18 THE PROBLEM OF THE OHIO MOUNDS. 



strongly and eveuly. TLe same is doue with the poles of tbe two other corners as 

 they are crossed over the lirst oucs. Finally all the other poles are joined at the 

 poinl, which makes altogether the tignre of a bower in a summer-house sucli as we 

 have in France. After this work they fasten sticks on the lower sides or walls at a 

 distance of about 8 inches across, as high as the pole of which I have spoken, which 

 forms the length of tbe wall. 



These sticks being thus fastened, they make mud walls of clay, in which they put 

 a sufficient amount of Spanish moss; these walls are not more than 4 inches thick ; 

 tUcy leave no opening but the door, which is only 2 feet in width by 4 in height; 

 there are some much smaller. They then cover the frame-work which I have just de- 

 scribed with mats of reeds, j)ntting tbe smoothest on the inside of the cabin, taking 

 care to fasten them togetlier so that they arc well joined. 



After this they make large bundles of grass, of the tallest that can be found in the 

 low lands, and which is 4 oi' 5 feet long; this is put on in the same way as straw 

 which is used to cover thatched houses ; the grass is fastened with large canes, and 

 splints, also of canes. When the cabin is covered with grass they cover all with a 

 matting of canes well bound together, and at the bottom they make a ring of " bind- 

 weeds" all around the cabin, then they trim the grass evenly, and with this defense, 

 however strong the wind may be, it can do nothing against the cabin. These cover- 

 ings last twenty years without being rei)aired. 



ISTunierons other references to the .same effect might be given, but 

 these are suflicieiit to show that the remains found in the mounds of 

 the South are precisely what would result from the destruction by fire 

 of the houses in use by the Indians when first encountered by Euro- 

 peans. 



It is admitted now by all archa'ologists that the ancient works of 

 New York are attributable to Indians, chiefly to the Iroquois tribes. 

 This necessarily carries with it the inference that works of the same 

 type, for instance those of northern Ohio and eastern Michigan, are due 

 to Indians. It is also admitted that the mounds and burial pits of Can- 

 ada are due, at least in part, to the Ilurons.' 



Tribal dirisions. — As the proofs that the mound-builders pertained to 

 various tribes often at war with each other are now too numerous and 

 strong to be longer denied, we may see in them evidences of a social con- 

 dition similar to that of the Indians. 



Similariti/ in burial customs. — There are perhaps no other remains of 

 a barbarous or unenlightened people which give us so clear a concep- 

 tion of their superstitions and religious beliefs as do those which relate 

 to the disposal of their dead. By the modes adopted for such disposal, 

 and the relics fouiul in the receptacles of the dead, we are enabled not 

 only to understand something of these superstitions and beliefs, but 

 also to judge of their culture status and to gain some knowledge of 

 their arts, customs, and modes of life. 



The mortuarj- customs of the mound-builders, as gleaned from an ex- 

 amination of their burial mounds, ancient cemeteries, and other depos- 

 itories of their dead, present so many striking resemblances to those of 

 the Indians when first encountered by the whites, as to leave little 



' David Boyle, Ann, Kept. Canadian Institute, 188G-'87, pp. 9-17 ; Ibid., 1888, p. 57. 



