456 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



both sides, but the meaning intended to be conveyed is beyond the 

 interpreting powers of the writer, nor does he know of any explanation 

 having been attempted. 



From the remains here described, and from others found in the 

 cemetery, for such the locality undoubtedly was, we can form some 



iiilP'l ''"g I'tllplJIIIill 



jpiiii 



Fig 31. 



idea of the habits of the people. They were warlike, yet agricultural, 

 hunters as well as fishermen. They killed the bear, deer, elk, beaver, 

 raccoon, and other animals of the forest, for the remains of all are quite 

 abundant. They ate the shell-fish of the Little Miami River, and 

 caught fish with hooks and nets. They raised corn, as well as tobacco, 

 in quantities. They wove matting, made fish-nets, and perhaps blank- 

 ets. They ornamented themselves with necklaces of bone and shell 

 beads, bear and beaver teeth. They dressed in skins, prepared with 

 horn and stone implements. They painted their bodies, as cakes of 

 paint testify. They had commercial intercourse, or some system of 

 barter, with Lake Superior and the Gulf, or the Atlantic. They were 

 frequently embroiled in wars with neighboring tribes. They could 

 hardly have been far advanced in civilization, if bone implements in- 

 stead of stone is any indication. They had no written language, but 

 yet left some record of their existence in the shape of carved bones 

 and inscribed stones. Finally, if the burial of vessels containing food 

 for the dead be any indication, they had some idea of a future life. 

 Much further than this in their history we can not go. 



The attention of the reader has been repeatedly called to the simi- 

 larity between the implements found in this " Cincinnati " cemetery 

 and those found in the Swiss lakes. No one could claim that, because 

 of this similarity and almost identity of forms, the two races of people 

 ever had intercourse with each other. But the fact is interesting as 

 showing how, in two countries, thousands of miles apart, and separated 

 by a period of hundreds of years in time, there were made, with the 

 same materials, the same forms of weapons and implements. The re- 

 semblance is no argument for a common origin, but simply shows that 

 nearly the same grade of civilization may be developed spontaneously 

 in two widely separated countries. 



It now becomes an interesting matter of speculation to discover 

 the age of the cemetery. It has been referred to the age of the 

 mound-builders, but, if so, it is a most remarkable fact, unless we con- 



