£ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 091 024 426 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2001 AI^TTIQUITIES SOUTHEEN IITDIAN8, PAUriCULAELY OF IHE GEORGIA TRIBES BT CHARLES C. JONES, Jk. NEW YORE: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 5i9 & 551 BEOABWAT. 18T3. ■^I- ■•?-» 1 '.1^' ' ExTEBED, according to act of Congreee, in the year 1373, by CHABLE3 C. JONES, Jr., In the office of tbe Librarian of Congress, at Wastiington. TO THE STATE OF GEORGIA. THIS VOLUME IS A P PE CT I O N AT E L T INSCRIBED ONE OP HER SONS. Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924091024426 PEEFACE. Although the title intimates that our investi^-a- tions have been directed principally to an examination of the antiquities of a single State, the present work will be found to embrace within its scope a much more extended field of observation. In prosecuting the pro- posed inquiries, it appeared both unnecessary and im- proper narrowly to observe the ' boundary-lines which separate modern States. It will be remeinbered, more- over, that the original grant from the British crown conveyed to the Trustees of the Colony of Georgia a territory greater by far than that now embraced with- in the geographical limits accorded to her as a State. A striking similarity exists among the customs, uten- sils, implements, and ornaments of all the Southern Indians : consequently, in elucidating the archaeology of a region often occupied in turn by various tribes, it seemed appropriate to mention and contrast the VI PEFJFACE. antiquities of Virginia^ the Carolinas, Florida, Ala- bama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Our object has been, from tie earliest and most authentic sources of information at command, to con- vey a correct impression of the location, character- istics, form of government, social relations, manufac- tures, domestic economy, diversions, and customs of the Southern Indians, at the time of primal contact between them and the Europeans. This introducto. ry part of the work is followed by an examination of tumuli, earthworks, and various relics obtained from burial-mounds, gathered amid refuse-piles, found in an- cient graves, and picked up in cidtivated fields and on the sites of old villages and fishing-resorts. When- ever these could be interpreted in the light of early recorded observations, or were capable of explanation by customs not obsolete at the dawn of the historic period, the authorities relied upon have been carefully noted. The accompanying plans of mounds were prepared from personal surveys, and nearly every typical object used in illustration may be seen in the author's collec- tion. Most of these relics were obtained by me in situ. They are now figured for the first time. To the friends who have kindly aided me in gather- ing together a cabinet which so fully and beautifully represents the arts and the manufactures of these PREFACE. Vll primitive peoples, I liere renew my cordial and grate- ful actnowledgments. Prepared at irregular intervals and in odd mo- ments as they could he borrovred from the exacting and ever-recurring engagements of an active profes- sional life, these pages, with their manifest short- comings, are offered in the hope that" they will, at least in some degree, minister to the information and pleasure of those who are not incurious with regard to the subject of American archaeology. Chaeles C. Jones, Je. New Yoek, April 10, 1873. OONTEKTS. CHAPTER I. Location of Tribes. — Physical Characteristics of the Southern Indians. — System of Government. — The Mice. — The Eead War-Chief. — Public Buildings in a Creek Village. — Mode of Warfare. — Office of High-Priest. — Sun-Worsbip. — Offering of the Stag. — Idol-Worship. — Keligious Ideas. — The Sun among the Natcliez. — The Cacica of Cutifachiqui. — Mausoleum of Talomeco. — Tombs of the Virginia Kings, ...... Page 1 CHAPTEE II. Office of the Conjurer or Sledicine-man. — Treatment of the Sick. — Medicinal Plants. — Towns and Private Houses. — Tenure of Property. — Agricultural Pursuits. — Town Plantations and Private Gardens. — Public Granaries. — Ani- mal and Vegetable Food. — Mechanical Labors. — Early Mining in Duke's-Creek Valley. — Manufacture of Canoes, Pottery, Copper Implements, Gold, Silver, Shell, and Stone Ornaments. — Various Implements and Articles of Stone, Bone, and Wood. — Trade Relations, ..... £8 CHAPTER III. Marria"-e and Divorce. — Punishment of Adultery. — Costume and Ornaments. — Skin-painting and Tattooing. — Manufacture of Carpets, Feather-shawls, and Moccasins. — Weaving, . . . . • ■ .65 CHAPTER IV. Music and Musical Instruments.— Dancing.— Games.— Gambling.— Festivals.— Divisions of the Year. — Counting.— Funeral Customs, . . .90 X CONTENTS, CHAPTEE V. General Observations on Kound-Bnilding. — ^Bartram'a Account of the Georgia Tumuli. — Absence of Megalithic Monuments and Animal-shaped Mounds. — Distribution of the Ancient Population. — Few Sepulchral Mounds erected since the Advent of Europeans. — Antiquity of the Tumuli, . Page 118 CHAPTER VI. Mounds on the Etowah River. — ^Temple for Sun-worship. — Stone Images. — Fish- Preserves. — Tumuli in the Valley of Little Shoulder-bone Creek. — Circular Earthwork on the Head-waters of the Ogeechec. — Stone Tumulus near Sparta_ — Mounds on the Savannah Kiver. — Meeting between the Cacica of the Savan- nah and De Soto, ....... 136 CHAPTER VII. Tumuli on the Ocmulgce River, opposite Macon. — Brown's Mount. — ^Mound on Messier's Plantation, in Early County, . . . . .158 CHAPTER Vni. Chunky- Yards. — Elevated Spaces. — Mounds. of Observation and Retreat. — Tumuli on Woolfolk's Plantation. — Sepulchral Tumuli. — Chieftain-Mounds. — Custom of burying Personal Property with the Dead. — Savannah owes a Monument to Tomo-chi-chi. — ^Family or Tribal Mounds. — Cremation, . . 178 CHAPTER IX. Shell-Mounds. — Tumulus on Stalling's Island. — Shell-Heaps and their Contents. Rock-Piles. — Indian Affection for the Graves of their Departed. — Ancient Burial-Ground on the Coast. — Rock-Walls, Embankments, and Defensive En- closures. — Stone Mountain. — Fortified Towns of the Southern Indians, 196 CHAPTEE X. Stone Graves in Nacoochee Valley and elsewhere. — Copper Implements and the Use of that Metal among the Southern Indians. — Cane-Matting. Shell Drinking-Cups. — Shell Pius.— Age of Stone Graves. — ^Evidence of Commerce among the Aborigines, . . . . •. , .213 CHAPTER XI. Arrow and Spear Heads.— Use of the Bow.— Skill in Archery.- Manufacture and General Distribution of Arrow and Spear Points. — Various Forms of these Im- plements. — Stone Dagger. — ^Flint Sword, .... 240 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XII. Grooved Axes. — Hand and Wedge-shaped Axes or Celts. — Perforated and Orna- mental or Ceremonial Axes. — Chisels. — Gouges. — Scrapers. — ^Flint Knives. — Awls, or Borers. — Leaf-shaped Implements. — Smoothing-Stones. — Drift-Im- plements, ....... Page 269 CHAPTER XIII. Agiieulture and Agricultural Implements. — Ceremony of the Busk. — Cultivation of Maize. — Mortars and Pestles. — Crushing-Stones. — Nut-Stones. — Use of Walnut and Hickory-nut Oil, . . . . . .296 CHAPTER XIV. Fishing. — Wears. — Nets. — ^Net-sinkers. — Plummets, . . . 321 CHAPTER XV. Discoidal Stones. — Chungke-Game, ...... 341 CHAPTER XVI. Stone Tubes, . . . . . . . . " . 369 CHAPl'ER XVII. Stones for rounding Arrow-shafts. — Whetstones or Sharpeners. — Pierced Tablets. — Pendants. — Slung-stones. — ^Amulets. — Stone Plate. — Mica Mirrors. — Sculp- tured Rocks, ........ 366 CHAPTER XVIII. Pipes. — The Use of Tobacco. — Idol Pipes. — Calumets. — Common Pipes. . 383 CHAPTER XIX.. Idol-Worship among the Southern Indians. — Stone and Terra-Cotta Images, 413 CHAPTER XX, Pottery **1 CHAPTER XXI. The Use of Pearls as Ornaments among the Southern Indians, . . 467 CHAPTER XXII. Primitive Uses of Shells.— SheU-Money.— Shell Ornaments.— Personal Decorations. — Conclusion, . . ■ • • • • . 4J5 LIST OF ILLIJSTKATIONS. Plate I. {To face page IZG.) Turatili and Fisb -Preserves in the Etowah Valley, Georgia. Plate II. (To face page liA.) Figs. 1 and 2. Tunmli in the Valley of Little Shonlder-bone Creek. 3. Enclosed Work. 4. Circnlar Earthwork on the Head-waters of the Ogeeehee. 5. Stono Tumulus near Sparta, Georgia. Plate III. {To face page 152.) Tumuli on the Savannah Kiver, below Augusta. Plats IV. {Tofaeepage 158.) Tumuli on the Ocmulgee River, opposite the City of Macon. Plate IV., A. {To face page 160.) Fig. 1. Skull of a Creek Indian. 2 and 3. Two Views of the Skull of an Ancient Mound-builder. Plate V. {To face page 168.) Mound on Messier's Plantation, in Early County. Plate VI. {To face page W,4:.) Relics found in Stone Graves in Nacooclieo Valley. Fig. 1. Cane Matting. 2-7. Copper Implemeuts. 8 and 9. Shell Pins. 10. Soapstone Pin. 11 and 12. Stone Beads. XIV LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Plate VII. (To face page 252.) Figs. 1 and 2. Large Flint Spear-heads. 3 and 5. Flint Daggers. 4. Serrated Flint Sword. Plate VIII. {To face page Ih^:) Figs. 1-12. Typical Forms of Flint Spear-heads. Plate IX. {To face page 266.) Figs. 1-41. Typical Forms of Arrow-points. Plate X. {To face page ^'Ji.) Figs. 1-7. Typical Forms of Grooved Stone Axes. 8. Stone Adze. PI.ATE XI. {To face page ^IB.) Figs. 1-6. Typical Forms of Polished StDue Celts. Plate XII. {To face page 280.) Stone Axe from Tennessee. Plate XIII. {To face page ^ii.) Figs. 1-6. Typical Forms of Perforated and Ornamental or Ceremonial Hatchets. 6. Hammer-Stone. Plate XIV. {To face page 286.) Figs. 1-4. Stone Chisels. 5-7. Stone. Gouges. 8. Bone Gouge. 9-14. Typical Forms of Stone Scrapers. Plate XV. {To face page 290.) Figs. 1-9. Flint Knives and Leaf-shaped Implements. Plate XVL {To face page 292.) Fig. 1. Bone Awl. 2-5. Stone Borers. 6-9. Smoothing-Stones. 10. Drift Implement, Plate XVIL {To face page 302.) Fig. 1. Stone Hoe. 2. Stone Spade. 3-5. Flint Agricultural Implements. LIST OF IXLUSTBATIONf!. XV Plate XVIII. (To face pay e S12.) Figs. 1 3. Stone Mortars. 4-5. Stone Pestles. 6 and 8. Maize-crusliers or Triturating Stones. 7. Stone upon wliich Nnts were cracked. Plate XIX. {To face page 338.) Figs. 1-6. Perforated Stone Net-sinkers. 7-11. Grooved " " 12. Fishing Plummet. Plate XX. {Jo faze page %^'S,.') Figs. 1-13. Discoidal Stones. Plate XXI.- ( To face page 358.) Figs. 1-6. Stone Tubes. Plate XXII. {To face page 366.) Fig. 1. Stone for rounding Arrow-shafts. 3 and 3. Pierced Tablets. 4. Slnng-stone. 5. Amulet. 6. Stone Plate. 7. Whetatone. Plate XXIII. {To face page ¥)^.) Figs. 1-9. Typical Forms of Calumets. Plate XXIV. {To face page 4\ "Admiranda Narratio,'' plate xx. DANCrN». 93 puMic dance — tLe occasion a great and solemn feast, to whicli the inhabitants of neighboring towns had been invited — ^the place, a level spot in the midst of a broad plain, circular in shape, about which are planted in the ground posts " carued with heads like to the faces of nonnes couered with theyr vayles," the centre being occupied by " three of the fayrest Virgins of the com- panie, which, imbrassinge one another, doe, as yt wear, turne abowt in their dancinge." Around these, and following the line of the posts, fancifully attired and bearing in their hands the branches of trees and gourd- rattles, with which they keep time by striking them against the posts, are wildly singing and dancing, in the cool of the evening, the natives assembled for the celebration of this " solemne feaste." Many of these dances were of a purely spcial char- acter, and were participated in every night by way of amusement. Others were designed, by violent exer- cise, to prepare the actors " to endure fatigue, and im- prove their wind." ' Others still were had in com. memoration of war, of peace and of hunting ; others in the early spring when the seed was sown, others when the harvest was ended ; others — ^wild and teiri- "ble — in presence of captured victims doomed to tor- ture and death ; while others, with slow and solemn movement and carefully-observed ceremonies, were conducted in honor of some religious festival. There w^s scarce an occurrence of note, or a convocation of moment, which did not receive commemoration by a dance. Every occasion was provocative of this amuse- ment. Keferring to the dancing of the tribes composing ' Lawson's " Carolina," p. 1Y6. London, 1714. 94 AirnQiriTiEs of the soutkeen etdians. the Creek Confederacy, Mr. Bartram ' writes : " They have an endless variety of steps, but the most com- mon, and that which I term the most civil, and indeed the most admired and practised amongst themselves, is a slow, shuffling, alternate step; both feet move forward, one after the other, first the right foot fore- most, and next the left, moving one after the other, in opposite circles, i. e., first a circle of young men, and, within, a circle of young women moving to. gether opposite ways, the men with the course of the sun and the females contrary to it ; the men strike their arm with the open hand, and the girls clap hands and raise their shrill, sweet voices answering an ele- vated shout of the men at stated times of termination of the stanzas ; and the girls perform an interlude or chorus separately. " To accompany their dances they have songs of different classes, as martial, bacchanalian' and amorous^ which last, I must confess, are extravagantly libidi- nous ; ' and they have moral songs which seem to be the most esteemed and practised, and answer the pur- pose of religious lectures." The Choctaws were distinguished above their neighbors for their poetry and music. Between their towns existed great rivalry in the composition of songs for dances, and each year, upon the solemnization of the Busk, at least one new song was produced. Captain Smith thus describes a dance made for his entertainment by Pocahontas during the absence of her father : " In a fair, plain Field they made a Fire, before which he sat down upon a Mat, when suddenly amongst the Woods was heard such a hideous Noise • " Travels," etc., p. 603. London, 1792. ' Compare Bossu'a account of the dance of impiidicity. " Travels," voL i., p. 97. London, 1771. BANCE OF POCAHONTAS. 95 and shrieking that the English betook themselves to their Arms, and seized on two or three Old Men by them, supposing Powhatan, with all his Power, was coming to surprize them. But presently Pocahmtas came, willing him to kill her, if any hurt were intended ; and the beholders, which were Men, Women and Chil- dren, satisfied the Captain that there was no such matter. Then presently they were presented with this Antick : thirty young Women came naked out of the Woods, only covered behind and before with a few Green Leaves, their Bodies all painted, some of one color, some of another, but aU differing; their Leader had a fair pair of Buck's Horns on her Head and an Otter's Skin at her Girdle, and another at her Arm, a Quiver of Arrows at her Back, a Bow and Ar- rows in -her Hand. The next had in her Hand a Sword, another a Club, another a Potstick ; all of 'em being Homed alike. The rest were all set out with their several Devices. These Fiends with most Hel- lish Shouts and Cries, rushing from among the Trees, cast themselves in a Ring about the Fire, Singing and Dancing with most excellent ill variety, oft falling into their infernal passions, and then solemnly betaking themselves again to Sing and Dance ; having spent near an hour in this Mascarado, as they enter d, in like manner they departed." Li plate xxxviii. of the " Brevis Narratio," we see nineteen of these dancing-girls moving in a circle and singing the praises of the king and queen. Their steps are more graceful and their motions far less violent and irregular than those practised in religious dances, such, for example, as were observed upon the occasion of the sacrifice of the first-bom.' ' " Brevis Narratio," plate xxxiv. 96 ANTiQurnES op the southeek indiajts. The great game upon wticli the Southern Indians staked both personal reputation and property, was the chv/aghe-game. It was played by the warriors, and with those discoidal stones, the symmetry and beauty of which have attracted so much attention. So impor- tant was this amusement, so general the indulgence in it, and so desperate the betting, that we have deemed it proper to devote a separate chapter to its history and conduct. In hall-play one village or tribe was often arrayed against the other, and the contest, although generally , good-natured, was prosecuted with so much vigor and excitement, that the players sometimes encountered blows and tumbles which entailed severe bruises and broken limbs. This game was esteemed noble and manly; and, in its exercise, involved feats of strength and agility. Youths of both sexes were frequently engaged, and the principal matches were had in the fall of the year. One chief challenges another to the contest. They meet and make up the game, each se- lecting from his own tribe an equal number of contest- ants. Upon the appointed day the respective parties meet and lay off the ground upon some plain agreed upon, in the vicinity of a town. Much property is staked upon the issue, and this is deposited in a pile. Each party is then addressed by its chief, who admon- ishes fair play and animates the contestants with the hope and glory of beating their antagonists. The chiefs take no active part in the sport, but, occupying a suitable position, act as judges. The players arrange themselves in the centre of the ball-ground, and the game proceeds. From several accounts descriptive of the manner in which the game was played, we select the BALL-PLAY. 97 following, fumislied by Mr. Adair : ' " The ball is made of a piece of scraped deer-skin, moistened, and stuffed bard witb deer's hair, and strongly sewed witb deer's sinews. Tbe ball-sticks are about two feet long, the lower end somewhat resembling the palm of a hand, and which are worked with deer-skin thongs. Be- tween these they catch the ball, and throw it a great distance, when not prevented by some of the opposite party, who ily to intercept them. The goal is about five hundred yards in length ; at each end of it they fix two long, bending poles into the ground, three yards apart below, but slanting a considerable way outwards. The party that happens to throw the ball over these, counts one ; but if it be thrown underneath, it is cast back and played for as usual. The gamesters are equal in number on each side ; and at the begin- ning of every course of the ball, they throw it up high in the centre of the gi'ound, and in a direct line be- tween the two goals. When the crowd of players pre- vents the one who catched the ball, from throwing it off with a long direction, he conimonly sends it the right course by an artful, sharp twirl. They are so exceedingly expert in this manly exercise, that, between the goals, the ball is mostly flying the different ways, by the force of the playing sticks, without falling to the ground, for they are not allowed to catch it -svith their hands. It is surprising to see how swiftly they fly, when closely chased by a nimble-footed pursuer ; when they are intercepted by one of the opj)osite party, his fear of being cut by the ball-sticks, commonly gives them an opportunity of throwing it, perhaps a hundred yards ; but the antagonist sometimes runs up ' "History of American Indians," p. 400. London, 1115. 7 98 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOXTTHERN IKDIANS, behind, and by a sudden stroke dasbes down the ball. It is a very unusual thing to see them act spitefully in any sort of game, not even in this severe and tempting exercise. " Once, indeed, I saw some break the legs and arms of their opponents, by hurling them down, when on a descent and running at fall speed. But I afterward understood, there was a familj' dispute of long continu- ance between them, that might have raised their spleen as nauch as the high bets they had then at stake, which was almost all they were worth. The Choktah are exceedingly addicted to gaming, and frequently, on the Slightest and most hazardous occasions, will lay their all and as much as their credit can procure." The method of playing this game did not materially differ among the Southern nations.' Foot-ball was also a manly and favorite diversion. These games were followed by feasting and dancing in the public square. Trials of skill were had with the bow and arrow, thfe spear and the club. The Natchez women amused themselves with tossing balls by hand, and in playing a game with bits of cane eight or nine inches long. " Three of these they hold loosely in one hand, and knock them to the ground with another ; if two of them fall with the round side undermost, she that played counts one ; but if only one, she coimts nothing." ' Lawson ' mentions several gambling games, as be- ' Compare Eomans' " Concise Ifatural History of East and West Florida '' p. 79. New York, 1116. Haywood's "Natural and Aboriginal History of Ten- nessee," p. 286. Nashville, 1823. Bartram's " Travels," etc., p. 506. Lon- don, 1792. ' Du Pratz' "History of Louisiana," vol. ii., p. 236. London, 1763. ' " History of Carolina," p. 176. London, 1714. Compare Hennepin's " Ciin- tinuation of the New Discovery," etc., chap, xxi , p. 82. London, 1698. GAMING, FEASTS, ETC. 99 ing in vogue among the Carolina Indians, some played with split reeds and others with persimmon-stones. To such a desperate extent was gaming can-ied, that, having lost' all their property, the players would not infrequently stake upon the final issue even their personal liberty, and remain willing servants of the victors until redeemed by relatives and friends. The great feast of the year, among the Creeks, was the Boos-lce-tav. It was celebrated in July or August, and partook of the character of a sacred festival, dur- ing which universal thanks were offered to the Great Spirit for the incoming harvest. All fires were then extinguished, and were new lighted from the spark kindled by the high-priest. It was an occasion of gen- eral purification and of universal amnesty for all crimes committed during the year, murder excepted.' Almost eveiy month had its peculiar feast or festi- val. Among the Natchez the year began with our month of March, and was divided into thirteen moons. With each new moon a feast was celebrated, receiving its name from the principal fruits gathered or animals hunted. Thus, the first moon was called the Deej' moon and was obsei'ved with universal joy as the com- mencement of the year. This was followed by the festival of strawberries. The third moon ushered in the synall corn, and was impatiently expected because the croj) of large com seldom lasted from one harvest to the other. The water-melon feast occurred during the fourth moon,. answering to our month of June. 'Hawkins' "Sketch of the Creek Country." Collections of the Georgia His- torical Society, vol. ili., part 1, p. 75. Savannah, 1848. Bartram's "Travels," etc., p. 507. London, 1792. Adair's "History of American Indians," p. 94. London, 1773. Timberlake's "Memoirs," p. 64. Loudon, 1765. 100 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHERN INDIANS. The fiftli moon was that of the fishes. At this time grapes were gathered. The sixth was known as the mulberry moon. The maize or GreatrCorn moon succeeded, and was ren- dered remarkable by the most noted festival of the year. The Turhey moon answered to our October, while the ninth and tenth moons were known respec- tively a3 the Buffalo and Bear moons. It was then those animals were hunted. The eleventh month was called the cold-meal moon; the twelfth, the chestnut moon ; and the thirteenth, the walnut moon." If we may believe Adair," the annual feast of love was most carefully observed. There were festivals in honor of war and of peace, feasts of the dead, of marriage, and for curing the sick, and public ceremonies in adoration of the sun and. in solemnization of various religious rites. When not actively engaged in hunting, or in warlike pursuits, the time of these primitive peoples was largely spent in feasting and dancing. Beneath mild skies, sur- rounded by forests yielding many and nutritious fruits, with few wants in the present and little care for the future, their lives were idly given to amuse- ments, and the observance of sundry festivals whose recurrence constituted the epochal events of the year. When Cabega de Vaca asserted that the Southern Indians were ignorant of all time, and made no reckon- ing either by the month or the year, his statement was not entirely correct. We have already seen that they divided the year into thirteen moons. They also rec- ognized four seasons — the return of the sun, summer, the fall of the leaf, and winter. Of the celestial ' Dii Pratz' " History of Louisiana," vol. ii., p. 185. London, 1T63. ' "History of American Indians," p. 113. London, 1775. DIVISION OF TIME. — FTTNERAL RITES. 101 luminaries they took little note except of " tlie day- moon or sun," and of the "night-sun, or moon." Three divisions were (assigned to the day — morning, or " the sun's coming-out," mid-day, and " the sun fallen into the water." Arguing from the periodicity of their public reli- gious feasts, Adair advances the idea that they under- stood the division of weeks into seven days. The year commenced with the first new moon of the vernal equinox. Knots of various colors and notched sticks were used to mark the lapse of time. The Cherokees counted as high as a hundred " by various numeral names," while the nations of East and West Florida " rose no higher than the decimal number, adding units after it by a conjunctive copulative." We conclude these general observations by an allu- sion to the EUNEEAL RITES observed by the Southern Indians. From the multitude of sepulchral shell and earth mounds still extant along the coast, it is evident that in ancient times the islands and headlands were densely populated. The variant ages of these tumuli, their internal evidence and many physical facts con- nected with them, give assurance that this Indian oc- cupancy was long continued. Here the small shell- mound formed the common grave of the natives — the larger earth-mounds being generally erected in honor of chief, priest, or some noted person. The common dead were interred in a horizontal position, sometimes singly, but usually in numbers. The corpses or skeletons, with articles of property, were, in not a few instances, burnt upon the spot prior to the erec- tion of the mound-tomb. In the tumuli of chiefs and priests, however, no evidences of cremation appear. In them the corpse was interred in a sitting posture. 102 AJSTIQUITIES OF THE SODTHEEN HTDIANS. A thick covering of tenacious clay — enveloping the body like a great, rude, inverted jar-^-or a light- wood post, firmly driven into the earth, against which the skeleton or dead body was placed, or to which, when seated on the ground, it was securely lashed with a grape-vine, or cord of some sort, was sometimes em- ployed to keep the corpse in proper position while the earth was gradually accumulated around and above it. The custom of depositing with the dead articles of personal property, which, it was believed, would prove of service to them both in their journey toward and in the land of spirits, seemingly prevailed from the earliest times. These sepulchral tumuli are located in the vicinity of the ancient villages and fishing-resorts of the natives. The indications are, that the coast was more densely populated than the other portions of the Southern country, excepting, perhaps, the valley-lands of some of the principal streams. It is entirely proba- ble that the natives inhabiting the interior resorted, at certain seasons of the year, in considerable numbers, to the islands and headlands of the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico, for the purpose of fishing and sub- sisting upon the various and abundant supplies of food which the salt-water afforded. This the frequency of grave-mounds and relic-beds amply suggests. As we leave the sea-shore, and until we encounter the rich valleys of more elevated sections, burial-mounds become more infrequent, and 'those dedicated to the in- humation of the general dead contain a larger number of skeletons than mounds of a similar class located on the coast. In them, so far as our observation extends, evidences of cremation are usually wanting. Through the pine-barren belt sepulchral tumuli are rarely met with ; and such as are found are located in GBATE-M0T7NDS, 103 the vicinity of deep swamps or near the rivers where Ivixuriant forests and abundant waters afforded gen- erous supplies of game and fish. In the beautiful al- luvial valleys of Upper Georgia, Tennessee, the Caro- linas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, we again encounter the physical traces of a permanent and ex- tensive population. Here we are surrounded with monuments attesting the care and labor expended by these primitive peoples in commemoration of the last resting-places of their dead. These burial-mounds are conical or elliptical in form, and vary in size jfrom the small tumulus, whose outline can scarcely be traced, to barrows quite twenty feet high, and a hundred feet or more in diameter at the base. The practice of entombing the dead in artificial tumuli was abaindoned by the Southern Indians very shortly after the advent of the European, and there are good reasons for believing that the custom had fallen into disuse prior to that time. The summits and fianks of many large mounds which were never constructed for bxirial-purposes, contain, only a few feet below the surface, the skeletons of modern Indians. Natural elevations and river-bluffs are frequently filled with graves when there is nothing externally to distin- guish them as ancient places of sepulture. It would seem from some of the earliest accounts we possess, that in the sixteenth century and among the Florida tribes only kings and high-priests were honored with mound-tombs. From the absence of burial-mounds in many locali- ties which we know must have beea thickly settled and occupied for many centuries by the red race, we are led to the conclusion that the construction of sepul- 104 ANTIQUITIES OF THE' SOUTHERIT INDIANS. chral tumuli was limited, and that tlie common dead — undistinguished by such laborious sepulture — ^were returned to the bosom of mother earth with frail mon- uments marking the places of their final repose. Even where we possess no historic knowledge of the preliminary funeral customs, or of the peoples by whom they were observed, it is curious to note the circumstance that contiguous barrows, similar in out- ward appearance, when opened, reveal different modes of interment. As wave after wave breaks upon the beach of the great ocean and then is dissipated into the evanescent foam or returns to the main to be seen and heard no more, each leaving, however, upon the strand its own sea-shells to tell that the tide was once there, so during the flight of the lapsed centuries have various tribes swept over the same locality, occu- pying it in turn, and, when departing, abandoning to those who came after, manifest proofs of their tempo- rary dominion, and of the rites observed by them in the inhumation of their dead. "Within the historic period, the Choctaws main- tained the custom of erecting mounds over their dead — the bodies being reserved in bark and cane coffins and deposited in a bone-house until they had accumulated sufficiently to warrant the labor of a general inter- ment. In the early narratives we note a singular absence of all personal observation of sepulchral mound-building, and since our acquaintance with the manners of the Southern Indians the erection of tumuli above the dead was seldom attempted by them. Instead of concealing the corpses in the womb of the laboriously-constructed earth and shell mounds, they deposited their dead in cane baskets — having first enveloped them in shawls and mats of native FUNEllAL RITES OP THE NATCHEZ. _ 105 mamifacture — and laid them away in caves and crev- ices in tlie rocks, hid them in hollow trees, exposed them upon scaffolds, covered them with logs and stones, submerged them in rivers and lakes, and buried them in graves carefully lined with bark and poles. Of the funeral rites observed by the Southern Indians since the European colonization of this region, we will be advised by the following references. Among the Natchez the dead were either inhumed or placed in tombs. These tombs were located within or very near their temples. They rested upon four forked sticks, fixed fast in the ground, and were raised some three feet above the earth. About eight feet long, and a foot and a half wide, they were prepared for the reception of a single corpse. After the body was placed upon it, a basket-work of twigs was woven around and covered with mud, an opening being left at the head through which food was presented to the deceased. When the flesh had all rotted away, the bones were taken out, placed in a box made of canes and then deposited in the temple. The common dead were mourned and lamented for a period of three days. Those who fell in battle were honored with a more protracted and grievous lamentation. The demise of a Sun was followed by putting to death large numbers of his subjects, both male and female, that he might not appear unattended in the spirit-world. In 1725 the Stung Serpent, who was the brother of the Great Sun, died. M. Le Page du Pratz was present on the occasion, and furnishes the following description of what then occurred : " We entered the hut of the deceased and found him on his bed of state, dressed in his finest cloaths, his face painted with ver- 106 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHERN INDIANS. milion, shod as if for a journey, with his feather-crown on his head. To his bed were fastened his arms, which consisted of a donhle-barreled gun, a pistol, a bow, a quiver fall of arrows, and a tomahawk. Round his bed were placed all the calumets of peace he had received during his life, and on a pole, planted in the ground near it, hung a chain of forty-six rings of cane, painted red, to express the number of enemies he had slain. AH his domesticks were round him, and they presented victuals to him at the usual hours, as if he were alive. The company in his hut were composed of his favourite wife, of a second wife, which he kept in another village and visited when his favourite was with child, of his chancellor, his physician, his chief domestic, his pipe-bearer, and some old women, who were all to be strangled at his interment. ..." Soon after, the natives begun the dance of death, and pre- pared for the funeral of the Stung Serpent. Orders were given to put none to death on that occasion, but those who were in the hut of the deceased. A child, however, had been already strangled by its father and mother, which ransomed their lives upon the death of the Great Sun, and raised them from the rank of Stink- ards to that of Nobles. Those who were appointed to die were conducted twice a day, and placed in two rows before the temple, where they, acted over the scene of their death, each accompanied by eight of their own relations who were to be their executioners, and by that office exempted themselves from dying upon the death of any of the suns, and likewise raised them- selves to the dignity of men of rank. . . . On the day of the interment, the wife of the deceased made a very "moving speech to the FreneJi who were present, rec- ommending her children — to whom she also addressed herself — to their friendship, and advising a perpetual FUNERAL OF THE STUTTG SEKPENT. 107 union between tte two nations. Soon after, the master of tlie ceremonies appeared in a red-feathered crown, which half encircled his head, having a red staff in his hand in the foi-m of a cross, at the end of which hung a garland of black feathers. All the upper part of his body was painted red, excepting his arms, and from his girdle to his knees hung a fringe of feathers, the rows of which were alternately white and red. When he came before the hut of the deceased, he sa- luted him with a great Iwo, and then began the cry of death, in which he was followed by the whole people. Immediately after, the Stung Serpent was brought out on his bed of state, and was placed on a litter, which six of the guardians of the temple bore on their shoul- ders. The procession then began, the master of the ceremonies walking first, and after him the oldest war- rior, holding in one hand the pole with the rings of canes, and in the other the pipe of war — a mark of the dignity of the deceased. !Next followed the corpse, af- ter which came those who were to die at the inter- ment. The whole procession went three times round the hut of the deceased, and then those who carried the corpse proceeded in a circular kind of march, ev- ery turn intersecting the former, until they came to the temple. At every turn, the dead child was thrown by its parents before the bearers of the corpse, that they might walk over it ; and when the corpse was placed in the temple the victims were immediately strangled. The Stung Serpent and his two wives were buried in the same grave within the temple ; the other victims were intered in different parts, and after the ceremony they burnt, according to custom, the hut of the deceased." ' • Du Pratz' " History of Louisiana," vol. ii., p. 21 6. London, 1763. 108 ANTIQUiTIES OF THE SOUTHERN rNDIANS. The Virginia kings, after death, were disposed of in the following manner : The body was slit in the back, and through the opening thus made the flesh was removed— the sinews being left so as to preserve the attachments of the various joints. The bones were then dried, the skin being prevented from shrinking by an application of oil or grease. Subsequently they were carefully disposed in proper order in the skin, the vacuities caused by the removal of the flesh being nicely filled with fine white sand, so as to restore the body to its natural size and appearance. Thus pre- pared, the corpse was laid upon a shelf, raised above the floor, in the building erected for the preservation of the corpses of their kings and rulers. This shelf was overspread with mats. The flesh removed during this rude process of embalming, having been exposed upon hurdles to the sun and thoroughly dried, was sewed up in a basket and set at the feet of the body. In this house of the dead was set up a Quioccos or idol, as a guard or sacred watcher over the remains. A priest remained in constant attendance night and day, whose office it was to keep every thing in order.' The common people were buried in the earth in ordinary graves. Among the Carolina tribes, the burial of the dead was accompanied with special ceremonies — ^the expense and formality attendant upon the funeral, according with the rank of the deceased. The corpse was first placed in a cane hurdle and deposited in an out-house, made for the purpose, where it was suffered to remain for a day and a night, guarded and mourned over by ' Hariot's " Virginia," plate xxii. Francoforti ad Mcenum, 1690. "History and Present State of Virginia " (Beverly). Boole iii., chap, viii., p. 47. London, 170S. "A True Relation of Virginia" (Smith), p. 43. Boston, 1866. FUNEKAL CUSTOMS OF CAKOLINA INDIANS. 109 the nearest, relatives, with dishevelled hair. Those who are to officiate at the funeral, go into the town, and, from the backs of the first young men they meet, strip such blankets and match-coats as they deem suit- able for their purpose. In these the dead body is wrapped, and then covered with two or three mats made of rushes or cane. The coffin is made of woven reeds, or hollow canes tied fast at both ends. "When every thing is prepared for the interment, the coi'pse is carried from the house in which it has been lying, into the orchard of peach-trees, and is there deposited in another hurdle. Seated upon mats, are there congre- gated the family and tribe of the deceased, and invited guests. The medicine-man or conjurer, having enjoined sUence, then pronounces a funeral oration, during which he recounts the exploits of the deceased, his valor, skill, love of country, property, and influence, alludes to the void caused by his death, and counsels those who remain to supply his place by following in his footsteps, pictures the happiness he will encounter in the world of spirits to which he has gone, and con- cludes his address by an allusion to the prominent traditions of his tribe. He is followed by other speak- ers. "At last," says Mr. Lawson,' "the Corpse is brought away from that Hurdle to the Grave by four young Men, attended by the Kelations, the King, old Men, and all the Nation. When they come to the Sepulcre, which is about six Foot deep and eight Foot long, having at each end (that is, at the Head and Foot), a Light- Wood or Pitch-Pine Fork driven close down the sides of the Grave, firmly into the Ground ; (these two Forks are to contain a Eidge-Pole, as you shall understand presently) before they lay the Corps ' " History of Carolina," etc., p. 181. London, 1714. 110 ANTIQtnTIES OF THE SOUTHERN INDIANS. into the Grave, they cover the bottom two or three times over with the Bark of Trees, then they let down the Corps (with two Belts that the Indians carry their Burdens withal) very leisurely, upon the said Barks ; then they lay over a Pole of the same "Wood in the two Forks, and having a great many Pieces of Pitch- Pine Logs, about two Foot and a half long, they stick them in the sides of the Grave down each End, and near the Top thereof, where the other Ends lie on the Ridge-Pole, so that they are declining like the Roof of a House. These being very thick-plac'd they cover them [many times double] with Bark; then they throw the Earth thereon, that came out of the Grave, and beat it down very firm ; by this Means the dead Body lies in a Vault, nothing touching him. . . . • "Now, when the Flesh is rotted and moulder'd from the Bone, they take up the Carcass and clean the Bones, and joint them together ; afterwards, they dress them up in pure white dress'd Deer-skins, and lay them amongst their Grandees and Kings in the Quio- gozon, which is their Royal Tomb or Burial-Place of their Kings and War-Captains. This is a very large magnificent Cabin [according to their Building] which is rais'd at the Publick Charge of the Nation, and main- tain'd in a great deal of Form and Neatness. About seven foot high, is a Floor or Loft made, on which lie all their Princes and Great Men that have died for several hundred Years, all attir'd in the Dress I before told you o£ No Person is to have his Bones lie here, and to be thus dress'd, unless he gives a round Sum of their Money to the Rulers for Admittance. If they remove never so far, to live in a Foreign Country, they never fail to take all these dead Bones along with them, though the Tediousness of their short daily i-UinEKAL CUSTOMS OF CAROLINA IITDIANS. Ill Marches keeps tliem never so long on their Journey. They reverence and adore this Quiogozon with all the Veneration and Respect that is possible for such a People to discharge, and had rather lose all, than have any Violence or Injury offer'd thereto. These Sav- ages differ some small matter in their Burials; some burying right upwards and otherwise. . . . Yet they all agree in their Mourning, which is to appear every Night, at the Sepulcre, and howl and weej) in a very dismal manner, having their faces dawb'd over with Light-wood Soot [which is the same as Lamp-black] and Bear's Oil. This renders them as black as it is possible to make themselves, so that theirs very much resemble the Faces of Executed Men boil'd in Tar. If the dead Person was a Grandee, to carry on the Funeral Ceremonies they hire People to ciy and la- ment over the dead Man. Of this sort there are sev- eral that practise it for a Livelihood, and are very expert at Shedding abundance of Tears, and howling like Wolves, and so discharging their Office with abundance of Hypocrisy and Art. The women are never accompanied with these Ceremonies after Death ; and to what World they allot that Sex, I never un- derstood, imless, to wait on their dead Husbands ; but they have more Wit than some of the Eastern !N^a- tions, who sacrifice themselves to accompany their Hus- bands into the next World. It is the dead Man's Relations by Blood, as his Uncles, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Sons, and Daughters, that mourn in good earnest, the Wives thinking their Duty is discharg'd, and that they are become free when their Husband is dead; so, as fast as they can, look out for another to supply his Place." The ceremonies attendant upon the sepulture of 112 AiraiQurriES of the soittheen Indians. tte Clioctav^r dead are thus described by Captain Ber- nard Romans : ' " As soon as the deceased is departed a stage is erected and the corpse laid on it and cov- ered Avith a "bear-skin ; if he be a man of note it is decorated and the poles painted red with vermUlion and bear's oil ; if a child, it is put upon stakes set across : at this stage the relations come and weep, ask- ing many questions of the corpse, such as, Why he left them? Did not his wife serve him well ? Was he not contented with his children ? Had he not corn enough 1 Did not his land produce sufficient of every thing? Was he afraid of his enemies ? etc., and this accom- panied by loud howlings; the women will be there constantly, and sometimes, with the corrupted air and heat of the sun, faint so as to oblige the by-standers to carry them home; the men will also come and mourn in the same manner, but in the night or at other unseasonable times when they are least likely to be discovered. " The stage is fenced round with poles, it remains thus a certain time, but not a fixed space, this is some- times extended to three or four months, but seldom more than half that time. A certain set of venerable old Gentlemen who wear very long nails as a distin- guishing badge on the thumb, fore and middle finger of each hand, constantly travel through the nation [when i was there i was told there were but five of this respectable order] that one of them may acquaint those concerned of the expiration of this period, which is ac- cording to their own fancy ; the day being come the friends and relations assemble near the stage, a fire is made, and the respectable operator, after the body is ■ " A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida," etc., pp. 89, 90. New York, 1115. FTJNEEAL CEREMONIES OF THE CHOCTAWS. 113 taken down, with his nails tears the remaining flesh off the bones and throws it with the entrails into the fire, where it is consumed ; then he scrapes the bones and bums the scrapings likewise; the head, being painted red with vermillion, is, Avith the rest of the bones put into a neatly made chest (which, for a chief, is also made red), and deposited in the loft of a hut built for that purpose, and called bone-house; each town has one of these ; after remaining here one year or there- abouts, if he be a man of any note, they take the chest down, and in an assembly of relations and friends they weep once more over him, i-efresh the colour of the head, paint the box red, and then deposit him to last- ing oblivion. " An. enemy, and one who commits suicide, is buried under the earth as one to be directly forgotten and un- worthy the above ceremonial obsequies and mourning." Mr. Bartram's account is substantially the same, save that he intimates there is a general inhumation so soon as the bone-house becomes full of coffins. Then the respective coffins are borne by the nearest relatives of the deceased to the place of interment, where they are all piled one upon another in the form of a pyramid, and the conical hill of earth heaped above. The funer- al ceremonies are concluded Avith the solemnization of a festival called %lae feast of the dead.^ The Muscogulges buried their dead in the earth — a deep pit, about four feet square, being dug under the cabin and couch occupied by the deceased. This grave was carefully lined with cypress-bark, and in it the corpse placed in a sitting posture. Such articles of ^ See Bartram's "Travels," etc., p. 514. London, 1792. Compare Adair's " History of the American Indians," pp. 183, 184. London, 1775. 114 ANTTQUmES OF THE SOUTHERN IITDIANS. property as he valued most, were deposited with him.' Among the Alibamons — who also buried their dead in a sitting posture — to the suicide was denied the rite of sepulture. He was regarded as a coward, and his body was thrown into a river." The funeral customs of the Chicasaws ° did not dif- fer materially from those of the Muscogulges. They interred the dead as soon as the breath left the body, and beneath the couch on which the deceased expired. Lieutenant Timberlake * intimates that the Chero- kees, living upon the banks of the Tennessee, seldom buried their dead, but threw them into the river. Mr. Adair's observations were entirely different. He as- serts ' that when any member of this nation died away from home — if his companions were not closely pur- sued — the corpse was placed on a scaffold, covered with notched logs, to protect it from wild beasts and birds. When they imagined that the flesh had been con- sumed and the bones become dry, they returned to the spot, enveloped the skeleton in white deer-skins, brought it home, and, having mourned over it, buried it with the usual solemnities. Piles of stones were heaped up to commemorate the spots where fell their distinguished warriors, and to these rude monuments each passer-by added a stone in token of his apprecia- tion of the valor and brave deeds of the deceased. When a Cherokee died at home, his corpse was at once washed and anointed, brought out of his lodge and placed in a fitting posture on the skins of wild "Bartram'a "Travels," etc., p. 613. LondoD, 1792. Romans"" Tlorida " p. 98. New York, 1775. » Bossu's " Travels through Louisiana," vol. i., pp. 25T, 268. London, 1771. 'Romans' "Florida," p. 71. * " Memoirs," etc., p. 67. London, 1765. » " History of tlie American Indians," p. 180. London, 1776. i'UNEKAL CEREMONIES OF THE CHEEOKEES. 115 beasts, supported by all his articles of property dis- posed around Mm, and with his face turned westward, as though looking into the door of the winter-house. A eulogium was then pronounced; and, when the period allotted for mourning had elapsed, the body carried three times around the house, in which it was to be interred, those officiating stopping for half a minute at the completion of each circuit. The reli- gious man of the family of the deceased, who walked in front, chanted the funeral-song, in the chorus of which the procession joined. Mr. Adair was present when a chief was buried. It would appear that he was interred beneath the floor of a winter-house. The preliminary funeral rites hav- ing been performed in the manner just indicated, " they laid," says our observer, " the corpse in his tomb in a sitting posture, with his face towards the east, his head anointed with bear's oil and his face painted red, but not streaked with black, because that is a constant emblem of war and death ; he was drest in his finest apparel, having his gun and pouch and trusty hiccory bow, w^ith a young panther's skin fall of arrows, along- side of him, and every other useful thing he had been possessed of, that, when he rises again, they may serve him in that tract of land which pleased him best be- fore he went to take his long sleep. His tomb was firm and clean inside. They covered it with thick logs, so as to bear several tiers of cypress bark, and such a quantity of clay, as would confine the putrid smell, and be on a level with the rest of the floor. They of- ten sleep over those tombs, which, with the loud wail- ing of the women at the dusk of the evening, and dawn of the day, on benches close by the tombs, must awake the memory of their relations very often; and 116 ANTIQUITIES OP THE SOUTHERN INDIANS, if they were killed by an enemy, it helps to irritate and set on such revengeful tempers, to retaliate blood for blood." Juan Ortiz — sole survivor, among the Florida tribes, of the expedition of Panphilo de Narvaez, and for twelve long years condemned to slavery in the " Land of Flowers " — was, by his captors, compelled to stand guard at the temple in which the Indian dead reposed. Upion peril of his life he was forced to watch, lest the wild beasts should come by night and steal away the bodies. The story of his good fortune in delivering from the jaws of a predatory wolf the corpse of an Indian boy, is familiar to the readers of the narratives of De Soto's expedition. The general respect paid by the natives to their dead, the care exhibited in the proper solemnization of their funeral rites, the private and public exhibitions of sorrow, the expressed belief in the existence of a spirit-world, the effort to furnish the deceased with such articles as would prove most serviceable upon the long journey, and in new and pleasant fields, the jealousy with which they watched over and defended the places of sepulture, and the earnestness and hon- or with which they perpetuated the memories of the great when they no longer walked among the living, declare that these primitive peoples — how barbarous soever they, in other respects, might have been — ^held no" light thoughts from objects of mortality," drew no " provocatives of mirth from anatomies," and showed no jugglers' tricks with skeletons. Their corpses were never knaved out of their graves to have their skulls made into drinking-bowls, or their bones turned into pipes. In nothing was the character of the Southern Indian worthy of greater commendation than in his VENERATION FOE GKAVES. 117 veneration for the reputation and tlie tomb of his de- ceased leader, in the solicitude with which he laid his relative and friend to rest beneath the shadows of his native forests and within sight of his own village, and in the vigilance with which he insured the undisturbed repose of the dead of family and tribe. Truthfully might the returning Indian, as he muses over the deserted and mutilated burial-place of his fa- thers, exclaim : " This bank, in which the dead were laid, Was sacred when its soil was ours ; " But now the wheat is green and high, On clods that hid the warrior's breast. And scattered in the furrows lie The weapons of his rest ; And there, in the loose sand, is thrown Of his large arm the .mouldering bone. "Ah ! little thought the strong and brave Who bore their lifeless chieftain forth, Or the young wife, that weeping gave Her first-born to the earth. That the pale race, who waste us now. Among their bones should guide the plough." CHAPTEK V. General Observations on Mound-Building. — ^Bartram's Account of the Georgia Tumuli. — Absence of Megalithic Monuments and Animal-shaped Mounds. — Distribution of the Ancient Population. — Few Sepulchral Mounds erected since the Advent of Europeans. — Antiquity of the Tumuli. What Sir Thomas Browne ' quaintly styles " the restless inquietude for the diuturnity of our memo- ries," an ambitious desire to wrest from oblivion the names and graves of such as were famed for feats of arms or remarkable for some individual excellence, an appreciation of the fact that in the tomb of the dead hero lived recollections which, while they dignified the past, also inspired hope in the present and proved a powerful incentive to future action, and that inclina- tion (so natural to the human heart in all ages) to render the most affectionate and honorable sepulture to the departed, have united in causing the erection of some of the oldest and most prominent artificial monu- ments extant upon the earth's surface. Urnal inter- ments, burnt relics and earth-mounds, inasmuch as they " lie not in fear of worms," endure when personal and even national memories have perished. In some of them rest the surest and earliest physical proofs of the antiquity of man. Amid the depths of forests, ' " Hydriotapbia." ANTIQinCTT 01' EAKTH-MOUTSTDS. 119 wBere every thing like a history or even a tradition of the peoples who once dwelt beneath their shadows, is, to us of the present day, emphatically " in the urn," the curiosity of subsequent ages has, in ancient graves and sepulchral tumuli, caught a glimpse of many things appertaining to a forgotten past, learned lessons of the general pyre, the last valediction, the funeral cus- toms, the religious rites and the domestic economy of nameless nations whose former existence could oth- erwise have been scarcely more than conjectured. In periods the most remote, the earth-mound seems to have suggested itself as the most natural and en- during method of perpetuating the memory and of designating the last resting-place of the illustrious dead. The mound at Aconithus, erected over Arta- chies — the superintendent of the canal at Athos — re- mains, to this day, a memorial of Persian usage, a puh- lic recognition of the ability of that engineer, so famous in his generation, and a proof of the fidelity of Herodotus as an historian. Those mighty tumuli which tower along the banks of the Borysthenes are the tombs of Scythian kings. The neighborhood of the Gygsean Lake, near Sardis, in Asia Minor, is ren- dered remarkable by the presence of circular mounds, among which, perhaps, the most recent is that " prince of tumuli," the tomb of Alyattes, King of Lydia, which for nearly twenty-five hundred years has braved the changing seasons. Allusions to such structures are not infrequent among the ancient poets. Thus Orestes, when ad- dressing the manes of the murdered Agamemnon, says : " If but some Lycian spear 'neath Ilium's walls Had lowly laid thee, A mighty name in the Atridan halls Thou wouldst have made thee. 120 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHERIT INDIANS. Then hadst thou pitched thy fortunes lite a star To son and daughter shining from afar ! Beyond the wide-waved sea the high-heaped mound Had told forever Thy feats of battle, and with glory crowned Thy high endeavor." The ceremonies attendant upon the burial of Pa- troclus are thus commemorated in the " Hiad : " " The Greeks obey. Where yet the embers glow Wide o'er the pile the sable wine they throw. And deep subsides the ashy heap below. Next the white bones his sad companions place, With tears collected, in the golden vase. The sacred relics to the tent they bore ; The urn a vale of linen covered o'er. That done, they bid the sepulchre aspire. And cast the deep foundations round the pyre. High in the midst they heap the swelling bed Of rising earth, memorial of the dead." Tydeus and Lycus were buried under earthen barrows, and Alexander the Great caiised a tumtilus to be heaped above his friend Hephsestion at a cost of twelve hundred talents. So ancient are some of these earth-mounds that they were old and mysterious in the days of Homer. Even in more polished ages, and in seasons of extreme opulence, the memory of the mound-tomb was not forgotten. Its rude earth dome was seen surmounting a circular arrangement of ex- quisite porticos, columns, and decorated walls, facing nearly every degree of the circle, and resplendent in all the carving and polish which the most beautiful mar- ble could receive.' Apart from monuments which we know to have been erected within the historic period, scattered over ' See Smyth's "Antiquity of Intellectual Man," pp. 102, 103. Edinburgh, 1868. ANCIENT TUMULI IN CrEOEGIA. 121 the plains, peopling the valleys, and crowning the hills of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and the islands of the ocean, we find ancient tumuli — abundant and si- lent witnesses of the early constructive labors of name- less tribes and nations. More than three hundred years ago, artificial tu- muli within the present geographical limits of Georgia attracted the notice of the Spanish adventui'ers and early voyagers. These physical traces of a popula- tion apparently older and more patient of labor than that which they found in possession of the soil, while they excited the wonder and curiosity of the colo- nists, do not appear to have enlisted any careful inquiry, or to have received a minute examination. The most august of them were dismissed with lit- tle more than a bare mention of their existence, and, even where descriptions were attempted, they were either so meagre in their outlines as to be almost valueless for the purposes of definite infonnation, or so exaggerated as to savor more of romance than of reality. At a remove from those who could verify their ob- servations by personal examination and careful inspec- tion — ^filled with vague conjectures touching manners and matters entirely novel in their character — in a re- gion wild, remote, and abounding with strange scenes, unusual features and but partially-comprehended tradi- tions — ^with imaginations often excited to the last de- gree — influenced by extravagant rumors — sometimes investing an occurrence, a suggestion, or an object, with an air of importance far beyond its deserts, and again treating with entire neglect or disdainful words things which were really worthy of specific mention and his- toric commemoration, the early narrators compel the 122 ASTTIQCITIES OF THE SOUTHEEIir INDIANS. candid reader to receive their relations cum grano sails. Since the date of their observations, and even of Mr. Bartram's visit, the winds and rains of many sea- sons have sadly changed the appearance of these earth- mounds. "Worn away by the elements, marred by the ploughshare, and torn asunder by the curious, many of them have been despoiled of their original proportions. The branches of the forest-trees which once overshad- owed them are, in not a few instances, no longer out- stretched for their preservation, and some have been wholly crushed out of existence by the tread of a statelier civilization. Making, however, due allowance for such changes, after a somewhat extended and careful survey of these monuments, we cannot resist the impression that the early descriptions are frequently not only over- wrought, but unnatural. What would now be reararded as an ordinary conical mound has, on more than one occasion, been represented as possessing physical peculiarities of an unusual and remarkable character. Garcilasso mentions the existence of large artificial tumuli with precipitous sides, flat on the top, and located in lich valleys, near the banks of beautiful streams, and says that they were erected for the pur- pose of sustaining the houses of chiefs and their fami- lies. Wooden stairways made by cutting out inclined planes fifteen or twenty feet wide, flanked on the sides with posts and with poles laid horizontally across the earthen steps, afforded the means of ascending to their tops. At the foot of these mounds a square was marked out, around which were built the dwellings of the principal men of the tribe. Outside appeared the wigwams of the common people. A disposition to baeteam's account of the geoegia tumuli. 123 place tlie residence of the cMef in a commanding posi- tion — thereby elevating the cacique above his subjects — and a desire to contribute to his personal security are assigned as motives for the expenditure of so much labor. Various are the allusions made by that intelligent and interesting traveller, Mr. WUliam Bartram, to the presence of ancient tumuli within the limits of Georgia. Some of his descriptions are evidently exaggerated, but they are the most minute which have been pre- served for our information. From them we select the following. Above the town of Wrightsboro and overlooking the low grounds of the north branch of Little Eiver, he saw " very magnificent monuments of the power and industry of the ancient inhabitants of these lands. ... I observed," he writes, " a stupendous conical pyramid, or artificial mount of earth, vast tetragon ter- races, and a large sunken area, of a cubical form, en- compassed with banks of earth ; and certain traces of a larger Indian town, the work of a powerful nation, whose period of grandeur perhaps long preceded the discovery of this continent." ' At Silver Bluff, on the Savannah River, the surface of the ground was rendered remarkable by " various monuments and vestiges of the residence of the an- cients ; as Indian conical mounts, terraces, areas, etc., as well as remains or traces of fortresses of regular for- mation." ° Near Fort James, which was located not far from the confluence of the Broad and Savannah Rivers, the surgeon of the garrispn drew the attention of Mr. Bar- tram to some Indian monuments " worthy of every ' " Travels," etc., p. 37. London, 1792. 'Ibid., p. 313. 124 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHEEN IITDIANS. trayeller's notice. . . . These wonderfdl lalDours of the ancients stand in a level plain, very near the bank of the river, novr twenty or thirty yards from it. They consist of conical mounts of earth, and four square ter- races, etc. The great mount is in the form of a cone, about forty or fifty feet high, and the circumference of its base two or three hundred yards, entirely composed of the loamy rich earth of the low-grounds ; the top or apex is flat : a spiral path or track leading from the ground up to the top is still visible, where now grows a large, beautiful spreading Red Cedar (Juniperus Americana) ; there appear four niches, excavated out of the sides of this hill, at different heights from the base, fronting the four cardinal points ; these niches or sentry boxes are entered into from the winding path, and seem to have been meant for resting-places or look- outs. The circumjacent level grounds are cleared and planted with Indian Com at present ; and I think the proprietor of these lands, who accompanied us to this place', said that the mount itself yielded above One hundred bushels in one season : the land hereabouts is indeed exceedingly fertile and productive." ' Having suggested that these tumuli were intended to serve as " look-out towers," having commented upon the fact that such public works would have required the united labor and attention of a whole nation— circum- stanced as the Indians then were — to have constructed one of them almost in an age, and after describing sev- eral smaller mounds " round the great one, with some very large tetragon terraces on each side, near one hundred yards in length," with surfaces elevated four, six, eight, and ten feet above the ground, our author concludes by hazarding the conjecture that these arti- ' " Travels," etc., pp. 322, 323. London, 1T92. ANCIENT MOUNDS IN THE CHEBOKEE COUNTET. 125 ficial elevations were designed as " retreats and ref- uges " from the swelling tide of the river during sea- sons of sudden inundations. The mounds on the east bank of the Ocmulgee River, near Macon, did not escape the observation of Mr. Bartram. Even the lonely mounds along the Ala- tamaha attracted his attention. The council-house of the Cherokee town of Cowe, he tells us, was a large rotunda capable of accomodat- ing several hundred people. It stood " on the top of an ancient artificial mount of earth, of about twenty feet perpendicular," and — ^the rotunda itself being rather more than thirty feet high — ^the whole fabric possessed an elevation of about sixty feet. " It is proper to observe," he continues, " that this mount on which the rotunda stands, is of a much ancienter date than the building, and perhaps was raised for another purpose. The Oherokees themselves are as ignorant as we are, by what people or for what purpose these artificial hills were raised ; they have various stories concerning them, the best of which amount to no more than mere conjecture, and leave us entirely in the dark ; but they have a tradition common with the other na- tions of Indians, that they found them in much the same condition as they now appear, when their fore- fathers arrived from the West and possessed them- selves of the country, after vanquishing the nations of red men who then inhabited it, who themselves found these mounts when they took possession of the coun- try, the former possessors delivering the same story concerning them : perhaps they were designed and ap- propriated by the people who constructed them, to some religious purpose as great altars and temples." ' * " Travels," etc., pp. 366, 366. London, 1192. 126 ANTIQTJITIES OF THE SOUTHERN nfDIAJfS. During the progress of this investigation it will be perceived that mound-building — which seems to have been falling into disuse among the Southern Indians prior to the dawn of the historic period — ^was entirely abandoned very shortly after intercourse was estab- lished between the Europeans and the red-men. We will observe, moreover, that these ancient tumuli were, by later tribes, subjected to secondary uses, so that in not a few instances the summits and flanks of large temple-mounds originally designed for religious objects — such as the worship of the sun — were, by the Greets and Cherokees, converted into stockade-forts, used as elevations for council-lodges and the residences of their chiefs, or devoted to the purposes of sepulture. This can scarcely be wondered at when we remember that many of the nomadic tribes who peopled this region were unstable in their seats, engaged in ever-recurring and annihilating wars, and constantly yielding to the conquest of more powerfal neighbors who, expelling them from some coveted hunting-ground or fishing- resort, possessed themselves of the desired domain, caring little for the frail memories which clustered about the name and monuments of the vanquished. In an age entirely devoid of letters, it is not surprising that with the lapse of time the victors should have pre- served not even a distinct tradition of the conquered. It will be remembered that the North American In- dian was generally quite reticent as to his people and their old customs, and frequently denied to the stranger a knowledge of matters which he did not desire either to discuss or to reveal. When we reflect upon the care- less and uncertain manner in which the annals of these peoples were perpetuated, it is not improbable that in the course of centuries all definite accounts of the ABSEl^-CE OF MEGALITHIC MONUiTENTS. 127 builders of these artificial elevations and the history of their construction should have faded from the recol- lection even of the descendants of those by whom they were erected. In one of his addresses to the pupils of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds remarked that when ' the ignorant inhabitants of the East were questioned concerning the stately ruins which filled their land — melancholy monuments of former grandeur and long- lost science — their universal response was, " They were built by magicians." Finding a vast gulf between its own powers and works indicative of skill and great labor, the untaught and inert mind of the savage dis- misses the contemplation of their origin and primal uses either with an avowal of utter ignorance on the subject or by referring their creation to the agency of some supernatural influence. It is proper, therefore, to re- ceive with caution the traditions delivered by the modern Indians with regard to the erection and history of the more august tumuli which dignify the valleys and tower along the banks of some of the principal rivers in Georgia. With the exception of stone graves, rock-piles, and walls loosely constructed of stones, laid one upon the' other, there is, in this State, a remarkable absence of megalithic monuments, such as dolmens, menhirs, and avenues, which abound in so many por- tions of the Old World. We search in vain for animal- shaped mounds ; and yet Georgia, in almost every sec- tion, teems with vestiges of an ancient population now wholly extinct within her borders. Stone tumuli and rudely-constructed rock- walls rear their heads even upon the summit of lofty Yonah. The spurs of the Blue Ridge give frequent evidence of inhumations whose mouldering heaps have for generations defied 128 AKTIQUITIES OF THE SOTJTHEEN INDIAITS. the anniliilating influences of tlie tempest. The beau- tiful valleys of Nacoochee, of the Etowah, the Ooste- naula, the Chattahoochee, and other streams, are ren- dered remarkable by the presence of tumuli of unusual size. Upon the banks of the Savannah, by the waters of the Ogeechee, and within the swamps of the Ala- tamaha, are found surprising monuments of ancient industry and devotion. Even throughout the lonely pine-barren region similar remains exist wherever a truant stream or moss-clad swamp infuses new vigor into the forest growth, and affords friendly cover for game. The coast and the low-lying islands are literally studded with tumuli beneath which the unnumbered and nameless dead of centuries repose. As the presence of these mounds may be regarded as indicating the particular localities most thickly peo- pled by the aborigines in years long since reckoned with, an unrecorded past, we are able to state, in general terms, that the tendency of this early population was toward the rivers and deep swamps, the rich valleys and the sea-coast. The physical inducements which impelled nomadic tribes to give a preference to such seats are obvious. Seldom are earth-mounds found at a considerable remove from water-courses. Water and game were the chief attractions in the choice of a set- tlement. Eich alluvial lands, whose fertility would make amends for the rude cultivation bestowed upon them, were often selected as the sites of their vil- lages. In those early days the rivers abounded with fish, and the deep swamps were replete with terrapins, alligators, deer, and other game. In the depths of these swamps, beneath the shadows of moss-covered trees and by the sides of the sluggish lagoons, large mounds are not infrequent. It is upon the islands. ANCIENT TUMULI IN GEOEGIA. 129 however, and along the headlands of the coast, that they appear in greatest numbers. Take, for example, that group of more than forty mounds upon the Colonel's Island, in Liberty County, located in the vicinity of a large spring, which for un- numbered years has been sending forth its copious and refreshing waters. Besides the regular sepulchral tumuli composed of sand, the adjacent fields are liter- ally hoary with shell-mounds and the debris of long- continued encampments. Extended oyster-beds, neigh- boring- creeks abounding with crabs, shrimp, and salt- water fish of every variety native to the coast, woods in former years well stocked with game, the natural advantages of a high, dry bliiff sheltered from north- easterly gales, and this never-failing supply of fresh water, without doubt rendered this a very attractive spot to the Indian. His settlement here was perma- nent and extensive. Most of the tumuli in this neigh- borhood are sepulchral in their character. Such is the distinguishing peculiarity of nearly all the coast mounds. The ancient tumuli still extant within the geo- graphical limits of Georgia are frequently associated in groups, and at other times exist as isolated monu- ments erected upon or near localities possessing some natural advantages for observation, defence, or for the facile procurement of food. In form they are circular, elliptical, quadrangular, and polygonal. Some are flat on the top, resembling truncated pyramids and trun- cated cones. The prevailing type, however, is that of the conical earth-mound. There is every variety in size, from the large temple-mound on the Etowah — more than sixty-five feet high, and with a summit diameter of over two hundred feet — to the small sepul- 130 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHEEN HIDIANS. chral tumulus whose existence can scarcely be recog- nized. Many are almost level with the ground, and decomposing human bones, mingled with fragments of pottery, lie exposed upon the surface. Constructed of loose mould, clay, and sand, they are liable to constant diminution in size, and eventually to total obliteration. The consequence is, they are all more or less reduced, and we may readily believe that many of the smaller ones and those of oldest dates have entirely disap- peared. Aside from the careful and laborious preparation of their Chunky- Yards,' the construction of elevated foundations for their rotundas, and the erection of occasional and small tumuli above some deceased per- sons of note, it would appear that the Georgia tribes had well nigh abandoned the custom of mound-build- ing prior to the advent of the Europeans. In Plate XL. of the "Brevis Narratio"' we have a spirited representation of the ceremonies observed by the Florida Indians upon the occasion of the sepulture of their kings and priests. Located in the vicinity of the village appears a small conical mound surmounted by the shell drinking-cup of the deceased, and sur- rounded by a row of arrows stuck in the ground. Gathered in a circle about this sepulchral timiulus the bereaved members of the tribe, upon bended knees, are bewailing the death of him in whose honor this grave-mound Jiad been heaped up. Bartram ' commemorates the fact that in his day the Choctaws covered the pyramid of coffins, taken • See Bartram'B " Creek and Cherokee Indians." " Transactions of the Amer- ican Ethnological Society," vol. iii., part 1, p. 62. ' Francoforti ad Moenum, De Brv. Anno 1691. » "Travels," etc., pp. 614, 616. London, 1792. MOUND-BtriLDING WITHIN' THE HISTOEIO PERIOD. 131 from tlie bone-house, witli eartli, thus raising " a coni- cal hill or mount." Tomo-chi-chi pointed out to General Oglethorpe a large conical mound near Savannah, in which he said the Yamacraw chief was interred, who had, many years before, entertained a great white man with a red beard, who entered the Savannah Eiver in a large vessel, and in his barge came up to Yamacraw bluff.' Within the range of my personal observation, glass beads, silver ornaments, hawk-bells, metallic ket- tles, and occasionally a rusty gun or rifle-barrel, have been found in earth mounds ; but they evidently be- longed to secondary interments, the graves in which they were located being either on the top or sides of the tumuli, and but a few feet deep. Only in one instance has the writer discovered any article of European manufacture interred with the dead in whose honor the mound was erected. Upon opening a small mound on the coast, a few miles below Savannah, an earthen pot, several arrow-heads, a stone celt, and a portion of an old-fashioned sword, were seen in immediate association with the decayed bones of a human skeleton. This tumulus was conical in form, seven feet high, and about twenty feet in di- ameter at the base. It 'contained a single skeleton, and that lay, with the articles enumerated, at the bot- tom and on a level with the plain. The oak handle, most of the guard, and about seven inches of the blade of the weapon still remained. The rest had perished from rust. Strange to say, the oak had more effectually than the metal resisted the " gnawing tooth of time." This mound had never, prior to this occa- ' " History of the Province of Georgia," etc., by John Gerar William De Brahm, p. 38. Wormsloe, 1849. 132 ANTIQUITIES OF THE SOUTHKEK INDIANS. sion, been opened, or in any manner disturbed, except by tbe winds and rains of tie changing seasons. The interment was prunary, and the articles were lodged with the dead before this mound-tomb was heaped above him. It may be confidently asserted, therefore, that bur- ial-mounds were erected by the Southern Indians within the historic period ; but it is not clear that the modern tribes had aught to do with the construction of those larger tumuli, in form resembling truncated pyramids and truncated cones, sometimes terraced, fre- quently surrounded by a ditch or embankment, and intended for pui-poses other than those of sepulture. Whatever may have been the antecedent usages of the natives with respect to the erection of sepulchral tumuli, it is quite certain that their use was discon- tinued very shortly after the arrival of the colonists. Then, instead of being carefully disposed in the womb of the laboriously-constructed mound, the dead Avere exposed upon hastily-prepared scaffolds, hidden away in ledges of rocks, buried beneath the floors of their lodges, concealed in hollow trees, submerged in ponds, lakes and rivers, or interred in the forests with but ephemeral indicia to mark their last resting-places. When used at all by the later tribes, these ancient tumuli seem to have been employed as convenient localities for what we may call secondary interments. It is safe to assert that most of the mounds ante- date the historic period. Compared with each other they differ materially in age. This is not to be won- dered at, when we remember that the occupancy of this region by the red race, if we credit their traditions and properly interpret the monuments which they have left behind them, must have lasted ANTIQUITY OF TIIE TUMULI. 133 for many generations. Some of these tumuli are not less than eight centuries old, while at least one, as we have already intimated, was thrown up after the European had visited the New World. In the absence of all definite information, the antiquity of these tumuli may be readily inferred from their lo- cation, internal evidence, and from the growth of the forest-trees which overshadow them. One of the noblest specimens of the live-oak we have ever seen grew upon the summit, and with its majestic arms threw a protecting influence above and around the entire mound ; the dead, nameless here for evermore ; his tomb a rude heap of native earth in the solitude of the wild- wood he once loved so well; his com- panions gone, his memory forgotten, and this pride of the forest seemingly a, guardian of the consecrated spot, with its deep foliage affording an inviting retreat wherein the pleasant birds of spring might warble ■ their morning and evening songs, its sturdy roots pre- serving the symmetry of the grave, its overarching branches defending its yielding form from the ruthless influences of the tempest. Attired in its garb of sober green, with its drapeiy of sombre moss swaying slowly and solemnly in the ambient air, it appeared an aged mourner watching over the dead of "the chil- dren of the forest." If to the time probably consumed, in the actual construction of some of the largest tumuli, we add the period intervening between their completion and abandonment — the length of which, although entirely a matter of conjecture, could assuredly have been by no means inconsiderable — and then note the fact that, ' This live-oak was nearly ton feot in diameter, and we know that it is a tree of slow growth. 134: ANTIQTJITtES OF THE SOUTHERN INDIANS. when first observed by the whites, they were deserted and overgrown with forest-trees apparently as large as any which composed the surrounding forests: — ^not forgetting the further circumstance, that the Indians who were domiciled here could impart to the inquir- ing European not even a tradition of the time when or of the peoples by whom they were built^n endeav- oring to ascertain their age, the mind is irresistibly led back to a remote date. That the peoples who once possessed the hydro- graphical basin of the Mississippi, and, departing, left behind them all along the banks of the Father of Waters, in the valleys of the Ohio, the Scioto and else- where, striking monuments of their labors, supersti- tions, and combined industry, at some remote period occupied at least some of the fertile valleys of Cher- okee, Middle and Western Georgia, is not improb- able. The location and physical peculiarities of some tumuli and enclosures, the character of the remains found in and near them, the presence of stone idols and metallic ornaments, and the traditions of modem Indians— who regarded them with .commingled igno- rance and wonder — ^unite in claiminor for them not only a marked antiquity, but also a striking resem- blance to the' monuments of the Mississippi Valley. When compared with mounds which we know to be the product of the labor of the ancestors of the pres- ent Indians, characteristic differences are observed, for which' we are sometimes at a loss satisfactorily to account. While it may be regarded as a matter of specula- tion whether the builders of the terraced mounds and enclosed works within the confines of Georgia were the actual progenitors of the Indians who occupied MOTJND-BUILDEES. 135 this country when it was first visited by the Europe- an, and while we may not be able fully to explain how it came to pass that the later tribes were more nomadic in their habits, less patient of labor, and so neglect- ful of many of the customs which seemingly obtained among the peoples whose combined industry erected these enduring monuments — ^in the light of the Span- ish narratives, after a careful consideration of the rel- ics themselves, and in view of all the facts which have thus far been disclosed, both by personal observation and the investigation of others, whUe freely admitting that the modern Indians, from various causes, had ceased to engage in the erection of works in whose com- pletion, with the indifferent implements at command, so much tedious physical effort was involved, we nev- ertheless see no good reason for supposing that these more prominent tumuli and enclosures may not have been constructed in the olden time by peoples akin to and in the main by no means further advanced in semi-civilization than the red-men native here at the dawn of the historic period. In a word, we do not concur in the opinion, so often expressed, that the mound-builders were a race distinct from and supe- ior in art, government, and religion, to the Southern Indians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. CHAPTER VI. Mounds on the Etowali River. — Temple for Sun-worship. — Stone Images. — Fish- preserves. — Tumuli in the Valley of Little Shoulder-bone Creek. — Circular Earth-work on the Head-waters of the Ogeechee. — Stone Tumulus near Sparta. — Mounds on the Savannah River. — Meeting between the Cacica of the Savan- nah and De Soto. Passino from these general observations, we pro- ceed to consider the physical peculiarities of some of the most interesting and prominent groups of ancient mounds and enclosures within the present geographical limits of Georgia. The first we shall notice are located upon the right bank of the Etowah River, on the plantation of Colo- nel Lewis Tumlin, a few miles from Cartersville, in Bartow County. Viewed as a whole, this group is the most remarkable within the confines of the State. These mounds are situated in the midst of a beautiful and fertile valley. They occupy a central position in an area of some fifty acres, bounded on the south and east by the Etowah River, and on the north and west by a large ditch or artificial canal, which at its lower end communicates directly with the river. This moat (G G, Plate I.) at present varies in depth from five to twenty-five feet, and in width from twenty to seventy- five feet. No parapets or earth- walls appear upon its edges. Along its line are two reservoirs (D D), of Aiiniirro-uTm6iMi