428 ETHNOLOGY. 



furnislied in each case with palisades. They are for the most part near 

 rivers and brooks, always near water, and especially at places surrounded 

 on more than one side by water, on elevated ground, defended on one or 

 more sides by natural strength of position. 



To the age which, in America, corresponds to our historical period, 

 belong also tlie remnants of those grand structures, those wonderful 

 ruins of palaces, temples, and cities, which, even at the present day, 

 bear witness of the high degree of civilization of their builders in 

 numerous localities of Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America. Although 

 they are almost destroyed, and covered with luxurious vegetation, these 

 remains afford a wealth of scientific material, but I must content myself 

 with merely naming them. 



The characteristic structures of the second period are the mounds, and 

 the period itself is the period of the mound-builders. These mounds 

 are of three kinds, for burial, sacrifice, and worship, and occur in the 

 whole Mississippi Valley, but most frequently in the Ohio Valley, in 

 the vicinity of Chillicothe. The burial-mounds correspond to those of 

 the Atlantic States, but are generally larger. Many are as high as 60 

 feet. They indicate a greater antiquity, by the more advanced stage of 

 decomposition of the contained skeletons. Sometimes the bodies were 

 burned and their ashes deposited in urns. Weapons, ornaments, and 

 utensils are always found in them, but remnants of food occur only in 

 the more recent. Signs of fire and animal bones, probably remnants of 

 sacrifices or of " wakes," are often found under the top surface of these 

 mounds. Sometimes the chiefs of a later period were buried in the old 

 mounds, and in such cases the well-preserved skeleton of the new-comer 

 is found above the crumbling one of the older. An interesting case in 

 point came to light in December, 1870, when a mound near Saint Louis, 

 Missouri, was opened by a scientific commission. It was 40 feet high 

 and 300 feet long. Twenty years ago a dwelling-house was built on it 

 and a cemetery instituted beside it. On digging, the bones of three 

 different races were successively brought to light ; first, those of white 

 men ; in the center, those of Indians of the present day ; and below, 

 those of the ancient mound-builders, who lived there before the Indians 

 that possessed the land at the time of the white man's arrival. Their 

 bones were deposited in two large stone chambers. 



The second class of the older earth-mounds consists of those used for 

 sacrifice. They are only a foot or two high. A small depression at the 

 top bears evidences of burnt sacrifice on the hardened clay ; and the 

 ashes often contain objects of various kinds placed there to propitiate 

 their deity or to atone for their misdeeds. These objects are almost 

 without exception broken, and have suffered from fire and the effects of 

 time. 



The third class is that of the temple or palace mounds, the most im- 

 portant of all. They have generally the shape of truncated four-sided 

 pyramids, with terraces, steps, and dam-like elevations, which are often 



