354 ^-^ P re-Historic Indian Village — Petti greiv. 



the body would be placed on top of the same mound, or to one side 

 and ceremony repeated as before. Several persons might be 

 buried in the same mound at the same time, as in battle, since 

 parts of fifteen skeletons were found in one small mound. All 

 Indian tribes have many religious rites or ceremonies commonly 

 called dances, and in conferring the several medicine degrees, the 

 different medicine stones [see Fig. 9] and ceremonial stones [Figs. 

 3 and 12] would all come of use in driving out evil spirits which 

 are supposed to exist in the body of deceased persons. 



PIPES. 



The discoidal pipes of peculiar pattern are made of catlinite. 

 The village has furnished three, and there is but one other so far 

 known, and that was found in Kentucky. A cast may be seen of 

 it at the National Museum in Washington. Figure 10 will repre- 

 sent the largest one of the three, and may be regarded as the 

 ''peace pipe" and the disk, or face of the pipe in which the stem 

 was inserted, as emblematic of the sun. 



COPPER SERPENTS. 



The two copper serpents found in the mound on the ridge 

 to the northwest of the village; the third spadeful of earth 

 brought the larger one to the surface; the other was two feet 

 from the top of mound. Figure 11. 



Before the advent of the whites the Indians knew nothing 

 about smelting or fusing metals, and all copper implements, and 

 ornaments were pounded out. The smaller serpent three and one 

 half inches long, was first made into a sheet and rolled up, then 

 bent. The larger one, seven inches in length, was a wire drawn 

 out and bent to represent a moving serpent, about one eighth of an 

 inch at one end bent around to represent a head. In looking 

 upon this simple emblem which cannot be made of any use in sup- 

 plying the necessities of life, we must search further for the 

 meaning of it, as we know that among savages, every article has 

 its useful purpose, and the natural conclusion is, that unless in- 

 tended for utility or ornament, they must be connected with 

 some form of religious worship. Can it be that they regarded 

 the serpent as emblematic of one of the deities ? If so then we must 

 look for some simple natural cause, the most probable of which 

 would be a comparison of the wriggling- motion of the serpent to 

 the zigzag appearance of the lightning, thereby accepting the 



