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 688 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899

would write them down. . . . Until the writing was correct in every particular, the words last given would remain before the eyes of the translator, and not disappear. But on the necessary correction being made, they would immediately pass away and be succeeded by others."

Thus far we have had Mormon witnesses only. They testify to the current Mormon belief of the origin of the manuscript from which the Book of Mormon was printed. An anti-Mormon writer, Dr Wyle, in his work, Mormon Portraits (page 203), quotes the death-bed statement of Emma Hale Smith, who, it will be remembered, became the prophet's first wife, in the year the angel permitted him to dig up the plates, as the latest step, the prophet stated, in preparation for his future work. This death- bed statement was made to her son Joseph, as follows:

" In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat with the stone in it."

Another anti-Mormon statement is taken from Kidder's Mor- monism and the Mormons (page 32), published in 1842. It is here given because it reflects the origin of the Book as told by Isaac Hale, father of Mrs Emma Hale Smith, Joseph's first wife. The statement is as follows :

The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret, was the same as when he looked for the money diggers, with the stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the book of plates was at the same time hid in the woods.

The picture of the prophet at work, thus drawn by his wife and by her father, in the privacy of the domestic circle, is start- lingly graphic. Being members of the family, we are bound, how- ever, to accept their testimony as that of peculiarly well qualified witnesses. That Joseph laid great stress upon his" Urim and Thummim " stone, sometimes called a " seer stone," all wit- nesses agree. Elder Reynolds, the witness put forward by the

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