562 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
who has ever aided in fencing a western farm knows that it is a com- 
paratively simple matter to ‘“‘run” a straight line, especially if it be as 
broad as most of these embankments; and that consequently squares 
as large and with angles as “perfect” as any of those in the Ohio Val- 
ley, can be constructed with the aid of three straight sticks and a mod- 
erately good eye. The circles might perhaps give a little more trouble; 
but even they are not beyond the compass of a boy with a string. Mr. 
Squier himself admits that it is possible to construct them of considerable 
size without the aid of instruments, though one over a mile in cireumfer- 
ence would, he thinks, offer serious obstacles.* In a word, the labor 
involyed in the erection ef these works was purely manual, and per- 
fectly homogeneous. It did not even necessarily imply the use of me- 
chanical aids of any kind, though it is probable that the rude‘stone 
hoe or spade and a basket—one to loosen the earth, and the other to 
transport it—were both employed; and these (be it remembered) were 
within reach of every Indian family east of the Mississippi and south 
of the Great Lakes. 
The fact then as to the character of this labor being as stated, it 
would seem to follow that a people who could have erected one of 
these works, be it a mound or an embankment, might have built any 
and all of them; and ef course, if it can be shown that the red Indian 
has, within the historic epoch, thrown up mounds 5 or 10 feet high, 
and of proportionate size, there can be no reason why, given time, of 
which he had an unlimited supply, or an increased number of work- 
men, he could not have made them ten times as large had he been so 
inclined. To deny this involves the necessity of showing that there 
existed, in mound-building, some point beyond which the efforts of the 
Indian could not go—some limit to the number of baskets full of earth 
he might bring—and this will scarcely be undertaken by the hardiest 
advoeate of the theory of the two civilizations. Indeed, it is only 
necessary to put the matter in this broad light, to ask where it is pro- 
posed to run this line of demarcation, and how it was found, in order 
to show the absurdity of any attempt to set up a standard that will 
enable us to say, definitely, whether any given earthwork was built 
by the recent Indians or by the so-called mound-builders. 
With this fact clearly understood, we are now ready to take up the 
evidence that points to the red Indian of modern times as the builder 
of these works; and by way of beginning, let us look into the truth of 
the oft-repeated statement that he had no tradition as to their origin, 
and the purposes for which they were erected. So far as my imme- 
diate argument is concerned, this is to some extent a work of superero- 
gation. Tradition is at best but an unsafe guide, and even if it were 
*Anc. Mon., p.61. Bearing upon this point is the statement of Miss A. C. Fletcher, 
that the Ogalalla Sioux, when marking out the ground for the sun dance, raise up a 
pole in the center, and then, with a rawhide cord as a radius, draw a cirele of the 
required size, say from 200 to 300 feet in diameter. 
