326 NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY. 



older towns. The area is levelled and slightly sunk, being surrounded by a low 

 bank formed of the earth thus obtained. In the centre is a low mound, on 

 which stands the Chunk Pole, to the top of which is some object which serves 

 as a mark to shoot at. Near each corner at one end is a small pole about 

 twelve feet high; these are called the " slave-posts," because in the " good old 

 times" captives condemned to the torture were fastened to them. The name 

 "Chunk Yard" seems to be derived from an Indian game called " Chunke," 

 which was played in them. 



At one end of and just outside this area stands generally a circular eminence, 

 with a flat top, upon which is elevated the great Council House. 



At the other end is a flat-topped, square eminence, about as high as the cir- 

 cular one just mentioned; "upon this stands the public square." 



These and other accounts given by early travellers among the Indians 

 certainly throw much light on the circular and square enclosures ; but some of 

 those, classed by Messrs. Sqiaer and Davis under this head, seem to us to be 

 the slight fortifications which surrounded villages, and were undoubtedly 

 crowned by stockades. We have already seen that the position of the ditch is 

 in reality no argument against this view ; nor does the position of the works 

 seem conclusive, if we suppose that the works were intended less to stand a 

 regular siege than to guard against a sudden attack. 



Sepulchral mounds. — The sepulchral mounds ai-e very numerous. " To say 

 that they are innumerable, in the ordinary sense of the term, would be no exag- 

 geration. They may literally be numbered by thousands and tens of thousands." 

 They vary from six to eight feet in height ; generally stand outside the enclo- 

 sures; are often isolated, but often also in groups; they are usually round, but 

 sometimes elliptical or pear-shaped. They cover generally a single skeleton, 

 which, however, is often burnt. Occasionally there is a stone cist, but urn burial 

 also prevailed to considerable extent, especially in southern States. The con- 

 tracted position of the corpse seems to be as usual as in the more ancient burials 

 of Europe. Implements both of stone and metal occur frequently ; but while 

 personal ornaments, such as bracelets, perforated plates of copper, beads of 

 bone, shell, or metal, and similar objects, are veiy common, weapons are but 

 rarely found ; a fact which, in the opinion of Dr. Wilson, " indicates a totally 

 different condition of society and mode of thought" from that of the present 

 Indian. Plates of mica are very generally present, and in some cases the 

 skeleton is entirely covered by them. 



What now is the "idea" implied in these often gigantic tumuli, and in the 

 disposition of the corpse ? The reason suggested by M. Troyon for the con- 

 tracted position of the body has already been mentioned in this journal. Dr. 

 Wilson appears to regard the tumulus as a simple development of that little 

 heap of earth " displaced by interment, which still to thousand, suffices as the 

 most touching memorial of the dead." Probable as these suggestions may 

 appear, Ave confess that if we were to express an opinion we should lean rather 

 to the opinion of the illustrious Swedish antiquary, Prof. Nillson, and imagine 

 that the grave was but an adaptation, a copy, or a development of a dwelling- 

 place. Unable to imagine a future altogether different from the present, or a 

 world, quite unlike our own, primitive nations seem always to have buried with 

 their dead those things which in life they valued most ; with ladies their orna- 

 ments; with chiefs their weapons, and sometimes also thqir wives. They burned 

 the house with its owner; the grave was literally the dwelling of the dead. 

 According to Prof. Nillson, when a great man died he was placed in his favorite 

 seat, food and drink were arranged before him, his weapons were placed at hand, 

 and his house was closed, sometimes forever, sometimes to be opened once more, 

 when his wife or his child;^en had joined him in the land of spii-its. The 

 ancient tumuli in northern Europe, which never contain metal, consist usually 

 of a passage leading into a central vault, in which the dead "sit." At God- 



