Mound-builders' Tablets

Throiighout u large portion of the Mississippi valley tUe remanís of a former race of inhabitants are found, of wliose origin and history we have no record, and who are only known to us by the relies that are found iu the tumult which they have left. The mound-builders were a numerous peojle, entirely Uistinct from the North American Indians, and they lived so long before the latter that they are not knowu to them even by tradition. They were industrious and doinestic in their habits, and the flndingof large sea shells which must have been broughjt from the Gulf of Mexico, if not from more distant shores, provea that they had eouimunieation and trade with other tribes. Perhap the most interesting fact connected witU this ancient people is that they had a written This is proved by some inscribed tablets that have been discovered in the mounds, the most important of which belong to the Davenport Academy of Scieiices. ïliese tablets have atUMted rreat attention from archieologists, and it is thought that they wlll some time prove of great valué as records of the people who wrote them. It is still uucertain whether the language was generally understood by the mound-builders, or whether it was contíned to a few persons of high rank. In the mound whciv two of the tableta were discovered the bones of a child were found partially preservad by contact with a large number of copper beads, and as copper was a rare and preclous metal with them, it would seem that the mound In quefction was used tor burlal of persons of high rank. The inscriptlons have not been deciphered, for no key to them has yet been found ; we are totally ignorant of the derivation of the lanjruane or ofits afflnities with other written languages. Krom the sizeand peculiaritks of the pipes, it is inferred lliat smoking was not habitual with them, but that it was reserved as kind of ceremonial observance. Our knowledgc of the habits and customs of the monnd-buitders Is vcry incomplete, but t is suffleient to show that at least a part of thU county was once inhabited by a people who have passed away without leaving so much as a tradition of thuir existence, and who are only known tous through the sllent relies which have been interred for ceuturies. A people utterly forgotten, a civiliïaOon lotally lost- was it through a great catastrophe in the history of tlie world, or was the ceaseless strugglu tor existence so severe that they gnulually su cumbed and passed away?