208 HOUSES AND HOUSE-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 
houses; since, as the highest, and because they are straight, they were best 
adapted to the purpose. The situations of these pueblos at short distances 
from each other on the same stream accords with the usages of the Village 
Indians of New and Old Mexico and Central America in locating their vil- 
lages These pueblos were probably occupied by Mound-Builders of the 
same tribe, and were not unlikely under a common government, consisting 
of a council of chiefs. It is probable, also, that they were constructed, one 
after the other, by colonists from an original village. 
In the engraving, Fig. 46, the form and relations of the embankments 
are shown, with cross-sections indicating their elevation and present ground- 
dimensions. It was taken from the work of Squier and Davis.'! These 
authors remark that ‘the principal work consists of an octagon and circle, 
the former measuring nine hundred and fifty feet, the latter ten hundred 
and fifty feet in diameter. * * * The walls of the octagon are very 
bold, and, where they have been least subject to cultivation, are now 
between eleven and twelve feet in height by about fifty feet base. The 
wall of the circle is much less, nowhere measuring over four or five feet in alti- 
tude. In all these respects, as in the absence of a ditch and the presence 
of the two small circles, this work resembles the Hopeton Works.” Of the 
latter, which is nine miles above on the Scioto, they remark that “the walls 
of the rectangular work are composed of a clayey loam twelve feet high 
by fifty feet base * * * They resemble the heavy grading of a rail- 
way, and are broad enough on the top to admit of the passage of a coach.” 
It will be noticed that the octagonal work shown in the engraving con- 
sists of seven distinct embankments. Six of these are about four hundred 
and fifty feet long, and the remaining one, which once consisted of two 
equal sections, as shown by the mound to face an original opening in the 
center, now forms one continuous embankment facing one side of the 
inclosed area. If these embankments were reformed, with the materials 
washed down and now spread over a base of fifty feet, with sloping sides 
and a level summit, they, would form new embankments thirty-seven feet 
wide at base, ten feet high, and with a summit platform twenty-two feet 
wide. If a surface coating of clay were used, the sides could be made 
1 Smith Con., vol. i, pl. xvi. 2Ib., p. 50. 3Ib., p. 51. 
