRcs in
point
1t is of course true that an the
American Indians show many Ash
attic traits and it is a widely ae-
copied hypothesis that all of them
are OF ancient Asiatic descent, prob
ably having come across BehEiug
strait.
The ak heads, spearheads and AZ
rowheads in the Payne collection
are remarkably fine, but it is espe-
ciaily notable for its collection Of
smoking, pipes and of butterflies
carved from stone. It was Hpn
these things that the ancient Amer
lean spent his best talent and
showed himself a man of taste and
artistic ability. Many OF the stone
pipes have bears, panthers and
other animals carved upon them
with a skill that rivals that of the
modern sculptor. The boring of
these solid stone pipes is a piece
of work which a modern workman
with all of his tools would ind it
hard to duplicate.
Most beautiful of an are fhe
stone butterflies which were relig-
ious symbols to their makers, as
they are to the modern Indians
The butterfly IN his larVal stage
goes into a cocoon, lies dormant
for a long time, and then emeTges
again into vivid life. This, to the
poetic Indian. smboizes mans de
scent into the grave and his resuT-
rection into an unknown future An :
old Indian to' whom Mr. Payne
showed a fine butterfly piece, the
work probably of one of his an
cient forbears, smOte his breast We
hemently.
"Here!" he exclaimed. Butter
fly man big mani