STONE FORT AND OTHER ABORIGINAL REMAINS. 107 



Upon the route through Alabama and the neighboring States, De Soto found the 

 temples to be the receptacles of bones of the chiefs, or suns, and of their families. 



The large towns contained stone houses filled with rich and comfortable clothing, 

 such as mantles of hemp, and feathers of every color exquisitely arran"-ed. The 

 dress of the men consisted of a mantle of the size of the common blankets, made of 

 the bark of various trees, and a species of flax interwoven and dyed of various colors, 

 also of well dressed and painted skins, and garments woven with beautiful feathers. 

 The mantle was thrown over the shoulders, but the arms were exposed. Great men 

 were sometimes borne upon litters by their subjects, after the manner of tlie Mexi- 

 cans, whilst their heads were shielded from the sun by shades made of feathers or 

 gaudily painted hides. 



It is also recorded, that one of their most populous and powerful nations had 

 been nearly destroyed by a severe and destructive pestilence, several years before 

 the invasion of De Soto. 



Cham plain, in his explorations of the coast of Maine in 1605, found a populous 

 agricultural race, Avhose neat covered lodges were in many places thickly strewn 

 along the shores. Shortly after his visit, the nations of ^ew England were swept 

 off by a fatal pestilence, and when the Puritans, fifteen years afterwards, made their 

 settlement at Plymouth, they found a comparatively small aboriginal population. 



The art of forming entrenchments, stockades, and barricades was practised by 

 the Iroquois, in their encounters with Champlain and his followers; and this 

 remarkable people are known to have cultivated large fields of Indian corn 

 everywhere throughout their fertile country, from time immemorial. 



The Natchez Indians erected mounds and temples, worshipped the sun, obeyed 

 despotic rulers, and practised the bloody rites of human sacrifice, up to the time of 

 their great massacre by the French. 



It is evident that various nations in the Mississippi Valley were populous, 

 cultivated the soil, and erected mounds and earthworks as late as the invasion 

 and explorations of De Soto. 



Ahorifj'inal Remains in Maury County, Tennessee. 



Twenty-one miles southwest of Franklin, in Maury County, Tennessee, is a 

 mound known as Parish's Mound. It is situated in a bend of Rutherford's 

 Creek, not far below its junction with Carter's Creek, and two and a half miles above 

 the junction of Rutherford's Creek with Duck River. This mound is 25 feet 

 in height, 609 feet in circumference, and 152 feet in diameter on the summit. It 

 is a beautiful square mound, covered with a thick growth of small cane. Near 

 this large mound are two smaller ones, distant respectively three hundred and one 

 hundred and seventy-five feet ; the one northeast and the other southwest. They 

 are situated upon a hill which terminates in a steep bluff on the creek. Near the 

 mounds are fine springs and running streams. No traces of fortifications or of stone 

 graves are visible at this day, in and around them. The position of these mounds 

 in connection with the steep bluff of the creek, offers, however, most favorable 

 advantages for defence. Rutherford's Creek is a narrow and deep stream ; and 

 there are mounds at various points above these remains. 



