386 ANCIENT ABORIGINAL TRADE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



lus, whicli is about three hundred feet long, one hundred and twenty feet 

 wide, and, perhaps, over twenty feet high, was found to contain a hirge 

 number of skeletons. " Several pits have been opened in the northeast- 

 ern end. At the depth of twelve feet the amount of shells was undi- 

 minished. They appear to have been distributed in layers of eight or 

 ten inches in thickness, with intervening strata of sand. An examina- 

 tion into the contents of the mound i)roves conclusively that it must 

 have been used only for burial purposes ; that it is, in fact, a huge ne- 

 cropolis. It could not have been the work of a year, or of a generation. 

 Stratum upou stratum has been heaped, each covering the dead of its 

 age, until by degrees, and with the lapse of time, it grew into its present 

 surprising dimensions."* 



It is probable that the natives of North America obtained pearls, 

 both from lluviatile and marine shells, and further that they caught 

 the bivalves, not solely on account of the pearls they inclosed, but for 

 using them as food. The pearls themselves, in all likelihood, were 

 looked upou as additional, highly valued gifts of nature. 



DIVISION OF LABOR. 



Among the later Indians, at least those who lived east of the Rocky 

 Mountains, nearly all work was performed by women. When, during 

 times of peace, the master of a lodge had supplied his family with the 

 game necessary for its support, he thought to be relieved of further 

 duties, and abandoned himself either to indolence or to his favorite 

 pastimes, such as games of hazard, and exercises calculated to impart 

 strength and agility to the body. He manufactured, however, his arms 

 and kept them in repair, and also condescended to work, when a larger 

 object, a canoe for instance, was to be made, or a dwelling to be con- 

 structed. Far more varied, on the other hand, were the duties imposed 

 upon women. Not only had they to procure water and fire-wood, to 

 prepare the meals, to collect the fruits serving as winter-provisions, to 

 make moccasins and other articles of dress, but it was also incumbent upou 

 them to perform many other labors, which, from their nature, would seem 

 to be more suited for men. Thus, the fields were cultivated by women ;t 

 they dressed the skins to fit them for garments and other purposes ; 

 the manufacture of pottery was a branch of female industry ; they did 

 the principal work in the erection of the huts or tents (of skins, mats 

 or bark), and their assistance was even required when canoes, especially 

 those of bark, were made. During the march they carried heavy loads, 

 and on the water they handled the paddle as skilfully as the men. If 

 to all those tasks and toils the bringing up of children is added, the lot 

 of the Indian woman appears by no means an enviable one, though she 

 bore her burden patiently, not being accustomed to a different manner 

 of existence. She was, indeed, hardly more than the servant of her lord 



* Jones (Charles C), Monumental Remains of Georgia, Savannah, 1861, -p. 14. 

 t Also, to some extent, by enslaved prisoners of war. 



