skill of the Southern Indians in this matter. Du-Pratz thought so highly
of the work of the Natchez Indians that he had them make him an entire
dinner set.

Catlin, speaking of the Mandan Indians, says the women of that tribe
made great quantities of dishes and bowls, modeled after many forms. He
says they are so strong and serviceable that they cook food in them
by hanging them over the fire, as we would an iron pot. "I have seen
specimens," he continues, "which have been dug up in Indian mounds and
tombs in the Southern and Middle States, placed in our Eastern museums,
and looked upon as a great wonder, when here this novelty is at once
done away with, and the whole mystery: where women can be seen handling
and using them by hundreds, and they can be seen every day in the
summer, also, moulding into many fanciful forms, and passing them
through the kilns, where they are hardened."

Dr. Rau, speaking of the artistic skill of the Indian potters, as shown
by numerous remains gathered in Illinois, does not hesitate to assert,
after personal examination of Mound Builders' pottery, that the Indian
relics were in every respect equal to those specimens exhumed from the
mounds of the Mississippi Valley.<100> Lapham, speaking of fragments of
Mound Builders' pottery in Wisconsin, says, "They agree in every respect
with fragments found about the old Indian villages."

The culture of a people is also determined by their knowledge of
agriculture. The savage depends entirely upon hunting and fishing for
subsistence. A knowledge of horticulture, of domestic animals, and
of agriculture, even though rude, are each and all potent factors
in advancing man in culture. So we must inquire as to the traces
of agricultural knowledge observable among the remains of the Mound
Builders. Some writers speak in quite glowing terms of the enormous
crops they must have raised for their populous cities. The fact is, that
while it is doubtless true that they practiced agriculture, yet we have
no reason to suppose it was any thing more than a rude tillage, such as
was practiced among the village Indian tribes. This is evident from the
tools with which they worked.

Illustration of Agricultural Implements. (Smith. Inst.)----

In a few cases copper tools have been recovered which may have served
for digging in the ground, but in most cases their art furnished them
nothing higher than spades, shovels, picks, and hoes made of stone,
horn, bone, and