Literature and Religion of the Mound Builders. 129 



miliar with them and only felt it necessary to slightly imitate the 

 forms. Above are two round spots, intended, perhaps, to signify 

 the sun and the moon. It seems difficult to avoid the impression 

 that this inscription is some sort of a calendar. The stones lay 

 one on the top of the other at the bottom of the mound', on the 

 original surface of the ground, and were surrounded by a circle 

 of small rounded stones, each about four inches in diameter. 



No one can inspect these fac similies without the conviction 

 that we have before us rude specimens of literature, which some 

 future investigation may yet translate. Meantime the sacrificial 

 mounds should be ransacked in every part, instead of being care- 

 lessly dug into, for the only hope of being able to translate these 

 inscriptions rests on the discovery of more of them for compari- 

 son and study. 



In concluding this paper I desire to call attention to some neg- 

 lected evidences, which seem to indicate that the Mound Builders 

 are not extinct, as popularly supposed, but still exist among our 

 Indian tribes. 



Squier, after investigating carefully the mounds of western New 

 York, found himself driven very unexpectedly to the conclusion 

 that " they were erected by the Iroquois, or their western neigh- 

 bors." 



Purchens, writing two hundred and fifty years ago, said " The 

 Iroquois have no Townes : their dwellings and Forts are three or 

 foure stories high, as in New Mexico." 



Greenhalgh, one hundred years ago, made a statement about 

 the commercial houses of the Senecas, which shows them to have 

 been somewhat like those of New Mexico in plan. 



Foster is of the opinion that the mounds thirty miles south- 

 west of Natchez, were erected_^by the Natchez Indians, and states 

 that the trees on them were younger than on the adjacent grounds. 



Lasalle, nearly two hundred years ago, visited the Natchez In- 

 dians, and his companion, Touty, says their town was surrounded 

 by a strong earthwork, defended by stakes, on which were stuck 

 the skulls of enemies -sacrificed to the sun. They also kept a 

 perpetual fire burning on a mound forty-five feet high. They, 

 therefore, made use of mounds and earth fortifications and sacri- 

 9 



