MORGAN.) OBJECT OF EMBANKMENTS. 205 
and that purpose must be sought in the needs and mode of life of the 
Mound-Builders as Village Indians; and it should be expressed in the works 
themselves. If a sensible use for these embankments can be found, its 
acceptance will relieve us from the delusive inferences which are certain to 
be drawn from them so long as they are allowed to remain in the category 
of the mysteries. 
It is proposed to submit a conjectural explanation of the objects and 
uses of the principal embankments, and to advocate its acceptance on the 
ground of inherent probability. It will be founded on the assumption that 
the Mound-Builders were horticultural Village Indians who had immigrated 
from beyond the Mississippi; that as such they had been accustomed to live 
in houses of adobe bricks, like those found in New Mexico; that they had 
become habituated to living upon their roof terraces as elevated platforms, 
and in large households; and that their houses were in the nature of for- 
tresses, in consequence of the insecurity in which they lived. Further than 
this, that before they emigrated to the valley of the Ohio they were accus- 
tomed to snow, and to a moderate degree of winter cold; wore skin gar- 
ments, and possibly woven mantles of cotton, as the Cibolans of New 
Mexico did at the time of Coronado’s expedition. The food of the New 
Mexicans, at this time, consisted of maize, beans, and squashes, and a limited 
amount of game, which was doubtless the food of the Mound-Builders. 
Captain Juan Jaramillo, who accompanied the same expedition, remarks in 
his relation that the Cibolans “had hardly provisions enough for themselves; 
what they had consisted of maize, beans, and squashes (maiz, des haricots, 
et des courges). * * * The Indians clothe themselves with deer skins, 
very well prepared. They have also buffalo-skins tanned, in which they 
wrap themselves.”* Although several centuries earlier in time, the Mound- 
Builders, with habits of life similar to those of the Cibolans, in 1540, would 
1«‘'The snow and cold are wont to be great,” Coronado remarks in his relation, *‘for so say the in- 
habitants of the country; and it is very likely so to be, both in respect of the manner of the country 
and of the fashion of their houses, and their furs and other things, which the people haye to defend 
them from cold. * * * They have no cotton-wool growing, because the country is cold, yet they 
wear mantles thereof, as your honor may see by the show thereot ; and true it is that there was found 
in their houses certain yarn made of cotton-wool. * * * In this country there are certain skins, 
well dressed, and they dress them and paint them when they kill their oxen [buffaloes], for so they say 
themselves.”—Hakluyt’s Coll. of Voyages, Lond, ed., 1600, iii, 377, 
2Coll. Ternaux-Compans, ix, 369. 
