ear heads, and tomahawks of stone. These, and
analogous remains, are the objects of our antiquarian researches.
Prouder monuments he had none. There was neither column, nor arch,
statue nor inscription. But we may trace, by a careful inspection of the
objects, the state and progress of his ancient and rude arts. We may
denote, by their occurrence, in the same localities, the era of the
arrival of the white man. We may establish other eras, from geological
changes,--the growth of forest trees, and other inductive means.

There are three eras in American antiquity.

1. Vestiges of their primary migration and origin.

2. Vestiges of their international changes and intestine wars, prior to
the discovery of the continent by Columbus.

3. Evidences of wars, migrations and remains of occupancy, subsequent to
the arrival of Europeans.

These are to be studied in the inverse order of their being stated. We
must proceed from the known to the unknown--from the recent, to the
remote.

Ethnography offers a species of proof, to determine the migrations and
divisions in the original family of man, which is to be drawn from
geographical considerations--the relative position of islands, seas and
continents--the means of subsistence as governed and limited by climate,
and soil; the state of ancient arts, agriculture, languages, &c.

Philology denotes the affinities of nations, by the analogies of words,
and forms of syntax, and the place of expressing ideas.

The remains of arts, monuments, inscriptions, hieroglyphics, picture
writing, and architecture, constitute so many means of comparing one
nation with another, and thus determining their affinities; and although
most of our aboriginal nations had made but little progress in these
departments, the state of ruins in Mexico, Central Mexico and Yucatan;
the mounds and fortifications of the West; and even the remains of forts
and barrows in Western New-York, entitle them to consideration.

There is another department of observation on our aborigines, which,
from the light it has shed on the mental characteristics of the Algic,
and some other stocks, offers a new field for investigation. I allude to
the subject of the imaginative legends and tales of the Red Race. Such
tales have been found abundantly in the lodge circles of the tribes
about the Upper Lakes and the source of the Mississippi. They reveal the
sources of many of their peculiar opinions on life, death, and
immortalit