the Etruscan, 5 with the old Northern runes, 6 with the ancient
Gaelic, 7 with the old Erse, 10 with the Phoenician, 14 with the old
British," and he also adds that equivalents may be found in the old
Hebrew. It is, as some writers have described it, an exceedingly
accommodating inscription. The following readings have been given:--

By M. Levy Bing: "What thou sayest, thou dost impose it, thou shinest
in thy impetuous clan, and rapid chamois." By M. Maurice Schwab
(1857): "The chief of emigration who reached these places, has fixed
these statutes forever." By M. Oppert: "The grave of one who was
assassinated here. May God, to revenge him, strike his murderer,
cutting off the hand of his existence." We can only say of these
readings what a Hebrew Rabbi said to an indolent student, who in
reading a verse in the Psalms in the original, gave the translation of
the next verse, "Gentlemen, that is a very free translation." Besides
this, other readings have been given, all of which have the advantage
that few can contradict them.

In the Scioto valley, where there are many very interesting remains of
the Mound-builders, there are many burial mounds which have lately
been opened. In many of these, the casts of unhewn logs are still
visible, showing that the dead were placed in a rude vault, which was
afterwards covered by soil. One skeleton was found to have round the
neck several hundred beads, made mostly of marine shells, others made
of the tusks of animals and a few laminæ of mica. In the same mound
from which this skeleton was taken, the vault gave strong evidence of
its having been set on fire during the burial ceremony,--the large
quantity of charcoal proving that it was suddenly quenched by the
fresh soil heaped upon it.