Professor Swallow informs me that from a mound at New Madrid, Missouri, he obtained a human skull, enclosed in an earthen jar, the lips of which were too small to admit of its extraction; it must therefore have been moulded on the head after death.

A similar mode of burial was practised by the Chaldeans, where the funeral jars often contain a human cranium much too expanded to admit of the possibility of its passing out of it; so that, "either the clay must have been modelled over the corpse, and then baked, or the neck of the jar must have been added subsequently to the other rites of interment."*

Cave burial was also probably resorted to by the Mound-builders. Human remains have been found under such circumstances in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and in other States, but as it is impossible to identify these cave-tenants clearly with the Moundbuilders, I content myself with this passing notice.

Mounds of observation.- Crowning the conspicuous points which overlook the valleys, are often seen mounds which Squier and Davis suggest, may have been signal or alarm posts.

"Between Chillicothe and Columbus, on the eastern border of the Scioto Valley," say they, "not far from twenty may be selected, so placed in respect to each other, that it is believed, if the country were cleared of forests, signal fires might be transmitted in a few minutes along the whole line. On a hill opposite Chillicothe, nearly six hundred feet in height, the loftiest in the entire region, one of these mounds is placed. . . . A fire built upon it would be distinctly visible for fifteen or twenty miles up, and an equal distance down. the valley." The works at Merom, Indiana, are situ* "Rawlinson's 'Herodotus,'" Book i., chapter 198 — note.

ated on a narrow ridge, one hundred and seventy-five feet above the Wabash Valley. The boldest bluffs in the vicinity of Dubuque are crowned with mounds, from which an immense reach of the Mississippi can be comprehended by the observer. At Vincennes, an outlier of the upper terrace has been rounded into a mound, which forms the most conspicuous feature in the landscape. Whether these mounds were used merely as lookouts may well be doubted. Their position shows that the sites were selected in reference to their picturesque beauty, and were eligible, whether for occupancy, for sacrificial, or sepulchral purposes.

CHAPTER VI.

THE MOUND - BUILDERS

THEIR ARTS AND MANU

FACTURES.

THEI

'HERE is a striking similarity in the implements of barbarous nations, however widely-separated, and this similarity extends not only to their form, but to the material employed. Too much importance must not be attached to these coincidences in tracing national affinities. If we were to suppose that a person in the full possession of his physical powers, but with no previous experience, were placed on an uninhabited island and compelled to rely on his own ingenuity for acquiring a subsistence, he would first resort to the pebble as an auxiliary power. With this, like some of the monkey tribes, he could crack nuts; and when hurled, it would be more effective than a blow dealt with the clenched hand. If he succeeded in capturing any small game. he would learn that this pebble, chipped to a sharp edge. would materially aid him in stripping off the hide or disembowelling the carcass. A brief experience would teach him that certain kinds of stone possessed this property to a greater extent than others, but that of all kinds, obsidian, flint, and chert were the most readily cleavable, and that with these, he could cut, or saw, or pierce, or drill, or bore. With his new experience, he would, ere long, find that a slender reed, tipped with a

OBSIDIAN FLAKES.

203

flint-point and pear-shaped, could be hurled more accurately and more effectively than a pebble, and hence the javelin. Improving on this idea, and finding that the branches of trees had an elastic force, and the sinews and entrails of the deer had great tensile strength, he would construct a bow and reduce his javelin to the size of an arrow. He now finds himself in possession of a weapon capable of repeated discharges, and with which he can bring down the largest as well as the smallest game. Still experimenting, he finds that if his arrowhead is barbed, it will cling to the side of his victim, and he has but to follow in the trail to secure his prey. Thus equipped, the Indian, at this day, brings down the buffalo on the plains, and shrinks not from an encounter with the ferocious grizzly bear of the mountains; and the Hottentot undaunted assails the lion and rhinoceros.

While our unenlightened Crusoe finds in the flintflake so many applications, there are other processes, such as hacking and pounding, to which, by reason of its frangibility, flint or obsidian is not adapted. A tougher material is required, and this he finds in greenstone and porphyry. He selects a water-worn pebble as near the desired shape as possible, and to secure it to a handle for the purpose of being wielded, he cuts a groove at one end, and with the deer's sinew lashes it securely; and that the mass shall oppose the least resistance to the surface to be cut away, it is ground down wedge-shaped. Greenstone, flint, and chert are common to almost every region of the earth, and the human race, whereever dispersed, appear, as it were, instinctively to have become possessed of a knowledge of their respective properties. In the volcanic regions of Mexico, at this day, obsidian is largely employed, where iron is attain

able. In Colorado, I have seen beautiful arrow-heads of chalcedony; and the Indian of the mountains will economize the thick parts of a junk-bottle which some traveller has cast aside, by chipping it into such weapons.

These flint-flakes are made very rapidly, not by blows but by strong pressure. Torquemada, as quoted by Tylor,* has given us a description of the manner in which the Aztecs obtained their obsidian flakes. One of the Indian workmen sits upon the ground, and selecting a piece of this stone, say, eight inches long and as thick as one's leg, with a stick as large as the shaft of a lance, and a little more than three cubits long, to the end of which is firmly fastened another piece of wood eight inches long to give it more weight, he commences operations. He brings his feet together, securing the stone as in a vise, then taking the stick in both hands, and pressing one end against his breast and setting the other well home against the edge of the front of the stone, and exerting a strong pressure, off flies a knife, which is sharpened on a stone to give it a fine edge. "In a very short time," says our author, "these workmen will make more than twenty knives in the aforesaid manner." t

Arrow-heads.-The arrow-heads of Europe have been classified by Sir R. W. Wilde into five divisions: 1, Those which are triangular; 2, Those which are indented at the base; 3, Those which are stemmed; 4, Those which are barbed; and, 5, Those which are leaf-shaped. All these forms are represented in the United States, as will be seen by the subjoined illustrations taken from specimens in the Collection of the Historical Society of Chicago.

*"Anahuac," etc.

As to the mode of manufacture, see Lubbock, " Pre-historic Times," p. 84.