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AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES,

BY DR. MITOHILL.

THE pieces of goods prepared by the American Tartars, and presented to Dr. Mitchill by captain Richard Whiley, late of the United States' army, are full of instruction.

They consist wholly of animal materials, and do not contain' a single vegetable thread or filament. They are worked with curious art; and the ability displayed both in the design and in the execution, are admirable. They were received by that distinguished officer, while he held the military command at Michillimakinak, as an offering of friendship on the part of an aged and venerable chief from the remote regions of the Northwest, with an intimation at the time, that they were gifts of an extraordinary value.

Their Tartar origin is evinced by the fabricks themselves, and by the scenes they intend to represent.

The principal article is a tawed, or soft dressed skin, probably of the wapit deer, of about three feet square, or of an extent almost sufficient to cover a common breakfast table. The colour is a dark brown. The consistence of the leather pliable and uniform throughout.

One of its sides is embroidered with an interesting scene, wherein the hunters are exhibited as returning to the village after a successful chase. The embroidery is performed with fixable slips of porcupine quills instead of thread. The stitching is so nicely done that the skin is not punctured through in any single instance; the needle, as in skilful tayloring, only passing deep enough in the leather to secure the work. The dyes, especially the blue, yellow, and red, surpass every thing that our most able chemists and manufacturers, can extract from vegetables of the forest.

It was probably intended for a mantle or ornamental covering for the shoulders; all gentlemen, however, of a classical taste, are reminded by it, of the shield of Achilles as described by Homer.

In the middle are two quadrupeds, apparently beasts of prey. From their long tails, it may be conjectured they are conguars, and that the hunt which is celebrated, is that of the American panther. They are encompassed by a ring, as if that circumscribed space was allotted for their deposit if dead.

At the distance of an inch and more from this circle, there is a square of ten inches on each side, denoting the common area, or space assigned for general convenience in the centre of the village. Opposite the four sides of this square there are four circles of about four inches diameter, and opposite the four angles of the same four more, representing the habitations of the tribe, con

structed around the central area; and, after the manner of the Tartars, the houses or wigwams are circular, and not square. Around these huts or dwellings there are figures of human beings, showing that the inhabitants were briskly stirring about. Within them are forms of flowers, birds, and various other objects; illustrating, in all probability, some matters connected with their furniture, dress and cookery.

The whole village is surrounded by a work of two feet square, securing and enclosing it completely. On the outside of it, by way of border, is represented a grand dance. On two of the sides are embroidered nine men each, making eighteen, and on the opposite two sides five men each, making ten. So that the dance is performed by twenty-eight persons, connected hand to hand, and extending round the whole contour of the margin. This expression of festivity and joy seems to occupy the part of the male inhabitants that are capable of partaking the adventures of the forest.

This is picture writing advancing towards the hieroglyphic. It marks an æra in the society of these people, and it designates with singular exactness, the progress of the mind in invention, and of the hand in dexterity.

There is nothing perhaps in the celebrated paintings of Mexico, more worthy of philosophical and historical research than this and similar fabrics of the indigines.

The Mexican paintings were executed upon cloth and were symbolical. The assiniboin embroidery is done upon leather, and is imitative. The former is derived from the Austraasions; the latter from the Hyperboreans. The more cultivated Malays who peopled the southern parts of North America, formed the famous records discovered in New Spain. The ruder Tartars who migrated to the northern regions of the same continent, are the authors of the fabrics, not less curious, but in totally a different style, from those now under consideration.

American Antiquaries have an extensive and fertile field to cultivate, and it is pleasing to find so many men of talents occupied in the productive labour.

NAPOLEON AND WIELAND.

In the autumn of 1808, some of the princes, then assembled at the congress of Erfurt, came for a few days to visit the court of Weimar, and, among them, Napoleon. He was accompanied by a troop of French players, who borrowed the theatre, and on the 6th October exhibited in it Voltaire's Death of Caesar. Wieland went to see this tragedy, in which Talma was to perform, and sat

as usual in a private side-box of the second tier, reserved for the ducal family, to which he had been attached as preceptor. Napoleon observed him there, and inquired who was the venerable old man with the black velvet calotte: this was the usual costume of Wieland, who, not liking to wear a wig, and being exposed by the baldness of his crown to colds of the head, had adopted a circular cap resembling that of the catholic priests. After having been informed by the prince primate that this was Wieland, Napoleon signified a wish to see him after the play; and Wieland, accordingly, was ushered to the ball-room, which was to be the next place of rendezvous. In one of Wieland's letters the following account is given of the interview.

"I had not been many minutes there before Napoleon came across the room toward us; the dutchess then presented me to him regularly, and he addressed me affably, with some words of compliment, looking me steadily in the eye. Few mortals have appeared to me so rapidly to see through a man at a glance: he instantly perceived that, notwithstanding my celebrity, I was a plain, unassuming old man; and, as he seemed desirous of making for ever a good impression upon me, he at once assumed the form best adapted to attain his end. I never saw a man in appearance calmer, plainer, milder, or more unassuming. No trace about him of the consciousness that he was a great monarch. He talked to me like an old acquaintance with his equal; and, what was very rare with him, chatted with me, exclusively, an entire hour and half, to the great surprise of all present. At length, about midnight, I began to feel inconvenience from standing so long, and took the liberty of requesting his majesty's permission to withdraw. Allez donc,' said he, in a very friendly tone, bon soir.'

"The more remarkable traits of our interview were these:The previous play having drawn our conversation upon Julius Caesar, Napoleon observed, that he was one of the greatest characters in universal history; and indeed,' added he,' would have been, without exception, the greatest, but for one blunder.' I was about to inquire to what anecdote he alluded, when he seemed to read the question in my eye, and continued: Caesar knew the men who wanted to get rid of him, and he ought to have been rid of them first.' If Napoleon could have read all that passed in my inner mind, he would have perceived me saying-Such a blunder will never be laid to your charge.

"From Caesar our conversation turned to the Romans; he praised warmly their military and their political system. The Greeks, on the contrary, seemed to stand low in his opinion. 'The eternal scuffle between their little republics was not formed (he said,) to evolve any thing great. But the Romans were always intent on grand purposes, and thus created the mighty Colossus which bestrode the world. I pleaded for the art and

literature of the Greeks; he treated both with contempt, and said, they only served to dispute about.' He preferred Ossian to Homer. In poetry, he professed to value only the sublime and energetic and pathetic writers, especially the tragic poets; but of Ariosto, he spoke in some such terms as cardinal Hippolito of Este did; not aware, however, I think, that in this he was giving me a box on the ear. For any thing humorous, he seemed to have no liking; and, notwithstanding the flattering friendliness of his apparent manner, he repeatedly struck me as if cast from

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"At length, however, he had put me so much at my ease, that I asked him how it came about that the public worship, which he had reformed in France, had not been rendered more philosophic and more on par with the spirit of the times. My dear Wieland, (he replied,) worship is not made for philosophers; they neither believe in me nor my priesthood. As for those who do believe, you cannot give them, or leave them, wonders enow. If I had to make a religion for philosophers, it should be just the reverse.' In this tone the conversation went on for some time, and Bonaparte professed so much scepticism, as to question whether Jesus Christ had ever existed. This (adds Wieland,) is very quotidian scepticism; and in his free-thinking I saw nothing to admire, but the openness with which he exposed it.".

Bonaparte sent shortly afterwards to Wieland a brevet of admission into his legion of honour.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.-RURAL ECONOMY.

Let us cultivate the ground, that the poor as well as the rich may be filled; and happiness and peace, be established throughout our borders." Motto of the Ag. Soc. Phil.

"Bennett's Machine for sowing Grass-Seed, &c." introduced into the United States from England by Dr. Logan, is a most valuable implement of husbandry: a model of it may be seen at the Hall of the Agricultural Society of Philadlphia.

Hodgkiss's Stragu Cutter," is highly recommended by several practical farmers. Chaffing hay, straw, and corn stalks, with a machine of this kind, is well worth the attention of husbandmen. The expense of such an instrument, and the extra labour of preparing with it, the food, even of large stocks, will be fully rewarded in the economy of provender, which is insured by the practice.

The habits of insects should be carefully observed-the utili ty of doing so is proved by the fact, that the striped bug so injurious to melon and cucumber vines, may be banished by planting an onion on every hill.

A decoction of white hellebore or bear-weed, will destroy the tick so prejudicial to sheep.

In a late work by sir John Sinclair, on the agricultural state of the Netherlands, it is said that rust and mildew in wheat, may be prevented by adopting the following process:

Dissolve three ounces and two drachms of sulphate of copper, (copperas or blue vitriol,) in three gallons and three quarts, wine measure, of cold water, for every three bushels of grain. Into another vessel of the capacity of sixty or eighty gallons, throw three or four bushels of wheat, into which the prepared liquid is poured until it rises five or six inches above the corn. Stir it thoroughly, and carefully remove all that swims on the surface. After it has remained half an hour, throw the wheat into a basket and drain off the water, wash it immediately in pure water, then dry it before sown.

If our farmers could be persuaded to record their observations and experience in husbandry, and occasionally communicate the result of their experiments to the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, that institution would take pleasure in rendering such information extensively useful. One fact is worth a volume of theories.

A Dublin medical practitioner states that he has seen the symptoms of Hydrophobia checked by the application of the tourniquet. A girl was bitten in the foot, and this disease supervened; Dr. Stokes applied a tourniquet to her thigh and the symp toms instantly subsided. Philosophical Magazine.

Mr. John Eveleth (of Georgetown) advertises himself as the patentee of an invention under the name of a Drudging Machine. He asserts that one now in operation in Georgetown raises 500 cubic feet a day-in water too from 15 to 18 feet deep, with only the power of four horses. With the aid of a four horse steam-engine, he calculates it might raise 8000 feet in

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