Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam.

  • Charles Edwin Putnam
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    interest. Frauds are so much more common with pipes than with other articles, that it is no wonder men are suspicious; and, at the same time, in the genuine work of a rude age resemblances are often so doubtful as to render caution necessary. In the many spirited bird and beast ])ipes I have figured, I should hardly wish to be pinned down to a naturalist’s exactness in identifying specimens, although a natur- alist myself. So far, I felt that Mr. Henshaw’s paper was likely to guard against erroneous conclusions founded on doubtful premises. But it is wrong to expect that in such work there will be complete rep- resentation of anything, any more than when we work birds and beasts with designs of a useful nature, or employ them in heraldry. There is a stone pipe here which undoubtedly was made from a reminiscence of the domestic cock — perhaps by an Onandaga of two centuries since — but the only thing to make this certain is the cock’s comb ; that attracted the eye, and could be represented. The tail had to be left off, and the body was more that of a woodpecker than anything else. I do not, therefore, think the absence of tusks in your elephant pipes anything of moment. It would have been quite enough had the head and trunk been there. Neither, as a clergyman, could I suppose the Rev. Mr. Gass to have countenanced any imposition — nor the eminent society with which he is connected. But I have done archae- ological work enough to know that some persons do not hesitate to try to impose on clergymen, and that people who know better are not above this. I have seen unblushing frauds in such unexpected quarters that I always like to have the bottom facts in any unusual find. The very best archaeologists in the country are often imposed upon, and, of course, to outsiders it seemed possible that you might have been deceived by unscrupulous persons. I am glad to find you have so full and complete an answer ready. For a great many reasons, I have had no disposition to question the genuineness of the find. Among these is my firm persuasion that the mastodon, or even the American elephant, has not been long extinct. I see no reason, from geological facts and facts of natural history, to remove him from the earth before man appeared upon it, although he doubtless lived partially before man. . . . In a sense, I believe that the Indians and Mound-builders were of one race, but it is in the same way that we are one with the French and Germans. I have not the slightest idea that the Mound-builders were ancestors of our pres- ent Indians; I simply regard them as often having the same general origin. Our finds here show no recent connection. The many friends of your Academy to you unknown will be gratified to see your prompt action in this matter, for you have thus done a duty not only to yourselves and one of your active members, but to the scientific world at large at the same time. With thanks for your courtesy and best wishes for your continued prosperity, I remain Yours truly. W. M. Beauchamp.