The Prehistoric World or Vanished races Part 24

Ill.u.s.tration of Temple Mounds inclosed in a Circle.------

A digression right here may not be devoid of interest. We are not sure but that the dim, uncertain light of history falls on the origin of this group of mounds. When the French first commenced their settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley, the Natchez Indians was the most powerful tribe in all that section. In the course of time, wars ensued between them and the French, and in the year 1730 they fled into Upper Louisiana, and settled at the place where these mounds are now found.

But the French followed them a year or so afterwards, and nearly exterminated. them. Some of our scholars think that they erected these mounds.<37> The historian of that epoch simply says they had "built a fort there." It is however questioned whether they had time to build works of such magnitude. But they were both a mound-building and a mound-using people, and we are not prepared to say how long it would take them to do the work, until we know the number engaged, methods employed, and other considerations.<38> If they did not build these works, they doubtless cleared them of trees and utilized them; and this place was therefore the scene of the final downfall of the Natchez--a people we have every reason to regard as intimately connected with the prehistoric mound-building tribes.

The largest temple mound in the South is near Seltzertown, Mississippi.

Its base covers about six acres, and it rises forty feet. This slope was ascended by means of a graded way. The summit platform has an extent of nearly four acres. On this platform three other mounds had been reared--one at each end, and a third in the center. Recent investigation by the Bureau of Ethnology have shown that the base of this mound is a natural formation. Lumps of sun-dried, or partially burnt clay, used as plastering on the houses of the Mound Builders, gave rise to a sensational account of a wall of sun-dried bricks two feet thick, supporting the mound on the northern side.<39> The famous Messier Mound, in Georgia, is said to reach a height of ninety-five feet. But a large part of this elevation is a natural eminence; the artificial part is only a little over fifty feet.

Ill.u.s.tration of Etowah Mound, Georgia.-----------

A work of unusual interest occurs on the Etowah River, Georgia. This cut gives us a plan of the work. We notice, first of all, the moat or ditch by which they fortified their position. The ditch is still from five to twenty-five feet deep, and from twenty to seventy-five feet wide.

It connects directly with the river at one end, but stops short at the other. It surrounds nearly fifty acres of land. At two points we notice reservoirs, each about an acre in size, and an average depth of not less than twenty feet. At its upper end is an artificial pond. This ditch, with its reservoirs and pond, is no slight work. The large mound seen in the center of the s.p.a.ce is one of the largest of the temple mounds.

Its shape is sufficiently shown in the cut. The height of the mound is sixty-five feet. We call especial attention to the series of terraces leading up the south side of the mound. Graded ways afford means of access from one terrace to the other. A pathway is also seen on the eastern side.

To this group of works an interest attaches similar to that of the group of works mentioned in Louisiana. We are not certain but that we catch a glimpse of it while it was yet an inhabited Indian town. This is contained in the brief accounts we have of the wanderings of the unfortunate De Soto and his command. One of the chroniclers of this expedition La Vega, describes one of the towns where the weary Spaniards rested, and which we are sure was somewhere in Northern Georgia, in such terms, mentioning the graded way leading to the top, that Prof. Thomas, who has spent some time in this investigation, thinks his description can apply only to the mound under consideration.<40> Whether this conclusion will be allowed to stand, remains to be seen. But, if true, then the darkness which rests upon this aboriginal structure lifts for a moment and we see around it a populous Indian town, able to send five hundred warriors to battle. The Spaniards marched on to sufferings and death, and darkness again closed around the Etowah Mound. When the Europeans next beheld it around it was the silent wilderness; the warriors had departed; the trees of the forest overspread it.

We have now described the princ.i.p.al mound structures, and shown the different cla.s.ses into which they are divided. But a large cla.s.s of mounds are found scattered all through the Mound Builders' territory that were probably used as signal mounds. Burial mounds were also often used for this purpose.<41> This was because their location was always very favorable for signal purposes. Signaling by fire is a very ancient custom. The Indians on our western plains convey intelligence by this means at the present day. Some tribes use such materials as will cause different shades of smoke, using dried gra.s.s for the lightest, pine leaves for the darkest, and a mixture for intermediate purposes. They also vary the signal by letting the smoke rise in an unbroken column, or cover the fire with a blanket, so as to cause puffs of smoke. The evidence gathered from the position of the mounds, and traces of fire on their summit, is that the Mound Builders had a very extensive system of signal mounds.

Ill.u.s.tration of Hill Mounds.---------------

To ill.u.s.trate this system, we would state that the city of Newark, Ohio, was the site of a very extensive settlement of the Mound Builders.

This settlement was in a valley, but on all the surrounding hills were located signal mounds. And it is further stated that lines of signal mounds can be traced from here as a center to other and more distant points. The large mound at Mt. Vernon, twenty miles to the north, was part of this system. As the settlements of the Mound Builders were mostly in river valleys, we would expect to find all along on the bluffs fronting these valleys traces of signal mounds. In the Scioto Valley, from Columbus to Chillicothe, a distance of about forty miles, twenty mounds "may be selected, so placed in respect to each other that it is believed, if the country was cleared of forests, signals of fire might be transmitted in a few minutes along the whole line." Some think the chain is much more extensive than this, and that the whole Scioto Valley, from Delaware County to Portsmouth, was so provided with mounds that signals could be sent in a very few minutes the whole distance.<42>

Ill.u.s.tration of Miamisburg Mound.----------

The valley of the Miami River was equally well provided with signal mounds. This great mound, at Miamisburg, Ohio, rising to the height of sixty-eight feet, was one of the chain by which signals were transmitted along the valley. Not only was each river valley thus provided, but there is evidence that communication was established between different river systems, so we can easily see how quickly the invasion of their country by an enemy from any quarter would become known in widely scattered sections. Immediately across the river from Chillicothe, Ohio, on a hill nearly six hundred feet high, was located a signal mound. A fire built upon it would be visible twenty miles up the valley, and an equal distance down. It would be also visible far down the valley of Paint Creek. Some think that such a system of lofty observatories extended across the whole State of Ohio, of Indiana, and Illinois, the Grave Creek mound, on the east, the great mound at Cahokia, on the west, and the works in Ohio filling up the line. We do not believe, however, it is safe to draw such conclusions. It is doubtful whether there was any very close connection between the tribes in these several sections.

In the State of Wisconsin are found some of the most interesting remains of the Mound Builders. They are so different from the ordinary remains found elsewhere that we must admit that the people who built them differed greatly from the tribes who built the great temple mounds of the South, or the earthworks of Ohio. The remains in Wisconsin are distinguished not by their great size or height, but by their singular forms. Here the mound building instincts of the people were expressed by heaping up the earth in the shape of animals. What strange fancy it was that led them to mould the figures on the bluffy banks of the rivers and the high lands about the lakes of their country, we shall perhaps never know. That they had some design in this matter is, of course, evident, and if we would try and learn their secret, we must address ourselves to a study of the remains.

Effigy mounds are almost exclusively confined to the State of Wisconsin.

We, indeed, find effigy mounds in other sections, but they are of rare occurrence.<43> They, however, show that the same reasons, religious, or otherwise, exists in other localities, while in the area covered by the southern portion of the State of Wisconsin it found its greatest expression. This cut affords us a fair idea of effigy mounds. Here are seen two animals, one behind the other. On paper we can readily see the resemblance. Stretched out on the ground, and of gigantic proportions, the resemblance is not so marked, and some might fail to notice it at first sight. Either of those figures is over one hundred feet long, and about fifteen feet wide. With few exceptions, effigy mounds are inconsiderable in height, varying from one to four feet. These mounds have been carefully studied of late years, and there is no doubt that in many instances we can distinguish the animals represented.

Ill.u.s.tration of Effigy Mounds.------------------

We learn, then, that tribes formerly living in Wisconsin had the custom of heaping up the earth in the shape of the various animals peculiar to that section. But no effigies are found of animals that have since become extinct, or of animals that are to be found only in other lands.

Our next cut represents the famous elephant mound of Wisconsin, on the strength of which a number of fair theories have been given relating to the knowledge of the mastodon by the builders of the mound, and its consequent antiquity. It now bears some resemblance to an elephant, but we learn that the trunk was probably produced by the was.h.i.+ng of the banks and, from the same cause, a projection above the head, supposed to represent horns, has disappeared. Taking these facts into consideration, it is quite as likely that it represented a buffalo.<44> One writer even thinks he found a representation of a camel, but the fact is, the more these effigy mounds are studied, the more certain are we that they are representations of animals formerly common in that region.

Ill.u.s.tration of Elephant Mound and Emblematic Mounds.--------

The manner in which they represented the various animals is full of interest to us. It has been discovered that they worked on a system. The last cut represents a group of three animals discovered a few miles from the Blue Mounds in Dane County. We notice at once a difference between the central animal, with a tail, and the other two. It will also be observed that the animals are represented in profile, with only two projections for legs. They are never separated so that we can distinguish the two front and the two hind feet. Animals so figured are the bear, fox, wolf, panther, and others. Grazing animals, such as the buffalo, elk, and deer, are represented with a projection for horns. In the last cut the other two animals are buffaloes. In various ways the particular kind of animal can nearly always be distinguished.<45>

Ill.u.s.tration of Grazing Elks. Fox in the distance.------

The preceding cut represents two elks grazing, and a fox in the distance. The long embankments of earth at one side are considered by Mr. Peet as in the nature of game drives. But we call attention to the expressiveness with which these figures are delineated. What could be more natural than the quietly grazing elks, with the suspicious prowling fox in the distance. In the cut we also see two cross-shaped figures.

This was their method of representing birds, a projection on each side of a central body denoting wings. These figures are often very expressive.

Ill.u.s.tration of Eagle Mound.-----------------------

In this cut we have no difficulty in recognizing an eagle. It is represented as soaring high in the air. On the bluffs above it is a wolf effigy, and several conical and long mounds. In the cut preceding this the eagle and the hawk are hovering over the feeding elks, while in this cut a flock of hawks are watching some buffaloes feeding in the distance. This group of effigies was found on the banks of the Kickapoo River.

Ill.u.s.tration of Hawks and Buffaloes.------------

Our next cut represents a wild goose with a long neck and beak followed by a duck with a short neck, flying towards the lake.

Ill.u.s.trations of Goose and Duck.-----------

Water-loving animals, such as salamanders and turtles, are represented in still another way, two projections on each side of a central figure.

The next following cut represents a turtle. The tail was not always added. The salamander closely resembles the turtle, but notice the difference in the body, and still different is the cut of the musk-rat (see later). Fishes are figured as a straight embankment of earth tapering to a point.

Ill.u.s.tration of Turtle.----------------

The same system that was observed in the location of signal mounds is to be noticed in the arrangements of these groups of effigy mounds. They are not alone. One group answers to another on a distant hill, or is in plain view of another group in the valley below. Distant groups were so related, each commanding a wide extent of country, and thus group answers to group, and mound to mound, for miles away, making a complete system throughout the region.

Ill.u.s.tration of Salamander and Musk-rat.---------

We notice this as to the location of the mounds. When we examine the mounds themselves we observe no little skill in the way they represent the animals. They often impressed on them something more than mere animal resemblances. "There are groups where the att.i.tudes are expressive of a varied action. Certain animals, like the weasel or mink, being seen with a bird so near that, apparently, it might be caught by a single spring; and still others, like the wolf or wild-cat, are arranged head to head, as if prepared for combat; and still others, like the squirrel or c.o.o.n, are in the more playful att.i.tudes, sometimes apparently chasing one another over hill or valley; and again situated alone, as if they had just leaped from some tree, or drawn themselves out of some den or hole."<46>

Ill.u.s.tration Man-shaped Mound.-------------------

Nor is the effigy of the human form wanting. It is found in several localities throughout the State. This cut shows us one such effigy.

This was the beginning of a long train of animal mounds, presumably representing bears, found near the Blue Mounds, Wisconsin.<47> We can not observe that any more importance was ascribed to the effigy of a human being than to that of an animal.

In casting about for suitable explanation for the erection of these animal mounds, we find ourselves lost in conjecture as to the motive which induced these people to prepare these earthen effigies. We may be sure that it was for some other reason than for amus.e.m.e.nt, or to give exercise to an artistic feeling. Only in very few instances do we detect any arrangements which would imply that they were in the nature of defenses. In some cases the effigies are so arranged as to form a sort of inclosure, some portion of the figure being prolonged to an unusual extent and thus inclosing a s.p.a.ce that may have been utilized for a village site. This group on the Wisconsin River ill.u.s.trates this point. Here the area thus partially inclosed, is about an acre. It is a singular fact that these inclosures are almost always triangular in shape.<48> But it is manifest that a simple earth wall would serve for defense much better than these forms. They probably were not burial mounds, as few contain human remains, and it is not yet certain that these remains were not intrusive burials.<49> It seems, therefore that they must have been in some manner connected with the religious life of the people.