Dr. Clarke says, that from the manufacture of certain articles, in the wilderness, by the Israelites, iron, and even steel, must have been known, which was an age preceding its knowledge among the Greeks, nearly an hundred years. If this was so, it follows, they must have learned it, or rather they must have borrowed the very instruments of iron and steel, when they left Egypt; as they had no means of making such instruments from the ore, in the wilderness.

If, then, the art was learned of the Egyptians, by the Israelites, the knowledge of iron and steel existed among that people more than three hundred years before it was known among the Greeks, and perhaps much earlier, as that the Egyptians were ahead of all other nations in arts and inventions.

A DISCRIPTION OF INSTRUMENTS FOUND IN THE TUMULI.

In removing the earth, which composed an ancient mound, situated where now one of the streets of Marietta runs, several curious articles were discovered in 1819. They appear to have been buried with the body of the person to whose memory this mound was erected.

Lying immediately on the forehead of this skeleton, were found three large circular ornaments, which had adorned a sword belt, or buckler, and were composed of copper, overlaid with a plate of silver; The fronts, or show sides were slightly convex, with a deep depression, like a cup, in the centre, and measured two inches and a quarter across the face of each. On the back side, opposite the depressed portion, is a copper rivet, around which are two separate plates, by which they were fastened to the leather belt. The two pieces of leather resembled the skin of a mummy, and seemed to have been preserved by the salts of the copper; the plates were nearly reduced to an oxyde or rust. The silver looked quite black, but was not much corroded, as on rubbing it became bright and clear.

Around one of the rivers was a small quantity, of what appeared

to be, flax or hemp, in a tolerable state of preservation. Near the side of the body was found a plate of silver, which appeared to have been the upper part of a sword scabbard; it was six inches long, and two broad, with two longitudinal ridges, which probably corresponded with the edges or ridges of the sword once sheathed by it, and appeared to have been fastened to the scabbard by several rivets, the holes of which remain in the plate.

Two or three pieces of a copper tube, were also found with this body, filled with iron rust. The pieces, from their appearances, composed the lower end of the scabbard, near the point of the sword, but no sign of the sword itself, except a streak of rust its whole length.

We learn from this that the person who was buried there, was a warrior, as the sword declares; and also that the people, of whom he was an individual, were acquainted with the arts of civilized life, which appears from the sheath, the flax, the copper, and the *silver, but more especially as the silver was plated on the copper. Near the feet was found a piece of copper, weighing three ounces, which from its shape, appeared to have been used as a plumb, as .near one of the ends is a crease or groove, for tying a thread; it is round and two inches and a half in length, one inch in diameter at the centre, and an half inch at the small or upper end.

It was composed of small pieces of native copper, pounded together, and in the cracks between the pieces were stuck several bits of silver, one nearly the size of a sixpence. This copper plumb was covered with a coat of green rust, and was considerably corroded.

A piece of red ochre, or paint, and a piece of iron ore, which had the appearance of having been partially vitrified, or melted, was also found in this tumulus; the bit of ore was nearly pure iron.

The body of the person here buried, was laid on the surface of the earth, with his face upwards, and his feet pointing to the northeast, and his head to the southwest.

From the appearance of several pieces of charcoal, and bits of partially burnt scacoal, and the black color of the earth, it would appear that the funeral obsequies had been celebrated by fire; and that while the ashes were yet hot and smoking, a circle of flat stones had been laid around and over the body, from which the tumulus had been carried up.

For a view of each article, the reader can refer to the Frontispiece engraving, by observing the numbering of each specimen. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, are articles fonnd in the mound at Marietta, in 1819.

No. 1. Back view of the silver ornament for a sword scabbard.

No. 2. Front view of the same.

No. 3. Front view of an ornament for a belt, with a silver face.

No. 4. Back view of the same ornament, of copper.

No. 5. A plumb, or pendant, formed of pieces of copper pounded together, leaving fissures or openings, which were filled with bits of silver; an implement, as to its shape, resembling the instruments used by carpenters and masons, now-a-days, to ascertain perpendiculars with, and was doubtless used by these ancients for the same purpose.

No. 6. A stone with seven holes, like a screw plate, fourteen inches long, finely polished, and very hard; this, however, was not found in the mound, but in a field near this tumulus.

Letter A. represents a small keg in its construction, and a teakettle in the use of which it seems to have been put, which is indicated by its spout; and appears to have been made of a composition of clay and shells.

Letter B. represents the idol, before spoken of, on pages 217 and 218, in three views, a front, side, and back view.

Letter C. represents the idol, or image of stone, on page 219. Letter D. is the stone, or Shalgrumu, described on pages 180, 181, and 182.

Letter E. represents the Triune Cup, found on the Cany fork of Cumberland river, in an ancient work, about four feet below the surface. The drawing is an exact likeness, taken originally by Miss Sara Clifford, of Lexington, Kentucky; it is by some called the Triune Idol.

"The object itself may be thus described. It consists of three heads joined together at the back part, near the top, by a stem or handle, which rises above the head about three inches. This stem is hollow, six inches in circumference at the top, increasing in size as it descends.

The heads are all of the same dimensions, being about four

inches from the top to the chin.

The face, at the eyes, is three

inches broad, decreasing in breadth, all the way to the chin. All the strong marks of the Tartar countenance are distinctly preserved and expressed with so much skill, that even a modern artist might be proud of the performance. The countenances are all different from each other, and denote one old person, and two younger ones. The face of the oldest is painted around the eyes with yellow, shaded with a streak of the same color, begining from the top of the ear, running in a semicircular form, to the ear on the other side of the head. Another painted line begins at the lower part of the eye, and runs down before each ear, about one inch.-See the right hand figure on the cup, or image.

The face engraved alone, is the back view, and represents a person of a grave countenance, but much younger than the preceding one, painted very differently, and of a different color. A streak of reddish brown surrounds each eye. Another line of the same color, beginning at the top of one ear, passes under the chin, and ends at the top of the other ear. The ears also, are slightly tinged with the same color.

The third figure, in its characteristical features, resembles, the others, representing one of the Tartar family. The whole of the face is slightly tinged with vermilion, or some paint resembling it. Each cheek has a spot on it, of the size of a quarter of a dollar, brightly tinged with the same paint. On the chin is a similar spot. One circumstance worthy of remark, is, that though these colors must have been exposed to the damp earth for many centuries, they have, notwithstanding, preserved every shade in all its brilliancy.

This Triune vessel stands upon three necks, which are about an inch and a half in length. The whole is composed of a fine clay, of a light umber color, which has been rendered hard by the action of fire. The heads are hollow, and the vessel is of capacity to hold about one quart.

Does not this cup represent the three gods of India-Brahma, Vishnoo, and Siva? Let the reader look at the plate representing this vessel, and cousult the "Asiatic Researches," by Sir William Jones; let him also read Buchanan's "Star in the East," and accounts there found, of the idolatry of the Hindoos, and he cannot fail to see in this idol, one proof at least, that the people who

raised our ancient works were idolaters; and, that some of them worshipped gods resembling the three principal deities of India. What tends to strengthen this inference, is, that nine murex shells, the same as described by Sir William Jones, in his Asiatic Researches, and by Symmes, in his Embassy to Ava, have been found within twenty miles of Lexington, Kentucky, in an ancient work.

The murex shell, is a sea shell fish, out of which the ancients procured the famous Tyrian purple dye, which was the color of the royal robes of kings, so celebrated in ancient times. Their component parts remained unchanged, and they were every way in an excellent state of preservation. These shells, so rare in India, are highly esteemed, and consecrated to their god, Mahadeva, whose character is the same with the Neptune, of Greece and Rome. This shell, among the Hindoos, is the musical instrument of their Tritons; (sea gods, or trumpeters of Neptune.) Those, of the kind discovered as above, are deposited in the Museum, at Lexington. The foot of the Siamese god, Gudma, or Boodh, is represented by a sculptured statute, in Ava, of six feet in length, and the toes of this god, are carved, each to represent a shell of the Murex.

These shells have been found in many mounds which have been `opened in every part of this country; and this is a proof that a considerable value was set upon them by their owners. From these discoveries it is evident, that the people who built the ancient works of the west, were idolaters; it is also inferred from the age of the world in which they lived; history, sacred and profane, affords the fact, that all nations, except the Jews, were idolaters at the same time and age.

Medals, representing the sun with its rays of light, have been found in the mounds, made of a very fine clay, and colored in the composition, before it was hardened by heat, from which it is inferred they worshipped the sun. It is also supposed, that they worshipped the moon, both from their semicircular works, which represent the new moon; and also from the discovery of copper medals, round like the moon in its full, being smooth, without any rays of light, like those which represent the sun. The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, was the worship of many nations, in the earliest ages, not only soon after the flood, but all along, cotemporary with the existence of the Jews as a nation, and also succeed