226 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



explorations have yielded nothing that conflicts with it. 

 On the contrary, every fact gathered by the most laborious 

 and exhaustive examination of mound after mound goes 

 to establish the view that the people who built them were 

 not the historic Indians, nor even their immediate ances- 

 tors. On the other hand, that certain well-known tribes 

 of Indians, notably the Shawnees and Natchez, as an in- 

 stance, were descended remotely and indirectly from these 

 builders of earth-works, is extremely probable. 



The fact that Indians, in very recent times even, built 

 mounds mere conical shapes of earth placed over their 

 dead does not warrant us in assuming from such a fact 

 alone that the elaborate structures, such as the Serpent 

 Mound, were also the work of their hands. Had it and 

 many other of the earth-structures in Ohio been erected 

 by them or their immediate ancestors, it is highly improb- 

 able that this fact, and that of their significance, should 

 have been completely forgotten ; yet not one of them 

 finds place in Indian history. 



Its purpose ? Whether we admit its origin to be pre- 

 Indian or not, this question will be asked, and it is a curi- 

 ous fact in the experience of the writer that the visitors to 

 the Serpent Mound never wait to hear a reply after put- 

 ting the question, but follow it with their own views. 

 Probably the average student of archaeology would only 

 go so far as to suggest the probability that it had, in 

 the minds of the builders, a religious significance. This 

 view, I have found, meets with little favor from the casual 

 visitor. " Injuns were heathen, and hadn't no religion," 

 was the prompt reply of one. 



In the minds of its builders, this great earth- work was 

 doubtless tenanted by a serpent spirit which was thought 

 to faithfully guard the dead who rested near it, if not the 

 living who dwelt in the surrounding region. But that 

 kindly spirit slumbers as profoundly now as do the mighty 



