The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the MammothMercer, Henry C.
History
The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the Mammoth
Mercer, Henry C.
Delaware Indians; Mammoths; Picture-writing, Indian
The fact that several persons saw the first fragment immediately after
it left Hansell's hands, throws back the period of possible doubt as
to its authenticity to the nine years of his ownership, while the
remarkable skill and archæological knowledge necessary to forge such
a stone place him as the possible maker of the carvings above the
slightest suspicion. The motive of gain must be eliminated from the
possibilities of the case, when we consider the trifling sum received
by Hansell for the relics, and the fact that the small piece was
presented by him to the present owner, while the supposition that he
could have been in collusion with any person unknown for the purpose
of a practical joke is rendered impossible by his own honest simplicity
and the conduct of his family and friends throughout. Again, no one
clever enough to have made the relic could have been a neighbor of
Hansell's and remained unknown or unsuspected, and it is quite absurd
to suppose that some one from a distance, having entrusted the fortunes
of so elaborate a practical joke to the fragments of this small stone,
would have "planted" the results of his labor in Buckingham Township,
Bucks County, where the chances were very strongly against its being
brought to the notice of archæologists, even if discovered.
OBJECTIONS OF ARCHÆOLOGISTS.
From the _a-posteriori_ point of view--_i. e._, from the character
and appearance of the carving, there are objections which have been
considered important to the Stone's authenticity; these the writer has
carefully noted, and will allow them to speak for themselves.
First, in the opinion of Messrs. M. E. Wadsworth, of Cambridge, and
Joseph P. Iddings, of the United States Coast Survey, the carvings were
made after the Stone was broken. The fact is proved, they say, by the
appearance of certain lines crossing the fracture, as in the case of
the lightning above the hole on the right, which, when exposed to the
microscope, seem as they cross to descend into it.
Secondly, the fracture, they say, crosses the minimum number of
carvings as if they had been arranged with reference to it.
Thirdly, the mammoth on the Stone resembles the La Madeleine carving.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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